If you’ve ever been in a relationship, chances are you and your significant other at one point had to DTR—define the relationship. That’s the moment when you’ve been seeing each other for a while, maybe you’re friends and things seem to being getting serious, so you label it. Aka. “We’re a couple.” DTRs can go really well if you each like each other, or they can go really poorly if one person feels differently.

In the case of Monica and me, we DTRd literally thirty second after I officially asked her out. This is because six weeks before this I asked Monica out, then un-asked her out. Monica wanted to get it in writing the exact nature of our relationship. And by that I mean, make it Facebook official. In order to make our relationship a success, we defined our relationship at the beginning to help us understand how to treat each other.

We’re coming to a place in the book of Exodus, when God is going to define the relationship with his people. God brought the Israelites out of Egypt, he saved them, but that’s their relationship so far. This generation of Israelites probably doesn’t know God very well. Their ancestors have been in captivity in Egypt for 400 years, where they’ve probably picked up the religious attitude of the locals, worshipping idols and false gods. So God needs to introduce himself and teach these people how to be in relationship with him.

Situation: The Israelites have come to Mount Sinai to meet God. (Ex 19:1-8)

Let’s review the journey so far. After Egypt, the Israelites crossed the Red Sea at the gulf of Suez (14:29). Then they entered the Desert of Shur (15:22) and arrived at Marah where the water was bitter (Ex 15:23). After Marah, they came to an oasis (15:27) and then the Desert of Sin between Elim and Sinai (16:1), where they received manna, before coming to the desert of Rephidim (17:1). Finally they’ve come to Mount Horeb in the Desert of Sinai (19:1). This isn’t the first time we’ve encountered this mountain in Exodus.

Back when Moses was a shepherd for his father-in-law Jethro in the land of Midian, he brought his sheep to this same mountain, Mount Horeb (Ex 3:1). When God appeared to Moses in the burning bush, he promised Moses he would bring the people back to this mountain.

Exodus 3:11–12  But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.” (NIV®)

Right here, in v. 1-2, God has fulfilled his promise to bring the Israelites back to the mountain. It’s at this mountain that God is going to formally enter into a covenant relationship with his people. A covenant is defined as “A promise where God is involved.” God already made an unconditional covenant with their forefather Abraham that he will use Abraham’s descendants to bless all peoples on earth (Gen 12:2-3). Now God is going to extend this relationship to the Israelites, but through a conditional covenant with terms.

Exodus 19:5-6a Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation… (NIV®)

In this moment, God sounds a little demanding, doesn’t he? He sounds like a boyfriend or girlfriend that says, “You have to act a certain way for me to date you.” Well, A) this is a more formal relationship, like a marriage, where you make promises to act a certain way. And B) Israel is not God’s peer. They are not on equal footing. He is holy and they are unholy. And C) before God ever offers this relationship to the Israelites, he shows them abundant grace and kindness. Right before these verses God says this.

Exodus 19:4  ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. (NIV®)

An eagle is a bird of prey that kills

Lord willing, Cornerstone is heading towards autonomy this year. Currently, we’re a ministry of Immanuel Church in Chelmsford, our parent church. They’re a wonderful church but their goal for us is to one day become autonomous. That means we’ll be our own non-profit. We’ll have our own Elders and Deacons, By-Laws and budget, and most importantly, we’ll be the ones responsible for our ministries.

As we think on this, we realize that’s a lot of responsibility. We don’t want to mess it up. We want to do it well. So as we approach autonomy, we should ask some questions. What do we need to do to get there? How can we succeed? What is success?

Exodus is the story of a two-million person church plant. At Cornerstone, we started with about 40 people, and we’re up to about 65 on an average week. That’s pretty good. Can you imagine if we started with two-million people? That’s what I call a mega-church plant. Even though those initial Israelites who left slavery in Egypt for the wilderness are far more numerous than us, I think they would have had some of the same questions as us. What’s going to happen next? How can we make sure we’re a success?

Today, I’m breaking my message down into three ingredients of a successful church. As I’m preaching through Exodus, I’ve been reading a book by Tony Merida called Christ-Centered Exposition: Exalting Jesus in Exodus. Today, I’m breaking my sermon down like he breaks down the passage, so I want to open with his main idea for today’s text. Tony writes, “A healthy community of faith relies on God’s power, tells others about God, and shares the work of ministry.”

