A master storyteller.
Am I on?
Can you hear me?
Yes?
No?
A master storyteller always delights us and surprises us.
It is no surprise if you've been coming here for a while that I'm a J.R.R. Tolkien fan.
And one of the things that I love about the Lord of the Rings is the richness of the story that he tells.
And how a path of victory and deliverance takes unexpected twists and turns that are unforeseen by those taking the journey in the story.
And so the fellowship breaks and is scattered and you wonder what will happen.
Or Faramir shows up in the middle of the wasteland looking at first like an enemy but instead becoming an essential help and aid along the way of Frodo's journey.
And so on and so forth.
Unexpected twists and turns fill the best of stories.
But when it comes to our lives we aren't so thrilled about the twists and turns that come to us do we?
We don't necessarily like them.
They're hard.
They're inconvenient.
They challenge us.
And they leave us confused and uncertain.
Particularly if we come to it from a perspective as we gather here this morning that we live under a God who is the master storyteller of our lives.
He is in fact not just the storyteller but the story maker of our lives who leads us in a story of his own making.
And he is overseeing those twists and turns.
And so when we struggle with the challenges of our lives we struggle in fact with God himself.
We struggle with who he is.
You see maybe you're like me.
You think if God is good and God is sovereign God's plan should be pretty straightforward.
How can my life go from good to better to best.
The straightest line possible without any trials.
Doesn't that sound like a great thing?
We want our lives easy.
We want the challenges to be predictable and the outcomes certain.
But it doesn't look like that often does it?
Not in our lives and certainly not in the Bible storyline.
We're continuing our series in the book of Exodus.
If you want to turn with me there we'll be looking at Exodus 2.
It's page 45 in the Pew Bible.
And as you turn there let me remind you of where we've been.
Exodus is the second book of the Bible and it picks up the narrative of the descendants of Abraham 400 years after Abraham had moved down to Egypt.
Which at that point was an amazing act of provision by God to save and deliver his people.
But 400 years later that provision has become a yoke of slavery.
After 400 years that great provision now looks like a prison.
And a terrible place to be.
Some of the promises of God have been fulfilled.
Surely this one man and him as good as dead now has children and grandchildren.
In fact he has descendants that now number hundreds of thousands.
In 400 years he's multiplied into a nation such that it creates a threat to the nation of Egypt.
The leaders are afraid of the political instability that they would bring.
And so they are enslaved and oppressed.
They are the victims of a genocidal plot.
If you didn't listen to Pastor Greg's sermon last week go back and listen to it.
Think about what it has to say to us today.
But then as we saw in the story of oppression and as the people cried out to God.
Beginning of chapter 2 there's this story of a baby.
A baby who is delivered from that genocidal act.
A baby who is delivered miraculously and unexpectedly.
And so we have a little hope.
A hope that even though we haven't seen God act obviously.
God has only been barely mentioned in the story so far.
We have a hope as a reader reading this story that suddenly.
Okay now there's this baby.
Now this is going to go somewhere.
It sets us up for a great deliverance that's at hand.
Before we go on let me just ask.
When you are facing times when you are longing for deliverance.
What goes through your mind?
When you have been enduring some trial that's been going on longer than you think it should.
How easy it is for us to imagine how God could snap his fingers and make it all go away.
How easily he could say I can fix this.
Because we know that he can.
And we have a hope and an expectation and a longing that God will show up in the middle of this trial.
But God is the master storyteller and story maker.
Often takes us on paths that we don't always expect.
And that leads us to our passage today.
Exodus chapter 2.
We're starting in verse 11.
Let's read it together and then we'll pray.
Exodus chapter 2 verse 11.
One day when Moses had grown up he went out to his people and looked on their burdens.
And he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people.
He looked this way and that and seeing no one he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.
And when he went out the next day behold two Hebrews were struggling together.
And he said to the man in the wrong, why do you strike your companion?
And he answered, who made you a prince and judge over us?
Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?
And Moses was afraid and thought surely the thing is known.
And when Moses heard of it he sought to kill Moses.
But Moses fled to Pharaoh.
Fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian.
And he sat down by a well.
Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters.
And they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father's flock.
The shepherds came and drove them away.
But Moses stood up and saved them and watered their flock.
When they came home to their father Ruel, he said,
How is it that you have come home so soon today?
And they said, an Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds.
And even drew water for us and watered the flock.
And he said to his daughters, then where is he?
Why have you left the man?
Call him that he may eat bread.
And Moses was content to dwell with the man.
And he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah.
She gave birth to a son.
And he called his name Gershom.
For he said, I have been a sojourner in a foreign land.
During these many days the king of Egypt died.
And the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery.
And cried out for help.
Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God.
And God heard their groaning.
And God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
God saw the people of Israel.
And God knew.
Let's pray.
Father, we acknowledge this morning that your ways are not our ways.
And your thoughts are not our thoughts.
Lord, that you are high and exalted.
And Lord, we are creatures.
And though, Lord, you have made us to know you.
Lord, you are much greater than us.
Lord, I pray this morning.
That Lord, as we explore this passage.
What we will see is you more clearly.
We will understand you more deeply.
Lord, we will trust you.
Lord, I pray for your help this morning as I speak.
Lord, that my words, Lord, would be useful in your hands.
Lord, that you would prepare all of our hearts to receive your word this morning.
We pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
So as we look at this passage this morning, we're simply going to look at two things.
First, we see that on the path to deliverance, there is an...
On the way to deliverance, there is an unexpected path taken.
And secondly, there is an unexpected God revealed.
So first, let's look at the unexpected path of deliverance.
The unexpected path of deliverance is one in which we see deliverance delayed.
Now, one of the things you want to think about as you're reading the book of Exodus is that
the people who are receiving the book of Exodus know the story.
It was written after the fact, right?
And therefore, everyone who is reading the book of Exodus probably has heard of Moses.
And they know that he is the deliverer.
They know that God is going to use him in all the ways that any of us who know any...
If you're familiar at all with the story of Exodus, you'll know this is the man that God
is going to use to lead his people out of Egypt.
But his story does not go as expected.
As we said, the birth narrative sets us up to think, okay, now something big is going to happen.
And in fact, what we see in verse 11 is Moses goes out and he's grown up and then he goes out.
The words specifically say he looked on their people.
He went out to his people and he looked on their burden.
And you have to read this carefully because it wasn't just that Moses was in the palace
and he thought today, oh, maybe I'll stroll among the slaves today and see what it looks like.
The verb actually to go out to them is the word that's used later for the Exodus as they leave people.
Moses was actually going out of the palace in a much more profound way.
And looking upon his people was not simply detached observation, but it was an engaged examination.
He was saying, what is the status of my people?
I have had this privilege of being raised up in the Egyptian household as a prince of Egypt.
But now I am going to go out and see how it is that my people live.
And there's a strong sense of identification.
There's a strong sense of Moses saying, I am now moving away from my Egyptian position to identify with my people.
And in fact, we see this and know this more clearly because in the New Testament, the book of Hebrews reminds us of this.
Hebrews 11, chapter 24, the writer says this,
By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter,
choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.
He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt,
for he was looking to the reward.
As Moses went out and looked on his people, he was making a strong move,
a strong move to identify with the Hebrews who were despised slaves.
He was leaving behind a position of privilege and of treasures, as the writer of Hebrews reminds us of.
And as he did that, he saw and he intervened.
What we see from this story is that as we hoped this baby might be an instrument in God's hands,
we now see Moses living it out.
He is a deliverer.
He intercedes and steps in to rescue a Hebrew who is being beaten and most likely going to be killed by the Egyptian.
He steps in and he saves him.
His instinct to be a deliverer is on display.
And he knew it would be costly.
Look with me in verse 12.
Isn't it interesting?
