Leftovers - Exodus 15

Happy Monday, we're back in with the ERC Leftovers podcast.

I'm Pastor Matt. Pastor Chris.

Pastor Chris. Still here?

I'm back from vacation apparently.

Vacation. You said it wasn't vacation.

Yeah, definitely not. No, it was a good time.

There was travel with the kids was was pretty easy.

They had a great time at Inspiration Point this weekend,

bringing back, yeah, a crew of eight from camp.

You had quite the You went on quite the monologue about how I

hung you out to dry with this week's sermon text and Exodus

15. I mean, it's just a peek behind

the. Curtain, the gift I gave you, is

that what it was? It was a.

Gift. And you know what I think?

I think our systematic professor for decades, Dr. Bo, would

appreciate the fact that I received that gift.

I did not in planning appreciate it, but it's fine.

It's fine. God's got plans.

You've got kids that camp and it's like.

No, I thought, I thought you spoke really well.

This, this Moses series. I think it's, I mean, I say it

like I'm surprised. I'm not I'm not surprised and we

shouldn't really be surprised, but how much it has built on

even the series and acts that we were in just kind of there's

there's Christian living in Moses, which is, which is not

funny. Again, I don't want to act

surprised by it because all of scripture points to Jesus.

All of scripture is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting,

training in in righteousness. But I think just those that on

the surface, well, what do we want to see for Christian

living? OK, we need, we need the New

Testament. We need the early church in

acts. Like that's where we want to

look. There's there's lots of gems

here too and like God hasn't changed right.

It's the the blueprint's been the same yeah entered Jesus

enters the scene in 2000 years ago, but like the the the bones

of it, the foundation for what it means to follow God.

Same going going back to Moses didn't change with Jesus coming

in on the scene. So yeah, anyway, I think I think

it's been really good even you're just daily battle sort of

language that you were talking about yesterday.

I just do you know, do you know who you're fighting?

Do you realize you're fighting? Do you do you realize you're in

a spiritual fight? And then of course, the

response, the example of response that we have in Exodus

15, the first kind of recorded song of response and worship.

So no, I thought you spoke really well, even on the the

unexpected gift that you had. Yeah, yeah, I actually, you

know, when I eventually, again, I use language like this, when I

finally found my line, in other words, like it's a, it's a, it's

a line of thought that the text all directs, right, 'cause the

text has to direct what I say. Otherwise I'm just giving you

like some weird, not great motivational speech.

And I'm not a good Ted Talk guy, but, you know, so like, once I

actually found the line, after hours and hours of

ridiculousness, I was, I was really happy.

I was, I was, I was happy to have received that gift.

So it's, you know, it's fine. God works it all out.

All right, our we're still going through the pile of Ask Me

anything questions here, and what we're going to talk about

today may be a simple question, but I think worth talking about.

Should we say God bless you when someone sneezes?

It's it's so silly. Now I'm not, I mean in a

nutshell as it relates to Christendom or like being a

Christian. No, there, there's no this.

You should you have to do this. It's not the 11th commandment.

It's not the 11th, not anything close to being the 11th

commandment. OK.

Cool, glad we got that. Out of the way, it's even the

tradition of that is primarily rooted to like the advent of, of

the bubonic plague and, and people, even the sickness people

like wishing blessing and healing on the person who might

be sick with this crippling disease.

Like that's, that's really where it started.

There's also some loose things throughout history about the

idea in from some other religions about that, like your

soul could leave your body when you sneeze or or there's like an

opening for evil spirits to come in when you sneeze.

I'll tell you what, man, I, I have to say this, that as I've

gotten older and it's true, I think there's there's a thing

called the dad sneeze, which. I feel like your soul, which I

your body. And that's the whole point.

So there are times when I sneeze and I absolutely think I left my

body for a second because that was so violent and so loud and

ridiculous. And it's not as though I'm doing

that on purpose because I hear people sneeze and it's these

cute little at you, you know, those like things.

My my God bless my sister-in-law is a very quiet, like kind of a

cute sneezer, right? And then I come in and I feel

like the wolf who is blowing the house down of the three pigs

when I sneeze. And actually it's mildly

embarrassing. I I think it's weird.

I, I have, I only sneeze violently.

No, I like, I hear, I hear what you're saying and I feel a

little ridiculous, but also just that's how I sneeze and I yeah,

so I get it. So.

Yes, it does feel like my soul is sometimes leaving my body

because it's so violent. So with all that it does,

there's not any sort of like spiritual protection.

I don't necessarily think it rooted to that.

It's it's steeped in that tradition of the time of the

bubonic plague, a little bit of the flawed theory that a soul

could leave a body during a sneeze or that even evil spirits

might enter or escape. But no, there's nothing biblical

about it for sure. This other thing that it says I

like too, because there is a rumor that the heart stops when

we sneeze. And so you're basically

welcoming, welcoming them back to life because supposedly a

person's heart stops when they're about to sneeze or

during the course of the sneeze. And so when you say God bless

you, you're welcoming them back to real life or, like, you know,

your heart's back. Good.

We're glad you're alive after that very violent sneeze.

Yeah. So there it's just all those

things and it's just a general politeness.

A a, a wishing good health, I think isn't the the German word

gazuntite. It literally is.

I think good health to you now. Now I've said that I've spoken

that into ether and someone who actually speaks German, though I

my name is Schweitzer and I don't speak German.

You have. The most German name of anybody

I've ever met who lives in Iowa. It just literally means health.

