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Why We Worship: Because God Blesses Us | Exodus 1
Have you ever experienced the stirring power of worship, the kind that echoes through your soul and reaffirms your faith? Join us on a transformative journey as we traverse the Exodus narrative, uncovering the essence of worship and the blessings it brings. In our series "Why We Worship," we share personal reflections and stories that illuminate the joy and stability worship introduces into our lives, especially during life's inevitable storms. As we discuss, worship is more than a sacred act; it's a beacon that places God in His rightful position and encourages others to elevate their faith.
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Exodus, chapter 1. Exodus 1, the book of Exodus, is actually my favorite book of the Bible. We're calling this series through the book of Exodus. We'll go through in April and in May. We're calling it why we Worship. Everybody say worship. We love to worship. Worship is a blessing to the people of God and it is a way that we get to bless God of God and it is a way that we get to bless God.
Speaker 1:Over the past couple of days, my wife went to Alabama to spend time with some of her college basketball girlfriends. She played college basketball at the University of Alabama, huntsville, and so they threw her a baby shower this weekend, and so I was with the kids for about 30 hours and we're still alive. Can I get an amen? We all made it, we survived and we're here and she came home and the world is right again. And during that time, while she was gone, a couple things I like to do. One of the things I like to take the kids on a walk, because it passes the time, and so we would get our little stroller wagon and I'd put Cruz in it, put Brooklyn in it, and we would walk throughout the neighborhood, and while we would walk, I would sing one of my favorite worship songs, graves in the Gardens. But I would sing it real low because I didn't want the neighbors to hear me, because they don't want to hear me sing that song. But I would sing it real low and I would sing a line and then Brooklyn would scream the line, okay, and then I would sing a line and she would scream the line. Sing a line, scream a line. One time she is screaming a line and she would scream the line, sing a line, scream a line. One time she is screaming a line, she's up on her knees and she falls face first out of the wagon and almost hits her head on the asphalt and she's literally hanging by her waist on the side of the wagon and I'm thinking mom leaves for 24 hours and we're almost all dead. I mean it's awful, right, and so I get her back up. While we're saying, I get her back up, I sit her back down and she just starts singing all over again like nothing ever happened. What is Cruz doing? He's just clapping. He's just enjoying the show. Right, and it was just so cool.
Speaker 1:You know, there's something about seeing little kids sing and it's amazing how, when we sing, we worship, we bless God, and even when we sing, we'll learn this morning that we go through suffering. But what happens when we go through suffering? That God protects us, that God blesses us so that we can continue to worship him again, now, again. For the believer, worship is not just a have to, it's a get to.
Speaker 1:If you are a child of God, if you've been saved, then the Spirit of God lives inside of you, and the Bible says that the Spirit of God inspires us to worship Him. And worship isn't just singing. Worship Him is giving Him all of us, because he's given us all of Him. It's responding to all that he is with all that you are. One of the number one reasons why you are called to worship is for God. It brings glory to him, it brings blessing to him. He loves it, it brings him joy when you worship him personally. But also it's not just for God, it's for you, because when you worship, it puts God in the rightful place in your life and it puts you in the rightful place in your life as well, but also it's for others. The Bible says that when you worship, not just sing a song, not just sing the lyrics, but when you worship and other people see it. It inspires them to worship God just like you. And so we're going to look at different reasons, different ways, throughout the book of Exodus that the people of God worshiped him even when they went through unbelievably horrible times, and ways that we are called to always worship God, and that way this morning is we worship God because God blesses us. Because God blesses us Now, make no mistake, god is blessing our church. So many of you have been telling me how God is blessing your life through our church, how God is changing you, how you're spiritually growing, what God is doing in you. God is blessing us personally and God is blessing us collectively, such as just this past Sunday.
Speaker 1:Let me just show you this right here our Easter attendance of last Sunday. Our groups attendance. Did you know that we had 115 in our children's ministry last week? Put your hands together for all that God is doing. 115, that's all of our kids and our volunteers. Our student ministry attendance was 41, which means we had over 150 in our next generation ministry. Just last Sunday morning, our adult group attendance was 363. So just last Sunday, our Sunday group attendance was 519. That is great for an Easter Sunday morning. We're very thankful. Our worship attendance for Easter weekend Good Friday in the sanctuary and in here we had 340 people come to worship Jesus. Just on Good Friday In our 930 service with our choir and orchestra and everybody there was 433. In here we had 366. So our total Easter worship attendance for the whole weekend was 1,139. Put your hands together for the way that God is moving and God is working.
