 And I'm going to be in Exodus chapter 3. If you guys turn to Exodus chapter 3 I'm going to be looking at verses 1 through 10 and the message that I've entitled tonight is When God calls your name Exodus chapter 3 One of my favorite verses and actually one of my favorite stories in the Bible is the burning bush experience and I to be honest, I've never taught this portion of Scripture Publicly that is I've done it in Bible studies and all but I've been really just itching to teach that text and tonight Is the night for it so I'm excited and I will read verses 1 through 10 and then we'll get into our study Exodus chapter 3 verses 1 through 10 Moses as we see here in chapter 3 says now Moses was tending the flock of Jathro his father-in-law the priests of Midian and he led the flock to the back of the deserts and came to Horrib the mountain of God The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush So he looked and behold the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed Then Moses said I will now turn aside and see this great sight why the bush does not burn So when the Lord saw that so when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look God called to him from the midst of the burning from the bush and said Moses Moses and he said here I am then he said do not draw near this place takes your sandals off your feet for the place where you stand is holy ground Moreover, he said I am God of your father I'm the God of your father the God of Abraham the God of Isaac the God of Jacob and Moses hid his face for he was afraid to look upon God Verse seven and the Lord said I have surely seen the oppression of my people who are in Egypt and Have heard their cry because of their taskmasters for I know their sorrows So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up From the land to a good and large land to a land flowing with milk and honey To the land to a place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the parasites and the Hivites and the Jebusites Now therefore behold the cry of the children of Israel has come to me And I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them Come now therefore and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people the children of Israel out of Egypt Your name is very important. Did you know that but Robert? I hate my name will tough Your name is very important because it is what people use to call you to get your attention It's a name that you've been given. It's your identity in a way, but when somebody calls out your name you're quickly You turn to that direction where your name is being called Your name is important. You know when I attend conferences, they'll give you a name tag that has your name Well, why is it because I might forget my name? No because other people can see who I am and they can call me by my name So even at conferences even at places like that is very important because name tags are important for us So if you think about it, let me ask you this Doesn't it feel good when when somebody remembers your name? It feels good doesn't it especially if it's someone important or someone that you look up to you Oh, they remember your name. That's kind of cool. It does feel kind of good when somebody does remember your name but when someone who you don't know Comes to you and says aren't you now? That's a different feeling, right? You're like, who are you? Are you Robert? It depends. What do you want? it doesn't have the same feeling as That person that remembers your name who is important or perhaps someone that you look up to Or perhaps is one of those Days where you're in jury duty and your name gets called. You're like, oh great. It's not fun, right? It's not one of those things you get excited for or what about in school I remember when I was in school in high school when I would get in trouble the teacher would call out my name Robert whoa, you know that name teachers you you know that just that that way they say your name You're like you're in trouble You know, that's not something that you want to hear. It's not something that makes it's fun Or what about when someone calls your name because they picked your name out of a hat to when they contest or something, right? When they call you, I mean, yes, I won right you hear that name Or what about when you watch prices, right? Do you see the people how crazy they go when they get their names called? I mean I have yet to experience that I would love to go there and be called and I would go crazy if they said Robert Baltadano. Yeah, you see me going down that route just like the other people But when God calls Your name and when God calls people's names when you look in throughout scripture when he calls people's names It's not because they won something It's not because they were in trouble not not necessarily all the time, but it was to get their attention It was to get their attention because God was about to do something big in their lives And that's what we're gonna see here And we're gonna see throughout scripture as I'm gonna give you some examples here in a moment that when God called People's names or whether they're men or women. There was something big coming behind that For example in Acts chapter 9 you remember when Saul got saved and God called his name Saul Saul And it says in Acts 9 6 it was because God was about to change this his life It says arise and go into the city and you will be told what you must do That was a big life change coming for Saul Or what about little Zacchaeus remember Zacchaeus? You know little Zacchaeus right when he climbed up on that tree and the Lord called him by name Could you imagine that and it says in Luke chapter 19 verse 5 it says when Jesus came to the place He looked up and saw him and said Zacchaeus make haste