Leftovers - Exodus 3:1-15

Happy Monday, Pastor Matt with you here on the ERC Leftovers

Podcast. Pastor Chris is here too.

And you know what? I wasn't sure you were going to

say my name. Weird, but you did.

I usually do. I.

Usually do maybe try not to on Sunday mornings but like.

I mean, you could. And then the people who listen

to this podcast would be like, oh, so that's how he does that.

All right. The people who only listen and

like, never see you just think that you're just like this

little gremlin based on how I how I say we ask your Koreans.

Yeah, that's how I say your name.

OK, that's fair. We're back.

We're back. That feels like we're back.

You know, starting it off like that feels like we're back.

So back past couple episodes have been prerecorded Ask Me

Anything episodes. We usually have a reaction and

continuing conversation of the Sunday morning message at ERC

and Manus Rd. Church here in DeWitt, Iowa.

Thanks for being a part of our community, listening in, sharing

this with those that you think need to hear it, inviting one

more into this conversation and sharing Jesus with them. 2 So

that's usually how we do. The past couple weeks have been

ask me anything, anything from theology things to food things

to whatever Disney Princess things I think we answered.

And yeah, it's been great. Thanks for participating.

And we're we have a bunt. We still have a pile leftover of

questions and we're going to continue to take those one at a

time as we have time. We'll definitely do some other

Ask ME Anything episodes as well.

So it's been fun. There's about 50 of you

regularly listening to this podcast, and even if there are

only a handful of you, would be well worth our time.

But to know that there's several dozen of you out there listening

to the sermon on Sunday morning, then also coming back for more.

Yeah, of course we're going to keep doing it.

Yeah, thanks for doing that. Because you know, if you're, if

you're in a church, for example, where people come in on a Sunday

and they're like, oh cool, check the Christian box for the week.

Now I'm moving on. No, it's we, we want to build a

faith community that wants to be in God's Word and wants to be

thinking through theology and faith seven days a week, not

just, you know, once a week. So yeah, thanks for tuning in.

Thanks for being a part of this community.

We are excited to continue to dive into God's Word together

with you through any number of means.

Yeah, and we had, we were gone last week.

Part of the reason we had to prerecord.

We were at the Church Leaders Summit, a conference in

Jacksonville, FL. And that was of course, you

always get that like last day of camp High, like that conference

high. And I think if if you've gone to

a church conference, you're gone to a church camp, like or even,

gosh, even if you've gone to a conference for your job or, or

something that you're passionate about, like you know what that

feels like you come back just kind of kind of fired up, feels

a little different this time. I think.

I think there's going to be a lasting fervor here.

At least I have like my, I don't know, I feel like I have this

Unicorn horde and I coming out of my forehead that it sounds

really feels really weird, but it's just like it's really loud,

like right in the middle of my head as it relates to spiritual

things and that I don't know that sounds weird and crazy and

hard to explain, but I'm pretty fired up and pretty excited for

the work that God already has laid out for us here at ERC.

That's really all we're trying to do see where God's working

and and join him in that, but the road ahead is becoming a lot

clearer, I think, and excited to chase that down with with all

you to to love like Jesus in and out of that.

We sang a song yesterday. That's who I praise the the

closing lines want to love like Jesus and live like there's no

more precious time to waste. We're here.

That's, that's what we're doing and we'd love for you all to

come along with us 'cause we need you.

We, it's not just, it's not just us, it's it's a body of

believers and it's going to be cool.

I'm I'm so pumped, you know, to see some clarity coming out.

Yeah, like you said, I think sometimes you go to those

conferences and there's like this short term motivational

speaker almost level excitement. But yeah, being there with you

and Kristen and just getting clarity on some things and like

coming back and being able to say, hey, you know what, we we

know this is where we're going as a church because

theologically we are set on the word of God as our only source

of teaching. So then how do we best

communicate that? How do we best get people

involved in that? And so having some clarifying

terms and some ideas around that is fantastic.

Yep. And Kristen was so funny.

She's not on the podcast this week.

She joined us for the AMA episodes.

But on one of the AMA episodes, we talked to her about like what

her job abbreviation would be as director of operations.

And she always kind of joked over the summer like, oh man,

that that sounds made-up. Like my job sounds made-up.

Well, she went to this conference and she met other

church leaders that are also their church's director of

operations. And she just came back like I, I

have a real job. It's Pinocchio.

I'm a real boy. That's as high as my voice gets,

by the way. I'm a real boy you.

May not have the British accent. I feel like you've got the

Pinocchio accent pretty good. I'm not sure there's like broad

application for that other than that one line.

Yeah, I don't. I guess I would have to go back

and rewatch Pinocchio to see if there's other like sound bites I

can just start doing in that voice just for fun also.

Just that Pinocchio voice is also the gingerbread cookie from

Shrek though, correct? Yeah, OK.

Say say gum drop button. Gum drop button.

Gum drop button. We are off the rails on Monday.

If we weren't back before, we're certainly back now.

Oh my goodness. Off the rails well.

What did you what did you do this weekend?

Why did I feel like I've been nonstop for like 10 days?

You didn't preach this weekend and maybe got to catch your

breath. So a little bit, no, it was

great. You know, one of the things that

of course, you know, we, we talked about, you know, 4 FS,

right? Faith, family fitness, AK,

taking care of your body and finances, right?

So being responsible with the resources that God has given

you. Well, you know, when I got back,

one of the things that I wanted to do well is spend time with my

wife. You know, my daughter, she's 21,

she's in the military. She's off doing what she does.

