We love entertainment.

Americans watch an average of 5 hours of television a day.

Multiplied over a lifetime, that comes out to 15 years of watching TV.
Considering an average American lifespan of 75 years, we’re talking about 20% of your life...watching TV.

That doesn’t even include the movies we go to or the video games we play. We are, most certainly, addicted to entertainment.

...but this is not a sermon about our laziness, or apathy, or addiction. Actually, I want to show you today WHY we love entertainment so much. See, we are addicted to stories.

For as long as humanity has been documented, we’ve been telling the same basic stories over and over and over.

The plot lines and characters differ a little, but still the story is basically the same. Heroes and villains. Good and evil. Fall and redemption.

In Seth Godin’s book “All Marketers Tell Stories”, he says this.

“Everyone is a liar. We tell ourselves stories because we’re superstitious. Stories are shortcuts we use because we’re too overwhelmed by data to discover all the details. The stories we tell ourselves are lies that make it far easier to live in a very complicated world. We tell stories about products, services, friends, job seekers, the New York Yankees and sometimes even the weather. We tell ourselves stories that can’t possibly be true, but believing those stories allows us to function. We know we’re not telling ourselves the whole truth, but it works, so we embrace it.”- Seth Godin, All Marketers Are Storytellers

Seth Godin is saying, “We love stories, and we need stories, because we have to pretend that there is a story to make sense of a life that otherwise would be chaotic and without meaning. So we lie to ourselves.”

Seth Godin doesn’t believe any of the stories we tell are true, but he knows there is no way to function without them.

I agree with Seth Godin...but probably not in the way he would want me to.

See, Seth Godin is an atheist. He doesn’t believe there is a God. Consequently, he doesn’t think that there is a bigger story God is telling.

We’re all meat machines. A wired brain with electric impulses...our brains fool us to believe our life has meaning...that’s where stories come from.

I wholeheartedly agree that stories help us make sense of what is true. But there is a reason for that. Because THERE IS A BIGGER STORY to fit into. There is a God who is telling a story that makes sense of everything. And its all true.

See, the reason why we watch hour after hour of television, and movies, ...that repeat over and over and over the same plot.....is because there is a story that we cannot disconnect from.

Its ingrained in what it means to be human.
In fact, we don’t just tell stories....we are stories.

Think about that a minute. If you are created in the image of God, like the Bible says...you ARE a TV show about God. You ARE a movie about God. You ARE an image of God.

And because you’re in a story...and you are a story...you learn best through stories.

Because of stories, you can understand a God who cannot be quantified in a formula, discovered through a scientific method, or reasoned out through flawless logic.

Today we’re starting the book of Exodus. It's a true story of actual events. Its also the story that God re-tells, over and over, throughout the Bible to show his people what “salvation” means. What happens in the book of Exodus becomes a picture, a metaphor, for what happens in every human heart.

See, I can explain to you logically and cognitively what “salvation” is. I can even give you a definition. But none of that will awaken you, enlighten you, open up your eyes,...quite like this story.

So lets go.

Exodus 1-2

These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. All the descendants of Jacob were seventy persons; Joseph was already in Egypt. Then Joseph died, and all his brothers and all

that generation. But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.

Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Raamses. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel. So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves.

Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, “When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.” But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live. So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and let the male children live?” The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.” So God dealt well with the midwives. And the people multiplied and grew very strong. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.”

Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank. And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him. Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her young women walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman, and she took it. When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying. She took pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews' children.” Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, “Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, “Go.” So the girl went and called the child's mother. And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him. When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “Because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”

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. 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?” He answered, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid, and thought, “Surely the thing is known.” When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses 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 Reuel, he said, “How is it that you have come home so soon today?” They said, “An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds and even drew water for us and watered the flock.” 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 those 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.

Today, and all through this series, I want you to see THE STORY that will make sense of your life. But this story is not a lie that just helps you get by...this true story...is actually the difference between life and death for all of us.

Every good story has a beginning that shows us the way things should be...and 1) Every human was created to be fruitful and multiply.

One of the differences between seeing the world as simply the result of random chemical processes and seeing it as a part of a story being told by God...is what you think about the meaning of life.

See, if there is no real God...then there is no real story. And that means that the only meaning we can come up with is lies we tell ourselves, like Seth Godin says.

Think about it. If you said, “Well, I don’t think there is any larger meaning to life, but I choose to make my life about loving other people. That’s my meaning.”

Well, even so, you still don’t have a good answer to the question... “WHY is THAT a good meaning for your life?”Without a real God telling a true story about who we are, giving your life meaning by loving other people is just arbitrary.