We can take the same three ingredients from this passage and apply them to our ministry. Those ingredients are: 1) prayer, 2) mission, and 3) teamwork. Let’s begin by looking at the first ingredient.

Prayer: God empower us. (Exodus 17:8-16)

Since coming out of Egypt, the Israelites faced the Egyptian army at the Red Sea and won, faced starvation and dehydration in the desert and survived by God’s grace, and now they’re facing their first enemy army, the Amalekites. The forefathers of the Israelites are Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jacob is actually one of two twins. His brother’s name was Esau. When they were born, in Genesis 25:23, God told their mother this:

The LORD said to her,

    “Two nations are in your womb,

and two peoples from within you will be separated;

    one people will be stronger than the other,

and the older will serve the younger.” (NIV®)

The two nations God is talking about are A) the people of God, Jacob’s descendants, and B) the enemies of God’s people, Esau’s descendants. The Amalekites are one of the biological descendants of Esau, but represent the spiritual enemies of God. Satan is using them to attack God and his plans. The Amalekites are the spiritual offspring of the Serpent in the garden, and Jacob’s are of Eve (Gen 3:15). This is why in v. 15 it says their “hands were lifted up against the throne of the Lord.” They are “against” God, so God is going to defeat them (v. 14). How do we win a war that is primarily spiritual, and not physical? We pray.

God empowers Joshua through the prayers of Moses.

Moses tells Joshua to choose some men and go fight the Amalekites (v. 8). The Bible tells us Joshua, the son of Nun, attended Moses from his youth (Num 11:28). So Joshua was about twenty-years old here (Josh 24:29). If you’re going to win a battle, would you rather trust Joshua, the all-star quarterback who can run the ball into the end-zone, or the gray-haired Moses who is over 80 years old? You would trust Joshua. But this battle is spiritual, not physical. It’s not won with Joshua on the field, but with Moses on the hill.

Moses takes his staff with him, a sign of judgment (rod) and salvation (crook), and goes to the top of the hill. Verses 11-12 tell us that as long as Moses held up this staff, Joshua and his men won, but when he lowered it, they lost. Why is this? It’s because when Moses’ hands lift up that staff

Have you ever watched a movie or read a book that begins with the opening line “Once upon a time”? Usually they’re fairy tales, or Disney movies. These stories often end with a very similar line, “and they all lived happily ever after.” The Hungarian equivalent is “They lived happily until they died.” I prefer the Bulgarian equivalent, “…and for three days they ate, drank, and had fun.” If you’re like me, you’re happy the main heroes of the story overcome the villain and are happy, but you wonder, well, what happens next?

In the book of Exodus, when Moses leads the people out of slavery in Egypt, the story could end there. In chapter 15, right after God has delivered them from Egypt, there comes a moment when it could say, “And they lived happily ever after” but instead it says something more like a Persian ending, “This book has come to an end but there is still a story to be told.” As the initial rescue story ends, a refinement story begins.

The story in the first 15 chapters of Exodus can be summed up in one word. Salvation. They are all about God saving the Israelites from slavery in Egypt under Pharaoh. God saves baby Moses, he sends plagues to save the Israelites, and he saves them from the Egyptian army at the Red Sea. Last week we saw the people sing a song of praise after they crossed the red sea, thanking God for salvation. The spiritual lesson is that God wants to save them and us from slavery to something far worse than Egypt, sin and death. Salvation.

Now starting at Exodus 15:22, we see a new story with a new theme. Sanctification. The word “sanctify” means “to consecrate, make holy, set apart.” To sanctify someone is to help them become like God’s character, to be spiritually clean like him. God delivered the Israelites out of Egypt so that he can mold and change them into a new people that look like him. The rest of Exodus, the Ten Commandments, the tabernacle, the priesthood, and the golden calf is all about God making Godly people. God isn’t just interested in initial salvation, he’s interested “the happily ever after”—the life that follows. Sanctification.

The Exodus Route

I brought a map today for two reasons. First, I want to ground the story of Exodus in reality. The Exodus happened at a real time, ~1446 B.C. (see 1 King 6:1), and in a real place, from the land of Goshen in Egypt, crossing over the Red Sea, today called the Gulf of Suez (see Exodus 14:22), to the wilderness, and finally up north to the land of Canaan. Second, I want you to see God cares about longterm change. God is going to take the Israelites into the wilderness to demonstrate he is interested not just in initial salvation, but in continual sanctification. God is going to refine his people as he leads them into the promised land.

