Getting Ready for Deliverance Exodus Series #2

It’ll be the only church in the world where you get higher ground and climb every mountain in the same orphatory. I’m going to ask those who are helping us with communion to please prepare for our communion service. I want you to take your Bibles and turn with me to the 10th chapter of Corinthians. In verse 14, Paul says, “Therefore, beloved, flee from idolatry.”

I speak as to wise men. Judge for yourselves what I say. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we, being many, are one bread and one body, for we all partake of that one bread. Observe Israel after the flesh: are not those who eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar?

And then in chapter 11, he continues this discussion by saying, “I received of the Lord, this is verse 23 of chapter 11, I received of the Lord, or from the Lord, that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which he was betrayed took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘Take, this is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ And in the same manner, he also took the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant of my blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me, for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till he comes.'”

We serve open communion here. We welcome all people who are Christians to partake. You don’t have to be a part of this church. Please keep the elements in your hand. You can put the cup in the little rack ahead of you if you wish to free your hands a bit. And then we will partake in a few moments together.

Now I want to remind you of these words that Paul has spoken. That we proclaim the Lord’s death by this activity. That’s a very public word. That’s different than what Jesus said. Jesus said in the giving of this that we remember his death. But Paul says that when the church corporately takes this, we proclaim his death.

We lay in the society, and we release in the society a proclamation of Christ’s death, of his giving of himself for the sins of the world. You know that we have often in this place told you about the two breads that we have in communion. One is unleavened, one is leavened. Both of them are referred to in this passage in 1 Corinthians 10.

Paul says, “the bread which we eat, is it not the body of the Lord? That’s unleavened bread, sinless life given for your sins. But then he says, ‘we being many are one bread,’ that’s the church, ‘which is the body of Christ.’ It is not perfect. As you know, the Israelites could only bring leaven in the bread on one occasion.

One time in all of the annual sacrifices could they put leaven in the bread. And that was the day of Pentecost. And they would bake the bread at home with leaven and bring it to the Lord. Because God was saying, when Pentecost comes, when the church is constituted as a church, it’ll be ordinary people with sin in their lives, people who aren’t perfect, and they do fail, and they do sin.

But God wants that sacrifice as well. This bread which we take, unleavened bread, is of course the symbol of Christ’s sinless life, body, given to you. Now we have a kind of ridiculous question, and I’m sure it enters your mind from time to time, when you take this question. Cracker, are you supposed to eat it or just let it dissolve or what do you do with it?

And some people are so conscious, of course if you go to a Catholic Church they give you a wafer that just melts on your mouth you don’t have to worry about it. Well you eat it! Let me answer the question for you! You eat this bread. Because, when Jesus said to them, if you don’t want to eat of me, you can be none of me.

Even though they were offended, many left. They knew what he was talking about, because the Passover lamb, which provided the blood for their atonement, they roasted that lamb, and they ate that lamb. Why? Because that’s how they identified with the sacrifice. Not just by posting it outside their door, but partaking, eating of it.

So when Jesus said, you must eat of me, there shouldn’t have been any confusion in that. Because he was saying exactly that. If I’m going to be your Passover lamb, it’s not just my blood that’s going to redeem me, you’re going to have to eat of me. And how unfortunate the church divides itself on this issue because there is supposed to be in this moment something of the presence of Christ that we do not experience in any other of the activities of the church.

We should be healed in this moment. We should have testimonies every month of people who were healed when they ate this bread. On numerous occasions when people were comatose or nearly in that position and dying, I’ve gone to serve communion and put the bread in their mouth. I’ve commanded them in the Lord’s name to eat that bread.

There is, in the act of eating bread, a sharing of Christ. It should bring healing, deliverance, strength, and enablement for us. It should also, corporately, proclaim to the world that Christ has died. Father, we lift this bread to you with thanksgiving as it is your body that we are partaking of. It is indeed sharing in your life, as Paul said. Sharing in you in a living way. We know we do that spiritually, but we eat this bread literally to partake in that activity and testify to it. For those of us who need healing this morning, we receive that in Jesus’ name. As we eat by faith, Amen. Shall we eat together?

Praise you, Lord.

And in the same way,

Lord, we experience your healing right now. We experience new life right now. We experience your presence in a new and living way as we break bread together on our knees. In the same way, he took the cup, blessed it, and said, “This is a new covenant, a new promise I make to you.” It’s interesting that the Greeks have two words for promise throughout the New Testament. One is a word that has to do with a contract based on conditions.

“I’ll paint your house for $12,000. You meet the condition, I’ll do what I said I would do.” But if our salvation has that condition, how many know it’s broken, unbroken, broken, unbroken, broken, unbroken? That’s the way it would be because that’s the way your performance is. Even some of you self-righteous individuals out there this morning.

But he uses a different Greek word, a word that means an unconditional promise. A promise that is given and fulfilled by the person giving it.

“I promise you this, and I’m going to pay for it, no conditions.” That’s the promise he makes to us, in his blood. Lord, we thank you for the blood we receive with thanksgiving, a transfusion this morning. We need it. And we receive it in Jesus’ name. Amen. Shall we drink together? Let’s sing it together at the cross.

At the cross where I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart.

It was there, by faith, I received my sight, and now I am happy all the day. Sing it again. Singing in faith at the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there, by faith, I received my sight, and now I am.

Is that good news? Is it good news to know that someone’s going to pay all your bills? Isn’t it interesting how excited you would get about that? I mean, some of you, I can almost see you getting antsy with the thought of it. And yet the far greater bill has been paid. The far greater bill has been paid.

Lots of good news. Lot that God is doing. And continuing to do. I believe we’re about to enter in; I really do. I think we’re coming into some things that God has said to us for a long time. It was exciting last Sunday to have the new song singers with us, wasn’t it? They were a refreshing blessing to us, but I want you to know you were a blessing to them too. Members of them came up and said, “Hey, we may not be here to minister; we may be here to be ministered to.”

Last Sunday night was incredible here. I think this may be the only church in the history of the world where an elder blew his Achilles tendon while dancing before the Lord. Now, if he had blown his Achilles tendon running for a touchdown or going out to center field to get a hard-hit fly ball, it would probably be headlines.

But dancing before the Lord is, uh, probably gonna get something like this from most people: “Couldn’t have been God or it wouldn’t have happened,” you know, that kind of stuff. If you dance and you hit the pew, it’s not God. I think we need to create a new Olympics for gymnastic praisers.

Thanks for the overwhelming response to Sunday’s message. I know it’s… God is working in new directions in so many aspects of our lives, and the move is on. But as Paul clearly teaches us in two fundamentally important passages of Scripture, 1 Corinthians 10:11 and Romans 15:4, the believer is to carefully study the Old Testament because in the Old Testament story are the examples and the patient testimony, an example by which we receive comfort through the scriptures.

They had to experience, personally and corporately, a going-out first. They had to undergo deliverance before they could enter and be poised for a new inheritance. A simple way to state that is how we stated it last week. There must be a going-out first in order for there to be a coming in. And we looked at Psalm 105:16-22.

We saw that Joseph, not Moses or Joshua, is the biblical foundation of the exodus of Israel from Egypt. Joseph kept his eye on the ball. Nothing that happened to Joseph could deter his identity from God’s ultimate plan for his people. He died confessing his life focus, which was an identity with God’s people.

In the Bible, God credits Joseph not so much for his remarkable faithfulness, chastity, wisdom, prudence, or even his lack of bitterness, all of which are mentioned in the book of Genesis. But God credits Joseph in a one-sentence summary found in Hebrews 11:22, as the summary of the Holy Spirit on the most Christ-like character in the Old Testament. It says, “When he died, Joseph made mention of the departing of Israel,” the Greek word there is exodus, “he made mention of the exodus of the children of Israel, and he gave commandment concerning his bones.”

That’s all, Doc! That’s all it says! Tonight, I’m going to continue with Joseph specifically. I have a very strong word so that we will ultimately see why Joseph replaces Reuben. Do you want to know what draws God’s attention to you? This word tonight is very specific. Reuben was the natural firstborn child.

As Jacob said when he was dying, Reuben was his strength. He was his excellence, meaning he was his firstborn. Yet the birthright, the double portion, all the preeminence and dignity that normally goes to the firstborn went to Joseph and not to Reuben. Why? Well, the answer is alarmingly simple. Joseph identified with the covenant.

Joseph found his very reason for being in identifying with the spiritual destiny of the family of God. In 1 Chronicles chapter 5, verses 1 and 2, we find these words: in the first verse, the genealogy is not listed according to the birthright. And then we find in verse two, the birthright was Joseph’s.

Now Reuben is an interesting character. He’s a lot like his uncle Esau. You remember Esau was also the firstborn. Esau also had the birthright. But Esau could only see what was temporal and material. He would sell his birthright just to have a good, rich bowl of red, fat meat soup. And in case you don’t think that’s being fair, listen to what he said himself in Genesis 25:32.

“Look, I’m about to die. What profit does this birthright do me?” Verse 34: “Thus, Esau despised his birthright.” In other words, Esau was saying, “What good’s a birthright? What value are spiritual things? So what if I’m going to be the priest of the family? Big deal! What counts is what I put in my stomach! What counts is what I write in my checkbook.”

In Hebrews 12:15-17, Christians are warned that none of us should come short of the grace of God, that a root of bitterness springs up, causing trouble, so that we’re defiled, so that there is no immoral. The King James says. The actual word there is profane in the Greek. No profane, godless person, like Esau, who would sell his birthright for a single meal, and you know afterward that he desired to inherit the blessing.

He was rejected because he found no place of repentance, though he sought it with tears. What does that mean? It means he never repented over giving up the spiritual side of the issue. He repented because he was going to lose the double portion. The temporal thing. God said, “I’m not even interested in your repentance.”

That’s why 2 Corinthians says there are two kinds of repentance. One is worldly repentance. It just repents because it’s caught. God doesn’t even hear it. But there’s a repentance that identifies with God. It’s a heart repentance. “God, I’m sorry for what this has cost you.” And that’s the repentance that God hears.

You see the connection. The connection with Christians is, with Joseph is, don’t be bitter. Keep your eye on the ball. Keep your life focused on what really is important because bitterness produces profanity, and profanity produces people who live for the material. And Esau in Hebrews 12 is the example of that kind of Christian.

He’s interested in the material, the earthly, the bodily, the sensuous. And Reuben, Esau’s nephew, Jacob’s son, Jacob’s firstborn, is exactly like Uncle Esau. He’s identical. He hastens to the material route. He schemes for temporal blessings. Reuben isn’t even mentioned in the book of Hebrews. In fact, the only Bible statement in summary of Reuben’s life is from his father’s dying lips in Genesis 49:3 and 4.

“Reuben, you are as unstable as water! And you will never excel.” How would you like your dying dad to speak those words of blessing on you? Joseph wins a record for his faith because of his priorities. Joseph is in Hebrews 11. Reuben is not. Joseph is in the Hall of Faith. Because even in death, Joseph had only one concern.