Moses knew that when he was doing this, he was drawing a line in the sand.
He was doing something that would put in jeopardy his position in Egypt.
Because he looked this way and that way.
Not to see, oh, is someone else going to help?
I think it was to say, if no one sees me, I can get away with this and still be able to keep my position.
And he buried him in the sand because that's the quickest way to get rid of a body in Egypt.
Because there's lots of sand.
It's not very hard to dig in.
So Moses knew what he was doing as he was taking the step of being a deliverer.
He made a costly choice to identify with God's people.
And as we look through the story, I'm just going to throw out a couple of questions for us to ask.
How many of us make costly choices to identify with God's people?
How often are we willing to forsake the riches of position in this world in order to say, yes, I'm one of God's people?
The story continues.
Moses then, the next day, having done this great act and seemingly having gotten away with it, is thinking,
Okay, I'm stepping into this role as a deliverer.
I'm going to do this.
So he walks among his people again.
He sees two Hebrews now who are having a conflict.
And there's clearly a right and a wrong.
Because the passage tells us he speaks to the one who was in the wrong.
And he says, why are you doing this?
He comes to deliver his people from internal conflict and strife and to rescue them.
And we think, oh man, this is it.
If you're reading the story and you don't know what's going to happen,
you read the story and you think, okay, this is it.
This is where they're going to say, oh, Moses, you're here.
Our deliverer, our savior.
We praise God that you have sent us.
And we are so glad that you are here to help us solve this little dispute
and to rescue us from slavery and overthrow Egypt in the process.
But that's not what he gets at all, is it?
His instincts to be a deliverer, his instinct to intercede for the good of his people backfires terribly.
The Hebrew in the wrong looks at him and says, well, who made you?
You know, who died and made you king, right?
That's what we would say today.
Who died and made you king of my life?
And then he goes on and he says, are you going to kill me?
Are you going to murder me the way you killed that Egyptian?
It's a strong accusation.
And Moses realizes, I haven't gotten away with it.
People know what happened.
Maybe the Hebrew that he saved went back and rejoiced and told all his friends.
Maybe they went back and said, the weirdest thing happened today.
That Moses guy, you know, he lives in the palace.
He came and delivered, like he killed the Egyptian.
And I think it's going to go bad for us.
Because that was not a good thing.
I don't know what he was thinking.
And interestingly, I'll just say this.
The Bible never says clearly, one way or the other,
whether there is an affirmation that Moses was doing right
or doing wrong in the killing of the Egyptian.
We don't need to answer that question to know
that God was using it as a display.
It was a display of his delivering instinct
and his self-understanding.
Interestingly, in Acts,
if you haven't read Acts 7
and the speech that Stephen,
the early follower of Jesus, gives
about the history of Israel,
you should read it sometime in the next couple of weeks
because it's a great story
and it will help you understand Exodus a lot more.
Acts 27 describes Moses' thought
at this point in the story in this way.
He says,
he supposed that his brothers would understand
that God was giving them salvation by his hand,
but they did not understand.
So Stephen affirms what we guess about Moses,
that he knew he was there to be their deliverer
and that God had raised him up
uniquely to have this position and this role.
But they didn't see God's hand in it either
and they rejected him.
And the story of what Moses had been done
became known
and it came to the ears of Pharaoh
and Pharaoh,
in whose household Moses had been raised
and who, as we see further on in the story,
Moses looks like an Egyptian to everyone else.
Pharaoh went after him.
He knew that this was a betrayal of his loyalty to Egypt
and he went after him
and Moses was afraid
and he fled.
One of the interesting patterns we see
is that this is one of the first places
where we see God's people rejecting God's deliverer.
Moses had a contentious relationship
ongoing with the people of Israel.
You'll see it in chapter five
when Moses comes back to Egypt
and tries to deliver them
and their work is increased
and they grumble and complain
about Moses
and his interceding and delivering
and how much trouble it's causing for them.
