We turn in the Bible this morning to the book of Exodus. We started a new series, if you're a visitor, in this book last week. And this morning we come to chapter 2, the first 10 verses. I'm going to read the first 10 verses of Exodus, chapter 2. The goal, of course, to show you as we go down a bit and consider some challenging things, the goal to lift you up that's always the goal and take you to the work of Christ and see how the Lord has been faithful to honor his promises and deliver us and we see that in the story of Moses let's give our attention this morning to Exodus chapter 2 now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman the woman conceived and bore a son and when she saw that he was a fine child. She hid him three months. When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and dabbed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank. And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him. Now the daughter of Pharaoh came to bathe at the river while her young women walked beside the river she saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman and she took it when she opened it she saw the child and behold the baby was crying she took pity on him and said this is one of the hebrew's children then his sister said to pharaoh's daughter shall i go and call a nurse from the hebrew women to nurse the child for you and pharaoh's daughter said to her go. So the girl went and called the child's mother, and Pharaoh's daughter said to her, take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages. So the woman took the child and nursed him. When the child grew, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, because she said, I drew him out of the water. May the Lord bless the hearing of his word as i spent time reflecting on exodus chapter 2 this week i thought to myself i really don't think and i put myself right here with this i really don't think that we take seriously enough the warfare as christians that we are in and the proof of that is that we really do not groan very often to come out of Egypt, so to speak, do we? Why do we need to be brought out of something when we have little or no opposition to anything in life? Think about it. Why do you need to be brought out of it when it's all good, when life's that good? But this morning, I want to begin with a place of opposition where we are most frustrated with in life if i asked you what would be the one area that you are most frustrated with the area that you cannot seem in your timing in any way that you want to get it under control in the way that you would love to as a christian what area would it be your children your children it almost never seems to go as planned. Their choices, they're not as spiritual as we want them to be. It never seems to happen when I want it to happen. And it's the one area of life where I just can't make perfect to my already perfect American life. I just can't do it. It's the one area, no matter how hard I try. I cannot create a fairytale life. I can't do it. It's messy. And here is an avenue, I thought, this morning as we look at Exodus and we see what's going on. It's an avenue that helps us a lot to think about the larger warfare that the Exodus is teaching us about. In fact, I said last week, if you were to flip forward and you can do this, if not, you can just listen. In Exodus chapter 10 in the plague of the locusts pharaoh contemplates letting them go moses comes and he says boys and girls right let my people go he contemplates letting them go and let me read to you in exodus chapter 10 it's at about verse 8 or 9 this is what uh pharaoh says to moses who are the ones that are going moses says we will go out now listen to the purpose for which they're leaving Egypt. We will go out to worship with our young and our old, with our sons and our daughters, for we must hold a feast to the Lord. We've got to go feast out in the wilderness. A table is set for us. Moses will show us that later in Exodus. This is verse 10. The Lord be with you if I ever let you and your little ones go. no go the men among you and serve the lord you hear that not your children they are not going out we keep the children i'm making an assumption this morning that we have not begun to take seriously the warfare that we are in as the people of god you ever thought about what exodus has opened up with have you given that some serious thought this past week as we looked at that last time. It's an assault of Pharaoh on who? Babies. The babies of Israel. And we really did see, as we looked at last time, that this cosmic battle that is going on between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. Really, that Pharaoh wore right on his head to symbolize the whole thing. He is desperately trying, and this is the whole truth of this. The devil is desperately trying to destroy the seed of the woman so that the savior would never be born that was genesis 3 that's what was opened up for us and as we come to exodus chapter 1 we see not this not just on individual level this whole thing has gone cosmic now where the devil is trying to stamp out the people of god on the earth so that this would never happen exodus 1 pulled the curtains back if you will and they showed us this they showed us the spiritual reality of the battle of the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman his desire to bring us all into bondage to wear us out to break our spirits to capture our children