Out of Egypt

Where are you on the journey? Still in Egypt (bondage to sin)? Wandering in the wilderness (saved but stuck)? Or stepping into the Promised Land (living in the fullness God has for you)?

Pastor Travis Johnson powerfully unpacks Israel’s exodus as the ultimate picture of the Christian life: God delivers you OUT of Egypt the moment you trust Jesus, works patiently to get Egypt OUT of you in the wilderness, and longs to bring you fully INTO the Promised Land of abundance, purpose, and victory. You can’t skip the wilderness—but you don’t have to die there.

One step of faith can change everything. Stop sinning. Trust Jesus fully. Finish well. The same God who parted the Red Sea is leading you home today.

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Sermon Transcript

Out of Egypt. Say that with me, Out of Egypt.

You can grab the notes and track along with me—that'll be up on the screen on how to do that. Let me tell you right out of the gate here today that there is a journey to be had in God. One time with me really quickly: there is a journey to be had in God.

Deuteronomy chapter eight and verse two, the Bible says, “Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness, these 40 years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commandments.”

So this is a journey of Israel into the promised land from captivity.

This is a picture of the believer journeying through the wilderness out of captivity in Egypt into the promised land in Jesus Christ.

When you read this story, you can't help but see the rich history, and it's a powerful history, what all God did bringing His people out of Egypt. But I want you to understand, when God wrote this history into humanity, He did it with you in mind. This was His heart for you—to take you from a life of sin and bondage and destruction into a life of abundance and eternal life in Jesus Christ.

I don't know about you, but I want to cross that river and into the promised land following Jesus every step until I breathe my last breath.

This story—it's not just ancient history, but it's a lens in which we should see our whole journey and the journey of the church. Israel is a picture of the church. This journey is a picture of the believer.

I'm not saved by what a group of people does. I'm saved by what God does in me. And you can be in the middle of Cambodia and not know anybody else as Christian, and if your trust is in Jesus, you're saved. But we are also the body of Christ, and we are together in this journey. There is a collective work that God is doing in His people, and here's what I know: When God gets a hold of one people, it changes a whole people.

And I want you to be saved. I want your heart and your life to be right with Jesus Christ. I want you to stay humbled before the Lord in your altar and your prayer closet, in your ego, in your mindset, in your outlook on life. I also don't want you to be diminishing yourself and have a low view of yourself. I want you to see clearly who God is in you, regardless of your circumstances, because you are on a journey with Jesus.

Now, you're in one of three places. I'm gonna give them to you really quickly. First of all, you're either in Egypt, or you're in the wilderness, or you're in the promised land.

And here's one thing that I know: you can't skip the wilderness to get straight to the promised land.

“Pastor, I came to Christ and everything got harder.” Well, you're in the wilderness. You're leaving an old lifestyle, and you're following after Jesus. But I thought I was saved—yes. When you believe on Jesus Christ, just like that, you are saved. You are saved. You don't need a class. You don't need anything. You just need Jesus. But I'll tell you what, it's hard. It's one thing to get out of Egypt. It's another thing to get Egypt out of you.

Man, it's crazy. It's unreal what all the enemy will do to keep you in bondage to your old mindset. You know what, some of us, we're so caught up in the things that we've been through, that we can't look past them to see what God is bringing us through in the moment where He's taken us. And you know, it would just do us really good if we could just shake off some of the things that, as the Scripture says, “laying aside those things which do so easily entangle us so that we can run.”

See, it's not just sin. It's not just sin, but when you're in bondage in Egypt and you come out into the wilderness, when you find challenges, then it's amazing how quickly someone will speak up and say, “Maybe we're better off back in slavery, back in bondage.”

Listen, Pathway Church, you would rather die free than live in bondage.

Can I just go on into Christmas? Go after Jesus with everything you have. Just go after Him, forsake all those other things. Listen, there's certain things you do, and as you're doing them, you know they're not right, or it doesn't feel right. The Holy Spirit's working on you. Trust Jesus. Don't follow your heart. Don't trust your instinct. Don't do that. Your instinct has gotten you into a lot of places that leave that place and allow God to put new thoughts, new neuropathways into you and go after Him until your last breath.

