Kerwin Baptist Church Daily Broadcast

Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world so that all may know Christ.

Join us now for a portion of one of our services here at Kerwin Baptist Church located in Kernersville, North Carolina. We have a lot of things for us to go. We haven't even gotten to the part yet where God actually does the asking. There's a whole lot that has to go on in our life before God can get to the point to actually specifically tell us what he wants us to do. There's a lot of things that have to transpire and as we began last week in Chapter 3 how God speaks to us when we're working, when we're waiting, when we're willing.

Let me just say this. God doesn't just show up on the scene, tell you what he wants. God has to know that we're going to be willing to do what he asks us to do before he tells us. Why would God waste his time?

I don't know about you. I want God to speak to me. I want God to work in my life. I want to know what he wants me to do. I want to know where he wants me to go.

And I need that direction. But if that's going to take place, then there's some things that I have to do in my life. And before we actually get to the point that God asks Moses specifically what to do and then God tells Moses this is what I'm going to do as you do it. There's things that have to take place in our heart and in our spirit and in our attitude way before that takes place. So if you would at Exodus, obviously, Chapter 3, we're going to begin reading in verse 2 today. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. And he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire and the bush was not consumed. Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.

And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses, and he said, Here am I. Let's pray. Lord, I love you. There's so much for us to learn today. I pray you'd help me as I do my best to try to explain it and share it out of a heart of love. Thank you, Lord, for what you've already shown me personally in this passage. And I believe it's something that I need. We all need this church needs in this moment of time. Lord, I pray that you would help us in Jesus name we pray.

Amen. As Moses here was leading his father in law sheep in a desert place approaching what we believe is Mount Horeb. And as he sees this great sight of this dry thorny, by the way, this word bush means basically a dry thorny bush is what it means that he sees this bush on fire and he stops and takes notice. Remember, he is 80 years of age at this point, a lot of water under the bridge. And here he is at the at the point of life where he's kind of taken a backseat. He stepped down from a place of prominence and power and all that in Egypt. And now he's kind of leading sheep, basically a shepherd for his father in law. Now, let me give you a little bit of a history if I can before we kind of get into this experience that got Moses attention where God stops him, gets his attention, and then speaks to him. Let me kind of give you a little bit of background we talked last week about the fact of his age and the stage of life that he was in the past life that he had lived as a place of comfort and was high up, obviously there and the now he's just tending sheep which seems to be a little bit of a demotion but let me say this, that as as God is getting Moses to the point that he is ready to speak to him to ask him what God wants him to go let me tell you what has gone on in Moses life. God was getting ready to ask Moses to help lead his people out of Egypt and out of bondage. Do you know why Moses was no longer in Egypt at this point as he was tending sheep?

Because he was wanted for murder in Egypt. I mean this isn't just about God asking Moses to go do something this is asking Moses to go back to the one place he was not going to go back to. You see God knows sometimes what our, I guess you would call our fears are God knows where our discomfort is and certain things that he asked us to do. So God has to do a work on the inside before God can display his work on the outside. So if you'll notice in verse two the Bible says that the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire number one. Today I want us to look at specific phrases in this passage so that we kind of understand what's going on number one I want you to see a flame of fire.

What does this mean there's always meaning greater in God's word what is what is going on. So we find here that as Moses is traveling and taking the sheep leading the sheep he sees a sight that he can't believe he sees this bush on fire but this is not specifically yet. Why he literally stopped to turn around and look at it.

So let's start at the beginning a flame of fire. What was God although Moses didn't realize it yet at the time and although Moses didn't even know this was God yet. Why did God do this particular thing.

Why did he set this bush as we would call it on fire. Well first I want you to see this is a picture of God's power. This is a picture that God can put a fire anywhere he wants to put a fire. I want to read you this verse in Isaiah chapter 10 verse 17 this will be on the screen for you to see the Bible says and the light of Israel shall be for a fire. Speaking of God and his holy one for a flame. And it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briars in one day and shall consume the glory of his forest and of his fruitful field both soul and body. Describing that God as a flame of fire his power to devour. This was a sign to Moses of the power of God. The Bible says in Deuteronomy that God is a consuming fire.

