GOD'S SAVING POWER #1/5

#1 · July 20, 2009, 2:30 pm

Quote from Forum Archives on July 20, 2009, 2:30 pm
Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>
GODS SAVING POWER #1/5

GOD IS WITH US

July 19, 2009

Text: Exodus 3:1-15

Since we are quickly approaching our week of Vacation Bible School, beginning July 27^th, I want to encourage everyone to attend as either a volunteer or as a student. VBS can only work if we have both. And I want to remind adults that the Christian faith is passed to the succeeding generation only to the extent that we invest ourselves in the lives of our children. They need to hear our testimonies of Gods faithfulness to every generation. Besides, where else can you go to a crocodile dock? Well, yeah, Florida, I suppose. But I meant in Bunker Hill. There, Ive extended my invitation to you to attend VBS, so dont forget to register before leaving today. And dont forget that this week, we are hosting the Child Evangelism Fellowship 5-Day Club every day at 10:30 AM. This is open to all elementary age school children.

I begin by mentioning VBS because, as is my annual custom, I have taken the Bible lessons and themes as the topics for my sermons. This year, the theme is Gods Saving Power. Most of the Bible lessons are taken from Exodus and the account of the Israelites release from bondage in Egypt. This is a dynamic Biblical testimony of Gods saving power.

I begin this morning with Moses and the burning bush, which is an obvious indication that God Is With Us. Let us read Exodus 3:1-15.

The story of Gods call to Moses from the burning bush is one of the Bible stories that we learn early on. It is a concrete, picturesque story, so we learn it in children Sunday school classes and VBS, and we keep on learning it in adult classes. It is frequently included in Old Testament lesson stories, and it is Scripture used for preaching. In spite of the storys familiarity, there continue to be valuable insights to be gained from it. The spiritual insights we can take from these Scriptures apply not only to Moses' encounter with God, but to an approach to Biblical understanding that applies to our encounter with God through the Bible. The basic insight I want to affirm is that the Bible, Gods Word, is alive. It is a living document because the author, God, is very much alive and real in our lives. This means that the Bible is full of life, and we must approach it that way. When we do, we quickly discover, along with Moses, that God is with us.

First, when God is with us, He listens. On this occasion, God called to a shepherd who was out tending a flock of sheep. Moses, from all that we can tell, was going about a normal day's work and minding his own business. Maybe he got up early in the morning and had his personal devotions and prayer; maybe he was too busy that day and forgot about them. At any rate, there he is, out in the desert, supposedly isolated and on his own.

Suddenly, from out of a bush that was burning yet not consumed, he heard his name being called. "Moses, Moses!" And he answered, "Here I am." I think that Moses was surprised. He probably would have thought about going and getting someone else to witness the burning bush if there had been anybody else around. God spoke to Moses from the bush.

Why? Oh, not why did He speak from a bush? Rather, why did God speak at all? Why did God call to Moses and call him for this specific task? Did God just happen to be lonely that day and decide to tap Moses on the shoulder to see what was going on? To try to drum up a little company?

Of course not. God is a God who hears and listens to His people. The Bible is alive with the God who listens. Consider the last three verses of Exodus chapter two: "During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them." And in chapter three, God shared these thoughts with Moses: "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." God called Moses because He listened to the cries of His people. God didn't call Moses to be a leader and then go find a need. God listened to the need and then called a leader.

God calls people today for the same reason. God listens to the cries of His people; God lifts up leaders to carry His message and His deeds to them. Who are God's leaders - His ministers - these days? Every born again Christian. We are the people to whom God is calling. Every time we open our Bible to read or to study, God is calling us. Every time we hear of a neighbor in need, God is calling us. As Moses discovered, God is a God who listens to the needs of His people and, because He listens, responds to His people. He responds calling us, reluctant or willing, to be messengers and agents of His will. We know that God is with us because He listens.

Second, when God is with us, He makes redemption known. This is the theme of all Biblical testimony. Redemption means, from a Webster's dictionary, "the act, process, or instance of buying back; winning back; freeing from captivity by payment of ransom; releasing from blame or debt; freeing from the consequences of sin." Surely that should send chills of joy up and down our bodies. Dr. William Herzog II, a former professor at Central Baptist Theological Seminary, recalls one of his seminary lessons this way: "Claus Westermann put it this way: 'The Bible begins with Exodus one, not Genesis one.' What he meant was that the experience of this people who eventually gave us the creation stories began with their redemption. We first know God in redemption. As a result of that, we begin to understand the role of God in creation." (ABC Biennial, 1989, Thursday Bible study).

