Oppressive Increase

Does anyone want to go on an epic journey? Oh good, because today we are going to start an epic journey. So if you didn’t get sleep last night, you might want to go ahead and just go to sleep. Just sleep through the service.

I hope you all got enough sleep. Hopefully you got a cup of coffee. This is going to be an exciting month.

Actually, it’s going to be an exciting three months for us here at Shepherd’s Gate as we are going to kick off going through the book of Exodus, the second book of the Bible, chapter by chapter, verse by verse, and word by word. And more on that in a moment. But before we get into that, let me just get our brains engaged here this morning.

Have you thought about the one thing that you want for your life in 2026? Has anyone thought about that? Have you been planning that? Go ahead, you can say it out loud. Don’t be afraid. You can talk to me.

You want to be alive? Relax. Oh, relax. Oh, I want to hang with you.

I have never said relax, but I like that. Anything else? Health. Persistent in prayer.

Just shout it out. Vacation. Oh, yeah, that’s a good one.

Oh, sober. Okay. That’s a huge one.

Can we give him a hand for that? I mean, that’s very transparent to say that. We know a lot of people like dry January. This is usually the time with fitness and wellness.

Maybe this is another way to do it. And if you are new to Shepherds Gate, maybe you came here today because you were with us for one of our Christmas services. Let me just tell you a little bit about myself.

I tend to be a little OCD. I like to plan everything out. And so I’ve already planned out all of 2026.

I presented those plans to God and my wife. So I know every sermon series and text and everything that we’re going to do here at the church. I know every vacation we’re going to plan.

I know exactly how 2026 should go. And so what I often do is this, is I always go, well, how many days until the next thing that I plan? Does anybody else do this? Because the other difficulty is, is I don’t understand why everyone isn’t like me. And I struggle with people that fly by the seat of their pants.

I really do. Or just like they’re always just there. They just don’t pay attention or details miss them or whatever the case may be.

And I just realized that not everyone’s wired the same way. And when you look at how many days until, you know, until I lose weight or how many days until, you know, I don’t drink or how about this? Any Tigers fans? Because we’re giving up on the Lions. How many days until opening day of the Tigers? Anybody know? I guess we’re not ready for the Tigers just yet.

Or how many days until this vacation? Or how many days till spring? How many days until the summer? And some of you are like, man, I wish I could focus on myself. You don’t know what I deal with and my family and all of that. And so often your kids become front and center.

But if you could, for a moment, what is one thing you want for your family? Just one thing you want for your family in 2026. Salvation. Peace.

Closer to the Lord. And depending on what season you’re in is how you will answer this question. Because if, if you’re in the season of having infants and toddlers, let’s be honest, you’re just trying to survive and you’re trying to help them survive.

And as they get a little bit older, you begin to realize that you need to instill certain things in them. And so church becomes a rhythm. It becomes a pattern because you want God to be part of their lives.

For many of you, as you transition into those empty nesting years and your kids are adults, sometimes that can be some of the hardest years. Not because they’re in your house, but because you’re praying for them because you raised them in the faith, raised them in church. And now all of a sudden their pattern doesn’t seem to coincide with what you raised them in.

And so you’re praying that they catch on to that, that they see the value of being connected to a local church and being in a relationship with the Lord. And I want to encourage you because this is one of my favorite verses to start off the new year with. It’s found in Zechariah and it says this, do not despise the day of small beginnings.

Do not despise the day of small beginnings. Just take little steps and invite God into those situations and watch what it is that he can do. Oftentimes people will use the expression, well, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

And that’s exactly what we’re going to do here at Shepherd’s Gate. We actually started going through books of the Bible back in 2018. And we’ve actually covered all of the ones that you see there in yellow.

And what’s fascinating about today is that after we spent two and a half years going through Genesis chapter by chapter, verse by verse, word by word, you dear congregation voted and you told us what the next book of the Bible you wanted us to preach through. And it was overwhelmingly for Exodus. So the reason we’re doing this is because you voted for it.

So you know what that means? You got to show up. You got to be here for that. If you’re interested in any of these other ones, you can actually find them on our website.

