Thank you, John. I love you, man of God, and thanks for being here. Amen. Well, Brother John mentioned to me back in August. He said, I want you in the meeting. I remember when God began to work in John's life. And I was really thrilled. I remember the times that he called us apart and wanted us to pray over him and pray for him. And I'm real thankful that God's doing what he's doing. And I appreciate this great number. Well, you know, I'm not used to preaching to many people at all. I started churches down through there and a lot of times I'd get up to about 30 and the crowd would get too big, I'd leave. And then some other young preacher with a fire on him would come in and preach something. But I want to bless the Lord that God's got John up here at Mount Carmel. And I met his pastor. And I want to thank God for his brother Phillip. Great man of God. Learned to love him since I've been here. And I think I'm probably on time, John. I want to thank God for blessing me to be able to live this long. And I realize I won't be here no great amount of time. Talked to my friend, Brother Sammy Allen, this morning. And we won't be here very much longer, but we're grateful to God for the opportunity that the Lord has given us to be able to be here while we could. I don't know exactly where I'm gonna go, so I'm gonna have prayer, and then you can be seated. Father in heaven, I thank you for praying. Thank you for prayer. Thank you for the opportunity I've had down through these years to bend my knees and to pray. I wanna thank you, Lord, that I've had the opportunity to pray in the Holy Ghost. I want to thank you for the power that you've let me have in my life, just getting to know the Holy Ghost. And I want to thank you, dear God, for the preaching. I bless you for letting me preach down through these years. And there have been times when I preached in the power of the Holy Ghost. I wanna thank you for everything that you've done in my life. I pray this morning, my brother is undergoing the knife right now, having surgery, and they're gonna do a double bypass on him. And you know, Lord, you can take care of him, provide for him. And I pray that you'd bless and meet the needs in his life. And bless my friend, Brother Sammy, he'll have to go to the doctor next week, and we're praying, Lord, that you just let him stay here with us as long as you will. We'll bless you for everything you do for us, and we'll thank you. I thank you for this great number here in the house of the Lord. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. You can be seated. I'll just take a little while and talk to you a little bit about this word of God. You turn with me if you'd like to in the book of Exodus. The book of Exodus. I've been particularly interested in Israel and the people of God getting to where God wanted them to be. It's apparent that in your Bible, as you study, they were in bondage. They were in a great dilemma over in Egypt. And God raised up these shepherds in the Bible to help the people of Israel. I thought this morning, in the life of David, The Bible said in chapter 78 that he chose David. I guess my heart's just soaring to thinking the day of God's picking and choosing. And God puts his hand on whom he wants to. And I want to bless the Lord that if you want him to, you can get him to. And I bless the Lord that he is He's shown us so much in the Bible concerning how he's helped, I mean, just nothing and nobody's. God has been so good down through the years and I bless him for it. But in the book of Exodus, we come to a place where that God is going to deliver his children out of Egypt. Now, Egypt is, a place that is confining to the people of God. In fact, whenever Moses went before Pharaoh, he simply told him what God told him to tell him. Just let my people go. Let me have my people. You don't deserve my people to be your slave. And that was the gist of what God was trying to say. And I'm glad that God raised up Moses. He was a man that God could use. He spent 40 years in the palace life. It's amazing that God let Joseph see how that this thing was taking place. He told the people of Israel, He said, now you're God's children. And said, God is coming to deliver you. But said, as He comes to deliver you, I won't be here. He talks about Genesis 15, the closing verses. And He says to them, He said, when God comes to deliver you out of your bondage, I said, I want you to take my bones out of them hewn stones and haul them out of this place where I never intended to live. And I say to you that the world is not a place for us to raise our children to live. I want to bless the Lord that he's helped me to be able to to get my children to God. My heart's desire was to get my children to God. And they respect that and they love me as a man of God for getting them to the Lord. If you can just get to God, that'll be the answer in your life. And I praise the Lord that I looked into this chapter number one and I noticed where that this king that now is over the children of God, he's taken captive the slavery of the children of God, and he did not know Joseph. God had fixed it where God could bring Joseph through the present in his life. through the pit in his life, through the prison. And on to the place of the palace. And God brought Joseph along this way so Joseph could be able to bring the message to the children of God that they would be delivered. So then we find in Exodus 1 that God begins to deal with delivering Moses is that man that God has reached him and pulled out to help the people of Israel. There's a story really that reveals this truth. I'll maybe take the time and read this story for a moment. The Bible tells us in verse number one of chapter two, that there went out a man of the house of Levi and took wife to daughter of Levi. And the woman conceived and bare son. And when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. And when she had no longer hide him, she took him an ark of bulrush and dabbed it with slime and with pitch. and put the child therein, and she laid it in