Exodus 3

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Listen to that. And then David's going to come and preach for us. The reading this morning is from Exodus, and it is chapter three. Now Moses was tending the flock of Jephro, his father in law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the far side of the desert.

And came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire. From within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire, it did not burn up. So Moses thought, I will go over and see this strange sight.

Why the bush does not burn up. When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look. God called to him from within the bush. Moses. Moses.

And Moses said, here I am. Do not come any closer. God said, take off your sandals for the place where you are still understanding is holy ground. Then he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. At this, Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God.

The Lord said, I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers. And I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the land of Egyptians. And to bring them out of that land.

Into a good and spacious land. A land flowing with milk and honey. The home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivtites and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me. And I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.

So now go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt. But Moses said to God, who am I? That I should go to the pharaoh. And bring the Israelites out of Egypt.

And God said, I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you. That is I who have sent you. When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain. Moses said to God, suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, the God of your father has sent me to you.

And they ask me, what is his name? Then what shall I tell them? God said to Moses, I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites, I am has sent me to you. God also said to Moses, say to the Israelites, 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. The name by which I will be remembered from generation to generation. Go assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, the Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, appeared to me and said, I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt. And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt, into the land of Canaanites, Hittites, samurais, perizzites, hierites and Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey. The elders of Israel will listen to you.

Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a three day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God. But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go, and I will make the Egyptians favourably disposed towards this people, so that when you leave, you will not go empty handed.

Every woman is to ask her neighbour and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing which you will put on your sons and daughters, and so you will plunder the Egyptians. Here endeth the reading.

Thank you, Gill, very much for a marathon reading. So, thank you. That's great. Just a word of prayer, father, as we've sung, we ask that you would open our minds and our hearts and our wills to your word and to your presence this morning. In Jesus name, amen.

I've just got a little anecdote. Here comes from the era when the Internet and email had become popular, but it was before smartphones had arrived on the scene. So here we go. The Gallaghers, a couple from Minnesota, decided to go to Florida during the icy winter. They planned to stay at the same hotel where they'd spent their honeymoon 20 years before.

Both husband and wife had hectic schedules and it was difficult to coordinate their travel plans, so the husband left Minnesota and flew to Florida on Thursday, while his wife planned to fly down. The day after, he checked into the hotel and decided to send an email to his wife. But in typing, he accidentally left out one letter from the email address. Without realising his error, he sent the email. Meanwhile, in Houston, the widow Gallagher returned home from her husband's funeral.

He'd been a minister of many years, called home to glory following a sudden heart attack. She decided to cheque her email, expecting messages from relatives and friends. After reading the first message, she fainted. The widow's son rushed into the room, found his mother on the floor and saw the computer screen which read, to my loving wife, subject, I've arrived, 5 February. I know you're surprised to hear from me.

It's amazing they have computers here now and you can send emails to loved ones. I've just arrived and have been checked in. Everything has been prepared for your arrival tomorrow.

Looking forward to seeing you then. Hope your journey is as uneventful as mine was. Love, Harry. P's. Sure is hot down here.

I don't know what that's got to do with, but I thought you'd enjoy it this morning.

I wonder if you were asked the question, what's the point of being a Christian? What your answer would be, especially in our very kind of post christian world that we live in these days. I wonder what you'd say. What's the point of being a Christian? Well, I think that the passage that we've just had read for us, exodus three and Moses encounter with God through the burning bush, has got some things to help us.

So I hope so. So let's have a look.

And the first kind of aspect of that is a kind of sub question I want to ask is where are you on your christian journey this morning? Whereabouts are you on that journey? Because it's a journey. It's not a kind of one off deal, as it were. It's a journey.

So let's look at Moses. He's one of the heroes of faith in the Old Testament. He's often referred to. In the New Testament, Jesus referred to him on a number of occasions at the Transfiguration where Jesus appeared with two Old Testament characters. There's Elijah and there's Moses.

He's one of the people there. And if you look in Hebrews, chapter eleven, where there's a great catalogue of heroes of faith from the Old Testament, Moses is one of the prime characters there.