And my son is a senior. He's run around doing what he

does. So it's like, man, my, you know,

I, I want to spend time with my wife.

And so we did that. And it wasn't as cool as I hoped

it would be. But, and, and I say that only

because, like, I think we like the idea was to go someplace

kind of nice and kind of fun, like actually go out, out to

dinner. Well, no, no, no, no, no, no.

My family was a drag. No, not at all.

Really. I was like, this is not the

place to air this. We would have had to edit that

out if that was where I was going, but it's not.

So no editing necessary. But the.

The thing is, so we have a dog and it's like, Oh my gosh.

I left the house early enough and I don't think we really had

anybody right away to get there and let her out.

And it's like she's squeezing her legs.

We got to get home. So we need a quicker dinner.

So we ended up at one of my favorite fast places, which is

Chick-fil-A. Yeah, yeah.

You know, and I I, you know, there's a song out there, but.

But I doing the chick in the Lord's way unless it's a Sunday,

right? So I talked to Matt about this

and he has it queued up. There is a Chick-fil-A song that

came out like 7 years ago. I've.

Never heard this before and it's ridiculous.

It's ridiculous, but it's so worth your time.

So if you're a Chick-fil-A fan, please give this a listen.

If you're not a Chick-fil-A fan, maybe you will be after the

song. Yeah, we've done this before

with the John Chris clip. We'll we'll do a little pastor's

reacts to the the Chick-fil-A rap here.

So yeah, buckle up. Here we go.

My name is Jared. How can I help you today?

Welcome to heaven. Yeah, I mean Chick-fil-A.

Roll up to your table, smiling like a fool.

Fool. Sorry if I'm awkward.

I was home schooled. Hey.

Hey. You don't have to bow your head.

Nah, you don't have to pray for your food.

Had a Bible study in the back. We already pray for you.

It is my pleasure to serve you. It is my pleasure to serve you.

We're serving the chicken the Lord's way.

Unless it's a sundae. My pleasure to serve you.

It is my pleasure to serve you. It is my pleasure to serve you.

We're serving the chicken the Lord's way.

Unless it's a sundae My pleasure to serve you.

Would you like perfectly crafted and drafted Polynesian sauce

sauce? Dipping and dabbing using your

napkin. You know they extra soft.

Keep an eye out for the refill. Fill it up till it spill.

Splash, splash, splash, splash. Would you like coca iced tea?

You know the lemons, fresh squeeze.

You know whatever you need, just ask.

Because I can do all things. It is my pleasure to serve you.

Hey, it is my pleasure to serve you.

Hey, we're serving the chicken the Lord's way.

Unless it's a sundae. My pleasure to serve you.

It is my pleasure to serve you. Hey, it is my pleasure to serve

you. Hey, we're serving the chicken

the Lord's way. Unless it's a sundae.

My pleasure to serve you. It is my pleasure to serve you.

There's there's so many things. So I know he's attaching it to a

different phrase, but serving the serving the chicken in the

Lords way, unless it's a Sunday, it's my pleasure to serve you.

It almost sounds like it's not his pleasure to serve you on

Sundays. Like even whether they open or

not, it's not, it's not not on Sundays.

It's. Not not on Sundays.

Hey man, everybody needs a Sabbath.

Right. Yeah, but oh so many other

things. The I'm awkward.

The I feel like the homeschool joke is like way dated in it.

Maybe, yeah. Awkward because I'm homeschooled

I was homeschooled for like 6 years and we we have other we

have others at at the church that are homeschooled.

I just, I don't know, I feel like.

Did you take that line personally?

A little bit because I, I don't know if maybe maybe y'all talk

about me around my back and maybe I am awkward because I'm

homeschooled but like, I don't know.

I feel like I, I get it. I get where that stigma came

from, but I don't. You'll never know for sure the.

Home school kids I know nowadays I feel like aren't awkward, no

that that used to be a thing. That just isn't true.

It's true, but I mean like the perfectly crafted Polynesian

sauce. They're right.

That stuff is fantastic. There's.

A YouTube video like we just played the audio obviously, but

there's an actual video that is is fine and appropriate, but for

him to like. He's like dabbing.

Yeah, as as. It's awesome.

Like, I, yeah, when I heard that song, I was like, you know, I

already, I already like this chicken.

And now I'm convinced it is in fact, the Lord's chicken.

'Cause this guy, he's legit, his name tag at the end says like

social media leader, like he's, he's like the exec in charge of

social media outreach for Chick-fil-A, right?

Good for him for thinking outside of the box.

Yeah, I thought it was pretty good.

I like that. We already, we already prayed

for you pre blessed. Like.

Pre blessed. That's some pre blessed chicken

right there. Start welcoming people into the

church. That way we already prayed for

you. Pre blessed, pre blessed, that's

pretty good. And that would actually be true.

Like we pray for you guys all the time.

So pre blessed all. Right, on that note and maybe so

many more things to unpack that we're just, we're just going to

leave that check it out. It's like a minute and a half

long on YouTube. It's good for a laugh.

But one of the Ask Me Anything questions that we haven't yet

addressed and we've said the phrase in in sermons and on

Sunday mornings before. I brought up the song we sang,

but it was a question we got. What does love like Jesus really

mean? That's the question.

What does love like Jesus really mean?

Well, let me take at least the first part of this question,

which is going to sound less fun.

And maybe Matt, you can jump in on the second part, which is

going to make you sound like a way nicer guy.

