Exodus: Exodus After Exodus

So I'll read read some of that as we go, as we work our way through it.

That helps me kind of organize my thoughts as we go, and I don't think any of you is going to complain.

Man, that guy just read too much Bible, right?

Like I don't know if anybody's ever left.

He just read too much Bible.

It was too much.

It was just way too much.

And so this chapter 13, verses 17, 18 starts us off.

And what we see is we see that there was this way of the land, and then there was this way of the wilderness.

And the quickest, easiest route out of Egypt to move them toward Canaan was the way of the land.

And the people are going, well, of course this is our way.

Like it's the quickest, easiest route.

This is the way we should take.

This is obviously the way for us.

This is the way for me.

It's the way for us.

I mean, the way of the land is the way to go.

And then the Lord takes them south near the Red Sea and eventually into the wilderness and through what's known as the way of the wilderness.

Because he sees what we can't see.

And what they didn't know is that if they went the way of the land, the way they thought should be the way, there was a group called the Philistines, and that battle would have been so severe they would have turned around and they would have headed straight back to Egypt and straight back into slavery.

And so the way of the wilderness was not easy.

But it wasn't the way of the land, which was going to be impossible, and turned them around.

And the way of the wilderness is hard, right?

I mean, it's hard.

But it's something we can handle.

And it can be confusing and it can be difficult, but it's still often our way.

Maybe you're here and you know exactly what I'm talking about because at age 20 or 40 or 60 or wherever you're at along the way, you you would say, I mean, I never thought I'd be here.

I never thought it would be like this.

I never thought child rearing would be like this.

I never thought singleness would be like this.

I never thought I would get sick.

We got a phone call Wednesday night that a really good friend of ours died this week.

And thinking about her husband this morning, my friend Tommy, waking up, their five kids, and going, yeah, I never thought we'd be here.

And we know this feeling, and you just go, why are we here?

But we also don't know what that other path would have been.

We don't know that.

And see, for the Israelites, the way of the wilderness, it was difficult.

It was really hard.

Right?

I mean, nobody's saying it's easy.

God would never say, oh yeah, that's easy.

He's just saying the other way would have returned them to slavery.

Sometimes we just can't see that there's Philistines ahead on the path we think we should be taking.

We just prefer to complain and be confused on the path we're on.

And that's just humanity.

That's just us.

Unfortunately, God is gracious and listens to us in our limited sight.

We just don't understand the wilderness, right?

We just don't understand it.

You don't understand what happens to you.

I don't understand it for my friend Tommy this week.

I don't understand it for those five kids.

I don't understand this.

I don't know if we ever will, but understanding this story, this Exodus story, it will help.

It actually does help.

I don't know if understanding this story is going to help you understand your story, but I think understanding this story will help while you're in your story.

I mean, Margaret, our friend who died this week, I mean, she was, she was to Christy, she was uh she taught Christy how to grocery shop for her family.

I mean, she was like she was a really good mom.

And when we moved to Atlanta, she was one of the moms that Christy met and just connected with.

You're going, I don't, I don't know if I'm gonna understand this one.

But but I can understand this story.

And understanding this story does help.

It doesn't make it all perfect.

But what I what I get out of this story is that God's doing something beyond what I can see, and I get the fact that even when it's really difficult and it's really hard, like he's still there, that the story's not over, that there is another chapter, that the sun comes up again eventually.

Uh I've I've talked about my my love for ways.

I think I've talked about it.

Y'all hear when I talked about love of ways about a year ago.

I mean, I love love ways.

We call her Wanda, Wanda Ways.

I don't know if you have a name for the voice that comes out of it.

It's an app, by the way, when you're driving.

Are we familiar?

Are we together?

Okay.

So last week I had a meeting for with our with our architect down at his office in Enman Park, and for the architect for our new church building.

And so Inman Park, late meeting, it was like 3, 3.30.

And so, you know, me, my spoiled life of like my 30-second walking commute from my garage to my house.

I'm going like 4:30 in Atlanta, and I got to drive back to Marietta, and I'm like, oh, this is gonna be horrible.

