I love those verses. He doesn't slumber or sleep. That's kind of what we were talking about. Part of Sunday school this morning upstairs in the adult class. Our God, He's everlasting. I'm thankful for that. He is a refuge. He's a dwelling place. That first verse of Psalm 90 was saying he's a dwelling place for every generation. I say praise God because, you know, I don't know about you. I need a dwelling place in my generation, but I'm glad there's another dwelling place and refuge for the younger generation too. That's a blessing. Praise God for that. But we'll be in Exodus chapter 6. Just going to look at a couple verses. Exodus 6, verse 6 is where we'll start. And this is in, we've been looking at kind of Moses, at the early part of Moses' life in leading the children of Israel. This is before the plague. So Exodus 6, verse 6 says, Wherefore, say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched-out arm and with great judgments, and I will take you to Me for a people, and I will be to you a God, and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you in unto the land concerning the witch. I did swear to give it to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob, and I will give it to you for a heritage, I am the Lord. And Moses spake unto the children of Israel, but they hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit and for cruel bondage. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Here, Heavenly Father, we thank you for the sweet spirit we've already felt, the testimonies, the songs. Lord, you're a good God. And Lord, I pray that you'd use me this morning to preach. Lord, that you'd fill me with the unction of the Holy Spirit. Lord, help us to listen. Lord, that you'd lead us and guide us. Lord, touch us, challenge us, encourage us. And if there's any lost, I pray that they'd come to know Jesus today. And it's in Jesus' name we pray, and amen. So we've been in the book of Exodus. God had called Moses to confront Pharaoh. and tell him to let the people go. And we looked at in chapter 5, Pharaoh's response to Moses was, who is the Lord that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? He didn't know who God was. And then he said, I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go. So in chapter 6 at the beginning, in verse 1, above what we read, God tells Moses this, Now shalt thou see what I will do unto Pharaoh, for with a strong hand shall he let them go. You know, Egypt, they understood one thing, and that was power. But they didn't know God, right? They didn't know that God, that's what Pharaoh said. They knew all the idols. They knew all the gods that they had created. So what God was going to do and what He will do through the different plagues is He's going to one by one show them that He is more powerful than their invented God. You wonder why the plagues, they weren't just random things. They weren't haphazard. It was God attacking each one of those Egyptian made-up deities. A lot of them were patterned after animals and things like that. So it wasn't an accident that he sent the frogs. It wasn't an accident that he turned the Nile into blood. That was to show that our God was more powerful. That's what he was showing. He was showing, but here's the thing, Pharaoh refuses and makes the children of Israel's life harder. That happens in chapter 5 as well. And then they start to blame Moses. Isn't that what happens? Remember we talked about that? You know, life gets harder, so they blame God's man instead of blaming the very Egyptians that they were slaves under. But here, God, so in the beginning, God and Moses are talking and Moses obviously is frustrated, but in this section right here in verses 6 through 8, God gives a message back to Moses that he says, I want you to take this, back to the children of Israel. Take this message back to them, and He is going to give them seven statements, seven promises. You notice in these few verses, He says, I will, seven times. He's gonna tell them exactly what He's gonna do. And you know, I love our God. He gives us promises, and I'm thankful for that. And one thing I noticed, you will see at the beginning, before the first I will, after the last I will God says the same phrase he says so he's getting ready to give them seven promises but before he starts he says I am the Lord you see that in verse six you see where he says that and then what's he say at the end of verse eight after the seventh I will he repeats it again He says, I am the Lord. If you want to really trust in the promises of God, you have to realize who the God is that's giving us the promise in the first place. Our God is not like some man who has limited resources, and doesn't know what the future holds, I'm glad that our Lord, He knows all of time, He knows the future, and His riches can't be measured, His power is unlimited, so when that I Am, when that I Am, the Lord, gives us a promise in His Word, we know He's good for it. See, that's what He's getting ready to tell them. I'm glad I Am the Lord, He's a promise giver, and He's a promise keeper, praise God. where you and I will fall short in making promises many times unintended. I'm glad that God will fulfill every promise. So look at it. We're going to have to go quick. So let's look at verse 6. What's the first promise? He says, I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. You