God is a Verb

This podcast is the Ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church.

For more information in our church, please visit Grandparkway.org.

If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open it to Exodus chapter 2.

Exodus 2 · chapter mention

Exodus chapter 2.

Exodus 2 · chapter mention

And I want to kind of uh I want to talk to you this morning about this, this, about how the God who is a verb, the God who is a verb.

You say, what do you mean?

A lot of times we relate to God like he's a noun, he's this person, place, or thing, or he's this person who lives in a place and he does nothing.

And a lot of people believe that God's kind of created the world, set it in motion, and he kind of backs up and lets it just kind of come unhinged.

That's called deism.

It's not what the Bible says.

The Bible teaches that God is intimately acquainted, aware, and involved in the affairs of his people.

You realize that, don't you?

Hello, you realize that.

So you're not here just kind of, you know, well, I hope I'm I hope I'm letting you know, I hope I'm doing good enough, and one day maybe it's gonna no, no, no, no.

We have assurance that comes from the Word because our God is not a noun, He's not a person, place, or thing.

He is that, but He's not also not an adjective.

He doesn't exist just to modify whatever we got going on.

God, we're gonna do this.

Now, God, would you bless it?

Thank you.

Here we go.

Uh no, I want to say to you that probably the best word on this Sunday before school starts for uh a lot of people, it's already started for some.

Uh I'm gonna say to you that probably the best part of speech to describe God is that God is a verb.

You say, What do you mean?

Uh Exodus chapter 2, verse 23, the Bible.

Exodus 2:23

Now, Moses has been born, he was put in a basket in the river, he floated down the river.

Pharaoh's daughter found him, took him out, and said, Hey, I'll I'm gonna raise him.

Uh, he grew up and and and really in in a really nice situation.

Uh he killed a man, buried him in the sand the next day.

He some guys are having a disagreement.

Moses kind of referees, gets between them, and one of them says, What are you gonna do?

Kill me like you killed the guy yesterday?

And like many of us, Moses was so afraid of someone knowing his junk that the Bible says that he fled.

He just took off, he just got out of there.

He didn't list the house with a realtor, he just burned it to the ground and left.

Okay?

And then the Bible picks up the story of the people of God.

It says in Exodus chapter 2, verse 23 During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery, and they cried out for help, and their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God, and God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob, and God saw the people of Israel, and God knew.

Exodus 2:23

I had a professor, a Greek professor in college, who said, if you really want to understand a text, pay attention to the verbs.

There's really four dominant verbs in here, and those are the four points that the text makes to us today.

And I just want to talk about our God who is a verb in light of these four things that Exodus tells us.

Number one, it says that God heard their groaning.

You'll notice that there's subject, verb, direct, object.

God, the subject, uh he heard verb.

That's what he was doing.

That's acting.

What did you hear?

Their groaning.

You say, no, that I that's probably not a word you and I used a lot this week.

But let me just say, groaning is what happens when your words move from your mouth and they drop down into your heart, and you're just kind of like, oh, oh, because you're gonna have situations.

Now, we started off reading verse 23 of Exodus 2, and it says, During those many days, let me just love you enough to tell you you're not just gonna have a day that's not a good day.

There's gonna be a period in your life where you're gonna have many days where it's just hard.

You're just kind of like, ooh, you're gonna go through seasons in your marriage.

It's just hard.

Where you just kind of wake up and you just consistently look at each other like, I love you, but I don't like you, okay?

And so don't talk because it makes me, okay, just eat the breakfast I cook for you, you ungrateful jerk, and go to work, okay?

Bye-bye.

See ya.

Some of you, here's what's gonna happen tomorrow.

This crazy uh dualism's gonna happen.

Women are gonna drop their kids off and cry at the school, and then they're gonna call their friends and go, meet me for mimosas, okay?

Let's go.

It's just what you're gonna do.

It's just just kind of weird.

But you're gonna have days where it's just you're just there are gonna be days of groaning where you're just kind of like, oh man, let me just say this.

Groaning takes what you're going through to a whole new level.

Matter of fact, I want to say four things about groaning.

Probably never heard a sermon about groaning.

This is this is about the God who hears.

You say, What do you mean?

Four things about groaning.

Number one, groaning is the language of hopeful waiting.

Groaning is the is the language of hopeful waiting.

We left off, we're preaching through the book of Romans, we finished chapter eight, and then at and next month we'll pick up and we'll get into Romans chapter nine and on.

But but in the book of Romans, chapter eight, it says that the spirit groans, uh, that creation groans, and it says that we ourselves, we who have the first fruits of the spirit, we groan inwardly.

So there's a lot of groaning going on, so we need to have kind of a frame of reference for what the Bible's talking about.

Groaning is the people, God had promised, as we'll see in a minute, 400 years earlier, that hey, this is what's gonna happen.

Then after 400 years, I'm gonna get you out of that.

And groaning is the people saying, Oh, how long, oh Lord?

Something's supposed to happen that hadn't happened yet, and just oh, oh.

And some of you relate to that because you got kids that are old enough to know better, but they keep acting like they don't know any better.

Know what I'm talking about?

That's groaning.

Don't hear go, oh, well, how was church today?

