Just Wait...It's Always Good

Good God. And right from the beginning of this story, I love that God is already

showing the children of Israel and us as we read it, a contrast between Pharaoh and himself.

Pharaoh protects power at all costs. He's motivated by fear of what he might

lose. He shows no mercy, none.

He kills innocent children. As we go on, we're going to get into that a little bit more.

And God, we already can see this. He responds to the cries of the oppressed.

He moves with mercy and compassion, and he begins a rescue mission.

Look at the contrast that we can already see that God is showing himself to

the children of Israel, that I'm not like Pharaoh. I'm not cruel.

I'm not giving you rules and jobs to do that are going to be for your harm and

for my good, that God works for our good to show his good through us in his faithfulness.

Even in his judgment on Egypt, God provides a way out.

This is beautiful. And we often just glaze over it and we watch the movie Prince

of Egypt and it's cool and it's exciting, but God is doing something that is

so strategic in these passages as we go through.

And I'm not gonna read them all, but there's plagues that he brings on the Egyptian nation.

Over and over again, God is using these plagues not to just show Pharaoh,

but to show the children of Israel that every single one of the gods of Egypt

that you've been familiar with, that you've seen on the daily,

that you've been forced to worship is nothing in comparison to me.

That's what the plagues do. They're not just to harden Pharaoh's heart or do that.

It's also an illustration over and over again to the children of Israel.

In the book of Exodus, it presents two powerful images of salvation,

the night of Passover and the day they crossed the Red Sea.

They're both powerful examples of God's salvation and his deliverance that most

of us know, but we forget they're not just stories that are cool or amazing.

They're showing us who God is, his faithfulness, his goodness that we stand upon.

And rescue number one, Passover night, this is gonna be the final plague on the nation of Egypt.

In Exodus 11, 11, it says this, now the Lord had said to Moses,

I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt.

After that, he will let you go from here. And when he does, he will drive you out completely.

Tell the people that men and women alike are to ask their neighbors for articles of silver and gold.

The Lord even made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people,

the people that they're next to in slavery, the people that could look at them as just slaves.

There's those among the Egyptians that we read here look favorably upon them.

Moses himself was highly regarded in Egypt.

So Moses said to the people, this is what the Lord says about midnight.

I will go throughout Egypt.

Every firstborn son in Egypt will die from the firstborn son of Pharaoh who

sits on the throne to the firstborn son of the female slave who is at her hand

mill and all the firstborn of the cattle as well.

There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt worse than there has ever been or ever will be again.

But among the Israelites, God's people, not a dog will bark at any person or

animal. then you will know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and

Israel, between himself and Pharaoh.

All these officials of yours will come to me bowing down before me and saying,

go, you and all the people who follow you.

After that, I will leave. Then Moses, hot with anger, he leaves Pharaoh.

And then in Exodus 12, 12, we're gonna read the Passover night.

It's just a couple of verses here, so stick with me.

Write it down so you can read it for yourself. Make sure I'm telling the truth.

And that same night, I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn

of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt.

That's what I was talking about before. This isn't just about deliverance.

It's about showing them that all of these gods are nothing in comparison to ours.

I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord.

Verse 13, the blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are.

And when I see the blood, I will pass over you.

No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

This is a day you are to commemorate for the generations to come.

You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord, a lasting ordinance.

And when we're talking about the blood here, God has instructed them to take a lamb, a spotless lamb.

And sacrifice it and take the blood and paint it over the top and the sides of the doorpost.

And as the angel of the Lord of death comes through Egypt, that would be a sign to Passover.

And here's the thing about this. This isn't just for the Israelites at this point.

Do you know the beautiful thing about God? He's not just like,

those are my good kids. The Egyptians are all have to die.

The Egyptians were allowed to partake of this as well.

In fact, there were many Egyptians who joined Israelites in their homes that

evening and we're saved by God's goodness, his grace and his mercy.

God always makes a way for all of us.

He's not looking to eliminate people, but to embrace and enlarge his family.

So if you ever feel like you look at the world, why do bad things happen? Why does God allow this?

That's not God, that's sin. That's the choices of our selfishness,

just like Pharaoh, because God, just as we can see here, is always making a way, a path for all.

But not all choose it.

The lamb had to be whole, complete, like I said, without blemish.

