We'll begin reading our scripture this morning in the second chapter of the book of Exodus, reading about Moses' life. We'll start reading in verse 11. And it came to pass in those days when Moses was grown that he went out unto his brethren. I want you to take note of the word brethren. He went out unto his brethren and he looked on their burdens. and he spied an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew, one of his brethren. Again, note that word. And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. And when he went out the second day, behold, two men of the Hebrews strove together, and he said to him, that did the wrong. Wherefore smitest thou thy fellow?" Again, the word fellow. And he said, who made thee a prince and a judge over us? Intendest thou to kill me as thou kill'st the Egyptian? And Moses feared and said, surely this thing is known. Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses, but Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian and he sat down by a well. I want us to take note of the way that he described the Hebrew people. He said that they were his brethren and that he acknowledged them as such. that when he saw those Hebrew slaves, he said, these are my brothers. And when they fought one with another, he said, why is it that you've wronged your fellow? Another term for relationship. In other words, if you're together, if you're of likeness, why is it that you're striving one with another? Acts chapter seven and verse 22. And this is Stephen's account of what took place in the second chapter of Exodus when he was preaching about the history of the salvation of the Lord. And it says in verse 22, And Moses was learned in all wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in words and in deeds. And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel. And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him and avenged him that was oppressed, and he smote the Egyptian. For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them. But they did not understand, they understood not. And the next day he showed himself unto them as they strove, and would have set them at one again, saying, Serbs, you are brethren, why do you wrong one to another? But he that did his neighbor wrong thrust him away, saying, who made thee a ruler and a judge over us? Wilt thou kill me, as thou didst the Egyptian yesterday? And then fled Moses at this saying, and was a stranger in the land of Midian, where he begat two sons. And lastly, I want to read from the 11th chapter of the book of Hebrews, verses 24 through 26. By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward." And that will be our scripture reading this morning. And if God would help me, I want to speak about Moses' true identity. You see, Moses was brought up in Pharaoh's household, and he was given with it all the privileges that came along with being in the upper echelon of society. He essentially had everything the world could offer him. But yet, somehow, and I don't understand, I actually, I know Brother Gerald likes the movie Ten Commandments, and I asked him how that movie and the theaters put the description of how Moses came to know that he was a Hebrew. And I do think that they go into a fictional account of that. We don't know from the pages of Scripture how Moses found out that he was a Hebrew. But we know that he did know that. And that at some point in his life, it was made clear to him that his lineage was of the Hebrews and not of the Pharaoh. And when he found this information out, he had a decision to make. Was he going to keep it private and just go along with the life that he had, certainly with the privileges that it afforded and have basically all that this world had to offer unto him? Or did he come out from that court and align himself with these people who would become a band of slaves? The book of Hebrews described this as a choice that Moses had to make and that he chose by his own volition that he was going to align himself with the people of God even if it meant that it brought hurt to him. And that Moses chose to suffer the affliction with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. When I consider this this morning, I think about our own identity with God's people. And the example that Moses gives to us about a man that had basically everything that this world could offer him, and yet he chose to suffer alongside God's people, even when they were imperfect, and even when they were frustrating to him, as you see in this interaction with those that were fighting, he said, these are my people. And he had Hebrew blood running through his veins, and he knew it, and he knew that he was of them and not of this world. You see, in this world today, we like to separate people with lots of different divisions, but essentially there are only two types of people. And you can describe it in different ways, but you might say there are those that are lost and there are those that are saved. There are those that are God's people that are serving and following Him and there are those that are people of this world. And there are a lot of good people that are people of this world but yet their association and their affiliation is bad. And much like in John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress where this man that was named Christian in the story was reading the book And he learned from reading this book that he had found that sudden destruction was going to come upon the city that he lived in. And it terrified him. And he asked others around if these things were so, that if it were true