Hey, yeah, praise God. Hey guys, welcome to all of our locations today.
One of the coolest things about that video was, if you couldn't know, I don't know if you noticed, but Rachel was very pregnant in that video and then about four hours after they shot that video she had her baby. So now we have, I know, and everything went great. So now we have another little missionary.
So we're excited for Sadie to be with us in the world. So hey guys, we're gonna be in Exodus chapter 3 today so you could take your copy of Scripture out and turn with me to Exodus 3. As you guys are turning there though, I do want to give you a couple of follow-ups from the video that we just watched on the missions, interest dinner, and that kind of stuff. Guys, if you're new to Mercy Hill, which I know there are a lot of new people at Mercy Hill right now, we're grateful for that.
If you're new, you got to understand something, man. We are a church that really exists to see people mobilized to the ends of the earth to share the gospel where it has not been named and with the unreached of the world. Here we have a great burden today, okay, and here's the burden that we live with.
There is places in this world where the sun rises and sets every single day and no one there knows who to give the credit to. That's where we live. We live in a world where there are people that could walk out of their house and walk for days and months and even years and never see a Christian, never see a Bible, never hear the name of Jesus. And while that is true, we got to go. And this is what God has given us at the end of the book of Matthew, the first of the book of Acts. Man, it is upon us to go. God involves us in His mission. And so at the beginning of every year, we've done this all the way back. Y'all, we love to set aside a weekend, call it Scent Weekend, and that weekend is dedicated to us refocusing our hearts on the task of reaching the unreached, alright.
And so that's what this is going to be all about. If you are interested in the missionary endeavor at all, and what I mean by that is, man, you know, I start talking about the nations and people groups of the world and God's, you know, prays among all peoples and your heart starts beating fast. Okay, you need to go to the missions dinner, alright. And you could go, you could check this out. You can go to the missions dinner if you guys want to take a picture of that or whatever.
It's also on our website. But listen, that missions dinner, if you're interested in missions, if you want to support people, if you love the idea of giving, if you want to pray for our missionaries, or if you are very new to this whole idea of Christianity and all that, and you're like, man, I just want to learn, man. What is missions about?
And I hear that term thrown around a lot at Mercy Hill. Alright, the missions dinner is for you, okay. And the other thing I want to say before we dive into Exodus 3 is that Scent Weekend also kicks off our disciple-making, our first disciple-making intensive for the year. I know if you're new, I'm throwing a lot of language out that sounds like gibberish, okay. Disciple-making intensives, we call them DMIs, they are groups that meet throughout the year, and what happens is a few people may decide, I'm gonna jump out of my community group for one session, I'm gonna jump into a DMI, a disciple-making intensive.
I'm gonna tell you, it is exactly what the name says, it is intensive, okay. It is all about focusing on learning how to share the gospel among the nations who have come to the triad. So we're praying, we're sharing the gospel, we're getting after it.
It's a very intense time. Last year, 73 people jumped out of their groups and did a session with DMI and they shared the gospel over 650 times. We have a goal this year to see 100 people do a DMI and share the gospel in the triad over 1,200 times with the most unreached people from all over the world that have come here. If that makes your heart beat fast, okay, then you guys check out, maybe you guys already threw it out there, I don't know the slide, but the slide for DMI.
But hey, that kicks off next week as well and you guys can can jump into that right after Scent Weekend, all right. All right, let's dive in. Here's where we go. Man, we are in Exodus 3 today and today we have the privilege of unpacking the depths and wonder of one of the most iconic stories in all of the Bible, okay. And maybe you've heard of it before, it's called Moses and the Burning Bush and we're gonna learn some things about God today. Remember, God is moving a praising people to his promised land. That's the book of Exodus. That's your Christian life. That's what God is doing with the end of the world, by the way, okay.
It's all that. It's moving us out of slavery into the promised land. We will cross the Jordan, it parts, we open, that's where we are going, but this story helps us kind of piece together how our life fits into that grand narrative, okay. And today we're going to be talking about this idea of getting to know God Almighty. This is a big statement I want you to understand. God wants to know you and he wants you to know him. And for many of us that have been around church for a long time, we're like, oh yeah, okay, that's great.
