Exodus: The Power of God's Presence | Exodus 17:8-16; 18:5-24

Senior Pastor Damein Schitter continues our Exodus series, preaching from Exodus 17:8-16; 18:5-24. He shows up that as God delivers His people from slavery to sons and daughters, as he develops them into the people he calls us to be, we know that conflict is normal, equipping is necessary and what God has done is central.

Chapters

• 0:03 God's Developing His People
• 8:31 The Developmental Journey and Conflict
• 18:51 Conflict and God's Saving Work
• 28:47 Discovering Core Questions and Embracing Limits
• 36:04 Embracing and Understanding Our Limits
• 41:10 Equipping and Delegation in Ministry

Transcript

Damein: 5:20

Well, good morning. My name is Damein and I'm glad to continue on in our Exodus sermon series. Last fall we started Exodus. We preached through the first part of Exodus right up until after the famous scene where God splits the Red Sea and his people walk through and are delivered from Pharaoh, and then we took a break, and then now this fall, we're taking it up again. We started last week, as I said, and we'll take it through the end of the fall and we'll finish Exodus this fall.

Damein: 5:56

Here we if you were here last week, you noticed that Ben led us through trials. There were three separate trials that God led his people through and then this week we have a battle, the first and only battle in Exodus, and then we have this scene with Jethro. So it could be a question that we have, which is, how do these all fit together? So what I want to do is I want to actually say last week's passages, and this week's text as well, are all under one banner, and I'm going to call that banner God developing his people, or another way to say it is God who delivered his people, who were property, to the people of God, or from slaves to the sons and daughters of God. But we know that when a prisoner who's been in prison for a long time decades maybe is released from prison, it's not automatic that they now are free, they're now released and then they know how to develop into some type of flourishing life. We know this right. We know that even in our own country there's a challenging past where slaves were freed, there was emancipation, but reconstruction fell flat and these people then were not able to grow up and to develop in ways where they could fit into society, where they fit into structures that would allow them to flourish. And so we would expect then God's people who were enslaved for generations, now who are released, that they need to be invited on a path of development, that they need to be prepared to go from property of Pharaoh to the people of God. This journey that we see God's people on is a journey that is familiar to us. We know what it's like to be delivered, to be saved, to be made one of God's children and yet then have the need to be developed, have the need to be formed and shaped into the type of people that God wants us to become. This section has so much to say about our journey with God, and many of us here today come in transition. You're making decisions, you're choosing a path. There's a fork in the road ahead of you. Many of you come in with worries of conflict maybe it's relational conflict or otherwise. Many of you come in facing opportunities, not knowing which path to take. Yet, all the while, god is leading us on a journey of development.

Damein: 8:31

In the book the Reciprocating Self, three Christian authors writing about developmentalism. And you know, developmentalism is a psychological discipline that tries to describe how people develop over the lifespan. So if you're a parent and you've ever thought about sleep cycles, or you've ever thought about how a toddler grows and then how speech comes and when they might be ready to start reading and interacting, this is a part of developmentalism. Or if you've ever heard of midlife crisis or emerging adulthood or all of these types of realities, they fit in all of these various theories of developmentalism. And so, in this particular book, these authors, who are Christian, point out that all developmental theories suffer from what they call a developmental dilemma. And essentially, the dilemma is no matter how we name a proper and good path of development.

Damein: 9:24

What really matters is what is all this development aimed at? What's the telos of this development. What's the goal of all of this developing? What's the goal? So the way that they define a developmental issue which is lifelong. They say a developmental issue is a concern, an opportunity, attention, a worry or crisis encountered by the person in the context of change. And since internal and external change are continual and interactive, life is a process of facing one developmental issue after another. If any of you now are experiencing change, there's opportunity here for developmental reality. If any of you have opportunity, if any of you feel tension or worry or crisis and how you're going to overcome that, this is a developmental issue.