Yeah. So that's that's fine.

Health to you? Yeah.

Do you? Ever say gazuntite?

Is that a thing you do? No, I there was a point, I think

it was, I think it was in high school or early college.

I was actually kind of Snooty about that because I was so

like, I, I felt there was no good reason to say God bless

you. So I would only respond with

gazoon tight when someone there was definitely a point in my

life where I was like, no, not saying God bless you.

I'm glad. That's where you drew the lining

in the sand. You're like, you know what?

Of all the things to care about, this is the one.

I'm I'm putting my flag down on this.

That's awesome. There, there was a point in my

life where I did that, but I'm not, I'm not, I'm not about that

anymore. So no, it's just rooted in

somewhat of a spiritual battery or even a health battle in the

bubonic plague. But no, it's just a general

politeness, not anything that we're actually like wishing

God's protection over necessarily.

So you can, if sneezes are like a good reminder to like, hey,

Jesus loves you or, or praying for you or like whatever, sure,

use it as a use it as a trigger of God bless you.

Yeah, I that's kind of cool. I.

Think you know? I suppose, you know, to to bring

this to a witnessing level, Gosh, you know, somebody sneezes

and you give the whole instead of just, oh, bless you, you say

God bless you. And then all of a sudden

somebody's like, why? Why do you do that?

And if you don't cite the plague reason, you could say, oh, well,

and then maybe you get into a spiritual conversation.

So who knows? Maybe a sneeze leads to a

conversation about the gospel. Who knows?

All right, you heard it here first, Pastor Chris.

Do it. Go for it.

Go for it like you might as well like.

Striking out sneezing evangelism.

Oh, can we get T-shirts made for sneezing evangelism?

I don't think that's going to catch on.

It doesn't sound like a movement.

OK, well I tried. We'll have to rebrand that one

of you can be creative about. Yeah, our sneeze.

That's join our sneezing ministry.

Join our join our gazoon tight ministry like that.

I don't think that works. OK, that's fair.

But you know, for the people who like.

We like to try things here. I'm not super excited about

trying that to be honest. With you let me OK.

Do you know any like multi sneezers?

I am you're a multi. So if I do, there's usually two

more following it. And unfortunately, Clara, our

oldest daughter, like also, that's the only way she sneezes

is like in threes. Wow.

Or sometimes she gets caught. She can.

I think I've heard like 7 or eight in a row from her.

Wow, see, I I always thought my sneezes are so violent.

I got it all out in one, whereas again, like these kind of

softer, like no man, there was more to whatever, get out ex,

you know, expel and so you need multiple because you're not as

violent as maybe you should be. So you just needed multiple

tries at it. So you feel yours is violent.

Is there, is there anyone in your life that you just know?

Oh, they have a cute sneeze. Like like it's, it's just like a

quiet innocent, just like. Yeah, it's definitely my

sister-in-law. She goes in fours.

Oh, of the little ones, I. Mean every time, without fail.

Without fail. Yeah, Once she starts, you're

like, we're just going to wait for five seconds, 'cause this is

going to happen. Yeah.

So that's I, I know at least one for sure.

Multiple sneezer and it's always 4.

Weird. Yeah, I know.

Sneezes are weird. It is a strange thing.

It's do we know why? Well, oh gosh, I don't want to

get too far off, but like, why do has anybody ever actually

answered? Why do we yawn?

Like what's that? About yawn is a lack of oxygen

to the brain, isn't it? That's why I've heard.

But is that real? So then why do I always have a

lack of oxygen to my brain when I'm tired?

Yes. Is that why I'm like?

Isn't that the point? Like your body is trying too

hard to to replenish oxygen to your brain.

So you need to rest, which is why you're tired and why you're

yawns. And and so the yawn is like this

big inhale. Again, not a doctor, but that's

that's what's in my brain, Yeah. OK, well, maybe I'll ask.

Maybe I'll ask. AI know.

I know a doctor. We know a doctor.

Google. Search what we really need.

We need a producer for the podcast to look these things up

while we're talking so that he can either affirm or deny our

thoughts on these are fake doctor thoughts.

Yeah, oh boy. All right, we're off to a

sprinting start as usual. As usual.

Heard it here first, Sneezing Ministries.

And why you yawn. All right, we're going to jump

into a little more knowledgeable content on some deeper dives

into Exodus 15 and the Song of Moses here.

You preached on Exodus 15 verses one through 21 yesterday.

This is the first like recorded song of response of worship in,

in the Bible. Of course, we, we get the idea

of the psalmist in Psalm 40 sing a new song to the Lord.

What's what's interesting is this was kind of a spontaneous

song. I think it's funny that they put

this out here as a song that everyone was singing.

But no, what that's not how we learned something.

Like we don't, we don't just get together on Sunday mornings and

they're like, all right, everyone start singing something

that we don't know what it is, but it's going to come together

and be great. We're all going to sing the

words together. Like there's this weird picture

of they were all singing the song, but nobody knew what the

song was. It kind of came into being an

obvious, like it kind of came into form.

I guess they were maybe writing a song together and it kind of,

and it kind of came into this form and was recorded at that

in, in scripture And, and this is what it is, but it's a, it's

a funny picture to me of just like, hey, they sang this song

that nobody knew and it was just powerful.

