Exodus - What's He Waiting For? - Exodus: 5-6

Grab your bibles and open them to the second book

in your Bible, which is the Book of Exodus. And

if you don't own a Bible or you need one,

we have some at the resource tesk in the lobby.

Please go grab one. We want you to keep that.

We want you to have the Bible, to have God's word.

But we're in a series taking a quick look through

the whole book of Exodus, the whole Book of Exodus,

and throughout this book we're going to see three major

sections or three different movements in this Book of Exodus.

The first one we're going to see God deliver his

people from captivity. That's the first section we're going to see.

The second one is He'll lead his people to Mount Sinai,

where God's going to make demands of his people, some

clear demands of his people. And then the third section

will close out the series by seeing God dwell with

his people. So God delivers, God demands and God dwells.

And so far in this book, the Israelites, we've seen

them be. They've been increasing in number in Egypt, keep growing,

they keeps spreading, they're multiplying, and out of fear of

the people and them multiplying. The Pharaoh has begun to

make their lives bitter, to make their lives difficult and hard.

He's oppressed them with ruthless, hard labored slavery, and he's

even demanded that to have the Hebrew babies, the Hebrew

baby boys all killed. He demanded that. Luckily, there are

some cool ladies who stood up and didn't listen to

that command. But what we see is through all this

oppression that the Lord has heard the cries of the people.

He's heard the cries of his people, the people of Israel.

He hasn't forgotten the covenant that he made with them.

So he raises up Moses. He speaks to him through

the burning bush and tells him the plan for how

he's going to save his people from slavery in Egypt,

you know. And then Moses has this whole I don't

talk good moment, right, and he comes up with all

these different excuses for why God shouldn't send him, and

what does God do? He overcomes every single excuse that

Moses tries to throw out. So Moses and Aaron tell

the people of Israel what God said, and they all

bow and worship. That's where we left off last week.

We left off with them bowing and worshiping, and that

all sounds pretty awesome. God, here's the Christ of his people.

He sends Moses to bring him out of Egypt, and

the people are pumped. So what we're gonna do is

today we're gonna pick it up in chapter five. So

we're going to be an Exodus chapter five. And this

is right after the people are excited and they bow

and worship God. But before we get into any of it,

I want to pray. So let's pray. God. We just

ask you right now to speak to us through your word,

as you do every time we open it. God, give

us ears to hear what you have for us today.

Let us be challenged where we need to be challenged,

and encourage where we need to be encouraged. God, we

thank you for your word, the freedom to study it,

to learn from it. We think that you've given it

to us, that you do a surgery on our heart

every time we read it, that you were transforming us

more into your image. You were revealing who you are

in your the sacred text of Scripture. So God, we

thank you for this time together. We give it all

to you. We give you the glory and thank you

for the benefit of being able to study it today.

In Jesus name, everybody said a men. If you're anything

like me, then one of the worst feelings is having

something you're really excited about, but having no idea when

it's gonna happen. Does anybody know that feeling? Someone's bringing

some donuts to the office, it's pretty awesome. I love

it when people bring donuts to the office. When are

they gonna get here? I don't know they'll get here.

When they get here, the waiting is so much worse,

and I have no idea when it's going to happen.

Or how about if you're running a race and you

don't know where the finish line is. That one's not

very fun. Just start running. Eventually you'll make it to

the end. I would hate that it's just over the

next hill. How many you said that seven hills ago?

How many more hills until the end? But these are

like lighthearted, like funny, simple example. But what about when

you're in the middle of something more serious or something

more painful? What about when you're going through a trial

in life? And I remember when Jesse and I were

in the hospital. Jesse was in labor with our oldest son, Jackson.

This was this process took about thirty six hours to

get through. It was a long one. It's our first child,

and in that thirty six hours, it seemed like everything

that could go wrong was going wrong. So Jesse's having

contractions of further labor. But every single time she'd have contractions,

Jackson's heart rate would drop too dangerously low. So just

as we would finally start dozing off to get a

little bit of sleep a few hours of sleep, alarms

start going off. Doctors are rushing and flipping Jesse around

to try to get Jackson's heart rate to come back up.

So this is anything but relaxing. This is all crazy.

When would it all stop? Is there an end at

all in sight? We had no clue how long it

would take, know it was going to take thirty six hours.

