INTRODUCTION
• The last year we have covered the ten commandments, and the delivering of Israel to the red sea.
• So we will not be dealing with them in-depth but we will deal with how God gets people free and how to stay free.
• Jesus spoke of another type of slavery.
John 8:31, “So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, ‘If you continue in my word, then you are truly disciples of mine; 32and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.’ 33They answered Him, ‘We are Abraham’s descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that you say, ‘you will become free’? 34Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin…36’So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.’”
Galatians 5:1, “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.”
• How do you get free and stay free?
• There are pictures all over Exodus that we can glean from
• Bondage…of lust, fear, shame, greed, manifested in addictions
• Review
1. Three things happen at the bush…Moses came to know God, he was empowered by God and he had to deal with himself!
2. Moses turned aside and then asked the big question…who am I?
3. No one but God is all…
4. At end of Exodus 4 the leaders received the words and the signs…and they bowed low and worshiped.
5. That was the beginning of freedom.
• That is always the pattern…teaching and then signs/wonders.
I. FROM EXPECTATION TO DESPAIR
Exodus 5:1-5, “…Moses and Aaron came and said to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go that they may celebrate a feast to me in the wilderness.’ 2But Pharaoh said, ‘Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and besides, I will not let Israel go.’”
• Pharaoh is a picture of your enemy…he does not want to let you go.
• When you begin to get free, hell will make life hard…
• These people went from expectation to despair…4:31 worship, 5:21-22 despair.
• Pharaohs character = Exodus 7-14 mentions Pharaoh’s hardened heart twenty times.
• Chapter 3:19 God says, “I know Pharaoh’s heart, it is hard.” Pharaoh made his own heart hard.
• He has held two million people in bondage.
• Then he asks…who is the Lord?
• When the Lord begins to set us free the real battle begins…
• There will be a confrontation…for your life…there always is,
• The strategy of the enemy is laid out here…expectation to despair.
Verse 6:9, “So Moses told the people what the Lord had said, but they wouldn’t listen anymore. They had become too discouraged by the increasing burden of their slavery.”
• Literally says, “because of their “shortness of spirit.”
• There is a downcast heart…that cannot receive the promises of God.
II. THE COST OF BONDAGE
• These people were about to experience one of the greatest moves of God in all time…
• Yet they couldn’t hear it.
• The enemy will wear down your emotions…that is why nothing that lasts long term can be built on emotions…because they don’t last.
• Must have convictions…if you hold on He will take what was intended for evil and use it for good…
• Chapters 7-10 are the plagues
• Chapter 11-12 pathway to freedom…we will look at the next two weeks…the Passover, the blood of the Lamb…
• Chapter 12 there are mentioned firsts three times
o Vs.2 - It’s a new day…start fresh year here
o Vs.5 - Lamb in its first year
o Vs.12 - First born…represents the promise of future
o The destroyer, who is that…well God pulled back and hell moves in…God doesn’t judge by bringing His hand
down…but moving it away.
John 10:10, “The thief comes to kill steal and destroy.” Revelation 9 - Abaddon, and in the Greek he has the name Apollyon = destroyer
• Is God unjust here? Truth is all of Egypt deserved judgment for all they had done for hundreds of years of oppression…and yes there is judgment…what about all the Egyptians had done…when God gave them repeated opportunities to release His people.
• So God took their firstborn…
• But remember He gave His firstborn…to die as well…for you! And me…the Lamb that was slain…
• God is putting first things first…order…values…
• Vs.13:1 - God then says now I claim your firstborn as my own…
• Sounds a bit like extortion…doesn’t it?
• I didn’t kill your first born but I am taking them as my own…
• That is not what is happening here…God is breaking people free and changing values.
• When we are in bondage we are impacted in three ways...
III. WHERE BONDAGE IMPACTS OUR VALUES
• When you are a slave things get warped.
• Your view of yourself, others and things
• Each of these gets broken
• First our view of ourselves…our identity is that of a slave…
• Our lives are out of order
• We lose sight of our dignity and our destiny…
• Our worth is determined by how you think of me…we give into other’s expectations.
• I want to be worth something and your opinion sets my value…and we lose our way.
• Then we really get in trouble…buying things we don’t need with money we don’t have to please people we don’t know!
• We compensate for it…to try and get it together…then we medicate it if it doesn’t improve…
• We usually know when we are in need…
• We hunger for other’s approval.
• We do things we shouldn’t in order to be accepted.
• We want your acceptance so badly, that we lie about ourselves.
• We deceive you as we distort ourselves…
• Why do you think social networking is so big? People spend billions to convince others.
• Stats tell us upwards of 80% of people on online dating services lie!
• Why? Because we so badly want others to accept us.
• Exodus 6:6-8 – Seven I wills…I will do it…but they didn’t listen.
• Bondage blinds us, creates a deafening.
IV. HOW WE VIEW OTHERS
• When you’re in bondage it is tough to worry about others.
• We worry about ourselves…
• Hard to care for other’s needs when I am consumed and preoccupied with my own.
• It is all I can do to take care of myself.
• Unless I need something…then I do what has been done to me…I use you…I take advantage of you.
• This is how bondage works…we lose our way.
• And we become embittered but we don’t perceive what we are doing…and we justify our bitterness due to our situation which we believe we are in no part responsible for.
V. HOW WE VIEW THINGS
• This is the last distortion…things.
• We feel we have nothing, but the ones who control us have the stuff.
• So we need the stuff…that others have, to be happy.
• To have value…
Jesus said, Luke 12:15, “Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.”
• The 10 commandments were about getting first things first…care about people…don’t covet…see worth of your parents…care for others…keep me first…values that give life.
• What I have is not what gives me value…that is why God says you must learn to tithe…to give regularly.
• To keep values clear and straight…there are hosts of believers who don’t give because they are ruled by what they have or don’t have.
• Giving is about a dimension of promise…trust me…I will set you free.
CLOSE
• God allowed the increase of affliction, the deepening of pain for a reason.
• To drive them out of slavery…because they wouldn’t chose to go out.
• We get so familiar with our brokenness we won’t let go until crisis.
• We know gambling is killing us, drinking, porn, greed, anger, but until the wife says she is leaving...
• Until the kids say we don’t want to be around you anymore...
• Until the house is gone and the job is lost we won’t leave.
• People have to want to be freed or they won’t get free or stay free.
• So hell ramps up on us but God uses this to cause us to want out.
• Their pain was too high…this is why we are a healing church…to help people to get free.
• But it takes people of confidence, faith, encouragement, mercy.
