amen amen awesome y'all what a cool story if you're new to Mercy Hill you got to understand adoption and Foster Care Ministry is near and dear to our heart uh we really believe man we want to build families the way God builds his and he chooses people to be in his family and so uh this is just a really cool story for a lot of reasons but one of the reasons that I want to bring it up is because uh they mentioned something in that uh in that video that is just so important and that
is that while a family at Mercy Hill is working towards adoption and God is moving in their life we have a summer project team which I'm going to tell you what that is of high schoolers that go to the children's home they make connections with these kids now as the adoption is happening those kids are now coming to our you know student Ministry on Sunday night because they've come into the Children's Home and uh they already have friends there because there's this connection that they have through the summer project missionary team I mean God is
just moving in all these different ways and I want to tell you today listen if you're a parent of a high schooler um man really consider this idea of summer project for them and I would tell you to consider it for this summer okay um they are going to get incredibly deep in friendship and get fueled for the mission of God they're going to learn so much uh Theology and just get grounded in what God is uh you know and who he is his character his word they're going to be around our staff we do
a ton of leadership principles uh physical health stuff I mean we do a lot with this summer project and if you're if you're like man what is that it's the kids investing a summer in in order to see their spiritual walk and growth and and you know just their impact magnified and multiplied and so um I would just really push you and you're like if you're like hey I don't have a high schooler but if you have kids at all um be footnoting this and put it in we are so uh glad I I'm excited
that we can offer this as a church um that you know we have the opportunity for these kids to come come in for the whole summer they do a mission trip I mean it's going to radically affect their life okay um and so I I know for me I I feel like I'm reading the times we need to be raising kids and use any tool we can to keep them firmly planted on the word of God and this is just one of those tools that we get to use and I hope you're thinking about it
now if you got a high schooler I hope you'll jump in you can go to the connect page uh that's going to show you right where you can sign them up and really be thinking about it you have a lot of time to think about it because the applications are not do until tomorrow night okay so you have time all right so I hope that you'll take uh all the time you need meaning you know the next four or five hours and sign up all right no but not all seriousness what a cool story the
other way this connects to our sermon today is guys Exodus chapter six is where we're going to be we're going to talk about the idea of our deliverer and I want you to imagine these children uh who are you know maybe teenagers whatever and then they all of a sudden have this opportunity to come out of the situation they're in and they come into a Christian home and there there's a lot that goes with that I understand but I'm wondering how children in that situation end up seeing their uh seeing their adopted parents and and
they they realize this is where we were and this is now where we are this is what our future was now this is what our future is why because our parents chose us they delivered us they rescued us the biggest thing that I want you to see today okay this is I today's sermon is layered there's a lot of you got to understand the New Testament read it back into the Old Testament I understand all that we're going to get there okay but if you want to get all the way to the core of it
do you see God first and foremost through the lens of Deliverance and Redemption is he your redeemer is he your rescuer is he your deliverer that's the big idea today God is our deliverer that is who he is all right for us the the the lens at which we you guys can throw that up on the on the slide God is our deliverer that's the main idea of the sermon today okay and and the idea is how do we view him do we view him as such do we see him through that lens I understand
that we believe in God I mean if you're at a church most people throughout all of history and almost everybody that lives in the world today believes in in theism they believe there's some kind of God out there okay if you just look around the world it's just the reality of it I'm not asking you do you believe in God I'm asking you do you know him as your deliverer as the one who redeems because the story today God is going to try to show the children of Israel hey I am going to do something
in your midst that forever changes the way that you see me this is have you ever heard the term gospel centrality okay we talk about being a gospel centered church this is the core of what it means to be centered on the gospel and it's this that we will forever and eternally see God as a redeemer first it's not that he's not powerful he is powerful he's a Creator he's the mighty warrior he's a lot of things but the first thing that we see him as is Our Redeemer God is going to do something for
the children of Israel that changes the way they see him when God gives the children of Israel the Ten Commandments in the book of Exodus chapter 20 guess what he does he get he's about to give the Ten Commandments the first thing he says go back and read it he says I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt bringing you out of Egypt will forever change the way in which you see me and that is so good for us because you and I y'all we're not just getting taken out of a
physical Egypt where there is physical slavery and physical oppression we are getting uh removed from the slavery and bondage to sin in this world and then one day God is going to remove that slavery and sin out of us totally I mean we have a spiritual Deliverance here because of our true Moses Jesus we have our deliverer who will move us out of this spiritual bondage and one day give us Heaven as well I want you to think about this this world metaphorically is Egypt it is broken man it is rot and Decay and slavery
to sin do you know that we have children in this church right now who when they get to their new foster home will for years hoard food because they remember what it was like to be hungry you know that's where we live right now man a world of domestic violence a world of slavery a a a a a world of sexual abuse a world of abortion it's not just stuff out there though I mean think about us man how many decisions do we make I mean how do we hurt each other with our words think
about the things that are not just out there but they're in here man Egypt is all around us it's rot and Decay and slavery to sin let me ask you this what happens in our life when we begin to view God as the one who delivers us from all that and then takes us to the new heavens and the new Earth where there will be no tears no sadness no sickness everything sad will come untrue and we will live in the presence of God for all eternity it's not just like God is Creator Mighty and
awesome he is all those things but when we see him as the one who took us from this rotten world and Decay to that land man it changes the way we think about him forever some of you guys are going to know this song I I don't know how many of you will um I but some of you probably will okay this is old song 200 years old I sing it growing up on Jordan stormy Banks I stand and cast a Wishful eye on Jordan stormy Banks anybody remember this song some of you guys and
cast a Wishful eye where my to canaan's fair and Happy Land where my possessions lie all over those wide extended Plains shines one Eternal day there God the Sun forever Reigns and scatters night away I am Bound for the promised land when we know there is a God not just that can but did deliver me from this to that it changes the way we view him it warms our affections it makes us want to live the life that he wants us to live and so let's look at this man let's see how God delivers uh
the people of EGP the people of Israel through Moses's deliverer and then let's think about what that means in our life as he delivers us through the gospel all right here we go we're going to dive in to chapter six today we're only going to look at eight verses um I am going to just kind of stop and talk stop and talk there's some things I want you to see along the way that are just very practical but at the heart of it we're going to get all the way into this idea um a man
is seeing God as our deliverer here's what it says verse one but the Lord said to Moses now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh for with a strong hand he will send them out I will do something to him and he will do something to the people of God you see that I will do something to pharaoh and Pharaoh will send them out with a strong hand and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land now the first thing that we notice here about the text is that God
is reaffirming to Moses what he's going to do and what he's going to do is I'm going to do something to Pharaoh that makes Pharaoh do something to the people of God which is to send them out and he does and that's the rest of the story of the you know the Exodus and we're going to continue to walk through this but I think it's very interesting that God says in verse one now you shall see what I will do to pharaoh and then you're going to see what Pharaoh will do to the people and
here's the point that I want to make real quick here I don't want to we're not going to spend a lot of time on this but it's very important today's message is all about seeing God as a deliverer a rescuer we're going to call him the our our kinsman redeemer I know some of us might not know that term yet you will this idea of a redeemer okay but before that and what heightens that and deepens that is that God is also a man of war who is mighty who does whatever he wants and that's
important for us to know we if we're to see God as the tender caller of our hearts and a father who is tender toward us and redeems us and delivers us and cares about us and for the joy set before him endured the cross because of his great compassion and love toward us it's also good to see the flip side of that which is to understand that God is also Mighty you could say it like this our God is mighty he is clothed in power and strength he speaks and worlds are created man when he
decides to to do something he does it and there's nobody I mean Pharaoh this this is what I love Pharaoh is the baddest dude the wealthiest dude the biggest army and for God his heart is channeled in his hand like water that's what proverb says just like water it's like man Pharaoh is going to do whatever I want pharaoh to do it's just like a little kid you ever you ever taught a little kid how to um you ever taught a little kid how to hit a baseball or a softball or you ever taught a
little kid how to cast a fishing line or something anything like that what do you do you you put their hand on it okay you put their hand on the bat and they're little five years old little hands they got their little okay and then you come around them right and then you put your hands on the bat now they hit the ball who hit it it's like well I mean the little kid hit the ball right who who cast a fishing line well they C they cast it but honestly you're the one that cast