Eventually we had an emergency C section. Now we have

a healthy son. It's awesome, praise God, indeed, yes, But

the discouragement that we felt while having no clue when

the end would arrive was extremely real. That amount of

that kind of discouragement that we felt was real. And

the reason I'm telling you that story is because as

I was reading our text for today, the children of

Israel are in a very similar situation. God has promised

to deliver them from the oppressive slavery of the Egyptians.

He promised to save them. But ever since he'd made

that promise, things have only gotten worse. They keep getting worse.

They didn't get better. He hadn't delivered them yet. Why not?

Why hadn't he delivered them? And I can imagine them

asking the same question that we might ask in that situation,

in the midst of pain and suffering. What's he waiting for?

What's he waiting for? How often do we look at

the promises of God in scripture and ask the same question, God,

what are you waiting for? I know what you said,

I've read what you promised, but why haven't you delivered

me yet? But before we get to us, I want

to look at the children of Israel and look at

our text for today. Exit is chapter five and chapter six,

where God has already met with Moses and he's told

him what to say, He's given him power to do

some crazy, miraculous signs, and he tells the Israelites and

they worship God. And now Moses and Aaron go to

Pharaoh and tell him what God, and tell him what

God said. So let's look at verse one of chapter five. Afterward,

Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, Thus says

the Lord, the God of Israel, let my people go,

that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.

But Pharaoh said, who is the Lord that I should

obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not

know the Lord. And moreover, I will not let Israel go.

So Pharaoh's like, I don't know who this God is,

why should I listen to him? And I'm not letting

them go. But by the end of this encounter, by

the end of Pharaoh's encounter, he will know who the

One True God is, and he knows that this one

True God isn't any of the gods in Egypt. Verse three.

Then they said, the God of the Hebrews has met

with us. So God has come and told us this.

Please let us go three days journey into the wilderness,

that we may sacrifice to the Lord, our God, lest

you fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.

So they want to be obedient to the Lord, like

let us go be obedient and obey him. Verse four.

But the King of Egypt said to them, Moses and Aaron,

why do you take the people away from their work?

Go back to your burdens. And Pharaoh said, behold, the

people of the land are now many, and you make

them rest from their burdens. You guys are just distracting

them from the work that I gave him to do.

That's what Pharaoh's accusing Moses and Aaron of. And you've

got to remember that the Israelites have been growing in number,

they keep multiplying. Pharaoh keeps oppressing them more, and what happens,

they grow and multiply more. He's been increasing the labor

that they have to do. And now he's accusing Moses

and Aaron of distracting the people from their work. Pharaoh

has come to the conclusion, if the people are asking

to go spend time in the wilderness to make sacrifices

to God, they must have too much time on their hands.

If they have enough time to dream about things to do,

they must have too much time on their hands. So

what does he do? He oppresses them even more. Remember,

things just keep getting worse for them. He oppresses them more.

He makes their labor even harder. So now he says,

you have to make the same amount of bricks, but

I'm not going to give you any straw to get

the job done. You have to go find and get

your own straw. Look at verse ten. So the task mass,

which would be the Egyptians, and the foremen of the

people those would be Israelites, went out and said to

the people, thus says Pharaoh, I will not give you straw.

Go and get straw. Get your straw yourselves wherever you

can find it. But your work will not be reduced

in the least. So the people were scattered throughout all

the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw. The

task masters were urgent, saying, complete your work, your daily

task each day, as when there was straw verse fourteen.

And the foreman of the people of Israel, whom Pharaoh's

task masters had set over them, were beaten and were asked,

why have you not done all your tasks of making

bricks today and yesterday as in the past. So not

only did Pharaoh make the job harder, but now the

Israelite foremen are getting beaten for not keeping up a production.

So the people complained to Pharaoh. But what happens. Pharaoh

does exactly what God says he would do. Pharaoh, and listen,

he didn't even care. The Israelites knew they were in trouble.

They saw what Pharaoh was doing, and they knew this

is not good. So what do they do? They go

to Moses and Aaron. Look at verse twenty. They met

Moses and Aaron who were waiting for them as they

came out from Pharaoh, and they said to them, the

Lord look on you and judge. Now those are some

fight words. The Lord look on you, and judge. They're

mad at Moses and Aaron because you have made a

stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants and

have put a sword in their hand to kill us.

Is your fault, Moses and Aaron. This is your fault

that we're in the situation that we're in because of you.

Pharaoh and his servants are putting the sword to our throats.

