back to indexBerean Community Church Sunday Service 2.28.2021
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As we come before our God and start our service, 00:19:29.500 |
♪ I'm alive and well, your spirit is within me ♪ 00:19:57.000 |
♪ I'm alive and well, your spirit is within me ♪ 00:20:59.000 |
♪ I'm alive and well, your spirit is within me ♪ 00:23:02.000 |
Those of you who are here and those of you who are online, 00:23:05.000 |
let me get to a few announcements before we get started. 00:23:08.000 |
But before I get to the announcements, again, 00:23:10.000 |
thank you for praying for Pastor Peter Chung. 00:23:15.000 |
and then so we texted with him a couple times. 00:23:18.000 |
And again, this is kind of like the last stage, 00:23:23.000 |
So please continue to pray for him so that he can recover 00:23:26.000 |
and physically be able to come and join us in our fellowship. 00:23:38.000 |
so please continue to keep him in your prayers. 00:23:41.000 |
So he's at the hospital, so no one's able to visit him 00:23:45.000 |
So I think he said he's going to be moved on Monday back home. 00:23:48.000 |
So please, again, continue to keep him in your prayers. 00:23:51.000 |
This coming Friday, we have a prayer meeting at church at 7:30. 00:23:59.000 |
And again, you'll have a choice in whether you sit here or outside. 00:24:02.000 |
But because of that, we won't have our normal Bible study. 00:24:05.000 |
So our weekday Bible study and home group Bible study 00:24:10.000 |
And also for the leaders' meeting that takes place on Monday, 00:24:19.000 |
so if you have children who were born in August 31, 2018-- 00:24:36.000 |
the seeds department is going to be opening up for them 00:24:40.000 |
So just like you would with your other children, 00:24:42.000 |
just drop them off before you come to service 00:24:48.000 |
Other than that, let's take some time to pray for the offering, 00:24:51.000 |
and then we'll give you an opportunity to give online 00:25:01.000 |
for your continued goodness and grace in our lives. 00:25:12.000 |
Help us, Lord God, not to simply put in our time, 00:25:15.000 |
but to really give you worship in spirit and in truth. 00:25:20.000 |
We ask that you would enrich our hearts, Lord God, 00:25:25.000 |
but that we would cry out, Lord God, in thanksgiving 00:25:35.000 |
not just financially, but an act of worship that we give to you. 00:27:38.000 |
Here is love, here is love that conquered evil. 00:30:25.000 |
Omniscient, all-knowing, he counts not their sum. 00:30:55.000 |
What patience would wait as we constantly roam. 00:31:06.000 |
He welcomes the weakest, the vilest, the poor. 00:32:01.000 |
His blood was the payment, his life was the cost. 00:32:07.000 |
We stood 'neath the dead, we could never afford. 00:33:34.000 |
All right, if you can turn your Bibles with me to Hebrews chapter 11. 00:33:37.000 |
We're going to be reading from verse 27 through 29. 00:33:41.000 |
So this is going to be the part two of what we started last week. 00:33:45.000 |
As we said, Moses has very clear, distinct divisions in his life. 00:33:53.000 |
For the first 40 years he was in the Pharaoh's house. 00:33:55.000 |
The next 40 years he was out in the desert shepherding. 00:33:58.000 |
And then the 40 years of wandering the desert as God used him to deliver 00:34:08.000 |
And so we're going to be looking at what it says in verse 27 through 29. 00:34:15.000 |
By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, 00:34:21.000 |
By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood, 00:34:24.000 |
so that he who destroyed the firstborn would not touch them. 00:34:29.000 |
as though they were passing through dry land, 00:34:31.000 |
and the Egyptians, when they attempted it, were drowned. 00:34:37.000 |
Heavenly Father, we pray for your continued grace. 00:34:41.000 |
We pray that the worship that we give you would truly be something meaningful 00:34:50.000 |
that we would worship you not simply with time, but our whole heart. 00:34:56.000 |
Help us, Lord, to know the significance of these words 00:35:00.000 |
that it may mold us, move us, change us, Lord God, 00:35:09.000 |
I think in the recent days, most of you or many of you 00:35:13.000 |
probably heard the story of what happened with Rabbi Zacharias. 00:35:17.000 |
And I know that it's affected the Christian world 00:35:20.000 |
because he was a man that was celebrated and did many good works for decades. 00:35:29.000 |
basically he's a man who God used for apologetics 00:35:35.000 |
and many, many people would credit him for bringing them to Christ 00:35:46.000 |
that he lived a life that was filled with sin, 00:35:48.000 |
he was a sexual predator, and it was not simply a mistake. 00:35:54.000 |
