Everyone, it is so good to be with you all. My name is Zeke Wetstein, and I've been here at Red Village for going on about seven years now. So my wife and I, we weren't married then, but started coming to Red Village in our first years of college at uw. And now Cassie, who's over there, and I are both on staff with InterVarsity at UW Madison, and we work with college students to help them to encounter Jesus and to learn what it means to follow Jesus with their whole lives in college and for the rest of their lives. So we help lots of Bible studies, lots of evangelism to take place on campus, but, like, right now, we're in the thick of summer, so all the college students are home.

It's kind of hard to believe that we're already almost through with June. So happy late Father's Day to all the fathers in the room. I actually got to celebrate my first Father's Day last week, so baby Howie is over there now. I have celebrated Father's Day for my father before, don't worry, but it's my first time as a father. It's a joy to get to preach to you all this week and bring you the word.

But first, I have a story for you. The Qing Dynasty ruled China beginning in the 1600s. And although it was still an empire by the 1800s, it was a shadow of what it once was. With the massive population growth, increased government corruption, famine, poverty, and many other woes, the once shining empire was beginning to crack. The west helped to further break down that empire.

Western Europe wanted tea, silk and porcelain, but China yet had no need for any Western goods. So Britain found themselves pouring silver into China to get the things that they desired, but with nothing being bought from them in return. And any economist you could probably ask will about this too, could tell you that this economic plan is not going to work long term. So the British solution was to grow opium in British controlled India, smuggle it into China, and then have a naturally recurring demand through the opioid addiction that would ensue among the Chinese population. Now the British had a reliable means of regaining their silver in trade.

The British would smuggle in opium, get paid, and then use that money to buy tea and silk and porcelain, the things that they wanted. China, however, saw the way that this influx of opium was socially destructive, draining the economy and corrupting their population. However, the Qing Dynasty tried to put a stop to the opium being brought in by the British. The British responded in full force, bringing in their navy to force the Qing Dynasty to sign a treaty putting the British in control of trade and of Hong Kong.

Hudson Taylor was born in England in 1832, and although born into a Christian family, it is only when he turned 17 that he came back to faith and decided to follow Jesus with his life. He also felt God's call to go to China as a missionary. However, he wanted not only to bring the Gospel to the people of China, but to serve them as well. So he spent the next few years training to be a doctor. And so it was in 1853 that Hudson Taylor journeyed into China, and we must remember his context.

He traveled to a country that received him as a foreigner, someone who was part of this opium crisis, part of the wars brought against them, part of the forced trade deals. He came into China being seen as a Westerner who had only selfish intentions and desired nothing good for China or for her people. He was also walking into a missionary culture that showed very little interest, care, or respect for Chinese culture. But this is how he engaged. For the first six years in China, he, like all the rest of the missionaries, dressed like Western Europeans and stayed only in the coastal cities.

It was during this time that he fell into extreme loneliness and hardship. Hudson Taylor continued to use his skills as a doctor to help the people of China, but found his witness to be not bearing much fruit and felt totally isolated by the language and cultural barriers. In his deep loneliness, lack of missional fruit, and social ostracization by the Chinese people, he began to reflect on how he and the other missionaries had been engaging, or rather not engaging, with Chinese culture, and how the inland parts of China, which contained the majority of the population, were almost totally unreached by the Gospel. As he continued to struggle, he also became sick and eventually had to travel back to England in 1859, in the midst of the Second Opium War that was wreaking havoc on China. So we're going to leave our our story of Hudson Taylor and the Qing Dynasty here.

For the moment, we're leaving him. He's a passionate follower of God who saw a people in need who were being oppressed by his own people. But his efforts to help them resulted in little fruit and in him being beaten down and worn out.

So over the course of this summer, we have been studying the life of Moses. A few weeks ago, Aaron opened our series by showing us the end of Moses life. Aaron helped us to see who Moses would become. Moses as the leader of all of the people of Israel, leading them out of Egypt through the wilderness, helping to deliver God's law to them and bring them to the promised land. Wes then brought us the story of Moses birth.

So we backed it up to the beginning. He helped to preach the story of God's hand in Moses early life. How God used faithful women to save Moses and bring him up in Pharaoh's own household. Will then gave us a double header. Preaching on Moses fleeing and then encountering God with the burning bush.

So for those of you who are very familiar with the Prince of Egypt, this is all taking place after Moses races through the streets of Egypt on a chariot. As a teenager we didn't cover that passage in our sermon series. So Will helped us to see how Moses murdered an Egyptian in an effort to try and help his people, the Hebrews and then in fear ran away into the wilderness. God then met him through the burning bush, revealed himself to Moses and told Moses that he was chosen by God to be sent to to free the Israelites from their slavery in Egypt. Then two weeks ago we had Rob Fisher Premium Mitch is kind of like Rob Fisher, but with more stories and less ads.

And he preached on God's equipping of Moses. He helped us to see every time Moses was nervous or anxious or had a reason he couldn't go, wasn't the guy God helped to prepare him and send him. Then the passage right before this one, which we didn't actually get to cover last week. So chapter four 18 through 31 is all about Moses return and this commissioning by God on Moses. So as we're leading into our passage today, what's going on is God is sending Moses back into Egypt.

God is sending Moses to be the person to free his people from slavery and to bring them into the promised land. Right before our passage, Moses speaks to the elders of the people of Israel and shares the words and the signs that God gave to him to prove to his people that I am is bringing his people out of Egypt. And the people, the elders of Israel became excited and were on board with this escape plan. Very excited for what God is going to bring through Moses. So our full ark as we're leading into our passage, Moses birth and redemption.

Then we see his fall and his fleeing from Egypt. We see his appointing by God, his equipping by God and then finally his commissioning as he is sent back into Egypt. Alright, so our passage for today is Exodus chapter 5. We'll be going through the entire chapter. You can follow along with me in your Bibles.

Exodus 5:1 23. Afterward, Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh. Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness. But Pharaoh said, who is the Lord that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and moreover I will not let Israel go.

Then they said, the God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go a three days journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword. But the king of Egypt said to them, moses and Aaron, why do you take the people away from their work? Get back to your burdens. And Pharaoh said, behold, the people of the land are now many, and you make them rest from their burdens.

The same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks as in the past. Let them go and gather straw for themselves. But the number of bricks that they made in the past, you shall impose on them. You shall by no means reduce it, for they are idle. Therefore they cry, let us go and offer sacrifices to our God.

Let heavier work be laid on the men that they may labor at it and pay no regard to lying words. So the taskmasters and the foreman of the people went out and said to the people, thus says Pharaoh, I will not give you straw. Go and get your straw yourselves wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced in the least. So the people were scattered throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw. The taskmasters were urgent, saying, complete your work, your daily task each day as when there was straw.

And the foreman of the people of Israel, whom Pharaoh's taskmasters had set over them, were beaten and were asked, why have you not done all your task of making bricks today and yesterday as in the past? Then the four men of the people of Israel came and cried to Pharaoh, why do you treat your servants like this? No straw is given to your servants, yet they say to us, make bricks. And behold, your servants are beaten. But the fault is in your own people.

But. But he said, you are idle. You are idle. That is why you say, let us go and sacrifice to the Lord. Go now and work.

No straw will be given you, but you must still deliver the same number of bricks. The foreman of the people of Israel saw that they were in trouble when they said, you shall by no means reduce your number of bricks, your daily task. Each day they met Moses and Aaron, who were waiting for them as they came out from Pharaoh. And they said to them, the Lord look on you and judge. Because you have made us stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.

Then Moses turned to the Lord and said, O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me for? Since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people. And you have not delivered your people at all. Please pray with me.

Jesus, we thank you for your word. We thank you for this story in the life of Moses. Please help give me words to speak. Please help give us hearts to receive the truth that you have for us in this passage. Jesus, we just pray that you would help us to be transformed by this word and to be encouraged as we are sent into the world from here.

Jesus name. Amen. All right, so you can keep your Bibles open and follow along in the text as we work through this story today. So in our first two verses we see Moses and Aaron's first petition and then Pharaoh's response. There isn't much to their petition, but they do begin by proclaiming that it is the Lord, the God of Israel, who has sent Moses.

This isn't just the desires of men, but the desires of God. And the other main thing to note is Moses doesn't ask. His words, or rather what the Lord sends him to say, are a command to Pharaoh. Moses comes before one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful ruler in the world and demands that he let his slaves go free to worship the one true God. And I think it can be easy to overlook the courage of Moses here.

This is great things faithfulness on his part. Pharaoh, however, looks at these two Hebrews and doesn't see or acknowledge that they come with the authority of God to command him. Instead, Pharaoh sees two pathetic men who belong to the race he has oppressed and enslaved. He mocks the Lord, shows none of the respect, honor or obedience due his name, and refuses to agree to the demand of the Lord that Moses brought before him. He treats the command of the Lord given to him as a request that he denies.

Then in verse three, we see Moses reiterate their ask, but with a warning. And interestingly, Moses chooses to warn not of the judgment that God promised to bring upon Egypt. If Pharaoh refuses to listen, but warns of God's judgment on the Hebrews. And Pharaoh responds to this in full force. He first reprimands Moses and Aaron for taking the people away from their work.

Probably referring to the way that Moses helped to rally the people with the words and signs God gave him. Then he doubles down. Not only does he send them back to their work, which seems to be brick making, but he makes their burden in enslavement worse, requiring them to find their own straw to make bricks, essentially doubling the work while requiring the same amount of output. You shall by no means reduce the number of bricks required in the past. Pharaoh then clarifies himself.

He says that the reason that he is making the burden of the Hebrews heavier is because they are idle. Essentially, Pharaoh is saying that his slaves still have enough spirit in them to desire freedom. They still have enough spirit in them to desire to worship the Lord. And Pharaoh wants to crush that remaining spirit with his increased burden. And so what we see in the next few verses is probably exactly what Pharaoh hoped to accomplish among the people of Israel.

First, the taskmasters, who are the Egyptian slave drivers, and the foreman, who are the Hebrews set to manage the other Hebrews. They proclaim Pharaoh's degree to the people. I will not give you straw. Go and get your straw yourselves, wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced in the least. And so the people scattered, trying to accomplish their impossible task.

Though the taskmasters urged, the Hebrew slaves were unable to complete this impossible task. And so the Israelite foremen were beaten and questioned about their failure. So the foreman then went to complain to Pharaoh. And Pharaoh helped to complete his plot to crush the Israelite hope for freedom. He puts the blame of their increased burden on the request of Moses and Aaron.

So it's over the course of these first 19 verses that Pharaoh in his shrewdness has taken the excited and faithful worship filled Israelites who are yearning for freedom. And he makes them turn against the very people who God has used to promise to bring them that freedom. Pharaoh has successfully broken the Israelites and pitted them against Moses.

Then in verses 20 and 21, the angry people of Israel confront Moses and Aaron. And in some ways they try to call down God's judgment on Moses for what has happened to the Israelites. They show their anger and most of all they show that they don't think this was part of God's will. They're condemning the actions of Moses and Aaron that they took to try and free the Israelites. And Moses doesn't respond to the complaints of the people against him, or at least not in what we see.

But he turns to God and like Adam in the garden, he blames God for everything that has happened. He questions why he has been sent and accuses God for not fulfilling his promises. God why have you done evil to this people? Why did you make their burdens worse? Why did you send me on this stupid quest to do scary things just to make everyone hate me?

God, you said you would free your people, but all you've done is make everything worse. If I knew you were just going to make my life and everybody else's life miserable, I never would have come. And that's where our passage ends for this week. It feels like kind of a strange way to end the story, and it's not a very happy ending. In fact, really, we're only looking at a partial story.

We get to see the beginning and the conflict, but no real resolution. We begin our passage in a tough spot. We see an enslaved nation, but there's hope. But we're ending with a harshly enslaved nation with crushed spirits, internal turmoil and rejection, and anger towards God. Now, as those of you in the aforementioned group who have watched the Prince of Egypt know, things do turn around and they do eventually get out of Egypt.

We will even begin to see this happen next week in Exodus chapter 6, where God responds to Moses statement and questioning of God. But for today, I want to spend some time to look at this partial narrative and see what we can learn from it. It's kind of this question of like, what if? What if this is where the story ended? What if God isn't going to keep his promises and now everything is just worse?

So Marvel, the superhero movie making machine, released a show a few years ago called what if? Where they took stories of some of the favorite characters and put a what if twist on them, like what if Black Panther became Star Lord? Or what if basically everybody turned into zombies? It allowed them to explore the impacts of extreme possibilities and decisions on the Marvel Universe. And I think that it's a helpful way for us to examine this story arc in Exodus.

Not what if Moses became a zombie? Or what if Moses became Captain Jerusalem? But what if this was the end of the story? What if this was more of how the story of our faith went?

