Exalting Jesus Pt.4 | October 18, 2026 | Will Rutt

All right, good morning, church.

Man, it's so good to be with you.

If I if I haven't met you, my name is Will Rutt, a service lead pastor here, and it really is a privilege.

It's a privilege to study God's word together.

Um, God has given us his word not to just impart information, but to produce transformation.

This is what we get to do as a church when we gather, and this is what we get to do as a church, when we scatter on mission.

Um so just want to highlight what's going on with Savannah Grove and CEF, what we're doing, what we just commissioned our people to go out and do.

Um we the gospel the world needs the gospel, and so does our city, okay?

And there are people in our city who we just take for granted, we assume that they know who God is revealed in Scripture, and a lot of them don't.

I got um the the degree that I got from CIU is the Bible teaching degree, which is so I graduated as a certified school teacher, and a lot of my friends went out to be um Bible teachers in public schools.

And I actually got to go uh and visit one of my friends uh as he was teaching through the story of Joseph in this public school with a with a with a bunch of middle schoolers who had never heard the story.

And he he got to the point where Joseph is in prison and he asked, you know, if you were Joseph and you were thinking about your brothers while you're sitting in prison, what would you want to do to them?

And you got these public schoolers that you know they're going, they got a long list of things that they would do to their brothers if they ever got a chance to see their brothers again.

And then he comes to the point in the story where he says, and Joseph said, where the brothers actually do come to Joseph, and he says, and he says, Joseph, I am Joseph.

And then, oh, look at the time.

It was Friday afternoon, and he said, We'll have to see what happens next week.

And you have these middle schoolers going, No, you have to keep telling us the rest of the story.

And and what happened then, I was just like, wow, this is this is such a great opportunity that we get to be able to do that to take the Bible and take the gospel, take God into these public schools.

And so really grateful that we as a church do that at Savannah Grove and get to have um that moment with kids to be able to see the light, just see God in his word.

Real privilege that we get to do that, and that's what we're doing as a church.

We're seeing the story of God from Genesis to Revelation.

14 weeks, and we're going through this chart that's gonna help us be able to hold the story of God in our hand, and we are blazing to get through it.

Last week we did 48 chapters that covered 500 years, and this week we're gonna do 137 chapters but 120 years.

So more chapters but less years to get through.

And um what we've done is we've made this Bible reading plan that you know we have a bunch of chapters that we're covering, but we gave 10 chapters that hopefully you read this week that will help kind of set the stage and give kind of the highlight reel of what happens.

And that's really what it is intended to be.

Um, a highlight reel.

All right, I'm gonna go home at um uh t this afternoon.

I'm gonna check on the TV and see if the Jaguars are on TV.

They're probably not gonna be because nobody cares about the jaguars and they're never on TV.

Um, but later this afternoon, I'm gonna have my girls sit down and I'm gonna turn on the highlight reel of the game.

And that's what the Bible reading plan is.

It's the highlight reel, it's just 10 chapters each week to get a sense of what is God doing.

I don't want to, I don't want to just teach through the story of God.

I want us to be able to experience it.

And I said it last week, but it happened again this week, that not all of my Bible reading time is like, wow.

Um, sometimes it's just, sometimes it feels dry.

And that's okay.

Um, but last week and now this week, reading through it, reading through this highlight reel was just like, man, God, you're good.

I hope that happens for you.

So really do want to encourage you to read ahead in the Bible reading plan.

We have them on the front page of the website and um in the back.

All right, so here's here's what, here's where we've been.

We saw that God created the world and he gave it an evaluation.

It was good.

Um, but then when people entered the scene, good got an upgrade and it became very good because now, through image-bearing people, God's nature was gonna be clearly seen and tangibly expressed in a way that couldn't happen with dogs and cats and lizards and other things as great as those things are.

So um it's fall right now, and we get to see the leaves change, at least a little bit, around here, and that's good.

But when you show up early on a Sunday morning and see our deacons with blowers and other people sweeping off the leaves, and that kind of love for the body, you know what?

That's not just good, that's very good.

That's God's nature.

Clearly seen, tangibly expressed.

But it only took um three chapters for us to ruin it.

Adam and Eve were deceived by the serpent.

They sinned, and their sin separated them from God.

That's what death is, it's separation.

