The Personal, Powerful God Uses Puny, Powerless People

[0:00] If you would take your Bibles and go to Exodus chapter 3, if you're visiting with us, you can take that black Bible out and go to page 42, second book of the Bible makes it kind of nice.

[0:21] Exodus chapter 3, we're continuing in the book of Exodus. I told you, right, 48 weeks in Exodus? I think I told you that.

[0:33] I think we'll be in Exodus for like 48 weeks total. So, unless I see something, just want to slow down a little bit, maybe 50, but at least be 48 weeks.

[0:53] Exodus chapter 3, I'll read the text, I'll read the passage, then we'll dive in. Dive in. Now Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian.

[1:08] He led the flock to the backside of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of Yahweh appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush.

[1:20] And he looked and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed. So Moses said, I must turn aside now and see this marvelous sight. Why the bush is not burned up?

[1:34] When Yahweh saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, here I am. And he said, do not come near.

[1:46] Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground. He said also, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

[1:58] Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. Verse 7. And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt.

[2:09] I have given heed to their cry from their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings. So I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite.

[2:34] And now behold, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to me. Furthermore, I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians are oppressing them. Therefore, come now, and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring my people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.

[2:51] 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. And he said, certainly I will be with you, and this shall be the sign to you, that it is I who have sent you.

[3:06] When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain. Verse 13. And Moses said to God, behold, I am going to the sons of Israel. Now I shall say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you.

[3:18] Now they may say to me, what is his name? What shall I say to them? And God said to Moses, this is who I am. I am. And he said, thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, I am has sent me to you.

[3:33] And God furthermore said to Moses, thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has sent me to you.

[3:45] This is my name forever. And this is my memorial name to all generations. Verse 16. Go. And gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has appeared to me saying, I am indeed concerned about you and what has been done to you in Egypt.

[4:05] So I said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Amorite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite, to a land flowing with milk and honey.

[4:18] And they will listen to what you say. And you, with the elders of Israel, will come to the king of Egypt, and you'll say to him, The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us.

[4:29] So now, come, please, let us go a three days journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to Yahweh, our God. But I know that the king of Egypt will not permit you to go, except by a strong hand.

[4:41] So I will stretch out my hand, and strike Egypt with all my miracles, which I shall do in the midst of it. And after that, he will let you go, and will grant this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians.

[4:52] It shall be that when you go, you will not go empty-handed, but every woman shall ask of her neighbor, and the woman who lives in her house, articles of silver, and articles of gold, and clothing, and you will put them on your sons and daughters.

[5:06] Thus, you will plunder the Egyptians. The title of the article is, Ten Weak Movie Characters Who Became Incredible Tough People.

[5:22] He doesn't use the phrase, tough people. The actual word he uses is inappropriate for me to say, but needless to say, that's the title of the article. And he puts fourth on the list, Luke Skywalker.

[5:34] The author says this in the article, quote, Luke was raised but a simple moisture farmer at the beginning of the series, now Jedi Knight. When the tool of your trade is a glowing scepter, you know you're onto something.

[5:47] Of course, it takes a whole lot of whining along the way for Luke to become anywhere close to awesome, which is what makes the transformation so satisfying. It's hard to put fresh eyes on the series, but frankly, he's a real twirt for most of these movies.

[6:02] He ends this part of the list, Luke Skywalker, he says this about him, By the second film, he's gained enough toughness points to lace Yeti limbs. But of course, it's only after Yoda's, I'll bet, brief training does he really shine.

[6:18] In the end, he's sitting pretty good with his newly liberated rebel pals and all those delicious Ewoks to eat. Good times. It's just kind of a weird article.

[6:30] It was just like, is this guy being serious or is he being sarcastic? It's fun to see the weak, no-name people make it big.

[6:42] You see that. You see these people that nobody knows, and they come from like just average life and they make it big. People like to see that.