It would be no different to make your life about hating other people. Or murdering other people.

It means Mother Teresa, Hitler, and Osama Bin Laden are all moral equals. Because morality itself is only a lie that we tell ourselves to get along.

Hitler decided his meaning would be to eliminate the Jews...Mother Teresa decided to give her life to the sick and poor in India...doesn’t really matter...just two people trying to make sense of randomness.

Listen, all of us know, deep down what good and evil is. All of us know, we are called into something bigger.

Even the most committed atheist cannot treat his children like they are just a meaningless mass of flesh with electric impulses.

You can’t live life without a story. The question is, are you telling yourself a lie...or listening to the truth?

Exodus 1:7

But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.

This verse tells you what you’re made for.

Remember, the book of Exodus is the continuation of a story God’s already been telling. It's the sequel to the book of Genesis.

It picks up where Genesis left off.

In Genesis, God starts the world by creating humans as the apex of his creation. We are the only creatures created in God’s image.

And God told the first man and woman to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.”

Now, on one hand, “be fruitful & multiply & fill the earth” means to have a lot of babies that have more babies. But see, at a deeper level it means that we are here to be worshippers and fill the earth with more worshippers of God.

And look that’s what is happening in Egypt at the very beginning of Exodus. The Hebrews are “being fruitful and multiplying” and filling the land.

But it's not quite a straight line from Genesis 1 to Exodus 1. In fact, the storyline is very curvy, crooked, faded and broken.
See, in the garden, Adam and Eve eventually chose their own way, instead of what they were created for. They believed a different story about God and instead of being fruitful and multiplying...they chose to consume fruit and protect themselves as disconnected individuals.

This sin goes on breaking the world until Noah.

And God floods the world to start over...and then gives the same command to Noah. Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

But things go wrong again. Sin. And everything breaks again.

Then God decides to start over again. This time he picks this guy named “Abraham”...but this time is different. To Abraham he doesn’t say “Be fruitful and multiply”...he says “I will make you a great nation...I will multiply you.”

In Abraham, God starts this work where he says, “There is no way you can do this without me. You’ll just mess it up like Adam and Noah. So this time, all I need you to do is believe me. I will multiply you.”

And God makes this promise, a covenant, to make Abraham’s family more numerous than the stars in the sky or the sands on the shore.

The rest of Genesis, you can follow that promise. But its ugly. You read through more sin, more treachery, more lying and cheating and adultery and murder and jealousy...and you’re supposed to be on the edge of your seat going “OH NO! What’s gonna happen? Is sin going to ruin everything again? Is God’s promise going to expire?”

And, honestly, it looks pretty bleak...until you get to the end of Genesis and this guy named Joseph shows up.

Joseph is Abraham’s great grandson, and he gets sold into slavery by his brothers and is shipped off to Egypt. In Egypt, God causes him to rise in power and respect until he becomes Pharaoh’s Vice President.

Eventually all of Joseph’s brothers move to Egypt, Joseph forgives them...and Genesis ends and Exodus begins on quite the high note.

Joseph and his brothers were fruitful and multiplied. The Hebrews grew strong and kept their faith in this God that kept his promise to Abraham.

Nice, neat ending. Looks like God will just slowly but surely multiply this great nation, they will fill the earth and we’ll be right back around to the garden of Eden.

...but, in comes Exodus...or as its called in the original Hebrew manuscripts...Genesis part II, the Revenge of the Egyptians...

Let me stop right here to make a point for some of you who may be here for the first time today.

As humans we are created to be fruitful and multiply. To image God, to love God, to worship God...and to multiply and fill the earth with more worshippers of God.

That's who City Church is in a nutshell. We say it like this
City church exists to MULTIPLY Gospel Change. For Broken People. On Purpose.

See God’s purpose for you, the meaning for your life never stops with just you. You are a part of a bigger story. One that God has written not just for you, but for others, too.

You are made to be fruitful and multiply. You are made to worship God and multiply more worshippers of God.

...And any other story you write for yourself will always leave you dissatisfied, broken,...and lying to yourself.

...and really, that’s what we mean by sin. Living according to a story that’s not from God. But from some replacement God. In other words, its what the bible calls “Idolatry”. And...

2) Idolatry is slavery. Worship is freedom.

When this Pharaoh shows up on the scene in Exodus chapter 1, he is what one commentator calls, “The worst character in the Bible so far”- The Bible Project video

Pharaoh represents the same sort of human rebellion that took place in the garden.

See, when God promised to multiply Abraham’s children...he said they would be a blessing to the whole earth.

But this Pharaoh is lying to himself.

He’s telling himself a different story.

He sees what God says is blessing as a threat.

So he tries to stop the Hebrews from being fruitful and multiplying.

Exodus 1: 9-10

And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.”

Notice what Pharaoh’s idea is “Lets deal shrewdly with them.”

Back in Genesis 3 when Satan comes into the garden to lie to Adam and Eve about God, do you remember how he is described?

Crafty. It's the same idea. Shrewd. Crafty. Sneaky.

This is another indication that Pharaoh is represents an outright opposition to God’s people. He’s satanic.

Of course, Pharaoh will do anything to preserve his power...and to stop the multiplication of God’s people. So he kills babies. He thins out the population.

This is the epitome of evil. Using power to kill the powerless to preserve your own power.

Exodus 1:11

Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Raamses.

Not only that, he uses his power over them to force them to build his cities. He heaps up burdens on them.

See Pharaoh represents a false God.

And the slavery and burdens that he puts on the Hebrews, will come up over and over again through the rest of the Bible as representative of what happens when we believe lies and worship false Gods. This slavery is what happens to us spiritually when we sin.

That's Idolatry.

Take a look at verses 13-14. Exodus 1:13-14

So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves.

The words “Work, service, and slave” are all derivatives of the same Hebrew word. To read this sentence in Hebrew is so monotonous.

I mean, listen to this...I’m gonna read it in English the way its written in Hebrew. (I’ll put it on the screen)

So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as workers and made their lives bitter with hard work, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work they ruthlessly made them work as workers.

Did you hear that?. Its so monotonous.

And notice how the sentence almost makes you start back over at the top again. It ends the same way it starts. Its kind of like this infinite loop of monotony.

...and that’s why it perfectly describes idolatry & sin.

Worship and service to any God that isn’t the real God always ends like this.

Let me give you a couple of examples.

If you believe the lie that God is trying to keep you from blessing, instead of wanting to provide you with blessing...you’ll try to find that blessing in something else.

So you’ll see the sexual ethic of the Bible as antiquated or outdated...instead of the creator revealing to you how he made you.

Some of you will worship the God of pleasure.

And you’ll believe the lie that as long you enjoy it, and it isn’t really hurting anyone, that its none of God’s business what you do with your girlfriend, or boyfriend, ...or your computer screen.

But it doesn’t take long for what you’re doing to not be enough. Its fun at first...it always is. If you aren’t having fun on the front end of sin, you’re doing it wrong. King David says as much in the Psalms.

But what you think you are controlling begins to control you.

The last time wasn’t enough. You have to have more. What satisfied you in a pornographic video before, doesn’t really get you going this time. So you have to have more...more frequently...and more distorted. You have to work hard to squeeze out the pleasure from something that used to come so easily.

Soon, you are absolutely enslaved to it. You don’t even enjoy it as much anymore...but you have to have it...all the time. Its monotony...and it even begins to define who you are. In fact, when you look in a mirror, you really don’t even see yourself anymore. You just someone addicted to pornography.

It becomes all you really think about. It consumes you even thought you hate who you’ve become.

What you thought would bring you blessing...has ruthlessly made you work in all your work as a worker. And your life is bitter.

That’s a picture of the slavery of idolatry. But others of you, it's a different motivation.

Some of you don't dismiss God’s sexual ethic because you are serving the god of pleasure...but because you’re worshipping the god of companionship.

You think you have to have that other person so you continue to give yourself sexually to him, because he keeps telling you if you love him, that’s what you’ll do.

But see, you are afraid to be alone, because you think you are created to have someone on your arm...instead of worship God.

Listen, You are always going to worship whatever god you think will lead to freedom. So if you define freedom as getting to do what you want sexually...then of course you’ll consume porn...and if you define freedom as never being single...of course you’ll do whatever you need to do with your body to get that.

Rhianna is right. You’ll work.

But what started out as just a little work...will always turn into the monotony of working a little more...then a little more...then a little more...and that freedom you think that god will provide you stays mysteriously just out of reach...even as that false god keeps making the promise... “Just one more time...then you’ll have what you want.”

False gods are cruel taskmasters. And idolatry is hard labor.

Listen, your hunger to worship a god outside of the one True God isn’t just enslaving. Its not just monotonous and frustrating...

...its killing you.

See you think freedom means doing what you want to do.

But that’s not a good definition of freedom.

Freedom isn’t doing what you want to do...its doing what you’re created to do.

Think about it. 

If a fish wants to walk on land, is it freedom for it to do so.

Of course not. Its death. He can’t breathe up there. Sure, he can flop around for a few minutes as he screams “I’m free” but he’ll be dead a minute later.

Freedom is when that fish swims in the ocean.

Freedom is when you are doing what you are created to do.

Glorifying God. Worshipping him.

See, the book of Exodus is divided into 2 halves.

The first half is the one that all the movies are made about.

Because the first 17 chapters are action packed.

And we all know Charlton Heston’s famous delivery of the line “LET MY PEOPLE GO”

But we forget the second half of that line, that represents the second seemingly more boring part of this book.

The first half of Exodus is about the rescue from slavery, the second half is about how Israel is to worship God.

You aren’t just saved FROM something...you are saved TO something. God commanded Pharaoh to LET MY PEOPLE GO...SO THAT THEY CAN SERVE ME.

When God rescues you from the slavery of sin, it is so that you can worship him...or be fruitful...and lead others to that same freedom...multiply.

Salvation is when God frees you from that monotonous and deadly cycle of sin...to move you to do what you are created to do in the first place

See, if you are rescued from one cycle of sin only to enter a different, you just moved to worshipping a different idol.

You are created to worship, which means you will always live for and serve something. The question is...it the truth...or a lie?

So that’s what you are saved from...and what you are saved to...but how does God do it. Well, first, you need to know that...

3) God is working to save, even when you think he’s not.

You know God’s name I hardly mentioned at the first of the book of Exodus, really not until the end of chapter 2.

Its almost as if he isn’t there.

But that is very much not the case.

In fact, you’ll find that this is often the way God saves us and changes us. When it seems nothing is happening, God is doing a million things to save us.

First, look at what happens to Israel in their slavery

Exodus 1:12

But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel.

God uses this evil against them to do the very thing he created them to do. When they were oppressed, they multiplied more...and filled the land

Pharaoh thought he had control...and he sought to keep them from developing an identity as a people, but what he did actually gave them solidarity as a nation and spread their influence even broader.

Honestly, this is just another reason a Christian shouldn’t panic...no matter who happens to be running for President or what the Supreme Court judges believe.

There is absolutely no position of earthly power or government that can stop the One True God. Period.

Exodus 1:22

Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.”

Then when Pharaoh decides to throw all of the Hebrew baby boys into the Nile river...it certainly seems like God has abandoned them. It seems like Pharaoh is the one writing history.

But...God is telling a better story.

Exodus 2:2-3

The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank.

In the middle of this, a Hebrew woman has a child and hides him because of this edict. And after hiding him for 3 months, she obeys Pharaoh. She throws her kid into the Nile. BUT, she puts him in a basket.

Do you know what that word is in Hebrew? The word basket is actually “ark”. It's the same word for what God used to guide Noah through the waters of the flood when all the earth was evil.

Here, God is saving Moses...and his people...through a smaller, yet even more powerful ark.

Exodus 2:10

When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “Because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”

Then God brings Moses to the only place he could be safe from Pharaoh...in the arms of Pharaoh’s daughter. Moses becomes Pharaoh’s grandson!

As an Egyptian, Moses would have been trained in military leadership, in rhetoric, and law. All things that God will use later through Moses to deliver his people from slavery.
But in the moment, none of this seems helpful
Its painful for a mother to send her baby down a river.

Imagine watching the basket float down the Nile. Past Crocodiles...

...and if any Egyptian other than the princess sees this...they are probably going to drown Moses in the River. Pharaoh’s daughter is the only one with the position to adopt a Hebrew baby instead of killing him.

All of Israel’s history could have been different.

But see even when it seems God isn’t at work, he is meticulously working for our salvation.

By the way, God doesn’t only work behind the scenes when it seems Evil is ruling the day... he even works in spite of our stupidity.

Did you notice some of the dumb stuff Moses does?

Exodus 2:12

He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

When he sees one of his Hebrew brothers being beaten...he just kills the Egyptian.

I mean, that is clearly not a move that is going to help free this people from slavery. It's a hotheaded decision that put a target on Moses’ back and caused him to run.

And once again...it seems like God isn’t at work. It seems like Moses’ stupidity has cost a whole nation its freedom. But God uses this stupidity to get Moses out into the desert, where he becomes a shepherd.

He learns the skill of leading stupid animals that don’t want to listen. Believe me...he’s going to need that skill.

Do you know what this means?...for you and me? Not only does it mean that we don’t have to panic when evil and stupidity make it seem like God doesn’t hear us...or like he doesn’t care...but we can also put to death our victim mentalities.

We can stop blaming God and start trusting him. We can stop being angry at God because we don’t know how he is working and begin to trust that there is absolutely no situation that he cannot work out our salvation through.

Just because you can’t see God working, doesn't mean he’s not. Actually, it means that he’s writing a pretty fantastic story.

Listen, you may say, “Well, of course its easy for us to see this now we can look back and see how it all worked out for Israel.”

But, don’t you see...you have something that Israel didn’t have.

See, the cross of Jesus is a reminder that God is working, even in the presence of the darkest evil.

God used the murder of his own son, to free us from our sins to worship him. And the resurrection of Jesus is a time machine.

It shows us that there is a future that God promises where everything evil will be done away with. Where sin and death are no more...and because of the resurrection, we can be sure that no matter how bad things get...that this story ends beautifully.

That God has and will use his power to turn everything around. See the good news is that...

4) Strong salvation comes to the weak...through the weak. Exodus is a book that will display the massive power of God.

There are pillars of cloud and fire.

There’s a mountain with thunder and lightning.

Of course, there is the parting of the Red Sea, manna from heaven, water from a rock...

Yet, in all of the power of God we’ll see in Exodus, there is an undercurrent of weakness. And it is precisely this weakness that God will funnel his power through to save.

Think about it.

In the first chapter, it's the oppressed Israel who grows strong, as the powerful Pharaoh is unable to contain them.

And did you notice, that in these first two chapters, that its women who show the most faith and strength

Exodus 1:17

But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.

In fact, the reason they would have been midwives in the first place is because they had no children.

A woman with no children in this Egyptian society where worth was determined by fertility would have absolutely been the low person on the food chain.

Exodus 1:21

And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families.

In fact, we are told that after the midwives protect the Hebrew babies, that they do eventually have children.

Exodus 1:15

Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah,

...and, by the way, look all these thousands of years later, whose names we have.

We don’t know what Egyptian Pharaoh this is. We don’t know his name. The word Pharaoh is just like our word for King. But we don’t his name.

But we do know the names of these midwives...Shiprah and Puah.

The most powerful man in the world is forgotten...while 2 people that society said were completely dispensable...their names are forever written in the most read and influential book in human history.

Then of course, there is Moses’ mother and his sister Miriam. Who God used to care for and protect Moses. Who stood against the evil of Pharaoh.

Listen, this is the ongoing character and pattern of God. To use those that the world says are weak...to show himself strong.

God uses the weak to save, so we have no room to boast about our strength.

This is the gospel.

The good news.

Where false gods continually call you to work and work and work to earn nothing but small pleasures and endless frustrations...

...the true God...the one telling the Big Story...

He says, “There is no amount of strength you can show, there is no work you can do, to earn this blessing.”

Like he said to Abraham... “There is no way you can do this without me. You’ll just mess it up like Adam and Noah. So this time, all I need you to do is believe me. I will multiply you.”

See, the gospel is that God heard us...God saw us...in our slavery to sin...and he became weak, to rescue us us.

When we had believed a lie, and thought we had no way out, when we were spiritually dead...

God himself became human, in Jesus Christ, and he became the WAY, THE TRUTH, and THE LIFE...we so desperately needed.

And then the truth hung on a cross, for the lies we believed.

Perfect God died for broken humanity. So that we could be made new. New Creation. To live our purpose of imaging him forever.

See, Moses isn’t the hero of Exodus. Jesus is.

Moses is like a little story himself. Pointing you to the bigger hero.
For both Moses and Jesus, there was an evil king who issued a decree to kill the baby boys as a baby boy was being born to save.

Moses went out into the desert to prepare to rescue God’s people. Jesus went out into the desert to be tempted by the devil to prepare to save God’s people.

Both Moses and Jesus were rejected by their own people.

In fact, in Luke 9, Moses and Jesus’ paths cross.

Luke 9:30-31

And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.

On the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus goes up a mountain, and his appearance changes... much like will happen to Moses when he goes up to get the 10 commandments later.

And on this mountain, it says that Jesus talks with Moses about his “departure”. That word “departure” is the word Exodus.

In other words, Jesus says to Moses, “I loved your Exodus story, bro, but you ain’t seen nothing yet!”

Because when Jesus went to Jerusalem, he went up another mountain. A darker mountain. Mt. Calvary.

And there, the powerful God of the universe was crucified, so that all his people could pass through death...could be led out of the slavery of sin...because the power of God saved them through the weakness of death on a cross.

So let me ask you?

What are you in bondage to?

What lies are you telling yourself?

What false gods are you serving?

You want to know how you know?

Ask yourself what do you HAVE to have to be happy? What do could you not bear to depart with?

What actually gives your life meaning?

If its anything other than the God who is writing history...the God who loved you enough to die for you...you will end up in cycle of monotonous slavery that will spiritually kill you.

But, if you’ll turn from that...and believe that Jesus is your only hope of salvation...you will be saved. He will make you a part of his great nation.