As the children are being dismissed, I want to give a quick report on our... We had a wonderful week of vacation Bible school. We had 40 children here every night, and the different ones, and we were able to run a van this year to Prescott Valley. The Gateway Baptist Church in Humboldt allowed us to use their van for the week, and that was a real blessing. And we got to bring children to the... that normally wouldn't have been able to come. So we were very glad about that. Several children professed faith in Christ, so we say hallelujah about that. But I also wanted to say a special thank you to all the workers. I don't know if they're all in here right now. I know that my wife's gone and Ms. Darlene's gone and Vivian's in the nursery, but it was wonderful to once again see all the workers come together. and there was no bickering and backbiting. It was just a wonderful time, and it was organized. As far as BBS could go, it went like clockwork, and I was very, very pleased, again, with the effort that our church had put forth. It's important that we put our best foot forward when we're bringing these young children into the church to have vacation Bible school because it's an opportunity to hear from God. It might be about their soul. It might be something else in their lives. On, I think it was Tuesday night, all the nights have run together. But, uh, uh, several young men came out and they wanted to be dealt with, uh, about their souls and things of nature. And the one boy that I got to talk to didn't want to be saved. He said, Pat, I just want to talk to you. And I said, what would you like to talk about? He said, well, he said, do you believe God can do anything? I said, well, yeah, I do. I believe God can do anything. He said, well, he said, would you pray that God would bring my dad back? And, uh, He's never known his father, never known his father. And, you know, you kind of feel like a fraud at that moment when someone brings that kind of a reflection to you. And what I could say to him is this. I will pray for you, but believe this with all your heart. God is faithful. God is faithful. And we're going to talk about that this morning. We're examining the idea of getting back to our roots. And it's important for us, as his dear children, to know that God is faithful. So if you have your Bibles with you this morning, I'd like you to find the book of Deuteronomy in chapter number seven, as we look into this idea this morning of the faithfulness or the faithful God. Deuteronomy in chapter number seven. And here the Bible says, beginning in verse number six, For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself above all people that are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his love upon you nor choose you because you were more in number than any people, for you were the fewest of all people. But because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Verse 9, Now know, therefore, that the Lord thy God, he is God. the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him, and keep his commandments to a thousand generations." And all God's people said, Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time together this morning. And Lord, we, sometimes, Lord, we forget or don't think about the fact that you are a faithful God. And God, even in our times of distress and lack of understanding and confusion in our lives, you are the faithful God. And this morning, Lord, I want to lift up that thought and lift up your name. The God that we would walk away from this place this morning, believing more in our hearts than we did when we came in, that you are, in fact, the faithful God. God, I do pray you would bless the service this morning. Strengthen us by your word. In Jesus' name. Amen. Just a real quick introduction background about the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses was speaking these words to the children of Israel just before they were about to go in and possess what we call Canaan or the Promised Land. They had been wandering for 40 years in the wilderness waiting for the generation to die off that God proclaimed must die off before they go in and inherit all the promises of God. And they are getting what people call the second giving of the law. There's a lot of Deuteronomy that reflects or parallels very closely the book of Leviticus. And at this point here, Moses is speaking to the people and he's telling them about the fact that they are going to be going into the land of Canaan. And he wants them to know that as they go in the land of Canaan, or the promised land, that God is the faithful God. Because even though Canaan is a place that flows with milk and honey, even though when the spies went over and they found those great big clusters of grapes back in the days of Joshua and Caleb's espionage, Moses knows and God knows that when they go across the Jordan River, there's going to be things that are going to bring fear into their hearts, There are going to be things that cause doubt to occur. They're going to go against formidable opponents and armies. They're going to have to somehow take down that great walled city of Jericho and so on and so on. And Moses says, before we go into Canaan, or before you do, excuse me, before you go into Canaan, before you go in to possess the Promised Land, I want you to know that the God that is leading you there is the faithful God. And that same God who was going to lead the children of Israel over the Jordan River into Canaan is the same God that we know and serve today. He is, in the 21st century sense, the faithful God. And it's hard for us to really comprehend exactly what the faithfulness of God encompasses. You understand that our minds are finite. They are limited. But the faithfulness of God is an infinite attribute that cannot be measured by human standards. And so we're going to try this morning to do our best to uncover some of what it means to, again, comprehend or to at least appreciate the fact that our God is the faithful God. I'm not going to keep you long this morning. Have I ever? Okay, good. All right, good. God's faithfulness this morning here in our text. And I want you to see, first of all, that God is faithful in His love. God is faithful in his love. Let's go back and look at the text real quick again. Verse number seven and verse number eight of this text. The Lord did not set his love upon you nor choose you because you were more in number than