and it didn't really seem like he made much attempt to cover it up. 00:35:57.000 |
We have a tendency, like it says in Romans 1, 00:36:03.000 |
and it's not that the Bible does teach us to honor and to submit and to remember, 00:36:11.000 |
but at the same time, our primary sin that is mentioned in Romans 1, 00:36:16.000 |
we have a tendency to worship the creation rather than the creator. 00:36:23.000 |
when somebody that we looked up to fails that way, 00:36:26.000 |
it could really destroy people's faith when we do that. 00:36:35.000 |
To honor, respected, yes, but not to be worshipped. 00:36:37.000 |
No one is to take the place where our faith is dependent upon another man. 00:36:43.000 |
We need to be careful that even as we study through the Scripture, 00:36:48.000 |
we have a tendency to highlight the achievements of man. 00:36:51.000 |
Even though we say in passing that God is sovereign and he does what he does, 00:36:57.000 |
We can look at what David did, and I've heard so many sermons about how David, 00:37:01.000 |
while he was shepherding, he cleaned up his rocks 00:37:08.000 |
and that was that skill that God needed to slay Goliath. 00:37:24.000 |
We can get off track in our tendency to kind of highlight the achievements of man 00:37:29.000 |
and the intellect of man and our talents of man 00:37:32.000 |
and then completely forget the point of the whole story. 00:37:45.000 |
When we think of Moses, this is usually the picture that we have. 00:37:48.000 |
That's probably Charlton Heston, for those of you who know who he is. 00:37:51.000 |
In Hollywood, this story of Egypt's deliverance and the ten plagues, 00:37:55.000 |
it's so prominent, especially in the American culture. 00:37:59.000 |
Most people know about this, Christian or non-Christian. 00:38:02.000 |
So Hollywood movies were made of it, and so when we think of Moses, 00:38:05.000 |
we think of this strong, confident, fearless leader that God used to deliver Israel. 00:38:12.000 |
In fact, that's how it starts. In verse 27, it says, 00:38:16.000 |
"By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, 00:38:20.000 |
for he endured it, seeing him who was unseen." 00:38:22.000 |
Not fearing. So he's described as a fearless man. 00:38:29.000 |
He's going against Pharaoh, the strongest, most powerful man 00:38:32.000 |
who was basically the king of the most powerful nation. 00:38:37.000 |
And here's this shepherd who's been shepherding for 40 years, 00:38:39.000 |
and God raises him up to challenge him, saying, "Let my people go." 00:38:43.000 |
Think how audacious that is, that this shepherd for 40 years 00:38:48.000 |
would stand in front of Pharaoh and demand, "Let my people go." 00:38:55.000 |
And he said Moses was fearless when he did that. 00:39:00.000 |
We could easily look at that and say, "Wow, that's why he's celebrated, 00:39:03.000 |
and that's why he's known as the greatest leader of Israel." 00:39:09.000 |
But if you look carefully at the word of God, 00:39:14.000 |
In fact, if you remember in Acts 7, 24, in verse 25, 00:39:18.000 |
Stephen gives the sermon about that particular event 00:39:26.000 |
If you remember, he came out and he saw a dispute, 00:39:31.000 |
and in order to protect his Hebrew brother, he ends up killing him. 00:39:35.000 |
And he comes out a second time, thinking that maybe God was going to use him 00:39:42.000 |
"And he supposed that his brethren understood that God was granting them 00:39:45.000 |
deliverance through him, but they did not understand." 00:39:48.000 |
So he came out thinking, because he grew up all his life with prophecy 00:39:52.000 |
that he was the chosen one, and that's why he was in Pharaoh's house. 00:39:58.000 |
And finally, when he came out and he confronted the Egyptian guard, 00:40:02.000 |
and he came out and was trying to intervene in the dispute of these two Hebrews, 00:40:07.000 |
I think he thought that that was the time that God was going to use him to deliver. 00:40:12.000 |
Just like the prophecy, just like he was told since he was a child. 00:40:15.000 |
But when they turned against him and said, "Are you going to kill us too? 00:40:21.000 |
It says in verse 14, Exodus 2, 14, but he said, 00:40:26.000 |
Are you intending to kill me as you killed the Egyptians?" 00:40:29.000 |
Then Moses was afraid and said, "Surely the matter has become known." 00:40:36.000 |
Well, who wrote this? Because in 27 he says he's fearless, 00:40:42.000 |
In Exodus 3, 10 through 11, after spending 40 years on the desert, 00:40:46.000 |
God finally calls him, tells him who he is, and says, 00:40:53.000 |
And then this is how Moses responds in verse 10. 00:40:56.000 |
"Come now, and I will send you to Pharaoh so that you may bring my people, 00:41:01.000 |
But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh 00:41:04.000 |
