Examples from Exodus - The Passover - AM Sermon 2/28/10

Examples from Exodus – The Passover

There was once a boxer who was being pummeled in the ring by his opponent. Blow after blow by his adversary left him with a bloody nose, swollen eyes, and an enormous amount of pain.
The battered boxer’s trainer, trying to encourage his man between rounds, kept telling him, “You’re doing great, Fred. That bum is barely touching you.”
To which the boxer responded, “Then you better keep your eye on that referee, because somebody is killing me!

People many times know that life is beating them up and battering them. That is a fact but the problem is that many people are going around and telling folks that everything is just topsy turvy and the world is just great.

Many people live in a false sense of security that they are not in danger.

Others live in a heresy known as the Gospel of Health and Wealth where they are told that if you pray a certain prayer or give all your money to a certain ministry all their problems will dissolve.

We must come to grips that we live in a fallen world and the battle is on. When Jesus came back from the Grave the battle of all battles was initiated against sin and we are in that battle. This morning I want to go back to the book of Exodus and continue or study through Exodus and glean EXAMPLES FROM EXODUS.

The Hebrews find themselves in a struggle between good and evil, between slavery and freedom and between the worship of the one true God and paganism.

We will see this struggle and battle take us through the rest of the Exodus account and the rest of the OT.
You will see God lead the Israelites out of Egypt and then pound into their thick skulls that they have to be different and holy.

We will witness God's love and care for a stiff necked and hard hearted people. We will see God's people start the preparation for the coming King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

The early Church saw the OT dripping with Jesus Christ, on every page they saw foreshadowing and predicative prophecy about Jesus. I believe they were right in this assumption and we would do well to start reading the Bible as they did.

Last week we looked at a few of the plagues that God brought upon Egypt in Judgment upon the nation that had enslaved the Israelites.

This week we will focus on the final plague brought against Egypt and the effects of this plague on Egypt.
We will read through Exodus 11:4 all the way through to Exodus 12 verse 10. Remember that the chapter and verse divisions were not in the original manuscripts of the Bible. These were added later and sometimes we seem to chop us the Bible in places that should not be chopped up.

Exodus 11: 4-10
4 Moses said, "Thus says the LORD, 'About midnight I am going out into the midst of Egypt, 5 and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of the Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the millstones ; all the firstborn of the cattle as well. 6 'Moreover, there shall be a great cry in all the land of Egypt, such as there has not been before and such as shall never be again. 7 'But against any of the sons of Israel a dog will not even bark , whether against man or beast, that you may understand how the LORD makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.' 8 "All these your servants will come down to me and bow themselves before me, saying, 'Go out, you and all the people who follow you,' and after that I will go out." And he went out from Pharaoh in hot anger. 9 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Pharaoh will not listen to you, so that My wonders will be multiplied in the land of Egypt." 10 Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh ; yet the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the sons of Israel go out of his land
Exodus 12: 1-6
1 Now the LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 "This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year to you. 3 "Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, 'On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a lamb for themselves, according to their fathers' households, a lamb for each household. 4 'Now if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to his house are to take one according to the number of persons in them; according to what each man should eat, you are to divide the lamb. 5 'Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old ; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 6 'You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight.
7 'Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. 8 'They shall eat the flesh that same night, roasted with fire, and they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 9 'Do not eat any of it raw or boiled at all with water, but rather roasted with fire, both its head and its legs along with its entrails. 10 'And you shall not leave any of it over until morning, but whatever is left of it until morning, you shall burn with fire.



We see in this story the final straw for God and Egypt. 9 great wonders and Plagues have been brought by God. Pharaoh had stated earlier in Exodus that he did not KNOW God but God has made his power and presence known to Pharaoh.

God has heard the cry of the oppressed Israelites and has acted. God has systematically brought Egypt to its knees by taking down their economy and by showing that their pantheon of gods were useless. Now God will hit Egypt hard by taking the first born son of the Egyptians. Pharaoh has continued rejected the pleas of Moses but will now be broken by God.

God tells them that this will be the beginning of the year for the Israelites. Every year for them will begin with the celebration of the Exodus. This will be the defining moment for their nation. They will look to this night as the very time that their nation had a beginning.

We as Americans look back to the Declaration of Independence and July 4, 1776 as our birth.

The Hebrews will look to this day of liberation from Egypt as their beginning. Their very calendar will be centered upon this time. They will be constantly reminded that you are the people that God rescued from slavery.

The death angel will come through Egypt and the Israelites were instructed to take the blood of the Lamb and put it on the doorposts of their home and they will be passed over and would be safe.
We notice that they are to get the lamb and wait four days before they kill it. They are to get the lamb on the 10th day of the month but not sacrifice the lamb until the 14th day of the month.

