YHWH (Exodus 3) 1- God is Holy

If you have your Bibles, you have your journals, you have everything, we're going to be beginning a brand new series today that we're going to get into in just a moment.

And I just want to take a real quick uh moment to say, hasn't the preaching team done such a wonderful job over the past few weeks?

Can we celebrate them?

They're throughout the building.

Thank you guys so very much sharing God's word with us.

They've done a great job, but they have also spoiled you guys because for the past four weeks you have not had Pastor Brandon's style notes.

Okay, so there's a lot of notes.

And the the idea here is that they don't talk as fast as I do.

Okay, so it's gonna take you about halfway through the message to pick up what I'm putting down because I talk way too fast.

I have worked on it and I have no remedy.

So just may the Lord be with you as we do this today, all right?

The title of our series is YHWH.

Okay, that actually is Yahweh, and to say it in the the Hebrew is actually Yahweh, all right?

And so uh if you want to try this with me, get the kind of phlegm going, I want to ask you please to look down when you do this so that you don't hurt anybody in the front in the row in front of you or mess up their outfit.

But if I count to three, I want to say it one more time, and I want you to try it.

It's Yahweh, all right?

So one, two, three.

Yahweh.

Yeah, that was really good.

That was good.

And and please apologize to the person to your left and to your right.

But it's the covenant name of God, and we are gonna be learning about the characteristics of who God is.

And so we're gonna be in Exodus three.

We're also gonna be in Isaiah 6 today, and we're just gonna be learning about the attributes of our God.

And I'm so excited to get into this and kind of the idea behind this, uh, kind of give you a story to kind of get us on the same page.

Uh, a few years ago, two years ago, we had a chance to take uh my family to, you know, the happiest place on earth, you know, also known as the most expensive place on earth, right?

Yeah, Disney.

And you know, every evening they have a fireworks show, and it's it's quite impressive.

You know, you go to Magic Kingdom, you got the fireworks show, all that good stuff.

I'll be honest with you, I don't just love fireworks.

And the reason why is because I'm colorblind.

So I see a bunch of popping and cracking, but you know, that that's what I got going on.

Everybody else sees all the colors, all the things.

I just don't see it.

But it is quite impressive to see all of the different, you know, booms and explosions, whatever.

And it was really cool.

At first, we're just kind of enjoying it for what it is and going, well, there it is, you know, and it's quite impressive.

But then they did something really cool and actually have a picture of it.

They take the the like the palace here, the castle, and they put all of these different images.

And as someone who is who's part of a church, I'm wondering where the projector is.

You know, like how are how exactly are they doing this?

I never could figure it out.

But it went from being quite impressive.

That's actually a real picture.

I mean, that's what it looked like where we were.

Uh, but it went from being quite impressive to that's awesome.

And there was a lady in front of us, and I'm telling you, hey, she was already sick, like very much impressed.

Have you ever been around somebody and they're just having the best day of their life?

It's like you don't get out much, do you?

You know, this was that lady.

She was already really excited.

She may have been slightly liquid, you know, liquid excited, you know.

I don't know exactly what was going on.

But all of a sudden, this starts happening, and I wish I had a picture, okay?

But we didn't want to be rude.

But all of a sudden this happened, and she just threw her hands up.

It was like, ha, and I don't think she was worshiping the God of the palace.

You know, I don't think that's what was going on.

But have you ever had something that was just so amazing that your body just kind of took over and you're like, that's awesome?

That's amazing.

Like, if like when my football team actually wins a game, I can't help myself.

I'm like, that's awesome, that's amazing.

I say awesome, but my body just does something else because I just physically so excited.

And I think that's what happened.

Like she was already significantly impressed, but then they took it up a notch and she was just celebrating.

Just it looked like she was in a worship service, so celebrating Disney, I guess.

I don't know.

But she was just so excited.

And I was thinking about what my hope is for this series.

And if I'm honest with you, that's my hope.

And that is that I like to think that most of us in here are significantly impressed with God.

He's pretty awesome.

But if we're, if we're not, you know, for if we're honest, many times because of things and stuff that happened, we still celebrate God, but we think of him as just a little bit better than us.

Like he's God, he's like right here.

But what my hope is is that by the end of this series, we get a fresh perspective of who God is.

And that the action step of every message is just whoa, I had no idea he was that awesome.

To put God back in his rightful place as mind-blowing.

Because here's here's the reason why this series is important is I think this is not in your notes, by the way.

This welcome, Pastor Brandon's back.

Okay, extra notes.

The two most important truths that we believe, in my opinion, are what we believe about God and who he says we are.

The two most important truths that we believe is what we believe about God and who he says we are.

You can't know who you are until you know who God is.

And the reality is for many of us, we spend so much time trying to figure out who we are.

