What Has a Hold on You? | Learning to Live Free: Exodus 1-2

Just want to give a special shout out.

Holiday weekend

LA Rain.

The few the proud. Those of you watching

online, if you're in LA, screw you.

Should have gotten here. Softies. If

you're if you're on holiday somewhere

for real for Labor Day and watching

online, welcome to service. We're in

Exodus 2 today. Little little slap for

those that got lazy or out in the rain.

If you have real reasons why by why by

why why a light dusting of showers kept

you from church today, uh we honor you

and uh pray the Holy Spirit convicts

you. And uh

eight years in Chicago, guys, I have no

sympathy. Uh we're in Exodus today.

We're starting a new series, and I'm

going to be um honest. We did a little

intro series to Exodus over the

transition from summer to fall. Exodus

is going to be what we go through this

fall to frame both our communities and

our disciplehip as an entire body at

Frontier. Here's here's the tension I

have though. I love to be in a book or a

series for like three weeks and move on

to something new. I love starting new

things. Um half of the room is is like

with me on that. Like any of you would

consider yourselves like like a project

starter. Yeah. And then and then there's

the finishers. If you're a starter, just

like would show hands. There's only two

options. It's not a strict question.

It's not one more spiritual than the

other. Okay, you guys look real nervous.

Uh starters like with me. Yeah.

Finishers. Yeah. Okay. Those of you that

aren't responding because you're waiting

to see what I'm going to do with it,

just just jump in, guys. It's not Here's

the thing is I feel like most people I

find that that partners in

relationships, there's usually a starter

and a finisher, right? And um I I love

the people that like to start like a

major project when you got to leave the

house in five minutes or something like

that. And uh I think I've mellowed out

in my old age, but there there are times

where it's just like, hey, I've got like

10 minutes. Let's start painting the

house. Uh or something like that, which

is, you know, completely insane. Well, I

I I'm I've been challenged by the Lord.

And I don't know if you've noticed this

the last several years, those of you

that have been with us, the Lord has

challenged me uh to be someone that like

sits in the process in the wilderness. I

I want to go to the party with Jesus. I

want to go to new things. I I love I

love to like I I wanted this morning to

just go to a parable of Jesus and let

some just like wonderful wisdom just

just hit my intellect. I'm also like in

the mind triad if you study like

personality types. So I can just be

really happy with just talking ideas all

day long. Um there's there's times when

the Lord goes, "But I want I want to

strip you down to the bare bones, build

you up, take everything out of you

that's not of of me, and then

reestablish you." Now, that's not super

exciting, uh but it is really important.

And those of you that have gone through

anything difficult in life and have come

through the other side, that's that's

what the wilderness does. Exodus does

something to God's people. It's it is

the forefront of the entire family of

God and how they are formed to be a

people that can be a blessing and that

they can be inviting the entire world

into it. Jesus becomes the fulfillment

and culmination of this family. And so

what we're doing today is we're going to

start sitting in this this story of

Exodus. And if you don't know it, you're

going to know it. You've all heard it.

Think think ten commandments, think

Moses, think burning bush, plagues, all

these things. We're just going to be in

the first couple chapters in a few

verses from that this morning. But

before we get into that, here's here's

just a little illustration. I don't even

like this illustration, so just work

with me here. Sometimes I love my

illustrations. I don't like this

illustration, but it is very LA. um

pets. If you guys have a pet, it's just

um I don't like the term dog like uh dog

parent or uh cat parent because you're

not you're not parents. But but the

[snorts] I it's because I can't I can't

do that. Like I I we have two cats, but

I'm not a cat parent because I don't

love them. And uh it's a it's the dark

side of my soul. I love my children. I

have a harder time with pets. And so

that's just my issues coming out at you.

I wasn't trying to measure up and say

you're not a parent. I'm just saying

that I'm flawed and I judge sometimes.

So, so here. But, but in LA, have you

found that like um the the dog obsession

is is really real? I I'm I'm actually

jealous of the people that walk their

dogs every day. We live on Hill Avenue

just over here. And the only people that

have any real community on our street

are the dog people. And I I've thought

about like getting a dog or borrowing

one just so I can meet my neighbors

because there are neighbors that will

not talk to me, but they will stand for

long periods of time to talk to the

neighbor with a dog.

Have you not noticed this? This is like

a real thing. There are people that I

will not talk to you unless you have a

dog. And so people love the dogs in LA,

but um it also is profound to me that we

have like we have a few homeless people

in our city that have real needs. And I

know there's issues and all of that, but

there's like no homeless dogs. Like

there are adopted I I've had friends go

try to go adopt a dog and they can't

find any. And that's that's just kind of

like shows the love. We have a love for

dogs at this city. Now there's two types

of um dog owners, maybe three. Um I have

a picture of one I think dog owner. Uh I

I really Yeah, there's there's the kind

that like a big dog would like drag you

on the beach because you just can't keep

it together. Then there's another

picture of of the this is how I'd like

to think I would be if I was a dog owner

advanced obedience for cane and deuce.

you know, the kind of guy that has a

German Shepherd or two or five and just

like with just like one look, you know,

the the dog obeys and there's just, you

know, there's aura with a dog owner like

that, right? Even if he had a shirt on,

he'd have aura, right? So,

but then but then there's the the most

the most of us in LA with dogs and uh

you give your dogs haircuts because

you're hypoallergenic and uh they're

small and they fit in your bag at Airwan

and you don't really have to train it

because They're they're like born to

just be little sweet cuddly things on

the couch and and so but regardless we

all kind of know the feeling. You've at

least walked a dog once. My brother has

a great day and I've tried to walk that

dog and when that dog decides like it

sees a squirrel, it's game over. That's

160 pounds of passion. And uh it doesn't

I don't have much of a chance. Um my one

of my daughters tried to walk the dog

before and it was over. as soon as you

you're just often wondering with these

large dogs, which again not many of them

in LA, but you're always wondering like

who's actually walking the dog, who's

walking who here. And and and so whether

you have Aura or whether you have a

little dog, whether you have no dogs or

whether you're a parent or not a parent,

the the question I just want to bring to

the to the equation is um when you see

that person and you're just wondering

like who's walking who with this dog?

