I was thinking about how when we went back to Arkansas, it was largely due to people, just a couple of people probably that knew us and a lot of other people that didn't know us. The six preachers that were there, five of them were all well known. I was completely unknown by most of the people, so we were there because of who we knew, which was just Mary and Darwin. And I knew some of the other people, but we weren't there because I knew them, but because of Darwin and Mary, I think. She didn't tell me that, but I suspect that that was the case. When we come to glory, the only reason that we'll be there is because of someone we knew who was there, the Lord Jesus Christ. There's only one reason that we're accepted by God, is because we're accepted by God because of Christ. Now, I've chosen this text of Scripture in Exodus chapter 3 today because it goes along with what we were studying in John chapter 8. If you would like to turn to John chapter 8 so we get the context and the explanation of this Scripture in Exodus chapter 3. John chapter 8, I want to read just a couple of selected verses. You can read the whole context in your own time. It says in verse 24, Jesus said, I said therefore unto you that you shall die in your sins, for if you believe not that I am, you shall die in your sins. The word he is in italics, so I skipped it on purpose. I am. And the title of today's message is, Christ is, I am. So here in verse 24, Jesus said, unless we believe that he is, I am, that we will die in our sins. That's how important this is. In verse 28, he says, then said Jesus to them, when you have lifted up the son of man, referring to when they would crucify Christ, then shall you know that I am. And that I do nothing of myself, but as my father has taught me, I speak these things. And he said, in verse 29, and he that sent me is with me. The father hath not left me alone, for I do always those things that please him. And now look on down, and I want to read from verse 54. How about 51? It says, Verily, verily, I say unto you, if a man keep my saying, he shall never see death. Then said the Jews to him, Now we know that thou hast a devil, Abraham is dead, and the prophets. And thou sayest, If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death. Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead, and the prophets are dead? Whom makest thou thyself? Jesus answered, If I honor myself, my honor is nothing. It is my Father that honoreth me, of whom you say that He is your God, yet you have not known Him. But I know Him, and if I should say I know Him not, I shall be a liar like unto you. But I know Him, and keep His saying. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it, and was glad. Then said the Jews to him, thou art not yet 50 years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said to them, verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am. Then took they up stones to cast at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by. I am. Now look at John chapter 18. John chapter 18, because we're taking these verses in the New Testament. In verse 1 of John 18, when Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Sidron, where was a garden into the which he entered and his disciples. And Judas also, which betrayed him, knew the place, for Jesus oftentimes resorted thither with his disciples. Judas then, having received a band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, cometh thither with lanterns and torches and weapons. Jesus, therefore knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth and said to them, Whom seek ye? They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am." And again, he is in italics. And Judas also, which betrayed him, stood with them. As soon then as he said unto them, I am, they went backward and fell to the ground. Then asked he them again, Whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus answered, I have told you that I am. If therefore you seek me, let these go their way. Let these go their way. Now that should resonate with you as you consider what we just heard read in Exodus chapter 3. If you want to turn back to Exodus chapter 3 now. In Exodus chapter 3, God sent Moses, a man. God chose Moses. God sent this man, Moses. to speak to the king of Egypt. The king of Egypt was probably one of the most powerful kings in all of history. And the people of Israel, the Hebrews, were held as slaves by this king for a period of time more than 400 years. So a long, long time. By not one king, of course, a whole series of kings, because one king didn't live 400 years. But the kings of Egypt started out with the king who knew Joseph and appointed Joseph over the whole kingdom over his own household. They forgot Joseph and they put the people of Israel in bondage as slaves to the king of Egypt and they had to serve them and that lasted over 400 years. So God chose a man, sent that man to the most powerful monarch on earth, to demand from that man, by God's command, to let go all of the slaves, the Hebrews, the children of Israel, to let go all of the Israelites who were God's chosen people. And then he also sent Moses to the children of Israel to declare to them that God was going to deliver them from the land of Egypt, from Pharaoh and that bondage. Now realize here, at this time Moses was 80 years old. He had grown up, and at the age of 