Overcoming Generational Slavery

Beautiful piece. The power of Caleb's voice is spectacular. Beautiful, beautiful piece to the whole choir. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Murigan, for your work to work with the choir through that and to have something prepared to offer before God today.

You might be shocked to learn that in our modern world today, slavery is not a crime in almost half of the countries of this world.

Many countries still today have no criminal laws to charge, convict, or punish people who own or control another person, who force others into the worst kinds of abuse and exploitation. I would like to start this sermon today focusing on some stories from a part of western Africa called Maroutania. If we would look at the Africa, it's up here in the western part of Africa. The official language there is Arabic and it's predominantly a Muslim country. Hereditary slavery in this country of Maroutania is one of the most persistent forms of modern slavery in the world. Now, hereditary slavery may not be a term you're familiar with or generational slavery. It means when people are simply born into slavery, they're slaves from birth because their mothers were enslaved. Being a slave is passed down generationally, locking an entire family line into bondage. The Maroutanian government has been criticized for downplaying, even denying, the existence of slavery. People who speak out risk being arrested, they risk being exiled, intimidated, or even worse. I'd like to share a few real stories today. We'll go through three of them. I had a fourth, but the fourth was so strong that I am with our mixed group here today of different ages. I decided to cut it this morning. We'll go through three real stories of individuals who escaped slavery in that western African country. The first story comes from anti-slavery international and anti-slavery group. Sido was born into hereditary slavery in rural Maroutania, where she was considered the property of her master. From a young age, she was subject to grueling labor, fetching water, preparing meals, washing dishes, and tending livestock. She lived with her masters, always the first to rise and the last to sleep, enduring a life devoid of autonomy and basic human rights. As a young mother, or young adult and mother, Sido fell severely ill to the point where she couldn't even stand. Her masters showed no concern at all for well-being, refusing to provide any assistance. Summoning her remaining strength, she crawled and dragged herself to a nearby road and managed to find a car that then drove her 60 kilometers to a city where her mother resided. Upon arrival, she faced further hardship. Her mother, who was still under the control of her own masters, scolded Sido, echoing a common belief that if a slave runs away, she loses her place in paradise. Despite this, Sido resolutely refused to return to her former life of bondage. Fortunately, Sido was introduced to members of an organization called SOS Esclaves. I think that's French. I think in English it would be SOS Slaves. It's an anti-slavery organization in that country of Mauritania. They provided her with shelter, medical treatment, and support to rebuild her life. With their assistance, Sido started a small business selling vegetables and couscous, which now supports her and her six children. All her children are enrolled in school, breaking the cycle of slavery for the next generation.

So that's story number one. Story number two.

Mulcair was born into slavery in Mauritania and worked for a wealthy family in the capital of that country. As a child and adult, she was never paid for her labor and subjected to abuse.

While she was still enslaved, Mulcair gave birth to a baby girl. One day, while she was working outside the home, her master left the newborn in the sun to die, and she was...

Boy! Something in these things gets you! She was not even allowed to bury her child.

That horrifying moment became a turning point. With the help of SOS Esclaves, Mulcair escaped and began the process of legal action, one of the very first of its kind in this country. Though her case drew international attention, the process was long and painful.

The Mauritanian courts were reluctant to prosecute, and despite years of pressure from the outside, the judicial system failed to convict the man responsible for her enslavement and the baby's death.

I would like to read you one more story. This one's from Rooders.

Motala is an adult former slave who escaped two years ago from... and this is a number of years back, but from two years ago when the story's been written from his nomadic Arab masters in the desert of this country, Mauritania. He doesn't know his last name or his age, but looking at him, he appears to be in his 30s and 40s. A timid, soft-spoken man who keeps his gaze lowered, he talked to the headquarters of this country, it was the headquarters of SOS, as slaves there in that country, again that local anti-slavery group. And this is what he told Rooders from his own words. I was born a slave. My masters were a warrior group of Arabs. They ragu-bat. I worked as a shepherd of camels, and when I was little I looked after the goats, and I also made charcoal. As far as I know, all of my family, all of my ancestors, were slaves of that group. My aunt, my brothers, are still slaves with them, and I've had no contact with them since I escaped. The life was difficult, and the fact that I was a slave made it even more so. I was never given any breakfast or lunch, and I was allowed to eat the leftovers of the evening meal.