[6:55] And that's what happens to Moses. And that's really what happens to the nation of Israel. They're a bunch of nobodies. And yet, the focus that we look at this morning, as we come to this text in Exodus 3, it's not going to be on the person.

[7:13] We're not going to focus on Moses. And I pray that as we go through the rest of the book, that we won't focus on Moses. And not to say that we won't see aspects of Moses' life.

[7:26] I'm not saying that. But what we really want to see, and what Scripture really wants us to see, not Moses, but God, and all His greatness, and how this powerful, ferocious, holy, consuming, awesome God uses losers.

[7:57] Moses' problem with anger, impetuous, sinful people, humans.

[8:19] And He shows His glory. So the title, the personal, powerful God uses puny, powerless people.

[8:32] And again, you're going to see the focus is on God and what God's doing and what God's going to do. Hopefully you'll see that.

[8:44] And I, as best as I could, tried to pull away from the text in outline form, how to zero in and focus us on God and what He's doing.

[9:03] The personal, powerful God uses puny, powerless people. couple other things, ways to describe it. Because of who God is and His holiness and mercy, He uses imperfect, weak, nobodies to accomplish His perfect purposes.

[9:24] God uses people like us to accomplish His perfect purposes because of who He is.

[9:40] Or you could even say because of who He is in spite of how ridiculous we are, God still shows His glory.

[9:51] Another way to put it, because God is a personal, caring, faithful, merciful, powerful, consuming, holy, ferocious, sovereign God. He uses imperfect, weak, nobodies to fulfill His perfect, sovereign purposes.

[10:09] I also want you to see the two aspects of God that He's holy and you just can't walk into His presence.

[10:21] but then also the fact that He's personal, He's caring, He's like a father. You see both aspects. You can't go to one side or the other.

[10:34] If you go too far on this side and you lose sight of His fatherly, loving care for you, if you go too far on this side, you lose the fact that He's a holy, ferocious God who can consume you and just blinking His eye and you just fall into pieces into nothingness.

[10:57] So you see the fact God is personal and caring, faithful and yet holy, merciful and yet consuming, personal and yet ferocious and He uses weak nobodies.

[11:14] Another statement for you. Moses would be the vehicle through whom God would bring about the deliverance of His people. Here's where you come in. Here's where we come in. We as a local body of Christians are the vehicle through whom His purpose is in Cottonwood.

[11:33] Wake up, Cottonwood Bible Church. Are you listening to me? God is the vehicle. Excuse me. We are the vehicle God's gonna use through whom us He's gonna fulfill His purposes.

[11:47] He's gonna use us. We as a local body, we are the vehicle through whom God will fulfill His purposes. The focus is not on you. The focus is on God.

[11:58] But God's gonna use us. How? How? I don't know. But I do know that our response should be like Moses.

[12:10] Obedience, fear, humility, remembering God and trusting God. Or another way to put it, God calls us to obey, fear, be humble, remember Him, trust Him.

[12:25] He'll take care of the rest. God is a personal, caring, concerning, faithful and gracious God.

[12:39] But also powerful, awful, awful in the sense of not awful, ew, that's yuck, not that, awful in terms of full of awe, consuming holy otherness and no one like Him who rules over all, is above all and is in control of all.

[12:56] Yet, this same God is with us. This same God came down to us in Christ to deliver us and He's with us.

[13:15] God the Son, the second person of the Trinity has forever linked Himself to us as humans. How? By taking on humanity Himself, made like us in every way.

[13:32] So what we see here in Exodus 3, what you're gonna see is that this is a picture of what God would do in His Son to save His people.

[13:46] It pictures God coming down to us in Christ to save weak sinners and then He uses weak sinners. It's amazing how God does this.

[13:59] So you get no glory, it's God who does. He's the focus. So I got 16 points. Oh yeah!

[14:11] We're gonna go through all of them today. 16 points. And every single one of these starts with God. God is the one who's doing this. It's God, God, God, God, God, because He needs to be the focus.

[14:26] Because He is. He's the focus. So starting. And by the way too, sometimes the points correspond with the verses so that's kind of cool too.

