BUT GRACE ABOUNDS ALL THE MORE

In Exodus 5, Moses arrives in Egypt, marches into Pharaoh's palace, and says "Let my people go." The time for salvation has come! The people are ready to be delivered! The mumbling, reluctant, former shepherd of Midian finally obeys God’s call…and it all seems to backfire. Pharaoh responds to the request for the Israel’s freedom by laying even heavier burdens upon them. The work gets harder. Their treatment becomes harsher. And they seem more enslaved than ever! So why does God write the story this way? Why in Exodus 5 and in the stories of our lives do things get worse before they get better? As we follow God’s call and obey God’s will things often become messier, more complex, and more difficult than they were before. Causing us to cry out, “O Lord, why?” “Why is it so hard?” “Why did I ever bother with this?” But God writes the story this way to show us more grace. To prove to us time and time again that where sin, difficulty, trouble, and all kinds of evil abound, grace really does abound all the more.

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AND HOW IT PREPARES US FOR THE DESTINATION

Oftentimes in stories, the journey is just as important, if not more important than the destination. Now, when it comes to the story of Exodus, the destination is pretty important! This thing is going somewhere! It’s not just about Moses finding himself along the way. God’s salvation is breaking into the world! That said, in stories, in Scripture, and in life - journeys matter. They are meant to teach us, shape us, and prepare us for the destination we’re headed toward. In Exodus 4:18-31, Moses’ journey back to Egypt is purposeful and preparatory for what he’ll experience in Egypt. It helps to shape our stories as well. Teaching us to finish well as we move from one chapter to another, to put God's promises in our pocket and take them with us as we go, to be faithful even in the littlest of things, and, most importantly, to worship even while we're waiting to get to where we’re going.

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THAN WE’D EVER WRITE FOR OURSELVES

In the story of your life, have you ever felt like there's a scene you just didn't belong in? A calling you believed was best reserved for someone else? Moses did as he tried to wrap his mind around going back to Egypt in order to bring Israel out. He looked at the script God handed to him and said, “There’s got to be someone else who could do this.” God said, “Go,” Moses said, “No,” and our human hero’s journey is off on the wrong foot. But this story has much to teach us about our own. Because every “no” from Moses gave rise to a “yes” about God. Everything Moses lacked was intended to show him more of who God is. And the same is true for us. In the story of our lives, God meets us just as we are and gives us grace for everything we aren’t. Even in spite of all our “nos,” all our doubts, all our inabilities and unfaithfulness, every good purpose God has for us will go forward because of that one man who said, “Yes. Not my will but yours be done.”

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THE GOD WHO WILL ALWAYS BE EXACTLY WHO HE IS

Exodus is the story of God's salvation. A story in which God is not only the Author but also the Main Character. The True Hero who's at work in and through the human hero named Moses. In Ex 3, the heroes of the story share their first scene together. God appears to the one who was drawn out of water and calls him to draw Israel out of Egypt. In response, Moses says, "Who am I to do a thing like this?" To which God replies, "It doesn't matter who you are, all that matters is who I am." Which leads Moses to ask, “Well then, who are you?” He asks the most important question anyone could ever ask - “Who is God?” - and receives a direct and divine answer! In the story of the burning bush, we step onto holy ground as God steps into the story and reveals himself to us. 

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WILL HE STEP INTO OURS?

Every story has a hero, and every hero has an origin story. Exodus 2 is the origin story of Moses, the protagonist of Exodus. But while Moses is a hero who brings us into the unfolding events of the book and moves the plot along, he’s not the capital “H” Hero of Exodus. His story is significant, but it’s not the whole story. Because his story teaches us that in Exodus, the true Hero is God. Everything that Moses did to free his people from captivity happened because God himself was stepping into the story. Hearing his people’s cries, remembering his promises, seeing their suffering, knowing their groaning under the awful weight of slavery, and then doing something about it. God stepped into Israel’s story back then, but do we believe he’ll step into our stories today? If you’re doubting whether he hears your cries, wonder if he cares about what you’re going through, or he seems distant to you, then look to the story of Moses and be encouraged. Because this hero ultimately points us forward to the Hero named Jesus. The Savior through whom God has stepped into our stories to change them forever.

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BUT THE GOOD NEWS IS GREATER

The opening chapter of Exodus is given to us for scale. The gospel is big. But to accurately take in the scope of God's gracious accomplishment, we need something to compare it to. Ex 1:8-22 sets the bigness of the gospel side by side with the badness of sin. Israel lived under the awful shadow of slavery and death. Apart from the rescuing work of Christ, this is the true state of our souls. Captive to sin, heading toward death, with nothing we can do to free ourselves. When we’re truly affected by the badness of this bad news, we can truly appreciate the goodness of the gospel. The good news that God spared the lives of the Hebrew sons back then. The even better news that in the fullness of time God sent his only Son to die.

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THE STORY WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND OUR LIVES

This Sunday, we began a new sermon series in the Book of Exodus. Exodus begins with Israel in Egypt (1:1-7). The rest of the story is about how God gets them out. What he does to get them out is the gospel of the Old Testament. Apart from this gospel of the OT, we cannot fully understand the gospel of Jesus Christ. But through this story, we’ll see and feel the finished work of Christ as bigger and greater than we did before. Learning how the good news of the gospel really does respond to all the bad news of life. Encountering the many riches of the gospel that’ll keep us glorifying God today, tomorrow, and forevermore. Being fueled with amazement not just for what we’ve been saved from, but all that we’ve been saved for.

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THE STORY OF JOSEPH

Exodus is the story of Israel's release from captivity in Egypt. But how did they get there? Enter Genesis 37-50 and the story of Joseph. This story tells us HOW Israel got to Egypt. But even more than that, it tells us WHAT we should be doing when we're not sure what God is doing - and WHY. Through Joseph's life, we learn how to live faithfully while waiting for God's mighty acts of deliverance. Beyond this, we encounter the great anchor upon which our faith rests: the sovereign and good purposes of God. 

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TAKE CARE HOW YOU BUILD UPON IT

It is a rich privilege to be God’s instruments, but a profound relief to know we’re only instruments. Amazingly, we get to be tools in the hands of the living God. But we are just tools. Any fruit, any progress in our mission and sweetness in our life together comes from God “who gives the growth” (1 Cor 3:7). It’s good news to know that our experience of all this does not ultimately depend on any one of us. That the church is not about any one of us. It’s all about Jesus. He is the foundation of our life. The fuel for our faith. And the rock solid confidence we have as we face the future. Our job is to take up what he’s laid down and then build upon his foundation with godly ambition.

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THE VINEDRESSER & THE VINE

This Sunday, we had the privilege of hearing Pastor Kyle preach the gospel to us before sending him off to our sister church in Orange. He left us with a word that we need to hear in a time like this - along with any other time. That we must embrace the pruning work of the Father and abide like our lives depend on it in Christ the Son. Believing that as we do hard things - like sending away dear friends - experience suffering, or encounter dark days in the Christian life, God is at work to make us more fruitful. Being freshly convinced that if there’s any fruit on our branches it’s because life is flowing to them through Christ the Vine. What we need most now is what we’ve always needed and will continue to need forever, to keep Christ at the very center of who we are and all we do.

LISTEN TO THE SERMON HERE