Exodus 3:6–15Scripture
Everybody turn your Bibles to Exodus chapter 3, and our assignment for today is Exodus 3:6–15. Last week at camp, I mistakenly preached on Exodus 3, so I prepared this week, earlier in the week. I had completed preparing my sermon for Exodus 4, and then my wife told me that was not allowed. I must go back and preach on three again. She did not say that. She did not say that. She recommended that we figure that out so we don't get ahead of everybody, and strongly suggested. No, she did not even do that. So I went back, and there are many things we can look at in chapter 3, and it's really, it's quite overwhelming as we go through each chapter, because I have to just pick one thing to focus on, and there are so many things that I think are infinitely valuable. This is why you need to make sure you're working through this with us. You know, we only have so much time. The extent of your Bible study cannot be based on what I'm able to talk about on Sunday, because what happens is you don't get an overall scope of what's happening
Introduction
In God's Word. Let's take for instance, let's take for instance, let's take for instance Hebrews 11. If you would, look at Hebrews 11, the faith chapter. Let's just do that, actually. Okay, let's do it here. Hebrews 11. Okay, so here it's talking about faith. We talk a lot in our current culture and in church that faith is something that you need to strengthen by your will, that the greater the faith you have, the greater things God can accomplish in your life. Track with me on this for just a minute. I'm beginning to wrestle with this concept, because it tells us also in the Word that God portions and gives a measure of faith. In other words, your faith is given as a gift, and it is given in a measure by God. And I would say it's not just a one-time gift, but he portions and gives measures of faith based on what you're going through in the moments of your life, to help you be able to endure and walk through those things. This is why it's nearly impossible for us to evaluate, if we were ever faced with a position where somebody held a gun to my wife's head and said, "Denounce the Lord, or I will kill your wife," what we would do. We try to imagine how we might respond in that. Might God forgive me if I denounce him and then ask for an apology later? Might his grace be sufficient in my denouncement of him, denial of him? What would God do? We don't even know how to even fathom the situation. We can't even imagine what we might do, because we are evaluating a situation we are not in, based on the measure of faith we have in the moment we're in, where we're not faced with that. It is an impossibility, because you can't even imagine what you would do, because you don't have the measure of faith to do something like that in this moment. Are you with me today? And so God, it is a gift. It is gracious. It is God at work. So then, when we read the faith chapter, we have all of this really kind of messed-up theology based on faith, and we read this and we go, "These were mighty men of faith, mighty women of faith, and that's why they saw their children raised from the dead, and they saw people that were healed, and they saw many mighty signs and miracles done, because they had great faith." And then if you go down to the very bottom, see, "By faith," verse 29, "by faith," it's just a long list of all the wonderful things that happened. And then it kind of goes down to 29: "By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned. By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies. And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured." It didn't even pause. It's in the same sentence. We don't preach on this. No, you hear all kinds of sermons about all the wonderful things that happen when you have great faith. But the same faith, the exact same faith, same chapter, same sentence, same faith, same in the Greek. Shocking, isn't it? The same word, same sentence: "Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated, of whom the world was not worthy." We excuse this faith out of our churches, but it's the same faith. It's the same faith. So I say all this to say this.
Listen to me: if you come on Sunday morning and that is the extent of your Bible study, you're missing it.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 8:28
The extent of your understanding of God and faith and grace and mercy and who he is and the way he works will be relegated down to what we are able to say in an hour a week. You won't have a comprehensive understanding of who God is based on what I can talk about on Sunday morning.
How could you? How could you? And then you become immensely dependent on a man and less dependent on his Word and the illumination that you get by the work of the Spirit when you read it. What are you doing? And just track with me here: you can't count on getting and extrapolating everything you need out of this journey through Exodus based on what I talk about on Sunday morning.
You best get in the Word, or you'll miss it.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 9:35
You'll miss what he is saying to you.