I want to challenge you today. God can display his power in your life. Let me if I can put it this way God can consume you today. God can burn in your life today. You and I need not forget that in fact Jeremiah in chapter 20 Jeremiah was to the point, he was ready to get away from people get away from ministry get away from speaking and sharing God's word he was he was ready to get away from it all but in verse 20 he says then I said I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more his name, but his word was in my heart as a burning fire, shut up in my bones. Can I ask you something is God burning in your life today. God's power. You see as God was burning that Bush it was a reminder to Moses that God wasn't burning in his life at the time.

But God wanted to. You know I found oftentimes at a church there are people that are on fire, and a lot of times people that are not on fire themselves for the Lord, like to be around where the fire is at and they enjoy the warmth, but truth be known in their own heart the fires gone out. Is God burning in your life today. It was a picture of God's power but secondly it was a picture of God's glory.

The fact that this fire was burning. It means this before it really very quickly God was getting ready to display his glory to all the children of Israel, he was getting ready to display his glory to the entire kingdom, and he first displays it to Moses. I want you to see this verse Exodus 2417, and the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount and the eyes of the children of Israel.

Did you see that. And after God displayed his glory through fire to Moses, he would display his glory as a fire to the entire kingdom of Israel. It's a sign of God's glory. One of my favorite verses in this whole study first Timothy chapter six verse 16 look at this it'll be on the screen, who only have immortality dwelling in the light, speaking of our Lord dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto, which no man have seen nor can see. And if you're listening Moses was the very one that when he got up on the mountain was so disappointed by people and circumstances and himself that Moses says God I want to see your glory. Moses had seen that fire burning in that bush, and all this time later, after he's helping to lead the children of Israel, going through the wilderness going up on the mountain to get the law of God, Moses is ready to quit. He's ready to stop and he says God I want to see your glory again and God said, if I showed you all my glory, you would die instantly. This fire is a sign of the glory of God.

It's a sign of God's power to sign of God's glory but third, it's a sign of God's purity. Do you know what fire does. Fire purifies. Fire burns away the dross. Fire refines. This is a sign to Moses, Moses I'm ready to purify your life. I'm ready to burn away the dross, and I'm ready to use you to do what I've always had planned for you to do. Dear friend may I say that sometimes God's fire in your life purifies and refines us. There's a song that we sing God's refining fire.

I want you to notice. Secondly here we find this phrase, a bush or what we would call a thorny bush is what this word means. In the Hebrew, why is this even significant. So Moses walks by and he sees that this thorny bush was burning, full of fire. Why is a bush used? Why is a dry thorny bush used in this story? What is the significance of that? Does it really mean anything if you'll notice verse two, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush.

And this word means dry or thorny and it basically means something that is getting ready to become tumbleweed. I know my wife's like he's not going to say it is it my wife and I when we first started traveling got married. We went on our honeymoon and then we flew to California picked up my motorhome in San Francisco area, headed over the Golden Gate Bridge and drove straight north to begin meetings and our first meeting together as husband and wife was in Ukiah, California. We preached there over in California different places and then we our first meetings after that was all the way back east. So we began Interstate 40 and yes it does start in Barstow, California Interstate 40. And we started at the beginning of Interstate 40 and drove it all the way home.

We went through I think it's four or five state capitals that you go through and we were going I believe it was maybe through Utah. I don't remember exactly where I think it was the salt flats there in Utah we were going through but we were driving in our motorhome as we were coming by in these humongous tumbleweed. This weed was so big that if you think of a motorhome sitting up that tumbleweed came by was as high as I was at the steering wheel. So you're looking at a six or seven foot tall bush that just blowing across the road my wife was mesmerized because she didn't realize that that was actually a real thing.

She thought it was just movies it was just in movies that there wasn't really tumbleweeds and I said no they're tumbleweeds and that was a huge weed. It's so dry out there that as it gets dry and brittle that a good storm comes through and it'll just uprooted and snap off and then it'll just begin to roll. That's what this was a thorny bush. Why was this fire that God his glory was going to be displayed in his power was going to be displayed in his purity was going to be displayed. Why did God not display it in a tall stately cedar or in a flourishing tree or a large tree or a strong tree or something like that. Why did God consume literally in fire without consuming a dry bush.