Yeah, and and I thought that interesting too, when I in in my

own commentary notes that I wrote, I said like, how is this

likely that the voices were in unison on all of these

particular words of this time? The only, the only way that we

get a sense that like people could have joined in without

knowing this ahead of time, I suppose, without God, just like

putting the words in their mouth and making them sing like

Beetlejuice. That's a funny reference, by the

way. The only way that Miriam, she

repeats what Moses says. So at the end she kind of says

this is the chorus. And so they bust out the

tambourines and they're dancing and they're having a great time.

And so she she repeats what Moses says.

So that's like the chorus of the song, right?

So I mean, we get that sense to it.

But as far as them singing in unison, that would have had to

have been God literally just moving their mouths for them to

be able to do that. And that is possible, but I that

seems less probable to me. But I think that's the beauty

and maybe a little bit of the misunderstanding of worship too,

that worship is unto the Lord. So as much as we like to have

what we sent, we sent out the setlist every Sunday like, hey,

these these songs are these songs are coming up and the band

obviously is prepared with with songs that we're going to sing

and we kind of plan out those moments of worship.

That's a that's a, I'm not going to say unbiblical picture of

worship because I don't think it is.

I think, but worship can also be spontaneous if it's to the Lord,

like it doesn't doesn't need to be planned out.

It's just things that are said in awe and reverence to him like

that. That's that's what worship is as

his basis form. So he can take the form of these

just like seemingly random throwing this, throwing this

song together in the moment. If it's about him and it's true

and and it's and it's attributes or attributing or praising to

him and these things, yeah, that that is worship.

Charles Spurgeon says this is the very first of those sacred

songs preserved in Scripture, and in some respects it is first

in merit as well as in time. This is why I was excited about

this passage that I subsequently dumped on you because it kind of

frames the, the structure, the format, the layout of what

songs, hymns, psalms to the Lord look like in, in the rest of

Scripture, right? Like if this was truly and we

don't know because, because we don't like what was this?

Was this passed down? Did they come back to this?

Was it, was it a song of remembrance?

I, I think it probably was because we have again, hymns

songs that at one point in time we're crazy meaningful and and

truthful about God for the people of God.

But the ones that have stuck around are the ones that remain

true that that that are in that. So I don't think this was like a

one and done in this instance. This was something that was

passed down in tradition. So it's kind of it's kind of the

model for, OK, this is how we write songs of remembrance, of

response for what God has done. And actually several scholars,

they look at it and they, they give different titles, but you

know, there's like stanzas here essentially.

So like verse one through 5 is its own stanza in a sense.

And if you just look thematically at those verses,

like you say, well, what's happening?

Well, the Lord is my strength. Pharaohs, you know, Chariots and

all that kind of stuff, and the floods covered them.

And so like, it is just speaking to the power and the nature of

God in that first stanza. And then you just continue to

kind of break that down into thematic spots, you know,

throughout the verses. And actually you're like, no,

that, that makes good sense that this is a song because each

little stanza that you might break it down into, you know, it

has its theme. So like one of the themes, for

example, within the song is what are God's weapons of war?

You know, so like he can, you know, I don't need to get into

all that this particular second. But like, yeah, take the time to

look at your Bible and break these things down into, into

spaces. And you're like, Oh yeah,

especially the with the Psalms, with this, you can definitely

say, OK, there's a pattern, there's a, there's a methodology

here to how this works. Yeah.

And I think that even some of that language there is

interesting that that the Lord, the Lord is a man of war.

The Lord is his name. It doesn't.

I think we hear war and we just think of aggression.

It's both sides, isn't it? Like like we have until

recently, even in this not trying to bring politics or

anything, just think about we had we had a Secretary of

Defense, right? And now that's now that's

renamed as the secretary of War, right, which which sounds

aggressive and weird, but even going back to scripture here,

like living as a Christian isn't all about playing defense

either, right? Like it's not it's not the Lord

is a man of defense. There, there's, there's and we

have we've talked about, I think at least at guy's nights, but

maybe on the podcast before, like the sword of the spirit,

right? Yes, you can use a sword to

block and parry and and defend, but also Jesus used it to fight

back, right? Like he quoted scripture to the

devil and, and beat him back in his temptation, right?

Like there's, there's an offensive, aggressive side of

war. It's not, it's not just defense,

right? So, and we see, I mean, we see

that in the Red Sea. We see that in in the Old

Testament the the the people of Israel fought literally and but

also spiritually. Yeah.

And we see, again, bringing this forward into the New Testament,

and I brought it out a little bit yesterday, but we see Jesus

absolutely going to war with religious figures.

We see him going to war against things within the culture of his

time that do not honor God. And ultimately, of course, we

see him go to war against Satan and death itself on the cross.

And that war is 1 with the empty tomb that it's an absolute 100%

you are fully defeated kind of moment.

And so I, I just think that's really neat to think about, not

think about, but just like reflect on the fact that, yeah,

Jesus went to war for us through the means of humility and

sacrifice. And that's what war looked like

for him. And you, you better believe that

that was a war because as he's praying the night before, he's

going to be crucified. Imagine the war that is within

his head and within his body and within his spirit.

It's a war that caused him to bleed in prayer.

That's how heavy this war is. And so he's, he's a fighter all

the way. And he fought for us and he and

it's done. It's won.

I think another really important thing to draw out here and it's

this is labeled as like, right, the song of Moses, right?

Sometimes this the song of Israel, right?

I think it is some, some ways. Notice that it's not not about

Moses, right? Even though it's the Song of

Moses. It's not about, it's the song

that Moses sang. It's the song that Israel sang.

