WEBVTT 00:00:00.560 --> 00:00:09.759 So we are working our way through the book of Exodus, the Exodus story, which is a story about the rescue of God's people, which have ended up in Egypt. 00:00:09.919 --> 00:00:11.919 Exodus is the second book of the Bible. 00:00:12.240 --> 00:00:18.000 But even more so, it's the by the biblical story in one book. 00:00:18.559 --> 00:00:21.760 Genesis gives us this background that works us into Exodus. 00:00:21.839 --> 00:00:28.239 And Exodus is this great story about God's people being in slavery and God rescuing them. 00:00:28.640 --> 00:00:33.039 And it treats in one book the whole Bible, we can see it. 00:00:33.119 --> 00:00:43.520 And so it's constantly filled with picture after picture after picture of what God is doing throughout the scriptures and what he is going to do in the person of Jesus. 00:00:43.759 --> 00:00:51.840 So what we have in this story is we have uh we talked about the Hebrews, we have God's people in Egypt, and last week we talked about how they are making bricks. 00:00:51.920 --> 00:01:02.000 They are slaves, they have quotas, they're being beaten if they don't live up to the quota, and they are living and making brick after brick after brick. 00:01:02.159 --> 00:01:08.079 But if you remember, just to review a little bit, they're also making baby after baby after baby. 00:01:08.159 --> 00:01:24.079 I guess just really healthy marriages going on, and so they are multiplying, they are growing, and this slowly it just becomes more and more of a fear within Pharaoh because he's just thinking more and more and more, all right, we have them, we have them enslaved, but man, they could turn against us and they keep growing. 00:01:24.159 --> 00:01:25.599 And so finally he says, you know what? 00:01:26.159 --> 00:01:27.760 Let's just figure out a way for to stop this. 00:01:27.920 --> 00:01:33.519 He's okay, let's just throw all the baby boys when they're born, throw them into the river. 00:01:33.760 --> 00:01:35.040 Kill the baby boys, right? 00:01:35.120 --> 00:01:37.599 Like just like just start to stop the population. 00:01:37.840 --> 00:02:09.199 Well, there's this one little boy that's born, and this one mama who's not going to do that, and she decides she's not gonna do that, and so she nurses her baby and she hides her baby, but eventually the baby's just getting to the point where she knows she can't continue to hide the baby, and so she puts that baby boy in the reeds by the river, little basket, wraps him up, and the sister of the baby boy hides out, like nearby, and then Pharaoh's daughter comes down, so the king of the land, his daughter comes down to bathe. 00:02:09.360 --> 00:02:14.879 She finds the baby boy, she has sympathy for the baby boy, and she says, Oh my gosh, I gotta do something about this. 00:02:14.960 --> 00:02:16.719 And then here comes sister, remember the story? 00:02:16.879 --> 00:02:19.280 Sister comes along, and sister says, Hey, can I help you out? 00:02:19.360 --> 00:02:20.080 What'd you find? 00:02:20.240 --> 00:02:24.879 And then Pharaoh's daughter says, Hey, do you know a Hebrew woman who could possibly nurse this baby? 00:02:24.960 --> 00:02:28.479 And the sister's going, Oh, I think I could find somebody, my mom who's also the baby's mom. 00:02:28.560 --> 00:02:30.000 She doesn't say that, but so she's thinking. 00:02:30.159 --> 00:02:33.599 So, mama now is nursing her own baby into childhood. 00:02:33.840 --> 00:02:38.560 That child who becomes named Moses, he goes into Pharaoh's house. 00:02:38.639 --> 00:02:43.520 He's raised in Pharaoh's house, and we know the story, we talked about it last week, I'm just kind of catching you up. 00:02:43.599 --> 00:02:51.840 Uh he grows up, and when he's an adult, he's out one day and he sees uh one of his people, one of his Hebrew people, being beaten by an Egyptian. 