6,824

Here we are, week three of this series in Exodus.

If we were watching a film, the first couple of chapters would merely be setting the context for the first major scene that comes to us today.

We see God's people had been oppressed for four hundred long years, and God seemed silent in the midst of all of them.

However, God had predicted this in Genesis chapter 15, and he said, at the end of 400 years, it will be followed by a sharp judgment on those who have oppressed you.

Genesis 15 · chapter mention

You know, I'm cautious to go too hard on the Israelites on why they didn't remember this, because I think if my life was as difficult as theirs for as long as theirs was that difficult, I'd probably forget some of God's promises too.

I'd probably feel an urge to blame God instead of turning to God.

And I just wonder if maybe that's some of you here this morning as well.

It's like, well, I just didn't think it was going to be this hard for this long.

And you start to wonder, is God there?

Well, God sends Moses to his people, and they seem to recognize that this is a special child who is being prepared for a special deliverance, and yet in the midst of that, they get hit with not like hitting snooze on their alarm, but an 80-year delay.

Forty years where Moses is in Pharaoh's court, 40 years where Moses is in Midian.

And it's as if God is saying to his people then and his people now and us today, I am not in a hurry.

My timeline is not your timeline, and I know exactly what I'm doing.

Brothers and sisters, God is always right on schedule in his promises and how he chooses to keep them.

And he is working all things for his glory and for our good.

And yet, in our zoomed-in sense in which we live, we need a story like Exodus to help us to zoom out and see that God is never late to keep his promises, and his purposes and intentions are always good.

If you're here and you're not a Christian, I want you to know that I think this story speaks powerfully to you in a unique way.

Like maybe maybe you're at church, for whatever reason you're here, but not super interested in all this religious stuff.

Well, you should know that in Exodus 3, Moses is a very unlikely convert.

And I think you'll see that in his response.

He certainly did not expect to encounter God in the way he did in Exodus 3.

And I just wonder if there are some of you here who didn't necessarily expect to encounter God today.

Yet God has something planned for you that's different than what you've expected today.

And I want you to know I have prayed specifically for you this week that you would encounter the living God in a special way today.

Moses encounters God, Exodus 3, starting in verse 1.

He's tending sheep by what we read is the mountain of God, Mount Horeb.

And immediately we're supposed to see that there is something significant going on, the Mount of God.

Mount Horeb is also sometimes called Mount Sinai.

So you hear Horeb Sinai, it's referring to the same area.

This for Moses would be a place of new beginnings, the mountain of new beginnings.

This is the same mountain where Moses will receive the Ten Commandments from God.

In fact, throughout the book of Exodus, there will be seven different times where the people are going up and down the mountain, up and down the mountain.

Now, we don't know in modern terminology exactly where this is, but the current population in that region, a Bedouin population, has a certain mountain that they call the Moses Mountain.

It's about 7,500 feet tall.

Jebel Musa is the name of it.

And so we know it's somewhere on the Sinai Peninsula.

And in this place, we're told that the angel of the Lord appears to Moses.

That phrase, angel of the Lord, uh, refers to an Old Testament appearance of the God of the universe.

Theologians call this a theophany, a god appearance, theophany.

That's what we see happening right here.

And in verse 2, it's the most remarkable scene.

This angel of the Lord sort of comes up in this flame out of the fire, and it catches Moses' attention.

You can only imagine you're walking through this Middle Eastern desert barrenness, there's a bush that's on fire, and leaping up out of the bush is this angel of some sort where the flame reaches higher.

Moses looks over, and despite the place being bone dry, and the bush is a raging fire, it's not consumed.

Like I know the passage says it's the burning bush, but to me it feels like the not burning bush.

Like it's on fire but not burning.

Now, how many of you fire pitters out there, you know that if you put some dry pine wood, pine needles on top of the fire, you're instantly getting ten-foot flames bursting up.

That's Moses in the middle of a drought, in the middle of the desert, only it looks like an angel and it's not burning up.

And out of the midst of it, God Himself speaks in this booming voice.

And so many times we hear God speaking, do not be afraid, do not be afraid.

I am with you.

But that's not what he says here.

