Prayer… In the desolate place

The scripture reading today comes from the book of Exodus, chapters 2 and 3.

Exodus 2 · chapter mention

Please follow along in your bulletin.

Now it came about in the course of those many days that the king of Egypt died,

and the sons of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried out.

And their cry for help because of their bondage rose up to God.

So God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

God saw the sons of Israel, and God took notice of them.

Now Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian,

and he led the flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush.

And he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed.

So Moses said, I must turn aside now and see this marvelous sight.

Why the bush is not burnt up?

When the Lord saw that, he turned aside to look.

God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses.

And he said, Here I am.

Then he said, Do not come near here.

Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.

He said also, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

Then Joseph hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

The Lord said,

I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt,

and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters,

for I am aware of their sufferings.

So I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians,

and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land,

to a land flowing with milk and honey,

to the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Pezite and the Hevite and the Jebusite.

Now behold, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to me.

Furthermore, I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians are oppressing them.

Therefore, come now, and I will send you to Pharaoh,

so that you may bring my people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.

But Moses said to God,

Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh,

and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?

And he said,

Certainly I will be with you,

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

When you have brought the people out of Egypt,

you shall worship God at this mountain.

Then Moses said to God,

Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel,

and I will say to them,

The God of your fathers has sent me to you.

And now they may say to me,

What is his name?

What shall I say to them?

God said to Moses,

I am who I am.

And he said,

Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel,

I am has sent me to you.

This is the reading of God's word.

Wow, do I hear amen to that?

You can say amen, we're in church, that's okay.

That's amazing.

Thanks guys.

Guys,

We are

finishing up a series on prayer.

We've had Mike do an amazing sermon on the kingdom.

What do we wait for?

We had Wehan,

did a great job on just praise and worshiping him.

And what does that look like?

I don't know if you were here last Sunday.

If you weren't,

I don't often say this,

but I think you need to go online and listen to the sermon

because we talked a lot about

where we feel like God has a church.

We handed out these,

we ran out of these.

Actually, we'll have some more next week.

If you didn't get one of these,

you need to get one of these

and look at where we've been

and where we are now

and where we're praying that God will take us as a church.

It's an amazing,

exciting time to be on this journey with him.

We talk a lot about in this church

that we're on a journey.

And in this journey,

we all have stories that are being told.

Our hope is that your story

is being interwoven with God's story,

that God is touching you

and he's meeting you

and he's changing you.

We've said a couple times

and you've seen this illustration

that our hope is that as we're on this journey

as a church and as a community

that we're reaching out,

that somewhere in this life

that God comes into your life

and he touches you.

We have a PowerPoint hopefully for this

and here it is.

So you're on this journey

and we have this conversion event that happens.

Somewhere God opens your eyes

to his son Jesus Christ.

You fall in love with him

and he changes you.

And as you go on this journey,

we grow in two dimensions.

We grow in this dimension of

that we're growing awareness of God's holiness.

And as we do that,

hopefully we're growing in the dimension

that we're aware of our brokenness,

our neediness,

our sinfulness,

our flesh.

And these two things we hope should be,

we want them to be,

growing at the same time.

And if you don't grow both of these

at the same time,

we kind of become lopsided.

And as they grow at the same time,

we see that the cross gets bigger and bigger.

We start to understand even more

what grace means.

We start to understand even more and more

what holiness means.

We start to understand even more

what God sacrificed

and what it cost Christ to bring you

into his family.

I think sometimes we forget that.

We forget what it costs God

to bring us back

to the family of God.

And sometimes on this journey,

as we grow,

we enter into this dimension

and we're going to talk about it today.

And it's hard as a pastor

because I wish I could be

in every one of your stories.

I wish I could know

what is going on in your life.

And I don't.

I can only share

what's been going on in my life.

And I know that we're all

about the same on this journey.

But as we enter into this lifestyle,

sometimes we have these things happen.

And as we go along in time,

we basically see,

you can just keep pushing them out there,

that we have this time,

we have hope,

and we have reality.

That we're on this journey

and we understand

how we want to live our lives.

We understand what our lives

want to look like.

But something is happening there.

That our reality

and what we hope to happen

aren't matching up.

That we hope

that we would get this job

by this time

or we hope that we would be married

by this time

or we hope that our kids

would act right by this time

or we hope that something

would happen by this time

and the reality just doesn't match it.

