Christmas: God's Promise and Presence (with Kaleb Roth)

Will.

Have.

The Christmas story

really began in the Exodus story.

But God showed the world.

He made promises to his people and said.

I will deliver you out of bondage and slavery into the promised land.

That was the runner of what we know as the Christmas story

in the advent of Jesus delivering us from our sin.

And so, as we kick off this Christmas season,

we're going to start back in the exodus to see

how God was faithful to his promises in the hope that his people had.

And to do that, it was my son, Caleb.

And, Shelly and I have three sons.

Cannabis, our middle son.

And it is a joy and a privilege and an honor

to share the pulpit with him this morning.

We grew up.

He grew up out here in Ranchos and all three of the schools, Webster Arms

and Legs.

And Caleb has always had a heart that chased hard after Jesus

since he was a little boy.

I know that that that it it found expression as he grew up.

His sophomore year at LA, he started

the FCA group there,

and became president of that and ran that for three years,

during his his junior and senior football season,

as much as he wanted and did succeed on the football field.

His heart was to chase after God, and football

had to be more than just a game for him.

And he started a thing called Beyond the game in which he rose.

They raised, $10 for every point that that the team scored.

And over those two years, they raised over $10,000 for Valley Children's Hospital.

He's always chase hard after God and the things of God.

He went to college in South Dakota to play football

and get his master is his degree in mechanical engineering.

And upon arrival in South Dakota, he started teaching

the fifth grade Sunday School class.

And through the football team, when they would travel,

he would be their traveling chapel, chaplain and lead chapel for the guys.

And when he got done playing football,

they asked him to come back and be in the chaplain.

He's recently moved to Minnesota, and he got to Minnesota

and went to church and started teaching the fifth Street.

Fifth, sixth grade Sunday school class.

There.

And being in the kindergarten a want

a teacher on Wednesday night.

How cool would that be as a kindergarten kid?

To have him teaching you,

and now is stepping

into leading the young adult ministry at that church.

He's always had a heart that chase hard after God,

and he shared with me a Bible study that he's written multi-part Bible study.

And as a kid, if I want you to, I want you to preach that to our church.

The things that God

is imparting to you, Caleb, and the sensitivity you have to the spirit

and the maturity you have to listen to God

and build your life to him.

Parents always want their kids

to be better than them, right?

So. Thank you.

I love you, and I'm very proud.

Will you welcome Caleb this morning?

He gave you the extended bio.

I was just going to tell you my name. Sam.

The second middle kid.

I live in Minnesota now, so thank you for the full bio.

Well, good morning side.

I'm very, very excited to be here and,

get a break from the tundra that is Minnesota.

Now, looking at my dad and I, you can see there's some differences.

The hair, the youth.

But something we have in common is.

I got a lot to say, and only so much time to say it.

So we're going to get right, right into it this morning.

But first, if you join me in prayer.

Heavenly father, thank you for this opportunity to meet

and pursue you together as a church.

I pray that you would teach us and prepare our hearts for all you have to say.

Bless this time for your glory. Amen.

This morning I'm going to talk about the Israelites journey.

Going from Egypt to God's promised land, and how I believe we can have hope

and God's promises even when we're going through the deserts of life.

As we enter the Christmas season, we can tend to see Scripture

in a different light.

As we get closer and closer

to celebrating the birth of Jesus and the story in Exodus is no different.

The Israelites promise of a new home is reminiscent of our promise of heaven.

Just as the Israelites were physically, delivered from slavery.

We've been spiritually delivered from slavery to sin through Jesus.

And just as the Israelites were able to trust in God,

even though all they saw was the desert, were able to trust in God.

Though all we see is this world.

And while

reading the Israelites story at Exodus, I found it very compelling

how the Israelites would continue to lose faith

even though they knew, what

God had told them, and God told them what he had in store for them.

They spent a lot of time experiencing the opposite of what God promised.

Instead of a land flowing with milk and honey, they were surrounded

by the desolate desert and it consistently wore them down.

And in considering the Israelites story, I realize that often times in our lives

we hear in church that we can that God's going to deliver us.

And and we read in our Bibles that God is faithful to His Word.

But sometimes what we experience feels like the complete opposite

of what we hear and read in church. In the Bible.