We were sometimes tied up when we lost animals. I have a scar here, and he points to his cheekbone under his right eye, where they hit me with a stick. It was my master's children's who did it when I lost one of the animals. When I became conscious of what my situation was, I thought of the best way to escape without being caught, but I knew if I didn't find a way to escape, I would die.

He said that one day, two years ago, he was out herding his master's camels into deserts, and a game came across a group of Maritainian soldiers in a vehicle who were looking for milk to drink. Their leader was a Heratine, a descendant of slaves himself. The head of the group asked me about my situation. He asked me, do you want to stay with your master or not? I will help you if you want to leave. I said, yes, I want to go, as long as you can guarantee my safety. We went to get the milk, then we left in the car. My masters were very angry. I told the soldiers that my masters tortured me, that they beat my sisters and brothers. I said, I'd rather you shoot me than be left here. It's funny, when you write these messages, sometimes you can write them with no emotion, but you stand up here and you start reading some of this, and it hits you. I'd rather you shoot me than leave me here. The Reuters journalist asked, how many slaves did your masters have? He answered, they have many more than can be counted. How do you feel about being free? The difference is that I'm responsible for myself. I don't have to put up with insults. I feel completely free. I do odd jobs. I want to work. The last question, do you forgive your former masters? No, they are bad people. I wouldn't go back, and I think about the members of my family who are still there. We don't always think about the impact that hereditary slavery would have even had on the ancient people of Israel in Egypt. Experts typically place the years of Israel's slavery around 130 to 215 years. That's typically what they believed. They were in bondage as slaves working for Egypt. What that means is that in Egypt, they had multiple generations of Israelites, hereditary slaves. These individuals that God brought out in Egypt would have been born into this life. So were their parents. So were their grandparents. Let's pick up the story in Exodus 1 and verse 8 as we just look at a little bit of the background that is recorded for us.

Exodus 1 and verse 8. Now there rose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people in verse 9, Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we.

Come, let us deal shrewdly or wisely with them lest they multiply. And it happened in the event of a war that they also join our enemies and fight against us and so go up out of this land.

Verse 11. Therefore, they set taskmasters over them to afflict. And that word means to oppress, to humble, to put low. They put taskmasters over them to humble them, to bring them down with their burdens. And that word in Hebrew means forced labor, burden-bearing, and they built for Pharaoh supply cities, Pithom and Ramesses. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew, and they were in dread of the children of Israel.

So the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with rigor. This word in Hebrew for rigor means serve with harshness, severity, cruelty. It comes from a root word that means to break apart, to fracture. That was the point of this harsh service, was to break them down through severity and cruelty. Verse 14. And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, hard works, cruel work, in mortar, in bricks, and in all manner of service in the field. All their service in which they made them serve was with rigor. Again, that word meaning to break apart or fracture comes from that. The Egyptians intentionally did all this to make the Israelites have terrible lives, difficult lives.

We see the work here laid out for us of mortar, brick, and service in the field specifically. Egypt used several different types of slaves in their history, but the history of their forced labor slaves was especially difficult. Sources tell us that these slaves had particularly bad food, hard conditions, and no rights. Punishments were beatings, imprisonment, and branding. Runaways were hunted and returned, sometimes with ears and noses cut off as punishment. Their forced labor described here in the Bible matches exactly with the known practices of Egypt. Brick making was at the core of Egyptian construction for domestic buildings, walls, even large-scale construction projects like the cities we read of, the store cities of Pithom and Ramesses.

Now, the basic components of these bricks that they were forced to make was the Nile mud, which was rich in clay and silt, a straw or chaff and water. The straw helped bind the bricks together to prevent cracking as they dried. Without it, they would crumble easily. They would mix these materials together in large pits on the ground. Often, workers who were barefoot would trample the mud for hours until it reached the right consistency, and water was continually added to make it workable.

The mixture was then pressed into wooden molds that were about 14 to 20 inches long, about 6 to 10 inches wide, and about 3 to 5 inches deep. The molds were then dusted with sand or dry mud to prevent sticking, and then the bricks were laid out in the sun for several days to dry and harden. When the bricks were finished, they were stacked and transported to the construction site by hand, on sleds or in baskets.

