God will not be forgotten | Ex 3 | FBC Swainsboro Youth Rally
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intro
Hey y’all,
How is everyone tonight?
Cool Cool
So my name is Austin Ussery, I am the pastor of students and missions at my church in gray Georgia, at FBC Gray. I grew up here in Georgia, go Dawgs,
grew up in McDonough, just south of Atlanta.
I lived in New Orleans for awhile, which is where i met some of y’all’s fearless leader Matt. SO Just want to say thank you to Matt for inviting me out here tonight and
I’m excited to be here.
because I absolutely love student ministry.
I think y’all live in one of the toughest times to grow up, and one of the toughest times to be a follower of Christ.
And I say Follow of Christ, because that is what we have to be today, we cannot be just christians in name only, that title has lost some of its meaning, that “Everyone is a a christian”
My mom goes to church, My grandma helped build this church, none of that matters.
What matters is, are you following Christ or not? Do you know Christ and does he know you?
Is he Lord.
That is the question I want you to answer tonight. Do you know Him, does he know you.
So.
Let’s get in to it.
The culture that we live in today, is actively waring to make you forget about God. Doesn’t want you to know God.
And it feels new but it’s not, its been happening since the very first easter
so think about it. have you forgotten God? Have you?
So a while back, like a long time ago. the 60’s to be exact.
Around Easter of 1966 Time Magazine printed one of their most Iconic covers. Back when that meant something.
But it said.
“Is God Dead?” written in red letters on a black background. The basic premise of the article was to try and show, that God was indeed, dead.
The author, makes the case that the world is broken and there isn’t a God who can fix it and we need to come to terms with it .
The Church is irrelevant, God is irrelevant.
This is a quote form the article
For many, that time has arrived. Nearly one of every two men on earth lives in thralldom to a brand of totalitarianism that condemns religion as the opiate of the masses—which has stirred some to heroic defense of their faith but has also driven millions from any sense of God's existence. Millions more, in Africa, Asia and South America, seem destined to be born without any expectation of being summoned to the knowledge of the one God.
Basically saying,
The world has moved past God.
As iconic as the cover was, this was not the first time the death of God or the church or Christianity had been predicted.
It has been going on for 2000 years.
From Is God Dead. to 19th century philosophers writing God is dead and we have killed him, to Karl Marx calling for a godless world. To Thomas Payne calling for a world where there is no need for god.
To Sullimon the great invading all the way to pretty much France, on and on and on and on,
right back to the sign on the cross, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.”
Mark Twain once said ““The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”
The question has been answered time and time again. No, God is not dead.
What I love about this article, is just how it missed.
“Millions more, in Africa, Asia and South America, seem destined to be born without any expectation of being summoned to the knowledge of the one God.
Y’all wanna take a wild guess where Christianity is growing the fastest right now? Africa, Asia, South America. oh, AND the Middle East.
God cannot be relegated to the history books.
In Matthew 16, Jesus tells Peter at Caesarea Philippi.
18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Last year I got to go to Israel and see where this took place.
When we were in Israel, we got to go to where Jesus said this, and stand among the ruins of the Temple to Pan that was built on top of the cave called the Gates of Hell.
In that moment, It dawned on me were the proof of what Christ was saying.
I will not be forgotten, I will not fade away, I will not die.
You can try to kill me, but it wont work.
and every year we join believers all over the world celebrating Christ’s victory over death and the grave.
So this is where we are going to live tonight.
This idea that God will not be forgotten. That God makes himself known, and we are able to join in his redeeming work in this world.
Context
If you have a bible great, flip over to Exodus 3, if you don’t have a bible pull it up on your phone, or look on with your neighbor, but if you do pull out your phone, make me a promise, you aren’t gonna be scrolling. I know how tempting it can be to do that.
So Exodus Chapter 3, let me set the scene.
Moses has just been at the very least caught off guard by the burning bush or absolutely terrified by the fact that it was talking and knew his name, and turned out to be God.