know, you think about what they made them do. Pharaoh made them create bricks, make bricks as slaves, and they would have used basically a hoe, a shovel to break up the dirt, gather the soil, mix it with water, add straw to strengthen it, and they would put it in these forms, and they would let the sun dry that mud, And it would turn into a brick and then they would take those bricks and carry them off to what they needed I don't know about you, but that sounds like hard work that doesn't sound like the work I do Sitting at a desk and typing into a computer and a glowing screen This is hard back-breaking work in the heat of the day and in fact parts of Egypt we know are desert and So remember, when God first sends Moses, what's Pharaoh do? He gets mad, he says, I don't know the Lord. And then he says, now take away the straw. And I want them to make the same number of bricks, this time without any straw. So their hard work got even harder. And when they didn't meet their quota, they were beaten. We see that's already happened. And one thing that I want you to realize is this hard work, this back-breaking work, we have to remember, in the Bible, Egypt always is a spiritual picture of sin and the world. Every time. So when you think about sin and the world, and think about just this back-breaking labor, aren't you glad that the Lord said, He promised I'll bring you out from under those burdens of the Egyptians? That back-breaking task of making bricks is very similar to the heavy burden that a sinner carries with their life of sin. It's the same kind of burden. They just don't always realize it. Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 11, 28. Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. I tell you what, God said, I'm gonna bring you out from that burden. I'm gonna get you out from making bricks all day in the hot sun. I'm going to take that load from you. I don't know about you. Do you remember the day when you knelt down and asked Jesus Christ to forgive you of your sins? You might not have been making bricks, but that same heavy load was lifted off of you just the same. This is the God. He said, I'll take away your burdens. I'll give you rest from that. And I say, praise God. He is able to do that. So not only He says, I'll give you rest, I'll bring you out, but look further in verse 6, I will rid you of their bondage. You know what I hear over and over again about this world? This world is so fanatical about being free, right? I want to make my own choices, I want to live my own life, nobody's going to tell me what to do or what to say. And you know what? It creeps into some people that claim to be Christians. They'll say, you know what? I like Jesus, but I don't like organized religion. Well, here's the problem. He's the head of the church, so you're in trouble. But here's the thing. The Bible says if you are not saved by Jesus Christ, you are a slave to sin. That's what the Bible says. Romans 6.17, But God be thanked that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that from a form of doctrine which was delivered unto you, being then made free from sin, ye became servants of righteousness. You know what happened as a sinner? Sin ruled our lives. We serve sin, that's what the Bible said. And sometimes we think about serving sin and immediately in our minds we think about people that are addicted to things, right? Addicted to drugs, addicted to alcohol, and they chase after that and it basically enslaves them. They have to do everything for that next fix or that next high or whatever. But you know what? It doesn't take just drugs and alcohol. You know, there are people that are lost today that are slaves to pleasure. They will do everything in their life to gain some form of pleasure out of whatever it is. It doesn't have to be a drug. It could be a hobby. Have you ever seen people like that? They dedicate their whole life to something. You know what, people dedicate their lives not only to pleasure, but lust. Some people dedicate their lives to self-gratification. Some people are led by greed, and any pursuit of money just drives their whole life, and you can just go on and on and on. But aren't you glad? that Jesus Christ died for our sins. We can call on His name for salvation and the bondage. He can break the bonds of sin and the chains of sin. And He says, we become servants of righteousness. You realize this world that is lost, they are serving the devil and they don't even realize it. They don't even realize it's no different than the children of Israel being under Pharaoh. They are serving the devil today. But I'm glad when He opened my eyes, when He gave me a new heart, when He gave me a new life and forgave me of my sins, He released that bondage of the devil. The devil no longer owns us anymore. He is not over us anymore. Now we choose to sin. instead of it ruling over us. But there He goes. Verse 6, number 1, I'll bring you out from under the burdens. Number 2, I will rid you of their bondage. But let's keep going. What's He say? Next, the third promise, I will redeem you. Remember, Egypt is a spiritual picture of sin, and sin always has to be judged. It has to be dealt with. And if you die in your sins, you will face the punishment of those sins, and you'll face judgment, and you'll spend an eternity in hell. But you know