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All right. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to First Works Baptist Church. Let's all find our seats. As you find a seat, grab a songbook. Turn to song number 255. Song number 255 as our first song this morning. Let's all stand together for this first song, if you are able. Song number 255, Come and Dime. All together, nice and strong on that first verse. Jesus, Jesus, table all the time. He who fed the multitude turned the water into wine. To the hungry, call it now, come and dine. The disciples came to land, thus obeying Christ's command. For the master called, and to them, come and dine. There they found their hearts' desire, bread and fish upon the fire. Thus he satisfied the hungry every time. Come and dine, the master call it, come and dine. You may feast at Jesus' table all the time. He who fed the multitude turned the water into wine. To the hungry, call it now, come and dine. Soon the lamb will take his bride to be ever at his side. O, it will be a glorious sight. All the saints in spotless flight. And with Jesus, they will feast eternally. Come and dine, the master call it, come and dine. You may feast at Jesus' table all the time. He who fed the multitude turned the water into wine. To the hungry, call it now, come and dine. Amen. Wonderful singing. Let's start off our service with a word of prayer. Lord God, Heavenly Father, we just thank you for giving us another day that we can come here to your house and hear the preaching of your word. We ask that you please just bless the service this morning, each and every aspect of it. Please bless the singing that will be pleasing to your ears and prepare our hearts for the message. And most of all, please fill Passover heat with your spirit as he preaches unto us, gives your spirit also in the congregation, Lord. Give us ready ears to hear that we may leave here changed. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. You may be seated. Please turn your songbooks to song number 250. Song number 250, just a few pages over in your songbook. Burdens are lifted at Calvary. Song number 250, all together, nice and strong in that first verse. Days are filled with sorrow and care. Hearts are lonely and queer. Burdens are lifted at Calvary. Jesus is very near. Burdens are lifted at Calvary. Calvary, Calvary. Burdens are lifted at Calvary. Jesus is very near. Cast your care on Jesus today. Leave your worry and fear. Burdens are lifted at Calvary. Jesus is very near. Burdens are lifted at Calvary. Calvary, Calvary. Burdens are lifted at Calvary. Jesus is very near. Troubles old, the Savior can see. Every heartache and tear. Burdens are lifted at Calvary. Jesus is very near. Burdens are lifted at Calvary. Calvary, Calvary. Burdens are lifted at Calvary. Jesus is very near. All right, great singing. Welcome to First Works Baptist Church. Just a few announcements here. Before we sing our next song, which will be 112. Be Still My Soul, if you wanna get that ready in your songbooks, 112. If you did not get a bulletin, go ahead and raise your hand. One of the ushers can get one for you. Some important information on there. Of course, we wanna invite you to come back to our Sunday evening service tonight at 5 p.m. I'll be preaching through the superiority of God's laws in Exodus 21. And then we invite you also to come back for our Thursday night Bible study at seven o'clock. We are currently going through the book of Isaiah. And so hope to see you then. You see the so many times and teams. We did go to Mexico yesterday. And it was our first trip to Mexico for the year. And we got 18 salvations in about two and a half hours or so. And so praise God for that. Very successful trip there. You see the list of expecting mothers. And we have a new person on the list. Congratulations to Brother Maury and Miss Angela, amen. Round of applause. We're putting them on the prayer list there. You see these stats there for salvations and baptisms for the year 2024. On the right-hand side is the upcoming church events. We have the Lady's Prayer Breakfast coming up on Saturday, this Saturday, February 1st. It'll be at 10 a.m. at the church building. If you wanna help with that, you can see Miss Janelle Gonzalez. She heads that up. And then the soul winning training begins next Sunday, February 2nd, after the a.m. service. Please make sure you reserve your spot. Make sure you sign up in the back there so we can have all the materials ready for that. And they will be refreshers for you all, for those of you who are already going. And maybe you're new to soul winning. I guarantee you will learn something new. And so I wanna encourage you to commit to that. We'll see you next Sunday after the a.m. service for that. And then the homeschool field trips coming up on Tuesday, February 18th. We'll be meeting at the Billy B's at 11 a.m. You have the address there. If you have any questions about that, of course the expenses are paid for. But if you need any details, you can talk to my wife Sarah for that. And that's pretty much it. Please make sure you silence your phones during the preaching, so as to not be a distraction during the service. Let's go ahead and sing our next song. Song 112, Be Still My Soul. ["Be Still My Soul"] Song number 112, Be Still My Soul. ["Be Still My Soul"] All together on that first verse. ["Be Still My Soul"] ["Be Still My Soul"] ["Be Still My Soul"] ["Be Still My Soul"] ["Be Still My Soul"] ["Be Still My Soul"] ["Be Still My Soul"] Amen, wonderful singing. At this time, the ushers will come forward to receive the offering. You can turn your Bibles to Exodus chapter number five. Exodus chapter five. ["Exodus"] ["Exodus"] ["Exodus"] ["Exodus"] Morning, we're in Exodus chapter number five. Exodus chapter five, the Bible reads. And afterward, Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, let my people go that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. And Pharaoh said, who is the Lord that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go. And they said, the God of the Hebrews hath met with us. Let us go, we pray thee, three days journey into the desert and sacrifice unto the Lord our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword. And the king of Egypt said unto them, wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let the people from their works get you under your burdens? And Pharaoh said, behold the people of the land now are many and you make them rest from their burdens. And Pharaoh commanded the same day the taskmasters of the people and their officers saying, you shall no more give the people straw to make brick as heretofore, let them go and gather straw for themselves. The tail of the bricks, which they did make heretofore, you shall lay upon them, you shall not diminish thereof, for they be idle, therefore they cry saying, let us go and sacrifice to our God. Let there more work be laid upon the men that they made labor therein, and let them not regard vain words. And taskmasters of the people went out and their officers and they spake to the people saying, thus saith Pharaoh, I will not give you straw. Go ye, get you straw where you can find it, yet not out of your work shall be diminished. So the people were scouted abroad throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble instead of straw. The taskmasters hasted them saying, fulfill your works, your daily tasks as when there were straw and the officers of the children of Israel which Pharaoh's taskmasters had set over them were beaten and demanded, wherefore have you not fulfilled your task in making brick both yesterday and today as heretofore? Then the officers of the children of Israel came and cried unto Pharaoh saying, wherefore dealest thou thus with thy servants? There is no straw given unto thy servants and they say to us, make brick, and behold thy servants are beaten, but the fault is in thine own people. But he said, ye are idle, ye are idle, therefore ye say, let us go and do sacrifice to the Lord. Go therefore now and work, for there shall no straw be given you, yet shall you deliver the tale of bricks. The officers of the children of Israel did see that they were an evil case after it was said, you shall not diminish off from your bricks of your daily task. And they met Moses and Aaron who stood in the way as they came forth from Pharaoh and they said unto them, the Lord look upon you and judge because you have made our saviour to be of hoard in the eyes of Pharaoh and the eyes of his servants to put a sword in their hand to slay us. Moses returned unto the Lord and said, Lord, wherefore hast thou so evil and treated this people? Why is it that thou hast sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people, neither hast thou delivered thy people at all. Let's pray to the Lord God. Thank you for everything you blessed us with. Thank you for this church and