Exodus Chronicles: Part 11

Exodus Chronicles: Part 11

Pastor: Rollan Fisher

Focus: God desires to make you part of his holy people, set apart to live in the wisdom and redemption of Christ.   

• The End of the Exodus

• A Consecrated People

• Living in the Wisdom of Christ

The End of the Exodus 

God’s end in the Exodus was to create a holy people to be his treasured possession. 

Exodus 19:1-8

On the third new moon after the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that day they came into the wilderness of Sinai. They set out from Rephidim and came into the wilderness of Sinai, and they encamped in the wilderness. There Israel encamped before the mountain, while Moses went up to God. The Lord called to him out of the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel: ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.” So Moses came and called the elders of the people and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him. All the people answered together and said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.” And Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord. 

As stated in the Westminster Catechism as a careful synopsis of the Scripture:

“Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.”

As God was bringing the Israelites out of Egypt, he made it clear that his end was to bring a people to himself who would be his treasured possession in all of the earth.  

These people would be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.  

To be such a people, we would have to heed God's voice by knowing his covenant, expressed through his Word, living lives of faith and obedient application of that Word in the world.  

The following chapter would begin the record of God giving his laws, the basis of his covenant, to the people.  

A Consecrated People 

The Holy Spirit works to make us a consecrated people. 

Exodus 19:9-25

And the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am coming to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and may also believe you forever.” When Moses told the words of the people to the Lord, the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments and be ready for the third day. For on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. And you shall set limits for the people all around, saying, ‘Take care not to go up into the mountain or touch the edge of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death. No hand shall touch him, but he shall be stoned or shot; whether beast or man, he shall not live.’ When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain.” So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and consecrated the people; and they washed their garments. And he said to the people, “Be ready for the third day; do not go near a woman.” On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder. The Lord came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. And the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up. And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down and warn the people, lest they break through to the Lord  to look and many of them perish. Also let the priests who come near to the Lord  consecrate themselves, lest the Lord  break out against them.” And Moses said to the Lord, “The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for you yourself warned us, saying, ‘Set limits around the mountain and consecrate it.’” And the Lord said to him, “Go down, and come up bringing Aaron with you. But do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the Lord, lest he break out against them.” So Moses went down to the people and told them.

Holiness and consecration work hand in hand.

Holiness is the goal - being inwardly set apart to God, producing outward actions of consecration in our life, speech, love, faith and purity.  

The rubber has to meet the road connecting:

1. what God says in his Word to

2. what we say we believe to

3. what we value and

4. therefore how we live.

This is what it means to live a holy and consecrated life.

To be a consecrated people means to be set apart to God - for God’s purposes and God’s glory. 

Sanctification is God’s ongoing process of making us holy through the renewing of our hearts and minds replacing the old idolatry of humanism. 

“Humanism is the defiant denial of the God who is there, with man defiantly set up in the place of God as the measure of all things.”

— Francis Schaeffer

The Israelites were to wash their clothing as an outward symbol of the inward purifying of their hearts, coming into alignment with God.  

2 Timothy 2:22

So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

Living in the Wisdom of Christ

God consecrates us to live in the wisdom of Christ - forever in the shadow of the cross and the hope of the resurrection.  

1 Corinthians 1:18-31 

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

There is a difference between the wisdom of the world and the wisdom of God.

As a holy, consecrated people, we are called to live by the wisdom of Christ. 

The Word and presence of God are anchors amidst the emotional buffeting of a world that rages against Christ:

“How many winds of doctrine we have known in recent decades, how many ideological currents, how many ways of thinking. The small boat of thought of many Christians has often been tossed about by these waves - thrown from one extreme to the other: from Marxism to liberalism, even to libertinism; from collectivism to radical individualism; from atheism to a vague religious mysticism; from agnosticism to syncretism, and so forth. Every day new sects are created and what Saint Paul says about human trickery comes true, with cunning which tries to draw those into error (cf Ephesians 4, 14). Having a clear Faith, based on the Creed of the Church, is often labeled today as a fundamentalism. Whereas, relativism, which is letting oneself be tossed and 'swept along by every wind of teaching', looks like the only attitude acceptable to today's standards. We are moving towards a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as certain and which has as its highest goal one's own ego and one's own desires. However, we have a different goal: the Son of God, true man. He is the measure of true humanism. Being an 'Adult' means having a faith which does not follow the waves of today's fashions or the latest novelties. A faith which is deeply rooted in friendship with Christ is adult and mature. It is this friendship which opens us up to all that is good and gives us the knowledge to judge true from false, and deceit from truth.” 

― Pope Benedict XVI 

All of the wisdom of Christ leads to the cross.

Through his life, Jesus satisfied all of the righteous requirements of the law.

Matthew 5:17-20 

17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19 Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Through his blood spilled at the cross and by his resurrection from the dead, faith in Jesus’ finished work became the foundation of a new covenant with God.  

In the cross and the resurrection EVERYONE can find both God’s forgiveness and redemption.  

Repentance - a change of mind to come into agreement with God and go in a different direction - is key to this new life.  

Here, as we follow Jesus by faith, we have a new wisdom through which we are free  to look out not only for ourselves, but to consider the interests of others, that the love of God might be seen and Jesus might be glorified (Philippians 2).  

It is countercultural and counterintuitive to our sinful nature, but denying yourself and picking up your cross daily are a prerequisite to serving Jesus as a disciple.

Matthew 16:24-27 

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.

The good news of the gospel is that if we die with him as we live day by day, we will also live, rule and reign with Jesus.

2 Timothy 2:8-13 

Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound! Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself.

Redemption comes as we allow God to use our lives in a fallen world to be salt and light, preserving and flavoring it a bit longer, until Jesus returns to make all wrong things right. 

“Give your life to Christ. It doesn’t mean that you give up your career and your business. It means that you go back into your career, go back into your business, and live for Christ—unless it’s something dishonest. Make the choice. Turn from the broad road to the narrow road today.”

-Billy Graham

Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher

Exodus Chronicles: Part 10

Exodus Chronicles: Part 10

Pastor: Rollan Fisher

Focus: To walk with Christ is to find your value, meaning, purpose and grace.   

• A Christian Call to Leadership

• Value and Meaning

• God’s Purpose and Grace

A Christian Call to Leadership 

As you walk with God, every Christian will be called to grow in how they influence others for Christ.  

Exodus 18:1-16

Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses' father-in-law, heard of all that God had done for Moses and for Israel his people, how the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt. Now Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, had taken Zipporah, Moses' wife, after he had sent her home, along with her two sons. The name of the one was Gershom ( for he said, “I have been a sojourner in a foreign land”), and the name of the other, Eliezer (for he said, “The God of my father was my help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh”). Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife to Moses in the wilderness where he was encamped at the mountain of God. And when he sent word to Moses, “I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons with her,” Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and bowed down and kissed him. And they asked each other of their welfare and went into the tent. Then Moses told his father-in-law all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake, all the hardship that had come upon them in the way, and how the Lord had delivered them. 9 And Jethro rejoiced for all the good that the Lord had done to Israel, in that he had delivered them out of the hand of the Egyptians. Jethro said, “Blessed be the Lord, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh and has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods, because in this affair they dealt arrogantly with the people.” And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, brought a burnt offering and sacrifices to God; and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses' father-in-law before God. The next day Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood around Moses from morning till evening. When Moses' father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, “What is this that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone, and all the people stand around you from morning till evening?” And Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God; when they have a dispute, they come to me and I decide between one person and another, and I make them know the statutes of God and his laws.” 

