I invite you to take your Bibles this morning and turn to the second book of the Bible, to Exodus. We have actually this morning probably more than 10% of the people here don't speak English. We have a number of folks from Haiti who are recent immigrants here. legally coming on their work program. So from time to time, I will interject a word for them, like Exodus, Exodus chapter 13. I took Creole in college. Who knew that God would bring me to a community with thousands and thousands of Haitians? That's a gift of God. So we are working our way through the book of Exodus, and we have come to Exodus chapter 13, beginning in verse 17. Here, the word of the Lord. When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt. But God led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. and the people of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt equipped for battle. Moses took the bones of Joseph with him. For Joseph had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, God will surely visit you and you shall carry up my bones with you from here. And they moved on from Succoth and encamped at Etham on the edge of the wilderness. And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light that they might travel by day and by night. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people. You'll notice in your bulletin we have a new liturgy we've established following the reading of the word of God. It's on page 13 where I say that, declare this is God's word and you have a response. So I'll say, this is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. We should always be thankful for the word of God. What a privilege that we live in a country where we have freedom to share God's word and to read it and to worship the God of the Bible. You join me as we pray and we call on the name of the Lord. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we bow before you because you are the only God there is. The living and true God, the one who made us and all things, the King of the heavens and the earth, the one who rules from your glorious throne over whatsoever comes to pass. You are the King of all creation. the Lord of the universe, the Lord of every man, woman, and child. Even those who do not acknowledge you or know you, you are their God. And you hold all of us in the palm of your hand. You are the one who has given us grace. You've not treated us like we deserve. As we ran away from you, you stopped us in our tracks and brought us to know you. You opened our eyes to see, to see ourselves in the light of your holiness and your word, to see Christ, a savior. You opened our ears to hear the good news of the gospel, that Christ died for sins and rose again from the dead according to the scriptures. You opened our heart to believe, a sovereign work of Almighty God. And you have been with us every day since, guiding us and leading us and directing us and providing for us. And you've promised to take us to heaven, that you will keep us, that you will walk with us, that you'll provide for us every step of the way. Lord, we do pray you'd come and visit your people in this place, have mercy on us all. We thank you that we come from a variety of backgrounds, a variety of places, even a variety of countries. Lord, we thank you that you've not left us to ourselves, but you brought us into the body of Christ and the household of faith, into the church of the living God. And one day there will be people streaming from every tribe and tongue and nation into glory. How we long for that day. Lord, we pray you would bless each one here, each soul, each person, each family. You know what each person needs here today, and you are able to provide immeasurably more than we could ever ask or imagine. So come today, Lord, and fill us, feed us, strengthen us, build us up. Speak to our hearts, oh Lord, and help me, your servant, to rightly divide your word and to proclaim it faithfully. We ask for your blessing now. We pray for the presence and power of the risen Christ here shepherding his people. In Jesus' name, amen. There is a common thread that runs through the whole Bible, this idea that we are all on a journey. We're all on a journey. The notion that we are going somewhere in life. From the Old Testament to the New Testament, this same theme keeps reoccurring. When you think about how many times in the Old Testament had mentioned someone and says that they walked with God. God instructed Abraham to walk with him. When the Lord gave the law to Moses, he said, I will walk among you and be your God and you will be my people. Keep my commandments and walk in them. David says in Psalm 23, the Lord, who is my shepherd, he says, guides me in the paths of righteousness. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me, your rod and staff, they comfort me. Solomon is warned. or warns his own son, walk in the ways of good men and keep to the paths of the righteous. Wisdom will save you from the ways or the paths of wicked men, from men who leave the straight paths and walk in dark ways. The prophet Isaiah says, a voice of one calling in the desert, prepare the way for the Lord, make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. And Jesus uses the same theme, saying, wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. Everyone's on a path somewhere. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and few find it. So Jesus said, I am the way. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. The apostle Paul picks up this theme, let us throw off everything that hinders us and the sin that so easily entangles us and let us run, right? Run with endurance, with perseverance, the race that is marked out for us. We're to walk by faith, we're to walk by the spirit. The destination is clear, where are we going? The destination is clear. Paul says, forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal. I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. And where we're going is not an earthly city. We're not going to an earthly country. We're not on our way to an earthly land. The writer of the Hebrew says we're looking for a better country, a better place, a heavenly one whose architect and builder We're all on a path toward heaven, those who've come to know Christ, who put their faith in him. And just as the Israelites, this is key for understanding the passages before us, just as the Israelites were redeemed by the blood of the Passover lamb, brought out of bondage and slavery, and were then on their way to the promised land, so we too are redeemed by our Passover lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ, We were brought out of bondage to sin, and we too will one day pass over the River Jordan, at least a spiritual River Jordan. And so you have all those African-American spiritual singing about going over the Jordan River into heaven. Think of swing low, sweet chariot coming for to carry me home. I looked over Jordan, what did I see? A band of angels coming after me. In fact, we'll sing on Jordan's stormy banks, I stand at the end of the service. It's an old hymn set to a new tune. That will be a constant reoccurring theme as we work our way through the rest of the book of Exodus. If you're visiting here today, we've gone through Moses calling Pharaoh to let his people go through the 10 plagues. God has so much to reveal to the church today as we see ourselves, in a sense, hidden with that great throng leaving Egypt and headed to the promised land. First of all, there's three things I'd like you to take away from this text this morning. There's an outline on page nine if you'd like to follow along. As the Lord took his people on the way to the promised land, notice first of all, in verses 17 and 18, that God did not take them on the shortest God didn't take them on the shortest route. God was the one who chose the way that they would go. God chose the way. Now they didn't have GPS. Or as in days gone by, I remember as a child, my folks, whenever we went on a trip, went to the AAA travel agency and picked up a trip tick. I don't know how many of you use trip ticks once upon a time. And they would show you where construction zones were and what to avoid. They didn't have wink traffic news reporting to avoid I-75 this morning because there's another backup. God did not leave the people of Israel to their own devices. And he didn't liberate them just to abandon them and say, well, you figure out now how you get there. He didn't have mercy on them just to let them flounder on their own and sit back and watch and wait for them to get lost. No, he chose the way for them to go, verse 17. When Pharaoh let the people go, God didn't lead them on the road through the Philistine country. The Philistines had control over the highway at the south end of the Mediterranean Sea. Though that was near or shorter, God said if they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt. So God led the people around by the wilderness road, the desert road toward the Red Sea. There's something very important to see in this. the nature of God revealed here and taking them on the long road. Psalm 103 says, as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those that fear him, for he knows how we're formed. He knows our frame. He remembers that we are but dust. You see, the Lord knew what Israel could handle. He knew what the Israelites were made of. He loved them. He knew that they weren't ready for war. Oh, they marched equipped for battle or in formation, armed for battle, as the Hebrew says, marching in formation, but they would be no match for the Philistines. The short way, the shortcut would have been disastrous. The quickest way would have been catastrophic. See, God knew what was best for them. Now, it may not have seemed logical. It may not have seemed right. It may have seemed like they were going in the opposite direction, but God saw things in them and things ahead of them that they couldn't see. Maybe they thought they knew which way was best. Can you imagine among the two million or more people The arguments that were going on about whether they were on the right road? There's a principle here that comes up from time to time in the Word of God. The heart of a man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps, right? God knew what was ahead of them, and he had lessons to teach them, to prepare them for the promised land. And he determined to lead them through the desert, through the wilderness in order to teach them. He desired to show his power and he would miraculously deliver them through the Red Sea. That was a clear miracle of the living God. Supernatural act to rescue them. And he had a plan for destroying his enemies, but that couldn't happen while they were rookies. He needed to organize them better. He had a place in mind to give them his commandments. He knew that they needed to be humbled and tested. In