to destroy ultimately what do we do here is Israel this is what I began to think about here is Israel at her most vulnerable moment Do you ever feel vulnerable? No strength, no weapons. I can't think of anything more vulnerable than the reality of a pregnant woman ready to give birth. I just can't think of any other vulnerability greater than that to attack. And as we open up Exodus 1 and we see the challenge that's here, we really are cast upon the Lord who made one great promise back to Abraham. I will be your God and you will be my people. And not only that, I will be a God to you, Abraham. And think of how special this is going to be. And to your children. I'll be a God to them too. I love them too. And this passage this morning greatly encourages us not to ask for recipes to fix problems ourselves. I'm going to come back to that. The Lord wants us to look to him, to trust him when everything seems dark when everything is bleak to pray to him and when you are at the most vulnerable that's where he loves to put on display his power that he's not abandoned that he's not left us and that as he brought his people out back then every single one of his people he'll bring us through he'll bring us home and so i want to look at here this morning this shown to us as we look at Moses' mother, her faith, the object of her faith, the reward that is then given, faith's reward, and then faith's provision. I'll come to all three of those things. Our story this morning begins with a mother, a no-name mother and father in Egypt. In verse 1, we read, Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as a wife a Levite woman, the woman conceived and bore a son. I can't imagine how difficult that must have been. if you know your baby is going to be martyred would you have one that's a sense the decree had been given it had been given throw them into the nile that's the last verse of chapter one and the next verse is a man takes a wife and they purposely choose to have a son i remember my grandmother used to say to me chris i can't imagine having to raise children in our day and age. I don't even think I'd want to do it. By the way, someone told me, an old pastor told me that about going into ministry. I can't imagine going into ministry today. I don't think I'd want to do it. I believe the text is showing us the remarkable faith of this lowly couple from the house of Levi. Particularly, it aims in, and the spotlight is put on this woman. We know their names are Amram and Jochebed from later in Exodus chapter 6. But the text emphasizes here what she did, Jochebed. It says, when she saw that the child was a fine child, some translations use beautiful child, she hid him three months. Now, that may not seem like a lot to us. But what strikes me is Jochebed makes it into the Hebrews Hall of Faith. Did you know that? This scene gets into the Hebrews Hall of Faith. Listen to Hebrews 11. By faith, Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents because they saw that the child was beautiful and they were not afraid of the king's edict. Now, as I read that, I thought to myself, Why in the world does that get in the hall of faith? I might be able to understand the statement. Well, she wasn't afraid of the king's edict. I think I would rise up against the edict. But she saw that the child was beautiful. Why does that get in there? Why is that special? What mother doesn't think their child's beautiful? Even if it's ugly. We were going through baby pictures last Christmas. And Darcy, for the first time, saw my baby picture. I don't know if it was because of the 70s and what they did, but when I came out, they took the salad spoons and they pulled hard, and I had a big cone head that was straight up. And I was known as Banana Head. And Darcy saw that for the first time, and she said to me, she said, you've got to be the ugliest baby I have ever seen. Guess who took issue with that? Mom! Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. He was a good-looking baby. He was good-looking. He was so cute. Does my mom get in the hall of faith because she, against all odds, believed that I was beautiful and I wasn't? I wish they didn't translate it beautiful. It would be better to translate it good. The same as Genesis 1. And God saw all that he made, and it was very good. Same word. Jochebed looks at her son, and she says, he's good. He's good. She took delight in him. Why does that make it in? I believe the answer is given to us in the book of Acts. When Stephen was recounting and telling the story of this, This is what we have. But as the time of promise drew near, which God had granted to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt until there arose over Egypt another king who did not know Joseph. He dealt shrewdly with our race and forced our fathers to expose their infants so that they would not be kept alive. At this time Moses was born and he was beautiful in God's sight. Whoa. Jochebed had the same view of her son as God did. They both saw that he was good. What do you have here? Well, throughout history, if you were to trace the different positions on this, the Puritans believed that this is when Jochebed had received some kind of special revelation from an angel. History of interpretation believed that. We don't have that from Scripture. But whatever the case, I want you to notice here, that she believed something was different and special about this child. And Moses was raised to believe