Moses gave testimony of all that Yahweh, the God of Israel, had done for them in delivering the Israelites from the hand of the Egyptians.  

In doing so, Moses influenced Jethro to worship Yahweh as the only true God above all other false deities.  

Each of us have a BC (before Christ), cross (how we turned to Christ) and AD (how things have been different since coming  to Christ) experience of God’s deliverance that we should regularly share with those around us to bring glory to God.  

If you do not have this, now is the time to turn away from your sins to Jesus, who died sacrificially on the cross to take the punishment for your rebellion against a holy God.  

Through Christ’s resurrection from the dead, he not only grants you eternal life, but sets you free from your slavery to sin that you might have a testimony of deliverance in which others might also participate by faith!

When was the last time that you shared your story of God’s deliverance?

Though God had used Moses to deliver the Israelites and influence Jethro’s worship, God had leadership multiplication in mind. 

Jethro understood that the work of God was not to be accomplished by Moses alone. 

*We need humility, not a critical nature, to walk with Christ, his people and to fully execute God’s game plan.  

“As long as you are proud you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people: and, of course, as long as you are looking down you cannot see something that is above you.”

-C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Whether you are a doctor, lawyer, educator, businessman, actor, stay at home parent, techie, politician, athlete, entertainer, retired grandparent, social media influencer or facilities manager, you are called to influence the world around you for Christ.  

Have you found your gift and place of service?

How are you using it to influence the world for Christ?

Value and Meaning 

As you walk with God he illuminates your indisputable value and leads you to life’s all-sufficient meaning in Christ.  

17 Moses' father-in-law said to him, “What you are doing is not good. You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone. Now obey my voice; I will give you advice, and God be with you! You shall represent the people before God and bring their cases to God, and you shall warn them about the statutes and the laws, and make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must do. Moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. And let them judge the people at all times. Every great matter they shall bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you. If you do this, God will direct you, you will be able to endure, and all this people also will go to their place in peace.” So Moses listened to the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said. Moses chose able men out of all Israel and made them heads over the people, chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. And they judged the people at all times. Any hard case they brought to Moses, but any small matter they decided themselves. Then Moses let his father-in-law depart, and he went away to his own country.

For all of the Israelites to grow in the knowledge, commands and worship of God, multiplying amongst their posterity and through the generations, it would take the appointment of leaders over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens.  

This is why we have community groups as a vehicle for discipleship, with the goal of multiplication, for the influence of God to be established and Increased in our cities.  

Why do people wander and find themselves trapped in the search for momentary pleasure?

“When a person can't find a deep sense of meaning, they distract themselves with pleasure.”

-Viktor E. Frankl

Value is given by Him to whom you belong - God created you in His image (Genesis 1:26,27 - Imago Dei).  

Meaning is given by the purpose to which He has called you.  

“We don't seek to escape this life by dreaming of heaven. But we do find we can endure this life because of the certainty of heaven. Heaven is eternal. Earth is temporal. Those who fix all their affections of the fleeting things of this world are the real escapists, because they are vainly attempting to avoid facing eternity - by hiding in the fleeting shadows of things that are only transient.”

-John MacArthur 

Therefore, there is no greater gift than to be delivered in the Great Commission of Christ and there is no greater eternal purpose than in seeing the Great Commission reach its end.  

There is no fulfilling the great commission of God without expanding teamwork where every believer finds both their gift and place of service.  

You influence the worship of God in things like hospitality, greeting, in children’s ministry, on the set-up team for service or baptisms, on the worship team, on the video and tech crew as you help the word and testimony of Christ to literally reach the nations.   

This is why we have ministry teams for everyone to find a fruitful place of influence.

God’s Purpose and Grace

You find both God’s purpose for your life and grace when you finally serve Christ as Lord.  

Matthew 20:1-16 

20 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2 After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, 4 and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ 5 So they went.  Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. 6 And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ 7 They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ 8 And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ 9 And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. 10 Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. 11 And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, 12 saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ 13 But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14 Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. 15 Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ 16 So the last will be first, and the first last.”

This parable is ultimately about God’s common grace for all who would repent of their sins and follow Jesus, putting their hope in his work at the cross alone to secure salvation.  

Yet it is also a call for us to embrace the lasting value and meaning that will only be found in Christ as we discover our purpose in his vineyard.  

What is lasting always goes back to Christ and his vineyard.  

God’s purpose for you individually will forever be aligned with his Kingdom purpose that surrounds you corporately.  

It is in serving Christ in his vineyard that we find not only our eternal purpose, but our eternal reward.  

Matthew 25 clearly states that God will not save us, but reward us according to what we have done.  

“Desiring to excel is not a sin. It is motivation that determines ambition’s character. Our Lord never taught against the urge to high achievement, but He did expose and condemn unworthy motivation.”

-J Oswald Sanders in Spiritual Leadership: A Commitment to Excellence for Every Believer 

Acts 2:36-47 

Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Have you met Jesus in his vineyard?

Who’s vineyard are you living to tend - Christ’s or your own?

Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher

Exodus Chronicles: Part 9

Exodus Chronicles: Part 9 

Pastor Rollan Fisher

Focus: We must learn new responses in our times of trial to see Jesus break through as the Lord - our banner of victory. 

• Learned Responses

• Keep Those Hands Up

• To the Lord Our Banner

Learned Responses 

We must learn new responses to God during our times of trial.  

Exodus 17:1-7 

All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” So Moses cried to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” And the Lord said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

God moves us into his promises by stages. 

God always has a plan.  

The Israelites were camped by the commandment of the Lord where there was no water for the people to drink, but again, God had a plan.

Familiar challenges are part of your walk with God (Remember the Israelites in Exodus 15:22-26 at Marah).

God uses the challenges to bring out what is in our hearts, that we might see clearly and be conformed to the image of Christ.  

*The wilderness is ultimately about our character development, not God’s faithfulness.  

God gives you similar challenges over and over so that you grow in your RESPONSES - learning how to trust the Lord (think of Jesus feeding the 5000 and then the 4000). 

Every place where God commands you to camp, he has a plan for miraculous provision to show both his sovereignty and care for you.

Despite this, like the Israelites, our tendency is to quarrel and complain.

God is kind to instruct us during those times as grumbling children on the path to maturity.  

Yet this grace must never be taken for granted.  

Leadership always needs to be ready to set the pace in seeking the Lord for a solution in times of trial, passing on before the people as an example.

Moses taking in his hand the staff with which he struck the Nile communicated that the same faithfulness that God showed his people before would be the same power and faithfulness that he would show them again - this time in new territory on their way to the promise.

The lesson that we need to learn is that testing the Lord is not good.

The presumption and audacity of people who casually talk about being angry with God and speaking ill words against him needs to stop.

To see the supernatural power and provision of God, we must walk in a humble fear of the Lord.

Massah and Meribah were so named to mark the Israelites immaturity and the Lord’s faithfulness in the midst of it.

*Where does the Lord need to mature you in the midst of your responses to life’s challenges?

Keep Those Hands Up

God’s breakthroughs come on the heels of prayer and praise.   

The right response to our challenges should be prayer and praise. 

Exodus 15 begins with a beautiful picture of how we should all respond in gratitude and thankfulness when it is clear that the Lord has delivered us.

Over the course of time, the further we get from the actual moment of deliverance, the greater the temptation is to allow our gratitude to dull and our thankfulness to wane.

Thankfulness is a muscle to be developed.

What God is showing us in Rephidim is that which comes  to steal our thankfulness and joy.  

Exodus 17:8-13

Then Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim. So Moses said to Joshua, “Choose for us men, and go out and fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.” So Joshua did as Moses told him, and fought with Amalek, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed, and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands grew weary, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side. So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. And Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the sword. 