Oh, the pastor talked about groaning.

What a loser that guy is.

No, you understand.

If you've got kids that are 26 and they act like they're 16, you understand groaning.

And you just kind of like, you just, you just, oh.

It's the language of this hopeful waiting, emphasis on hopeful.

Second thing about groaning, groaning is what happens when you run out of words.

It's when you're just like, uh, because those same kids will come back home after they went out and acting like a fool and ask you for more.

And you'll be like, ah, some of you men have looked at your wife and said, I can't, you you got just I I gotta go outside and smash stuff with a hammer.

I don't groaning is what happens when you run out of work.

I remember being in a prayer circle, and you ever get in a prayer circle of multiple people that say, Let's pray, and one guy, hey, you start and you you finish, and if you feel led, pray.

After about the third person, all the good phrases are used up.

Have you noticed that?

You're the kind of like, oh, they got lead, guide, and direct, and and uh, oh god, uh, and so you're kind of, and the only thing's worse than that is praying with a bunch of preachers.

That's the worst big big, oh Lord, you need a thust, you need a thesaurus to figure out what they're saying.

Oh Lord, we supplicate thee.

And I'm thinking, hey, did Barry White show up?

Who is this?

It's just not and so I remember being in a group and and this guy had lost his job, he'd been out of job for 11 months, he just burned through his savings, and and people were praying, you know, Lord, you're and it got to him, and he just said, Lord, I mean, God, I mean, oh, Jesus, Jesus, oh, and everybody else felt stupid for what they prayed.

And it wasn't that it was stupid, it just in the light of just groaning, someone just going, Oh, gosh, oh you just are like, uh, can I take back what I said?

Groaning is what happens when you run out of words, and you may be here today and think, man, that's exactly where I am.

You're in a good place.

Because the emphasis is not on groaning, it's actually in God heard.

See, our God, who is a verb, he hears what you say.

He also hears the things that you don't say.

Third thing about groaning, groaning is your soul telling you that you're out of options.

And you're like, well, I could have done without that.

Uh no, no, no.

See, uh, you and I sometimes have to get to where our back is against the wall, and we have no options before we can be reminded that you are groaning.

And God heard you are groaning to a God who's never out of options.

You realize that, don't you?

He never is kind of like in what now?

Oh, I man, I got I got nothing.

Can you pray again on Tuesday?

And I'll see what I can come up with something between now and Tuesday.

No.

Groaning is it's a good thing because it's you it's your mind and your way of just kind of saying, I don't know what I'm gonna.

Oh, okay.

Last thing about groaning, groaning reminds us that God, and put a star by this in your mind, it reminds us that God is a God of empathy as well as action.

God is a God of empathy.

That means he empathizes, he feels with his people, he doesn't look down and just indifferently go, oh, well, do better.

Life's hard, suck it up.

You say, why do you say that?

Because some of you, that's the way your dad was.

And so it's easy to kind of transpose on God the way your your your earthly father was.

And that's not he's a God of empathy, as a well as a God of action.

You say, Well, how do you how do you know that?

Look down at the next chapter, the next verse.

We left off the end of chapter two.

Chapter three, verse one begins.

What are the first two words of chapter three?

Say it?

I love the way you're let me let me where have you been?

We're we're at the public library, and I don't want to raise my voice and get kicked out.

No, I'll just read it and see what it says in mind because when I read it, oh yeah, there it is.

It says chapter 3, verse 1, that people are groaning, uh, and and God heard their groaning, and then they're just thinking, how long, oh Lord?

We've been slaves up in here.

This is pathetic.

I'm tired of this, God.

I don't, this is not what I was created for.

Chapter 3, verse 1.

How do you know God's a God of empathy as well as action?

Because chapter 3, verse 1 says, now Moses.

Remember the guy that killed the guy and ran off because he didn't want anybody to find out who he was?

The guy that wouldn't go to a Bible community or get in a growth group, he's like, I don't want anybody to know my junk.

God knew his junk, and God, it's like God's knitting this tapestry for the children of Israel, for the history of his people.

And he just went reaches down and picks up a stitch, some another spool of yarn, and just starts knitting in.

Now, Moses.

And all of a sudden, the flywheel of the story of the people of God begins to turn a little faster.

A little faster.

This is the guy that's gonna say to God, but I stutter.

I don't really talk.

You want my brother, right?

And God says, No, I want you.

Now, Moses, and let me tell you something.

Okay, I don't think they understood in the first service.

Maybe you'll understand.

Sometimes you're waiting for Moses, and sometimes you gotta be Moses.

Sometimes somebody got that rest of you are like, oh, let me, hey, just write it down, Linda.

We'll we'll talk about it later.

Sometimes you're waiting for Moses, like the children of Israel, where they're just like groaning, and sometimes you gotta be Moses, and sometimes what I mean is that sometimes you gotta be the person who speaks into a situation to remind somebody, hey, it ain't always gonna be this hard.

Okay?

There's a better place.

And Moses reminded the people the children of God that, hey, God promised you the promised land.

He didn't promise you three square meals a day in slavery, because a lot of times we settle for whatever we're willing to kind of figure out and kind of will exist at this level.