that about himself. Because before God ever had come to Moses, in the very next section down, you'll notice that when he kills the Egyptian man, the reason he did it is because he thought they would have all understood he was the one. Here was the Savior. They knew it. They believed it. God's deliverer had come. Now, the practical point of this this morning is simple. She trusted. She trusted God's promise when everything was against her. At the worst point of history, at the time of the greatest persecution that God's people had ever seen, when the devil had risen up and their babies were being hurled into the Nile, their babies were being killed, she did not fear and she raised this child in faith and when she could no longer do that she made a little paper boat and she takes her baby and she puts him in the paper boat and she lets him go i can't imagine the emotion of that lord he's yours he's your son I'm reminded of Hannah, O Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and forget not your servant, but will give to your servant a son, I will give him to the Lord all the days of my life. What is all this? Let me start with something very practical this morning. When a Christian mother and father conceives and they have a child, that's no little thing. It's a solemn responsibility. to bring children into the world you're bringing god's seed into the world you're bringing somebody different into the world i'm called as a parent to train up my child differently sure my child's not the deliverer of israel but he or she is a special child that child is born into god's covenant promises which means that that child is an object of special care his sign is put on that child and when the sign is given I realize that child is not ultimately my child that child is the Lord's child I'm lent for a while this is what Darcy's dad told me when I got married you just borrow them for a while and you ought to give them back child's the Lord's what do I think God's doing when he hands me a child who i think god's doing when he hands me a child i was reading the other day a writer on persecution and he said million millions of americans pray in their churches every week oblivious to the fact that christians in many parts of the world suffer brutal torture arrest imprisonment and even death their homes and communities are laid waste for no other reason than that they are Christians. Do you know what we American Christians do when we hear that? And we try to provide for our children, rightly so, a safe life, a sheltered life, a life that'll go well. They'll grow up, they'll marry, nice homes, live well. Here's the problem. Because we have no physical opposition because our babies, and I don't ever want this, are not being thrown into the Colorado River. We are completely out of tune with a different kind of spiritual assault the devil is doing. Do we think of the fact that the devil himself is after our children? Do we ever even think about that? Do we think about the conception of that? I'll be honest, I think what happens today is that parents here are so busy with Egyptian life, running here and running there, they have little time for their children and what is most important. They don't sit at the table. They don't talk to them. They may shelter their ears from something. Little conviction on anything is taken in the home spiritually. And what happens? What happens? Let's think through this for a minute. Where is the assault? Well, lo and behold, it comes on the Christian faith. And then what happens? The devil's going after the children. Well, what does that look like? What begins to happen? Well, if he can take out the children and mingle them up in Egypt, he brings an end to anything distinctively Christian. Do you realize that Christianity, I mean, this has been the statement that's made a million times, Christianity is one generation away from extinction. All that has to happen is he has to spiritually take over your children, the devil. Let me give you some going things to think about. Right now, 70 to 75% of Christian youth leave the church after high school. Three out of every four kids, if that's the debt, 75% of our youth group, if that's the going rate, won't be in church in a few years. I just heard a Christian college reported from someone I heard. Over half of those students in this Christian college don't even attend. No value to it. Attend church. We have a youth exodus out of the church. And they assimilate right on into Egypt. And we're all searching for answers. We're all standing back searching for answers. How best to get them? How best to retain them? We want to know that. How do we keep them? Everyone's saying, you know, they what's going on well everyone all the stats go they have no conviction when they leave today the homes haven't taught it they have no conviction about anything they've been taught to be tolerant about everything therefore they can't defend anything i mean you know how the saying goes if you've been taught to be tolerant if you don't stand for something you'll fall for everything that's our generation and it means that homes have been so busy with everything else sport, soccer, everything else under the sun, a generation is growing up that doesn't have any conviction. You've taught them to be tolerant and therefore don't expect them to sit in church with you. I think it's so powerful we're getting a reality dose at the beginning of exodus of warfare