Exodus 3:1-12

[0:00] Next is chapter 3 beginning at verse 1. It says, Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest and Midian, and he led the flock to the back side of the desert and came to the mountain of God, even the hold.

[0:16] And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him on the flame of fire, and on the midst of a bush, and he looked and behold, a bush burned the fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight while the bush is not burned.

[0:32] And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses, and he said, Here am I. And he said, Draw not, and I hither, put off thy shoes from off thy feet from the place where on thou sendest his holy ground.

[0:49] Moreover, he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, and Moses hid his face where he was afraid to look upon God. And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt.

[1:04] And I heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. And I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good land, in a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey, unto the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites, and the Amorites and the Parasites and the Hibbites and the Jealousites.

[1:25] Now therefore behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come unto me, and I have also seen the oppression where with the Egyptians oppressed in. Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.

[1:42] And Moses said unto God, Whom now that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? And he said, certainly I will be with thee, and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee, when thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain.

[2:01] And that's all we'll read for now, we'll close up that passage of Scripture. Blessings. But going back up to the beginning of this passage, it says that Moses kept the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, on the backside of the desert.

[2:19] And in verse 2 we read that an angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. And he looked and he held the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.

[2:31] And Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight while the bush is not burnt. Now folks, we've got to understand where Moses was, what Moses was doing there, what exactly it was that Moses was seeing here.

[2:46] We're not real careful, we can just breeze through this Scripture, we can glance over it, read it, but not really see exactly what it's saying to us here. If you notice there in verse 2, it says the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst on the bush.

[3:03] I don't know about you, but if I've got a fire burning up on the hill behind the house, and I want to pitch something else in it, I say I'm going to pitch such and such into the fire. I'm going to pitch this wood, I'm going to pitch this whole piece of furniture, I'm going to pitch these old toys, I'm going to throw it in the middle of the fire.

[3:22] We say that things are in the fire, but the fire here was in the midst of the bush. The bush was not in the fire, the fire was within the bush. It says that it was in the midst of the bush and that God spoke unto Moses out of the midst of this bush.

[3:39] So here we have a picture of God, we have a picture of deity in this fire that's within this bush, speaking to this man Moses. Now you can go a little bit further there, and you can say that that bush is a picture of Israel, and that fire is burning within the bush, and no matter how much tribulation, no matter how much grief, no matter how hard the Egyptians were reflecting the children of God, the children of Israel, those which God called the very apple of his eye, no matter how much suffering, no matter how much persecution that are going through, that they were not consumed completely, that were not consumed, folks.

[4:21] We is the living church of God, we is the church of Jesus Christ. We can say the same thing that no matter how much persecution, no matter how much tribulation, no matter what trials we are facing, no matter what comes our way, no matter what bills we own, no matter how much food we have or don't have, that we will not be consumed.

[4:45] That our God is with us, our God is in the midst of his people. Most my God is with me, my God is within me, if you are born again, believing, child of God, God is within you as well, fear not, you will not be consumed. Hallelujah.

[5:07] That's my God, and that's his promise to me. I know we are reading right now about a bunch of Jewish people, and I'm over-reading about some promises that God made to the Jewish people about bringing them of the post-Egyptan scripture more often than not, as a picture of nothing more than the world, just like battle on is a picture of all the evil and of Satan that's in the world, just like Moab is a picture of the flesh that we have to wrestle every day, post these things, and the Old Testament and we can apply them to our lives. I know this was fifteen hundred years before Christ was ever born, but we can still see an application for us, the children of God.

[5:53] We've got to keep that here. If we're just reading it as a historical fact, we're going to miss the point. If we're just saying it as an event in history, we're going to miss what God might not have for us.

[6:06] If this was written to Jews, I can look at it every one of you until nobody in here has enough Jewish blood in them, but this can apply to us as well. We must read it that way. We have to read it that way.

[6:20] The Invaluble Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush, and he looked and behold, the bush burned with fire and the bush was not consumed. Praise God, it wasn't consumed, and Moses said, I will now turn the side and see this great sight while the bush is not burned.

[6:38] What you think about what Moses was, what he had been doing all this time. He had been out here on the backside of the Sinai Desert, tending this flock of sheep for a number of years. This wasn't the first time that he had ever run into a burning bush.

