WEBVTT 00:00:01.624 --> 00:00:02.004 Hey, what up? 00:00:02.004 --> 00:00:03.869 It's Mark Carter on, the Pastor of Fierce Church. 00:00:03.869 --> 00:00:04.892 Welcome to our podcast. 00:00:04.892 --> 00:00:07.230 I'm so pumped that you're able to join us today. 00:00:07.230 --> 00:00:16.728 I hope this encourages you, inspires you, strengthens you, gives you hope to keep pressing on, and it's my prayer that this sermon gives you a more expansive view of God's love for you. 00:00:16.728 --> 00:00:17.870 Enjoy the message. 00:00:20.121 --> 00:00:23.428 Okay, so today I want to talk to you about the road out. 00:00:23.428 --> 00:00:25.713 We all know what it's like. 00:00:25.713 --> 00:00:33.390 Probably you've got circumstances, you've had situations in your life where you have felt trapped, you have felt forgotten. 00:00:33.390 --> 00:00:41.343 Maybe you or friends all got married and you were the last one or the one who never got married and they all do married things now And you kind of feel like you're. 00:00:41.343 --> 00:00:42.609 they never include me. 00:00:42.609 --> 00:00:46.304 Or your friends all have kids and you don't have kids and they all do. 00:00:46.304 --> 00:00:51.286 You know family kid events and you know you don't necessarily feel a part of that. 00:00:51.286 --> 00:00:58.328 Maybe at your work group it seems like you've been passed up again and again and again for promotion. 00:00:58.328 --> 00:00:59.832 It seems like other people move forward. 00:00:59.832 --> 00:01:01.405 You don't particularly move forward. 00:01:01.405 --> 00:01:05.971 Maybe you feel when you're at school you feel like I just don't know why I can't connect with people. 00:01:05.971 --> 00:01:10.085 Some people feel like it looks like they do, but I don't feel like I do. 00:01:10.085 --> 00:01:20.721 Maybe you're a little bit older and you're looking at the ones coming up after you and they're so tech savvy They always seem to know what to do with all the gadgets and you're looking at yourself and you're thinking about your career. 00:01:20.721 --> 00:01:23.771 You made decisions 20 years ago and you're like, am I trapped now? 00:01:23.771 --> 00:01:26.326 Like am I just going to put me out to pasture? 00:01:26.326 --> 00:01:32.290 Maybe you're a little bit older and you've got a lot of wisdom, but you're like it doesn't seem like people notice. 00:01:32.290 --> 00:01:35.504 It doesn't seem like people seek me out for my wisdom. 00:01:35.504 --> 00:01:37.227 I feel forgotten. 00:01:37.227 --> 00:01:41.545 If you've ever felt any of those ways or something similar, this is the series for you. 00:01:41.545 --> 00:01:48.915 The Road Out Exodus is the book that we're going to be studying for the next several months of the summer. 00:01:48.915 --> 00:01:55.602 We're going to take breaks here and there doing different stuff, but the word Exodus is a Greek word that means literally the road out. 00:01:55.602 --> 00:01:59.290 We're going to be coming out of some things together. 00:01:59.932 --> 00:02:07.974 This begins with a story of a family of people that likely felt very forgotten, likely felt very trapped. 00:02:07.974 --> 00:02:09.546 See, they were a family nation. 00:02:09.546 --> 00:02:10.510 They weren't just a nation. 00:02:10.510 --> 00:02:14.304 They were a nation that came from one set of parents. 00:02:14.304 --> 00:02:17.950 They're all related and they had a promise. 00:02:17.950 --> 00:02:21.746 This promise was about at this point in time, 320 years earlier. 00:02:21.746 --> 00:02:24.091 There was this promise made to Abraham. 00:02:24.091 --> 00:02:32.245 Abraham didn't have any kids, but God told Abraham hey, man, i'm going to give you lots of kids, and when I do, here's what he says Genesis 17, 6,. 00:02:32.245 --> 00:02:34.431 I will make you extremely fruitful. 00:02:34.431 --> 00:02:38.836 Your descendants will become many nations and kings will be among them. 00:02:38.836 --> 00:02:43.337 I'll confirm my covenant with you and your descendants after you, from generation to generation. 00:02:43.337 --> 00:02:44.923 This is an everlasting covenant. 00:02:44.923 --> 00:02:57.461 I will always be your God and the God of the descendants after you, and I will give the entire land of Canaan, where you now live as a foreigner, to you and your descendants. 00:02:57.461 --> 00:03:01.591 It will be their possession forever and I will be their God. 00:03:01.591 --> 00:03:03.782 Okay, that was a long time ago, though now. 00:03:03.782 --> 00:03:10.423 Now, 320 years has gone by and they're a much bigger family, but there's no land. 00:03:10.423 --> 00:03:16.424 And it's not only just that there's no land In the place that was once a source of deliverance for them. 00:03:16.424 --> 00:03:30.611 They have become captives, they've become slaves, they've become the unpaid workforce for the Egyptians, and they're being very, very mistreated, and so they're beginning to wonder was that promise anything? 