Our Amazing God: Moses and the Burning Bush

What a blessing, thank you.

Yeah, very quickly about myself and our family.

We're the Dubnicks, my wife Christy, and we have two young children.

Young in the sense they are to me, but they're not to themselves.

They're both students at Anderson University.

And we've been in Birmingham, England for 16 years.

Birmingham is the second largest city in the United Kingdom.

It's a city of around four and a half million people.

In our city, the evangelical Christian population is about 1%.

We have over 200 mosques just in our downtown area.

Islam, by far the fastest growing religion.

We've been there 16 years.

I kind of have a dual role.

I'm a church planter, so an elder at a local church that we helped plant about 12 years ago now.

We've now planted two more churches out of that.

So we have a network of churches that are meeting across Birmingham.

But then also for the International Mission Board,

I serve as supervisor for all of our work in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

So that would be England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and Northern Ireland.

So that would be about 40 adults and all their children.

I think when we're all together, there's about 150 of us with kids.

And we supervise that work.

And we still find folks who, maybe like yourself, are quite surprised that we as Southern Baptists

have missionaries in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

You might think, well, that's the home of Charles Spurgeon and John Wesley and Charles Wesley.

Why do we need missionaries there?

Well, I'll give you one example.

And that is the nation of Ireland.

Ireland is, interestingly enough, population-wise,

it's almost identical to the state of South Carolina.

So it's about 5.1 million people.

So a little over 5 million people in South Carolina,

a little over 5 million people in Ireland.

Right now, the South Carolina Baptist Convention,

we have almost 2,000 Baptist churches in South Carolina.

In Ireland, we have 32.

We have 32.

So it would be like if you had 32 churches for all of South Carolina.

So the evangelical population of Ireland is 0.4.

So it's 99.6% lost.

And so we are doing the work like all of our missionaries are doing around the world.

And that is sharing the gospel, making disciples, and planting churches.

Now, I'll confess, sometimes in the midst of the work,

and maybe you're like me,

maybe you experience discouragement sometimes.

Maybe things aren't going the way you would like to see them go.

Maybe the Lord's not quite working the way you would like to see Him work.

And maybe you're a bit like me.

And that is sometimes I can lose focus.

I can lose sight of who God is.

In fact, Caleb, put that first slide up for us.

Anybody recognize one of these?

If it was that big at the doctor's office, you wouldn't need glasses.

Amen?

Right?

I just got new glasses, actually, about a month ago.

Now, here's the thing about needing glasses.

And unless you have something drastic happen medically,

the truth is our eyes lose focus very gradually.

It's quite unusual that you just wake up one morning and everything's blurry.

It tends to happen over time.

And you kid yourself by doing things like squinting and moving closer.

But you know in the back of your mind you probably need what?

You probably need glasses, right?

And sometimes, for me, that can happen spiritually.

Sometimes, for me, I can gradually lose focus.

I can gradually lose sight of who God is.

Before you know it, I wake up and spiritually, life is a bit blurry.

Maybe you're a bit like that.

I'm not sure.

And so, I want us to spend just a few moments in the Word of God this morning.

And I want us, if you will, to get a spiritual eye exam.

I want us to refocus and remember who God is.

Because we who know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, we serve an amazing God.

Amen, church?

And I'll be the first to confess, I lose sight of that sometimes.

I lose sight of it in my marriage.

I lose sight of it in my parenting.

And certainly living in a country where 99% of the people do not know Jesus,

I can lose sight of the fact that our God is an amazing God.

So, we're going to spend just a few moments just refocusing on who God is.

And so, I want to invite you to turn to the book of Exodus chapter 3.

Exodus 3 · chapter mention

The book of Exodus chapter 3.

Exodus 3 · chapter mention

And we're going to begin in verse 1.

And probably, for many of us, a familiar account.

Exodus chapter 3.

Exodus 3 · chapter mention

And we're going to begin in verse 1.

And just to remind us of the context, Moses, who has spent most of his life living a life of privilege in Egypt.

If you remember, Moses committed murder.

As a result, he is on the run.

And he has made his way to the wilderness, met a woman.

They have been married now.

And he has now went from a life of privilege in Egypt to the life of a shepherd.

Among, for him, what would be in many ways foreigners.

And this is where we pick up in Exodus chapter 3, beginning in verse 1.

