Finding God In Your Desert

As someone has said, life's not a bed of roses. Indeed, even beds of roses have their thorns, and life, for all too many of us, is hard. The pressures are numerous—physical, economic, relational, and even spiritual—as we begin to doubt that God cares for us.

We're not promised an easy pathway. Even as Jesus walked a road of suffering, we too are called to rely on God for sustaining grace through times of trial and deprivation. From Chicago, this is The Moody Church Hour, a weekly service of worship and teaching under the ministry of Dr. Erwin Lutzer.

Today, you'll hear the first of two messages on what happens when life is hard. Later in our program, Erwin Lutzer will turn to Exodus chapter 2 with the story of Moses in his desert and us in ours. Pastor Lutzer comes now to open today's service. So let's take a moment to simply silence our hearts. Let us give ourselves to the Lord. Let's ask the Lord to open our hearts today. That as we sing together and pray together and listen together, that this above all may be a time when God is glorified, when His name is exalted, and when our lives are changed, having been in His presence. Would you join me, please, as we pray? God of grace and God of glory, on your people pour your power. We desire that and we ask that you will make us clean vessels so that that power can indeed be poured upon us. Even as we sing this prayer, we ask your blessing upon our time together. In Jesus' blessed name, we pray.

Amen. God of grace and God of glory, on thy people pour thy power. While thy ancient church is soaring, we are but a new glorious town. Let us visit, let us merit, for the fixing of this town, for the fixing of this town. Good thy children, soaring at this, and are prior to thy control, we are bound in selfish patterns, rich in gifts and poor in soul. Let us visit, let us merit, lest we miss thy kingdom's call, lest we miss thy kingdom's call. Set our feet on lofty places, burn our lives that they believe.

Hark, the hill of Christ's light races, in the fight to set them free. Let us visit, let us merit, that we feel the memory, that we feel the memory. I invite you to follow along with me in your bulletin as we read together selections from Psalm 90.

Please read aloud with me on the bold print. This is God's holy word. Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.

Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. You return man to dust and say, return, O children of man, for a thousand years in your sight are but yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night. For we are brought to an end by your anger, by your wrath we are dismayed.

You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. For all our days pass away under your wrath. We bring our years to an end like a sigh. Years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty, yet their span is but toil and trouble.

They are soon gone and we fly away. So teach us to number our days so that we may get a heart of wisdom. Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Let your work be shown to your servants and your glorious power to their children. Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us and establish the work of our hands upon us.

Yes, establish the work of our hands. To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. In you I trust, O my God. Do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me.

Show me your ways and teach me your paths. Guide me in truth, lead me not, for you're my God. You are my Savior. My hope is in you each moment of the day. No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame. That's why my eyes are on you, O Lord.

Surround me, teeth and me, O how I need you. To you I lift up my soul. To you I lift up my soul. To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. In you I trust, O my God. Do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me.

Show me your ways and teach me your paths. Guide me in truth, lead me not, for you're my God. You are my Savior. My hope is in you each moment of the day. No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame. That's why my eyes are on you, O Lord.

Surround me, teeth and me, O how I need you. To you I lift up my soul. To you I lift up my soul. Remember, Lord, your mercy and love that ever flowed from above.

Remember not the sins of my youth or my relentless ways. According to your love, remember me. According to your love, for you are my God. No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame. That's why my eyes are on you, O Lord.

Surround me, teeth and me, O how I need you. To you I lift up my soul. To you I lift up my soul. No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame. That's why my eyes are on you, O Lord.

Surround me, teeth and me, O how I need you. To you I lift up my soul. To you I lift up my soul. Be thou my vision, overwhelm my heart. God be all else to thee, state that thou art. Thou my restful, my day o'er my life.

Making or sleeping, my presence my light. Be thou my wisdom, let thou my truth burn. I am earth with thee and thou with me, O Lord. Thou my great Father, thy virgin Son. Thou with me, love me, when I am free, O Lord. The riches I heed not for man's empty praise. Thou my inheritance, thou and always.

