Exodus 5 & 6

Afterwards, Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says. Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness.

Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go. Then they said, The God of the Hebrews has met with us.

Now let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God, or he may strike us with plagues or with the sword. But the king of Egypt said, Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their labour?

Get back to your work. Then Pharaoh said, Look, the people of the land are now numerous, and you are stopping them from working. That same day, Pharaoh gave this order to the slave drivers and overseers in charge of the people.

You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks. Let them go and gather their own straw, but require them to make the same number of bricks as before. Don't reduce the quota.

They are lazy. That is why they are crying out, Let us go and sacrifice to our God. Make the work harder for the people so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies.

Then the slave drivers and the overseers went out and said to the people, This is what Pharaoh says, I will not give you any more straw. Go and get your own straw, wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced at all.

So the people scattered all over Egypt to gather stubble to use for straw. The slave drivers kept pressing them, saying, Complete the work required of you for each day, just as when you had straw.

And Pharaoh's slave drivers beat the Israelite overseers they had appointed, Demanding, why haven't you met your quota of bricks yesterday or today as before? Then the Israelite overseers went and appealed to Pharaoh, Why have you treated your servants this way?

Your servants are given no straw, yet we are told, make bricks. Your servants are being beaten, but the fault is with your own people. Pharaoh said, Lazy, that's what you are, lazy.

That is why you keep saying, let us go and sacrifice to the Lord. Now get to work. You will not be given any straw, yet you must produce your full quota of bricks.

The Israelite overseers realised they were in trouble when they were told, You are not to reduce the number of bricks required of you for each day. When they left Pharaoh, they found Moses and Aaron waiting to meet them.

And they said, May the Lord look on you and judge you. You have made us obnoxious to Pharaoh and his officials, and have put a sword in their hand to kill us. Moses returned to the Lord and said, Why, Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people?

Is this why you sent me? Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble on this people, and you have not rescued your people at all. Then the Lord said to Moses, Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh.

Because of my mighty hand, he will let them go. Because of my mighty hand, he will drive them out of his country. God also said to Moses, 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, where they resided as foreigners.

Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered my covenant. Therefore, say to the Israelites, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.

I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God.

Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from the yoke of the Egyptians. And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

I will give it to you as a possession. I am the Lord. Moses reported this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and harsh labor.

Then the Lord said to Moses, Go, tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to let the Israelites go out of his country. But Moses said to the Lord, If the Israelites will not listen to me, why would Pharaoh listen to me since I speak with faltering lips?

Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron about the Israelites and Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he commanded them to bring the Israelites out of Egypt. These were the heads of their families. The sons of Reuben, the firstborn son of Israel, were Hanok and Palu, Hezron and Karmai.

These were the clans of Reuben. The sons of Simeon were Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar and Shal, the son of a Canaanite woman. These were the clans of Simeon.

These were the names of the sons of Levi, according to their records. Gershon, Kohath and Merari. Levi lived 137 years. The sons of Gershon by clans were Libnai and Shimei.

The sons of Kohath were Amram, Eishar, Hebron and Uziel. Kohath lived 133 years. The sons of Merari were Mahalai and Mushai.

These were the clans of Levi, according to their records. Amran married his father's sister, Jochebed, who bore him Aaron and Moses. Amran lived 137 years.

The sons of Eishar were Korah, Nepheg and Zichri. The sons of Uziel were Mishael, Elzaphan and Sithri. Aaron married Elishiba, daughter of Amminadab and sister of Nashon.

And she bore him Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. The sons of Korah were Aser, Elkanah and Abisaph. These were the Koharite clans.

Eleazar, son of Aaron, married one of these daughters of Putael and she bore him Phinehas. These were the heads of the Levite families, clan by clan. It was this Aaron and Moses to whom the Lord said, bring the Israelites out of Egypt by their divisions.

They were the ones who spoke to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, about bringing the Israelites out of Egypt, this same Moses and Aaron. Rachel, that's total respect.

We should give a special for certificates to those who have read a genealogy in the service. I would have just said all of them folks there.

You can read it for yourselves. Well done. Brilliant. Actually, we're not going to sort of look at the genealogy apart from just to say that it's probably there because some folks, just to sort of show that Moses and Aaron were true Israelites.