And what happens

is we enter into this period

of tension and despair

and hurt and anguish and angst

and sometimes we deal with it

by just denial.

We just say,

hey, I know you've felt like this.

Sometimes I have.

You know, it's like this.

There's a 500-pound gorilla

in our room right now.

My wife and I need to talk about that,

but we don't want to talk about that

because we just think

if we ignore it,

it'll go away.

And we do that

in our relationships

and in the church

and when things are hurting

and when somebody offends us.

We just do that

and we live in this realm

of unreality

trying to cover up

all that tension.

Sometimes on our journey,

we try to just basically

work harder.

We figure,

okay, here's what my reality is.

This is what I want.

If I just work harder,

everything is going to be okay.

I mean, maybe

I haven't been praying enough.

Maybe I haven't been reading

my Bible enough.

Maybe I haven't done

these other things enough

and if I do these

and I work really hard

or maybe I study really hard,

if I do all these things

then God's going to go,

that's great.

You did it.

Here, here's the golden ticket.

Great job.

And so we become determined

and we just work

and we work and we work.

And the Bible says

that we enter into religion.

That's what religion is.

Religion is,

I do these things

so that I earn God's favor.

If I do these things,

then God owes me.

Sometimes we enter

into just despair.

I think despair

is sometimes

the easiest thing to do,

especially in certain cultures.

You just give up.

Well, you realize

that my reality

will never match

what I hope.

And instead of walking around

frustrated,

all the time

and in anguish

and in despair

and just frustrated,

I just give up.

And I say,

well, whatever.

I don't know

if you've ever felt

those things

in your life,

but the passage today

is full

of those things.

And it's something

I think that we

as a church

need to deal with

and talk about

instead of hiding.

We're looking

at this passage

in Exodus

which I think

is one of my

favorite passages.

And I'm just sharing

my story with you guys.

It's something

that I continue

to come back to

over and over

and over again

as I get despaired.

In Exodus,

in the Old Testament,

we often look

at narrative.

The stories

are narrative.

They're telling

a story.

Now, it's much

different than

the New Testament.

The New Testament,

you come to it

and this gives you

this action point.

Christ died for you.

He shed his blood

on the cross.

You need to repent

and turn back

to him

and that point

is very,

very clear.

But sometimes

when we come

to the Old Testament,

that point is there

but we have to read

and read

and think about it

because often

it's hidden

in the shadows

because the ultimate

fulfilling

of this truth

is in Jesus Christ.

And so we see

these truths there

and we read them

and we compare them

to what we know

of the story

that God is weaving

throughout all

of Scripture.

And so this passage

today talks about

the desert times,

talks about

the difficult times

and I don't know

what the desert times

are for you

in your life.

When I looked

at those first charts

and I looked

at this despair,

I think of country

western,

okay, I'm gonna confess,

I think of country

western music.

Does anybody here

ever listen

to country western music?

Okay, so country

western music

is like the most

listened to music

in America,

maybe worldwide,

I don't know.

But in country western,

I don't know.

It's where I learned

about grief and despair

before I became

a Christian, okay?

But in country western music

there is a scale

of despair.

If you hear the guy

singing and he's singing

about he lost his job

or his boss is a jerk,

then his despair

is pretty low.

I mean,

if he's singing

about his boyfriend

or his girlfriend

broke up with him

and life is terrible,

then the despair

is a little high.

If he talks about

his car broke down,

especially his truck,

then it's in the medium

level of despair

because that's very important

for country folk,

their trucks.

If he talks about

his wife left him

for his best friend

or her best friend,

that's really bad,

okay?

And the ultimate is

if he talks about

his dog dying.

If you're listening

to the song

and a guy's talking

about his dog dying,

you know that he's like

in the pit of despair.

I mean,

the only thing worse

than your dog dying

is if you lost your job,

your boss is a jerk,

your boyfriend

and your girlfriend

broke up with you,

your wife left you

for her friend

or your best friend,

your car broke down

and your dog died,

then your life,

you're in despair,

you just give up,

there's no hope.

I don't know

where you are today

and my hope is

that you're not there.

My hope is

that some of these things

you're gonna hear today,

you're gonna go,

that's just not

where I'm at.

I'm not in the desolate times.

But if you're

God's child,

you will be.

You will be.