And then after God takes them out of Egypt
with a mighty hand
through the plagues
and through the Red Sea,
then in the desert,
they don't have food one day
and they grumble and complain.
And the next time,
they don't have water
and they grumble and complain
and then they don't have food again
and they grumble and complain
and then they grumble and complain
about the food they do have
and then they grumble and complain again
because there isn't water in another place.
And they grumble and complain
over and over and over again
against the very thing that God is doing,
the very helper that God has given them.
Friends, I want us to ask ourselves
as we think about our lives,
do we grumble and complain
and resist God's saving work in our lives?
Are we too proud to accept his help?
Are we too committed to our sense of being in control
to allow him to work in a way that we don't expect?
Do we have faith and eyes
to see God sustaining and delivering us
when it doesn't feel like it?
How often are we like the grumbling Israelites?
So the deliverer is rejected.
His deed becomes known and he flees Egypt.
And he flees to a place called Midian.
Now Midian is best described as the backside of nowhere.
Technically, it's probably on the eastern side
of the Sinai Peninsula above where the water is.
But it's not,
the Midianites were actually nomadic people.
They were also long lost relatives.
Midian was a son of Abraham
by Abraham's second wife in Genesis 25 too.
You can look it up.
So they were Semitic people,
but they were not part of the covenant community.
But at this point,
the distance must have been very great.
So he's going out to a different people.
And what we see in this next story
is Moses continues in his character
of wanting to be a deliverer.
He comes upon a well
and at this well,
there are women,
these girls are watering.
And if you've ever seen the description,
this helped me see this
because it's described really well
in verses 16 and 17.
They drew water.
So in order to water their flock,
they had to go to the well
and pull the water up out of the well.
And then they had to put it
in some kind of feeding trough
so that the sheep could then come and take it.
And what happened is
these shepherds would come,
let the women do all the work
to get the water ready.
And then they would come
and drive off the sons of Jethro,
who's also Ruel,
and drive them off
and then take the water for themselves.
So these girls would have to draw water twice,
once for the evil shepherds,
and then they'd have to do it again
for their own thing.
That's why Jethro said,
how is it that you're back so early?
Because usually they had to do it twice.
Moses steps in and intervenes,
and he delivers them.
And you see again,
this same instinct,
this same,
and the storyteller is wanting us to remember,
this is the deliverer
that God saved from the water.
This is the deliverer
that God protected in the palace of Egypt.
This is the deliverer
that God is going to use.
But right now,
he's on the backside of nowhere.
And not only is he on the backside of nowhere,
but God is providing in ways
it looks like he's going to settle in there.
He isn't just there,
and they say,
hey, that's great, thanks.
Why don't you have a cup of water
and be on your way?
They say, come, eat with us.
Come, take my daughter as your wife.
Come, bear children.
I'm going to give you a livelihood.
I'm going to give you a home.
I'm going to give you everything you need
to settle in.
The story seems to have hit a dead end.
How is God's deliverance
and God's deliverer
going to do anything for God's people
while he's watching a bunch of smelly sheep
on the backside of nowhere
settling in to raise his family?
And the literary form of this is beautiful
because it leads you to this
dead end of the plot line,
except, look with me at verse 22.
The son that was born
to Moses and Zipporah,
the one who probably would have,
in human terms,
nailed the,
put the last nail in the coffin of,
okay, I am now a Midianite.
I'm going to stay here forever.
God has taken me out of whatever happened before
and he's got me here
and this is where I'm going to be.
But Moses names him Gershom,
which sounds like,
I've been,
sounds like the Hebrew word sojourner.
Moses indicates that even then,
even though the whole flow of the plot line
is Moses the deliverer being sidelined,
led into a dead end where there's no way out,
Moses himself still has this sense.
This is not my home
and these are not my people.
I'm just here a while.
That's what it means to be a sojourner.
I'm just here for a while
because my people are back in Egypt
and my true home,
well,
Moses has yet to find where his true home will be.
