I Am Who is I Am (Exodus 3:11-22)

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

We are gonna be in Exodus chapter 3 today, but first Star Wars Come on Got to start with Star Wars sometimes not all the time can't do it all the time just sometimes though For the non Star Wars fans in the house there are several movies associated with the Star Wars franchise But there is a moment that is kind of iconic for me and it's at the end of Star Wars episode 7 force Awakens and Ray who is at the top right there Ray? She is looking at Luke Skywalker and

For those of you who have not seen episode 7, let me just save you the trouble they spend the entire movie Looking for Luke Skywalker who's there on the bottom? Okay, he's old now and They spend the whole movie looking for him So that by the end of the movie in episode 7 the way the movie ends is that Ray Goes to this island and sees Luke Skywalker and is holding out the lightsaber to him End scene roll credits. Oh man And and all of us were super super stoked for episode 8. Okay, what's gonna happen next? What's listen? This is similar To where we left off last week where Moses is meeting God Okay, Moses has responded to God's call to rescue his people Even in the next two verses verses 11 and 12 It seems to fall in line with kind of where we were last week Look at look at verses 11 and 12 of Exodus 3 it says but Moses said to God who am I that I should go to?

Pharaoh and bring the children of the children of Israel out of Egypt He said but I will be with you and there shall be a sign for you that I have sent you When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will serve God on this mountain Okay, so even though even though the response here is Moses technically declining What God is asking him to do it at least seems in this moment like he's being super humble, right? Like who am I? Who am I? I'm not qualified for this. Okay, and God almost politely Says hey, it's okay Moses I'm gonna give you a sign Right, you're gonna you're gonna be successful and here's here's your sign And when you see when you read these verses and when you read the verses that we read last week

It should seem like this is the moment where they shake hands or something This is the moment where where Moses is like you got yourself a deal Okay, and then we're we're shaking hands and we're we're going we're going forward on it And that's not what happens. Let me take you back to Star Wars very quickly as Luke as Luke is About to receive the lightsaber from Ray Ray is giving him his old lightsaber It's just all this man all this drama and this iconic moment and the very beginning of episode 8 What happens Luke? Receives the lightsaber looks it over and throws it over his shoulder It's a complete subversion of what you thought it was going to be it was very different and most audiences as they're watching that including me for the first time are going What's going on? I'm completely set on edge at this point. I don't understand what just happened I don't know what's going to happen next. Okay in our series meet God

This is where God is revealing himself. He's introducing himself to people And remember just in this as we continue to read Exes 3 verses chapter 3 chapter 4 all the way through chapter 12. God is going to be meeting different people in different ways And it's gonna help us understand how we interact with God. It's gonna help us understand God's character It's gonna help us kind of wrap our mind about kind of what it takes today. We are going to see that God When he reveals himself to people he invites them to build on build a life on him personally When God needs people he invites them to build a life on him personally Not on a set of tenants not on a specific kind of creed not on the way that a worship service happens Not on all the on him

Personally, okay to get there We got to see this and to see this we got to understand that we've got some big twists happening in Exodus chapter 3 as Moses continues to meet God look at verse 13 Exodus 3 13 Then Moses said to God if I come to the people of Israel and say to them the God of your fathers has sent me to You and they ask me what is his name? What shall I say to them? Okay We've already got a small hint of Moses's protest whenever he says who am I to go up before the You know before the Israelites etc, but it seems like he's being humble But this protest the second protest is not a mild protest Actually, this is something a little bit different. Okay now Normally, I don't get in the weeds on Bible translations, but here we go Okay in the King James the translation of this verse 13 of what Moses says He says behold if I come to the people of Israel etc. The NIV says

suppose I go To the people of Israel, right? So something else is happening It's Moses is not just setting up some neutral hypothetical at this point Okay, Moses is not saying well if I go or if I know they are both Translating and often untranslated word both KJV and an IV. Sorry two different translations that are not represented here Sorry to be confusing this morning They both translated an untranslated word and that word is hane everybody say hane