Do we spend enough time trying to remind ourselves who God is, how big, how awesome, how amazing he is?

Because the truth of it is that when we don't see God clearly and difficulties come, we feel uncertain, afraid, stressed, angry, worried, agitated.

Because if we're not careful, we see God as just a little bit bigger than us.

We know we can't handle it, but now I'm not so sure if he can handle it because he's just a little bit better than me.

But the reality of it is, is when we have a clear view of God, the Bible says that when the Holy Spirit comes and works in our life, he gives us love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

And you're doing just fine.

But your neighbor could use a little bit more of this, all right?

So look at your neighbor and say, this series is for you.

Because you don't love enough, you don't have enough joy.

Don't tell them that.

Okay, don't tell them that.

All right.

Just the truth is that you need this.

We need this.

And so honestly, the big idea of this whole series is that we want to be the one to see God clearly.

We want to remove all the stuff that's in the way so that we can see God for who he truly is.

And I believe, honestly, and there's a thousand reasons why God gets fuzzy, why we begin to slowly demote him in our life to other things.

And I, and and many times it's not because we're bad, it's because we get we get busy.

Other things get bigger in our life, and instead of making God even bigger, they start to meet in the middle.

We're gonna talk all about that throughout this series, but I think that if we can get a clear view of who God is, my hope is that the action step of all of these messages is to be like that lady.

Like, I thought this was cool, but now it's awesome.

I I was significantly and sufficiently impressed until I found out about that.

Now it's amazing.

And the idea is I want to leave you speechless when you start to think about how big God is.

Let me ask you this question.

When is the last time your mind has been blown by the goodness of God?

Not by what you feel, but because of what you know.

I'm not against feelings.

I know God uses our emotions, but when is the last time you learned something new about God and it blew your mind?

My hope is that God will blow your mind throughout this series, not because we're gonna learn anything new, but we're gonna remember stuff that we so often forget.

And so let's start back at the beginning when God kind of reintroduced himself to his people.

The Bible teaches us that before the book of Exodus, the nation of Israel had been in bondage for 400 years.

To put that in some kind of perspective, the United States turns 250 this year.

They were in bondage for a long time.

Their grandparents, grandparents, grandparents were in bondage.

And they lived in a polytheistic culture, which means they believed in all of these different gods.

There was a God over water, there was a God over the moon, there was a God over just frogs, it was just God over everything, right?

There's all these gods.

And because of that, in amongst all of them gods is where their God was.

And over time, according to commentaries, it is possible that they begin to forget that their God was any different than any other God.

And so now it's time for God to set them free.

In order to do that, he reinstalls their idea, he reminds them of who he is.

And he starts off with telling it to a guy named Moses.

The Bible said that Moses was on the backside of what we now know as Mount Sinai, and he sees a bush that's burning, but does not get consumed.

And it gets his attention.

And God uses it to talk to him.

And the Bible says he called to Moses from the middle of that bush and he said, Moses, Moses.

And Moses said, Here I am, which is exactly what you do if a bush starts talking to you.

Okay.

Action step.

Just say, Yes, sir, if that ever happens.

Okay, all right.

Don't come any closer, the Lord warned.

Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground.

We're gonna cover that in a future week.

I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

And when Moses heard this, he covered his face because he was afraid to look at God, and he took off his shoes.

And then God continued and he said, I have come down to rescue my people from the power of the Egyptians and to lead them out of Egypt.

And I'm gonna use you to do it.

So go, I am sending you.

But Mo protested to God and he said, Who am I to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt?

And God answered, The only thing you need to know, I will be with you.

But Moses protested, If I go to the people of Israel, they will ask me, Well, what is his name?

What should I tell them?

And then God replied to Moses, in other words, which one of these gods is it?

What what what is actually gonna happen?

And he said, This is what you tell them, I am who I am.

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

Yahweh, the God of your ancestors, has sent me to you.

This is my eternal name, my name to remember for all generations.

I have been watching closely and I see how the Egyptians are treating you.

Wow, he said, I never forgot you, I never went away.

I may have gotten fuzzy in your eyes, but I am crystal clear that I see you and that I love you, and it is time for your redemption.

And what I love about God is that God is so much bigger and so much more amazing, and he reintroduces himself and he says, I am, is what I want you to call me, Yahweh, and I'm gonna show myself to you continually.

And so we're gonna talk about the different attributes of who God is, because my hope is that he just gets bigger and bigger in your mind.

And so the first thing we're gonna talk about, which will be the foundational attribute of God, and we're gonna build from there, is this, and that is that our God is holy.

He's so holy that the very ground in which we meet him is special.

That he is so holy that when he in opens our eyes to see him in a fresh way, everything around us becomes anointed because of his goodness.

He is holy.

God is not just a little bit better than us, God is indescribable.

It's amazing.

And and honestly, the the reason why we sometimes think that God is not as big as he is is my fault.

And other people like me, because we will use metaphors, analogies, and illustrations to try to help us get an idea of who God is.

God is like the sun, God is like gravity, God is like, and that's fine, but ultimately he's not.

He's greater than all of that.

We're just trying to get inside of our finite minds the infiniteness of who God is.

And one of the primary characteristics to help us get our hands around something bigger than us is that he is holy.

But before we even do that, let's talk about what his name is.

Notice that he said, I am who I am.

The the actually is four letters.

And if you want to like impress your friends this week, you know, when you go to work, say, Hey, well, we talked about tenture grammatons.

You want to say that one again?

Tenture grammatons.

Okay, yeah, you want to count to three.

Don't no, don't you want to try it?

All right, tenture grammaton is four letters, all right?

And that is Yud He Vav He.

And the best way we can pronounce it is Yahweh.

And Yahweh is, I am.

The word actually means eternally present, unique, and sustainer of all things.

It was considered such a holy name that the Jewish people didn't use it.

It was so holy that they didn't actually say it, not because they were afraid of God, but they were afraid of not saying it correctly because they had such honor and such respect.

And so instead of saying Yahweh, they would say Adonai, or they would say Hereshim, which means the name.

All right.

So the very first time that somebody said he who must not be named, it was an at an attitude of respect.

Okay.

It wasn't talking about Voldemort, it was talking about something really, really good.

If you know, you know.

All right.

So it's I am who I am.

And here's the amazing thing: the the word that he used is actually a verb, it's a verb used as a noun.

He said, I the best way I can describe myself to you is I am.

I am above everything else.

So, in other words, when Moses is like, Okay, which God are you exactly?

I want to make sure he's like, Mo, Mo, you're looking, you're looking down.

Not in any of these.

That one.

The one that's so far above that there's not actually a word that will help you.

So the best way I can say this is my name is Yahweh.

That is, I am above everything you can imagine.

And then what happened is after a few chapters later, and he sees how God, you know, has all these different plagues and he parts the Red Sea and all this kind of stuff.

He says this of God.

He says, Who is like you among the gods, oh Lord?

Every time you see capital L-O-R-D, it's Yahweh.

How who is like you among the gods, oh Yahweh?

Glorious in holiness, awesome in splendor, performing great wonders.

He's like, You're awesome.

I thought you were really cool.

Now I see there is no word that can describe who you are.

You are holy.

And so the foundational characteristic that we're gonna build on is the word holy.

So let's define holy real quick.

Holy simply means to be set apart as sacred, altogether different.

Altogether different.

He is beyond finding out.

You ever heard someone say that person is just a cut above?

They're just something special.

It's that times infinity.

To be holy is to be indescribable.

The only phrase you can use is they're just different.

Look at your neighbor and say, God's just different.

Look at somebody else and say, He's different, y'all.

He's just different.

There's that every illustration falls apart at some point.

And all throughout the Bible, we see how when God interacts with different people and in different situations, they just say holy, which is whoa, that was different.

That was so much more amazing than I thought it was gonna be.

I hope I ruined that word for you so that every time you see holy, you go, they're saying God's amazingly different.

Because that's what happens.

Even then in the New Testament, the Bible says, Be holy as I am holy.

There's he's saying, be different, just like I'm different.

Be free.

So then you can invite other people into that same freedom.

And so all throughout the Bible, we see God's holiness and how he always is more amazing than we can imagine.

He's not just a little bit better, but when we see him clearly, we see that he is infinitely more amazing.

And one of my favorite places just to see God's holiness is in Isaiah chapter 6.

Isaiah 6 · chapter mention

The Bible says this it says, It was in the year that King Uzziah died that I saw the Lord.

And he was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the temple.

And attending him were mighty seraphim, each having six wings.

With two wings, they covered their faces, with two wings they covered their feet, and with two they flew.

And they were calling out to each other, Holy, holy, holy.

In other words, he's different.

He's so very different.

Oh my goodness, look how different he is.

The Lord of heaven's armies, the whole earth is filled with his glory.

And their voices shook the temple to its foundations, and the entire building was filled with smoke.

And then I said, Isaiah said, Oh no, it is all over.

I am doomed, for I am a sinful man.

I have filthy lips, and I live among people that are worse than I am.

Yet I have seen the king, the Lord of heaven's armies.

Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal he had taken from the altar.

He touched my lips with it and said, See, this coal has touched your lips.

Now your guilt is removed and your sins are forgiven.

Then I heard my Lord asking, Whom should I send as a messenger to this people?

Who will go for us?

And then I said, Here I am, send me.

It's an example of the characteristics of the holiness of God and how when we get a clear picture of who God is, it begins to change how we see everything else.

And my hope for you in this series is that we begin to realize that our problems are not too big, our view of God is too small.

And as we begin to see God for who he is, we begin to say, Holy, God, you're just different than everything else.

And the question of the day would be: why is the foundation of Yahweh's holiness and being different, not just great, but awesome?

Why is it that the bigger we see God, the more amazing he becomes?

And I want to show you how, as Isaiah got this vision of who God was, he went from thinking God was pretty cool to just like the lady at the beginning was like, He's awesome.

And that's my hope for you.

So I want to show with you four things that help us realize that it is the best news I can give you that our God is different.

So look at somebody and say, He's just different.

My God is just different.

Here's here's the first reason.

The reason why that's great news is because he calms us by reigning unshaken.

We're gonna build on top of this.

But the first reason why, the best news ever, when we learn about the attributes of God, is when we realize that God calms our soul.

When we realize that he is reigning and he is unmoved and he is unshaken by everything else around us.

Look at the very first thing that happened.

The Bible said that in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, and he was sitting sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the temple.

Now that's kind of lost on us until we begin to realize that Uzziah had been king for 52 years.

Now, to put that in some kind of perspective, 52 years ago in the United States, Richard Nixon was president.

I don't even want to ask how many people were alive during that time.

Don't tell on yourself, okay?

All right, but how about this?

I am so glad to report to you.

I was not born yet, okay?

That's how young I am, all right?

But that that's how many years ago.

Therefore, if they were 52 years or less, the only king they'd ever known was Uzziah.

And up until the last couple of years of his reign, he was great.

He did pretty good.

He he expanded the territory, he brought so many great things, but in the last two years, his rule fell off, and now he's gone.

And there's a new king that's gonna ascend to the throne.

Can you imagine because of the transition that's coming up, the nervousness, the anxiety, is this king gonna be good?

Are the other neighboring nations gonna use us as an opportunity to come against us and overthrow us?

What's gonna happen?

And what's amazing is that the first thing that God did to show him, to show Isaiah this idea of holiness was he said, yes, Uzziah was a 52-year-old king, but Yahweh is endless, unshaken, and awesome.

So, yes, he was a great king, but he doesn't even come close to comparing how good the true king is.

And here's the truth, and that is Yahweh is just different from us, which means he is not threatened by current events or bad news.

Like, for instance, he is not threatened by the Iran-U.S conflict.

Can I tell you, I'm threatened by it?

I need him just to like it seems like every day they're signing and not signing something.

Okay, somebody signed something, all right?

Like, I don't know, but here's the thing God is not, he is not refreshing his Twitter feed over and over again, going, I hope they figure this thing out because I don't know what's going on.

No, it's not that he doesn't care, it's not that he's not moving, it's that his reign is not affected by our silliness.

How about this one?

That gas prices.

God did not have to ride his bicycle to church today.

And there was a time when I thought I was gonna have to start doing that.

And now it's up and it's down, it's like a roller coaster.

You know what's great about God?

Didn't mess up his rule.

He's still seated high on a throne.

And also social unrest.

Can I tell you, God's concerned, God cares, but his rule is not up for jeopardy.

God has many enemies, but he has zero rivals.

And when we realize how truly awesome he is, we realize that even when the brokenness of divorce happens, God is not shaken off of his throne.

When grief cripples us, it doesn't cripple God.

Instead, he invites us to sit with him on his throne and care for us.

And even when cats come to destroy our joy, can we just take a moment and talk about this?

Can I say I love my church?

I love y'all so much, but I need to we need to talk about the idea that while I was gone, people gave me some gifts.

They gave me cat socks and a devotional called Paul Verbs.

The devil is a lie.

Okay, listen.

And even when Paul Verbs try to get in the way, God is not moved off of his throne.

If anybody wants it, they can have it as soon as the church is over with.

But the reality of it is that God is not moved off of his throne.

That's what Jesus was saying.

The Bible was teaches us that Jesus was showing us how to reign, how his reign calms our fears in Matthew chapter 7.

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

He'd been talking to the people of God, he'd been teaching them about his goodness, teaching them about what it was to live free, how to talk and have fellowship with our heavenly Father.

And he's going through all of this.

We call it the Sermon on the Mount.

And then when he got to the very end, he said this: He said, anyone, somebody say anyone.

Somebody else, say anyone.

Anyone, that means you, that means your neighbor, anyone who listens to my teachings, Jesus said, and follows it, is wise.

Like a person who builds a house on solid rock.

Though the rain comes in torrents and the flood waters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won't collapse because it is built on bedrock.

In other words, when everything else is shaken, Jesus was saying, You can plant yourself ten toes down on my word, and I am unshaken.

