God Will Not Abandon You

God will not abandon his own. Are you his own? Is he your Lord? Are you his child? Have you put your faith and trust in him?

If you have, you belong to him. I like that other song or hymn books. Now, I belong to Jesus. Jesus belongs to me. Not for years of time alone but for eternity.

He is your Lord. You are his child and he is not going to abandon you. Hebrews thirteen five says, let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have. For he hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. Now, when you read, he hath said.

That tells us that the writer is referring back to previous scripture or scriptures in this case where God has said in the past that he is going to be with you. That he is not going to leave nor forsake you. In this case, he said made similar statements to Abraham. He made similar statements to Isaac. He made similar statements to Jacob.

He made similar statements to Joshua. He made similar statements to David. He made similar statements to the nation of Israel. Again and again, God said in the Old Testament, to the people he called in service to him. He said, I will be what?

I will be with you. Do not be afraid, neither be dismayed. For the Lord your God is with you. He will not leave you. He will not forsake you.

I will be with you. Throughout scriptures, God assured his people of this. Over and over again. Why did they need assuring? Well, we're being the frail human beings we are and we need reassurance, reassurance often especially when times are tough.

We need reassurance from God and God so God knowing our frame does that very thing and reassures us over and over again. That those who have put their faith and trust in him, who have made him their Lord, who are his children, that he will not forsake them and their servants to him. That they can count on him. When everything around us fails, Jesus never what? Jesus never fails.

Even when it seemed that he was not listening to their cries, he was. They were heard. He had a plan. He had a purpose. He was still working for them.

This brings me to Moses and the children of Israel. Bound in slavery in Egypt. It wasn't long after the death of Jacob and after the death of Joseph in Egypt that a new pharaoh rose to power. This pharaoh did not see the Israelites as guests. This pharaoh did not see the Israelites as assets.

He saw them as threats to his power. His decision to enslave them. To enslave them and take away their power. To enslave them and minimize the threat. And so he did.

And for the next, anybody know how long? Four hundred years. They remained enslaved in Egypt. Now, to us, four hundred years seems like an awful, long time but remember to God a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is a day. God has a plan.

He's working out that plan. Particularly, if you are his child, you're part of that plan. But for four hundred years, the Israelites remained enslaved in Egypt. Yet, despite this, terrible situation. They retained their identity.

They didn't just meld into the rest of the culture and lose their identity and their heritage. They still developed a distinct culture. They did retain some degree of faith in God in a pagan land for all those years. They grew in numbers. Each consecutive generation despite the Egyptians best effort to diminish their numbers and destroy their will.

How did all this happen in slavery? Well, this was who's doing? This was God's doing. Amen. God had not abandoned them.

God had not forgotten them. God had a purpose for them and in all of this. As Gamaliel said in Acts five thirty nine, but if it be of God, you cannot overthrow it, lest happily you found, you be found even to fight against God. Egyptians could make whatever laws they wanted to. They could even make laws demanding that the male babies that were born were all to be what?

To be killed, slain. But were all the male babies of the Hebrews killed and slain? The answer to that is no. Did it stop their numbers from growing? No.

Whatever they tried, it didn't work. They didn't stop their numbers from growing. They didn't couldn't find a way to break their will. And that is the doing of God. It was then after four hundred years that the Lord revealed himself again to them and began the process of extricating them from their bondage.

God is at work often behind the scenes in our lives. Doing wonderful things that we cannot see. But he is. We can be assured of that. He is doing it for his glory.

He is doing it to fulfill his plan for us, for our family, for our church, for our nation, for our world. Now, being the selfish creatures that we are, we often only think about who? Ourselves. We think the world must revolve around me. Well, it doesn't.

It revolves around him. He is still on the throne. He has a plan. If you're a child of God, you're part of that plan and that plan is good for who? It's good for you, okay?

He does care about you but there's a bigger picture than just whether I get to watch my favorite TV show this week or whether I get to eat steak this week or whether I get to go on that little vacation that I planned or whether my back feels better this week or my knee hurts this week. We get all caught up in our immediate comforts and prosperity and success and happiness. Our God sees a far bigger picture than we do. Do you care more for yourself, parent, or your children? Would you not sacrifice some of your own prosperity and comfort for theirs?

Is the growth of your church and the salvation of law so is more important to you than hobbies and comforts? We are poor parents indeed if our comfort means more to us than our children. It is a poor pastor indeed who cares more for his own hobbies than the glory of God and the growth of his church. It is sad how often we choose to sacrifice the things which we know of eternal value. On the altar of the temporal and the pleasure of the moment.