00:03:30.611 --> 00:03:32.198 They got to forget. 00:03:32.198 --> 00:03:38.961 We feel so trapped now It seems like that was a big deal and the people came to pass, but not the land. 00:03:39.842 --> 00:03:44.665 As we talk about the road out, we're going to see some things in the book of Exodus, some larger level themes. 00:03:44.665 --> 00:03:51.788 First of all, just like the Israelites that's the name of the family just like they're in bondage, figuratively speaking. 00:03:51.788 --> 00:03:53.611 We're all in bondage. 00:03:53.611 --> 00:04:05.134 We're all in bondage to the taskmaster of sin, and we're going to see as God uses Moses to lead the people out of slavery and into a greater promised land. 00:04:05.134 --> 00:04:08.209 We're going to see a pattern of how God likes to lead his people. 00:04:08.209 --> 00:04:09.253 He likes to deliver them. 00:04:09.253 --> 00:04:13.955 He likes to say you need to face this moving, because we're not staying here, we're moving forward. 00:04:13.955 --> 00:04:16.865 God's always bringing us into greater and greater lands. 00:04:17.565 --> 00:04:26.264 But there's also a sense of sometimes we're just feeling like I got into an unfair situation that I didn't cause, but here I am And I feel like I can't get out of it. 00:04:26.264 --> 00:04:27.853 Have you ever had that feeling? 00:04:27.853 --> 00:04:29.744 We're going to see just the way. 00:04:29.744 --> 00:04:31.492 The Israelites were in an unfair situation. 00:04:31.492 --> 00:04:34.567 They didn't cause it, but they needed God to get them out. 00:04:34.567 --> 00:04:37.160 And then, maybe one of the greatest things we're going to see. 00:04:37.160 --> 00:04:45.004 We're going to see a picture of the gospel of Jesus Christ, a picture of the great announcement that God himself comes to save. 00:04:45.004 --> 00:04:48.182 Because that's what's happening with these, the slave family, the Israelites. 00:04:48.182 --> 00:04:50.091 There's absolutely nothing they can do. 00:04:50.091 --> 00:04:53.362 There's nothing they're going to do to get out of the situation. 00:04:53.362 --> 00:04:59.583 It must be God who reaches in and causes them to inherit all that he has for them. 00:04:59.882 --> 00:05:01.326 And as we look at this, we're going to see. 00:05:01.326 --> 00:05:03.459 Here's the way God rolls. 00:05:03.459 --> 00:05:08.901 He does things in his own time, he does things in his own way And he does things by his own power. 00:05:08.901 --> 00:05:12.028 See, god is the main character of this story. 00:05:12.028 --> 00:05:19.211 He is the one in charge And he's going to show us just what great lengths he will go to to deliver his people. 00:05:19.211 --> 00:05:21.245 Nothing can hold him back, nothing can stop him. 00:05:21.245 --> 00:05:31.151 We're going to see that, just as this family has a place in God's story, you and I have a place in God's story. 00:05:31.151 --> 00:05:39.547 In fact, if you've trusted Christ, it sounds weird, but in the Bible, in the New Testament, it teaches that you're actually the spiritual offspring of Abraham. 00:05:39.547 --> 00:05:44.305 We're going to pack that in another message, But Exodus is also an argument. 00:05:45.206 --> 00:05:46.069 It's making a case. 00:05:46.069 --> 00:05:51.944 It's saying here's why you should worship this all powerful God? 00:05:51.944 --> 00:05:55.791 because he is doggone, awesome and ain't nobody like him. 00:05:55.791 --> 00:05:57.762 That's going to be the argument to the whole book. 00:05:57.762 --> 00:05:59.444 Okay, that's what we're going to learn. 00:05:59.444 --> 00:06:08.502 I want you to remember as we go into this Is God is a God who remembers the covenants he makes, the deals he makes. 00:06:08.502 --> 00:06:10.172 He's a one. 00:06:10.172 --> 00:06:14.281 He's a God who remembers and he's a God who rewards. 00:06:14.281 --> 00:06:17.596 He's a God who remembers, no matter what's what's happened. 00:06:17.596 --> 00:06:18.798 He remembers and he's got. 00:06:18.798 --> 00:06:19.339 Who rewards. 00:06:19.339 --> 00:06:22.492 So let's start Exodus 1, verse one. 00:06:22.512 --> 00:06:23.898 Let's let's talk about the family real quick. 00:06:23.898 --> 00:06:31.394 These are the names of the sons of Israel, that is, jacob, the Israelites, the family we've been talking about, who moved Egypt with their father, each With his family. 00:06:31.394 --> 00:06:35.334 Okay, so one day they moved with Almost youngest brother, joseph. 00:06:35.334 --> 00:06:37.620 Joseph was betrayed by his brothers. 00:06:37.620 --> 00:06:40.334 He was sold into slavery, all but just stuff happened. 00:06:40.334 --> 00:06:44.009 God raises up this slave guy who's been recused of rape, all he goes. 00:06:44.009 --> 00:06:46.677 They're all kinds of hell, but he raises up as the prime minister of Egypt. 