It's not about Israel. And this is part of the filter.

We've, we've talked about peeling the curtain back a

little bit in, in how we choose songs for worship or what songs

we do in worship. One of the most important

questions to ask, especially the songs that we do together on

Sunday mornings. Who's doing the verbs?

If this is a song that is filled with eyes and, and things that I

have done or things that I like. The the really the only phrase

I'm really comfortable even in I doing is is like I believe or,

or I will praise you or or like it still needs to be God is

still like the the subject. Is that the object?

I'm terrible at grammar again, but the object of my action,

right? So even if I am the subject,

he's he's still the object of the verbs that I'm doing.

If I'm doing anything in that song, it's to God.

Otherwise in that song, it's about what God is doing.

And then we see that in this song, right?

He has triumphed gloriously. He has thrown them into the sea.

He is my strength and my song. Yeah, really the the I in here

is right away in verse one, I will sing to the Lord.

And then after that it's all about him.

It's all about him, whether whether it's throwing the, you

know, throwing the enemy into the sea or whatever that looks

like. It is all about him and his

actions. And so this is a model picture

of worship and in within song for God's people, it, it's

absolutely the model. And it's so good in that way.

And so, yeah, thank you, by the way, for choosing songs that

like don't focus on us because that would be disheartening,

especially when we fail and we're like, Oh no, I Can't Sing

this song because I I failed and I'm not really that good at this

thing. And so then it's very just

disingenuous and not helpful. The final phrase that sticks out

to me kind of from this first stanza, he has become my

salvation. I think that's not that's it's

in the middle of it. It's not towards the end, but

like he has become my salvation. Recognizing as hard as we may

try, we cannot save ourselves and and not even he is like he

is our salvation. It does take that step of

humility of Nope. OK, taking up my cross daily.

God, I need you. I'm, I'm not enough to do that.

In fact, I can't contribute anything.

You're my salvation. I'm entering in kind of, I mean,

walking through the Red Sea kind of kind of thing, like, like

following you in that. He's made the path.

He's made the way. Do you trust him and not because

of your own strength? You're standing on the shore

with the army behind you. Like that's that's as far as you

yourself got, right? Yeah, absolutely.

So, yeah. Just just a powerful picture

there. He has become my salvation.

He who has God for his strength will have him for his song.

There's a there's a thought from the commentator Clark and I

don't think that's far off. God made us.

God made us as responsive beings in in praise and song and music.

I even think about like sporting events, right?

We've got we've got these little jingles or, or, or just even

just little things. When the when the whatever, when

the baseball team hits a home run, there's a there's, there's

a song that's played or there's a cheer that's stirred up.

Like we respond to strength with a song in everything.

So of course we would do it for God, right?

Oh, you you ought to you, you better.

And you know, The thing is, one of my favorite response songs

that is obviously very secular is when the Cubs win, right?

Go Cubs. Go, Cubs.

Go. Yeah.

Like there's a song that's been ringing true for decades and

decades in response to like, hey, we're really excited about

that. We're on the winning side.

Yeah. And so, you know, to that extent

like. But that's what this song is.

This is this is go God, go. Right.

Like, oh God, Now it sounds like a Doctor Seuss book, but shoot.

OK, OK, here's the thing. Hear me out.

Hear. Me out our we've got several

people on our worship team who write on Fridays because you

know, they're working on working very hard at producing original

God loving, God honoring music. Why can't we have a go God go

song to that to that theme? Can we, can we just do that?

Like, like, let's say, let's say you're on stage and you just

preach the paint off the walls. Man, you just, you just hit a

home run and like, you know, you got people weeping in the alley.

Like, Oh my gosh, the Lord is moving.

And then we just sing go God, go.

Come on. Do it.

Do it. Do it.

Do it. Do it, do it.

Go God, do it. Do it.

Go God. Go, God.

Go. Hey man, what do you say God is

gonna win today? Dude, let's go.

So dumb. That was the dumbest thing.

So friends on the worship team who are writers, you know, you

know what your job is. This is also why we need a

producer to just like, cut that stuff out of this show.

Oh my goodness. Oh no, I'm I'm hoping that the

the the dozens and dozens of people who listen to this

podcast will now come up to you re like relentlessly begging for

that tune. Let's.

Go. Oh man, Yeah.

And that's how I quietly make Cubs fans out of all of us.

There's not going to. Be a whole lot of Cubs fans if

they do what they did on Saturday that wasn't.

That's just hurtful. That's just hurtful.

I I tried, I tried to have vacation this weekend.

I tried to take Saturday off, went out for lunch, tried to

watch the Cubs. They were down 9 nothing by the

end of the 30 and I was like vacation.

I went home. I was yeah.

So I. Feel.

That anyway, sorry, brief sports sidebar between the stanzas here

in Exodus 15. Anything else in the 1st 5

verses you want to jump to the second stanza here?

Let's well, yeah, we let let's move on.

OK, That's that's fine. Let's do that second stanza kind

of versus 6 through 10 a lot about God's hand in this

actually you have overthrown those who rose against you is is

kind of the the theme of this second stands that your right

hand, O Lord has become glorious in power.

Your right hand, O Lord has dashed the enemy in pieces the

quoting God later my hand shall destroy them.

You blew them with your wind weird.

What? What?

A lot of God's right hand here. Yeah.