And the effects of sin began to um contaminate the human race.

Adam and Eve had kids who um Cain killed Abel, and then the flood, and then Babel.

We see the effects of sin.

And so God steps in to the scene with this promise in Genesis 3.15.

And we've got to know Genesis 3.15, where God speaking to the serpent says, Hey, someone's gonna come from the seat of a woman.

And serpents, you're going to you're gonna bruise his heel, but he's going to crush your head.

God steps in in Genesis 3.15 with the promise of a Satan crusher.

And it's that promise then that dominates the narrative.

As we saw last week, God stepped in to make another promise.

The Satan crusher was going to come through this family.

And there's four parts of the promise: people, land, nation, blessing.

That promise is made to Abraham, then to his son Isaac, then to his son Jacob.

And what we just read is by the end of the book of Genesis, the family of Jacob is 70.

They moved to Ek, they moved to Egypt.

That's why that uh this next box, it's supposed to look a little bit like an E.

Because they moved to Egypt as a family of 70, and over the next 400 years they grow and multiply and grow and multiply until Pharaoh's like, um, we got a problem here.

And what we see happen in the first verses of Exodus is that God kept the first part of his promise to Abraham.

It took him about 500 years to do it.

But God's not in a hurry.

He grows things and he made them into a people.

There's just one problem.

Um, this people, they're in slavery and they're in another nation, Egypt.

So what's God gonna do?

That's what we get to see this morning.

Here's the story at a glance.

If you're following along in your notes, your notes may help, but if you're like a person who loves every blank filled, you're gonna be disappointed every week because I'm just not that good at remembering to say all the blanks.

But you can always see me afterwards and would love to uh help you.

Part of it though is just I feel like we have so many chapters, so much stuff, and I got a million things in my head, and sometimes we just we're gonna have to see what happens.

That's one of the reasons that the blanks disappear.

But here's the story at a glance.

The first 40 years, it's um Moses as a prince of Egypt.

That's Exodus 1 and 2.

Then the next 40 years, it's Moses as a shepherd in the land of Midian.

See, if you don't know the story, here's the quick version.

Um, Pharaoh was threatened by the by how many people there were, how many Israelites there were.

And so he's like, we need to do something about this.

And he tells some midwives, hey, I want you to kill every baby boy as they're being born.

But these uh these midwives were pro-life, and they said, We're not doing that.

And so um he goes, Okay, Pharaoh says, All right, we're just gonna kill everyone, we're gonna throw him in the Nile.

Um, but one baby was spared.

His name was Moses.

He grows up as a prince of Egypt, but then after about 40 years, um he starts to sympathize with his people, and he sees one of his own people getting mistreated by an Egyptian.

So he strikes the Egyptian, looks this way, looks like I don't see anybody, boom, kills him.

Thinks he got away with it.

Turns out he didn't get away with it.

So he has to flee for his life at 40 years old, and he flees into the land of Midian, where he becomes a shepherd for 40 years.

That's quite a change.

Palace! Sheep.

40 years leading a bunch of dumb sheep.

It turns out that that 40 years leading a bunch of dumb sheep was probably actually really good preparation for the next 40 years of his life.

Where uh he actually leads the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt to go where?

To the land God had promised.

500 years earlier.

People, land, nation blessing.

That's the story at a glance.

We're going to spend most of our time this morning, uh, where the Bible spends most of its time, and that is in that third section of 40 years, where Moses is leading Israel to the promised land, and that takes place in the books of Exodus.

Let's see if I yeah, where we're gonna be today.

It's Exodus, and then Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy all happens during this that third part of the 40 years.

Okay, so um Moses is a shepherd in Exodus 3, and he sees something.

It's this bush.

It's on fire, but it's not being consumed.

Interesting, says Moses.

He goes and looks.

Out of the bush comes the voice of the Lord.

And if you've seen the Prince of Egypt, you know exactly what it sounded like.

Moses.

Moses.

Nobody has seen the movie.

Okay, that's great.

That's fine.

It's not very accurate anyway.

All right, so out of the bush comes the voice of the Lord.

Moses, Moses, I have seen the affliction of my people, and I am going to deliver them.

If you're Moses, you're going, sweet, awesome.

And then God says, So I'm gonna send you.