00:06:46.677 --> 00:06:48.622 He rescues his family from famine. 00:06:48.622 --> 00:06:50.415 He brings them in, he forgives them. 00:06:50.415 --> 00:06:56.343 They all get in this great space where there's lots of room and you know They're not persecuted in any way. 00:06:56.343 --> 00:06:57.250 That's what happens. 00:06:57.250 --> 00:07:05.694 They moved to Egypt with their father, each with his family Ruben, simeon, levi, judah, isacar, zebulin, benjamin, dan, naftali, gad and Asher. 00:07:05.694 --> 00:07:12.694 In all, jacob had 70 descendants in Egypt, including Joseph, who was already there In time. 00:07:12.694 --> 00:07:20.829 Joseph and all of his brothers died, ending that entire generation, but their descendants, the Israelites, had many children and grandchildren. 00:07:20.829 --> 00:07:25.470 In fact, they multiplied so greatly that they became extremely powerful and filled the land. 00:07:25.470 --> 00:07:33.161 Here's something you can't see in the English version of this When it talks about they multiplied and and they were increasing and becoming extremely powerful. 00:07:33.490 --> 00:07:37.199 This is actually referencing back to the book of Genesis, at the very beginning. 00:07:37.199 --> 00:07:39.122 There's there's a lot of beginnings, just like in Genesis. 00:07:39.122 --> 00:07:40.334 It's patterned after Genesis. 00:07:40.334 --> 00:07:51.389 There's beginnings happening here in Exodus And he's saying remember when God told our first parents I want you to be fruitful and multiply and subdue the earth. 00:07:52.071 --> 00:07:55.197 What Moses is telling us in this passage is that's what was happening. 00:07:55.197 --> 00:07:56.701 These Israelites. 00:07:56.701 --> 00:08:03.214 They were being fruitful, they were Swarming, they were overtaking, They were doing it right. 00:08:03.214 --> 00:08:03.536 They were. 00:08:03.536 --> 00:08:04.980 They were doing what God wanted them to do. 00:08:04.980 --> 00:08:06.213 They were fulfilling God's will. 00:08:06.213 --> 00:08:09.060 This is a chosen family that is doing what God wants. 00:08:09.060 --> 00:08:09.682 But why? 00:08:09.682 --> 00:08:15.021 Why does God include all these names, like why we've taken our time talking about these people. 00:08:15.021 --> 00:08:17.920 Well, it's because let's think about when people are reading this. 00:08:17.920 --> 00:08:19.406 Okay, this isn't being written. 00:08:19.406 --> 00:08:26.110 As it happens, this is being written by Moses on his way with the Israelites to the promise land. 00:08:26.110 --> 00:08:27.153 He's writing stuff down. 00:08:27.153 --> 00:08:28.478 It's like, okay, they're gonna have to remember this. 00:08:28.478 --> 00:08:34.143 There's really important things I want them to remember and I need them to remember who they came from. 00:08:34.143 --> 00:08:40.913 Not just that God made them, but they came from this family of people that believed God Against all odds. 00:08:40.913 --> 00:08:42.979 They came from this family. 00:08:42.979 --> 00:08:50.400 See, when we recognize where we came from, sometimes that Tremendously strengthens us when we think about who came before us. 00:08:50.400 --> 00:08:51.692 So let me just think about this for a minute. 00:08:52.293 --> 00:09:00.635 If you find out that you were related like a direct descendant to George Washington, probably there'd be something in your mind that would just start to identify yourself as well. 00:09:00.635 --> 00:09:01.136 You know, i'm a. 00:09:01.136 --> 00:09:02.979 It's in my blood to be a person of courage. 00:09:02.979 --> 00:09:05.202 I It's in my blood, you know. 00:09:05.202 --> 00:09:09.572 It's like, hey, man, we're gonna stick it to the man and we're gonna overcome and we're gonna do this. 00:09:09.572 --> 00:09:11.687 There's nothing impossible for my family line. 00:09:11.687 --> 00:09:20.328 Or if you're a direct descendant of someone like Frederick Douglass, who was a slave, former slave that became an abolitionist. 00:09:20.328 --> 00:09:21.461 He's really dope. 00:09:21.461 --> 00:09:24.230 If you haven't read a biography about him, i'd encourage you to do so. 00:09:24.230 --> 00:09:30.211 But there's probably something to you that is that's not gonna stand for injustice when other people are looking the other way. 00:09:30.211 --> 00:09:34.524 You're gonna be someone who's like, hey man, i don't care who's against me, we're going forward. 00:09:34.524 --> 00:09:38.708 That's gonna be in your blood And that's what Moses is trying to convince these people. 00:09:38.708 --> 00:09:39.871 Hey man, this should be in your blood. 00:09:39.871 --> 00:09:41.888 This is who you come from, so don't forget it. 00:09:41.888 --> 00:09:47.102 He said let this inform what you do. 00:09:47.102 --> 00:09:48.988 Understanding who you are Now something we're gonna see. 00:09:48.988 --> 00:09:51.683 It's a little sidelight, something we're gonna see as we go through this book. 00:09:51.683 --> 00:09:54.972 In particular, we're gonna see something called progressive revelation. 