And so I get out of the meeting and I turn a Wanda on, and she takes me through some roads I do know for a while because I used to live down there, and we take Boulevard to Freedom Parkway, and we get on the connector, we get on 75 North, and then she gets takes me off at Cumberland Parkway, and that's where that's our movie theater.

We still go to the movies there, and we cut by and then we cut by the new stadium, the Brave Stadium.

I hadn't been by there before.

I'd seen the cranes, but I didn't even know where that was over there, and there, and then I'm on Franklin Road for a little bit, and and she's taking me all over on these back roads.

And at some point along the way, I'm thinking to myself, I'm loving this so much.

I would do this if this was longer.

Like, I love this.

This is fun, like this is like enjoyable.

Maybe you're the opposite, like you're the person, like, just put me in a straight line.

Like, I'll put on a podcast, give me a straight line.

I don't care if it's 20 miles an hour up the expressway, just straight line, I don't have to think.

But I'm loving it, man.

I'm like weaving and cutting, and we're turn making turns, and it's exciting, it's fun, you know.

And I just started to think about it, and I was thinking about this story, of course, and I started to think about like, what if the only factor that Wanda took into play was not just time?

Because as far as I know, the only factor she takes into account is time.

Like how quick you can, but what if she could take it into like our personality?

Like, oh yeah, that guy, he loves curvy roads.

So I'm gonna send him on a few curvy roads on the way home.

It might be five minutes longer, but I know him and he loves the curvy roads.

Or that, you know, oh that guy, he hates curvy roads, or or she's she's not good on curvy roads, let's not do her on curvy roads.

Or he he can't handle the expressway no matter what.

He has so many rear-end accidents, so let's not send him.

Like, what if she could take into account all the aspects of us, right?

What and here's what if she knew what you could handle?

She'd send you all different ways.

The time wasn't the only factor.

That's what this Exodus story is, is God's considering not just time.

He's not going, oh, the quickest route is the way of the land.

You know, and all the way of the wilderness would take a lot longer.

He's he's considering so many different factors of these people, who these people are.

And I love this.

We get into this in Exodus 13, 21 and 22, just in case they had any doubt who was leading them, right?

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, and 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, right?

God's just making sure.

Like making sure like this is gonna be hard.

It's the long way around, there's gonna be a lot of suffering, there's gonna be sorrow, you're not gonna like it, and I'm gonna put a cloud and a fire to make sure you know I'm with you.

That it's certain so they would know this.

And see, we can be closed off to God in a circumstance, in that moment where you go, How did I get here?

Like, like in that circumstance, we can be closed off to God, we we can become hardened and we can let the circumstance define us, or we can dare to do a very crazy thing, and that is trust, and the fact that he can see the way of the land and the way of the wilderness, and dare to trust and ask God, how is this place, how is this way, how could this be my teacher?

And so in that way, it can be an obstacle for love and joy and peace, or or it can be an invitation.

Doesn't mean it's not hard, doesn't mean it's not heart-wrenching, doesn't mean it's not absolutely painful in the waiting.

But maybe there's something in there for you.

Maybe there's some knowledge of God you didn't know about, maybe there's some comfort you you never knew possible.

Maybe you, maybe you just never knew that you could be in a situation and a circumstance that was so horrible and that you can doubt it and be confused and be frustrated and be angry and still be accepted by God.

That and of itself could be revolutionary.

That could be life-changing.

Maybe it's a deeper relationship with your spouse that you would have never had anyway.

Maybe it's the fact that you would have been a lover of so much stuff that just wouldn't have mattered unless you're on the way of the wilderness and it stripped you down.

We don't know.

That's what I'm saying.

We don't know what God might do through something.

This story goes on in Exodus 14, and this fickle Pharaoh, this guy, he regrets his decision to let these people go.

And so he comes after them and he mounts his army up and he loads all the chariots, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds, I think 600 or so chariots and more, and all the army comes after these Israelites and the Israelites.

They're freaking out.

They're complaining, they're afraid.

They're afraid.

And they're just saying to Moses, you should have left us alone.

Like we were making bricks and it was horrible, but you know what?

We're gonna die out here.

Like they're gonna slay us out here.

And the fact that they're having this conversation, that they want to return to an old life that was so horrible, it sort of reveals something.

