Ex 18:10, So Jethro said, "Blessed be the Lord who delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of Pharaoh, and who delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians.
	This passage takes place after Moses’ father-in-law brought his family to Moses in the wilderness. Jethro had been keeping Moses’ wife and sons under the safety of his protection and provision as Moses had been dealing with Pharaoh. What would be needed in declaring the Word of the Lord to Pharaoh would have put Moses’ family in immediate danger, especially as the Egyptians were facing the deadly reality of the mighty Hand of God through the 10 plagues. Moses’ family might have become the targets of Egyptian retribution, so Moses sent them to be kept safe by Jethro. It wasn’t until after the release of the Children of Israel from their slavery that Moses and his family were reunited through the gracious benevolence of Jethro to bring them to Moses in the wilderness.
	As Jethro heard all that God had done to establish the freedom of the Israelites from their slavery, he made this profound utterance. "Blessed be the Lord who delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of Pharaoh, and who delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians.
	As we want to trace throughout scripture, this is the manner in which we should always regard God and desire to bless Him every time we see or are told of His marvelous working Hand of grace and deliverance and salvation and mercy and provision and protection and guidance. This should ever be the continuous chorus of the Redeemed of the Lord, declaring that God is to be blessed today and forevermore. 
The reason we want to spend this time with this, what should be the normal and distinct way of our hearts and beings, is that, too frequently, we fail to do so. We begin to take the mighty working of God for granted. We become so used to it that it can become mundane and we just expect Him to do His wonderful work. We may not even deliberate on the fact that He is to be absolutely blessed by us and by all of His creation for Who He is and what He has done and what He continues to do. 
We are in a living relationship with Him in Jesus Christ. Part of that relationship requires that we honor and revere and declare His glory and His majesty at every opportunity because He is the One by Whom this relationship has come into place. We were created to declare His glory throughout the entirety of this realm as He manifests His so great and spectacular and awesome love for you and for me. 
	Let us return to a previous time in our reading when it was declared that God was to be blessed. Gen 14:18-20. This was the scene in which Abram was victorious in going after those kings who had captured his nephew Lot. As Abram was returning from the battle with the spoils of his victory, he was met by the priest of God, Melchizedek. Gen 14:18-20, And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; now he was a priest of God Most High. And he blessed him and said, "Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; And blessed be God Most High, Who has delivered your enemies into your hand." And he gave him a tenth of all. 
	Melchizedek declared that God Most High was to be blessed because of the victory that He gave to Abram, His servant. It was recognized and established that Abram had been successful because God had given him the victory. This is always the time to proclaim, with all our beings, that God is to be blessed. Every single time He gives victory, every victory in this life that we live before Him, we should bless His Holy and Awesome name. 
	Our next passage is Gen 24:27, where we have the exclamation of the servant of Abraham as he was sent to find a wife for Isaac. He had asked God to guide him to the one whom God would have for Isaac, and the Lord made known His choice of Rebekah. Gen 24:27, And he said, "Blessed be the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken His lovingkindness and His truth toward my master; as for me, the Lord has guided me in the way to the house of my master's brothers." 
	Again, when God shows us the way we should go or the answer to one of our many inquiries or opens up His truth in His Word or speaks peace to our heart in the midst of our times of trial and persecution or gives clarity, dispelling our confusion, or settles our anxiously seeking what we should do in any circumstance or situation, we should always bless Him. Just as Abraham’s servant knew that God had guided him to the exact one for Isaac, so can we be sure and certain when we seek Him that He will direct our every step and decision. Therefore, we should always be prepared to give exclamation to the fact that God is to be blessed. 
	The next passage that we will read is 1 Kings 8:14-16. 1 Kings 8:14-16, Then the king faced about and blessed all the assembly of Israel, while all the assembly of Israel was standing. And he said, "Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who spoke with His mouth to my father David and has fulfilled it with His hand, saying, 'Since the day that I brought My people Israel from Egypt, I did not choose a city out of all the tribes of Israel in which to build a house that My name might be there, but I chose David to be over My people Israel.' 
	Inherent in this passage is the fact that we are to bless the Lord together as His people. The other passages we read dealt with very personal times between a single suppliant or two and God. Here we have King Solomon including all the people in the opportunity to declare the blessing of God together, in union, in choral praise and corporate adoration. It is the scene of the full nation of Israel bringing to God all the blessing of united praise and worship and honor. 
	Yes, we serve a most personal God. He is The Lord God Who created us and knows each one of us by name. At the same time, we serve Him as Our Corporate God, The God Who works to sustain His people in their every time of trial and tribulation. He is not only the God of our unique and eternal salvation and redemption, but He is the God Who has created the only avenue by which we are made to be one with each other in Jesus Christ, brought into His very own family. He is Our Heavenly Father in the every sense of that truth and He deserves to be honored and praised and blessed by the united chorus of His Chosen Sons and Daughters. We honor Him and bless Him as the Eternal and Sovereign Patriarch of our Heavenly Family.
