WEBVTT 00:00:02.080 --> 00:00:04.000 I'm so excited you're here. 00:00:04.160 --> 00:00:06.480 We've been going through this book of Exodus. 00:00:06.559 --> 00:00:08.400 It's a second book of the Bible. 00:00:08.880 --> 00:00:16.800 If you've been with us, you sort of you've maybe been in the past two sermons, but we're into Exodus 3, the end of 3, and into chapter 4. 00:00:16.960 --> 00:00:19.519 And Exodus is a story about liberation. 00:00:19.679 --> 00:00:22.239 It's a story about God's people being liberated. 00:00:22.399 --> 00:00:30.719 So God, He He came into humanity, began to speak to us, humans, humanity, in a tribal world. 00:00:30.960 --> 00:00:32.159 That's what was going on at the time. 00:00:32.240 --> 00:00:34.079 You always wonder, like, why through the people of Israel? 00:00:34.159 --> 00:00:34.960 Why not another people? 00:00:35.119 --> 00:00:36.719 Well, it was a tribal world. 00:00:36.799 --> 00:00:41.119 And he comes into the tribe of Israel and he says, Through this tribe, I'm going to speak to humanity. 00:00:41.200 --> 00:00:46.560 Through this tribe, I'm going to come actually in the person of Jesus centuries and centuries and centuries later. 00:00:46.719 --> 00:00:48.000 And this is what's going on. 00:00:48.079 --> 00:00:51.200 But in this story in Exodus, so Genesis builds us up to that. 00:00:51.280 --> 00:00:52.399 That's the first book of the Bible. 00:00:52.479 --> 00:00:58.640 And then in Exodus, what we find is this tribe and this family has ended up in a place they never intended. 00:00:58.880 --> 00:01:00.640 They've ended up in slavery. 00:01:00.719 --> 00:01:02.320 They've ended up in Egypt. 00:01:02.479 --> 00:01:07.760 And so what we've talked about the past two weeks, and I won't repreach the sermon, although I really want to, mind you. 00:01:08.239 --> 00:01:21.920 So Moses has been born, and he was a Hebrew, and he's supposed to be thrown in the Nile, and eventually he ends up through a nice, nice good plan by his mama, he ends up being raised in Pharaoh's house. 00:01:22.079 --> 00:01:23.120 And so he grows up. 00:01:23.280 --> 00:01:25.599 You remember the story perhaps we've been around church. 00:01:25.760 --> 00:01:28.000 He grows up, and one day he is out. 00:01:28.159 --> 00:01:31.760 He's out walking around and he sees an Egyptian beating a Hebrew. 00:01:31.920 --> 00:01:36.560 So he sees one of his people that he came from being beaten. 00:01:36.799 --> 00:01:43.120 And so he goes and he goes toward the Egyptian, he hits the Egyptian, he beats the Egyptian. 00:01:43.280 --> 00:01:44.959 Something snaps in him. 00:01:45.200 --> 00:01:46.560 He kills the guy. 00:01:46.719 --> 00:01:48.560 He buries the guy. 00:01:49.120 --> 00:01:52.319 And maybe he thought, okay, this isn't going to pass over, this is going to work out. 00:01:52.400 --> 00:01:52.879 I'm going to be okay. 00:01:52.959 --> 00:01:55.120 I'm going to be able to just kind of like keep surviving. 00:01:55.200 --> 00:01:58.319 And then he realizes the next day, and no, people sort of know about this. 00:01:58.400 --> 00:02:01.439 And he takes off into the desert towards Midian. 00:02:01.599 --> 00:02:03.680 He takes off east. 00:02:04.239 --> 00:02:06.000 So he's running out of shame. 00:02:06.159 --> 00:02:07.920 He's running out of failure. 00:02:08.159 --> 00:02:09.439 He's gone. 00:02:10.240 --> 00:02:14.000 And so we get this mystical, strange, bizarre. 00:02:14.159 --> 00:02:18.960 I don't know if you've ever went to VBS, Vacation Bible School, and we act like it's all normal. 00:02:19.199 --> 00:02:20.639 No, this is crazy. 00:02:20.719 --> 00:02:22.719 It was a burning bush, right? 00:02:22.800 --> 00:02:26.400 Like we just put it up on the flannel graph, and it's like, yeah, bush was burning. 00:02:27.120 --> 00:02:28.800 No, like this is crazy. 00:02:28.960 --> 00:02:37.439 This is mystical, crazy God intervening into this world and into this guy's life, and he is broken and he's lowly. 