But God says, hey, I promised this land to your forefathers, and I'm the God who's good on his promise, and so now Moses.

What do you mean?

Sometimes you're standing in the grocery store like I was, and the people checking out, and the holy, and you're checking the girl's checking you out, and she's pregnant, and she looks to be, you know, a teenager, and you're kind of like, uh, ooh, uh, there's a story there.

Sometimes you're waiting on Moses, and sometimes God says, You gotta be Moses.

In that moment, the Holy Spirit's like, let's be Moses.

Let's just kind of get her head up and get her looking.

There's a better day coming.

And so sometimes I ask people inappropriate questions.

I just confess that.

If you're visiting today, just relax, you're kind of like, oh, that's kind of woo.

I don't know what you mean by that.

Not inappropriate as it's inappropriate, but but socially kind of like you're not supposed to ask.

Like you're not supposed to ask a woman how old she is, how much she weighs.

It's not like I go up to women and go, what are you, about 220?

Lay off the biscuits, okay?

It's not that.

It was sometimes I'll be in situations and I kind of sense, oh, well, this is one of them.

This girl, she's I found later, I think she said she was 17.

Uh, but but I I just looked at her and I said, Hey, can I ask you a question?

And she said, and by the way, nobody ever says, No, leave me alone.

People exist hoping to God that this is not all there is.

And I just said, Hey, uh, is he still in the picture?

And she looked up and beep, beep, beep.

Are you kidding me?

He's denied that it's even his, but I'm not that kind of girl.

I mean, that sounds bad.

I mean, I'm here pregnant to tell you that I'm like a good.

I said, hey, sometimes good people make bad decisions, okay?

But your baby's not like that.

That's not a bad baby because you got pregnant, okay, out of wedlock.

And and and and I said, Let me just ask you something.

Uh I said, so he's not in the picture, no.

And my mom and dad are kind of telling me it's your responsibility, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And I said, When's the last time you did something for yourself?

Because I looked down and her fingernails looked like she'd been chewing on them with a chainsaw.

And I said, When's the last time you got like a pedicure or a manicure or something like that?

And she goes, Are you kidding me, man?

I'm working two jobs just so I can just pay for this and I qualify for government help and da-da-da-da-da.

And I said, And she said, and besides my hair's thinning and breaking, apparently, when you get pregnant, that happens.

I was like, I've never been pregnant.

She goes, You know what I mean?

I was like, May surprise you, but I've never been pregnant.

And so she's getting my groceries, and and and I and all of a sudden I just found myself reaching my pocket and I said, Why don't you go get yourself a manicure and a pedicure?

And I don't know how much that kind of stuff costs, and so, and and and and a haircut, and I had some money in my front pocket, and then I had some money in my back pocket.

You know what I'm talking about?

Back there in your billfold, you got that thing folded up, tucked away for a rainy day.

Oh, the Holy Spirit's like, oh, you you a pedicure, that that that really all you got?

Well, I got my rainy day, Dave Ramsey money.

Uh we gonna go there?

Hey, sometimes you gotta be Moses, okay?

And so I said, here, let me get a little, just get you a haircut and get you a treatment on that hair, I don't know, a keratin solution, something I saw on a commercial sometime.

I don't care.

Some European avocado oil on that thing or what I don't I don't I I don't I don't care.

And she's just and I said, uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh.

I just think God sent me in here because I was going to speak in a retreat.

And I said, I think God said, I'm not even from this state, lady.

I just think God sent me in here just to kind of say, hey, hold your head up.

This is not always gonna be this hard.

Because a lot of times when like it starts off in verse 23, it says, during those many days, about midway into those many days, it's easy to lose hope and just go, man, this is all there is.

Let's learn to make this, make the most of this.

No, let's don't.

Sometimes you're waiting for Moses, sometimes you get to be Moses.

And by the way, because I'm I'm a pastor and I gotta do the right thing, I said, Hey, if you'll write his name down and his address, I'll drive.

I'm not from here, nobody knows.

I'll drive over there and beat the snot out of him right now.

And she was you wouldn't.

I just think God sent me in here to buy my my my my my snacks for the weekend, just to say, hey, it it ain't over.

God's not done with you.

The manager came over and said, Oh, here, let me take over here.

She went to the back room, wash her face, grab my little plastic bags, walk out to the car.

Because sometimes you're waiting on Moses, and sometimes, oh, oh, I get to be Moses.

Because see, God, or God who is a verb, God heard, the Bible says.

Second thing the Bible tells us is that God remembered.

Now, let me just say this.

If you got your Bible, turn to the left.

If you're in Exodus, turn to the left of Genesis 15.

I want to read something in a minute that we've read before, because I never want you to ever forget it.

All right?

But but while you're finding Genesis 15, let me just say this to you.

When the Bible says God remembered, let me speak to something before we get to this.

When it says God remembers, remembered, it's a statement about God's motivation, not God's memory.

Okay?

Let me say that again.

It's a statement about God's motivation, not God's memory.

What do you mean?

When the Bible says God remembered, it's not like it's not because he forgot, okay?

It's because God does not possess the capacity to forget.

You realize that, right?