If I put your life-map on the screen, what would it look like? Where would it show you’ve gone and grown? If you’re a mature Christian, at some point in your story, God saved you. But that was just the beginning of your story, wasn’t it? God has already taken you on a journey of sanctification, many years of molding you to be more Godly and there’s still more to go. If you’re a new Christian, you’re just at the beginning of this journey. You have years of sanctification ahead of you. Oh boy! And if you’re not a Christian, I want you to understand that Christianity isn’t about just saying a prayer, it’s giving your whole life to God so that he can mold and change you through the years. Like the Israelites, God promises to lead us into his promised land one day too, eternity with Jesus.

Today, we’re picking up right after the crossing of the Red Sea. It’s here that God begins to clearly sanctify his people, to set them apart and make them holy, and it’s here that we learn how God sanctifies us.

God sanctifies us by testing us. (Exodus 15:22-27)

After the Israelites leave the Red Sea, they enter the desert. They travel for three days, but don’t find any water until they come to the springs of Marah. You can imagi

As we come to Exodus 15, I want us to think about the role which music plays in our lives. I basically soundtrack my entire life – whether I’m working, exercising (which does not happen very much), driving, I’m always listening to music. Whenever, Emma and I play or work together, there is always a lot of music and dancing. She really loves to listen to movie soundtracks, so our go-to albums are the soundtracks for Frozen, The Lion King, and Beauty and the Beast. I believe that music and song are not just something that we enjoy; I believe that music and song are hard-wired into who we are as humans. Consider the field of music therapy that developed as a profession in the 20th century. It has been discovered that music can be used things like motor skill problems in children, emotional trauma in war veterans, and many other ailments. Apparently, music has always been an important part of the human experience. In the Hohle Fels cave in Germany, some of the oldest human artifacts in existence have been discovered – believed to derive from the earliest human migrations into Europe. Among the artifacts are flutes – some carved out of mammoth tusks and one made from the bone of a griffon vulture (which you should see on the screen up here). This is interesting in light of the Bible, because in the first genealogy in Genesis chapter 4, mention is made of the origins of music (Gen 4:20). So, it seems that humans are and have always been designed for music.

So, it’s no accident that there are a lot of songs in the Bible. Tonight we come to one of the most ancient of these biblical songs.

The song of Exodus 15 goes by many names:

Some people refer to the song of Exodus 15 as the Song of Moses. This makes sense because v. 1 says that Moses and all Israel sang this song to the LORD. However, I don’t like to call this the Song of Moses because there is another song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32 that is also called “the Song of Moses.”

Others call it the Song of Miriam. This is because of v. 21 where the first line of the song is repeated by Moses’s sister Miriam. It’s not entirely sure what is going on here, but it seems most likely to me that verse 21 indicates that the song was sung in a kind of antiphonal pattern. By this I mean that apparently Moses along with the men would sing a section of the song, and then the women would respond with a repeated refrain.

Finally, the song in Exodus 15 may be called either the Song of the Sea or the Song at the Sea. This is the terminology that I prefer, as it reminds us of the context of the Song – this is a celebratory song of praise after God has defeated Egypt and rescued Israel through the miracle at the sea.

Now, songs in the Bible are presented in basically one of two ways: First, there are places in the Bible which collect songs and put them all together – the book of Psalms is the best example of this. Second, songs can be presented within the context of a narrative or a story. In other words, you are reading through a story and then all of the sudden you come to a song that is part of the story. We call these “inset songs.” This is a form of literary production which continues even until works of literature and art today. Consider how a broadway musical works. There is a storyline (or a narrative), and there is plenty of dialogue. But, what are the most memorable parts of the production? Where is the main message of the musical presented? These are of course the songs. There is a reason we call them musicals.

