Unexplainable

Amen.

Amen.

This is a good day.

This is a really good day.

Well, if you're just joining us, we spent our entire summer examining this one conversation that we see in John chapter 3 of the Bible.

John 3 · chapter mention

In my opinion, it's the most important conversation that's ever happened because it's in this one conversation that Jesus really tells us who God is.

He really tells us what God values, and he tells us how we can actually approach God and know God.

This conversation has changed the way that humanity sees God for the last 2,000 years.

And if we want to know God, if we want to experience God in our lives, this conversation tells us what we really need to know.

It happened late one night in the city of Jerusalem.

It took place between Jesus and a man named Nicodemus.

Nicodemus was a Pharisee.

Those were the people always coming against Jesus.

Not only was he a Pharisee, he was like one of the top Pharisees.

He was a member of the Sanhedrin, this really influential group of leaders.

They're the ones that put Jesus on trial and sent him to the cross.

So in many ways, Nicodemus is kind of the enemy, but something about Jesus has compelled Nicodemus.

Something about Jesus, he just can't get it off his mind.

He has to go to Jesus.

And so he takes this risk.

He does it at night to minimize the risk, but he takes the risk of being seen with Jesus, being associated with Jesus, to go and have a conversation, to ask him some questions.

Because Jesus has been turning everything he thinks about God upside down.

And I'm so glad he did that.

I'm so glad he took that chance because it's given us the ability to go through this together, and we've gone through it really slowly.

Kind of verse by verse.

And I've loved that.

I've loved that this summer.

Because the reality is all of Scripture is relevant to our lives.

It's not just a verse here and a verse there.

We can open up the Bible.

We can look at it, we can pour over it and find something powerful for our lives on every page.

And so it's been a lot of fun for me to just go through this one thing at a time and see how much is in there, how rich and how deep God's word really is.

Now, today we get to a really important moment in the conversation.

A really important moment for Nicodemus and for us.

It's kind of a rubber meets the road moment because Nicodemus has a holdup.

He has a holdup that's keeping him from moving forward in faith with Jesus.

It's really keeping him from moving forward with God.

And it's this simple fact that he has some questions he needs explained.

He's got some things he doesn't understand, and he feels like if he can't get these questions answered, he can't take another step.

I'm sure all of us can relate to that.

Because no matter if you've been following Jesus for 30 years or you're brand new to this whole God relationship, or maybe you're just checking it out this morning, we all have questions.

We always have moments or even whole seasons of life where because of what's going on around us, because of what we're experiencing, or even just things happening within us, we have questions.

There are things about God we don't get, and we feel like unless I can get this question answered, I can't move forward like I want to.

I can't progress.

And so Nicodemus is going to ask Jesus some questions.

It's so interesting because we get to see what happens when someone questions God.

We get to see how God responds to God being questioned, because the Bible says this in Hebrews chapter 1, verse 3.

Hebrews 1:3

The sun, talking about Jesus, radiates God's own glory and expresses the very character of God.

In other words, Jesus is the mirror image of God.

If we want to know what God is like, if we want to know how God would react in any situation, we just have to look at Jesus.

So we get to see how God reacts to someone questioning God.

And the truth is, Nicodemus isn't even questioning him with a lot of respect.

I don't know if you've ever been in an experience where you're trying to explain something to someone, you're trying to make a case, and they give you a look, they have an expression on their face that makes it very clear to you that they do not buy whatever it is you're selling.

Like I'm married, so I have that experience a lot.

And I've experienced it over the years, especially in my relationship with Megan.

Megan is one of these people who you will know how she feels about you by her face.

Like there's no hiding it.

She does not even attempt to hide how she really feels with her facial expressions.

She doesn't have to say a word.

It's just a look of the eyes or the expression on her face.

And oftentimes I get this look when I'm talking to her that's kind of like suspicion meets skepticism.

She just doesn't buy it.

And to her credit, I've deserved that.

Like I've had many times, I'll just be honest, I've had many times in our marriage where I have tried to pull one over on her, right?

Like when we were first married, I tried to convince her that if we got cable TV, which we really couldn't afford at the time, it would actually save us money.

I tried to have this conversation with her.

This is a real thing.

