Well, we want to read from the Word of God, and to do that, we'll take the Word and turn to the book of Exodus. The chapter is the chapter 3. I want to read some verses in chapter 3 and just a few verses in the chapter number 4. And so Exodus chapter 3. The event is well known to us, but let's not allow the familiarity to lose the wonder and the supernatural that we'll read about even here in Exodus chapter number three. So let's hear God's word. Let's read it with understanding and with reverence. Exodus chapter three in the verse number one. Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of 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 unto 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 was not consumed. Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called on to 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, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. Moses hid his face for he was afraid to look upon God. God 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 I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land onto a good land and a large, onto a land flowing with milk and honey, onto the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites, and the Amorites and the Perizzites, and the Hivites and the Jebusites. Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come on to me, And I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. Come thou therefore, and I will send thee on to Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. And then to chapter four, and the verse 18 through to 20, you'll know that between these two readings, that you have Moses, and he has many excuses why he shouldn't go back to Egypt. But now we come to read in the verse number 18 these words. And Moses went and returned to Jethro, his father-in-law, and said unto him, let me go, I pray thee, and return to my brethren which are in Egypt, and see whether they be yet alive. And Jethro said to Moses, go in peace. And the Lord said unto Moses and Midian, go, return unto Egypt, for all the men are dead which sought thy life. And Moses took his wife and his sons and set them upon an ass, and he returned to the land of Egypt, and Moses took the rod of God in his hand. Amen, we'll read, or we'll end our reading at verse 20. Let's just briefly, just briefly have a word of prayer together. Loving Father, would I pray now that thou will come and fill me with thy Spirit, the Spirit of the living God, We rejoice in the great Comforter that has come to the world, one like unto our Savior. We pray now for His infilling and the help of the Spirit of God to preach the word. Lord, may I not stand here in my own strength. Human oratory is not enough. We need thee, Lord, to speak into our souls. Do so, Lord, by thy word and by thy spirit. Guide us through the message, we pray. Give clarity of thought, of speech, we pray. And take, Lord, that which is of thee, Lord, into the heart and souls of thy people. And for those who gather with us who are not thine, who find themselves, dear God, still in sin, we pray that thou wilt open their eyes and their understanding, and thou wilt show them the beauty and the lord the blessings that are found in jesus christ the only savior of his redeemed people answer now these are prayers for we offer prayer in and through the savior's great precious lovely and holy name amen and amen it had been 40 years since last he walked on the ornate mosaic floors and among the marble pillared courtyards of the royal palace. in the capital city of the Egyptian empire. Much I'm sure had changed since last he was there. The old familiar landmarks that he would have been so well acquainted with in his youth would have been more likely replaced with more elaborate structures during his absence. Back then he was the crown prince The rightful heir to the dynasty that would have been left to him when the reigning pharaoh was cut down in death and his embalmed body was placed into the embellished surroundings of a pyramid complex that was quite literally fit for a king. But his rise to power as Egypt's head of state was never realized, as he would have to flee Egypt to the Midian Desert, having killed an Egyptian who was mistreating one of his fellow brethren, a Hebrew slave. The man I refer to is, of course, Moses, he of Ark of Bilrushes and burning bush fame. The second of his three 40-year cycles that Moses' life was divided into was now coming to an end when we come to read the account of his life in Exodus chapter number 3. God appears to him in a burning bush and he speaks to him from that bush. He says to Moses, come now therefore and I will send thee on to Pharaoh. And thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. Egypt, the very name, must have caused his blood to run ice cold. But God, that's the place where I had to flee 40 years ago. And now you want me to return there. Now you want me to go back to Egypt. Surely not. That is exactly where God wanted Moses to go back to. Back to Egypt. Back to the place of his greatest defeat. Little did Moses know then, but the place where he had suffered his greatest defeat was going now to be the place where he was going to secure his greatest victory as he led the children of Israel out of the house of bondage and towards the promised land. Sometimes God brings us back to the place of our greatest defeat to bring to us our greatest victories. Think of Joshua returning to Ai, the defeat that he suffered there. God brought him back to Ai in order for him to overthrow that particular city. We think of Peter whenever he denied the Lord around a fire and how God brought him back to a fire in order to recommission him. God brings us sometimes back to the places of our greatest defeat in order to give to us our greatest victories. For