it you you did everything you moved everything all the power was yours you were guiding them I want you to understand baddest dude biggest army wealthiest person and his hand is like that big and God is just kind of moving it wherever he wants it to go I think it's important for us to know man some of us are facing some hard things you're facing a health thing you're facing a relational thing you're fa facing something crisis at work or whatever I don't know what you're going through man we need to just understand God is
powerful and mighty but to our point today you always got to see him through the lens of Deliverance but also understand man that Deliverance is something that he you know he does it out of a tender call but he is also powerful and mighty and this is who he is now look at verse two this is important God spoke to Moses and said to him I am the Lord I appear to Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty now that's a reminding remember we've already done this a couple times in this series I'm
I'm I'm connecting the dots back to Abraham Isaac and Jacob but here's what he says but by my name the Lord I did not make myself known to them that's very curious we're going to have to talk about that I also established my Covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan and the land in which they lived as sojourners moreover I have heard the groanings of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves and I have remembered my Covenant so say therefore to the people of Israel I am the Lord now
he is reminding them but now he starts reframing for them what the future is going to be okay so he reminded them of the past in order to set them up for the future because now he's talking about something that's coming I am the Lord and I will bring you out out from under the burden of the Egyptians and I will deliver You From Slavery to them uh and and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment now this is so interesting to me okay God is reminding Moses of
some things in order that he can set up the future of what is going to happen and I think we need to look at both of those things okay so the first thing to remember here is look at verse two again I am the Lord I appear to Abraham Isaac and Jacob I am God almighty God is reminding Moses of who he is and if you weren't with us a couple of weeks ago I got to recap this okay this is important why does God keep reminding Moses who he is because apparently over the hundreds
of years of slavery the people of God have forgotten who he is they have forgotten the name of God you say well how do you know they've forgotten the name of God well at the burning push Moses pretty much says it who are you he knows something of God but he doesn't know God we also understand Joshua you know Joshua tells us at the end of the Book of Joshua Joshua says I'm urging the people of God to put away the foreign Idols that you had from across the river when you were back in Egypt
so we know that the people of God were highly syncretized that means they're grabbing different Idols I'm not saying they don't know some things about God but they have forgotten his one true name Yahweh they know him as El Shai probably but they don't know him as Yahweh things about God have been Lost Generation after generation after generation and I think it's very important for us to make one uh you know point about this y'all if we lose the gospel in the next Generations it will not be the kid's fault it'll be our fault does
that make sense I mean it's not their fault that and here's what we got to understand if the people of God could forget his name who in the world do we think we're we are could we not do the same thing I mean people said it like this one generation gets the gospel if the Next Generation assumes the gospel guess what happens the third generation they forget the gospel it is always one or two generations away from being lost and this is my point we have got to be so diligent to press in and to
transfer the truths about God and his character and the gospel to the Next Generation lest we forget about who the god of Isaac and Jacob and Abraham are man we we have got to remember that this is all one generation away if we were to lose it and so we've got to continue to pour into this next Generation I know not everybody here's parents I know we have a lot of college students at at High Point clipon and many of you guys some of you guys here too um and and some of this parenting stuff
you might say well but think about it if we are not the ones transferring it to them what's going to happen uh and whose fault is it I'll tell you you know I remember uh I remember when I was um teaching my little boys how to play baseball so they were real young like like five or six years old this is t-ball okay and one of my sons we had been drilling out in the yard I mean we were just I mean every day it was just hitting throwing hitting throwing I wanted them to be
ready you know and I feel like he was ready I feel like he was actually a little bit ahead and I was excited and we get out there to the first game and man we've been practicing and practicing and we get to that first game my little man's five years old and he gets up there to bat and they throw that you know they do a little soft toss whatever they throw the ball in and smack he smacks the ball and then drops the bat and takes off running as fast as he can right to
