Moses, with God’s help, did some amazing things—including some of the most incredible miracles in all of the Bible.
Moses brought about the plagues that freed the Israelites. He brought water from a stone. He brought manna and quail from heaven, so the Israelites wouldn’t go hungry. Miracle after miracle came about because of God’s work though Moses.
But the miracle Moses is probably best known for is parting the Red Sea, leading the Israelites out of Egypt after 400 years of slavery.
At that time, all the Israelites had known was bondage, but they had been yearning for freedom. Then Moses comes in, God moves, Pharaoh finally lets them go, and the people are free.
But here’s the tension: Moses did a great job of getting the Israelites out of Egypt, but he couldn’t get Egypt out of them.
That’s a paradox we see almost immediately in this story.
Take a look at Exodus 14:11:
“They said to Moses, ‘Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt?’”
The Israelites are finally free, the freedom they’ve been longing for for generations is here. But the first real problem they encounter sends them into panic. They start talking like slaves again. They start thinking like victims again. They start acting like Egypt still owns them, even though God has already brought them out.
And to be fair, the first problem they hit is a big one. It’s the Red Sea.
The Red Sea isn’t small. Up until that point, the sea had never been parted. Nothing like that had ever happened before, so there was no reason to believe crossing the Red Sea without an army of boats was even possible.
But God does the unthinkable. He parts the sea, and the Bible says the Israelites walked through on dry ground. Then Pharaoh’s army comes after them, and God wipes them out.
It is one of the most incredible moments in all of Scripture.
You would think a moment like that would carry them for a long time. You would think they would never doubt again, right? Imagine if you saw a miracle like that for yourself.
But just three days later, they’re grumbling again.
This time, they’re upset about the water.
It’s more than just grumbling, it’s straight complaining. As the Bible defines the word “grumble” here, it says this kind of complaining was speaking in direct opposition to the situation. So more than even complaining, it says the Israelites were speaking against the very God who brought them out of slavery.
A lot of us know what that feels like. That’s why this story hits so hard. Because for a lot of us, grumbling just three days after a miracle doesn’t sound crazy at all.
Maybe it’s not Egypt in the literal sense. Maybe it’s not slavery in the historical sense. But a lot of people know exactly what it is like to be brought out of something and still feel that thing living in you.
You can be out of the relationship and still think like the relationship controls you.
You can be out of the addiction and still be in its power.
You can be out of the old life, out of the old habits, out of the old environment, and still carry the same fear, same lies, same reactions, same mindset.
That’s why this matters. Because freedom takes two steps: Coming out of captivity and being changed from the inside out, so you don’t go back into it.
And a lot of people want freedom, but they don’t realize that freedom also requires transformation.
There’s a line in this message that gets right to the point:
You’re not going to think your way out of a problem that you acted your way into.
That matters because a lot of us want change in our lives, but we struggle to move from thought to action.
That’s true in discipleship. That’s true in recovery. That’s true in freedom.
If Egypt is going to come out of you, it’s not enough to just say you want a different life. At some point, you have to begin living differently. You have to put truth on the field. You have to act on what God is showing you.
How do you do that? How do you truly transform, and get Egypt out of you for good?
Let’s look closer at each principle, how they work together to move us towards true freedom with Jesus Christ.
The first principle that allows Jesus to start transforming you—getting the old way of thinking out of you—is willingness.
The dictionary defines willingness as, “inclined or favorably disposed in mind, ready to act, done without reluctance.”
What’s not in that definition is “wanting.” Willingness is different from wanting.
It’s easy to think that if we don’t feel excited about something, we must not be ready to obey God in it. But willingness and wanting are not the same thing.
Sometimes the most important thing you can do is something you absolutely do not want to do.
That’s what makes willingness so powerful. It is the choice to say yes even when your feelings are saying no.
The clearest example of that is Jesus Himself.
In Matthew 26:39, Jesus prays:
“My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”
That doesn’t sound like someone who wants suffering. It sounds human. It sounds honest. It sounds costly.
But it also sounds willing.
And that is the difference.
For a lot of us, willingness is where freedom actually starts. Not because we suddenly love the hard thing, but because we stop requiring obedience to feel comfortable before we’ll do it. That is a big shift.