So I'm going to

highlight three instances in the Israelites Exodus story,

and their corresponding hindrances that tried to keep them

from keeping their hope in God.

We're going to see

that I can trust God when my situation gets worse.

We're going to see that I can trust God in the face of fear, and that I can trust

God when it appears everyone but me is experiencing God's promises.

But before we get into trust in God's promises,

I think it's important to identify what God's promises are.

And Scripture is riddled with promises from God.

But to highlight a few, here's just a handful of them on the screen.

We're promised in first John four nine that God loves us.

It reads we love because he first love us.

First John one nine.

We're promise that God forgives us if we confess our sins.

He is faithful

and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

We're promised that God is in control in John 1633, in the world

you will have tribulation, but take heart.

I have overcome the world.

We're promised that God will guide us.

In Psalm 32 eight, I will trust, and I will instruct you

and teach you in the way you should go.

And in Psalm 91, three were promised that God protects us.

It reads, For he will deliver you

from the snare of the Fowler and from the deadly pestilence.

And I realize we may have heard these concepts

so often, that we recognize them more as hopeful ideas,

rather than the definite truths in our lives that they are.

But I challenge you this morning to consider these verses and what they say

to be undeniable promises from the Almighty to you.

As we continue.

Our story starts in Exodus chapter three.

So if you have a Bible or brought one with you,

you go ahead and turn with me to Exodus chapter three.

And it's here that we read that the Israelites, God's chosen

people, are being persecuted greatly under Pharaoh's rule in Egypt.

Pharaoh being the king of Egypt,

and Moses having fled Egypt,

finds himself talking to God by a bush that's on fire but not burning.

You might have heard this part of the story before,

and it's here that God tells Moses that he is going to be the one

to bring his people, the Israelites, out of Egypt in Exodus

chapter three, verse 11,

Moses responds to God with, But God.

But Moses said to God,

who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?

And God said, I will be with you, and this will be the sign to you.

It is I who have sent you.

When you have brought the people out of Egypt,

you will worship God on this mountain.

Now, when Moses is,

hearing from God that that he's been called to be used in this great way,

he does what I think most of us will do when he looks for some type of reassurance

that what God is telling him is actually true.

And then later verses,

we see that he's fearful that the Israelites won't believe him,

and he's questioning if he even has what it takes to be used by God in this way.

I think this is something that applies to all of us.

How many times have we felt called by God to live in a certain way,

or to follow him in a certain way,

or we just don't feel like we have what it takes?

It's not necessarily a question of our desire to follow God.

We just simply don't see ourselves as having the required abilities

to conquer what's in front of us.

And that's what Moses is facing.

And I think God's response is very, very significant.

When Moses is looking for reassurance, God

tells him, I will be with you and you will worship me.

Notice in the second point that Moses signed from God

that what God is saying is true is that after

he brings the people out of Egypt, they'll worship him on that mountain,

God gives Moses sign.

This is actually God's will after God.

Moses has already followed God.

Again, verse 12 reads,

and this will be the sign to you that is I who have sent you.

When you have brought the people out of Egypt,

you will worship God in this mountain.

The way I see it doesn't seem to be what Moses is looking for.

It doesn't appear to offer any confidence in the moment.

Moses wants to know that he'll be successful

in bringing the Israelites out of Egypt.

So God says, we'll give Moses a sign that he'll be successful

after he has already successfully brought the Israelites out of Egypt.

It feels backwards to me.

Now, in later verses, God gives Moses

physical signs to convince the Israelites that what he's saying is from God.

But I don't want to miss a point here in verse 12.

And this is something I've heard from Pastor Carl.

And I know a lot of us have also heard sometimes

we just have to say yes to God before we know what we're saying yes to,

because sometimes God calls us to follow him, even though we aren't 100% confident

that we're going to succeed, and only after we've obeyed God

in the way he's called us to obey him, do we get the reassurance.

This is where faith comes in.

We follow God without knowing what we're going into.

God calling you to go is your call to action.

We don't know how we're going to do it,

but God said to the Israelites, we're going to go talk to Pharaoh.

Some of us may have a calling on our hearts from God,

and we want to follow it,

but we don't think we can because God hasn't given us enough information yet.

We think we're ready to live for God.