Moses having spent time in Midian, maybe there were some questions about that, but this sort of verifies that they are of God's people and sent by the Lords. Actually, another thing I meant to mention earlier, just in terms of things that have happened in the past week.

Actually, last night we had a men's curry night. Actually, I think it was a really significant evening. It was about 40 guys there. And we sort of discussed the sort of things that we were looking for from a men's ministry at Cornerstone.

Some of the things that men struggle with and are challenged by and would like to look at. And then we spent some time praying for each other. And I hope that it felt like it was a night that we put a pin in sort of what we're looking for in terms of men's ministry and saying here we want to actually move forward.

Not just talking about it, we want to move forward. So just a wee insight into some of the things that have been going on this week. So last week, we looked at Moses and discussed him as sort of this reluctant messenger.

And we see the turn around in his life. And then this week, not so much the focus on Moses, but really on the Lord and the revealing of his mighty hand.

But though we're going to sort of look at the Lord, we do see Moses kind of stepping out. Pharaoh in opposition stepping up, but then in the end, God stepping in.

And I wonder if just in terms of reflecting on the passage and thinking about your own life, have you ever trusted that you heard something from the Lord? You got a leading in a certain way. You prayed.

It seemed right to you and to others around about you. You stepped out in faith and then you hit a whirlwind of trouble and hardship and trial. And you end up questioning, thinking, did I hear right?

What's going on? And so on. Some of you have heard this illustration before, but lots of you are new, so I'm just going to give you my old stories. I'm reaching my anecdotage.

But when I was a student in the 1800s, I prayed for a year, actually, in my final year, as to what the next step was. And one evening, I was at the Christian Union meeting, the staff worker, Richard MacArthur, Edinburgh 555-3875, he stood up and spoke about several opportunities for a mission.

And he said, there are opportunities to do a year team with IFES in Russia, in Lithuania, and Poland. And, you know, I was listening, and when he said the word Poland, honestly, it was like bells went off in the back of my mind.

And I was thinking, what on earth is going on? But I knew that I had to do something. So I went up, got the form straight from him, went, filled it in, was accepted to go.

And for, you know, for, like, 20-year-old Callum, there was a big move. I was from the Highlands, like a small village in the Highlands. I'd never been out of the country.

And to go to Poland, which was not long, you know, after the revolution and out of, coming out of the communist bloc and so on, to go to a country where I was going to teach English in a university.

I mean, I studied engineering. I could barely speak the language, let alone teach others how to understand it. And yet, there I was called and ready to go.

I was sure that the Lord was in it. The call was really clear. But seven weeks before, still cry, seven weeks before, my father had a massive heart attack.

And it absolutely rocked my world. I was having, sort of, panic attacks in the middle of the night. I'd wake up in a cold sweat, worried that he was, you know, he'd have another one and he would die and so on.

And it really, kind of, shook me. I think, you don't realise what a, sort of, rock your parents are to you until that, you know, that kind of thing happens.

And so, you know, the day that I was due to leave, I think it was like the 15th of September, 1992, you know, I was up early, I had a pal who was going to take me to Edinburgh.

You know, my dad was at the gate, he was crying, and I'd never seen him cry before, but he was so moved. And then, gosh, sorry, my mum was working, I went to see her, she was crying.

And then, as I left the village, you know, my pal Ronnie, he was taking me to Edinburgh, I made him stop the car outside the village and I genuinely, I said, Ronnie, I need to take a minute, I need to decide whether I'm actually going.

I had this clear call of God, but as I was stepping out, it was as if the whirlwind had just, I'd hit the whirlwind. My world was rocked by what was happening. But I felt the clear, the call was clear and so it went on.

Got the train at Edinburgh, sitting down, a woman came and sat opposite me, turned out she was an alcoholic New Age prophetess who prophesied that if I, you know, she was saying, where are you going?

I said, I'm going to Poland. She said, yeah, if you go to Poland, you're going to die. It's like, what on earth is going on here? Anyway, so I got to London and got over to, you know, from Hooppenholland and put my stuff on the train, looked at the time, thought, fine, I've got, it's not over an hour before the train leaves.