So one of the one of the things that's kind of interesting and

to take it quite literally, right hand opposite the word

right meaning opposite of wrong. Right now, I'm not picking on

left-handed dominant people. I'm not.

That's not the point. But it's, it's a directional

word. No, literally, it's a

directional word, a moral word. Yeah.

So you can, you can take it that way.

And it's, it's what oftentimes prior to modern ages, like this

is the standard. So although there are plenty of

people who are dominant with their left hand like way back

when, like this is the standard. The standard is that you use

your right hand for all the important things.

So think about it. If you're a warrior, like your

shield is on your left, your sword is on your right.

So there's a, there's a directional thing happening here

and there's a, a standard, a right and wrong.

OK, so think about it that way first.

But then so take that and apply it to biblical culture, you

know, thousands of years ago and it, and it starts to make a lot

of sense now more particular to God.

What makes sense is that who is seated at his right?

Jesus. Jesus is seated at his right.

It's Jesus, not Jesus. Jesus.

Producer cut that, no? So Jesus sitting at the right

hand of God, what that means biblically, whoever is at the

right hand of the king, not just biblically but even Kingdom

wise, whoever's at the right hand of the king has the same

power as the king. So as Jesus sits at the right

hand of God, he has the same power of Father God.

And so that's where a lot of this comes from.

And so think about God using his powerful right hand to do this

work of salvation. All of a sudden it makes sense,

especially as you look forward God who and the and the the

person of God who sits at his right hand does the saving in

Jesus Christ. And so thematically, again, all

66 books point to the same thing.

Thematically, we see God's right hand, AKA Jesus, creating

salvation for people. And being so also connecting

sort of the spirit, if John Gospel of God, John in the

beginning was the word and the word is with God and the word

was God. If the words in his right hand,

that's that's the weapon, right? That that's the that's his

authority, exercising his authority with the word, who is

Jesus? All it's it's all the things,

right? And interesting that he uses his

mighty powerful right hand. And as we just said a few

minutes ago, that mighty powerful right hand actually

does the opposite of what you would think you would do with

your right hand of power and strength.

And in humility, he dies. So again, we've got a lot of

play, a lot of dynamic here with this, with this right side,

right hand bit. But yeah, ultimately God uses

his own power, his most powerful arm, to actually die.

And we needed that because we are sinners, saved by grace

alone. Bam.

Bam, couple more things in Scripture because this is an

idea throughout Scripture as well about the right hand of

God. Psalm 45, Four, God's right hand

teaches us Psalm 4810, God's right hand is full of

righteousness. Again, that that the morality

that you're talking about that he exercises with the Father.

Obviously Psalm 110, but we also talk about this in the New

Testament to Psalm 110. One, the Father invites the Son

to sit at his right hand in Habakkuk, a book that we don't

often reference, but the cup of God's judgement is held in his

right hand again. So, so with this, it's not only,

it's not only peace and salvation, but if you're on the

wrong side of right, the wrong. Side of right?

Exactly. If you're on the wrong side of

right there, there, there's judgement there.

And then of course, Paul affirms in Ephesians 120 that Jesus is

seated at the right hand of the Father.

So again, continuous God didn't change.

The the the game didn't change. The design didn't change.

Well, and also, you know, you get to revelation in these kind

of judgement moments and what does he do with the two parties,

'cause there's only two parties. This is what we would call a

binary situation. There's only two.

And there's those who believe in trust in Jesus Christ who will

go One Direction. There's those who refuse to

trust in him who will go another direction.

Who do you think's going right? Those who trust in him, they are

going to the right, right? So that those all those things

like they automatically work together for that bigger phrase.

Yeah, all right. The third stanza here asks the

question, who? Who is like you?

This is verse 11. Who is like you, O Lord among

the gods, Who is like you, glorious in holiness, fearful in

praises, doing wonders. You stretched out your right

hand. The earth swallowed them.

So we have kind of the continuation of that idea.

Remember going back to last week to A big part of the idea of

God's deliverance in the Red Sea was also that Egypt would know

he would be glorified by Egypt, by his enemies, knowing that he

was God. Right now we have this

reflection of Israel kind of saying, who are you?

You are a no. It's kind of the same question

as as the Egyptians, they had that moment of realization of,

of fear, right? Of oh, God fights for them.

We, we now know the might and power and strength in this song.

Now we have this moment of yeah, you're, you're a mystery to the

nations of the earth. But we know we and we should and

we should know and acknowledge and fear the righteousness of

your right hand, that the the might of your right hand.

And there's no one that compares to who is like you, fearful and

praises doing wonders. Sometimes the best questions are

the ones that are rhetorical and everybody already knows the

answer to. And after the events in Egypt,

everybody within 1000 miles knows the answer to this

question. And so that's pretty important.

We'll talk more about that in a minute in a couple upcoming

verses. But His Holiness just so set

apart, so different than the quote UN quote lowercase G gods.

And so one of the interesting things, if you look back

historically, and this is true and it's probably still true

today in certain cultures, is that, oh, maybe it's even true

in Christianity when we get it wrong.

Here's the thing, the gods quote UN quote could be manipulated.

They are, they are beings that are emotionally immature.

So think about even the Greek gods and and stuff like that.

They fight each other. They have all these wars and

sometimes one wins, sometimes 1 loses.

And they're very much bent on these ever changing emotions

like anger and lust and all these kinds of things.

Who's like this God who is unchanging?

That's right. All those other gods, they can

be manipulated, they can be changed, they can all these

things, and they're wildly inconsistent.