the remainder of this meeting, I want us to consider Moses' return to Egypt as we consider in this little series of messages that we're bringing to you on our family worship services, on some of the Bible's great returns. Because this was one of the Bible's great returns. Moses returning to Egypt. Now when it comes to Moses' return to Egypt, we come to see first of all the preparation for that return. The preparation for that return. The silent, the hidden, the secret years spent in the wilderness of Midian were the years that God used to make Moses the man of God that he was when he comes to return to Egypt. Moses had spent 40 years thinking that he was somebody, 40 years learning that he was nobody, and 40 years discovering what God can do through a nobody. That oft-repeated quote from D.L. Moody pretty much sums up the life of Moses, really sums up his entire life. From the age of 40 to the age of 80, Moses had to unlearn what he had learned during the first 40 years of his life. You see, in the first 40 years of his life, Moses thought that he could do God's work in his own strengths. And now he has to come to unlearn that. in his Christian life. He has to come to learn that he cannot do the work of God in his own strength or with his own wisdom. And so, God takes him into a private school that had an address, the backside of the desert. That was an address of the school that Moses enrolled into. The backside of the desert. You know, as Christians, there are things that we need to unlearn. There is baggage that at times we bring into our Christian lives, baggage that needs to be shed from us. I was speaking with an individual quite recently who was brought up in Pentecostal circles. That individual, he has come to rejoice and to know the benefit of the doctrines of grace and of the Reformed faith. And that individual, he was saying to me that there's a lot of things that he has to unlearn. A lot of things that he has to unlearn with regard to biblical truth that he has now come to appreciate and see within the Word of God. There are things at times that we need to unlearn. And so here he comes in preparation, 40 years of age, he enters this Midianite desert, he enters this particular school, and for the next 40 years he comes to learn at the feet of God. You think of that, think of how long it took for God to make his man. 80 years. The initial 40 years, you can add then to the second 40 years, 80 years to make a man of God. You know, we often think that whenever a young man enrolls in Bible college, that after four years they come out as a man of God. As much as we would want that to be the case, that is not what happens. Oh, of course, they're helped in such studies. They're helped along the way by such training, but it takes many, many, many years for a man of God to be made, for God to make his servants. Just ask Moses. It took him 80 years of training in God's school. Now, there are a number of lessons that we come to learn from then, Moses' years of preparation. First of all, we learn this lesson. There are no shortcuts in the Christian life. There are no shortcuts in the Christian life. I'm sure every boy and girl here today, you just love school. You love school. I'm sure you all love School, you just jump out of bed on a Monday morning. You can't get your breakfast into you as fast enough. You love making your journey down to the school gates and you love going into the classroom to learn more spellings and to do more numeracy and to practice your French verbs. I'm sure you're so excited about going to school in the will of God tomorrow. Well, no, I don't think so. I've looked at my own girl and she shook her head. There's some people and you just can't wait to leave school. Well, imagine your school days lasted for 40 years. 40 years. 40 years at school. 40 years in the classroom. That's how long it took and was for Moses to be a pupil. 40 years enrolled in God's school. 40 years of hard learning. 40 years of spiritual instruction. You know, beloved, it takes years of walking with God, years of faithful service, years of not quitting when you feel like quitting, years of barrenness, years of the mundane for God to make any person, the man or woman that he wants them to be. We must ever remember that there is no such thing as instant spiritual maturity. Well, there's instant coffee, many instant things, instant photographs, but there is no such thing as instant spiritual maturity. Spiritual maturity often takes longer than we expect. One preacher said, young Christians may think much of themselves. Growing Christians think themselves nothing. Mature Christians know that they are less than nothing. The more holy we are, the more we mourn our infirmities, and the humbler is our estimate of ourselves. There is no shortcut to spiritual maturity. How do we mature in our Christian lives? God uses many things. He uses the means of grace. the constant exposure to the Word of God, the reading of Scripture, I and the sitting under the preaching of it, through prayer, through fasting, through our participation in the sacraments, I and even in our afflictions, He comes to spiritually mature us. When you think of it, it took 80 years of preparation for Moses before he did anything extraordinary for God. God was in no rush whenever he was making and molding his man. Now Moses was in a rush. Moses was in a rush. His killing of the Egyptian 40 years previous to this shows that to be the case. Here's a man on a mission, and here's a man who desires to begin that mission there and now. Here's a man who's in a rush. But God wasn't in a rush. So God takes him for a 40-year period And he comes to show Moses that the arm of flesh is not sufficient. That the arm of flesh will never give him the victory. Only through God will the