Smoke - Week 1

Today, we begin a series called Smoke. If you’re thinking that smoke is kind of a strange name for a series, you’re not wrong. You might even be wondering what in the world smoke has to do with God.

Often we recount stories from the New Testament that focus around Jesus. For this series, we are going to the Old Testament. If you read through the Old Testament, you’ll start to see that smoke often signals that God is near.

God appeared a surprising number of times in the Bible in the form of smoke and fire, and as God interacted with His people, we learn some important things about God.

So in this series, we’re going to stare into the smoke to see how God reveals Himself.

Transition:

Today, we are going to look at something crazy that happened in the Bible, and see a Bible character who definitely was shocked by what he saw.

Have you guys ever witnessed something shocking?

Well, since it is September, and that means the start of football season, I thought the best way to illustrate the “shock” factor was to take a look at college football upsets.

Now for some of you this may not be something you are interested in, but to put it simply, these are moments where you either said nothing, or you ask yourself “What just happened?”

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We live in a world where anything can happen. Things can change in a moment, and I have friends whose whole life was either changed for better or worse in a moment.

Have you ever thought about why anything can happen at any moment? It’s because God is around. God is present and powerful. He can provide for us. And He also wants to be our priority. God isn’t content merely to let us make our own plans and goals because He knows that it is better for us to be a part of His life and His plans and goals.

Anything can and does happen, but we can trust that God is in control.

Scripture (Exodus 3):

Tonight we are going to see how in the Old Testament, Smoke is often a signal of God’s presence.

Moses

Israelites have been in captivity for a long time, and they feel as if God has forgotten about them.

Pharaoh even issues a decree to murder babies because he’s afraid of the increasing population of the Israelites.

But even in the midst of this, God is in control, and He protects a guy named Moses.

He grew up in Pharoah’s palace, but he ended up realizing he was an Israelite. One day this caused some trouble, and he murdered an Egyptian and had to flee.

Israel is still in a place of desperation, and in chapter 2, we see that God hears and is going to respond to their cry for help.

Exodus 2:23-25

23 Years passed, and the king of Egypt died. But the Israelites continued to groan under their burden of slavery. They cried out for help, and their cry rose up to God. 24 God heard their groaning, and he remembered his covenant promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 25 He looked down on the people of Israel and knew it was time to act.

Exodus 3:1-6

One day Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock far into the wilderness and came to Sinai, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire from the middle of a bush. Moses stared in amazement. Though the bush was engulfed in flames, it didn’t burn up. 3 “This is amazing,” Moses said to himself. “Why isn’t that bush burning up? I must go see it.” 4 When the LORD saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called to him from the middle of the bush, “Moses! Moses!” “Here I am!” Moses replied. 5 “Do not come any closer,” the LORD warned. “Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground. 6 I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” When Moses heard this, he covered his face because he was afraid to look at God.

It’s a normal day for Moses as he is tending to Jethro’s sheep.

Now, I don’t know about you guys, but verses 2-3 are the shock factor if you will of this story. As you read it, the words may not jump off the page, but imagine if you actually saw a bush that was engulfed in flames, but not burning. AND THEN, the bush starts talking to you??

But what does God say to Moses? He tells him who He is by referring back to his faithfulness to people like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Moses says “Here I am” (Isaiah)

Here are 2 things we need to pull away from this passage:

SMOKE SIGNALS THAT GOD’S PRESENCE IS PRESENT TENSE

In the Old Testament, God’s Spirit only indwelt certain people, and usually it was only for a specific amount of time.

As followers of Christ though, we have been given the Holy Spirit to be with us always. We’ll talk some later about why it’s important to recognize His presence in our lives, or present tense if you will.

NO MATTER HOW LONG IT HAS BEEN SINCE GOD SHOWED UP IN OUR LIVES, GOD IS STILL LIVING AND ACTIVE

Pastoral Encouragement:

Often in our lives, we feel like we need to fill a void (when we feel sad/worried, or begin to question our meaning and purpose)

Pastor Mark has been calling it the “God-sized” hole in our lives. What he means is that, no matter what we try to fill our lives with, if it’s anything other than God we will still feel empty and disappointed.

We generally are excited, but unsure of how to follow Him, and so we just make God out to be like everything else in our lives - sports, dance, theater, school, hobbies, friends, you name it. We may feel like God is there, but there’s still part of us that doubts He is with us because we aren’t actually seeking to “KNOW” God.

But in Scripture, it says that God wants us to “KNOW” Him.

In Jeremiah, God is already talking about the new covenant promise, which was that Jesus would come and die for our sins, and he says that his purpose is for us to “KNOW” Him.

Application:

Moses needed this moment in his life. God awakened Moses to His presence, and set Moses’ heart on fire to want to go and help deliver the Israelites from captivity.

How is God trying to grab your attention?

In Moses’ story, we discover four things that we must do to let our hearts be awakened and set on fire by God’s presence.

First, we must REVERE who God is.

The act of taking of our shoes, may look like responding in worship and celebrating who our God is.

We are constantly in God’s presence when we follow Jesus because the Holy Spirit is present.

How do we live in awe of who God is?

To know we have an all-powerful God, who is perfect in every way, and knows that we disobeyed Him, and rejected the gift He gave, still loves us, and wants relationship with us is pretty great. That should make us want to revere God.

We Must Repent of What We’re Not

Taking off shoes was an act of humility and repentance. Shoes were the dirtiest part of people in the Old Testament, and God told Moses to remove his shoes for He was on holy ground.

Our sin is a barrier between us and God. We need to repent in order to be in right standing with God.

We must REALIZE that God is holy.

When we know God, we know that He is perfect and holy in every way.

God is perfectly righteous and loving and good. We are not. There is no trace of evil or darkness in Him (1 John 1:5). We are sinful, selfish, and even evil at times.

Romans 3:23

The only way we become Holy is through salvation in Jesus. Our Holiness is imputed. That word means that we are credited Holiness due to Jesus’s Holiness and His dying on the Cross to pay for our sin. Romans 5:9 says that we have “been justified by His blood.” That means that if we have Jesus as our Lord and Savior, then we have been justified in the eyes of a Holy God, and He sees us as Holy because of Jesus.

We must RECOGNIZE God’s presence in our lives.

God’s presence isn’t just with us when we go to church or when we feel like things are going really well in our relationship with Him. He is always with us.

We need to recognize that and make the decision to choose to follow his way. This looks like surrendering our way, and listening to the HS leading in our lives.

Ending: Over the next few weeks, we are going to look at God’s power and provision, and discuss how God is to be the priority in our lives. Too often we get in the way of God, and we wonder why God feels distant. Know that He is with you, and all you need to do is surrender to His way, and witness how He works in and through your lives.

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