Deuteronomy 8, you read, years later, looking back, Moses said, remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the desert for 40 years? to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. If you've been going on a long road, a hard road, a wilderness road, and you're wondering, why is God doing this to me? Why is God letting this happen? God has purposes that are good to teach you and to prepare you, to make you stronger, to make you more fit for service in his kingdom. His ways are always best. The apostle Paul writes later that the Lord comforts us in all our affliction. Why am I going through this affliction? Paul says the Lord comforts us in our affliction that we may comfort those who are going through any affliction with the same comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. God is at work in your life, giving you comfort, why? Walking with you through trials and tribulations to prepare you to minister to people who are going through the same thing that you went through. So you can say, you know what? I was right where you are. This is what you need. God knew that they needed the sufficiency of God to be proven over and over to them. And there are a couple helpful spiritual principles here, I think, for our lives. The first is this, that once God sets his people free, once a person comes to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, they begin their journey through the wilderness. Yes, they've been in slavery, but now they begin their journey in the wilderness. That's where we all are right now. That's where we all are right now. We are not yet in heaven. We're on our way to the land of promise. We're not yet in heaven. We're on our way, but we have to go through this wilderness first. I said we'll keep coming back to this again and again through the book of Exodus. I think it's tremendously helpful for us. It's a great comfort to our hearts. We've been promised an entrance into heaven, but we are not there yet. Oh, we're a little outpost of heaven here. We're a little embassy, you might say, in the family of God. The kingdom of heaven has come to earth. But as we go about our day, we're in the wilderness. This is not heaven. So often people get angry with God and blame him and turn bitter and sour because things don't go perfectly in this life. Because life is hard. There's trouble. and sorrow and disappointment and bitterness and stress and brokenness and false accusations, people maligning you. It's part of the wilderness. We're all going through the wilderness right now. We have not crossed over the River Jordan. We're looking for a better country, a place where every tear will be dried, a heavenly one. This place where we live right now is a fallen world. This is a world under a curse, and we see it every day. The second way I think this is helpful for us and for our souls, particularly verse 17, is that sometimes God doesn't take us down the road that we think he should take us. Right? If you're a believer here in the Lord Jesus Christ, you're on your way to the promised land, like the children of Israel, only a better promised land. Theirs is just a shadow of what ours will be. But like them, sometimes God doesn't take us on the road that we think he should take. Sometimes God takes us on a long and windy road. Sometimes it seems like a terrible detour. What, this is the detour? How did I get off the main road to get on this? Things you didn't see coming. Maybe it's not even what you had planned for your life. Wait a minute, Lord. I thought I was headed to a life flowing with milk and honey. This isn't so sweet. But like the Israelites in the desert, God desires to show you his power, as he did for Paul. Paul said, my strength is made perfect in weakness. When does he say that? It's in 2 Corinthians 12. He says that the Lord said to him, my grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness. So Paul says, I'll boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest on me. For the sake of Christ, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities in the desert. For when I am weak, then I'm strong. When I'm weak, then I'm strong. Like the Israelites, the Lord has a plan for you, to use you for spiritual battles in the days ahead. And he needs to prepare you for greater things ahead that you never would have been prepared for were it not for the road through the wilderness. God always knows what's best. A quick five to 10 day journey might've seemed like the best way, but God knew something better than they did. So what's happening in your life right now that you've been wondering, why Lord? Why this? Why now? This isn't the path I had in mind. God sees the bigger picture. He has a purpose for the detour you find yourself on right now. And if you find yourself struggling with the difficulties, take heart in this, the Israelites struggled early and often. They wrestled with regularity. They were always griping and whining and complaining and grousing. My dad used to use that word. Quit your grousing. I thought it was because of his German heritage. It sounds like a German word, doesn't it? It's actually an English word. Complaining or murmuring. Not that this gives us the green light to complain, but it's helpful to see that we're not alone. They were just like us. God knew that this was the best path, that the other path would lead to death. I ask you today, are you trusting in your lovingly Heavenly Father's