Dealing with Doubt

If you have your bible is open to Exodus chapter six. We're looking today at those first nine verses in Exodus chapter six. In Exodus chapter five, you come off one of those low points, a low point where God has begun to act on behalf of his people, and Pharaoh responded negatively, and in his negative response, he increased hardship on the Israelites. The Israelites immediately turned against Moses because of this hardship that was increased against them, and Moses, great leader that he is, turns to God and complains because God hasn't done what he promised to do. And so Chapter five was rather discouraging in terms of the faith and faith of God's people. Now, one would think that if that was the case in chapter five, we would open to chapter six, and in chapter six we would find another story. And instead we find same song second verse. There is more faithlessness, there is more disbelief, there is more moaning and crying against God. Yet in the midst of this there is a statement that God makes that is crucial in understanding a couple of things. First, it's crucial in understanding why Israel and Moses are wrong in groaning against God and Secondly, it's crucial to understanding how it is that God is going to do what he said he would do, and why it is that God is going to do what he said he would do. Now, the fact of the matter is less we get on our high horse. What we see in Israel and in Moses in chapter five, in chapter six is the exact same thing we see in ourselves in our everyday lives. Amen, somebody, we do the same thing. There is a promise that we believe, a truth to which we hold, and there's a way that we believe that God ought to do what he has promised to do. And then God doesn't do what we think God ought to do, and two things happen. Number One, we shake our fists at God because he didn't do what we thought he ought to do. And secondly, we act as though God has forgotten how to take care of his business. It's one thing for us to be upset because I had an expectation and things didn't happen in accordance with my expectation. It's another thing to say, God, you've sinned against me, which essentially is what we say. You didn't do what you were supposed to do. You are wrong. You owed me something and you didn't give me what you owed me. There was a way to do this, there was a best way to do this, and I know what the best way was to get this done, and you did not do this and the best way to get this done? God, how dare you well? I would never speak to God like that, not openly. But that's exactly what Israel is saying to God here, and it's exactly what we have a tendency to say to God in the midst of our frustration. But if we will remember this statement, it will help turn us away from that tendency and towards something that is war true. First, let me read this passage in its entirety, and then we'll look at it more carefully. Let me go back to the last paragraph from last week. Then Moses turned to the Lord and said, O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Evil? He accuses God of evil? Why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all. God, you did evil? How did God do evil? By allowing Pharaoh to do evil. So now God is being blamed for the evil that Pharaoh has done. Never mind the fact that God said, hey, I'm going to send you to Pharaoh. Oh, by the way, he's going to harden his heart and he's not gonna do what you tell him to do. Now it happens exactly the way God said it was going to happen. And Moses said, you've done evil. Chapter six, verse one. But the Lord said to Moses, now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh. For with a strong hand he will send them out, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land. That's amazing. That's amazing, And that's grace and its kindness and its mercy. I remember when I was a kid, but my mother was, how do we put this? My mama didn't play. And I remember as a kid one time in a grocery store hearing another child say something to their parent and throw a tantrum and throw something down in a grocery store. I don't know how old I was. I must have been six, seven, eight years old or so, because I remember this, and I remember when it happened and the kid yelled at their mother and said whatever it was to their mother and threw that thing down on the ground. And I literally ducked, just in case his mama was anything like my mama, because I just thought to myself, if I had done what he just did, I wouldn't make it out of the store. When I read the end of chapter five and the way that Moses spoke to God, something in me just wants to duck. Don't you feel that way? I mean, I read that and I go I just I couldn't imagine having the audacity, the unmitigated gall to say what Moses says to God. At the end of chapter five, he's in trouble, and chapter six begins and God doesn't strike him dead. He doesn't even strike him with leprosy or whatever. He didn't he doesn't even get from God when he got earlier. When you know in the circumcision passage, when you know here, here it is, and we're trying to figure it out, you know who it is that's about to die. It is God is coming against about to kill them. But in chapter six that doesn't happen. Instead, God moves right along and he makes a statement. This is the prologue to the statement and the prologue is, oh, You're about to see what I'm going to do to Moses. After the prolog he makes a statement. This statement beginning in verse two, God spoke to Moses and said to him, I am Yahweh, and I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as el Shaddai. But by my name Yahweh, I did not make myself known to them. I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners. Moreover, I have heard the great of the people of Israel, whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. Say therefore to the people of Israel, I am Yahweh, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will deliver you from slavery to them. And I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God. And you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am Yahweh. Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, and then here it is, but they did not listen to Moses because of their broken spirit and hearsh slavery. There it is. I want you to understand something from this text. I want you to see a picture of where all doubt comes from and how you overcome it, because I believe that that's what we see in this text. This is a picture of the human condition. This is a picture of why we doubt. And we know where the doubt comes from because we know God's antidote to the doubt. And we'll see that momentarily after this opening statement. There are a couple of things. First, we see that we doubt because we forgo get who the Lord is, which is why God begins by reminding Moses and then Israel of who he is. Look at those verse two and three. God spoke to Moses and said to him, I am the Lord. I am Yahweh. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. Ask God Almighty or El should I but by my name the Lord Yahweh, I did not make myself known to them. This is an important statement. It's kind of a complicated statement, but there is a triple reference here in this passage. When we look at verses two through nine, three times he says I am Yahweh. It frames his statement. First, before his statement to Moses, he says, I am the Lord, I am Yahweh. And secondly, before the statement that Moses is supposed to make to Israel, he says, I am Yahweh. And at the end of that statement he says I am Yahweh. Three times he says it. That's significant, the fact that three times he introduces himself and he uses this particular name for himself. However, there is something a little confusing about the revelation of this name, because he says I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty or else should I but by my name the Lord, by my name Yahweh, I did not make myself known to them. This is a problem. Why number one, Because that name is used one hundred times in Genesis. So how is it that God is saying I didn't make myself known by that name. When the name is used one hundred times in Genesis, surely you made himself known by that name if it's used one hundred times in Genesis. Not only is it used one hundred times in Genesis, but the name is used by and with the patriarchs. It's used with Abraham, for example. God's statement here is puzzling, brus Will says, since previous biblical texts speak clearly of Abraham's knowledge of the name Yahweh. Abraham uses the name himself Genesis fifteen two and eight, and Yahweh declares it to Abraham in Genesis fifteen seven, where he uses the same phrase, I am Yahweh. So what does God mean when he says to Moses, I did not reveal myself by this name to your forefathers, Because it seems like he did reveal himself by this name to the forefathers. It's two ways of solving this problem. One way of solving this problem that I believe is problematic is what's called the documentary hypothesis. You've probably heard of, you know, JEPD theory and so on and so forth, that there are multiple authors of the Pentateuch, and they are different, actually not only multiple authors, But there are multiple communities that came together to write the Pentateuch, and you can tell who they are by the way that they refer to God and so on and so forth. And so the argument goes that when this was being written by later communities, whoever it was that wrote Genesis or whatever groups actually wrote Genesis, well, this name had already been revealed to them when they went back and wrote Genesis. And therefore there's this little hiccup or contradiction when God says, here's where the name was revealed. It's true that it wasn't revealed until the Exodus, but they sort of went back into the Genesis account when they wrote it and just added that name. That's one way to look at it. It's problematic why Bible says Moses wrote the Pentitud and I believe Moses wrote the Pentitud Amen, Hallelujah, praise the Lord. Not a group of individuals, not a group of communities. I believe Moses wrote the Pentitud period, he's the author through the Pentitude. Well, then what do you do with this apparent contradiction. Listen to the way Calvin answers this question. Nor does God by his name in this passage mean syllables or letters, but the knowledge of His glory and majesty, which shone out more fully and more brightly in the redemption of his church than in the commencement of the Covenant. For Abraham and the other patriarchs were content with a smaller measure of light. Whence it follows that the fault of their descendants would be less excusable in their faith if their faith was not answerable to the increase of their grace. Meanwhile, Moses is awakened to activity whilst God is setting before him a magnificent and singular means of showing forth his glory. They knew the word Yahweh, they didn't understanding the meaning. They didn't understand the meaning of Yahweh. They knew that God said, I am Yahweh, had no idea what was significant about this name Yahweh. It was only when God revealed himself specifically and theologically to Moses and explained why this name in particular was significant for him that Moses had a more full or understanding of this term Yahweh. Listen to Cassado when he writes, in defining this name, this name means he who is with his creatures, and he who was constantly the same, that is, he is true to his word and fulfills his promises. That's what this name means. I am Yahweh, and my action shall be in keeping with my name. A similar interpretation attaches to the phrase I am Yahweh wherever it occurs in the Bible. It comes to link the statute or the promise with the attributes of God implied in the name Yahweh, the attributes of one who sees to it that the moral law is observed and fulfills with absolute faithfulness what he promises or what he announces before beforehand by his prophets. In other words, that name Yahweh means I am the God who keeps my covenant. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob didn't really understand this. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob don't know who God is. They know nothing about God. God reveals himself to them, and he says, I am God. He establishes a covenant with them, and he makes a promise. They do not understand, however, that his very name means every promise I make I keep. His very name means I am the one that you can count on because every promise I make I keep that his very name is a reflection of his very character as the covenant keeping God. You see, God wasn't saying, here's the way that you sort of keep me in line as opposed to the other gods. God was saying, I am God, and there is no other God. And my character is such that my very name evokes the righteousness of my moral law. Abraham didn't comprehend that the way that Moses would come to comprehend it. And that's what God means when he says, by this name, I didn't make myself known to them. They didn't comprehend this name. And there is a reason that they would not have comprehended this name in Genesis the way it was comprehended in Exodus, because ultimately, this covenant is about deliverance. It's sort of like a child who grows up in a Christian home. The child grows up in a Christian home and they hear the name Jesus, and they grow up in this home and they're catechised, and they come to church and they hear songs about Jesus and Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus and they like the name Jesus and come to love the name Jesus. Jesus loves me. This I know, if the Bible tells me so. Little ones to him belong. They're weak, but he is strong. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so. And they sing those songs about Jesus, and they learn those truths about Jesus. And yet one day their faith is no longer borrowed. Their faith is no longer secondhand, Their faith is no longer their parents' faith, but their faith is their own, and they come to know Jesus and not just the name Jesus. His name shall be called Jesus. Why because he will save his people. It's not until you become one of his saved people that you really understand his name. And basically, what God is saying is Abraham, Isaac and Jacob compared to you, Moses, and compared to what I have revealed to you and will continue to reveal to you, Compared to you their children who grew up in a house saying a name that they did not comprehend. However, when I do what I am going to do in with through and for Israel. You will know and understand my name in a way that they never could have. That's what he means. That's what he means. They used the name, but you know the name. Secondly, not only do we doubt because we do we doubt. We doubt when we forget who God is. We doubt when we somehow, when we somehow don't understand that just by his very nature, God is the one who keeps his promises. We doubt when we just forget the fact that by his very nature God is sovereign, God is in control. Ultimately. That's what doubt is. Is it not that somehow we believe that there is an area that has fallen through the cracks. Somehow we believe that there is an area that has escaped God's view, or there's something that has slipped between his fingers, or that somehow he has forgotten, or that somehow he has lied. And the only way that we can doubt like that is if we forget who he is. When you know who he is, you know he does not forget things. He neither slumbers nor sleeks. That God is never late, but he's always right on time. When you understand who he is, there is no room for doubt. But beyond knowing who he is, we also doubt because we forget what he has done. Verses four and five allude to this. I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived at sojournals. Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel, whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. First, God is reminding Moses of their first meeting. That ought to sound familiar to you. When God first encounters Moses, he says these same words, I've seen, I've heard, I remember it, I've come. He says these same things. So God is reminding Moses of what he has done. Secondly, God is reminding Moses and Israel of his covenant. It's amazing when we talk about covenant. But there are two things that are associated with the idea of covenant, and that is the concept of revelation and redemption. Listen to what our Confession says about covenant and Chapter seven, paragraph one. The distance between God and the creature is so great that all though reasonable creatures do oh obedience under him as their creator. Yet they could never have attained the reward of life but by some voluntary condescension on God's part, which he had been pleased to express by way of covenant. You can't know God unless he reveals himself to you. Sure, the heavens