WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.620 So we won't sit for the whole thing. 00:00:02.780 --> 00:00:03.580 So good morning. 00:00:03.640 --> 00:00:04.299 My name is Jonathan. 00:00:04.419 --> 00:00:05.060 It's been said. 00:00:05.219 --> 00:00:06.640 It's really a treat to be with you. 00:00:06.780 --> 00:00:07.660 I know most of you. 00:00:07.719 --> 00:00:08.419 I know many of you. 00:00:08.540 --> 00:00:10.439 If you're new here or if you don't know me, welcome. 00:00:10.900 --> 00:00:15.259 We're really glad that you're here with us this Sunday morning, that you've taken time 00:00:15.259 --> 00:00:20.580 out of your weekend and of your day to worship the living God with us and join us here for 00:00:20.580 --> 00:00:20.940 worship. 00:00:21.940 --> 00:00:26.019 I'll do a little bit more by way of introduction in a minute, but let us turn now to the reading 00:00:26.019 --> 00:00:26.679 of God's word. 00:00:26.679 --> 00:00:31.059 So as I was reflecting on this earlier this week, we're going to look at a lot of text 00:00:31.059 --> 00:00:31.480 this week. 00:00:31.539 --> 00:00:34.780 And so I tried to trim it down so that we would not read two full chapters. 00:00:35.060 --> 00:00:36.439 And I think I trimmed too much. 00:00:36.480 --> 00:00:39.140 So we're going to add just a little bit more than what's in your bulletin. 00:00:39.519 --> 00:00:43.299 So we're going to add four verses from chapter five. 00:00:43.420 --> 00:00:45.739 So you don't have those printed in your bulletin. 00:00:45.820 --> 00:00:49.960 You can either look them up on your phone or just catch up when I start reading in your 00:00:49.960 --> 00:00:51.420 bulletin where it picks up. 00:00:51.420 --> 00:00:55.100 So we're going to start today in Exodus chapter five. 00:00:55.100 --> 00:00:57.300 We're going to start in verse one. 00:00:57.660 --> 00:00:59.179 Your bulletin starts in verse five. 00:00:59.340 --> 00:01:02.560 So just listen along or read along in your Bible, whatever you have. 00:01:03.140 --> 00:01:05.820 And so this is God's careful word given to us. 00:01:05.859 --> 00:01:08.060 And so let us pay careful attention to it. 00:01:09.560 --> 00:01:10.760 Chapter five, verse one. 00:01:10.760 --> 00:01:16.300 And afterward, Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, thus says the Lord, the God of 00:01:16.300 --> 00:01:20.400 Israel, let my people go that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness. 00:01:21.219 --> 00:01:26.240 But Pharaoh said, who is the Lord that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? 00:01:26.800 --> 00:01:28.080 I do not know the Lord. 00:01:28.120 --> 00:01:30.700 And moreover, I will not let Israel go. 00:01:31.700 --> 00:01:35.420 Then they said, the God of the Hebrews has met with us. 00:01:35.420 --> 00:01:39.900 Please let us go a three days journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the 00:01:39.900 --> 00:01:44.219 Lord our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with a sword. 00:01:45.180 --> 00:01:50.159 But the king of Egypt said to them, Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people away from 00:01:50.159 --> 00:01:50.620 their work? 00:01:50.799 --> 00:01:52.180 Get back to your burdens. 00:01:52.820 --> 00:01:54.520 Picking up at verse five on your bulletins. 00:01:54.939 --> 00:02:00.900 And Pharaoh said, behold, the land, the people of the land are now many and you make them rest 00:02:00.900 --> 00:02:01.719 from their burdens. 00:02:01.719 --> 00:02:06.760 That same day, Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their foremen, you shall 00:02:06.760 --> 00:02:10.259 no longer give the people straw to make bricks as in the past. 00:02:10.599 --> 00:02:12.900 Let them go and gather straw for themselves. 00:02:13.439 --> 00:02:17.400 But the number of bricks that they make in the past, you shall impose on them. 00:02:17.759 --> 00:02:21.479 You shall by no means reduce it, for they are idle. 00:02:22.520 --> 00:02:26.879 Therefore, they cry, let us go and offer sacrifice to our God. 00:02:26.879 --> 00:02:33.240 Let heavier work be laid on the men that they may labor at it and pay no regard to lying 00:02:33.240 --> 00:02:33.819 words. 00:02:34.659 --> 00:02:36.840 Skipping ahead to verse 22. 00:02:38.099 --> 00:02:43.400 Then Moses turned to the Lord and said, oh, Lord, why have you done evil to this people? 00:02:44.180 --> 00:02:45.579 Why have you ever sent me? 00:02:45.719 --> 00:02:46.879 Why did you ever send me? 00:02:47.519 --> 00:02:52.379 For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people and you 00:02:52.379 --> 00:02:55.019 have not delivered your people at all. 00:02:56.099 --> 00:02:57.439 Chapter six, verse one. 00:02:58.400 --> 00:03:02.579 But the Lord said to Moses, now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh. 00:03:03.000 --> 00:03:07.620 For with a strong hand, he will send them out and with a strong hand, he will drive them 00:03:07.620 --> 00:03:08.379 out of his land. 00:03:09.259 --> 00:03:12.479 God spoke to Moses and said to him, I am the Lord. 00:03:12.479 --> 00:03:16.539 I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty. 00:03:16.979 --> 00:03:20.280 But by my name, the Lord, I did not make myself known to them. 00:03:21.120 --> 00:03:26.159 I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which 00:03:26.159 --> 00:03:27.519 they lived as sojourners. 00:03:28.159 --> 00:03:32.719 Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians have sold 00:03:32.719 --> 00:03:34.339 us, hold as slaves. 00:03:34.500 --> 00:03:36.179 And I have remembered my covenant. 00:03:36.859 --> 00:03:41.739 Say, therefore, to the people of Israel, I am the Lord and I will bring you out from under 00:03:41.740 --> 00:03:45.520 the burden of the Egyptians and I will deliver you from slavery to them. 00:03:45.740 --> 00:03:49.820 And I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. 00:03:50.260 --> 00:03:53.480 I will take you to be my people and I will be your God. 00:03:53.900 --> 00:03:59.260 And you shall know that I am the Lord, your God, who has brought you out from under the 00:03:59.260 --> 00:04:00.260 burden of the Egyptians. 00:04:00.640 --> 00:04:05.500 I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. 00:04:05.980 --> 00:04:08.500 I will give it to you as a for a possession. 00:04:09.000 --> 00:04:10.219 I am the Lord. 00:04:10.219 --> 00:04:16.779 Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses because of 00:04:16.779 --> 00:04:19.240 their broken spirit and harsh slavery. 00:04:19.740 --> 00:04:20.579 This is God's word. 00:04:20.639 --> 00:04:21.279 Would you pray with me? 00:04:22.180 --> 00:04:28.220 Lord in heaven, as we come now to your word, we pray that you would also send your spirit 00:04:28.220 --> 00:04:34.579 and that word spirit and our hearts would mix in such a way that sends up a fragrant 00:04:34.579 --> 00:04:40.800 offering to you, that you would receive our attention for your glory and for our growth 00:04:40.800 --> 00:04:48.439 in Christ and that you would send us out as faithful image bearers, worshipers and ambassadors 00:04:48.439 --> 00:04:50.459 for your kingdom and your glory. 