You will turn in your copies of God's word to exodus 18 we are beginning or we're returning to our sermon series in exodus the gospel in exodus And uh while you turn there and I wish you would if you have your bibles um Take a a moment of personal privilege that last little verse that we sang um reminded me of something alicia and i've been talking about And that was reflecting on 2015, which I'm sure many of you have done. That's kind of a normal thing to do towards the end of the year. And trying to put a theme to the year. And one of the things that we kept talking about is 2015 is the year, we need to write this down, it's been the year that we have felt so loved by the body of Christ here at Carriage Lane. Tremendously, and that's not to say like years 14, 13, we didn't feel that either, but like especially, especially 2015, so many of you have just in special and in so many ways, unique ways, just really ministered to myself and my family. And in essence, you've done that shoulder to shoulder, done the Christian life with us, and you've blessed our socks off. And so thankful for that. Can I say that? Bless your socks off? I said it, oops. Well, we turn to Exodus, Exodus chapter 18, and just kind of quick introduction. uh to to where we are um god's people have been brought out of egypt from slaves it's great huge redemption god has purchased his people out of the land of egypt he's brought them out of slavery they are free they are free from egypt they are free from uh it's tyranny and they are going off to the promised land They are currently in the wilderness. They're kind of heading that way. They get there and like, oh man, this is not a fun journey. Quickly, they find that they are exposed. They complain to Moses that, have you left us out here to die? We need water, we need food. God provides manna. He provides food even in spite of their grumbling. And our text this morning is kind of situated as a transitional text. It's transitioning, it kind of holds two things within it. One, kind of looking back at the Exodus and what God has done. And two, kind of looking forward to what's about to happen with Israel. And this, they've been saved, now what? They've been saved, now what? And that's a really interesting thing for us to think about, that God has saved us, and we talk about this a lot in our Christian circles and in our Christian thoughts and minds, that God has saved us from our sins. Yes, that is wonderful. Absolutely. By nature, we are children of God's wrath. We deserve it. Jesus has saved us from that, if we put our faith and trust in Him. But it's so much sweeter than that. It's not just that, that God has saved us for something. And that's where we're coming in chapter 19 and 20, and really the rest of Exodus. God has saved his people. He's delivered them, but he's delivered them so that they might be his people. Not aimlessly wandering in the wilderness, wandering in the wilderness, not aimlessly just kind of doing their own thing, but they might be his people. And that's our text this morning. So please give your attention to the reading of God's holy and inerrant word. Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses' father-in-law, heard of all that God had done for Moses and for Israel, his people, and how the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt. Now Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, had taken Zipporah, Moses' wife, after he had sent her home, along with her two sons. The name of one was Gershom, for he said, I have been a surgeon in a foreign land. And the name of the other was Elisha, for he said, the God of my father was my help, and he delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh. Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife to Moses in the wilderness, where they were encamped at the mountain of God. And when he sent word to Moses, I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and her sons with her. Moses went out to meet his father-in-law, bowed down and kissed him. And they asked each other of their welfare and went into the tent. Then Moses told his father-in-law all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake, all the hardship that had come upon them in the way, and how the Lord had delivered them. And Jethro rejoiced for all the good that the Lord had done to Israel, and that he had delivered them out of the hand of the Egyptians. Jethro said, blessed be the Lord who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, out of the hand of Pharaoh, and has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods because in this affair they dealt arrogantly with the people. And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, brought a burnt offering and sacrifices to God. And Aaron came with all the elders in Israel to eat bread with Moses' father-in-law before God. The next day, Moses sat to judge the people. And the people stood around Moses from morning till evening. And when Moses' father-in-law saw that what he was doing for the people, he said, what is this that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone and all the people stand around you from morning till evening? And Moses said to his father-in-law, Because these people come to me to inquire of God. When they have a dispute, they come to me and I decide between one person and another. And I make them known the statutes of God and His laws. Moses' father-in-law said to him, what you are doing is not good. You and the people will certainly wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone. Now