I Am | Crossroads Daily

Welcome back to Crossroads Daily Podcast. My name is Caleb. I'm Dani. I'm Miko. And I'm Mish. We're jumping back to Exodus chapter 3 today. So we were with Jesus yesterday in John 14. We're jumping all the way back to Exodus 3, God speaking to Moses on the mountain. We're gonna jump in the deep end. You guys cool with the deep end? Still. You got your floaties on? Got it. You don't even need floaties. So God gives his name to Moses and his name is I Am. What's that mean to you? Bro, I geek out about stuff like this. I cannot wait to hear you geek out about it. That's like the biggest, because that's one of those answers that just leaves you with way more questions like, what does this even mean, right? And then to see how it plays out in scripture. I don't know. I just, it's like, it's just like this, this, this God just, it's like a God flex. And like to the point where like nothing is above God, right? So you can't trump that, but it's still so humble. And so, you know, he's still God and it's like, I am that I am. And it's like, okay, what do I do with that? You know what I'm saying? I don't know. Can we just say too, this was a burning bush.

I mean, that alone would have been enough. And then he says, I am, all caps, period. For me, one of the things that sticks out about God's name, I mean, there are like layers of it, like Miko was saying, but like, am is always present tense, right? It's like, I'm not the God of the past, not the God of the future. I mean, I am both of those things, but I just am, right? Like right now I am God. I don't know. It's like, time is like, time is like a timeline and God is like up here above the whole thing, right? Like end, middle, alpha, omega, like in revelation. I just am. Yeah. Yes. At all times. Like, what? So knowing that Jesus uses these, so throughout the gospels, especially in the gospel of John, Jesus uses these statements. I am fill in the blank on the bread of life, I am the lamb of God. He's drawing connections between him and the God that we're reading about right now. In Exodus, God, the father, Jesus as God, the son. What does that mean to you to know that Jesus, all these things about God on this mountain are true of Jesus? How does that influence the way that you approach Jesus now, that he is the same? I am as this God talking to Moses. You know, I think wrestling with Jesus is humanity because Jesus is God, but he's also a man and wrestling with his humanity has, I think, taught me a lot more about his divinity. So even in the, I am statement in Exodus, the thing, the first time I ever read this, read that I used to, well, I took like a philosophy class, a few philosophy classes in college. And there's this philosopher, Descartes, who I don't remember if he was a believer or not,

to be honest, but he has this like famous saying, I think, therefore I am. And there's like an agency in it that like what he's referring to is like, because I have a free will and an agency, I have humanity. And Jesus displays that on like a perfect level to where he thinks, but his thoughts are also literally the word. They are the voice that created the earth. But he's a human. And because he thinks, and because it's just like this, I don't know, I pictured this beautiful like mesh ball of like, with like tons of electoral waves going all around because Jesus is able to display like this perfect humanity that is also his divinity. You know, Misha's not just a pretty face. I know. Holy cow. I mean, come on. Man. That was wild. Who else? Who else? So for me, when I hear I am, it's like, what kind of what you're saying, like, I'm present. I'm present. I'm here now. I'm here in the future. I was in the past. I am. And for me with Jesus, that means I can trust what he says is true because he's been in the past. He's been in the future. He's been in the present. He knows he was there when the world was created, just like Misha was totally just talking about in his scientific way, impressive that we all completely understand.

Yeah. I have no idea what you're saying. Cool. Do you want me to say in French? I'm just kidding. I don't know. Yeah. Can you? I don't. But he's just, he's omnipresent, you know, he knows, he knows, he's seen, he sees our hearts even when we try to hide our ugly uglies, he knows, you know, and so that allows me to trust and understand that when he says things like I am the bread of life, I can believe that. Yeah. think it's interesting that Jesus has all these I am statements, these seven I am statements. He really didn't need to say any of them. He could have just said I am, period. But he wants us to fully understand what he's trying to say so that he can lead us in the right ways and we can actually follow him, you know? Yeah, like he's expounding on those I am statements for our benefit. For our benefit. He didn't have to. Yeah, he didn't have to. That's awesome. Yeah, I think less heady for me. And it's just more hearty, I think, kind of to your point, Danny. It just makes him that much more trustworthy. I think as, especially as I wrestled with, at a point, you know, in my faith, like with the identity of Jesus. And I think that, for me, that was one of those statements that really helped solidify my belief and my trust in him being who he says he is, right? Because it's like, this is a statement that only God can make. Yeah. And he's saying, in his words, he's saying, that's me. And it's like, okay, right? Because for a while, like most people, you know, I would say most people I was talking to anyway, you're looking like, where does he specifically say, I am God, worship me? You know what I'm saying? In Scripture. And I think it was my belief