It's important. Okay, so with that little diatribe there, soapbox if you will, about why you need to be in the Bible, now we can actually get in here and read it. Exodus 3:6–15. Notice that this is only taking this chapter in part. I've already talked about another part last week. I'm talking about one part this week, and you have other parts to explore on your own. So get in there and do that, so you don't miss truth. Exodus 3:6–15: "And 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. Then 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, and 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.'" All them "-ites." "'And 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. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of egypt.'" So here, just pause for a moment. Moses is chosen. He's the chosen person. He's the person that God has chosen to bring out the people of God. And so then it's fitting, then, at this place, as he calls him out, Moses literally and physically and figuratively shrinks back from the call.
I mean, that's the way it should be, right? I mean, if you can't even look on him, because in his presence you are overwhelmed with his goodness and his holiness and his splendor and his majesty, if it induces in you a type of fear that you can't even stand in his presence, then it stands to reason the call would do the same. If his very presence brings fear, the beginning of wisdom is fear. The beginning of wisdom comes from knowledge of God, from his word, and brings about and instills in the heart of every man that encounters the Lord a holy, reverent fear, a literal fear, the kind that makes you tremble in your boots, because you're an unholy vessel standing in the presence of an ultimately holy God. This is good news. And so then the calling should not be something we run into with all furor, but we should shrink back from the call, if the call is from the Lord. Are you with me today? This is important today, because today everybody wants a purpose, and everybody wants a call, but very few people shrink back.
And could it be that it is not God who's assigned it, but it is you who want it?
Pastor Shawn Gray · 13:25
Could it be? Because whenever God calls, we see behaviors that I do not see quite the same in the church today. I love it, because he shrinks back. I would shrink back. And then he goes, "But Moses said to God, 'Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?'" Good question, Moses. You're no one of importance. Good question, Moses. Who are you? You're no one of importance.
You will only have value because he chose you.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 14:07
That's why you have value: because he chose you. Oh, to be chosen by God, to be spotted and seen, to be spoken to be noticed. "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?" What type of strength does Moses have to take on Pharaoh? I mean, he just tried to, he tried to do it in his own flesh just recently. He took out a guy, buried him in the sand, got so scared he ran off, because he's not the guy who has the strength to turn around a whole culture and make a difference. He's only the guy who can make enough trouble for himself to get himself killed. So let me tell you who you are. Let me tell you what kind of strength you have. Let me tell you what your will do: it will accomplish nothing for the kingdom. It will only accomplish more trouble for yourself, and your life is a living testimony that is a reality.
But when God is in it, when God has called, he strengthens you with the type of strength that moves nations to his will.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 15:24
Oh, man, just don't even get me started. You're like, "Too late, you already started." But I am excited about what God is doing. Then Moses brings up, "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." What mountain? This mountain. What mountain are we talking about? The mountain he called him from. This mountain. Then Moses brings us to one of the most important things God has ever said, and this is what I want to talk about today. We had to do the precursor to do the cursor. Here's where the cursor lands. This is what I want to focus on today. "Then 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?'" Now listen to this. Listen to his response. We get this convoluted. We get his name wrong. We get his name wrong in the church.
We get his name wrong personally. We don't know his name. I want you to walk away knowing his name. It isn't that what else he says is not important. He sets something up. He sets
His name up by talking about who he is. His name
Pastor Shawn Gray · 17:17
is not who he is. His name is his name. Who he is his being, and they are different. For instance, I'm a pastor; that's my title. My name is Shawn. Are you with me today? Okay. He says to him, "What shall I say to them?" "God 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."' God 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.'" So let's break this down, right? I'm just going to break this down. It's going to be really schooly. Brook's going to love it. All right, it's going to be real teachy. Let's break this down and make it really simple. We're going to stupid-proof this for us. Three things God says about himself. "You ask me my name?" God says, "I'm going to
Point 1Before his name, know his being
Tell you three things about my name." First, Exodus 3:14: God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." That is not his name. He did not say that was his name. He did not answer the question yet. He said, in effect, before you worry about my name, before you line me up in all the names of all the gods of Egypt or babylon or Philistia, and before you wonder about conjuring me with my name like they do there, and even before you wonder if I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, before you hear my name, be stunned by this: I am who I am.