00:02:37.599 --> 00:02:41.439 He has been a shepherd, and he is, he is out there out of shame. 00:02:41.599 --> 00:02:43.919 He's out there out of failure. 00:02:44.319 --> 00:02:47.919 And so he's in front of this burning bush, and then this voice comes. 00:02:48.000 --> 00:03:00.319 And if you remember where we left off last week, he has his shoes off because the bush has said, God through the bush has said, you know, this is holy ground, and God's revealing himself to be fiercely holy and sweetly gracious. 00:03:00.560 --> 00:03:06.639 And so barefoot Moses is in front of this bush, and this conversation continues. 00:03:07.360 --> 00:03:10.800 And that's what we're going to look at this morning is this conversation. 00:03:11.840 --> 00:03:15.199 Because what God says to him is he says, I want you to go back. 00:03:16.400 --> 00:03:18.000 I want you to go back. 00:03:20.159 --> 00:03:25.120 And Moses' got to be thinking, oh, like, like I killed a guy. 00:03:25.520 --> 00:03:29.520 Like back there, like that's that like that's my shame. 00:03:29.680 --> 00:03:31.199 That's my failure. 00:03:32.479 --> 00:03:34.960 God's going, oh, I want you to go back. 00:03:35.199 --> 00:03:38.240 Like, I want you to go back to that place you made that mistake. 00:03:38.319 --> 00:03:52.080 And God calls Moses to go back there, to go to the people of Israel, and to say, hey, hey guys, um, I'm here to, yeah, I, the guy who um murdered the guy and ran off, and I've been living in shame in the desert, yeah, me, you know, strong me. 00:03:52.159 --> 00:03:55.840 Um I'm here to lead you out of this situation. 00:03:56.080 --> 00:04:00.159 I'm also gonna go to Pharaoh and I'm gonna tell him to let all of you go. 00:04:01.759 --> 00:04:08.159 And what we don't get is we don't get a bold, courageous hero. 00:04:09.280 --> 00:04:12.960 What we get is we get a whole bunch of insecurity. 00:04:14.639 --> 00:04:17.839 And he and you've got to think, he's in front of this incredible sight. 00:04:18.079 --> 00:04:20.959 He's in front of this bush that's not disappearing. 00:04:21.199 --> 00:04:24.160 It is burning, and yet it's not going anywhere. 00:04:24.240 --> 00:04:30.079 And he's hearing an audible voice of God from a bush that is burning. 00:04:30.319 --> 00:04:31.680 This is bizarre. 00:04:31.920 --> 00:04:35.199 Perhaps this would be enough to go do something. 00:04:36.639 --> 00:04:38.879 And he's going, Oh, I I hear I hear you. 00:04:39.199 --> 00:04:42.800 God, I hear you, but I I don't have what it takes. 00:04:43.920 --> 00:04:45.759 I'm not the person you think I am. 00:04:47.759 --> 00:04:49.839 Just find someone else. 00:04:50.560 --> 00:04:57.360 And now this calling is certainly a foreshadowing for for I think all Christians of like love thy neighbor. 00:04:58.000 --> 00:05:10.959 Go into the world and love your neighbor, go into their mess and speak truth to them, tell them about the rescue of Jesus for the righteousness so that they don't have to work for their own righteousness, like free them from that bondage. 00:05:11.199 --> 00:05:16.240 Like, this is definitely a foreshadowing of that call for us. 00:05:17.759 --> 00:05:30.480 And often we're we're like that call to like love that person or that child or that parent or that co-worker, we respond the same way, like, uh I think you got the wrong guy. 00:05:30.639 --> 00:05:33.920 Like, I'm the guy who like committed murder and I'm on the run. 00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:37.040 Like that, I'm the shameful guy, I'm the insecure guy. 00:05:37.120 --> 00:05:39.040 That's the guy who I am. 00:05:39.519 --> 00:05:41.199 Maybe this is a new story to you. 00:05:41.439 --> 00:05:42.160 Fantastic. 00:05:42.319 --> 00:05:45.040 Like, maybe you're the best person in the room. 00:05:45.120 --> 00:05:47.199 Like, like we envy your position. 