I invite you to turn in the scriptures this morning to Exodus chapter 5, second book of the Bible, Exodus chapter 5, as we continue and return after a few weeks to our study in the book of Exodus. Somebody said to me, I had Moses born again and regenerated more than a few times in my study of this book. And I want to say that we're going to look at that a little bit this morning to be reminded of the struggle that it captures for us and really how this shows us our own struggle to believe. When somebody once believes the gospel, once and for all they're justified, born again by his Spirit, alone. We saw that with Abraham when he believed and he was justified. But it doesn't mean that the struggle in life is over. it doesn't mean that at times you're going to be crying out lord i believe help my unbelief you will be saying that that's that's reality that's the hard thing about studying old testament figures like this to know exactly where they are but to be encouraged that the lord puts these figures here for us to encourage us that they're just like us we're in that struggle they were in that struggle and we have to learn to trust the lord in all circumstances of life so let's read together uh exodus chapter 5 this morning and consider what the lord's word is for us from exodus chapter 5 afterward moses and aaron went and said to pharaoh thus says the lord the god of israel let my people go that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness but pharaoh said who is the lord that i should obey his voice and let israel go i don't know the lord and moreover i will not let israel go then they said the god of the hebrews has met with us please let us go a three days journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the lord our god lest he fall upon on us with pestilence or with sword. But the king of Egypt said to him, to them, Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people away from their work? Get back to your burdens. And Pharaoh said, behold, the people of the land are now many and you make them rest from their burdens. The same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their foremen, you shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks as in the past let them go and gather straw for themselves but the number of bricks that they made in the past you shall impose on them you shall by no means reduce it for their idol therefore they cry let us go and offer sacrifice to our god let the heavier work be laid on the men that they may labor added and pay no regard to lying words so the taskmasters and the foreman of the people went out and said to the people thus says pharaoh i will not give you straw go get your straw yourselves wherever you can find it but your work will not be reduced in the least so the people were scattered throughout all the land of egypt to gather stubble for straw the taskmasters were urgent saying complete your work your daily task each day as when there was straw and the foreman of the people of israel whom pharaoh's taskmasters had set over them were beaten and were asked why have you not done all your task of making bricks today and yesterday as in the past then the foreman of the people of israel came and cried to pharaoh why do you treat your servants like this no straw is given to your servants yet they say to us make bricks and behold your servants are beaten but the fault is in your own people but he said you are idle you are idle that is why you say let us go and sacrifice to the lord go now and work no straw will be given you but you must still deliver the same number of bricks the foremen of the people of israel saw that they were in trouble when they said you shall by no means reduce your number of bricks, your daily task each day. They met Moses and Aaron who were waiting for them as they came out from Pharaoh. And they said to them, the Lord look on you and judge because you have made us stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants and you have put a sword in their hand to kill us. 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. There is the reading of God's Word. Here's the problem this morning in this particular text. it is that everything has gone from bad to worse. By the time we're done today, did you catch that at the very end? You have not delivered your people at all. Whatever hope Moses had to come up out of Egypt, whatever it seemed that God had said, all of it is dashed into little bits, splintered into just pieces. Everything has fallen apart. And it's hard because from the beginning, it was a struggle for Moses even to believe in this project. At his first run, he goes, and the result today is he has infuriated the greatest monarch, the greatest worldly leader that the world had ever known to this point. He has made Israel's bondage worse, And now the entire nation of Israel hates him. How's that for a call? The poor chap, huh? Moses, go, set my people free. They will listen. They will heed your voice. I'm going to bring them out. I will bring them out. This chapter ends in complete failure. You should feel that. It should stop right there. Chapter break is absolutely right. I don't know how many times I've heard people struggle with this. It kind of captures the whole question of the psalmist that we get over and over and over. Why, oh Lord? I mean, can't you hear Moses at the end of that? Why? Why are you doing this? And you're bringing evil on this people. To which you stand back and say, ooh, you're pushing a boundary here, man. You better be careful. I don't understand it. I don't get it. You know, are