The Old Testament reading is Exodus, Chapter 5:22 through 6:27. 5:22 to 6:27. This is God’s infallible and inerrant word. Then Moses turned to the Lord and said, “O Lord, 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.” 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.”

God spoke to Moses and said to him, “I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty. But by my name, the Lord, 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 groaning 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 the Lord, 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 possession. I am the Lord.'”

Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery. So the Lord said to Moses, “Go in, tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to let the people of Israel go out of his land.” But Moses said to the Lord, “Behold, the people of Israel have not listened to me. How then shall Pharaoh listen to me? For I am of uncircumcised lips.” But the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them a charge about the people of Israel and about Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to bring the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt.

These are the heads of their fathers’ houses: the sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel: Hanoch, Pellu, Hezron, and Carmi. These are the clans of Reuben. The sons of Simeon: Jimeuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jacob, Zohar, and Shaul, the son of a Canaanite woman. These are the clans of Simeon. These are the names of the sons of Levi according to their generations: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. The years of the life of Levi being 137 years. The sons of Gershon: Libni and Shimei by their clans. The sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel. The years of the life of Kohath being 133 years. The sons of Merari: Moli and Mushi. These are the clans of the Levites according to their generations.

Amram took as his wife Jochebed, his father’s sister, and she bore him Aaron and Moses. The years of the life of Amram being 137 years. The sons of Izhar: Korah, Nepheg, and Zechariah. The sons of Uzziel: Mishael, Elzephad, and Sithrai. Aaron took as his wife Elisheba, the daughter of Amminadab and the sister of Nahshon, and she bore him Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. The sons of Korah: Uzer, Elkanah, and Abiasaph. These are the clans of the Korahites. Eleazar, Aaron’s son, took as his wife one of the daughters of Putiel, and she bore him Phinehas. These are the heads of the father’s houses of the Levites by their clans. These are Aaron and Moses, to whom the Lord said, “Bring out the people of Israel from the land of Egypt by their hosts.” It was they who spoke to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, about bringing out the people of Israel from Egypt. This Moses and this Aaron. On the day when the Lord spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt, the Lord said to Moses, “I am the Lord, and tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, all that I say to you.” But Moses said to the Lord, “Behold, I am of uncircumcised lips. How will Pharaoh listen to me?”

You can keep your place there in Exodus 5. And the New Testament reading is Romans, chapter 8, verses 28 through 30. These are very familiar, very comforting words for us. And of course, these words were not written in the time of Moses, but had they been, surely Moses would have found them very comforting at several points in his life and ministry. And this passage from Exodus has to do with one such time in Moses’ life when he needed to know that the Lord is working out all things for good.

So let’s hear from Romans, chapter 8, verses 28 through 30. “And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. You may turn back now to Exodus, chapter five. And this will be our text for this morning.

In your life as a Christian, have you ever dreamed a big dream about how wonderful something was going to be, only to discover later that the reality seriously fell short of the dream that you had? For example, you were about to get married, and you think to yourself, “I love my fiance so much, and my fiance loves me so much. And we both love Jesus. And we know other married couples have fights and arguments and disagreements, but we will be different. Every day will be peace and harmony.” And then you get married and you find yourself in a very difficult conflict with your spouse. Or you’re expecting your first child, and you think, “My children will not turn out like the children of other families. I will train them to be obedient and respectful. Each day, I will patiently teach them the Bible. They will listen attentively. They’ll be the most mature, the most godly children the church has ever seen.” But then your child throws a temper tantrum at the grocery store, and everybody is staring at you like you are the worst parent in the world.