for our pastor. So I ask that you would fill him with your Holy Spirit now as he preaches his word unto us and in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Okay, we're in Exodus chapter five this morning. Look at verse 21. It says, and they said unto them, look, the Lord look upon you and judge because ye have made our saviour to be of hoard in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of his servants to put a sword in their hands to slay us. And Moses returned unto the Lord and said, Lord, wherefore hast thou so evil and treated this people? Why is it that thou hast sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people, neither hast thou delivered thy people at all. And the title of my sermon this morning is it gets worse before it gets better. It actually gets worse before it gets better. This is a phrase we often use to communicate the fact that on the road to achieving great things, resolving great conflicts or overcoming great challenges, we actually find that things begin to deteriorate. They actually get progressively worse before they actually get better. And the principle is true that the night is darkest before the dawn, right? Things get worse before they get better. And we often tell this to people in order to encourage them not to quit, not to throw in the towel, not to just give up, because success is right around the corner. You just got to hang on just a little longer. And even though things are getting worse, it doesn't necessarily mean you're not progressing. It doesn't necessarily mean you're not going forward or not achieving anything. It's just that things get worse before they get better. Now think about this. We see this in various ways in our lives. And let me give you some real practical ways. Spring cleaning is right around the corner. And I hope some of you participate in spring cleaning. But think about this, moms. You take on the challenge of cleaning a specific room, maybe one of your kids' rooms, or that room that just no one goes into, or let's just say the garage, for example. And you look at it, and you're like, man, this thing is just a monster. It's a mess. I need to take care of this. I need to organize this. I need to clean this. And then you start doing that. You start that project. And then you're like about an hour in, two hours in, and you're like, this looks worse. I've made the situation worse. It just looks like a complete mess. There's all kinds of trash everywhere. Oh, hey, look, that's what I've been looking for for the last two years. Oh, I wonder where that thing went. And things are just absolutely atrocious. It's like a tornado just passed through there. And you think to yourself, why did I even take on this project? I'm trying to make this thing clean and organized. It looked great, but it actually looks worse now. But the truth of the matter is, you spent a couple more hours organizing it. It will look better, but the fact remains, it actually gets worse before it gets better. And here's another example. And I hope that some of you are still hanging on to this, and that is dieting. I know we're still in January for some reason. January seems, it's been a couple months, and it's still January for some reason. I don't know why. But you start dieting. You start cutting. And you're cutting out the sugar. You're not necessarily eating as many calories, because you want to lose weight. And anybody can tell you who's done this consistently, that the first couple days is just misery. It's miserable. You're hungry. All of a sudden, you're thinking about all the foods that you didn't really think about when you were not cutting. You're like, man, anything just sounds good right now. I want pizza. I want hamburgers. I want hot dogs. I'll take anything. And you're just kind of dying. You're like, oh, man. But here's the thing. Anybody can tell you that if you could just get past that little curve, get over the hilltop, if you could just get locked in for at least two weeks, it actually gets easier. It gets better. But anyone can tell you that it gets worse before it gets better. You're just like, man, I just don't. And you get to that point when you're hiding where you're just like, maybe I'll start next week. Maybe I'll just, we'll just hold this off till February. For sure, for sure, for sure, for sure, February. Why? Because you're at the worst part of it. You're hungry. You're constantly thinking about this stuff. And you're just like, I don't know how I'm going to be able to do this. And then you start making excuses. You're like, well, I'm not really that bad. I'm not really that chunky. It's not really, there's people worse off than me. But it gets worse before it gets better. Maybe that's not you. Maybe you're bulking, meaning that you're trying to put some weight on. You're trying to put on some mass. You're trying to put on some muscle. And I don't know anything about this, because this is not a challenge for me. But some people struggle to eat a lot. Some people are just like, I just don't know how I'm going to shove all this food down my gullet to gain weight. And I'm thinking to myself, what do you mean? I have to abstain from doing that. Some people are like, oh, man, to get that many meals and that many calories, it's just like, I'm so sick and tired of food. I'm just like, what? Are you mocking me? And you're just constantly eating. You're constantly, because you're trying to get that bulk. You're trying to get stronger. You're trying to get bigger. And initially, it's really hard. But after a while, it actually gets easier. It actually gets better. You actually start seeing progress. Why? Because at first, things get worse before they get better. And the same thing goes with lifting weights. Anybody who's ever started lifting weights or maybe stopped lifting weights and restarted again, you know for a fact that it gets worse before it gets better. And let me just give this example, squats. Squats, barbell squats, Bulgarian split squats, lunges, leg extensions, leg curls, whatever. When you're inspired and then you just do it, you're like, I'm going to do them all. And then the next day, you're like, what did I do to myself? Why? You can't get out of bed. You can't sit down on the toilet. And if you do sit down on the toilet, you can't get off the toilet. It hurts to walk. It hurts to go upstairs. It hurts to go downstairs. It hurts to get in the car. It hurts to get out of the car. And it's not even like a feeling of soreness. It's just pain. You're not even sore. You're just like, and then you want to take ibuprofen. You're just like miserable. And then you get the temptation to say, maybe I'll start. Maybe this isn't for me right now, because the pain is so excruciating. But then if you could just get past the first couple of weeks, you just get consistent, get the protein in, drink enough water, do all that, then you know what? That's going to pass. And it actually gets better. And in fact, you actually start experiencing a soreness that's actually pleasurable, believe it or not. It's a satisfactory soreness that's not debilitating. Whereas in the beginning, it's just like, I don't know what. I can't move. I'm walking around like Batman, just looking around. You're just in absolute pain. Why? Because it actually gets worse before it gets better. But there's other examples. For example, if you're trying to resolve conflicts in marriage, did you know that it gets worse before it gets better? You're trying to resolve conflicts. And you're trying to repair your marriage. You're trying to make it better. And you think to yourself, wow, we're actually fighting more now than what we were fighting before. We actually started putting in the work to repair the marriage. Why is that? Well, because when you start repairing the marriage and working on improving the marriage, you've got to bring out all the dirty laundry. You've got to bring up the offenses. You've got to bring up the reason you're bitter. You've got to bring up the problems that you're having and lay it out on the table and make an effort to forgive and work through those conflicts. And you know what? That's a little painful. And you're like, this is actually getting worse. We're fighting a lot more, or we're angry a lot more. But as soon as you resolve those conflicts, as soon as you learn the discipline of resolving conflict in your marriage, guess what, it gets better. It gets better. But you've got to move past that stage of the worst part in order to experience the best part. Psalm 30, verse 5, you don't have to turn there. It says, for his anger endureth but for a moment, in his favor of his life, weeping may endure for a night. But joy cometh in the morning. It gets worse before it gets better. Jesus said in John 16, verse 20, verily, verily, I say unto you, that ye shall weep and lament, and the world shall rejoice, and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. What