Why four days? What is God trying to communicate to the Israelites?

I.God requires Consecration when we come before Him.

Because the Israelites had to be circumcised before they could eat it. It took 3 days to heal before they could eat it.

12:47 – Must be circumcised to eat the Passover. - Moses learned this lesson when God came to visit Moses to kill him because his son was not circumcised. In Exodus 4 we see God show up to kill Moses because he had not circumcise his son.
God expects consecration and holiness if we are to come before Him.

Does this apply to today? Are we supposed to be consecrated today?
This was circumcision but does this apply to Christians today?

Romans 2:28-29
28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly , nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. 29 But he is a Jew who is one inwardly ; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter ; and his praise is not from men, but from God.

God wants a heart that has been circumcised, a heart that has been changed and loves Him.

Galatians 6: 14-15
14 But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. 15 For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.
God is looking for a renewed man, one that lives in obedience to Him. Circumcision and the outward trappings of religion mean nothing without a renewed heart.

This is one of the main differences that we see in the New Covenant made through the Cross of Jesus and the sacrifice of the perfect lamb of Christ is that we are now to be circumcised in our hearts- an inward renewal, a new person that has been transformed. We could have everything right in the outwards but if we are not renewed and changed then it is worthless.

Paul makes this point clear in I Corinthians 13- one could work miracles, be give their body up as a martyr but if they dont have love in their heart it is a worthless sacrifice. God wants a renewed heart and the rest will take care of itself.
The analogous event that we have in the Church that is directly linked to the Passover is the Lord's Supper. Just as the Hebrews had to be consecrated before they ate the Passover Christians must also be consecrated before they eat the Lord's Supper.
Paul makes this clear in 1 Corinthians 11
1 Corinthians 11: 26-30
26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. 27 Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. 28 But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. 30 For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep.
Paul uses pretty serious language concerning how we should look at our hearts before we take of the Lord's Supper. Just as the Hebrew people had to make sure they had been circumcised we have to make sure our hearts have been circumcised to Christ before we eat of the Lord's Table.

II. God wants to meet us where we are to communicate to us. He takes us where we are and communicates to us the best he can.

They had to eat the Lamb completely.

This may seem strange to us.
Why the bloody sacrifice of animals and why put blood on the door posts? Isn't God a God of love? Why slaughter an innocent animal?

Important problem and questions to be asked about God.

God doesn't need bloody sacrifice of animals but the people needed it. The Egyptians worshiped lambs as gods.
Plutarch mentions that even up to the 1st century the Egyptians worshiped sheep. If anyone sacrificed a sheep in ancient Egypt they would be accursed.

When they sacrificed the lamb it would be an act of faith and act of obedience. They were saying that they believed that Jehovah was the only true God and that they would not be cursed by the Egyptian gods.

God is relating to the Hebrew people where they are and where they can understand. God does this all through Scripture. He meets us where we are and shows us things that we can understand. God puts it in a context that we can understand.

Exodus 8 Moses tells Pharaoh that they cannot worship in Egypt because the Egyptians would find it detestable. The Egyptians would find it detestable because the Israelites would sacrifice animals that the Egyptians believe are sacred.

God communicates to the Israelites in a way that
Sometimes we question God and want to have Him reveal more to us. We wont the answers on our terms and we totally miss the fact that God has come to meet us where we are where we can understand him.
A fellow is setting up a blind date with a young woman
over the telephone. They agree to meet at a certain
street corner at a certain time and then she asks him "How
will I know you". He replies "I'll be driving a
Volkswagon". The next scene is at the street corner. He
is standing by this sleek looking car and she comes
wandering along looking for him - and goes right by him
because parked just around the corner from him is a
classic BEETLE or BUG.

We sometimes walk right by God and don't realize that He is present in our lives and maybe He is there in the simple things of faith. The simple things he asks us to do that will open us up to the deeper things that we so long for.
An example of how God meets us where we are is found in the rainbow of Noah- God put a rainbow in the sky as a sign of His covenant to Noah and it puzzles most modern people as to why God chose this sign.


To an ancient it would make perfect sense. They believed that just above the clouds there was a huge bank of water and a barrier held that water in place. If that barrier was ever broken the world would be flooded. That was probably what Noah and his family thought had happened- this barrier was destroyed and this water poured forth.
The rainbow would be a symbol that God had restored order to the universe and this would not happen again.

Do you think this would have been a good time for God to teach Noah about the hydrologic cycle or did Noah just need reassurance that God is in control?

This same is true for us. Sometimes we may not get all the answers that we want in the time we want them, we just have to trust God at his word and remember that he communicates to us in a level we can understand. As Paul said we see in a glass darkly now but one day it will be clear. We wills see and understand things that we in our fallen finite state would never had been able to grasp. We forget that the God of the Bible is the same God that created Quantum Physics and brain surgery. Of course He is complex beyond our capacity.