00:04:51.099 --> 00:04:52.199 It's in Jesus name we pray. 00:04:52.459 --> 00:04:52.719 Amen. 00:04:52.720 --> 00:04:55.420 As it's been said, my name is Jonathan. 00:04:55.680 --> 00:04:56.880 I'm not the normal pastor. 00:04:56.980 --> 00:05:00.940 If this is if this is your first time here, I work as a college pastor. 00:05:01.100 --> 00:05:01.900 Andy mentioned this. 00:05:01.899 --> 00:05:04.659 I work for an organization called Reformed University Fellowship. 00:05:05.039 --> 00:05:10.539 It's the campus ministry wing of the church that of the denomination of the of the church 00:05:10.539 --> 00:05:11.139 that you're in. 00:05:11.599 --> 00:05:17.439 And so even if you've never heard of RUF before, just by being in this church, you are supporting 00:05:17.439 --> 00:05:19.519 campus ministry through RUF. 00:05:19.579 --> 00:05:20.259 And so thank you. 00:05:20.459 --> 00:05:26.339 This church has been a huge supporter of RUF across the state, not just me, but the Air 00:05:26.339 --> 00:05:28.299 Force Academy, Colorado State and others. 00:05:28.300 --> 00:05:32.939 And we're really, really thankful the ways that you pray for us and support us and let 00:05:32.939 --> 00:05:36.319 us come speak and tell about the work and give money. 00:05:36.439 --> 00:05:37.439 We're so grateful. 00:05:37.600 --> 00:05:39.060 We cannot do this. 00:05:39.060 --> 00:05:43.680 And in a lot of ways, campus ministry, RUF, is the it's the ministry of the Presbytery. 00:05:43.860 --> 00:05:45.860 It's not necessarily my work. 00:05:45.939 --> 00:05:46.860 It's it's your work. 00:05:46.920 --> 00:05:49.819 And so we're really, really thankful and grateful for it. 00:05:50.699 --> 00:05:52.319 So that's my nine to five job. 00:05:52.400 --> 00:05:55.660 My five to nine job is I'm married to my wife, Caroline. 00:05:55.800 --> 00:05:57.199 She's a really talented artist. 00:05:57.199 --> 00:05:58.959 So look her up, her art. 00:05:59.060 --> 00:06:00.479 She's she's really, really good. 00:06:01.159 --> 00:06:02.279 You'll love what you find. 00:06:02.379 --> 00:06:04.800 And then I have to we have two little girls, Phoebe's five. 00:06:05.420 --> 00:06:06.719 She's really, really sweet. 00:06:06.860 --> 00:06:07.539 And then we have Molly. 00:06:07.659 --> 00:06:11.019 She's almost 17 months and we've got a sweet little family. 00:06:11.139 --> 00:06:13.399 So I'll be back in February. 00:06:13.659 --> 00:06:18.699 Matthew's on his sabbatical and I will be spending a whole several Sundays looking at the topic 00:06:18.699 --> 00:06:19.579 of evangelism. 00:06:19.719 --> 00:06:22.240 And this is the topic that's probably closest to my heart. 00:06:22.319 --> 00:06:24.819 I love both doing evangelism. 00:06:24.919 --> 00:06:26.959 I can't say I'm good at it, but I love doing it. 00:06:27.259 --> 00:06:31.560 And I love helping and teaching y'all in the church in it. 00:06:31.599 --> 00:06:35.680 So we're going to look at how can y'all be growing in evangelism with your friends, your 00:06:35.680 --> 00:06:36.819 co-workers, your family. 00:06:37.339 --> 00:06:40.879 And so I would encourage you to come back for that in February. 00:06:42.259 --> 00:06:44.039 Today, we're looking at the book of Exodus. 00:06:44.299 --> 00:06:47.099 I've been preaching through the book of Exodus with the college students. 00:06:47.100 --> 00:06:52.420 And as I was reflecting on what to preach today, I thought, you know, this is not a New Year's 00:06:52.420 --> 00:06:57.500 sermon, but it does have application to the ending of one year and the beginning of another. 00:06:57.640 --> 00:06:59.600 And so we'll make some passing reference to that. 00:06:59.600 --> 00:07:04.620 Like I said, we're covering a lot of texts, so we'll just be hovering on a couple of verses, 00:07:04.780 --> 00:07:05.879 but I wanted to set the scene. 00:07:06.020 --> 00:07:10.960 So if you know the book of Exodus, you know that the story is at least the first bit, the 00:07:10.960 --> 00:07:13.560 story of how God rescues his people. 00:07:13.980 --> 00:07:17.920 The Bible's term is redeems his people out of slavery. 00:07:17.920 --> 00:07:24.960 The Israelites were God's people, and they had been enslaved by the Egyptians for 400 years. 00:07:25.500 --> 00:07:31.780 And this was a terribly oppressive slavery that they were subjected to, to the point that 00:07:31.780 --> 00:07:38.720 they were victims of a systematic oppression that in many ways seeked to even eliminate 00:07:38.720 --> 00:07:39.639 them from the planet. 00:07:39.780 --> 00:07:44.220 I don't know what the Egyptians were seeking to do in that, killing off their labor force. 00:07:44.220 --> 00:07:51.440 But we hear in the first chapters of Exodus that the Egyptians seek to kill every baby 00:07:51.440 --> 00:07:53.300 boy under the age of two. 00:07:53.440 --> 00:07:54.520 We have a word for that. 00:07:54.600 --> 00:07:55.520 Genocide, right? 00:07:55.700 --> 00:07:56.980 We have a word for that. 00:07:57.180 --> 00:08:01.060 A deep, systematic, ethnic cleansing, right? 00:08:01.160 --> 00:08:06.360 And so here are the Israelite people who a much stronger nation is literally seeking to 00:08:06.360 --> 00:08:13.780 destroy them, is oppressing them with slavery and mass killing on a level that chills everybody. 00:08:13.779 --> 00:08:18.879 It's the kind of thing that keeps, you know, keeps historians and philosophers and political 00:08:18.879 --> 00:08:20.039 scientists up at night. 00:08:20.559 --> 00:08:24.759 And they cry out to God and they say, God, rescue us from this. 00:08:24.839 --> 00:08:26.559 We can't do anything about this. 00:08:26.979 --> 00:08:28.419 It's too great for us. 00:08:29.039 --> 00:08:33.980 And God hears their cries and he promises to redeem them, to rescue them. 00:08:34.059 --> 00:08:39.399 And the way or the means that he will rescue them, the tool that he will use to rescue them 00:08:39.399 --> 00:08:42.220 is his servant named Moses. 00:08:42.840 --> 00:08:47.379 Moses is this servant that God will send to rescue him. 00:08:47.439 --> 00:08:50.860 And so he appears to Moses and he says, you are my servant. 00:08:51.360 --> 00:08:54.539 Here are signs and powerful miracles that you will do. 00:08:54.759 --> 00:08:57.480 And I will send you and you will bring the people out. 00:08:58.120 --> 00:08:58.299 Right. 00:08:58.299 --> 00:09:01.979 And so that brings us up to our text today. 00:09:02.120 --> 00:09:03.559 Things are starting to rev up. 00:09:03.879 --> 00:09:05.679 Things are starting to get moved forward. 00:09:05.819 --> 00:09:11.779 And so now Moses goes to Pharaoh with all of the authority and confidence in the world. 00:09:11.919 --> 00:09:18.099 God has appeared to me in the desert in a non-burning, burning bush and said, I will be with you. 00:09:18.359 --> 00:09:22.059 I'm going to use you to rescue the people of Israel. 00:09:22.059 --> 00:09:27.799 He walks into Pharaoh's throne room and says, the Lord has appeared to me. 00:09:28.219 --> 00:09:29.539 Let my people go. 00:09:30.139 --> 00:09:31.919 And it goes horribly. 