[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] Morning.
[00:00:16] Thank you, sis.
[00:00:18] This morning we are back to our greatest Story series and we are going to go deeper in that. But I want to tell you a story about what happened to me on Thursday.
[00:00:32] I went to Birmingham. I drove to Birmingham by myself. Sister Mary Jane must be pleased to hear that I drove all the way to Birmingham. I've never done such long journey on my own. And I got halfway. The journey was three hours plus and I had loaned my husband's car because of the amount of miles I needed to go through. But anyway, I got halfway and my legs were hurting.
[00:00:58] And if you know me, who knows me here, I wasn't going to stop at the service break, not for anything. I was going to go three hours, get there, do it. So of course I was like this, you know, you want to remove your leg from the accelerator, but you dare not, you know, you dare not. So I was going in between the accelerator and the brake, you know, and I just thought, you know what? This car can do better for me in that sense, you know. So I just put a call through to my husband and I said, honey, talk me through how to do that cruise thing, you know, someone is about to break a leg here. And he did. And immediately I sat here. And it was because, I mean, traveling that mileage, you know, that most of the road is 70, isn't it? Why am I busy? It was a busy road, but I could do it. But anyway, he did it. He told me, and I did it rather. And the car was still moving and my leg, I now began to do this under the steering. I was like, ooh, you know, like really feeling free with my leg and very relaxed, you know.
[00:01:50] But it made me wonder, I was just yesterday that the Lord brought it back to me. And it made me wonder that is that not how many of us live, you know, our Christian life, you know, where God has already given us the Holy Spirit, you know, he has given us the help. Yet we are exhausting ourselves, you know, trying to do in our own strength what he intended us to do, not to do alone. How many of us think that we made that may even just be like us. I also then began to think about even some, sometimes not, you know, maybe not knowing. Some people may be on that other spectrum where you don't even know that there is, you know, that ability or that thing that God has given us that gift of the Holy Spirit.
[00:02:31] But I wasn't exhausting myself anymore.
[00:02:34] And I want us to look at that if that's how we're living our life spiritually as we go back into this greater story series, I feel like we're going to see a bit of that, but even much more as we go into Exodus 13, 19 and 20.
[00:02:47] But I want us to pray for a moment. Father, I thank you for this moment because it is you we have come to hear. We have come to hear your word for us today on the 19th of July. We have come to hear what you want to say to us to water our garden even as we go into the week and in the months we ask that you just speak to us. Oh, God, speak to me. I've been saying. I said, God, teach me even as I teach your word. So please do that and teach all of us. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.
[00:03:14] So we are right here in that story.
[00:03:18] Living in Freedom is the title for today's preach. And we are in Exodus 19:20. And I want to give us a bit of back end. What has happened here is that Israel has now been delivered from the Egyptians, you know, from the slavery. They had miraculously crossed the Red Sea. Pharaoh had been defeated by now. So 400 years of slavery had now come to an end.
[00:03:39] For the first time in generations, we see that the Israelites, God's people, were waking up as free people instead of God, then taking them straight into the promised land, as we would have thought. God brings them. And of course they were camped at Sinai. He brings them to a mountain.
[00:03:57] He then wanted to address them. This is how we get to Exodus 19. He wanted to speak to them and he had to go through Moses because he couldn't speak to them directly. There's so much in that. But that's not the focus of my preach today.
[00:04:12] But he then says, moses, I need you to speak to the people. And I need you to first even look at the fact that Moses in this story represents a type of Jesus. That in itself can be a summary of the points that we are making with this series, which is the fact that it's the greatest story, meaning it's one story. It's one story of our God, you know, who loves his people, who is running and coming after his people, who wants to rescue his people. Do you see? And the ultimate plan he had was Jesus. It wasn't an afterthought. Juicy. And that's why you have a Moses who is representing God to the people. And representing the people to God exactly what Jesus came and what Jesus does for us right now. So he says to Moses, go and tell your people this and that. He said to the. He said to Moses, you yourselves have seen, said, go and tell the people. So say to them that you yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt and how I carried you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself. So he was saying to them, God said to Moses, go and tell them.
