Who Am I and Who Are You?

[00:00:00] Well, there was this fellow who was driving down a country lane, and he saw a sign planted there beside the road. It said, talking Dog for sale. [00:00:12] Well, any of us would be interested in that. And he turned in, drove up, found the dog, and began to ask the dog some questions. Said to him, well, what have you been doing with your life so far? [00:00:25] And the dog answered, well, I served two tours in Iraq. [00:00:31] The last few years, I've been a rescue dog over in the Alps, and now I'm reading books to the residents over at the nursing home. [00:00:44] Well, this man was just blown away. He found the owner of the dog and he said to him, said, this is an amazing dog. Why would you be selling this dog? [00:00:56] The man replied, that dog's a liar. He didn't do any of that stuff. [00:01:08] Now, that story is pure fantasy, right? I mean, it's just full of all kinds of surprises there. But our story today, our lesson from Exodus, is no fantasy. [00:01:23] Now, it's got surprising things to it. [00:01:26] So surprising, in fact, that that burning bush really got Moses attention. [00:01:34] And it caused two of the most important questions that we have in the Bible. [00:01:41] Two of the most important questions that we could possibly. [00:01:46] Who are you and who am I? [00:01:53] Would you pray with me, Lord? Open our ears now to hear who you are and the blessings that you have for us. [00:02:07] We ask in the name of Jesus. Amen. [00:02:12] So these two questions, who am I and who are you that Moses asked. [00:02:20] Well, really, they expose a lot about God's nature and God's character, but they also, sad to say, expose a lot about the nature and character of mankind. So let's just start with Moses. Okay? [00:02:34] Remember, God said to Moses, I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, and I know their suffering, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hands of the Egyptians, to bring them up out of that land to a good land, a land flowing with milk and honey. [00:02:57] And then God said to Moses, come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people out of Egypt. [00:03:08] And there it is. [00:03:11] There's the statement to Moses. And so right off, what does Moses do? But. But start in with excuses. Who am I? There it is. [00:03:21] Who am I that I should go? That's verse 11. In other words, Lord, I think you got the wrong guy here. I don't have the confidence. Now, it might sound like a good excuse, but it's extremely selfish. I mean, if you look at it. [00:03:40] Notice he says, I, who am I eyes are on himself. [00:03:49] And honestly, it does go to resources. But think about it. [00:03:54] It's as though Moses wants to hold back something that already belongs to God. Or put another way, something that God has given to Moses. [00:04:04] And so God answers him. He says, I will be with you, and this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you. [00:04:13] So that when you have brought your people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain. And God is saying, you will be successful and I'll prove it to you because you're going to worship me right back here, right back here on Mount Horeb, which we will know later on in our readings as Mount Sinai. [00:04:32] But that's not good enough. [00:04:34] Second excuse from Moses. Moses says, well, suppose I go to the Israelites and say, the God of your fathers has sent me to you. And they ask, well, what's his name? [00:04:47] What do I say? [00:04:50] Now some of the theologians say, well, that goes to his education, or maybe the lack thereof, or certainly the people, because there were lots of gods in Egypt. [00:05:02] Maybe the people have forgotten who their God is. [00:05:08] But that would speak to Moses as being just full of pure fear. [00:05:15] And I mean, it's kind of a worn out excuse, isn't it? [00:05:20] People will ask me things I can't answer. If I don't have the answer, what do I say? [00:05:28] Again, God answers Moses, I am who I am. [00:05:36] Say this to the people, I am has sent me to you. [00:05:43] I am who I am. I always wondered at that. You look into the original language there. We could translate it into our modern English. As I am, I really am not enough. Third excuse. [00:06:00] Well, I just won't have their respect. [00:06:03] Now, Moses even went so far as to say, I don't talk so good. [00:06:08] You'd have to examine Exodus 2 and Exodus 4 on your own time, perhaps your quiet time. Look at those passages and see how Moses continues his excuses and how God answers him. But my point is, he has every conceivable objection. [00:06:32] Of course, we wouldn't think of using any of those, would we? [00:06:37] Would we? [00:06:39] Do you ever feel like you don't have what it takes? [00:06:47] To that I would