and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?" 00:41:13.000 |
and he was expecting because he grew up all his life with that prophecy over him. 00:41:21.000 |
It's because it failed, at least in his mind. 00:41:25.000 |
So why is it going to happen this way? Who am I? 00:41:29.000 |
He doesn't seem like a man of faith, at least not here. 00:41:33.000 |
He doesn't seem like a courageous man with the staff up in the sky, 00:41:37.000 |
this fearless leader that Israelites were able to get behind. 00:41:40.000 |
Exodus 4, 1, Moses said, "What if they will not believe me or listen to what I say? 00:41:44.000 |
For they may say, 'The Lord has not appeared to you.'" 00:41:48.000 |
And then again in Exodus 4, 10 through 15, God keeps on pushing him. 00:41:53.000 |
"I didn't call you because you are articulate. I didn't call you because I needed you. 00:42:00.000 |
Then Moses said to the Lord, "Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, 00:42:04.000 |
neither recently nor the time past, nor since you have spoken to your servant, 00:42:13.000 |
Please, Lord, he's begging, and the Lord won't let it go 00:42:19.000 |
But he genuinely doesn't want to do this because he was fearful. 00:42:32.000 |
God is audibly speaking to Moses, saying that, "I'm going to use you." 00:42:40.000 |
Verse 12, "Now then, go, and I even will be with your mouth 00:42:48.000 |
And it said, "Please, Lord, now send the message by whomever you will." 00:42:53.000 |
Then the anger of the Lord burned against Moses. 00:42:57.000 |
Does that sound like the fearless leader that you see in verse 27? 00:43:07.000 |
And I know that he was dictating by the Holy Spirit, but Moses was writing this, 00:43:11.000 |
and as he was writing this, did he just get it wrong? 00:43:14.000 |
Whoever wrote Hebrews, did they not read Exodus? 00:43:17.000 |
Maybe these are two separate authors, and they don't know anything about each other, 00:43:20.000 |
and so one describes him as this fearful man who had very little faith 00:43:24.000 |
and was begging God, "Please don't let me do it!" 00:43:37.000 |
when he finally goes, and literally, God is twisting his arms, 00:43:48.000 |
And then he goes, and then they have the first encounter, 00:43:54.000 |
It says God keeps hardening his heart because he wanted to demonstrate his power. 00:44:00.000 |
They turn against Moses and say, "I told you! 00:44:03.000 |
Because of you, Pharaoh is making it harder on us!" 00:44:06.000 |
And so in 5.21 it says that they said to them, "May the Lord look upon you and judge you, 00:44:10.000 |
for you have made us odious in Pharaoh's sight and in the sight of his servants, 00:44:14.000 |
and he has put a sword in their hand to kill us." 00:44:18.000 |
So it didn't turn out the way it's just like the first time. 00:44:21.000 |
They didn't embrace him. They didn't celebrate him. 00:44:24.000 |
So he goes back to God in verse 22, "Then Moses returned to the Lord and said, 00:44:27.000 |
'O Lord, why have you brought harm to this people? 00:44:33.000 |
Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done harm to this people, 00:44:36.000 |
and you have not delivered your people at all.'" 00:44:45.000 |
God appears to him, and he's complaining to God. 00:44:48.000 |
At this point, he's more afraid of the Israelites. 00:44:52.000 |
He's more afraid of Pharaoh than God himself. 00:44:58.000 |
"By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king." 00:45:01.000 |
It sure sounds like he was fearful of the wrath. 00:45:04.000 |
He was fearful not only of the wrath, but of their opinion. 00:45:07.000 |
Exodus 6.11-12, "Go tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to tell, 00:45:11.000 |
'Let the sons of Israel go out of this land.' 00:45:14.000 |
But Moses spoke before the Lord, saying, 'Behold, the sons of Israel have not listened to me. 00:45:18.000 |
How then will Pharaoh listen to me, for I am unskilled in speech?'" 00:45:33.000 |
Maybe next time somebody draws Moses, it would be like, "Please, please." 00:45:43.000 |
Because that's the way it's presented to us in Exodus. 00:45:52.000 |
In fact, remember we said Moses is described as the humblest man on earth. 00:45:58.000 |
It's like, "Oh, that's a humble brag. I'm the humblest of the universe." 00:46:07.000 |
And what he meant by that was he was humbled. 00:46:21.000 |
Because he saw that. He encountered God and he's arguing with God. 00:46:25.000 |
"Will you really deliver? Is this really going to happen? 00:46:31.000 |
As God was showing him miracles, he was doubting and questioning. 00:46:38.000 |
But why does it have in verse 27 that he was not fearing the wrath of God? 00:46:44.000 |
At some point in this deliverance story, Moses does get courage. 00:46:53.000 |