See, I love, I love watching sports, I love watching college basketball, and we didn't have cable, and most of those games were on cable, so I was going to restaurants to watch games and ordering, you know, food and then tipping and all those kinds of things.

So I basically said, look, honey, I mean, I gotta watch these games, and so either I can pay money at a restaurant every time I go, and that adds up, or we can just, you know, pay for cable.

And if you really weigh the two, we'll probably save money if I'm not going to all these restaurants all the time with my friends.

And she didn't buy it, nor should she have, because it was ridiculous.

But but I've done that enough in our marriage that I think sometimes when I start talking, I have an uphill battle that I have to climb.

Because she gives me this look, this look that just says, yeah, right, this doesn't, no, this isn't working.

And I don't know what exactly what Nicodemus was doing with Jesus as Jesus is talking, but I very much think, I think it's pretty clear if you read between the text as we're about to do, that Nicodemus is definitely coming at Jesus with the same kind of attitude.

Okay, so let's back up for just a second.

Let's look at a verse that we've already explored.

John chapter 3, verse 3 says this.

John 3:3

This is Jesus' first words in the conversation.

He says, I tell you the truth, unless you're born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God.

And right away, Nicodemus comes with a question.

He doesn't wait.

He lets Jesus get through one entire sentence before he cuts them off.

And he says, What do you mean?

How can an old man go back into his mother's womb and be born again?

And we spent a couple weeks talking about this.

Jesus responds in verse 5 I assure you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and the spirit.

Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life.

So don't be surprised when I say you must be born again.

Now, this is the moment I think Nicodemus is making that face that my wife makes all the time.

Because Jesus very much shifts the tone in the conversation right at this moment.

So I don't know what Nicodemus did exactly.

I don't know if there was like an eye roll or what.

But the tone changes.

And Jesus stops trying to explain it to Nicodemus and instead just explains to Nicodemus that it really can't be fully explained.

And so we read on.

Jesus says, This the wind blows wherever it wants, just as you can hear the wind, but you can't tell where it comes from or where it's going, so you can't explain how people are born of the spirit.

And I guess that wasn't enough for Nicodemus.

This whole, hey, look, you can't really explain it.

He doesn't buy that because he asks again, how are these things possible?

Jesus replied, You are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don't understand these things.

You know when someone answers a question with a question?

That's super annoying.

I assure you, we tell you what we know and what we've seen, yet you won't believe our testimony.

But if you don't believe me when I tell you about earthly things, how can you possibly believe me if I tell you about heavenly things?

No one's ever gone to heaven in return, but the Son of Man has come down from heaven.

In other words, Jesus says, look, I know what I'm talking about.

I love the way the message version puts this same exchange.

Jesus says, This you're a respected teacher of Israel and you don't know these basics.

Listen carefully.

I'm speaking sober truth to you.

I speak only of what I know by experience.

I give witness only to what I've seen with my own eyes.

There's nothing secondhand here, no hearsay.

Yet instead of facing the evidence and accepting it, you procrastinate with questions.

That stings.

You procrastinate with questions.

Now we just said that in Jesus, we get to see how God would respond to being questioned.

And that might be really disconcerting because it looks like God doesn't appreciate being questioned.

When you look at this response from Jesus, him saying, Look, you're not going to get this, stop procrastinating with questions, just accept the evidence, accept what's right in front of you, accept me, makes us feel like, okay, maybe I shouldn't bring my questions to God.

Maybe if I have legitimate questions, things I want to know, things I want to understand, maybe it's not okay to question God.

If you grew up in a religious home, you get that.

But that's actually not true.

God is perfectly okay with being questioned.

He gets questioned all the time.

He can handle it.

He's not afraid of our questions.

If you make a list of Bible heroes, it will be a long list of people who question God at virtually every turn.

Abraham was the first person that God really called into this new kind of relationship with him, this relationship built on faith.

And at one point in time in Abraham's story, God is about to deal with this really wicked, horrible place called Sodom and Gomorrah.

And Abraham's upset.

He doesn't trust God.

He's afraid God is going to be too harsh, and so he questions God.

There's a prophet named Jonah years later.

And Jonah is questioning God because God's about to deal with another really wicked, horrible city called Nineveh, but Jonah thinks God's being too soft.

And so he questions God.

King David, this person that the Bible describes as someone who had a heart like God's, that he and God just got each other.