OK, so part of loving like Jesus is certainly telling the truth.

Now, when we get to any given gospel text, Jesus makes it

pretty clear. He lays out the standards with

which God wants us to live our lives.

And so he always does that with relationship in mind, with

growing you in mind, not beating you down.

So you're like, oh man, I, I'm, I, I stink at life, you know,

but he is going to tell you the truth what God's standard is.

And so even even thinking about like, OK, so for example, let's

go to the, I think the story is affectionately referred to as

the widow's mite, right? So you got all these, you know,

all these really religious people throwing in all this

money and the, and the crazy thing about that story is

they're literally they're, they're using copper and metal

coins and they're banging it off this thing.

So that way it's really loud. Sounds like a.

Lot. Sounds like a lot and she comes

up and she drops her one not loud thing and so Jesus goes on

to speak the truth about, you know, her giving is greater than

theirs. Now that's a law statement

That's like you did this wrong. Your heart's in the wrong place.

Therefore it doesn't matter that you gave ample amounts more like

that's not what God wants right. So like that's that's a law

truth statement, but he's doing that in love.

So that's, I would say that's like at least the first half of

answering that question is like loving like Jesus absolutely has

to involve God's truth. Yeah, absolutely.

And even the truth hurts, like most of the time we feel guilt

or even like a tug to repentance, it's because the

truth called us out. And that's usually how that

goes. I as it relates to that part,

the harder part of the question, I guess I usually think of the

loving like Jesus and giving truth.

You've maybe heard me bring it before because it's just where

my mind gravitates. But Matthew 19, it's in Mark and

Luke as well. But the story of Jesus and the

rich young ruler, he, he comes up to Jesus and asks him.

He even refers to him. Good teacher.

Like it's I like, I like what you're given.

I agree with what you're saying at the law and the prophets I'm

familiar with. I've kept all these things since

I was a boy, but what must I do to inherit eternal life?

And again, rich young ruler, this dude's probably dressed

pretty dapper. He, he looks the part.

And Jesus told him all of this. You have one thing you lack.

Sell your possessions. Everything you have, give it to

the poor and follow me. And the man went away sad for he

had great wealth. Jesus, at no point we don't, we

don't know for sure that the story just kind of ends there.

Jesus gave him a hard truth, a truth he didn't want to hear and

a truth that he wasn't ready to act on.

And Jesus didn't chase him down and be like, Oh, no, no, I, I

was just kidding. You can, you can keep your stuff

and still follow me. Like he didn't, he didn't

watered down. He, he didn't he, he did love,

not conditionally, but not, not, not not in any.

If you do this, you will have my love sort of way, but in a if

you love me, this is how you do it, then this is how you.

So that's that's love like Jesus in that in that hard truth sort

of way that there is there is right and wrong and there is a a

construct for it. Beyond that.

It's that it's that praying for those who who curse you, bless

those who are your enemies. Learn to desire to pray, to love

those that aren't like you or or maybe don't like you in in some

ways that that turn the other cheek mentality almost to that

you love like Jesus in the sense that you love anyone, not

necessarily like making allowance for sin.

Not in that. Again, that's Jesus with the

rich young ruler. That's not what he did.

He did. He didn't love him.

He loved him enough to call him out on his sin to call you.

You've done all this. You're so close.

You're lacking one thing. I'm going to tell you right what

it is right to your face because because you asked and he didn't

water it down. That's that's loving like Jesus.

There's that unconditional aspect of it, but not

compromising truth. Ephesians 4 says speaking the

truth in love. Can't have one without the

other. We've talked about that.

Because truth without love is hate, I mean.

It's gonna. Sound hateful yeah, not sorry I

spoke too absolutely there. It's it's not hate.

It sounds hateful though right. You you said that better yeah.

So that's and I even saw man I can't I can't the maybe y'all

you got to let me know if you're getting sick of the current

event stuff. But Keegan Clark, a pastor kind

of some of you post reels about him and he's a kind of he's a

very excitable young preacher usually has like a backwards hat

and a baggy and a baggy shirt on.

But he's he's a truth spitter and he had a reaction this past

week that was in this love like Jesus vein just seeing all the

reaction to the events of last week and and US versus them and

this side versus that side. And he just said, I don't want

to address any of that. For those of you, for those of

you that are Christians, the, the way we, the way we're called

to react in this time is to pray for those we disagree with, to

pray for those who hate us to, to pray for those that maybe we

would think or call or or feel our evil.

That's the Jesus way. That that's the love like Jesus.

That's, that's the, and, and then those who are maybe against

Christianity wouldn't do that. It it would be a, it would be a

call to arms, a call to war, a call to violence like that sort

of thing. That's not how Jesus loved.

That's he bless those who persecute you, pray for your

enemies. That's that's.

Love like Jesus. Father, forgive them.

They don't know what they're doing.

Yeah. The other, the other thing about

loving like Jesus, I think that's, again, just share a

story. Well, what about a story of a

prostitute who is at his feet weeping on him and then drying

the tears with her hair and the really good religious guy across

the table in his heart, and Jesus knows it.

He's like, there's no way, no way that woman would be touching

him if he knew who she was. Oh, Jesus knew exactly who she

was. And he ended up telling a story

in her favor, in her favor. So I mean, the other way that we

love like Jesus is we look at the oppressed, we look at the

downtrodden, We look at those who maybe whatever part of

society or culture that you think is best, they don't fit

in. And it's looking at them and

saying, you know what, I'm going to love you through this, you

know, and, and I'm going to, I'm going to be, I'm going to be on

your side. Because that's what we see over

and over again in the Old Testament throughout the

prophets is it's one of the major themes of the prophets

speaking. And it always comes down to,

yeah, but you have you cared for the widows?