Turn with me to Genesis chapter 50, verses 24, 25, and 26. In verse 24, Joseph said to his brethren, “I’m dying, but God will surely visit you.” The actual Hebrew says, “God intervening will intervene.” “God will surely visit you, bring you out of the land, to the land he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”

Then Joseph took an oath from the children of Israel, saying, “God will surely visit you.” Again, “God intervening will intervene.” “And you will carry my bones from here.” So Joseph died at the age of 110, and they embalmed him. And he was put in a coffin in Egypt. As I told you last week, the last words of the book of Genesis are those words.

“A coffin in Egypt.” What’s Joseph saying? Don’t even let my bones rest in the material. Don’t let even my final residue, the residue of my flesh, I don’t want to be identified with Egypt in any way. “Carry my bones to Canaan. Bring them to the land of the covenant. Bring them to the place of promise.”

And I want to say just a parenthesis to you here this morning. The thing that has been the focus of your life carries a responsibility even unto death. Do you think Christians have a continuing responsibility after death? I know Christians who die leaving amassed wealth in many instances to children who do not share their thinking or direction on carrying it.

And they do that as though they had no continuing responsibility after they die. They obviously don’t understand the principle in God’s Word. And that is that the focus of your life carries a responsibility beyond death. And so it is said of Abel in Hebrews 11:4, “Abel, being dead, continues to speak.” And he does.

Into our lives. There’s no question about the fact that the priorities of our life do not end when the daily expenditure of our life and death comes. And I wonder if you hear what Joseph is saying at this point. Please listen. No man ever lived who had more reason to reject the people of God than Joseph. The people of God had bullied him, badgered him, and rejected him, and sold him.

It was his own family that ultimately was responsible for his imprisonment. But when Joseph’s first son is born, he calls him Manasseh, which means forgetfulness. And if you didn’t get the issue… He adds, by telling the people who heard him name his son this, in the 41st chapter at verse 51, “God has made me forget all the toil of my father’s house.”

And the word toil there doesn’t mean work, it means the harshness, the bitterness. Everything that’s happened under my father’s house that could have made me bitter and angry, I have forgotten it. Interesting, isn’t it? Because I know so many Christians who could give you an absolute readout. They could give you a computer printout of every time they’ve been hurt.

Everybody who’s offended them. Everything that hasn’t gone the way they thought it should. And if any man ever lived who could have done that. It ought to have been just. But secondly, if there’s ever any man who lived who could have been bedazzled by the material things of the world, that also was Joseph.

He stood in command of the greatest garnering of material wealth and power in history up to this point. And when his second-born son is born. He calls him Ephraim, which means fruitfulness. And remember, Joseph’s whole life is being tried by the Word of God. That’s how we started this series last Sunday in Psalm 105, by saying, “Until the time that the Word came to pass, it was the Word which tested Joseph.”

And that Word, as we’ve seen, which tested Joseph, wasn’t so much the personal dream he had, that dream which he told in Genesis 37, and caused his brothers to hate him – a dream that said they eventually would bow like stalks of grain to him, and even mother and dad as the sun and moon would bow to him. It wasn’t so much that dream.

That was the dream that earned him his unplanned and definitely not first-class tour to Egypt. But that dream was like an outward kernel.

It was well-meaning. At 17, when you receive a dream like that, it seems to be very self-fulfilling, and I’m going to be loved, and I’m going to be powerful, and even in that inevitable and most difficult arena of my life, I’m going to be accepted and appreciated, even in the arena of my family.

But that dream, that outward kernel, had to fall into the ground and die before the true kernel of the word within the word could be released – the word of the covenant, which demanded separating and sifting the word of identity with the purposes of God. And you know exactly what that is, because by the age of 57, when Joseph confesses the word within the word, he says, “Look, you could have meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.”

And I was sent ahead to be the means through which God’s people would be released into their purposes. But you don’t get that; you don’t get anything in the Christian life. Sure, we have little personal charismatic ideas – donkey’s nose – that get us up and moving.

But that stuff has to die first. I remember an evangelist who was in this pulpit one time, and he told us – and I’m quoting him – he said, “Everybody who comes to the church first comes with an ‘I’ reason. I need to be encouraged. I need healing. I need fellowship. I need teaching. I need this and this.” And then he went on to say, “But with maturity and with growth, the ‘I’ message passes, and we accept the ‘we’ message.”

What’s our collective purpose? What are we here for? What is God wanting to do through us? And I believe that’s the real purpose of the Holy Spirit in this series. God is saying something to us. Where do you want your bones to be buried? Some of you already have a plot. You know? We used to do a thing in small groups years ago, and that is we’d go around a small group and say, “Can you imagine what the epitaph on your cemetery would look like on your gravestone?”

What would it say? You know, people are put off by that, especially in this culture. Dying is an obscenity, you know. In the old cultures, people died at home. They died among us. Dying was a family event. Now we put people in isolated little hygienic hospitals, and they die as though it were some kind of obscenity.

But I told you years and years ago, when I was fourteen and a half years of age, God said to me, “I have raised you up to raise others up, to raise others up.” I never expected to be famous. I never expected to be infamous either.

