Exodus - Life’s Most Important Question

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We're going to open God's word in just a minute.

We're going to get back in Exodus chapter 3.

Exodus 3 · chapter mention

We're going to start in verse 12 and read the rest of the chapter.

And God's going to reveal things about Himself that's going to allow you and I to ponder anew, to think freshly and biblically about God.

And you've got to ask yourself, am I willing to do that today?

Because it's sometimes much safer and much more socially acceptable to think culturally about God instead of biblically about God.

And so you've got to ask yourself, as a 17-year-old, do I want to just kind of drift along with kind of this fuzzy, nebulous deity, this kind of a God's kind of good, and or do you really want to sink your teeth into the meat of God's nature?

Which means you're going to be in conversations and you're going to have to interject the truth, and it's not always going to go well.

So let's just ponder that just for a second.

Because it's it's much easier in our synchristic day and age just to kind of take a little bit of this, a little bit of that, a dab of that, and just a little teaspoon of that and mix it all together.

And then you've got something, a God you can agree with.

There's a difference in a God you can agree with and a God who's worthy of your worship.

And so let's just ponder that this morning.

Let me voice a prayer.

Lord Jesus, we we want to come to you, Lord.

We want to just bow down our intellect and our preferences before you.

And we want to say, Lord, speak.

We want you to show us things about yourself from your word so that our thoughts about you are as certain as your nature is, that they're in keeping with who you are, not what we wish you were or prefer you to be.

You say in Exodus over and over and over, this is who I am, and I am to be remembered through all throughout all generations.

So either you're this ego maniacal maniac, or you know something about yourselves that we don't know, and yet you invite us to know it today.

Who else stands up and says, I am to be to be remembered throughout all generations?

And so there's something big and vast and available and personable and warm and intimate about you today, and we've come to kind of sink our lives into that certainty.

And God, I pray that you would say things from your word and by your spirit that makes 12-year-olds an earth-shaking, truth speaking, reality-altering 16-year-old.

Because they've just kind of sunk their life in the certainty of who you are.

Speak, Lord.

Your servants are listening.

We pray and listen in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

If you got a Bible, take it, open it up to Exodus chapter 3.

Exodus 3 · chapter mention

Uh, and I want to talk to you this morning about life's most important question.

Life's most important question.

Because starting in Exodus chapter 3 and going for the next couple of chapters, there's really five questions that kind of manifest themselves in the text.

Exodus 3 · chapter mention

The first one where Moses says to God, when God says, You go tell Pharaoh, let my people go.

Moses said, Who am I that I should go tell Pharaoh, let my people go?

And so God speaks to that question.

And then Moses asks the second question, which I consider to be life's most important question, and it's simply this: Who are you?

Who is God?

Because Moses says, Hey, if I go to them and I go to the Israelites and say, Hey, the God of your fathers has sent me, who shall I tell them sent me?

And God kind of reveals Himself and says, This is who you tell them sent me.

And so whether you realize it or not, your life will be more affected by your understanding of God than anything in your entire life.

So it becomes important.

It becomes, I would say, ultimate that you and I have a right knowledge of God, that we understand God the way God is, not the way we kind of prefer Him to be.

Does that make sense to anybody but me?

And so it would behoove us today to think a little bit about God.

Let the Bible inform that.

And so let me just start reading in Exodus chapter 3, verse 12.

Exodus 3:12

God said, But I will be with you.

After Moses says, Who am I?

God says, That's not the question.

I will be with you.

And this shall be a sign for you that I've sent you.

When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.

Then Moses said to God, If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they ask me, What is his name?

What shall I say to them?

God said to Moses, I am who I am.

And he said, Say this to the people of Israel, I am, has sent me to you.

God also said to Moses, Say this to the people of Israel.

The Lord, the God of your forefathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.

This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered through all generations.

Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt, and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, the Hives, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey, and they will listen to your voice, and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us, and now please let us go a three days' journey into the wilderness, that they may sacrifice to the Lord our God.

But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand.

So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it.

And after that he will let you go.

And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, and when you go, you shall not go empty.

But each woman shall ask of her neighbor, and any woman who lives in her house for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing, you shall put them on your sons and on your daughters.

So shall you plunder the Egyptians.

End of story.

You say, What what do you what do you get life's most important question?

It's when Moses asks God, Hey, whom shall I tell them sent me?

