Holy Ground

[00:00:03] Foreign. [00:00:07] Hey, everybody. Pastor Chuck Allen. I'm back on this Wednesday to talk a little bit more in the book of Exodus. Today I want us to be in Exodus, chapter three and talk about holy ground on an ordinary day. [00:00:22] I'm so glad you joined me, and welcome back to our week in Exodus. Yesterday we watched a big baby float in a basket on the Nile. Today, that baby is 80 years old and he's out of the desert watching somebody else's sheep. [00:00:38] Here's what happened in between Moses, he grows up in Pharaoh's palace. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew slave, lost his temper, kills a guy, then he runs. He ran all the way to Midian, married a shepherd into a shepherd's family, and spent the next 40 years in the wilderness. Now, don't forget the 40 years part. We'll talk about that later. The man who was raised as a prince is now tending to his father in law's flock of sheep. [00:01:12] If you'd asked Moses, he'd probably have told you his big moment had already come and gone. His opportunity for success in life was over. [00:01:21] And that's where chapter three finds him. In verse one, it says one day Moses was tending the flock of his father in law, Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock far into the wilderness and came to Sinai, the mountain of God. [00:01:36] One day. That's all it says. Not a holiday, no warning. It's just a regular workday, the kind that feels a lot like, well, maybe today. [00:01:48] And on that ordinary day, verse two tells us the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the middle of a bush. Now, the bush was on fire, but the bush is not burning up. I think that's probably worth stopping for just a moment. [00:02:04] Some of us have been through a fire this year. We felt the heat of loss or stress, anxiety, disappointment, maybe a diagnosis. [00:02:15] And we've probably wondered if it was going to just consume us. [00:02:20] And that bush is a picture of what God can do with a life. It was on fire, but still standing. The fire didn't destroy it. God was in it. [00:02:31] Moses turns aside to look, and verse four says, when the Lord saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called him from the middle of the bush. Moses, Moses. [00:02:43] Now, God didn't speak until Moses turned aside. [00:02:47] I don't know about you, but I wonder how many holy moments we walk right past because we're just too doggone busy. We're just too hurried or too convinced that nothing special could happen in a place just as plain as well Sugar Hill, Georgia, or Nashville, Tennessee, or Austin, Texas. [00:03:09] And then God says, take off your sandals for your standing on holy ground, y'. All. [00:03:17] That ground wasn't holy because it was a church. It was holy because God showed up there. [00:03:24] Your office can be holy ground. Your work site, your kitchen can be holy ground. [00:03:30] The hospital waiting room, well, that can be holy ground. [00:03:34] Wherever God meets you, y', all, that's holy. [00:03:39] Then God tells Moses the plan. [00:03:42] He has seen the suffering of his people, he has heard their cries, and he is sending Moses back to Pharaoh to lead them out. [00:03:51] And Moses gives the answer a lot of us would give. [00:03:56] In verse 11, he says, But Moses protested to God, who am I to appear before Pharaoh? Who am I to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt? And I think that's pretty doggone open and fair. [00:04:12] Forty years earlier, Moses thought he was somebody, and it didn't go so stinking well. [00:04:19] Now he's gone to the other extreme, and he thinks he's nobody. But listen to how God answers in verse 12. [00:04:27] God doesn't give Moses a pep talk about how gifted he is. He simply says, and hear me out. I will be thee with you. [00:04:36] God never really answers the question, who am I? [00:04:40] He answers a better question, who's with me? [00:04:43] Your confidence was never supposed to come from your resume or your skill or your intellect or your past. [00:04:51] It comes from God's presence. And when Moses asked what name he should give the people, God says in verse 14, I am who I am. [00:05:03] This is to the people of Israel. I am was sent to me to you. [00:05:10] Think about what that means for us today. [00:05:12] God isn't. I was like, he only worked back in the good old days. He isn't. I might be like, he'll show up if things go well. He is. I am all caps. I am. [00:05:27] He's present tense. [00:05:30] Whatever you walk in today on this Wednesday, he's already there. [00:05:34] See, here's my encouragement somewhere today, on an ordinary day, in just an ordinary place, just slow down enough to turn aside, pay attention, because God may be speaking in a place where you've been walking. [00:05:53] Well, you've been walking right past for years or decades. [00:05:58] And if you hear yourself saying, who am I to do this? [00:06:03] Let God answer the way he answered Moses. I will be with you, y'. All. That's enough to take the next step. [00:06:11] Okay, well, that's probably enough for today. [00:06:14] Watch for the burning bush in your ordinary Wednesday, and we'll see you back here tomorrow on another weekday podcast. Thanks for joining me. God bless you. Bye. Now.