See, if you're tracking along here, you'll know that the journey of Israel from Egypt to the Promised Land is one of the clearest and most richly developed types and shadows of Christ in the Christian life in the entire Old Testament. It's pretty incredible what the Lord does in this story and what He wants to do in you.

Three Stages in the Journey of the Christian Life

1. Out of Egypt

Let's go to Exodus 13:17–18:

“When Pharaoh finally let the people go, God did not lead them along the main road that runs through Philistine territory, even though that was the shortest route to the Promised Land. God said, ‘If the people are faced with a battle, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.’ So God led them in a roundabout way through the wilderness towards the Red Sea. Thus, the Israelites left Egypt like an army ready for battle.”

Pause for a second. This is the most dangerous part of your Christian walk. You feel more tender than any other place. Your roots are not deeply entrenched. A little wind can blow you over. A little pressure can cause you to back up. And so the Lord, knowing that, takes you the most tender way because He knows that while He never changes, we're very fickle and we can change.

This is why we focus more on our children. This is why we focus more on the young, no matter where you are. Every mom has that instinct to hold onto the baby. Everyone, even the flight attendants have to say in case of sudden loss of air pressure, put on your mask first and then the child's because your instinct is to put on the child's mask first because they're the most tender.

Of course, if daddy's not right, the kids are not gonna be right. If mama's not right, the kids are not gonna be right. But the Lord knowing this, He's saying, “I wanted to watch out for you.”

Now, the interesting thing about coming out of Egypt or coming out of Babylon, God didn't wait for Israel to really just be perfect or clean themselves totally up. They had many, many years of challenge, many years of dysfunction, many years of sin.

Think of what the Lord did. Blood was applied to the doorposts before they had taken a single step to freedom.

And notice the role that God, that Moses played, that his mother played to get them free.

See, this is the thing that you have to understand is people don't all get together to decide when to change, when to do better, when to go somewhere else—you know, when to go to that restaurant. It's always one person that says, “Let's go to this place.” And someone else says, “That's a good idea.” Someone always leads, they're first.

God didn't wait for all the people to get their stuff together. He waited for one woman, Moses' mother, to put him into a little basket and float him out where he would get lodged in a bull rush.

And you know this story, it's an amazing story, but eventually Moses would go on to stand at the doorway of the king's palace who happened to be his adopted brother. And he's saying to his, you know, brother—sibling rivalries are pretty tough. And he's standing there saying to him, “Let my people go.”

And God didn't wait for my people to be right. He began working just for someone to take a step. And so the blood was applied to the doorposts before they had taken a single step towards freedom.

This is prevenient grace. God's love going before us, waking us up, convicting our hearts when even right now in this message, there are people here, there are people in our campuses that the Holy Spirit is nudging you. And if I was to give an altar call right now, you would be ready to respond. That's not my words. That's the Holy Spirit's, that's God's prevenient grace that beckons us.

That's why some of you are here in church today because a still small voice said there has to be something more.

And so it was this drawing, even while Romans five, eight through 10 says we were still enemies of God. While we were yet in sin, He died for us.

So when they walked out of Egypt, they were already redeemed, already declared not guilty, already the people of God.

This is justification by faith alone.

Even though you crazy, even though you are battling with sin that you've called on God to help you with, even though you've done that, the moment you place your trust in Jesus, Satan has no more legal claim on your life. You belong to Jesus.

And you know what? He was there all the time. He was waiting patiently for you to just call on His name.

My dad tells this great story about how he got in a fight and this kid was beating him up. He was younger and smaller, was on the playground. And he looked around and his friend wasn't helping, just standing there.

And my dad called over for his big brother, Buster. Now that's just the name is good right there, just the name.

And he told his friend who was just standing there, hey, Mikey, whatever his name was, go get my big brother, Buster.

That joker jumped up off of my dad so quick he was gone.

Listen, it's not just the threat of retaliation, but Jesus is ready to step in and intervene for you right now today, if you just call on His name.

You're not on probation, you're pardoned.

You're not trying to get saved. You are saved. And now you're learning to live saved.