[00:05:16] Tell them first of what I have already done for them.
[00:05:21] Tell them first how I brought them to myself. I didn't bring them to Mount Sinai.
[00:05:26] It wasn't a geographical thing. He said, go and tell them that I brought them to myself. I brought them not to a religion and not to a set of rules, even though that was coming. But first to me say, God is saying, I'm calling you first to myself, you're coming. You're being a Christian. It's first a call to God, to him. And he said, he didn't start that. I mean, I look at that scripture and the whole of Exodus, that particular chapter. He didn't say, if you obey me, I will rescue you. I kept telling you, I was trying to understand, why did that come first. But again, that's how God is, isn't it? He comes and he rescues us first, you see, he comes for us, literally carrying us. Look at that image. That image has not left me since I've been preparing for this preach. But it's just the fact that God was saying, I carried you on eagle's wings. Look at that.
[00:06:16] Look at that little bird, that eagle there, doing absolutely nothing but what, being carried.
[00:06:24] And that is us.
[00:06:27] That is you and I and anybody else who wants to come, you know, into the family of Christ being carried by the Lord. He rescues us. He rescues us from bondage, you know, that's what he did for the Israelites. Rescued them from slavery. A life of, you know, a disadvantaged life, really, you know, a life of an imprisoned life, which today you may say, okay, well, we're not enslaved. We're not in Egypt and all of that. But it looks like a life of sin, of addiction, you know, a life of flesh, unending, insatiable, you know, desires, the things that we do that we know, that we're not really proud of, you know, of. But God is saying, I carried you. You and I are here. He carried me. You and I are here because he did that. He rescued. He brought us to himself, showing us his heart. When Moses was talking about giving the backstory to that song. But what I even wanted to pull out, what I had in my mind to pull out from that is how we see a good, good father who is always drawing us to himself. Like Moses said, pulling us, you know, rescuing us in this. Exodus 19, because we don't have time. What I see is God being so concerned about the people he had rescued that he was saying, I don't want to lose them. If you read Exodus 19 because you don't have time, please read those two chapters when you get home. 19 and 20. He said, some point, Moses, tell them not to come too close to the mountain, because if they do, you know, all of this glory that's coming from here, it would burn them.
[00:07:55] He said to Moses, Moses said, I've told them. Moses came back again. He said, moses, have you told them not to come again? That part of the story kept tugging at my heart as I was preparing, because I feel like it was God's way of showing us his heart, that fatherly love, that care, that I want you safe, I want you with me. And I feel like that's the voice of the Lord to someone this morning where he's just saying, I want you. You are mine, and I want you preserved, not destroyed.
[00:08:22] Yes, that's the word of the Lord. Thank you. Yes. And so you wonder and say, okay, yes, we did nothing. We didn't do anything. He carried us on the wings of. Yes, he did. He absolutely did. And I'm sure that if I ask many of us who know the Lord to raise our hands if we did something to get saved by the Lord, who is going to raise their hand? What did you do?
[00:08:43] Nothing.
[00:08:44] I didn't do anything. He just saved me. If I did not know myself when he saved me. Do you see that? It reminds me of a lady at the big day out. Quick, quick one. She came to that. You know, you saw the table, the Thanksgiving. The Thanksgiving table and the encouragement table. She came and she looked at the cards, and I. I saw. I could see that God was doing something. She was just, you know, how you can see she was so fixated. She stood there, she was looking at one of the verses, and I just allowed her. And then she finished and said, I like this. And on that card it was written, it is well with my soul. And, you know, I just thought, oh. And I said, does that speak to you? She said, yes. And, you know, we had a little chat. And he said, can I have a donation box? I want to put some money there. And I'm like, you know, I was like, no, we don't have a donation box. That's not why we're here. We're just here to tell you that Jesus loves you. And actually, maybe what he wants to tell you today is that it is well with your soul. I said, and you can have that card. She put it in her bag and she was, oh, thank you. You know, and then she went to the encouragement desk, the wall, rather, and she was looking at another one as well. And she stayed there. And I said. I let her finish. And I said, is there anything that catches your fancy, your heart beating for one? She's like, yes, this one. And I was like, I'll guess it for you. You're gonna give it to me as well. I was like, yes, that's God's word to you today. Honestly, this is how God is meeting you. And she said, please, can I really have a box to donate? And I thought, no, we don't have. But you know, what that taught me and showed me is how I feel like some people just still need to be reminded or to be told that we don't pay for this life in Christ.
