The Providence Podcast Providence Community Church

Leadership and the Crisis of Confidence
Series: Exodus

Speaker: Chris Oswald
Sunday Morning
Date: 16th June 2024
Passage: Exodus 5:1-23
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When I started working on this text, I thought there was a sermon on busyness in there. After all, Pharaoh’s basic strategy is to keep the people so busy they lose all spiritual ambition. Which reminded me of an old saying from Corrie Ten Boom, “If the devil can’t make you bad, he’ll make you busy.”
But as I pressed into the text further, I saw a more prominent theme. Something to do with leadership.
Now you may remember a number of weeks ago, we talked about the Exodus pattern in scripture. God moves people out of a bad situation into a better situation. And that there’s usually a middle situation – the wilderness.
Now in chapter 5-6 we see the basic leadership pattern that is related to the basic exodus pattern. And this is going to repeat over and over again in Exodus, in the whole bible, and in your life as you attempt to lead those God has called you to care for.
Six C’s of Leading Through Change:
This is going to help you lead your families.
This is going to help you lead in church contexts.
And it’ll make you a better church member.
But even in work contexts – you’re still God’s leader even there. So that even if the change isn’t explicitly spiritual in nature – this is all still going to apply.
Call – the leader receives a plan from God
Change - he begins to lead his followers into the new state
Conflict - the “forces” who prefer the status quo are provoked
Cost - the followers feel friction
Complaints - the followers blame the leader
Crisis of Confidence – the leader questions everything
In this story –
Moses receives God’s call (Exodus 3-4)
He initiates the change (Exodus 4:29-5:1)
This change is in conflict with Pharaoh’s need for the status quo (5:2-5)
But Pharaoh said, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.” (5:2)
But the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people away from their work? Get back to your burdens.” (5:4)
Pharaoh fights back inflicting a great cost on the followers (5:6-19)
“You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks, as in the past; let them go and gather straw for themselves.” (5:7)
The people grumble and complain to Moses (5:20-21)
They met Moses and Aaron, who were waiting for them, as they came out from Pharaoh; and they said to them, “The LORD look on you and judge, because you have made us stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.” (5:20-21)
Moses has a crisis of confidence (5:22-23)
Then Moses turned to the LORD and said, “O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all.” (5:22-23)
Now this one goes well. God responds to Moses with kindness.
In fact we get this structure chiastic structure in chapter 6

Development of Yahweh’s response (6:2–8)
A. I am Yahweh (2)
B. I appeared to … Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (3)
C. I have established my covenant (4)
D. I have heard the groaning in bondage (5)
E. I am Yahweh: I will liberate you; I will deliver you; I will redeem you (v. 6)
D′. I am Yahweh who redeems you (7)
C′. I will bring you to the promised land (8)
B′. To give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (8)
A′. I am Yahweh (8)
I’ll return to this in a moment.
He brings this word back to the people. But they don’t believe him. Look at vs. 9 –
“Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery.”
The people have been effectively demoralized.

How Does God View Political Entities?
Speaker: Chris Oswald
Podcast
Date: 12th June 2024
Passage: Genesis 12:3