Or you’re about to start a new stage in your schooling or start a new job, and you think, “I’m confident. I trust that the Lord will bless my efforts. I know that I’m going to do a great job. I’m not going to make mistakes.” But then you find yourself in danger of failing a class, or you commit a huge blunder on the job. Well, I wonder what dreams Moses had as he set out to bring the deliverance to the people of God that the Lord had promised them. Of course, on his way to Egypt, he knew that it would not be easy. He knew that Pharaoh would refuse to let the people go, and so he was prepared for that challenge. But perhaps Moses thought to himself, “Well, Pharaoh won’t be all that difficult to deal with.” After all, Moses had the promise of God. He was given the staff of God in his hand to do the amazing signs and wonders that God would do through him. So how tough, how difficult would it be really to deal with Pharaoh, how much trouble will he really cause? And did Moses think that the people of Israel would be so devoted to him as their leader that they would always give him their undying support and loyalty at all times in everything that he did, that every day would be Pastor Appreciation Day? I think that Moses, being human like us, probably had thoughts like that. He dreamed dreams of what he would do when he got to Egypt and came with a message from God to deliver the people of Israel. If that’s what Moses was thinking, he was in for a rude awakening.

Last week, we saw how Moses was confronted with two unexpected challenges, two things that surely took him by surprise. First of all, in response to Moses’ request to Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go, Pharaoh not only refused, which of course, Moses knew that he would, but Pharaoh doubled down on the oppression that he was with which he was dealing with the Israelites. He made their lives even worse. He took away the straw that they needed to make bricks, and so he made their misery all the greater. Surely Moses didn’t see that coming. And the other punch to the gut was the response of the Israelites to Moses and Aaron. You’ll recall from the passage that we looked at last Sunday that the Israelite foremen, after they were beaten by their Egyptian taskmasters because they were not making bricks, they complained to Pharaoh, but then they turned against Moses and Aaron. They accused them, the leaders of Israel, of bringing all of the troubles upon the people. In verse 21, they say to Moses and Aaron, “You have made us stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants. You have put a sword in their hand to kill us.”

Now, these things weren’t supposed to happen. This wasn’t part of the plan. And it surely wasn’t what Moses envisioned as he set off to Egypt to liberate the people of God from their Egyptian taskmasters. After all, Moses was being obedient to the Lord. He was being faithful. He was doing what he was supposed to do. And yet everything, now that he got to Egypt, everything’s going haywire. Pharaoh was having his evil way with the people. He was only making things worse. The people were rebelling against Moses, and things were going from terrible to somehow even more terrible. And what had happened to God’s promise of salvation? So you can imagine how disappointed, confused, and upset Moses was. His dream of success in rescuing his people from Egypt was being dashed before his very eyes. And surely it seemed to Moses, “The more faithful I am, the worse things are getting. It’s not supposed to happen this way.”

And out of his discouragement, Moses, the man of God, he does what he should have done, is that he prays. He prays to the Lord, which is good. But when you read his prayer there in verse 22 and 23, it really sounds more like a complaint than a prayer. He says in verse 22, “O Lord, why have you done evil to this people?” It sounds like Moses is accusing the Lord of doing wrong to the people of Israel. Moses, I don’t believe, is accusing God of that, but he is certainly looking to God, the one who is sovereign. “Why are you allowing this? Why is this happening, Lord?” And Moses also asked God why he had even sent him in the first place. Verse 22, “Why did you ever send me? I told you, Lord, I was the wrong guy for the job.” And finally, in verse 23, and we can only suppose that this is with great discouragement, exasperation on the part of Moses, “You have not delivered your people at all.” “I don’t even see the beginnings of this great salvation that you have promised that you would bring to the people of Israel. In fact, the Israelites, they were better off than when I came to rescue them.”

But what are we to make of this prayer? Well, first of all, Moses was right to go to the Lord in prayer. He took his perplexity, his discouragement to the Lord, and he prayed. He didn’t walk away from the Lord. He didn’t throw in the towel. He was obedient to his calling as the Lord’s servant. He prayed. One lesson to take from this is that prayer is always the right thing to do. It is never wrong to pray. In whatever circumstances, no matter how difficult, confusing, discouraging, we always should pray to God. That should be our instinct, our reflex.