Moses had been out tending his fathers in laws flock, and had gone out to the desolate place, Mt Horeb, which Horeb is the hebrew word for desolate.
The Desolate mountain where God is.
In the New Testament, Jesus is said to go out in to the desolate place and pray, that can get translated as quiet or out of the way place.
So look at it
Moses is this Desolate man. This nothing man.
Think about where he came from, he grew up in the court of Pharoah, living in the shadow of the most powerful man in the empire, which was the most powerful in the world at the time.
Then he killed a guy.
And ran from that
and now. At this time in the story
It’s been about 35 years since he killed that guard, he was on the run from Pharoah.
Pharaoh probably thinks he is dead by now.
His whole life, grew up apart from his real family, the family he did grow up with wants him dead,
he is nothing, he has nothing, he has been reduced to a ghost.
So Moses, this desolate man, taking a flock he himself didn’t own near a mountain so out of the way they named it that, and hears the voice and experiences the presence of the God who knows Moses’s name.
God shows up to this nothing, nobody, ghost of a man.
The God of all things, has come to a murdering, fugitive, specter of a man, to make His name great.
We know Moses name, because Moses made God’s name great.
So this is where our story tonight begins. “I have seen the affliction of my people.”
Ex. 3:7-22 . We are going to read this in chunks. Before we do that.
pray with me for our time in the word.
pray
Read this with me. through 15.
P1 - This is Who I am/In that name, all creation is sustained.
7 Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, 8 and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 9 And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. 10 Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” 11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” 12 He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”
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?” 14 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.’ ” 15 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.
So this is the conversation that changes Moses’s life. But it’s not just that.
God is telling moses who He is.
God is not merely changing Moses life, He’s explaining who he is.
and that is life changing.
When we realize who God is and who we are not, our lives change. We are put into a perspective on just who we are and exactly who God is.
He is telling Moses who He is.
What He is like.
It had been 400 years from the time of Joseph to the the Exodus story. 400 years since the end of Genesis and the start of Exodus.
so to put that in perspective. 400 years is a long time. Our country has not even been around 300 years.
The people have not heard from God for 400 years.
think about it, Another notable 400 year gap between God speaking is between the Old and New Testament.
When God speaks in Exodus. It was to come down to rescue and restore His people.
When God speaks in Matthew, it was to come down to rescue and restore His people.
look at verse 8 Ex. 3:8
Exodus 3:8 (ESV)
8 and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land
I have come down to bring up.
I have come down to restore.
The Lord is saying, i know my people. I have seen the affliction. He hears the cries, he knows they are suffering.
During this 400 year period, the people of God had forgotten really who He was.
God had probably become a distant memory? The memory of God had faded. 400 years is a long time from Joseph to now.
So He is telling Moses, I’m coming to get them. I’m coming to rescue them.
SO see these two things right off the bat,
One, the lord knows His people.
The Lord knows who His people are and is deeply invested in them.
The second thing, I will rescue my people. I will keep my promise.
So God tells Moses who He is, and God then tells Moses who he is.
saying you are going to be my tool, my instrument.
you are going to go to Pharaoh and let him know I’m coming.
you are going to be the tool which I use.
Moses you have to go back to Egypt.
So Moses, can you imagine, hearing this. has got to be confused.
Look at how Moses responds.
11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”
So think about this.
Have you ever asked the Lord to show you the whole plan? We all have, He never does. Want to know why? Cause this is what happens. It scares the fool out of Moses.
When I was your age, had God shown me the whole plan for my life right up to this point, it would have terrified me, it would terrify you.
I can see Moses looking around, saying Who am I, there has to be someone else and God saying, “ buddy, you’re the only one here at Mt Desolate.” you’re going man.
If you’ve ever wanted to see your self in the Bible, this is a good spot.
This is where we can see ourselves in the story, not as Moses the guy walking over the dry land of the Red Sea, or coming down the mountain with the 10 Commandments. But Moses the confused. Moses to scared. and as a southerner feigning humility to not do something.