When we're walking that Great Dane,

who's walking who? this great day. My

brother's great day should be dead. But

but he also he's very he's a now a child

of LA. He has spent I don't know how

many thousands of dollars reviving this

dog to life. We all love him so much.

Tucker. Uh sometimes when I'm angry at

him, I call him Mother Tucker.

Feel vulnerable today.

Got a dirty heart sometimes. So um it's

right on the line. But but it's it's

it's a question of who's who's walking

who and uh who's in control. I'm I'm

just trying to get us to realize that

you you can look I can look like I'm in

control of that dog, but I'm not in

control. And and sometimes you don't

realize something has a hold on you.

That's really what my lame illustration

is trying to say.

You don't realize what has a hold on you

until it's taking you somewhere you

don't want to go. And so, just like the

picture on the beach, you don't want to

go there. We all have masters that we

serve. We want to think that we have the

aura to lead the things that serve us.

And I I've said it more than one time,

this whole catchphrase in society, like

when people go like, "Oh, it doesn't

serve me, so I'm just moving on." I I

don't like I don't like that that

phrase. Because ultimately, as

Christians, the goal is not to pursue a

freedom that sets you free from all

masters. It's to pursue a freedom where

you come under the covering and the

leadership of the one true master that's

not going to screw you, but he's going

to lead you and bring you life and a

promised land that's not about you.

So, I just want you to think for a

moment. Maybe you have a career and uh

that's wonderful, but but what happens

inside you when somebody younger gets

the opportunity that you deserved?

That's that's when the leash starts

pulling you in a different direction. Uh

or maybe you want to get married, which

is a great desire. I'm for it. I'm I'm

pro prom

still after 20 years. Great desire. But

what happens when another friend gets

engaged?

What happens when that friend's 10 years

younger or more? whatever it is, you're

you're genuinely happy for them, but you

also kind of hate them.

Or or you know, we're in this like you

you want to own a house in LA and all of

a sudden that's wonderful until like

Zillow becomes your devotional life

and and you start secretly hating those

people that bought a house 5 years ago

and have 3% interest rates.

Good for you. Yeah.

Or maybe you're just a child of LA that

wants to make something meaningful with

your life or your craft or your gift.

And uh but what happens when nobody

notices it?

You know, when the thing that you've

been made to do doesn't take off or you

started a business and it fails.

Maybe you just want someone to

understand you.

What happens when somebody

misunderstands you and then you spend

the next three days in the shower just

trying to think through the arguments in

your head for a conversation that you

need to have but you've never had or

initiated.

The desires aren't the aren't the

problem. That's my whole point. We're

going to go back to this over and over

again. That's what makes these things so

difficult to see. They always start with

the things that are like good desires

until they get threatened and then the

fear comes out, the anxiety comes out,

the control and anger and jealousy. All

these things come out. You start

grasping and manipulating. You lose

sleep and it starts in your thought

life. And ultimately you get at what's

what's got a hold of you? That's our

main question. What has a hold of my

heart and my life? And we're less free

than we think. This whole series on

Exodus is digging into the realm of

freedom in a way that exposes how we're

actually less free than we think. And

but whatever I serve will shape my

formation, my disciplehip, and

ultimately about who I will become.

That's it. It's not that complicated.

It's just the deepest things that will

form you. This issue will form your

life. And that's why we're going through

Exodus. And the whole hope here is that

as we go through it, we're going to

learn to live free. Really free. Uh

Christians, I think one of the things I

like about Christians is is um you can

be fake. You can be nothing stops you

from that. But I I love how what I find

what I love about our community is we're

some of the most real people in the

world. We're not ashamed to show our

flaws, our scars, and our process. And

people need that. The gospel isn't look

at how bright and shiny and beautiful I

am. It's look at how flawed, fallen,

broken, and improcess I am. Do you want

to see?

And the and the Bible is full of all

these people that are so much more

jacked up than you and I. Like, I can't

wait to show you today how Moses, who we

hold in high regard because he's this

guy that was the first to see God face

to face and show me your presence, Lord.

And if you don't go with us, then I

don't want to go. But to get to that

process, you had to see the ugly side of

him that caused him to murder.

And so, we've looked at three things so

far. If you missed the the the intro

series that we had, it's totally okay.

But we did we did several things. We

looked at the destination before we

started the journey. And ultimately, we

jumped ahead and looked at Exodus 19,

which was all about community. How God

forms people. He doesn't just rescue a

collection of selves and individuals. He

forms us. And we need each other. And I

cannot follow Jesus alone. Secondly, we

looked at formation

passage out of Exodus 16 and we said we

need practices. God takes people into

the wilderness and begins giving them

practices, rhythms that retrain how that

they how they live and how they looked

at Egypt and then themselves in this

wilderness into the promised land. Then

finally was about presence in Exodus 33.