is he saying? It gets worse before it gets better, but it will get better. But just expect the fact that it's going to get worse. And we can point to various examples throughout the Bible of this particular principle. You think of Joseph. We talked about Joseph last week. And for him, it progressively got worse every single chapter. Everything about his life has just got worse and worse. His brothers hate him. His father doesn't even, he rebukes him for his dream. He gets sold into slavery. He gets lied about. He gets thrown into prison. He gets forgotten about. I mean, just progressively getting worse. But then all of a sudden, he spikes and becomes the vice pharaoh of Egypt. You think about David. He's anointed to be king. But then everything just progressively gets worse because Saul is just basically trying to kill him for years on end, and he's trying to take his life, and he's just surviving the persecution of Saul. But eventually, that's all over and done with. He ends up becoming king, fulfilling God's purpose for his life. How about this? You think of the end times. You think of the tribulation. Things actually get worse progressively before they get better, right? Because you have the tribulation, the first four horsemen of the apocalypse, and that's really bad. I mean, that's like global catastrophe, just a lot of bad stuff happening on a global scale. But it actually gets worse than that because then you have what's called the great tribulation where now they're targeting Christians, they're killing Christians, and progressively gets worse. But then what happens? It gets better because the rapture happens thereafter. The principle applies that things get worse before they get better. And the reason it's important to know that is because we need, as Christians, to learn endurance. We need to learn how to push through hardships and difficulties and not just throwing the towel just because it gets hard, just because it's getting worse. The fact that a situation is getting worse is not an indicator that you're not doing something right. Sometimes that's just the way life is. Things get progressively worse before they get better. Now, with the children of Israel here in Exodus chapter five, the better that they would consider and we would consider to be their better end is the deliverance, their deliverance from Pharaoh and Egypt. They are enslaved by Pharaoh, they're enslaved by Egypt. They're not necessarily living according to God's will, God's plan for their life. But in order for them to be delivered, in order for that to happen, things actually have to progressively get worse before they got better. And let me just give you a little bit of a background. The nation of Israel, by this time, had been residing in Egypt since the era of Joseph, right? So Joseph came, he delivered, he saved the children of Israel throughout the famine. He even saved the nation of Egypt. And really it was an era of prosperity. I mean, they were doing really well. But they essentially got comfortable and they just ended up living in Egypt. And Egypt was only supposed to be a temporary dwelling place during that time of famine. You say, well, how long did they end up staying there for? 430 years. Okay, that's not what we would consider to be a sojourn, a visit, a vacation. They're there for 430 years. Many generations have come and gone. And now the norm is to live in Egypt, right? Well, God's original plan for the nation of Israel was to inhabit Canaan land. He wanted them to inherit the land of Canaan, land flowing with milk and honey, the land that he promised to Abraham, to Isaac, and of course to Jacob. But it seems as though they grew accustomed to just living in the land of Egypt. So in order for things to become better, matters had to get worse. And this morning, I'm gonna give you some points using the Exodus story that explain why things get worse before they get better. Now go to Exodus chapter one. We'll come back to chapter five in just a bit. Go to Exodus chapter one, if you would. Why does it get worse before it gets better? Well, first and foremost, it gets worse in order to make people better. Things get worse in order to make people better. Hardships makes you a better person. And more specifically, hardships makes you a better Christian. Now obviously, it only makes you a better Christian if you're a good Christian at it, right? Like you actually have to obey the Bible, read the Bible, go to church, because if you're given a hardship, but then you respond carnally, you don't respond according to God's word, you become bitter, you let a root of bitterness spring in and trouble you and others around you, then guess what, you're only gonna get worse. But if you're the type of person that responds biblically, you have a biblical perspective to the hardships of life, you're gonna come out as gold, okay? And so the worst times are to make people better. Look at verse eight of Exodus chapter one. It says here, now there arose up a new king over Egypt which knew not Joseph. In other words, a new leader has come on the scene and the children of Israel can no longer use their affiliation to Joseph and their affiliation to Pharaoh by proxy of Joseph to essentially be favored, right? The previous Pharaoh's just like, oh, take the best of the land, enjoy the land, and oh, your friends, anybody who's a friend of Joseph is a friend of mine, well, that's no longer a thing. There's a new Pharaoh who not only does not know Joseph, apparently he just doesn't like Israelites, period. He says in verse nine, and he said unto his people, behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we. So he's becoming a little insecure here. Come on, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply and come to pass that when there falleth out any war, they join also into our enemies and fight against us and so get them up out of the land. So in other words, he's like, I think we need to get rid of the Israelites lest some war break out and civil war ends up taking place and suing and they join our enemies because there's more of them and then they defeat us. Verse 11 says, therefore, they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens and they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Python and Ramsey. So what does he do? He tries to demoralize the people by essentially enslaving them and placing taskmasters over them to make their lives miserable, right? Demoralizing them, just kind of oppressing them and this is how he's thinking he's going to control the Israelites by simply enslaving and oppressing them. Verse 12, but the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew and they were agreed because of the children of Israel. So it actually backfired on Pharaoh, right? Because Pharaoh's intention was that he would oppress them, enslave them so they wouldn't grow anymore, right? So they would not multiply, so they wouldn't be more in population than the Egyptians but it seems as though the more they beat them, the more they afflicted them, the more they oppress them, the more they enslaved them, the more they actually grew and multiplied, why? Because hardships is actually good for us. The afflictions that the children of Israel received at the hand of the Egyptians increased them numerically and bonded them more than before. You know, when you go through a hardship with another person, guess what? You guys both end up getting a lot closer to each other because you're experiencing difficulties together, okay? Hardships make us better, of course, if we're walking with God. And so, you know, sometimes we as Christians, the natural tendency is to avoid difficult situations, is to avoid hardships, it's to avoid heartbreak, it's to avoid pain, not understanding that pain is a very necessary part of life in order to get us to multiply and grow and become better people. You know, if you've never experienced hardships in your life, then you just become a spoiled brat. You just become a spoiled brat with a low pain tolerance, incapable of experiencing life, incapable of learning lessons because that's what pain brings, and therefore, you do not become a better person. I don't know about you, but I wanna be a better person. And that's not a statement to say that I'm like welcoming hardships in my life, because no one likes hardships. It's not like, bring them on, you know? I don't enjoy that, I don't think anybody enjoys that. But what I do like is the product of the hardships, though. I don't like the process, but I like the product. But if I want the product, I gotta welcome the process, right, and not reject it, respond to it biblically, why? Because the worst times actually makes people better. The Bible tells us in Psalm 34, you don't have to turn to verse 18, the Lord is nine to them that are of a broken heart, and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth them out of them all. He keepeth all his bones, none of them is broken. Hold your place there in Exodus. I want you to read this verse here in Psalm 119, if you would, Psalm 119. As you're turning there, I'm gonna read to you from 2 Corinthians chapter number one, verse three. It says, Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort, who comforted us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. It's a lot of comfort. What is he saying? The reason God allows you to go through afflictions and trials is so he can show himself strong on your behalf and comfort you, you can gain the experience of God's comfort, and what does that do? That increases your faith in God, increases your belief in God, and then in turn, when someone else experiences a trial, you can go ahead and go and comfort that person as well. Here's a way to explain that. I know exactly what you're going through, right? Like I went through that, I know how you feel, you're gonna make it through it. You get exhorted by someone who actually has gone through those afflictions. Why, because that hardship that you experienced made you a better person. How did it make you a better person? By causing you to realize the comfort of God is there and I can use this to comfort someone else. Look at Psalm 119 and verse 71, verse 71. Psalm 119, verse 71 says this, "'It is good for me that I have been afflicted, "'that I might learn thy statutes.'" You know, David is saying, I'm glad that I was hurt, I'm glad that I went through pain, I'm glad that I was afflicted, I'm glad that I was chastised. Why, because if it wasn't for that affliction, I would have not learned the statute of God. And I think anyone could attest to the fact that when you went through a hard time and you opened up the word of God, it meant more to you in that hard time than it has before, right? You actually paid more attention to what you're reading when you're going through a difficult time than you did prior to that. Why, because now it's just like, well, I'm going through a hard time, I need the word of God, I need God's comfort, I need to be encouraged, I need some answers here, and guess what happens? You read it and you're like, wow, this applies to me. You know, I guarantee you there's someone in this building over the last couple of years, maybe you went through a hardship, I preached a sermon, didn't know about your hardship, and you're like, that's what I needed. I needed that sermon, I needed that encouragement, I needed that specific verse, I needed that principle. Why, because of the fact that when you're going through afflictions, you learn the statutes of God that much the more. It's hard to learn statutes when everything's fine and dandy when everything's a bed of roses. Afflictions brings upon us the learning and the knowledge of God's statutes and judgments. What does that mean? In other words, it makes you better. You wanna learn the Bible, go through afflictions. You wanna learn the principles of God, go through hardships. You wanna be a better person, don't believe yourself to be a better person, just go through afflictions and it'll metamorphosize you into a better person, as long as of course you're reading the word of God. And so we see here the children of Israel, I'm sure they're thinking to themselves, this sucks, this is terrible, these taskmasters are horrible, we're being oppressed, we're being enslaved, but if they were to look at a bird's eye view of their condition, they're like, wow, actually we're growing more. Wow, actually we're multiplying, we're growing, we're still mightier, more numerically than the Egyptians. But you know, when they're in the thick of it, they're probably thinking, this is horrible, this is miserable, I'm not happy here. Go to Exodus chapter two if you would, Exodus chapter two. Exodus chapter number two, point number one is it gets worse, why does it get worse before it gets better? Well it gets worse to make people better. You wanna be a better Christian, you gotta go through hardships. Wanna be a better Christian, you gotta go through some trials. You wanna be a better person, you gotta go through some tribulation, you gotta go through some heartache. Number two, it gets worse also to make people pray. I will say this, you know, we don't pray as much if we're not going through a hard time, you know? And when we do pray, maybe we don't pray as deeply as we should. And if we do pray, we may not pray with as much heart as we should. But you know what kind of brings out the heart, the length of prayer, the types of prayer, the heartfelt tears of prayer, I'll tell you what, the worst times, right? Why, because it gets worse to make you pray. Look at Exodus chapter two verse 23, it says, and it came to pass in the process of time that the king of Egypt died and the children of Israel sighed by reasoning of the bondage. And they cried and their cry came up unto God by reasoning of the bondage. And God heard their groaning. And God remembered his covenant with Abraham and with Isaac and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel and God had respect unto them. You know, God wasn't just in heaven just ignoring the afflictions of the children of Israel. He allowed them to go through it though so that it would provoke them, it would cause them, what, to pray. You know what, sometimes things need to get worse for you and for me to get us to get on our knees and call upon the name of the Lord and ask him to help us and come again and ask again and pray again and ask again and again and again and again with tears. Why, because worst times makes us pray and God wants us to pray. He wants us to depend on him. He wants us to look to him in times of difficulty. But you know what, it's kind of hard to do that when things are always going good. Food's on the table, bills are being paid, health is great, nothing's going awry. You know, you can make yourself pray out of discipline but you know and I know that sometimes we're missing some heart in that prayer. Sometimes we miss a little bit of passion in that prayer. Why, because we're not really experiencing pain. But pain causes us to seek the face of the Lord and say, God, I need your help. I sigh and I cry unto the Lord to help me. And that's exactly what the children of Israel did. Things get worse before they get better to make you pray. The Bible says in Psalm 88 verse 13, but unto thee have I cried, O God, and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee. What's the principle here? The principle is simply this, is that obviously we as Christians need the discipline of prayer, meaning that I hope every morning when you wake up, read your Bible, that you also pray. I hope that you praise God throughout the day. I hope sometimes throughout the day or throughout the week, you get together with your family and you pray. You ask God to bless your marriage. You ask God to bless your children, to bless your resources, your finances, your job, your health, everything. But let's just be honest. Sometimes we don't pray as deeply as we should. And when we're going through a hard time, there's times when you pray and it's only tears that come out. You know there's a type of prayer out there that's just not even words. You can't even get the words out. It's just tears. It's just groanings which cannot be uttered. So much pain in the heart, so much pain in the mind, so many so much anxiousness, so much worry and care. And you're like, I need to take it to the Lord in prayer. But then you're just like, nothing. You don't even know. You don't even know what to say. You just kind of go to God like, I don't even know what I need to say, I just, Lord, I just. And the Lord's basically like, I know what you're trying to say, because, you know, the Holy Spirit translates that. Right. He makes intercessions for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. You know, you're there and you're lying on your pillow and you're, you know, making your bed to swim with the tears and you're going through a hard time. You know, at that point, the Lord is nigh unto you because he's nigh unto those who are of a contrite spirit and of a broken heart. You know what that does, that humbles you, humbles me. It causes us to realize, you know, I'm not all that I'm cracked up to be. Right. Or I don't know as much as I should, or I'm not as strong as I thought I was. I'm not as strong emotionally or even spiritually as I thought I was. And it causes you to not only be humble, but it causes you to deal with others graciously as well, because you realize, like, man, other people obviously experience pains like this. And so the worst times come about in order to make us pray. You're in Exodus, Chapter two. Not only that, but number three. Understand this, that God is actually preparing people when it gets worse. So it's interesting that in in Chapter two, you know, it tells us that the