00:02:52.000 --> 00:02:54.159 And he just sort of snaps. 00:02:54.639 --> 00:03:02.400 And he hits the guy, and then he pounds the guy, and he beats the guy, and he kills the guy, and he buries the guy. 00:03:02.560 --> 00:03:04.639 And he's probably hoping this is gonna pass by. 00:03:04.800 --> 00:03:10.960 Like, not many, like maybe one or two people saw this, but this is probably gonna be I'm probably good, and the next day he realizes that's not good. 00:03:11.120 --> 00:03:26.319 People know about this, and so he hits the road, he takes off, he heads east, he heads into the desert, he heads to this area called Midian, and he eventually marries, he has a son, he's out there, he's being a shepherd out there, and that's what today's story is about. 00:03:26.400 --> 00:03:29.840 It's about this guy who's having an incredibly tough time. 00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:43.680 He's on a path, he's on a road he would have never thought he would have been on, and yet it is there that he has this encounter with spiritual reality, with a reality beyond what he thought. 00:03:44.080 --> 00:03:56.240 If I can just be pastoral for a moment here, for some of us, you you think, and I think it too often, you need the next thing, like the next, the next approval, the next moral achievement. 00:03:56.400 --> 00:03:59.680 I don't know, even the next Christian book will do it. 00:04:00.240 --> 00:04:01.199 And it's not. 00:04:01.360 --> 00:04:05.919 What you need is to be metaphorical, as we go through this message, it'll make more sense. 00:04:06.080 --> 00:04:08.879 What you need is you need a burning bush and you need a spoken word. 00:04:09.280 --> 00:04:12.000 So let's look at Exodus 3, verses 1 through 3. 00:04:12.080 --> 00:04:27.519 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 he 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 a bush. 00:04:28.000 --> 00:04:32.639 And he looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. 00:04:32.959 --> 00:04:39.920 And Moses said, I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned. 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:43.839 And so that verse 3 is pretty interesting, this idea of like, I will turn aside. 00:04:44.000 --> 00:04:47.279 It means another way to say it would be, I will detour. 00:04:47.839 --> 00:04:51.120 I will take a detour from the path I was on. 00:04:51.279 --> 00:04:55.360 And it sort of alludes to the fact that Moses' whole life has become a detour. 00:04:56.480 --> 00:05:01.439 So uh my junior year of college, I'm in front of Tate Center in Athens, Georgia. 00:05:01.519 --> 00:05:02.800 I'm in front of Tate Center. 00:05:02.959 --> 00:05:06.240 I had just missed the north-south bus. 00:05:06.399 --> 00:05:09.279 To go from North Campus up into South Campus. 00:05:09.439 --> 00:05:12.560 I just missed, like, you know, like I show up, bus is pulling away. 00:05:12.639 --> 00:05:15.759 I know it's going to be like five, six minutes till the next bus comes. 00:05:15.839 --> 00:05:17.279 I'm doing the math in my head. 00:05:17.360 --> 00:05:20.240 I'm going, oh, I'm just I don't know if I'm going to make it into class on time. 00:05:20.399 --> 00:05:21.519 Is this calculus class? 00:05:21.600 --> 00:05:24.959 And the lady yelled at you when you walked in late, and so it's like kind of all this stress. 