The Five Exoduses and You

People always want things that are not theirs, and people always don't want the things that are theirs. An example of that is the Promised Land. If you think about it, God gave what is commonly known as Palestine to the twelve tribes of Israel. Israel, however, rejected God, and they lost the right to have that as their Promised Land. Judah, in captivity, wanted it back. So God worked it out where part of Judah could come back to the Palestine area. But they again rejected God. Humans don't want God, though they have God available. They want something that isn't theirs now. An example is, today, people want Palestine. It has not been given to them at this time, but they want it anyway, so they'll try to take it on their own. There was a book entitled Exodus by Leon Uris, in a film of the same name, that showed people going back and trying to take something. It was the founding of the modern-day state of Israel. Back in 1947, following World War II, the United Nations had partitioned that area of Palestine into two areas, and assigned part of it to the Jews who were trying to make it a homeland, and the other part to the Palestinians who had been living there for some time. Well, the Palestinians didn't accept that at all, and so civil war broke out in that region. And the next year, in 1948, at the end of the civil war, the Jews had gotten more than just the half that was allotted to them. And down through time, that has caused a lot of hard feelings. Well, their claim has been rejected by the Arabs, rejected by the territories around them, and subsequent wars that have taken place to try to get it back has meant even more land being held by the Jews than before.

And so today, in that area of Palestine, the Jews possess or hold, they occupy parts of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and the Palestinian territories. The Middle East has a focus, and basically the focus is, everybody wants it. Everybody wants it for their own. Everybody wants what isn't theirs, and they'll do whatever it takes to get it. In Palestine today, peace, I would spell P-I-E-C-E. Everybody wants a peace. And the only way you can have so-called peace is if everybody gets a peace of Palestine, and nobody's happy with the peace they get. Just think about it. The Jews want it, the Palestinians want it, the Armenians want it, the Jordanians, the Libyans, the Syrians, the Egyptians, the Muslims, and the Catholic Church is right now behind the scenes, reportedly trying to get ownership, literal ownership of all the holy sites, including the Temple Mount. But the 1948 Exodus wasn't a biblical Exodus at all. And for that reason, the Bible has some prophecies about the Palestine region. It's an end-time magnet for world's armies to come in and try to take what doesn't belong to them. Now, I just use this as an example and now ask the question, what do you want that isn't yours? What do you crave that isn't yours? And what do you not want that is yours? Today, I want to examine with you the five exoduses in the Bible. What did he say? Five exoduses? Yes. The five exoduses in the Bible. We might call them exodai, plural for Exodus, I guess.

The five exodai in order are the Exodus, our Exodus, the next Exodus, their Exodus, and the great Exodus. We're going to look at all five of these today. The question is, really, how many do you want to participate in? The title of the sermon is, The Five Exoduses and You. Let's examine all these five exodai that God is orchestrating. As we see them, let's ask the question, the nagging question. Do I want what I've been given? Do I want what I have? Do I want the things offered to me? Or do I reject them and I want something else that is not mine to have? The creation is very inspiring to all of us. You can go to various places and see the creation. It's hard to see it in here. You can see it depicted up above. But it's hard to see it in here because we're surrounded with things that are derived from nature. But when you go out to an arboretum, if you go out to a lake or some area that we call nature, you can see God's handiwork there. One of the things out in nature that is inspiring to people are plants and animals, flora and fauna. We live in a desert environment here and we're used to cacti. But if you go out to an arboretum that has cacti, you'll be surprised how many cacti God made. They just keep coming and coming and coming, the varieties and the different types. The one that I just had to shake my head. I know God made a lot of different varieties of cactus, but when I saw the sand-dollar cactus, I just had to laugh. Because the sand-dollar cactus looks just like a sand-dollar. A sand-dollar in the ocean is an organism.

And before it gets bleached, it's kind of a little greenish. It can be a little greenish.

The sand-dollar cactus, I guess if you put them together, would look almost identical.

Same star-shaped lines, the same little spots, the same hole in the middle.

It was kind of a no-brainer to call it the sand-dollar cactus. But I just wonder if somebody out there doesn't think it evolved.

And I just walked out of the ocean and became a cactus. Anyway, and then there's the fauna. And I think of all the fauna that's in the world, one of the types of animals that is so unique to us is the type that flies, the birds.

And God didn't just make one or two birds, like maybe we would commonly see, or five or ten.

