Consecrated Firstborn

So once again, we're so glad that you're with us today.

And as Reggie said in the video, if you are a guest, uh, we would love to connect with you after the service in our West lobby.

Uh several of us on staff will be available to you.

And we'd love if you just came up, introduced yourself, and it just gives us an opportunity to connect with you and thank you for joining us today.

Uh want to welcome all those that are streaming in online or maybe watching later on demand, as we are now in Exodus, what we're calling part two.

So we spent uh time earlier this year going through Exodus chapters one to twelve, and today we're gonna start chapter 13.

Uh, just do want to remind you, if you don't have a Bible, we do have a vibe Bibles that we give away for free every single Sunday.

You can grab one on your way out.

Uh, but we would love for you to bring your Bible, your Bible, with you every single Sunday.

Bring a highlighter, bring a pen.

Uh, this really just helps you engage with what it is that we're doing here on Sunday mornings.

In fact, last week I gave you this 12-week spiritual challenge uh to be in church every single week.

Every single week.

And everyone said, and I'm so glad we're on the Eastern time zone, which means the earliest a Lions game will ever start is one o'clock.

Because I have friends that are pastors in Minnesota and I they struggle with their congregations, and I said, I don't know that struggle.

Our people are diehard Lions fans, but they know to be in church.

Amen?

All right, I'm hoping I'm that you're telling me the truth.

Okay, then you're gonna read the text every week before you come to church.

And so, just out of curiosity, because I asked this at the last service, how many of you had a chance to read Exodus chapter 13 before you came today?

Exodus 13 · chapter mention

Look at all of those hands.

Beautiful.

How many of you got confused reading Exodus 13?

And you're like, whoa, what in the world?

How is Tim gonna pull this off today?

Uh and by the grace of God, we're gonna get through it.

Then after we come together, we have dig deeper questions on the other side of the service that we would encourage you to look at.

And then if you have a family, if you're blessed to be in a family, to either do it with your spouse, read it with your spouse, or to do the questions with your with your kids at home.

Our kids uh program is learning the same exact thing that we're learning here on Sunday morning.

Here's a screenshot of our app.

So if you haven't downloaded the app, it's super easy to use.

It's even easier than updating your fantasy football roster.

Okay?

So download the app, men in the room, I can see you in particular, be the spiritual leaders of your home.

Got it?

Alright, we're all caught up.

How do you know if God is leading you?

That's the question for today.

And that's the question that I believe Exodus chapter 13 is actually going to answer for us.

Exodus 13 · chapter mention

How do you know?

Is it a sense that you get from the Holy Spirit?

Is it other people speaking into your life and they recognize certain skills and gifts that are within you?

Or do you just day by day trust that whatever's happening to you on that day is the Lord's will and He's bringing people into your life to help navigate you with our time on the planet?

I mean, a lot of us have different views of whether or not we believe God is leading us.

And maybe you've been in a situation where you've kind of stepped out in faith and you believe that God is giving you clear direction, only to come to the conclusion that as you stepped out in faith, all of a sudden hardships and trials started coming into your life that weren't in your life before.

Has anyone ever had this happen to them throughout their spiritual journey?

And this is sometimes the difficult part of being a follower of Jesus, is because people think, well, I'm devoted to Jesus and I'm following Jesus and I'm going to church and I'm serving others.

Why isn't my life getting easier?

Why does it seem like my life is getting harder?

And what you're gonna see in the pages of Scripture is God actually doesn't take it easy on anyone.

Did you know that?

From Genesis to Revelation, Old Testament, New Testament.

Everybody struggles this side of eternity.

And I would submit to you that that's actually part of God's plan and helping us realize we are actually not in control.

No one ever says amen on that one.

We're not in control.

This American Western mindset that we have, so often we think that we are, and then when you actually just pause long enough, you realize that God is at work way more than any of us actually want to admit.

And you're gonna see that in the pages of Scripture today.

If you have your Bibles, turn to Exodus chapter 13, starting in verse 1.

Exodus 13 · chapter mention

This is what we saw in the video.

God's coming to Moses and he's saying, Consecrate to me every firstborn male.

And in that, every firstborn child from your home, whether it's a human being or whether it's from your livestock.

And so it begs the question: what is the significance of having to do this?

The children of Israel have been in bondage and slavery for 430 years.

They're finally free.

They've left everything that they've known.

They have left Egypt.

They're now headed into a desert, and the first thing that God does is give them requirements to set aside the very first thing.