You don't get to determine who I am.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 19:48
Your mama don't get to determine who I am. Your wants don't get to determine who I am. Your will does not get to name or determine who I am. I am who I am. I will not be run around by the nape of my neck. I will not be run around by your whims. I will not be run around by your wants. I am who I am. I like that. That's, in the words of some generation, maybe not this generation, my generation in the '90s, that's baller. I went way back, because the '90s is a long time ago. That might be the '80s. That doesn't seem like that long ago, does it? Too bad, you're old. That's a long time ago. It's a long time ago. Anyway, that's not, shouldn't, anyway. "I AM WHO I AM." I love that. That's the most basic thing you need to know, Moses. That's the most basic thing that the people you're going to talk to need to know: that I am who I am. That's first. Before you even hear my name, you need to know that I am who I am. That's foundational. That's infinitely important. That's at the bottom of everything. I absolutely am. I got utter isness, right? I made that word up. It's not even really a word. I just, I can do what I want, I got the mic, you know. I'm shakespearing it up here. It's the isness of God. All right. "I AM" is the ultimate statement of self-sufficiency, self-existence, and immediate presence. That should encourage us to the core: that God is all-sufficient, God has always been present, and is always present, even when you think he ain't even paying attention to your life. He is there. He is present, and he is sufficient to supply what you need, to help you in your time of need, that you think he's checked out from. That's good news.
If you forget his isness when you get in trouble, you will enter into despair, because you know his name but you forgot his isness.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 22:58
Are you with me today? It's one thing to know God's name; it's quite another to know he has always been, he is always sufficient and fully sufficient, and he is always present in your time of need. That is different than knowing his name. And so, foundationally, before you hear my name, you need to know my character. Before you know my name, you need to know my being. Before you know my name, you need to know that I will always be with you, because it's going to get squirrelly when you get out of Egypt. And there are going to be multiple times that the people, and you, Moses, you're going to know my name, but you're going to question my presence. You're going to know my name, but you're going to question my sufficiency to help you when you stand in front of walls that are impenetrable and I tell you to walk around them. You're going to question just how real and sufficient I am when you stand in a land of giants and take them over. When you do all of that, you're going to question everything. I'm sufficient, and I'm present. I have not checked out. He promises that he will be what he will be. That is, he will be the eternal, constant God. He stands ever-present, unchangeable, completely sufficient in himself. Listen, sufficient in himself. He is sufficient all by himself. He's sufficient unto himself to do what he wills to do and to accomplish what he wills to accomplish. Listen, we do not understand what sufficiency is, because we live in a world of complete dependency on everything. See, you thought the moment you came out of infancy, were able to communicate on your own, go to the restroom on your own, make decisions on your own, you came to the age of accountability, and you were no longer an infant dependent on your mother or your father, their paycheck, their house, their food, their clothing, their money. When you ventured out into adulthood, you thought you were sufficient. Young people in here today who are teenagers, who are about to break out of what you view as dependency on your parents: you will always have dependency on something in the world in which we live. But he lives outside of that, and he is sufficient, and he don't need your paycheck, and he don't need your job, and he don't need that house, and he is not dependent on anything. Everything exists inside of him. That's sufficiency. And so then, when we try to visualize a God that is sufficient, we do it and attach our definition of sufficiency, that is inadequate, and we attach it to a God, and we cannot understand him or know him. His isness, his I-am-ness, is: I am that I am, and I always will be, and I always have been. We cannot fathom this kind of God. Oh my goodness.
His emotional stability is not dependent on your treatment of him.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 26:39
Oh, man, I just want to bust loose up in here. I'm just trying to stay calm. You're like, "That's calm?" Trying. He don't need likes, or hearts, or comments, or acknowledgment. He doesn't need an attaboy. He don't need it. He'll worship himself. He will praise himself. He will stand back and say, "It's good," and he don't need you to applaud him. He's sufficient all by himself. His own praise edifies by itself. He's sufficient. We are not.