If you never would have opened your mouth, we wouldn't

be in this situation. That's what the people of Israel

are telling Moses and but now Pharaoh looks at us

with disgust. It's your fault that our lives are harder.

But hold on, aren't Moses and Aaron just doing exactly

what God told him to do? Aren't Moses and Aaron

being obedient right now? Yes they are. They're doing exactly

what God told them to do. They're going to Pharaoh

and telling him to let the people go. And what's

the result of their obedience. It's pain and suffering. Pharaoh

has rejected their request. And the first thing I have

to remind us of we really need to remember this

is this is exactly what God said would happen. And

we look at the chapter that we covered last week.

Pastor Duncan took us through it. This is Exodus chapter four,

So we have to turn back a page, verse twenty

one through verses twenty one through twenty three. And the

Lord said to Moses, when you go back to Egypt,

see that you do, but do before Pharaoh all the

miracles that I have put in your power. But I

will harden his heart so that he will not let

the people go. Then you shall say to Pharaoh. Thus

says the Lord, Israel is my first born son. And

I say to you, let my son go, that he

may serve me. If you refuse to let him go. Behold,

I will kill your firstborn son, and that's our gore.

So wait a minute. Is God sending him on a

failing mission? Then? Is God sending him on a mission

that's meant to fail? No, he's not. The mission will

be his success. He already said he's going to deliver

the people from Egypt. He already said that. But at

this point in the mission is probably starting to feel

a little bit like a failure. It's probably feeling like

everything's going wrong. Moses and Aaron go to Pharaoh, and

Pharaoh does exactly what God said he would. God hardens

his heart and he refuses to let the people go.

But not only does he refuse to let him go,

he actually makes their lives worse. The result of Moses

and Aaron's obedience to God led to pain and suffering.

And it's here that I need to give us a

sobering reminder. Your own obedience to the Lord might lead

to pain and suffering. It might lead to trouble and persecution.

Look at what Paul tells Timothy in two Timothy chapter three. You, however,

have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life,

my faith, my patience, my love, my stetfastness, my persecutions

and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch and Iconium

and at Lystria, which persecutions I endured. Yet from them

all the Lord rescued me. In verse twelve, Indeed, all

who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus

will be what. All who desire to live a godly

life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. What a promise.

It's not a Bible verse you're gonna see on a

coffee cup or a T shirt. No, we're not gonna

see that one. But it's not just here. It's not

just Paul's reminder to Timothy. Jesus says this kind of

stuff on repeat all throughout the Gospels. If you were

of this world, the world would love you. But you

aren't of this world, so the world will hate you.

And remember, if they hate you, they hated me first.

Jesus tells its disciples. If they persecuted me, they're gonna

persecute you in this world. You will have trouble. But

what but take heart because He has overcome the world.

This is not a new idea or a common or

an uncommon idea. What's my point in all of this?

As we walk in obedience to the Lord, don't be

surprised when things get difficult. Don't be shocked. Remember Peter's

encouragement to believers in First Peter Chapter four. Beloved, do

not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes

upon you to test you, as though something strange were

happening to you. But rejoice, rejoice in as far as

you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and

be glad when His glory is revealed. If you are

insulted for the name of Christ, you are what blessed,

because a spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.

But let none of you suffer as a murderer or

a thief, or an evil doer, or as a meddler,

by the way, a meddler. If you meddle in things,

I think we need to understand that that's a really

bad thing. That's not something to diminish. I don't know

why I felt they need to say that, but there

you go. Verse sixteen. Yet, if anyone suffers as a Christian,

let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God

in that name. For it is time for judgment to

begin at the household of God. And if it begins

with us, what will become? What will be the outcome

for those who do not obey the gospel of God?

And if the righteous has scarcely saved or with difficulty saved,

what will become of the ungodly and the sinner? Therefore,

let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their

souls to a faithful creator, while doing good in your

obedience to the Lord. When you experience suffering and persecution,

which this verse said might be according to God's will

for you, We're supposed to entrust our souls to God,

our faithful creator, while continuing to do good while we

continue to obey him. And I love this text because

it's all while we're waiting for His glory to be revealed.

But that brings me back to our initial question, what

are you waiting for? God? What are you what's he

waiting for? God promised to deliver the people of Israel

from slavery in Egypt, he says Moses and Aaron. They

do exactly what he told him to do, and things

only get worse now that people are blaming Moses and Aaron.

