WEBVTT 00:00:16.589 --> 00:00:17.949 So good to be here. 00:00:18.509 --> 00:00:26.189 I just spent a couple weeks uh traveling with Sean Grainy in uh Germany and in Armenia. 00:00:26.350 --> 00:00:29.309 Got back about ten days ago and we were there for about ten days. 00:00:29.390 --> 00:00:30.670 So it was amazing. 00:00:30.750 --> 00:00:36.269 I want to call up Sean, just give a little testimony of what God did while we were in Armenia. 00:00:36.429 --> 00:00:38.030 Can uh everybody say Sean? 00:00:39.629 --> 00:00:40.189 Let's go. 00:00:40.349 --> 00:00:41.950 Sean, you ready? 00:00:43.390 --> 00:00:44.189 Let's go. 00:00:44.349 --> 00:00:50.670 Um me and David were in Armenia, like he said, and um visiting a local church there. 00:00:50.829 --> 00:00:57.069 And one of the things that stuck out to me the most was um how different it was to everything that I was used to. 00:00:57.310 --> 00:00:59.950 Um the language was different, um, the people were different. 00:01:00.429 --> 00:01:03.390 Uh we were walking around, nobody looked like me, nobody talked like me. 00:01:03.709 --> 00:01:11.709 And it just gave me a different perspective of what God is doing outside of you know my own bubble and what God is doing around people around me. 00:01:12.429 --> 00:01:18.909 And it led me to get to this place where I was opening up my hands and asking the Lord, you know, Lord, what what do you want to do with my life? 00:01:19.069 --> 00:01:22.670 Because what he's doing is so much more than what he's doing in Columbus, Ohio. 00:01:22.989 --> 00:01:23.149 Yeah. 00:01:23.390 --> 00:01:25.789 And I really enjoy Columbus, you know, I'm from Ohio. 00:01:26.030 --> 00:01:28.030 I'm a regular guy, I'm a routine guy. 00:01:28.429 --> 00:01:31.629 I don't like to travel the globe and be in uncomfortable situations. 00:01:32.030 --> 00:01:47.149 But I'm realizing that I'm just a drop in the bucket in the global gospel plan and mission that God has, and it led me again to this place of whether it's Columbus for the rest of my life, Lord, or Armenia, wherever it is, um live your life through me. 00:01:47.229 --> 00:01:52.989 So I'd encourage you to see what God is doing around the world outside of Ohio or wherever you find yourself in. 00:01:58.589 --> 00:02:01.390 Sean and I shared a bedroom for 10 days. 00:02:01.629 --> 00:02:04.909 You you learned a lot about a guy in ten days, let me tell you. 00:02:05.149 --> 00:02:06.909 Uh it was amazing. 00:02:07.069 --> 00:02:08.349 Um I still like him. 00:02:08.509 --> 00:02:09.310 He's awesome. 00:02:09.550 --> 00:02:25.230 He's a um man, I I'm gonna make no secret of this, but I wish that all of us over the next two years, I'm gonna put a goal out there, we'll put our feet outside of this country and just see what the Lord is doing around the world. 00:02:25.310 --> 00:02:40.270 And so we're gonna show you all the different opportunities over the next 18 months, especially, where you can get involved in going to South Africa or Guatemala or to Haiti or to these equips in France or or um Holland and just all around the world. 00:02:40.350 --> 00:02:42.030 There's so many open doors for us. 00:02:42.270 --> 00:02:54.270 This year, almost 50 people from our country, from our church will be in different countries of the world, including the international internship, Guatemala coming up, and the few trips that we've already done. 00:02:54.430 --> 00:02:57.550 So I'd love to see all of us go and get your passport ready. 00:02:57.710 --> 00:02:59.230 Can I hear a amen? 00:03:00.110 --> 00:03:00.750 Good. 00:03:00.990 --> 00:03:20.750 So I read this study from uh Gallup from 2024 that says that something like 70% of workers globally describe themselves as essentially trapped, powerless in a system they didn't design, that they're just stuck in. 00:03:20.909 --> 00:03:24.670 Uh, sociologists call this an existential alienation. 00:03:24.830 --> 00:03:35.230 And many people feel trapped because of high debts, uh loads, others trapped because of economic situation or whatever situation we find ourselves in. 00:03:35.469 --> 00:03:39.710 I think it is a growing issue and a very real issue. 00:03:39.950 --> 00:03:56.990 I spent 25 years in um outside of church work in in finance and banking, and the amount of people that I would work with and do life with who explay describe themselves, maybe not in those exact words, but definitely in the idea of just being trapped. 00:03:57.230 --> 00:04:15.230 The debt load, the the the put, the time they've put into it, the the size of house, the size of living that we have signed ourselves up for, and people are finding themselves unable to go and do the thing that God has called them to do because we're trapped in a system of our own making. 00:04:15.469 --> 00:04:17.149 And I think that's really important. 00:04:17.310 --> 00:04:26.350 Our country is built on this idea of freedom, but for most of us, it's just past another milestone, then we'll be free. 00:04:26.670 --> 00:04:33.629 Just past that debt, past this relationship that we're that I'm in, past this job, and we keep moving the line. 00:04:33.789 --> 00:04:42.589 And I'm here to say that if we look at scripture, what God has for his people isn't that kind of slavery, it is freedom. 00:04:42.829 --> 00:04:43.629 It is freedom. 00:04:43.709 --> 00:04:50.990 And if you're uh I can open your Bibles, uh, Exodus chapter 12 through 14 is what I'm gonna be reviewing today. 00:04:51.229 --> 00:04:58.589 We've been slowly going through the Old Testament this year, and we'll be committed to doing a review of the whole Old Testament story. 00:04:58.750 --> 00:05:05.709 The first three months of this year we looked at creation and leading up to Abraham, and that was the first three months. 