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 f we want to get free, it's helpful to know how we got in bondage in the first place. Lesson 1 exposes one of the core roots that cause bondage: the fear of man. When we're afraid of people, or they're afraid of us, the chains of bondage begin to tighten around us. Once we recognize the cause of bondage, we can begin to take steps towards true freedom. (Lesson from Exodus 1:1-14; Message: Eric Elder; Worship Song: "Amazing Love" written by Billy Foote, led by Al Lowry and James Olmos; Running time: 28:36) Lesson 1 - The Fear Of Man Leads To BondageWatch The Video
Read The Transcript ERIC E.: Hi, this is Eric Elder and welcome to The Ranch. We're here in this room and we're doing a Bible study with some guys, and we're glad that you're ready to join us. We're going to be diving into the book of Exodus tonight, and these first two lessons are really some of the most exciting to me. We're studying this book just in this room, and we've got some guys here, but we also have intentionally designed this to be an outreach and something that we want to be able to bless you with and minister to you as well. So we're just going to have a discussion time and we're just a group of guys getting to know each other as well. And so if you want to get to know us and talk to us on the discussion board or in the chat room at The Ranch, you're welcome to do that, too, and we'll all get to know each other together. We're going to take a look at freedom. The whole topic that we're looking at is how to get free, stay free, and help set others free. And one of the best places to start is how do we get in bondage in the first place. How do we get the chains that are put on us? How do we get captured and become slaves to things that we don't want to be slaves to? And that's where Exodus 1 really starts. In fact, I was talking to a guy this Saturday. I was speaking at a men's breakfast, and this guy came up afterwards and he introduced himself to me. It turns out that he was a friend of mine from high school, and I just didn't recognize him. And when he said his name, this picture just came back to me, one picture of him in high school. And it was when we were playing flag football, and we were down at the far end of the football field, down playing in the end zone. And this guy, he was a freshman at the time, and somehow he got in the way of a senior or something. I don't know what happened, but it made the guy really mad. And the image that I remember is this senior just pummeling this guy in the face. The guy fell back on his back, and the guy just wouldn't stop. He just started nailing him, nailing him over and over. And I just remember seeing that guy's head bouncing on the grass, just bouncing up and down getting bloody and bloodier. It made me sick to my stomach. It was one of those scenes that you just -- it just makes you want to throw up, makes you want to -- you just don't know what to do. But here was this guy just getting pummeled. And I've had experiences like that in my life where I felt like I was getting pummeled. And, in fact, that was my greatest fear in high school. Before I entered high school, my freshman year, I ran across another guy and he said I'm going to kill you when you get to high school. So, you know, you want to take karate lessons and all those things. I was already nervous about high school enough without this guy saying he was going to kill me. But that guy and seeing him this Saturday just reminded me of what it's like to be oppressed, to be treated ruthlessly, to be treated in a way that's not what we should be treated like. And it reminded me of various times in my life where I have felt that way. And even in high school where I felt that I was being oppressed, but it turns out that the things that I was being oppressed about were the things that were actually going to become my greatest strengths. And this is the exciting part in these first couple lessons to me, is that the things that we might feel weakest in, the thing that you might feel most attacked in, most put out on, most oppressed in, might actually be your greatest strength. And that's the very reason why it's being so attacked. But God wants to set that free, and he wants to set you free so that you can help then set others free, too. So let's take a look, guys, at the book of Exodus, Chapter 1. If you want to read a couple of these verses, maybe read two or three verses, we'll go around the room here. We're just looking at the first 14 verses of Exodus today. Anyone feel like starting us off tonight? Rob?
