God Desires a Relationship

[0:00] that Moses was not faithful in delivering the message that God had given him to deliver to Pharaoh. And there were a few things that we pointed out, one of them being that God told him to take Aaron and the elders of Israel with him into Pharaoh, and he didn't do that, he just took Aaron.

[0:16] Another thing is God gave him signs to do, wonders to do, not just in front of the people to get them to believe, but he said you do that in front of Pharaoh, and he didn't do that.

[0:28] He was also told of Pharaoh that he's not only supposed to tell him to let his people go, to go out and sacrifice, let him go out into the desert to sacrifice, but he was also supposed to tell him that if he doesn't let him go, that God's going to slay his firstborn son.

[0:43] And that part of the message never made it to Pharaoh's ears. And as a result, Pharaoh just said, who's the Lord, and I don't know the Lord, and I'm not going to obey the Lord. And so Moses was an unfaithful messenger, and because of his blunder in delivering the message to Pharaoh, the people are all out of sorts.

[1:03] And at the end of that chapter, in chapter 5, they were upset with Moses. They were getting beaten by the taskmasters. They were told they had to go get their straw on their own to make their brick.

[1:17] And so things had changed. It wasn't going well at all. The people were all out of sorts. So in chapter 6, God steps in and he speaks to Moses. And he tells him some things.

[1:28] He restates or maybe further conveys his intentions for the children of Israel. And those intentions are a relationship with this people.

[1:40] And so I want to read with you together the first 13 verses of Exodus chapter 6. Please follow along. As we read, I have also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers.

[2:23] And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage, and I have remembered my covenant. Wherefore, say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.

[2:37] And I will take you to me for a people.

[2:48] And I will be to you a God. And ye shall know that I am the Lord your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you in unto the land concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

[3:04] And I will give it you for an heritage. I am the Lord. And Moses spake so unto the children of Israel. But they hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit and for cruel bondage.

[3:18] And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Go in, speak unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, that he let the children of Israel go out of his land. And Moses spake before the Lord, saying, Behold, the children of Israel have not hearkened unto me.

[3:30] How then shall Pharaoh hear me, who am of uncircumcised lips? And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, and gave them a charge unto the children of Israel and unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, to bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt.

[3:46] Let's pray. Lord, we believe this book and these 13 verses that we read, we believe there's relevance in here, that they're going to help us, that they can speak to us.

[3:57] And so, Lord, please help us to focus our mind and attention upon it. Please guide my mouth and thoughts this morning, and help me to speak and preach only the truth. And give us ears to hear and hearts to receive.

[4:10] And may the change be evident. May Jesus Christ be glorified. We pray these things in your name. And amen. Now, understand that what we're reading here, God is seeking to bring them out.

[4:25] I mean, he gave the charge at the end there to bring them out of Egypt. That is his intention with this entire thing. He is not merely just making good on a promise he made long time ago to Abraham, or one he made to Isaac and Jacob.

[4:41] He's not just making good on a promise out of duty or obligation. But it's actually the opposite of that. It didn't start with this wonderful relationship with Abraham, and then trickled down to his children and seed after them.

[4:57] But rather, it's the opposite. God is interested in this people. And he started it back with Abraham. And so it's not just him making good out of obligation, but he's very interested in this people.

[5:12] This people exist because of him. No, literally, because of him. Abraham and Sarah were past the years. They couldn't have a child.

[5:24] But God said something very special to them, and we're going to look at that in a moment. And what I want you to consider is that this children of Israel in Egypt, they are his work. They are his people.

[5:35] The formation of this people as a nation was his doing from the very beginning all the way back to a man named Abram. And it wasn't that Abram was just a good guy and good guys get blessed.

[5:47] But no, God specifically did something there with him. Consider this. Consider that we know the Bible says in Revelation 4.11 that God created man for his pleasure.

[6:00] And that's what he did in Genesis 1 and 2. He created man and his wife, and it was for his pleasure. And what his intentions and what he saw could be would have been good.

[6:11] But man fell. Their sin came in, and they disobeyed the command of God, and they violated his word. And they fell away. But God did not stop desiring obedience.

[6:24] He did not stop desiring worship or fellowship and communion with man just because they sinned and they fell away. He still desired there to be restoration.

[6:37] And so throughout time and generations go on in chapters 3 and 4 and 5 and the process of time, man is not drawing closer to God, but rather as we read recently in chapter 6, every imagination of the thought of his heart was only evil continually.