Damein: 10:17

And when we think about it like that, so is discipleship Discipleship to Jesus, following the Lord in this path of becoming his people, the people he wants us to be. From one perspective is a process of facing one developmental issue after another. Questions like will we trust God with this next conversation or this next business meeting, or what to do with this next pay raise? Do we believe we can change, we can grow, we can thrive, or do we believe that others can change, grow and thrive? All of these in our discipleship are developmental issues, and the narrative of chapters 13, which Ben went started with last week through 18, show us the path of the redeemed, a developmental path. What we learn is that our faith, in order to grow, must be tested, and we see that God is always working in these things.

Damein: 11:14

Isn't it interesting that one challenging day, one challenging season of life can seem so disconnected from the rest. If we don't have a tell-offs, what is all this development for? What is God actually doing? If we lose sight of that, each individual trial, each individual test can seem disconnected or meaningless, but if we put it into a larger, purposeful story, it begins to have meaning. So if Ben showed us last week that testing is necessary and purifying, this week we'll see that testing and trials are purposeful and developmental. So now we've seen, we'll see four things about trials. One they're necessary and they're purifying, but they're also purposeful, they have an end and they're developmental, in other words, they happen at the right time. And so, as we look at this passage today, we're gonna see three things.

Damein: 12:09

In this developmental journey that the Lord has Israel on, as he takes them from property to His people and from slaves to sons and daughters, we're gonna see three things. The first one is is that on this developmental journey, on this pilgrim path, conflict is normal. Look with me now in chapter 17, verse 8. Then Amalek came and fought with Israel at Refideen. We have to say, this entire journey of being saved from Israel to now has caught the people by surprise. God has been leading them, but they continue to be surprised by the conflict that they come up against. Their expectations have been mismatched. What they've discovered is that this pilgrim path that God has them on is a path of conflict. Real hardship, real losses. True faith and obedience are going to be required on this journey. That's what they've been learning.

Damein: 13:10

But we have to situate ourselves right. Think about this. They're walking through a desert, not fun. They were trapped at one point by their enemy, their backs against the Red Sea. But remember, they didn't choose that path. They were led on that path by who? God. So God leads them into the desert and then leads them to where their backs are against the Red Sea, where they must put their faith and trust in Yahweh to deliver them from Pharaoh. Then, as they move on, still in the desert, they've experienced discouragement, hunger and thirst. But in all of these things God has delivered for them and he has provided for them. But nevertheless they continue to be baffled and bothered by the fact that this pilgrim path is one of conflict.

Damein: 13:55

And here is just another example. If last week the three conflicts were mostly internal, this one is external. What we see is the first and only battle in Exodus, an unprovoked attack from Amalek. In 17, verse seven, right before we see this question is the Lord among us or not? First verse in our passage. Then Amalek came and fought with Israel. I mean, the question is so are they getting kicked when they're down? Is that the answer? Well, we have to read on in order to understand what's happening.

Damein: 14:29

So who are the Amalekites? Well, they were actually descendants of Esau. Do you remember that? Remember Jacob and Esau? The Amalekites have descended from Esau. We thought that was over, but it wasn't. They're semi-nomads, so they kind of move around to different places and as they're doing that, they come up against this large nation which would be Israel. And what they try to do actually is they attack unprovoked and try to take advantage of them while they're unprepared. And we get this information because in Deuteronomy 25, moses actually describes again this scene.

Damein: 15:04

In Deuteronomy 25, moses says to the people remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you came out of Egypt, how he attacked you on the way, when you were faint and weary, and cut off your tail, those who were lagging behind you, and he did not fear God. You see, this is how the enemy works. The enemy does not fight fair. Even in our lives today, which we'll get to in a moment, this is how the enemy works, but notice, this time. This time there's no grumbling. This time there's action. Moses seems to know what to do and everyone falls in line. What does he say?

Damein: 15:38

Verse nine so Moses said to Joshua first time Joshua shows up, choose for us men and go out and fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand. So Joshua did as Moses told him and fought While Moses, aaron and her went up to the top of the hill, and whenever Moses held up his hand, israel prevailed, and whenever he lowered his hand, amalek prevailed Right. So then they prop up Moses's arm. The battle goes to and fro all day and at the end, joshua and the Israelites prevail. So what's happening here Is Moses praying and crying out to the Lord? Is that what his hands up are doing? Is he encouraging the troops so they can look up when they're losing and the battle's going challenging. They can look up and be reminded by the staff that the Lord is with them. Is Moses somehow directing spiritual forces, while Joshua's directing soldiers on the ground? Well, the text actually doesn't specify any of these things.