We are indeed often selfish and short sighted creatures. Praise the Lord. We have a merciful and compassionate God who is patient with us. Now, having said that, let's get back to to Israel. God loved his people all of this was part of his what?

It was part of his plan. Even the four hundred years in slavery. That too was part of his plan. A matter of fact, he said so. To Abraham back in Genesis.

He said this, 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 also that nation whom they shall serve will I judge. And afterward, they shall come out with great substance.

Do you think this took God by surprise? No. He told Abraham a couple hundred years in advance. You know, I brought you to this land. I'm going to give it to your as an inheritance, to your seed, but first, they're going to what?

They're going to serve another nation for four hundred years before I bring them back here and give them the land that I have promised them. Now, don't ask me all the reasons why, okay? Now, God doesn't always spell out all the reasons why. Ask God someday in heaven if you wish but that God did have a purpose just as he did for the suffering of Job. Just as he did for the imprisonment of Paul.

Just as he does for certain things that crop up in our life that weren't part of our plan. That just aren't pleasant. God has a purpose and he's still on the throne. Sometimes, we go through very difficult times to make us stronger, to build our faith in the Lord. Sometimes, it's not only to build our faith but it's also for the good and benefit of others around us.

For our children, for our neighbors, for our friends, for our coworkers, for our church family. There's a bigger picture here than than just my own comfort and always getting what I want. God knows what he's doing. Whatever the case may be, God has promised his children whatever it is you're going through that you will not go through it what? Alone.

I will never leave you nor forsake you. Don't covet what others around you have particularly the unsaved. You have far more than they do. That's right. You are so blessed.

By the Lord. Don't covet what they have. Learn to be content by learning to trust him. To trust in his promises. Romans eight twenty eight and twenty nine.

And we know that all things work together for what? For good to them that love God. To those who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son. That he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

What is God doing in the life of his children? He's doing what he determined to do back before the foundation of the world to take those who would come to faith in Christ and to conform them to the image of who? His son, Jesus Christ. He's working in you to change your life, to make you a brighter light, a more savory salt in the world in which you live to bring glory to his name and souls to the savior. I've said this before.

I asked this before. If the only reason God saved you was to take you to heaven, where would you be? You'd be in heaven but you're not there. Why not? God's got a job for you where?

Here. And he's working in your life to build you, to strengthen you, to teach you, so that you can better fulfill that ministry here until the day we stand before him complete in Jesus Christ. That's what he means by good. It doesn't mean it's always pleasant. Doesn't mean it's always what you wanted.

But it is for your good, for your benefit. You know, when you have a little child that's going on one year old and you want them to learn to walk and you pick em up by their, you know, fingers and you walk and okay, okay. Now, I'm going to let go and you let go and the child goes, What do you do? Oh, well, that doesn't work. I'm never going to try that again.

No. That's not what you do. What do you do? You pick em back up and you get a hold of their fingers, you start, okay. Now, I'm going let go and okay?

And then eventually, what happens? They learn to walk. We need to learn to walk. God knows that. It is for our what?

It's for our good. James one two through four. My brethren, count all joy when you fall into diverse temptations or trials knowing this that the trying of your faith worketh patience but let patience ever perfect work that you may be perfect and entire wanting or lacking nothing. Trust him. He's working.

Don't despair. Don't give up. Get back up. Try to walk again. He'll help you.

He's right there with you. He'll pick you back up. He's not going to let you. Hurt yourself so to speak. He'll never leave you nor forsake you.

God knows what he's doing. For four hundred years of toil and oppression for God's people, four hundred years that God was with them personally, always there to comfort, to strengthen, to help those who called on him in faith but four hundred long years and when the fullness of time was come, now I I found myself using that since Christmas like four times in four different references. That's of course from Galatians chapter four and verse four but when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his son but when the fullness of time has come, Jesus is coming back. When the fullness of time was come, after 400, God raised up a man named Moses. To lead them out.

A little baby, saved from death by none other than the princess of Egypt. A Jew but bred in the courts of the king of Egypt. A warrior, no doubt, a man of action, a man of faith, a man not willing to sit by and let his fellow Hebrew be beaten. But a man of pride, and temper whom God had to humble. In the desert, for how long?

Forty years. I think it's interesting. Four hundred years in slavery, forty years, Moses on the backside of the desert. Forty years. God worked with Moses until he was the man that God needed him to be.

You watch the movies and sometimes you see Moses and Moses looked like he's a middle aged strapping young man of 30 years old. He was 80 when God called him. He was 80 years old. When he went back to Egypt. 80 years old when God spoke to him out of a burning bush.

So, we join Moses in Exodus three at the burning bush taking off his sandals in reverence and all of the one who spoke to him out of that bush on Mount Sinai, his Lord and his God. Look, if you would, Exodus chapter three and verse nine. Now, therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come unto me and I have also seen the oppression where with the Egyptians oppressed them. This is God speaking to Moses. Come now therefore and I will send thee unto Pharaoh.

That thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel out of Egypt. And Moses said unto God, who am I? That I should go on to Pharaoh and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt. Kinda scratch my head and go, Moses, did you forget? I mean, you know, you were raised in the what?

You were raised in the palace for forty years, okay? But again, I think Moses is speaking out of humility here. Verse 12 and he said, God said, certainly, I will be with thee. Notice that? Praise there?

I will be, what's God's answer? I will be with thee and this shall be a token under thee that I have sent thee. When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God upon this mountain. That's Mount Sinai where God is speaking to Moses that day and where God will speak to him later on with the children of Israel and give him the law. Verse 13 and Moses said unto God, behold, when I come into the children of Israel and shall say unto them, the Lord, the God of your fathers has sent me unto you and they shall say, what is his name?

What shall I say unto them? God said unto Moses, I am that I am and he said, thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I am. Hath sent me unto you and God said moreover unto Moses, thou shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, the Lord God, know us Lord is in all capital what? Letters. That's pronounced by some as Jehovah and others as Yahweh.

We're not exactly sure because the Israelites quit pronouncing it but it's God's personal name. Means, I am. The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob hath sent me unto you. This is my name forever and this is my memorial unto all generations. Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say unto them, the Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob appeared unto me saying I have surely visited you and seen that which is done to you in Egypt and I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt into the land of the Canaanites and the Hittites, the Amorites, and the Parasites, and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, unto the land flowing with milk and honey.

Where's that? That is what? That is Canaan where Abraham was when God said to him in Genesis 15, your descendants are going to serve me for four hundred years, another nation before they come back what? Before they come back here. Verse 18, and they shall hearken unto thy voice and thou shalt come.

Thou and the elders of Israel unto the king of Egypt and you shall say unto him, the Lord God of the Hebrews hath met with us and now let us go. We beseech thee three days journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice the Lord our God and I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go. No, not by a mighty hand. In other words, you're going to go ask him and he's going to laugh at you. He's going to say, what?

Who do you think you are and what are you going to do about it? And but God's going to show him, isn't he? God's going to show him. Verse 20, and I will stretch out my hand and smite Egypt with all my wonders which I do in the midst thereof and after that, he will let you go. And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians.

It shall come to pass that when you go, you shall not go empty. But every woman shall borrow of her neighbor and have heard that sojourneth in her house, jewels are silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment, and you shall put them upon your sons and upon your daughters, and you shall spoil the Egyptians. Remember back to Genesis fifteen thirteen and fourteen, and also that nation whom they shall serve will I judge, and afterward, they shall come out with what? Great substance. This God promised to Moses and this God did.

What did God have to say to Moses here out of the burning bush? I have heard the cries of my people. He had. I am well aware of their suffering. He was.

I am sending you to deliver them out of Egypt. He hears our cries also. He hears yours. He knows the burdens you carry. He understands.

Your doubts and your fears. Your spiritual weaknesses and your failures. Your physical limitations and your pain. Why is it that we hesitate to trust him? To follow him.

We see here in scripture over and over again. How God always kept his what? His word. He always was faithful to his children. Do you not think that he will care for you?

Moses had these problems too including hesitation. Did God still called him? What is God calling you to do? If you do not know today, listen. He might have something for you tomorrow.

To do. Just keep listening. Stay open. If you're willing, he has something for you too. What did Moses say to God?

Who am I that I should do this thing? You know, that's okay, really. I think Moses was speaking out of a heart of what? Humility. More than a lack of faith.

But we do need to have faith and learn to have faith in whose abilities. And God's abilities. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Do you believe that? Do you believe all things work together for good to them that love the Lord?

Do you believe that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me? You should. Because Jesus never what? Jesus never fails. God's response to Moses, simply this, I'll be with you.

Moses said, who am I? God didn't say, oh, you're a mighty person. Oh, you can do all these great things. You're really cool, Moses. No, God said to Moses, don't worry about it because what?

I will be with you. Whatever God has called you to do or or God is calling you to go through. Don't despair. Don't hesitate to follow, to answer because God simply says to you and me, I will what? I'll be with you.

You're not alone. I don't expect you to do this on your own. God says, I will be with you because I will be with you. You will lead them out of Egypt to worship me on this mountain. All you need to know in the service of the Lord is this, he will be with you, to strengthen you, to empower you, to guide you, to pick you up when you fall down.

