Exodus | Week Five

All right, turn with me to Exodus 13, Exodus chapter 13.

Exodus 13 · chapter mention

We're in a series right now on exodus as we're treking our way through and we are going to look at ourself here in exodus chapter 13, which is post plagues we're after the plagues and yet we are right on top of the Red Sea.

Exodus 13 · chapter mention

So we've not quite gotten to the Red Sea and this is the location where we find ourselves.

As you know, some of you have been reading through Exodus so you know the storyline, but for those of you who do not, God has raised up a leader, Moses, in order to draw out his people, Moses means even to draw out right.

She drew him out of the river and calls him in Egyptian, Moses.

And so he gets this name and he, God, is going to use Moses.

This Mr.

Drawn out to draw out his people in order to draw them in and we've been watching this happen.

He has delivered them with these 10 mighty signs.

We talked about that last week in order to show who he is.

It wasn't just some display, a flexing his muscles, but instead it was a flexing of the power of God— one time— in Egypt that is still remember to this day and we can learn who god is and that is he is above all other gods that we would worship, such as nature in particular as the Egyptians would worship, and so I want to read and just kind of jump in right here.

We can't obviously tell the whole story, so I'm having to to just really look at one small section and it's found here in Exodus 13 and 17.

Notice these words.

This is the word of God.

When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines.

That's Canaan or the Levant.

Although that was near, God said less the people changed their minds when they see war and return to Egypt, but God led the people around by the way, of the Wilderness, toward the Red Sea, and the people of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt equipped for battle.

Moses took the bones of Joseph with him.

For Joseph had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, God will surely visit you and you shall carry up my bones with you from here, and they moved on from Seneca and encamped at Ethan on the edge of the wilderness, and the Lord went before them by day and a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light that they might travel by day and by night, the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.

Lord, we thank you for your word.

We pray now a blessing on this reading of your word and upon those that would hear it and do it.

We pray in your name.

Amen.

Growing up, we had a fireplace that burned real wood in the house and had, you know, it's source of heat, which was somebody had to go cut down a tree as we say it in the south and cut it up and split it and then push it in there and catch it on fire and do all that kind of stuff.

And I mean, you know, there's, there's all kinds of issues with having a real fireplace in modern homes.

You can imagine.

Not a lot of them do today.

I've noticed, uh, actually old homes do but not a lot of new homes do.

And we, uh, we had this fireplace and of course my brother and I were a lot of the muscle behind where the wood came from, right?

Uh, this is, this is how this worked.

And, and even later on, dad got a, got a wood burning stove, which once it heated up to a certain temperature, you know, would then start blowing out with blowers.

And it was much more effective than just an open fireplace.

But nonetheless, still had added source, a woodpile around back.

That took a lot of manual labor to get it there.

Justin and I being most of that manual labor as our foreman, my dad, a boss us around.

And um, it was months after we officially left for college, I went off and then justin finally went off and they built a new house and dad installed a gas log, never to cut wood again.

Uh, because I guess his work had gone right.

He had free labor, you know what I mean?

Why pay the gas company when you've got free labor?

Uh, my brother and I, and you know, I think about those days, uh, I think about all the time we spent in the cold in the wood, you know, we'd, if somebody had a tree that fell down or whatever, or just some, a lady maybe wanted a, uh, an old tree cut down, dad would be right over there.

And then we would work all day and he would tell us this was good for us.

It didn't feel good for us, you know, it was cold.

It was a lot of work.

I mean, I ended up almost cutting off my thumb in the process, you know, it was a risk apparently that he thought was good enough though that he still kept us doing it.

And, and I've thought about the memories that were made during those days because again, while I was in it, I hated it.

I thought it was a waste of time.

I mean, I, I could easily be playing mario or super brother, so we're mario brothers or to update it the day I can be playing fortnite, you know, at home in the heat.

Why in the world we out here laboring like this.

And, you know, we, I think looking back, it taught us to laugh even in the midst of the cold, uh, it taught me to get mad at my dad or my brother or whoever else is working with us.

It wasn't doing their work, you know, I mean, in a family, there's this, hey, you need to pick up your load, man.

You know, I'm over here doing this.

And there were lots of arguments that ensued, but it taught us to work together because guess what?

Nobody leaving, you had to figure it out and I think that I learned in some ways how to be the man that I am today in the woods cutting wood, and I think maybe it's reflected upon this passage here where God, it specifically says, could have taken roughly what would have been a day or a day and a half's journey straight into the promise land straight into Canaan where it says the Philistines were.

He does not take that path.

In other words, he could have went with the gaps law.

He did not.