Just like how we see pieces of our story from today. In Hudson Taylor's life, we see pieces in another story. 2000 Years ago, Jesus was sent to an oppressed people. He came down to Earth being born in the likeness of men to a virgin name Mary. He was sent to a people oppressed by sin and by death to mankind.

And he lived a perfect life. He began his ministry and he preached to the people. The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news. To the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed and to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

And the people responded with excitement, or at least many of them did. They followed him by the thousands, watching him perform miracles, cast out demons, heal the sick and crippled. They listened to him teach, and they watched him as he lived out his ministry for three years. But then the unimaginable happened. The tension and the threats against him reached a climax.

And one of the men closest to him betrayed him. Another of his closest followers denied him three times. And he was handed over by the leaders of the very religion he claimed to be God of to pagans so they could murder him under false accusations. And so this Jesus of Nazareth was nailed to a cross, the worst, most humiliating form of capital punishment possible. And the accusation hurled against him.

That sums up the question being asked by so many. Someone called out against him. He saved others. Let him save himself. If he is the Christ of God, his chosen one, if he really is the Son of God, he will save himself.

If God is really at work in this man, if he is the Son of God, he surely won't die like this. But he did. Jesus died on the cross and was buried in the tomb. I'm sure Peter, James and John and the others were asking the same question Moses did in our passage today. Why have you allowed things to go this way?

Why did you choose us and ask us to leave everything behind if it's just for things to end up like this? You came and you proclaimed freedom for all people who believe. But now you're dead and no one is free. And so here lies the greatest what if of the Christian faith, probably the greatest what if in all of history. What if that was the end of the story of Jesus?

Well, then everything else, everything our lives as Christians are built on, is meaningless. We are wasting our lives following a man who couldn't even save himself. But that's not the case, for Jesus Christ has risen from the dead. He is alive. His plan wasn't to save himself from dying on the cross, but to die on the cross so we all could be saved from our slavery to sin and death.

And he proved he had the authority to free us by not staying dead and by rising from the dead three days later. And this is such good news. As Christians, we believe in a God who keeps his promises, who has the power and authority to do everything that he says he will. Our God has Power over every other ruler, nation, spiritual power or false God. He demonstrated that in the story of Moses through the ten plagues he brought against Egypt, bringing about the freedom of Israel.

He showed that by bringing them to the promised land. He showed that by David's rule as king, defeating all his enemies. He showed that by bringing the exiles back to Jerusalem in Ezra and Nehemiah. And most of all, he showed that in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord. So that leaves us with the question that I hope everyone here who doesn't yet follow Jesus with their whole life will deeply consider.

What if all of this is true? What if Jesus really is who he says he is? What if you say yes to following Jesus? Now get back to our passage. So what if Moses let the story end here in Exodus 5?

What if he refused to believe that God was a God who fulfilled his promises and has power and authority over even the Pharaoh of Egypt, someone who considered himself to be a son of the gods? Well then Moses would not be the person God would use to set his people free. God would still accomplish his accomplish his plans and purposes how he wills. And if Moses let his story end in Exodus 5:23 where we left off today, his story might be over, but God's story would not have been. Even if Moses doesn't believe God is in control and has power and authority over all things, it is still true.

We don't ever need to ask what if God doesn't answer his promises? Or what if God doesn't fulfill his plans and accomplish his purposes? Because we know he will and we know he does. We see that in Jesus and we see that all throughout the Bible.

Moses continues to wrestle with this throughout his whole life and leadership. He continues to question God when things go wrong and to doubt. But he also grows in his trust and faithfulness. And every time he stops and asks what if of God, he still continues to choose to follow God. Aaron preached on the end of Moses life a few weeks ago and we know that although there were many bumps along the road, Moses story ended with him walking with God.

Despite all the what ifs along along the way, in the end he is counted among the righteous. So let's loop back to our first story. Hudson Taylor we left him in a rough spot. Ministry was hard. Most of the nation of China was unreached by the Gospel.

He wasn't accepted by the people of China and is now back in England recovering from severe illness. He probably asked the question, what if I don't go back? What if this is the end of my story. When he was 17, he strongly felt sent by God to the people of China. But now that reality is setting in, the what ifs feel a lot bigger and more tempting to give into.

But he didn't. Well, in England, Taylor translated the New Testament into Chinese and founded cim, the China Inland Mission. An organization dedicated to recruiting missionaries to live like locals, travel inland and witness to unreached peoples in China. He then returned and in all the difficulty continued to trust in God. He wasn't trusting that God would make his life great or that he would have a comfortable and healthy life, but trusting that as a Christian he was sent by God to make disciples of all nations and that this is Jesus way of life and it is the best life.

Taylor's wife died and he suffered many other hardships. But in each what if moment he pressed into his ministry. CIM continued to grow and reach more and more of the lost in the China. Proclaiming the gospel everywhere and seeing lives be transformed. CIM and Hudson faced much more persecution, the deaths of many missionaries and much opposition.

And still the gospel went forth. In each moment of doubt, Hudson Taylor continued to say yes to Jesus invitation to be a witness to the lost. The way Hudson Taylor responded to the what ifs led to thousands of people becoming Christians in China. It led to the unreached peoples of inland China receiving the gospel. It led to missionaries living among the people they were witnessing to and the founding of an organization that completely changed the spiritual climate of China.

CIM is now known as omf Overseas Missionary Fellowship and Organization. Organization that still exists today to bring the gospel to unreached peoples in all of East Asia. So what if Hudson Taylor had let his story end in England in 1859? Well, large parts of China would have been unreached with the gospel. God could still have used someone else.

But Hudson's meant yes. Hudson saying yes in that what if meant that he got to be the one used by God to accomplish his purposes for that time in China.

So it's great that Moses and Taylor were both faithful in their what if moments. But what does that look like for us anytime we find ourselves in a spot considering if some aspect of following Jesus is worth it. We are in a little what if moment and those add up that might be with areas of holiness. Gossiping with others because it's fun, everyone else is doing it. It helps you to engage and fit in with your friends.

Really in that moment we're saying what if Jesus call to gossip isn't what's best? Or what if Jesus call to not be drunk or sexually pure or to love those who hate us isn't the best way to live, especially in a place like Madison. It's pretty easy to hate those we disagree with in today's culture. I think one of the ways that I wrestle with this a lot is with money. Cassie and I try to give generously, but it is so easy for me to not think about the money that God has given to us and how it could be used.

We have the things that we give to and we put those things first. But I can easily become entitled to the rest of my money and not take a step back to think how I could use it for his kingdom. Instead of make some part of my house nicer or buy something I've been wanting for a while, I need to step back and ask what if God's desire for me to use my money for his kingdom is the better way to live and then decide if I'm actually going to live that out and figure out what that means. In times past when we have done this well, it's meant giving money we saved for a vacation to something better, or giving away cars that would have been nice to have or to sell, or using date money to take a friend we were trying to share Jesus with to a sports game. We still fail at this a lot and I often catch myself not believing that Jesus way is best and wanting to use the rest of my money for me.

Another huge one for all of us is with our call to share the gospel. Hudson Taylor took this very seriously. So should we?

It's really easy for me to let date nights with my wife or house projects or comfort or just my busyness in general get in the way of this one. What if Jesus didn't really mean for all of us to share the gospel? Or what if it's not going to do anything anyway? None of my friends or neighbors will ever believe they're too far gone. Jesus calls each and every one of us who call ourselves Christians to be ambassadors of his gospel to the people around us, and we need to actually live that out.

When we seriously try to live out the full call of a Christian, we will be faced with difficulties and lots of what ifs. If you use your money missionally for God's kingdom, you will have less money to spend on yourself and you might find yourself asking what if this isn't better?

If you really are trying to witness to your neighbors and the people around you, you might be in awkward situations. You might get anxious, you'll probably have people dislike you, and you'll definitely have less time to spend doing whatever you want to do.

You'll definitely have less time to spend doing whatever you want to do if you're using it to love your neighbour well. And you'll probably ask, what if this isn't the best way to live? That's what Moses asked. Why did you ever send me? What if trying to go to Pharaoh isn't the best thing for your people?

What if obeying you and speaking before Pharaoh wasn't a good decision? One thing that I can assure you, God's plan for Israel was far better than for them to remain in slavery. Jesus way is better. God keeps all his promises and as creator of all things, he has designed not only us, but the best way of life. And we should be faithful in those what ifs to follow him, even when we don't understand or experience it in a way that makes sense to us.

So Moses was stuck in a what if at the end of our chapter. The Israelites are stuck in a what if at the end of our chapter. And then we'll resolve that next week. But for all of us, I have only one application point as we consider where we might be falling short in our what ifs in not living life fully in the truth that Jesus way of life is the best way and the only good way. So I want you to actually write down this question and in your car, on your way home or after church or at some point later today, I want you to discuss this question with your spouse or a Christian friend.

Where am I not trusting that Jesus plan is best?

Where am I not trusting that Jesus plan is best? And as you discuss that, I want you to decide like what are those what ifs that you're living in right now? And then decide on something to actually do about it.

Over the next few weeks, we will get to see what Moses does. We'll get to see how Moses responds in these what ifs. Let us all as Red Village, trust Jesus and follow him in all of our what ifs Also. Please pray with me, dear Jesus, Heavenly Father, we thank you that you keep all your promises.

God, we thank you that you have power and authority over all people, all rulers, all spiritual powers. Jesus, we thank you that we can trust you that you will fulfill all of your promises. We can trust you that your way of life is the best way. Jesus, please help us in our what ifs. Please help us as we're doubting that your way is the best way to press in.

Lord, in our conversations, help to reveal the ways that we aren't trusting you and your plan for our lives.

Help us to follow you more, to trust you more, and to live our lives more conformed to Jesus.

Jesus, please bless these conversations and give us wisdom in how we should live. We thank you for your word and we thank you that we get to gather here this morning. Pray all these things, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, amen.

All right, well, beautiful singing and happy Father's Day to the fathers here. And it's a very important job that you have. And I hope that it's something that you're really striving to do faithfully and to really serve your children well in many ways, but particularly by pointing them to the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Okay, so if you have a Bible with you, if you turn on to the Gospel of Luke, there texture studies will be Luke 8, 26, 39. If not mentioned.

My name is Aaron. I'm the preaching pastor here. And we're really glad that you're with us today. So Luke 8, verses 26 to 39. And if you don't have a Bible with you, that's on the pew Bible, it's on page 500.

There we go, page 505. And if you're visiting. So we do a style of preaching called expository preaching. So I'm going to read us the text and I'm going to pray and then we're going to walk ourselves right back through the text. So if you open your Bible, please keep your Bible open.

Okay, so Luke 8, 2639, please hear the words of our God. That's what Luke wrote. Then they sailed to the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite of Galilee. When Jesus had stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had demons. For a long time he had worn no clothes and he had not lived in a house but among the tombs.

When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him and said with a loud voice, what have you to do with me, Jesus, son of the most High God, I beg you, do not torment me. For he commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For many a time it had seized him. He was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles. But he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the desert.

Jesus then asked him, what is your name? And he said, legion, for many demons have entered him. And they begged him to not command them to depart into the abyss. Now a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him to let them enter these. So he gave them permission.

Then the demons came out of the man and entered. The pigs and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned. When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled and told the city and the country. Then people went out to see what had happened. And they came to Jesus, found the man from whom the demons had Gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed in his right mind.

And they were afraid. And those had seen it told them how the demon possessed the man had been healed. Then all the people of the surrounding country of the garrisons asked him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him.

But Jesus sent him away, saying, return to your home. Declare how much God has done for you. He went away proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him. Okay, so that's God's word for us this morning. Would you please pray with me?

Lord, I pray that you would bless this time. Please help me to be a good communicator of your word. Please help me to not stumble. Please keep me from error. Help me to speak truth.

Lord, please be with the congregation. Please give them ears to hear what you're saying to us through your spirit, through the power of your word. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Okay, so if you've been here at Red Village for some time, you know that we're in the midst of a long sermon series to the Gospel of Luke, which is a series that we hit the brakes on a few weeks back for us to look at a portion of the life of Moses found in the book of Exodus, where we have been looking at Moses life from his birth to the start of his ministry, a ministry of leading God's people out of the bondage of slavery in Egypt to take them on a journey to the promised land.

You should remember that from birth to the start of this ministry actually covered like 80 years of Moses life. Now today as we gather together, we're actually hitting the brakes on that sermon series on Moses, mainly because Ben, who is scheduled to preach today from the end of Exodus 4, which is a kind of a wild passage, got sick at the end of the week, so unable to talk, therefore unable to preach. So we're hitting the brakes on that series of Moses to reengage in the Gospel of Luke, to go back where we left off in our study there before. Lord willing, we will once again hit the brakes on Luke next week to re engage in Exodus. We were planning to be for the next few weeks after that before, yes, we hit the brakes on Exodus, the life of Moses, to reengage the end of summer back in Luke.