Speaker 1:Now for those that might be thinking oh, pastor Chip, those are just numbers. We're not all about the numbers. I want you to know you are exactly right. We are not about the numbers here. We're not about the numbers. Why? Because we're not trying to be a big church. We want to be a biblical church. Can I get an amen? We do not want to be a mega church, but we want to be a missional church. Can I get an amen? We want to be a missional church. Can I get an amen? We want to be a healthy church. We want to be a growing church. It is not about a target size, a target number. It is about reaching our community for Jesus, and there's a lot of community to reach. And so please hear me when we say that we're not about the numbers. But every number represents a name and every name represents a life and every life represents an eternity. And so we believe that when we track things like this and we celebrate things like this, that we get to see how God is multiplying us, how God is growing us, both spiritually but also collectively together as a church.
Speaker 1:So I want you to look at Exodus, chapter 1, why we worship. And we see we worship because God blesses us. Because God blesses us In Exodus, chapter 1, the first point I want you to see this morning is how does God bless us? Number one is this that God blesses you for his mission. God blesses you for his mission. Let me show you this in Exodus. It says in Exodus, chapter 1, verse 1, these are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household.
Speaker 1:Now let me just show you something real quick. First of all, let me circle this word names. Names means. Did you know that the Hebrews, the Jews, the Israelites, they would call the book of Exodus the book of names because of this verse. Why God puts names in the Bible? Because names are important to God. Names are important to God, because people are important to God. You are important to God. God knows your name. God knows your family's names. God knows your neighbor's names. God knows every single person's name in our surrounding community in metro Atlanta and the eight billion people in the world. God knows each of us by names. Why Names matter to God? Because people matter to God, and so we see here a book of names. But also we see here that it was the names of the sons of Israel. Everyone say Israel.
Speaker 1:This is fascinating to me that out of the four patriarchs of the Bible you ever thought about this Four patriarchs of the Bible Abraham, isaac, jacob and Joseph that God chose for his people to be known by Israel. Who is Israel? It was Jacob, the deceiver, the heel grabber, the trickster. He was the most rebellious, the most sinful one of them all and God changed his life and changed his name to Israel. And God chose to have his people known by the most rebellious one of all. That God changed his life. I don't know about you, but that's given me hope for my life. I was a little rebel growing up. There might be some other little rebels in here. I heard a pastor say one time if you really want to be a rebel, don't rebel against God. He said everybody's doing that. That's not any fun. If you really want to be a rebel, rebel against sin, because nobody's doing that. If you really want to be a rebel, rebel against sin, because nobody's doing that, if you really want to be a rebel.
Speaker 1:So we see here that God is blessing us for his mission using the names. But also we see here it says he actually lists the names that we're talking about. We see Reuben, simeon, levi these are the 12 tribes of Israel Judah, issachar, zebulun, benjamin, dan, naphtali, gad and Asher. And if you're ever in a Bible study or someone asks you to read the Old Testament, let me teach you something very important. And you don't know how to pronounce the name, just read it loud and proud, like you know what you're talking about, and everybody will think you do okay, just fake it till you make it, because they don't know either. So here's all the names of the 12 tribes of Israel. And the descendants of Jacob were 70 persons.
Speaker 1:Joseph was already in Egypt. This is why let me tell you why this is mind-blowing. This is amazing because it all started back with Abraham, one man that God called, and God said I'm going to make you into a father of a great nation. And God looked at Abraham and God said I'm going to bless you and I am going to bring a family about from you. And we are starting to see that family begin to flourish and begin to multiply.
Speaker 1:We are seeing here, in Exodus 1, the promises of God being fulfilled. As we continue on here, it says, oh, we're not moving, we're not moving, here we go. It says Reuben, simeon, levi, uh, dan, we just, we just did that one. Very good, all right, let's keep going. Then Joseph died and all of his brothers and all of that generation. You know what that tells. You See, when we think about Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, who became Israel and Joseph, sometimes we think about these spiritual giants in the Bible. Sometimes we think about those spiritual giants in our life, whether it might be a grandparent or a parent or a best friend or a pastor or a teacher or a mentor, and that person passes away. Hear me, sometimes we wonder whether the blessing of God is going to continue. And God placed this verse very strategically in the Bible to say this that while God uses people for his blessing, god's blessing doesn't stop with people. Can I get an amen that God's blessing, the Bible says, goes from generation to generation.
