Exodus - 3:1-15

This is ERC Sundays, the messages at Emmaus Rd.

Church in DeWitt, Iowa. ERC is a Church of people

striving to grow in Jesus and make him known to others through

our faith, words and actions. Find out more about our church

at emmausrdonline.org. Here's this week's message.

There's a lot in here and I've talked about a lot of other

things already. We are going to move quickly but

prudently through the word of God here this morning to this

point in the narrative. Moses, who was brought into

Pharaoh's palace, born a Hebrew, raised as an Egyptian, killed an

Egyptian, goes out and wanders in the wilderness about 40 years

old, when he when he's kind of exiled, meets the Midianites,

meets, meets a shepherder farmer, marries, marries his

daughter, has a child. The setting of chapter 3 here is

about 40 years. After that, Moses is 80 years

old, keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the

priest of Midian. He led his flock to the West

side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God,

and the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of

fire out of the midst of a Bush. He looked and behold, the Bush

was burning, yet it was not consumed.

Moses said, I will turn aside to see this great site.

Why the Bush is not burned. I want to stop here.

We're not going to read the whole passage this morning.

Sometimes we do that this morning.

We're going to kind of go verse by verse, line by line.

I will turn aside to see this great site.

Why the Bush is not burned. They lived in such a climate,

such a place that this was. It wasn't crazy to see.

Brush on fire. It got hot enough, things could

just spontaneously combust. What caught his attention was

that the Bush was sustaining itself.

Let me ask you, what are some things that money can't buy?

First answer is time. That was the answer I was

looking for. So you, the rest of you, if you

have other answers, sorry, I got the answer I was looking for.

We're going to move on. Thank you, Matt.

Time. What is the currency of time?

How do we spend time? We pay attention.

We pay attention just like we would pay dollars or how we

would pay a debt. Moses walking by this burning

Bush that in and of itself a Bush on fire was not enough to

grab his attention. What grabbed his attention was

that the Bush wasn't consumed. And when the Lord verse 4, when

the Lord saw that, he turned aside to see God called out to

him out of the Bush church. What are you paying attention

to? It took Moses paying attention

for this site. It was only when the Lord saw

that he turned aside. When Moses investigated and

said, hey, there's something working here.

He'd been in the wilderness for 40 years, not amongst the Hebrew

people of God against I guess probably a Pagan people.

They certainly weren't the people of Israel, the the people

of the Hebrew God. He hadn't been paying attention

to God for 40 years, but in this moment when he did, when he

turned aside, when he paid attention, God called and he

said Moses, Moses, Moses responded, here I am God.

Then he said, do not come near, take off, take your sandals off

your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy

ground. Two parts.

Moses had to pay attention. First he had to be looking.

He had to be seeking God where he was to be found and then he

had to humble himself. He had to.

He had to bring that out. He had to kick off that which

was unclean. He had to turn from these wore

sandals everywhere through every sort of territory.

We didn't have 30 pairs of shoes like Pastor Chris does.

Like it's the same pair everywhere.

Do not come near. Take your sandals off your feet,

for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.

Two parts. Moses paid attention and shed

what was unclean. He he humbled.

He turned away from the dirtiness and filth that he

carried with him all the time to approach God.

And then he said, the Bush said, God said, I am the God of your

father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of

Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he

was afraid to look at God. So he remembers, He remembers,

oh, that God, that you're like that God the God.

Then the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my

people who are in Egypt, and I've heard their cry because of

their taskmasters. I know their sufferings.

This is how the living God, the true God, introduces himself to

Moses, comes down to his level and says, I have surely seen

this in the Hebrew. It's actually a repeated word.

It's seen, seen sounds strange, but it's it's the same.

It's the same idea of when Adam in Genesis, when he knew his

wife. I see you.

I know you deeply, intimately, truly.

I know the affliction. I have seen, seen the affliction

of my people who are in Egypt. I know how they're suffering.

I've heard their cry. I know their sufferings.

This is the same God that meets you here today.

I know it's an extra touchy week and and events happen and and

and highlight things. God knows.

I promise you, He knows how you feel.

This week he met Moses after wandering 40 years and told him

he knows how he feels. Surely He can meet us here

today. I know their sufferings, verse

8, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of

these sufferings, out of the hand of the Egyptians, to bring

them up out of the land to a good land and a broad land.