And that lamb was not only for them, but it also represents Jesus that is to come, a spotless,

blameless lamb that won't be like the children of Israel and like you and me,

that sometimes we serve God with hot fervor and other times we serve ourselves and we get distracted.

It's talking about Jesus who is coming that is going to be perfect in every

way, without sin, the way he loves, the way he treats people,

the way he lives on earth, absolutely perfect.

That God in his wisdom is not only dealing with then, the past,

the present, and the future, always.

I love that.

And here we see again the contrast between Pharaoh. Pharaoh,

early in the story, maybe I missed this,

he actually has the Hebrew boy children when all of them are to be killed because

he's getting so worried about the numbers as they're growing,

that that's what he does. How cruel is that?

A baby right at birth is to be killed, to preserve his power.

But then we see that God, in contrast, makes a way so that all can live,

not just the Israelites, but anyone who would take him up on the offer.

And then we get to the second miracle here in this story that we're gonna touch

on this morning, the Red Sea crossing. Has anybody heard about it already?

If you've seen the Prince of Egypt, you know about it. The Israelites,

after that plague of death, when the children are killed, Pharaoh finally says,

get out of here, I'm done with you. I can't handle it anymore.

So the Israelites flee and they get to the Red Sea and the Red Sea is in front

of them and Pharaoh, who has now changed his mind yet again,

is pursuing them and regrets his choice, and he's behind them.

And the children of Israel in this moment, rather than saying,

well, God's going to do something. What's next? Maybe there's going to be a boat.

Maybe there's going to be another army come up behind us. Maybe it's the angel of the Lord.

Instead of saying any of those possibilities, what do they do?

They say, why'd you bring us out here to die?

Couldn't we have been buried in Egypt? There was graves enough for us there back there.

But God, in his goodness, knowing that they've been subjected to slavery and

bondage for hundreds of years, reveals himself again.

And a path through the sea, the road to freedom, it looked like destruction.

It looks scary. There's no way forward. But the very thing that should have

killed them became their path to life.

And I want to encourage you this morning, if you're going through something,

a hard time, a confusing time, sometimes we just try to get away from those

things. We try to distance ourselves.

We don't want to think about it. We don't want to be a part of it.

We run from it in a sense rather than directing our attention towards it because

we're scared or intimidated.

And that's human. That's all of us. That's nothing to be ashamed of.

And I want to remind you this morning that the path that looks like destruction.

Can actually be God's miraculous plan of deliverance for your life.

It can be something beautiful and meaningful, something that you can't do on your own.

So if you're in a hard place and it looks like there's an ocean of problems

in front of you, Just remember that God is a way maker.

It might not look like you would like. It wasn't what the children of Israel had imagined, I'm sure.

But it was the way that God had for them, and it brought them deliverance.

And both the Passover and the story of the Red Sea, they become core images

in our Christian story, images of salvation, of deliverance,

of the Passover, of Jesus's blood, and what he will do for us.

And there's a pattern in Exodus. And here's a couple of notes for you to write

down in case you don't know this.

Exodus actually means the road out. It's the road out of Egypt.

And this pattern becomes a template across all of the Bible.

We see it over and over again.

It looks like this, oppression, suffering, deliverance, new life.

Israel is God's chosen people. And they have indeed suffered,

just like Jesus suffered for us because he never calls us to suffer alone.

But he's always making a way. He never stops.

What's that song? He never stops. He never stops working. He never stops making

a way. And he's always good.

So then the people, after he rescues them from Egypt and they're delivered,

he calls them out and they journey for about 60 days in the desert.

And throughout this time, they're making their way to a mountain,

Mount Sinai, if you're not familiar with the story.

And on their journey, it's not just all of the plagues that have happened that

showed them who God is and what he can do. It's not just the Red Sea crossing.

God, even on this journey, sometimes we forget there's even more miracles,

bitter water that they couldn't drink of as they're in the desert. God makes it sweet.

God provides food, manna from heaven to sustain them. He never stops working for their good.

And then when they can find no water, God provides water from a rock.

Do you see what God is showing the children of Israel and us this morning? He never stops.

His provision is always there, even when we can't see it or can't imagine it.

And then another miracle on top of that is they get confronted with the Amalekites,

and they win that victory as God uses Moses as his arms are held up by his servants and supporters.

