The Power of God (video + script)

So before I start my sermon this morning, a little disclaimer: I am an early adopter, and I'm wearing technology on my face. It's a teleprompter. It's out here. Not yet, but it will be. And it usually works. So if it doesn't work, if it stops, I'll shift over to my notes. But it sets my hands free, and I'm really enjoying it. So, just so you get that. And also, I didn't memorize all this, so don't be amazed. We all feel overwhelmed at times. Times when what is expected of us and what we're capable of are two vastly different things. Imposter syndrome hits. Despair sets in. And fighting back tears, we pray, "God, I can't do this. It's too much." When you feel overwhelmed or inadequate, Where do you turn for strength and direction? Like us, Moses felt out of his depth when God called. Standing in front of the burning bush, he was completely sure that God had taken the wrong turn somewhere on his way from heaven and come to the wrong bush and met the wrong guy. Moses was a quitter. He was a loser, a fugitive. At least that's the way he saw himself. He ran from his post, his problem, 40 years ago and had been hiding in the desert dressed as a shepherd ever since. He was stuck. And he felt he deserved it. He had earned this life. Moses had anger management issues. He killed a foreman for beating a laborer, so he fled the country alone. He just ran. For 40 years, he lived in Midian, married to a local woman and working for her father. They had two sons, Gershom and Eliezer. Talk about someone who can't let go of their past. He named his sons after his exile from Egypt. Gershom means "I am a stranger in a foreign land," and Eliezer means "God delivered me from Pharaoh's sword." If you lived in Midian and Moses was your next-door neighbor, you would not brag about knowing him. Nearly 80 years old, and he still complains most days. He likes to talk about what could have been and still raises his voice when he's angry because he doesn't really like himself. You know the type. Open your Bible with me to the book of Exodus. Today we are going to look at chapters 4, 5, and 6, and together with Moses, we're going to learn about the power of God in our lives, especially in the times when we feel less than— less than worthy, less than able, less than God calls us to be. When you feel overwhelmed or inadequate, where do you turn for strength and direction? Let's read Exodus chapter 4, verses 19 and 20. The Lord had said to Moses in Midian, go back to Egypt, for all those who want you killed are dead— or want to kill you are dead. So Moses took his wife and sons and put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand. The staff of God— what a great name for a walking stick. The stick is old, but the name is new. Look back at verse 2. Then the Lord said to him, "What is that in your hand?" "A staff." Now, just a few days later, he's named it the staff of God. This is fantastic foreshadowing. It leans into the story that's about to come and shows us something important about human nature. Moses saw what God could do with a stick and started calling it the staff of God. And yet it took Moses the rest of his life to fully trust himself to God. "You can use my stick, Lord. I'll even name it after you. But you can't use me, 'cause I'm useless." 80 years of regret and self-hatred take time to overwrite. The journey from "Who am I?" to "I am Moses, the man of God" took the better part of another 40 years And it was a long journey. As Pastor Rahel likes to say, God does not call the equipped but equips the called. Despite Moses' excuses, refusals, and feelings of inadequacy, God patiently reassures him, provides signs, and even sends his brother Aaron to help. God does not call the equipped, but he equips the called. Our perceived weaknesses do not hinder God's plans, Rather, they highlight his power. Our walking sticks become the staff of God, and in time, our belief of what God can do through us grows as well. Moses begins the journey to Egypt. His brother Aaron meets him partway. Together they take God's message to the Israelite people in Egypt. Look at the end of chapter 4. Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelites, and Aaron told them everything the Lord had said to Moses. He also performed the signs before the people, and they believed. And when they heard that the Lord was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed and worshiped. How beautiful. The people believe Moses and Aaron. They hear God's promises and they see the signs of his power, and then they bow down and they worship God. Everything's going so well. Just like that day in Egypt, the power of God is available to us. Today. When you trust him, you have his power on tap. In the Exodus story, God is revealed as the ever-present and active God of deliverance. The Exodus event is not just a historical rescue, it is a profound theological statement about who God is. God is our deliverer. So now Moses