Speaker 1:Ephesians, chapter 3, verse 21, says that that God would be glorified through Jesus and his church through all generations. And so what God is showing is is that God is the author of his blessing. God is the author of fulfilling his promises, it says. But the people of Israel were fruitful and they increased greatly and they multiplied and they grew exceedingly so strong that the land was filled with them. I've got to show you this because this is one of my favorite verses in Exodus, one of my favorite verses in all the Bible. We see here that they were fruitful. We see here that they were fruitful and we see here that they multiplied, and we see here that they were fruitful. We see here that they were fruitful and we see here that they multiplied, and we see here that they were filling the land. Now hear me. Genesis, chapter one, verse 28,. That you'll see here in a second.
Speaker 1:All the way back to the beginning, the first chapter of the Bible says this. It says that God blessed them. So this is all of humanity, this is me, this is you, this is us. He blessed us so that we may be fruitful, that we may multiply and that we may fill the earth. And I wanna show you through the Bible how he continues to work this out. Check this out. It says this Genesis 128,. God blessed them and he said to them be fruitful, fruitful and multiply, and to fill the earth'". In other words, you experience God's blessing when you experience God's fruitfulness, spiritual fruitfulness, when you're growing in godliness, when you're growing in Christlikeness. I want to show you throughout Scripture how God makes his people fruitful and he multiplies us, throughout all of Scripture.
Speaker 1:It says in Genesis 15, five. He brought him outside, abraham, and he told Abraham look toward the heaven and number the stars if you're able to number them. In other words, you can't even number them. Astronomers tell us that there are 200 billion trillion stars. I don't even know what that number means. Then he said to him so shall your offspring be. In other words, abraham, your offspring is going to be innumerable, so many that they can't even be counted by a human being.
Speaker 1:Exodus 1-7,. We just saw that the people were fruitful, coming out of Abraham's family, increased, multiplied, they filled the land. We see in Exodus 12-37,. This is crazy. It went from 70 people and the people of Israel were about 600,000 men. Twelve chapters later, god turned 70 people into 600,000 men, not even counting the women and the children. This is the promise of God being fulfilled. This is the blessing of God. This is what God loves to do. And then Jesus said in Matthew 28,. He said go, he is blessing us.
Speaker 1:And then Jesus said in Matthew 28,. He said go, he is blessing us. Remember he says before that he was giving us his authority. He says go and I want you to make disciples. Disciples that is being fruitful in Jesus Christ, the follower of Jesus. To make them is to multiply of all nations. That is the way that we are involved, hear, in filling the earth, in filling the land, that we are doing our part in spreading the gospel. And here's what is amazing that in the book of acts it says that jesus disciples the book of acts went from 120 to over 5 000 in just four chapters. That was the work and that was the power of the Holy Spirit. That wasn't how great they were, that was the greatness of God that he was showing them.
Speaker 1:And then we see in the book of Revelation, we see after this, john said I looked and behold a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages standing before. In other words, abraham's promise was not fulfilled in the next generation, the Exodus, abraham's promise is fulfilled in heaven, that God showed Abraham the stars you can't even count them innumerable and that God said there's such a great multitude wrapped around the throne of Jesus that no one could number. So here's what we see. We see in Genesis 128 that it says and God blessed them and God made them fruitful, and God multiplied them so that they could fill the earth. We see in Exodus 1 that God was blessing them. We see that God was making them fruitful. The Bible said we see that God was multiplying them. Why? So they could fill the earth.
Speaker 1:I want to break this down very quickly for us this morning because I think this is bigger than we could ever imagine to our lives. I think this is bigger than we could ever imagine to the Bible. We see, first of all, the word blessed means bara. Everyone say bara. Blessed means bara. Say bara. You're getting a Hebrew lesson this morning. You didn't know you could speak Hebrew. You're already speaking in tongues. Up in here, let Barah. You're getting a Hebrew lesson this morning. You didn't know you could speak Hebrew. You're already speaking in tongues up in here. Let's go All right. Blessed means barah. What does blessed mean? Blessed means God's favor on your life for his praise from your life. Blessed means God's favor on your life for his praise from your life. So when we think about being blessed, let me just go back here for a second. When we think about being blessed, let me just go back here for a second.
