[00:00:01] Welcome to the River Church podcast. We're all about bringing the life, hope and love of Jesus to everyone around us. For more information, check out our
[email protected]. we have been going through a little bit of a series.
[00:00:15] I think the last time Tillio was up, he spoke. It's the greatest story. And this is where we basically go through the big story of the Bible in nice big chunks. We try and get a bit of the understanding of the overarching story of the Bible, but not just look at individual stories, but seeing how those stories connect across.
[00:00:32] And actually, I'm going to be picking up where Atelier left off with Moses. I think Matillo, you spoke about Pharaoh and Moses and actually we finished sort of at the burning bush, so I'm going to be taking us through Moses and again Pharaoh, but the plagues and the Red Sea. I call it the Prince of Egypt stage. Anyone know what Prince of Egypt is?
[00:00:55] Yeah, a few little arms here. It's not quite perfectly accurate depiction, though. I do really enjoy it. And the songs are good fun. Don't worry, I won't be singing any songs today.
[00:01:05] But there's so much we can get from this. There's so much we can learn from this. When you have to think about this, imagine you're Moses on your way to Egypt.
[00:01:17] You've just had this commission from God to go and free his people.
[00:01:24] He's heard the cries of his people in captivity. All of your countrymen are in Egypt. They're captive, they're held against their will, they're in forced labor. And you've been called by God to say, go and tell Pharaoh, let my people go.
[00:01:40] How are you feeling as you walk?
[00:01:43] What's going through your mind?
[00:01:46] You know, the thing is about the Exodus story is actually it's the story of history.
[00:01:53] It's the story of God. It's the story of the Bible right back from the beginning. So, you know, if you think about Genesis, Adam and Eve are in the garden having a great time. You know, they're just chilling out. Then the serpent comes to enslave and to destroy God's people. The people are tempted into sin, rejection of God's way, and they follow other idols instead of God. And this action results in eternal death.
[00:02:19] But at that moment in Genesis, God pronounces a rescue plan to overturn all that's happened. We see in the story of Moses, Pharaoh, who's an archetypal villain, an enemy of God.
[00:02:33] People are following his way, people are trapped in his way. And what God does is he systematically tears down the perceived power of the Egyptian gods through the plagues, showing his true power.
[00:02:47] God's people are then set free and delivered from death to life as they pass through the Red Sea and are spared by the blood of the lamb.
[00:02:56] And that's pretty much my talk. So, Ben, can you come back up and. No, no, we're going to go a little bit deeper. Couple of things to think about. This is a big story and there's so much to get out of it. We will not get everything out today. Unless you want to stay here for five hours.
[00:03:10] I don't. I want to go home and sit with my feet in the little paddling pool that Ezra plays with.
[00:03:17] But here's some things I'd like you to think about as we go.
[00:03:19] What is God's position in all of this?
[00:03:23] What is Moses position in all of this?
[00:03:27] How does this relate to us today?
[00:03:30] What do we have to do? In fact, there's a little verse I'd like you just to think about. Actually, I've left it right at the end, but I want to bring it up now.
[00:03:40] It's in Exodus 14. It says, the Lord will fight for you.
[00:03:46] You need only be still.
[00:03:49] Now we're going to see how that applies, what that means as we go through. So let's go through the story. Let's go to our first bit. Actually, I've chunked it down in the story. You know, we like to do three bits. I've chunked it down into three sort of little topics. We've got engaging the enemy. We've got inferior idols, and we've got sin and death. These are all things that God the Father releases us from. He sets us free from. So let's go through. Starting with freed by engaging the enemy.
[00:04:22] Let's go to. Oh, a QR code has popped up. I almost forgot. So I've done a table for something and I got a bit carried away, so I added a few notes. It probably won't work. If you want to try and follow along with some notes and have a little table, you can pop your phone up to that QR code and you can get it now. I'll give you just a moment to do that. If it doesn't work, I am so sorry. Don't worry if you can't do, won't be essential. But I think when I made the table, there's a lot of info and I was worried it wouldn't show up very well on the screen. So I thought I'd do that. And then I got carried away and threw some extra bits in there. I hope that's really helpful. I think everyone's had a good chance to go. So let's start with Exodus 5.
[00:05:09] We've got Moses and we've got him meeting Pharaoh. Afterward, Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says, let my people go so they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness.