The Hebrew root word for Amal had the meaning of: trouble, wearisome labor and toil. 

Just as of blotted out the Egyptian chariots, so he intended to blot out the Amalekite threat from the Israelites, which means there is no enemy, no challenge - past, present or FUTURE - that the Lord is not willing and able to give his people victory through.  

Here is the key:  As long as Moses' hands were raised, the Israelites were winning.  

Whenever they were lowered, the Amalekites were winning.

There is a direct correlation to prayer and praise here.

1 Timothy 2:8 

I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling;

It starts with the men!

Aaron and Hur show us the need for community in the fight - STOP SKIPPING CHURCH! 

*There are fallacies to the idea of simply relying on a remote church experience. 

Stop fooling yourself - deception is spoken of over and over again in the Bible. 

The act of inconveniencing yourself to get out of bed and come to physically fellowship with other believers is good practice for the DAILY EXPECTATION TO DENY YOURSELF, PICK UP YOUR CROSS AND FOLLOW CHRIST if you are to be a disciple (Luke 9:23,24).  

It is the same with the regular practice of tithing when I give my FIRST AND BEST 10% to God remembering that all of life depends on him and is to be stewarded for him.  

These are outward practices for inward character development. 

Luke 9:23-24 

And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

Everyone wants to shoot like Steph Curry, but few want to put in the work to be like him. 

People say they want to please Christ, but few want to fulfill acts of righteousness to be like him (think of Christ’s baptism). 

You are not living under God’s banner when you are picking and choosing what you will obey, and therefore should not expect victory.  

*We win in every area when we do what God says, Christ’s way.  

To the Lord Our Banner

When we learn to come to Christ and his church through our trials, we see clearly that Jesus is forever lifted up over every circumstance as our banner of victory.  

Exodus 17:14-16

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.” And Moses built an altar and called the name of it, The Lord Is My Banner, saying, “A hand upon the throne of the Lord! The Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.”

In Christ’s glory, you will find your victory. 

John 12:27-33 

27 “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not mine. 31 Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.

God blotted the memory of the Amalekites from under heaven.  

Christ would achieve the ultimate victory for all who would turn to him by forever blotting out the guilt of our sins by paying for our forgiveness through his sacrificial death at the cross.  

Though we were once objects of God’s wrath, we have peace with God and victory over sin as we look to Christ, our banner lifted up, now resurrected from the dead, that we might have eternal life through his finished work. 

*In this and every situation, we learn that the victories of Christ are not temporary, but eternal.  

Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher

God’s Wonderful Grace in the Wilderness

God’s Wonderful Grace in the Wilderness

The Exodus Chronicles Part 8

Associate Pastor Cole Parleir

A Word about The Word 

Questions:

1. Why do we read and sit under the preaching of God’s Word, the Bible?

2. What is your expectation from time in God’s Word?

Study to do and teach (hear posture to know and obey God)

For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to his statues and rules in Israel.

Ezra 7:10 

A Living Sword (scalpel)

“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭4:12‬ ‭ESV‬‬ 

A Fire and Hammer (clean and break up hard hearts)

“Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?”

‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭23:29‬ ‭ESV‬‬ 

God’s breath of life, God’s grace imparted (prepares the lost for salvation and equips for every good work)

“and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

‭‭2 Timothy‬ ‭3:15-17‬ ‭ESV‬‬ 

Context for today’s Word

Previous chapter: 

Exodus 15:1-21 is a song of praise for God’s mighty deliverance of Israel. 

Then 22-27 is 3 days later when they grumbled against Moses saying “What shall we drink?”.  The Lord through Moses provided a supernatural solution in mercy without any rebuke of the grumbling. 

Here and now the Lord laid down the first rule for his freshly freed people in VS 26 “saying, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer.”  God has mercy on us while he teaches us his ways.  He reaffirms his role and heart as their healer.  He brings them to a place of respite with plenty of water, Elim. 

Today’s chapter:

Exodus 16 we find the Isrealites moving from day 3 in Elim to day 30 in the wilderness of Sin between Elim and Sinai. 

The 10 commandments had not yet been given, just a GPS (emphasis on relationship rather than law at this point)

The Word: Exodus 16

Focus: God’s grace saves us from slavery to sin and death and God’s grace enables obedience to His Word keeping us free from sin as He leads us to our eternal home. 

Points:

• Oasis to Wilderness

• Wilderness to Wonder

• Wonder to Rest

Oasis to Wilderness 

“They set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

Exodus 16: 1-3

‭‭Wilderness to Wonder

“Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.” So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel, “At evening you shall know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your grumbling against the Lord. For what are we, that you grumble against us?” And Moses said, “When the Lord gives you in the evening meat to eat and in the morning bread to the full, because the Lord has heard your grumbling that you grumble against him—what are we? Your grumbling is not against us but against the Lord.” Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, ‘Come near before the Lord, for he has heard your grumbling.’” And as soon as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. And the Lord said to Moses, “I have heard the grumbling of the people of Israel. Say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.’” In the evening quail came up and covered the camp, and in the morning dew lay around the camp. And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake-like thing, fine as frost on the ground. When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat. This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Gather of it, each one of you, as much as he can eat. You shall each take an omer, according to the number of the persons that each of you has in his tent.’” And the people of Israel did so. They gathered, some more, some less. But when they measured it with an omer, whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack. Each of them gathered as much as he could eat. And Moses said to them, “Let no one leave any of it over till the morning.” But they did not listen to Moses. Some left part of it till the morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was angry with them. Morning by morning they gathered it, each as much as he could eat; but when the sun grew hot, it melted.”

Exodus 16: 4-21

Wonder to Rest 

“On the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers each. And when all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses, he said to them, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord; bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over lay aside to be kept till the morning.’” So they laid it aside till the morning, as Moses commanded them, and it did not stink, and there were no worms in it. Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is a Sabbath, there will be none.” On the seventh day some of the people went out to gather, but they found none. And the Lord said to Moses, “How long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws? See! The Lord has given you the Sabbath; therefore on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Remain each of you in his place; let no one go out of his place on the seventh day.” So the people rested on the seventh day. Now the house of Israel called its name manna. It was like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. Moses said, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Let an omer of it be kept throughout your generations, so that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.’” And Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar, and put an omer of manna in it, and place it before the Lord to be kept throughout your generations.” As the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron placed it before the testimony to be kept. The people of Israel ate the manna forty years, till they came to a habitable land. They ate the manna till they came to the border of the land of Canaan. (An omer is the tenth part of an ephah.)”

Exodus 16: 22-35

Jesus declares he is Bread of Life

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.”

‭‭John‬ ‭6:47-51, 63‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Men’s courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead. But if the courses are departed from, the ends will change.”

- Ebenezer Scrooge, ‘A Christmas Carol’.

Today you can choose to eat of the bread of life, receiving Jesus as your Savior from sin and death and your Lord to lead you all the way home into the Father’s house. 

Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher

Exodus Chronicles: Part 7

Exodus Chronicles: Part 7

Pastor: Rollan Fisher

Why does it matter where we live, to whom we speak and what message that we bring?

Focus:

As we follow Jesus into the life of freedom to which he has called us, it matters where you live, to whom you speak and what message you bring. 

• God’s Protection

• God’s Direction

• God’s Salvation

God’s Protection

As you follow Christ, it matters where you live.

Pray for families affected by recent Uvalde, Texas and Buffalo, NY shootings, as well as those regularly occurring in our own backyard.  

What could have been done? 