Instead he said, come on, let's load up, go into the cold, go into the woods and let's cut some wood and I can remember my dad telling me how helpful this would be one day, how it would teach me to go to college to get a degree so I wouldn't have to do this full time.

And I feel like in a lot of ways when I'm reading through access, especially with new eyes, I'm seeing God's saying, you know what?

I could easily have flicked pharaoh right off the face of the earth, but instead I was trying to reach even pharaoh, Pharaoh who I am.

I could have easily brushed aside everybody in the promise land and given you the land.

I mean my goodness by this point in Israel's history, they've been promised the land for over 400 years.

I'm going to give you the land.

I'm going to give you the land.

I'm going to give you the land.

They haven't been given the land and yet his promise remains.

I'm going to give you the land.

God is doing much more than trying to get them out of their immediate circumstance.

You see, I'm guessing that you're a little bit like me and that is when I get in a circumstance that I need help in.

I want help and I need it now.

I've got people who I call or things that I do to get that help start it, and when help is delayed, I get frustrated.

Anybody with me?

When I'm in a circumstance I want to be delivered.

I'm not thinking about the long game.

Yeah, I think my dad was very wise in taking my brother and I into the woods to do manual labor, really creating work for us to do, you know what I mean?

Literally it seemed to be creating, but you know what he was really doing.

He was spending time with his sons.

He was teaching them something more than just how to split or stack wood.

That was the immediate thing that we could see a break his truck, you know, why'd you break my, you shouldn't have.

There was a lot of correction going on, but there was something in the long game that he saw that we needed which had to do with who we were were we just supposed to be spoiled brats that were spoonfed all of our life.

Never understanding the work that went behind every single log that would heat our home where we just sit there and eat the butter beans that my grandparents had labored hard over to get to the table and throw them away as if they were nothing.

I mean, you ate butter beans differently when you went and picked butter beans when you went and shelled butter when you had to wait for them to cook longer than the ones you buy at the grocery store canned already.

You see, I believe that this passage that we read today is giving us a small glimpse of what my dad was trying to do with us and that is build our character.

He was trying to build a relationship with us of love.

It didn't look like it.

Trust me, if you haven't been out there listening and watching it wouldn't look like it and a lot of times when I'm reading through exodus, I'm saying, Lord, it doesn't look like you're trying to build a relationship of love, but that's exactly what he's trying to do.

He could have taken the short way.

He could have wiped everybody out.

Instead he says, okay guys, we're gonna.

Go toward the wilderness instead of the city.

We're going to stick with cutting wood rather than going the cheap way, the easy way of the gas law, and he's trying to draw them out of Egypt to draw them into himself.

This is his long game purpose.

This is what the journey is all about and we do ourselves a favor.

When we realized that you say before even what we read here, he talks about Passover and you remember what happens in, I'm going to come and I'm going to kill the firstborn.

I'm going to send the angel of death to come over Egypt to kill all the firstborn and anyone who has the blood of a lamb smeared on the door post that included Egyptians.

He gave fair warning to everyone.

We forget this.

Many scholars believe that Egyptians joined them when they left Egypt because of the signs of God.

They too believe we read.

We read this morning, didn't we, about ruth who says, no, no, no, not your God is going to be my God.

Where you die.

I'm gonna die.

In other words, that was her conversion.

She was converting from the Moa bites to know God's elect people.

The Israelites and even there, God says, whoever it is that has the blood of a lamb on their door post, I'll pass over them and death will not come to that house.

You know, it's fascinating that in the New Testament, Paul will call Jesus the first born of many.

Now you have to understand there are no other sons or daughters in the womb, God, right?

It's father, son, and Holy Spirit, not father, brother one, brother two or sr three, four, five.

No one son, the only begotten of the father, and yet he's called the first born.

Why?

Because God says, your first born, your first fruits are mine.

You are to dedicate them to me.

This is where we even get the tithing aspect from right is, is our giving to God is not okay.

God, I'm going to spend all of what I need to spend and do, and then I'm going to give you what's left over instead.

No, no, no.

I trust you with what comes into this household so much that right off the top of everything I give you the first born, the first fruits, the 10th.

Hmm.

And God says, you know what, you do that because I am going to do that.

I am not going to give you what's left over.

I'm going to give you my best, which is my son.

Just when Abraham raises the knife to kill, right?

The chosen one, Isaac, God stops him.

And you can almost in the passage here, a whisper.

We're going to be at this mountain again one day, aren't we?

Yes, my son, we will.

You're not going to stop the knife, are you?

No.

Why?

Because of them.

Abraham couldn't save anyone.

