Moses' Ten Steps to Freedom [Part 1]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Allen Wright. Everybody's always wanting me as a preacher of grace. I say, yeah, but I know we've got to do something. Could you just give us some steps? So today, are you ready? I'm going to give you 10 steps.

And then I've got 10 things you don't have to do. So I got 20 points today. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in our series called Moses, as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It'll be yours for your donation this month to Allen Wright Ministries.

So as you listen to today's message, we encourage you to go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at pastorallen.org. That's pastorallen.org. Or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. More on this later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching.

Here is Allen Wright. You ready for some good news? Amen. Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. You've heard it so many times, but today I want you to see it more deeply and richly than ever before.

Jesus is the Lamb. We're in the middle of a series on Moses, and we started with the Red Sea imagery, and we went back and we were going through Moses' life from the experience of his call to the people of God who were oppressed in slavery calling out to God and God hearing their cry, and then we have seen the whole series of plagues that the Lord brought against Egypt. There really were signs and wonders of God's power, and they were acts, mighty acts of God's judgment against Egypt, and we saw in this the whole drama of building. It started with the Nile River turning into blood. It then moved on with all these frogs jumping out and gnats everywhere, and then another series of plagues that came only against the Egyptians, and there were flies biting flies, and there were livestock dying and people breaking out in boils, and then all the elements of nature began to be impacted, and a big wind blew in all these locusts that consumed everything, and there was hail, and there was darkness, and you're just going through this whole drama like when is Pharaoh going to let the people of God go, and how is all of this moving towards its great climax, and then you come into Exodus 11, the second book of your Bible, Exodus 11, and here it's sort of strange because in some ways the narrative and all of its fast-moving drama is interrupted so that the Lord can give two chapters of instructions to His people about what they are to do. It's Exodus chapter 11, and then we're going to look in chapter 12. First Exodus 11 verse 1, the Lord said to Moses, yet one plague more I will bring upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt afterward he will let you go from here when he lets you go he will drive you away completely speak now in the hearing of the people that they ask every man of his neighbor and every woman of her neighbor for silver and gold jewelry and the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians moreover the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt in the sight of Pharaoh's servants and in the sight of the people so you see that there is a big shift that has been taking place because of all the signs and wonders of God and so it is that it's building up to this climax but we come to chapter 12 and you get these instructions about what the people are supposed to do verse 1 chapter 12 the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt this month shall be for you the beginning of months it shall be the first month of the year for you so this is the month that is called Abib or same month will be called Nisan and this is going to become the the month for the old Jewish calendar the first month of their year because what's going to take place is that important verse 3 tell all the congregation of Israel that on the 10th day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their father's houses a lamb for a household and if the household is too small for a lamb then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons according to what each can eat you shall make your account for the lamb what is he saying here is that you're going to eat the whole lamb and so you need to have enough people in your house that when you have this feast that you can eat the whole lamb notice please it's not something that is just for individuals it's for the community and if you didn't have a big family you could get some of your neighbors and you're going to come together under one roof and eat this lamb verse 5 your lamb shall be without blemish a male a year old you may take it from the sheep or from the goats and shall keep it until the 14th day of the month when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight so here's what's happened on the 10th day of nissan they're to take in a lamb they have to make sure that it's unblemished and then on the 14th somewhere between 3 p.m and 6 p.m that's what the hebrew word for twilight conveys you're going to slaughter that lamb and then verse 7 you shall take some of the blood and put it on the two door posts and the lentil of the houses in which they eat so just envision this that they're they're dipping uh hyssop down into a basin of blood and they're putting it up over the door into each of the side posts like this they're painting it and as is is uh our uncle stanley once pointed out to me years ago i'd never seen it but they were painting the picture of the cross without realizing it so they're going to do this strange thing and then at verse 8 they shall eat the flesh that night roasted on the fire with unleavened bread and burnt bitter herbs they shall eat it so this is going to become the heart and the center of the life of israel the passover meal that is celebrated with roasted lamb not boiled but a lamb that's been subjected to the fire and bitter herbs that will always remind you of the bitterness of slavery because if you can't remember the bitterness of slavery if you can't remember how bitter it is to be a slave to sin a slave to fear then you'll never ever be just able to fully rejoice in the grace of god and you're going to have unleavened bread because as we read there's no time for the bread to rise you got to be ready to go when god is on the move verse 9 do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water but roasted its head with its legs and its inner parts and you shall let none of it remain until morning anything that remains until the morning you shall burn in this manner you shall eat it with your belt fastened your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand and you shall eat it in haste it is the lord's passover so the passover was eaten like this grandmother's saying hurry up hurry up hurry up we're leaving egypt tonight come on everybody we're all packed we got to be ready to go come on don't dilly dally let's go ahead we got to eat this whole thing you need your nourishment we're going to be leaving slavery tonight a good way to eat for verse 12 i will pass through the land of egypt that night egypt that night and i will strike all the firstborn in the land of egypt both man and beast and on all the gods of egypt i will execute judgments i am the lord