You are listening to a message from Southwood Presbyterian Church in Huntsville, Alabama.
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Amen.
That song's a beautiful retelling of the story that we're actually looking at in Exodus this
morning.
It's another story of God's redemption, but it's not just one more story.
As we look through several of them together this summer, this is the foundational, the
prototypical story for God's Old Testament people.
The story they tell over and over in so many ways about their redeeming God.
I remember as a kid memorizing the midnight ride of Paul Revere.
I'm learning about the Boston Tea Party and the events surrounding that.
Hearing about that famous Patrick Henry speech, give me liberty or give me death.
And I heard those stories over and over.
They're passed down to our kids, right?
We learn about them.
They're stories that defined and shaped a nation that was built on freedom, right?
We tell them over and over.
We pass them down through the generations.
We share them to give our kids heroes to look up to.
Well, the stories that functioned like that for God's people were those of the Exodus.
When they were freed from slavery in Egypt by their hero, Yahweh, their redeeming God.
Let me pray for us and then we'll enter into this story together.
Father, we love these stories.
We're thankful for them.
Even more than that, we love you, God, our Father.
The one who cares for us.
The one who teaches us by his Spirit.
And so we ask that you this morning would show us more of yourself.
Not just a story.
But show us you, Father.
We ask it in Jesus' name.
Amen.
I want you to actually experience being a part of this story that many of you have probably heard before.
So I want to ask you to do something this morning.
If you'll close your eyes for just a minute.
You won't have to keep them closed the whole sermon unless you enjoy sleeping through my sermons.
But as you have your eyes closed, imagine yourself as one of the Israelites in ancient Egypt.
Whoever you are, a young woman, an older man, a young child, a parent, a grandparent.
There you are in Egypt in your sandals and your cloak.
There's dust all around blowing through the air.
It's under your fingernails and all over.
Day after day, you wake up to make bricks again under the baking sun.
It's almost like making sandcastles for your kids at the beach.
But no, it's not like that.
Lose that picture.
It's very different from that.
You're not smiling.
You're not free to go inside and cool off.
Your Egyptian captors are cruel and harsh and you're forced to work even when your body aches.
As far as you can remember, it's always been like this.
Day after day, year after year, your parents and your grandparents for generation after generation,
they tell the same stories.
This is what you've done.
You've heard perhaps about a God, Yahweh.
He loves you, has promises for you, you've been told, but they seem like a distant fairy tale.
Perhaps just stories to make you feel better.
You've never seen anything remarkable or certainly not miraculous.
Just day after day after day, slaving away in the hot Egyptian desert.
But one day this man shows up claiming to have talked with Yahweh and saying he's going to lead you out of Egypt to God's promised land.
And you and the rest of your friends ignore him.
Oh, come on, stop messing with us.
Stop teasing us.
Exodus 6 says they wouldn't listen to him because the harsh slavery had broken their spirits.
You've lost hope in God.
Is that part of the story easier for some of you to picture, perhaps?
You can open your eyes if you haven't already.
Some of you are very, very patient with me and you kept your eyes closed that whole time.
But keep thinking of yourself through this sermon as that Israelite.
What happens after you laugh him off?
Moses leaves and heads over to Pharaoh and the plagues begin, right?
This is Exodus 7-10.
Over the next few weeks, the break from the normalcy of your life is incredible.
You experience things you've never seen or imagined before.
The powerful Nile River is turned to blood before your eyes.
Frogs, then gnats, then flies, later locusts covering Egypt.
Hail like you've never seen before coming hour after hour.
And time after time, you just marvel as Yahweh displays his unrivaled power over creation.
And over all the other Egyptian gods you've heard about.
Of course, turning the Nile to blood takes a swipe at Egyptian power.
But so does some of the other plagues.
Especially the ninth one.
Three days of darkness covering the land.
A land supposedly ruled by Ra.
The God of the sun.
The highest Egyptian god who can do absolutely nothing about the darkness.
You see firsthand Yahweh's mighty hand and outstretched arm.
The plagues themselves are a series of remarkable events that you're going to talk about and tell your children about for generations to come.
For the rest of your life, you're going to remember.
And you respond with awe and full of just amazement and humility.
How amazingly powerful and glorious and utterly unique is our God.
There's nobody like this.
How small and weak must we be compared to Him?
But then there's a final plague that shows you that this powerful God is not just powerful out there somewhere,
but He's worthy of your exclusive trust.
I want to suggest as Professor D.A. Carson does that you imagine yourself in a conversation with another Israelite the day before the first Passover.