Isaac could have saved no one with his sacrifice, but Jesus Christ, the first born among many, he can save the whole world and God gives his best.

And so even before God does it in time and space, he already gets them learning the object lesson.

In the firstborn in the Passover, lamb, blood will be required.

It doesn't have to be your blood.

It shouldn't be your blood.

It's only redemptive if it's the blood of the lamb of God.

He teaches the object lesson.

The object lesson is fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

And even to this day, we do it in remembrance.

Have him take this,

eat it.

Why?

I'm glad you asked.

This was the purpose of Passover.

It wasn't it.

Passover was a meal, it was a time of eating.

And when you eat, you remember, I mean this is Thanksgiving time is revving up, brought him in his own right upon us.

It's crazy.

Some of our favorite times of the year, right?

The eating.

We'll start now and you won't stop until January sometime when we all act like we're going to go to the gym.

You know when we eat, we remember God gives them a meal in the Old Testament, he gives us a meal in the New Testament.

Just as they observed a meal that pointed.

Notice this, this meal pointed to a reality that would happen.

They smeared the blood, they ate the bread, they ate it with haste.

Remember they had to have their shoes fastened.

They had to have their coats on ready to go.

Why?

Because the time is drawing near how do we eat this meal?

Very similarly, we eat it in faith of what has happened.

But also what will happen for he is my friend's coming again, just to assure is I'm standing before you today in the flesh, God himself, the son, Jesus Christ, our Lord will descend a second time, a second advent to this earth and stand upon it as king of kings and Lord of Lords.

And the Bible says that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that he is Lord on that day, whether you believe it or not, that's all you can do.

Why not believe it today?

Why not bow the knee today?

Why not smear the blood of that sacrifice on the door posts of your homes today over your children today?

Today is the day of salvation.

Great.

And then what do they do?

They do what we do best and that is they sing,

okay?

They're saying, we're told after the crossing of the Red Sea, they sing.

So you have this meal that is set up.

Then they crossed the Red Sea, which is a whole story in itself I'm not preaching about today, unfortunately.

And you know what he does?

He says, okay, and I love this.

He says, you see what I'm doing here?

And they couldn't see at the time and a lot of times we can't see now, but looking back 20 slash 20 and that is they're entering through the water.

Do you hear what I'm saying?

They're entering through the water of the Red Sea.

They go, they pass between the waters and the water is sprinkled upon them as they go where?

Where are they going?

They're going into the promise land to see the symbolism here.

Baptism is entrance into a new way of life.

We've left Egypt and now we pass into and toward the promise land.

But yes, we enter through baptism.

They entered the way baptism.

Paul says, and yes we have a meal, but you know what?

The journey isn't all that great and grand, it seems at times, many times it just looks like hard work.

You know, we take these pictures and we get dressed up and we just did this.

You know, we look all great when the sun's going down and you know, the pictures being augmented and all this, you know, we all smile and you don't see the yelling that goes on in place.

Now smile, stopped doing that smile.

You know, we, we have these snapshots and you know, I don't want to see all the yelling so people always talk about, you know, social media is terrible because it doesn't show all the bad stuff.

I don't want to see all the bad stuff.

Okay?

I want to see the good stuff about your family.

You know what I mean?

That's fine with me.

I'm good with that.

Being social media, don't start adding the other stuff, please.

I'm going to dislike it, but life comes out as fast and hard and we have a baptism.

We come to church, we get rejuvenated and then we get right back in the wilderness.

You know what happens to them?

It's crazy.

They, they leave Egypt with these 10 big signs and they go straight to a body of water that they can't cross.

Got You.

This watch and see the salvation that I'm going to bring, but before that happens, they ask the questions that we ask, why don't you bring us out here to die?

You told us to come here and now we're just going to sit here and be killed by the Egyptians.

There's a principle in exodus of waiting.

We don't like that.

I don't like that, but God has the long game in mind.

He's not playing the short game.

He sees the end from the beginning.

He knows what he's doing.

He'll take as much time as he wants to take because he's the one who is God, not me.

He is God.

I am not.

That's a confession that I have to say a lot.

You are God.

I am not.

If you want to waste my life over here doing this or that, that's your business.

God, I'm here.

I'm available.

If you want to wait 40 years, that's your business.

God.

You know, I find it fascinating, the Bible, how many times God, how many times that God waits to do something big.

Jesus, 30 years, Moses, 80 years, Abraham, a hundred years, and then there's just one thing that they did that we still remember today.

We don't remember the waiting.

We remember the one thing somebody said, it takes roughly 13 years to become an overnight success in God's book.

It may take longer.

Are you willing to wait with him?