III. God wants Us to Know the Story – To live the Story – To pass the Story down.

Exodus 12: 24-27
24 "And you shall observe this event as an ordinance for you and your children forever . 25 "When you enter the land which the LORD will give you, as He has promised, you shall observe this rite. 26 "And when your children say to you, 'What does this rite mean to you?' 27 you shall say, 'It is a Passover sacrifice to the LORD who passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt when He smote the Egyptians, but spared our homes.' " And the people bowed low and worshiped.

You shall say – Haggadah – Tell the Story literally- let them know the story of God and his redemption.

The Jews to this day use a Passover Haggadah – a book of the story – Every Jew must see that the story as if they themselves came out of Egypt.

Part of what we are trying to communicate to our kids on Wednesday night is that they are part of this story. The story of the bible is THE story. This is where we fit. We need to know this book so well that we know in every life situation exactly how this puzzle of life fits into God's big picture.

God has an overarching plan that we must fall in line with.
God's story is the winning story and we all want to be on the winning side, so we need to throw in our lot with God's plan.
Jesus uses this same language for the Lord's Supper – Take in Remembrance – Anamnesis -to be a part of the story – Every Lord's Supper – The Romans didnt crucify Jesus, or the Jews, we did, our sin. It is a time to remember our place before the foot of the cross of Jesus.
IV. God wants us to be vigilent and pray – knowing the situation that we find ourselves in. God knows that you cannot let down your guard.

Exodus 12:42
42 It is a night to be observed for the LORD for having brought them out from the land of Egypt ; this night is for the LORD, to be observed by all the sons of Israel throughout their generations.

Passover is a night that no sleep – they are supposed to stay up all night and watch and pray for deliverance.

We see this happen in the life of Jesus – He tells His disciples to watch and pray- They fall asleep instead.

But this passover night the first born – the only born of God – will not be spared but will give His life.

Watch and pray – be vigilent – God knows how serious sin can be and what it can do. If we don't have the blood of Christ applied to us then we will surely die.
Matthew 26: 38-41
38 Then He said to them, "My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death ; remain here and keep watch with Me." 39 And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will." 40 And He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, "So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour ? 41 "Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation ; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."

In this passage we see Jesus telling His disciples to keep watch – this is the watch of the night of the Passover. The very night that the Jews were supposed to be praying for deliverance and now the true Lamb of God was about to not be passed over. Jesus would not be spared but would be given over for our sins.

I think what is important to note is the seriousness that Jesus gives this command.

Keep WATCH and PRAY – Temptation is serious business.

We must understand that sin is a serious thing and it is real. It is so powerful that many times Paul personifies it in Romans as a type of force to be reckoned with.

One serious problem in modern America is that sin is not taken serious anymore. We are like the frog in the pot that the heat is slowly being turned up on- before long the water will be boiling.
I believe Jesus would want us all to consider this verse – We should be on guard, on watch, for sin is real- temptation is real.

I believe that many churches have fallen asleep and in doing this have colluded with sin.

1 Peter 5:8
8 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

Satan would like nothing more than to get a foothold in our lives.

As we close I would like to issue a challenge to all of us:

In this next week let us take assessment of our own lives first of all
1)what is there in our lives that needs to go. What sin are you grappling with that is kicking you pretty good. With the help of the Lord lets get rid of it and consecrate our lives to the Lord.
2)Where has Satan found a portal to get to our families? Is is music that our kids are listening to, is it a show they dont need to watch. Shut the door on him today. Lets learn to tell our kids, grandkids NO! NO you cant have those friends, - that music- as a matter of fact get into their business because if you dont a prowling lion named Satan will fill that vacuum. Be alert and be on watch – we are in a battle- 911 mindset on Sept 12, 2001 – that is where the Church needs to be with Satan.

Examples from Exodus - the Plagues - God's Judgment

As I have told you before I played football at UAB and at the end of each summer our strength and conditioning coach has what he called judgment day. This would be either the last days of July or the first of August. This day was designed so the coaches could see if the players had followed the conditioning protocol for the summer.
I remember that when we would all get together as a team after the Summer there would be a lot of laughter and catching up but as the hour drew closer for that conditioning test called Judgment day the mood became more somber. When we would warmup right before the test you could hear a pin drop. Everyone knew that it would be rough and our coach made it almost impossible to pass and you had better be in good shape. If you failed the test you would have to get up each morning before practice and do it again until you passed it.