You can be the fearful one or the confident one.
Either way is fine.
The fearful one says,
Hey, how are you feeling about tonight?
And the friend says,
Tonight? What do you mean?
Well, the first one says,
I'm pretty anxious.
The death of the firstborn, it sounds pretty scary.
I mean, there's been some pretty strange stuff around here lately with all the flies and locusts and the hail.
I'm just pretty nervous about this whole angel of death thing.
I mean, I love my kids.
Well, didn't you kill a lamb?
And put the blood on your doorposts like Yahweh told you to do?
Well, yeah, of course I did.
But I'm just saying I won't be sleeping much tonight.
This Yahweh seems pretty powerful.
And I'm still pretty fearful about how that plays out for me.
And your friend says,
Well, I've got to tell you, I'm going to sleep well.
Yahweh told us what to do.
I've done it and I trust Him.
We've got nothing to worry about.
Now fast forward to the next morning after Passover has happened.
Let me ask you a question.
Which one of those, you or your friend, which one lost his firstborn son?
Neither, right?
Neither.
Why?
The angel of death passes over every one of those Israelite homes.
Why?
Because one family had a really strong faith and always trusted God and never wavered?
Because there were no doubts and fears present in that home?
No!
Why?
Because of the blood of the Lamb.
Put the blood of the Lamb on the doorway and death will pass right over.
It's the blood of the Lamb.
And so you wake up and you're all alive.
And you're rejoicing.
You're celebrating with your friends and neighbors in the streets.
And then you hear something else.
You're leaving Egypt.
All of you peck quickly.
You plunder the Egyptians.
You walk out of captivity together.
Thanks not to your great ingenuity.
Not because of your power.
But because of a God you've learned you can trust.
He redeems you from a situation you thought you would never escape.
Kids, maybe some of this Passover stuff is a little bit confusing to you.
What that means and how that works.
And that's okay because it will help you imagine what it would have been like to be a six-year-old or an eight-year-old or a ten-year-old.
That first Passover and all of a sudden instead of waking up in Egypt every day as a slave your life changes overnight.
Everything is different and you don't really understand what's going on.
And the fact that you would be confused or wouldn't understand is one of the main reasons why God tells us to keep telling this story.
The Passover actually becomes a new first month for God's people.
This is the beginning of chapter 12 now.
Their whole year has changed.
In the first month they're going to celebrate what happened.
Every year a celebration to remember this special night where they walked out of Egypt.
Why are we doing this each year?
You might ask your parents, right?
Why do we have this big celebration each year?
Exodus 12 at verse 24.
You shall observe this right as a statute for you and for your sons forever.
And when you come to the land that the Lord will give you as He has promised, you shall keep this service.
And when your children say to you, what do you mean by this service?
What's going on?
You shall say, it is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover.
For He passed over the houses of the people of Israel and Egypt when He struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.
Parents would tell their kids, we are free people.
No longer slaves in Egypt, not because we were wise, not because we were well organized, not because we had great heroes,
but because Yahweh is a redeeming God.
The hero of our story.
Our deliverer.
For even in our darkest days, nothing could stop Him.
He redeemed us.
He showed us that we could trust Him and that we must trust Him alone.
No other God was even close to Him.
And not even ourselves.
We could never have done what He did.
That's what Passover is about, kids.
And something else happens that day.
Perhaps as you're hurriedly packing your bags or beginning to walk out of Egypt,
all of a sudden Moses stands up front again.
Chapter 13, verse 11.
Moses says,
When the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as He swore to you and your forefathers,
and shall give it to you,
you shall set apart to the Lord all that first opens the womb.
All the firstborn of your animals that are males shall be Yahweh's.
Every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb,
or if you'll not redeem it, you shall break its neck.
Every firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem.
And when in time to come your son asks you,
what does this mean?
You shall say to him,
By strength of hand, Yahweh brought us out of Egypt from the house of slavery.
For when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go,
Yahweh killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt,
both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of animals.
Therefore I sacrifice to the Lord all the males that first opened the womb,
but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem.
It shall be as a mark on your hand,
or frontlets between your eyes.
For by a strong hand,
Yahweh brought us out of Egypt.
He's saying this God who delivered us
is worthy not merely of a ceremony
in the first month of the year,
but my wholehearted devotion
every moment of every day.
Here's another thing we're to do,
Moses says,
with the goal that you'll not forget
that this will shape your life.
Write it on your hand.
Some of you do that with your homework.
Why do you write yourself reminders on your hand?
Because you think,
I can't forget that,
and it washes off in the shower anyway sometimes.
