Sermon Summaries

Almost 4:30 on this hot, sunny, Monday afternoon. A bit late in the day for me, typically, but these message notes are really short, so I figured I would just get it done.

Not much news, except my birthday last Saturday (57), and the fact that my youngest, Jasmine, and her boyfriend, Bryan were able to make it down to visit. Yay!! 🥰They thought there was a car show the same weekend, but it's this coming weekend instead. Not sure yet if they will be back down or not. They still need to figure out a place to live in or nearer to Rockland. Prayers appreciated.

Mike is still in pain, but the meds are helping him sleep, at least. He has another appointment for MRIs on Wednesday. Pray more answers and solutions can be found.

Aside from that, my oldest, Carissa called earlier with some local history questions and other things. Among them was the thought that mom MIGHT have been convinced into moving to a smaller place. Pray this can happen quickly!!

As I'm thinking about today's theme of darkness, and how it can come from either external or internal sources, I am thinking first about how I needed a night light in my room until my 8th birthday. For whatever reason, I had decided that there was nothing there at night that hadn't been there during the day, so I had nothing to be afraid of. As an adult, there have been times when the darkness was inside me. One of those times was about 6 months during 2015-1016 when I had decided to allow a man back into my life who should not have been here. Even though I had known for a while by then, that he was married, I didn't care. I just wanted the company, both emotionally and physically, although there wasn't actually much of the latter. The fact that I had known him earlier in life only enhanced my feelings. This was the boy I had seriously crushed on back in 6th grade, and here he was, wanting to spend time with me. I know that I should have said "no", but I just didn't want to. After a while, his wife found out and emailed me on the account he had been using. I haven't heard from him since. Shortly after that, I turned back to God and shared my struggle with my pastor's wife at that time. Suffice it to say, at various times in my life, I have been on all 3 sides of the triangle. Since April of 2015*, I haven't wanted any more part of it.

In today's message, we will see how God comes in at our darkest moments in order to rescue us, if only from ourselves.

As I mentioned above, the darkness in people's lives may either be from external or internal sources. This was also Pastor Matt's opening thought yesterday morning. In relation to that, he brought out the takeaway statement of the day immediately on the heels of that first sentence. It is this --

"God's rescue comes in the moment of our deepest darkness."

Since Pastor Matt skipped around the passage a bit, I'm just going to give you the entire thing, then present the notes in the order they were received...

Exodus 1:22-2:25 NIV

²² Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.”

The Birth of Moses

2 Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, ² and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. ³ But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket^[a] for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. ⁴ His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.

⁵ Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. ⁶ She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said.

⁷ Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”

⁸ “Yes, go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother. ⁹ Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him. ¹⁰ When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses,^[b] saying, “I drew him out of the water.”

Moses Flees to Midian

¹¹ One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. ¹² Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. ¹³ The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?”

¹⁴ The man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “What I did must have become known.”

¹⁵ When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well. ¹⁶ Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father’s flock. ¹⁷ Some shepherds came along and drove them away, but Moses got up and came to their rescue and watered their flock.

¹⁸ When the girls returned to Reuel their father, he asked them, “Why have you returned so early today?”

¹⁹ They answered, “An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock.”

²⁰ “And where is he?” Reuel asked his daughters. “Why did you leave him? Invite him to have something to eat.”

²¹ Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. ²² Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom,^[c] saying, “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land.”

²³ During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. ²⁴ God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. ²⁵ So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.

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Just to provide some further context here, it has now been nearly 400 years since the time of Joseph. Not only has the Pharaoh died who knew nothing of Joseph, as we saw in last week's message, but now there's a new one who is doubling down on oppression of the Israelites out of fear that they are becoming too numerous and may decide to revolt.

Pastor Matt started his context in Exodus 1:22, where the Pharaoh has ordered all newborn Hebrew boys to be thrown into the Nile. If they don't have enough partners, they can't make more Hebrews, right?? And so the story of the Israelites becomes darker than the slavery they have already endured for hundreds of years at this point. Now, death at the order of the Pharaoh has come to their houses. (He also said they would cover this more in the podcast, "Dive in with Matt and Joe")

We then skip down to chapter 2, starting with verses 11-15. This is where Moses sees the Egyptian beating his Hebrew countryman, kills him, gets found out, and runs. This not only shows us that the sins we hide, like in my story above, will always be found out; but it also shows our hero leaving the country. What!!?? How could God let this happen!!?? Now there's no hope at all for the Hebrews stuck in Egypt. The story gets darker still... yet, God...

Jumping back up to verses 1-10, we see Moses "tossed into the Nile", as per order of the Pharaoh. Except for the fact that he's not going to drown. He's protected in a basket. He was placed in the LOCATION of death, only to bring SALVATION, just as Jesus would be later. Pastor Matt pointed out here that, when Moses' mother saw that he was "good", this is the same word God used in Creation!! In other words, Moses was essentially perfect. At the same time, he shared the really cool fact that the word "basket", as used in this passage, is the same word found in Genesis 6 for "Ark".