Have you cared for the oppressed?

Have you done this? You've neglected these things.

You have not loved your neighbor the way that I have wanted you

to love them. And so, I mean, yeah, even

representing and standing up for those people who can sometimes

not stand up for themselves, that's also a part of loving

like Jesus, you know? Yep, absolutely.

So I think we covered a lot of it.

I don't I don't want to say all of it maybe, but I think we I

think we got the concept John, if you have more questions about

loving like Jesus, probably going to hear that phrase a lot

honestly, because that's what we're called do it's.

Not easy. It's not easy.

It is not easy. There's going to be some tense

moments if if you're praying for your enemies, if you're speaking

the truth, if you're loving those who cannot stand up for

themselves, You know what? You're you're maybe you have

some religious friends who are like, why are you hanging out

with them? Why are you talking to them?

And then on the other side, you know, it's going to be like, why

are you so hard? You know, and that's, and that's

the Jesus way. You can't, you can't put them

too far one way or the other. He's going to he's going to push

hard on those who need it with the law and he's going to love

way bigger than people expect for the people who don't look

like they deserve it in both ways.

He's loving them well, and that's not an easy tightrope to

walk. Right.

And it's not something that we necessarily do.

That's, and the way we, we can't truly love them like Jesus,

because I think we, we, we feel that tension at times or somehow

we're being like taken advantage of.

I, I don't know, maybe that's not exactly how it goes, but it,

it almost seems like that's what, that's what grace is,

right? Like you're giving.

You're giving someone something they don't deserve.

And. And that's our sinful selves

feeling like somehow we're the loser in that scenario by like

doling out, it's something that that someone doesn't deserve.

But Jesus, Jesus wasn't a loser. He, he, he gave, he gave it all

and he was, he was the victor. So. 7 * 70 yeah, over and over

again, yeah. So yeah, that's love like Jesus

we are in Exodus chapter 3. I preached on verses one through

Exodus 3 · chapter mention

15 yesterday the the burning Bush passage in the in the

narrative in the story of Moses here we're two weeks into the

our deliverer series and life groups this time around 2 of 12

weeks. So it's going to bring us right

up till advent. There are study guides still

available at church if. You have there's a handful,

there's not a lot. But you have the you have the

digital copy no matter what, like we can still study guides

are $15 and and you have the digital copy that we could get

that as well, even if we run out of physical copies.

So if you still need one of those, either for life groups

for the life group that you're in and we can still find your

life group if you're not plugged in to one.

Or if you just wanted to follow along with the sermons in your

own personal study that's available to contact me or Chris

or or Kristen and we can get you hooked up with that.

But I preached, did you have what?

We'll walk through the text here too.

But like anything that that jumped out at you or you feel

like I I left out or said weird or.

Actually, I, I got to give you some credit because I don't

think I put this in our study guide.

You clarified something that I think is if, if, if you're

paying attention to the text, you might have a question about

it and that is the Angel of the Lord.

And then wait, went, wait, so is he talking to an Angel or is he

talking to God? Or is it both or what's

happening there? I actually.

So if you haven't heard that, please go back and listen to the

sermon because I thought you covered that really well.

And I don't think I covered that in the study guide.

But yeah, I think that's an important thing to pick up on

too, is that God sends a messenger sometimes to get our

attention, right, the way that Moses attention was clearly

gotten. And then and then God's going to

speak and then we really need to listen.

The other thing that I thought you addressed well was like, why

wait? Why did you have to take off the

sandals? What are we doing?

What does that mean? You know?

And so you know, you addressing that as like, no, I'm, I'm

taking off the thing that's dirty.

And I and I couldn't help but think like, if you're walking

around 3000 years ago, there's no dog, you pick up poop bags.

No man, you're you're walking. Through everything.

You're walking through everything in your in your

sandals. If not, your feet are nasty.

And so, yeah, take those things off.

You're you're in a holy space right now.

Yeah, I thought that was cool too.

Cool. Well, well, thanks.

Yeah, I enjoyed the study this week.

There were a couple of those language things that I just I

don't, I don't always you dive into the original languages and

some of the nuances that are more than I usually do with this

week. I thought there were a couple

clarification things that were important to bring out.

Sure. Yeah, I think one of the things

that we can definitely jump into is the name I am.

OK. So, you know, if you if you jump

into the original language, can I get a, you know, what's a good

definition of that? Because I am is just really for

us as modern day English speaker, that's just a strange

thing to call yourself. What does that really mean?

So for sure we know that I am from a definition standpoint

really means I am creation, I am existence.

So when God gives you his name or gives Moses his name, what he

is saying just below the surface and the original hearers would

have understood this out of the gate.

But what he's saying is I am everything that sustains

everything. There is nothing without me.

So, you know, when we when we do here I am, then we have to

hopefully pretty quickly acknowledge, oh, he's saying I

am existence itself. That's what he's indicating.

I am everything. Nothing exists outside of me.

That's impossible, you know, And so that's kind of an important

thing to think about in terms of the name.

And the other thing that we can note just in your Bibles.

And I think I did put this in the study is when you see Lord

in all capital letters, it's a replacement of God's holy I am

name because Jewish people heard that name, received that name,

and then said we don't ever want to accidentally misuse that

name. So then it is replaced with the

Lord, all capital letters. And so then when you see Lord

with just a capital L, we're talking more generically Lord.