people be delivered from Egypt. Only through God will the people be brought out of the house of bondage and brought into the place of blessing and into the promised land. Oh, child of God, too often we forget this. Too often we rely on the arm of flesh. We depend on our own wisdom, and we depend on our own planning, and we depend upon our own eloquence. And then depending on those things, we never think about praying. We never come to God and cry, oh God, come and bless the labors of my hands. Come and bless the labors of the minister. Oh child of God, when we're depending on our own wisdom, and we're depending on our own strength, like Moses, we're going to make an absolute mess of it. Moses employed the wrong means and the wrong method at the wrong moment. And we must be careful that we do not do the same God's work done God's way. I am done in God's timing. Cutting corners is just something that God does not do when he prepares his man. There was no shortcut to spiritual maturity. Do not think that just because you know a little bit of your Bible that you are now a spiritually mature believer. God will continue to work on our lives and in our lives and in our hearts until we are brought to that place where we are brought to spiritual maturity. Something else we learn from Moses' years of preparation Secondly, from it we learn that solitude is not the enemy of spiritual progress. It is actually its friend. Solitude is not the enemy of spiritual progress. It is actually its friend. There's no doubt as communal beings that we love to be in the company of others. We love the fellowship of the saints. We love the company of our families and of our friends. But there are times in our lives when God is preparing us for future service. There are times in our lives when we need to be alone with God. Because it is in those times that we come to fellowship with God, and God comes to fellowship and commune with us. We must never think in our lives that the times of solitude are the enemy of our progression in our Christian lives. In fact, solitude is the friend of spiritual progression. Listen to these words from some godly man who knew the benefit of being alone with God at times in their lives. Jonathan Edwards, that New England Revivalist, Jonathan Edwards said, a true Christian, doubtless delights in religious fellowship and Christian conversation and finds much to affect his heart in it, but he also delights at times to retire from all mankind to converse with God in solitude. And this also, he says, has peculiar advantages for fixing his heart and engaging his affections. True religion disposes persons to be much alone in solitary places for holy meditation and prayer. It is the nature of true grace. However, it loves Christian society in its place in a particular manner to delight in retirement and secret converse with God. Robert Leontane, The 17th century Scottish Presbyterian minister, he said, solitude, silence, and straight keeping of the heart are the foundations and grounds of a spiritual life. The missionary and martyr Jim Elliot wrote, the devil has made it his business to monopolize on three elements, noise, hurry, crowds. Satan is quite aware of the power of silence. Brethren and sisters, In this media-driven age, in this technologically advanced age, we are starved of solitude and silence. Learn to be alone with God. All God's giants walk alone. And for any who would have ambitions for the work of God, maybe in a full-time capacity, be ready for days of loneliness. Be ready for days of solitude. Be ready for a slimmed-down social life. Be ready to forgo your hobbies. and your excessive viewing of the media. The preparing of a man of God, a woman of God, will involve times of solitude, solitude. And so for 40 years, Moses found himself on many occasion alone with his God. But this is why God would say of him, that Moses knew me as a man knows his friend, as one who knows one face to face. Many days in solitude. Solitude is never the enemy of spiritual progress. It's actually a friend to such progress. From Moses' 40 years of solitude in the backside of the desert, we learn a third thing. We learn that what we are presently facing might well be preparation for what we will come to face in the future. Think of it. For 40 years, Moses lived in the backside of the desert, shepherding sheep, which didn't belong to him, but they belonged to another person, to Jethro, his father-in-law. We read that in the verse number one. Moses kept the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. For 40 years, He lived in the desert looking after sheep that wasn't his own, but belonged to another. Fast forward to the end of Moses' life. He's now 120 years of age. What did he do in the last 40 years of his life? He lived in the desert. He lived in the wilderness, shepherding sheep that were not his, but belonged to another. Not sheep of forfeit. but sheep with two. Not Jethro's flock, but God's flock. God's sheep. You see, the no-thrills living of desert life, it was nothing new for Moses whenever they were brought out of Egypt and now they were made to wander because of unbelief through the desert for the next 40 years. This was simply something that Moses had done previous to this. Being there, Done that, got the t-shirt, as it were, was something that I suppose Moses could have said as he wandered around the desert for another 40 years. I've done it all before. You know, as Christians, we must not miss what God is presently doing in our lives, as mundane and as predictable as it might be. Because what God is doing in those days, I believe, is preparing us for the future. I see not in my own life nights that I would have just simply studied the Word of God, not because I was preaching the Word of God, not because I had a