And this is this is what we see throughout scripture.

God's going to work, and then his agent, he calls people to do it.

He does it, and he does it through people whom he calls.

I'm gonna I'm gonna deliver them.

And Moses goes, Um, well, let's read it.

Exodus chapter 3.

Exodus 3 · chapter mention

Verse 10 says, Therefore, come now, I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring my people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.

But Moses said to God, Who am I?

That I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt.

Pause there.

Moses, I'm going to send you.

And Moses says, Who am I?

In other words, what?

That's too big for me.

Uh, who am I to like lead some sheep?

Sure, I got that.

Um, lead the people out of Egypt?

That's too big.

I can't.

So, what does God say to that?

Look at the next next verse.

What does God say to that?

What does he say?

I will be with you.

So we won't read it, but here's the rest of the conversation.

Moses says, Um, who am I?

God says, I'll be with you.

And then Moses says, Well, who are you?

Like, I don't even know your name.

And God says, Okay, let me introduce myself.

I am who I am.

And then he spends a long time talking about himself.

The rest of chapter three is God talking about himself.

And he says, Here, you can tell him, I am sent to you, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God who makes impossible promises and keep them.

That's how you can introduce me, God, to the people.

And that's really important.

That when Moses, I don't want to spend too much time here, but when Moses is called by God and he says, Who am I?

God says, I will be with you.

Who are you?

It is ignorance about who God is that is the undoing of the church.

And part of what I hope happens as we go through the story of God here, or anytime we're opening the Bible, as you're doing the Bible reading plan to go, God, I want to get to know you.

The ignorance of who he is is the undoing of the church.

Who are you?

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

Introduce me like that.

And then Moses says, Well, what if they don't believe?

And God gives him three signs.

One with a staff that turns into a snake, one with a hand that turns into leprosy, and then whoop, now it's healed again, and then a third to perform there, where he will turn some water from the Nile into blood.

Three signs to to make one point.

That's three words.

And when it comes to their belief, God goes, That's my job.

Who am I?

I will be with you.

Well, who are you?

I am who I am.

What if they don't believe?

That's my job.

And then he goes, Well, I can't talk good.

Which we know actually wasn't true.

Acts 7 tells us that he was a man mighty of speech.

But I can't talk good.

You know what God says of that?

I'll be with your mouth.

You know what Moses says of that?

Send someone else.

You know what God says of that?

He says, No.

But I'll send a helper.

Send your brother Aaron.

He'll go with you.

He'll be with your mouth.

I'll speak to you, you speak to him, he'll speak.

It's a great dialogue here that is gonna be important for the story later.

So I just want to go through it one more time.

God says, I've seen the affliction of my people, and I'm gonna send you to deliver them.

Who am I?

And God says, I'll be with you.

And he says, Well, who are you?

And God says, I am who I am.

And God said, and then he says, Well, what if they don't believe?

And God says, That's my job.

And then he says, Well, I can't talk good.

And God says, I'll be with your mouth.

And then he says, No, and God says, Yes, I'll send a helper.

So he goes.

The Lord is with him.

Aaron is the mouthpiece, and God sends these plagues on Egypt.

And the plagues weren't mostly because God was trying to pry Pharaoh's grip off of the people so that they could leave and worship him and go to the land that he had promised.

It wasn't the plagues weren't God being like, okay, let me let's let's see what the plagues really God was doing.

Turn your Bible to Exodus chapter 9.

Exodus 9 · chapter mention

And the first bullet point that, if you miss it, is God called Moses.

Okay, now we're on the second bullet point.

Exodus chapter 9, verse 13.

Exodus 9:13

Then the Lord said to Moses, Rise up early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh and say to him, Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, let my people go that they may serve me.

Okay, we're looking for what is God doing in these plagues?

Verse 14.

For this time I will send all my plagues on you, and your servants and your people, so that you may know there is no one like me in all the earth.

For if by now I had put forth my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, you would then have been cut off from the earth.

But, indeed, for this reason I have allowed you, that's Pharaoh, allowed you to remain.

Here's why.

In order to show you my power, in order to proclaim my name throughout all the earth.

And still you exalt yourself against my people by not letting them go.

He's making a declaration about who he is.

I'm God, says God, and Pharaoh, you're not.

He's making his name great.