And then when you see it with no capitals, we're talking like a

human Lord, like, oh, I'm the Lord of this castle.

And that's an all lowercase. So that's how you kind of work

through those things when you're reading your Bible.

Right. And then I I went a little

further than that and we did, we hadn't talked about this

beforehand, but again that that same uppercase Lord again

applied to Jesus by his disciples in in the New

Testament. So my my mind like, you know,

when I had that moment in in study really of this, this is

and we have this Trinitarian God that yeah, that can be

confusing, but that breaks down kind of the compartmentalization

because going into the week and I brought this up at our life

group too. Like if you just hear the name

Yahweh, which of the three of the Trinity do you think of?

God the Father. Is the Father like look, it's

absolutely father is like the default setting for who Yahweh

is, but but it's all of like it's all three of them.

None of them are separate from that.

I am who I am even even at the beginning, Father creator was

there at the beginning. The word was hovering.

The word was there at the beginning and the spirit was

hovering over the waters like all of it.

I all three are. I am.

And that was the other part of the just like state of being.

Obviously that's England. I am not an English major or I

really don't even understand most of the like technical

aspects of that. Like if you tell me what like a

present infinitive is like, I don't, I don't.

Know, but you busted that out pretty quick.

That's pretty good. Is that a thing?

Like I felt like I just jammed 2 grammatical words together.

OK. I don't know what it is either,

so it just sounded cool to be honest.

A present infinitive. That's real thing.

For a living and publicly admitting these things, OK

great. But that state of being, I am

who I am. You're right, it sounds really

simplistic, but it also has to be true.

If he was and has always been like that, then he just is.

If he ever wasn't, he isn't. I am right like.

I hear what you're saying. Yeah, great.

But, well, and you know, The thing is, going back to what you

were just saying about Jesus is also I am.

He makes that painfully clear. And in fact, it's one of the

moments where there is an attempt at his life before

Abraham was I M And then they pick up stones 'cause they're

like, you just called yourself the holy perfect name of God.

You cannot do that. Like, he's running around

saying, you know, talking about forgiving sins and all this kind

of stuff and doing miracles. And they don't love that.

But it's when he says I am, that they're like, all right, you

need to die now. So he clearly identifies himself

as the great I am. I am existence.

Yeah. So he is that as well.

Yep, and just as we, as we dig into the Christology of, of the

Bible, this was, I don't want to say preparatory because Jesus

wasn't the the sacrifice. There was no sacrifice of Jesus

in the story of, of Moses, obviously, but we kind of get a

foreshadowing of him as, as the deliverer coming, coming down.

I am the one who delivers my people and in this moment it's

it's by my power 2000 years, 1800 years ish late later after

after Moses, when I'm actually down then it is by my blood, it

is by my body that I might my people's deliverer so.

Well, and when we look at we Christians, we need to read the

Bible with the right overall narrative in mind.

So as Jesus says, you know, he explains to everybody from Moses

and the prophets and the Psalms, it's all about me, OK, Well,

when God says I'm coming down to deliver you, OK, this delivery

in the story of Exodus, that is almost like, well, it's the Old

Testament, It's the old covenant, It's the old promise.

Here's the agreement that I've got with you right now, But

there's a better covenant coming.

And that is predicted all throughout the Old Testament.

And so then when Jesus comes in bodily form down to deliver us,

it's not a momentary thing, it's a forever thing.

And he got real personal, real fast.

And so, yeah, even chapter 3, it is predictive of Jesus walking

on earth. Because I'm coming down to

deliver you. I'm going to make it personal

and I'm going to get it done once and for all.

So very cool. I love how this does in fact

foreshadow Jesus coming down to deliver.

Yep, and I said it in the sermon yesterday.

I talked about that parallelism and the and the Christology and

how we're looking for Jesus in every passage.

I don't I don't say that as find.

That's not like a Where's Waldo? Is Jesus wearing a red and white

striped shirt right? No, no, no.

And I also don't say it in the spirit of you need to figure out

a way to jam Jesus. I do think the whole of the

Bible does point to Jesus, but is he in every 15 verse cluster

of the Bible like explicitly the not the way that he is here.

No, I don't I don't I'm not saying that and you and you

don't need to figure out where he is in each little 15 verse

cluster in that, but it does it points to it.

It screams who he is the character of God.

And again, we're not, we're not going to can't compartmentalize

really the the character of the Father is the character of the

son is the character of the Holy Spirit.

Like they are each all the things they have.

They have separate roles and they have separate ways they are

revealed and act and work together.

But at their core, there's nothing, there's nothing that

really compartmentalizes them that way.

It's not as if Yahweh is only reserved for.

Correct. So beautiful.

That's a great way to say that as we look at the burning Bush,

you know, one of the cool things and and I thought you spoke of

that well, yesterday too. One of the cool things that, you

know, I think you and I talked about this a little bit and not

everything can come out in the sermon, which is why we're

talking about it here. But one of the things that I

think that you and I were talking about with the burning

Bush and just, you know, bringing that forward into like

an applicable sense for us is sometimes man, in order for God

to get our attention, our lives, we need to see something that no

longer makes sense. So, you know, Moses, he's

hanging out as you described in the Bush, just keeps burning and

we don't even know how long it burned for before Moses like,

all right, this doesn't make any sense.

I got I got to go check this thing out.

Well, same thing with our lives sometimes.