meeting to take, but simply just wanted to know more of God's Word. And now, I study every day. God was preparing me for a life You see too many people they miss what God is presently doing in their lives either because they're living in the past and they can't move on from the past or they're living in the future hoping for some great enterprise or some great opportunity that is going to open up for them and then they're going to start praying and then they're going to start serving the Lord and they're just waiting for it and it's always in the future. they forget about what God is doing in their lives in the present and what God wants to do in their life in the present. What believer is God doing in your life today? What is he doing in your life today? What is God teaching you today? What sin is God separating you from today? What service are you giving to God today? What truth of God is God thrilling your soul with today? The past is the past, the future has not yet been. The present is where we are to learn the lessons that God would have us to learn in order that he would prepare us for future days. Well, there came a time when the preparation was over and the training was complete, and from the midst of the burning bush, God said to Moses, now come, come therefore, and I will send thee to Pharaoh that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. How did Moses respond to God's call? Well, to say that Moses was reluctant to obey the call of God would be an understatement. And we want to look at that in our second point. With regard to this return, the reluctance regarding his return, the reluctance regarding his return to Egypt. The man who ran before he had been sent and the man who retreated after he had failed was now resistant when he was called. Man who ran before he was sent and retreated after he had failed was now resistant when he was called. It was as if Moses that day, as he stood at the burning bush, it was as if he looked over his shoulder hoping to find someone else standing there whom God was calling rather than him. But there was no one else there, it was just him and God. And so Moses, he immediately responds with these words in the verse number, verse, Number seven, I think it is, who am I? Who am I that should go on to Pharaoh that I should bring forth, sorry, verse 11, that I should go on to Pharaoh that should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt. Now that initial response begins a series of excuses why Moses thought he was unsuitable for the task to which God had called him to. Theodore E. Elp, He lists those seven excuses in his commentary on the life of Moses. Lack of capability, lack of message, lack of authority, lack of eloquence, lack of fitness or adaptation, lack of previous success, and lack of previous acceptance. And you'll read all of those excuses in the last part of chapter three and then into the chapter number four. While Moses thought that he had sufficient reasons to reject the call of God and to reject God's will for his life. And he had come to convince himself through those excuses that he was unfit for the task. Those excuses were the very reason why God had chosen him for the task. You see, Moses is now emptied of self-confidence. He's emptied of self-dependence. God has his man where he wanted his man, at the place where he is now wholly dependent and totally reliant on his God. Few ever get to that place in their Christian lives, the place where they are totally dependent and entirely reliant on God. Too often we are so full of ourselves for God to use us. But brethren and sisters, it is the empty vessel. And it is the unfilled vessel that God will come and fill and use in his service. The person who is self-confident and pushes themselves to the front is the very person that needs to be kept from the front. The person who is so self-confident and wants to push themselves to the front is the person that needs to be kept from the front. Because we need to be brought to an understanding that without God we can do nothing. It's often the weak and the base and the foolish things of the world that God will take up and use in his service. He was preaching in England on one occasion. He was an American evangelist. And he came to a meeting, and in that meeting, a university student was present. And after that meeting had concluded, the university student came to him after the service. These are the type of people that you want to meet you after a service. He said, Mr. Moody, do you realize that you made 18 grammatical errors in your sermon this evening? D.L. Moody replied to that young university student. He said, yes, I may have made many mistakes, but listen, young man, I use all the grammar that I have for the Lord. He says, what are you doing with yours? What are you doing with yours? Moody's grammar may not have been to the standard of that university educated student, but God was not limited with Moody's limitations in grammar. In fact, God used him despite his limitations. And maybe you're a young person, an older person, and you shy away from doing God's will in your life because you feel yourself to be so unfit and so ill-equipped and so inept to do what God is asking you to do. Well, can I save you a lot of time and, I suppose, a lot of heartache? Because I speak here from personal experience. Because you, like Moses, and like many other people who eventually come to do God's will, you're going to run out of excuses for not doing God's will. you're going to run out of excuses. And just like Moses and everyone else who has ever had to face doing the will of God, you're going to be brought to a place where all of your excuses are dried up and you're going to be faced with the choice, am I going to do the will of God or not? When you come to that