Joshua goes and wins that battle. So this has all happened on this journey to

the bottom of Mount Sinai, as God is leading them out of slavery,

out of a mass of just disorder and a people that don't really have a name or

an identity of anything but that of a slave.

He's making them a people.

He's showing them who he is. It's such a beautiful thing that what they've known

through Pharaoh is not what God wants to be to them.

He is so good and he is so faithful.

And then in Exodus 19, verse 3, we see this.

Exodus 19:3

And this is what God is telling Moses to say to the people of Israel.

This is what you are to say to the descendants of Jacob and what you're to tell the people of Israel.

You yourselves have seen what I did in Egypt and how I carried you on eagle's

wings and brought you to you myself.

Now, if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all the nations,

you will be my treasured possession.

Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites. So Moses went back and

he summoned the elders, this is verse 7, of the people and set before them all

the words of the Lord had commanded him to speak.

And here's what the people say in verse 8. The people responded together.

We will do everything the Lord has said. So Moses brings their answer back to God.

It's almost like a marriage proposal. God says, this is what I want to do to

you. I want to be your God. I want you to be my people.

And he doesn't just say that. He waits for a response.

They choose God. God is enforced upon them. After all he's done,

they still didn't have to make this choice, but they do. They choose to follow God.

And then God goes and he gives them the Ten Commandments. And I'm not going

to read all of it because I don't want to take too much time and wear out your back seat.

But I hope you are taking notes. So maybe you're staying more interested than normal.

But God gives them the Ten Commandments and additional laws that teach them

these three things, how to love him, how to love each other,

and how to live as his people.

God doesn't give them rules that are just mundane or useless or pointless.

Just like the Bible, every part of it is for our good.

It's not just to be boring or to make us have to be under bondage and,

oh my gosh, I have to be kind when I don't want to be. I have to be forgiving.

It's all these things. I pay my tithe to church. I listen to sermons.

Whatever those rules are, they're not rules.

They're for our good, to reveal His goodness.

They're not arbitrary. They're beautiful.

And I wanna point out one specific instruction that was given to them right

now before we go through the rest of the story in Exodus 20.

And this is from the 10 commandments.

You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an image

in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.

You shall not bow down to them or worship them for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God,

punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation

of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who

love me and keep my commandments.

And then further on in verse 22, it says this, then the Lord said to Moses,

tell the Israelites this, you have seen for yourself that I have spoken to you from heaven.

Do not make any gods to be alongside me. Do not make for yourself gods of silver or gods of gold.

And here is their response yet again. They've heard, God's put it out there.

He's not commanding, you're gonna be this, you're gonna be that and giving them

no choice. This is their response in verse three of 24.

When Moses went and told the people all the Lord's words and laws,

they responded with one voice.

Everything the Lord has said we will do. Then Moses went and wrote down everything the Lord has said.

This is all a part of God preparing a home with his people.

A functional, healthy home, not one that's out of order or sick or has areas

that just don't seem to mesh together.

God is constructing something so perfect and so beautiful, just like you as

an individual are that, and just like we are as a body together this morning.

And then what happens, and here's where we're going to land this morning if

you're getting a little worried on where this story's going.

I got a point, and I remember what it is.

So that's good. All right. The crisis of waiting. Does anybody here like to wait?

Are there people here that enjoy that when you go to the doctors?

Has anybody noticed this? This really irritates me.

The doctors now tells you to be there 15 minutes early for your appointment

so you can wait an extra 15 minutes for them to be late to come out another

15 to 30 minutes to meet you.

It's the strangest thing. I don't understand it. I don't enjoy it.

And I don't go 15 minutes early because I know I'm going to wait.

I don't like waiting. I'm a very impatient person. You can ask Pastor Josh.

It's not my strong suit. I like to get stuff done. I'm not a sitter. I'm a doer.

So the waiting thing is very outside of my comfort zone. And I imagine there's

a few of here this morning that feel the same way.

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. She's talking so much. What's the point?

We're there. The crisis of waiting.

God calls Moses after all of this

that we've been through back up to the mountain. And guess what happens?

Everyone's worst nightmare. Moses goes up there and he's up there 40 days.

The leader that has just brought them out, that they have placed their trust

in, that has led them with goodness, faithfulness, humbleness out because they

don't know where they're going. He's gone.