Just stop and think how true this is. I know that I've sometimes wished that I had been given more detail concerning creation. The Bible says amazingly little about an amazing event. There is no detail at all until we come to the creation of man and woman. But once we get to Genesis 3, the chapter about the disobedience of the man and the woman, there is a great deal of detail. Why was it so important to be graphic here? Because here is where the theme of redemption begins. We read about the first act of sacrifice and reconciliation in Genesis 3:21: "The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them." An animal was killed - sacrificed -so that the man and woman could be clothed. The root for the Hebrew word used here for clothed or covered is also used to mean "make an atonement, cleanse, be merciful." God made the sacrifice and atonement for Adam and Eve. God saved Adam and Eve in spite of their disobedience.

The theme of redemption characterizes the testimony of the Bible. Do a survey of the Bible, or just the Psalms, and note how many references are made to the Exodus event; that is, the release of the Hebrews from bondage in Egypt. The prophets refer to the Exodus time after time. Whenever Israel was acting sinfully, the call went out to remember how they were led from Egypt into the Promised Land. The words spoken to Moses from the bush began the great saga which was remembered over and over: "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." There are occasional references to the creation throughout the Bible, but they are few compared to references of God's redemption history in the Exodus.

Move to the New Testament, and the struggles and glory of God's redemption history cannot be ignored. What is the purpose of the birth and life of Jesus the Christ? The purpose is bluntly direct: It is to bring salvation - redemption. Paul captures it well in Romans 5:17: "For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in the life through the one man, Jesus Christ." Read the whole chapter - and the whole book of Romans - and it becomes clear that Jesus' purpose is to redeem His people.

What this means to modern readers of the Bible is that God is with us in redemption. Gods redemption power is still in full force. Every time we open the Bible for reading or study, we are confronted with God's purpose. That purpose is redemption. Every time we read God's word, we are being taught that we have been led out of bondage - out of darkness into light. Every time we open and read the Bible, we are being taught to lead Gods people out of bondage; we are being taught to eat with the "sinners and publicans"; we are being taught to forgive one another "seventy times seven times." If we are not involved with finding ways to lead people from the darkness to the light; from injustice to justice; from poverty to health; from hopelessness to joy; from bondage to freedom; from sin to salvation, then we are not involved with God. If the ideas and attitudes of God's redemption do not direct our thinking and our living at every turn and every decision, then we are not involved with God. If we cannot think and grow beyond ourselves and our problems and our needs, then we are not involved in Gods work and, therefore, not involved with God. We need to believe that God still listens to the cries of His people, and then we need to live like we believe that God is still alive, actively leading His people to redemption. And when we are involved in the activities of redemption, then we will be involved with God. God is with us, and God brings redemption.

Third, because God is with us, we respond. This follows and makes complete the other two. Edna Elsaser wrote in The Secret Place devotional guide, "Other books were given to us for information, but the Bible was given to us for transformation." (August 6, 1989). How true this is. If we believe the Bible, which I think we should, then we had better believe in responding to the God who listens and redeems.

That was part of Moses' problems in the beginning. He believed enough to accept that it was God speaking from the burning bush, but he did not believe enough to respond. "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" See, Moses begins to quibble over the whole issue. Sort of says, Thank you very much, God, for thinking of me and taking time out to talk with me, but lets drop it there, shall we? Youre asking an awful lot of me here. A very different response than that of Mary, the mother of Jesus, who, after receiving the proclamation from the angel, accepted by saying, I am the Lords servant. May it be to me as you have said. (Luke 1:38)

I truly appreciate the ensuing dialogue between Moses and God that occurs after God reveals His plan: "I will be with you." "Suppose I go to the Israelites... and they ask me 'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?" "...This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you... 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 takes up two chapters of Exodus, with Moses finally saying, "O Lord, please send someone else to do it." And God said, "OK, I'll look around and see whose day-timer isn't full yet." Well, not exactly! "Then the Lord's anger burned against Moses..." And Moses, reluctantly, responded to God's word but he responded.

Jesus told a story of response in Matthew 7:24-27. We know these Scriptures, too. They are not part of this years VBS, but the apply: "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash." Jesus, who is God with us, tells us to respond to God's word.