Okay, now, you know a Hebrew word you're welcome It is a very flexible word this word hane. In fact, the the closest English Translation of this word is look Okay, look, that's why King James says behold. Okay, look now if you This is turning into an English lesson But if you take the word look the actual just word it can mean a few different things. I'll give you three It can simply mean to direct somebody's attention To a specific area. So look over there Simple right look over there. It's a command you're saying look I'm looking in a direction. Okay

Look can also be used to emphasize honesty For example, you could say to someone Look, I don't have anywhere else to go Right what what what function is look serving there it's emphasized in the fact that you're being honest Maybe when you don't want to be but you're being honest. Look, I don't have anywhere else to go Look, this is my last chance and you're using the word look and it's how we all use it Here's a third way look can indicate Tension, let me give you an example Look I drove all the way down here. There's no way I'm turning back

Okay, what you are saying with the word look is I'm I'm serious You You want me to turn around but there ain't no way I'm turning around and you use the word look to accent that phrase Okay. All right That is how Moses is using the word hine Here this is the first twist Moses's response indicates tension and maybe a little bit of honesty and So here's here's kind of a different way to look at what Moses said. I got it retranslated up here I'm not gonna write my own Bible version. I promise but here's what it says look Let's say I go to the people and tell them that They're gonna ask me your name What do I say then? Moses is running a scenario by God that he thinks God hadn't thought of Right He's he's saying listen God great plan But what happens when I actually have to answer the question of what your name is? What am I gonna say? Then you didn't think of that. Did you God?

He's implying that God doesn't know what he's doing or doesn't have a good plan or hadn't thought this all the way through Just by saying it the way that he said it here in verse 13 Moses is somewhat this is almost sarcasm But this is definitely some some tension that Moses is indicating here Moses is saying I don't believe that This is going to go well And it's not gonna go well because I'm thinking of a scenario that you haven't thought of and it's gonna go bad In our own call and response with God. This is where we've been right? God is calling God is initiating. We're responding. We've got the whole cycle up here God initiates. We respond God reveals we worship and the next cycle as God continues to reveal himself the next kind of iteration it usually reveals our skepticism

God initiates we respond God reveals we worship everything's going hunky-dory But then as God continues to reveal himself our skepticism whatever whatever area we have of unbelief will come into play That will happen that boundary will be tested If you think that you have the ability to kind of Quarter off your life over here of like things that you really care about that God's never ever gonna touch and never ever gonna know that actually is not gonna happen you're gonna be frustrated because God's gonna keep Revealing himself and he's gonna keep helping you understand that he wants these things over here that you don't want to give him and that's gonna create Some tension and you're gonna start saying look God. I don't think you got a good plan Look something's up. I don't think you thought this all the way through. I Don't like this It's going to reveal your

Skepticism your area of unbelief it will happen. It's not a it's not a maybe it's just a win It's going to happen You're you are going to be skeptical you're gonna point out the flaw and you're gonna you're gonna believe it's something that God didn't think about And you're not gonna be happy about it. We're gonna come back to that point but for now Let's go all the way through God's response to that because in our reading today, we've just finished Moses's portion Okay 13 that's it. Okay. He's like Honey God, look, let's let's talk about this cuz I don't know if you got it on lockdown I don't know if you really understand what's happening and this is God's response So in the face of Moses's skepticism God simply answers and the way that he answers is actually the second twist So the first twist is is Moses's lip that he's given God his sass The the second twist is God's actual answer to that because in his answer

It is the single greatest revelation of God's identity in all of Scripture Look at verse 14 Exodus 3 14 Just the beginning of it. God said to Moses. I am who I am Yeah, I share a here it means I am existence It means I'm who you're looking for. I'm him I'm the one there is no other I'm the one who was the one who is and the one who will continue to be I am existence itself

Look at all of verse 14. It says 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 as if to give them his full name And then to shorten it He says tell them I am sent you this is what we Translate into the four letters YHWH Yahweh Yahweh is a conjugated Hebrew verb of the word to be That's why God's name is I am right yahweh There's no vowels technically like how we think of vowels there's no vowels in Hebrew So it's just those four letters and we just supply the vowels Yahweh

and Uh, it is actually a name a covenant name a special name for God It's actually a name that Jews to this day will not pronounce A Jew probably wouldn't even look at that screen A Jew is going to call God by a different name. He's gonna he's gonna he or she's gonna call God Hashem Hashem he's Hebrew for the name They're not even gonna say Yahweh. They're gonna say Hashem

