The River 2026-27 | Lesson 1 | God is Steadfast

Heat. Heat.

Good morning.

Welcome back.

Would you stand with me as we enter into

this time of worship this morning?

And let's sing this familiar hymn

together as we get situated this

morning.

On Christ the solid

rock I stand. All other ground is

sinking sand.

All other ground is sinking sand.

My hope is built on nothing less than

Jesus blood and righteousness.

I dare not trust the sweetest gra but

holy lean on Jesus name.

On Christ the solid

rock I stand. All of the ground is

sinking sand. All other ground is

sinking sand.

When darkness fills his lovely face, I

rest on his unchanging grace. In every

high and stormy gift, my anchor holds

within the veil.

On Christ the solid

rock I stand. All other ground is

sinking sand. All other ground is

sinking sand.

And when he shall come with trumpet

sound. Oh, may I then in him be found,

dressed in his righteousness

alone, foughtless to stand before the

throne.

On Christ the solid

rock I stand. All other ground is

sinking sand.

All other ground is sinking sand.

Good morning.

So, I've been in Canon Beach the last

two weekends for worship things and

board meeting things. And I don't think

I can ever go to Canon Beach or anywhere

near the coast that I don't think about

Haystack Rock. How long it's been

standing there, how gigantic it is, and

how it with storm it every storm can

come. It just withstands all of the

things that's just still standing there

all through the centuries. And I I can't

just help but think that's such a

picture of the rock that we have in

Jesus Christ. And you know, we're

looking at his steadfastness

this week. And isn't that a great

picture, the solid rock that we stand

on. And so, we're going to sing about

that and remind our hearts that when the

storms come, the winds blow. When we're

standing on the rock of Christ and the

truth of his word, nothing can blow us

over because nothing can move him

because he's steadfast.

Christ is my firm found.

The rock on which I stand. When

everything around me shaking,

I've never been more glad that I put my

faith in Jesus.

Cuz he's never let me down. He's

faithful through generations.

So why would he fit now? He won't.

He won't.

And I've still got joy in chaos.

I've got peace that makes no sense. So I

won't be going under.

I'm not held by my own strength. Cuz I

built my life on Jesus

and he's never let me down. He's

faithful in every season.

So why would he fit now? He won't.

He won't.

He won't fail.

Christ is my firm foundation.

He's the rock on which I stand. When

everything around me is shaking,

I've never been more glad that I put my

faith in Jesus

cuz he's never let me down. He's

faithful through generations.

So why would he fail now? He won't.

He won't.

He won't fail.

No.

Let's sing. Rain came.

Rain came and wind blew. But my house

was built on you.

And I'm safe with you. I'm going to make

it through.

Rain came

to my house was built to

save with you. I'm going to make it

through. Let's sing it one more time.

Rain came and wind blew, but my house

was built on you.

And I save with you. I'm going to make

it through.

Oh, I'm going to make it through.

Cuz I am getting strong on you.

Oh, I'm going to make it through.

Cuz my house is built on you. Christ is

my firm foundation.

The rock on which I stand. When

everything around me is shaken,

I've never been more glad that I put my

faith in Jesus.

He's never let me down. He's faithful

through generations.

So why would he fail now? He won't.

He won't.

He won't fail.

He won't.

He won't fail.

No, he won't.

Isn't it good to remind our hearts of

that?

I think we should remind ourselves every

day because our circumstances and

challenges and troubles are different

every day, aren't they?

He's our firm foundation. He'll never

fail. As we sing this next song, I just

want you to remind yourself, remind your

soul of all of the times God has been so

faithful in circumstances.

Um remind yourself when you came to know

him and all the faithful things that

he's done in your life as we sing the

song.

All my life you have been faithful.

All my life you have been so so good.

With every breath that I am able,

I will sing of the goodness

of God.

And I love you, Lord.

Oh, your mercy never fails me.

All my days

I've been held in your hands.

From the moment that I wake up

until I lay my head,

I will sing of the goodness of God.