If only he would tell us how we're supposed to do what we're supposed to do.

It's not a comforting

notion, but we don't get to know that all the time.

We don't need more information.

We don't need to know what's going to happen.

We don't need more time to think it through.

Let God worry about the who and the what, and the wind and the why in the how.

And just say yes.

Because sometimes the reassurance comes after obedience.

So if you want the comfort and the reassurance and start obeying,

God's command is the call to action.

So Moses makes a decision to answer God's call on his life.

Like many of us, he starts the journey of hearing God's promises,

but not yet knowing how they're going to be revealed.

And before too long, Moses and his brother

Aaron go to Pharaoh, asking him about the Israelites, God of Egypt.

However, Pharaoh refuses and instead increases the Israelites workload.

Exodus chapter five, verses 6 to 9 give Pharaoh's response.

That same day, Pharaoh

gave this order to the slave drivers and overseers in charge of the people

who are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks.

Let them go and gather their own straw, but require them to make the same number

bricks as before. Don't reduce the quota.

They are lazy.

That is why they are crying out.

Let us go and sacrifice to our God.

Make the work harder for the people

so that they keep working to pay no attention to lies.

The Israelites, who are already in severe

misery, now have to produce the same amount of product.

With less resources.

Their workload is just absurdly increased.

And when the Israelites realize that they're now in worsening conditions,

they become upset with Moses and Aaron saying that they're they're going

to die by Pharaoh's hand.

Moses response to God is

recorded in verses 22 and 23.

Moses returned to the Lord and said, why, Lord, have you?

Why have you brought this trouble on this people?

Is this why you sent me?

Ever since

I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble on this people.

And you have not rescued your people at all.

Imagine being a Moses shoes here.

God calls him to deliver the Israelites, and after trying

the Israelites situation gets worse.

Here's point one for before.

Have you ever felt like you're doing exactly what God called you to do,

but you're getting further away from his promises?

Moses didn't go to God looking to be the one to deliver the Israelites.

And when God called Moses to free the Israelites, he didn't want to do it.

When God was calling Moses at the bush, that didn't burn.

It's written

that Moses as part of your servant Lord, please send someone else point blank.

Moses doesn't want to be in this position, but here he is trying to serve God.

And the opposite of what God said would happen is happening.

The Israelites aren't being treated.

They're being treated worse than before.

I don't think this is a foreign feeling for a lot of us.

We want to.

We try to obey God and follow God and serve God

instead of getting to the other side of God's promises.

We feel further than before.

We feel less hope, less joy, and we maybe start questioning

that we're doing the right thing altogether.

This is very counterintuitive to how we might expect following God to look.

Most of us think we should get rewarded in life when we put in the work,

and we expect our relationship with God to function in the same way.

We might think, I'm doing everything you asked of me, God,

and you said you deliver me. So why aren't you keeping up your end?

Let's see what God says to Moses

when when he returns to him and see if you notice any similarities

between what God has already told Moses and what God says. How?

From Exodus chapter six, verse one, then the Lord said to Moses, now

you will see what I will do to Pharaoh because of my mighty hand.

He will let them go. Because of my mighty hand.

He will drive them out of this country and this country.

Couple verses later, verses 6 to 7, we continue,

therefore say to the Israelites, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out

from under the yoke of the Egyptians.

I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you

with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment.

I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God.

Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out

from under the yoke of the Egyptians.

God essentially

tells Moses the same thing you told them before.

It doesn't seem to be any new information or reassurance.

Now that Moses has tried to feed the Israelites

and they're in a worse situation.

Why would God call us to follow him

than seemingly not respond to our to our efforts, or respond

with no new information when our initial efforts fall short?

Two ideas come to mind.

Why God might respond in this way one.

Sometimes God allows our situation away

to worsen so that there is no question that it is God who delivers us.

And two sometimes you already know all you need to know.

In the moment

to explain this point.

I believe there are times God allows our situation

to worsen, to a point where it feels like all hope is gone,

so that when we do see his deliverance, there's no question in there it is God.

And God allowed his saving us.

If we never experience hardships and always succeeded on our first try,

it would be far more difficult to grow in reliance on God.

But when it feels like we have nothing

and no one, and God's foundation is the only place where we can stand.

How can we not glorify God on the other side of hardship?