But when I come to the end of my life, there is a real understanding as to what that tombstone needs to say spiritually, and I’m not suggesting it has to say this. Lauren Cunningham says, “Tombstones should say ‘the teacher of the judgment seat of Christ.’ If Anita has her way, I know what it will say – something entirely different than that, I assure you. But in God’s sight, I know what the tombstone’s supposed to say. He did raise others up, to raise others up, to raise others up. That’s the point of the word being released. Are you known for sniveling, bitter, defensive, demanding ‘me’ messages? Somebody encourage me. I need this. Someone change my diapers.”

You know the people sitting beside you right here in this church this morning. That’s as far as it’s ever gone for them. That’s the only thing they know about. But there are others in this church who long ago have come to identify with the purposes of God. They focus their life by faith that God means to do something.

There’s an eternal covenant. God’s working through the church. The material world is just a midnight shadow. And so their conversations and their decisions and their checkbook show where their true focus has been. Now they’re human and sensitive, and they’ve got needs just like other people. But the ‘me’ messages have died; the ‘I’ messages have died in their life because they’ve been subjugated to something higher and more important.

I’m trying to read Exodus 1. Someone asked me this morning, “Are we going to get into the book of Exodus yet?” Yes, we are. Exodus means going out – going out to inner end. There will eventually be a total fulfillment of everything God has said. Every promise in the Word will come true. No promise of the Lord will be barren.

No promise will fall to the ground. Not one word or promise of God will ever be forsaken or forgotten. Every word that God has said will be fulfilled. But we must, like Joseph, continue to stand and continue to identify with the word of promise and to do that instead of being attracted to all the material elements of this passing world system.

Now, that’s not negative. Joseph prospered. I know that Joseph had more material wealth than he used the system of this world more than anyone sitting in this auditorium. I know you well, and I know he did better than any of you have done. Joseph had wealth? He used wealth. He had position? He used position.

He had fame? He used fame. He had power? He used power. But they never meant more to him than the snap of a finger. Wealth, position, fame, power—never modified his ultimate direction, and that’s the victory of Joseph. To be in the world but not of the world. To use it, enjoy it, be in it, respond to it, but never be controlled by it.

Now let’s read from Exodus 1, some of these verses. I’m not going to ask you to stand. Some of you are already asleep; you should lay down. The rest of you, you don’t need to stand. These are the names of the children of Israel who came to Egypt. Each man with his household. Verse 1 of chapter 1 with Jacob.

Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. All those who were descendants of Jacob were 70 persons because Joseph was already in Egypt. Joseph died, all his brothers, and all that generation. But the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied and grew extremely mighty, and the land was filled with them.

And he said to the people, “Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we. Come, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply. And it happened in the event of war, that they join our enemies and fight against us. And so go up out of the land.” Isn’t that interesting? There’s a double, I mean, the guy speaking out of both sides of his mouth.

He doesn’t want them to stay in the land because they might join the enemy, but he doesn’t want them to go out either. That’s the way the world is with you. They want you in, but they don’t like you. You know, they want to attract you and pull you, but they, on the other hand, they don’t want you to really be around them.

That’s the way the world views the church, and the way the world views Christians. Continue to read. They sent taskmasters over them, verse 11, to afflict and bring burdens. They built for Pharaoh supply cities, Pithom and Ramesses. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew, and they were in dread of the children of Israel.

So the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with rigor. And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage: mortar, brick, and all manners of service in the field. In the service they made them serve with rigor. Now notice that phrase is repeated twice. That’s a very interesting word, to serve with rigor.

Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of one was Shipthra, and the name of the other Pua. And he said, “When you do the duties of a midwife for these Hebrew women, see them, and you see them on the birthstools, if it is a son, then you shall kill him. But if it’s a daughter, then she shall live.”

But the midwives feared God. Now some people say these are Hebrew midwives with Egyptian names. I don’t believe that. Doesn’t make the story any sense in the story. These were obviously Egyptian midwives who had learned to fear God by their contact with the people of God. And they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they saved the male children.

So the king of Egypt called them and said to them, “What have you done, saving the male children alive?” And the midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women, they are lively and give birth before the midwife comes to them. Therefore God dealt with the midwives, and the people multiplied and grew very mightily.

And so it was, because the midwives feared God, that he provided households for them. And Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “Every son born shall you cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.” Now some people think that’s the same word as the previous verses concerning Israel. It is not.

Here, Pharaoh is saying, since I can’t get you to deal with these Hebrews alone, all babies, all male babies, this is just like Herod did later, all male babies will be killed, and of course, that caused the great hostility of the Egyptian people toward the people of God. May God add His blessing. Keep your Bibles open.

Now I want an exegesis of this passage, and it’s really not difficult to give. It’s a very simple… Word to exegete, much of it historical. But I also want the rhema word of God to come to you. And I think there are four words you need to be in touch with this morning as we go through this word to us.

First is covenant, and second is continuity. Thirdly is conflict, conflict, and lastly, confirmation. So, covenant, continuity, conflict, and confirmation. We need to have a little review to establish this first word, covenant. So, let’s review. Let’s go back to Genesis 17. That’s the pivotal chapter in the book of Genesis.

Christian living isn’t supposed to be a spectator sport; it’s a growing experience with the Lord. Genesis 17 is one of those chapters we often call the covenant chapter. In verse 2 of the 17th chapter, God says to Abraham, “I will make a covenant between you and me.” God is speaking again in verse 4.

In verse 4 of chapter 17, He says, “This covenant is with you; you’ll be the father of many nations.” Verse 6, He says, “You will be exceedingly fruitful; you will become a nation; kings will come to you.” Verse 17 says, “I will establish the covenant between me and your descendants, your generations, and I will give you the land of Canaan for your own possession,” and so forth.