Their hearts like beat in rhythm with one another.

They were that close, and yet David questioned God all the time.

In fact, if you read the Psalms, these songs that David wrote, many of them begin with intense questions, questions that are really accusations, master's questions.

God is not, he's not afraid of questions.

In fact, he encourages questions.

1 Thessalonians 5.21 says, Test everything, test everything that's said, and hold on to what's good.

Jesus Himself says this in Matthew 7: Keep on asking and you'll receive what you ask for.

Keep on seeking and you'll find, keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.

For everyone who asks receives, everyone who seeks finds, and to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.

So from Jesus' own lips, ask away.

If you have questions, if there's something you need to understand, by all means, ask God.

And if Jesus really believes that, if he really meant that, then why is he shutting Nicodemus down with his questions so fast?

There's something more going on here.

There's something deeper.

And see, the reality is Jesus loves Nicodemus very much like he loves every single one of us.

And he sees Nicodemus taking an approach to God that just will not work.

Have you ever had that experience in life where you love someone and you see them going down a path, and you know either by experience or by observation that the path they're going down will not work.

It will not lead to where they think it will lead.

And you have a choice in that moment, right?

You can either choose to let them go down that path and learn from themselves, maybe learn the hard way.

Sometimes we have to do that.

Or you have the opportunity sometimes to step in and say, look, because I love you, I see where you're going, and I just want you to know this is not going to work out.

This isn't going to play out like you hope it will.

That's what's happening here.

See, Nicodemus has questions, but the approach he's taking to getting his questions answered, to getting these deep questions he has about God answered, it will not work.

And Jesus is trying to help him.

Because see, Nicodemus has lost sight of something.

He's forgotten something that it's really easy for all of us to forget as well.

He's forgotten that first and foremost, more than anything else, what God actually desires is a relationship with us.

God wants, He wants to know us, He wants us to be known by Him.

He wants every single one of us to experience what it's like to truly be known by God.

To know what it feels like to be accepted by God, to be loved by God, to have God speak into your life, to hear God speak into your life and tell you who you really are.

Because you've had a lot of people in your life tell you who they think you are, and none of them have been right.

Because none of them know you like God does.

But if God speaks into your life and you hear him tell you who you are and what you're meant for, it erases everything.

Everything that's ever come against you.

God wants every single one of us to have that experience.

He wants us to have a real relationship with him.

But Nicodemus isn't approaching Jesus, he's not approaching God in the context of relationship.

See, Nicodemus, he's treating God like a subject to be studied and not a person to be known.

He wants all the answers up front.

He doesn't want any mystery.

He doesn't want to have to spend real time, he doesn't want to have to have faith and trust and all those things that real relationships require.

He doesn't want any of that.

He just wants all the answers up front, and he says he needs that in order to move forward.

See, there's a really fine line between desiring answers to our questions and demanding answers to our questions.

One is born out of a genuine curiosity, the other is born out of pride and control, and that just doesn't work with God.

Because pride and control, they they get in the way of relationship, and what God wants is relationship.

See, Nicodemus, he wants to get God more than he wants to know God, but here's the irony.

The only way for any of us to get God is to know God.

The only way for any of us to have our deepest questions about God answered, the only way is to actually know him, to be in a relationship with him, and to live out that relationship and discover those things about God as we grow closer to him.

The relationship with God, it's actually the avenue in which our questions are answered.

Jesus is trying to tell Nicodemus, look, your all my questions answered upfront approach, it's not gonna work because that's not how relationships work.

Think about the most passionate relationship you have.

The deepest, closest relationship you have in this world, or maybe ever have had.

How much about that person did you really know before the relationship began?

Like honestly.

Before the relationship started, did you sit down with them and hand them like a background check and a credit check?

Did you say, hey, I need some references, I need to need you to write down your last five employers, I'd like to hear from your parents and maybe anyone you had a significant romantic relationship with?

There's some pictures on your Facebook page I'd like to discuss before we move forward.

Did you, some of us in the room who are single are like, I'm taking notes, this is a good way to do this.

I could have solved some problems.

But seriously, when you when you actually began that relationship in your life that that has the most passion and excitement and joy, did you start that relationship because of information?

Or was there was there a mystery?

Was there something mysterious that you felt compelled to discover?