The brick molds and pits have been found in various sites, including the site they're mentioned of Pithom. Inscriptions on the walls show Semitic slaves, which just mean people who spoke Arabic or Hebrew, making bricks under Egyptian overseers with whips. Later, when Moses could confront Pharaoh, the burden on these slaves was made even worse, as it was intensified.

In Exodus 5 and verse 7, it says, "...you shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks, as before let them go, and gather straw for themselves. And you shall lay on them a quota of bricks that they made before. You shall not reduce it, for they are idle. Therefore they cry out, say, let us go up and sacrifice to our God. Let more work be laid on these men, that they may labor in it, and let them regard false words." Verse 11. They're told, "...go get yourself straw where you can find it, yet none of your work will be reduced.

So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble instead of straw. And the taskmasters forced them to hurry, saying, fulfill your work, your daily quota, as when there was straw. Also the officers of the children of Israel, who Pharaoh's taskmasters had said over them, were beaten, and were asked, why have you not fulfilled your task in making brick both yesterday and today, as before?" Before Israel would be rescued and freed by God, this was the life of those born into hereditary slaves, slavery in Egypt.

Now again, generational slavery or hereditary slavery is is about a system where children are born into bondage with no freedom, no choice.

Oppression becomes normalized. You're conditioned by it. You're powerless to escape.

Unlike a first generation slave who retains some knowledge of of a prior identity, prior dignity, and freedom, hereditary slavery strips all that away. Your identity is that of a slave. You were born into it. You have no dignity beyond what you know. Freedom is not a concept you understand at all. Systems are built to retain this moving forward, and trauma is passed down.

It warps the identity, and it becomes normalized. It's what you know. It's what you're used to.

Even after being saved, we find that Israel continues to talk about going back to Israel. It's what they knew. It was what was familiar. The path ahead was uncertain. It was scary. It was full of challenges, and in facing that uncertainty, they wanted to fall back on what was what they had known for their whole lives.

I'm going to list now seven main characteristics of generational and hereditary slavery.

One is inherited status. Again, I talked about children are born into slavery. This makes slavery condition, not a circumstance. They're born into it. Inherited status. Two, a loss of identity.

A person's God-given identity, that of having freedom to make choices that impact the rest of their life, is replaced by one of their oppressors. Slavery redefines a person's worth and purpose.

Systematic oppression is the third one. Systematic oppression, a system and structure designed to keep people in bondage. Four, normalization of bondage.

Slavery is the normal way life works. Nothing else has ever been known or experienced. It's normal. Anything else feels unsafe and impossible. And even after freedom is attained, it continues to feel foreign and unnatural. Five, generational trauma inhabits. Generational trauma inhabits. Emotional, psychological, behavioral patterns are passed down. And again, oppression is internalized over time. Six, dependence on a master. Those enslaved become dependent on a master, even for basic needs. Bondage makes you rely on the very thing that is destroying you. Since you've only known a harsh master who is heavy-handed, oppressive, hurtful, even after freedom, they continue to distrust leadership and authority.

And then lastly, seven, need for external deliverance. Need for external deliverance. Slaves cannot free themselves. They need someone more powerful to intervene.

Slavery isn't ended by willpower. It's broken by a savior.

Just as there is physical, generational, and hereditary slavery, each of us have experienced spiritual, generational slavery. Christ explains it plainly in John 8, 34, that whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. After David would commit adultery and have Uriah killed, he would come through the prophecy of or through the prophet Nathan to see his sin, and he records in Psalm 52 a prayer of repentance. And David said in that Psalm 51 and verse 5, he says, Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.

Now the New Living Translation translates the same verse this way. Psalm 51, 5, For I was born a sinner, for I was born a sinner, yes, from the moment my mother conceived me.

David understood he was born into bondage. From parents who were born into bondage, born into a system that had long enslaved his whole family line, born into a system that was designed to keep this cycle of slavery moving forward.

We spoke before, just a moment ago, about seven characteristics of generational slavery. Let's now consider that through this lens of the spiritual parallels. 1. Inherited status. We just saw that David came to understand each of us were born into slavery to sin. It's all we knew. It was the way the world worked. 2. Loss of identity.

Our identity was shaped by our sinful lives, that of the sinful world around us.