There's no room to be boastful because if you could have saved yourself,

you would have saved yourself.

And sometimes God is showing us that we can always save ourselves.

And it's very, very humbling.

When you find yourself in a position you desperately want out of.

We have no way of getting out on your own and in these situations,

we discover how truly reliant we are on God,

realizing that he is our only way to deliverance.

And it's important to rejoice in these situations.

There's potential for growth and maturity

in these positions that is difficult to find in many other places.

How else are we going to learn how desperately

we need to rely on God if we never actually rely on God?

And how quickly do we look to other people and desires to rely on before God?

Sometimes we need to be stripped of reliance on anything else,

even ourselves, to see that we can and should rely on God and God alone.

And when we keep looking to God,

sometimes is going to have the same answer as before.

We want more information, more assurance, more confidence.

But God's already told us all we need to know.

God told Moses he was going to fear the Israelites.

Everyone Moses talked to Pharaoh and Israelites situation worsened.

God told Moses the same thing.

He was going to free the Israelites.

Is God no longer trustworthy or reliable?

When our first attempt doesn't work the way we expected, ours promises void.

When they aren't fulfilled as quickly as we think they will be.

Some of us are looking for more answers from God, but he's already told us what

we need to know.

We don't see your experience, what we thought we'd see or experience,

so we assume either we aren't doing the right thing

or we misunderstood God, or God's no longer faithful.

And it is so much easier said than done.

I encourage you to just stay firm in pursuing God,

knowing that his words are true and his promises always come to pass.

If you're following God, then just keep following him.

You might be really close to deliverance, or you might have a long, difficult road

road ahead of you.

Still, still,

if you're following him,

then you know for certain that his promises are in your future.

So just keep going.

Don't let go of the truths God has already told you.

Eventually, the Israelites leave Egypt

and make their way to Canaan, the land God was giving to them.

Some men went into the land to explore it, and they came back,

and reported that it was just as great as God had said it would be.

It was flowing with milk and honey.

There are all kinds of fruit in the land.

However, they also reported that the people living in the land

were very powerful, with fortified cities.

And a man named Caleb,

who was with the group that explored Canaan, tried to encourage the people,

but the others who explored the land continue to give a negative report.

In numbers, chapter 13, verses 31 to 33, we read.

Numbers 13:31–33

But the men who had gone with him said, we can't attack those people.

They're stronger than we are.

And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored.

They said, the land we explored devours those living in it.

All the people we saw are of great size.

We saw the Nephilim there.

The descendants of Anneke from the Nephilim.

We seem like grasshopper in our own eyes.

And we look the same to them.

Numbers.

Numbers 14:1–3

Chapter 14, verses 1 to 3. It continues

that night.

All the

members of the community raised their voices and wept aloud.

All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron,

and the whole assembly said to them, if only we had died in Egypt

or in this wilderness,

why is the Lord bringing us to this land, to let us fall by the sword?

Our wives and children would be taken as plunder.

Wouldn't it be better for us to go back to Egypt?

What convinces the Israelites

that they would be defeated if they tried to take Canaan?

The God changes promise.

Was there any inconsistency between what God said and what they saw? No.

But because of the fear they experienced from the negative report,

the Israelites get scared.

I don't want to take Canaan anymore.

And later verses tell us that God says the Israelites back in the wilderness

to die, and only a select group of them get to enter the land of Canaan.

Much later.

Now, if the Israelites had listened to God

and attacked when told, would they have been successful?

Of course they would have been successful, but instead

they see something that scares them and their faith is lost.

This brings out the second point I mentioned earlier.

Just because God promises us something doesn't

mean the path to it will be easy or looks safe.

Even when we know God's promises.

It's very tempting to allow fear to keep us from living the way God calls us to.

The Israelites were promised this land.

They knew they were promised this land.

But when they saw something that looked threatening, they wanted to bail.

Just because it's God with God's will.

Doesn't mean we won't be asked to face our fear and make sacrifices.

And when we're following God, we can expect things that look scared

to be between us and God's call in our lives.

And in those times, it can be tempting to be convinced that God isn't in control.

Or we must have misunderstood something because certainly God won and asked me

to face that.

It can be tempting to think of God really wanted me to follow him in this way.