Monotheism Made Our World
Series: Exodus

Speaker: Chris Oswald
Sunday Morning
Date: 9th June 2024
Passage: Exodus 4:29-31
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Call to Worship
96 Oh sing to the LORD a new song;
sing to the LORD, all the earth!
2 Sing to the LORD, bless his name;
tell of his salvation from day to day.
3 Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous works among all the peoples!
4 For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised;
he is to be feared above all gods.
5 For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols,
but the LORD made the heavens.
6 Splendor and majesty are before him;
strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.
7 Ascribe to the LORD, O families of the peoples,
ascribe to the LORD glory and strength!
8 Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name;
bring an offering, and come into his courts!
9 Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness;
tremble before him, all the earth!
10 Say among the nations, “The LORD reigns!
Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved;
he will judge the peoples with equity.”
Text: Exodus 4:29-31
Title: Monotheism Made Our World
Last week we covered Moses’ calling. Though initially unwilling and argumentative, Moses ultimately obeys.
He obeys as a result of God’s assurance that he will not do this alone. God himself will be with him. And Aaron, Moses’ older brother will join him on his mission.
That gets us to the end of chapter 4 where we see Moses and Aaron going to the elders of the Israelites and disclosing God’s plan. And we will look at that text in a moment.
29 Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the people of Israel. 30 Aaron spoke all the words that the LORD had spoken to Moses and did the signs in the sight of the people. 31 And the people believed; and when they heard that the LORD had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped. (Exodus 4:29–31)
My aim for today is to show you why we’re about to spend 9 chapters watching God contend against Pharaoh. I have identified at least 2 very big reasons, one theological and the other political.
I’ll discuss the theological reason today and the political reason in a podcast later this week.
Look back at that text and focus on that phrase, “visited the people of Israel.”
This is the same word God uses in the previous chapter when he tells Moses – “Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt, and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.” (Exodus 3:16-17)
The Development of Monotheism
This reminds us that at the time, the theology of the Hebrews was not as developed as it would eventually be. They still had a lot to learn about God. At this time, ancient people thought of gods in a regional way. Certain gods occupied certain places.
The concept of monotheism is still a long way off from being fully revealed.
At this time, I suspect the majority of the Hebrews were henotheistic. Henotheism is the belief in many different gods for many different people – with no clear sense of superiority between one god and another.
The Hebrews knew they were to worship Yahweh. But probably assumed that the Egyptians were free to worship their own gods. And they probably also assumed that the Egyptian gods were really in charge of Egypt.
God is speaking to them in their flawed theology category. He says “he visited them.” And maybe he did

Did Jesus Condemn Homosexuality?
Speaker: Chris Oswald
Podcast
Date: 5th June 2024

Zipporah and the Bridegroom of Blood
Speaker: Chris Oswald
Podcast
Date: 4th June 2024
Passage: Exodus 4:24-26

Paleo-Evangelism
Series: Exodus

Speaker: Chris Oswald
Sunday Morning
Date: 2nd June 2024
Passage: Exodus 3:10-4:17
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God’s concern for sinner (7)
Then the LORD said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings…
He saw a people enslaved to a great tyrant.
More broadly, he sees the lost in a worse condition
God’s choice to save some (8)
and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
While he sees them in their terrible state, he has a plan to transform them.
So it is with the lost more broadly. God has chosen to save some of them. And he made that choice before the foundation of the world.
So right now, God looks into the world and sees people who are at this time his enemies, but in the fullness of time will become his sons.
He sees people right now in the world who are at this time, dead in their sins and transgressions, who will in the fullness of time, be raised up and seated with Christ in the heavenly places.
At this time their sins are like crimson, but at his appointed time, they will be white as snow.
God’s certainty of success (8)
Notice the certainty of his language. “I have come down to deliver them and bring them up to a good and broad land.” God is not making a proposal here. He is making a promise.
“…observe the definiteness and positiveness of Jehovah’s assertions. There were no “perhaps” or “peradventure’s.” It was no mere invitation or offer that was made to Israel. Instead, it was the unconditional, emphatic declaration of what the Lord would do—“I am come down to deliver.” So it is now. The Gospel goes forth on no uncertain errand. God’s Word shall not return unto Him void, but “it shall accomplish that which He pleases, and it shall prosper in the thing whereunto He sends it” (Isa. 55:11).”
We don’t believe that God tries to do things and sometimes fails. We believe that all God determines to do will come to pass. Including saving those he means to save.
Or take Acts 13:48 — Paul and Barnabbas are preaching to a great crowd of gentiles. And vs. 48 says — “And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.
Which brings us to our fourth parallel between this passage and God’s larger evangelistic purposes.
God’s concern for the sinner
God’s choice to save some
God’s certainty of success
God commissions a shepherd
In this story, he literally commissions a shepherd. That’s what Moses is doing at the time. That’s what Moses has been doing for the last 40 years. His vocation is no accident. God sees his people as sheep without a shepherd. Sheep that have been stolen by Pharaoh. Sheep that will need to be tended to and herded out of Egypt, through the wilderness and into the promise land.
When we look at evangelism more broadly, we see that Jesus saw those sinners whom God has chosen to save as lost sheep. Harassed and confused. And in the great commission he sent his people out as shepherds into the world.
How would they know which sheep were his? They were to speak the gospel message with the assurance that Christ’s voice would come through their voice.
As Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. (John 10:27-28)
A lost person is not saved simply because a saved person shared the gospel with them. Its a little more magical than that. A lost person is saved because Jesus speaks through those he sends. And his sheep hear his voice.
In his book Finally Alive,