that sudden judgment was going to come upon this land, and he couldn't get a group of people to agree on this, but he was convinced in his heart that if he continued in the place that he lived, if he continued to dwell there, that he was going to be destroyed. And he began to go out pursuing deliverance from the judgment that was at hand. And you see, the Bible tells us that God is going to judge sin. God takes no pleasure in judging people, but He does take pleasure in judging sin. Much of the world, all of the world has been infected by a disease that is sinfulness. Corruption. And we even as people, as human beings, see that corruption. And it bothers us. We long for a day where there is no more cancer. We long for a day where there is no more disease, where there is no more death, where there is no more injustice. And we see that the world is just right now at violence with itself and in a state of conflict, and we long for that to be delivered. Well, God promises us that one day He's going to deliver this world from the bondage of sin. And He's going to do so by sending His Son, Jesus, back to this world to be its judge. And one of these days, Christ is gonna return in the clouds of glory. And all the world will see Him and He will judge sin. And He made a promise to the people of God that whenever He returns, that He will not leave them in that judgment, but that He will save them from the judgment of this world and deliver them forevermore. But all those that choose to align themselves with the world system, and all those that choose to live in the pleasures of this world, they will be judged with the sin that corrupts the world, and the Bible says, will be cast into the eternal lake of fire. Now, I'm not hoping that any will experience that. And in fact, the Bible says that even God doesn't desire that any would perish, but that all would come to repentance. And this morning as I preach to you, I want you to know that God's heart by authority of the Word of God, that God's heart is to save all those that are in their sins. That it's His desire that people would repent, that they would come out from the world, and that they would align with Christ. Now, you don't do that by a decision. God draws you. But I believe that the call of God has gone out from Calvary's cross, and it has gone out to all the world. And to us that have heard the preaching of the gospel, we have heard the call of God upon our life. To come out from among them, to come unto the Lord. And if anybody this morning is lost, and especially among this congregation, or those that have been in congregations like this congregation, then you're lost willingly. Because the gospel has gone out and it has been made plain. And even this morning I'm telling you that Jesus Christ died for your sins. That He was crucified. That on the third day Jesus rose from the grave. That He's alive and at the right hand of the throne of God making intercession for all those that come to God by Him. And so the message has gone out, and I believe by faith that the Holy Spirit bears witness with that message. And when the Holy Spirit bears witness with that message, He makes it alive to our hearts where there's understanding. and that there's a knowledge that's beyond our comprehension, how that God takes the word from the pages of scripture and makes it alive to our hearts, but he doesn't. And when he doesn't, he draws, and he draws personally, and he begins to make a cry out to each one saying, come unto me, you that labor and are burdened and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. But I think like Moses, that we all have to make a decision which way that we're going to go. And you see, if you choose the pleasures of Egypt, and it's really simple, and that's the thing about the Bible, is that it declares things in such a plain way that it's easy for us to understand. There's not all this gray area out there in the story that I read to you. There's Egypt and there's the Hebrews. There's Egypt and there's Israel. And basically, that's the way that God sees things. that are His people that are in this world, and we might say that would be the church, the Christian church. There's people all over this world in different congregations that are His people, and they're serving God, and they are, by His choice, not by our declaration, but by the choice of God, they are the people of God. And there's the vast majority of this world that would be considered to be Egypt. They are going by the pleasures of the flesh and the privilege that this world has to offer. Now, I'm just going to preach what I have on my heart this morning, but I believe that these things are very tempting. They're very alluring. We see the pleasures of Egypt, and if we could have seen Egypt in that day, we would have said, we want those things. You know, the beautiful buildings and the wonderful, you know, they always had plenty to eat, and they were pleasure, especially in Moses' family that he had been raised in. Anytime they spoke that they wanted something, they were able to get it. It was life at its best. And to recant that would have been pure foolishness from a world's perspective. But if we don't see the eternal side of things, we can be lured by the pleasures of Egypt. And we can think that this world really is best lived to live life at its best. If we could just have the most that God would, you know, even God would provide for us. He wants us to be happy. He wants us to live a good life. He wants us to experience the pleasures. But the problem is if we enjoy all the blessings of God without