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.
• I love their answer.
• SLIDE #7
• Exodus 1:19 (NIV) The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.”
• Now God is blessing the Hebrews even more and they are having more children than ever.
• Sometimes you just have to do what is right, even if you are punished by evil people here, God will bless and reward those who are faithful!
• Pharaoh then orders all sons born into the Nile!
• This SEEMS really hopeless now.
• Did all this catch God off-guard?
• NO!
• God revealed what would happen to the nation to Abraham.
• SLIDE #8
• Genesis 15:12–14 (NIV) 12 As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. 13 Then the LORD said to him, “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. 14 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions.
• God predicted the slavery, but did He make it happen? No! The slavery resulted from the fear and sinful desires of the Egyptian’s!
• This is what we can glean from this situation, God uses the oppressive sinfulness of the Egyptians as an opportunity to reveal Himself!
• SLIDE #9
II. God reveals Himself in three ways in the deliverance of His people.
• Through this seemingly insurmountable obstacle, God will reveal Himself to the Hebrew people.
• They had been in slavery for at least 250 years or so. That is a LONG time! The people’s faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had to be on the ropes a bit.
• So let us see how God reveals Himself.
• First…
• SLIDE #10
A. God reveals His name.
• Through the decree to throw the baby boys in the Nile, a baby was born to a Hebrew woman, his name was Moses!
• When he was born his mother could not throw him in the Nile. Good thing Moses was not born a Teen!
• Then there came a point where should could not hide him any longer so she took a basket and lined it with pitch and set it a float in the Nile.
• SLIDE #11
• Exodus 2:5–6 (NIV) 5 Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. 6 She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said.
• Well to make a long story really short, Moses grows up in Pharaoh’s house and when he was an adult he killed an Egyptian that was beating a slave. He eventually flees for the desert and becomes a shepherd.
• Then God calls Moses, at the burning bush!
• God tells Moses He is going to deliver the people from the bondage of the Egyptians!
• Moses is not too willing to go back to Pharaoh, and he makes a bunch of excuses as to why God called the wrong God.
• Then God tells Moses that He will be with him, then Moses says, when they ask me who sent me what do I tell them?
• SLIDE #12
• Exodus 3:14–15 (NIV) God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ” God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’ “This is my name forever, the name you shall call me from generation to generation.
• The precise meaning of God’s name YAHWEH is not known but it basically means the self-existent one.
• God says He is the God of his father, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob!
• Moses feels so inadequate to confront Pharaoh. Moses whole life had prepared him for the moment and he did not even know it.
• How many times have you told God NO because you felt unqualified? Let me tell you something we can learn from Moses, if God calls you, you ARE qualified!
• God told Moses to go to Pharaoh and demand that Pharaoh, “LET MY PEOPLE GO.”!
• So God reveals His name to Moses, next…
• SLIDE #13
B. God reveals His power.
• In our video clip we saw a small display of God’s power and the ten plagues would rock the foundation of the faith of the Egyptians because each plague attacked one of their beloved gods.
• See in Moses day there was no atheists.
• People believed in god or several gods.
• So for them the key question was “WHO IS THE MOST POWERFUL GOD.”
• I believe we are no different today. Everyone believes is some god, the question is who and how powerful are their gods!
• God sends the plagues.
o 1. The water turned to blood, the Nile was turned into blood
o 2. Frogs
o 3. Gnats
o 4. Swarms of flies
o 5. Death of livestock
o 6. Boils
o 7. Hail
o 8. Locusts
o 9. Darkness
• After each plague Moses asks Pharaoh to release the people, Pharaoh refuses.
• God shows all of Egypt who is really God!
• The tenth plague not only reveals God’s power, but points to His plan!
• SLIDE #14
C. God reveals His plan.
• The tenth plague, the death of the firstborn.
• God reveals His plan in the 10th plague which required the shedding of lamb’s blood.
• The shedding of blood is a central clue in The Story.
• God told the Hebrew people to slaughter an unblemished lamb and brush its blood on the doorposts of their homes and they would be spared by the blood of the lamb.
CONCLUSION
• We need to blood of the lamb to wash our sins away! DO we have to kill an innocent lamb and shed its’ blood?
• NO! Jesus is the Lamb of God!
• SLIDE #15
• John 1:29 (NIV) The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
• Jesus shed His blood so YOU can be saved, so you can be with the God who loves you so much!
• SLIDE #16
• 1 Corinthians 5:7 (NIV) Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
• One of the biggest clues in the Story is in the deliverance: the blood of the lamb.
• Are you ready for the blood of the lamb to be applied to your life today?
• DO you know someone who needs Jesus, take the time to write their name down in your bulletin or on a piece of paper. Or in your Youversion App, fill out the question so I can pray for them also. Your name will be anonymous. Pray for them!
• God’s deliverance is a gift!
• Will you all God to deliver you out of bondage of Egypt!