Exodus 13:17-22

When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, “Lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.” But God led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. And the people of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt equipped for battle. Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones with you from here.” And they moved on from Succoth and encamped at Etham, on the edge of the wilderness. And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.

If we are following God, the places where God calls us to live are not always the most economic, the most convenient or the most inviting. 

They will, however, be the most fruitful providing Kingdom purpose and freedom for you and your family.  

“The safest place to be is in the center of God’s will.”

— Corrie ten Boom

Keeping in step with God leads you to the safest, most satisfying and most liberating place you can be.  

Exodus 14:19-20

Then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud and the darkness. And it lit up the night without one coming near the other all night.

Exodus 14:24

And in the morning watch the Lord in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic,

God’s Direction

As you follow Christ, it matters to whom you speak.  

Exodus 15:22-27

Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter; therefore it was named Marah. And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” And he cried to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a log, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. There the Lord made for them a statute and a rule, and there he tested them, saying, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer.” Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they encamped there by the water.

We must keep in step with the Holy Spirit to fulfill God’s Kingdom mission. 

You are on mission in the places and with the people around whom God places you - in your family, in your workplace, in your neighborhood and in your schools.  

God’s Salvation

As you follow Christ, it matters what message you bring. 

Acts 17:24-31

The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’ Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

Exodus 40:34-38

Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys.

Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher

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Trusting God At The Red Sea

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Trusting God At The Red Sea

The Exodus Chronicles Part 6:

Associate Pastor Cole Parleir

The Word: Exodus 14

Focus: God’s path of deliverance is designed to strengthen your faith while bringing about permanent victories in your life.

Points

• When God Says “Turn Back”

• When the Battle Intensifies

• When God Fights For You

When God Says “Turn Back” 

Exodus 14:1-4

“Then the LORD said to Moses, “Tell the people of Israel to turn back and encamp in front of Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, in front of Baal-Zephaniah; you shall encamp facing it, by the sea. For Pharaoh will say of the people of Israel, ‘They are wandering in the land; the wilderness has shut them in.’ And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD.” And they did so.”

The road to freedom may seem inefficient.  It is actually God’s master plan to bring about a complete victory. 

The LORD said ‘Turn back and encamp” - Progress in God can feel slow and inefficient.  Don’t sweep your sin or fears under the rug.  God wants to confront everything that kills, steals, and destroys your life of faith in him including heart posters and mentalities that may have persisted for generations and throughout godless cultural norms you have been raised in.

The LORD said take your stand ‘By the sea’ - Where are the emergency exits?  By design God allows and even directs his people into circumstances that are vulnerable, unsafe, and do not make sense without a supernatural intervention.  This is unto the purpose of revealing where our hope is that it may be placed in Him alone.

Pharaoh will say “they are wandering…the wilderness has shut them in’ - Israel became the LORD’s ‘bait’ to bring justice upon Pharaoh.  To the eyes of the faithless your path to God’s freedom in Christ will seem foolish with pointless pain and suffering.   When God’s people humble themselves and become ‘fools for Christ’ it makes room for God to get glory over that and those which are opposed to Him. 

“Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,” and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.””

1 Corinthians‬ ‭3:18-20‬ ‭ESV‬‬

https://bible.com/bible/59/1co.3.18-20.ESV

‘And they did so.’ - When we recognize the narrow path of God’s choosing is so that our freedom may be complete, we will trust and obey quickly and fully.

Question:  When God’s path for your freedom in Christ seems foolish and/or slow, will you trust him?

When the Battle Intensifies

Exodus 14:5-12

When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the mind of Pharaoh and his servants changed toward the people, and they said, “What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?”  So he made ready his chariot and took his army with him, and took six hundred chosen chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them. And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the people of Israel while the people of Israel were going out defiantly.  The Egyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and his horsemen and his army, and overtook them encamped at the sear by Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon. 

When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly.  And the people of Israel cried out to the LORD.  They said to Moses,”Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt?  Is not this what we said to you in Egypt:”Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians”?  For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”  

When the battle intensifies around God’s people they can be assured of a final victory. 

When Pharaoh says ‘What is this we have done,…?” - God’s enemies will bring about their own destruction through an increase of rebellion and intensified fighting.  This is the fulfillment of verse 4 (I will harden Pharaoh’s heart), which prepares God’s people for the hot pursuit that is coming next, and gives them faith that God will also fulfill the end of verse 4 “I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host”.  The hard heart and the increased warfare are actually proofs that God will deliver his people and you completely.

The rebellious heart is steeped in pride and arrogance resulting in extreme folly.  Egypt was the world’s military superpower at the time.  Pharaoh unleashed their full arsenal (chosen chariots, officers, and army) on runaway slaves as if they were fighting a militarized nation.  This also is the Lord’s doing as he sought to completely set Israel free by drawing out all of the enemies resources for destruction. 

How does the LORD use ones own heart to bring about his justice and deliverance?  A good example can be found in Aikido - A modern Japanese martial art.  

Defined on Wikipedia as “the ‘Way of combining forces’ or ‘Way of unifying energy’, in which the term aiki refers to the martial arts principle or tactic of blending with an attacker's movements for the purpose of controlling their actions with minimal effort.  One applies aiki by understanding the rhythm and intent of the attacker to find the optimal position and timing to apply a counter-technique.”  Essentially, God uses their own intense folly to bring about their destruction because a hard heart is incapable of repentance.  Think Steven Siegal making someone look foolish when he simply side steps their angry attack and they hurt themselves. 

Aikido demonstration: https://youtu.be/DVs--uHf4sE

“…and they feared greatly.” - God’s greatest victories in our lives can also be accompanied by our greatest fears despite God showing himself faithful to us in in the past.  We are all like Dori of Finding Nemo when it comes to God’s faithfulness, needing him to introduce himself to us again.  We need the Gospel everyday!

“It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness” -  in defense and sympathy of the Israelites faithless cries, God was about to do a new thing that had never been done in all of history.  There was no precedent for what he was about to do…and God had not yet told them what he was about to do.  He had only said “I will get glory over Pharaoh and his hosts”.  God’s glory was the only plan they knew.

Question: In times of uncertainty, are you living for God’s glory alone? Do you believe he can do a new thing?

When God Fights For You

Exodus 14:13-31

“And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”

The Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward. Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground. And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.” 

Then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud and the darkness. And it lit up the night without one coming near the other all night. 

Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. And in the morning watch the Lord in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic, clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. And the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from before Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians.” 

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.” So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, the Lord threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea. The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen; of all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not one of them remained. But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. 

Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.”

When we do not give way to fear and stand firm on God’s word, he will work his complete salvation on our behalf.  

“For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again.” - The LORD promises and accomplishes complete, final, and total victory over his enemies.  This is the appropriate expectation for those in Christ.

“Then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them” 

- On your faith journey the Lord is present helping you in your weakness and protecting you from the enemy so that you can make it all the way home. 

How does the Exodus apply to me?  Only slaves need freedom 

“So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?” Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

‭‭John‬ ‭8:31-36‬ ‭ESV‬‬

https://bible.com/bible/59/jhn.8.31-36.ESV

This is the Gospel.  The son remains in God’s house forever. 

God came to earth as the man Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  He lived the perfect sinless life we should have lived, died the death we as sinners deserved, and rose from the dead three days later confirming humanities penalty had been paid for all who repent and place their trust in him as savior and Lord.  For those trust this, they have the right to become children of God with a permanent place in the Father’s house, the promised land of heaven. 

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation.”

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭11:1-2‬ ‭ESV‬‬

https://bible.com/bible/59/heb.11.1-2.ESV

And…

“By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned.”

