Exodus | Days of Darkness | Tony Fernandez

hey guys we're going to have a Bible study you can go in and turn your Bibles to Exodus chapter 1 last week we talked about why we were in the book of Exodus we said that this should have tremendous value for us in 2020 particularly because it's the story of God and how it's active rather it's the story of how God is actively involved in the lives of his people that's the discussion that we're looking at and more specifically today we're gonna look at something that I think is totally fitting for the time we're in right now right at the beginning of the book of Exodus we come face-to-face with some amazing truths about God that specifically address our needs our fears and in the position in the positions that we are in right now let me warn you though as you're sitting here and as you're listening to us online let me just let me just warn you Exodus chapter 1 is a difficult passage it's intense it's actually quite negative but we have to work through some of that negative stuff in order to and find the encouragement that comes on the other end of it as we read we have to read the text honestly but also with some sobriety because what we're gonna see today is how do we respond when darkness and fear is everywhere how do we respond when darkness and fear is everywhere and look you know what this feels like because you're living it right now fear has run amok in our society the question about what's next who's got it maybe I'm with somebody in my household who has this virus what does it mean for my job I know I've heard stories of people within our own congregation or struggling for work because of this virus what does it mean for our kid for my kids and their schooling what does it mean for my own financial future what does it mean for the markets you've seen the markets go up and down and up and down what does it mean for my own health maybe I'm older and I don't even know what to do how to deal with all these things the fear fear has blanketed our country and it is thick so it's so fitting that God would in his wonderful sovereignty give us a text that speaks directly to this discussion how do we respond when it looks like fear is all around us this is we're gonna see an exodus chapter 1 again if you have a Bible you can turn there with us otherwise it'll be up on the screen here these are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt with Jacob each with his family Reuben Simeon Levi and Judah Issachar Zebulun and Benjamin then in map Tali gad and ashur the descendants of Jacob number 70 in all remember that number Joseph was already in Egypt at the end of the book of Genesis which is the book that comes right before this book there's a great famine a famine breaks out there's no food anywhere except for in Egypt until the family of God the family of Abraham Isaac and Jacob find their way in Egypt because of their son because of Jacob son Joseph it says now Joseph and all of his brothers and all that generation died the Bible is fast forwarding about 50 years after the death of Joseph Joseph is the guy that saved his family by allowing them to migrate into Egypt but by giving he also gave them kind of a high status safe refuge just a place to live but this is long after that so the Bible says the Israelites were exceedingly fruitful they multiplied greatly increased in number and became so numerous that the land was filled with them from 72 being filled with them verse 8 then the new king to whom Joseph meant nothing came to power in Egypt look he said to the people the Israelites have become far too numerous for us come we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and if war breaks out we'll join our enemies fight against us and leave the country so they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor we're gonna skip down to verse 12 but the more they oppressed them the more they multiplied and spread so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites and work them ruthlessly they made their lives bitter with harsh labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the field and in all their harsh labor the Egyptians were then ruthlessly the hatred of the Israelites by the Egyptian people is about to reach its climax verse 15 the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives those whose names were chiffon and puah when you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool if you see the baby is a boy kill him but if it's a girl let her live we'll come back to verses 17 through 22 but it ends with this chilling remark then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile but let the girls live this is one of those passages throughout the scriptures that cannot be sanitized this is a historical retelling of an historical event this happened and this is like genocide 101 this is Mao Mao's China Stalin's Russia this is like Hitler's Germany or the African slave trade in the early 1800s in America and the sad truth is that people throughout our history people throughout time have oppressed dehumanized and murdered people because of their race this happens it's happened in the past and it continues to happen even to this day and Pharaoh is just following the playbook what's the playbook blame the victims for things they did not do wrong dehumanize the victims so that they're seen as less valuable enslave the victims so the culture will benefit from the horror of their enslavement and then kill the children just the baby boys though because the little girls can be trafficked they can be sold they can be used as sex slaves little girls are of no real threat to the Empire and we'll get to the irony of that in just a moment this is dark this is crazy like a special kind of crazy all of us got a little normal crazy in us but this is like you've never seen anything like this before