00:05:25.120 --> 00:05:34.800 And so I'm standing there and I'm going, I do I do I just sort of walk-run like the rest of the way, like and you kind of like everybody's seeing you do that, and they know what you're doing, and you feel weird about it. 00:05:35.040 --> 00:05:37.199 Or in front of me is a city bus. 00:05:37.360 --> 00:05:50.000 Now, only if I don't know if where you went to college or whatever, but if you went to Athens, you know this feeling that there's a city bus in front of you, and you know as a student you can get on it, but you don't know, you you have no idea where this bus goes, who rides these buses. 00:05:50.160 --> 00:05:50.639 You don't know. 00:05:50.800 --> 00:06:00.480 It's like this unknown thing that you keep seeing, but you just always get on the student buses, but there's a city bus in front of me, and I'm looking, I'm going, it's just up the hill. 00:06:00.639 --> 00:06:06.000 Like, it's just like there's just no way it could go, it just couldn't go that really, really wrong. 00:06:06.079 --> 00:06:07.279 And so I go for it. 00:06:07.439 --> 00:06:09.600 I get on the city bus. 00:06:09.839 --> 00:06:20.879 And I get on, and and clearly it's not filled with students, and I sit down and I'm really nervous, and it heads up into South Campus, and I'm great, great. 00:06:21.040 --> 00:06:39.519 Like it's it's gonna work out, and then it turns to the right, and it kind of heads over towards like Oglethorpe housing, and and it heads over there, and then it's it's getting further and further and further away from where I needed to be, and I'm starting to get kind of that feeling inside of my stomach, and I'm going, like, can I stop the bus? 00:06:39.600 --> 00:06:52.160 But I feel like too big of a moron at this point to stop the bus, and there's like all this shame if I stop the bus, and it's just getting so far from where I needed to be, and eventually I get off of it, and I I'm just I'm even unsure. 00:06:52.319 --> 00:06:53.759 How am I gonna get back over there? 00:06:53.839 --> 00:06:56.639 Like, I like it is so far of a walk to get back over there. 00:06:56.879 --> 00:06:58.480 Class is out of the question, right? 00:06:58.639 --> 00:07:00.319 Like I'm so far away. 00:07:00.480 --> 00:07:12.879 And it was this feeling, and you felt it whether you got on the wrong bus or you took the wrong turn or you got lost in the hospital, and it's this feeling I never planned on being here. 00:07:15.519 --> 00:07:19.199 And maybe you have felt that, maybe you feel that. 00:07:19.600 --> 00:07:27.120 Like at the age of 25 or 35 or 55 or 75, how did I get here? 00:07:28.480 --> 00:07:38.639 And it just feels like a detour, like there was a road I was supposed to be on, and I'm so clearly not on that road. 00:07:40.160 --> 00:07:53.040 And Moses was raised to be an elite in Egypt, and he kills a man, and he runs off into the desert, and he's a shepherd. 00:07:53.920 --> 00:08:01.199 And there's got to be this feeling inside of him like I never planned on being here. 00:08:02.399 --> 00:08:07.360 And yet, yet, only by being in the middle of nowhere, like there's just nothing. 00:08:07.519 --> 00:08:10.399 He's at the end of himself, the end of self-reliance. 00:08:10.560 --> 00:08:17.680 At the end of all of this is when he becomes open to realities that are beyond himself. 00:08:18.240 --> 00:08:28.879 See, it's in this place, it's in this, like I never planned on being here that we see this burning bush and we get this spoken word. 00:08:29.199 --> 00:08:31.199 And this bush, this is crazy, right? 00:08:31.439 --> 00:08:32.080 This is like crazy. 00:08:32.159 --> 00:08:36.000 This is a little bit, I mean, this is some crazy stuff going on, and it gets his attention. 00:08:36.159 --> 00:08:36.720 But you know what? 00:08:37.360 --> 00:08:38.159 It's interesting. 00:08:38.320 --> 00:08:45.279 If you saw a burning bush, it might not get your attention because you might look at it for about 10 seconds and keep going. 