obey my voice. I will give you advice. and God be with you. You shall represent the people before God and bring their cases to God. And you shall warn them about the statutes and the laws and make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must do. Moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. and let them judge the peoples at all times. Every great matter they shall bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you. If you do this, God will direct you. You will be able to endure, and all this people will also go to their place in peace. So Moses listened to the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said. Moses chose able men out of all of Israel, made them heads over the people, chiefs of thousands, and of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. And they judged the people at all times. Any hard case they brought to Moses, but any small matter they decided themselves. Then Moses let his father-in-law depart, and he went away to his own country." Thus ends the reading of God's word. So a text, as we've just talked about, it's a transition text. Jethro is a Midianite, which means he's not an Israelite. And really, this first part of this text is a conversion story. It's really quite remarkable. It's a family member who has converted to be among God's people. We see that in the text as Jethro shares a worship feast meal with Aaron and the elders of God's people. It's conversion. It's wonderful. It's beautiful. Someone that Moses knows and is very dear to has come to know the Lord. And it's a text about advice. But really the overarching theme of these two kind of, they seem kind of different. You know, who is kind of Jethro to give advice? The overarching theme is it points to God delivering his people to be his people. Really in quite a beautiful way. You know, have you ever found yourself overwhelmed? I found myself somewhat overwhelmed this last week, and as I was reflecting on 2015, I found myself on an emotional roller coaster. I was thinking about the past year, things that have happened, the upcoming year, what's going to happen, and there was a few days there where I was a bit melancholy, and I felt overwhelmed. How is it going to get done? I remembered the wonderful things of 2015 with a touch of sadness, and knowing that I'll never be able to get those moments back or repeat them. I remember the hard things and how God had been faithful to bring me through them. I couldn't really explain it to my wife, Alicia, but I was overwhelmed. Overwhelmed with sadness, a little discouraged, but also overwhelmed with some joy as I was reflecting on the wonderful things this past year. It's funny how hard things and really wonderfully sweet things can overwhelm us. This is a text of being overwhelmed. Jethro is overwhelmed with God's glory, and Moses is overwhelmed by the people. We've all known what it's like to be overwhelmed. If you were a student this past December, you knew what it was like to be overwhelmed as you were facing exams, knowing you weren't going to be able to do the things you really wanted to do, but instead study. Maybe you've felt overwhelmed this past week of cleaning up after family leaving, kids tugging at you, maybe your job has kicked up in full force. We all know what it means to be overwhelmed, what it feels like. It's not always something we enjoy, but it's a result of being human. It's one of those things we all can relate to, being overwhelmed. Our text this morning is about being overwhelmed in two different ways. It speaks positively, positively, one, over the overwhelming goodness and glory of God. And two, the overwhelming need of God's people for His glory. Those are kind of two points this morning that we're looking at. I'll repeat them. The overwhelming goodness and glory of God and the overwhelming need of God's people for His glory. Well, let's go to our first point. The overwhelming goodness of the glory of God. Our text this morning is somewhat of a transition as we talked about already. It's two parts related to what has already happened. The exodus and the giving of the law, the statutes. First part Jethro is overwhelmed with what God has done with the exodus. And the second part the people really need to know what it means to be God's people which is coming in chapter 19 20 and following. The following chapters, God is going to reveal to his people how exactly to live no longer as slaves, but as free children of the living God, the Lord of hosts, the one true God. And this, as we all know, is the giving of the moral and ceremonial law that's coming in the following chapters. We see here in Exodus 18, the news of Egypt's humiliation and God's glory. It begins to spread, right? It tells us Jethro heard about what God had done for Israel and to the Egyptians. News like this would travel fast, even in an age without the internet, without cell phones. Merchants, carriers, they would have heard that Egypt's armory has been desolated. They would have heard that this huge group of slaves, these people that Egypt had used, had basically just walked out. Egypt had been toppled. There's some things here that Jethro knows ahead of time, even before he goes to talk to Moses in the tent, when Moses gives him the specifics. So what are some of those things? Well, Moses wants us to kind of pick up on a few things. One is that news has already spread. So he knows that Egypt has fallen. Israel has escaped, that God has delivered them. He knows, Jethro knows about the burning bush. I