Well, there are things, are you familiar with the term everyday carry? Uh, one of the things that I don’t carry with me every day is a staff, but I’m carrying one with me today and we’ll get back to that in just a little bit. But there are things that I would venture to say. You also have an everyday carry, you carry with you every day. Might be a purse, a wallet. It’s no doubt your phone come on. I know that it can be. Watch your keys. But personally I started to carry with me around the last year or so, something different that I haven’t carried for quite some time. And it’s this, it’s a small, but it’s actually a powerful flashlight. It, it starts off at about, well, here it’s at 15 lumens and then we go to a hundred, and then actually it’s 400. And then it’s actually 2000. And if I can figure it out, there’s a 6,000 lumen setting on this. Now here’s why I started carrying this. Uh, we had a power outage here about a couple years ago at the church building, and it was during the day we had enough ambient light in our offices. But I came into the sanctuary here, the worship center, and even with the exit lights, it was almost pitch black. And I thought, you know, like now, if we had a power outage right now. It would be very dark in here, but take heart. I got you covered. Got a flashlight right here. All right. Just to let you know, I mean, seriously, it’s kind of why I started carrying it. Thinking even in the darkness, a little light can be a, a good help and a good confidence booster. Moses had his own everyday carry. It was a wooden staff. For years 40, he had been using it every day as a walking stick, as something to prod sheep. But when Moses was called by God to return to Egypt, that same staff became something far more scripture, even calls it the staff of God. It was ordinary in Moses’ hands, but in God’s hand. It became something extraordinary, a sign of God’s presence, a vehicle of God’s powers, and a means by which God accomplished his purposes. And today, my hope, my prayer is that we’ll see that this simple staff became a symbol of God’s will done God’s way. And then I want us to make a connection as we prepare, prepare our hearts to come to communion. That just as this wooden staff for Moses was meaningful. So for us, the ultimate meaning is found in a wooden cross. The cross of Christ who becomes our everyday reminder, the cross as of who we are, whose we are, who goes with us, and who we are called to be and what to do. I’m gonna pick us up in Exodus chapter four using the last verse that Pastor Denton left us off with last week. Moses at the burning bush, beginning at verse 17, but take this staff in your hand so you can perform the signs with it. Then Moses went back to Jethro’s father-in-law and said to him, let me return to my people in Egypt to see if any of them are still alive. Jethro said, go and I wish you well. Now, the Lord had said to Moses in Midian, go back to Egypt. For all those who wanted to kill you are dead. So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey, and started back to Egypt, and he took the staff of God in his hand. The Lord said to Moses, when you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh. All the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so he will not let the people go. Then say to Pharaoh, this is what the Lord says, Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you, let my son go. So he may worship me, but you refuse to let him go, so I will kill your firstborn son. The Lord said to Aaron, go into the wilderness to meet Moses. So he met Moses at the mountain of God and kissed him. Then Moses told Aaron everything the Lord had sent him to say, and also about all the signs he had commanded him to perform. Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelites and Aaron told them everything the Lord had said to Moses. He also performed the signs before the people and they believed, and when they heard that the Lord was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped the word of the Lord. Let me pray for us as we continue. Lord God, your word is living inactive can cut through right to the heart of the matter. Your word is powerful. It creates, and just as you brought your word of promise to Moses, so bring it to our own hearts to day Holy Spirit, I ask in Jesus’ name and for his sake. Amen.