That's where we're going today. So because it's been a little bit since we've been in Luke, I thought Today might be a good for us to maybe spend a little bit of time reminding us where we've been in this study, particularly maybe some of the strong information of the Gospel of Luke. So the Gospel of Luke is one of four accounts that have in Scripture of the life, death, resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. So there's Matthew, Mark and John being the other accounts. This account to be referred to as Luke is because it's written by a man named Luke, who we see in other parts of scripture was a doctor as well as a missionary and it seems likely he was a Gentile, which refers to someone who is not Jewish.

Where it seems likely that Luke came to faith through the ministry of the Apostle Paul. Sometime around the details of Acts 16, which you may remember Acts is also written by Luke. So it says part two, Acts is part two of a two volume work. So Gospel of Luke 18. In Acts there are two books of two volumes of this basically same work which we see in beginning of Luke was written first to a man named Theophilus, who Luke addressed in chapter one as like most excellent Theophilus.

Now we don't know anything about this man, but because of his name, Theophilus was most likely a Gentile as well. And because he referred to as most excellent Theophilus seems likely he was a man of importance, of influence, maybe some type of political or military leader. And as Luke wrote to Theophilus, the contents of the book where we can seem to conclude is that Theophilus either was like strongly considering the Christian faith, strongly considering putting his trust in Jesus, or that perhaps maybe he was like brand new to the faith and now Luke is trying to like disciple him in the faith through this book. Furthermore, for the sake of review, as Luke wrote this book or this letter to Theophilus, he did so with the desire to give an orderly account of things that took place concerning the life, the ministry, the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which Luke did by interviewing eyewitnesses, those who were like physically present when the Lord Jesus walked the earth in his incarnation. It seems likely probably would interview other Gospel writers, particularly Matthew and Mark.

It seems likely that Luke also would have interviewed like disciples who were there for the public ministry of Jesus, including our text today. To me it seems likely that Luke even interviewed Jesus's mother Mary, among others, who Luke interviewed who were present during the life of Christ, maybe even the man in our text today who's on the receiving end of incredible life changing work of Jesus. Perhaps Luke like interviewed him to get this story and there's obviously a lot more I could say here, but before we dive back in, just let me remind us where we were when we stopped our study, when we hit the brakes. So if you may remember, this is several weeks back, but we were in chapter eight and we walked through a story where Jesus got into a boat with his disciples and they were set to cross the Sea of Galilee, seemingly headed to where our text tells takes place today. But as you may remember, as he started to cross the sea, a huge storm basically came out of nowhere, a storm while Jesus was actually asleep in the boat.

And at first, disciples tried to like get through the storm on their own strength, their own wisdom, their own experience, their own power. However, in time, they realized there's really nothing they could do to save themselves from the storm. They were helpless, they were hopeless. They needed Jesus to save them, which is really the truth for all of us in every situation that we're in, particularly when it comes to our own sin. We can't save ourselves.

Only Jesus can save Pastors last time the disciples finally realized, accepted their helpless, hopeless state. They turn to Jesus, they woke him up, whereas he got up, calm the storm and saved him simply by the power of His Word, which caused the disciples to marvel at Jesus, to have like great fear and awe as they began to worship him and the power that he alone holds. As mentioned today, we're going to pick up where we left off, where Jesus and disciples are still in the boat, still headed to the other side of the lake, where once again our text today we can see the power of Jesus Christ on display. Power that once again will cause others to marvel at him and worship him, which I hope is true for all of us here this morning. Okay, so if that was an intro, please look back with me at the text starting in verse 26.

And so he's going to walk right back through. So we see that after Jesus calmed the storm, so he and his disciples were still in the boat, setting sail for the country of the Gerasenes, which is the opposite side of the Sea of Galilee. As mentioned, this seemed to be like the intended destination when they got in the boat. In the previous text, our passage today, as the ship landed on the shore, we see that Jesus got up out of the boat and Luke tells us that he stepped out of the boat onto the land, which for us, at least for me, you know, Luke including this detail of Jesus, like getting out of the boat and as it hit shore, stepping on the land, to me this almost feels like, almost like an unnecessary Detail for Luke to include, of course, Jesus did that. That's what you do when the boat comes ashore.

You get up and you walk on on land. But for me, I actually think the more I thought about it, I think this is actually kind of important detail, important enough for Luke to write. Write it down here for us to read. And the reason being is this country on the other side of the leak of Lake of Galilee, the Sea of Galilee, where Jesus landed. So this was Gentile land, a place where no culturally respectable Jew would ever like intentionally go.

So I think Jesus like actively getting out of the boat into Gentile land. This is actually significant. This, this is a detail that Luke wants us to see. I think it's important for maybe a couple related reasons. So as mentioned at the start, so Luke was a Gentile.

Theophilus, who this book was written to, most likely was a Gentile. In our text today and really throughout the Gospel of columns, we see Jesus continuing to minister to Gentiles. Now for us, this might not seem like a big deal, but we need to remind ourselves the incredible tension behind between Jews and Gentiles in this time period. So this is significant. This is Jesus showing that he's calling Jews and Gentiles to himself.

This is part of the reason of the plan of why Christ came from heaven to save Jews and Gentiles. May remember way back in the early parts of our study of Luke Luke 2, on the first Christmas, the angels let the shepherds who were out watching their flock by night know that Christ was born. Remember how they sang the heavenly chorus like glory to God in the highest and on earth, like all people on earth, peace among whom he is well pleased. Then a few days after his birth, you may remember as Jesus presented at the temple, there was righteous Simeon met the Christ child and then he declared this. For my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.

So again, this here Jesus getting out of the boat, actively getting out of the boat in Gentile land. This is important. This is Jesus showing how he is actively fulfilling the Scriptures so that Jew Gentile, all nations of the earth would be blessed through him. So all nations would taste of his salvation, which is something promised in the Old Testament scripture. Promise that is even present during the life of Moses.

Second, Jesus doing this, getting out of the boat to fill the scripture kind of mentioned this kind of passing. But this is, this is intentional by Jesus. This is part of his plan he was intentionally seek them out. Meaning this wasn't a Gentile who just so happened to be around Jesus, who just so happen to be hearing Jesus proclaim about the kingdom of God, and so he just so happened to come by faith? No.

So again, this is Jesus intentionally with thought, with plan, going to the Gentiles to proclaim his kingdom, intentionally sailing to Gentile land, intentionally getting on a boat, intentionally walking out on the land to go and minister now for us with application. This is important for us to see Jesus do here one to remind us this is actually how it always works. Jesus is the one who actually intentionally comes to us like we do not go and seek after Him. He is the one who in his grace and his kindness seeks after us. And that was that.

If we're going to be Christ, like this is something we too must do, right? We must be intentional to make plans to intentionally go to others, to minister to others, to tell others about Jesus and His saving power, even if those others might be not respectable for us to minister to. If you're kind of wondering maybe a very practical way to apply this, it's actually kind of the hope that we have for like these summer socials that we're trying to get going here, where all of us are intentionally making plans to go to others, to bring others into our lives with hopes that we can love on others with the love of Jesus Christ. Back to the text, keep going. As Jesus gets out of the boat, we see that there is a strange, odd welcoming for him.

With odd actually being a theme that we're going to circle on the rest of the passage where we see in the text that there's a man from the city who had demons there to meet our Lord. Now we don't know how the man got the demons. So in scripture it appears that for some they're under the power of demons because like of sin, where they like open up doors for the demonic to enter in. But also maybe appears that sometimes some are under the power of demons because of like situations that they're in, perhaps because they were born in some type of occult type practices in the area. Although I will say if one is a Christian, while a demonic can have like influence over us in ways that they can deceive us, demons have like no power in terms of some type of like possession.

Like the man in the text had he was possessed by demons, says if you are a Christian, you have the spirit of Christ living inside and his power is the only power of possession over you where you are sealed to Be his. So we don't know how the man got the demons, but at the start of the story, we do know that he was not someone who is trusting in Christ. And I think from our vantage point, seem really unlikely ever to do so. This man was seemingly way too far gone to ever come to faith in Jesus Christ. Well, keep going to the text.

Because of demonic activity in this man's life, this man is clearly being tortured by. By the demons. And he was not in his right state of mind. So we read in the text that for a long time he was, like, removed from society where he, like, walked around having, like, no clothes, like, literally running around, like, naked. Where Mark's gospel tells us that this man was like, like cutting himself, crying out in constant pain.

We're seeing our text in Luke that he was homeless. He was simply living among the tombs. Not for everyone, us, not everyone we meet who's not in the right minds. Not because they're being like, tortured or possessed by a demon. But I also think we should not be, like, quick to eliminate a possibility of that which actually circle back to that at the end, verse 28, even though this man was not in his right mind, this man still had enough of his mind that when he saw Jesus step out on the land, he recognized him and he cried out to him, falling at the feet of Jesus.

Not for us already. This story is, like, a little odd to us, you know, this odd welcoming that Jesus received from this man. Well, buckle up, it's going to get more odd. Middle of the verse, we see what the man said to Jesus, which he said with a loud voice, what do you have to do with me, Jesus, son of the Most High God, I beg you, do not torment me now. Why?

This is odd, at least to me. I mean, it's not necessarily. It's odd because this man is wondering if Jesus came to torment him in ways like maybe the demons were also tormenting him. Rather, it's odd to me, it appears the reason why the man was able to recognize Jesus as the son of the Most High God was because of the demons. And while it's hard to know who is actually speaking here, there's some debate within church history.

To me, I actually think the demons are speaking through this man to Jesus. As the demons are worried Jesus came to torment them. This is pretty odd. Verse 29 we read. For he, Jesus, had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man.

For many times, the demon, or better said, demons, had seized the man. As the demons tortured and tormented this man as he ran naked, living among the tombs. The text, as this man was being possessed by the demons, like he was doing really odd things. So we see in the text that others would like capture him and they place him under guard, presuming to protect him maybe for himself, but more likely to protect him from, from others. And as they captured him, our text tells us they would like bind him with chains and shackles.

But seemingly through some type of like demonic power and strength, the man were able to like break the bonds. The text tells he would like then flee, driven by the demon into the desert, which for this man this had to be just an awful, awful life to live. There's a reason why he spent his life like crying out, in pain, in torment, awful. Let me also mention here, just, let's just consider what this man would have been like for those who are around him, who lived around him in the region. I mean, they had to be like terrified of this individual.

I mean, they would go great lengths to avoid him for many, many reasons. If no respectable Jew would talk to a Gentile, no respectable person would dare engage with this man.

Yet that is what the Lord Jesus is doing here in the text. Verse 30. After demons spoke to Jesus or the man, we see Jesus respond back by asking, demons, what's your name? Only for the demon to respond back as they said, Legion. The word legion, this is a military term of the day to describe the military unit of like 6,000 men.

For some they interpret this name Legion like Exactly to mean 6,000 demons were present tormenting this man, which is possible interpret that way. But most think this is actually a name. Maybe it's more symbolic to communicate just a vast number, a large number of demons were present and most things how the verse ends, for many demons had entered or injured him. Now for us, whether that's an exact number, it's more of symbolic number. The main point is this was an incredibly tormented man with many powerful demons who had possessed his life.

However, as powerful as the many demons were, as Legion was in the text, even they understood what they were up against when it came to Jesus Christ, the son of the Most High God. As they were confronted by the power of Jesus in the text, Legion understood they were no match. And so we see them begin to like, plead with the Lord Jesus, which even that feels a little odd to me. Demons pleading, although as we keep going, it does make sense why they would plead and beg with Jesus as they begged him to not command him to depart into the abyss, which here the abyss seems a Reference to, like, a place of death, justice and judgment that Satan and all of his demons would be forever banished to when the Lord returns to judge the living and the dead. So while it does feel odd that demons are begging Jesus, it does make sense.

Even demons have fear of the judgment of God to fall upon them. Which, by the way, on this side, if you're not a Christian, say this humbly, you should fear as well. I want to say this with my own pleading to you to turn to Jesus Christ, the one who saves us from judgment. Verse 32. As the demons pleaded with the Lord Jesus, we see that there's a large herd of pigs nearby, feeding on the hillside.

And this detail here of the pigs, this underscores that this was a gentile land. In the Old Testament dietary law, the Jewish people were forbidden to eat pork. So this is a very gentile setting of this text. We see the text that the demons pointed out. The large herd of pigs began to beg Jesus that rather than sending them into the abyss of judgment and justice, they begged that they could enter into the pigs instead.

To which Jesus actually gives them permission to do. Now, why did Jesus give them permission? Was this like an act of, like, grace and mercy on demons? I don't think so. I actually think this is an act of grace and mercy, not only on the man who's being tortured by the demons, but even like the Gentile herdsmen who are on the scene and others who are about to hear about this powerful work of Jesus.