dark vile despicable crazy and the law what's the law Ferro gave this law in order to turn this Lots all those people every keeper boy boy that is born you must throw into the Nile every Hebrew born boy it's a law if you see a Hebrew boy you grab that boy and you can throw him into the Nile so here you have a nation whose moral compass has been so severed that they are willing to grab infant boys and chuck them into the Nile River life doesn't get much darker than that can you imagine the fear of the mothers of these children look we're living in fear today but could you even imagine the fear would you even want to imagine the fear we titled this sermon we titled the sermon several weeks ago where we got this title several weeks ago and man it is fitting days of darkness listen to me nothing I believe can be worse than what we just read I love our church I love our church community I love our family we have some amazing families within our congregation some wonderful kids kids who have learned to love God kids who have learned to pray kids who have learned to love their families and their siblings but could you even imagine what it would be like if it was legal for someone to just walk up to you grab your son strip your son out of your hands and then you'd be powerless to do anything to them as they killed your son I've a seven-month-old and I read this and I just wept thinking about this this is the state that our brothers and sisters are in in Egypt that's the horror what we're about to see I'm gonna just give you a peek at the light at the end of the tunnel because in those dark days and those dark hours within the darkest moments of mankind's history and it looks like there's no way out when it looks like there's no light that everything is oblique and everything is broken when it looks like there's no end in sight when your imagination runs wild with horrible things and it feels like just the end you can't even get to the end when life is dim and you wonder where God is in the darkest God is still able to deliver his people in the darkness God is still able to deliver his people and listen if you're listening to this today and you're fearful about the coronavirus look I want you to be wise I want you to be wise but I do not want you to be hopeless because if you worship our God you worship a God who conquers sin death hell the grave and every virus there has ever been who worship a God who was willing to touch the leper we worship a God who is healing who is kind who is good there is no reason to fear there is glory that can come from darkness Gardens that can come from graves I love this new song that's out it says you turned my mourning to dancing you give beauty for Ashes you turn shame into glory you're the only one who can you turn graves into gardens you turn bones into armies you turn Seas into highways Lord you're the only one who can God is the only one who can bring true lights out of this dark places God is the only one who can bring true light out of dark places we start seeing that unfolds right here in verse 9 listen to what it says look he said to the people the Israelites have become too numerous for us come we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and if war breaks out we will join they will join our enemies fight against us and leave the country you know there are too many of them we have to dwindle them we have to kill their children and so he begins to execute his plan and this is what the plan is destroy their families destroy their families and then we will destroy them but if you have a Bible I mean this is one of those passages that I would love to underline verse 12 look at verse 12 it's so awesome and it kind of foretells what's about to happen but the more they were oppressed the more they multiplied the more Ferro try to destroy the Hebrews the more God did something to bring about their own glory there's a new law it's a powerful man he's the most powerful man maybe in the whole entirety of the world he's like king he doesn't need like a congress to approve his measures he does whatever he wants the most powerful man and the most powerful nation of the world he has his mind set on destroying the Hebrews destroying the people of God and every time he tries to do something against them he tightens the noose around his own neck and loosens the bond of the people of God no matter what he tries he fails no matter what he does he cannot stop the growth of the people of God no matter what how many times I wonder his fist bumped against this decree as he saw the number of people continue to multiply and in the church there's a history to this when things go the worst God's church grows the most when things look when you go and you look at the world you go there's no hope in our government there's no hope in our you know trying to stop a virus people go well where is their hope and people begin to find the one place where there truly is hope which is God and his kingdom God is the only one who can bring light out of places that are truly dark this should bring us hope this should allow us to grow in our courage now this is not to say that there were not child children killed by this madman that if there probably were but it is I'm just trying to point out that the most powerful human inventions on earth the strongest forces of nature the most sweeping sweeping fires of our own suffering nothing can destroy the Church of God there are a few things I see in this text that should give us this confidence though how do we gain confidence as we read this chapter because right now it seems a little bleak but I think we're gonna gain in some chapter and some confidence here as we look at this chapter the first thing that I see we're gonna look at three different things but the first thing I see is that God is war King behind the scenes often in secret