[6:53] It repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and he decides, I'm going to destroy him. All of them, man and beast, flood him out with a great flood. Before that ever happened, there was a man named Enoch.

[7:03] And Enoch walked with God. And you know what the Lord did? He didn't say, Enoch, I'm going to bless you and make a great nation. You know what he did? He took him. He says, you're walking with me? Well, come on then.

[7:15] Come on up here and let's walk. He sought fellowship and he wasn't getting it. And so he decided then in Noah's day that he was going to wipe out all of the mankind on the earth and he saved Noah and his family.

[7:27] And Noah was a righteous man. Noah was a man that walked with God, found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And so after Noah gets off the ark, had an opportunity with just the eight of them that things could be good from here forward.

[7:41] But did they? No, they didn't go well at all. In chapter 8, 9, 10, 11, they're just huddling up and God shows up and he scatters them across the face of the earth.

[7:53] He confounds their languages. They're not seeking the Lord. They're not worshiping the Lord. He's not getting his intention. He's not getting what he wants from mankind. So he intervenes and then something happens.

[8:07] He sees a man and he chooses a man that's a good man and a faithful man. And he decides that with this man, Abram, I'm going to make a people.

[8:18] I'm going to take a man that I can trust, that's a good faithful man, and I'm going to make of him a people that will worship me. So come back to Genesis 12. I want to show you a few things about this thought before we get any further in Exodus.

[8:32] Genesis chapter 12. It's like God's starting from scratch with an individual. Could have had that with Adam, didn't work out.

[8:44] Could have had it with Noah and his family, didn't work out. And so he scatters man across the earth. He's not seeking all of mankind to come together to worship him.

[8:55] It's not working. So he's going to switch over to a new plan. In Genesis chapter 12, verse number 1. Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house unto a land that I will show thee.

[9:14] Why? Why do you want to move me to a new land? Here's why. Verse 2. And I will make of thee a great nation. That's why.

[9:25] God had a plan. I'm going to make a great nation out of you, Abram. And now from the very first words, he conveys his intentions exactly.

[9:37] Now look at chapter 15 of Genesis. He didn't hide anything from Abram. This was going to go for several generations before he would ever really, this would be experienced or come to a realization.

[9:54] In Genesis 15, he's making a covenant with him. And he says, look at verses 13 and 14. He said unto Abram, 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.

[10:14] And also that nation whom they shall serve will I judge, and afterward they shall come out with great substance. So he didn't even hide from Abram that they would be in bondage in Egypt.

[10:26] That was no secret either. Look at chapter 17. But remember something we've already read in Exodus, in chapter 1, verse 12, that the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew.

[10:40] It's funny how that happens and how that did happen, but if they would have had it easy in Egypt, they probably would not have multiplied and grown in the way that they did. If they would have had it easy, they'd have just been laying by the pool and drinking sweet tea and not really motivated, and they wouldn't have kind of come together as a company and culture as they did.

[11:03] Now Genesis chapter 17, and look here as we read a few verses here, as he's establishing a covenant with this man, how many times he refers to his future seed and what we know as this nation in Egypt.

[11:17] In verse number 7, he says, And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee and their generations for an everlasting covenant to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee.

[11:30] And I will give unto thee and to thy seed after thee the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan for an everlasting portion, and I will be their God. And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant, therefore thou and thy seed after thee and their generations.

[11:48] This is my covenant which he shall keep between me and you and thy seed after thee. And every man, he goes on about the circumcision and the token of the covenant. And you can see that God's mind and his attention is upon this people that he is going to bring about.

[12:08] And these are the people now. Come back to Exodus chapter 6. These are the people. And so the point I'm getting at to start here is that God's intention from the beginning was to raise up a people that would know him and that would love him because he sought for a relationship.

[12:27] He wanted to care for them and protect them and bless them and enrich them. All of these things he promised to do to them. He wanted to be identified to the rest of sinful man, all those nations that he confounded their languages and scattered upon the face of the earth.

[12:45] He wanted to be identified to them as the God of this people, this holy, peculiar people. This people were going to reflect the holiness of God to sinful man.

[12:59] They were going to be called by his name. They were going to observe his ways and be renowned for who their God is. That was what was on his mind.

[13:10] Other nations would then desire that blessing. They would desire that life. There was no enemy that could stand in front of them because their God would push them out and destroy them.