00:05:05.870 --> 00:05:16.829 Now we're in an era of what we're calling the kings, the era of, I'm sorry, the era of the patriarchs, where we went from Abraham uh all the way through to Joseph. 00:05:16.909 --> 00:05:23.870 Uh Joshua, we're gonna get to Joshua, and then we're gonna enter in from July, we're gonna look at the era of the kings. 00:05:24.029 --> 00:05:27.310 We look at David and all the kings of Israel and Judah. 00:05:27.469 --> 00:05:37.310 And I want us to get an idea of the arc of the biblical story that so many of us, myself included, spend most of my time in the New Testament. 00:05:37.469 --> 00:05:47.229 But there's a whole history of story from Genesis through Malachi that tells us how did we get to the desperate need of Jesus? 00:05:47.389 --> 00:05:52.189 And we see how Jesus is painted through all of the scriptures of the Old Testament. 00:05:52.430 --> 00:05:53.870 So that's where we are. 00:05:54.029 --> 00:05:55.149 Are you with us? 00:05:55.870 --> 00:05:56.990 Are you ready? 00:05:57.310 --> 00:06:01.149 I told people in Germany that we are a holler back church. 00:06:01.310 --> 00:06:02.189 Is that true? 00:06:02.990 --> 00:06:04.189 Okay, good, thank you. 00:06:04.349 --> 00:06:06.189 And in Germany, I say, Will you holler back? 00:06:06.269 --> 00:06:06.909 They said, Ja vol. 00:06:07.310 --> 00:06:08.109 Yeah, we will. 00:06:08.269 --> 00:06:12.909 Uh not exactly like that, but uh, Exodus 12 through 14. 00:06:13.069 --> 00:06:15.389 Let me just tell you where we are today. 00:06:15.549 --> 00:06:17.469 I'm gonna talk about this idea of freedom. 00:06:17.629 --> 00:06:28.029 Exodus 12 through 14, we enter into the tenth plague as God is trying to deliver the people of Israel who had been enslaved in Egypt for 430 years. 00:06:28.349 --> 00:06:44.909 He sends Moses, he hears the cries of his people, he sends Moses and he starts a series of 10 uh plagues that we understand them as today, to try and get Pharaoh to loosen his grip on the people of Israel so that God's people could go and worship him and serve him. 00:06:45.310 --> 00:06:56.669 So we are now in chapter 12, the 10th one, and we're gonna walk through the story of them getting to the Red Sea, crossing the Red Sea, and into the freedom that God has called for them. 00:06:57.149 --> 00:06:59.149 So we've got to understand the context. 00:06:59.389 --> 00:07:06.029 They've been slaves for 430 years, real, brutal, multi-generational, forced labor. 00:07:06.269 --> 00:07:07.310 Moses is sent. 00:07:07.629 --> 00:07:15.149 Now, there's something we've got to understand about Pharaoh to even understand why this was so difficult for him to let go. 00:07:15.709 --> 00:07:24.189 Pharaoh was not just a political leader, like a this elected political leader, like the system that you and I grew up in. 00:07:24.430 --> 00:07:34.669 He was, in a sense, the best way to describe this, like the cosmic axis or the living embodiment of what the Egyptians would call Mars. 00:07:35.389 --> 00:07:45.789 This idea that order of the cosmos was held together by a system, and at the center of that was the Pharaoh who held this all together. 00:07:46.029 --> 00:07:52.909 So Pharaoh had a very important part in the history and the psyche, the understanding of the Egyptians. 00:07:53.149 --> 00:08:04.029 So, therefore, to resist Pharaoh himself felt like a threat that could unravel their whole universe if you understand their worldview at the time. 00:08:04.189 --> 00:08:05.629 And that's really important. 00:08:06.509 --> 00:08:13.389 The Bible project has an image for this, they call it uh creation as a beautiful knitted garment. 00:08:13.789 --> 00:08:31.870 And if Pharaoh's systematic evil is a loose thread, that when God dismantles Egypt through the plagues, he isn't just flexing his power, but he's exposing the fact that Egypt's stability was an illusion based on human suffering. 00:08:32.269 --> 00:08:34.909 You have to really think through this. 00:08:35.470 --> 00:08:39.629 The Bible tells us about 600 men left Israel. 00:08:39.789 --> 00:08:43.230 If you consider women and children, that wasn't in that initial number. 00:08:43.310 --> 00:08:49.789 You're you're looking at roughly two million people were exiting Egypt at this time. 00:08:50.269 --> 00:09:03.470 I asked my good friend Chat how many Egyptians were there at the time, and they he is he it estimates between two and a half and four and a half million Egyptians. 00:09:03.710 --> 00:09:18.350 If you think of that kind of a number, if two and a half to four and a half million Egyptians and their whole system, their whole economy is upheld by two million slaves, them letting go of that would unravel reality as they know it. 00:09:18.590 --> 00:09:28.110 Everything, their workforce, the the things that they they had built on the back of these slaves, them all leaving, everything changes for the Egyptians. 00:09:28.350 --> 00:09:36.909 This was a significant deal that God was wanting to bring his people in, but it had real consequence for the Egyptians as well. 00:09:37.309 --> 00:09:45.549 So, as your Bibles are open at chapter 12, we come into the tenth plague, the death of every firstborn child in Egypt. 00:09:45.949 --> 00:09:54.429 Basically, what it says is every household with the blood of a lamb on its doorpost without the blood of the lamb on its doorpost will be struck. 00:09:54.669 --> 00:09:58.189 And God tells his people put the blood on the doorframe. 00:09:58.350 --> 00:10:00.990 When I see the blood, I will pass over. 00:10:01.230 --> 00:10:05.230 Hence the term the Passover, as we have come to know it today. 00:10:05.389 --> 00:10:07.870 Look at verse 12 in chapter 12. 00:10:08.350 --> 00:10:21.470 He says, Therefore, I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments. 