But it's supposed to be right there where you won't forget.
Why would you put something right between your eyes?
So that you'll always see it,
and always remember,
no matter what you're doing and where you are,
so it's always there in front of you, right?
Here's another thing that's going to do that.
Dedicate the firstborn to Yahweh.
Why?
Another chance to remember and tell the story
of which he is the hero.
I mean, imagine,
here you are a few years later,
and your family's had some tough financial years,
and your cow gives birth,
finally,
to a calf.
Yes!
Finally!
We're going to be okay in a little while.
We'll be able to eat.
We'll have resources.
And your father says,
hey, you know what we're going to do?
Let's sacrifice it to the Lord.
What?
Why?
Come on, Dad!
Because, daughter,
it's even more important
than being financially stable
to remember,
we owe him everything,
and we can trust him.
When your firstborn son is born,
rather than kill him,
sacrifice a lamb
to redeem your son.
Why?
We need that.
Why?
Because what's way more valuable
than that lamb
is being defined
as a people
wholly devoted to Yahweh
in all of life.
Write it on my head,
between my eyes,
on my hand,
on my front door,
everywhere I go.
I must remember that.
My children are his.
My finances are his.
My days and my hours are his.
Oh, God,
don't let me forget who I am.
How much I owe to you.
May that story shape
every moment of every day.
We're so excited about it.
We're so thankful.
But the joy of God's deliverance
is short-lived for you,
isn't it?
Just a few days after
walking out of Egypt,
you hear something behind you.
It's hoofbeats.
A lot of them.
There's a whole stampede
of something coming
and you look out
across the desert
and you see the armies of Egypt
and horses and chariots
chasing after you
and you're stuck
between them,
a faster,
stronger fighting force
and the raging waters
of the Red Sea
on the other side.
Deep down,
you knew it was too good
to be true, didn't you?
Why did you let yourself
get your hopes up?
I'm so angry
and I'm scared.
All that can happen now,
it's just a question
of whether I'm going to drown
or be killed with a sword.
Pharaoh drew near,
the people of Israel
lifted up their eyes
and behold,
the Egyptians were marching
after them
and they feared greatly
and the people of Israel
cried out to the Lord
and said to Moses,
is it because there are
no graves in Egypt
that you've taken us away
to die in the wilderness?
What have you done to us
in bringing us out of Egypt?
Is not this what we said
to you in Egypt?
Leave us alone
that we may serve
the Egyptians
for it would have been better
for us to serve the Egyptians
than to die
in the wilderness.
Some deliverer,
this Yahweh is,
just taunting us,
made us think
something good was happening
and it's just getting worse.
Look around.
There's no way out.
There's no way
Yahweh could deliver us
here.
And Moses says,
now you're right
where Yahweh needs you to be
to see who He really is.
Keep reading verse 13.
Moses said to the people,
fear not.
Stand firm
and see the salvation
of the Lord
which He will work for you today.
For the Egyptians
whom you see today
you shall never see again.
Yahweh will fight
for you
and you have
only
to be silent.
You only thought
you had learned
to trust Yahweh
that Passover night.
Sit back,
relax,
watch how great
a deliverer
He is.
He is the redeeming God
even when you look around you
and you're sure
that He's not.
He can rescue
even when you look
at what's going on
in your life
and say,
it can't get any worse.
It could never get better.
Nothing can rescue me.
There's no hope.
You know the story.
God
parts the Red Sea.
Those
Israelites
who trusted
and never wavered
in their faith
walk through
on dry ground
while you
and the rest
of those
who grumbled
against God
are destroyed
under the waves
of the Red Sea.
Nope,
nope,
that wasn't it.
That's not how it goes.
All of you,
all of you
walk
and feel
the dry
ground
beneath your feet.
every single
one of you,
most of whom
have just
grumbled
against God.
You walk
through the Red Sea
with the wind
blowing
and the sea
roaring
and walls
up on either
side of you.
Can you imagine
that,
walking through there?
The miracle
of God's provision
and maybe
what's equally
remarkable to you
is that
you're walking
through it.
You doubted
Him yesterday.
You yelled
at Him.
You gave up
on Him.
And
you still
find yourself
safe
in Him,
cared for
by Him.
And it's your
enemies
who are
crushed
by the waves
returning
over them.
You're really
safe
now.
So,
put yourself
there.
What happens
when your foot
hits the ground
on the other
side
of the Red Sea?
What do you do?
You sing,
of course.
You're pent up
anxiety
and fear
and just
overwhelmingly
bursts out
in passionate
worship
to Yahweh.