I think about my relationship with my wife.

I don't I don't get her very much.

I act like I do.

I'm lying.

I just I act like I do.

Like sometimes Megan will look at me and she will ask me, does that make sense?

Does the way I feel is what I'm describing to you, does that make sense?

And I'll say, oh baby, yes, absolutely.

That must be so hard.

I've learned, that's all you say.

That's it.

That that must be so hard.

But I don't understand at all.

I have no idea why she feels the way she feels.

It makes no sense to me.

It makes no sense to me whatsoever.

There are so many times where my wife is a mystery to me, and it's a mystery I can't solve.

Like, we'll be going out to dinner, and I'll ask her, hey, where would you like to eat?

Which I think is considerate.

And she will say, Doesn't matter to me, you choose.

And I'll pick a place.

And her response will almost always be, oh, anywhere but there.

And I'll be like, wait, you just said it doesn't matter to you, but I guess it does.

And then she'll say, anywhere but there, so I'll pick another place.

And she's like, no, not there either.

And I'm like, well, none of nothing that comes out of your mouth is what you actually think.

Like nothing.

And it makes no sense to me.

And so we start to play this game called Read Megan's mind, and I can't, that's a game I cannot win.

In fact, men, men, we've all tried to play that game.

That is called a you can't win game.

You just can't.

It's impossible.

And I play that game with Megan all the time.

And it's interesting, I don't really, I don't get her fully.

But I know her.

And if I had to choose between knowing her and fully understanding her, I'd choose knowing her every single day of the week.

In fact, the only way I have a chance to get her is to know her more.

Because relationships are about discovering.

Relationships are about desiring and hungering to know more.

And if you take the mystery and the discovery out of a relationship, it's just boring.

I think about my kids.

I love my kids.

And you know, when you have children, you don't get much information up front.

If you want, you can know if it's a boy or a girl, but but sometimes people even decide, no, I want to be surprised.

And I don't, if that's you, why?

I don't get you people.

Why would you not want to at least know the one thing that, like the one thing you can know, why would you not want to know?

I have a friend that's pregnant, and they they said we're not gonna find out.

I'm like, why?

That's crazy.

But I guess it's exciting or whatever.

I I chose to know if we were having a boy or a girl.

We have two boys and a girl.

But other than that, I knew nothing about them.

And I'll be honest, after experiencing the last six years with my oldest son and the last few with my daughter, and we've only had Judah for four months, if you came to me and said, Hey, would you like to know everything about them up front, I would say no.

I'd be tempted to say yes.

It'd be helpful, I guess.

But the truth is, I don't know if I've experienced a greater joy in life than the joy I experience when I learn something new about who my children are.

It's through a relationship with them that I get to discover who they are, and it's it's incredible.

Like my daughter, Lily, she is she is fierce.

And I've talked about this a lot.

I've talked about how I can't wait till she dates because no boy stands a chance.

Um she's gonna break so many hearts, and I'm so excited about watching that happen.

I don't I know that's sick and weird, but I just am.

Because I know she's gonna do the hard work for me, but she she's fierce.

And so when she was little, I mean she still is, she's two, but but you know how it is, it's everything's relative.

Um, six months ago when she was littler, she would run on our couch like full speed.

And one day she's running on our couch full speed, and she hits the arm of the couch and just flips completely over, falls on the ground, cries, and sometimes she'll cry so intensely that she'll forget to breathe, and so she passes out for like a second.

I know it's super scary, um, but it's it's also very funny.

So she knows that.

And so you would think, you would think, you know, okay, well, she's had that experience.

She has fallen over a couch, she's hit her head, she's she's done.

And a few days later, okay, she has taken all the throw pillows off of our couch, and we have so many.

I don't know why we have bought so many pillows.

I say we, I haven't bought a single pillow, but we have a lot of pillows.

She's taken all the throw pillows and little decorative pillows all over her house, and she's made a big pile, and now she's running even faster and she's falling intentionally.

She's turned this into a game.

Just the other day, she took all the pillows off of our couches and our chairs, she's put them in the floor.

This is like a hard floor, and she's on the top of the couch jumping off.

That that's my daughter.

And it's like daily I get to discover these new little facets of her personality and just how brave and and fearless she is.