00:05:47.439 --> 00:05:54.560 Because so many of us come into this story, we've heard this dialogue so many times, we can just sort of be numb to it. 00:05:55.519 --> 00:06:04.160 But either way, I think it's so easy to react to this when we get into this conversation and just feel like Moses is just such a baby. 00:06:04.319 --> 00:06:07.680 I mean, you just would be like, quit acting like a child. 00:06:09.040 --> 00:06:11.199 Like get your act together. 00:06:13.600 --> 00:06:22.879 That's not what we're going to hear this morning because when I read the text this week and I kind of at times I was feeling that way, but at other times I'm going, man, a lot of times I feel like Moses. 00:06:25.279 --> 00:06:30.959 And maybe your insecurity doesn't show up on this level of sort of like self-defeatism and pity. 00:06:31.040 --> 00:06:35.920 Uh maybe it it's just maybe it isn't your urge to pull up your own boots. 00:06:38.319 --> 00:06:39.360 Still Moses. 00:06:40.000 --> 00:06:41.279 Still insecurity. 00:06:41.519 --> 00:06:42.720 Maybe you feel it. 00:06:42.879 --> 00:06:57.600 Maybe you feel insecurity within yourself, like when it gnaws inside of you over that thing you addictively want so badly, and you can't figure out why I would want that and think I need it that badly. 00:06:59.839 --> 00:07:08.959 Or when you post that Instagram picture, and you would have thought that would have gotten 54 likes and it got 14. 00:07:09.680 --> 00:07:13.519 And you're like, what was wrong with that picture? 00:07:13.839 --> 00:07:18.160 And then underneath that, you're thinking, like, what's wrong with me? 00:07:19.680 --> 00:07:30.000 Or you replay the conversation you had at work because it was one of the conversations you really needed to have and you needed to nail it, and you went into it prepared, and you come out of it, and you just didn't do well. 00:07:30.879 --> 00:07:35.759 And you just replay that thing over and over and over again. 00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:45.839 And it's the broken humanity, it's the fragile self, it's what the Bible calls sin inside of us, it's all this insecurity. 00:07:46.480 --> 00:07:48.000 So let's look at this conversation. 00:07:48.160 --> 00:07:49.120 The conversation picks up. 00:07:49.279 --> 00:07:53.519 God's called Moses to go back, and then he responds in Exodus 3, verse 11. 00:07:53.759 --> 00:07:57.360 Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children out of Egypt? 00:07:57.519 --> 00:07:58.399 Now, here's what's great. 00:07:58.480 --> 00:07:59.600 That's what Moses has said. 00:07:59.759 --> 00:08:00.480 Here's what's great. 00:08:00.639 --> 00:08:02.240 God doesn't argue with them. 00:08:05.680 --> 00:08:08.079 He just says in verse 12, I'll be with you. 00:08:09.680 --> 00:08:11.279 Moses, who am I? 00:08:11.439 --> 00:08:12.480 Like, I'm so insecure. 00:08:12.560 --> 00:08:13.439 I've been who am I? 00:08:13.519 --> 00:08:15.360 Who can I ever be to do something like that? 00:08:15.519 --> 00:08:19.279 And it's kind of like God goes, Well, I'll be with you. 00:08:20.879 --> 00:08:28.399 So the remedy for Moses' insecurity is not to flood him with bold courage at like moment one in the confession. 00:08:28.560 --> 00:08:32.000 It's actually to promise to be with him. 00:08:34.480 --> 00:08:35.840 I'll be with you. 00:08:36.960 --> 00:08:39.360 So Moses is thinking this through. 00:08:39.600 --> 00:08:43.360 And then he says, this is my paraphrase, he says, okay, so you'll be with me. 00:08:43.519 --> 00:08:51.279 Well, when I get there, the people are going to ask this God that you're talking about, what's like what's his name? 00:08:52.320 --> 00:08:54.559 That's what people would ask in that time. 00:08:54.960 --> 00:08:56.080 They would say, like, what's his name? 00:08:56.159 --> 00:08:57.120 Like, what's his story? 00:08:57.360 --> 00:09:03.519 This God you're talking about, like we talk about a God, but this God you're talking about, what's his story? 