The Story pt. 4: Deliverance
Oct/30/11 01:45 Filed in: The Story | Sunday Series
I. Godʼs new nation is in danger of annihilation in Egypt. Exodus 1
II. God reveals himself in three ways in the deliverance of his people.
God reveals his name, his power, and his plan.
God has giving us one of the biggest clues so far of his master plan to get us back and to remove the sin nature. Jesus is the lamb, without defect. It is his blood that was poured out on the cross that becomes the blood we need to apply to the doorframe of our soul.
Application
Point: We all need the blood of the lamb applied to the doorposts of our souls. PML will lead in a salvation prayer and have people complete the response card, either with their own name, or with the name of someone for whom they are praying for deliverance from sin.
Benediction Thoughts
When the blood was applied to the door posts of the Israelites, their future, their salvation, and their deliverance was secured. They would later leave Egypt carrying plunder with them. Pharoah would pursue them to try to bring them back, but God would deliver them through the Red Sea, destroying the Egyptian army in the process. And on the other side of the Red Sea the people of God would experience God’s faithful provision.
Today I want to encourage you. If you have prayed that prayer of dedication over your life, your salvation has been secured. God will completely deliver you. He will defeat your enemies and He will faithfully supply all you need. Because you have become a part of HisStory.
- A. The new nation was in Egypt as slaves for 400 years and a new Pharoah who did not know Joseph came to power. The new Pharoah was intimidated by the new nation and feared a take-over. He ordered the death of all new-born Hebrew boys.
- B. Did these 400 years of slavery take God by surprise? No. God had revealed to Abraham that this would happen.
Genesis15:12–16!
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 your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. 14 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. 15 You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. 16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”
Time: On the timeline in the first few pages (page xi) of The Story, find “Abraham moves to Canaan” in 2091. Then, find “Moses born” in 1526, which is 565 years later. That’s the span of time between God’s prediction to Abraham in Genesis 15:12-14 and its fulfillment.
- C. Since God predicted the slavery, did God cause the slavery? No. It resulted from the fear and the sin nature of the Egyptian people.
(transition: God uses the oppressive sinfulness of the Egyptians as an opportunityto reveal himself.)
Consider this, God knows ahead of time all of the sin that you and other’s will commit, and still He loves and redeems. Moreover he will not waste the experience. He weaves ugliest actions of men and women in such a way that his masterpiece is enhanced. The sin of men and women is to blame for the evil in this world. And God is to be praised because He makes beauty from ashes.
II. God reveals himself in three ways in the deliverance of his people.
God reveals his name, his power, and his plan.
- A. God reveals his name: “I am that I am” to Moses. Exodus 3-4
- “I am that I am” (Yahweh) means the self-existent one.
- 1. God chooses Moses to lead the deliverance.
If found it very interesting that at first Moses got into trouble because he saw the oppression of his people and took matters into his own hands, killed an Egyptian and ended up running away from Pharoah. Then when God calls him in Exodus he says he is not qualified and argues with God about the whole matter. God became angry with Moses as a result.... that’s dangerous ground!
Exodus 4:14–17 (NLT)
14 Then the Lord became angry with Moses. “All right,” he said. “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he speaks well. And look! He is on his way to meet you now. He will be delighted to see you. 15 Talk to him, and put the words in his mouth. I will be with both of you as you speak, and I will instruct you both in what to do. 16 Aaron will be your spokesman to the people. He will be your mouthpiece, and you will stand in the place of God for him, telling him what to say. 17 And take your shepherdʼs staff with you, and use it to perform the miraculous signs I have shown you.”
It seems that’s the two poles that people are drawn. Either they am trying so hard in their own efforts that they make a mess or they doubt God’s ability in their lives.
- 1. God chooses Moses to lead the deliverance.
- 2. Moses felt disqualified and God equipped him for the task of confronting Pharoah with Godʼs demand, “Let my people go!”
The key is for the staff to become the staff of the Lord.
Exodus 4:20 (NLT)
20 So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey, and headed back to the land of Egypt. In his hand he carried the staff of God.
- B. God reveals his power in the 10 plagues against the gods of" Egypt. Exodus 7-13.
- 1. In Mosesʼ time there were no atheists. People believed in god or gods. The key question was “Who is the most powerful god?”
Just as in that day God is willing and wanting to confront the questions of the day. God is able to prove himself and He does time and time again. God loves the cynics of the day. He is working to help them move beyond the hardness of their hearts. We must be willing to go to the Pharoah of the day to deliver God’s word of justice for the oppressed. In Moses time the concept of one God instead of many was unique. It challenged the thought of the day. In much of western society there are those who would try to make science their god. God can show up once again in this day and reveal the truth of His power and His love.
- 1. In Mosesʼ time there were no atheists. People believed in god or gods. The key question was “Who is the most powerful god?”
- 2. God used the plagues to harden Pharoahʼs heart and to reveal his own mighty power. [mention the first 9 plagues]
At the deepest level, it is a victory won by God over the false gods of Egypt. This gives to many of the stories their peculiar relish. For the Nile is the god Hapi; Hept the frog is a god of fertility and childbirth; Ra the sun (outraged by the darkness) is a god; Hat-hot had the form of a heifer, and Apis that of a bull; the flying hornet symbolized Egypt; and Pharaoh himself was a god. Yet all were helpless before the God of Israel.1
(transition: the 10th plague not only reveals God’s power, but points to his eternal plan.)
- 2. God used the plagues to harden Pharoahʼs heart and to reveal his own mighty power. [mention the first 9 plagues]
- C. God reveals his plan in the 10th plague which required the shedding of "lambʼs blood (a central clue in The Story).
Upper Story/Lower Story
The Story tells us that God hardens the heart of Pharaoh. Why would god do that? God is using Pharaoh’s disobedience to accomplish his overall plan. He looks into the heart of Pharaoh and says, “Pharaoh has determined in his heart a direction in his life. He will not follow my upper story. Now, I’m going to use his disobedience to finish my overall plan.” And he used his stubbornness to unleash not just one plague but ten, so that over and over again God has an opportunity to display his undeniable power. The tenth plague not only reveals God’s power but it reveals his plan for the shedding of blood to deliver us from sin and restore his relationship with us.
God has giving us one of the biggest clues so far of his master plan to get us back and to remove the sin nature. Jesus is the lamb, without defect. It is his blood that was poured out on the cross that becomes the blood we need to apply to the doorframe of our soul.
Application
Point: We all need the blood of the lamb applied to the doorposts of our souls. PML will lead in a salvation prayer and have people complete the response card, either with their own name, or with the name of someone for whom they are praying for deliverance from sin.
Benediction Thoughts
When the blood was applied to the door posts of the Israelites, their future, their salvation, and their deliverance was secured. They would later leave Egypt carrying plunder with them. Pharoah would pursue them to try to bring them back, but God would deliver them through the Red Sea, destroying the Egyptian army in the process. And on the other side of the Red Sea the people of God would experience God’s faithful provision.
Today I want to encourage you. If you have prayed that prayer of dedication over your life, your salvation has been secured. God will completely deliver you. He will defeat your enemies and He will faithfully supply all you need. Because you have become a part of HisStory.