What we see throughout the entire biblical narrative over

thousands and thousands of years is God is wholly consistent in

his character. And so even when he's angry, we

see that God gets angry, his nostrils flare up, or if you

translate that literally, his nose gets red.

So he's angry. But even inside that anger, he

is still in his heart. He's working towards salvation

at all times. He is wholly consistent in that.

Wow man. Yeah, some good history there.

Ongoing, still working. I love this thought from David

Guzik on just the idea of worship.

Again, he he authored the enduring word commentary.

It's great online commentary to give you deeper thoughts on

Scripture and it's free. So that's why that's why I like

referencing it. Well, because it's accessible

that in response to this question of who is like you, he

just has this reflection. Worship should proclaim the

superiority of the Lord God over anything else that claims to be

God. Commandment #1.

That's what worship is and that's and that's when we fall

short, right? That's making an idol of

something else is putting something else over God.

Worship is simply proclaiming the superiority of the Lord God

over anything else. There we are.

This is great. Look at that, look at that.

So if as we move forward a little bit more, there are these

verses that 14 through. Let's see here 16 Yeah.

OK. So the peoples have heard, they

tremble, pangs of seas. The inhabitants of Philistia now

are the chiefs of Edom. Dismayed, trembling seizes the

leaders of Moab. All the inhabitants of Canaan

have melted away. Tear and dread fall upon them

because of the greatness of your arm.

They are still a stone till your people pass by.

Till your people pass by whom you have purchased.

So what's actually happening here?

Why are we, why are we in the middle or towards the end of

this song praising God? Why don't we bring up all these

other people groups that weren't even a part of the Egypt thing?

Why do we even bring those up? Well, the, the short answer is

that nothing happens in a vacuum, especially when God is

doing it. And so if you think long before

the Internet, long before newspapers or whatever, how did

people receive information from distances?

Man? You've got runners, you've got

talkers, you've got people who are moving all over the land all

the time. And it would be no small thing

for the people who are surrounding the area of Egypt

and beyond to notice. Oh my gosh, I, I heard through

the Grapevine that most of Pharaoh's army was sunk in the

sea. And in fact, I went down to the

seashore and there's chariot wheels and there's bodies

everywhere. Can you imagine?

So that word starts to go out to the people of Philistia and the

people of Moab, and they're like, oh, no, like this story I

heard, I saw the bodies on the shore.

This is true because I know those Israelites, they they've

been stuck there forever. They're slaves.

We only have ever known them as slaves for the past couple 100

years. And somehow they're not in Egypt

anymore. And there's all these dead

bodies on the shore. So like, yeah, Can you imagine

the level of fear? Because it's not like they had

weapons. They didn't have anything to

fight. What?

So yeah, these people are, like melting, as the Bible would say

they are. They are freaked out.

Well, and to to reinforce this idea of the story going out,

Joshua 210 Rahab, the prostitute who's housing protecting the

Israeli spies who are coming and scoping out the city.

Joshua 210 says for we have heard how the Lord dried up the

water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt.

Like that's 40 years later after after this happened.

That's still on the thoughts and minds of of these people groups

of these what would be enemies of Israel.

They know that the the Lord is known and feared right by by

these people, by these enemies. So of course, of course that

goes out. There's out there's some some

natural revelation things there too that are just the the the

might of the Lord goes forth the the heavens declare and the

skies proclaim the work of his hands like that's that's ongoing

as well. Well, and you've got somewhere

in the neighborhood again of 2 million people hanging out in

these areas and moving through locations over a 40 year period.

And you're like, how are 2 million or so people just moving

together like this? What would even cause something

like that? Because that is a mass exodus

and movement unlike anything the world has ever seen and hasn't

seen since. And so like when you start

seeing that many people moving in the same direction at the

same time, you're like, and maybe those stories were true.

I, I heard about this stuff in Egypt, haven't been to Egypt,

but man, this, this feels like it's fitting the narrative that

I heard. And that's, that's got to be so

scary. Yeah, and it was as scary as it

was for the enemies. There's also just this immense

rejoicing like you can, you can hear the certainty and the

safety in these words of the of the experience that the people

of Israel have had in this. But as as we'll get to in the

coming weeks, that doesn't last. And and and it's and it's a lot

like Jesus and the parable of of the seeds too, right?

Like that, that faith, that surety of salvation that burns

so brightly. And yet how quickly we forget we

like they even between we see this again and again, the people

of Israel forget between being freed from Egypt and getting to

the Red Sea. They're like, our lives were

better. No, no, they weren't.

But you just got freed from slavery, that was.

Yesterday and you forgot about that, that you were slaves

yesterday. Like so again, the you're going

to hear us say it again and again, But it's, it's one of

those things I said it to the youth group this past week.

Like it feels hard and it feels like discipline to be in the

word every day. And it, and it especially at

first, I think anything that's worth doing at first, discipline

feels like a chore. It feels like a burden, going to

the gym, eating right, being in prayer with your spouse or kids

or your or your family. Like it feels awkward and

burdensome. And you won't say that like even

the Israelites a day or two free of captivity, they're not

experiencing the full fruits of that freedom, right?

They're just wandering in the desert.

They're not, they're not doing it.

They're they're not living the life, doing the thing.

They're learning how to walk with God, right?

So, and that's, that's us each and every day.

So how do we not forget that's being in the word?

And you know what? If you don't have a good word

habit, day one's going to feel weird.