He's living in exile,
both from the home he grew up in
and from the people that he identified with.
So he too is living in this place of uncertainty
with unexpected twists.
No, it never says it.
It's possible Moses himself
was asking the question,
God, what are you going to do here?
I know I belong somewhere else,
but what are you going to do here?
And the narrator,
in a brilliant narrative form,
then leaves us there.
Leaves Moses on the backside of nowhere,
raising his family and raising his sheep
in the household of Jethro
and makes a turn.
Moses will be there for 40 years,
according to Acts.
Again, I want to ask,
stop,
just ask a question for a minute.
How hard is it to wait
for God's deliverance in our lives?
When we're facing a hard situation,
when we're looking at something
and we think,
God, I don't know how to get out of this.
I don't know what it's going to look like.
I don't see how you could ever
redeem this situation.
I've reached a dead end.
What areas of your life
are you longing for deliverance?
How long has it been?
Will you submit your storyline
to the story that God has written for you?
Will you trust him?
Of course, you might ask,
why?
Why would I trust him?
If you were Moses,
you'd think,
okay, God, I don't get it.
I don't see you,
and I'm here for a long time
wondering what the heck you're doing.
We feel that way too.
But the narrator knows this,
and he set us up
for verses 23 through 25,
because having walked
this unexpected path
where deliverance has been delayed
and seemingly derailed,
we then come to the end of the story,
and the narrator helps us turn the corner
to see why we should trust God
even in the middle of it.
Because what we see in verse 23 through 25
is the unexpected God of deliverance revealed.
If it were a movie,
the lens changes from Midian back to Egypt.
But the story there doesn't look good either, does it?
It's actually gotten worse.
In two verses,
the writer uses terms
for groaning and crying out twice.
It's not the same term.
There are actually four different words
that are used here
to describe the plight
of God's people in Israel,
or God's people,
the Israelites in Egypt.
They are enslaved.
They are oppressed.
They are groaning
under the weight of their oppression.
And they are crying out,
please help us.
Please save us.
The narrator says,
a new Pharaoh has risen up.
Maybe that leaves the door open
for Moses to come back.
But the people, meanwhile,
just as Moses had gone off to a dead end,
the one thing they knew
that God had delivered this one baby boy
who maybe could be their deliverer,
he's now gone.
For a generation,
40 years,
he's gone.
But God is not gone.
And you see,
for the first time in Exodus,
oh, there are a few mentions of God
in chapter one
as he relates to the Israelite midwives
and how they rescued
some of the Hebrew boys.
but really for the first time,
for the first time,
God becomes a major actor in the story.
And it's such a striking thing.
If you read this with literary eyes,
it's such a striking thing
because 23 talks about the slavery
and the groaning and the crying.
At the very end,
it says that the cry of rescue for slavery
came up to God.
And it's not as if God had never heard it before.
It's not as if God was deaf
and suddenly decided that he would listen
or that he was somehow unable to hear
and now he was.
But what it means is that God
in his perfect timing
was now willing to pay attention.
God was now willing to hear
and respond in a particular way.
He was now,
in his timing,
going to engage with their cries
and with their situation.
And there are four action verbs
in verses 24 and 25
that are beautiful
because of what they tell us about God.
Verse 24,
and God heard their groaning.
It wasn't just that he heard the thing
for the first time,
but that he was,
his ears were open to them
and he engaged with them
on the basis of what he heard.
And not only did he hear their cries,
but he remembered.
He remembered his covenant.
Now this does not mean
that God has forgotten.
It doesn't mean that God thought,
oh gosh, that's right,
that thing with Abraham.
What did I say?
Oh right,
about a people and a land
and a, yeah.
Oh, I gotta go back
and look that up in Genesis
so I remember what that's about.
God didn't forget.
But what it means
is that God remembers
in a way that is now
moving him to action.
God is remembering the promises
that the descendants of Abraham
would be blessed by God
and be a blessing to the world.