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭11:29‬ ‭ESV‬‬

https://bible.com/bible/59/heb.11.29.ESV

Place your faith in Jesus Christ today, and you will have hope for tomorrow and all days to come as you walk free from God’s wrath as a child of God. 

Reflection Questions

• Do you identify with the Isrealites in any way in Exodus 14? The wandering? The vulnerability? The uncertainty of God’s plan for you and his glory as you walk into freedom?

• As the Isrealites by faith crossed through the Red Sea into the promised freedom from their slave drivers, have you gone through the waters of baptism by faith in Jesus Christ?

Pray and Act

Heavenly Father, you are holy and faithful in all your ways.  Thank you for the offer of true and complete freedom through the gift of forgiveness and unmerited forever purchased by your Son Jesus at the cross.  Help me to trust you to finish the work you began in me as you bring me and others home as sons and daughters into your eternal kingdom.  In Jesus name, amen. 

Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher

The Exodus Chronicles: Part 5

Exodus Chronicles - Part 5

Pastor: Rollan Fisher

What are the means by which God provides permanent change in your life?

Focus: Through the Passover, we see God’s mechanisms for ongoing and permanent change in our lives. 

• Ongoing Change

• Permanent Change

• Our Passover Lamb

Ongoing Change

To come into the freedom that God has for you will require ongoing change in your life.

Exodus 12:1-13

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, “This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household. And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight. “Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. And you shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.

Contrary to how Pharoah responded to God’s judgements, the Passover exemplifies how the Lord instructed his people to respond to his offer of freedom.

God would lead his people through commands that were to be obeyed and rituals that were to be observed that would construct their life of worship.   

*What you have to realize is that these festivals and observances introduced by God through Moses were all new for the Israelites. 

As you follow Christ, there are also new rhythms and rituals introduced into your life to continue the process of ongoing transformation. 

These changes bring us out of the bondage to which we had been accustomed to the freedom that is ultimately found in Jesus.  

Priorities 

God starts by changing your calendar and how you spend your time. 

In the celebration of the Passover, God made sure to say that the first thing the Israelites would celebrate year after year is a reminder of his deliverance. 

There will be no permanent change of life without a change in priorities.  

The whole congregation of the people were to celebrate - no one was an exception.  

Those who think themselves exceptions are those who inevitably find themselves deceived and eventually cut off from the people of God (Exodus 12:19).   

Because of the process of sanctification where you are destined to become more and more like Christ, you never have the right to stop changing as you follow Jesus. 

Each time that you worship, it is an opportunity to bring more, not less, of yourself to God.

The whole of the lamb was to be cooked - including the head and inner parts.

In coming to Christ God deals with the whole man, from his actions to the innermost ambitions of the heart - all motives are to be processed and submitted at the table of the Lord.  

The command not to leave any of the meal until morning speaks not only of submitting every area of your life to Christ - but not procrastinating in doing so.  

The more we relent to God through his prescribed manner of worship, the more we enter into the freedom for which Christ died to usher us.  

“Jesus taught that your highest priority must be your relationship with him. If anything detracts you from that relationship, that activity is not from God. God will not ask you to do something that hinders your relationship with Christ.”

-Henry Blackaby

This is why Oswald Chambers of My Utmost For His Highest said,

“Your priorities must be God first, God second and God third, until your life is continually face to face with God.”

*To the degree that we hold back or ignore his specific commands in various areas of our lives is the measure that we will remain in slavery in that particular area.

Think Routines, Rituals and Redemption:

Routines - we are a product of our habits and God introduces rituals to conform us to the image of Christ. 

Rituals - rituals are God’s mechanism of both teaching and reinforcing the priority of God’s redemption in our lives 

Redemption - the Passover celebration was to be a continual remembrance and foreshadowing of the redemption the people of God would have in Jesus Christ. 

Permanent Change

When God brings his people out of slavery, he intends for it to be a permanent change.  

The lamb that was to be sacrificed was to be without blemish.  

Christ was our permanent, sinless lamb. 

When the destroying angel saw the blood, it would pass over those homes and spare those inside.  

Blood on the doorposts - God continually emphasizes that worship starts in the home and moves into the assembly.   

It is not one or the other. 

Make sure that you have both a public and private life of faith.

Take root beneath and bear fruit above (Isaiah 37:30-32).

“Appletree roots can reach up to three times the tree's height and be around 25 feet long. Even dwarf apple trees which are shorter than this, have roots that can spread up to 15 feet. One of an apple tree's essential functions is stretching out and collecting water, oxygen, and nutrients from the soil.”

Private devotion provides the root system of your life and intimacy with God. 

Public devotion displays the glory and beauty of God’s work in your life - bringing others to worship, repentance and faith in the same God who has delivered you.  

God has always been missional and feeds the world by the fruit of your private and public devotion.  

Exodus 12:38-39 (NIV)

Many other people went up with them, and also large droves of livestock, both flocks and herds. With the dough the Israelites had brought from Egypt, they baked loaves of unleavened bread. The dough was without yeast because they had been driven out of Egypt and did not have time to prepare food for themselves.

Because of the blood of the lamb and the word of your testimony you have a permanent change on which you need to take your stand 

Revelation 12:9-11

And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world— he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.

Who is that lamb?

Our Passover Lamb

Jesus is our Passover Lamb who saves us through both ongoing and permanent change in our lives.

Jesus is the prophesied lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

This is why John the Baptist, in announcing Christ’s public ministry, referred to Jesus in such a manner.  

John 1:29-34

The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.” And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”

The Seder Table was the place where the Passover memorial was celebrated.  

It meant community, sharing, prayer and reflection.  

Exodus 12:14-20

“This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven out of your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. On the first day you shall hold a holy assembly, and on the seventh day a holy assembly. No work shall be done on those days. But what everyone needs to eat, that alone may be prepared by you. And you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day, throughout your generations, as a statute forever. In the first month, from the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. For seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses. If anyone eats what is leavened, that person will be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a sojourner or a native of the land. You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwelling places you shall eat unleavened bread.”

In this reflection we see Jesus as the guileless and sinless man who stood before Pilate - declared innocent, but voluntarily accepting his sentence to pay for the sins of humanity.

We see that just as the Passover lamb was shorn, Jesus was stripped naked and crucified.  

We acknowledge that as the Passover lamb was a male a year old, so Christ died on the cross in the prime of his manhood, around 34 years of age.  

Jesus was at the height of his strength and with that strength humbled himself to bear the wrath of God so that we might be forgiven and set free from our bondage to sin. 

Every time we participate in communion, we celebrate the fact that Jesus was almost four years in ministry after his baptism just as the Passover Lamb was set aside four days before the slaughter, and that Christ in his last Passover declared that his own body and blood would be given for the new covenant to be established.  

Each generation needs to be intentionally brought into this understanding and prioritization.  

The prioritization of God’s rituals for worship need to be modeled, above hobbies (i.e. recreational team sports when your child is on no trajectory to play professionally) and even activities that you think might better refresh you.  

The Feast of Unleavened Bread was to be eaten in remembrance of the haste with which the Israelites needed to leave Egypt, reflecting the necessity of our immediate obedience to the commands of God.  

As God calls you to obey in worship, he always has your provision in mind.  

No work was to be done because you need to trust God for your provision.  

No work was to be done because Christ alone would provide your righteousness. 

No work was to be done because you need to take time to stop and refocus on the fact that Christ is your life.   

This is what we effectively do with every Sunday gathering, functioning for the community as a Sabbath, to refocus and recharge our lives through rest and worship.  