Last night, she woke us up at midnight throwing up.

It was her very first time having a stomach virus.

We've we've all had it this last week, our whole family, so front row, I'm sorry.

Um, but 12 o'clock, our whole week was about not letting Lily get sick.

Because I got sick, Megan got sick, Liam got sick, so we sanitized and we quarantined, and we're like, we're not gonna let her get sick because she's two and she's intense, and we didn't want to see what would happen.

And so we thought we did well, and then 12 o'clock this morning.

Nope.

And so Megan, Megan is awesome.

She stayed up with Lily, she let me get a little bit of sleep, and then I got up early and fed Judah and all this stuff.

And right as I was leaving the house this morning, Lily emerged.

And I'm going, okay, how is she gonna, how's she gonna respond?

She's been sick, she hasn't gotten any sleep, she's you know, hurt because it's painful.

And what's she gonna do?

Is she gonna fall down and cry?

Is she gonna scream?

She goes to the top of the stairs, which is is I'm at the bottom, she's at the top, and she just goes, Hey dad, watch this.

And then she just jumps.

Like, jumps down three stairs, and I'm like, don't do that.

That don't ever jump down stairs, and you just you just threw up all night long, and that's the first thing you're doing when you wake up.

I mean, she is she is fearless.

But you know what?

A year ago I had no clue about this aspect of her personality, it hadn't started to emerge yet.

And I look at my son Judah, and he's four months old, and I don't know anything about him.

I know he poops, that's all I know.

But I can't wait for that moment, two, three months from now, when I'm gonna start to see the first signs of his personality.

I can't wait to begin to discover who he is.

See, the only way I'm gonna really get my kids is if I know my kids.

And the same is true with God.

See, all of us have a choice, and it's it's a choice that is so obvious in so many ways, but at the same time, It's a choice that so many people just miss.

And so many people who who love God even miss.

Do we want to have God explained to us?

Or do we want to experience an unexplainable God?

What do we want in life?

Do we want to settle for answers to questions?

Or do we want to experience something?

That there is no word we have available to us that can describe how great it is to know God.

Do we want to have God explained, or do we want to experience an unexplainable God?

Jesus tells Nicodemus, look, there are parts of God you can't get.

No offense.

You're a smart guy, Nicodemus.

But the questions you have, they're irrelevant.

In fact, I read this in a book years ago, and it I believe it.

Oftentimes we think about dying and going to heaven and asking God all these questions, and finally we'll have all the answers.

But this guy wrote this and I just I was like mad because it burst my bubble, but I think he's right.

When we see God for the first time, those questions will not matter.

We'll have new questions.

We'll just be like, yeah, that stuff, I don't care.

What are you?

See, even the angels in heaven, they can't get over how unexplainable God is.

Anytime you see a vision in the Bible where someone sees into heaven, the angels, they're angels, right?

They're apparently more powerful than us.

They've lived for forever.

They see God with their own eyes, and yet they just fly around God and scream out, holy, holy, holy.

They're just like basically flying around God going, whoa! That's all they do.

Because God is, He's so amazing.

And we we might think that it's the mature thing and it's the you know, it's the grown-up thing to crave these answers.

And that's that's that's good.

It's it's good to have answers.

I'm not saying God doesn't want us to have answers.

But what I'm saying is the way you get the answers is through relationship.

Because what does it matter?

What does it matter if you know a lot about God but you don't know him?

What does that matter?

Do we want to be people who settle for having our questions answered, or do we want to experience the unexplainable?

That's a choice that we have.

It's a choice we have every single day in so many aspects of our lives.

Because let's face it, we we sometimes struggle to believe that we can actually move forward without knowing more.

We think that we have to see in order to believe, but the reality is that we believe and then we see.

The Bible says that when we put our faith in Jesus, our eyes are open.

We see as a result of faith.

And if you want to have questions answered, if you want to know more about God, then just say yes to God a lot more in your life.

Take step after step of obedience with God.

Put your faith and your trust in God.

And as you step closer and closer to God, as you trust him with your life, as you do things the way he asks you to do things, even when it doesn't make complete sense, because often it doesn't make complete sense.

As you do that, you will know him, and as you know him, you'll start to get him.

Knowing him, having a relationship with him.

That's how the questions get answered.