[00:05:27] Pharaoh said, who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go?
[00:05:34] I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go.
[00:05:41] So as I said earlier, Atelier spoke to us a few weeks ago about the kind of Pharaoh that we're dealing with.
[00:05:46] His arguments with the midwives who are trying to protect the children, how his fear drove him to enslave and to oppress the Israelites. Now, whilst this isn't the same Pharaoh as before, and be quite an old pharaoh at that point, the tone hasn't shifted in his stubbornness and in his pride.
[00:06:05] And in response to challenge, he makes the people's work harder by taking away their resources. And then he has the gall to accuse them of laziness.
[00:06:15] Here's the thing. Pharaoh is evil, but he's not unique.
[00:06:21] The Pharaoh is actually an archetypal enemy that we see repeated across the Bible. Think about people like, like Goliath. Think about Jezebel who tried to stir the people away from God. Think people like Haman, who tried to persecute and kill all the people of Israel. And then you've even got people like Herod in the New Testament. These people all are not just not walking with God, but they all set themselves against God and his people, seeking to enslave and destroy.
[00:06:51] Do you ever feel.
[00:06:53] Do you ever feel like someone is working against you?
[00:06:57] Do you ever feel like someone is out to get you?
[00:07:02] Now I should really be saying no, no one's out to get you.
[00:07:06] Actually, sometimes we feel that way because there is.
[00:07:09] There is someone. There is. Sorry, it's not very nice, but it is true, because all of these enemies. Behind all of these enemies stands the ultimate adversary, Satan, the devil, the serpent or the dragon. From the very beginning, you see him here tempting Adam and Eve into sin. In the beginning.
[00:07:28] Revelation 12:10 refers to him as the one who accuses God's people day and night. 1 Peter 5, 8 says, Be alert, be sober, mind your enemy. The devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. And John 8 refers to him as a father of lies, where lies are Actually, just his native language.
[00:07:49] This is a bad guy. He is the enemy of all people. He was one of God's creations and the most beautiful of all the angels. But he fell. He turned to pride, and as such was cast out of heaven.
[00:08:03] The thing is, he still works in these ways today. So we talked about him as the father of lies. Here's some of the things he whispers. Maybe they might feel familiar.
[00:08:12] It's all about you.
[00:08:15] You're the most important person.
[00:08:18] You're the one who's right.
[00:08:21] This is something our culture pumps out regularly. And the devil's more than happy to throw wood on that fire, making it all about you.
[00:08:30] Here's another very famous one.
[00:08:32] Did he really say that? Did God really say that?
[00:08:38] Satan loves to manipulate.
[00:08:41] He loves to break and challenge God's truth. He loves creating doubt. Even Jesus was taken into the wilderness and tempted by Satan.
[00:08:50] But probably the biggest one that he loves to convince people is that there is no enemy.
[00:08:57] There's no one to worry about. One of his biggest lies is that he doesn't exist. It's what's in front of you that's the problem. It's that person at work who's the problem.
[00:09:07] It's the situation that you're in or in the place you're living.
[00:09:10] They're the problem that's the problem.
[00:09:13] There's nothing else going on. Don't pay any attention to the man behind the curtain.
[00:09:18] It's just what's in front of you.
[00:09:21] Here's something that we need to really remember. When we face opposition, the battle is not happening in front of us.
[00:09:29] The battle is not happening in front of us. In Ephesians 6, it says, for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Do you know when you go back to the story on paper, Moses had his brother and a stick, okay? Pharaoh had an army, he had wealth, he had power.
[00:09:56] He could say something and it would be written. That's it.
[00:10:00] But this was never Moses versus Pharaoh. This was God versus the serpent.
[00:10:07] You know when you feel like you are under that kind of pressure? When you feel like you're under that kind of attack, you don't need to be the hero.
[00:10:16] Be released from that. You don't need to be the hero. It's not about you having main character energy. It's about staying close to the one who is far greater. You often see pictures on Internet of God and devil having a little Arm wrestle. Who's going to win? Yeah, it's especially more akin to an ant and a boot.
[00:10:34] You know who's who.
[00:10:37] God fights for his people and sets them free from the devil. We were just singing. All thrones and dominions, all powers and positions, your name stands above them all. That's who we're dealing with. That's the one who fights our battles.