But what they don't know is this, in an Exodus 24 through 31,

if you want to read it, it's very, very detailed, but it's also really beautiful

if you take the time, how intricate and how thoughtful God is in the way he

communicates in his plans.

And he gives them instructions on how to build the tabernacle.

That's where they're going to, his presence is going to reside.

That's how they're going to meet with God.

How to do the priestly garments so that they can be clean before God.

How to make the anointing oil that allows for them to minister healing and sickness

and all of these things, how to sacredly worship God.

He gives the instruction for all these things because they don't have any of

it yet. Remember, they've been slaves.

They've worshipped idols alongside the Egyptians, whether they wanted to or not.

They know little about God. At this point, imagine hundreds of years and God is so distant.

He's like more like a fairy tale, like Cinderella or something that everybody

kind of knows maybe a little bit about, but we don't really believe in anything

other than maybe it's like a fable.

It teaches us a good lesson, but there's no power there.

The instructions, they're not unnecessary or nitpicky. He's providing what will

be required in light of him being completely holy, coming to dwell with his

covenant people who we know are not completely holy.

God is giving the blueprints for all of it to live together so that they can

live a joyful, good life.

And then here is what we see in Exodus 24 through verse 15.

While Moses is on the mountain getting this download from God,

telling him how good it's going to be, how to do it, how to make God part of

their lives and how to make him known, how to live profitably.

It says this, when Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it.

Imagine that. And the glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai.

For six days, the cloud covered the mountain.

And on the seventh day, the Lord called to Moses from within the cloud.

And this is, it tells us what it looked like to the Israelites right here in verse 17.

To the Israelites, the glory of the Lord looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain.

That looks like something to me. It looks like something's happening.

It's kind of hard to ignore.

If we went out right now in that hill in front of the church when you went out

this morning or this afternoon, depending on how long I go, you can pray.

When you go out, if that was on fire, we'd all take notice of it.

It would be extraordinary, which means out of the ordinary.

That's what's happening on the mountain. It's not hidden from them.

Moses didn't disappear as far as where they have no idea that something's happening.

It says right here, the Lord looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain.

They can see it. It doesn't go away or disappear. And then Moses enters the

cloud as he goes up and he stays on the mountain, like I said, 40 days and 40 nights.

And while Moses is on the mountain, they wait, they wait, and they wait.

And all of the things that they've recently experienced are overshadowed by

hundreds of years of slavery, by hundreds of years of idols and gods that they

could see, that they could feel,

that had power to a limited amount.

And they remember the closeness and the fact that they could touch those things

while Moses and God looks very far away.

And in Exodus 32, verse one, we see this. This is the story of the golden calf.

When the people saw that Moses was long and coming down from the mountain,

they gathered Aaron and said, come make us gods who will go before us.

They're looking for somebody to go before them because they're lost without

Moses and they can't see God anymore or they choose not to.

As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him.

Aaron answers them, and he says, Take off the gold earrings that your wives,

your sons, your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.

So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron.

He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a

calf, fashioning it with a tool.

Then they said, this is what they say, These are your gods, Israel,

who brought you up out of Egypt.

What? Wait a second. Let's go back to Exodus 20, verse 22.

Exodus 20:22

Just a few verses earlier, then the Lord said to Moses, tell the Israelites

this, you have seen for yourself that I have spoken to you from heaven.

Do not make any gods to be alongside me. Do not make for yourself gods of silver or gods of gold.

And Aaron gathers their gold and he makes them a calf.

It's crazy. And it's easy for us to look at this story and be like,

how could they do this? but we ourselves do it so easily all of the time, if we're honest.

I do it when I'm forced to wait, when things don't look like they're quite working out the way I want to.

Where is God? Why is this happening?

He's probably, maybe he's not real. It's crazy to even believe that he is.

And we doubt everything that we've ever known and everything that we've ever

seen or experienced, just like they do.

And here's the shocking thing about this story.

They're not replacing Yahweh. They even call him Yahweh. This is our God.

They're not saying, oh, now we want to follow Baal again. They're not going

back in that regard. They're saying, here's Yahweh. Here's our God.

They're redefining him into something they can touch, shape, and control.

A God shaped by their own hands, a God made in an image that makes them feel secure.