00:09:32.479 --> 00:09:34.719 It goes horribly wrong. 00:09:34.819 --> 00:09:35.039 Right. 00:09:36.099 --> 00:09:38.519 And it makes me ask the question. 00:09:39.659 --> 00:09:47.339 When following God does not go well, when it does not go well, what do we do? 00:09:47.340 --> 00:10:00.320 When following the living God, when we're doing what we think we're supposed, what we know we're supposed to do, what God tells us to do, when we get discouraged, when we fail in the Christian life. 00:10:01.740 --> 00:10:02.700 What do we do? 00:10:02.780 --> 00:10:03.759 How do we handle it? 00:10:04.620 --> 00:10:14.879 And if you've been a Christian for more than a month, which I suspect many of you have, this is a question that you have without a doubt asked, without a doubt felt. 00:10:14.879 --> 00:10:21.679 How do we handle the life of faithfully following God when it goes poorly, when it feels like a failure? 00:10:21.799 --> 00:10:23.659 And this text today shows us this, right? 00:10:24.159 --> 00:10:27.600 So an example of this, I'm sure you can relate to this. 00:10:28.019 --> 00:10:36.360 When I was, before I was a pastor here in Colorado Springs, I was called as a college pastor in New Mexico, southern New Mexico at New Mexico State University. 00:10:36.679 --> 00:10:38.299 And I had started the job. 00:10:38.360 --> 00:10:40.100 I'd been there for about three years. 00:10:40.299 --> 00:10:41.820 Started in 2017. 00:10:41.820 --> 00:10:47.000 The first two years, you know, of any job, you're not very good at it, particularly campus ministry. 00:10:47.120 --> 00:10:49.040 You're just, you have no idea what you're doing. 00:10:49.460 --> 00:10:53.260 You're just, you know, throwing things on the wall, seeing what sticks with college students. 00:10:53.540 --> 00:10:55.680 Year three, you start to get the hang of it, right? 00:10:55.720 --> 00:10:59.860 So I enter year three and I, you know, we start to, things start humming, right? 00:10:59.860 --> 00:11:08.320 We have in our fall, which is the big, it's Christmas and Easter put together, this huge outreach program to gather students into the campus ministry. 00:11:08.620 --> 00:11:11.519 We have a really successful fall outreach. 00:11:11.899 --> 00:11:14.480 Hundreds of students are coming to our campus ministry. 00:11:14.840 --> 00:11:17.379 A whole array of students, Christian, non-Christian. 00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:21.240 We had a fall conference that we went on that was a huge success. 00:11:21.240 --> 00:11:22.919 We did an amazing conference. 00:11:23.019 --> 00:11:28.600 The first time we'd ever done this kind of conference in January, January of 2020. 00:11:29.000 --> 00:11:30.799 We start reading the news. 00:11:31.340 --> 00:11:33.580 There's this bug going around in China. 00:11:34.120 --> 00:11:36.779 We think it's not going to be a problem. 00:11:37.700 --> 00:11:39.139 It's not going to be a problem, right? 00:11:39.820 --> 00:11:43.820 March 2020 happens and the school shuts down. 00:11:43.820 --> 00:11:56.340 And suddenly, literally overnight, this thing that I had worked so hard to build and was seeing success in goes from around 100 students gathering a week to less than 15. 00:11:57.560 --> 00:11:59.040 You remember, right? 00:11:59.080 --> 00:11:59.460 It's crazy. 00:11:59.540 --> 00:12:00.920 You think it was almost five years ago, right? 00:12:02.980 --> 00:12:07.620 And I remember this crushing feeling of, I am a terrible pastor. 00:12:08.840 --> 00:12:11.380 And I remember thinking, God, I'm called to this. 00:12:11.379 --> 00:12:19.080 There are non-Christian students who three weeks ago were hearing the gospel and were considering the Christian faith, and now they're gone. 00:12:19.840 --> 00:12:21.259 I can't find them anywhere. 00:12:21.939 --> 00:12:25.080 They want nothing to do with campus ministry. 00:12:25.179 --> 00:12:28.120 And even if they did, I'm not allowed to see them. 00:12:32.399 --> 00:12:37.740 What do we do when our Christian life, when following God, utterly fails? 00:12:37.740 --> 00:12:46.779 More importantly, what do we do when it seems not only that we have failed as Christians, but that God has failed us? 00:12:47.700 --> 00:12:50.159 That's the question that Moses faces here. 00:12:50.159 --> 00:13:01.379 And as we end 2024, I'm sure there are things that you can look back on in your year and think, I didn't do great on that one in my Christian life. 00:13:01.439 --> 00:13:06.419 And there are maybe even some of you can look back on your Christian life and say, God let me down. 00:13:07.500 --> 00:13:09.299 God let my family down. 00:13:10.319 --> 00:13:12.259 God let this church down in ways. 00:13:12.860 --> 00:13:13.899 What do we do with that? 00:13:13.899 --> 00:13:16.199 How do we handle that? 00:13:16.259 --> 00:13:17.659 Well, our text shows us today. 00:13:18.559 --> 00:13:27.240 The first thing I want us to notice here is the discouragement that comes from following the life, in the Christian life, from following God. 00:13:27.299 --> 00:13:28.399 The discouragement, right? 00:13:28.519 --> 00:13:37.539 Remember the story, chapter 3, God appears to Moses and he says, I'm going to show you and the Israelites and the Egyptians my power. 00:13:37.939 --> 00:13:39.519 My mighty arm. 00:13:39.720 --> 00:13:43.319 With my mighty arm, I will redeem and rescue the Israelites. 00:13:43.320 --> 00:13:46.260 And in fact, here are two miracles to back that up. 00:13:46.300 --> 00:13:52.020 And he turns Moses' staff into a snake and he makes Moses' arm leprous and then cleans it again, right? 00:13:52.060 --> 00:13:59.440 And Moses, with all of the confidence in the world, goes to the Israelites and say, the God of our fathers has appeared to me in the desert. 00:13:59.580 --> 00:14:00.600 He's going to redeem you. 00:14:00.660 --> 00:14:04.060 And you can hear the Israelites going, okay, let's see it. 00:14:04.780 --> 00:14:05.960 Let's see you work, right? 00:14:06.060 --> 00:14:09.100 And it tells us, and he does some miracles to the Egyptians. 00:14:09.100 --> 00:14:13.019 And it says in the text of chapter 4, the Israelites worship God. 00:14:13.080 --> 00:14:15.759 And they say, finally, someone has heard our cries. 00:14:15.920 --> 00:14:16.659 Things are sizzling. 00:14:16.759 --> 00:14:17.460 Things are happening. 00:14:18.100 --> 00:14:24.340 So Moses, our text, picks up, goes into Pharaoh's throne room and says, let my people go. 00:14:24.440 --> 00:14:25.519 And what does Pharaoh say? 00:14:25.519 --> 00:14:28.860 Who is this guy? 00:14:30.019 --> 00:14:31.319 I don't know him. 00:14:31.899 --> 00:14:33.679 And moreover, I don't care. 00:14:34.579 --> 00:14:36.779 I don't care who he is, right? 00:14:38.079 --> 00:14:39.240 I don't care. 00:14:40.100 --> 00:14:41.620 And he says it's not going to happen. 00:14:41.740 --> 00:14:44.319 And in verse 8 of chapter 5, it's even worse. 00:14:45.159 --> 00:14:51.000 He says, apparently the Israelites have a lot of free time to think about what they would like to do with their lives. 