[14:38] So, see, he got upset because of 16 points. I know, it's upsetting. He'll get over it, it's okay. Because I told him 10 and I, he was excited about the 10 and then now it's 16.

[14:50] Shauna, tell Jaden, I'm sorry. So, number one, God sets everything up in verse one. Moses, pasturing the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, led the flock to the backside of the wilderness, came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

[15:07] The scene was set. Moses, a shepherd, caring for the flock. And he just so happened, oh, just so happened to be near Mount Sinai. Where does that come up later in Exodus?

[15:20] I don't know. Maybe somewhere around chapter 20. Maybe. Is that where the Israelites end up? Maybe. Just so happens. God plans everything in his providence.

[15:34] You are exactly where God wants you to be. And if he wants you to move on, he'll move you on. You got that?

[15:46] You're exactly where God wants you. Exactly. This is where God wants you. And when he's gonna move you on, he's gonna move you on. God sets everything up.

[15:58] Number two. God gets our attention. The angel of Yahweh appeared to him in a blazing fire from the bush. Moses looked.

[16:10] It's burning with fire. It's not consumed. Some things that we bring up here. First, this is a theophany. Theophany, this bush blazing.

[16:22] A theophany is an appearance or manifestation of the invisible God. That's what a theophany is. Here you see it's the angel of Yahweh or Yahweh, which he's not necessarily an independent being, but yet he's subordinate to the maker of all, God.

[16:44] So, some, and I would probably agree when you see angel of Yahweh, they think it's the appearance of the pre-incarnate Jesus. Oh, and by the way, too, in your Bibles, English Bibles, if you see capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, that is referring to the name of God, Yahweh, or Yahweh.

[17:08] They just don't put that in there. They just put the capital letters L-O-R-D, by the way, just in case you're wondering. But when you see capital L-O-R-D in the Old Testament, that's probably the Hebrew word Adonai, which means Lord.

[17:22] But with all caps, it's the name of God, Yahweh. And I'll talk more about that later on, okay? But just an FYI. So here's something creepy, weird, natural.

[17:37] I mean, you see a bush burning. Okay, well that's something you kind of see in the wilderness, here and there, lightning storm, blah, blah, blah. But it's not being consumed. Well that's just kind of really bizarre. Why fire?

[17:52] It conveys the purity, fierceness, and otherness of God. In other words, he's saying, take me seriously. I'm holy.

[18:04] And the fact that it's not being consumed represented the never-ending power of God. So it signifies, fire signifies God's powerful, consuming, awful, preserving presence.

[18:20] Moses says in verse 3, I must turn aside and see this marvelous, creepy, weird, ridiculous sight. Why are the bushes not being burnt up? Why are the bushes not being burnt up? Well this is a symbol of God's presence.

[18:33] Interesting too, throughout Exodus, God's presence is symbolized by fire and smoke. You see that a lot in the book of Exodus. Look, Christian, God wants to get our attention and he does it by revealing himself from his perfect, inerrant, infallible, authoritative word.

[18:57] He's getting your attention right now. He's speaking. Are you listening or are you sleeping? Are you listening to God speaking to you?

[19:12] He speaks. He's trying to get your attention. Third and fourth, God calls us.

[19:26] Fourth, God wants us to answer. Verse 4, when the Lord, or Yahweh, saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses.

[19:42] He saw that he turned aside and Moses responded. Apparently, he even began to come near God and he said, here I am.

[19:57] This should be our response too. Here I am. Is this your response to God? Here I am. Obedience. Here I am. Use me. How do you want to use me?

[20:09] God has you right where he wants you. God has set everything up. Here's the plan. He has you exactly where he wants you.

[20:22] Okay, God, how are you going to use me? Here I am. Use me. Well, then this is what God's going to do. He wants us to answer. How are you going to do? Notice what he does next, number five.

[20:35] God evokes his holiness. I use this verb a lot, evokes, which means reminds us. That's what I mean by it. God evokes his holiness, verse five.