That he would make them
into a great nation.
That he would deliver them
into a promised land
where they would enjoy
all the bounty and the fruit
and the blessing
of being his people.
And he would be their God
and through them
he would display
his glory to all the world
that the nations would come
and know what a great God,
the God of the Hebrews is.
This is the covenant
that he promised them.
That he would do these things.
And they are as far from it
as you can imagine.
They're an enslaved people
in a foreign land.
But God remembered that covenant
and is ready now to act.
25 keeps going about who God is.
Because he doesn't just hear
and he doesn't just remember.
But he sees.
Maybe you know what it's like
when someone sees you
in your situation
with understanding.
Where someone gets
the depth of your trial.
The hardness and the pain
that you've endured and suffered.
the confusion
and the questions
that have run through your brain.
What it's like
when someone really sees you.
This is what this means here.
Just like Hagar
as she fled from Abraham
and Sarah
after their failed attempt
to fulfill God's promises
in their own way.
As she fled into the wilderness
thinking she was going to die there.
She met with God.
El Roy.
The God who sees.
The God who will look after her.
God who sees and acts
on their behalf.
And then finally
God doesn't just see them
but he knows them.
Maybe you all know this already
but if you don't
you should know this.
The Hebrew word to know
is not simply
capacity for intellectual
understanding.
It is not simply
gathering more information.
Knowing in Hebrew
is almost always
a relational term.
It is used
for a deep intimacy
of knowledge.
Usually with people
that has this
sense of connection.
It's used
for what happens
when a husband and wife
come together
physically
and in all other ways
in union
in marriage.
that they know
one another.
And after we've seen
God take his people
and his deliverer
on a very unexpected
journey
to seemingly
a dead end
the writer of the story
comes back
and he says
God knows.
God knows
what he is doing
and he is intimately
connected
with his people
through it all
and he is now
ready to act.
Deliverance
is on
the way
because God
is now
ready to act.
He has not
forgotten his people
or his deliverer
and Nick
will have the privilege
of telling us
how God is going
to show up
and turn the corner
in this grand story.
Friends
as we walk
through our paths
of life
and when we go
through the periods
where we wonder
whether God
has led us
to a dead end
and we wonder
and cry out
and groan
to him
about our situation
it is God's character
that he has not
forgotten
or abandoned us
that is
the basis
of our hope.
When it seems
like God is absent
when we can't
see his plan
when we can't
see his hand
at work
when it feels
like our current
place of suffering
is not only that
but it is in obscurity
we wonder
why God's plans
are so strange.
Friends
the reason
why God's plans
are so strange
is simply
this
God doesn't
work
in this story
so that we would
think
Moses is going
to be the great
deliverer
of Israel
this story
God takes
Moses
on this
unexpected
journey
because he wants
to remind
Moses
and his people
that Moses
is not the
deliverer
of his people
God
is the
deliverer
of his people
God
is the main
character
in this story
God
is the
savior
of his people
and he
is doing
all of
these things
so that
we would
see and
know
this God
as our
deliverer
and that we
would not
fall into
the oh so
human desire
that someone
else would be
our savior
and someone
else would be
our deliverer
and that some
human agent
can step in
and actually
fix our
story
and change
our trajectory
and rescue
us from
dead ends
and from
obscurity
Moses
has
characteristics
of how
God's
deliverance
is going
to look
like
he has
instincts
to deliver
he has
a courage
to identify
with his
people
but even
then
even in
this story
part of
what we
see
is a
storyteller
telling the
story
so we
say
oh it's
God
who's
going to
deliver
not
Moses
and we
know
more broadly
from the
storyline
of the
Bible
that Moses
though he
delivered his