Now, I have never been to Broadway. However, I do remember one of my first Valentine’s Day dates with Sara. I believe this was in February 2006 (I had my driver’s license for less than a year). I took Sara to a local theatre company’s production of The Sound of Music. Now, I remember the gist of the plot, but I do not remember any of the dialogue. But, I do remember the songs. I remember both their melodies and specific lines: “the hills are alive with the sound of music,” “Doe, a dee

Do you have a good memory? If someone tells you something really important, and says, “you have to remember this” do you? Or do you have to write down? There’s a saying, “The shortest pencil is longer than the longest memory.” If you’re the kind of person who has to write stuff down, and then is also prone to misplacing small slips of paper, then there’s nothing I can do for you.

I want to test our memories today. I want to say a phrase, and see if you can remember it by the end of the sermon. I’m going to tell you the phrase. Are you ready? The phrase is… “goat on a tree.” There are lots of ways to remember this phrase, aren’t there? You could write it down. You could whisper it to a friend. How about we do that right now. Why don’t you turn to your neighbor and say, “goat on a tree.”

I’ve also brought a picture to help you remember. Here are some tree goats of Morocco famous for climbing trees. They love tree nuts and there isn’t much grass, so they climb trees. If you’re really serious, this summer you can go to Honey Pot Hill Orchard in Stow MA and see your very own “goat on a tree.”

It’s easy to forget things, isn’t it? Apparently, it’s a myth that fish have a three-second memory. The whole movie, Finding Dory, is just one big lie. Researchers have proven that fish can remember things for up to five months. So if you can’t remember “goat on a tree”, a goldfish has a better memory than you…

We’re not the only one who struggles to remember things. In Exodus chapter 12, Moses is about to lead the Hebrew people out of slavery in Egypt, but God wants them to remember a really important truth. He’s so serious about this truth he creates a special Holiday to help them remember.

What we do on Holidays? We remember. On July 4th, we remember our freedoms. On Labor Day we remember how hard work benefits everyone. On Halloween, we remember candy. On Christmas, we remember the birth of Jesus, and on Easter we remember his resurrection. Last week some of us even celebrated the Chinese New Year, which remembers the last Chinese year and looks forward to the next.

The Holiday God gives the Israelites is Passover. This day is meant to remind the Israelites of this truth…

Remember your Passover substitute, the lamb.

The Israelites celebrate this Holiday with a meal like we do Thanksgiving. Today this meal is called a Sedar, and Jewish people still eat a lamb shank, bitter herbs, and other foods that remind them of their ancestors flight from Egypt. The meaning of Passover is actually in its name.

Exodus 12:26-27a  And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.’ ”… (NIV®)

The Passover reminds us of God “passing-over” the Israelites when he judged the Egyptians. As we study Exodus chapters 12-13, we see Three Remembrances that help us understand this one big truth.

Remembrance #1. The Passover lamb is a personal substitute.

Last week I preached through the plagues of Egypt. Tonight I’m finishing with the last one, the death of the firstborn. God is about to send the worst plague on Egypt, he’s going to kill every firstborn son because Pharaoh won’t let the Israelites go.

Exodus 11:5 Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the female slave, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well. (NIV®)

God is going to kill the firstborns of Egypt. In ancient cultures, the firstborn son had certain privileges called a birthright. He got a double portion of the inheritance (Deut 21:17). He was a sign of his father’s strength (Gen 49:3) and authority (2 Chr 21:3). and he was especially blessed (Gen 49:8-12). In Egypt, the firstborn of Pharaoh would one-day rule in his father’s place, and was even treated like a god.

But God is going to pass-over the firstborn s

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to meet your childhood hero or someone famous you’ve have always kind of liked? Imagine for a moment what it would be like to shake the hand of Neil Armstrong or Buzz Aldrin, to the hold the hand of the first men to walk on the moon. Or what would it be like to hug Rosa Parks or Martin Luther King Jr., those who faced racism and social injustice head on and overcame?

Maybe some of you want to meet a TV or movie star, like Aubrey Hepburn, George Clooney, or Chris Pratt. I’d like to meet Chris Pratt. Although, I’d also be interested in meeting celebrity chefs Rachael Ray or Gordon Ramsay if they’d cook me dinner.

A student at the University of Texas at Austin met Bill Gates. Bill and Melinda donated $30 millions to build a new Computer Science Complex at the school, and the day of the ribbon cutting ceremony Bill Gates came to campus. A Computer Science Major named Elynn Lee was tasked with giving him a 5-10 minute tour. Understandably, she was a little nervous. She practiced what she going to say for two days leading up to the tour, but she was still so shaken she was pacing and trying not to panic right before his arrival.