00:09:04.639 --> 00:09:08.399 And God says, Well, you tell them I am who I am. 00:09:09.200 --> 00:09:15.519 And then God goes on and he says, like, you tell them that the God of your fathers and their fathers has sent you. 00:09:15.679 --> 00:09:17.919 Tell them I am who I am. 00:09:18.080 --> 00:09:28.559 And God is saying, I am the ever-present, ever active interventionist for good and redemption in the world. 00:09:28.720 --> 00:09:33.360 I am at every point of time and space. 00:09:34.240 --> 00:09:35.600 That's who I am. 00:09:38.559 --> 00:09:38.879 Okay? 00:09:41.039 --> 00:09:45.840 And then God says to Moses in verse 18 of chapter 3, and they'll listen to you. 00:09:46.960 --> 00:09:47.519 They'll listen. 00:09:47.679 --> 00:09:48.240 I'm with you. 00:09:48.399 --> 00:09:49.679 You tell them I am who I am. 00:09:49.759 --> 00:09:50.799 They'll listen to your voice. 00:09:50.879 --> 00:09:56.799 I'm telling you, out of a burning bush that's not disappearing, I'm telling you, they'll listen to you. 00:09:57.039 --> 00:10:03.120 And it's almost as if I'm thinking, perhaps, there's like this pause in the conversation. 00:10:03.840 --> 00:10:08.399 Like this silence in the air where Moses is sort of considering all of this. 00:10:10.000 --> 00:10:11.679 Like, I want you to go back. 00:10:12.879 --> 00:10:14.720 That's a big call. 00:10:15.039 --> 00:10:16.559 I want you to do this big thing. 00:10:16.720 --> 00:10:17.519 I'll be with you. 00:10:17.679 --> 00:10:18.559 I am who I am. 00:10:18.720 --> 00:10:21.039 And then Moses is considering all of it. 00:10:21.120 --> 00:10:24.639 And then Moses speaks again in Exodus 4, 1. 00:10:25.840 --> 00:10:28.080 But behold, they will not believe me. 00:10:28.320 --> 00:10:29.279 They're not going to believe me. 00:10:29.360 --> 00:10:33.440 They're not going to listen to my voice, for they will say the Lord did not appear to you. 00:10:33.600 --> 00:10:35.759 And it's almost comical at this point. 00:10:35.840 --> 00:10:37.120 It's getting there. 00:10:37.519 --> 00:10:42.879 This amount of refusal, this insecurity, this uncertainty, this doubt. 00:10:44.639 --> 00:10:46.240 And Moses is just going, you know what? 00:10:46.320 --> 00:10:48.240 I hear all of it, God. 00:10:48.639 --> 00:10:49.679 I hear all of that. 00:10:49.840 --> 00:10:51.440 I just don't buy it. 00:10:53.519 --> 00:10:54.399 I hear it. 00:10:54.639 --> 00:10:56.639 I'm just not going to rest in it. 00:10:57.600 --> 00:11:00.000 I'm just not going to go forth in it. 00:11:01.759 --> 00:11:12.320 Like, I'm not going to let that good word of truth that you're speaking to me into the core of my being for me to go forward. 00:11:14.480 --> 00:11:16.639 See, the battle here is in this conversation. 00:11:16.799 --> 00:11:18.480 We just see this battle going on. 00:11:18.720 --> 00:11:21.600 Do we trust God for what he speaks to us? 00:11:21.919 --> 00:11:22.960 Do we rest in it? 00:11:23.279 --> 00:11:25.600 Like when he says he's really with us. 00:11:26.480 --> 00:11:41.840 Like even when we feel like he's not in our mess or our unworthy, hurting selves, when he says he's with us in that, do we really trust him enough to go into and through all of that hurt, all of that mess in a measure of peace? 00:11:43.919 --> 00:11:51.600 When he says that the atoning sacrifice of his son, Jesus on the cross, when he says that really is enough for all of your sin? 00:11:52.320 --> 00:11:57.519 Like, and you don't have to pay me more and more and more and more like with your good deeds? 00:11:58.879 --> 00:12:07.120 Do we really trust that enough not to wake up tomorrow and think that we have to secure our own position with God by our own work? 00:12:08.559 --> 00:12:17.039 When he says he loves us, like before we're perfect, before we get a little better, do we really trust that word? 00:12:18.799 --> 00:12:20.960 See, Moses has two gods. 00:12:21.519 --> 00:12:23.600 He has this God that's speaking to him. 00:12:24.240 --> 00:12:28.399 Speaking to him and promising great things, and then he has his pity. 00:12:29.519 --> 00:12:35.039 And his pity is his pride that's been hurt and it's revealing itself as insecurity. 