Damein: 16:39

The point that I wanna make today is to place it in the broader context of what's happening. Remember, the last time Moses used this staff in a battle was the conflict with Pharaoh, and then the climactic moment was at the Red Sea. But at that battle God claimed victory over all the gods of Egypt. Chapter 12, verse 12, says and God fought alone. Moses had the staff, but there was no. Hey, joshua, gather some men, let's battle. There was none of that. God took care of it all. And now they've been journeying through.

Damein: 17:11

And then now, all of a sudden, there's a developmental step forward. God equips his people to fight with him. Now, of course, whatever's happening, it's clear that even in this new development, god is discipling his people because he's engaging them in his means of fighting their enemy. But it's clear that God works in his people and through his people, and it's from his presence that they draw their power. It's from the presence of the Lord that Joshua and the soldiers draw their power. So what the people learned this day in this developmental journey, is that conflict on the way with God is normal, that is to say, not conflict with God, but conflict on the way with God. That is his path, that he's leading us on. Conflict from without and from within is normal. And they learned that while Pharaoh was destroyed, there are always enemies of God and his people who will put their hand against his throne, who will press in, who will attack, who will challenge and who will discourage. And we shouldn't be surprised by this, because even in the New Testament we see this imagery of warfare still continues. It continues in our condition.

Damein: 18:22

Now what we learn is that conflict is normal in the Christian life. Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, famously calls all of us to put on God's whole armor. Why? Well, presumably for battle. And where is this battle? This battle that's taking place in Christ? He says the heavenly realms are the place where we battle with the rulers and authorities, the powers of this dark world and the spiritual forces of evil.

Damein: 18:51

And this conflict oftentimes contradicts our expectations. We tend to think that the Christian life is going to be seamless, that the Christian life is going to be simple, that the Christian life is going to be easy, that there will be no conflict and that if conflict happens, something must be going wrong. But in fact, what we learn is that, as God is developing each one of us, conflict is normal. Conflict is to be expected. In our discipleship to Jesus, we will experience conflict from within and from without, and sooner or later listen, sooner or later, every one of our journeys on this path with Jesus will bring us face to face with the hardest realities of our lives the monsters within our shadows and strongholds, our willfulness, our fleshly addictions. We will all be face to face with that conflict when we will be asked to give our allegiance to Jesus or our own kingdom.

Damein: 19:47

This conflict is normal. It will happen from within, will be tempted from without, and so if we want to be Christ-centered in our discipleship, we cannot ignore the cross of Christ, which is at the very center of us following Him, and too often what we want to follow is a Jesus that we can control. What we really want and what Israel wanted is they wanted abundance without obedience. That doesn't work. We want leadership without hardship, but obedience requires a cross, and this all feels like conflict.

Damein: 20:20

And so, just to make this practical, the question would be in your own discipleship, where are you willful right now? What relationship do you know that you need to go and ask forgiveness? In what way do you need to let go of some possession or some dream or some desire? Because it's clear to you now, as God has been leading you, that this dream, this desire is for you and for your kingdom. And you see, any spirituality that allows the flesh to stay intact is not true Christian spirituality, any path that we're walking on that doesn't challenge us to turn from things that we truly desire but are not good for us to trust God on this path that he's calling us. That experience will be conflict, and this is a part of following Jesus. So where are you willful right now? What conflict are you running from or resisting? But the invitation is to rest in God's presence and His provision to follow Him on this pilgrim path of development where conflict is normal. So first, what we see is conflict is normal and next, as this conflict is dealt with, we move into chapter 18, which does seem at first to be disconnected, but what we see in chapter 18 is a hinge between the whole first part of the book and the next part of the book. Okay, and what we see is that at the center of the whole book of Exodus is what God has done. So if first we saw conflict is normal, next we see what God has done is central.