We’ve been with Moses here for a number of weeks in this series. God’s Will, God’s Way. Let me just take you back a moment just a little bit. Do you remember Moses when he was that reluctant shepherd? Uncertain, still carrying the scars of his past failures in Egypt. Well, here now in our text, he’s made quite a pivot. He gathers his little family, loads him on a donkey, and quietly begins this journey back to the scene of the crime, so to speak. But tucked in his hand is something that it wasn’t just a tool anymore. The Bible calls it. The staff of God, not a staff, not Moses staff, the staff of God, and this is significant. This was Moses everyday carry something he’d, he’d leaned on while tending sheep in the desert wilderness of admitting for 40 years, nothing special until God made it something special. And I believe it became a physical reminder that Moses would remember, he’s not going alone. God would be with him. It was the same staff that God had told him just before in our text to throw down it. He saw it, turned into a serpent and then told to pick it up, and he became a staff again, a demonstration of God’s power and authority. But more than that, and where I wanna begin, it was really a sign of God’s presence. Earlier when Moses had stood before the burning bush overwhelmed really by God’s call in his life, Moses had asked, who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt? And God’s answer wasn’t to build Moses up and who he was. Rather, it was to promise God’s own presence. He said, I will be with you, which is God’s promise to his people throughout the whole scripture record. In all of God’s salvation history, God has promised that God’s will includes the promise of God’s presence. He goes with you. Our text reads, so Moses took his wife and the sons put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt, and he took the staff of God in his hand. Moses wasn’t going back to Egypt, waving his cv, his latest resume. Rather it was God’s staff and with it the reality that God said he would go with him. And I think that’s how it is with God’s call on our lives. When he calls, he’s there. When he sends, he goes. When he commands, he accompanies God’s will always. Includes the promise of God’s presence. Martin Luther wrote this reflection. This is the comforting thing that he is, Emmanuel God with us. Remember that from Advent God with us, even in the midst of our reflections. Even in all the troubles that you have seen, even in your fear, even when you feel unequipped or unworthy or unable, God promises his presence to be with you and for Moses, this everyday carry reminder was of God’s presence with him and Moses, with the staff. He wasn’t marching into Egypt, swinging it like a sword. He really kind of, I think, walked with it like a crutch, trusting it to keep him steady even when the ground became uneven. And maybe that’s a word, or that someone here needs this day, that God is with you, his presence to steady you when you feel like you’re getting tripped up. And what is your version of the staff of God that you carry every day? What’s your everyday reminder? That God is with you. You know, Moses had his staff. You know what you have? You have the written promises of God in his word, and then through Jesus Christ, all of these promises are signed, sealed, and delivered with the broken body, and shed blood of Jesus. More on that than just a bit. God’s will includes the promise of God’s presence. Second God’s will includes God’s power. He works through you. Our text reads, the Lord said the Moses, when you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh. All the wonders. I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so he will not let the people go.

So here we are, Moses staff in hand on his way to Egypt, and God tells him outright, you are gonna perform these signs, these wonders that I have given you the power to do. In other words, the power is not from Moses. The stick is not some magic wand. But rather God will work through this staff and through Moses and Aaron and through this simple piece of wood, God’s presence and his power will be revealed. Just one chapter earlier, God had told Moses to throw this same staff on the ground, right? Remember what happened? It became a snake, and then Moses was told to grab it again. This writhing snake, and it turned back into a staff. Now if, if you’re of a certain generation as I am, I mean for me, maybe your mind goes like mine to that, a scene from that classic 1956 film called The 10 Commandments. Do you remember that? Well, even if you do, let’s watch it. Roll the, roll the clip. Let my people go. The slaves are mine. Their lives are mine. All that they own is mine. I do not know your God, nor will I let Israel go. Who are you to make their lives bitter in hard bondage, man shall be ruled by law, not by the will of other men. Who is this God that I should let your people go? Aaron passed down my staff before Pharaoh. That he may see the power of God in this. You shall know that the Lord is. Nothing of his will harm you. My son. Power of your God is a cheap magician’s trick, Janice. See this SERT swallows up the other. I, I, I mean, I think that’s kind of one of the most amazing scenes in cinematic history, and not just because it was all done way before a computer generated imaging was available, but rather, I think because it captures something so simple but profound, so physical. This physical staff becoming a vessel to display God’s power. And that’s the point. That’s what the staff is a visible instrument of God’s might. Through this staff, Moses would strike the Nile, turn it to blood part, the Red Sea, bring water from a rock through the staff. It’s God ultimately. Who confronts the most powerful empire on earth and brings it to its knees. Now, don’t miss this. The staff in itself had no power. It was God’s promise connected with it. God was working through Moses, not because Moses was mighty, but because he trusted God’s promise and then acted on it. The Apostle Paul writes this in second Corinthians, my grace is sufficient for you. God says, for my power is made perfect in weakness, or that word perfect can be translated complete. My power is shown to be complete in weakness. I think that’s why God could use a, a reluctant shepherd with a stutter and a stick. Martin Luther makes this connection with God’s word. He writes, faith clings to the word capital W and lets God do his work through the weak instrument. And I think that’s how God always works.He has through fishermen, tax collectors, widows with empty jars, former prostitutes, little boys with fish and loaves, weak instruments, all. Surrendered to a powerful God. Moses didn’t step forward because he felt strong. Rather, he stepped forward because he finally trusted in God’s strength. And once he did, God’s power was revealed. God’s will includes God’s presence. God’s will includes God’s power. Third, and finally, God’s will includes God’s purpose. Listen to our text. God says, then say it to Pharaoh. This is what the Lord says. Israel is my firstborn son. And I told you, let my son go. So he may worship me, but you refuse to let him go so I will kill your firstborn son. And then in verse 31, the people believed, and when they heard that the Lord was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped. This final movement in our message today, it’s not about the staff or the signs. Now, it’s about God’s purpose. God wasn’t just simply showing power off for the sake of shock and awe.