Because Moses does a southern thing here. It’s not apparent in the text that it’s southern. but it’s The polite decline. The “Oh no no no”
any one actually like fruitcake? good no one.
like when someone offers you some fruitcake that you don’t want and you’re like “i want to make sure there is enough for everyone else to get a piece.” “Someone else will really like that”
That is what Moses is doing.
this is Moses being like, God great plan, let’s not,
I really don’t want to go back, I like being out in the middle of no where, and I like that pharoah thinks I’m dead. Who am I?
But God is like, nope here’s the plan.
Go tell the Egyptians that I’m coming to get my people and when you bring them out, bring them here to worship,
show them in the out of the way places, in the desolate areas I am still here.
I will not leave you, I will be with you.
So Moses responds with a curious question here,
And I say curious because to us, as westerners we over look this.
God has a personal name.
I want you to think about this, because we call god, God. nothing wrong with it, but we lose a little bit of personal-ness by calling Him God.
God has a personal name, a name that invokes His likeness, a name that tells who He is. It is a personal name, and it is so much more. For us names matter, but they don’t tell part of our story. My name is Austin, it means regal, loyal. I’m a loyal person, but i could have been loyal without being named Austin.
But in the Hebrew the name means something so much deeper.
When Issac is born, it means laughter, because they laughed when The Lord told them they were going to have a son. Jacob means heel grabber, liar, cheater.
When he wrestles with The Lord his name is changed to Israel, one who struggles with God.
So when Moses ask God His name, he wants to know, Who are you? What are you like?
What do I tell the people?
The god of your fathers isn’t gonna cut it in Moses mind.
So God tells him, he gives Moses His personal name. Ex. 3:14-15
14 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.’ ” 15 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.
Yahweh, the personal name of God. Yaweh, we see it as I am who I am,
one of the commentators translated it as, I cause to be because i cause to be.
In the name of Yahweh is one who holds and is all things.
Almighty. The explanation of all things.
In His name all creation is sustained.
The god of your fathers is Yahweh.
Yahweh is saying:
Do not forget this, I will not be forgotten, I will be remembered. This is my name for ever. Remind them who I am.
The name is everything, and he gives it to desolate, nobody, Ghost of a man. To show His glory. because in His name is glory.
P2 - Go Declare my name/His name carries power.
Then, after he tells Moses his name he gives him instructions on what to do with His name.
Read this next chunk with me.
Exodus 3:16–22 (ESV)
16 Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt, 17 and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.” ’ 18 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, ‘Yaweh, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; and now, please let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to Yahweh our God.’ 19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. 20 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. 21 And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and when you go, you shall not go empty, 22 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 on your daughters. So you shall plunder the Egyptians.”
So what is Yahweh telling Moses to do, he’s saying, go and declare my name.
Go and tell the people who I am. I am Yahweh. I’m am the God of your fathers.
And remember names in Hebrew carried weight and tons of meaning, so Yahweh the god of your fathers.
This is the God Abraham, Isaac and Jacob worshipped, and He is Yahweh, he is the sustainer of all things, creator of all.
Yahweh, the god of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the one who causes things to be, the one keeps the promise. He is compassionate and gracious toward His people,
Yahweh the great I am is your god, this is who they worshipped, this is who you are going to worship. You didn’t choose me I have chosen you. To protect, rescue and restore My people
Now Moses, go and declare my name.
Notice here, Yahweh doesn’t say, go and defend my name.
Think about it, in the Ancient near east, there were a ton of gods. Egypt was a polytheistic society, everything had a god. Later in the story, the plagues are Yahweh wrecking the Egyptian gods.
Yahweh doesn’t go and say defend my name. Go and prove I’m the real god, or go and prove i’m the better God.
Because he could have done that, the hebrew people had for the most part forgotten who God was.
They didn’t know His name, they new that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob worshipped a god, but it’s been 400 years and thay had not heard from him.
