Exodus: But God...

This sermon begins with reports from a global gathering in Cyprus, highlighting the perseverance of the persecuted church (e.g., in Ukraine) and a "quiet revival" in the West, especially among Gen Z (Bible sales, app downloads, and Christian music streams are all up significantly). The theme, drawn from this, is "But God," as we dive into Exodus 5 and 6.

Scripture References

• Exodus 5:1-23: Moses confronts Pharaoh; Pharaoh makes the work harder.
• Exodus 6:1-13: God reveals His "I WILL" promises; the people can't listen due to their "broken spirit."

Key Points

1. Obedience Often Meets Opposition (Exodus 5) Moses, fresh from the burning bush, obeys God. He confronts Pharaoh with the message, "Let my people go." The immediate result is not deliverance, but disaster. Pharaoh not only refuses but makes the work impossible (same brick quota, no straw), making things worse. This "one step forward, two steps back" pattern is a common experience. When you step into God's call, expect opposition.
2. Turn to God, Not the Oppressor (Exodus 5:15-23) The Israelite foremen, in their pain, cry out to Pharaoh—the source of their problem. Moses, in contrast, takes his anger and confusion directly to God: "Why, Lord, have you brought trouble on this people? ... You have not rescued your people at all." He models what heroes of the faith do: he talks to God, not just about God.
3. The Ultimate Conjunction: "But God" (Exodus 6:1) The story is never over. As Christians, we are always connected to the ultimate conjunction: the cross. Our circumstances ("I was abused," "I was abandoned," "Gen Z is lost") are real, but they are met with the greater reality: "But God..." This connects our bleak situation to God's covenant, His control, and His promises.
4. Revelation, Not a Plan (Exodus 6:2-8) When Moses complains, God doesn't give him a new strategy or explain how He will do it. He gives a revelation of Himself. He reveals His name, "I AM the LORD," and makes seven powerful "I WILL" statements ("I will bring you out," "I will deliver," "I will redeem," etc.). Our trust is not in a plan, but in His character.

Conclusion

The Israelites couldn't hear these incredible promises because of their "broken spirit and harsh slavery" (Exodus 6:9). Many of us are the same. We live under the voice of a "Pharaoh," an impossible taskmaster who says, "You must deliver. You're idle. Work harder." We mistake this voice of condemnation for the voice of God.

The taskmaster says, "Go now, you must deliver." The Savior says, "Come to me, all you who labor, and I will give you rest." The Gospel is not about what you must do; it's about what Christ has done. He is the one who rescues us from impossible quotas and heals our broken spirits.

Calls to Action

1. Come to Communion: Remember what Christ has done, not what you must do.
2. Receive Prayer for a Broken Spirit: If you find it hard to hear God's promises due to disappointment, receive ministry.
3. Be Freed from the Taskmaster: If you are laboring under a voice of condemnation, come forward to be released into the rest of the Gospel.

Transcript

It’s good to be together. My name is Travis, and I'm one of the pastors here. And I haven't been here for the last couple weeks. And it's good to be home. For the last couple weeks, we've been traveling, and we're actually part of a global gathering on the island of Cyprus. And we choose the island of Cyprus, because those coming from Muslim countries can fly into the Turkish side, and those coming from Western nations can fly into the Greek side.

And then we drive across to the Turkish, side, and everyone gets a visa and everyone's happy. And I just want to report to you because we're, we're told we can't post and we're told to stay off our phones and off of social media because some of the situations represented in the room, those people coming from countries where they'd get in a lot of trouble if found out that they were gathering with believers.

And so I just want to report to you guys. It's it's an unbelievable privilege to be in that room. I actually have no idea why I get invited. It feels like I'm among the, I don't know, Avengers. And I don't know, what I'm doing in there, but I did want to report to you guys. Some of what we're seeing.

And there's this guy named Andre, about a week ago who pastors, actually, in the Ukraine. He's been forced from his home twice. And now he's actually living in England, and he's taking this opportunity as his people have been scattered to plant churches wherever they've been placed. So they've been dispersed. They've been scattered by persecution. They've lost their homes, but they're still sharing Jesus and planting churches amongst Ukrainian communities all over the world now.