Now, I was born into church, yet I still practiced sin in my life.

Before conversion, all of us practiced sin in many shapes and forms, lying, lusting, bad language, bad practices, cheating, drunkenness, sexual immorality, and many other things.

Paul, when he was speaking to the congregation in Corinth, understood clearly of the pasts of the people he was speaking to, and in breaking into the thought in 1 Corinthians 6 and verse 11, he says, And such were some of you.

What did he just say right before that, that such were some of you?

Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, homosexuals, sodomites, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, extortioners. Such were some of you. 3. Systemic Oppression In 1 John 5 and verse 19, it simply tells us again, breaking into the thought there, that the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. There is a system that Satan intentionally, specifically, methodically, built to lead us away from God, to indulge our sinful human natures, and it is not designed to benefit us in any way, but to keep us in bondage to sin and to break in God's law. It is a system full of corruption, greed, pride, idolatry, in all various shapes and forms. A system built and designed to oppress, to use and abuse.

4. Normalization of Bondage Before God's calling, especially as we think about first-generational Christians, before God's calling, this system and this life felt normal. It's all we've ever known.

It was, at that time, comfortable and familiar. Before God removed the veil of blindness we were all under. It's hard to imagine a world where life was different or would be different. It's what we had experienced. Imagine for a moment you lived in a world of complete darkness. That's how our world was. There was no sun, moon, and stars. A world of complete darkness. It would be all you would know. It all you could imagine. You wouldn't even be able to imagine anything different because it's all you would have ever experienced. It was normal. Even after that slavery is still, to some degree, comfortable. It's known. 5. Generational Trauma and Habits Last night, before leaving, I was talking with a group of young adults, and Bruce brought up how the Bible talks about these generational curses that spilled down. Probably all of us, to some degree, can look back in our family's histories, and probably not very far, to see some of those things that spilled down.

In my own family, about a year before I moved here to California, in preparation for a teen Bible study I was about to do in Cincinnati, I decided to interview both of my parents about their family backgrounds. I didn't really know my grandparents. They died when I was very young, or some before I was even born. So I didn't know what they were like, who they were, what kind of people they were. I was honestly a bit shocked to learn about the generational trauma and habits that have been spilled down through my family's history. Adultery, abuse, alcoholism, and that's just going back to my grandparents and my great-grandparents, and so forth. It was right there in our family's history. And apart from what God had done in my mom and dad's lives, that's the generational cursings that were being modeled, being passed down and down.

Those are the footsteps I would have been walking in, apart from God. And I know I would have likely repeated those same things. And again, some of you have experienced that firsthand trauma that gets passed down and shapes each of us. There are generational impacts. We are products of our experiences and environments, and the longer that dysfunction goes on and is passed down, it breeds more dysfunction and more problems. 6. A dependence on a master. A dependence on a master. And again, before conversion, in many ways, didn't we look at the world to define for us what was the right way to do things, what was right or wrong? I sometimes look at the world when they're spilling down some of these terrible ideas that we know go so strongly against God's Word. But I look at sincere parents who have been told by all the experts, you know, you're going to harm your child if you try to shape their gender identity. You're going to harm them if you do this. Step back, let them kind of navigate this, let the world guide this. And they're doing it out of sincerity. They're dependent on a master that is telling them what is right and what is wrong to guide them. The master of this world guides the media, guides Hollywood, and people watch and say, well, this must be the right way. This is the way people are living their lives, and society follows in the footsteps. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy in that way. You can see that in media, where media presents something as normal, and society follows that not very far after. In Ephesians 2, we'll read 2 and 3 if you want to turn there for me. I know I haven't been really pausing long enough to let anybody keep up with the scriptures, but I'll let us turn to this one. Ephesians 2, 2 and 3.

It says, In which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience. He was our master. We walked according to course of this world, according to the prince and the power of the air, what he was putting out there, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. Satan, the prince and power of this world, is the master of this world, and his messaging is pervasive. It's persuasive. It's cunning. It's convincing. Yet, it's all a lie.

It's all destructive. It's harmful. It's trauma. It's more trauma. It's more bad habits.

Yet, the world, whether aware or unaware, are dependent on him as their master.

And seven, need for external deliverance. Slaves can't free themselves. This one probably doesn't need a lot of explain for us, does it? We get this. We certainly understand that Israel was stuck.

