MCC Podcasts
Rediscovering Adventure - God's Presence
So Father God, this is a posture that says that we're receptive to you this morning. So if you have a word for me, I don't want to miss it. My hands are outstretched symbolizing that as you pour out from your heart your word to me, I don't want to miss it. So bring your word and your encouragement, your challenges, your correction, your training, your reminders, whatever I need, God, I don't want to miss it if you have it for me. This morning, I want to speak for your servants who are listening, if this is your prayer. Say amen. Amen. Hey, let's turn on the house lights and if you have your scriptures, let's your Bibles would love to have you in Exodus with us. We've been doing some studies in Exodus as we continue to talk about this idea of rescue, I mean of adventure, of adventure. And last week, we talked about what happens in the middle of the adventure. Let me redefine the adventure for you, can I do that? The adventure is not just that life's hard and there's a lot of scary stuff that happens, we're all in on that. The adventure is when we say to Jesus, I will follow you. You take me on your journey for my life. And that's where the adventure is friends because by definition then it's a thrill a minute because we don't know where we're going. And we don't know where he's going to bring us, we don't know what's around the next corner, we don't know how it's going to feel, we don't know how we're going to get through it always. But we know that we're on his plan for our lives. That's the adventure, you with me? Last week we talked about being in the middle of that and questions that come up. In fact, remember these verses, we'll just read these verses from Exodus 5. This is where Moses, when it started to go south on him, said to the Lord, "Why, Lord, have you brought trouble on these people? Is this why you sent me ever since I went to speak to Pharaoh in your name, he's brought trouble on these people?" And then this phrase, "And you've not rescued your people at all. You're not doing anything. Where are you? Is this what you called me to?" We know that that happens to us in the middle of this adventure where we step out for the Lord with our finances, with our voice, with our values, with loving people, with serving Jesus. Wherever we step out in our life, whatever path we take following his adventure, there'll be times in the middle where we got all kinds of questions and it doesn't look like God's coming through. Can I get an amen in the house? You've been there? Where are you God? And then the rest of the passage that I want to read to you right now, look at chapter 6, says this, starts in verse 1, "Then the Lord said to Moses," now stop, "Then the Lord, there's a break in there." Moses didn't write the chapter, you know, stuff, but that was added later. But there's a break there and the word then means later, at the right time when it was time for God to move, then the Lord showed up. We had questions last week about what's it like when you're in the middle and God's not showing up for you. The bottom line is, the rest of the time, God does show up and we need some reminders this morning about what it's like that God shows up in our adventure. What am I looking for? What are the markers? What's normative? What's my expectation when God would show up in the middle of our adventure? What does it look like? The rest of this text, verses 1 through 8, "Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Now you're gonna see, now's the time, now you will see what I'll do to Pharaoh, because of my mighty hand he will let them go, because of my mighty hand he will drive them out of his country.'" God also said to Moses, "I'm the Lord. I appear to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself fully known to them." I'll explain that later, "I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan where they resided as foreigners, moreover I've heard the groaning of Israelites whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I've remembered my covenant. Therefore, say to the Israelites, 'I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians, and I will bring you to the land I swore with an uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am Yahweh," he says. Yeah, there's times in the middle of the journey where it doesn't look like he's rescuing at all. But friends, the rest of the time God is in the midst of our adventure, and my question this morning is, what does it actually look like? Because I get that all the time, people, you're all fired up for Jesus, I'm new to this God thing. What is it supposed to look like? I told you this God thing, but I don't know what everybody else's God thing looks like. What is it supposed to look like? Two overall reminders I want to give you this morning, just in 10 minutes or so more, 15 minutes more, what 20, you know, half hour. Two reminders that I want to give you this morning kind of overall from this passage, and this is the first one. This is what it looked like in our lives. It looks like God's mighty hand. It says it right there. It looks like God's mighty hand. You look at verse 1, "The Lord said to Moses, 'Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh, because of my mighty hand, he will let them go, because of my mighty hand, he will drive them out of his country.'" Later, toward the end of the passage, you see more about his hand. He says, "I'm," where is it, verse 