God made so many different birds, and they just are like little magnets to the eye, because they're so much fun to watch. I want to just tell you, name to you, the families of the birds. Not the birds themselves, just the families of the birds. The heron that includes the egrets, bitter and crane family. The waterfowl, swans, geese, ducks, teal family. The raptors, eagles, osprey, hawks, falcons. The partridge, the chucker, the grouse, the quail, the pheasant. What's called the rail family, which are rails, coots, and moorhens. Shorebird family, kildir's plover, sandpiper, curlews, American ibis family. The gullen tern family, seagulls, and terns. The pigeon and dove family. The cuckoo family that includes the roadrunner.

The owl family, the nightjar family that includes whippoorwills and night hawks. The swift family, the hummingbird family. Hummingbirds only exist on this continent. The trogon family, the kingfisher family, the woodpecker family, with the sapsuckers and flickers in that family. The flycatchers and kingbird family, the lark, swallow, and marten family. The crow and jay family, with nutcrackers, magpies, and ravens. Chickadee family, the nuthatch family, the creeper family, the wren family, the king family, the old world warbler family, along with the gnat catchers. The thrush family, and solitaire's bluebirds and robins in that thrush family. The mockingbird, thrasher's family, the waxwing family, the shrike family, the virio family, the woodwarbler family, the tanager family, that includes cardinals and buntings, the sparrow family, that includes tohies and juncos, the blackbird family, that includes meadowlarks, grackles, cowbirds, orials, and the finch family, that includes the gross beaks and the goldfinches, the crossbills and the goldfinches. You see how many birds God has made right here in our environment? Now that's just one little slice of part of the creation that our God made.

My point is, when God did something for us and does something for us, He gives it His all.

He doesn't just do it in measure or just in little bits. He gives it His all. Creation, including you, your body, and the magnificent structures that are there that mankind is still just learning about, your body and this world around us and this environment are all examples of God giving His all with color and sound and feeling and taste and thinking and thought. That's God giving you everything He could give in the physical realm and then fill it full of things for us to see and experience, including the vast depths of space and the vast depths of the miniature world that goes just the other way, just as far down into infinitesimal smallness and complexity. God gave everything He could to you and to me.

And then He gave more. He gave the only member of the God family beside Himself to us.

That is giving everything you have. How many of you would give one of your children if you have children, let alone the only other person that exists and leave yourself alone? We could say God gave all of His family to you and me and for you and me. Consider the Father with the Son living on earth in the flesh. Consider that He is now the only God being that exists in the Spirit in the exalted high majestic spiritual form. There's only one of His kind and He is it.

You know, you might go to the zoo and if you're the only human on earth you might like the company there, but you won't really feel that you have any camaraderie, would you? And God thinks so high and His deeds are so great above us that in comparison to a human we're just not of the same species.

We're a little bit like Him and when His Son was here on earth, yes, He retained His Godhead, but He did not retain His species. Only God the Father was there all alone with none of His kind. Can you imagine the grief? Can you imagine the loneliness?

Actually, we can't because that's never the focus. That was never the focus. Instead, we find something else. We find that He was very thoughtful and very concerned.

Very concerned. The focus was on you and on me. We find in Isaiah chapter 53 in verse 10 that this was something the Father willingly did. He wasn't complaining that He was the only one. He wasn't complaining about the gift that He gave to you and me after creating everything through His Son and then giving us His Son. No. We find here in Isaiah 53 verse 10, yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him.

That word pleased from the Hebrew means the Lord was pleased to do this or He was delighted by it. It was His pleasure, in other words. It was His pleasure to divest Himself of His Son, to give His Son for us. In Philippians chapter 2 and verse 6, we see that the word, before He became the Son of God, before He was known as that title, also willingly gave of Himself. We don't read of Him making it the focus, oh, this isn't fair to me. Oh, look what I've given up. Oh, look how tough this is. Rather, it says in Philippians 2 and verse 6, who being in the form of God, in the majesty with God at His right hand, or at God's right hand, did not consider it robbery or somehow taking something. In other words, that was His due. He was a member of the family of God.

Equal with God, but He made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond service, servant, and coming in the likeness of men. So here we see this dual gift. God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son, and the Son lovingly comes and takes the form of a man like you and me, and even the form of a bond servant, one who chooses that being a servant or a slave by choice.

He lived among us as a basic life form, a human life form. I know it's a lot to you and me to be human and alive, but to God in comparison, we're just a vapor. But He submitted to that and humbled Himself, and He loved among us, and He served among us, and He set an example among us. And then if that were not enough, this one whom we know as Jesus the Christ interrupted His eternal life. He lived forever, and He will live forever, but He hasn't lived forever. He gave up living eternal, that eternal, the eternity of life. He gave up and put a three-day and three-night base for you and for me.