I'm reading I'm reading I'm watching. I'm not reading anything. I'm watching Um the life of David the king the book of David the kingdom of David, what is it? The house of David gosh Everyone, but the right one the house of David. Uh, it's it's an incredible little Movie series and it kind of goes through the the life of David. It definitely adds some things artistically stylistically, you know Like it it's but it's great And one of the facts that I love that they kept is that everybody in there doesn't call God Yahweh. They call him Hashem Because that's how Jews refer to God's name because they don't want to use the Lord's name in vain

So because they don't use they never use it It's kind of a weird reaction. Whatever. I'm not judging. I'm just saying it's what it is I'm saying it's so holy that the Jews understand like let's not use that. Let's just call him the name In your bibles, it is not written as Yahweh most of them maybe christian standard it is but most of the translations Will have will have capital l o r d right? So Yahweh y h w h is capital l o r d like and it's up here I got a slide of it, but it's uh, it's not to be confused with Capital l lowercase o r d that is a different word That means like lord of a manor or lord of whatever that's just lord if it's capital l o r d and sometimes it's like capital l Lowercase capital o lowercase capital r lowercase capital d it kind of looks weird. It's set apart right visually and the reason it is set apart visually is because

Uh, it's talking about god's name. So anytime yahweh is used in your bible It's it's the word lord is going to be capitalized And that's true for that's true for most versions of the bible. There might be some out there that don't do that anymore. It's fine But that's a way to kind of signal that that's that's what's happening, right? In the bible god's covenant name is only used by his covenant people It is I think only once that somebody who is not in god's covenant people Calls god yahweh maybe once maybe never It's it's super rare if it happens at all Um and to understand I am to really get kind of the gravity of it We can look at a similar name the ancient of days god has called the ancient of days Several times and it's similar Because it points to the fact just like yahweh it points to the fact that god has seen it before

That that god is not worried. He's not hurried that um Uh that there is no end to yahweh There is no point at which Yahweh has not seen things has not Experienced at all has not has not proven himself has not gone before us has not thought of what's going to happen There is no Plot of land in your life or experience or anywhere on this whole earth or anywhere in the entirety of history That god does not plan a flag and says that's mine right nowhere god is God was God always will be And you can see it in his continued response to moseth. Look at verse 15

as if to kind of Go on his own momentum, which is cool God also says to moseth Say this to the people of israel the lord the god of your father's the god of abraham the god of isaac God of jacob has sent me to you This is my name forever and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations So god is doubling down on that answer He says when your grandchildren are born and when their children are born and when their children are born This is what they're going to call me I'm not giving you my name. Moses. I'm giving you a memorial

I'm giving you something that will define My entire relationship with my covenant people look at the look at the next two verses 16 and 17 We're just going to it's a whole big chunk We're going to read it together it says go and gather the elders of israel together and say to them the lord The god of your father's god of abraham and 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 and the land Excuse me to the land of the canonites the hittites The amorites the parasites the hivites the jebu sites a land flowing with milk and honey God says go gather Everybody go get the elders go make it an official gathering bring everybody before me And say these exact words and let them know just in case they're wondering let them know I promise

It's a rare thing for god to say I promise Usually he just says I'm going to do it And it's done But here he's saying give them assurances Help them understand Who I am That i'm i'm not just going to deliver them from slavery I'm actually going to put them in a land flowing with milk and honey and I promise to do it Other times in the old testament god swears by his own name I swear by my name god says

Gather everybody Say these exact words and then god proceeds To lay out the whole scenario in kind of a weird move he's Moses is saying hey i'm not sure what your name is And god says tell him this my name and don't just tell them tell the children visit and don't just tell the children Gather all of israel with the elders and everybody and let them know that I promise and then he just keeps going God's on a roll guys verse 18 exodus chapter 3 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 a three days journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice with the lord our god