Then, Bill Gates and his entourage arrived early. He walked up to her, she reached out her hand to shake his hand, and she introduced herself, “Hi, I’m Elynn.” His response was a casual and simple, “Hi, I’m Bill.” In that moment, she relaxed, and gave him the tour. In her words, “Mr. Gates nodded intently and was genuinely interested in what I was saying (or at least seemed to be) and was just overall very chill… he was particularly excited when I mentioned that the labs were open 24/7!”

The person I’d like to most meet is Timothy Keller, a church-planter, author, and pastor who helped found Redeemer Presbyterian in NYC. He came to Gordon-Conwell last year, and I got to meet his wife, Kathy, but I have yet to meet him. He walked right by me. I literally could have reached out and grabbed him, but I figured I didn’t want his first experience meeting me to be that way. I’d rather we go for a long walk on an autumn path, visit a bookstore together, and then eat Five Guy’s for dinner…

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to meet God? In Exodus, Moses meets God in a burning bush. He asks God his name and God says, “I AM WHO I AM” (3:14), which means “I will be what I will be.” In Exodus, whenever it talks about God as “the LORD” that is God’s special name “Yahweh.” So whenever I talk about “God” today, I don’t mean an abstract deity, or just a general type of god, but Yahweh, the Lord, the God of the Bible. What would it be like to meet that God?

Exodus 7-11 tells us the story of God sending miraculous plagues on Egypt. Why did God do this? The purpose of the plagues is for God to introduce himself. He introduces himself three ways: as Savior and Judge, as the one true God, and to all nations. Let’s break down the Purpose of the Plagues:

Purpose #1: God introduces himself as Savior and Judge.

Moses has already gone to Pharaoh to tell him to let the Israelites go, but Pharaoh increased their workload. This was very discouraging for the Israelites and Moses, but God assures him that he is still good and that he will deliver them. Now God tells Moses to take his staff and throw it down before Pharaoh where it will turn into a snake (7:9). He does so, and when the magicians do the same thing, Moses’ snake/staff eats theirs.

God actually makes a point of Moses using his staff as part of his plan. This is because a shepherd’s staff has a lot of meaning. A good staff is straight all the way to the top where it circles back on itself, like a cane. This is called a shepherd’s crook. The crook is used to pull sheep out of the mud, out of water, to rescue and save them. But the straight rod is used for discipline, to wack sheep or predators.

I wanted you to be able to visualize what I’m talking about so I brought my cane from home. I got this from doing karate and I

If you think my sermon title sounds like the title of a romance novel you might buy at the grocery store, you’re right. When I took my first creative writing course, I learned that many romance novels actually follow a pretty generic formula and that those who master the romance novel, can make a lot of money. Danielle Steel, the author of Matters of the Heart has sold over 590 million copies of her novels.

I have a confession to make. I have read one of those Christian romance novels, Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers. It’s loosely based on the book of Hosea, so that’s why I told myself it was okay… I read it about a year before I met Monica. I think it’s fair to say I’d been single a little too long. I thought it would help me “woo” my future wife better when I met her, but when Monica found out, she just laughed at me.

Maybe you’ve read one of those embarrassing romance novels, love a sappy chick-flick, or are just a romantic at heart. All of these things, poetry, art, music, they seek to move and mold our hearts. What shapes our hearts? There’s this thing in us that drives us to love, to care, to make wise decisions, and sometimes foolish ones. What rules your heart? Your mind, your emotions?

I have a good friend who I chat with about every other week. He asks me this simple question, “How’s your heart?” He asks because he wants to cut away all the clutter, all the busyness, all the things I hide behind. Today, as your pastor who loves you, I want to ask you the same question. How’s your heart?

In the Bible, the heart is the core of a person. Not just emotions or thoughts, but where those emotions and thoughts come from, the soul, the center. We’re continuing our study of Exodus today. The theme of the heart runs throughout the whole book. The Hebrew word for heart, léb, is used 46 times in Exodus (not all as “heart”). About half of those verses are about the heart of one man, Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

Early in Exodus, God makes Moses, the one who is going to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, a promise. God promises him he is going to harden the heart of Pharaoh.