40, he had seen an Egyptian smiting one of the Hebrews, and he defended the Israelite, and he killed the Egyptian, hid his body in the sand, but it was known by another person, so then, by more than just one person, so then Moses fled from Egypt, and for 40 years he was in the wilderness of Midian. The first verse of chapter 3 talks about that. Moses kept the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. Moses at this time is a shepherd. He has no weapons except a staff for a shepherd, a shepherd's staff. He has no training to be a preacher. He's just an unlearned, in that sense, as a preacher he was not taught. And yet, God chose him and sent him to the most powerful king in all the land, in all the world, really, this man who was Pharaoh at this time. Pharaoh is a title, it's not the name, it's the title of the king of Egypt. He sent Moses to him to demand that he let God's people go. And he also sent Moses to the children of Israel to tell them that God had seen their afflictions and heard their cry, and that he was sending Moses to deliver them. Now when we read this in, I'm going to change the batteries in our microphone. It's popping. I don't know if that's the problem. I'm going to change them. Hold on. So for those of you on Zoom, it's going to be about a minute here. They put scotch tape all over this. I'm going to get the other microphone. Just a minute. We're just going to try this one and see if it works any better. I grabbed the other microphone. One, two, three, okay. So God sent Moses to the king, this powerful monarch, and he also sent him to the people, God's people, the Israelites, to the one he gave a commandment, let my people go. To the other, he told them of God's deliverance. So if you notice in verse 7, it says, the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people, which are in Egypt, and I have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. So God knew they were crying. They were crying because of their slavery. Who were they crying to? Well, they had some notion of God because they had their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and they had retained some knowledge of Him, but they didn't know Him insofar as He's going to be revealed here in chapter 3 to Moses. And so he says to them in verse 8, I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them out of the land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey, unto the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. So at this point, Moses is just listening to what God says in the account here. And then he says, "...now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come up unto me. I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppressed them." Of course, Moses had seen that 40 years prior. And now he says in verse 10, come now therefore and I will send thee to Pharaoh that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. And notice what Moses says at that point. And Moses said to God, who am I? You were talking about the people of Canaan and that list of Canaanites, Hittites and Amorites and so on was given. But now when he gets to Pharaoh, Moses said, who am I? We're talking about Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. Who am I? He says to God, who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? So he's obviously painfully aware of his own inability to do what God told him to do. He's a man, and Pharaoh is the king, and obviously a powerful king. He was holding the children of Israel, which were more than a million people in bondage, in slavery, for over 400 years. Think about the condition of these people now. They had been slaves, unwilling captives, in prison, as it were, and made to work. And the king of Egypt made them work. And at this point, he had told them, he's going to tell them in a little while, not only were they building these cities and pyramids and whatever else they built there out of the bricks that they made, but when Moses went to Pharaoh, Pharaoh took away their straw and commanded them to continue the same amount of production without straw. They had to gather the straw. So he was a tyrant. He held over them their life. He held them all in bondage. None of them could escape. There was no hope. They were like people who had been so long in that condition that they didn't know. They didn't know how to be free. And you've seen this in our day, even someone in prison. I knew someone who was in prison and the time came for his release and he couldn't function outside of prison. He had grown so accustomed to that bondage of imprisonment and the life there that he committed a crime in order to get back into prison. because that's where he was comfortable. Just like the children of Israel, after they were brought out of Egypt and into the wilderness, they said, they kept complaining, oh, that we were back in Egypt because they were not used to being free. And this is part of the oppression that the king of Egypt had held them as slaves for so long that they didn't even know what freedom was. And yet they were under this bondage. Now, I was looking up And there's ways you can do this on the internet. I was looking up to see who over history has been kept in slavery by which kings. And you can see there's a long list of people. Millions of people have been kept in slavery for long periods of time. And my question to the computer