Get to that more in just a bit. But back to demons. Jesus gave them permission to enter. The pigs the demons came out of. The man entered into the pigs, causing the herd to, like, rush down the steep bank into the lake where they were drowned.

Which there's some irony here if you see where the lake is basically an abyss, and scripture often waters a picture of judgment. So while perhaps the demons are spared that day from the final abyss, they still ended up in judgment. Now, that's all this was happening. If you take your eyes to verse 34, the herdsmen, they're still there, and they're watching this incredible, odd scene take place. And if this story feels odd to you and me, imagine being there, being them.

What started out just like a very normal day, minding their own business, simply watching the herd of pigs. And now all this in the passage. As the herdmen saw this odd scene play out, they did the thing that I think we all would do. They got out of Dodge as quickly as they could. They fled the scene.

I'm sure Running as fast as they could. However, they fled. The scene we see did not flee in silence. Rather they fled, doing so in ways that they're telling everyone in the city, throughout the country, of all the odd things that have just taken place. Just guessing.

For those who heard this from the herdsmen, I'm sure they felt the herdsmen had lost their minds. Clearly they were delusional. Just a little bit too much time around the hogs, too far isolated from others. However, if that was the case, there was enough that the herdsmen said that piqued the interest of the people. As they heard the report, curiosity still kind of grabbed them, maybe in ways like the old freak shows at the circus when you draw like huge crowds.

35. After hearing all these odd things, the people decide what they need to do. Let's go see what happened. So they leave and they arrive on the scene. And as they arrive, they find Jesus with the man, this man with the many demons who I'm sure they all knew was mentioned before, all would avoid at all cost.

But now they see this man with Jesus very different than they had before. Now he's sitting at the feet of Jesus, all the demons are gone, he's clothed and amazingly he's now in his right mind a complete radical life change. Which I did wonder for the people at the scene if perhaps this is like the oddest thing of all to see this one who is so far gone now there in his right mind with Jesus because of the power of Jesus. As people saw this, the text tells us they became afraid. Now for me, all the things took place.

A demon, talking demons rushing into a herd of pigs who's proceeded to rush down into the lake to drown. Like this life changing reality that Jesus gave this man, this is what grips their hearts with fear, this and their hearts were gripped with fear, I'm sure being wondering, like what happened? How did this come to be? So verse 36, they went to those who were there who saw all this take place. They asked them again, like, okay, say it again like, how did all these events take place?

Yeah, yeah, sure, we can do that. So we know every good story starts out with the word. So there we were, right? So there we're just normal day hanging out with the pigs by the cliff. They're just eating like they always do.

We're sitting there, we see the boat land ashore. We see this one get out of the boat, one named Jesus particularly, grabs our eye. And from there all this happened. And this is why you see like the dead pigs floating in the lake. And this is why the demon possessed man is now healed in his right mind.

It's all because of Jesus, this man who the demons declared to be the son of the Most High God. And as the people heard all this, they became even more afraid of Jesus and the power and the authority that he has, even over demons, the power and authority that Jesus has to change someone's life. So rather than falling down in worship of Jesus, verse 36 or 37, take your eyes there, all the people from all over the surrounding country of the garrisons came together and with one voice they asked Jesus to depart from them as they were seized by fear of him.

This story here, this odd story, this is actually really sad here, maybe even this feels just odd. I mean, here's this group. They heard these incredible things about Jesus Christ. They just saw all that Jesus did for this man changed him. As mentioned, I think even like the drowning pigs was an act of grace for these people, as God in his power is like taking things from them in ways that should have led them to see how in Jesus they would have all that they need.

However, rather than responding by faith to Jesus, by coming to him to sit at his feet like this man was sadly, oddly, they rejected him. They pushed Jesus out of their presence, giving Jesus like even out of the surrounding country, just get away, get out of here. Which by the way, is also a warning for those who may be here, have yet to come to Christ. This is part of my plea to you. As you hear about the Lord Jesus, you hear about all the things he has done, particularly in his death and resurrection.

As you see the testimony of others who have had their lives changed by Jesus Christ. And maybe even you're wondering, like, why are all these things being taken from me? See these things as a grace in your life. Do not follow the example of the people in the text and push Jesus away. Rather follow the example of the man, the once demon possessed man, and come to Jesus, trust in Jesus, cling to Jesus, worship Jesus.

The end of verse 37, as the people rejected the Lord, we see it, in short, Jesus, like dust off his feet, gets back in the boat, sets sail across the lake to return back to where he started at the beginning of chapter 8. However, in verse 38, as the Lord is making his way off of dry land back onto the boat, we see this once demon possessed man pursue the Lord in ways. He started to beg and plead with Jesus, but this time a very different begging and pleading from what the demons had earlier in the text as they begged Jesus to allow them to flee from his presence here. This man who had his life changed, begged and pleaded that Jesus would not leave his presence, they say, begging that he get in the boat with Lord. However, in the text, even though the man begged and pleaded, prayed to Jesus that he could come with him, we see in the passage that Jesus actually had different plans for this man, plans to use him in really great sweet ways.

So Jesus, we see, sent the man away, saying to him, in verse 39 of the passage which ends our text, man, I'm telling you, return home. Yeah, that very home that you've been away from a very long time. And now I want you to return home in your right mind and declare to everyone there how much God has done for you. Tell them about me.

Tell them how I change your life.

Be my witness.

Which at the start of the story, this would have felt so odd. This naked, homeless demon possessed man who everyone was afraid of, who everyone would avoid, who was a menace to society, would be changed so much by Jesus Christ. In short order, he basically become like a missionary or an evangelist who would be used by the Lord to declare his glory to others.

Some of you may remember last spring we had a short little sermon series titled Unlikely Evangelist that we see in the Bible. This man, he certainly was that as the Lord commissioned him to be his witness. Which ends our passage with him going away, joyful obedience to the call of the Lord, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus has done for him, for us. That's where we're going to end this odd story this morning. But before we close, I just want to give us just maybe a few things just to ponder today and this week from this text.

So first, in light of this passage, friends, it actually would be odd to not recognize the reality of spiritual warfare and the demonic in this present life. Now, this does not mean that we blame everything negative that happens, like, on the demons or is like, because of the devil. We're almost like there's a demon hiding under every rock ready to attack us. But scripture is also clear that there's a spiritual war at hand. There are demons on the attack.

And the reality is that until we come to Christ, we actually are following after the prince. The power of the air, the spirit is now at work on the sons of disobedience.

So it would be odd for us to deny the reality of the spiritual warfare. So in Luke's Gospel, there are actually multiple passages, some we've already gone through on the demonic. So not just this one, multiple passages So I keep saying it's odd for us if we don't recognize spiritual warfare, spiritual warfare that is at hand. This is why the scriptures, New Testament book Ephesians tells us we're to be diligent, to put on the armor of God. That's why we're to be mindful, like sober mindful or sober minded, so we don't fall into, like, spiritual traps.

Spiritual traps often, like, divide us or to like, sinfully question and doubt God and His goodness in our life. We're to seek to build each other up in love. We're to be intentional, to hide God's Word in our hearts. This is how we fight spiritual war. By the way, the best way to do it is honestly just to be here every Sunday at church, actively engaging with God and His Word and with others in the church family.

I actually think a lot of spiritual warfare that's there is trying to keep us, or at least keep us away or at least unengaged, like on Sunday mornings. Let me also mention before I move on on this note of spiritual warfare and the reality of demons. So if you're looking for a good book to read this summer, I just recommend to you the screwtape letters by C.S. Lewis. So it's a fictional book, but I think it's actually really helpful just to consider the spiritual war at hand.

That's the first thing. Second, the work of Jesus in His text should feel odd. Not odd in terms of like, almost like grotesque in how the Lord is at work, but odd at just how different Jesus is from us. We're in the text, we see how different, odd he, his power is than ours. It's so far greater than we could ever imagine that here a legion of demons is terrified before the Lord Jesus Christ, his power, his authority over them.

This is an odd power. This is not a power like we have. So much different. Likewise, it's not just his power that's odd, different from us, but so is his compassion and his mercy and his love, which are also hard for us to comprehend. So far different, odd from us.

By the way, for me, this actually sticks out the most to me from this passage. Just the compassion, the mercy, the love that Jesus had toward this man, this man that everyone else wanted to avoid, this menace to society who seemed too far gone. Yet Jesus got in a boat, traveled across the shore to come to him with his overwhelming compassion, mercy, love. According to his intentional plan, Jesus came to save him, friends, in the most glorious ways. His compassion, the mercy, the love of Jesus.

It's Just odd to us. Odd that Jesus would do this for a sinner. Which, by the way, was even more gloriously odd concerning Jesus Christ and the depths by which he would go to save sinners. It's not simply that he's like, willing to cross the lake, but in time, Jesus was actually nailed to a cross. We're in his great compassion and love and mercy, where he would take on the punishment of our sin, the judgment of God in our place.

We're in his incredible love. He died for us, to call us to Himself, who were at enmity with him only for his great power to bring him back from the dead on the third day. So, yes, keep saying it. Odd story, no doubt. Odd on so many fronts, but that's kind of the point.

The oddness reminds us that Jesus is so gloriously different from us, which is why we have to be like the man in the text and worship him and long to be in the presence of Jesus Christ, which actually I invite you and plead with you to do again, even right now, to pour out your life in the worship of him, to make Jesus the greatest desire, the greatest treasure of your life, where you long to be in his presence. Which, by the way, when we're truly in our right mind, this is always where our desire will be. Last thing third. So if you're here and you have faith in Jesus, it would be odd to keep silent about him and the work that he has done in your life. And yes, as we tell others about Jesus, some will think we're odd for doing so, for believing in Him.

Like Eden, like Jesus in the text, they could reject us, push us away because of our witness. But church, Red Village for the sake of Jesus, for the good of others, let's be odd. Let's be like this man, and let us tell others what Jesus has done for us, how in his grace and in his power, he came to save us.

So by intentionally going to them, we go with the hope that they will have their life changed by the Lord Jesus as well, saved by Him. So for us, yesterday we hit the brakes in Exodus to get back to Luke. But if we once again hit the brakes on Luke, Lord willing next week to get back to Exodus. But church, may we never hit hit the brakes when it comes to the worship of Jesus Christ. May we never hit the brakes in our longing to be with him in his presence.

And may we never hit the brakes when it comes to our witness about him and what he has done in our life. Rather, may we always be intentional with these things. All of our days. Let's pray.

Lord, thank you that you are so far different than us.

And Lord, by the power of your spirit, I do pray that you would capture our hearts afresh this morning in the worship of you.

Lord, please stoke our affections for you.

Help us to long to be with you in your presence found in your word.

And Lord, please help us to be faithful, to testify to all those around of the work that you have done for us, not only on the cross and in the resurrection, but also the work that you've done in our own lives.

Or may we be faithful witnesses and may you use our witness to change the lives of many.

Pray so. In Jesus name, amen.

Thank you, guys. Appreciate it. Thank you so much. Beautiful music. Thank you again for letting us come and be a part.

Let me get this thing turned on. The. It's always fun. For 13 years we've been coming. I think it's 13 years we've been coming 600 miles north of where we live.

It's always 600 miles every time we do it through Illinois or Iowa. And to see our son and daughter in law who moved here for 12 months. So do the math on that. But I will say that we love Red Village. Becky and I do.

This is like our home church in Madison. It's the only church we've been to in Madison, but it's still our home church in Madison. And to see what God has been able to do over the last 13 years that we're aware of and to see. When we started, you were in a gymnasium or a cafeteria, I think in a high school, and they were setting up chairs and tearing down sound equipment. It was pretty amazing.

And then you bought this building and renovated it and made it yours. And to see the changes. One of the things that we have noticed when Becky and I first started coming to Red Village, well, it was 13 years ago, so we were 13 years younger and so were a lot of you. And so there was maybe one or two other people that had gray hair in the congregation. And now I'm happy to say that your pastor is graying a little bit.

I'm okay with that. Scott, I know he was always, always appreciated seeing Scott and there was a couple other guys. It's like there's, there's one of us, there's. There's somebody else who remembers the 60s and in the 70s, we, you know, we kind of had a kindred spirit. But.

But it's also good to see so many people. I'm so excited to be here and, and to be able to see Demetrius get baptized. That was just. That's so cool. So we're looking forward to this.

This is Exodus chapter four this morning. If you want to open it up. There's a couple of things I want to do, but I want to say that of all the sermons, this will be a little bit different style. I understand the weight of the pulpit here and the teaching you all get on a regular basis. And Pastor Aaron, I'm so glad that they're a part of this church and get the teaching that they do.

You get incredible biblical solid teaching every week. And whether it's Aaron or one of the elders, I understand who I need to follow here. But. But we trust God for the moments and we trust God from the Holy Spirit to fill us. It'll be a little different style than you're used to.