	As well, God is to be blessed because He works in our lives to bring forth that which is for our best interest as the living testimony of the life that He now gives us through His divine power and presence and wisdom. Ps 41:12+13. Ps 41:12+13, As for me, Thou dost uphold me in my integrity, And Thou dost set me in Thy presence forever. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, From everlasting to everlasting. Amen, and Amen. We are to offer God every blessing for all that He does in our daily walk on this earth. As we deal with other people, as we deal with the death to our selves, as we face each day’s trials and circumstances and dilemmas we are to keep our eyes focused on the mighty hand of God in operation. In doing so, we assert and affirm that He is oh so worthy to be praised and blessed. 
	Again, our previous passage was the expression of the individual heart. Now, as we read in Ps 106:45-48, the full community of the saints of God are to give voice and assent to the fact that God deserves all the blessing of this entire creation for how He manifests His lovingkindness and tender mercy. Ps 106:45-48, And He remembered His covenant for their sake, And relented according to the greatness of His lovingkindness. He also made them objects of compassion In the presence of all their captors. Save us, O Lord our God, And gather us from among the nations, To give thanks to Thy holy name, And glory in Thy praise. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, From everlasting even to everlasting. And let all the people say, "Amen." Praise the Lord! …And let all the people say, "Amen." Praise the Lord!
	Please read along with me in our next passage, Luke 1:68-75. This is the account in which Zacharias, father of John the Baptist, announced his son’s name and mission. Luke 1:68-75, "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, For He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people, And has raised up a horn of salvation for us In the house of David His servant — As He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from of old — Salvation from our enemies, And from the hand of all who hate us; To show mercy toward our fathers, And to remember His holy covenant, The oath which He swore to Abraham our father, To grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, Might serve Him without fear, In holiness and righteousness before Him all our days. There was absolute certainty in the Christ Whom this child would announce to all those who would repent and believe. John the Baptist would prepare the way for the Lord Jesus and Zacharias gave God all blessing and honor for that soon to be declared salvation. 
	So should we ever thank and bless the Lord as we consider how He has saved us unto Himself. We thank Him for the blessing of our families as they grow in order to be further witnesses and testimonies of the mighty hand of God in operation revealing what He has put into place through the people Whom He has redeemed unto Himself. 
	Now please turn in your Bibles to the very greatest reason that we should ever offer praise and blessing to God as delineated in Eph 1:3-6. Eph 1:3-6, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 
	There are so many and sundry reasons that God is to be blessed, and they are all contained in the very person of His Only Begotten Son. Everything has its source and its being only in terms of the salvation and Lordship of Jesus Christ. As He is our life so does our daily walk on this earth have its full meaning and validity. All that comes our way, in each day is for the sake of the witness and the testimony and the relationship which is from and unto Him. As He created all life, including you and me, so is that life to be honoring in our reverent seeking to bless Him through the manner in which we conduct ourselves for the limited time of our sojourn on this earth.
	Again, listen as the Apostle Peter so proclaims this truth in 1 Peter 1:3-5. 1 Peter 1:3-5, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. All that God has done in Christ will be revealed to the entirety of creation. Our salvation and the power of Christ’s resurrection life, which sustains us each day, will be acknowledged and proclaimed to God’s glory and blessing by this entire cosmos. 
	Listen to this culmination unto the blessing of God as recounted in Rev 5:11-14. Rev 5:11-14, And I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing." And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, "To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever." And the four living creatures kept saying, "Amen." And the elders fell down and worshiped. 
	As the members of His Church, His Redeemed body, we will cause this chorus to swell to unprecedented heights and volume as the end of time reveals the supremacy and the sovereignty of the Lord Jesus Christ. Rev 19:1-7. Rev 19:1-7, After these things I heard, as it were, a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, "Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God; because His judgments are true and righteous; for He has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality, and He has avenged the blood of His bond-servants on her." And a second time they said, "Hallelujah! Her smoke rises up forever and ever." And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sits on the throne saying, "Amen. Hallelujah!" And a voice came from the throne, saying, "Give praise to our God, all you His bond-servants, you who fear Him, the small and the great." And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude and as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, "Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. "Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready." Amen.
	In so many ways and means God is to be blessed with the every fiber of our beings. He is worthy to receive all adoration and praise and worship and honor now and forevermore! That is what we are to do as individual Christians and as His Church today, tomorrow, and always. He is to be blessed for Who is He and all that He has done, is doing, and will forever do in Jesus Christ, the Lamb Who was slain. So be it! 
So Jethro said, "Blessed be the Lord who delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of Pharaoh, and who delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. Amen.

This morning’s benediction is Rom 15:5+6. Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus; that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.