Because if you remember many sermons ago at the beginning of Exodus, at the very first sermon, we talked about their lives in Egypt.

What they were doing.

They were making bricks all day, every day in the hot sun, and when they didn't meet their quota, they got beat.

This is what they did.

It's what they did on Monday, it's what they did on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, it's what they did all week, it's what they did every day.

We can comprehend this for an hour, making bricks in the hot sun.

If you don't live up to your quota, you're gonna get beat.

We can comprehend it for a little bit.

Comprehending it for a week becomes a little more difficult, a month, very hard, a year, decades, your entire life.

And they're saying, we want to go back to that.

That feeling like this will never get any better.

Yeah, I want to go back to that rather than be afraid out here.

And then we get chapter 14, verses 13 and 14, and I just love these two verses.

And Moses said to the people, fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work.

He will work for you today.

Love that, that he's gonna do it.

For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again.

The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.

So two points.

I have two points coming out of those two forces.

Two points.

Uh the first is the battle is the Lord's.

And number two is that He is with us in the battle.

So, number one, the battle is the Lord's.

So be silent.

Another word maybe in your version of your Bible, your translation might say still.

Be still.

What does this mean?

Well, it means you don't have to work to justify yourself.

It means that you don't have to work to free yourself.

To overcome that sin debt to God, that guilt, that condemnation, that feeling of inadequacy, all that.

You don't have to work to overcome that.

Be still, and you can be still because Jesus was not still, because he did work for you.

That's what the cross is about.

It's the work we could not do.

It's the payment we'll never be able to pay, no amount of religious activity, spiritual disciplines, worldly achievement.

There is no amount you could accumulate to work yourself out of a debt with God, to make yourself feel relieved of your sin or feel valued as a person.

And so God's saying, hey, no, no, no, just stop all that guilt-driven motivations, like stop all of that.

Be silent, be still.

Receive it.

The battle's the Lord's.

Second point is he is with us in the battle.

And I just, you know, I added this one just because the fact that the battle's the Lord's is almost so cliche.

Like we've just heard it.

If you've been around church, you've heard it so many times.

And I just wanted a second point just to remind us that he's with us.

It's pretty much the same point.

But just for us to remember, he will never let you go.

If you're his child, you have given up faith in yourself to put faith in what Christ has done for you, to have the right relationship with God.

You are forever his.

Two different times.

Love never fails, he'll never let you go.

Like that's why we're singing about it.

So I was this week trying to think this through.

You know, I love drawings.

Came up with one of my just wonderful drawings here, and actually just straight out of the maps, out of the back of my Bible, to be honest.

Um, and so what we have here is we have lovely Egypt, Sinai, Canaan.

And so let's get our bearings a little bit around this story, is just all I wanted to do.

So uh, do you remember like at the beginning of Exodus story, Moses kills the guy and he flees?

So this Moses would have been here and he would have fled and he would have gone all the way down to Midian, remember?

And he hangs out down here for a long time as a shepherd, and he's watching another guy's sheep, and then he comes back and he frees the people.

Now, this is what would have like the people, when they got free, they thought they were going the way of the land.

It would have been up here, it would have been the easiest way, it would have been the quickest way, like this is the obvious way up to their land.

Right?

And that's not what happened.

Instead, they come down this way, they're led this way, they're boxed in at the Red Sea, their backs are against the wall.

And they're saying, down here, they're saying, Moses, just why didn't you leave us alone?

Like, just why can't we go back here?

And remember, they're just making bricks, this is all they're doing, their whole lives, making brick after brick after brick over brick.

And they're saying, I want to go back to that.

And what we see just by them making that comment, what we see is they need a lot more than a deliverance, a physical deliverance.

Because they're not just making bricks, they're not just having enslavement physically.

Like the fact that they're so afraid they want to return to a physical enslavement shows you that they have an enslavement inside of themselves and they need deliverance, not just from a land, but they need deliverance from an inside.

They need an internal deliverance of their heart.

And what we see is they need an exodus after their exodus.

That's what verse 13 and 14 tell us.

See, it tells us that fighting your fear with your work, your just your self-justifying methods, fighting your fear with your work will only create more fear.

But stopping all of it, being still, being still in your imperfection, and yet being completely perfect in Christ's work for you, there you have victory.