And what it shows us is that God wants the best, and God wants the first.

Why does God do that?

Does God need our first and best?

Answer is no.

He has everything that he needs.

He's doing that for us.

And not only does he do this with their children and with their livestock, he does this all throughout Scripture.

God asked us to set aside a day each week called the Sabbath.

This is why we're gathered here on Sunday morning, to rest.

And he did that when he created the world.

He modeled resting for us.

He does this when it comes to our financial resources, that we would take a portion of that.

And a lot of people would make the case, and I would make the case that your first and best, your tithe, the 10%, that you would set that aside for the Lord.

And the reason he does that is because it helps us realize that we don't own the material possessions that we actually have in our hands.

That God actually owns it all.

And sometimes we give a portion of it to the Lord and we're like, oh shh, man, I got that taken care of.

Now I can just go over here and enjoy the 90% that I have left.

When in fact God owns it all.

So whether it's our finances, whether it's our uh rhythm of life and how we live, whether it's even our children setting aside, like what you did today, like what you saw today in this beautiful family that set aside their son and said, we are consecrating him to the Lord.

We are giving him back to the Lord in the waters of baptism.

And so for us in the Exodus passage, it shows us how valuable we are to God, that we belong to the Lord.

And that God uses means to redeem us back to himself.

Now, this is interesting because in verse 3, Moses is now saying to the people what God told them to say, that you're to actually commemorate this day, that you're to remember this day, that you're to celebrate the day that God freed us out of slavery.

And part of the requirement is you're not to eat anything containing yeast.

Now, those of you that were here when we went through Exodus 12, some of this is going to start sounding familiar.

God's going to start repeating what he said in the previous chapter.

And those of you that were here for that know that one of my favorite types of bread to eat is sourdough bread.

Because it doesn't have yeast in it.

I think it's one of the most beautiful gifts that God has given us.

I don't know how he deviated from scripture.

We should have just stuck to what God said from the very beginning when he talked about bread.

Do any of you, by the way, make sourdough bread?

Like you have that starter kick at your home?

Now I just want to pause for a moment because if any of you happen to have leftover loaves and you get the urge to bless your pastor, I would love, I will take that off your hands so that you don't have to throw it away.

Just throwing that out there for all of you.

So here they are.

They're on their way into the desert, and he's telling them uh what is about to happen, and he says, for seven days you're gonna eat this bread that doesn't have yeast in it, and then on the seventh day you're gonna hold a huge festival.

So these aren't suggestions, these are commands from God.

Same thing he's already told them.

Now, sometimes people will ask, why is it that when I read the Bible, I read scripture, it seems like God repeats himself.

Does anybody ever wonder why God repeats himself?

Sometimes do you think that maybe we need to have things repeated to us?

I have this argument and debate all the time with my wife.

Because she'll say, Well, I already told you that.

And then I make the mistake of saying, I don't remember you saying that.

But then I also give her permission to say, I'm okay if you repeat yourself to me.

Like, I'm okay if you repeat, like, like even God had to tell the children of Israel and tells the people all throughout scripture over and over again.

He knows we're human beings, he knows we're forgetful, he knows that we need to be reminded.

And so he ends this by saying that you're to keep this, uh, that you're to keep this festival, this ordinance, uh, not just this one time, but year after year after year moving forward.

And so there's this feast of the unleavened bread, is what it ended up being called by the Israelites.

They practice this for hundreds and hundreds of years.

And then the Passover, if you're familiar with the Passover, is a specific night and meal.

So he's going back and he's basically confirming these once again.

What's fascinating is when you do go to the New Testament, you do hear it being called the festival of the unleavened bread by the disciples.

They knew these festivals because they had grown up Jewish.

They had grown up in this system, they knew the sacrificial system, and so they're actually asking Jesus where during this week, when it gets to the end of the week, where they should actually make preparations to share the Passover meal.

John, one of Jesus' disciples, when he saw Jesus coming toward him, said these words Look, the Lamb of God.

This is the Lamb of God, and it's like no other lamb.

It is like no other entity on the planet because this person is God, and he has the ability to take away the sins of the world.

Everybody would have known what he was referring to.

Everybody at the time in that culture would have known that he was tying this back to what we're reading this morning.

In fact, Paul even did this in his writing to the church in Corinth when he said, For Christ Jesus, is our Passover lamb.

He does the same thing that happened in the Gospels.

And this Passover lamb has been sacrificed for you and for me.

Thanks be to God, we don't have to abide by the sacrificial system anymore.