00:10:21.710 --> 00:10:23.230 I am the Lord. 00:10:23.629 --> 00:10:36.350 The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. 00:10:36.669 --> 00:10:39.789 What happens after this is it happens. 00:10:40.029 --> 00:10:50.029 All these firstborn children, beasts, die all across Egypt, in all the houses where the blood of the lamb was not posted over the door post. 00:10:51.549 --> 00:10:55.949 Pharaoh then says, Okay, fine, you win, let them go. 00:10:56.110 --> 00:10:58.990 And he finally actually lets them go. 00:10:59.230 --> 00:11:03.309 They're going, chapter 12, chapter 13, we get to chapter 14. 00:11:03.470 --> 00:11:09.789 Once again, he changes his mind and he sends the entire chariot army after them. 00:11:10.029 --> 00:11:13.149 Now, picture this Israel, two million people. 00:11:13.389 --> 00:11:14.110 Picture this. 00:11:14.269 --> 00:11:18.269 How many people are in Columbus, Greater Columbus area? 00:11:18.590 --> 00:11:19.949 Just over two million. 00:11:20.269 --> 00:11:27.789 Imagine all of us going on a little expedition, plundering the Egyptians first, and here we go, we're in the desert. 00:11:27.949 --> 00:11:38.669 They're making it down, they get to the Red Sea, on the left is a mountain range, on the right is a mountain range, and now they're looking back, and here comes a whole Egyptian army behind them. 00:11:38.829 --> 00:11:44.990 They are petrified, and that's where we find ourselves now in chapter 14 and verse 13. 00:11:45.949 --> 00:11:47.309 They are afraid. 00:11:47.549 --> 00:11:56.909 And Moses said to the people, verse 13, fear not, stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. 00:11:57.149 --> 00:12:01.309 For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. 00:12:01.549 --> 00:12:05.949 The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent. 00:12:06.909 --> 00:12:09.470 Maybe the hardest part in all of this verse. 00:12:09.789 --> 00:12:10.909 Verse 21. 00:12:11.149 --> 00:12:22.350 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. 00:12:22.669 --> 00:12:31.309 And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right and unto the left. 00:12:31.549 --> 00:12:32.909 What happens after this? 00:12:33.069 --> 00:12:37.949 They make it through, and now the Egyptian army, they're like, we gotta do this too. 00:12:38.110 --> 00:12:42.350 So they start following them into the dried up Red Sea. 00:12:42.590 --> 00:12:44.990 Pick up at verse 26 again. 00:12:45.230 --> 00:12:54.669 Then the Lord said to Moses, Now stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen. 00:12:54.909 --> 00:13:01.549 So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. 00:13:01.710 --> 00:13:07.230 And as the Egyptians fled into it, the Lord threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea. 00:13:07.470 --> 00:13:17.629 The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not one of them remained. 00:13:18.269 --> 00:13:20.429 Let's look at some of these movements. 00:13:20.669 --> 00:13:26.990 And what I want to look at today as a big picture here is the cost of freedom. 00:13:27.470 --> 00:13:34.029 The cost that it cost God, the cost that it would cost you to go, and the cost that it would cost you to stay. 00:13:34.110 --> 00:13:37.789 There is a cost to everything that we're talking about here. 00:13:38.029 --> 00:13:42.029 Let's start with the cost that God was willing to pay. 00:13:42.990 --> 00:13:53.069 Now, if you've been following the story of the plagues for a while, if you've been reading scripture for a while, or if you're new to this, you may have a question on your mind. 00:13:53.629 --> 00:14:00.429 What kind of a God would send all these children, these firstborn animals and people to die? 00:14:01.789 --> 00:14:09.949 And I want to answer the question or begin to try and answer it, because often we have these questions and we think we're not allowed to ask them. 00:14:10.110 --> 00:14:15.789 And I think the Lord encourages us, come to Scripture, come to Him, ask your questions. 00:14:15.870 --> 00:14:21.470 Don't just sit in doubt and just wondering what you know what the Google is telling you about the answer. 00:14:21.629 --> 00:14:25.230 Come to the Lord, ask him what is going on here. 00:14:25.309 --> 00:14:28.110 How can a loving God kill children? 00:14:29.309 --> 00:14:31.949 How can we read this and call the Lord good? 00:14:32.029 --> 00:14:35.789 And I don't believe it's a cynical question, I think it's an honest one. 00:14:36.590 --> 00:14:44.509 If God is love and God is power, and he could have freed Israel another way, then maybe the death of these children feels arbitrary. 00:14:47.389 --> 00:14:49.069 But what does the text tell us? 00:14:49.710 --> 00:14:58.669 We gotta go back a little bit, work a little bit harder in this text to understand the context of this random, seemingly random tenth plague. 00:14:59.069 --> 00:15:10.189 Here's the story Egypt had spent 80 years executing a state-sponsored program of infanticide against Israel's sons. 00:15:10.350 --> 00:15:11.710 How do I come up with that? 00:15:11.949 --> 00:15:21.470 If you were with us on Mother's Day and I went over the story of Moses' mother, Jochebed, and in that time we were in chapter 2 and 3 of Exodus. 00:15:21.629 --> 00:15:29.309 If you remember chapter 1, Pharaoh issued an edict, all the male children of the Israelites should be killed. 00:15:29.470 --> 00:15:30.750 Throw them into the Nile. 00:15:30.909 --> 00:15:32.990 They should be taken care of. 00:15:33.549 --> 00:15:38.750 And there's no record in Scripture that tells us that edict ever stopped. 00:15:38.909 --> 00:15:44.829 Now, perhaps it wasn't very successful because the Israelites multiplied and more and more of them came. 00:15:44.990 --> 00:15:53.309 But in some way, this edict was still happening, and our Israelite brothers and sisters in those days were used to burying their children. 