Thus the Passover was the first of God’s celebrations instituted during the Exodus, to create mechanisms for ongoing and permanent change in our lives, ultimately through the cross of Jesus Christ. 

Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher

The Exodus Chronicles: Part 4

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Exodus Chronicles : Part 4

Pastor Rollan Fisher

Focus: God places his finger on everything not submitted to him to bring you into a life that is truly new in Christ.  

• What We Think We Need

• What We Really Need

• Who We Really Need

What We Think We Need

What we think that we need is that which we think will make us happy, but often enslaves us.  

We must allow God to develop our theology of judgment to understand why I can't just live to get what I want.

Exodus 3:19-20 

But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go.

Someone is going to be on the throne of your life - either the benevolent Jesus or a harsh taskmaster with whom you thought you could make peace, but has actually enslaved you.

Many times we remain in a place of sin and slavery as long as we are getting some measure of what we think that we want. 

“To put it another way, pain is God's megaphone to rouse a deaf world. Why must it be pain? Why can't he rouse us more gently, with violins or laughter? Because the dream from which we must be wakened, is the dream that all is well.” 

― William Nicholson, Shadowlands

Exodus 8:6-7 

So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. But the magicians did the same by their secret arts and made frogs come up on the land of Egypt.

*We ignore the immediacy/urgency of our need to repent because the world produces counterfeit solutions to our problems - until they don’t. 

Things like government programs, self-help books and dating apps can all be helpful but have their limits.  

When we get a bit of respite from our nagging, gnawing desires in temporary outlets, we, like Pharaoh, return to a hardness of heart to govern our own lives rather than allowing God to do so.  

Exodus 8:13-15 

And the Lord did according to the word of Moses. The frogs died out in the houses, the courtyards, and the fields. And they gathered them together in heaps, and the land stank. But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart and would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.

We know that things don’t quite smell right, but we put up with substitutes for God’s goodness because it is that to which we’ve become accustomed. 

*Stop settling for counterfeits.  

Counterfeits ultimately disappoint in the end because unlike God, they don’t care about you (Taylor Swift and Tim McGraw song), can not hear your cries or answer your need for deliverance.

Exodus 8:18-19 

The magicians tried by their secret arts to produce gnats, but they could not. So there were gnats on man and beast. Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.” But Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.

The problem was not that Pharoah didn’t see that he ran out of solutions, but that he thought his solutions were found only in temporary/momentary change/repentance.  

Exodus 8:25-28 

Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, “Go, sacrifice to your God within the land.” But Moses said, “It would not be right to do so, for the offerings we shall sacrifice to the Lord our God are an abomination to the Egyptians. If we sacrifice offerings abominable to the Egyptians before their eyes, will they not stone us? We must go three days' journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord our God as he tells us.” So Pharaoh said, “I will let you go to sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness; only you must not go very far away. Plead for me.”

*Idols deceptively perpetuate and simply relocate your bondage from one place to another - often through your internal dialog and negotiation. 

“An idolatrous attachment can lead you to break any promise, rationalize any indiscretion, or betray any other allegiance, in order to hold on to it. It may drive you to violate all good and proper boundaries. To practice idolatry is to be a slave.” 

― Timothy Keller, Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope That Matters

God brings his judgements out of his mercy and kindness so that we will no longer long for that which is enslaving and killing us.  

This is what he was doing not only for the Israelites, but for Pharaoh and the Egyptians.  

We see this in the seventh plague - the destructive hail coming upon the land. 

Exodus 9:20-21 

Then whoever feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh hurried his slaves and his livestock into the houses, but whoever did not pay attention to the word of the Lord left his slaves and his livestock in the field.

So again, affliction can act as a merciful and loving wake-up call in our lives - to help us clearly distinguish what is right and wrong, what is of God and that which is not.  

Psalm 119:67 

Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word.

We need to invite objective, godly counsel into our lives to allow us to see clearly what the deception of our sin and circumstance will not. 

Pharaoh thought that because he was the high ruler of the known world at the time, there would be no recompense for his pride, self-centeredness or rebellion against Yahweh, the Hebrew God of all creation.

Like Pharoah, we often think that because we don’t experience the immediate consequences of our disobedience, that there will not be a day of reckoning.  

Pharaoh learned this was not true for him, nor will it be for us.  

Just as God called to account the way that Pharaoh treated his people, so God will also call to account how we have stewarded what is ultimately his - our time, treasure and talent.  

We live as if our lives are our own, but the Scripture makes it clear that when you belong to Christ, there is a new expectation in every area of your life.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?  You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

What We Really Need

What we really need is the life and freedom that can be provided by God alone.  

God makes a distinction between his people who trust and obey him and the world who fends for themselves to show what we really need.  

*Focus on the genuine article

This includes things that Jesus modeled that are at times counterintuitive to our culture:

• Sacrificing for children that those who come behind you might know the Lord and his ways.

• The joy of giving and not just hoarding or spending your resources on yourself.

• Laying down your reputation and comforts that others might have life.

The land of Goshen shows how God makes his distinction in the lives of those who look to him - not in the absence of pain, but in the midst of it:

Exodus 9:4 

“But the Lord will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, so that nothing of all that belongs to the people of Israel shall die.”’”

When you see the people of God prospering as a result of obedience to God (I.e. - in blessed marriages, child-rearing, financially, etc.) it is meant to be a provocation in the kindness of God to draw you to repentance.  

It also shows you that to which you are looking instead of God as your idol.  

“Idols give us a sense of being in control, and we can locate them by looking at our nightmares. What do we fear the most? What, if we lost it, would make life not worth living? We make “sacrifices” to appease and please our gods, who we believe will protect us.” 

― Timothy J. Keller, Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope That Matters

Yet again, idols ultimately fail us.  

Exodus 9:25-27 

The hail struck down everything that was in the field in all the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And the hail struck down every plant of the field and broke every tree of the field. Only in the land of Goshen, where the people of Israel were, was there no hail. Then Pharaoh sent and called Moses and Aaron and said to them, “This time I have sinned; the Lord is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong.

It is not that Pharoah in the struggle to hold onto everything that he controlled and held dear didn’t know that he was sinning, but he convinced himself that if he just held out, if he just fought hard enough, ignored the judgements and held on, he would eventually have his way. 

In the end, however, there is no plan or purpose that will outlast or avail against the Lord (Proverbs 21:30).

Proverbs 21:30 (NIV)

There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the Lord.

We will either humble ourselves in trust and obedience to God, or be humbled in the judgement.  

“In the same way a Christian is not a man who never goes wrong, but a man is enabled to repent and pick himself up and begin over again after each stumble--because the Christ-life is inside him, repairing him all the time, enabling him to repeat (in some degree) the kind of voluntary death which Christ Himself carried out." - Mere Christianity

The real road to tragedy was paved with this fact:

*Pharaoh continually had an uncommitted response to God that dissipated once there was relief to his pain. 

This is the proclivity of all human beings - to do the bare minimum until we get what we want, and then resort to the familiar manner of living, requiring no change.

Exodus 9:33-35 

So Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh and stretched out his hands to the Lord, and the thunder and the hail ceased, and the rain no longer poured upon the earth. But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet again and hardened his heart, he and his servants. So the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people of Israel go, just as the Lord had spoken through Moses.

What would it take to go from Thor yelling at kids playing Fortnite:

 To Love and Thunder Thor?

A daily commitment to God’s ways and healing are required for lasting change - where Jesus is finally Lord of all of our hearts and lives.  

This is why Jesus said that we must remain in the pain of sacrifice to be his disciple - bearing our cross daily lest we return to selfishness (Luke 14:25-33). 