Sometimes we feel good if we can have so many anniversaries, if we don't miss this, we never miss a Passover, or how long we've been in the church, or how old we are, etc., etc. Well, how would you like to have said, I've always lived and I always will live, but for you, I'm going to break that record. I'm going to break that record. It's an amazing amount of gift giving that the Father and the Son did for you. Can we say that they gave us everything, everything that they could possibly give to human beings they have given to us? Did they hold anything back? Is there something missing? It's all here, and they're offering us even more.

The Father and the Word are very pleased to give their all for you and me, and they set us a wonderful example of the mentality of the God family. They're delighted to serve us. They're delighted to create us. They're delighted to save us. And now God brings humanity along on five exoduses, five. In each one, God invites those whom he's working with to imitate him, to become love, to love like he does, to see and sense that amount of giving of all that he has and saying, come do that with me. You come along and you fill your life now with what I and my Son do. You be like us. In 1 John 4, verse 10, John very clearly states to us what this love is. He says, in this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us fully, completely, and he sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Now the invitation comes to us. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. How much? We are to learn to love one another a lot, totally, fully, completely, as God has loved us fully and completely. You know, becoming love is the ability, is the gift, it is the right, it is something that you possess. Becoming love is something that you possess the right to in participating in an exodus, because that's what the exoduses are about. The question is, in each exodus, is that what the people want? Do they want what they've been given? And as you and I pursue an exodus out of sin in our life, do we want what we've been given? Do we want the power of love? Do we want God living in us? Do we want the ability to love? Or do we want something we have not been given and it is not good for us? That's the choice we have to make. Let's take a look at the five exoduses. We'll begin with the exodus. Back in Exodus 19, aptly named, we'll begin reading verses 4 through 6.

Exodus 19, beginning in verse 4.

The Israelites in the first part of this chapter have come out of Israel. They have come out of the land of Egypt, I meant, and they came into the wilderness.

In verse 4, God says, Now you have seen what I did to the Egyptians. You've seen what I did. I cleansed you of that type of sin and how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice in your exodus and keep my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people, for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. So we see here what God intended. In Deuteronomy chapter 10 and verse 12, we see even greater clarification of His intent for what these people should embrace in their exodus. Deuteronomy 10 and verse 12. And now Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command you today for your good? Indeed, heaven and the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God and also the earth that is in it. And the Lord delighted only in your fathers to love them and He chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples as it is this day.

Therefore, circumcise the foreskin of your heart and be stiff-necked no longer, for the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords and the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe. He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow and He loves the stranger, giving them food and clothing. Therefore, you love the stranger, for you are strangers in the land of Egypt. You shall deeply reverence the Lord your God, you shall serve Him, and to Him you shall hold fast and take oaths in His name. He is your praise, He is your God who has done for you these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen. Your fathers went down to Egypt with 70 persons and now the Lord your God has made you as the stars of heaven in multitude. That's a wonderful God, inviting them along on an exodus and inviting them to take up the love that He has and to be loving and serving and giving in the way that He is. But they wanted something else.

They didn't want what they had been given. They didn't want that love. They didn't want the ability to love, though He would have helped them. They've wanted something else down through the centuries and it eventually came to this. We read in Mark 14 and verse 1. Mark 14 and verse 1. It says it very profoundly. After two days, it was the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

This reminds us of the exodus. It reminded them of their exodus.

And the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take Him by trickery and put Him to death. That was the end of the first exodus. That's how it ended up. People who did not appreciate, did not want to hold on to that which they had been given. They wanted something else.

I'd like to talk about the second exodus, our exodus. If you turn with me to 2 Corinthians 6 and verse 14, we know that there are two covenants. There was a covenant that God made with the house of Israel and He brought them out in that covenant in an exodus to a promised land.

We know the end of that. But there's another covenant, and thus another exodus.

2 Corinthians 6, verses 14 through 18. Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers.

We're to come out of this world. We're to come out of society. We're called to be a separate, chosen people at this time. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness and what communion has lightness with darkness? And what accord has Christ with the devil? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God, as God has said, I will dwell in them and walk among them and be their God and they shall be my people. Therefore, verse 17, come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord, and do not touch what is unclean, and if you do those things, I will receive you and I will be a father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.

God wants us to come away from Satan's self-centered society. He says in Revelation, come out from among her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins.

We, in this feast of unleavened bread, are demonstrating our life of walking into righteousness.