like we've never thought about it. What we're studying here in the persecution is not something that's just taking place in the Sudan. It's not just something that's taking place over there. It's taking place right here. And you know, I thought to myself, if I really began to think like this, what I would start to do as a parent is I'd start to cry over my children a little more. I'd start to pray for them a little more. I'd start to think a little bit more seriously about catechizing them. I'd start to think a lot about, am I really training them in the fear and knowledge of the Lord? Am I really doing that? You remember this is why God raised up Abraham? I've known him so that he would command his children, that a whole generation would come up to know me and love me. I picture Augustine's mother, when her child was out having sex, the mother is on the floor, on the knees every night in tears, begging for her son, not justifying. Here's what I want you to feel this morning. all odds are against you. All odds are against you and your children. Think of it. Your children are conceived with hearts that are already under Satan's bondage. They grow up, and do you ever ask, hey, do you want to go to Disneyland or church? Do you tell me what they're choosing? Let me say this really clearly. You don't have a chance in the world. The devil has at his resource every allure of every stimulant he could ever give to your kid to make them high. He can use every natural drive and affection to come out to lure them into a lifestyle that is totally against God's law. They're born with hearts that would rather love the world and everything in it than Jesus. And you yourselves are powerless to affect it. And then if you look at your own lives as parents, you probably say, well, I already say it. I could have done things differently. I should have done this. I should have done that. I wish I'd have done this. I wish I'd have taken it a little more seriously. I wish I wouldn't have, I wish I'd have taken church a little more. I wish I'd have had them in church more and valued it. How do you feel? This has all made you, if I've done anything here today by the Lord's power, it should make everyone here feel everything's against you. That's how vulnerable we are. We're like babies riding on paper boats among the crocs on the Nile. Babies and paper boats among the crocodiles on the Nile. That's what we are. But in the midst of this shines the faith of Jochebed. Oh, this is really powerful. The ultimate intention of the text is to show you what God wants from you and it's to trust Him with your children. And here's what I love about this text. Are they alone to do this? Ultimately, the battle, we can't fight. This is what's going to happen out at the river when they come. We're scared. Stop. Stand still. The Lord will fight the battle for you. But stop doing it your way. Stop blaming the church and blaming everyone else. I'll fight, but trust me. Here's what overwhelms me today. They're so weak. They're so vulnerable. And in the midst of this, God's fingerprints are on everything. Watch this. Here's a mom living by faith in ruthless, distressing times. And look at the victory here. What does God do for her? What does God do for this lowly family in Israel to encourage you this morning? God, I can say, was with them, but how? In this brief section, let me give you a series of ironies to show you that you would feel what you feel when you read Psalm 2. He who is in the heaven shall laugh. You want to see that in action? Number one, Pharaoh decrees to put in bondage Israel and kill their babies. What keeps happening as soon as the decree happens? But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. The one thing you're all desperately trying to avoid, it's any kind of affliction to live the good life. Let me tell you, the affliction's what's going to make you grow. Number two, the child is put in a basket in the very place of death where babies are dying and he safely rides over it on paper. As a baby. God could put you in a lion's den. God could put you in Nebuchadnezzar's furnace heated I don't know how many times. God could have stone, let stones hit you in the face like Paul and you'll get up. He wants. How about this one, number three? Now the daughter of Pharaoh, verse five, came down to bathe at the river while her young women walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant, woman, and she took it. When she opened it, she saw the child and behold, the baby was crying. She took pity on him and said, this is one of the Hebrew's children. How about this one? The very daughter of Pharaoh finds him. Defies her own dad's edict. Raises the child in the house of Pharaoh. Let me add to this. Pharaoh's daughter adopts him. Brings him up as her own son. And Moses, Acts 7, was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. He was mighty in words and deeds. This is an exception to the rule, by the way. Why was he trained in all the wisdom of the Egyptians? Why was he trained that in words and in deeds? Why? Here's why. A Hebrew son who was under the sentence of death, think of the situation, was picked up in that place, in a paper boat amongst the crocodiles, adopted into Pharaoh's own house, trained up and nurtured by his own daughter, trained up in all the wisdom and speaking abilities, which he didn't even realize he had. God will deal with that. all the speaking abilities of the Egyptians, probably