any people, for you were the fewest of all people. Look at verse eight. But because the Lord loved you and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand. We'll stop right there. God was faithful in his love for the children of Israel. Let's not forget that prior to this going into canyon land, the Israelites, before their wanderings even, were in Egyptian bondage for about 400 years. That's a long time. That's a lot of generations who have come and gone. A lot of people had been born and had now gone on to their place in eternity. But understand this, even though those generations had passed, even though tons of sand had come through the hourglass, if you will, God still loved the people of Israel. And Moses wanted them to know that the reason that God chose Israel was this, because He loved I read this, I think it was last week, maybe two weeks ago, that more and more, and people are agreeing across the fields, whether it's the scientist or the psychologist or the doctor or the pastor, whatever the case may be, more and more people are realizing that the one thing a child needs to feel the most is that his parents or her parents love them. They need to know that mom loves me. They need to know that dad loves me. It's an absolute necessity, to use this word, for a normal life. It's an absolute necessity for a normal life for a child to feel love. I want you to understand something though this morning. There's a love that transcends parental love. You know, whenever we come to Mother's Day and we talk about a mother's love, I always say there's just nothing like a mother's love. Men cannot understand a mother's love. We only get to experience a mother's love. But there's something about a mother's love that just exceeds the bounds and limits of a father's love, in my opinion, and I think also by the authority of the Word of God. But there's a love that transcends a parent's love, and that is the love of God. We're loved this morning. And we could go through this morning and talk about all the ways that God has shown and talked about his love for us throughout the scriptures. But do you know that God's love for us is an eternal love? I love it when he was talking to Jeremiah and he said, yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. You know, before you were even thought of, before your parents even were coming up with names for you, God had already decided who was going to love them. His character demanded that He would love you. We talk about God's sacrificial love in Romans chapter 5 and verse number 8. But God commended His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. How did God show His love for us? In that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. You go read that Romans chapter 5 passage, you find out that Christ died for the ungodly. That Christ died because of one man who committed sin, and because of that, sin entered into the lineage of man. And because of that, death became a reality for mankind. God's love was a sacrificial love that died for the sinner, the sinful one who needs desperately reconciliation with God, his Creator. Also, His love is a universal love. Do you love John 3.16? For God so loved the what, saints? The world. Anybody here not of the world or in the world? That's all of us, right? As you go out the doors, you understand that's all of them too. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And you know, we go through life and we can point toward the dysfunction of the American home today. We can talk about the brokenness. We can talk about the drunkenness. We can talk about the extreme drug use we're seeing today. We can see all these things and you can understand how possibly a child could be born into this world today and not feel the love of their parents. But you cannot possibly say that God does not love me. He loves each and every one of us so much that He sent His only begotten Son to die for us. And the children of Israel were seeing the faithfulness of God exhibited or manifested, evidence in His love for them. Why did God choose Israel? No one really knows except for two things. God chose Israel, number one, because He loved them. And God chose him, number two, because he was going to keep his promises. That's the kind of God that we serve. Look back here in verse number seven. The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people. That would kind of make sense in a human reasoning sort of way. Well, why did God choose Israel? Well, they were the biggest nation. They have the strongest army. They have the most natural resources at their disposal. And so God knew because of their size or their quantity or the lack of limitations, they would become a power people. No, what God says is this. I did not choose you because you were more in number than any people. For ye were the fewest of all the people." Now, all of a sudden, it doesn't make sense, does it? Why would God choose Israel? Why did God choose the Jews to be His chosen people? Well, He loved them, and they were among the smallest population upon the face of the earth. In other words, God did not choose them because of inequality they possessed in and of themselves, but He just chose them. He simply just chose them and He delivered them out of Egypt, and now He's about to lead them into the Promised Land. You know, we have a... we're coming... it's getting difficult in this day and age because of all the different isms that are creeping into biblical Christianity, we have to choose our words very carefully anymore. But I want you to understand this, that I didn't choose God, God chose me. I'm sought out, the Bible says. The book of John talks about that no man can come to the Father except the Father draws him. God's doing the drawing and God's doing the choosing. And you say, well, why do you think God would choose you? I have no idea. But He loves me. And He wanted me to be reconciled to Himself. And you know, when I felt that drawing on my life, and here I go, being difficult again, I had the option to reject that drawing. I did not have to be saved. I, by faith, put my trust in Jesus Christ. And can I say this? And I've never been sorry. And I've never been sorry. Amen. And so, you know, we're careful about these things because, like I said, there's a lot of different isms that have come in. And let's just stick with what the Bible says, and if people find trouble, somebody say amen to that. And we'll go to the Holy