That's what
happens.
Exodus 15,
Moses and the
people of Israel
sang this song
to the Lord
saying,
I will sing
to the Lord
for He
has triumphed
gloriously.
The horse
and His rider
He has thrown
into the sea.
The Lord
is my strength
and my song
and He
has become
my salvation.
This is my God
and I will praise Him.
My Father's God
and I will exalt Him.
Your right hand,
O Lord,
glorious in power.
Your right hand,
O Lord,
shatters
the enemy.
Who is like
You?
Yahweh
among the gods.
Who is like You?
Majestic in holiness,
awesome in glorious deeds,
doing wonders.
You have led
in Your steadfast love
the people
whom You have redeemed.
You have guided them
by Your strength
to Your holy abode.
The Lord
will reign
forever
and ever.
What a song.
What an event
like that
or a story
shapes who You are.
You sing about it.
Did you know
that Happy Birthday
is the most commonly
sung song
probably in your whole life?
You'll sing it
more than anything else.
But did you know
what number two is?
Anybody got any ideas?
Think.
Number two,
most commonly sung song,
there are different studies,
there's some debate,
but many studies show
that for many Americans,
number two,
is the Star Spangled Banner.
Francis Scott Key's song,
of course,
tells the story
of a key battle
for freedom.
This song's written
200 years ago, right?
It's a battle
he witnessed
in 1814
from a ship
in Baltimore Harbor
where by the dawn's
early light
he saw a flag
waving over
Fort McHenry
and he felt confident
and proud
that America
would continue
to be the land
of the free
and the home
of the brave.
And that song,
200 years after that,
has so defined
and shaped
the identity
of a nation
that we sing it a lot,
don't we?
We can't even have
a swim meet
or a baseball game
without it.
God gives a hymn book
to his Old Testament people
that has
150 songs in it.
You'd be shocked
at how many of them
sing about the events
of the Exodus.
They're easy to find
if you want to just
search for them
this afternoon,
but you could start
with Psalm 66,
76,
77,
78,
106,
136,
many others
all singing
about God's
redeeming work
in the deliverance
from Egypt.
This is the song
that defines
God's people.
They are
blood-covered,
precious children
of the uniquely
powerful,
redeeming God
who is always
working for their good
no matter how dire
things appear.
Is that the story
that defines
and shapes
your life?
Revelation tells us
that singing
of our redeeming God
is not merely
an Old Testament thing,
but something
that God's people
will do forever.
Look at this
chapter 15,
verse 3.
They sing the song
of Moses,
the servant of God,
and the song
of the Lamb,
saying,
great and amazing
are your deeds,
O Lord God,
the Almighty.
Just and true
are your ways,
O King of the nations.
Who will not fear,
O Lord,
and glorify your name?
For you alone
are holy.
All nations will come
and worship you,
for your righteous acts
have been revealed.
They will sing
the song of Moses
and of the Lamb.
It's the same song.
Because God's redemption
of His people
does one day
have an event
that surpasses
all the remarkable events
of the Exodus.
Yahweh,
God the Father,
sends Jesus,
His Son,
to die
as the Passover Lamb.
1 Corinthians 5.
His firstborn Son
dies
so that we
and our children
may live
and worship Him.
In other words,
the story
that gives us
our identity,
that shapes
our lives,
that we sing about,
that we tell our children
about over and over,
that we give our lives to
is the story
of Jesus.
The story
where He's the hero,
where He shows Himself
worthy of our trust,
our wholehearted devotion,
our passionate worship.
The story
where that same
redeeming God
rescues us
and fills us
with awe
and humility.
Can you feel yourself
in that story
a little bit more
this morning
as you feel your feet
after years
of painful
servitude
touching that
soil of freedom
on the other side
of the Red Sea?
Can you sing
verse 2
of that song?
The Lord is
my strength
and
my song.
He has become
my salvation.
This is my God
and I will praise Him.
My Father's God,
I will exalt Him.
Do you come here
weekly
and before Him
daily
to sing that
in your heart?
You realize
that's what we do
as we worship?
To proclaim
to ourselves,
to our children
and to the world
that our primary identity
is as blood-covered,
yes,
even blood-bought
and therefore
precious children
of the redeeming God?
Do you realize
that what we're doing
is we're declaring
to our hearts
that the redeeming God
is actually
still working
for our good
no matter what it looks
like around us
and what we're walking
through on that particular
day or week?
Even when we're sure
He's stopped,
even when we've given up
hope that He
still is working
for us,
our deliverance
may not be
as dramatic
or as visibly apparent
as the Red Sea.
