Good morning again. Welcome, everyone. We're so glad you're here with us today. Welcome, Smyrna Campus. We love you guys. So glad you're connected there. Everyone connecting with us online, we're so happy to have that connection with you as well.
We are continuing our message series today. We're going straight through the book of Exodus. The theme is, "He Draws Us Out to Draw Us In."
There was a man who was driving home from work one day, and he stopped to watch a Little League baseball game that was happening at a little park there near his house. He went and sat right behind the dugout on the first baseline, and it was an open dugout kind of thing. The kids were sitting in there, and the home team was sitting in the dugout, a couple of the players were, and the ones that weren't in the field yet, and they were losing 14 to nothing.
The guy looked at one of the players there as he was sitting down behind him, and he asked one of the boys what the score was, and he said, "Well, we're behind 14 to nothing." But he had a big smile on his face. The guy said, "Well, I have to say, you don't look very discouraged." He said, "Discouraged? Why should I be discouraged? We haven't even got the bat yet."
It's easy, isn't it, sometimes, to get discouraged? And every personality is different. Some people are just naturally more optimistic than other people. It takes a lot to really get you down. But some people, the slightest thing, the smallest thing, can really just get their spirits down and really get them discouraged.
But I have found that with all of us as human beings, that enough hard things, one right after the other, can cause any of us to have a broken spirit eventually, where we're really struggling in our spirit to keep going, to keep doing what we need to do. And that's part of what we're going to be looking at today in Exodus chapter 6.
If you've got your Bibles, open it up to there. Pull it up on your smartphone or tablet. We'll put the verses on the screen as well so you can follow along. Here in Exodus chapter 6, verses 1 through 13 is what we're going to be dealing with today. I'm going to read through these verses first, and then we'll unpack them together.
But if you have been with us for the last few weeks, especially for the last week, you know. Now, if you missed any of these, you can catch them on our YouTube channel. Go back and watch them and stay caught up with where we are in this series because each one builds on the others. You need to know kind of what happened before to be able to understand what's going on now. So go back and catch those.
Here we are in chapter 6 where God has appeared to Moses. Remember through the burning bush? That's one of the most famous things in the book of Exodus is God speaking through the burning bush. And He calls Moses to go back to Egypt. And the assignment is to go back and tell His own people that God sent Him there to deliver them from bondage of slaves. They're now enslaved in Egypt, have been for a long time. And He's saying, "Go back and tell the people I'm sending you here to free them from their bondage."
And He said, remember He got Aaron, Moses' brother, to go with Him because Moses kept making excuses about why he couldn't do it. And he wasn't a great speaker and all that. He said, "Well, Aaron, your brother is a good speaker. He could go with you. And you guys can work together on this." So He tells them to go back and do that.
And then He says, once you tell the people that, show them the signs that I really did call you, then you go to Pharaoh and demand that he let the people go. And Moses has gone back now. We're in this part of the narrative, where Moses has gone back. He's told the people that God sent them there. He showed them the signs. They are convinced. They bow down and worship God. They're excited about this news of delivery.
Then Moses goes to Pharaoh and Aaron with him. And they tell Pharaoh to let the people go. And Pharaoh says, "No." In fact, not only does he say no, you know what he did? He made it worse than it was before. He said, "Not only am I going to let you go, I don't know your God. I know the Egyptian gods, but I don't know your God. I'm going to make it. I think you're just being lazy and not wanting to work hard. So I'm going to quit supplying the straw for the bricks that I have you making as slaves. And you're going to have to get your own straw, but you're going to have to make just as many bricks as you always have."
So the burden has been greatly increased on this population of slaves there in Egypt. He told the taskmasters, "Don't let up on them. Make sure they keep making the same number of bricks, the same quota. It has to be met every day that they were meeting before, but they have to get their own straw to do it." It's like Pharaoh saying, "I'll show you who's boss."
Now, Pharaoh didn't know who he was dealing with. He didn't know that Moses wasn't the boss he's dealing with. Who's the boss he's dealing with? God, the one true God. And so Pharaoh thinks, "I'm in charge here. I'll show you who's ruling, who's in control, and I'm going to make it worse on you than it was before."
So after that, the people's response is that they're disheartened, and they're confused, and they're angry. When they were expecting God to do something great, that's what their hope was. I'm sure they're thinking, "If this is truly God sent Moses to do this, when Moses goes to Pharaoh, we're going to get out of here. We're going to be set free. It's going to be great." And instead, things just got worse.