[20:46] Don't come near. Remove your sandals from your feet for the place in which you're standing is holy ground. Yahweh stopped him because God's very presence made the place holy.

[21:04] So you see this? You see the kind of contrast that's being shown. First, God's like this. He's calling you and yet he goes, wait, take me seriously.

[21:18] I'm holy. He evokes his holiness. One may not rashly intruding in God's presence. God is unlike us.

[21:29] He's not like us. He's both personal, caring, concerning, and yet he's powerful, awesome, consuming. So that's why when we come, we come with reverence, but then as we come, we can come in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ because God welcomes us in the Lord Jesus Christ.

[21:51] Number six, then God evokes his eminence. I'm far away from you, I'm otherness, but then I'm close. Verse six, he said also, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

[22:08] He identifies himself not as I'm the creator of heaven and earth, but as the God of the sons of Israel, of Moses.

[22:19] Father, interesting, singular, it doesn't say fathers, it says father. Then you know that's Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Their history, their ethnicity. Interesting, through your father, through the one, the many are blessed, right?

[22:40] Father, one, God comes, the blessing. Through the one man, the many will receive God's blessing.

[22:51] What? Hmm. Where does that come up later in the Bible? I don't know. Maybe somewhere in the New Testament with Jesus? Through the one man, Jesus, we're blessed.

[23:05] It's not by accident that Jesus, excuse me, that Yahweh says this to Moses. Jesus. So God evokes his holiness. Then he evokes his eminence. And then notice, God evokes our finiteness.

[23:20] Look at what Moses does, verse six. Moses hit his face for he was afraid to look at God. He didn't want to look at God's glory. A person does not just flippantly come into God's presence.

[23:35] Maybe Moses bowed down. God evokes in us our need to fear him. God wants to remind you he welcomes us in Christ.

[23:49] He says, come. And yet he says, reminds us, your need is to fear me. Your need is to fear who I am because I am God.

[24:01] I'm not like you. So he will evoke our finiteness and yet he will also evoke his love. It's like God's, and I don't mean this in a flippant, irreverent way.

[24:19] It's like he's schizophrenic. He goes back and forth, back and forth because he's trying to communicate something about himself. I'm personal, I'm holy yet personal. I'm caring and yet other.

[24:31] Don't just be flippant with me, but come to me, I love you. He's doing that. Notice verse seven. Yahweh, or the Lord said, I've, notice these verbs, I've seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt.

[24:47] I've given heed to their cry. I'm aware of their sufferings. Verse nine. Behold, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to me.

[24:59] I've seen the oppression. So God's, Yahweh's drawing Moses into his heavenly thoughts and feelings, if you were.

[25:15] As if, as if Moses is sitting beside God and he says, I'm gonna, I'm gonna share with you how I see my people suffering and how I love them.

[25:29] God had not abandoned his people. He has seen, he has listened. Their cry has come to him. God takes interest in his people.

[25:41] Christian, God takes interest in you and Christ. He evokes his love.

[25:52] He reminds us of his love for us. Notice in verse seven, towards the end, he says, I've given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters.

[26:05] You see that? The actual translation should be before their taskmasters. Well, why? Because the idea is the taskmasters heard their cries but they were unmoved by them.

[26:20] But not so with God. On the contrary, God was moved by their cry. He was aware of their suffering. God knows his people.

[26:34] God brought Moses next to him revealing how much he cared for his people, how he viewed the world and what was happening to his people and what he intended to do about it.

[26:45] We'll get to that in a second. Israel needed God to deliver them from slavery. Well, it's the same with us, right? I mean, this is why this is such a picture of the Christian life.

[26:57] We need God to deliver us from the slavery of sin. Notice how verse seven, verse nine, it begins and ends of God speaking to Moses with his concern for his people and their suffering.

[27:10] only in Christ does God love us. We're weak, yes, but God says, I love you in Christ. I love you in Jesus.