“My own experience was something like this. I am progressing along the path of life in my ordinary contentedly fallen and godless condition, absorbed in a merry meeting with my friends for the morrow or a bit of work that tickles my vanity today, a holiday or a new book, when suddenly a stab of abdominal pain that threatens serious disease, or a headline in the newspapers that threatens us all with destruction, sends this whole pack of cards tumbling down. 

At first I am overwhelmed, and all my little happinesses look like broken toys. Then, slowly and reluctantly, bit by bit, I try to bring myself into the frame of mind that I should be in at all times. I remind myself that all these toys were never intended to possess my heart, that my true good is in another world, and my only real treasure is Christ. And perhaps, by God's grace, I succeed, and for a day or two become a creature consciously dependent on God and drawing its strength from the right sources.”

“But the moment the threat is withdrawn, my whole nature leaps back to the toys.  Thus the terrible necessity of tribulation is only too clear. God has had me for but forty-eight hours and then only by dint of taking everything away from me. Let Him but sheathe that sword for a moment and I behave like a puppy when the hated bath is over – I shake myself as dry as I can and race off to reacquire my comfortable dirtiness, if not in the nearest manure heap, at least in the nearest flower bed. And that is why tribulations cannot cease until God either sees us remade or sees that our remaking is now hopeless.”

― C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain, 93. 

What God requires is a DAILY denial of self, a DAILY picking up of the cross and a DAILY choosing of him over all else.

Exodus 10:8-11 

So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh. And he said to them, “Go, serve the Lord your God. But which ones are to go?” Moses said, “We will go with our young and our old. We will go with our sons and daughters and with our flocks and herds, for we must hold a feast to the Lord.” But he said to them, “The Lord be with you, if ever I let you and your little ones go! Look, you have some evil purpose in mind. No! Go, the men among you, and serve the Lord, for that is what you are asking.” And they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence.

How often do we wait until it’s too late before we repent of our sin?

There would be no turning back from the death of the firstborn. 

Who We Really Need

Who we truly need is Jesus, the Son of God who died sacrificially to bring us into the life that is truly life.  

God ultimately strikes the firstborn to show who we ultimately need for salvation in our present and future.  

*Find real life in Christ. 

In the book Mere Christianity, published in 1952, but adapted from a series of talks Lewis gave during World War II, Lewis discussed the influences “Satan” and “God” have had on humankind:

“What Satan put into the heads of our remote ancestors was the idea that they could "be like gods […] And out of that hopeless attempt has come nearly all that we call human history—money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery—the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy. The reason why it can never succeed is this. God made us: invented us as a man invents an engine.”

― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

The solution to this endless search was that God sent his only Son to reconcile us to God in Christ.  

In Egyptian culture, posterity held your hopes and the firstborn sons were the first sign of your strength.  

Just as God struck down in judgement the false hopes and dreams of a people that would attempt to live fulfilled without him, so he sacrificed his only Son at the cross for the very same people who, if they would but turn to him in repentance and faith, might find the life that is truly life.  

There would be redemption when God gave his own firstborn son, Jesus Christ, in sacrifice for the life of the world.  

Every provision that you need for life and worship God will provide as you leave your slavery in faith.   

(My story about changing my work schedule as a young man multiple times to be able to attend church)

Exodus 11:1-3 

The Lord said to Moses, “Yet one plague more I will bring upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. Afterward he will let you go from here. When he lets you go, he will drive you away completely. Speak now in the hearing of the people, that they ask, every man of his neighbor and every woman of her neighbor, for silver and gold jewelry.” And the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover, the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's servants and in the sight of the people.

This is what God had promised when he said:

Exodus 3:21-22 

And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and when you go, you shall not go empty, but each woman shall ask of her neighbor, and any woman who lives in her house, for silver and gold jewelry, and for clothing. You shall put them on your sons and on your daughters. So you shall plunder the Egyptians.”

You will come out of your time of slavery with what you need to worship and create a generational legacy of expectation of God’s faithfulness, his deliverance for all those that follow.    

2 Corinthians 5:17-21 

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher

The Exodus Chronicles: Part 3

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The Exodus Chronicles Part 3

• God’s Promises (Exodus 6:1-13)

• God’s Power (Exodus 7:1-13)

• God’s Provision (Romans 5:1-11)

Focus: God’s promises are that by which his power is revealed thereby bringing wrath on the stubbornly disobedient and salvation to those who turn and believe.

God’s Promises (Exodus 6:1-13)

6 But the Lord said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh; for with a strong hand he will send them out, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.”

2 God spoke to Moses and said to him, “I am the Lord. 3 I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty,[a] but by my name the Lord I did not make myself known to them. 4 I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners. 5 Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. 6 Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. 7 I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. 8 I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the Lord.’” 9 Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery.

10 So the Lord said to Moses, 11 “Go in, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the people of Israel go out of his land.” 12 But Moses said to the Lord, “Behold, the people of Israel have not listened to me. How then shall Pharaoh listen to me, for I am of uncircumcised lips?” 13 But the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them a charge about the people of Israel and about Pharaoh king of Egypt: to bring the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt.

God’s Power (Exodus 7:1-13)

“And the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet. 2 You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go out of his land. 3 But I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, 4 Pharaoh will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my hosts, my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment. 5 The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them.” 6 Moses and Aaron did so; they did just as the Lord commanded them. 7 Now Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron eighty-three years old, when they spoke to Pharaoh.

8 Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, 9 “When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Prove yourselves by working a miracle,’ then you shall say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and cast it down before Pharaoh, that it may become a serpent.’” 10 So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord commanded. Aaron cast down his staff before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent. 11 Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers, and they, the magicians of Egypt, also did the same by their secret arts. 12 For each man cast down his staff, and they became serpents. But Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs. 13 Still Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.”

God’s Provision (Romans 5:1-11)

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we[a] have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith[b] into this grace in which we stand, and we[c] rejoice[d] in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”

Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher

The Exodus Chronicles: Part 2

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Exodus Chronicles: Part 2 

Pastor Rollan Fisher

Focus: As you follow Jesus into his abundant and eternal life, remember that things can get harder before they get better, but in Jesus you will be the victor. 

• Things Can Get Harder

• Before They Get Better

• Yet Christ is the Victor

Exodus 5:1-14 

Afterward Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.’” But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord , and moreover, I will not let Israel go.” Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go a three days' journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.” But the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people away from their work? Get back to your burdens.” And Pharaoh said, “Behold, the people of the land are now many, and you make them rest from their burdens!” The same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their foremen, “You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks, as in the past; let them go and gather straw for themselves. But the number of bricks that they made in the past you shall impose on them, you shall by no means reduce it, for they are idle. Therefore they cry, ‘Let us go and offer sacrifice to our God.’ Let heavier work be laid on the men that they may labor at it and pay no regard to lying words.” So the taskmasters and the foremen of the people went out and said to the people, “Thus says Pharaoh, ‘I will not give you straw. Go and get your straw yourselves wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced in the least.’” So the people were scattered throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw. The taskmasters were urgent, saying, “Complete your work, your daily task each day, as when there was straw.” And the foremen of the people of Israel, whom Pharaoh's taskmasters had set over them, were beaten and were asked, “Why have you not done all your task of making bricks today and yesterday, as in the past?”

Things Can Get Harder 

When we follow Jesus into his life of promise, things can seem to get harder before they get better.  

Have no doubt about it, when God has called you to himself in Christ and for his Kingdom purposes, the resistance to your forward progress will begin.  

Difficulties do not mean that you are not going in the right direction.  