No, no, listen to what I just said. God wants you to know him and he wants to know you. He wants to commune and the God of this universe wants to have a personal relationship and commune and hang out and know and get to know.
He wants a relationship with you. That is not a small thing. For many of us have been in church for a long time, maybe we we hear that as a small thing.
It's not. If you don't come from that background, listen, every human being on earth is trying to grapple with why they have an eternal longing but they live in a temporal world. They're trying to figure that out and what I'm just saying is God wants to reconcile that for you. He wants to break into the temporal world and show you this is why you exist to come and have a relationship with me and it'll go on for all eternity.
Here's the big idea this weekend. In his kindness, God invites us to know him. He invites us to know him. It's not a small thing. You know we're in this phase of life, I know many of you guys are, where our kids are just, it's crazy man, it's crazy. Okay, the ages, they're going all over all the time. If it ain't a game, it's a practice, it's dropping somebody off, they got a friend's house, they're doing something with student leadership here. It's just nuts and me and my wife, we're so grateful for it. I mean but we we just kind of laugh about how crazy it is but there's so many there's so many people around. It's like all these all the friends and the friends have parents and there's different families and some of you guys know exactly what I'm talking about because you're living in that world or you're going to be living in that world soon some of you guys that are young families but here's the thing I've learned about it your kids friends the families of those friends go into two camps okay there's a camp of we know of them and then the camp of we know them all right so you go to a game and you're and you're like that well that you know hey so-and-so's friend that plays ball with you or whatever their their parents are here it's like yeah I know of them there's other friends where you're like no no we know them now what's the difference this is important okay the difference in how someone gets in one camp or the other is very simple have you ever personally met them in exchange names that's it if you have personally met them shaking a hand and said this is my name what is your name and they told you now they have moved from I know of them to I know them do you know this is one of the most iconic stories in all the Bible Moses and the burning bush and here is the point God wants to be on a first name basis with you he wants you to move from I know of him to I know him and how is he gonna do that today well today we're gonna see in the book of Exodus this idea of God giving us his name and revealing himself to us let's dive in Moses Exodus chapter 3 now here's what we're gonna do I'm gonna walk through this whole story so we're gonna talk a lot of we're gonna man we're gonna Bob and weave we're gonna hit some applications and all that stuff but as we get to the end as we start really dialing it in and mining this thing we're gonna get all the way to this idea of God wanting to know you let's just kind of work through it here now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro the priest of Midian and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb the mountain of God and the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of the bush and he looked and he said the bush was burning yet it was not consumed and Moses said I will turn aside to see this great sight why the bush is not burned that's not what fire does fire has to consume things right if it's going to live something else has to be consumed for the fire but that's not what's happening it's a miracle and so Moses is attracted to it now when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see God called out to him from the bush and said Moses Moses and Moses says here I am and then he says do not come near wait a minute but the fire is God drawing him near but don't get too close that's one of the things we're gonna see this fire draws us but man you don't want to get too close to it because the sin in our life he says Moses no take them sandals off your feet the place for which you are standing is holy ground some of you guys have heard this story before but for some of you this is brand new all right that's awesome our church is a beautiful mix of people that are trying to figure it out people have been around but if you're newer and like maybe some of your first experience with our exodus story was last week you're probably thinking the same thing you're all probably thinking the same thing you're like wait last week we ended the story with Moses as a baby and this week we pick him up as an 80 year old married with kids Shepherd out in the wilderness okay I missed something something must have happened here well actually the Bible doesn't devote a ton to what happened but it does tell us what happened all right so let me kind of just speed speed you up so you're here Moses like I said was raised with a foot of both worlds right he is Egyptian and he is Hebrew he was both drawn out of the water means Moses and he was a son in Egyptian so it's two different kind of play on words and and there's that whole deal of how he is you know he's kind of in both worlds well later in Moses's life he ended up encountering this situation where an Egyptian was oppressing a Hebrew slave and beating him and Moses rises up in an