So god listen listen In those verses In those verses in 18 he's saying like they're going to listen to you The elders will listen to you and when they do when they listen to you You're all going to go to the king of egypt and when that happens, this is going to happen. He's laying out the whole plan Go to pharaoh. You're going to say this look at verses 19 and 20 It says 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 So he's saying muslims you are going to the elders they will listen to you You will go to the kingdom of egypt. He will not listen to you And then i'm going to open up a can and things are going to happen in egypt

The road is going to be hard Look at verses 21 and 22 And I will give this people favor in the sight of the egyptians. Okay as we we're about to read this whole thing um This is amazing this part is Over the top this this part is extra And and it shows god's character Here we go And I will give this 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 silver and gold jewelry and for clothing you shall put them on your sons and your daughters. So you shall plunder the egyptians

Whoa Yeah God's saying look i'm i'm not listen i'm i'm not just gonna stop the slavery I'm not just gonna i'm not just going to oppose pharaoh I'm gonna show my wonders all throughout Egypt so that you know who I am I'm going to bring you to a good land a broad land a land flying with milk and honey and when you go Just so you know just so that you Understand that I have all of this in mind that I am planning all of this out every step that you're going to take I know it The egyptians are going to love you And they are going to shower you with gifts

It's an exodus shower. Okay, they're just coming with gifts and you're gonna put them on your sons and your daughters Now that is an amazing thing I believe that if you and I were having a conversation with god and he begins to lay out the next I don't know 10 years of your life When you say when when you start hearing things like and this is going to happen and this is going to happen I mean it's going to be overwhelming You might even have a sense of like I hope I don't mess this up Or you might have a sense of like oh, this is going to be amazing or oh that's going to be really hard Oh, I don't know if I can make it through that or oh Like you're going to begin to put yourself in that situation and go I don't know If I can make this And I want you to remember All of this all that god has done so he gave him his covenant name He gave him a short form of his covenant name like almost like a nickname

He told him who to tell it to he said gather everybody and then he said here's the plan and here's exactly how it's going To go all of that all of that was in response to moses being a jerk Moses didn't have an altar built Moses wasn't using pleasantries He took off his sandals and he hid his face But after that he had questions After that god had to kind of fill in the details for him But what does god do is he scoff?

He fills in the details And then some I want to go through these verses from the end to beginning and I want to see what it says about god and about us I want to move through it quickly But I want you to see this I want you to understand that that god's plan includes us Working with him or excuse me that god invites. Sorry. I got ahead. I got a point ahead That god invites us to build a life on him personally Right that that god's plan that his invitation to us that the the Revealing of himself and of who he is and calling us into that is not so that we'll be bright shiny happy people It's so that we can build a life on him personally Now what do I mean by that? We see this invitation. We see god inviting us to do this in three big ways Way number one and like I said i'm gonna start at the end and then i'm gonna go to the beginning god lays out Um this whole plan he his plan includes working with him directly

Right god's plan includes us It includes us working with him directly I've said it before i'm gonna say it one more time the god lays out the whole plan and moses doesn't need to know it There's no reason to include moses in on this plan at all Why does he tell moses this does it change the outcome of it? Is there any bearing that moses has does moses offer edits? It doesn't it doesn't matter that he knows But god still reveals that to him Listen in your life god has such a plan for you and he is calling you into that plan

But he doesn't need you to accomplish that plan He's not wondering if it's going to work if you say yes or no That's not how god works God simply has a plan to redeem humanity and he invites people into that He and he doesn't have to but he includes us anyway, and he gives us a role to play in it And moreover in the middle of that big redemptive plan god Says trust me as we work together in the middle of it. In other words, it's not some bit part It's not something where like you get to you know Like somebody does like all the work and then you get to like do the very last thing like oh we did it together And it's super weird don't that's not okay, right? God is saying no, no, no labor with me. Let's go. Let's do this together And again, we're not talking about earning it. Okay, we're not talking about like that's not what I mean But that god invites us into his big redemptive plan