Let me just say it again.

More than any other thing in your life, your life will be affected by and oriented around the way you understand and who you believe God to be.

And so there's three points that the text makes this morning.

I just want to point to in response to life's more most important question.

And the first thing we see is right there in verses 12 to 14, is we see where the if becomes when.

Where if becomes when, because God says in verse 12, he speaks with term with certainty and says, when you come out of Egypt.

And then Moses responds in verse 13 and says, If I come to the people of Israel and say, and God's like, wait, whoa, whoa, whoa, time out, time out.

What do you mean if?

I'm saying when because God's not, God, God knows the past, the present, and the future.

And so he's speaking in terms of what he knows.

And Moses is speaking in terms of what he knows.

But the problem is, God knows so much more than we do.

Do you realize that this morning?

There's a reason you pray to God.

There's a reason we worship God.

It's not the other way around.

See, there's a place where the if becomes when.

Because Moses asked the question, okay, if I come to the people of Israel and I say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they ask me, What is his name?

What shall I say to them?

God said to Moses, I am who I am.

Then he said, Say this to the people of Israel, I am has sent me to you.

And you gotta know that Moses is kind of standing there like, oh, oh, oh, okay, I am has sent me, I am that I am.

This this is just getting more confusing by the moment.

Let me make it real plain.

Most relationships start off with an exchange of names.

Remember when you first time you met your wife, man?

You probably asked her what's her name, or you asked somebody, what's that person's name there?

I remember when the first times I had a conversation with this girl or excuse me, woman named Marcy, was when I was in seminary, we were in grad school, and she was a secretary for one of my professors, Dr.

Fish, and he said, Hey, Neil, let's spend some time together, make an appointment with my secretary.

So I saw her in the hall, and I kind of I knew who she was.

We had mutual friends, and I was kind of like, Oh, you're that blonde-haired Marcy, you're you're Dr.

Fisher's secretary.

And so I said, Hey, are you Dr.

Fisher's secretary?

And she said, Yeah.

And I said, Hey, my name's Neil, and I need to make an appointment with Dr.

Fish, and we chatted, and she's okay.

Well, Neil, come up to my office and we'll make an appointment.

And I'd forgotten, I told her my name, and I said, How'd you know my name?

And she said, You just told me.

There's no way, there's no cool way to get out of that conversation.

So my friends are all walking by behind her, kind of going, hoo, hoo! And I'm like, No, no, no.

And there I was, and she was like, You just told me your name, you moron.

I'm gonna walk away now because here was the thing that there was something about her that I noticed about her, and I I didn't, I wasn't like making a move on or hitting on her.

I was just kind of like, you're pretty, and and and I just said something awkward like, take a look, okay, goodbye.

See ya walking away now.

How did you know my name?

Because you just told me, you nervous idiot.

So my friend of mine said later, he said, Hey, did you ever meet my friend Marcy?

Yeah, I kind of just just just dribbled words all down the front of my shirt.

I told him what happened.

He went, Yeah, that wasn't cool.

But relationships start and says there's something about God.

When God speaks in terms of when, and Moses answers in terms of if, let me ask you a question.

How do you respond to God in terms of if or when?

Because God says, Hey, when this happens, he's speaking about the future as if it's already happened.

And Moses says, Well, just by chance, if I go to the Israelite, who should I tell him sent me?

And God could have been so offended and said, What do you mean asking me?

Instead, God says, You tell him, I am that I am.

Okay, well, that clarifies it.

Awesome.

Actually, it clarifies it more than you realize because God says, I am that I am.

Three times, matter of fact, in verse 14, that this I am occurs, and all of them are representative forms of the Hebrew verb to be.

In each case, they're all related to the divine name Yahweh, in which God reveals things about Himself.

You say, What do you mean, I am that I am?

That says a whole lot, actually, because from God's name, God's saying, I I am, therefore I cause to be.

There's a lot we can extrapolate from that.

Let me just give you five things we take away from God's revelation of himself, of his name.

Number one, we we we we realize that God is self-existent, and therefore he's not dependent on anything else for his own existence.

He's self-existent.

What does that mean?

That means he's self-disclosing, he's self-defined, he's self-sustaining, he needs nothing from humanity.

The Bible tells us in Acts 17, he says, I'm not served by human hands as if I needed anything.