Look at verse 5.

What does God say?

Do not come near.

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

He said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.

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

Yeah, you bet he was afraid.

What do you think the rest of us would do in that situation, but turn around and run away and hide our face?

Be absolutely terrifying.

God says, I am holy.

It means he is utterly unique.

There is none like him.

Oftentimes we we think of holiness in the terms of moral perfection, totally spotless.

And that is absolutely right.

But holiness is more than that.

There is none like God in any of his perfections, including his moral perfection.

And so one of the most common parts of Moses is his sandals.

You must take these off.

They cannot come into the presence of utter uniqueness, utter perfection.

So you can sort of see God is setting the scene for something really big.

You're supposed to feel this crescendo between the bush and the appearance and the voice.

You're left to wonder what's about to happen next.

But as an illustration, you might think of it this way.

A couple years ago, my family was in Washington, D.C., and we were at the Washington Monument.

If you've been there, you know the Washington Monument is up on a hill, kind of overlooking the White House.

And while we're there, you know, there's planes going in and out because it's DC, and all of a sudden there's no planes flying.

And then there's a couple of helicopters hovering at like a hundred feet.

So we're looking around, this is kind of weird.

And then there's no helicopters anywhere, and the sky is totally clear.

And it's just kind of this like eerie, weird feeling, like something either really bad or really good is about to happen, but I don't know what it is.

And then President Trump's helicopter comes hovering right down, and from our vantage point up on the Washington Monument, we see it land on the east wand of the White House.

This crescendo was building, and it told us, something is about to happen.

That's what God is doing here in Exodus 3, saying, something major is about to happen.

And as if the signs on the front end weren't enough, God's gonna follow this up with signs on the back end as well.

Where Moses takes his staff, throws it down, it turns into a cobra, he runs away, again, of course, afraid, and God's like, hey, no big deal, just catch it by the tail.

Well, why didn't I think of that?

And then he sticks his hand in his cloak and it comes out and it's like riddled with gangrene and all kinds of other nastiness.

And God's like, hey, don't worry, if that doesn't work either, you just take a little bit of that old H2O, pour it on the water in the desert, it won't go down into the sand, it'll just turn into blood right on top.

What?

What is going on in the middle here that signs on the front end and signs on the back end are screaming at us?

Don't miss this.

It is the revelation of the personal name of God.

Yahweh.

Whenever you see in the Old Testament, all caps, L-O-R-D, you are reading the personal name of God, Yahweh.

John Piper says of Exodus chapter 3, this is the single most important text in the entire Bible for revealing the personal name of God.

Exodus 3 · chapter mention

And Pastor John is right in that.

So when we come to Exodus chapter 3 and verse 13, which we will read here, you need to understand the magnitude and the gravity.

Exodus 3 · chapter mention

This is not just a cool Sunday school lesson wondering how the bush didn't burn up.

This is thunderous scene setting to grab your attention in a way you'll never ever forget.

Now look at verse 13 and let's read together.

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 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.

Here is the thesis statement for the book of Exodus: the God who reveals himself.

He says, Here's who I am, this is my name, this is how I am to be remembered for all generations.

And we'll see this over and over throughout the book.

Chapter 6, verse 2, he says, I am Yahweh.

Chapter 7, verse 5, the Egyptians shall know that I am Yahweh.

Chapter 7 and verse 17, you shall know that I am Yahweh.

Chapter 9 and verse 16, God speaks to Pharaoh and says, For this purpose I've raised you up, Pharaoh, to show you my power.

Why have you shown your power, God?

So that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.

And then in chapter 14, after the Exodus has taken place, he says again, the Egyptians shall know that I am Yahweh.

The sermon title this morning is a number, number six thousand eight hundred and twenty-four.

I don't think I've ever had a sermon title that was a mere number before.

And that's because the personal name of God shows up in the Old Testament 6,824 times.

That is, on average, per chapter, about seven and a half times for every single chapter in the entire Old Testament.

In other words, you knowing who Yahweh is is a really big deal to God.

This is not just one of those name tags, hello, my name is.

Like in the Old Testament, names have major significance and meaning.