Once you have received the word of the Lord, do not be discouraged by thinking difficulties are a strange thing, but be encouraged that they are signs that you are going in the right direction. 

There is intentional, Ephesians 6 resistance in the spiritual realm to dissuade and discourage the worship of God.  

Battle is a barometer, not a compass. 

To the naked eye, they may look similar, but they are not the same.  

What is a barometer?:

It is an instrument measuring atmospheric pressure, used especially in forecasting the weather and determining altitude.

The closer you get to God (altitude) and his purposes, the greater the pressure can become, but the closer you are to his strong hand being revealed (Exodus 6:1). 

Exodus 6:1 

But the Lord said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh; for with a strong hand he will send them out, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.”

That strong hand was the Lord’s. 

“Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see.”

C.S. Lewis

Just because things get harder doesn’t mean that God has forgotten you.  

Just because things get harder doesn’t mean that what you are doing is not what the Lord has called you to do.  

Ease does not equate to the will of God. 

Just because things get harder doesn’t mean that God is not planning to help you.  

You must stick to what he told you in moments of lucidity to complete what he has said to do in moments of challenge.  

The Silver Chair examples.  

Before They Get Better 

Things start to get better when we remember the person and promises of God. 

Exodus 5:15-23 

Then the foremen of the people of Israel came and cried to Pharaoh, “Why do you treat your servants like this? No straw is given to your servants, yet they say to us, ‘Make bricks!’ And behold, your servants are beaten; but the fault is in your own people.” But he said, “You are idle, you are idle; that is why you say, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.’ Go now and work. No straw will be given you, but you must still deliver the same number of bricks.” The foremen of the people of Israel saw that they were in trouble when they said, “You shall by no means reduce your number of bricks, your daily task each day.” They met Moses and Aaron, who were waiting for them, as they came out from Pharaoh; and they said to them, “The Lord look on you and judge, because you have made us stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.” Then Moses turned to the Lord and said, “O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all.”

Do not be surprised when God is moving and making forward progress in your life that work becomes more demanding, family situations arise and it seems that you can not complete school assignments while serving God.  

It will feel like you are now having to choose between your immediate needs and what God is calling you into as good.  

They will seem in conflict with one another so that even those who were proclaiming the good news to you, encouraging your participation in church and the community of God now seem like opponents to you because all they are doing is adding “extra burdens” to your life.    

If you don’t recognize this cycle, it will never end. 

Christ’s antidote to this conundrum is simple.  

Seek his Kingdom first. 

Matthew 6:31-34 

31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

We have the tendency to either overestimate or underestimate the importance of others’ involvement in our lives for the work of God to be accomplished. 

Remember that it was the same Moses (and these will be the same people in your life) who a chapter before was welcomed bringing the good news of God’s deliverance.  

Exodus 4:30-31 

Aaron spoke all the words that the Lord had spoken to Moses and did the signs in the sight of the people. And the people believed; and when they heard that the Lord had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped. 

Moses was specifically sent by God to be used by God to set the Israelites free. 

Who might you be resisting in your life that God has sent?  

“Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”

C.S. Lewis

How much more so does Jesus mercifully use others into our lives to wake us up to his direction when our eyes and ears are closed - voluntarily or involuntarily?  

The do’s and don’ts of the battle:

Do not be discouraged 

Do not blame shift 

Do not forget God’s promises

*When you put your faith in Christ, you are not putting your confidence in your ability to change but God’s ability to change you.  

Yet Christ is the Victor

Jesus is the victor that ushers us into his ultimate victory by his resurrection from the dead.  

Gethsemane and the cross are perfect examples of how Jesus is the ultimate victory for his people demonstrating that though times can get worse before they got better, Christ is the ultimate victor.  

“The author of the hymn 'Amazing Grace', John Newton, who once was a slave ship captain, and who became a Christian preacher and an enemy of the slave trade, once said: 'I have reason to praise [God] for my trials, for, most probably, I should have been ruined without them.' The author of The Gulag Archipelago , Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who suffered for twenty years in the hellish prison camps he describes in that book, wrote: 'Bless you prison, bless you for being in my life. For there, lying upon the rotting prison straw, I came to realize that the object of life is not prosperity as we are made to believe, but the maturity of the human soul.' This does not mean that Newton would have chosen to go through his trials, or that Solzhenitsyn in any way enjoyed the terrible suffering of his imprisonment. But it means that in retrospect they can see that God used those difficulties to bless them in the long run.”

Eric Metaxas, Miracles: What They Are, Why They Happen, and How They Can Change Your Life

Christ’s cross comes before Christ’s victories in our lives.  

Always remember that this life is not all that matters.  

Romans 8:28-30 

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

When we serve Jesus with faith and without fear, we properly interpret our challenges, turn from our sin to be forgiven at the cross and follow Jesus into his ultimate victory - life abundant and eternal!!

Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher

The Exodus Chronicles

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The Exodus Chronicles

Pastor Rollan Fisher 

• God Sees

• God Hears

• God Acts

God Sees

God sees the suffering of those he loves.  

Exodus 2:23-25

During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.

Even when you find yourself in challenging situations, never forget that God will remember his covenant with you.

You need to read and understand the covenant to have confidence to cry out to God to be faithful to it.

“Because God is the living God, He can hear; because He is a loving God, He will hear; because He is our covenant God, He has bound Himself to hear.”

— Charles H. Spurgeon

God Hears 

God hears the prayers of those who cry out to him. 

Exodus 3:7-10

Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”

God desires to bring us into abundant life in Christ (John 10:10) based on his covenant.  

There are expectations in the covenant of God: faith and obedience.  

Romans 1:1-6

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,

What can block us from the life of God or from God hearing our prayers?  

When we pick and choose which of his commands to obey.  

Proverbs 15:8

The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is acceptable to him.

Psalm 66:18-20

If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. But truly God has listened; he has attended to the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God, because he has not rejected my prayer or removed his steadfast love from me!

“Sin, transgression, and iniquity are different words in the Old Testament. Most of us are familiar with the Greek term hamartia, meaning “sin,” which conveys the idea of falling short of the mark. We are made for the glory of God, but sin causes us to fall short of the mark. Transgression has the very basic idea of crossing the line. God has given us His law, and we cross the line. Iniquity has the sense in Psalm 51, for example, of “twistedness.” There is a twistedness in us as a consequence of this. All of these words are different angles of one and the same reality: our disobedience to God, our againstness, our hatred, our diversion from Him.

They say that the more important something is, the more words you’ll find in that culture for that something. And there is an abundance of vocabulary in the Hebrew Old Testament for sin. But the great thing is, there is also an abundance of vocabulary for the idea of grace. So there’s bad news, but there’s also very good news.”

-Sinclair Ferguson 

You must honor the Son, not idols, for God to honor your prayers.  

“Those that name the name of Christ, but do not depart from iniquity, as that name binds them to do, name it in vain; their worship is vain.”

-Matthew Henry

God Acts

God acts on behalf of those who would respond to his saving hand in Jesus Christ. 

What King David learned:

Psalm 145:15-20

The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works. The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them. The Lord preserves all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy.

God ultimately acted by sending his son Jesus Christ to be the greater Moses to deliver us all from our bondage to sin.  

To call on God in truth means that you don’t make up your own form of religion or spirituality, but that you submit to the Lordship of Christ.  

When you fear God, it means that you are committed to obeying his commands because you know that he will judge all of your works.  

When you turn to God in repentance from self-righteousness and self-sufficiency, you are clothed with the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ.  

Because of the cross of Jesus, God meets us in our weakness and failings to preserve us and teach us how to love him. 

Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher