Beautiful singing. So I've not met you. My name is Aaron, and I'm the preaching pastor here and glad that you're with us today, this last Sunday of July. And so if you have a bow with you, if you'd open up to the book of Exodus today, our texture study is going to come from Exodus 12, verses 21 through 28. Although we're going to be spending our time in all of Exodus 12, this will be our primary spot is 2128.

And if you don't have a Bible with you, if you're not, there are Bibles scattered throughout the pews. If you want to find your way to Exodus, essentially on page 31, our text, if you want to open there, and then as you open your Bibles, please do keep them open. And so if you're visiting with us, so we do a style of preaching called expository preaching. And so we're going to spend a lot of our time just in the text and kind of throughout the sermon. I'm going to be pointing us back to the text.

And so I want us all to see what comes from the text. And so please do keep the Bible open. So Exodus 12:21 through 28. So please hear the words of our God. And then I'm going to pray and then we'll get to work.

So the Bible says that Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, go and select lambs for yourselves according to your clans and kill the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin. Touch the lentil and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go out of the door of the house until the morning, for Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians. And we seize the blood on the lintel and on two doorposts.

Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter into your home and your houses to strike you. You shall observe this right as a statute for you and for your sons forever. And when you come into 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? You shall say, is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover.

For he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt when he struck the Egyptians, but spared our houses when people bowed their heads and worshiped, then the people of Israel went and did so as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron. So they did. That's God's word for us this morning. Would you please pray with me?

Lord, we're here because we want to hear from your word.

Lord, we know that your word tells us that through the folly of preaching that you indeed do speak. You speak through your word, through the power of your holy spirit. And so God, in this time, that is our desire, that is our ask, that is our request indeed, that you would speak. God, please keep me from error. Please keep me from stumbling.

Help me to speak only that which is true. Please help the congregation just have good listening ears to hear what your spirit is saying to us today. Pray this out in Jesus name. Amen. So this morning, as we gather together, we do so.

It's a slight detour what we had planned at the start of our summer preaching schedule. So at the start of our summer, the original plan was to have this sermon series that we've had been working through in Exodus. The sermon is the beginning part of the life of Moses. And we're up to the plan was to the start of chapter seven, which is where we were last week, as Moses and his brother Aaron approached Pharaoh for the second time to tell Pharaoh to let God's people go, as Pharaoh was holding God's people in bondage as slaves. From there, then the original plan, starting this week, and to go back into our study of the Gospel of Luke, which is a study that we've been working through for some time.

However, today, and actually the next few weeks, there's going to be a little bit of a detour from that plan, which the detour has actually been on my mind for, I guess, a few weeks now, particularly when I was away on vacation, where I thought it'd be good for us as a church just to spend a little bit more time in the life of Moses, doing so in ways that relate to our church pillars, which you can see in the banners behind me. Worship, connect, grow and go. And I thought it'd be good for us to do this again just for a few reasons. So, first, we haven't done this in a while. So it's been actually well over a year since the last time we took time to, like, intentionally think through our church pillars in a sermon context.

So we're probably due to do this again. Second, the fall approaching typically brings a little bit busier time in church life. So I actually thought it might be good for us to maybe refocus a bit as a church before things get busier. Third, as a church, it's actually really easy to detour on the things that God would have us to do. So we know this, the busyness of life, the challenges of life, the disappointments in life, the frustrations in life, the false hope of life, even sometimes like the successes of life, which we'll be talking about more just a bit.

These things all have a way of, like, detouring us from the things that God would have us to do. So I thought it'd be good for us just to refocus a bit, to hopefully stay focused on the things that God would have us to do. Which, by the way, the reality of losing focus, being distracted, forgetting the things that God has done, things that God would have us to do. This is actually very present in our passage today where we see in the text today, God instituted things within, like the calendar, as a means to help his people actively remember, to help them to not, like, detour away from him, the things that he would have them to do and not do. So starting today and over the next couple weeks, what we're gonna do is continue to look at Exodus stories about Moses.

I think give maybe some fleshing out of our four church pillars that hopefully we can learn from and apply to our own lives. So today, from our text, the primary pillar we're going to focus on is that of worship, which for us not only is our first pillar, but this is the most important and most Central of the 4. This is the pillar that actually meant to be like, the fuel, the motivation that leads into the other three pillars. Now, before we get into the heart of our passage today, just for a few moments, let me just remind us where we left off last week in chapter seven. And after that, I was going to give you some, like, flyby details in Exodus and what happened from that passage where we left last week in chapter seven to our text in our today in chapter 12.

So just where we left off last week, we started that first. So as mentioned for a second time, Moses and his brother Aaron, who was like a prophet to Moses, went before Pharaoh to tell Pharaoh yet again, for a second time to let God's people go, where they also performed a miracle before Pharaoh, turning a staff into a great serpent. Whereas when last week, as Moses and Aaron approached Pharaoh, God hardened the heart of Pharaoh. So for a second time, Pharaoh refused to listen to Moses and refused to let God's people go, which we talked about a lot last week. This had to be, at least in some ways, if not a lot of ways, hard for Moses to grasp and accept.

I mean, God already had promised to free his people God even told Moses that he was going to be the deliverer. Moses is now doing the very thing God would have him to do. However, at least not yet. In chapter seven, freedom did not come. So one of the things we talked about a lot last week, for Moses, this had to be hard for him to grasp and accept.

In this reality. This actually is true for much of his life, where often Moses would do the very thing God would have him to do, instruct him to do, only for the things to not work out in ways that Moses necessarily would want him to do, where over and over again, at least in the moment, things did not work out the way Moses hoped. And for us, this actually is part of the reality of our faith. Yes, we can do the right things, the very things that we know God would have us to do, but according to his secret will, things might not work out, at least not according to the timeline that we might have. That's where we were beginning of chapter seven last week.

And then from there, over the next few chapters, which maybe you can read through this week, we see almost like this cyclical pattern on display where the Lord would continue to send Moses, his brother Aaron before Pharaoh, where Moses would continue to tell Pharaoh to let God's people go, where that message would be accompanied by signs and wonders. Yet God would continue to harden the heart of Pharaoh as Pharaoh refused to let God's people go. He even though in the cycle, even though there's these great signs and wonders, even though God did all these things, Pharaoh would still refuse to let God's people go. Now, if you've read through Exodus before, you remember that these series of signs and wonders were found in a series of plagues of judgment on Egypt. Was there a series of plagues that not only testified to God's power and God's glory, but it does seem, although this is debatable, it does seem that with each of these plagues, which were 10, that each of these God was like systematically defeating the many gods of Egypt.

Let me just give you a few examples on this. So the first plague, you may remember, this is the Nile river turning to blood. And this seemed to be the Lord taking an attack on the Egyptian God who, like, watched over the Nile. Then the second plague involved, like frogs, like, overfilling the land of Egypt. And it seemed like this is the Lord, like, attacking Egyptian fertility God, who was resented as a frog dropping down, like to the ninth plague, which involved darkness over the land.

This seemed to be the Lord attacking, defeating Ra, the Egyptian sun God, and the 10th plague, which we'll be talking about in part in our text today, involved the death of the firstborn of the land, which included the death of the son of. Of Pharaoh, with Pharaoh himself being revered like a godlike figure. As mentioned, there's a little bit of debate on this if this is actually what's happening, but it does seem that if you look at the 10 plagues, it does seem to be a direct correlation between the plagues and one of the many gods of the land. Okay, now just a couple of quick things I want to mention before we get to our text. So if we go back in as it relates to worship, this pillar that we're focused on this morning.

So worship was really always at the heart of God. In the Exodus, he would free his people from the bondage of slavery so that they might worship him. And we don't have time to work through all the places that we see this, but really from Exodus 3, where God came to Moses and revealed himself to Moses in the burning bush of the great I am, where at that scene, the Lord also commissioned Moses to be the deliverer of the people. At that scene, worship was at the heart of God so that through his deliverance, through the freedom of his people, they might worship him. And this continues on from like the first time Moses and Aaron approached Pharaoh, they commanded Pharaoh to let God's people go.

Why? So that they might worship the Lord. Then each of the plagues in this sickle event that continued to happen over and over again, Moses and Aaron continued to approach Pharaoh to tell them the same basic message. The purpose is why? So God's people might be free to go and worship him.

So worship is at the heart of Exodus, including at the heart of our text today, as worship is always at the heart of our God. Thus, if we're going to follow our God, worship will be on our hearts as well. Okay, so that is an introduction. Maybe fill in some of the gaps for us. Let's look back at the passage.

Our passage day involves, like, what took place right before this 10th plague and the death of the firstborn of the land. Well, our text today details some really important information, not only for the book of Exodus, but really for all of scripture. Because our text today involves the Passover. Our primary text today starts in verse 21, but just give maybe just a little bit more context if you want to look up to some of the details in verses 1 through 20 of chapter 12. In those verses, we see God came to Moses to let Moses, let the people know that they were to get ready.

Because the long wait of waiting upon the Lord to free them from slavery, the long wait was about to be realized. Freedom was about to come. The Lord's patient timing had now arrived. In the preceding verses, the Lord let Moses know that this freedom from bondage was going to change really everything for his his people, including their calendar, where from the day that they were freed, it was gonna be such a monumental work of God that salvation. So going forward, that day of deliverance would be the first day of the first month of their new calendars.

Making this new calendar centered on this salvation from slavery, which would be a marker that they were to never forget, but to always remember the salvation of their God. Furthermore, starting the start of chapter 12, the Lord gave to Moses some instructions on how this freeing would take place, which I'm guessing is not maybe a way that Moses would have expected, particularly as he witnessed the power of God on display all throughout Exodus. Because the Lord let Moses know that this freeing that he was about to do to bring salvation for his people would actually come through a Passover lamb. With the lamb being like one of the most gentle creatures in all creation, yet all powerful God would bring about his glorious salvation. How through a lamb.

And how the Lord would do this would be on the night of freedom, the night that all this things is about to take place. Yes. God would send a destroyer who would come to bring judgment, which is destroyed here mostly as like a death angel. The death angel, yes, would come into the land, would take the life of all the firstborn from the greatest of the land, including Pharaoh's own son, to the least of the land, to even the firstborn of all the cattle. That is, unless the home had a Passover lamb who provides salvation of death and judgment.

So in this dialogue between the Lord and Moses, Moses informed on the night that the death angel was to come, the people of God were to enjoy like a meal of fellowship together. A meal that they were to eat in haste, even instruction how they eat this meal, and they eat this in haste because of how quickly salvation was about to come for them. And this meal was centered on this, on this Passover lamb, which was a lamb that was to be a lamb without spot and blemish. This guy's people fellowshipped around this lamb. They were to take the blood from the lamb and cover the sides of the front door with the blood.