And so, you know, maybe you're here this morning and you love Jesus and you've given your life to God, but maybe there's an area of life that you just have never really surrendered to him, and it's not because you don't care about him, it's not because you don't love him, it's not because you're trying to be obstinate, it's just because you don't get the way he wants you to do that.

It doesn't make any sense to you.

I mean, there's obvious examples, relationships.

The way God asks us to do relationships is it's backwards from the way the world works.

I mean, God asks us to go all out and commit everything to someone.

And basically put ourselves out there and make it possible for that person to crush us and hurt us, but just have faith and trust and stay true to our promises.

That's crazy.

We're supposed to hedge our bets, we're supposed to protect ourselves, we're supposed to be, you know, in a safe place where we don't actually put ourselves out there at all.

God says, no, no, no.

Love like I love.

That's what he says.

Husbands, love your wife like Jesus loves the church.

That's hard.

But that's that's what God wants.

Look at finances.

Look at finances.

The Bible says that if you want to do better financially, you should give some of your money away.

That's that's insane.

That's crazy.

Go go try to go try to talk to someone in an investment company about that.

Like, hey, I have this strategy, you know, to do better financially.

I'm gonna take some of my money, I'm just gonna give it away.

You know?

That's nuts.

But but yet, I know that there are so many people in this room who've experienced that who will say, you know what, I don't I don't even, I can't even explain to you how it works, but that's how I've lived my life and it's always worked.

Because God's way works, even if it's difficult to understand.

And so maybe you've got this one area of life, and and you're like, I want to move forward, I I want to step in faith, and I want to do do it God's way, but I just I have questions, I don't get it, it doesn't make complete sense.

And so if God would just explain it first, then I'll do it.

And he might do that, but he might not.

But do you want your question to keep you from experiencing who he is?

And how good he is.

Maybe God's calling you to something in life.

And maybe you feel a stirring in your heart and you know God is calling you to something greater, but it doesn't make sense because maybe it involves risk.

And maybe it involves you stepping out in some areas of life you've never even dreamed of before and you don't know what to do, and you have questions, you want them answered.

And you say to God, hey, I need to see in order to believe.

Trust me, God loves you enough.

He will give you whatever it is you really need, but sometimes he gives us what we need, and we're like, okay, I need a little bit more.

Just a little bit more.

But if you want to, if you want to get why he's calling you to do that, just do it.

If you want to get why he's asking you to live the way he's asking you to live, just live that way and you'll learn the why.

You'll learn the answer to your question as you know him.

He wants a relationship with us.

And we don't get all the answers up front.

It's frustrating sometimes.

I I wish, I wish he gave me more answers up front.

But you know what's really crazy?

If he did, I don't think we'd ever believe him.

I mean, I think about this church.

Some of you have been here for a long time.

If God had explained to me 10 years ago everything that was going to happen to bring us to where we are today, I would not have believed him.

I would have said, You're God, you're crazy.

It can't work out that way.

That won't work.

But it has.

See, when we live in a relationship with God, he gives us the answers we need at the moment we need them.

He gives us the answers we need at the moment we need them.

So all we've got to do is step in faith.

That's it.

Do we want our questions answered?

Do we want God to just explain himself to us, or do we want to experience the unexplainable?

We're gonna wrap up with worship this morning, like we always do.

And this is all today's really about.

It's just about us leaving this place hungry to experience God.

Not allowing our questions to become stumbling blocks and roadblocks to us experiencing more of Him.

We should hunger for God.

You know, on a Sunday morning, we shouldn't leave here satisfied.

I know it sounds awful.

Um, we should leave here hungry, desiring more.

And if we left here this morning, and if we said, hey, look, we're gonna be a church, we're gonna be a group of people who questions or know, we will let nothing, nothing in this world stand in our way of knowing God more.

So we will walk in faith, we will step out, we will do the hard things God is asking us to do, not because we understand it fully, but because we trust him and our faith is in him, and we believe that by doing what he's called us to do, we will experience and know him better.

If that's the way we live, that's a powerful life.

We're gonna sing this song that is gonna be our prayer this morning.

And it's a song that reflects this story that we find in the Bible.

It's a story that we find in Exodus chapter 20 and Exodus chapter 24.