indignation and he ends up killing the Egyptian and burying him okay there's a couple little clues in that story I mean many of us want to say well hey the guy had it coming or whatever but Moses buried him to try to hide what had happened and hope that nobody had seen it and then what we find out later is it was actually a universally condemned act from both the Egyptians and the Hebrews you know why how I know that because Moses gets into a little argument with some Hebrews the next day or whenever it is and the Hebrews say they're kind of arguing he tries to separate them and they say who is appointed you over us and then they say what are you gonna do kill us like you killed that Egyptian see they were speaking into his life in a way that was like they're kind of condemning that to the Egyptians find out about it they want to kill Moses so he has to flee he runs out into the wilderness gets married has kids and becomes a shepherd and that's the next 40 years of his life and here we are all right and so listen this is what's so important that I want you to see all right Moses is out there burning bush he starts talking to God this is one of the first things I want you so I'm not gonna spend a ton of time on this but it's important okay one of the things that we got to understand in this passage is that moat listen to me Moses is 80 when the burning bush happens we see that from Exodus 7 we see from other places acts talks about this he is 80 years old all the stuff that you and I know about Moses in his life the stuff that he actually did I mean just the incredible things of God that moved in his life happened after he was 80 years old now I know it's like well they live longer back in the Bible they did but this ain't like living hundreds and hundreds of hundreds of years I mean 80 was still an older man at this point in his life and one of the things that I want to say really quickly on the front end of this because if you're new here at Mercy Hill you're gonna know I mean we talk about this a lot and if you've been around you know what I'm gonna say here we need a vision for our life that does not end after we retire there okay that concept of man I'm building my life so that my fourth and final quarter which can be my most impactful quarter ends up being something that I waste in frivolity collecting shells playing softball and playing golf not saying it's wrong to do those things but you know what I mean like making that the point of my life that is that is not the vision that God has for your life in fact I would say this and we need to especially if you're younger we need to be angling because the American dream is work really hard to the neglect of everything else so that last quarter of your life you can play and what we need to be thinking is no no that's not an American dream that's an American nightmare we need impact and fresh vision in every phase and that's what I want to tell you fresh vision and impact are gifts from God that he gives us in every phase of our life reject that notion man we'll work really hard so I can play at the end reject it and understand no God has given us purposes and tasks right now that never end our fourth quarter can be and should be the most impactful quarter for the kingdom in our life now I say fourth quarter why because our our life expectancy in the US I looked it up is 78 years old okay so let's just call it 80 all right let's say we've been beating good salads and walking a little bit let's call it 80 okay so we're 80 years old and and that what does that mean it means the fourth quarter starts at 60 so if you're 60 we cannot have or older we cannot have this mentality well I did my time no no no no no we need the mentality of I'm in my prime God has equipped me for 60 years to hit the field running for this last quarter you know what's gonna happen the Super Bowls in two weeks you know what's gonna happen I've learned this is every Super Bowl two things happen okay the first thing is Patrick Mahomes place I don't know why but that's just what it is okay the second thing is at the end of the third quarter I don't care what the score is I don't care if it looks out of reach close not close whatever both teams will do the same thing what will they do they'll put their hands up fourth quarter some of you guys like to play basketball knows a basketball game last night all right I think about this star players what happens if they get if they get a couple thousand the first half of a game or first quarter of the game what happens coach takes them out why I need you for what I need you for the end I need you for the fourth quarter and that's what I want to call upon our people today have this vision of what God is going to do in your life in the fourth quarter the only thing more important in the fourth quarter is overtime by the way okay so I mean you know my point is all of our life Moses the big stuff 80 years old is when it starts there's other guys in the Bible like this too I think of Caleb he comes to my mind generosity working hard for the kingdom pouring it out for your church and your community naming Christ among grandkids if God has given you that or the little kids running around this church I mean just pour it out run the race all the way to the end verse 2 an angel the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of the bush and he looked and behold the bush was burning yet it was not consumed this is a miracle fire there's a lot about this fire look at verse 5 then he said do not come near take your sandals off your feet