Exodus 3 · chapter mention

True story.

This is what the Bible says.

Now, Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian.

And he led the flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush.

And Moses looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed.

And so Moses said, I must turn aside now and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up.

Now, when the Lord saw that Moses had turned aside to look,

God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses.

Moses said, here I am.

And then the Lord said, do not come near here.

Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.

And he said also, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

And then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt

and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings.

So I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians

and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land,

to a land flowing with milk and honey,

to the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite.

Now behold, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to me.

And furthermore, I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians are oppressing them.

Therefore, come now and I will send you to Pharaoh

so that you may bring my people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.

But Moses said to God, who am I?

Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh

and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?

And God said, certainly I will be with you

and this shall be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you.

When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain.

And then Moses said to God, behold, I'm going to the sons of Israel

and I will say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you.

Now they may say to me, what is his name?

In this case, what shall I say to them?

And God said to Moses, I am who I am.

And he said, thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, I am has sent me to you.

God furthermore said to Moses, thus you shall say to the sons 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.

And this is my name forever.

And this is my memorial name to all generations.

Now go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them,

the Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,

has appeared to me saying, I am indeed concerned about you

and what has been done to you in Egypt.

Let's pray together.

Lord Jesus, we thank you for your word.

We thank you, Lord, that it is true.

And Lord, as we spend just these next few moments just looking at your word,

we just want to confess that without your spirit, we cannot understand it.

And so Holy Spirit, just pray that you would open our minds,

give us understanding of your word.

We ask Holy Spirit that you would soften our hearts,

that we might be changed and transformed by your word.

And we pray now in these next moments that you would speak to us,

your people, for your glory and for our good.

We humbly ask in Jesus' name.

Amen.

An amazing account.

An amazing account of a man being sent on a mission.

A man being sent out by God to do something for God.

And how God begins by enabling Moses to refocus and to understand who God is.

And so let's just quickly see four simple truths in the text.

Now, we have a culture at our church where we write things down.

I would encourage you to write these things down,

not because I'm saying it, but because they're in the word.

Four simple truths about who God is.

Number one, we see this.

Number one, as followers of Jesus, we serve a powerful God.

Amen.

As followers of Jesus, we serve a powerful God.

I mean, look here, verses two and three.

Look what happens.

He says,

And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush.

And he looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed.

I mean, so picture this.

See, can you imagine coming out your front door and you look over at your azalea and it's on fire, but it's not burning up.

And you're looking at me like that would be normal at your house.

I'm assuming it would not be.

Amen.

Right.

And then there's this beautiful understatement.

I love these understatements.

And Moses said, hmm, I'll turn aside and see this great sight.

Right.

Like Moses looks and it's like, what in the world is going on?

Like this bush is burning, but it's not consumed.

And this is just the first of countless displays of the power of God that Moses will see.

Moses will see staffs turn to snakes.

Moses will see oceans part.

Moses will see enemies conquered.

Moses will see water from a rock.

Moses will see manna in the morning.

He's going to see all of it.

This is just the first foretaste of the power of God that he's going to experience.

And as we refocus and we remind ourselves who God is, let us not forget that we serve a powerful God.

You know, I think some of the best songs we sing are kids songs.

I really do.

You ever sing, what a mighty God we serve?

Has that not made it to Pickens?

Y'all sing that?

What a mighty God we serve.

Y'all know that one?

What a mighty God we serve.

Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.

Right?

Y'all with me?

Right?

We serve a mighty God.

He is a powerful God.

Look at the person beside you and say, God is a big, big God.

Do it.

He is a big, big, powerful God.

We serve the God who walks on water and who feeds thousands with a kid's lunchbox.

That's the God we serve.

And he is the same God in Pickens as he is in Paris and Easley as he is in Ethiopia.

He is that God.

And we have to be reminded that we, through Jesus Christ, serve a powerful God.

Now, how do we encounter that power today?

We encounter it by his spirit and through the word.

We've already heard testimony this morning about the power of the word of God.

Romans 1.16 says, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the what?

The power of God unto salvation, first to the Jew and then to the Gentile.

It is the power.

That Greek word there in Romans 1.16 is dynamos.

It's where we get our English word dynamite.

It is this book has the dynamite power of God to change lives.

Do you believe that?