Day 2's going to feel weird the whole the whole first week.

You're going to get to the end of that first week and be like,

I don't know if this works, like I don't, I don't know this, but

on day 100, a year later, on day 304 hundred, you're going to see

some of the pieces. You're going to see some of the

footsteps behind you. You're going to look back on the

red seas that he's that he's walked you through and and be

able to remember the people of Israel at this time didn't have

this discipline. Maybe if they had sang, if they

had sang the song each and every day, if they if they had been

back in this each and every day, I don't know.

I'm not saying it absolutely would have been different, but I

think that's the challenge for us here to learn from the

forgetfulness the the things that the times where they did,

they weren't worshipping. They were putting things before

God instead of their worship being God over everything else.

Amen. I Yep, that's it.

You got that, that. No, no, that's, that's pretty

spot on, man. One of the things that I I came

out of yesterday with, or actually prior to yesterday

thinking about is that this entire text, and we can get back

to the specifics of it in a minute, but like this entire

text, is it not a text that points to baptism being saved

through the water? Through the water.

Yeah. And so and watch, watch this

too. OK, so they are saved through

the water. They literally go through the

water and they're saved. And what does the water do to

their enemy? It crushes it.

What happens to us in baptism? We are saved through the water

and we are buried with Christ in our baptism.

And so therefore the waters of baptism rush, come down and

destroy the sin that we partake in.

But that's what God tells us baptism is.

It is being buried with Christ. It is crushing death, it is

crushing sin. And it is his adoption saying

you are my people, you are my person.

Now I've adopted you through the water.

And so that's just like another thing that may not be super

obvious on the surface of this text, but it's right there.

And it's like scholar, I always universally agree that that is

right there. Yep, and that's I mean, that's

where my message was a couple a couple weeks ago and I don't

know why it's been like, I think I've always known and thought

that, but just in the past couple weeks, that aspect, not

only the the washing, the positive of baptism, but also

what that means, like the life we're supposed to leave behind.

The the the whole picture of this Red Sea has has kind of

just like galvanized that thought in my mind.

It's it's not only washing you, cleansing you into freedom.

It's it's crushing, burying, killing, that sin and death,

fear life that you're supposed to leave behind too.

So, and I think maybe far too often we've in our in our

purity, in our cleanliness, we're kind of like dragging

along the sin and death with us. And we're supposed to and and

those are the things that tempt us to forget, right?

Those are the things that follow along and and kind of linger.

Gotta leave. It's that burn the ship's

mentality or Yeah, yeah. Don't look back.

Don't look back. You've been buried with Christ

in your baptism. You are a new creation and you

can go on and on and on. All of those things are true.

Yeah. And and to that, to that, don't

look back. I will say there's one

acceptable it's time to look back.

Maybe we said it. I don't I don't remember it came

out of a it was a gem that came out of Thursday morning Bible

study. You're welcome to come to food

for thought 10 AM We usually meet at Fieldstone do it talking

more about the about the sermon from the week before as well.

But the one time that it's good to look back is when we're

looking back to see God's faithfulness.

That's that's the only time we should be looking back to see

what God has brought us through. And that's an important part of

fighting as a Christian. So we talked a lot about

fighting yesterday. But fighting as a Christian,

oftentimes looking includes looking back at God's

faithfulness, at his redemptive power, whether that's in that

could be in so many things. So one of the things that I

often times mentally look back on from for me to re, to

remember and to restore the fact that God is powerful, he is

unchanging, he is sovereign, all these kinds of things.

One of the things that I look back on.

Well, let me name a couple, but I won't get into the details.

So with both my kids before they were born and immediately after

they were born, man, I look back to that and see God's

faithfulness and I see his fingerprints all over that.

Going to seminary and all of the crazy financial struggles we

had, looking back, remembering all the ways that God provided

in seemingly miraculous ways that made no sense.

Those are things that I look back on often, especially when I

seem to be forgetting who God is and how powerful he is and how

faithful he is to his people. So remember, yeah, look back on

on all the ways that God has just blessed your socks off.

Final thought here. I think we're going to jump into

the last few verses. 1919 through 21 here.

Miriam Moses, his sister and this we, we from, from what we

can tell scripturally and historically, Moses only had one

sister and this same sister was talked about.

She, she was the one who kind of launched the basket him, him in

the basket onto the Nile River and arranged for the for the

hiring of of Moses's mother as a nurse.

Pretty slick. Right.

And this, so she would be the older sister of Moses, but this

is her Miriam, adult Miriam, obviously like, like later

Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron took the timbrel

in her hand. And all the women went, women

went out with her, with timbrels and with dances.

And Miriam answered them. And she kind of echoes what's

been sung before, right? Sing to the Lord for his triumph

gloriously, the horse and its rider, he is thrown into the

sea. So we have this and, and this

word here prophetess. So there's, there's a prophetic

gift here with the sister of Moses.

So we have we have these siblings really Aaron helping

Moses lead the people, Miriam stirring up the women, leaving

the women in response and worship and and joy.

It's pretty cool to see all this planned and ordained and even

how even how they were working together even in their

childhood. The the way God like wove these

scenarios and encounters together for for purposes

decades in the future. And, and we're seeing this come

to fruition here, Miriam Moses, sister, leading the women in

worship in this song as well. One more thing to point out

about the amazing thing that Miriam does in this moment.

You know what? She's doing this in this moment.

She is helping God's people worship with their whole selves.