So on the night that the death angel came, as they saw the death angel saw the blood of the lamb, death would pass over the home. So God's people not only could be saved from judgment, but through the blood they would be set free to eternal or to a land that is to come, which we'll talk about more in just a bit. By the way, let me also mention the yearly calendars not only were to mark this night of the passover lambs, the calendar to mark the start of the calendar, mark this night, but in the beginning of chapter 12, going forward each year, God's people, from generation to generation were to continue to celebrate this Passover meal together so that they would actively remember that which the Lord had done for them and how salvation was found through the blood of the lamb. So in a very real way, on that night, the Passover lamb died so that they could live being set free. And the theme of our sermon today, be set free to worship the Lord.

So with those instructions in the preceding verses given to Moses and the Lord, now in Our text, verse 21, if you're going to take your Isaiah, we see that Moses took that which is given from the Lord. So now he can convey that information to the people. So in text we read that Moses called all the elders of God's people together to tell them, hey, this is what is about to take place. This is how the Lord was finally going to free us. Through this blood of the lamb, Moses instructed the elders to go select lambs from the midst of their flocks.

In doing so, according to the clan that you are from, as you go to the flocks to select a lamb, this Passover lamb that you're. The Lord then instructed in the text that this lamb that was slain, that they do next is take a bunch of hyssop. Hyssop is kind of like a. Like a bushy shrub. And this hyssop is to act almost like a sponge or a brush by which they would take the hyssop and dip it into the blood of the lamb that was just spilled, that was collected in a basin, our text tells us.

And with the blood of the lamb now on the hyssop, they're then to touch the lintel, which is the top beam of the door, to put blood there. And they're also to put blood up and down on the two sides of the door. So in a very real sense, the home would be covered by the blood. And on that night when the death angel came, because of the blood, they were safe.

Verse 22, because they were safe in the blood of the lamb, we read that none were to go out of the house until the morning, which for me is probably not instruction. I would need. Right. Death angels, come in. I'm going to stay safely behind closed doors, behind the blood.

No interest nor curiosity was taking place outside. But obviously for some, maybe more curious in nature than me, might be tempted to see what was happening, maybe in a real sense, wanted to see death. This is a real instruction for them. Yes, you might be curious, intrigued, what was taking place that night. But you must fight against temptation.

You must stay covered by the blood until the morning. Because if not, if you give in to your temptation, you will perish. But in verse 23 of our text, in this last and most terrifying of plagues, for the Lord himself will pass through to strike the Egyptians, those not covered by the blood, but where the Lord sees the blood on the lentil on the two doorposts, the Lord himself will pass over the door. And he will not let the destroyer, the death angel, enter into your house to strike you. Meaning as real and as powerful as death is, this death angel was even death was under the authority of the Lord, where, under the authority of the Lord, death would strike only those who, according to the will of God, were being judged that night, where death would pass over according to the will of the Lord, those who would live as life and death ultimately are in the Lord's hands.

Now for us, let's just hit pause here just for a second, just to consider what an incredible and awesome, albeit terrifying night this must have been for God's people. So let's just try to put ourselves in their shoes and just kind of think through some of what has already taken place. So for a very long time, God's people, the shoes they were in were the shoes of slavery, doing hard labor, doing many things that were just not pleasant at all in life, where for years and years they're praying, pleading to the Lord to come and set them free, only for Moses to show up. But as he shows up, he basically tells us, hey guys, I am the answer to your prayers. I am indeed the long awaited deliverer who God would use to free you from slavery.

Yet as we remember in our study, as he showed up, chapter five. For God's people, things actually went from bad to worse as Moses approached Pharaoh for the first time. Pharaoh became so annoyed at Moses that he ended up punishing the people by demanding that not only we continue to make bricks as slaves, but going forward, they'd also now have to start to like, collect the straw for their brick making work. And from there, all these terrible, terrifying plagues fell upon the land, which some of these actually affected God's people as well. These terrifying plagues came, and at different points, they actually kind of looked for God's people, that Pharaoh was going to finally let them go, only for Pharaoh to change his mind as the Lord continued to harden his heart to keep God's people in slavery.

So from chapter five, when Moses showed up until our text today, which just covers a lot of time here for God's people, this is an absolute roller coaster of emotions, ups and downs, twists and turns, hopes, disappointments, and all of it is leading to this, this one big, awesome, terrifying night where Moses had just let them know through the elders, death is going to enter into the land. However, even through death that is about to come, their salvation would also come. And it would come from all things through a blood of a lamb, as through the lamb, salvation would come through judgment. Now for us to put ourselves in their shoes. Imagine knowing all this history and now getting this message from Moses, from the elders of the clans that salvation was coming through the blood of a lamb.

Well, keep going to text verse 24, if you want to take your eyes there. As he got this message of salvation through judgment by the blood of the lamb, we see they also get some more instructions and how it passed down the Passover. And because they get more instructions again here, I think this stresses just how important this passing down was to the Lord. Verse 24, God's people will continue to celebrate this meal each year as a rite, as a statue for you and your sons forever. Meaning this is not just something they were to celebrate on the day they were set free, on that night as they celebrate the meal together.

This is something that God's people from generation to generation would continue to celebrate, to continue to remember all of their days.

By the way, if you read through the Old Testament over and over again, Scripture actually is pointing God's people back to this very night, this salvation from the Lord as a means to draw them back to worship. Verse 25. On that day when you come into the land that the Lord will give you, which the land that they're being saved too. So not only were they being saved from the judgment, saved from slavery, but God's people are also being saved to a land, a land in the text, a land that God promised to give to them, which we know is a land flowing with milk and honey. And as he entered into that promised land, even then the salvation of God found in the blood of the land, even then this right was to be on their minds, which only continues to stress the importance of this salvation.

Where Even then, this rite in the text, this statue, this service, even then is one you are to keep and observe. Now, this here, the Lord telling his people that to keep this service even as they enter into the promised land, this incredible land flowing with milk and honey. I think this is actually the Lord like, maybe already addressing a real challenge that would be before them, which is the challenge of, like, things working out. We're in this challenge. There's a real temptation.

When things like work out for us. Do you think that we actually no longer need the Lord or temptation maybe to put the Lord on the back burner of our life? And I do think for us, we know this challenge in our own lives, where, when things are kind of going well, how quickly it is to lose track of dependency, depend upon God. Where, when things are going well, whatever that well thing is, that can quickly become like our priority, where we maybe try to fit the Lord around that priority rather than making him the priority, keeping him the priority for us. Yes, no doubt there are challenges our faith when things do not work out the way that we hope, which say it earlier, this is true for much of Moses's life.

But at least for me, from my own experience, there are often more challenges to my faith, more challenges to my dependency upon the Lord.

When things are going well, keep going. Verse 26. When the children, the next generation, who are not present on this night, when they say to you, as you remember this Passover, what do you mean by this service? Why is it that we're celebrating this meal over and over again? What's the big deal?

What's its purpose? Why the lamb? Why the blood? Verse 27. As they come with you with those questions, you are to say to them, it is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover.

You are to teach them that we do this, to remember, to never forget the night that the Lord passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, where on that night he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses. Just a couple quick thoughts on this here. First, the question the children ask. What do you mean by the service? This is actually an obvious and legitimate question here.

The generation that came after, they weren't there on that night, they did not have firsthand experience of how God redeemed his people. So it's not like, just like innately, they would have known all this. They would have needed someone to tell them, to explain to them the why, the what, the how that they were doing. They would need someone to come to them with, like, beautiful feet to pass on the Story of salvation through a lamb, which in the context here specifically was their parents.

And for us just explaining to the children, this actually is the heart of like evangelism, discipleship. None of us just innately know all these things as you're saying earlier. We're all like on this hell bound race. So we need someone to have to explain things to us, just like someone had explained things to us.

So as we learn about the things of Jesus Christ, now in turn we pass down that which we received. And with beautiful feet we explain things to others. We explain all the things that we know that is true and believe about our God and ultimately the redemption found in Lord Jesus Christ. Something kind of tied to this. So there's a phrase, but there's a time actually use, times we actually use here.

Basically it says like one generation like believes the Gospel, which is the good news found in the redemption of Jesus Christ. But without like proper evangelism and discipleship, what can happen is the next generation then starts to like basically assume the gospel and then inevitably the following generation forgets the gospel. And this is such a true statement, not only because what we see this in church history proves to be true, but even in the Old Testament people of God, where over and over again one generation would believe, but the next generation would kind of assume before the following generation would just kind of forget about things all together. Only for the Lord to have to do some type of gracious work or maybe some type of work of judgment to bring his people back to himself. So this here in the text of needing to answer the question to the next generation to teach them about the salvation from our God church, this actually is really important.

This is something that ought to be a real high priority for us as a church. For us, this is something we can't get detoured away from doing. Back to the text, the end of verse 27, after the Lord gave to Moses all this information from the Passover meal, this discipleship command to teach the next generation. We see the hearts of the people were soft before the Lord. And in the text the people like bowed their heads and they worshiped him, which hold on to this, we'll come back to this at the end.

Verse 28. As the people had their hearts soft, soft before the Lord worshiping the Lord, then the people of Israel went and did so as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron. So they did. Which here just kind of notice how basically the same thing is said twice in the text. Went and did so, and then at the end, so they did.

I think this is emphasis on the obedience of God's people, whose hearts were soft, whose hearts were stoked to worship, where they were joyfully willing to do the things that God would have them to do. Now, this is where we ended our text today. But I do want to finish off the story this in chapter 12, starting at verse 29, if you want to keep going or keep looking there. So according to what God said, at midnight that night the death angel came and indeed struck down the firstborn of the land from the son of Pharaoh to the firstborn of the cattle, where, according to his word, only those who were saved on that night were the ones who were covered by the blood of the lamb. And after this final plague hit, finally, at least in the moment, the heart of Pharaoh softened to the point that he would let God's people go.

The text tells us that 600,000 men, not counting women, children, were set free that night, bound for the promised land, where they left actually by plundering Egypt on their way. And as the people of God headed out, they did so still with soft hearts, still with hearts of worship. At the end of Exodus 12 tells us that they desired to obey God to keep the Passover from generation to generation. We're in verse 50, similar to verse 28, to further emphasize the soft heart to follow and obey God. We see in verse 50 all the people of Israel did just as the Lord had commanded.

Moses and Aaron is on that very day the Lord brought the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their host. And that's actually we're going to end in our text today. But before I end, I do want to give you some organized thoughts from this text as it relates to worship and how I wanted to do this. Just maybe try to answer a few questions on like the why, the how and the what of worship. Okay, so some thoughts here.

So let's start out with the why. And I do think it's always most important for us to get the why right before we move on to the what and the how. This is really important as a church. We must get the why right of worship. So some of the whys of worship, as I start to answer some of the whys, I do want to mention again, worship was at the center of why God desired to free his people from slavery in Egypt.