The only thing that God chooses to not focus on is your sin.

And the Bible says our sin and lawlessness he remembered no more.

That's an act of choice on God's part.

But God's not like us because we forget stuff.

Like last night, I went out in the driveway to get something out of my truck, and I went in my truck.

I thought, oh, it's I just watched the news because I love to watch the news, okay?

I'm getting old because not just the news, I love to watch the weather.

Because I can plan my week around the weather.

And so I watched the weather.

It's supposed to rain this afternoon, supposed to rain tomorrow, chance today and tomorrow.

I'll take both, preferably, uh, because I love getting free water on my grass.

But I'm I walked out, getting something out of my truck, and I thought, oh, I'm gonna turn off my sprinkler system.

So, in case it rains, got back in the house.

It's 30 feet from my drawer, my my my truck to my front door.

I forgot.

I was laying in bed later that night, and I was like, oh man, forgot to turn off the sprinkler system.

So I did what all men do.

Hey, honey, are you still up?

I actually said from my bedroom, hey, are you standing up?

My wife's like, uh no.

Never mind.

And then this is this is sick.

Don't repeat this.

I was hoping she would be really curious and she would come in there and say, Why'd you want to know if I was standing up?

Because then I got her.

Oh, you're standing up now.

Because then I could say, Well, now that you're up, would you go out in the garage and turn the sprinkler system off?

She didn't fall for it.

See, I forget stuff.

You forget stuff.

Y'all forgot stuff this week.

How many of you in this room, if you thought back, you say, you know what?

I forgot something this week.

Stick your hand up.

Look around.

Leave your hands up.

You forgetful old crazy people.

Look at me.

Look right here.

God never forgets.

It is not in God's nature to forget.

When the Bible says, and God remembered, it's not because he forgot.

It's God saying, Hey, by the way, I'm gonna act upon something because you people, I'm saying to you who forget that I never forget.

What do you mean?

Genesis 15.

Let me just read it to you.

It'll come up on the screen, or you can look at it in your Bible.

Verse 1, it says, After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision.

Fear not, Abram, I am your shield, and your reward shall be very great.

But Abram said, Oh Lord God, what what will you give me?

For I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus.

And Abram said, Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.

And behold, the word of the Lord came to him.

The man, this man shall not be your heir.

Your very own son shall be your heir.

And he brought him outside and said, Look toward the heaven and number the stars if you're able to number them.

And then he said to him, So shall your offspring be.

And he believed the Lord, and he counted to him as righteousness, and he said to him, I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.

But he said, Oh Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?

And he said to him, Bring me a heifer, three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, and a turtle dove and a young pigeon.

And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other.

But he did not cut the birds in half.

And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram, and behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him.

And then the Lord said to Abram, Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years.

That's the Exodus.

That's God saying, Hey, not only do I not forget, there's nothing that I don't know.

And there'll be servants there and afflicted for 400 years.

Verse 14, but I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and after they shall come out with great possessions.

By the way, first service didn't get this.

If you're a history buff, there's a book, a secular history book, uh uh written by archaeologists called The Gold of Exodus.

Great book.

If you like to read, read a book called The Gold of Exodus.

Because they go over there these archaeologists and they just start digging around and they start unearthing bracelets.

And they're like, Because God told his people, hey, let me tell you something.

These people are gonna want you out of their country so bad, they're gonna give you all their nice jewelry and all their nice clothes.

And that's exactly what happened.

We'll read on.

Verse 15 As for yourself, you shall go to your fathers in peace.

You shall be buried in a good old age, and they shall come back here in the fourth generation.

For the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.

By the way, Abram's in his 90s when God says this.

Don't you want to be 99 and God say, by the way, you're gonna be buried at a good old age.

What'd you have in mind?

Verse 17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking firepot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.

On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, To your offspring, I'll give this land.

From the River of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenesites, the Cadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, and Refrium, and Amorites and the Canaanites and the Gergeshites and the Jebusites.

You say, Man, I whew, that's a lot of reading the Bible right there.

I don't know what you're saying.

Read all that, so I can say three things to you.

See, it's one thing to say, God heard, and another thing to say, and God remembered.

It's God saying, I'm acting now on something that I said back then, because the Abrahamic covenant is the basis for all of this.

Let me give you three things about this.

Number one, God's faithfulness exceeds your circumstances.

God's faithfulness exceeds your circumstance.

You say what?

His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

You ever read that and notice your name's not in there?

See, God is relating to you and I.

We're the benefactors of that.

God is relating to you and I on the basis of a covenant he made with them back then.

We weren't there, but we get to experience it.

That's why when you go to vacation Bible school as a little kid, they sing a song that says, Father Abraham had many sons.

Remember that?

And many sons had Father Abraham.

And I remember singing that and not knowing what we were talking about.

Because I didn't grow up in church.

I just remember thinking, all right, we're going to march in place and sing some song by some old guy.

Now, what we were saying was, hey, the benefits of the covenant God made back then, that's why Genesis 15, 6 says that Abram believed God.

It was credited to him as righteousness.

When I believed God, when on July 5th, 1982, when I believed God and gave my life to Christ, guess what happened?

It was credited to me as righteousness.