They had their own, Time Cover, Is God Dead? They had for the most part forgotten who god was.
He tells Moses to go and declare His name. Declare who I am. Because there is power in the name Yahweh.
Spurgeon has this great line when talking about the gospel but it works here with declaring who God is, he says to this effect.
The Gospel is like a caged lion, it doesn’t need defending, it just needs to be let out of the cage.
Y’all ever seen a lion at a circus and been like, i hope that lion is gonna be okay, unless you’re PETA, no you’re just like, man that lion could kill that dude.
The name of God does not need defending, it needs to be let out of the cage. Tell the people who I am, the god your fathers worshipped was not just another god, he was the supereme God.
I AM WHO I AM. Yahweh. Tell the people I am coming for them,
and then tell Pharaoh that if he doesn’t let them go, I will let myself out of the cage, and reach out and touch him.
I think we read this in a mild mannered way,
but Yahweh has had it, he has heard their cries, he has seen their afflictions.
This is a picture not of an impersonal god judging the nations
but a parent defending their child.
So when I was about 8 years old I played baseball like most kids do, i was tiny, which seems hilarious to ever use the word tiny to describe me, but I was, i probably weighed 50 pounds, and was small. Runt, which meant I was not particularly good at baseball.
But i was on this team, and it was a competitive team, so there were kids better than me and this one kid had kinda bullied me, this was before kids had rights, bullying made us strong, not a lot you could do about really.
But it was a little more than just bullying, this kid was picking on me for most of the season.
and it all came to a head this one afternoon.
before a game, we were in the dugout and my mom had gotten me a hamburger, and this kid stole it. and pushed me into the fence, and I was small, and this kids was bigger than me.
my mom saw it
And y’all my mom had had enough this, she had seen the affliction.
She loses it, straight up, its the fastest I’ve seen my mom move, she basically teleported through the fence, like one moment there, next moment she has this kid up against the fence just tearing him a new one, the kid is crying.
It’s glorious, like I wasn’t the only kid that this kid had picked on, and I’m sure the other parents are sitting there thinking about doing this, but my mom actually did it. They’re slow clapping in the back ground.
Like you know, my mom had had enough. And y’all don’t really know my mom, but she’s like 5.5 feet tall, not a big person, but she reached out and touched this kid.
whats funny is she had her own exodus story, she got kicked out and banned from the ball park two games, which she was upset about, but looking back I always knew my mom was gonna be there the defend her kid. That was never in question.
Parents in the room, i know you have some sort of story where you were that parent, or you wished you could have just slapped the kid messing with you kid. It’s your kid. You are going to defend them.
This is the picture Yahweh is painting I have seen this affliction. Tell them I’m coming, tell the king I’m coming to take them back, you’ve done enough. If you don’t listen I’m gonna reach out and touch you.
Stretch out my hand is Old Testament for reach out and touch you.
P3 - I will be Remembered/
Yahweh is telling Moses do these things, because I will be remembered for all time.
Exodus 3:15 “This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.”
and we see this through out the rest of the old testament, Yahweh is forgotten by His people except for a few people, and he has to remind them, this is who I am. I AM, you have chosen to forget me, but I have not forgotten you, I will continue to rescue and restore my people.
I will keep for myself a people.
And church, we get to join in this. From Mt Horeb, to here, we get to join in as His people. We remember who he is and what he is done.
P2Christ - Declare who He is, not who we are. Nameless in the world, known in Eternity.
And He is telling us, Go and Declare His name. Go and tell the people who I am.
So this is our charge, we want to Make Jesus Know.
In Ps. 82 the Psalmist paints this picture of all creation crying out, asking the Lord when will you put a stop to this cycle of wickedness and unjustice towards the wicked? When are you going to put an end to this once and for all? Stretch out your hand for the final time. Maranatha, how long oh lord?