Damein: 21:59

Look with me in chapter 18, in verses one through 12, we started reading in five. What we see is all summarize the picture Moses' father-in-law Jethro. At some point Moses had sent his kids and his wife to go remain safe with his father-in-law Jethro as they're battling with Pharaoh. We don't know when we don't find out, when it doesn't say, but clearly that happened. And now that they're at the Mount of the Lord, jethro hears about it and he brings Moses' wife and two kids back to him. And so, as he shows up, they begin to engage. And so Moses is glad to see his father-in-law and they quickly move into Moses' tent where Moses recounts to him all that God has done. And so, really, this passage, the climactic moment of it, starts in verse eight, and so that's what we'll pick up. If you have your Bibles, look with me in verse eight, chapter 18.

Damein: 22:56

Then Moses told his father-in-law all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake, all the hardship that had come upon them in the way and how the Lord had delivered them. And Jethro rejoiced for all the good that the Lord had done to Israel, in that he had delivered them out of the hand of the Egyptians. Jethro said blessed be the Lord who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh and has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods, because in this affair they dealt arrogantly with his people. Listen, this, right here, is the center of our developmental journey. Whatever path and wherever you are on the path with God right now, this is the center of your life. This is the center of what you're called to, all the works that the Lord has done. That is the center of your life, that is the center of everything, that is the center of your discipleship. Verse one Jethro says all that God had done. Verse eight all that the Lord had done. Verse nine Jethro rejoiced for all the good that the Lord had done to Israel.

Damein: 24:14

One commentator puts it this way Moses told Jethro all the hardships they had met along the way and how the Lord had saved them. By the way, do you and I ever keep that out of our lives? We don't know how to include the hardships of our lives with all that God has done. We actually want to separate them, as though hardships are not a part of God's plan. But no, everything that Moses recounted he included the hardships. In other words, the Lord dealing with his people established a convincing testimony to the world, and this is part of the purpose behind them. Had God not led them through the desert instead of the way of the Philistines into the trap by the Red Sea and subjected them to disappointment at Mara, hunger and sin, thirst and refudim and assault by the Amalekites, they would have nothing to say convincingly to the world. Think about that. The very thing that God is doing is making us into a sign of his deliverance. He's making us into a people that are a sign of his deliverance, of his kingdom, an instrument, a foretaste. This is what God is doing and part of our hardships the conflict between obedience and doing our own thing. All of this is meant to center us again on what God has done that. This would be the center of who we are.

Damein: 25:38

Chris Wright, a commentator, says Exodus 18 then functions as a narrative hinge between the two great halves of the book, looking back to the gospel of salvation that God accomplished and looking forward to the covenantal response of obedience that God seeks. Listen, 18 chapters of God saving his people. 18 chapters and we still haven't gotten to a single law, a single command. Because at the center is what God has done. Listen, god didn't give 10 conditions for them to accomplish, to become his people. No, he saved his people and he showed us in 18 chapters how he did that. And then he's going to give them 10 life-giving commandments. But that is always the order, the center of our life, the foundation that we build from, is all that God has done.

Damein: 26:32

Martin Luther once said the love of God does not find but creates that which is pleasing to it. You see, god didn't go find Israel because they were delightful. He didn't go find you because he thought you were delightful. No, he chose you and he saved you and he delivered you. And now, along this path, he's committed to making you lovely. He didn't choose you because you are already lovely. He chose you because he wanted to. And now he's making you lovely and he's making all of us lovely.

Damein: 27:00

And this is the developmental path, this is the goal, this is the tell-os of all of our discipleship, and all of our development is that God would make us lovely. And so when we recognize that at the center of all that God has done, the response is tell us how to live faithfully with you. We want to remain close to you, we want to be with you, and then that's where we will be in the second half of Exodus. But I want to point something out that in every conflict in your life, whether it's from inside or from outside, from every disappointment, every call to obedience, every fighting of temptation, every discernment of a decision, everything on your pilgrim path must be centered on what God has done. That has to be your starting point.