You see, disappointment, especially a deep disappointment, is what leads to a broken spirit in our lives. And when we pick up here in chapter 6, we see a people, Moses and the people, dealing with a broken spirit before God. And when your spirit is broken, it causes you, it causes me to interact differently with God and with each other. Right? It affects all your life.
If your spirit is broken, your relationship with God is not what it ought to be now, and your relationship with your family and your friends is changed too when you're trying to deal with this broken spirit and keep going and doing what you need to do in your life. You just can't be the person that you need to be with that broken spirit.
So listen, I'm going to read through the first 13 verses. Read along with me while I read it out loud, and then we'll go back and break it down a little bit.
Okay? Then the Lord said to Moses, "Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh. Because of my mighty hand, he will let them go. Because of my mighty hand, he will drive them out of his country."
God also said to Moses, "I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty, but my name, the Lord, I did not make myself fully known to them. I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, where they resided as foreigners. Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered my covenant.
And I will," he says, "Therefore say to the Israelites, 'I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the Lord.'
Moses reported this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and harsh labor. Then the Lord said to Moses, "Go tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to let the Israelites go out of this country." But Moses said to the Lord, "If the Israelites will not listen to me, why would Pharaoh listen to me, since I speak with faltering lips?"
Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and the Israelites, and Pharaoh, king of Egypt. And he commanded them to bring the Israelites out of Egypt.
It's a disheartening time. There's a broken spirit with Moses. He's broken. He thought, "Man, this hasn't worked at all like I thought it was going to. I thought, well, God's calling me to do something great, and instead it's just made everything worse."
And now, not only has Pharaoh rejected the command, the request to let the people go, now my own people have turned against me thinking that I didn't really, either God didn't really send me or God didn't really care or God doesn't really keep his promises. And Pharaoh, I mean, the people are thinking that Moses is just making things worse for them.
So what we're going to see here in God's response in these 13 verses is there are three aspects to His response that I want us to focus on today to help us when we're dealing with disappointment and discouragement and maybe struggling with a broken spirit. These things can really help us, okay?
The first thing is this. There's a problem that He highlights. Then there is a story, and then there is a reward that He talks about. So let's look at those three things.
First, there's a problem. Look at verses one and two again. The Lord said to Moses, "Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh because of my mighty hand. He will let them go. Because of my mighty hand, he will drive them out of this country."
God also said to Moses, "I am the Lord." Now God's repeating Himself here. He's not telling Moses any new information. Now that's important, right? Here Moses is with this broken, confused spirit, and God's just telling him the same thing again that He's already told him before.
And there's a reason for that, I think. He's telling Moses these things because when things go differently than Moses expected them to go, that's when Moses' real true heart is exposed to God. A lot of us run around saying how much we love God and believe in God and want to honor God in our lives. And while things are going well, and things are as we expected them to be, we pretty much are true to that, aren't we?
But when we have deep disappointments and our spirits get crushed and broken, are we still the same people claiming to love God that we were before? Moses' true self of where he's at in his relationship with God is coming out. It's being exposed.
You see, your real relationship with God isn't exposed nearly as much when things are going well as it is when things are not going well. That's when the reality of your relationship with God really gets exposed, of where you're at with God, where you're at with your faith, your confidence in Him, your trust in Him as God.
When Moses goes to Pharaoh and says, "Hey, Pharaoh, the Lord, the great I AM, wants you to let the people go," and here's what we're going to do. Pharaoh's response is, "Who is God? Who is your God?" is what he's saying. "The God, I know the God of the Egyptians. In fact, Pharaoh might have said to himself, 'I'm God to the Egyptians. I don't need to listen to you and your God.'"
And when that happens, Moses' confidence in the I AM God who has revealed Himself to Moses is shaken simply because Pharaoh has rejected his God and won't do what Moses thought he should do. It didn't happen the way Moses pictured it was going to happen, and that's all it takes to break Moses' spirit.
Now it's not just Moses; it's the whole Israelite people. They all have exposed themselves. Remember just before this, they bowed down and worshiped God because they thought God was going to rescue them. And when it didn't happen the way they thought it was going to happen, immediately they don't want that God anymore, and they don't want Moses leading them on behalf of that God anymore because things just got worse in their mind.
So Moses goes back to God as the cruelty increases, and he says things like, "God, why did you send me? Why did you? I think you lied to us, God. You haven't begun to rescue us like you said you were going to." And God responds to him this way. He said it many times before, "I am the Lord."
That's His response, primarily the same thing He's been telling Moses the whole time. Now why is He repeating that? It's because we talked about this before. We need these reminders, especially when things aren't looking the way we think they ought to look. We need this reminder so much when things aren't going the way we think would be the best way for them to go.