If your presence doesn't go with us, I'm

not going. That was the prayer of Moses.

you're not going to go with us. He

ultimately learned the promised land

wasn't the goal. It was God's presence.

And he ultimately didn't need to go to

the promised land to experience what his

heart craved, which was God himself. The

destination is not a better life, a

promised land of any kind. It's not

getting out of Egypt. It's ultimately

simply life with God himself.

And when you and I put it the high water

mark of everything life with God above

all else, that is when you start

enjoying the life God gave you.

That's a hard truth. We want the

solution to be I don't have something

that I can get or that God can give me

so that if I can just get it, it'll fix

my life. When the solution is God's

already given you what you need most to

find true purpose and satisfaction,

I don't like that at all

because it puts a realm of

responsibility on me where I have to

receive what's already been given, paid

for.

It's not about striving. It's about me

sometimes letting go, sometimes getting

unstuck, sometimes revisiting things

that I visited a thousand times that

still have a hold on me. And so there's

there's this three things that that our

community is going to go after over and

over again that these the these previous

messages went after. It's about it's

about being a people of God, practicing

his ways, and then ultimately his

presence. And that's where we're going.

So today is back to the beginning.

You'll notice that before the plagues

and Sinai and the wilderness and all

these things, the people of Israel were

slaves. There was a journey of the

Exodus. And there's a slide here that'll

just show us all the things that we're

going to do. Themes. This is not today.

This is just kind of the series. And and

there's slavery, encounter, salvation,

freedom, all these things. But what

we're going to do at each one is simply

ask a question. What has hold on me is

where we're going to start. But we're

going to ask things like, "Can I really

know God? What's holding me back? How do

free people actually live free? And

ultimately end up at what have we been

set free for? That's where we're going.

But today, it's simply asking the

question, what has a hold on me? What

has a hold? What has hold on you?

Because whatever I serve will shape who

I become. We're often less free than we

think. Uh Moses, as we'll see here, is

uh going to be given wealth, education,

power, and become from a Hebrew to

Hebrew to a to a son of the house of

Pharaoh. In the midst of that, we see

that he's still not free. That's the

biggest revelation I think I've needed

to see in this is that we we think that

Moses can lead the people out because

he's been like raised up and doesn't

have slavery on him. And the whole point

of this is that he's got the same

enslavement. He's got a master that he's

serving.

But it's not until this guy realizes

what's enslaving him that he can help

set the the people free and show them

what God is leading them into. And the

whole point is underneath Pharaoh,

underneath slavery and Moses's failure,

we're going to see today, here's all

you're going to see. God is at work in

the background. Some of us need to be

reminded that it does you don't feel

like God is at work in your life, but

God's at work in the background.

He's leading you and he's leading me and

he's leading these people towards a

freedom that we cannot produce for

ourselves. And we continually try to

produce this freedom for ourselves and

we can't. Much of our striving and our

frustration and our stress in life is

from trying to produce a freedom that we

were never intended to produce. That's

the good news.

And so we're going to just look at three

things of of how to learn to live free

today. One, we just need to recognize

what we serve

because we're all we're all serving

something. The second thing is we're

going to look beneath what's really

driving us because we can we can look

free and still be completely enslaved.

And then finally, we we'll look at how

to trust the God who's already at work

because he's working in the background

long before we recognize what he's

doing.

So, what has a hold on me?

Exodus one basically looks like this.

I'm going to I'm going to read it, but

here's the context. Um, Joseph is gone.

Joseph is the one that got the people of

Israel into Egypt. Generations have

passed, 400 years. Israel is multiplied.

A new pharaoh's come to power who

doesn't know Joseph. And he looks at the

people that are growing like weeds and

he sees a threat of power. His response

of course is like anyone's response just

like the world today is to control them.

And here's verse 8 to 14 chapter 1. Now

there arose a new king over Egypt who

did not know Joseph. And he said to his

people, "Behold, the people of Israel

are too many and too mighty for us.

Come, let us deal shrewdly with them

lest they multiply. And if war breaks

out, they join our enemies and fight

against us and escape from the land."

Now you hear like that's the issue he

has with the Israelites. They're a

threat. Therefore, they set task masters

over them to afflict them with heavy

burdens. They built for Pharaoh store

cities uh Fidam and Ramse's and the more

uh they were oppressed the more they

multiplied and the more they spread

abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread

of the people of Israel. So they

ruthlessly made the people of Israel

work as slaves, made their lives bitter

with hard service in mortar and brick

and in all kinds of work in the field.

In all their work they were ruthlessly

made in all their work they ruthlessly

made them work as slaves. So, I want you

to see um a thread here. The language in

the Hebrew here is like a hammer blow of

slavery. I'll show you what that means.

Um verse 13 to 14, there's a root in the

word like serve, work, and slave called

eed. It's it's used repeatedly and the

English translations vary on the

vocabulary. So, you can work look in

your translation. It's going to say like

labor, service, imposed labor, forced

labor, work, stuff like that. Underneath

it, it's actually saying the same word,

a bed. A bed. a bed over and over and

over again. And it's this narrative and

this story that's a true story and a

historical account, but in it is this

poetic ability where you're supposed to

feel and hear a bed, a bed, a bed, a

bed, like a slave hammer blowing at the

at the realms of the chains of slavery.