[00:10:20] I feel like if that's all we tell people, just say, do you know living, you know, as a Christian is free? Do you know that Jesus died for you for free? Like, don't say too much. I feel like that itself showed me a vacuum because she really just felt like I need to bring out something. And that buttress is a manhood dancer came and was talking about something else in that line, about how it was about giving, giving. I thought, there's work here to be done. And I thought, I'll bring this here to us. But also just to show and remind us that we didn't pay for grace. Hallelujah.
[00:10:49] That's why Paul told us, for it is by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not from yourselves. It is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. And so I want to just quickly appeal to anyone who is in the room who is thinking that maybe they need to do something. You don't have to do anything to be accepted by Christ.
[00:11:14] You may be trying to become good enough before coming to him. You may be carrying the weight of performance.
[00:11:20] You may be believing that if you just improve yourself a little bit more. Or maybe you're saying, when I finally get my prayer life right, I will come to him. And he's saying, come now, come now.
[00:11:31] Maybe you feel like you fail too many times, or God disappointed. He's not disappointed in you. He made you. He knows you. He sees you, and he's just waiting for you to run into his embrace. Literally. His arms are always. Arms are always opened up, saying, coming. And that's what he did here, rescuing the Israelites from the Egyptians.
[00:11:51] And so we see clearly that Christianity is never, you know something. It never starts with something we do for God. No, it always begins with what God has done for us. That is the gospel. It's not come, you know, it's not change and come. No, it's come and I will change you. That's what he's saying to us this morning. And that's what I want this picture to represent to you. If you ever think about it, during the week that this is how God is saying, come, I will carry you. But you see, that's the grace that we have received.
[00:12:20] It comes first because he loves us. And because he loves us, he saves us. And because he saves us, and because he loves us, he begins to form us. And that's where we are going next. So he didn't stop with the Israelites by saying, okay, you are now my people. He didn't just leave them somewhere. No, that's not what he did. He went for that to tell them something. He now said, if you obey me fully. So, Moses, tell them that if they obey me fully and they keep my covenant, then out of all nations, he says, you people will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
[00:12:57] Says, these are the words you tell the Israelites.
[00:13:01] What we see is that he rescued them. And then he needed to begin to tell them more about this new life they were going to have. Just like he tells us. Just like he rescued us. And he begins to tell us that's not all you know, he didn't say, you are free now. Figure out your life. No, no, no, no, no. By yourself. No. He began to form them. That's what I see here. And I want us to have a look at it. How did he begin to form them from where he was? How did he do that at that Mount Sinai? He gave them the foundation of their life as God's covenant people, what we know as the Ten Commandments. And I'm sure you're wondering, he rescued us from slavery, and then he came to give us rules.
[00:13:43] How do we balance that? You know and I know you may be thinking that way. Does it not look like they've exchanged one for the other? You know, and as I was thinking about that. I remembered that I just.
[00:13:55] I'm on a master's program for a master's in counseling and psychotherapy. And I finished year one of that training, classes, assignments, interviews, to even get the placement.
[00:14:05] And they said, yeah, you're fit to practice, Jackie. So they sent every one of us off. You're fit to practice, so go and counsel. Go and do that for people.
[00:14:13] And as soon as they gave me that, yeah, finally. I mean, I've been waiting to just. I've been doing this all my life. Can I just. I just wanted a degree, you know? And then as they gave me the fit to practice, they also gave me the code of conduct.