what? I'm glad we don't have to do that, because we can turn to Jesus Christ. Remember, sin has to be judged and punished. Well, guess what? Jesus Christ took our sin and our guilt and our punishment to the cross, and He died in our place. He endured the suffering and the pain so that we could call on His name for forgiveness of sins. We go back to the children of Israel. How were they redeemed? Well, at the last plague, remember what God tells them to do ahead of time? He says, I want you to take that lamb. and I want you to slit its throat and put the blood on the door post and the side post there and the death angel would come and pass over their house. You know that? That's the story that's yet to come. But that picture of the Passover lamb was just a small foreshadowing of the Passover lamb, Jesus Christ. He paid for our sins by the shedding of His blood. And that's how we were made free. It wasn't cheap, the price that Jesus He paid a heavy price to set us free from the bondage of sin. And that's the price that had to be taken. Was God coming in the form of a man, living a perfect life, and dying in our place? What's 1 Corinthians 6.19 says what? Know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and have not of your own? For you are bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your spirit, in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. Aren't you glad? We're not a slave to the devil. We're not a slave to sin. But we are a slave to Jesus Christ. And I'll tell you what, His work is much better because He loves us. The devil hated us. He's a liar, and a thief, and a murderer, and wants to destroy lives. But I'm glad I'm under the one that wants to give life, and give mercy, and who gave His life for me. Not only did He say, He said, I'll give you rest, I'll deliver you from bondage, I'll redeem you, but in verse 7 it says, and I will take you to Me for a people. The children of Israel, they're slaves. They're property of Egypt. But God was going to set them free. And He's saying, I want to have a relationship with you. That's what He's saying. He's saying, you're going to be My people. My chosen nation. And you think, well, how does that equate to the church today? 1 Peter 2.9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light, which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God, which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. We are now, when you get saved, He doesn't just leave you, He wants a relationship with you. Now you belong to God. You're one of His children. We obtain mercy from God through Jesus Christ. So now we're a called out bunch of peculiar people. We're a joint heir with Christ. And it goes on and on. I say praise God. He didn't save me to leave me. He didn't save me and you to let us go on our own. He saved us so we could be one of His forever. Praise God. Not only did He say, I'll take you to Me for a people, He said, and I will be to you a God. Those children of Israel had spent 400 years in bondage. You know what they knew? That group, all of them, that generation growing up at that point, all they knew was idol worship. They were surrounded by it. As they were carrying bricks, they had to pass temples and different statues and different things that would show these different gods that they created and idols. So they were surrounded by these Egyptian gods. But you know what? Our God, the true God, not only did He want them for a people, He said, I will be to you a God. You know what He's saying? I don't want to be one of your gods. I don't want to be just one thing that you worship. I want you to throw out all that junk from Egypt, throw out every idol from the nations around you, and I want to be your one God. The one God that takes care of you. The one God that rules over you. The one God that leads you and protects you and everything else. That's what He said. He said, I'm going to deliver you. I'm going to show you that My power is greater than every god of Egypt through the plagues. I'm going to prove to you that there's only one true God. And then I'm going to deliver you. But after that, I want you to worship Me. That's what He's saying. I want you to serve Me and not other gods. You know what I'm glad? Our God wants an exclusive relationship with us. He doesn't want to share us with anyone else. I've said it before, it's like a marriage. I don't want to share my spouse with some other man, and I hope you're the same way. I don't want a God... You know what's amazing? Us and God can have a one-on-one relationship, and He can have that with every one of us, and it doesn't diminish anything. But you know what He wants? He wants one on one. He says, I want all of you and I'm going to give you all of me. Praise God for that. He's not holding back on us. When we get to heaven, we're going to be His bride. And I say, praise the Lord. His plan, like I said, all of Him and Him to have all of us. I will be to you a God. We're moving along. Verse 8, And I will bring you into the land. That's the same land He had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And He said, I'm going to continue to be with you. I'm going to guide you and protect you until you get to that place where I want you to be at. You know, the children of Israel, different times over the years, could have felt like God had abandoned