And at some point, he is that man who raised up the staff and God uses him. 00:47:04.000 |
And the description of what happened, it just says simply, 00:47:15.000 |
Meaning he did what God told him to do. He endured. 00:47:25.000 |
I've heard so many stories about how God used him in 40 years 00:47:28.000 |
and built up courage and trained him and spoke to him. 00:47:31.000 |
And so he became this man of God when he showed up. 00:47:34.000 |
And that's why he took him out into the wilderness. 00:47:37.000 |
And that's our tendency to elevate man's work. 00:47:41.000 |
That if we just do this, if we said this, and if we did that, 00:47:45.000 |
and if we had the right people and the right money with the right training, 00:47:50.000 |
That's our natural tendency to think we just elevate man's work 00:47:54.000 |
and forget that what happened here with Moses was simply, 00:47:58.000 |
here's a weak man who was fearful, who encountered the living God. 00:48:05.000 |
What changed him was not years of discipling, 00:48:12.000 |
He met the right people, did the right things with the right program. 00:48:18.000 |
And so when he's at the burning bush, he's like, 00:48:28.000 |
He says, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I am has sent me to you.'" 00:48:33.000 |
I am. I don't come from anybody else. I'm not created. 00:48:37.000 |
He is self-existing, self-reliant, omnipotent, all-powerful. 00:48:46.000 |
And all he tells him is, "I will be with you." 00:48:54.000 |
Other kings would be terrified to go to Pharaoh. 00:48:59.000 |
The strongest of men would be terrified to be in the presence of Pharaoh. 00:49:04.000 |
So humanly speaking, we can understand why he was terrified. 00:49:07.000 |
But the only strength that he gives him, only comfort that he gives him, 00:49:18.000 |
He doesn't say, "Here's a list of things to memorize, and make sure you say this." 00:49:23.000 |
He doesn't say, "No, I will be with you. Just go." 00:49:27.000 |
When I say to do this, you do this. Just go." 00:49:31.000 |
You know, we think about the Great Commission. 00:49:35.000 |
In Matthew 28, where God is sending out his disciples, 00:49:38.000 |
and so many people have memorized that passage, 00:49:41.000 |
"Go make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, 00:49:45.000 |
the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." 00:49:50.000 |
But the real power behind the Great Commission is what comes before and what comes after. 00:49:59.000 |
What is our strategy? What is our five-year vision? 00:50:14.000 |
but the real power behind that is prior to him saying, 00:50:18.000 |
"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 00:50:23.000 |
And then he says at the end, what did he say? 00:50:29.000 |
So the power behind the Great Commission is his authority and his presence with us, 00:50:36.000 |
That's why in Acts 1:8, when the disciples were ready to go, 00:50:39.000 |
he says, "Don't go, because you don't have the power. 00:50:44.000 |
When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will have power, 00:50:47.000 |
and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to the end of the age." 00:50:54.000 |
Everywhere Apostle Paul went, those people who were at Pentecost, 00:50:57.000 |
in fear of persecution, as they were running, they were sharing the gospel. 00:51:01.000 |
So when Apostle Paul started his journey going to these places, 00:51:04.000 |
these Christians were already there, already sharing their testimonies. 00:51:09.000 |
That didn't happen because of great planning or discipleship. 00:51:13.000 |
They were running in fear of their life, and God was planting seeds already by his power 00:51:18.000 |
because that's what he said he was going to do. 00:51:21.000 |
Our natural tendency is if a church is successful there, 00:51:25.000 |
if that man seems to be bearing fruit, we go and take notes and do what he did. 00:51:30.000 |
Because we think if we copy what they're doing, we can have the same success. 00:51:36.000 |
And so people write books and seminars, "This is what we did. 00:51:39.000 |
This is how we teach. This is how our program--this is what we do." 00:51:43.000 |
And then people just copy that, and then we regurgitate what that man is doing, 00:51:53.000 |
Because that's our natural tendency, to worship the creation rather than the creator. 00:51:57.000 |
Moses' fearlessness did not come because of great training. 00:52:02.000 |
If anything, for 40 years out in the desert, what do you think he learned? 00:52:10.000 |
What part of the--humanly speaking, you could say, "Well, God's raising up to be this great leader, 00:52:21.000 |
He learned this by attacking wolves, and God used that 00:52:25.000 |
because when he went against Pharaoh, Pharaoh was the wolf. 00:52:36.000 |