And so for the next 12 weeks, how many of you can give me 12 weeks? Who can give me 12 weeks? 12 weeks is not a long time. From January 4th, which is today, all the way to March 22nd, which is the Sunday before Palm Sunday, before Holy Week kicks off. That’s 12 Sundays.

We are going to do a deep dive. And wouldn’t you know, it’s in the first 12 chapters of Exodus. Now, it doesn’t mean we’re going to cover a chapter every single week.

Sometimes it’ll just be a portion of Scripture. Other times it’ll be several chapters that’ll be combined together. But I can promise you this.

Even if you grew up in church, even if you have some semblance of these stories from your childhood, or you’ve watched all the Disney movies, or all the Hollywood movies that they’ve made about Moses and the things that are presented to us in Exodus, I know for a fact that God will speak to you, that God will reveal things to you, because that’s exactly how he speaks to us. And what we will also learn is the nature of our God and the way that he interacts with us, and the way that he constantly works his perfect plan out for all of humanity. And so we can take an ancient text, and we can combine it with things that are going on in our time, in our world, and you will see the way at which God is at work.

Amen? So here’s the challenge. You ready for this 12-week challenge? Because most of you shot up your hands. Some of you didn’t.

You’re still being reserved. It’s okay. Is that you be present in worship every week, no matter how cold it gets.

No matter what’s in the sky or what’s falling from the sky. No matter what’s in the news, that you’re gonna make sure that church is a priority for these next 12 weeks. Just challenge yourself.

And I want to encourage you in this as well, is to bring your own Bible to church. Bring your own Bible to church. If you’ve been part of this in the past, you know I’ve said this every single time that we have kicked off a new sermon series about a book of the Bible.

Now, I had one of my good friends, Craig, the last service, he said to me, he said, why do you challenge us or ask us to bring our Bibles to church if you’re just going to put all the scriptures up on the screen? And I said, great question. This is why. And I want to hone in on the dads in particular in the room, the men in the room.

Listen to me. The greatest thing that you can do is lead by example for your family. You are the spiritual head of your home.

This is what the Bible says. And wouldn’t it be awesome if all of the men in our church, when they pull into the church parking lot, would take their cell phones and leave them in the car. And instead, you would pick up your Bible and you would bring your Bible into church.

What would that communicate to your spouse, to your wife and to your kids? That this is a priority. That this is valuable to you. That you want this to be part of your lives.

And who can’t give up a cell phone for one hour or an hour and a half most once a week? Wouldn’t that be incredible? Wouldn’t that just unleash unprecedented, just joy in our hearts where you don’t have to be connected 24-7? And all the men said? Amen. Amen. Good, good, good, good.

Because many of you have done this with me. We also want you to engage with the text during the week. I’ll tell you about that in a moment.

And if you do have a spouse and you do have kids in the home, have some great ideas and resources for you as well. We’re not going to leave you hanging if you’ve never done this before. In fact, all you have to do is download the app on your phone.

You can get the app. You can tap tag it right in front of you and download our app. Or you can go on our website where we have the reading plan.

The reading plan will tell you the text that we are going to cover the week before. So you can go on and you can pre-read what we’re going to discuss in church. And I guarantee you this.

If you pre-read the text before you come here, it will be much richer to you. You will be able to engage in what it is that we’re doing here on Sunday mornings. There’s also dig deeper questions that are targeted for adults.

So if you have a spouse, if you’re in a small group, if you have a good friend, you go out to coffee, whatever the case may be, that now you’re discussing what it is that you’ve read and what you’ve learned in church. And of course, finally, if you have a family, there’s kids specific questions because our kids learn the same exact things that we learn in our kids program. They learn exactly the same thing.

They go over the same text. They just learn it at a kid appropriate level and age and stage. So are you ready for our epic journey to start this morning? Good, because I don’t have anything else to do other than preach you Exodus.

If you have your Bible, if you want to open it to Exodus chapter one, Exodus chapter one, beginning in verse one, it says this. These are the names of the son of Israel who went to Egypt with Jacob. Okay, we’re gonna pause there right at the beginning for a moment.

Jacob and Israel are the same people, okay? God changed Jacob’s name to Israel. And so the writer of Genesis and Exodus, he flips back and forth between Jacob and Israel, same person. And so here is Jacob’s family or you could say here’s Israel’s family, each with his family.

Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, Issachar, Zebulon, and Benjamin, Dan and Nathel, Gad and Asher. And it says the descendants of Jacob numbered how many? 70. So God has blessed him.

In all, Joseph was already in Egypt. And so what the writer is doing is he’s tying back to the end of Genesis and he’s pulling us through. He’s saying Exodus is the continuation of Genesis.

Now, I don’t know how many of you have seen this on social media. My parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary last summer and I wish we would have thought to do this. But I don’t know if you guys have seen this on Instagram, Facebook, or whatever, where they take a couple, you know, the grandparents and they say what started as two and then all of a sudden the kids are in the picture.

And it says it grew by three or four or five, however many kids they had. And then all the grandkids get added to the picture. And then the great grandkids get added to the picture.

How many of you seen this? Have any of you done this? It’s kind of a cool thing to see what can happen starting with two people. Here’s the crazy part about Jacob slash Israel. He has 70 people, but he also has two wives.

And if you wanna know more about that, go back and listen to Genesis. He’s a crazy dude. A lot of things have happened in his life.

Here’s what’s also fascinating if you were here with us at Christmas is that Jacob is actually mentioned in the Christmas account in Luke. And he’s mentioned as the angel Gabriel comes to Mary and tells her that she’s gonna conceive and give birth to Jesus, the Messiah who will save the world from his sins. And you can see there where it says it.

He will give him the throne of his father, David. So another Old Testament character. And he will reign over Jacob’s descendants.

And how interesting is that, that all of scripture ultimately ties in to the person and work of Jesus. Now stay with me. Verse six, it says, Joseph, now Joseph is the youngest son of Jacob.

Joseph, all of the brothers that I just mentioned and everybody from that generation, what did they do? Kicked it, gone. Which means a new generation has to rise up. Now I do wanna pause for a moment because I recognize here at Shepherd’s Gate, many of you, you lost loved ones in 2025.

And even starting the new year can be difficult. It can be heavy. And sometimes it may feel like, well, you know, I have to get over it now or I have to create this new life or I have to do this or I have to do that.

And that’s not actually true. The feelings that you have and the way that your loved one has impacted your life will carry with you for years to come. And as you saw in the video, I would encourage you if you have not been part of our grief share program or our care program on Tuesday night to get here this Tuesday.

It kicks off this Tuesday. They make you a home cooked meal and then you get to go and be in a class with coaches that are absolutely incredible and they will walk through this time with you. Not to dismiss your feelings, but to help you navigate the days and the weeks and the months ahead.

And so now we see this happening with this generation. And so what’s happening? These Israelites, they’re all Jacob’s descendants. They’re just having babies.

Were exceedingly fruitful. They multiplied greatly, increased in numbers and became so numerous that the land was filled with them. Which how many people you think that is? I wish we actually had a number.

I wish he would give us a number. And not only are Jacob’s descendants multiplying, the Pharaoh that Joseph dealt with, with his time in Egypt has also passed away because at some point we all die. Unless Jesus comes back, at some point we’re all going to breathe our last breath.

And so of course, now there’s a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph. And he’s saying that because Joseph actually found favor with Pharaoh, the ruler, the king at the time. And so now that there’s no more Joseph and now that there’s no more of the original Pharaoh, the new Pharaoh, there’s time and distance between what had happened in Genesis.

And so everything has changed in the culture and in this period of time. And so this Pharaoh, this king says, look to his people, the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous.

And if war breaks out, we’ll join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country. So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor. And they built Pithom and Ramses as store cities for Pharaoh.

It’s kind of interesting. These people that went from being favored by Pharaoh because of Joseph and enjoying the fruit and the prosperity of the land in just one generation’s time are now all of a sudden being turned into the enemy. And in one generation’s time, all of a sudden being treated so harshly to the point of enslaving them.

Says next, the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread. Which I find that fascinating because usually when you study certain periods of history, that when people are being oppressed, they’re so depressed that they don’t actually produce more children. Their outlook on life is what they can see in front of them.