Like it's from Genesis to Revelation.

It is one story.

Sixty six books, one story.

And that one story is the good news of the gospel.

That there is a God and he has come to seek and save that which is lost.

And there is power in this word.

At our church plant, it was during COVID, we celebrated our 10-year anniversary at one of our churches.

And as part of our 10-year anniversary, we were just kind of going back and reflecting on what we had seen the Lord do in 10 years.

And in 10 years, by God's grace, we had seen 31 people saved and baptized in 10 years.

And here was the amazing thing.

All 31 who have been saved and baptized, every one of them came to faith in Jesus by studying the Bible.

Every one of them.

And by the way, the quickest turnaround was 18 months.

From the time someone opened this book for the first time to the time they hit the waters of baptism, the quickest turnaround was 18 months.

Spending time in the word.

We prayed over a community not far from our home called Castlevale.

Castlevale is a government housing estate.

There are 10,000 people living in less than one square mile.

So picture the government projects.

10,000 people, one square mile, no church.

And we prayed over that housing estate.

We walked it.

We prayed over it for three years.

Didn't know a single person that lived there.

God opened a door.

We met someone who was a believer.

They invited us in.

And we started a Bible study.

We started with about 21 people.

We just invited, we went door to door to every home, invited 10,000 people.

We had about 25 people who turned up.

And we started studying the Gospel of Mark.

And we met week after week.

And that first week, we were handing out Bibles.

And I looked over to the woman beside me.

And her name was Deb.

And at that time, Deb was 50, white British woman.

And I handed her a Bible.

And when she took hold of it, she said, what's this?

I said, that's a Bible.

And she looked at it oddly.

I said, Deb, have you ever held a Bible?

She said, I've never seen one.

50 years old, white British.

And she had never done that to a Bible.

Had never seen one.

Had never held one.

And we began to open up.

And we studied through the Gospel of Mark.

And we began to go through the Gospel of Mark.

And can I tell you what?

All 25 of them just could not get enough of it.

Why?

Because it's good news.

Do you like good news?

Good news travels fast.

And they could not get enough of the good news.

In fact, when we finished the Gospel of Mark, it was our last night.

And me and one of our elders from our church, we turned up that night.

And some of the ladies started crying.

We're like, what's wrong?

They said, we don't want to stop.

Can we do more?

And so we're trying to think what to do.

And they love movies.

They love to watch TV.

And so we just decided, what if we do the Jesus video?

And so we'll just watch like a 20-minute clip of the life of Jesus.

And then we'll just discuss it.

And so there are about 25 of us, all white British.

And so it's the first night.

And we show a clip.

And it's Jesus at the Sermon on the Mount.

And Jesus walking around with the Pharisees.

And he's talking and doing his thing.

And when we're done, we would just ask these simple questions.

What did you like?

What did you not understand?

What is something new that you learned?

What is something you should do based on what you learned?

And we're asking those questions.

And we get to the question, what is something new that you learned you didn't know?

And they're kind of quiet for a minute.

And then Tracy, Tracy's about 40.

She raises her hand.

We say, Tracy, what did you learn?

She said, well, I'll tell you what.

Something I learned.

And she said, man, that Jesus got nice legs.

I said, I'm sorry.

She said, that Jesus is a good looking man.

And all the women started going, mm-hmm.

I was thinking the same thing.

He's a good looking fella.

And so I look at my friend.

And he looks at me.

He's like, I'm not taking this one.

And it had never occurred to me.

And I said, oh, I'm so sorry.

Does everyone understand that's not really Jesus?

Like that's an actor.

And there was silence.

And then they all exploded in laughter.

They really thought it was Jesus.

No context.

They don't even know when he lived.

Right?

And through this book, and through the power of the gospel, Deb came to faith.

She was the first person we ever baptized on the mission field.

It was a special day.

I even wore my University of South Carolina t-shirt when I baptized her.

Oh, come on, church.

Amen.

I know.

I know.

I know.

I'll do Clemson the next time, right?

Baptized Deb.

Can I tell you what?

About six months later, her 18-year-old daughter came to faith.

And just one after another.

And now the grandparents are with us every Sunday.

They haven't come to faith yet.

You pray for Roy and Diane.

They're 80 and 79.

They have not come to faith yet, but it's just a matter of time.

