Who You Become In The Waiting | Exodus

Pastor Cameron picks up the story in Exodus as Pharaoh finally relents and God leads His people out of slavery, keeping the promise He made generations before. But deliverance is only the beginning, and the real question isn't just what we walk through but who we become along the way. This message invites us to let God shape our character in the hard seasons and to trust Him with the parts of our lives still waiting to be made new.

Exodus 12:31-51 | additional: Exodus 3:7-10, Genesis 15:13-14

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Creators and Guests

Host

Cameron Lienhart

Cameron is the Senior Pastor of Conduit Ministries

What is Conduit Ministries?

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Sundays @ 9 AM & 11 AM - 120 Delaware Ave in Jamestown, NY

Good morning, Conduit. It's nice to see you all this morning. Okay. So we're gonna spend some time, we're gonna spend a moment here in prayer, and then we're gonna jump into our sermon series for the week, we're continuing in the book of, continuing in the book of Exodus. But let's take a moment to center our hearts a little bit,

Ask the Lord in prayer to come and be with us, to make his presence manifest in the room, to pour out his spirit upon us, to teach us what the truth of his word.

So let's pray. Heavenly Father, we do thank you. We thank you for your word to us. We thank you, Lord, that even in the retelling and recalling of stories that were thousands and thousands of years ago by way of history, that we still hear and see you speak to us through them today.

Father, I pray that as we consider what you brought the Israelites through in the Exodus, Father, that we would find by your Holy Spirit, application into our own lives.

Lord, that you would make us, that you would position our hearts to have the type of disposition that says,

Lord, whatever you take me through, just make me into the person that you need me to be in it.

Heavenly Father, in addition to that, we pray as followers of Jesus. Lord, that where there is fear, you would bring your peace.

Lord, that where there is violence and war and destruction, where there is hurt and chaos and harm.

Lord, one that you would protect your people as you have always done. But Lord, that you would also keep us from having such a calloused heart.

That we forget or don't want to pray for peace. Lord, we know that you are the giver and sustainer of all life.

Lord, and that it is you and you alone who is in charge of life.

Father, make us as followers of Jesus' instruments of your peace, where there is hatred, Lord, let us sow love.

Let us see in others, Father. Not the picture that we have imagined them to be in our mind, Lord, let us see in them your divine image

That we may pray for and love, even those who seek to do us harm as you have called us to do. In Jesus' name, amen.

So we're in Exodus chapter 12 this morning, the kind of middle section of Exodus. Exodus 12 verses 31 through 42. And so last week, we talked about the 10th plague that came upon the Egyptian people. And that last plague was the last plea of the Lord through his prophets, Moses and Aaron, to convince Pharaoh, let the Israelite people go so that they may go into the land that God has promised to give them and so that they may worship him. Every time Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh to ask him to release the Israelites from their slavery, from their captivity, it was for the purpose of going to worship the Lord. That was the reason that they continually said, let the people go, that we may go into the promised land, into this land that you have promised us, that the Lord has promised us, and to worship him. And so time and time and time again, all throughout each of the 10 plagues, Pharaoh was no, no, no, no, I'm not gonna do it. I'm not gonna do it. I'm not gonna do it.

I'm not gonna do it. I'm not gonna do it. And then the last plague, which we talked about last week, the death of all the firstborn. In the geographical region of Egypt, even where the Israelites were encamped,

The angel of the Lord, the spirit of the Lord, came down upon the area. And killed all whose homes were not covered with the blood of the sacrificial lamb.

Didn't matter what nationality or what you were, what ethnicity you were, the only saving grace, to use the term, the only saving grace in the moment of God's judgment upon evil, was that when the spirit of the Lord looked at the home, he saw the blood of the sacrificial lamb. That for us, of course, foreshadows our own salvation. Where when God sees those who have expressed faith in Jesus Christ, he does not see me according to my sin. He does not see me according to my wickedness. He does not see me according to the evil that I have done or the darkness in my heart. That by believing, expressing with my mouth, and believing in my heart that Jesus Christ is Lord. Trusting in him for my salvation, my forgiveness, my deliverance. That when God sees me, he sees the blood. And I'm spared from judgment because of my sin through the blood of Jesus, shed abroad in my life through faith. Thank you. Now, that was kind of the end of the plagues, right? That was kind of like the punishment, punishment, punishment, punishment, punishment, punishment, big one.

