In Exodus 16:1-36 and Deuteronomy 8:1-4, we find the recently freed Hebrews struggling with their new menu. The desert was not supplying the meat and vegetables that sustained their slave labor and they were hungry. God hears their grumbling and responds with provision: manna. Manna was a simple, boring meal, but just enough to sustain them for a season. But manna came with rules, because everything God was doing in the people had the purpose of retraining. God would provide, but he also wanted the people to trust that he would provide. Today, God is still calling us to follow but also providing for the journey. Maybe not all we want or would prefer, but enough to be obedient.

In Exodus 40:1-5, we see God giving the final instructions for the setup of the Tabernacle. It begins with the central point: the ark, which holds the symbols of God's covenant with Israel. Around that, everything else is located. Then in Numbers 2 we see the Israelites arranged in their camp, each tribe positioned intentionally around the center, which is the Tabernacle, where God's glory dwells. This geometric lesson reminds us that our lives ought to be arranged with Jesus in the center, too, both spiritually and physically.

In 1 Peter 2:9-12, we see a group of new Christians under stress as they try to live out their new faith in an antogonistic context. Similarly, when we consider the moral degeneracy and evil that permeates our culture in America, it is tempting to conclude that the gospel of Jesus Christ and the church are ineffective. In Peter’s first epistle he writes to Christians who were confused and discouraged because of the wicked and cruel conditions they were living in under Roman rule. He gives instruction to the Christians then and today on how we must live and conduct ourselves as God’s people in the midst of a sinful and corrupt environment.

In Exodus 20:1-3, we see God giving important "words" to his people. Now that they were out of Egypt, it was time to get Egypt out of the people. The wilderness wanderings were a reforming time, a reshaping time where the people were physically trained to follow God's direction, but also taught his laws and commandments so that they could become his people, and by extension put his character on display for the cultures around them. Today, this is still God's intention, to make us his people, a kingdom of priests, obedient to the Word made flesh.

In Exodus 14:13-20, the newly liberated people are out of Egypt but not yet in the wilderness. A massive body of water stands between them and freedom and the Egyptian army is closing in quickly. If you put yourself in the average person's shoes standing there on the shore of the Red Sea, what are you thinking? Is your attitude positive, totally confident that God will figure something out? Is it negative, asking why you believed this Moses guy and left Egypt just to die a few days later? In this message, guest pastor Rick George shares about how God led him and a small group of friends to plant a church (take a risk) and trust that God would make a way. He encourages us to have the courage to get stuck and use up this temporary life for something eternal.

In Exodus 12:31-39, we see the results of the final plague and the first Passover. Pharoah is distraught and finally relents, telling the people to go into the wilderness to worship. It's the middle of the night, but Moses had them prepared. In fact, that's what the Passover meal was: preparation to be ready to go when God moved. Jesus converted Passover into Communion, a meal of remembering what God had done, but it's still a meal of preparation. Not just of waiting for Jesus' return, but of being the type of people ready to move when God gives the order. Are we ready? Is First Reformed, as a church, ready to move when God gives the word?

In Exodus 13:20-22, we see the people of Israel heading into the wilderness. Pharoah sent them out in a moment of defeat and grief, but his mind would soon change. Between the Red Sea and an approaching Egyptian army, we see God come to them in a pillar of cloud and fire, guiding the people to freedom, even circling behind to protect them. This visible presence of God would stay with them throughout their wilderness wanderings. It is the most critical lesson the people would learn: how to watch for and be led by their Creator and Redeemer. Though the form is different, the God and the principle of chasing are the same. Today, we begin our journey of becoming Cloud Chasers.

In chapter 4, James continues his teaching on the cause and prevention of quarrels and conflicts among believers. He caps his lesson off with an emphasis on the gift of God‘s grace, and how we are to rightfully respond to that grace and to achieve a spiritually dynamic outcome.

In Matthew 28:16-20, the story of Jesus's life on earth comes to a close with a rather clean, succinct, and in some ways unsatisfying, end. The Son of God came back alive! We want more details! How can it just be over? But the giving of the Great Commission is less of an ending and more of a beginning. It's the simple yet all-consuming mission of the disciples of Jesus to put his earthly ministry on repeat until he returns. Reconnect people with the Triune God, teach them how to fully live for Him, and in so doing those disciples will reconnect people with God and teach them how to live for Him, and who will then... This message explores this Great Commission by asking the why it's such a big deal while also reminding us that it's non-negotiable for the true church. And while great joy and blessing is to be had for those that give themselves to the mission, we also do well to head the warnings Jesus gave about those who don't.

In Matthew 27:5-66, we have a dead Jesus. The bad guys won, the hero has lost, and Matthew fills in on what happens after Jesus is taken down from the cross. First, we see women willing to be near the danger to care for Jesus and we see a wealthy man using his resources to honor his slain Lord by providing a burial place. Then we see scheming religious leaders worried that Jesus' movement will continue. They know he said he would rise from the dead, which the don't believe would actually happen, but they don't want his followers pulling any fast ones and deceiving people further. So they lock him down. Have you ever tried to lock God down and keep him out of your life? Today, we look at what people do to keep God in the ground. Spoiler alert, it doesn't work.