care? That the unexpected road he has you on is not off his radar screen. That he's leading you and guiding you. Secondly, this morning, point number two, see how the Lord fulfilled Joseph's last desire, verse 19. Imagine carrying the bones of your great-great-great-great-grandfather as your family picks up and moves. It sounds kind of strange, doesn't it? But God is fulfilling a desire of Joseph's heart that was mixed with a blessing for God's people in Genesis chapter 50. Verses 20 to 26, Joseph, the dreamer, Joseph, who was sold into slavery by his brothers, later rose, remember, in power in Egypt, became a prince, and he received the same brothers who betrayed him years later, who came for food during a famine. As Joseph was nearing the end of his life, he said, Joseph said to his brothers, I'm about to die. but God will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land to the land he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And Joseph made the sons of Israel swear on oath and said, God will surely come to your aid. And then you must carry my bones from this place. So Joseph died at the age of 110. And after they embalmed him, he was placed in a coffin in Egypt. Now, the Jewish custom wasn't to embalm people. That was the Egyptian way. You see, Joseph was mummified. That's what the Israelites were carrying. They carried an Egyptian mummy. Actually, his father Jacob had said almost the same thing when he died. You may remember that in Genesis 49. It says his remains were taken immediately to the family grave back in Canaan. So why did Joseph say, God will surely come to your aid and then you must carry my bones up from this place? Why didn't he have them take the bones right away just like Jacob did? Why did he wait? Why wait until all of his people went up? Well, all those years, you see, his body was to be a reminder that Egypt was not their home, that God would someday take them back to the land he promised Abraham, that one day God would free them from Egypt, from slavery. So you see, there's more to the Exodus story than the people were suffering in Egypt, they cried out to God and God heard them. There's more to it than that. You see, God is coming to the aid of his people because he's fulfilling a covenant promise to them. Now it's true they're fulfilling Joseph's last wish, and it's true that God delights in fulfilling your desires. In fact, Psalm 37 says, delight yourself in the Lord and he'll give you the desires of your heart. But God is fulfilling Joseph's desires here because Joseph's great desire was for the Lord to fulfill his promises to his people. That's Joseph's desire. So all the years they lived in Egypt, the bones of Joseph, the coffin of Joseph with this mummified body inside, that was proof that God was faithful. It was like a down payment. God will be faithful. You'll take this body up to Canaan, to the promised land. So as they carried this mummy with them and then through the desert, when they had doubts and fears and wondered whether or not they would make it, the bones were to be living proof. Well, not living proof, but the bones were to be proof that God had kept his promise and he would keep his promise. They were proof that God kept his word. Well, how long did they carry these bones? How long did they carry this mummy? More than 40 years. Do you ever think of that? More than 40 years. In fact, Joshua takes the bones of Joseph, the mummified body of Joseph into Canaan, and the land is divided up among the Israelites. In Joshua 24, we read this. Joseph's bones, which the people of Israel had brought from Egypt, were buried in Shechem in the plot of ground that Jacob had purchased from the sons of Hamor. He paid a hundred silver coins for it. It belongs to the inheritance of the family of Joseph. Joseph's last desire, his dying wish, was to see the Lord's blessing upon his children and his children's children and so forth. that his children would know the promises of God, that his family, his descendants would be assured of God's faithfulness, that despite the difficulties they would face, he directed them to the Lord's faithfulness by asking them to carry his bones with them as a living reminder or a dead reminder of God's faithfulness. What a heritage he passed on to his children. So what about us? We don't have the bones of Joseph. We don't have a mummy that we're carrying around in this world. We don't have any bones to remind us of anything. But we do have one like Joseph, who's promised us that God will be faithful to all of his promises, and that God will take us out of this world to a better land, to a promised land, to a heavenly place. And that one who's better than Joseph, left us something far better than his bones, right? He left us an empty tomb. He left us an empty tomb. You see, the resurrection of Jesus from the dead is living proof that we will all be raised from the dead. Because Christ has been raised, we will be raised, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15. That's the first fruits of our resurrection. We don't have bones, we've got an empty tomb. Praise the Lord. We've got proof that we'll be taken to a far greater place, that God will be faithful to all his promises. Then lastly, this morning, verses 20 and 22, God gave them a constant guidance system. There's an amazing picture here, a full picture of the Trinity in the Exodus story, a full picture of the Trinity. It's