00:12:37.600 --> 00:12:40.000 And yet all week I've just loved this conversation. 00:12:40.320 --> 00:12:48.480 For some reason, it's like I don't know if you should love what Moses is saying because he's sort of complaining and that's a sin, and he's doubting, and that's a sin. 00:12:48.639 --> 00:12:50.399 And yet I'm loving this conversation. 00:12:50.480 --> 00:12:52.879 I think I'm, and I was like, why do I love this so much? 00:12:52.960 --> 00:12:57.039 And I think I love it just because he's just so honest. 00:12:57.919 --> 00:13:01.039 It's just like, here I am, like, this is it. 00:13:01.200 --> 00:13:06.320 Like, I am a broken shepherd out in the middle of nowhere. 00:13:10.799 --> 00:13:14.080 And that honesty in some ways just so refreshing. 00:13:15.360 --> 00:13:22.720 Probably because a lot of times, I don't know if you're like me, you try to always let yourself on to be just a little bit better than you are. 00:13:23.039 --> 00:13:27.679 So just a little bit more put together than you really are. 00:13:30.240 --> 00:13:35.600 Alright, so the conversation continues in chapter four, and God's going, okay, how am I gonna work with this guy? 00:13:35.759 --> 00:13:36.799 And he says, What do you have? 00:13:37.200 --> 00:13:38.000 What do you have? 00:13:38.320 --> 00:13:40.240 Moses says, Well, I have a staff. 00:13:41.039 --> 00:13:42.720 God says, Great. 00:13:42.960 --> 00:13:44.000 I can work with that. 00:13:44.080 --> 00:13:46.080 I'll work with whatever you got, I'm gonna work with. 00:13:46.159 --> 00:13:47.840 And he says, Here's the deal, throw it on the ground. 00:13:48.000 --> 00:13:49.759 He throws it on the ground, it turns into a serpent. 00:13:49.919 --> 00:13:56.399 He says, if you grab it by the tail, um, grab it by the tail, and Moses reaches down, grabs by the tail, it turns back into a staff. 00:13:56.559 --> 00:13:57.600 Pretty good little trick. 00:13:57.840 --> 00:14:02.159 Pretty impressive sign to flash that one out in front of some people. 00:14:02.399 --> 00:14:04.480 But for Moses, imagine this. 00:14:04.639 --> 00:14:10.639 I mean, this is actually a pretty brave thing to do because you're exposing yourself to be bit by this serpent. 00:14:10.720 --> 00:14:16.320 So it's not just like a cool sign, like it's a it's a sign that Moses is trusting him. 00:14:17.039 --> 00:14:19.279 So we're gonna have snake handling in the lobby. 00:14:19.360 --> 00:14:21.840 It's gonna be snake handling 101. 00:14:22.720 --> 00:14:24.879 Brad's gonna lead it, he's been practicing. 00:14:27.759 --> 00:14:30.480 Second trick, he said, if that don't work, here's the second trick. 00:14:30.559 --> 00:14:31.840 Put your hand in your cloak, okay? 00:14:32.000 --> 00:14:34.000 Put it in to your cloak and pull it out. 00:14:34.159 --> 00:14:37.360 When he pulls it out, it's all covered with leprosy and it's nasty. 00:14:37.759 --> 00:14:41.279 Put it back in, he puts it back in, he pulls it back out, it's all healed, it's back to normal. 00:14:41.519 --> 00:14:42.639 Pretty cool little second trick. 00:14:42.720 --> 00:14:45.679 He said, if that doesn't work when you get there, go to the Nile. 00:14:45.759 --> 00:14:48.320 And now the Nile is the source for Egypt. 00:14:48.399 --> 00:14:50.799 It is the source of their vitality in their life. 00:14:50.879 --> 00:14:53.679 Like this is this is their God, this is how they live. 00:14:54.080 --> 00:15:06.960 He says, You go to the Nile, you get some water, and you come, you pour it on dry ground, it will turn to blood in front of them, and it will scare them to death that your God could have control over their source of life. 00:15:08.720 --> 00:15:10.000 Okay, that should be it. 00:15:10.159 --> 00:15:14.320 You got some cool signs, you got a voice out of a burning bush. 00:15:14.559 --> 00:15:19.039 I mean, you may be insecure, but still, this should sort of be it at this point. 