Interrupting The Ordinary

Well, good morning, church. Good morning. So good to be with you. My name's Sam Langebaan. I have the joy of serving here as college pastor. Woo! Yes, and it's an honor to have a front row seat in the next generation of being discipled and deployed to be sold out for Jesus. I want to show you a little bit about my family. We'll put a picture up on the screen. This is me and my wife, Ellie, holding our newest addition to the family, Millie, who is a precious golden retriever, right? Now, she's great, but I'm gonna tell you a little bit about my wife, Ellie. So in October of 2024, she calls me up one night. We were doing long distance at the time, and she says, hey, Sam, I'm going to Pakistan. Do you want to come? And I said, you met a friend named Paxton? She goes, no, no, no. I'm going to Pakistan. Do you want to come? Now, I had a bingo card for evaluating Ellie. It's, does she love God? Is her family cool? Does she chew with her mouth closed? That was my evaluation. I did not have on there,

does she take spontaneous trips to the Middle East? But I said yes. And at the time, my life was defined by routine. There was a monotony that really filled up each of my days. I was a full-time student, unemployed, eating way too much microwavable mac and cheese from Trader Joe's. And I'd study, I'd go to the gym, I'd go to class. But I said yes to this invitation. And so Ellie and I, with our team, flew to Pakistan where we embarked on a mission to set families free from generational slavery. It was an unbelievable trip. We'll put some pictures up on the screen. We would step into these brick kilns where men and women who had gotten sucked into debt bondage would work hours and hours and hours every single day, making countless amounts of bricks. This next photo is a picture of a lady that we got to interact with. And you can see her two-year-old son on the ground with her as she works. This next picture, though, is a picture of freedom. One of the assignments that we had is we fundraised these slaves' debts stateside so that when we approached them, we were able to pay their remaining debt and tell them you will never work another day as a slave in your life. And you can see the joy and the excitement on their faces.

This next picture is a family that Ellie and I were able to set free. You can see the joy of this little girl who was born into slavery, having no concept for freedom. And now as we speak, they're probably peacefully sleeping in a safe home, the parents having well-paying jobs, understanding what it means to be set free in Christ Jesus, not just physically from slavery, but spiritually from sin. So that trip changed me. I mean, it did something to my heart. God deposited part of his heart in mine. It inspired me, and they all called me John Cena, which felt really good. I'd walk into one of the brick kilns, and they're like, John Cena, and I would flex, and it felt so good, right? No one calls me that here at Harris Creek, so. But what happened in that moment is Christ interrupted my ordinary. I was just going through a normal semester of seminary, living in Dallas, but he used Ellie to help me say yes to something that I will never forget. And he moved me out of this place of monotony and into this place of mission. And so today we're gonna be talking about what happens when Christ interrupts our ordinary.

What happens when Christ interrupts our ordinary? You see, the reality that me and you have to wrestle with is that monotony is inevitable in you and I's life. There's a tedious routine to our life that can often be fatiguing, that can at times be discouraging, where it's just another day. It's the same commute, the same responsibilities, the same conversations, the same task, or in our walk with Jesus, it's the same time to go to church. It's the next night of life group. It's another day where we're supposed to pray before our meal. It's another opportunity to sit down and to open the scripture. So monotony is inevitable, but we have a decision to make. We can numb it, we can chase entertainment to escape it, or we can see every single monotonous day as an invitation for Christ to step into our ordinary life and do things that we would have never dared think to do. But if we're not careful, the monotony can turn to mediocrity. We can miss what God's trying to do. We can crave comfort, control, compromise. And Satan loves when we live this way because when we let monotony get to us, when we just check out in our walk with God,

we take no kingdom risk. We have no eyes set on the things that are above. We have no craving for divine appointments. We just go throughout our day missing what God wants to do. But what he's gonna teach us this morning is that if we were to just stop and look at him and zoom out and ask him to invade our lives, to interrupt our ordinary, we would understand that he is able and desiring to do far more abundantly than we could ever ask, think, or imagine. That's what happens when he interrupts the ordinary. Most of our days are classified by a long obedience in the same direction with a hopeful expectation of what Christ might do. We're just going about our day asking God for what he'll do. So we're gonna see from God's word what happens when Christ interrupts the ordinary. We're gonna see that in Exodus chapter three. So I'd invite you to turn with me to Exodus chapter three. We're continuing on in our Christophany series. And if you're new to Harris Creek or if you've been here in prior weeks but need a reminder, these Christophanies are stories when God the Son, the second person of the Trinity, steps into the Old Testament pages prior to his incarnation. In other words, they're supernatural stories that happened in real space and time