the flags of the riverbanks." I don't know if probably a sad situation has happened in the life of Israel. They know that Joseph has left word behind that they would be delivered. But whenever this takes place, Pharaoh charges all his people in verse 22 of chapter one, saying, every son that is born, you shall cast into the river and every daughter you shall save alive. What the devil's always tried to do is destroy the work of God. And here, This is an indication and I usually when I preach in a series on Moses, I talk about this thing that our brother talked about the other day concerning abortion. I believe it was brother Leland. Now I thank God for the preaching against this abortion. But may I say to you that they've been killing babies through this Bible. And I really hate to think about it, but what the devil was trying to do was get rid of the life of Moses. You see, he don't know everything, but I wanna tell you one thing, God is making provision for his children. And God was pulling out of the great beyond a man called Moses. And according to Moses, when I think about this, I think about him just being a little baby and this great story takes place, but there's a lot of secret going on in the life of this story. First thing I thought about when I read this story, you know, the Bible tells us that she put him in the flags and Miriam walked alongside the river. And all of these things are such tragedy to Moses being able to be the man of God that God wants to be. I wanna thank God that whenever it seems as though people cannot know exactly what to do, that the Lord dictates to their heart and helps them to understand and know what to do. Now, all you've got to do is to be faithful and just do what God tells you to do. And this mother, I mean, it's been requested that all of these male babies be thrown in the river. Well, this mother couldn't give her son up. She looked at him as a goodly child. She looked at him as the proper child. She looked at him as the deliverer for Israel. Now, I wanna say this to you. You never know whenever a child is born in your life, what God's gonna do with them. And I wanna say to you, if you can just get your children on an altar before God and give them to God, let God have them and let God use them. Don't put your hand in the way of God. And I'm thinking about how that it was, And it was a great blessing to be able to hold back things in life. If there was one thing that Abraham didn't want to do, he didn't want to give up Isaac. And I thought Jesse, you know, God warned Samuel and he told Samuel, You're mourning over Saul because I let the people have him. But said, Samuel, I have put my hands on a young man in Jesse's family. Well, Jesse agreed with Samuel to do whatever God wanted to do. And he allowed those children to come before all of those seven boys he brought. And he gave those seven boys one by one for God to look at. But you see, God had said to Samuel, he said, look not on their outward appearance. He said, I'm looking on their heart. God was looking for somebody with a heart. And that's what happened. the life of Jesse. And they said to, Samuel said, I've looked at these boys of yours and said, is this all of your children? Well, no, it's not all of my children. He was holding back his Isaac. That little boy, David, back yonder on the hillside, was someone he wanted to keep. And I wanna say this to you, it's a dangerous place when God wants to put his hand on something that you've got for you to say no to God. Finally, there's a surrender and David comes before and he's anointed. May I say to you that when Moses was born, this was a tragic day for this mother to have to give her child. And she was not going to throw him in the river and allow the alligators to eat that child. So there's a secret involved in this great story. First of all, I really think that God talks to this mother. Now the scripture simply said, when she could no longer hide him, she took for him an arc of the bulrushes and dabbed it with slime and pitch and put the child therein and laid it in the flags of the riverbank. But I believe in the strong providence of God. And I believe that what God is doing is God is preparing for Moses to get out there before Israel. God's providing for this man to be the deliverer of the children of God. And so what I see here is, I see the Lord talking to this mother. I want you to do something for me. I want you to fix this little ark and place him in the ark. I don't want Moses thrown into the river no more than you do, but I tell you what I do want. I want Moses to be in a place where I've got to have him for the providential hand of God to be upon his life. You see, if he hadn't been in that ark, there would have been no little woman down there desiring to have that little baby. So somehow or another, God's protecting this situation in his providence. You see, there's so much you cannot see by just reading the Bible. There are so many verses upon verses between the lines and the words. And I can see the providential hand because I know him. And I see the providential hand of God saying to her, now you just fix the ark, and I want you to lay your little child, hopeless, down into that little ark of the bulrushes. And I want you to place him in the flags. And when you do what you can do, I'll take care of the rest. Then I see, I see something else in the secret here in this pathway. I see God talking to Moses. Now you may not see this, you may have a hard time with it, but you think about what I'm saying and take it home with you and let it hash around a little while. God is a big God, but he was in that ark with Moses. And I can hear God now saying to Moses, Moses, now you be real quiet. You don't whimper, you don't cry, you don't do anything until I'm ready for you to do something. And there's God riding down the Nile with Moses. I heard Brother Milby preach on this one time, and he talked about them alligators going up against that ark and bumping that ark. Well, I think God, you know, the preacher was preaching on them