There's no way he put this immovable thing between me and this call in my life.

But this is a fallacy because what is immovable to God?

What is so great that God can't overcome what is so mighty

that he isn't already above?

And maybe we aren't even questioning God's ability,

the ability during those times when we start to wonder about his will.

He's got really care about me.

Does he really see me and hear me?

Is it really God's will that I don't live in fear or loneliness?

I've got really met these things that I read in the Bible.

Why does my life feel so far from his promises?

And when we're facing the seasons of life

and maybe start wondering about these questions, it's

important to remember that God is not limited by our limitations.

So coming to that scary thing in front of you is not God's will for you,

whether it's the inhabitants of Canaan or something else,

like trying to pay bills on time,

or struggling in relationship with a loved one, or being let go at work.

Our God is greater than it.

And where's the the real risk

where the Israelites truly in danger to losing to those in Canaan?

No, they weren't, but God.

God wasn't going to fail at keeping his promise.

There wasn't truly a risk of being defeated.

What they saw made them think that there was.

And the same applies to us.

If we're pursuing God and serving God.

Then what's the real risk?

We might not get what we want

when we want them, and there's certainly going to be hardships along the way.

But if we're living for God, then glorifying him

should be at the heart of all that we do anyways.

Who cares if we don't get what we want,

or if we face hardships because we get to glorify God in those times too?

So mission accomplished.

We never have to doubt God's promises.

It might not look the most hopeful at times,

but you won't be let down by the end of it.

Some of us are in a season of life that we don't see

any way out of, and it feels like we're at the end of the road.

It's not.

God is greater than what you're facing, and his promises are still true.

God doesn't make promises to not keep them.

Choose to keep hope in God and go take the promised Land.

Whatever you're facing will not win.

It's already been decided.

Some of us aren't in that season of feeling hopeless yet,

but it's likely to come.

And when you find yourself in that season,

remember God is not limited by your limitations.

You may think, there's no way I have what it takes to face this,

and you're probably right. You don't.

We all have shortcomings, and if we went through

our challenges on our own, we would definitely fail.

We don't need to go through it alone.

Just like you've heard it said, don't bring a knife to a gunfight.

Don't bring just yourself to a God. Fight.

You need God on your side and with him on your side.

There's no way you're going to come up short.

So the Israelites go back into the wilderness

for 40 years before making their way back to Canaan.

And the second time around in Deuteronomy, Moses is recalling the Israelites

journey, giving instructions before they take Promised Land.

In Deuteronomy chapter two, verses 4 to 6,

it's written what God told Moses to tell the Israelites.

Give the people these orders you're about to pass through the territory

of your relatives, the descendants of Esau who live in Seir.

There will be afraid of you, but be very careful.

Do not provoke them to war.

I will not give you any of their land.

Not even enough to put your foot on.

I have given Esau the whole country of Seir as his own.

You have to pay them

in silver for the food you eat and the water you drink.

Recalling back to the two when the Israelites were on the move

and passing through this land,

God gave them a clear instruction, quote do not provoke them to war.

This happens again several verses later in a different land.

You have to imagine what the Israelites are saying.

They've been traveling in the desert for a long, long time.

They know that God has promised them land,

and they see land that looks pretty attainable to them.

But God commands them not to take it.

We know from verse four that

the inhabitants of the land are afraid of the Israelites.

Which leads me to believe that the land, at least to the Israel Israelites, appears

like it'd be pretty easily attainable, that they could get it

with relatively little difficulty.

And I

have to imagine that they're ready to be settled into rest.

And sure, this isn't the land God promised, but in the moment

it must have looked pretty enticing to them.

And yet God commands them not to take it.

You may now or may later find yourself in a season

where everyone around you seems to have exactly what you want.

Not only that, but everyone around you

seems to have what God promised you, but not yet given you.

Everyone else has a job they love, and you're stuck at the job

that you despise and you're still looking for work.

Everyone else has the perfect family

or spouse, and you seem to only fight with your family or significant other.

Everyone else is taking vacations, having these incredible experiences,

and you feel like you're struggling just to make ends meet.

Maybe you feel

like you're following God the way he's called you to follow him,

but you still aren't experiencing his promises in your life.

And what can make this so even more frustrating is feeling

like you're doing what you should be doing.