I'll go and exchange my, get some guilders as it was in those days. I'll get some supplies for the train. Walked back onto the platform, no train. Thinking, what?

And there was a train sort of in the distance. Anyway, I spoke to the guy, I said, where's the train from? I was thinking maybe it's moved platform as trains do. And the guy said, oh, it's gone. I said, I can't have gone.

Look, there's over, there's still like 40 minutes. It's British time. Never been out the country. Forgot to change my watch. Bye bye to my train and my luggage.

Anyway, the folks were fantastic. They took the stuff up at the next station, took it back. And there, you know, I was sitting, waiting at the train station for the thing. There's a young couple of teenagers sort of snogging very loudly beside me.

And I looked, I looked back at the ferry that had come on and I thought, you know, I could just go home. I could just go home. Now that particular whirlwind was self-inflicted.

Okay, I can't, you know, I can't blame anything else other than my own stupidity for that. But, you know, there were tests, weren't there, just in terms of, you know, the call and was I ready to obey and and and so on.

And I could tell you the many blessings that were there but also the hardships that were there. I mugged twice while I was there. My dad died halfway through the time I was there. I could tell you just sort of the grace that received, you know, there that I was home actually when he died rather than Poland and just the grace of God and the goodness of God in the midst of that.

But when we seek to kind of hear, we hear from the Lord and we step out, sometimes it feels that you can hit the whirlwind and you're led to question what on earth is going on and I certainly did as I was stepping out at that time.

And of course when we step out, you know, that's one example but when you step out and the hardships can be even harder and it could cause us to kind of be extremely disappointed with God.

We become cynical, we become bitter because we felt that God just let us down and there can be many tears and real hurts and it can just cause us to step back from the Lawrence. I want to acknowledge that as that is a real thing and maybe that's some of your experience here this morning and I encourage you to maybe pray with the prayer team about those things at the end of the service.

But last week, despite being a reluctant messenger, actually we see the Lord sort of turning it around, there's a real high point at the end of the chapter and Moses says, oh, they're not going to listen to me. He says, yes, they are and they go and they listen to them and not only do they listen, they praise God because it sounded like he was answering their cries, their calls for help.

So Moses steps out and you see that in chapter five, verse one. Afterwards, Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, this is what the Lord, the God of Israel says, let my people go so that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness.

It's almost as if, you know, he's sort of saying, let the people go, we're going to have the first Keswick Israelite convention outside, you know, for three days, tambourines and everything, it's going to be great.

Pharaoh doesn't think it's so great. Chapter, verse two, he says, who is the Lord that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and will not let Israel go.

You can imagine, you know, Moses and Aaron sort of gulping and thinking, this is not going as we would hope it would go, but they stand their grind. No, God has told us this is what we should do.

He's made it really clear. Then verse three, they say, the God of the Hebrews, he's met with us. Now, let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord, our God, or he may strike with plagues or with the sword.

Moses steps out. Pharaoh then steps up in retorts and a whole heap of hardships ensue.

Verse four, but the king of Egypt said, Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their labor? Get back to your work. Then Pharaoh said, look, the people of the land are now numerous and you're stopping them from working.

Verse six, and the same day, Pharaoh gave this order to the slave drivers, the overseers in charge of the people, that you're no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks. Let them go gather their own straw, but require them to make the same number of bricks as before.

Don't reduce the quota. They're just lazy. That is why they're crying out, let us go and sacrifice to our gods. Make the work harder for the people so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies.

There's so many things in this, aren't there? I mean, first of all, wonderfully, Moses and Aaron in these verses step up there in obedience, in faithfulness, courageous in facing in the face of opposition.

Even when there's a bit of blowback, they're willing to kind of keep and persist. What a turnaround in Moses in particular, isn't there? God is doing a work in him, isn't he?

It appears that they're seeking to trust, not themselves, but him.

He's wonderful. But there's a fire coming that is going to bring further refining in that growth and in grace and in things of God. Pharaoh, of course, was the leader of the superpower of the time.

And as a great emperor of this empire, he's a politician who wants to hold on to his power and to his wealth and protect that by all means.

And so, verse four, he undermines any opposition. He undermines their power, their leadership. He undermines the truth, creating misery for God's people.

