Exodus 6-Outline

Exodus 6-Study Notes

Study: Exodus 6

Store-“Always be joyful. Keep on praying. No matter what happens, always be thankful, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Apply-Joy. Prayer. Thankfulness

Learn-God’s Promise of Deliverance

            ***Remember to mark in your Bibles or somewhere every time Moses asks Pharaoh to let the people go. We will discuss the meaning of this later on. ***

v Exodus 6

o   Chapter 6 is jammed pack with insight and God’s direct hand upon His people.  As we study this chapter we will focus on the following 5 things.

§  1. God’s Response

§  2. God’s plan

§  3. The people’s response

§  4. God’s Command and Moses’ response

§  5. Moses and Aaron’s credentials

v 1. God’s Response

o   Exodus 6:1-5

§  In order to get the full context of chapter 6 you will need to refer back to Exodus 5:22-23.

·      What was Moses’ reaction when the people turned on him?

·      How did God respond to Moses in Exodus 6:1?

·      What point was God establishing up front?

§  What point is the Lord trying to make, by reminding Moses who He is?

·      Why do we need to be reminded of who God is?

·      In what ways does the Lord remind you who He is and what He has done?

§  Read Genesis 17:1; Psalm 83:18; Isaiah 52:6

·      What does each of these passages have in common?

·      What insight do you get from these passages regarding who God is and the power of His name?

v 2. God’s Plan

o   Exodus 6:6-8

o   According to verses 6-8 what does God promise to do?

§  How does He do it according to verse 6?

o   What did the Lord tell Moses to say to the children of Israel?

o   What do you learn about God’s character in verses 6-8?

o   How does God fulfill His promises to you today?

o   How has God rescued you?

v 3.  The People’s Response

o   Exodus 6:9

§  What was the Israelites response to Moses?

·      Why?

§  Has there ever been a time in your life when your discouragement and burden was so great you didn’t want to listen to God or others?

§  Like most mortals, the Israelites focused on their suffering rather than on God and His deliverance. When suffering comes, keep your eyes on Christ and cling to His promises.

·      Read Proverbs 4:20-27-How can this verse be useful for us today?

v 4.  God’s Command and Moses’ Response

o   Exodus 6:10-13

§  What did the Lord tell Moses to tell Pharaoh?

§  How did Moses respond in verse 12?

§  What excuse did Moses have in the latter part of 12?

·      I can only imagine how Moses must have felt when his people turned their backs on him. Yet how often have we turned on Christ? Just not wanting to listen because our discouragement and suffering is too great.

·      Who faced similar situations like this in the New Testament? Read Galatians 1:6-10

o   What was Paul’s response to those who were turning their backs on Christ?

v 5. Moses and Aaron’s Credentials

o   Exodus 6:14-30

§  Why were genealogies so important back then?

·      What did they establish?

§  Which son of Levi was Moses a descendant?

§  Why is it necessary for us today, to be aware of these genealogies?

§  If you were to look at your family tree, at what point did Christ become the center?

o   What is the meaning behind verses 28-30?

Application

1.     Re-read Exodus 6:9 Can you describe a time you’ve been guilty of the same thing? A time when you’ve let your present reality dictate what you think God can and cannot do?

2.     Why do you think in spite of all God’s promises, you still doubt?

3.     What is the main root of your doubt?

A.    What one promise can you cling to, that will help you overcome that doubt? Write out that promise and memorize it!!

        4.   What can we learn from rejection, discouragement, and doubt? How can we grow from them?



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Cleaning Out the Excess-Part 2

Yesterday we looked at what bad thinking does to our hearts. If you missed that post you can read it here.

Today, we are going to look at how we can combat those negative, stinky thoughts with God's Word. 

This is the first step to cleaning out the excess in our hearts.

Do y'all know how many thoughts we think about on an average day? I don't either, but what I do know is it is a TON. 

From the time we wake up, to the time we finally fall asleep, our mind is full of thoughts and our hearts are absorbing a majority of them.

So how can we sort through all these thoughts and ensure only the good are going in.

1. We ask God to make us aware of every thought. Good and Displeasing thought.

     Here are a few passages that will help us. (These are great verses to memorize, write on a card and carry with you.)

•  "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life." 

•  "May the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart, be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer." Psalm 19:14        

2. We take every thought captive and place it under the obedience of God's Word

• "The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 (NIV)
• What exactly does this passage mean and how do we take our thoughts captive?
• 1. We literally grab a hold of the thought we are having. For example let's say we are having a critical thought. We take that critical thought, and place it under God's microscope, view it, dissect it, and find out the root of it. We then take the root of that thought and place it under the obedience of Christ, by casting it down and going through these next two steps below.

3. We acknowledge and confess it.

• "If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9
• When we confess our sinful thoughts, we bring them out into the "Light" for Him to expose, examine, forgive and cover in His blood. We need to be doing this daily. This is a huge part of bringing our thoughts into captivity and placing them under the obedience of Christ. 
• Confession must always lead to repentance. 