He says in Isaiah chapter 40, about verse 16, the cedars of Lebanon are not sufficient for altar fires, nor are its animals.

Isaiah 40 · chapter mention

Translation, if you're thinking of building an altar and making a sacrifice to atone for your sinfulness against the backdrop of my holiness, there isn't enough wood and enough animals in the whole nation of Lebanon.

And God says, just think about me in those terms.

If your view of God is ever getting a little bit small and a little bit horizontal, just read the 40th chapter of Isaiah, and you will walk away with a big view of God.

Because God says, I'm so holy, and you catcher so by nature sinful, that you could take all the wood in this country and all the animals, and it's not even a good starting point.

God is self-existent, and therefore he's not dependent on anything for his own existence.

Second thing we take away that God is the creator and sustainer of all that exists.

I am that I am.

I don't have a beginning, I don't have an ending, I just am.

You tell him, I am sent me.

He's the creator and the sustainer of all that exists.

The Bible says it this way: Hebrews chapter 1, verse 1.

Hebrews 1:1

He says, Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he's spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, and through whom also he created the world.

He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.

When the Jehovah's Witness rings your doorbell and gives you a little magazine called the Watchtower and says, We all believe the same things, you open your Bibles, Hebrews chapter 1, and say, Tell me what you believe about Jesus.

Hebrews 1 · chapter mention

Is Jesus the Son of God?

And you gotta pin them down, which is like nailing jello to the wall, because they do not believe what the Bible says.

When the Bible says very clearly he of Jesus, he is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.

They don't believe that.

The Bible goes on to say, not only that, but he upholds the universe by the word of his power.

The universe stays together by the word of by the power of God's word.

Not because we're picking up trash on the side of the highways, though that's that that that's a good thing.

Not because we recycle, though that's a good thing.

Not because we we we we we raised a lot of money in the name of global warming, but my hope is not in Al Gore.

And if yours is, I need to see you right after the service, right down here.

No, no, see, the third thing we take away from God about God just saying, I am that I am.

Thirdly, we take away that God is immutable and in his be in his being and his character, and thus is not in the process of becoming something different from what he is.

Let me say that again.

That God is immutable.

I am that I am.

That's why the Bible says that he's the same yesterday, today, and forever.

God is immutable in his being and character, and thus is not in the process of becoming something different from what he is.

The word immutable means unchanging or unable to be changed.

You say, uh, okay.

Uh uh, I'm gonna bring us down to where we live.

But I I want to invite you to think just for a little bit about what all is revealed about God and God just saying, Hey, who shall I tell him sent me?

Okay, you tell him, I am that I am sent you.

Oh, oh, oh, okay.

Uh-uh, uh, all right.

You want to unpack that?

Maybe this will help us get at it.

You ever get to know someone, and in the process of getting to know that person, you realize that they might not be who you thought they were when you first met them?

Hello?

Yeah, yeah.

Guys, you ever gone on a date?

First date goes great, second date goes good, and you're just curious, and the third date, you're kind of like about 20 minutes in, you're like, yep, this is as bad as I thought it was gonna be.

And you're like breaking your friends off a text, hey man, text me with an emergency or something.

No, you're stuck, you ain't going nowhere.

I mean, you've had dinner, you've had drinks, you've had whatever you do on a date, and you're kind of like, whoa, whoa, whoa.

There's not a worse feeling in the world than as you get to know, the more you get to know somebody, the more you realize they are not who you thought they were.

Or you have this sneaking suspicion when you first meet them, and then over time it becomes bigger and bigger and bigger, and finally it gets kind of realized, yep, that's who they really are.

You know the feeling I'm talking about?

Hello?

You'll never have that feeling with God because he's immutable in his character, he's unchanging.

See, so once you get to know who God is, and he says, Hey, who shall I tell him?

God said, This is this is who you tell him sent you.

Because once you get to know who God is and what he's really like, he's unchanging.

Fourth thing we take away from uh about God from from just God's name, God's revelation of himself, is that God is eternal in his existence.

God is eternal in his existence.

Don't try to write all these things down, just let it just kind of wash over you this morning.

What's the big deal?

Well, two things.

Without an eternal something, you cannot have creation, nor can you have God.

And let's think just for a little bit.

Are you engineers in the house?

Look at me.

Without something being eternal, then there's two things that you cannot have.

Number one, you cannot have creation, nor can you have God.