But it's fun to read and it's interesting to kind of pull up the truths that are still applicable to our lives today.

So look at verse 11 with me.

Because it says, When the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites and gives it to you, so who's doing the work?

God's giving it to them as he promised on oath to you.

And oh, by the way, he has said this to all of your ancestors.

Everybody that we looked at when we went through Genesis, all of the people that came before you, God is a patient God, and God is able to work through the generations and the centuries.

His vantage point on all of human uh history is phenomenal, right?

He's God, he knows everything.

And what I find so fascinating about getting to verse 11 is this they have just left Egypt, they have just been freed from slavery, and God is promising them.

When I bring you to the promised land.

It's not an if.

It's not if you get everything correct, it's not if you live your life out exactly how I want you to live your life out.

When?

And he knew because he's God and he's sovereign, they were gonna screw up.

He knew they were gonna sin.

He knew they were gonna get it wrong.

He knew that they would actually bring in false idols and worship things that are that are objects.

And yet, right from the very beginning, in his mercy and grace, he makes this incredible declaration and promise to them that maybe, just maybe, they would keep in the back of their minds as they now start this wilderness journey.

Then it says this all the firstborn males of your livestock belong to the Lord.

Redeem with a lamb.

So imagine a nice cute little lamb that you saw in the video.

Every firstborn donkey.

Wait, what's going on with this?

But if you do not redeem the little donkey, break its neck.

So what's up with God not liking donkeys?

Did anybody think that when they read this?

Did anybody underline this and go question for Pastor Tim?

Like this is when people go, wait a second.

What's going on in the text?

And it's worth pausing to explain why this is in our Bibles and why he instituted this with them.

See, God determined what animals were clean and what animals were unclean.

And donkeys were part of unclean animals.

So we don't get to pick what's clean and unclean.

Because you might be here today and you might be like, well, this is why I don't believe the Bible, this is why I don't study the Bible.

I thought God created all the animals back in Genesis.

Why is there so many of them that are slaughtered and sacrificed throughout all of Scripture?

Well, because we don't get to make the rules.

Like we don't get to decide what God does and doesn't do and what he declares clean and unclean.

And sometimes this is what we get tripped up on when we read scripture.

And again, I'm going to say, especially from our American Western mindset, we want it to say what we want it to say.

And yet we believe that God's the one that wrote this, knew exactly what he was writing, inspired the people that penned the words that are in our Bibles, and He ultimately gets to decide how things go in this world and in our lives.

Amen.

And so what's fascinating as well about this is that there wasn't there was other unclean animals, but only the donkeys had to be redeemed.

And so if you had a donkey and you wanted to keep the firstborn of the donkey, you had to kill a lamb.

Because some people are like, man, I feel so bad for the donkeys, and there's all these donkeys that are getting their necks broken.

What we should really feel sorry for are the little lamps.

So we all can just go, oh.

But I trust God, and if God wants to use that as the system, then that's the system that God has created.

Now what's even more fascinating about this passage, and you gotta spend a little bit more time on it to mine it out, is that the donkey represents something very specific.

The donkey, believe it or not, actually represents you and me.

We are unclean.

Scripture tells us in Psalm 51, 5, we're sinful from birth, sinful from the time our mothers birthed us into this world.

And that the only way out is what you saw today in the waters of baptism.

That God is the one who comes with his mercy and grace, and because of Jesus Christ, because he's the spotless lamb, he is the one that redeems us and pays the price so that we are in right relationship with our heavenly Father.

And some of you are like, did you just call me a donkey?

Maybe this will help you.

What's another word for donkey?

Wait, don't say it.

There's kids in the room.

There's kids in the room, all right?

And don't try to convince me that you're not at times, uh, you know what.

And you should look at this because that's part of the law of oh man, I am a, I am sometimes an ornery, mean-spirited jerk.

But thanks be to God, I have Jesus who's redeemed me, who calls me as his own, and I am his child.

So this is what's important.

It's the unclean is redeemed by the clean.

The unclean is redeemed by the clean.

The unclean is redeemed by the clean.

Here's what you got to remember the donkey doesn't do anything to be clean.

The donkey can't have perfect attendant church attendance and serve and do all these spiritual exercises and activities.

There's absolutely nothing the donkey does other than exist.

And it's only through the bloodshed of the lamb that that donkey's life is actually spared.

It is the same for us.

We bring nothing to the equation.

There is absolutely nothing we can do to earn or deserve our salvation.