Moses came out--remember, before he went out to the desert, he came out like the ruler. 00:52:41.000 |
He came out--he even killed an Egyptian, and he thought, "They're going to come behind me. 00:52:48.000 |
And then he throws him out to the desert for 40 years. 00:52:58.000 |
If there's anything that he learned in the 40 years, to empty himself. 00:53:07.000 |
And that's why the Bible says, "If you want to be used for noble purposes," 00:53:30.000 |
Our natural tendency to think if we get the right people doing the right thing, 00:53:38.000 |
But all we're commanded to do is to be emptied. 00:53:45.000 |
is not that we don't have the right people in the right place. 00:53:49.000 |
It's typically we have the wrong people in the wrong place. 00:53:54.000 |
Or sometimes wrong people in the right place. 00:54:03.000 |
when it says, "You can't bear fruit unless you abide in me." 00:54:07.000 |
And then you know why it's so important to abide? 00:54:11.000 |
Because if you abide in me, my words abide in you. 00:54:19.000 |
Not so that you can be this prayer warrior and I'm going to do mighty things. 00:54:23.000 |
Because when you abide, if you abide in him, his word abides in you, 00:54:35.000 |
It's in our abiding we have more effective prayer. 00:54:41.000 |
See, his power came simply because he saw God. 00:54:45.000 |
And even the 10 plagues was to demonstrate to Israel 00:54:51.000 |
and to demonstrate to Egypt who God really is. 00:55:00.000 |
He was going to show them that God is above every God. 00:55:04.000 |
So every one of these plagues, the Nile turning into blood, 00:55:08.000 |
God of--Isis was one of their goddesses that was a god of the Nile, 00:55:15.000 |
The frog, Hekt, the Egyptian goddess whose head was the frog. 00:55:25.000 |
Fly, Kepri, the god--it was the head of a beetle. 00:55:31.000 |
Sick cattle, Hathor, is the goddess of fertility. 00:55:37.000 |
The boils, again, the goddess of health, Isis. 00:55:40.000 |
Hail, Nut, the goddess of the sky and the goddess of the air. 00:55:45.000 |
Locust, Neper, Nepri, god and goddess of grain. 00:55:49.000 |
Darkness, the greatest god that they worship. 00:55:59.000 |
not only to show Egypt who it is that's delivering Israel, 00:56:04.000 |
but these Israelites for 400 years who fell into despair. 00:56:10.000 |
It's almost like they've kind of accepted the fact that they were slaves, 00:56:14.000 |
and when Moses tried to--God used him to deliver them, 00:56:17.000 |
and it didn't happen right away, he said, "It's better for us." 00:56:20.000 |
Remember, every time it got hard out in the desert, even at the Red Sea, 00:56:24.000 |
they said, "Oh, if we went back there, I knew we were slaves, 00:56:27.000 |
but at least over there we had food and we had water and we had safety." 00:56:31.000 |
For 400 years, they've accepted their identity, 00:56:35.000 |
and so God was coming in, having a power encounter with them 00:56:42.000 |
Moses, at some point in this process, began to see and began to believe. 00:56:48.000 |
He lost all faith in himself, and maybe he lost some faith in God during that time, 00:56:58.000 |
This man who was afraid, this man who was terrified, 00:57:06.000 |
timid, becomes this mighty soldier that God uses to deliver. 00:57:13.000 |
You know the Bible talks about how if you have a faith of a muster seed, 00:57:25.000 |
literally begging God, "Please don't let me go. Please!" 00:57:34.000 |
Why are they going to listen to me now, even as he is seeing the miracle?" 00:57:39.000 |
That guy, with that tiny faith, God moved Pharaoh. 00:57:47.000 |
Exactly what he said he was going to do, simply because he saw God. 00:57:51.000 |
Hebrews 12, 20-21, describes Moses seeing God at Mount Sinai this way, 00:57:57.000 |
"For they could not bear the command, 'If even a beast touches the mountain, 00:58:03.000 |
And so terrible is the sight that Moses said, 'I am full of fear and trembling.'" 00:58:15.000 |
and instead of fearing Pharaoh, instead of fearing the opinions of the Israelites, 00:58:30.000 |
they asked him, those of you guys who know Kanye West, 00:58:34.000 |
they asked him, "Aren't you afraid of the cancel culture?" 00:58:38.000 |
You know, things that you say, and the Christian things that you say, and Jesus is Lord. 00:58:42.000 |
And he said, "I don't fear that, because I fear God." 00:58:47.000 |
He said, "Fear of God overcomes all other fears." 00:59:00.000 |
Proverbs 9, 10 says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, 00:59:04.000 |
and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding." 00:59:08.000 |
Beginning of wisdom is when we are emptied of our self-confidence, 00:59:18.000 |
when we've reached the end of the possibility that we have, our potential, 00:59:26.000 |