Thou and thou only, first in my heart. I read of heaven, my treasure far. I read of heaven, my victory far. May I reach heaven, joyful bright and star. Heart of my own heart, Lord, and only heart. Still be my vision, O Lord.

Still be my vision, O Lord. I'm going to ask now that you as a congregation simply look at your bulletin, and we're going to pray together the Lord's Prayer that is listed there. You may do that as we think about how Jesus taught us to pray.

Can we pray it together? Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen. Now you conclude this prayer by saying, Lord, I am Yours.

Hear us, Father, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Praise him of the heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Amen. It was Henry Thoreau who said that most people live lives of quiet desperation and die with a song still in them. And I suppose the song that they die with is one of hopelessness. They had such high hopes for themselves, for their marriage, for their life. And then as the bitter disappointments come, because life is hard, they die as they lived with a song in their heart. Life is hard.

I was going to use a number of different illustrations, but today I'll use only one. That's a letter that we received about a week ago from a couple whom I had the privilege of marrying many years ago. The wife has had breast cancer, so she had surgery, is recovering from that. Then she was hospitalized a month ago for pneumonia. She also has a disk missing, so she is in a great deal of pain.

That's the wife. They have two children, one of whom lost his job, so his house is in foreclosure. The other one has had several health issues, having to go to the hospital for surgeries. Now, in the midst of all this, they have a mother-in-law living with them, and she has dementia and needs care 24-7. And then to top it off, they discovered recently that there is a big crack in the foundation of their house that they have to look into and take care of. All in the midst of financial issues and what have you. Life is hard.

I could tell you the story of someone who wrote a letter to me about a week ago, a woman. Her husband dies, she's in financial need, and then her son commits suicide, and she has to go through all that now alone. Life is hard. Before I began this series, I knew that James MacDonald had a book entitled Life is Hard. I didn't know that it was exactly the same title as this series of messages, When Life is Hard. I've not read James' book, but I understand it's very good, and so I commend it to you.

And next week, I'm going to tell you about a book that I did read that will help me, especially in the sermon next week in this two-part series. The idea of speaking on the topic, When Life is Hard, I have to give credit to my wife, Rebecca. I was going to speak on something entirely different, and she said, No, people are going through so much heartache, they are hurting so much. Life is hard.

I said, yeah, life is hard, so that's going to be what I will speak on as we begin this short series, because life is hard. Take your Bibles and turn today to Exodus chapter 1. Exodus chapter 1, and there we discover that for the Israelites, life was very hard. Actually, it's Exodus chapter 1, and I thought I had it here immediately.

You'll notice that in Exodus chapter 1, I'm going to pick it up just at verse 12. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. It's talking about the Israelites. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel, so they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their lives bitter with hard work and mortar and brick and all kinds of work in the field. In all their work, they ruthlessly made them work as slaves. You think you've got employment problems? You don't like your employer?

You are overworked and underpaid? Imagine these Israelites working from early in the morning till later, and in the next message, I'll show you how much they had to work. And they worked as slaves.

Was God there? Today, we're going to look at a story in the midst of this pitiful situation, and that is of Moses. Now, Moses, as you know, was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. You know how he became next to Pharaoh, and you know the story of how he grew up in Pharaoh's court. In fact, he'd have studied hieroglyphics and a whole lot of other subjects.

He was very well educated. Josephus said that when the Ethiopians came against Egypt, it was Moses who led the troops to a victory for Egypt. When he floated down the Nile, it would have been to the strains of some beautiful music. And now suddenly, this child of luxury and fashion decides that he can't simply stay in the palace and watch his people suffer. So the Bible says in chapter 2 now, verse 11, one day when Moses had grown up, he went out to see his people. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. He looked that way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hit him in the sand. When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together. And one said to the person in the wrong, he said, Why do you strike your companion?

He answered, Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian? And Moses was afraid and thought, Surely this thing has become known. When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midia and sat down beside a well.

And we could say, yuck, unending gravel, heat, nowhere to go. Think of what Moses lost. He lost his position in the palace with all of the perks. He lost the power that he had. He lost all the potential, all of that training for nothing.