This is why I tell you all the time, stop sinning. Why, Pastor, why do you say that? Because you're better than that. You're bought with the price. You've been clothed in robes of righteousness. God is working on you. Keep leveling up your game and walk in the authority that God has already given you. Don't be afraid.

That is coming out of Egypt.

2. Getting Egypt Out of You

And then the second phase is getting Egypt out of you.

Deuteronomy chapter eight, verse two:

Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these days, or 40 years to humble you.

It goes on, he says, verse three:

He humbled you, causing you to hunger, and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that people do not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Your clothes did not wear out, and your feet did not swell during these 40 years. Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord God disciplines you.

So those feelings that you're feeling, the challenges that you experience, those are not—that's not the enemy. That's the Lord shaping you into the man He has called you to be, into the woman He has called you to be.

Now listen, some people, some people are very difficult to instruct, very difficult, very sensitive, they can't handle—listen, don't do that with the Lord.

When the Father speaks to you, when the Father instructs you and corrects you, understand that you have a good Father, and that's evidence of a good Father, that He loves you too much to leave you in the condition you were in when you were in Egypt.

Now this is the amazing thing that the Lord does, He instructs us before He corrects us.

It's not really fair to correct somebody that you hadn't instructed. So God does this. Don't mistake though God's discipline—don't mistake God's instruction for His correction and discipline.

Maybe you just haven't felt it, maybe you have not heard a Father speak into your life in a way that is firm and strong and good, and to you it seems like an attack, but there is no attack from God. There is only blessing from the Lord for His children.

Now for those who are not His children, yes the wrath of God will fall on them, but it's not because they haven't been instructed. He's been wooing them. Listen to me, fall quickly on your knees to the Lord and say Lord teach me, Lord teach me.

Could you imagine what would happen if we just became teachable, pliable in the hands of the Lord?

That's the Lord trying to get Egypt out of us.

Notice they were out of Egypt, Egypt was not out of them. They grumbled, they lusted after the leeks and the garlic that they had back in Egypt. Remember they built golden calves.

So God led them into the wilderness, not to destroy them, but to humble them, to prove what was in their hearts, to teach them to live by every word from His mouth.

The Bible says that this word is like a mirror, helps you see who you really are.

I'm not okay, and you're not okay. We are only made right in Jesus.

So listen, everyone is not born good, no one is born good, but Jesus—Adam was perfect but he was not born, he was made.

Everybody else is born evil, wicked. Pastor, I can't believe you say that about this cute babies you're dedicating—I'm dedicating those babies and those families to be raised in the fear and the admonition of the Lord so that when they're old enough, they will place their trust in Jesus after they recognize that they're born in sin.

That's a little crazy. The only body who would say that is somebody who's never had kids. Listen, those jokers are crazy, they're crazy, they're born doing crazy stuff.

You have to teach them math, but you don't have to teach them how to lie.

You have to teach them English, but you don't have to teach them how to steal. That's all in them. You have to cultivate a garden, but weeds grow all on their own.

This is how we were born and God is working on us.

So the wilderness is our life between the promised land and Egypt.

Now here's the problem. The problem is that you can say no to God in the wilderness.

Israel could and they often did, and they hardened their hearts against God. Entire generations fell in the wilderness. They weren't able to go into the promised land.

Don't tell me that you can't backslide. I don't care if you call it deconstruction. And I don't care. Look, I do not believe in unconditional eternal security. I don't believe in it. I also don't believe in unconditional eternal insecurity. I don't think we're falling in and out of grace with God.

The disagreement that I would have with my brothers and sisters that hold the unconditional eternal security is really, it's just, it's linguistics. Because if someone backslides according to my view on the scriptures, then my reformed brothers would say, well, they were never really saved in the first place. Okay, that's fine with me. It's not even a problem. It doesn't matter to me because we all end up in the same place.

You can die in the wilderness. You can die in the wilderness.

I'm not gonna strain at gnats over that stuff. That's not gonna divide. These are open-handed issues. You can hold that position. It's not a salvific issue. You know what salvific is? Do we believe in Jesus?

But I want you to know, if you mess around in the wilderness, you will die in the wilderness and you will not make it to the promised land.