was, in history, who has been held captive the longest? and which kings held dominion over the greatest number of people and over the greatest areas of land. And of course it gave me all these people, historical figures. But then it occurred to me, just this morning, there's a slavery that's greater than all of the slaveries throughout history that the computer reported. And there's a king, a tyrant, who holds absolute power over his slaves and has held absolute power over all people throughout all of time. And so that this text of scripture here is talking about that condition of God's people. And so if we understand scripture, it's talking about a people who have no power over their captors, over their taskmasters. They have nothing. They're absolutely broke. They have no wealth. When they left, God had to take what was the Egyptians and give it to them. The Egyptians were like pushing them out. Take my gold, take my gorgeous cloth or whatever it is that they ended up using to make the tabernacle with and all the vessels, the gold and things like that. So they had nothing, they had no power, they had no weapons. God sent a man, Moses, who had no training and had no weapons. They had no army. And this is the context in which God is going to deliver these people who didn't know what freedom was. They didn't know because they'd never been free. And this is a picture of us absolutely in bondage to sin, under the condemnation of our own sin. And that sin has absolute rule over us. We've never known freedom from sin. And then God sends a man, and the man comes from God. Notice he says in verse 8, I am come down to deliver them. So this is a great claim, right? Who's going to deliver these people out of the hand of the king of Egypt? In chapter 9 of Exodus, in verse 16, it says this. Listen to these words in Exodus 9 verse 16. God says, in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, the king of Egypt, Pharaoh, to show in thee my power, that my name may be declared throughout all the earth. So God's purpose in allowing Pharaoh, this wicked, wicked king, who was oppressing all of these people in this land, making them serve him and his people. And the people of Egypt were happy to have it that way. The armies of Egypt held them. There was no one who could deliver them except God. And God says, I raised you up. And I raised you up for this purpose to show my power in you. And that's what Moses is saying here in verse 11. Who am I to go to Pharaoh? And he said, and the Lord said in verse 12, Exodus 3.12. 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 of Egypt, people out of Egypt, you shall serve God upon this mountain. He's talking about Horeb, Mount Sinai. And Moses said to God, and that was God saying, I'm going to bring you out. It's so certain that I'm going to give you this promise that on this very mountain you're standing on right now, this is where you and the people of Israel that I deliver from Egypt are going to be. So you'll know that it was me who said it. God always speaks this way. This is very important. God always says what shall be before it comes to pass. In other words, from Scripture, he says it this way, he tells from the beginning what will be at the end. He calls the end from the beginning, before things are ever done. In Acts chapter 15, verse 18, I've quoted this many times, unknown unto God are all his works from eternity. And now, hold that thought. God knows everything He's going to do from eternity, Acts 15, verse 18. And then in Ephesians 2, verse 10, it says, we are His workmanship. So God's works are His people, and known unto God are all His works from eternity. Does God know His people? Yes. How so? They are His workmanship. They're the work of His hand. In Psalm 100, we didn't create ourselves, He made us. We didn't make ourselves, the Lord made us. And so, and that's what he's saying here. He says, I'm certainly going to bring you out, and here's the promise that you'll know I did this when you serve God on this mountain. And verse 13, And Moses said to God, Behold, when I come to the children of Israel, they shall say to me, and shall say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they shall say to me, What is his name? What shall I say to them? Now this is understandable. Moses is saying, I can't do this. Why are you sending me? I'm not able to do this. And the children of Israel certainly can't help. And so when I come to them, they're going to naturally, they're going to ask this question, who sent you? What is his name? Who is the God who sent you? So when we see that, we understand that when God says here his name, he's really telling Moses who he is, who he is. And now what we see is that in the gospel, God reveals himself to us. He reveals to... Oh, sorry. All right, I'm gonna go without the microphone. I'll just try to shout. God reveals himself to us, and that's his name, and it's necessary for those the Lord is going to save that he reveals himself to us. Notice the context here. God sent Moses, a man, to Pharaoh, and he did not reveal to Pharaoh who he was. Did he? He just said, the Lord God of the Hebrews has sent me to you saying, let my people go that they may serve me. And what did Pharaoh say? I don't know the Lord. Who is the Lord? Away with you. But to the Hebrews, to the Israelites, Moses says, I've come to you from the God of your