6, "I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and mighty acts of judgment. Then you will know that I am the Lord," verse 7, "who brought you up out from the yoke. I will bring you to the land. I swore with an uplifted hand." There's another hand. It's an uplifted hand. That's actually like him in court. This is the Lord going, "Yeah, I solemnly swear that I'm going to do what I said it do. So help me me." That's what God's like with an up. I swore it and it's going to happen. Here's what's normative, friends. When we get on the adventure and walk with God, it will look like God's mighty hand is in our lives. And the question is, does it, or are we selling ourselves short for what this deal is about? It looks like stuff that only God can do. Like what? There's a couple things. Think about it. His power. This is where we get the miraculous. It looks like stuff only God can do like his power. This is the miraculous stuff. Some of you have experienced these things. This is what God's famous for. This is the stereotypical stuff where we think, "Man, if I got God in my life, I'm going to see some stuff." Do we see some stuff? God's mighty hand in our life does some stuff. This is the miraculous. Some of us have had our bodies healed. Some of us have been freed from addictions. Some of us have found relationships again after being lonely. Some of us have seen God show up in our marriages and bring peace where there was no hope. We've seen God work in power. This is what's normative actually, but often we kind of live our lives. This level down here and we forget to look up and go, "No, we got to got to power in our lives." It looks like his mighty hand. This is the kind of stuff that you go, "Oh, man, that had to be God." That had to be God. Jamie Robbins wrote an email to folks in his small group and I'm on that distribution list and I asked him if I could share this story. It's a perfect example. He and Donna were at an airport and a woman walked by and I don't know if they made eye contact or just what he'd noticed when he walked by is he had that thought flash in his head. You know, one of those thoughts that go in your head that maybe you wonder if it's from the Lord because it gave him a sense of impression that she sort of reminded him of a friend, another woman that he was a friend of his who suffered a particular way to, I think maybe it was depression or something and he wondered, "I wonder if that woman is suffering from depression. If the Lord gave me that and if we should pray for her, talk with her, be friend her." You know all that stuff that goes on in your head and then of course by then you think, "And then maybe I'm just a freak and I'm making it up and I'm going to scare her," right? And then she goes away and then you're like, "Ah, did I, I don't know," right? We live most of our lives like that and then he beat himself up for a while, the whole, "I don't know." Well, you know how this, so they need to say, "All right, Lord, well, if I missed an opportunity then you can, you know, create another opportunity for me that doesn't include me chasing her." You know, that's weird. And so you know where the story's going, right? It gets on the airplane, 737, three seats on either side, Donna, Jamie, MDC, down the aisle, she sits, right? Okay, Lord, I get it. So you, this is the work of God's mighty hand doing powerful miraculous things in our lives all the time. Now here's the problem. I tell the story you think, well, that's probably a coincidence, right? Don't you think that? My friends, it could be though, right? Come on, Barnett, work with me. It could be, but here's the thing. When that starts to happen over and over and over and over and over because here's what it looks like when God's on your adventure with you, it looks like his mighty hand. And it happens over when you have enough coincidences that pile up in your life, you become a worshipper. Everybody okay today? What's with you people? You all right, honey? You become a worshipper because it's not a coincidence. You begin to see that God does the miraculous. We prayed and then the allergies were gone. Oh, well, maybe the medication finally took effect. You know what? Maybe you add it all up, you go, oh no, God's powers in our life. It looks like God's mighty hand. His power is there. And by the way, he also sometimes uses other people. You know, if you're the King James, your first verse may say that it says, it may say this, because of my mighty hand, he will let them go. Because of his pharaoh's might, he will drive them out with his mighty hand. There's some confusion about how to interpret the Hebrew, the ancient Hebrew in here, but it's the same message, it's the same point. The same point is made, which is that God can use pharaoh's mighty hand and do something that he wants to do. And it becomes the power of God in our lives, right? Have you experienced that? You know what? You're struggling. Somebody sends you a check. It doesn't have the signature Yahweh on it. If somebody else gave you the money, right? And you could be tempted to go, well, that's not about, that's about Ben giving me money. That's not about the Lord. You add that stuff up. It looks like God's mighty hand. Very quickly. Two other things it looks like. It looks like his fruit and it looks like his fragrance. This is what God's mighty hand looks like when it's in our lives. His fruit and his fragrance. This is where the core values of God, the stuff that's like God, starts to come