All of the righteousness of Jesus was put in my account, and all the depravity of Neil was put in his account, and he absorbed it on the cross.

That's why when we sing the old hymn, by the way, if you're visiting, every once in a while we sang this morning, we still sing hymns.

We'll sing hymns as long as I'm the pastor of this church.

Or else Clyde, and I'll be out in that playground with our shirts off, having some wrestling going on.

Don't get that picture in your head, okay?

You're like, lunch is canceled.

Here's what a here, let's stay on this.

Here's what I'm saying.

See, God's faithfulness exceeds your circumstances because God's acting in their circumstance.

His action in this circumstance is rooted in something that happened over 400 years ago.

Remember, God said in Genesis, hey, they're gonna be servants for 400 years, and then I'm gonna rise up and put a beat down on the country that has held you in bondage.

And that's exactly what happened.

That's why this coming Saturday, right here in this room, our youth pastor Aaron and his fiancee Chloe are gonna get married.

They're gonna make a covenant, okay?

And I'm gonna kill those poor fools.

They said to me, by the way, I left.

Last thing I remember, Aaron didn't have a girlfriend.

I leave for the summer.

What are y'all doing?

He's getting married.

You better look into that, people.

But anyway, uh, they're like, hey, would you do our wedding?

And they said, we wanted just a simple traditional ceremony.

Then go to the justice of the peace.

I like to ask people random questions like, hey, when's the last time you cut animals in half?

Was it simple and civil?

God told Abram, hey, you get this ram and get this sheep, and he cut them in half, and they separated them and they walked between the halves.

That's what a marriage ceremony is, by the way.

Then they say, bride or groom, they seat you over here.

Instead of separating the animals, they're uniting two separate families.

And so if you come to the wedding, I'll look them because there'll be a nice little stair here, and they'll come down, they'll walk up in here.

And the first thing I'll say is that you are fixing to make a covenant with your God.

And if you're not prepared to live up to the requirements of this covenant, let's leave now and just go eat the food.

That's a great way to begin a wedding, isn't it?

Instead of, dearly beloved, we're gathered today in the presence of God and these witnesses to join this man and this woman in holy matrimony.

If anyone can show just cause why this man and this woman should not be joining holy matrimony, let him speak now or ever hold their peace.

Don't you just fantasize that someone would speak up.

God takes covenants seriously.

See, his faithfulness exceeds your circumstance.

Second thing I want to say to you about this God that remembers is that God doesn't prove his faithfulness, he demonstrates it.

God doesn't, you gotta stop relating to God on the basis that he has to prove himself to you.

He doesn't have to prove himself to you anymore.

He has to demonstrate who he is.

Who he is is on record.

Just look at your own life.

We sang a few minutes ago and we said, you know, 10,000 reasons for my heart to find.

I mean, if we were honest, we could all look back at our lives and say, God, there are so many ways you have demonstrated your faithfulness.

You need to mature the way you relate to God and stop requiring that God, okay, I need you to come through now.

And you know, hey, hey, God, God's, I remember my friend Richard's uh mom was dying, and and he said, you know, was praying with his mom in her hospital bed bedside, and and he said, Mom, you know, I'm just praying that God's gonna heal you and demonstrate his power.

And she just patted him on the hand.

It was so great.

She said, Oh, Richard, God doesn't have to heal me to demonstrate his power.

I've seen God's power, son.

And I may die in this hospital, and my powerful, good God's still gonna be powerful.

Well, see, what okay.

See, that that's what I mean.

That's a mature woman saying, Oh, easy, son, easy.

Let's don't make my being healed a test of God's power.

No, no, no.

Let's mature in the way we we relate to God.

Third thing he tells us on this is that God acts in keeping with his nature, not our needs.

God acts in keeping with his nature, not our needs.

That doesn't mean that he doesn't meet our needs, uh, but he does so out of the consistency of his nature.

Like I think it's in Philippians 4, about verse 19, somewhere there.

It says, And my God shall supply all my needs according to his riches and glory.

You know the Bible says that?

Hello?

Now, now you can get you can get on the wrong side of the donkey with that and kind of go, oh, and that's the prosperity gospel.

That's not the biblical gospel, but here's what I'm saying uh there's more to God than what he does for you.

And and here, let me be careful.

You can go your entire, I can go and own that, I can go my entire life and God meet all my needs, and I still haven't plumbed the depths of all that God is.

Because there's there there's a lot to God that you cannot experience just having a need-based relationship with him.

There's just a lot to who he is, and I just so so be careful that your knowledge of God is not just how he's met your needs, because I would say you you know God on some level, but not uh in the fullness of who he is.

That's why Paul says in Philippians 3, I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings so as to somehow be like him and obtain a resurrection from the dead.

So, well, I I now with all this in mind, let's ask this question if God is this true to his word, something he said 400 years ago, that he's never forgotten, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and Jacob.

By the way, is it any wonder that God says in his word, put me to remembrance?

Because God's not saying, Hey, I forgot, remind me.

God's saying, No, no, no, you people have forgotten.

Put me to remembrance.

Let me hear you remind yourself that you remember how great I am.

And he loves it when you do that.