Because the Bible says

that God loves us

so much

that he doesn't want

to leave us

as we are.

He doesn't want

to leave us broken.

He doesn't want

to leave us needy.

He doesn't want

to leave us in guilt.

He doesn't want

to leave us in shame.

And often,

he will take us

to the desert places

to fix those things.

I don't know

what the desolate things

are in your life.

Maybe they're

broken promises.

Maybe they're

broken relationships.

Maybe they're

broken families.

Maybe they're

broken kids,

or your kids

are out of control.

Maybe your boss

is out of control.

Maybe your health

is broken.

Maybe it's caused

because you've been

sinful,

and you've just

been disobedient

to God,

and you've gone

into this desert place.

Maybe you've made

poor choices.

Maybe you're married

to your desert place.

But the passage today,

for me,

and I've only been

at this for about

38 years,

okay,

so I've been

on this Christian

journey for 38 years,

and it's scary to me

because every day

I learn something new

about God's grace.

Every day I learn

something new

about God's mercy.

Every day I learn

something new

about what God

is doing in my life,

and what he needs

to do,

and what I need

to give up to him.

But this passage

has three

seminal points

I want you to hear

really carefully.

Because if you don't

need them now,

you are going to need

them sometime

in your life.

And we're in the book

of Exodus,

and Exodus begins

at about 1500 B.C.

The people of God

have been in Egypt

for over 400 years.

I mean,

it ends in Genesis

when we're told

that Joseph brings

his whole family,

the people that God

has chosen,

and we get to this part

in Exodus

where we're told

that the king dies,

and things get

really bad.

They get so bad

that the people of God

start to cry out

and ask God,

where are you?

Where are you

in this despair?

Where are you

in these terrible times?

You can take that off.

That's great.

Where are you

in our lives?

And as I look at that

in my life,

there are three things

that keep sticking out

to me.

The first thing

is the question,

what?

What I hope to do

is we're going to cover

what,

where,

and will.

Those three points.

And the first thing

that sticks out to me

in this passage

is the question,

what?

As we've gone

through this journey time,

as you look here

in this passage,

now it came about

in the course of many days

that the king of Egypt

died and the sons

of Israel sighed

because the bondage,

and they cried out

greatly.

They cried,

it says four times,

different ways.

They cried,

they cried for help.

They wailed

because their bondage

rose up to God

and it was really,

really bad.

So God heard

their groaning

and God remembered

his covenant

with Abraham,

Isaac,

and Jacob

and God saw them

and he felt compassion

on them.

The word is

he noticed them

but it's actually

he,

he has been noticing them.

But it's not just

he's woke up one day

and realized,

oh,

I have this promise.

But the scripture says

that he's been watching them

the whole time.

And the first thing

that I learn

about prayer

in the desert places,

in the difficult places,

in the desolate places,

is that often

God

is the one

who takes us

to these places.

God

is the one

who leads us.

God

is the one

who takes us.

God

is the one

who allows us.

God

is the one

who places us

in these places

and is through

throughout scripture.

He brings the people

of God

in Genesis

to Egypt.

He brought

Moses to the wilderness

and to the mountain.

He brings the people

in a little while

out into the wilderness

where they travel

for 40 years.

He brings

Jesus,

his son,

into the wilderness

for 40 days.

And in the wilderness

he does something

that he

changes them.

he changes

us.

I mean the Bible

tells us that God

is going to take

everyone he loves

into the wilderness.

Now I know

that's not sexy.

That's not the sexy gospel.

The sexy gospel says

well you become a Christian

and you get a Rolex

and everything is perfect

and you never have problems.

But the Bible

it doesn't

say that.

It says

that he loves us

so much

that he wants

to heal us

and the only way

that he can heal us

is by taking us

into these desert places

into the desolate places.

And what we see there

is when he takes us

into these places

he teaches us

two things.

The first thing

that he does

is he shows us

a lot about ourselves.

He shows us

our idols.

He shows us

our pride.

He shows us

our arrogance.

And he can only

show us

us these things

when everything

is stripped away

when things

are difficult.

I mean you look

at the passage here

and sometimes

we read through it

really quickly

but I think it is

an amazing passage.

Verse 1

look at that

really quickly here.

What does he say?

Now Moses

who is pasturing

the flock of Jethro

his father-in-law

the priest of Midian

and we're going to

stop right there.

