Here 2 There
Part 2 – Regret 2 Redemption
Exodus 2:11-15, 3:7-12, 4:1-5, 4:20, 14:15-16, 17:1-7
Ice Breaker: If you could have a superpower, what superpower would you want to have and why?
1.What insight, principles or observations did you take away from this Sunday’s message?
Context: Leading up to this week’s passage: Moses was born a Hebrew slave in Egypt. The Pharaoh issued a decree to have every Hebrew baby boy thrown into the Nile. To avoid having Moses killed, he was put in a floating papyrus basket and put among the reeds where Pharaoh’s daughter found him and took him in as her own son.
2. In the eyes of the Israelites and the Egyptians, how did Moses’ own behavior bring him guilt and shame? (Exodus 2:11-15)
Exodus 2:11–15 (NIV) One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. 12 Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 13 The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?” 14 The man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “What I did must have become known.” 15 When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well.
3. How did Moses’ heritage and his eventual occupation bring him shame in the eyes of the Egyptians? (Genesis 46:33-34, Exodus 3:1).
Genesis 46:33–34 (NIV) When Pharaoh calls you in and asks, ‘What is your occupation?’ 34 you should answer, ‘Your servants have tended livestock from our boyhood on, just as our fathers did.’ Then you will be allowed to settle in the region of Goshen, for all shepherds are detestable to the Egyptians.” (This passage was when Joseph’s family moved from Canaan to Goshen in Egypt)
Exodus 3:1 (NIV) Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
4. What was Moses’ response to the Lord speaking to him from the burning bush? How might shame play a role in his response? (Exodus 3:10-12, Exodus 4:1)
Exodus 3:10–12 (NIV) 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” 11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” 12 And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”
Exodus 4:1 (NIV) Moses answered, “What if they (the Israelite Elders) do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?”
5. The staff that Moses’ carried with him was the staff of a shepherd. How does God transform what Moses’ staff represents? Why do you think he did this? (Exodus 4:2-5, 14:15-16, 17:5-6)
Exodus 4:2–5 (NIV) Then the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” “A staff,” he replied. 3 The Lord said, “Throw it on the ground.” Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. 4 Then the Lord said to him, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.” So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. 5 “This,” said the Lord, “is so that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has appeared to you.”
Exodus 14:15–16 (NIV) Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. 16 Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground.
Exodus 17:5-6 (NIV) The Lord answered Moses, “Go out in front of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel.
Note: Pastor Brian defined guilt as a healthy emotion that convicts you of the wrong that you did, that can lead to confession and forgiveness. Shame on the other hand is an unhealthy emotion that convinces you that you are unacceptable because of something you did or was done to you.
6. How did God use the experience of the burning bush to transform Moses from being led by his guilt and shame to providing leadership to bring about God’s will?
7. How did Jesus take on our guilt and shame? What does that mean for those who trust in Him? (1 Corinthians 15: 3-4; Colossians 2:13-15: Romans 8:35-39)
1 Corinthians 15:3–4 (NIV) For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
Colossians 2:13–15 (NIV) When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
Romans 8:35–39 (NIV) Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
8. How has what Jesus did for us transformed our guilt and shame for His use? (1 Corinthians 1:27-30, 2 Corinthians 1: 3-5)
1 Corinthians 1:27–30 (NIV) But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him. 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.
2 Corinthians 1:3–5 (NIV) Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. 5 For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.
9. What experience or trouble in your life has God turned from guilt or shame to strength or wisdom? How can you use your past troubles to comfort or empower others?
10. What in your past or what narrative have you told yourself that keeps you from letting God redeem that part of your life? (These can be things you have done or believed about yourself, and things others have done to you or said about you that you have not dealt with.) What can you do this week to address this issue?
1 John 1:9 (NIV) If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (Note: Pastor Brian pointed out that 1 John 1:9 addresses both our guilt through the confession of sins and forgiveness and our shame by purifying us from all righteousness.)
Romans 12:1–2 (NIV) Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
11. What would a new creation, a redeemed life, look or feel like in your life if you give to God the regret that is holding you back? (Colossians 1:13-14; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21; Ephesians 4:22-24)
Colossians 1:13–14 (NIV) For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
2 Corinthians 5:17–21 (NIV) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin[b] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.!
Ephesians 4:22–24 (NIV) You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.