[6:53] This wasn't the first time he had ever seen something like that. Even nowadays, you can read accounts of it. You can see live footage of it. If you've got the internet, pull up some things over there in this region.

[7:07] Pull up live clips, live feeds, live streams of footage. You can see lightning striking here and there, all not long in the desert region that we're talking about now. Moses had probably seen hundreds of bushes burning in this desert, but he had never seen one that was not consumed.

[7:28] That's why I stood out to him. That's why I stood out to him. Bless him, Lord. How are we in our walk with God? How are we when fire comes our way, when tribulation comes our way?

[7:42] How are we when the heat is turned up? Do we give in? Do we just wither up? Do we give up? Do we start to throw ourselves a pity party? Do we do any of these things? Hey, folks, if the world sees you doing that, they're going to say, why would I want anything to do with their God?

[8:00] He's not doing them a good. How are we with our testimonies? That's the New Testament church. How are we in our lives that we've lived before our lost family and friends?

[8:12] How are we acting in such situations as what we're describing here? As far as when the heat is turned up in our lives, we've got to guarantee we will not be consumed.

[8:24] You know what's great about that? The Bible destroys God as a consuming fire. But, folks, that is not for his born again believers. Hey, he'll turn up the heat in our lives. He'll make things just a little uncomfortable for us. He'll get us out of our comfort zones.

[8:39] He'll get us to a point where we have no choice but to turn to Him. Hallelujah for every time He does it to me, it lets me know I'm still one of these.

[8:50] It lets me know every time He's going to go chasing after me, He's still one of mine. The Bible says that if that wasn't the case, that I would be a bastard and not a son. The Bible says that He chastises His own. The Bible says that He will come after me.

[9:06] Folks, I am convinced I am persuaded that my God will chase me all over this earth. If that's what it takes to make sure I get into the kingdom that He has promised to come.

[9:19] I'm persuaded that He's saying, Thank you, Lord. Hallelujah. And I'm persuaded because of His blessed word that we're reading tonight. Moreover, he said draw out my hither and put off my shoes from off my feet.

[9:33] For the place where all my sin is is holy ground. How many times do you take Moses? I've been in that very spot. I'm at the same amount. Hope shepherds are really known for going to strange places.

[9:49] They're known for taking their flocks to where they know the food is, where they know the water is. Moses, I don't think he was just filtered up in this mountain on the spur just to see what was up there.

[10:03] I say this was hundreds of times. He had probably been up on top of Mount Homer today. He had been up on top maybe in that very same spot. But now, now God tells him out of the midst of this burning bush.

[10:17] This is holy ground. Put off my shoes from off my feet. This is holy ground that you're standing on. It wasn't holy because it was just there. It wasn't holy. Sure wasn't holy because Moses was there.

[10:29] It was holy because Almighty God was there. It was holy because of him that was speaking to Moses from the midst of the bush. That's the only thing that made it holy. That's the only thing that made it a such world.

[10:45] He said, I'm the God of my Father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, and Moses hid his face. For he was afraid to look upon God. One of you who have been afraid to look upon God, God just introduced himself.

[10:59] He said, I'm the God of thy Father. I'm the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Why was Moses afraid? You think Moses thought back when he killed that Egyptian?

[11:10] And then went running. You think Moses was reflected on any sin that he had committed in his entire life? Moses was a perfect man. Moses was a very humble man. Moses was full of humility and the Bible back set up.

[11:25] But he was not a perfect man. He says that he was afraid to look upon God. Ronald forgot to introduce himself. He was afraid to look upon him. How do you feel when God was convicted of your sins?

[11:38] How do you feel when God showed you what a wretched word? I know exactly how I felt. And I didn't feel like I could look upon God either. I felt like the publican in that parable that Jesus Christ spoke about the Pharisee and the publican that went into the temple and worship. It said that the Pharisee stood there.

[11:59] He said, Lord, I thank you that I'm not an extortioner. I'm not this and that. I'm not like this publican. I have everything that I have. I fast class during the week. And what did the publican do?

[12:11] He smote his breast. He said, Lord, forgive me for I'm a sinner. The publican was standing there far off. He wouldn't even lift up his eye under the heaven. But he understood the position that he was in.