for the place on which you are standing is holy ground I want to give you guys a little little foreshadowing here so it doesn't take you off guard when we get there it's interesting isn't it that the Bible says that the angel of the Lord is in the flame but then when God Almighty begins to talk to Moses it doesn't say that the angel said the Lord said it just says the Lord said now what does that mean how could it be that the angel of the Lord is not speaking on behalf of God but the angel of the Lord is speaking as God well you need a footnote that because it can be very important as we move through this story there's two things I want you to see about the fire because they are representative of God himself God chooses a picture that could not be clearer in this text and it's very important that we catch on to the symbolism of what God is doing here with the fire that doesn't consume okay now fight God chooses fire to reveal himself in multiple places in the Bible Genesis 15 Abraham pot of fire okay you have later in the book of Exodus you have the fire that falls on on the mountain you have the pillar of fire that people follow okay fire big deal here right here in Exodus 3 you have the picture of the fire which matters so much why and there's two reasons okay that is so important number one the fire draws us in but it is also a dread it is inviting but it's also terrifying we can't live without fire but we also can't live too close to fire there is something that God is showing us in fire that is really showing us something about himself okay how many I mean think about it we need fire we need heat a love fire love fire since I was young I love building a fire you guys many of y'all are probably the same way but you understand you can't get but so close to the fire right you think about how destructive fire can be think about I mean what's happened was how many lives are lost and property lost in California with these wildfires and all that it's incredibly destructive and yet we need it isn't that something that they're about what we understand about God right that it's both a draw and it is a dread um I this time of year is always funny to me I love fall I love spring this winter time is funny because it's always like a big debate on the weekends is it too cold to do the fire outside solo stove okay you know I don't know if you've ever been there guy invites you over for an outdoor fire pit and 17 degrees outside and everybody's like this fire is great but the only way to get warm is to get in it that's it man I mean it's it's so cold outside I could get in the fire okay I told you guys I I told you before I had we had two dogs two German shepherds my one of them was the best dog you've ever had in your life he was ten years old we actually lost him last year he just man he just he just kind of right he ran it all the way out all right and that was kind of a kind of a bummer but he was awesome dog then I got this other one okay I'm just gonna be honest with you all right um the way I tell people is I'm like look man he's as dumb as he is pretty he's a prettiest dog you've ever seen in your it's in your entire life okay and uh he like for example the with the fire okay I mean he did this last night every time we burn a fire on the solo stove he walks right up to it and burns his tail I mean every single time he just he just swishes his tail right over the fire and there's just flames and you can smell it and he never learns from it okay but the idea of being a little funny but the idea you understand and you get this right like that fire draws you in you want to get warm but if you get too close you get burned now here's what you got to understand this is very important all right God is I said this earlier there there is this every human lives with this eternal longing and yet we live in a temporal world and and we're and when we understand something about God and we catch glimpse of divinity we are drawn to that we are drawn to it in the beauty of it we're made for it and yet when we get too close with our sin you know what happens you know what happens when you stand in the presence of God with your sin in your life well you might as well be a tissue paper on the surface of the Sun that's his holiness man that's his holiness his righteousness his radiance it will not abide the presence of sin we are drawn in and yet we can't get too close this is the fire there's another thing about this fire though that is even I think more theologically accurate to the name that God will give Moses for himself and that is this y'all this fire is self-feeding this is the miracle of the fire this fire is burning hot and yet what it's not consuming anything that's God in a nutshell what a picture you know why because our God is not dependent upon anything you can say like this God is pictured as a fire that doesn't consume because God is dependent on nothing for existence you and I we got to consume to live we got to consume air we got to consume water we got to consume food a fire has to consume fuel our God consumes nothing to live what life in itself emanates from him he never ends because he never had a beginning he doesn't need anything to continue on he is he is like this fire that is burning I mean and he's gonna get it's gonna connect to his name in a minute he's a fire that's burning just because he is it's not because he's consuming something he depends on nothing you could say it like this God depends on nothing but everything depends upon him are you getting the of why God would picture