And you're supposed to feel it like a

poetic story where it's almost like the

hammer serve the hammer blows are like

going serve, serve, serve, serve, slave,

slave like that. That's what the that's

what the text is doing. That's what we

miss in our stupid English.

So they have a master. That's the point.

Their bodies belong to Pharaoh. Their

schedules belong to him. Their labor,

their future, everything is about his

kingdom.

And the repeated language in this word

abed is one of the central threads in

the entire Exodus development. Because

what Israel needs is to be liberated.

liberated not just from forced labor but

ultimately from serving the wrong

master.

There's there's this movie movie buffs

going back before most of us were alive

Charlton Hen

Commandments.

If you haven't seen that

like you're not even a Christian in Los

Angeles.

I'm just gonna just just gonna accuse

you right now. Um it's only like 17

hours long. So, if you can't endure it,

you're also you're just not a Christian.

If you can't, it's like the longest

movie I've ever seen. And I think the

only reason why I endured it was because

my mom made me when I was a child

because I had a very creative mother.

And so, uh, I do encourage you to watch

it. It is, uh, it is a masterpiece. But

if you go back and watch it, you'll

you'll notice that he keeps just saying,

"Let my people go. Let my people go."

Right? over and over again. Let my

people go. Uh the thing is there's even

songs about it. That's half the phrase.

What's the rest of the phrase? Anybody

know? Let my people go

so they can serve me. Kind of an

important piece like the why. Let them

go like America. It's like let them go

so that I can be free, fully free with

no no master.

But that wasn't the Israel story. It was

let them let my people go so they can be

free from you and they can serve me the

one true God. That's that's the big

difference.

It's not the whole sentence.

What's the lesson in that? The lesson in

that is that freedom is not the absence

of a master.

That like that sounds nice to an

American. Freedom is not the absence of

a master.

But we don't really believe that. We're

obsessed with freedom

that nobody gets to tell me what to do

because it's my life, my truth, my

desires, and my choice on everything. I

don't care if you're on the left or the

right. And you can say you're on the

right and then you don't like those

phrases. But then it's just like, but

then you want to live all those things

out,

right? Doesn't matter what side you're

on. We want to have our freedoms.

And this is this is the whole point.

Yahweh, the one true God, his way that

ultimately the Jesus way is going to

expedite and [snorts] show us in full is

that freedom isn't serving nobody.

Freedom is being liberated from the

masters that destroy us so that we can

belong to the one we were created for.

That's the point.

And we all serve something.

So, here's here's something that I want

to We love to think that nobody likes to

tell us what to do and then our phones

buzz in our pockets and immediately

we're like

yes, master.

I uh

this is just an aside. I'm just as

enslaved to this thing as you are. But

one thing that has partially set me free

was to turn off my notifications. I dare

you. I was just reminded I've had them

off for so long now, which is why you

can never get a hold of me when you call

me. It's not I'm not screwing your call.

I just didn't know you called. Uh

because it's my time and my freedom to

go to check it when I want.

But my I I was listening to um my

children who have some some pretty

strict restrictions. Uh they can't have

a phone. The first child has gotten his

first phone at 16, but I'm still

listening to my 14-year-old that has no

personal phone, but there's still

devices everywhere. And he's doing

homework, and I'm listening I'm

listening to the soundtrack of homework.

And it goes something like this. Ding

ding ding ding

ding. It was so abrasive to my to my

pure non-interrupted not, you know, self

that I I just realized we have it's a

constant. It doesn't matter if you if

your phone dings or rings. I would

encourage you just turn off turn off

your notifications. No one nothing is

that important. And and I and I

immediately went in there and demanded

they turn off their notifications. But

that's not the point. The point is is

that like we think we don't serve a

master

and then let's just say you just go

without for a day on this thing.

What does that do to you?

And that's just the starting place. It's

like we all have that master. What about

your other masters?

What can't you say no to?

Most of us walked in here. Yeah. Again,

assuming some measure of freedom. Nobody

made you come today, especially not in

LA. On a day like today, you got a free

hall pass.

You can leave whenever you want. You

choose to some degree where you live,

where you work, what you buy, what you

believe, who you date, where you know,

all these things. But what what do you

struggle to say no to? And what are you

terrified of losing if you lost it?

What tells you you have to be in order

to be okay? That's that's where it

starts appearing. Just a few kind of

examples to get the juices flowing. So

like if some if this person has to like

me, you've got an approval issue. It

doesn't matter if it's a boss or a

significant other or if they have to,

you've got an approval issue. Uh, if I

if you have to succeed, you've got an

achievement issue. If you have to get

the grade or you have to get the bonus,

if you have to whatever, that's an

achievement issue. If you have to have

enough,

maybe you just aren't getting paid

enough. I'm just kid. If you have to

have enough, there is still money. Why

Jesus talks about it constantly is it's

always just creeping at the door

waiting to snatch your soul.

If if control is your issue, it means

that if if this doesn't work out the way

I need it to, I'm gonna die.

If you're constantly thinking like life

shouldn't be that hard, control has root

in your heart. If you're thinking about

someone, you know, has to pay for that

thing they did to me or someone else and

you're constantly turnurning on that,

you might you might serve the the master

of anger.

If you need a person to be fulfilled,

you serve a relationship.