[27:22] You see his holiness, his ferociousness, the fire, and yet you also see the personal, loving, caring God who opens his arms to us in Christ.

[27:35] You see that? He evokes his love and then he also reveals his mercy. Verse eight, he says, verse eight, so I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians.

[27:53] I have come down to deliver them. Look at that personal aspect. So you see God and all his greatness and power, the fire, right?

[28:07] I have come down. He would bring them to a very special land, a place where they can enjoy life, not just survive. I mean, surviving was Egypt.

[28:22] A wonderful place, he calls it, a place flowing with milk and honey, high content of food, high content of sugar, an abundant production of food.

[28:34] It's like living in a place with filet mignon as big as you want and chocolate everywhere. And for Michael Matthews, sushi till his heart content.

[28:48] Oh, he just loved that sushi when we went there last week. Bless you, brother, bless you. Makes you want to cry. Three times the Lord mentions the land, the land, the land.

[29:04] So part of this promise is the land. And then he, the Lord, Yahweh mentions these different people groups within the land of Canaan known as Palestine, the Palestine land area today.

[29:18] All of these people were pagans doing detestable things to each other like they would sacrifice human babies to the God of Bolek.

[29:30] That's part of what they were doing. God reveals his mercy. God comes down in Christ to deliver us. God is involved in our lives.

[29:44] You see how this is a picture of the Christian life? How God comes down in Christ to save us? God comes down in Christ to deliver us? God wants to be involved.

[29:55] He loves us in Christ. Well, 10. So then God commissions us. So God saves us.

[30:06] He shows us his love, reveals his mercy, and then verse 10. Therefore, come now and I will send you to Pharaoh so you may bring my people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt. Now God, he's commissioning us.

[30:19] He treats Moses as a partner. Come now. God encouraged Moses to join him in the task of saving the sons of Israel. He invited Moses to participate in the work God would do.

[30:34] God does the same thing with us. The great God, the focus is on him. He calls us in the great commission. Therefore, as you go, make disciples of all nations.

[30:45] Come. Minister to each other. Serve one another in love. Come, God says. The focus is what God's doing in and through us. He commissions us too.

[30:57] So he's evoking his love, his mercy, he sets everything up. He commissions us. He's doing all this. Well, then God evokes our weakness.

[31:09] verse 11. 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.

[31:22] Moses felt inadequate in two ways. Standing before Pharaoh and leading the sons of Israel. He questioned God's invitation and rightly so.

[31:35] He was inadequate. I mean, wouldn't you feel inadequate? Moses was insufficient. But God is totally sufficient.

[31:49] Remember, the focus is not you. The focus is God. And you just say, God, here, I'm weak. I'm nothing.

[31:59] Moses figured it out. I mean, for him to go before Pharaoh would be like an auto mechanic at a small car shop from the backwoods of Alabama declaring war on China.

[32:14] Like, that's gonna happen. I'm gonna declare war on China. What's that? He was timid. He's unsure. He shrank back. Look, I was already rejected. I don't wanna do this.

[32:28] What does God do? God reminds us of our defects, weaknesses and all. And that's another response we should have. Be humble. Admit it.

[32:41] Obey, but be humble. God, I am weak. I need you. I can't do this. He breaks out how weak we are.

[32:54] But then notice how God responds. God promises his presence. Look at verse 12. And he said, Certainly, I will be with you. And this shall be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you.

[33:09] You've brought the people out of Egypt. You shall worship God at this mountain. God responded in the best way possible. I'll be with you. God will be there to do the heavy lifting as one writer put it.

[33:25] Isn't this good enough for Moses? Shouldn't it be good enough for Moses? Shouldn't it be good enough for you? And this promise continues.

[33:37] Matthew 28, 20. Remember, God commissions, Jesus commissions us as his people and then he says, And lo, I will be with you always, even to the end of the age.

[33:51] Jesus is always with us. We have his very presence with us. Notice, again, you see these two characters of God being displayed.