It's not just saying, you can call me Justin, you can call me Tim, you can call me Ed.

No, it's saying, here's who I am.

And yet at the same time, it's a little bit confusing because if I'm expecting God to tell us who He is, if it's me, I'm gonna expect something like, I am God, I am the creator, I am love, like some kind of external reference point.

And he says, I am who I am.

He defines himself according to himself.

And no one in no thing has the liberty or authority to redefine God.

And yet we find ourselves trying to do this all the time.

In fact, this is one of the biggest things I see happening in suburban Christianity.

We find in suburban Christianity Christians raging when people try to redefine themselves.

That's like the whole trans debate.

You can't redefine yourself in that way, and we are right to be upset about that because you cannot redefine who you are in that way.

And yet when it comes to God, we turn around and think, well, I think I could redefine him.

And you see this when people say, Well, there's an element of God I don't like.

I recreate God in my own image.

I don't like a God who could be wrathful and send people to hell.

And so I'll just redefine God in my own image.

I don't like a God who sets the rules for my sexuality, who I can sleep with.

And so I'll just redefine God and make him in my own image.

In the suburbs, you see people saying, Well, I know God deserves my first and best, but I think I'm gonna bring him my seconds.

And it doesn't take very long of looking at your calendar and your finances to say, am I bringing God my first and best and having everything else fit in around that?

Or do I slot in my extracurricular involvement, the subscriptions I want, my 4-H involvement, my youth sports, all these other things clamoring for time and money, and then fit God in where there's space after that.

Here we find ourselves again, redefining God in our own image, not worthy of first and best, and saying he's a little more like me.

Brothers and sisters, we cannot redefine God in our own image.

This is why, when it comes to the Lord's Prayer, what is the very first thing we read?

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, most holy be your name, most glorious be your name.

Because there's a constant pull that we would see his name as less holy, less glorious, less wondrous than it truly is.

So what is it that Yahweh actually means?

If you want it in two simple words, it's this He is above us and among us.

Above and among.

The theological terms for this are transcendence and eminence.

If you want a$2.50 couple of words there to use, transcendence and eminence, but for a simple way of saying, God is above us and among us.

And I'll explain both of them.

But the the nature of God being above us, of him being transcendent, is gonna take a minute to get our mind wrapped around, because this is not something that is easy for us to do.

When we say God is above us, what we mean is he is absolute reality.

He has no beginning and he has no end.

And is this not the first question, or at least one of the first questions, that thoughtful children ask?

Mommy, who made God?

And in some ways, I hope that mommies and daddies develop good answers to that question.

But in many ways, I hope that mommies and daddies never lose the wonder of that question that God had no beginning and no end.

He is utterly above and beyond us.

He is independent, he is totally self-existent, is what that means.

He depends on no one or no thing for his existence or any needs, as if he had needs.

And our money and our affluence makes us feel like we are independent.

We don't need these things.

And yet, one of the many lessons from COVID as the supply chain broke down is just how dependent we actually are.

Do you see how many people were clamoring for toilet paper of all things?

The most mundane we cannot figure out how to do on our own.

God is constant, he's above us in that way.

We change day to day, he never changes.

And yet, more than him never changing, more than his constancy, he is constant in all of his perfections.

So this means it is in case God is incapable of improving.

It is impossible for God to have a growth plan because he's constant in every perfection.

That he is above us means he's the final authority on all matters.

His judgments are always just, and he never forgets about bringing his judgments.

That is one difference between God as the final authority and parents as a limited authority.

Children pray that parents forget about the judgments, and children tell the parents that judgments are not just.

Yet God's judgments are always just and he never forgets about them.

And perhaps most significantly for us, everything that is in the category of not God is utterly dependent upon him, and compared to him is completely nothing.

I want to say that again because this is really important to get.

Everything in the category of not God, that's everything you can think of besides God, compared to him is absolutely nothing.

So let me just try and put this in tangible terms for you.

When you close an app, you swipe up, it takes more calories for you to close that app than it did for God to send all ten plagues on Egypt.

When you see a data center going in, compared to God, that data center has less power and less knowledge than a floppy disk that can barely hold three Microsoft Word files.