[12:23] He understood the condemnation that he was under. And he, according to Jesus, is the one that left that house justified. Not the Pharisee that was depending on his own works. I felt like that publican in that parable that couldn't even lift my eyes toward him.

[12:44] Knowing that I had offended, knowing that I had transgressed, knowing that how deep my iniquity had gotten against the thrice. Holy God, that had never committed any sin, that cannot commit sin, that will not commit sin, that cannot do even everything that he does is good.

[13:03] Whether you and I like it, it's most some people who look at the scripture and they'll say, why did God leave the Israelites in Egypt to be afflicted for 400 years already? Why couldn't he just bring them out 399 years ago because God's plan and God's timing are more perfect than yours or mine? That's why.

[13:25] We don't know we're out to question such things. God had a reason for that. You know how big the population of the Jewish people grew in that 400 years? We see it in the movies. We see it in paintings and the fixtures of the crossing of the Red Sea, 100, 200, maybe 300 people.

[13:45] I hope it's closer to 3 to 3.5 million people that Moses brought out of Egypt. Ain't no wonder when you get to the end of the book of Deuteronomy.

[13:56] God has not told him you ain't going to get into the promise plan. He already told him that. He told him that over in the book of Numbers. He doesn't promise that. He tells Moses, get up in the mountain. You can see no argument in Moses.

[14:11] Moses knew his time was coming. He'd done this, pastoring, shepherding, 3.5 million angry, backbiting, murmuring, Israelite's through the wilderness for 40 years.

[14:28] I think he was glad his time had come. I think he was glad his time had finally arrived. God took him up in that mountain. He let him look over into the promise land. He let him look at the mountains. He let him look at the valleys. He let him see everything.

[14:42] There was over there. But we know from the scriptural accounts, it was Joshua. They got the people over there. Joshua, he is Moses's right-hand man. We know these things.

[14:53] That doesn't mean God can condemn Moses. That doesn't mean I won't see Moses again. I've heard people say that. I've heard people saying that that whole depiction of the Israelite is not making it into the promise land as a picture of all those Israelites going to hell.

[15:11] Moses was an Israelite. Moses was a Jew. And I can promise you, I can promise you, Moses is not in hell right now. I can guarantee that. Now listen, I ain't gonna say all of them are in heaven. I ain't gonna say all of them are in hell.

[15:27] God's the judge of all. God knows all that. He'll never convince me that all three and a half million of those Jews with carcasses rotted out there in the wilderness went to hell.

[15:38] He'll never convince me of that. I don't think the scriptural support that. But the Lord said, I've surely seen the affliction of my people. We're about to get in and preach it here in just a second.

[15:51] I've surely seen the affliction of my people, which are in Egypt. And I heard their cry for a reason in their test master's. For I know their sorrow. I've seen the affliction of my people. And I've heard their cry. I know their sorrow.

[16:09] God sees what these people are going through. He heard the cries. Why were they crying the way they were because of what they were going through? Because of the affliction of their test master's. And God says that he is going to come down. He says, I have come down.

[16:26] I will be the one to do something about this. But what's funny about that? God comes down. The scripture plainly says, I have come down to do this thing. But God still calls out this man most. He still calls out this man. Really and truly, it's a nobody out here in the desert.

[16:45] He might have been somebody when he was back there in Pabrol's palace. When he was living in the palace of the king. He might have been somebody then. Hey, listen, Moses would have grown up with the finest education, with the greatest military training.

[16:59] Moses would have grown up with all of these things. But praise God over in Hebrews chapter 11, the Bible says that Moses was rather willing to give up all of those things to suffer with the people of God.

[17:14] What are we willing to give up? What are we willing to give up? Moses was willing to give it all up. His education, his training, a roof over his head, all of these things.

[17:29] Folks, it wasn't no picnic for them to trounce through the wilderness for those 40 years. It wasn't a picnic at all. They had to depend on God for water. They had to depend on God for food. They had to depend on God for all these things.

[17:44] They had to depend on God for light. Not when he was a pillar of fire. They had to depend on God to be ashamed in the dead and the pillar of cloud. They had to depend on God for everything. What are we willing to give up? As Christians, as the New Testament believers, what are we willing to give up for God?

[18:05] Moses gave up everything. But God says, I have surely seen the affliction of my people, my people which are an agent, and I've heard their cries.