you really with us? All this conflict, all this struggle, and it has to go like that? Is it supposed to be like that? As I was thinking about this, it made me realize how important it is at this point to see the bigger story of Exodus and the bigger picture that the Lord is teaching us and training us in. All these things are written for who our benefit of all the old testament uh events that took place of everything that we ever study in the old testament when you open it up and you read it there was one definitive event that all the prophets that everyone wanted to talk about that everyone wanted to focus in on as the greatest declaration of god's power and salvation and it was the exodus it really is i mean you know we go through the church calendar when you go through exodus you get the whole church calendar every single week look at this it's the whole story they had said what the lord has showed us here uh over and over throughout the scriptures all that he put on display in egypt and all that he would do for the deliverance of his people what a story this is what a drama did you feel it as we read it the extent that god had to go through what he had to do to free his people uh he shook heaven and earth for them he bowed the heavens and he came down on the clouds psalm 18 he unleashed his power and you're going to see plagues here shortly and you're going to see a drama unfold you're going to see things unfold that are just and i know no other word other than to say awesome it's just awesome he plundered the whole kingdom he took it down but what did god tell moses from the beginning before he went i'm going to be hardening pharaoh's heart i'm going to take this heart and i'm going to calcify it. An already calcified heart, I'm going to calcify it and I'm going to start turning it wherever I want it to go. You're going to see this. It's going to be overwhelming. It wasn't until the 10th plague and the death of Pharaoh's firstborn son that at that moment, God said, get out, time to go, which is the whole story of the gospel, isn't it? It's the whole story that a son had to be given. It's the whole story of blood that had to be shed and that a perfect Passover lamb would have to come and that blood would have to be put on the doorpost to cover so that they could escape that wrath. The bigger story is that. I thought this morning, well then, what is God ultimately teaching us? He's teaching us something in these early chapters about the greatness then of bondage. He's teaching us something about the greatness of his power to free us from that bondage because we really don't appreciate it and we really don't understand it. We really have to wait and see. We have to wait upon the Lord and be of good courage. Wait upon the Lord, and that's tough. He's always said it. Wait, wait, wait, and when it comes, it's going to be glorious. Through much tribulation, we enter the kingdom. Did you know that? We don't like that, but that's the reality. Through much tribulation, or as Jesus said, in this world, you will have great tribulation that kind of perspective helps us then to understand that we are a people of the cross in this life we are a people of the cross we have hardship as we wait and you will be hated you're seeing that start to play out right in front of you here you've known a great time of restraint but you're really starting to feel in this world the real hatred toward christians and Christians get so confused about this. Why? The Lord told you from Genesis 3 it was going to be like this. You've just known so much prosperity, you haven't tasted it. It's always going to have been like this in history. This is what Jesus told us to expect. And at times, it will seem like as the Lord tarries, everything has gone wrong. At times, it will seem like everything has gone backwards at times it will seem like nothing is working at times you will stand back from this and say i've done all this i've i've done what you have asked and this is the result you will feel that you will struggle with that that'll be a real life experience and through this this morning the lord is teaching us the wonders to uphold us the wonders of his power to uphold you all through it. You just want as Americans to supersize everything right now. You want it now. The Lord says, wait. I'm going to unfold for you my covenant love and grace and I'm going to show you my power and you're going to see deliverance like you've never seen anything else. Christ is committed to bring His people home. He's not going to lose one. And he sets you apart to be a worshiping people. That's what Exodus is about. Now, we left off last time. They had come to Egypt, Moses and Aaron, riding on a donkey. They had come into Egypt, and they first went to the elders of Israel, and they tell them. And it says at the end of chapter 4, something really exciting, that they believed. They believed. Everyone believed. This was really a glorious moment at the end of chapter 4. And then they did the signs. They did the signs in front of the children of Israel. And it says they all bowed their heads and worshipped. Now, if you're starting to calculate Israel, can you imagine this spreading through the camp of over a million people? Can you imagine after 400 years, you believe your deliverer has come? Moses sat on a giant platform and the elders gathered together and they gathered the horn and the trumpet. This is what they would have done. Moses cast the rod to the ground. Wow, it became a snake. And he grabs it. See this? And he puts his hand in and he pulls it out. Wow. And he puts