[13:22] Everybody would desire such a God once they came to know this people. And so this is God's intention. So the first thing I want to draw your attention to here now and by way of an outline of this portion of scripture is let's look at the formation of a relationship.

[13:40] And that's what we're looking at here is a relationship that God wants with his people. And the formation of this relationship began with Abram, who he changed from the name Abram to Abraham.

[13:54] And it was passed to his son Isaac and passed to his son Jacob and to those 12 sons who are now 12 tribes. But this confirmation is on a much larger scale because these 12 sons have multiplied exceedingly.

[14:12] But I want you to consider that from Abraham to this moment, this great nation, it didn't happen overnight. It didn't happen overnight at all.

[14:23] It's something God started long time ago to bring to pass this day where this people were alive and existed and could now know him and could enter into a relationship personally with him.

[14:39] There's a formation of this relationship. At this moment when God's using Moses to go back to Egypt, to talk to Pharaoh, to do these wonders, at this time, it's not Israel's lucky day.

[14:54] And it's not like, oh, the stars are aligning and the elders are coming together and discussing, I think we should take advantage of this opportunity. I don't know when another one will come by like this. That's not what's happening at all.

[15:05] This is the culmination of something God started long ago. There's much history to where this moment comes to be. There's been generations that have been pilgrims and sojourners as we've read already.

[15:22] Pilgrims and sojourners awaiting the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham. Generations that have served in Egypt awaiting for a deliverance, awaiting for an appearance of Almighty God, the one that met with our fathers.

[15:40] And all the while, the people are still growing into a nation. And from back in Genesis 21, when God visited Sarah, and the Lord gave her conception, and she conceived and bare a son to an old man and an old woman, the Lord miraculously started something leading up to this great nation, the one that God had his eye in.

[16:04] There's a formation of this relationship and a very important thing that I want to draw out, and we're seeing all of this to make this point, is that the formation of a relationship takes time.

[16:16] It takes so much time. You cannot rush it. It forms over time. It's not immediate. It's not instantaneous. It's a process.

[16:28] And this process, if we were to analyze it, there were times of blessings. There were times of promise, and the times of visions with God, and him leading, and miraculously giving a child to an old woman, and giving seed to these others.

[16:43] There's conception and growth and blessing along the way, but there's also times of anticipation of this land one day is going to be yours.

[16:55] It's going to be yours, all yours. Look to the north, the south, east, and the west. I'm going to give you this. There was much anticipation along the way, but there was also much infliction along the way.

[17:06] There was famine. There was times where God led them to Egypt. There was, in Egypt, the servitude and the bondage. All of this is a formation of a relationship, and time is a necessary element in a relationship.

[17:28] An intimate and a real relationship can't be forced. It has to be developed. Think about a baby, a newborn baby.

[17:39] Think about a, just picture a mother or a father for the first time holding their newborn child. And they look at that child, and they have joy in their heart, and they may say in their heart, to that child, I love you with all of my heart.

[17:56] And they mean it. They mean it. Because that little bundle in front of them is their own flesh and blood. And they can see the need, the helplessness of that child.

[18:10] They need a parent. They need a nurturer. They need someone to train it, to help it, to feed it, to clothe it, to bathe it, all of it. And there's something natural, a bond that's formed.

[18:21] But do you know when the parent says, I love you with all my heart? You realize they may mean that, but in about a year, two years, they're going to love them even more.

[18:33] More than they did in that moment. Because as that child grows, they begin to have a laugh. They begin to have some silly things that parents are just always taking pictures of, and filming, and sending, and saying, look what they did today.

[18:48] They're falling in love with their personality. And the thought is that over time, as the child grows and develops their own idiosyncrasies, their own personality, their own behavior, you love them more because there's more to love than when they're just a little helpless baby that can't do anything but very few things.

[19:13] And as you love them more because there's more to love, that's a process, and that takes time. And this is the formation of a relationship that we're viewing here in Exodus.

[19:27] And the point I want to draw to you and put in your lap is that God desires a relationship with you. He desires, much like He desired back then, He today desires a relationship with you.

[19:42] I'll say it without any hesitation, it is the most important relationship that you'll ever experience in this life. is a relationship with God.

[19:55] God's not a mystery. He's not unreachable. He's not undiscernible. He's actually very discernible. If you think to yourself, well, I just don't get it.

[20:07] God's just not real to me. People talk about the Lord speaking to them and people talk about knowing the Lord and loving the Lord and I just, I don't know what that's like. Well, it takes time.