If you need people to see you or follow

you or like what you produce, you've got

an image issue. And if you're just

afraid that if such and such happens,

you won't survive. Fear's got a grip and

is your master. We all have certain

measures of this. This isn't to start

with such negativity and just beat up on

us. It's more about like let's draw some

stuff to the surface. Now, the reality

is most of us in the room are doing

better with these things than everyone

else. So, the the most natur thing is to

compare to the rest of the world and

say, "Well, at least my problem isn't

this or that or like theirs.

It's just going to do you no good."

Do you still have some measure of

anxiety? Do you wake up with anything in

the night? Do you do you wander in the

shower and start thinking about these

things? I do.

There's still things gripping us. And it

doesn't mean that God doesn't have

control. And it doesn't mean that he

doesn't love you. Doesn't mean you're

not making progress. It doesn't that

you're not on the path. I mean, I I woke

up this morning in the shower. I saw the

rain and I go, "Oh, no one's [snorts]

coming today."

That's why I had to make five jokes

about it just to like deal with my own

insecurity, right? So dumb.

It's so dumb. Well, we're all in

process. So, if you're here today and

you're still processing the Christian

life, welcome to the process. We are all

so, so flawed. And yet the good news is

I don't have to perform. I don't have to

get to the end of my life and go, "Well,

I hope I did a pretty good job."

And it's miserable.

Christians get to go to bed every night

and go,

"Here's where I failed and here's where

your grace covered me.

Tomorrow is a new day. Thank you for

lifting me up.

Thank you for right now reminding me

what you did do through me today. And

when you listen to the Lord, you know

what? He will convict you with kindness.

He will convict you with telling you

thank you for all the ways that you did

partner with him so that your heart is

exposed to all the ways that you wish

you had

because that's just how good he is. He's

so patient and he's so kind. We can miss

the kindness of the God of the

wilderness and the Exodus because you

don't see the big picture of where he's

going because we're obsessed with our

personal freedom. When you see that

you're part of a bigger story and you

see the bigger story that Israel is a

part of, you're going to see something

profound. But the point here, so I can

make my my first second point. Whatever

I serve will shape who I become. And

Pharaoh doesn't just use the slaves.

Egypt is forming slaves constantly. And

Israel gets out of Egypt long before

Egypt gets out of Israel. They have the

slavery still inside of them. The whole

point of the wilderness is will they

embrace the God who wants them and is

right in front of them. And so Moses,

he doesn't look like a slave, but he is.

And so point two is this. We need to

look beneath our good desires.

Look beneath your good desires. So

here's his birth story. This is what

happens in chapter two. So, I'm just

going to summarize it. What happens in

chapter 2,

uh, he's born, Pharaoh is super

intimidated by the by the Israelites.

And so, he goes, "We're just going to

kill all the boys."

So, they they are. They're killing all

the boys. And so, Moses's family

decides, we're we see where Pharaoh's

daughter like bathes, and we're just

going to put a baby in. And there's

rumor that she's sympathetic and loves

babies, and she's sympathetic to the

Hebrews. We're going to put him in a

basket. We're going to float him down

the river. And then uh and then he

apparently they tell Moses's sister to

just kind of wander down there and see

if she can kind of help the situation

along. There's a partnership in the

miracle. So what happens is sure enough

Pharaoh's daughter's baby sees the baby

hears the crying

and uh finds him, opens the basket, has

comp says she has compassion on him

and sees that it's one of the Hebrew

babies. So she's not being tricked.

Some people I think think that there's

like a trickery going on here. There's

no trickery. She knowingly has

compassion on a child that her father's

policy has condemned. So, what's

happening here is it gets absurd.

So, the sister goes, "Oh, would you uh

like me to uh find a wet nurse for the

baby?"

And she's like, "Great idea." So, she

goes, "How about his mother?"

And then guess what happens? Pharaoh,

Pharaoh's daughter is like, "And make

sure she gets paid for serving me."

So Moses's mom gets paid to nurse her

own child in a culture that's

slaughtering their sons.

That's the miracle. That's the

providence of God.

That's the God that you're starting to

understand that Moses hasn't yet met.

But the tension is,

what about all the other babies that are

slaughtered? So those of you today that

you're going through something and you

can understand there's a God of

providence. You can hear a testimonies

going on at church and go like I totally

believe them, but I'm not I'm one of the

ones that gets murdered every time.

And so I I feel like there's some of us

in the room that just feel stuck, just

feel screwed over by life. It don't feel

like God sees you or knows you and

you're other side of that. And the point

here is that there's a tension in the

story.

And we're going to get to this and the

invitation for you is the same for

everyone else. But the the tension is is

that in God's providence, it's not that

everyone ends up having life happen at

the exact same way, at the exact same

timing.

But don't miss what does happen.

This is what happens to Moses. He he

struggles to have an identity in either

world. He's raised to probably three or

four years old with his with his Hebrew

family and then he's brought to

Pharaoh's household and he's fully it

says that he Pharaoh's daughter makes

him her son like fully. And so he lives

in two worlds raised by a Hebrew mother

adopted by Egyptian royalty. And what

you have to see there there's God in the

background the entire time. This is our

first taste of that. He, you know, the

idea here is that you think that

Pharaoh, the most powerful person on the

face of the planet at that time,

probably in all of human history up to

that point. You think that he's

controlling the story, but God is in the

background. And that's the whole point.

God is in the background. And he's in

the background of the story of your life

as well. And that's what I want us to

walk away knowing today is actually

believing again that God's not only in

the background, he's orchestrating

things for your good. Not all things

that happen are good.