Well, why can't you have creation?

Something has to exist before creation in order to create it.

Doesn't that make sense?

If you have creation, then something has to exist before creation in order to create creation from nothing.

Why the Bible starts in Genesis 1.1 and says, in the beginning, God.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

But before God created, God existed.

We don't know how much time that was.

We have no frame of reference for a world in which God didn't exist.

Though our culture and our politicians are trying to get us to a world where God doesn't exist, there's no such place as that.

You've never known that place in your head.

So when I say that God is eternal in his existence, see, something has to exist before creation in order to create it.

And secondly, if God is created or whoever or whatever created him was more powerful than God and deserves our worship.

Your kids will ask this question.

You teach your kids about creation, you know, Adam and Eve and Noah and the Ark and Moses and the Ten Commandments and all this stuff.

And eventually out of the backseat of a biddivan comes this question: Hey, mom and dad, who made God?

And you and don't get offended, like, oh, don't ask those kind of questions.

God's not afraid of questions.

I have cynical scientific friends that think they're so smart, and they're like, well, you know, you know, I know you, Neil, do you really believe that the earth is only 6,000 years old?

We've got fossils that are 35 million years old, blah, blah, blah.

And so the day I just said, You want to be scientific?

I'll drop a little something on you right here.

So I said to a friend of mine, I said, Hey, let me ask you this question.

Have you ever read much of the Bible?

Not really.

Imagine my surprise.

I said, but in the Bible, there's a Jesus in John chapter 2, Jesus is at a wedding in Cana, and they run out of wine.

John 2 · chapter mention

And Jesus' mom comes to him and says, Hey, they're out of wine.

And Jesus is like, Why is that my problem?

And he said, Well, can you do something?

And Jesus says, Hey, fill these pots full of water, bring them to me.

And he turns the water into wine.

And everyone there raises a glass and says, Man, you saved the best wine for last.

Usually people get out the good stuff, and after you get a buzz going, then they break out the mad dog 2020 or the boons fun.

You know what I'm talking about?

Yeah, you know what I'm talking about, some of you cheap drunks.

And so Jesus is like, hey, since sometimes they break out the watered down bad stuff, but Jesus, you saved the best for last.

Let me ask you a question, all you wine connoisseurs in here, you somoliers or whatever.

What makes wine good?

Age.

Time.

And so I said to my friend, he's like, What's this gonna do with the old earth is?

Jesus in a nanosecond created wine that had the character and the quality of aging.

Could he not create an earth that has the same qualities?

And Scooby-Doo showed up.

And the other guy says, see, here's your problem.

You think all Christians are idiots.

And so now you're stuck.

So I'm gonna be like a rapper and just drop the mic and walk away.

Let me think about it.

I'll get back to you.

Come on back.

Because this is like a buffet.

Take all you want, but eat all you take.

Oh, real funny, McClendon.

By the way, people that call me by my last name are not really my friends, they're acquaintances.

My name is Neil, and your logic is pathetic.

But by the way, his issue, because somebody came up to me afterwards and said, you know, I'd love to talk to you about the young earth, you know, creation.

His issue is not creationism, his issue is morality.

He lives with a woman.

And he does not want there to be a God because if there's a God, if there's right and wrong, he's living in sin.

So his life limits what he can believe.

But say that again.

Okay, thank you.

His issue is not creation.

He he's he's so entangled in this issue is morality because he lives with a woman and they live in sin.

And he's like, Well, you think what I'm doing is sin?

No, no, I don't determine sin.

Something's wrong because of who God is.

See, this all goes back to who God is.

Because if there is no God, if there is no God who says, Hey, I spoke the world into existence, if there's not a God, then you're not accountable to him.

But it's why Paul says in Acts 17, he's talking to these real smart people, The Europhagus, he said he talks about God.

And the first thing he says is that he he talks about God as creator and said he made from one man all races of men.

And basically what Paul says to them is because God created you, you're ultimately accountable to God in a way you're not accountable to anybody or anything else.

My friend's issue is not creationism and how old is the earth.

My friend's issue is I want to do what I want and I don't want anybody to tell me it's wrong.

And so your issue, some of you is not, well, the guy in Africa, what about him?

He never gonna hear.

No, no, no.

The Bible is very clear in Romans chapter 1.