We need to be reminded that God is the Lord. He's the one over all of this. He's the one that has all sovereignty, all power, all authority. He's the one who is the God of promise. He's the one who will keep us from the evil and has kept all of His promises. We need to remember He is the Lord when we're thinking He's not doing what He ought to do.
He's God, and we're not. The shock, some of you, I know some of you would never say you think you're God, but we live like it sometimes, don't we? We act like it sometimes, like we ought to have the control and not the Lord. And if we had the control, we would do things differently, right? We wouldn't be this way if we were the ones who were God and in control.
But God says, "I'm the Lord, not you. You need to remember that." So the problem we're dealing with here is not that they're in Egypt. The problem they're dealing with here is not even that they're slaves under the burden of taskmasters in Egypt. That's bad; nobody's saying that's a good thing. God wasn't saying that's a good thing.
But what God is saying is your real problem, Moses, is your heart and your relationship with me and the Israelites' heart and their relationship with me. They're not really seeing me as the Lord. They're not really surrendering themselves to me as the Lord. Neither are you, Moses, because you think you should be able to tell me how this ought to work instead of understanding that I am the Lord, not you.
You see, the problem is not that they're in Egypt. The problem is the sin that they're practicing in Egypt is in them. That's the problem. This experience, as hard as it is, as awful as it is, is an experience that exposes the condition of their heart.
And I don't know all of the mind of God, and I wouldn't pretend to, but I can see how God might be using this to expose this so that not that He could condemn them now, but He could draw their heart back to Him. He could get them back to where they need to be in that relationship with Him.
I could tell you this as a pastor, and I could tell you this in my own personal life. The times I've probably been more drawn back to where I needed to be with God have not been the good times. And I've seen that in so many other people's lives too. As a pastor, what I've seen is in the middle of the things that break your spirit, that's when you're more open to God and being drawn back to God than at any other time in your life.
And some of you are there right now. You're in a place where your spirit's broken, and you're crying out to God. Did it ever dawn on you that because God is the Lord, that maybe He allowed that? Not that He made it happen, not that He brought this bad thing, but that He knew in His plan and allowed it so that your heart would be drawn to Him again because you were straying, you were getting away from that relationship with God that He wanted you to have with Him.
Might it be that that's what God's doing with Israel, with Moses? I think He's revealing that to Moses in this encounter, that it's especially those moments of disappointment and those moments of harsh reality that we see and learn what's coming out of us in response, and our hearts are fully exposed in those moments of crisis.
What do we really believe? Who do we really trust? How much are we willing to surrender to the Lord with our whole lives, even when it's not what we pictured it to be? Well, that's the first thing.
The second thing here, remember, is it's not only is there a problem, but there's a story. And God's reminding Moses of the story and calling his attention to the story. Look at verse three again. "I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob as God Almighty, but it says, 'But my name, the Lord, I did not make myself fully known to them.' But He said, 'I established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, where they resided as foreigners. Moreover, I heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I've remembered my covenant. Therefore say to them, I am the Lord.'"
I got this. There's a story. I'm going to tell you a story. I'm going to tell you a story, Moses, bigger than what you're seeing here right now. You're only looking at such a limited part of this, Moses. You're only looking at what's happening there.
Moses is wanting to talk about everything that's happening in the present. "Oh God, it's awful. It's terrible. The people don't like me anymore. I tried to be a good leader. I tried to do what you said. They turned against me. Lord, it's not fair."
Any of this sound familiar? "It's not fair, God, what's happening. Not only that, but now the work is harder, and we're getting worn out from the labor, and we're being treated worse than we ever have been before. And not only that, but we don't see any sign that Pharaoh's ever going to let us go."
He's only looking at and living in the moment of the hard thing, the hard place that they're in. Moses has forgotten all about the big story. God has already revealed some of this story to Moses before. He's already told him long-term, "Here's the plan." But Moses is only looking at the moment.
Isn't that what happens to us? When we're in the middle of something bad, we're only looking at that. We're only looking at the worst of things, the things that are hurting us, the things that are breaking our spirit. That's all we're focusing on in that moment.
And so God is revealing that to Moses, that there's a bigger story. Moses is talking about Pharaoh and slavery, and God's response, God is talking about Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. He's talking about a covenant. He's talking about a promise that He's keeping.
He's talking about more here than just what's happening in the moment because Moses needs to see the big picture the same way we need to see the big picture in the moments of our discouragement. We need to be reminded of the bigger picture of God's story that He invites us into and allows us to be part of in that overarching story of the work of God in the world.