And they cannot get enough of this book.

And through the power of the gospel, three generations are going to come to be in heaven together.

Amen, church?

We serve a powerful God.

Secondly, we see this.

As followers of Jesus, we serve a powerful God, but we also serve a personal God.

We serve a personal God.

Look back at your Bible.

Look at what he says in verse 4.

He says,

When the Lord saw that he, meaning Moses, had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush and said, what?

Moses, Moses.

Now, we, of course, fast forward.

And Moses is trying to think, you know, how's this going to work?

Because you're sending me to the leaders of Israel.

And I'm supposed to tell them I have a message from you.

How's that going to work?

Who are you?

And we see in verse 14.

And God said to Moses, I am who I am.

This is what you are to say to the Israelites.

I am has sent me.

Don't miss this, right?

God knew Moses by name.

And he wanted Moses to know him by name.

Let me say that again.

God knew Moses by name.

He doesn't say when the Lord saw that he came over, he didn't say, hey, man, man.

Person, person.

No, he knew him by name.

Jesus said, even the very number of hairs on our head are numbered.

He loves you that much.

Look at the person beside you and say, God knows you by name.

Go ahead.

Go ahead.

And I tell you what, when you know and love Jesus, that brings a smile to your face.

Amen.

He knows you by name.

He is a powerful God, but he is a personal God.

And really, there's something extremely significant here in this passage.

This is the first time in history that God reveals his name to a human.

The word Yahweh there, it's the very first time in the Bible that God tells him he didn't do this with Abraham.

He didn't do it with Isaac.

He didn't do it with Jacob.

None of the patriarchs knew his name, his personal name.

But this is the first time.

And Moses is the first person in human history to know God's name.

I am Yahweh.

After this time, it's used 5,590 times in the Bible.

After this.

We forget, sometimes I forget God has a name.

I just call him God.

It'd be like calling Pastor Daniel man, right?

No, he has a name.

Well, God has a name.

He says his name is Yahweh.

He wanted Moses to know him.

And can I tell you, I take great comfort in that.

Because that means God knows you.

He knows your family.

He knows your needs.

He knows your situation.

He knows what's going on in your life.

He knows what's going on in the life of your children.

He knows about your workplace.

He knows your challenges.

He knows your valleys.

He knows your peaks.

He knows all about you.

And he radically, radically loves you.

He knows you by name.

Knows you by name.

I met someone recently who got to meet the queen.

And they're trying not to brag.

But it'd be kind of hard not to brag about meeting the queen, right?

And I remember just having this little twinge of jealousy.

Just this little twinge.

Because they were telling me, actually, they talked more about the food than they did the queen.

They're like, man, they had like, the food was amazing.

And, you know, and they were going on and on.

And I remember leaving that conversation and just thinking, oh, wow.

Like, woe is me.

I'll never get to meet the queen or the king of England.

And then the Lord just reminded me, yeah, that's true.

You'll never meet the queen or the king of England.

But you've met the king of glory.

The king of glory.

And he knows you by name.

Isn't that wonderful?

Many years ago, Christy and I were at the Southern Baptist Convention in Atlanta, Georgia.

And it was rammed.

And thousands and thousands of pastors and people.

And we saw Charles Stanley.

And Charles Stanley was signing books.

And so I said, hey, Christy, should we go and talk to Charles Stanley?

And she's like, yeah, let's do that.

And so we get in the line.

We get up.

We were probably both in our, like, mid-20s.

We were young.

And we get to, you know, Charles Stanley.

And I'm not sure, like, do I kiss his ring?

Like, I don't know.

He's the closest thing we had to a pope.

Like, what do I do?

He's my hero.

And so we begin talking.

And he immediately looks at me.

And he says, well, Kenny, tell me about yourself.

And I'm like, oh, well, I'm in the Raleigh-Durham area.

And he's like, oh.

And he's asking me about this.

He says, well, Kenny, what about your family?

And we're just, you know, we're just having this amazing conversation.

And he says, well, Kenny, have a wonderful day.

I was like, well, Chuck, you have a wonderful day, too, you know.

And so we walk off.

And I'm, like, buzzing.

I'm absolutely buzzing.

I'm like, Christy, he knew me.

Like, I told you one day, marry me.

It's going to be big.

And we're going to have a TV show.

You'll have pink hair.