Third Base okay and um and it was man you know kids do stuff like that um you know it's funny when somebody else's kid does it okay uh but you know everybody's laughing and and and it was fine and I and and I'm kind of even chuckling about it too until I realized that he realized how you know that he had messed up and he realiz and he's embarrassed and he gets back to the Dugout and he's crying he's five or six years old and he's crying and and man it just it just really got
into me and I went into the Dugout and got right in his face okay like I do with my boys right in his eyes and I said buddy you got to understand this is my fault this ain't your fault if you didn't know which way to run that's my fault and I think some of us need a healthy dose of that today man if these kids don't get it at seven or eight or 10 years old now we can't control what the Lord does and we certainly can't control what God does the rest of their
life they're going to have agency like anybody else but a six or seven years old eight years old 10 years old man do they know the word do they know their scripture memories do they understand we have family devotions are they involved in every thing that we do in terms of the life of the church see if that if they don't get it in that sense that's our fault that's not their fault and so I want to call us to think about that y'all we have so many children in this church we are so blessed
I mean I I look out there when the cars coming in at the Ridge Campus and it's either every one of them it's either a huge jacked up truck or a minivan okay it's one or the other and so it's like hey th this is where we are we're a church that reach okay that means you in the home man are are we are we transferring this down and they're going to need it they need to know it don't you understand the times that we are in I want to tell you I wanted to do
this as a sermon illustration it was too scary and I didn't want it getting out I decided not to do it okay because here's what we did you understand with AI and all this kind of stuff everything is a deep fake that that world is coming where you have no idea what what was said what wasn't said what's true what's not true in terms of what actually happened here's what we did we told the chat bot g chat GPT whatever it was I want you to listen to a few sermons by Pastor Andrew in my
voice and then all I did all we did was type something into it I didn't even utter the words typed in it goes online listens to me preach and types in and here's what it spits out this is what I want to do for a sermon illustration but I didn't want the to actually get out okay I I typed in I wanted to say um Jesus is not the only way to heaven and of course you're saved by your works and would it spit back to you would make your spine tingle because it was me
saying it although I didn't you understand I mean it spit it right back out in my voice you wouldn't have been able to tell the difference just from listening to me preach that is the world that we are heading towards where all of those things here here's my point we're heading toward a world where it can make anything say anybody say anything you wanted to say these kids aren't going to need to remember what I said about something they're going to need to remember what the word says and if they if they're going to get
that if they're not going to forget the name of Yahweh in the Next Generation it's because we made sure that they knew to run the first not the third because it was on us so that's the first thing that I want us to see the second thing though and this really gets more to the sermon okay in terms of just this idea of deliverer y'all when God tells Moses who he is this time in Exodus 6 he connects it with what he is going to do I I know that sounds like that you're like okay
I'm not man please try to hang here all right because this is very important there is a theological curiosity that happens in Exodus 6 I'm about to show you what it is all right the way we understand it frames how I'm talking about this idea of Deliverance look what it says with me in verse verse three this is I mean a lot of people look at this as a contradiction in scripture look what he says I appeared to Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty but by my name the Lord I did not
make myself known to them now here's the problem with what was he saying he said oh yeah I I I mean basically what it's saying is I gave them one of my names but the name that I gave you I didn't give them here's the problem with that yes he did go back and read it go back and read the book of Genesis I mean the name Yahweh shows up all the time in the book that that idea that construction okay so so wait a minute God is saying I didn't but but we read it
and we're like but you did so what does this mean well there's two ways to think about it the first way is that Moses is the one writing this and Moses is the one who God gave that name to so he's writing it back in as he reconstructs the the history okay so it be it' be sort of an anachronism you know when shows up which wasn't actually there like in a in a movie or something it's like man that technology wasn't actually there that kind of idea that Moses is just writing that name in
here's what I say to that that is a massive assumption I mean the the word says it and we're going to say well he just wrote it in that to me I'm like man feels like I I'm not gonna be able to get there all right what I think is going on here and this is the other way that people have interpreted this is that yes they had this name but they didn't understand the depths of what it meant and now we're getting the depths of what it means and why this story is so important