martial arts too, because he could take down guys. God raised up a killer in Pharaoh's own house to take down his whole nation and from his own daughter to boot. Miriam standing among the reeds, number four, walks to Pharaoh's daughter and says, do you want me to find a Hebrew nurse? Great idea. So Moses goes back into his mom's hands to be nurtured and cared for. And get this, she gets paid for it. And the question you all should see right now is who's working? You should answer. Who's working? Sometimes I think we're so frustrated with the way things are going and trying to get the outcome our way. We're blinded. trying to control our children, trying to direct the outcome, that we turn away from faith in the One who is in control as we desperately seek our own wisdom to solve a mammoth problem. Let me give you my favorite. When the child grew up, verse 10, she brought him to Pharaoh's house, Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses because she said, I drew him out of the water. The Hebrew name means to draw out. Egyptian name means son of, but we don't know who. There's a pun there. Who is this son? Who really is this son? Whose son is this? When his mom puts him in the basket, she dabbed it with pitch and asphalt. And do you know what word Moses himself, because he's the author of this, chose to describe his deliverance on the water? Ark. Do you know where that comes from? When God delivered his people in the flood, he tucked away Noah and his household in the ark and they rode on the waters and were saved. And this is a preview of coming attractions, if you will. Moses rides on the very ark, a little baby on the very waters to tell us a Savior has come and he will lead all of God's family in that ark through the water and bring them home. The very one, think about this, taken out of the water will drown Pharaoh in the water. God has plundered his kingdom already. The time of Pharaoh's plunder is at hand. The day is numbered. A savior has come. And you see ultimately what this then is all about. There was another son born in the fullness of time. In the days when the wrath of the dragon was fierce, in the days when it all culminated, when Herod was sitting on the throne, and there in little Bethlehem, two little parents, remember? One was Mary, and the child was conceived by the Holy Spirit. And Joseph in faith took that child to be his. And in distressing times, they raised that child. And a lowly couple under severe persecution raised that child and the angels came down and said, God's got something good for you. It's good tiding. For a Savior is born to you. Where did he go? There's a curious phrase in Matthew chapter 2 that in the midst of the severest persecution, this is what we read. In those days, the persecution, he went down to where? Egypt, as a baby. And then this statement's made. Out of Egypt, I called my son. I want everyone to feel that. I put my son there for you. I put him in that crucible. I put him under the sentence of death. I put my son, eternal son, in a place where if you looked at it, everything was against him. Babies are being murdered and God laughed one day. I'm going to put my son in there and deliver. And the most vulnerable situation that could ever be created on history happened that day when that eternal son came as a baby and they wrapped him in swaddling clothes and put them in a little manger and then he traveled down to Egypt and came out of there to tell you God can take your children out too. And here's the irony. The more they persecute us, the more we grow. The more this world takes from us, God says it's all yours. I'm going to give it all back and more. The name that was given above every name now, what is happening? Everyone will bow to that name. He will save his people from their sins on the very place, in the very place, on the very cross, on the very place where it seemed like death had reigned, just like Moses being put there. Jesus was put there. And in the place where it seemed that death had reigned, he rose victorious. And because of that, you've all passed through in him. You've gone through the sea. You've been baptized into him, and you've been saved from the wrath to come. He rose victorious over the grave, baptizing us. That's what God did in calling his son out of Egypt. Why did Moses want to leave Egypt with Israel? This is what he said to Pharaoh. Let us go, for we must go in the wilderness and hold a feast to our God. You know what you're doing right now? I have a question. Have you come out of Egypt? Have you been delivered from your sin and bondage to it? If not, you're still there. You can't really come to this feast. You're not out. But if you've been brought out and you know his salvation, he's prepared a table for you in the midst of your enemies in the wilderness, Psalm 23, to assure you, and this is where I close, to assure you, no matter how dark things look, no matter how discouraged you feel, no matter how frustrated you are, you can trust him. He'll fight the battle for you. So look to him. Get on your knees. He's spread a table for you to assure you that he's achieved the victory for you and his son, his son came out of there and so you and your sons can come out and daughters. Come to his table. If you pass through the sea being brought out of Egypt, you need strength. I need strength. To be assured today that God meant what he said. I will be a God to you and to your children. Amen.