He's sitting there in the desert with nowhere to go. For him, life was hard. But, you know, it's during the hard times that we really do learn the lessons that we really need to know. In fact, success is a very poor teacher. Failure and suffering is actually the best teacher. So we're going to look at some lessons that Moses learned in the desert. And then what we're going to do is to see why all of this should transform us.

Beginning tomorrow, we should look at life differently. First of all, Moses had to learn the lesson of servanthood, the lesson of servanthood. It says in verse 16, Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father's flock. The shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and saved them and watered their flock. When they came home to their father Ruel, he said, How is it that you've come home so soon today? They said, An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds. And then, you know, he says, Have him come. And he came, and Moses, verse 21, was content to live with him.

And he even married one of Ruel's daughters. Now, in the midst of this, he had to learn the lesson of servanthood. Here he was, and these young women are trying to water their flock, and he helps them. They didn't know that they were in the presence of greatness. Moses is going to have to serve in obscurity, and he will serve in obscurity for 40 long years.

This man, who was so well educated, the most intelligent conversation he will have for 40 years is, Ah, that'll be it. There he is, serving in obscurity, but also serving in humility. We don't understand this text unless we realize that it says at the end of Genesis that the shepherds were an abomination unto the Egyptians. We're not talking about any job. We're talking about a job that Moses' culture considered to be the most lowly, the most gruesome in many respects, and the one that was most despised. And God said, For 40 years, that's what you're going to be doing.

Wow. Serving in obscurity, serving in humility, Moses learned a couple of things. That when you're going through a hard time, it is very important to be willing to do absolutely anything. Moses couldn't wait around for a job that was up to his potential. There was no way that he could say to himself, I am very much overqualified for this job, and so it's not me.

No, when you are desperate and when times are hard, you do anything that you can do that lies before you, whether it is in keeping with your aptitude and gifting or not. Imagine Moses, all of his training, all of his aptitude lies in one direction, and all of his work has to be in another. Do you think he ever got used to it?

I don't think so. He has a son and he names him Gershom, and Gershom means I'm a foreigner in a strange land. But he's committed there for 40 years and doesn't think that anything will ever change. There's another lesson that he learned in terms of the servanthood. When you're going through a hard time, you need other people. Imagine Moses in the middle of a desert without a family to take him in.

What's he to do? And during hard times, what God teaches us is that we need one another. The woman who is going through a time of huge trial with the death of her husband and the suicide of her son needs the support and the prayer and the hope that is given to her by others within the church. Even financially here at Moody Church, we try to do what we can to help one another.

We can't do everything, and that's always a challenge. But when you're going through a hard time, you need the community of God. There's a second lesson that Moses learned, and that is the lesson of trust.

Now your Bibles are open. You'll notice it says in verse 23, during those many days. Years ago, I think I multiplied 365 times 40. Thank God for pocket calculators.

You know, I've always said, as long as I'm right 90% of the time, who cares about the other 5%? So here we do the math, and we discover it's about 14,600 days. Forty years by any stretch is a long time. But was God doing anything in those period of time? Was God working or did he simply abdicate responsibility? No, and if you're in the habit of underlining your Bible, you might want to underline in verse 24 and 25. Underline the verbs. Remember what a verb is? And the Lord heard their groaning. He wasn't deaf after all. And the Lord remembered his covenant. Sometimes we keep reminding God of things as if he might forget them, but God doesn't forget.

And he doesn't know yesterday a lot better than he does 20 years ago or 100 years ago. I'm sure that it has dawned on you that nothing has ever dawned on God. And so God here is remembering, he's hearing, and he is seeing the people of Israel. He was seeing those slaves. Now next week I'm going to talk about how those slaves had to see even that calling from God.

But God is doing something. You know, what does God do when you're in the desert? I think everybody has a desert experience of some kind. Israel was in the desert. Moses is in the desert.

Jesus is in the desert. I've been in the desert. You know what the desert is. The desert is a time of monotony when nothing seems to be happening.

And the other characteristic of a desert is hopelessness because every day is just like the one before it and nothing ever changes. That's the desert when times are hard. What is God doing in the desert? Does he abandon us in the desert?

