back to index2021-02-28 Moses story of Rags to Riches to Rags to Riches to Rags to Riches Part 2
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Alright, if you can turn your Bibles with me to Hebrews chapter 11, we're going to be 00:00:11.700 |
So this is going to be the part two of what we started last week. 00:00:16.000 |
As we said, Moses has very clear, distinct divisions in his life with the first 40 years 00:00:24.760 |
he was in the Pharaoh's house, the next 40 years he was out in the desert shepherding, 00:00:28.780 |
and then the 40 years of wandering the desert as God used him to deliver the nation of Israel 00:00:36.200 |
So we're at the third part this week, and so we're going to be looking at what it says 00:00:46.400 |
By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured a seeing him who 00:00:52.320 |
By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood, so that he who destroyed the 00:00:58.320 |
By faith they passed through the Red Sea as though they were passing through dry land, 00:01:02.600 |
and the Egyptians, when they attempted it, were drowned. 00:01:08.520 |
Heavenly Father, we pray for your continued grace. 00:01:12.480 |
We pray that the worship that we give you would truly be something meaningful in our 00:01:17.920 |
hearts that we offer up to you, that we would worship you not simply with time, but our 00:01:26.760 |
Help us, Lord, to know the significance of these words, that it may mold us, move us, 00:01:33.440 |
change us, Lord God, according to your purpose and will. 00:01:39.680 |
I think in the recent days, you know, most of you or many of you probably heard the story 00:01:44.840 |
of what happened with Ravi Zacharias, and I know that it's affected the Christian world 00:01:50.080 |
because he was a man that was celebrated and did many good works for decades. 00:01:57.640 |
And so if you don't know the story behind that, basically he's a man who God used for 00:02:01.680 |
apologetics and wrote many good books and had seminars, and many, many people would 00:02:08.480 |
credit him for bringing them to Christ, and recently found out after he passed away that 00:02:14.400 |
he completely lived a double life, that he lived a life that was filled with sin, he 00:02:19.440 |
was a sexual predator, and it was not simply a mistake, it looked like it was calculated, 00:02:24.840 |
and he didn't really seem like he made much attempt to cover it up. 00:02:28.240 |
You know, we have a tendency, like it says in Romans chapter 1, to put people on pedestals, 00:02:34.600 |
and it's not that the Bible does teach us to honor and to submit and to remember, and 00:02:40.640 |
all those things are important, but at the same time, our primary sin that is mentioned 00:02:45.840 |
in Romans chapter 1, we have a tendency to worship the creation rather than the creator, 00:02:50.760 |
and sometimes we do that to the point where when somebody that we looked up to fails that 00:02:56.320 |
way, it could really destroy people's faith when we do that. 00:03:05.520 |
To honor, respected, yes, but not to be worshipped. 00:03:08.080 |
No one is to take the place where our faith is dependent upon another man. 00:03:14.740 |
We need to be careful that we, even as we study through the scripture, we have a tendency 00:03:19.480 |
to highlight the achievements of man, even though we say in passing that God is sovereign 00:03:25.040 |
and he does what he does, but we can look at what Moses did, we can look at what David 00:03:29.480 |
did, and I've heard so many sermons about how David, you know, while he was shepherding, 00:03:33.400 |
and he, you know, he cleaned up his rocks and how he was, you know, chasing away wolves, 00:03:39.760 |
and that was that skill that God needed to slay Goliath, and so we need to hone in our 00:03:52.060 |
The point of the story is not that at all, right? 00:03:55.460 |
We can get off track in our tendency to kind of highlight the achievements of man and the 00:04:00.280 |
intellect of man and our, you know, our talents of man, then completely forget the point of 00:04:07.360 |
Moses, if you can put the picture up, the next slide. 00:04:16.460 |
When we think of Moses, this is usually the picture that we have, that's probably Charlton 00:04:19.720 |