When you see the White River raging through Indianapolis, wrecking entire communities, filling up that stone quarry and all everything that comes with it.

Okay, let's do a little word picture here.

I want you to take your right hand, I want you to put it right under your nose.

I want you to close your mouth, I want you to blow as much air as you can on it.

What you felt right there compared to God, is a lesser power than even the white river compared to that breath.

Because it rips through our city.

Everything compared to not God is as nothing.

This is what Isaiah tries to capture in chapter 40.

He says, This to whom will you liken God?

Or what what likeness will you compare him with?

It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers.

Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them like a tent to dwell in?

Who brings princes to nothing and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness?

Yes, Yahweh is above us.

And yet somehow he is also among us.

Because as he reveals himself to Moses, what does he say?

He says, I see the affliction of my people.

I remember my covenant.

I remember not only my covenant, I remember the names of the people I've made covenant promises to: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob.

I'm among you.

I see the land I'm going to give you.

I'm among you.

You will plunder the Egyptians, and you will get more blessing than you could ever imagine.

So that when Christ comes, you can understand in some way that you have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ.

The Psalms tell us that He is among us as He binds up the brokenhearted, as He is the father to the fatherless.

He's among us as He weeps among those who weep.

And what happens for us is we struggle to hold the above and the among together at the same time.

We trend towards one or the other.

And so if you get that God is among us and start to miss that he's above us, you end up talking about Jesus like he's your BFF.

You get the Christian radio slop starting to inform and define your theology.

And more significantly, at a practical level, you don't have an appropriate fear of sin or striving for holiness because you miss how utterly amazing God is, and you think He's just my pal that I hang out with.

With.

He's above us.

And yet, if you get the aboveness and miss the amongness, how he's with us, you're gonna start to see dad or God like an angry dad who's throwing lightning bolts at you every time he's upset about something.

And at a very practical level, you'll never be able to rest in grace.

Because all you see is God is above and never among.

And friends, he's both.

And the more you try to capture one or the other or hold them together, it kind of makes your head hurt a little bit, right?

And there's a temptation to throw up our hands and say, Well, I'll never figure it out.

I guess I'll just let the pastors think about it during the week.

Guys, don't do that.

Psalm 111.2 says, Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them.

To study the works of the Lord, to delight in them is our joy and our task, and it will help us to live rightly in the midst of a chaotic world.

And when this God, Yahweh, who is above and among, when he reveals himself to us, we're confronted with a couple of lessons.

One about us and one about him that we see in the passage.

So let me give you two lessons that we take as Yahweh reveals himself to us.

Lesson number one: you will live in fear of someone or something.

You will live in fear of someone or something.

When I say fear, I don't mean fear in the modern sense, but fear the older sense of the word, a reverential awe.

You will live in reverential awe of someone or something.

In other words, here's what I'm saying.

When God shows up, and when God makes a claim on your life, you cannot stay where you are.

You will either submit to and follow, or you will bow up, reject him, and go the other direction.

But when God shows up and makes a claim, you can't stay where you are.

And your response to his claim on your life will tell you what is it that I'm living in reverential awe of.

Now let's see this in the passage.

Moses chapter 3, verse 11.

What does he say?

Who am I?

313.

What does he say?

Well, what should I say?

For one, well, what if they don't believe me?

Moses is living in reverential awe of the approval of others.

He doubts himself, he doubts his knowledge of what to say, and what's gonna happen if they don't believe me.

He says, God, I'm doubting this.

I can't go forward here because I don't think I'm gonna have their approval.

God shows up, makes a claim, he doesn't go forward on it because the approval of man looms larger in his life than the fear of God.

Then he goes into another thing he lives in reverential law of chapter four and verse 10.

He says, Well, I've never been very eloquent.

And finally he wraps up in 4.13 and says, God, would you please just send somebody else?

Here he is living in reverential awe of success.

The things that he does.

Those defying him.

He's like, if I go do this, I don't think it's gonna work, God.

And if I fail at this thing, I don't think I could live with myself.

So could you please just go send somebody else?

Because I don't want to do that.