ERIC E.: So these first 14 verses talk about how the people of Israel became slaves. What would you say if you were to look at that passage, what do you think caused their bondage? You can look back at the passage. What was it that caused them to be put in bondage? What was it? ROB D.: It was a new king. ERIC E.: A new king came. He didn't know anything about Joseph and all Joseph had done. JIM S.: He was more worried about their numbers. ERIC E.: He was worried about their numbers. They were growing numerous, and what would have happened? TYSON R.: They were afraid they were going to try to either fight them or take all the stuff in the land, because it was actually the Egyptian's land. You know, this isn't their land in the first place so we might as well make good use of them by putting them in slavery. ERIC E.: Yeah. He was afraid they were going to fight against him and going to plunder him. It was actually because they were becoming more numerous. Israel was growing so much and becoming such a huge force that that threat caused them to be put into bondage. The new king that came to power said if they keep going like this, they might join our enemies and they might fight against us and then they might leave. I would summarize this as the fear of men or the fear of people, to be more generic. That when people get afraid, that's when bondage starts. And in this case it's when the king of Egypt began to be afraid of Israel that he said man, this is going to be bad for us. We better do something about it. So instead of letting them come and grow and take over, he said I'm going to oppress them first, which is what the senior did this to freshman, pummeling him on the ground. The freshman was a pretty good-sized guy, got in his way. He's like I'm not letting this happen ever again. Boom, pummel his face. And you know what? It probably didn't happen. That guy probably stayed out of his way. But it starts with the fear of man. The bondage that we are in often times starts with the fear of man, or the fear of other people. And I'm sure the Israelites probably became fearful at that point. They were being treated ruthlessly. In fact, I just heard -- do you know what kind of man Boaz was before he got married? Ruthless. Okay, it's bad. Boaz married Ruth. See the book of Ruth for Boaz and Ruth. Anyway, they were treated ruthlessly. It's that ruthless treatment that probably caused the Israelites to be fearful. I know it caused me to be fearful back in high school. I wanted to stay out of the guy's way, too. So fear of man sort of plays on each other; and they become afraid and we become afraid, then everybody's acting out of fear. And that's when we get in bondage. If we look back at our lives, you probably have some things that you've maybe tried to do or tried to move forward in, and if it didn't work out or you got stopped or you got slapped or you got berated for whatever you stepped out in, you probably backed off. And you get berated a couple more times and enough, you finally just give up. You say okay, I'm not fighting this battle anymore. But what's ironic with the Israelites is that they probably felt like they were the weakest nation on the earth. How do you think slaves usually feel? Pretty weak; pretty oppressed. PAUL S.: Oppressed. ERIC E.: Throughout cultures slaves have been treated as totally unequals, lower class, scum of the earth, just servants to be used, but not really having any worth of their own. But do you remember what God said about the Israelite people? How did God view the people of Israel? Does anybody remember? What did he call them? MIKE B.: His chosen people. ERIC E.: His chosen people, his chosen people. And here they were in Egypt, probably felt like we feel today. We feel like the worthless people, when actually we're the chosen people. We're the chosen people. Back up a couple chapters to Genesis, actually one book, Genesis Chapter 12, all the way back almost at the beginning of the Bible, almost at the beginning of recorded history in the Bible. Genesis, Chapter 12. Here's what God said about the people of Israel, the nation of Israel. In fact, it's probably a good time to ask if you know where the word Israel came from, why are they called Israelites? Does anybody know why they are the people of Israel? DALE R.: Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. ERIC E.: Abraham, Isaac and – DALE R.: Jacob. ERIC E.: Jacob. And Jacob was renamed by God to Israel. So Israel had these 12 sons, which then gave birth to descendants and descendants, and they became the 12 tribes of Israel. And the people of Israel took the land or occupied the land over in present day Israel, it's just a portion, just a small portion of the larger land that they were given by God in this story here. So Israel really means the children of Israel. In fact, I remember hearing in one of my first Bible studies about the children of Israel wandering through the desert, some hundreds of thousands of children wandering through the desert. And I was like, wow, I don't remember ever hearing that passage about all these children wandering through the desert. Then I read and I realized it wasn't children wandering through the desert, although there were children involved. But it was the children of Israel they're talking about, the children and descendants of Jacob. So Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and this all backs up to Abraham who's the grandfather. And in Chapter 12, would someone want to read those three verses for me? Mike?