That's why when your kids come to you and say, Hey, remember that time that I won those cowboy boots and you got them for me?

Yeah.

And remember that time on that bike and you got it for me?

Yeah.

Well, what are they fixing to do?

Gonna ask you for something.

Now, what am I saying?

They're putting you to remembrance.

And I'm not saying this is a formula by which you twist God's arm and obligate him to do what you're fixing to ask.

Not at all.

I'm saying this putting God to remembrance is something you're familiar with.

Don't let that sound distant and mystical, like, oh, I have no idea what you're talking about.

Because sometimes my kids roll up on me with that, well, remember that time, Dad, you know, ha ha ha ha ha.

And I just say, Yeah, it sounds like I've been so good to you for so long, give you so many yeses, you need a no.

Hey, what?

Here's what we gotta ask.

If God is this true to his word, the issue is not that now then can you trust God?

No, no, no, no.

The question is really, what can you not trust God with?

See, the third thing, the third verb in the text today is, and God saw.

And God saw back in Exodus 2, it says that, hey, God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham and Isaac and with Jacob.

Verse 25 of Exodus 2, and God saw the people of Israel.

God saw the see, subject, God saw, verb, the people of Israel, direct object.

It receives the action of the verb.

God's remembered as his covenant.

God heard the groaning, God saw the people of Israel.

You ever kind of wonder how many people that was?

Because if you look back in chapter 1, verse 7, it says that they had filled the country.

They had occupied the country.

There's a big debate in our country right now where people are saying, well, you know, we got to do something about illegal immigration.

We don't know how many people we have in our country illegally.

There's no way to get a fixed number.

But the problem's been around a long time.

People back then, they were like, how many of these people are there?

I mean, they came out and I mean, they just 400 years.

You can make a lot of people in 400 years, you know that?

I got cousins, every time we go to the family reunion, they got another kid.

I'm like, how many kids y'all got?

There's a show on TV I like to watch with my 10-year-old called 19 Kids in Counting.

And there's a family that has 19 kids.

And one woman's had every one of them.

They have not adopted a one.

And every time I see it, I like, and those kids, you ever watch it?

They're just bright-eyed and happy and they're obedient and they're well-mannered, and it makes you wonder what what happened to your two, okay?

Maybe you should have some more.

I looked at my kids, I'm like, we need to beat our kids or something.

And I said to my daughter, I said, hey, here's the deal.

She's 15, and you know, I'm 15, Dad.

Yeah.

I said, I think the problem is y'all go to public school, you need to be homeschooled.

These kids are homeschooled, that's why they're so clear-eyed.

Everybody in my house stopped breathing.

I heard a thud in the kitchen.

That was my wife hitting the floor.

It's like, uh.

But here's one thing.

Anytime I watch the show, Sophie are younger, it's like, Dad, you want to watch 19 kids and counting?

The real answer?

No.

The dad answer, absolutely.

I was hoping you'd ask me.

I love time with you.

Come on, girlfriend, let's get on the couch.

All those people do anytime they go somewhere is count.

The whole show is about counting those kids, and I'm talking back to the TV, going, You got 19.

But now they're making sure everyone's here.

14, 15, 16.

Okay, now here we go.

And they load up in these big people haulers.

Why'd I tell you that?

The Bible says that God saw the people of Israel.

Best we can tell, it was, we don't know if it's two million, three million.

If it was half a million, how do you look down and just count?

He's not counting.

He knows.

When it says he saw the people of Israel, he's saying, I am intimately acquainted with everything having anything to do with you, because I see you.

It's like when our kids were little, every once in a while they try to, those little monkeys try to get off the chain.

Usually when we're at someone's house.

And I don't yeah, I'm not a yeller, but I was just looking at my kids and go, and they're like, got it.

We geared down.

I was just saying, I see you.

Proceed with the shared knowledge that your dad sees you, and I will act accordingly.

But God's not saying that either, by the way.

He's not threatening, he's just saying, hey, I'm I'm aware.

I'm intimately acquainted with everything has anything to do with you.

We never go anywhere where we're outside the gaze of God.

Now, this brings you comfort or fear.

And you should ask yourself why.

Because the Bible says in Jeremiah chapter 23, verse 24 and 25, God says, Am I a God at hand?

Jeremiah 23:24

declares the Lord, and not a God far away.

Because here's what people would do.

No one does this anymore.

When God they felt God was really close, they were like, Oh, he's God.

And God says, Am I just God when I'm here?

Like up close, and you can sense and you know, Am I not a God far away?

When you've lost sight of the fact that I see everything, am I not still God?

That's what he's saying.

And then he says, Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him?

declares the Lord.

Do I not feel heaven and earth declares the Lord?

Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him?

God is saying, Who do you think you're I mean, where are you gonna go that I can't see you?

So when he says that God saw the people of Israel, God said, in one glance, I've taken in all the information I know because by the way, you're not informing me.

I already knew everything about this.

Maybe we can get at it like this.

The Bible says, God saw.

You ever been in social settings where people are making small talk and really what they're doing is just lying?

Is that just me?

You're just people walking around, they got a wine glass in their hand and a little plate, and they're and line, line, line, line, line, shading the truth, white lie, black lie, this is a shady lie, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And you're just kind of like, What did you just say?