So it kind of makes sense that Moses and Aaron

go back to God to figure out what the heck

is going on. So look back at our texts. In

verse twenty two, then Moses turned to the Lord and said,

Oh Lord, why have you done evil to this people?

Why did you ever send me? For since I came

to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done

evil to this people, and you have not delivered your

people at all. Can you empathize with how Moses feeling

a little bit? God? You said you're going to deliver

your people, but ever since I got here, things have

only gotten worse. What are you waiting for? It kind

of sounds like God's accusing or excuse me, Moses is

accusing God of not holding up his end of the bargain.

Why'd you send me here? Pharaoh was punishing the people

and you haven't delivered them at all. Now, I don't

think that we should ever get in the habit of

accusing God of anything, just as a general rule of thumb.

But he can handle our candid conversations. He can handle

the raw emotions we feel in the moments of desperation

and despair, moments who are walking through hurt and pain.

Who else can you go to? Who else can actually

do something about it? No one else, Only God can.

That's why we should go to God for these things.

So Moses and Aaron they go to God, and God

answers Moses. Starting in Chati, he reminds Moses of his covenant,

that he the promise that he made to his people.

Then he tells Moses what to say that the people

look at this verse one in chapter six. But the

Lord said to Moses, now you shall see. I love

that line. Now you shall see what I will do

to Pharaoh. For with a strong hand or a compelled hand,

will he will send them out. And with a strong

hand or a compelled hand, he will drive them out

of his land. God spoke to Moses and said to him,

I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac,

and to Jacob as God Almighty. But by my name

the Lord or Yahweh, I did not make myself known

to them. But he did make himself known, his name

known to Moses. I also establish my covenant with them

to give them the land of Canaan, the land in

which they live as sojourners. Moreover, I have heard the

groaning of the people of Israel, whom the Egyptians hold

as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. He says

all this to Moses. God is reassuring Moses here. That's

what chapter six is starting as a big reassurance of

God's promises. He's reassuring Moses. And how is he doing

that by reminding him of what he has already done

and already said. After reassuring Moses, he tells Moses what

to say to the people. Verse six say, therefore, to

the people of Israel, I am the Lord, and I

will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.

And I will deliver you from slavery to them. And

I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with

great acts of judgment. I will take you to be

my people, and I will be your God. And you

shall know that I am the Lord, your God, who

has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.

I will bring you into the land that I swore

to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I

will give you. I'll give it to you for a possession.

I am the Lord there's something that's been repeated here,

over and over and over again. Who's gonna do all this? God?

Is God's gonna do all this? He says it over

and over and over again. I will. I will bring

you out, I will deliver you, I will redeem you.

I will take you to be my people. I will

be your God. I will bring you into the land.

I will give the land to you. He is reaffirming

his promise to the people of Israel, for what he

will do. Is the Lord's arm too short? No? Is

he not strong enough? He will do all these things.

This is such a beautiful moment for Moses, for Aaron,

for the children of Israel, when they are feeling completely discouraged,

when everything keeps getting worse and worse, God reassure his people.

So the people respond to praise right with shouts of

joy the promises of God. Right, Well, if you did

your homework, glass, well you can red ahead. No, that's

not how they respond. Look at how they respond. In

verse nine, Moses spoke thus, he says, all these amazing

promises that I Will's statements from God. Moses spoke thus

to the people of Israel. But they did not listen.

To Moses because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery.

Moses says, all these beautiful things that God said, and

they didn't listen. They couldn't even hear him because of

their broken spirit and harsh slavery. They are so discouraged.

It's deafened their ears to the beautiful promises of God.

It's like Jesse and I being in the delivery room.

The nurses they kept saying, We're almost there, It'll all

be over soon. We couldn't hear them. It was just noise.

We were so discouraged, we were so exhausted through the

whole labor process. We couldn't even hear the encouragement from

the people around us. These Israelites have a broken spirit.

They're at their wits end. Everything sounds hopeless. Can't hear

the words of God because they are so discouraged. And

how discouraging would that be for Moses. The people that

God sent them to aren't listening. Look at the last

few verses for today, Verses ten through thirteen. So the

Lord said to Moses, go in, tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt,

to let the people of Israel go out of his land.

But Moses said to the Lord and listen to this.

Here behold, the people of Israel have not listened to me.

How then shall Pharaoh listen to me? For I am

of uncircumcised lips or unskilled lips. But the Lord spoke

to Moses and Aaron and gave them a charge about

the people of Israel and about Pharaoh, king of Egypt,

to bring the people of Israel out of the land

of Egypt. Go tell them, or God tells them to

go to Pharaoh. Moses says, the people won't even listen.