Heston, for those of you who know who he is, right? 00:04:22.800 |
Hollywood, this story of Egypt's deliverance and the ten plagues, it's so prominent, especially 00:04:29.360 |
in the American culture, most people know about this, Christian or non-Christian. 00:04:33.200 |
So Hollywood movies were made of it, and so when we think of Moses, we think of this strong 00:04:37.320 |
confident, fearless leader that God used to deliver Israel. 00:04:43.080 |
In fact, that's how it starts in verse 1, it says, verse 27 says, "By faith he left 00:04:47.760 |
Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured a seeing him who was unseen." 00:04:54.000 |
So he's described as a fearless man, and remember who he's going against, he's going against 00:05:00.200 |
Pharaoh, the strongest, most powerful man who was basically the king of the most powerful 00:05:08.240 |
And here's this shepherd who's been shepherding for 40 years, and God raises him up to challenge 00:05:13.840 |
Think how audacious that is, that this shepherd for 40 years would stand in front of Pharaoh 00:05:25.320 |
And he said Moses was fearless when he did that, right? 00:05:30.840 |
We could easily look at that and say, "Wow, you know, that's why he's celebrated, and 00:05:33.720 |
that's why he's known as the greatest leader of Israel, and we need to emulate him." 00:05:40.320 |
But if you look carefully at the word of God, it doesn't present himself that way. 00:05:44.840 |
In fact, if you remember in Acts 7, 24 to 20, in verse 25, Stephen gives the sermon 00:05:50.740 |
about that particular event when he is chased out of Egypt out of fear. 00:05:57.200 |
If you remember, he came out and he saw a dispute, and the Egyptians, Egyptian guard, 00:06:02.680 |
and in order to protect his Hebrew brother, he ends up killing him. 00:06:05.840 |
He comes out a second time, thinking that maybe God was going to use him to deliver 00:06:10.560 |
Israel in verse 25, it says, "And he supposed that his brethren understood that God was 00:06:14.960 |
granting them deliverance through him, but they did not understand." 00:06:19.000 |
So he came out thinking, because he grew up all his life with prophecy that he was the 00:06:23.760 |
chosen one, and that's why he was in Pharaoh's house. 00:06:29.280 |
And finally, when he came out and he confronted the Egyptian guard, and he came out and was 00:06:34.880 |
trying to intervene in the dispute of these two Hebrews, I think he thought that that 00:06:39.920 |
was the time that God was going to use him to deliver. 00:06:43.440 |
Just like the prophecy, just like he was told since he was a child. 00:06:46.360 |
But when they turn against him and say, "Are you going to kill us too? 00:06:51.760 |
It says in verse 14, Exodus 2, 14, but he said, "Who made you a prince or judge over 00:06:58.160 |
Are you going to kill me as you killed the Egyptians?" 00:07:00.080 |
Then Moses was afraid and said, "Surely the matter has become known." 00:07:07.800 |
Because in 27, he says he's fearless, and then here it says he was afraid. 00:07:12.960 |
In Exodus 3, 10 through 11, after spending 40 years on the desert, God finally calls 00:07:17.760 |
him, tells him who he is, and says, "Now is the time. 00:07:24.040 |
And then this is how Moses responds in verse 10. 00:07:26.760 |
"Therefore, come now, and I will send you to Pharaoh so that you may bring my people, 00:07:31.760 |
But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the 00:07:39.840 |
Remember 40 years ago, he was willing, and he was expecting because he grew up all his 00:07:48.940 |
But now it's not because he's ignorant, it's because it failed, at least in his mind. 00:08:00.100 |
He doesn't seem like a man of faith, at least not here, right? 00:08:03.560 |
He doesn't seem like a courageous man that, you know, with the staff up in the sky, this 00:08:07.920 |
fearless leader that Israelites was able to get behind. 00:08:11.120 |
Exodus chapter 4, 1, Moses said, "What if they will not believe me or listen to what 00:08:16.080 |
For they may say, 'The Lord has not appeared to you.'" 00:08:19.760 |
And then again, in Exodus 4, 10 through 15, God keeps on pushing him. 00:08:24.120 |
