Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / Exodus

Exodus 15:1-21 02/08/04

Message Title: ‘Moses’ Rock Concert by the Sea’                                                                                             Text: Exodus 15:1-21

Introduction: Is there anyone here who has trouble memorizing Scripture? Me too. It is something I have to work really hard at. And then I have to keep reviewing the text or I will forget it. Why is that? Is it that I just have a hard time remembering? I am not so sure.

Sing with me…Joy to the world the Lord is come, let earth  receive her king…How is it we can remember the words to a song we sing once a year?

Think about it, you are listening to the radio a song comes on and you sing every word…even songs that came out in the 50’s. We remember them…why? I would venture to say it is because there is some event or emotion associated with that song. The joy of Christmas and the birth of Jesus Christ helps us remember the words to ‘Joy to the World’.

Perhaps a special someone in your life comes to mind when you hear the words to a song you haven’t heard for years, and you sing along, word for word. Perhaps it was your first dance as husband and wife and you sing the words as if your wedding day was yesterday. We remember songs because our heart has been touched and we sing because it’s often the best way to express what our heart is feeling.

Transition: Moses and the Israelites have just been miraculously delivered from the Egyptian army by the hand of Almighty God. This was something they would never forget. So what do they do? Do they hold a prayer meeting? Do they have a service of testimony? Do they move forward in silence, in awe of what god had done?  NO! They hold a rock concert, well, more precisely, a concert to their Rock. They joyfully burst out in song, all 2 million of them. What a sound that must have made in the dessert. Let see what touched their hearts so deeply that they could do nothing else but sing.

I. Exodus 15:1-12      Praise God in song for what he has done

The groaning and crying of the Israelites in ch. 14 has turned to joyfuyl and heartfelt worship in ch. 15.  The key aspect of this first part of the song is praise for what God had done in the lives of the Israelites. But that might be too general a comment.

There is some criticism today that much of contemporary praise songs use I and Me of individuality too much, rather than Us and We of corporate, or community. But I want you to notice how Moses begins.

Read: 15:1-2

That’s a lot of I’s and my’s. But you see, what happened WAS personal. God didn’t just save Israel…he saved Moses, he saved Aaron, he saved Miriam, he saved Joshua, God saved individuals. And it is individuals, within community, that respond to God in praise through song. Vs 1-12 are extremely rich in information about God and what he has done. But notice, all of it is in relation to God’s people., and specifically to the individual Israelite who had to individually trust God and individually walk through the dry ground believing the walls of water wouldn’t come crashing down on him/her. Every Israelite had to take that chance, every Israelite had to believe God, every Israelite had to step out on the river bed and walk to the other side.

This not only shows that as individuals we are totally dependent upon God to be our strength and to save us, but it shows that God is a personal God who loves and cares for…me, you,  individually as a person. You..and you…and you…and you..and all of you individually are important to God. While community is absolutely necessary for a growing Christian life, so is a healthy individual walk with God.

When the individual Israelites trusted God, and when they found God faithful…they sang to him. They expressed their joy in and thankfulness to God, individually and corporately, by singing. This type of singing is portrayed not just here but in other places in Scripture, as a natural and acceptable way to express our joy and proclaim the thankfulness in our hearts.

Singing in Scripture is portrayed as much the language of holy joy as prayer is portrayed as the language of holy desire.

The Israelites, individually and collectively had just experienced the awesome power of their God and they together responded in song. And what a song this was.
But can you imagine Moses saying to some Israelites ‘Hey, you folks from the tribe of Judah, hold it down over there, you’re getting a little too excited, too emotional in your singing.’

Read: Eph. 1:5-6 says ‘He, (God) has predestined us (Christians) to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with is good pleasure and will,  (why) to the praise of his glorious grace.’

We were created and saved by God for the expressed purpose of praising Him. And Scripture shows over and over again that one of the acceptable ways to praise God, is by singing, individually and corporately. And the nature of song is that it comes from the heart, and the heart is the center of emotion.