and you have no other hope but to turn to God, 00:59:29.000 |
and you fear God, he said, "That's the beginning of wisdom." 00:59:35.000 |
The greatest hindrance to our fruitfulness is not our circumstance. 00:59:43.000 |
Us thinking that us get together, and if we have enough of us, 01:00:02.000 |
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. 01:00:07.000 |
And the way that we use that is, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." 01:00:14.000 |
When it's really meant, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." 01:00:20.000 |
Our natural tendency is to worship the creation rather than the creator. 01:00:25.000 |
He changed, and his fear was overcome by a greater fear of God, 01:00:36.000 |
Whenever we do inductive Bible study, we have to ask good questions. 01:00:45.000 |
It says, "By faith he left Egypt, and he was not afraid of Pharaoh, 01:00:49.000 |
Then there's two particular events that are highlighted. 01:00:52.000 |
We have to ask, "Why are those two things highlighted? 01:00:54.000 |
How come the other events are not highlighted?" 01:01:01.000 |
Many things happen, but why are these two particular events highlighted, 01:01:05.000 |
saying that this demonstrated the faith of Moses? 01:01:08.000 |
The first one is pretty obvious, because it says, "By faith he kept the Passover 01:01:12.000 |
and the sprinkling of the blood, so that he destroyed the firstborn, 01:01:18.000 |
Every time we have a communion, we celebrate that because Jesus fulfills that. 01:01:24.000 |
You know what's interesting about that is their top god was the god Ra. 01:01:30.000 |
Some of you guys may know from maybe watching National Geography. 01:01:40.000 |
Okay, so you've probably seen pictures, right? 01:01:44.000 |
That's the one that kind of looks like a dog. 01:01:51.000 |
As they worshipped that, it was understood that Ra owned all of the firstborn children 01:02:01.000 |
If you had your firstborn, it was dedicated to Ra for the service of Ra. 01:02:06.000 |
So you can see why God, his final and the most powerful power encounter with Egypt 01:02:12.000 |
was to challenge Ra, that he was going to come. 01:02:16.000 |
The angel of death was going to come and destroy all the firstborn, 01:02:19.000 |
but the only ones that would survive are the ones that, by faith, 01:02:23.000 |
covered their doorposts with the lamb's blood. 01:02:29.000 |
That was the final and the greatest challenge to the nation of Egypt 01:02:33.000 |
and for Israel to realize that there's only one true God. 01:02:39.000 |
But the second reason is pretty clear because that obviously pointed to the coming of Christ. 01:02:44.000 |
And as soon as that happened, God told the nation of Israel 01:02:47.000 |
that you do this every single year to celebrate this Passover meal, 01:02:55.000 |
and it's really pointing to the coming of Christ. 01:02:58.000 |
The blood of the lamb is going to cover our sins, 01:03:00.000 |
and the angel of death is going to go over us, and we will be saved. 01:03:05.000 |
Those of you who participate in the Passover meal, 01:03:07.000 |
there's a part of the meal where you take the three pieces of matzah, 01:03:12.000 |
and you take the middle one, and you hide it away for a while, 01:03:15.000 |
and at the end of the meal, you bring it back, 01:03:17.000 |
and you break it and give it to each of the members at the table and your family. 01:03:22.000 |
The Israelites, the Jewish people, to this day practice that, 01:03:26.000 |
but when you ask them exactly what the meaning behind that, they don't know. 01:03:31.000 |
That was practiced in the first century when Jesus was practicing it. 01:03:34.000 |
So if you look at the text, when Jesus is practicing the Passover meal, 01:03:38.000 |
he takes the bread, which would have been the second one, 01:03:41.000 |
that he hid away for a while and brought back, broke it and gave it to them, 01:03:45.000 |
and Jesus said, "Do this in remembrance of me." 01:03:49.000 |
I mean, it's pretty clear that that second is Jesus Christ, 01:03:52.000 |
the second and the third person of the Trinity, 01:03:55.000 |
that's crucified for three days and buried and come back to life. 01:04:00.000 |
I mean, we see that very clearly, but they practice this every year 01:04:07.000 |
because it is the clearest picture about his death and his atonement over us. 01:04:19.000 |
In fact, the deliverance of the Red Sea is so dramatic 01:04:24.000 |
that this event is recorded in Psalm 66, 6, 78, 13, 106, 9, 136, 13, 01:04:32.000 |
In fact, Moses breaks out into this song in Exodus 15, 1 through 13, 01:04:36.000 |
"I will sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted, 01:04:39.000 |
the horse and the riders he has hurled into the sea. 01:04:41.000 |