We are using unleavened bread, which of and by itself is not very impressive, but as we eat this each day, we are putting in that which we want to be. This is the symbol that was used for Christ's body that was broken, pure and sinless, and it now becomes the symbol for the next seven days of a righteous individual, the righteousness of God living in us, that we want to eat. Jesus said, eat my body for its food indeed. This is what we want to be. This is what we want to become. And our exodus is to come out of anything else, make progress in becoming like God is. You and I are offered God's love. In fact, we are given it. We have it as a right. We have it as something God has not only offered us, but He's living in us. If you're baptized with God's Holy Spirit, do you know Jesus Christ is living in you. You have the ability, the right, you have been given love. Do you want it? Or do you want something else? That's the question we need to ask ourselves. That's what I'm asking myself. Do I want what I've been given, or do I want something I have not been given? It's the old question that comes back to us humans.

We have a choice. Let's go to Galatians 5. We'll begin in verse 9.

Galatians 5 verse 9 says, A little leaven leavens the whole lump.

Do you want to be leavened, or do you want to not be leavened? Well, it depends on which symbol you use. I want to be leavened, and also the last thing I want is to be leavened. It depends on which symbol that we're talking about. The reason why is that there's the leaven of malice and wickedness the Bible speaks of, and we don't want any of that. But Jesus gave a parable and said, The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened. We certainly want to be growing into the kingdom of God. This week, the symbol of leaven is about not having leaven, being filled with something that is unleavened, that is pure, and that is righteous, and that's our goal. It's not our state that is our goal. And so we have both of these things that are available to us. What do we want? Do we want what we've been given, love? What God went out of his way to bestow on you and me and in you and me as the enablers and those who are able to practice his love? Do we want to do that which we've been given the power to do? Or do we say, hmm, I don't want to do that. I want to do something else.

Verse 13, For you, brethren, have been called to liberty, only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. This is what he's encouraging. Don't choose that other type. No, love, serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Verse 15, But if you want something else, if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another. I say, then, walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. This week is about walking, walking in the Spirit, filling ourselves with godliness and saying, yes, that's what I want to be. That's what I want to do. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things you wish. It's not just easy to say, oh, yeah, I'm eating it, therefore I am. We tend to do those things which we preach against, which we do not stand for, as the Apostle Paul talked about. Verse 18, but if you are led by the Spirit, not just have the Spirit, if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the penalty of the law, which is death. We keep receiving the graciousness of God, the grace, because he realizes, as we ask for forgiveness, he is willing to wash us clean once again. See, another thing about God, he just keeps on giving. We are under the cloud, as it were, as he leads us, and he's gracious to those who are trying. But the question remains, which do you and I want? That which we've been given, or that which is not ours to have? Notice in verse 19, here we find that which is not ours to have. The works of the flesh are evident. Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like. Yeah! That's what we as humans want! Some version of that. It sounds pretty rough there, but some version of that. We want that which we have not been given to do in this Exodus. But the fruit of the Spirit is different. Those, it says, will not inherit the kingdom of God. Verse 22, the fruit of the Spirit is love. The fruit of having God in Christ living in us is their mind and action, love and the joy and the peace that come from that. And long suffering, just as God is long suffering to you and me, and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and meekness and self-control. And those who are Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

We find that the right choice is not always made by participants. We look in 1 Corinthians chapter 10.

1 Corinthians 10 and the first 10 verses. Paul says, Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea, all were baptized in Moses and the cloud in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food. They drank the same spiritual drink.

For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.

But with most of them, God was not well pleased. They didn't want what they had been given.

They didn't want that. So they died in the wilderness.

Now, verse 6, these things became our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also left it. We shouldn't want those things that are not ours and not ours to have. And there are many such things. Verse 11, Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages have come.

As with the Exodus, God wants those in our Exodus to choose love as He does. Matthew 22, 37. You know the statement? Jesus said, You shall love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. That's everything. That's not holding back. That's loving God back like He loves you totally, fully.

This is the first great commandment, and the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself, fully, giving, serving, helping. What is this love? Agape, this godly form of love. The definition of it, according to Thayer's Greek lexicon, is love for others, affection, goodwill, and benevolence. What is benevolence? Benevolence is the deeds of kindness and much good for others. It's a giving, it's a sacrificing, it's a showering. Everything you can on those around you, including God. So here's a good question. How giving am I? I asked myself this question not long ago. This sermon came to mind. I said, how giving a person am I?

Well, I don't know. I keep the storehouse full so that I have things to give.

Keep the locks on the doors, and once in a while, open the window a crack and disperse a little bit.

You have to be responsible for your things and your stuff and your life and your time.