Whenever we think about a time of judgment it gives us a sense of foreboding and it is God’s judgment against Egypt that we are going to talk about this morning. Three weeks ago we started our series on Exodus and Examples that we can learn from the book of Exodus. This morning we get into a period of the Exodus story known as the 10 plagues.
This morning we will focus on just a few of those plagues against Egypt and their significance.

So far in our study we have witnessed Moses have to flee Egypt as a 40 year old because he killed an Egyptian taskmaster and go to the land of Midian. After working as a shepherd for his father in law Jethro for 40 years, God appears to him in a burning bush and commissions him to go back to Egypt to rescue God’s people. God had told Abraham years before that Abraham’s descendents would sojourn in a foreign land for 400 years and now that time period is over. It is time for God’s people to return home to Canaan.

One theme that we have noticed so far is that a Pharaoh rose up in Egypt that did not remember or Know Joseph and the pharaoh that we meet in the story that informs Moses that he does not KNOW the God of the Hebrews. After this story he will surely Know the God of the Hebrews because when God’s judgment comes on Egypt that country will never be the same again.

This morning we will turn to the second plague of the 10 plagues that God brings on Egypt. If you remember the backdrop of the plagues – God has asked Pharaoh just to release the people to go and serve him for three days in the wilderness to worship and sacrifice. Pharaoh refuses and increases the labor of the Israelites. God has to make promises the Israelites and has now upped the ante on Pharaoh because now He is promising to get Israel completely out of Egypt. The Plagues in this story is judgment against the Egyptians for their evil deeds but most of all for their paganism.

Exodus 8: 1-15
1 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh and say to him, 'Thus says the LORD, "Let My people go, that they may serve Me. 2 "But if you refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite your whole territory with frogs. 3 "The Nile will swarm with frogs, which will come up and go into your house and into your bedroom and on your bed, and into the houses of your servants and on your people, and into your ovens and into your kneading bowls. 4 "So the frogs will come up on you and your people and all your servants.""' 5 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Say to Aaron, 'Stretch out your hand with your staff over the rivers, over the streams and over the pools, and make frogs come up on the land of Egypt.' " 6 So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. 7 The magicians did the same with their secret arts, making frogs come up on the land of Egypt. 8 Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said, "Entreat the LORD that He remove the frogs from me and from my people ; and I will let the people go, that they may sacrifice to the LORD." 9 Moses said to Pharaoh, "The honor is yours to tell me: when shall I entreat for you and your servants and your people, that the frogs be destroyed from you and your houses, that they may be left only in the Nile ?" 10 Then he said, "Tomorrow." So he said, "May it be according to your word, that you may know that there is no one like the LORD our God. 11 "The frogs will depart from you and your houses and your servants and your people ; they will be left only in the Nile." 12 Then Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh, and Moses cried to the LORD concerning the frogs which He had inflicted upon Pharaoh. 13 The LORD did according to the word of Moses, and the frogs died out of the houses, the courts, and the fields. 14 So they piled them in heaps, and the land became foul. 15 But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and did not listen to them, as the LORD had said.
I. The first thing that I want to point out this morning about the judgment of God is that God’s Judgment PRESENTS the truth.

There are a few points that we need to know from this account. The first plague was the Nile turning to blood and that was significant because the Egyptians had deified the Nile River. They held the River to be sacred.

Next, we need to see that these two plagues fell on the Sabbath day and this is significant.
The Egyptians were not going to allow the Israelites to observe the Sabbath and Serve God (AVAD) – same word as work.

They were going to violate the Sabbath because of their economy and wealth without regard to God.

God would bring a crippling blow to their economy and way of life because they violated the Sabbath.

Heqet was the frog goddess of the Egyptians. In ancient Egypt Heqet was the goddess of fertility, life, and resurrection.

In ancient Egypt it was a capital offense to kill a frog. If you were riding in a chariot and you saw a frog in the road you would have to swerve to miss the frog. The only people in Egypt that could get away with killing a frog were the aristocracy. They had to pay heavy fines and produce multiple sacrifices for killing a frog.

Now imagine the irony of this story. The Egyptians worship the frog and God says well, If you want to worship this creature I will give you your belly-full of these creatures.

Imagine having frogs everywhere in your home, you cannot walk because frogs would be in your path.

Their very sin of worshipping frogs become the means by which God punished the Egyptians for their idolatry.

Verse 10 tells us the very reason that God sends this plague upon the land of Egypt.


that you may know that there is no one like the LORD our God.

Pharaoh had claimed that he did not KNOW the God of the Hebrews but now he is getting a crash course in WHO God is and what He can do.

God’s attack is against false religion and paganism. He is showing the Egyptians that these gods are false gods.

Imagine the very god of life and fertility is the frog but when Moses takes the plague away of the frogs, all the frogs die. They pile up the dead corpses of the frogs and they stink up the land.