Verse seven, on the back of their request to be released. He sows deceit, calling Moses and Aaron liars, verse nine.

It's an attempt to strike at the leaders and scatter the flock, as it were. And the flock, experiencing such hardship, end up turning around on their leaders and calling curses on them, in verse 21.

But Pharaoh's not only a politician, he was also worshipped as divine by his people. He was considered a God. And look how this God, small g, reacts.

He belittles and he mocks the only true God. Verse two, pride and hubris surround this throne, don't they? And as we sort of look at the power dynamics here, I can't help but remember the things that we learned in the book of Revelation, chapter 13.

That there was a dragon, Satan, and the beast that rises from the sea utters blasphemy against God. That represented human governments under Satan's influence.

And then there's the second beast, the kind of, who managed the propaganda for the first, caused people to put their trust in him, even to worship the first beast. And like we were saying and reflecting on as we saw in the middle section of Revelation, that there's a sort of repeating pattern, isn't there?

Of hardships and so on that people experience. But here, the pattern is attack against the Old Testament church, isn't it?

The pattern is to try and destroy the seed promise in Genesis chapter 3 before he comes. And I guess as you look at this, we're, you know, again we said last week Moses is a unique ministry and a unique figure.

And actually what we are to see behind is to look, when we look at him and see the greater Moses who is Christ. But of course there are similarities for ourselves as well, isn't there? As we seek to step out in faithfulness, whether that's as individuals or as families or as a local church or the global church.

It's easy sometimes to feel intimidated or get discouraged when things are not going as easily as we might have anticipated. In fact, they can be really, really hard and they suffer for it.

See that in the church in India and the partnership that we have there. So what is God going to say into this and into our situation?

Well, I think that the first thing that he's been saying is that, well, this is what I said it would happen. This is what I said it would be so.

Chapter 3, verse 19. He said, but I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. And similarly, in chapter 4, verses 21 to 23, that Pharaoh will harden his heart or I will harden his heart and he will refuse to let you go.

It's a kind of don't be surprised when you stand before Pharaoh and he kicks back. We see similar counsel, don't we, in the New Testament and in the Scriptures for the New Testament Church of God, the people of God.

If you want to turn in your Bibles, if you're using the Church Bibles, to page 1220, which is 1 Peter 4, 12. Really should have marked this before I...

Peter counsels, dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you as though something strange were happening to you.

He's saying, don't be surprised when these things happen. And similarly, John says something similar, 1 John 3, just turn over to page 1227 if you're using the Church Bibles.

1 John 3, 13. Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you because it first hated him. See, God knows what's going to happen.

God knows the kind of reaction that the gospel, that the people of God will receive. And so forewarned is forearmed or less likely to spin out if we're a little bit more realistic about the Christian life, aren't we?

About the trials that may come. And it's interesting when you get into your 50s or 60s and you look back, I think you would look back and think, I never would have guessed what would have happened and the things that I would have seen that happened in my own life in my 20s.

You know, the things that Jesus says, you're not spared the things that are common to men and women, to everybody. But also, there may be hardships that come on trials because of your Christian faith.

I look back at my own life in the 20s. I could never have guessed that I would have been diagnosed with cancer twice. I could never have foreseen that we would have at least two miscarriages.

I could never have foreseen that both my parents would have passed by the time I was 26. I could never have foreseen that I would have been mugged twice when I was in Poland. I could never have foreseen that I would have been a two-page spread in the local newspapers scandalized for taking a step on the gospel.

However, the scriptures are really plain and are really clear that we can expect hardship, the hardships that are common to men and women in this life, but also there may be hardships that come because of our Christian faith.

But forewarned, we're more likely to be ultimately bettered by these experiences rather than ultimately broken by them by saying, I never would have imagined that these things would have come.

When we are forewarned like this, then we're more likely to be driven into the arms of the Father when these things happen. Tuck in behind the shepherd. Seek the strengthening of the Holy Spirit.

The wonderful thing is that we have all of God made available to all of us, all three of the persons of the Trinity. Held in the arms of the Father, tucked in behind the Son, helped by the Holy Spirit.

But look at the dynamics that happen to the people of God under pressure when the pressures come. Discouragement, disruption, and division.