mean, think about this. Jethro knows that Moses had received promises from God, right? Before Moses went into Egypt to lead God's people out, he met the burning bush while he was under his father-in-law's household. So, Jethro knows about these crazy promises. You know, he would have told his father-in-law why he was taking his precious daughter and his precious grandsons away into Egypt. God made these promises. The one true God made these incredible promises. These promises to deliver these people out of Egypt, that's not gonna happen, Moses. There's no way. That's impossible. These are things that Jethro knows. Another thing that the text wants us to pick up on is the names of Moses' sons. As you are well aware, anytime names are mentioned in the Bible, Hebrews were really intentional about naming. So if a name is mentioned, it's usually a helpful thing to kind of look at the name. Well, Moses tells us, we don't even have to do research, he tells us what their names means. Gershom, who basically means I'm a sojourner. And think about this to your father-in-law, how the father-in-law would receive this. Here is this son-in-law who has married your daughter, and he has a kid and he names them, this is not my home. I have great in-laws, like the best ever. But I'm sure that wouldn't go over well if I named one of my children, I cannot wait to be out of South Carolina. That wouldn't go over too well. Moses in the naming communicated to, quite boldly, his father-in-law and the other Midianites around him that God was not done, that this was not his home. God is doing something. His home is where God has promised him to be. Second son is, well, I'm not going to try to pronounce it because I do terrible at that. I'm a Sewell man. I butcher names. It's terrible. But it's in your Bible. You can look at it. Basically means that God delivered me. The God of my father delivered me. And Moses kind of adds another little parenthetical thought of from the sword of Pharaoh. And whether this is kind of, you know, after the fact commentary out of Egypt, or more likely it's pointing to the fact that Moses himself was saved from Pharaoh's decree to kill all the Hebrew boy babies. Jethro knows something already about the Lord. And this is the prime, the prepping of Jethro to hear, first count from Moses, what the Lord has done. Moses has essentially been bearing witness to his pagan father-in-law. So they meet in the tent and they talk and it's, verse eight, it's essentially like Moses is saying, Jethro, you are not going to believe this. Listen to what the Lord has done. The one true God that made all those promises at the bush. He delivered against, delivered us against all the gods of Egypt. Even Pharaoh himself. Egypt threw our defenseless babies into the Nile. But God washed away the mightiest of Egypt in the waters of the Red Sea. He did the impossible. He did the impossible. We see a little bit of this, you know, Jethro's, Egypt dealt arrogantly with you. They tried to kill your defenseless babies. And God took the mightiest of Egypt and washed over them, letting his people walk through the waters of the Red Sea, but wiping away the wickedness of Egypt's best. It's amazing. Moses didn't just talk about the good aspects of what God had done for his people, but he's also, he's very honest with Jethro. You know, when we evangelize, we want people to see an attractive picture of God and his church, right? But Moses was very honest. He told Jethro about the hard parts for God's people. You know, the plagues were terrible for the Egyptians, but the whole process was not easy for the Israelites, for the Hebrews, right? Remember that? Like Moses, God does these things and Moses kind of tells that they're going to happen. And the Hebrews are like, Moses, stop opening your mouth. You're making things worse. You got to quit it, man. Who appointed you? We used to at least have straw for our bricks. Now we have to go get it and make our own. It's very hard. Right before this text, you gotta know that Moses told his father-in-law, check out what God has done since then too. The hardship along the way. These people thought that I was basically leaving them out in the wilderness to die. They started getting hungry and grumbling, and so they cried out, you know, Moses, did you bring us out here to die? We need something to eat. And guess what God did? He dropped bread from heaven. Incredible. And so they learned a lesson, and you know, now we're all happy in one big happy family. No! They were thirsty. Moses, did you leave us out here to die? The second time they get thirsty, it even escalates. Moses is like, Lord, what am I to do with these people? They're about to stone me. God tells Moses what to do, strikes the rock, water comes. The people are provided for again. He's very honest with Jethro. Think about it from our perspective. He lets it all show out before Jethro. And it's kind of funny, really. Have you ever bought something on the internet and been sorely disappointed? You're looking at the little picture on the internet, and it's like, oh, this is going to be awesome. This thing does like 1,000 things, and it's going to make my life great. And you get it, and it's like cheap plastic. It falls apart, and it doesn't do any of those 1,000 things well. Matter of fact, it probably only does like half of them. sorely disappointed, right? Well, they're trying to sell something. They're not going to tell you about all those bad things. What about when you watch commercials and a drug commercial comes up, right? The pharmaceuticals. You know, it's like, this drug is going to make your life so much better. And praise the Lord for modern medicine. Like, it improves the quality of life. But they're required by law to tell us, like, the bad things about it, the side effects. And what do they always do? They, like, say it really, really fast, and they put up, like, the most beautiful, like, peaceful thing while they talk about it. This thing is going to make you miserable. When you're selling something, just talk about the good stuff. You know, you know you have something really good when you talk about the bad bits and people still want it. Let me explain. Moses, what he's doing, he's not saying, hey, Jethro, before you become part of us, let me let you, like, let me just give you the real picture, because you're my father-in-law, let me give you, like, the real deal about these people. That's not what he's doing. What he's doing, he's continuing what he's been doing. He's proclaiming the glory of God. From this encounter, Jethro sees a couple of things. He gets to see, he gets to see God's glory. Glory in that God is supremely powerful over all things. Over Pharaoh, over Egypt, the superpower. And yet God is also incredibly, wonderfully, refreshingly, faithful to fulfill his promises, no matter what. No matter what, no matter the stiff neckness of his people. Yeah, God can topple Egypt just as remarkable. God can love broken, messed up, complaining people. Whoa. I don't think that's hard to do. Get married, and if you're married, you know what I'm talking about. My wife knows about it, because I'm complaining. It's incredibly glorifying to God, these people. God uses broken, messed up people. This God is a God who is trustworthy and faithful to fulfill his promises, no matter how unlikely, and a God who is above all powers. He laughs at Egypt's mightiest attempts. They bring out their mightiest, their unrivaled war machines, and he topples them with frogs and bugs. His warriors, gods, are a group of grumbling slaves. He is a God that is powerful and yet truly merciful and good. The result, what does Jethro do? He's overjoyed, he's overwhelmed. Blessed be God, he is joy and delight. Scripture's saying he delights. There's nothing like this. This is wonderful. Remember, Jethro is a Midianite priest. Like he's a leader of a different religion. This is truly good news. This God that has delivered Israel against the odds that has kept with them when they grumble against him. Jethro's overwhelmed. He knows in his heart the one, true, good, supreme God is the Lord. And the appropriate response, of course, to this is humility, right? Jethro brings sacrifices and burnt offerings. It's delight, that's another response to this. He's delighting in God's goodness. And he worships, right? That's the response, to worship. And we think worship, we think formally just like worship service, and this is part of worship, but worship is just praising God, being delighted in Him. That's really what worship is all about, delight. Jethro shares fellowship and identity with Israel. Well, where are you this morning? Jethro is related to Abraham. He is one of Abraham's wives after Sarah died. One of his wife's children, an offshoot of that, the Midianites are from that. So they have ties to Abraham. But so do the Amalekites. And right before, right before this text, the Amalekites, the, if you will, kind of related kinsmen of the Hebrews, they don't respond the way Jethro does. They see a people primed for the taking and they fight against them. You're not coming in here and taking up our resources. We're gonna fight against you. And so they fight against him. And we read Exodus and there are only two positions. You're either with God or you're against him. And we have to ask ourselves, where are we this morning? Are we with the one true God who can topple any physical power and might in the known world, who is steadfast, patient towards messed up people. Are we against him? And against him doesn't always look like against him, right? Jethro, before this encounter, was against the living God. He stood under God's wrath, the same fate that was delivered to the Egyptians. And yet he comes and beholds the living God, his character, his holiness, his power, his goodness, and he's moved to a response of humility. Praise God! I know that this is the one true God. There is nothing like him. And Jethro, being a priest, knows something about the hearts. of people and what we long after, and what we want, and the emptiness that all other religions and gods deliver. Israel, Hebrews, only escaped from God's wrath because of God's doing. They escaped out of slavery. And you know, it's much better for us now. Instead of Moses, we have Jesus. The New Testament speaks of Jesus and what he has done as his own exodus, his departure. He led the people out of the bondage of death and sin. He resurrected. God has the power to topple the mightiest of enemies, earthly and spiritual. Death, that one thing that awaits every single person in this room. Christ led his people out of its bondage into eternal life. And I'm not just talking like float on angels Hallmark card. I'm talking new bodies, real physical bodies joined to their spirits that will live forever and dwell with their God to look upon the face of our Savior Jesus Christ. That's what awaits for those that have seen the holiness and power and yes, being warned of the danger of the wrath that awaits sinners. And they've clinged to Jesus alone as their only hope. Jesus