Do you know that the bull, it would have been all over Egypt.

This isn't just a random thing that they just toss it in and they're like,

yeah, a cow sounds like a good idea.

That sounds crazy, right? To us, if I was making an idol, it'd be something

like superhuman or something crazy cool, not a cow.

But to them, the bull is something powerful. It represented many of the gods

of Egypt. They're familiar with it.

They can lean on it. They've trusted it. Even though it was cruel,

they knew what to expect.

And sometimes we do the same to ourselves, whether it's because we've been formed

by abusive relationships or hard times in life, we go back to what is familiar.

Even if it's not good, even if it's harmful, it still makes us feel safe.

And this is the great misunderstanding of it all, that the people think that

God is missing, that he's absent, that Moses went up on the hill and God is

there far away, that he's not with them any longer.

How many of you, how many times have I done that?

God is gone. Things aren't working out right.

And when I went through a time of sickness, I felt like either something was

wrong with me because I wasn't healed and healthy, or something must be wrong

with the God that I've been taught about.

And we oftentimes put ourselves in those positions when God is not missing.

God is not absent. He's always working.

That in those moments where they thought God was far and it abandoned them and

they seek a God for themselves, he's literally writing down with Moses the very

things that will bring freedom to them.

They will make them his people as he's already covenanted with them.

They interpret just like we do delay as abandonment, but delay was actually God at work.

And the golden calf reveals two things about them and also about us.

Our impatience with God's process.

I always think of the old commercial, it's my money and I want it now.

I don't know if anybody remembers that because you don't watch commercials anymore. They're gone.

But Aiden used to say that to us sometimes when he'd be fixing to get his allowance,

things like that. It's my money and I want it now.

We're impatient with the process. And then it also relieves our disbelief or

unbelief in God's nature and goodness.

They forgot who God was. We forget who He is. We forget His goodness, His faithfulness.

But when we truly know God's character, we know this. He's never idle.

We can see that in this story. God is always working even when they don't know it.

He's never careless. Look at the details, and I encourage you to go back and read them.

It's not something that you need to live by now, but it just shows how very

intricate and beautiful God is.

He's never careless, and he's always working for the good of his people.

In Isaiah 64, 4, it says this, Since ancient times, no one has heard nor ear has perceived.

No eye has seen any God besides you who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.

And in Colossians 2, verse 6 through 7, it says this, Just as you accepted Christ

Colossians 2:6–7

Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him.

Let your roots grow down deep into Him. Let your lives be built on Him.

When our roots grow deep within God and our lives are built on Him,

not on the things we want or the things that we can build for ourselves, but on Him.

When things don't go according to plan, we aren't shaken.

Wouldn't you like to live life like that? That whether your job is secure,

whether your retirement is secure, whether your health is secure,

your family, your relationships,

that no matter what happens around you, your neighbors, your friends are bad,

they're good, your boss is bad, he's good, or she is good, that you are literally not shaken.

That is God's plan for our lives. That's why he writes the Bible,

has written the Bible, so we have something that we can grow and grow in.

And we never stop growing. We know his nature, that he is holy.

There's no shadow of evil in God. His thoughts towards us, it says in the Bible,

are good. His plans are good. His work is good.

And sometimes when we're waiting.

We start just thinking, and sometimes that's good, depending on what you're thinking on.

But sometimes we start thinking in a negative way, and we start worrying,

and we start thinking worst-case scenarios, all of the doubts that we've ever had.

We just kind of pull up and we sit down with them close and tight with a blanket

and a comfortable chair, and they become a part of our process.

Rather than digging down when hard times come into the Word of God or leaning

on the people that are in this room, your family, your friends,

the people that God has placed in your life to lean on, we isolate and we get

cozy up with the doubt in our golden calf because it's easy to hold on to when God feels far away.

That's why we need each other. I talk about it every time I preach,

I know I do, that if you're going through a hard time, I'm not a mind reader.

If you post it on social media and I don't see it, I don't know about it.

If something's hard, send a text, send an email, pick up your phone,

come and ask for prayer after church. There's no shame in it.

If you know me at all, I would never make you feel bad for something you're going through.

No judgment here in this church, because we're all at different walks of life with God.

There's no good and no bad. We're all just growing.

Just like we don't look down on our children when they're learning to walk and

they fall. We don't yell at them. It's the same here in this house.