and come down for today. I must stay at your house. I Mean could you imagine how he felt when Jesus called his name? I mean this is a guy that wanted to see Jesus he couldn't he was so short right he had to go around everybody He got if you had to you know find a way to see Jesus and he found this tree and he climbed up on top of this tree And here he can see Jesus and little did he know that Jesus was gonna call him by name and say I'm gonna come to your house We're gonna have supper Again what happened there both of these guys their lives were changed God called them by name When God called Moses his name as we're gonna see here in a moment his life changed forever his life changed forever and In this message, I'm gonna focus on the on the revelation of God to Moses Which I believe is the basis for all that is to follow afterward So we're only looking at those ten verses. There's a lot more beyond ten verses But I want to just look at the the revelation of God to Moses and how that applies to our lives So let's look at verse one It says in verse one now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law The priests of Midian and he led the flock to the back of the desert and came to Horeb the mountain of God Moses was a shepherd He was a shepherd and he had been doing this job for 40 years Could you imagine doing your job for 40 years some people had been in jobs for a long time and And here's Moses who is a shepherd and he's been doing this for 40 years at this time Moses is 80 years old 80 years old and In the first two chapters of Exodus we learned that once Pharaoh's Pharaoh dies The new king does not know Joseph and fears the number of the Hebrews because they were growing miraculous I mean it was just they were just spreading out and so what he did is instead of Obviously allowing that to happen. He was trying to stop that so he enslaved them and That's where we have the birth of Moses because if you remember he wanted to kill the boys and Moses was put in this basket in this river and God was behind his life all this time God was doing the work behind the scenes here But but but due to the fear that that he would that he would be killed Moses the king as he ordered he was placing this little basket and He was going down this river and he was found by Pharaoh's daughter And she takes him in and then Moses is raised in Pharaoh's house And God was all into this so he was behind the scenes in his life And the interesting thing about this is that we read that in Genesis 46 verse 34 We read that every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians So why is this interesting is because Moses grew up as an Egyptian and he grew up despising shepherds What is he doing? He's a shepherd The very very thing that he was taught to despise he is now the shepherd or a shepherd He's settled for a shepherding job and Here he is doing his thing and he probably figured that God wasn't going to use them anymore That because he blew it That God just put him on the shelf and he was done so he just settled for that shepherding job he got married his father-in-law Jethro as it says here and we see that meanwhile as this was happening in his life the people of God were being mistreated harshly by Pharaoh and It lasted for 400 years As they were there we move on from the silence of God over Over the past 400 years to God speaking directly to Moses from a burning bush and then later on From that same mountain God speaks to Moses once again Chapter three as we come to this chapter. This is a very significant point of transition It's a very significant point of transition Transitions are awesome when they're initiated by God right when a transition is initiated by God They are awesome. Perhaps you're close to a transition in your life at the moment. You don't even know about it Transitions I think are exciting Maybe you've been feeling as if God has purposely put you off and it's been like that for a very long time And you're wondering God. Where are you? I had a dream that that you would use me I had a dream that you would do this in my life and it's been a very long time So maybe God forgot about me. Maybe somebody else is being used instead of me But but you never know maybe God is about to to call your name and a big change is coming soon How would you like that? You know change is a good thing, isn't it? I mean sometimes we don't like change We we freak out when there's change right a lot of us sometimes we just like the way things are we just leave them alone God don't please don't touch them but change is a good thing and in fact When we talk about the Christian life That's part of the Christian life change Let me let me give you an example for 2nd Corinthians 3 18. Listen to this But we all with unveiled face Beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory Just as by the spirit of the Lord Change transformation Let me say this with the change of becoming more like Jesus comes practical life transitions as We are becoming more like Jesus There are areas in our lives that we are going to be transitioning out of For something for the Lord for him to use us And then it's exciting, you know, I've experienced three big life changes in my life big Transitions in my life one was when I got saved When I got saved and I finally got right with the Lord there was a transition I left the old life and transitioned into the new life a lot of you have experienced that big transition You know what it was like it was kind of hard sometimes I'm sure there were days that you're like this is really tough being a Christian But but there was a transition made from the old life to the new life But after that, I've experienced two other transitions in my life that were pretty big back in 1998 After Bible College, I