There's more going on here than just what you're going through, Moses. There is this profound reality that I've welcomed you into this story. And I know right now, Moses, all you can see is your pain, but this goes before your pain. This story does, and it goes after your pain that you've got right now.
There is this story here that you've been invited into, Moses. And I think what's important about that is that really it's the desire of the human heart to be part of something bigger than just you and just me. And He's reigniting that in Moses.
And today I want to reignite that in you, no matter where you're at right now in the story, no matter what the discouragement, maybe the broken spirit, or maybe things are really good for you right now, or somewhere in between, some good stuff and some not so good stuff going on. That's where most people generally are.
Well, in the middle of that, we need to remember that God has invited us into something bigger than just ourselves and what's going on in our lives right now. Anytime I get together with our elder team that I'm a part of here at Lakeshore that direct the affairs of the church, anytime I'm with our staff, we get together at least once a month, and we meet more often than that during the month and all that.
Anytime I get with those groups, there are two things in me that grow. The first one is this: when I'm with the elder team, I have such respect for these men because I see their heart. I know their heart. I hear their prayers. I know their desire to expand the work of the kingdom of God. I know their willingness to do hard things that need to be done to make that happen. I know their willingness to sacrifice for the good of the church.
I've seen them do that on a regular basis. They're just sincere, authentic men who passionately love Jesus, and they love you dearly. And my love for them grows every time we're together, and my appreciation for them and their families grows every time we're together.
And the same with my staff that I work with here at Lakeshore. Our staff is just full of men and women that are gifted and godly, and they're humble. And I don't say this to you as your pastor; I say this to you like I'm a member of this church and I'm a member of this family like you. When I see that, I am so thankful to be part of this family that God would let me be part of the story that He's invited this family to be in and what He's doing here on the earth.
It is such an honor. It is such a privilege to work with these men and women. And I want you to know that this, I want to remind you, and maybe you're new here, this is a special place, and God is doing amazing things here. This isn't happening everywhere. Churches across the country are declining and closing, and this church is growing and thriving.
And more than that, it's not just numbers of people in the seats or the number of additions we've had in the year. It's so much more than that. There's the growth spiritually that's happening here. There is something special and unique and powerful and precious about this place.
Look at the diversity of this church family. That's so rare among the kingdom of God. And it's not just racial diversity; it's ethnic diversity, it's economic diversity, it's geographical diversity, it's religious background diversity. It's all of that. More diverse than any place I've ever pastored or been a part of. This is a special place, and God is doing an amazing work here.
And we need to be awake to that and aware of that, and our hearts should be grateful for that. Even if we're in a moment of despair in our personal lives right now, we should be of how grateful we ought to feel to be part of what God is doing in this place.
Just this past week, it's such a special place. We were able, through your generosity and support of Lakeshore Christian Church, we were able to gift another one of our members with the gift of transportation. For instance, it was our fifth one in less than a year that we were able to help out like that. And that's so important so somebody can get to work and take care of their needs and keep their appointments.
It really is such a blessing to their lives. We've been able to do that at least five times. We've got another one coming soon, by the way. I can't share it all yet. I'm so excited about it. I want to tell you, but I can't yet. Let's wait. I want to make sure we get all that done. You've got to get the pictures and post it on Facebook or it's not official yet. It's got to be Facebook official before I talk about it.
But man, it's been great. And this same past week, when we did that, we had an elementary week of camp. Right? Our young people, we had this huge group. We had 30 people go out to camp with the kids and the adults and youth sponsors and volunteers. And they got together with churches from all over the area and brought their kids to camp.
And it was an amazing week of camp where young lives were strengthened in their knowledge and their understanding of Jesus. And they were excited about making new friends in the kingdom of God that they'll have some of them for their whole lives. And it was an impactful thing, and the kingdom grew.
And one of our own campers, DJ Watson, was named the boy camper of the week this past week there at White Mills Christian Camp. Isn't that great?
Yeah. And I got something else. I can't tell you the details yet. But you guys, we've got some families here that in their generosity, they had a heart like mine for not only gifting people the gift of transportation, but the gift of education.
So we've got something we're doing. We're partnering with one of our universities to be able to offer opportunities to fill in the gaps of people that may not have been able to get their degrees and want to go back and get that done and be able to partner with the church. And we can do that with them.
And we've already got one young man that I know wants to go into ministry, and we're partnering with him to help make that possible. It is a special place, friends. God is, I mean, that's just the tip of the iceberg. There's so many other things that God is doing in and through this church.
But it's only a small part. You've got to get the big picture. Even this is just a small part of all that God is doing all over the world. And the story was long before we got here. The story will be long after we leave this place if God doesn't, if Jesus doesn't come back first.