Some of our lives have nearly been destroyed because we have been at a deficit of an attaboy.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 27:27
His emotional state of being is not dependent on your attaboy, because he's sufficient all by
Point 2I AM has sent me to you
Himself. Number two, Exodus 3:14, the second part of 14: "And he said, 'Say this to the people of Israel: "I AM has sent me to you."'" Still not his name. He is building a bridge between his being and his name here. He simply puts the statement of his being in the place of his name. "I AM has sent me to you." The one who is, who absolutely is, sent me to you. He is telling them, "I absolutely am." That's first, foundational, and of infinite importance, and that's where he starts. He starts with his being. Guys, we got to come to grips with his being, because it helps us as we exit out of slavery to sin and into slavery to Christ, because the journey is not easy. Come on, it's not easy. But understanding his being helps us in this journey. Oh, man. Some will ask, some will ask, "Who is God to you?" I have asked this question to people as little as five years back. I've come to believe, and you can disagree with me, for myself, I have a right to an opinion, it can be different than your opinion, that's okay, for me, I believe this is a dumb question now, because God's isness is not set by your determination of him. We like to believe it is. That's how arrogant we are. We need to know what people think about him, and if what they think about him determines what he is to them. No, he is what he is. I am what I am, regardless of what they think about me. Their thought life doesn't determine my isness. We got it all wrong. That is the sheer arrogance of us today in the Christian faith. We think we have a determining factor based on our opinion of him. I understand what people are really trying to get to. They're trying to get to the heart of the matter, and the heart of the matter is, how do you see God? Do you know him? I understand that's part of it. That's not all of it. The reality is, we think that the way that we see God determines what he is to that person. So if I see him as a Savior, then he is my savior.
No, he's a Savior whether you see him as one or not.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 31:27
Are you with me today? And this is important, because his isness is not determined by you. And then that's what he's in essence saying: I have a being that's foundational, that's not dependent on the whims of men and their emotional state of being. Thank God. Thank God it's not, because if it is dependent on my emotional state of being, it would not be a God worthy of
Point 3His name forever is Yahweh, the LORD
Serving. Oh my goodness. Third, Exodus 3:15. My voice is going to be gone after this. "God also said to Moses, 'Say this to the people of Israel: "the LORD,"'" -oh, there's his name. Literal translation in Hebrew: Yahweh. That's his name. "'The LORD,'" Yahweh, "'the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of jacob,'" Elohim of Abraham, Elohim of Isaac, Elohim of Jacob, "'has sent me to you.'" And he goes on: "'This is my name forever.'" Yahweh, the LORD. Notice here, I've actually said this, and I'm re-evaluating. I've been known to say, "Is he Lord of your life?" He's Lord of all.
His name ain't changed. His name is not changed based on whether he's your Lord.
He's everyone's Lord. You don't get to determine whether he's Lord or not.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 33:32
He does. Oh, man, I don't know why this is so exciting to me, but the arrogance of the American Christian. Just me too. I ain't just talking to you. I'm just saying, we got problems. We got work to do when it comes to understanding his I- am-ness. "This is my name forever." The LORD. I love that. Finally, God gives us his name. It's almost always translated LORD, all caps, in the English Bible, but the Hebrew would be pronounced something like this: Yahweh. This name is used around 4,500-plus times in the Old Testament alone. This is amazing, that God gave himself a personal name, a name like James or Peter or Shawn. This is not a title. Pastor is a title; Shawn is my name. Yahweh is Elohim's name. Elohim is God; Yahweh is like James. And he built the name Yahweh out of "I am." So his name is actually extrapolated out of his being. Are you with me today? I don't have time to go into all that; just go do some research. So his name, Yahweh, or Yah, is extrapolated out of "I am." Do a little bit of research in Hebrew. Go play around with that. I don't have time to do all of that. I should have probably had a slide, but I had to rewrite this sermon last minute, so we're just, grace, right? Grace. Now, you know this word, the Yah, you know the Yah part of it. You know this word, because the shortened version of it is Yah. Actually, it's "Yah"; that's actually how you say it.
Okay, which you hear every time you sing "hallelujah." You're praising Yahweh. Our praise is extrapolated out of his being. We praise him because of who he is, in spite of what you want him to be. That's why sometimes it is a sacrifice of praise, because sometimes we come in praise wanting him to be for us something that his isness won't allow. So now our praise is framed as a sacrifice. It is offered as a sacrifice, because what we want him to be, we want his isness to be, his isness won't allow, and it goes against what we want. So our praise, we worship his being in spite of what we want. Come on, now. And that's hard.