Nine plagues happen and then a tenth.

The most devastating of them all, where God says, Um, I'm gonna come down with the destroyer, and the firstborn of every household is gonna perish.

Unless.

Unless you take a lamb, this unblemished lamb, one year old, spotless, chosen on the tenth of the month, inspected for the next five days, so that on the 14th of the month, you would spill its blood and take the blood of the unblemished lamb, paint it on the doorposts of your door and on the lintel.

And if you do that, then as God and the destroyer come down, then the wrath of God will pass over you.

It's in Exodus 12.

We read it in our Bible reading plan.

Turn with me to Exodus 12, verse 12.

Exodus 12:12

For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, this is the 14th of the month, and will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgments.

I am the Lord.

The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live.

And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

And so it happens.

And God and the destroyer come down.

And the firstborn of every household man and beast perishes unless they have the blood of the unblemished land painted on their doorway.

And the blood of that unblemished land became their doorway from slavery to what?

Freedom.

See, we're seeing how the story of how Jesus is exalted in the story of God.

He fast forward about 1,500 years.

And the guy who's known as John the Baptist comes on the scene, and when he looks down the way, as he's baptizing people, he he sees a guy named Jesus, and he says, Behold, the Lamb of God.

Jesus, after three years of ministry, is he enters Jerusalem according to the Gospel of John, what we would call the triumphal entry on the 10th of Nisan, the same day that the Passover lambs were chosen to be slaughtered.

For the next five days, he is inspected, he's examined.

You can read about Matthew 23, 24.

And then he stands before Pilate where he gets his death sentence.

So the only way the Passover lamb could be actually slaughtered is if it was found to be spotless.

What'd you say?

Huh?

Without blemish.

Yeah, without blemish.

The fact that it is without blemish secures its death.

And on the 14th of Nisan, according to the Gospel of John, Jesus stands before Pilate and says, I find no guilt in him.

Normally that's your pathway to freedom, but that was why Jesus came to live a perfect life.

So that he would be the fulfillment of the Passover Lamb, so that anybody would put who would put their faith in Jesus would have his blood painted on the doorway of our hearts, so that by his work, by his perfection, we would be spared from the just right wrath of God.

Jesus is the Passover Lamb.

And so I want to that there's more to this story.

But we cannot go any further in our culture and acknowledge that we are far more prone to trust our to kind of paint our good works and our performance on the doorway and think that that's.

That's gonna be what God is pleased with.

And that's not pleasing to God.

The standard for God is God.

And so our only hope before Him is to trust in Jesus, who is the unblemished Lamb.

He is our pathway to freedom from slavery to sin.

What do I mean slavery to sin?

Well, at least I mean He is our pathway to freedom from the penalty of sin.

Jesus is the better Passover lamb.

He's the fulfillment.

Now, if you're making a movie, it's time to end.

In fact, like just look at any movie that's made of the book of Exodus, and we've gotten to chapter, really chapter 15, I think.

Yeah, chapter 15.

They get through the Red Sea, yep, they sing this song, and it's like, man, alright, movies over, and credits, we've got deliverance.

But there's more to the story than deliverance.

And I think movies, movies about this story stop here, and the church tends to stop here too, in terms of our teaching of what it means to follow God.

Deliverance set free from something.

And I think we understand, we're set free from sin, the penalty of sin.

This is what we get to um we get to demonstrate in baptism.

Buried, set free from sin.

But set free to what?

This is where I think we're a little bit more fuzzy.

I understand I'm set free from sin.

The penalty of sin.

What am I set free to?

Well, this is where we get to continue in the story.

So they're set free from slavery in Egypt, and they're going to make an 11-day journey to the land that God had promised to Abraham 500 years before.

They make that 11-day journey, but on the way, they make a pit stop at Mount Sinai.

And at Mount Sinai, God is going to do a couple of things.

Big picture, he's going to give them the law.

Okay?

But before he gives them the law, he gives them something else.

And I want you, I want us to see it in Exodus 19.

Exodus 19.

Go to verse 3.

They're making a pit stop at Mount Sinai, and it says, Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the sons of Israel, You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians.

Yep, how I set you free, how I bore you on eagle's wings, and brought you to myself.

Now then, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession among all the peoples.

For all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

Okay, pause there.