And you can't just let people come and loot it. In order to just throw it all away, everything that you have, besides, it's good for people to learn lessons in life. They don't need a bunch of stuff and they don't need to be coddled and given everything to. They get spoiled if they did that. So the storehouse will be full as much as possible, responsibly maintained. And here's a pinch, here's a crumb, here's a little benevolent gesture. I have that. Once in a while. Once in a while. It doesn't come up often. Now let's compare that with God.

Is that how God has acted with you and me? He said, well, these human beings, you know, they're so cuttiful. Give them a pinch. You know, we just give them black and white flat screen, you know, eyesight. They'll get to hear a bell. You know, it's time to get the bong, the oats. That's all they need. Get them through. No, it's not the way God is. Jesus said, freely you have received, freely give. He wants us to convey. During this week, during our life, during our pilgrimage, during our Exodus, He wants to convey in us to freely give, as we have freely been given to. That's so different than we humans envision ourselves. Sometimes we can think of ourselves as really good Christians. I'm really good. I gave five bucks to charity. I'm good. I gave an offering. I helped somebody last year. I housed somebody in the old house that was falling down that I'd never go in, but I housed somebody there.

And, you know, we tend to think a lot of some of the things that we do, but are we giving like God? Are we continuing to give? Where, for the last 6,000 years or longer than that, we have been pretty much God's focus.

In Luke 6 and verse 38, Jesus tries to teach us how to give. And I tell you what, I find myself, I don't even know if I've started giving it. I'm not even sure I figured out the concept. When I start thinking about the words He said in connection with what He and His Father have done and continue to do, I don't even think I've even started. How about you? He says in Luke 6 verse 38, Give, and it will be given to you in like fashion. But what He says is, give. Don't just give a little bit. Give a good measure. And when you're filling this jar or whatever to give to somebody, here's how you do it. A good measure, overflowing. But don't wait there. Press it down. Pack it together. Shake it together. And then running over. He's saying, give and it will be given to you like that. For in the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.

What He's saying is, not, here's how to get more. The more you give, the more you get. Oh, make a note. No, He's saying, be like us. Be like my Father and me. Learn to love a lot. Learn to serve and help and give a lot. We need to get rid of that motive of, well, if I give, let's see, I get brownie points in heaven and the person will like me. Yeah, that works out pretty well.

Matthew 6, verse 1, Jesus talks to us about that. He's not giving us the little rules to pick apart and try to find ways to make points in heaven. He's saying, just give and do it because you want to. Do it because I'm in you. Do it because that's what we do in the God family. You want to call yourself a child of mine? Well, be like your Father. He says, take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men to be seen by them. Otherwise, you have no reward from your Father in heaven. It just means you don't have a godly mentality. You're doing it for some self-focus. You don't really love the individuals. Therefore, because of this, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may get glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But when you do a charitable deed, here's how you should do it if you're going to have God doing it. When you do a charitable deed, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. In other words, it's just what you do. It's just about loving. It's just about loving.

Surely, oh, it says, that your charitable deed may be done in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly. Who are we to love? Jesus tells us in the previous chapter, Matthew 5, verse 40, to love everyone. You know, love is something that's interesting. Love is not ours. We didn't know love. God put it in there. Love is something you have. It's a resource you have. You can give love and give love and give love and give love. You can love and give and love and love and love. You have so much of it. You have a God amount of love living in you, and it's inexhaustible. So why are we so stingy with it? Why do we sort of meter it out?

Why don't we just love everybody? It doesn't matter, because there's so much in there.

It's like the bottomless pit, you know, the world's supply of oil.

You could never run out, so why not let everybody have gasoline?

He says in Matthew 5, verse 40, If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him too.

They say, wait a minute, this isn't... what's this about?

If somebody wants your tunic, give him your cloak also.

Give him. And if he wants you to go one mile, go too. Give to him who asks you.

And from him who wants to borrow from you, do not turn away.

You think, well, wait a minute, my store could get depleted. It wouldn't be fair, etc., etc.

But look at how God the Father and Jesus Christ give. Who did they give anything to that was fair, that was justified, that was somehow worthy?

Or the recipient was worthy.

You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, and here's where the love goes around, love your enemies. You know, there are people who just really don't like you. And you say, well, see if I... why?

Well, it might run out of love.

It just got so much, you know.

No, you don't. You actually don't. You have... you can love your enemies, you can love your friends, you can love your family, you can love your God, you can love everybody.

Everybody, now, in the future, and forever, and still.

There's more to go around.

Bless those who curse you. What do you mean, bless somebody who curses me? You have blessings. You have a deep well of blessings that won't run dry. Why not pass them around, spread them around if you care about people? Do good to those who hate you. No way!

I only do good to people who love me.