But He's allowed us to be included in the story, to be used in the story, to do the great things that He wanted to do, the good work that He prepared in advance for us to do while we're here. And you get to be invited into that.
Even if you're dealing with a broken spirit right now, God doesn't reject you. He invites you in. He wants you to know who He is. He wants you to be included in this story of all that He's doing. You say, "Well, I've messed this up and I messed that up." That's what God specializes in.
Right? Moses was a murderer when He called him into the story. Right? I mean, He already had a plan for him before that. Right? He was already working on it. Don't rule yourself out. God doesn't rule you out. God invites you in. No matter where you've been, no matter where you're coming from or where you're at right now, God is inviting you into the story.
So what God is saying to Moses is He's reminding him, "There's a beautiful story that makes your pain worth it, Moses. That right now, all you're seeing is the pain and the struggle. But there's a bigger story, Moses. Great things are coming out of this, Moses. There's a plan. There's a story. There's a purpose, even to the pain that you and your people are going through right now."
He remembers He mentioned Abraham. You can just ask Abraham, Moses. When he told Abraham to take his son Isaac, his only son, up onto that mountainside and sacrifice him. Do you think that was easy, Moses? Do you think that was painless for Abraham to tie up his son and put him on an altar to sacrifice? Do you think that was not painful for him?
But there's a bigger story, Moses. I provided a ram in his place, a sacrifice in his place. And Moses certainly wouldn't get this, but that was just picturing what our Father God was going to do for us when He took His own son and put him on the altar of sacrifice for us and paid that price for our sins so that we could have freedom from sin and death.
There's a bigger story, friends. Don't let this moment of pain and struggle, even if it's been a long time, don't let it keep you from seeing the big story because what we think is a long time is just a moment in this story. If we just hold on, if we keep the faith, if we leave our trust in God intact and we hold on to that, we'll get through this to the bigger things that God is working on.
So we need to know God has this great story, and He's going to, He says in verse six, He's going to liberate them. He's still going to do that. And He's going to take them to this land that He promised, and He's going to keep His covenant. He's going to keep all of His promises.
So He paints this picture, not just of the past, but a picture of the future. And He says this intermediate part of the story is all part of what came before and what's coming after. Just remember the whole story so that you don't give in or give up too soon, and you don't get to experience all that God is doing.
And by the way, He reminds Moses and all of us that while we are deeply loved characters in the story, we're not the main character. Jesus is the main character. And even back there with Moses, He's already got that plan in place, right? That's part of the story. He's going to send the one, remember He said in Genesis, "I'm going to send one who's going to crush the head of this serpent."
He's already got the plan. He's going to send Jesus here to redeem us all. That's the big story. And that's the main character in the story. It's Jesus and what He's doing for us and has done for us and will do for us.
You are a deeply loved part of the story, but Jesus, He's the main one that this whole story is all about. And I'm so glad He is because that gets the focus off of us and our pity party that we're having. And we put it back on Jesus and the love of God that He displayed through His son, Jesus.
That's what will get us through the broken spirit is remembering God's plan for Jesus to come to deliver us and save us, which leads to the third thing. And that's this. There is a reward. In just six verses here out of these 13 and just six verses we read in God's response, there's something God says five times in those six verses. You know what it is? He says, "I am the Lord."
I love that God understands how stubborn we are and how forgetful we are, and how unlikely it is that we're just going to hold onto that if it is not just grounded into our hearts and into our minds. So many things just take us away from that so quickly.
The first little thing that goes bad, the first thing that goes wrong, the first person that doesn't treat us like we ought to... somebody's let us down, or the church has let us down. All of a sudden we forget the Lord is God. He's the one we're loyal to. He's the one we honor. He's the one we can trust. He's the one that keeps His promises. He is the I AM God.
And in verse 3, I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob as God Almighty. But notice what He says there. He says something that's a little bit hard to translate, but the idea is this: "But my name, the Lord, I did not make myself fully known to them."
He's telling Moses something about the reward that He has for Moses and for all who have put their trust in Him and go through the hard things with Him. He's saying, "When all of this is over, Moses, when you see everything I'm going to do, you will know me in ways that Abraham never did. You will have such a relationship with me and understanding of me that Abraham could never have because he didn't go through what you're going through. He didn't experience what you're going to experience. He didn't see the things you're going to see if you just stay faithful and true to what I'm calling you to here."