That's why worship isn't all about your feelings. Sometimes worship is in spite of them, and sometimes worship is offered as a sacrifice, because his being runs cross-grain with our wants.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 37:35
Oh, man. Oh, man. I'm going to go real quick, and I'm going to close. I got hung up on that beginning part. We could probably end the sermon here, but in the next five minutes I'm going to go down through these 10 things real quick. Ten things, and
Point 4Ten things God's absolute being means
I mean it quick. I'm not going to expound. Ten things it means for God to be who he is. Let's explore 10 things about his isness. Here's what it means that God is who he is. Number one: God's absolute being means he never had a beginning. He has always been. This staggers the mind. Every child asks, "Who made God?" And every wise parent says, "Nobody made God. God simply is, and always was, and always will be. No beginning and no end." Number two: God's absolute being means God will never end. If he did not come into being, he cannot go out of being, because he is being, constantly, presently, actively, indicatively, foreverly. That's not a word. But he is what is. He is. There is no place to go outside of being. There is only him before he creates. That's all that is: God. "In the beginning, God." In the beginning, Elohim. Okay. Number three: God's absolute being means God is absolute reality, or he is absolutely real. There is no reality before him. There is no reality outside of him, unless he wills it and makes it.
He is not one of many realities. Before he creates, he is simply there as absolute reality. He is all that was, eternal. No space, no universe, no emptiness. Only God, absolutely there, absolutely all, absolutely everything, absolutely just him. This is why there's not many ways to heaven. Okay. Number four: God's absolute being means that God is utterly independent. You don't like that, because I'm dependent on everything, so he must be dependent on me. Wrong. He gets to do what he pleases, in spite of what you think about it. He doesn't ask for a vote. This is not a plurality vote. He don't need your opinion. His opinion reigns supreme. And if you don't like it, he don't care, because he's good and we're not. All right, that's important. God's absolute being means that God is utterly independent. He depends on nothing to bring him into being, or support him, or counsel him, or make him what he is. That is what the word "absolute being" means: he's independent. Number five: God's absolute being means, rather, that everything that is not God depends totally on God. You're like, "Well, I didn't make God my Lord." You still depend on him. You wouldn't even be breathing if it wasn't for him. Okay? Everything is dependent on him. All that is not God is secondary and dependent. The entire universe is utterly secondary. It is not primary. It came into being by God, and stays in being moment by moment on God's decision to keep it in being. He didn't set it in motion and step back. It is still doing what the universe does, and you are doing what you do, because God decides for it to be so, and moment by moment, and presently, and currently decides to do that in the moment. Number six: God's absolute being means all the universe is, by comparison to God, nothing. Contingent, dependent reality is to absolute, independent reality as a shadow to substance, as an echo to a thunderclap, as a bubble to an ocean. All that we see, all that we are amazed by in the world and in the galaxies, is compared to God as nothing. All the nations are nothing. All of the splendor of the earth is nothing. All the mountainscapes in Colorado are nothing. They are accounted by him as less than nothing without him, God. Number seven: God's absolute being means that God is constant. This is good news for us. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He cannot be improved. He cannot be changed. He is not becoming anything different than he has always been. He is who he is. There is no development in God. There is no progression in God. There is no betterment in God.