It reminds me of the song we sing here sometimes, and it is, you know, Christ is my firm foundation.

Do you remember that one?

The rock on which I stand when everything.

Around is shaken.

I've never been more glad because I put my faith in Jesus.

It's a really long verse.

He never lets me down.

Trying to get to the end.

He's faithful through generations.

Here it is.

So why would he fail now?

Do you know what?

He won't.

Do you know what I love my family?

I love all of you.

But there are certain things that will get in the way that you will not be able to always come through for me because you're human.

There are certain things that will get in the way and I won't always be able to come through for you.

But you know what?

Nothing can stand in the way of our God getting to you.

Nothing will stand in the way of Him, of Him being so solid that I can build my life on Him.

And when we begin to see Him more clearly, it changes how we see everything else.

Here's the great news, and that is that Yahweh is holy.

That means He is bigger than our biggest fear.

He's bigger.

In the words of the great theologian, Junior Asparagus.

God is bigger than the boogeyman.

He's bigger than Godzilla.

He's bigger than the monsters on TV.

God is bigger than the boogeyman, and he's watching out for you and me.

The great philosopher known as Junior Asparagus knows what he's talking about.

And the reality of it is that sometimes our vision of God gets fuzzy.

And we see him as only a little bit better than us.

But if we could clear that away and say that our God is holy, he is different than we are.

He is so much greater than we are.

And when we are shaken, and when everything else happens in our life, we can stand on the fact to know that his reign is secure.

That's one of the greatest things that I can tell you.

Look at your neighbor and say, God's just different.

He's just different than me and you.

And that is that his reign is unshaken.

Here's the second thing, and that is that he helps us find beauty in difficulty.

He helps us to find beautiful things.

The Bible says he is able to make take joy from mourning, beauty for ashes.

When you count everybody else out, God still stands supreme.

He is greater than we can imagine.

Look at the Bible says, it says, attending Yahweh, were mighty seraphim.

These are strong angels, each having six wings.

And they were calling out to each other, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of heaven's armies.

The whole earth is filled with his glory.

Now, in the Old Testament, if they wanted you to pay special attention to something, they would repeat it twice.

There's only a handful of times where they actually say anything three times, which means they are literally screaming as loud as they can.

You're different.

Look over there, he's different.

He's still different.

All of the world is filled with his glory.

And what they're telling Isaiah is like Isaiah, I get it.

I get that Uzziah has died.

I get this going on, but do you see the king?

Do you see the king?

And that he is filling the whole earth.

I'm not saying bad stuff's not happening.

I'm just saying that's not all that's happening.

Look at the beauty of our God.

Look at how great he is.

Look at how he fills the whole earth with his glory.

And the amazing thing is that right in between our problem and us is we can see the glory of God, which shows us that he is bigger than anything we can imagine.

Here's the great news, and that is that our God Yahweh is holy, which means sometimes our problems seem so big because our picture of God is so small.

His glory does not dim even in the darkest of seasons.

Sometimes the most amazing thing we can do when we think about the holiness of who God is is to realize that in the darkest moments of our life, we're never alone.

God is with us and that his glory shines.

And what they're saying is they're saying, everywhere I look, yes, I see trouble, but I'm slightly distracted by the beauty and the glory of God.

It reminds me of this story of Paul and Silas.

Have you ever heard this one?

It's in the New Testament, and they're worshiping in the middle of pain.

The Bible teaches us that they went to an area, I believe it's called Philippi, and while they were there, they wanted to share the gospel, share the good news of the kingdom of God with everybody.

And there were some people who did not receive it.

And so they took them to the center of town and beat the fool out of Paul and Silas.

I mean, they beat them up.

It was bad.

They beat them up real, real, real bad.

And then they took them, they didn't treat their wounds or anything like that.

They took them and put them in the back of their local jail.

That was like the like uh the most heavily secured area.

So, like, we're gonna take you while you are broken, until they have broken bones, cuts, all the things, but they beat the mess out of them, and then they took them and put them into like like maximum security of what they could.

And they were there, and you imagine how bad that was.

Are they gonna be slaughtered the next day?

They're gonna be killed because of what they were doing.

But the Bible said this is that around midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening.

And we don't know what hymns they were singing, but they were probably not singing, you know, woe is me, everybody hates me, and I'm probably gonna die.

You know, it wasn't that.

It was a psalm from the Old Testament.

Maybe it was the Lord is my light and my salvation.

Of whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the stronghold of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?

The Lord is my shepherd.

I have all that I need.

He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside steel waters, he restores my soul.

They were saying, listen, this is bad.

I'm broken, I'm hurting, I'm difficulty, but I'm also slightly distracted by the fact that God, you're so good, that God, you're so awesome, that God, you are so much greater than anything I can imagine.