was I felt a call to go to New York with my wife And we went out in 1998 and we drove across the States in this forerunner full of stuff And I remember entering the state of New York and seeing that sign taken a picture with my Bible Thinking okay, God's gonna use me and for ten years. I was there and I planted a Calvary Chapel So that happened big transition. I left palm trees to pine trees. I Left the sunny weather to horrible winters. It was crazy. It was a big transition in many ways, right? At ten years later a third transition came in my life And that was God calling us out of New York and bringing us back to New York back to California That was even worse. I was crazy because I was like why California? I don't want to go to California and the Lord initiated that transition and Here we are again moving Leaving the house that we owned on a quarter of an acre a home that I only paid $60,000 for that would probably be worth a million dollars out here Wonderful place and the Lord brought us back Transitions are good I don't think I'm done and neither should you think you're done. I Love transitions. I think they're exciting when God initiates them though. I don't try to do my own transitions I don't try to create them and if you do Have fun But when the Lord is involved in those transitions, it is a great ride We see here That Moses was Shepherding for 40 years wondering is this it is this all that you have for me God 40 years but the cool thing about this is that Moses is about to see a huge life change and We see here notice in verse 1 what he was doing. It says that he led the flock to the back of the desert Why is this important? This tells us that the day started out like any other day It was business as usual for Moses There is no expectation for anything out of the ordinary the 40 years of Moses's life had become all too predictable and maybe that's where you're at tonight You're like, you know what my life is just too predictable. It's like I already know what I'm gonna do tomorrow I know exactly what I'm gonna eat for breakfast. I know exactly the roads are gonna be taken to work I know exactly what wait awaits me at work when I get into my office. I already have my lunch picked up for the week and I mean, it's like predictable. It's like life is becoming boring and After 40 years here becoming all too predictable in the life of Moses He's gonna experience something pretty radical Because if you think about it Moses really had a very predictable life. I mean he was in the same terrain He had the same sheep and the same smell It was the same nothing was different He knew all the grazing places He had the exact locations of every waterhole within many miles etched in his mind. He knew it all It was just a regular day Perhaps on occasion a snake or a wild beast offered the only excitement to him And everything else was just the solitude of the wilderness Shepherding doing his thing and perhaps he talked to himself a lot as he was there a lot by himself But little did he know that today would be the beginning of a new chapter in his life a Beginning the beginning of a new chapter in his life those 40 years that Moses was actually experiencing were actually 40 years of preparation There were 40 years of preparation. They were valuable years They weren't wasted years Maybe to Moses they were wasted, but they weren't to God those years were Preparation years and that is exactly what excites me about the Lord because you never know when God is going to show up in your life like this and He is always up to something God is always up to something listen Don't ever think that God is up in heaven reading the newspapers and forgetting about us the church He's up there wondering. Oh, we'll see y'all. Let's see what what's going on with Robert. Oh, where are you at now? What are you doing? You know, that's God is so attentive to your life. You just don't feel it sometimes and it's not about feeling it's a fact and The cool thing that we see is with this whole thing is the preparation is that God is always up to something and he's Active working behind the scenes of our lives whether you feel it or not Maybe you're wanting your desire a new chapter in your life Perhaps there are some of you in here that you're like I would love a new chapter in my life, Robert My life is boring I am so tired of Just the day in and day out of things. It's just I'm just like in a loop. I'm like in a hamster wheel I'm just kind of going around and go nowhere, right? What could you imagine Moses? 40 years shepherding Well, maybe God is about to show up in your life And we just have to be patient. We have to be faithful where God has us Or maybe you're not even a Christian here tonight And you're just like my it's my first time here somebody invited me. Well, welcome Jesus wants to change your life tonight And we're going to see here in a moment that that this happened to Moses in a very interesting way Now, let me say this that this chapter is more than just the account of a life-changing incident in the life of one man In fact, it is a crucial turning point in the history of the nation of Israel Because God is about to choose his leader his deliverer to bring these people out of Egypt So so the burning bush marks the beginning of God's direct intervention into the affairs of history That's amazing So where is this at notice he says it's in Horrib Another name for Mount Sinai now some commentators believe there were two places Mount Sinai and Horrib Some say it was two peaks and others believe that Horrib was just the region where this took place It doesn't really matter because it was the place God chose to reveal himself to Moses It was a special place as you're gonna see here in a moment, and I love the way it's described