But then we haven't, we didn't really get to last week. Well, what was kind of how did Pharaoh end up ultimately responding to this 10th plague? What did he end up, what did he end up saying? What did he end up doing? Because at the end of all the other plagues, he may have kind of like feigned this type of like, okay, yeah, you can go, but whoop, no, I changed my mind, you can't. But what was it now? How was he responding now at the end of this most significant one? And that's where we find ourselves in the middle of Exodus chapter 12, starting in verse 31. It says this, we're gonna read it. It's just, we're gonna read 11 verses. It's not very long. During the night, this is after the plague had hit, during the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said up, leave my people, you and the Israelites, go. Worship the Lord as you have requested. Take your flocks and herds as you have said, and go. And also bless me.

We're gonna come back to that, go ahead. The Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the country. For otherwise, they said, we will all die. So the people took their dough before the yeast was added and carried it on their shoulders in kneading troughs wrapped in clothing. The Israelites did as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing. The Lord had made the Egyptians favorably disposed towards the people and they gave them what they asked for. So they plundered the Egyptians. The Israelites journeyed from Ramesses to Succath. There were about 600, 000 men on foot besides women and children. Many other people went up with them as well as large droves of livestock, both flocks and herds. With the dough that they had brought from Egypt, they baked cakes of unleavened bread. The dough was without yeast because they had been driven out of Egypt and did not have time to prepare food for themselves. Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt was 430 years. At the end of the 430 years to the very day, all the Lord's divisions left Egypt.

Because the Lord kept vigil that night to bring them out of Egypt, on this night, all the Israelites are to keep vigil to honor the Lord for the generations to come.

So after all of these plagues, all nine small plagues and then one big plague at the end, after all 10 of these plagues of Pharaoh, it seems has finally had enough. And in verses 31 and 32, he summons Moses and Aaron and basically says, "You know what, fine, whatever. "Like just get out of here. "Take all your stuff, all your flocks, all your herds, "all your people, all your women, all your children, "and just leave me and my people alone. "Go and worship." That's what you wanted to do, go and worship. It's interesting, we may come back to it here in a moment, that worship is always the natural reaction to the Lord's deliverance of us.

That when we are delivered, when we have been set free, when we have been moved from death to life, when transformation has occurred in our hearts by faith, when the Holy Spirit of God has moved upon us with conviction, and we stand in a place of repentance, confession, and forgiveness of God, when deliverance of both the power of sin and the penalty of sin overcomes us, the natural reaction of someone who has been set free from that bondage is worship.

And that is why we worship here. That is why we don't just have a small concert before the sermon and a little bit bigger concert after the sermon, right? The point of our singing, which is a just one aspect of worship, right? It's not worship in totality, but the point of our singing is to give ourselves both in internal and external by our mouths, worship of the one who has delivered us from the power of slavery to sin. Worship the one who is worthy to be praised. Deliverance, worship is the natural reaction to our deliverance.

So these verses here, these first two verses here, verses 31 and 32 with Pharaoh are really key in helping us to understand or at least witness one of the main themes that we've been talking about the last eight weeks in the book of Exodus. And one of those main themes is that God is faithful to keep his promises. That when God makes a promise, he is faithful to keep it. And that it does become clear both by our own experience and even by what we see in the word of God that sometimes the faithfulness of God comes at an increment or a distance that we're not too comfortable with. I'm sure if you told an Israelite on day one of slavery in Egypt, don't worry. God is faithful to his promise to deliver you in 430 years, right? That it wouldn't necessarily have been a super comforting prospect to understand that it's gonna happen generations away from me.

But despite that reality, the reality is that when God promises something that he is not, the Bible says that is God a man that he should lie?

Took this hypothetical rhetorical type of question. Of course he is not. When God makes a promise, he keeps it. In verse 31 and 32, we see the promise that God made to bring deliverance to the people out of their slavery in Egypt was finally being fulfilled in this time. Pharaoh himself says, "Go, up, go, get out, quick." Like, "You can't go fast enough, " Pharaoh says. The slave master turned into the wind at their back, right? Get out of my country.