children of Israel are sighing and they're crying and they're doing all this. But they don't even know what's taking place in the background. Right. Backstage, God is actually working on who? Moses. God is working on Moses. He's calling Moses. Look at verse number 11 of Exodus two. It says, And it came to pass in those days when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren and looked on their burdens. And he spied an Egyptian smiting in Hebrew, one of his brethren. And he looked this way in that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. And when he went out the second day, behold, two men of the Hebrews strove together. And he said to him that did the wrong, Wherefore smite is thou thy fellow? And he said, Who made thee a prince and a judge over us? And tendest thou to kill me as thou killest the Egyptian? And Moses feared and said, Surely this thing is known. Now go to Acts, Chapter seven, if you would. Acts, Chapter seven, hold your place here in Exodus, because we're going to we're going to get some more detail regarding this story from Stephen, which is one of the first deacons. It's a wonderful sermon that he preaches here. And he kind of gives a history lesson on Israel. And he spends a little time talking about Moses, in particular, the story that we see here in Exodus, Chapter two. Look at Acts seven and verse twenty two. It says, And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was mighty in words and in deeds. What is this referring to? It's referring to the fact that, you know, Moses is obviously growing up in the household of Pharaoh. So he gets the best of education. He's getting all types of training. He knows how to be an orator. He knows how to speak. He knows how to do great deeds. And I'm sure he's even instructed in military, you know, operations. We see that he slew the man. So obviously he knows how to take a man's life. OK, this man is someone who is trained. OK. And I truly believe that the reason God allowed this was because he was preparing him to be the general of Egypt, not of excuse me, of Israel, not Egypt. Right. You know, God's preparing him to be a leader of an entire nation for the exodus to bring him into the promised land. So he's giving him all these opportunities from his birth to learn these qualities, to prepare himself. But let me just remind you of this, is that at this point, he's about like 40 years old, though. You know, sometimes it takes a long time to prepare someone. And you think to yourself, oh, man, I'm going through like the worst time. Yeah, but you have to understand that you're not the main character. And that God is also working on someone else to get involved, not in your story, but just in the overall scheme of things here. And yet you're going through a hard time, but you don't know in whose heart, you know, what child in this church God is working on right now. You have no idea what five year old, six year old God is looking to to raise up to do something great for God. And it might take about 30 years before he comes out of the desert. You know, it might take some time. And, you know, obviously God is very gracious with us. He understands that we're going through pains, but he doesn't want us to think that everything is just about us, though, because, you know, other people are being prepared. Other people are going through trials. Other people are going through difficulties. It's not it's not just about you. And sometimes the length of your trial extends a little bit because God is working on someone else, possibly to be raised up to help you think about that. Children of Israel are like, God, what are you going to deliver us? It's just like I'm working here. You know, he's like he's raising up Moses. He's not going to force him to do it, but he's got to like train him. He's got to teach him. And, you know, Moses is pretty stubborn in the beginning, by the way. Right. Look at verse 23 says, when he was full 40 years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel, meaning that when he turned 40, he's like, You know what? I think I want to help the children of Israel. And God's like. About time, you know, 40 years old. Good night. Took you a while. He's like, I think I want to visit them. Verse 24 and seen one of them suffer wrong. He defended him and avenged him that was oppressed and smote the Egyptian. So, you know, he's doing the right thing the wrong way, though. Because obviously God wants to raise up Moses to deliver the children of Israel. But not this way, Moses. He ends up being a murderer. He kills the guy, buries him mafia style. And it's just like, you know, you need more training. Right. You need a little more training. You need a little more discipleship. Your heart's in the right place, Moses. But obviously you're going about it the wrong way. He says, verse 25, for he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them. But they understood not. So he's just like, why are you guys mad? You know, I didn't I kill the Egyptian, but it's the wrong way to go about it. But obviously he had in his heart, he knew that he wanted to deliver his brother. He wanted to be used of God to, you know, relieve the children of Israel from the bondage of his of Egypt. But obviously he wasn't ready. Go back to Exodus, if you would. And go to Chapter three. So, you know, he kills the guy, then he tries to resolve conflict between his brethren and his brother and basically tell him like, oh, we know that you killed that guy. He freaks out and he ends up leaving. He just he just completely abandons Egypt and he just ends up living a different life. Right. He goes from the House of Pharaoh to essentially a shepherd in the House of Jethro. He said, for how long? For another 40 years. So, hey, don't get frustrated with yourself if you don't get things right away. And by the way, don't get frustrated with others if they don't get it right away either. Some of the greatest men of God took a long time to teach. Takes them a while to get it. Why? Because they're stubborn and stubbornness, as long as it becomes an attitude of being adamant is a good thing. You know, stubbornness can be bad, but also could be good sometimes. You know, if you have if you have a stubborn child, don't get frustrated. Just know that that that little man, you know, is going to be someone who is adamant for the things of God and the devil is not going to be able to just cause him to like stumble or something, you know, he's going to stick it out to the very end. Stubbornness is good to a certain degree, as long as it becomes, you know, a person being adamant. And this is what Moses is. He's a stubborn person. It took him 40 years for it to come into his heart to deliver the children of Israel. He fails. He's like, all right, I'm leaving. I'm going to go be a shepherd. For 40 years, it's like, what were you doing for 40 years, though? You're just taking care of sheep. And you know what God wasn't like, all right, I'm done with this guy. He's like, I'm going to go look for someone else. He's just patiently waiting for Moses to come around, working in Moses heart, allowing him to mature, allowing him to grow up. And by the way, 40 years of more pressure for the children of Israel. It's getting worse, huh? Look at look at verse one. Now, Moses kept the flock of Jethro, his father in law. Man, he's living with his father in law. Good night. It's getting worse before it gets better. The priest, the Midian, and he led the flock to the backside of the desert and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. And he looked and behold, the bush burned with fire. And the bush bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight why the bush is not burned. When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see God called him out of the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. And he said, draw not nigh hither, put off thy shoes from off thy feet from the place where on the stand is his holy ground. Moreover, he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face for he was afraid to look upon God. And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people, which are in Egypt, and I've heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. And what is he doing? He's obviously commissioning Moses at this point. He's insinuating. I want you to be the man to save them, to deliver them. So later we see that, you know, he obviously tries to weasel his way out of this, right? You know, we like to just think of it as like, oh, yeah, he gets commission. Let's do it. Aaron, where you're at, let's go, you know, throw the staff on the ground, becomes a serpent. No, like Moses makes all kinds of excuses. He's like, oh, I'm not mighty in speech, you know, I have a I'm slow of tongue, I have a speech impediment. And obviously, we know that's not true based upon the New Testament that says that he's mighty in word and