No, you can do good. There's an endless supply of it. Do it to everybody. Be like God, because, in fact, you have been those things to God, and He continues to love and bless you.

Notice, pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you. Pray for them.

Why?

Verse 45, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. That's why.

Because He is a fully loving God to everybody.

I have to ask the question, do I ever give my all? Like God gave His all. Like Jesus gave everything He had, everything He was. He gave it all! There is nothing left. You know, when you're dead in a tomb, it's it.

You don't have anything else.

Do I ever give my all?

Would God want me to give my all?

That's something to ask before we just rush out and start giving our all. Is that what God wants me to do?

In Mark 12 and verse 41.

Mark 12 and verse 41.

Now Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how the people put money into the treasury, and many who were rich put in much.

Then one poor widow came and threw in two mites, which make a quadrant.

A quadrant is a coin whose weight was equal to one half of an attic chalcous, which was worth about three eighths of a cent, less than half a cent.

And she put that in.

And so Jesus called His disciples and said, look at this wondrous thing. He says, come here, come here, come here. I've got to see this.

Assurely, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all of those who have given to the treasury, for they all put in out of their abundance a portion. But she, out of her poverty, put in all that she had her whole livelihood.

She gave it all.

And he was excited to make the point, look, somebody else has given something that was her all. Now she only gave all of her money, all of her livelihood, she didn't go as far as he had gone, and giving his life and dedicating his life as well. But she gave all and Jesus noted it. He said, this is a type of godliness, godly giving, and she was praised.

Why do we love?

Why do we serve? Why do we give? Motive is the crucial factor here.

What is the mindset? Is it godliness? We want to be like our Father, or we want to be satanic?

We go to 1 Corinthians 13.

Which is often referred to as the love chapter.

Paul begins with motive.

He says, Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels, but I have not love, I have become a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.

And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could move mountains, but I have not love, I am nothing. So, motive is the thing that counts with the god family. Are we becoming godly and loving others?

Are these somehow to enhance or impress, or somehow give us something that is not ours?

Which is fame, or position, or prestige, or some kind of ego, elevation. That's not yours. That's not mine to have.

And if we want something we don't have, something we have not been given, then, as Paul says here, I am nothing.

Now he comes to giving, benevolence, and though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. This is all self-promotion he's talking about. It's a lusting for what is not yours to have. It's just like Lucifer lusted for those things which were not his to have.

But true, genuine, godly love is defined in beginning in verse 4. Love suffers long with others, and is kind, as it suffers long, I guess you could say. Love doesn't envy. It's not about self-promotion, or any kind of promotion. Love does not parade itself. It's not puffed up. It's not vain. It's not trying to exalt me, which is something you can do. It's something you cannot have, by the way. It's not yours to have. It's not mine to have. It does not behave rudely, doesn't seek its own, it's not provoked, thinks no evil, does not rejoice in iniquity, rejoices in truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, and love never fails. That is a definition of the love that God has that he wants you and me to be putting in us this week, filling ourselves with through the rest of our lives as we go in this exodus, symbolized by six days of coming out of sin. We can't do it on our own. The seventh day shows us that we can't get across into the spirit world, just like they couldn't get across the Red Sea. But it tells God something as we progress, and He can transport us into the Kingdom, into the Promised Land. Let's examine some ways that we can be servers, lovers, givers from the heart. In 1 John 3 and verse 16, we find that this godly love isn't just a feeling, it is actually loving in deed. 1 John 3 and verse 16, by this, we know love because He laid down His life for us. And if we think about that, of all that He went through divesting Himself and then gave everything, we know love. Now, the next phrase in 1 John 3 and verse 16, and we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren, He's telling us you need to love completely as well. But whoever has this world's good and sees his brother in need and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? How does meeting out the love? How does giving little bits and pieces or holding it in? And I'm not just talking about money, talking about time, compliments, encouragement, what the Word can do, what the arms can do, what the prayers can do. My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. Indeed, get the doors open in the storehouse and let it all go free. Let it all make it gifts. Give everything you possibly can if you want to be like your Father in heaven. And by this we know that we are of the truth. If we do that and shall assure our hearts before him that we have God's love. We need to look for the needs that others have. James says, if a brother or sister is naked in destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, oh, depart in peace, be warm and filled, but you don't give them anything that's needed for the body, what does it profit? We need to look, perceive, and fill the needs. You know, in Matthew 26, verses 31 through 46, I won't turn there, but you'll remember the parable of the sheep and the goats, how the great king comes back and he separates the sheep from the goats. He calls all of the Christians to him and he separates them. And what is the criteria?