"I didn't call you because you are articulate. 00:08:31.400 |
Then Moses said to the Lord, "Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither recently 00:08:36.560 |
nor the time passed, nor since you have spoken to your servant, for I am slow of speech and 00:08:42.600 |
"Please, Lord," he's begging, and the Lord won't let it go because God anointed him. 00:08:50.560 |
He genuinely doesn't want to do this because he was fearful. 00:09:03.760 |
God is audibly speaking to Moses, saying that, "I'm going to use you," and he says, "Well, 00:09:11.440 |
Verse 12, "Now then, go, and I even will be with your mouth and teach you what you are 00:09:18.840 |
But he said, "Please, Lord, now send a message by whomever you will." 00:09:24.080 |
Then the anger of the Lord burned against Moses. 00:09:26.960 |
Does that sound like the fearless leader that you see in verse 27? 00:09:38.240 |
And I know that he was dictating by the Holy Spirit, but Moses was writing this, and as 00:09:42.240 |
he was writing this, did he just get it wrong? 00:09:44.440 |
Whoever wrote Hebrews, did they not read Exodus? 00:09:47.120 |
Maybe these are two separate authors, and they don't know anything about each other, 00:09:51.360 |
and so one describes him as this fearful man who had very little faith and was begging 00:10:04.060 |
And then in Exodus 5, 21 to 23, when he finally goes, literally, God is twisting his arms, 00:10:19.400 |
And then he goes, and then they had the first encounter, and Pharaoh's heart gets hardened. 00:10:24.320 |
It says God keeps hardening his heart because he wanted to demonstrate his power. 00:10:31.520 |
They turn against Moses and say, "I told you. 00:10:34.520 |
Because of you, Pharaoh is making it harder on us." 00:10:37.000 |
And so in 5, 21, it says that they said to them, "May the Lord look upon you and judge 00:10:40.760 |
you, for you have made us odious in Pharaoh's sight and in the sight of his servants, to 00:10:49.240 |
So it didn't turn out the way, just like the first time. 00:10:55.000 |
So he goes back to God in verse 22, "Then Moses returned to the Lord and said, 'O Lord, 00:11:04.000 |
Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done harm to this people, and 00:11:15.920 |
God appears to him, and he's complaining to God. 00:11:20.000 |
At this point, he's more afraid of the Israelites. 00:11:23.600 |
He's more afraid of Pharaoh than God himself. 00:11:27.400 |
Does that sound like verse 27, "By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king"? 00:11:31.480 |
It sure sounds like he was fearful of the wrath. 00:11:35.280 |
He was fearful not only of the wrath, but of their opinion. 00:11:40.200 |
It says 611-12, "Go tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to let the sons of Israel go out of 00:11:45.640 |
But Moses spoke before the Lord, saying, 'Behold, the sons of Israel have not listened to me. 00:11:50.560 |
How then will Pharaoh listen to me, for I am unskilled in speech?'" 00:12:06.000 |
Maybe next time somebody draws Moses, he would be like, "Please, please, don't let me do 00:12:15.320 |
Because that's the way it's presented to us in Exodus. 00:12:23.240 |
In fact, remember we said Moses is described as the humblest man on earth. 00:12:38.440 |
And what he meant by that was he was humbled. 00:12:53.360 |
He encountered God and he's arguing with God. 00:13:00.240 |
How can you, somebody like me, even as God was showing him miracles, he was doubting 00:13:10.240 |
But why does it have in verse 27 that he was not fearing the wrath of God? 00:13:16.080 |
At some point in this deliverance story, Moses does get courage. 00:13:24.780 |
And at some point, he is that man who raised up the staff and God uses him. 00:13:35.200 |
And the description of what happened, it just says simply, he says, "He saw the unseen God." 00:13:46.560 |
Meaning, like, he did what God told him to do. 00:13:55.880 |
You know, I've heard so many stories about how God used him in 40 years and built up 00:14:02.640 |
And so he became this man of God when he showed up. 00:14:05.840 |
And that's why he took him out into the wilderness. 00:14:08.600 |
And that's our tendency to elevate man's work. 00:14:13.120 |