God is taking them from slavery in Egypt, and he's taking them to the promised land, but they're making a pit stop on the way because God doesn't just want to take Egyptian-like people and put those Egyptian-like people in a new land.

He's making a pit stop because he wants the people that he has chosen and who he has set free to be distinct.

Distinct.

That's your third bullet point, by the way.

To be distinct.

Distinct first in their purpose.

Distinct in their purpose.

Exodus 19, verse 6 gives a purpose statement for the people of Israel.

Exodus 19:6

But before any commands, guys that says, I want to make you distinct.

And here's going to be your purpose.

It's not going to be wealth, it's not going to be power, it's not going to be expanding your territory.

Here's going to be your purpose.

You're going to be a kingdom of priests in a holy nation.

That's your purpose.

A holy nation.

Your purpose is going to be different than everyone else.

And so, out of the overflow of their purpose to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, God gives them sort of a portrait of what that would look like.

And that's the law.

That's the law.

So distinct in their purpose, a holy nation, distinct in um in the giving of the law.

But this has been insightful to me.

That when God gives the law, he's not mostly you're just giving them sort of actions and consequences.

A list of do's and don'ts.

He's doing something else.

And I want to read you Leviticus 18, because it you don't need to turn there, uh, because we're going to stay in Exodus for a while.

But this is what Leviticus 18, verse 1 says.

Leviticus 18:1

Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, I am the Lord your God.

You shall not do what is done in the land of Egypt, where you lived, nor are you to do what is done in the land of Canaan, where I'm bringing you.

So they get, I hope you're tracking with me here.

They get this purpose statement, and then following the purpose statement, God's gonna give them the law.

And as he gives them the law, here's what God's doing.

He's going, okay, to help you fulfill your purpose as a kingdom of priests, a holy nation, like a nation that's just different.

Okay?

Set apart.

God's going, all right, you see Egypt?

We're not gonna be like that.

Where you've been?

That's not how we're gonna be.

Where you're going?

Canaan?

You see them?

We're not gonna be like that either.

So here's the law.

And the law is going to is going to say, um, not that we're gonna be not like them and just not like this.

Here's where here's how we're going to be.

In other words, um, God isn't just giving them a list of do's and don'ts, he's forming a culture.

It's forming a culture.

And I don't know what you would, um, I've really thought about, okay, what kind of adjective could I put on the like what kind of culture?

So you have a blank, it says a blank culture, and that is a blank for you to fill in, because I don't have a great word for it.

But when God gives the law, he's not just giving a list of do's and does, he's g he's forming a culture, uh, a holy culture.

And and here's what God does in the law.

All right, we're gonna summarize all this.

Um there's 613 laws that God gives uh during uh between Exodus and Deuteronomy.

Okay?

Um some of them are civil laws.

And uh that's like how they're gonna operate as a nation, as a country, with their own set of guidelines.

And that there's gonna be crime laws as part of the civil laws, there's gonna be diet laws, there's going to be sanitation laws, all sorts of laws, and while not all of them um have a clearly uh like explicitly defined purpose statement, some of them do.

And um, like for example, Leviticus 23 uh has this somewhat random verse right in the middle of God giving them these feasts that he wants them to celebrate in remembrance of him.

And he says, I don't want you to reap to the edges when you're reaping your harvest, I don't want you to reap to the edges of your field.

That sounds random.

Why does God care?

What is what why do we care about the edges of the field?

Uh because God says, I want you to save them for the alien and for the sojourner.

See, uh, even down to the civil laws, there are times when God gives an explanation.

I'm giving you these laws because I want you to be distinct.

Not like Egypt, not like Canaan.

Even down to the way you harvest your fields, we're gonna be different.

Forming a culture.

We're gonna care about people the way Egyptians don't care about people and the way Canaanites don't care about people, forming a culture, even in these civil laws.

God also gives them uh sacrificial laws.

In other words, how they're going to have a system of worship that is going to continually offer sacrifices that will make atonement for their sin.

So they get civil laws, they get sacrificial laws, and they also get what we would call moral laws.

And these moral laws, they're not attached to the nation of Israel, they're not attached to the sacrificial system, which was ultimately fulfilled by Jesus.

They're attached directly to the nature and character of God, and we see them in Exodus 20.

