The Providence of God and the People of Promise

If you have your Bibles, open them to Genesis, I mean Exodus, Exodus chapter one. I was thinking about the connection between Genesis and Exodus, and how the paragraph that we're looking at today is the bridge between Genesis and Exodus. And if I were to title the message today, it would be the Providence of God and the people of Promise. As I thought through this passage of scripture today, I couldn't help but be reminded of a recent experience. I may have told you about before, but the church is eight years old this week, and it must have been at least five years ago, if not more six, that I made my first trip to Zambia to partner with our friends there. And you all are know and are very familiar with Conrad and Bayway and the Reform Baptist of Zambia, and some of you have even been on trips there to Zambia. I'll never forget the first time I went to Zambia. One of the pastors there in the Reform Baptist movement there as a physician by the name of Grave Graves and Go Go and I think about him as a as a physician and elder. He's kind of there. Josh Lloyd, you know, like we have a physician, physician and elder here with all the sort of unique, you know, complications and contributions that that brings with it. And I remember I remember doctor Grave very vividly because on my second or third day there, I met his father, and I just call him Papas and gogo. I don't, I don't, I just he's you know. When I in fact, when I called and I asked about him, when I'm talking to Conrad on the phone or through Skype, I just say, you know, I asked, you know, how I was Grave? And then I say, and how is our father? Because one thing that some of you may remember is that you know this we started eight years ago this week, and eight years ago two weeks from now, my father died, and so it was it was a very interesting month for me. And so I'm there and I meet Grave's father, who's eighty five years old, sharp as a tack, still driving himself around, still getting around, just just sharp. And I walked up to him and he greeted me, and he grabbed my face and he kissed me, and he looked me in the eyes and he said, is this your first trip to Africa, and I said, well, yes, sir, it is, and he just grabs my face and he pulls it close to him and he says, my son, welcome home. And I lost it. I lost it. I spent most of my life, you know, having friends and you know, people around me who could say, oh, yeah, you know, I'm Irish on this side of my family and Scottish on that side of my family. And several generations ago, my family lived in this little village over in whatever European town, and my family is from this part of you know, Mexico, South America, you know, Russia or wherever, and people telling me about all those sort of things, and then they look at me and go, by the way, why do you have a German name? Because my family was slaves to a German family here in the United States. And I have no idea, no idea what my heritage is beyond that. And so here I was, first time ever in Africa, Papa Ashes holding me by the face and saying son, welcome home, and all of these thoughts flooded my mind at once that several hundred years ago, my ancestors were taken from that land by force, sold into slavery ended up here on these shores, that God sustained us, and that God, by his grace allowed me here in this country as a free man to hear the Gospel, to be converted, to be called to the ministry to preach the gospel, and then all these generations later to go back there and minister and serve in that same place. And all of a sudden, I had this unbelievable picture of the providence of God like I've never seen it before. Because usually when we think about the providence of God, all we think about is, you know, I'm driving down the street and you know, something happens and I swerve and I just missed the car in front of me. In front of me, Oh that was providential. Or there's a storm and a tree falls down, but it falls away from the house and not on the house, and we say, oh, that was providential. Never do we think this horrible thing happened. And as a result of this horrible thing that happened, I am who I am, I am, where I am, I have what I have, I know God the way that I know God, and I'm used of God the way that I'm used of God. Because of this horrible thing that happened that was providential. We don't think that way, But on that day I learned how to think about God's providence in that way. And as we look at the Book of Exodus, we learn to think about God's providence in that way. Usually when we think about the Book of Exodus, we think about it starting in fact. You know, I've dusted off the old you know, cisil B de Mill movie the Ten Commandments as we were getting ready to go through Exodus, and I said, let me just let me just look at this again. Let me just let me just see this again. And they don't start where the book of Exodus starts. When you see that, you start with the baby in the basket, and that's not where everything starts. Where everything starts is connecting it to Genesis, so that you remember the providence of God that has created this nation. And you start off with a very small band of people and then rather quickly are informed that they have become something significant. But in order to appreciate that, and in order to appreciate the providence of God, you have to connect this to Genesis. And it's precisely what Moses does in those first few verses. Look beginning of verse one. These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household. Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, Isakar, Zebulin and Benjamin Dan and Nafdalai, Gad and Asher. All the descendants of Jacob were seventy persons. Joseph was already in Egypt. Then Joseph died, and all his brothers and all their generation. But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased grows. They multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them. Amen, what a word. That's where Exodus begins. And if you don't begin there, you don't understand what it is that we're seeing. If you don't begin here, all you think is these people have experienced four hundred years and they're being oppressed, and they're in bondage. Where is God? What is God doing? What is God thinking? Why has God forgotten them? But when you start with this first paragraph, you can't think that way. You can't think that way. When you begin with this first paragraph, you are confronted with the providence of God. Now in order to orient us again we don't think rightly about providence. I've said before that providence has become the Christian word for luck. If you can't say amen, you ought to say ouch. Okay. Providence has become the Christian word for luck. That's not what providence is, or we confuse providence with sovereignty. God's sovereignty is his rule. It's his authority. God's providence is the way that He exercises that rule. This is the way our confession puts it in Chapter five of Divine Providence in the Second London Baptst Confession, God, the Good creator of all things, in his infinite power and wisdom, doth uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures and things from the greatest even to the least, by his most wise, holy providence, wise and holy providence to the end for the which they were created, according onto his infallible foreknowledge and the free and demutable counsel of his own will, to the praise of the glory of His wisdom, power, justice, infinite goodness and mercy. The seventh paragraph of that same chapter reads as the Providence of God doth in general reach to all creatures, so after a most special manner it taketh care of his church and disposes disposed excuse me, disposeth of all things to the good thereof. This is the way we understand providence. As far as a pointed definition, I love wayn Grudam's definition in his Systematic theology. We may define God's providence as follows. God is continually involved with all created things in such a way that he won keeps them existing and maintaining the properties with which he created them. There's number one. God created all things, and he keeps them existing, and he keeps them maintaining their properties. Okay, you don't just walk down the street and lose your properties and turn into something else. You don't wake up tomorrow, and the sky is not the same sky, and the earth is not the same earth, and you don't wake up tomorrow. And you know, dogs me out and catch bark. They maintain their properties by the providence of God. Two cooperates with created things in every action, directing their distinctive properties to cause them to act as they do. So, He causes us to act in a matter consistent with our properties. We maintain our properties, and we act in a manner consistent with our properties. And then three directs them to fulfill his purpose. This is the providence of God. But how do we see the providence of God here in these first seven verses of Exodus. Well, first we see that the providence of God preserves the covenant community. Look at me. In verses one through five. These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household. And then we have them aimed. Now, all the descendants of Jacob were seventy persons. This is the providence of God. First of all, God kept his people in a foreign land. God kept his people in a foreign land. That's God's providence. You ever met a Hittite? You ever met a Hittite? Anybody? Anybody ever met at Philistine? I want to say, somebody who acts like a Philistine? All right, you have ever met no nobody ever met at Philistine. No, no Amriites, Amini, any of those Heites. No, absolutely not. You've never met an individual from any of those people groups. They're gone. In fact, you've never probably heard of a people group that went into another land and another culture and wasn't just completely absorbed into that culture. And yet God in Egypt kept his people in the midst of a foreign land, and he kept them as his distinct people. Interestingly enough, there are very few ways that this can happen. There are very few ways that you can actually have a people come into another land, be conquered by another land or anything else, to come into another land for whatever reason and maintain their own identity. One way is you can have a people who conquer another land, then they'll maintain their identity. They conquer another land, they wipe it out, and they live there now. They maintain their cultural identity. That's one way, okay. The second way that you can do it as you can have those people conquered by another land and make them slaves. That way, because they are a slave class, they will not intermarry with and be merely absorbed into the other culture. There are very few ways for this to happen. One way for it to happen is for people to be considered slaves and providentially. That's exactly the way Israel was considered by Egypt. He also kept his people from premature death. This is an amazing thing. There is a list here of Jacob's twelve sons. They live in a rough place. They lived a rough life, and they were preserved from death. Remember what happens. How do they convince you know, how do they explain themselves when they sell Joseph into slavery. Well, they dip his coat in some blood and they bring it back and they say he was eaten by a wild animal, a lion or a bear. We know that David had encounters with lions and bears in this same region, so we know that they're wild animals. So you're working with sheep and goats, and there are wild animals like bears and wolves and lions, and you have twelve sons and they all survive. That's not normal. That's not normal. But God did it in his providence. He kept his people from separation. These twelve sons all went into Egypt together. They