Do you know that pastors are people too?
We experience the same struggle that you do
we are tempted, have personal traumas, we get angry
we can become depressed
and can even experience anxiety
intro story- my wife
She said as she walked to the stage, it was as if God took her by the hand and walked her on the stage, Just like aaron prayed
My wife thought that God was just going to remove it
Even though He could have
He didn’t
He used people who had similar experiences to pray with her and comfort her
He had prepared her deliverance
And used these people to carry it out
Exodus 2:16-25
Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters. And they came and drew water, and they filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. 17 Then the shepherds came and drove them away; but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock.
18 When they came to Reuel[a] their father, he said, “How is it that you have come so soon today?”
19 And they said, “An Egyptian delivered us from the hand of the shepherds, and he also drew enough water for us and watered the flock.”
20 So he said to his daughters, “And where is he? Why is it that you have left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread.”
21 Then Moses was content to live with the man, and he gave Zipporah his daughter to Moses. 22 And she bore him a son. He called his name Gershom,[b] for he said, “I have been a [c]stranger in a foreign land.”
23 Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died. Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. 24 So God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged them.
Last week we went through Moses killing the Egyptian and having to flee from Egypt to Midian
The Midianites lived in southern Palestine and they lived in the desert
They were descendants of Abraham and his wife Keturah(after Sarah died)
The Midianites were known to have a lot of trade with Egypt
With Moses being in Midian he could still get news about the Israelite people
Moses leaving Egypt alone shows that he was going into a place of solitude
Leaving Egypt was a sign of leaving the past
Leaving his old life behind
To prepare to be a deliverer for the Israelites
He realized he had more in common with the people there
Moses still had a yearning to set his people free from captivity and bondage
It was in Midian where the Lord would grow him, and comfort him
He found a wife in Midian as well
as the scripture shows
He defended the priests daughters
Once again showing Moses as a defender
Unlike last week scripture where he was ridiculed for defending,
This time he was greeted as a peace maker and hero
Leading him to eat in the priests house, live there, work, and gain the priests daughter as a wife and bore a son named Gershom
All the time Moses spent in Midian was for the purpose to grow him into the deliver that God intended
It was by no mistake that he settled there
The Lord was working in him the whole time
Until the time for him to be released to deliver his people
I’m going to be focusing on
Exodus 2:23-25
Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died. Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. 24 So God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged them.
God heard the groanings and cries of Israel
The scripture says, ; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. 24 So God heard their groaning
God hears your cries and pleas
He hears your groanings
All throughout the bible there are stories of people crying out and God delivers them
He will do the same for you
Psalm 34:17
The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears,
And delivers them out of all their troubles.
18 The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart,
And saves such as [a]have a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
But the Lord delivers him out of them all.
The Lord hears your cries and will rescue you
There are many ways that the Lord delivers us when we cry out
He has limitless power
Everything is under His authority
We must have faith that God is moving in your situation
Because He will answer
Sometimes it is not the way we expect Him to answer
It may not be immediate
The Israelites didn’t receive their deliverance for 430 years
Gods timeline is not ours
He knows what’s best for us
There have been plenty of times in my life where I wanted immediate results
But God was doing something in me during those times
We can’t get so caught up in our own misery or sorrow during times of crisis that we forget that God is in control
He always moves, and we always get through it
Story-When I cried out
At that moment I felt my deliverance
I let go
I remembered God was in control
In the end it worked out better for me
5 months later I met Brittney
I couldn’t see it then, but God used this disaster in my life to bring about something beautiful
I cant imagine a life now with out her or my children
God heard my cries
Life isn’t always easy but God is here
Maybe you have financial problems
Maybe death in the family or friends
You could still have heartache and trauma from the past that hasn’t been dealt with
But if you trust that God is who He says He is and believe in faith He will deliver you
The Israelites were about to be delivered but they couldn’t see it
But the whole time God was raising up a deliverer
Scripture says,
Exodus 2:24-25
So God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged them.
God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and He acknowledged them
Gods covenant with Abraham is important
This was really the beginning of the covenant of grace
God was reaching down to the people
It was the beginning of His plan of redemption to a fallen and broken world
It was here that God was calling a people to be set apart for Him and His glory
An everlasting covenant between God and man
His covenant with Abraham came in 3 parts
They stacked upon each other
We find the first part in genesis 12
God tells Abraham , at the time his name was Abram, to leave his country
A sign that Abram was to leave his past to become the Lords servant
God said He would make Abram a great nation
He would bless those who bless him and curse those that curse him
Abram listened and departed from his home
God then appeared to Abram again
Genesis 12:7-8
Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your [a]descendants I will give this land.” And there he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8 And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord.