So they get the purpose statement in Exodus 19, king of priests, holy nation.

And they get the law, they get, which starts with the moral law in Exodus 20.

And what this is, is God-forming culture.

Not just giving a list of do's and don'ts.

So let's go to Exodus 20.

We're familiar with these.

Exodus chapter 20, verse 1.

Exodus 20:1

Then God spoke all these words, saying, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

You shall have no other gods before me.

This is the first commandment, the Ten Commandments.

You shall not make for yourself an idol.

That's verse four.

Verse 7, you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

Third commandment.

Fourth commandment is in verse eight.

Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

Fifth, honor your father and mother, that your days may be prolonged.

Sixth, in verse 13, you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor, you shall not covet your neighbor's house.

Pause.

See, we gotta see what is God doing here.

He's freed them from something.

Yeah, slavery in Egypt.

He's freeing them to something, to be a kingdom of priests, a holy nation, to be distinct, to where to come to Israel to interact with people who are living under the authority of God's law, that you would be able to get a taste of what God is like through his people.

So it would be like getting a little taste of heaven on earth.

So you could call it a heaven-on-earth culture.

This is what he's forming in the law.

Or Jesus said that one word summarizes the law and the prophets.

Do you know, remember what word?

Love.

Love.

Love for God, love for others.

On this, the law and the prophets hanging.

So you could call it a heaven meets earth culture, you could call it a love culture.

You put whatever blank you want in there, but I just want us to get what God is doing.

He's giving them the law, and the law is on the one hand, like a portrait of himself.

Don't lie, says God.

Why?

Because God's given a portrait of himself.

I am not a liar.

Don't commit adultery.

Why?

Because God says, I am always faithful.

See, the law is giving them a portrait of who God is that then they get to live out as part of this heaven meets earth culture, as part of this love culture, as part of this distinct people of God culture.

This is what God is doing as He's taking them from slavery to from slavery to the promised land.

From He goes from delivering them to making them distinct.

What a great place it would be to go visit Israel.

If you got Egypt, you got Canaan, and then you got a place where you can go and there's no corrupt leadership, because the leaders, according to the law, they hate dishonest gain.

You go, wow, that's not just good, that's very good.

Because God's nature is clearly seen and tangibly expressed.

You you go to Egypt, you go to Canaan, and you see teenagers doing um whatever they feel like and lying about it.

But in Israel, where you have people living under the authority of God's law, you have teenagers honoring their father and mother.

That's not just good.

That's that's like very good.

This is what God is doing.

He's making his people a living picture of who he is, distinct from everyone else.

Heaven meets earth culture.

This is what God has done.

So um God delivered them to make them distinct, distinct in their purpose, and distinct in their culture.

A distinct what kind of culture?

Uh, you fill in the blank.

A heaven meets earth culture, love culture.

But here's the point, or here's what he's working towards, and I hope this language becomes like super um embedded in us, where God's nature could be clearly seen and tangibly expressed.

Those are your blanks.

Whatever you want to call the culture, it is where God's nature could be clearly seen and tangibly expressed.

This is God's part in the story.

That's what he's doing.

So, what's Israel doing in the story?

Um, well, they are grumbling.

Exodus 15, they're singing a song of praise to God of how miraculous and wonderful and awesome he is for the deliverance.

Three verses later, you know what they're doing?

No water.

Which I mean, there's things to complain about.

You know, when you don't have water.

Food stinks.

Don't like this manna that God provides in Exodus 16.

Quail, uh our leaders.

Gosh, Moses and Aaron, they need some new leaders.

They try that.

Um, they complain about their leaders, they complain about the food, they complain about God.

They complain, they complain, they complain, they complain.

Um, and actually, while Moses is up on the Mount Sinai getting the law, um, they go from complaining to idolatry, where they're like, hey, Aaron, tired of waiting on Moses.

40 days up there.

What the heck is going on?

Just make us a golden calf, and they do.

And um God says to Moses, I'm gonna destroy them all.

Every single one of them.

Moses, I'm gonna start with you.

Still consistent with his promise.

It's just gonna be now through Moses, and God and Moses says, dude, for the sake of your name, don't do it.

And it says, God changed his mind.

There's another time when the people rebel, though, and it's about one year into what was supposed to be an 11-day journey.