And so there’s this disconnect of actually wanting to populate more because they’re wallowing in that and they just feel that there’s no hope. So why expose their kids or their grandkids or the next generation to these types of hardships? And we find the absolute opposite happening with the Israelites. I mean, you can see God at work already in the text.

And so the Egyptians came to drag the Israelites and they worked them ruthlessly. They made their lives bitter with harsh labor and brick and mortar, with all kinds of work in the fields. In all their harsh labor, the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly.

I mean, he’s really driving this home. He really wants you to know, man, they were not nice conditions to be in. And here we are thousands of years later, and aren’t you glad that people aren’t forced into labor at any point in our world today? That as humanity, we have figured it out.

No, you know, that’s not true. That there are regions in the world where people continue to be oppressed. Some of you, you probably already know what they are.

What are they? China, I think I heard Nigeria. How about the little place called North Korea? And you wonder how long is that guy gonna continue to be in power or his family? Like God, at some point, do you provide any relief? And we know from the different regions, different countries. I mean, it actually is, it permeates every area, including the Americas, including where we’re at, whether it’s North America, Central America, or South America.

And it’s the value that people put on human life that people don’t actually value someone else, even if they look different, or they talk different, or their skin tone is different, or they have a different religion, or they have a different belief. It’s why we here at Shepherds Gate don’t buy into that. We buy into what scripture says is that we are to value and to love every single person because every single person is made in the image of our God.

And our job is to share Jesus with every single person that cross our path. Well, look at what it says next in the text. The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, he had a meeting, pulled them in, he said, whose names were Shephra and Pua? And when you were helping the Hebrew women, this is what he said, during childbirth, on the delivery stool, I mean, here you are at the moment the child’s being birthed.

If you see that the baby is a boy, kill him. But if it’s a girl, let her live. It doesn’t seem very fair, does it? Why would they separate these two? And it goes back to what his fear was, is that if they continue to grow, that they will form an army or they will join forces with one of their enemies and fight against them.

And what is the best way to beat a civilization? You take out the men. It’s no different than what the devil does in the church. He tries to take out husbands and fathers, tries to convince them they’re not the spiritual leaders of their homes.

You want to know the first attack that the devil always go after? It’s always after the man. He’s been doing the same thing from the very beginning in the garden of Eden. The midwives, however, they feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do.

They let the boys live. And we all say, praise God for that. Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, what the heck? Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live? How would you answer Pharaoh? What would you say to him? I don’t think this is one of the scenes that’s in the Disney movie, is it? At least I don’t remember.

I love this. This is what I love when we go line by line, verse by verse, word by word. As you see the dark side of humanity, but you also see the amazing grace and mercy of humanity because the midwives answered Pharaoh, dude, Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women.

They are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive. What a great response. I mean, how in the world did they have the ability to know to say that or to answer that way? What we know is because they fear and they love God.

They’re trying to do what it is that He’s called them to do. Even willing to put their own lives on the line. And Scripture tells us that God was kind to them and the people increased and became even more numerous.

And because these midwives feared God, He gave them families of their own. And isn’t it interesting that when we do things according to God’s plan, when we do things according to the boundaries that He has placed in our lives, that there are times when things do work out. There are blessings that follow when you follow His instructions for life.

Now, does that mean that when you become a Christian and you do follow everything according to the last letter of the law, that things always work out? Absolutely not. Does it mean that you’re never gonna run into hardships or obstacles? Absolutely not. But make no mistake, there are times that when we are obedient to Him, even when it’s awkward, even when we’re put in a situation that maybe that we don’t wanna be in.

Or there’s a boss that’s putting pressure on us or a coworker or some other external force. And deep down in our minds and more importantly in our hearts, we know the moral thing to do. And when you stand up for that truth, that God is the one that is at work in that situation.

Pharaoh not knowing what to do next. He gives the order to all of his people. And I want you to see that.

That’s not just to the soldiers, it’s to everyone. So think about this. The whole entire kingdom is in on this crazy plot that every Hebrew boy that is born, you must throw in the Nile and let every girl live.

How awful of a scene that must have been. And time period in these people’s lives as babies were literally ripped out of the arms, baby boys of their mothers. And you read a text like this and this is where you scratch your head and you go, well, God, where are you? God, why would you allow innocent baby boys? I mean, you just saw this beautiful Bennett that just got baptized.