00:08:45.440 --> 00:08:51.200 So there's something going on in Moses that he's like, he's reflective, he's contemplative, he's noticing things. 00:08:51.279 --> 00:08:55.679 Like a lot of us would see something burning, you know, you're just kind of here in the desert, you just keep on moving. 00:08:55.840 --> 00:08:58.720 But he notices that it's burning, but it's not going anywhere. 00:08:58.799 --> 00:09:04.159 So there's something in him, a posture in him that he's ready to receive. 00:09:04.559 --> 00:09:12.320 There's something going on in him where he is lowly and he is broken and he is quiet in spirit. 00:09:13.600 --> 00:09:20.159 And so he takes this detour from his path over to this crazy bush. 00:09:20.559 --> 00:09:21.759 And we get verse 4. 00:09:21.919 --> 00:09:27.039 When the Lord saw that he turned aside, he detoured to see, God called to him out of the bush. 00:09:27.200 --> 00:09:29.679 Moses, Moses, and he said, Hey, here I am. 00:09:29.759 --> 00:09:33.840 You know, I don't know how you'd reply if you have the bush in a voice, it'd be weird. 00:09:34.159 --> 00:09:35.120 Here I am. 00:09:36.240 --> 00:09:42.480 So this now becomes a full-on mystical, extremely strange spiritual experience. 00:09:42.799 --> 00:09:45.759 This guy with a personal encounter with God. 00:09:46.480 --> 00:09:47.200 Verse 5. 00:09:47.279 --> 00:09:48.879 Then he said, Do not come near. 00:09:49.039 --> 00:09:52.480 This is what God says through the bush, through the angel, do not come near. 00:09:52.559 --> 00:09:57.679 Take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you're standing is holy ground. 00:09:58.000 --> 00:10:02.639 Here's what it's like: it is like you approaching the president for him to autograph your pellet gun. 00:10:02.720 --> 00:10:04.240 Like that's that's this moment. 00:10:04.399 --> 00:10:08.080 Like you have approached a presence, you have no business approaching. 00:10:08.159 --> 00:10:11.120 It's like, whoa, whoa, stop, stop, like right where you're at, stop. 00:10:11.279 --> 00:10:14.159 Like you can't come in with that. 00:10:14.960 --> 00:10:22.399 Except it's not a pellet gun in the situation, it's just the fact that Moses is not perfect and God is holy and perfect. 00:10:23.039 --> 00:10:26.639 And that's where we get two observations in this story. 00:10:26.879 --> 00:10:28.080 Maybe you can find some more. 00:10:28.240 --> 00:10:30.000 I found two, maybe you find four. 00:10:30.159 --> 00:10:33.840 Uh number one is we catch a glimpse of who God is. 00:10:34.720 --> 00:10:47.440 See, we catch this glimpse that He is this holy, fierce brightness in the universe that wipes away anything of pain and hurt, anything of sin. 00:10:48.879 --> 00:10:50.080 He wipes it away. 00:10:52.080 --> 00:10:54.240 And then we then we get this picture of fire, right? 00:10:54.320 --> 00:10:57.200 We saw it last week in Genesis 15 when we talked about Genesis 15. 00:10:57.279 --> 00:11:07.039 And throughout the scriptures, uh, God's always revealing himself as fire, which is very interesting because fire is this interesting uh material where it can't be formed. 00:11:07.200 --> 00:11:09.759 It's not like clay, it's not like some other stuff. 00:11:09.840 --> 00:11:11.840 You can form it, you can kind of harness it. 00:11:12.000 --> 00:11:14.720 I mean, fire just sort of just rages. 00:11:17.120 --> 00:11:22.000 And yet, this fire is even more different because it's fire that's not dependent upon fuel. 00:11:23.039 --> 00:11:24.399 So here's what it's saying. 00:11:24.480 --> 00:11:35.200 It's saying God's saying, I am self-maintaining, I'm self-sufficient, I do not draw any life or any vitality outside of myself. 00:11:35.279 --> 00:11:36.080 That's what God is saying. 