You were hungry and you gave them food. He uses himself as a type. They were thirsty and you gave them drink. They were naked and you clothed them in prison and you visited them. See, you did that. You were loving and you were giving. He says, great, come on into the kingdom. Because that is what God is about.

The thing is, the other group says, when did we see you or anybody hungry? Well, that's a good excuse because we don't see people when they're hungry. You don't know if I'm hungry or if I can't eat anymore because I don't have a gauge. I don't have a little light that comes on that says, peep, a little ding, feed me, button or something. You don't know if I'm thirsty. Well, you probably have a good idea. But you don't know, you see, for sure. You have to care. You have to be concerned. And that's why Jesus said, if someone gives a cup of cold water in my name to a disciple, that is noteworthy. Why? Because the disciple probably didn't ask you for it. You were thinking. You see, that's a place to start. That's a simple, basic thing.

And yet, it is so important, and that's one of the things he says there. You were thirsty and gave them drink. We need to remember the poor. Sometimes it's difficult for us to want to give to some people who are poor because they tend to be irresponsible, and we can cast them into that category and say, well, you know, wow, if they just would do things a little differently, they wouldn't be poor. Why does the Bible say, over and over and over, remember the poor? Jesus said to the man in Matthew 19.21, if you want to be perfect, if you want to be spiritually mature, if you want to be accepted, if you want to be in the state to which you are intended to be, go sell what you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me.

He just said that right out. Whoa, what are you talking about? Sell my house, sell this, give it to the poor and come follow you? That sounds like I'm giving up a lot. Compare that to what Jesus gave up. Proverbs 22, verse 9, He who has a generous eye will be blessed, for he gives of his bread to the poor. And there are many, many other passages that talk about remembering the poor.

We need to do good to all. In Galatians, chapter 6, verse 7 through 10, Galatians, chapter 6, verses 7 through 10, Do not be deceived, God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. God is testing our character, in other words, and whatever you are building and developing, that's what you're going to reap the rewards of. For he who sows to his flesh will of his flesh reap corruption. Corruption is not a pleasant thing. It is decomposing flesh. But he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting light. And let us not grow weary while doing good. For in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, with all of this being said, verse 10, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith. So there's who we're to do good for, do good to, everybody, and especially those in the church. What good things can we do? We've seen giving and serving and helping. Is there more? How about forgiving? Forgiving. You can forgive for free. You can forgive any and everybody you want, and it won't cost you anything. Forgiveness is a wonderful thing that helps you and helps other people. You can give it to anybody. Jesus is all about forgiveness.

Why don't you and I forgive? He said in Luke 6, 37, judge not, condemn not, and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and it will be given to you. These things you can just do. What about esteem and honor? You know, you can esteem others more highly than yourself. Free! It doesn't cost a thing. You can honor and show honor and praise other people for what they do all day long. And it doesn't cost a thing. It's not like you run out or it's going to dip into your bank account. But you can't get it for yourself. Let's look in 1 Corinthians 5 and verse 6. 1 Corinthians 5 and verse 6. Your glorying is not good. You want to glory about yourself or get glory for yourself? That's not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? You see, this esteem and honor coming for oneself is... That's not about this. It's about another kind of bread.

It's about leaven. And a little leaven leavens the whole lump. Therefore, purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, since truly you are unleavened. God has removed the sins from you. Though we continue to make sin, create sin, God will continue to cleanse us of it. For indeed, Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast, not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Notice Philippians 2, verses 3-9. Philippians 2, verse 3. He says, with regards to this, if you're going to be unleavened and not full of glorying yourself, he says, let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit. But in lowliness of mind, and it goes back to this lowly bread, lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself. We can give the gift of a steaming others better than ourselves. We can each do that. It's free. It's wonderful. You can give it to anybody. You just can't get it for yourself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interest, but also for the interests of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but he humbled himself. And notice the conclusion. Verse 9. Therefore, God has highly exalted him. He couldn't exalt himself. You can't exalt yourself, but you can exalt others. You can admire others, but you can't do it to yourself. And when you do it to others, as God has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name, the lesson here is God will do that to you as well. And someday, that exaltation to the Spirit, God being status, will be given to you because you esteemed others better than yourself. So we've seen here some ways in which God's love can be given and can pour out of us. And it's up to you and God's Spirit in you and your mind and the softness of your heart as to how involved you want to get during this Exodus and becoming godly and taking up the deeds of righteousness in your life and trying to emulate your God to be giving your all like he has been giving to you. The next Exodus involves the successful in this current Exodus. Those who are successful in this current Exodus get to take a little Exodus. I can't help but mention this one. Revelation 3, verse 10. This group is called Faithful. He says, "...because you have kept my command to persevere, I will also keep you from the hour of trial, which shall come upon the whole world to test those who dwell on the earth." This trial lasts for three and a half years. It's called the Great Tribulation. And these who are successful have already been tested and they're promised sparing from the Great Tribulation.