Because here's the deal and God has to constantly remind me of this.

Heck, I even have to remind myself sometimes have this.

I need you to remind me of this and that is.

This is not about me.

I'm not the superstar in this story.

Jesus says, and he became lonely.

That's what did.

He was unknown to the world when he was born that night, the next day he wasn't in the papers.

It wasn't streaming across CNN and Fox News.

Hardly anyone knew, but a couple of people did, and that's all that mattered to God.

Do a couple people in your life?

No.

Are you investing your life in a couple of people?

Because before you can do it.

Before a lot of people, it has to be a few people.

That's a principle that we work with in this church.

Before you can be leader of many, you must be leader of a few and before even leader of a few, you must lead in your family.

That's the most important place.

And that's also the most difficult place.

Your family sees it all.

Oh Man.

Our trip to New York, that was, uh, that was interesting.

I'm still processing certain things, but one of the things that I, that I noticed was Jessica and I, even though we spend a lot of time together, we don't spend that much time.

Just me and her, we do a lot of work together, but not just sitting with each other.

It's very interesting.

And I wanted to run, I wanted to go do some work or something.

I mean, I just, and I'm just, we're stuck together.

You know, she, I know she felt the same way and say in marriage, and you're like, you know, it's a pig.

It's a short term picture of our whole marriage is, you know what?

We made a covenant with each other and it's not about, it's not about the short game in this thing, it's about the long time that we have given to each other and we'll continually give to each other.

God has joined himself to us, not just temporarily to lift this out of the pit, just so we can scurry along.

Now he wants to put his arm around us.

He wants us to hold hands as we walk through the Valley of the shadow of death.

You see, it's his presence that the end game,

yes, yes,

and it doesn't matter if you're in the wilderness of life, in the woods, in the city, or on top of the world.

If you're not with him, it's vanity.

It's chasing after the wind.

Yeah,

but with him, with him, even this is the beauty of the Gospel.

Even suffering is transformed.

Even the worst of suffering is transformed.

Even the worst of pain and getting old and all the evil in our world can be transformed with him, but without him, even the best of lives

are worthless.

Hasn't it been proven over and over again?

We are to be married to God and that means even when I want to get a break from my spouse, when I feel like I can't go on with my children, I still choose to be with them.

That's, that's the beauty of real love.

So it's not just some kind of weak love that we get all the time in our media.

No, no, no, no, no real love.

Sees the real person and still loves him.

Things that get on your nerve and you still love them.

Things you don't disagree, things that you disagree with and you still love them.

That's what I'm thankful for.

My wife.

Not many of you be able to handle me.

I didn't figured there'd be that many laughs now.

Huh?

Love Covenant is something God's going to show them more of as soon as they get to Sinai and we're going to talk about that, but for now what he's trying to show them is, look, we're not just trying to take the efficient way.

God is not just about efficiency and I love the where we live because where we live is all about fishing.

You know, engineers and all this kind of all about efficiency and cutting waste and doing this.

It's everyone, you know, coach, things related to the government.

But, um, we like efficiency here, but you know what?

God's not in this thing for efficiency.

We can run every one of our systems in the church as efficient as it possibly could be and it wouldn't work because the spirit of God must breathe on whatever it is we do.

He must be walking in that direction.

Look as if he's not walking out direction.

Whatever kind of skyscraper system we build is empty.

That's a note to our leaders in the church and a note to me because sometimes I think efficiency fixes things.

If it did go with it, took him the short way, he took them the longest way possible, right into ocean and then right into the wilderness.

Why?

Because it was more than just a business.

It's a relationship.

Haven't you found that relationships are not very efficient?

Yes.

Amen.

Anybody have kids?

If you have kids, you know this very well, you may save up Bukusi money.

As soon as your kid gets sick, you'll sink it all in.

One child may not be the most efficient thing to do, but it's what we do as a family.

God sinks it all into us in his son, Jesus Christ, the greatest investment ever made into humanity.

He gives us his best.

Are we willing to give our best to God?

Are we willing to smear that blood over the door post of our own homes?

Are we willing to go into the wilderness with him or do we demand that it must be the short way, the more efficient way our way?

No, not as the elect people y'all way, not my way, your way, not our way, your way, not the government's way your way.

Oh, to be married to Christ, oh, to belong to his family.

Oh, to be the friend of God, step out of your front door.

Unless walk with God as a church.

Let's walk with God may not be the most efficient thing you've ever done, but spend it all on the pearl of greatest price.

Who is the presence of God himself and welcome into your life?

The Holy Spirit, and then today, take and eat and do this.

To remember him in the name of the father, the son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.