It's why we baptize infants.

There is nothing that we can do to produce faith in our hearts.

It is God who comes to us.

It is God who rescues us.

It is God who redeems us.

Amen.

So if you want to call your kids today a donkey after the service, you have every right to do it.

But just remember, you're a donkey back, okay?

Verse 14.

In the days to come, this is key, parents, parents hone in on this one.

When your sons or your family ask you, what the heck is this festival that we're not doing the unleavened bread?

And what does this whole Passover thing mean?

And you are to remember that your ancestors were brought out of Egypt, that God was the one that worked and act on your behalf.

And so, quite simply this morning, to kind of just recap these first several verses, it's this you are to remember what God has done.

You are to retell what God has done, which is what we're doing here this morning.

And then here's the really cool part.

What's the third part?

You get to?

Yes, this is awesome that God has rescued us, that we get to celebrate what he does for our lives and for our families.

Now, in verse 15, he goes back and reminds them hey, Pharaoh was the one who refused to let us go.

And so the Lord killed the firstborn of all of the people and the animals who were Egyptians or who were owned by Egyptians.

And again, people will be like, wait a second.

Are you telling me that God kills people?

Yeah.

Because that's what God says in his word.

And sometimes we don't like reading these verses, and this is what gets us uncomfortable.

And I said at the beginning, we're not a church that's going to skip over any parts of Scripture.

But for us, we recognize that God gives people chance after chance after chance after chance to come to the, to, to know him as Lord and Savior.

In fact, this caravan that's going through the desert is not just the Israelites, there's sojourners, there's other people that realize that he is the one true God, and they decided to leave Egypt with the Israelites.

Don't forget that.

But there was plenty of people that stayed back in Egypt and said, nope, I'm going to live my life the way I want.

And I'm not going to believe in God.

I'm not going to believe that there's a creator, and I'm just going to do whatever I want with the time that I'm given here on earth.

And those are the people that we pray for, those are the people that we pursue.

Those are the people that we want to help wake up and say, listen, God has a bigger purpose and plan for your life than to be selfish.

God has a bigger purpose and plan for your life for you just to think that it's all about you.

No.

God, through his son Jesus Christ, is the one who redeemed you.

In fact, the air that's in your lungs is only there because Jesus has given it to you and he loves you.

He's madly in love with you.

In fact, read all throughout scripture how much he loves you and all the people that he has created.

Goes on to say this.

And we're still recapping here.

When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country.

And then look at what it says.

Though that was shorter.

Anyone pause on this part of the pre-reading?

What's the shortest distance between two points?

Wouldn't it have been a lot easier and make a lot more sense if God would have said, okay, they're leaving Egypt.

Here's the promised land.

Moses, you just have to do a straight line from here to there.

How many think that is what makes sense?

All the engineers in the room say that makes sense.

And if he can part the Red Sea, why can't he part the desert?

Why do they have to go the shorter route?

Or not the shorter route?

And then it says this if they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.

Think about this.

They've been enslaved for 430 years.

They're not warriors, they're not trained for battle, they're trained to be slaves.

They know how to make bricks, they know how to build buildings for Pharaoh and all of his people.

I mean, you imagine they probably had very little weapons at this point.

And God, knowing the human heart and mind, that if there was opposition, if other people came along or if they started traveling and they ran into another group of people that aren't followers of God and they decided to go at war, look at what he knows about them.

They're going to turn around and run right back into slavery, right back into Egypt.

And so God has to prepare them.

That's what He's about to do as they enter the wilderness.

This is so important.

This could be another whole sermon today, but I just believe that this is for somebody.

Somebody needs to hear this today.

The shortest route isn't always the best route.

Let me say it again.

The shortest route isn't always the best route.

And as an American, we hate that.

If we want something, we want it and we want it now.

God, I told you that I wanted to be married when I was 22 years old.

And I started saving for a ring when I was 18 years old.

And I turned 23 years old and I got angry at God.

He was already a year off of the plan that I told him I had for my life.

Some of you know this.

And I didn't end up getting married until I was 31 years old.

Because it wasn't my plan.

He was going to do his will in my life according to his plan.

And so if you're single here today, don't be discouraged or dismayed.

If you're single again and you're frustrated and you're trying to figure out, God, where are you at?

And I feel like I'm walking around a wilderness, don't be discouraged or dismayed.

We do this when it comes to building businesses.

We do this when it comes to getting promotions at work.

We do this even when it comes to educational pursuits where we always want to control every little facet of our lives.