All my life you have been faithful.

All my life you have been so so good.

With every breath that I am able,

I will sing of the goodness of God.

And I love your voice.

Cuz you have led me through the fire.

And in darkest night,

you are close like no other.

I've known you as a father.

I've known you as a friend.

And I have lived in the goodness of God.

All my life. You have been faithful.

All my life. You have been so so good

with every breath that I am able.

Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God.

Your goodness is running after. It's

running after me.

Your goodness is running after. is

running after me. With my life laid

down, I'm surrendered now. I give you

everything.

Your goodness is running after. It's

running after me. Yes, it is. Your

goodness is running after. It's running

after me.

Your goodness is running after. is

running after me with my life laid down

and surrendered. Now I give you

everything.

Your goodness is running after. It's

running after me.

All my life you have been faithful.

All my life you have been so so good.

With every breath that I am able,

I will sing of the goodness of God.

Yes, I will sing

of the goodness

of God.

Would you pray with me?

It's so good for us to remind our

hearts, Father, of your goodness, of

your faithfulness,

of the rock that we stand on in Jesus,

his unchanging character and grace that

he just lavishes on us,

all day, every day.

So grateful, Lord. And let it change our

lives that truth as we remind oursel of

how faithful you've been, how faithful

you are even in these moments today. And

so we lead into your word again this

morning and thank you for how it changes

us. And we wait expectantly for you to

speak your truth into our lives in a way

that just encourages us today as we

study. We love you in Jesus name. Amen.

Thank you.

>> Good morning.

>> Okay. Welcome first of all to those of

you who are joining us for the first

time today. This is your first day.

We're so glad that you're here. And um

greetings to those of you who got to

dive into a very robust lesson this

week. Yeah. So just just in case you

know you don't know um we don't feed

Cheerios here, we feed steak.

Your lesson is like a steak meal, right?

It's like full of good nutrition. It

takes some chewing. You have to eat it

bite by bite. Um, so just a reminder

when you open your your lesson each

week, it's not something you can gobble

down quickly. It's something that takes

time. So give yourself some time. Enjoy

it. I don't want you to be stressed this

year as you go through your lessons.

Just feast on it little by little, bite

by bite. Um, I want to tell you um

something that I thought about this

week. couple of months ago, actually it

was in June, uh we were getting ready

for a family, like a family car trip,

and we needed to get a piece of my son's

medical equipment ready before we left.

So, I made an appointment with this

repair shop that I had to drive like 30

minutes to get to. I brought the

equipment in and I I arranged it so that

I could wait while the equipment was

being serviced. And so the receptionist

uh ushered me into a waiting room. So

when you're getting sensitive medical

equipment and you're a disabled person,

you're getting it serviced, you actually

go into like a private room and just in

case the patient has to transfer out,

but it was just me and this piece of

equipment. And um I was told that this

technician would be with me soon. So, I

waited patiently and quietly and every

time I heard like footsteps out the

hall, I would literally run to the door

to see if the technician was coming and

he never came. And so, finally, I

started to feel really agitated because

this was the day before we were leaving.

You know that feeling where you're like

list is this long and you've got all

these things to do and you got to pack

and get everything ready and this is

like the one thing you need to get done

within a certain amount of time. And so

I was just getting more and more

irritated and I'd made an appointment

for the specific time, the specific

place to get this necessary piece of

equipment fixed. And I just waited and

waited and I waited for a full hour. And

then finally, I went to the receptionist

and she seemed completely unfased by my

inquiry about where when somebody was

going to come help me. And so finally

she calls to the technician who's in the

back of the shop and he comes out and he

goes, "Oh, I thought you just dropped

the equipment and left. I didn't know

you were still here waiting." And I was

like, you know that feeling like are you

kidding me? Like waiting for service

already requires so much patience, but

it's even harder to wait when you've

been forgotten.

And sometimes I think if we're honest,

waiting for God can begin to feel that

way, too.

