The greatest among you will be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

In today’s reading there are so many nuggets of truth to choose from. I have decided to focus on the simple fact that whoever humbles themselves will be exalted. Jesus, leading up to this phrase, tells his disciples to discard labels like “rabbi”, “father” and “master”. Since God is all three of these to His people. Instead they were to focus on being servant leaders. And, in doing so, they would get the honor they were looking for instead of getting it from leadership titles.

I think there could not be a more appropriate challenge to us today than to serve others humbly, while diminishing our renown in God’s Kingdom. As a “professional” minister, I know it can be easy to throw around the title “pastor”. But would people know I am a pastor if I didn’t call myself that (which is something I try not to do too often)? The label “Christian” is worn by so many, yet does their behavior reflect the title?Jesus is telling his disciples that if they want to be known for greatness (i.e. having titles of leadership like rabbi, father and master) then they should serve others. Instead, we should let God get the glory while they do His work.

In fact, the “greatest” among us are going to be the ones who are most servant hearted. Jesus flips the whole concept of leadership upside-down. So, if we are looking to be great in this life, serving others in the ticket there.

Let’s focus on serving others and draw attention to God instead of ourselves.

Guard me and deliver me; do not let me be put to shame, for I take refuge in You. May integrity and what is right  watch over me, for I wait for You. God, redeem Israel, from all its distresses. (Psalm 25:20-22)

It today’s reading we see God as the Great Deliverer. His final plague on the Egyptians, death of their first borns, has shown his power and his divine selection of the righteous and the unrighteous. The Israelites were spared from death because of the saving blood of the lambs. The parallel to Christ is easily noticed.

However, I would like to direct our attention to Exodus 13 and the response that is required of the rescued. The Israelites were mandated to take time to remember their salvation from the enslaving Egyptians. God required them to take notice regularly as to how He delivered them. They were not to work, they were to eat unleavened bread, and they were to tell the story to their first borns. All of this was to keep their exodus in the front of their minds.

So how do we remember? Do you celebrate your spiritual birthday? If not, you should.

Do you see our Celebration Service as an opportunity every week to remember what God has done for you to deliver you from sin? If not, you should.

Do you pass your story on to others by sharing your testimony to your children, families, and friends? If not, you should.

We, like the Israelites, have been rescued by blood. We need to constantly remind ourselves of our salvation, and not only acknowledge that to God, but to those around us.

Let us ask God today to show us how to honor him by acknowledging our deliverance from sin.

This video ensemble was created by Chris Saldanha.

Sometimes when we read through the Bible as individual books we can miss overarching themes. Take for instance Moses’ experience with God through the burning bush. Moses, trying to come up with reasons why he did want to be God’s man to deliver the Children of Israel, is told to lay his staff on the ground. The staff turns into a snake. Moses grabs the snake by the tail and it becomes a staff again.  Reading through the Bible, didn’t we read just a few weeks ago that humanity and snakes were going to have a conflicted relationship? This should not be missed in this passage. God could have turned the staff of Moses into ANYTHING, but he chose a serpent. We need to ask ourselves why?

God’s staff transformation into a serpent would not have been missed on Moses. He was being shown that God has full power and control over all dark forces. As Moses stood near the burning bush trembling at the possibility of confronting the world’s most powerful man–Pharaoh, (and he would have first hand knowledge of this based on his upbringing) God is showing Moses, through an object lesson that he is more powerful that ANY force. More importantly, he is able to give power to humanity to “handle” those dark forces.

When Moses is told to place his hand in his cloak and pulls it out, he is shown that God has power over our humanity frailty, as well. So, Moses is shown that neither Satan, nor our fallen human bodies, are beyond God’s power.

So, what does that mean for us today? Too often we find reasons like Moses for not fully trusting God to our fullest. We find excuses for why we can maximize God’s calling in our lives. God, through this story of Moses, shows this He is able to conquer sin (Satan) and death (our fallen bodies). Let is go before God today asking God to forgive us for our excuses and asking him to give us our own burning bush experiences with him daily!