You say, well, pastors don't have any of those troubles. Well, then you don't know pastors very well because pastors are people too. God called me to be a pastor, a minister, a preacher of the word, and my first answer to God for two and a half years was God, I can't do this. Till I finally realized that God said, no, it's okay that you can't do this. I can do this.

Trust me. Trust me. God never asked you to do anything. He will not empower you to do. Right.

What does Moses say to God again? Well, who shall I say sent me when they ask? God said, tell him the God, tell them the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. The almighty, unchanging, only eternal, self existent one, the one who is the I am that I am. Everything else is made by him.

He is the almighty one. He is the eternal one. And he is the personal God of Israel and the personal God of every believer who comes to Jesus Christ. He is your God too. He is your Jehovah, your Yahweh, your Lord.

The same God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. The same God as Moses, their God, your God, Israel's God, our God. The one who always keeps his what? Promises to his own. Let me read a few verses for you here.

In closing, Genesis thirteen fourteen through 16. More promises God made here to to Abraham. Chapter thirteen fourteen through 16 of Genesis or verse 14, the Lord said unto Abraham, after Lot was separated from him, lift up thou thine eyes and look from the place where thou art northward and southward and eastward and wested. For all the land which thou seest to thee will I give it and to thy seed forever and I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth so that if any man can number the dust of the ground, then shall thy seed also be numbered. God said to Abraham, you see this land?

Far as you can see, it's all yours. I'm going to give it to your seed and your seed is going to be so vast. You're not going to be able to count them. Israel went in to the nation of Egypt as about 70 people. They came out as about 2,000,000.

That's a lot of people. Imagine looking across a valley and seeing 2,000,000 people. You're to count them? Good luck. And two millions are dropping a bucket to how many of Abraham's descendants are around today.

God keeps his promises and God brought them back and God gave them the land. Genesis 15 again, 13 through 16 and he said to Abraham, know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not there shall serve them. They shall afflict them four hundred years. Also, that nation whom they shall serve will I judge and afterward, they shall come out with great substance and thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace and thou shalt be buried in good old age and in the fourth generation, they shall come hither here again. For iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.

God says, hold on. It's not time yet. I'm going to give the Canaanites, the Amorites four hundred and some more years to get it right. But when they don't, the time of their judgment will come in the time of your reward and that's exactly what happened and God called Moses to be the one to deliver them out of Egypt. He has not forsaken you.

He has made promises to you. I will never leave you nor forsake you. I went home to prepare a what? A place for you and I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am, there you may be also. He has made us so many promises.

How many do you think he's going to fail to keep? None. Not one. Not one. No matter how hard life gets, no matter how bad the world gets, no matter what misfortune befalls us, no matter what stupid decisions we make, Jesus never fails.

God will not abandon his own. Those who put their faith in him will never never regret it. He has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. God had not forsaken Moses, those forty years in the wilderness. He had not forsaken Israel, those four hundred years in slavery.

He has not forsaken you. Oh you of little faith. With Christ in the vessel, we can smile at the storm. Does the ship's not going down with Jesus in it? And if he's in your life, the ship's not going down.

Trust in him. Hold fast to his promises. Look past the suffering of the moment to look at the big picture and if you can't see it, trust him. He can. Do not lose faith.

Do not despair. He is with you, not them. If God before us, who can be against us? He is with you. Trust him and let him have his way with you.

He is with you. Go where he leads. Dare to ask him to show you. And trust him. Do you believe it's just a quaint saying?

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me? Or do you really think God means it? Don't be afraid. I'll never leave you nor forsake you, he says. Let's pray.

Dear God, thank you Lord. For these precious promises for the reminder today that the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the God of Moses and Joshua and David, the God of Matthew and John and Paul is our God today. He is the almighty one. He is the unchanging one. He is the eternal one.

He is the loving, compassionate, yet holy and just God whom we serve. And Lord, we can trust you. We don't have to be afraid. We don't have to hesitate. We can ask You will give us direction.

You will empower us in your service and Lord, I pray if today and we think Lord, I I've not been trusting Lord. I've been afraid. Lord, forgive us. Help us, Lord, to confess those failures and sins before you. You'll cleanse us and strengthen us for the journey ahead.

And Lord, I pray if there's one who's never trusted Christ as savior, as we give this hymn of invitation this morning. I pray that they would come and receive Christ today, that they too would experience this blessed relationship. They too would know what it means to be a child of God. And that these promises I will never leave you nor forsake you. Our promises that are for them also.

In Jesus name, we do pray. Amen.