This is where we can recognize and see that God comes through on his promise to deliver the people. Now, where was that original promise? That original promise was all the way back in Exodus chapter three, when God first kind of introduced himself to Moses in a way. At the burning bush. If you look at Exodus chapter three, verses seven through 10, says, "The Lord said, " he's speaking to Moses, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. "I have heard them crying out "because of their slave drivers, "and I am concerned about their suffering. "So I have come down to rescue them "from the hand of the Egyptians "and to bring them up out of that land "into a good and spacious land, "a land flowing with milk and honey. "The home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, "Parazites, Hivites, and Jebusites. "And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, "and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. "So now I, so now go, I am sending you to Pharaoh "to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt."

And so long before deliverance came, God had promised that deliverance was coming. And even before, we're gonna talk about this reference here in just a few minutes, so I'm not gonna get into it. Even before Moses was even born, God had told Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation, back in Genesis chapter 15. Yeah, your descendants, they're gonna be enslaved in a land not their own for 400 years, but don't worry, I'm going to deliver them, right? So the promise of God stood for generations. But if you recognize and know what the promise is, the promise was deliverance from the people from slavery in Egypt, but was also to take them into what? A promised land, right? A land flowing with milk and honey. A land that is currently occupied by all of these other peoples. The Canaanites, Hivites, Amorites, Parazites, all of these people, right? And so, listen, God had come through here in the Exodus

In verses 31 and 32 by Pharaoh saying, "Fine, get out." That's like the first click. Like that's the first point of the promise fulfilled. It's a partial fulfillment. They had not gotten to the land that was yet to be promised. They had not gone through their wilderness season as we will explore here over the next few weeks and months here in our sermon series. They had not faced all of the enemies they would have to face in order for the totality of the promise to be fulfilled. But God was displaying his faithfulness to them in the gradual fulfillment of the things that he said would happen. I will deliver you from this slavery. Okay, that has happened. What's the next step, Lord? We know that there's more to this promise.

Sometimes when I read this and I'm feeling maybe a little bit like it's unjustified suffering for the Israelites, like, "Okay, Lord, they waited 430 years in captivity in Egypt and you released them from captivity to Pharaoh. Like, can't you just like pick them up and transport them to the promised land?" Like, haven't they suffered enough in the land of Egypt under their slaveholders, under their captors, that can't you, like, enough with the partial fulfillment of promises, Lord, and kind of like the slow burn of showing your faithfulness through time? Can't you just like get the job done, the whole job done, the whole promise fulfilled right now here in this moment, snap your fingers, boom, and we're there? Like, does that not make sense to you? Does it make sense to you? It makes sense to me, right? Like, it makes sense to me, but it's really, really good

That I am not in charge, that I am not Lord, I am not God.

'Cause the question, well, haven't the Israelites gone through enough at this point? And the answer is unequivocally, yes, they've gone through quite a bit. They've gone through quite a bit.

But that's not really the question that should be asked here. Haven't they gone through enough? I get a different question, a more important question, a more central question to our hearts should be asked at a moment like this. Not the question of haven't they gone through enough? But maybe the question is not what you or they have gone through, but who have you or who have they become as you've gone through it?

The question, not really, like the question of haven't I gone through enough is really the wrong question when it comes to considering the things that we go through that we believe are sanctifying tools of God upon our lives. The question actually is who have I become

Or who am I becoming as I am going through the thing that I am going through? It changes the focus from the circumstances that swirl around you to the internal work that God can and will complete and do in you if you open yourself in willing surrender to his sanctifying work through that process. You can go through really significantly difficult circumstances or seasons of life and come out on the other side full of anger

And bitterness and contempt and unforgiveness. You can go through really difficult, hard trying seasons of your life and come out with an unwillingness to have a curious heart and mind towards what God is desiring to teach you in that season and to reveal to you about himself.

And with that type of posture, what you went through had no more effect on your character

Than any good circumstance or season or situation did. It's not what you go through. It's what do you allow the Lord to do in you as you're going through what you're going through?