Romans 1 · chapter mention

Maybe knowing about God is obvious because God has made it obvious so that men are without excuse.

That man in Africa is not using you as an excuse, and if you're using him, you're building your life on a faulty foundation.

Because the Bible says, well, you just creation redounds to God's existence, and so God is eternal in his existence.

This is who God is.

Well, what's the big deal?

Here's the big deal.

The fifth one is that God is personal.

He said, You tell him, I am, sent me to you.

Now just just breathe that in for a minute.

I am.

This God, being all that he is, all these things we just talked about, has sent me, Moses, a guilty murderer who's on the run out here, who God appeared to me in a burning bush that was on fire but didn't burn up, and he is.

Sent me to you.

Remember the last time Moses tried to try to lead out among the Israelites?

He ended up killing a man.

And they said, What are you going to do?

Kill me like you killed the other guy?

And he takes off for the far country.

See, God's not looking for perfect people.

God's looking for willing people.

The only thing that makes Moses worth listening to is that he's heard from God because God is personal.

So God says, Hey, who sent you?

You tell him, I am.

Who am I?

I am that I am.

And you tell him, I am, has sent me to you.

What Moses is thinking is, hey, I know that God being who he is, has sent someone like me being who I am to a people like you that nobody wants.

You're destitute slaves over here in the land of Egypt.

And God has set his affections on you.

What does God know about himself and about us that he's kind of saying, Come on, let's get out of here.

I got a plan and a purpose for you bigger than what you're enduring right now.

That's why some of you women stay in relationships longer than you should, because you don't believe that.

You don't believe God has a plan and a purpose bigger than right now.

So you just stay there.

God says, No, I'm very personal.

I want you to know my name.

I am.

And Moses is like, does this not blow your mind like it does mine?

And the people are like, Maybe.

See, the place where if becomes when is in the presence of an immutable, gloriously sufficient, eternal creator God.

Second thing the text tells us is why does God distinguish himself?

Why God distinguishes himself.

In verse 15, and God also said to Moses, I don't have time to go into this today, but let me just say this.

When the Bible says God also said to Moses, sometimes when you read things in the Bible and you get that moment of inspiration, you want to get up and just go out and tell everybody and write about it on Facebook and go sit in Starbucks and go, guess what?

I was reading the Bible this morning, and this is what the Lord showed me.

Sometimes when you get that sense of revelation come over you, just sit down and stay there.

There's more to come.

There's, don't just get, oh wow, whoa! My liver quivered.

Let me go tell somebody.

No, just stay put.

And God also said to Moses, say this to the people of Israel, the Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has sent me to you.

This is my name forever.

And thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.

Why is God saying, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob?

Why does God distinguish Himself?

Because their culture was very polytheistic, very pantheistic, and very synchristic.

He said, What do you mean?

To get at this question why God over and over repeats, I'm the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, is because the people had forgotten.

The people had forgotten.

The father stopped telling their children about the goodness and the greatness of God and the law of God.

And so in this time, when we come on the scene, this is what their belief system was a mix of three main elements: polytheism, which is the worship, or the belief in multiple gods.

That's polytheism.

Pantheism, everything and everyone is God.

Just God's everywhere.

God's in the tree.

That's what Oprah Winfrey believes.

God's in all of us.

God's in the in the piano.

He's in the wood.

He's in the wall.

God's in everything.

Just everything.

And then syncretism, which is the mixing of different religions, which results in a new religion.

Take a little bit of Eastern mysticism, a little bit of Christianity, a little bit of Islam.

That's very popular.

We better not bother them.

A little bit of this, and we mix it all together, and you've got this homogeneous vat of mediocrity that no one can make sense of.

That's the culture of Exodus.

Now, fast forward to 2015.

Polytheism, the worship or the of or the belief in multiple gods.

In a culture that's dogmatic about pragmatism, that being, hey, whatever works is right or true, polytheism is a natural outcome.

That's our culture, beloved.

We're polytheistic.

We'll just, whatever works.

Whatever works.

I'm gonna believe the God of the Bible until I stop making money in business, then we'll hop on something else.

Pantheism, everything and everyone is God.

See, what I'm telling you, in no uncertain terms, is our culture hasn't moved very far since the time of Exodus.

What do you mean, everything and everyone is God?

Well, this is why people get really upset with a dentist from Minnesota who goes on African safari and shoots a lion named Cecil.