Look at the two fold promise here.

He is not only coming down to remove punishment and

affliction, He is taking off the bad and replacing it with good,

with abundance, with blessing 'cause it's one.

It's one thing to be clean. That actually worked out pretty

well. You, you, you took, you kinda

took The Dirty away. But did you give me something

good I'd like best would probably be a clean microphone

and I might need to go like face wash and shower like that.

That would be clean, right? We kind of took away the bad.

We didn't replace it with blessing.

We didn't replace it with clean. That's what our God does.

He not only removes our sin, replaces it with the

righteousness of Christ so that we can approach the throne of

his grace in heaven. Land of milk and Honey has all

these people, the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites.

It's good. We should know those things.

It's it's helpful to know that they were there.

We're not going to spend time on it.

Today we have a podcast. Pastor Chris and I release a

Monday podcast where we talk about the extra things that we

didn't talk about on the sermon. Maybe we'll talk about the

Hizzites tomorrow. So verse 9 Now behold, the cry

of the people of Israel has come to me.

God hears you even when it doesn't seem like it, even when

He doesn't answer in the way that you think He should.

His promise is the cry of my people has come to me.

I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians

oppressed them also. He knows injustice.

He establishes the bounds of justice and injustice.

He knows it's unfair. He knows oppression.

He's not ignoring it. He's working through it in ways

that we just can't see in our finite minds.

Then he says to Moses, verse 10, come, I will send you to Pharaoh

that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of

Egypt. But Moses said to God, who am I

that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out

of Egypt? Also a very real question for us

today. Moses had been wandering, had

been sojourning, had been listlessly, aimlessly,

purposelessly walking for the past 40 years.

To some degree, in that moment he he may have felt the

conviction of look at all this wasted time.

Had I known this 40 years I could have, I could have done

this 40 years ago. What could I have done over the

past 40 years if I had known this?

That's not what we're supposed to focus on in this past.

What God's focusing on is you're here, I'm here now, and I'm

sending you. From this day forward, I'm

sending you. Who are you?

You're the one I came to and the one I sent.

That's who you are, that wanderer for the past 40 years.

That's not the person I'm sending.

I'm sending the one I chose. God said he said verse 12.

But I will be with you and this shall be the sign for you that I

have sent you. He says it again.

It doesn't matter who you are. It doesn't matter what you've

done, how you've ignored me for the past 40 years.

Who you are, you're a guy who's got God alongside him.

I will be with you and this is your sign.

I sent you. I'm here with you and I sent

you. That makes you the guy that

makes you the girl for this thing that I'm calling you to

sending you to got alongside you and sent when you have brought

not if it's important when you have brought the people out of

Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.

The beginning, if you remember it was called Mount Horeb, the

mountain of God. Later we'll get to it in our in

our Exodus series. This same place is also called

Mount Sinai, which if you're familiar, Charlton has to.

That's where the 10 commandments came down on this mountain is

the beginning of the promise of how to be faithful to this God

that has chosen you and rescued you out of Egypt.

When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve

God on this mountain. I'm going to gift you with my

word. I'm going to gift you with my

law, with my truth, and this is how you live a life in pursuit

of me. I'm going to bring you right

back to this point. And that sounds like it's a

circle and you're going to end up right back where you started,

but it will just be the beginning.

Then Moses still, this still sounds questionable.

God, I got, I got, I got some things that maybe you haven't

considered yet. Have you thought about this?

Moses said to God, if I come to the people of Israel and say to

them, the God of your Father's has sent me to you and they

asked me, what is his name? What shall I say to them?

He's again kind of asking this unqualified question, but I, I,

I haven't walked with you for this long.

I'm going back to a people that have been following you for this

long that they're going to want some verification here.

What do I call you? What do I say to them?

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

This is the word Yahweh. He said, say this to the people

of Israel. I am has sent you Yahweh.

Now this is an interesting phrase because it in the Hebrew

it's actually it's actually more of the third person.

When God says it, he's saying I am.

When we say it, it's it's actually he is.

When God says it's, it is, he is, but he's talking about

himself in the third person. It's I am.

We're not saying I am, we're saying you are.

He is the I am. Yahweh has sent me to you.

I am who I am. He is who he is.

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

The Lord, the God of your father is the God of Abraham, the God

of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. All their patriarchs.

They would know those guys for sure.

Heard about them, heard stories about them.