Next, we see that Moses has run all the way into the grazing lands of the Midianites. (They were semi-nomadic, so covered a fair amount of ground) In this, we discover that God is still at work in Moses' life, preparing him for what lie ahead. Now, not only had Moses grown up as a foreigner in a foreign land, but he is married and having a family as a foreigner in another foreign land. Thus, his first son was named Gershom.

What we find in this part of the story is that, in running across the desert, learning how to be a shepherd, and being in that place for nearly 40 years, Moses learned several things. He got to know the lay of the land, he learned how to lead well, and he learned both humility and patience. As you can see, this was all going to be necessary in due time!! At the same time, Pastor Matt mentioned that none of these skills would really go well on a resume in this day and age. Today, employers want someone who knows how to go after things and get the job done quickly. But that's not always God's way, is it??

In the last portion of our Scripture above, we look at verses 16-25. As mentioned earlier, the new Pharaoh had doubled down on the Israelites, pushing them harder and punishing them more harshly than ever.

Verse 24 has something important for us to notice about God's role here. We read that "God remembered His covenant with Abraham...". As Pastor Matt showed us, this doesn't just mean that God thought about it again. What it's actually saying here is that He ACTED ON IT.

Then, in verse 25, there is another significant point to process. The fact that God "was concerned" about them. He had heard their prayers, seen their struggles, and now, in His good time, He was responding. Pastor Matt said here that the word, "concerned", or "knew", or "understood", or "acknowledged", (depending on your translation), means that God was not only aware of what they were going through, but that He was about to make Himself known to them.

We may question if God truly cares about our troubles; but that's exactly when He shows up for us in ways we may have never even imagined.*

In closing, Pastor Matt called our attention to the New Testament. In Romans 7, we can read of how Paul describes his own struggles against his human desires and the personal appetites of both ourselves and others.

The Good News is that God has not only given the Israelites a rescuer, but us as well. In looking at the stories of both Moses and Jesus, we find each of them in a river at different times in their lives, but ultimately to the same purpose*. While God was beginning to act on His covenant with Israel in making sure Moses was safe to rescue them later, Jesus came to renew the Covenant and extend it to the rest of the world, as Israel had refused to do. We also see both Moses and Jesus in the wilderness, albeit for different reasons. Where Moses had taken a life rather than trusting God, Jesus came through his moments of temptation victorious and without sin. Jesus trusted and won the day. The truth is that, no matter how much we may strive, or read our Bibles, or pray, none of it suffices to rescue us. No matter how much we use our intellect*, or work out, or meditate*, only Jesus can truly rescue us.

-- God Bless!!

Footnotes:

1. During the Spring of 2016, I had been reading a really great book called, "A Prayer for Owen Meany", by New Hampshire based author, John Irving. Toward the end of the story, the main character is talking with the Parish Priest. What the Priest said in response to the boy's question caught me and prompted me to renew my heart in Christ. He said something about how dangerous it is to pray for our own will as opposed to God's Will. (I tried to look it up, but couldn't find it right off. As an avid reader, it never ceases to amaze me what books God guides me to read at certain times. A couple of years later, when my parents were losing the house I grew up in, I discovered a book I've mentioned on here just recently, called, "Finding the Sacred in Every Day Life", or something like that. It has bits and pieces in categories like Sacred Belongings, Sacred Spaces, Sacred People, etc... I highly recommend both this and A Prayer for Owen Meany. (As you may know, I am a "dyed in the wool" Protestant, but I admire Catholic things when they are worthy of my attention.)

2. In thinking about how God has blessed me over the past 10 years in particular, I can't help but realize His faithfulness in bringing me back in touch with another guy from the distant past. Mike and I had originally met 36 years ago, last week, actually. July 9, 1990 will forever be a blessing in our lives. We met while I was dating my 2x ex-boyfriend, Jeremy, who introduced us. Shortly after Jeremy and I broke up in October, Mike asked me out. We hung out for about 6 weeks before he decided to move on. Life went on for both of us, including the 8 years he spent in the Army starting in the Summer of 1992. I thank God that he missed Desert Storm by just weeks!! (I only found this out after we reconnected in 2021) God preserved Mike's life, brought us out of our troubled marriages, through other lesson-learning times, and back together for a fresh start. Life still is not easy, being that we live 1 1/2 hrs. apart with no car, but just having each other back in our lives makes it worth the struggle.

3. Although the vast majority of Christians see Jesus' Baptism as an example for us to follow, it really isn't. See my article on the Reflections page for more.

4. While it's true that CS Lewis used his intellect to explore Christianity as an Atheist, it was not his intellect that actually Saved him. It only served to LEAD him to Christ.

5. The mention of meditation is mine.

Music -- No rights, I promise!!

Ahead of the last song, there was Scripture on the screens from Ephesians --

This is an actual photo of the Well of Midian, where Moses met Zipporah and her sisters.

Another part of good shepherding is protection. Here, we see Moses defending the women against the rude local shepherds.