himself as this fire and he wants to know us it's an unbelievable thing and he said I am the God of your father the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Moses hid his face for he was afraid to look at God yeah that's how you get consumed pretty fast then the Lord said I have surely seen the affliction of my people this is important God is not some distant God who doesn't understand what we go through I have seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters and I know they're suffering and I've come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land a land flowing with milk and honey to the place of the Canaanites the Hittites the Amorites the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites and now behold the cry the people of Israel has come to me and I have also seen the oppression of which the Egyptians oppress them verse 10 says this come I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people the children of Israel out of Egypt this is kind of I mean our whole what's our whole series called let my people go we're all anticipating that this is what's so important I have invited you in to see a God today who wants you to know who he is as mind-blowing as that is this is what we see of this God he has a compassionate heart man he sees what it is that you're going through he is not just this self-feeding fire that is all-powerful needs nothing always was and always will be he's not just that he is that and he also sees your pain and the pain of his people actually it's more than that whatever seven say he sees he hears and he knows man I don't know what it is that you might be going through today I have no idea but here's what the Bible is trying to get us to see today there is an overarching narrative in the scripture that God is taking his people out of the decay and the bondage that happens in this life moving us across the Jordan and into an eventual promised land the ultimate promised land heaven where there is a place with no tears there is a place where every breath is honoring to the Lord our God that is where he is taking his people now how does that play into what we're dealing with today you might be dealing with a relationship loss you might be dealing with divorce you might be dealing with crazy anxiety or depression man you might be dealing with some kind of financial upheaval in your life there might be something weighing on you the the guilt or shame or just brokenness that comes with bad decisions that you've made in your life there is pain in your life now here's the thing here's what you gotta understand this is not a health and wealth and prosperity kind of deal I have no idea how that stuff works out tomorrow in your life but I'll tell you this if you are believer we understand how it works out in all eternity the way it works out in all eternity is there is nothing that would be will derail the good purposes and plans of God who will have a praising people in the promised land we will live in that other land one day a place where everything sad comes untrue and when we understand that and read it back into our reality now two things come up okay number one we begin to learn no matter what it is that I'm going through today and it could be very significant for you whatever it is that you're going through we understand that as the scripture tells us in 2nd Corinthians 4 it's a light and momentary affliction a light momentary affliction is preparing us for the eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison don't hear me saying that I'm minimizing the financial pain or the physical pain or the relational pain that you're going through I'm not what I'm saying is what the Bible is saying is there is something about that land that flows with milk and honey that will make whatever it is that we're going through now seem like a light and momentary deal that's very good news today all right it's good and the second thing is this we got to know that this God as we're walking through the hard parts of our life man he's not distant he sees he hears and he knows I've told you guys this before but kryptonite for me man is when our little baby girl gets sick so if you don't know our family we have four children and our fourth child came to us through adoption and she has Down syndrome and you know that that's the Down syndrome is such a spectrum of functionality and what what it means and all that but for her it's meant a ton of sickness and man praise God she has been super healthy for like the last couple of years and we're just I mean it's really great many of you guys have prayed for her but when she gets sick it gets into me in a way that nothing else does my other three kids get sick and I'm like get some dirt rub it on it you're going to school she gets sick and it's just like a different deal you know I mean she's eight years old she weighs 36 pounds I mean that'll kind of give you a mental glimpse she's very very small and it just feels she feels fragile although she's not she feels that way to me sometimes and it's like when she you know it's hard for me to say well this is a light and momentary affliction but if I understand what the Bible is telling us here and the implications of it it's like I got to preach to myself Andrew we are all heading to the land that flows with milk and honey she one day faith and will be restored she will be able to talk and sing praise to our God that is the future that we are heading to and while I'm walking through something hard now I'm not ready the second but when we walk through that