It's going to be amazing.

Like, this is happening.

Charles Stanley knows me.

Christy's just listening, listening, listening.

And then she says, are you done?

I'm like, yeah.

She says, well, he could know you by name.

I said, yeah.

She said, or it could be that you're wearing a name tag.

Now, I like to still believe Charles Stanley knew me by name.

But it was probably the name tag.

But Jesus knows me by name.

And Jesus knows you by name.

He knows all your bad stuff.

He knows all your good stuff.

And he loves you just the same.

Amen, church?

Let's refocus and let's remember that as followers of Jesus, we serve a powerful God.

We serve a personal God.

But then thirdly, we see this.

That as followers of Jesus, we serve a perfect God.

As followers of Jesus, we serve a perfect God.

Look what happens in verses 5 and 6.

The Lord says, do not come any closer.

Take off your sandals.

For the place where you are standing is holy ground.

And at this, Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God.

The Lord says, the place where you stand is holy ground.

Moses, you can't get any closer.

You would be consumed by my holiness.

You would be consumed by my goodness.

Like, God is holy.

It has the same meaning in Hebrew here as it would in Greek in the New Testament.

It's that idea of being other, being set apart.

And so, God is other.

He is set apart.

He is not like us.

We live in a world today where holiness is a concept no one understands.

Right?

I mean, holiness is something we don't talk about.

In fact, we don't talk about it a lot of times in our churches.

And yet, the Lord says, you know, in 1 Peter, He says, be ye holy for I am holy.

The Lord says.

It's a command to God's people.

Be holy for I am holy.

Be set apart.

Now, for God to be set apart means He never makes a mistake.

He doesn't sin.

He's, you know, the Bible says Jesus was tempted in every way as a man, yet without sin.

Right?

God is holy.

He is other.

He is set apart.

And that's why Jesus came and died for us.

And Millie, thank you for singing about the blood.

What can wash away my sins?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Right?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

The Bible says, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin, the book of Leviticus says.

And so, because God is holy, because He has set apart, we can't approach Him.

But God has made a way through Jesus Christ.

And through the blood of Christ, we can be in the presence of God.

But this powerful, personal, perfect God, there's another element to His perfection.

And it's this, that we're called to be holy.

And that phrase, particularly in the New Testament, it means to be set apart, to be used.

To be set apart, to be used.

So, when we lived in North Carolina, we owned some land at the backside of our house.

And I would have to cut that.

And so, we had a John Deere riding lawnmower.

And I would cut the grass.

And about April, every year, I would take the lawnmower.

And I would take it to a gentleman in our church who owned a lawnmower repair shop.

And what He would do is, He would change the belts.

He would sharpen the blade.

He would oil it.

He would check the gaskets.

He would even wash it and clean it up for me.

Here's what He was doing.

He was setting it aside and making it ready to be used.

He was getting it ready for service.

Are you with me?

Now, that's the word holiness.

God takes you and I.

He washes us.

He works in us and through us, by His Spirit, through the Word, that we might be used by Him and for His glory.

Right?

And so, we have a God who's powerful.

We have a God who's personal, but He's perfect.

And in His perfection, He makes a way for you and I.

He makes a way for our holiness that we might be used for His glory.

But then lastly, we see this.

As followers of Jesus, we encounter this powerful God, this personal God, this perfect God.

But lastly, He is a preserving God.

He is a God who is preserving, who is saving, who is calling out a people for Himself.

Look at verses 7 and 8, and look what He says there.

He says this,

The Lord said,

I've indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt.

I've heard them crying out because of their slave drivers,

and I am concerned about their suffering.

So I've come down to rescue them from the land of the Egyptians,

to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land,

a land flowing with milk and honey.

What's He say there?

He says,

I've come down to rescue them.

Your translation might say deliver them.

That God is preserving a people for Himself.

That He is a God who is actively working in the world through His gospel,

calling men and women to Himself to be saved.

Preserving a people.

Listen, when I walk through the streets of Birmingham, England,

and I hear the Muslim called a prayer,

and I see the Sikh Gurdwara,

and I see the Hindu temple,

and I see the literally millions and millions of people

who have never heard the gospel,

I will remind myself by faith,

Lord, You have people in this city,

and You are preserving a people for Yourself.

You have people in this city,

and You are calling a people to Yourself.