were not separated. Remember Judah left. Judah left the family. In chapter thirty seven of Genesis, we are introduced to the Totaldo of Jacob, or these are the generations of Jacob. When we're introduced to the generations of Jacob, we're introduced to this son of Hiss by the name of Joseph, who is his favorite son. We're introduced to the enmity between him and his brothers were introduced to how he separated from his brothers, and then in chapter thirty eight, and that chapter is all about Judah and eventually about Judah and Tamar. But Judah has left, He's gone away to establish his family. You got twelve sons, and yet all twelve end up coming into Egypt together. God's providence preserved the Covenant community. He kept him from famine and starvation. Again, why did Joseph go to Egypt when it's all said and done. Joseph did not go to Egypt so that we could learn lessons about how to become the second in command and the most powerful man in the world. Joseph went to Egypt for one reason and one reason only. There was a famine coming and the promised seed needed to be protected from the famine. God made a promise in Genesis chapter three and verse fifteen. When the first Adam falls, he curses the serpent and he says to the serpent, I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. You're going to bruise his heel. He's going to crush your head. So God promises that a messiah is coming. He promises that a deliverer is coming. He promises that a savior is coming, and he promises that this savior is going to be born in a specific line. And then we begin to see that specific line. We begin to see that after Cain kills Abel, another son, Seth is born, and then in chapter five there's ten generations from Adam to Noah through the godly line of Seth, and this same line is carried throughout and ultimately we discover that Judah is the promisee that continues the line. But how is Judah going to survive the famine? Tell you how he's going to survive the famine. God in his providence will send Joseph into slavery in Potiphar's house, and God in his providence will have Potiphar's wife approach Joseph and have Joseph, if not cave in as a result, God and his providence will have Joseph sent to prison, not just any prison, but the prison where the pharaoh sends his prisoners. So that God and his providence can send the cupbearer and the baker to have dreams, so that Joseph, the interpreter of dreams, can interpret their dreams, and then God and his providence two years later, has Pharaoh have a pair of dreams, and then Joseph interprets those dreams. God and his providence has given those dreams to Pharaoh so that he would tell Joseph that there's going to be a famine in the land after seven years of plenty, so that Joseph can become second in command, store up all the grain, survive through those next seven years, and feed his brothers and keep Judah ultimately, the father of David, ultimately the father of Jesus, from starving to death. That's the providence of God. And he kept his people in spite of their sinfulness. The providence of God keeps us in spite of our sinfulness. Amen, listen. Polygamy, deception, incest, mass murder, adultery, kidnapping. And that's just Jacob and his first four sons. We don't have time to go through the whole list. These are sinful individuals. Jacob is a polygamy and he's a deceiver. Reuben commits incest. You remember Simon and Levi. Their sister is violated and they kill the Shekha mice, all of them. Do you remember that story. Yeah, you can inter marry with us. All the men just have to be circumcised, and they were. Two days later, when there's not a man in that village who's even going to think about picking up a sword, they go through and slaughter them all. Judah and his adulterous relationship with Tamar. So when you read this, here's what you don't come away with. You don't come away saying God preserved these people because they were more righteous than the others around them. God kept these people in spite of the fact that they were not, and he did this for his own glory. Whatever we think when we come to the beginning of Exodus, it should not be look at what can happen when you are faithful to God. The men on this list were far from deserving God's preservation. What they deserved was his wrath. But God made a promise and he kept it in spite of their sinfulness. And if you ask, well, why didn't God preserve some people who weren't sinful, you know the answer to that question. There are none. Amen. Why does God use sinful people in order to do dot dot? Because there are no sinless people for him to use? Amen, Secondly, we see that God's providence reunited the covenant community. That last line in verse five, Joseph was already in Egypt. What an understatement, Amen, Joseph was already in Egypt. That's why it's important that you read Genesis and then read Exodus. You don't just come plowing into Exodus without understanding Genesis, because other words, you've missed a whole lot. I just sort of explained the narrative for you there, and all we get here in verse five is Joseph was already in Egypt. Well, yes, yes he was. That's true. God sent Joseph to Egypt to preserve a remnant. In that very emotional scene where he reveals himself to his brothers and Genesis forty five. Look at Genesis forty five. Just a couple of pages to the left, Genesis forty five. This is that scene where he just can't handle it anymore. Judah has revealed himself as a changed man and as the head of the family. Judah has offered himself as a substitute for Benjamin. Don't take Benjamin, take me and send back this one that my father loves. There is this picture of the Great Exchange this picture of substitution, this picture of the Gospel. And then Joseph just loses it. He's crying, weeping, he can't control himself, and he looked at verse five. After he reveals who he is, he says to