00:15:20.480 --> 00:15:32.000 And then Moses says in chapter 4, verse 10 and 11, he says to the Lord, Oh my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant. 00:15:32.080 --> 00:15:35.519 He says, Okay, so you hadn't even fixed all my problems right away. 00:15:36.799 --> 00:15:39.200 I'm slow of speech and of tongue. 00:15:39.440 --> 00:15:40.879 And Moses is just done. 00:15:41.120 --> 00:15:42.080 I think he's overwhelmed. 00:15:42.159 --> 00:15:43.200 I think he's just overwhelmed. 00:15:43.279 --> 00:15:46.559 He's frustrated, he just doesn't believe that this could be for him. 00:15:46.720 --> 00:15:53.919 It's just easier to stay in the fear, it's easier to stay in the insecurity, it's easier to stay where he's at. 00:15:54.559 --> 00:15:59.200 And then the Lord replies back to him and says in verse 11, who has made man's mouth? 00:15:59.919 --> 00:16:02.639 Who makes him mute or deaf or seeing or blind? 00:16:02.799 --> 00:16:04.480 Is it not I, the Lord? 00:16:04.639 --> 00:16:08.159 Like God's just trying to get him to see like the bigger picture. 00:16:08.320 --> 00:16:13.759 And Moses is just so self-oriented, like so inward. 00:16:14.320 --> 00:16:15.600 Like, is there any possibility? 00:16:15.759 --> 00:16:17.679 God's just went, hey, do you understand? 00:16:17.759 --> 00:16:20.320 Like, I am the source of life. 00:16:21.679 --> 00:16:26.559 Like there's more power and more strength in this world than just what you generate. 00:16:28.960 --> 00:16:30.960 At this point, I start to get tired of Moses. 00:16:31.200 --> 00:16:34.159 This is the point in the story where I was really starting to get tired of Moses. 00:16:34.399 --> 00:16:35.360 I mean, just tired. 00:16:35.440 --> 00:16:38.320 I want just like, God, God, do something here. 00:16:38.559 --> 00:16:41.840 But fear and insecurity are just this strange thing, right? 00:16:42.000 --> 00:16:43.440 We know this, how it works. 00:16:43.600 --> 00:16:51.360 It pops itself up in one area, and then we think we have a handle on it, and it goes away, and then it goes and it pops itself up somewhere else. 00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:01.200 God continues. 00:17:01.679 --> 00:17:04.000 His persistent grace, he continues. 00:17:04.240 --> 00:17:06.480 Verse 12, I will help you speak. 00:17:06.720 --> 00:17:08.240 I'll help you teach. 00:17:08.559 --> 00:17:10.000 I'll help you teach what to say. 00:17:10.720 --> 00:17:11.519 I'm with you. 00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:13.920 He just keeps giving. 00:17:14.160 --> 00:17:16.640 And so finally we get verse 13. 00:17:16.799 --> 00:17:21.440 And Moses just says, please send someone else. 00:17:21.680 --> 00:17:23.599 Like, I'm out. 00:17:24.400 --> 00:17:26.319 Just send someone else. 00:17:26.400 --> 00:17:32.720 And then we finally see from God this other side of God, this fierce holiness. 00:17:33.119 --> 00:17:36.319 And it sort of just peeks out from the bush. 00:17:37.759 --> 00:17:43.920 Because in verse 14, it says that the anger of the Lord kindled against Moses. 00:17:45.200 --> 00:17:47.599 And this is the holiness of God. 00:17:48.079 --> 00:17:53.440 That he is perfect and he is holy, and he is coming up against all this doubt and all this self. 00:17:53.599 --> 00:17:56.799 And see, Moses is self-deifying himself. 00:17:57.440 --> 00:17:59.039 He's dependent upon his own strength. 00:17:59.200 --> 00:18:02.880 He's trying to rescue himself, and it may be in the version of pity, but that's what's going on. 00:18:03.039 --> 00:18:09.599 And God finally just has persistent grace, persistent grace, persistent grace, and then this fierce holiness sort of sneaks out. 00:18:09.680 --> 00:18:13.519 We just get a little glimpse of it there in verse 14. 00:18:14.480 --> 00:18:16.640 But fortunately, this isn't human anger. 00:18:16.799 --> 00:18:20.559 But it's like in human anger, when I'm angry at you, there's a division. 00:18:20.880 --> 00:18:22.880 And it stops the graciousness. 00:18:23.039 --> 00:18:25.839 The graciousness stops because I'm angry. 