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Foreign. Sower Nation it is Thursday, February 12th, in the year of our Lord 2026. I am Andrew Forrest and this is your wake up call. Well, it is Thursday. We've made it so far. I like Thursdays. Thursdays for me are all about preaching in the evening. See at our church at Asbury here in Tulsa. I'm the senior pastor for Asbury Church, Tulsa, Oklahoma. At our church at Asbury, we have four services a week. Thursday night at 6pm and then Sunday morning, 8, 9 and 11. And I use Thursday evening as sort of like the director's cut version of the sermon, like a dress rehearsal. I try different things out. Often things radically change. Almost always, Please Lord, they get better between Thursday evening and Sunday morning. And on Thursdays I never have any meetings. I don't take any appointments. I'm just sort of like grinding, getting ready, thinking through the day to kind of prepare to preach on Thursday evening. The Thursday evening service is pretty relaxed. People tend to like that about it. They'll know that I may say some crazy stuff. We don't put it online. So I might say some stuff and I'll say, hey, I'm not going to say this Sunday morning I might tell a personal story that I'm not willing to put online and cut stuff out. So it's kind of fun. So that's what Thursdays are about for me. And it's, it's a nice feel for the folks to come there. So if you're ever in Tulsa, we'd love to have you on a Thursday night at 6 o' clock, you just roll in. I tell people, wear whatever you want to wear and just come on in. It's pretty. It's a very casual service now. Right now we're continuing this series as we work our way through the Bible. We're using the One Year Bible at my church and so we're near the end of Exodus and it's not the part that you'd pick to maybe do a little series for the Wake up calls on. But when JD asked me to do this, I thought that's exactly what I want to do because I want to kind of demonstrate that all the Bible has something to offer us, particularly maybe these slow parts of the Torah. There's something valuable here which we shall see today. I should mention, of course, I'm also a seedbed author, the author of Love Goes first, which is about how we're going to reach the people who don't think like us, vote like us or look like us. And I'm Proud of the book, and I hope you'll take an opportunity to check it out. Now, let's say, Lord, thank you for taking Egypt. Thank you for taking us out of Egypt. Now, Lord, please continue to take Egypt out of us. Amen. Let's go. Wake up, sleeper. Rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. Jesus, I belong to you. I lift up my heart to you. I set my mind on you. I fix my eyes on you. I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice. Jesus, we belong to you. Praying in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Our scripture reading for the day is Exodus 34, verses 29, 35. Hear now the word of the Lord. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hand, as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone. Because he had been talking with God. Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses and behold, the skin of his face shone. They were afraid to come near him. But Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him. And Moses talked with them. Afterward, all the people of Israel came near, and he commanded them all that the Lord had spoken with him on Mount Sinai. And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. Whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would remove the veil until he came out. And when he came out and told the people of Israel what he was commanded, the people of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses face was shining. And Moses would put the veil over his face again until he went in to speak with him. The word of the Lord, you are what you love. In Exodus 34, we read the very strange detail that when Moses came back down the mountain after spending time with the Lord on the heights of Mount Sinai, his face was shining. Moses spends time with the Lord in a unique way. Thus, the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. So the Bible goes out of its way to emphasize the personal friendship and intimacy that develops between Moses and the Lord. And this is why his face starts to shine. You are what you love. That is, who or what you focus on and spend time with shapes you. This is obvious, but it's important to say, if you spend time with violent, vulgar companions, then you will become violent and vulgar. This is why it's so important that we take the Apostle Paul's words seriously. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true. Whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise. Think about these things. Philippians 4:8. I think this is a point that modern Christians need to really dig into. You are what you love, what you focus on becomes who you are, what your desires are for begins to shape you. This is really important in the age of social media and all the constant news updates when we're glued to our phones or to cable news. It affects us, it shapes us, and not in a good way. And it's worth pointing out that the most true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent and praiseworthy thing of all, of course, is the Lord himself. The more time you put your attention on the Lord, the more luminous you will become. I think, by the way, this is why people tend to love mission trips so much. One of the things that happens on a mission trip is that your mind, your thoughts is constantly being directed toward the Lord. You have morning devotions, you have a prayer time, you serve the Lord. You're with often people in the country. You're going who are brothers and sisters in Christ, and so you're talking with them. You have evening devotions, you have some kind of worship time. Like your whole day from morning to evening is focused on the Lord. No wonder it's so delightful and lovely and has such an effect on our hearts. See, the most important need in the world today is people who are becoming more like Jesus because they spend time with him. How much more light in life might the Lord have for you if you would just spend more time with him? See, the first part of Exodus is the Lord getting the people out of Egypt. The second part is about the Lord getting Egypt out of the people. God's desire is for you to become like Jesus. And the good news is that the more you become like Jesus, the more, the more joyful you will be internally and the more effective you will be externally. I'm convinced that one of the enemy's great tactics today is to distract Christians from spending time with the Lord. So what are you waiting for? Spend time with the Lord today. And so we pray, Lord, thank you for shining into our lives. Make us more like Jesus today, Lord, by filling us with the love that you have and increasing our joy. Polish us so we can more effectively reflect your light so that others will see us and give you glory. Amen. Some journal prompts to get you thinking today. 1. Why does the Bible always describe the Lord? With the language and imagery of light. 2. Why is it so hard to spend time with the Lord? Do you think that distraction and anxiety could be tools the enemy uses to keep us from prayer? 3. When Jesus is on the mount of Transfiguration, he shines bright. Do you think there's a connection between Moses shining face and that detail? Well, friends, we have been forcing our way through the week, one way or the other, and here we are on Thursday, and it's a gift from God. God is not finished yet. He has a lot more to do. And the very breath in our lungs is proof. Today we will sing Sweet Hour of Prayer, that great hymn. It's hymn 4:40 from the seedbed hymnal, Our Great Redeemer's Praise. It's a gorgeous hymn. We're going to sing it together. Maybe we'll do.