St Paul's Youth Group

Exodus : Red Sea

Dreamworks got it wrong. I’ve been watching the movie “Prince of Egypt” and I must say it’s a very good movie and biblically it captures all the important strands. But there is a major problem with its big song by Mariah Carey. “When you believe” is a fantastic song and I should listen to it before playing tennis, but biblically it is confusing. I’ll explain why. Read more

God uses bad people

Think God only uses good people? Think again. Watch this clip.

The Cage of slavery

Israel were in a cage : a cage of slavery to Egypt. Yet God promised to get them out. He does it in the craziest way, by parting the waters so that they can be free. We too are in a cage of slavery to sin. God promised to get us out. He did it in the craziest way, by coming down as a man and dying for our sins. He pays the penatly that we deserved.

Exodus : Passover

Have you ever been given mercy? There’s plenty of times I remember getting in trouble at school or at home and instead of getting a shalacking, I was given mercy. You could say I was lucky but I really did deserve a beating for some stupid immature things. Mercy is not getting what you do deserve. Grace is different. Grace is getting what you don’t deserve. God not only gave the Israelites mercy, but he also gave them grace. And God can do the same to us today through his Son - You can be given mercy and grace through trusting in his Son. Read more

Exodus : Plagues

What is happening in the world at the moment? In the last few months we have had the floods in Queensland and Victoria, the earthquakes in New Zealand, Libya, Egypt, Tunisia and other countries going out of control, and of course, Japan and the tsanami and the earthquake. It makes you wonder : Why is this all happening? It makes you want to ask this question too : What is God doing about it? When destruction happens all over the globe it’s a wake up call to us that we are not in control. When justice is not lashed out, whether in the Middle East or Charlie Sheen getting millions of dollars to act like a jerk, we ask “What is God doing about it?” Here’s the thing : We live in a messed up world. On one hand we see suffering as the result of earthquakes and tsunamis. On the other hand we have suffering due to the unjust way of some countries ruling their governments and the distribution of money going to only a few. What is God doing? 1) He will end the suffering one day 2) He will judge the world one day. Why? Because he is totally in control no matter what the situation is. Read more

God judging Egypt with 10 plagues? Isn’t that wrong?

John Piper tries to deal with the difficult question of how God can be good in taking the lives of many “innocent” people.

Exodus : Pharaoh

We all have pharaohs in our lives. These are things that function as an obstacle between us and Jesus Christ. Anything and anyone can be a Pharaoh. The question isn’t “Do you have a pharaoh?” but rather, “How do I beat my pharaohs?”. Read more

Taking down China’s pharaohs

Inside China Christianity is spreading like wildfire. There are over 100 million Christians now. But the problem is China. It is ruled with an iron fist. So how do these Christians cope?

Exodus : Bush

God is totally in control. We may be living our own lives the way we want to live, but there will be a day when our plans will crash into God’s plans. I am not in control, Donald Trump is not in control, and neither was Moses. God is. We see in Exodus chapter 3-4 that Moses’ life is going to be turned upside down. He sees a burning bush and God speaks from it and gives Moses a crazy plan: He will send Moses back to the place that hates him to bring the Israelites out of slavery to the Egyptians. Moses doesn’t want to do it! Moses’ life was pretty fine and great in Midian with his sheep and his wife and his kids and with Jethro. Why would he sacrifice a comfortable life and go back to people who don’t like him? Read more

Exodus : Moses

We all have choices to make in life. Sometimes we make som good choices, while other times, we stuff up and regret a certain decision. You cannot escape choice. Everyday we are making choices on what we should eat, who we will talk to, how much time I’ll be on the internet, what will I wear downtown, what song will I listen to on my Ipod. We have to make choices in life. We’ve seen right at the beginning of Exodus that the Israelites are in terrible slavery. Physical Slavery is a terrible thing and should not be condoned but it is in the Bible story heaps of times. The Egyptians wanted to slow them down and made them slaves. It got so worse that Pharaoh had to make a decision : Let’s kill the baby boys. That is his choice and he thought that, at the time, that is the best choice to make to protect the people of Egypt. But was it the best decision? What would you have done if you were Pharaoh? Read more

What are you thankful for?

Moses should have died when he was a baby. Yet he was saved. Moses probably was very thankful for that day when his family saved him from the Egyptians. Similar thing happened to Jesus, yet the difference is, Jesus grew up and then saved us by dying for us. What are you thankful about?

Exodus : Slavery

If you had to describe what a slave looks like, what would you say? Chains? Possibly bare backed? Bruises around their body? Maybe they are someone who is in a jail cell crying out for help? I believe most of us think of slavery that way. Being a slave means that you are not in control. In saying that, I believe we need to rethink our image of slavery and add many other things to the picture: phones, makeup, money, video games, tvs, relationships. These are ALL THINGS that can make someone a slave. Do we feel like a slave when we are on our phone or on facebook or playing World of Warcraft for hours and hours? We probably don’t. But that’s the lure of slavery : that you don’t think you are in slavery. Read more

Are you a slave?

Sometimes when we think we are not slaves we actually are. Sometimes when we think books are very harmless they actually are. Let’s discern what we read. Any Twilight fans?

Exodus : Promise

Promises are made by all of us all the time. Sometimes we keep them but other times we fail to keep them. Have you ever had a promise that was so weird that you thought it were silly to believe in it? Promises happen all the time in the Bible and there is this totally weird promise made to this totally old dude that he will have a son as a 100 year old guy with a 100 year old wife who just happens to be barren as well. His name is Abraham and he needs a bucketload of faith.

In order to understand the story of Exodus we have to go WAY BACK to the story of this dude called Abraham. In Genesis 12, God comes to Abraham and promises a promise to him. He says he will have a son, his descendents will have blessings, and they will have this Promised Land. Abraham is about 75 years old when God pitches this promise to him. So God tells him to leave his family and his land and go and look at this land that one day God will give him. Read more

All promises find their fulfilment in Christ

Check out this young kid going through every book of the Bible showing that Jesus fulfills every promise. We are looking at this great promise that God gives to Abraham from Genesis 15 this week to kick off our Exodus series.

Exodus : Saved for God Promo

Exodus : Introduction

Have you ever wondered why you live the way you live? Chances are that you are a slave to something; whether it’s sport, money, or beauty. But you were not made to live for those things. It’s ok to like sport and money but don’t make it into a god. We were made for God. The book of Exodus recounts the story of Israel being formed into a nation under the leadership of God. The problem is that these Israelites have been slaves for 430 years under the Egyptians. They need a saviour. God raises up a man named Moses to lead the charge of bringing the Israelites to freedom. How does he do this? God is the one who saves. But God doesn’t just end there. God saves the Israelites for something greater : a relationship with Him and into a Promised Land.  But first they must go through the harsh wilderness of life. Read more

Exodus 1102:2011

Next series at SPY will be looking at the book of Exodus. Moses, plagues, bushes talking back at you, Red Sea parting, eating wafers in the desert. We will be looking at ALL THAT and more from the 11th February 2011. Stay tuned for more.