hard with her I've got to remember God sees he hears and he knows he's taking us to a better land but he's not making us walk there alone I don't know what it is that you're walking through today but whatever it is it's like man I don't know how it works out tomorrow but I do know how it works out for all eternity and we got to read that back into our circumstances and allow God to minister to us during that time now I want to start framing this thing up to get into this big moment here of God's revelation of himself there are two questions that permeate us okay and here the here here they are you're gonna see them in this text who am I and God who are you okay who am I and who are you now remember God said to Moses you're gonna take the people out of Egypt he's like yeah right okay but Moses said to God who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt he said but I will be with you and this shall be a sign for you that I have sent you when you have brought the people out of Egypt you shall serve God on this mountain Moses said to God if I come to the people of Israel and say to them the God of your fathers has sent me to you and they asked me what is his name what shall I say to them and God said to Moses I am who I am and he said say this to the people of Israel I am has sent me to you and God also said to Moses say this to the people of Israel the Lord the God of your fathers the God of Abraham and God of Isaac and the God of Jacob has sent me to you this is my name forever and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations this is very important there are two questions God is the answer to both okay but they are pervasive for all of humanity who am I and who are you now who am I what is what is Moses saying he's like God you're tasking me with pulling your people out of Egypt and he says the thing that many of us have said in our life even if there is an ounce of humility in you you've said this who am I to do that who I mean he's just who am I to do that now maybe it's a spiritual thing for you maybe it's not a spiritual thing for you maybe you maybe you're gonna start a business God and you're like man who am I to do that maybe maybe you're maybe they're wanting you to take on more responsibility at work maybe it's like time for you to lead a team maybe it's time for you to become the manager but I don't know what it is maybe it's time for you to you know move into administration if you're a teacher and they're asking you to do that I don't know but if you ever had that moment where you thought man who am I to do that I hope you have had that moment okay because that shows an ounce of humility many of us have had that moment in our life could be spiritual who am I to lead a small group look at my background who am I to go to that missions interest dinner and to go on a mission trip this year who am I to do city project who am I to do a residency God who am I with my background everything that I've messed up in who am I to do that what did God say he said in verse 12 but I will be with you never forget this it is not about who you are it's about who you are with that's what it is for whatever it is that God is moving us into how big it is scary it is it's not about who you are it's about who you are with man the things that God has called us to do in this life they are impossible with man in many ways Jesus said this but Jesus looked at them and said with man this is impossible but with God all things are possible it's not about who you are it's about who you are with I think about the massive goals that we have as a church I think about what God is doing in our church right now listen what what a better what a better time could there be for this message right now all right man Mercy Hill in a lot of ways is rolling new campus new a lot of new people different stuff happened in our other campuses man they're growing first-time guests I mean if you you know for me for our elders for small group leaders for anybody on our staff we need to hear this right now in this moment maybe more than ever it ain't about who you are it's not about me it's not about who I am it's about who we are with it's never contingent upon us man it's God moving through all the things of his church I think about how we have a huge goal as a church right like 2032 I promise you today about who we are it can't be who we are if we're gonna see 5,000 people baptized and 500 people sent out to the mission field by 2032 it better not be about who we are that ain't never gonna happen it's got to be about who we are with others any successes at the church house I was um I was with my friend and mentor kind of a big brother to me in terms of just spiritual things and church leadership a guy from Raleigh Durham named JD Greer I had a pleasure to serve with him for five years and I was with him this week with a group of pastors he was doing a talk and this is this is crazy okay so we partner together our church partners together for the sake of missions with 40,000 other churches worldwide it's called the Southern Baptist Convention okay and the whole the whole point of the whole thing is mostly to do mission stuff together so we have a mission board called the International Mission Board and so we you know we send most of our missionaries through them and all that 40,000 churches and JD was doing this talk and he said that he had gone and pulled all these numbers and the number one church that sent the most missionaries last year from the International Mission Board 40,000 churches was the summit