in Exodus chapter 6 y'all is because we're getting at the diamond turned a little bit more for us so that we understand who this God is is yes a Creator yes he's Mighty yes he's Al Shai but also he is the one who takes you from slavery in Egypt to the promised land he is the deliverer he is is the Redeemer the Lord is shedding new light on his name and his relationship to his people and that's what this is all about Moses I didn't give them what I'm giving you and what I'm giving you
is the ability to see me through the lens by which you will always see me deliverer savior Redeemer and that's the lens that we get a chance to see God through as well in in theology this is called agressive Revelation I love how we love to put big words on stuff all it means is as you get more light and time you understand it better that's really all it means okay and what he's saying is there is a progression to how God is revealing himself to the world and this happens throughout the Bible and you
get to Jesus and it's like hey I spoke through the prophets now I spoke through my son you know this is even greater Revelation than what we had before but this is a progress of Revelation more light means we understand it better I don't know if any of you guys have ever sat in a dear BL early early in the morning okay I mean like you know 5:00 in the morning whatever you're sitting out there and 5:30 in the morning the sun begins to come up right when that sun begins to come up this happened
to me so many times you're like you're looking around you're like there are 72 deer out here okay they're everywhere everywhere I look there's a deer there's one there's one there's one I mean and then and then you get the little bit more light and you're like okay that wasn't a deer that was a tree or that wasn't a deer that was a bush Okay and then finally when the light is all the way up if you're anything like me it went from this is going to be the greatest hunt of my life to there
are absolutely no deer here you know there's none it was all trees and bushes and and whatever the truth about the situation didn't change all that changed was I got more light on the situation so I can see it better I think that's what's happening in Exodus 6 it's not that he didn't give them the name literally it's that hey I am giving you a new depth and texture and now I'm giving you the opportunity to Forever link my name with Redemption with Deliverance you were in slavery now you're in the promised land it's a
beautiful thing look what he says in verse 7even as we round out here I will take you to be my people listen to The Covenant language I mean this is almost like a marriage I will take you to be my people and I will be your God and you shall know that I am the Lord your God who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians don't miss that I will be your God and you will know it you will always remember that I am the one who brought you out who delivered
you and and you will be the you you will know it I will bring you into the land that I swore to give Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob and I will give it to you for a possession I am the Lord I want you to hang with me here y'all this is the lens by which we as the people of God are called to see him this is how our hearts affections are warmed to him is he Mighty yes is he Creator yes is he lawgiver yes did he save me yes did he deliver
me yes does he have a a glorious future in mind where he dwells where we dwell with him and he's with us yes this is how we see God and it changes our heart's affections towards him y'all this language okay I will take you to be my people and I will be your God every commentator points to the same thing and I'm gonna raise a story here that some of you guys are going to know if you don't know the story this is not one of those churches where we say oh we're really sorry this
went over your head what we say is catch up okay let's do it then write it down let's go read it tonight don't be a victim all right go read it if this doesn't make sense to you but here's what I would say every commentary pointed this out when he says this I will take you to be my people and I will be your God that is Covenant language of redemption you know what story it probably parallels the most the story of Ruth and Boaz where where Ruth is this moabi that has no part and
parel with the people of God she's destitute she's a widow she she's going to be you know in poverty her entire life and all of a sudden this man this Redeemer Boaz steps in righteous man and he pays whatever the cost is to buy her and her and everything that she owns back so that she would be eligible to marry him and she marries him and they have children and I mean they end up in the lineage of Jesus and I mean it's just the those beautiful story that you can imagine and it's it's this
idea of Redemption and deliverance man I was in poverty I had nowhere to turn and this salvific figure brings me in and says I will be to you a husband you'll be to me a wife it's it's a it's a it's a concept we call the kinsman redeemer let me ask you a question if you know the story of Ruth and Boaz knowing what Ruth was going through and how Boaz steps in for her how do you think she viewed him how do you think she viewed him the rest of her life man he was
the one that practiced deliverance and Redemption didn't have to but did and loved her tenderly and called her in and what God is saying is when you understand what I have done for you it will change the way you view me and guys this is the deal we read the Bible front to back but we interpret the Bible back to front you and I are not Israelites sitting in Egypt we we we are a people who actually have a greater Redemption and a greater deliverer here's my point if God is saying Hey to the people