them, I'm Joseph. I'm your brother, Joseph, whom you sent into Egypt. And he goes. And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves, because you sent me here. For God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it is not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord of all the house, of all his house, and ruler over the land of Egypt. This man understood the providence of God. Don't be angry with yourselves, because God sent me here. And God sent me here to preserve your lives and to preserve the lives of your children. Folks, Joseph knew the promise of God Joseph understood the promise of God. He understood the promise that God had made to his father and his grandfather and his great grandfather. Think about this, Joseph, for all rights and purposes again, there's two years of the famine. There were seven years before. So he comes into the service of Pharaoh when he's thirty. The seven years of plenty ends and he's thirty seven. Two years later he's thirty nine, so he's almost forty years old. Let's say he meets them again. When he's forty years old. They sold him into slavery when he was seventeen twenty three years in Egypt. He probably thought God is going to fulfill his promise to my father. I'm just not going to be part of it, because it's going to happen over there in that land of promise. This is not part of that land of promise. I'm never getting out of here. He knows God's promise and he thinks he's just outside of it. Now his brothers come and he realizes, I'm not only not outside the promise, but God sent me here as part of his means of fulfilling the promise. Don't be angry with yourselves, boys. God used you to get something done. Twenty three years later, God brought brothers, Joseph's brothers to him. God kept Jacob alive long enough to be reunited. Jacob's an old, old old man. His sons are grown men, his sons have grandchildren and probably great grandchildren by this time. Jacob is an old old man, and God preserved him all those years so that he could see this promise fulfilled. He kept Joseph's heart turned toward his family. That didn't have to happen. Joseph could have just become completely Egyptian. He kept Joseph's heart softened toward his brothers. Joseph could have had him executed on site, but he didn't. There is no mention of Joseph's status in Egypt. Why because that wasn't the point. The point was God's providence in preserving the people of promise. That was the point. There's also no continuation of Joseph's position. It's not passed on to another member of the Covenant community. Thirdly, we see God's providence expanding the Covenant community. Look at verses six and seven. Then Joseph died and all his brothers and all that generation. But Joseph died. But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly. They multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them. By the way, think about that in the context of Genesis. What does God say, what's the first command that he gives to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Right, there's the promise that God gives to Adam. Right, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. That happens in the beginning of Genesis. Now we're in the beginning of Exodus. Let me read this for you again. Joseph died, and all his brothers and all his generation. But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly, and they multiply, applied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them. This mirrors the dominion mandate in Genesis chapter one. They were fruitful, and they multiplied, and they filled the earth. Same author making the same point. And there's a picture here of God expanding this covenant community. This is a fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham Genesis chapter twelve, verses one to three. Now the Lord said to Abram, go from your country and from your kindred and from your father's house to the land that I will show you, and I will make you a great nation. And I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you, I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. There's the introduction to that covenant. If you remember later on in chapter fifteen, you know Abraham's having a problem. I don't have any kids. We're old. Eliezer of Damascus is my only heir. God says, no, that's that's he's not going to be your heir. Chapter fifteen, verses five and six of Genesis. And he brought Abraham outside and said, look toward heaven and number the stars. If you are able to number them, then he said to him, so shall your offspring be. And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness. Here's a man who's almost one hundred years old, his wife not able to have children. He's trying to believe God for just a son. That's just a son, and God says, number the stars if you can, this is your offspring. What a promise. And then Isaac is born, and it's a son. But in this one son is the promise of a multitude. And then from Isaac there's just Jacob and Esau. So now we go Abraham and we got Isaac, and now we got Jacob and Esau. And now they just have two sons. And then these two sons, there's this promise of a great multitude. Hey, one son, two sons. We gotta start doing better than this, right, And then Jacob has twelve sons, and when they come into Egypt, they number seventy. And now by the end of the first paragraph of the Book of Exodus, they are a great multitude. This is a fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham. And yet it's only a drop in the bucket of the fulfillment to God's promise to Abraham, because however many people there are here, they're not so numerous that you would compare them to sand on the seashore, or you would compare them to the stars of heaven. And it's not many nations here. It's a fulfillment of God's promise to Isaac Genesis twenty six one through five. Now there was a famine in the land. Amazing, same theme, a famine in the land. How many times does God use that, besides the former famine that was in the days of Abraham. So there's a famine in the days of Abraham, there's a famine in the days of Isaac, and there's a famine the days of Jacob. And Isaac went to Gerar to Abimola, king of the Philistines, and the Lord appeared to him and said, do not go down to Egypt. Dwell in the land which I shall tell you. Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you. For the you and your offspring. I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham, your father. I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and will give to your offspring these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. Because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. There it is again multiplied offspring and a blessing to all of the nations of the earth because of your offspring. By the way, that blessing is because of a singular offspring, fulfilling God's promise to Jacob Genesis thirty five nine to twelve. God appeared to Jacob again when he came to panana Aram and blessed him. And God said to him, your name is Jacob. No longer shall your name be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name. So he called his name Israel. And God said to him, I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply a nation, and the company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall come from your own body. The land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I will give to you, and I will give the land to your offspring after you. Now there's a land, there's offspring, and there's a nation with kings. This is also a fulfillment of God's promise to the serpent. There will be enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring. There's one who's coming from her offspring. You're going to bruise his heel, but he's gonna cross your head. This is a fulfillment of God's promise to the Church. How is it that you get from Abraham. You're going to have this off and there's this promised one who's going to come from your line to from you and through your offspring, all the nations of the earth will be blessed. You're going to be the father of many nations. And this is true by the way Ishmael and Esau. That's true already with Ishmael and Esau. But he says all the nations of the earth are going to be blessed through you and through his offspring Romans Chapter nine, verses six through thirteen. But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descendants of Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring. But through Isaac shall your offspring be named. This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. For this is what the promise said about this time next year, I will return in Sarah's I'll have a son. And not only so, but also when Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our father, Isaac, though they were not yet born, and had not done, and had done nothing, neither good or bad, in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works, but because of Him who calls. She was told the older will serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob, I loved Esau, I heard it. I hate it. It is by faith that we become descendants of Abraham, children of the Promise. So here's what I want you to understand. I want you to understand that we see the providence of God here fulfilling his promise to his people, this promise that he made to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob. But don't miss the greater truth here. It's the promise that God made to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob that eventuates in the per of Jesus Christ. And it is Jesus Christ who is the offspring of Abraham and the offspring of the woman who crushes the head of the snake. And it is through him that all the nations of the earth are blessed, because it is in Him that we become descendants of Abraham by faith. This is your story. This is your story. Exodus is your story. It is a story of God's providence that brought about the people, that brought about the Messiah, who is your savior and mind when we come to him by faith. This is our story. This is the story that reminds us of what God has done for thousands of years in order to bring about his plan of saving his people. We serve the God who saves his people. You know what to say to you and me, regardless of my circumstances, I serve the God who works all things together according to his will, even when it takes thousands of years. I trust him. You know what this says to you and me when we become afraid and we doubt whether or not we are still being kept by God and his providence, whether or not God can see us through to the end, whether or not He can keep us until the end, whether or not we can actually inherit eternal life. What it says is, if God can keep Jacob alive, keep his sons together, keep Joseph in Egypt, bring them back together, bring them all into Egypt, make them a mighty nation, Take them through slavery, deliver them through the Red Sea, Deliver them into their land, Deliver them into their kingdom. Deliver them kings, deliver them prophets, and ultimately deliver them the person of Jesus Christ. He can keep you until you get to heaven. God can keep you. He's the only one who can keep you. Dear one, how dare you presume to keep yourself? You can't do this. I've quoted John MacArthur at this point a number of times, and I never get tired of it. Where he said, if you could lose your salvation, you would. You know the height of arrogance. The height of arrogance is a person who believes that theoretically they couldn't lose their salvation, but they haven't. How arrogant is that if you could lose your salvation you would. You would all day, every day and twice on Sunday. You'd lose it. Amen, But you don't keep yourself. God keeps you. The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. That's