And about 11, 12 months into it, they're right up to the land that God had promised, and they send spies into the land.

Twelve spies into the land, actually.

And turn with me to Numbers 14.

Numbers 14, we get the report of the spies, and they come back saying, Hey, the land is great, but there's a problem.

And the problem is picks up in verse 27.

It's actually numbers 13.

I think it said 14.

Numbers 13.

Numbers 13, 27 says, Thus they that's the spies told him, and said, We went into the land where you sent us, and certainly it does flow with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.

It brought some grapes, some other stuff too.

And nevertheless, the people who live in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large, and moreover, we saw the descendants of Anak there.

Amalek is living in the land of the Negev, and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites are living in the hill country, and the Canaanites are living by the sea by the side of the Jordan.

And then they see some other people who they look like grasshoppers in their own eyes.

These people are big.

They get right up to the land that God had promised them, and they say some words that are really similar to what Moses said when God told him, I want you to deliver the people.

We can't.

Isn't that basically what Moses said?

Go deliver people.

Who am I?

I can't, it's too big for me.

And now they're right up on the edge, and they say a similar thing.

We can't.

But for them, we can't meant we won't.

And so if you're following along, how do they do?

We have some inspiring success.

We don't have time for that.

Uh, but mostly failure.

What do we see?

We see that what uh we see what I can't really meant to them.

And what I can't or we can't really meant to them is we won't.

We can't take the land.

And what they really meant is we're not going in.

We're not going in.

This is where we're gonna start to get into real life here.

Because there's sometimes that we say, I can't, but we really mean I won't.

I can't I just cannot love my wife.

What do I really mean?

I won't love her.

I just can't give thanks in this situation.

And what we really mean is I won't give thanks in this situation.

I can't have peace in this situation.

What we really mean is I won't.

See, what has been so compelling to me about this that I think is so necessary for us, is that when God called his people to be distinct, they were met with this reality.

We can't.

We can't live up to what God has called us to do.

Whether it's adherence to the law or whether it's going into the land, we can't.

But you know what God never argues against?

That.

There never, nobody has ever said to God, we can't.

And God says, Yes, you can.

Okay, you're you're big.

There's no, I see pride, I see power, I see a strong who won't take no often nobody from cool runnings.

If you've seen that movie, I need I need to work on my movie references.

Um God never argues with, we can't.

Moses has a I can't, God, you call you called me to do this?

I can't.

And and then the people as a nation, they have take the land, but we can't.

But what does the the question is not if I can or can't.

The question is, where does my can't take me?

Does it take me to I won't, or does it take me to somewhere else?

And watch, watch what Joshua does with the we can't.

Numbers 14.

Verse 6.

In response to them saying, We can't, so we won't, Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb and son of Jephana, of those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes.

They spoke to all the congregation.

Of the sons of Israel, saying, The land which we pass through to spy out is an exceedingly good land.

Okay, nobody disagrees there.

Verse 8.

If the Lord is pleased with us, then we then he will bring us into this land and give it to us.

A land which flows with milk and honey.

Or do not, only do not rebel against the Lord.

And do not fear the people of the land, for they will be our prey.

Their protection has been removed from them.

And the Lord is with us.

The Lord is with us.

You know who Joshua sounds like?

God in the burning bush.

I can't.

And what does God say?

I'll be with you.

And the people say, We can't.

And Joshua says, The Lord will be with us.

He promised.

I hope this makes sense to you.

This has been helpful to me.

I can't becomes I won't when I remove God from the situation.

I can't becomes I won't when I remove God from the situation.

But when my I can't, when God gets brought into it, and it's not, I don't start with what I can't, I bring God into it, then what does I can't become?

I can't, he can.

And so we say what Moses said in the burning bush, here am I.

See, remove God from the situation, and yeah, you can't and you won't.

Bring God into it, who is with you, and I can't become yeah.

But he can.

So here I am, here I am.

Um the law was not the main thing that was gonna make Israel distinct.

If you read in Exodus 33, it was so important uh in the reading this week that when Moses uh when God says, Hey, I'm gonna send you into the land, but I'm not gonna come with you, Moses says, It isn't it is by your going with us that we, I and your people are distinct.

That's where the word distinct in my mind came from.