Here for the Egyptians to see in vivid fashion that this so called god of life HEQET is nothing in the eyes of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The goddess Heqet is a fraud and is no god at all.







II. I would like to point out from this story of the Plagues is that God’s Judgment is Powerful


Exodus 8: 16-19
16 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Say to Aaron, 'Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth, that it may become gnats through all the land of Egypt.' " 17 They did so ; and Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff, and struck the dust of the earth, and there were gnats on man and beast. All the dust of the earth became gnats through all the land of Egypt. 18 The magicians tried with their secret arts to bring forth gnats, but they could not; so there were gnats on man and beast. 19 Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, "This is the finger of God." But Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he did not listen to them, as the LORD had said.

In the plague of the gnats we see something very important that is many times looked over. In this passage we see that the magicians of Egypt could not recreate this plague.

Much debate was made by the Rabbis of Israel about the power of the magicians and their ability to work miracles.

The consensus was that they used demonic black magic to accomplish some of these miracles to deceive the people.

An important distinction happens in this story with the magicians not being able to recreate this miracle.

In verse 19 the Egyptian magicians remark that this must be the finger of God.

This phrase ‘finger of God’ is something that comes form ancient Egypt and it was a very important phrase for us to pull out and discuss.

In Egyptian paganism the god HORUS was the protector of Egypt. There was a story told when another god by the name of SEP tried to poke out the eyes of HORUS.
In this story HORUS was made useless to protect Egypt because of what was called the ‘finger of God’

The Egyptian magicians are saying something very important in that they are powerless.

The God of the Hebrews is so great that even HORUS cannot protect us. We are powerless before this God of the Hebrew people
It illustrates that when God acts IT IS POWERFUL and there is nothing we can do about it.

God’s will, will be done whether Egypt and Pharaoh like it or not.

8th and 9th Plague also illustrate God’s powerful judgment.

PLAGUE OF THE GNATS
EXODUS CHP 10 VERSE 13 – east wind brings in the plague of locusts. Egypt has locust swarms before but they always came from the West and the South.
Never had a locust infestation come from the EAST. This is truly miraculous and shows God’s power over Egypt.
EAST
The swarm coming from the EAST is of huge significance.


The POWER OF GOD is further illustrated in the plague of the darkness which is the night plague.
EXODUS 10: 21-29- DARKNESS OVER THE LAND


THE 9TH PLAGUE BROUGHT AGAINST EGYPT WAS DARKNESS.

The Biblical record says that it was so dark that you could fell the darkness.
It was so dark that for 3 days the Egyptians could not even get up from the place where they were. You could not even see one another.
One of the most powerful gods of all of Egypt as the Sun god Re. Your Sun god will not be able to give you light. –

Moses tells Pharaoh that The God of Israel will blow the Sun out like a candle.

The 9th plague was to show that the ALL POWERFUL GOD OF ISRAEL will cripple the most powerful god of Egypt Re the Sun God.
Imagine the psychological effect on a nation that is used to a sun baked land. The Sun was a daily part of life and now for three days, a land that is usually radiant with light is now plunged into darkness and there is nothing your most powerful god can do to help you.

The point is clear – When the God of Israel comes in judgment on your nation there is nothing you can do. God’s purposes will be achieved and no one can stand in His way.
We know that eventually the 10th plague will bring about the death of the first born and Pharaoh will finally relent and release Israel.
III. PRACTICAL LESSONS FOR US TODAY AT MIMOSA
1) God’s judgment comes against false religion and wrong belief. What you belief is of great consequence.

We are living in what many people call a post modern world. We are living in a time when Christianity is being attacked on the inside. Many times we focus on pressures the come to bear from unbelievers but our greatest danger may come from the inside of Christianity and false teachers.


We are witnessing churches across the planet claim to be of Christ but they are asking questions like should women serve as ministers or pastors of a church. Is gay marriage acceptable in the church. Can a Christian minister marry a gay couple and call it a Christian wedding.
Why is this happening? We are in a time when truth is being attacked. We look back at Egypt and say how could you be so silly to worship a frog as a goddess?
But when you break the moorings of God’s revelation to us, and his Word any amount of crazy can occur.
This age says that Truth is not important. As a matter of fact some would claim that truth cannot be known.

What you believe in Christianity is not important but what is most important is that you live a good Christian life and love others.
I believe that living right is super important but it is just half of the equation.

What you believe is supremely important. Ideas have consequences. If you believe a certain thing it is going to lead to a certain type of behavior. In Nazi Germany the were influenced by Charles Darwin and Frederick Neitzhe. Both of those philosophies lead to a belief in Social Darwinism – the survival of the fittest race. If you were not part of that fit race – the Arian race then you should be exterminated. That lead the killing of Jews and many other groups of people.

