Who God Is

Sermon from CCM Ladybarn

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LISTEN

This sermon was preached by Andy Brownlee at the Ladybarn site of Christ Church Manchester on Sunday 5th May 2019.

SERIES

This message was part of the ‘SERIES NAME’ series, preached at Christ Church Manchester’s church in Withington in EARLY/MID/LATE YEAR. The full series included the following sermons:

BIBLE VERSES

This sermon was based on Exodus 3.

The Burning Bush

1Now 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. 2And 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. 3And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” 4When the Lordsaw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6And 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.
7Then 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, 8and 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. 9And 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. 10Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” 11But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” 12He 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.”
13Then 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?” 14God 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.'” 15God 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. 16Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘The Lord, 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, 17and 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.”‘ 18And they will listen to your voice, and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The Lord, 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 the Lord our God.’ 19But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. 20So 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. 21And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and when you go, you shall not go empty, 22but 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.”

KEY POINTS

God is Awesome

  • The meaning of this word is ‘to inspire awe’ – that’s who God is.

  • We see something of this awesomeness of God in verse 5, God tells Moses don’t come any closer, take of your sandals for you’re on holy Ground. Moses seems to be ok with this and then God says: ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.’ When Moses heard this it says he was afraid why because he knew this was the all powerful, all seeing, all knowing God of the Universe who was speaking to him.

  • God responds to Moses by sharing his name which is: I AM WHO I AM. Now this name is kind of hard for us to get our heads around because normally when someone says: ‘I am’ it’s followed by something else: ‘I am a Father’, ‘I am a Teacher’ but God doesn’t say I am this or that because his existence isn’t defined by something outside of himself.

  • God is not dependent on anyone, he is, he has always been, he will always be. He is consistent, he is not shaped by others, he is the past, present, and future. He is the I AM!

God is With Us

  • After God says to Moses Go and rescue my people Moses responds in verse 11 by saying: Who am I that I should go to Pharoah?  Expecting God to say you’re awesome! You got the skills for this. You’ve grown up in the Palace, you know the language, you’re the perfect man for the job. But no he doesn’t say any of this. Instead he says I will be with you.

  • You know, the question Moses asked is one of the most important questions we can ever ask in our lives. Who am I? How we answer that question has a huge effect on our lives. More than you can imagine. It’s so easy to allow other things to define us other than God. It often happens so gradually and under the radar that we don’t even notice.

  • What damages us most as Christians is forgetting who we really are. If you’re a believer here today the answer to the question of who I am is real simple: It’s this: I am with him. That is who you are. You’re not defined by what has happened to you in the past, you’re not defined by your successes and your failures you are defined by the fact that you are with him. The Bible says we are the bride of Christ. We’re with him and because we’re with him, we’re royalty, we now have full access to the throne room of God. 

God Calls Us

  • God calls Moses to Go but before he called him to go he calls Moses to come. Before Moses goes to Egypt he spends time in the presence of God. We see this right throughout the Bible:

    John the Baptist – wilderness before beginning his ministry

    Paul – went to Arabia before beginning his missionary journeys

    Jesus – 40 days – before starting ministry

    The same is true for us: Before we go out we must come in. Before we go out on mission we must come into his presence, spend time with him and be filled up with him.

  • One of the things that we believe God has been speaking to us about recently at CCM is coming into his presence. We heard about this at our weekend away this year. That’s something we really want to focus on as a church this year.

  • God calls Moses by name and he knows your name! I believe he’s calling us today – Calling us back into his presence. I believe some of you here today and you know that you’ve drifted far from God. He’s calling your name. He wants you to come to him, to be in his presence.

MORE SERMONS

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