Damein: 27:44

And John Calvin once said to search for wisdom apart from Christ means not simply full heartiness but utter insanity. I mean, this is what Moses models for us. Notice, in all that Moses proclaimed and said to Jethro, not once did he mention himself, not once did he mention himself. Well, this is what I did. And then I went up on the hill and I raised the staff of the Lord. I mean, it was the staff of the Lord, but I raised it. Nothing. No, the most important thing for Jethro was what the Lord had done.

Damein: 28:15

Our developmental path as God continues to make us more and more into the image of his son. At the very center of this journey, at the beginning and at the end, is what God has done. So, as you and I are on this pilgrim path of discipleship, anytime we step away from Christ as the center and source, what we're doing is ultimately relying on ourself. Because here's the thing all of us desire to be changed, all of us desire transformation, all of us desire flourishing.

Damein: 28:47

I was talking with a friend this week and he just said after all of my years of following Jesus, I really think a lot of it comes down to two core questions and desires. The first one is am I really loved? And the second one is what is the way? Think about all of the places we go to find out those two answers Am I really loved? Am I really accepted? And then one of the things that we then ask is what's the way? How do I change, how do I grow, what do I do? And we begin to organize our lives in such a way, we begin to design plans, all of which is good.

Damein: 29:20

However, if we step away from Christ as the center, we actually step into fleshliness, we step into our own kingdom. So anytime we step away from Christ, we're relying on ourselves. So, for example, parenting how is our parenting centered or not centered on Christ and His design for our children? What about a job transition? What is he doing right now, not just around you, in your circumstances, what is he doing in you? How is he calling you back to the center? How is he calling you back to him If you're in college, choosing your major? Maybe there's a relationship challenge or change In all of these developmental dilemmas. It's an invitation back to being centered on him and what he has done. We've seen that this developmental path God has his people on teaches us that conflict is normal. It teaches us that in this path, god is central and, finally, it teaches us that as we develop as a people, equipping is necessary. Equipping is necessary. So after Jethro responds in this way, he doesn't leave and go home right away.

Damein: 30:43

What we find in verse 13 is the next day, moses goes back to work. So they have a good time, they have a rich meal verse 12. And the next day Moses wakes up and he goes to work. He sat to judge the people and the people stood around Moses from morning till evening. When Moses' father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said what is this that you're doing for the people? Why do you sit alone and all the people stand around you from morning till evening? And Moses said to his father-in-law because the people come to me to inquire of God seems pretty important when they have a dispute. They come to me and I decide. I decide between one person and another and I make them know the statutes of God and his laws.

Damein: 31:31

Moses' father-in-law said to him what you are doing is not good. You and the people with you will certainly wear your shoes and certainly wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone. Now, obey my voice, I will give you advice and God be with you. And he tells them in detail. You need to empower and equip others to do this work, because you see, you're on a developmental journey. At first, the people of Israel needed you alone to be the authority, and now what we're doing on this journey, I'm taking you to make you a nation, and you can't do this alone. It's not good for you and it's not good for them. And so we see this developmental journey where now the people of Israel are going to be engaged, they're going to be equipped in order to play their part, in order to play their role.

Damein: 32:24

Now, listen, there's much richness in this passage. We could talk about leadership and all types of things, and it would be good and I'm sure most of you have heard really good sermons or talks about this, and I do believe this is a great passage truly to go to to talk about those things. But today I want to keep pressing this developmental point. God is discipling and growing Israel, and this is as much a lesson for them as it is for Moses. Oftentimes, we tend to emphasize how this is a message for Moses, or something that Moses learned from Jethro Totally true, and I'll talk about that in a second. But equally as true is that there's something that the people of Israel now are learning about where God is taking them and who they are to be as a people.

Damein: 33:06

Jethro says what you are doing is not good.

Damein: 33:09

You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy for you.

Damein: 33:15

You are not able to do it alone. This is not good for two reasons. The obvious one is that Moses won't survive. Let's do heavy. All of the people were around Moses all day long, person after person after person. Can you imagine that context switching? Just think about checking your email. That's mind-bending enough, because you answer an email, then the next email someone wants your input on something completely different, then the next one completely different, the next one completely different, and so you're rebooting, context switching all these things in your mind. So that's hard enough for us. Imagine Moses and all the people of Israel lining up day after day to ask him to make judgment. Teach us how we're to live now that we're the people of God. So Moses has to embrace his limits and, to his credit, he responds wonderfully when Jethro points this out to him.