4. Then we remove it and replace it with God's truth.

• Once confession and repentance takes place. The second most important and crucial part to getting rid of the excess and sinful thoughts, is removing it-by nailing it to the Cross. (This means you literally get rid of it. Once you do, it is no longer yours. It's not available, it's not accessible. It has to be destroyed.) Then you have to replace the empty with God's Word. (God's Word is clutter free, stress free, beautiful, enjoyable, and doesn't leave a mess.)
• To Remove it
• We have to be willing and we have to choose to LET IT GO! This can be a huge stronghold for many. Especially if it is something that has been apart of our life for a long time. Hoarding negative and sinful thoughts has become a bigger issue than we are truly aware of.
• "Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit." Romans 8:5
• Are you dominated or are you controlled?
• If you are dominated removing the stronghold will be hard, but can be done.
• If you are controlled, letting go will be easy.
• We have to remove all the things that fill our thoughts with darkness.
• "Your eyes is a lamp for your body, A pure eye lets sunshine into your soul. But an evil eye shuts out the light and plunges you into darkness. If the light you think you have is really darkness, how deep that darkness will be!" Matthew 6:22-23
• Where does a majority of your sinful thoughts stem?
• TV
• Music
• Friends
• Facebook
• Pinterest
• Self
• Co-workers
• Internet
• Books
• Magazines
• It's important to be aware of how your thoughts get started, for then it will be easier to remove them. 
• "Let heaven fill your thoughts. Do not think only about things down here on earth." Colossians 3:2
• "Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think." Romans 12:2
• Do you know the best way to remove the sinful clutter of thoughts? Is by crowding them out. Don't allow there to be any room for them in your heart. We do this by doing this final step.
• Replacing the empty spaces the clutter left behind.
• This is so very important, let me tell you why.
• "When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, seeking rest but finding none. Then it says, ' I will return to the person I came from.' So it returns and finds its former home empty, swept, and clean. Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there. And so that person is worse off than before." Matthew 12:43-45
• Sweet one we can clean up all this clutter within our thoughts and hearts, but if we don't fill it up with God's Word, we too will be worse off than before. 
• Now, we have an entire Bible full of amazing things to fill our thoughts with. But to break it down, I have one that I believe is very powerful, helpful, enriching and fulfilling.
• Philippians 4:8-9-"Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned from me and heard from me and saw me doing, and the God of peace will be with you." 
• How exactly does this all work?
• Let's take that critical thought we were having and see how all this ties together and works for His glory and our good.
• We have the critical thought. It is placed under the microscope, we are aware of the root of it, we know begin the process of elimination.
• God gives us 8 steps in Philippians 4:8-9
• 1. Is this critical thought true?
• 2. Is this critical thought honorable?
• 3. Is this critical thought right?
• 4. Is this critical thought pure?
• 5. Is this critical thought lovely?
• 6. Is this critical thought admirable?
• 7. Is this critical thought excellent?
• 8. Is this critical thought worthy of praise?

Brethren when you focus on these 8 steps in your thought life, before you even get to number 3 God will have already revealed to you that thought is either good or no good. Then, it is up to you to acknowledge it, confess, repent from it, remove it and replace it. 

All of this takes action and obedience. Without either of those taking place, the work you are doing to clean out the excess will be done in vain. 

So as you can see, there is work to be done. Keep your eyes on the prize and don't give up. You will have a few set backs, you will probably have a few interruptions, but just keep your eyes on Jesus and the end result.

Happy cleaning day!

"We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from start to finish." Hebrews 12:2

How loyal are you?

"Never let loyalty and kindness get away from you! Wear them like a necklace; write them deep within your heart. Then you will find favor with both God and people, and you will gain a good reputation.” Proverbs 3:3-4

It is time to continue on and apply the love Jesus has given us. It is time we take the gift of Christ’s love and give it back to God. So over the next week we are going to shower, smother, and pour our love all over the Lord. Get out your buckets of loyalty and get ready to unload them on the Lord.

As you reach for your bucket of loyalty make sure that you are going to be 100% committed before you pour. I say that because God wants and deserves to be lavished with our loyalty to Him no matter what! God tells us in 1 Corinthians 10:21-22 “You cannot drink from the cup of the Lord and from the cup of demons, too. You cannot eat at the Lord’s Table and at the table of demons, too. What? Do you dare to rouse the Lord’s jealousy as Israel did?” It angers the Lord when we do not give Him our complete loyalty. Check your bucket and make sure it does not contain mixed loyalty.

How much loyalty does the Lord require? “Another of his disciples said, “Lord, first let me return home and bury my father.” But Jesus told him, “Follow me now! Let those who are spiritually dead care for their own dead.” So how much loyalty does the Lord require? All of it! God says, “I do not come second to anyone or anything.”

We also need to make sure we don't fall into the same trap the Israelites did. They were only found to be loyal when around those who were devoted to God.

When the new generation of Israelites grew up they did not acknowledge God nor did they remember what He did for them. As a result they did evil things in the sight of the Lord and began worshiping other Gods. That angered the Lord and he turned them over to marauders who stole their possessions and every time they went to battle they were defeated. After they became very distressed the Lord rescued them. He raised up judges to rescue them from their enemies, but they still refused to listen and continued to show their loyalty to other gods. The Lord continued to rescue them from their enemies because He took pity on His people, but when the judge died they immediately went back to their corrupt ways behaving worse than those who had lived before them. And they refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways. (Judges 2:16-19)

Let me close with a question? Where does your true loyalty lie? Do you put the Lord first each day or do you put other things before Him? It is so easy to let the things of this world and even people lure us to be loyal to them, but it is God that we must be loyal to first and always!

Lord show us where are loyalty is, if it is not in You and You alone reveal that to our hearts so that we can be completely loyal to You every day until You call us home. Forgive us for putting other things and people before You. Amen