00:14:51.000 --> 00:14:52.080 And we'll deal with that. 00:14:52.179 --> 00:14:56.080 And so from now on, you will now make bricks without straw. 00:14:56.820 --> 00:14:58.240 And you have to find your own straw. 00:14:58.340 --> 00:15:01.500 And so the process of making bricks, never made a brick bore in my life. 00:15:01.600 --> 00:15:03.980 Apparently what you do is you mix clay and straw. 00:15:04.220 --> 00:15:06.379 They cook together and you have a brick. 00:15:06.720 --> 00:15:10.440 Up until this point, the Egyptians had been providing the straw. 00:15:10.940 --> 00:15:13.779 Now the Israelites have to go and get their own. 00:15:15.080 --> 00:15:17.019 But it goes even further than that, right? 00:15:17.019 --> 00:15:17.100 Right? 00:15:17.899 --> 00:15:24.379 He says, Pharaoh even says, there's this rebellious throw it back in God's face. 00:15:24.419 --> 00:15:26.659 And he's saying, I don't care who your God is. 00:15:26.779 --> 00:15:28.120 I'm the one in control. 00:15:29.079 --> 00:15:32.199 I'm the one who has the power in this situation. 00:15:32.759 --> 00:15:36.139 We'll see who your God, who this Yahweh is. 00:15:36.319 --> 00:15:38.659 I don't know him and I don't care. 00:15:39.480 --> 00:15:43.039 He's rubbing his oppression, his power in the Israelites' face. 00:15:43.039 --> 00:15:46.179 And he's in open rebellion against God. 00:15:48.399 --> 00:15:54.679 Such that we did not read this, but in verse 20, Moses says this. 00:15:55.139 --> 00:16:02.559 He says, Lord, Yahweh, look on me and judge because you have made us stink in Pharaoh's eyes. 00:16:02.639 --> 00:16:08.480 And now they are going to kill us either by beating us to death or by working us to death. 00:16:08.480 --> 00:16:11.480 It's a massive failure. 00:16:12.779 --> 00:16:16.519 And put yourself in Moses' shoes, which I know is easy because you've been here before. 00:16:17.159 --> 00:16:23.060 Imagine yourself going back to the Israelites when they hear, here's what's now expected. 00:16:23.180 --> 00:16:24.340 You must double your workload. 00:16:24.700 --> 00:16:26.539 You know, it's all this more. 00:16:26.620 --> 00:16:27.639 You would feel embarrassed. 00:16:28.000 --> 00:16:29.240 You would feel ashamed. 00:16:29.399 --> 00:16:30.379 You would be frustrated. 00:16:30.759 --> 00:16:31.779 Everyone's mad at you. 00:16:31.779 --> 00:16:35.759 Everyone is mad at you for trying to follow God. 00:16:35.799 --> 00:16:40.620 And he says in verse 21, God, why have you done this evil to your people? 00:16:40.919 --> 00:16:42.379 Why did you even send me? 00:16:43.159 --> 00:16:45.279 You haven't delivered your people at all. 00:16:45.360 --> 00:16:47.339 And in fact, it's even worse now. 00:16:48.799 --> 00:16:49.939 It's even worse. 00:16:50.319 --> 00:16:55.059 And you can hear buzzing in the back of his mind, Lord, if this is what it means to follow you, 00:16:55.600 --> 00:16:59.500 if this is how you love your children, maybe I don't want to be one. 00:16:59.500 --> 00:17:06.359 And if this isn't what it feels like to be a Christian sometimes, I don't know what it is. 00:17:06.400 --> 00:17:08.019 We get these moments of clarity. 00:17:08.299 --> 00:17:12.500 Our heads pop through the clouds and we think, yes, I'm going to follow God. 00:17:12.559 --> 00:17:19.599 And I'm sure, as Andy said, you have a New Year's resolution about things that you want to do to grow in your faith this 2025. 00:17:20.240 --> 00:17:21.059 Amen for it. 00:17:21.119 --> 00:17:22.000 Praise the Lord in it. 00:17:22.359 --> 00:17:28.539 Unless you are far more disciplined than most of us, you'll get to mid-March and say, I failed again. 00:17:28.539 --> 00:17:30.539 I can't do it. 00:17:30.940 --> 00:17:32.379 What am I doing, right? 00:17:34.000 --> 00:17:36.720 We get these aspirations and these goals. 00:17:37.200 --> 00:17:40.659 We say, I'm going to read my Bible consistently regularly. 00:17:40.819 --> 00:17:43.399 I'm going to quit this sinful habit. 00:17:43.960 --> 00:17:45.740 I'm going to pursue Christian friendships. 00:17:45.920 --> 00:17:46.899 And it goes terribly. 00:17:48.359 --> 00:17:51.200 I call this, and we call this the camp high in RUF. 00:17:51.399 --> 00:17:54.759 You know, we'll regularly go on weekend or week-long camps with the students. 00:17:54.759 --> 00:17:56.119 And they're awesome, right? 00:17:56.160 --> 00:17:59.799 They're little tastes of heaven because we'll get to spend time with other Christians. 00:18:00.420 --> 00:18:02.920 You know, the students stay up 20 hours a day. 00:18:03.000 --> 00:18:04.099 They sleep maybe three hours. 00:18:04.359 --> 00:18:10.359 And they're hearing the word preached, and we're worshiping, and we're doing Bible studies, and we're fellowship. 00:18:10.460 --> 00:18:11.240 And they're amazed. 00:18:11.339 --> 00:18:17.519 They're like, they come back to college, and they're just like, I'm going to do this, and I'm going to follow the Lord in this way. 00:18:17.519 --> 00:18:22.720 And they make it maybe four days, and then they're back in their old habits and patterns, right? 00:18:24.240 --> 00:18:31.920 Life hits you again, and relationships are hard, and work is frustrating, and kids, and neighbors, and bills. 00:18:31.920 --> 00:18:38.500 And we meet with the discouragement and the failure of living the human life and of following God. 00:18:38.500 --> 00:18:48.140 And, in fact, sometimes this pushes some of us to even question whether or not we want to be Christians, right, to see whether it's worth it. 00:18:48.819 --> 00:18:51.839 I guarantee that this has happened to your friends. 00:18:52.619 --> 00:18:53.940 I grew up in Colorado Springs. 00:18:54.140 --> 00:19:00.039 Many, I would say, about half of my friends that I grew up with in the Christian church have left the Christian faith. 00:19:00.500 --> 00:19:05.079 And many of them, it's because they say, you over-promised and under-delivered. 00:19:05.160 --> 00:19:07.119 This is not what I thought it was. 00:19:07.119 --> 00:19:11.019 This is so much harder, so much worse than you set it up for. 00:19:11.319 --> 00:19:14.079 If this is how God treats his children, I'm out. 00:19:16.479 --> 00:19:20.819 So how do we wrestle with this, reckon with this? 00:19:21.519 --> 00:19:23.979 Well, first, we have to set the record straight, and it's this. 00:19:24.339 --> 00:19:36.579 We have to start by saying that our world has taught us, has trained us to view our lives as a calculus of maximizing our pleasure and minimizing our pain. 00:19:37.119 --> 00:19:46.559 We are taught as consumers to use things, people, food, experiences around us to get pleasure, right? 00:19:46.579 --> 00:19:47.419 And think about Christmas. 00:19:47.599 --> 00:19:54.679 This is what, I mean, Christmas is this, at its worst, at its most cynical, Christmas is a giant exercise in this. 00:19:54.680 --> 00:20:00.779 Where, you know, my five-year-old little daughter, I have to train her to think about Advent, Christ being born. 00:20:00.940 --> 00:20:03.320 I don't have to train her to think about Christmas is what? 00:20:03.440 --> 00:20:04.259 About me. 00:20:04.500 --> 00:20:05.640 What toys did I get? 00:20:05.840 --> 00:20:07.660 Did I have fun with my friends? 