the God who keeps you. Here's what we know from Exodus. Though God keeping you does not mean that you don't experience difficulty the trials. God keeping you means that you can trust Him even in the midst of difficulties and trials, Amen, and God keeping his people is something that he does from generation to generation to generation. We don't have to worry about preserving Christianity. I hear people talking about about that all the time. We're hearing talking people talking about, you know, Christianity just one generation away from extinction. Yes, this is true. But Christiananity is not kept by you or me being nervous about that. Amen. People tell me we have to do this, and we have to do that, and we have to get this law, and we have to get that law. We have to fight the other law because if we don't, we'll lose Christianity in this nation. Folks, If we can lose Christianity in this nation, we would. If we can lose Christianity in this station, we will. But the Lord I serve says I will establish my church and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it. That's the Savior I serve. Amen. How many times have we heard, Oh, if this law passes, it's over. Really, because I know some folks who are saved through four hundred years of slavery in Egypt. What law are you afraid of? Amen? Oh, if this guy gets in office, we're done Okay, sometimes that's no. But again, if God can save his people from Pharaoh, the most powerful man on planet earth, God saved his people from a famine and they weren't preppers. Amen, and God saved him from a famine. Does this mean that we live our lives carelessly? Absolutely not. Does this mean that we're not concerned and engaged in every one of these areas, Absolutely not. But what it means is, as we are concerned, and as we are engaged, we remind ourselves we serve a sovereign God who, by his providence, protects and preserves and delivers his people. That's what Exorcist is all about. That's what this first paragraph is all about. Abraham wasn't alive to see this or hear it, but yet his descendants are. And all of us who have come to Jesus Christ through repentance and faith are the offspring of Abraham by faith. Amen, And we are reminded of the great deeds that God has done. I don't know what it is that you're wrestling with. I don't know what it is that you're afraid of. I don't know what it is that you fret over. But I got a pretty good idea. I don't have to know what it is, because I know that God who keeps us, God who preserves us. I know the God who saves us, and we've seen him do it again and again and again, because that's who he is. In fact, that's what it means to say the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It's the God who keeps his covenant with his people, and that's the God whom we serve saints. Hold on to that truth. And if you are here today trusting or holding on to anything other than that, may I say to you that there is nothing in this world or in any world known or imagined, that is as secure as this truth. You can't keep yourself and there's nothing else out there that can keep you. There is only one who has proven to be the keeper of a people and preserver of a people, and that is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Cast yourself on him, Believe on him and be saved. Trust in him and in him alone. Let not your hearts be troubled. Christ says, believe you believe in God, Believe also in me. In my father's house for many mansions. I'm going to prepare a place for you so that where I am, you may be also. How can we hope in that? How can we believe in that? Because He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. Let's pray and as we bow, would you just take a moment to consider those things that trouble you. To consider those things that you fret about because they're beyond your control. Consider those things that take up inordinate space in your mind and inordinate time in your worries. Consider your children, whom you would love to just continue to control in every way and in every aspect, but whose lives you have to ultimately acknowledge are not in your control, but belong to the Great God who gave them. Consider your work, your wealth, and how you fret over those things, And consider the fact that it is God who has given you the strength to make wealth, and it is God who watches over you and feeds you. Consider your spouse their growth, their lack thereof, and how much time you spend fretting over that which is completely and utterly out of your control. Consider this country in which we live in, all of the laws that are just horrible, all of the blood and treasure that we are spilling all over this world. Young men whose lives are being cut short every day. It's enough to make you despair. But before you despair over how far we have fallen and how awful things have become, would you remember the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and his faithfulness to his people. Consider your own soul and how you even fret over that, and remind yourself that he who began a good work in you will be faithful to see it through to completion. Remind yourself that he is both the author and the finisher of your faith. Father. As we bow, we say to you that we trust you, and we are grateful to you for reminding us again and again that you can and must be trusted that you are the covenant keeping God, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, who preserves your people of promise, and that you are our God, and that we are your people. When we come to you in repentance of sin and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, grant by your grace that we would rest in this truth. Thank you for the presence and power of your Holy Spirit in our lives, that reminds us and ensures this great deposit. We pray all these things in the name of Jesus Our Save your Lord Messiah. Amen.