Now, yes, the desire of God is also one that was tied to, like God's love, where in his love he would do this for his people. This desire of God to free his people also is one that's tied to his promises, where in his word, God promised indeed he would free his people. And we know God is a God who makes and keeps promise. But even those realities are ultimately tied to worship. We're to say it again, throughout the story of Moses that we've been looking at this summer.

God would free his people. Why? So that they could worship Him. So for us, why? This is why.

This is why we exist, to worship God and why we should worship God. Well, we see throughout Exodus, throughout Scripture, because our God is the one who is worthy of our worship. Because our God is the one who is glorious in all who he is, as the great I am, which is Exodus 3 in all that he does, including his great salvation. And so for his glory, the Lord is calling us to worship. That's a real why of worship.

Why? Worship is always at the heart of our God. Why? Because he's worthy of it. Because his glory actually demands us to worship Him.

Very much tied to this why worship? This also is our design. So God created mankind to worship him, to keep him at the center, at the priority of our life, where all that we are to do in life, even the roller coaster relied in life. Big things, little things, even little things like eating and drinking, they all are to be done in worship of him, to bring glory to our God friends. That's actually why we exist.

This is part of the why of worship. This is where we find joy, we find meaning, we find purpose is in worshiping our God for us as church. This is why worship is not only a pillar, but the pillar, the most important pillar. Where our desire as a church is to joyfully pour out our lives in the worship of our God, knowing that is where our meaning, that is where our purpose is found.

However, unfortunately, tragically, sinfully, we know this as individuals, even as a church as a whole. This is something that we can easily detour from where there's so many other things that can get us sidetracked. So many other things like pull at our hearts in worship. We start to worship other things other than God. And if we do that, if we detour from our worship of the Lord, we must be quick to repent, to get this right, to put and keep God at the center.

Because if we miss worship, the why of worship, everything else is a house of cards that will not stand so for us. Even this morning, if you know, like the worship of the Lord, if it's not at the center of your life, where any like somehow you detoured and you're trying to put your hope in other Things repent come back to him. Which actually leads the next question relates to a how question. And the how question, I'm not referring to like, you know, some type of posture. Like, this is how we do it.

This is how we worship. By this posture, rather the how here, I'm actually referring to, like, how is it even possible for us to come to God in worship? And this actually is a pretty important question for us to know and understand. Because we actually all are sinners. And like Pharaoh, even by birth, by choice, we actually all have hard hearts.

And because we are sinners with hard hearts before God, we can't approach Him. We can't come to God on our own because God is like, perfect in all that. He is perfect in his holiness, perfect in his glory. So we can't, like, just like waltz in and try to approach the Lord in worship, like, just kind of on our own. And likewise, it's not like we somehow can, like, worship our way to God.

So this is actually important question of how that we must know. So, like, how is it that we can actually worship God as sinners? Well, in the text today, we need the Lord to act on our behalf. Our text today, the Lord acted through the blood of the Lamb, so that his people would be saved from judgment, that the Lord would pass over so they'd be set free, that they might worship him without the blood of the Lamb. They'd been bound in judgment as sinners, rightfully.

And for us, as real as the blood of the Lamb was in Exodus 12, as real as it was the salvation of God bringing his people out of slavery, the blood of that Lamb. That salvation in Exodus 12 is ultimately a pointer to a better, more spotless lamb that was to come, an even better salvation.

The Lord provided for his people a better Lamb, the Lamb of God, as God himself came to us in the person of the great God man, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, who came to take away the sins of the world, which Jesus did by willingly, joyfully laying down his life for his people, which he did on a cross where the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, spilled His blood for us, where he died in our place, so that through him, through Jesus, him alone, we'd be saved from judgment. We'd be set free, bound for eternal promised land that is to come. So that through Jesus, friends, that's how we can worship God. It's only through him, through us putting our faith in him, trusting in him, in the blood of his eternal covenant. It's us calling upon the name of Jesus as our Lord, as the One who died for us, only to rise again from the dead on the third day.

Which, by the way, is why, as a church, why we say the wooden cross and empty tomb mean everything to us. Because without it, without Jesus being our true Lamb, we would still be in the bondage of sin and there would be no possibility for us to worship God. We can only come to God the Father and worship through him, by the way, because Jesus Christ not only died as the Lamb of God, but because he rose again on the third day, which was a Sunday. Now, our entire calendar is actually marked with Sunday being the first day of the week, which is actually a unique and special day by which we were to gather together as a church body and worship, where we gather together not only to worship the Lord, but we do so in ways that we're sitting under his word, where we sing his praises, where over and over again, we celebrate the new Passover meal, the Lord's Supper, to help us to remember, to never forget what Jesus has done for us actually leads to the what of worship. So what should our lives look like if we're going to spend worshiping God?

Well, in the text, the heart of worship, our lives will look like having soft hearts before God. Soft hearts that are like, joyfully obeying all the things that God would have us to do, doing all the things that God has to do, and not doing the things that he would not want us to do. And these things change from being burdens or maybe even options. But when we're worshiping the Lord of soft hearts, all these things now become like the desire of our heart, where we want to do the things that God would have us to do, which is true of God's people in the text. So for us as a church, some of the things it looks like all includes not forsaking, meeting together on Sundays, which is a habit that's easy to get into.

But like God's people, we're to celebrate the Passover each year. Now, as God's people, we are to celebrate Jesus death and resurrection. Each Sunday we set our hearts to serve him, to serve others, not out of duty, but out of delight, because our hearts are soft to worship. And I know for various reasons it can be challenging at times, but at the heart of worship, these are challenges we seek to overcome.

In our language, this is very much tied to the pillars of connect and grow, to come to be around God's people week after week after. Furthermore, what. What are we going to do if we're Going to worship God tied to our pillar. To go in the text, what we will do say we're going to pass down the message of our faith from generation to generation. This is, this is part of our worship.

We're engaging our lives in evangelism and discipleship.

Word of a heart of worship. We're explaining to others the tenets of our faith. Centering on the salvation of God found in Jesus Christ is one not only we celebrate today and hopefully every day, but the one that we'll celebrate and worship even as we enter into the eternal promised land that is to come, where forever and ever our worship will be to the Lamb who was slain, the one who is worthy. So yes, today a little bit of a detour of what was originally planned. But my hope is that this detour actually keep us on track on that which is most important to us as a church family, which always starts, always ends with worship.

Through Jesus we are set free, forgiven of our sins, bound for the promised land so that we might worship him all of our days and all the way throughout eternity. As I close, if you know, for a host of different reasons, maybe you've detoured in your own life from this worship of Christ. So may the chorus of the song that was actually popular a few years back when I first made Christian, may this song, by the grace of God, be a true of you today. Just simply says I'm coming back to the heart of worship and it's all about you. It's all about you, Jesus.

Let's pray.

Lord, thank you for Jesus who is the true lamb of God, who came to take away the sin sins of the world.

And Lord, this morning we confess again that without Jesus there's no way we could come to you in worship because of our hard hearts, because of our sin.

Lord, thank you for your grace and your kindness, your mercy on us to help us to trust and to believe.

And Lord, I do pray that today all of us that have hearts to worship Jesus.

And Lord, I pray for those here maybe have yet to trust in Jesus, who've yet to have their lives covered by the blood, that today that you would do that in their life, that you would take out a heart of stone, but put in a heart of flesh that is now soft towards you.

And Lord, I do pray that you'd help us to keep the worship of you always at the center of all that we do. Pray us on Jesus name, Amen.

All right, well, beautiful singing. Thank you, Adam and man for leaning to song. So if I've not met you, my name is Aaron and I'm the preaching pastor here and glad that you're with us today. And so as you heard, we have special visitors with us. So Robert and Lindsay and their family.

So Robert was a church planning resident with us. Him and I actually were like good buddies all the way back to seminary. So they were here for four years and now we're starting a church in rural Tennessee. The place place called Cowan. And so they'll be sharing a little bit more about their ministry and a youth mission trip that we took this summer after church at Potluck.

We'd love you to join, but it's not just them that are here. So Kelsey and Sarah are here as well. And so they're a part of Red Village for a long time. Sarah's actually part of our staff helping out with our kids ministry. And they're known for a lot of things, but especially the vbs.

And so we were a little worried this summer how we're going to do VBS without Sarah and Kelson, but we pulled it off somehow and. But we're glad that they're with us with us today as well. So if you have a Bible with you, if you'd open up to the book of Exodus, their texture studies and come From Exodus chapter 7, verses 1 through 13, if you have a Bible, or if you don't have a Bible with you, there are pew Bibles scattered throughout and it's on page 28 if you want to turn there. And so we do a style of preaching here called expository preaching. And so what I'm going to do, I'm going to read the text, going to pray, ask the Lord's blessing on time, and then we're going to work right back through the text.

And I'm going to do my best is to try to explain the text to you in ways that hopefully apply to your life. And so Exodus 7, verses 1 through 13. And I'll be reading out of the ESV, so please to hear the words of our God. Moses wrote this. And the Lord said to Moses, see, I've made you like God to Pharaoh.

And your brother Aaron shall be your prophet. You shall speak that all that I command you. And your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go out of his land. But I'll harden Pharaoh's heart. And though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, Pharaoh will not listen to you.

Then I'll lay my hand in Egypt and bring my host, my people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment. The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out my people of Israel from among them. Moses and Aaron did so. They did just as the Lord commanded them. Now, Moses was 80 years old and Aaron 83 years old when they spoke to Pharaoh.

Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, when Pharaoh saw says to you, prove yourself by working a miracle. Then you shall say to Aaron, take your staff, cast it down before Pharaoh that it may become a serpent. So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord commanded. Aaron cast down the staff before Pharaoh and his servants and became a serpent. Then Pharaoh summoned his wise men and the sorcerers, and they, the magicians of Egypt, also did the same by their secret arts.

For each man cast down his staff and they became serpents. But Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs. Still, Pharaoh's heart was hardened and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said. So that's God's word for us this morning. Could you please pray with me?

Lord, it's good to be here. And Lord, there's many reasons why we can and should be here this morning. But the main reason why we're here is we want to hear from you, from your word. So we pray that through the power of your holy spirit, you indeed would speak through your word, that you would touch our hearts in ways that you would grow our hearts to be more like Jesus. And you grow our hearts to put our faith in him in deeper ways than when we first walked in.

I pray this all in Jesus name. Amen. So for some, as you remember, as we start out this summer series through the beginning portion of the life of Moses that's found in the book of Exodus, we actually started with the end of Moses life, where I gave you a sermon found in Deuteronomy 34, which detailed the last days of Moses life, where Moses died with God's people who have been wandering in the wilderness for 40 years because of their sin, where they were on the verge of entering into the promised land, where Moses had been leading them for the entire 40 years. And just before that passage, it shares those details of Moses end of his Life in Deuteronomy 29. So a few chapters prior, we read one of Moses final acts as the leader of God's people, where Moses basically sits God's people down and recounted to them some of the past 40 years, starting with them being set free from the bondage of slavery in Egypt, which part of our text today is part of that freeing?