He had a mission to accomplish, and that was to deliver his people from bondage. Did you catch what he called Israel? He said, Israel’s my firstborn son. You see, God’s deliverance wasn’t just about liberation from oppression. It was about identity. God claims Israel as his own and calls them family. The purposes of God wasn’t political. It wasn’t just economic freedom or national independence, it was spiritual. God said, let my son go so he may worship me. And I think God’s ultimate purpose is always revealed and results in worship and relationship. You see, God just doesn’t deliver us from something, but for something or for someone for himself. For communion, for family, for life. And that’s why when Moses and Aaron finally arrive in Egypt and gather the elders of Israel, I’m so glad they respond this first way that people respond, not with skepticism, but with worship. In fact, our text says they believed, and that word it, it’s huge, that it’s the same Hebrew root. Used for Abraham back in Genesis 15 where it said Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. So when Israel saw they bowed down, they believed, they worshiped. And then why? It’s like for the first time in 400 some years, they were. Reminded so deeply that God sees them, God hears, and God is coming to rescue and that is God’s purpose. Yet today for you and for me. Just as the staff in Moses’ hand pointed to God’s presence and power, it also points to God’s greatest purpose. A plan of deliverance that wouldn’t end with an escape in the desert, but it would actually find its fulfillment with a cross on a hill. In Jesus Christ, God said, once again, let my son go. But this time the son of God was not spared. Jesus took our place. He bore the price for our bondage to sin, and through his death and resurrection, brought about the ultimate deliverance from sin, death, and the devil. Listen to what the Apostle Paul says in Ephesians for he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight, in love. He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ in accordance with his pleasure and will. God’s purpose. It’s clear and intentional. God’s not improvising. He’s not reacting. He’s intentionally redeeming. God knew before the foundation of the world was set that you and I would need saving. And then he set in place the cross of Christ as the fulcrum of his love, mercy and grace, the seal of our freedom. The wooden stand staff in Moses’ hand, it brought signs of God’s mission to free Israel. The wooden cross on Calvary brings the fullness of God’s mission to save the world. Moses carried a staff ordinary wood made holy set apart. By God’s presence, power, and purpose. And today, we now come to the Lord’s Table bread and wine, where we are not just remembering a moment in history, but we are receiving again the very means of that deliverance the body given the blood shed, the presence, power and purpose of God. Given for us in with and under the bread and wine, God is present. His grace is powerful and his purpose for you and still unfolding. So let’s prepare our hearts now to come to the table and we come. Not because we may feel ready, but because we know that God is and he will meet us there. Come and receive the gift of Jesus broken, crucified, risen, and given for you. Let’s pray. Lord Jesus, thank you for carrying the cross that we could not bear paying the price we don’t wanna pay and for going with us wherever you call. Strengthen our faith to trust in your presence, to walk in your power, and to live for your purposes. And now, as we come to your table, nourish us with your grace, strengthen us in our faith, renew us, and send us out as messengers of your love. I ask in Jesus’ precious name and for his sake, amen.