[34:04] His holy, ferocious, consuming, powerful character and yet his personal, caring, loving, and I'm gonna be with you type character. And then he says, the sign, when you come and worship, the sign is when Moses has brought the people out of Egypt, they're gonna worship God.

[34:22] Well, how is this a sign? How does this help? How is this a sign if it won't happen until after they come back to Sinai, accomplishing the mission?

[34:33] Because it's a call to trust. So in other words, he's saying, keep the goal of Israel gathering at Sinai to worship me as the proof that will sustain you as you embark on this land, hard, awe, awe-inspiring mission.

[34:53] Trust me. I'm with you, Moses. Okay, well, then notice what happens in verse 13, or point number 13.

[35:06] God's gonna remind us of our forgetfulness. Moses said to God, behold, I'm going to the sons of Israel and I say to them, the God of your father has sent me to you.

[35:18] Let me say to me, what's his name? What shall I say to them? What's he asking here? Moses is vigorously opposed, but with good reason.

[35:32] The people were living in a pagan society. Their father's a memory. So this question, what is his name, it suggests a pagan viewpoint.

[35:49] The gods of Egypt were so many so what makes you so different from them? And that's what they're gonna ask him because we are so prone to forget.

[36:02] We're so prone to forget God's greatness and awesomeness. I know maybe you don't have a problem with that, but other Christians do. We forget how awesome and great God is.

[36:17] And that's what he's saying. They've forgotten. And that's what God does. He wants to remind us that we are forgetful people, which is why what he does here in the next verse, he evokes his transcendence.

[36:33] He evokes he is awesome and he is great. He says, this is who I am. I am.

[36:44] And he said, thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, I am has sent me to you. Okay, so now we have to put the brakes on here. What does this mean?

[36:59] Etymology, as far as that is concerned, it's actually unknown how the verb and the actual name of God should be pronounced. So you hear the phrase Yahweh or Yahweh, V or W, whichever one's a consonant.

[37:17] That may be pronounced wrong because they never pronounced it. In Hebrew, it's just consonants and you had little dots.

[37:27] It's not periods that somebody kind of, or somebody sneezed and went, who got you? And it got dots all over the place. Oh man, my ink ran out of ink. Oh no, that's not what those are. The dots are vowel points.

[37:39] It's all oral. Even today's Hebrew, modern Hebrew, Yiddish, you look at the newspaper and it's just a bunch of vowels. There's no vowels, excuse me, it's just a bunch of consonants.

[37:50] There's no vowels. It's all oral. So they never would pronounce the name. So that's why they don't know how to actually pronounce it. But you had Yod, He, Vav, He, just the consonants.

[38:04] That's it. Okay, so what's the point? God is making a word play. He is the God who truly is.

[38:15] This comes from the verb which means to be. So God's saying, I just am. I'm eternal.

[38:27] There's no comparison to me. And this phrase should not be taken as like God being sarcastic. Well, I just am who I am. What's the matter with you?

[38:37] He's not being sarcastic like that. And He's not even shrugging His shoulders. Well, I don't know. It's just I am. It sounds like a good idea to me. Jesus, what do you think? That's not what's happening here.

[38:51] An actual better way to translate it, which is what I did for you, is like this. This is who I am. I am. He's unlike anything Israel had seen with Egypt's gods.

[39:05] There's no one like Him. He's unique. He's other. See, God's answer to Moses is significant.

[39:16] Very significant. He's not like the god Amun. He's not like the god Osiris. Those are two different Egyptian gods.

[39:29] He's not assigned a place, an identity, as one of the gods of the cosmos. No. In reality, He has no name.

[39:45] He simply is. I am. This distinguishes Him from others. Which is why when you come to the New Testament in John 8, verse 58, when Jesus says before Abraham was born, ego eimi, I am, the Jews are like, what in the, give me that rock, I'm going to chuck at that guy's head, because he's declaring himself, I just am.

[40:17] He's declaring himself to be God. And he was human. So, this name, I am, it means God is not contingent on anyone or anything.