00:20:08.100 --> 00:20:09.980 Did I have fun on Christmas break? 00:20:10.120 --> 00:20:12.480 Did I get to eat all the sugar I wanted, right? 00:20:12.640 --> 00:20:15.200 That's just intuitive to our human nature. 00:20:15.460 --> 00:20:18.340 It's intuitive to how we think as human beings, right? 00:20:18.339 --> 00:20:18.899 Our culture. 00:20:19.299 --> 00:20:26.099 And in a capitalistic, post-industrial world, it runs on the idea that consuming things makes me happy. 00:20:28.379 --> 00:20:29.839 Consuming things makes me happy. 00:20:29.919 --> 00:20:30.740 Think about restaurants. 00:20:30.859 --> 00:20:37.939 Their goal is to make money, and the way they do that is not by making food that's healthy, but by making food that tastes good. 00:20:37.940 --> 00:20:44.840 And so we go to restaurants that make us happy because they give us food that tastes good, right? 00:20:46.160 --> 00:20:49.100 And if it doesn't happen, then we don't go there, right? 00:20:49.180 --> 00:20:59.740 And we are all trained to view our lives as a decision-making calculus matrix of pursuing pleasure through consumption. 00:20:59.740 --> 00:21:01.460 And here's the trick. 00:21:01.559 --> 00:21:09.859 The moment that something gets hard, the moment something no longer gives us pleasure, we bounce, right? 00:21:09.960 --> 00:21:10.500 We leave. 00:21:10.599 --> 00:21:11.859 We don't go back to that restaurant. 00:21:12.759 --> 00:21:16.380 And we begin to treat other things in our lives in the same way. 00:21:17.519 --> 00:21:23.240 As soon as a relationship gets hard, we just slowly build up walls or we abruptly cut off that relationship. 00:21:23.240 --> 00:21:30.019 And what's very insidious is we'll treat, we begin to treat our Christian faith in the same way. 00:21:30.740 --> 00:21:32.579 One more area where we consume. 00:21:32.779 --> 00:21:34.039 What am I getting out of this? 00:21:35.240 --> 00:21:38.180 What am I getting out of going to church on Sunday morning? 00:21:38.279 --> 00:21:41.120 What am I getting out of the sermons? 00:21:41.240 --> 00:21:43.000 What am I getting out of worship experience? 00:21:43.120 --> 00:21:48.099 If it's not what I think I want, then I'll go someplace else. 00:21:48.599 --> 00:21:49.799 I'll look for something different. 00:21:52.059 --> 00:21:52.940 Here's the truth. 00:21:53.819 --> 00:21:57.940 This consumeristic way of treating our life, our faith, it's a lie. 00:21:59.079 --> 00:22:03.839 All of the research indicates that long-term happiness doesn't come through consumption. 00:22:04.440 --> 00:22:13.799 But more importantly, in our Christian life, in your Christian faith, the Bible never promises you that following God is easy. 00:22:14.839 --> 00:22:17.220 It's consumption will make you happy. 00:22:18.160 --> 00:22:19.839 It never promises that. 00:22:19.839 --> 00:22:24.279 In fact, most of the Christian life is a pilgrimage. 00:22:25.379 --> 00:22:26.359 It's a grind. 00:22:27.159 --> 00:22:34.039 Hebrews 1 has example after example of faithful Christians who what? 00:22:34.179 --> 00:22:35.019 Had faith. 00:22:35.099 --> 00:22:35.740 What is faith? 00:22:35.839 --> 00:22:38.399 It dogged trust when it doesn't make sense. 00:22:38.400 --> 00:22:48.519 It's trusting in the promise of God when every circumstance is to the contrary, right? 00:22:48.519 --> 00:22:52.519 It's sojourning in a foreign land. 00:22:52.680 --> 00:22:53.579 It's exile. 00:22:53.579 --> 00:22:54.579 It's a Christian life. 00:22:54.579 --> 00:22:55.579 It's a Christian life. 00:22:55.579 --> 00:22:56.419 It's a Christian life. 00:22:56.419 --> 00:22:59.159 It's not a series of mountaintop experiences. 00:22:59.160 --> 00:23:12.380 And we have all been trained intuitively to think about Jesus as a – following Jesus as a process of height to height to height, either in worship or in quiet times or in relationships or in the next great book that we read. 00:23:12.380 --> 00:23:17.680 A few weeks ago, Matthew said something that's just been bouncing around in my head. 00:23:17.760 --> 00:23:18.660 I can't get it out of my head. 00:23:18.720 --> 00:23:19.100 He said this. 00:23:19.160 --> 00:23:22.800 He said, the church is not about selling religious services. 00:23:23.520 --> 00:23:27.860 The church is not about selling religious services, but how often do we approach it that way? 00:23:28.540 --> 00:23:33.160 Just one other store, one other place where we go and get what we want out of it. 00:23:33.160 --> 00:23:42.900 Second, many times following Jesus is an exercise of managing disappointment and failure. 00:23:43.600 --> 00:23:44.600 That's the reality. 00:23:44.900 --> 00:23:48.580 Following Jesus is an exercise in managing disappointment and failure. 00:23:48.580 --> 00:23:57.300 In a world afflicted by sin, by the devil, by our own selfishness, faith literally means trusting in something often despite the evidence. 00:23:57.299 --> 00:24:03.200 Not even just against or without evidence, but despite evidence, right? 00:24:03.460 --> 00:24:11.200 Again, the hall of faith of Hebrews 11, a list of men and women who trusted God despite the circumstances. 00:24:11.359 --> 00:24:12.460 Listen to verse 13. 00:24:13.379 --> 00:24:19.099 These – this is these faithful Christians throughout the ages – all died in faith, 00:24:19.480 --> 00:24:25.799 not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, 00:24:25.799 --> 00:24:27.819 having acknowledged that they were what? 00:24:27.960 --> 00:24:30.519 Strangers and exiles on the earth. 00:24:34.259 --> 00:24:39.759 Men and women who followed God faithfully, never receiving what God promised, 00:24:40.240 --> 00:24:42.419 trusting always in his promises. 00:24:44.460 --> 00:24:47.980 Exodus 5 is that failure moment, and Moses felt it. 00:24:48.639 --> 00:24:52.919 God called him, God shows his power, and it's a total disaster. 00:24:52.920 --> 00:24:56.420 And so what would Moses do? 00:24:56.500 --> 00:24:57.360 What would the people do? 00:24:58.080 --> 00:24:59.460 What will we do, right? 00:25:00.240 --> 00:25:01.400 So the takeaways is this. 00:25:01.740 --> 00:25:06.600 How have you asked your religious faith to be one more area of consumption? 00:25:08.380 --> 00:25:12.200 Where in your heart do you ask, what am I getting out of this? 00:25:12.580 --> 00:25:14.900 Is it meeting my expectations? 00:25:14.900 --> 00:25:18.380 If that's the lens of your faith, you will be disappointed. 00:25:20.340 --> 00:25:28.960 Second, learning to shift our faith into managing expectations and growing in trust and faithfulness in God. 00:25:29.540 --> 00:25:30.820 Now, how do we do that? 00:25:31.200 --> 00:25:31.900 How do we do that? 00:25:31.980 --> 00:25:33.980 Well, we return to God's faithfulness. 00:25:34.060 --> 00:25:35.500 We return to God's faithfulness. 00:25:36.160 --> 00:25:41.040 Look at chapter 1 of verse – sorry, chapter 6, verse 1. 