And secondly, although the prayer of Moses was a complaint, it was a prayer of faith. It was a prayer of faith. Moses looked to God. He still believed that the Lord was the one in control. He still believed in the promise of God to bring salvation to his people. He just couldn’t understand how these terrible things that were happening, how they fit into God’s purposes and his plan. And so this prayer, in essence, is the same prayer that the saints of God so often in Scripture lifted up to the Lord in times of great affliction. And that is a prayer that begins with the word “why?” “Why, Lord, is this happening?” Job, “Why do you hide your face and count me as your enemy?” David prayed this prayer in Psalm, “Why, O Lord, do you stand far away? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?” Even Jesus himself prayed this prayer as he hung on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And for whatever particular struggle that you may be going through right now, this may be your prayer: “Why? Why, Lord, are you bringing this into my life?”

But in his response to the prayer of Moses, God does not answer the “why” question. And when your dreams of great things in the Christian life seem to come crashing down around you, when God brings into your life some unexpected hardship or challenge, when God seems to be making the circumstances of your life worse, even as you are sincerely, as far as you know, your heart seeking to obey him and be faithful to him, but things keep getting worse, you find yourself praying the same prayer, “Why, O Lord?” And you know that God doesn’t give you an answer. He doesn’t say, “Well, here are the reasons why.” But if your heart is open to hearing the word of God, you know that God’s response to your prayer is not silence. It is not silence. He does answer because he answers Moses here. He doesn’t respond to Moses with silence. He doesn’t tell him why. He doesn’t explain to Moses what Moses humanly couldn’t understand anyway. How in the infinite wisdom of God, that these circumstances are taking place in order to bring him all the more glory. And exactly how that is happening. God doesn’t tell Moses that, but he does remind Moses of two truths to give him strength. Strength to carry on in his service to God and in his walk with the Lord. And these are the two lessons from this passage that we’ll consider today.

First of all, in answer to Moses’ “why” prayer, the Lord reminded Moses of who he is. He reminds Moses of who he is. And secondly, the Lord reminded Moses of what he would do for his people. So first of all, God reminds Moses of who he is. And so the very first thing that the Lord says to Moses in response to his prayer is simply to confirm what he’s already told Moses. The people of Israel will be brought out of Egypt. Pharaoh would indeed drive them out with a strong hand. They will be taken away from Egypt. But then in verse two, God reminded Moses of who he is. He says in verse 2, or the text says, “God spoke to Moses and said to him, ‘I am the Lord.'” “I am the Lord.” If you were here two or three Sundays ago, we went into a little bit of depth into what that name means, “the Lord.” This is God’s personal name. This is the name that he revealed to Moses at the burning bush. In Hebrew, it is Yahweh, and the name Yahweh, or the Lord, it expresses the self-sufficiency of God, that God has in himself infinite life, existence, power, blessedness. He needs nothing from his creation. But it also speaks of the eternality of God. He is the great I am, from eternity to eternity, from everlasting to everlasting. He is the Lord. “I am who I am.”

But the real significance here for Moses to be reminded by God that his name is the Lord, is this: that as the Lord, that this God, the God of Israel, he alone is the true and the living God. He is not like the gods and the idols of the nations and the Egyptians who are lifeless, who are impotent, who cannot deliver their people. But he is the Lord, the true God. The God who revealed himself to Moses at the burning bush. The God who spoke to Moses, who gave him these miraculous signs of power. He reminds Moses, “I am the Lord. Look to me. Remember who I am.” And as the Lord, the one true God, he possesses all power and ability to fulfill all his holy will, including what he has revealed to Moses. His will to redeem his people from their bondage in Egypt. And so God was telling Moses in his response to his prayer, “Why, Lord? Why is this happening?” God’s answer was, “Moses, don’t forget who it is that has called you to be my servant. Don’t forget who it is who has sent you to Egypt to do my will. It is me, the one who can and will accomplish all that I set my heart to do. I am the Lord.”

And as a believer in Jesus Christ, this God is your God. This God who revealed himself to Moses as the Lord, the God who created the heavens and the earth by the mere utterance of his word, he is your God. And because he is the living and true God, because he is not an idol, he is not a false God, he will fulfill every promise and every purpose that he has given to you in his word. In Jesus Christ, he is the Lord.