Exodus 4:21 The Lord said to Moses, “When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. (NIV®)

God is going to use Pharaoh’s heart to prove he is God and Pharaoh is not. As we examine the theme of the heart, I want us to ask ourselves that big question, “How’s my heart?” Is it hard towards God, or soft? Pharaoh doesn’t stop to ask that question, and it costs him his his kingdom and his firstborn son.

Pharaoh’s hardens his heart by rejecting God. (Exodus 5:1-2)

At the beginning of chapter 5, Moses and Aaron go before Pharaoh and say, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go…’ ” But Pharaoh doesn’t listen to them, just like God promised. Instead he says, “Who is this Lord you speak of? I don’t know him.”

When you see “LORD” in all capitals, that’s the english translation of God’s special covenant name, “Yahweh.” A covenant is a promise where God is involved. God made a covenant promise with Moses’ forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He promised to give their descendants the promised land (place), to make them into a great nation (people), and to always be with them (presence).

So when Pharaoh says, “I don’t know Yahweh” he’s saying, “I don’t know your god, I only know mine. Your god is less than my gods; he’s not worth knowing or believing. His promises aren’t true.” Pharaoh doesn’t just not know God, he doesn’t want to know God. Hard-heartedness comes from disbelief that God exists and cares for us. It’s rooted in not knowing God or trusting him, in rejecting him.

As we examine Pharaoh’s heart, we need to examine our own, to test ourselves. The primary way to know if our hearts are hard towards God, is to ask… Do I know God? Do I believe in him, specifically, the God revealed in the Bible? If you don’t bel

Have any of you made a New Year’s resolution for 2017? I don’t normally, but there are a lot of people who do. According to Time Magazine, the Top 10 Commonly Broken New Year’s Resolutions are:

Lose weight and get fit

Quit smoking

Learn something new

Eat healthier and diet

Get out of debt and save money

Spend more time with family

Travel to new places

Be less stressed

Volunteer

Drink less

Jacob from the UK tweeted on January 1st, “my new years resolution is to figure out how to squeeze a 4th and 5th meal into my day.” New Years resolutions are fun to make, but hard to keep. Adrienne tweeted, “My 2017 resolution is to work on my low self esteem, but I don’t think I can do it.”

The life cycle of a New Year’s resolution starts strong. In January, you hit the gym, eat guacamole, and cut back on sweets, but that get’s old fast. February comes and you know you need to show your special someone that you care about them with chocolates. One study “shows that February 4th (37 days after New Years’s)” is the most likely day people quit. By march, you’re hitting the pizza, wearing sweats, and breaking in your used couch; you’ll go for a run when it get’s warm outside.

Do you think Moses ever made a New Year’s resolutions? I bet when he was young, and being raised in Pharaoh’s court by Pharaoh’s daughter, he made all of sorts of promises to himself. “I resolve to master archery, horse racing, linguistics, public speaking. I resolve to become the Pharaoh’s right-hand man.” Then one day, Moses sees an Egyptian beating a Hebrew slave, he murders the Egyptian, and just like that, all of his resolutions go down the drain.

Instead of climbing the ladder of Egyptian success, Moses flees into the wilderness, traveling to the far away land of Midian. There he marries a backcountry shepherd’s daughter and joins the family business. Moses was 40 years old when he fled Egypt, in the prime of his life, and now he’s a poor shepherd with no hopes and no dreams. We can imagine that year by year his resolutions change from going home to Egypt to don’t get eaten by a bear or a lion, don’t kill the sheep, die a peaceful death.

Moses is 80 years old when God breaks into his life and gives him a resolution. God appears to Moses in a burning bush, saying, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt… I am sending you [Moses] to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” (3:7, 10) Moses, of course, get’s up and goes right to Egypt. No. Not even close. Instead, he objects; in fact he gives three objections in the form of questions:

Who am I? (3:11-12)

Who are you? (3:13-22)

What if they don’t believe? (4:1-17)

Two weeks ago Andy explained God’s first two answers. To the “Who am I?” God answers, “I’m the one who matters and I am with you.” And to Moses’s second objection, “Who are you?” God says, “I AM WHO I AM”; meaning, “I am enough, I am undefinable, I am all powerful, but care for you.” God is going to answer the third objection, “What if they don’t believe?” by challenging Moses, “Why don’t you believe?”