It's described as the mountain of God Isn't that cool the mountain of God? It's got a name for it God chose this place to reveal himself to Moses and it's here that Moses Received this first revelation of God a personal one It was here on this same mountain that he met Aaron his spokesperson And it was in this same mountain that God gave him the law The Ten Commandments it was a definitely of special place, and I would say the same. It's the mountain of God It was his mountain So what happens notice God calls his name verse 2 notice it says The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush The angel of the Lord this is a very interesting title you see it throughout the Bible, especially in the Old Testament and This appears only in the Old Testament, and it's often described This angels often described as acting or speaking on behalf of God So some scholars believe this is actually God himself and Some will say that this is the second person of the Trinity Jesus Christ What Bible scholars call a fee a Christophany a Christophany is an appearance of Christ in the Old Testament a Theophany is an appearance of God in the Old Testament You know my life my wife laughs at me because I wanted to call our little girl I wanted to name her a Theophany doesn't that sound cute Theophany she's like you're that's that's bad. Could you imagine her in school fee off? What does that mean? It's an appearance of God in the Old Testament I probably not right that would work for a little girl. I just thought it sounded kind of cool But we see here very clearly that The angel of the Lord comes It's God himself revealing himself, and he reveals three important things to Moses one he reveals himself to Moses God reveals his heart to Moses The second thing he reveals his promises that God had a promise that he made To it to to their forefathers and he reveals the third thing he reveals his purposes for Moses That God was going to use Moses to be the great deliverer of his people and he appears Notice not in the bush, but in a flame that's in the bush Notice what it says there it says that when it says that The Lord appeared in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush Now why a flame of fire? That's interesting, isn't it? Well, when you look at scripture fire is a symbol of God's presence And just to give you some examples and how it's used in Exodus 13 verses 21 to 22 God let the children of Israel by a pillar of fire his presence Exodus 19 verse 18. God's presence came upon Mount Sinai fire an Exodus chapter 40 verse 38 the tabernacle We know that there was fire in there as well You know the Bible describes God as this a Consuming fire that's pretty scary, isn't it Hebrews chapter 12 verse 29 It's not surprising that fire often appears as a symbol of God's presence Because even in the New Testament fire is a wonderful picture of the work of the Holy Spirit In Acts chapter 2 we know that tongues of fire rested upon the disciples We know that the Holy Spirit is the presence of God as he indwells the hearts of believers Romans chapter 8 verse 9 the Holy Spirit cleanses us and purifies us So even in the New Testament we see this but here we see that he appears to Moses in a flame of fire in a bush The presence of God here in this bush So it says in verse 2 that when the angel appeared it says very clearly that Moses Had looked he said there so he looked and behold the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed Burning bush wasn't anything new Really, I mean I'm sure Moses had seen burning bushes before Lightning strike out in the desert probably caused brush fires. This wasn't anything Weird about a burning bush out in the desert But as you see here though, this was a unique way that the Lord used to grab his attention And we see here that the reason why this was unique is because the bush was not burning up That was the whole unique thing here is That Moses is like oh another bush burning. Oh, well, but something was different about this bush It wasn't burning up and we see here that that God has a unique way to grab Our attention and God would use different things to grab our attention Moses was going about his business. It was a normal day He had no idea what God was about to do in his life and then God called Moses on an ordinary day Just it was an ordinary day Listen, God will not warn you when he's about to show up in your life. He doesn't always warn you He doesn't say listen in about two years. I'm gonna come back to you and I'm gonna shock you He doesn't do that. We have to always be ready We always have to be prepared when God shows up in our lives and he begins a transition into our lives But when when we talk about God moving in our lives when we talk about, you know wanting something different We think about going to a retreats We think about going to to conferences or we think about maybe, you know at church But listen God doesn't always wait for those times to show up. Now. Those are good things Don't get me wrong and go to a conference go to a retreat But we sometimes think that if I could just get to this retreat, this is where God's gonna show up And if I don't go it's gonna be over. No, it's not Listen God doesn't need to go to those retreats to show up. He can show up in your room Again, I'm not saying retreats are bad go to them. They're encouraging But the point that I'm making here is that God chooses ordinary Days to show up doesn't have to be special ones in our minds that we think of that God could show up at home. He could show up at work Perhaps it could be at school as you're at school. He could show up You know that it was here in Chino Valley Well, I was in Bible college on a revelation class at night where I sense God speak to my heart very clearly That he