And then God comes along and he says, I'm never going to leave you or forsake you, but there's some speed bumps ahead that you don't know about.

There's some battles that you're not prepared to fight.

There's some circumstances that you think you have the knowledge or the emotional fortitude that you really don't have.

And so I'm going to need to spend some more time with you and developing you over here in this area of your life before I'm allowing you to get to this next phase that I have for you.

Not what you think is best for your life.

And here's the part of being a Christian and follower of Jesus that's really difficult, isn't it?

This is when it gets really real.

I've had one of the craziest weeks that I've had in a very long time.

Do you mind if I just tell you about it for a couple minutes?

On Tuesday, I picked my son up from high school, and the state of Michigan has determined that at the age of 15 he should be able to drive a car.

And because he knows that he's uh able to drive the car, he wants to drive the car from school home.

And so I get there and I go in the passenger seat, he gets in the driver's seat, and so we're on our way back to our house, and we're stopped at a red light.

And I'll be honest with you, I'm looking down, checking emails on my phone because we're at a stoplight.

Hopefully, there's no police officers in here.

Okay.

When all of a sudden he says, Dad, I think that car is going to, and then all of a sudden, bam! And we get rear-ended.

Now, mind you, this is the same exact car, same exact bumper that was destroyed two years ago when he and I were in the car together.

And at that time I was driving the car.

And I was like, you gotta be kidding me.

I have appointments, I have emails, I have things on my agenda that need to get done.

Like I'm already racing to get back home so I can get back on my computer and answer more emails.

And I look over at him and thankfully he's okay, I'm okay.

And he's like, Dad, I totally saw it coming.

Like I could see it, and I could see that the guy had a vape thing in his mouth, and there was smoke coming everywhere.

I just don't think he was paying attention.

And I was like, I mean, I don't know, I didn't see it.

So we got out, and luckily the guy was super cool.

He felt really bad.

He apologized a bunch of times.

Uh, you know, I was like, it is what it is.

I mean, you gotta wait for the cop to get here, fill out the police report.

But you know the hassle of having to take your car and out, you gotta deal with the insurance companies, and sometimes they're like a little prickly on the phone, and then you gotta take it to the auto body shop, get a rental, go through all the rigmarole, figure out even what insurance you have.

It's just annoying, isn't it?

It's annoying when you get in something like that.

Until Friday night comes, Friday night comes, and my son's out at a uh football game for his school, and so I had to go and get him when the game ended.

And my wife is blowing up my phone because our neighbor across the street decided that she was gonna have 150 to 200 high school students over her house, and they completely consumed her backyard and her front yard.

And she's like, Tim, you're not gonna believe this.

There are teenagers everywhere.

And there are like a billion cars all up and down, all of and we live in this quiet little family-friendly subdivision.

It's like only 252 homes.

And I was like, oh my gosh, what's going on?

And so trying to figure that out, and so I know my neighbor, I you know, we have a great relationship.

I called her and it rolled the voicemail, which is so rude, isn't it?

So I called her again, and again she rolled me the voicemail, and so I sent her a text.

I said, Hey, do you are you by chance home?

She said, Yeah, why?

Is everything okay?

And I said, Do you know there's a party going on at your house?

Oh yeah, my son decided to have some friends over after the football game.

And I'm like, Do you know how many kids?

So we finally get home, which took a while to get our my car down the the side street because there was so many uh cars.

It's just amazing.

You teenagers, teenagers, if you're in here, I'm amazed at the way that you guys network with your phone.

I don't know if you drop pins or send addresses.

Uh so I ended up getting out of the car and there was a group of neighbors, and they were just kind of taking it all in.

And they were just watching teenagers just in droves, leave and come, leave and come and go to the party.

And I said, Well, are any of you gonna go over to the party?

And they're like, No, why would we do that?

I'm like, Well, don't you want to go check out what's happening?

I mean, it's in our own neighborhood.

And they said, No, that's crazy.

That's crazy talk.

Instead, they started talking about all the parties that they went to when they were in high school.

So it's just getting interesting.

I said, Well, I'm gonna go check it out.

You are not.

I was like, Yeah, why not?

So I just went over to their house and went into the backyard and I just started walking around the teenagers.

And you know what's really weird is they were all looking at me like I was weird.

They were like.

And so I and my kids were like, What are you doing, Dad?

I don't know.

It's in our neighborhood.

I mean, just it looks like it's an open party.

There's no sign that says you gotta be, you know, a high school student to go.