where Christ interrupts the ordinary in order to pursue the people that he loves. And today we're gonna see this in Moses and the burning bush in Exodus chapter three. So read along with me, starting in verse one. This is what God's word says. Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father in Lajethro, the priest of Midian. And he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked and behold, the bush was burning yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, I'll turn aside and see this great sight of why the bush is not burned. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, Moses, Moses. And he said, here I am. Then he said, do not come near, take your sandals off for the place on which you're standing is holy ground. And he said, I'm 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. And so the text picks up and we're in Midian. But how we get to Midian? So the book of Genesis ends and the people of Israel, there's about 70 of them, they're welcomed into Egypt. But then the book of Exodus begins.

And now this family of 70 has multiplied into a nation of millions and it's met with hostility. They're not welcomed into Egypt anymore. They're enslaved in Egypt and a new Pharaoh has risen to power and he's ordered that every male Israelite boy be murdered and every adult male be put to work as a slave, building bricks, similar to what we saw and what you just saw in Pakistan. So the people of God are being oppressed. And in the midst of this, by God's sovereign hand, there's an Israelite boy who's not murdered, but he's raised up actually in Pharaoh's household. He's given a position of leadership. He's exalted to a place of power as a prince in Egypt. But one day at the age of 40, he goes out to check on his people. And he notices that one of his Israelite brothers is being treated cruelly by an Egyptian. So he strikes the Egyptian, kills this man, covers him in the sand, thinks that nobody noticed. But then the word somehow gets to Pharaoh that this prince named Moses is a murderer. So Pharaoh sets out to kill him and this sends Moses to Midian. He flees. And when he reaches Midian, he's introduced to a man named Jethro. And Jethro, the priest of the area, gives to Moses his daughter named Zipporah.

Zipporah and Moses have a child, a son named Gershom, which I'm gonna keep in my back pocket for if Ellie and I ever have a son. Gershom Langeman, that's got a nice ring to it. And his new life begins. And Moses' main job is to shepherd his father-in-law's flock for 40 years. So you can imagine the monotony. You can imagine the routine of day after day after day. day taking care of this flock. This isn't the classic story of rags to riches. This is riches to rags. You go from a prince to a shepherd that nobody knows. And it's on an ordinary day, he's just leading his flock to the west side of the wilderness and the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. So this is what we've been seeing this whole series. The angel of the Lord is a clear indicator that this could be Jesus. And just picture it, be in the text with me. Imagine you're Moses. It's a normal day and you see a bush on fire, but it's not really on fire and it's full of flames, but it's not consumed. Moses just walks in a nonchalant way through this text, but we just gotta pause and recognize this is wild. He looks and behold, the bush was not burning. And so Moses says, I'll look at this.

I'll go out of my way. And I think this pleased the Lord because Moses could have fled again. He could have passed by it. He could have thought that this is just some interesting moment, but no, he goes towards it and the Lord calls out of the bush, Moses, Moses. So now the bush is talking and it's on fire, but it's not on fire. So Moses says, here I am. It's a pretty honorable response. But then the Lord says, don't come near. Moses is like, well, you just called my name. And then he tells him to take his sandals off because the place he was on was holy. Then he gives him a crazy promise. He says, I'm the God of your father, of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob. What he's doing is he's helping Moses zoom out and recognize that this encounter is bringing God back to the covenant promises that he's made. He's saying, I'm not done with your people. They may be enslaved, yes. It's been 400 years since you've really heard from me, but on this ordinary day, I have interrupted it. And I'm about to tell you something crazy. And as God reveals himself to Moses, it says, Moses hid his face for he could not see God. He was afraid to look at God. You see, I just can't help but think like Moses