was gonna shit me out to New York. I Wasn't expecting that And we see here that the God can do the same to you Perhaps while you're going out for a jog cut could speak to your heart Or maybe as you're running errands God all of a sudden intervenes in your plans. This is Listen, I'm gonna do something different now That's the cool thing about God, right? We just put God in a box all the time We think no, this is the way God is gonna work in my life This is the only way and this is the way he's gonna speak to me is only right here And God will have really Well, see Moses is just going about his business. It's just an ordinary day for Moses Same smell remember same terrain It was just normal Little did he know that God was gonna show up in such a unique way Reminds me of Gideon, you know Gideon is another Character in scripture that we see that he was going about his daily routine When all of a sudden the Bible says in Judges 612 the angel of the Lord appeared to him And what was he doing Gideon was threshing wheat in the wine press. He was trying to hide it actually from the Midinites and God shows up in his life. I love that So in verse 3 he says this Moses said I will now turn aside and see this great sight Why the bush does not burn? I mean wouldn't you be intrigued to buy that too? When you wouldn't want to draw your attention. I doubt a lot of you would be like, oh, well, that's kind of weird I'll better get away from this, you know. No, you would probably be drawn to it and be like, wait a minute. It's not burning up Could you imagine going out to the beach and starting a bonfire or something that thing never burns out It's just sitting there and the wood's still nice and pretty in there. You're like, wait a minute There's nothing black in there. Just a flay on top of these things That would be kind of weird. Well, we see here that Moses is intrigued It draws his attention and when he says I will now see why you know What's happening here is that God is snapping him out of his thoughts. He's just snapping him out of his thoughts Moses is not just a bush burning snap out of it. There's something unique about it And that's what most is like. Wait a minute. There's something different about this bush. I Love that because sometimes we need got to snap us out of our thoughts We get so caught up in some thoughts that that we need got to divinely intervene in our thoughts sometimes We get mesmerized by things that we shouldn't be mesmerized about You know God sometimes will snap us out of our thoughts Why maybe sometimes you have negative thoughts about life You know, you're thinking out life just stinks. You're like Solomon, right life stinks. There's so much evil in this world I can't wait to die God will want to just snap out of those thoughts. There's more to life than that Maybe there are thoughts about somebody else the negative thoughts about somebody else that God wants to snap you out of It's wrong Or perhaps there's thoughts towards God There's some error that you have in your thinking towards God and he wants to snap you out of that And and we see here that that the bush burned But it did not burn up and the bush was an ordinary desert desert bush, but the fire was far from ordinary It was an unexpected source of revelation. That's what it was We just need to be open to God communicating to us in ways that are unusual Unpredictable and different we have to be open Now with that said we know that the Bibles In the Bibles where God primarily speaks to us. He makes it very clear. His voice is loud and clear in scripture Hebrews chapter 1 verses 1 and 2 says God who at various times and in various ways spoken times passed to the to the fathers by the Prophets has in these last days spoken to us by his son whom he has appointed heir of all things through whom also he made the worlds so God has the freedom to speak to us in unique ways But if you really really want to hear the voice of the Lord very clearly study the word getting the Bible so Moses is here and Moses is His attention has been grabbed by God and notice what happens in verse 4. That's when God steps in So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look God called to him from the midst of the bush and said Moses Moses, I love that Moses Moses God calls his name twice Why why he just say hey Moses he did it twice Moses Moses I Did some research on that? because You will see here in a moment that when God called certain people he called them twice. He called their names twice There's something behind that When God calls a name twice it is clear that the occasion is of great importance and Here God calls him Twice because something important was about to happen Let me give you some examples of how God called others twice We know that in Genesis 22 verse 11 God called Abraham twice Abraham Abraham in First Samuel chapter 3 verse 10. God said to Samuel Samuel Samuel remember that as We keep going through scripture into the New Testament Luke chapter 22 We see that God goes to Martha and says what Martha Martha and Acts 9 we talked about that Saul Saul and Then we have another one in Matthew 23 where Jesus was weeping over Jerusalem and said what oh? Jerusalem Jerusalem You know, it's very fascinating Because repeating a person's name is a Hebrew expression of intimacy Listen when we read the account of Martha and Martha a lot of us think that Jesus is yelling at her Martha Martha come on It's not you know that the the Greek expression there is of a low tender voice Martha Martha Acts chapter 9 we think that God is screaming at Saul Saul Saul while you're persecuting my church. It wasn't like that It was more of like Saul Saul See we think God yells don't we? He's not it's a tender voice and We see that all those names that I just