Speaker 1:When we think about being blessed, first of all, your blessing. God's blessing on your life is him, is him and you always have him. So therefore he's always blessing you. There's nothing that he could bless you with that is better than him. He is the best blessing. You get him the ultimate blessing at your salvation. You get the Father, you get the Son, you get the Holy Spirit, you get the whole package, and so he blesses you. He blesses you in your salvation. The Bible also says that he blesses you in your obedience. He loves to just bless his children who are saved. But I believe that there are blessings that are reserved for the times that we obey him. He loves to barah you. He loves to bless you.
Speaker 1:The greatest blessings that we get to go through as a church is when we get to see our family members saved, when we get to see our neighbors saved, when we get to see our classmates saved, our coworkers saved. There is no greater blessing in church than to see life change, people saved and people baptized. Can I get an amen? We had two people that were scheduled to be baptized last Sunday, a first grader and a fifth grader. They got baptized. Can I get an amen? We had two people that were scheduled to be baptized last Sunday, a first grader and a fifth grader. They got baptized. And then one of our teenagers said during the baptism I want to be baptized. And she got baptized. At the end of the service spontaneously Put your hands together for the way that God moves, that God works and that God blesses.
Speaker 1:To be blessed is to bara, but also to be fruitful is para. Everyone say para, para, fruitful, fruitful is this Fruitful in the Bible? At times it can mean having lots of kids, but ultimately the fruitfulness in the Bible is our spiritual growth, our spiritual growth. Jesus called it the fruit of the spirit. Aren't you thankful he didn't call it the vegetables of the spirit? How lame would that be. I mean, you don't look at a vegetable garden and just think, wow, that's really flourishing. No, it's fruit. What is fruit? Fruit is nutritious and fruit is delicious. You can't say that about vegetables. Fruit is nutritious and fruit is delicious. You can't say that about vegetables. Fruit is nutritious and fruit is delicious.
Speaker 1:In other words, when you are growing in spiritual fruitfulness, you grow from God's blessing on your life. As God blesses you, you respond in worship. And as you respond in worship, then God puts a desire in you to get into his word, to get in prayer, to continue consistently with his church, to get into a group, to be a part of a class. Why? Because God wants to bless you not just in one way. God's got more blessings for you than that. God wants to bless you in many different ways and the more that he blesses you and the more that he pours into you, the more that you spiritually and fruitfully grow in him in godliness and Christlikeness. Can I get an amen so he barahs you, so that you can parah and then to multiply, which is ravah.
Speaker 1:Everyone say ravah To multiply. Multiply, which is revah. Everyone say revah To multiply. See, god blesses you hear me so that then you can grow in fruitfulness and spiritual growth and godliness. Why? Because when God is pouring into you. You can't help but pour into others. You can't help it. It's not even just natural, it's supernatural. It's what the Holy Spirit does through you. It's what the believer does. We pour into other people, and so God has you here for your fruitfulness, but God also has you here for those that you know that are not yet here. God has you here for your fruitfulness, for your spiritual growth, but God has you here for those that you know who are not yet here. He is calling you to spiritually multiply, to revive.
Speaker 1:I can't wait for the day that our sanctuary service multiplies into two services because of all the growth that is happening up on the hill there in the sanctuary. I can't wait until the day that God grows this service to the extent that we've got to start a new CLC service, worship band driven service, so that we can multiply this service. I love it when groups multiply, when groups grow and say you know what? This group is not about us, it's not about just the teacher. This group is about multiplying and one group becomes two groups and then two groups become four groups and groups multiply. That is God's strategy, for biblical growth is when we multiply. I love seeing our ministries multiply. One ministry that is multiplying right now is our hospitality ministry. Sherry Sutherland is over it.
Speaker 1:If you're looking for a ministry to serve in, I believe that everyone that is called to a church is called to minister in that church, to serve Jesus in their church. If you're not yet serving in a ministry, this is honestly the ministry that you wanna be a part of. You can turn the Next Step card to the back and you can just put hospitality ministry and we'll reach out to you. We'll give you more information. The hospitality ministry and we'll reach out to you. We'll give you more information. The hospitality ministry is the way that we welcome people as they drive onto their campus, onto our campus. The way that we greet them is the way they're walking across our parking lot, the way that we love on them when they're walking into our buildings, and the way that we want to make them feel loved and welcomed and wanted and invited invited, because that's the way that God wants them to feel and he uses us to make them feel that way. Can I get an amen? Our hospitality ministry. I want to encourage you, if you're not serving, grab a next step card and just write on the top hospitality and put your name on the front side so we know who you are. Okay, hospitality ministry.