Hear about that this week?

That poor guy can't even go.

For those of you who've been in a cave and haven't seen, because we we have moral outrage.

There are people at his dentist office, the guy paid$65,000 to go on an African safari, and all you Peter people relax.

If I had$65,000, I would not spend it on that, okay?

But he did, and he shot a lion, and people, because by the way, Cecil the Lion has his own webpage.

This week's sign, the apocalypse is upon us, okay?

Uh this line has no you can log on and go watch the line.

And and the guy shot the line.

I mean, it was months ago, and people just found out.

Oh my gosh, Cecil of the Lion is dead, and people are going berserk.

They're at his office with signs you're a murderer.

They're at his home, they're at his vacation home.

Every night on the news they give updates.

Where's the dentist?

We're gonna extradite him back to Africa so he can stay in charges for what?

Being a good shot.

Let me bring it down to where we are.

See, pantheism, everything and everyone is God.

That lion has just as much right to life as you do.

That's what pantheists believe.

Hey, don't waste your moral outrage on that.

If you want to get morally outraged, let it bother you that Planned Parenthood is selling the body parts of aborted fetuses.

Because I can't hear you talk to me about a lion.

Or the fact, oh, his brother may have got shot too.

My God, let's stop the presses.

Are you really that dumb?

That's a horrible word.

My wife will talk to me when I get home tonight.

You shouldn't have said that.

I'm not calling you dumb.

Are we that dumb?

Are we that non-discerning that we just swallow whatever comes through the TV?

You know what?

They shot Cecil, you bad man.

And you got educated fools auctioning off the parts of abortive fetuses.

And you're not you're not mad about that.

No one's down here planned parenthood on 59 with signs.

See, because the polytheism is still part of our culture, syncretism, the mixing of different religions, which results in a new religion.

In such a world, no one's right.

Uh, but you're allowed to be earnest and sincere, and the most prized virtue is tolerance.

This is why uh, if your kids like my kids go to public school, nothing against public school, but uh they call it character development.

And each week on the sign out in front of the elementary school, and they say, This week's character trait, tolerance.

And I would tell my kids, hey, hey, be Christ-like to your friends, but don't be so open-minded, your brains fall out.

Dad, I'm in the first grade, I don't know what that means.

Well, think about it.

And out there once in a while I'll just stop, roll down my window, and ask the crossing guard, hey, you you all these kids just non-discernally swallow the stuff y'all teach?

Because hey, hey, tolerance is the virtue of a person without convictions.

Let the character trait be conviction.

It's never gonna happen.

And I'm not hate on the public school.

I I I don't besides academically, I don't see a whole lot of difference in private school, homeschool, and public school kids.

Uh-oh.

Did you feel that?

Uh-oh.

Some of y'all just like, what's your email address?

I'm just I'm I'm just saying, we we we we gotta be careful that because this the syncretism, here's where syncretism shows up in your yoga class.

Let's exhale all this negative energy and breathe in peace.

Does anybody ever raise their hand?

Hey, your crazy new age self needs to shut up.

I'm gonna go home and do this in my garage by myself.

Now, am I saying yoga's bad?

No, no, so far I've offended homeschoolers, yoga people, PETA, hunters.

I'm hitting for the cycle today.

No, I just, just, just, just syncretism.

It just all kind of gets just right.

Here's what God says.

God says, hey, this is my name forever.

This is my name forever.

And thus I'm to be remembered throughout all generations.

Why is this a big deal?

Here's why it's a big deal.

God says, the rest of Exodus is God living up to his name.

God saying, Remember me, because this is who I'm gonna be for the rest of your life.

And why here's a question I want you to think about today.

Would you not want something that certain to build your life on?

That's what God says.

He just says, Hey, this, this, this is me.

Thirdly and finally, what we see in the text under this banner, this life's ultimate question: Who are you?

I mean, who do I tell them?

God, what are you like?

Who are you?

One of the things that God reveals in response to that is that he says, I know the past, the present, and the future.

Look at verse 16.

He's still talking.

He says, Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt, and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.

And they will listen to your voice.

And you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us, and now please let us go a three-day journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.

Verse 19, but I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand.

So, I just so happen to have a mighty hand right here, and I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it.

And but when God says wonders, he's talking about plagues.

Because what what what it's not that God's hard or harsh, but Pharaoh's gonna wonder could it be that there's a God in this world who's more powerful than me?