Now if you were

a Hebrew person

and you read this passage

you would be

freaking out.

And if you were

an Egyptian

you would be

even more

concerned

and messed up

because you have

to realize

that it's Moses.

Now of all the people

in the scripture

besides Christ

he is the person

who probably

has the greatest

influence

in all of us.

Moses

who was

raised

and educated

in the best

education system

in the world

at that time.

Moses

who hated

shepherds

when Joseph

came

and the Egyptians

hated shepherds

they said

don't even tell

Pharaoh

you're a shepherd

because

shepherds

are disgusting.

The Egyptians

used to shave

all the hair

off their body

and it was a daily

ritual of cleansing

and they realized

and they thought

that anybody

who dealt

with animals

and livestock

especially shepherds

were defiled

and unclean.

Keep them away

from us.

But here we see

that Moses

is shepherding

the flock

of his father-in-law.

Moses

the prince of Egypt

who had

enormous amounts

of wealth.

He was one of the

most wealthy men

in his age

before he made

his exodus

into the wilderness.

And here

he doesn't even

have his own flock.

He doesn't have

anything to say

this is mine.

God

took all that

away from him

because he realized

that Moses

was clinging

to those things

more

than he was

clinging

to God.

We read

in the passage

that Moses

is a hired hand

and he basically

is subservient

to his father-in-law.

So we see

that God

took Moses

who for 40 years

was the best educated

the wealthiest

in the middle

of Pharaoh's court

and he took

him to this

desert place

for 40 years

to teach him

to teach him

about himself.

It took 40 years

to get Pharaoh's

court away from him.

I've thought about

this often

as I've gone

through the desert

times

and I wonder

how often

and how long

many of us

have been working

in Pharaoh's court

today.

And I wonder

if God

were really

to use us

and to use us

in mighty ways

how many times

would he have

to separate us

remove us

take us

to the desert

places

where all we can

do is

trust him

cling to him

be careful

how you pray

when you're

in the desert

times.

Often my prayers

are get me

out of here

right away.

This is

uncomfortable

this hurts

I need

relief

get me

out of here.

But what we see

in the scripture

is that God

has this amazing

thing that he

wants to do

to your story

he's weaving

your story

into his story

he's making

something wonderful

something amazing

sometimes the only

way he can do

that

is by taking

you into the

desert

and showing

your heart.