See, Abraham had the promises, but Moses is going to see how God fulfills His promises, how God is going to keep them all, how God is going to deliver just like He says He's going to deliver. He says, "You're going to know me as Savior and Redeemer, as faithful in all my ways." They never got to see all the fulfillment of that, but you're going to get to see all the fulfillment of that. You're going to see it, Moses.
But the only way you would miss it in the heat of the disappointment and the broken spirit is to turn away from the God who is the Lord of your life. You see, you'll miss it. You won't get to experience it. You won't have that relationship with God that He's wanting you to have if you don't hold on to your faith in Him through the hard things.
You see, relationships are deepened through going through the hard things together. That's why when you give up on a marriage too soon, you miss the best part. When you give up on a friendship too soon, you miss the best parts that God had waiting for you down the road.
My wife and I have gone through a lot of things in the time that we've been married. And we've celebrated a lot of fun things and great things, and we still enjoy so much of life together. But there have been hard things too, and people don't even think about it. They see a couple doing well. They see you celebrating an anniversary. They see you doing fun stuff. "Oh, they just got such a great marriage."
Yeah, but you know why it's great? It's because it's deep. We've been through stuff together. We stuck with each other. My dad, who died many years ago, was in World War II. I was reminded with D-Day. I was reminded of some things my dad told me about. He didn't talk a lot about the war, but he did talk about the friendships that he had through the war.
And here's what he said. He said, "Randy, when you go through being shot at, crouching down in a foxhole with things exploding all around you, when you have to charge a hill together with these guys that are going beside you, if you survive that, there's a bond that happens between those men like no other bond in the world."
We've gone through it together. And God is saying to Moses, "Moses, if you'll just hold on here, man. Let's go through this together. You're going to have a relationship with me that's deeper and stronger and better than you could ever have imagined. If you just hold on. Don't give up. Don't let go. You're going to see me on the other side of this, delivering you from this, delivering my people through this, bringing them to something better than they could ever have imagined."
It's in those moments of clarity about your relationships that often they come by trial and pain that relationships are truly deepened and clarified. The pattern of the Christian life is that upon salvation, you get two wonderful things. You get both God and a promise of the good plan for your life that God has. You get both of those.
And when you get God, it's a relationship that's a growing, developing relationship, just like any relationship. You start out new and fresh, and it's exciting. But then there's struggle, and there's pain, and there's hard things that you've got to get through. But if you hold on to the relationship through those things, it gets deeper. It gets stronger. It gets better.
And you get to know Him better. And you get to understand Him better. And you get to see the bigger picture and the big plan of what God is doing even more the more you go through those things. But then you also get these promises that He makes with that relationship that come with that relationship. That closeness that you have with Him.
And some of those promises are immediate. You get forgiveness of sins. You get eternal life given to you as a gift. You get the Holy Spirit to dwell in you. Some of those are immediate. But some of them are delayed. Those are the harder ones.
No more pain. No more suffering. No more death or dying. No more saying goodbye to anybody that you love. That's not immediate. He's given you the immediate promises, but there's some delayed promises.
Here's the thing. The delayed promises, when you have a broken spirit, you need to remember the delayed promises too. You need to remember that God has kept every promise before that so we can count on those promises, the delayed promises too.
There is a time coming where there's not going to be any more pain or sickness or disease. There is a time coming where death will no longer be a cloud hanging over our lives as a threat to every person. There's coming a time where there's no more having to say goodbye to anybody we love or care about ever again. But you've got to hang on to get there. You've got to hang on to experience that.
You see, the promises are real and they're true, but the beauty of the Christian life is that the happy ending is not just something we hope for. The happy ending is guaranteed in the Christian life. It's a done deal already. We know how this ends. We know the end of the story. Go back to the end of the scriptures. Go back to Revelation. We know how this thing works out.
That's the big story. That's the big story. That's the big picture. In the moment, you can forget the big picture, can't you? You can lose focus. You can lose understanding because it seems so bad right now. But remember where you're going when you hold on to the promises of God. Remember what you're going to, who you're going to, if you hold on to the promises of God.
Remember that God has faithfully kept every single promise. He said Jesus is coming back. He's gone to make a place for us. He's coming back to take us to be with Him there, and that's where we'll have the promise of God.
Now, the rest of the promise is fulfilled, but until then, He said in this world, there's going to be some trouble and disappointment. I'll be with you, but remember the big picture. I have overcome all that already. It's guaranteed. The victory is yours through Jesus. We need to hold on to the big picture story of that promise.
I want to close with a passage in 2 Timothy 4. The Apostle Paul is writing to Timothy, a young man, and he says, "I'm going to be with you. I'm going to be with you." He says to him in the middle of the night, "Oh, me, I want you to say, 'Oh, Christ, let's have a word through it. Hey, what are you here for? What were you looking for?'"