enjoying the blesser, then we've basically just taken from Him without showing gratitude. And I believe that America is in the midst of a crisis right now. Where we are enjoying the blessings of God, but we're taking them and then we're ungrateful for where they came from. And that's a really scary place to be. Probably there's nothing that's more offensive than when someone gives something and then someone takes it and doesn't show gratitude. Or they begin to judge or evaluate the gift that's given, whether it's acceptable and suitable or not. But we read about Moses and about how that he was trying to struggle through what was his identity. He'd been raised in Pharaoh's household. He had all of that already going for him. In fact, Pharaoh must have desired that he would not associate himself with the Hebrew people, for it was a disgrace. But inside of Moses, he knew that he belonged with the people of God. And I don't know how that he found that out, and I don't know where he came to faith. But I do know that he had something inside of him that was drawing him to the Hebrew people that made him see them and say, those are my brethren. He would walk among the people and He was above them in rank, and yet He would look at them and you've got to know, He said, these are my brethren. Can you believe what we're doing in harshness to these my brethren? How can I get this to stop? How can the people of God begin to stop suffering affliction and things like this? And so he then became clear in his identity. And in the book of Hebrews it says that he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Now what does that mean? It means that he saw that he had that given to him, but he saw that that wasn't who that he was. And as God's people, and first of all, as we've already said, in order to be one of God's people, we've got to be saved. In order for us to have that connection to God, we must be born again. This morning, in our Sunday school lesson, our Sunday school lesson was the way of salvation. And it was singular, the way, there's only one way. And we talked about Jesus Christ and about how that the reason there's only one way of salvation is because God ordained that there would be one suitable and all-sufficient Savior. And in the fullness of time, God sent His Son. born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who are under the law. And that that way of salvation is Jesus Christ. In order to be a child of God, you must come through Jesus Christ. You must have an experience with God through faith in Christ Jesus. Jesus said, he said, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, he said, so must the son of man be lifted up and whosoever believeth on him will not perish, but have everlasting life. And that was the message that he gave to Nicodemus. And what a wonderful declaration is that to us. Here is Jesus lifted up upon the cross, crucified. God from heaven sets him in front of us. And just like Moses did in the wilderness, he says, look upon Christ and live. And there is a crossroad, right? That's a crossroad that's put before us. God sets Christ crucified before us. And He says, look upon Him and live. Just like in the wilderness, all those that were bitten by the serpent, they were dying. And just like in Moses' day, we who are bitten by the effects of sin, we're dying men. We've been infected with a disease and the only hope is that God would provide a remedy. And Jesus said, God has provided a remedy. God provided the remedy and the crucified Savior. And I know it's not palatable to a rich and saturated world who has everything they want. But God never changed His method. He kept the method the same. And He said, here's my salvation. Christ crucified. Risen again from the dead. This is the means of salvation. And he says, look on me and live. And this morning, Christ is set before you. And you make a decision. Not just to be saved. Because in order to be saved, you must come with a broken spirit and a contrite heart. But a crossroad is set before you. And a crossroad is there, and it's Christ crucified. It's the cross of Jesus Christ. And either you're ashamed of that this morning, and you go to the treasures of Egypt, or you say, somehow, that is what belongs to me. And when you hear the effectual voice of God inside of your heart, and you know that God is drawing you under the cross, you say inside of your heart, maybe that belongs to me. Maybe just like the Hebrew blood, flowed through Moses' veins. Maybe that blood can flow through me that was crucified, that was shed upon the cross of Calvary. And you see, those that come to Christ, you don't have to be a Hebrew, and you don't have to be an American. You see, this is good for the whole world. You see, Jesus' blood, the way you become a child of God, is you respond to the call. And so you don't have to have the... You say, maybe that's not for me. That's your decision to make. But that's not God's decision. God's decision was Christ died for the whole world. He died for you and He died for me. And He sat before us and He's there. And He's looking upon us and He says, look to Me. and live. And there's a decision that's made, a crossroad that's made between going the way of life and going the way of destruction. And that was bothering Moses. Because he looked upon these slaves and he said, I feel like that belongs to me. I feel like that's who I am, that I need to go that way. But in order to go that way, I have to give up so much that I've been given through Pharaoh. And he must have loved those people. You see, because they raised him and they