indeed. And in the particular story where he's making these excuses to God, God said, like, who made man's mouth? Now, people have used that statement, like as a way to like preach a sermon, like, hey, I'm the one who made man's mouth so I can help you. I can enable you. But that's not what he's saying. When you say who made man's mouth is like, how are you going to try to pull the wool over my eyes? I made your mouth. I know you can talk. You know, he didn't make Moses dumb or mute. He's like, who made man's mouth? And Moses is just like, I still can't do it. He just refuses to obey the Lord. And you know what? God does get mad with Moses. But even then, he doesn't cast him away. He's like, fine, your brother Aaron is coming. And if anybody knows anything about Aaron, we know that God is patient because Aaron is Aaron. The man is such a weak leader. He you know, he's just he ends up becoming a picture of the Antichrist in one of the stories. Right. And he's just not he's not like his brother Moses, but apparently he's an eloquent speaker. He's able to talk and he can he's like the second. He's Moses secondhand man. He can assist him. He's like, Aaron is coming. He's going to help you out with this, but you're going to do it. And at this point, you know, God is just like, look, it's been years. It's time to just put your bootstraps on and start getting serious about the things of God. These people need a deliverer. They're afflicted. You try to do it once and you fail. Now you got to do it my way. So God ended up recruiting Aaron to aid Moses in his public speaking, even though he was already mighty in words and indeed go to Chapter four, if you would. So what do we see? We see that, you know, your hardships, the difficult time that you're going through. Yeah, maybe lasting for a long time, but just keep in mind that God is also working in someone else's heart as well. He's working in your wife's heart. He's working in your husband's heart. He's working in your children's hearts. He's working in church members. He's working in someone's heart that's going to aid you in the future with your problem, believe it or not. In fact, there's there might be someone out there that's not even saved. They will get saved. They got us working on that will eventually get in church. They'll get serious about the things of God. God's hand will be on that person, and then they'll end up aiding you and helping you in the future. Things have to get worse before they get better because God is working with people in the background. Not only that, but we see that we acquire number four. We actually acquire new abilities during the worst times. You see, Moses was just keeping the flock of God, which we can say ended up aiding him and essentially leading the children of Israel, the flock of God in the wilderness. But he also got some pretty cool superhuman powers as well. Meaning that he was able to transform the staff into a serpent and to make his hand leprous. Right. And this is obviously given to him by God in order to give him credibility before the children of Israel. Look at verse number one says Moses answered and said, But behold, they will not believe me nor hearken into my voice, for they will say the Lord hath not appeared unto thee. And the Lord said to him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, a rod. He said, cast it on the ground and he cast it on the ground and it became a serpent. And this is funny. And Moses fled from before it. Moses. You know, so he's like, you know, I need some credibility because if I just tell them that God sent me, they're not going to believe me. Even if I say, you know that I'm here to deliver you because God sent me, they're not going to believe it. I need some credibility. And God says, OK, use the rod. Throw that on the ground and it's going to become a serpent. He does it, even though God told him it would happen and he still runs from it. I mean, what do you not think it was going to happen? This is a pretty incredible miracle, though, right? It says in verse four, and the Lord said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand and he caught it and became a rod in his hand. And by the way, instead of Moses fleeing from the serpent, the serpent should, you know, excuse me, Moses. This is actually a good picture of what Christians should do, right? They should flee from Satan, flee from his temptations, flee from when he is seeking to trip you up or lie to you. Don't just stand there and welcome the fiery darts of the wicked one. You know, we need to flee from temptation. He says in verse number four, the Lord said to Moses or verse five, that they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, has appeared unto thee. And the Lord said furthermore to him, put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom. And when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow. Now, I do find it interesting that he actually ends up never using this particular miracle before Pharaoh. He does before the elders, but he actually never does, which I don't know why. You know, as soon as he cast down the rod before Pharaoh, it turns into a serpent. The serpent swallows their serpents. I would have been like, and by the way, right? Like, that's not the only thing I got, you know? Boom. But he actually chose not to do it. And that's a principle that sometimes, you know, God enables you to do certain things. He gives you certain talents and gifts, but sometimes Christians just refuse to use it. Right. You know, you have a certain talent to play an instrument, amen. And, you know, you can turn that instrument into a serpent. You can you can you can play, but you refuse to do it. You refuse to stick your hand in your bosom and to bring it out. Right. And to essentially use the ability that God gave you. What a what a waste of a miracle. That's a waste. I kind of want to ask Moses, like, how come you never did the hand in the bosom thing? Like, did you think it wouldn't work? Were you do you think like, well, they didn't buy into the serpent thing, so I guess I'm just they're not going to buy into the hand thing. The leprous thing. Use it. Folks, if God gave you a talent, a capability, a gift, use it. Look why cast down the rod and people weren't really, you know, thankful or impressed with it, so I guess they won't be impressed if I'm able to do this. Use it anyways, because we do things not to impress people. We do it because God gave us the capability of doing so. We want to honor God by utilizing our gifts and talents. Amen. So if you can and by the way, if you don't play an instrument, you know. I'm not talking to you. OK, like pastor. That sermon really spoke to me. I'm going to just play the clarinet now. Do you have any experience? No. But I'm not ashamed to, you know, put my hand on my bosom and try this out. And I'm going to tell you, you didn't give you the hand of the bosom miracle, though. He says in verse number seven, he said, Put thine hand into the bosom again, he put his hand into his bosom again and plucked that out of his bosom. And behold, it was turned again as his other flesh. And it came to it shall come to pass if they will not believe thee, neither harken to the voice of the first sign. That they will believe the voice of the latter sign. Now, look down at verse twenty nine. So he gives them these these capabilities and keep in mind, this is still the time period of the worst part, the worst era. Everything's getting worse progressively. He's given these capabilities, verse twenty nine. And Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel. And Aaron spake all the words which the Lord had spoken to Moses and did the signs in the sight of the people and the people believed. And when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel and that he had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worship. What do we see here? We see that, you know, sometimes we need a challenge in order to acquire new capabilities. And what are those new capabilities give us? It often gives us credibility with others. Maybe you might have wisdom and knowledge that you want to help people with, but no credibility. And it doesn't matter how much knowledge you have, if you don't have a reputation or credibility, no one wants to listen. But it's something else when you have the knowledge and the wisdom coupled with experience and credibility, right? You know, he acquired these things during this tumultuous time in order to essentially show himself strong on the behalf of the Israelites. So it goes without saying that the worst times help you acquire skills, they help you to acquire knowledge, they help you to acquire strength, they help you to acquire abilities, they help you to acquire solutions that you would not have were it not for the difficult challenges. Welcome challenges so you can learn something new. And, you know, I can look back over my