You're going to go through hardness.

You're going to go through wilderness.

He's in the background with a purpose

and you're part of a bigger story. Not

every baby survived.

Providence isn't just this idea that the

promise is that nothing terrible is

going to happen to you. Terrible things

are going to happen. Terrible things

still happen to Moses and his family.

She still didn't get to actually raise

her son.

But providence in the kingdom is that is

the confidence that terrible things will

never have the final word. That's the

issue because this isn't the end of our

story. We're not trying to get to some

physical promised land. We're trying to

meet the living God. And the reward is

God himself. And the reward is that

there is an eternal aspect that we are

not just this flesh and blood thing. Our

spirits and our flesh have been united

in a way that there is something that we

are eternally connected to that's

writing a story that you and I couldn't

do on our own. So fast forward, he grows

up. He's growing up all the resources,

education, and power. He looks free, but

he's not. Now verse 11 says this. One

day when Moses is grown up, he went to

his people, looked out on their burdens,

saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of

his people, and he looked this way and

that. and seeing no one, he struck down

the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. So

he had a real conscience that said,

"Look this way and that," knowing he's

doing something very wrong."

And he went out the next day, hit him in

the sand after he killed him. Behold,

two Hebrews were struggling together.

Hebrews, two Hebrews, and he he thinks

he's going to break that up. He said to

them, "Why do you why do you strike your

companion?"

And as you can see, the first the first

taste of a

any any any Jewish people in the room,

God bless you. You get made fun of for

so many things. But my my favorite part

is they will speak their mind. And they

spoke their mind right here in the

middle of slavery. And here's what they

said. Who made you a prince and a judge

over us?

Do you mean to kill me as you killed the

Egyptian?

Then Moses was afraid of the slave

because he's still enslaved.

He was afraid and thought, "Surely the

thing is known." When Pharaoh heard of

it, he sought to kill Moses. Why would

he I was reading this going like, "Well,

why would he be in trouble for killing a

slave?" Think about the think about the

connotations here.

Pharaoh's son

is killing Pharaoh's men in defense of

the people that they're trying to

oppress and contain.

There is an uprising at bay.

That's why. So Moses flees. He flees

from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of

Midian. And he sat down by a well, which

is awesome. We're one chapter away

already from the burning bush, which

we'll get to in the future weeks. So

verse 11 is the whole point here. He

went out to to where his own people

were, watched them at their hard labor.

It's he knows who he is. And despite

growing up in Pharaoh's house, these

slaves are his people. So there's a

tension and there's something in him

that just finally snaps.

What he wants isn't bad. What you and I

want isn't bad.

There's the tension and the nuance.

Compassion is good. Justice is good.

Identifying with the suffering people

are good.

There's actually when you read the the

text here,

there's an idea that that guy that he

killed might not have it's it says

beating in a sense or breaking it up.

You don't actually know exactly what the

guy's doing. There could have been two

Hebrews fighting and arguing the day

before. And what Moses comes and do is

he kills the guy that's doing the exact

same thing that he does the next day.

That's the tension it's trying to leave

you with in the story. It's this. Moses

isn't any better than the slave master

and he's still enslaved.

He's not free.

His hatred of injustice and his desire

to stop it is great. It's good. Very

understandable. And so is your mine.

Like we have good desires. Many of us

are the moral police. Congratulations.

Your moral police desires are not what

make you good.

That's precisely why this episode is

exposing something personal and

spiritual because our enslavement is

present right here. It's so effective

when you see that these things that are

gripping us, they can't be masked by

like our immediate knee-jerk reactions

to responding to some moment of

injustice. Why?

He's pursuing a good concern with his

own anger and his own ability to think

he can self-ruule the situation.

And where does it leave Israel? In the

exact same place

that they were the day before. They're

not any better off because he took

matters into his own hands. He hasn't

liberated anyone by taking that action.

Looking this way and that, he sees no

one and he kills the Egyptian. He

doesn't look up, does he?

There's there's an obvious third party

that Moses is going to spend his whole

life pursuing on the mountaintop. God

himself and God's presence. God has

still not even spoken in the narrative

in Exodus.

And that's supposed to be like the

obvious silence

and void. He's looking the wrong way.

He's pursuing liberation and freedom

without God. And you and I can be

pursuing the right thing while being

driven by the wrong master.

And that's what we're just going to sit

with and let the Lord free us from this

fall.

We can pursue the right things and we

can still

be driven by the wrong master. And I

found that like I can still be pursuing

the right things, but I can find that

like the the engine is still being

driven by the wrong master. But that's

what's so key about the Christian life.

Jesus is just saying, "Follow me. just

keep going, keep stepping forward. The

the desires of your heart, I mean, they

they're still going to get exposed and

you're not going to do it perfectly, but

you if you keep following me instead of

yourself, I'm going to work those things

out as we go. There's there's so much

hope here and there's so much hope for

Moses.

And God is saying that I will take the

guy that completely misses it and has a

spirit of murder and I'm going to

transform him to set an entire people

free.

I can love my kids and I can still be

mastered by fear. I can love my job. I

can love this church

and I can care deeply about justice and

still be mastered by anger.

And Moses is seeing something genuinely

wrong, but he's thinking, I can fix it.

I can take control and I have to make it

happen. And so he kills [snorts]

someone.

And Israel is again exactly the same as

where they were the day before. So you

cannot produce God's freedom through

your own slavery. It will never work.