Speaker 1:We want to multiply, we wanna multiply. We want to multiply revah In the next. I want you to see this All for the purpose. This is all working together so that we can fill malah. Everyone say malah, so we can fill. What does it mean to fill the earth? It means to accomplish the mission. What is the mission? The great commission? It's the spread of the gospel. It's that God is using our lives for more than our lives. In other words, what God wants to do to you, he wants to do through you. What God wants to do in you, he wants to do through you. See, god, he sees you as a missionary, as someone that he loves you, so he blesses you and he makes you fruitful in godliness and he wants to multiply you. Why? Because when you put all of that together, then we get to fill the land.
Speaker 1:I can't wait for the day that we are all involved we're all involved in local missions, to where we just get to serve our community. We get to reach out and just love the people and the businesses and the schools and the establishments of our local community. I can't wait for the day that we get to start taking mission trips to other nations. We have four missionaries overseas from our church that are serving and we need to get to them just to go and encourage them and love on them. Can I get an amen? We need to get to them just to go and encourage them and love on them. Can I get an amen? We gotta get to them just to love on them, because God has called them out there to be by themselves and we can't leave them alone. We gotta pray for them, we gotta encourage them, we gotta reach out to them. We've got to go to them.
Speaker 1:God has blessed us to bara, to para, to ravaah, to Malah, and I believe that, from what I understand, the Israelites' favorite drink was coffee, which in Hebrew is Javah. That's a joke. It is not Javah. It's not Java, it's not. But thank you for sticking with me. You're like some of y'all were writing that down. You're like I never knew that that Javah is Hebrew. That's not true. But here's what I do want you to see. I want you to see that they rhyme. Genesis 128,. I want you to see that it rhymes. We're starting to see it fulfilled in Exodus 1-7. Why does it rhyme? Because I believe that God wrote it as a poem for his people to memorize, and he wanted them to memorize it because he wants this to be our life song. He wants this to be our anthem, he wants this to be our purpose, he wants this to be our mission. He wants people to be here because of you, because of the way that you invest in them and you influence them and you impact them.
Speaker 1:I'm amazed how, just a few weeks ago that I took my family to Papacito's, one of our favorite restaurants, god created Papacito's on the eighth day. It's just unbelievable, man, we love it. And we were there. And I text Will Burke. Afterwards. I said, hey, we're leaving Papacito's. It was his birthday. I was wishing him happy birthday. He said, oh, that's great, we're going to Papacito's or we're at Papacito's now. And we had just left. We didn't even see him right, and we're thinking, man, that's crazy. We were in the same place at the same time. And he said you won't believe this, but Allen Davis and his family are at the First Baptist Powder Springs right there this week, my family, we do a little staycation, spring break, and so Monday we go to the Georgia Aquarium. We're standing in line at the Georgia Aquarium guest services. Somebody turns around. Maybe you're in here. I'm trying to remember your name. I apologize. This is the first time we had met. You turned around and you said really enjoyed the services. On Sunday it was somebody from First Baptist, powder Springs, right in line, right there.
Speaker 1:I go to Scottish Rite, take Brooklyn to Scottish Rite Hospital in Atlanta on Tuesday and while I'm there she's doing her therapy, robotic therapy and everything for cerebral palsy. And I'm getting on the elevator I turn around and there is Jared Robinson, bo and Cindy Smith's son-in-law, because their grandson James was having surgery in the hospital and he and Jared and Amber and James were right there. And there we are, first Baptist, powder Springs, all right there in Scottish Rite we go to Fern Bank. If anybody ever told me to go to Fern Bank I'd think I don't need to see a bunch of ferns. It has nothing to do with ferns. I need you to understand that it's a really cool museum. We go to Fern Bank on Thursday and we run into Brandon and Caitlin Graham and all of their boys Well, not all two of their boys. They have two boys and they're two boys.
Speaker 1:First Baptist. I'm just saying y'all are everywhere, y'all are all over the place. And we're running into First Baptist Church, powder Springs people all the time, all the time. And I would encourage y'all, be careful the way you act in public, because there's First Baptist, powder Springs people everywhere. Y'all are all over the place, y'all are all over. We love seeing people. One of our favorite places is Texas Roadhouse. We love going to Texas Roadhouse. We see a lot of y'all in Texas Roadhouse.