How many of you here could tell me something about the life of the Apostle Paul? How many know of his travels and his testimony? We know about Paul. How many can tell me something about the life of King Agrippa, beyond his brief inclusion in the book of Acts? We don't know about Agrippa. Paul responded to God's word; Agrippa didn't, and Agrippa, even though a king, is little more than a footnote in history.

Who is exempt from responding today? Who dares to open the Bible - God's word - and decide, "This doesn't apply to me"? Who dares to believe that without response, God's mercies and favors rest upon him or her? It doesn't work that way. It never has. God has never condoned His people - be they the people of Israel or born again Christians today - to hang back from service because it might impair our comfort or our status quo or our wealth.

The Bible is a restless book. Reading it can make us tired, because people are always on the go. They're always moving around: Moses from Egypt to the wilderness, then back to Egypt and back into the wilderness; prophets from wilderness to palaces; Jesus all over Galilee and Samaria and Judea; Paul and other apostles all over the Mediterranean basin. I don't know where we have come up with some of our standards that lead us to believe that the purpose or goal of Christianity is to provide for our own comfort. It just seems that there is too much going on in Scripture for that to be the standard. The standard is to respond to the call of God. When God is with us, we respond.

So remember this as we stand on the verge of another VBS outreach: when we open our Bibles, God is with us. From our Bible, God speaks to us. This Bible that we can purchase and own, regardless of version, cover color, size of print, number of study aids, and so forth, is our burning bush. Whether our Bible sits on our shelves or lays open in our hands, it is burning without being consumed. Don't we see it? Don't we approach it with curiosity? Recall Moses thought, "I think I will go over and see this strange sight." Don't we hear God calling our names from out of the pages of living testimony?

God is with us! I AM has spoken and is still speaking - to us. I AM has sent and is still sending - us. God is with us! He listens to us, and He redeems us, and He calls us to respond. This, then, is how we know: "And God said, 'I will be with you.'" God is with us.

Rev. Charles A. Layne

First Baptist Church

PO Box 515, 179 W. Broadway, Bunker Hill, IN 46914

765-689-7987

bhfbc@bhfirstbaptist.com www.bhfirstbaptist.com
-- To unsubscribe, send ANY message to: abesermons-unsubscribe@welovegod.org   

Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>

GODS SAVING POWER #1/5

GOD IS WITH US

July 19, 2009

Text: Exodus 3:1-15

Since we are quickly approaching our week of Vacation Bible School, beginning July 27^th, I want to encourage everyone to attend as either a volunteer or as a student. VBS can only work if we have both. And I want to remind adults that the Christian faith is passed to the succeeding generation only to the extent that we invest ourselves in the lives of our children. They need to hear our testimonies of Gods faithfulness to every generation. Besides, where else can you go to a crocodile dock? Well, yeah, Florida, I suppose. But I meant in Bunker Hill. There, Ive extended my invitation to you to attend VBS, so dont forget to register before leaving today. And dont forget that this week, we are hosting the Child Evangelism Fellowship 5-Day Club every day at 10:30 AM. This is open to all elementary age school children.

I begin by mentioning VBS because, as is my annual custom, I have taken the Bible lessons and themes as the topics for my sermons. This year, the theme is Gods Saving Power. Most of the Bible lessons are taken from Exodus and the account of the Israelites release from bondage in Egypt. This is a dynamic Biblical testimony of Gods saving power.

I begin this morning with Moses and the burning bush, which is an obvious indication that God Is With Us. Let us read Exodus 3:1-15.

The story of Gods call to Moses from the burning bush is one of the Bible stories that we learn early on. It is a concrete, picturesque story, so we learn it in children Sunday school classes and VBS, and we keep on learning it in adult classes. It is frequently included in Old Testament lesson stories, and it is Scripture used for preaching. In spite of the storys familiarity, there continue to be valuable insights to be gained from it. The spiritual insights we can take from these Scriptures apply not only to Moses' encounter with God, but to an approach to Biblical understanding that applies to our encounter with God through the Bible. The basic insight I want to affirm is that the Bible, Gods Word, is alive. It is a living document because the author, God, is very much alive and real in our lives. This means that the Bible is full of life, and we must approach it that way. When we do, we quickly discover, along with Moses, that God is with us.