You know, it says in the book of Deuteronomy, a very interesting passage about Israel being in the desert. It says he found them in a desert land in the howling waste of the wilderness. He encircled him. He cared for him.

He kept them as the apple of his eye. God was watching. Like an eagle that stirs up its nest that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions. God says, I was with you there in the desert. I was walking with you during the times when you didn't have water and when you needed food.

I did not forget you during your hard time. You know, the imagery of an eagle. I understand that when eagles build a nest, of course, they use sharp branches and sharp rocks and they have this there and then they fill it with feathers and they make it very comfy. And the little eaglets, when they're born, they don't want to go anywhere.

They love it there in their home. And then the eagle sometimes pushes them out. And sometimes what the mother eagle will do is she'll do something pretty mean. She'll begin to pull out all the feathers. And soon all the feathers are out in these little eaglets. They are on they're on such sharp rocks and such branches.

They say, what is this? And the wind is blowing through our home. And we were so comfortable and now and now our nest is so stirred up. Things are so bad we might as well fly out of here and die. Well, that's one way to get them to fly.

And then, of course, as you know, the eagle goes underneath them, picks them up and takes them back until they've learned to fly. God says, that's what I was doing with you during those hard times in the desert. I was with you. I was hearing you.

I was seeing you. You know, it's easy to trust God when the bush is burning, when the water is parting, when the mountain is shaking, when the money is flowing and your employer is glowing. It's easy to trust God then. But it's difficult to trust him in the desert when it's unending sand, monotony, boredom, nothing is happening and you look around and you think to yourself, I have no reason to believe that God is here, but he is.

He is with us. So what I'd like us to do is to understand that he had to learn the lesson of servanthood. He had to learn the lesson of trust and then obedience, because in chapter three, the bush burns. God says, Moses, I'm calling you and going to Egypt. And Moses standing there, if you please, on holy ground.

He had to take his shoes off. He's standing there on holy ground and he's arguing with God as to why he shouldn't go. God says, go. And Moses says, no. God says, I'm adequate for you. Moses says, I don't care. I'm just not going.

Fear of failure, fear of transition. You know, it's interesting that Moses says to God, I'm now in chapter three, verse eleven. But Moses said to God, who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt? Who am I?

Isn't that the question of the century? I've known wives who've abandoned their husbands and children just to find out who they are. Husbands have left their wives to find out who they are. Where I grew up, everybody sort of knew who they were, but we live in a different age. And we have this whole business of self-image.

Who am I? You know, I read a book one time by a very good author otherwise, but it was on self-image. And he was talking about this beautiful Swiss girl. And she wouldn't look in a mirror because she thought she was ugly.

And so he helped her hold her chin up and open your eyes and see how beautiful you are. And I thought to myself, you know, we need a theory of self-image that not only works for beautiful young women, but also for ugly old men, don't we? We need a theory of self-image that actually works for Phyllis Diller. Some of you don't know it, but Phyllis Diller achieved fame because when God created her, well, let me say this, she's just barely pretty, okay? In fact, I remember she said one time that she was in a beauty salon for nine hours. Can you believe that? Nine hours in a beauty salon? And she said that was just for an estimate.

We need a theory of self-image that is much stronger than that. And you know what? It's right here in the text. Moses says, who am I that I should lead the children of Israel into Egypt? And he said, I will be with you.

And that's the answer to who you are. If God is with you, you know who you are. Well, Moses continues to argue with God. You'll notice in chapter four, it says, behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice.

You know what's going on here in the text? Moses is still bitter. He's angry. Forty years has not lessened the pain of having been rejected by his people.

He tried something and the people didn't help him and God didn't help him. And Moses is saying to himself, I'm not about to go back now. If you'd have called me back then, I was single and it was simple for me. I could have been the leader, but now I'm married.

I've got a couple of kids. I'm living here in the desert and now you want me to leave everything and go. And so Moses is arguing with God over it and he doesn't want to be hurt again.

