Real Peace. Real People.

We can think of this biblical story about the golden calf as a description of Israel's original sin. Of course, it was not the first sin in history, but it was the first public, shared sin of Israel, whom the Lord had just adopted as his own people. What can God’s people learn from it today? We can learn much about ourselves and our relationship with others, but also, most importantly, about our relationship with God.

Why do we leave places? Sometimes we leave to leave. We simply want to escape. Other times we leave to get somewhere. Of those two options, which was the Exodus about? Was it about getting away from Pharaoh? No, it was never about that. It was always about meeting with God. Our lives, too, are heading to that great time of meeting God. How are we to meet him? This sermon explores what this Scripture teaches.

We continue our march through the wilderness. Here we run into a most intractable foe: Amalek. It is a foe that picks off the vulnerable and the weak. How does the Church win in the battle? What do we learn? The Church holds up each other’s hands. This sermon looks at what the Church does and why she does it. More though, it looks at what Christ did for the Church when she failed in her calling. He fought all alone to hold onto us.

We have been delivered from Egypt. We have crossed the Red Sea in baptism. We have now headed out into the wilderness on our journey to God and his promised land. What’s it like? Sometimes the journey is arduous. This sermon draws a parallel between the testing these people were receiving and the testing of this generation in the current moment. It confronts the listener with the question: how are we doing with this text? Finally, though, it seeks to bring people to the Rock of our salvation, Jesus Christ, who gushes grace to us for our grumbling and continues to go with us on the journey.

Exodus speeds by much like our lives do: fast. It does so until, finally, it halts for a moment when the people are standing on a new shore of life. It then turns from a rush of narrative and prose into a whole chapter of poetry. Why is that? Why does Miriam sing? This sermon asserts that the parting of the Red Sea is a type that anticipates Christian baptism. Miriam sings, then, because God’s people need to understand everything this new life means. What does it mean? This sermon sings to you the answer.

The burden of this sermon is to communicate nothing less than the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is, of course, true for every sermon, but it is especially true of this sermon. The account here is the program of salvation that God unleashes, finally, in his great Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. The evidence of that is how often this account is referenced in the rest of the Bible. What do we learn about salvation here? This sermon answers that critical question.

God’s judgment often makes people feel queasy, but should it? This sermon addresses the queasiness middle/upper-class Americans feel with the judgment of God by examining who God is and his judgment in detail. Is it rash or quick? This sermon shows that God’s judgment is slow and patient. Is it arbitrary, over-done, or cruel? This sermon shows that God’s judgment is always true and right and good. How can it be diverted? We can’t divert it, but God can. This sermon shows how God has.

There’s a stench coming off this part of Exodus, so say the Hebrew foremen. It is language that makes you ask, “What stink?” There is a lot of stink coming off the story from a number of figures: from Moses and Aaron, the elders, and the Hebrew foremen. Where is it and, what can we learn from it? Finally, we can learn the aroma of Christ!

Today we meet the God of the bush. He comes to a person and a people who thought that after 400 years, things may not ever change. His descent into the bush in his burning love and holiness shows that, despite appearances, God has heard and seen all their bitterness and pain. What does that mean for this moment? And does that bush still burn? This sermon claims that it does in the person of Jesus Christ.

Are you tired of the way things are? God has promised a way out. This sermon series based on the book of Exodus is an exodus of our own. It is an exodus, if not from other things in our lives, from depression, despair, despondency, and the pressing down of life. As we see the power and the might of God as he moves for us his people, we will grow in faith, hope, and love. This sermon begins the series, characterizing Moses, who points us to our great Christ!