is their Savior and their Lord. If you don't know where you are this morning, I plead with you and I beg with you, humble yourself before the Lord. Turn from all else and turn to Him. What awaits you in Him is His holiness, His power, not directed towards you in anger and wrath, but as children whom He loves. And He waits and longs for the day to open up His kingdom and His treasury and let us go just delighting ourselves for all eternity in Him. Do not wait. Tomorrow is not guaranteed to you. Have you ever walked with a new convert? Someone who just came to know Christ? I've had the great joy of doing this, and I'm sure many of you have as well. It's incredibly energizing. You see, they've understood who God is, His holiness, His power, His goodness, His mercy, and His grace. And they've seen the danger that they themselves are in. And they've seen the free offer of the good news of Jesus. And their whole life is just turned upside down, right? They wanna love Him, they wanna please Him, they wanna tell other people about Him. It's contagious. That alone ought to be reason for us to evangelize to people because it is such a wonderful thing to witness. But if you've ever walked with a convert, there's another side of it that is also interesting. And that's usually, especially if they're middle of life, there's a lot of messiness. There's a lot of baggage. There's a lot of old self that's entangled with the new self. And it's messy, right? When you become a Christian, it's messy. You are leaving and turning from the old things that you were striving after and turning to the life-giving God of the universe. And it's messy. And the text kind of shifts away from Jethro and his conversion to kind of Israel, right? Exodus is this great, in the New Testament, this great picture, God's great foreshadowing of what he's about to do. The great conversion. Israel has just been delivered out of bondage. Right? Just like converts, people that come to know Christ, they're delivered out of their bondage of sin and death. Israel's been delivered out of bondage and it's messy. It's really, really messy. That's what's going on here in the text is, you know, the next day Jethro's like, Moses, what are you doing, man? You know, from morning till evening, Moses is standing around the people and he's basically judging between them. They have all these cases and these issues that they're bringing to him. They haven't been in the wilderness too long. What's going on? Well, Moses is basically helping them unpack the messiness of their previous life. They've gone from slaves, having basically no judicial rights, opened up to tremendous freedom. This is new. This is messy. I'm going to let my ox wander wherever I want to. I'm free. You can't tell me. I'm sorry you trampled down your tent. It's messy. So Moses asked Jephthah, you know, what are you doing? And so Moses, you know, kind of tells him, and I think it's helpful for us to look at a couple things here of what's going on, what do they need, are they going to get it? And Moses basically tells him, I'm inquiring of God for them. And Moses is really admirable in what he's doing. He doesn't just say, like, I'm just, you go there, you go there. You can't do that, you stop doing that, you can do that. It's more than that. Moses is like, I'm warning them about the statutes, the ways of God, his laws, and who he is and his character. I'm using it as teaching moments. And Jethro kind of affirms that in his advice. He basically upholds all the things that Moses says he's trying to do. But Jethro points out something of, Moses, what you were doing, It's not good. You are one man. You are one man. And what God has called you to do, yes, those things that you spoke, but not in the way that you're doing it. The people needed those things that Moses talked about, but where are they going to get it? And Jethro's pointing out just the obvious. Look, the way you're doing this, you're not gonna reach everybody. In fact, you're never getting to the promised land at this rate. You need help. You're not one man. And this is a, Moses is doing the hard work of exegesis for us right here, of application. I am not the Messiah. Moses is writing Exodus, remember. He wrote this for us. Moses is telling us all this information. He is not the one. God's people, yes, they need a mediator. They need someone to intercede for them. Right? And Moses does this in a huge way in Exodus 33. Right? God's basically like, I'm done with the stiff-necked people. They've crossed the line. And Moses intercedes for God's grace. And God relents. They need that. They need to know God's statutes and His ways and what it looks like. So Jethro says, hey, here's some advice. And Jethro is not proclaiming to be some prophet. It's very clear in the Hebrew that again and again, Jethro is making it very clear, hey, ask, this is my advice, go ask God about it. And if you do this, which basically, if God allows you to do this and says this is good, it's gonna help you. It's gonna be a good thing for you and for the people. It's going to free you up for what God has called you to do, and it's going to help the people even better than what you one man are doing. You are only one man. What did the people need? The people needed someone to represent them before God. This is very important. They needed someone to warn them about the statutes and laws of God, and they needed someone to make known to them the way that leads to life and joy. The promised land, blessing and curse, right? That's why he talks about