Damein: 34:10

But here's the question I want to ask here, developmentally in your own journey, is how do you and I respond to our limits? Because how you and I respond to our limits tells us a lot about our spiritual maturity. It tells us a whole lot about our spiritual maturity. You could talk about sleep. You could talk about Sabbath. Been talked about Sabbath. These are good limits and we often live as though they are optional, they don't matter and that there won't be a price to be paid, that we can just always be on, we can always work, we can always go here and do that, whatever it is, and we press past our limits.

Damein: 34:51

It's a really wonderful article in the New Yorker by a guy named Cal Newport, and Cal Newport is talking. In that article he gives a theory about why we don't say no to things, and what he says is that the thing is we do say no. So what he wanted to know is why do we wait so long to say no? Because eventually you'll say no. So he said essentially what we tend to do as humans is that, whatever our capacity is, some of your capacities are higher than my capacities, but whether your capacity is an eight in minds of three, or yours is a six and that person is a 10, whatever your capacity is, it doesn't matter. All of us, he says, tend to keep saying yes until we're at 120% or so of our capacity. Then, as we're about to have the wheels come off, we have the psychological permission to disappoint people and start saying no, and then we swing the pendulum back to something more humane and then we feel good, we're like, ok, this is about right. But then we never learn because we don't respect our limits. And so we keep saying yes and yes, and yes again until we're back at 120%. Then we have the psychological permission, we think, to start saying no because we might die, and we go back.

Damein: 36:04

But Jethro, jethro meets Moses before he gets there and he says Moses, this is not good for you. You have limits, so how do you respond to your limits? Pete Gazzaro, an author writing on limits, has this great quote. He says how we choose to understand and respond to our limits goes to the core of our relationship with God. It's so fundamental, in fact, that the evil one made limits a target for his strategy from the very beginning.

Damein: 36:33

Think about this In the garden, what did the evil one attack? Well, god had given some limits, because they're creatures to Adam and Eve, and what he challenged was the goodness of God in giving them limits. And he said you shouldn't have to have limits. And they said you know what? You're right, I shouldn't have to have limits. Who's going to stop me from reaching out and picking this fruit and eating it? So he attacks there. Here we see Moses running up against limits, trying to do a good thing. Right, moses is trying to do a good thing. He's trying to judge for the people before God. And yet Jethro says, no, you have to respect and realize your limits.

Damein: 37:08

Then, of course, we come to the New Testament. And where does Satan, in the tempting of Jesus in the desert, what does he offer him? Limitless glory. Now. He doesn't have to wait, he doesn't have to take on the limits of obedience to the Father, this particular mission. He can get it all now. He doesn't need to respect limits. And so what happens is the evil one. When he comes to battle in us, he presses that place. He makes us think that we're limitless or that we shouldn't have limits.

Damein: 37:35

So here are some questions. What are the limits of your personality and temperament? You need to square your shoulders to them, because God made you this way, and I don't mean in your sin, I mean in your finitude. You can't be everything. You can't be everything to everyone all the time. What are the limits you have in this current season of life? Don't act like you don't have limits in this current season of life. You do Whatever they are. What are they? Face them, embrace them as a gift. What are the limits?

Damein: 38:01

If you're married, what constraints does that put on your life? If you're single, what limits and constraints does that put on your life? What about the limits of your emotional, physical and intellectual capacities? Embrace these things as gifts from God, not obstacles to your power and control, because that's really how we treat limits. Is my limits, or perceived limits, are just obstacles to my power and control, but rather it's an invitation.