[00:14:24] Actually, I'm wondering, like, really? I thought you said I was fit to practice and free, literally. And they gave me the framework, ethical framework, professionalism, like, ah, ah. I thought you said I was free. But then I realized that, you see, all of that, it was not to restrict me in any way. It was to make me the counselor that I'm meant to be and to make sure that those who come to me as well get a good experience of what I'm doing. The same way that this whole thing about the, you know, the Ten Commandments being given to the children of God, it wasn't about restriction. It was about, you are now my people.
[00:15:01] Let me tell you how my people live.
[00:15:05] Yes.
[00:15:06] Let me show you what that life looks like. This is how we live here. That's what he was doing. If anybody ever maybe painted the Ten Commandments to you as rules, rules, rules, I actually want to announce to you today that it was a law of love. And for love.
[00:15:23] I'll tell you and I'll show you in a bit.
[00:15:25] I'll show you in a bit. So we see that God forms us. And you look at all of that list, you see that, and you're like, thou shalt not. Thou shalt not. Thou shalt not.
[00:15:36] So we see that God did not only rescue them out of Egypt. Who can guess what he also wanted to do? He wanted to get Egypt out of them.
[00:15:48] As I was thinking about this a lot, I thought about the fact that I can imagine what they would have become in their flesh by their own power, scrambling for good food because they were slaves anyway, you know, trying to have something because they didn't. So there must have been some behavior that they were coming with, like we obviously all already had before we met the Lord. And I just thought he really needed to get Egypt out of them the way he wants to get Egypt out of us. And he keeps trying to get Egypt out of us so that we can truly be fully formed, transformed by him. And it's a continuous journey.
[00:16:23] It is, it is.
[00:16:25] So he was teaching them completely new way to live. And he was saying, in effect, he was saying to them, now that you're my people, this is how we live here. Just like every nation has a constitution, Just like every family, I believe has values. We don't do this here, we don't do that here. That's not how we speak Joba, you know, those kind of things. God's kingdom is no different. In fact, if you ask me, God's kingdom actually firsts gave all of us those things we call constitution rules. We picked it from there. That's why if you look at some of the things that we say even here in England as a nation that are part of things about citizenship and all of that, you will see those little bits of don't do this, don't do that, because of this thing, this commandment. So all I'm trying to tell us today in this slide is that these 10 Commandments, they are not ladder to into God's family. Don't see it that way. Their instructions for how God's family is to live.
[00:17:20] That's what I'm trying to tell you.
[00:17:22] But I also want to tell you that God was using these 10 commandments to form the people so that they can be like him. And you see, how I backed this up was when I looked at the Gospel, this Jewish teacher came to Jesus and he said, you know, tell me the greatest commandment. You know, almost like just tell me which one matters the most, isn't it?
[00:17:44] And Jesus said to him, love the Lord your God with all your heart, love your neighbor as yourself.
[00:17:54] And he said, all the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments.
[00:17:59] Jesus was trying to say, I have no greatest commandments except this one, which actually encapsulates, covers up the Ten Commandments. So if you look at what you have on the screen, you may take a picture and sit with it later. All that God was saying in Ten Commandments in summary was, see, love me, your Lord, your God, and then love the people, take care of each other, literally. That's all he was saying. And we have to think about it. Think about the Ten Commandments. I may take you, I may take it back for you. Look at how the Ten Commandments allows us to live. Live a really good life. Let's do. I won't, I won't teach us the ten Commandments today. But I'll touch on it, because if you look at that, thou shall have no other gods before me. Literally saying, if everyone worship God above everything else, how many idols will disappear? There will be no idols in our world. There'll be nobody talking to a wood or stone. You know, he was literally saying that. He was saying that if you honor your parents, if you honor your parents, that we will have stronger families, we'll have healthy families, and we'll be able to pass that on from generation to generation. That's what he was saying, that if no one lied, I would have to defend myself in the court. I wouldn't have to. If no one murdered, I wouldn't have to be scared. That things were literally saying, we can live freely, we can have this beautiful life on earth. That's what the Ten Commandments, that's what they're saying, that if nobody is trying to take somebody else's wife literally, there will be nothing like that. He wouldn't have said, do not. That's why he was saying, do not do this. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shall not steal. I won't be afraid that they will take my car outside. I won't have to lock it.