Like we are going to hit some sort of wall, whether that's

emotionally, financially, whatever.

And we're going to look at our lives and say, man, this isn't

working. It doesn't make sense.

And so at the point where things are no longer making sense and

man, all of a sudden we're going to turn, we're going to start

looking a different direction. And God, man, just like it all

comes back. We talked about the necessity of

storms, right? OK, so God's going to get our

attention when things aren't working, when it's unusual, when

it doesn't seem to be going the way that we think it should go.

Same thing here, right? So I, I love that.

And I think that's just another thing that needs to point us

back to God when things seem weird out of sorts.

He's asking for our attention. Yeah, he's, he's breaking up the

other things that we're we're paying attention 2.

You the paying attention thing that was that was pretty slick.

I'm going to give you that man. That was pretty.

Slick I I wish I I had a little regret.

I feel like I didn't milk that for I.

I mean, you could have ran with that the entire time.

I could have squeezed the the fruit a little bit more there

from that, but I think I hope the point came out well.

And I, I feel like that's also, I feel like that's also a song

lyrics somewhere that the, the currency of time is attention

somewhere in there. So look for that to come.

Keep working on that because I was like, oh, that's slick.

Thank you. Yeah.

I don't remember where I had heard that from someone else.

It was not an original thought, but it it captured my captured

my imagination. And I know that stuck with

several of you already, that the currency of time is attention.

So what are we paying attention to?

But even thinking about the Bush and I, I, I also didn't

articulate this very well. I just said like the Bush

spontaneously combusted. That just sounds crazy.

But but that isn't. I think you or I, if we, even if

we, if we're walking a dog or, or even tending sheep, I'm not a

farmer or a shepherd or, or anything close to that.

And none of you mistake me for that at all.

But I don't, I don't give you that impression.

So maybe, maybe I shouldn't be surprised.

But if I was shepherding sheep and something was on fire, I

think my reaction would be like, we got we got to do something.

The fire itself caused no reaction for that.

That's why I kind of said it was just like commonplace that it

there was just, Nope, just a Bush burn.

And what caught his attention was, oh, the Bush is still

burning it. It should have, it shouldn't be

a Bush anymore. Like it it's burned long enough

that the Bush should be gone. I need I need to go check that

out. So I don't know, to me, it's

like that would have caught my attention enough was was that

this thing is on fire. But that didn't that that wasn't

the weird thing for him. It was that it kept going.

And also to what you were saying about I am and, and I think you

brought this out in the study guide for sure.

The Bush was so the fire was self-sustaining and, and like

that is God's, that's the essence of God, right?

That that he is. So even in that we see like

physical aspect, we see, we see that played out in God in, in

the perpetuity of the fire of the Bush.

Also a little ironic that we would, we would say that our God

is an all consuming fire. And you did bring this out, but

and and yet didn't consume the Bush like didn't, didn't do that

because he's not consuming. Himself, that's right, he can't

because he, he is alpha and Omega.

He is forever. He doesn't have a beginning, he

doesn't have an end, therefore he cannot be consumed.

Now on the other side of that coin is where grace comes in,

because the upside down Kingdom of God.

What did God do to his Son to save us?

He consumed him. Yep.

Yeah, so all these crazy good, I'm like.

Isn't it great? Like you study God's word and

you're like, Oh my gosh, he had all this figured out.

He's so smart, right? As if we're surprised that he's

so smart. As if we're surprised because,

yes, as if we're surprised. A lot of time we are surprised

that he's so smart. And, and towards the end of this

passage, Moses kind of gets into that too, because he, he has

opposition. He explains, he explains his

plan and I brought this out yesterday.

He gets down to Moses's level and he says, I, I get it.

I understand the oppression. I understand the injustice.

I've, I've felt it. And that might seem weird

because to this point, we don't, we don't, we don't have a whole

lot the, the wrongdoing against God to this point is the sin of

people, right? Fast forward to Jesus and, and

yes, the parallels are absolutely clear that the father

now felt this. The Father turned his face away

and Jesus paid the ultimate sacrifice.

And OK, so that, yes, he lost his dearly beloved and, and

feels the oppression. But Moses's response to this is

like, I don't know if you know me, but I'm like not I'm not the

guy you're looking for. I don't.

I don't think you. I don't think I am who you think

I am. Yeah, verse 11.

But Moses said to God, who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and

bring the children of Israel out of Egypt, right.

Yeah, Who am I? Like, really?

Yeah, Yeah. I mean, don't we feel that way

though? Because quite honestly, even in

the role I'm in, you know, right now at Emmaus Rd.

Church, there are absolutely moments, there are sometimes

even full days where I'm like, Lord, what really like I there

are there aren't there better people for this job than me?

I am so broken. I am so sinful.

I am so messed up in myself. And I'm not saying that

generically, I mean that stuff like I mean that like and it and

and I have thought, who am I like, and I think we all get

that way from time to time in any given calling, especially if

that, especially as it as it relates to God.

Who am I to lead a small group? Who am I to, you know, hang out

with these kids and tell them about Jesus?

Who am I to go to my Co worker and tell them the truth and

love? Who am I?

You know, we do this stuff all the time because the devil gets

right at us. He gets right at us and makes us

feel small. Even though God said you're a

son, you're a daughter, you're my ambassador, you are my hands

and feet. And I need you to be working.

I'm going to be with you in that process, but I need you to.

I need you to stay vigilant. And that's really, I mean, the

last thing you said is, is the first thing that God says, who

are you? I will certainly be with you.