Now, interestingly, it's not just Moses that we see being exposed in this way.

You actually see this in Pharaoh as well.

Look at chapter 3, verse 19.

What do we see about Pharaoh?

God says, I know the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand.

It's the idol of power.

Pharaoh lives in reverential awe of power.

And usually he's the guy in the room with the most power, and so he always gets his way.

And God says, Look, I understand you need some greater power to come in because that's what this guy lives his life in view of.

Where can I get the most power?

And until a bigger power source comes into the room, he's not moving.

So we're seeing in these guys, Moses Pharaoh, they live in this reverential awe, this fear of approval and success and of power.

Or perhaps if you flip into the negative and say it this way, if they were to lose one of those, what would cause them to tremble?

Now listen, I understand there's a huge distance between Moses and Pharaoh to us.

Huge distance of time, huge distance of culture, even huge distance of like status.

Like these guys are pretty prestigious people in the ancient world, and most of us are like, yeah, I'm kind of just like commoner, Brownsburg person.

Right?

There's a huge distance, but the heart idols remain that drive them and they drive us.

And so if we would just think about these heart idols that are driving them and driving us, like in Brownsburg, can we be honest that one of the dominant idols we face is the idol of comfort that we live in fear of, in reverential awe of?

I heard Pastor Matt Chandler in Texas talk about this one one time, and he said, look, if if you live for comfort, and that's like the one of the main things in your life, you will constantly find yourself toggling between debt and depression, or maybe both.

Because you're gonna be spending to achieve a level of comfort as if that's the thing that's really gonna make you happy.

And then you're gonna find out that the things can't make you happy, whether it's, you know, a vacation or a vehicle or the next thing, like you can put anything in that comfort level, even just a simple life.

And the reality is life is hard.

Sometimes when comfort is the main thing in our lives, you hear people say things like, Well, I just don't have capacity for that.

Look, I recognize sometimes we do run out of capacity.

But a lot of times what happens is it would be really hard for me to do this.

It would push me out of my comfort zone.

I'd have to give up something to serve God, and so I say, Well, I don't have capacity for that because functionally I'm living in reverential awe of a comfortable life.

One of the other major ones we see is the idol of control.

Live in reverential awe, fear of control.

I think our technology gives us a false sense of control in a lot of ways.

Sometimes we want to, as parents, control outcomes for our kids and be there and make sure everything goes right.

But if if control is the main thing in your life, then you're always gonna be living between anger and anxiety.

Anger when things don't go the way they're supposed to and you can't control the outcome you want, and anxiety over what could come if they continue to spiral out of control.

Like when life starts to get really chaotic in your mind, you feel super overwhelmed, when that anger anxiety switch starts clicking, that's where you know, hey, I gotta take this to the Lord.

And so we must ask ourselves at a heart level, what is it that I live in reverential awe of?

When I start to feel twitchy, what's going on on the inside?

And until we learn to address the heart level idols, guys, we will just be spinning our spiritual tires.

Boy Park said, I want you to know, like, I am jealous for your spiritual growth here.

I long for growth and closeness to Christ and experiencing his love in a way that conquers idols.

And we have to get after this stuff together.

We can't just play whack-a-mole with the behaviors on top.

You're going to live in reverential awe of someone or something.

That's the first lesson.

Second lesson: God is the only being worth fearing.

He is the only being worth fearing.

Now, there are lots of things in our lives that claim to be worthy of reverential awe, worthy of living in fear of, but only God is.

He says, I am Yahweh, I am who I am.

I'm the only one who's both above and among you.

We recognize God is both terrifying to Moses in the bush and inviting to Moses in the bush.

Which is why it's incredibly interesting that he reveals himself in fire.

Because fire is the most terrifying and inviting at the same time thing on this earth I can think of.

Like we're coming into fire pit season.

Who's excited for that?

Great, me too.

So what happens?

You're trying to get together with some guys, find a time to you want to invite them to do discipleship.

And you look at the calendar, you're like, mmm, I just don't know if there's gonna be any time for that.

I mean, we got kids are back in school, we got the extracurriculars, things at work are going really crazy, it's about to get into football season, don't know if we have time for it.