[18:18] I reason their test message. For I know their sorrow. He says, I know their sorrow. I've seen what's going on. I've heard their cries. Folks, that tells me that God hears the cries of his people. The picture that I get here, though, is when does God's people cry the most?

[18:38] When do they cry the most fervently? When do they cry the most meaningful in their lives? It's when affliction comes their way. It's when hard times come their way. That's when the people of God really want to get down to business with God.

[18:52] Other than that, it's a janitor of 15-second prayer before we close our eyes at night. Other than that, it might be a short, unmeaningful prayer that we might say of God.

[19:03] It might be a warning prayer of this or that, but these people have been afflicted for 400 years. And God says, I have heard the cry of my people, and he heard their cry because of the afflictions that they were suffering.

[19:21] God hears our cries, and we are more likely to cry out and meet when something bad has come our way. We are more likely to cry out to God over, like I said earlier, an unpaid bill.

[19:37] Over a friend or a loved one or a family member or a spouse or someone getting ready to pass away. Someone's deathly sick. God is more likely to hear us first because we are more likely to really and truly get down to business with Almighty God in our prayer lives.

[19:55] I hope this should be that way all the time. Paul went jokingly, he said, pray without ceasing. That was his words that he wrote to the Thessalonian Church. He wrote that meaning. That doesn't mean that we get on our knees and we don't get off of our knees during all day long, 24 hours a day.

[20:13] It means that our lives, our actions, our speech, everything that we do, we should have an attitude of prayer in our lives. We should be able to go to God no matter if we're driving down the road, no matter if we're at work and home, no matter what situation that we're in.

[20:28] We should be able to cry out to God at any given point because of our attitude of prayer, because of our relationship with God, because we don't use Him as a proverbial spirit power that we've heard preach about through the years. We should have good communication with God always.

[20:47] And if we don't, it's our own fault. God ain't moved, God ain't changed the line, He ain't changed the channel. He hasn't switched companies, He hasn't done anything wrong with those lines. If we can't get a hope of God, that's our fault.

[21:03] I would hate to think that something happened to one of my boys or my grandchild or anyone else that I love and I hadn't been living a life that was pleasing to God.

[21:15] I'd hate to think that somebody called me and said so and so needs prayer and I couldn't get through to God. Folks, that would haunt me for the rest of my days if that was the case.

[21:28] God hears the cry of His people. Think about some of the other examples over my head in that scripture. There's a parable, or not a parable, it's an account in the scripture, some people might consider it a parable.

[21:45] But there's 10 lepers over in Luke chapter 17 that you can read about. It says that Jesus was passing through Samaria and He passed through a certain village there. There were 10 lepers outside there.

[21:58] There were a far off according to the scripture. And what did they do? Folks, these were lepers. According to the book of Leviticus, Leviticus chapter 13, they were put outside the camp.

[22:11] They were to live their lives without the camp. They couldn't build amongst their fellow Israelites. They couldn't live with their wives or their husbands or their children. They were to live without the camp. These people in this certain village outside of Samaria, there were 10 lepers there and they cried out, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.

[22:32] How in the world did they know that was Jesus? How did they know this was the prophet from Galilee? They were living outside the camp. Folks, this tells me just how broad and just how much the news of Jesus Christ had reached these people.

[22:51] They weren't supposed to have any communication with these folks. When they were fed, they were taking food out to a certain point. Then the people that took it out would go back into the sea. Then the lepers could come from where they were to that certain point.

[23:04] They had no outside communication. But yeah, these 10 lepers, when they saw the only young son of the Father coming, they said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.

[23:17] They recognized their need. They recognized the need, the bodily need that they had. They recognized, I'm rotten. My skin is rotting off. I'm going to die. Master, have mercy on us.

[23:34] Yeah, they saw that need. When you see your true need, I'm talking about needs, not wants. When you see your true need, if anybody sitting here not saved tonight, your true need is salvation.

[23:46] Your true need is to be born again. You can work on wants after that and you can work on other needs after that. But your true need is salvation. The lepers we were talking about, they saw a need.

[24:01] And because of that need, they knew what to cry out. Stephen saw a need. He was getting ready to be stoned to death. What did he say? As they were stoning him, as these Pharisees were coming out there to stone him to death.

