If you have a chance, I would highly recommend going to cshcl.com and clicking on archived sermons. My prayer is you will navigate to see and listen to the last two Sunday Morning sermons. Both are wonderful sermons that have done me so much good. What follows is what I hope would be considered an extension of the sermon last Sunday.
Moses was called of God to lead the children of Israel out of the Promise land. The Jews were enslaved in Egypt and Moses (being once an Egyptian himself) was now long removed from that life and forty years a shepherd in the land of Midian. On this day, he was shepherding his flock on the backside of the desert when God spoke to him from the midst of a bush that burned yet was not consumed. Moses, one of the most prominent figures in the Old Testament, inquired of God what he should say when asked “who sent you?;” You can imagine, here is a guy they have not seen or heard from for forty years and all of the sudden he walks in and says “God told me to lead you out of slavery.” God replied to him, tell them the I AM sent you. I AM, these two monosyllabic words that convey an absolute presence and power. A presence and power that persist in the past, present, and future. The I AM. Only God can make a statement like this, because only he is truly the I AM. The Godhead exists in the three “tenses” simultaneously and indefinitely. He was here before the world began, he is here right this very instant, and will be here long after we are gone. He is the I AM. The statement that God told Moses to make was a statement of fact, and of unquestionable authority. God said unto Moses, “I AM THAT I AM.” He is all that was, he is all that you see, he is everything that will be. He is “above all, through all, and in you all.” (Ephesians 4:6) You are a grain of sand; I AM the universe. You are a raindrop; I AM the atmosphere. You are a snowflake; I AM the Himalayas. The I AM is both temporal and eternal. This one statement would give Moses all the ammunition needed to carry out the awesome task that was before him, because the I AM was with him and will be with him. The Egyptian Pharaoh and all his mighty armies are nothing compared to the I AM. Moses had the authority and confidence to carry out what God commanded; because he trusted the I AM. The fact that God, Christ, and the Holy Ghost are the I AM means that we can now in this day draw courage from the same I AM that Moses met on the hill while tending the sheep that day.
God charged Moses with the task of staring down a tyrant and leading a nation out of bondage. He performed that task, not because of the man he was, but because of who he trusted. When you're sanctified, you have the I AM living in you, and with you. The fullness of the Godhead bodily is manifested with you and in this we can draw great strength and confidence to carry out whatever task God would call us too. Which certainly would include living holy.
No comments:
Post a Comment