Seeing others doing what they shouldn't be doing,

but still feeling like they're in a place in life that you want to be.

Who might see this and think, I was this right?

God, I'm living my life for you.

Those people don't seem to be following you at all,

and yet they seem to have everything I want.

Not only what I want.

The things I thought I was supposed to trust you for.

If they have all this and they don't seem to be following you,

then what am I doing?

I might as well stop inconveniencing myself and go get what I want my way.

Brings us to the third point from before

I can trust God when it appears everyone but me is experiencing God's promises.

When we look around and see everyone living the life we want,

how should we respond?

What are you?

What are you willing to give up God's plan or your desires?

It's not bad to have these desires and to see what others want

and want to have the same.

But what are you willing to give up for it?

God has a plan that is meant only for his timing.

It may or may not look like what you want,

but is it worth giving up for your plan as fulfilling God's

promises on your life worth passing on to take matters into your own hands?

I think it's obvious these

are rhetorical questions with answers we know we should answer respond with.

But how do we live that out?

What does it look like submitting these desires to God and waiting for his timing?

One way we do this by trusting in the Holy Spirit.

If you haven't accepted Jesus into your heart

and receive the Holy Spirit yet, then that needs to take place first.

There are several staff members who would love to talk you through that,

because you need to have the Holy Spirit in you

before you can listen to the spirit in your heart.

But for those who have, the spirit isn't there for us to ignore.

Some of us might know deep down there's a course of action

we're being called to take, but for whatever reason, we haven't.

Maybe we've tried to follow the spirit before.

Things didn't work out the way we thought they would,

so we don't really see the point in trying again.

Maybe we feel like we'll be led people down if we make the decisions.

We feel the Spirit's calling us to make.

Maybe we're afraid to follow where the Spirit's leading us.

One way we submit our desires to to God,

choosing to trust him when it feels like everyone else has it figured out but

us, is by following the spirit wherever the Spirit's guiding you.

Don't allow whatever's happening.

Don't allow whatever's stopping you to stop you

any more from following the spirit.

Some of us might feel willing to follow spirit anywhere.

We just don't feel a call in any particular direction.

How am I supposed to follow the spirit

if I don't know where the spirit's leading me?

If you don't feel the spirit leading you and support you

to make sure you're seeking the Spirit's leadership, pursue God.

Read his word.

Spend time meditating in the Bible.

Contemplate in what you're reading.

Serve God.

Be involved in church in any capacity.

Pray humbly.

Ask God to guide you, opening your heart and your eyes and your ears

to his to his plan for you.

Not so that you'll just have confidence in knowing what your future holds,

but so that you can serve him in the ways he's calling you to serve him.

Pray not just for answers, but for the strength and the courage

to follow in the spirit. Guide you.

And if you still don't feel the spirit directing you, then be patient.

Wait.

It honors God to wait until you're led by the spirit to pursue your desires.

In other words, we choose to not pursue our desires

when the spirit has not yet led us to that fulfillment.

We want to pursue something good.

But if we pursue because we get impatient, we want what we want, regardless

of what the Spirit's guiding us.

We're just setting ourselves up for failure.

It is a blessing to submit a longing desire to God

by not pursuing it until led by the spirit to do so.

And then it can be so difficult.

Seeing everyone around you look like they have their lives figured out,

and you're struggling to make it through the day.

But this is my encouragement to you.

Keep submitting to God.

You've heard it.

You know it. Make the choice to believe it.

Giving up on God's plan because you want what you want now is not worth it.

Answered God's call.

And serving and honoring him is.

So before the Israelites take the Promised Land,

Moses has a lot of instructions and commands for them.

God tells Moses that the Israelites will soon rebel against God once they are

in the Promised Land.

Deuteronomy 3120 reads,

when I have brought them into the land

flowing with milk and honey, the land I promised on earth to their ancestors,

and when they eat their fill and thrive, they will, they will turn

to other gods and worship them, rejecting me and breaking my covenant.

It may or may not feel like it now, but if you're following

and submitting to God, his promises will be fulfilled in your life.

And when they are, continue to follow and submit to God.

We don't follow him depending on our circumstances.

We don't follow him only when we don't see any other way forward.

We follow God because he deserves it.