There you can have peace.

So the story goes on in chapter 14, as the people are down there, they're boxed into the Red Sea, and the Lord says to Moses, you know, tell the people to go forward, they're trapped in.

And Moses lifts up his staff, stretched out his hand, and the sea splits, and the people go into it.

We jump back into the story in Exodus 14, verse 17, and I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his hosts, his chariots and his horsemen.

Exodus 14:17

So God's very clearly doing something here.

And it's for his glory for him to be known, not just in Israel, but in all tribes, all languages.

And the Egyptians shall know.

See, they shall know, the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, whom I have gotten glory over Pharaoh and his chariots and his horsemen.

See, this is important to God.

That he's not a tribal God.

We keep seeing this over and over again.

I've mentioned the last three or four weeks, he's not a tribal God.

He's a God for any person, no matter what they look like, or where they come from, or what they've done, or what language they speak.

The God we serve, he's not an American God, not a Republican God.

He is a God of any tribe.

And the text says Moses stretched out his hand, and the Lord drives the sea back by a large wind.

The Israelites cross through on dry land, and the Egyptians pursue them.

And what is all of this for?

This story that gets a little crazy, right?

Because the Egyptians go in, their cherries get stuck, the water comes back, they die.

It's quite brutal.

What is all this for?

Verse 31.

Israel saw, Israel saw, they needed to see it.

These people saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians.

So the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in servant Moses.

See, these people, the Israelites, God's people, they they walked out of the Red Sea with a new identity.

That enemy, that enemy, the Egyptians, had so much power over them for so long, that enemy no longer had that power.

Here's what the story means: it means that voice.

That voice of condemnation, that voice of oppression, that voice that keeps on you, that you aren't ever quite enough.

You know, make another brick, make another brick, make another brick.

You know, another person's approval, you know, one dress size down, one more, one more, one more.

One more moment of escape.

Oh, that one wasn't enough.

Let's get another moment of escape.

That voice no longer has defining power over you.

We'll still hear it.

You still hear it, I still hear it, we'll still hear it the rest of our lives.

It has, it just, that voice is drowned.

It does not have defining power over you.

We don't have to be slaves to fear anymore.

You will get afraid.

I will get afraid.

That's what's going on with the Israelites.

They're afraid.

That's why they want to return back to it.

Enslavement, they're afraid.

But that fear should not have defining power over us.

Now, that fear, you know what fear should do?

Fear should tell you not to touch the fire.

It should tell you, don't walk out on I-75.

It should tell you these things.

And you should say, Thank you, fear.

I appreciate that.

I will listen to you.

But when fear says to you something about your worth or your acceptance or about your position before God, that's when you say, fear, it's not your area.

Not your area.

We can stick with like physical harm.

Like that's where I'm gonna allow you to speak to me, but I'm not gonna allow for you to speak into my worth or my position before God.

That's not an area that you have a voice.

You have no defining voice there.

That's the freedom of living and the fruit of the Holy Spirit, that the Holy Spirit that lives in you as a child of God is speaking over you the story of Jesus, that Jesus' death and resurrection is your work.

It's your work.

So you can be still, you can be silent, you can be at peace.

And that work can transform those fears because you're already accepted.

It's already done.

So, brothers and sisters, may you be okay in the way of the wilderness.

May you know his guidance and nearness.

May you trust and know freedom rather than seek control and be bound in fear, and may you know the riches of Christ's love and have exodus after exodus after exodus, not just physically, but internally in your heart.

Let's pray together.

God thank you that you will put up with all of our doubts, our confusion, our limited sight when we so when we're so confident the way of the land is the way to go, and you, you know.

That the way of the wilderness, though it be filled with sorrow, the other way would be filled with sorrow, and even worse.

May we dare to trust in you while we can't see all things, humble us.

May we dare to take our fear and let you drown it in your work for us on the cross, that we might not let it drive us to self-justifying work and methods and escape, but that we might know freedom.

The freedom that's known in the work of Jesus on the cross, your sufficient work for us.

Would you help us on a day to day basis as your Holy Spirit is speaking into our hearts and minds, your story and your work?

Help us to appropriate your grace into our lives.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.