Ideas have consequences and will lead you to bad living.

Believing correctly in God and knowing the God that is revealed in Scripture through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit is ultimately important.

God is going to come in judgment upon the entire Creation. It will not just be against Egypt but against the entire world. He will put this world to rights and all things will be made right in the eyes of God.

2 Thessalonians 7-10
when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, 8 dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, 10 when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed -for our testimony to you was believed.

In this passage we see a promise made by God that He will return and get his own. Those that are found to be in Christ will have a day of vindication and victory.

There will be a group that will come under judgment and condemnation. This group is said to be those that do not KNOW God and those who do not OBEY the gospel

In this passage Paul connects the two ideas of Doctrine – what you believe and Obedience – how you act.

In God’s eyes sound doctrine is just as important as to how you live your life. What you believe is important and how you behave is important.

Those people that live in false belief and false ways of living will be found in God’s judgment.

2) As we consider the Power of God’s judgment against Egypt we need to consider our role in the Church and as Christians that God that the all powerful God has charged us in this regard. He has given us a commandment to contend for the faith.
JUDE VERSE 3 – CONTEND EARNESTLY FOR THE FAITH THAT WAS ONCE AND FOR ALL HANDED DOWN TO THE SAINTS

Jude is addressing a condition in the Church where false teachers have crept in and were destroying the Church of his day. This verse tells us in the Greek that we must Fight for the faith. We must be vigilant that we keep our doctrine pure and remain connected to the life source of the Scripture.

When Paul is giving instruction to Timothy the young minister he informs Timothy that his doctrine is important and that sound doctrine will save both his soul and the soul of those that hear him preach.

As we take these lessons from Exodus we must remember that we have a task to be about.
We cannot go asleep at the wheel that what we pass onto our children and to those that are lost is Biblical Christianity that challenges all false teaching. Whether those false ideas are found inside our outside the Church.

As we close this morning we need to take account of our lives before God. We all have a day coming in which we will stand before God.
We are going to be found in two conditions: Either with the blood of Christ or without the blood of Christ.

Those found in Christ covered in his blood and gracious love will have a day of victory.

Those found without Jesus will be without hope.

We serve a perfect God- a holy God, one that we can never stand before and merit our salvation. Nothing we can do will make us good enough.
It is all through the grace of God in His Son Jesus that we have any hope.

This morning we want to offer the invitation, the Lord’s invitation to those that are need of His loving grace.

The Scripture tells us that the bedrock of this gift is to trust and put your faith in Jesus.

Believe and trust him so much that you are willing to turn and walk to Him – Repent and change

Put the old man to death – take on the new person that God wants you to be in Christ.

Bury that old man in water baptism and walk a new life as a new Creation in Christ.

Worship the Lord Your God Sermon AM 2/14/10

Chapter 5 of Exodus
Last week we saw that Moses had fled to the Land of Midian at 40 years old and was working for his father in law Jethro. At the age of 80 he had a strange experience in the Desert near Mount Horeb that is the same Mountain as Mt. Sinai. It is at this time that God reveals his name to Moses and gives Moses a mission to return to Egypt.

The time was right for Moses to return to Egypt.

Moses was wanted for capital murder in Egypt.
A new Pharaoh was in power and the old one that was in power when Moses left Egypt has died. All capital offenses were released with a new Pharaoh. His crime would have been forgotten by this new leader. This was a common practice of ancient Egypt to give amnesty to capital crimes when a new Pharaoh took power.

Moses has gone through a long dialogue with God in Ex 3 and 4 and basically given God every excuse under the Sun as to why he could not go back to Egypt. Moses made it clear to God that he did not want to go and was a reluctant servant at best.

God has also charged Moses brother Aaron to go with him to Egypt to act as Moses spokesman. Moses either had a speech impediment or was not a very confident public speaker.

God had also gave Moses three miracles that he would work among the people and Pharaoh. One would be a staff that would turn into a snake when thrown on the ground and would become a staff again when Moses picked it up by the tail. The second miracle that God gave Moses would be the ability to change his skin into leprosy and made well again and the third was the Nile turning to blood.

Exodus 5: 1-2
1 And afterward Moses and Aaron came and said to Pharaoh, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, 'Let My people go that they may celebrate a feast to Me in the wilderness.' " 2 But Pharaoh said, "Who is the LORD that I should obey His voice to let Israel go ? I do not know the LORD, and besides, I will not let Israel go." 3 Then they said, "The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please, let us go a three days' journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God, otherwise He will fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword." 4 But the king of Egypt said to them, "Moses and Aaron, why do you draw the people away from their work ? Get back to your labors !" 5 Again Pharaoh said, "Look, the people of the land are now many, and you would have them cease from their labors !" 6 So the same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters over the people and their foremen, saying, 7 "You are no longer to give the people straw to make brick as previously ; let them go and gather straw for themselves. 8 "But the quota of bricks which they were making previously, you shall impose on them; you are not to reduce any of it. Because they are lazy, therefore they cry out, 'Let us go and sacrifice to our God.' 9 "Let the labor be heavier on the men, and let them work at it so that they will pay no attention to false words."