them, right? When they faced difficult situations, when they faced trouble. Remember, even as He's led them out, they got hungry, and they were complaining. They got thirsty, and they were complaining. But what did God do? He always provided food, and water, and supply, and He gave them everything that they needed. And I'll tell you what, He'll give you everything you need as well. He may not give you extra, He may not give it before you need it, but right on time, every time, there is God. and Psalm 37 5, commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. You trust in God, and He will give you. I tell you what, even when it looks like the direction that we're headed is trouble, and it looks like failure, and it looks like we're going to face all of these things, and it doesn't make sense, God said, I will bring you into the promised land. That's what He told them. For the children of Israel, that Promised Land was a real place where they would live and serve and worship God. I'll tell you what. For you and I, the promised land isn't a location. It's not this nation. It's not this place. The promised land is a spiritual thing for you and I. You want to know where it's at? Many people say the promised land is heaven, but they had to fight in the promised land. I'm not fighting any enemies in heaven. I don't know about you. You know what the promised land is? It's a spiritual place for us where we live and serve God and trust God and His will. It's right in the middle of where He wants you. That's where the promised land is for you and I. You know what He said? I'll get you there. Right? I'll get you there. You're thinking, what do you mean? If we're not traveling someplace... You know, God's called us to do things, and it seems like it's impossible, and it seems like we can't get to where God needs us to be. God said, I'll get you there. You trust Me. I'll get you to the promised land. And He would. You know, He'll do that for you and I as well. He'll get you to the place where He wants you to serve Him, but you've got to trust Him. from the first step away from Egypt, you gotta trust Him. To walking through the Red Sea, you gotta trust Him. To when you can see the enemy running after you, trying to get you back, you still trust Him. To when you get closer and you see the walls of Jericho, you still trust Him. To when you cross over, you trust Him. To when you're fighting, like Caleb's saying, give me this mountain, you still trust Him. All the way to the end, and we just keep trust Him until He comes back to get us. the whole thing. Keep trusting in God. We entrust Him and step away from where you want to be to where He wants you to be. He said, I'll bring you there. And He repeats, I'm the Lord. But not only that, He says the last one, He says, I will give it you for a heritage. That promised land, He said, I'll give it to you for an inheritance for your children forever. Guess what? There's a land over there in the Middle East that He promised. And guess what? They have it right now. They don't have every spot that they should have, but they're there. Guess what else? There is a capital there called Jerusalem. And although people try to say it's not the right one, and everything else, it's going to survive. Why? not because of the strength of their military, not because they have better spies or anything else or greater numbers, but because God said they're my people and that's the land I've given them and one day the Jerusalem that's there, Jesus said in Revelation 3.12, one day a new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from my God would there stand in its place. So I'm here to tell you, that spirit That real promised land, it's not going anywhere. It may look rough. Every nation may surround it one day like the Bible says it was. They may fire rockets into it and everything else. But God said, I don't care about the rockets. I don't care about the armies or the chariots or the tanks or the jets or anything else. That's my people. I've given it to them. And not only did I give it to them that day, not only did I give it to them the day they stepped foot into it, He said, I'll give it to them for a heritage. forever. You know what? The promises that we have of God, they're not just temporary promises. They don't just last for a few years. They don't last as long as God's supply doesn't run out. They don't last as long as we're faithful. They'll last forever. In fact, if every one of us quit today, the church would still go on because God said it would. If every one of us turned our back on the Lord, the Lord would still do His work here. He'd just do it without us. I tell you what, why don't we just grab ahold of the promises of God and realize that they are true and they are forever. And when He says, I will do what I said I'll do, we can just trust in Him. Why? Not because He's any God. Not because He's one of the gods. Because He is the Lord. He said, I am the Lord. But you know what? You know one thing I realized? He says, I will, I will, I will. He says it seven times. You know what He doesn't say? He doesn't say you will. And He doesn't say we will. Notice that? I think too many times we try to help God out. We try to say, you know what, if it was you will, and we were thinking of ourselves, put yourself in the shoes of the children of Israel, if it were up to