Now, if you are a careful listener as we were reading this passage, and I hope you caught this, but you will have noticed something in verse three. Verse three, the Lord says to Moses, “I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name, the Lord, I did not make myself known to them.” “Wait a minute.” If you caught that, you’re thinking, “Wait a minute. Isn’t the name Lord in Genesis?” In fact, it is, over a hundred times we find that name in Genesis. In fact, Genesis says, “At that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord.” And Abraham prayed to God in Genesis, “O Sovereign Lord.” So what do we make of this? Well, strictly speaking, God did reveal his name as the Lord, as Yahweh, to the patriarchs, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But what is meant here, what he is saying here, is that the fullness of all that that divine name means, the fullness of all that is contained in that name, the Lord, that was not made known to the patriarchs in the way that it is now being made known to Moses and to the people of Israel. God gave the patriarchs great promises. But it wasn’t until Moses and the Israelites in Egypt that God began to bring those promises to fulfillment by his mighty acts of salvation. And so for that reason, God could say to Moses that he had not revealed his name as the Lord to his people in times past, because it wasn’t until Moses and the Israelites that they really experienced, that they knew firsthand, that they saw with their own eyes all that is meant by this wonderful name, the Lord. And so in that sense, the Lord says, “By my name, the Lord, I did not make myself known to them.”

God also reminds Moses here of what that name the Lord means, what else it means? It means that he is the God who has set his love and affection upon his people. In other words, he is a God who enters into covenant. He is a God who keeps his covenant promises. He says in verse four, “I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners.” And God goes on to say that because he is faithful to his covenant, he doesn’t say this in so many words, but because he is a God who cannot go back on his word, because he is true and faithful, because he is God, he will keep his commandments. He will remember his covenant. He will bring his people salvation. He will bring them out of Egypt and into the promised land that he gave, that he promised to give to his people. And although the covenant promise that God made with the people of Israel was that he would give them this land in Canaan, this promised land, a land flowing with milk and honey, nevertheless, that was not the heart, that was not the true blessedness of this covenant promise. But God’s greatest promise in that covenant is not just to give them this land, but to give them himself to be their God, to bring them into that communion and fellowship with him as their God. You see this promise in verse 7: “I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God.” Oh, this was a greater promise than all the land in the world. That God would be their God. They would possess him and all the blessedness that is found in him.

This is the heart of the promise that God makes to you as well as a believer in Jesus Christ. If your trust is in the Lord Jesus, know that you belong to God and he belongs to you. He is your God, and he makes all kinds of wonderful promises to you. He doesn’t promise to give you some real estate in the Middle East somewhere, but he gives you greater promises. The forgiveness of sins, eternal life. But again, like with the Israelites, most fundamentally, God’s covenant promise is this, that he gives himself to you to be your God, that you might know him. And in knowing him, communing that communion that you have with him, that you might find eternal life, life abundant, everlasting joy, peace, and life.

And so the first thing that God reminded Moses was of who he is: that he is the Lord. He is the God who has entered into covenant with him. And again, this is the same God who enters into covenant with you and me through his Son, Jesus Christ. We could say this, that God says to us now, ever since the coming of his Son into the world to accomplish our salvation, God says to you and me, he says, “By my name, Jesus, I did not make myself known to the Israelites,” but now he does make himself known to us, to the world by his name, Jesus. Do you know this Jesus? Have you put your hope and faith in him as your Savior from sin and death? Have you repented of sin? Have you submitted to him by faith as your sovereign Lord? In Jesus Christ, God has revealed to us the fullness of his character as a God who is love, full of compassion, full of mercy, patient, gracious, kind. In First John, we read that God is love. God is love. And we would not know what that means if God had not sent his Son into the world. We would not know the fullness of all that that means that God is love, if he did not reveal that to us and manifest that to us in the giving of his Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus was the gift of his love, the revealing of his love, that his only begotten Son, that he gave him up for us all. And in laying down his life for us through that sacrifice, we have eternal life, forgiveness of sins. And so God says to you and me now, through his Son, Jesus Christ, “I am the Lord. I am the Lord who loves you. I am the Lord who loved you even from before the creation of the world. I set you apart in love. I am the Lord who loved you by sending my Son to you. And this is what you must hear. This is the answer that God gives to you when you cry out to him, ‘Why, Lord? Why is this happening to me? Why am I suffering in this way?'” God’s answer to you is not, “Well, let me explain to you the details of my providential workings.” No. He says, “Remember who I am. I am the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. I’ve loved you with an everlasting love, and my love for you is not one bit less now than it ever has been or ever will be. Even though you are going through things that are extremely difficult, this is not a reflection of my heart towards you. But know that I love you and I have a purpose for you in this that is good, good that is for your blessedness, not for evil.” That’s God’s answer, his first answer to your prayer when you cry out to him, “Why?”