Wherever you're at, whatever you're struggling with, when you bring it out and

you tell somebody about it or you ask for prayer about it, it takes the shame

off of it. It's no longer hidden in a dark place.

Whether you're wrestling with healing or provision or just doubt,

whatever it is, don't wrestle alone.

Get comfort and courage from one another.

And what happens when we allow our doubts to get close is they start to define

and shape our thinking rather than the other way around.

And we become conformed to them. Where if you've ever heard the story where

they put fleas in a jar and they're jumping to the lid, they jump to the top

and then they take the lid off and they could jump higher, but they don't because

they've just accepted that as the top.

That's what our doubts do to us. That's what the children of Israel did to God.

They put boundaries on what he could do or should do.

When truly God is limitless, He doesn't always work in the way that we want,

in the way that we would plan.

But His plans are better than our plans.

His ways are better than our ways. And sometimes we get frustrated and we say,

it's just broken. It doesn't work for me.

I think about Georgie and Emmy. They got all their toys for Christmas.

A lot of those toys are battery powered or remote controls. They have parts.

And Georgie is not one for patience and neither is M, as you've heard me talk

about them before. They're a work in progress.

And here's what George or M does. If it doesn't work immediately upon setting

it on the ground and turning it what they think is on position and turning the

remote to a forward position, it's broken.

It doesn't work. They kick it, they throw it, they bring it to us sometimes,

it's not broken. They just don't know how to use it.

And they need a little help, just like us.

So again, I encourage you, bring the brokenness, the doubts.

Don't just kick the toys or kick your life, throw it away in the garbage can.

Bring it to God, bring it to somebody that maybe knows a little bit more about

the manual than you do and can help you, not judge you, not shame you,

help you. That's what we see in scripture.

Because God is always working for the good of those who wait for Him.

Just wait. It's always good. Just like the children of Israel on their journey ended in a good place.

God brought them into the promised land. It took longer than it needed to because

of their stubbornness. But they got there with a faithful God.

Don't give up on God's faithfulness this morning, whatever you're going through.

And I challenge you, if you're in a place right now that you feel like,

man, God is good. I feel it with every fiber of my being.

Everything is good. I'm healthy.

I've got a great job. My finances are good. My kids are good.

Everything is great. I love my neighbors. If that's you this morning, I'm so happy for you.

And maybe you could take a minute to look for somebody else that might not be

feeling the same way and bring some encouragement.

Because we've all been on the high part of the mountain and on the low part of the valley.

And we see throughout this story that God again and again offers a hand and

a way. Can we stand this morning?

And we're just gonna have a time of prayer. And I just wanna encourage you this

morning that if you're in a hard place, and I hope I've been able to convey

throughout this story, that God is always working.

Even when it feels like he's far away, he never is. Even when we can't see it,

that God has a purpose and a plan.

And we're gonna sing a song this morning. We're gonna pray. And I encourage you this morning.

No, I do remember things. Pastor Josh is awesome. He's remembering things that

I said. That's like so cool.

But I want to pray for you this morning because I know life can be hard.

It can feel like it's a never-ending uphill battle.

And it can be discouraging. God can feel far away just like he did with the

children of Israel. But he's not.

And I had asked the TODAX, Danielle and Kyle, if we could pray for them this morning.

God laid them on my heart. Come on up, Danielle. Kyle is already up here because he's awesome.

But I want to ask if there's anybody else this morning, if you just need some

prayer, if you need to meet God or just have some people stand beside you and

encourage you that you're walking through something that's just hard,

please come to the front.

Don't allow embarrassment or shame to keep you in the back seat.

But come up and let somebody gather around you, whether it be me or one of the

elders to pray for you, because God is faithful and he is good.

So we're going to pray together.

And then I'll minister to anybody that feels like they need it or wants it.

Lord, I just thank you this morning that just like we sang in the song that,

oh God, my God, God, I need you. My God, I need you now.

And we're standing on your faithfulness, God, that you are here in this moment,

that you've never left us, that you never will,

that you don't forsake us, that you don't abandon us, God, that even when just

like the children of Israel, we can't see what you're doing or understand that

we can see through scripture that you are always working,

that there is always a good plan for us, that you always make a way.

I thank you for that God for your goodness for your faithfulness.