If you would, please stand for the reading of God's word.
We're going to spend the next couple of Sunday's looking at
this section of scripture in Exodus 15.
Called the song of Moses. So, the song of Moses the
Israelites and Miriam, it's an amazing Passage.
It tells us the experience of worship that the Israelites had
just as they had crossed the Red Sea.
One of the great challenges for us is that we already know the
end of the story and because we know the end of this story, we
don't enter into it in a way that allows us to be overwhelmed
by what they experienced and want you to think about this for
a moment. This people the Israelites
600,000 men plus women and children had their backs against
the water. There was no way out unless a
divine intervention, the Divine Miracle, Divine rescue would
take place and then those people, well, over a million,
I'm sure stepped onto dry land, that had been land, that was
holding the sea and they walked across as God Faithfully held
back, the wall. As of water on each side.
This is the story put to music at the people saying in
celebration of that Divine. Miracle that Divine rescue.
Listen now as I read, From Exodus 15 1221, then Moses, and
the people of Israel sang, this song, to the Lord saying I will
sing to the Lord. For he has, triumphed gloriously
the horse and his rider. He has thrown into the sea, the
Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.
This is my God, and I will praise him.
My father's God, and I will exalt him.
Board is a man of war. The Lord is his name Pharaoh's
chariots and his hosts. He cast into the sea and his
chosen officers were sunk in the Red Sea.
The floods covered them. They went down Into the Depths
like a stone, your right hand O Lord glorious and power.
Your right hand O Lord, shatters the enemy in the greatness of
your majesty. You overthrow your adversaries,
you send out your Fury. It consumes them like stubble at
the blast of your nostrils. The water piled up the flood
stood up and a heap. The deeps congealed in the heart
of the sea. The enemy said, I will pursue.
I will overtake. I will divide the spoil.
My desire shall have its fill of them, I will draw my sword.
My hand shall destroy them. You blew with your wind, the sea
covered them. They sank likely Add in the
mighty Waters. Who is Like You?
O Lord among the gods who is like, you Majestic in Holiness.
Awesome and glorious Deeds doing wonders.
You stretched out your right hand the Earth swallowed them.
You have lad in your steadfast, love the people whom you have
redeemed. You have guided them by your
strength to your holy Abode. The people's have heard they
tremble. Pangs of sees the inhabitants of
philistia now are the the chiefs of Edom dismayed, trembling
seizes the leaders of Moab, all the inhabitants of Canaan, have
melted away Terror and Dread fall upon them because of the
greatness of your arm, they are still as a stone, till your
people, O Lord passed by to the people pass.
By whom you have purchased, you will bring them in and plant
them on your own Mountain. The place O Lord, which you have
made for your Abode, the sanctuary O Lord with your
hands. Established the Lord will reign
forever and ever for when the horses of pharaoh with his
chariots and his Horsemen went into the sea, the Lord brought
back the Waters of the sea upon them.
But the people of Israel walked on dry ground and the midst of
the sea, then Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron
took a tambourine in her hand and all the women went out after
her with tambourines and dancing and Miriam saying to them sing
to the Lord for he has triumphed gloriously.
SLI the horse and his rider. He has thrown into the sea.
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God, please be
seated. Music is powerful.
It's personal. some of you would say you have a song, That's my
song. Some of you take bulletins on a
certain Sunday and highlighted and say to somebody that you
love loves you. I went to this him, this piece
of music at my memorial service. It's a privilege to sit with
families as they move through that.
And here, the different songs that one who's now going to be
with the warlord loves. This is my song, the summer.
Many of you will travel by yourself or with family and you
may have a playlist. I have them in my phone, when I
go on a mission trip, there's certain songs.
I want to listen to my song. I remember being on a date late
in high school. It was a second date.
The first date went really well and the second date was actually
going really well, too. We were driving.
I'm not sure where we were going but we were driving in the music
was light. I was speaking to her her name
is Becky and then she goes She shushed me.
And she said, this is my song Turned Up the Radio.
There wasn't a third days there wasn't because I couldn't get
over being shushed. It was the song that she'll
selected as her song. This is my song.
I want to ask you to do something today and actually
want to ask you to do something each day this week.
I want you to ask the Holy Spirit to help you evaluate.
Your own personal worship of the Lord.
Sunday after Sunday, we gather together in this place and what
a gift it is, and Sunday after Sunday, we all exit and go to
various places. There are lots of things that we
can think about. And evaluate we ask questions,
like what did you think of the sermon?