it back in. Wow. Who has ever seen that? And he casts some water on the ground and it becomes blood. This is over. This is, we've come, we've arrived. I've never seen signs like that. Can you imagine the roar in Goshen that day? I can hear the voices of a million strong shouting for victory. God had, after 400 years, answered their cries. God had visited his people and they believed. Notice that, they believed. In a minute, they're about to become unbelieving. But for right now, they believed. And that brings us to verse 1. Afterward, Moses and Aaron went into Pharaoh and said to Pharaoh, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, Let my people go that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness. That is one remarkable verse, isn't it? We have struggled over where Moses has been, and I have struggled to preach that. I admit that. have struggled because I have looked at Moses and I have not seen much faith at all and I had a hard time reconciling Hebrews with the Old Testament account because when I started the Old Testament account I saw nothing but rebellion hardening of heart and even repudiating the covenant of grace by refusing to give his sign the sign to his child I mean that's a pretty serious thing that was last time. Moses has been an enigma so far in this whole thing. And I made the case in chapters three and four that this was a great training session. And training sessions are hard. You could call it seminary. Seminary is hard. All he has done is argue with God, avoid his calling. And I thought, well he really does capture us he really does how real is this man do you doubt you feel strong in faith if you're told don't be unbelieving but believing how often are you unbelieving if that's a command do you pray like the man lord i believe help my unbelief remember the disciples in their training session were they strong under jesus's ministry oh they were a mess they were an absolute mess we were often told at times that even some of jesus's own disciples didn't believe him were the 12 believers yes but here's my point once they had been with Christ and were trained what happened at Pentecost boldness boldness Moses has been a disciple in training but look at where God has brought him this is exciting here we start out and don't lose the imagery here Moses marches with the rod the nation is pumped up at this point and he marches right on into Pharaoh's palace he marches right on into Pharaoh's palace with the rod and there is Aaron and a bold confrontation begins here. A bold confrontation. Moses comes in with the first introduction of the prophetic formula that you get throughout all the Old Testament. Thus saith the Lord. And when anyone spoke that, watch out. That was serious stuff. It was a prophetic formula used by all the prophets as mouthpieces of God Himself. thus says the lord i demand he demands that you let the people go you let his people go they need to go out into the wilderness to him and worship now here's what i'm assuming at this point pharaoh knows all about this because the first thing he says to moses and aaron is why are you taking the people away from their work they're idle they've stopped working because of you guys see it they have stopped doing my bidding and they think this some desert god in a shrub is going to come take them out so the scene is is that israel is halted israel standing there israel is ready to go and they believed when moses and aaron did the science before them we're leaving it's time it's time to go can you imagine the excitement here the imagery of chapter 5 is everything has ceased everything has stopped for a minute they are really tasting a pause Moses and Aaron march on into the palace and thus says the Lord and they give the name of the one revealed in the burning bush the Lord the Lord God of Israel it's as good as done right now I think it's helpful to remember what egyptians believed about pharaoh when the world was created pharaoh was known as a superhuman being who who was appointed by god to take charge of all the affairs of mankind so the creator of the world had a kingly office they said and pharaoh was his appointed embodiment of that to continue the god's rule over all of creation so pharaoh was known in egypt as god and lord by the way lord of the world and god and i made an issue of the fact that he wore the uraeus symbol the sign of the cobra snake right on his headdress to symbolize his power to symbolize that he had supreme power and authority over every single god do you see a showdown here we really do see genesis 3 where the serpent is desperately trying to destroy the seed of christ pharaoh even wearing the symbol and he takes on that takes on a whole new meaning now you see it playing out in history you're seeing what this looks like in history think of the scene the lord just sent his yahweh They just sent his shepherd into Pharaoh's palace. And he walks in. Thus says the Lord, you let them go. Let my people go. Do you know what just happened? Well, you get an idea from verse 2. And Pharaoh said, who is the Lord that I should obey his voice? Who is this? I don't know the Lord. And notice he won't say God, by the way. I don't know this Yahweh, nor will I let Israel go. Who do you think you're talking to? Probably not a wise response on Pharaoh's part, right? This really does become the central question of Exodus. Who is the Lord? Who is the Lord? The question's interesting because Moses says the Lord God of Israel. Pharaoh says, who is the Lord? So in other words, I will not call him a God. He's not God. You're really