I'll move a little bit more. I'm not going to jump around or anything, but I've already moved more than Aaron does, I think maybe. So if you catch me, I'll hug a little bit more than he does, too. And by the way, it's really nice to see the folks from Kansas with the Royals hat. So kudos.

So I'll be preaching to this side mostly, and the rest of you over here. You have to be tough to be a Royals fan. I'm just going to tell you, we're good about every 30 years. And I remember from the very beginning watching George Brett and all those others, so. So I know.

I realize that for those of you who are Cardinals fan, just remember 1985, we still got you on it. So that's all I had to say on that. So I know we have a lot to do this morning. I do want to say thank you, though. This is probably my favorite passage that I've preached here at Red Village.

Now, a couple of summers ago, I got to preach out of James that said, basically, if you have any kind of savings or anything, that it's all going to rot and it's all bad. And it was really an uplifting message and so fun. Really so fun. Last year, I think it was Psalms, and that was kind of a fun one. I appreciated that one.

This one is a lot of fun and really not necessarily just the whole passage. It's just such a fun passage. But I've titled it and I've got a title and a subtitle. All right. Now, the subtitle has really nothing to do with the message, but I will tell a story about it.

So the title of the message is Just Believe him, the Story of an Unlikely Hero of the Faith. Or the subtitle is Just Grab the Snake by the Tail. All right? And you'll hear a story about that. Some of you already have.

And I got to know. I got to keep my time here a little bit. Everybody says just preach what you feel like you need to preach. But I understand that, like my mom said when I went into the ministry, it's always better when you're visiting somebody if they're glad you came, not glad that you leave, Right? So that's my prayer this morning.

And truly I'm very humbled to be here. So I always say, I always get nervous preaching here. I Don't know why, but I do. And you all are so accommodating, so welcoming. I'm going to pray, ask the Holy Spirit to do it, and then we're going to jump into this.

So, Father, this morning as we. As we start, thank you for the privilege and the honor to be here this morning. Thank you for the family, for all of our family here. I'm so glad. Thank you for the friends that we've made over the years.

Thank you for this Pastor, for tia, for this family, for calling them here, for their faithfulness to step out in faith and do something different and something challenging. Thank you for this Word of God that we lift up, that it is living and active, and that it really divides and really come down into the very soul, into the marrow of who we are. He reveals things that need to be revealed. It encourages us, it convicts us, it challenges us.

Thank you for the Holy Spirit that says, I will be with you in every season. So when I'm anxious, I know I'm not alone. So, Lord, whatever we have brought to this place, this moment, through the last week or the last day or the last year, the last decade, whatever we brought to this place, if there are things that need to be left here, if there's things that we need to release to you, give us the courage and faith and the assurance that you will take those things from us and yet still love us deeply like you always do. So, Father, as we open up the word of God, may Lord Jesus, we indeed learn these things that you want us to learn today. In the name of Jesus, I do pray.

Amen. So I'm going to do a little bit different. I'm just going to read a passage. So we're not going to read. Stand and read the whole thing.

I don't want to do that, because then It'd be like 40 minutes, and that's a long time. But it's a little weird there. So we're going to. We're just going to read a little bit. I want to start with this.

And It's Exodus, chapter 4, verse 1 through 17. You've been learning about Moses, I hear, from the last three weeks, I guess. But this is just one of those sections that's really an amazing section, and it shows a very pivotal moment in Moses life. All right, so we want to think sometimes, for those of us who are old enough to remember when it came out, remember Charlton Heston in the movie the Ten Commandments? And Moses comes down and.

And, you know, it's really very dramatic and all that stuff. And we want to remember it like that. But somehow I think maybe it looked a little bit different in real life. I don't know. As a side note, just so we kind of get a context here on a personal level, I wasn't supposed to be a preacher.

Did you know that? I mean, I will at the end of this, but did you know that? Right. I'm not supposed to be a preacher. I was supposed to be a farmer.

That's what I grew up doing. I love that. I still do. In Northwest Missouri, where we have real soil, like you guys do up here, down where I'm from, in southwest Missouri, we just have rocks with dirt on it. But where I'm from, we have dirt with no rocks in it.

And that's what I wanted to do, and that's what I thought God was calling me to do. So I went through college, and I was about ready to graduate. I had about a year left. And I went to a. Had a plan.

I was gonna go do some graduate work and some genetics and do that kind of stuff, and. And I met Becky. That changed some plans, too. In a good way. Really got to keep that up, right?

In a very good way. And then. And then I went to a conference, and I felt like God was calling me to preach. And I thought, well, it's very dramatic. I mean, it's very emotional.

There were some people you may have heard of. There was, like, Billy Graham preached. He was an evangelist. I don't know if you know him or not. Elizabeth Elliot, Josh McDowell, Bill Bright, some of those cones like this.

Howard Hendricks, who's the one who taught Chuck Swindoll, some pretty heavy hitters. So I thought, well, Lord, this is pretty. This is just an emotional decision. I really don't want to follow it if it's emotional. I have a plan.

I have a plan. I know what I'm supposed to do. But I did pray. I said, lord, if this is the plan that you want me to do, then somehow encourage it. Somehow do some things, bring some people in to say, this is really what you're supposed to do, Mitch.

This is what God wants you to do. All right? And if it's not the plan, then just let that feeling fade out. And I would be good with that. I was really better with that side than I was going into this.

Cause I didn't really know anything about the Bible. Just to be fair. I knew hardly anything about it. I'd taken one New Testament class at. At Missouri State, and the guy was weird.

I'm Just gonna tell you he was out there. And I didn't even know anything about the Bible. And I thought, this guy's out there. But I took this New Testament survey and that was it. So I was like, lord, I don't know anything about the Bible.

I don't really have any history here. I don't have a lot. I had an uncle that was a retired minister, Methodist, and that's about it. And there. There was.

So I said, okay, I guess I'll do it. And I'd graduate and wait for Becky. And I thought, well, maybe I ought to learn something about the Bible, Aaron. I thought that was a good idea. So I go to seminary, and one thing leads to another, and then four and a half.

Four, not four and a half decades. Four decades in, a year later, here I am. And in a lot of ways, that's where Moses was. You see, he never signed up for this mission when he was growing up in Egypt. He didn't sign up to be the savior, to be the one who lead them out.

He didn't sign that up. That wasn't on his plan. And when he was. When he was about, you know, 48, about 40 years old, I suppose, something like that. And when he saw his people being abused, he went down and he murdered that guy, you know, and he did that.

And. And then he had to run away from Egypt. And he thought, well, I'm not going to be a preacher. I'm not going to be this prophet. I'm not going to be this person who leads it.

Moses didn't have that in his game plan. And then for four decades, for 40 more years, he's out there tending the sheep and tending the goats and the cattle. He's a farmer. He's a rancher, if you will, whatever you want to do. That context.

He was in that business, well established. He was about 80 years old when this happened. So. So he didn't sign up for that. So he could stand before you and say, I wasn't supposed to be this person.

You ever feel like that? I mean, I do. So when we read this, put it into the context of a person who is being called to do something that he never really thought he should do. All right, so let's go ahead and jump into it. So prior to verse or chapter four, he's out there minding his own business, out kind of in the.

In the wilderness, out there, out in the fields. He's a lot of people. He hears a voice. That's not a good thing if you're by yourself. You got to be careful there.

And then he hears it coming from, what, this bush? But the bush is on fire, and it's not being consumed. The. That's a little bit weird. Then the voice comes out and starts telling him this directive.

Hey, you need to go back to Egypt. And I don't know what you would do, but it would weird me out a little bit. All right? I would just feel. I don't think this is normal.

Right. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with this. And at this point, what we'd like to hear Moses say is, you know what, Lord? I hear your voice, and send my. Like, here I am.

Send me like it says, right? We would like for us to say our hero of the faith that's mentioned what, in seven verses of Hebrews 11, that great chapter on faith, we would like for our hero to have said first, you know what? I hear your call, Lord, and I'm heading my way. I'm going to go home, talk to the wife, pack up the minivan, and we're off. But that's not how it worked.

This was his response. Moses answered. God said, go. Well, behold, verse one. They will not believe me or listen to my voice.

For they will say, the Lord did not appear to you. That's the very first objection. They're not going to believe me. The Lord said to him, what is this in your hand? He said, it's a staff.

It's just a walking stick. You know what that is? It's a walking stick. It was a tool of the trade, what they used to guide and to move cattle and sheep and things like that. They were familiar with enough, the sheep and the livestock, you could direct them with that.

A lot of things like this. So what's that in your hand? It's a staff, right? Throw it on the ground. So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it.

Now, I have to be honest, at this point, this is not impressing me about Moses. First of all, he ran from the snake. All right? Now, some of you may do that. I don't know.

I mean, that's okay. But we grew up on the farm. The farm. We had a lot of rattlesnakes on our farm and a lot of snakes here and there. And, you know, kind of when you come up on a snake, they don't really like people.

So if you let them slither off, it's okay. And if you have to, you know, you can shoo it away if you have to you can do something else that you don't supposed to tell anybody about. So that's all right. All right, so. But he ran from it.

And I'm thinking, Moses, you're. You're kind of this guy out here. You're taking care of livestock. You're used to the rule and outside the nature, and you see a snake and you run from it. Now, to be fair, I've never had a stick turn into a snake, so I don't know what I would do.

But I did think when I first read this, not first, but this last time. And every time, it's like, really, it could have been better. But anyway, we'll move on. That's just a personal preference. He ran from it.

But the Lord said to Moses, put your hand. Put out your hand and catch it by the tail. So he put out his hand and he caught it by the tail. It became a staff in his hand. That they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.

So when I tell Becky, hey, I'm preaching on this passage, and she reads it and. And she reads this passage, and she reads this verse, and it says, put out your hand and catch it by the tail. This is what she said. Huh? I wonder who else would say something like that.

This story has nothing to do with the passage, but I gotta tell it because it's the subtitle. All right, so the subtitle is Just Grab the Snake by the Tail. In our yard, back when the boy. When Rob and Autumn were growing up, we had some snakes and stuff once in a while. And there was a nest of garter snakes that had, I don't know, back there by the barn.

And Becky has a very strict rule about snakes. If they're in the field behind her house, that's theirs, right? If they cross through the chain link fence, I don't know how they know the difference between there and here. But if they cross it, it's her territory. And she calls my name, and it's a snake call.

It's a whole distinct sound. And I know to take the proper tools. Now sometimes, and most of the time, I just try to relocate them, right? I just try to get them out. I know they're good snakes and they're harmless snakes.

If I have to, I'll get rid of it other ways because I like Becky more than I like the snakes or opinions. All right? So I'll do what I need to do this particular day. Rob's with me, and I grab a snake and I have it by the tail, right? And Rob says, hey, can I hold a snake?

To which I say, being a good father, you want to teach them these lessons, Scott? So being a good father said, sure, just grab the snake by the tail. That's exactly what I said. So he takes the snake by the tail. Now, the snake at this point did what snakes do, but he shouldn't have.

So the snake comes up and bites Rob right on the knuckle. Just like that. Just bites him. For no good reason, right? He had no reason to bite Rob.

Rob wasn't doing anything. Just holding him, so he bit it. So I had to do two things. I had to pry the snake off of Rob's knuckle. And I knew I was going to have to tell Becky.

And she did not blame the snake. She did not blame the snake. I did not bite Rob on the knuckle. I did not tell the snake to bite Rob on the knuckle. All he did was hold it like this, right?

So I pry the thing off because it was kind of tight. Pry it off, and I throw it off. And I know I'm gonna have to tell Becky, and I don't know how I'm gonna really do this and put a spin on it. That's good. And you just have to live through it.

And we have. Alrighty. So she looks it up and you can get lockjaw. And, I don't know, whatever that does, you know, you can't turn your neck and you don't talk and stuff. Rob wasn't a big talker when he was growing up, so if you wanted to ask him something and get an answer, he'd tell you.

But, you know, he figured you probably need to ask the question, right? So. So every once in a while, Becky would say, rob, say something. It's like, mom, I don't have lockjaw. All right?

That has really hardly anything to do with the message, I guess, guys, if you. If you pick up a snake by the tail and want to give it to one of your kids, you're on your own. I'm just telling you that you're going to have to respond to that one. He did fine. So no hospital visit that time, so.

And it still wasn't my fault. All right, let's move on. Verse 6. That was the first sign again. The Lord said to him, put your hand inside your cloak.

And more is like the. You know, the cloak like this, what they wore in the bag in the old Days. And then he did that, and he put his hand inside the cloak. And when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous, like snow. I don't know if any of you are in the medical field or if you've seen this.

There's still some leprosy around in the world and a little bit around, but it's more like gangrene if you've seen that. And it's awful. It's really awful. It's just a very terrible, terrible look, a terrible smell. It's just something that you just look at and you see, and it's hard to unsee that.