00:25:41.039 --> 00:25:44.220 Ends at the lowest possible note. 00:25:45.759 --> 00:25:46.659 You have done this evil. 00:25:46.799 --> 00:25:48.680 You have not delivered your people at all. 00:25:49.200 --> 00:25:51.899 Verse 1, but the Lord said to Moses, 00:25:52.180 --> 00:25:55.000 Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh. 00:25:56.059 --> 00:25:58.740 For with a strong hand, he will send them out. 00:25:58.920 --> 00:26:02.240 And with a strong hand, he will drive them out of his land. 00:26:03.079 --> 00:26:06.779 In the Hebrew, that word now is as emphatic as you can get. 00:26:06.779 --> 00:26:12.099 If we were to – you could underline, italicize, and make that bold in your text. 00:26:12.200 --> 00:26:12.440 We would. 00:26:12.779 --> 00:26:15.759 Now you will see what I will do. 00:26:16.779 --> 00:26:23.759 Out of the worst disaster that you can imagine, out of great failure, now you will see what I will do. 00:26:24.460 --> 00:26:27.879 And notice he doesn't even say how I will send you out. 00:26:28.359 --> 00:26:30.480 He says Pharaoh will send you out. 00:26:30.480 --> 00:26:38.200 The source of what has become your greatest misery and oppression, I will do such a work that he is going to send you packing. 00:26:38.799 --> 00:26:40.480 He will drive you out of the land. 00:26:40.579 --> 00:26:45.220 He will say, I want nothing to do with you because of what your God has done. 00:26:47.380 --> 00:26:51.539 Verse 2, God spoke to Moses and said to him, I am the Lord. 00:26:51.839 --> 00:26:53.860 What was Pharaoh's accusation? 00:26:54.039 --> 00:26:55.759 Who is this God? 00:26:56.759 --> 00:26:57.480 Who is Yahweh? 00:26:58.220 --> 00:26:59.640 I want nothing to do with him. 00:26:59.640 --> 00:27:00.460 What does God say? 00:27:00.580 --> 00:27:02.640 I am Yahweh. 00:27:04.060 --> 00:27:06.240 And he says, let me tell you who I am. 00:27:06.860 --> 00:27:11.140 I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty. 00:27:11.800 --> 00:27:13.440 I established my covenant. 00:27:14.800 --> 00:27:19.820 Verses 2 through 9 are rich, rich material for you to study this week. 00:27:19.819 --> 00:27:26.240 I want you to notice here all of the things that God does in these verses, right? 00:27:27.240 --> 00:27:28.419 He hears. 00:27:28.659 --> 00:27:29.779 He redeems. 00:27:29.980 --> 00:27:30.740 He judges. 00:27:31.039 --> 00:27:32.579 He takes possession. 00:27:33.539 --> 00:27:34.980 He brings. 00:27:36.059 --> 00:27:38.399 God here is the main character. 00:27:38.619 --> 00:27:39.839 He is the protagonist. 00:27:40.299 --> 00:27:41.899 He is the hero of Exodus. 00:27:41.900 --> 00:27:45.040 He says, who is this God? 00:27:45.680 --> 00:27:48.640 God says, I will show you who I am. 00:27:49.000 --> 00:27:50.360 I am the Lord. 00:27:50.500 --> 00:27:51.440 I am Yahweh. 00:27:51.440 --> 00:27:56.660 And he promises in these verses three things. 00:27:58.900 --> 00:28:00.320 Three things that he promises. 00:28:00.480 --> 00:28:03.559 He promises redemption, relationship, and land. 00:28:04.660 --> 00:28:06.480 Redemption, relationship, and land. 00:28:06.640 --> 00:28:07.640 Look at verse 6. 00:28:07.640 --> 00:28:12.820 Verse 6, he says, say therefore to the people of Israel, I am the Lord. 00:28:12.940 --> 00:28:19.160 I will bring you out from under the burden of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, 00:28:19.200 --> 00:28:24.140 and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. 00:28:25.080 --> 00:28:29.400 Bring them out of slavery and crush their oppressors with great judgment. 00:28:30.100 --> 00:28:32.360 This means that God is the Redeemer. 00:28:32.500 --> 00:28:35.000 He saves his people from their misery. 00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:43.339 He saves his people first by delivering them out of it and by judging and destroying their enemies, right? 00:28:44.720 --> 00:28:46.539 He will redeem his people. 00:28:46.720 --> 00:28:49.480 Second, he promises a relationship with them. 00:28:50.160 --> 00:28:54.500 Really, the term that the Bible or the Old Testament prefers is the term covenant. 00:28:55.039 --> 00:28:55.880 Look at verse 7. 00:28:56.220 --> 00:29:02.500 And I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, 00:29:02.500 --> 00:29:04.920 who has brought you out from under the burden of the Egyptians. 00:29:05.980 --> 00:29:07.920 The great promise of the Old Testament. 00:29:08.640 --> 00:29:14.940 The great promise is God says to Israel, I will be your God, and you will be my people. 00:29:15.960 --> 00:29:22.380 That is the hope, the aspiration, the desire of the whole Old Testament. 00:29:22.380 --> 00:29:30.520 And it is a relationship of intimacy, warmth, protection, tenderness, care. 00:29:31.040 --> 00:29:32.320 I will be your God. 00:29:32.720 --> 00:29:34.380 I will have a covenant with you. 00:29:34.660 --> 00:29:42.000 God is not just some removed deity in the sky who says, I'm going to work geopolitics so that you happen to be redeemed. 00:29:42.100 --> 00:29:44.720 No, he says, I care about you deeply. 00:29:44.820 --> 00:29:46.140 I love you tenderly. 00:29:46.140 --> 00:29:54.360 I will reap you, my special people, who I will redeem and who I will have a relationship of care, love, and tenderness. 00:29:54.359 --> 00:29:58.359 Lastly, he promises to them a land. 00:29:59.059 --> 00:30:05.719 And I will, verse 8, I will bring you into the land that I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. 00:30:05.899 --> 00:30:08.019 I will give it to you for a possession. 00:30:08.459 --> 00:30:10.859 And then he seals it with the way he started. 00:30:11.079 --> 00:30:12.659 I am the Lord. 00:30:12.779 --> 00:30:13.859 I am Yahweh. 00:30:13.859 --> 00:30:16.559 So he promises to bring them to a land. 00:30:16.639 --> 00:30:17.699 How is the land described? 00:30:17.799 --> 00:30:18.779 The land of Canaan described? 00:30:19.139 --> 00:30:20.479 A land of milk and honey. 00:30:21.339 --> 00:30:22.539 Fat things and sweet things. 00:30:22.599 --> 00:30:24.019 Really, it's all we want for Christmas, right? 00:30:24.579 --> 00:30:25.399 Fat and sweet. 00:30:25.699 --> 00:30:26.399 Sugar, you know? 00:30:26.819 --> 00:30:30.139 Sugar and it's the delighting, joyful meals that we all want. 00:30:31.059 --> 00:30:32.479 So what is God saying here? 00:30:32.539 --> 00:30:37.779 He says, after this first round of disasters, now strap in and watch me work. 00:30:38.459 --> 00:30:40.939 I will do everything and more that I have promised. 00:30:41.799 --> 00:30:43.279 And here's the crucial point. 00:30:43.859 --> 00:30:48.579 That same God has been the same throughout the ages. 00:30:49.419 --> 00:30:51.479 Notice he says at the very beginning, verse 3, 00:30:51.599 --> 00:30:54.199 I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. 00:30:54.399 --> 00:30:58.259 Hundreds of years before you, O Israelites, were enslaved, 00:30:58.599 --> 00:31:01.859 before you were a twinkle in your father's eye, 00:31:01.939 --> 00:31:06.319 you were a twinkle in the sky that I told your father Abraham 00:31:06.319 --> 00:31:09.579 that his descendants would be beyond the stars of the sea. 00:31:09.579 --> 00:31:13.500 I made promises to your father, and I kept them. 00:31:13.859 --> 00:31:17.819 And now I make promises to you, and I will keep them. 00:31:18.179 --> 00:31:21.659 And Christian, that God is the same today as he was then. 00:31:21.740 --> 00:31:26.159 He has made promises to you, and he has and will keep them. 00:31:26.160 --> 00:31:35.200 The failures of Exodus 5 are only one chapter in the whole book of God's redemption of his people. 