00:11:36.159 --> 00:11:36.799 That's what God is. 00:11:37.279 --> 00:11:44.320 He is self-sufficient, he's self-maintaining, and he does not draw any life or vitality from outside of himself. 00:11:44.639 --> 00:11:59.279 And yet, this holy, self-sustaining God, this God, when Moses starts to sort of complain and whine later in chapter three and head into chapter four, he is unbelievably patient and gracious with them. 00:12:00.080 --> 00:12:06.000 Like if we just have the first part of the story, the first part of the glimpse, and we don't get the second glimpse, it's just bad news for us. 00:12:06.159 --> 00:12:08.879 It's just stop, like no relationship with God. 00:12:09.840 --> 00:12:19.519 But then the same God is patient and gracious, and what we get is we get that God is fiercely holy, and at the same time, he is sweetly gracious. 00:12:20.320 --> 00:12:22.080 And we see this on the cross. 00:12:23.039 --> 00:12:33.120 A perfect God Himself, incarnate in the world, hanging on the cross, innocent, taking upon our sin, taking judgment wasn't his. 00:12:33.440 --> 00:12:34.960 And then what does he say? 00:12:35.519 --> 00:12:36.639 Forgive them? 00:12:38.879 --> 00:12:40.559 See, we don't have to pick. 00:12:40.799 --> 00:12:49.840 Like we don't have to pick between like a like a like a fundamentalist God that's holy and he's gonna judge you, he's gonna get you, he saw that, and he's gonna get you. 00:12:50.240 --> 00:12:54.639 Or like a like a real liberal, loving God that, you know, just anything is fair game. 00:12:54.720 --> 00:12:56.720 We don't have to pick between these two. 00:12:57.200 --> 00:13:01.840 God is fiercely holy and he is sweetly gracious. 00:13:02.000 --> 00:13:03.360 That's the glimpse we get. 00:13:03.519 --> 00:13:08.399 And then number two, the second observation is we come face to face with our reality. 00:13:09.679 --> 00:13:12.399 Face to face with our detour. 00:13:12.639 --> 00:13:17.519 See, Moses is on a detour, but what we see even greater is that Moses is a detour. 00:13:19.519 --> 00:13:22.000 And God is graciously dealing with him. 00:13:22.399 --> 00:13:25.679 And on some level, all of us, we feel like Moses. 00:13:26.879 --> 00:13:28.960 Like, how did I end up here? 00:13:30.639 --> 00:13:31.840 How did I get here? 00:13:32.000 --> 00:13:33.919 How will I get through this? 00:13:35.919 --> 00:13:39.600 We want to be patient and then we have another outburst. 00:13:39.919 --> 00:13:44.080 We want to be content and then we're still insecure. 00:13:46.559 --> 00:13:48.720 Like, we're how am I still afraid? 00:13:48.879 --> 00:13:51.519 How am I still anxious? 00:13:52.639 --> 00:13:59.279 We don't want to think that thought, and then we keep thinking that thought. 00:14:00.480 --> 00:14:06.720 And what we need is we don't need more to do because the law has no power to bring life to our detoured hearts. 00:14:06.960 --> 00:14:09.679 What we need is to be metaphorical, we're still fleshing it out. 00:14:09.759 --> 00:14:13.360 What we need is a burning bush and a spoken word. 00:14:13.759 --> 00:14:18.320 So I was having lunch with a friend this week, and uh we started talking, we started talking about my friend Jim. 00:14:18.399 --> 00:14:20.399 I've talked about him throughout the last couple years. 00:14:20.480 --> 00:14:25.840 And my friend Jim, he was the most sound biblical man I have ever known. 00:14:26.080 --> 00:14:28.159 He knew the Bible so thoroughly. 00:14:28.399 --> 00:14:29.919 He loved the Bible. 00:14:30.080 --> 00:14:32.399 He loved uh big word, doctrine. 00:14:32.559 --> 00:14:33.679 He loved doctrine. 