[40:35] His identity is not tied to some shrine, cult, city. His powers are not limited. He is independent of all.

[40:50] Actually, all are contingent on Him. I am is the one eternal all powerful creator God. He just simply is. There's none like Him.

[41:07] So, therefore, Yahweh telling Moses that He is Yahweh, God, this is the biggest part of the whole thing. I am is sending you, fella.

[41:23] Get that through your head. His person, character, authority, power, reputation, awesomeness.

[41:37] And yet, it's this same God who calls us. We are the vehicle through whom He's going to use us in this city. Friend, Christian, even member of Cottonwood Bible Church, this is the same God.

[41:58] And then something happens here in verse 15 that's odd. And God furthermore said to Moses, thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, the Lord, or Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.

[42:19] This is my name forever, and this is my memorial name to all generations. What in the world is going on here? What is God trying to convey?

[42:33] In the ancient world, especially Egypt, the memory of a name was closely connected to the existence of the being who had that name.

[42:46] That's how one writer put it. So in other words, your identity and being bound to the memory of who you are was your name. So God has forever bound his being as well as his identity to this name, Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

[43:12] This is amazing. The great I am, the all powerful, identifies himself with no neighbors, with losers, with weak, puny Israel.

[43:34] Yeah. He forever identifies himself with the covenant, with the patriarchs, with Israel. The God of absolute existence, the one and only true, real God identifies himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

[43:57] God condescends to the human condition by identifying himself by the names of the patriarchs. Why in the world does he do this?

[44:14] I believe he does it for two reasons. First, God, by choosing the patriarchs, promised to restore humanity to its place of dwelling with their creator. Remember, the new humanity.

[44:27] But second, and even more so, God, as a picture here, is ultimately forever bound to humanity in Israel in the person of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

[44:40] This is the whole point. Israel is nobody. And that's us as humans. We're nobodies. What makes us so important?

[44:53] Nothing. But yet, God identified himself, willingly tied himself to humanity when he doesn't have to do this.

[45:05] The ultimate way he does this is in his eternal son. Get this. Jesus will forever be God human.

[45:17] There will never be a time where Jesus will stop being human. He will always, from now on, he will always be God man.

[45:32] There was a time where he was not that. There was a time where he was just the second person of the trinity. But when he took on flesh forever, for ten billion trillion years, we will still sing that he ransomed us and took on humanity.

[46:03] Doesn't that just dump found you? It's amazing that he would do that. It's unbelievable.

[46:18] The great I am identifies himself with me, with us. And you, we will forever, for eternity, sing about the slain lamb dying, rising, and having this glorified human body.

[46:50] And he would, why would you even waste your time with us? What an amazing truth. This is the beginning of the picture of what God's going to do in his son.

[47:15] This is the amazing part too, is that he says, I am the God, not I was. So this begs the fact that we have relationship with God in Jesus Christ.

[47:27] Now, now Abraham has relationship with God. God has relationship with Isaac, Isaac, Jacob with God.

[47:38] Now, the way God fully identifies himself with Israel is in Jesus Christ through whom Yahweh saves not only Hebrews, but the whole world.

[47:50] God has and since God has bound himself to humanity, the only hope of escaping fallen humanity is to be joined to God's chosen people.

[48:03] In particular, you must be joined to the God man. You must be joined to the Lord Jesus Christ. Are you here and need to repent and trust Christ?

[48:17] Do that today. Repent, turn away from your sin and run into the arms of the Savior who has forever bound himself to humanity and he wants to save you.

[48:31] He loves sinners. Well, last two points. Interesting, but he goes through all this with Moses and then verse 16 commands us to go.

[48:51] He says to Moses in verse 16, go and gather the elders of Israel. The Lord, the God of your fathers, you say this to them of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

[49:03] He appeared to me. I'm indeed concerned about you and what has been done to you in Egypt. So I said I'll bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanite, Hittite, Amorite, Perizzite, Hivite, and Jebusite.