00:31:35.620 --> 00:31:37.120 And here's the crucial point. 00:31:37.500 --> 00:31:43.040 The book of Exodus is only one chapter in a far greater story of God's redemption. 00:31:43.039 --> 00:31:47.920 And it points to a far greater redemption. 00:31:47.920 --> 00:31:58.399 1,500 years later, more followers of Jesus would face possibly an even more discouraging moment in ministry. 00:31:59.399 --> 00:32:04.139 The most failure colossal imaginable of God. 00:32:04.779 --> 00:32:06.299 Jesus Christ comes to earth. 00:32:07.299 --> 00:32:08.859 He claims to be God. 00:32:08.859 --> 00:32:11.879 He does the things that only God can do. 00:32:11.979 --> 00:32:12.919 He backs it up. 00:32:14.579 --> 00:32:17.359 He claims to be the God who freed the Israelites. 00:32:18.059 --> 00:32:19.579 His disciples believe him. 00:32:19.659 --> 00:32:20.399 They follow him. 00:32:20.479 --> 00:32:21.219 They worship him. 00:32:21.279 --> 00:32:22.759 They say, you are God. 00:32:23.019 --> 00:32:26.899 You are the one who will rescue us from the oppression of the Romans, 00:32:27.099 --> 00:32:29.139 from deep, dark, spiritual oppression. 00:32:29.319 --> 00:32:30.439 We will follow you. 00:32:30.899 --> 00:32:31.599 What happened? 00:32:31.599 --> 00:32:34.659 He was killed. 00:32:36.500 --> 00:32:39.939 A far greater defeat imaginable. 00:32:40.759 --> 00:32:45.199 In Exodus, the people themselves were oppressed with Christ. 00:32:45.379 --> 00:32:47.059 God himself was executed. 00:32:48.199 --> 00:32:54.079 God himself was not spared from the genocidal campaign of evil against him. 00:32:54.919 --> 00:32:56.779 It's an utter disaster. 00:32:56.779 --> 00:33:01.500 Imagine what Jesus' followers felt that Saturday morning. 00:33:02.440 --> 00:33:05.299 Ten times worse than anything Moses felt. 00:33:05.940 --> 00:33:08.099 Embarrassed, defeated, discouraged. 00:33:08.399 --> 00:33:12.500 In Exodus, the government looks at God's servant, Moses, and sneers. 00:33:12.599 --> 00:33:17.579 But with Jesus, government looks at God himself and sneers. 00:33:18.059 --> 00:33:19.019 And kills him. 00:33:19.019 --> 00:33:30.799 When Jesus' disciples are broken men, it's the most discouraging failure of ministry ever imaginable. 00:33:31.680 --> 00:33:32.839 And what happened? 00:33:34.740 --> 00:33:41.180 Out of the ashes of this disaster comes the redemption of us all. 00:33:41.180 --> 00:33:43.120 Not just the Israelites. 00:33:44.060 --> 00:33:48.080 But every person who would trust in Christ. 00:33:48.480 --> 00:33:49.940 Trust in the promises of God. 00:33:52.360 --> 00:33:57.360 It's as if on the cross Jesus would say exactly what God would say to Moses. 00:33:57.560 --> 00:34:00.000 Now you will see what I will do. 00:34:01.180 --> 00:34:02.360 He walks out of the tomb. 00:34:04.060 --> 00:34:07.080 And what does he promise to those who follow him and trust in him? 00:34:07.079 --> 00:34:10.819 The same thing that he promises to the Israelites. 00:34:11.039 --> 00:34:13.460 Redemption, covenant, and land. 00:34:14.460 --> 00:34:21.440 In Colossians 1, Paul writes, he says this, that Jesus, in Jesus, we have deliverance from the domain of darkness. 00:34:22.259 --> 00:34:24.659 We have deliverance from the domain of darkness. 00:34:25.099 --> 00:34:29.119 The redemption of our greatest oppressor, which is sin. 00:34:29.119 --> 00:34:36.239 In Christ, you have redemption from the darkest oppressor in your whole life, which is sin. 00:34:36.719 --> 00:34:41.859 In John 14, Jesus says, when you trust in me, I will come and live in you. 00:34:41.920 --> 00:34:43.339 And you will be my brother. 00:34:43.519 --> 00:34:45.259 And I will be your father. 00:34:45.259 --> 00:34:50.339 That is a relationship, an intimacy, a covenantal connection with God. 00:34:51.219 --> 00:34:55.900 That is what your heart has longed for since the moment your heart started beating. 00:34:55.900 --> 00:35:00.860 In John 14, again, Jesus tells him, what does he say? 00:35:00.980 --> 00:35:04.440 He says, I go to prepare a place for you. 00:35:05.780 --> 00:35:09.920 A land, a house flowing with milk and honey. 00:35:10.820 --> 00:35:16.200 A feast that makes any other feast that we have on earth practice. 00:35:17.460 --> 00:35:21.160 Practice and preparation for the time where we will live with God forever. 00:35:21.159 --> 00:35:26.539 We read in Ephesians 2 during our catechism that we have an inheritance. 00:35:27.619 --> 00:35:30.139 An inheritance beyond our wildest hope. 00:35:30.219 --> 00:35:32.019 A land of fat and sweet foods. 00:35:32.119 --> 00:35:39.500 A place without sadness or tears or bitterly or pain or misery or depression or despair forever. 00:35:40.859 --> 00:35:46.500 Jesus comes and promises the same things that he has been promising his people since the beginning. 00:35:46.500 --> 00:35:49.039 And he backs it up. 00:35:49.659 --> 00:35:54.360 That out of the ashes of despair and disaster, he redeems. 00:35:57.460 --> 00:36:00.880 So the question becomes then, will we listen to him? 00:36:01.760 --> 00:36:05.139 Will we trust again and anew? 00:36:05.780 --> 00:36:08.199 The Israelites were too beat up to trust. 00:36:09.360 --> 00:36:10.420 They were too beat up. 00:36:10.420 --> 00:36:13.200 It says at the very end, what is it he says? 00:36:14.300 --> 00:36:18.300 He says that the people were, verse 9 of chapter 6, 00:36:18.400 --> 00:36:21.880 Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses 00:36:21.880 --> 00:36:24.680 because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery. 00:36:25.579 --> 00:36:28.920 And I can't be too hard on them because I've never been in their shoes of being 00:36:28.920 --> 00:36:32.059 at the pointy end of genocide and slavery. 00:36:32.940 --> 00:36:33.960 But they didn't listen. 00:36:34.460 --> 00:36:35.380 They couldn't trust. 00:36:35.380 --> 00:36:40.079 And I understand that for some of you, you think, Jonathan, how can I trust again? 00:36:41.200 --> 00:36:43.599 How I'm so discouraged in my Christian life. 00:36:44.539 --> 00:36:46.780 How am I to trust one more time? 00:36:47.800 --> 00:36:50.460 You're so discouraged, and I'm so sorry for that. 00:36:51.340 --> 00:36:53.920 And to you, I would say, look to Jesus. 00:36:54.180 --> 00:36:57.000 It's all we have, but it's everything we need. 00:36:57.000 --> 00:37:04.679 Look to how faithful he was and is to you and for you and how he has proven himself trustworthy 00:37:04.679 --> 00:37:07.280 again and again and again. 00:37:08.860 --> 00:37:13.659 The question to ask yourself, the question I would ask you is, will you listen? 