[00:19:45] Think about what that kind of life looks like.
[00:19:48] But that's what it is. And it starts with us. We start. As we continue to share the gospel, we trust that the Lord continues to do the work of saving souls, to. But this is what this is about.
[00:19:59] And so we see again, so going back to that, we see God, Jesus summarizing it. And Jesus then tells us later, and I'll share where he says, I didn't come to abolish these laws. That's not my job.
[00:20:11] And he tells us why. Let me tell you why Jesus made that statement that he didn't come to abolish. He was saying they are valid. But then he says another statement that now tells us something. And I want to tell you that third thing, and that's the third point today. So I've told you that God, what rescues us, he forms us, tells us how to live. But you see, in those laws, those laws don't have power to help us live that life. And I'm sure some of you are already wondering, you know, like, okay, Jackie, all these laws, again, are you bringing me back to that? But in all fairness, they don't.
[00:20:44] They don't. They don't help us live that life. They tell us what is right, they tell us what is wrong, but they don't give us power to do what is right. They reveal sin. When we do, we know that, oh, my God, I've committed a sin. You know, they do that, but they don't remove sin. And that's why Jesus had to come into the picture. And so that's why Jesus then said, you know, in Matthew 5:17 or 7, Matthew 5:7, he then said, I have not come, you know, to cancel this law, but I have come to fulfill it. Let me take us a little bit back.
[00:21:18] So I said, God didn't give Israel rules to become his people.
[00:21:21] He gave them his law because they were already his people. And we've established that already. It's now the fact that he then frees us.
[00:21:29] You see, it's easy for us to go and be, you know, looking like, can I? Let me come out of this life? Because can I leave all these 10 and not failing one, isn't it? How can I? And we'll keep keeping tabs and ticking and all of that.
[00:21:41] But then he knew. He knew already. He had. Remember I said he had a plan at the end? It wasn't an afterthought. But this law had to show us that we need a savior. It has to show us that we need a savior. We can't do it by ourselves. We can't do it by our flesh. We have no power. It will be easy for me to, yeah, maybe not commit adultery, maybe not. But maybe I would lie tomorrow. Maybe, you know, as an example. Just saying, you know. And so he said, you know, I've got a plan. So whilst this law may not see everything and may not, you know, may not give us the power, but it tells us what to do. Romans 8 tells us Paul was trying to explain, he says, for what the law was powerless to do because he was weakened by the flesh, meaning we don't have the flesh has no power to do it. He said God did by sending his own Son. So when Jesus Christ came. When Jesus Christ came, the Bible says, for God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him will not die, but they will have eternal life. Thank you, Church.
[00:22:40] So when he did that, it was to make sure that we can now have what it takes, right? To be. What to be what? To be able to live the life that he wants us, to live, that life of freedom, free in him. But you know what Paul was saying in Galatians? And I want to tell you that he said the law was our guardian until Christ came, that we might be justified by faith. That the law was never the final destination. It was pointing us to Jesus Christ. And that's why Jesus having come, when he resurrected and he ascended, he did something more than that. What did he do? Who can tell me from the. From what did Jesus do after ascending? Because that's critical. That's really where the message is.
[00:23:28] He sat down the right hand of his Father. Yes. And he sent his Spirit.
[00:23:33] He gave us. That's what.
[00:23:35] Hey, that's what we have. He sent us his Spirit.
[00:23:39] It is that Spirit in us that is able to help us to live the life of freedom, to live a life being who God has destined us to be.
[00:23:52] So the whole thing about salvation and the whole thing about Jesus coming actually doesn't end just at forgiveness of sin. And I want us to take that away and to even think about that, because it also then extends to us having the. The Spirit of God inside of us.
[00:24:08] Jesus did not disregard God's standard. He fulfilled it.
[00:24:13] He loved the Father perfectly. He came and did all of that for us.