church his church in Raleigh Durham number two was Mercy Hill Church all right I praise God wait okay praise God right it's awesome except after the talk I said hey bud I got a different set of numbers okay and in the numbers that they gave me we were number one and you guys were number two okay not and I told him I said hey man it's not a competition but we want to win okay so you know I'm being funny but I look back on that and I know we got to do some more digging there I'll come back with an update on for you guys if I was right okay if he was right I'm not I'm just gonna let it ride but but no I'm just kidding I you know I think about that yeah I'm being funny but I think about that and it's like wait a minute you're telling me you're telling me a church in Raleigh Durham planted another church brand-new 30 people all under the age of 30 12 years ago and now those two churches went one two in terms of sending in a convention of 40,000 churches I promise you it is not about who you are it's not about who we are it is about who we are with and the Lord moving for the sake of his own name and that is what we finally get into here I am who I am look what it says in verse 14 and God said to Moses I am who I am say this to the people of Israel I am has sent you this is so important Moses says who am I it's not about you it's about who you're with then he asks the money question and there's the question that many of us need to ask today many of us on our campuses need to ask today because here's the deal guys we live in the south you're sitting in a church building for most of you not everybody but for almost all of you if I said hey do you believe there's a God you're probably like yeah do you understand that's not what I'm asking you today do you believe in God do you believe there is a God what we're asking you today is do you know him and that's the second question that Moses has Moses said who am I then he says who are you and this is very important I know we're in deep waters it's gonna get deeper okay I know we're in deep waters man try to do but this is so important this is so important Moses says who are you listen what he says what is your name why do you ask somebody that because you're not sure you know most commentators point out that by this time in Israel slavery this is so interesting to me Moses is asking what is your name because the people had forgotten God's name not that they had forgotten his name Elohim they knew that he was God that's what he is but they didn't have this name this name is Yahweh this main is this name is the great I am and they didn't know and he didn't know you know Joshua said when Joshua was about to die Joshua tells the people don't go back and start doing what you were doing while you were in Egypt which was to serve a bunch of other gods they were all wrapped up in idolatry polytheism they had forgotten the name of God I want you to understand God is not just bringing rescue he's bringing revival to his people and that revival starts revival of all kind starts this way you remember who God is and that he wants to get to know you that's how it begins in your life individually it's how it begins in a city like Greensboro High Point Winston this is how it starts this is who God is and what he's done for you and he's inviting you to know him now what is in this name can't you see the fire the illusion of the fire what kind of name is this I am what does that even mean I mean I am I am what no this is what I am what no no no no no it's it's just I am here's what here's what what's tricky about the translation of this the word is am the word is to be God is saying my name is to be my name is am it's like this is kind of mind-blowing but in a grant the grammar ain't great okay but it'd be like God saying this what does it mean to be it means I always was am I'll always be him there'll never be a time where I'm not am I was am I'll be him I am am that's who I am I am I mean it's when you when you think about it you're like I what is okay think about the self-feeding fire God never ends because he never began there was never a time that he wasn't him he is the emanating source self-feeding all time this is who he is and this is the God that wants to know you it's like this he is I am and he wants us to know that he is I am he is the uncaused cause Elohim is what he is Yahweh I am that is who he is and he wants you to step into a relationship with the uncaused cause the never-ending one that never had a beginning one this is what he wants you to know him and so that's what I want to call you today as I close I want to call you into knowing him I understand we're in deep waters right now but here's the deal there's only one way to truly know him and you see a picture of it in this text have you asked the question yet okay Moses is there the flame is there and Moses realizes God is speaking to me what did it say he does he turns away why because he's like man I'm about to get consumed you think about Isaiah what does Isaiah do when Isaiah is ushered in a vision of God what does he do I'm undone my undone means what Isaiah was saying is I'm physically going to come apart I can't stand with my sin in the presence of this God or else I die I mean you go back to the Old Testament a guy named well I'm not gonna get that Uzzah touches a cart that you know the the Ark of the Covenant he the carts about to fall and bust apart on the ground he touches it innocent what happens God strikes him dead BAM consumed why you can't stand before God in your sin I can't stand