warning them. If you follow God's ways, there's great blessing. If you disobey them, there's great curse. There's great negative consequence. You know, when I was reading this, it reminded me a whole lot of Acts 6. Now there's differences, obviously, but Jethro tells them, look, look for men to help you, to come alongside you and to defer to you, but the really difficult stuff, but find men to free you up so that you can actually do the important things that God has called you to do. And these men, what are they? They were able men, right? And it wasn't just like, okay, these people are the older people, they are the tribesmen by family or by right, and so they get the position. No, he said, look for able men. This isn't just a, you inherit this position. Really interesting. This is totally against, like, God's structure of the Levitical, right? Like Levites, you were a priest because you were born into the Levite tribe. Same thing with the kings. Really interesting. Look for able men. Look for men who fear God. Look for men who are trustworthy. set these men up as judges to do what you're doing on a small level all over the place. The text tells us that Moses does this approval from God and it's of great benefit to he and the people. You know, what does this mean for us? How do we apply this to ourselves? Well, the text calls us, I think, to take our officers seriously. When it comes nominating time, do we nominate for the right reasons? You know, it's interesting, the text is more concerned about a person's morality than their job position, than their title, than their intellect. There's no thing about intellect. Scriptures tell us, you know, how does one become wise? The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, right? It's kind of that trump card. You find someone whose whole life is trying to be governed and sanctioned by what would please God, that's the man you want. Because that man's going to understand that he's a sinner and needs of God's grace. And he's going to look to God when things get really confusing and go sideways. That's what you want. You want the man that knows his sin so that when he's helping somebody, and that person abuses that help again and again, continues to portray verbally and physically the hands of Jesus. How does this apply to us with our officers? Well, it's including our officers in our lives. This was something that was really, really important for the people of God. They needed this. They needed leaders, godly men in their lives. So this should be a call for all of us to include our officers in our lives, our deacons and our elders. Invite them over for Sunday lunch. You're struggling with something, you're thinking about a move, talk to your officers. You need help with something, you're struggling, talk to your Officers, that's what God has put them there for. God has called them and put them here at Carriage Lane and in your lives for the reason to walk with you. Include them in your lives. Officers, what does it say to you? To take seriously your duty to which God has called you. Above all, fear God. Fear God. I can do no wrong. For all of us to seriously and solemnly listen and apply God's Word, preach from our pastors, right? This is what Jethro is saying. Look, you need these men to be in the lives of your people. You cannot be in every single person's life, but they desperately need to hear from God. So what do pastors do week in and week out? Listen to your pastor. And not just what they're saying, realize that God has put them this Sunday there for a reason, to listen. Scriptures tell us God's word does not return void. It either bears fruit or it brings hardening. Take it seriously. So in summary, what have we been talking about? God delivers his people so that they might become his people. The more we understand exactly how bad our plight is and how holy and powerful God truly is, the more joy and delight we will experience. The more our hearts will explode with appropriate worship. According to this text, we would all do well to think about the priorities that Moses and Jethro were laying out for the people. What do you as God's child really need? Week in, week out. Day in, day out. What do you need to walk in the way? We're pilgrims just like them. This is not our home. The promised land was just a little foreshadowing of the great eternal day where we will live forever in God's great and glorious city. The people had Moses, who interceded for them, but was just one man. Have the Lord Jesus, as we sung, has risen from the dead and is reigning now, interceding for us. We have greater access. The people of Israel trembled to go before the mountain of God. Yet we can wake up groggy-eyed, haven't had our cup of coffee, and we say, Lord, you're gonna have to help me today. We can approach him just like you'd approach your earthly father, your friend. It's wonderful. delight in that, take advantage of that. But above all, behold your God who leads his people through stormy waters, that we, his people, might be heralds of safe harbor to ships tossed about in turbulent world. God has, if you were in Christ, has saved you from your sin and death. but has saved you, delivered you to be His people, to enjoy life even before we get to the promised land. And part of that means we tell other ships, hey look, we've been in those seas. Sometimes we may make our own waves. Come and find safe harbor with the Lord Jesus. God delivers His people so that they might become His people. And this is really, really great news. Let's pray.