That we And that to fulfill that role we actually have to trust him in the middle of that role It's not like the role that we get to play is this kind of thing that happens on sundays You know when we show up sort of and it's this it's kind of extracurricular activity and it's like faith building, etc No, no that god has a plan for you that involves your your work involves your school involves your friends involves your marriage Involves your family involves all those things right all those things And he's saying i'm building out Your life My plan in the middle of all that you have a role in the middle of all that and your role in that involves trusting me God's not always going to give you every little thing of the plan. I mean gosh he gave He gave moses a lot of the plan and there's still a lot that moses has to trust god for There's still some big bumps in the road as we're going to see in the next couple of chapters and exodus

But god just says trust me And he also wants our our cooperation as a legacy that endures So if you go back to verse 15, he's saying he's saying tell the israelites who the god of abraham isaac and Jacob sent me to you Okay. Now. I realize abraham isaac and jacob are super famous But let's just kind of strip the the kind of the the grandeur off the names just a second Who are these people? Who is abraham? What did he do that was so great? I mean he believed god. That's kind of his claim to fame. What about isaac? What about jacob? The only thing that makes these people great is that they they cooperated with god God saying i'm the god of these people who have cooperated with me God could have used better titles Do you ever think that? He's introducing himself to his people. What does he do? How does he introduce himself? He could have been the ancient of days. He could have been all these things

But what does he do? He includes the fact that he is the god of abraham isaac and jacob I want you to think of like three people that have that have had spiritual like influence in your life And for god to be introduced himself to you and say like i'm the god of bobby welden I'm the god of scott and i'm the i'm the god of Daniel like i'm i'm the god of all these these names

These people in your life That's that's god introducing himself The reason that god would do that the reason that god does it here is because the the legacy that he wants to build with his people The reason he wants them to tell their children that is because the legacy that god wants is a legacy of cooperation He wants us involved in his plan. He's really insisted on it. I swear he's he could have done all this himself But he doesn't He brings mosas in why what did mosas do nothing?

most not earning anything Moses is running. I mean if anything mosas has fled his calling God invites us to build a life on him personally And and that includes working with him directly The other thing it means another thing it means is that he wants to reveal his identity he wants to That that he wants to reveal his name To us he wants to reveal his true name to us This is just where we've been right where we've been is that god initiates. We respond god reveals. We worship god reveals more Our skepticism shows up god reveals more This is where we're at in this whole train right here God is initiating calling revealing revealing revealing revealing revealing Now we change we kind of are adapting. We're trying to field all those, you know All those singles, you know all those we're trying to field everything that's coming at us You know, we might do it different but god doesn't do a different god's just revealing more of who he is

That god just doesn't stop doing that in other words God here and in our lives just keeps giving us more of himself He just keeps giving us more of himself This is why when you talk about deep christianity You aren't talking about knowledge of The bells and the pomegranates that are sewn into the cloak And the ephod of the the levitical priest. Okay, that's not what we're talking about We're talking about death. You want to be a deep christian? Okay, it doesn't it doesn't mean that you're memorizing any part of leviticus being a deep christian means that you're obedient because you love jesus

It means that you it means that you are you are totally convinced Most days that you're totally convinced that that jesus has a calling in your life that you wanted that he's He's pulling you and he wants you to cooperate with him He's calling you into something and you're saying yes to that however imperfectly you're saying yes to that Somebody who has been walking with the lord a long time It doesn't mean they know more about the bible, although they might it doesn't mean that they can preach a sermon Although they might it doesn't mean that they lead in a congregation. Although they might it simply means Beyond any title or expertise or skill or anything like that. It simply means That you know god personally Because you interact with him you obey him You receive joy from him You pray to him. He listens to you

You guys talk You want to be a deep christian start praying I don't care if you can't talk good Pray god knows how you talk Moses is about to have that same excuse next week My tongue is fat My tongue and mouth are fat. That's what he's what he tells god. We're talking about next week. It's fine It doesn't matter if you sound dumb God's not worried about that. Pray sound dumb

Pray reach out God is revealing more of himself and this is what verses 14 and 15 are about Listen god is the one person that can save you believe on him His acceptance his acceptance of you is the only one that counts It doesn't matter what other people think about you. It matters if god accepts you jump in that His love is the only thing that can redeem you