And the guy looks back at you, and he's like, Well, why don't you just come over to my place and we can sit around and look at a fire?

Boom, four hours are all of a sudden open on the calendar.

It is totally inviting.

And you just sit there and you just look at the flames, and you keep looking at them, and you keep looking at them.

It's awesome.

And all the while, what are our wives saying?

Would you please move that thing away from the house?

You're gonna burn this place down.

That flame shouldn't be that big.

There's a bunch of side-eyes going on right now.

I see that.

Fire is completely terrifying and inviting at the same time.

It scares you.

Yet you're drawn back for more.

This is who God is.

This is why God speaks, and Moses hides his face and he says, I'm gonna die.

God spoke to me.

So God sends Moses to Pharaoh and says, You're gonna bring this message.

And Moses asks, Yeah, but who am I?

Who am I to do this?

You feel this insecurity coming out, right?

Like, am I really the right guy for this?

And if I just place myself in the story for a second, like, if I were God in this, obviously I'm not, but if I were, and if Moses asks me, Who am I?

Here's the response I'm thinking of.

Bro, don't you get this?

Like, you have been in the Jason Bourne training program.

Blackstone or uh Treadstone and Blackbriar.

Blackbriar, is that what it's called?

Yeah, thank you.

Treadstone Blackbriar.

You've been in this training program for 80 years.

We had you raised up in Pharaoh's court.

You know all the political inworkings, you know all the personality dispositions of all the royal officials, you know the layout of the court backwards and forwards.

From your very birth, you've been prepared for this moment, buddy.

What do you mean, who am I?

Like you're the perfect guy.

It's totally obvious to all of us.

You should be seeing this by now, Moses.

That's not what God says to him, though.

Look at chapter 3 and verse 12.

How does God respond to the question, but who am I?

312.

He said, But I will be with you.

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

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

Moses says, Who am I?

What does God say?

I will be with you.

In other words, Moses, you're asking the wrong question.

It's not about who you are, it's about who God is and whether or not He's with you.

And how often do we say, God is more interested in your availability than your ability?

This is what it looks like in reality.

He's saying, we all say, Who am I?

Am I really the best guy to go do this thing, God, or that thing, to go serve in that ministry, to go tell that person about who you are?

He says, I will be with you.

And the sign that God promises, it's one that comes way after the fact.

I'm like, God, can I have a sign right now?

Anybody ever been there?

Like, I want to roll out my fleece.

Can I get the sign right now?

He's like, nope, I'll be with you.

That'll come later.

He's not on your timeline, but he's always right on schedule.

One of the commentaries I read this week was super helpful, had this illustration that I want to borrow from it.

It talked about uh Kate Middleton, Princess of Wales.

Roll back 20 years ago when Kate was a commoner before she was uh somebody special in the world's eyes.

And imagine 20 years ago Kate Middleton shows up to Buckingham Palace and says, Hey, I'd like, you know, I'd like to get a tour, I'd like to go in, I'd like to see the Queen, I'd like to see, you know, all the private chambers, a dressing room, maybe have a dinner, show up for high tea.

The people at the guard shack are gonna look at her and say, uh, who are you?

And look through the list.

Yeah, you gotta get out of here.

And actually, can we get some security in to help you get out of here a little quicker?

But after her marriage, she shows up and says, Hey, I'd like to come in and see the queen.

I'd like to actually come in and see all this Buckingham Palace stuff.

I'd like to go, I'll be here for high tea.

And they say, now, wait, who are you?

And what does she say back to them?

I'm with him.

I'm with the prince.

And they look at her and they go, Oh, yeah, you can have the whole thing.

Go anywhere you want.

What changed about Princess Kate?

Nothing about who she was at her core, nothing about any accomplishments, impressive things she's done.

She simply is with the right person.

It's who she is with.

And this language that we see being brought to Moses, look, Moses, buddy, it's not about you.

Quit making it about you.

Is God with you?

And if he is, it'll be enough.

How often do we make the same exact mistake?

And sometimes this language of God being with us comes out at Christmas time, doesn't it?

Who is Emmanuel, God with us?