say, don't underestimate God's ability to give you what you need at just the time that you need it, particularly if you already have it from him. I mean, what do you have that he hasn't given you? [00:07:03] Think about that. [00:07:06] Well, I don't have enough time to get involved with service to God. Oh, really? [00:07:14] What kind of time has God given you? [00:07:17] I mean, this is Your time now and he gives it to us. I mean, consider the alternative. [00:07:29] Or, well, I'm just not talented enough. [00:07:35] The talents you have, God gave to you. [00:07:41] They might not be what other people's talents are, but they came from him or our treasures. Everything that we have, where did it come from? God gave it to us. What's more, if we really think about it, everything we have belongs to him already. [00:08:03] And what about fear? [00:08:05] Moses has this fear about people. [00:08:11] And yet Peter writes first Peter three, he says, always be ready to give an answer to someone about hope that you have within you. [00:08:21] That's something we ought think about. [00:08:24] Kind of like our elevator speech about God's love in our lives. Always be ready, he says. Or Jesus. Earlier In Luke chapter 12, he even spoke to people. He said, if you're worried about what to say, the Holy Spirit will give you the words to say right when you need them. And what about this respect issue that Moses had? [00:08:48] We ought always remember that where we have been, what we have done is forgiven. [00:08:59] It's probably the most powerful witness we can give to anyone to explain what we once were, but how different we are because of Christ living in us. [00:09:14] Well, that's who Moses is full of excuses. Why me, Lord? [00:09:20] Fearful, low self esteem, it appears. [00:09:26] But I mentioned that there were two important questions. [00:09:31] Moses saying, who am I? [00:09:35] But then Moses asking God, who are you? [00:09:40] Now we might brand that kind of cheeky or presumptuous. This morning maybe. But look what we learn about God. Because Moses asked that question, we find out that God is a holy God. He says to Moses, don't come any closer. Take off your shoes, Moses. Because this holy God is separate from a sin tainted and sin damaged world by a searing, cleansing fire in a bush. [00:10:11] And where has Moses shoes been but walking on earth around a whole bunch of sheep. [00:10:21] And he fell on his face, you think? [00:10:28] And we learn that God is a compassionate God. [00:10:32] God's deliverance of his people, it's based on his compassion for them in the midst of their affliction. He says, I have seen their misery. I have heard them crying out. I am concerned about their suffering. [00:10:45] If we look again at the Hebrew there, it duplicates. It's like it says, I have seen. Seen their mercy, their. [00:10:53] Their misery. [00:10:55] Like if he says it a few more times, we get the impact that he really has so seen their misery. He really has heard their crying out and he is concerned, concerned about their suffering. And we learn that he's an imminent God. Imminent means directly concerned about the affairs of Men. [00:11:15] For 400 years, the Israelites may have thought of their God as careless and uninvolved in the world, rather than being imminent. [00:11:28] Not the case again, the text. I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey. Literally, the language. There is a land oozing, oozing with milk and honey. Now, we live in a very agrarian culture right here around Greeley, and we understand things that grow. [00:11:59] And so when God says milk and honey, when you hear milk, you have to think animals, because animals, one of the wonderful byproducts of certain animals is milk. [00:12:12] So there's going to be animals and honey. When we hear honey, that means that there's plants that have flowers that need bees to pollinate. And so what God is saying is, the land I'm going to give you is going to have lots of good things to eat, meat and vegetables. He's saying. [00:12:35] So God isn't just saving his people from something, he's saving them for something as well. [00:12:46] And we learn today that our God is one who uses people to accomplish his purposes. [00:12:54] Look, God is going to be directly involved in the deliverance of his people. But what does he do? He chooses Moses. In his mission of redemption and salvation. [00:13:05] The God of the burning bush is the great I am not the I was or I will be, maybe someday. [00:13:17] But no, he's the present tense God. The I am. [00:13:22] I really am God. [00:13:26] And that's what was so great about Jesus using this particular text to talk to the Sadducees. [00:13:32] The Sadducees, they said, when you're dead, you're done. [00:13:36] Now, why they came up with that, nobody seems to really understand. [00:13:43] Jesus