00:14:33.840 --> 00:14:39.039 And here's the thing what I found with a lot of people who love doctrine, they're not always the people I love. 00:14:39.519 --> 00:14:48.559 And I don't know, you've been maybe you've been around people who love doctrine, and they're sort of like they're kind of harsh because knowledge has sort of become their God more than God himself. 00:14:48.720 --> 00:14:55.919 But Jim was so different because doctrine it was the way in which he knew God in a personal way. 00:14:56.639 --> 00:15:17.360 And so he loved all this doctrine, but it was so life-giving to him, and so many times he would come into a lunch or some meeting we would have, and and and he would he could talk doctrine, he could talk systematic theology, he could talk all this, but then so often he'd come in and he would say something like, you know, Russ, I was praying this morning, I feel like the Lord is telling me blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. 00:15:18.639 --> 00:15:22.960 You know, I was driving down the road, and I just feel like the Lord is telling me, uh. 00:15:25.200 --> 00:15:27.919 And so here's my point. 00:15:28.639 --> 00:15:30.000 Well, I love the humility of that. 00:15:30.080 --> 00:15:31.120 I feel like the Lord is. 00:15:31.200 --> 00:15:32.879 Like, not like the Lord told me, right? 00:15:32.960 --> 00:15:36.080 Like I feel like, or perhaps it's the peanut butter and jelly, I don't know. 00:15:36.159 --> 00:15:38.559 But I love the humility of like, I feel like. 00:15:38.960 --> 00:15:50.399 But I also love this, and this is what he taught me, is that sound biblical thought and doctrine, it doesn't diminish personal encounter with the living God or hearing from the Lord. 00:15:51.360 --> 00:15:59.840 Like this side of the resurrection and the ascension, the Holy Spirit lives in us to help us, to comfort us, to guide us, to speak to us. 00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:06.000 And catch this biblical thought and doctrine informs the encounter. 00:16:07.039 --> 00:16:09.840 It informs what you are hearing. 00:16:10.559 --> 00:16:16.240 We can be both sound and mystical. 00:16:17.360 --> 00:16:18.960 Let's not give that word away. 00:16:19.120 --> 00:16:25.519 We give that word away, so I think we give that word away so quickly to other groups or another religion. 00:16:25.759 --> 00:16:27.120 Let's not give that word away. 00:16:27.360 --> 00:16:31.279 We can be both sound and mystical. 00:16:32.399 --> 00:16:36.960 And the biblical thought and the doctrine informs what we are hearing. 00:16:37.279 --> 00:16:38.320 Now, everybody's different. 00:16:38.480 --> 00:16:43.840 Some of us, you drive to work and you're listening to worship and you're like crying, and then some of you you just want to read C.S. 00:16:43.919 --> 00:16:45.360 Lewis and you're underlining everything. 00:16:45.440 --> 00:16:49.679 I mean, we're all different, and maybe you probably should be both of these things. 00:16:49.919 --> 00:17:03.600 But the point is this that we should become lowly enough in our detouring selves and hearts and quiet enough in our spirits to hear the word being spoken to us today. 00:17:04.960 --> 00:17:10.079 And that word will be informed by sound biblical thought. 00:17:10.720 --> 00:17:18.640 Christy and I were out to eat Monday night with an older couple who they just they like to take us out and they treat us well and they love us so well. 00:17:18.720 --> 00:17:23.440 And the husband just asked us, he said, Well, what's been different in you? 00:17:23.599 --> 00:17:29.359 And he went to Christy and then he went to me, what's been different in you in the last couple of years? 00:17:30.400 --> 00:17:33.359 And I just said, you know, more responsibility. 00:17:33.519 --> 00:17:34.160 That was my answer. 