But, I mean, he's a very mixed character, isn't he, if you think about his background. So he's found by Pharaoh's daughter when he's been sent floating down the river Nile and brought up by her. Then later on he murders an Egyptian and he realises that that's been discovered and so he flees into the nearby desert area and then for 40 years he's a shepherd working for a foreigner in this area called Midian. And so when he encounters God at the burning bush, which we've read about this morning, he's had all this background and he's actually around the age of 80, so he's getting on in years when that happens. And most of that 80 years has really not been spectacular.

So for the last 40 years, he's been a shepherd. He's been wandering around the desert looking after sheep, trying to protect them from the various dangers which might confront them. So just imagine someone bumping into Moses the day before the reading. Hey up, Moses. How's it going, then?

Well, you know, same old, same old. Nothing changes. Isn't it your 80th that's coming up soon? Yeah, I suppose so. But there's not much to celebrate, is there?

I mean, 40 years, year after year, wandering around, looking after a bunch of sheep, not much to celebrate there, is there? So hes a kind of fugitive from his past life in Egypt, and hes pretty much a nobody where he is there in midian.

But he was on a journey. He was on a journey, and God was going to use him in a most unexpected and intensely remarkable way. So let me ask you again, where are you on your journey? Is it the same old, same old for you? Is God trying to grab your attention?

Because he kind of had to do something really remarkable to grab Moses attention, but he did, and the rest, as they say, is history. So what's God doing, perhaps to grab your attention at the moment? Have you had something happen to you recently, maybe, which has disconcerted you, upset you, challenged you in some way? Is God grabbing your attention, wanting to speak to you through that?

Has something happened in your personal life or your family life which has changed things for you? Is God wanting to speak to you, perhaps wanting to redirect you in some way through that? See, I think for Moses, hes probably had an awareness of the presence of God all his life. Certainly hes had an awareness of his jewish heritage, but its been an awareness which has been perhaps a background aspect of his life. And now God is really speaking to him, wanting to change his direction, change his level of relationship with him.

So theres something happening for you where God is saying, time for you to respond in a new way to me. Where are you on your journey, I wonder?

So God catches Moses attention.

He does it in this remarkable way, and he will catch our attention, too. It might not be through a burning bush. They're known for being fairly infrequent, but there might be other ways in which he catches your attention. So are you alert and attentive to him? Are you antennae out so that he can speak, perhaps through the Bible, through what somebody says, through an incident, perhaps, which happens, something which happens in your life, which puts you on a different course.

I mentioned in the interview that I've become very much a part time chaplain at Lindholm prison. And one thing which I've experienced or noticed regularly is the way that men who've perhaps had little or no christian influence or time for Christianity in any shape or form before they've arrived at the prison suddenly find themselves in a very different situation. They find themselves with a lot of time to reflect and think, forced upon them in a way which hasn't been true for them before. And God catches their attention in that. He speaks to them through that change of circumstance.

Maybe there are some here today that circumstances have changed, or you can see that theyre changing, and God wants to speak to you clearly into your life because of that.

In Moses case, God was clearly calling him, wasnt he? When the Lord saw verse four, that hed gone over to look at the bush, God called to him from within the bush, Moses. Moses. And Moses said, here I am. Moses had to respond, didn't he?

Moses had to not only see the bush, but approach it and then engage with what God was saying to him through that experience.

So I hope that for us, we can be like that, attentive and responsive. It's great for me to come back and for Sally to come back as well, and see a church which is thriving and full of life and new faces and new things happening. And obviously, God's been at work in beautiful ways here, and that's just great to see that. But I'm sure he's not finished. I'm sure he's not finished with the church, and I'm sure he's not finished with you personally as well, because there's a place and a direction for you, whatever your stage on the journey, or whatever your stage in life.

And then who's directing your journey? Who is in charge?

As we read that lesson, there were two questions which stood out for me. Reading it, Moses said to God, who am I? That I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt? So that's the first question. So who am I?