life and all the challenges and trials that I experienced and all the different things that I learned throughout those times and how they've not only helped me for future challenges, but they've actually helped me to help others with their challenges as well. Why? Because the worst times are there to help us to acquire new things, new challenges, new talents, new capabilities. And in fact, the apostle Paul says in Second Timothy, chapter three, you don't have to turn there verse number 10, he says, But thou is fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long suffering, charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions, which came into me at Antioch and Iconium and Lystra. What persecutions I endured, but out of them all, the Lord delivered me. What is he saying? You know what I've gone through and what does that do? That gives him credibility with Timothy. It gives him credibility with his preacher boys because of the fact that not only does he know the right doctrine, he knows how to respond the right way when afflictions come as well. Hey, I'm glad you know the Bible. I'm glad you know doctrine. But I want you to know trial, too. I want you to know hardships as well. You know, I want you to be strong in both areas, be strong doctrinally, but also be strong in your endurance to be able to endure the difficult situations of life, the spiritual maturity to serve God all the while you're going through a hard time. There's a lot of people that have come in and out of these doors throughout the last eight years. They knew a ton of Bible. They sometimes were even revealed the deep things of God. Wonderful interpretations of the Bible. Just like, you know, those nuggets of truth that we all love to get from the Bible. You guys know what I'm talking about, right? When you get that nugget of truth, you're like, wow, this you make those connections like, wow, that's awesome. He said, wow, did they really like God like reveal it? Yeah, they just knew the Bible. And then what happened? I don't know. They're not here anymore. I don't know where they're at. He said, what happened? I'll tell you what happened. They weren't strong enough in their maturity to deal with hardships. A hardship came. They weren't they didn't build their house upon the rock, but on the sand, the winds blew, the floods came and great was the fall of that house. But they knew a lot of Bible. The problem was they didn't apply a lot of Bible. You know, it's my goal as a Christian to know a lot of Bible, but it's also my goal as a Christian to be strong in the Lord and the power of his might, because I want to be in this thing for the long haul. I want to be able to know the Bible for the long haul. And so acquire skills, knowledge, strength, wisdom, prudence. That's why the bad times come. Go to Exodus, Chapter five, Exodus, Chapter five. Why does it get worse before it gets better? I'll tell you why. It's because of the fact that minor setbacks make for major breakthroughs. Minor setbacks, which at the time doesn't seem minor. They actually make for major breakthroughs. You know, the Moses and Aaron go to Pharaoh and they do the serpent thing and he's like preaching to them. And then what does Pharaoh do? He's like, now you're going to make their work even harder. In fact, we're not even going to bring them the materials they need. They got to go get it themselves. And the deadline is still set. You didn't help anything. Hey, Moses, you made it worse for them. Right. Now, you know, obviously, if you and I were in Moses Sandals, we think to ourselves like. Well, that stinks like that did not go as planned. You know, I thought the rod and then, you know, Aaron's like, you should have done the hand and they're thinking like, oh, man, it would have what happened? I thought we're I thought we're supposed to deliver the children of Israel. So now, you know, their labor is harder. Pharaoh is not impressed with Moses. He's not intimidated by Moses. He just sees them as some dude trying to create a faction against the Egyptians. And to add on top of that, the children of Israel have lost faith in Moses. Look at verse 21. And they referred to the Israelites, said unto them, The Lord look upon you and judge because ye have made our savor to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh and the eyes of his servants to put a sword in their hands to slay us. He's like, God's going to judge you because you just made it worse for us. Now, are we not only hated in Pharaoh's eyes, but even his employees hate us, the taskmasters hate us. Verse 22, and Moses returned to the Lord and said, Lord, wherefore hast thou so evil and treated his people? Why is it that thou has sent me? And you can kind of, you know, understand why he feels that way. He's like, why would you even send me to just embarrass me like that? Right. What an embarrassing you just he just owned me. Pharaoh and Janice and Jamborees owned me. I got cooked in that meeting. You brought me all the way from the backside of the desert just to be mocked and ridiculed. And now the children of Israel, you know, they didn't like me. You know, when I when I was first here and they for sure don't like me now because of this. Verse 23, for since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people. Neither has thou delivered thy people at all. Yeah. Now, why is this? Why? Why did why didn't God just like allow the serpent to just fall at the rod to fall, turn into a serpent? Everyone gets scared. They're like, all right, take them, you know, just don't hurt us or whatever. And then they just live happily ever after to go to the Canaan land. I'll tell you why. Because God wanted him to show himself strong on the behalf of the Israelites and to strike fear in the hearts of the Egyptians. God knew that Pharaoh was going to reject it. But and you know why he wanted him to reject it? Because he's got 10 plagues lined up. Right. He's like, oh, it's going to get worse before it gets better. You know what? And thank God for the template. I love the story of the templates. The whole world knows about the templates. Everyone knows it brought just utter destruction upon Egypt. It was an expression of God's might and power and his capability to just completely decimate a nation supernaturally. Like it's a it's a it's it's a time that the Egyptians will never forget. And in fact, it was such a catastrophic event that the surrounding nations would talk about it for years on end because even Canaan land heard about it. You know, the children are all scared about going to Canaan land because they thought there were grasshoppers in their sight. But, you know, I was just like, we heard about what happened over there. And we're our hearts melted because of it. Why? Because minor setbacks. Makes for major breakthroughs. Thankfully, Pharaoh rejected the miracle of the rod. Thankfully, he rejected the preaching of Aaron and Moses because we wouldn't have had the 10 plagues thereafter. And let's just say just forget about the 10 plagues. How about the crossing of the Red Sea? That incredible miracle. And with that miracle, the crossing the Red Sea, what happened? God destroyed Pharaoh and his servants in the Red Sea. See, sometimes, you know, we go through hardships in life. We're like, what's with this setback? Why is this like this? But you don't realize like God is actually he has a panoramic view of the whole situation. And the more difficult the situation gets, the more glory God gets at the end when he's able to show himself strong on our behalf. And look, think about this, you know, after every plague, you know, the the the waters turn into blood. You think Moses would be like, OK, you know, everyone else is like, all right, this should do it. No. So what happens? It gets worse before it gets better. Then there's frogs, there's lice, the moraine, just one plague after another. And it's just like this should do it. Nope. Why? Because it gets worse before it gets better. And of course, it did get better. He wanted to perform the 10 plagues that will go down in history and cause the known world to fear for years to come. You know, if Moses would have quit during that minor setback where the children of Israel are like, I can't believe you're doing this to us. They're just whining. They wouldn't have seen the place. They wouldn't have seen the great hand of God against the enemies. And the Egyptians wouldn't have been forcing them out of Egypt, along with the spoils, because after the 10th plague, at that point, Pharaoh was like, just go, just go. You know, and take whatever you want. And then like the Egyptians are just like shoving out the children of Israel and they're just giving them spoils or giving them jewels. They're giving them possessions and resources to just take it. They would have permanently, by the way, they would have they would have been able to see permanently gotten rid of Pharaoh because, of course, he died in the Red Sea with his armies. Go to Romans Chapter five, if you would. Romans chapter number five. This is why things have to get worse before they get better. I hope you think about your personal life. I hope you think about your situation, that you think it can't get any worse than this. Well, let me just tell you, it's going to get worse. Man, it's just this is pretty bad, though. Oh, it could get worse, though. It's probably going to get worse. And the worse it gets, the greater the breakthrough. You just got to stick it out, though. And then lastly. We see that things get worse before they get better because they give you experience, right? And obviously, you know, the children of the history of the children of Israel, the descendants of the children of Israel would always look back to what happened then. That's what the fathers have told us. Our ears have heard as a matter of experience of what God can do in the future. Look at Romans five versus one is therefore being justified by faith. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. By whom also we have access by faith and to this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also. What does it mean to glory? It's like you boast that you're going through a tribulation. You understand it's a good thing. Knowing that tribulation work with patience, meaning endurance and patience, experience and experience, hope and hope maketh not a shame because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us. Gives you experience. I'm going to finish with this particular story from yesterday. We went to Mexico yesterday. And man, it's always a great trip going to Mexico. We always see. I was telling I was telling the the people yesterday, like it's always like 17 to 18 salvations, no matter how many soldiers we have. It's like the manna that we bring more soldiers, 17, 18, 17 to 18. It's like we always cap out at least 17 to 18 salvations. And they're always great. I mean, brother Ulysses and I, you know, we got a little humbled because we were like preaching and he goes up to a group of kids and they're just really rude and they're just like not open about it. They're just like, no. And they're like, all right. We walk away. We're like, man, the youth, you know, us old dudes are like these young people, you know, they don't want to hear the gospel. But then we saw like another group of young men. And we're like, let's let's let's go talk to them. They're probably not going to want to hear it, though. You know, these young people and we're literally like saying this, right? We're just kind of like just doing it out of duty. Just be honest. But we end up going to them and they end up getting all of them got saved. And it was like 10 of them. And I think this is not the particular story that I want to share. But like the group of kids that got saved, there's this one guy who's like, for sure, like the main leader, because they all kind of look like they were like not interested until that guy got locked in and then everyone just kind of like, all right, we're listening. And, you know, this is like, you know, what would you say is a small sin? And the leader was just like laziness is a sin. We're just like, yeah, that's good. You know, but he ended up giving the gospel and all of them answer the right answers and they're preparing for the military and they're very disciplined and they're very grateful. So that was great. We got to see those people safe. But I think the greatest story from yesterday was from Brother Connor, Brother Alex and Miss Lancey. And initially, it's very sad, you know, that right now in Mexico, there's these cartel wars taking place and certain parts of Mexico is really dangerous. And when we go to someone at the at this park, you know, we often think of the law of diminishing numbers, meaning that when you go to a specific area, you get a lot of people save and then it just starts dwindling down. Right. But it's not like that here because of the fact that people are constantly like new people are constantly coming to this park who don't live in TJ. They just come and visit. So we've never really run into the same person twice. OK, because people are always in and out. Well, they ran into a family. It was a husband and wife and their two kids. And, you know, Brother Connor is giving them the gospel. And it turns out the father was saying that they're not from TJ, they're from a different part. And they said the cartel actually ran us out of our home. We have no place to live. And he said the cartel came and they basically threatened us and they said, if you're not out by this amount of time, we're going to kill you. And they basically took over their home. And he and he basically told Connor, like, we're here with the shirts on our backs, you know? And it was really sad, but, you know, like bittersweet because they're there. But they're actually celebrating their son's birthday. So they had a cake there. They're just at the park. And it wasn't they even look sad, right? They look pretty happy. But you think like, man, they're going to like a really that's a really dark time. And he's like, we don't know. Like, we don't know where we're going to stay or what's going to happen. You know, life as they knew it just completely changed, you know? But they got saved. They end up getting saved. And, you know, you think of what happened to that family and that they're so close to death. Things just got progressively worse for them. And probably the worst part is when they're just literally run out of their home to go to a different place and just have no idea what's going to happen to them. But when did it get better? When they got saved? You know, obviously, it's not great that that happened to them. Well, quite frankly, if they weren't taken out of their home. If they didn't leave their home, if they weren't threatened. And if they didn't have a place to live. And if they you know, if that didn't happen to them, we wouldn't have been able to give them the gospel and then they wouldn't have gotten saved. Things get worse before they get better. And by the way, he was very grateful. Right. Even so, you guys want some cake? You know, they're just they're just very gracious and kind. And and it wasn't one of those salvation was sometimes like, I think he got saved. It was like for sure the guy was saved, because even I think correct me if I'm wrong with the economy, he was just kind of like, like everything that you showed me is just completely different than what I believed before. You know. They meant it unto evil, but God obviously meant it unto good. And so this is just a new way of thinking for us that we need to we need to adopt this new way of thinking, should I say. That just because times in your life get really hard, really challenging, very painful. It doesn't necessarily mean you're doing things wrong. Especially after you evaluate your situation, you realize, like, I'm still walking with God, I'm still winning souls. I'm going to church. I'm reading my Bible. If you're doing everything right now, unless you're just involved in some wicked sin. Right. If you're involved in wicked sin, you're fornicating, you're drinking, you're out clubbing, you're all doing wickedness. Then, yeah, the reason it's getting worse for you is because God's chastising you and trying to help you to get right with God. But if you're here on a Sunday morning, you're out soul winning, you're in your room reading your Bible, you're doing right in the eyes of the Lord and things are just progressively getting worse. Just keep this in mind. Oh, it's this means it's going to get better. And then tomorrow it'll get worse. And then you're like, oh, that means it's going to get better. And then and then the next day comes, it's like, wow, this is really bad, though. And you could just say to yourself, that means it's going to get better. And then it just progressively gets worse. Just know that it is going to get better. And so things get worse before they get better. But let me just remind you, as God's people, it always gets better. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your word and thank you for the Bible. Thank you for the Exodus story and so much that we can learn from it. So many principles that we could extrapolate. And Lord, none of us, myself included, likes trials. And it exposes how weak we are. It exposes us the breaches, the spiritual breaches in our life. Lord. And but it also makes us better, makes us stronger. Help us to remember the sermon when those times come. And maybe someone's in here going through that worst time right now. Help them to stick it out. Help us as your people to exhort them to continue in the things of God and not to quit. And I pray you blesses as we go on our way. Lord, we love you so much and we thank you. Pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.