00:09:56.379 --> 00:10:07.799 Progressive revelation That means in the story of the Bible, god is gradually revealing stuff about his nature and his purpose and his heart and his desires. 00:10:07.799 --> 00:10:13.312 It doesn't happen all at once, so, in other words, the characters in this story know less about God than you and I do. 00:10:13.312 --> 00:10:15.124 It just wasn't revealed yet. 00:10:15.124 --> 00:10:18.554 God is slowly unraveling, he's revealing who he is. 00:10:18.554 --> 00:10:20.200 All they know so far they don't know much. 00:10:20.200 --> 00:10:21.543 They know he's God Almighty. 00:10:21.543 --> 00:10:26.991 He's the one that Abraham God was intentional with him and he's the one who made a covenant with Abraham. 00:10:26.991 --> 00:10:29.279 They don't know a ton more than that. 00:10:29.279 --> 00:10:32.831 Here's what happens with progressive revelation. 00:10:32.831 --> 00:10:38.952 It eventually leads down as we find more and more out about God and his character and his desires and his purposes Down through the centuries. 00:10:39.159 --> 00:10:44.232 We finally get to Jesus, and Jesus is the climax of progressive revelation. 00:10:44.232 --> 00:10:46.264 He's the final one. 00:10:46.264 --> 00:10:54.269 He's the one that says hey, i am the living image of the invisible God, but I make it all visible. 00:10:54.269 --> 00:10:57.147 That's who Jesus is, and we understand. 00:10:57.147 --> 00:10:59.779 at the end of revelation, progressive revelation stops. 00:10:59.779 --> 00:11:05.312 Okay, like we now know everything God wants us to know for the rest of the age that we're in. 00:11:05.312 --> 00:11:06.783 Jesus Christ was the last one. 00:11:06.803 --> 00:11:07.748 We don't add to scripture. 00:11:07.748 --> 00:11:08.549 Now we can. 00:11:08.549 --> 00:11:13.284 We believe as a church that there's still ways God communicates to us and we can discern some of that, but it's always imperfect. 00:11:13.284 --> 00:11:14.106 It's not like scripture. 00:11:14.106 --> 00:11:16.312 It's not we're learning new stuff about God. 00:11:16.312 --> 00:11:20.630 We're just trying our best to fall in line with the Holy Scriptures. 00:11:20.630 --> 00:11:22.864 That's what progressive revelation means. 00:11:22.864 --> 00:11:27.994 But what we need to understand, what the lesson is for us, is just like they didn't know everything about God. 00:11:29.201 --> 00:11:33.004 In the places where you and I are stuck, we feel forgotten. 00:11:33.004 --> 00:11:37.345 There's gonna be a ton of stuff we just don't know. 00:11:37.345 --> 00:11:40.971 You don't really know how God wants to get you out of this. 00:11:40.971 --> 00:11:42.860 You don't really know what it's gonna take. 00:11:42.860 --> 00:11:45.206 You don't really know where this thing is gonna lead. 00:11:45.206 --> 00:11:47.993 We don't know, because that's how God likes to operate. 00:11:47.993 --> 00:11:50.668 He likes us to operate by faith. 00:11:50.668 --> 00:11:54.711 He likes us to trust Him ahead of time, when we don't know what's going on. 00:11:54.711 --> 00:12:01.692 In this way, our life is kind of like a jigsaw puzzle, but we don't have the box top. 00:12:01.692 --> 00:12:05.365 Okay, progressive revelation was like that jigsaw puzzle. 00:12:05.365 --> 00:12:07.772 Slowly, god's putting in all the pieces and then finally we see Jesus. 00:12:07.772 --> 00:12:09.585 Our lives are like that too. 00:12:09.585 --> 00:12:11.431 God is putting in pieces and we're like what was that? 00:12:11.431 --> 00:12:13.787 I don't like this picture so far. 00:12:13.787 --> 00:12:25.687 But as time goes by, god is putting all the pieces together and one day we're gonna stand next to Jesus in heaven and we're like, oh my gosh, that was awesome. 00:12:25.687 --> 00:12:27.292 I didn't even know that was coming. 00:12:27.292 --> 00:12:29.464 What a beautiful picture. 00:12:29.464 --> 00:12:35.183 It was scary sometimes when I was there It was hard, but now I see what God was doing. 00:12:35.684 --> 00:12:37.471 We appreciate this because we like authors who do this. 00:12:37.471 --> 00:12:39.508 I mean, this is the kind of story you probably like. 00:12:39.508 --> 00:12:54.967 You know, when you see in a movie, and slowly they reveal something about the main characters or something about their past or something about their father, and then they finally get to like the last part and like, oh my gosh, now I understand the whole story, now you can go back and watch it again, you understand it even differently. 00:12:54.967 --> 00:12:55.951 That's what great authors do. 00:12:55.951 --> 00:12:57.303 That's what God does. 00:12:57.303 --> 00:13:02.730 He already understands the whole story, but he's revealing bit by bit, piece by piece to us. 00:13:02.730 --> 00:13:04.354 What's the application there for us? 00:13:05.380 --> 00:13:15.448 Just remember, when the world seems chaotic, when it seems disordered, there is an author who has a perfect order, things are not in chaos, and he's redonkulously in charge. 