And you think that Pharaoh was going to listen to me.

He's so discouraged. But God says, go and do it anyway.

And the reason is God's working out his plan. God's

working out his plan. But our whole text today, the

whole thing, is a story of God making a promise

to his people to deliver them, and we see his

people become completely discouraged while they wait on God, while

they wait for him to fulfill the promises that he

made to them. And the crazy thing is, as I

was studying for this, these two chapters in Exis actually

don't have a resolution. Read this, there's no resolution, and

it kind of ends on a bad note, like all

this stuff happened, everyone's just discouraged, and they're like, have

a great week. That's how our text ends today. The

people still discouraged, still hopeless. But these Israelites, they're standing

in the in between. That's what I call it, the

in between between the promise and the fulfillment, between the

promise of freedom and getting to walk in it fully.

And I don't know if you recognize this, but so

are we. So are we. We're in this same in between.

God has made a promise that Jesus Christ will return

and make all things new. That's a great promise, that

he will return to eradicate all sin, to wipe every

tear from our eyes, to end all sickness and death,

to give us new bodies, to restore things to perfection.

God has made that problem. But every single day I ask,

what's he waiting for? We have this promise, God, what

are you waiting for? When I look at the state

of our country, it's not pretty. It's full of division.

There's evil and sin rampant all over the place. Babies

are being murdered in their mother's wombs. God, what are

you waiting for? Zoom out a little bit. Look at

the world. It's equally as heartbreaking. You have Christians in

other parts of the world being beheaded for sharing the gospel. God,

what are you waiting for? What about when we zoom

in and look at our own sin struggles? He promised

to put an end to all my sin. Yet I

still struggle with sin now, and I think this is

what Paul was talking about in Romans chapter seven. And

if I can have the worship team come up, please,

I think this is what Paul was talking about Romans

chapter seven. So I want you to look at this

and mind you he's saying all this as a Christian,

it's important to understand. Starting in verse fifteen, for I

do not understand my own actions right out the gates,

He's like, I don't get it. I don't understand my

own actions, for I do not do what I want,

but I do the very thing I hate. Now, if

I do what I do not want, this is gonna

get lots of dues and donots and it's gonna get confusing.

Just stick with me here verse sixteen. Now, if I

do what I do not want, I agree with the

law that it is good. So now it is no

longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that

is in my flesh. Because we have I mean, let

me just keep reading it. I'll explain it. For I

have the desire to do what is right, but not

the ability to carry it out. For I do I

do not do the good I want, But the evil

I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now,

if I do what I do not want, it is

no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells

within me. So I find it to be a law

that when I want to do right, evil lies close

at hand. For I delight in the law of God

in my inner being, but I see in my members

another law, waging war against the law of my mind

and making me captive to the law of sin that

dwells within my that dwells in my members. Wretched man

that I am, who will deliver me from this body

of death, thanks me to God through Jesus Christ, to

our Lord. So then I myself serve the law of

God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve

the law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation

for those who are in Christ Jesus. Amen, for the

law of the Spirit of life has set you free

in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

For God has done with the law. Weakened by the flesh,

could not do sin his own son in the likeness

of sinful flesh, and for sin, He condemned sin in

the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of law

might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to

the flesh, but according to the Spirit. I read a

much bigger chunk of that text because I want you

to hear the whole gospel message. But right there in

the middle, what I want you to kind of zoom

in on, wretched man that I am, who will deliver

me from this body of death? When I look at

my own sin in my life, wretched man that I am.

It's only in Christ that we are delivered from slavery,

to sin and death. Those who put faith in Jesus

are set free from sin and death. Who confess with

their mouth that Jesus's Lord, who believe in their heart

that God raised him from the dead, every single person

who does that will be saved. They will be delivered

from their body of death. That's the promise. It's a

great promise, but until that happens, we're stuck waiting in

the in between. That's where we're at. We will continue

to live a life battling our sin, just like we

read Paul talking about. We're confessing and repenting until Jesus

comes back and the promise is fulfilled. But it's in

this waiting when we look at the world, we look

at the pain and suffering that we experience. We look

at the brokenness in our own life, the strife we

have in our relationships, we see when we experience persecution.

When we look at our own sin, well, that's when

we ask God, what are you waiting for? What are

you waiting for? Why hasn't Jesus come back to make

all things new? And that's when we start to feel discouraged.