Receive it That's it Like it's not rocket science guys. It's not there's not like we don't have to do goat sacrifices We don't have to do you don't have to come a certain amount of time or or you know Like you have to have to not commit it a particular sin in a certain amount of time like it have to look Man, no, no all all of that. It's just you trying to be religious and measure up to whatever god's doing god is after You and he's do he's he's after you by revealing himself If somebody says like I just don't know who god is dude read a bible

We call this the revelation of god It's god revealing himself to us That's what this is God says I want to know you and I want you to know me God reveals himself to us so that we can get more of him It sometimes is easy to get caught up in what god can do for us Not just what we know of him and like I understand look when you're in need of a job when you want a child When you need protection when you're in a situation where you don't know what to do. I understand That you need god to do something for you. I get that i've been there i'm there often actually I mean, this is where we are right now israel is in slavery and they don't want to be in slavery They're not like praying because they really love the lord and they think like oh, let's just praise god today. No, they got a whip on their back

They have generational slavery going on that they're never going to get out of and they're calling out to god They're like you got to do something God's not worried about their their motives not being pure. Okay, god's like my people are crying out to me I'm gonna answer them. I'm gonna send you to do it guys guys There are people around you All over our community that are in spiritual slavery

And if you thought egypt was bad The whipping that these people are taking that they are just They are just embroiled in despair and wondering if their life counts for anything and wondering what's going to happen to their children And wondering if this is all worth it and wondering if they should just quit their job or or just move to tahiti or whatever Because they're not really sure it kind of all adds up to anything Listen that kind of despair will make you lose sleep That kind of despair will make you do really bad things to yourself and other people that kind of despair is unlivable

And that is the slavery that people are in now and god says I see that slavery and when people cry out to God to to end that slavery somehow to deliver them somehow You know who he sends you said it pat say it louder Us sends us Not because we're awesome or because we're completely delivered of everything that's bugging us or or that we don't despair or that we're somehow like some champion No, it's it's that we know we know god that we know god

So god invites us to build a life on him personally. So that's that's working with him directly It's also him revealing his his true identity to us giving us more of himself. It also is uh Is god bringing Our hearts into alignment with him it's god aligning our hearts Sometimes Sometimes we can be A little quick with uh, god loves you just come as you are Okay Now look I don't disagree with that sentiment But god loves you just come as you are Yes, and amen Okay Right, but that's that's not that's not the whole story Okay here's maybe Here's maybe a different way that we can say it right that

Even though verses 11 and 13 feel weird because moses is speaking out of turn God is after your heart God is after your heart He doesn't want your religion He doesn't want you to sing the high note and sound pretty whenever david sing it. He doesn't want He doesn't want you to perform. He doesn't he wants your heart He wants your heart And to get our hearts god is willing to push past our frustrations our hang ups our skepticism all of our haneys And we are holding it it is weighing us down and we knock on the door If you've got a problem with him God goes after our heart So maybe a better illustration would be that that god does look man when we knock on the door and we got all this baggage Right, we got everything that we're bringing and it's just a lot It's it's a lot in fact It's suitcases that we don't really open for most people because it's kind of overwhelming and super embarrassing for us

And we got it bro. We are holding it. It is weighing us down and we knock on the door and god's like come on in man Come on in Come on. Really glad you're here. Why don't you put your baggage down? Oh, thank you. Just I'm just able to come as I am. That's good. But then you know what god starts doing He starts unpacking He's like, oh He starts unpacking he starts seeing some of that dirty laundry and you're like, oh god You don't need to open that. You don't need to open that suitcase You ever been at the tsa and they start opening your suitcase. You're like, oh no, not that suitcase That's kind of how we are right? Like we're we're god starting to open that luggage and we're like, no, no, no, no No, no, no, no, not that not that not that. No, we can't do that. Don't look at there. Don't look here Don't don't do that and god's just unpacking just real slow. It's just like hey, what's going on? Let's talk about this