00:15:53.549 --> 00:15:54.990 They were used to going for it. 00:15:55.149 --> 00:16:02.350 For 80 years, because this is this was the age of Moses when he stood before Pharaoh and these ten plagues started. 00:16:02.990 --> 00:16:09.149 Eighty years long, they were putting their children into graves. 00:16:09.389 --> 00:16:11.629 That is really important for us to understand. 00:16:11.789 --> 00:16:21.309 You see, the death of Egypt's firstborn children was not arbitrary, it's in a sense the precise return of God of Egypt's own violence upon itself. 00:16:21.470 --> 00:16:24.350 This was the path that they had chosen. 00:16:24.669 --> 00:16:27.870 See, God does not forget what was done to the weak. 00:16:28.029 --> 00:16:34.110 In a sense, he keeps a ledger and eventually the cries of the oppressed always comes back around. 00:16:34.429 --> 00:16:44.750 But what makes this story different from any other ancient story of retribution, God doesn't execute judgment from a distance and walk away. 00:16:44.990 --> 00:16:48.350 In a sense, he stations himself at the door. 00:16:48.829 --> 00:16:52.429 The story of the Passover is important to look at the details. 00:16:52.829 --> 00:16:58.990 The Jewish word for Passover is pesach, uh P-E-S-A-C-H, Pesach. 00:16:59.389 --> 00:17:10.910 And we've always translated as just kind of like passing over the house, but more accurately, it's in the sense of hovering over or spreading wings over the house. 00:17:11.150 --> 00:17:17.789 He's not absent from the house, he is shielding those inside the house from the thing that is coming. 00:17:18.110 --> 00:17:33.230 God isn't just randomly executing judgment, he's placing himself in the situation and covering his people, covering them with his very presence between the destroyer and the door. 00:17:34.509 --> 00:17:37.069 Tim Keller maybe puts it this like this. 00:17:37.230 --> 00:17:44.190 He says, God doesn't tear up the bill of their sins and our sins, he puts it on a cosmic credit card. 00:17:44.430 --> 00:17:54.990 The debt is real, every human house deserves what the destroyer brings, but God puts it all on accounts, and the account comes due at the cross. 00:17:55.309 --> 00:18:03.549 A lamb whose bones were not broken absorbed the full force of everything the destroyer was owed. 00:18:04.509 --> 00:18:10.670 So now when we read Exodus chapter 12, you're not reading about an angry God who kills people. 00:18:10.750 --> 00:18:16.990 You're reading about a God who stations himself at your door and takes the hit himself. 00:18:18.750 --> 00:18:24.509 The cost of your freedom, friends, started long before you and I even knew we needed it. 00:18:24.750 --> 00:18:26.269 And the price was paid. 00:18:26.430 --> 00:18:34.269 So what stands behind the door is not a transaction that we get to negotiate, it's a reality that you and I need to receive. 00:18:34.509 --> 00:18:38.910 The fact that he has paid the price for your sin. 00:18:40.029 --> 00:18:42.190 He put it on himself. 00:18:43.150 --> 00:18:48.029 And so now every time you're reminded of the cross, we need to stop. 00:18:48.829 --> 00:18:50.029 Look at the door. 00:18:50.750 --> 00:18:54.349 Something died there so that we didn't have to. 00:18:55.470 --> 00:18:57.869 Something died there that we didn't have to. 00:18:59.710 --> 00:19:02.430 Armenia has this practice. 00:19:02.509 --> 00:19:06.430 Uh Armenia is officially the first Christian nation in the world. 00:19:06.509 --> 00:19:09.230 Uh the king of Armenia in the year 301. 00:19:09.389 --> 00:19:14.269 I'd love to tell you this story one day, but in the year 301 declared it a Christian nation. 00:19:14.430 --> 00:19:23.710 And from then they started um carving stones and putting a cross on these stones, um, most beautiful crosses. 00:19:23.789 --> 00:19:30.430 I've got probably 15 different pictures of different crosses that were decorated all the way back from like the year 800. 00:19:30.670 --> 00:19:50.109 And every time you see a cross in Armenia, Jesus is not on it, but every cross is decorated at the edge of the cross, at the edges with flowers or with birds, or with some sign of life, and for them just signifying the life of the cross, the life of what that purchased for you and I. 00:19:50.269 --> 00:20:02.509 I think we need to put a few more crosses up in here so that you and I can be reminded over and over that your price was paid for, it was taken, it was finished. 00:20:02.750 --> 00:20:06.269 He had accomplished it all, and he did it willingly. 00:20:06.589 --> 00:20:07.230 Amen. 00:20:08.589 --> 00:20:13.069 Let's talk secondly about the cost of refusing freedom. 00:20:13.309 --> 00:20:26.829 And I want to talk about Pharaoh again because perhaps we get him a little wrong and we read the plagues and we think that he was just being stubborn or irrational or doubling down on a losing hand, but it's not quite what the text is showing us. 00:20:26.990 --> 00:20:32.750 If you look at chapter 14, verse 4, God says, I will harden Pharaoh's heart. 00:20:33.309 --> 00:20:41.549 I used to stumble over this a lot because I'm like, what chance did this guy have if God was the ones hardening his heart in the first place? 00:20:41.710 --> 00:20:43.309 I mean, it's game over, right? 00:20:43.470 --> 00:20:44.990 Like it's gonna happen. 00:20:45.150 --> 00:20:47.710 But we have to, again, look a little deeper at the words. 00:20:47.869 --> 00:20:55.230 The Hebrew word there is called chazak, chazak, and I had to look this up for any of the literary nerds amongst us. 00:20:55.389 --> 00:20:59.230 It's called a hip-hill causative verb. 00:20:59.549 --> 00:21:03.549 In a sense, God is not injecting something new into Pharaoh. 00:21:03.710 --> 00:21:08.509 What it text is showing us is that he's reinforcing what was already there. 