us, they couldn't escape Pharaoh's bondage. They didn't have an army. They couldn't escape His power. We couldn't escape the bondage of sin. We couldn't save ourselves, right? Why do we think that we know we can't save ourselves? Why do we think we can do anything else without God? Why do we think that God needs help? I think one of the worst things that's ever happened, one of the most lasting mistakes in the entire Bible that I can find, is when Abraham and Sarah tried to help God out. Remember, God promised them a son and they were looking around and they're looking at their bodies and said, well, we obviously can't do it ourselves, but why don't we use Hagar the handmaid? And then out comes Ishmael. God never needed that. We're still dealing with that today. Why do we think we need to help God? He's saying, I'll do it. Let me take care of it. I'm glad God cleans up our messes. But you know what God says? Let me take care of it and there won't be a mess. You know what I love? His promises are eternal. John 14, 1-3, Jesus said, Let not your heart be troubled. Ye believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto Myself, that where I am, there ye may be also. One day, Jesus Christ is going to call us home and take us to the place that He prepared. Notice! We're not trying to help God right now prepare our place in heaven. We're not trying to get there, right? I trust in Him to split the skies like He said He would. I trust in Him to either raise me from the dead or to take me alive just like He took Enoch to heaven, right? I'm not going up there to help Him to work in heaven today, later today. I trust Him to do that. If we trusted Him to save us. And we trust that heaven will be beyond amazing. We need to trust Him right now where we're at. It's hard. Right? Let's look at what we landed with. Verse 9. Moses spake unto the children of Israel. He told them all these seven promises. And he told them, I am the Lord. That's where it came from. But they hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit and for cruel bondage. That many years and generations of slavery had beat them down. And they saw how big Pharaoh was and how powerful he was. But you know what? One of the things we know from Ezekiel chapter 20 is that they carried some of those Egyptian idols out with them and kept serving them. You know what the problem is? The children of Israel saw the idols and gods of Egypt as greater than the God of heaven. Right? They were more afraid of Pharaoh and his gods than their own God. And they said, I don't believe it. And you're thinking how foolish, right? Because we can rewind, we can fast forward into the future and we can see that God would bring them out with a mighty hand, that God would take them to the promised land. But you know where we're at right now? We're in verse 9 territory, aren't we? There are promises God has made that we haven't seen fulfilled yet. But who are we going to trust today? Are we going to trust the God of this world? Are we going to trust the God that we've made of ourselves? Right? Are we going to trust ourselves? Or are we going to trust Jesus Christ? Are we going to trust His Word? You know what? It's hard. Because they looked around horizontally and they said, we're in trouble. The labor's hard. The bondage is we can't get out of it. I know God's saying He'll free us. Moses, I'm glad God's talking to you, but I just don't believe it. We're going to be right back to the brickyard tomorrow. You want Him here to tell you? The devil wants to try to convince you that God's not more powerful than He is. He tries to convince us of that. But you know what? You know what I think about? In Isaiah, I didn't write it down, but there was a time that Satan made some I will claims. You remember that? He said, I will raise my throne above God's. He makes five I will statements in Isaiah. Satan does. How many has he made good on? Zero. God, the true God, made seven I will promises. He kept all of them. You're thinking, Mike, are you sure? Go look at your map and see where Israel is. God's kept all seven. And He intends to keep every promise He's made to us. You know what this is? This is a picture of redemption right here. God's setting them free, paying the price, dying in their place. If you don't know Jesus Christ today, He is the Redeemer. He is redemption. You call on Jesus' name, He's already paid the price. He'll forgive you of your sins. But you know what? We have to choose today. Are we going to trust in ourselves? Trust in this world? Trust in the government? Or are we going to trust in God as we're closing? Are we going to trust in our possession, our career, our skills? Or are we going to trust in God? Are we going to trust in what we can fix ourselves? Are we going to trust us? Are we going to fully trust God and hand it all over? Who are we trusting today? Because God's trying to prove himself to us too. He's got a whole book full of promises. And it's no different than him saying, I will, I will, I will. It's all in here. I don't know about you. I'm looking forward to some of the I wills coming to pass. But you know what? Until that day happens, we need to say, God, I believe you. God, I trust you. But help my unbelief. Help me to take another step of faith. Help me to be as close to your will as I can. I'm going to ask everyone to stand.