[24:21] They were living on this city, they're charged. Stephen saw a need. And folks, I tell you what, the man was being stoned. I don't think he whispered it. I think he yelled it. I know that he saw Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father.

[24:36] I understand all that, but the need that Stephen saw, the need that Stephen felt was compassionate on those that were about to stone him. The need that he saw that was pertinent at that very time was compassionate and merciful.

[24:52] He had on those that were stoning him for doing nothing more than preaching the truth to them. That was the need that Stephen saw. That was the need that he preached. And Saul was standing there, holding the garments of those, holding the cups of the men that were stoning him.

[25:10] And he approved of what was going on. What happened to Saul later, Saul, suddenly became Paul. Man, I wrote half of the New Testament. I think God heard that prayer. I ain't gonna say all the Pharisees got saved.

[25:25] I ain't gonna say that they all ended up in heaven. Everybody took part of the stoning. But I can promise you, there was one there that did. He became Paul. He became the writer of half of the New Testament books. Praise God, God hears our prayer.

[25:42] And when we know what he would need, what was the need of these Israelites here? They needed a relief from the afflictions that they were being afflicted with.

[25:55] They needed a relief of this persecution. Folks, I'm telling you, the Bible says, Paul wrote the Timothy. I believe the second Timothy, chapter three. He said, All that will live Godly across Jesus shall suffer persecution.

[26:13] Right. Shall suffer persecution, not might, not maybe, not could. All that will live Godly across Jesus shall suffer persecution.

[26:24] You're gonna suffer, I'm gonna suffer. Listen to me. Hey, we here in America, we got no idea what persecution really is. You're right. You're right, I think because your best friend from elementary school, from middle school, might make fun of you, call you a Bible thumpers persecution. You got no clue what persecution is.

[26:41] Right. Hey, take that title and run with it if they call you a Bible thumpers. That's not true persecution. What was it say over the book of Acts? It says that we'll get into the, we'll enter into the kingdom of God.

[26:55] We will enter into heaven through much tribulation, that's chapter 14, through much tribulation. And that's the only way we're gonna get in there. God, I never promised us a better roses. He never said it was gonna be a piece of cake.

[27:08] He never said that about any of these things. He told Abraham way over in Genesis when he was making the covenant with him. He said, Your people, Your seed, whether these will be afflicted, they will suffer, they will suffer immensely.

[27:23] But praise God. He said, I will bring them out of hell. We're not suffering a little bit down here, but that's a whole lot better than suffering for all eternity.

[27:35] That's a whole lot better than agonizing for eons and eons and eons to come. It's a whole lot better than that. If I suffer a little bit of persecution, and I suffer a little bit of trial and tribulation so big, Paul's entire ministry was a ministry of suffering. The man was shipwrecked, he was beat, he was whipped, he was stung and lit for dead.

[27:57] His entire ministry was a ministry of suffering. I never once in the scripture say him complain about it. What do we complain about? What do I complain about? God help us.

[28:09] Yeah. God hears his people. He sees what's going on. And God can do something about it. He makes a promise. We're going to bring them up into a good land, a large land, a land full of milk and honey.

[28:24] Therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come unto me, and I have also seen the oppression where with the Egyptians oppressed them. God saw, God saw you down in Egypt. God saw me down in Egypt. And you know what's funny, if you were to call it that about this, I wasn't crying.

[28:48] I wasn't begging for God to come save me. I never asked for God to come save me. God came to where I was at. God came to me in my richness and my, these people, they knew Jehovah God. They knew who they called Godly.

[29:07] They knew the God of their fathers. And that's why they were crying out to him. I wasn't ever crying to him. And yet he came to me. Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord.

[29:18] Oh, my God. God came to where the Israelite's word. And he called out to deliver it in any mode. God came to where I was too. And the deliverer called out 2000 years ago, named Jesus Christ. That was my deliverer. That is my deliverer.

[29:38] And he will be my deliverer from here on out. He's past, present, and future tens. He's my all in all for his God. I'm out of love and he's mine. Come now therefore. And I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.

[29:59] And Moses said unto God, Who am I that I should go into Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? Moses asked God a question. Moses wasn't getting smart with God. He was being as genuine as he could be. Who am I?

[30:18] I said we just read a few verses previous to this that he hid from God. He hid because he was afraid of God. Now God's calling him to do this great and mighty work. And Moses says, Who am I? I'm just a shepherd out here on the back side of the desert taking care of my father and little sheep.