00:21:08.750 --> 00:21:18.269 If you read earlier on in the ten plagues, it started with Pharaoh hardened his hearts, and then it changes to and God hardened his heart. 00:21:18.430 --> 00:21:32.349 In a sense, God wasn't creating a new thing there, he was reinforcing what Pharaoh had started with and was doubling down on, and he is, in a sense, building a fortress around what Pharaoh already built. 00:21:33.230 --> 00:21:38.190 And he makes him stand under the weight of his own decision. 00:21:38.430 --> 00:21:42.990 Now there's a cost to staying in your slavery. 00:21:43.230 --> 00:21:55.150 What was happening here with them is they came up to the Red Sea, they had the mountains on the sides of them, and suddenly the people of Israel started complaining to Moses. 00:21:55.549 --> 00:22:00.670 In fact, they said, Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us out here to die? 00:22:00.910 --> 00:22:02.670 In a sense, take us back. 00:22:03.069 --> 00:22:06.190 Why did you bring us out of this only to kill us over here? 00:22:06.430 --> 00:22:10.750 There was this reflex in them that says, What the heck? 00:22:10.990 --> 00:22:12.190 Now, I read this. 00:22:12.349 --> 00:22:15.470 There's this researcher named Rachel Yehuda. 00:22:16.349 --> 00:22:21.789 She published a study in 2016 called Biological Psychiatry. 00:22:21.950 --> 00:22:28.910 And what she was doing was examining the Holocaust survivors and their adult children. 00:22:31.230 --> 00:22:41.950 She found that the trauma of the survivors that they experienced had changed the biology of their children who hadn't experienced the trauma. 00:22:42.269 --> 00:22:44.829 And it was done at a genetic level. 00:22:45.150 --> 00:23:03.789 So the children of these of the Holocaust survivors were wired differently for a type of hypervigilance, for a threat response, or a particular kind of fear that showed up in their genetics, even though they themselves didn't experience the Holocaust. 00:23:04.509 --> 00:23:11.069 It's like their bodies carried something that their minds never subconsciously experienced. 00:23:11.789 --> 00:23:23.549 I bring that up because you're standing as a two million people about to experience and taste freedom, and your gut response is, why did you bring us here? 00:23:23.789 --> 00:23:26.910 At the first obstacle that they're facing. 00:23:27.150 --> 00:23:29.869 These Israelites had experienced ten plagues. 00:23:29.950 --> 00:23:30.990 They had gone through this. 00:23:31.150 --> 00:23:37.150 This wasn't just, we can read this in like a few minutes, all ten plagues, and think, oh wait, what a story. 00:23:37.389 --> 00:23:39.869 This happened over a number of months. 00:23:40.109 --> 00:23:41.150 This had to happen. 00:23:41.309 --> 00:23:42.430 They'd experienced it. 00:23:42.509 --> 00:23:45.150 They saw the miracles of God in all ten of them. 00:23:45.230 --> 00:23:46.829 They saw the water turning. 00:23:46.990 --> 00:23:48.109 They saw the locusts. 00:23:48.190 --> 00:23:50.269 They saw all that the hail. 00:23:50.509 --> 00:23:52.349 They saw everything that was going on. 00:23:52.430 --> 00:23:55.629 And they knew the miracle hand, the powerful hand of God. 00:23:55.789 --> 00:24:01.389 Yet when they faced the Red River, this reaction just reactivated in them. 00:24:01.629 --> 00:24:09.150 They had been genetically modified in 400 years of slavery to that kind of response. 00:24:09.309 --> 00:24:13.710 Maybe going back is better than stepping into the unknown. 00:24:13.950 --> 00:24:22.109 Maybe going back into the familiar slavery I understand is better than stepping into the thing I don't quite understand. 00:24:22.750 --> 00:24:26.109 It's a very interesting thought for us to ponder. 00:24:26.670 --> 00:24:32.910 I wonder if the most dangerous prison is the one that we've just learned to call home. 00:24:33.389 --> 00:24:38.910 We've come to think that that kind of life I'm living is freedom. 00:24:41.309 --> 00:24:42.670 I'm going to ask you a question. 00:24:42.829 --> 00:24:51.629 Maybe the text is asking you, what have you built your life around that you cannot afford to have God touch? 00:24:53.069 --> 00:24:57.629 If He has to challenge you onto some things, maybe it's your career. 00:24:58.190 --> 00:25:07.309 Maybe you've built a career of working 10, 15 years, and a salary finally feels like proof that you've made it. 00:25:07.710 --> 00:25:13.789 And there's this quiet terror underneath that if it gets disruptive, you don't know who you are without it. 00:25:14.109 --> 00:25:18.190 Our identity is formed by our career these days. 00:25:20.029 --> 00:25:22.190 Is it the image? 00:25:22.670 --> 00:25:26.589 The finely curated image that you have and put out to the world. 00:25:26.670 --> 00:25:30.430 And you wonder if people actually know you or love you for who you are. 00:25:30.670 --> 00:25:41.470 But you've worked so hard on this image to show people who they want who you want them to think you are, and you're trapped in trying to keep up that facade all along. 00:25:41.789 --> 00:25:44.829 That's not the kind of freedom that God wants for us. 00:25:45.389 --> 00:25:48.589 Is it a number, a portfolio, a pension? 00:25:48.750 --> 00:26:01.470 I know a lot of you are too young for to think about pensions, but a financial threshold that keeps just moving and supposed to make you feel secure, but you never quite get to that number because the number itself keeps changing. 00:26:01.710 --> 00:26:05.869 Friends, the the cost of staying in Egypt is real. 00:26:12.349 --> 00:26:14.829 The cost of staying in Egypt is real. 00:26:15.150 --> 00:26:18.029 And the question isn't whether God can free you. 00:26:21.150 --> 00:26:25.629 The question is whether you're willing to let go of what you've been holding. 