at you inside you from other people, in circumstances. You start to see the things that are just like God happening around you. My friends, that's God's mighty hand in your life. What do you mean his core values? Well, like the fruit of his spirit, where you start to see inside of you love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, where it should never be there toward your mother-in-law, right? I mean, like, that stuff, you go, where is that coming from? How does that work in my life right now? He told me about this week that their neighbor cut down the two most beautiful biggest trees that kept the privacy in place on their property line. And her reaction was, "I flipped out. I'm like 30 years until we get to the tree." You know what I mean? Right? Freaked out and then she said, "And then I couldn't believe how quickly God gave me forgiveness and love and grace. I've been praying for her. I've lied hearted. I'm delighted in the opportunity God's get. She goes, "What does the matter with me?" You know what the matter with her is? God's mighty hand meeting her in that adventure because she could destroy that relationship forever, right? If she went in there uncorked. Isn't that true? I mean, you know, we can, his fruit, that's, his fragrance, that's the stuff that smells like God, redemption, healing, grace. That's the stuff that smells like God. You see that come your way. You realize that's God's mighty hand in your life. I had a brother, I had coffee with a brother this summer. I sat with him on a bench in the sunshine outside of this coffee shop. We were talking about him. I was heading toward 50, I'm way past that now. I know. And I was, I was talking about how I wanted this season of my life to be significant for God. And I remember using the phrase, "Do I just want to kick some tail for God? I want to kick tail for God." Like, I want to be God's man and I want to do that in this season of my life and I was sharing my heart with him and he got all sideways and he looked in my face and he goes, "Let me tell you something. You are kicking tail. You're kicking tail for God, man. You kicked tail for God and he got me all like, "Whoa!" And as he was speaking, man to man, words of affirmation about my gifts and my heart for God, that was like God parting the heavens, saying stuff to me. You ever had that happen to you? That is the fragrance of God. That stuff smells like God. When you got a brother looking at you going, "You are kicking tail for you, kicks them tail for God." That stuff happens to us. That's what it looks like when we're on the adventure with God, is that his power and his fruit and his fragrance starts coming at us from within, from other people, from circumstances. However, you ever smelled a baby's head? You ever been to the Grand Canyon? You ever seen a sunset? That is the mighty hand of God. It smells like him, doesn't it? This is what's normative friends for us. This is what it looks like. Now, I've got to tell you this parenthetically, we have to ask this question. "How come I don't see God's mighty hand then?" How come I don't see God's mighty hand very much? I thought I've got to put it up here. Because people go, "Well, that sounds so exciting, I'm all excited about it." "Hey man, preach it, brother." But I don't see that. I don't get to feel that in my life. I don't know what that looks like in my life. Maybe I'm not doing something right or maybe I'm doing something wrong. What is it that why wouldn't I see God's mighty hand? Here's a few thoughts. Number one, it's Friday but Sunday's common. This is Tony Campolo's language, this is preacher Tony Campolo. It's Friday, meaning it's still dark. There's death and there's suffering and there's a lack of hope. Sometimes in the middle of our journey, it feels like good Friday. But Sunday's common. We're still in the middle of our journey. This is last week's sermon. But that may be why we don't see God's mighty hand. We're still waiting on the Lord for some stuff that we go, "Where are you?" This is Friday for us. But the church knows Sunday's common. I mean, that's the message in here. It's still Friday but Sunday's common. That may be why you're not seeing God's hand because I don't understand in all of his sovereignty why he doesn't act more quickly than he sometimes does. I do know that when we long for him, it cultivates a hunger and a thirst. Then when he just gives it, I also know that we believe him so much more than next time. I don't know. I don't know all the reasons but sometimes it's just Friday and Sunday's coming. Second reason why we don't see God's mighty hand in our life. We've been inattentive. We're just not paying attention. We're not paying it. We see things with all that. That's a silly coincidence. We see things we go. That's an irritation. As opposed to, what's that person? What is my good God doing right now in this moment? What could God be doing right now in this moment? We have to be a contemplative people. We're a people who say we're on the adventure to follow Jesus' leading. So we have to figure out when and where do we listen to him and how do we listen to him in the moments, the daily encounters, the everydays, the every moments of our lives. Where do we go? What is he doing? What is my good God doing right now? Because he's wanting to do mighty hand kinds of stuff. But usually we chalk it up to, it's a hassle, this person, and we just don't see that God could be at work and we're not paying that close