Now you notice quickly, three things out of that. First is the land. God says, “I’m going to give you the land of Canaan.” Now, lady, I have a word for you this morning. I don’t care what the United Nations says, I don’t care what the United States president or government says, and I don’t care what the Arab Union says; God has given Canaan, or that land, which we now call Palestine after the word for Philistine, to Abraham and his descendants. Very clear. Not only was land, but descendants. They were to become a mighty nation. Remember that this began with one man. God always starts with a man, never starts with a committee, never starts with a church. He starts with a man. And thirdly, He said, “I’ll bring all the nations of the earth a blessing through you.”

That’s not because Jews are better than anybody else; they’re not. But God was saying, “I need to start somewhere. I’m going to start with this man because he’s faithful, and his descendants will be uniquely blessed, and out of that, the nations of the world will receive a blessing.” Now let’s go a little further in Exodus, and then, in order to come back to chapter 1, I want you to see on this business of covenant.

So let’s go ahead, first, to Exodus 2. 24. In Exodus 2. 24, God looks at the children of Israel who are suffering in Egypt, and He remembers His covenant. Kind of circle those words. God remembered His covenant. Then go to chapter 6, verses 4 and 5, where God says, “I have established my covenant, and I will remember my covenant.”

And then go all the way ahead to chapter 19. Now this is the pivotal chapter in Exodus, like 17 is the pivotal chapter of Genesis. And in verse 5, He says, “If indeed you obey me and keep the covenant, you will be a special treasure to be above all people; the earth is mine.” Verse 6 says, “You will be a king and a priest in the holy nation, and these are the words you will speak to the children of Israel.”

Now one more, go on to the 24th chapter of Exodus. And here, Moses takes the blood, verse 6, puts it in a basin; half he sprinkles on the altar, and he takes the book of the covenant, notice the phrase, “book of the covenant,” reads it in the hearing of the people, and they said, “The Lord has said this and we will do it; we will be obedient.”

In verse 8, he says this, he took blood and sprinkled it upon the people and said, “The blood of the covenant, which the Lord has made with you according to his word.” Now go back to 19 for just a second again. I don’t have time to get into this this morning, but I want you to see what God is really saying here in the 19th chapter.

He’s saying, as a result of this covenant, I am giving rulership to you. I’m making you a kingdom of priests. And that’s facetious to some people, the concept of king and priest. But God puts them together, a royal, ruling kingdom. And a ministry of priests. And of course, that is applied to the church in two very specific occasions.

The book of Revelation, but particularly in 1 Peter chapter 2 verses 5 and 9. You know these verses. You are living stones built up as a spiritual house. You are a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifice acceptable to God. You’re a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, which He means to proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into marvelous light.

So here are the covenant purposes of God upon His people. But here’s the principle, and it’s over this church. And if you don’t get this, then you’re confused forever about the division in the church. Lady, there’s a difference between being born, being alive, and doing something with your life. Would you agree with that?

There are a lot of people out here who are living and breathing, but they’re doing nothing. Nobody’s gonna know when they’re dead. They’ve made no contribution. In the same way, there’s a difference between people who are born again; by the grace of God, they will go to heaven! But they’ve done nothing with their life.

They’ve been redeemed, but they’ve never come into a covenant. The covenant and salvation are not the same thing. The covenant means the purposes of God. Look to Nehemiah. This is a passage we often quote. It’s a song sung by the Levites at the dedication of the temple, or dedication of the walls of Jerusalem.

And they’re talking about Abraham. Notice the order here. They said, you are the Lord who called Abraham. You brought him out of the land of the Chaldeans. You changed his name, a spiritual process from Abraham to Abra, from Abraham to Abraham. You found his heart faithful, and that, in Greek, “risco,” means you inquired and put him through a test.

The Hebrew word there is “matzah,” the same word used in Psalm 105 about Joseph. You refined him, you put the fire on his life. So you found his heart to be faithful, and then you made him the covenant. Notice the order. When was Abraham justified? He was justified, according to the 15th chapter, when he believed God.

God said, “You believed me, and I justified you. I considered you justified. But God didn’t enter into the covenant until he attested him. There’s a lot of difference between being saved by the grace of God, going to heaven, being ready for the rapture, and having a meaningful life, finding purpose. Now, let me get something straight with you.

Satan cannot cause you to backslide. The devil cannot send you to hell. In fact, hell isn’t open for business. And when hell is open for business, Satan’s the first tenant of hell. He’s not the manager of hell; he’s the victim of hell. Satan can’t cause you to backslide. Your righteousness is based on the grace of God through Jesus Christ.

But Satan can win in your life without firing a shot by simply getting you detoured, so that although you’re saved, you’re useless. You’re going to heaven but not doing anything. Do you know that in the survey we took a month ago, and by the way, the people who brought attention to the survey and who graded it for us said this was an unusual response?

Almost nobody in this church could identify a gift of God in their life. And basically, they said, “What are you doing in that church? These people don’t know they’re supposed to be doing something, and they can’t identify what it is they’re supposed to be doing.” That’s tragic. Once we’re saved, all the devil can do is to stop us short of the covenant purpose of God.

It’s like the little lady in my dad’s church I told you about before. Every Wednesday night, she would say, “Y’all pray for me that I’ll hold on to the end.” Her whole life was lived to stay saved. It’s like the man who got the one talent, and he said, “I know you were a hard master, so I wrapped it up and buried it, and here it is! I kept it! Bless God, I didn’t lose it!” Jesus said, “Put him in outer darkness. Take his talent and give it to the man who had five.”