mentioned that were where God called them twice their names twice God had a close relationship with all of them So when you see this in scripture, it's the it's a Hebrew expression of intimacy that God knows them listen, this is the cool thing about this is because It's a soft voice And God knew Moses God knew Saul God knew Martha Not not now get this in Matthew chapter 7 Jesus said that many will come to him and say what? Lord Lord What does that mean they're pretending to know Jesus intimately? What did Jesus say? I never knew you ooh? Are you saying that there are people that they pretend to love Jesus that pretend to be in a relationship absolutely Jesus said it that in that day they're gonna call his name twice because what they're doing is that they're actually Claiming intimacy with Jesus, and he says uh-uh. I never knew you. Isn't that scary guys? I Never knew you and the word new in the Greek literally means we never had anything intimate I mean it was more like a relationship So again keep that in mind God is calling Moses twice by name Moses Moses because God knew Moses very well. He had intimate knowledge of Moses and The cool thing about it. I think back, and I'm like, you know what? I'm a Christian Because I'm a born-again Christian. I've recognized Christ as my Lord and Savior I've recognized what he did on the cross for me I'm a sinful man in need of grace and I've recognized that on the cross and when I come to passages like this I think God knows me intimately. I Can say Jesus Jesus I'm not pretending that I know Jesus. I know Jesus and The cool thing about this whole text here is that God knows us intimately listen if you're a born-again Christian today He knows you intimately If you really want to know how well he knows you read Psalm 139 The very first verse just blows me away. It says this David says one 139 verse one. Oh Lord You have searched me and known me You know that nobody can claim that Not your spouse not your children Nobody not your boss Nobody can claim that only God can say to you and to me. I Know you I know you intimately. I know everything about you. I know you're rising up and you're sitting down Read that Psalm 139 and just personally apply it to yourself say Lord, okay This is this is this is my relationship with you Lord. You read that Psalm. You're gonna be blown away By everything that you see in there So so God goes to Moses Moses Moses and notice what Moses says He says Here I am That's a great response, right? Here I am not oh oh or What now? You know when I call my little four-year-old sometimes she'll say what and what do you mean what? They say yes daddy Moses is like here. I am Lord. That's the way we should always respond to God when he calls our name. Yes Lord your servant is listening Moses is saying here I am and This we see here that this is gonna get into this more powerful thing here But I want you to understand that Moses is not seeking God in the wilderness understand that Moses wasn't looking for God. He wasn't asking for God It is God who seeks out Moses here. It was God who initiated this divine Transition this this this moment was initiated by God and it's always God that initiates things when he comes to us It's always him initiating it. I mean John 3 16 for God. So loved the world, right? It was God who loved the world It was him who initiated that it was him who sent Jesus It wasn't us who said hey send down a savior because we're in trouble. No, it was God who initiated that So it's always got initiating that it's always got coming to us. It always got speaking to us always got convicting us It was it's always him and here we see the same thing happening. So so as he says here. I am Lord notice Verse 5 Then he said to Moses do not draw near this place take your sandals off your feet stink No, he didn't say that For the place where you stand is holy ground very very popular verse Right, you've read this tons of times. You probably have some ideas of why he said that I'm gonna explain to you what what what he meant by this Holy ground on now. What is so holy about a desert? This is desert here And this is a barren desert And the question is what is so holy about a barren desert? Have you been to the desert before I have many times? There's nothing there, right? It's just it's a tasteless scenery, right? It's just shrubs and and thorns and dirt You're not gonna go out there and take your family on a picnic, right? Hi, and let's go around a picnic where we're gonna go off 40, you know right off of you know a Ludlow There's a nice little dirt area where you can go and play, you know My man kids would love the rocks and stuff, but but you know what I'm saying There's nothing really exciting or elegant about a desert, but why is God saying this is holy ground here? You know Moses is there and notice it says about his sandals But what makes it holy? You know what makes it holy the presence of God? That's the whole point Because God was there That made it holy when he says to take off your sandals, it's a sign of reverence and respect and When people presented themselves to Pharaoh and Moses understood this they were required to enter without sandals and So God uses a custom that Moses was very familiar with He understood when he went before a Pharaoh he would take off his sandals and here is one who is more powerful than Pharaoh God and Here he's he's he's using this and he's basically showing that God is bigger than Pharaoh and Moses is probably just baffled Wait a minute. I used to do this in Pharaoh's court Now God is saying take off your sandals For the ground here. He said is holy One of my commentators that I was reading when I was studying this at this and I love this and I quote God's presence gives ordinary surroundings extraordinary