So that would be alarming. He comes in and his hand is full of leprosy. So that's going to be alarming. All right, so it's not done, then. And then he said, put your hand back inside your cloak.

So he put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, it was restored like the flesh. That's the second sign. If they will not believe you, God said, or listen to the first sign, they may believe this sign. Moses said, what if they don't believe me? That was his objection, right?

What if they don't believe me? Well, throw your staff on the. Throw your stick. Throw your staff on the ground. It's going to turn into a snake.

Grab the snake by the tail, it'll turn back into the snake. The stick, by the way, it won't bite you. And then do this. That's two signs. All right.

But knowing Moses, he said, all right, let's do another one. If they will not believe even these two signs in verse nine, listen to your voice. You shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry land. And the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the ground. Now, at this point, you would think, okay, God, Moses would say, okay, I have it now.

I trust you. I got it. I'm going to go. Because those are some pretty significant signs. I did not get that when I called into the ministry.

Maybe you did, Aaron. I don't know. Maybe you threw their stick on the ground. Hopefully, Tia wasn't around. I don't know what she is.

I know where Becky would be. Right? So Moses said to the Lord, oh, my Lord. Not eloquent either in the past or since. You have spoken to your servant.

But I am slow of speech and of tongue. What this possibly could mean is that he probably wasn't able to navigate both of those languages very well. It's been 40 years. It could mean that he just didn't feel comfortable talking in front of people. Whatever it was, he was hesitant.

Says, I know I'm going to have to talk to people and be in front of them. And it's a little bit scary. I mean, y' all are nice enough people. It's a little bit scary, right? And you know that some of you have this fear of doing this.

So he said, I'm slow of speech. I can't do it. He saw three signs. And he says, well, you know, I believe the signs, but I'm just not that quick with my words. And so the Lord said to him, who has made a man's mouth?

I mean, it seems like an easy one, doesn't it? Who makes him mute or deaf or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord. So, so God again, dialoguing with Moses, says this. Not only am I giving you the signs, not only am I telling you to do this.

And I know you're not confident in your abilities, but here, I made you. I created you. I put the words in your mouth. I put the ability for you to speak. I did this for you.

Trust me. And you would think, man, Moses, come on, you got this.

So he says in verse 12, now, therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth, and I will teach you what to speak. He doesn't even have to come up with the dialogue. He all he has to do is listen to God. God says, say this. And he says that it's not that hard, right?

But he says, and this is where it lands, O Lord, oh, my Lord, please send someone else. And God is distinctly calling him to this task. He is very intentional, with purpose, saying, moses, this is yours. And Moses doubles down. They're not going to believe me.

I can't speak. I'm going to be in front of the Pharaoh and all these leaders and all these people, and I'm going to embarrass myself or whatever. And then he finally says, just send someone else. This next passage is really interesting. I'm not going to get into it too much today.

But it says then in verse 14, then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses. And that's an interesting phrase. You don't see that a lot. And I'm not going to dive into it a lot, but I know the love of God didn't diminish, and the mercy of God didn't diminish, and the plan of God didn't diminish, and his promise to be with him wasn't gone. He was just Irritated.

Sounds like to me, he was giving Moses every chance to say yes. And then all of a sudden, he keeps saying no, right? So then he says, is there not Aaron, your brother, The Levite? He's 83. He's three years older.

I know that he can speak. Well, behold, he is coming out to meet you. And when he sees you, he will be glad. In his heart, he's going to be glad to see his brother. So you will speak with him or to him in verse 15 and put the words in his mouth, and I will be with your.

With your mouth and with his mouth, and will teach you both what to say. So Moses arguing with God, dialogue with God, saying, this is that, and this and that. No, I can't do that. I know you're calling me this. I know you're wanting me to do that.

I'm not able to do it. They're not going to believe me. They're going to doubt me. I'm not that quick. All that kind of stuff says, all right, I'll send both of you.

Really didn't end up that well. When you read the story throughout, he should have just went by himself. That worked, but there were some issues. And then verse 16, he says, he shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth, and you shall be as God to him. Now, what that really, I think infers is that God is going to speak to Moses, and Moses is going to tell God, Aaron.

So that's really. He wasn't saying, you're going to be God like the Creator, but you're going to be this. This mediator between me and him. And now take in your hand His. This staff with which you shall do the signs.

And then we start. So again, he didn't sign up for the mission. He was 80 years old when this happened. 80 Years old. I'm only 65.

I know I look 80, but I'm only 65, right? I'm only 65. So at this point in life, I'm. Here's what he was. He was saying, moses, I have another thing for you to do.

I have something else on my mind for you. Now, at this point, what we have to do is we have to ask the question, what do I do in this century with this story?

Because it's a little bit out there.

I know some shepherds, and I know some ranchers, and I know some farmers, and I know people who have cattle and sheep and some other things, horses. I don't know any who have heard God speak through a bush. I don't know that.

So what do we do with this? So one of the first things I think that we need to understand is that God knows you and he still calls you. He knows who you are, and he still calls you. Listen to what Moses did here. He kept reminding God his faults.

Do you ever do that? Whenever God's saying, I need you to do this, and you think, well, Lord, but do you remember back in. Well, you probably don't remember back in 1970 something, but back when and when I did this, and I'm just not that good. I mean, there are people who can speak much better than me, Lord. People who know the seminary or know the Bible much better.

So when I went to seminary, I didn't know anything. I really didn't. I did find out quickly that you don't ask questions to your professors to prove a point. All right? Because they saw through that, and then they were good to answer in a good way.

I'm thinking. I'm never asking a question in class. And I didn't. I don't even want to make eye contact with my professors is what I kind of determined. Especially the Greek and the Hebrew.

But he kept reminding him of his faults. I can't do it. I'm not good enough. I'm not strong enough. I'm not young enough.

I'm not old enough. I'm not this or I'm not that. And God knows that. He understood that, but he also reminded God of his mistakes. Don't you remember the time that I got angry and mad and I lost my temper and I killed that guy?

It's not great on a resume, really. It's really not. I mean, you can redeem yourself from it. And we know that God can redeem everything. But you go in, you say, I'm going to be the savior of this group of people.

I'm going to be the one who leads them from slavery to freedom. Well, what's your resume? Well, not too bad. I had a pretty good upbringing. There was a little hiccup.

What happened? Well, I killed the guy. What did you kill him for? Well, he was kind of being honored to some of my people. Well, it's kind of a bad deal, right?

So he reminded God of those things. He reminded of his weaknesses. He reminded of the reasons that he was not the best person for the job. Really, Lord. There are other people that are better.

There are other people that are more qualified. There are other people that are more comfortable. There are other people that have this in their wheelhouse, have this in their experience. There are other people that I can name. You.

Let me give you a list. There's Aaron. He's going to be better than me. He's younger, he's smarter. He's going to be able to teach better.

There's people like this that are going to be able to do it better. Don't you want somebody else? And so often when God is calling us or urging us to do something, it may not be, you know, leave your home and go to Egypt. It may be. It may just be, get out of your comfort zone and call somebody.

Restore a relationship, Comfort someone in grief or loss or tragedy. Speak to them about the word of God, about salvation. Ask how they're doing. Dive into their life, invite yourself into them. It's a little bit uncomfortable, but there's going to be people better.

You're always going to say, lord, there's somebody better. And this is what God said. This is the truth. God knew exactly who Moses was. Listen to this.

He knew exactly who Moses was. And then knowing who Moses was, this is what he said. I pick you.

That's powerful.

I was never a great athlete. You can see that. I was never that big or strong. And whenever you're picking teams on a playground or something, I knew it wasn't going to be the first. I mean, that was a hands down solid truth.

I just didn't want to be the last or just not get picked, right?

But God says, listen, I see you, I know you, I choose you.

Yet we say, lord, you don't really know me or you wouldn't. Yeah, no, he does. Another thing that we understand is that God or Moses was trying to argue about this mission. So we have to understand that God understood the complexity of the mission. It wasn't a simple thing.

So for what, for centuries, this group of people had grown in population, grown in power. And then they got a little bit. They intimidated the Pharaoh and the leadership. So the leadership and the government oppressed them and made them slaves. And they were crying out to God to save them.

And then God sends this guy who was banished 40 years prior to this to come back to Egypt where he was wanted for murder. Only those people were gone now. It was safe. At this point, he had to go back into this plague and then tell these, probably, I don't know, different variations, but hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people. There's a lot of folks, you can pick out what number it was.

A lot of people. It was more than just this, right? It was thousands upon thousands. And he said, Listen, I'm back. I'm here to save you.

Right? That was the mission. And I don't understand, I mean, I understand Moses hesitation at this point saying, I don't know that I'm up for this. He. Yeah, he is.

He is. All right. So Moses reminded God of the people who would doubt. And sometimes when God calls you to do something and you say, I really feel like God is calling me to do this, somebody's gonna say, are you sure? I was fortunate.

When I told my mom that dad that I was going into the ministry, it didn't surprise my mom. Mothers are crazy scary like this. I'm just going to tell you. So I graduated of high school. And my brother in law, one of my brother in law said, I think he's going to be a farmer.

And my mom said, I think he'll be a good minister. And she never told me that. She never told me that.

I don't trust you guys. I don't trust you women.

So he reminded of the people who would doubt, but they're ones who believed. And he reminded God of the people who would not be impressed. Can you imagine being the king or the pharaoh or the leader of really literally, legitimately one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful nation at that point in time, certainly in that region. And we see this shepherd who was banished 40 years ago with a staff. He didn't have an army.

He has a stick, and he has a brother and a couple of family members and a few other things. And he's bringing some people. And he says, pharaoh, I'm here to take all of your labor, and I want to take them back to where they came from. That's going to be impressive, isn't it? Don't you think?

No, that's a complex mission. So Moses reminded him of that. Moses reminded him of the barriers. I don't speak the language that well. It's been four decades.

Things have changed. Moses had a list of reasons while this plan wouldn't work. And so often when God calls us to do something, the very first thing we do is say, well, we don't have enough money, we don't have enough resources, we don't have enough volunteers, we don't have enough experience. We don't have this or we don't have that. Like God doesn't know this.

And the other thing is God does know it. Because the truth about this is that he knew exactly the complexity of the mission. He knew the difficulties and the barriers. And this is what he said. He said Moses I know who you are.

I know all of your faults and all of your mistakes and all of your weaknesses and all of your anxieties. And I know. I know you. I created you and I choose you. I also understand that this is a big deal I'm asking you to do.

And God may not be calling you to do something quite to that magnitude, but I have a feeling God's calling you. And the Holy Spirit is urging you to do something outside your comfort zone. And all of a sudden, it's not. It's too much. And then God says, I get it.

But I know. I know the complexities of it. I understand that it's good when you're known.

It really is. It's good when somebody knows you and believes in you, and God does. So Becky and I have been married 41 years. I say this all the time, whenever she's around or not. And there's nobody on this planet that knows me better than her.

Nobody. Not one person. Nobody that knows my weaknesses and my mistakes and my weirdness. And somebody says, oh, golly, you know, he's so good, you ought to live with him. That's what she's thinking, and I get that.

But there's nobody I trust more, and there's nobody that I'm more appreciative to look over here is where she usually sits. And I'll tell you, whenever there's big things happening and maybe large events or large funerals or large things like that happening, I always know that she's going to make sure that I see her and that she sees me. You know why? Because I'm better knowing that.

Now take that. Magnify that a thousand times or a million times how God knows you. So let's start to wrap this up. Here's another truth. God is capable of doing much more through you, with you, than you could ever imagine.

What you're saying is, God, I'm not old enough. I'm not young enough. I'm not strong enough. I'm not rich enough. I don't have enough education.

I don't have enough resources. I don't have this. I don't have that. There are other people better than me. And there are.

There are people that can preach better than I can, many of them. There are people who can lead better. Yes, that's a fact. There are people, when I was doing electrical work or whatever, or farming people that could do it better. Absolutely.

There's not a doubt in my mind about that. And I understand when I follow people and great pastors and in good churches like this, that I have to follow that. And I get to follow that. And I understand that I can't be that way. And I can say, God, there's people who are better than me.

And he would say, yeah, but I'm not choosing them, choosing you.

So what is God calling you to do? That's the question. Because we have to take the word of God and we have to say, what does it mean for me right now? We want to learn the truth of it and the scripture of it and the theology of it and the history of it. And we want to stand on solid ground.

But we also want to take it and apply it to school or to work or to home or to driving down the freeway or whatever it may be. Right? We want to apply it to where it's practically implemented in our life. That's what we are called to do. And I believe that sometimes God calls us or is urging us through the Holy Spirit to do things that are uncomfortable.

