Sermon Tone Analysis

[ME] Orientation

Good morning and welcome to Crosslink.

If you are new to Crosslink my name is Ken Tilley, and I am the Lead Pastor at Crosslink.

We are grateful that you have joined us this morning.

We have been in a series for the past several months where we are looking at the 6 Acts of Scripture.

We are in : where we have been discussing how God initiated redemption after the fall garden.

We started talking about Abraham and how God made a Covenant with Abraham, that his descendents would be as great as the sands of the sea, and the stars in the sky.

Then we saw last week how God brought a deliver into this world to rescue them out of bondage.

His name was Moses, and He did so through an unlikely mother named Jochebed.

This morning we open up and what we see from the time of the covenant until now about 430 years have elapsed.

Not 430 years in slavery, but 430 years of sojourning.

[define] The Israelites actually spent about 215 years in actual slavery.

In our story today we open up the people of God on the tale end of the 215 years in slavery.

They were under deep oppression from the Egyptians.

Through a series of events, called Plagues, God gets the attention of the Pharoah and the Egyptians.

He orchestrates a MASS EXODUS...

[WE] Identification

Some may think well how does a story like a Mass Exodus from slavery relate to us today?

Well, I would suggest that we still have a slavery problem in this nation.

We have bondage problem.

We have an idolatry problem in the US today.

You see we can look at this story and think well slavery was their problem.

They just needed to be freed from slavery.

[GOD] Illumination

There are so many details that are left out of this.

The idea of the pacing in the narrative is very clear.

He is communicating that they went out in haste.

This happened all of a sudden.

The people didn’t have time to prepare for this.

This happened as a supernatural act of deliverance by all might God Himself.

There are several elements that we see here that makes this so…

[GOD] Illumination - There are so many details that are left out of this.

The idea of the pacing in the narrative is very clear.

He is communicating that they went out in haste.

This happened all of a sudden.

The people didn’t have time to prepare for this.

This happened as a supernatural act of deliverance by all might God Himself.

There are several elements that we see here that makes this so…

The plunder of the Egyptians.

We see this happened in haste and the people weren’t able to prepare well for this.

We see this in vs. 35-36.

They asked the Egyptians for silver, gold, clothing.

They let them have what they asked.

Several things we need to understand…

The value of Gold and silver.

We walk around with all this jewelry and we don’t think much about it.

[Examples].

We don’t really comprehend the value of these things because we can get them so readily.

Secondly, Because we have been conditioned to change our understanding of values.

It is hard to understand because of dependency on paper money.

Wen you look at the history of money.

It is only recently that we have this idea of paper money.

People used coins, that had entrinsic value.

We don’t comprehend that most people wouldn’t have had wealth like this.

If you are a slave where you going to get things like these?

If you are slave why are you going to have gold and silver jewelry and you don’t have coins, you don’t have any welath.

They were about to go out of Egypt without any buy power.

There is also an idea of worship.

When we get to the temple we see gold, overlayed.

How did they get it?

They plundered the Egyptians….So regarding their personal wealth, and the objects in their worship this plundering is significant.

Also, the role of plunder in the ancient near east…Bruce Wells…”the silver and gold items taken were some of the most valuable taken..set in spring…”

Everywhere along the way…through all these plagues…God is reversing the whole idea of power…the Egyptians were looked at as the most powerful people.

They worshipped their gods..whoever the most powerful people were were deemed as having the most powerful gods…but now the script has changed.

Now, as the Israelites are leaving the roles have been reversed.

He is reversing the whole idea of power.

All armies marched and conquered because of the power of their gods.

Now the gods of the slave people have overturned the assumed power of the gods of the Egyptians.

Now during this very same season…God is demonstrating His authority and power…WHat is the meaning of this?

God doesn’t just deliver us from our enemies, but He defeats them.

So that we don’t spend the rest of our lives wondering when we are going to be overtaken again.

…Your enemies your footstool.

This is sense of this being an eschatological preview…Christ will see all of His enemies under His feet.

As believers as followers of Jesus we need to see that there is an “already not yet” victory in our lives.

We have been delivered of our sin..there is no condemnation.

Although there is a reality.

There is an ongoing reality in that we still wrestle with the sin, by which we have been delivered.

For Israel and for us.

It is one thing to get you out of Egypt, but it is another thing to get Egypt out of you!

So we wrestle with the the fact that we have been justified and declared righteous, but yet there are those things that rear their ugly head again and again.

SO what is one to think?

See this is not just true for us, but for Israel too.

One since in which God delivers Israel from Egypt, later he destroys the enemies…they rejoice they sing, they cross the river, and then there’s that calf.

God got them out of Egypt, but he still had to work to get Egypt out of them.

Is there anything like that in your life?

If you are still breathing then yes.

Santiication is an ongoing process.

This is what we walk in the midst of this already but not yet reality..As a believer I proclaim He has delivered me from the enemy, but defeated him…but yet at the same time God got me out of Egypt, but He is still getting the Egypt out of me.

It is an ongoing fight and process.

The beauty is I can rest in this.

That even on my worst day of walking with God, I can remind myself that this is a defeated foe!

He has already been defeated.

Whatever it is you are wrestling with…this is a defeated foe.

It is an already and not yet reality.

When we remind ourselves that this is a defeated foe, there will come a day when this enemy will be made a footstool.

This is why we anxiously await our soon coming king.

We cannot expect all the goodness that is to come to be a part of the here in now…Our father who are in heaven…they kingdom come as it is on earth as it is in heaven…

When you pray “FOR THE KINGDOM TO COME as it is as it is in HEAVEN.”

Secondly we see the JOURNEY FROM RAMSES TO SUCCOUTH…

About 600,000 men…seems to be a consensus between 1.5 to 2.5 million people.