And you're like, uh, and we just overlook it, go, well, you know, it's just small talk.

We're fixing to serve dinner.

Let me just say this.

Last week we talked about authenticity.

You are as authentic as you believe God is sovereign.

Because last week somebody said, Why aren't more people authentic?

You talk about why aren't we more authentic?

And I said, Because we don't believe God's sovereign.

We don't believe what we just happen on the screen.

We don't believe when the Bible asks the question, hey, is there, can a man hide himself?

Can a woman hide herself in secret places so that I cannot see them?

It once you believe, see, there's there there's deep consequence in the phrase, and God saw the people of Israel.

If God sees and there's nowhere you can go to get the psalmist said in the 139th Psalm, if I take the wings of the morning and go to the height of the mountain, you're there.

If I go to the depths of the sea, you're there.

Where shall I flee from your presence, O Lord?

Once you realize God is everywhere, He's omnipresent, He's omniscient, which we'll get into in just a minute.

He knows everything, then why not be authentic?

You are as authentic as you believe God is sovereign.

The Bible says that God saw.

Fourthly and finally, the last verb gives us is a God and God knew.

Notice there's no direct object.

Keith, on junior wife, teachers.

And my impression with my knowledge of the English language, this is like ELA, English language arts here.

There's no direct object.

It just says, it says, and God remembered his covenant, subject, verb, object.

God saw the people of Israel, subject, verb, object, and God knew.

Period.

God knew.

What does that mean?

There's no object to receive the action of God's knowledge because it's not limited to any one thing, because it applies to all things.

There's nothing that God doesn't know.

There's no limit to what God can know.

The word we use to describe this is omniscient, which is a big word you hear in church means all-knowing.

You hear it and write it down and go, God's omniscient.

Remember when I was a little kid, I say little kid, I don't mean to be degraded.

I was uh 18 when I became a Christian.

Uh and I didn't know anything about God and Jesus.

I just knew, and I didn't become a Christian because I didn't want to go to hell.

I wanted to become a Christian because God in his mercy revealed himself to me and put in me a desire I'd never had before.

And it was a desire to know God.

And I would go to church and I didn't understand a thing that man said.

I just I just knew he seems mad about something.

And so I would go to work and go home and I'd get the Bible, I'd watch mass with my mom on the couch, we'd eat supper, and then I'd go to my room and read the Bible.

And I fell in love with the God of the Bible.

I didn't much care for the God at church.

He was all mad like Godzilla coming through Tokyo.

The God in the Bible was awesome.

And so I would read for three or four hours.

I'd be like, that is awesome right there.

And so I read, I have questions.

So I made an appointment with the pastor.

And I go down there and walked in, and he had a big old wooden desk.

Looked like a flotella.

I mean, that thing was huge.

And I sat over there and I said, he said, well, son, do you have any moral problems or anything you don't talk about?

Uh I don't know what you mean.

Uh yeah, I got some questions.

I mean, I said, all right, I said, what's what's God like?

Because I was reading, I didn't know where to start.

I started on page one.

Started reading through the Bible.

I got to Exodus five, and Moses and Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord that I should obey him?

I do not know the Lord, and I will not do what he says.

And it's something in me, I just wrote down, know God, because knowing God makes obeying God easier.

And I said, I just want to know God.

And he goes, Well, son, you've prayed the prayer.

You already know God.

You're going to heaven when you die.

No, no, no, no.

Not in relationship, but I want to know God in intimacy.

I want to know what he is like.

I mean, what's God like?

That's my big question, Pastor.

What is God like?

And he said, Well, Neil, that's very simple.

God's omnipresent, he's omniscient.

And there were three.

There's always three.

Have you noticed that?

There's always three.

And I forget what the other one was.

And I'm thinking, and he plays the omnicord.

Is that where we're going here?

What?

And that's all he could tell me.

And then I said, What does that mean?

And he said, Well, son, don't ask so many questions.

Alright, I go back to my bedroom.

I like what happens there a lot more.

And so I just went back to reading the Bible.

And I remember reading Exodus 5.

I mean, Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord that I should obey him?

I mean, basically he was like, Is anyone bigger than me?

And the first thing God revealed to me about himself was, I'm bigger than you.

And I had a spiral notebook and I wrote down, God is bigger than me.

That didn't offend me, that brought me comfort.

I was like, Yes, you are with your bad self.

Because I read what he did to Pharaoh.

And I was like, I don't want any of that.

Please, sir, with heaven on top.

I don't want none of that.

What am I saying?

When we say that God's omniscient, I read this in prep as I was studying for today.

And let me just read this.

I'll put it on the screen.

Don't try to write it down.

Let me just read this to you.

When we say that God is omniscient, it means that He has perfect knowledge of all things.

He does not have to learn anything and He has not forgotten anything.

He does not have reason to have to reason things out or find things or learn them gradually.

He knows everything that has happened and everything that will happen.

God also knows every potential thing that might happen.

God even knows these things that humankind has yet to discover.

And this knowledge is absolute and unacquired.

It's why God said to Job, Oh, oh, where were you when I laid out the foundations of the earth?