[20:19] It takes time. It doesn't happen the moment you're born. If you're born again, you've trusted Jesus Christ, you can enter into a relationship with God, you can be a child of God, He can be your Father, you can be His child, but it doesn't mean you have a great relationship.

[20:38] It doesn't mean you know anything about Him. It takes time. Some of you don't have a great relationship with God because you're not giving Him any time. You don't spend any time with Him.

[20:51] You spend time with the world. You spend time with entertaining yourself. You spend time with things that drive you and the relationship with God, which ought to be priority, it's just not real.

[21:02] It ought to be real. There's a formation to it. And the formation is on developing habits of walking daily with Him, learning to obey the voice of God in His Word.

[21:20] Let me say that again. You learning to obey the voice of God in His Word. It's not learning to obey the pastor. Do what the pastor says. That's not your relationship with God.

[21:32] All I should be doing is pointing you to a relationship with God and helping you and assisting you in a relationship with God and being an example of one that has a relationship with God.

[21:45] But you need to form your own relationship with the Lord. He's there. He desires it.

[21:56] If it's not happening, you know who's to blame. And it's not Him. In that formation, there'll be times of blessing.

[22:08] There'll be times of thanking Him and praising Him and being joyful and rejoicing. And there'll be times of adversity and times of trial where you learn to lean on Him.

[22:19] And if you respond right, you learn to trust Him. And through all of this, you're growing. There's a relationship and a relationship is forming. There's the formation of the relationship.

[22:31] There's something else I want to point out. A few things in this passage. There's the foundations of a relationship. Picture these like pillars. And in this passage, there's a few things I'll point out.

[22:42] Verse number three. The Lord says this in Exodus chapter six and verse three. And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob by the name of God Almighty.

[22:57] But by my name Jehovah, was I not known to them. We need to sit here and think about this. That's interesting that the Lord points this out to Moses.

[23:13] It's not just that it happened, but He makes a point to say, hey Moses, did you catch this? Do you know I have not revealed this to these men?

[23:24] If you think Abraham's the highest thing there is in this, you're wrong. I only revealed myself to him as God Almighty. But I'm revealing myself to this people in a new way.

[23:39] What you see in a relationship, a foundation of a relationship, is revelation or disclosure, is being open and information.

[23:53] It's interesting to me, God is being more personal and more intimate with this people than He was with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, or any of them up to this point.

[24:03] Joseph. Why? Because this is special. This relationship is special. And when a relationship has no real depth and no real value, there isn't much disclosure.

[24:17] There isn't much honesty. And, you know, that's okay in common, everyday relationships. Like, your mechanic doesn't need to know all about your health problems.

[24:27] Or he doesn't need to know your personal problems and issues. The teenage store clerk that's just taking your money, they don't need to know why you're buying that product.

[24:39] It's just kind of too much information for them. Why? Because the relationship is not real. But in a real relationship, information is a foundation.

[24:52] Being open and being honest, it's not only healthy and it's not only helpful, it's, I'd say it should be expected of a relationship. You should expect your spouse to tell you the truth.

[25:04] You should expect your children to be honest with you as you are with them. You should expect that of your boss, of any real relationship that you have on this earth. You should expect revelation or disclosure.

[25:18] There's another thing in this passage. Look at verse number five, another foundation to this relationship. In verse five, God says, and I have also heard the groanings of the children of Israel.

[25:33] I've heard them. I want you to notice that the second thing is attention or being attentive. Now, this isn't the only time. Let's go backwards a little bit here. Look at chapter four because this is not just an isolated mention here.

[25:48] God has repeated this thought over and over in these first few chapters. Chapter four and verse number 31. It says, and the people believed and when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel and that he had looked upon their affliction.

[26:09] He looked upon their affliction. He's giving them attention. Look at chapter three and verse number seven. This is in front of that burning bush.

[26:20] The Lord's speaking to Moses out of the burning bush. Chapter three, verse seven. And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters for I know their sorrows.

[26:39] He says it again a little bit later but back up again one more to chapter two. In chapter two, the end of the chapter, verse 23. And it came to pass in the 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, Isaac, and Jacob.

[27:03] God looked upon the children of Israel and had respect unto them. The second pillar or foundation to this relationship is attention. Who else?

[27:14] Who else on earth was listening to the cry of this people? Who else was looking upon their affliction and gave a rip? Nobody. Nobody cared about them.