That if we just do this, if we said this, and if we did that, and if we had the right 00:14:17.160 |
people and the right money with the right training, we can get the right things done. 00:14:21.840 |
That's our natural tendency to think we just elevate man's work and forget that what happened 00:14:27.560 |
here with Moses was simply, here's a weak man who was fearful, who encountered the living 00:14:37.280 |
What changed him was not years of discipling, years of training, years of discipline. 00:14:43.920 |
He met the right people, did the right things with the right program. 00:14:50.480 |
And so when he's at the burning bush, he's like, "Well, if I go, what do I tell them?" 00:15:00.200 |
He says, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I am has sent me to you.'" 00:15:08.840 |
He is self-existing, self-reliant, omnipotent, all-powerful. 00:15:17.880 |
And all he tells him is, "I will be with you." 00:15:26.120 |
Other kings would be terrified to go to Pharaoh. 00:15:30.960 |
The strongest of men would be terrified to be in the presence of Pharaoh. 00:15:35.840 |
So humanly speaking, we can understand why he was terrified. 00:15:39.080 |
But the only strength that he gives him, only comfort that he gives him is that when you 00:15:49.040 |
He doesn't say, "Here's a list of things to memorize and make sure you say this." 00:16:01.560 |
You know, we think about the Great Commission in Matthew 28 where God is sending out his 00:16:09.120 |
disciples and we have so many people have memorized that passage. 00:16:12.960 |
Go make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the 00:16:17.120 |
Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you. 00:16:22.160 |
But the real power behind the Great Commission is what comes before and what comes after. 00:16:39.920 |
And there's nothing wrong with any of that, but we pour our energy into human ingenuity. 00:16:46.360 |
But the real power behind that is prior to him saying, "All authority in heaven and 00:16:54.800 |
And then he says at the end, what did he say? 00:17:01.120 |
So the power behind the Great Commission is his authority and his presence with us, not 00:17:07.840 |
That's why in Acts 1-8, when the disciples were ready to go, he said, "Don't go, because 00:17:15.800 |
When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will have power, and you will be my witnesses in 00:17:20.480 |
Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to the end of the age." 00:17:25.880 |
Everywhere Apostle Paul went, those people who were at Pentecost, in fear of persecution, 00:17:30.640 |
as they were running, they were sharing the gospel. 00:17:33.320 |
So when Apostle Paul started his journey going to these places, these Christians were already 00:17:41.360 |
That didn't happen because of great planning or discipleship. 00:17:44.880 |
They were running in fear of their life, and God was planting seeds already by his power, 00:17:50.220 |
because that's what he said he was going to do. 00:17:52.520 |
Our natural tendency is if a church is successful there, if that man seems to be bearing fruit, 00:18:02.360 |
Because we think if we copy what they're doing, we can have the same success. 00:18:07.860 |
And so people write books and seminars, "This is what we did. 00:18:14.960 |
And then people just copy that, and then we regurgitate what that man is doing, and then 00:18:24.640 |
Because that's our natural tendency, to worship the creation rather than the creator. 00:18:29.200 |
Jesus' fearlessness did not come because of great training. 00:18:34.400 |
If anything, for 40 years out in the desert, what do you think he learned? 00:18:43.320 |
Humanly speaking, you could say, "Well, God's raising up to be this great leader, so he 00:18:53.360 |
He learned this by attacking wolves, and God used that. 00:18:57.760 |
Because when he went against Pharaoh, Pharaoh was the wolf." 00:19:08.680 |
Remember, before he went out to the desert, he came out like the ruler. 00:19:14.520 |
He even killed an Egyptian, and he thought, "They're going to come behind me. 00:19:20.020 |
And then he throws him out to the desert for 40 years. 00:19:30.440 |
If there's anything that he learned in the 40 years, to empty himself. 00:19:39.560 |