[00:10:53] So for us, when we're under that pressure and we're under that kind of opposition, let's also just quick caveat, if you've got a cold, it's probably not the devil working against you. Take some tablets, have a rest. Okay. Let's not over spiritualize things. But actually, you know, if we're following Jesus, we should expect the devil not to like us. I'm very happy that he's not happy with what I do. I want to keep it that way. He can't do anything as long as Jesus actually is behind me.
[00:11:24] So we thank God and we trust God that he fights for us and that he's the one who sets us free from that enemy, from the devil.
[00:11:34] Next up, we're going to look at inferior idols.
[00:11:39] So coming back to the story, we enter one of the most famous parts of the Bible.
[00:11:45] God displays his great power through the ten plagues of Egypt. Now to help us, I put together a little table.
[00:11:54] Now you see why I did the phone, didn't you?
[00:11:56] There's so much info, it's just really tricky. But I'm going to read some bits out.
[00:12:01] I can always send stuff out later.
[00:12:04] I popped a little table together. Basically what you get from the story of the plagues is you get water turned to blood. You get frogs. Frogs. I was practicing last night and a frog appeared in my living room.
[00:12:16] There was only one, so I don't think it's a plague status. But we're good.
[00:12:19] Okay. Otherwise, who knows?
[00:12:22] You got gnats, you got lice, flies, livestock, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, darkness, and of course, the death of the firstborn. And then across this. So you've got the plagues, you've got the warnings that Moses gives to Pharaoh each time that the plagues come. We've got a little column that refers to Pharaoh's response. And then we've also got this one at the end which talks about the gods that each of these plagues connect with because they're not just done arbitrarily. Actually, when you look through all of these plagues are a way of tearing down the Egyptian God and theological system, showing that it is so inferior. The plagues are not random, but they represent the gods of Egypt and ultimately the Lord's dominance over their inferior power.
[00:13:12] God exposes their weakness. The Nile turns to blood, showing the lack of power from Hapai. I think his name is God of the Nile. Darkness later on covers the land completely humiliating Ra, who's their sort of top guy in their sort of false belief system.
[00:13:31] God tears down all the idols that Egypt put their trust in all the false idols. We do not serve a God who is lacking or ineffectual.
[00:13:45] Jeremiah 32:27 says, Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?
[00:13:53] Hebrews 11. 3 says, by faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen is not made by how what is visible.
[00:14:04] There is no greater power the world. There are counterfeits, sure, and actually and pretenders. And you see that in the story where Pharaoh's magicians, like when the water turns to blood, Pharaoh's magicians sort of copy it and do it themselves.
[00:14:19] Probably not on the same scale.
[00:14:22] They try and recreate it, but it only works for a short time before they themselves are overwhelmed and say, pharaoh, we need to stop this.
[00:14:30] God deals with. With our idols. God is systematically taking down the false idols of Egypt so that his people might be set free from oppression.
[00:14:42] That's great, isn't it?
[00:14:44] Here's the challenging bit, if we're honest.
[00:14:48] Today we all have our own idols too.
[00:14:51] They're not statues of wood or stone or metal. I suppose technically metal ones are in our pockets sometimes, but they are things that take the place of God in our lives.
[00:15:02] I just want to say this.
[00:15:04] Today, God is lovingly and kindly systematically taking down false idols still present in our lives.
[00:15:13] And he's doing it so that you and I can be truly free. It is not always a comfortable experience, but it is part of God's love for us.
[00:15:25] And it's sometimes hard to see actually what constitutes scenario. What does it look like? Well, maybe think about it this way.
[00:15:31] Maybe you might say something like, God, you can have everything, just not this.
[00:15:37] I'm ready to change. I'm ready to do what you call me to do. But I'm keeping hold of this. Okay, what parts are you keeping to yourself at the moment?
[00:15:47] Do any of these sort of sound familiar? So there's the self finding everything yourself, finding ourselves by looking within. My emotions are completely king.
[00:15:57] People spend hours on social media just sort of curating the right image to present that perfect Picture so they can promote their selves and, you know, yeah, Satan's more than happy to encourage us in that. What about things like power and control? I need things to go my way. Do you have a tendency to micromanage people around you?
[00:16:19] Do you struggle to trust God with your finances, with your family or your health?
[00:16:25] That money, if I had more money, if I had more stuff, then I'll be happy.
[00:16:30] Just want to be clear. That feeling you'll never stop chasing. It'll never be satisfied. There'll always be need for more.