[00:24:18] And you see in Jeremiah where God was telling the prophets, he said, I will put my law in their minds and I will write it on their hearts. He then told Ezekiel, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in your. In you. I will put my spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees.
[00:24:37] I will move you to follow my decrees at Mount Sinai. The law was written on the stone, like I showed you in that picture. Under the New Covenant. The law is where? Who knows? It's on our heart.
[00:24:52] It's on our heart. It was easy. It was easy for me to draw an example, you know, when I was chatting with Ian and I was saying, I remember just little things we'll do not. And not because there's no perfection there, but maybe like stealing. I remember stealing My daddy's $50. Don't tell him. I think he knows now. But anyway, I stole his $50. But. And I was saying that that was when I was a teenager. I was really young, and I, you know, I probably was in my flesh. No, I was in my flesh deeply. So, you know, and I was walking in that, and I thought, I can have it. He has a lot of it. Let's take it.
[00:25:21] But would I do that today? No, it's not because I'm older and I'm now making money.
[00:25:26] It's because the spirit of God inside of me would not let me do it. It's why you need the spirit of God. Just a few days ago in the shops, if you Go to the African shops. It's hard for them sometimes because they are manually doing it. It's not like, you know. And the plantain had not been accounted for. And she said, I love plantings. And I could have just said, let me have an extra. But no, the Spirit of God won't let me. Even though she wouldn't have known. And I'm just giving an example, not to say that I'm perfect. I remember I said, we are all a work in progress. God is transforming us. But to tell you that when the Spirit of God is at work in you, truthfully, you are free and you can live a life that honors the Lord. That is the life he has called us for.
[00:26:08] That's the life he has called us for. And I said, oh, no, that. And of course, she did, immediately. And that's for many other things. Many other things is why we never do so many things. Why you would never do so many things. It's not because any police is watching or any camera is watching because the Spirit won't let you.
[00:26:23] Yes. And that's true freedom. I hope you see that that's true freedom. Yes. It's not just freedom from guilt or judgment or condemnation. It's freedom to become the people God always intended us to be. Freedom is becoming who God created you to be. C.S. lewis said something.
[00:26:39] He expressed it beautifully, and he said, you know, when the more we surrender ourselves to God, the more truly ourselves we become. We don't lose our identity in Christ, we discover it. Jesus said in John 8, he said, it's so if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. Yes, free indeed. Amen. And so Christ did not simply set us free from something, he set us free for something. Ephesians 2:10 tells you that he set us free to become a holy people, filled with his spirit, displaying his character, showing the world what a life under the loving rule of God looks like.
[00:27:20] And so we see that this is the greatest story, isn't it? God rescued the people from slavery. He gave them his law. At Calvary, Jesus fulfilled the law on our behalf. And at Pentecost, he poured out his spirit so that the life the Lord described could now be lived by us. Church. That is the greatest story. And that's what the Lord will have you bear in mind. Even as we go out this week, I want to ask the band to please, you know, join us again as we just sing and just declare what the Lord has done for us.
[00:27:51] Whilst the band is coming, I really feel like the Lord would have Some of us usher ourselves into that freedom again, not because we don't know the Lord, but because maybe we have been trying to drive three hours like I was doing, and you are really asking, say, God help me. I've been doing it on my own. I've been struggling in and out.
[00:28:11] Today I don't feel proud to be called a Christian. Tomorrow, I feel. And you want us to pray with you? I know that the prayer team are available. If you could please go to that corner, it would be a blessing to us. But if anyone wants us to pray, let's bow our heads. We've heard the word of the Lord. What are we doing with the freedom that he has given us? What are we doing with that freedom? How are we using the spirit of God? Do we have the prayer team? Are they coming up at all?
[00:28:35] Fantastic.
[00:28:37] Anyone who wants to pray, who wants us to just join our faith with them, this is a good time. I want you to take a moment to think about it. Do I need that prayer? Do I need someone to add their faith to mine? That's how we say it. Add your faith to mine and help me. And just let's ask God to help us out of this.