I. God understands that the Key to restoring His people starts with Worship

Why this request?
The key to freedom is worship of the true God. Their real bondage is idolatry. God wants to call them to Himself.

One day the great Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo happened to overhear a group of people admiring his Pieta, a statue of Christ on His mother's knees after His death on the cross. One man attributed the work to another sculptor, much to the chagrin of Michelangelo, who took particular pride in the Pieta.
Returning to the sculpture after dark that evening, Michelangelo carved his name on it so that no similar mistake would occur in the future.
God put his signature on us by creating us in His image and likeness.

YOU BECOME LIKE WHAT YOU WORSHIP- THIS IS AN ANCIENT SAYING FROM THE EARLY CHURCH- AS THE CHURCH PRAYS IS AS THE CHURCH BELIEVES

The early church would rescue people out of the slavery of idolatry and they understood that worship was one key to reshaping the lost humanness or the mannishness of man.

God wanted his people to be allowed to go out and worship him and one of the main tasks of that worship would be to restore that image that was marred by sin and by the idolatry of Egypt. For 400 years Israel had been saturated with the polytheism of Egypt and God wanted to go about the task of restoring what had been lost. We will find in the coming weeks as Israel struggled in the wilderness that getting Israel out of Egypt would be something that would happen very easily but the Hard part would be:
GETTING EGYPT OUT OF ISRAEL- IDOLATRY WILL BE A HARD CANCER TO REMOVE

II. Work or Worship – Pharaoh uses Work to keep the people from worshipping God.

In this passage we read this morning we see a struggle. Pharaoh wants to Keep Israel so busy that they don’t have time to worship God. Pharaoh knows how dangerous it is for a group of people to know that there is a power greater than Pharaoh that even he has to answer to.

It is fascinating that the same word in the original language of this passage is the same for Work and the labor building bricks and the word for the worship that Yahweh wanted for Himself.

It is almost a play on words in which we see the contrast between meaningless slave labor and the true work that is pleasing to God.

Work is not an evil thing in and of itself. Once false teaching has been that labor or work was a part of the curse found in the Garden but that is not the case. Man was commanded to labor in the Garden before the Fall. It is fruitless labor that doesn’t bring about a reward that is part of the curse of the Garden and the Fall.

But in contrast to our modern fast paced world we see that God has always set aside time for worship for his people. Even though we are expected to labor and work we are also expected to stop and worship and remember who we really are.

God made every week to remind us of this in the beginning. When he created the world he set apart the Sabbath to make it holy to the Lord.
This would be a day for the Jews in which all work would cease and people would focus on their family and their Creator.

We know that God redeemed every aspect of the time in this world. Just like anything that has fallen and become sinful even the clock can become an instrument of Satan.

In the OT we see God working to reclaim time itself.
We see the weekly flow of time always focusing on the Sabbath.
We see the yearly cycle of the Feasts that focused on all the great events of Israel’s salvation history and times of harvest.

The Israelites were constantly reminded to stop work and focus on their Creator.

Even the most basic thing of harvesting of a field was dedicated to the poor. You could not go back into your field and get what you didn’t glean on your first pass. That was given to the poor.

Every aspect of a Jew’s time was somehow reminded of God and worship of Him

Even the day itself centered around set times of prayer when they would stop everything and pray to God.

We look at our own world and we see the trap of Pharaoh. People are so busy making bricks for a different taskmaster that they have forgotten about God.

As a coach I am seeing more and more things planned on Wednesday nights and now people are playing ball games on Sunday.

We may need to turn back the history book to a time when Sunday was a workday. Many early Christians would come to worship at dawn and work a full day after that. It wasn’t until the Empire was being thoroughly converted Sunday remained a workday.

There came a time in the Empire when they decided it would be prudent to take Sunday off because so many people went to Church services.
Later the leadership in the Empire made it a law that Sunday was a day of rest for worship.

This was a battle won by Christians by their very life’s blood.

Could you imagine bringing one of those early Christians to our time and letting them know that we have conceded Sunday again?

I know you may think that this is not a big deal but it is just symptoms of a bigger problem in our society. We are swiftly going to a time of a post-Christian society.