How was Sunday morning Community.
Today, there are lots of things that we ask and talk about but I
wonder how often do you and you have to have the holy spirit's
help. Ask him to help.
Up, you evaluate the way in which you worshipped.
If you are a member of our church, you made a vow of much
like the men this morning made vows.
And one of your vows is I promise to support this church
and its worship and work to the best of my ability.
So, Sunday, after Sunday, do you ever pause to say how?
God did I bring you? Glory today we're tempted to
evaluate everything else. Whether we like the song or
didn't like a song, whether it makes it into our Stubby want in
a memorial service are not, but what about your own personal
worship of the Lord, as you've gathered collectively with the
larger body? Have you been distracted?
Horizontally by many things? Have you been distracted?
Internally by many things. Many burdens that you've brought
in. This is important.
And what I want you to do this week is I want you to come back
to Exodus 15 and like a song that you love that, you listen
to over and over on. Repeat I want you to read this
song, this song Exodus 15 12 21, many times during the week.
Ask the Holy Spirit to help you answer these two questions.
What informs the songs? We sing because there's a lot to
be seen in this text. What informs the songs that we
sing? Why do we select these songs and
sing them and desire to do? So with full voice for the glory
of God? The second question is what
informs the way you sing? What are the forms of the way
you sing from one Sunday to the next?
Is it always the same? Are there moments when there's
something sweeter or moments when it's not as sweet.
Because each day with Jesus is not necessarily sweeter than the
day before. What informed you this morning
as you entered into this place of worship, To bring God glory
at his invitation. I want to give you a few
observations from the text that I want you to take with you this
week. And next Sunday we're going to
be right back in this passage but I want you to have spent
time with the Holy Spirit thinking about what saturates
this song. What is it that this song really
is about? How can what we see in print and
this early section of the scriptures?
The book of Exodus that can inform the way we sing as well
as what? We sing.
So there's three things I want you to listen.
For first, it's fear and Freedom.
The second is, how God centered this song is.
And lastly how this song tells a story, more than that, it tells
our story. Let's begin by talking about
fear and freedom, There's two fears that are present in the
passage. The first has to do with fear of
the enemy, it's not printed in your bulletin.
So grab the blue Pew. Bible that is in front of you
and turn to Exodus 14. This is where Paul Goble was
last week in the excellent sermon that he preached.
That was so deeply encouraging to my soul.
They are a people that has experienced the Deliverance of
God away. From pharaoh and the Egyptians.
But now they was heart has been hardened.
He's changed his mind. And there is a fear that this
people is experiencing as their backs are against the water.
Look with me and X is 14, 10. When Pharaoh, Drew near the
people of Israel lifted up their eyes, this is important where
our eyes are greatly affects How We Worship the Lord, where our
eyes, go, where our eyes are fixed, greatly affects The Way
We Worship the Lord. When Pharaoh Drew near the
people of Israel lifted up their eyes and behold the Egyptians
were marching after them and they feared greatly the people
of Israel cried out to the Lord. So In Their Fear is their eyes
are lifted up. They see this the most powerful
Nation on Earth, the ones who kept them in slave for over 400
years. They see this Mighty Army coming
towards them and their backs are against the water.
There is no place. They can go.
There's nothing that they can do.
So they cried to the Lord. Then they speak to Moses in the
complaint, is it because there are no graves in Egypt that
you've taken us away to die in the wilderness?
What have you done to us? And bringing us out of Egypt, is
not this. What we said to you in Egypt,
leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians.
Do you see and Paul said the so well last week, how irrational
their minds have become and so quickly we would rather be in
Egypt as slaves. The now with our backs against
the water, facing this enemy, the Egyptians that are
approaching for, it would have been better for us to serve the
Egyptians than to die. In the wilderness verse 13 and
Moses said to the people fear, not stand firm.
See, the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today
for the Egyptians whom you see today.
You shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you and
you have only to be silent. Man serving as elders and
deacons in his church, there are going to be moments.
When you're shepherding an individual who feels as if their
life is back against the water moments, where they feel like
unless God does something Divine.
Unless there is a miracle that takes place, this isn't going to
work out. You're going to the privilege
like Moses of standing firm with them, and urging them to stand
strong. It might not be just an visual
it might be a corporate reality that we face as a church in this
country in this world where it's growing darker and darker and
more full of decay Where our eyes going to go, where RI our
eyes, as Leaders going to go, they've got to remain fixed on
Jesus. The first fear was the fear of
the enemy. But there's a second fear that
takes place with their bags, against the water.