00:26:27.150 --> 00:26:30.349 Because here's what's on the other side of that decision. 00:26:30.670 --> 00:26:36.589 God has life for you on the other side of the freedom, the slavery that we're living in. 00:26:36.829 --> 00:26:51.869 Now I'm particularly burdened by this idea today that I think so many of us, whether it's professionally or in the decisions we've made are caught up in a trap of slavery, which the Bible says the debtor is slave to the lender. 00:26:52.670 --> 00:27:00.190 And we have made decisions, some of it not your own, some of it is just the way life has been structured. 00:27:00.269 --> 00:27:09.869 And we have car debt and student debt and home loan home debt, or you're you don't have a house, you think I could never do that, and you're just like, I am stuck. 00:27:10.109 --> 00:27:12.029 I'm stuck in what I'm living in. 00:27:12.190 --> 00:27:16.109 And I'm here to tell you that is not what the Lord wants for you. 00:27:16.349 --> 00:27:18.910 It is so easy for us here in America. 00:27:19.150 --> 00:27:22.910 The minute you earn a certain amount, you start living up to that amount. 00:27:23.069 --> 00:27:28.430 Then you earn, get the raise, and you're like, good, I deserve the bigger car. 00:27:28.589 --> 00:27:29.950 I deserve the bigger house. 00:27:30.029 --> 00:27:43.470 So we get up to that level of standard, but we never get to a place of actual freedom, of living with less than we earn, so that we could be the most generous people that God has called us to be. 00:27:44.109 --> 00:27:49.950 I don't want you to feel condemned, but I want you to get a vision of this is not what God has for you. 00:27:50.269 --> 00:27:52.029 This is not what God has for you. 00:27:52.349 --> 00:28:00.269 Other days someone said to me, Well, you know, the cost of a starter home today is X percent higher than it was, you know, 50 years ago. 00:28:00.430 --> 00:28:04.990 And that number was what, I don't know, 50%, let's say something like that. 00:28:05.150 --> 00:28:14.109 I just want to remind you, the size of the starter home that you're looking for is also 50 to 100% bigger than the starter home 50 years ago. 00:28:14.349 --> 00:28:17.629 And so we're making these comparisons, like I could just never get ahead. 00:28:17.789 --> 00:28:25.470 When way maybe God wants us to live on a little bit less so that we can live as free people into what he has for us. 00:28:25.789 --> 00:28:27.069 Is this okay? 00:28:28.269 --> 00:28:38.509 I'm speaking as one who at age 35 was sitting onto a negative net worth because I kept earning, I kept buying up to my earning. 00:28:38.829 --> 00:28:43.470 And then the markets crashed in 2008, and I was stuck. 00:28:43.710 --> 00:28:44.430 I was stuck. 00:28:44.509 --> 00:28:53.629 And I'm telling you this as a story, not of condemnation, but one of as if we decide to make some big decisions, God can walk you out into freedom. 00:28:53.789 --> 00:28:58.029 There's a cost to staying in slavery, and there's a cost to walking in freedom. 00:28:58.190 --> 00:29:00.269 Which one do you want to pay? 00:29:00.750 --> 00:29:01.950 Is this okay? 00:29:03.470 --> 00:29:04.349 You okay? 00:29:04.990 --> 00:29:11.710 I know this is heavy, and maybe many of you are sitting here thinking, I could never get out of that. 00:29:11.950 --> 00:29:13.309 Please come and talk to me. 00:29:13.789 --> 00:29:15.069 Please come and talk to me. 00:29:15.230 --> 00:29:19.150 There is a way to freedom, but it'll cost you something. 00:29:19.470 --> 00:29:20.109 Amen? 00:29:20.589 --> 00:29:21.629 I'm smiling. 00:29:21.950 --> 00:29:22.910 You happy? 00:29:23.389 --> 00:29:25.069 This is what the Lord has for us. 00:29:25.230 --> 00:29:27.549 He doesn't want his people stuck in Egypt. 00:29:28.109 --> 00:29:28.750 He doesn't. 00:29:28.990 --> 00:29:31.869 I say it with all confidence in my heart. 00:29:32.109 --> 00:29:34.829 Let's just look at this last cost for a second. 00:29:35.629 --> 00:29:37.309 The cost of walking out. 00:29:37.549 --> 00:29:48.109 Israel stands at the edge of the sea, Pharaoh's army behind them, they're terrified, they're complaining, and Moses says, Hold up, just be quiet for a minute. 00:29:48.349 --> 00:29:49.950 The Lord will deliver you. 00:29:50.190 --> 00:29:55.230 The water parts, the dry ground, and they they walk into this new freedom. 00:29:55.389 --> 00:30:01.950 Here's the crazy thing about walking into freedom it's gonna feel so uncomfortable at first. 00:30:03.230 --> 00:30:07.230 Because your familiar, we like familiar, don't we? 00:30:07.389 --> 00:30:14.109 I wake up the same time every day, go straight for my coffee, sit down in the same chair, and I go through my routine. 00:30:14.190 --> 00:30:15.150 I like familiar. 00:30:15.309 --> 00:30:16.589 Anyone with me? 00:30:17.470 --> 00:30:24.509 What these guys had to learn is their familiar was 430 years as slaves. 00:30:24.990 --> 00:30:29.629 The freedom God walked them into at first looked like this. 00:30:30.029 --> 00:30:32.349 A cloud's gonna lead you by the day. 00:30:32.509 --> 00:30:34.910 And a fire is gonna lead you by night. 00:30:35.150 --> 00:30:37.869 Once they got through the Red Sea, what happened? 00:30:38.029 --> 00:30:43.549 They were fed in the morning with manna, every mut every day, new manna, just for that one day. 00:30:43.869 --> 00:30:49.069 Their sense of control, this is me getting anxious right now, even just telling you the story. 00:30:49.150 --> 00:30:51.309 Are there any control freaks here with me? 00:30:51.389 --> 00:30:52.670 Just say loud and proud. 00:30:52.750 --> 00:30:53.549 Come on. 00:30:54.109 --> 00:30:57.230 My sense of control, I don't like that. 00:30:57.470 --> 00:30:58.269 I don't like that. 00:30:58.430 --> 00:31:02.589 If I should drive to California right now, it's like a four-day journey, right? 