00:13:15.448 --> 00:13:17.113 Somebody say he's redonkulously in charge. 00:13:17.113 --> 00:13:20.269 He is redonkulously in charge. 00:13:20.269 --> 00:13:24.748 Well, just like in the book of Genesis, everything was great, everything was fine. 00:13:24.748 --> 00:13:26.793 There was this command to be fruitful and multiply. 00:13:26.793 --> 00:13:30.990 And then something happened A snake came in. 00:13:30.990 --> 00:13:35.840 In the same way, we see this happen again in Exodus, verse 8. 00:13:35.919 --> 00:13:41.312 Eventually, a new king came to power in Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph or what he had done. 00:13:41.312 --> 00:13:45.951 He said to his people look, the people of Israel now outnumber us and are stronger than we are. 00:13:45.951 --> 00:13:53.566 We must make a plan to keep them from growing even more If we don't and if war breaks out, they'll join our enemies and fight against us. 00:13:53.566 --> 00:13:55.932 Then they'll escape from the country. 00:13:55.932 --> 00:13:59.725 One of the things that's really cool. 00:13:59.745 --> 00:14:09.605 If you pay attention to it in the book of Exodus, you're going to be tempted to think that really, the battles between Moses and Pharaoh, that's the king, the bad king, moses and Pharaoh. 00:14:09.605 --> 00:14:10.307 But it's really not. 00:14:10.307 --> 00:14:12.913 It's really between God and Pharaoh. 00:14:12.913 --> 00:14:19.273 See, god is showing Pharaoh that he's everything Pharaoh wishes he was, but actually isn't. 00:14:19.273 --> 00:14:22.779 And you know, that's what God shows our spiritual foe, satan, as well. 00:14:22.779 --> 00:14:26.543 God's like hey, man, i'm everything you wish you were, but you're not. 00:14:28.206 --> 00:14:38.676 And now Pharaoh has this wicked plan to do the wrong thing to people that weren't doing anything wrong, people who are doing right, people who are doing exactly what they last understood they were supposed to do. 00:14:38.676 --> 00:14:41.404 But Pharaoh is going to try to bring them down. 00:14:41.404 --> 00:14:45.410 He's going to be cruel, he's going to try to destroy them, and there's a message for us in that too. 00:14:45.410 --> 00:14:49.775 And the message is sometimes the wrong thing happens to people that are doing right. 00:14:49.775 --> 00:14:52.191 We see this again and again in the Bible. 00:14:52.191 --> 00:14:56.794 We see this excuse me, job, he's just. 00:14:56.794 --> 00:15:01.735 It's like Job isn't doing anything wrong And he goes through this really difficult divine test. 00:15:01.735 --> 00:15:02.828 We saw this with Joseph. 00:15:02.828 --> 00:15:05.572 Joseph is just minding his own business. 00:15:05.572 --> 00:15:10.196 There's no evidence that he was really anything other than just a little brother that was interested in what his older brothers were doing. 00:15:10.196 --> 00:15:13.928 And yet he's sold And he gets accused of rape. 00:15:13.928 --> 00:15:14.770 Then he's in the dungeon. 00:15:16.365 --> 00:15:28.058 Often, when God is preparing us, wrong things happen to people that are trying to do right, and that is how God raises people up, and that's how he's raising up this special family. 00:15:28.058 --> 00:15:35.804 Pharaoh plans to be cruel and wear down and destroy. 00:15:35.804 --> 00:15:38.712 Now let me just jump to the sea. 00:15:38.712 --> 00:15:49.519 In the text, god told our first parents and these folks be fruitful and multiply and keep building up and keep going out and keep bringing life to new stages. 00:15:49.519 --> 00:15:52.941 And now Pharaoh says we're undoing that. 00:15:52.941 --> 00:15:53.784 This is the anti command of that. 00:15:53.784 --> 00:15:58.784 We're going to kill, we're going to shut down, we're going to stop them from progressing. 00:15:58.804 --> 00:16:00.683 So the Egyptians made these lights their slaves. 00:16:00.683 --> 00:16:09.804 They appointed brutal slave drivers over them, hoping to wear them down, and with crushing labor they forced them to build the cities of Python or Ramesses as supply centers for the king. 00:16:09.804 --> 00:16:17.899 But the more the Egyptians oppressed them, the more the Israelites multiplied and spread And the more alarmed the Egyptians became. 00:16:17.899 --> 00:16:18.804 How many of you can't stop the plan of God? 00:16:18.804 --> 00:16:22.071 Somebody write you can't stop the plan of God in the chat. 00:16:22.071 --> 00:16:27.390 Wherever you go are, whatever camera you're on, right in the chat, you can't stop the plan of God. 00:16:27.390 --> 00:16:31.804 So the Egyptians worked the people of Israel without mercy. 