[49:18] Moses is told to go. Go tell the people God's concern for them. He delivered them from Egypt. God commands us to go.

[49:30] Do what he's called us to do. Go. Once again, our response is to obey. Who needs to hear about this gospel truth from you today? Who can you minister to today?

[49:45] How can you serve them in love today? Interesting how God ends here too. Last point, verse 16, 18 through 22, God encourages us.

[49:59] He must say encourages us, yeah. Verse 18, they'll pay heed to what you say, they'll listen to you. With the elders, you go to the king of Egypt, say the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, met us, let us go, may sacrifice the Lord our God.

[50:19] I know he won't let you go unless he's forced to do so. That's what it means, which God would do. Notice he says, I'll stretch out my hand, I'll strike Egypt. He's going to perform all these miracles, and they'll grant this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians.

[50:37] It'll be that when you go, you'll not go empty handed. The woman will ask her neighbor for articles of silver and gold, clothing, they'll put them on, your sons and daughters, you're going to plunder the Egyptians. Not only will they release you, they're going to enrich you.

[50:52] So what is God doing here? God predicted to Moses everything he's going to do. God encouraged Moses by telling him exactly what he was going to do.

[51:05] Why? Because God planned the future. God would keep his promises to the patriarchs. Israel was as numerous as the stars. They'd be delivered.

[51:16] They'd come out in great possessions. They're going to inherit the land. Friends, God has planned the future. He has a plan. The future belongs to him. So the response is trust me.

[51:29] Trust me. That's how God encourages us. Trust me. This is what I've called you to do. Trust me. God is personal, caring, concerning, faithful, and gracious, but also powerful, awful, consuming, holy, otherness, and no one like him who rules over all, is above all, and is in control of all, and yet this same God is with us.

[52:01] This same God came down to us in Christ. And he calls us to trust him. Our response should be obedience, fear, humility, remembering him, trusting him.

[52:15] He calls us to obey, to fear him, to be humble, to remember and to trust. Moses was the vehicle. We as the church are the vehicle in Cottonwood.

[52:27] How's God going to use us? How's God going to build this church and use us as shining lights in this city? I'm waiting.

[52:39] I'm waiting for us to move, aren't you? Let's move. God's calling us. God's going to get to glory. God's the one who's going to pull all that heavy weight.

[52:51] It's him. He's calling us to go. God's God's God's God's God's God's God's God's God's holiness. God's mercy.

[53:02] He uses imperfect, puny, weak nobodies to accomplish his perfect purposes. What an amazing God. What an amazing God.

[53:17] Our Father, we come to you in prayer. Stunned over your love for us as sinners in Christ. Asking that our response will be this.

[53:38] Obedience, fear, humility. we remember that you're with us and we trust you.

[53:52] We are weak. We are forgetful. Remind us of your transcendence.

[54:08] How awesome and great you are. and remind us that you're with us. Your spirit resides inside of us. Jesus, you're with us.

[54:22] We are your body. Use us. Change us. Here I am.

[54:37] Send me. Let's say that together. Here I am. Here I am. Take a moment.

[54:49] Let's have some silence for you to ponder, to think what we looked at in God's word here in Exodus chapter 3. Just a few moments. Then we'll do our time of worshiping or giving.

[55:05] We'll sing our last two songs with our closing prayer. Ponder, think, and be encouraged from God's word here. Here I will see you. Here I will see you.

[55:17] Here I will see you. Here I will see you. Here I will see you. Here I here. Here I will see you. Here I will see you. Here I here. Here I will see you.

[55:28] Here I will see you. Here I here. Here I will see you.

[55:42] Here I will see you. Here I will see you. Here I leave you. Here I will see you. Here I will see you. Here I will. Here I will see you. Here I come.

[55:52] Kid? Oh my goodness.

[56:12] Thanks Aaron. Well, that's a lot of Kleenexes. Thank you.

[56:52] Thank you. Let's stand, let's sing, I Surrender All.

[57:11] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.