In the desert

we learn about

ourselves

but we learn

about God

I mean this

passage is all

about God

in the desolate

places

we learn in

verse 14

that he

is who he

is

that he's

holy

he's

separated

nothing

influences

him

he's

dependent

upon

nothing

he's

totally

other

we learn

in the passages

that he

is holy

it's the first

time that that's

ever used

in verse 5

in all of

scripture

but Moses

knows what it

means right

away

because he

doesn't even

want to look

at God

but he bows

his head

and he drops

to his feet

we learn

that he's

the God

of your

fathers

the God

of Abraham

the God

of Isaac

the God

of Jacob

the God

of your

father

and what

he's saying

there is

I'm not

this God

that's way

out there

but I'm

a God

who's

right here

now the

people would

never have

understood that

because all

the time

they thought

that God

was out

there

God

was out

there

don't bring

him

close

if you bring

him

close

you're

going

to get

destroyed

don't

look

at him

or you're

going

to die

but what

God

is saying

here

is that

he's

knowable

and he's

personal

and he wants

to do

something amazing

in your life

and so when you

go into the

desert times

what I'm learning

is I don't

want to pray

I want to be

careful how I

pray

my heart

says pray

why

why

why is this

happening to me

why are you

allowing this

to happen

why is this

person so mean

why is these

things not

going the way

I want

them to

do

but what

I've

learned is

what I

should be

asking is

what

God what

what are you

trying to teach

me in this

God what are you

trying to teach

me about

yourself

God what are you

trying to teach

me about

me

what do you

what do you

want me to

what am I

supposed to do

with this

how am I

supposed to

glorify you

don't be so

quick in the

desert I'm

warning this

because we

don't want to

keep going into

the desert we

want to be in

the desert and

God teach us and

we say well I

learned that that's

great I don't

need to go back

there again

but don't be so

quick to say I

need to get out

of here because

God wants to

teach you an

incredible question

and I think that

question is what

not why

another thing that

I've been learning

in these desert

times in my 38

years is as I

listen to God and

I try to figure out

where is he working

here and I feel

very disappointed

sometimes when my

lines don't match

up and what I

realize is I'm

disappointed because

God is not writing

the story the way I

want it written

I mean in my

mind I had this

very specific idea

of how my life

is to be lived

what's going to

happen when is it

going to happen and

when that does not

happen I become

disappointed the

story isn't being

played out the way I

want it to be God

where are you don't

you even see me and

we see in verse 24

and 25 that he's

the God who hears

that he's the God

who is present

that he remembers

his covenant he

remembers his

relationship with his

people he remembers

his relationship with

you and I I mean

sometimes we just

think well I'm

married to God

that's what scripture

says but every once

in a while God just

forgets his ring or

he forgets to look

down on his hand

because life gets

really difficult and

really bad but the

scripture says here

that God remembers

his covenant

that there's never a

time that he forgets

about you there's

never a time that he

says oh yeah I forgot

all about Tobin yeah I

need to go back and see

how he's doing there

but that he's always

involved he's always

working in verse 7

which I think is one of

my favorite verses it

says the Lord said I

have seen the affliction

of my people that are in

Egypt I have given

heed to their cry

because of the task

masters I'm aware of

their suffering so I

am going to come down

and the words you see

there is he's the God

who sees he's the God

who hears he's the God

who knows he's the God

who acts that in the

midst of the desert

time in the midst of

things when things

aren't working up in

the midst when I feel

the tension I come

back to this truth and

I realize that it's God

and he's there he sees

he knows he hears and

he acts and the

tension is with me

sometimes that he's

not doing it the way

that I want it done or

I feel like he's not

there maybe instead of

praying God why aren't

you here where are you

how come these things

are happening what's

going on here God I

just feel like you're

not with me here maybe

we should be asking God

where are you in this

he says really

specifically it's a very

special word in verse

eight he says I have

come down to them in

Hebrew translated into

the Greek that word is

Advent it's the word we

get our Christmas Advent

from and what he's

telling the people of

God as they're on this

journey as things get

difficult that God is

making himself known in

your life right now in

Moses story it was a

burning bush there was a

bush burning and it was

the presence of God look

what he says here in

verse three the angel of

the Lord in verse two

appeared to him in a

blazing fire from the

midst of a bush and he

looked and beheld the

bush was burning yet the

fire yet the bush was not

consumed so Moses said I

must turn aside now all

throughout scripture we see

that God is making himself

known all throughout

scripture we see that God

is entering into our lives

he says I'm in the bush he

says it I'm coming down and

the question is do we look

for him I think what I'm

learning in the journey is

instead of saying where are

you or why are you allowing me

to go through this the

question I ask is God where

are you because your word

says that you're here

somewhere your word says

you're working in the midst

of me getting fired your

work says that you're here in

the midst of my family life out

of control your word says

you're here when I just got

this incredibly bad doctor's

report your word says you're

here when my best friend has

left me where are you what are

you what are you trying to show

me in this how am I supposed to

react to this make yourself

known to me help me help me to

see you more clearly in the

desert times we're going to be

tempted to say what the heck is

going on and where are you I

feel like I'm looking for you in

a crowd and I cannot find you

but this passage says that God is

right beside us and he wants a

relationship with us and the

question we should be asking is

where the Bible always says that

God comes into your life right

now he wants to do two things he

wants to save you from something

verse 8 says he wants to save us

from Egypt he wants to save us save

us from slavery he wants to save us

from bondage and he wants to save

us to something verse 8 says he

wants to save us to a land flowing with

milk and honey he wants to save us to a