Sometimes the breakthrough isn’t found in what you wanted to do. Sometimes it’s found in the thing you resisted, the thing you argued with, the thing you thought could not possibly be the answer. Then later you realize God was trying to lead you through the very thing you didn’t want to do.
Obedience without willingness is just compliance. But willingness says, “God, I may not want this, but I trust You enough to do it anyway.”
The second principle Jesus can use to truly transform your life is honesty. And honesty is deeper than just technically telling the truth.
A lot of people think honesty just means not saying something false. But honesty goes deeper than that. It has to do with integrity. Honor. The full truth. The real truth.
There’s a difference between saying what’s technically correct and being genuinely honest before God and people.
John 8:32 says,
“And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
We want the freedom that truth brings, but honesty can feel costly at first. Sometimes it looks like rejection. Sometimes it looks like doors that are closing. Sometimes it looks like experiencing consequences you were hoping to avoid.
That’s why so many people stop short of real honesty. They tell enough truth to feel justified, but not enough truth to actually find lasting freedom.
But here’s the truth: honesty may get you a lot of no’s, but eventually it will bring you the perfect yes.
When you stop manipulating, covering, spinning, and managing outcomes, you finally put yourself in a place where God can direct your steps. When you start playing by the rules, God can lead you where He wants you to go.
But when you are lying—whether to others, to yourself, or to God—it cuts you off. You stay trapped. You stay in survival mode. You stay acting like Egypt is still the system you have to live by.
Honesty is one of the ways God starts pulling Egypt out of you.
The third principle is open-mindedness.
That phrase can mean a lot of things in the world, but here it means being receptive to the new things God wants to teach you. It means letting Him challenge old patterns, old assumptions, old reactions, and old ways of seeing people.
Because when you have lived in Egypt for a long time, your thinking gets boxed in.
That’s why Scripture says in Romans 12:2:
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Closed minds keep Egypt alive. Renewed minds enter the promised land.
You can’t carry the mind of slavery into the life of freedom and expect peace. You can’t keep the same bitterness, same pride, same fear, same hostility, same reflexes, and expect everything to be different just because your location changed.
God doesn’t just want to change your circumstances. He wants to renew your mind.
And sometimes that renewal shows up in very practical moments. Moments where God challenges the way you see people. Moments where He confronts your anger. Moments where He reveals that you are not who you used to be anymore, so you don’t get to keep acting like the old you.
That’s part of what it means to walk in freedom. You stop agreeing with the old identity. You stop letting the old life define your responses. You stop saying, “That’s just who I am.”
You let God change the way you think.
This is what the Israelites did over and over again. Every hard moment made them want to go backward. That’s what slavery does. It trains you to think bondage is safer than trust. And if we’re honest, a lot of people still live that way.
The first time something gets hard, they want to quit.
The first time following Jesus costs something, they want to pull back.
The first time obedience feels uncomfortable, they start wondering whether the old life was really that bad.
That’s why these three principles matter so much. Just because God brought you out doesn’t mean you automatically know how to live free.
Freedom has to be practiced. It has to be walked out. It has to be reinforced through willingness, honesty, and an open mind.
But the real answer is not just the principles on their own.
Willingness, honesty, and open-mindedness matter. These principles are powerful. They help pull Egypt out of you. They help you live differently. They help you act like someone who has actually been set free.
But if all you have is the principles, you’ve still missed the center.
That’s the point. You can practice these things, but if you don’t know the who behind them, you’ll miss the mark.
Jesus is the one who brings dead things to life. Jesus is the one who breaks chains. Jesus is the one who renews the mind, changes the heart, and teaches you how to walk in freedom. Jesus is the one who takes the old life and buries it. Jesus is the one who makes it possible for you to stop living like you are still in Egypt.
Without Him, these are just good ideas.
With Him, they become part of transformation.
The truth is, this transformation process isn’t instant. There will be struggles and stumbles. But when we’re in Christ, our old identity doesn’t get the final word.
If God has brought you out, then He is also able to change what is still stuck in you.
So if you’re struggling, if you feel stuck, if you keep going back to old ways of thinking or living, don’t settle for surface-level freedom. Let God do the deeper work.
Be willing.
Be honest.
Let Him renew your mind.
But most of all, know the who behind the transformation.
Because the same Jesus who brings people out of slavery is the same Jesus who can get Egypt out of them for good.