00:16:31.804 --> 00:16:36.777 They made their lives better, forcing them to make mortar and make bricks and do all the work in the fields. 00:16:36.777 --> 00:16:38.804 They were ruthless in all their demands. 00:16:39.166 --> 00:16:51.735 Then Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, gave this order to the Hebrew midwives Shif, shifah, shifrah and Pua When you help the Hebrew women as they give birth, watch as they deliver If the boy, if it's a boy, kill him. 00:16:51.735 --> 00:16:53.753 If it's a girl, let her live. 00:16:53.753 --> 00:16:56.230 He's like hey, man, no soldiers are going to rise up against us. 00:16:56.230 --> 00:17:02.596 If we just kill all the boys for a while, that'll really help thin the flock, thin the herd. 00:17:02.596 --> 00:17:06.556 But because the midwives feared God, they refused to obey the king's orders. 00:17:06.556 --> 00:17:08.471 They allowed the boys to live too. 00:17:08.471 --> 00:17:10.329 So the king of Egypt called for the midwives. 00:17:10.329 --> 00:17:11.775 Why have you done this, he demanded. 00:17:11.775 --> 00:17:13.592 Why have you allowed the boys to live? 00:17:13.592 --> 00:17:16.554 I mean, i like they're just like, i don't know what to say here, here they go. 00:17:16.554 --> 00:17:18.951 Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women. 00:17:18.951 --> 00:17:21.057 The midwives replied. 00:17:21.057 --> 00:17:21.805 They're more vigorous. 00:17:21.805 --> 00:17:23.348 They have babies so quickly. 00:17:23.348 --> 00:17:26.909 They're just like they just come right out, can't get there in time. 00:17:26.909 --> 00:17:29.431 I don't know what to tell you, king. 00:17:29.431 --> 00:17:37.657 Now they're taking their lives into their own hands, a little bit Like they're prioritizing God's family over their own safety. 00:17:37.657 --> 00:17:41.074 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own. 00:17:41.074 --> 00:17:46.374 Then Pharaoh gave this order to all the people throw every newborn Hebrew boy into the Nile River. 00:17:46.374 --> 00:17:47.989 But you may let the girls live. 00:17:49.845 --> 00:17:51.152 Two truths when you feel forgotten. 00:17:51.152 --> 00:17:56.112 Two truths when you feel forgotten, maybe like this Israelite family did. 00:17:56.112 --> 00:18:02.134 Number one God remembers you even if no one else does. 00:18:02.134 --> 00:18:13.009 God remembers you even if no one else does, even if everybody's abandoned you, even if everybody's taken off, even if nobody even remembers your name. 00:18:13.009 --> 00:18:16.749 God remembers everything And he remembers it about you. 00:18:16.749 --> 00:18:22.446 We're going to see in chapter two God makes a point of this, verse 24,. 00:18:22.507 --> 00:18:26.155 God heard their groaning and remembered his covenant promise to Abraham, isaac and Jacob. 00:18:26.155 --> 00:18:30.594 He looked down on the people of Israel and knew it was time to act. 00:18:30.594 --> 00:18:32.508 God knows when it's time. 00:18:32.508 --> 00:18:36.634 He knows when it's time to act, but don't you be fooled into thinking he doesn't remember. 00:18:36.634 --> 00:18:42.765 God remembers his promises, he remembers his covenant, he remembers everything to do with you. 00:18:42.765 --> 00:18:44.852 He remembers what's supposed to happen. 00:18:44.852 --> 00:19:01.805 Even if you feel lost, even if you feel confused about what's going on in life right now, even if you feel like I'm even kind of mad at God, i'm kind of like ignoring him or I'm shaking my fist at him, he still remembers all the ways he promised to be good to you. 00:19:01.805 --> 00:19:05.214 Even if you're hiding from him, he knows where you are. 00:19:05.214 --> 00:19:08.212 He remembers all of it. 00:19:08.212 --> 00:19:19.160 He remembers his covenant, his plan to bless you if you are in Christ, to rescue you, to save you, to lead you back to himself. 00:19:19.160 --> 00:19:22.785 He remembers, god remembers and he sees you and he's going to keep his commitments. 00:19:23.526 --> 00:19:30.699 I read a story this week of a man in 1997 who parked his car in a parking garage. 00:19:30.699 --> 00:19:33.765 Then he left and came back later that day and he couldn't find the car. 00:19:33.765 --> 00:19:36.805 They kept looking, kept looking, filled out a police report. 00:19:36.805 --> 00:19:39.113 The police started looking and they couldn't find it. 00:19:39.113 --> 00:19:46.679 Twenty years later, in 2017, a demolition crew is coming to tear down this parking garage and they find a car. 00:19:46.679 --> 00:19:48.732 I don't know what this is. 00:19:48.732 --> 00:19:49.431 They go to the police. 00:19:49.431 --> 00:19:50.785 Hey, there's this car. 00:19:50.785 --> 00:19:52.594 They find the police report. 00:19:52.594 --> 00:19:53.839 They phone the guy. 00:19:53.839 --> 00:19:54.805 The guy is now in his 70s. 00:19:54.805 --> 00:19:57.953 He comes down and of course it doesn't start. 