When we talk about New Year’s resolutions, it’s always in the context of, “I made a resolution.” It’s about me. What if God made your New Year’s resolution this year? To me, God’s resolution for Moses and the people of Israel is to believe him, so I think it’s fair to extend that same resolution to us. God’s resolution for us is to believe. But what is going to prevent this resolution going the way of all the others? This resolution won’t make it a week unless we begin to understand what God taught Moses.

I. God gives us reasons to believe. (4:1-9)

When Moses’ hears God’s promises, he asks, “What if they do not believe me…?” Moses is standing in front of a bush that’s on fire and not burning up but he’s an 80-year old man full of fear and doubt. God has compassion on Moses, giving him three reasons/signs to believe. They’re not scientific reasons, like apologetics, but reasons rooted in God’s character, who he is and wha

In Exodus 3:1-22, God reveals who he is to us. Listen to this message by Andy Bradshaw.

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Have you ever had something stolen? When I was a kid, I always went to bed on Christmas Eve wondering if robbers would steal all of my Christmas gifts during the night. They never did, but whenever I heard a story on the news that something like that had happened, I was convinced our house was next.

I just heard a story out of St. George Utah about three teenagers who tried to steal a a laser light show out a homeowner’s front yard. Unfortunately, for them, the homeowner was home. The St. George News says:

On Nov. 27, at approximately 8:45 p.m., laser light bandits had struck, again. This time, at the home of Little Valley resident Scott Joens where juveniles had allegedly helped themselves to Joens’ Star Showers Laser Light – a popular Christmas decor item which projects patterns onto a house or building and typically costs between $25 and $75.

“(The) crazy kids stole my laser light show right out of our yard,” Joens wrote in a Facebook post, confirmed to St. George News. “They picked the wrong old man to mess with because I got in the car and found them.”

Joens dialed 911 as he followed the alleged thieves in his vehicle.

“They led me on a 20-minute joyride,” he said, “but my mad driving skills kept up with their evasive maneuvers.”

With a 911 dispatcher now on the line, Joens said he called out street names along with traffic infractions perpetrated by the juveniles, such as speeding and blown stop signs.

The car chase continued through Little Valley into Bloomington Hills and then over by Desert Hills High School, reaching speeds of up to 50 mph, he said.

“An officer finally pulled in front of me and got the crazy kids,” Joens said, noting that he retrieved his stolen laser light.

Scott is my old worship pastor at the church I grew up in. He’s the nicest most giving guy you could ever meet, but don’t steal his laser lights! Exodus is the story of God getting back what Pharaoh tries to steal from him, his people. In the Old Testament, God’s chose the nation of Israel to be his people. The Israelites lived in Egypt for 400 years, and an evil Pharaoh came along who enslaves them, forcing them to do harsh labor making bricks and building cities. He tries to steal them from God, but God won’t have it.

God is going to raise up a leader among the Israelites to deliver them, a prophet named Moses. But Pharaoh orders the people to throw every Israelite boy into the Nile to drown. Boys grow up to be soldiers, and he didn’t want them to form an army, so he tries to kill them all. The good news is, God has a plan.

I. God rescues Moses from Pharaoh. (Exodus 2:1-10)

Last week we learned that God used the faith of two ordinary Hebrew midwives to save the baby boys in Egypt. This week we see that same faith in another women, Moses’ mother, Jochebed.

A. God uses the faith of Moses’ mother. (vv. 1-4)

Jochebed hides her baby boy for three months, but before long it becomes too dangerous to hide him, so she weaves a basket and covers it with tar and pitch. The word “basket” is the Hebrew word for “ark.” The only other place this word is used is in the story of Noah and the flood in Genesis. In Noah’s day, people were so bad God decided to wipe them off the earth with a flood and start again. But God spared Noah’s family by asking him to build an ark, a really big boat. Noah built the ark and filled it with his family and all kinds of animals. God sent the flood but the Ark saved Noah and his family.

We can imagine that as Moses’ mother made this basket, this ark, she cries out to God in prayer, asking for him to deliver her baby boy just like he delivered Noah. The type of faith she demonstrates here is special. It’s resurrection faith. Resurrection faith is anytime we believe God can bring life out of death. Moses’ mother places him in the very river that is supposed to kill him, the Nile. She does so trusting God will deliver Moses just like he delivered Noah from the waters that should have killed him.

If you’re a parent, and you worry ab