Israel would learn
that too.
But this side
of the Red Sea
and the cross
of Calvary,
there should be
no more denying
that our Almighty God
is caring for us
and working
for our good.
There should be
instead singing
of it,
rejoicing in it,
trusting it
no matter what,
shaping our entire
lives around it.
There are a lot
of other stories
out there
competing
to define
and shape
our identities,
aren't there?
Is this one
the story
that you're living?
That you are
shaping your life
every day around,
not just Sunday?
Is it the story
of God as hero,
not the one
where you are
or you're trying
to be,
but also not the one
where hope is lost
because there seems
to be no way out?
Have His heroic deeds
led you consistently
into humility
and trust
and devotion
and worship?
And then is this
the story
you're telling?
Telling to your
neighbors
and the nations?
Yes!
But perhaps
particularly today,
telling to our
children.
Do they know
that when you
could do nothing
to rescue yourself
from your bondage
to death,
God sent His Son
and gave you life?
Do they know
that you're no hero
compared to God
and you're not just
okay with them
knowing that,
but you're passionate
about them seeing
Him as the one
worthy of their trust?
We've got VBS
this week.
Why burn a week
of your summer?
Really?
There's so few
of them anymore.
Why burn a week
of your summer?
Perhaps because
you believe
that the most
important thing
you could be doing
is telling that story
to the next generation.
I agree.
I'll be here
enjoying it.
But if that's true,
then that should
impact
every week
of every year
and every moment
of every day.
We ought to tell
that story
to our children
at home
daily.
because they hear
those competing stories
more often
than we do.
We ought to bring
them with us
to corporate worship
where they sing
and hear
of that story
faithfully.
We ought to pray
for and serve
in their Sunday
school classes
and their nurseries
where we tell
them that story
eagerly.
kids,
will y'all come
back down here
to the steps
one more time
for just a minute?
I want to talk
with you one more time.
Thanks for coming back.
I want y'all to listen
really closely
for me, okay?
I want to tell you
something really important.
Do you remember
when you sat up here
earlier and I had you
look out there
and see a picture
of how much
God loves you?
Do you remember that
when they all stood up
and you saw that picture?
I want you to know
there's another picture
of how much
God loves you
that you can see
from right here.
I need somebody
to help me out though.
Hey, Jason,
will you grab that bread
right there in front of you?
Will you bring that to me?
Jenna, will you get the cup
and bring it over here to me?
Thanks, Jason.
I'm going to tell you
about what these are now.
Now, some of you
already eat this with us
when we celebrate
the Lord's Supper.
And some of you
are still just learning
what it means
and so you're not going
to eat with us
when we celebrate.
And that's okay too, okay?
But for all of you,
what's really important
is for you to know
what this means, okay?
When we do this,
we do this because
it means that God
loves you so much.
This tells us
the story again
of how much Jesus
loves you,
that he loved you
so much
that he would
die for you.
because we're sinners,
right?
We don't always
love and obey God,
do we?
And we were supposed
to die because of that.
Did you know that?
That's what was supposed
to happen to us.
But you know how much
Jesus loves you?
Jesus loves you so much
that he died instead.
He took this bread
and a cup
with drink in it
and he sat
with his disciples
and you know
what he said to them?
He took the bread
and he broke it
like this
and he gave it
to his disciples
so that they could
eat it with him.
But you know
what he said?
He said,
this bread,
it's a picture for you
of my body
which is gonna be broken
instead of yours.
And he said,
every time you eat this,
I want you to remember that.
Hold this for me.
Hold one, Joe.
And then Jesus took this cup
and he said,
this cup is a picture,
my blood,
the promise for you
and my blood
that when you trust me
and my death for you,
you will live with me forever.
Just like the Israelites
when they put the blood
of the lamb on the door
and they didn't die,
they lived.
When you put my blood
on your heart,
your sins will be forgiven
and you will live forever
with God.
Kids, this is the story
that tells you
that you are always valuable,
that you're precious to God,
that he loves you so much
that Jesus would even come
and die for you.
Isn't that amazing?
That's what this means.
Let's pray together.
Jesus, thank you so much.
Thank you for giving us
not just a story,
but a true story
of a God who actually loves us
and who actually came
and died for us.
thank you for giving us
and who loves us.
Thank you for giving us
and who loves us
beyond what we can imagine,
that we can trust you
and be with you forever.
Father, would you use
this bread
and this juice
to teach us something
much more important
that we would never forget
how much you love us.
in Jesus' name,
amen.
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