Look, doesn’t God meet us, individually where we are, care for us just as we are, and meet my needs which are often different than your needs? Individuals come and within community they praise God for what he has done in their lives. Why is this important, why is this necessary? Because not everyone in community is experiencing God in their daily lives.When the individual with a heart of joy praises God for what he has done in his/her life, whether great or small, and they do it unashamedly in song, it should encourage other individuals in the community to open their hearts to the presence of God in their everyday life. This is part of what scripture calls edification, building up the believer. And singing facilitates this when in community.

Transition: While vs 1-12 praise God in song for what God had already done for the Israelites, individually and corporately, vs 13-21 praise God in song for what God will do for them.

II. Exodus 15:13-21     Praise God in song for what he will do
There are a few things that are important here.  

First, earlier I said that,  you…you…you..and you as individuals are important to God. But that is only part of what it means to be a Christian. We were saved individually, but then placed into community with other individual believers and we are told to love and care for each other. We are told to trust God as community, as this part of the song reminds us. And we are told to sing together, to respond to God’s work in our lives by song, with one voice sharing our hearts, our hopes with God and with each other, together for his glory.

While there can be no real sense of community without the free expression of the individual in worship, there can be no real sense of the individual, without a community in which we can share our experiences of God. An excellent book which talks about the interrelatedness of the individual and the community is Dietrich Bonhoeffers book ‘Life Together’.

Second, hearing about God’s acts on behalf of his redeemed people will cause others to take notice of God. The Israelites sang these words:

READ: Vs 14-16

This song was a testimony of their confidence in the Lord to protect, provide and care for them.

‘After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the LORD and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying: “Give thanks to the LORD, for his love endures forever.”  2 Ch 20:21

How would you like to have been a part of that worship team, sent out in front of the army, as the enemy approached? But the point here is that singing praises to God showed their confidence and trust in him. The enemy army heard it and they got to see Israel’s God at work when he defeated them.  

Do we really have any idea just how powerful your songs of praise are, not just to those who are Christians, but to those who do not believe in God or trust in his son, Jesus Christ? Singing praises to God causes others to take notice…of God.

Third, everyone is free to be expressive in worship, even 90yr old women. Can you imagine Moses saying to his older sister, ‘Now, Miriam, it is not dignified for a 90yr old woman to sing, dance and play the tambourine. Sit down and sing nicely before you break a hip.’ Miriam and the women were very expressive in their worship but notice Moses did not correct them. In fact, Scripture honors Miriam and the women for their selfless and passionate expression of praise to their God.

Miriam was creative in her worship. She used what she had available. In the age we live in, dancing and playing the tambourine only scratch the surface of what we can use to express our passion for God in joyful praise.  

This morning we added the bass guitar to our singing. Well, that’s really not correct, we allowed Ben to use the talent God has given him in the free expression of his individual worship so that our corporate singing would benefit.

Conclusion
    Our text this morning is the first recorded public worship service. It was led by Moses and is quoted or alluded to in both Testaments. And the main part of this worship service, in fact the only part that we are told about was singing. Scripture shows over and over again that song is a natural and acceptable way to praise God in worship. And that this singing is accompanied with a variety of musical instruments as well as physical gestures, including dance.

John Calvin said that when we sing, we should sing ‘lustily to the Lord’. He meant we should sing with our whole heart and with great passion. We sing as we give testimony of God…unashamedly.

The Israelites sang what they knew. They sang what they felt. They sang what they experienced. They didn’t concern themselves with appearances, they focused on God. Let me ask, when was the last time you truly sang to the Lord in worship and you didn’t worry about the person sitting next to or in front of you?

Read: Col. 3:16 ‘Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God’

Here is the two fold reason we sing. We teach and admonish one another and we express our thankfulness to God…in song. Singing has both a horizontal and vertical dimensions to it. We need to hear and do it and God demands it of us.

Every Sunday worship service should be a ‘Rock’ concert, a celebration of praise to our Rock, our Redeemer, our God.