Damein: 38:30

And so one of the indicators that we're on the road to spiritual maturity is when we live joyfully within our God-given limits. But the problem is that most of us resent limits in ourselves and in others. We expect far too much from ourselves. We live frustrated, disappointment or even angry because of that. In fact, much of burnout, I think, is a result of trying to give what you do not possess, trying to live as though you are limitless, but in fact this isn't the story. So we need to face our individual limits. I think that's something that we learn in this developmental journey by looking at this passage in Jethro engaging Moses. But the final thing that we learn is that in our developmental journey as a church, we all have to bear the cross that Jesus has given us and grow up into the opportunities that he gives us as a people. I want to share an illustration to talk about the dangers of, if Moses wouldn't have learned this, what would have happened to the people of God.

Damein: 39:33

In his book, the man who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, great title right, british neurologist Oliver Sacks tells the story of a woman who for decades lived in a family that kept her stuck. This woman, when she came into the hospital, this was in 1980, she was 60 years old. She was born with cerebral palsy and she was blind. But as Oliver Sacks, this physician, was engaging with her, he realized she was shockingly intelligent and very eloquent, and it was clear that she was really well read. And so he said to her you must be really proficient in braille because you're really well read. And she said oh, I can't move my hands. I've never been able to. My hands are useless. People have always read to me, and so the reason that surprised Oliver is because what he knew about cerebral palsy is that it doesn't usually affect the hands. And so he asked some more questions and she said no, my hands are useless, they don't do anything. I've never been able to use them. So he wanted to do an experiment. So he instructed the nurses, put the food just outside of her reach and then eventually, out of frustration and lack of patience, day after day, she finally did reach out and she grabbed a bagel and she brought it to her mouth and she was shocked that she was able to move her hands. Maybe her hands in fact weren't useless. And what was amazing is that she progressed really quickly from there. She asked for clay and started to make models and sculptures and she began to explore human faces of everyone who walked in. And within one year her artistry had developed to the point that she was locally famous as, quote, the blind sculptress of St Benedict's Hospital.

Damein: 41:10

You see, her whole life people had done things for her. Caregivers had told her essentially, your hands don't work. Let me do this for you. You see, without equipping and delegation by leaders, we see, with Moses, we become like Madeleine. We think we need other people to do the hard things. We need other people, we need professionals to sit with people in pain and suffering. You may say I've never invited a person to consider their immaturity. How do I do that? You may say I've never rebuked a person before. How do I do that? You may say. I've never visited someone in the hospital, I've never invited others to follow me, I've never shared my faith with a coworker before.

Damein: 41:51

The list could go on and on. But what we tend to think is we tend to think like we're like Madeleine and we've been in churches and situations where essentially it's the job of the church-paid workers to do all of the hard things, don't we have to lead that up to the professionals? But listen, new City will never flourish if what is considered true care and discipleship can only happen from a pastor. If that's true, we will never flourish. Just like they said, unless Moses says it, it doesn't count. There are hundreds of people in this room and there are currently two ordained pastors, three on staff plus two residents. You might think, oh, that's a lot, that's five. There are hundreds of people in here and the more ministry we do, the less equipping we can do. And that's what Jethro was telling Moses. Listen, these people won't develop into what they're meant to be if you keep doing everything for them. So the list could go on and on.

Damein: 42:43

But the role of ministry to the world is primarily through you, not the pastors. The one another is primarily through you one another, not the pastors. This is what Israel had to learn that they have a role to play in God's people. It's not just the professionals and this seems counterintuitive, just like it did to Moses, but it's God's design for a healthy church. So what we see is our path of development in Christ will always be cross-shaped. We have to trust God, you have to trust God to step into those places I named. And it's always going to be counterintuitive, because Jesus' path to greatness is always through service and sacrifice.

Damein: 43:22

So in this section, before we turn to the second half of Exodus, what we've learned is that, as God delivers His people from slavery to sons and daughters, as he develops them into the people he calls us to be, we know that conflict is normal, equipping is necessary and what God has done is central. Let's pray, father, we're grateful for your Word and your leading. Wherever any of my brothers, sisters, friends may feel confused or overwhelmed, where you have them in their developmental journey, would you draw them now back to the center that is Jesus, will you show that what you have done is the foundation, it is the starting point, it is the source of all wisdom, all energy. I ask that in a moment we reflect together. Holy Spirit, that you will bring insight, that you will bring clarity and from that clarity, that you will give courage to act and obey. And it's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.