and Aaron are on a high. The people believe, they saw miracles, they heard promises, and they worship God. I can imagine Aaron putting his hand on on Moses' shoulder and saying, "See, Israel is with us because God is with us." Well, let's keep reading. Chapter 5, verse 1. Afterward, Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, "This is what Yahweh, the God of Israel, says: 'Let my people go so they may hold a festival in the wilderness.'" Pharaoh said, "Who is Yahweh that I should obey him and let Israel go? I don't know Yahweh." '"And I will not let Israel go." Uh-oh! I'm sure they didn't expect Pharaoh to worship Yahweh, but the momentum was with them and they expected him to at least let them go have their festival. But Pharaoh says no. So, Moses and Aaron repeat their demands. Pharaoh is not impressed. So, they do it again. Then Pharaoh realizes what the problem was. Verse 17, Pharaoh said, "Lazy, that's what you are, lazy! That's why you keep saying, 'Let us go out and sacrifice to Yahweh.' Now get to work. You will not be given any straw, and you must produce this full quota of bricks." Ouch. And that's exactly what happened. Guess how happy the Israelites are now? Production: 100. Happiness: 0. Read verse 22. Moses returned to the Lord and said, Why, Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? Is this why you sent me? Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble on this people, and you have not rescued your people at all. The central conflict in the story is set and ready to escalate. It's a battle of the gods, the sovereignty of Yahweh versus the perceived divinity of Pharaoh. Yahweh steps forward. Chapter 6, verse 1: Then Yahweh said to Moses, 'Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh. Because of my mighty hand, he will let them go. Because of my mighty hand, he will drive them out of his country.' Then God goes into this beautiful riff using his name for the first time. Yahweh reveals his true identity and declares all that he will do for his people. Then Yahweh said to Moses, I am Yahweh. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as El Shaddai, which means God Almighty, but by my name Yahweh I did not make myself known. God fully introduces himself by name to Moses. What an amazing honor. Then God makes 7 promises to Israel. Let's keep going. At verse 5: I heard the groanings of the Israelites whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered my covenant. Therefore I will say to the Israelites, I am Yahweh, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. And I will bring you to the land I swore with an uplifted hand to give to Abraham. I will give it to you as a possession. I am Yahweh. I missed one of the I wills, but it was there. As the people returned, to their houses from the long hard day at the brickyard, Moses is excited about the new promises from God. He shouts as they trudge past, "Seven promises from Yahweh! Listen everyone, seven promises!" But nobody is listening. The people are tired. They're tired of working. They're tired of mud. They want straw, not promises. Nobody is interested in Moses' exciting news. At all. The next day, as they head out to work, Moses tries again. "Seven promises from Yahweh. Listen, everyone. Seven promises." No luck. Nobody hears. The Israelites just walk past Moses, ignore Yahweh's promises, and keep making bricks for Pharaoh. Moses has two final statements in chapter 6. First, in verse 12, after God tells him to go back to Pharaoh. Moses said to the Lord, "If all the Israelites will not listen to me, why would Pharaoh listen to me, since I speak with faltering lips?" With his head hanging, he takes Aaron, and they return to Pharaoh to tell him again, "Let my people go," and again and again. And there's no movement in the palace. To show the slow passage of time at this point in the story, chapter 6, the storyteller lists all 12 tribes of Israel and all the heads of every family and every tribe. It goes on and on for 14 very long verses. Finally, Moses is given the last word in this chapter of the Exodus story, and brokenhearted, he repeats himself. Moses said to the Lord, "Since I speak with faltering lips, why would Pharaoh listen to me?" When you feel overwhelmed or inadequate, where do you turn for strength and direction? God is patient and God is always faithful. Both Moses and the Israelites experienced crippling despair in the face of overwhelming circumstances. So do we at times. And even when we return to our old excuses or go back to making bricks for the devil, God's love and his promises do not change. The core message of these 3 chapters in Exodus is that God hears the cries of his people, remembers his promises, and acts to deliver us. There is hope. God sees, God hears, and God acts. The Exodus story is everywhere in the Bible. It's the overarching story of the people of God. The flight from Egypt is told explicitly in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. 