And in the second thing that the Lord tells Moses, we hear God’s second answer to that prayer of “why?” And that is, the Lord declares to Moses what he would do for his people. So in verses 6 through 8, God commands Moses to declare to the people of Israel all the things that he is going to do for their salvation. And you’ll notice that when you read verses six through eight, all of these things, or virtually all of them, are things that the Lord has already told Moses that he would do for the people of Israel. And so what God is doing here for Moses, he is not telling him new information, but he is reminding him, bringing to his remembrance the things that he has already declared to him. Apparently, Moses and the Israelites were forgetful. They needed to hear these promises again. And how true is that for you and me? How true that is for us? Our problem as Christians is not that we don’t intellectually know the promises of God. And what he will do for our salvation is that we forget them. We need to hear them over and over again. We need to be reminded of them again and again. That’s a huge part of the ministry of preaching and teaching the people of God. It is to remind them of truths that they have already heard. That’s not every sermon; it’s not 100% new information you haven’t heard before. It might be very little new information, maybe no new information, but simply a reminder. “Remember, this is what God will do for you.”

Well, what does the Lord remind Moses that he will do for his people, Israel? Well, there are seven things here in verses six through eight, and they all begin with the declaration, “I will.” And I’ll just go through them. Verse 6: “I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.” Verse 6: “I will deliver you from slavery to them.” Verse 6: “I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment.” Of course, that refers to the ten plagues, the mighty signs and wonders that the Lord was about to do. Verse 7: “I will take you to be my people.” Verse 7 again: “I will be your God.” Verse 8: “I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” Verse 8: “I will give it to you for possession.” And so here God reveals himself not only as the great I am, but he is the great I will. “I will do this for you.”

And these are the “I wills” that God declares to you as believers in Jesus Christ: “I will never count your sins against you. I will be with you always in this life and in the life to come. I will give you grace to meet every difficulty that you face in this world. I will fill you with my Holy Spirit to produce in you the fruit of the Spirit. I will enable you to believe and obey my word. I will see to it that your prayers and labors for my sake are never in vain. I will cause all things, even the suffering and struggles in your life, to work out for good. I will give you victory over sin and death forever. I will raise you from the grave just as I raised Jesus Christ from the grave. And I will bring you to the heavenly home that I prepared for you.” These are the promises that God makes to you in Christ.

And notice how in this passage in verses 6 through 8, at the very beginning of all these “I will” statements of all these promises, and then at the very end of all these promises, in verse 8, God says, “I am the Lord.” And so he bookends all the promises that he makes to his people with his divine name. And by doing this, the Lord was saying, “Only I can promise you salvation and fulfill it and deliver it.” The idols, the false gods that the Egyptians worshiped, that the nations in that day worshiped, they made promises of salvation, but they could not deliver because they were false gods. They had no power. And it’s the same today as well. There are all kinds of idols and false gods that make all kinds of promises to us if we will only devote ourselves to them and their promises. “If you devote yourself to the pursuit of money or success or pleasure, you will receive joy, contentment, and peace, and life.” But we know that these promises of these false gods, these idols, are lies, because these things can never deliver the joy, the life, the contentment, the fulfillment that our hearts desire. Idols cannot deliver on what they promise, but the Lord can. He does. The Lord Jesus Christ, he alone can deliver on his promise of life, blessedness, forgiveness, resurrection. Only Jesus can fulfill his promises to you. And so the Lord also reminded Moses of all the good things he promised for his people.