people from
Egypt
did not
deliver his
people
from sin
Moses
delivered his
people to
the brink
of the
promised
land
and yet
his
failures
and his
weaknesses
and his
sin
and the
sin of the
people
continued
and they
grumbled
and complained
and did
not trust
God
even after
he had
done
great
things
for them
because
in the
grand
plan
of God's
deliverance
even
this
was a
signpost
pointing ahead
to something
greater
even
these
acts
of
deliverance
are
pointing
ahead
to
one
greater
than
Moses
friends
it points
us to
Jesus
who
was
saved
miraculously
at birth
Jesus
who
lived
30
years
in
obscurity
as a
carpenter
Jesus
who
at the
very
beginning
of his
ministry
when it
looked like
he was
going to
blast
out
in his
baptism
and start
his big
public
ministry
instead
was sent
into the
wilderness
but more
than that
Jesus
who came
to identify
with us
with humanity
who took
on flesh
and blood
to identify
with us
to take
on flesh
and blood
he who
bore
our sin
he who
did not
sin
but who
bore
our sin
in
identification
with us
forsaking
as Philippians
says
the privilege
and the
honor
that was
his
in heaven
to be
the equal
of God
he
forsook
those
privileges
to take
on human
flesh
and blood
to identify
with us
so that
he might
be our
deliverer
and he
delivered us
from slavery
to sin
and the
oppression
and the
wreckage
and the
pain
and the
suffering
that sin
causes
in our
lives
and he
delivered us
from the
penalty
of sin
and the
wrath
of God
that is
rightly
upon it
because of
our rebellion
against him
Jesus is a
greater
deliverer
Jesus is the
certain
deliverance
that by his
life
of perfect
obedience
so that he
could stand
in our
stead
by his
death
in our
place
a substitute
and a
sacrifice
for us
so that
the penalty
and power
of sin
are taken
away
in our
lives
and he
who rose
from the
dead
so that he
might be
the ultimate
victor
over sin
and death
in this
world
and in
our
lives
this is
the great
deliverance
that we
have
and friends
we also
still now
because we
still groan
because we
still live
in this
fallen
world
because we
still suffer
because our
lives still
have many
unexpected
twists
and turns
and detours
when we
wonder God
why can't
you just
make the
path straight
and the
end
easy
we know
that he
has promised
that he
will come
back
and he
who has
worked
all that
is necessary
for our
salvation
he will
come back
and save
us one
day
and we
not just
save us
individually
but he
will save
this world
and he
will make
it new
and all
evil will
be punished
and all
suffering
will end
there will
be no
more tears
no more
crying
no more
sickness
and no
more death
he will
make all
things new
and so
we have
confidence
to wait
for that
just as
the Egyptians
could look
at the
character
of God
and wait
for a
deliverer
back
in their
time
friends
God is
trustworthy
he is
worth
us
giving
him
control
of the
storyline
of our
lives
we can
look back
on the
work of
deliverance
on Jesus
Christ
living
dying
and rising
again
and know
for certain
that this
is the
character
of the
God
that we
have been
called
to know
and to
trust
if you're
here this
morning
and you
haven't
put your
trust in
this God
or if you're
here this
morning
and you
are
struggling
I call
you
to think
that the
God who
leads you
on unexpected
paths
and what
seem like
dead end
roads
he has
not
forgotten
you
and he's
calling
you to
him
to trust
him
to put
your faith
in him
to know
that what
he's done
in Jesus
is for
you
let's
pray
Lord we
thank you
this morning
for this
passage
and we
thank you
for your
word
Lord and
how it
points us
to you
Lord I
do pray
that by
your spirit
you would
help us
to see
you as
you really
are
and Lord
you would
give us
hope this
morning
Lord I
do pray
that you
would strengthen
our faith
today as we
look at this
passage
Lord that we
would know
you to be a
God who
hears and a
God who
remembers
a God who
sees and a
God who
knows us
and a God
who being
all of those
things
has done
what is
necessary
in Jesus
for us
to be
delivered
to be
delivered
unto you
Lord
Lord we
pray that you
would help us
this morning
to have that
confidence
we pray this
in Jesus
name
amen