And afterwards, he will let you go.

And I will give the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians.

When you go, you will not go empty.

And he goes on.

Why?

Why is it a big deal that you say God knows the past, the present, and the future?

Because we live in a church culture that does that no longer believes in the sovereignty of God.

What's become popular is what's known as open theism or open theology or the openness of God, which this is what open theism is, beloved.

This is not biblical, but it's popular in some churches.

Basically, it says that God is open to the possibilities that his plans change according to the circumstances.

If he knew what was to happen, then he would do something about it.

So obviously he doesn't know, or else none of this bad stuff would happen.

When hardships arise, God is as shocked and surprised as we are.

God doesn't have exhaustive knowledge of the future because much of the future depends on the free will actions of human beings.

Open theism says, hey, how can God know that which doesn't exist because we haven't exercised our free will and done what we're gonna do?

And so, how can God know the non-existent?

There's people in churches in America who believe and teach that.

Let me give you one that's popular.

His name's John Eldridge.

He writes books that men read all the time.

Somebody gave me one, it's sitting on my desk.

Thought you might like this.

Probably not.

Why not?

Because he's an open theist.

What do you mean?

Read one of his books.

He always talks, here's the phrase all through his books: God takes risks.

Here's my question: How can a sovereign being risk anything?

See, because to get you to take risks, to get you to go out in the woods and beat the drum and get in touch with your inner man child or whatever you do, we've got to say God takes risks.

If God knows everything, like the Bible says, that he's omniscient, the past, present, and future, he says to the Israelites, hey, I've seen, I've observed all that happened to you.

I got that, I got that.

I've seen it all.

And here, that's the past.

Here's what I'm gonna do now.

And by the way, you're gonna go to the king of Egypt and you're gonna say, Let my people go, and he's gonna say no, because unless he's compelled by a mighty hand, and I just so happen to have one right here.

Again, help me, beloved.

How can a sovereign God, an all-knowing God, take risks?

It sells books, but it's horrible theology, it's not in the Bible.

That's why, men, you should look at your 15-year-old daughters and say, you don't have to be boy crazy.

You don't have to be on Tinder and the vine and Instagram and all this stuff, hoping that some boy notices you.

Because if you believe what God demonstrates about himself right here, that he knows the past, the present, and the future.

Then how could you live?

Could you not just rest in that as a 15-year-old guy or girl and kind of go, you know what, I'm not gonna chase all this stuff?

Because my God is sovereign, he knows my future, and I entrust myself to the certainty of his nature, not the uncertainty of your nature.

So no, I'm not interested in having a boyfriend at 15.

That sounds crazy.

I know.

If you're 15 in the room right now, you hate me.

You're like, what I'm glad I'm not your kid.

I got two daughters, and I tell them with frequency, all the boys that you know have no idea how to meet your needs.

Okay?

Because it's not their responsibility.

That's your future husband.

Are you ready to get married?

No.

Then why do you even think about a relationship?

And I've convinced my daughter, who'll be a senior this year, do not start a relationship.

It's a waste of your emotional energy.

You're going off to college in less than a year.

And she's like, that makes sense, Dad.

I tell you, beloved, miracles never cease.

See, here's the comfort for all of us today.

Let me just bring this down to where we live and then we'll be done.

You still with me?

Here's where this gets where because here's the deal.

If God doesn't know the past, present, and the future, then how on earth do you comfort the person with cancer?

Well, God didn't know this was coming.

Man, he's just as surprised as you are.

How can you worship a God like that?

I would trust myself over a God like that because he doesn't know any more than I do.

And in fact, his knowledge is dependent on me exercising my free will.

That's no God at all.

So the comfort for all of us today is because God knows the past.

You don't have to hide.

Can you imagine nothing from your past having power over you?

Someone coming up to you and saying, Hey man, do people know about blah, blah, blah?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And thank you for reminding me because it just makes me marvel at the forgiveness of God.

He is so incredible.

The comfort for all of us today is because God knows the present.

You don't have to be overwhelmed.

That's not to say it's not going to feel overwhelming some days.

You just gotta say, you know what, God, this is this is bigger than me, but it's not bigger than you.

And that sustains me on days like today.

The comfort for all of us today is because God knows the future.

You don't have to be alone.

I mean, can you imagine Moses talking about a fool's errand?

