Sermon Tone Analysis

When God spoke to His people, by His grace He called them to a very special life.

1.

A life of maturity (Ex.

19:1–4)

If freedom doesn’t lead to maturity, then we end up imprisoned in a bondage worse than what we had before, a bondage from within and not from without.

It’s bad enough to be enslaved by an Egyptian taskmaster, but it’s even worse to enslave yourself and become your own taskmaster.

Moses went up to meet God on the mountain, and what God told him he came down and shared with the people.3

The image of maturity that God used was that of the eagle, bearing its young on its wings and teaching them the glorious freedom of flight.

Moses used the same image in the song he taught Israel at the close of his life.

Read carefully Deuteronomy 32:10–12.

What do eagles teach us about the life of maturity?4

At a certain stage in the development of their young, the parent eagles break up the comfortable nest and force the eaglets to fly.

The young birds may not be anxious to leave the security of the nest, but they must learn to fly if they’re going to fulfill their purposes in life.

The adult birds stay near the fledglings and, if they fall, carry them on their strong wings until the young birds learn how to use their wings, ride the air currents, and enjoy the abilities God gave them.

The eaglets illustrate three aspects of freedom: freedom from (they are out of the nest, which to us is redemption); freedom in (they are at home in the air, which to us is maturity), and freedom to (they can fulfill their purpose in life, which to us is ministry).

True freedom means that we’re delivered from doing the bad, we’re able to do the good, and we’re accomplishing God’s will on the earth.

From God’s point of view, Egypt was a furnace of affliction for Israel (Deut.

4:20; 1 Kings 8:51; Jer.

11:4), but the Jews often saw Egypt as a “nest” where they at least had food, shelter, and security (Ex.

16:1–3; Num.

11:1–9).

God delivered them from Egypt because He had something better for them to enjoy and to do, but this meant that they had to “try their wings” and experience growing pains as they moved toward maturity.

When we’re maturing in the Lord, life becomes a series of open doors that lead to more and more opportunities for responsible freedom.

But if we refuse to let God mature us, life becomes a series of confining iron bars that limit us.

A baby is safe and comfortable in the mother’s womb, but at some point the baby must be born and enter a new and demanding world of growth and maturity.

From birth to death, the “turning points” of life usher in new freedoms that bring with them new privileges and new responsibilities: walking, instead of being carried; riding a bicycle and then driving a car; working at a job and earning money; learning to use that money wisely; making friends; getting married; raising children; retiring.

At each “turning point,” we lose something as we gain something; and this is the way the maturing process works.

Whenever the Jews complained about God’s dealings with them and yearned to go back to Egypt, they were acting like little children, so God had to discipline them.

The statement I quoted earlier from George Morrison needs to be quoted again: “It took one night to take Israel out of Egypt, but forty years to take Egypt out of Israel.”

How long is it taking the Lord to get us to fly, or are we nestlings who don’t want to be disturbed?

2. A life of dignity (Ex.

19:5–8)

In Egypt, the Jews were nothing but weary bodies, slaves who did their masters’ bidding, but the Lord had better things planned for them.

They were to be His special people, and He would use them to be a blessing to the whole world (Gen.

12:3).

God’s treasured possession (v. 5, NIV).

All the nations of the earth belong to the Lord, because He’s their maker and their sustainer (9:29; Pss.

24:1; 50:12; Acts 14:15–17; 17:24–28), but He’s chosen Israel to be His treasured possession (Deut.

7:6; 14:2; 26:18; Ps. 135:4; Mal.