declare the glory of God, and you look out at the heavens, and you look at the world, and it says to you, there is a creator, and you're without excuse. However, you don't know who he is. You don't know his name unless he condescends to you and reveals himself. And the covenant is the means by which God reveals himself. So when he reminds Moses of this covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, what he is saying is I revealed myself to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob in ways that I did not reveal myself to the rest of the world. Not everyone has access to the same revelation, but God reveals himself uniquely to his covenant people. And so first and foremost, he's reminding him of the fact that God revealed himself. And secondly, there's this idea of redemption covenant means redemption. God shows Abraham, not the rest of the world. He redeemed Abraham. There are other individuals that could have been redeemed by God for this purpose, but they weren't Abraham was. Secondly, God turned a barren couple into parents. God did that for his purpose of redemption. Thirdly, he turned a man into a nation. God did that for his own purpose in redemption, and God turned to that nation's time of need into their time of deliverance. God does that for Israel, and he reminds Moses of that. God also rebukes Moses and Israel for their doubt, and they need to be rebuked for their doubt. How does he rebuke him simply by reminding them of who he is? You've forgotten who I am is Israel says, you made it hard for us. What's wrong with you? You came and you spoke to Pharaoh, and now all of a sudden things are harder for us. Moses turns to God, Why have you done evil against these people? Look at what Pharaoh did, the evil that he did to them. How could you do this to them? And God says, hold on, son, First of all, I'm God. You seem to have forgotten that, But I'm gonna let that one slide. Secondly, i am the God who made a covenant with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. Thirdly, I'm the God who promised something to these people. And Fourthly, I'm the God who remembered my covenant and came and got you so that my people could be delivered. Or have you forgotten why we started this conversation in the first place. This is a gentle rebuke. It's better than the last one. Amen. This is one of those rebukes where at the end of it you kind of go, I just got rebuked, didn't I Yes, you did, Yes, you did. You See, God doesn't owe us anything, and yet he has revealed himself to us, and he has redeemed us, and he's in the process of redeeming us, regardless of what it is that we're experiencing. Thirdly, we doubt because we don't believe what the Lord has promised. Look at verses six through eight save therefore to the people of Israel, I am the Lord. I am Yahweh, and I will bring you out that this is framed by I am the Lord on the beginning and the end. So he's going back to remind them of who I am. That I'm God. By the way, there's no other explanation needed than I am God. Amen. That's kind of like when you your parents tell you something, you go, why do I have to do that? Because I told you so? Well, what I have to do what you tell me? Because I'm your daddy. Well, uh uh, that's enough. That's enough. I am the Lord. That's enough. He says it at the beginning and the end. But in the middle again, remember three times, I am the Lord. And in the middle of that seven promises, another very important number in the scriptures. Look at those promises. I will bring you out from under the burden of the Egyptians. What's their worry? You spoke to Pharaoh and our burden got heavier. I'm God. I will bring you out from under the burden of the Egyptians. Number two, I will deliver you from slavery to them. Number three, I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. Number four, I will take you to be my people. Number five, I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord, your God, who has brought you out from under the burden of the Egyptians. When I do it, you'll know I did it. Number six, I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And number seven, I will give it to you for a possession. I'm not just going to bring you out. I'm going to bring you in. I'm not just going to bring you out and bring you in, but I'm going to bring you out, take you as my own, be your God uniquely specifically, and bring you into this land that I promised. And how does he end it? I am yahweh. Why do we doubt? We doubt because we forget who God is, because if we've remembered who God was, there would be no room for doubt. We doubt because we forget what God has done, because if we remembered what God has done, if we remembered God's covenant, if we remembered God's redemption again, where would there be room for doubt? And then thirdly, again we do we forget what God has promised. We forget that God has not done with us. We forget that Jesus said, I go to prepare a place for you, Amen, that there is more ahead. We forget that he's coming again, that judge the living in the dead, and then he will make all things right. We forget that. That's why we doubt, because we forget that. But lest we be flippant and they go, oh yeah, that's right. Yeah, all I have to do is just have those facts. Look at what happens. Because they get those facts, and they don't get those facts, they get those facts from God. God says to Moses, I am the Lord, and you're gonna know me better than Abraham, Isaac and Jacob knew me. I'm revealing myself and my character you character to you in ways that they couldn't even comprehend. I'm God. You need to know me as God and you won't doubt. Secondly, you need to remember what I've done. Remember the covenant that I made. I'm the guy who made that covenant. I'm the one who came and got you. You didn't come and get me, Moses, you were keeping sheep on the other side of the mountain. I came and got you. I made that bush burn. I got your attention, you didn't get mine. Thirdly, tell the people that this is what I'm going to do. And Moses comes down, armed with the word of God and armed with the word of God, the prophet of God speaks to the people of God, this powerful word, reminding them of who God is, what He's done, and what he's promised. And the people of God respond. Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses because of their broken spirit and hearth slavery. God spoke directly to Moses, and Moses brought that word to the people. Because of their broken spirit and because of their circumstances, they wouldn't believe what Moses said. This heavy burden, this is real. Your promise is not real right now, Moses, Pharaoh, he's real. Your God is not real now, Moses, your God says he's gonna do ABC and X y Z. Pharaoh did what he was gonna do. We got no straw man. This is real. That's pie in the sky stuff. This is real. My pain is real, my heartache is real, My circumstances are real, my frustration is real, my fear is real. And right now it's more real to me than who you say God is and what you say God has done and what you say God has promised. That's you and me. That's where the burber meets the road. That's the real Christian life. That's us. And because we don't understand that this is the real Christian life, here's what happens. We get to that place and we think there's something wrong with us, there's something wrong with me. Because if there wasn't something wrong with me, I wouldn't respond this way. Listen, same thing's wrong with you, that was wrong with them. You're falling and living in this world is difficult. Information and rebuke that's not enough. Granted we need information, Granted we need rebuke, but that's not enough. We need the presence and power of the Spirit of God in our lives, and we need him to act mercifully. And we also need to be reminded. Israel would have to hear this same thing again and again and and again and again and again. Listen, Saints, don't think so much of yourself that you get frustrated because you have to be reminded. That's arrogance. What's the matter, fellow Christian? Oh, I'm just down. Why are you so down, fellow Christian? Well, because something happened in my life and I doubted again, Really, fellow Christian because Christians doubt things. Yes, but I should be more mature than that. By now. I should be at a place in my life where I stop. Right now, are you saying, dear Christian, that you should be at a place in your life where you don't need to be reminded again and again and again. Don't say that. First, let me read some things for you Romans fifteen fifteen. But I'm on some points. I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God First Corinthians four seventeen. This is why I sent you, Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church one Corinthians fifteen to one. Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preach to you, which you received, in which you stand tewod Corinthians ten to seven. Look at what is before your eyes. If anyone is confident that he is Christ's, let him remind himself that just as he is Christ's, so also are we second Peter one twelve and thirteen. Therefore, I intend always to remind you of these qualities second Peter three, No, let me finish twelve, twelve, and thirteen remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. I think it right as long as I am in this body to stir you up by way of reminder tewod Peter three to one. This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved, and both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder. And finally, Jude five, Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it that Jesus who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. Reminder, Reminder, reminder. Why do we need to sit under the ordinary means of grace every week in church because we need to be reminded? Why do we need to be reminded of the Gospel because we forget faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ. Why do we need to read the Word regularly, pray the word regularly, sing the word regularly? Why do we need to come before the Lord's table week in and week out because we need to be reminded? Again and again and again, because the yoke of your oppression is a constant reminder, and you need the Word of God as a constant reminder. Because the difficulties that you face every day are a reminder, and so you need the Word of God as a reminder. The hardness of life is a reminder, and so you need the preaching of the Gospel as a reminder. The disappointment of your sinfulness is a reminder, so you need the majesty of Christ put forth before you again and again and again as a reminder. Christianity is not a class you take and pass. It's your life, your breath, your health, your strength, your everything. And you must be reminded. I must be reminded because every time difficulty smacks you or me in the face, our natural tendency is not to remember who God is, what He's done, and what He's promised. Our natural tendency is to say, this is too much for me. I just can't believe right now. This is why there's no such thing as a lone ranger Christian. You can't do this on your own. You weren't meant to do this on your own. You're not capable of doing this on your