The Mystery of the Fiery Foilage

Main idea: God can deliver us no matter where we are at because of who He is

Exodus 3:1-22

What do you think of when you hear the word Mystery?

A movie, a book, a game, a riddle, a conspiracy, etc. A lot of words can be seen as a mystery.

Introduce the idea of the Mystery of Exodus and how this week, we will be in the book of Exodus to unravel such Mysteries. This week, we will be going through certain stories in Exodus and we are going to see the mysteries that God has for us.

Who’s the main player in the book of Exodus?

That’s right: Moses

Background info on Moses and who he is, a shepherd, was placed in a box floating down the nile river due to a decision by king Pharoah to put all Hebrew male born babies into the Nile due to a overcrowding population of Israelites. Founded by the daughter of Pharaoh. After defending a brother by killing an Egyptian, Pharaoh sought out to kill Moses, but he is ultimately unsuccessful. Once the king of Egypt dies, the Israelites call out in pain within their slavery. We learn that God in this scenario is concerned for them. Well now, where are we? What does this have to do with Moses now?

Exodus 3:1–4 “Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.””

A Reachable God

Recap of the things that are happening here. The burning bush. When Moses sees this burning bush, he is drawn to it. Every time we see a fire or some sort of commotion, we are simply drawn to it. Even though we are drawn to it, we make a decision on what we do next.

What do you do when you see a fire of some sort?

Bring up time working at Dairy Queen and how the grease trap caught on fire. Teenage me starts freaking out, I run into the kitchen where they make all the ice cream because I didn’t want to see the aftermath of what would happen next. To make a long story short, the fire was easily put out and I was overreacting. However, when I first seen those flames, I was alarmed and I panicked.

Here’s the thing, the scripture here isn’t saying that you always have to be drawn to a fire or even have to walk near a fire. As a matter of the fact, the whole purpose of this scene isn’t that Moses seen fire, but rather Moses was drawn to God. When it comes to our lives, we hear so many things, and we are drawn to so many things. Sometimes, they are the right things, but other times, they can be the totally wrong things. When this happens, we become driven to go down these rabbit trails, but ultimately, we miss the bigger message on what God is telling us completely. So that’s the first point of tonight, be open.

Exodus 3:5–8 “Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and 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.”

Recap of what’s happening, The interaction is now underway against God and Moses through this burning bush. Right out of the gate, God tells moses to take off his sandals because of how he is standing on holy ground.

God makes it known to Moses of who He is. As He is doing this, Moses turns away his face due to fear of the Lord. Let’s get something clear first, this isn’t a fear that one would get from spiders, needles, snakes, heights, clowns, etc. This is a more of a healthy and righteous fear of who God truly is.

2. A Holy God

Due to how God full of true holiness, it comes to a point where we as human beings cannot fathom God’s physical presence. Moses proves this when he turns away in fear. This shouldn’t scare us or put us down here. We shouldn’t respond here by being scared of God, but rather having a respected fear of who He is and how holy and majestic He is.

As we go on, God gives Moses His reasoning for appearing to him. It’s because of the concern that God has for the Israelites here. To sum it all up, God reveals His plans to take the Israelites to the promise land. God’s plan to deliver the Israelites is crucial to His great plans that come later on from this point in time, but even out of the gate, we see a couple of things. The first thing we see is that God has a concern for His people. This is not a concern that comes from being worried, but rather a heartful and loving concern that comes similar to a parent who looks after their child. When a child cries, a good parent usually responds to said child. This is basically what God is doing in this scenario, He is responding of a healthy concern to His people.

The second thing that we see here deals with what Moses had to do right out of the gate when he first interacts with God. When he has to remove his sandals, what Moses is actually doing here is that he is humbling himself in order to stand in the presence of his heavenly father. There are times in our lives that we think we are invincible. There are times to where we think we are the center point of the universe. It’s easy to have thoughts of “as long as it goes my way and exactly the way I expect it to go, things will all be alright.” Everyone has these moments.

Share example of me being only concerned with myself

No matter if it’s a short period of time or a long period of time, we all have these moments. When we have these moments often, it creates a barrier between us and being concerned with others. On top of that, it can block our view to find out who God truly is and how He wants to be involved in our lives. In order to really see and find out who God is, we have to take a page out the Moses’s book and we need to Humble ourselves. That can look like many different things, such as sacrificing time to help someone do something that you don’t want to do or giving up playing video games or watching TV in order to pray. Many of things fit this mold. The thing to know here is that if we want to find out the mystery of God and who He is, we can’t act out as if we are the main event of the world. We must strive to make Him the main attraction in our lives, just as Moses did in this scene.

Transition into next verses.

Exodus 3:10–12 “Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” He said, “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.””

Recap of what is happening: So God tells Moses what He is going to do. He’s going to send Moses to Pharaoh in order to bring God’s people out of Egypt. Moses doesn’t necessarily have an outgoing attitude when God tells him this news. He questions God by saying “Who am I to do this?”. Let’s make this clear, this isn’t Moses questioning God because he doesn’t want to do it. Almost anyone would have love to take the honor of doing this great task. Moses instead experiences being humbled here and basically asks as if he is not worthy do lead God’s people into the promise land.

What’s craziest thing here tho, is that Moses is absolutely correct to think this. He is not worthy. He alone is not worthy to lead God’s people into the promise land. God knowing this, makes something known to Moses, along with making something known to us as well, in regards to who He is.

3. A Confident Giving God

God tells Moses that He will be with him through this journey. God doesn’t act as an boss who is like, get this done before the end of the day and then when it’s done, report back to me. God acts as a loving father who is going to be in our corner as we are out doing things for His glory. God gives us confidence that we all need. We don’t need self confidence when God gives us confidence that we can trust. He proves that with Moses here.

When it comes to us here tonight, you might be here tonight and you might be struggling with finding confidence. You might have these thoughts from time to time that you can’t do something to glorify God because you don’t feel like your equipped to do it. Here’s what you should know. God can use anyone for His purpose. It doesn’t matter who you are or what talents that you have, God can use you to glorify Him. We don’t need to look for self made confidence, confidence from others, confidence from social media, etc. The only confidence that will make us whole is the confidence that comes from God. If God is for us, then who can ever come against us. God can use anyone for anything that glorifies Him.

Now, we get back to Moses, who is asking a what if question. What if they asks who sent me? God gives an interesting response here.

Exodus 3:14–15 “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.’ ” 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.”

God tells Moses, “I am who I am” God here is letting Moses and everyone of us here know that He is legit. That He is who He says He is. He is who He is then, He is who He is Now, and finally, He is;

4. A Forever God

If we are to start anything out of this week, it’s that God has always loved us and will keep loving us forever and ever because He is who He is. Because of who God is, He can deliver us for His purpose no matter where we are at. No one can stop God, He is the creator of the universe and He is a personal God who sent His son Jesus to die for all of us and our sins when we didn’t deserve it.

Wrap up: So as the band comes back up and that we kick off this wonderful, competitive week, think about the mystery of who God is to you in your life. What role does He play in your life. Along with that thought, also think about things that you need to be delivered from. It doesn’t matter where you are at in your life. God can deliver anyone from anything. Think about that this week and beyond.

Pray