Speaker 1:Your pastor's a steak guy. I love to eat a steak and so I'm the dad. I let our one and a half year old Cruz just run around Texas Railroad. All the waiters and waitresses know him now, so he just runs around. He was running around one day and this little girl said hey, little boy, give me a five. Boom, he gives her a five, turns around, boom, gives the waitress a five. But she wasn't sticking out for a five, she was bending over. He just high-fived right on her bottom, just boom, right there she stands up, looks at me. I said no, ma'am, no, ma'am, that was not me, that was him. Watch the tape, so little boy. But we see y'all everywhere we go.
Speaker 1:Why? Because God has called us to fill the land. Can I get an amen? He's called us to fill the land. But also I want you to see this that when God blesses you, satan loves to make you suffer. When God blesses you, satan loves to make you suffer. I'm gonna say this quickly We've talked about before that when we suffer, god loves to bless us.
Speaker 1:But I need you to hear me say that God blesses us to be fruitful, to multiply and to fill the earth. And when we do, when we start experiencing that, satan wants to make you suffer. Why? Because he wants to hold you down. He wants to hold you back, he wants to depress you, he wants to cast doubt into you and discouragement and questions. He wants you to quit because he knows the secret to the spread of the gospel is God blessing you and you growing in fruitfulness and you multiplying so that we fill the earth, and Satan doesn't want any part of it. And so what does he do? He makes you suffer, but hear me, god blesses you to suffer for him. How do we suffer? We suffer biblically, worshipfully, hopefully and prayerfully.
Speaker 1:Notice, now there arose a new king over Egypt, a new Pharaoh, who did not know Joseph, and he said to his people. Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply and if war breaks out, they will join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land. Therefore, they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. This is an old trick by the devil. God is blessing us. You are growing, we are growing, we're seeing the goodness of God.
Speaker 1:There is no question, hear me, that you and we, we're going to experience some suffering in the midst of all of this. And you have to establish in your spiritual mind, in your heart, that it's not because that God isn't good and it's not because that God isn't in control. It's because that Satan is trying to stop it, because the last thing he wants you to do is to be fruitful. The last thing he wants you to do is to pour your life into other people. The last thing he wants us to do is to pour your life into other people. The last thing he wants us to do is to work together as one and to go and to fill the land and spread the gospel. And we see that Jesus said. He told us in John 16, 33, he said in the world, you will have tribulation. But take heart, I have overcome the world. You know it's interesting that when God blesses us, that Satan loves to make us suffer. But hear me, when we suffer by the hand of Satan, hear me, god loves to bring about our blessing. So what do we do when we start suffering at the hand of Satan? Number three we fear God. We fear God. God blesses you to fear him. What suffering are you going through? What's happening in your life? Someone trying to intimidate you? Is someone trying to threaten you? Are you worried, if you follow Jesus in a certain situation, that a bad outcome is going to come your way? Watch what happens.
Speaker 1:The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, of whom there was one named Shiphrah and the other Pua If you're looking for baby names, these are available. They're not taken when you serve as midwife. Pharaoh said to these midwives of the Hebrews when you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool if it is a son, if it is a boy, you shall kill him. The Hebrews. When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool if it is a son, if it is a boy, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live. But the midwives feared God. They didn't fear evil. They didn't fear the suffering. They didn't fear the pain. They didn't fear the pain. They didn't fear the threat. They didn't fear the government. They didn't fear the temptation. They didn't even fear the outcome. They feared God. They obeyed God in their threatening. They feared God. They obeyed God in their threatening. They feared God. They did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the male children live.
Speaker 1:Here's what I need you to see that when you go through suffering, when we go through blessing and Satan wants us to suffering he's going to go after you, but he's also going to go after our kids. When the blessing of God is on the people of God, he's going to go after the people of God, but he's also going to go after the next generation. And if Satan is going after the next generation, let me tell you what we do. We have to go after the next generation even harder, as he is trying to hold them down and hold them back. We have got to disciple and we've got to train them up. Can I get an amen?