The Lord is my strength and song, and he has become my salvation. 01:04:44.000 |
This is my God, and I will praise him, my Father's God, and I will extol him." 01:04:56.000 |
You know, as I was wrestling through that question myself, 01:04:58.000 |
I began to see so many similarities of what God was doing. 01:05:03.000 |
Remember in the book of Hebrews it says the tabernacle 01:05:06.000 |
is a shadow of the reality to come in Christ. 01:05:11.000 |
The whole nation of Israel, the Feast of Booth, the Passover, 01:05:16.000 |
all of the feasts that God gave the nation of Israel 01:05:19.000 |
pointed to something that was going to be found in Christ. 01:05:24.000 |
So let me ask you, how many years were the Israelites in bondage? 01:05:34.000 |
How many years gap was there between the Old and the New Testament 01:05:39.000 |
where there were no prophets, where it says that God was silent during that period? 01:05:46.000 |
So during those 400 years God wasn't speaking, and Israelites fell into despair 01:05:51.000 |
because the prophet wasn't coming. God wasn't speaking to them. 01:05:55.000 |
And so they began to kind of fall into different categories. 01:05:58.000 |
Like, "Well, what are we going to do? What are we going to do?" 01:06:00.000 |
So they broke up into Pharisees, and they broke up into Sadducees, the Essenes, 01:06:04.000 |
and the Zealots, all trying to, by their own strength and by their own might, 01:06:10.000 |
some became a little bit more religious, some became more political, 01:06:18.000 |
and then some picked up arms and got militant. 01:06:22.000 |
But it was all their effort to fulfill what they wanted. 01:06:28.000 |
Well, 400 years while they were in bondage, the Israelites fell into despair 01:06:37.000 |
Remember, when they walked into Egypt, they came in as Joseph's second man, 01:06:47.000 |
But at some point the new Pharaoh comes, and they forget, 01:06:51.000 |
and they turn into slaves, and they've been crying out, and it took too long. 01:06:57.000 |
But right in the middle of their despair, God shows up and delivers them. 01:07:01.000 |
And clearly, the Passover is what God used to deliver both Egypt 01:07:09.000 |
But if you look at the Red Sea, when does the inauguration of the church, 01:07:20.000 |
The Holy Spirit comes, and He enters into the people. 01:07:24.000 |
They begin to speak in tongues and in various languages, 01:07:28.000 |
and that was the inauguration of the New Covenant and new people. 01:07:33.000 |
Well, Israelites, them exiting Egypt and coming into the New Promised Land, 01:07:39.000 |
on the other side of this Red Sea, they become the people of God. 01:07:44.000 |
They were Israelites by descendants, but the political Israel, 01:07:48.000 |
the national Israel happens on the other side of Red Sea. 01:07:52.000 |
And at the Pentecost, you see, when the Holy Spirit comes, 01:07:59.000 |
In the Red Sea, it says that the wind began to swirl and started to divide. 01:08:04.000 |
And so they were crossed from one kingdom, kingdom of Egypt, 01:08:13.000 |
The people of the Old Covenant, by the Holy Spirit, 01:08:20.000 |
Now, you can say I'm milking it, but these are things that I see 01:08:24.000 |
that clearly point to God's people being delivered by the blood of Christ 01:08:32.000 |
and then inaugurating a new kingdom on the other side. 01:08:39.000 |
Because every part of this points to the sovereignty of God. 01:08:48.000 |
Every part of it, even the things that we understand, 01:08:51.000 |
things that we don't understand, God has been orchestrating 01:09:01.000 |
Moses was just a weak man that encountered a great God. 01:09:08.000 |
Every time we put a man on a pedestal and our faith depends on that man, 01:09:18.000 |
because we have a tendency to worship the creation rather than the creator. 01:09:30.000 |
God says to submit to the elders of the church, 01:09:32.000 |
but no man stands in the position where only God stands. 01:09:37.000 |
Our faith should not fail because a weak man failed. 01:09:42.000 |
Your faith should not be shaken because a fallen man 01:10:02.000 |
So as we study and as we go through the history of Israel, 01:10:10.000 |
if we look at that and we see, like, wow, Moses was a great man. 01:10:15.000 |
He shepherded that we need to hone in our skills. 01:10:17.000 |
David, he became a huge--he became an expert rock thrower, 01:10:22.000 |
so we need to shine our rocks and make sure that we do this. 01:10:29.000 |
The whole point of that is why does he choose the lesser over the greater? 01:10:39.000 |
Why did he get a bunch of fishermen who know nothing about the law? 01:10:45.000 |
Why did he get a bunch of people who hated each other, the tax collector, 01:10:53.000 |