Have you ever waited so long for God to

act that you began to wonder whether

you'd been forgotten?

Maybe you've been praying for something

and you've begun that prayer with a lot

of hope and a lot of expectation because

you know as you think about your prayer,

of course, God would want to answer a

good prayer like somebody's physical

healing or relational harmony or for

someone that you love to come to faith

in in Christ. But then as time passes

and there's no visible movement from

above, you begin to sense that waiting

becomes harder.

And it's interesting because when we

think about us as humans, we live our

lives in such a construct of time,

right? Our lives take place in hours,

days, weeks, months, years. So

naturally, we assume that we can measure

God's faithfulness by what we see him

accomplishing within our lifetimes.

And of course, we want to witness the

answers to our prayers within a

measurable amount of time. And we want

assurance, of course, that he is working

to put all the puzzle pieces of our

lives together within our lifetime.

But you know, God is not limited to the

span of a human life. He works across

years and centuries and generations. And

some of his work is visible and

dramatic, but a lot of his work is also

quiet and hidden from view. And that's

really where the book of Exodus begins.

Because as we talked about last week,

God made extraordinary promises to

Abraham and his family. But by the time

we actually reach Exodus 1, Abraham was

gone. Isaac was gone. Jacob was gone.

Joseph and his brothers were gone. And

that whole generation was gone as well.

Hundreds of years had passed. The people

who had first received this promise for

God from God were no longer alive to

actually see what he was going to do.

But God had not forgotten a single word

that he had spoken. And when we look at

the first seven verses of Exodus 1, we

see that God is actually inviting us to

look beyond the surface of these verses

and discover that he is a God who

remains steadfast across every passing

generation.

This week in your lessons, you had the

opportunity to examine this attribute of

God, the steadfastness of God, because

this passage reveals in particular that

even when time passes and circumstances

change,

even when God's work is difficult to

see, he remains unwavering in his

character, in his covenant promises, and

in his redemptive purposes.

So this morning we're going to look at

this lesson in three parts. Um first

we're going to see how God holds his

people within his covenant.

And then we're going to see how God

remains steadfast when generations pass

away. And then lastly, we're going to

see how God brings his promise quietly

to life.

And we're going to learn that

generations pass, but our steadfast God

carries his covenant purposes forward.

So, let's look oops, sorry, Jacob. Um,

let's look at Exodus 1, verse one. These

are the names of the sons of Israel who

came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his

household. Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and

Judah, Issachar, Zebulon, and Benjamin,

Dan and Naphali, Gad and Asher, all the

descendants of Jacob were 70 persons.

Joseph was already in Egypt. Now, we,

you know, in the Bible sometimes we see

a list of names and we're like, "Ah, so

boring. Why does Exodus begin with this

list of names?"

In fact, the Hebrew name for the book of

Exodus is names. It it's it it comes

from the opening words. These are the

names. And these names are really

important because they they directly

link Exodus back to the book of Genesis.

Every name on this list assures us that

God did not begin a new plan with a

different group of people. He is

continuing to work out the covenant

promise that he made to Abraham through

the sons of Jacob. The same family that

God called in Genesis, he he has also

guided and protected as he's brought

them to Exodus.

And these names carry a history with

them. Reuben being the oldest son of

Jacob and the promised savior is going

to come through the line of the son

Judah. Levi's descendants would become

the priests of Israel. Joseph, as we

studied in our lessons this week, he is

the son who was betrayed by his

brothers, carried as a slave into Egypt,

but then God later raised him to a

position of power where he was able uh

to preserve many lives through the

famine, including the lives of his own

brothers.

But behind each of these names is also a

pretty complicated life story because as

humans, we're pretty complicated. And

same is true for this family. God wasn't

working through a flawless family to

bring his purposes um to fruition. He

was working through a very flawed

family. As you've studied Genesis maybe

in the past, you know, this family was

marked by favoritism and jealousy and

deception and betrayal and years and

years of painful separation.

But their failures did not cause God to

abandon his promises.