ERIC E.: So what was God going to do for Israel or for Abraham in this case and his descendants? ROB D.: Make them into a great nation. ERIC E.: Make them into a great nation. ROB D.: Make their name great. ERIC E.: Make their name great. ROB D.: Bless those who bless you. ERIC E.: Bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. All the nations on earth will be blessed through you. But how do you think the Israelites felt there in Egypt? Do you think they felt like a great nation? ROB D.: Probably seems like a long time ago that that was said. ERIC E.: They were there for 400 years. ROB D.: They might have even forgotten, you know, or thought that God had forgotten about them. ERIC E.: Yeah. Even if they knew, it would have been a long time ago, 400 years later. But if they had looked and if they had remembered the words of God and the promises that God had made for them, they'd actually see later in Genesis that this prophecy was made, that they would be in bondage under another people for 400 years and then God would deliver them. But sometimes those promises are hard to hold onto, and they're hard for us to hold onto, too. Because we get so sucked in and so we start to believe what other people say about us. We start to believe that we're worthless and weak. And you might be watching and you might be feeling that same way. You might feel like you're the lowest of the low right now. But I tell you that you're God's chosen one. You are God's chosen one. Each of us is chosen by God. Israel had a special place and a special role to play in God's plan. And He did want them to become a great nation. Let's flip back to Exodus again, Chapter 1. Exodus, of course, comes from the word like our word "exit", which means leave, to leave. And so the exodus is how they left Egypt once they became in bondage. And next time we're going to look at how we get out of bondage. But this week we're still working to understand how we get into bondage. I want to share another story with you about something that happened to me even right here in Streator when I first came to town. And I was invited to preach at a couple different churches, because I was doing this Internet ministry so I was free on Sunday mornings and so when a pastor was leaving, I would come and preach at their church. And this one pastor and I, he was really encouraging to me and a nice guy. And he said, you know, why don't you come and preach at my church? So I came and I preached, I gave a message, and I gave an invitation for people to follow Christ. Six people put their hands up and wanted to pray to receive Christ for the first time in their life. One of those ladies, she came up later in the week to me and my wife, and she asked us about studying the Bible. She said our church doesn't really have any Bible studies through the week, and do you know any place to study the Bible. So my wife was recommending a couple different places in town where she could go and study the Bible. She turned out to go to one of those and she joined that church, left the church. I came back to this pastor; I was supposed to present to their missions committee about something else. And this guy wrote me a letter. And he said 'if your ministry is the kind of ministry that takes people from one church and takes them to join your church, then that's not what we want.' That's not the kind of people we want around; we want nothing to do with you, nothing to do with your ministry. You're not welcome here. He was not only the pastor of that church; he was the head of the minister's association in town of all the churches. And that just cut me to the quick. One, I didn't even have a church to take the lady to, so the charge was incorrect and inaccurate. Two, we led six people to the Lord. And this one had been on fire and has been on fire all these years since then, which should have been a joy. But what happened to that man in his life? What happened that made him react that way to someone in his church coming to Christ? I would call it fear of man, fear of people. Man, if people start seeing that Eric Elder has this ministry and they start leaving and going to his church, which she didn't even come to a church I was associated with, she went to some other church, so the charge was false. But the threat was there for him. And in order to stop that threat from continuing, boom, boom, boom. And it had a good effect on me for a couple days. But I feel like I've gotten a key now to how to come back out of those situations. And now, several years later, I'm actually the president of the ministerial association. And not in a "I can show you" kind of way, but in a way that says I could either let that situation get me so down and keep me in bondage and not ever try to step out, not go preach at anybody else's church for fear of what might happen. But that's not what God called me to do. He's called me to preach, to set the captives free, to pray for people, and to see them come to new life. So as I continue to go forward in that and not fear what their