Deliverance

Contributed by:

Tyler Ward

Spiritual Formation Pastor

This past weekend Ron Klopfenstein continued our series called The Story. We looked at chapter 4, which tells the story of God delivering the Israelite people from their slavery in Egypt through a man named Moses.

Through this story of deliverance, we were reminded of a variety of things that we need deliverance from – our past, the mentality that when God asks us to do things…it's all up to us, our comfort, and our tendency to fear and try to control things. As Ron pointed out, not only do we need deliverance in these areas, but thankfully God is fully willing and fully capable of delivering us. 

As I reflected on all of this, I thought about how Moses foreshadowed what Jesus would do for all of us. In the same way that Moses came to deliver the Israelite people from their slavery in Egypt in a "first exodus," Jesus came to offer us a "new exodus" – one that would not just be for the Israelites, but for the entire world…and one that would not just involve deliverance from the oppression of another government, but deliverance from the oppression of sin, darkness, evil, and death.

• In what ways has God delivered you in the past?
• In what ways are you still in need of God's deliverance?
• What aspects of your past have put you in "run and hide mode?"
• How have you pursued a performance-based identity?
• What "impossible thing" are you engaged in that has you uncomfortable for God?
• What do you need to let go of so that God can do something amazing in your life?