The second point this morning is continuity. I know that I said this to you last week; let me say it again. The book of Exodus begins with the word “and.” It’s translated now sometimes, but it’s the word “and.” Genesis and Exodus are the same book. God is continuing. The same thing is happening. Three hundred years after Joseph dies, the people go into the Exodus.

There’s a total of four hundred years for the people of God to be in Egypt. In fact, if you go back to the fifteenth chapter of Genesis, here’s old man Abraham, and by the way, Abraham was an old man when he was called. He was 75 years of age when he started. Some of you think, after you’re 40, life is over.

What are you going to do, honey? Sit in a rocking chair for 40 years? People in this society say, “I’m going to take an early retirement.” What? To fish for 25 years or 50 years? My heavens! Even to golf, I can’t imagine that.

Some of you think you can’t begin life over again. Look at this guy, 75 years of age. He has a baby when he’s 87. Now that’s frightening, I agree. But if you look to that 15th chapter, in verses 13 and 14, God says, “Your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs. They will serve them, they will afflict them for 400 years, and the nation whom they serve I will judge, and afterwards they will go out with great possessions.”

I want to carve that in the door of the Woodside Council.

Do you understand what God is saying at that point? Here is God before Isaac is born! Prophesying this 400 years. Actually, if you see the 12th chapter of Exodus, it’s 430 years when it finally comes to be. 400 years in Egypt. And these 400 years divide into two categories. The first 300 years are great!

They prosper; they’re blessed; there’s no persecution; they are treasured by the leadership. They prosper as shepherds and farmers. They grow in numbers. They increase.

A hundred years. There is deep persecution. And yet in both, God is accomplishing His purpose. In fact, the actual Hebrew in Exodus 1:9 says when Pharaoh saw they have increased, or one of the translations says they are mightier than I, the actual Hebrew says they are swarming about like locusts, and verse 10, Pharaoh says we need to deal with these people wisely lest they multiply, and it happen in the event of war that they join our enemies.

The only test, I’m going to make this so simple for you. The only ultimate test of your life is whether you identify with the “we,” covenant word of the people of God, or with the “I,” word of the material system. That’s the test. Now it comes in a whole lot of different descriptions, but that’s the test. The “I” message is, I want to be comfortable, I want to be happy.

This isn’t fulfilling what I want; this isn’t doing what I want. In fact, Joseph is such an unusual person. Because instead of saying, “Here I am in prison, my brothers have sold me, Isn’t this awful? Here I stand for chastity and righteousness, And I didn’t do anything wrong.”

You see the potential for the “I” message in Joseph, but he doesn’t have it. Because he identifies with the eternal purpose of God. And he says to his brothers later on in Genesis 50 verses 19 and 20, “I know why I was sent here. You thought that you were doing evil to me, but God was in that thing. And I now understand what the real word of God was in my life.

It has nothing to do with whether people bowed down to me. It’s that God sent me ahead to prepare a deliverance for his people. And the third and obvious point, of course, is conflict. That’s an interesting phrase, isn’t it? After this, there arose a new king who did not know Joseph.

I’m still waiting for there to be a general superintendent who doesn’t know Rick Howard. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen in the near future. Now, I know you’re not interested in Egyptian history, but you need to understand something. Two thousand years before God’s people went out in the Exodus, there came into Egypt a group of Semitic people called the Hyksos, and they, for the first time, united Upper and Lower Egypt, combined it into a great kingdom.

And became rulers. And it was under the Hyksos rulers that Joseph came into the land of Egypt. Now listen, it’s very important. The Hyksos were Semitic people. Joseph and Jacob were Semitic people. The Hyksos were shepherds. Jacob was a shepherd. Shepherding was treasured among the Hyksos. But then there was a revolution.

Under the native people of Egypt, they threw the Hyksos out, and then shortly after, there was a second revolution, and a whole group of kings, whose names you know better from the movies, came in. Ramses I, Seti I, Ramses II, Maraneptha, these who built great monuments, and so forth. These were… The kings, of course, that Moses was dealing with.

But the point that you need to understand is, when it’s time to leave, when it’s time, and the multiplication is over, and the multiplication has occurred, and God’s increased you in number, and you’ve become the nation God wants you to be, you’ve become the lighthouse God wants you to be, God will then shake the political destiny.

In order to ultimately free his people. Do you think God’s going to get you out of this materialistic emphasis of this culture by simply asking you to leave? There’s going to have to be a shaking. The new, the word “new king” actually in the Hebrew implies new government, new philosophy of government. The new king comes in, he’s concerned about the people.

Why? Because the Jews or the Israelites are Semitic people. He’s a non-Semitic king. They’ve just thrown out Semitic kings. And he’s worrying that this Semitic people in the land will join with the Hyksos and eventually reestablish a kingdom. That’s what he’s worried about. It’s interesting, typical the way the world looks at Christians.

In the first place, they don’t want you there, but in the second place, they don’t want you to leave. In fact, they love your money, particularly. So, you know the plan. Here, in the first chapter of Exodus, look at it again. Fourfold plan. First, put them under taskmasters. Bind them to a task that includes the material.

Make them build treasure cities. Secondly, when that doesn’t work, crush them from the inside. Try it twice in this passage. Pharaoh himself uses the word “rigor.” It’s a word in Hebrew that means to cause bitterness, to crush you. Thirdly, of course, he talks to the midwives and tells them to destroy the male children of the Hebrews.

And finally, in the fourth step, he has all male babies killed, making the Egyptian people angry and hostile toward the people of God.