[00:16:39] There's no prize at the end of that finish line.
[00:16:42] And then success and achievement. We all experience this actually, right from when we're young.
[00:16:47] Many of our young people have just gone through their exams. It's a tough, pressured time for them.
[00:16:54] And our culture can accidentally sort of teach us, you are what you've accomplished.
[00:17:01] Is anyone believing that today?
[00:17:04] What happens when we fail?
[00:17:07] What do we do when someone else is more successful?
[00:17:10] It's not a good place to be. I could go on forever.
[00:17:13] All of these things make promises to us that they just can't keep. Checks that can't be cashed. Lightfarers, magicians. Sometimes they can replicate satisfaction or the security we're looking for, but only temporarily.
[00:17:27] In exchange, they draw us into compromise, into shame and secrecy and fear and insecurity.
[00:17:36] All of these things are things we see in Pharaoh.
[00:17:40] It can be really hard to identify these in our lives, and sometimes that's because actually, many idols are very good things. You know, our family are good things. It's good to want to serve and earn money for your family to provide.
[00:17:51] It's good to want to have good relationships with your neighbors and to work hard with people. But good things become cruel masters when they become God things.
[00:18:03] Here's the good news, though, guys.
[00:18:06] Whatever idols you're wrestling with today, it is God alone who can help break their power in our lives. It's not about our efforts or our gumption or our willpower.
[00:18:21] And actually, it's God who's already working on us. Like a sculptor creates a masterpiece out of a block of rock, God is chipping away.
[00:18:33] That can be painful sometimes. I understand that. I know.
[00:18:36] But we have to trust God in the process.
[00:18:40] What's been taking your time away from God?
[00:18:44] What is he rooting out in your life at the moment?
[00:18:49] We need to keep giving him those things. Every time we want to hold it back, we have to hold it out so that he can deal with it and we can be set free.
[00:18:59] Lastly, we're going to go to being set free from sin and death.
[00:19:04] Now, Egypt has been devastated by the plagues, but there is one left to go, and it's called the Passover. Now, God tells Moses that death and judgment will come to each household in Egypt as punishment for what has been done.
[00:19:22] However, this time he gives a way out.
[00:19:27] A way that they can be saved from death, a way that their sins can be covered.
[00:19:34] They were to sacrifice a lamb and place blood on the door posts of their home that night. Every home that was covered by the blood of the lamb was spared from the judgment. Didn't matter who they were or what they'd done, they were free.
[00:19:56] And then, hundreds of years later, in the New Testament, John the Baptist would point to a man called Jesus and say, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
[00:20:13] That truth.
[00:20:16] That truth.
[00:20:18] Well, the truth is all of the things, of all the things we need. Freedom from sin is our greatest need.
[00:20:26] It's at the top of the list. It's what broke our relationship with God right at the beginning, our rejection of him in the garden. But God returned our rejection with sacrificial love.
[00:20:39] You know, so far we've talked quite a lot, actually, about how great God is, how powerful he is. We've sung about how his name is above all names, that he's above all dominions. He's great in power.
[00:20:50] He is the boot to Satan's ant.
[00:20:54] But in Jesus, in Jesus, we see the heart of God.
[00:20:59] For while we were still sinners, yes, Christ died for us. Amen.
[00:21:04] Amen.
[00:21:05] He who was without sin gave his life that we might be called blameless and free. He became the substitute, the sacrificial lamb for us.
[00:21:17] Our security and identity has never rested in our good works or our clever arguments or our warm feelings, but only on the blood of the lamb. Jesus frees us from sin and death. And I've put that up there as a reminder that actually we are all covered. If you have put your trust in Jesus, we are covered by his sacrifice, by his love, by his blood.
[00:21:45] That's the love.
[00:21:46] Do you know how much.
[00:21:49] Do you know how much he loves you today?
[00:21:52] It's the same yesterday, today and forever. He loves you, and he would do it again today.
[00:22:02] We're almost there now.
[00:22:05] Praise God.
[00:22:07] Praise God. We're almost there now.
[00:22:09] So Pharaoh is utterly defeated, okay, at this point. And so he gives in and he lets God's people go. Can you imagine the feeling?
[00:22:20] The excitement?
[00:22:22] They've been in slavery for hundreds of years and so they are finally released to go.