00:18:26.160 --> 00:18:31.200 And these two things that can't, the coexistence of these two things within a human, very, very difficult. 00:18:32.720 --> 00:18:46.000 But in God, who is a perfect being and perfectly just and perfectly holy and perfectly loving, he has this anger, and yet it doesn't create a division between holiness and grace toward Moses. 00:18:47.759 --> 00:18:53.200 And God, once again, in persistent grace, he goes, Aaron will go with you. 00:18:54.160 --> 00:18:56.079 I'll send somebody to go with you. 00:18:56.960 --> 00:18:59.039 Tell him what to say, and he'll talk for you. 00:18:59.920 --> 00:19:02.720 It's just over and over and over again. 00:19:03.039 --> 00:19:05.839 God keeps with him. 00:19:08.079 --> 00:19:21.680 Just the more I read this this week and sort of lived in it and contemplated, the more I kept thinking at times I found myself in my ambitious, self-sufficient self, American self. 00:19:23.359 --> 00:19:25.519 Just like Moses, come on, man. 00:19:25.680 --> 00:19:29.599 Like, maybe like one or two comments about this complaining, but this was ridiculous. 00:19:29.680 --> 00:19:31.759 This was a ridiculous conversation. 00:19:33.440 --> 00:19:36.400 Like, quit acting like a child. 00:19:38.720 --> 00:19:42.640 I mean, and we kept waiting in this story, in this conversation, at least I did. 00:19:42.799 --> 00:19:45.279 Like, you keep waiting for God to be done with Moses. 00:19:45.599 --> 00:19:47.680 Like, I'm just gonna get someone else. 00:19:47.920 --> 00:19:49.759 I'll send Aaron by himself. 00:19:49.920 --> 00:19:51.279 I'm done with you. 00:19:53.039 --> 00:19:57.920 But he keeps talking, he keeps listening, he keeps helping, and he keeps giving. 00:19:59.039 --> 00:20:00.240 Here's my one point. 00:20:00.319 --> 00:20:01.440 I had one point. 00:20:02.559 --> 00:20:05.039 If you're taking notes, nobody takes notes here, I'll be honest. 00:20:05.119 --> 00:20:05.839 I watch you. 00:20:06.480 --> 00:20:12.160 But if you were to take notes, if we were a note-taking congregation, this is the one you would write down. 00:20:13.359 --> 00:20:18.240 What if all of Moses' insufficiency? 00:20:18.640 --> 00:20:27.680 Like all of his acting like a child, what if that's the very thing that moves him forward in his transformation and calling? 00:20:29.759 --> 00:20:36.160 Meaning this, what if his weakness is actually the thing that moves him forward? 00:20:37.039 --> 00:20:42.720 See, we always think that it's gonna be our our strength that moves us forward. 00:20:42.960 --> 00:20:48.960 But we're here we have Moses being honest about his situation. 00:20:49.279 --> 00:20:52.240 Yeah, he's complaining about it, and that's not good, right? 00:20:52.400 --> 00:20:55.200 But he's honest before the Lord about it. 00:20:56.960 --> 00:21:00.400 And in God's grace, God keeps dealing with him. 00:21:00.559 --> 00:21:03.039 Like the conversation doesn't end. 00:21:03.759 --> 00:21:08.880 The honesty actually allows the conversation to begin and to continue. 00:21:11.440 --> 00:21:31.599 And here's what, looking at the story, here's what I learned this week is that when you embrace your sinfulness and the fullness of the sufficiency of God for you, when you embrace that, when you rest there, it experientially doesn't always make you stronger day one, experientially. 00:21:31.839 --> 00:21:36.960 A lot of times, experientially, it will make you feel seemingly weaker. 00:21:37.680 --> 00:21:44.319 And I say seemingly because um you you are weak the whole time. 00:21:45.039 --> 00:21:53.759 It's just finally when we have Jesus for us, we can finally uh become open to the weakness that's in us. 00:21:53.839 --> 00:21:59.200 We can finally become open to our sinfulness before God. 00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:04.000 And the security of God's work for us. 00:22:05.200 --> 00:22:12.079 And Moses is weak and he's complaining, and all of this is not healthy. 