Israel couldn't get out of that situation on their own. They were stuck in bondage. It took God pouring out the 10 plagues, specifically the final 10th plague of the death of all firstborns. It took that great miracle, those plagues against Egypt, for Israel to be free.

And we understand in our own lives the spiritual parallel. We were enslaved. We were stuck. We were in bondage. We of ourselves were powerless to change our circumstance. We couldn't do anything about it. Powerless. We needed a savior. In my research on what it takes, the process of overcoming generational slavery, we see again parallels between what Israel went through, coming out of Egypt, what God and Christ have done in each of our lives.

The first for someone to begin the process of overcoming generational slavery, they have to be aware of it. I found it interesting in one of the stories, the one on Matalla, the last one I read, that he actually said, when I became conscious of what my situation was. And I was like, wow, for years, and that seems to be when he was in his 30s or 40s, he became conscious of what his situation was. Before that, it was just life. It was just normal to him. And that blew my mind. Slavery was all he knew. It was normal. He didn't know anything different. His parents didn't know anything different to even teach him. His grandparents didn't know anything different. It's just what him and his family were in bondage. We likely didn't realize for a part of our lives, again, especially first-generational Christians, that we were in bondage. God had to open our minds that, wait, this isn't right. I'm a slave here. I'm a slave to this world, to Satan. I'm a slave to sin. Even as second-generation Christians, it was a process that I had to work through in coming to baptism. I came to see how stuck I was, what a slave to sin I really was, and how powerless, no matter how much I wanted to overcome it on my own, couldn't. I was powerless.

I needed a Savior. No matter how much I knew I needed to overcome Satan and my sins, I wasn't on my own strong enough. It wasn't a knowledge issue for me. I was born in the church.

It wasn't that I wanted to stay that way. It wasn't a desire issue. I was stuck. I was too weak. I needed help. We had to come to understand for each of us, this isn't how I want to stay.

This isn't a situation I want to remain in. This condition isn't normal. It's not what God wanted for me. It's not acceptable. And over time, we saw more and more of the pain, the dysfunction of this way of life, of living in sin, the repeated patterns even through generations that we were repeating or mimicking or modeling. You can't overcome what you don't recognize.

Two, from this awareness, one has to seek help. Breaking back into Exodus 2 and verse 23, I'll read just a bit here from Exodus 2 and chapter 3. In Exodus 2 and 23, it says, "...then the children of Israel groaned because of their bondage. They cried out, and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. So God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged them." Skipping over to chapter 3 and verse 7. And the Lord said, "...I have surely seen the oppression of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters.

For I know their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them out of the hands of the Egyptians, to bring them up from that land to a good and large land." Moving now to the New Testament, Romans 7 and verse 23. Paul himself came to see the bondage that he was in.

He saw the war that warred in his flesh. In Romans 7, 23 and 24, Paul said, "...but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members." And he said, "...O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?" He cried out, who's gonna do it? Because I can't.

3. There has to be an intervention by a Savior. In Metallus' case, this was the military leader who, thankfully, came out of a generation of slaves himself, who had the power to step in and save Metallus. In the case of the other slaves, they came into contact with groups that were willing to hide them, willing to give them medical care, willing to step in and help them break that cycle. In Exodus 6 and verse 6, it says, "...Therefore, say to the children of Israel, I am the Lord. I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. I will take you as my people, and I will be your God.

Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians." God had to step in. God heard their cries. He saw they wanted freedom. He had to step in. God demonstrated his great strength. We read a few minutes ago where Paul and Romans said, who will save me from this body of death? And he answered that own question that we didn't read there, but the next verse is, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

He knew who was going to save him out of his bondage. He knew he couldn't do it his own, so he was thankful to God who, through Jesus Christ, provided the Savior.

Each of us were powerless to escape our bondage. We, too, needed a Savior. In Hebrews 2 verses 14 and 15, the Bible says so much about this more than we could ever cover in a sermon. In fact, I had to cut 10 minutes off the sermon this morning so you're not here all day.

In Hebrews 2, 14 and 15, it says, Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared in the same, our Savior became a human being, that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil. Our Savior had to come in the flesh. He had to die to destroy the system, the power that Satan had, the power of death.