You can never produce your freedom

through through your own slavery. And

Moses is learning to live through live

free. But we're going to see here in

Exodus 2, he sees something. He sees the

problem and he thinks he can handle it.

Well, we looked at a couple weeks ago,

Exodus 33, he sees God's presence and

his heart cry is, "God,

I don't even want the promised land if

you don't go with us." A completely

different prayer, a completely different

act, a completely different posture.

He's learning to live free.

But while he's desperately trying to

make things happen, God is in the

background.

Some of us just need to be reminded

today. He's in the background of your

life and he hasn't forgotten you. And

you may feel stuck and you may feel like

you just can't break free of the things

that are holding you back. And you've

been trying all the right things, going

to all the right prayer meetings, all

the right help, all the right

counseling.

Going back to the dogs, some of your

dogs are in therapy. It's amazing what

we do in this city.

I just found that out. That's like a

thing.

Some of your dogs need therapy. I'm not

I'm not against it. I've met some dogs

need therapy.

That wasn't in my notes. This is when I

get in trouble. Here's the point. Three.

Final point. All right. Forget your

dogs. I'm going to get Sorry, some of

you hate me already today. I don't know

why. Why would I touch animals? I don't

know. Um I like torment. Point three is

this. Trust the God who's already at

work. He's in the background. He's in

the background. Where has God been the

whole time in Moses' story? This is the

interesting part. He hasn't spoken yet.

There's no burning bush. That's when

Moses hears his voice. There's no

plagues. There's no Red Sea, no

tabernacle, no Sinai, none of that stuff

that you're going to see in the story.

God is completely absent seemingly. It's

all about Pharaoh, the king, the guy

with power. But here it is. God is still

in the background and he's already

working through all these people, mostly

women. Amen. the beginning of this

entire biblical story. It continually

shows the power of who you think don't

have a voice.

Name them. He names Shippra and Pua.

Pharaoh says, "Kill the babies." And the

midwives feared God. That's Exodus

11:17. The first resistance to a

greatest empire on earth comes from a

couple women that Pharaoh didn't even

know. And scripture remembers their

names.

He didn't give Pharaoh's daughter a name

until later in scripture

to emphasize during the account who he's

honoring, but then he does remember her

because of her compassion. It's crazy.

And then there's Joabed, his mother, who

refuses to surrender her child to

Pharaoh's death machine, places him in

the water, an act of absolute desperate

faith and trust and action. His sister

watches and steps forward at the right

moment. The daughter, Pharaoh's

daughter, is the one who has compassion,

has a heart that God can work with. And

then you see his mother again raises

him. He ends up inside Pharaoh's house.

And then in Midian at the ending there,

you see Moses disastrous failure lands

him at a well one chapter away from the

burning bush and God's voice. So this is

this is the story line and it looks like

Pharaoh's running the story, but God's

in the background.

You need to just be reminded today. This

is just the simple thing is like and it

it just takes a few distractions, a few

dings on my phone,

few things pulling me outside of my

mindset and purpose to forget that God

is running human history and I know that

theologically, but do I feel that? Do I

live with that? Am I convinced about

that?

Or do I lay my head down still many days

striving turning and wondering

how much am I serving another master

and then I just get swept back in to the

goodness of God and be reminded that

this is what he's like. He's in the

background. He hasn't forgotten me and

he hasn't forgotten you. He's working.

He's moving. And he wants

he wants you to be free of the things

that enslave you.

He's already at work. And so back to

this providence, this tension, it's not

about if you trust God, your baby will

survive. If you trust God, you'll get

the breakthrough in your career. If you

trust God, that relationship will come

together. It doesn't, you're not going

to get every single thing that your

heart your good heart desires crave and

want. There's a reality and a harshness

to life.

What you're supposed to see in the story

is that there's still genuine evil and

death and lost sons and bloodshed and

suffering and enslavement. And the

providence of God is not the promise

that nothing terrible is going to

happen. It's simply the promise that you

can have confidence that your terrible

things that happened to you in this

world are not going to have the last

word.

And that's enough to keep stepping

forward.

I've told this story before

um but it just keeps circling.

There's a tension of just being in this

building where we're we're constantly

wrestling with uh just the realities of

the added responsibility and all these

things and decisions, but

our team is just constantly amazed that

we're even in this space and have the

ability to trust God with it. And if you

haven't heard our fire story, I'm going

to tell it from a different angle, so

don't check out

But but uh we had this dynamic where

before the fires that fall we were

supposed to be in another building. It

was the second time with a Christian

landlord of this old YMCA on New York

Avenue and everything looked to be going

good and then all of a sudden he pulled

out and I was pissed.

In my head I was super spiritual outside

though. I said all the right things. I

even journaled the right things. You can

go back on my journal and it's very

spiritual. So, I'm naming and claiming

promises that I did not believe.

That's why the word of God is important,

sharper than any two-edged sword.

Because if you just rely on your own

words and feelings, you are screwed and

your prayers will suck. Uh, but he he

will take you as you are. He took me as

they are. And he even interpreted my

unspoken prayers in my head where I was

very unhappy. I was unhappy at the

landlord. I was unhappy at God. I was

unhappy at, you know, lots of things.

This wasn't just a couple months of

work. This was actually like years back

and forth. Thought we'd finally had our

breakthrough. And so we we packed up,

got a trailer, moved into a public

school, and uh one week later, fires

burned the building we were supposed to

be in to the ground.