I've shared a few times. This is not a new story to most of you. If you're kind of new to conduit, maybe it is, but I've shared a few times the story of my family, of our family and our children, our kids and our long walk and struggle, I will say, with infertility

With no real direct medical reason for why it was the way that it was. Everything was fine on both sides. The doctor kind of looked at us and was like, well, sometimes these things just don't happen even though things are just like seemingly perfect in both, in every way. And we really significantly, Sheri and I walked through this for the first seven or eight years of our marriage. And I will tell you that there was a significant time and even in some of my worst moments, even today on the other side of it, there was a significant time or period of questioning, not questioning my faith,

But like questioning why, of disappointment, of resentment. It was really hard to see others joyfully building their families in some of those moments. There was some bitterness that I saw was beginning to take root in my heart and in my life. And we didn't know why and no one had any answers for us. And until one particular day

When the circumstances were just right, and we kind of slowed our spirits and our minds down just enough in that season, to let God finally break

Through the white noise and chaos of our hearts and our minds and speak to us, and when he did, he said very, very clearly, I want you to stop and let me do this in my own way.

It was in that season that we were going through infertility treatments, trying to get pregnant. And it was very, very clear, I want you to stop and let me do this my way. I mean, now fast forward to 2025, we are a clown car of a circus of a family.

Having five really beautiful, joy-filled, Jesus-loving kids, each with a unique story of how they became part of our family through adoption.

And we learned probably more significantly than the average person that God is the giver

And author of life. And that all life is sacred. But we had to go through it first.

And if we aren't careful and intentional, if we don't slow down enough to inquire of the lore about the season that we are in, we very well may miss its purpose for our sanctification,

For his refining and purifying and maturing and growing in our lives. Now, this is true for good seasons, just as much as it is for difficult seasons. I'm not saying that you should inquire of the Lord or be curious with the Lord or have an openness with the Lord to communicate you the purpose of a season only when it's bad, because the Lord brings the rain and the Lord brings the sunshine, to use a phrase, right? And the Lord is always seeking to reveal something of his character and his nature and his love and his purpose for our lives in every circumstance. If we are willing to say, okay, Lord, yeah, shutting down the chaos of my brain and my soul, surrendering my heart to hear first from him, what it is, Lord, that you have to teach me.

See, most of us would consider the end of the difficult season as the most important part of the difficult season, the end of it. And I'm not gonna like, listen, sure, it is a really important part of every difficult season is the end of it. And I'm like, two thumbs up for the end of difficult seasons. All right.

But if I've learned anything in my like, relatively short, almost 43 years of life, is that if I'm always looking to just like the period at the end of the sentence of the difficult season that I'm in, I kind of forget that there is another one just around the corner, right?

And it maybe looks a little bit different, and it maybe includes some different types of people or circumstances or issues or concerns or directions or pathways, but it's still there. So I can pine for and desire and just like reach for always the end of this difficult season that I'm in. I just wanna get to the end. I just wanna get to the end. I just wanna get to the end. But when our focus is so, so like laser pointed at the end of the season, that we don't stop to let the Lord develop the character in us through the season, then when we get to the next one, we're gonna be no more equipped to learn and learn quickly what it is that the Lord desires to teach us or speak to us.

The end of the season isn't really the ultimate goal. I think it's this, who are you willing to let God transform you into during the season?

What are you willing to allow God to burn out of your life, to cut out of your life? What are you willing to let him change in the way that you think or the words that you speak or your heart posture towards the person that has caused you harm or difficulty consistently over time forever?

Will you let God, who will you let God transform you into during the season? Will it be someone with a deeper, more rich faith in him that's now birthed in experience? Will it be, will you let him transform you into someone with an abiding trust in his goodness for your life? Like I cannot, God has been so faithful to me through so many seasons and through so many seasons and through so many seasons, you cannot move me from the place of trusting in him through the season that I'm in. Like it doesn't feel good. I don't know how long it's going to last, but man, is my soul alive with trust for the goodness of God.

And I will not be moved from this place. Who are you becoming in the midst of your hard season? That's the question, someone.