In verse 15, and release those who, through fear of death, were all their lifetimes subject to bondage. That's what he did for you and I. Freed us, released us from a lifetime subject to bondage.

We couldn't do this by ourselves. We needed Jesus Christ to save us. He rescued us from the darkness and brought us into the light.

So now we come to what I think is the hardest part of this process and the hardest part to even capture in this sermon today. Breaking the cycle. Breaking the cycle.

God struck Egypt with that 10th and final plague, and they came out by God's strong hand. And we again, we rehearsed that last night. We remembered that. Freedom. Israel was finally free. But they didn't know freedom. They didn't know how to be free. None of them had ever experienced a free day in their life. They knew how to be slaves. How to exist in bondage under an oppressive ruler. How would they change that? How would their mindset of generational slavery be broken? What we're about to talk about is a journey. A transformational journey. It's not quick and easy. It wasn't for Israel, and it's not for us.

To break that cycle first, there had to be recognition that there was something else better. Something else better. This is not who I was meant to be. This is not who I was meant to be. This is not the way God designed this. And that took years for Israel. We see Israel struggle, right? They wanted to go back at times under the old bondage that was comfortable and familiar and known. They even came to at times see it through rose-colored glasses. Oh, when we sat by the pot full of meat. Weren't those the days? Wasn't it great making all those bricks without any straw? Someone overcoming generational slavery has to begin to see the destructive patterns. And through experiencing a different way of life, begin to understand that wasn't how life was supposed to be. There's something better. This works so much better. God would begin to teach Israel. He would teach them that he wasn't anything like their oppressive taskmasters or their oppressive pharaoh, their oppressive master that they had been in bondage to. He would provide for them. He would look out for their best interests. He would miraculously provide them food when they didn't have them. He would miraculously bring water out of a rock when they were thirsty.

He would take care of them. He would lead them to a place of abundance. They just had to follow and trust him. Eventually, Israel was walking away from that system, right? They started last night, and every step they took with each physical step, they actually put physical distance between bondage and that life and their future. They were drawing on their future and putting a distance between their past. But the real battle that would have taken place over many, many years was in their mind. They had to learn a new identity, that they were a holy nation, a special people, that they could live differently. Moses would begin immediately pouring out new teachings. He would soon give them to Ten Commandments as they came up to Pentecost at Mount Sinai.

He would begin to teach them about God's laws, how to treat each other, how not to treat each other.

They would, over time, be taught that they no longer needed to live in fear. They no longer needed to live in shame and worthlessness that had been intentionally installed in their lives.

Their new identity would be established on truth, not trauma. Their new identity would be established on truth, not trauma. They weren't just to escape the past bondage.

They were called out to begin to live by new principles and then raise children who never knew generational slavery, who were raised differently, a new generation who didn't know bondage to Egypt, and they would have to teach their children what these days meant. Similarly, we had to come to the awareness that we, too, were trapped in bondage of sin, and we had to come to hate that, want help, and that led us to seek a Savior, and that brought us to baptism. I want to focus on the process of us then overcoming generational slavery for the rest of this message. We've been called out of this world, out of bondage. We've been called to reject the values, the habits, the mindset of that world, to leave it behind, to be free from darkness, and to walk in the light. But like Israel, it's one thing to want freedom. It's another thing to walk away from that system. And I see, as we all go through life together as Christians, I see that this is a hard part for us as Christians. We struggle with this. That system, for all of its oppression, all of the damage and harm it's done in each of our lives, is something we knew. And to some degree, there's aspects of it that felt natural, felt even comfortable. And as we often do, we struggle to leave that behind.

The real change has to be more than just trying harder. Anybody ever tried harder and still ended up face down in the mud? The real change has to be more than trying harder. We have to understand that first, change begins only through God, not just effort. In Philippians 2 and verse 13, this is another scripture that often we have memorized. Philippians 2 and verse 13, it says, For it is God who works both in you and—well, sorry, let me rephrase that. For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure. We don't even have the will of ourselves, let alone the ability to do it. Without God, we cannot have the will and to do. We start by asking God for help to show us where we're still inclined to this world, to help us to have both the desire and the strength to will and do, to change through his Spirit.

Sin feels normal because we were trained by it. We were trained by the slavery of this world.

And it's not just in breaking the rules, it's in a mindset that needs to shift.