Well, I mean, what did he do? And why would anyone ever sacrifice a precious child, an innocent child? Sometimes it’s so hard for us to understand, God, where are you? And so we ask those questions and we dig deeper into the text and we try to figure out where it is that God is weaving his story and his plan. And what’s fascinating is, is that this also connects back to the Christmas account. You see, there was these wise men that came to Jerusalem and they were looking for Jesus because they saw his star.

They heard that the Messiah had been born. Then there was another ruthless king at the time named Herod. And when he realized that he had been outwitted by the wise men, similar to the midwives outwitting Pharaoh, of course, he’s furious.

He’s not happy with the situation and he does the same thing. He gives orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and in all the surrounding vicinity just to make sure that every single person that could possibly be Jesus is eliminated. And oh, by the way, anybody that’s two years or under.

And again, you’re like, wait a second. Christmas is supposed to be this happy, cheerful time. And yet there’s destruction happening the same time that there’s angels in heaven announcing themselves to some shepherds who got to go and be eyewitnesses of Jesus’s birth, who then went and became the first evangelist to tell people that this Messiah had been born, that our savior had been born.

And yet a moment later, a short time later, complete and utter darkness and difficulty and just unbelievably difficult situation to navigate. And guess what? That’s the end of the first chapter. Aren’t you glad you came to church today? Which I find fascinating that Genesis ends with that verse, or not Genesis, Exodus chapter one ends with that verse.

And some of you, I know you love watching Netflix and Hulu and Amazon Prime and all of that. And what do they do at the end of every episode? They give you a cliffhanger. Where do you think all of those shows got the idea for a cliffhanger? So this cliffhanger is the motivation for you to come back next week and to see what it is that God does even in this dark time for these people.

But I wanna leave you with this as we prepare our hearts in a moment to receive holy communion. Oppression and hardships are never random. I’m gonna say it again.

As dark as this world has gotten throughout human history, and we can see it today in areas of the world, oppression and hardships are never random. God is always at work. God sees us, He knows us, He is orchestrating the events of our lives exactly the way that He wants us to be.

And where He wants us to be. Even when we disobey, even when we sin, even when we go against His plan, He always has a plan, B, C, and D, that He’s working to get us back on the path that He has for us. And you know why? It’s because He’s obsessed with us.

It’s because He loves us. It’s because He’s the one that knew the world needed help and He looked down at the perfect time. And that’s when He sent Jesus, born of a virgin, in order to grow into a man, to go to a cross, and stretch out His arms, and for the sins of the world, that include your sins and my sins, to be placed upon Him.

That’s what He did for us. Then in three short days, when everybody was wondering, was this it? Was He just a lunatic? Was He just a liar? Or was He really the Savior of the world? And you imagine the stress and the anxiety those people experienced in those three days. But three days later, He did come out of that tomb.

And in coming out of that tomb, He declared victory over sin, death, and the devil, for you and for me. That’s the greatest message that you and I could ever hear. And so today we get to partake and remember that incredible sacrifice that He has made for us in this meal that we call Holy Communion.

Because it’s within the bread and the body that He offers us His sacred, precious presence. Because here’s the challenge for me, and can I just preach to myself for a moment? Are you guys okay if I do that? Just think about this for a moment. Tim, what are you gonna do if all of your plans and all of your spreadsheets and all of the diligence that you have done for 2026, what’s gonna happen if next week, God completely flips it all upside down? What happens if a hardship that you weren’t expecting comes into your life? What happens if there’s a mountain that you don’t have the ability to overcome on your own? What happens if something happens to your family or to this church, or something out of nowhere all of a sudden becomes insurmountable for you? Are you still gonna trust me? Are you still gonna love me? Are you still gonna lean into me? Are you still gonna believe that I am at work in your life and that I’m working all things out for the good? And the answer has to be yes, God.

Because you’re the creator, I’m not. You’re the savior, I’m not. And I’m just humbled and amazed at what you have done for me and for my friends through your son, Jesus Christ.

And I’m so thankful that we get to partake and remember that and be forgiven and have our faith strengthened once again today, amen.