Now we've gotten through two verses. So, but these are, these are kind of like two

Of the most important verses here in this scripture, in these passages this morning. But something that we all laughed at at the end of these two verses, 31 and 32 and Exodus 12, I want to address that this morning because it can be a little bit of, it can cause a little bit like a pharaoh. You crazy, right? Where Pharaoh's like, get out of here. Take your flocks, your herds, your women, your children and get up and leave. Go worship the Lord. Go worship your God out in the wilderness. Also, please bless me. Also bless me.

Now, I don't know, maybe Moses was like just a really nice guy. And maybe he was eager to bring blessing to Pharaoh. We typically think of blessing in a really particular way in kind of our modern context, all right? And just for sake of like understanding why Pharaoh would say something like this, I wanted to try and bring some clarity to that. Pharaoh is undoubtedly, even though we're gonna see in the next couple of chapters that he, this attitude of his that does not last very long, but he is displaying even in this moment right here, a type of humility that hasn't been witnessed in the narrative so far. He is finally asking Moses to do something for him that he was not able to ask before or unwilling to ask before, recognizing that the blessing of his own lordship, Pharaoh is, is not serving him very well at all. And that the God of Moses and that the God of the Israelite people is, well has and is displaying his supremacy over the God that Pharaoh thinks he himself is.

Now in ancient times, blessing was simply the opposite side of the coin from cursing, from curses. That's why often in the Proverbs and in the Psalms, you see phrases like blessings and curses, bless and do not curse, right? They were seen in connection with one another as like juxtaposed with one another as like complete opposites.

Now Pharaoh's request for Moses blessing, when he asks for Moses blessing, he's not asking for Moses to kind of go above and beyond in some kind of special gift or offering or favor that he would give to Pharaoh or that he would ask God to give to Pharaoh in kind of the classic sense of what we mean when we say blessing. 'Cause when I say, man, the Lord's really been blessing me lately in this area or that area, we get a, we get kind of a picture in our mind of like favor raining down. And that's not really the case here, really essentially what it is or rather, he's simply asking Moses to reverse the trajectory of curse upon the Egyptian people.

Because that's really what the plagues became associated with is God bringing curse upon them. And so when Pharaoh says to Moses, hey, on your way out the country, would you mind like stopping all of the curses? Uncle, we've had enough, the moment of humility recognizing that he is not as powerful as he once was. So it wasn't blessing maybe in like the typical sense or the classic sense as you were thinking. So in verses 33 and 34, we see that even the Egyptian people themselves, they had had enough. The Egyptians urged the people to leave the country for otherwise they said, we will all die. So the people took their dough before the yeast was added and carried it on their shoulders in kneading troughs wrapped in clothing.

And this, if you actually, if you look over into verse 39 of our section of scripture this morning, you'll see a more detailed explanation even of this. With the dough, so they had, they came out of Egypt. Many other people with them, it says all of their livestock, all of their herds. And with the dough they, in verse 39, and with the dough they had brought from Egypt, they baked cakes of unleavened bread. The dough was without yeast because they had been driven out of Egypt and did not have time to prepare themselves or prepare food for themselves. Now, this is, we talked last week about the typical Passover meal that Jewish people eat even up to this day, which mirrored and was or is an act of remembrance that Jewish people go through every year, eating the same foods and doing the same type of things that Israelites did in the moments around the Exodus as a way to remember and remind themselves of God's significant deliverance of them as a people in these moments. So they would fire, they fire roast goat or lamb and eat that, they eat bread without yeast, unleavened bread.

They will eat bitter herbs. They will sing songs and pray prayers that remind them of the deliverance of God. So as to root themselves once again in God's generational faithfulness to them, God delivered us once, God's going to deliver us again and again and again and again. This is what Passover is for Jewish people. It's the celebration of the promise that God is the God of deliverance, that God will deliver them.

Lest we think that Jews are weird for doing something like that, we have a very similar remembrance and celebration every time we take of the bread and every time we take of the cup. It once again brings us back to the moment of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, the breaking of his body, the shedding of his blood for the forgiveness of sins. Take and eat it often in what? In remembrance of me, right? And so bread without yeast, unleavened bread was simply the bread that they would normally eat with the exception of they would not take part of the old loaf or the old dough and put it in the new dough, who here is like so in love with their sourdough starter that they just could not stand for it to go, right?

This is in essence what it was, right? Is that they simply did not take the starter from the old loaf and put it in the new loaf, in the new dough because they didn't have time to work the dough in a necessary way, because God was bringing about their deliverance right now, right away. You have to leave now. This is the moment of your freedom. This is the moment of your salvation. This is the moment of your deliverance. Don't wait a single second more. Take even the things that you would normally do and spend time on and forget about them and like, let's go, we're being delivered.

And I will tell you, unleavened bread, it's not great. It does not taste very, it does not taste very good. It's made with really simple ingredients, flour, water, oil and salt.

And that be it, okay? And then they would form these into cakes and they would place them either over a fire or on a hot stone to bake it back and forth. And it was usually pretty gummy, maybe.

But it was also, it was a way in which they remembered the haste by which God brought them out of Egypt. Now, listen, I don't wanna let the Jews on Passover have all the fun, okay? So we actually have samples of unleavened bread for everyone this morning.

No, I'm not joking. So Vinny and Mike are gonna pass out samples of unleavened bread to whoever wants it. Now listen, I'm totally serious. It only has flour, water, oil and salt in it. And then it's cooked over a fire. And let me, I'll have one, let me have one, Mike.

And what you're gonna, what you're gonna recognize is that it's kind of without taste. And it's, maybe it sticks to the roof of your mouth a little bit. You're not gonna offend me if you don't want any. But I wanted you to have kind of this sense of what this bread would have been, what this bread would have been like.

I mean, I've had worse, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's what my wife said. She's like, can we get some butter and honey for this stuff? You're gonna get a little messy in the sanctuary this morning, but.

As that's going around, and do my best to continue with the sermon. Good luck with that.

So we're in verse 34 and 35. The people took their dough before the yeast was added, carried it on their shoulders in kneading troughs wrapped in clothing. The Israelites did as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing. And the Lord had made the Egyptians favorably disposed towards the people and they gave them what they asked for. And so they plundered the Egyptians. What's interesting is that although the Israelites left the nation of Israel completely peacefully, right? They did not have to fight their way out of Israel or out of Egypt. It was not a war for them to get out. They didn't have to fight their way out. Although they left peacefully, they left as if they had gone to war with the Egyptians, completely plundering the riches of the Egyptians on their way out. In a manner of speaking, God granted to the Israelite people the spoils of war without having to go through the toil of war as a blessing to them and as a way to like secure their future going forward. They were able to plunder the Egyptian people taking from them what was rightfully the Egyptians and that was now the Israelites.

They were given all of this. Now this was also a fulfillment of a promise that God said would happen in the same basic time period during the burning bush where he made the original promise to Moses in Exodus chapter three verses 21 and 22. And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed towards the people so that when you leave, you will not go empty handed. Every woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters and so you will plunder the Egyptians. Now, if you're astute, you'll remember back from the beginning of the year where we talked about, we were in Psalm chapter 27 and we talked about idolatry and idol worship and the most famous of all the idols in scripture is what? The golden calf, right? We'll be talking about that here in a few weeks here, but interestingly enough, the blessing that God gave the Israelite people coming out of Egypt. Was the very thing that they used to what? Craft the idol, the golden calf.

And so what the Lord had given as a blessing, the people turned into an idol. It's a very sober reminder for us as we move forward and as we will get there. Going forward into verse 37 and 38, this is an incredible, I think, this is an incredible fact here. The Israelites journeyed from Ramesses to Sukkoth as they were going out of Egypt and there were 600, 000 men on foot besides women and children. Most scholars think although they do question how a crowd of this many people could move, like legitimately move through the desert and through the wilderness that the, if there was 600, 000 men, not including women and children, the mass of people probably numbered anywhere between 1.8 and two million people leaving Egypt. No wonder the Egyptians were afraid of the vastness of the number of people that the Israelites were becoming. But what is interesting is this, verse 38, many other people went up with them as well as large droves of livestock flocks and herds. It was not just the Israelites that left Egypt in that moment. There's other people who left, it says, with them.

It appears that more than just ethnic Israelites left Egypt in this event. Now, possibilities are that very certainly with the number of generations that Israel had spent in Egypt, very possibly that there was some intermarrying that had happened between Israelites and Egyptians. And so a more ethnically diverse group was leaving than just pure Israelites. That's certainly a possibility there. Also possible that some actual full-blooded Egyptians

Or other nationalities residing in Egypt at that time, witnessing what had happened, seeing the movement of the God of Moses and the Israelites, abandoned what had always been familiar to them, and said, I am leaving my gods here, and I am following the God of Moses. I am following the God of Israel, and I am taking my opportunity to cut ties with the life that was behind me, and I'm going with this group of people because obviously the true God, the one true God, is with them.

I read this week in preparation. I'm like, you know, makes sense. It's a whole nation of people who are surprisingly free

And safe from plague after plague, after plague, after plague, after plague, after plague. And I'm like, what is going on with them over there? And I think about kind of some practical application. I just, this, what really hit me when I was reading this was true deliverance is attractive.

True deliverance is attractive. What do I mean when I say that? Have you ever in your life met a person so fully unencumbered by the cares of this world, kind of over the top in love with Jesus, life transformed through the power of God's grace that you just kind of looked at them like with a head tilt? Like, have you ever met that, have you ever met a kind of a person like that? Have you ever met a person who was like, man, you really don't care about anything other than God's purpose, plan, love, word, spirit in your life, do you? You're not bothered by anything. You're not moved by anything. You are, it is obvious you are passionately in love with Jesus. You could barely get out of any other, any conversation in life without talking about Jesus in some way, shape or form with this person that's standing in front of you. You ever met a person like that? So fully alive with the spirit of God in them, they're like, my goodness, what is?

And let's be honest, if you kind of are living in a perpetual state of desperation or bondage, those people can be pretty annoying.

We'll be honest in church this morning. Is it all right with you? But even if you're, let's say you're annoyed, I know that where that comes from and a big part of that

Is that you're internally wrestling with the question, how can I get what they have?

How do I get to that place? What else? I want whatever this guy is on. You ask a question like that.

Here's the most like hope-filled truth this morning. You can have it, you can have it.

You can have a life so unencumbered by the cares of this world. You can have a life where you are so over the top in love with Jesus. You can have a life so fully transformed by the power of God's grace that you get a little annoying around people who are in a desperate state of slavery.

You can have it. And even better than the declaration that you can have it is that God wants you to have it.

God wants you to be free. God wants you to be alive with the power of his spirit. God wants to pour the love of God, his love through the power of his spirit into your life. God wants to so fill you with a love and passion for Jesus that you can't get three words out in conversation with someone without it just like overflowing into conversation about the intensity of your love and passion for him. God wants you to have it. Are you willing to trust him in it?

Are you willing to participate in the work that he is ready to do in your heart?

To bring you into his holiness through faith in Jesus Christ. Are you ready to surrender the things that you have held onto that have kept you in desperate bondage and slavery?

Are you ready to ask him to believe and to walk in the faith that you both can have deliverance and freedom and that God wants you to have deliverance and freedom?

God will gloriously make you that guy, that lady so full of his spirit that you become offensive

To a world that is dying. Now in the final section of our scripture this morning, we see just what had happened at the end or like the length of time. It's kind of like a commentary. It says now the length of time, verse 40. Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt was 430 years.

At the end of the 430 years to the very day all the Lord's divisions left Egypt. Listen, I want you to know the hope of God's deliverance, the hope of God's faithfulness, the hope of God's goodness, his plan and purpose for your life to bless you and to prosper you

And to show you his favor, right? And I also want you to know that sometimes long hard seasons are long.

But the two are not mutually exclusive to one another. We often think that hard seasons are seasons where we are not able to receive the things from the Lord that are for our good and for our blessing. And so we feel like, well, I gotta get out of this season of pain and the season of trial and the season of difficult so that I can get into the season of blessing.