The next thing to overcome the spiritual slavery that we've all been is we have to replace old patterns with new ones. We have to replace old patterns with new ones. If we keep doing the exact same things, if we keep watching the same things, if we keep living the same way, we can't expect different results. We have to replace those old patterns with new ones. We replace sinful habits and sinful thinking and wrong thinking with new habits and new thinking.

Let's read in Ephesians 4, 22 through 24. Ephesians 4, 22 to 24. This is really packed with meaning. So let's try to see clearly what these three verses are telling us in depth. Ephesians 4, 22. That you put off—there's something we're putting off—concerning your former conduct. The old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts.

So we're called to put off what we used to be, our useful patterns, our useful thought process, our old thought process, old patterns. And notice in verse 23, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Now what's that mean? I read that and I went, I don't know what that means. Renewed in the spirit of my mind. The word for renewed is actually quite interesting. How many of you ever liked a renovation show where they come in and you look at this house and you go, gross. There's been animals living in the walls, there's holes, the carpet needs burned.

That bathroom and that kitchen is so outdated, I couldn't stand to look at that for a day. Right? We like those shows. This word for renew means to renovate. It means to make a complete change for the better. When you're done renovating, when that renovation of your mind is over, it is completely better. There's nothing about it that got worse. It is a complete renovation.

And it's that moment, move that bus, right? And you're like, whoa, look what they did.

Practically to do this. Well, actually, let's read one more scripture. So, and be renovated in your thoughts and attitudes is essentially what verse 23 is telling us.

And that you put on the new man. You put off your former conduct and you put on the new man, which was created according to God in his likeness, in true righteousness and holiness.

To do this is hard. To do this requires that we are reading and meditating on God's word daily.

This puts God's thoughts, God's words into our mind and helps with that renovation process, helps us change our thinking. The more we're filling our minds with just the world stuff, well, we're going to just think like the world. The more we're putting God's thoughts into our heads, his sermons, his words from his Bible, those things transform and renovate our thought process.

I don't have this in my notes, but it's something I've always been fascinated by. And some of you in the medical field already know this well about the mental processes that we develop so that we have almost these highways that go quickly to other thoughts and processes and bring things to mind. Right now, my brain is not recalling what that's called, but a neuro-pathway. These neuro-pathways can be changed, but to do it, you've got to put something else in there. It's almost like, imagine you hike the same path every day. You figured out there was a path between your house and where you want to go, and cutting through the woods is quicker. And the more you did that, the more all the grass stops growing there, and you can clearly see where you're supposed to walk, right? Well, if you realize that's not healthy for me, I keep having dangerous animals around me and other bad stuff, and you decided I want a different neuro-pathway, a different path, you have to stop walking that one. And what would happen over time?

Grass would start to fill in, it would grow up, and in enough time, you wouldn't even tell a path was ever there. You have to create a new pathway to a different way of thinking. And that is really what this set of scriptures here in Ephesians 4 is about. Creating, putting other things in your mind so that becomes the quick thought process. That becomes the path you take. When something comes up, that's what you're thinking on. And that takes putting in God's Word and meditating on scriptures daily. If God's getting a very small fraction of your day, the other pathways are what's going to be clear and easy to follow. We have to pray, we have to go to the source that we know we're powerless. God, if you don't help me, if you don't provide strength, if you don't provide help, I can't do it. But every day I'm going to come to you, and I might have to come to you at breakfast, lunch, and dinner because I know I can't even get through four hours of this. If I don't come back to you and ask for help, I can't do it. So we pray, and we go to the source of strength and say, God, for the next three hours, please help me, and I'm going to come back at lunch when my alarm goes off, and I'm going to pray again. Give me help. And with God's Spirit, we must take action to live a new life. It's the everyday choices. It's those steps away from the past, led by God's Spirit, toward our future. And it's a journey. Another memory scripture is Philippians 1 and 6. You all know this. Being confident in this very thing that he who begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. Do you hold on to that promise?

Do you hold on to the fact that God will not fail you? He will work with you as you seek Him, and He will complete this renovation project that He is doing in your mind.

If you will stay close to God, walk in the light, He will do His part.

Do you let yourself imagine who you could even grow into? Do you have a vision for your life?