status I Love that Let me let me apply this here Where God has you in life today Wherever he has you today Whether you like it or not That is holy ground embrace it. I Know we complain sometimes Lord. I can't stand my job I can't stand where I'm at I can't stand where I live but listen if God is in that Place that you're at right now in life. That is considered holy ground Because of his presence there So we're just to embrace it or to trust them and to be faithful with where we're at See we see here that Moses is looking at this and he's totally being Probably baffled by the Lord and we see here very quickly that Moses as he's before God that place there The reason why it was holy. It was because God's presence was there So to us a desert would be like useless, but to God because of his presence It was very valuable So what I'm saying is don't think that the place that God has you today is unimportant It's not if God is in is God if God's presence is in that area in your life right now That is great Because God is there That's all you need, right? You know it was Moses who said to the Lord at one time He says Lord if your presence does not go with us do not send us right or I don't want to go I love that prayer. We should pray that more often, right Lord if you're not in this Then Lord get me out of here or Lord. Do not let me move forward That's a great prayer And Moses is sitting there and Moses is standing there and he is in holy ground because of the presence of God you see the desert was 40 years of preparation for Moses that was his time of preparation if you remember that that Moses knew the terrain which was the place that he was going to lead the children of Israel So he understood that terrain he understood all the the cracks and poles and whatnot That was the place that God was going to use him to lead the children of Israel So he God was already preparing him because he was already familiar with the place or the area that God was going to use him to lead his people Remember he was a shepherd so those 40 years of shepherding became valuable years to Moses because that was going to transfer into leading God's people who are sometimes like sheep, right? God tells us that we're like sheep, right? Why you know, I've said this to you guys before why doesn't he call us lions? Why doesn't he call us like tigers calls us sheep? I Mean, that's that's pretty sad, right because we sometimes behave like sheep Sheep if you want to do a good study go study sheep and you're like whoa, that's me Well again the children of Israel were complainers, right and They were very hard people and sometimes sheep are like that So Moses was preparing or God was preparing Moses He knew the terrain he had the people that he was going to lead and he got his training by just being a shepherd and The last thing is that in those 40 years Moses learned humility Because one of the prerequisites for leadership is humility You got to be humble to lead people And and we see that Moses had some pride because it took 40 years to break him to humble him So maybe where you're at today is because God is trying to break you. He's trying to humble you Before you take the next step So verse 6 God begins to reveal himself to Moses. He says moreover He said I am the God of your father the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob and Moses hit his face For he was afraid to look upon God God reveals himself and basically says I am the covenant making the covenant keeping God right away and He is the God who made a covenant with Abraham and then reiterated that same Promise or that same covenant to Isaac and Jacob. So there's nothing new here when it comes to this plan When it comes to this promise, this is an old promise that was made known to Abraham But now it's becoming now it's God is ready to do something about it and he's using Moses and I want and I want you guys to see this that God says I am the God that I was I am He's still their God. They've passed away, but I'm still there God because they're alive and he is the living God But then he says in verse and in that same verse he says that Moses was afraid to look upon God Moses covered his face. He knew that that to look upon God or the full glory of God would mean the end of physical life It says in Exodus 3320 you cannot see my face for no man shall see me and live Whoa, you know, that's why I'm always skeptical and somebody says I saw God come into my room and talk to me He has long hair blue eyes Really You know the even even even the angels I mean that the reverence that is given to God when his presence is there For somebody to say that sometimes I'm like, did you really see God? I Remember one time I had a guy tell me he says, you know what Jesus came into my room Set at the end of my bed and he was telling me that God was gonna use me. I said wonderful That's awesome. He says, but he also said that that my mind would be better than Christ that my mind I would be smarter than his son. I said we got a problem here, buddy. We got a big problem here What did you have to eat tonight? You know, are you on medication? Yeah, anyways, you know what I'm saying? Moses understood this So God says in verse 7 I have surely seen the oppression of my people who are in Egypt And I have heard their cry because of their trastmasters for I know their sorrows Notice that God made it clear that he was fully aware of the state of his people Notice that it says there in verse 7 and you can underline these notice. It says very clearly. I have seen I Have heard and I know three things. I Have seen I have heard I have known this is called an anthropomorphism What that is you can say that ten times It's a tribute. It's attributing human characteristics or behaviors to God So we understand