Entire generations fell. And here's the reality. God's not gonna drag you into holiness against your will.

His grace is resistible.

God's grace is resistible. But He pleads. He draws. He sends prophets and pastors.

I heard somebody say, “I can't believe with as many pastors that are around him that he doesn't know what salvation is.” Listen, I have a lot of people come to my church and don't know Jesus and won't know Jesus. They'll walk out, say they know Jesus, and don't live any certain way. Listen to me.

It's not an automatic that just because somebody shares a gospel with you that you be saved. It's not an automatic.

Let me tell you, God is pleading. He's doing everything. He sent prophets and they killed the prophets.

God has sent people your way.

Let me also say, God is doing a work in the wilderness.

Don't give up on anybody.

Don't give up, well, I don't like how they're dressed. Man, keep your—leave them alone.

Leave them alone. Let people go through their process, their journey. You're not coming from where they are, but God is doing a great work and nobody can stop God from doing what He wants to do. He can work in anybody.

The person next door to you that you don't like, they got a wilderness to go through just like you do.

You know, I like my wilderness better than other people's wilderness. It's my dirt, it's my junk. I'm familiar with it, but everybody's got their burden and everybody has their challenge and everybody has a Savior in Jesus Christ. If we'll just trust Him.

He sends trials, mercies to bring you deeper into His heart.

3. Into the Promised Land

And then finally, the third phase is you into the promised land.

Joshua chapter three and verse 14:

So the people left their camp to cross the Jordan and the priests who were carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them. It was the harvest season and the Jordan was overflowing its banks. But as soon as the feet of the priests who were carrying the ark touched the water at the river's edge, the water above that point began backing up a great distance away at a town called Adam, which is near Zarethan and there in the water below that point flowed onto the Dead Sea until the riverbed was dry. Then all the people crossed over near the town of Jericho.

Meanwhile, the priests who were carrying the ark of the Lord's covenant stood firmly on dry ground in the middle of the riverbed as the people passed by. They waited there until the whole nation of Israel had crossed the Jordan on dry ground.

Israel was in bondage, bricks, straws, taskmasters, death over every male child, slave to sin, under the tyranny of the devil, the world and the flesh, but God by His incredible grace and the willingness of people like Joshua and Caleb to see in the promised land that it was worth trusting the Lord and that if He had got them out of Egypt, they would get them into the promised land.

Listen, I want you to understand today, God wants to get you out of Egypt. God wants to get Egypt out of you. And God wants to get you into the promised land.

I always feel an urgency whenever I'm sharing a message like this, because I know statistically there will be people to hear this message today and they decide to stay in Egypt. Or they decide to attend church and go through the motions, keep Egypt in them.

Listen to me, there's nothing in this world that is greater than having a relationship with Jesus Christ, nothing. I have never seen one person that I've been with in their dying moment ask for more material things. I've only seen them ask for spiritual things, supernatural things, more time, amended relationship or to be made right with Jesus.

Don't go on living, wandering in this wilderness that you were not made for. Okay, stop sinning. Love Jesus with everything that you have. Honor the Father, bring as many people along with you as possible.

They wandered in the wilderness because they were out of sync. But when you come into unity with what God is doing, the promised land is just before us.

Let me tell you one day, you will breathe your last breath. And you will be able to breathe your last breath. My prayer is that that last breath will be spent in glorifying the God of all creation, the God who became flesh and dwelt among us.

Where are you? Where are you?

Are you still in Egypt? Wrestling around? It's what you know. Well, this is how I was raised. Yes, but this is not what you were made for. This is not who you are. You don't have to live like that. You don't have to be in that dysfunction. Pastor, that's not sin. No, but a lot of it is a result or outcome of sin. It's a byproduct. You don't have to be there.

Are you wandering? Are you double-minded? Are you lukewarm, neither hot nor cold? Have you not seen God provide? You've trusted the Lord. Don't go on in that place.

Instead, with everything that you have, I would ask this last place would be that you like Caleb and Joshua would find yourselves flat-footed in the promised land, receiving every single promise of the Lord. Not only you, but for generations a long way off.