of is Isel you watch what I do remove you from slavery if that's going to turn your hearts toward me how much should our hearts turn toward him when we realize that Jesus Christ our greater Moses went to the cross and died to bring us out of the most horrific Egypt that you can imagine man a world filled with rot Decay slavery to sin a hell that we are destined to and yet because of our deliverer spit spilling his blood for us on the cross man you and and I now have been saved spiritually and
we wait for that Redemption physically where we have to cross the Jordan that promised land where the new heavens and the new Earth will be where we dwell forever and all eternity if that is how God has delivered us then shouldn't our hearts swell towards him with gratitude you know you think about this he says in verse six I'll redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment how you with an outstretched arm he did that right he did that for the children of Israel but for us in the gospel Jesus shows
this ultimate he gives us the ultimate expression of the outstretched arm and and judgment when Jesus stretched out his arms on the cross he took judgment he took God's judgment for us for all time for all eternity for all time he brought us in to the family of God he delivered us once and for all that was the price of our Redemption he becomes our Boaz he becomes our kinsman redeemer and this is something that will light our hearts up for him for all time if if he will if we will let it so here
here's the application this weekend all right trust God as your Eternal Savior and here's what I want to do I want to mention something to those of us who are um man we we've been Christians for a long time I'm going to call you to trust God as your Eternal savior see him as your deliverer today again even though you're a Christian and then we'll talk about those that maybe need to do that for the first time all right hey but if you're a Believer here if you're at one of our campuses is right now
and you're a Believer you've been a Christian for a long time here's what I want to tell you today the the the core of gospel centrality okay what we preach at this church the teaching that you are under if you if if that term you're like what does it mean you get it all the way down here's what it means that see God as your deliverer first you can say it like this never get over your salvation never get over it understand first and foremost that you are more s sinful than you ever could have
imagined and at the same time in Christ you're more loved than you ever dared hope this is why we say at Mercy Hill y'all the gospel ain't the diving board it's the pool okay it's not the ABCs it's the A through Z it's not the starting blocks it's the whole race Christians don't grow Beyond The Gospel message of what Christ has done for them they grow deeper into it because the deeper we go into it the more we turn that diamond the more our heart's affections are turned to God we can't get over it and
I can't believe that he would save me that he would rescue me never get over your salvation I told you guys before uh this last year year and a half we w we went through and watched all the Duck Dynasty episodes okay me and my kids and U man it was I think they're doing like a reboot or whatever and one of my favorite characters is the old the old guy the patriarch of the family named Phil and Phil if you've ever heard his story there's a movie about him it's called The Blind but he
man he wasn't a great I mean he was a bad dude I mean he was I mean domestic violence you know crazy drug abuse alcoholism like crazy walked out on the kids multiple times and you you see that and then you're like man you watch the show and you're like how could this be the same human being and the reality is that he was radically saved by God's grace radically I mean he was living every bit in the slavery of Egypt and Jesus Christ as his deliverer saved him from that then you can go back
and read the story but here's the thing he never got over it and you see it come out of the show in really funny ways it's like any time he gets a chance to talk about who he was then and then talk about what God has done his life now I mean his kids say he's probably literally baptized a thousand people in the river behind their house in the last 30 years okay so I mean it's it's like he is all in okay and and he wants to show that all the time but it's funny
how it comes out so the kids are like one one episode the kid one of the kids got a project or something outside and they're walking around the woods and they're trying to find something in the woods and the kid looks up and to her Grandpa and she's like Papa pH I think we're lost and he immediately says oh I was lost okay I was lost in all types of drunkenness and smoking and and consorting with women and I mean he just starts going off kids like eight years old right and and the whole point
is he always remembers who he was and and and another episode they were um they were like smoking a a brisket or a pork butt or something and they're like he sees a smoke and he's like oh I've smoked everything you can smoke okay I've smoked every kind of dope and every kind of and he's always always like going back to this is who I was this is who I am this is this is where I was born you know destined to be this is where I'm going to be and and there's something about that
that fuels our affections my question is hey are we dwelling on what God has done for us are we dwelling on it daily in the word are we dwelling on it in community groups are we making priorities of dwelling on it by you hearing preaching I mean are we or not we live in a world that is filled with distractions I want you to think about this Netflix came out with a series a couple years ago called squid squid games okay I never saw it squid game here here's the thing worldwide Humanity spent 2.1 billion