And by the end of Genesis, God had

finally brought this fractured family

together in Egypt. And now, as Exodus

begins, Moses is telling us their names

again.

Moses is let wants us to know this is

not some anonymous group of of people.

This is this is these are brothers and

fathers and sons and husbands. They are

a family that belong to God. He knew

them intimately. He knew their history.

He knew their failures. But despite

everything that he knew, he remained

committed to this family that he called

his own.

And then verse 5 tells us all the

descendants of Jacob were 70 persons.

Joseph was already in Egypt. So he's

telling us, okay, they're not a great

nation yet. They're only 70 persons, but

they were an extended family that is all

together now in one place.

And if we rewind rewind back to Genesis,

we also learn that God had told Jacob

what he would do with his family.

When Jacob learned for the first time,

thinking that Joseph was dead, when he

learned he was actually alive and he was

in Egypt, he began to to journey from

Canaan to Egypt. But he was also really

afraid at that time because he knew that

Egypt was not the land that God had

promised to him. He knew that God had

promised the land of Canaan. So he was

feeling, I think, distress leaving that

land of promise and moving into a land

that he knew was not that land. But God

spoke to Jacob in such a particular way

in Genesis 46. He said, he said, "I am

God, the God of your father. Do not be

afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I

will make you into a great nation. I

myself will go down with you to Egypt

and I will also bring you up again and

Joseph's hand shall close your eyes.

I mean, God was assuring Jacob that he

was going to Egypt with him and that

this departure was actually part of his

plan. God was leading this family there

and he would go with them. And it was

actually in Egypt where God would

multiply Jacob's family into a nation of

people just as he had promised in his

covenant with Abraham.

God is steadfast. He is steadfast in

keeping his covenant promises to his

people. And that word covenant is not a

word we use very often. In fact, I think

we only really use the word covenant

when we speak about a man and a woman

entering into a covenant relationship

with God through marriage.

But that word covenant is more than just

a casual promise or like a hopeful

intention.

That word means a binding relationship

established by God. When God entered

into this covenant relationship with

Abraham, he committed himself to Abraham

and to his descendants.

He promised to give them a land. He

promised to make them into a great

nation. and he promised to bless all the

families of the earth through them. And

God's covenant with Abraham rested on

his commitment. It wasn't a conditional

covenant. It was an unconditional

covenant. It was not based on their

flawless performance or their perfect

obedience. They were simply called to

trust God and obey his word. But their

disobedience, though it would bring real

consequences, their failures could not

make God unfaithful to his word or make

him cancel his promises.

He promised he had great redemptive

purposes that he was orchestrating

through this family and he was committed

to accomplish them. And because God is

steadfast, he remained committed to them

even when they were living in a foreign

land. And even when they were confused

and they didn't know how all the pieces

of their lives were going to fit

together. And I want to ask you, have

you ever found yourself living in a

place you never expected to be?

I mean, it could be a geographical

place. Maybe you ended up in a place and

you're like, I didn't think I was going

to live here. But it could be like a

place in your marriage. It could be like

a relationship. It could be like a

singleness, prolonged singleness. Many

people who are are single feel like, I

never expected to be here, whether I've

been widowed or whether I've never been

married, whether I've been divorced.

It could be that you've found yourself

with a health diagnosis that you never

expected. Or you're grieving the loss of

someone that you never thought you would

lose. Or maybe you're you're in a a

situation with a family member that you

can't fix. Or you're in a job situation

that you just can't extricate yourself

from. Have you ever looked at your life

and thought, "This is not where I

thought I would be."

I had a situation like this after I

graduated from college and was sent to

Sacramento, California with my first

job. Now, growing up in the San

Francisco Bay area, Sacramento

was considered a very undesirable place

to live

uh for a lot of different reasons, which

I won't I won't demean Sacramento for

those of you who have history there, but

um but anyway, within my first year of

living there, um I was robbed. I I was a

single young women woman working my

first job. I came home to my apartment.