[00:22:31] But then disaster strikes.
[00:22:34] They arrive at the Red Sea, and suddenly they're trapped.
[00:22:41] Let's just actually take a second to how big a deal this is. The Red Sea is vast. It's miles and it's deep. Okay? The people were just too numerous. We're talking millions of people.
[00:22:55] I'm a wedding photographer, so when I move people at a wedding, it takes a lot of effort to move 100 people from one room to another.
[00:23:01] You've got millions of people.
[00:23:03] You've got to try and get them across. Elderly, young, children. It's just not going to happen. Oh, and also, Pharaoh changed his mind.
[00:23:11] He decided he doesn't want to lose his labor force, and so he's coming after them with an army, with chariots, with swords, the lot.
[00:23:20] Doesn't look great, does it?
[00:23:22] Yeah.
[00:23:23] To go forward means death.
[00:23:26] To go back means slavery. And what do the Israelites do? They panic.
[00:23:31] They forget everything that God has done. And they just have a bit of a moment now before we're too hard. You know, we're exactly the same.
[00:23:39] How quickly do we forget what God has done? What has God done in your life? What miracles have you seen God do?
[00:23:46] We need to remind ourselves and get perspective as we follow God's lead. We shouldn't actually be surprised when we find ourselves in situations that reveal our desperate need for Him.
[00:23:59] We still need him, just as we did on the cross.
[00:24:03] But listen to what Moses says.
[00:24:07] Moses answered the people, saying, do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance of the Lord. When you bring the Lord bring you today. The Egyptians you see today, you'll never see again. Ominous. The Lord will fight for you. You only need to be still.
[00:24:24] And then it goes on a bit later to say, then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea.
[00:24:29] And all that night, the Lord drove back the sea with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground and with a wall of water on their right and on their left.
[00:24:46] Let's just take that in for a moment.
[00:24:51] What would it feel like just walking through that wall of water, seeing the impossible happen?
[00:24:58] God is the God who takes the impossible and makes it real.
[00:25:05] He makes a way where there is no way the waters are parted and God's people walk through on dry ground. What God does physically for Israel, Jesus does spiritually for us through his death and his resurrection.
[00:25:21] There's a way to leave behind who we once were, a way to throw off the chains of old behaviors, of old habits, old traumas that enslaved us. A way to know true freedom and become a child of God, become part of his family.
[00:25:40] Paul even points back to this moment as a picture of baptism. As we go down into the water, our old life is left behind. And as we rise again, we are raised with Christ as a new creation. Amen.
[00:25:54] Amen.
[00:25:59] So looking back and actually, maybe it'd be good if a band could come up and join us for a second.
[00:26:07] What are you taking away today?
[00:26:10] Here's a few little bits.
[00:26:12] God fights for his people and sets them free.
[00:26:17] We do have an enemy, and we need to accept that.
[00:26:21] But he has been defeated.
[00:26:24] And we have a greater God who is in control.
[00:26:27] We may wrestle with idols, but we know God is taking them down one by one.
[00:26:34] We have sinned, sure, but Jesus paid the price and covered us by his blood.
[00:26:42] The way to true freedom was impossible.
[00:26:47] But God, being rich in mercy, gave us Jesus who made a way.
[00:26:54] Now we're going to have a moment to sing, but we want to take some time just to respond.
[00:27:01] Maybe you are just feeling today like actually you are struggling with some idols.
[00:27:07] There's some things, some habits, even mindsets. You're like, I need God to come and speak into this.
[00:27:15] We're going to have a prayer team. Come. I'd invite you to come down in a moment and just come and receive some prayer.
[00:27:23] Maybe you're not feeling that freedom right now. Maybe the whole talk you'll be like, colin, I love this. I think it's great. I'm not feeling it right here, right now.
[00:27:33] I just want you to know it's okay. You're not bad.
[00:27:37] You're not a bad person. You're not doing it wrong.
[00:27:41] These are things that we all have to keep learning again and again.
[00:27:45] But we don't do it alone, do we? We come to God. So again, if you're struggling with that feeling of freedom, come, come down, Come and receive prayer. There will be people that come and pray. And if this actually is your first time with us or you felt distant from God, there's been no better time to come close to the one who fights for you.
[00:28:03] All God says to us right now is to be still.
[00:28:08] That's a real comfort when sometimes just standing up.