00:37:13.780 --> 00:37:15.579 And if you say, I can't, I would say, why? 00:37:15.900 --> 00:37:21.099 If God is faithful, and I see in the Bible every indication that he is. 00:37:21.099 --> 00:37:27.799 And if the Bible says the faith is not about easy consumerism, but it's about trusting a good, 00:37:27.960 --> 00:37:34.179 faithful God despite and against circumstances, I would ask, how can you not? 00:37:34.619 --> 00:37:36.420 How can you not trust this God? 00:37:36.619 --> 00:37:38.839 He's all we have, but he's everything we need. 00:37:40.440 --> 00:37:42.480 I'm not going to oversell the Christian life. 00:37:42.539 --> 00:37:43.619 In fact, I'll undersell it. 00:37:43.659 --> 00:37:44.319 It's hard. 00:37:45.319 --> 00:37:46.719 It's hard around the world. 00:37:46.719 --> 00:37:50.719 It's hard in Colorado Springs, but I'll oversell the God that we trust. 00:37:51.500 --> 00:37:55.059 He's the most faithful, generous, kind God you can imagine. 00:37:55.239 --> 00:37:57.179 Why would you not trust such a God? 00:37:58.460 --> 00:37:59.759 So when we ask, how? 00:37:59.860 --> 00:38:00.779 How do I do this? 00:38:01.400 --> 00:38:03.799 How can I mature and grow through discouragement? 00:38:04.940 --> 00:38:06.759 A couple of practical things, and we'll wrap up. 00:38:06.839 --> 00:38:08.219 First, pay attention. 00:38:08.519 --> 00:38:13.960 Learn to pay attention to the godly voices in your life, to your pastor, to your elders, 00:38:13.960 --> 00:38:19.019 to your parents, to men and women who have practice in this. 00:38:19.699 --> 00:38:22.500 Verse 9, they did not pay attention to Moses. 00:38:23.320 --> 00:38:24.719 They did not listen to Moses. 00:38:25.079 --> 00:38:25.900 And that's on them. 00:38:26.900 --> 00:38:33.759 To you, I would say, learn to pay greater attention to the men and women who will exhort you to faith. 00:38:33.760 --> 00:38:39.880 These are God's shepherds to remind and exhort and encourage you. 00:38:39.880 --> 00:38:44.200 Second, drill into the core of who you are the promises of God. 00:38:44.680 --> 00:38:49.440 Find two or three verses in the Bible that show you his promises and memorize them, 00:38:49.560 --> 00:38:53.060 so that when you wake up at 2 a.m. and you think, how can I be a Christian? 00:38:53.059 --> 00:38:57.880 Or when you get the phone call or whenever whatever happens, you run back to that. 00:38:57.960 --> 00:38:59.699 For me, it's Colossians 1.13. 00:38:59.820 --> 00:39:04.920 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son 00:39:04.920 --> 00:39:08.000 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. 00:39:09.360 --> 00:39:11.799 Drill those promises deep into your heart. 00:39:13.360 --> 00:39:17.119 Third, throw yourself deeper into communities of faith. 00:39:17.119 --> 00:39:22.980 Despair and discouragement are always connected and linked to isolation. 00:39:24.199 --> 00:39:26.059 There's a man named Viktor Frankl. 00:39:26.139 --> 00:39:29.119 He was a psychologist who endured the Nazi concentration camps. 00:39:29.259 --> 00:39:32.299 And as he studied and endured the concentration camps, 00:39:32.359 --> 00:39:35.139 he saw there were essentially two kinds of people in a concentration camp. 00:39:36.019 --> 00:39:39.199 There were the people who, no matter how bad it got, could endure. 00:39:40.039 --> 00:39:42.079 No matter how bad it could become, they could endure. 00:39:42.199 --> 00:39:46.639 And there were the people that would crack and either die or give up or capitulate. 00:39:47.119 --> 00:39:51.960 And he says, the characteristic of the people who endured were the people who had a sense of community with purpose. 00:39:53.079 --> 00:39:55.859 A sense of community and purpose, even in a concentration camp. 00:39:56.219 --> 00:39:58.519 The people who gather together around a purpose. 00:39:58.980 --> 00:40:01.859 He says this, he says, the human species can endure almost anything, 00:40:02.139 --> 00:40:05.519 even a concentration camp, if they have community and purpose. 00:40:06.239 --> 00:40:07.000 We know this. 00:40:07.000 --> 00:40:10.000 Those of you who are in the military, you go through hard things, 00:40:10.099 --> 00:40:14.500 but you have the brotherhood and you have purpose and you can endure. 00:40:14.500 --> 00:40:17.199 Those of us who are parents, we know this. 00:40:17.860 --> 00:40:19.139 We have each other. 00:40:19.780 --> 00:40:22.320 Kids will ring us drive and we have purpose. 00:40:24.920 --> 00:40:26.400 This is your community. 00:40:27.280 --> 00:40:28.679 This is your purpose. 00:40:29.579 --> 00:40:31.679 Throw yourself into it for 2025. 00:40:33.559 --> 00:40:36.519 Don't treat this as something where you come in and consume. 00:40:36.659 --> 00:40:38.519 That will only feed your discouragement. 00:40:38.699 --> 00:40:39.440 Get involved. 00:40:40.400 --> 00:40:41.340 Meet with your elder. 00:40:41.340 --> 00:40:44.260 Meet with your pastor and say, how can I serve? 00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:46.700 How can I join a home group? 00:40:47.039 --> 00:40:48.920 How can I start a small group? 00:40:49.220 --> 00:40:53.059 That is where you will find yourself actually fighting the discouragement 00:40:53.059 --> 00:40:56.960 and growing to trust the promises of God. 00:40:56.960 --> 00:41:04.220 As you approach 2025, in a couple days, in some ways it's just another year. 00:41:05.039 --> 00:41:05.820 It's just another day. 00:41:05.900 --> 00:41:09.320 In other words, it is a new opportunity to recalibrate, reset. 00:41:10.039 --> 00:41:12.880 Think about how we can grow, as Andy said at the beginning. 00:41:15.019 --> 00:41:17.460 To you, I would say don't consume Jesus. 00:41:17.460 --> 00:41:21.840 Don't make resolutions that you'll probably fail in. 00:41:21.920 --> 00:41:28.800 Rather, faithfully wake up and follow Jesus on January 1st, January 2nd, January 3rd. 00:41:30.559 --> 00:41:36.159 Wake up every day and say, today I will be a Christian because I trust a faithful God. 00:41:36.900 --> 00:41:38.220 That is what God asks of you. 00:41:38.219 --> 00:41:44.679 And when discouragement and failure happen, which they will, run back anew to the character of God. 00:41:44.779 --> 00:41:46.299 Run back to his faithful promises. 00:41:47.019 --> 00:41:47.719 Trust again. 00:41:48.619 --> 00:41:49.439 He is faithful. 00:41:50.139 --> 00:41:51.279 He will not leave us. 00:41:52.000 --> 00:41:52.839 Let me pray for us. 00:41:52.840 --> 00:42:02.660 Lord in heaven, as we study your word, it strikes us anew, convicts us, encourages us. 00:42:02.780 --> 00:42:05.559 We pray that you would do what you only can do. 00:42:05.880 --> 00:42:07.600 That you would increase our faith. 00:42:07.920 --> 00:42:08.800 Give us more faith. 00:42:09.519 --> 00:42:12.519 And it would be faith that encourages our hearts. 00:42:13.360 --> 00:42:17.160 As Hebrews says at the ends, it would strengthen our weak knees and our hands 00:42:17.160 --> 00:42:19.680 to run with endurance the race set before us. 00:42:20.300 --> 00:42:21.460 And we would give you the glory. 00:42:22.840 --> 00:42:27.680 We do pray that you would come quickly and bring us out of this exile to the home that you have. 00:42:27.760 --> 00:42:31.880 But until then, give us the grit and the tenacity to trust you. 00:42:31.960 --> 00:42:32.900 It's in Jesus' name we pray. 00:42:33.000 --> 00:42:33.200 Amen.