Here we see Gods promise for land
The second part of the covenant is found in genesis 15
Abram is speaking to God and is concerned because the Lord has given him no offspring
Abram couldn’t see Gods plan in the moment
But God shows Abram in
Genesis 15:4-6
And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.” 5 Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”
6 And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.
God then says He is giving Abram the land He promised
Abram is still uncertain how he will know he will inherit the land
God was about to seal this covenant in a very serious way
God commanded Abram to bring a 3 year old heifer, 3 year old female goat, a 3 year old ram, a turtle dove, and a pigeon
He then takes these animals except the birds and cuts them in half down the middle except the birds
Abram places them on opposite sides of each other
In these covenants usually the lesser person would walk between the cut animals
Basically saying let what happened to these animals happen to you if you break this covenant
This is a very serious covenant
God knew man would not be able to uphold such a covenant so instead
God made the covenant with himself
Genesis 15:17-18
And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces.
The third part of the covenant comes in genesis 17
When Abram was 90 years old
Abram hasn’t had a child with his wife
God tells Abram He will multiply him exceedingly
God then changes Abrams name to Abraham and the sign of the covenant would be circumcision for all males
God takes covenants seriously
That’s why God remembered His covenant
Exodus 2:24-25
So God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged them.
God never forgot His covenant in the first place
While making covenant with Abraham in genesis 15
God tells him that his people will be strangers in a land that is not theirs
They would be afflicted and serve 400 years
Even while making a covenant with Abraham, God had a greater plan for redemption
He already had someone in mind to deliver His people, Moses
After 400 years God was going to use Moses to set free His chosen people
Moses delivers the Israelites and in doing so He sets up a covenant with Moses
Called the mosaic covenant
Although unlike the covenant with Abraham
This covenant was conditional
In this covenant God reminded His people to be obedient to His law
The people agreed to the covenant saying; All that the Lord has spoken we will do
This covenant would set apart the nation of Israel from all other nations
It was as equally binding as the unconditional covenant with Abraham because it still required a blood sacrifice
The blood sacrifice of this covenant foreshadows Jesus sacrifice on the cross
A redemptive covenant
This covenant was significant
It was with this covenant that God promised to make Israel a kingdom of priests and a holy nation
The mosaic covenant was also used to show mans sinful nature
A desire to please the flesh
People being sinful could never uphold the full covenant
It exposed the most wretched parts of humanity
Keeping the law did not save the people
Since they could not uphold it they would still have to atone for their sins
The law could not save them
Only Gods redemptive plan would be able to cover sins and free them
That plan was Jesus Christ
Hebrews 12:18-24
For you have not come [a]to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and [b]darkness and tempest, 19 and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. 20 (For they could not endure what was commanded: “And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned [c]or shot with an arrow.” 21 And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.”)
22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, 23 to the [d]general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24 to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.
God and His infinite knowledge had a plan ever since the beginning
While God was making a covenant with Abraham he already had a plan
Just like with the mosaic covenant, he already had a plan
Gods plan for Moses was delivering Gods chosen people the Israelites
While this new covenant, Jesus Christ, would deliver the world
This new covenant is the promise that God would forgive sins and restore our relationship with Him
If we turn our hearts towards Him
If we don’t turn towards Him we are still under wrath
John 3:36
He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
Under this new covenant if we believe we no longer have to fear upholding a perfect law
Which is impossible for us to do
Jesus Christ, The lamb of God was sent to take our penalty
Not one person walking this earth could ever uphold the impossible task of keeping the law
Jesus Christ being perfect and pure, holy and blameless would take upon himself
The full wrath of God
Jesus upheld the whole law because we could not
He was tempted, tried, and tested
Just like everyone of us
We all have the ability to enter the throne of grace and seek God face to face because of this new covenant Jesus Christ
Hebrews 4:15-16
For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Along with this new covenant, when we believe in Him
We are imparted with the Holy Spirit
He dwells within us
In the old covenant God dwelt in the temple
Only priests could go into the presence of God
But now. The Holy Spirit dwells within us
We are now a temple of the Holy Spirit
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body [a]and in your spirit, which are God’s.
There are so many benefits of this new covenant
If we believe in Jesus Christ
I myself, am glad I live in a time of the new covenant
Can you imagine trying to uphold a perfect law that is unobtainable
Although we are under this new covenant, it doesn’t give us the right to live in sin as we please
We were bought with a price and we are no longer our own
We crucify our flesh
We work on areas that the Holy Spirit reveals to us
This new covenant isn’t stay how you are
It is come as you are, now change
We must allow the Holy Spirit to change our perspective
We must live for Christ and honor God in all areas of our lives
Our deliverer is here
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