Surprise!! It's a "two-fer" day!! After about a 2 hr. break, I'm here doing today's Sermon Summary. Meanwhile, I was clearing some storage closet space in preparation for Mike's moving in soon. I figured since last week's message was so short, and my updates so long, that this one, although longer in the notes, will take less overall time, as there are no further updates in the last little while.

How do you feel about what others think of you?? Are you a "people pleaser", which, btw, is not healthy, or do you not particularly care?? As long as you're a decent person, it shouldn't matter what others think, even if it's negative for whatever reason. You know the truth. That's what matters most.

Tonight's message focuses on how we think God sees us. And that's even more important than how we see ourselves...

Turn with me, if you will, to Exodus 13 as we look at the rest of the chapter.

Exodus 13:17-22

New International Version

Crossing the Sea

¹⁷ When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, “If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.” ¹⁸ So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea.^[a] The Israelites went up out of Egypt ready for battle.

¹⁹ Moses took the bones of Joseph with him because Joseph had made the Israelites swear an oath. He had said, “God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up with you from this place.”^[b]

²⁰ After leaving Sukkoth they camped at Etham on the edge of the desert. ²¹ By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. ²² Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.

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In opening his message this morning, Pastor Joe shared the fact that the word "exodus" means "the way out". He then gave us today's takeaway statement --

"God doesn't only rescue us; He gives us Himself to lead us, to shape us, and to go with us."

We see in this passage of Scripture that the Israelites are leaving Egypt with several things. Unleavened bread, the bones of Joseph, plunder from the people of Egypt, and weapons. Those were the physical things, although God's provision was clearly involved in this. We'll get to the protection and presence shortly. Meanwhile, in case you were curious, Pastor Joe informed us that the amount of silver and gold the Israelites left with would equal around $3 BILLION in today's US currency!! As he said, they were a financial powerhouse when they left!! He also mentioned the clothing that was collected from Egyptian citizens ahead of the fact. We discover later that these didn't wear out during the ENTIRE 40 YEARS they took arriving in the Promised Land!! (Sandals, too) We find the bit about their plunder at the end of chapter 12.

At this time in Israel's history, it had been around 400 years since God had last spoken, and that was to Joseph when his family came down during the famine.* Pastor Joe directed our attention here to Genesis 15:13-14, 16 where God had specifically told Abraham that the people would be in captivity for 400 years, have great possessions, and finally return to the Land. Sometimes, God waits a long time before fulfilling His promises. (Other times, it just feels long to us.)

Next, we looked at the pattern throughout Scripture of where God's presence is evidenced by either fire, cloud, or both in some way. In this instance, God first speaks to Moses by fire at the Burning Bush. During their journey through the desert, it was a pillar of cloud during the day and fire at night, as we read in our passage above. Later, at Sinai, there was both fire and clouds, and then in the Tabernacle.

Another point to notice here is that God started by leading them. As the story continues, we find that He follows behind. This was part of His protection. The point is that, no matter His position, God was always with them.

God's protection was also shown here by the path they took. Knowing that the Israelites would NOT be ready for battle immediately, He lead them in a way that would avoid conflict before it was time. As Pastor Joe said, this showed gentleness on God's part as He looked on them with love, as He does with all of us. This is where my Intro Paragraph comes into play. Although our perceptions of God may not be those of love or gentleness every minute of the day, it doesn't matter what we think. God knows the truth, and He is the best there is. Therefore, He extends us a lifelong invitation to know Him and grow in faith towards Him.

Deserts have always been scary. Throughout history, that's where people tended to die. So why do we think God was leading them to such a desolate place?? What's going on when God's plan doesn't make sense to us?? That's simply His invitation to trust Him and join His Way. (Later known as Jesus) Meanwhile, what do we reach for if we don't trust God right away?? Our "stuff", right?? The sobering thought in relation to our passage above is that the same gold used to fund and build the Tabernacle was also used to make the golden calf. We may reach for our social/professional networks/influence, our knowledge, skills, and education, etc... None of these are bad, in and of themselves. What matters is that we give them to God to use us. We seek out self-proficiency. We reach for what's familiar. We seek control. At the same time, we may even seek more of what we already have. Conversely, we may run, hide, or even deny the issue at hand. Pastor Joe had props for the gold coins, a silk robe, a sword, and a candle to represent God. He also had a flexible skeleton leg to show Joseph's bones. At this point, he picked up the leg piece again to show that we may feel like God's bones have dried up, or that He's abandoned us somehow. Or we "dry up" our own bones by disqualifying ourselves for God's love due to guilt and shame from our past, or even our present. Some of us want a map. We want to see and know the whole plan. 🙋‍♀️ But that's not how God works. He shows us just one step at a time so we don't have a choice but to trust Him for the journey ahead. Ultimately, the best thing we can reach for when life doesn't make sense, is God.

In closing, Pastor Joe brought us over to the New Testament book of Acts. Specifically, chapter 2 where we have God showing up in wind and fire. As he brought out here, the events of Pentecost are our legacy of faith.*

We then turned to John 8:12, where Jesus spoke of being the Light of the World, and finally, to Matthew 28:20, where He ended the Great Commission by encouraging them that He would be with them always. The footnote on this verse, as Pastor Joe pointed out, was that the word used for "always" literally meant, "all of the days". Just as the Israelites had God's presence with them, so do we today.

-- God Bless!!

Footnotes:

1. The fact that there are empty grain towers in Egypt is empirical evidence to the truth of the famine in the time of Joseph.

2. I just want to clarify that the "legacy of faith" mentioned above in relation to Pentecost does NOT mean that we all have to speak in other tongues in order to have proof of our Salvation. It just means that we have the Holy Spirit indwelling as our proof. Paul makes it abundantly clear that God distributes the Spiritual Gifts INDIVIDUALLY. This means that we don't all get them all.

Music -- Never a right in sight!!