God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, all pictured here in the history of Exodus. God the Father is the one who hears their cries while they're in bondage and remembers his covenant promise. to Abraham. God the Son is the Lamb of God which is slain, the Passover Lamb. Paul says Christ is our Passover Lamb slain for us. And here we have a picture of the Holy Spirit, the one who guides them in the wilderness, pictured in the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire. You see the Trinity? God the Father remembers his covenant and hears their cry and sets them free. God the Son gives the payment. He is the picture of the Passover Lamb or what the Passover Lamb symbolizes. And we have this pillar of cloud and pillar of fire. I'm gonna give you a word that we learn in seminary. Maybe you heard it before. This is a theophany. This pillar of cloud and pillar of fire comes from the Greek theophania, an appearance of God. This is a manifestation of deity or of God to our senses. a visible manifestation of God, like the burning bush was a theophany. So how does the pillar of cloud and fire point to God or picture God or how is it a visible appearance of God? How does it foreshadow then the work of the Holy Spirit? How is it a theophany? How is it an appropriate picture of what God has promised to give us today to us to guide us through this life to the promised land? What do we see in that pillar of cloud and fire that helps us? How is this practical? We can look at this text and say, wow, that's interesting. Wow, I wonder what that was like, a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire. This actually has very much to do with you. A.W. Pink gives a very convincing set of answers to that question. I'll summarize them for you. He says, number one, the pillar was only given to the Israelites after their deliverance from bondage. The lamb was slain, the people were set free, their journey began, and then he gave them the pillar of cloud and fire. So the same is true with the spirit for you. God gives you the spirit. To you, the new Israel, that's what you're called, The Spirit is for you after you've come to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, after you're set free from the bondage of sin, after a person begins a new life in Christ. Then the Holy Spirit is given as a gift to the believer. Secondly, the gift of the pillar and cloud of fire was God's idea. It wasn't the Israelites idea. They didn't ask for this. Can you give us a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night? This is God's idea. They were the recipients of God's generous provision. And so it is with the Spirit. The disciples didn't ask for him. They didn't make a suggestion to the Lord. They didn't have the bright idea, well, if you're going away, what are we going to know? How are we going to know what to do? The Lord is the one who promised his disciples to send the Spirit. Even before he went to the cross, he said, I will ask the Father and he will give you another counselor to be with you forever. He says, the counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name will teach you all things and remind you of everything I've said to you. God promised it. The Lord promised it. And thirdly, the pillar of cloud and fire was given as a guide for the Israelites through the desert. Exodus 13 says, by day, the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of cloud or pillar of fire to guide them with light so that they could travel by day or by night. You see the connection to the Holy Spirit, don't you? The Holy Spirit is given to you, the new Israel, to guide you through the wilderness of this life to the promised land. Jesus said, when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. Romans 8, Paul said, those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. And you don't know what to do. You cry out to God, Holy Spirit, come guide me, lead me, reveal to me through your word what I should do. And fourthly, God spoke to them. God spoke to them from the cloud as they went on their way. Psalm 99 says, Moses and Aaron were among his priests. They called to the Lord and he answered them. He spoke to them from the pillar of cloud. And so the Spirit of God speaks to us through the Word of God, through the Scriptures. This is made clear after each of those seven letters to the seven churches in the book of Revelation. Each one of those letters ends like this, He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. It's through the Word of God that the Spirit speaks to us. The Spirit of God speaks to you through the Word. That's why we need to be regularly sitting under the preaching of the Word of God. We need to be regularly reading God's Word, studying God's Word. This is how the Spirit speaks to us. And it's amazing to me, often I'll hear people say, you know what, you preached on Sunday. I've been reading that myself. It's because the Spirit of God is the one speaking. And fifthly, through the pillar of fire, God gave them light. He gave them light to travel in the darkness. We live in a dark world. We need the Spirit of God to lead us. By day, the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them, and by night, a pillar of fire to give them light. Generations later, after the Israelites were in exile in Babylon and then brought back to Egypt or to Jerusalem, we read in the book of Nehemiah, that the Levites stood up and gave a sweeping review