today we begin a 3-part series on the exodus
Leaving - the wilderness - the Promised Land
The exodus is a famous story
- It is a great biblical story
- It is our story
- It is God's story of deliverance and salvation
The biblical story
Joseph and his brothers are in Egypt
A pharaoh comes to power that enslaves the Israelites
Slavery, bricks w/o straw
Hebrew boy children killed - Moses in the basket
Adult Moses kills the Egyptain
Flees to midian - marries, takes a job
God appears to him in a burning bush
10 plagues
- water into blood
- frogs
- lice-gnats
- flies
- pestilence on animals
- boils
- hail
- locusts
- dark
- first born
chased by pharaohs army
how could this story be applied to WCC?
Every church faces "ruts" difficult times
Complacency over God's vision
Every time we get off mission, we need to remember that God wants to deliver us from ourselves.
for us
That which began as a good thing has turned into bondage
Identity lost in the process
Want to leave, usually need help
Leaving old town, old school, old friends
Vices addictions something that you know is a sin
Need help...Parent, friend, Moses
Without leaving, there is no arriving
Do you want to finish college? then you must leave your present life
Easy to say that you want to change, it is hard to change
Hard to leave
what holds us back...fear of the unknown
- We like comfort
- Egyptain army
- Pharaoh - parents - us
3 year old at McDonalds, stuck in the stickers and the mud song - ne brought me out of the miry clay, he set my feet on a rock to stay
the fact is, you have to want to change
how many counselors does it take to change a light bulb
just one, but the light bulb has to really want to change
john 5:1Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. 2Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3Here a great number of disabled people used to lie - the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. 5One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?"
7"Sir" the invalid replied, "I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. while I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me." 8Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." 9At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
We can suffer with things for a long time
It is not easy, but Jesus can help you
real change is hard
but when you hear the voice of God, everything changed
many of you have this sensation
Calling us
God spoke to Moses in the burning bush
God speaks to us if we are listening
"It's just time." You have fought this thing for years and it is just time
If you have been struggling with something that has held you in bondage. If you have struggled with a particular thing that you know to be sin
Maybe this is a great day of turning for you
there is deliverance and salvation in our God.
Put your trust in him-
Let us pray
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