fish the other night, and they weren't there all night. That's the time they were supposed to be there. Now, they weren't supposed to be there in the daytime, but they were there. Somebody that tells the fish what to do is inside. Now, here's what I really believe. I believe God told them fish said, I want you to stay back. Nothing, they always come up to the top at night. He said, you won't be able to come up tonight, I'll need you tomorrow. And the fish is laid back for the night and the man of God catches nothing and when he appears, he thinks that that's just a bad day he's had. No, God's providence is involved. So then the Lord says, I'll tell you what you do. Said, now, I'll give you the clue and when it's time, you come on up. And said, then we're gonna drop that net and get you. Well, I wanna tell you something, the providence of God is far beyond me and you. But I wanna bless the Lord for his providence over our life and how he takes care of us. And I can see God going in that watery grave and God saying to them alligators, now this child is mine. There's been a lot of them, maybe been eight tonight, but you don't have this child, this child's mine. So I want you to understand that you might bump this year, Brother Milby said they probably bumped that ark trying to get to that baby to eat that baby. But you see, God's got a plan. And God tells the alligator, said, now you can't have him. And so then he begins to float on down the Nile. So then God says, now Miriam, I want you to walk alongside the river bank, and I want you to watch what's taking place. And when it comes time, I'll tell you what I want you to say. And so everybody's kind of in awe now. They're wondering, you know, when am I gonna get the clue to do something? and bound up in the flags, God spoke to Pharaoh's daughter. I mean, she don't have to be saved for God to speak to her. She don't have to be a part of Israel for God to speak to her. Don't you need to get a bath? Don't you think it's time for you to run down and get a bath? Now you get your stuff together and I wanna put you down there. I want you to be there, I've got something for you. And boy, when she looked across there, went down there, got prepared, taking her bath, and all of a sudden, God said to Moses, you've been real faithful. You see, he's just been hid out three months. and said, by the way, I wanna stop and say this to you. God knew Moses a long time before he was born. Well, the challenging things that I've learned about studying about these Old Testament characters is the sovereign way that God dealt with their life before he used them. When you see Elijah, Elijah comes on the scene. We don't know who his mom and dad are. We don't know anything about him. We just know that he's there and he delivers a message. Some kind of way or another, you've got to understand that there was a life with God beyond where Elijah started preaching. That was a sovereign path that God brought Elijah through those years. By the way, the Psalmist David, he didn't write those Psalms out of his great experience of being a warrior. He was a shepherd. And where the Psalmist wrote, even though he wrote back in the time, he even discussed in Psalm 51, his error in his way. But you understand, he was a shepherd and that's where God, God dealt with his life. Could I say to you that it's very, very vital and important. Job, before Job got involved in this thing of shedding light on the work of God, God had been with Job years before Job ever come to the place of financial blessing. Let me go on. When I see God speaking to Moses, Moses said, okay, God, it's time for me to cry. And Moses cries. And out of the ark of the bulrush, she said, bring that child over here. This must be one of the Hebrews children. If she had done what she wanted or should have done according to Pharaoh, she'd have destroyed that child. But she couldn't destroy that child because God put something in her that made her want to have a child that she didn't have. She said, I'll tell you what. I want this child that God, hey, you see, God had to put Moses in a silver spoon life. God had to put Moses in those days where we understand are days that Moses rejected. He refused them. But God had to let Moses make the right choice. So what Moses did is Moses saw what he could have, what he could be. By the way, you can find that in your own life. But it won't always work to have what you'd like to have or be what you'd like to be. Oh, as I thought about this, I thought about how God had blessed so much Moses' life to be able to let him, I mean, he rode in chariots. Hey, listen, he could have been the next Pharaoh. But the Bible tells us in Hebrews that he refused. He wanted to be what God wanted him to be. And I say to you that as the Lord has dealt with this thing, and the Lord's dealing with this thing, and then God is putting together. So Miriam stands by, and God says to Miriam, said, okay, tell him about your mama. So what Miriam does, Miriam says to this young lady, said, if you want this child, said, I know a Hebrew woman that will take care of this child, that can feed this child and take care of this child. And you know the great story. And God puts the child back in his mama's arms to feed and care for the child. But for the most part, the years while the child is growing, the mother continuously tells this child, Moses, God's gonna use you. God's gonna bring you to be the deliverer of the children of God. You're gonna have to be faithful to the Lord. I wanna bless the Lord for how that mothers do care for their children. And God takes Pharaoh's daughter and he blesses Pharaoh's daughter to have him for those first 40 years. Moses spends a second 40 years out on the desert place learning about how to shepherd a flock. That's what the Lord's looking for, is a shepherd. The Lord's looking for men that be a shepherd to the flock. I won't take, I'll just talk a little bit about that. I'll be through. I appreciate this opportunity. We got another preacher coming up. We'll get him preaching.