of the history of God's grace to the people of God. They recounted the Lord's faithfulness to his people. Nehemiah 9, verse 12 says that they said, by day you led them with a pillar of cloud and by night a pillar of fire to give them light on the way they were to take. And so the Spirit of God gives light and guidance Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 2 that the man without the spirit doesn't know, doesn't accept the things of God. They're foolishness to him. He cannot understand them because they're spiritually discerned. We need the spirit of God to lead us and guide us in this dark world. The psalmist says, teach me to do your will for you are my God. May your good spirit lead me on level ground. Oh, how we need that. A sixth way the Spirit is pictured or foreshadowed here in the pillar of cloud and fire is that later as they built the movable temple, the tabernacle, the pillar rested on the tabernacle. Exodus 40, it says, then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. In all the travels of the Israelites, whenever the cloud lifted from the tabernacle, they would set out. So the cloud of the Lord was over the tabernacle by day, and the fire was in the cloud by night in the sight of all the house of Israel during all their travels. So what does that have to do with us? Well, the Holy Spirit dwells in every believer. evidenced by the great outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost, fulfilling the great promise Jesus gave them that the Spirit of God would come to fill them and lead them and guide them. Listen to this, in Acts chapter two, when the day of Pentecost came, it says they were all together. Suddenly, a sound like a blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be pillars or tongues of fire. that separated and came to rest on each one of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Do you see the connection? Peter, who was there that day, years later writes to scattered Christians who are undergoing all kinds of suffering and trouble in this fallen world, in this wilderness. He said, you are blessed, Christian, for the spirit of glory and of God rests on you. Just as the pillar of cloud and fire rests on the tabernacle, the Spirit of God rests on you. You are a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit. And then lastly, a seventh way that the pillar of fire and cloud is like the Holy Spirit is that it never left them. It never left. Again, from the book of Nehemiah chapter nine, recounting the pillar of fire and cloud. Because of your great compassion, you did not abandon them in the desert. By day, the pillar of cloud did not cease to guide them on their path, nor the pillar of fire by night to shine the way that they were to take. And so the spirit has been given to you as a permanent seal from the father until the day you go to the promised land. Jesus said, I will ask the father and he will give you another counselor to be with you forever, forever. You have the spirit of God resting on you, filling you, leading you, guiding you, directing you, giving you a light, taking you through this wilderness, applying God's promises to every situation, giving you wisdom forever. As we close today, I hope you can see the amazing way in which all the scriptures are woven together that this earthly journey we'll be looking at through Exodus of the Israelites. This is all a picture of our life today. So I have a question for you as we close. Are you on your way to the promised land, to heaven? Or are you still in Egypt? Are you on your way to the promised land? Or are you still in Egypt? Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. This whole passage proclaims Christ. Are you in Christ? Are you united to him, rescued by him, washed by him, trusting in him, filled with his spirit, having received the gift of his spirit? We're not on our way to an earthly land. We're looking for a better country, a better place, a heavenly one whose architect and builder is God. There is a path to heaven. Jesus said there's only one. There's only one way. By faith in the Lamb of God. I call you today, come to Jesus if you never have. Cry out to him right from where you are. Oh God, have mercy on me, a sinner. That opens wide the floodgate of heaven. Jesus said for the tax collector who prayed that prayer, who beat his breast before the face of God and knew he was a sinner who needed a savior. He said, God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Jesus said that man went to his house justified, right with God, pardoned and forgiven and cleansed, brought into the kingdom of God, on his way to glory. Praise be to God for the promises of his word. Praise be to God for the indescribable gift of his son. Let us pray. Oh Lord, we bow before you and we cry out to you today and thank you that you are a God of grace and mercy. Thank you for Jesus who died for us, was buried and rose again and lives even now to intercede for us and has sent his spirit for us. Thank you that we are on our way to the promised land. Oh Lord, guide us and lead us and direct us and protect us and bless us on our way. And as we bring to you now your tithes and our offerings, we pray that you would use these gifts to build your church and to bring others to know Christ, to know the Lord Jesus and all the blessings that are found in him. Or continue the work you've started in us all. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.