And that's why the Bible says, "If you want to be used for noble purposes," what does 00:20:01.720 |
Our natural tendency to think, if we get the right people doing the right thing, that God's 00:20:10.600 |
But all we're commanded to do is to be emptied. 00:20:13.520 |
The greatest hindrance to the work of God is not that we don't have the right people 00:20:18.800 |
in the right place, it's typically we have the wrong people in the wrong place, or sometimes 00:20:32.320 |
That's why if you look at John 15, when it says, "You can't bear fruit unless you abide 00:20:38.840 |
And then you know why it's so important to abide? 00:20:42.200 |
Verse 7, "Because if you abide in me," my words abide in you, "ask whatever you wish, 00:20:51.520 |
Not so that you can be this prayer warrior and I'm going to do mighty things, because 00:20:55.480 |
when you abide, if you abide in him, his word abides in you, you have more effective prayer. 00:21:04.800 |
So the power is not in our abiding, it's in our abiding we have more effective prayer, 00:21:12.000 |
See, his power came simply because he saw God. 00:21:17.360 |
And even the 10 plagues was to demonstrate to Israel and to demonstrate to Egypt who 00:21:27.720 |
He didn't just say, "I am who I am," he was going to show them. 00:21:32.120 |
He was going to show them that God is above every God. 00:21:36.080 |
So every one of these plagues, the Nile turning into blood, the God of ISIS was one of their 00:21:43.040 |
goddesses that was a god of the Nile, and he turns it into blood. 00:21:47.080 |
The frog, Hekt, the Egyptian goddess whose head was the frog. 00:21:57.480 |
Fly, Kepri, the god and the...it was the head of a beetle. 00:22:03.760 |
Sick cattle, Hathor, is the goddess of fertility. 00:22:09.240 |
The boils, again, the goddess of health, ISIS. 00:22:12.120 |
Hail, Nut, the goddess of the sky and the goddess of the air. 00:22:17.120 |
Locust, Neper, Nepri, god and goddess of grain. 00:22:21.360 |
Darkness, their greatest god that they worshiped. 00:22:28.840 |
Every one of these was a power encounter, not only to show Egypt who it is that's delivering 00:22:34.960 |
Israel, but these Israelites for 400 years who fell into despair. 00:22:42.200 |
It's almost like they've kind of accepted the fact that they were slaves. 00:22:46.240 |
And when Moses tried to...God used him to deliver them and it didn't happen right away, 00:22:51.920 |
Remember, every time it got hard out in the desert, even at the Red Sea, they kept saying, 00:22:56.240 |
"Oh, if we went back there, I knew we were slaves, but at least over there we had food 00:23:02.600 |
So 400 years, they've accepted their identity. 00:23:07.040 |
And so God was coming in, having a power encounter with them to show them who He is. 00:23:14.400 |
Moses at some point in this process began to see and began to believe. 00:23:19.620 |
He lost all faith in himself and maybe he lost some faith in God during that time and 00:23:29.520 |
So this man who was afraid, this man who was terrified, timid, becomes this mighty soldier 00:23:44.840 |
You know, the Bible talks about how, you know, if you have a faith of a mustard seed, you 00:23:53.080 |
Moses, this man of tiny faith, like literally begging God, "Please don't let me go. 00:24:07.640 |
Even as he is seeing the miracle, it kind of needed time to build. 00:24:11.660 |
That guy with that tiny faith, God moved Pharaoh. 00:24:19.740 |
Exactly what he said he was going to do, simply because he saw God. 00:24:23.800 |
Hebrews chapter 12, 20 to 21 describes Moses seeing God at Mount Sinai this way, "For 00:24:29.880 |
they could not bear the command, 'If even a beast touches the mountain, it will be stoned.' 00:24:36.080 |
And so terrible is the sight that Moses said, 'I am full of fear and trembling.'" 00:24:44.080 |
He met God, and he realized who God was, and instead of fearing Pharaoh, instead of 00:24:49.540 |
fearing the opinions of the Israelites, it's that he feared God. 00:24:55.060 |
The great theologian Kanye West says, they asked him, those of you guys who know Kanye 00:25:06.820 |
They asked him, "Aren't you afraid of the cancel culture? 00:25:09.780 |