God's presence with them was ultimately gonna be what made them distinct.

So that when they came, when the when they were confronted with I can't, that it could be followed with he can't.

He's with me.

So here I am.

So fast forward to Jesus.

And Jesus says, Hey, it's to your advantage that I'm gonna go away because if I go away, I'm gonna send you the helper.

He will be with you and he will be in you.

So that when the people of God who are called, who are delivered out of slavery to sin and called to be supernaturally distinct, that we would come in, come to face to face with that and go, I can't.

But he can.

And he is with me and he is in me.

So here am I.

Let me let me um I want to tell a story and just close with these words.

Um so what do we see?

We see what I can't really meant.

I can't meant I won't, and that was because they removed, or that happened when they removed the reality of God from the situation.

And then we see what we can't really need it, and that was God's presence.

They needed God's presence with them.

So, so now um for those who if if any of us feel like, man, I am out but not in, in other words, delivered but not distinct, then I want to ask us to answer this question.

Where have I turned I can't to I won't?

I can't worship to that song.

I can't forgive that person.

And so I won't.

For me personally, I was just thinking, I should feel like um my my Fridays, Saturdays, I can't have a Friday and Saturday that doesn't have Sunday morning looming over me.

I can't.

Is that true?

That is true.

If I remove the reality of God from everything that happens here, I can't have peace on the weekend.

But if but if I can see and bring the reality of God that he is with me on Friday and Saturday and on Sunday morning, then you know what?

I still can't, but he can.

So here am I.

And I can actually be, we the people of God, can actually be supernaturally distinct by his presence.

So delivered by his doing, distinct by his presence.

It was true for them.

We are the church, we are the come and see, supernaturally distinct people of God now.

So, where have you turned I can't into I won't?

Identify it.

And then learn these seven words that really marked me um growing up in middle school and high school.

This was kind of like there's sort of a little, not really a mantra of the church, but there's seven words.

I can't.

He can.

Here I am.

And one of the great um evidences I get to see of this was in my senior year of high school when uh one of my friends, Leah, in AP uh microeconomics class, uh, we started talking and we're talking about evolution, and and there were I just remember going down the halls going, I can't, Lord.

Can't be supernaturally distinct.

You can.

Here I am.

And and I felt compassion for her, which for me especially at the time was not a will-rut thing.

I was like, I thought compassion was this is a whole backstory, but I thought compassion was girly.

I thought it was feminine, didn't want that.

Felt compassion.

She later went to one of my friends and said, I had this conversation with Will, and it was so weird, it felt like he had compassion on me.

And I was like, ah, delivered by his doing, distinct by his presence.

And I was thinking of stories I just want to be able to share that help us believe that God's presence with us is the necessary ingredient for being supernaturally distinct.

I thought, daggum it, I don't want to have to share a story from 17 years ago about a time when I recognized and was supernaturally distinct by his presence.

And I don't want to mock God's glory by saying it's never happened since then.

But here's what I have kind of grown to hunger for that I hope you'll hunger with me.

God, would you give me a new story this week of being supernaturally distinct by your presence?

I can't.

What are the next two?

He can't.

Here I am.

I can't, he can't hear my and maybe maybe next week we'll be able to have a story of hey, by his presence is able to be supernaturally distinct.

And that our events like a fallback Sunday, and that when when there's an opportunity to invite our friends and our ones to come and see what the people of God is like, it wouldn't just be a bunch of church people kind of doing the things where I greet when I'm told to greet or whatever, but it would be a group of people who are supernaturally distinct because we've learned I can't is not something God argues with.

He can.

Here I am.

By his presence, he would make this church supernaturally distinct.

So bottom line comes from 2 Peter, 1 Peter chapter 2.

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

We are a chosen race.

A royal priesthood.

Thought I had it memorized, but you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

That's a different version.

I like my version better.

It says, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Called you out, called you in, proclaiming the excellencies of God.

That's man, church.

You come to I can't, it will become I won't if you leave God out of it.

You can't, he can't.

Here I am.

Get to be supernaturally distinct to the praise of his glory.

Stand in, um we're gonna sing, Great is thy faithfulness together.

Faithful to be present with us.

That he who delivered us by his doing now makes us supernaturally distinct.

By his presence.

Great is thy faithfulness.