So many have landed in India. And so now he is planting churches in India. Through his brothers, who are enduring heavy, heavy loss. So most of the time when we gather, there's a bunch of pastors from the East and and it is true, the cutting edge of Christianity, it is going south and it is going east, and the West needs to just settle with that.

There's there's usually some African pastor there who sneezes and 300 churches come out. You know, it just it's hard to get your head around what God's doing in the global South and in the East. It's a beautiful thing. But I also want to celebrate to you guys, the reports from the West. God's moving south and he's moving east, but he's not done with the West.

And it was powerful to hear pastors from England report on the quiet revival. They're seeing. That's tough soil in mainland Europe. And Christianity is on the rise. They're seeing incredible stuff happen primarily amongst Gen Z. So Bible sales, if you don't know this, are up 46, 41.6% since 2022. Religious app downloads up 79.5% since 2019. Song streams of Christian music are up 50% since 2019, and most of this resurgence is being led by Gen Z, a generation we wrote off in 2018.

Who knew, right? But God. But God who is rich in mercy, but God who has a plan. So I say, lead us Gen Z, lead us back into church. Lead us back into faith.

Teach the old crusty ones, the rigid ones, that we can believe God for big things again. There's beautiful stuff going on all over, going on all over the globe. And I'm really thankful, for the opportunity and for just being sent by this, community. So. But God is kind of the name of the message, today. And if you have a Bible, open it to Exodus chapter five.

Exodus is the second book of the Bible. So it's towards the front.

And we've been making our way, through this book, and we're going to make our way through chapter five and chapter six. This morning, and at the end of this message, we're going to have a call, and you'll have an opportunity to receive ministry because God's up to something this morning. The people in this passage could not hear God's promises because they had a broken spirit, and they had been under such harsh slavery.

And God's coming to heal and restore a broken spirit and get people out from under the bondage of Pharaoh. The things that are animating, driving, pushing you forward, those things can be replaced by the Spirit of God, the love of God. As we've seen these men testify to, this morning. So chapter five of Exodus starts with this word after word.

Which should cause us to ask the question. After what? And so we're going to zoom out here real quick. After 400 years of slavery and bondage, 400 years, just let that sink in. 400 years of slavery for the Israelite people. They came to Egypt to escape famine, but they got stuck in Egypt and were in bondage. And that's how most things go in our lives, right?

We run to them to seek refuge, but then that becomes a place of captivity for us. We escape into who knows what, but then we can't escape the thing that we escaped into. We become bound in what is called a stronghold in Scripture. So they're oppressed, they're in slavery, in bondage. And the Hebrew people multiplied to the point that they were seen as a threat.

So the Pharaoh ordered that the baby boys be slaughtered. Moses's mother seeks to give her son a chance, and she hides him in the reeds of the Nile. And Moses is found by an Egyptian. But it's not just any Egyptian, is it? It's the Pharaoh's daughter, the very man who has ordered the slaughter of Hebrew babies. And so he's found by Pharaoh's daughter.

He's raised in Pharaoh's house. He ends up leaving Egypt and fleeing after he takes matters into his own hands and kills a man pursuing freedom for his people. Moses wanders, as we said in weeks past, in the back of the desert. And I love that because some of you have been in a desert season, some of you have been in the back of the desert season, right?

That's where this guy is at. And then he has this burning bush encounter where he meets with God and he turns aside and he hears what God says over him. And God gives him a mission and says, I want you to set my people free. I've seen their slavery. I've seen the harsh treatment, and I want them free.

I've heard the cry of my people and I'm stepping down. That's what God says to Moses. Moses is like, are you sure you got the right guy? And God's a little bit like. So, Moses hears from God in this burning bush encounter. And then I think, this is so cool because he submits it to the elders, he submits it to others.

And I just want to make a small point here. It's not the point of the passage, but I don't care what you've heard from God, you should submit it to the people around you. I don't care what kind of burning bush encounter you've had. I don't care if you took your shoes off and it was clear as day what God said to you.

It's really good to take what you get and submit it to others. So he has this radical encounter. And if I met God in a burning bush, I'm not sure I'm submitting it to the people around me. Hey, Eric, what do you think I'd be like? God talked to me, Eric, and I don't care what you think you know, but know his posture is one of.

I submit this to you. What do you guys think? And so after Moses gets signoff from his oversight, he takes Aaron and he makes an appointment as an old man, an 80 year old man. He makes an appointment to meet with the most powerful man in the world. And I just want to read to you this is what happens.

This is Moses's first day on the job. 80 year old with a stick and a one line sermon going to work. Moses and Aaron. They went to Pharaoh. Thus says the Lord God, the God of Israel, let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness. But Pharaoh says, Como said, you say the Lord.

I don't know the guy, and I'm sure as heck not letting you go. I don't know the Lord. And moreover, it's a no. It's a no for me. And then they said, the God of the Hebrews has met with us. And this is rad, because the magic word has been the magic word for 4000 years. Please let us go.

Please let us go. A three days journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the storm sword. He starts strong, right? I'm sure he's rehearsed this. He's picked out his outfit. You know he's coming. And he's like, let my people go. That we should worship God in the wilderness.

Pharaoh's like, nope. And then he's like, please let us go into the wilderness lest God fall upon us. That's not what Moses was told. Moses was told, let my people go, lest I come upon Pharaoh. But how many know? That'd be a pretty hard message to give to the most powerful man in the world. So Moses tweaks it a little bit.

He backs off a bit and he's like, please, lest God punish us when really what he was supposed to say is, or God will make you pay. You will pay if you don't really release these, slaves. So I would say for the most part, Moses does what God commands him to do. Slight tweaks. He backs off a bit.

He softens his approach. But for the most part, I would say Moses is obedient. And what do we expect when we're obedient? When we do what God has asked us to do? And trust me, this took guts. This is incredible risk to go before Pharaoh and make these demands. What do we expect when we're obedient? Outcomes right? I did what I'm supposed to do.

I did the very hard thing you called me to do. Now you. God, do what you're supposed to do, right? It gets fairly formulaic. I was obedient, and I expect these outcomes. But the king of Egypt said to them, Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people away from their work? Get back to your burdens. And Pharaoh said, behold, the people of the land are now many, and you're going to make them rest from their burdens.

The same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their foremen, you shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks, as in the past. Let them go and gather straw for themselves. But the number of bricks that they made in the past you shall impose on them. You shall by no means reduce it for their idle.

Therefore they cry, let us go, and offer sacrifices to our Lord. Let heavier work be laid on the men, that they may labor at it, and pay no regard to their lying words. Same brick quota every day. Now you're not getting straw. So not only does Pharaoh not let them go, he makes their work harder. Your work will not be reduced.

You're not only are you not going out for a three day festival. Your work will not be reduced in the least. We won't provide you with the materials you need to do the job, and you'll be expected to do the job. And the task becomes impossible because they can't find the materials themselves, so they miss the quota and are beaten as a result.

Now just take this in for a sack. I know you know where this story goes, and I know you know there's plagues to come. These people do not know that. What they know is that Moses has come promising deliverance. Moses then goes before the big man, and not only are they not delivered, they're beaten. The whole thing goes backwards.

The whole thing gets more difficult. And this is a classic case of one step forward, two steps back. Right. There's a lot of things that I read in the Bible, and I'm like, why is that in there? That is so random. This is not one of those things. This could have come from your journal yesterday. I feel like I'm doing the right thing.

God, I feel like I've been obedient, but there's no fruit being produced. I feel like I took one big step forward, but now I've taken two steps back. This is something that we can all relate to.

Kind of lost my spot in the Bible. Okay, okay.

This is a pattern for us. This Exodus story is a pattern and how God saves and how God redeems. And I just need you to know because I don't know what the church has promised you in the past. But I need you to know that when you step forward into what God's called you to, there will be opposition, and there will be days where you think this whole thing's going backwards.

And as a pastor, not a preacher, I just want to pastor you for a second. Say some of you are single. You broke up with that guy because he wasn't a real believer and you're still single. And that's tough. Some of you are employed and you did the right thing with your employer.

You confronted corruption and instead of receiving promotion, you were perceived as a threat. You feel like you did the right thing and the whole thing went backwards.

This must be the moment in the story where God does one of two things. In my opinion, this is what I think God should do. Either he should provide these people miraculously, what with what they need, the straw they need to meet the quota, or he should reign bricks on those fools, right? This is the moment where you're like, either give us the material, God, we need to do the job that we're supposed to do or rain down on the Egyptians.

But read on with me. This is what happens. Verse 15. Then the foremen of the people of Israel came and cried to Pharaoh, why do you treat your servants like this? No straw is given to your servants. Yet they say to us, make bricks, and behold, your servants are beaten. But the fault is not of our own people.

But he said, your idle, your idle. And that's why you say, let us go and sacrifice to the Lord. Go now and work. No straw will be given to you, but you must still deliver the same number of bricks. And the foremen of the people of Israel saw that they were in trouble when they said, you shall by no means reduce your number of bricks, your daily task each day they're going to be beaten over and over again.

And then Moses and Aaron, who were waiting for them when they came out of this meeting as they came out from meeting with Pharaoh. And they said to Moses and Aaron, the Lord look on you and judge, because you've made a stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and you've put a sword in their hand to kill us.

So here's the here's the scene. Pharaoh's angry, the Israelites are ticked, and now Moses is angry. No one in the story is not angry. Everybody's upset with the situation. It's interesting because the Israelites who are in and under slavery, they turned to the Pharaoh in their anger.

But Moses does what every great hero of the faith does, and he turns to God in his anger.

Instead of talking about God, he talks to God. Abraham did it. Jobe did it. David did it. Jeremiah did it. John the Baptist did it. Jesus himself did it. God, why have you forsaken me? He goes to God with his anger, not go talk to someone else about it. So Moses returned to the Lord and said, why, Lord, have you brought trouble on this?

People? Is this why you sent me? Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak your name, he's brought trouble on this people. And you've not rescued your people at all.

I love it, I love it, I love the phrase again. This is 4000 years old. Ever since.

Ever since we sowed into the work in Amigo Row, I've got less business ever since we said as a family we're going to adopt. All hell is breaking loose and our our house ever since we said as a couple we're going to pray together. What in the world God. Ever since I stepped in and started to try to to to lead my kids late in life, you've got teenage kids.

They've been neglected and now I'm stepping in. I'm trying to be the dad you've called me to be. Ever since I started to do the right thing. You've not delivered us. Not at all. Not even a bit. I'm doing this. I'm doing everything I'm supposed to be doing. And you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing. Not at all.

Every time I start contending for something new, it gets so old. It's so old. It's so familiar. You. This is what you did. This. You did this. The more Moses obeys, the worse things got. But it, of course, is not over. There is a conjunction that comes now that comes throughout the entire Bible, and it connects this situation, the conjunction.

But comes to connect this situation. To God's covenant with his people, his control over the situation. Now, I'm not great with English. Everything I know, most of what I know I learned from schoolhouse Rock. Check to check this out. It's the 19. I think this is probably going even earlier, but if you can believe this, parents were really worried that four hours of cartoons on a Saturday morning would rot their child's brain.

For, a week, four hours of screen time a week was going to rot a child's brain. So their solution to that was in the middle of the cartoons to put something educational in there. It's the equivalent to, like, slipping a vitamin in someone's food. And that's what schoolhouse Rock was. And that's how I learned about how our government operates and how a bill of rights is passed.

And this is what I know about conjunctions as well.

Conjunction junction. What's your function? Look at our words and phrases and clauses. Conjunction junction. How's that function? I got three favorite car that get most of my job done conjunction junction. What's their function? I got and gotten all the news that get you pretty far, and that's an additive like this and that. But that's sort of the opposite.

Not this, but that. And then there's all four R where you have a joint like this or that. And right now I get you ready for.

Not this, but that.

But God yeah. But God, as Christians we're always connected to the ultimate conjunction, which is the cross, the cross that connects our circumstances and our situation and how bleak it is to God's promises and what he's done. We're always connected to a conjunction, and the story is never over.

This is the hope we have. We don't. You don't have to. As a Christian, I have to ignore the trouble. We're not asking you to pretend like everything's okay. That's not what we're asking. We're not asking you to go. Oh. Everything's great. How are you, brother? Good to be here. That's not what we're asking. But we do ask that you remember that as a Christian, you're always tied to the ultimate conjunction.

I was abused, that's real. But Jesus threw his cross, connected me to who God is. And his promises that extend even over my pain. I was betrayed, forsaken. But Jesus. But Jesus through his cross has connected me to the promises of God over my circumstances. I was abandoned, I'm alone, but Jesus. But Jesus will never leave me or forsake me.

Gen Z is lost.

Too far gone too early. Nothing can be done to salvage this situation. Covid has crushed us, but Jesus. But Jesus. But God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. So what follows is a revelation of God.

That is the straw to our brick. It is what holds us together. It is what Moses needed to hear. And what happens next is that God tells Moses to look on the bright side and cheer up. God tells Moses to be more strategic. Try harder when you go in there. I mean really, really put the stick down and be like, no, no, no, let my people go.

Maybe you missed it the first time, but let my people go. Rework your approach. Know what God gives? Moses is a revelation of himself that would not have been possible had they not faced serious oppression and adversity. God shows him himself. And this is what I want to say to you. You may come in here and you're like, no, I know what I need.

No, I know what you need. You need a revelation of God. You're like, no, no, no, I need to be healed. I need to be fixed. I need this situation to go away. And that's why I'm here. No, you need a revelation of God. You need to see him as standing over the things that are over your head.

You need to see him high and lifted up. You need to see him again as powerful and able. And that's exactly what happens. The Lord says to Moses, now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh. For with a strong hand he will send them out with a strong hand. He will drive them out of this life, out of this land.

That's a wild statement, because what God is saying to him is, not only am I going to deliver you, but I'm going to deliver you through Pharaoh, the very man who's bent on your destruction is the one I will. God is saying, I will use the most powerful man in the world as a pawn, and I will puppet him, and he he will point and go.

Could you please leave? Isn't that wild? Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh. What? That Moses is like. Oh, let's go.

God spoke to Moses and said to him, I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty. But by my name the Lord. I did not make myself known to them. I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners. Moreover, I've heard the groaning of the people of Israel, whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant.

What God saying here is, you've known me in the past as a promise maker, but you're about to know me as a promise keeper. That's exactly what been testified to. I've always known God as a promise maker, but I just met him as a promise keeper this weekend, and it's changed everything. I say, therefore, to the people of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them.

And I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with great acts of judgment. I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God and you. You shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and to Jacob.

I will give it to you for a possession. I am the Lord. This is a divine name. That's how this passage starts. The divine name. There are seven I will statements. Not any of them include Moses. There are no you wills here I will, and you will watch. And I'll put you in the front row, and you will watch, and I will do these things.

And then he signs off at the end with the divine name, the divine name. Seven I will statements love God.

What I think is fascinating about this, all that's included is incredible. But you know what else is incredible? What's not there? You know what's missing in this statement? You know the question I'm asking? Well, how the heck do you plan to do that? Lord? Because I just put my neck on the line and the whole thing went backwards.

So maybe an explanation is due. How exactly are you going to pull this off? It's not there because our trust is not in how God is going to do something, but in his name, in his character, in his promises. We don't trust in some pattern. We trust in the name of the Lord. And he delivers. And there's promises.

A first of deliverance here, this here, this over your heart. I will bring you out, I will deliver you, I will redeem you. And there's promises of of covenant. He's not just going to take us out of Egypt. He's going to take us out and bring us in. He's going to bring us to himself. You will be mine.

I will take you to be, and I will be your God. And there are promises of possession or mission. I will bring you into the land. I will give it to you. I will bring you out. I will bring you in, and I will take you on. And there are hearts here today that need to hear those promises again.

I will bring you out. I will bring you out, but I will bring you to myself, and I will lead you on. I will take you on.

I think that we need to hear these promises, because many of us may be wounded with a broken spirit.

Unable to hear these promises.

Because Moses went back to these people who've been in slavery for 400 years. And it says that they did not listen to Moses because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery.

And I think the Lord wants to minister to people today. Who've got a broken spirit because they've been in and under a harsh taskmaster, and the Lord's wanting to give us gospel rest. This morning.

You know how that goes, where someone's telling you about the promises of God and even maybe men stood up here this morning and they were like, I'm free. And inside you rolled your eyes.

Inside, cynicism was working to protect you because you've got a broken spirit. You can't hear the promises of God any longer. Some of you are still under an impossible quota. Some of you are working for Pharaoh. And because of the harsh slavery, all you can hear is make bricks, make bricks, make bricks. And even when you come to church and you start to ponder what God has done and what God will do, all you hear is, I've got to do.

I've got to do. I've got to meet this impossible quota. I don't have the resources to do it, but I've got to do it. And some of us are operating under a pharaoh and listen to what the Pharaoh says. And just. Can you just tune in right now to what's driving you? Can you just for a second, check in on what might be a condemning voice?

That saying you must deliver you, you you must deliver your idol.

You're lazy. You must deliver. And I will not lift a finger. Some of you are operating under impossible standards. The people around you are saying things like, I can't believe all that you get done and your inner voice is saying your idol, your idol, your idol. You must deliver, you must deliver. It's all on you and you desire, deep down in your heart, to be rescued by a God who makes a number of I will statements.

And you don't want to leave church today with a bunch of things that you've got to do. You want to leave church today knowing that God has done, knowing that God has come. Knowing that God will rescue. Knowing that it's not up to you.

It's interesting because the Pharaoh says, go now. You must deliver. But it's our Savior, Jesus, who says, come to me, you who labor. Those are very different sayings and please don't mistake our Lord for the Pharaoh. Yeah. Come now, you must deliver. Come to me. All who labor, and I will give you rest. I'll put my yoke upon you.

The taskmaster in your life is saying you're not doing enough. Work harder. And that condemning voice you actually think is God's Spirit and it is not. He's not driving you the way that voice is. He's drawing you to himself.

The gospel says you can never do enough. Can I do it for you?

The taskmaster says you're not doing enough. Work harder. Would you stand with me and worship team? Would you come?

Would our ministry team come to the front? And would the men who were up at the mountain come to the front? When we come to the communion table, what we're remembering is not all the things that you need to do. That's not what we're doing. You don't need help remembering that right now. You're thinking about your Monday to do list.

Right now, you're thinking about what you need to do. And can I tell you something that's not delivering us at all?

And when we come to this table, we remember Christ's broken body, his blood shed, his covenant, his promise to us that he won't leave us or forsake us. And he'll finish this good work in us. If you are here this morning and you come to this table, would you ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart? And if you're dealing with a broken spirit, you're unable to hear the promises of God, or you find yourself laboring under a harsh tax taskmaster and thinking it's your God, we would love to take you out from under that yoke and bring the rest that comes with the gospel.

Jesus is saying, come to me, all you who labor. Yes, it's the taskmaster that's saying to you, you must deliver. So we're going to worship. You're going to receive communion, and then you're going to risk, and you're going to be like, that's true. I got a broken spirit, disappointment. My circumstances are dictating to me the character of God, and I want the character of God to determine my circumstances.

I want that today. Spirit of God, would you search our hearts? I thank you that even now you're not dealing with us like a taskmaster. Even now, you won't condemn us. Yeah, yeah, we deserve it. We feel like we deserve it. We don't deserve another chance. And here you are again saying, come to me. You're drawing us. You're not driving us.

You're drawing us to yourself. You're not driving us. So release your people. Be jealous for your people who are working under an impossible quota and rescue us again with your love.