Spirit of God for the final authority on what we're supposed to believe about this, that, and the other. But, you know, we say, well, why did God love them? We don't know. He just simply loved them. Why does God love Mark Hoffer? I don't know. There is nothing within Mark Hoffer that's worth loving, in my opinion. Everything I've tried to do, God said, has amounted to a pile of filthy rags. All of my righteousnesses are as filthy rags. There is none that doeth good. There is none that understandeth. There is none righteous, no not one, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That's Romans chapter three, a synopsis there in a nutshell. That's what we have to offer God. Why does God love us? It's not something we can explain or comprehend. Are you following me this morning? I feel like I lost you there. Why does God love us? He just does. He just does. And when I think about, you know, again, my life and, you know, other lives, I think, well, there's not much of us to love. But God finds that he can love because of his character, because of his attributes. Someone said his sovereignty. All those things are true. God loves us because God loves us. But why did God keep, why did God, here's a question, why did God who many of the children of Israel turned their back upon, still want to take them into the promised land. Because he promised that he would. He can't break his promise. Could you? I broke a couple here and there. Anybody else? Yeah. We can break our promises. Even though we are God's children, we can still break our promises. But understand, God cannot break His promises. We've been looking at this somewhat in the life of Abraham back in Genesis when he made that great promise to him in chapter number 12. the land that was going to be given to Abraham and the seed that would be coming from Abraham's line and all these things. But he kept repeating that promise to Isaac. He told it again to Jacob. And as time went on, David began to understand more and more about the promise and the covenant of the promised land and what Israel would possess as a nation and as a people. And God says, They have to go into the promised land, even though while I was giving Moses my servant the law, they were dancing around a golden calf, even though that while they were in the wilderness, their trust in me waned daily. Even though they complained and they murmured and they bucked against my authority and everything else like this, I have to take them into the promised land. They are finally going to go to the place that I promised they would possess because I promised that they would do something. And everything that God promises us is a promise that we can cling to and believe in today. We don't have to say this. OK, we're living in the 21st century now and God's Word has gotten very, very old and very, very tired. So obviously His promises are not going to come to pass. They will come to pass because God cannot lie and God cannot change. Amen. So God has faithful, He's faithful in His love, but also what you see this morning, He's faithful in His moving. He's faithful in His moving. I've got to read this again to you, just so we keep on the same page here. Verse 7 again. The Lord did not set His love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people, for ye were the fewest of all people. But because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, watch, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Everybody know what kind of moving we're talking about right here? When it was time for the children of Israel to leave Egypt, God used Moses as his leader and also Aaron to go and to speak for the children of Israel in God's stead to Pharaoh, king of Egypt. And Pharaoh kept hardening his heart toward the idea of releasing the Israelites or the Jews from bondage. And so God was sending various plagues upon the people of Egypt, and they were suffering in all kinds of ways. We saw water turn to blood, we saw plagues of frogs, and the cattle got diseased, and all these things. And finally, the plague that really broke things in Pharaoh's life is that plague when the angel of death came through and took the life of the firstborn. That's all that Pharaoh could bear. And so he eventually, at least in word, said the children of Israel could leave. And so as the children of Israel were leaving Egypt, Pharaoh, in the background, was rallying the troops to follow them and overtake them somewhere on the way out of Egypt. So they had their chariots and their horsemen and their soldiers and all their battle array. breathing down the necks of the Jews. And the Jews finally come to a place where they're standing at the shore of a great sea called the Red Sea. And as soon as they got there, they realized in their finiteness, in their limited thinking, in their lowliness of faith, this is over. There is no way we're going to get out of this. Either we're going to go into the sea and try to swim in the sea and we're going to drown, or secondly, eventually the army is going to catch up with us and they're going to slaughter us from leaving Egypt, whatever the case may be. And so what happens is that God tells Moses to stand there at the Red Sea and to hold his rod up over the sea, and as he does, a great miracle occurs. And I don't know if you appreciate this or believe it or not, but what happened next was that the water of the Red Sea parted down the middle, and there was a great wall of water on each side, and the people of Israel get this, traverse the Red Sea, on dry ground. That's a miracle. That's the moving of God. That's the same God that we know today. He's still a God who moves among us. You know, I talk to people all the time and they've got all kinds of troubles. They've got all kinds of struggles and all kinds of diseases. But I still believe this, that we serve a miracle moving and a miracle making God. And He's faithful. He hasn't chosen to quit working. Aren't you glad? We should take notice when God is trying to get our attention and start moving in the direction God wants us to go. Amen. I'm already excited about next year's DBS. We're going to do Jonah next year. I've asked Nick to turn this auditorium into a whale. You know what he said? No problem. But Jonah decided he was going to run from God. Amen. And so God had to get his attention. How? Well, God allowed those sailors to throw Jonah overboard into the sea. And the next thing that happened? Probably