Finally, of course, comes the word of confirmation. What is the word of confirmation? In this case, it’s these two midwives who are Egyptian themselves but have learned to fear God and who stand up at the right time with God’s people. Let me tell you carefully, let me make it very specific to you. Many times, the answer to God’s people will come from the world system.

The very system that has tried to destroy you is the system that ultimately God will use to bring deliverance. It’s incredible. Now, get two things straight before I conclude this morning. First, that God’s people will become more visible in the appointed time of God. Now I’m not talking about the carnal people, the church on the corner that doesn’t understand the gospel.

I mean the true people of the covenant will become more visible. And when that happens, when the covenant people of God become visible, there will come a threatened world system’s reaction to them, a destructive response to the covenant people. And you will see these two things happen. You remember, of course, the very simple principle.

The night Jesus was betrayed, he called Peter aside and said, “Peter, you’re going to be sifted. Satan has demanded you for trial. You’re going to be sifted. Satan’s going to try to make you like a sift. And I’ve prayed that your faith will not utterly fail you. And when you have been converted, you will strengthen your brethren.”

Know this, that if there’s not a great ministry intended in your life, you’re not going to have a great trial. And the greater God’s intention for you, the greater the trial. I’ve heard people say on a number of occasions, “Why does that Redwood City Church go through so much? Other people find it so simple.

They just go out and borrow money and build buildings and do everything else. Why is that Redwood City Church still struggling? Because there’s a unique destiny of God. He does not want it to be done by the works of man’s hands. And when He does it, it’s going to be a unique testimony to His provision and the visibility of the people of God.

Now I know it’s Sunday morning, but you’re not blind to what we’ve read and studied here this morning. Let’s review it. What does the world do to keep covenant people from going out? First, they appoint these taskmasters over us. And they bind us; the word is gang leaders here, or another word for it is lords of tribute.

They bind us to an economic system.

I tell you, friends, most of you couldn’t respond to what God wants you to do with your finances if you had to. You are so bound to a credit system in this world because you have to buy more and more toys. And you’ve got to have more and more things. If God commanded you to do something, you couldn’t do it.

You’re bound to a system. And I’m not angry with you for that. I’m just saying recognize it for what it is. It’s the plan of the world to keep you from what God wants. Secondly, He crushes your spirit. He makes you feel like it’s impossible. You’re never going to see the thing that God has said to you. It’s just not possible.

You’re a slave. He breaks the hope within you. See, Pharaoh knew that. It wasn’t enough to bind them to the economic system. He had to destroy their hope. He had to crush them with bitterness and harshness. Make them serve with rigor. I tell you, nothing in the world will kill you quicker than losing your hope.

Thirdly, of course, He aborted their future. He aborted their fruitfulness. Let me tell you something. Do you know what Satan’s most concerned about in this church? It’s these kids. And the kids out there. That’s our fruitfulness. That’s our generation. And Satan’s attack will always be to try to abort that which is born of the Holy Spirit through you.

That can be more than physical fruit, of course. It can be the dream of God, the thing that God has told you to do. And isn’t it interesting about these two women? Their names are Egyptian. And as I said, some people say they’re Hebrew women with Egyptian names. I don’t believe that. I believe they’re Egyptian women.

Shiptra means elegant or beautiful. Pua means to cry out. Those two names together speak of character and intercession. And God says that these two women, who changed the course of history, are an example for us. Of how God will intervene at just the moment the world thinks it has us trapped. You’re never gonna get out.

Your spirit’s broken. You’re tied to the taskmasters. We’ve aborted your future. And suddenly comes a word of confirmation out of the world itself. And there comes an answer. In these women. Of course the last thing is open hostility. Satan tried open hostility by, of course, this last act of getting Pharaoh to make the Egyptian people angry by having them abort their males as well.

In an effort to do this. But I want to talk about these women just a moment, Shipra and Pua, and the phrase that she used twice about them: “They feared the Lord.” See, we don’t have much fear of God around here. This is a grace church. We all know God forgives sin. God knows we’re inadequate and imperfect.

And it really doesn’t matter what you do. If you go to the Lord, He’s going to forgive you anyway. And somehow it’s all going to be alright.

I want you to see just a few verses with me. Psalm 25:12. “What is the man who fears the Lord? His God will instruct him in the way he shall choose. His soul will dwell at ease. His seed will inherit the earth.” Thus, listen to this phrase: “The secret friendship of the Lord.” Call the Chronicle. God has a secret lover.

The secret friendship of the Lord is with those who fear Him. And He will show them His covenant.

Psalm 34:7, “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him, and He will deliver them.” Fear the Lord, Jehovah, His saints. There is no want. There will be no want to fear, to them, to them who fear Him. Psalm 112:1, “Blessed is the man who feareth God greatly, and that delighteth greatly in His commandments.”

Psalm 128:1, “Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, and walks in His ways.” And my goodness, so many more scriptures. God says, if you sin, you become the slave of sin. And what’s the greatest sin? In fact, what does the name sin mean in Greek, that’s most used in the New Testament? Harmatia, to miss the mark.

What’s the greatest sin you can commit? Adultery, pornography, smoking, drinking, whatever. No, the greatest sin is to fail to be what God wants you to be. It’s failing in and in. It’s failing to see the covenant. Some of you have a few years left. Need to be vulnerable with you this morning. Some of you have a few years, some of you have a few more years.

But the issue is, what is going to be the result of your life? What is the end of your life going to be?