So friends, we get to join that in the person and work of Jesus. Heb. 8:1 tells us
1 Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven,
The High Priest in the temple was never to be seated, He was to never sit. The work was never done. They made sacrifices day in and day out. The Priests would work and work until they were exhausted, and then tag out. The smoke went up continually. The priest never sits down.
Jesus sat down. Jesus sits, because the work is finished.
Here is the cool thing that I want you to see.
in John 14:6 Jesus says
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Pick anything, up. I AM, Yahweh.
John is written in greek, the words are hEgo hEimi, I AM. when they put the OT in greek, the septuient, the word in Exodus 3 are hEgo hEimi, I AM has sent you.
Jesus is Yahweh, wrapped in flesh.
Moses was able to speak face to face with God, we have that same access. no one had had that access to the father.
Because God is personal, we can know Him.
We have that through the person and work of Jesus.
this is what Jesus says to us, follow me. Come live as I have lived. and Go and declare my name.
That is what it means to follow Jesus, to make disciples.
Not make ourselves known, not make the church known. Go and make Jesus Known.
Moses was a nobody, but we know His name because he made the name Yahweh known.
That should be out posture.
We make Jesus known by declaring who He is, not who we are. Who cares who we are. We are nobodies.
our goal is to be nameless in this world, but known in eternity.
We do this by making Jesus known.
Go and tell.
So this is what I want to do, I want to invite you in to the mission, I want to invite you in to the family.
If you are a follower of Jesus. Jesus is asking you to die to yourself and follow him. Make his name great and let us tag along.
That is what it means to follow Jesus, to apprentice under Jesus, to become like him. The more we die to ourself, the more we become like who we supposed to be like. Some one who is like Jesus.
So I want to invite you, if you already follow Jesus to take serious his call to die, his call to follow, His call to become like him and join in the restoration and redemption of this broken world.
And if you are not a follower of Jesus, if you don’t know what you believe. I want to invite you to follow Him. to see the beauty in this world that can only be seen at the feet of Jesus. To join the family. The only family that will last in eternity.
that Christ died for you and defeated sin and death and made a way for you to have relationship with him. We get to know him!
SO this is what i want to do
I want to invite you to think about where you are with Jesus. Do you know him?
I know this is going to be a mixed bag of people here, some are followers of Christ, but some are probably not followers of Christ.
SO this is what I want you to think about, do you know Jesus?
Do you know him as savior and do you know him as Lord? Not I grew up in the church, but I am following Jesus.
DO I know him as savior and Lord?
Cause here is the reality, all if us at one time or another are in need of a savior.
All of us in here.
And there is nothing you can do to save yourself.
You cannot be good enough, you can’t earn it, you can’t make your way on your own the only place you make your way to on your own is Hell. Is eternal separation, eternal wrath of God.
But this is the gospel, that Christ died for you, that christ took your sins, and your place on the cross, died was buried and rose again and is ruling and reigning and is on the throne. That is the gospel.
And it is freely given to all who call on the name of the Lord.
So do you feel defeated? Do you feel not good enough? do you feel the weight of sin crushing you? Come to Jesus, come see his goodness.
Jesus takes that weight and puts it on himself.
because this is what Jesus does, he doesn’t make you better, he doesn’t make you good enough, he makes you alive.
Because this is where you are at, you are dead in sin.
You aren’t bad and need to be made good, you are dead and need to be made alive.
That is the offer, that is the invitation to call on Jesus and not be made good but to be made alive.
To have him take your sins and give you his righteousness, give you his freedom.
That we know Jesus, and can call on his name and be saved.
and so everyone bow your heads, close your eyes, and if that is you, wanting to be made alive, if that is you wanting to follow jesus. I want you to call out to him.
Say Jesus I’m a sinner and I need saving, I want to follow you. Ask him to save you from your sins and ask him to forgive you of your sins and He is faithful to do so.
So If that is you, i want you to find your friend that invited, find your youth leader, find someone and tell them, I want to follow Jesus.
Come see christ as lord, come see christ as king.
Y’all Pray with me.