You know, things that you say, and the Christian things that you say, and Jesus is Lord?" 00:25:14.180 |
And he said, "I don't fear that because I fear God." 00:25:18.020 |
He said, "Fear of God overcomes all other fears." 00:25:32.220 |
Proverbs 9, 10 says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge 00:25:40.300 |
Beginning of wisdom is when we are emptied of our self-confidence, when we're done with 00:25:47.740 |
our ingenuity, when we've reached the end of the possibility that we have, our potential, 00:25:54.580 |
when we've reached the end of all of that, and you have no other hope but to turn to 00:26:07.020 |
The greatest hindrance to our fruitfulness is not our circumstance. 00:26:15.620 |
Us thinking that us get together, and if we have enough of us, and if we have the right 00:26:23.820 |
techniques from us, that God's going to magnify us. 00:26:34.740 |
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. 00:26:39.300 |
And the way that we use that is, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens 00:26:45.220 |
When it's really meant, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." 00:26:52.600 |
Our natural tendency is to worship the creation rather than the creator. 00:26:57.820 |
He changed, and his fear was overcome by a greater fear of God, because he saw what was 00:27:06.900 |
You know, whenever we do inductive Bible study, we have to ask good questions, right? 00:27:12.300 |
And so the question that we ask is, verse 28 and 29, so he said, "By faith he left 00:27:18.580 |
Egypt and he was not afraid of Pharaoh because he saw God." 00:27:21.140 |
And then there's two particular events that are highlighted. 00:27:24.320 |
So we have to ask, "Why are those two things highlighted? 00:27:26.320 |
How come the other events are not highlighted?" 00:27:29.320 |
I mean, he said, "There's 10 plagues, not one." 00:27:33.680 |
So many things happened, but why are these two particular events highlighted saying that 00:27:40.700 |
The first one is pretty obvious because it says, "By faith he kept the Passover and 00:27:44.640 |
the sprinkling of the blood so that he destroyed the firstborn would not touch them." 00:27:50.280 |
Every time we have a communion, we celebrate that because Jesus fulfills that. 00:27:56.300 |
You know what's interesting about that is their top God was the God Ra. 00:28:01.040 |
And some of you guys may know from maybe watching National Geography. 00:28:11.640 |
Okay, so you've probably seen pictures, right? 00:28:16.220 |
And that's the one that kind of looks like a dog, right? 00:28:19.520 |
And that was the top God that they worshiped. 00:28:22.560 |
And as they worshiped that, it was understood that Ra owned all of the firstborn children 00:28:33.640 |
If you had your firstborn, it was dedicated to Ra for the service of Ra. 00:28:39.120 |
So you can see why God, his final and the most powerful power encounter with Egypt was 00:28:47.240 |
That he was going to come, the angel of death was going to come and destroy all the firstborn, 00:28:51.920 |
but the only ones that would survive are the ones that by faith covered their doorpost 00:29:00.960 |
That was the final and the greatest challenge to the nation of Egypt. 00:29:05.380 |
And for Israel to realize that there's only one true God. 00:29:11.160 |
But the second reason is pretty clear because that obviously pointed to the coming of Christ. 00:29:16.840 |
And as soon as that happened, God told the nation of Israel that you do this every single 00:29:27.200 |
Clearly pointing to the coming of Christ, the blood of the lamb is going to cover our 00:29:31.560 |
sins and the angel of death is going to go over us and we will be saved. 00:29:36.940 |
Those of you who participate in the Passover meal, there's a part of the meal where you 00:29:41.280 |
take the three pieces of matzah and you take the middle one and you hide it away for a 00:29:46.200 |
while and at the end of the meal you bring it back and you break it and give it to each 00:29:53.960 |
They said that the Israelites, the Jewish people to this day practice that, but when 00:29:58.800 |
you ask them exactly what the meaning behind that, they don't know. 00:30:03.680 |
That was practiced in the first century when Jesus was practicing it. 00:30:06.680 |