20 other Old Testament books mention the departure from Egypt, the plagues, or the parting of the Red Sea. In the New Testament, there are 10 books that tell bits of the Exodus story, and throughout the rest of the Bible, there are innumerable allusions and thematic— thematic nods to Exodus. It would seem you can't understand God or his people without the Exodus. In the early church, the Exodus story takes on a new life. In 1 Corinthians 10, the wilderness wanderings serve as a warning to the early church. In the faith hall of fame in Hebrews 11, the journey from Egypt to Canaan is cited as a primary example of faith development. But even more interesting are the ways the writers of the Gospels reach back to the Exodus story to inform their retellings of the disciples' journey with Jesus. Jesus. John records the 7 "I am" statements clearly mirroring Yahweh's 7 "I will" statements in Exodus 6. In all 4 Gospels, Jesus spends much of His time answering Pharaoh's question, "Who is Yahweh?" He answers it most clearly in His completed mission. Who is Yahweh? He is the One who provides salvation through His Son. As Jesus walked this earth, He sought out people who had the wrong answer to the question, who is Yahweh. They were not pagan pharaohs or Gentile kings. No, these false teachers were religious leaders in Israel. They had lost sight of God and completely forgotten who Yahweh was. They were worse than Pharaoh because they'd studied the Torah and the prophets and still got God wrong. Talking theology wasn't a pastime for Jesus. It was prime time. The first time Jesus confronted the teachers of the law is recorded in Luke chapter 2. Jesus was just 12 years old. It was the first year he was old enough to go with his parents to Passover. When a week of celebration was over, his parents headed home with a group from Nazareth. They walked all day and only realized at bedtime that Jesus was not with them. The next day, they walked back. Luke tells us the rest of the story in Luke 2:46-48. After 3 days, they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard "Whoever heard Him was amazed at His understanding and His answers." His answers? He's 12! When His parents saw Him, they were astonished. Jesus called it "My Father's business," and He was serious about it. In Mark 3, the scribes tell everyone Jesus' miracles are from the devil. This sets Jesus off. They are not just misunderstanding Scripture, they are calling Yahweh Satan. Jesus summons the scribes like a pack of demons and tells them to stop. You are Yahweh's teachers! Teach the truth. If you don't fix your image of Yahweh, you'll be guilty of the unforgivable sin, saying you know God and lying about him. Who is Yahweh? Certainly not Satan. But when it comes to the New Testament parallels of the Exodus story, Matthew shines above all the others. Matthew knows the Israelites love their story. As the early church is growing, Matthew loves telling the gospel using Exodus as his template. From home to home and church to church, as he travels, he tells the story of slaves set free by Jesus. As just as Moses led them outta slavery to Pharaoh in Egypt, so Jesus sets us free from slavery to sin and Satan. By the time Matthew finally sits down to write his Jesus story, his gospel flows from his pen like milk and honey. Matthew is one of God's storytellers. He can break through people's tough resistance to new truth because he holds the storyteller's secret: tell a story people know and love. Tell it well. Then once they're smiling and nodding at the familiar story, give it a new meaning. Imagine Matthew preparing to write his Gospel. He lays out the scroll of Exodus, and he lays out an empty parchment. Then he starts reading, "Hmm, these are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt." Exodus 1:1. I can do that, Matthew thinks. He dips his quill in the sinkwell and writes, "This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, son of Abraham." Matthew 1:1. Then there's a birth story. Moses born. Ooh, birth of Jesus. Writes that story. Pharaoh orders the killing of baby boys. Mm. Herod orders the killing of baby boys. Moses grew up in Egypt. Hmm, well, Jesus and his parents did flee to Egypt and they lived there for a few years. Well, that's a cool connection, and Matthew's the only one that mentions it. Matthew thinks as he writes, this will draw people into the story. The Hebrews leave Egypt. Jesus's family leaves Egypt to go to Nazareth. Then Yahweh opens the Red Sea and the people walk through. Oh, that's like Jesus's baptism. When God opened the sky and his voice thundered through, his love for his son. You can see Matthew leaning into his writing now. This is fun. Next, slowly reading through the 40 years of the wanderings in the wilderness, Matthew considers what the people learned on their long walk. At the Golden Calf, they learned, uh, yeah, no other gods. When manna fell from heaven, mm, well, they learned that God will provide. When water flowed from a rock, they learned, well, because Moses hit the rock instead of trusting God, they learned two different things. The people learned that God can provide water in the desert, and Moses learned that you should not put God to the test. Wow, Matthew thinks to himself, that reminds me of Jesus in the desert. The Israelites spent 40 years in the wilderness and barely learned a thing. Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness and never failed. In every test, he quoted Scripture. Hmm. Matthew dips his quill again and leans over his growing gospel. He is ready to write his greatest riff on the Exodus story. You can check it out in Matthew chapter 4. After his baptism, Jesus went into the desert where he fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. Then the devil came to Jesus at the end when he was really hungry. Hey, Jesus, What about these stones? They are about the size of bread, loaves of bread. You are the Son of God. Tell these stones to become bread. And Jesus answered, it is written, man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. God will provide. Jesus is alluding to the story of the Exodus and quoting Deuteronomy 8. Then the devil takes Jesus to the top of the temple and says, "Prove you are who you say you are. Jump! God has promised to protect you with angels if you're the Son of God." Jesus answered him, "It is also written, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" Deuteronomy, again, chapter 6. Finally, the devil takes Jesus to a place with a really good view. So good, in fact, that the devil can point out all the kingdoms in the world, their splendor and their glory. "All of this I will give you," Satan says, "if you will bow down and worship me." You can almost see Jesus smile as he shakes his head. The golden calf? Really? From the mountaintop? Really? Haven't you been paying attention, you old snake? And Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written, 'Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.'" Deuteronomy 6, again. Satan spent all that time trying to trip Jesus up by challenging him to prove that he's the Son of God. And ironically, that's exactly what Jesus does by resisting the devil. He demonstrates his divine nature. Matthew smiles and writes the end of the Jesus desert experience. Matthew 4:11, "Then the devil left him, and the angels came and they cared for him." 40 days to prove Jesus is different. He is better than Moses. Jesus didn't fail and try again. Jesus didn't learn the lessons from ob— of obedience by studying the books of the— or the Exodus stories. He embodied them. Matthew is declaring Jesus is the new Moses, a new redeemer with a new improved plan, a perfect covenant written not on two stone tablets but on your heart. Jesus didn't ask the devil's proxy for permission to set God's people free. This rescuer brought salvation with him. Jesus is our Savior. As Jesus walked up the road to Golgotha, he carried with him an old wooden cross. The Romans were fond of crucifying people, and undoubtedly this cross had been used many times to end many lives. Like the staff of Moses, there was nothing special about this cross or any cross, but from that day forward, every cross of every empire that serves as a— will serve as a reminder of this cross. Who could have known that on this day a cross would hold hold the power of God. As sin was forgiven and righteousness released, the valley of the shadow of death would forever be overwritten by the mountaintop experience of the glory of God. In this moment, the cross of Christ brought life to all through the death of Jesus. But death could not hold him. On the third day, Jesus returned to life, and in so doing, he promised us us a resurrected life today. Then 40 days later, he ascended into heaven with a promise to prepare us a place in his kingdom. Salvation was fully embodied and enacted in the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. Jesus—his name means Yahweh saves. Yahweh saves. Jesus's successful rescue mission guarantees your salvation. Yahweh saves in Jesus. This is the gospel. There are more parallels between Matthew and Exodus, but this is the greatest one. Jesus came to find the work, to finish the work of the Exodus. He is our deliverer and our Savior. Jesus is the great I Am, the Yahweh who saves. And all the promises he made to Moses and Israel He makes to you and to me today. When you feel overwhelmed or inadequate, where do you turn for strength and direction? Today, because of Jesus, there is a clear answer to this question. If you want to overcome life's overwhelm, turn to Jesus. He gives rest to the weary. If you want to defeat imposter syndrome, turn to Jesus. He equips the called. If you want to know that you are safe, turn to Jesus. He is your provider and protector. If you want assurance that you are loved, turn to Jesus, for there is no greater love than the love he feels for you. Jesus, Yahweh saves you.