wasn't going to have it. He says, didn't you read the. [00:13:47] Didn't you read Moses? [00:13:50] The God, he says, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who had been in their graves for hundreds of years, but they're living on an eternity. And Jesus is claiming to be their God. He says, I'm the God of the living, not the God of the dead. [00:14:12] He says, I am the God who exists. [00:14:18] I am the God who exists. Look, there were many gods in Egypt, and those gods in Egypt were no gods at all, really. But really, there's two kinds of gods. The God who creates and the God that we create. [00:14:41] But the God that we create, it's all vanity. It's all wishful thinking. And as such, the God that we may create is nothing. [00:14:52] But the God in our text today, Yahweh the Great I am. [00:15:03] He exists. [00:15:05] He's real. [00:15:07] Not only does he exist, he's independent. Theologians across the centuries have identified our God as self existent, needing and having no Creator, existing apart from anyone or anything, and needing no help to accomplish his will. So he exists, he's independent, and he's unchangeable. [00:15:28] As the I am God. He is the God who is the same yesterday, today and forever. In the book of Revelation, we read about Jesus, that He is the one who was, who is and who is to come. Now, on a human level, we know just the opposite, right? I mean, if you design a house and you decide after your plans, you're going to go ahead and build it. [00:15:55] You ever hear of change orders? [00:15:59] Yeah, change orders that are going to change the completed project and certainly the price. [00:16:07] Or have you ever heard of a freeway being completed, under budget and on time? [00:16:14] Yeah, me neither. [00:16:17] Change is all we know. [00:16:20] But our God, the God of today's text in Exodus, is unchangeable. [00:16:27] And the I am God, while He exists, is independent, unchangeable. He is eternal. How often have we put our trust in political candidates, for example, only to find out that once they're elected, everything's off the table? I mean, promises, promises, right? And hope's founded on people are always very short lived. [00:16:50] But God and His promises are forever. They are solid as a rock, can never fail. [00:16:58] So today, this wonderful lesson from Exodus, this burning bush, it's no meaningless miracle, but it visibly demonstrates for us the fires of affliction that were upon God's people were. Why? To purify them for the blessings that were yet to come to God's people. God's people were not consumed by these fires due to God's promises, due to God's mercy, due to God acting out his love through Moses. [00:17:36] Well, we know what happened. Moses returned to Egypt. [00:17:40] He went, so to speak, from the frying pan into the fire. [00:17:47] But he knew, because God said he knew that he and the nation of Israel, the Israelites, the children of Israel, would be preserved and they would prosper by the power of God, whose very name means I am. [00:18:04] I really am. [00:18:08] The burning bush also foreshadows for us a much greater event. [00:18:14] The redemption of the world through the Son of God, Jesus Christ. [00:18:21] For Jesus Christ is himself the great. I am the Eternal, the Almighty, One who sees our misery and hears our cry and knows our suffering. [00:18:34] We can page back into Matthew. Matthew tells us this. Jesus saw the crowds and had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. [00:18:45] And that same Jesus who we know today, God the Father sent him, sent him as flesh and blood to accomplish his plan of redemption by sending him to this earth. [00:19:04] Jesus. [00:19:07] Jesus, who experienced the searing heat and fire of our sin all the way to the point of death. He was consumed so that we would not be. [00:19:21] And now we are not just washed. [00:19:26] We are not just forgiven of our sins, but we are made righteous by Christ's work. Yes, we still sin. Absolutely true. [00:19:35] But even so, we wear the robe of righteousness that he puts upon us. How reliable is that? [00:19:48] So how can we respond? [00:19:57] How do we respond to a God who sees our misery and hears our cry and knows our suffering and has redeemed us through Jesus Christ? [00:20:09] How can we respond to a God who promised at our baptism to be with us always? [00:20:22] Well, we can respond like Moses did. [00:20:28] He went. [00:20:32] Did I mention already we think Moses was 80 years old when this happened. [00:20:39] He went and he put his faith in God. And by faith, we too respond to the one who went through the fire for us. By faith, we are able to follow the example of Moses and answer God's call. By faith, we serve him with all that we are and all that he has given us. Our time, our talent, our treasure. [00:21:14] Amen.