fathers. And now Moses anticipated that they were going to ask, what's his name? And that is the context here. The one who was sending Moses to them is also telling Moses who he is in order that when he comes to his people, he makes known himself to them by his name. His name is who he is. And so Moses asked the question, what is his name? Who are you? And so it's necessary for us to know God in order for us to be delivered from our captor, from our enslavement. You see, this is why he came. Why did God reveal this name? Why did he send Moses? Look at verse 8 again. I am come down to deliver them. Salvation is the reason why God makes himself known to us. It's to make known who it is who saves us and make known to us that the one who saves us, I mean, the God who has sent this man to us, the one who saves us, is known in his salvation. Salvation is the reason God has sent Moses, and it's the way God is known to the people of Israel. He says in verse 14, and God said to Moses, I am that I am, and he said, this is God speaking, thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel, I am has sent me to you. Alright, that's his name. And we just saw in John chapter 8 and chapter 18 that Jesus Christ said, I am. So what can we conclude from that? Is that the Lord Jesus Christ is the I am of the Old Testament. I am. He is the one whose name is I am. And he is the one who sent Moses to the children of Israel to deliver them out of their bondage. Now, notice back in verse 7 again, here, in Exodus 3, he says, the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people. Who are these people? Well, they're the Lord's people. They're my people. See, in verse 7? I saw, I have seen their affliction, my people which are in Egypt." You see how this is all about a distinguishing salvation? A salvation that's of a particular people? My people? It's not Egypt. God is not going to save Egypt here. He's going to save Israel out of Egypt, isn't he? He doesn't reveal Himself to the Egyptians, He does reveal Himself to the Israelites. And He's not going to save the Egyptians, He is going to save the Israelites. But notice here, He not only has heard their cry, but He's the one who brought them into this. He brought them into this situation of their bondage. Remember when he sent Joseph first, and then he brought all of the Israelites into Egypt, and they were there, they seemed to be prospering, and right away, the pharaoh dies, and they're brought into bondage. And that pharaoh says, I'm going to kill all the newborns, and he tried to subdue, and tried to limit the growth of Israel, and he couldn't do that. And so God is the one who had promised to Abraham back in Genesis 15 that his children who would be brought into Egypt, they would be slaves there, and then he would deliver them. God knows. that he's going to bring his people into trouble. God is the one who brings his people into trouble. God is the one who does that in order that they might cry and then in their cry he comes to deliver them and he reveals himself to them in order that they might know him as their savior, you see. And this is the whole gospel, isn't it? God sees the bondage of his people under sin. God sees their condemnation because of their sin. God sees the justice, his own justice, his own character that requires that condemnation. And God himself fulfills all that God himself requires in order to deliver us from what we deserve for our sin. And this is incredible, isn't it? that God would meet what he himself, in his person, in his nature, in his character, requires from us. He would deliver us from the very sin that we got ourselves into. And he makes known his name in that. He says, I hear you cry. They didn't know really who they were crying to. They were crying. Oh, help us! They were crying to God, but they didn't know his name until God makes it known here. If God is going to save us, he's going to reveal his name to us, so that when we cry, we cry to the one we know as the God who saves. You see, notice this in Romans chapter 10. God doesn't just say, oh God, we don't just say, oh God, save me, do we? Because there are lots of people who say, God this and God that. And most people who are teaching and preaching these days talk about a God who cannot save, because that God requires us to do our part in order that we would be saved. He requires us to behave a certain way in order for us to be saved, and yet we can't do any of that. But in Romans chapter 10, verse 13, he says, "...whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." And what is his name? Well, in Exodus, I am. And Jesus said, I am. Unless you believe that I am, you shall die in your sins. And before Abraham was, I am. And when they came to arrest him, Jesus said, I am. And they fell backward. And then he told them, who do you seek? Jesus of Nazareth. I told you I am. If you seek me, then let these go their way, because he's the Savior, you see. I am the one who saves. The one we call upon is the Lord Jesus Christ as the Savior of helpless, sin-bound, helpless people under condemnation, under the power of sin. Look at Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5. It says in verse 20, the law entered that the offense might abound. You see, this is exactly describing the situation in Egypt. When Moses demanded Pharaoh to let Israel go, Pharaoh laid more bondage, more demands