hours watching squid game just so you know that equates to 239,000 years of time this is what we do this is what we do I mean it's it's just a world of distraction can we cut through some of that and can we say hey this is what I need this is the core of gospel centrality do you want to grow your heart has to swell it's not with just rules and seeing God in a fear-based model it's swelling up with gratitude realizing he saved you he's your deliverer the last thing I want to say today
is this and this is not for those who' have done this a million times it's for those of you who need to do it for the first time do you know God as the one who delivered you do you know him as the one one who delivered you because that's really the question today man we got a lot of people that are interested in God we got a lot of people that are on the fence we got a lot of people at different campuses that are kind of coming around and about once every series we
try to draw the net we try to put a Line in the Sand and we say hey where you at where you at with this stuff you know there's a God I understand that but do you know him as your deliverer because that is the primary lens by which he wants you to see him I I know if you know or not I hope that you do it changes the way that you will see him forever you know a few months after 911 stories began to come out as as as our nation was healing and
and just thinking you know hearing different stories of survival and loss about six months later different parts of the country people began to share this same story and it started to get linked up because in that Tower as it was burning and falling down there was a man that was saving people and he became known as the man in the red bandan and he was a young guy 20-some years old named Wells Crowther he was an athlete lacrosse player he was a volunteer firefighter and when the planes hit the tower he absolutely had the strength
and could have been one of the first ones to get out and would be alive to this day but instead when the tower was hit by the plane he ran to a flat where he could get cell phone reception he called his mom he told her he loved her he'd be okay he hung the phone up and he took off straight up the stairs and he took charge and he began to shout and he told people stand up you cannot stay here you have to follow me get on your feet let's go and he started
making a way clearing debris getting people out at one point there was someone who was so injured she couldn't walk at all he picked her up put her on his shoulder and carried her 15 flights of stairs down the tower all the while picking people up along the way and telling them you have to follow me you can't stay here and when he got to the bottom he put the the woman down and got those people to safety and he fell right in line with the firefighters who were heading up he didn't have an oxygen
tank he didn't have any gear all he had was a red bandana tied around his face there was a woman named Lyn young who was interviewed by CNN months later and she says he is my guardian angel without him I would not be here today and that was true they've linked 15 different stories to the man in the red bandana and all 15 of those people wouldn't be here here with us today if it wasn't for him 6 months later in all the rubble they found the body of Wells Crowther encased all among a bunch
of firefighters now here's what I want you to know we all know firefighter save people many of you do that we have a lot of you guys that are here we're grateful for y'all but for people like Lyn young it's not knowing that a volunteer firefighter is willing to do that because they are it's what they sign up for and it's not knowing that they can for ly young Wells Crowther is different because he's the one who did and forever those 15 people will see him differently and In a Different Light than any of us
could ever imagine because he saved them y'all there is a deliverer there is a redeemer there is a savior and I pray today that many of you who have been preparing for this and God's been drawing you across our Church you would step over the line today would you bow your heads with me and just close your eyes I'm going to close my sermon in a chance to give you a in a way that gives you a chance to respond all right so here's what we're going to do today just heads bowed and eyes closed
I'm going to go into a prayer but I just want to give you the opportunity to pray with me today right you have the chance to step over that line however you want to call it to become a Christian to get saved the point is to see God as your deliverer forever and here's what's going to happen we're going to commit our sin believe in what he has done and confess him as the Lord of our life are you ready have you been holding on for too long you've been trying it your own way it's
been works it's been trying to clean yourself up no no see him as your deliverer today right you pray this prayer in your heart with me father I know that I'm a sinner and I know that I can't work my way into a relationship with you but I believe that Jesus Christ went to the cross took the penalty for my sin 3 Days Later rose from the dead to give me a new life and I accept that I trust that God saved me today and I commit to follow him follow you all the days of
my life you praying that prayer right now man is God is God saving you right now continue to fight distractions just sit in this moment for a moment father we thank you so much for the people that are praying to receive you right now at our campuses here at the ridge Lord I just pray God that they'll be courageous and take this next step in Christ's name we pray amen e e e