Who are you? You're you're the one I'm going

with. So saddle up like that's, that's

that's what makes you qualified. I'm the one I'm going to be with

you. So you're so you're the one

that's going and, and as if Moses could bring this is, this

is what's so funny to me. He doesn't even, he doesn't

question his belief that God can do this.

Like at no point in this passage, he's like, are you

like, Are you sure that you can like get these people out?

Have you thought about we got, we got across the sea and

there's like millions of them. So we got to bring a lot of

food. And like he doesn't, he doesn't

get into the none of that causes disbelief in Moses.

He's just like, I believe you can do that.

I just don't believe that I can like that.

You want to work through me and and God, it's not about you.

It's it's it's who I am. And you know what I'm with you.

I chose you, I sent you and even even you Pastor Chris now in in

that and I I feel the same tensions that you do, but guess

what? God chose you to be here.

You might feel unqualified, but because you're the one that God

chose, you're the one that God sent.

You're the one that God goes along with to care for this

people at this time. You are the right one.

You are you are the 1 here and now that God is going to use.

Yep, and we need to, you know what?

Thank you for that. We need to speak that truth over

our lives over and over again, especially when the devil starts

to get a foothold on our hearts and on our minds.

Man, we need to speak that gospel truth right over

ourselves that yeah, you're right.

Well, and, and I love it. I've heard it this way.

You know, when the devil tells you all the things and all the

reasons why you're the worst, just agree with him and say,

yeah, but I've got a, I've got Jesus so you can say all those

things. And I'm not even going to argue

with you about those things. I am all those things, but I've

got Jesus, so you can go take a hike.

Yeah, and that's, and that's really what we see in this in

this picture too. God, God's believing in Moses

more than Moses himself isn't like, like I said, Moses isn't

even questioning God. He's not even questioning the I

don't really think you can do what you what you say you do.

It's it's more of the self doubt in me.

And this is in the, this is in the Christian meme Hall of Fame

already. So maybe then maybe you've heard

it 1000 times. But like when God, when God

plays a calling on your life or plays a plan on your life, he's

already factored in your stupidity, right?

Like you can't and, and later the next, the next chapter is

the well, I'm not a Moses says I'm not an eloquent, eloquent

speaker as I pronounce eloquent nice.

And and he starts to make like more specific objections against

why he shouldn't be the one to do it.

And then God makes a way. He calls, he calls Aaron and he

and he tells his brother Aaron, Hey, Moses is coming back.

I've I've shown him all these things.

I need you to go out to the wilderness and and meet him.

And and this is how this is going to work.

And you have to be this advocate, this, this emissary

basically as as an advocate because you're in, you've been

in with the Israelites for the past 80 years and I need you to

advocate for him to them. And, and this is my plan and how

it's going to play out. So God already has all the, the

i's dotted and the T's crossed. Moses had to get over himself.

And we, we so often have to have to get over ourselves and

realize that, yeah, God's aware of who he's working with.

There's nothing you could bring to him and be like, but, but did

you know this? Did you know this thing that

would, like disqualify me from from being who you want me to

be? Yeah, he does.

He he already factored that in. You know, and the, the one of

the things that would be a little bit harder or not, it's,

it's, it's less obvious to draw out, but as you talked about, it

makes sense. You're never alone.

If God calls you into mission, you're never alone.

And let me name why. First and foremost, if it is his

mission, he goes with you unequivocally.

And that enough is enough, of course.

But think about how Jesus sends out those who are going to

preach the Kingdom of God. He sends them out two by two.

And you know, so we we look at how God wants to use us and how

he wants us to get involved in his mission to bring the gospel

to people's lives. Rarely is that a solo act.

If God's the one who's saying, hey, I got this for you.

Now, sure, there are pastors out there who are solo pastors at a

small church, but are they doing the work alone?

Absolutely not. You have people in that church

who love the Lord, who if you're the leader that God wants you to

be, you're not going to be doing this by yourself.

You're you're God is asking you to lead those people so that

they can lead others, right? It's the same thing that we do

here. We couldn't do a 10th of what we

do without the huge swath of volunteers who see the mission

of God as their own community. And they can even see that

mission by holding a door open or by serving coffee or by

hanging out with teenagers or by doing praise music.

Like in all of these ways, like we are not alone, you know, and

they are not alone. So God is calling us into

mission with others and of course most importantly, with

Himself. And and the last kind of thing I

leave you with in that on this on this line of thought, it's

something that Joby Martin was a lead pastor of the conference we

went to last week Church of the 1122 He's got a built for more

podcast. We're digging into his book for

men's ministry. I think I.

Can't remember the title right? Three or four weeks from now,

we're going to get that started. Yeah, so, but one of the things

I've heard him say before on on Reels and podcast, but he said

it this past week, past week too.

If it's not good, God's not done.

He works all things together for the good of those who love him.

So if it's not good, he's not done.

If it, if it's within his will and you're called to this and

it's but it's not, it's not finished.

It's not good because even I brought up Adam and Eve

yesterday too, and man was alone and, and God saw that it was not

good, right? That that's the first time in

the creation. Everything else was, was good,

was done. It was not good that man was

alone, so he made so he made a helper, he made a he made a

companion so that he wouldn't be alone.

And that into your point that you're that you're not alone.

It wasn't good, but God wasn't done, and he made it good by by

making man not alone. Awesome.

Yeah, Well, and how does God identify himself here?

How does he get Moses to wrap his head around the fact that,

yeah, he is forever. He always has been, always will

be. Well, he names the patriarchs.