were the ones that he was around all of his life. But finally he said, I have to be true to what I know is right inside of me. And he said, I refuse to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. By the way, whenever a Christian that's been saved by the grace of God just goes out into the world and says, I'm just going to live however I want to. I'm going to enjoy the pleasures of life for a season. I'm going to go and I'm going to enjoy those things that people enjoy. Because no doubt you look around and you see how people prosper. And you say, I want a piece of that. Maybe God wants that for me. And things like that become in our minds and we say, you know, I want to go that way. Moses was really weighing that out. And finally he just said, I'm going to make a decision. I'm not going to take any of that for myself. As much as he must have loved Pharaoh's daughter, he said, I can't be your son. or you're not truly my mother. And this is not truly my people. And the people might not be anything really to envy. They're just slaves. We've been hard on them. They've got a bad lot, but they're my people. You see, a Christian finds identity in Christ. Turn this to God's people and just say this. Do we identify with Christ? Is that who we identify in our life? We've got all these associations. We're a part of this club. We're a part of that group. This is my family and all of this. But are we willing to come out from all of that and say my identity is Jesus Christ? See, the Apostle Paul, he said this, he said, for as many as you have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ, there is therefore neither Jew nor Greek, neither is there bond nor free, there is neither male nor female. You see, all these ways we divide ourselves. He says, no, as many as have been baptized into Christ, you've put on Christ. And he says, for you're all one in Christ Jesus. And if you be Christ, then are you Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. You see, our identity, if we've been saved by the grace of God, and I remember the day that I was baptized, and I do believe that that's a special moment. I believe that baptism is a physical representation of something that happens to us spiritually so that people can see it. and unbaptized people who have never felt confidence to be able to share a testimony when they see people go down into the water and they see them looking up and making a profession of faith. It does something. It's a witness to them. And unto us that have received it, it's a witness. It should mean something to you. It should not be taken lightly when you go into the watery grave and as that man of God lifts you down and plunges you into that watery grave and lifts you up, as the Bible says, to walk in newness of life, you've taken on yourself a new identity. No longer do you belong to Egypt anymore. You've come out from Egypt and now you're walking with Christ. You've made a commitment to say that first and foremost I'm going to suffer the reproaches of Christ instead of experiencing the riches of Egypt and the pleasures of Egypt for a season. And where the church loses its effectiveness is when one by one members begin to say, that even though I was baptized, yet I take privilege in my association with this group, or that club, or this organization. And those things in themselves are not wrong, but if we forget who our identity is, that first and foremost our allegiance is to Christ, then we've lost our power with God. He said in the book of Peter, in Peter's letter, he said, you're a chosen generation. You're a royal priesthood, a holy nation. You see, the message of the Bible is not that we become something that we're not. It's that we act out what we are. You see, ethics would tell you, you need to fight against what you are and become something that you're not. But the gospel says, I'm going to make you into something, and then I just want you to live according to who God sees you to be, who you really are. He said, you're a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that you should show forth the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. which in times past were not a people, but are now the people of God, which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy." He's talking to this church and he says, at one point you had no part in this, but because God called you out of darkness into His marvelous light, and God has purchased you. He said you're a peculiar people. That word peculiar doesn't mean weird. I just want to make that clear. You know, the Jesus freak movement came about because they saw peculiar and they said, I'm a Jesus freak for Christ. That is not what that word means. The word peculiar means purchased. It means acquired. It means that God has bought us for his own and brought us into his fold as a peculiar people, as a people that are chosen, a chosen generation, a set apart nation. And he says that about the church. Now, here's what he said. He said that at one point you were not a people. And this morning, if you're lost, then you're not one of the people of God. But God is calling you out of darkness and into His marvelous light. The church is just a collection of people that have been called out of darkness into His marvelous light and that have established that fact through baptism and they've covenanted together and said, this is who we are. We were lost, but now we're found. We were of Egypt, but now we're of the Hebrew people. We were before lost in our sins, and now we've been saved by the grace of God. And that's what the church is. Everybody has gotten