They're the reason we're here. This is my name forever, and

thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.

At a Maestro church, we believe, and we believe it's rightly so,

that the whole of the Bible points to Jesus Christ.

It is about Jesus Christ. He is, as I said at the

beginning, the author and perfector of our faith.

We just read 15 verses in the name of Jesus wasn't in there.

This is my name forever and thus I am to be remembered throughout

all generations. This Angel of the Lord back in

verse 2. Whenever you see Angel in the

Bible, I want you to think Messenger.

I don't want you to think feathery wings and shiny body

and glowing Halo. You can, that's fine.

But more importantly, Messenger, one who brings the word of God,

the authority of God. In this story it's different

though, because the Angel, O Lord, appeared to him in the

flame in the verse. Can you guys go back to the

verse 3? I don't want to click all the

way back there. Go back to the one that has

verse 2 and verse 3 on it. So I want I want you all to see

this. Yep, right there.

Great. The Angel of the Lord appeared

to him in the flame of fire out of the midst of the Bush.

He's not paying attention yet right.

He looked and behold the Bush was burning.

Yes, it yet it was not consumed at this point.

It's the messenger of the Lord. It's it's hey over here just for

a SEC, pay attention when he turned aside when he paid

attention, verse 4, it's not the Angel anymore.

It's the Lord God's here now. It's not his messenger.

God's on the scene. God's come down.

The Lord saw that, He turned aside to see, and God, not the

messenger of God. God called to him out of the

Bush and he said, here I am, I am the God of your Father.

I have surely seen the affliction and I have come down

to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians.

Which part of the Trinity, Father, Son, Holy Spirit came

down to deliver? There's Jesus.

Jesus is here in this scene. He is the one who comes.

He's Emmanuel. He is God with us.

And because he was fully man and fully God, what is his name?

His name doesn't change. He bears the name of God because

he is God. Jesus is the true deliverer.

We're talking and studying about Moses, our deliverer.

And yes, God chose him, sent him, equipped him.

But what we're really seeing played out in this passage, it's

a foreshadowing of Jesus already coming, coming down to deliver,

seeing and bearing our hurts, our affliction, the injustice,

the oppression. Who responds?

Jesus is on the scene just as he would be, just as He is for us

today. God will work and move in and

through each and every one of you who are faithful to Him.

I know that, I believe that. I do also want to highlight that

in the example of Jesus, and this isn't this isn't a

discount. I'm I'm only talking about half

of the room right now, which is which is going to be dangerous.

Not dangerous, but maybe weird men, I'm talking to you and this

is ladies love you too. Like like Kristen said, you're

great. We think you're great.

You said that about the guys. I it's only fair.

I say that about the girls, men. When God was faced with the

prospect of delivering his people, he came to a man and he

said you're the one who's going to set my people free.

Nothing against you, ladies. It's how God designed it to work

that men lead. Even when Adam was alone back in

Genesis, he was lonely. That was not good.

God saw that it was not good. He brought a helper.

He made woman and brought a helper to help Adam lead, to

help him deliver. But men, the first call comes to

you in your life, in your faith, in your family, in your health.

At some point we're going to, we're going to beat this.

We're going to say this so much, you're going to get sick of it.

We're going to be the church that gives a lot of FS faith,

family fitness, your health and finances.

All of those are resources for the Kingdom of God.

But man, it starts with you. You cannot have a have a healthy

marriage if you yourself are not healthy in your faith and right

with God. You cannot be healthy parents if

your marriage is not healthy. You yourself need to be

physically healthy. And the finances, the resources

in this world, yeah, God doesn't need them, but they certainly

help to carry out the mission. If we are going to be a church

that is faithful, that is going to respond and answer, I don't

care where you've been for the past 40 years.

I care that you're here now and I'm choosing you and I'm sending

you. I believe with all my heart that

that's what we're called to those, those four FS.

But man, it starts with you. I want you to hold me

accountable to that. And I'm going to hold you

accountable to that because I care too much about the time we

may have wasted. God doesn't care.

I care about that. God doesn't care.

He's ready for us to move here and now, but I'm ready to live

like there's no more time to waste.

We're sent and God goes with us and he is the great I am.

So we can go. Thanks for listening to ERC

Sundays. To support the work God is doing

an Emmaus Rd. church, visit emmausrdonline.org/giving.