and always in ceaseless care God God is working sorry God is working in secret and in ceaseless ways he just continues to work and often it's secret I love this quote by Charles surgeon the one that was just up there and I love this it says God is too good to be unkind and he is too wise to be mistaken and when we cannot trace his hand we must trust his hearts if we cannot trace his hand if we don't understand all the next steps we have to trust God's heart because God is good god is good look the edik goes out the law says you know kill the children every decision seems like it's oppressing the people more and more and more and more and we get the benefit of the end of the story but here's the deal for the people of God it's still a secret it's still secret it's still secret to them we know the end but but for them it's still secret and that's kind of what happens in life most times in life when you're in a situation it's still secret it's still secret to us how will the coronavirus end it's still secret we don't know but we trust God's heart how is God gonna work through some of maybe it's some difficult financial situations that we're going through we don't know it's a secret but we know that God has a good heart what happens if I lose my job I don't know I can't necessarily answer but I know God is going to bring something good out of it here's the deal most of the time we can see God's care in retrospect I almost guarantee that if you look back at a season of your life that looked dry that felt really scary I bet you you could trace the wonders of God's hand during those times if you kind of look back now after you have some years of retrospective you know perspective oh man like God was so merciful to me in those moments you know this happens to me all the time I often think like thank you God for the fourth thousand times you said no to that thing that I was asking you for at first I was so mad and I was so disappointed and I was so bothered but now in retrospect I think God you were good to me you were so so so good to me and I know you may wonder like man I wanted to come a little quicker I wish that I could see the secret revealed a little bit faster like and and I know there's also some of us even here maybe listening us or watching us online who are wondering you know like how does God how do we know God's heart when when we see children who raised in an abusive home where's that or women that married abusive men how can we see that God has a ceaseless care in those spaces and I want to try to answer as most honestly as I possibly can the answer is I don't know I don't know but what I do know is that I trust God he will bring something good out of what seems terrible at the time and that's why I think it's all the more reason that the church and this congregation should be a safe place to struggle with doubt to struggle with your own fears I don't belittle your fears we should be honest about the things that were afraid of that were things that don't make sense to us when we look at our lives and we go god it doesn't feel like you this makes sense we should at least be honest I don't want you walking into church or walking into your family group or just walking around with a big smile on your face like everything's okay when in fact things are miserable the church should be a place that we ask and answer honest questions you should be able to have real struggling and any any version of Christianity that says once you become a disciple you don't wrestle with fear anymore oh you know wrestle with doubt anymore you don't wrestle with being worried anymore that's a fairytale version that's not rooted in the Word of God I'm just saying it's like an insidious prosperity gospel that has destroyed people's lives in fact and I think it's also maligned the Word of God the fact is the Word of God never promises blue skies rainbows and sunbeams from heaven at all times what we're promised is that we have a good God who will make it good at the end if you look at your life right now and you go I don't know where all this stuff fits in I'm afraid I'm scared and it feels just awful or terrible you actually find yourself in some pretty good company among some of the greatest heroes of our heroes or our faith people like Abraham struggled with their faith King David struggled with his faith Jacob struggles with his faith and Jeremiah Jeremiah story is crazy sent on a mission from God and at the end of his life he thinks God you must have tricked me you sent me out here he laid bloodied naked in a ditch after being beaten by the people he went to go warn about God's judgment at the end of his life he sent into exile with all the rest of the people if you look at his life and go I did he didn't deserve that that doesn't seem like it made any sense but he had no idea that thousands of years later and for thousands of years to come that his life would be our blessing and we can look at his word we can be so enamored by the life that Jeremiah lived oftentimes the blessings of God are secret for a while but we have to trust that he has ceaseless care the second thing I see in this passage which I love is that God uses the weak and the powerless to accomplish his purposes think about I know this is I'm beating a dead horse with the current of I are saying but but think about how we defeat the coronavirus like what are the officials saying to do like wash your hands wash your hand don't touch your face I think I've touched my face several times in this lesson but I don't think we can stop it whatever I'm trying but like wash your face don't touch it it's like these little baby steps that defeat a mighty scare virus thing and I think similarly we see throughout scripture that God is over and over and over again using the weak and the powerless to accomplish something amazing God tends to go after