I've tried that. You know, it is said that if you have been burned on hot milk, you'll even blow on yogurt. So Moses here is saying, I don't want to try this again. God says, Moses, what's in your hand? He says, a staff, a rod, a rod that perhaps was five or six feet long, several inches in diameter, had been a branch of a tree that grew. And God says to Moses, Moses, what's in your hand? He said, a rod.

He said, throw the rod down. And then Moses was able to do miracles with this rod. And afterwards, when Moses does eventually go, notice this, please, that the rod goes wherever Moses goes. He's going to try to cross the Red Sea and lo and behold, the Bible says that he took his rod and put it across the top of the sea and the waters parted. He's going to need water and he's going to strike the rock with his rod because the rod of Moses now becomes the rod of God. And God says, Moses, that which you picked up in the desert is going to be the means by which I will reorient you and retread you in an entirely different direction.

And you'll always remember that it was in the desert where I taught you lessons that success in the palace could never teach you. And so what we really have here is the fact that he had to learn the lesson of obedience. When life is hard and you are in a desert, you don't know it, but that God might have for you brand new plans.

And when he calls, no matter how inconvenient, no matter how much you've been in your routine, you're going to have to go. The lesson of obedience. Let's translate this where you and I are at.

First of all, let me say regarding the lessons that we need to remember is that God is with us in hard times. God is with us. He is there. He is seeing. He is hearing.

He is answering. God is with us in hard times. I love that story in Genesis chapter 39. Genesis 39 regarding Joseph, it says, And the Lord was with Joseph and gave him favor in Potiphar's house. Then you know the story of how Joseph was falsely accused and thrown into a dungeon. And you know what it says? Same chapter. It says, And the Lord was with Joseph in prison and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the eyes of the jailer.

Wow. God is with us in our promotions when everything is going well, when the sea is parting and the rivers are flowing. God is with us in our promotions. God is also with us in our demotions. When we are unjustly let go, when accusations against us are false that we cannot correct, it is then that God is also with us. God is with us in hard times. Remember that story about a man who had a dream about all these people were lined up and Jesus came along and said to this one, I bless you, I bless you, I bless you. And when Jesus got to this man, Jesus stepped back and said, You know, I'm not going to bless you because I know you're going to love me and follow me whether I do or not.

And then he went on to the next person. Do you feel that way? That you've been left out? Other people seem to be prospering. But life for you is hard and it's one tragedy after another.

Have you ever noticed that they often come in pairs? One thing happens, then another thing. God is with us in hard times. Secondly, very important, that in a hard time God has you exactly where he wants you.

Exactly where he wants you. You are today where God wants you. You say, well, no, that's not true because where I am today is my fault. Well, Moses could have said the same thing. He could have said, you know, it's my fault that I acted the way I did in relationship to killing the Egyptian. I should have been wiser. I am being judged because I'm in the desert because I blew it.

All right, fair enough. But isn't it interesting that it's there in the desert that God has a way prepared for him? It is there in the desert, as a matter of fact, if you think that somehow Moses was, quote, out of God's will, if you take that point of view. Isn't it interesting that right there in the middle of where he shouldn't be, God has a wife prepared for him, and he marries and has some children. And right there, God has a new path because the will of God has enough fluidity to take you where you are at and use your present circumstance for your good and for his glory. You are today where God wants you to be. Now, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't improve your situation.

It doesn't mean that you shouldn't be job hunting if that's what you need or improving your lifestyle or your relationships. We understand that. But God today knows exactly where you are. He knows the longitude and the latitude of where you are sailing on the boat of life. And when a hard time comes, God is there.

Look at these slaves that I'll comment on in the next message. Here they are with no ability to make their life better, and yet they call on God. And what is God doing? God is hearing. God is answering. God does this.

If you miss everything I've said today, would you remember this? Don't ever interpret the silence of God as the indifference of God. Just because God is silent sometimes when we're in the desert, we cry up to him and we see no answers, don't ever interpret the silence of God as the indifference of God. God is there carrying, orchestrating, working, and who knows, the bush may burn tomorrow.