getting the sense of Pharaoh's scoff here, aren't you? What makes you think I care about Yahweh? I don't even know the guy. Why do you think I should take him seriously? What we have in Pharaoh is an antichrist figure who, 2 Thessalonians 2, opposes and exalts himself above all that's called God or that is worshipped so that he sits as God in the temple of God showing himself to be God. I don't have to take this other God seriously. And who is the Lord that I should obey His voice? Do you think I'm obeying and submitting to this God, this desert God? I want you to notice here the contrast though. This is where I want it to go this morning. The contrast in the intention of the Lord and Pharaoh. And I hope this will help especially the young people this morning think through what you're really in and what you're going through. The Lord says, let them go. And what did Moses say? So that they can come and worship. I want them to come out into the wilderness and worship. I want them to come to me at Sinai. Remember, the Lord said a worship service would happen at Sinai and that would be the sign. That would be the sign to Moses of his faithfulness. Three days journey. Everyone look at verse 7. Pharaoh says, here's what I'll let them go and do. You catch that? You're saying let them go. Let me tell you what I'm going to let them go do. They're going to go gather straw for themselves now. Here's what I'll let them do. They can go collect their own straw. He tells here the taskmasters, don't you dare reduce their quota of bricks. They had a quota of bricks they had to meet every day. And here's what I think of God and His people. Here's what I'm going to go allow them to do. Now, Moses, they can go gather bricks, and they can go gather their straw themselves. I'm not even giving it to them anymore. Bricks were used for everything in Egypt. The temples were made of stone, but the essential ingredient to a good brick was straw. And straw helped to reinforce the brick and keep the clay intact and pharaoh had just made the job absolutely impossible here's what i think of your god and your freedom now you can go and collect straw until you notice what happens in verse 12 so the people were scattered now he scattered them throughout all the land of egypt to gather stubble instead of straw they couldn't even find the straw so they had to get stubble which was a substitute it worked but it would have been awful to try to make it work verse 14 says so they started whipping them and beating them meet your quota meet your quota now what do we have here i watched the movie the other night for the first time i watched the movie unbroken and as i watched that movie i thought to myself i've been through nothing in my life If any of you have seen it, there was a generation who went through things that our generation has not gone through. I walked away taken by it. Imagine this. One pastor quotes, they worked in the hot Egyptian sun all day. Temperatures often over 100, we complain when it's in the 80s here. They had no hats to protect their heads and wore nothing but a brief kilt or apron on their bodies. Their kidneys suffer because they're out in the sun because they have no clothes on. Their hands are torn to ribbons by the cruel work. They have to knead all sorts of mud. Listen, we all wear garden gloves all day long. Do you know what happens to your hands in the mud? You hate it. Rips them apart. Certainly no one stood by to give the workers a drink every few minutes. The Charlton Heston movie probably wasn't right, by the way. It doesn't take much imagination to conclude that the severe rigor imposed upon the Hebrews resulted in many of them dying of dehydration, heat prostration, heat stroke, and the like. I've never known that. I've had a cush life. I'm thankful for what the Lord's provided me. I'm thankful for many of the very benefits and all the technology and things that make life supposedly better, right? Here these are getting beaten to a pulp in a prison camp. 400 years. And I think the height of rebellion from Pharaoh is witnessed in this. Verse 10. Thus saith Pharaoh. Did you catch that? You want to hear a thus saith? I'll give you a thus saith. Thus saith Pharaoh. I'm not giving you any straw. So the contrast here is, thus saith who? Who claims who? Who should obey who? Who has the rightful claim of who? Who is who? He keeps saying something that intrigues me in this text. They're idle, they're idle, they're idle. They keep saying, let us go sacrifice to their God. you know what they're not getting any more time off they are worthless and i thought to myself as i was preparing this this is the larger story of scripture isn't it about this then he showed me joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the lord and satan standing at his right hand to accuse him worthless dirty idle lazy they don't do anything for you and the lord said to satan the lord rebuke you oh satan the lord who has chosen jerusalem rebuke you the bible picks up on this in the new testament and says do you want to know what spiritual bondage is like let me give you a real picture of it. Study Egypt. Study Israel and Egypt. Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat, but I've prayed for you that your face should not fill. But Satan has asked to sift you. The other night, we were talking as elders and how to train our children. And one of the things we realized that we're not making clear is that clear enough in our training of our children today is that they belong to the Lord. Following him, following Jesus, following Christ is not something that's up for grabs or is just one among many of your choices in life. I think we've presented Jesus that way. We've presented in the household of God as if Jesus is an alternative or Jesus is somebody I can set and weigh and see which one's the best for me. And that the thing that we have to make clear to our generation is that God put a sign on them. It's called baptism. And that parents, as we say, are always to teach their children that they what? Belong to the Lord. What's really hard to make clear to our children is that the devil in his kingdom of darkness, with all that it offers, is trying to hold them in bondage and put them in a straitjacket. And they don't see it. I saw the most disturbing thing the other day. Do you know that 550 girls have run off at this point to ISIS? Not with a knife to their throats. A family from London just two weeks ago, I read the article, was pleading with their three girls, 15, 15, and 16. Listen to this. Mom needs you home. You belong at home with us. Syria is a dangerous place, and we don't want you to go there. we understand you have strong feelings you can help from home please don't cross the border these young girls are promised all sorts of benefits from isis their goal to enslave them as baby machines and grow their rebellion women are key to building the islamic state this author says they are raped and abused but once they cross the border listen to this there is nothing they can do to undo their mistake. We don't know that. We haven't even thought about that. Here's the madness of it all. They think it's freeing. The dread of that. And then I think to myself, okay, what's different then than the young prodigal running and joining himself to a master of another country? Who's the master? When the God of your father stands at the window in the lattice of the house, he stands at the window and opens his door and says, come home, son, come home. And countless still say, we're going the other way. You think, haven't you listened ever to history? Haven't you listened to the scriptures about the real bondage? Don't you feel the giant tug of war? It's a cosmic tug of war. God on one end, here's Pharaoh on the other, Israel stuck in the bondage and can't get out. They have crossed the border and there's no way out. You feel that? There's no way out. It's that bad. It's that much bondage. It's that much inflicting. It's killing them. Here's the intention of your God. Let my people go. That they might come and worship. Moses heard God say the sign of his power would be that God would bring them to the foot of Sinai and they would worship. So in fact, Moses understood this to be so freeing. Did you notice what he calls it? He calls it a feast. Let them come feast. Let them enjoy the fat that the Lord has for them and the meat, the way He's going to care for them and provide for them. Let them come feast. Let them take the supper. Let them come and enjoy in the wilderness. I know the wilderness is hard, but they need to be brought out to me and I'll care for them. Pharaoh recognizes that. And did you catch what he said in verse 5? Moses, you're making them rest from their burdens. Do you know Sabbath is derived from that word? You want to give them Sabbath? What's the last thing people value in our day? The Sabbath. What do they call it? Legalistic. Okay. So, does going and doing your own thing free you up? That's the lie. Have you ever thought that the reason the Sabbath is not appreciated is that it very much displays that people are still in the bondage? They don't want rest. They don't even see a need for it. I have rest for my people. I have rest for them. I don't want them going through this. There's another word play here you probably wouldn't catch in the Hebrew if you look down at verse 19. The foreman of the people saw that Israel were in trouble. Do you know that word for trouble is raw? That was the chief Egyptian deity. So in other words, Pharaoh was said to be raw incarnate. So you could put it this way. When Israel, the foreman of the people of Israel saw that they were in raw. Here's Christ coming. I want them free. It's powerful because they could have never done it. There's no way out. There's only one pursuer here that's really coming after them who can get them out. And Christ so loved them, He was determined to free them. If you ever go through the Gospels, this was your Lord's concern the whole time as He's walking on earth. It was that people would know the truth and the truth would what? Set them free. And He kept saying to people, to the centurion and the people he healed. Go your what? Your way. It's the way to God. Go. Go. You're free. You're free now. You can go worship. The truth has set you free. And whenever he freed them, Jesus then set people free. And what did they do? They bowed the knee. Think of the leper who came back and worshipped. The New Testament tells us all over the place that we're all by nature in bondage and captive by the prince of the power of who? The heir who works now, the ruler who works in the sons of disobedience. Or some false snare by the devil having been taken captive by him to do his will. The devil captive. Or do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey? You are that one's slaves whom you obey. Whether of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness. And having been set free from sin, you become slaves of righteousness. This is the struggle of life right here. Sin's a harsh taskmaster. It just keeps on taking. You start doing it and you think it's going to provide you some release. Why