don't believe it either, but what happened was that God had prepared a whale or a great fish to swallow up Jonah. He preserved his life and got his attention. And guess what? I believe that. And God can still get our attention today. And when He's trying to get our attention, the best thing we can do is to move in the direction that God wants us to move. He's a faithful God. He is faithful in moving. Don't you think He's faithful when He convicts us and tells us to get this out of our life or to maybe adopt this behavior into our life? Don't you think He is faithful when He convicts a sinner who is lost and undone and unregenerate that they need to come to Jesus Christ as the only source of salvation? Amen! He still moves today. He's a faithful God. He is on the move. He never stops moving. He never sleeps. He never slumbers. He never grows weary. He never gets tired. He just keeps on moving. He is the faithful God. I like this verse here in verse number nine, though. Know therefore that the Lord thy God, He is God, the faithful God. Know therefore that the Lord thy God, He is God, the faithful God. He is called God. This word identifies Him as the One who is over all. It encompasses His power, His glory, His influence, His providence, His wonder. When we say God, we are saying that You are the One who is in charge of all things. He's called the Lord by God. Once the Lord is attached to that, now we're going to add some personality. Well, some personal-ness. Probably not a word, but anyway, we are making God, the God, the creator of all, the ruler of heaven and earth. And we are calling Him our Lord. We are subservient to Him. We are subject to Him. We say that He is the self-existent, eternal One. And we also understand that when we talk about the Lord, He is the One who keeps faith with His people. He is the One who will do whatever He says He will do. But the One that jumps out the most this morning and the One we want to dwell on here for the next few minutes, that last few minutes, is He is the faithful God. I looked up some verses about the faithfulness of God. And here we go. Number one is God's faithfulness is unlimited. In Psalm 36 and verse 5, thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds. Amen. His faithfulness cannot fail. In Psalm 89, Nevertheless, my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from Him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. His faithfulness cannot fail. His faithfulness is a glimpse of His character. In Isaiah 49, Thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel and His Holy One, to whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers kings shall see and arise. Princes also shall worship because of the Lord that is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, and He shall choose thee." His faithfulness is all abounding. In Lamentations chapter 3, one of my favorite texts in all the scriptures, it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Saints, great is thy faithfulness. His faithfulness is here to help a people. There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful. who will not suffer you to be tempted above all that you are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it. He is faithful to those that he saves. in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, and the very God of peace sanctify you wholly. And I pray, God, your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless under the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he who calleth you who also will do it. He is faithful also to all of his promises. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for he is faithful that promise that he is faithful in the forgiveness of our sin. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's one John chapter one and verse number nine. We serve a faithful God. Here's the application, though. God is always faithful. Not your heads. We, as his children, desire to be as faithful as we can be. Not your heads. We do. Even if you don't agree, not your heads, I'll be happy that way. Here's the problem. You come across a little boy named Tristan. He says, I never know my dad. Would you pray that God would bring him back? I say God is faithful. There's not much I can do to get Tristan's father back. Excuse me. There's not much I can do. Let me try that again. Rewind here. There's not much I can do to get Tristan's father back. Do you believe that or not? And so we go through life as his dear children, believing that he is faithful and helping who God empowers us to help. I can't help everybody. I would love to. I would love to be able to help everybody in our church family who needs help. Whether it's financial help, whether it's marital help, whether it's addictions, whether it's trials, whether it's struggles, whatever the case may be, I would like to help everyone. But I can't. God has not equipped me to be equal to Him. Someone say amen to that. So all I can do is to help the ones that God has equipped me to help and be faithful in doing what God sent me to do, and going where God sent me to go. I read this story this week, and it's kind of a good story to end this thing up with. There's a little boy along the beach, and the tide had gone out, and the beach was just covered with starfish. And so he was going down the beach, and he was taking starfish and swinging them back into the ocean, swinging them back into the ocean. I mean, and he was just tireless, and he was trying to save these starfish from drying out and dying there underneath the beating sun. And an older man came down, and he watched this little boy, and he was kind of amazed at his fervor and his zeal, and he said, now, what are you doing, son? He said, well, he said, these starfish are going to die if I don't get them back into the ocean. He said, now look at the beach, little one, if you would. There's miles of beach here that we can see. There are starfish as far as the eye can see. There are probably, I'm guessing, hundreds of thousands of starfish here washed up on the shore. You throwing them back in the sea is not going to make a difference. He said, it did for that one, it did for that one, and it did for that one. Amen? God is faithful. And so we just stay faithful into what He sends us to do and where He sends us to go. Amen, saints. What's it say, Jude? On some, having compassion, making a difference. God is faithful. We just do what God sends us to do.