And we're called to

because God is not a means to an end.

God is the whole purpose.

God deserves our honor and obedience at all times in every scenario.

Decide now that when God delivers

you, you're going to continue to pursue him the way you pursued them.

When you felt like he was your only option.

We plead desperately to God when we're convinced he's the only way out,

but we're called to cling just as desperately to him with just

as much fervor all the time.

This might get difficult when we see God's deliverance,

and we feel like we have it all figured out now,

and we start giving our attention

to God's many blessings rather than to God Himself.

Don't let yourself get distracted by the from the new ways

that God's calling you to live for him in your new circumstance.

Use those blessings as a reminder, never forgetting from who they came.

We should not serve God just to get to a certain point in life.

We should serve God and then serve God some more and then keep serving God.

The God that delivered the Israelites from Egypt into the Promised Land.

The same God wants to deliver you right now.

Allow him to deliver you by serving

and honoring him in the wilderness and in the Promised Land.

Serve God in your hopelessness and in your joy.

Serve God.

Before wrapping up this morning.

I want to suggest a practical way.

I believe we can keep hope in God's promises.

Exodus chapter 16, verse 32 reads, this is what the Lord has commanded.

Exodus 16:32

Take an omer of manna and keep it for the generations to come,

so that they can see the bread I gave you to eat in the wilderness.

When I brought you out of Egypt.

I believe imitating what the Israelites are commanded to do here.

Helps keep us encouraged

during the season of the life where we don't actively see God working.

When times get tough and you aren't sure how you're going to make it through,

it is vital to remember how God has already been faithful to you.

God is unchanging is the same God yesterday

as he is today, as he will be tomorrow.

The same God that rescued you last time.

The same God that's going to rescue you

this time wasn't too great for him last time.

Not too great for him this time.

We can

remember God's faithfulness a number of different ways,

whether it's writing down, pen to paper, how God has saved you before.

It's taking a picture as something that reminds you that God brought you out,

or keeping a memento, a physical object, as a reminder that we can trust God.

We need some way to remember God's faithfulness.

And he keeps his promises.

And when we inevitably fall on hard times, and it's difficult

to see the light at the end of the tunnel,

we can look to our keepsake, clinging to the memories of God's deliverance,

knowing that it's only a matter of time until he does it again.

So as we go into this holiday season, I encourage you to keep hope in God,

keep hope and God's promise of forgiveness, his promise of love,

his promise of mercy and grace and protection, his promise of salvation.

They're all true and they're all worth believing in.

And they're all revealed so powerfully in God Greatest Promise, which

is the Christmas story.

So now, as you please, join me in prayer.

If you've never accepted Jesus as your personal Savior, I invite you

in the quietness of your heart to accept God's greatest gift to us.

Revealed in the Christmas story.

There's no singular way of doing this, but in your own words.

Admit to God that you have sinned and fallen short of God's glory.

Accept the free gift

Jesus has offered us by willingly being sacrificed on the cross and rising.

Three days later,

acknowledging that he is our only way into heaven, professing

that our salvation is through God's mercy and grace, independent

from our own righteousness in this world.

Heavenly father, I thank you for sending your Son Jesus to us.

I thank you for your unconditional, never ending love and forgiveness in our lives.

I thank you for your

faithfulness that we might always have hope in your promises.

I thank you that we are entering the season of the year

where we take extra time to remember the birth of Jesus

and all the promises you kept and fulfilled through his life and death.

I pray that we would choose to believe your words regardless of our circumstance.

I pray that we would wait for your divine timing in our lives,

that we would not be deterred from living for you

in the face of fear or impatience or frustration.

I thank you that you are with us and that you will always be with us.

I pray all this in Jesus name, Amen.

If you made the decision to accept Jesus in your heart

for the first time today, we would love to know.

That's a decision

that is worth celebrating, that needs to be celebrated and and shared.

So please find someone on staff.

They would love to talk to you if you didn't make that decision.

But you're still curious about what it looks like,

accepting Jesus into your life and living out your faith.

Please also find someone on staff as well.

We have flips that are eager to talk to you about Jesus.

Thank you for being with us today and I hope you come back next week.

As Pastor Carl continues

the exploring the promise of the Christmas story at 9 or 1030.

And we're going to close with worship.