Something so insignificant. First I want you to see this is a picture of God's grace. You see God chooses the weak the Bible says the weak and despised the things of the world to confound the wise. Moses was now just a poor humble shepherd and God is reminding him that he can burn his fire in a dry bush. Just as much as a tall alive tree. Maybe in your life you kind of feel like you're just that dry thorny bush right now.

It just seems to be drying up and drying up. God is reminding that he can burn in your life once again. God's grace. This is a picture of grace. God delights to beautify and to crown the humble. He resists the proud but he gives grace to the lowly. May I say this and if you can wake up just a second if you don't hear anything else I say today although I would like you to listen to the rest of it. Some of you are like I haven't heard anything yet I might as well listen to something now.

I want you to get this please. This when God gave me this phrase I literally started crying. The bush was ordinary but the fire wasn't. Maybe I'm the only one getting blessed by that.

What made this thing special wasn't the bush. And what makes this special is not us. It's God's power in us.

Dear friend I'm here to tell you. You might think you don't have a lot to offer but there's something called the grace of God. And God will take your dry thorny bush and he'll consume it. He'll glow and display his power and his purity through your life. What a picture of the grace of God. God will not just burn in a tall tree but he'll also burn in a dry rotten bush. God can shine his glory in your life if you'll let him. It's a picture of God's grace.

Second this is a picture of God's victory. You say preacher what do you mean? So I trace this Hebrew word bush. Found it in the New Testament it's sister word. Guess what the word is in the New Testament? Thorns.

Does that make a light go off in your head? You see all these hundreds of years later the Savior Messiah Jesus Christ would come. And as they crucified him as ridicule they would place on him a crown made of a dry rotten bush.

A crown of thorns. But three days later he would have victory over those thorns. Oh as that fire was consuming that dry thorny bush then God his son Jesus Christ would consume a dry crown of thorns years later.

Number three. I want you to see this phrase in verse two. The bush burned. The Lord appeared to him verse two in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush and he looked and behold the bush burned with fire.

Let me tell you why this is significant today. Number one God did not need anything to ignite the fire. In fact I think of Elijah and the prophets and here they you know they're trying to call down fire from heaven and what does he do? He throws water on the sacrifice. It does everything he can do to make it where God can't consume it praise and God sends down fire from heaven. God needed nothing to start that fire that day and God doesn't need you to start a fire today.

He just willing to let him have you. God didn't need anything to ignite the fire. God doesn't need your ability. He doesn't need your help.

He doesn't need your input. God doesn't need to be for you to be perfect. God doesn't need for you to be impressive. God doesn't need your education or lack of it. God doesn't need anything that you or I have to offer. All he needs is for us to just let him burn through us. Second God did not need anything to fuel the fire.

It just burned. God didn't need anything to start it. God didn't need anything to fuel it. May I say third God didn't need anything to stoke the fire.

He didn't need anybody's help. He didn't need anybody to throw a few more logs on the fire. He didn't need anybody to move things around so that God can burn where God wants to burn. Moses as he sees this on fire and you got to think about it. What God is attention really is what we're talking about next. But here he sees this thing burning and here's what God is attention that it just kept burning. That without any help and without any input you would think that there wouldn't be enough bush there to keep that fire burning.

But somehow it was still burning. Let me tell you something about my life I've seen. I know me. I know my faults. I know my failures.

I know the things that I struggle with. And sometimes I look and say God I've not given you enough to burn. God there's not enough here to continue to do what you call me to do here.

They deserve better and they deserve more and God there's just not enough natural raw talent or ability to do this. But God doesn't need that from us. While you and I feel that we've not given him enough to continue to burn. God can just still keep using you. Number four. And this brings us to obviously the point why did Moses stop?

I love this. Look at verse three. Moses said I will now turn aside and see this great sight why the bush is not burnt. It wasn't just seeing something on fire that got Moses attention.

I mean there's a lot of things that could probably spark a fire or something in the desert. And God does things the way he does because God knows there's always going to be men that are going to try to argue through it. There's even books out there that say that this was just light casting off the leaves of a tree that Moses thought it was on fire.

I mean man will come up with the most ridiculous things to try to argue against God. But what really got Moses attention was not just that it was on fire. But the fact that it stayed on fire and it never burnt up the bush. It never consumed it. It never disintegrated it.

The bush stayed intact and yet the fire kept roaring as strong as it was. That's what Moses stopped to find out. And when I see God do the supernatural in my life it always starts us asking a question.