place where we will be safe and whole and

fixed one of the things I'm learning in

the desert places is that God's story

always ends in hope did you know that it's

very interesting I'm watching movies

nowadays and I went to the Hunger Games

with my wife I'm not recommending that if

you have kids don't take your kids it's

one of the first movies I've seen lately

that has some kind of hope in it but it

really doesn't end in hope because you

know something bad is going to happen but

hope is a very specific Christian message I

mean my wife calls me a geek because I

like to read and I like to read ancient

stories and things like that in Greek

plays and things like that and what you

see about the Greeks are two things one

is they only have two types of stories they

have comedies and they have tragedies

comedies are fun and funny but they're not

real life tragedies are not fun but they

are real life and until Christ's time this

was how all stories were laid out and then

we have God who advents into our life and

for the first time in human history we see

this idea of hope and so the question I

want to ask ourselves is where where's the

hope God where are you in the midst of

this where are you working how can I see

you please let me see you what where and

will and for me this is the biggest

challenge for me as I walk with Christ

when I enter into the desert I come back

to verses 3 and 4 I want you to read them

with me really quickly so Moses said I must

turn aside now and see this marvelous

sight why the bush is not burned up then

the Lord saw that he turned aside to look

God called to him from the midst of the

bush and said Moses Moses and he said

here I am I think the question we have to

struggle with is the question will will we

turn aside will we meet with God will we

spend time with him because to be honest

with you sometimes in my day I'm so busy

even in the midst of the desolate times I

just don't have time to spend time with

God because I have so many things on my to-do

list but the message here in the desert is

really clear God turned and spoke to Moses

after Moses noticed him and moved towards

him there's a really strong cause and

effect thing happening here you see that

God spoke to him after he saw Moses turn to

him and in this passage there's two groups

of people there's the people in captivity

they're crying out to God in Hebrew it

says they're they're praying they're

God why aren't you here what is going on

for 400 years and they have Moses it's

interesting because Moses isn't crying out

for God I mean they're both working in the

desert the people are in the desert and

they're desolate in captivity Moses is in a

desert and he's desolate in captivity the

only difference is that Moses doesn't know

it and God comes to Moses and he shows

himself to Moses in a desolate place and

Moses makes a choice and he turns to him

and spends time with him one of the

biggest lessons I continue to learn after

38 years in the deserts is that I have a

choice the choice is will I look for God

where he is and when I see him there will I

turn to him and spend time with him will I

pray to him will I spend time in his word

will I come back to community will I be

involved in what God is doing there's a

choice as we journey with Christ in the

midst of this life our stories are being woven

together with him he wants to change us and

make us more like his son in the midst of this

he's trying to show us why he's trying to show us

where but the question is will will we spend time with

him will we come to him will we allow him to change us I

don't know what's happening in your story today I don't know

where you are I think some of us think of prayer as something

that we just do in a vacuum or we do when it's difficult but

the passage says that prayer is something that we do all the

time because God is with us all the time that God is personal he

wants to be in a relationship with us he wants to be with us in the good times

and he wants to be with us in the difficult times he wants to start a

relationship with us and the question today is will we will we allow him to

have that time with us will we turn to him when things are difficult will we

trust him will we allow him to change us in the difficult times

where are you on your journey my prayer is is you don't need these

points right now but I know that someday you will and my hope is is you will come

back to them and allow God to change you father we just thank you for this day we

thank you for your goodness in our life we thank you for your mercy we thank you

that you desire to take us to a new place a place flowing with milk and honey

father we thank you that even in the midst of the chaos which is our life in our

world that you're speaking to us you're speaking to us in burning bushes

you're speaking to us in sunrises you're speaking to us in worship songs

you're speaking to us through friends you're speaking to us through relatives

but I just pray as you speak to us that we will turn aside to you that we will spend time

with you we will allow you to take us to these places that only there you can change us and

make us the type of people you want us to be only there can you heal us and strip away the things

that cling to us and drag us down only there can you show us who you really are that you are the God

who's noble that you are the God who desires to have a relationship with us that you are the God

who's holy and just that you are the God who withheld nothing to bring us back to you

that in a poker game you were all in and you laid it all there to win us back

father we just thank you for this day and for your word may we be people that worship you

that love you that trust you and we pray these things your son jesus name amen

amen i'm gonna ask you to sit down just for one minute i remember more and more than that

and i'm gonna ask uh josh and trish to come up here and so uh we're uh and my wife

and uh so you know when we started the the church uh i shared this at a staff gathering last night

uh josh and trish this is their last sunday here for a while so he's being called back uh by his

mission agency to the states and then to the philippines and so we have been so uh blessed to have

them steal them for this year and a half two years and so when we started the church i had a couple

prayer requests i actually had three miracles i wanted from god because i we were still like

god we feel like we want you need to do this but i need these things from you or i just can't do it

and so my first uh miracle that i prayed for was someone who could come up and preach besides myself

because i know that you get tired of just hearing me all the time and the goal wasn't just to have one

pastor or someone sharing god's word because we want to multiply and plant other churches