crossroads in your life, let me encourage you to choose God's will. because it is good, it is acceptable, and it is the perfect will of God. You will run out of excuses. And so to save yourself a lot of time, just simply say, Lord, wherever and whatever, I give myself to your will today. And so here's a man who was reluctant to return, and yet this is what the Lord would have him to do. Aware that there was this hesitancy and there was this reluctance on the part of Moses to return to Egypt, God, he patiently deals with his servant. And he comes to encourage Moses in various ways. And that brings us to a final point, the encouragement for the return, the encouragement for the return. When the task God assigns to us is a daunting one, at times it may even feel to be an overwhelming one, God comes to encourage us to press forward and to do his will, regardless of the difficulties we foresee and the obstacles that we expect as we come to do that well in our lives. Now, in the case of Moses, there were at least three sources from which this divine encouragement came. The first source of encouragement came from God's words, God's words. Moses had every encouragement to return to the land of Egypt because God made him Certain promises. He made to him certain promises as Moses prayed out excuse after excuse why he shouldn't do God's will. And so in Exodus chapter 3 in the verse 12, with Moses having said, Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? God says to him, Certainly I will be with thee. I'll be with thee, Moses. And this shall be a token unto thee that I have sent thee, that thou hast brought forth the people of Egypt. Thou shalt serve God upon this mountain. Exodus 4 in the verse number 12. The Lord said unto him, Moses said in verse 10, Lord, I am not eloquent, neither hereto since thou hast spoken unto thy servant, but I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue. And God says to him, thou therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say. In verse number 19, the Lord said unto Moses in Midian, go, return on to Egypt for all the men that are dead are dead which sought thy life. Words of reassurance from God, divine promises, encouraged Moses to return to Egypt and do the goodwill of God in his life. And beloved, it'll be the word It'll be the Word of God that will ultimately show you what God's will is for your life. And not only that, but it will be that Word that will sustain you in the doing of God's will. How many times did Moses ever have to come back to these promises? I'm sure probably every day. as he listened to, coin a phrase, the gurning and the murmuring and the complaining of God's people as they made their way through this particular land. I'm sure Moses had to return to the promise that was given to him before he even took up the call of God and before he ever yielded to the call of God. I'm sure he came back to the promises. And I tell you, brethren and sisters, that's what sustains your pastor. The promises of God. And that's what'll sustain you. When you come to do the will of God, it'll be the promises of God. You know, it's all good having desire. And it's all good having gifts and abilities. And it's all good even to have opportunities. But you'll need a word from God. you'll need a promise from God. Moses, here's my promise. You're going to come back to this very mountain. You're going to worship here with all of the children of Israel. Can you imagine each plague and each time you went in before Pharaoh and Pharaoh said, no, let my people go, no, let my people go, no. Can you imagine how disheartened that man must have felt? And yet I'm sure he went back to God and he says, Lord, you said that you would bring your people out of Egypt, and you said that we would serve God on this mountain. And I take thee at thy word. The words of God. Not only was the word of God the encouragement to Moses, but a second source of encouragement was the wonders of God, or God's wonders. First, it was the shepherd's rod. which God turned into a serpent, and then it was his hand which God turned leprous. Both of those miracles encouraged, I believe, Moses, that the one who was calling him to return to Egypt was a God who was able to perform the impossible. He was going to do the impossible. just as it would be to throw a stick on the ground and for it to turn into a serpent and for you to put your hand into your coat and for it to come out leprous, such being impossible things that any individual could do. So Moses is being taught that it is the God of the impossible that is sending you forth on a divine mission to do my will. Brother, sister, this is the God we serve. We serve the God of the impossible. Got any rivers you think are uncrossable? Got any mountains you can't tunnel through? God specializes in things thought impossible. He can do what no other can do, the wonders of God. And the wonders of God of the past encourage us in the present God who does the impossible. This is why we go forth in preaching the word. This is why we go forth with the gospel. This is why we hold evangelistic campaigns and missions. This is why we preach the gospel on a Sunday evening. We believe in the God of the impossible, the God of wonders. What greater wonder is there than the wonder of God's salvation? The third source of encouragement came from God's worker. God's worker. You see, God provided Moses with a co-worker, Aaron, for his return visit to Egypt. Aaron was going to be the spokesman for Moses. He felt that he was slow of speech, slow of tongue, and that he was unfit to communicate God's message to Pharaoh in a clear and a concise manner. And so Aaron would be, for the most part, and I say for the most part, he would be an encouragement to God's servant. Thank God for God's people