You remember singing these songs.

But in the New Testament, Exodus chapter 3 is actually taken by Jesus and applied in a way that's not about Christmas at all.

Exodus 3 · chapter mention

It's actually in John chapter 8 how Jesus takes this passage and applies it to himself.

John 8 · chapter mention

He's talking to the Pharisees, and here's what he says in John 8, 26.

He says two things.

Number one, I have much to say about you and much to judge.

Well, that's never a good thing if Jesus says that to you.

I have much to say about you and much to judge.

So the Pharisees get angry.

They bow up.

And their question, they go, Do you have a demon?

Also note, if Jesus speaks to you, you shouldn't come back with, do you have a demon?

But they recognize, like, them's fighting words.

Like, this is not pleasantries down at Arbuckle Acres with a PB and J.

This is a thick context here.

You're not gonna judge me, say the Pharisees.

And what does Jesus say to them?

He says, John 8 58, before Abraham was, I am.

He says, I'm not just a judge.

I'm not just existing before you.

I am the self-existent one, I'm the God of all the universe.

I will judge you.

I have the right to judge the living and the dead.

And then Jesus turns around.

Catch this?

He turns around, not only saying, I have the right to judge, but lays himself down as the sacrifice, receiving all the judgment, so that any who will come to him in faith alone can simply say, Yeah, I'm with him.

I'm with him.

The judgment doesn't have to fall on you.

This is incredible.

Just like Kate Middleton, you could say, My accomplishments haven't changed, but I recognize that he is Yahweh, above and among.

God of all the universe, I stand under his judgment, before his judgment, and yet I can claim I'm with him, and the judgment fell on Jesus on the cross instead of on me.

So you could say, there's nothing I've done that could get me to heaven, and there's nothing bad enough that would keep me from heaven, because I can claim by faith that Jesus' death counts for me.

This is what it means that Yahweh is the only one worth fearing.

He's above and among.

And lots of false gods, of both religious and secular false gods, claim to be above, claim to be worthy of worship.

But none show up like Jesus and willingly suffer and die for those who have rejected him, so that they can have hope.

This is why he's the only one worth fearing, the only just judge, the only self-existent one.

And listen to me, guys, some of you have not believed this message.

And today can be the day of your salvation if you will trust in him by faith for deliverance, so you don't have to face his judgment in the future because you're claiming the judgment on Jesus at the cross counts for you.

But many of you have believed that, and there's actually more here for you than merely a call of how you can once be saved.

Because what does it say?

It says that those who have trusted in God will be free to serve him on this mountain.

Free to serve him.

Because of the I am and his deliverance, you are freed from serving control and comfort and power.

You're liberated from them in a fresh way.

You can say, I don't need your approval because I have Jesus' approval.

I don't need to be in control of all these circumstances, no matter how much they freak me out, because He's in control.

I don't need to have this comfort in my life as my ultimate thing because I'm living for eternal pleasures that are all mine at the right hand of Christ forevermore, and so I can say no to temporal pleasures in view of those.

Comfort doesn't have to define me.

You're free to serve Yahweh, not out of duty, but out of glad delight.

And you and when you do that, you will be like a fish that was dangling above water, and you get dropped into the water, and once that fish goes into the water, it says, I'm finally free.

Free to be who I was meant to be, free to be who I was created to be.

I could go off gladly on this way, swimming in the water of serving Yahweh exactly who you were created to be.

It's the only place you will be truly free.

Anywhere else you try and live your life, apart from glad service of Yahweh, you won't be free.

You'll be chasing yourself and chasing your tail, always working hard and never getting anywhere.

Brothers and sisters, you were made for this.

To see the God who reveals himself and respond in faith and glad obedience to all he is and all he's done.

Almighty God, we need your grace in our lives.

We're so thankful for your self-revelation, that you would choose to reveal yourself to us, not because you had to, but because you wanted to, not because we deserve it, but out of your sheer mercy, you would choose to make yourself known that any who call out to you could be forgiven of sin and freed to live their life in glad, joyful submission to you.

Would you help us this morning not to merely hear your word, but to respond in obedience?

We pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.