Speaker 1:And right now we are experiencing incredible growth, as I told you about earlier, in our children's ministry. But, to be honest with you, our volunteer base is not growing along with our children. We're getting a lot more kids in but we're not, with the volunteer bases not being able to keep up with all the kids, which means that I pray that many of you step up today and say Satan is after the next generation. How can I go after them? For Jesus? All the more. And you could serve in our children's ministry. We have our Kid Venture Extreme, which is like our Vacation Bible School coming up June 3 through 7 this summer and right now we are taking registrations for volunteers. This is one of the biggest weeks we will have, if not the biggest week we'll have in all of children's ministry all year long. It's like a mission trip for you that you just get to pour into the kids of our church and the kids of our community and you can register online or you can just write on that next step card. I want to serve in the children's ministry. I want to serve in kid venture extreme.
Speaker 1:We see in our student ministry. What's going on there is we have our weekend 24 coming up the last weekend of april. I want to encourage you to get our teenagers signed up, our 6th through 12th graders. It's the best weekend that they will have all year long just $60. You don't even have to tell them you signed them up, just sign them up, drive them here on that Friday. We'll take care of them from there. It's going to be awesome. We are working right now on just enhancing our student ministry. We're working on securing a new student room in our CLC for our student ministry. May 1, they'll start worshiping here on Wednesday nights Because why we want to give the next generation the best we have.
Speaker 1:Can I get an amen? Because the world's going after them, satan's going after them, but he can't have them Because God created them, jesus died for them, the Holy Spirit is calling them and it's our job to disciple them. Can I get an amen? And here is how this passage ends.
Speaker 1:The king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them why have you done this and let the boys live? The midwives said to the Pharaoh have you seen these Hebrew women? They're not like you Egyptian women, for the Hebrew women are vigorous I love that word, vigorous. They give birth before the midwife even gets to them. So hear me. So God dwelt well with the midwives and the people multiplied and grew very strong, and because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. In other words, when God blesses you, Satan's going to try and make you suffer.
Speaker 1:What do we do? We fear God. And as we fear God, as you fear God, what do you do? You experience spiritual fruitfulness. And as God pours himself into you, you pour yourself into others and we multiply and we spiritually grow and we grow as a church, all for the purpose that we can fill the land, we can fill the community, we can fill the world, all the more for the spreading of the gospel and the glory of Jesus Christ. Let's all bow our heads and close our eyes. Every head bowed and every eye closed.
Speaker 1:I just wanna ask you this morning what is that area of your life that you need God to make you all the more fruitful, that you need to spiritually grow all the more? I want to encourage you to pray about that. Who are people's names and faces that God is putting in your mind and on your heart right now, when you think about reaching people for Jesus? Who do you need to go and serve this week, minister to them this week. Just talk about the name of Jesus with them or invite them to church this week. Who is that in your life that God can use you to reach them for Jesus?
Speaker 1:How is Satan making you suffer right now that he wants your eyes off Jesus? How is Satan making you suffer right now that he wants your eyes off Jesus. He wants your heart away from him. And in what way do you need to fear God? To fear God above all things, to fear God above all else. And maybe you're here this morning and you know that you're not experiencing any of this because you haven't started at the beginning, the blessing that you haven't received the blessing of God because you haven't given your life to him. God wants to give you all of him. So you must give God all of you, and this morning he will save you, he will forgive you and he will be your God today.
Speaker 1:And I can't save you and I can't pray this prayer for you, but in this moment, right now, I can lead you through this prayer to give your life to him. And you can pray this right here. Right now, you can say God, I love you, god, I need you and God, I pray in Jesus' name. I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sins. I believe, and so I'm asking you to forgive me of all my sin. I believe he didn't stay dead. I believe that he rose from the dead. I believe that he's coming back again. And so, god, I call on Jesus to be the Lord of my life, to be my God, to be my Savior, and I pray and I ask all these things in Jesus' name. And all God's people said, and all God's people said, and all God's people said Put your hands together. The Bible says that heaven rejoices every time that someone gets saved.
Speaker 1:This morning, let's all stand together and if that was you, you can grab a Next Step card. You can indicate on the card that you gave your life to Jesus. Maybe you've been saved and you need to be baptized. Maybe, as we talked about earlier, you gave your life to Jesus. Maybe you've been saved and you need to be baptized. Maybe, as we talked about earlier, you need to join a group. Maybe you need to join a ministry. Maybe you need to do one of many different things that's indicated on there. Maybe you need to come and talk to me this morning After the service. I'll be right here. You can come and talk to me if you want to join the church or anything like that. We are here for you. We want you to experience the blessing of God, the fruitfulness of God, so you can be on the mission of God. Let's all sing and give God all the praise and all the glory to him right now.