of attention. Third, we may have undelt with sin in our lives. This is one reason why we may not see the mighty hand of God at work because we are cherishing sin. Scriptures say, if I had cherished sin in my heart, the psalmist says, then God wouldn't have come and wouldn't have answered my prayers and blessed me like this. You know why, friends? Because God doesn't force himself on us. You're sure you're sinful and you're broken and you're messed up. That doesn't keep God from you. He's cherishing that sin, not admitting it, and not turning away from it that keeps you away from God. And we may not be seeing the mighty hand of God in our lives because we continue to cherish sin and whatever comfort it gives us in the moment, then turning ourselves over to a God who may want to do crazy, powerful, fragrant, fruitful things. And why that is, I don't know, we get lost and we got to get here and get all straight. So maybe that we're cherishing, we're living, we're just living with it. And some of you, that's all the message you needed this morning. I guess stop living with that sin except God free to do some of that stuff in my life. The last reason why we don't see God's mighty hand, we're fundamentally self-focused. What I mean by this is that somewhere along the line, we came to think that the gospel was about us. We came to think that this whole Jesus thing, this adventure was about us. I'm on the adventure so that I have a great time. I'm on the adventure so I get the thrill. I'm on the adventure so that my life gets blessed. I'm on the adventure so that my life's awesome. But the summary, the reality when you look through this text is that nobody sees the work of God and then ends up going, "Wow, Jeff's awesome." They see the work of God and they go, "What is this God that you're serving? What is that? I want to know God, I'm drawn to him." But we're fundamentally self-focused. We've been stuck thinking that it's about us and maybe God is not to reinforce that, it's withholding his blessing from us. That's scriptural. We know the passage in James chapter 4 where it says, "Hey, you don't have because you don't ask God." You know that passage? But it goes on to say, "And when you ask, you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives that you may spend what you get on you on your pleasure." James 4, 2, 3, 4, 2, 3, check it out. We think it's about us and maybe God needs to fundamentally shift our focus away and around to say that this isn't, "Oh God, come, I need, I want. It's about God. This is about you. Now you do your thing for you and for your needs and for your glory." That's what we got to do. And that's the last point. I'm going to have the band come up just as I finish this point because I want to respond to that. And see, what does God's presence look like in our lives? It looks like His mighty hand. Two, I want to tell you, it looks like His glory. It looks like God's glory. You look at this passage. Look at like verse 6 through 8, "Therefore say to the Israelites, I am the Lord. I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my own people and I will be your God, then you will know that I'm the Lord." You're going to know who I am in the middle of all, at the end of all this stuff. This is about God's glory. This is not so that we become these amazing vessels of crazy blessing because you know what? Just look around. Look at the guy sitting next to you. I mean, this is not about us getting so fixed that we're amazing. It's about God, the adventure is about God magnifying Himself in us so that our lives speak the message of God's glory, speak the power of who He is. Four times He says, "I am Yahweh in this text. I'm Yahweh. That is my name." He said, "This is my personal name. It's Yahweh." And they know what that means. It means it's some crazy form of the verb to be, "I am. I am who I am. I will be who I will be. I, period, am, period, I, me. It's about me." And in the end, they will know that I am Yahweh. Apparently it mattered, apparently it mattered who He was and not just what He did. You look back at that verse 2 and 3 that I said I was going to mention. God said to Moses, "I'm Yahweh. I appear to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as Elohim. Oh, I've done Elohim. You know what Elohim is? It's the God who brings life. It's the God who does cool miracles. It's the God who brings stuff, who gives you stuff. It's not bad. And that's what our God does. He goes, "I've been Elohim, but I am Yahweh the God who is, period, and it is for my glory that I act." That's why I do it. And somehow we've gotten away and thought, "My life is so that I get all these incredible blessings." Friends, it looks like God's glory when we're on the journey. It looks like Him. It's for His glory. And somewhere along the line, we have to change our prayers from I need and I want to God take me on the adventure that will bring you the most glory. And I will magnify who you are, not what I get. We have taken Jesus and made Him a genie where we rubbed the lamp to get some stuff to make our lives a little better and no wonder we've lived small lives. The glory of God manifested in those who say, "You bring me the adventure and you magnify who you are." And then we will see more of the mighty hand of God at work. Two reminders. These will look like to walk with God. It looks like stuff only God can do. And that will be for His glory. Let's stand and respond to Him as we close this morning. [BLANK_AUDIO]