and so one day i met with josh at a greasy spoon place that no longer exists and he says trish and

i have asked our mission agency whether we can join you and we we are going to join you and so for me

that was the first miracle that god gave me personally and us as a church to move forward and to plant this

church and so uh you guys we're going to incredibly uh miss you massively miss you as we say in the

office and uh and so uh i'm going to pray for you but i wanted to uh give you uh this plaque so this is

i think this is the first one of this type so we'll we'll so it's uh and i need to put some white behind

it so i can read it um it says uh founding members joshua and patricia hammond found

members of watermark community church so that's the first founding member one we've ever done so you

guys are uh thank you for your partnership to watermark community church in hong kong spreading

the gospel of the lord jesus christ your faithfulness commitment and sacrifice have resulted in countless

people being influenced for our savior we love you so we want to

so we want to uh give you that and i'm going to ask the elders uh the two elders we we brought on

elders last week and so we had a huge week last week so again you're going to want to pick up one

of these and we're going to just lay our hands on you guys and commission you and uh and pray for you

and just pray for safe travels and safe return in what god's doing in your life so let me

if you guys would join us father guys thank you for uh the hammond family thank you just you brought

them here for this uh amazing special time and so uh we have been incredibly blessed by their them as a

couple and as a family and with their kiddos and just to continue watching them grow with two boys and a

girl on the way uh and many more to come uh we just thank you for bringing them to us and what a

blessing it is we we part uh in sadness but we know that you are sending them to great things as they

go out to equip and train uh pastors and planters in the philippines and beyond and so we just we pray

that you would watch over them guard them keep them safe and uh father we we love you and thank you for

these amazing gifts you've given us and we pray all these things in your son jesus name amen thanks guys

and they'll be around out back or out in the front so you can grab some time with them

and uh please uh just yeah they they're our first miracle so let's yeah also uh let me just really

quickly just two things i want to share up here really quickly the first one is this in your bulletin

the very first uh thing right there there's going to be a woman's of watermark gathering it's a panel

discussion it's this wednesday from 9 30 to 11 30 they're going to have women at all life stages

single with kids with kids who are causing trouble and with kids who've gone and they're probably still

causing financial trouble to dads and things like that so that will be this wednesday from 9 30 to 11 30

want to highly encourage you women guys you can't go there but send your wife uh want to highly

encourage you to go to the community center from 9 30 to 11 30 for that time of fellowship also right

after this class right after this service we're going to have a baptism class and so if you haven't

signed up for the baptism class it's not too late to do that and so please come and see me

or franklin who'll be leading it and so we want we're going to do a big baptism celebration on may

6th so we're going to bring out that sylvia and millen are laughing at me back there uh so we'll

bring out our big uh kiddie pool out back we spared no expense in how we do baptism but if he uh

scripture says it as a follower of christ the first act of obedience is to be baptized and so if you are

a christ follower you've invited christ into your life and you haven't been baptized and you are part

of this church we want you to be a part of this because this is a family event and a family gathering

and also on tuesday nights at 7 30 the love and respect marriage group is gathering we've only done

one session so there's time for you to gather there were 20 or 19 couples last tuesday it was an amazing

amazing thing so husbands be a good husband and invite your wife on a date night for the next five

tuesday nights wife be a good wife and say yes husband i'll go with you okay uh and with that let

me just pray for us father we just thank you for your goodness in our life we thank you that um

we thank you that your story is being written all around us it's being written in captivity

it's being written in bondage it's being written through burning bushes it's being written through

people crying out it's being written through people being faithful and everywhere you're speaking to us

you're here and you've called us into a relationship into a covenant with you and where we just pray as

we come before you as your people that we would realize just how amazing that privilege is

that we'd realize in a desert and difficult times that it's not why but it's what you're trying to

teach us and do in us and it's not why aren't you here but it's where are you because you've said that

you're always there that you are the god who sees you are the god who hears you're the god who knows

you're the god who acts so maybe we cry out where lord where are you help us to see the burning bush

help us to see your hand help us to meet you where you're meeting and lord is the will will we turn

aside and i pray as a church that we would always turn aside to meet you i pray as families that we

would always turn aside to meet you i pray as singles we'd always turn aside to meet you because

you want to talk to us moment by moment and so we come and we worship you and we praise you and we

love you we pray all these things your son jesus name amen god bless you and have a great week