00:22:13.359 --> 00:22:15.680 Like this is not the route to go. 00:22:15.839 --> 00:22:18.799 The best route to go is you go, God, you call me, I'm going. 00:22:18.960 --> 00:22:20.400 That's the route to go. 00:22:20.640 --> 00:22:21.839 That's what we should do. 00:22:22.079 --> 00:22:23.359 Moses doesn't do that. 00:22:23.519 --> 00:22:27.680 But in his weakness, he confesses all this through this conversation. 00:22:27.920 --> 00:22:28.960 Like, who am I? 00:22:29.119 --> 00:22:31.039 He's wrestling out, but he's not going anywhere. 00:22:31.119 --> 00:22:32.559 He doesn't walk away. 00:22:33.279 --> 00:22:37.119 And God persistently keeps after him. 00:22:40.079 --> 00:22:41.599 And he did it here with Moses. 00:22:42.000 --> 00:22:47.440 Centuries later, we see it ultimately in the person of Jesus, that God did this once and for all. 00:22:47.759 --> 00:22:53.279 Coming after people who are sinners, taking it on the cross. 00:22:53.440 --> 00:23:02.160 All this complaining, all this doubt, all this disobedience that we see in the person of Moses here, that is in us, all of this is taken on the cross. 00:23:05.680 --> 00:23:10.799 He takes our sin upon himself that we might have his righteousness. 00:23:10.960 --> 00:23:12.720 And then there's this call, right? 00:23:12.960 --> 00:23:13.920 Like there's this call. 00:23:14.000 --> 00:23:26.880 And then it goes back to the fact that this is a foreshadowing of our call to love thy neighbor, to go, and to help free people, and to spread the gospel, the call of what it means to be a Christian. 00:23:27.200 --> 00:23:45.200 We have this call, but it's what it looks like to me is that God works out the call by calling us and by persistently being gracious to us to change us so that we will go forward, not just in actions, but actually in heart and actions. 00:23:47.519 --> 00:23:53.279 We're not hopelessly dependent upon ourselves just to muster up our own strength. 00:23:54.000 --> 00:24:02.000 We have to become dependent upon what the Lord has for us, his word for us, his strength for us, his work for us. 00:24:02.240 --> 00:24:13.680 So in every moment, every day, and every emotion and condition, and every insecurity and fear we have, we are secure in what Jesus did for us. 00:24:14.000 --> 00:24:22.640 This is the thing that will motivate us and empower us to go back, to go forward in the call. 00:24:24.079 --> 00:24:29.359 We're more like Moses than we care to admit, but in Jesus we're more loved by God than we could ever dare to dream. 00:24:29.440 --> 00:24:38.880 And our God is fiercely holy, and yet we see in this story and we know in our lives he is unbelievably and sweetly gracious to us. 00:24:39.200 --> 00:24:47.119 And he keeps listening and he will keep giving because Jesus absorbed all of our failure, all of our sin. 00:24:47.759 --> 00:24:49.759 He will never give up on you. 00:24:50.640 --> 00:24:51.599 Let's pray together. 00:24:51.759 --> 00:24:59.440 God, we come before you and we so often hear calls that we should be obedient in the very next moment. 00:25:01.279 --> 00:25:08.000 And so often we're resistant, and we are so grateful that you don't walk away. 00:25:08.640 --> 00:25:13.200 We're so grateful that you don't just take us down in that very moment. 00:25:15.680 --> 00:25:21.920 But that you are persistently gracious to us, that you might change us from the inside out. 00:25:26.000 --> 00:25:29.839 God forgive us for trying to pretend to be stronger than we are. 00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:37.359 Help us have the courage to confess our weakness before you, that we might find strength in you and not in ourselves. 00:25:38.720 --> 00:25:53.759 Give us the courage to become more honest before you about who we are, that we might go forward with the call to love our neighbor, love our family and love our friends. 00:25:56.880 --> 00:26:06.160 God, we are thankful and dependent, and we rest, and your word spoken to us through the sacrifice of your son, Jesus. 00:26:06.480 --> 00:26:07.119 Amen.