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(upbeat music) - Today we start a study in the book of Exodus together. Hi, this
is Pastor Tom Holliday and I am very much looking forward to this study. We, as
we go through the book of Exodus, are going to study a chapter a day instead of
a chapter a week.

And since it's 40 chapters, that means we'll get through in 40 days of study
together. Walking through what Exodus has to say about not just the life of
Moses and what happened in Old Testament times, but what it has to say about how
you and I can be set free, how God wants to set you free. The Bible says in
Galatians chapter five that it was for freedom that Christ set you free.

Believers should be people who are set free, who live a free kind of life. And
there's a misconception that I'm hoping we'll deal with as we go through this
study. And that's the idea that Christians are somehow a bunch of bound up,
inhibited, imprisoned people.

The exact opposite is to be the truth. And I have found, as I've met believers
who are truly trusting Christ, is the truth. We are free.

Jesus said you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. It was for
freedom that Christ set us free. And the book of Exodus is all about how the
people of Israel were set free from their bondage to slavery in Egypt.

But as we read what happened to them, the New Testament tells us that what
happened to them is also an example to us. So it's also an example to us about
how you and I, by the power of God, can be set free. How to be set free and how
to live free.

So many of us, every one of us needs to be set free at distinct points in our
lives. We need to break free of our past, our guilts, our pains, our failures.
We need to break free of our patterns, the habits, the sins, the relationships
that are tearing us apart.

But we keep doing the same things over and over and over again. And we think how
am I going to break free of this? God says I want to help you to break free.

And there are principles for that all through the book of Exodus. We need to
break free not only of our past and our patterns, we also need to break free of
our passions. The emotions that get control of us.

The bitterness that directs us. The unforgiveness, the hatred that decides for
us. The desires that destroy our lives.

We sometimes become spiritual, emotional, psychological slaves in need of
someone to come and set us free. And Jesus says I will set you free. And Exodus
shows us the process that God uses in our lives to do exactly that.

We know he wants to set us free, but many times we don't understand the process.
And because we're confused about the process, we go year after year after year
imprisoned by some emotion, imprisoned by some habit, when God's working to set
us free. We just don't see how.

We're going to be introduced these weeks of study the book of Exodus to someone who
knows about freedom. Who knows more about freedom than Abraham Lincoln and
Martin Luther King put together. The man is Moses.

And he's used of God to free Israel from a 400 plus year slavery in the land of
Egypt and to return them eventually to the promised land. Exodus is all about
how the people were set free. So with that in mind, let me read Exodus chapter
one, beginning in verse six and reading down to verse 22.

Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died. But the Israelites
were fruitful and multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous so that the
land was filled with them. Then a new king who did not know Joseph came to power
in Egypt.

Look, he said to his 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'll join our enemies, fight against us and leave the
country. So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor.

And they built Pithom and Ramses as store cities for Pharaoh. But the more they
were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread. So the Egyptians came to
dread the Israelites and worked them ruthlessly.

They made their lives bitter with hard labor and brick and mortar and with all
kinds of work in the fields. In all their hard labor, the Egyptians used them
ruthlessly. Down in verse 20, the people increased and became even more
numerous.

And then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people. Every boy that is born, you
must throw into the Nile but let every girl live. What a horrific slavery they
were under in Egypt.

They were facing these circumstances and they could have easily thought that God
had forgotten them. God did not have power to give to them. But the story of
Exodus is a story of the fact that God did not forget his people.

He set them free. And we're going to see how he does that as we read through these
chapters of the book of Exodus. But it's also your story, the story of how God
wants to set you free.

As we walk through the book of Exodus, we're going to see together seven crucial
points in Moses' life. Points at which he discovered what it means for God to
set you free. Here's what we're going to walk through together.

The first crucial point is when he was placed in a basket by his mother. We're
going to see that in the next chapter. We get set free when someone takes the risk
to trust God.

It's one of the principles we're going to see in this book. A second crucial point
was when he fled to the desert, ran away from the problem that was faced by all
of his people. The second crucial principle we learn is I cannot do this on my
own power.

The third turning point in his life was when he found a burning bush. The third
principle we learn is I'm in desperate need of God's power. I can't do this on
my own power.

I'm in desperate need of God's power. And then Moses comes to a fourth point,
facing Pharaoh. The point where we all have to learn I must come face to face
with my biggest obstacle.

If you're going to be set free, you have to come face to face with that obstacle.
And then he comes to the Red Sea. That's the point at which he learns that God
is able to do what I cannot do.

One of the turning points in Moses' life that deeply affected him was the
constant grumbling of the people that he led. And it's a reminder to us of the
principle that you have to watch out for the little things as God is setting you
free. And then you see in the book of Exodus, the 10 commandments and the
response of the people to the law of God and ignoring God because he took too
long to get them the commandments.

And there is the principle that I must forgive the people who have let me down.
As we walk through these chapters, as we walk through this book, we're going to see
how God wants to set us free. But it starts, it all starts with accepting the
hope that God wants to set you free.

You'll never be set free until you recognize that you're behind bars. Those bars
might be bars of selfishness or of habit or of lack of faith. Whatever has
created the bars that keep you from becoming all that you know God wants you to
be.

Keep your marriage from becoming all that you know God wants it to be. Keep your
parenting from becoming all that you know God wants it to be. Keep that ministry
from becoming all that you know God wants it to be.

Whatever the bars are that are holding you back until you recognize that they're
there, you're never going to be set free. You're going to be satisfied with being in
that prison. You'll never be set free until you realize there's something more
that God wants to do in my life.

And this, this habit, this attitude, this fear, whatever it is, this is holding
it back. God, how can you help me to break out? You'll never be set free until
you realize you're behind bars, but you'll also never be set free without a key.

You can't break through the bars yourself. The key is your relationship with the
God who wants to set you free. So that's where we begin.

In fact, I want to begin there together in prayer. Would you pray with me? Our
Father, we start with faith.

As we study through this book, we start with faith to focus on ourselves. We
know a lot of other people who need to be set free, and we're praying for them
too right now, but we're focusing on ourselves. Lord, would you set me free from
something you need to set me free from in my life?

I mean, I've never seen it before, but through this book, help me to see it and
help me to trust you with it. Help me to see you as the key, not my energy, not
even my knowing about it. Help me to see you, my relationship with you and the
power you have as the key.

I start with faith, Jesus. I pray this in your name, amen. Tomorrow, we are
going to focus together on the faith that you need to be set free.