Somebody had axed the front door down

and they were still inside when I

arrived.

Scary. And then within a few months, I

was hit head-on by drunk driver. I was

seriously injured. It took me almost

three years to heal from my injuries. So

like this was a very very difficult time

for me in my life. It was a season of

real suffering. But God also met me

there in really profound ways because it

was in Sacramento where I first attended

my attended my first Bible study

fellowship class. And it was in

Sacramento where I went to my first

Bible teaching church. And then I

developed really close Christian friends

there who eventually introduced me to

Bob who I would become my husband. And

God just really held me close through

this very tumultuous season. And

eventually he opened a door really

within six years, which felt like

eternity when you're in your 20s, but

really it wasn't very much time. He

opened a door for us to move to Portland

or to to Los Wego. And so I just never

would have chosen Sacramento, but God

used that unfamiliar and undesirable

place to change the direction of my

life.

The truth is that God's steadfast

commitment holds his people even in

unfamiliar places.

When we find ourselves in an unfamiliar

place, we can just begin to wonder if

somehow we have have gotten out beyond

God's reach. You know, if somehow we are

not any longer under God's steadfast

care. We wonder, is God still caring for

me? Can he work possibly through this

situation?

But unfamiliar circumstances do not

place us beyond the steadfast care of

God. God's steadfast care, however,

doesn't mean we will be spared from

suffering

or that every situation will turn out

just the way we'd hoped. Egypt, as you

will find next week, becomes a terrible

place of oppression for God's people.

But even there, Pharaoh could not remove

God's people out from under God's

covenant promises. and he couldn't he

could not keep them away from God.

Now, we have to bear in mind that we are

not Israel and their covenant place in

God's redemptive history is unique to

them. But through Jesus Christ, we have

been brought into a new covenant. We

have a new covenant relationship with

God. And our security is not on how

tightly we hold on to God and his

promises. Our security is in how

strongly held we are. We are in the palm

of his hands. Knowing that he will never

let go of us. Even if we find ourselves

in an unfamiliar place or even if we

don't understand how all the puzzle

pieces of our lives are working

together.

Let's go on to the next verse, verse

six. Here we see how God remains when

generations pass.

Actually, verse six takes a pretty

sobering turn. It says, "Then Joseph

died and all his brothers and all that

generation."

The thing about Joseph was he just he

just wasn't a regular part of the

family. Joseph was so special. He was

the person that God used to preserve

everyone during the famine. Everyone

everyone in Egypt, neighboring

countries, the his own family. He was

the reason that they were actually

welcomed to Egypt. And because the

Egyptians found shepherds, which is what

Jacob's family was, a family of

shepherds. Because the Egyptians found

shepherds to be detestable, they kind of

forced them out of the city, but gave

them the choicest land. Goen was like

the richest, most fertile land for them

to live. So as long as Joseph was alive,

there was this living connection to the

events that had originally brought this

family to Egypt. But now that Joseph was

gone and all the brothers were gone and

all the people who remembered actually

arriving in Egypt were gone,

still the death of that generation did

not mean the death of God's promise. The

generation died, but the promise lived.

God's covenant purposes never depended

on Joseph remaining alive. Joseph had an

important part to play, but he was not

the one who was holding the plan

together. God was holding the plan

together.

And even as Moses wrote later a psalm,

he wrote Psalm 90, even Moses later

really understood the steadfastness of

God. When he wrote these words in Psalm

Psalms 90:1

90 verse 1 and two, he said,"Lord, you

have been our dwelling place in all

generations,

before the mountains were brought forth

or ever you had formed the earth and the

world from everlasting to everlasting,

you are God."

He is expressing his knowledge that God

is eternal. God has no beginning. He has

no end. He is not carried along by time

the way that we are. God stands

faithfully present across all spans of

time. He was the God, same God to

Abraham. We sing this song, right? Same

God. He was he was God to Abraham. He

was God to Isaac. He was God to Jacob.

He was God to Joseph. And he remains God

over every generation.