Previously, it was Moses saying to God, who am I that I should be called to this? And God's saying, it's not who are you, it's who am I? That we should really be focusing on. But then you've got Pharaoh saying, verse two, well, who is the Lord that I should obey him?

And then chapter five, verse 20, the Israelites are saying to Moses, who are you to lead us? You may have a stench before Pharaoh. And then chapter five, verse 22, Moses turning to the Lord and saying, why?

Why is all this happening? Is this really why you sent me? Where is the rescue that you've promised? See, hope, that high point at the end of the chapter four has turned to despair and that despair has spread.

Chapter six, verse nine, Moses reported this to the Israelites, but they did not listen because of their discouragement and harsh labor. Chapter six, verse 12, and Moses is then back onto the same old path, saying to the Lord, if the Israelites will not listen to me, why will Pharaoh listen to me?

I'm speaking with faltering lips. Sounds familiar from the past, doesn't it? Things that the Lord had already spoken into, he had forgotten. In verse 22, what has happened?

They've lost sight there, haven't they? Of the Lord and his many promises. They're back looking at themselves and their own strength in the midst of the hardship. their eyes have dropped.

They began to believe the lies and stepping away from the truth spoken and the promises spoken. Believing, oh, God isn't really with you, is he? How can he be with all this trouble that is happening?

The leaders that you have, the word that you've been given, it's an error. It's untrustworthy. I don't know if any of that sounds familiar to you. If you've experienced that very thing in your own life or experiencing it now.

How many times when hardship, temptation, trial hits, do our eyes drop? From the one who was promised and reminds us in, for example, Psalm 46, verse 1, to be the ever-present help in times of trouble.

Have you? Do you feel any of these dynamics discouraged? Eyes down, seeking, striving to be faithful, maybe re-kicking your walk with him in prayer, Bible reading, and yet, you know, finding it hard?

Are you seeking to, you know, you're seeing growth in the ministries that you're involved in, and yet, concurrently, real hardships? are there trials from, but also trials within the old besetting sins, raising their ugly head again?

I thought I'd dealt with that. Why is it coming back? Why am I struggling with this again? Again? How many of the ways Moses and the people have reacted under pressure after a great kind of trusting, yes, thank you, Lord, and a bit of hardship comes, and their eyes are back down.

They're not listening to him. They've forgotten the promises. They're discouraged, divided. But it is at this point, isn't it, that the Lord steps in.

Then the Lord said to Moses, now you will see what I will do, at the beginning of chapter 6, now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh. Because of my mighty hand, he will let you go.

Because of my mighty hands, he will let you go. drive them out of this country. The people of God are in trouble. Things have got harder, not easier, because of God's involvement in their lives.

But the same God steps up and reveals, reminds them of his name, of his character, and of his power. He redirects their grace, refreshes their gaze once again.

When they feel powerless, he points them to the power giver. He reminds them of his name. Verse 2, God also said to Moses, I am the Lord.

I am that name that I revealed to you in chapter 3. I am who I am. And if you're new to all this, then if you look in the Bibles, then there's a capitalized name Lord.

It's an English translation for the name that God revealed in chapter 3, verse 14, of I am who I am, which in Hebrew, and I don't know how to pronounce this, Eyeh Asher Eyeh, which is written in the Hebrew form in four letters, Y-H-W-H, Yahweh, or if you want a Hebrew slant on it, Yahweh.

He said, that is my personal name. It wasn't revealed, verse 3, to the previous patriarchs. They used terms like Elohim, the great name for God Almighty.

But now I've revealed to you my personal name. In the unfolding revelation of the Lord that we're seeing in the scriptures as we work our way through it, there is an opening up into a deep and a personal relationship and an invitation to that as he reveals his name.

In verse 7, we see that I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. And I will be knowing, you will know that I am the Lord your God.

And the idea of the word knowing there is a deep and personal relationship with the Lord. And the using of his name, Yahweh, or the Lord, is a constant reminder of that.

So he reminds them of his name, he reminds them of his character, that he is the promise-keeping God, which we're singing about. Verse 4, I established a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And in verse 5, and I've remembered that covenant.

And verse 8, and I will bring you to the land I swore to them. He is the promise-keeping God. So if he has made a promise, we should keep him to that promise and call him on it.