the guy who is just you know I don't know the dadbod guy he's not going after the six-pack guy you got I'm saying like that that that that's it like he's using those people and profound and powerful ways and in this text the people he chooses to use are the hebrew midwives listen to their story then the king of egypt said to the hebrew midwives one of whom was named safar and i don't know and poor when you serve as midwife to the hebrew women and you see them on the birth stool if it is a song we shall kill him if it's a daughter shall they shout she shall live but the word midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them but let the male children live now this is important to note because at this point in history women the view of women is horrible they're seen as maybe just a step below cattle in fact you could trade a woman for cattle the word of a woman was not admissible in a court you could trade women for land you could trade your own daughter for a piece of land women were seeing very in a very real real sense in this society especially in the Egyptian society as subhuman and yet by the power of God the most powerful nation in all of the world is destroyed by the power of five women who fear God the Egyptian midwives Moses mom Moses his sister and even Pharaoh's own daughter they bring down the Empire Moses is born and Moses will be the redeemer we'll talk about that next week but goodness gracious the destruction of the Empire comes by these midwives and let me tell you if I'm gonna go into some sort of war give me these midwives over any weak willed dude I know give me these powerful brave ferocious courageous sisters who drive back on the commands that seem so or the canyons that are so against God's Word do you know how gutsy these ladies would have have to been this is a decree murder the babies murder them and this is an act of defiance they've signed honestly their own death warrant and now they're probably not just their own death warrant but but all their friends and all of their family this this guy is a guy who has cruelty knows no bounds he this is the dude who can sleep at night killing children these women the Bible tells us fear God much more than they fear that guy they fear God much more than they fear that guy because they're like what could he do to me kill me whatever God brings me much more glory than in death than even in life they're not afraid of him and I just want to highlight this because some of you listening or even right here you're single women and you're listening and you're going and I noticed that these would notice that these mid lives they're blessed by God and then they're given families which means they didn't wait around for husbands to be relevant not only are they women that are powerful but they're single women that are powerful well what I love about these midwives is they they're like it's not they're not like I need a husband and then I'm gonna give my life really over to the cause of God they're like I'm gonna give my life over the cause of God and then God will bless me with whatever he decides to bless me with they used mightily as single women they're not afraid of what someone can do to their bodies they're only afraid of the God who can deal with their souls let me just wrap up this section never believe you're too small never believe you're too small because it's the power of God at the work and the tiniest things that God reaps his glory and is joy in our joy out of it's God's work and the tiny things it's you're in the field David you're a shepherd I'm gonna make you King so you're afraid Gideon you're you're you're running away I'm gonna make you a mighty warrior it's you know you're a single midwife you're gonna do something glorious and then they're gonna be blessed with tremendous blessings the last thing I see in this text that I think speak very clearly to what we're going through right now and also speaks through the language of the book of Exodus and really profound away fear must be appropriately placed as I mentioned here the the the midwives are summoned in the midwives are summoned a and and they come up with kind of a crazy story but they walk in and you could just imagine what it feels like they know why they're being summoned there's a bunch of baby boys that are running around why haven't you killed them and so the King calls them in and this is a this is a crazy sentence he said they go you know the Israelites they they're they're really vigorous and birth I can't even get to them by the time they just like shoot them out you know and then all I'm there to do is clean it all up this is a remarkable story and if you're listening you're probably like that's not what's happening but the Bible actually says why they they did this and I mentioned this before but they feared the Lord more than they feared Pharaoh that was it they feared the Lord more than they feared Pharaoh and that that's what's actually happening here that the women weren't more vigorous at giving birth they just had placed their fears in the right place now a couple of things to consider with in our own time right now if you're watching the news and checking Twitter every few minutes to find out how many more cases of this virus has come into our county if you're trying to figure out the zip code you know are there any people there you know or you're trying to trace every person that you've met over the last month your fear is probably not appropriately placed if your attitude is overwhelmingly negative your fear is probably not appropriately placed if you if you were like not willing to do what you know you should do to care to love to be compassionate towards somebody else your fear is probably not placed in the right place look I don't want us to hide in the sand I don't want us to be like you know let's just let's just never