One person told me, he said, man, when I was reading this passage, I knew that one of my best friends was just killed in a tragic car accident. And. And God was telling me, I need to go and somehow help his widow and help his family, help his children. But I knew that I wasn't able to do that. I wasn't capable of doing that.

There's people who know more. I don't know what to say. I'm going to probably make it worse. He said, all I want to do is help, but I have no idea how to do it. And he read this and he heard this, and he said, maybe I could go.

Maybe that's it. I don't know. Maybe it's vocational ministry. Maybe it's not. Maybe it's a mission trip.

Maybe it's doing vvs. I don't know what to do. With kids, you might say, you don't have to really know that much. They'll tell you when you're doing it wrong. They'll let you know what to do.

What task do you think is too much for your abilities? Ask yourself that. Well, God is calling me to this, but I'm not able. I'm not asking you if you're able, if you think you're able. I'm asking you what is it that you think you're not able to do.

Just list it, Lord, you're asking me to do this. I'm not able to do that. List it out there. What excuses are you giving God? Well, Lord, you know, I'm not as young As I used to be.

That's obvious. I'm not surprising anybody. Well, I'm not as smart as I used to be, probably on all levels. I'm not as quick. I'm not this or I'm not that.

At this point, I thought I would know more. Right now, when I answer a question, I don't really even get the question right. Mostly because I don't hear that well. So the answer is not really even relevant to the question. Right.

It's entertaining to the family. That's about it. I'm okay with that. All right. I figure I can maybe get some Hearing AIDS another 20 years.

Take heart. What task do you think is too much? What excuses are you giving? Have you been like Moses? This is where it gets personal.

Have you been like Moses and God is saying, I want you to do this, and you said, send someone else. It's not too late.

It's not too late. It really isn't.

Take heart. We want to put Moses up on this pedestal and say, boy, when he heard God, he went in reality. When he heard God through a bush that wasn't being consumed, he said, send somebody else. He ended up going, and we know the rest of the story. But if you think it was easy for him, think again.

If you think he automatically said, you bet, God, I got it. No, it wasn't like that. So my encouragement to you as I close this, and I'll pray because I know we've got some other things we need to do. We have some other things we need to do. Is this look back on your journey or even where you are right now.

I really believe God is calling you and urging you through the Holy Spirit to do some things that are outside your comfort zone that you're just certain that somebody else is better at. And you may very well be right, that you're not comfortable with that. This is. That things are changing and you don't like it. I get that.

I don't like change. I was talking to somebody that used to be epic, and we just learned epic in the hospital I worked for as a chaplain. It's like learning German. I'm just going to tell you, nothing is epic. I just, you know, always like it when somebody who calls and says, do you have a password?

Like, heck, I don't know if I have a password. All I know is the thing comes on and then I call it when it doesn't. Right. So I don't change. I know all this stuff.

But trust God, trust him. Step out at the end of everything. There will be people that can pray with you. So if you have a choice that you need to make about joining the church, about accepting Christ as your savior, about following in baptism, about doing something in the church or in your life that. That you need prayer for, there'll be people up here praying for you.

All right, Father, in the name of Jesus, let the Holy Spirit move in us, and let the word of God dwell deeply in us. And not if, but when we are in over our head. Please, Lord, let us look back to a guy named Moses. It didn't come easy for him, either. So, in the name of Jesus, take us where you want us to be.

Use us where you want to use us. Let us trust you in the path. And that's that name I pray. Amen.

All right. Good morning, everyone. How are we this morning? Awesome. You get the pleasure of hearing from me back to back?

If you're as excited as I am.

All right, well, it is my honor and I'm humbled to bring the word to everyone again this morning.

His story begins in captivity. George Castriotti, known across the Europe as Skanderbeg, was stolen from his Albanian family. As a child and trained Turks to be a Janissary. A Christian slave remade into a Muslim warrior. He rose to become one of their finest generals.

The Turks gave him wealth, prestige and and power. And he gave it all back. When the opportunity came, he fled. He returned to his homeland openly, reclaimed his Christian faith and proclaimed himself the avenger of his family, country and God. For 25 years he fought Ottoman armies came each larger than the last.

Finally, in 1450, Sultan Murad II had enough. He led 160,000 men straight for Skanderbeg's stronghold, the White Castle of Against this force, Skanderbeg could barely muster 18,000 defenders. He evacuated the women and children and garrisoned the fortress with only only 1500 men and took the rest into the mountains to harass Ottoman supply lines. Before the siege closed in. Fear gripped Albania and the crowded churches reverberated with prayer.

Priests preached of celestial signs assuring victory. Skanderbeg himself had a vision of St. George who placed a flaming sword in his hands. These were not the prayers of men with options. These were the prayers of men with none. For eight months, the 1500 held.

Day after day, the Ottoman cannons rocked the White Castle. Well from the mountains, Skanderbeg lit to tell those inside when there was need,. He would be there. They could not win by strength. They watched the signal fires and they prayed.

The Ottoman chronicles recorded simply. Murad had struck Croya with cannons and to a graveyard. He hoped that they would surrender, but they did not. Winter arrived, and having lost 20,000 men,. Murad lifted the siege and withdrew.

By every human calculation, Croya was lost. All should have fallen. The garrison should have been broken. But the 1500 prayed, and the most powerful sultan in the world went home. Skanderbeg's 1500 did not know how the story would end.

They only knew the story in his hands. And that is precisely where we left off last week. As chapter two ended, Israel cried out to God, verse 23. During those many days, the king of Egypt died and the people of Israel groaned slavery and cried out for help. And where did that cry go?

Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning. And God remembered his covenant with Abraham,. With Isaac, with Jacob, God, the people of Israel. And God knew.

This morning we turn to chapter three, and we get God's answer. But not only do we get his. Answer, we get a revelation of who this God is.

And if you would turn to the. Book of Exodus, chapter three, I'm going. To read the text in its entirety, and then we'll get into it together. Exodus, chapter three.

Now, Moses was keeping the flock of his father in law, Jethro, the priest of Midian. And he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire. Out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed.

And Moses said, I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned. When the Lord saw that, he turned aside to see. God called to him out of the bush, Moses, Moses. And he said, here I am. Then he said, do not come near.

Take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground. And he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

Then the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and. And to bring them and to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And now behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me. And I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians come.

I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children. Of Israel, out of Egypt. But Moses said to God, who am. I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt? He said, will be with you.

And this shall be the sign for you that I have sent you. When you have brought the people out. Of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.

Then Moses said to God, if I come to the people of Israel and say to them, the God of your father, they may ask me, what is his name? What shall I say to them? God said to Moses, I am who I am. And he said, surely, say this to the people of Israel. I am.

Has sent me to you. God also said to Moses, say this to the people of Israel. The Lord, the God of your fathers,. The God of Abraham, the God of. Isaac, and the God of Jacob has sent me to you.

This is my name forever. And thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations. Go and gather the elders together and say to them, the Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and of Jacob has appeared to me, saying, I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt? And I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites,. The Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites.

A land flowing with milk and honey. And they will listen to your voice. And you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, the Lord, the God of the Hebrews has met with us. And now please let us go into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to. The Lord our God.

But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it. After that, he will let you go.

People favor in the sight of the Egyptians. And when you go, you shall not go empty. But each woman shall ask of her neighbor and any woman who lives in her house, for gold and silver jewelry and for clothing. You shall put them on your sons. And on your daughters.

So you shall. The Egyptians. Let's pray.

Father, thank you for this morning. Thank you for your word, Father. May it dwell richly within us. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts this morning be presence. And Father, long after my words are quickly forgotten, I pray that your word would be remembered.

Pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.

40 Years have passed since the end of chapter two. 40. Silent.

He fled Egypt around 40. And Acts 7:30 tells us that he was 80 years old when he stood before the burning bush. The Pharaoh who wanted him dead has died and a new Pharaoh sits on the throne. The Israelites still groan under the brickyard. Nothing from a human vantage point has changed.

And Moses. Moses is no longer the Prince of Egypt. Mighty in word and deed. He is an 80 year old shepherd with a foreign wife and his oldest son named Sojourner. He visible respect finished.

An old man keeping someone else's sheep. At the geographic end of Nowhere. And that of course, is precisely where God meets him. The mountain Moses approaches is called Horeb. Here that will later be called Sinai,.

Where the law will be given. Horeb means waste or desolation. The mountain where God will reveal himself. To his people is before that day a mountain named Wasteland. Exodus 3 is one of the great sycophanies, a physical manifestation of God of the Old Testament, right alongside Sinai itself.

Isaiah's vision in chapter six and Ezekiel's wheel within a wheel. It is the formal commissioning of Moses as deliverer. And and it is the first sustained self revelation of the God who heard, remembered, saw and knew. At the end of chapter two, now speaks. The verbs will become a voice literarily.

The chapter is a dialogue. God speaks.

First with attention and then worship, then objection. And God answers each objection. The pattern will continue into chapter four, where Moses will offer five objections in. Total before he finally goes. The God who calls is also the God who patiently answers.

The burning bush is first of all, believe it or not, not a story about Moses. Primarily, it is a self portrait of God. In fact, the entire book of Exodus is not primarily life of Moses. Two thirds of Moses's life is covered in the first two chapters. There are 38 chapters still to come.

Exodus is a book whose main character is God. The story of his revelation of who to his people. As the text unfolds this morning, the Lord unveils one facet of his character after another until by the end of the chapter, Moses. And we have been given as full of a disclosure of who God is as any testament. So this morning I'm going to structure this text a little bit differently than I normally would.

We're going to follow it verse by verse. But at each stop we're going to ask not merely what happened, but what is God revealing to us about himself. So I've broken the passage into 10 attributes, which thankfully I will go through rather quickly. Verse 1 God is a worker and. Calls us in our work.

Verse 2 God is self sustaining. Verse God is personal. Verse 5 God is holy. Verse 6 God is a covenant keeper. Verses 7 to 9 God sees, he.

Hears and he descends. Verses 10 to 12 God glorifies Himself through his people. Verses 13 and 14 God is the I am who gives himself to be known. Verses 15 to 20 God is eternal and sovereignty. In verses 22 God is a giver of gifts.

Verse 1 God is a worker and calls us in our work. Now, Moses was keeping the flock of his father in law, Jethro, the priest of Midian and he led his side. Of the wilderness and came to Horeb,. The mountain of God.

Moses is not in a temple. He is not sitting on a mountainside meditating. He's at work, doing the same unremarkable thing he had done for 40 years,. Tending to another man's sheep. The call of God breaks in not on a holy day, but on an.

Ordinary one in the middle of a shift. This is fitting for the God who calls himself is a worker, the God. Of Genesis 1 labors six days and is not ashamed to call it work. He does not despise the wilderness or the flock. He meets the shepherd in the field.

And turns his work into the doorway for his calling. The application on us. We tend to wait for God in the dramatic and miss him in the daily but the Lord has a habit of finding men at their posts, Gideon at the wine press, shepherds in their fields, fishermen mending nets. Your is not a holding pattern until real life begins. It's the very ground on which God.

Means to meet you.

2 God is self sustaining verse 2. And the angel to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush he looked and behold the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed first let's take a quick step back to address who is the angel of the Lord. Most all commentators have understood Lord in passages like this to be the pre incarnate Christ. The reason is in the text itself. The angel of the Lord speaks as God in the first person.

This is not an ordinary messenger. This is God himself form visible to mortal eyes. The one Moses meets at the bush. Is the same one the disciples meet on the shores of Galilee.

Here the wonder that arrests Moses attention is fire without fuel. Every flame Moses had ever seen devours what it fed on. This one did not. The bush gives the fire nothing and the fire takes nothing from the bush. It needs no external supply.

And note where the fire goes to burn. In a common desert bramble, a thorn. Bush no worth the self sufficient God stoops to dwell in the lowly without being diminished by it. This is a parable of the divine. Itself, what theologians called God's aseity, His self existence.

God is not sustained by anything outside himself. He he is life in himself. John 5:26 tells us he that needs. No fuel the spring fed by no stream. The one who depends on nothing and on whom everything depends.

Aw tozer in his book the knowledge of the Holy in chapter six has. This prayer on God's self sufficient.

Teach us, O God, that nothing is necessary to thee. Were anything necessary to thee, that thing would be the measure of thine imperfection. And how could we worship one who is imperfect if nothing is necessary to thee? Necessary. And if no one, then not we?

Thou dost seek us, though thou does not need us. We seek thee because we need thee. For in thee we live and move and have our being.

God is.

Verses 3 and 4.

And Moses said, I will turn aside to see this great sight. Why the bush is not burned. When the Lord saw that, he turned God called to him out of the bush. Moses. Moses.

And he said, here I am.

The fire is not an impersonal force. Out of it comes a voice, and the voice speaks a name tenderly, the way you call someone you love. The God of the bush is not a principle to be discovered, but a. Person who addresses us. He knows Moses by name before Moses knows him at all.