Yeah, he names them. He says I am the God of your

father's, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

I am the same God who brought them through all of the stories

that you've ever heard. And of course, Moses, no doubt

he has been told these moments in history his entire life.

Again, he knew his parents. He knew his siblings.

Like he was well aware of who he was, what his culture is.

And so when God tells him I am the father of your Father's,

Moses knows exactly what he's talking about.

And that gives him good reason for pause.

Yeah. Oh, that God.

The Oh yeah, the God. The God, not the not the God or

gods that the Egyptians told me to worship.

The sun God and the this God and this God.

No, like capital GI am God. That's who I'm dealing with,

yeah. And it's amazing, I think,

because I brought up how it, it seems like Moses could have felt

like those 40 years were wasted. What like, and, and it was

brought up to me this past week and I felt a little guilt from

it to some someone, someone brought up to me.

Man, if I, if I knew what I knew now or if I thought about my

faith, the way that I think about it now, if I just, if I

just knew this six years ago, how, how different would my life

be? And that's, that's an easy place

to get into and beat yourself up about and, and feel like this

could have been different. That's only it's only human like

question, question our past and what it would be like if I did

this differently. But you're here now, you know

it, you know it now, now and now it's time.

That wasn't a period of of waste.

That was a period of waiting. That was a period of of readying

you for where you're at the understanding you have today.

So Moses in that to, to understand how, how quickly it

comes back to him because he hasn't again, he's been raised

by the Egyptians. And yeah, he had some, maybe

some spiritual awareness, definitely academic awareness

of, of the history and and who God was.

But the Midianites, they weren't, he was 40 years in

Egypt, 40 years in Midian. They weren't like encouraging

him or start starting the the church in Midian that that

wasn't that wasn't how he wasn't like pre Paul in here and in

Midian, but that wasn't happening.

And yet all it takes is God speaking truth and the and light

bulb goes on and all it all comes flooding back to him.

Oh, that, that the, the, the fervor of of the youth of my

faith, right like that. It all comes flooding back to

even even at 40 years of whatever waste or waiting or or

inactivity, whatever you want to see.

All it took was him running back, coming back to God paying

attention. The spirit got it got his

attention. The messenger got his attention.

He looked God spoke and he and he responded.

It all came back in that instant and and that struck me this week

that whatever 40 years didn't matter.

That one moment undid those 40 years, and now he's now he's

back on the job. And even thinking about those 40

years, if you have some personal things where you're like, man,

I, I feel like I, as I come into a mature faith, I, I can look

back and say, yeah, I, gosh, I feel like I wasted this part or

I missed the gift somewhere along the way.

No, you didn't. No, you didn't.

Because guess what? God knows that Moses is going to

be the leader of a rebellious people, and so how is he

silently training Moses to be patient and to love in the midst

of just people doing stupid things?

Well, any, any anybody I've ever listened to who knows a lot more

about sheep will tell you. Yeah, they wander and they, they

tend not to, you know, they're not thinking big about their

decisions. Sheep just kind of go, I feel

like going left. So they go left.

And so Moses as the leader of the people is going to have to

like, catch all of the strays. He's going to have to catch

their wandering hearts over and over again.

And so, man, do you think God is training Moses to be patient and

loving by working with sheep for 40 years?

You're darn right he is. Because guess what?

He's about to multiply that flock by about 1000, and it's

going to take some big love and some big patience to work with

these people, so he definitely not wasted time.

No, it was. It was definitely a period of

readying and and waiting in ways that Moses didn't even realize

at the time. Afterwards, could look back on

and and see the fruitfulness of that time for.

Sure. So yeah, ask yourself if, if, if

you can think back and say, man, I wasn't really walking with the

Lord. And I wish I had that time back.

I wish I knew better back then. Yeah.

But because you didn't know better, God was training you and

pushing you and giving you some lessons that you can apply now.

Nothing goes to waste in God's economy.

There's nothing wasted in his in his economy.

So look back at some of those things that maybe initially you

regretted or whatever and say, OK, let me ask the question, how

is God using that now? Because guess what?

He is. Nothing goes to waste.

That's good. I I'm ready to leave it right

there, man. I don't I don't think we have

anything else to add little shorter this week, but I think

there's still a lot of goodness in there in following up the

conversation on on the message from this week and we've got

lots more Moses ahead. I'm so excited.

I, I really am, man. I am so pumped about this

series. I love it.

I love hanging out with Moses and the Israelites and I just

think they reflect so much of their rebellion and, and all

those kinds of things. And then God's goodness and

steadfast love, it so reflects us.

We're just really not that much different.

Heads up if you are a pre preparer, if you'd like to be

prepared or just know what we're preaching on the next few weeks.

We're jumping. We're taking quite a jump in the

narrative next week and week 3. We're actually going all the way

up to chapter 12, getting through all the Moses going back

to Egypt and all, and all the plagues and his interaction with

with Pharaoh and the people of Israel and those things.

So we're going to be all the way into chapter 12 come next

Sunday. So if you want to catch up and

read 4 through 11, four through 12, even if you want to get into

that, we're not going to read all that on Sunday.

If you want to catch up on the narrative and do that in your

own study. Just wanted to give you a heads

up with that. We'll make sure we're we're

there come Sunday morning like we're we're going to make sure

that that you you catch the in between moments.

But we just do that in pretty quickly, right?

You know, we've got ways. Yeah, we've got ways.

Awesome, thanks for hanging with us, Church.

Have a blessed week.