talk to anybody I want us to be wise to be smart you know I mentioned this before Jesus touched the leper I want us to be we're not Jesus but amen like I wash your hands you know do all those all those things but but don't let fear control you at least the fear of a virus control you let the fear of God control you when fear is appropriately placed it doesn't become passive it doesn't even become flippant instead when fear is appropriately placed it leads to fearless action that's what happens in life and let me just give you kind of a stupid example people are so worried right now that they can't fight things like water and toilet paper that if you go to the store if you go to Walmart there are there's no toilet paper this my friend I believe the idea of no toilet paper is misplaced fear people are are very afraid and I'm not trying to be silly I'm not trying to be I'm trying to be honest I'm not sure honestly why you would need 40 rolls of toilet paper if you're quarantined for 14 days you got another problem if that's your issue I'm not trying to make light of that other problem just saying that's probably the case but but why not instead why not instead be disciples so when we walk into Walmart or Costco or Publix and we see that all the shelves are gone instead of growing up in fear or walk into Walmart we see a brand new container of water there instead of going I need to grab 15 for my own self why not go okay maybe there are some people who are shut-ins within our church who couldn't go to Walmart who can't go to Publix maybe you know what I'm gonna I'm gonna buy one extra and I'm gonna bring it to them why not fear God more than you fear this virus why not fear God more than you fear this whole thing don't fight over toilet paper that's just stupid that's just stupid and it's misplaced fear fear of God doesn't cause us to be flippant it again doesn't cause us to be irresponsible instead we fearlessly engage with compassion and with graciousness we engage the more the temperature is heated up the more it feels like there's nowhere to go the more gracious we become and the more compassionate we become and the more the world belittles us because we aren't so fearful and we're mocked and we're marginalized the more we extend grace to people the more we give compassion because our fear is not in what can be done to us we fear God even that it's worse just listen to this what happens if you die death if your disciple is glory forever that's what death is watch the Apostle Paul live his life and you'll be in awe of this idea of fearing what is right you couldn't do anything to the Apostle Paul I mean think about it you try to kill him he goes to dies game fine we'll leave you alone to live as Christ you put him in prison that's fine I want to sing hymns all night long and then convert all your guards you torture me fine well I don't consider the current struggle and pain to be worthy compared to the future glory I'll receive you couldn't touch the man because he feared God he was the fear freest guy who has ever lived and this is what it means to fear the Lord to be in awe of God rather than to be all of other things is that we begin to be free free from the concerns that our world is throwing upon us this is what we see happening in this narrative this is what we should be seeing happening in the life of every man and women God is working in secret and in ceaseless care God uses the weak and the powerless to overthrow in the Conqueror the most mightiest and mightiest forces there has ever been and fear when it's appropriately placed fear when it's appropriately placed leads to freedom and fearless fearlessness in action the thing about this text I want you to draw your attention to locally and globally as that this kind of thing is not just going on thousands of years ago it's happening right now it's happening right now well we can learn about the character of God we can put into practice right now we learn from this passage is what it means to be a Christian on our day and what it means to be active where we are to give of ourselves and not and to push back darkness wherever we find it God is working God is using us we should not be afraid do not fear for I ever deemed you I've summoned you by name you are mine when you pass through the waters we'll be with you and when you pass through the rivers they will not sweep over you when you walk through the fire you will not be burned the flames will not set you ablaze for I and the Lord your God the Holy One of Israel your Saviour amen at this time I'd like to invite you and your whole family to take communion together every week we take a piece of bread that represents Jesus's body and juice that represents his blood and as we're taking it this week I'd like for us also just to think about some of the stuff we just talked about the way that it looks like Jesus's life was destroyed that Satan had won and then after three days Jesus was risen from the rose from the dead because the power of God is able to overcome anything hell death disease and the grave let's pray together father we are so thankful to be able to take communion together as a community God as we're taking this throughout Broward County and maybe even throughout the world III do pray that we take this and consider the way that you are able to be victorious over the worst of times father you are a good God thank you for sending Jesus thank you for his example thank you that he is our king our Lord and our Savior we love you in Christ's name Amen hey thanks for watching our youtube channel please like comment and subscribe we're so excited about all that God is doing right here in Broward County Florida

Channel: Broward Church

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Length: 32min 34sec (1954 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 17 2020