But interesting, those men that I just

mentioned, they only experienced a

portion of what God had promised.

Abraham saw the birth of Isaac, but he

actually never saw his descendants

become a great nation. Isaac saw the

family continue to grow, but he he never

saw them possess the land that God had

promised. Jacob entered Egypt with 70

family members, but he never saw them

return to the land of promise. And even

when Joseph died, he died with

instructions that one day his bones

would be carried back to the promised

land. But he never got to be there

himself. They all died before they saw

the complete fulfillment of God's

covenant promises.

And Hebrews 11:13 describes people of

Hebrews 11:13

faith in this way. It says, "These all

died in faith, not having received the

things promised, but having seen them

and greeted them from afar.

So their faith, like ours,

did not rest upon their ability to see

God's full complete plan in their

lifetimes.

Their faith rested upon the character of

God who had spoken his word. And it's

the same for us. We we have faith in who

God is, in his character, which we're

going to get to know him so profoundly

through this study. and we have faith in

his word. We believe that what he says

is true and he doesn't change.

But sometimes honestly that's that's

hard for us because we do want to see

the outcome to our prayers in our

lifetime. We want to know that the

people we love are going to be okay. We

want to to see those that we're praying

for come to faith and receive Christ in

our lifetime. We we want the seeds that

we've planted to grow and bear fruit

that we can see and touch and

experience.

And when we don't actually see those

things happening, we can begin to wonder

whether our prayers or our obedience to

God or our years of faithfulness have

made any difference. But our lives are

only one part of a much larger work that

God is doing. We have to see things from

a different perspective.

I was thinking that like some of you I

know were the very first people in your

family to come to faith in Jesus. How

many of you were the very first in your

family to come to faith in Jesus? Wow.

My husband also was the first in his

family and he could not have known how

God would would use his faith in the

family that we would then build

together.

And God may be beginning something

through your life as a first generation

believer that will influence generations

after you.

How many of you came to faith? You're

here because of someone in a previous

generation who prayed for you or taught

you or took you to church? Lots of you.

You are living today in the shade of a

tree someone else planted.

I always knew that my father's

grandfather was a minister.

I always knew that.

But then when I was moving my mom out of

her house, I found this picture of his

graduating class from seminary.

1900 he graduated. He's right here,

William H. Wilson. And he looks just

like my dad.

And this really moved me. Um, for one,

these are all young white men.

And for two, there are no women here.

He went to a seminary called the

McCormick Theological Seminary, class of

1900.

This is really special to me. I never

knew him.

But I can't help but wonder whether some

of the spiritual fruit in my life is

connected to seeds that he planted

generations ago. That perhaps in some

way I'm standing in the shade of

history.

And some of you have been faithfully

planting trees for years. You have

prayed for your children, for their

future spouses, for your grandchildren.

You have served the Lord with people

that never will know the cost of your

investment. You have tried to faithfully

live before God in a way that that

shares and models what a life of Christ

can be like. And there is just something

deeply beautiful about a person whose

life faithfully plants what other

generations will harvest. And because

our confidence is not ultimately in the

strength of what we plant, we know that

we know that our confidence is in the

steadfastness of our God who continues

to work from one generation to the next.

So this does not mean that every prayer

we pray will be answered in the exact

way we pray it and within the time frame

that we hope.

It doesn't mean that our faith

guarantees that our children or

grandchildren will choose to follow

Jesus because God has not promised us

control over other people's choices.

But God remains steadfast and his word

endures and his redemptive purposes will

prevail even when we can't see the

outcome. And we need to know that our

obedience is never wasted. Our

responsibility is to be faithful with

the part of his work that he gives us.

And you know, there are things that he

was doing before we were ever born that

we just kind of are invited to continue.

And then there are things that we will

begin a new that will continue long

after we're gone. The truth is that our

lives are brief, but God's covenant

purposes endure through every

generation.