First, when God is with us, He listens. On this occasion, God called to a shepherd who was out tending a flock of sheep. Moses, from all that we can tell, was going about a normal day's work and minding his own business. Maybe he got up early in the morning and had his personal devotions and prayer; maybe he was too busy that day and forgot about them. At any rate, there he is, out in the desert, supposedly isolated and on his own.

Suddenly, from out of a bush that was burning yet not consumed, he heard his name being called. "Moses, Moses!" And he answered, "Here I am." I think that Moses was surprised. He probably would have thought about going and getting someone else to witness the burning bush if there had been anybody else around. God spoke to Moses from the bush.

Why? Oh, not why did He speak from a bush? Rather, why did God speak at all? Why did God call to Moses and call him for this specific task? Did God just happen to be lonely that day and decide to tap Moses on the shoulder to see what was going on? To try to drum up a little company?

Of course not. God is a God who hears and listens to His people. The Bible is alive with the God who listens. Consider the last three verses of Exodus chapter two: "During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them." And in chapter three, God shared these thoughts with Moses: "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." God called Moses because He listened to the cries of His people. God didn't call Moses to be a leader and then go find a need. God listened to the need and then called a leader.

God calls people today for the same reason. God listens to the cries of His people; God lifts up leaders to carry His message and His deeds to them. Who are God's leaders - His ministers - these days? Every born again Christian. We are the people to whom God is calling. Every time we open our Bible to read or to study, God is calling us. Every time we hear of a neighbor in need, God is calling us. As Moses discovered, God is a God who listens to the needs of His people and, because He listens, responds to His people. He responds calling us, reluctant or willing, to be messengers and agents of His will. We know that God is with us because He listens.

Second, when God is with us, He makes redemption known. This is the theme of all Biblical testimony. Redemption means, from a Webster's dictionary, "the act, process, or instance of buying back; winning back; freeing from captivity by payment of ransom; releasing from blame or debt; freeing from the consequences of sin." Surely that should send chills of joy up and down our bodies. Dr. William Herzog II, a former professor at Central Baptist Theological Seminary, recalls one of his seminary lessons this way: "Claus Westermann put it this way: 'The Bible begins with Exodus one, not Genesis one.' What he meant was that the experience of this people who eventually gave us the creation stories began with their redemption. We first know God in redemption. As a result of that, we begin to understand the role of God in creation." (ABC Biennial, 1989, Thursday Bible study).

Just stop and think how true this is. I know that I've sometimes wished that I had been given more detail concerning creation. The Bible says amazingly little about an amazing event. There is no detail at all until we come to the creation of man and woman. But once we get to Genesis 3, the chapter about the disobedience of the man and the woman, there is a great deal of detail. Why was it so important to be graphic here? Because here is where the theme of redemption begins. We read about the first act of sacrifice and reconciliation in Genesis 3:21: "The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them." An animal was killed - sacrificed -so that the man and woman could be clothed. The root for the Hebrew word used here for clothed or covered is also used to mean "make an atonement, cleanse, be merciful." God made the sacrifice and atonement for Adam and Eve. God saved Adam and Eve in spite of their disobedience.

The theme of redemption characterizes the testimony of the Bible. Do a survey of the Bible, or just the Psalms, and note how many references are made to the Exodus event; that is, the release of the Hebrews from bondage in Egypt. The prophets refer to the Exodus time after time. Whenever Israel was acting sinfully, the call went out to remember how they were led from Egypt into the Promised Land. The words spoken to Moses from the bush began the great saga which was remembered over and over: "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." There are occasional references to the creation throughout the Bible, but they are few compared to references of God's redemption history in the Exodus.

Move to the New Testament, and the struggles and glory of God's redemption history cannot be ignored. What is the purpose of the birth and life of Jesus the Christ? The purpose is bluntly direct: It is to bring salvation - redemption. Paul captures it well in Romans 5:17: "For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in the life through the one man, Jesus Christ." Read the whole chapter - and the whole book of Romans - and it becomes clear that Jesus' purpose is to redeem His people.