who encourage us along the road. Individuals, brothers, sisters, who encourage us to do the will of God in our lives. With his will now conquered and his father-in-law's blessing, Moses sets off for Egypt. However, one last thing needed to be put right in the private life before he set about doing the will of God in the public arena. You see, the rite of circumcision had not been performed on Moses' son. And so that wrong, had to be rectified speedily. And when it was, Moses was on his way to deliver God's people from the house of bondage. You see, in doing God's will in our lives, it requires consecration. It requires separation onto God on our part. Only then can we come to do the will of God. There must be a putting away, a putting away of that which displeases the Lord. And this was the key, as you can read about that in Exodus chapter 4. This was a very painful experience for the Son, I'm sure. And yet it was necessary, because it's always painful. It's always painful, and yet it's always necessary, as we come to give ourselves to the work of God, there is that need for a consecration, a separation unto God. Oh, may the foreskin of our hearts be circumcised afresh as we come to do the will of God personally and collectively. Moses was reluctant to return to Egypt, and I suppose if I had been in his shoes, so would I. Just imagine what Moses would have missed out on if he had dug his heels in and he had refused to do the will of God and lived out the rest of his days in the backside of the desert. Think of all of the things that he would have missed. He would have not experienced the deliverance of a nation. He would not have sung the song of victory at the Red Sea. He would have never spent 40 days and 40 nights in sweet and blessed communion with God on Mount Sinai. He would have never known the sustaining and the providing hand of God over a 40-year period, and he would have never been given the supreme honor of standing alongside the Lord Jesus Christ in all of his unveiled glory on the Mount of Transfiguration. He would have forfeited it all if he had said no. They've had to refuse to do God's will. How many people have missed out with God because they refuse to do the will of God? And Moses was here today, he would say to those who maybe are reluctant to do God's will, he would say to you, whatsoever he saith to you, do it, do it. Moses has returned to Egypt, saw to the deliverance, to the emancipation of a people who were in bondage and who were in slavery. But did you know that a greater than Moses came to this world? 4,000 years after Moses, and he came on a similar mission because the eternal Son of God came from heaven to earth to deliver a people from the bondage and the slavery of their sin. through His atoning death on the cross of Calvary. God sent a Deliverer in Moses to bring His people out of bondage. God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to deliver His people from the slavery and the bondage of their sins. I wonder, is there someone here today and you're in that bondage and you're in the slavery of sin? Let me tell you about Christ, who is able to set you free, who is able to bring you from that bondage and from that slavery and bring you into gospel freedom, into the freedom that is found in Jesus Christ. Will today you seek his deliverance? Will today you come to him, believe on him, to the salvation of your soul? Today will you repent and believe the gospel? Oh, may today you be brought to that place. God said to Moses, go, return onto Egypt. I have a purpose. I have a plan. I have a mission. and I have you in mind to be the one that I will use to see to the deliverance of my people. It is another of the Bible's great returns. May God help us to go where he would have us to go and do what he would have us to do. May the Lord bless the word of God to our hearts for Christ's sake. Let's bow unitedly in prayer together. Let's seek the Lord. Let's give ourselves again to the Lord, God's people, a fresh act of consecration, putting away of that which is displeasing to the Lord. May God help us to do that just now in the quietness of these moments. Our loving Father, we come to Thee in the Savior's name. O God, we need Thee, O God. We need Thee, O Father, to separate us to Thyself and to do the will of God, as reluctant as we might be, as resistant as we are to it. O God, as we have and prayed out our many excuses, O God, may there be a glad yielding to do the will of God, whatever that will is. May we not look, dear God, at our limitations, May we not, Lord, look at Father, O God, of how little we are, but may we look at the greatness of our God. May we come, Lord, to understand that Thou art able to take up that which is nothing and to use it in Thy service. O may we give ourselves wholeheartedly to the work of God, however short or however long our days may be in this world. May we give ourselves to the work of God. May we not run away from God's will. Lord, may we run to the will of God, and may we understand that it is the good and acceptable, and it is the perfect will of God. And so answer now these, our prayers. Return us to the house of God. We thought about that last Lord's day. Jacob returned with the family to the house of God. May everyone present here this morning, this afternoon, be in the house of God this evening. Lord, may we be in the house where God's name is honored. and where God's praise is sung, and where God's word is preached, and may we not be found elsewhere. Lord, grant, dear Father, a longing for the house of God, but more than that, for the God of the house of God. May God be ever present. May God be ever speaking. Dear, with our hearts we pray, for we offer now these our prayers in and through the great In glorious name of Jesus Christ, amen and amen.