the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are and when i see the blood i'll pass over you and no plague will befall you to destroy you when i strike the land of egypt it's interesting he says the blood's a sign for you and the blood is also a sign for the lord you'll see the blood and you'll remember that you're safe under that blood and i'll see that blood and i will not allow any plague to fall upon you verse 14 this day shall be for you a memorial day and you shall keep it as a feast to the lord throughout your generations as a statute forever you shall keep it as a feast it's so interesting you get to this point in the story and all of a sudden there's all these instructions detailed instructions a day of the month to bring in the lamb the unblemished lamb exactly the way to prepare it exactly the way to eat it exactly the way to to be ready to leave all of this is kind of interesting given the fact that through the other nine signs of the plagues that the hebrew people don't do anything but just watch it happen in fact the whole story seems to be so much about god's providence and god's sovereignty in fact the whole of the gospel of the lord jesus christ is not so much about what you do for god as it is about what god does for you and that's what i preach and that's what we celebrate and everything that makes the gospel good depends upon the fact that we understand that god is in control and god is good and god came to us while we were still in our sin it's all about the grace of god and because i preach so much the grace of god there always are people that's saying well i love that message of grace but what are we supposed to do if god does everything then what's left for us to do what am i supposed to do and you know what everybody wants is everybody wants 10 steps to whatever and uh i'd looked up on uh amazon just for fun yesterday just to see how many books there are that start out and the title start out 10 steps everything can be done in 10 steps 10 steps that's alan wright and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series ever feel like something's holding you back as if you lack an important key that could change everything is there someone you love who seems stuck you'd like to help them but how what's missing blessing we all need a positive faith-filled vision spoken over our lives you can learn how to embrace the biblical practice of blessing through pastor alan wright's new book the power to bless which quickly became an amazon number one bestseller after its recent release until now the hardcover book has only been available through retail sales but this month Alan Wright Ministries wants to send you the book as our thank you for your donation make your gift today and discover the power to bless the gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries this broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support when you give today we will send you today's special offer we are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries call us at 877-544-4860 that's 877-544-4860 or come to our website pastor alan.org today's teaching now continues here once again is alan wright 10 steps to speed up your windows computer i'll tell you how you speed it up get you an apple 10 steps to sorry sorry kiddo 10 steps to self-esteem 10 steps to repair american democracy only 10 10 step to mastering stress 10 steps 10 steps is all it takes 10 steps to happiness 10 steps to successful teams 10 steps one book 10 steps to save your life 10 steps to owning your own trucking one of my particularly liked is called how i retired before 35 10 steps to an early retirement if you knew the right 10 steps you could be retired by the time you're 35 a couple decades late on that 10 steps to be accepted dash an insider's guide to getting into medical school huh i thought you had to go to college and make good grades and then you know no it's just 10 steps um 10 steps to prepare a great sermon and then what you do is you start looking and there's an even more popular title and it's where you put the word easy in there uh here's one 10 ridiculously easy steps to permanent weight loss now everybody's always wanting me as a preacher of grace i say yeah but i know we've got to do something could you just give us some steps so today are you ready i'm going to give you 10 steps and then i've got 10 things you don't have to do so i got 20 points today so i want you to listen fast write fast and i'm going to talk fast because i'm not lying i got 20 points 10 steps let's call it 10 steps to ridiculously supercalifragilisticexpialidocious easy steps to spiritual freedom sheer enough this is an interesting passage in that in the midst of this drama of grace here comes god giving them some things to do let's see in this story which is at the heart of of of all of of jewish faith and it's the heart of our story because this is the story that jesus then when he's celebrating the passover at what we call the last supper with his disciples he reinterprets he says what this really has always been about is about me so this is the most important story that we have in the old testament and there are some specific things for the people to do here so if you want to know what the steps are here you go number one what these people have to do they had to first decide that being an oppressed slave is terrible and they really had to want to be free hundreds of years had transpired and there's something that happens in which the people begin to cry out to god in a new way did it mean that god had not been compassionate or seen their need before this no it didn't but there's clearly something happens it happens in the heart of this people that makes them exceedingly aware of how much they need a savior and there is no freedom that comes into our lives until we acknowledge the problems that we have you know most people never make it past this step lloyd ogleby a pristine pastor i used to uh sometimes just go around and and say to people how's that how's that problem worked out and they'll just look at him like well how did you know um because everybody's got a problem everybody's got a problem we all have the same need and the picture for us spiritually like these slaves is that if we don't have help we can't get delivered so if you want to understand the spiritual problem that people have it's very much like this slavery this people are oppressed they are ruled by a tyrant and they can't do anything they don't have weapons they don't have power they don't have prestige they don't have prominence they don't they don't have they didn't even have a spokesperson until a guy called moses and so there was nothing that they could do they needed a deliverer and here is the beginning of the gospel the physician has come for those that are sick when you realize that you have a problem when you realize that you need saving i remember years and years ago we were just envisioning starting a saturday night ministry we called verge which we had for seven or eight years going on saturday nights it was all designed towards young people and part of what we did is we went out and we just spent some time walking in front of the shopping center talking to young adults and just asking them