00:19:57.953 --> 00:20:01.574 But he found it. 00:20:01.865 --> 00:20:03.009 Well, god knew where it was the whole time. 00:20:03.009 --> 00:20:05.805 There's things that you and I have forgotten even exist. 00:20:05.805 --> 00:20:07.551 We forgot that happened. 00:20:07.551 --> 00:20:09.752 We forgot that interaction even took place. 00:20:09.752 --> 00:20:10.929 But God remembers. 00:20:10.929 --> 00:20:12.556 God remembers all of it. 00:20:12.556 --> 00:20:14.001 He never forgets. 00:20:14.001 --> 00:20:14.805 He knows what to do. 00:20:15.205 --> 00:20:17.252 Listen to Psalm 56-8. 00:20:17.252 --> 00:20:19.652 You keep track of all my sorrows. 00:20:19.652 --> 00:20:21.772 You've collected all my tears in your bottle. 00:20:21.772 --> 00:20:24.458 You've recorded each one in your book. 00:20:24.458 --> 00:20:25.785 God is paying attention. 00:20:25.785 --> 00:20:27.898 Don't you believe for one second that God doesn't care. 00:20:27.898 --> 00:20:28.805 Don't believe it. 00:20:28.805 --> 00:20:30.009 It's just a lie from hell. 00:20:30.009 --> 00:20:39.919 God knows and God cares, and God has a timing and God has a method and God is all powerful and God will get you where you're supposed to be at the right time. 00:20:39.919 --> 00:20:49.097 What we need to do is keep remembering to believe that and say that and confess that God sees me, god knows me, god knows the right time. 00:20:49.097 --> 00:20:50.400 God remembers all the things. 00:20:50.400 --> 00:20:54.669 I don't even have to really remind him because he already knows Now, when you're in. 00:20:54.669 --> 00:20:57.160 That, though, here's a little bit of a profitable exercise. 00:20:57.160 --> 00:21:05.959 You only really get to know God, really to a certain degree, when you're alone. 00:21:07.931 --> 00:21:12.530 Okay, so, when I was in my early 20s, many of you know, i was sick for four and a half years and it was bad. 00:21:12.530 --> 00:21:14.982 It was to the point where everything had to shut down. 00:21:14.982 --> 00:21:21.404 I had to decide hey, man, make sure you don't eat anything but rice or apples today, or you're going to the hospital again tonight. 00:21:21.404 --> 00:21:23.873 That was my life, that was my everyday. 00:21:23.873 --> 00:21:25.429 I was sick. 00:21:25.429 --> 00:21:30.015 Well, during that time, you know what I learned to do. 00:21:30.015 --> 00:21:31.009 I mean, i got lonely. 00:21:31.009 --> 00:21:33.404 There wasn't a lot of company, just me in the apartment. 00:21:33.404 --> 00:21:36.251 My little girl, my wife, had to go to work, which was humbling for me. 00:21:36.251 --> 00:21:38.396 But you know what I got to do. 00:21:38.396 --> 00:21:45.239 I got to spend a lot of time with this God I claimed to know, this God I claimed to follow, and I got to pass off some of my dreams and be like. 00:21:45.259 --> 00:21:50.115 You know, maybe this isn't so important, maybe I'm not the man, maybe this isn't all that I thought it was. 00:21:50.115 --> 00:21:57.275 Maybe I can just trust you to remember the right things and do them in the right season, and you know, you only get that when you're alone. 00:21:57.275 --> 00:22:00.693 So if you're maybe in a season where you're alone or you feel trapped, you feel forgotten. 00:22:00.693 --> 00:22:02.950 It might be so. 00:22:02.950 --> 00:22:04.275 You definitely need people, man. 00:22:04.275 --> 00:22:08.075 You need accountability, you need people to speak into you, to speak, live, to encourage you. 00:22:08.075 --> 00:22:19.096 But sometimes, occasionally, it doesn't matter what you do, you can't seem to get around people, and it might be like God wants to use that season to train your heart to need Him more. 00:22:20.705 --> 00:22:21.849 We need regular time with God. 00:22:21.849 --> 00:22:25.820 One of the things we talk about is hey, man, you need time with God every day, even if it's only five minutes. 00:22:25.820 --> 00:22:30.814 Going into the New Testament that's the latter fourth of the Bible and just meditating on stuff, jesus, we need that every day. 00:22:30.814 --> 00:22:40.712 But sometimes we need an extended season, and the smartest thing we can do when we're in that and there's nothing we can do to get out of it, is to say God, i know you see me, i know that you remember and I know that you'll get me out of this when it's the right time. 00:22:40.712 --> 00:22:45.348 But until then, let's grow our friendship, let's be closer. 00:22:45.348 --> 00:22:54.071 Let me not waste this season, let me not see it end and then realize, oh, i could have gotten so much closer to God during that very difficult time. 00:22:54.071 --> 00:22:56.109 So two truths when you feel forgotten. 00:22:56.109 --> 00:22:58.195 Number one God remembers even if no one else does. 00:22:58.195 --> 00:23:01.413 Number two God rewards even simple obedience. 00:23:01.413 --> 00:23:03.630 Isn't that cool. 00:23:03.630 --> 00:23:08.955 God rewards even simple obedience. 