And thankfully we uh we were really wise

and we were keeping the uh the trailer

in a very secure location in the heart

of Altadena

uh

Lamar's neighbor

and her house doesn't burn down and uh

Lamar's dead along with most of his

neighbors and I think it was either I

don't know if Lamar and Matner and room

um one of the two of them were the ones

that were still so excited excited when

they found the satellite image of our

white trailer still going and sent it to

me like the joy of someone who had lost

everything is still able to rejoice in

what God had done.

That's the Christian life.

Because while it still hurts, all this

is temporary, but there's a God in the

background.

So, we got our trailer and everything

worked perfectly, right? No, we moved

six times.

Questioned everything again. Had a few

of those prayers that I didn't tell

anyone else about. Continue to journal

nicely. It But the point is

we had an interesting process and then

this building because God's working in

the background

and the timing is never what your timing

is supposed to be.

And then he gives you your promised

land. And this has been like one of the

hardest years of my life. [laughter]

Just be careful when you step into the

promises of God because he's never there

to give you comfort.

We want comfort so bad with our freedom

and he just wants to form you

something stronger.

Be careful what you pray for.

I'm going to say it one more time.

Providence, the providence of God, God

being over all things, him working in

the background has nothing to do with

saying nothing terrible is going to

happen in our lives. It has everything

to do with the confidence that terrible

things will not have the last say. And

the sooner you can see God at work in

the midst of your pain and process and

loss,

like the guys that were able in our own

community to celebrate

are being spared while they lost

everything.

Here's what I'm learning about freedom.

And team can start to come up. I need to

land. Here's what I'm learning about

freedom. As they come up, just stay

focused. Sometimes my need to control

comes from the assumption that if I

don't make it happen, it's not going to

happen.

Is that you?

I need to control things. I I assume

that if I can't make it happen, it's not

going to happen. And I wrestle with that

every day. Sometimes the thing I'm

desperately trying to make happen, God

sees something I can't see. But are you

still surrendering and trusting him?

Sometimes the closed door isn't the end

of the story. Sometimes a season that

feels like you're going backward isn't

wasted.

Sometimes I don't understand what God is

doing because I'm standing in the middle

of the story that he's writing.

Some of you today just need that little

deposit, that little mustard seed of

hope in your spirit

to keep stepping forward, to offer him a

sacrifice of praise, to keep worshiping

and keep following when it hurts. And

that's exactly where Israel is, and

that's where Moses is. They can't see

what's what's coming. They can't even

see that God's in the background.

But freedom begins when I can loosen my

grip enough to say that I don't have to

control everything to trust you that you

are at work, God.

Is that your prayer? And can that be

your prayer? Even if even if you're

saying it with your lips, you're writing

it in your journal, and you're not even

fully believing it in your head. If you

will start by making the decree of that

kind of surrender, I can assure you your

life, your formation,

your disciplehip to Jesus will not be in

vain. Would you stand with me and let's

respond.

Holy Spirit, I want to invite you right

now as we just respond in a moment of

worship and as we fix our eyes on some

practices to lean into this week. Would

you stir our spirits?

Would you reveal what has a hold on us?

And would you comfort us in your

kindness to remind us that you're not

only in the background, you're working.

You're moving. You're setting us up.

And none of our pain, none of our

process, none of our burdens, none of

our suffering is in vain.

We break comparison.

We break the feeling of just feeling

stuck

and immovable. Some of you feel like you

haven't made any progress in your life

or spiritual life in years. And I just

feel like today is the day that you just

receive the word over your life. That

you aren't stuck.

You're not stuck if you're here because

God is here. He is working. He is with

you. And he's in the background. And he

will not waste your life. He will not

waste your life. Whether you have one

more breath or 10 more years,

he wastes nothing.

Don't miss the beauty of the story.

Don't miss the invitation to be freed of

the masters of this world and to serve a

master that will never leave you or

forsake you.

Jesus, we honor you for being the one

true king, the pharaoh that Pharaoh

could never be.

that we could entrust ourselves to and

know

that I can give up my life that I can

lose everything

and still gain you.

Thank you for my eternal identity as

your son. Thank you for this eternal

family as your sons and daughters. And

we lean into practicing your ways this

week. Here are three things that I

encourage you this week to lean into.

Three simple practices as we respond

today. Number one, simply name it. Ask

Jesus, "What has a hold on you? What has

a hold on me? What can you not say no

to? What are you terrified of losing?

What are you constantly saying that I

can I see it and I can handle it?"

Name it. Don't try to fix it. Just name

it.

And then just bring it to light. Tell

somebody. It's the power of groups. It's

the power of community. You're not

alone.

There's masters in my life that I can't

see by myself. It's often that annoying

person that won't shut up in one area

that will speak to the heart of the

thing that I need to hear in another.

Let the messiness of community form you

and shape you until you love it again.

We can't learn to live free alone.

Bring it to light. And finally, just

surrender to Jesus Aresh today. The

beauty of the Sabbath, the beauty of the

Christian life is that wherever you find

yourself in the brokenness of any given

day, you can just come to the altar.

Come to the cross and surrender it

again. Aresh, here's the prayer that I

encourage you to pray all week long.

Jesus, I don't want this to master me

anymore. Simply tr teach me, Jesus, to

trust you here. Teach me to trust you,

Lord Jesus. King Jesus,

where I can't trust you, deposit your

trust as a grace in my life.

Name it.