Think about this, they're singing, they're dancing,

they're raising their hands, they're stomping and out.

They are worshipping with their whole selves.

And so we get this great picture of what it looks like to

celebrate the Lord and what he's done and what he's doing and

what he will continue to do with our whole selves.

Yep. There's a good time to sit down

and be intellectually challenged and, and, and all that kind of

stuff as I sit quietly or whatever and read my Bible and I

am still as God has called me to be still.

But there are also times to stomp it out, to dance it out,

to raise your hands to, to, to all the things man do all the

things. And so like Miriam brings that

about. She helps bring that out in her

in God's people. And if nothing else, which

there's a lot more, but if nothing else, Miriam helps give

us this beautiful example of worshipping God with our whole

selves. I heard this phrase from Josh

Howerton. He's on, he's on a lot of social

media, pastor at Lake Point Church.

He was he recorded an invite to their worship night and he was

like, we're kind of we're kind of Presba Baptist coastal here

at that lake, but like. What is that?

What? Presbyterian, Baptist and

Pentecostal, like he was like kind of Presba Baptist Coastal

and tonight's worship night, like we're coastal tonight.

Like have you known anything about those?

I just thought that was to what you're saying, an interesting

way to put it. A like in this moment.

Yeah, it was this this response of worship was all holds barred.

Like it's, it's it's out there, not held back.

Wholehearted body, mind and soul worship, literally body bringing

out in in intensity and action and movement and and just

wholehearted picture of worship here.

Not saying it has to be that exactly what you were saying.

It's it's this. This was not a time for

reflective quiet. Like, all right, everybody,

everybody spread out a little bit.

Let's do our tag time, our time alone with God, and let's just

quietly reflect on what he's done.

Oh no, you just came through the Red Sea on dry ground and your

enemies are vanquished. You are partying, you are

dancing, you are singing, you're doing all of it.

Yep. So that's pretty great.

Yeah, important thing to to point out and even just even

just seeing the leadership of don't need to get in a hold like

women in ministry, egalitarianism versus

complementarianism stick here either.

Mostly just pointing out we do see women leading the people

have got like this is an instance we can point to.

We can point to Lydia and the New Testament.

We can we can point to others even even Rahab at like helping

out. There's there's plenty of other

instances of women leading now don't don't read into what I'm

saying here either. I'm not I'm not.

I do think it's pretty clear about the position of pastor

specifically being being for men like we would we see that

scripturally, but everything including and up to that line

women. That's fair game for you in

ministry and and leading the people of God.

And then this is a, this is a passage that supports that.

Yeah, I actually, so in our confirmation material, I have it

built in. And actually we're on that year,

this year in our confirmation material, we're going to take a

week and we're just going to look at women in leadership of

God's people. And so that's one of the weeks

that we get to do in confirmation this year.

And I'm super excited about it because, yeah, to the, to

whatever extent that God allows any given person to lead with

the gifts that he's given them, man, you better.

You better go wholeheartedly into that thing.

And God has given a lot of room and a lot of space and a lot of

opportunities for women to lead. And throughout the Bible, we see

them step up. And actually, quite frankly, in

our own church, I see women step up all the time and do

incredible things that allow us to to reach people, to reach one

more with the gospel. I see women doing stuff like

that all the time, and it's beautiful.

And we couldn't do it without them.

Yeah, absolutely. Very cool.

A couple things coming up in the life of church.

We have a hymn night coming up on Friday, October 17th.

That'll be 630 to 8. A lot of you chimed in on

Facebook with many song suggestions and and hymns

things. I think the list was up near 40

lately, so we're going to have to.

We can't cram all of them in on one night.

We're going to have to play a second one already apparently.

Do you think we'll see some of the back rowers move to the

front for that night 'cause they're like, Oh no, this is my

jam now I got this. I don't know.

It is going to be, we are being a little more stripped down an

intentional intimate about about that night too.

It's going to be, it's going to be largely like acoustic guitar,

upright piano, just light percussion.

It's not, it's not going to be the normal like full band that

we see. We're going to we're going to do

a little more acoustic for that night of him, so come on out for

that. Friday, October 17th, 6:30 to

8:00-ish. We've done worship nights like

this in the past and usually there's a lot of you linger

afterwards as well, but 6:30 to whenever you all have to go home

is. Yeah, well, come, come sing a

song to the Lord. Come in worship.

I mean, you know, hymns, hymns in modern day church, sometimes

they get a bad rap, but there was a point in time when they

were the new hotness and most of the lyrics of these hymns that

have lasted for hundreds and hundreds of years, they've

lasted that long for a reason, because they're true and they're

right and they're good. And so I'm excited about that.

Yep, no very stoked to to share that night of worship with you

all. Next couple Sundays big big

stuff is coming up. Budget meeting after worship on

the 19th and then we also have the baptism event on the Wapsey

noonish following that budget meeting and then October 26th

Vision Sunday. What God's calling us into next

church. We're not going to we we don't

believe that we have done everything that we possibly can

to reach our city for him and to reach the one more into it.

So what's he calling us into next?

We're going to focus on that and step into that, the beginnings

of that together in worship on October 26th.

Worship on at 9:30 and then we saw a little preview of that

this past week. But out of that, we're into two

services on November 2nd, 9:00 and 10:45.

We've been jam packed and it's time to continue to grow.

It's time to make more space and room for the one more.

Absolutely. Let's do it.

Have a blessed week, Church.