Been the point of this whole story. Am I outside very far off? You walk in the same vision as you talked about or otherana, and it just happened. Well, here's the big picture. Christ is going to be with you. You're going to marry a boy. Jesus says, "There's a fellowship powered military. Are you going to marry?"
He approaches tomorrow. "I'm listening to him for I'm already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time of my departure is near." What a beautiful way to describe death. He's talking about his death. He said, "I'm being poured out like a drink offering."
And in the Old Testament, there are offerings that are given to God. One of those was described as a drink offering where it's poured out to God over the altar for the honoring of God and the worship of God. He's saying, "My whole life has been poured out like a drink offering, and the time of my departure..."
I like my departure. Get the big picture. I know you're in a moment that may not be good, but friends, this is so temporary compared to everything else, the big picture. The suffering seems long when you're in it, but it's so short compared to the other side of it where God's taking you.
You're in it, but it's so short compared to the other side of it where God's taking you. So he says, "The time of my departure is near. We're just passing through this place anyway, guys. We're going to depart this place where sin has corrupted it, where sin has broken everything, where sin has messed everything up. We're not going to stay here. We're going to depart this place and go somewhere better."
Here's what he says: "I fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith." Now go back and read Paul's life when you've got some study time this week. It was not all good. It's all good? No, it wasn't. Not for Paul. Shipwrecked, beaten, left for dead, in prison several times. That's Paul's life.
But he says, "I fought the good fight, finished the race, I kept the faith." He says, "Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day." I've been up late at night because there are a thousand homes in this world and a million that he believes that he's convinced, convicted of it. He's claiming it as a reality for his life.
He has no doubt that that's what's waiting on him on the other side. And that's how you can live in the moment, even in the broken spirit moments. You can claim this promise for your life that there awaits for you this crown because he says, "It's not only me but also to all who long for His appearing."
Are you longing for the appearing of Jesus? If you are, then you have this promise that you can look forward to even in the moments of brokenness and hardship and bitterness. You can say, "I'm going to hold on. I'm going to keep fighting the good fight. I'm going to finish the race God has for me. I'm going to keep the faith because I know what's waiting for me. I know the rest of the story that God has invited me into through His son Jesus."
And right now, He's inviting you into that story too. Let's pray together.
Father, we thank You for Your grace and for Your grace and for Your grace and for Your grace and for Your grace. Thank You that in Christ we have the big picture story. Moses had part of it. He's going to see more of it as we go through this account in Exodus, but we have even more of the evidence of Your story being played out for Your people.
We have Jesus. We have His life, His teaching, His ministry, His death, His burial, and His resurrection. We have His promise to come back to take us to be with Him. Father, I thank You for calling me into that story, allowing me to be a part of it, for being part of that story at Lakeshore where You're doing such great things here.
It's such a special place, Father. Thank You that we can be in that part of the story. And I pray that if there are others here who You're calling and inviting into that story, that even today their hearts and their minds would be prompted by Your Spirit to take those steps to respond to Your call even now.
It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
We're going to stand and sing and invite you to come today if you have a decision you need to make. Just come right up front while we're singing, and I'll greet you there. Let's stand and sing together.
Everybody have a seat, please. I want to share something with you. Come up here, young lady. Can we get this mic? Thank you. Step right up here.
All right, tell everybody your name. Lark comes today to profess faith in Jesus and to be baptized.
Any Christ.
Yeah. Lark, I want to ask you for our benefit to repeat after me a profession of your faith, okay?
I believe that Jesus is the Christ.
He's the Son of the living God.
And I accept Him as my Lord and Savior.
God bless you, Lark. If you would, Lark, go right over there. Miss Tracy will take you back and get you ready. We're going to celebrate that here in just a moment.
Got a couple of other prayer needs that we wanted to share as well. Come on up here. Tell everybody your name.
She's coming today asking for prayer for a couple of things. One is her husband is still back in the country that they've come from, and he's been trying desperately to get his visa, get everything done to be able to come here and be rejoined with the family.
Tell us again, the country is...
You're right, in Nairobi, Kenya.
So we want to be praying. As you probably know, just from the news, regardless of what political side you might be on, the immigration process is a mess in this country. And even when people are trying to do it the right way, it's a very, very difficult process to do.
So we want to be praying for the right doors to open, the right things to happen, to be able to assist with this and get her husband here with the family. And then also, she's been battling with some depression and struggles as a result, partly of that and other things that have been going on in her life as well.
So we want to pray over her with that right now, okay?