Why did he choose the weak to dumbfound the wise? 01:10:59.000 |
Wouldn't it be easier to get the wiser to dumbfound the wise? 01:11:03.000 |
If you're going to go over power, wouldn't you get something more powerful? 01:11:16.000 |
So that you and I would recognize that it's not us. 01:11:27.000 |
So that our faith would not rest in man, but on God. 01:11:32.000 |
That's why Apostle Paul, with all of his wisdom and knowledge and training, 01:11:36.000 |
he says, "I resolve to know nothing but Christ crucified." 01:11:41.000 |
Because the power is not in me, it's not in you, it's not in our system, 01:11:44.000 |
it's not in our experience, it's not in our age, it's not in our knowledge, 01:11:48.000 |
it's not in our determination, it's not in our discipline, 01:11:56.000 |
So if there's anything that we need to be striving week after week, 01:12:02.000 |
We don't study the Bible so that we can be experts in the Bible. 01:12:08.000 |
We don't pray so that we can say we prayed one hour, two hour, three hour. 01:12:15.000 |
We don't come to worship because we have greater music. 01:12:18.000 |
We come to worship so that we can encounter God. 01:12:22.000 |
Because the only power to change the world is God. 01:12:28.000 |
To think that somehow, that if I'm articulate enough, if I'm smart enough, 01:12:33.000 |
if I'm organized enough, if I'm disciplined enough, 01:12:36.000 |
I can bring somebody who's going to hell to give up their lives and follow Jesus Christ. 01:12:45.000 |
If you can do that by honing your skill, you should be the richest man on earth. 01:12:52.000 |
If you can get somebody to abandon the world and to follow Jesus Christ by your skill, 01:12:58.000 |
by your knowledge, by your will, then you can sell anything. 01:13:20.000 |
So if we learn anything through Israel's history, 01:13:23.000 |
that we recognize not these men, but the God behind these men, 01:13:30.000 |
that we may worship Him and build our life upon the rock of Christ. 01:13:39.000 |
Let's take a few minutes as our worship team comes up to lead us in prayer 01:13:45.000 |
to take some time to really ask the Lord and ask yourselves, 01:13:49.000 |
when was the last time you could say you've genuinely encountered Christ? 01:13:56.000 |
I'm not asking like, did you check off that I read the Bible, I prayed, 01:14:08.000 |
When was the last time you really felt like God was hearing your prayers? 01:14:14.000 |
That you encountered God and you got courage because of that? 01:14:18.000 |
That you were willing to forsake whatever you were tempted by 01:14:21.000 |
because the fear of God, the love for Christ, 01:14:24.000 |
was much bigger than anything else that was tempting you? 01:14:28.000 |
When was the last time you encountered this God? 01:14:32.000 |
Maybe the thing that we should be striving for now more than anything else 01:14:36.000 |
is to come before the Lord and seek Him, ask Him, knock, 01:14:57.000 |
Let's take some time to pray as our worship team leads us. 01:16:30.060 |
- Let's all rise together as we sing our closing song. 01:17:04.980 |
♪ Your grace is dear, your strength, oh Lord ♪ 01:17:29.980 |
♪ Your grace is dear, your strength, oh Lord ♪ 01:17:48.980 |
♪ You came down to find us, let us stand up dead ♪ 01:18:15.980 |
♪ For when our hearts, for when our hearts were far away ♪ 01:18:20.980 |
♪ Your love went through, yes your love, Lord ♪ 01:18:46.980 |
♪ You came down to find us, let us stand up dead ♪ 01:19:43.980 |
♪ You came down to find us, let us stand up dead ♪ 01:20:08.980 |
♪ You came down to find us, let us stand up dead ♪ 01:20:43.980 |
For momentary light affliction is producing for us 01:20:46.980 |
an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. 01:20:50.980 |
While we look not at the things which are seen, 01:20:57.980 |
but the things which are not seen are eternal. 01:21:03.980 |
to know, Father God, how quickly we come and go, 01:21:08.980 |
so that we would not put any confidence in our flesh 01:21:14.980 |
Help us, Lord God, to fix our eyes upon Christ, 01:21:17.980 |
and that when he comes, that we will be glorified in him, 01:21:21.980 |
that we will live for the eternal, not for the temporary. 01:21:24.980 |
I pray that you would open our eyes, Lord God, 01:21:26.980 |
that we may have a greater vision of who you are, 01:21:31.980 |
the more courage that we will have to live, Lord God, 01:21:34.980 |
according to the calling that you've given us. 01:21:39.980 |
that you would give us the strength to reflect who you are, 01:21:43.980 |
your mercy, your grace, your love, your holiness, 01:21:49.980 |
that there is hope in the name of Jesus Christ. 01:21:59.980 |
that we may be used for noble purposes this week. 01:23:23.980 |
All right, again, if we can have this side of the room go.