[30:38] I'm nobody. Who am I that I can go to Pharaoh, the most powerful man on planet Earth at this time of that time? Who am I that I can go to him and I can make the man of him? Who am I?

[30:51] I love God. He said certainly I'll be with thee. You can stop right there. It's like he was agreeing with Moses, you're nobody. You're nothing.

[31:06] But that's not what counts here. That's not what matters here. Moses said, Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, that I can do this thing? And God says certainly I will be with thee. He doesn't say you're a wonderful person, Moses. He doesn't say out of boy, Moses, go give him.

[31:26] He agrees with Moses. Without saying it, he says certainly I'll be with thee. Certainly I'll be with thee. I've got the same promise that Moses had here. Joshua got the same promise over in Joshua chapter one. God told Joshua, as I was with Moses, so will I be with thee. Praise God.

[31:47] Hey, my God is with me. My God is with his people. He is with us through the fire. He's with us through the flame. He's with us through the trials and the tribulations. He's with us in the good times. He's with us in the praise. He's with us at all times. Help me. It doesn't matter who I am. It doesn't matter who you are.

[32:09] None of us, none of us will be worth a pub nickel, as my daddy used to say, if it wasn't for God. That's the only thing that makes us worse than that.

[32:20] Yes, sir. That is the only thing that makes us worse than that. Who am I, God? Certainly I will be with thee. Thank you, little... It doesn't matter who you are, Moses. You flip on forward to Exodus chapter four, the beginning verses of that. Moses is still trying to get out of it.

[32:39] Moses is still, I don't know about this, God. I just don't think I'm your man. What does God say? What's that in your hand, Moses? What is this? It says, staff to ride. God says, go. Go. In other words, use what you've got. Use what you've already got. Use what's there in your hand.

[33:03] Use that rod, and we all know the account. When it came time for God to deliver the Israelites out of Egypt, and they come to the edge of the Red Sea, we know the account that Moses stood there at the edge of the Red Sea, and he raised up his staff, he raised up his hands, and the Red Sea parted.

[33:19] Moses did not do that. God did that. God cost a strong mighty east wind to come. God cost it all. Yes, sir. What Moses? Thank you Lord. Moses could have went over there and stood there for a week with his arms upstretched, and it was a no good without God.

[33:40] Who am I to go over there and move there and go zero? Certainly. I'll be with thee. We are no one. Moses was no one. We are nothing without God. Nothing without God. Moses, and in those days, they were some Jews out there that would argue that they put Moses up on a pedestal.

[34:01] I'm persuaded that's why God is the very one that buried Moses, because he knew that the Jews would set up a shrine there somewhere in the desert on the opposite side of Jordan where God wanted them to be, and they would have never crossed over into the promised land that God had promised Abraham.

[34:18] He knew that it was Moses. It was God buried Moses, but that's a whole other sermon we didn't even preach that tonight. And he said, certainly I will be with thee, and this shall be a token of the faith that I have sent thee.

[34:34] When thou hast bought forth the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God upon this mountain. Well, that's a lot deeper than what we realize it is. This shall be a token. He doesn't say this shall be salvation. This shall be a token.

[34:52] What's going to be a token? That you'll serve me in this very mountain. Horrid was Sinai, not Sinai, not Horrid, but the same place. And God tells him here, he says, you will serve me in this very mountain. You're going to leave here. You're going to go over to Egypt. You're going to be the deliver that I've called you to be.

[35:16] You're going to bring up my people. I'm going to put these plagues on Pharaoh. I'm going to put them on all of Egypt. I'm going to bring the death of the firstborn. We're going to have the Passover feast. God already had all these things planned out, but he says the token that I'm the one that sent you to do this isn't the plagues. The token isn't the death of the firstborn. The token isn't the Passover. The token is that you all are on your way out of Egypt.

[35:41] The token is that you will come serve me exactly where you're standing today. Right now, God tells us the same thing. I can serve God in my heart. I can serve Him in my house, in my community, in my church. I can serve Him wherever.

[36:00] You don't have to be here to serve God. In fact, you're at it, dude. I question if you's even born again or not. You serve God everywhere you are. You reflect a lot of God everywhere that you are.