Father, we just want to lift up Your child to You. You know her heart. You know the struggle that she's going through and her family. Father, we know this is one of those times where it could be a broken spirit experience. We pray for renewal of joy and excitement and anticipation of Your faithfulness in Your work and keeping Your promises.
Father, we pray for Your blessing on this family. And we pray that You would work out things in a way according to Your will so that this family could be reunited again. It's our prayer in Jesus' name. Amen.
God bless you. Thank you.
Thank you. Come up here. This is Joseph.
Good. God bless you, Joseph. Thank you for sharing that one. Thank you.
Kay, come on up. Kay comes asking for prayer too. Just step up here. You could just briefly tell us what we're praying for here.
I'll help you there. I'm a little shorty. I'll resemble you on that. Okay, here we go.
Amen. Let's pray right now for them.
Okay, tell us their names.
Tina and Troy.
Let's pray for them.
Father, we just want to lift up Tina and Troy to You. That kind of experience can sure break your spirit. You work so hard. You do things for years that can be taken away so quickly, so easily with something like a tornado coming through.
But, Father, we know we're so thankful their lives are spared, that they're able to continue to have the opportunity to move forward, even in spite of the devastation that they've experienced. But, Father, it's hard. We just pray that You would heal their broken spirit, that You would provide the things that they need physically, mentally, emotionally, in every way, Father.
We know You're the source that they need to turn to and look to, and they'll find You to be faithful. We pray that Your people in that place around them, that they would reach out and help out and supply what they can. But, Father, we know ultimately, it's You. You're the one that will bring this healing and restoration. We thank You in advance, in Jesus' name. Amen.
God bless you. Thank you.
This time, Dr. Ed's going to come and lead us in communion as we prepare to celebrate this baptism.
Lark, it's a privilege as your pastor to be able to accept your profession of faith. And based on that, we now baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit for the forgiveness of your sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
What a joyous celebration today. We're so grateful for all that God is doing here in this place. And when families raise up their children in the Lord, it's such a huge thing for their lives. And we're so thankful for Lark's family, making sure she's being raised up here at Lakeshore, learning about Jesus and growing and taking this step today.
What a great, exciting thing to celebrate. And just as a reminder, we're celebrating our 50th year as a church this year, and God has a special plan for this place. He's been working it out for 50 years, and He's got more yet to come that He's continuing to do.
And we're so thankful you're invited to come and be a part of that along with us. Thank you for your part in this as well.
Before we go today, just a couple of things. We have a couple of announcements to remind you of. Next Sunday is Father's Day. By the way, in your bulletins each week, we have this insert that has announcements of things that are coming up. You can take that with you.
If this is still in good shape, we recycle these bulletin covers so we can put that back in a basket as you leave there, and we reuse those. But Father's Day next Sunday, we want to honor all the dads that are here. We've got some great giveaways we're going to do. It's going to be a fun time.
And we do really want to pray over and thank our dads. You play such an important role in God's story for families, for children that are growing up in the world today that need their dads. So thank you. We hope you can be here for that.
You can see the other things listed here. We've got something we want you to mark your calendar. Save the date for August the 17th. This is several years in a row now. We've done a summer celebration out at Camp YI in Luverne. We hope you can join us for that.
We'll have registration set up in the near future for that as we get all the details worked out. But I just wanted you to put that on your calendar and save that date so you can be a part of that.
We also want you to know, if you want to continue worshiping through giving and offering, that's what supports the work of the ministry of the church. But it's also an act of worship on your part when you do that.
So we have offering boxes. One in the back of the auditorium mounted on a post there. One in the hallway as you exit. You can drop your offerings in the top slot of those boxes. You can also give online at lakeshorechristian.com. You just click on the give tab there on our website.
And you can scan the QR code in the bulletin shell here. They'll take you to that page as well to give online. And you can mail in your offerings to the church office. We have folks that do that on a regular basis too.
And either way you do it, it's an act of worship. And it supports the work and the ministry that God is doing through Lakeshore Christian Church. So we thank you for that.
Let's all stand together. We're going to close with a word of prayer.
Our God and Father, we thank You again for Your love, Your support, Your care, Your provision for our lives. We thank You for reminding us of the big story. There's so many right now that may be in a place of despair or struggle, or we might face that again in the future.
And we need to be reminded, You are the Lord. We're not. But we can trust You because we know Your character. We know Your love. We know that You've already provided for us the guaranteed victory through Jesus.
So help us to hold on in faith and see Your work that only You can do, even through those hard things. For Your glory and for our good. It's our prayer in Jesus' name. Amen.
on Jun 09, 2024