00:31:02.750 --> 00:31:06.589 Don't just tell me trust the cloud or follow the sun. 00:31:07.069 --> 00:31:08.509 You know, forget about it. 00:31:08.670 --> 00:31:14.990 Like I want the Google map, I want to see which hotel, which nuts, which one is a nice breakfast, and I curate the whole thing. 00:31:15.150 --> 00:31:16.109 I like control. 00:31:16.430 --> 00:31:22.829 These guys were saying, you've had 400 years of being told what to do every morning, noon, and night. 00:31:22.990 --> 00:31:24.750 I'm about to sit you into freedom. 00:31:24.990 --> 00:31:25.950 Trust me. 00:31:26.509 --> 00:31:29.629 Trust me, follow the fire, follow the cloud. 00:31:29.869 --> 00:31:32.990 Day by day you will learn I am your provider. 00:31:33.150 --> 00:31:34.829 I will walk you into freedom. 00:31:35.150 --> 00:31:37.389 That is uncomfortable. 00:31:39.230 --> 00:31:42.829 Unless some of you have no control issues and you're like that, sounds amazing. 00:31:42.910 --> 00:31:45.069 Uh, if that's you, wave your hand as well. 00:31:45.150 --> 00:31:46.990 That sounds amazing. 00:31:47.389 --> 00:31:52.589 But to not know that to walk into that, where am I gonna stay? 00:31:52.750 --> 00:31:53.950 What am I gonna eat? 00:31:54.109 --> 00:31:55.470 What career am I gonna have? 00:31:55.629 --> 00:31:57.230 What is the Lord leading into me? 00:31:57.389 --> 00:32:05.230 What we're doing is we're learning to put our future and the things we hold so dear into the arms of the one who loves us so dearly. 00:32:05.710 --> 00:32:07.549 We're learning to surrender. 00:32:07.789 --> 00:32:11.629 We're learning to and now we begin to understand true freedom. 00:32:11.869 --> 00:32:17.230 Now, when your house isn't locking you up and the Lord says, Let's go to Armenia for a year. 00:32:17.549 --> 00:32:19.629 Go and support what the Lord's doing there. 00:32:19.789 --> 00:32:32.509 You aren't got a bunch of balls and chains behind you, called debts and responsibility and everything else that's holding you back from following the Lord and saying, Yes, yes, Lord, I will do what you call me to do. 00:32:32.829 --> 00:32:33.470 Amen. 00:32:34.670 --> 00:32:40.349 I remember a couple times the Lord had called us to change careers, and it didn't make any sense. 00:32:40.509 --> 00:32:44.990 The first time, actually, my daughter right here, Abigail, Kathy was pregnant with her. 00:32:45.150 --> 00:32:55.710 And I was like, What kind of a man am I that is gonna take, you know, I have a wife or one child and one on the way, and we let go of a job that said, No, no, we'll keep paying you. 00:32:55.789 --> 00:32:57.869 You could keep doing it until you find another one. 00:32:58.029 --> 00:33:01.629 And the Lord said to me, You're not trusting me, you're trusting them. 00:33:02.109 --> 00:33:04.430 To say, okay, I don't know. 00:33:04.589 --> 00:33:10.430 So a few months not having work, not knowing where this money would come from, not having savings either. 00:33:10.750 --> 00:33:19.309 Finding envelopes with cash on our door, finding bags with of groceries, finding people who just randomly paid our rent that month. 00:33:19.549 --> 00:33:24.750 Like, I don't know, but that's trusting in the Lord when He tells you to go. 00:33:25.069 --> 00:33:35.069 Are we willing to be that open with the Lord, with the sovereign Lord, creator of heaven and earth, who loves you, knows the beginning from the end, who is the beginning and the end? 00:33:35.230 --> 00:33:36.750 Are we willing to trust that God? 00:33:36.910 --> 00:33:38.430 Is that the one that we serve? 00:33:38.750 --> 00:33:39.389 Amen. 00:33:40.190 --> 00:33:41.549 This is going a little bit long. 00:33:42.029 --> 00:33:43.069 We're about to wrap up. 00:33:43.150 --> 00:33:43.869 Are you with me? 00:33:45.470 --> 00:33:47.470 Matthew 2, verse 15. 00:33:48.109 --> 00:33:50.990 When they see Jesus, they quote this. 00:33:51.150 --> 00:33:55.549 Matthew quotes this verse from Hosea, out of Egypt I called my son. 00:33:56.990 --> 00:33:58.589 That's not a coincidence, friends. 00:33:58.670 --> 00:34:00.109 Matthew is telling us something. 00:34:00.349 --> 00:34:03.389 He's telling us that Jesus is the true Israel. 00:34:03.629 --> 00:34:06.029 And he retraces his entire path. 00:34:06.269 --> 00:34:20.829 Jesus went, his father, trying to flee, goes into Egypt, and out of Egypt, the actual Jesus is called, retracing the steps of the Israelites who were in captivity. 00:34:21.389 --> 00:34:25.469 He comes out of the water, baptized in the Jordan, the new Red Sea. 00:34:25.630 --> 00:34:32.429 He spends 40 days in the wilderness, Jesus does, signifying the 40 years that the Israelites spent in the wilderness. 00:34:32.590 --> 00:34:36.750 And he is the firstborn who died and came to life again. 00:34:36.989 --> 00:34:44.989 He is the one that now paid the price that each one of us, our homes, would be safe should we put our faith in him. 00:34:45.789 --> 00:34:51.150 John 1.29 says, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. 00:34:51.309 --> 00:34:55.550 Friends, not just Israel, not just this nation, not just that nation. 00:34:55.869 --> 00:35:02.429 All who call upon the name of the Lord, all of them will be saved. 00:35:03.630 --> 00:35:12.590 John 19, verse 36, when the Roman soldiers came to break the leg of the crucified, they broke the thieves' legs, but they didn't break Jesus' dead legs. 00:35:12.829 --> 00:35:16.509 This is the same as the rule for the Passover lamb. 00:35:16.670 --> 00:35:20.829 The Passover lamb, the bones were not allowed to be broken. 00:35:21.230 --> 00:35:26.349 And in that again, Jesus fulfills the sacrifice of the Passover. 00:35:26.509 --> 00:35:29.309 Friends, the Passover was never just about Egypt. 