With the Enemy approaching with the only thought that unless God
does something, we are all going to die here in the wilderness.
They cried to the Lord, they were afraid, they were
terrified. But God did show up.
There's not a man not even Moses who could have imagined what was
about to happen. There wasn't a person.
Who in their wildest imagination could have thought.
This see that we are backed up against is about to part and it
will be wide enough and dry enough for us to move through to
the other side. But God does show up.
The waters part. The fear of the enemy.
Is now going to be replaced at least for a little while.
Buy a greater fear. And that is the fear of the one
who is able to do immeasurably more than we imagined, ask, or
think this is where you begin to see how profoundly saturated.
This song is with the glory of God, this song is god-centered,
it's not centered on them, it's not centered on Moses for sure.
Centered on God and you see as this god-centered focus makes
its way into the lyrics of the song.
How powerfully they describe him?
Look with me at verse 6 of Exodus, 15, your right hand.
Oh Lord, glorious and power. Your right hand.
O, Lord shatters the enemy verse 7, in the greatness of your
majesty, you overthrow your adversaries, you send out your
Fury. It consumes them like stubble.
Forsake at the blast of your nostrils.
Is that an amazing description at the blast of your nostrils?
Holy God at the blast of your nostrils.
The waters piled up the flood stood up in a heap, the deeps
congealed in the heart of the sea.
Look with me at verse 12, you stretched out your right hand
and the Earth swallowed them, the very same.
God that That you have been singing to today is the same.
God, they were singing to the very same God that you are
crying out to you as your back is against.
The water is the one they were crying out to this.
God, overwhelmed them, overwhelmed, the sea, and
ultimately overwhelmed, the enemy, the Egyptians.
So what happened? Look with me back into Exodus.
14 go to verse 31 Israel saw the great power that the Lord used
against the Egyptians. Now, let's not run over that too
fast. This God, this power.
This reality is not a metaphor for some neat story, it's a real
story. It's our story the Living God
did this to that. See the Living God did this.
For the people of Israel. The Living God did this against
his enemy. He swallowed them up.
The NIV says he hurled them into the sea.
So what did this do to them back to 1431?
Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the
Egyptians. So the people feared the Lord
and they believed in the Lord. And in his servant Moses, That's
the second fear. The first fear was the fear of
the enemy. Their backs are against the
water, the only place they can turn and go as into the water.
That's not an option, they will drowned, they can't move
forward, and fight this enemy, it's too powerful.
Their backs are against the water, but now the Lord has done
it. the only one who could this great God leads them over a
million of them through this wall on both sides of water and
they get to the other side and it says they were fearful, the
fear here is a fear that is of reverence and awe and shock and
frankly what is profoundly missing in the church today.
The intimacy we have with God, which is real.
He lives in us should never minimize the awe and wonder we
have of who he is. Remember.
And I think Paul alluded to this last week when Jesus was on the
boat asleep and the storm came, they eventually cried out to
Jesus. Don't you care that we are
drowning Jesus stood up and he hush the storms and the Sea and
they were calm, he was powerful over it.
And Mark tells us they said in fear who is this man who is this
man that even the wind and the Sea obey?
every song we sing together in this church, every song you sing
to the glory of God in your own private time.
Should lead you to that place. It should lead you to that
place. We see here in Exodus 15:11,
they cry out in their song. Who Is Like You?
O Lord, among the gods who is like, you Majestic in Holiness.
Awesome. And glorious Deeds doing
wonders, who is like him? Every song We Sing, the ones, we
sing this morning, the ones, we'll see you next week.
Every one of those songs should lead us to a place where we say,
who Who is he? Who is like him and there should
be a holy fear a reverence and all that's why when you enter
into this place is our desire that immediately you recognize
that there's something different.
There's something different about this moment and this space
as we come to worship him, we want to experience the familiar
intimacy with god without ever losing the And wonder of his
Transcendence and his Holiness. That's why fear and freedom Mark
our worship. Go back up to verse 1.
Now listen for the freedom that is in the voice of Moses, the
Israelites and then later from the voice of Miriam, then Moses
and the people of Israel sang. This song to the Lord saying I
will sing to the Lord. For he has, triumphed gloriously
the horse and his rider, he is thrown into the sea, that's the
opening line. It's also.