[27:28] But the Lord wants a relationship with them and the Lord gave attention to them. The Lord heard their cry. The Lord saw the affliction. Their lives were bitter with hard bondage and the Lord was listening and the Lord was attentive.

[27:43] As a father, something that kind of struck me, it's, I don't know, I assume it's with all parents, maybe not, but I was surprised as a father with my young children as they were just infants and toddlers, how attentive I was to them in the middle of the night.

[28:04] It surprised me that I would wake up or hear them whimpering or just a low whimper or something wasn't right. And I thought, man, I don't think I'm a light sleeper.

[28:15] I don't know, but I'm surprised. I don't wake up most nights, not that I know, but it was as if I was tuned in to some frequency connected to this child and to, throughout the years, just things you deal with as a parent that come up typically in the middle of the night at three in the morning, literally come up.

[28:35] And that stuff goes on and it's remarkable to me that I could be in tune to that as a father. And there's a reason I'd say it's probably just because I care about them and I'm never going to ignore their cry or their groaning or the problems that they have.

[28:55] I'll never ignore it and say, you deal with it. Good luck. I want to sleep because it's not in me because of the relationship. I care and I love and I give attention to them.

[29:08] and it's a foundation of a relationship is giving attention, being aware of the needs of others, what they're going through, how it's affecting them and if you don't care, then the relationship is just not real or you're failing in your part of the relationship if you don't care.

[29:28] There's a third foundation I want to point out here in chapter 6 of Exodus and this is in verses 6 through 8 and you can count them because there's seven I wills from God to this people and another foundation of a relationship is commitment and promise.

[29:47] God's full of commitment to this relationship and he's filled with promises to them. In verse 6 he begins, Wherefore, saying to the children of Israel, I am the Lord, I will bring you out from under your burdens of the Egyptians and I will rid you out of their bondage and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm and with great judgments and I will take you to me for a people and I will be to you a God and you shall know that I am the Lord your God which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians and one more or two more I will bring you in unto the land at the end of the verse I will give it you for an heritage.

[30:23] Seven I wills a perfect complete number for God's commitment and promise to his people. When you have a wedding the husband the man and the woman stand before each other and they pledge and they vow one to the other certain things and those certain things have not been fulfilled.

[30:43] They haven't come to pass but they're promising that they will. They're promising that they'll be good for it. It's commitment and promise and so information or revelation as God gives a revelation a special revelation of his name to his people that he had hid from others.

[31:03] Attention commitment and promise we see that in this chapter these are all foundational to a relationship and you can analyze all three of these and quickly determine that God he meets the necessarily requirements here for all of these very quickly.

[31:23] The Lord is always upright. The Lord is always honest in his communication. The Lord is always attentive to you and to your needs. The Lord is no shortage of things he's committed and promised to you and I.

[31:36] If the relationship isn't right and if the relationship isn't working then I suppose the fault is not with God but it's with you and I on our honesty on our commitment on our attention that we're giving to the relationship.

[31:55] These are foundations to a relationship and the Lord wants one and he's doing his side. He's absolutely faithfully doing his side. There's another thing I want to point out in verse number 9.

[32:09] Verse number 9 Moses spake so he conveyed this information this commitment to the children of Israel but they hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit and for cruel bondage.

[32:23] Now remember that Moses is the mouthpiece for God in this relationship. Remember that and he says that again going forward. God is not in person speaking to them.

[32:37] Moses is speaking on God's behalf and they're frustrated with Moses and you could infer they're frustrated with God. They were expecting something else and we already covered this last week I won't really beat the horse on this but the people are growing bitter and they're in agony and we read that they're in anguish of spirit and cruel bondage and that was brought upon because of Moses' unfaithfulness from his meeting with Pharaoh.

[33:04] The way it should have gone was he did the signs he told him what God said exactly what God said and God hardened his heart and off they went into plague number one and the Israelites are off the hook with those plagues.

[33:18] God would put that division and keep his people safe and the Egyptians get punished. But no before that ever took place they had to get they had to deal with his beatings and more work and all of that we covered last week.

[33:31] That's Moses' fault and they're frustrated now because their expectations aren't being met and because one party of the relationship feels that the other party has not been truthful to them or has deceived or misled them and they had hopes for something and it doesn't come to pass.

[33:50] and all of that is just a result of what we studied last week. But what I believe here and what I see is that this scene is so relevant and true to the lives that we live and the relationships that we have with God.