Hey, let's go on. We'll talk about this because God whenever he invites you in you're not some temporary guest God's unpacking your suitcases so that you can stay You're not this this ain't no bed and breakfast Okay This is this is your new home so unpack It's hard for us to unpack And it's iconic It's iconic here that god reveals his covenant name the the the most The most precious revelation of god himself like his his covenant his nickname Like god's given us his nickname. He's doing that for us. And what does he do it? He does it in the face of skepticism He does it in the face of a guy who's like, I don't think you got a good plan

It's iconic It's actually super big it happens all the time because jesus is when he's giving the great commission This is matthew 28 versus 18 19 and 20 and he's saying like the disciples are there and he's saying like all authority I've given you you know, I will be with you always like go and and disciple nations of People from all nations and baptizing them the name of the father and son the holy spirit and lo i'm with you always at the end Of the earth, right and that is a boy. Howdy that is a it's called the great commission. We even have a separate title for it It's so cool. Okay. Well, you look two verses before and what does it say? It says all the disciples were there and they worshipped him, but some doubted

two verses before the great commission Some of the disciples were doubting What does jesus say on the cross? father forgive them Because they don't know what they're doing It's so easy to think that that that god is waiting for us that he has like this whole big net of blessing That he's just like holding back that he really wants to reveal some things to us, but he's just holding it back until we're Until we're clean or holy or whatever. No, man No, no That is a lie from the pit of hell

Seriously, there's I don't even know if you could believe anything worse. It's pretty awful To believe that to believe that god is waiting for you to be good enough for him to open up himself to you That's awful. That that's where i'd man i'd i'd rather you be a satanist It's awful I mean i'd rather you be neither but it's awful If we're choosing It's a lie The best news is the best news because

God is like yeah bring it all in Bring all your skepticism in Bring it all right here Now you're definitely going to have these times When god's unpacking your suitcase and you're like I didn't i'm dang. I didn't know that was there I didn't i'm really sorry And you're gonna have to walk through some healing on that. It's fine Like that's going to happen There's gonna be some things that you do that are in the front to god and he's going to absolutely clap you down And you should be Doesn't mean he don't love you It just means you definitely shouldn't have done what you just did it's gonna hurt you it's gonna hurt everybody else. Don't do it God's not afraid to discipline those he loves

That's a good and wonderful thing But let none of those things take back take away from the fact that god is unpacking that suit suitcase because he wants you to stay That that's the plan. It's not just come as you are it's stay and be changed It's not just hey the doors are open just do whatever you want. No, no god loves us way more than that God loves us enough to have expectations upon us and to give us the power to meet them He wants you to be an obedient person. You might think well, i'm not very okay fine Right. Neither am I but by god's grace I can walk in holiness

I just want to I just want to we're about to pray. I just want to Say it one more time kind of quickly God is currently right now inviting you into a life where you begin to build on his life and his promises and his identity personally Not a not a religious thing. Not we got a gospel course for you Not we got lord supper tonight, which we do not not any of that, right? I'm not saying do a religious thing. Please hear me I'm not saying that i'm not saying you've got to go memorize luke one before you're a real christian I'm not saying that is not what i'm saying. I'm saying that god is inviting you He is reaching out to you personally And he's saying build a life on me And what I said I was going to do and what I will promise to do And we do that by trusting him as his plan unfolds and our role materializes We do that as we know his name we discover his heart

He reveals more of who he is and we do that as we present our broken heart Before him all of our dirty laundry and he just begins to unpack it and wash it one item at a time And even though it is slow and even though it is painful. It is good Let's pray Lord, we thank you. We know that you We know that you care about our lives More than than we can imagine

We know that you want to do things in us through us that We we really couldn't dream of It's really not on our bingo card And and if we were to try to do all those things on our own we would wreck them seriously But your invitation to us is just to say yes And To let you begin to do things That maybe we were previously not okay with or previously unsure of or Even if we're kind of unsure of it now, we're we're gonna say yes to you lord help us not just in uh I don't know not just in uh religious things either but just in in being honest with what's going on in our hearts and Being able to confess our sin to you being able to pray to you I pray you'd give us the encouragement to do that

Pray you would help us to see that you're reaching out to us. That's her name that we pray Amen