FBT Daily Devotional: Exodus 5

FBT Daily Devotional

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Excellent. So this morning we are going into Exodus 5. Exodus 5. The title is The Cost of Obedience and the Process of Deliverance. The cost of obedience and the process of obedience. So to set up a little bit, uh just thinking about right before Exodus 5, we know in Exodus 3, Moses encounters God. He reveals his name, the great I Am. Aaron is assigned as his as his voice. And people believe and worship later. And then the people believe and bow their heads and worship. So everything looks like breakthrough is about to happen, but then Exodus 5 happens. So all of this setup is first just understanding the essence of clear instructions. What happens when obedience produces pressure instead of progress? What it seems to anyway, right? So we have to confront what this looks like in Exodus 5. And so started in verses 1 and 2, it says, Thus says the Lord God of Israel, let many people go that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness. And now Pharaoh's responding to this. Who is the Lord? That I should obey his voice. Basically, he's challenging, like, who is this covenant God? Right? Deliverance begins when false authority is confronted. Right? So we have to look here in the aspect of what we heard before about worship before freedom. God is letting us know, even in this chapter, um, in reference in the verse three, it says, Let us go three days in journey and sacrifice to the Lord our God. Why is this base? Why is this important? Because there must be a sacrifice, a surrender-based worship. Worship is the gateway to freedom. And so, even though, yes, we're we there's a representation here in this story of where the the question of who is this God, right? The the foundation understanding is Pharaoh is is operating in a space where he has a strategy, right? It's going to, it's going based on what Pharaoh's doing, it's going to increase pressure. It's going to remove the resources from the people. It's going to distort their identity to where he wants to challenge them to understand or to make them doubt who they are and what God has called them to do. And so Pharaoh redirected worship into labor to where where the people were thinking of themselves as giving glory and honor to God. He was like, you know what? I'm going to make them keep a slave mentality, right? So when breakthrough is near pressure, it will intensify. Let me get it out. When pray breakthrough is near pressure, it will intensify. You're in the right place at the right time. And soon you will reap the right results. We're going to keep going. So misplace sometimes, that's of course represented next in chapter five, um chapter verses 10. Sometimes we can misplace dependence. Many of us have heard of codependency, people depending on people. But here in this story, um, people were crying out to Pharaoh instead of God. They wanted Pharaoh to change, they wanted Pharaoh to relieve them, they wanted Pharaoh to help them and support them. So that pressure revealed where their true dependence was. However, it also gave about a level of internal resistance, the word speaks about. So basically, as they're as the people are traveling about, um, as they're in this place, people preferred to have the predicta uh excuse me, they preferred to have predictable, predictable, Holy Spirit, predictable bondage over uncertain freedom. How many people are we experiencing going through things where they know they're in bondage? But just the idea of being free, the idea of the process, the idea of the uncomfort, the idea of the unknown has them hindered. Moses' response here is, why have you brought trouble? He's talking to God. Distress, adversity. So calling, your calling will introduce a process that does not produce instant results, right? So here in Exodus 5 as well, it's in revealing how um it can expose oppression, right? And in this case of it's revealing Pharaoh's heart towards the people, towards even God, right? Who when he again remember he's saying, Who is this God? Who is this that's called you? It's also testing the leadership, right? But it's also preparing the people. Now, when we think of preparing, you got to remember positioning and preparation. So there is a pattern of deliverance, not only here, but what God is saying to you. God is speaking, and when God spoke, he's expecting that obedience then begins. But when that obedience begins, there will be resistance that rises, there will be pressure that increases. You will or you may have doubt that emerges, but God reveals himself deeper in this process. So if we keep going forth into just thinking about the fullness of Exodus 5, it is not failure. It is exposure before intervention. So if we're glancing a little bit more, and I like to kind of speak about it because often we think about the process, the struggle, the challenge, the things that we're going through that don't feel good, that doesn't feel comfortable. Think about all that's happening here. Of course, previously, Exodus 3, going into Exodus 5. Of course, there's a few chapters in between Exodus 5 and where I'm going to lightly speak on now. Exodus 12. I'm not going to read on it or teach on it, but there is more to come. There's a plunder for the Egyptians. God has wealth transfer on his mind. So we don't want to judge our season right now in Exodus 5 because there's greater coming. There's greater coming. There's so many opportunities in the word where we could just decide. Decide to just stick where we are. Decide that this is it. But God has so much. A covenant-keeping God. If you reflect very lightly on Deuteronomy 7.9, it says, Therefore, the Lord, that the Lord your God, he is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations. He's faithful across generations. So as a reflection of um in totality of Exodus 5 today, I want you to keep in mind that God allows hidden bondage to surface. I mentioned it before. He allows systems to be confronted. We have to confront the underlying, what we're calling issue, challenge situation. Think about as a leader, teacher, um, or even in relationships, you cannot avoid getting through this process. I like to say you have to be refined. I need to know that you can handle this under pressure. So you're not depending on yourself, the people, the circumstances, honestly, even time, you have a complete dependency on God. So I thank God for the opportunity that He gives us the word to lean on, to know that His grace is sufficient, to know that He is our strong tower, that He is our foundation, that in even in all that we can experience and that we read in Exodus, that God is letting you know, and He's letting even in expression through this story is that don't get distracted from your purpose. Don't get distracted. Don't get distracted. So I just want to encourage everyone today as we get ready to go into our breakout rooms. Just remember, remove the straw and remove the resources. There will be increased pressure. Um, there will be a press on controlling time, right? But and there will be an attack to try to distort identity. You must remember who God called you, what God called you to do. You must remember what who God has called you or who, what he calls you, who he calls you, what God, what God, what we identify in with God, what does God say about you? And understand when there is pressure, you are being refined. Go through, don't stop. And we will continue to just give God glory and worship through the process. And just know that we cannot get weary in well-doing. So know that worship as well is a gateway to your freedom, your next level. Continue to worship, continue to worship. God is the spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. So thank you all today. Just keep it before you. Never let the word of God go and understand once again that we must, we must, we must lean, depend, and trust God and understand who He is in His Word, speak His Word and operate in it. That's it.