Hey, go to Pharaoh and tell him, let my people go.

Are you serious?

I mean, he's gonna say no.

I know he's gonna say no.

Unless he's compelled by a mighty hand, and I just so happen to have one right here.

No, not because God's ruthless or hateful.

God said, Let my people go.

But God knew what Pharaoh was gonna do.

See, we we we we create God in our own image when we say things like, Well, my God's God of love.

My God would never create anybody who never had a chance to go to heaven.

You have a problem with Pharaoh.

You have a real problem.

And so God says, in response to who am I, who shall I tell him?

You tell him that the God who knows the past, present, and the future sent you.

You tell him that the God who distinguishes himself, who either is radically, radically insecure, or he knows something about himself that he invites us to come and experience when he says, My name will be remembered through all generations.

He says, I'm I'm the God who my presence, if, becomes when.

And maybe that's your big takeaway today.

Maybe that's just a shift that you make.

Maybe you're tired of being conditional about everything.

Well, if this and if that and if this and if that, and I'm gonna I I'm gonna continue to believe this God and Jesus thing until a boy comes along, and if he didn't believe in Jesus, then I'm gonna set Jesus aside and get me a boyfriend.

That's called idolatry.

And God's like going, you don't think I know the future?

You don't think I know what you need?

Hello?

Who am I?

Have you forgotten?

I'm the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.

I've been relating to these people for a long time.

When they've forgotten me, I remembered them.

And maybe you could just move from if, from the conditional if to the certainty of when.

I had a conversation this week with a friend over coffee, and I just said, he said, how you know you're maturing in the Christian life?

I said, your natural response is the will of God, not the unwill of God.

It's the will of your natural response to circumstances is the will of God, not the will of man.

He's like, What do you mean?

When I'm at Kroger and the guy in front of me gets his change and forgets that the dollar bills come out down there, he starts walking off.

I don't think the Lord moves in mysterious ways, his wonders to perform.

Thank you.

My natural response is hey, hey, hey, you forgot your money.

And he's like, Oh man, thank you.

No, no, no cookie for me.

I'm supposed to do the right thing.

And everybody in Kroger's like, who told you that?

Yeah.

That's how you know you're mentoring as a Christian.

Your natural response is the will of God, not the will of man.

Let's pray together.

The comforting reality about God knowing the past, present, and the future.

That doesn't mean that bad things aren't going to happen.

They are.

Some of you in this room are walking through bad things.

The last service, we had a man in here with a brain tune and a woman battling breast cancer.

Starts chemo tomorrow.

And it's okay if you're like, well, how could a good God let this happen?

That the issue is not that God let it happen, but when did he allow it to happen?

He allowed it to happen back in the garden when he said to Adam and Eve, You're free.

You're free to eat of any tree in the garden.

And man exercised his free will to sin, to not trust God.

And as a result of that, sin entered into the world.

And so, with sin, we have death, we have disease, we have discord, we have all kinds of craziness.

So you don't shake your fist at God.

Instead, you say, even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly.

So the Bible says that this creation is groaning like a woman in the pains of a childbirth.

Let's think about these things, beloved.

Maybe while you're thinking, you could just ask yourself, how could I live this week if I really believe that God knows the past, the present, and the future?

How could I live?

What could I relax about that I'm fearful about?

What could I forgive myself for that I've never been able to forgive myself?

He knows your past.

You don't have to hide.

Awesome in glory, majestic in holiness, and working wonders.

Because they lived in a very pantheistic age as well.

Where people said, All roads lead to God, just pick your favorite idol.

And you distinguish yourself from all these other false gods who are no God at all.

By your consistent faithfulness to your people, and nothing about you has changed.

That's still the way you want to be towards us.

You want to distinguish yourself from all the other things that our friends and family believe by your consistent posture towards us.

We testify to your reality because of our consistent posture back towards you in the good times and the bad and the bad.

The rain falls on the righteous and the unrighteous.

And so, Holy Spirit, we take great comfort by the reality of who you are and your presence in our lives.

Stand to your feet, hold your hands out, and we speak a blessing over you.

Your God is the star maker, which is why the Bible says that none of the stars is missing, and each is in its place.

If your God acts with that much detail to creation, then how much detail does he have as it relates to your life?

Depart now and live in the joy of this reality in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you.

You dismiss.