Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.cccharlotte.org/sermons/70981/impossible/.

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[0:00] A pastor's reflections, impossible. Exodus 19, 6.! And you shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.! These are the words which you shall speak unto the children of Israel.

[0:14] 1 Peter 3, 15. But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.

[0:28] 2 Corinthians 4, 7. But we have this treasure and earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.

[0:40] When Israel was delivered from Egypt, I imagine that their only thought at the time was to get as far away as possible from their former place of bondage. The future plans that God may have had for them were not what they were concerned with in this moment of their deliverance.

[0:57] Having now arrived three months later at the Mount of God, I believe it must have come as quite a surprise to these former slaves that God's plan in their deliverance was to now make them a great nation.

[1:11] And not just any nation, but God's particular nation. Who would have ever guessed what God had in mind for his people at the time of their deliverance?

[1:22] Israel was now faced with quite a dilemma.

[1:35] As grateful as they were for deliverance, how were they ever to be all that God was asking them to now be? Had God delivered them from one impossible situation, only to place them right back into another impossible situation?

[1:50] Yes. Yes. In fact, God only places his people in impossible situations. Why? So that we, like Israel, can learn that the excellency of the power is of God and not of us.

[2:09] Praise God for his deliverance and praise God for the impossible situations of life that he continues to place us in and call us to. Why?

[2:21] So that we might discover his ability in the midst of our weakness. Yes, God has placed us in an impossible situation, but it's a good situation.

[2:33] How impossible that we should be placed in Christ as sons of God. 1 John 3, 2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be.

[2:49] Father, what can we say to these things? If you are for us, who can be against us, even in the most impossible circumstances? Thank you for delivering us from the impossible bondage of sin that we might live forever in the impossible freedom of love.

[3:09]  Amen.