As we read on in this passage, we learned that things didn’t immediately turn around for Moses. Moses, in obedience and faith, he tells the people all that he was supposed to tell them. And verse nine says this: “They did not listen to Moses because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery.” And this is where Moses just about reaches the end of his rope. He’s just about ready to throw in the towel again. He tries to convince God that he is not qualified. He says, “If the Israelites hadn’t listened to me, how can I expect Pharaoh to listen to me?” And surely what he is telling the Lord is, “Lord, I told you, I’m a man of uncircumcised lips. I’m not good at public speaking. You should have sent someone else.” And at this point, the prayer very nearly crosses that border between a godly cry of “why” to an ungodly, rebellious complaint. It’s very close, if not over that border. But that is how discouraged and dispirited Moses is. But notice the patience of God. God is so patient with his servant. He doesn’t rebuke Moses. He doesn’t say, “Moses, I’m finished with you. I’m raising up another Israelite who will be faithful to me.” But rather, the Lord repeats his command that he and Aaron are to bring the people of Israel out of Egypt. And of course, what that implies is that they will succeed in that, in God’s timing.

God is patient with you as well. When you come to the end of your rope, when you are ready to throw in the towel, to say, “I can’t go on in faith anymore, God is so absent. I don’t understand what’s happening, what’s going on.” God is patient. He’s patient with you in your struggle. And he’ll give you the grace to learn to trust in him. And it’s a lifelong lesson to trust in him despite all the difficulties he brings into our lives, and to trust that he will work them out for good.

The great reformer John Calvin, there was a point in his life when he felt the same way Moses did early on in his ministry. Calvin served for a time in the city of Geneva, Switzerland. Eventually he was forced out of that city because of theological and political conflicts that were very trying, very difficult for him. And Calvin was more than happy to be full from Geneva. He didn’t want to go back there. He had suffered so much there. But at some point, the city leaders came back to Calvin. They begged him to come back to Geneva, to minister there, to lead the church there. And I believe it must have, if we can read between the lines a bit, it must have seemed to Calvin this was the will of God. Yet the last thing he wanted to do was go back to that city. And so he wrote about that. He said, “Rather would I submit to death a hundred times than to that cross on which I had to perish daily a thousand times over.” Calvin, tell us what you really think of going back to Geneva. Don’t beat around the bush, but tell us what you think. That was serious reluctance on his part to do the will of God. But he did return to Geneva, and the rest is history. As they say, God used him mightily there. But despite his own reluctance, he was faithful, and just as Moses, despite his reluctance, he, by the grace of God, was faithful. And no doubt later, Moses could look back on the troubles that he experienced in Egypt, and he could see with hindsight that it was all part of God’s plan. He could see how God worked even through the disappointments, the dashed hopes, the frustrations, in order to accomplish his purposes. And that is true for you as well. This is the lesson that suffering, disappointment, hardship, confusing things, that these are not contrary to the purpose of God for you, but this is part of God’s purpose. Purpose to use them for your ultimate happiness in him.

I want to finish by reading a quote from C.H. Charles Spurgeon. This is from his devotional Morning and Evening, and we’ll conclude with this quote. He said, “Yesterday I could climb the mountain and view the landscape and rejoice with confidence in my future, future inheritance. Today my spirit has no hopes, but many fears, no joys, but great distress. Is this part of God’s plan for me? Can this be the way in which God would bring me to heaven? Yes, it is. Even so, the eclipse of your faith, the darkness of your mind, the fainting of your hope, all these things are just parts of God’s method of making you ready for the great inheritance which you will soon enjoy. These trials are for your testing and for the strengthening of your faith. They are waves that wash you further upon the rock. They are winds that steer your ship more quickly toward the desired haven. What David wrote then will be true of you: ‘He brought them to their desired haven.'”

Let’s pray.

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