I thought I would blend in.

I mean, I don't know what the what the deal is.

And maybe it's because of being a youth minister.

I'm so used to being with teenagers that it didn't bother me.

Uh, I ended up going up her back deck and I and I went into her house and I turned and around the corner and she was sitting on the couch and she was just scrolling her cell phone.

And I was like, hi, and she said hi.

And I was like, Do you know how many kids are in your yard?

And she's like, Yeah, there's a few back there.

Here's what the thought that I had, though.

Here's the thought that I had.

I was like, how do you capture the heart of this next generation?

How do you how do you take and make something so compelling that all of these kids would want to be part of the greatest movement on the planet?

I guarantee you, her son probably sent out a text message to who knows, 20, 30 people, and from that created this chain where now all of these high school students, half of Macomb Township, is now across the street from my house.

God, what is it that you would put us in situations that we could be around people that need to hear the hope that they can have in you?

And I'm hoping this actually creates a relationship with my neighbor and her kids.

And that maybe one day they would come through the doors of our church.

Even the young man that rear-ended us, as I got to know him and find out where he works, he actually works right down the road from the church, and just tell him it's okay, man, accidents happen and you're gonna be okay.

And he's like, I got insurance, and I'm gonna be able to pay for it, and all this.

And I said, Here's some good news.

We live in a weird state where they say there's no fault.

So just he's like, really?

And I was like trying to explain to him, no fault insurance, and you could just see he was like, Real, like, I'm giving this guy relief, and you know, it's just like sometimes God just puts us in situations and you gotta roll with it, and you gotta think, is there something maybe that's happening that's greater than the moment at hand, and that I'm not this victim that sometimes we like to paint ourselves to be?

Verse 18 so God led the people around the desert toward the Red Sea, and the Israelites went up out of Egypt, ready for battle.

And so the question I want to leave you with today is this Is God leading you?

Is the Holy Spirit in your life?

And are you yielding to the promptings that He gives you for your life and for your future, knowing He knows what's best for you?

There's another part of this that kind of takes an interesting turn where Moses actually has the bones of Joseph, and Joseph, we find out, passes away in Genesis 50.

So they've actually been carrying Joseph's bones for 430 years now.

Here's the part that's key on this verse is Joseph actually had the faith to believe that one day the children of Israel would get to the promised land.

In fact, he actually says that, and he's listed in the Hall of Fame in Hebrews chapter 11.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

And so after they finally leave uh where they're at, they camped at Etham on the edge of the desert.

So God knows where to put them, he knows where to protect them.

In fact, the final verses for today are this By day the Lord went up ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way, and by night a pillar of fire to give them light.

Supernatural work of God to put a pillar of cloud, which nobody even knows how to come up with an image for that.

What is a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire by night, so that they could travel day or night if they got in trouble, if enemies were coming, if there was any reason that God needed to move them, he would move them by his divine plan.

And wouldn't you know that they were always there with God?

And what does this show us?

God never leaves or forsakes us.

You're gonna see this over and over again in the coming weeks.

The pillar of cloud by day, the pillar of fire by night, it continues to be used by God to minister to them.

And not only is it a visible sign that God is with them, Psalms actually tells us that the cloud is to give them covering.

That God actually knows he put them in a desert, and what happens when you're in direct sunlight all day?

Those with crappy white skin like me, what happens if we're in the desert all day?

We burn or we get dehydrated or we die.

And yet, here God is also providing for them in their humanity by covering them and making sure that they have the world's biggest night light every night when they lay their head on their pillow, knowing and trusting, my God is with me.

And so take that with you today, knowing and trusting that God is with you.

He is with your marriage, he is with your kids, he is with your circumstance and whatever life has thrown at you in 2026.

He has not abandoned you, even if you've screwed it up, even if you've run away, even if you have cursed God, God will never stop pursuing you, loving you, and putting you on the path that He has for you.

Amen.

Will you bow your heads and close your eyes with me this morning?

Heavenly Father, I thank you for my friends that are gathered here, those watching online, and the opportunity once again to just see how rich your word is.

And the way that it does convict our hearts, but even more than that, reminds us once again how much you are in control of this earth, how much you are in control of our lives, and that ultimately your will and your destiny will be fulfilled in your time according to your plans.

So, God help us to continue to lean into you, to trust you, to put fear and doubt aside, and to leave here encouraged because you love us and you are never gonna stop working out your perfect plan.

We love you, we thank you, we pray all these things in your most holy and precious name.

Amen.