The double name Moses is the speech of intimacy. This is a pattern throughout all of Scripture. Abraham, Abraham. Samuel. Samuel, Saul.

Saul. And our Lord's Martha. Martha. The infinite God is not to be personal. JI Packer, in knowing God, says the following.

What matters supremely, therefore, is not in the last analysis the fact that I know God, but the larger fact which underlies it. The fact that he knows I am graven on the palms of his hands. I am never out of his mind. All my knowledge of him depends on his sustained initiative in knowing me. I know him because he first knew me and continues to know me.

He knows me as one who loves me. And there is no moment when his eye is off me or his attention distracted from me. And no moment, therefore, when his care falters.

Verse 5.

Is holy. And then he said, do not come near. Take the sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.

Here we must slow down, for this is the hinge of the holy Moses, curious, begins to step closer and is stopped. The first thing the personal God says to the man he has just called by name is not come, but keep back. Before God commissions Moses, he must first establish the proper between creator and creation. What is holiness? The Hebrew kadash means set apart, separate, other.

To say God is holy is to say he is in a category entirely his own, utterly distinct from the creature transcendent in his purity and majesty. R.C. Sproul observed that Scripture never stammers love, love, love or mercy, mercy, mercy. But only of holiness does it lift the degree. Holy.

Holy. Holy is the Lord of hosts. It is the only attribute raised to the superlative. The adjective that most defines who this God is.

The sandal carried, the dust, the marketplace, the dung of the flock, the grime of the ordinary. To remove it was to say, nothing common may be carried into this presence. The same command would come to Joshua before Jericho, the God who had just drawn near. Now he is approachable, but never on our terms. Holiness both invites and warns in the.

Same breath,.

And so Moses must keep back. The God who comes down to deliver is the God before whom asymmetry and his holiness is not a coldness, it is a consuming fire. Hebrews 12:29, which is why the next verse finds Moses hiding his face, afraid to look at God. In verse 6, the proper response to holiness is not casualty, but the reverence of dread. Spurgeon captures this so well.

The most spiritual and sanctified minds, when they are fully perceived the majesty and holiness of God, so greatly conscious of the great disproportion between themselves and the Lord, that they are humbled and filled with holy awe, and even with dread. And alarm,.

That is the burning bush. The nearer the saint comes to the holiness of God, the smaller he becomes in his own eyes. Isaiah, granted the same vision, cries, woe is me, for I am ruined. Job having heard repented in dust, Peter falls at Jesus knees. Depart from me, for I am a sinful man.

Holiness does not flatter us, it floors us. And Spurgeon again reminds us that this dread is not the terror of slave, but the awe of a child. To have a holy awe of our most holy, just, righteous and tender parent. Is a privilege, not a bondage.

A holy God and people is the problem the rest of the Bible exists to solve. Moses must keep his distance. But the Gospel is that the holy God himself provides the way. In the same fire that warns from the book from a pillar will descend on Sinai and will finally come to rest on the heads of the disciples at Pentecost. At the cross, the consuming fire fell on a substitute, and the veil that guarded the holy place was torn to bottom.

So now we are bidden to draw near with confidence, yet never to forget. Whose ground we stand on.

The proper response to such a God is captured in John Webster in his book.

Christian Theology can never escape from the. Sober realization that we talk in the terrifying presence of the God from whom we cannot flee.

Verse 6. God is a covenant keeper.

And he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he. Was afraid to look at God. Before God says anything about Moses, he roots himself in the past. He introduces himself not as a new deity, but as the God who made promises to the patriarchs centuries before, promises.

That have been waiting through 400 years of Egyptian silence.

This is the covenant. God's faithfulness does not expire when his people forget. The God who binds himself to Abraham binds himself forever. Death cannot break the covenant he keeps what he he now stirs to fulfill in Exodus. He is the God who remembers.

When you read promises in Scripture, you can rest assured that God will keep it always. Spurgeon God says, God has given no. Pledge that he will not redeem.

And. No encouragement and no hope that he will not fulfill.

Verses 7 through 9 God sees, hears, sends. Then the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their suffering, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a. Land flowing and honey. Now verse nine and now behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me.

And I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Notice the verbs and notice how they pile up. God has seen the affliction, heard the crying, the suffering, and now he has come down.

Verse 6 told us who God has been, the God of the patriarchs, the. Covenant keeping God of history. Now verses 7 to 9 show us what God does.

His faithfulness is not passive sentiment. It descends, it acts, it delivers to the slave in Egypt it has looked for generations as though heaven was deaf. It was not. The cry had been heard. The silence was not absence, but timing.

And when God finally moves, he does not send help from a distance. He comes down. The whole story of redemption is in that phrase. The faithful God is a God who closes, who descends into the affliction of his people. He would come down again finally in a manger, quoting Tozer later on.

The tempted, the anxious, the fearful discouraged may all find new hope and good cheer in the knowledge that our heavenly Father is faithful. He will ever be true to his pledged word. The hard pressed sons of the covenant may be sure that he will never remove his loving kindness, nor suffer his faithfulness to fail.

Verses 10 to 12 God glorifies Himself through his people. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the. Children of Israel, out. But Moses said to God, who am I that I should go to Pharaoh. And bring the children out of Egypt?

He said, but I will be with you. And this shall be a sign for. You that I have sent you. When you have brought the people out. Of Egypt, you shall serve God on this.

Having declared that he has come down to deliver, God says in the same breath, come, I will send you. The God who needs no one chooses to work through and frankly not an impressive someone. An 80 year old fugitive shepherd with a price on his head and failure in his past. And we shouldn't judge Moses too harshly, for his objection is frankly the right. Who am I?

And God refuses to answer the question entirely. He doesn't say, you are more capable than you think. He says, I will be with you. The qualification for serving for the strength of the servant, but the strength of the master. God is not surprised by our weakness.

He chose it deliberately. As I said last week, God uses sinful people for it's the only kind he has to work with. He uses broken instruments because it's his strength, his wisdom, his his power. And it's for his glory. And the promised sign is you shall serve God on this mountain.

The proof Moses will get is worship. The goal of the Exodus is not merely freedom from Egypt, but freedom for God. A people mountain to glorify the One who delivered them. God saves his people for himself and for his praise.

Spurgeon talks about this so beautifully.

High of self go with low thoughts of Christ. And well they may, for they are birds of a feather. But low thoughts of self should always be associated with high thoughts of Christ, for they are both products of God and they help each other. Our unworthiness is a foil to the brightness of our Lord's infinite grace. We sink deep in humility, but soar.

High in assurance as we decrease Christ.

Verses 13 and 14. God is the I am who gives. Himself to be known. Then Moses said to God, if I come to the people of Israel and say to them, the God of your Father to you. And they asked me, what is his name?

What shall I say to them? God said to Moses, I am who I am. And he said, say this to the. People of Israel, I am has sent me to you. Moses asked for a name.

And the staggering thing is that God answers. He does not remain anonymous. The holy self existent God of the bush condescends to be known to give his people a name. They call him a name that is for relationship. You give your name to those you intend to be known by.

Here the transcendent God stoops like a father bending to a child, telling them. What to call him.

Itself. I am who I am declares his self existence.

The eternal independent God ties his unchanging. Name to a band of slaves and says in effect, this is who I will be for you.

The God who is utterly self sufficient. Does not need Israel, and yet he gives them his name. He binds himself to them and tells them to call.

That is fatherly love, not need, but free and condescending grace.

Verses 15 to 20 God is eternal and sovereign.

God also said to Moses, say this. To the people of Israel. The lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has sent me to you. This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations. Verse 18 Listen to your voice and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the King of Egypt and say to him, the Lord, the God of the Hebrews has met with us.

And now please let us go a three days journey into the wilderness that. We may sacrifice to the Lord. But I know that the King of. Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty so I will. Stretch out my hand and strike Egypt.

With all the wonders of that I will do in it. After that he will let you go.

Now the personal name I Am is sealed with the covenant name Yahweh forever. Thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations. This is the name above every name,.

The four letters before which Israel would bow. And see how God speaks of the with total mastery. He knows in advance that Pharaoh will refuse. He is not anxious about it. Not improvising, he declares the outcome before the contest begins.

I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt. And after that he will let you go. Here is absolute Pharaoh imagines he is the great power of the age. God treats him as a foreknown instrument. In a plan already settled.

This is what it means that God is God. He is alone. He alone is self existent. His name is forever, and he governs even the resistance of kings toward his appointed ends. There is no rival he is God, and there is no other.

The puritan Stephen Charnock puts it down since nothing but God is eternal, nothing. But God is worthy of loving.

Verses 21 and 22 God is a. Giver of gifts, giveth this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. And when you go, you shall not go empty. But each woman shall ask her neighbor. And any woman who lives in her house, for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing, you shall put them on your sons and on your daughters, so you shall plunder.

The Egyptians.

Ends not just with deliverance, but with overflow. God's people will not creep out of Egypt empty handed and impoverished. They will leave laden with silver, gold and clothing, their former captors pressing gifts upon them. The God who redeems also gives extra his love. This is the divine pattern from beginning to end.

God is not a grudging deliverer, but a lavish giver. He brings his people out and sends them out full. The plunder of Egypt anticipates the spoils of a in which Christ, having led the captivity captive, gave gifts to men. Ephesians 4:8 the God of the bush gives himself first his his name, his presence, his salvation, and then gives more besides. Every good and perfect comes down from.

The father of lights. James 1:17.

Read together. Exodus 3 is a self portrait of God. He is the holy worker who meets us in the ordinary the self existence needs no fuel the personal God who calls us by name the covenant keeping God who descends into our affliction the Sovereign I am, who governs the resistance of kings. And at the center stands Verse five, the holy ground. Other attribute flows from his holiness.

He is a holy worker, a holy father, a holy giver.

And revelation always presses towards response. What does Exodus 3 demand of us? This morning I have two thoughts to close 1. Take off your shoes. The first thing God says to Moses at the bush is not come before commission comes consecration before God uses him.

He humbles him. The sandals must be removed.

We live in an age where we have lost.

We are casual where Moses hid his face. We come to worship as we come. To a coffee shop, comfortable, undisturbed, ready to leave if it goes poorly. Out of Exodus 3 is not that God? He is the consuming fire, and the only fitting posture before him is reverent awe.

Oswald Chambers perhaps said it best if. We have never experience of taking our. Commonplace religious shoes off our commonplace religious. Feet and getting rid of all the. Undue familiarity with which we approach God.

It is questionable whether we have ever stood in his presence. The people who are flipping familiar are. Those who have never yet been introduced to Jesus Christ.

Where have you grown casual with God in your prayers? Hurried, perfunctory, more habit than encounter in your reading of Scripture, dutiful but not trembling in your worship, present in body, somewhere else in mind.

I ask these to you as frankly I ask these to myself.

The burning bush calls us back. Take off your shoes, for you are standing on holy ground.

2. Trust the great I am not.

Moses. First objection is frankly the right one. Who am I? It is the question every honest servant asked when faced with A task beyond them. And God's answer is the most liberating thing in the passage.

He does not answer, he redirects it. He does not say, oh, son, you are so capable. No, no, he says, I will be with you. This is the deepest application of the passage. The question the text asks us is never, it is always, who is he?

Your inadequacy is not the obstacle, it is the precondition. We have this treasure in jars of clay, Paul says, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not it was never about us. We are not the main character. The same God who called Moses knows. Your name, each and every one of you.

He has graven you on the palms.

He has given you the greatest gift he could give, the gift of himself in the form of his son, Jesus Christ, who alone covers your sinfulness and makes you acceptable before a holy God.

Many of us are living like Moses in Midian, convinced perhaps that our best. Days, our strong days may be behind us, certain that our failures have disqualified us for service.

Moses at 80 he is not done with you. What he requires is not your resume, but your obedience, whatever it is you are facing.

God's answer is not a plan or a strategy. It is a name. I am the self existent, eternal covenant. Keeping, personally attentive, sovereignly undefeatable. God says to you what he said to me.

I will be with you.

That is the burning bush, the fire. That needs no fuel, the voice that knows your name, the ground that is holy. And the God who descended into into Bethlehem, into death itself and rose again,. Still proclaiming, I am. Let's pray.

Father God, we are humbled by your word. And Lord, when we search inside of ourselves and we see our unworthiness, we are so grateful that it's not up to us, but it's up to you. That you take us in our broken, fallen state and you rise us up to yourself. That you are the hound of heaven who tracks us down. Because we may run away, but you can run faster and you can outlast our weariness.

Lord, thank you that you keep your covenants with us. Thank you that you love us so much, that you would send your son to be the propitiation of our sins. That you would tear the veil in two so that we could come to you through your son.

Father, I pray that your word would be pressed into our hearts, that we would have a fullness of who you are as we leave here today.

Jesus name. Amen.