if they didn't go to church you know what was going on just you know non-threatening questions i remember talking to two uh young people they were students at the school of arts here in town and uh and they were so they were fun to talk to um i said we're thinking about starting up a saturday night ministry um you ever go to church no no and i said would you ever think about coming i don't know you know probably not um and i said what do you what do you what do you think about uh about about god and he said ah no it's just it's exactly what he says it's kind of a moot point and uh i'm just i'm fighting back the the the laughter or the like god is a moot point and um and then i said well you know are you uh what do you think the purpose of life is and he said to be happy man and i said well are you happy he said yeah what do you do with that what you do with that you know this is like i'm not a slave to anything i mean life's good sun is shining i'm young i'm healthy i'm having a good time i don't see any problem that person's far from god why doesn't even see a need for god if you really want to ever get close to god i'm telling you the more you recognize that the condition of humanity apart from the grace of god is that we are slaves to our selfishness we are slaves to our fears we are slaves to our sin we are slaves without god's delivering power that's the first step second step the hebrews if they were going to be saved they had to get a word from god do you realize the thing that separated the egyptians from the hebrews really in this story was not any of their personal merit as egregious as the oppression was that they were bringing against the hebrews the real thing that stands out here is that there was a revelation a word from lord that came to the people of god telling them about the blood of the lamb that salvation comes through revelation they had to get a word and the egyptians didn't get the word we saw in the earlier plagues that in a real sense what was happening was that it was like creation in reverse we talked about how in the beginning there was all that god created but it was formless and void and the spirit of god was hovering over the face of the deep and as god's spirit moved god spoke and when god spoke let there be light instead of there being chaos there became a distinction between night and day and when god said let there be vegetation and every seed bearing type of plant then these plants began to spring forth and order began to come into the world where god's word is there's order and there's prosperity so creation under the word of god is orderly and prosperous and flourishing but what you see in the plagues is like if god would remove his hand if god will remove the sustaining power of his word what you're seeing is like everything begins to unravel the the water turns to blood the the frogs don't know when to stop reproducing the flies are everywhere the darkness comes it's like creation in reverse so what we're seeing is that where god's word is there is something precious and powerful that happens so the distinction here is that these hebrew people had a word from god number three what did they have to do step number three they had to get a lamb a substitute because somebody had to pay for the sin somebody was going to have to pay and so they had to get a lamb and this is the truth of the gospel and this is the part that is very difficult for modern ears to hear that there is a need for payment for sin in a world that is trying to find a way to say that sin doesn't exist that people would say well i just have my own standards so nobody can give me a standard and and therefore i could never see myself as having a sin debt or anything like that this is not this is the the spirit of the age but as tim color has pointed out so wonderfully it doesn't really matter what standard that you might have you can't live up to it alan wright and today's teaching moses's 10 steps to freedom unlock the power of blessing your life discover god's grace-filled vision for your life by signing up for alan wright's free daily blessing if you want to fill your heart with grace and encouragement get alan wright's daily blessing it's free and just a click away at pastor alan.org ever feel like something's holding you back as if you lack an important key that could change everything is there someone you love who seems stuck you'd like to help them but how what's missing blessing we all need a positive faith-filled vision spoken over our lives you can learn how to embrace the biblical practice of blessing through pastor alan wright's new book the power to bless which quickly became an amazon number one best seller after its recent release until now the hardcover book has only been released for a long until now the hardcover book has only been available through retail sales but this month Alan Wright Ministries wants to send you the book as our thank you for your donation make your gift today and discover the power to bless the gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries this broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support when you give today we will send you today's special offer we are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries call us at 877-544-4860 that's 877-544-4860 or come to our website pastor alan.org alan when we hear a teaching on grace often it we are our insight somewhere we want to try to separate this totally from the law but i've heard some really thoughtful people say you take grace and you take the law and they can work together because as the psalmist said i love the law well you know i almost make the title of this message playfully 10 steps to freedom because you know sometimes i make fun of of of that kind of thing because we we always never i resist doing those messages three steps to uh you know more holy life five steps to the infilling of the spirit and we all want steps right give me six steps to being a better husband and then it'll make it simple right well life's not like that and the gospel's not like that it's bigger it's richer it's deeper it's more wonderful than just take tell me the steps tell me the steps you know and make it practical well finally to all our listeners if you want that here you got it moses has 10 steps and i don't mean that moses told us what these 10 steps are but i actually went through this and just said you know if you really wanted to have freedom through the passover here are all things that you know would have to come together you'd have to decide you don't want to be a slave you had to listen to the word of the lord you got to get a lamb you got to pick out one that's unblemished you got to get the blood of the lamb you got to stay in your house you got to eat the lamb you got to be ready to go you got to plunder the egyptians and you had to tell it to your children over and over so there you go in 10 seconds there's the 10 step but actually it's deep it's rich and also uh as we continue this message tomorrow we're going to be exploring as well the 10 steps that they didn't have to take what are the things that god has done that we could never do so a rich message from the passover today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries