And, it was always a blessing. I think I got more blessings from the kids' church than they did. But, anyway, it's good to see you folks here this morning. I'm sorry you're having a look at my ugly mug once again. Pastor Polar is with his parents up in Roanoke once again to try to help with the transition that his parents are going through right now.

And, unfortunately, I haven't heard anything from him. I know he left here last Sunday after the morning worship service, but I trust that things are going well for him. Please do keep praying for our pastor. And then, I have a few other things I wanna talk about before I get into the message, and and I actually I made a bunch of, notes here, reminders, things to talk about. And, boy, it's gonna take us at least ten minutes to get through this list.

First of all, I wanted to tell you that, my wife and I were able to be at Debbie Poe's memorial service in Sebring yesterday. I know that perhaps a lot of you wanted to do that, wanted to go, but just weren't able to. And, John, expressed his appreciation for, the fact that, we were able to be there. And and if I, Becky, you have to correct me if I got this wrong. I think John said that the church our church had sent some flowers for the funeral.

Okay. He he thanked us for the flowers. I don't know if you knew about that. I didn't know about it until I was there, but he expressed his appreciation and gratitude for that. Also, he allowed me to to bring several, programs from Debbie's memorial service.

So if you are interested in getting any of these, I'll leave them right here. There's a a really sweet testimony of, Debbie inside the cover there. I learned a lot of things I didn't know about her. I didn't know Debbie all that well because, when we first met her, she was already recovering from the liver transplant that she had in '9 in 2020. So she she was really, really quite sick for the past six years, and, we can just rejoice that she's now safe in the arms of Jesus, and she is not suffering one bit.

She's dancing down the halls of, the temple in heaven. She's doing much better than any of us is right now. That's for sure. So also, if you're interested, you might be able to see her service online if you go to the Southside Baptist Church Sebring, Florida website. Ian Gray told me he was able to actually watch it while it's taking place.

I So don't know if it's posted there or if it's in their archives, but you might if you're interested, you might look into that. Alright. So, my wife suggested something to me this morning that I wanted to I thought it was a great idea. I wanted to pass this on to you. It might be a good idea, periodically, give John a call, ask him to tell you about Debbie.

He specifically mentioned that. He he was kinda joking, but I think he was kinda serious too. He'd be lovely, very happy to talk about Debbie at any time. And I I've read I've done some study on how to help people who are grieving. And, one of the things that was mentioned frequently is the person who's lost a loved one, to them, that person is not gone.

They want others to think that that person was special. And if you this might make you feel awkward. You might think they don't want me to do this. They don't want to talk about this person that they love that is now gone. But on the other hand, they do.

Many of them do. They like to talk about the person. They like to think that others haven't forgotten their loved one as well. So this might be something to think about and, put it into practice, not only with brother John, and I've got his phone number if you need it, or any anybody else. So I I also just wanted to mention, thank you, brother Dick, for the Sunday school lesson.

That was a real blessing. I've been a believer for over fifty years, and I have never heard any teaching from the Bible on the theme of greeting one another in the church. And, if you don't mind, brother, I'd like to use that in The Philippines next time I'm there. So it was a it was a great blessing. And I do intend to continue to put that into practice.

Also, brother Dick, you mentioned in your Sunday school lesson about one way to to greet people is, you know, ask their name, ask if there's anything you can pray about for them. And I just wanna let you this this happened to me yesterday in Sebring. I don't know how many of you folks remember Marvin and Sue Stevens. They used to be members here. They now live in Sebring.

They're not members of this church, but they were there for Debbie's memorial service. And when we saw them afterwards, Marvin came up to me, the first thing he said was, I pray for you daily. I didn't know that. That was a tremendous encouragement and blessing. So, I'm just letting you know, don't be afraid to ask people, can I pray for you about something?

Or or, you know, and just in talking with them, they may mention something that strikes you as something. Would you like me to pray about that with you right now? Do it right now if you can, you know, if there's time. Chances are if you're like me, you'll forget about it five minutes later. So the best time to do it is right then.

Okay? So, also, afterwards, we we met a lady that we had not met before, that we knew of her because she's been helping our daughter and her family, and, she's the lady that takes care of our grandson's horseback therapy. So we we told her how much we appreciate what she's doing, and we said, I've been praying for you. She looked surprised. So I really have been praying for you.

We prayed that God would set this all up. And when we found out he brought you into the picture, we're just thrilled. So that was an encouragement to her as well. Also, one final thing. No.

Two final things. Yesterday, I don't know what time, but and I don't know what location. Another team of doctors and nurses left to go to The Philippines. This is similar to what my wife did last November, and they should be arriving in Manila sometime within the next few hours. Then they will be ultimately going on to Giwan once again.

They will spend a week there ministering in the villages and then going to another neighboring island, Leyte, a different location, administering there for a week. So I'd like to ask you to please please pray for them. I know, the mission leader of this time is doctor Steven Butris, and his wife, Katrina, is herself a Filipina. She's a nurse, and, Becky knows them. She met them when she was with them on the team she went to, in November.

So I don't know the other members on the team, but but please pray for them. Becky can confirm to you. It's it's kind of a grueling schedule. It's hard work. It's it's working outdoors, and it's in the heat.

No AC. No access to refreshment. Sometimes you don't really even have access to decent toilets when you're out there in the villages. So it's it's a challenge for them. But pray that God will give them wisdom as they encounter sometimes very, very difficult and unexpected types of cases, medical or dental cases.

The last time when Beckett was there, they had some lung came with this huge I don't know what the problem was with her head. Her head was huge. I don't know if it was a tumor. Do you know it was a tumor, honey? Tumor and a Well, I've never seen anything like that before in my life.

But so they they sometimes face things that they're not prepared for or expecting. They're they're just unusual. So you do what you can do. But not only that, pray that God will work in the hearts of the people who come to these clinics. They've been we've we've found over the years that these clinics are very, very fruitful, spiritually speaking, because many times the people will respond to the gospel when they hear it.

It's especially challenging in The Philippines because so many of the people come with a a cultural background in Roman Catholicism, and many folks, if you know anything about this type of thing, they they think that they're Christian because the Roman Catholic church is known as the Catholic church, the Roman Catholic the church. Right? I grew up Catholic, so I understand this. But sometimes they they respond to the message of the gospel, but they're confused by a lot of the cultural Roman Catholicism baggage that they come along with. And it's challenging to get them to really understand.

So the reason why I'm mentioning this also is because I still am planning to go to The Philippines myself for about a month. I have to keep putting it off because of health problems I've been dealing with. But, Lord willing, July 7 through August 4. I haven't yet made the plans. I need to do it soon.

Pray that God will provide the, probably, additional finances I'm gonna need. I heard airfares are just going through the roof because of all that's happening in the world today. Okay. That is that. Now I would like you to, let's see here.

Get this started. I would like you to look at Exodus chapter two verses 23 through 25. And while you're turning there yes, Gwen? Would it be better if I put it over here on the lapel? How's that work?

Is that better? Yeah. What might You were just moving your arms. I'm sorry. Yeah.

I talk with my hands a lot. I apologize. I'm not even Italian. I don't know where that comes from. Thank you.

Don't don't ever hesitate to raise your hand and draw my attention to things like that if you need to do so. I am not offended, and probably other people are struggling with the same problem you're dealing with there too. So while you're looking for Exodus chapter two verses 23 to 25, I'm going to pray. Father in heaven, how grateful we are for the privilege to know you, to be your children, to be able to join our hearts together in prayer with other precious brothers and sisters in Christ as we come to your throne of grace. We're grateful to be here this morning at Missouri Avenue Baptist Church, this particular location here in Clearwater, Florida, and we're especially grateful that we can know you as our savior.

Our earnest desire today, Lord Jesus, is to bring you glory, to see you exalted. We want you to get the the honor, the the worship, the adoration, the respect that you are worthy of. And if it comes from nowhere else, let it come from this place here right now. We also ask, Lord Jesus, to work in our hearts, the hearts of people who might hear this message at some later date in some other fashion. We ask especially for those dear souls who do not know you, that they might open their hearts to you, that you would draw them to yourself because, Lord, you've told us in your word, you are not willing that any single one individual would perish, but that everyone would come to repentance.

Your desire is to save folks, not to condemn them. And we thank you that you've saved us. Thank you for your mercy. Please fill me now with your Holy Spirit. Give me strength, give me stamina, give me energy, give me wisdom, and open the hearts of the folks who are hearing this message.

May they be blessed by it. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Okay. You have Exodus chapter two verses twenty three and twenty five.

I'm gonna read them right now. Please follow along if you have it there in front of you in your Bible or on your iPhone or your Android phone, whatever it is. So Exodus chapter two verses 23 through 25. And it came to pass in process of time that the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.

And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them. If you don't mind doing so or if you're not in the habit of this might bother you, but if you don't mind, if you have a pen or something, underline or circle that phrase right there in verse 24, God remembered. Because we're gonna talk about that here. The theme of the message for this morning is God never forgets or fails to be faithful to fulfill his promises. He never forgets.

When he makes a promise, he doesn't forget it. If he says he's gonna do something, he he will not fail to do it. It might not happen at the time that we expect it will happen. It might not take place in the way we expect it to take place. Chances are it'll be totally different than anything we were expecting at the time we least expect it.

But you can be absolutely certain. God never forgets or fails to be faithful to his to fill excuse me, faithful to fulfill his promises. What do you first think about when you hear the word promises? How about what comes to your mind first? Broken?

You think of oh, I've heard lots of promises in my lifetime. Most of have been broken. How about when you hear the word promises, do you think of politicians? Did you detect the cynicism of old age here? Here's another determiner of age.

How many of you remember the song Promises, Promises made famous by Dion Warwick? Okay. If you do, you're at least as old as I am. And it also indicates the level of worldliness at that time in my life because, sadly, I didn't know any Christian songs when I was 14 years old. I didn't know of a church that preached the Bible when I was 14 years old.

So I digress. Anyway, some of the lyrics to this song, just briefly going to refer to it, not to be worldly, but because it does relate to what I'm talking about here. Oh, promises, their kind of promises can just destroy a life. Oh, promises, those kind of promises take all the joy from life. Oh, promises, promises, my kind of promises can lead to joy and hope and love.

Yes, love. Oh my. Yes. It's true. Man's promises can indeed just destroy a life, take all the joy from life.

But God's promises, now that's another story, isn't it? Particularly when those promises are viewed from the lens of the Bible. That's what we're going to do today. We're gonna look at least at a few of God's promises. And because nothing is more important than the realization that God never forgets or fails to be faithful in the fulfillment of his promises.

Truly, the knowledge of this will fill our hearts with joy and love. Unlike what this song was talking about, human love and joy, we will know God's joy and love as we dwell upon his promises. So considering again what we're what we just earlier read in the book of Exodus, I'm gonna give you the backstory. It's important to know what's going on here. Okay?

So here's what happened that led up to what we've just read there in Exodus chapter two. Beginning in Genesis around chapter 12 or so, God began to work in a different way throughout humanity by selecting one man and working through this one man to bring about the blessing that's gonna come upon this whole world through his descendants. Of course, that one man was Abraham. His descendants became known as the children of Israel. And, one of those famous descendants was known as Joseph.

God worked in some pretty amazing ways in Joseph's life, in the life of his father, Jacob, ways that we wouldn't expect. Right? Joseph ended up as a slave, sold into slavery by his other brothers. And he was in Egypt. He was in prison.

He was there for maybe thirteen, fourteen years. Eventually, God brought him out of prison, had him interpret some dreams that he had sent to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, told him about the fact there was gonna be seven years of plenty, and then it was gonna be followed by seven years of famine, you need to be prepared for this. And Pharaoh decided, well, you're just the man to lead us through this time. So from being a slave in prison for over a decade to now being the second in command of Egypt. Amazing.

So God moved Jacob and his family to Egypt through this series of incidents. He used the hardship of Joseph's enslavement and a seven year famine to prompt this relocation because Jacob was in Canaan. That's the promised land. He doesn't wanna leave. This is the land God's promised to my forefathers.

I don't wanna leave. God made them leave. Made them willing to leave. He said, no. It's time to leave.

I got some other plans here. So these are not the kind of things we would choose to accomplish our plans, are they? We wouldn't think to do it this way. But God's ways are higher than our ways. God's ways are always right.

He never makes mistakes. He never has to say, oh, I didn't think of that when I made this plan. So what made him what motivated God to do this in the first place? At the risk of sounding blasphemous, was it some capricious spur of the moment harebrained scheme? No.

If we were discussing the gods, in quotes, that the peoples of the nations around the Israelites worshiped, we might be inclined to say, yes. The God of Israel, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, he's not like that. So let me just read you a few quotes here regarding the gods that the peoples of the surrounding nations worship so you have an idea of where they're coming from because in our modern day culture, in our experience, we don't understand this. We don't relate to this, but listen to these quotes here. People in the ancient world believed that the gods had made people as slave laborers because they were tired of growing their own food and taking care of their own needs.

This is the gods that they worshiped. People cared for the gods who lived an opulent, pampered lifestyle, including food, drink, clothing, housing, etcetera. And in turn, the gods took care of the people because they had vested interest in doing so. So gods took care of the people that they had created because they didn't wanna take care of themselves so that the people will take care of them. Crazy.

That's what they thought, though. So this there was a codependent relationship of mutual need. So the gods needed the people, the people needed the gods. This provides the context for understanding temples, rituals, worship, and religious obligation in the ancient world. Hopefully, just just this one quote as you read in the Old Testament about these things related to idolatry.

It'll help give you a greater understanding and appreciation for what's going on. Now Israel is called to a far different way of thinking because Yahweh has no needs. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he's the creator of everything. He doesn't need anything. He doesn't have to create mankind to take care of his needs.

No. So here's another quote. The gods in the ancient world were generally believed to not be forthcoming. They were not believed to reveal themselves broadly. Consequently, one could never be sure exactly what the God expected from people except to be pampered.

Whenever something went wrong, people in the ancient world would assume that they had somehow offended a petty deity. These gods or their gods, I should say, were indeed capricious. Their worshipers never knew what to expect from them or where they stood in relation to them. So at least one of God's motivations in moving the family of Jacob to Egypt, which was, we can call it a hotbed of pagan idolatry, and had them there for over four hundred years. At least one of the reasons God did that had to do with contrasting his character and attributes with his rivals, the false gods, placated by the pagans.

So a new pharaoh, which knew not Joseph, says that in Exodus Exodus one eight through nine came to power there. And God blessed the children of Jacob mightily by causing them to multiply. We see that in verse seven there. Now there are two words for nation in biblical Hebrew. One of them is the word, I don't know how you pronounce this, am, am.

It's how we would say it. And the other word is goy. You probably heard of goyim. Goy. I think goyim is the plural.

So am refers to a nation defined by blood ties, a common ancestry, history, and language. The other word, GOI, refers to a nation defined as a political unit. K? So think of it this way. We're all Americans by culture.

It's a political unit. We're all part of this nation, but we have a culture. Many of us have blood relationships. We we have a heritage that is ours. We know what it is to be an American.

Right? And you meet other Americans around the world and you immediately identify. You can tell when you meet other Americans around the world because of that. That's the word am. The word goy is just the political unit.

Okay? So now why is this important? So in using the word am, Pharaoh is saying in effect, the purity of the Egyptian people was being threatened by an alien presence. The children of Israel because they're of a different bloodline. That's why he was one of the reasons why he said he was fearful about the Egyptian excuse me, the Israelites overpowering the Egyptians.

They were a different bloodline, different culture, different background. They're not like us. They're foreigners. They're gaijin outside people. So their increasing numbers threatened Pharaoh to the point that he concocted a devilish scheme at population control.

Think ancient holocaust, except this time it's an Egyptian holocaust, not a Nazi holocaust. You can see that in Exodus chapter one verses eight through 14 if you care to look there. I don't have time right now for us to look at it. So the new ruler, one of the Israelites' possessions and their labor. They wanted to steal everything they had, and he wanted to steal their labor.

And so he created the supposed danger of their becoming allies with Egypt's enemies or leaving the country to hide his true motives. He enslaved them, cruelly worked them to death, and then ordered their outright murder at birth. Some ancient Egyptian texts give us a picture of what life would have been like for ordinary workers who were not slaves. And it paints life as overwhelmingly tough, unrelenting, wearying, dirty, miserable, thoroughly wretched. This is for the average person.

If you were a slave, you could compound that. So the life of Israelite slaves must have been one of cruel bondage, which was apparently enforced ruthlessly. Now I'm gonna have to skip ahead. There's there's so much information I'd like to share with you, but I don't have the time to do it. So I'm gonna move now to point number two.

And you just see I'm skipping through a whole lot here. This is the 33 page Thurman. I just skipped a bunch of pages. Don't worry. So once again, I want to remind you about the theme.

God never forgets or fails to be faithful to fulfill His promises. Alright? So now point number two, I gave you the backstory, probably more than you ever wanted to know, but it's important to understand it. The second point here is, did God forget? Exodus chapter two verse 24, we read once again, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham.

Did you circle that phrase God remembered or underline it, highlight it, do something? Now in the covenantal language So there was a covenant here that God made with Abraham back in Genesis. And in the covenantal language, the term remember should not be misunderstood to suggest that God was somehow unaware or unconcerned previously. The Bible consistently portrays him as intervening at various times for various purposes, though rarely as soon as humans in their self centeredness would like. Indeed, this particular remembering that God talks about here comes at the end of no less than four hundred and thirty years of captivity.

Does that mean God just forgot about the he was busy with other things and forgot about the Israelites and their slavery for four hundred and thirty years. Is that what that means? The emphasis is on ongoing covenant. God's promises never stopped being valid even though they had not yet been fulfilled. It may be useful to realize that the term that's translated remember is idiomatic for covenant application rather than recollection.

Okay. So what what we're trying to see here is when God says he remembered the Israelites at this particular point in their history, it doesn't mean, oh, I forgot about these guys here for about four hundred and thirty years. Oh, yeah. Something brought them back to his attention. No.

That's not what's going on. What is going on is God is saying, now is the time I begin to fulfill my covenantal promises that I made to Abraham hundreds of years ago. Hundreds of years. Abraham's not even around anymore. So in other words, to say God remembered his covenant is to say God decided to honor the terms of his covenant at that time in the history of the Israelites.

So God works according to his own inscrutable timetable. But from our perspective, God never seems to step in early enough. Right? Lord, when are you gonna fulfill these promises? You know, Jesus said he's gonna come back.

Lord, when are you gonna fulfill this promise? It's been over two thousand years. We're we're waiting. We're ready any day now. Right?

God doesn't always fulfill things according to our timetable. He's got his own timetable, and he doesn't consult with us to find out when's the best time to do stuff. So when the Torah that's basically the first five books of the Bible. I talked about it in Sunday school a few weeks ago. When the Torah describes God as remembering, it does not mean the same as humans remembering.

Doesn't mean that he's forgotten something. God's remembering means God has decided to act now. He's going to fulfill his promises. He didn't forget them. He's gonna go to work now.

So God is about to keep one of his initial promises he made to Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation, in Genesis chapter 12 verse two, where he said to Abraham, and I will make of thee a great nation and I will bless thee. Well, here's a great nation. Lots and lots of people. God was blessing them as far as fertility was concerned, but they're slaves. And we don't really know just how long they've been enslaved, but probably for at least a hundred or so years from the time that Joseph died until this pharaoh that knew not Joseph was now the king.

Probably at least a hundred or so years they were actually enslaved. But God had made this covenantal promise to Abraham. Abraham's not around on earth to see and fulfill this, but Abraham's in heaven or somewhere, paradise. He's with God. He knows God hasn't fulfilled that promise yet, and he's looking forward to it being fulfilled.

I can imagine God saying, be patient a little longer, Abraham. I haven't forgotten you. I haven't forgotten what I said to you. I'm gonna take care of this. Don't worry about it.

So in Genesis chapter 15 verses thirteen and fourteen and also the first part of verse 16, read, And he said unto Abraham, Abraham, know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them four hundred years. And that nation whom they shall serve will I judge, and afterwards shall they come out with great substance. But in the fourth generation, they shall come hither again. That's what God told Abraham when he made the covenant. All this time, hundreds of years has gone by.

Now he's about to fulfill his promises. He hasn't forgotten them. He's now going to begin to act. Exodus chapter three verse nine reiterates both Exodus three verse seven and Exodus two twenty three through 25 to remind us, and in this case, Moses, that God had not forgotten his people. He was deeply concerned for them and would act on their behalf.

This is the time Moses at the burning bush. Right? God says, I haven't forgotten y'all. I'm coming to take care of business. So the fact that the Israelites had been suffering cruelly and facing extermination at the hands of a brutal despot serves to highlight the reality that most people live most of their lives ignoring and neglecting their beneficent creator and sustainer.

So here's the picture again. Remember, when Jacob and his family, his children and his grandchildren, maybe some great grandchildren at that point, It's hard to say. Anyway, he went down into Egypt. There were 70 people when they went there. Now a couple hundred years later, four hundred years later, we don't know the exact number, but hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions.

And the more that pharaoh and the Egyptians tried to eradicate the Jews, the more they they flourished. They couldn't get rid of them. This was evidence of God's blessing on their lives. They didn't look at it that way at that time, I'm sure, but that's what was happening. So probably at least since the time of Jacob's passing and even more so since the passing of Joseph and all the rest of his brothers, the Israelites apparently were more and more corrupted by the all encompassing idolatry that surrounded them on every side.

Their slide into ignorance of the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob was so complete. By the time God raised up Moses to deliver them, God had to remind even him of the name by which he was known to Abraham. If you want to take the time to do so, make a note of Genesis twelve seven and eight and chapter 13 verse four because these verses reference the fact that Abraham knew God as Yahweh. It might say Lord in capital l o r d in your bible. That's the name Yahweh.

And now Moses at the burning bush, God's revealing himself to Moses again as Yahweh. K? So Exodus three thirteen through 15, Moses said unto God, behold, when I come unto the children of Israel and shall say unto them, the God of your fathers has sent me unto you, and they shall say to me, what is his name? What shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I am that I am.

And he said, thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I am has sent me unto you. And God said moreover unto Moses, thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, the Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, has sent me unto you. This is my name forever. This is my memorial unto all generations. He's saying, by my name, Yahweh, that's his covenantal name that he revealed to Abraham.

Now he's saying, I haven't forgotten the promises I made to your forefather Abraham. I'm about to take action, and I'm gonna fulfill these promises at this stage in your history. Take heart. Things are gonna get tougher before they get better, but I'm here and I'm acting. I haven't forgotten you or the promises.

So, again, I'm gonna have to skip things here, unfortunately, because I'm just running out of time. So remember, what's the theme? God never forgets or fails to be faithful to fulfill his promises. Okay. This is interesting.

As the Israelites experienced more oppression, their growth increased. They were they became more numerous. And this has the effect of dramatizing the need of Israel and thus increasing concern that something must be done. As you're reading this, you realize this is, woah, man. What's gonna happen to these poor people?

We know because we've read the book. Right? But the point is they didn't know at that time. So as they're they're becoming more and more numerous and they're the the cruel slavery, the bondage becoming more and more ruthless. They're having their baby boys murdered by being thrown into the river.

They're starting to pay attention and cry out to God. Right? Isn't that the way it so often is with us? We walk in our eyes daily oblivious to God's blessing and provision and the fact that we need him for our very breath. And then all of a sudden, he'll allow some seeming catastrophe to happen to us to, oh, that's like, you get hit over the head by two by four.

Oh, yeah. Now I'm paying attention, God. Now now you start to look for help. Now you start to pray to God. God, please help me.

I'm in desperate straits. This is where the Israelites are. That's where they are right now. So point number three, God comes through in the clinch. When they were at their most desperate, most difficult predicament, God shows up, reveals himself to them anew.

He does this with each new generation. He does this with each individual. We realized that God had not forgotten about his people and nor has God forgotten about you right here. He hasn't forgotten you. He knows what problems you're dealing with.

He knows what challenges you're facing. He knows that you're sweating. How am I gonna get enough money to pay the bills this month? He knows that you're concerned, oh, man, my job looks like I'm gonna get laid off. What am I gonna do?

He knows that your car is on the verge of breaking down. He knows that there's all kinds of heartache in your family. There's all kinds of disruption in the relationships that ought to be harmonious. God knows these things. Sometimes he works through these things to cause people to come to him, to turn to him, to look to him for help.