00:35:29.469 --> 00:35:38.750 It was always pointing there to the lamb, to the door, to the blood that guards you and I now. 00:35:41.550 --> 00:35:44.429 I want to ask you to do one thing as we finish. 00:35:44.829 --> 00:35:46.429 Name your Egypt. 00:35:47.550 --> 00:35:48.590 Name your Egypt. 00:35:48.670 --> 00:35:50.909 Name the thing that's holding you back. 00:35:51.309 --> 00:35:54.110 The thing that's holding you in slavery. 00:35:54.590 --> 00:35:55.550 Name it. 00:35:58.429 --> 00:36:07.150 The system, the relationship, the fear that you've built your stability around, the image that you have curated, name it. 00:36:07.309 --> 00:36:13.150 What is keeping you bound to something that is not the freedom that the Lord has for you? 00:36:13.630 --> 00:36:17.710 And then ask yourself, what does it cost me to stay? 00:36:18.030 --> 00:36:22.190 And what would it cost me to walk out and obey? 00:36:23.389 --> 00:36:25.630 The worship team join, please. 00:36:26.509 --> 00:36:34.190 I want us to finish in a moment of just surrender to the Lord one more time. 00:36:35.710 --> 00:36:40.110 And friends, I've given a lot of examples here, but you know what you're walking through. 00:36:40.190 --> 00:36:46.750 You know what's in your life, and I want to encourage you, will you do some work with the Lord just in this last song? 00:36:47.389 --> 00:36:58.909 And as I get ready, if you don't know Jesus, if you haven't surrendered your life to Jesus in the first place, this is just gonna feel like a lot of work to do as well. 00:37:00.269 --> 00:37:05.309 The door into this kind of freedom is receiving Jesus. 00:37:05.789 --> 00:37:06.349 The door. 00:37:06.750 --> 00:37:17.230 The only reason you can be free is by accepting what Jesus had done for your life, asking him to forgive you of your sins and applying the blood of the Lamb to your life. 00:37:17.469 --> 00:37:22.349 And the Bible says, He believes and confesses will be saved. 00:37:23.150 --> 00:37:24.670 Would you close your eyes for a second? 00:37:25.469 --> 00:37:32.750 If you're sitting in this room and you have not surrendered your life to Jesus, I want to pray with you right now. 00:37:34.269 --> 00:37:36.670 And again, I'm not asking you, do you know Jesus? 00:37:36.750 --> 00:37:39.389 Uh do you know Jesus or do you have you heard about him? 00:37:39.630 --> 00:37:41.710 Let me tell you, Satan knows him. 00:37:43.070 --> 00:37:45.389 But he hasn't surrendered to him. 00:37:46.030 --> 00:37:48.269 Have you surrendered to Jesus? 00:37:49.150 --> 00:37:52.110 And what I want to do is just pray a quick prayer. 00:37:52.590 --> 00:38:01.710 Begin it, in a sense, a conversation between you and the Father, of you accepting and receiving the person of Jesus in your life. 00:38:02.269 --> 00:38:04.110 And I'd like to know who I'm praying for. 00:38:04.269 --> 00:38:09.869 This, you, if you want to give your life to Jesus, would you put up your hand so I know who I'm praying for? 00:38:10.349 --> 00:38:11.070 Thank you. 00:38:12.030 --> 00:38:12.909 Thank you. 00:38:15.630 --> 00:38:16.429 Anyone else here? 00:38:16.590 --> 00:38:17.469 Thank you, ma'am. 00:38:23.230 --> 00:38:27.070 This is the single most important decision you'll ever make in your life. 00:38:27.389 --> 00:38:28.670 And I'll just get one more minute. 00:38:28.750 --> 00:38:30.829 Is there anybody else I can pray for? 00:38:31.949 --> 00:38:32.989 Thank you, sir. 00:38:37.550 --> 00:38:39.150 Jesus loves you. 00:38:39.550 --> 00:38:41.309 Jesus died for you. 00:38:41.630 --> 00:38:43.309 Jesus gave his all for you. 00:38:43.469 --> 00:38:44.829 Thank you, ma'am. 00:38:45.469 --> 00:38:57.230 And he's inviting you into relationship with him that you can begin to have a chance to taste the freedom and the adventure that he has for each one of us. 00:38:58.509 --> 00:39:01.389 There's a number of people who raise their hands, but I'm gonna invite you. 00:39:01.469 --> 00:39:04.509 If you want to pray this with me, just pray this out loud. 00:39:04.670 --> 00:39:09.710 Say, dear Jesus, I believe you are the Son of God. 00:39:10.590 --> 00:39:13.150 I believe you paid for my sin. 00:39:14.429 --> 00:39:18.030 And I want to ask you to forgive me of all my sins. 00:39:21.309 --> 00:39:23.469 I receive you right now. 00:39:24.829 --> 00:39:26.989 I receive you in my heart. 00:39:27.710 --> 00:39:29.949 I want to follow you, Jesus. 00:39:31.150 --> 00:39:33.469 Right now, I don't understand this all. 00:39:34.829 --> 00:39:38.509 But I see you and I want to follow you. 00:39:38.829 --> 00:39:40.349 Will you help me? 00:39:42.190 --> 00:39:44.590 Thank you, Jesus, for this life. 00:39:45.949 --> 00:39:46.590 Amen. 00:39:47.469 --> 00:39:47.869 Amen. 00:39:47.949 --> 00:39:52.030 Friends, if you prayed that the first time, we'd love to stand with you. 00:39:52.110 --> 00:39:54.590 We're gonna have a prayer ministry team that's gonna come up. 00:39:54.670 --> 00:39:56.429 Can we all stand together, please? 00:39:56.670 --> 00:39:58.750 I think there's some response for us. 00:39:58.989 --> 00:40:03.389 I know we've gone a couple minutes late today, but but just be with us. 00:40:03.630 --> 00:40:05.070 Just a few more minutes. 00:40:05.389 --> 00:40:07.550 The Lord is knocking on your heart. 00:40:07.869 --> 00:40:09.070 He wants you free. 00:40:09.230 --> 00:40:11.230 Please believe me, He wants you free. 00:40:11.550 --> 00:40:14.989 He wants you to know and experience the freedom of the Lord. 00:40:15.230 --> 00:40:18.989 If you gave your life to Jesus, come and talk to one of us, one of the leaders up front. 00:40:19.150 --> 00:40:21.550 We'd have to give you a Bible and just the next steps. 00:40:21.789 --> 00:40:23.630 If you need prayer, come forward and pray. 00:40:23.710 --> 00:40:26.909 Let's just take one more song and worship the Lord this morning.