He has these surprises in store that we can't see. Moses thought that the 40 years he had just lived was predictive of the next 40 years with the same monotony, the same boredom. Let me ask you a question. What have you picked up in the desert? What has God taught you in the desert? Did he teach you faith? Did he teach you patience with people? Did he teach you how you needed others when you were in the desert and now you are more generous and more giving and you've opened your life up to other people because it's God's intention that the desert touch our lives.

In fact, that's the last lesson. The desert has a way, I think, of giving us a new touch with God. I think that God said to himself regarding Moses and his desire to lead the children of Israel out and his willingness to identify with the people of God and the Bible gives him credit for doing that, especially in the book of Hebrews.

I think that God probably said to himself, the time isn't right and furthermore, Moses isn't ready to be the leader. He has to be taught servanthood, humility. He has to be taught trust. He has to learn to obey even when it's inconvenient.

The palace could never teach him that. Only hard life in the desert could do it. The desert is not really a penalty box, if I can put it that way. The desert is God getting you ready to get into a new game and preparing your heart for it. You'd never be where you are at today in your hard place if God did not intend to use it for his glory and for our good. It's hard for me to say because when life is hard, it's hard to see his purposes. But that's exactly what he's teaching us, is that he is there with us. I think probably the best example actually is Jesus himself. In terms of life being hard, Jesus was evil spoken against. Jesus was forsaken by his friends.

False accusations, six false trials, mock trials. And then Jesus in the human side of it was forsaken by God. So there he was having a very, very hard, hard experience. And we see that in Gethsemane. And yet the Bible says that for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross and he despised the shame.

And on the other side of the crucifixion, there was the resurrection. If you're here today and life is hard, let me ask you the question. If you are here today as a believer, what you are experiencing in this life is the worst you will ever experience because eternity and heaven is coming.

If you're here today as an unbeliever and life is hard, this is the best it'll ever get. All of eternity is going to be far worse than what you're experiencing today. So for the Christian, there are no permanent tragedies. Your worst tragedy is temporal, and it's the worst it will ever get. If you're here as a non-Christian, this is the best it'll ever be with all of its tragedies.

It'll only get worse after you die, far worse. And the real issue is our relationship to Jesus Christ, who when he went through what I just described, dying on the cross for our sins, shedding his blood for us, it is because of that that we can come to the Father to be forgiven, to be received, to be welcomed by God and belong to him forever. Your eternal destiny depends on your relationship with Christ. So my question is to you, do you know him personally having received him as your Savior, not your wife's Savior or somebody else's Savior, but yours? Would you join me as we pray? Our Father, we thank you today that Jesus was willing to go through his desert, that time was hard.

We thank you. And that having gone through what he went through, that we as sinners can be reconciled to you, belonging to you forever. We pray, Father, for all who have heard this message, for those who are sick and in pain, for those, Lord, who are struggling with financial needs, who don't know where their rent is coming from, for those, Father, who are in relational tug-of-wars in their marriages and in their families. Father, we throw ourselves at your feet and we seek your help.

And believe that you are trying to teach us lessons that somehow smoothness cannot teach us. Lord, we pray that even as we remember your death today, it may be with the sure knowledge that because of Jesus, we are forgiven and life will get better. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Please stand as we sing together, you are my all in all. On today's Moody Church Hour, Dr. Erwin Lutzer spoke about the experience of Moses in part one of his series, When Life is Hard. As time goes on, life remains hard for Moses, as we'll see next week. Join us then as we turn again to the book of Exodus and learn about finding God in a tight place. The church is under attack like never before.

Rites we once assumed we had are being torn away. Erwin Lutzer has written an explosive new book, We Will Not Be Silenced, to help us respond courageously to our culture's assault on Christianity. This book will be sent with our thanks for your gift of any amount to The Moody Church Hour. Just call us at 1-800-215-5001.

Ask about We Will Not Be Silenced when you call 1-800-215-5001. Or you can write to us at The Moody Church, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. Online, go to moodyoffer.com. That's moodyoffer.com. Join us next week for another Moody Church Hour with Dr. Erwin Lutzer and the Congregation of Historic Moody Church in Chicago. This broadcast is a ministry of The Moody Church.