Notice verse 3 and Moses said I will now turn aside and see this great sight. Notice this. Why? Why the bush is not burnt?

We always have those questions don't we? Why? Why did this happen? Why did God allow this? Why did this person do this? Why did my kids do this? Why did these circumstances happen to me? Whenever God's at work in our life we always are asking why. Moses stopped and tried to figure out why is this thing on fire and why is it not burning up.

Are you ready? My favorite. You said the last one was your favorite.

You know this is my favorite too. This is a picture, number one, of God's mercy. You see the church was now in bondage in Egypt. The people of God had been serving Pharaoh for hundreds of years. They've been slaves. They've been in bondage.

They were working in the old brick kilns and they didn't have things good and they were under bondage and slavery. And I'm here to tell you that even though that they were burning and even though all this was happening they were not consumed. And yeah the church is going to go under attack and yeah there's going to be things that come against it. But even God said that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

This is a picture that despite trials, despite testing you and I are not consumed. We see numerous places that God was concerned for the suffering of his people. This is the church. You know what the Bible says that we can be perplexed but not in despair. We can be cast down but not destroyed. As Moses was watching this fire that was burning in this bush and yet the bush was not consumed. It's a picture of God's mercy that although God has the ability to disintegrate us at this very moment. God has the ability to stop our breath, to end our existence, to literally wipe us off this planet right now. But it's his mercy that loves us. What a picture of the mercy of God. May I say this that this is the first time in the Bible that God uses the term later on in this passage my people.

My people. God heard we find in this chapters we will look at in weeks to follow that the people have been crying out to God. And God was letting Moses know now I've heard them and I'm ready to deliver them. Yeah church had been under fire. Yeah God's people had been under trials.

But those trials would not consume them. Do you know we have sitting here in this building this morning many people that have faced some trials. Many people that have faced disease and sickness and one thing after another.

And yet you'll find as difficult and as gut wrenching. And as much as it breaks your heart to see the trials that some of God's people go through. What's great about being one of God's children is that those trials do not consume you.

It's a picture. God's mercy second. It's a picture of God's redemption. You see God not only in his mercy has prevented us from being consumed but he provided redemption. It means now that God has made it where we don't have to be consumed by fire.

Hell. But he has given us redemption. Through Jesus Christ his son.

I want to encourage you today listen to me. Without Christ you will be consumed by fire. But with Christ you're safe. Do you know Jesus Christ today. As your personal savior.

Let me say this number five my time is gone so let me close. Once you notice this phrase. In verse four. When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see God called unto him out of the midst of the bush.

Now notice this phrase and you'll see it on the screen. When the Lord saw that he turned. God called unto him.

Now get this. Moses is walking sees the Bible says that the angel of the Lord appeared unto him as a fire burning this bush. Now some people believe that that was an angel sent by God. And God showed up to speak through that angel. Some people believe that the angel of the Lord here was God himself. And that God himself spoke to Moses. And that's what I personally believe. I believe this is God I believe this is one of these rare instances in the Old Testament where God shows up personally to talk to somebody.

We have accounts of different times where this has happened. And I believe as Moses walked by that the Bible says the angel of the Lord appeared unto him out of that bush. But God had not said anything yet.

Are you with me so far? God had not said anything yet. Moses just stopped because he saw that it was burning, but it wasn't burning up. And so despite what Moses was doing he noticed it and was still busy with the sheep, but as he watched it and it didn't consume the bush. The Bible says that Moses stopped and he turned aside. And he said why? Why is this happening?

Why is that not taking place? And the Bible says as Moses stopped what he was doing and turned his attention on to the flame of fire in that bush, then God spoke unto him. Listen to me. If Moses had carelessly neglected something supernatural that God was doing, God might have never spoken to him. If Moses had not stopped, went back and paid attention, God might not have ever spoken to him. And by the way, if you and I don't stop and pay attention to God, he might not speak to us either. That's why it's so important if we're going to know what God wants us to do, and if we're going to know where God wants us to go, and if we want God to speak to us and through us and work in us, then we're going to have to stop. We're going to have to get our attention off all the things in our life that have nothing to do with God. And we're going to have to turn around, come back to him, and pay attention. And then God will speak. God bless you.