Deliverance

INTRODUCTION

• VIDEO CLIP

• SLIDE #1

• Welcome to FCC as we continue on our journey through The Story together, today we are in chapter four and if you have missed any of the messages you can go to our web site and click on the audio sermon link.

• As we have been on the path of the Story, we learned that after man sinned in the garden the rest of the bible is about God’s pursuit of getting man back into a position in which he could be with God.

• It shows the depth of God’s love for us.

• After the fall, after the flood, God went about to build a new nation from which ultimately the Savoir of the world, Jesus would come from.

• The new nation started with Abraham and Sarah, an elderly couple who when God called upon had no children.

• Then came Isaac years after God promised Abraham and Sarah they would have children. From there Jacob had 12 sons one of whom was Joseph.

• Joseph ended up in Egypt as a slave and ended up becoming second in charge only to Pharaoh himself.

• God allowed the events to unfold so that the fledgling nation would survive both the famine and God’s nation inter-marrying with the pagan nations.

• We see the book of Genesis ending with the death of Joseph.

• All was good for the nation, they were living in Goshen, the most fertile area of Egypt.

• Over time all of Joseph’s brothers died and the Hebrews numbers were growing rapidly.

• That leads to chapter four of The Story, “Deliverance’!

• SLIDE #2

• On the map in the front inside cover of The Story, put an M for Moses over in Egypt, draw a circle around him to signify the children of Israel, then draw a line across the Red Sea to Sinai.

• Let’s begin of journey today in the book of Exodus as we see…

• SLIDE #3

SERMON

I. God’s new nation is in danger of annihilation in Egypt. Exodus 1

• Once time passed Joseph’s exploits were faded from memory.

• According to the time line in the front of The Story, Joseph died in 1805 BC. *

• This is not uncommon, at some point you may have been big man or important woman on campus, but then go back years later and the fading pictures are but a memory.

• At some point, probably a 100 years or so after Josephs death in 1805 the nation is in some trouble, they are facing possible annihilation,

• SLIDE #4

• Exodus 1:8–10 (NIV) 8 Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt. 9 “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. 10 Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.”

• The Hebrew’s were in Egypt of about 400-450 years total, but not all of that was in slavery, just the last couple hundred or so.

• The new Pharaoh was fearful of the fact that if they got into a war the ever growing Hebrew population would rise up against Egypt to help them be defeated.

• So to remedy this Pharaoh had a two pronged plan.

• SLIDE #5

• Exodus 1:11–12 (NIV) 11 So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. 12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites

• So part one was to enslave the Hebrews. Seems like a good lower story solution to a perceived problem to Pharaoh.

• Well that did not work out too well because, the more they were oppressed the more babies they kept producing!

• So Pharaoh comes up with part 2.

• SLIDE #6

• Exodus 1:15–16 (NIV) The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, “When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.”

• Pharaoh is so fearful of what COULD happen that he acts rashly to the point of putting a death sentence on all the Hebrew boys born.

• Well this was not working because the Hebrew midwives feared God more than Pharaoh and they were not killing the boys.

• Pharaoh calls them to the carpet for it and asks them why they were not killing the boys.