own. You need someone to remind you. You need to remind yourself, and you need to remind somebody else. Amazing things happen when we remind other people of things. This happens all the time. One of the things, you know, as pastors we talk about all the time, how you know, you're sitting and you're dealing with some situation, and you're helping someone with some situation, and you're looking at these things objectively, and you're reminding these people of these things objectively, And all of a sudden, in the middle of being the objective voice reminding people of these things, you go, you know, you're doing really good. What is sometimes while we're talking to you, you're doing really good talking to them. That's awesome, man, Where was all that stuff the other day when you had your own difficulties and your own doubts. That means it is a blessing to be part of the body to have people remind us again and again and again. It is a blessing when we gather as believers to be reminded again and again and again. But it is also a blessing to remind your brothers and sisters in Christ because oftentimes You need to hear those words fall out of your own mouth so that you can remember why the wheels fell off? Why did I say that thing I shouldn't have said? Here's why. I wouldn't hold it onto this? Why did that do that thing I shouldn't have done. Here's why, because I wouldn't hold it on to this. Why did I act the way I shouldn't have acted? Here's why because I wasn't holding on to this? Who is God? What has he done? What has he promised? My prayer for you, for me, for all of us, is that as we walk through the difficulties of our lives, and our lives will be fraught with difficulties, that as we face each one of them, we will ask ourselves who is God? What has he done? What has he promised? I'm struggling with something right now. It's hurting me. What I need to do? You need to ask yourself who is God? What has he done? What has he promised? I got some news that overwhelmed me. How do I face it? You ask yourself, who is God? What has he done? What is he promised? I've got a task in front of me that I have no idea how I can accomplish. What do I do? You ask yourself who is God? What has he done? And what has he promised? And what happens when that doesn't work, rentse and repeat. So it's just real easy to get caught up in this idea of this Christianity that makes us invincible. It's really easy to get caught up in this kind of Christianity that never has a bad day, or at least never admits it. It's real easy to get caught up in this christian how are you I'm blessed, IM highly favored, and never answer the question with now I'm struggling today. The problem with getting caught up in that myth of Christianity is that it leaves you nowhere to go in your dark days. But to your darkness. You can't admit that you're struggling, You can't ask for help when you're struggling, and you can't get out of your struggle because all you have is your struggle and the idea that there's something wrong with you because you're a Christian who's in the midst of a struggle. Let that go, Let that go, and rejoice in the fact that God has given you this one day and seven, that He has given you your Bible, that He has given you your brothers and sisters in Christ, and so much more. In order to remind you again and again and again and again why because we need it. We need it. We need to be reminded Christ died for sin, once for all, the just, for the unjust, in order that He might bring us back to God. We need to be reminded of that. We need to be reminded that because we have come to Him in repentance and faith, that we are part of the covenant people of God, that we are saved, and that we are in the process of being sanctified, and we will one day be glorified. We need to be reminded that Christ will, he who began a good work in you, is able and faithful to see it through to completion. You need to be reminded of that. Christian, And if you're not a Christian, you need to be reminded of that, because if you're not a Christian, that means you're trusting in something other than the completed work of Christ, and you're failing, and it's failing. And it's not enough for you to just fail. You need to be reminded over and over and over again why you're failing. Because Christ is your only hope. Flee to him, cling to him, trust in him and nothing else, and don't leave here another week without embracing and walking in that reality. Let's pray, dear Father, we bow before you as a humble and needy people, by before you as a broken people, and yet we buy before you as a forgiven people, as a grateful people. Grateful that although we need reminders, we serve a God who delights in reminding us. Grateful that although we despair, we serve a God who delights in pointing us to hope. Grateful that although we disbelieve, we serve a God who helps our unbelief. Grant by your grace that we would embrace the reality of the Christian life and its struggles, and rejoice in the provision that you have made. Thank you for Christ, who is our only hope. Thank you for this meal in which we are about to partake. That reminds us again and again, week in and week out that just as our bodies need food, spiritually, we must feed on Christ. That reminds us again and again that his broken body and his shed blood are indeed our only hope, and that that hope is sufficient, because Christ is sufficient. As we turn our attention to the Lord's table, grant by your grace that we might rejoice in Christ, and whose name we pray and ask all these things amen. In the moment we will partake the Lord's supper.