And what I want to tell you right now is

it's okay and very normal to feel discouraged. That's normal

and that's okay. But what we can't do, this is

the line in the sand I'm drawing. What we can't

do is get so discouraged that we can no longer

hear the promises of God that we shut our ears

to God's voice. We're not allowed to get that discouraged.

We can't be like the children of Israel. God spoke

to them through Moses all these amazing, beautiful promises, and

he reminds them Him of them, and they don't listen,

they can't hear it. We can't let ourselves get that discouraged. So, believers,

if you're discouraged, snap out of it. Snap out of it.

If you're in this state of discouragement so deep, you

need to repent of allowing your discouragement to deafen your

ears to God. You need to repent for allowing external

circumstances to make you forget what God said. So I'll

say it again, snap out of your discouragement. But how

do I do that? Greg, It's a great question. How

do we snap out of it? And I think it's

by remembering two things. My memory is not great, so

I can only do two things, three things, and I'll

forget one of them. The first thing to remember is

remember that God is faithful, Like you have to actually

remember that God is faithful and believe it. God is faithful.

Remember the past faithfulness of God. Look at what He's

done all throughout history and Scripture. Look at it. The

Bible is full of reminders of God's faithfulness, faithfulness. He

makes promises and he fulfills them. He makes the promises

and he follows through. So crack your Bible open and

remind yourself regularly. But it's not only history, it's not

only all throughout history. Look at your own life. Look

at your own history. Remember God's faithfulness in your own life.

Where were you before you met him? Had a great

hang out with destiny? Today we're talking about you. Guys

have heard me say this before. But drive in the car.

You have a rearview mirror, right, it has a purpose.

What happens if you drive your car staring at the

rear view mirror, You're gonna crash. But the rearview mirror

has a purpose to look up and to see what

He saved you from. We should look back at our

life and see where God brought us from to show

his faithfulness in our own life, and then we look

forward to where we're going. So no crash. So remember

his faithfulness in your own life. Because God is faithful,

His steadfast love endures forever, and we cannot afford to

forget that. If you want to memorize a psul memorize

Psalm one seventeen. I mean, you know we're talking about

that earlier this week. His steadfast love endures forever. So

that's the first thing. The second thing to remember when

you get discouraged and you start asking the question, God,

what are you waiting for? You got to remember that

God's timing is perfect. God's timing is perfect. Look at

tewod Peter chapter three, his verses eight through ten. But

do not overlook this one fact. Don't overlook it. Pay

attention to this, don't forget this, don't miss it. Do

not overlook this one fact beloved that with the Lord,

one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand

years is one day. The Lord is not slow to

fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient

toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that

all should reach repentance. God is not slow, He's patient,

and there is purpose in his patience. Let me say

that again. God is not slow, He's patient, and there

is purpose in his patience. We have to remember that,

and we really need to remember that in the in

between times, when we're standing between promise and fulfillment things

not yet fulfilled. We have to remember that when we're

waiting for God to fulfill his promises. When we fall

into discourage me, we need to remember these two things.

That number one, God is faith He's faithful all throughout history.

He's faithful in your life. And number two, that is

timing is perfect. And let those two things encourage you

while you wait. But there's one last passage I want

to read as an encouragement for us, and it's in

One Peter Chapter one, right there at the beginning. So

I want you to turn there in your bibles. One

Peter Chapter one, verses three through five. I think Vanessa

turned there first. Gold Stars. Blessed be the God and

Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy,

he has caused us. He's caused us to be born

again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus

Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable,

undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven. For you, who by

God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation

ready to be revealed in the last time. We have

a glorious inheritance waiting for us in heaven. This verse says,

this inheritance is imperishable. Perish is like spoils or rot.

When things are perishable, they food, think about it goes

rotten spoils. Our inheritance does not spoil, It does not rot.

It's undefiled. That means it's pure, there's nothing else mixed

with it. It's unfading. It doesn't fade away or diminish

over time. That means our inheritance is a forever. Inheritance

lasts forever. So no matter how discouraged we get while

we're waiting in the in between, never take your eyes

off the finish line that future inheritance. We have, this glorious,

eternal future that we have. Never lose sight of the

promises of God. Don't plug your ears. Don't let your

discouragement plug your ears. Never forget the amazing, glorious future

we have in Christ. Amen cad you guys stand on

your feet, please,