Most people don't even stop in Christianity and think out, who do I want to be? Not who I am today. 10 years from now, who do I hope to be? Five years from now, who do I hope to be as a Christian? And if I would try to write this down and imagine it for a moment, the type of person I wish I would be, what would that look like?

The focus really isn't on stop sinning, while of course we need to do that.

The focus is, I'm called to become something completely new. A new man, a child of God, reflect Jesus Christ. What would that look like for me in my life five years from now, if I'm doing that much better than I'm even doing today? What does that person look like in your life? What do they have to do every day? What do they have to do? And how do they have to respond to other individuals? What's that person look like?

Because it becomes a shift from a slave identity to a child of God identity.

Romans 12 and verse 1 will bounce back and forth a little bit here between Galatians and Galatians. In Romans 12 and verse 1, Paul says to the church in Rome, I beseech you therefore. This word beseech is almost him begging, right?

Guys, let's do this. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

Let's pause there for a second. Isn't that our reasonable service?

We were dead. We were doomed. We had no future.

And God and Christ stepped into our lives and said, I have something so much better.

Not only are you not going to be doomed to death, I'm going to give you an opportunity to become like me, not just in thoughts and completely transformed someday to be just like me.

We sometimes, I don't think we grab enough what is being offered to us and really take the time to go to a God being. We worship God. We know he is so much bigger and greater in everything we could possibly say about him. And he's going to let us become like him. But that comes at a price. That comes at a price of who we were and a price of us not just still clinging on to those things and staying in our comfort zone, but saying, God, I'm going to give you my entire life. And that may be hard. I might have to undo friendships and let some relationships get further apart. I might have family members that no longer want to talk to me. I may have even friends at church who, you know, they're really not living the right way, walking the right way. And I need something different in my life. God, I'm going to give you my whole life. I'm going to hold nothing back. And I'm going to every day make sure I make time for you. Every day, I'm going to give myself to you. And I'm going to start trying so hard with your strength, God, because I can't do it with your strength. I'm going to try hard to change the words I use. I'm going to try hard to train how selfish I am, how I treat other people. I want to look like you. And here's a plan for what I want to be in five years. And in 10 years, I want to be like this. And we develop a vision for our lives. So Paul, I beseech you. I beg you, present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy, acceptable God, which is reasonable service. It is only reasonable based on what God is going to give us. Verse 2, and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renovating the complete change of your mind. Same word.

The renovating of your mind, that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. And then over in Galatians 4 and verse 7, Galatians 4 and verse 7, I'll read one verse there, and then we'll go to chapter 5. Galatians 4 and 7 says, therefore, you are no longer a slave, but you are a son. And if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. That's your new identity. You are no longer a slave. It says that clearly and plainly. But a son. And if a son, there's an inheritance waiting for you. That's our identity. Next chapter, Galatians 5.1. Stand fast. Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty, the freedom, by which Christ has made us free.

And don't go back. Don't go get entangled with the world again with the yoke of bondage.

Don't do that. Stand fast in the freedom, in your new identity. Verse 16. I say then, walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

Walk in the Spirit. Walk in the words of this Bible. Walk in what God has called you to be. Walk in God leading you. Romans 6, 17, and 18. Back over to Romans.

And this is our final scripture for today. Romans 6, 17, and 18.

And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.

And that's where we're all heading. Moving away from slavery to sin, Christ died for us. He brought us out. That bondage is over. But we still have a journey.

Obeying what God teaches us, becoming like Christ. These days of unleavened bread are about that lifelong journey. That lifelong journey of overcoming the impact of being born into a system of hereditary slavery. Thankfully, we know and understand we have a powerful Savior who gave his very life to free us from bondage. Like Israel, being freed from slavery was just the beginning. Christ and God did all that. These days represent the hard part that we also have to partner with them in. With each conscious choice and step, we put distance between us and Egypt.

We learn a new way of life, and we embrace and proclaim that new identity and future.

And thankfully, God gives us the power we lack, his Holy Spirit, to lead and empower us.

I hope that you will take time to have a vision of who God has transformed and called you to become. A new version of you that reflects Jesus Christ in all aspects of your life.

Egypt's behind you. You don't have to worry about Egypt.

Focus on the transformation God is doing in your life. Focus on the destination, the Kingdom of God.