before God in my sin wait a minute but isn't that what Moses is doing I mean you know he's not like all the way in but he's pretty close you know how is that possible y'all it's all wrapped up in the prefiguring of Christ remember when I told you hey how could it be that the angel of the Lord is in the flame and he speaks not on behalf of God but he speaks as God you know why because he is God because God is three in one and the person of the Trinity that is showing up in this story in the angel is Jesus Christ himself he is pre-incarnate okay he has not been born into this world but he is in this flame and something about what Christ is doing and this is mysterious okay something about what Christ is doing is mediating and it's allowing Moses to stand he can't get too close but he can get close enough to hear now you got to understand this okay you know that you and I on our side of the cross God no longer says to us this is so good he no longer says come here but don't get too close you realize that right because of what Christ has done he says why don't you come over here get all the way in in fact how about we do this how about you come so close that I put the fire of God inside of you how does it happen it happens because the angel of the Lord one day would come back and he would actually be born into this world as a little baby and he would live a sinless life it's Jesus Christ the Son of God and through his sinlessness he would become the perfect sacrificial lamb see that see think about Moses Moses instituted a sacrificial system after this moment in his life right we need something to mediate sort of what the angel did for me we need something that pre figures what God is gonna do in the future and he sets that sacrifice up Jesus was born this angel was born years and years later not to institute a sacrifice but to be the ultimate sacrifice and he would be the one that one day would go to the cross and he would shed his blood so that you and I could have our sins covered we all do wrong stuff man I mean it just you know you ain't got to go back a year in your life right like we we you know just think about the last couple of days think about that that sin deserves that God would burn us up and consume us tissue paper on the surface of the Sun but the blood of Christ covers us and then after his death three days later he rose from the dead and invites us into the newness of life this is crazy you know he invites us to do he invites us to be joined with him he invites us to get in the flame he invites us to have the flame put inside of us Paul tells Timothy whip up that flame the gift of God that is inside of you come in to join God you know Jesus said this in John 8 Jesus is teaching he's doing some stuff he's talking they finally drilled down on Jesus saying you know well who are you and here's what he says you know what he says he says I am I was the one that was before Abraham Isaac I was before he says I am they knew what he was saying he was saying I am the flame that was in that bush and what I did for Moses in that day in a small way I can do for you for all eternity they knew what he was saying and they tried to kill him for it they wanted to stone him right there one day Jesus would die on the cross so that you and I could not only get in the flame but we can have the flame inside of us it's no longer get your shoes off boy you're standing on holy ground you become the holy ground you become what God is doing we become the hands and feet we become the ones that are mediating for the world there's so much here all right so here's what I call you do today hey do you know God it's yes or no do you know would you jump in with them you bow your heads for just a moment maybe some of you here today it's a time for you to pray to receive Christ I pray God might move in your life today at our campuses as well and here's what I would say if today is the day that God is revealing himself to you and you want to jump in with him you need to admit your sin believe in what Christ has done as I've explained it when this angel would come back and go to the cross for us and commit your life to him commit him as the Lord of your life all right confess that he is the Lord of your life if you want to do that you pray with me right now you pray father I know that I'm a sinner I know that I don't deserve to be able to stand in your presence but I believe that Jesus Christ mediates my relationship with you he's covered my sin by going to the cross for me I believe that in his resurrection he gives me the newness of life and father I confess him as the Lord of my life I want to live for you Lord among this church all five campuses Lord all through the ridge right now as I'm standing here God I just pray that your spirit be working and moving we would see dozens if not hundreds of people come to you today give their life to you and father I prayed they would follow up with steps of baptism weekender group they would begin to grow in Christ's name we pray amen well hey guys we're gonna we're gonna respond all right so across all of our church all of our campuses I'm gonna bite you to stand and we're gonna get a chance to sing hey the altars are wide open man it's a great practice come down and pray maybe you got stuff going on your life you want to pray through if not man pray a blessing over the ridge and and what God is doing here with us maybe you gave your life to Christ today come down and just pray about that and man just have a good time of prayer hey we're gonna pray and we're gonna sing now