00:17:34.319 --> 00:17:38.160 Like, more responsibility is like my kids are older, there's more responsibility there. 00:17:38.400 --> 00:17:42.079 Church is doing great, there's more responsibility there, just more responsibility. 00:17:42.240 --> 00:17:43.440 It's just the reality of it. 00:17:43.519 --> 00:17:47.920 I mean, it's kind of the reality of getting older in general, just more responsibility. 00:17:48.880 --> 00:17:59.839 And then you have like social activities and family obligations and kid activities, unless you remember the yard and the dishes and the laundry that you hide when people come over, right? 00:17:59.920 --> 00:18:07.599 I mean, like all of this, you know this story, or it's the project, or it's the deadline, or it's what do those friends think of me? 00:18:08.319 --> 00:18:19.759 Or it's the judgment you feel by that group or that person, and you just feel like you can't quite get a grip on everything in your life. 00:18:20.079 --> 00:18:22.720 Is anybody with me? 00:18:23.599 --> 00:18:24.720 Anybody? 00:18:26.079 --> 00:18:32.000 And here's what I found taking a walk can be so nice. 00:18:32.720 --> 00:18:36.319 Talking with Christie can be very helpful. 00:18:36.880 --> 00:18:41.680 Meeting with my counselor and I need one can be very good for me. 00:18:42.880 --> 00:18:47.519 But ultimately, I need a burning bush, I need a spoken word, I need to hear from the Lord. 00:18:47.680 --> 00:18:48.720 Here's what Moses hears. 00:18:48.960 --> 00:18:56.400 He he hears, he gets the word, like, hey, you're you're going back to Egypt and you're gonna tell Pharaoh, let my people go, and all kinds of stuff's about to happen. 00:18:56.640 --> 00:18:58.000 But that's what he hears. 00:18:58.079 --> 00:19:00.240 It's like a directional thing. 00:19:00.480 --> 00:19:02.960 I feel like that's the hardest word to figure out. 00:19:03.039 --> 00:19:05.359 Like there's a fork in the road, do I take this job or that job? 00:19:05.519 --> 00:19:07.599 Do we move to Philadelphia or do we move to Phoenix? 00:19:07.680 --> 00:19:08.880 Like, like I'm not good at that. 00:19:09.039 --> 00:19:10.799 I'm not good at figuring that one out. 00:19:11.119 --> 00:19:16.880 When you figure out how to determine that in God's will, you just come tell me, because then I'll start to preach exactly what you figure out. 00:19:16.960 --> 00:19:18.880 That's very difficult. 00:19:19.599 --> 00:19:26.720 That's wisdom, that's asking for people, it's praying, it's soul searching, is very difficult to hear that. 00:19:27.039 --> 00:19:29.759 But then Moses gets this other word, doesn't he? 00:19:30.079 --> 00:19:31.519 And it's a promise. 00:19:32.480 --> 00:19:34.079 He says, What do I tell him? 00:19:34.160 --> 00:19:35.119 Like, he's not gonna listen to me. 00:19:35.200 --> 00:19:35.599 What do I tell you? 00:19:36.240 --> 00:19:39.039 God says, You should tell him I am saying you. 00:19:40.559 --> 00:19:41.759 And here's what he means. 00:19:41.920 --> 00:19:45.200 He he means I'll be with you. 00:19:46.880 --> 00:19:49.519 See, it's a it's a word, it's a promise. 00:19:50.400 --> 00:19:53.200 And see, this is what we need on a daily basis. 00:19:54.079 --> 00:19:57.279 We need something that's always true, always reliable. 00:19:57.680 --> 00:19:58.720 This is what we need. 00:19:58.880 --> 00:20:05.119 We need to hear from the heart of God the Holy Spirit speaking to us, and it's not a new word. 00:20:05.359 --> 00:20:06.079 Not a new word. 00:20:06.240 --> 00:20:17.440 It's the same old amazing gospel word, and what it is is it is you can stop all that work that you're doing to try to validate yourself. 