on them. You need to do more work. Get busy. And I'm not going to give you what you need to do the work. Just get busy and get it done. That's the demands of the law, isn't it? It requires, it demands, and it threatens, and it provides no help. It provides no help. And what does our sin do in response to that? It gets worse, and worse, and worse. Our pride whelms up, and our lusts are excited, and we just think of ourselves as being some kind of a religious zealot, and we get proud, and we try to do everything God requires, and we take some confidence in that, and we're completely in the ditch. We don't know where we're at. We don't know God from anything. And then the Lord has to reveal Himself. When the law entered, sin abounded. This was God's design. God designed it so that by His law we would be made to know what we really are, horrible sinners without hope and without strength. But then He says, but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Now this is phenomenal. We were sinners. We offended God. But God's grace overcame our sin like a mighty tyrant. He overthrew that devil. He says in verse 21, "...that his sin hath reigned to death." As a tyrant, Pharaoh reigned over the Israelites with absolute power and brought them into death, requiring them to work all the while they were going to death. Yet, that sin reigned unto death, grace now reigns. The sovereign God, our Savior, reigns through His own righteousness unto eternal life, and that one is Jesus Christ, our Lord. You see, we're calling on Jesus Christ, our Lord, who reigns by grace unto eternal life because of His righteousness. We have no hope, do we? We have no hope. We can't produce one iota of anything that God requires. Our hearts are bad. And not only our words and our thoughts and our actions, but our hearts. We're born in sin, and we continue in sin, and we've never known anything but this slavery of sin. And we don't even know how to be free. When Jesus told the truth to those men in John 8, they said they wanted to kill him. And so we see this back in Exodus chapter 3, I am. What does it mean, I am? Well, this is the revelation of the gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ is I AM. But what does that mean to us? Well, he says it throughout the whole New Testament, doesn't he? They didn't know him. He makes himself known. He makes himself known as the one who saves. The one who saves. First of all, I AM. If you just look at what it means in scripture, it means the one who depends on no one, and yet everyone depends on him. I think about this all the time. I'm absolutely helpless. I can do nothing. I have all my sin and I can do nothing about it. I have no power, no strength, no wisdom, no obedience, no righteousness. I'm a helpless, ruined sinner and it's all my fault. I'm absolutely dependent upon God for light, for revelation, for righteousness, for anything. I'm helpless and I'm utterly dependent upon God in Christ. Well, guess what? This is no revelation to God. He's the I am. He's the only one who is utterly independent of everything and yet everything depends on Him. The Lord Jesus Christ loves to be the one we depend upon. He's the all-sufficient. I am. He depends on no one. Everyone depends on Him. And He makes His people know Himself as the all-sufficient Savior of sinners. The sovereign Savior. Not just a Savior that we call upon, but the one who actually causes us to call upon Him. Who saves us when we didn't know Him. Who reveals Himself to us when we were enslaved and in the dark. That's the first thing about I AM. It's all-sufficient, self-sufficient, eternal, unchanging, unfailing, immutable, the I AM. In other words, all that God is, He is to His people for their eternal salvation. That's what I am means. All that God is in His nature and character, He is to His people for their eternal salvation. And he is that in the Lord Jesus Christ, the man God sent. The man God sent, the one we preach. It says throughout the Old Testament, all the names of God, Jehovah. He's the Lord who provides, the Lord our healer, the Lord our banner of victory, our sanctifier, our peace, our shepherd, our righteousness. The Lord Jesus Christ in the New Testament says, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. He is eternal life according to 1 John 1 and 5. He's the true vine, the shepherd. God is my salvation. He's everything, isn't He? Is there anything that is not found in Him that we need? No. Everything is in Christ. He's my light, my salvation. He's the water of life, the well of living water, the bread of life, the all-sufficient, ever-present, unfailing, unchanging, eternal God, the Lord Jesus Christ. We call on Him, the one who has compassion on sinners, who sees our need, who hears our cry, even before we know Him, and makes Himself known to us in the gospel of our salvation. We have nothing. He brings us out of our slavery, and what does He do? He gives us everything. He does two things. He saves us from our sin, which is entirely by grace. We don't deserve to be given a full, free payment of the debt we owe to God and delivered from the death we owe, eternal death. We don't deserve that. But He not only delivers us from the guilt and condemnation of sin, But He raises us up and makes us His children and gives us His Spirit to know what He's done and to give us glory, making us heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. He delivers us not only from the bondage, but freedom unto eternal life and liberty. so that we are given faith to know these things. He gives us everything. He takes away all the bad and gives us the glories of heaven with the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what he's saying here in verse 7. I've seen the affliction of my people in Egypt. I heard their cry by reason of their slave masters or taskmasters. I know their sorrows. I'm come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large flowing with milk and honey to the place of these people who were going to be cast out of that land to give them a land of promise, a land of rest, a land of plenty, a land where they didn't have to do anything. God watered it. The fruit there, everything grew in abundance. It was huge. And they were just without any slave drivers anymore. They were free. And this is describing our eternal rest in Christ with eternal glory. Notice in 2nd Timothy, turn to 2nd Timothy chapter 2. 2nd Timothy. See this? This is phenomenal, what God has done for us in Christ. He says in 2nd Timothy chapter 2, notice this. He says in verse 8, "...remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel." 2 Timothy 2 verse 8. So Christ was raised from the dead. He was of the seed of David. This was promised in the Old Testament. God has raised him from the dead. And he's obviously seated in glory. He's the king over all, the Lord Jesus Christ, who came. He was delivered for our offenses. He was raised for our justification. He was given glory with God as he had before. Verse 9, wherein I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even unto bonds, but the word of God is not bound. Therefore, Paul says, I endure all things. for the elect's sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory." You see? Salvation with eternal glory. The two things. Deliverance from sin. Deliverance to children of God in heaven, seated at Christ's right hand with eternal glory. Everything given to Christ is given to them with Him. We didn't deserve one thing of this, did we? We didn't do anything. We were slaves. We were in bondage. We were afflicted because of our own foolishness. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 3. 1 Corinthians chapter 3. And what did God do when we were in that case? Well, He sent His Son to deliver us. Christ died for our sins. That's why He died. For our sins. And He rose again for our justification and He seeded to give us eternal glory with Himself. Verse 21. He said, Let no man glory in men, for all things are yours. That's big, isn't it? Is anything left out? No. He goes on, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, that would be Paul or Apollos or Peter, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come, all are yours. Amazing. Not only has your sin been put upon the Son of God as the Lord Jesus Christ and born by Him in all of the filth and guilt and shame of it and the reproaches of it and the pain of soul, He bore the wrath of God to take it away. He so satisfied God that now God looks upon him and says, Everything that I have is too small to give as a consequence of what He did for His people. And He gives them everything. All things are yours. You are Christ's, and Christ is God's. This is how far God has lifted us from our sin. It's all in Christ. It's all because His name is I AM. There's nothing that God is that He is not to His people in that name. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of sinners, the Almighty Sovereign God who saves those who cannot save themselves, In fact, He will not allow them to save themselves. Not only can they not, but He won't allow it. He will not share His glory with another. I am. The Lord Jesus Christ said, if you don't believe I am, you will die in your sins. We have to know our condition and that God, the Lord Jesus Christ, is our only Savior and call upon Him as our Savior and give Him all the glory. Day by day, we go to God as our Father, pour out our hearts to Him. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, as He's revealed Himself, we just say, here I am again. I'm utterly dependent upon You and Your Son. Bring me to Yourself. Deliver me out of my sin. Bring me to Yourself according to Your promises. Make me an object of Your saving grace. and overthrow my enemies like Pharaoh. Do away with them. Command them to release me and cause them to make it happen by the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your wonderful grace. Thank you for the Lord, our Savior, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Lord of heaven and glory. And thank you that you've raised him up and seated him, that he rules over all and does all things well and can save even sinners like us. We trust him. We have no other hope. We're dead. without Him, and He is the resurrection and the life, as He said, I am the resurrection and the life, and so we trust Him. Lord, raise us up. Bring us to Yourself. Don't let us go. Don't leave us to ourselves. Give us this grace of Your Holy Spirit to believe You and this grace to love You and to love Your people. We need everything that You require of us and we find it all in Your Son. Help us, Lord. Help us. Save us for Your namesake and glorify Yourself and subdue our enemies. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.