Tell me if you will, because what God is saying was, You're not teaching me anything.

My knowledge is unacquired.

The omniscience of God means that he has perfect knowledge, perfect understanding, and perfect wisdom as to how to apply the knowledge.

Now it's that last sentence I want you to hear.

The omniscience of God.

Look at it just for a minute.

Means that he has perfect knowledge, perfect understanding, and perfect wisdom as to how to apply the knowledge.

See, to have knowledge without wisdom is to be dangerous.

It's why your kid, when they go off to college and they take psychology, freshman psychology, and they come home on a psychoanalyze you, you know, I think what your issue is, mom, is you got some unaddressed issues with your mother.

Oh, really?

And you're thinking in your mind, listen, you 18-year-old little kid, who we just took out a second mortgage to send to college, you're going to come home on your first weekend and drop this on us?

Because your kid has knowledge, but don't have wisdom.

God has knowledge and wisdom and understanding.

So when you say that God's omniscient, don't write that down and go, I got no idea what that means.

It's just a small inkling of what the Bible is getting at when it says, and God knew.

And God knew.

So the issue today is not what does God know?

There is no limit to what God knows.

The issue is can you and I live with whatever we got.

Going on right now as if we know that God knows.

Because here's my confession this morning.

Sometimes I find myself, I don't mean to, but I find myself praying to God like I'm informing Him of what is actually going on in my life.

I might as well say, well, Lord, I know you don't really know, but let me just tell you what this is like.

If you're wondering, do you ever really say that?

No, I'm not that honest.

But I I just I just chuckle, and I'm just kind of like, wow.

I do that sometimes, don't I, God?

And he just smiles and goes, yeah, you do.

What are you thinking during that whole time?

I'm just thinking, child, please.

Here's what I'm saying.

There's a difference in saying to God, God, we need help.

God, we need there's a difference in saying that when you pray and saying, My only hope is you.

My only hope is you.

From early in the morning to late at night, my only hope is you.

I don't have a plan B.

Whom have I in heaven but you?

And earth has nothing I desire besides you, O Lord.

I want to put you in remembrance of what you said in your word.

My heart and my strength, what I'm capable of doing, many times they fail.

But here's the one truth that will always prevail.

You're the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

My portion.

You're think of the cafeteria woman across the street that's gonna just put that spoon of slop on your tray tomorrow.

That's your portion.

And you're gonna go, really?

They got French fries over here at this station?

Uh.

But to say to God, you're my portion forever.

You will never not be enough for me.

Not just who you are in your being and your nature, but in how you relate to me in this relationship.

I got 10,000 reasons to bless you today, God.

But I just gonna put my, I'm gonna put one of them on my on my tongue until it melts and informs the way I think about you.

Because you knew.

Just period.

And let me just be practical about this and you say, well, let me just apply this to how we live.

Can we just walk out of here today and just act?

Students, can you just go to school this year and act like God knew?

Just period.

Don't put a comma there.

Just God knew, period.

So that means, hey, if there's no limit to what God knows, do you not know that God knows that you want to get married one day and He's gonna give you the desires of your heart?

Then maybe you don't need so many boyfriends or girlfriends.

Maybe you don't have to break up and get back together, break up and get back together.

I gotta have a boyfriend, gotta have a girlfriend, gotta have a girlfriend, gotta have a girlfriend.

I stood before hundreds of students this summer and said, I'm not sure.

And God hasn't said, I'm not sure.

Anyone in this room needs a girlfriend.

And they looked at me like y'all are looking at me.

And I said, Because your lives pretty much, as far as socially and relationally, are an insult to the sovereignty of God.

You say, Oh, God knew and God knows, didn't live like it.

So when you do meet your girlfriend, who, oh, by the way, is gonna be your wife, you can look her in the eye and say, and she says, Hey, well, tell me why you didn't date around, and tell me why you didn't do this, and tell me why you didn't live this certain way.

You can just smile and say, Because when I was 16, I became convinced that God knew.

And I just calibrated my life around the fact that my sovereign king of the universe knew.

And anytime I start getting a little shaky and start trying to think I gotta be my own provider, I just said, Hey, God, you know.

You know.

And so I'm coming into this relationship as a man that's lived for the past ten years believing that God knew.

And matter of fact, you are the fleshly representation of the fact that God knew because you're everything I've ever wanted.

Now, what woman wouldn't want to hear that from your fiance?

See how practical the sovereignty of God is?

We preachers like to talk about, oh, he's omniscient and it's perfect knowledge and perfect, complete wisdom, and complete understanding.

And can we just take that and just kind of press it against our lives today and say, God knew?

I met a family this morning that just moved to our area from Kentucky.

And when the mom said that, I just thought of Acts 17 where it says, Of God, Paul's telling these people they arrived because that he's determined the exact places that men should live.

And I I I thought I I just met him.

I don't want to say, Hey, by the way, when you lived in Kentucky, God knew you were gonna live.

What house are you gonna live in in Richmond?

He knows.

Hold your hands out if you want to speak a blessing over you.

Whatever it is, he knows.

He's always known.

Depart now and live as if you really believe that.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you or dismissed.