What have I got that can possibly be of value to you, Lord? And then the second question which comes out. Moses said to God, suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you. And they ask me, what is his name? Then what shall I tell them?

So who am I? And then verse 13, who are you? And theyre good questions, arent they? Who am I? What is it that God has placed in your life, as it were, which he wants to use and perhaps use in a new way?

But who are you, Lord? What do I know about you?

What's the key thing that I need to learn about you? How are you going to lead me in the days and the months and the years to come? See, I think Moses, in this whole encounter, is moving on a journey whereby hes learning to trust God and to know God in a way that has not been true for him before. And as you know, he finds that difficult. So he argues with God and protests.

And im sure youll come onto that in perhaps the coming weeks that he does all he can to talk his way out of accepting this call which God is giving him. But hes got to learn to trust God and to follow him. And it's a journey. It's a process which he's on. And I do believe that's how God teaches and uses most of us.

He puts us on a journey, puts us in a process, and we need to go step by step with him as we walk with him. So for Moses here, he begins to grasp, I think, some of the kind of important things that God wants him to know. So, verse seven. The Lord said, I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I've heard them crying out.

So he has a bit of an insight into God's heart, what God really feels and how he views the plight of his people there, stuck in Egypt. And then, verse twelve, God said, I will be with you, and this will be the sign that it is I who have sent you. I will be with you. So theres a promise there. And Moses has got to cling to that promise, really cling to that promise, hasnt he?

In the period of time thats to come, when he goes and confronts pharaoh on repeated, I will be with you. So is that a word for someone here this morning? That youre facing something, something which is daunting, something which perhaps you havent chosen, but its been thrust upon you, something which you wonder whether you are actually equal to. Do you need to hear gods word to you this morning? I will be with you.

And he doesnt break his word, does he? He keeps his promises. I will be with you. Then, of course, he discloses his name. God said to Moses, I am who I am.

This is what you are to say to the Israelites, I am has sent you. And of course, Jesus took that name for himself very, very deliberately. So if we were to turn into the New Testament, John, chapter eight. Then we can see Jesus kind of echoing that very, very strongly. Jesus said, your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day.

He saw it and was glad. You are not 50 years old. The Jews said to him, and youve seen Abraham. I tell the truth. Jesus answered, before Abraham was born.

I am at that. They picked up stones to stone him because they knew that Jesus was taking for himself the name of God, as he used that phrase. There I am now. He's the same today. He's the God who will be with you.

He's the God who sees our plight. He's the God who was and is and is to come. He is the God who told Moses, take off your shoes, because this is holy ground. It's not holy ground because of where it is. It's holy ground because you are in my presence.

Presence. Hes the God who said to Moses, you need to trust me, Moses. You need to be in awe of me, but you need to trust me and know that I will be with you, that I am with you, that I will be with you, that ive always been with you. I am who I am.

So where are you on your journey? Whats next for you on the journey?

Have you asked that question? You might want to. You might need to. What's next for you on the journey? Who's in charge of your journey?

Most important, that it's the Lord who's in charge, because there's so much, isn't there, out there, claiming our attention and wanting to influence our lives. So what's the point of being a Christian? I believe the point of being a Christian is that you and I become like Jesus, that we become like him in the way we think, in the way we act, in who we are, that we, as it were, become his representatives, his ambassadors, because we communicate him in every aspect of our lives. And that's what Moses was now on a journey of doing, of trusting God, hearing from God, and then following through on what God was saying to him.

So, can I say, ask yourself where you are on the journey. But wherever it is, keep on going. Keep on going. Amen. Just a few moments of quiet.

And if anything which has been said so far this morning, anything that you've sung or heard has triggered a clear or a particular thought or train of thought in your mind, just hold that. Hang on to that.

We ask you, Lord, to speak to us. That we dont just read words and sing words, hear words, and then leave them behind. Lord, will you speak to us? Show us what it is that you want us to hear and respond to this morning.

Lord, we want to know you more clearly, follow you more nearly, love you more dearly.

So lead us on that journey, build that process in our lives. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.