And I was thinking some of you might be

carrying kind of a heavy burden. Um you

might be be really been praying that

there's something that you hope will be

resolved in your lifetime.

And as we go into Exodus, we're going to

see the Bible doesn't promise that

waiting is easy. But what it does is it

invites us to place those things that

are still unfinished into the hands of

the God who remains steadfast and

faithful through every generation.

We can trust him

and the prayers of one generation are

not lost to God when that generation

passes away.

I mean, how many of you specifically

have come to faith

after a parent or grandparent faithfully

prayed for you, who faithfully prayed

for you, stepped into heaven?

Like, have any of you come to faith

after somebody like a mother or

grandmother, father or grandfather

prayed for you, but they were already in

heaven? They never got to see it.

God does not lose the thread of what he

has begun. He does not need us to live

forever in order for him to carry his

purposes forward. And so if you are

growing tired of praying for someone or

praying for something because you can't

see any evidence of things that are

changing, I want to encourage you to

keep bringing that person or that

situation to God. He's not promised that

he's going to answer it exactly the way

that you hope. But he does invite us to

persevere in prayer and to entrust him

with the outcome. And our inability to

see what he is doing does not mean that

he's forgotten us.

Let's now look at the last verse. God

brings his promise quietly to life.

As we look at verse 7, um we see it

starts with the word but. And if you're

been studying the Bible for very long,

you know that is actually a really great

word. But the people of Israel were

fruitful and increased greatly. They

multiplied and grew exceedingly strong

so that the land was filled with them.

So verse six was filled with death.

Everyone had died. But verse seven is

filled with life overflowing. The

generation had passed. But God's God's

promise continue to grow. And I think

Moses chose his words very very

carefully here because he is he is

describing them in a very particular

way. Pay attention. They were fruitful.

They increased greatly. They multiplied.

They grew exceedingly strong. They

filled the land. God is deliberately

using language that takes us back to

creation account. Does that sound

familiar? Sounds like Genesis 1. Genesis

Genesis 1:28

1:28. God blessed the first human beings

and he said, "Be fruitful and multiply."

And then after the flood, God repeated

the same blessing to Noah and his family

when he told them the same thing. Be

fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth.

And now Moses is using those same words

to describe the family of Jacob and

Egypt. And there is even one surprising

word hidden in our English translation.

That phrase increase greatly comes from

a Hebrew word that literally means to

swarm. Have you heard that before in the

Genesis account? Genesis 1:20, Genesis

Genesis 1:20 Genesis 8:17

8:17. This word is used to describe how

when God created the world, living

creatures were swarming in the waters

and across the land. And so Moses is

using these words here to describe the

people of Israel. They're not merely

surviving in Egypt. They're flourishing.

They're filling the land. They're

swarming in the land. God had preserved

Jacob's family through a famine that had

threatened them with death. He brought

them safely into Egypt. They got the

choicest of land to plant down in in

Goan. And now he's pouring out his

lifegiving blessing and multiplying

them. And this family of 70 is now

becoming a nation. And what's especially

interesting is that in these first seven

verses, God's name isn't even mentioned.

You don't hear his name at all. There's

no voice from heaven. There's no visible

miracles. Moses isn't even on the scene

yet. There's no big displays of God's

power. And yet, we see that God's

fingerprints are everywhere in what's

happening.

He was working through ordinary means.

He was working through their marriages,

their pregnancies, their births. All of

the ordinary rhythms of life that

probably felt very mundane to them. God

was working. And the promises that he

had made years earlier were taking shape

year after year. And before any dramatic

deliverance would occur, God was already

faithfully at work. And sometimes the

evidence of his work is actually not

that our circumstances change. It's that

we are actually the evidence is that

we're still standing in the midst of our

circumstances.

The evidence that he's at work is that

we are able to still pray, still open

the word, still come together and study.

we're able to still love and care and

show grace and kindness to each other

when we're in a really hard place. And

we're still turning to God when we know

there's times where it just be so much

easier to pull away.