was awakened to the Lord's presence in this moment. In an ordinary day, he was interrupted and God met him in a profound way. And I think there's truth for us in that as well. That's the first thing I want us to see, that Christ's presence awakens us. That this didn't just happen in Moses' life, that this happens often in our own life. That Christ's presence awakens us. Christ's presence awakens you. I think the best way I can think about it is our new dog, Millie. You saw her on the screen. Well, our first weeks of being her parents, she had horrible separation anxiety. I mean, it was awful. So much so that we had to put her crate next to my bed in our room. And she'd wake up in the middle of the night and she'd just start screaming and barking and freaking out. And I tried all kinds of different methods to care for her. I'm trying to be a responsible dog dad. And I found one method that worked. When she'd wake up in the middle of the night and think that she was alone and start freaking out, I'd kick my left leg out of the sheet and I'd just turn it in so my pinky toe would fit right through the kennel. And she'd give it a little sniff. She'd take a deep breath and she'd go back to bed.

And the anxiety left. And I don't think it's because I have a good pinky toe. I think something happened when she was aware of my presence when she awoke, she knew that we were there. But here's the thing, nothing about her circumstance changed. She's still in a confined metal box, which has to be hard, right? It's never been us, right? She's separated from all the puppies she grew up with. It's in a dark room and she's hungry. So nothing about her circumstance changed except her awareness that her mom and dad were there. And I think that in a super similar way, this can be us with Christ. There are things going on in our life that make us anxious. Moses was on the run. There was probably discouragement in his heart. There was probably shame in his heart. There was probably regret in his heart from the mistake that he'd made when he was 40. But he recognized that Christ was present. And as the bush showed him, it awoke him to the presence of God. And I think there's application in that for us. And whatever you're going through, God is there. And whatever you're going through, God is there. And you may say, well, Sam, that's a simple truth. That is, it's a simple one. You need to believe more deeply.

In the dating relationship, he's there. In the diagnosis, he's there. I mean, even in my own life, two months ago, I had multiple grandparents pass in the same month. And that circumstance couldn't change, but I was comforted when God woke me up to his presence. Maybe for you, you've just learned new news that has crushed you. You don't know. How to respond, he's there. Maybe at work you've been given a project with a crazy deadline. You don't know how you're gonna get it done, but he's there. Maybe all your home has been full of is conflict with a kid or with your spouse. You don't know what to do next, he's there. He wants you to awake to his presence. He wants you to become more aware of his presence. He wants to get your attention just like he got Moses'. And so here's what's so simple. Do you know what you get in the presence of God? You get God, and that's enough. To have him and nothing else is to have every single thing that we need. So the circumstance might change, but our awareness of Christ's presence does. And it may not make it easier, but it adds purpose to it. Moses was awakened to the presence of Christ, and so should we, but the text continues in verse seven. So, then the Lord said,

I've surely seen the affliction of my people. Just listen with me to the action verbs in this. I've seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and I've heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I've come down to deliver them out of the land of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good land and a 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 Jezebites. And now behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I've also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppressed them. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. But Moses said to God, who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt? He said, but I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you. When you've brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain. In other words, what the Lord's saying is he's saying, Moses, I've been here all along. I've just woke you up to my presence, and I see the oppression that's happening. And the people of Israel are my covenant people. They're my prized possession, so enough has been enough.

He says, behold, in other words, listen up. I'm gonna intervene. I'm gonna step in. I'm gonna bring them out of slavery. I'm gonna take them into the promised land. I'm gonna demonstrate my sovereignty among all the nations. And then he says, listen, you're gonna be the one to help me. And before that, I imagine Moses being like, yes, Lord, let it be, thank you. But then the minute he hears he's gonna be the one, it's no, no, no, no, no. Love that message. I don't wanna be the messenger. I can just imagine him thinking like, God, you knew what happened at age 40, like with Pharaoh and the sand and the, like you saw all that. Why are you asking me to help? If you were to read Exodus three and four, there's five times when Moses tells God he doesn't wanna go. First, he expresses inadequacy. Then there's uncertainty. Then he fears rejection. And then in chapter four, verse 13, he says, Lord, please send somebody else. He says, I don't wanna do this. I don't wanna go back.