so confused because they make things so complicated. All the church is is a local body of baptized believers that have covenanted together, that have had an experience with God. They've been called out of darkness and into His marvelous light. And they come together for the purpose of preaching the gospel, of encouraging one another, building up the people of God that others may come into the fold. And friend, with the church, the doors are wide open. Meaning that we're not an exclusive club. It's exclusive in the sense that Jesus Christ is the only way. And that there's only one way of salvation. But it's open to all the world. And this morning, Jesus, His arms are open wide to everybody that wants to come unto Him. And you see, we sometimes forget who we are. I one time was not in the church. I don't stand here because somehow God just, you know, just just said one day to me or I said one day I'm just going to be a part of a church. No, I was lost. I was undone. I was broken. I was not a people. I had not obtained mercy. But one day I did. And whenever I finally, the gospel was preached unto me and whenever that gospel got down inside of my heart and I began to feel the draw of God and I started to come to him instead of running away and I surrendered. You say, what does it take to be a child of God? You just need to surrender. Whenever God is calling you, you make a decision. Do you just walk out proud hearted or do you surrender underneath the gospel of Jesus Christ? I believe if a man or a woman will come down and they'll just say, as God has called me, I surrender and they get down on their knees and they surrender and they call out to God that God will hear their prayer and will save their soul and those that were not a people will be a people. And that's how we all came into this thing. But once we're in it, we have to remember who we are. We're a holy nation. God has called us to be a light to a darkened world, that those that are outside in darkness may see the light that we shine from our lives and from the gospel message, from the pulpit. And they might say, I want to come to the light too. Could that be for me? Is it ever for you? Is it ever for you? If it was for me, it's for you. But what you have to do is you have to answer the gospel call. You see, I know that you say, I wish I could do something. I wish I could climb the highest mountain. I wish I could cross the widest sea. I would go to do anything if I could just know that I was secure in Christ. And the Bible says you can't do all of that. You've just got to surrender to a God who's very near you. Oh, it's so acceptable to us to try to do something in order to earn salvation. But how about just give up and let him save you? That's the gospel. Peculiar people we are, chosen. And the Bible says that we were not purchased with silver and gold, but we were purchased with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. We have to make a decision as Moses did between privileges and pleasure and reproach. In Moses' case, and it's often true with the people of God, he had to make a decision between privileges and pleasure. and suffering reproach. No doubt people look at the lives that Christians lead whenever they're following the truth, and they say, hmm, inconvenient. Looks like a killjoy to me. Be a lot more fun to do what I want to do. Be more satisfying and fulfilling. Surely God understands. Sometimes the world offers us temporary pleasures as a trade-off for selling our birthrights as Christians. Come enjoy. Take part. Now I'm not saying that people lose their salvation, but Jesus did say, no servant can serve two masters. He said, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. And the mammon doesn't just mean money, but it means wealth. And this world does offer a certain amount of wealth, physically speaking, for trying to do the things of the world. And you can find a lot of pleasure in this world, even as a child of God. I believe that the Holy Spirit will make it less pleasurable for you than even a person that's in the world that's just doing what they know to be their nature. But at the same time, I've known Christians that have seemingly gotten by by going out into the world and doing as they choose. But certainly, if you have the Holy Spirit abiding in you, you will not be satisfied with that. You know, oftentimes, we are called to reject something that is pleasurable in the world and be willing to suffer with the people of God. And I think this happens quite a bit. And I just want to use one example. The Lord said that we're to keep the Sabbath day holy. That's just one thing. There's a whole list, but one thing he said was one day a week out of seven, you give that day over to me and I get one day consecrated to me out of seven. Now I want you to think about how many things fight against that. This is the part where you think, I hope you are, How many times that there's something pleasurable to do on the Lord's day and we have to make a decision between going the way of the world or coming to the congregation of the Lord. And now you say, preacher, you're getting too personal. You should just leave stuff like that alone. It's not my word. Just take it up with him. He said one day out of seven, you give that day over to me to rest and reflect and to worship. Just this last week, we were conflicted. We got into a ball tournament. We thought it was on Saturday. And they said, and Sunday. We said, we didn't sign up for that. We can't do Sunday. How inconvenient that is. Because now we've got to reschedule and do all these things. Can't