And this plan that Pharaoh has, I mean, this is demonic, this is satanic, this is so clever, this plan. I see this plan work today; it still works perfectly. Bind people to material things, crush their spirit, cause them to abort their original desires in God, cause the world to show hostility to them.

And suddenly, they settle in. They’re willing to be slaves. They’ll do what you want them to do. They lose hope of a future. Thank God, God’s word upon his people. He remembers his covenant. He sees the cry of our heart. And in spite of the world’s plan, he raises up to us deliverance. He raises up to us the voice of deliverance, the word of deliverance, the hope of deliverance.

And something begins to turn in our spirit that says, “It doesn’t need to be lost. I don’t need to be in this mundane stab after stab.” You know, it’s amazing. I read statistics today. You have to get up, be at work at 7 o’clock, and work until 12 o’clock to pay for your taxes. I’d like the government to work those days and let me stay home, sleep those hours.

Half a day’s work to pay your taxes.

And then your credit card and interest.

Hey, God wants to break that in us. Let’s bow our hearts, please, in prayer. Just real quick, just a quick response to God this morning. How many of you here this morning can identify and know, and I’m not talking about a general word at all. I’m talking about a specific word. You know the taskmasters. You know that that’s the thing the enemy has done to you.

He’s appointed these lords of tribute over your life to bind you and keep you from victory. May I see your hand? And you can identify that, you know, and this is a word of identity. I’ll cross this auditorium this morning. God bless you. Put it down. How many of you, it is this issue of brokenness, of harshness, of bitterness?

It’s the issue of crushed hope. That’s how the enemy’s got you where he wants you. And you say, Pastor, that’s the issue in my life. It’s the crushed harshness of life and experience. May I see your hand? That’s where you are this morning. Yes. God bless you. How many of you, it is, in this area of aborted fruitfulness, the enemy has known how to just take the thing that was your dream in your heart and try to abort that thing, to keep it from coming true.

May I see your hand? That’s where it is with you. That’s the brokenness in your life. Thank you. Put it down. How many of you are in, and I know that this is true in some, because I know, you’re in a place where it’s the harshness. The anger, the hostility of the world system against you, it’s being manifested in the workplace somewhere else, and you’re in a real struggle against this overt, harsh reality of the opposition of the world against you.

May I see your hand? That’s where you are this morning. There’s a real battle going on, waged by the enemy, in a very overt way. Thank you. I see a number of you, and I’ve talked to some of you, and I understand. From time to time, that’s what happens. We tap into that bitter stream of the world’s anger against the visible covenant people of God.

I want you to stand with me, please, everyone standing. And I’m going to ask you, you may need to move in a bit or move somewhere, to take the hands of someone that you’re standing beside at this point. So that you can stand with them. Anita, would you come here and join me, please? Now, I want you to understand in this moment, God’s intention is for release.

Why a word like this comes from God to you. Why God stirs you as he did his own people. And we got lots of chapters to go through in Exodus. We gotta see how hard it is for God’s people to get this thing out of their spirit. But you’ve at least got to identify, to start with, that that’s what God wants you.

He wants you to give up the me message and the I message and really get with what the important thing here in this lifetime is. It’s not whether you build a house with five bathrooms or not. It’s not whether you die with the most toys or not. The issue is whether you’ve lived your life to the identity with this covenant purpose of God.

Which is, again, His people in the world. The blessing of His people in the world. The release of His people in the world. The release of His message in the world. And then God wants to do what has to be done to break the hold of Satan, Pharaoh, call it, the world system, that’s trying to bind you. And there’s specific words about this.

Hey honey, don’t just bow your head and say, “I need deliverance over my credit cards.” You get deliverance over your credit cards by cutting them up, paying them off, buying on cash, you know, preaching to myself here. And God has been dealing with me for two years, and I’ve been on a regulated program to end that kind of abuse.

But it’s other things too, isn’t it? It’s just the whole system that says, “You gotta have new clothes. New styles come today. You gotta have new clothes. You gotta have this. You gotta have this.” You get it every day, don’t you? And when’s the time when you draw the line and say, “No more! Enough! You are not the lord of tribute over my life.”

This materialistic system is not the tribute system of my life. And then this bitterness thing that needs to be dealt with in our lives, however it came to pass.

And this thing of our aborted fruitfulness. God wants to do it all because God wants to free you. See, there’s a new word coming, and that word’s stirring in your heart, and it’s the word, “I want you to get out of this because I want to bring you into something, see. I want you to get out of this because I have something better for you.”

You’re not going to be slaves there; you’re going to be kings. You’re going to be in charge of this thing, not under somebody. And if you build something, it’s going to be built for you. It’s not going to be built for the system of the world. That’s the deliverance God wants to bring you. Let’s agree to this.

Lord, I thank you for your people. These are your people. I ask you to deliver us from my messages, me messages. Bring us to an understanding of identity with your purpose and what you’re doing in the world. Lord, help us to know that’s the most significant choice we make—to become a part of covenant people.

Free us from the taskmasters and free us from the bitterness and the harshness. Free us from the aborted purposes in our lives. And Lord, cause us to get packed. Help us to pack our bags and to get out of this system, Lord. We still have to go to work, we still have to pay our bills, but it’s not in us!

We’re in it, but it, we have nothing to do with it. It’s not, we’re not on that system. And Lord, like Joseph, will use it, will use its wealth, will use its power, will use its fame, but it will not use us. We declare this morning, it will not use us. And by your grace, we will enter in. Bless your people now, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

You’re dismissed; see you tonight. God bless you. Thank you very much.