So all of Exodus two leads up to the proclamation of God's word that he was about to fulfill his covenantal promises to Abraham and his descendants. So the misery of years of save slavery finally broke the stubborn human pride of the ancient Israelites, and they began to cry out for deliverance. And this is exactly what God had been waiting for because now is the beginning of the process whereby he keeps his promises to bless them. In a similar way, God awaits the time in each of our lives when we groan under the burden of our enslavement to sin so that he can keep his promises to deliver us from his bondage. So God began the process of fulfilling his promises by revealing himself to Moses, the one he plans to use as a deliverer of the Israelites from enslavement.

Now, God in his infinite mercy, delights to draw us individually to himself by beginning a new relationship. That's what he did with Moses. Moses didn't know God. He had Hebrew parents. He was raised in the Hebrew culture and tradition until he was taken over by the princess of Egypt and raised in the, probably, the palace of Egypt.

But he didn't know God. He didn't have that personal relationship. God started by working to draw Moses into that personal relationship. He revealed himself to Moses as the holy one of Israel. The one who's he just is.

This is the part I had to skip, the meaning of God's name. I am that I am. He just is. His very essence is just being. He is.

So he's revealing himself to Moses, and that's what God does to us. He begins to reveal himself to us as we as we start to pay attention. I'll never forget when I finally started paying attention. I started to seek God, and I said, Lord, I I just wanna know you. I need I need to know more about you.

And I'd read the Bible, and I'd learned some things about God. So I wanna know more about you, God. I wanna be more like you. I wanna please you. When God's got you in that place in your life, count on it.

He will reveal himself to you. He will show you that he hasn't forgotten you, that he hasn't ignored you. He hasn't had hard feelings towards you. He will draw you into this close relationship with himself. And mark my words, God's word says he does this through his son, Jesus Christ.

You can have this personal relationship with God through the person of God's son, Jesus Christ. Listen to verse chapter one of second Corinthians verse 20. You might wanna write that down. Second Corinthians one twenty, for all the promises of God in him are yay, and in him, amen, under the glory of God by us. What this is saying is that the heart of that gospel message was the person of Jesus Christ who completely affirms all God's promises to people.

And the only proper response to God's gospel message is, amen. Let it be so. Let it be so. Thus, we humble ourselves at the foot of the cross of Christ, acknowledging ourselves to be entirely sinful, enslaved by sin, and in rebellion against God. Then we obediently receive him as our savior.

At that instant, all of God's promises will be fulfilled to you. Just like God fulfilled all of his promises to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. So brothers and sisters, let me just close with a few other thoughts here. You know, this is from the Old Testament and it relates predominantly and primarily to the Jews, the Israelites, but it's not just for them and about them. Listen to what God had Paul write in first Corinthians chapter 10 verses one through 11, and I'll close with this.

Moreover, brethren, I would not that you should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea. He's referring to the Exodus time. He's referring again to his ancestors, the Jews, because this was Paul writing. And they were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and they did all eat the same spiritual meat, the manna, the quail. They all drank the same spiritual drink for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.

Yeah. But with many of them, God was not well pleased for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up the play.

That is they committed sexual immorality. Neither let us commit fornication as some of them committed and fell in one day, three and twenty thousand. God killed 23,000 of them in one day because of their rebellion against him. Neither let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of serpents. Another incident that happened in the wilderness to the Jews.

Neither murmured ye, as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer, Nathan and Abiram. They were complaining about Moses' leadership and what did God do to them? Split the earth open and swallowed them right up. God doesn't tolerate this kind of nonsense. We may think he's a god of love and mercy and kindness, and he is, but he has his limits when it comes to sin.

So neither murmur. Now, verse 11, all these things happened unto them for our examples. And they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come. So we see that God never forgets or fails to be faithful to fulfill his promises. What promises are you waiting for God to fulfill in your life?

Be assured my dear brother and sister in Christ, God knows what He has promised and He will not forget His promises. He will keep His word. Count on that. Not because I said so, because God is faithful. God promises, God fulfills his promises.

All right, let's pray. Father in heaven, you are so great. We humble ourselves before you, and we just lift our hands up in adoration and worship. What a great God you are. Thank you for sending your son Jesus to be our savior.

Help us, Lord, to respond in the way that pleases you to the words of your, to the words of this message based on your word. Thank you that you are a God that is faithful and fulfills all your promises. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.