you just give us Sunday? No, we can't give you Sunday. God's got Sunday. But don't you see family members that don't attend church say, can't you be there by 1230? Or better for noon, just miss one time. You see all these things fight against us. And sometimes I just say as the preacher, I say it'd be easier if we just didn't have this, you know, Sunday thing going on. How horrible that is. God said, one day in seven, I want you to give it all to me. I was reading an associational book from, I think it was from Man's House because Jonathan had it. And they were bemoaning the fact that all these things were getting in the way of Sunday worship, including picnics and family reunions. And what are we going to do because people aren't attending the night service? We've got to figure out, we've got a crisis on our hands. And I read that and I just scratched my head, oh my goodness. what it's become. And don't you see just a little bit? It just builds on that. And people say, well, God understands. He's not a law-giving God anymore. He just knows that I've got this much time. Maybe I'll do it on a Saturday night or early in the morning or maybe noon. Maybe whenever it's convenient for me so that it's built around my sleep schedule and all these things that I can fit God in. I can just fit God in right here. I know. It's easier if you don't say these things, but don't we do things like that in our life where we say God can take the place in my life where I can fit Him in so that I can just kind of have everything I want and have God too. Friends, we're not God. He is God. And he said, give me that. And he wants our whole life, not just one day. You see, but one day was just to remind us. One day was just to cause us to remember to say, wherever you are, whatever I have you doing, stop on one day and worship me. Worship me. Sometimes we have to suffer with Christ. It says, so Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through His own blood. In other words, Jesus was outside of the camp of God's people and He was suffering out there alone. Therefore, the Hebrew writer says, let us go to Him outside the camp and bear the reproach that He endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek a city that is to come. He said, just as Christ suffered alone outside the camp, let us go outside and suffer with him. What that means is, is just that as he was left alone, he said, sometimes you're going to have to suffer, God, and be left alone. But if we all do it together, you won't be left alone. We'll be suffering the reproach of Christ together. Sometimes God wants us to sacrifice for Him. It's not easy. It wasn't easy when we were lost. It wasn't easy when we were trying to forsake the worldly things to seek God. It wasn't easy. They got in the way. And that's why as you get older, things get in the way of seeking God. I pray that people will find the Lord in their youth because as they get older, it becomes more difficult because things get in the way. But they get in the way for God's people as well. Okay, I'm almost done. I am. The last thing I want to talk about is the eternal reward. The eternal reward. It says that Moses, he left Egypt, he left Pharaoh's house, and he suffered reproach of God's people because he respected the recompense of reward. Or in other words, he saw that God had something greater for him than the treasures of Egypt. He gave up something that was lesser to obtain something that was greater. You see, it's not that we just, you know, give up our lives and then say, well, I guess God is just going to run me in the ground and then there's nothing. No, God has said that if we'll give up for him, he'll restore unto us a hundredfold. that God has a reward for His people that far endures and outshines the treasures of Egypt. You see, the greatest privilege is to be called a child of God. You see, it's not to be called Pharaoh's son. It's not even to be Pharaoh. And that's one of the wonderful blessings is that not everybody can be in a powerful position, but everyone can be a child of God. Not everyone can be a part of royal blood. Not everyone can sit at the king's table. Not everyone can have an esteemed last name or be wealthy in this life. Not everyone can have that. Some will have it and some will not. But when it comes to being a child of the heavenly king, a child of God, everyone can be a child of God. And the privilege of being a child of God is the greatest privilege there is in this life. I want you to know, there's not been a position. There's not been a thing that I've done. There's not been pleasure. There's been nothing that compares to the joy of being called a child of God in my life. I praise God to be a child of God. Not of my doing. Not that I deserved it. But God called me out of darkness and into marvelous light. The greatest pleasure is to be in the presence of our Savior. And I've got a lot of things that bring pleasure to me in this life that I enjoy. And some of them are things like my family. They are a great pleasure to me. But there's no greater pleasure than being in the presence of Christ. In Psalm 1611, it says, You make known to me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. The pleasures of this life last for a season. If you're lost today, your best life is probably right now. What you anticipate is horrible. And so you like to just forget it. Don't think about eternity. Let's just enjoy life. Not think about death. I'll worry about that later. Surely these things will work out. God's understanding. Ignore it, ignore it, ignore it. Best life right now. Enjoy it. What