There is one remedy for this- Christians just say NO!
We will not play ball on Saturday, and if possible and we have the choice say, we will not work on Sunday and miss both worship services and miss taking the communion if we have the choice.



Let us work in our lives to Redeem the time. Lets give back the Clock to God and take it away from Satan and the pursuits of this life.

Practically –
Be at worship everytime you can- be at Communion on every Sunday at the Lord’s table
Pray with your family at least once a day
Read your Bible every day
Those simple practices will change our lives for the better.


III. WORSHIP IS SHAPED BY THOUGHTFUL REFLECTION
As we continue or focus on Worship I want to go to Exodus 6 and return to the Narrative:

Exodus 6: 1-6
1 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh ; for under compulsion he will let them go, and under compulsion he will drive them out of his land." 2 God spoke further to Moses and said to him, "I am the LORD ; 3 and I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name, LORD, I did not make Myself known to them. 4 "I also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they sojourned. 5 "Furthermore I have heard the groaning of the sons of Israel, because the Egyptians are holding them in bondage, and I have remembered My covenant. 6 "Say, therefore, to the sons of Israel, 'I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage. I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. 7 'Then I will take you for My people, and I will be your God ; and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.


In this passage the Israelites are about to jump ship, their labor has been increased by Pharaoh because of Moses’ request. They are being put to hard labor and wonder if God cares







God makes four Statements that are SUPER important to the book of Exodus:

I will bring you out
I will deliver you
I will redeem you
I will take you as my own people

The Israelites would commemorate these four promises made by God all through their history.

These promises made by God would become the four cups of thanksgiving at Passover.
When Jesus celebrated the Passover with His disciples they would have proclaimed these four promises made by God during the Passover.

One of the cups of the Lord Supper would have been one of these promises made by God.
My point is that Israel and God’s people had well thought out worship. It took preparation and it was not something that just happened.
Imagine today if we were to invite a dignitary to our city. What type of pomp and circumstance would take place if we did this. But we invite the Creator of the Universe, the all powerful God to our place of worship every Sunday and many times we have not prepared ourselves for that meeting. This visitation of God, are we ready. When we take of the cup and bread have we examined ourselves are we really ready for Communion with God when we come to His table.
Do we put much thought and time into our corporate time of worship. I would think this is something we really need to think about.

It all goes back to what we think is important: Our Mindset
Something took place in the fall of 1944 that can explain a major reason many children are facing a losing battle in today's families. It was late October when an officer commanding a platoon of American soldiers received a call from headquarters. Over the radio, this captain learned his unit was being ordered to recapture a small French city from the Nazis-and he learned something else from headquarters as well. For weeks, French resistance fighters had risked their lives to gather information about the German fortifications in that city, and they had smuggled this information out to the Allies.
The French Underground's efforts had provided the Americans with something worth its weight in gold: a detailed map of the city. It wasn't just a map with the names of major streets and landmarks; it showed specific details of the enemy's defensive positions. Indeed, the map even identified shops and buildings where German soldiers bunked or where a machine-gun nest or a sniper had been stationed. Block by block, the Frenchmen gave an accounting of the German units and the gun emplacements they manned. For a captain who was already concerned about mounting casualty lists, receiving such information was an answer to prayer. Although the outcome of the war wouldn't depend on this one skirmish, to him it meant that he wouldn't have to write as many letters to his men's parents or wives telling them their loved one had been cut down in battle.
Before the soldiers moved out to take their objective, the captain gave each man a chance to study the map. And wanting to make sure his men read it carefully, he hurriedly gave them a test covering the major landmarks and enemy strongholds. Just before his platoon moved out, the officer graded the test, and with minor exceptions every man earned a perfect score. As a direct result of having that map to follow, the men captured the city with little loss of American lives.
Nearly thirty years after this military operation took place, an army researcher heard the story and decided to base a study on it. The project began in France, where instead of a platoon of soldiers, he arranged for a group of American tourists to help him with his research. For several hours, the men and women were allowed to study the same map the soldiers had, and then they were given the same test. You can guess the results. Most of the tourists failed miserably. The reason for the difference between these two groups was obvious-motivation. Knowing their lives were on the line, the soldiers were highly motivated to learn every detail of the map. For the tourists, being in a research study provided some motivation. But most of them had nothing to lose but a little pride if they failed the test.
Today – do we see ourselves in a battle. Paul tells us in Ephesians 6 that our battle is not against flesh and blood. It is much more serious. A sinister plot is being carried out by Satan who is like a lion seeking out those that he would devour. Do we see sin and the fall of man that serious. Do we think that the most important work in our lives is the work of Christ on us as individuals and the work of this Church in the community.

As we prioritize – 1) Christ working in our lives
2) The work of Mimosa Church of Christ in this community