You're different.

You're worth celebrating on the worst day of my life.

You're worth celebrating when nobody else understands what I was trying to do.

You're still worth it.

And the Bible said that God got so excited about their worship that he showed up himself because it says suddenly there was a massive earthquake, and the prison was shaken to its foundations, and all the doors immediately flew open, and the chains of the prisoners fell off.

So I'm not saying every time that we worship, immediately a miracle like that happens, but what does happen every single time is that the chains on the inside begin to fall off as we begin to realize that God is greater than any difficulty we face.

Many times the reason why our problems seem so big is because through time and trouble, our view of God has gotten smaller until he's only just a little bit bigger than us.

But my hope for all of us over the course of this series is that God will just amaze us with how big he really is.

And that is that he is different.

Here's the good news, and that is this means that the glory of God outshines the darkest nights.

That when you go through the darkest valley of your life, you never go through it alone.

And the thing is, is that God walks with us, but to realize he doesn't walk beside us as on the level with us is for the child with his father, that he is so much greater, yet he walks with us through every difficulty.

God is so much greater than we can imagine, and he is holy, which means he is different.

One more time, look at somebody and say, He's just different.

He's just different than anything we can imagine.

And the reason why is because he is unshaken by the world around us, that he is actually helps us find beauty in every dark place.

Here's another one, and that is this that he shows us the miracle of salvation.

He's just different, that he shows us the miracle of what he has done in all of our lives.

The amazing thing is the Bible said that that Isaiah got this beautiful vision of God and that his train filled the whole temple, and there were these angels that were just yelling back and forth, and in my mind, it's like, hey, he's different over here, he's different over here too.

He's still different.

I mean, just amazing.

They're just like blown away by how good God is, and then he's looking around at all of this, and then he says, It's over for me.

How honest is that?

Like, instead of, yep, I belong here, it's like I don't belong here.

I mean, it is over, I am doomed, for I'm a sinful man, and I have seen the king.

In other words, God is good and I am not, I'm dead.

But look, it says one of the seraphims flew over to me with a burning coal, and he touched my lips and said, This, see, this coal has touched your lips.

Now your guilt is removed and your sins are forgiven.

The great news is that Yahweh is holy, which means that seeing his holiness reminds us of how sinful we were and the miracle of salvation.

The amazing thing about salvation is when we realize how badly we needed it.

To realize the Bible says there is none righteous, no, not one, that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

And the cost for sin is death.

But the gift of God is eternal life.

And the reason why God invites you into his presence is not so that he can shame you by showing your sin, but it's to show you that he has enough power to wash it away.

The only shame that you experience in the presence of God is what you brought with you.

But he is in the business of washing it all away.

And sometimes we forget how great God is because we forget where he brought us from.

We forget that we couldn't save ourselves, that everything was going wrong.

And now we've received salvation.

And salvation is not just a one-time event.

Yes, he washes away all of our sin, but he sanctifies us, he purifies these, he sets us free in the present, but he's also secured heaven for us in the future.

Here's the thing he didn't have to.

God is awesome all by himself.

There's the old song we used to say, God don't need no matches, he's fire all by himself.

He's good with or without us.

Like we can't do anything to either make him greater or make him less.

He gets nothing out of us except for the fact he loves you.

He likes you.

He wants you.

You have you are wanted.

The Bible says, for the joy set before him, Jesus endured the cross, even though he despised the same.

You know what the joy was?

You that's how much he loves you.

You can't earn it, you can't deserve it.

He offers it.

The beauty and the miracle of salvation.

Sometimes one of the greatest things is to get a bigger picture of God and for a moment feel how unworthy we are, and then be reminded, and he still loves me.

Just the same.

I love this story in the in the book of Luke.

It talks about how the first time that that Peter was around Jesus.

The Bible said that Pete that Jesus was teaching, uh, and he asked if he could borrow Peter's boat so he could get out a little further so he could teach to all the people.

And during that time, it was so hot that you would go and you would fish as a fisherman at night, because that's when the fish would come up to the surface.

And the Bible said they had been fishing all night and caught nothing, right?

They absolutely caught nothing.

And the next morning they were like, Well, we're not doing anything with this boat.

Sure, Jesus, you can teach from it.

And when he was finished teaching, he was talking probably just about the sufficiency of God.

And he looked over at Peter and he said, I want you to throw your nets into the water for a catch.

Well, here's the thing: not only do fish not bite in the morning, it's like the worst time for you to go fishing, they don't bite on the shore.

You got to go out in the water.

So literally, this is the worst place to throw a net, which is why Peter was like, I mean, we fished all night and called nothing, but sure, why not?

You know?