What this means to modern readers of the Bible is that God is with us in redemption. Gods redemption power is still in full force. Every time we open the Bible for reading or study, we are confronted with God's purpose. That purpose is redemption. Every time we read God's word, we are being taught that we have been led out of bondage - out of darkness into light. Every time we open and read the Bible, we are being taught to lead Gods people out of bondage; we are being taught to eat with the "sinners and publicans"; we are being taught to forgive one another "seventy times seven times." If we are not involved with finding ways to lead people from the darkness to the light; from injustice to justice; from poverty to health; from hopelessness to joy; from bondage to freedom; from sin to salvation, then we are not involved with God. If the ideas and attitudes of God's redemption do not direct our thinking and our living at every turn and every decision, then we are not involved with God. If we cannot think and grow beyond ourselves and our problems and our needs, then we are not involved in Gods work and, therefore, not involved with God. We need to believe that God still listens to the cries of His people, and then we need to live like we believe that God is still alive, actively leading His people to redemption. And when we are involved in the activities of redemption, then we will be involved with God. God is with us, and God brings redemption.

Third, because God is with us, we respond. This follows and makes complete the other two. Edna Elsaser wrote in The Secret Place devotional guide, "Other books were given to us for information, but the Bible was given to us for transformation." (August 6, 1989). How true this is. If we believe the Bible, which I think we should, then we had better believe in responding to the God who listens and redeems.

That was part of Moses' problems in the beginning. He believed enough to accept that it was God speaking from the burning bush, but he did not believe enough to respond. "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" See, Moses begins to quibble over the whole issue. Sort of says, Thank you very much, God, for thinking of me and taking time out to talk with me, but lets drop it there, shall we? Youre asking an awful lot of me here. A very different response than that of Mary, the mother of Jesus, who, after receiving the proclamation from the angel, accepted by saying, I am the Lords servant. May it be to me as you have said. (Luke 1:38)

I truly appreciate the ensuing dialogue between Moses and God that occurs after God reveals His plan: "I will be with you." "Suppose I go to the Israelites... and they ask me 'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?" "...This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you... 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 takes up two chapters of Exodus, with Moses finally saying, "O Lord, please send someone else to do it." And God said, "OK, I'll look around and see whose day-timer isn't full yet." Well, not exactly! "Then the Lord's anger burned against Moses..." And Moses, reluctantly, responded to God's word but he responded.

Jesus told a story of response in Matthew 7:24-27. We know these Scriptures, too. They are not part of this years VBS, but the apply: "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash." Jesus, who is God with us, tells us to respond to God's word.

How many of you here could tell me something about the life of the Apostle Paul? How many know of his travels and his testimony? We know about Paul. How many can tell me something about the life of King Agrippa, beyond his brief inclusion in the book of Acts? We don't know about Agrippa. Paul responded to God's word; Agrippa didn't, and Agrippa, even though a king, is little more than a footnote in history.

Who is exempt from responding today? Who dares to open the Bible - God's word - and decide, "This doesn't apply to me"? Who dares to believe that without response, God's mercies and favors rest upon him or her? It doesn't work that way. It never has. God has never condoned His people - be they the people of Israel or born again Christians today - to hang back from service because it might impair our comfort or our status quo or our wealth.

The Bible is a restless book. Reading it can make us tired, because people are always on the go. They're always moving around: Moses from Egypt to the wilderness, then back to Egypt and back into the wilderness; prophets from wilderness to palaces; Jesus all over Galilee and Samaria and Judea; Paul and other apostles all over the Mediterranean basin. I don't know where we have come up with some of our standards that lead us to believe that the purpose or goal of Christianity is to provide for our own comfort. It just seems that there is too much going on in Scripture for that to be the standard. The standard is to respond to the call of God. When God is with us, we respond.

So remember this as we stand on the verge of another VBS outreach: when we open our Bibles, God is with us. From our Bible, God speaks to us. This Bible that we can purchase and own, regardless of version, cover color, size of print, number of study aids, and so forth, is our burning bush. Whether our Bible sits on our shelves or lays open in our hands, it is burning without being consumed. Don't we see it? Don't we approach it with curiosity? Recall Moses thought, "I think I will go over and see this strange sight." Don't we hear God calling our names from out of the pages of living testimony?

God is with us! I AM has spoken and is still speaking - to us. I AM has sent and is still sending - us. God is with us! He listens to us, and He redeems us, and He calls us to respond. This, then, is how we know: "And God said, 'I will be with you.'" God is with us.

Rev. Charles A. Layne

First Baptist Church

PO Box 515, 179 W. Broadway, Bunker Hill, IN 46914

765-689-7987

bhfbc@bhfirstbaptist.com http://www.bhfirstbaptist.com

-- To unsubscribe, send ANY message to: abesermons-unsubscribe@welovegod.org