00:23:08.955 --> 00:23:11.404 Sometimes we're like, oh, i got to do everything right. 00:23:11.404 --> 00:23:17.077 Listen, baby, god sees you, he knows you and He's going to reward, even if it's all you know. 00:23:17.077 --> 00:23:18.970 You're like, hey man, i don't know what to do. 00:23:18.970 --> 00:23:19.893 I don't know what to do next. 00:23:19.893 --> 00:23:25.336 Just do what you know to do and God will reward and bless that and it'll lead you to the next thing. 00:23:25.866 --> 00:23:29.691 These midwives they didn't know much, as we said at the beginning. 00:23:29.691 --> 00:23:30.856 They didn't have the law. 00:23:30.856 --> 00:23:32.404 Moses writes that later. 00:23:32.404 --> 00:23:33.587 These are just people. 00:23:33.587 --> 00:23:37.317 All they know is protect and preserve the spiritual family, and so that's what they do. 00:23:37.317 --> 00:23:39.351 They have varied little light. 00:23:39.351 --> 00:23:49.511 But even in the face of danger, even in the face of like I don't know what's going to happen if I do this, they decide to obey and God blesses them, he rewards them. 00:23:49.511 --> 00:23:51.404 And it wasn't immediate, it didn't happen just like that. 00:23:51.404 --> 00:23:57.342 I mean they had, they had families, but I mean I think that takes at least nine months to start that. 00:23:57.342 --> 00:23:58.183 You know, that's my theory anyway. 00:23:58.183 --> 00:24:03.384 I think that's how we got these five kids, but it takes a while. 00:24:03.384 --> 00:24:06.375 It's not always like the reward is just like that. 00:24:06.375 --> 00:24:08.365 Sometimes it takes nine months. 00:24:08.365 --> 00:24:13.896 Sometimes it takes another 80 years, which is when Moses is finally going to be sent back to Egypt. 00:24:13.896 --> 00:24:17.821 Sometimes it takes a long time, but God is going to find a way. 00:24:17.821 --> 00:24:18.404 God is not going to forget. 00:24:18.404 --> 00:24:21.400 God is going to remember to reward. 00:24:21.400 --> 00:24:22.365 That's how he does it. 00:24:22.365 --> 00:24:24.365 That's how he rolls. 00:24:25.249 --> 00:24:26.655 Now, one of the things we see with these two. 00:24:26.655 --> 00:24:28.404 Of course, there are other midwives in the land. 00:24:28.404 --> 00:24:31.653 These are just the two that we know who decided to obey. 00:24:31.653 --> 00:24:36.701 They decided to take their own life in their hands and say we want to honor God. 00:24:36.701 --> 00:24:37.404 Let's not just kill these boys. 00:24:37.404 --> 00:24:42.404 God wants us to grow and increase and multiply, and this seems like we're shutting down the promise if we just start killing these guys. 00:24:42.404 --> 00:24:44.310 So they didn't do it. 00:24:45.008 --> 00:24:49.186 But there's an irony that you're going to see in the book of Exodus, in the road out. 00:24:49.186 --> 00:24:53.104 You're gonna see a lot of ironies, and the reason you're gonna see them is because, believe it or not, god loves. 00:24:53.104 --> 00:24:55.023 Irony is all over the Bible. 00:24:55.023 --> 00:25:00.670 So here's the irony These two are named like these two midwives. 00:25:00.670 --> 00:25:01.402 They're so important. 00:25:01.402 --> 00:25:03.544 They're named in the Bible, forever recorded. 00:25:03.544 --> 00:25:04.824 The Pharaoh isn't even. 00:25:04.824 --> 00:25:05.767 We don't even know his name. 00:25:05.767 --> 00:25:06.762 That wasn't even written down. 00:25:06.762 --> 00:25:11.666 These people who are the least important, these are slave midwives. 00:25:11.666 --> 00:25:13.422 They're exalted. 00:25:13.422 --> 00:25:19.606 And the person who is the king, nobody remembers his name, nobody cares, because God's into irony. 00:25:19.606 --> 00:25:22.509 God is always exalting that which was down. 00:25:22.509 --> 00:25:25.404 I'm gonna give some other examples, though, because it happens all the time. 00:25:25.464 --> 00:25:29.770 Okay, so the Pharaoh commands okay, i want you to. 00:25:29.770 --> 00:25:33.765 If we can't kill him right out of the womb, hey, man, just go throw him in the river. 00:25:33.765 --> 00:25:37.088 So here's this command go kill the people by the river. 00:25:37.088 --> 00:25:39.944 And yet what does God do? 00:25:39.944 --> 00:25:42.506 He's like okay, can you imagine? 00:25:42.506 --> 00:25:43.067 he's up in heaven. 00:25:43.067 --> 00:25:47.284 He's like Charlie, come here, come here, look at this, look at this. 00:25:47.284 --> 00:25:51.830 This moron thinks that he can outsmart God. 00:25:51.830 --> 00:25:54.186 Watch this, i'm gonna send a baby down the river. 00:25:54.186 --> 00:25:55.009 He just talked about the river. 00:25:55.009 --> 00:25:57.804 I'm gonna send a baby down the river and it's gonna go to his house. 00:25:57.804 --> 00:25:59.545 So in Pharaoh's house, he's the one. 00:25:59.545 --> 00:26:00.788 Yeah, you can clap for that. 00:26:00.788 --> 00:26:01.784