Exodus 20 · chapter mention Exodus 24 · chapter mention

In Exodus 24, talking about Moses, the Bible says, Then Moses climbed up the mountain, and the cloud covered it.

The cloud is the presence of God.

And the glory of the Lord settled down on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days.

On the seventh day, the Lord called Moses from inside the cloud.

To the Israelites at the foot of the mountain, the glory of the Lord appeared at the summit like a consuming fire.

And then Moses disappeared into the cloud as he climbed higher up the mountain.

He remained on the mountain for 40 days and forty nights.

So God shows up, his presence is like this cloud with fire, and Moses walks into it.

Like, who would do that?

If you walked out of here this morning and you saw this giant cloud covering the parking lot, and there's like fire in it, who would go, I wonder what's in there?

I'm gonna go check it out.

If someone did, we'd be like, hey, you know, you go do that.

Come back and tell us what you see.

And what's funny is that's actually exactly what happened four chapters earlier.

God shows up, and it's a cloud again.

And this cloud has like lightning and it's crazy.

And God is actually calling the people in into his presence.

And they all say, Hey Moses, you you you go.

We're scared.

We don't understand.

We have a lot of questions.

This doesn't make sense to us.

So you go, you talk to God, you you have that experience, you just come back and you tell us what he says.

We'll we'll settle for that.

Is that what we want to settle for?

Because the the Christian life is not this life where a few select people get to encounter God's presence and then come and tell you what it's like.

You're meant to experience God.

You're meant to be like Moses and to walk into that cloud and to be one of the people that can walk out of it and say, Let me tell you what God is really like.

Let me tell you what he really looks like, what he feels like, let me tell you how he speaks, let me tell you about his love, let me tell you about the things he has for you because I have seen it, I have tasted it, I have experienced the unexplainable.

That's meant for you.

But we have to step in faith.

If we want our questions answered, we've got to step in faith.

The Bible says that Moses spoke to God like someone speaks to a friend.

That's the relationship God wants.

That's what Nicodemus missed.

He's not a subject to be studied, he's a person to be known.

So do we want to know him?

Is there any part of your life where this morning you're struggling just to give it to God?

Because you don't get what he's gonna do with it, you're unsure, you're uncertain.

I'm telling you, if there's one part of your life that you're holding on to this morning because of a question, let that question go.

Who cares?

What does it matter?

Is that question, is it really worth you missing?

A fuller and a deeper experience with God.

Maybe that question is just, is he real in the first place?

Maybe, maybe you're here this morning and you don't know Jesus.

You've never made that decision in your life.

Maybe you're like Nicodemus, you're compelled, you're intrigued, but there's there's questions, there's things you don't know.

And I wish I could stand here and tell you, here's all the answers to your questions, and and if these are answered for you now, you'll you'll decide.

But you know what, I've known a lot of people who take that approach to God, and I've never seen one of them, I've never seen one of those people actually step into his presence.

Because there's always another question.

There's always another question.

But if you will make it your heart's passion to know God, you'll get God.

You'll get him more and more every day, and the mystery and the passion of your relationship with him will just drive you to discover more and more and more.

So let's be people who say, I'm giving it all to God.

I'm moving forward in my relationship with him.

I'll surrender everything to him, regardless of whether or not it all makes sense or not.

Because I want to experience the unexplainable.

Please pray with me.

Jesus, we love you so much.

God, we want we want to see what happens when people settle for nothing less than all of you.

It's just this theme that keeps coming up as we talk God, and I feel like it's because you you want us there.

I feel like that's because that's the season we're in as a church where you're calling to us and you're saying to us as a church, don't stop.

Don't settle for belief, don't settle for for going to church, don't settle for for even knowing the Bible.

Just settle for nothing less than a full experience with me.

Settle for nothing less than my presence in your life.

Be like Moses.

Step into the unknown and see who I really am.

As we worship you right now, Lord, that's our prayer.

Because you know what, God, it takes guts and courage on our part to take those steps.

It is hard for us to move forward when we don't understand everything.

That's how we are as people.

You made us that way, you know that, and yet you ask for faith.

So we're here this morning to tell you, Lord, that we will be people who step out in faith.

We love you.

And we want to experience your unexplainable power and your unexplainable glory and your unexplainable goodness, Lord.

We want that now and we want it forever.

Amen.