00:20:18.799 --> 00:20:19.680 You can stop that. 00:20:20.079 --> 00:20:22.079 Jesus' work is enough for you. 00:20:22.960 --> 00:20:25.759 You are loved even if you fail. 00:20:26.640 --> 00:20:30.480 I will always be with you. 00:20:31.200 --> 00:20:35.599 You, you, my child, I do not condemn. 00:20:37.839 --> 00:20:39.200 I condemned him. 00:20:40.160 --> 00:20:41.359 He was alone. 00:20:41.680 --> 00:20:44.480 He went unloved for your sake. 00:20:46.480 --> 00:20:48.880 You will never be unrighteous. 00:20:49.519 --> 00:20:51.920 You will never be unrighteous. 00:20:52.480 --> 00:20:56.319 Because Jesus' righteousness was put on you, and we don't deserve it. 00:20:56.480 --> 00:20:58.960 Our sin cast upon him and his righteousness put on us. 00:20:59.119 --> 00:21:00.720 We don't deserve that. 00:21:01.279 --> 00:21:11.119 It's the same old amazing gospel word, and we need to hear it declared over us every Sunday, and we need to take it in every single day. 00:21:11.759 --> 00:21:13.759 See, it's it's easy to read this story. 00:21:13.839 --> 00:21:18.240 It'd be very easy for us to end it on needing a new word. 00:21:18.799 --> 00:21:21.119 Like, oh, I just need a new word for today. 00:21:21.440 --> 00:21:25.039 I just need I need something deeper, need something else, need some new word. 00:21:25.200 --> 00:21:29.200 I mean, that can that can be an exhausting treadmill. 00:21:29.599 --> 00:21:30.880 It can be. 00:21:31.519 --> 00:21:33.440 I just need that new burning bush. 00:21:33.680 --> 00:21:35.279 It can be an exhausting. 00:21:35.599 --> 00:21:36.559 Maybe you'll get it. 00:21:36.640 --> 00:21:37.279 It'd be great. 00:21:37.359 --> 00:21:38.079 You could write a good book. 00:21:38.240 --> 00:21:39.759 It'd be an incredible moment, right? 00:21:39.839 --> 00:21:44.720 I mean, maybe it'll be so good for you, but don't put that burden upon yourself. 00:21:45.359 --> 00:21:49.839 What we need is the same old amazing gospel word. 00:21:52.000 --> 00:21:55.279 See, I mean, this story is primarily about God's rescue of his people. 00:21:55.359 --> 00:21:56.960 Let's not make it into something it's not. 00:21:57.039 --> 00:21:57.759 That's what it's about. 00:21:57.839 --> 00:21:59.839 It's about God rescuing his people. 00:21:59.920 --> 00:22:05.759 And if we're going to apply it to ourselves, the best application is the fact that God is pursuing a broken man. 00:22:07.359 --> 00:22:16.400 I never planned on being here, and yet here is where God meets us. 00:22:17.680 --> 00:22:22.079 It's a picture for us, a word spoken to Moses, but a foreshadowing word. 00:22:22.400 --> 00:22:27.839 Jesus says, I am the word, a word spoken into existence centuries later. 00:22:28.079 --> 00:22:36.640 Jesus the Christ, God Himself, holy and fierce, fiercely holy, but sweetly gracious. 00:22:38.720 --> 00:22:47.119 And taking that brokenness upon himself, so he looks at us, and through the Holy Spirit, he whispers into the core of our beings. 00:22:47.519 --> 00:22:52.720 You are loved, and you are deemed righteous forever. 00:22:53.839 --> 00:23:07.119 So, brothers and sisters, may you hear the whispers of the Holy Spirit in you, whispering to your detouring fragile hearts in the I am, you are enough. 00:23:08.400 --> 00:23:09.039 Amen. 00:23:09.359 --> 00:23:10.160 Let's pray together. 00:23:10.400 --> 00:23:13.119 God, thank you that you are enough for us. 00:23:13.759 --> 00:23:17.440 We need a burning bush and we need a spoken word. 00:23:18.480 --> 00:23:20.799 But we don't need a new word today. 00:23:20.960 --> 00:23:21.920 We need you. 00:23:24.960 --> 00:23:34.559 And God, how we love fresh words from you, but help us to always rest our hearts in Jesus Himself. 00:23:37.039 --> 00:23:39.440 And in the I am, we are enough. 00:23:44.240 --> 00:23:46.000 In Jesus' name we pray. 00:23:46.240 --> 00:23:46.880 Amen.