We pick up the story in chapter 12, verse 14, referring to the church. Revelation 12, 14, "...but the woman, this church, was given two wings of a great eagle." Remember how in the original Exodus, the Israelites were given the wings of a great eagle to come out of Egypt. They would go to the Promised Land. And here, these actually do a similar exodus, where she might fly into the wilderness, just as Israel flew into the wilderness, to her place, where she is nourished for three and a half years from the presence of Satan.

It's interesting, if you go in and read about the things that those two have in common, you'll see that as the Israelites left Egypt, Satan came after them, type of Satan, Pharaoh and his armies. They came after them, but the earth helped the Israelites and it opened up in the Red Sea and it swallowed up the Israelites.

And here we read that the serpent cast out a flood after the woman, but the earth helped the woman and opened up. The flood might be an army or who knows what? We don't know. But in that next exodus, do you want to participate in it? Do you want to be part of that? You know, it's about the successful in this exodus who really are becoming godly and they're loving and they're serving. And as we just saw in chapter 3, you've kept my command to persevere, persevere in this love.

Then we come to their exodus. What is their exodus? Jeremiah chapter 31 verses 8 through 12. We read of a coming exodus just after the one by the church. Jeremiah chapter 31. This is stated in many places, but I'll just use this one to make it brief. Behold, I will bring them from the north country. It's bringing the 12 tribes of Israel, a remnant, a small remnant of the 12 tribes of Israel, back to Palestine, back to the Promised Land.

He's going to re-situate the 12 tribes at the beginning of the millennium. And gather them from the ends of the earth, among them the blind and the lame and the one with child and the one who labors with child together. A great throng shall return there. They will come with weeping and with supplications and I will lead them. God is going to bring these people in a literal exodus from all around. And I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way in which they shall not stumble.

For I am a father to Israel and Ephraim is my firstborn. Hear the word of the Lord, O nations, and declare it in the aisles afar off and say, He who scattered Israel will gather them and keep him as a shepherd does his flock. Verse 12, Therefore they shall come and they shall sing in the height of Zion, streaming in to the goodness of the Lord, for the weed and the new wine and the oil, for the young of the flock and of the herd.

And their lives will be like a well-watered garden and they shall sorrow no more. Yes, they will come back. They will make an exodus back to the promised land. Do you want to be there? Do you want to assist Christ as part of the saints, part of the bride that reigns and rules and helps these people begin to be the model culture, the model nation that shines the light to the world and eventually the knowledge of God will cover this earth like the waters cover the sea.

And then comes the great exodus, the fifth exodus. We find this in Revelation 20, verse 12. Because these days of unleavened bread will finally be opened to all humanity. And just like you and me, they will then begin to come out. They will be released from their sins, slavery to sin. And they will begin to come out in a lifetime and head for the promised land as well. We read of the great exodus in Revelation 20, verse 12.

And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God. And the books were opened. The beeblos, the books. They were opened. They could see now. They could read. They could understand. They could know what you and I know.

They could understand the Passover and the days of unleavened bread. And another book was opened to them, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged according to their works by the things which were written in the books. Do you want to participate in that? Do you want to help them along? Do you want to be part of the encouraging, inspiring God family that motivates some 60 billion people? And what we refer to as the period of the Second Resurrection, the hundred-year period. Brethren, in conclusions, the five exoduses are all from God.

They are important enough to be celebrated with annual festivals. Passover on leavened bread, first exodus, and our exodus. The Festival of the First Fruits speaks of those who were successful. And they will have a little exodus out into the wilderness for three and a half years. The Feast of Tabernacles, their exodus, the one that we look forward to, and people will be brought back and repopulate the promised land in modern-day Israel. And the last great day, about the great exodus of people from sin.

As we go through the festivals this year, we are sampling God's plan of salvation. And the question remains, do you want that which God is giving you? Do you want that love? Do you want the godliness that He has given you? Or do you want something else? We need to stop and consider what we have. God in us. In all the abilities of the mindsets, the power of love and give and serve, that God has, or they're available. We are eating reminders of it all this week. And as we eat this unleavened bread, we should ask, do I want this? Do I want to be this?

Or do I want something else? There are five exodai. How many will you be part of? How many do you want to be part of? The choice is yours. Have a happy feast.