So if you look at the text when Jesus is practicing the Passover meal, he takes the bread, which 00:30:12.840 |
would have been the second one, they hid away for a while and brought back, broke it and 00:30:16.520 |
gave it to them and Jesus said, "Do this in remembrance of me." 00:30:21.520 |
I mean it's pretty clear that that second is Jesus Christ, the second and the third 00:30:25.920 |
person of the Trinity that's crucified for three days and buried and come back to life. 00:30:32.320 |
I mean we see that very clearly, but they practice this every year without knowing the 00:30:37.400 |
We don't know why the Passover is chosen because it is the clearest picture about his 00:30:51.880 |
In fact, the deliverance of the Red Sea is so dramatic that this event is recorded in 00:30:58.000 |
Psalm 66, 68, 13, 106, 9, 136, 13 and is repeated over and over again. 00:31:04.520 |
In fact, Moses breaks out into this song in Exodus 15, 1-13, "I will sing to the Lord 00:31:09.960 |
for he is highly exalted, the horse and the riders he has hurled into the sea. 00:31:13.880 |
The Lord is my strength and song and he has become my salvation. 00:31:17.000 |
This is my God and I will praise him, my Father's God, and I will extol him." 00:31:28.880 |
You know as I was wrestling through that question myself, I began to see so many similarities 00:31:35.560 |
Remember in the book of Hebrews it says the tabernacle is a shadow of the reality to come 00:31:44.200 |
The whole nation of Israel, the Feast of Booth, the Passover, all of the feasts that God gave 00:31:50.580 |
the nation of Israel pointed to something that was going to be found in Christ. 00:32:00.800 |
How many years were the Israelites in bondage? 00:32:07.160 |
How many years gap was there between the Old and the New Testament where there were no 00:32:12.480 |
prophets, where it says that God was silent during that period? 00:32:18.680 |
So during those four hundred years God wasn't speaking and Israelites fell into despair because 00:32:28.180 |
And so they began to kind of fall into different categories. 00:32:33.200 |
So they broke up into Pharisees and they broke up into Sadducees, the Essenes, and you know, 00:32:38.080 |
and the Zealots, all trying to by their own strength and by their own might. 00:32:55.120 |
But it was all their effort to fulfill what they wanted. 00:32:59.880 |
Well, four hundred years while they were in bondage, the Israelites fell into despair 00:33:09.780 |
You know, remember when they walked into Egypt, they came in as Joseph's second man. 00:33:20.240 |
But at some point, the new Pharaoh comes and they forget and they turn into slaves and 00:33:26.320 |
they've been crying out and it took too long. 00:33:30.240 |
But right in the middle of their despair, God shows up and delivers them. 00:33:33.520 |
And clearly, the Passover is what God used to deliver both Egypt and the New Covenant 00:33:42.280 |
But if you look at the Red Sea, when does the inauguration of the church, the New Covenant 00:33:53.080 |
The Holy Spirit comes and he enters into the people. 00:33:57.040 |
They begin to speak in tongues in various languages. 00:34:00.720 |
And that was the inauguration of the New Covenant and new people. 00:34:04.960 |
Well, Israelites, them exiting Egypt and coming into the New Promised Land on the other side 00:34:12.480 |
of this Red Sea, they become the people of God. 00:34:16.960 |
They were Israelites by descendants, but the political Israel, the national Israel happens 00:34:24.600 |
And at the Pentecost, you see, when the Holy Spirit comes, it says there was a violent 00:34:31.560 |
In the Red Sea, it says that the wind began to swirl and started to divide. 00:34:37.000 |
And so they were crossed from one kingdom, kingdom of Egypt, to a new kingdom, the kingdom 00:34:45.780 |
The people of the Old Covenant, by the Holy Spirit, becomes the people of the New Covenant. 00:34:53.180 |
Now you can say I'm milking it, but these are things that I see that clearly point to 00:34:59.300 |
God's people being delivered by the blood of Christ and then inaugurating a new kingdom 00:35:12.300 |
Because every part of this points to the sovereignty of God. 00:35:21.500 |