a miserable existence. Because the older you get, the more confronted you are with the fact that you're mortal, that you're frail, that you're gonna die. Oh, but for the Christian, at the right hand of God are pleasures forevermore. That this life is probably best lived as a Christian. And then whenever I die, I go to be with Jesus who gives me all things. I have a wonderful hope. Wonderful hope. My best life is yet to come. I haven't even experienced pleasures like I'm going to. It's going to be wonderful. The day that I cross over, friend, it's going to be the greatest day of my life. When I go to be with the Lord, I know I'll be sad to leave behind people that I love, but the moment that I go, all that will go away and I'll be in the presence of my Savior and at the right hand of God are pleasures forevermore. Heaven is my home. I get to go to be with the Lord. I know that for a fact right now. He put an earnest payment inside of me and He said, I'm just going to put a down payment on you and one of these days I'm going to give you the whole thing. That's what I'm looking forward to is the day that I get to see my Jesus face to face and I enjoy him every day. There's not a day that I go by when I go to seek his face that I don't enjoy that time with him more than I enjoy anything else in life. But one of these days I'll be at his side forevermore. Our loved ones are rejoicing right now in the presence of their Savior, having their best life ever. And as good as it is then, we haven't finished this whole thing yet. One of these days is going to be even better than what they're experiencing. Whenever all of us come together in a heavenly realm and we're all together, never to be separated anymore, worshiping God at His right hand are pleasures forevermore. It seems like an easy trade, the pleasures of Egypt. Forsake those things. Come unto God who gives us pleasures forevermore. It's the same thing Jesus said. He said, do not lay up for yourself treasure on earth where moth and rust corrupt and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourself treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, where thieves do not break through and steal. For where your treasure is, that's where your heart will be also. And if our treasure is laid up in heaven, He said, your heart will be upon heaven. Because you'll be looking at that and saying, that is where the true reward is. And friend, we are blessed beyond measure to know that this life, with all of its heartache and all of its pains and all of its sorrows, is not the best that God has to offer. In fact, sometimes He allows us to experience the pain for us to look upward and say that there's a day without pain ahead of us. Let's fix our eyes on Jesus. Let us continue to follow the author and finisher of our faith. And join with this cloud of witnesses like Moses, who's praising God and saying, come and join me. over yonder. That is my message today and I just pray that we will forsake the pleasures of Egypt for the privileges of living for Christ. Let's get a song together and as we sing this song and as we begin to worship the Lord and we try to call upon His name and praise Him today. If there's any here that are not saved and you say, I just, I want to know, I want to know that I'm saved. Would you respond to God's call? If God's spirit is knocking upon your heart, would you answer that and surrender and be humble and say, regardless of what reproach it would bring me, regardless of the pains associated with it, I will forsake that like Moses forsook Egypt, and I will come unto God. For I feel inside of my heart some of this belongs to me. God is knocking upon my heart, and He wants me to come. You see, it's a crossroad. God says before you, Christ. And He says you go either to me or away from me. May you come to Christ even today. If God is knocking on your heart, won't you follow His leadership as we all stand and sing? 360. In the rainbow. Let's all stand. I just pray before I come, that God give us a message, God give us a word, that we all may hear it and respond. If God is knocking on your heart this morning, will you follow after Him today? If the Lord is calling you, I'm going to try to get to that place where he lives. I'm going to try to call upon his name. Jesus said, he said, my eyes are open wide to all that will seek me, and any that come unto me I will not turn any away. If you come to Christ, he will receive you in his soul, and make your muscles sing. And what a wonderful joy it is to be a child of God. Better to bless his knees than to be baptized in God's true love. And then I'll hold him in my heart and he'll rise. It's wonderful, wonderful to be a part of this land, to be a part of that home. That one day, whenever God returns to give you Christ Jesus, that I'll be ready to meet you. And I pray to everybody here today, committed, ready to meet Christ whenever He returns. And if not, that you would seek the Lord while He may be found. The Bible says that now is the appointed time. That now is the day of salvation. You can't go back. And you can't go to the past and go and retrieve something in the past. And you can't go to the future. For you don't know what is there. But now is the day of salvation. If God is knocking on your heart, I just pray that you follow the Lord today and come to this altar if God is leading you that way and seek the Lord. Oh, my heart goes out to any that are lost today that you would seek God and that us as God's people, that we would forsake the pleasures of Egypt and that we would humbly seek Christ. God help us today.