do people fall into sin? Stress. They fall into sin because of stress. Well, it's not just stress, but I'm giving an example here. The stress of life, they go to those things which will ease and take away and provide them temporary fulfillment. And all it does is keep taking from you. It's like one pastor said, the nature of sin is like more bricks and less straw. It was the woman at the well who kept jumping around from man to man to man to man and refused to see that she needed Christ. The people feel this bondage. Do they cry to the Lord? they run into Pharaoh. What are you doing? Stop. I rehearse all this today to say, do you see the big story? You're in warfare. Do you understand what you're in? God has to come get you. He has got to come get you out. The Gospel comes and it says, come to me and I will give you rest. The world, the flesh, and the devil says, stop trying to give rest to this person. Inflict them with more burdens. Jesus says, my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Pharaoh says, increase it. I believe the text is helping us think through right now. Where is deliverance? That's how this all ends, and I close with this this morning. You know how frustrated Moses is? The entire nation is furious at him. he has provoked Pharaoh and he can't take it. He is snapped. And he goes to the Lord. Then Moses turned to the Lord and said, oh Lord, why have you done evil to this people? If you're in charge and you are in control and you're, why are you doing this? Why are you bringing this on them? Why did you ever even send me if this is what I have to go through? If this is what it's going to be, why send me? For ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak, he has done evil. And the text ends, you have not delivered your people at... I'm not so hard on Moses anymore, by the way. I would have said the same thing. And at times I feel like saying the same thing. It's not so different from what you're experiencing, is it? All I do at times is look at the church and it's beaten up, it's torn down. I look at people. you're called to preach to people and you wonder, you know, where's the power in all this? You probably have felt like at times I've trained children. The sign was given to them. I've trained them. I've taught them. I've stayed the course and I see little progress in them at all and some of them have turned away. What in the world is that? I don't get it. You haven't delivered. I look at my own life and ever since I came to you, the actual truth of the matter is the experience of my life, if I'm going to be honest, it's not a mountaintop experience. The experience of life is often frustration because of this ongoing presence of sin. And you know what? I'm tired of it. I feel defeated and I get weary of the whole thing. I don't see deliverance. Do you see deliverance? I don't see deliverance. Glorious things of thee are spoken. Zion, city of our God. Where? the details of deliverance in the scripture so powerful why oh lord next week we're coming back and the lord says now you're going to see don't lose heart i have this rest for you it's as good as done i gave my son for you now i'm speaking to you you've already been here you know the truth you've been set free let me remind you of what i've done for you i've spiritually already brought you out physically i'm going to raise your bodies at the resurrection until then i need you to know you're not alone i'm with you to the close of the age i'm not going to leave you as orphans i'm going to come for you i've got true freedom for you and there remains a rest for the people of god there remains a rest for the people of god but I need you to know something. You're not in Egypt to eat, drink, and be merry. If you think that's what this is, you're all wrong. You belong to Christ in body and in soul. And he set you free from the tyranny of the devil. And he watches over you in such a way. I'll complete the work, but you need to know in this world you're going to have tribulation. You need to wait patiently. God's going to say to Moses, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will accomplish for you today. Because guess what? There's a point coming where you will see these Egyptians no more forever. One day the sorrow will pass. Thus says the Lord of hosts, I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion. Aren't you thankful? So then my brethren, be strong in the Lord and the power of his might. Christ has come to set you free and Christ will come again to bring us home. Believe Him. Trust Him. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, as we look at this Old Testament passage, we see the story. We feel the struggle. And at times, it feels like You haven't delivered us at all. Thank You that You are so long-suffering and patient with us. Help us to be not unbelieving, but believing. And give us the strength to fulfill our tasks and callings with boldness. To not waver in them. And to really have our heart set on the rest that is given to us and not be too caught up in the things of this life. For a soldier does not get too caught up in the affairs of this life if he belongs to an eternal kingdom like yours where there is a rest held out for the saints of God. Give us perspective in changing times when the tribulation is great that you told us it would be like this. And hold fast our hearts and may we not lose heart as we look eagerly for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ on the clouds of heaven to take every last one of His servants home. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.