And that's improper to think that way because seasons of blessing and the desire of the Lord to bless you with his presence, with his power, with his spirit, with his gifts is not separate, right? Those, his desire to do that is not dependent upon what season you are through. If you can get yourself to a position of saying, Lord, I am ready to receive in this difficult season all that it is you have to do in me, all that it is that you have to teach me, all that it is that you have to sanctify in me, he will display to you that the instruments of his sanctifying power is not just bad things, that's also good things. It's not just curse, it is also blessing. It is not just hardship, it is also friendship with God, communion with him, blessing in abundance.

We're gonna end with these two main points. They're the two main points from the sermon this morning. And then I wanna invite you,

I wanna invite you to use the kneelers this morning to come forward in prayer. If you're wrestling with the question or you're in this question of like, does God really want to deliver me from what I'm in? Does God really want to deliver me from the season that I'm in, this space that I'm in, this mind that I'm in, this heart that I'm experiencing, this attitude that I cannot get away from me, these words that refuse to stop flowing out of my mouth, to come forward and to ask the Lord, surrounded by brothers and sisters that love you and in prayer, to bring deliverance upon your life

By trusting in Jesus, by surrendering to him. If you are willing, God will use your difficult season to transform your heart and deepen your faith in him.

If you are unwilling, if you do not take intentional steps to say, Lord, what are you trying to teach me, do in me, change in me in this season, what's likely to happen is that you'll come out of that season just having developed a new and fresh sense of bitterness and unforgiveness, anger and resentment. Apathy and discouragement, okay?

It really is up to you. Number two, God wants to make your deliverance so over the top that others want what you have.

God doesn't wanna just give you like, a little bit of deliverance, a little bit of freedom, little bit of change. God wants to completely like renovate every corner of the home that is your heart,

That nothing remains untouched, that everything is changed so significantly that the world around you is like, man, I mean, I'm going, I'm leaving behind whatever was back here, whatever that guy's got, I want it and I'm going with him. Just like many other nations, many other people followed the Israelites out of Egypt too. Like, I want what they have, not how I've been living. God is offering that to you this morning. So once again, I'm gonna invite the worship team back up to lead us in worship. We worship because we've been delivered and we worship because God is good and worthy of our honor and our praise,

But also want to remind you or again, invite you once more to come forward and pray.

If you see someone come forward and you wanna come pray with them, pray for them, please don't hesitate.

Would love the opportunity for you to serve others in prayer here at the altar this morning. So let me pray for us and invite you forward in prayer as well.

Heavenly Father, I'm asking Lord this morning, Lord, that you would pour out your spirit upon us gathered here today.

And Lord, that you would give each one of us according to our own lives and situation.

Lord, a fresh vision of our life as it looks when deliverance has happened. When we have fully surrendered,

When we have opened our hearts, Lord, for you to do in us and through us whatever it is that you desire,

When we are ready to lay aside bitterness or anger, resentment or apathy, addiction or anxiety, depression and pain, hurts, habits, hang ups, Lord,

That have done destructive things to our lives and our relationships and our world. But we're recognizing, Lord, that we need a deliverer and we need a savior and it is you and you alone that can offer that to us.

Lord, we give ourselves in surrender to you asking Father that you would come and deliver us.

Lord, and we stand, we stand in worship and we lift our voices to you, Father. Not because we know the song or like the song or we're moved emotionally, just emotionally, Lord, but we sing and we raise our voice, Lord, as an expression of ones who have been delivered and will be delivered, Lord. You are to be honored in this place, Lord. You are to be glorified in this place. It is you and you alone, Lord, that is worthy of our praise. And so, Father, receive the songs of our praise as the only one who is worthy. In Jesus' name, amen. Jesus, we speak your name, Yeshua. The name that is above every other name. The name that's when it's said every knee will bow, every tongue confess on heaven and on earth and under the earth that Jesus is Lord to the glory of the Father.

We declare Jesus as Lord here in this place to the glory of God, Father.

Heavenly Father, would you fill us with your spirit as we go out into the world, as instruments of peace with softened and surrendered hearts, Lord, to your vision for kingdom and your vision for our lives. In Jesus' name, amen.

Conduit, you are loved, have a great week, and we will see you next week for the outdoor service.