[36:14] We are to be ambassadors for the kingdom that God has promised us. We are to be representatives of that place. We are to be representatives of God. I'm not saying that we're gods. I'm not saying that we're acting like gods.

[36:30] I'm saying God is working with each and every one of us and God is molding us to be closer and closer and closer to a rendition to a perfect mirror image of His beloved Son. God is working on me and if you're born again, He is working on you to become the express image of Jesus Christ.

[36:50] Not to become Jesus Christ, not to become a savior, but to become that image of Jesus Christ to be more and more like Him. And if you've ever been closer to God than what you are right now, all that being said, let's say God's up here. Let's say this is the bottom of the hill. Yesterday you was right here, today you're right here. What kind of state is that?

[37:19] If you've ever been closer to God than what you are right now, you're in a backsliding condition. Yes, sir. Period. That's a simple word. If I was closer to God a week ago, then what I am today not only is it my fault, but I'm in a backslid condition. How do I take care of that?

[37:43] I repent or attend to whatever's put me in that position. And I ask for God to. If it was affliction that put me there, I cry out to God like these Israelites do, hey me.

[37:56] If it was, if it was say potential, potential affliction coming my way. Hey, here's a car, for example. Hey, here's a car. Wait a second. Can you hear my team?

[38:13] The word from Rup Shekha at the Assyrian armies coming from Shaka being the one that carried that message and letter form to the messengers of Hezekiah. The messengers bring it to Hezekiah. What does Hezekiah do?

[38:29] He took that letter. He took it into the temple of God. He spread it out before God. He said, God, the Assyrians are coming. They're making fun of you. God, they're mocking your name. The Assyrians are coming. They're trying to wipe out our kingdom. They're trying to wipe out our people. Trying to wipe out our land. God, we need you to do something about this.

[38:46] And God says basically the same thing that Hezekiah threw out there. What's said right here to Moses. When Moses said, who am I? God says, no such thing will happen.

[38:58] That's what he told Hezekiah. There's no such thing like that will happen. I'm going to bring it on a note. But what did Hezekiah do? He saw his need.

[39:09] Like I was talking about previously, he saw the need that he had for protection. He saw the need that he had for the Father. He knew that he didn't have the chariots. He knew that he didn't have the bows. He knew that he didn't have the men to fight against the Assyrian army.

[39:26] The Assyrian king had actually named all four or five different lands that he had overtaken. And he said and talked about, he took the gods of those lands and he threw them into the fire.

[39:37] And Hezekiah makes mention, he says, not that they were gods at all. They were wooden stone fashioned from human hands while he's talking to God, he's saying these things. But he begs God for his protection. God provided that. But Hezekiah felt his need. He knew his need. He knew that he and himself could be supplied. God says, certainly I will be with thee.

[40:00] God's always got a remnant. Even if they had slaughtered all, just a host of people that were under Hezekiah, God would have kept a remnant of his people there.

[40:16] Since the angel of the Lord came and slew 104 swords, 5000 people, I believe in scripture said. That's a whole bunch of people of the Assyrian army. The Assyrian army took Pell and ran.

[40:30] The Sennacherib went into the temple of his God and his two boys came in and slew him with a sword. God had called that account correctly. God's got strange mysterious ways that he works, but he was not a man.

[40:46] So let those people suffer what Hezekiah pledged to him to not let them suffer. He said, certainly I will be with thee. He basically said the same thing to Hezekiah. Your need at whatever time is what you need to make known to God.

[41:08] And not just with self-lication, not just with petition, but Paul instructs in the New Testament also with thanksgiving in your hearts. You should thank God for these things. Thank God, the angel of the protector.

[41:22] My Bible describes God of so many things. He's my fortress. He's my high tower. He's the beginning. He's the end. He's the alpha. He's the omega. He's all of these things and so much more. He's more than what this book even describes in this book. He is all and all. He is everything.

[41:40] Yes, son. Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. And He is the one that has promised to be with me. Certainly He will be with me in his scripture. I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.

[41:54] Jesus said, I'll go with thee always. He was to the end. Yeah. I've got the same promise that these Jews here have. Just in a different time, maybe a different format, maybe different circumstances. But I've got the same promise. Let your needs be known to God.

[42:14] And the deeper your need, the more permanent your prayers will be.