Every part of it, even the things that we understand, things that we don't understand, 00:35:25.380 |
God has been orchestrating in details of what was going to happen. 00:35:34.900 |
Moses was just a weak man that encountered a great God. 00:35:41.380 |
Anytime we put a man on a pedestal and our faith depends on that man, and when that man 00:35:49.980 |
Because we have a tendency to worship the creation rather than the creator. 00:36:02.380 |
God says to submit to the elders of the church, but no man stands in the position where only 00:36:10.300 |
Our faith should not fail because a weak man failed. 00:36:14.980 |
Your faith should not be shaken because a fallen man happens to demonstrate his fallenness. 00:36:35.340 |
So as we study and as we go through the history of Israel, if we look at that and we see, 00:36:48.100 |
He shepherded that we need to hone in our skills. 00:36:50.460 |
David, he became a huge, he became an expert rock thrower, so we need to shine our rocks 00:37:01.980 |
The whole point of that is why does he choose the lesser over the greater? 00:37:12.140 |
Why did he get a bunch of fishermen who know nothing about the law? 00:37:17.740 |
Why did he get a bunch of people who hated each other, the tax collector, like in zealots 00:37:26.480 |
Why did he choose the weak to dumbfound the wise? 00:37:31.780 |
Wouldn't it be easier to get the wiser to dumbfound the wise? 00:37:35.740 |
If you're going to go over power, wouldn't you get something more powerful? 00:37:48.900 |
So that you and I would recognize that it's not us. 00:38:00.100 |
So that our faith would not rest in man, but on God. 00:38:05.180 |
That's why Apostle Paul, with all of his wisdom and knowledge and training, he says, "I resolve 00:38:12.420 |
Because the power is not in me, it's not in you, it's not in our system, it's not in our 00:38:18.100 |
experience, it's not in our age, it's not in our knowledge, it's not in our determination, 00:38:22.940 |
it's not in our discipline, it's not in our organization. 00:38:28.820 |
So if there's anything that we need to be striving week after week, it's to see God. 00:38:35.540 |
We don't study the Bible so that we can be experts in the Bible, we study the Bible so 00:38:41.440 |
We don't pray so that we can say we prayed one hour, two hour, three hour, we pray so 00:38:47.980 |
We don't come to worship because we have greater music, we come to worship so that we can encounter 00:38:55.540 |
Because the only power to change the world is God. 00:39:01.300 |
To think that somehow, that if I'm articulate enough, if I'm smart enough, if I'm organized 00:39:06.820 |
enough, if I'm disciplined enough, I can bring somebody who's going to hell to give up their 00:39:17.940 |
If you can do that by honing your skill, you should be the richest man on earth. 00:39:25.020 |
If you can get somebody to abandon the world and to follow Jesus Christ by your skill, 00:39:30.580 |
by your knowledge, by your will, then you can sell anything. 00:39:53.300 |
So if we learn anything through Israel's history, that we recognize not these men, but the God 00:40:00.220 |
behind these men, that we may worship Him and build our life upon the rock of Christ. 00:40:09.780 |
Let's take a few minutes as our worship team comes up to lead us in prayer, to take some 00:40:18.500 |
time to really ask the Lord and ask yourselves, when was the last time you could say you've 00:40:29.420 |
I'm not asking like, did you check off that I read the Bible, I prayed, and I did my homework, 00:40:40.820 |
When was the last time you really felt like God was hearing your prayers? 00:40:47.540 |
You encountered God, and you got courage because of that. 00:40:51.740 |
That you were willing to forsake whatever you were tempted by because the fear of God, 00:40:56.460 |
the love for Christ, was much bigger than anything else that was tempting you. 00:41:01.700 |
When was the last time you encountered this God? 00:41:05.780 |
Maybe the thing that we should be striving for now, more than anything else, is to come 00:41:10.340 |
before the Lord and seek Him, ask Him, knock, and to honestly pray. 00:41:30.020 |
Let's take some time to pray as our worship team leads us.