reactions are, be sensitive to that, but not fear it. That's how we get out of bondage. We'll look at it more in depth next week. Going back to that story about the guy that got pummeled there in high school, that became one of those things for me that also kept me in bondage ever since high school. Because I was not a big jock kind of guy. I wasn't on the football team, basketball, wrestling. I loved drama and acting and singing and dance and things like that. And as I got involved in those kinds of things and hung out with women and really didn't have as much friendship with some of these guys, I was led to other things in life, but I saw -- in their lives, I saw where they were headed. And they started drinking and smoking and having sex with people and doing things that were killing them. And I would try to go and talk to them and say, 'you know, this is going to get you into trouble, this is not a good thing to do, you don't really want to be doing that because that is going to kill you. It's going to break up your life; it's going to break up your family.' Do you know how well that was received when I said that in high school? Boom, boom, boom. Yeah, about that well; about that well. And you know what it made me want to do? Not say that to anybody ever again. You want to ruin your life, go ahead and ruin your life. In fact, when I started going to college, you know what I started doing? All those things, all those things. Because I was like, this causes me too much pain when I speak out against these things. So hey, why don't we try it? Why don't we join them for a while? PAUL S.: Misery loves company. ERIC E.: Misery loves company, yeah. But it was only when I finally came to Christ and came back at the situation again and the power of God and the power of the Holy Spirit. And you know what I do now for my whole life, my full-time ministry? Is to preach to guys, to live their life in a way that's righteous and holy and that will bring them abundant life instead of death. That very thing that I felt weakest about and felt most oppressed by turned out to be my greatest strength and the very thing that God called me to do. The very thing that God called me to do. I bring these couple stories up, because I want you to think about your life right now and some things you might be going through. Places where you might feel particularly oppressed, attacked, maybe some friends or some enemies or some spouse or children or parents or acquaintances are berating you, attacking you for maybe something you believe or something you feel strongly about or some gift you feel you have. Could it be that that area is actually your greatest strength? And rather than letting them put you in bondage, is it maybe time to be set free and let God set you free and start stepping out into the things that God has called you to do? I know there are things in my life right now that I want to step out more boldly. And I need to put aside the fear of man, the fear of people, and I need to start walking boldly in the confidence of God in what he has called me to do. We're going to have some time at the end to just talk amongst ourselves a little more personally. And you can chat with us on the chat room if this has sparked some things in your heart as well. But we're going to go off the camera for the time that we do that. But before we get to that discussion time, I just want to come to God in prayer and spend just a few minutes in worshipping God. Because He has called us, He has chosen us, and He does want to set us free. He's got some amazing love that he wants to pour out on us, and I believe he can pour it out on us even tonight. I hope this is giving you some confidence, that those areas you feel weakest in, just to give you a little hope that that might actually be your greatest strength. We're going to stop and have a little time of worship. We've got some friends from California who are joining us by way of the Internet, and they're going to put some worship up for us. We're going to be worshipping here with the computer in the room, and if you're at home and watching this or you're at work and watching this, you can worship along with your computer. This is just what we're doing, too. So don't feel this is strange. I'm just going to let them introduce themselves to you and we'll worship the Lord. AL L.: Hi, Eric and you guys from Streator, Illinois, and whoever else is listening here. We appreciate the message that Eric gave and we are privileged to be part of your worship team for tonight. This is Jim, myself; we're from Orange County, California, and we're here to join you guys in some worship. So we're going to sing about God's amazing love and hope you guys will join us on that. Do you have a guitar? Or just your voices. JIM S.: Anything will do. AL L.: Anything will do. Let's lift up the Lord right now. Worship Song: "Amazing Love" written by Billy Foote, led by Al Lowry and James Olmos. Used by permission. I'm forgiven because You were forsaken
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