And the Bible said, as soon as he did, all of a sudden, boom, so many fish came into the net that it started to break.

That they actually had to call James and John and their boat to come over because they were afraid it was gonna bust because there were so many fish, and they were trying to, you know, you can imagine they're trying to put the the fish onto the boat, but yet Peter's looking at Jesus.

That's awesome.

To the point that he said this, when Simon Peter realized what had happened, he fell to his knees and said, Oh Lord, please leave me, for I am such a sinful man.

Because he was awestruck by the number of fish that they had caught, and the others were with him.

But look at what Jesus said.

Jesus said, Don't be afraid, don't be afraid.

From now on, the fish or people.

In other words, from now on, you're with me.

Now on, we're together.

And as soon as they landed, they left everything and followed Jesus.

Here's the amazing thing.

Here's the great news is that Yahweh is holy, which means that no one is disqualified from his amazing grace because you can't earn it.

You were never going to be able to.

That's why it's so amazing that he offers us salvation.

And that's cool and all when we think of God just a little bit bigger than us.

But when our eyes become clear and we see how amazing he is, how much greater he is, but yet he stoops down and offers us salvation.

We go, that's amazing that he would love me in that way.

God is just different than we can imagine.

One more time.

I know I told you not to do it, but you gotta do it one more time.

Look at somebody and say, He's just different.

It's just different.

He's greater than we can imagine.

And the reason why that's so important and why we are gonna build on this over the course of this series is because we need to realize that when we plant our lives in him, we realize that we he calms us because his rule is unshaken.

God is fine, and we can put our lives on him, that he helps us find beauty in the darkest moments because he is so amazing, that our salvation becomes so much more valuable when we realize how great he is.

And then here's the last one, and that is that he gives us a God-centered confidence.

That's the result, God willing, of this series is that we begin to see God more clearly.

And as we see him more clearly, we live with more confidence because we know who our God is, and we see how holy and how huge and how different he is.

And then when we realize how much he loves us, we go, Wow, he loves me?

Well, now I can step in because once we get a clear picture of who God is, then we begin to realize what he says about us.

I love this.

The Bible says that when he found out his sins were forgiven, God said to the room, Whom shall I send as a messenger to this people?

Who will go for us?

And Isaiah said, Here I am, send me.

This is the same guy who said, I am dead, I am doomed, I am full of sin, and the people I live with are worse than I am.

And then he has an encounter with God, he truly sees God for who he is.

And now instead of seeing the world as a disaster, he sees his world as an opportunity.

God, if you can do this through me, and if you are this big, I can't wait to see the adventures you take me on.

Let's do this together.

That's my hope for all of us is that we see God so clearly that we stop thinking of our world as a scary place full of villains, and instead we see our God and we go, if he is for me, nothing can stand against me.

And that's my hope is that our relationship with God will get to a whole new level.

Just like what happened with Moses.

Like if you've been reading God's word with us, we've been going through God's word one chapter at a time.

And if you'd like to join us, you can text RLC Bible to 94,000 or scan that QR code.

And the moment when God tells Moses what his name is, that's at the beginning of Exodus.

And then after that, they go do all these wonderful things, and we go through all the different plagues, and then you know they parse the Red Sea and they get free food every day.

And then God comes down on Mount Sinai.

You really got to read the book of Exodus, it's really amazing.

But what I love is that every one of these moments, think about the relationship that God has with Moses.

Because in Exodus 3, God introduces himself.

He says, I am.

I am all-knowing, all present.

I'll give you a clear vision of who I am.

Let's go do life together.

And notice it said when he first saw God, he he covered his face because he was so afraid.

But now, after seeing God move and seeing God move and seeing how big God was, the Bible says, and we're going to read this in about just a little over a week, the Bible says that inside the tent of meeting, which was a tent that Moses put on the outside of the camp so he could meet with God, it says, the Lord Yahweh would speak to Moses face to face as one speaks to a friend.

He went from seeing how great God was to seeing how great he was and having a relationship with him that was more powerful than we can imagine.

That's my hope for me and you is that the clearer picture we get of God, we will be able to know him more.

That's God's promise to all of us.

Here's the promise from God's Word.

It says, For when they see, when we get everything else out of the way, and we clearly see, get a clear picture of God, they will recognize the holiness, the differentness of the Holy One of Jacob, and they will stand in awe of the God of Israel.

That's my hope for us.

Just like my story at the beginning, you know, the the the happiest place and most expensive place on earth.

They have the the the fireworks show every night, and it's it's quite impressive.

It's like, yep, there it is.

It's great, it's great.

But then, whenever you have that moment where they just start doing something just totally unexpected, that lady was like, Whoa! Do you know what my hope is for you at some point in this series?