And as Moses counted the past 40 years, where God was good to them, where they were faithful and fail, or a sinful and failed God, Moses then led God's people to renew the covenant, the law that God made with them first at Mount Sinai, recorded in Exodus 24, which is a covenant that the previous generation actually first made, but woefully failed to keep. And in 29, as a covenant, chapter 29, as a covenant renewed, Moses shared some great wisdom with God's people in verse 29, which is a passage that really is a piece of wisdom, that one that I've actually thought about often in my life. So just hear what this says. It's Deuteronomy 29. 29.

It says, the secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever that we may do. All the words of this law, and this wisdom from Moses is one, I think meant to help to keep our trust in the Lord by being. Trusting him as his faithful people to his good plan, which is a plan that's actually a secret to him in terms of, like, how this plan will be played out, or like, why he is doing the things he is doing as he's working out his plan. And because this is a secret plan, one that we do not fully know, or maybe even more so fully understand when it's happening, it can be hard for us to trust in him sometimes from our very limited perspective, things just don't always make sense with the plan. For Moses, this is where wisdom is found.

Trusting in God, trusting His plan, trusting to the very things that belong only to the Lord, but also in that plan. While we're trusting in the secret things of the Lord, the things that God does give to us, that he does reveal to us, that have been made known to us, like things like his commands, like wisdom that we can acquire. So these things in life like, that belong to us, like we should walk in them. So in short, we are to trust God, especially when things don't make sense and he's working out the plan that don't make sense, we're to trust in him while still being faithful to God. And the things that we know that he would have us to do.

So that's the wisdom from Moses that he was leaving God's people. As I mentioned, I've actually thought about this passage pretty Often in my own life. Because in my own life, I'm sure many of you here, we know this reality of that the secret things that belong to the Lord, some of those things are really hard for us to understand. And it makes it hard for us actually to live out our faith with things that we do know in ways that honor Him. And that's why I share this with you, because I've wondered how this passage we're about to work through Today in Exodus 7 was perhaps, maybe in part on Moses mind, as he years later wrote Deuteronomy 29:29.

We're in our text today. Moses is like trying to be faithful to the very things God gave him to do. Things that were in line with God's promises. Yet in the secret plan of God, things are not like turning out in ways that Moses perhaps thought they would, at least not right away. We're in the moment as these things are not adding up.

It had to be hard for Moses to trust the Lord. And by the way, it's not just our passage today where this is true for Moses. If you read through the entire book of Exodus, I guess this is actually true for a lot of Moses life. Like he's trying to be faithful to the things that belong to him that God would have him to do, while trying to trust in this plan that only God knows that wasn't really making sense. He's trying to trust indeed, even though it didn't make sense to him, these things would come to fruition, even though in the moment they were not working out the way he hoped.

So now before we get into our text, just a reminder where we left off in our study. So we actually started off in Exodus 2. This is a few weeks back where God's people, the Hebrew people, were in the bondage of slavery in Egypt. And in Exodus 1 and 2, as you may remember, the Pharaoh of Egypt was like on a murderous rampage as he directed like all the baby boys of the Hebrew children to be murdered, which led Moses mother to do that which she knew to do, where she tried to be faithful with that which belonged to her. So she put Moses in a basket and floated him down the Nile, not knowing what would happen from there.

Yet in the secret plan of God, according to his providential hand, the basket where Moses laid floated right into the hands of the daughter of Pharaoh, who took Moses up and actually raised Moses to be her own as a prince of Egypt. Then for 40 years of living as a prince, somehow became known to Moses that not only was he actually A Hebrew. But he had this burden to help free God's people who were slaves in Egypt. However, with this knowledge that was given to Moses, instead of being faithful to trust in God, it appeared that Moses like, started to trust in himself. And so he tried to take matters into his own hand.

And he murdered an Egyptian, burying him in the sand. Which led for Moses to like, flee Egypt, where he would go on his own personal wandering in the wilderness, which he did for a long time, like 40 years. Like he's just kind of wandering out in the wilderness. However, in the secret plan of God, this is what God is using to shape Moses as according to his plan. God is putting Moses through his like, refiner's fire to humble and teach Moses in ways that Moses learned to trust in the Lord and not in himself.

And part of this refiner's fire from Moses, part of the Lord's secret plan for Moses, life was providentially guiding Moses into a shepherding community, which is where he'd be for 40 years, where he would toil in obscurity, toil among the sheep, where I'm sure for Moses, like, none of this was adding up, none of this was making sense to him and his desire to free his people from slavery. Yet this is part of God's secret plan for Moses, where Moses had to learn how to shepherd sheep as God was preparing him to shepherd his people. Furthermore, you may remember in our summer study, one day when Moses was out with his sheep, he saw a burning bush that caught his attention. And as Moses approached this burning bush, he learned this is like no ordinary burning bush, but this bush, the very presence of God was uniquely there, making even the ground that Moses stood upon holy ground. And at this bush, in the grace of God, Moses met God as Yahweh the Great I am.

And Moses was commissioned by God. As Moses was given instructions how God actually is going to use him to free his people from slavery. As God revealed part of his plan for Moses to know things, that these things now would belong to him. And this plan of God would not be worked out by Moses own strength, you know, to go about like murdering and burying Egyptians. But this plan of God to free his people would come from the very hand of God himself, through his strength.

Also, as you may remember, as this revealed truth came to Moses, for him to now know and have. You remember how like Moses, like, pushed back and he doubted the Lord and this plan, maybe doubting like this control that he had to give up in order to trust God. And as Moses pushed back he did so even though God gave him, like, powerful signs to affirm that, no, this actually is the call that I have on your life. Most ultimately pushed back because his eyes are on himself instead of on God. As Moses focused on himself, he didn't feel himself like qualified for the task because he had this, like, lack of ability to speak in public.

So you may remember an act of God's grace and kindness. God gave to Moses, his brother Aaron, who you're going to see in our text today, who would be like a prophet to Moses, who would go and speak for Moses. So with Aaron there to help him, after 40 years of training as a shepherd in the wilderness, Moses heads back to Egypt. And he goes before, before Pharaoh to do the very thing that he knew that he was to do from the Lord, the thing that belonged to him, the thing the Lord instructed him to do, which was to speak to Pharaoh in ways to command Pharaoh to let God's people go. However, in a study from a few weeks back, as Moses told Pharaoh to let God's people go, things did not go according to how Moses thought they should and would go.

Because in the secret plan of God, God actually hardened Pharaoh's heart, where Pharaoh not only rejected Moses in this call, but he rejected him in ways that he actually, Pharaoh made things even harder for God's people, as they were told to make just as many bricks as they were making before, which is part of their burdens as slaves. But now, in addition, because Pharaoh's annoyed at Moses now, in addition, God's people had more burdens and that they would actually have to, like, get the straw to make the bricks as well. Say it again. For Moses, this made, like, no sense. He did the very thing that.

That God would have him to do. Yet the result, at least in the moment, according to the Lord's secret plan, things did not work out. In fact, things only got worse and harder for God's people, who in turn actually became very angry at Moses, which made things harder for Moses. So really, in that moment, for Moses, things went from bad to worse. Yeah.

Keep saying this is part of the secret plan of God. All part of God's work in Moses. All part of God's work in his people. All part of God's work in Pharaoh. All part of God's work to keep his promise to deliver his people from slavery.

The moment as all this is taking place, Moses is getting frustrated, discouraged, perhaps depressed by where things were in his life. Keep saying they're not making sense. Even though the Lord continued to make known to Moses and to reassure Moses that indeed he was with him and that he was going to use him to deliver his people. Yet even though the Lord continued to do this, continued to give this information and affirmation so things could now belong to Moses. These things Moses continued to struggle with doubt.

Things continued to not add up. Things still felt like they're spiraling out of control. And Moses doubted even more so how great Pharaoh would ever listen to him. So there's really a lot going on in our study this summer. A lot of things that belong to Moses that God made known to Moses, that Moses was to be faithful, to walk.

And in many ways he was. Yet. And how these things are being worked out, the timing of when things would work out, they were secret only for the Lord to know that this did not make sense to Moses where he was frustrated and confused, having his doubts. And that actually brings us back to our text today in chapter seven, we're going to see continue to see like more things that belong to Moses. As God continues to give Moses instruction and wisdom.

Things that he was to do, even some understanding on why he was going to do what he's going to do. Yet we also see these instructions, these wisdom are going to be used by the Lord in ways that were really a secret to him. Still hard for Moses to understand. Hard for Moses to trust in the Lord. What he's doing this morning is work through this passage where we can.

I do want us to identify ourselves where we can with Moses, particularly with however God is at work in your own life, how he's leading and guiding your own life, to trust in him and the secret plan, whatever that is that he has for you, that belongs just to him, to trust him, even if things are not adding up for you. And how I hope that we trust in him and his secret plan. So I also identify Moses in the text where we're faithful to do the things that do belong to us. To faithfully humbly walk in the commands of God and friends. That's really what our faith is about.

That's really where wisdom is found. We just simply trust in God with the things that belong to him, even though they don't make sense to us. And we're to trust in him by faithfully walking in the things that we do know belong to us. Okay, so back to our text. Verse 1.

After Moses continued to express his doubts at the end of chapter six, in the grace of God, at the start of the passage today, Moses, our Lord came to Moses yet again to yet again Reassure him and how the Lord's hand was on him to reassure Moses that, you know, I did not leave you, I did not forsake you. Even though the continued stress, things are not working out for Moses the way he hoped and for us already we do need to see how this is part of God's graciousness towards Moses. Moses is struggling with doubts really through much of his life and ministry where he had times where he's struggling to trust in the Lord when things are not adding up yet over and over again in his grace, the Lord would come to Moses to comfort him, to reassure him, to be a present help in his times of need. You know, as great as Moses was, and he really was great, Moses still desperately needed the grace of God, the mercy of God in his life, which I'm sure is a graciousness that God had on him, that he knew that he could see that probably was on his heart when he wrote. Exodus 34 says the Lord the Lord, a God, merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping his steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgressions and sin.

Text Today this is the grace of God. The Lord coming to Moses as he comes to Moses. Moses, say what I want you to understand. The information that I'm giving for you to have is I actually have made you like God to Pharaoh or in the text, your brother Aaron is like your prophet who speaks on your behalf. So Moses, this is the plan that I have.

This is the part of the plan I'm working out. Sure, maybe not this is not your plan, but this is my plan. Not what you do, but the wisdom of my plan. How I will free my people, I will do it by you being my representative. Almost like a godlike figure to Pharaoh.

With Aaron almost being like a prophet to you. Who is your mouthpiece and why was this God's plan? And why is he choosing to operate in this way? To use Moses Aaron as his prophet? That's part of the secrets belong to the Lord.

God could have done countless different things to free his people. But making Moses like a God to Pharaoh, making Aaron almost like a prophet to Moses, that's his plan. Plan according to his wisdom, it's a plan by which God knows what's best. Verse two, if you get Isaiah. So Moses, with this plan that I'm giving to you, you're going to speak all that I command you to say.

Meaning Moses, I'm not going to require you to have to come up some things to say on your own. You don't need to figure this all out, brother. Just be humble here and do the things I'm revealing to you. Just be obedient with this information. And from there, Moses, you, Aaron, your prophet, will take that information and declare that truth.

My truth to Pharaoh, telling it to him that he, Pharaoh, is to let the people of Israel go out of the land. Now, just a couple things here. First, this humility piece is to simply walk in what God has revealed to us that's so important, right? We just need to be humble to do the things that God would have us to do. Whatever he tells us to do, we just walk in that gut.

So Scripture tells us God opposes the proud, those who reject that which he reveals to or things to, who try to control and manipulate things on their own as if they know better than God. But Scripture tells us God gives grace to the humble who humble themselves before the Lord, before His word, before his plan, who humbly do the things that he would have us to do, even if we don't always understand it. Second, just notice that this information that God gave to Moses, which in turn Aaron would give to Pharaoh, this is like the same consistent message that the Lord has been telling to Moses. Really all the way back to Exodus 3 and the burning bush. Moses, this is what you're to do.

This is my plan. This is how I'm going to redeem my people. It is going to be through you, through the message that I give to you. Over and over again, the Lord told Moses the same basic idea for us. Even though the Lord is infinite, has all wisdom, and has all understanding, where he sees all possibilities of all things, the Lord is still steadfast.

He's very clear with his intentions. His plans meaning his message, his plan, like it doesn't change now for us. Yes, we might not understand how this plan will work out, but what the Lord has revealed to us in His Word is that he's steadfast. He's consistent, he's constant in his nature. Scripture tells us the Lord is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

So are his plans, his intentions, his plans and intentions that he promises to us that he will see through, they do not change. So, yes, we may not understand all the workings of the plan, but as we see the steadfast nature of our God in Scripture, friends, that's enough.

That's enough for us to trust him with the things that we don't know or do not understand. So in the text, with the same consistent Message from the Lord that Moses was to be faithful with. In verse three, we see Moses trust was about to be tested again, because for reasons that were secret to the Lord, even though Moses would do the very thing that God would have him to do in the text, as Moses declared God's message to Pharaoh, yet again, God made it known to Moses that he, the Lord would continue to actively harden the heart of Pharaoh, to harden in ways that he would not respond in faith to the message of Moses. And Lord would do this, even though in verse three, the text tells us the Lord also would like, multiply signs and wonders in Egypt for all to see, including Pharaoh. Now, just for us for a few moments, let's just kind of just sit on this just for a bit, just to try to further identify ourselves with Moses here in this passage.

So these things just happened. The Lord to Moses, Moses, I'm going to use you. I'm going to use you to free my people from bondage. You are my chosen deliverer. And as I send you back to Egypt to go before Pharaoh, I'm actually going to give you my powerful word to communicate to the Pharaoh.

And not only that, Moses, I'm going to perform incredible powerful signs and wonders for all to see, including Pharaoh. So, Moses, trust me, my word, my. My power. These things are going to be undeniable yet. However, as you do all this, as you're faithful to walk in these things, just know Pharaoh's not going to listen to you.

And the reason why he won't listen is I'm actually going to harden his heart so he doesn't free my people from bondage. At least not yet. Now, if we were in Moses sandals here, think how hard this would be to grasp. This seems like it should be a pretty easy formula here that should result in the right results, the ones that we want. Okay, God, this is your will.

This is your promise. I'm being faithful to do the things you would have me to do. So we would think, like, things should work out. But in this moment, at least from Moses's vantage point, he's informed. At least for now, things are not going to work out like, like at all.

Keep saying, if we're Moses here, this would be hard to understand, maybe even harder to accept. I mean, to backtrack. So Moses literally left everything behind to follow the call of God. And even though there's a struggle, Moses in many ways was faithful to the Lord. He's trying to trust in the Lord, and he is going before Pharaoh.

Even though earlier, as mentioned, he had serious doubts about it, that he would do it. And now he's informed this. That according to the secret plan of God, Pharaoh would not harden or would not listen, because the Lord actually would harden his heart. At least for me. This plan of God, the secret plan here, if I was Moses, this would feel like either mean or cruel.

Like, why follow God? Why do all of this if this is results that are going to happen. Keep going. Verse 4. To underscore the reality that God himself would harden the heart of Pharaoh.

Moses informed that. Yeah, Moses, be prepared. Pharaoh's not going to listen to you. He's not going to listen. No matter how insistent you are, no matter how good of an argument you may make, how persuasive you may be.

He's not going to listen. No matter how much evidence you may produce and why he should heed to your command.

He's not going to listen no matter how well, like you approach him to have this conversation. Moses, listen. You can talk until you're blue in the face. I'm telling you, he's not gonna listen. But then, Moses, well, you don't fully understand, at least from your vantage point.

But I want you to trust me with here, what I'm going to do. According to my timing and my perfect plan. At the right time. Just know. Just trust.

I will lay my hand on Egypt, and I will bring my host, my people, the children of Israel, out of the bonds of slavery, as I promised to do. Moses, sure, I know you don't see it now, but I'm gonna do something that you could never imagine. Far more than you could ever ask or think. According to the secret things that belong to me. Moses, I know you don't see it now.

And really, for Moses, he's not gonna see this for some time.

Because the plan of God is one that's worked out with patience, where the Lord is doing a million different things at all times. Like in your own life, the life of those around you. For Moses, in his life, for Pharaoh's life, throughout all Egypt, doing all these things to work out his perfect, patient plan. It's on his text. Yes.

Moses, you don't understand. This is going to take time. But you got to trust me. I'm going to deliver my people out of the land of Egypt. I will do it through you, just as I promised.

But be humble, be patient. Continue to do the things I'm telling you to do, Things that belong to you. And patiently wait for me. Moses. I promise I will not fail you.

I will not fail my people. I will not break my. My promise or in the text. Moses. I'm going to do all that I promise to do with great acts of judgment that are going to be undeniable as my salvation will come through judgment.

In the text, Moses is then according to my plan, according to my timing, the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord. So yes, Moses, today and for many more days to come. You're not gonna get it. At least not fully. You're not fully gonna understand.

It's not gonna make sense to you. Things are not gonna add up. It's gonna be very humbling for you, yet keep saying it. Trust me, I know what I'm doing. Trust me.

I'm not leaving you nor forsaking you. Trust me, I'm not being cruel. Trust me in ways that you're being humbly faithful to do. The things that have been made known to you that now belong to you. In verse five, our text.

Moses, in time, you and all others will see this when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them.

Moses, trust me. Take heart, Find hope. My will will be done. My salvation, my deliverance, it will go forward. As the Lord yet again spoke this to Moses, Even though Moses still, I'm sure, is still trying to wrap his mind about all this was about to take place.

Verse 6, we see by faith, he humbly obeyed. And he and his brother Aaron took God at his word. And they did just as the Lord commanded them to do, to do the things that were given to them. And they did this in verse seven, with Moses being 80 years old and his brother Aaron 83 years old when they went to speak to Pharaoh. Now sit.

Pause again. It's a couple things here. First, this is kind of a continuing reminder for us that we like, never age out of serving the Lord. So no doubt at some point we might age into like retirement from our vocational jobs. And no doubt, you know, with age, things may be able to adjust how we serve.

But that being said, however long the Lord gives us life, 80, 83 older friends, we'll never age out of serving him. And others, we never age out in ways that God can't use us. Second, something we've been circle on kind of throughout the summer, something I mentioned at the start of the first sermon, I want to mention again here. It's just the patience of God. We're in his patience according to his plan.

The Lord is Preparing Moses for 80 long years for this task where, yes, at age 40, melt. Moses felt he was like up to the task when he murdered the Egyptian and buried him in sand. But the Lord knew better. So for the next 40 years, through his refiner's fire, the Lord patiently was at work in Moses life to prepare him for this task he was calling him to do. Which by the way, for us, particularly when things are not working out the way we hope.

Who knows in those moments how the Lord is patiently at work in your life to put you through a refiner's fire for whatever he is calling to you, calling you to next. Keep going. Verse 8 and 9 with Moses and Aaron trusting God and his task set before him, or for them to go to Pharaoh, which this actually be the second time they go to Pharaoh. The first time resulted in God's people having to collect their own straw for the bricks. Lord said to Moses, Aaron, guys, so.

So I want you to go before Pharaoh for the second time. And this time when you go before him, I want you to tell him the same message, right? The message of salvation for my people. But as I harden his heart, what Pharaoh's gonna say back to you in verse nine is like, okay, Moses, Aaron, you're back a second time. How about this guys, talk is cheap.

Moses, Aaron, how about you prove yourself in your so called God by working a miracle somehow? Show me how great your God is and perhaps I will consider your requests. Attacks Aaron, because you're a Moses prophet, as Pharaoh is about to say this to you when you go into his presence, what then I want you to do is I want you to take your staff and I want you to cast it down before Pharaoh that it may become a serpent. Notice a couple things on this here. So first, this word serpent can also be translated to something like a great serpent here, perhaps like a great cobra, which was one of the symbols of Egypt.

Although some actually translate this word serpent into something like a dragon, or like a sea monster, or even like something like a crocodile. Second, as you may remember, this sign of a staff becoming a serpent. This is actually a sign that God already performed for Moses in Exodus 4 to help Moses to trust in him. However, let me mention, scholars point out the word Serpent in Exodus 4 is different than the word for serpent here in Exodus 7. So in Exodus 4, the word serpent is actually a word meant to describe more like a common snake, where here this is like some type of great snake.

So it appears that before Pharaoh, God would do something even more spectacular than he has previously done. Verse 10 as this command was given to Moses and to Aaron, by faith they obeyed. They Humbly went before Pharaoh to do just as the Lord commanded, where Aaron did the very thing that he was told to do, and he cast down the staff before Pharaoh and his servants. And as Aaron faithfully did, which the Lord commanded him to do, the Lord promised or fulfilled what he promised to do, and the staff became a serpent working the very miracle Pharaoh dared them to do. Harvest took place in the text.

So Pharaoh was not convinced or even impressed. Basically, he summoned up his wise men and sorcerers, the magicians of the land of Egypt, and he summoned them to enter into the chamber as well. And as they enter in no doubt Pharaoh had explained to them what just happened. You know, why is there's this great serpent in the chamber to which our text tells us that the magicians end up doing the same thing by their secret arts, where somehow they're able to summon up a serpent into the chamber. Now, for me, I'm not sure how they did this, and perhaps this is some type of magician's sleight of hand trick.

And actually some like ancient writings where Egyptian magicians were able to like, basically like stun snakes, to almost give them like a staff, like appearance. So it's possible that maybe that's what happened here. For me, I actually do tend to wonder if this is actually through some type of occultic or demonic power, they're able to do this, to create some type of false sign meant to deceive for me, I don't know. But whatever took place here, however it took place, we're gonna end our text today. In verse 12 is a more important thing for us to see, which is God proving himself to be greater and more powerful than that of Pharaoh.

In the text, as each man cast down his staff, with each staff becoming a serpent, we read that it's Aaron's staff, he his servant, the one who came by the hand of very God himself, who swallowed up in victory the other staffs, which was a further proof, a further sign, a further evidence of the power of the God of Moses and Aaron. However, according to the secret plan of God, even though this miracle just took place before Pharaoh, as God's power was made clear in verse 13, still Pharaoh's heart was hardened and he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, and he did not free God's people, just as the Lord had said. And for us, that's written in our text today. But as I end, I do want to circle back to where we started. And these secret things belong to the Lord and the things belong to us.

And I just want to really speak briefly to both of these realities. So first, let me just speak the reality of the secret things belong to the Lord. Now, obviously there's a lot of things that could be said here, but for us, let me just encourage us with this reality that while in the moment it could be hard for us to understand, maybe accept the secret hand of God, in time we will. And if you keep reading the storyline of Moses, this is true for him in the moment, over and over and over again throughout his life. In the moment, things did not make sense.

They did not add up. They're hard for him to understand. But in time, Moses could better see, better understand all that the Lord is doing, how this is all part of his secret, glorious plan for us in our own lives. I'm sure there has been and it will continue to be true for us that there's gonna be things in life that are just not gonna make sense. Like Moses, they're just not going to add up.

We're going to be confused, frustrated, perhaps doubting God. But friends, we must have faith in time. According to God's perfect plan, his perfect timing, things will make sense. We're in time, we'll have a better understanding on why the Lord was doing what he was doing, which not only will prove to be for our good, as mentioned, he uses difficult, confusing times to be like a refiner's fire. But even more so, in time we'll see how all those hard and confusing times were used by the Lord to put his glory on display in ways that we could never imagine or think as those hard for us to understand moments through them, that is how the Lord is extending his salvation through judgment.

By the way, this is a truth not only that we see in the life of Moses, including this passage today, but ultimately this is true. But when we set our eyes to the cross of Christ, which ultimately where God keeps all of his promises in Jesus, where we know that indeed God is merciful and gracious and slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. As you look to Jesus, we see that indeed he is a God who's steadfast in his love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgressions and sin. Because it is through Jesus, according to God's secret plan, where he would send Jesus, his only begotten Son, to die on a cross, which at the time made no sense for his followers, perhaps even for some of us here today, still makes no sense to you. Maybe it's confusing, yet it was on the cross that's where God's glory would be put on display in incredible ways as the judgment of God that burns over sin, our sin, it fell on Jesus instead of his people.

So that through Jesus taking on God's judgment in our place, friends, that's where we would find salvation as we put our hope in Him. While Jesus died on that day, I'm sure it made no sense, hard for his people to understand and accept. Friends, in time, three days later, we see indeed how powerful God is.

But he's even more powerful than the ancient serpent, the devil, even more powerful than death itself. Because in time, on the third day, according to God's plan, His word, his timing, the Lord Jesus Christ rose again from the dead, so that through his resurrection, even death is swallowed up in victory. Friends. Yes, Many things in life keep saying in the moment do not make sense to us. There are many things that are hard for us to understand.

How God is working out his secret plan Today, by faith, may we look to Jesus so that things can become more clear.

We're things that when he returns, all things will be revealed and be made to us. Will it be even more gloriously clear how God has been at work in our life? So for us, here and now, we just have to trust in the Lord. We just have to trust in his plan, not ourselves, not our own plan. Trust in the Lord, knowing that in Jesus, God will keep his promises to his people.

And in Jesus, he is working all things together for our good. So in the end, we will see his glory on display. Lead to second things I'm going to leave us with. So the secret plan of God which is mentioned is a plan by which he's working all things for the good of his people. A plan by which he's extending his salvation through judgment.

A plan that is glorious and will be made known to us. A plan that the Lord is doing a million different things unit all things together to Christ. And because of this secret plan that belongs to the Lord and Lord alone for us, it actually should give us hope in this life that he has a plan. And it should give us hope in ways that we're humbly faithful to walk in whatever it is that he's given to you, the things that belong to us, whatever they may be, to by faith humbly walk in his commands. To by faith humbly put off sin.

The secret plan of God gives us so much hope to walk in that which has been made known to us, the church with that which is made known to us. Things in God's Word and his wisdom, things that we may learn in life. May we walk with him all of our days, no matter how old we may be. May we walk with him even in the days when things don't add up or make sense. May we be faithful to give up control and trust in the one who is in control.

And to use our language, May we spend our life worshiping our God, which by the way, is the intended purpose of the salvation found in the Exodus, that God's people might worship him. May we spend our life connecting with others where we know that the Lord has not designed us to live in isolation, but in community. So maybe we be faithful to walk in that which we know. May we spend our life seeking to grow in our faith. Trusting indeed.

That's actually what the refiner's fire is doing for us and in us, that the Lord is chipping away that which is not healthy so that which is healthy might grow. And for us. May we spend our life like Moses in the text, going to others to declare to others the message of salvation through judgment that is found in Jesus Christ. And may we go in ways that we trust that even in the moment, if others hear the message of Christ, if in that moment their hearts are hard, may we trust, may we believe, may we pray that at the right time, by the grace of God, indeed others will know the Lord. So, church, yes, trust, find rest, find peace in the secret plan of God doing so in ways that you are faithful to walk in that which has been made known to you.

Let's pray.

Lord, it's really hard for us in life when things just don't make sense to us. Lord, we confess it's really hard to trust in you, even though we should. So God, by your grace, I pray that this morning all of us would trust in you. Trust in whatever plan that you're working out in our life and help us to trust in ways that we are faithful to walk in that which has been made known to us. Knowing that you're good and knowing that in Jesus that you love us.

So God, please bless our little church family. May we see your glory. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen.

All right. Hey, everybody. My name is Caleb, and I'm grateful to bring God's word today. I'm going to read the passage, and then I'll pray. I just want to make sure that this sounds good.

Okay, so I'm going to read Matthew 9, verses 1 through 13. And I don't know the page number, but I'll give you a second to turn there. In The Bibles, Matthew 9, 1:13.

And getting into a boat, he crossed over and came to his own city. And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, take heart, my son, your sins are forgiven. And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, this man is blaspheming. But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, why do you think evil in your hearts?

For which is easier to say your sins are forgiven, or to say, rise and walk. But that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins. He said to the paralytic, rise, pick up your bed and go home. And he rose and went home. When the crowd saw it, they were afraid and they glorified God who had given such authority to men.

As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the text booth. And he said to him, follow me. And he rose and followed him. And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?

But when he heard it, he said, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick, go and learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice, for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. So that's God's word for us today. Let me pray. God, thank you for this time to study your word, to really contemplate it.

I pray that the people here would have open hearts to listen, that they really consider what these words mean for their life. And Lord, help me to communicate well in my imperfection, just to communicate what is true about you and about the world. And I pray that we can all be encouraged and rejoice in your goodness, Jesus. I pray this in your name. Amen.

So just a quick background is that I love this church, and I haven't been here in a few months, so I'm really thankful to be back. I was able to intern with Wes and Aaron this last semester, and now I realize how much I miss everyone because I haven't seen you in a bit. So I'm really thankful. And now I want to talk about this passage. So.

Kathryn L. Butler was a trauma and critical care surgeon. Even early in her career, she was already having to deal with patients who were dying right in front of her. Hurt by accident, violence, some other tragedy. Even as a highly trained doctor, she often felt hopeless and helpless. One morning, after an especially traumatic overnight shift, she wandered around, driving around in her car, exhausted and despairing about how little the value of life felt.

She asked herself, how could God allow such evil? Even though she grew up calling herself a Christian, she fell at this point into agnosticism, having no confidence about God and struggling to pray. And she asked the question, what could change her life around? Today we're going to look at that. What turns broken lives around?

Do we need better science, better doctors, better philosophies, better perspectives on life? Or maybe do we need something else, something deeper? And through the words of Matthew here, we're going to learn one main idea. And this is going to be my big idea for this sermon. Jesus mercy heals the sick and glorifies God.

It's Jesus mercy that heals the sick and glorifies God. And we're going to see this through two stories. The first one I call an authoritative healing, and the second one, an unexpected party, sort of like the Hobbit. So before jumping in, I want to give a little context for the Book of Matthew. In case you don't know a lot about it.

It's named after Matthew, and he was a Jewish man who was a tax collector. And then he ended up following Jesus and wrote this book about Jesus life. And we're going to actually learn about his story. As you just heard, Matthew's goal from his book was to tell the reader that Jesus is the promised king and savior of all the world. To fully understand the book, you'd have to read it.

I can't go through all of it, but I want to summarize the first eight chapters really quick. Matthew begins with the genealogy, the ancestry of Jesus, and then he describes Jesus birth, his youth, the start of his ministry, and then one of his famous sermons, the Sermon on the Mount, where we get some things that we say in America, like the Golden Rule, and some people don't know it's from Jesus. It is. It's from this chapter, chapter five of Matthew. All of this happens in chapters one through seven.

It's the start of Jesus life and then in chapter 8, Jesus begins to show more of authority and power. So he heals a faithful leper, there's a faithful centurion, and his daughter is healed by Jesus. And then a crowd is healed by Jesus, including Peter's mother in law, who had strong faith. And then he calms a storm that his disciples and him are in. And then he says, you have little faith.

So you see these themes of faith being caught up. And then right before chapter nine, he heals two demon possessed men and then the people kick him out of the city because they were upset with some of what happened. So all of this, I think sets up two themes that are carried into chapter nine. So that's why I give context. The first thing is Jesus authority to heal.

And the second thing is the power of faith. These are things that start in chapter eight and will continue into our stories today. So with that said, let's start with the first story, the authoritative healing. So now you can look at chapter nine, what we just read, verses one through seven. Jesus leaves in a boat from Gadarenes, and he sails about five or six miles to Capernaum.

Matthew says his own city, which we understand is Capernaum, his home base in Galilee. And right away Matthew jumps in, he says, behold, there's a paralyzed man. And the paralyzed man is taken to Jesus. Now a bit of context. Biblically, this story is recorded in all four of the gospels.

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. And although the details are slightly different, it seems like it was an important event because they all recorded it in their own way. If you look at verse two with me, we see that Matthew is pretty vague. He just says, the man came on a bed to Jesus, taken by other people. But I think it's fun that the other gospels give us more details because Matthew is very straight to the point.

In Mark and Luke, we learn that the paralytic couldn't get to Jesus right away. He had too much of a crowd. And so the people that were carrying the bed had to find another solution. And so just like any normal person, they looked up to the roof and they said, huh? And they saw the staircase and they said, huh.

So they took the bed, the man on the bed, and they went up the stairs and looked at the roof and they said, huh, we can do this. Now I imagine today we're like, how in the world would they go to the roof and get to Jesus that way? The houses back then were different. They were likely a flat roof with a staircase. It was actually a space to gather on the roof.

And the roof itself was made of just rows of timbers, but then there was gaps that were filled by leaves and dried mud to keep it waterproof. So I imagine they go up on the roof and they kind of tear away at that roof material, and then they're able to lower the man down to Jesus. I thought about how maybe someone like Rob could reenact this for us, but it would probably be too much work, but it would be right up his alley. So they chose to do this. They walk up the stairs, they lower Jesus down, and they finally have access to Jesus.

And now we pick back up in Matthew verse 2, because Matthew skipped that part. Matthew says, when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, take heart, my son, your sins are forgiven. I'm imagining the paralyzed man. He's there, and he hears Jesus say this. And I'm sure there's this combination of emotion.

He's probably confused, like, why is he talking about my sins? He's probably amazed and a little embarrassed, like, man, I just got lowered right in front of Jesus with this crowd. And he's probably grateful because Jesus is very kind. But Jesus does two things here. He recognizes their faith, and then he says, his sins are forgiven.

Now, you might question, whose faith is Jesus talking about here? And I've wondered this as I read this, because it just says Jesus saw their faith. Well, after learning the context of how they had to get to Jesus, I imagine it's all of their faith. The paralyzed man, he had faith that getting taken to Jesus was worth it and that the four men that carried him had faith that they should spend the time to take him to Jesus. And not only that, they had persistent faith because they took him on the roof and lowered him down from through the beams.

In this, they're all faithful to persevere, to getting to Jesus. But I think what Jesus says after is even more shocking. He says, your sins are forgiven. And I think we hear that today, especially if we don't have much of a Christian background, and we think sins forgiven, like, what does that mean? What does this have to do with this man being lame?

Maybe in America, we have a basic understanding that sins are the wrong we've done. And forgiveness means to not hold against someone something they've done against us. However, in Jesus day, these would have been a lot easily, more easily understood than today. There was an immediate spiritual, cultural implication to Jesus words. And the Pharisees, they get it.

You can see right away. They say to themselves in verse three or four, this man is blaspheming. They say, a very serious accusation. Now, what is blasphemy? It's a strange word.

Now, in short, it's to claim the identity or perform actions reserved for God and do them yourself. So this goes back to the Old Testament, the first couple books of the Bible. Leviticus 24. God's law says, whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall be put to death. And that's pretty serious.

So God does not take this lightly. Trying to put yourself in the place of God. In Mark 14, Jesus makes a bold claim that he's the Christ, the Son of the blessed, that they will see him in a position of authority at the right hand of God. And in response, the high priests and the people want to put him to death for blasphemy. So blasphemy isn't just one thing, but it's a category of things where you're putting yourself in a position of God or someone that is like God.

And in this case, Jesus is doing that by claiming to forgive sins because our sin is against God, and so therefore only God can forgive it. And so the Pharisees, they're actually correctly understanding the law here. But what they're missing is who Jesus is. They're missing who he really is. He knows their hearts.

And in this case, he asks them, why are you thinking evil? He knows that they're not just curious. They're malicious, faithless, and they want to condemn him rather than trusting him. Remember the context. This is not Jesus first miracle.

He's done multiple different things, healing and doing different compassionate acts that show that he has authority, maybe to forgive sins. And so there was some evidence defending Jesus, but they didn't want to consider that. So Jesus decides to go further. He says, which is easier to save, forgive sins, or to actually heal a man? That's an easy one, right?

Anyone in this room, I think, could answer that. It's easier to say you forgive sins because no one can verify it. But if I tell someone, rise and walk, and they don't, then I look pretty stupid. I would be exposed pretty quickly. However, Jesus does something shocking.

He says, rise and go home. He does the harder thing. And just like that, the man does. Jesus is showing his authority to physically heal. Now, I asked myself, maybe you're wondering this too.

Why did he start with forgiving the sins and then heal? Wouldn't it be more effective to heal the man and then say your sins are forgiven? As sort of like, I know I can do this now you can believe me for This, I think maybe what Jesus is implying here is that the forgiving of the sins was a priority. That yes, it's good for him to physically heal someone. That was a loving and compassionate act.

But what's the most important for all of us is that our sins are forgiven. Just because it's an unseen spiritual reality of forgiveness doesn't mean that it's less important than whether someone's physically healed. However, after this amazing proof, we don't even get to see the Pharisees reaction. I mean, part of me is like, man, I wonder what they thought. Were they like, oh, I guess we'll believe you now.

Now we don't know. But I'm implying based on the way the rest of the book goes, it seems like they were not impressed. They continue again and again throughout Matthew and the other gospels to disbelieve Jesus, to actually want to put him to death. However, Matthew doesn't end on a negative note. He ends with the response of the crowd.

You can see that in verse seven they are afraid and they glorify God. The response of fear may be surprising at first. Why are they afraid? This is like super awesome. He just healed someone.

Well, I think they're surprised at the shocking power of Jesus here. If he can do that, what else can he do? And they're starting to consider like, who is this man? This guy is legit. He's not just a good moral teacher.

But they also glorify God through it. They say what a powerful God is working through this man if he can do this. Now again, the response is not quite accurate. Yet they still see Jesus as a man who God has given authority, which is half correct. He is a man who is God's given authority.

But Matthew continues in the Gospel to show how he's also God himself in the flesh, who has authority because he has been given it by the Father. This is the mystery of the Trinity in Christianity, in the gospel. Now to take a step back from the story. I do find it challenging sometimes to come to terms with the miracles that Jesus does. I ask myself, how do I relate to this today?

Like, I mean, I haven't seen these types of miracles where someone gets up and walks. And of course there's sick people. I know that I want to be healed and there's sick people. We all want to be healed. So how do we get to experience Jesus in this way if he doesn't just heal everyone today?

I think it's a complicated question. It's a fair question. And I think we have to Acknowledge that our experience of God is different than the people who lived with Jesus. And the vast majority of Christians throughout history have not lived at the same time as Jesus on earth, so they haven't seen these same miracles either. So there must be more to what faith in Jesus looks like.

Now. Some people have experienced miracles of healing. Some people have seen it or heard many stories about it, but some people haven't experienced any of those sorts of physical miracles. And they might be wondering, like, how do I trust Jesus? Well, to me, the largest miracles that happen consistently in the world today happen inside of us.

It's the work of God changing a life around and granting us faith in Him. Actually the miracle of faith itself, of allowing us to believe in him and, and have our lives transformed by his power. The work of the Holy Spirit, God's convicting agent, to change our hearts, to want to love him instead of hating him, and helping us to grow towards him instead of away from Him. So I want to ask you to reflect today. Do you view the lack of these sorts of physical miracles as a barrier to you trusting Jesus?

And is there ways that you can maybe see the other works of Jesus inside people and also just in the way that he's worked throughout history as proof that helps you to believe in Him?

Now, whether we are physically healed or not, Matthew is not emphasizing the fact that he healed the man. He's emphasizing that Jesus said, your sins are forgiven. And that's because this statement is the one that extends to us all. The amazing truth of Jesus is that he died so that he can forgive us all of our sins. You might not be physically paralyzed, but do you feel sick spiritually?

Are you weighed down by the thoughts of maybe the brokenness of your life, or maybe by feeling like you have to live a good life in order to please God, that you have to be a better person day after day? I think Matthew is telling us here through the words of Jesus, don't carry the weight of your sins alone any longer. Jesus asks us to come before him like the paralyzed man, to lay down your burdens and do whatever it takes to get to him, to have faith in him doing the hardest work. He will forgive and heal and transform you, and you don't have to do it alone. This may feel overwhelming to say, oh man, I gotta come to Jesus and He'll change my life.

Like, how do I even begin? Well, the amazing thing, he doesn't want us to do it on our own. He wants us to do it with friends. I mean, I see a Bunch of my college ministry friends here. We do this together.

The church does this together as a body. This is the whole point of membership of a church. It's because we're not meant to do it alone. I mean, I would not be able to do it if I was doing it alone either. This is the power of God working in community through his power, of course, but also through the blessings of relationships and love interpersonally.

So I encourage you, if you're not seeking that sort of community, then do so. And if you are, continue to appreciate how meaningful that is. Jesus then passes through to Matthew's house. Not yet, but he passes to see Matthew, a tax collector at his tax booth. And this is the second story we're going to look at.

Verses 8 through 13. An unexpected party. Jesus, I imagine, had seen Matthew before. Matthew seems to know a little bit about Jesus. Based on how the story goes.

He probably heard Jesus and the thing that he was preaching to the people around him. Maybe he even saw some of the miracles of Jesus. Up to this point. He likely knew the implications of following Jesus. And in Luke's Gospel we find out that here Jesus says, follow me.

You'll see in your Bible, Jesus says, follow me. And Matthew gets up and follows him. In Luke it says he leaves everything and follows him. So it's not just that Matthew said, all right, I'll take a break from work today and follow Jesus and I'll come back tomorrow. No, this was implying that Matthew was saying, I'm going to leave this job and, and do something different with my life.

That's the point that he's getting across here. It's an entire 180 on the direction of his life. Well, why would Matthew do this? Why would he leave a lucrative job to follow Jesus? Just a random guy.

Well, I think it's the same reason that the paralyzed man and his friends tore through the roof to get to Jesus. Faith. They had faith that Jesus was worth following. Is Jesus worth following for you? Is he worth leaving certain lifestyles to follow?

Are you willing to give up other things to allow you to come to Jesus? Can he satisfy you more than what you are leaving behind? These are questions that we have to ask, just as Matthew did. In verse 10, we find that Jesus is now eating, eating a meal with his disciples and a bunch of tax collectors and sinners. Luke again gives more context than Matthew does.

Luke says, this is Matthew's house. And by the way, Matthew has prepared a great feast for Jesus and his disciples. You won't see that in Matthew. Because I think maybe Matthew's just trying to be a humble guy. You know, he's like, oh, it was just a random house, and we're here, we're eating.

He doesn't even mention himself. He just says, tax collectors. I think Luke gives us the secret that actually Matthew's being really hospitable here. But either way, I imagine a bunch of tax collectors and sinners. It doesn't sound like great company.

It sounds like it would be kind of an awkward meal. Like, what do you guys do, just rob people? I don't know what that was like. But the main point Matthew is making here is that Jesus was willing to be with them, to associate with them, and immediately guess who shows up again? It's the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the day.

They're following Jesus around still, and they ask his disciples. They don't even want to ask him. They asked his disciples, why is your teacher eating with tax collectors and sinners? He shouldn't be doing that. Now, I want to quickly note I mentioned it briefly about how they're robbers, but why are tax collectors such a bad crowd?

I mean, isn't it like the irs? I know we don't like the irs, but they're still probably okay people sometimes, right? My sister's an accountant, so I don't mind people working with money. But actually, the role of a tax collector had a very different connotation than that. It's more like the taxi drivers that my family and I interacted with in Italy and Greece just a few months ago.

So we would fly into the airport, and we'd need to get a ride to our Airbnb. And so there'd be, like, a flock of taxis waiting to pick us up. And then we'd kind of hop in. And we were, like, in a rush. We were like, we really want to get to our place to be done traveling.

And so we tell them our address and they drive there, some of them driving very, very fast. I don't know why. And they would get there and they'd say, hey, €50. And my dad would pay them. And at that point, you can't really negotiate.

You know, you're kind of like, set with the price that they tell you. So I wondered throughout the trip, I'm like, huh? I wonder if that's the right price. So I think we asked some of the locals, and they said, oh, you should decide the price ahead of time. And I'm like, okay.

The reason they say that is because they know people are charging extra they wouldn't say that unless people tried to, you know, hey, 40, 50, let's say 50, $50. That was probably what they learned. And so they had this reputation. This is kind of like the tax collectors. But I would say even worse for the tax collectors because they were Jewish men and they were working for the Roman government that ruled over Israel at the time.

And they were stealing from their own people against the like for the government that was oppressing the Jewish people. They were well known for taking extra cuts of the taxes and the people couldn't do anything because they were owned by the Romans, pretty much. So Matthew and his group of tax collecting friends were known as traitors and robbers. Jesus also seems to be eating with a group of other sinners. We don't know what this group is.

It's left vague. I imagine it's people of similar occupations that are cast out from society and that don't have any other people they can associate with except other outcasts like the tax collectors. All that to say the Pharisees did have a point. Like, these were rough people. Like, why would Jesus associate with them?

It seems like it would hurt his reputation. They would never think of doing that, that's for sure. They would never associate with such bad people. However, Jesus answer, I think is one of the most important statements of the entire book, really, and of the entire mission of Jesus. And he says three things.

He says, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick, go and learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice, for I came to call not the righteous, but sinners. Okay, so first off, he starts with something really simple. Only the sick need a doctor. Don't go to the doctor.

If you're healthy, they're gonna charge you 500 bucks, 1,000. You're not gonna. You don't wanna do that. But in his day, they knew that too. You don't go to the doctor if you're well.

He's saying that these people at dinner with him are sick. Not physically sick, but he's saying spiritually they're sick. They're living a broken life and they know it. In this case, he's using a physical analogy to make a spiritual point. It's actually pretty similar to the other story where he heals the physical paralytic and makes him rise to make a spiritual point that he has authority to forgive sins.

Because if God is a healer, God is also a forgiver of sins. So we've seen this before, but now we're seeing it. Through Jesus words to the Pharisees. Digging deeper, you might ask yourself, who is spiritually sick? I mean, according to Jesus, it sounds like he's saying these people are spiritually sick.

But the rest of you guys, you're healthy, you don't need me, so let me do my stuff with these people. And, and you guys are all good. But that's not the message of the Bible. That can't be what he's saying. He says elsewhere in Matthew 5:48, this is Jesus talking, therefore you must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.

And then maybe many of you know romans verse chapter 3, verse 23. The apostle Paul says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And if even we look at ourselves, we know that we're sinners, that we've done wrong in our life. So if we take Jesus in this context of the rest of Scripture, we can understand that he's saying something more like those who think that they're spiritually healthy will never go to a doctor in the first place. They won't ask for help.

They think they're self sufficient. Only the people who know they are sick will go to the doctor and only they will accept the treatment that the doctor is offering. And so he's implying that people accept Jesus healing by faith, faith that they are sinners and in need of him. The Pharisees, they didn't have faith. They did not come to Jesus for spiritual healing because they didn't think they had the need.

But Matthew the paralytic and these other tax collectors, they came to him and he healed them. I think it's blaring in our face to ask ourselves, do we recognize that we are a sinner in need of Jesus? But then Jesus adds another layer to it. He tells the religious leaders, go learn what this means. God desires mercy over sacrifice.

He's actually quoting Hosea. It's a prophet from the Old Testament. About a couple hundred years before this was written, this was written. Hosea was a couple hundred years before this. And he quotes it from chapter six.

Now without explaining the whole book of Hosea. It's a good one. You can read it this week if you want. But it describes sort of a broken love story. And it represents Israel's faithlessness towards God.

And it talks of it through the analogy of a prostitute who leaves her husband to go after other lovers. And Hosea is connecting that to Israel, leaving God to go after other things like idols and religious rituals. They've lost the heart of God in their nation. And Jesus by quoting Hosea here. It's really harsh, actually.

He's saying the same thing's happening to you guys. Consider the words of Hosea and maybe put yourself in the position of a religious leader who's doing all these religious rituals but has lost the heart for God. This is what Hosea 6, 4, 7 says. Your love is like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears. Therefore I cut you in pieces with my prophets.

I killed you with the words of my mouth. Then my judgments go forth like the sun. For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, an acknowledgement of God rather than burnt offerings. And as at Adam, they have broken the covenant. They were unfaithful to me there.

Here we see the heart of God contrasted with the people failing to recognize it. God wants steadfast love. He wants them to seek the truth about him. But instead they're stuck on these religious rituals, sacrifices and offerings. How much of what you do as a Christian is to love God and pursue the truth?

Or how much of it is to check a box to keep up with the expectations of others? Do you feel like salvation is up to you most days? Or do you live moment by moment by the mercy of God and acknowledge his healing power is necessary to heal your sick soul?

One example I thought of just recently was with my fiance Alyssa. Every day, you know, especially if we're going to a wedding like yesterday, every day we need a lot of mercy from God and each other because we are sinners and we're broken. Like we offend each other, we wrong each other. And I think this is true for all of us. If we really think about our lives, we make bad decisions all the time.

We make good decisions too, but we make bad, bad decisions. If salvation is up to us, we're not going to make it. We need Jesus to help us, but it's not just knowing God's mercy, it's also that we can show God's mercy. I encourage you, if you believe in Jesus, to follow his example by loving those who are spiritually sick and lost, prioritizing love and mercy instead of just trying to do all these things to please God. Matthew Henry, an old biblical scholar, writes a really, I think, helpful quote in regards to this topic.

He says this quote, they who are effectually brought to Christ themselves cannot but be desirous that others may be brought to him and ambitious of contributing something towards it. True grace will not contentedly eat its morsels alone, but but will invite others. End quote. So Matthew Henry is talking about how Jesus says that a True Christian will want to show mercy and love towards others and invite them into this beautiful thing of relationship with God. We have no choice but to want these things.

This is part of the beauty of accepting Jesus, having faith in him. Consider who in your life could be an instrument of God's mercy? Is it someone in your life who's needy, poor and widows and fatherless? The people that don't seem to know the truth about God, maybe they have a misunderstanding. We can tell the truth about who God is.

And the cool thing about this is that whether we're showing the mercy or whether God's showing the mercy to us, both cases, God is glorified. And that's his big plan for the world. Jesus has one more thing to say. He says he came to call not the righteous, but sinners. And what do I want to emphasize?

This last thing? He came to call. He came to call. Just like a good doctor. Jesus knows what's his responsibility, and he knows what our role is in the process.

He's calling us to what? He's calling us to repentance. He's calling us to admit we're sick and in need of spiritual healing. He's calling us to. Because we're sinners.

He's calling us to acknowledge who we are, and he's calling us to turn faith to Jesus. But maybe you're thinking, why? Like, why would I do this? Doesn't life feel really good without all this spiritual stuff? Like, isn't it more fun to just go through life and be free and not have the bondage of, I have to obey Jesus?

Now, a lot of people think this, this is an understandable question. However, I think Jesus has an answer himself, and he shows this by example. Jesus will go on from this dinner to go to many more places to heal more people. But ultimately he goes to Jerusalem. The religious leaders, they finally have had enough.

They don't just scoff at him, they arrest him. They say he needs to be crucified, and they hang him on a tree. No human can live if he's claiming to be God, they say. Incredibly, in this moment of excruciating death, he calls out, father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing.

His compassion and mercy extended to the point of death. And then, as Jesus does with the paralytic, he does with himself. He rises up from the dead three days later. Yes, raising the paralytic showed some of his authority. But him rising from the dead himself proves his authority once and for all.

And then he appeared to his Disciples confirming the power of his message and sent them out. And due to them, we are now here today. But nothing was wasted. It wasn't like he had to die and then rise again so that he could rise again. The death itself was crucial.

I mentioned earlier. But only because of Jesus death paying the punishment for our sins, could he then turn around and say, your sins are forgiven. The death was the atonement for our sins. It was the payment. Because God is just.

It had to be paid. But his mercy ruled, and so he died in our place. This is how deeply he wants a relationship with you. After weary days worn down by the guilt of stealing from his own people and the ridicule received from other people, Matthew was ready. Matthew was ready to follow Jesus to live a new life, to change his ways.

Are you ready today? Do you want to follow Jesus today? Have you heard his call on your life? After living at the end of. After living at the end of her rope for many months, the doctor I mentioned earlier, Catherine, she experienced something different.

One of her patients had severe brain damage from a heart attack. An energetic man had become nearly lifeless, remaining in a vegetative state. This man named Ron, his wife prayed at her bedside every day and hoped and had faith that it could be better. The doctors, however, they thought that it was over. They thought that he would be like this forever.

Suddenly, one day, his toe began to move and his wife got excited. Maybe things are changing. The doctors continued. They didn't think it was going to change. But then, day after day, more movement returned to his life, and he eventually had such a quick recovery that the doctors were astounded.

They did not have any explanation. Now, this experience did not solve Kathryn's problem of why they're suffering in the world, because she saw plenty of people who weren't healed. But the instance of a miracle caused her to think, maybe there's more to God. And her husband, Scotty recently became a Christian and encouraged her to read the Bible. And after reading the Gospels, including Matthew and the Book of Romans, she felt familiar words that unveiled Christ's heart.

It wasn't a heart that ignored suffering. Rather, the agony that Jesus endured showed her that he knew suffering. He didn't dismiss it. And through this, through learning the heart of Jesus, Catherine grew faith in him, recognizing his mercy in her sickness of soul, she learned that Jesus mercy heals the sick and glorifies God. Come to the doctor of your souls.

To today, let's pray.

God, thank you that you are a merciful God, that you love us, that you want us to know you, that you want us to live a life of joy and health and love. And we also acknowledge that suffering is in this world. And we have to admit that we can't ignore the hard things and just think and live in a fairy tale. But we know God that you are working through to do your good plan. And Jesus is the proof of that.

Lord, help us Trust Jesus today that he can transform any life that he has power to heal. God, help us to have compassion and mercy on those around us because of the compassion and mercy you showed to us. We pray this in your name, Jesus. Amen.