What are the truths of God's word that he needs to speak into your life at the moment? What are the promises that you need to be holding on to? Is it worry and apprehension?

What does the Lord speak into that? In his word, who by worrying can add a single day to their lives? Cast your burdens on the Lord, for he cares for you. Philippians, do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and petition.

Present your requests to God and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your heart and minds in Christ Jesus. when we're facing the whirlwind, when we're facing the storm, whether it's inwardly or outwardly, remember his name.

He is the one who has revealed himself to you and who has called you into a deep and personal relationship with himself. He is your God and you are his child. Remember that he is the promise keeper.

Remember the promises that he has made to you. Hold him to them. get others, draw others round about you who will help you when you are struggling to hold him to these things.

He'll uphold you in prayer. But it also reveals his power. Verse 2, I am the Lord. I am the sovereign over the nations, over the whole universe.

I was before everything. I made everything. I sustain everything. I am from everlasting to everlasting.

God's. I have spoken and it has come into being by my very words. Verse 1, and what you will see is my right hand and what it at mighty power is able to do.

And of course it's to redeem, isn't it? Verse 6, I will free you. I will redeem you. It's the first time that word redeem has been used in the Bible story. I will judge them. Verse 6, and I will take you.

Verse 7, and verse 8, I will bring you out into the land that I've promised. See, as we're looking through the Exodus, we're seeing the great act of redemption that the people of God will look back to again and again and again and again in the Psalms and in their prayers.

You are the great God who has redeemed us, the promise keeping God, the powerful God, the mighty God who we can trust. Habakkuk, Lord, you did it in the past, do it again.

It pointed back, didn't they, again to God's great act of redemption, his great act of love. When verse 6, actually, as we're seeing this thing, it not only points to the great act then, but also to the greater act to come, doesn't it?

The greater act of redemption, the great exodus of the people of God from sin, slavery to sin and to death. When verse 6, he would redeem us from the yoke of the slavery of sin and death and the devil with a mighty act of judgment, not on us who deserve it, but on himself who didn't deserve it on the cross.

So that verse 7, wonder of wonders, he would take us, that's you and me, he would take us to be his own people and want to be our gods, to know him in a deep and a personal way, to know his love for us, his care for us, his plans and purposes for us, to know in a personal way the one who took us out of the yoke whose burden was heavy to give us his yoke whose burden is light.

Maybe you've been thinking about coming to Christ this morning, giving your life to Christ. Well, maybe today is the day to receive that saving power that he established for you on the cross. When he took your sins and the condemnation that you deserve to give you the blessing and the new life in him that we don't deserve but which he gladly gives.

If that's you and you're making that commitment in your heart this morning to him, come and speak to me, I've got some resources to give you and want to encourage you. But what is, if you're struggling this morning, what is it that you're struggling with?

Where is the world? Where have you hit this, what it feels like hit the storm? We ask him to lift your gaze to him. Once again, remind you of his presence and of his promises and of his power and actually give you the peace that you long for.

So come to the table. We come to the table of our resurrected Jesus, who has won the victory for us and longs for us to share in it with him.

Where he points us again, once again, to the foot of the cross on which the mighty God, by his mighty hand, has redeemed us and wants to lead us out in the great exodus.

We, his people, he, our God, onto our, the promised land. So as we gather at the table, come and do business with God here this morning.

This is the Lord's table and all who truly love the Lord are invited to participate in it, but if there is a reason you feel that you don't want to participate this morning, maybe you think, I'm not a Christian yet, then just pass on the elements.

That's okay. Nobody will mind. But we come and we're reminded that on the night that Jesus was betrayed, he took the bread and he broke it and said, this is my body.

It's broken for you. In the same way, also, he took the cup and said, this is the cup in which I establish a new covenant through my blood.

God, this is the mighty hand of God coming to redeem so that you could be his and he could be yours. What a wonder of wonders.

And he has done it. His mighty hand, not our efforts, all of him. So come, remember, give thanks, recommit in your heart if that's what's needed this morning.

do business with the Lord as you come round his table. Come, eat, and remember. For as often as we do, proclaim, we remember the Lord's death until he comes to take us home.

So come, eat, and drink.