My hope for you is we're gonna talk about different attributes of God, how He is all-knowing, He is all powerful, He is good, He is worthy, He is the healer.

We're gonna talk about the goodness of who God is.

And I'm not saying you don't already know that about God, but I want you to see Him in a fresh way.

And my hope is that wherever your view is of God, that God will clear it away, and that you will just be so amazed by God that at some point you just go, He's awesome! And here's the thing: we're giving everybody permission that at least one time during this series, if you just yell out, he's awesome, we're gonna laugh at you, but we're gonna go, right?

We're gonna keep on going because here's the thing.

I don't think our problems are too big, I think our view of God is too small.

When's the last time you saw God in a fresh way and it took your breath away?

That's my hope.

I'm not talking about what you feel, I'm talking about who you know.

I'm not against emotion.

I love when we worship God, I love when we experience his presence, but I want to I want to know him and the power of his resurrection.

I want to know who he is.

I want to know Yahweh in a special way.

There's so many things about God that we don't even know yet that just make it so much more amazing than we can imagine.

Let me give you one example about knowing who God is.

The word Yahweh, Y-H-W-H, Yahweh.

Ancient scholars, especially in the Talmud, they didn't know exactly how to say his name for a while because it was so special.

And one day somebody noticed as they were breathing, he actually had was a little sick, they started breathing, he started going, Yah, wait, Yah, wait.

And ancient scholars used to believe if you ever forgot the name of God, breathe slowly.

And in breathing slowly, you are breathing out the very name of God.

And so on the deathbed, they would say one of the holiest moments was the family would gather around, and the last thing they would hear, their loved one before they pass away, was saying the name of their God before they literally entered into his presence.

Before they would go into a war, they would all get together and they would breathe for a moment to remember, Yahweh, Yahweh is with us.

They were so certain that God was with them that they believed that every breath they took was praise to their God.

Can I tell you, God is so present in your life that every time you breathe, you say his holy name.

That's how much he loves you.

So this week, when you start having that panic attack because the world doesn't make sense, breathe for a moment and hear the voice of God in your own coming out of you.

Yah.

Wait, yeah, wait.

When you have that argument again, and you were really hoping that it was gonna get better, but it hasn't got better, find a place, get quiet.

Sometimes one of the most powerful forms of worship is not to say anything else, just breathe in and out.

Because when you breathe in and out, you're breathing the holy name of God, and you're remembering that he is that close to you.

We have no idea how big God is, he's so much bigger than we can imagine that even in our own breath, he has put his name on our lips.

That's how much he loves us.

And my hope is that at some point before this series is over with, your mind will be blown by the greatness of God.

I had no idea he loved me that much.

I had no idea he was that big, I had no idea he was that holy, and he still loves me.

Yahweh, he's awesome.

In just a moment, the band's gonna lead us in a song of worship.

And I don't I don't know what you need to do with this message today, but I've had a prayer for you.

And my prayer has been that God would open your eyes to see him more clearly.

I want to ask you this question one more time.

When is the last time your mind has been blown by the goodness of God?

Maybe that needs to be your prayer.

God, I don't know how it happened, but I I don't see you as big as I used to see you.

God, would you just blow my mind with how big you are?

Will you just remind me of your greatness?

Will you just open my eyes to see you more clearly?

Can I tell you it's one of the greatest prayers, but it's also dangerous because you know what he's gonna do?

He's gonna show you how big he is.

Just get ready.

Maybe that needs to be your prayer.

Maybe you're in here and you don't know who Jesus is, you don't have a relationship with God.

Can I tell you you're in the right place?

God loves you more than you can imagine, he's for you more than you can imagine.

Salvation is yours today.

On the back of your connect card is the plan of salvation.

And what it says is it says that we were lost in our sin.

We couldn't save ourselves, and that's why Jesus came.

He came to take our place.

That cross belonged to us, but he took it upon us to upon himself for us, and we can't deserve salvation, but we can receive it.

So salvation is saying, Jesus, I accept what you did for me.

I repent of all my sin and I turn my life over to you.

It's one thing to know about the love of God, and it's quite another to experience him for yourself.

Today's your day.

Can I tell you, you've not gone too far, you've not done too much, you've never been more loved than you are right now.

God's in love with you.

You are why he came.

You are who he's after today.

In just a moment, as we begin to worship the Lord, your next best act of worship is to get up out of your seat and join us at the prayer table.

I want you to take this with you and say, I want to know Jesus.

And it'll be our honor to lead you through the prayer of salvation so you can enter into the kingdom of God.

And the Bible says, old things will pass away.

Behold, all things will become new.

It's the greatest adventure, not just of your life, but for all eternity to know God for yourself.

Today's the day of salvation.

Let's pray together right now.

God, thank you so much for today.