What Miriam sings go to the last text, the last verse in the text
were looking at this morning, Miriam sang to them, sing to the
Lord for he has, triumphed gloriously the horse and his
rider, he is thrown into the sea.
As you look at this song and play it over and over this week,
in your mind with the spirits help.
See the freedom that is here. Ask God to show you and enable
you to feel the freedom that they felt when they were on the
other side of the sea. And their eyes look back across
the water. They saw the Egyptians who have
been in golfed by the water that had been split apart for them
and they were dead. The enemy that had enslaved
them. The enemy that had brought down
tremendous oppression for over 400 years was no longer a
threat. They had been set free and in
Freedom, they lifted their voices.
Fear of the holy God, freedom in him.
The holy God, this him. So god-centered.
It tells a story. And the great hymns and the
great pieces of music in the church that we sing ones.
That will be newly, written ones that are ancient the great ones.
All, tell a story, but the story isn't like a bland history book.
The stories actually more like a musical.
It's like this narrative that has been written where God who
created us, the sing brings us into moments of incredible
pressure and fear when we have our backs against the water.
And when we do, and there's nowhere else to go, and we're
coming to the end of ourselves. We cry out to the one, and only
one who can save us. And he does what only his Divine
hand can do. He rescues us.
Our worship. Must be saturated.
Out of that kind of desperation, where we don't forget, what we
have been saved from for as great as this story of The
Exodus is for, as great as this story of the Red Sea.
Being part of it is, it's not the greatest story of the Bible.
The greatest story of the Bible is that this same Father, Son
and Holy Spirit are going to do everything that's necessary.
To purchase his people once and for all.
Is that unfolds Jesus is going to find his back against the
cross. And the walls of God's Wrath
that have been held back until that moment are going to be
poured out on Jesus. What you and I deserve to be
engulfed in in the very righteous pure wrath of God,
it's not going to hit us It's going to hit his only son.
His only son knows it's coming and so in the garden, he prays
father. If you were willing take this
cup from me yet, not my will be done but yours and it was the
will of the father to pour out all of his Wrath.
Wrath poured out for the sin of his people. that we could walk
safely and its presence forever. Friend.
When you consider as a believer in Jesus, what it means to
worship Him to the best of your ability?
The only way that's possible is, if God gives you and gives me an
overwhelming sense of who he is, what should create holy,
reverence all and fear. But at the same time of Freedom
that we come into this place, knowing that we are singing to
the one who has done everything necessary to set us free now and
forever. As you play this song over and
over this week. Listen for fear.
Listen for Freedom. Look at how saturated it is, how
god-centered it is. And then see something that is
amazing to me. And the question of what is your
song? Is better asked of Christians,
who is your song? For that, opening stanza verse
to the people cried out. The Lord is my strength and my
song. Our Song is not just theology.
Its identity. What we deserved we haven't
received when we just go through the motions.
Of worship. It is not pleasing to the Lord.
What's pleasing to the Lord. As we read, when we recognized
by his work in our lives, our desperation for him, our backs
were against the water. The water of God's Wrath.
It was poured out on his son. All of it.
And that's why Jesus said it is finished.
One person in history, we know that was profoundly impacted by
the reality of the shore. Was Peter for before Christ said
it is finished. Not long before Peter denied
that he even knew him. Then not long after after.
Jesus had rose from the dead there on the shoreline is Jesus
cooking breakfast for the disciples.
Do you think it was just familiarity that led Peter to
jump out of the boat? Or do you think there was an
amazing awe and reverence and fear, fear and freedom?
Those are important parts of our worship.
Seeing how sinnard it must be on God.
And seeing the story that we are a part of is really important, I
cannot wait to see what the Lord shows you this week.
As you plan to enter back into this place to worship the same
one. Moses, the Israelites and Miriam
were singing to Father in heaven.
Spend a beautiful morning. We have raced to this place and
are tempted to race away because that's the world that we live
in, and it's so easy to conform to it.
Father, I do pray through the powerful work of your spirit
that even as we lift our voices in this final Anthem, we really
would take the heart. Exodus 15, we really would spend
time in touring into it asking, your spirit to illuminate.
What's there that? It might inform us.
In what we should sing. But also the way we should sing.
We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
Please stand. In what we should sing.
But also the way we should sing. We pray this in Jesus name.
Amen. Please stand.