He says,

Go and rescue my people.

And we hear echoes of that

as we then go to Luke 19.10.

And the Scripture says,

Jesus came to do what?

To seek and save that which is lost.

Moses was sent on a rescue mission,

as was the Son of God.

Jesus left all the glories of heaven

to come and seek and save that which is lost.

John 3.17, right?

Jesus did not come into the world to condemn the world,

but that through Him the world might be saved.

Jesus came on a rescue mission.

He died on an old rugged cross.

And three days later,

He was raised to life again.

Oh, death, hell, where is your sting?

Jesus was victorious.

Amen, church?

And He has come to seek and save that which is lost.

He is a preserving God.

He's come to rescue.

He's come to deliver.

Do you know what?

He knows your neighbors by name.

He knows your prodigal by name.

He knows your co-workers by name.

And never miss this.

His deepest heart is to save them.

Amen?

He has come to seek and save that which is lost.

And you and I have the immense privilege

of being His hands,

His feet,

whether it's Pickens or Pakistan.

We have the immense privilege to go

and to share this hope,

to share this good news

that men and women might be rescued.

This book still changes lives.

Do you believe that?

The gospel is still good news.

Jesus is still saving.

He's not finished yet.

And He's called you here at First Baptist.

He's called us to lock arms hand in hand

and to go around this world

starting right here where you are

that men and women, boys and girls,

may know Jesus as Lord and Savior.

Maybe you've come in this morning

and you've never done that for yourself.

Maybe for you,

you've maybe read a bit,

like my friend Deb.

Maybe you've looked at it,

you've thought over it,

but maybe there's never been a time

in your life

when you personally

have asked Jesus Christ

to forgive you of your sins

and to come and change you.

Can I say He loves you?

He knows you by name.

And in just a moment,

you're going to have an opportunity

to do that.

Maybe today's the day

that you need to be rescued

and delivered

and know Jesus Christ

as Lord and Savior.

Maybe you're like me.

And maybe spiritually,

things have been a bit

out of focus lately for you.

Maybe you're facing discouragement.

Maybe you're up against trials.

Maybe it's that sin

that you just can't get victory of.

Maybe it's guilt.

Maybe it's condemnation.

Maybe it's apathy.

Maybe today you just need to say,

Lord, would you just do

something new in my heart?

And Lord, would you help me

once again to just experience

your power?

Would you help me to know

that you know me by name?

Would you do a work in my life

that I might be set apart

for your glory?

Lord, would you work through me

that others might be saved?

Lord, just help me refocus

on who you are.

We're going to have

a time of response.

Maybe we just need to come

and pray for Pickens.

Pray for Easley.

Pray for Greenville.

Pray for the nations.

However the Lord might lead you.

I pray as He speaks.

You'll obey.

Let's stand together.

And as we stand,

our musicians are coming.

Let me lead us in a word of prayer.

And then we're going to sing together.

I surrender all.

Let me pray for us.

Lord Jesus, thank You for Your Word.

Thank You, God, for who You are.

You are a big, powerful God.

There's nothing we will ever face

bigger than You.

There's no challenge

that You can't conquer.

There's no struggle

that You can't give us victory.

You are a big, powerful Savior,

and we praise You.

We thank You, Jesus,

that You know us by name.

You know the very number of hairs

on our head,

that You know us,

and You want us to know You.

Whatever we're going through today,

Lord, You see it,

and Your heart breaks with ours.

Oh, thank You, God,

that You're perfect.

You've never made a mistake.

You are the same yesterday,

today, and forever.

And Lord, thank You

that You work in us and through us,

that we might be used for Your service.

And then, Lord, we thank You

that You are preserving a people for Yourself.

Thank You, Jesus,

that You left the splendor

and glory and majesty of heaven

to come and be born in a barn,

to die on an old rugged cross,

that we might know You as Lord and Savior.

I pray right now, Lord,

for maybe that's one,

the one who's here this morning,

and there's never been a day

when they've known You

as Lord and Savior.

God, I pray that they would call out to You,

confessing You as Lord,

believing in their heart

that You rose from the dead.

Lord, I pray for those of us

who maybe have just lost a bit of focus,

lost sight of who You are.

God, today, would You do a work of renewal

in us and through us.

Lord, have Your way,

we pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.