So, we might overlook these opening

verses because they don't feel very

dramatic. They kind of feel ordinary,

but they are evidence that God was

sustaining life and he was producing

fruit in places that once felt barren.

in your lessons this week. In fact, you

you got to consider what it means to

flourish. I love that word flourish.

Biblical flourishing does not mean that

every part of your life feels

comfortable or that um you're not spared

from some suffering

because we know in the very next verse

next week, Exodus 18, we're going to

study and that the people experienced

terrible oppression.

The population growth, the flourishing

that the Israelites were experiencing

did not mean that life would stay easy.

What it meant was that hardship could

not cancel the blessing of God or

prevent his purposes from moving

forward.

This week in your lesson, you also

looked at Psalm 92 and you got to read

this beautiful psalm. That psalm

describes the righteous as people who

are planted in the house of the Lord.

And it says, "They continue to bear

fruit in old age." I can't tell you how

many of us older women in leaders

meeting love that verse. Oh, yay, Lord.

You're still going to give us sap and

green in old age. That sounds so lovely.

But it's because the Lord is upright and

he is my rock. And that's what we sang

about this morning. He is our rock.

That's why we continue to bear fruit in

old age. To flourish is to remain rooted

in God and continue bearing the fruit of

his life. Where whatever season we're

in, whatever season,

young moms, singles, middleage,

retirement, elderly, whatever season

we're in, we can flourish because we're

rooted. We're grounded. We're standing

on the rock of God. And we can continue

to bear fruit because of our

relationship with him.

And for some of us, flourishing may look

different than what we must when we what

we once thought it would. It might not

look like success or ease or comfort or

abundance.

It might not look like some painful

situation has been removed out of our

lives. What it may look like is a faith

that has grown deeper and a heart that

has remained soft and a life that

continues to point toward God after

walking through tremendous suffering.

Because the truth is that even when

God's work is hidden, God is still

bringing life and carrying his purposes

forward.

God was multiplying Abraham's family

into a nation because he promised that

through them all the families of the

earth would be blessed. We have been

blessed generation after generation. God

was preserving the family line of Judah

through which Jesus Christ would be

born. And God's promise did more than

just survive one generation to the next.

When the time was right, when when the

time was full, Jesus came into the world

and he lived and then he died and he

rose from the dead and he showed us that

death never has the final word over

God's life-giving purposes.

So, Exodus begins by teaching us that

beneath the surface, a generation has

died, a family was multiplying, a nation

was forming. And although no one yet

could see the things that we're going to

see, like the burning bush and the

plagues and the sea partying, still

throughout all the generations,

the steadfast God was already carrying

his covenant purposes forward.

So I want to ask you kind of a question

to consider.

Where are you still waiting for God to

act?

And can you entrust that waiting to him

again today?

Don't grow weary.

Don't lose hope. Don't lose heart.

Persevere. continue to give him the

unfinished things and trust him that you

might not see it in your lifetime, but

that doesn't mean that he's not still at

work and will be at work for generations

to come. Let's pray.

Oh, Father, we just praise you that you

are steadfast

because to me that speaks of your

faithfulness, your trustworthiness.

It reminds me that your word is true.

That you will bring the things in your

word to fruition as you have for

centuries. You will continue to do that

for centuries more. You will you will

honor the words that you have spoken.

And it is such a privilege to receive

your word to to chew on it to ingest it

to take it into our hearts and to think

about it. And also Lord there's a

calling with that which is to respond.

We want to respond as women who trust

you when we can't see how things are

working out. We want to respond as women

who continue to believe what you say

even though our world seems to shout at

us just the opposite.

And we want to confess to you that we

just need you. We need your Holy Spirit

to keep us persevering. We need your

love to hold us close. We need your

strength to help us stand strong. and we

need your protection to just wrap us in

your arms and keep us near. Thank you

that you are our God who never changes.

We love you and it's in the name of

Jesus we pray. Amen.

All right, have a wonderful discussion

in your groups. I can't wait to to hear

how it goes.