He is absolutely perfect and cannot be improved. He is not you, and you are not God.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 43:43
Number eight: God's absolute being means that he is the absolute standard for truth, whoa, this is a wrecking ball for our culture, goodness, and beauty. There is no law book to which he looks to know whether what he is doing is right. He is the absolute authority on what is good and what is not good, and whatever emits from his nature is good, because it came from him. He is the determining factor of goodness. Oh my goodness gracious. He is the law. The law is more than a name; it is his isness. It is his being. Okay. Number nine: God's absolute being means that God does whatever he pleases, whether you like it or not, and it is always right. It is always beautiful. It is always in accordance with truth. There are no constraints on him from outside him that could hinder him in doing what he pleases. All reality that is outside of him, he created, and he designed, and he governs as the absolute reality. So he is utterly free from any constraints that don't originate from the counsel of his own will. And the last and final one, number 10: God's absolute being means that he is the most important and most valuable reality, and the most important and most valuable person in the universe. He is more worthy of interest and attention and admiration and enjoyment than any other reality in your life, including the entire universe and all things that make it up. Oh, I love that, guys. Oh, I love that. And for a soul-searching moment, do
Point 5Is God our all-consuming treasure
You guys have my pictures? Yes? Okay, sorry, I don't have a contact on. For a soul-searching moment, let us evaluate whether 10 is our current reality. I'll read it again: God's absolute being means that he is the most important and most valuable reality, and the most important and most valuable person in the universe. How do we diagnose whether he is to us? Notice, what we feel about him does not attribute his value. He is valuable. He is this regardless of what you think about him. But we get to evaluate what we think about him based on what we do, and how we live, and the decisions that we make. He is more worthy of interest and attention. What attention do you give to the things of this world versus the things of God? He's more worthy of interest and attention and admiration and enjoyment. Enjoyment: what do you give for enjoyment to the things of the world versus the things of God? Than all other realities, including the entire universe and everything that is in it. I've been struck, and I'm going to say this as closing, and I'm just going to leave this here for you to evaluate. And I understand everybody's situation is different. I understand, listen, we all have to work for a living. I understand all of that. I'm not trying to indict us today, but I want us to do some soul-searching. I've been struck by some individuals that I work with in Bible translation, been struck to the core, because it's made me face number 10. Is God my all-consuming treasure? Come on, now. I have some pictures. This is Geraldine. I'll walk over here. Geraldine is in the white shirt. She is one of our Latin techs. This is in Colombia. To get to Colombia, she has to fly. She has to drive to get to the airport that takes her to Colombia. She has to take three flights, she has to go up two rivers, she has to drive two buses, and she has to hike for 20 miles, so that she can go teach people in colombia how to do Bible translation. Okay, they had problems doing translation work. They got stuck on something. She took all of that travel to go there for two days, to make sure they could get unstuck, because we couldn't help them, because there was no internet coverage to provide support to them. Geraldine is teaching them how to fix this problem. That's what she did to get there. So far this year she has traveled 150 days. We're only seven months into this year, so out of 208 days, she's traveled 150 of them, to make sure that Bible translation's happening in parts of the world that it takes this to get to. She has to go up a river where people get killed and pulled off the river, for four hours. Are you with me today? Because she understands the import of God's Word and what it does. She understands the importance of understanding God's being and what that does for her and what it does for lost people. She treasures Elohim. Guess what? We pay her nothing. "Well, how does she survive?" Good question. I don't know. We asked her. I asked her. I asked her recently. I got on a phone call while I was in Orlando, she was there, and I asked her, "What is your why? Why do you do what you do?" I had a bunch of other people on our team that were based here in the States, because I have asked them, "What's your why?" Because it's so easy in our life to forget our why. Our why becomes, "Well, you know, I'm just trying to, my wife is surviving." My why begins to be clouded by, "I don't want to lose my job." My why then becomes, "I got to stay healthy. I got to fight this cancer." It's clouded.
Our why gets clouded by trouble.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 51:20
Amen? Do you know how, watch in Exodus, watch the why get clouded by trouble. So why does he start out with "I AM THAT I AM"? Why does he start out with this being? Because we need to understand he's forever present, he's forever sufficient, and he's forever good, because there are going to be things that cloud that. What is it about Geraldine that the why stays true? What is it? I asked her, "What is your why? Why do you do what you do?" She said, "I was in a village, and they came in to do Bible translation, and I had never heard the word. And the moment that I opened up a completed New Testament and began to read, I was saved by the Word." The Word is the power for salvation. It's God's plan to redeem his people. If not the Word, people will not be saved, and everyone needs to know about our Lord and savior and God. That's her why. So whether or not she has food, her why doesn't change. Whether or not she has to travel all these distances, her why does not change, because he is absolutely her treasure. Let me ask you this question: is God yours? Is he yours? Is God your ultimate enjoyment? Is the one who created the galaxy and everything in it, is he your treasure, or is the stuff in it your treasure? Is that your enjoyment, or is he your enjoyment? We can see this just by the time we spend in this through the week. And God is reminding us very candidly: I am absolutely the greatest treasure of the world, whether you realize it or not.
Let us not walk by the treasure to build our life around things that will turn to ash and to dust.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 54:02
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