that the God hears God sees God knows You wonder if the children of Israel during this time probably thought that God was distant removed Involved in their lives. I mean God wasn't in imminent. He wasn't there but but but he was directly concerned and he was involved in their lives and We see here that God sees he hears and God knows your pain God sees and hears and knows your hurt your doubts your fears. God isn't far removed from us. You know that We know that Jesus said he will never leave us. No forsake us God is very attentive to our needs and Our lives in general. Did you know that? you see God is directly involved in our lives and I said this earlier and I think it's important for us to understand this that that God may even use others to help us sometimes are waiting for this this Lightning bolt to come from heaven just to know God is here, but God can use people To help you To supply the need the things that you may be in need of he may step in miraculously in your life to deliver you as well without You know using human beings Remember Hagar Hagar and Sarah Sarah was was a really mean woman. Wasn't she I mean that Abraham you know anyways, but Sarah mistreated Hagar harshly and It was her who told her husband and go into her to get another right I mean it's an ending yet. She just abuses her verbally and whatever so Hagar takes off. She takes off and She is basically bummed out. He she's like, you know, this this stinks This woman is you know treating me harshly and all and then the Bible says that the Lord appeared to her and The cool thing is that when Hagar was there all by herself wallowing up in her in her misery and whatnot All of a sudden as she was by a spring of water in the wilderness It says that the Bible the Bible says that God appears to Hagar And he gives her a promise about her children and all of that stuff And when Hagar realized that God had just showed up in her life She said that she called the name this you are the God who sees Sometimes we need that don't we Sometimes we think where is God? Where is the Lord? You know, it's Satan the devil who loves to tell you that God is not Caring God doesn't want to hear from you that God forgot about you and we believe it We believe it because we think you know what Robert? I have prayed a lot and nothing happens therefore God is not Here he's not with me Satan loves to hammer that in your mind when you're going through trials when you're going through pain when you're going through doubts It's like Satan will whisper in your ear. He doesn't care about you and you believe it But listen God hears God sees and God knows and we see that happening to Hagar and We see that Moses here after 40 years 400 years of silence God appears to Moses and he's 80 years old and God now Begins to use him he begins to give him a call in his life and notice what he says God says I have come down In other words God was ready to do something about their situation the 400 years are over That's a long time, isn't it? 400 years Then verses 9 and 10 he says this Now therefore behold that cry of the children of Israel has come to me And I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppressed them come now Therefore and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people the children of Israel out of Egypt Could you imagine that Moses? You know it's been a long time since he's been in Pharaoh's court his boss He was driven out of that area because he killed an Egyptian He buried him under the sand and that's that what really what drove him out to Midian to the desert And now God is saying I want you to go back to Pharaoh He hasn't seen my face in 40 years and the last time he saw me he wanted to kill me Do you really want me to do this Lord? We see here that God has come down And here he is 80 years old Moses 80 years old It was about 40 years earlier In his efforts to become the deliverer if you remember It didn't work out. Well, it was the right idea But it was the wrong time and the wrong method God didn't need him to kill an Egyptian So now it was time for Moses to be used by God and now God is going to use the right method To use him to deliver the children of Israel That's a long time 40 years 80 years old now The burning bush was the turning point in Moses's life It was right there that God was about to initiate a huge life change and a huge Transition from shepherding to become the deliverer of his people That's pretty crazy, isn't it? I want to close with a few things here two applications that I want to close with To the Christian, let me say this to you Don't be discouraged with your life Don't be discouraged with your life. I know sometimes it's tough But where God has you today is truly holy ground because he's there with you He's not throwing you into an area in your life. Just so you can follow up and be bored to death He has a plan. There's a purpose. There's a reason you may not know it But don't be discouraged he sees he hears and he knows your heart Stay faithful and stay hopeful Because that's what happened with Moses if your life has become too predictable You may be on the verge of a big life change But let God initiate that change Don't try to make it yourself It's something that God will step in and do like he did in the life of Moses The other application is for the non-Christian or the Christian that's here tonight Who's not really walking with Christ and maybe you're just struggling in pleasing the Lord Tonight God has grabbed your attention Consider this your burning bush experience God has you he's spoken to you and what God wants to do he wants to give you hope He wants to give you a purpose He doesn't want to walk what he doesn't want you to walk out of this place The same way you came in he wants to change you