[34:07] The third point I'm making is that there's frustration of a relationship and that frustration is the result of somebody not being faithful to the Lord.

[34:19] Moses didn't do his job and it brought upon sorrow and it brought upon frustration and now the people are expecting this from God they're hearing this from God but they're not seeing it and it's not working out and it's getting worse before it's getting better.

[34:34] I think this is relevant and true because God has a plan just like he had with Moses and Aaron. He has a method he revealed a course to follow but when a man or a woman deviates from that course or from that word how in the world could they expect it to work out?

[34:53] How could any of us expect success or peace? I say if you don't follow the word of God that he's given to you for this relationship to work you have no guarantees that anything's going to work out.

[35:08] If you could picture God's word and you and him inside of a circle if you obey the word of God you count on God he cannot lie and he will not lie to you he will not mislead you and when he tells you there's deliverance and he tells you there's blessing and he has something for you you can count on it coming to pass and if it's not coming to pass it's because one of the two of you are outside of the circle and it's not God and there's frustrations of a relationship that can be experienced and seen when someone deviates from the word of God but then on the other hand there's safety in obeying the word of God there's security and peace when you purposely follow God's plan and all the frustration can be avoided this thing applies from a child to a teenager to a marriage to a career to an old elderly saint to a preacher to a you name it this thing applies if you don't stay with what God said you can expect frustration you can expect things not to work out you definitely can't expect them to work out for your good you can try you can twist and you can work to your bones are showing through but you're not going to be able to count on it working out for good you can account on frustration you want to know what path you should take in life seek a relationship with God you want to know what if your marriage will work and stay together and have a fruitful life and family then seek a relationship with God you want to know that your job and career will work out and things will go well seek a relationship with God walk daily with the Lord

[36:54] Jesus Christ and let him bring it to pass otherwise there will be frustration but that can be avoided so in this portion this short portion of Exodus chapter 6 God is seeking a relationship with his people his intentions are clear and it's a win win win win win for his people they'll get out of Egypt from their burdens from the bondage be redeemed with they'll see the greatness of God they'll be able to trust him thoroughly trust him when they see what he can do and will do for them in verse number 7 let me highlight this before we're done come back to Exodus 6 verse 7 I will take you to me for a people and I will be to you a God and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God

[37:58] I think you should make that personal right there I think you individually should take this thought about God's relationship with the nation of Israel and personalize it in that thought that God offers to take you to himself as his own child and that he'll be a God to you do you understand what that is a God I mean not just small g fall down and worship a stone but the true almighty God the all existent all powerful all knowing loving and caring God do you does that the term should kind of be in bold it should be in bigger font in your Bible than what that is God the supreme being of all the creator the giver and sustainer of life in him we have our being he's before all things and by him all things consist and he said

[39:12] I will be to you a God what you need is a God a relationship with God where you can bow before him where you can worship him and trust him and cast your cares upon him and believe that he hears and that he knows and that he'll respond I think you should personalize verse 7 and let God take you to himself and then be a God what's stopping you from allowing God to take you to himself what's what's stopping you from having a relationship with him the relationship is going to have to be on his terms because he's God you don't get to decide I'll give you A B and C but the rest is mine it's going to be he's God to make him God to allow him to take you you have to surrender you have to surrender whatever he wants your heart your desires your will your future your goals your plans your affections your time your friends your money your thoughts surrender it to him then he can be a God he can take you to himself and when he takes you to himself you have nothing to fear for the rest of your days nothing because God has taken you to himself you're in the circle so what's keeping you out of it there's a formation of a relationship and it takes time are you given that time or are you frustrated because it's not working out so fast it's not going to it's going to take time it's going to take a daily walk with him a purposeful surrender to him daily

[41:12] I am thine all that I have is thine submitted surrendered to him there's foundations to this relationship as we've seen with the attention and the commitment and the communication or the revelation and we can avoid all of that frustration that anguish of spirit when we stick to the word of God and stop deviating from it and deciding we know better so Christian God seeks a relationship with you and I'll say this without hesitation it is in your best interest that you seek a relationship with him it's your best interest you can try to do it your own way you can try to seek pleasure you can just ignore him go through life that way but if you want what's best for you then seek a relationship with God he's better than you he's better than your friends he's better than your family he's the best truly is so let him be a God unto you let's bow our heads and we'll be dismissed this morning we'll go our ways but before we do with your heads bowed and eyes closed please to move at table at