in, when I saw that in Exodus, that when I saw Jesus say that, I'm like, okay, that that's it for me. Like, I hear you, I get this, I know what that means, I believe. So, yeah. That's, it's interesting, it's like, I'm God, therefore worship me. Because like, in theory, when we recognize Jesus, we're supposed to worship him, but it's almost like he was saying, like, your way of worship is wrong. Actually, I want more proximity from you, more friendship, more following, more like, I don't know. Relational. Like, absolutely sing and do all this kind of, that's great, and understand the reverence of this, but like, the real worship I think Jesus is looking for is just like this oneness with him and an understanding of him. Yeah, right. I am, what is, I am in the Father as the Father is in me, and he wants us to be in him as he is in the Father. I'll probably butchered that, but that's the gist of it. But yeah, I think it's like, you don't have to not do that, you know, the worship, the way you're doing it, but when you do that without this, you miss it. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like, there's a togetherness there that I want you all to experience. Mm-hmm. So, yeah. Seems like we're circling the idea of God being holy. Mm-hmm. Right, so that's the word throughout scripture that God uses the most to describe himself is holy. Most the time we think of that as like, meaning he's perfect, which he is. Mm-hmm. But the word holy just means set apart, right? He's not like us. We are different than him. He is different, and one of the ways that he is different is the way that he interacts with time, right? Like, we're stuck in the timeline from now to the future, and we can't go back to the past, but God is, I am, all around. I mean, I don't know, it's getting timey-wimey out here, right? But he's like all around time or whatever, right? Yeah. It's really interesting to me that, too, when Moses recognizes God's holiness on the mountain, he responds by taking his shoes off, right? He's like, I gotta let, almost like I'm letting something go, something temporary about me because you are so holy and I'm not. He's not just grounding? I mean, maybe, maybe. Maybe he just hates shoes like me, I don't know. So, but to finish up, like, what do you, what is something that you think God could be calling you to leave behind in the light of understanding, like, hey, Jesus, God is trustworthy because he's

holy. He's not, he's not like us. What do you think about that? Like, one thing, my daughter has type 1 diabetes, which she's had for eight years. She's 10 years old, she got them, she's two. There was a time when, like, we worry about every night, right? Because, like, her blood sugar could go low, we could not hear it, like, we could be out, it could go low, like, that could send her into seizures, shock, whatever. We had a lot of worry about the future, right? But understanding that God as I am, he is already in the future and he loves her way more than I do, I can drop a lot of my worry, right? I'm like, I still got to give her shots, I still got to count carbs, like all the things, but all the extra weight that I put on myself to make sure that her life is as normal as her brother's, I don't have to do that, right? Because God is out with her, watching the future. And that just allows me to, like, take a ton of weight off of my shoulders, right? And just enjoy my daughter instead of being stressed about her well-being. So we've had a lot of transition on my work team. And one of the positions that we lost, we kind of were waiting to hire for it. And I was starting to freak out a little bit. I was like, Oh my gosh, what are we going to do? I don't know. And God is just so good. And this is the I moment. I got an email on Friday in my inbox from a girl who said, hey I really I really think I am really interested in your team and working on your team and she said I don't know maybe it's volunteering maybe it's something else but here's my resume take a look at it and it's exactly what we need for the position that I need to fill. Come on now. Yeah yeah I know. Without you asking. Without me asking and I was kind of in limbo for a while and then I got the green light to hire that role and I'm not kidding the day after I get the green light to hire the role this girl's thing ends up in my inbox and I was like okay God yeah you know she may or may not be right for the thing I'm gonna meet with her and talk to her but that's just God nodding at me going you know what I got you stop worrying about this you don't have to have this I am I am trust me I am. God speaks to me a lot like about my heart so as I'm hearing this I'm reminded of this this this song and there's a there's a part

of the song where it where it calls our heart holy ground by passion I don't know if you're familiar with that and when I think about that it was a time like as I was listening to it and I was reminded of what we're talking about now Moses taking his shoes off on holy ground and God calling our heart holy ground and it's like I feel like what God was speaking to me is to me go what things have you just let trample on your heart and that belongs to me like that's my space what things have you just simply let come into your heart whether it's people whether it's dreams visions ideas you know desires what things have you just let trample into your heart and it's like the way that he felt in that moment with Moses and you know him taking his shoes off before Moses stepped on holy ground it's like to me go that's how I feel about your heart and it I don't know for me it just caused me to take inventory of the things that were you know whether it was worry whether it was desires for me it was a lot of that at that time that that that I would allow to just like have its way on my heart like you know you know things that are not worthy of his space you know in my heart man so I don't know I can't that somewhat answers a question I know but as you're talking about this it just so aligns with like just I don't know my personal experience with this verse recently so it's great yeah we're gonna take a cue from Miko today so God is I am he's present with you what do you need to let go of what can you let go of because you don't have to carry it all worry anxiety fear financial stress family stress whatever let it go God is with you and he is I am today we'll see you next time