It seems too vast for me. He says, who am I? Who am I to be the one to go? And what I love about this is the Lord's response. The Lord does not respond to Moses's question by telling him how awesome he is. He doesn't respond to Moses's question and affirm him for the next three verses. Do you know what he says? Moses says, who am I? And the Lord says, I'll be with you. In other words, what he's saying is he's saying, hey, you don't need affirmation for you. You need a revelation of me. That's gonna carry you through. That's what Moses needed most. That's what we need most. He says, I want you to be my representative. I want you to be my voice. I want you to be my helper as I intervene. And you're really not even gonna be the one doing it. I'm gonna do it, but I wanna include you. The Lord wanted to include Moses in his mission. Moses in his mission, which extends to us. So that's the second thing that I want us to understand. It's not just that Christ awakens us to his presence. Christ includes us in his mission. So to put it simply, Christ's mission includes you. It includes you. A handful of years ago, my dad called me.

He said, hey, Sam, you can catch on to this. I get some interesting phone calls, right? He goes, hey, Sam, I'm building a fence. I go, dad, thanks for telling me. What else? He's like, well, we're getting goats. I said, okay, tell me more. He said, well, if we keep five goats alive, we'll classify for a ag exemption and we can save money on taxes. It's great, pure motives, right? So I say, dad, I'll help you. Well, everyone in our home knows that he's the handyman and I'm not. So he gets on his boots, jeans, tight shirt, cool hat. I'm in my Nike slides, Gymshark shorts, tank top showing off the four armpit hairs that I have, right, I'm ready to go. And I go help him on the fence. And it go great. It took a lot longer and it looked a little messier, but I helped him and we had a blast. Well, a couple of weeks later, he tells me again, hey, I'm putting out some mulch, you wanna help? I was like, well, dad, you know what happened with the fence, took a little longer, looked a little messier, but he said, yeah, but I want you to help. And so I helped him and it went great. And then a little while longer,

he's like, hey, I'm installing a fan, you wanna help? I said, sure, I'll help. It's gonna take a little longer, it's gonna look a little messier, but I'll help. And again and again and again, my dad would ask me, he would include me in what he was doing. And I began to realize, hold on, he doesn't need my help, he wants it. He doesn't need my help, he just wants my company. And I think this text is teaching a very similar truth, that every single day, the Lord is calling you. And he's not saying, hey, help me build a fence, he's saying, I wanna include you in my mission. I may not need your help, but I do want your company. Because the Lord is not, listen, he's not looking for employees, he's looking for friends to do ministry with. And it may look a little messier, and may take a little longer as you evangelize, as you share the love of Jesus with other people, but he wants you included. He's not asking for your help because he lacks the power, he's asking for your help because he loves the relationship that he can get with you through it. It's just like in our human relationships, memories are made as you do things together. And so God, in his kindness, in his love, in his humility, is saying, do you want to join me? And when we ask him questions about who are we, what should I do, will you tell me who I am?

He says, I'm gonna be with you, and less than you needing affirmation of who you are, you need a revelation of who I am. Christ has a mission, he has a mission for the world, to seek and save the lost, to make disciples of all nations, to take the love of God to the ends of the earth, to prepare the way for his return, and he's including you in it. And the question's not, are you included, it's in what capacity. After you've been awakened to his presence, you have a choice to make, am I gonna accept the invitation or not? Am I gonna say yes to the invitation or not? Am I gonna make the most of the opportunity or not? He doesn't need your help, he wants your company. And what's so cool about this is, before Christ, you were a target of his mission. You and me were separated from God, enslaved to sin, powerless to fix it. But if we have now trusted in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, by grace, through faith, in Jesus Christ, we're no longer a target of his mission. By grace, through faith, in Jesus Christ, we're no longer a target of the mission, we're now a part of the mission. And once the Lord's rescued us, he's now recruited us to be a part of his kingdom work. So in Christ, we move from being an adversary of him

to an ambassador for him, all because of his grace. And we can either accept that, or we can reject it. And we're gonna see what Moses does. He has questions, but he also has faith. And he says, yes, there's a purpose for your life. Well, how do I know my purpose? Well, one way I've heard it described is your purpose is where your greatest joy meets the world's greatest need. Well, the world's greatest need is Jesus. So you gotta ask yourselves, how has God made me? What am I good at? What do I love doing? What's my wiring? What are my spiritual gifts now? How can I leverage all of this to be a part of God's bigger plan for the earth so that when I get to the end of my days, I can be thankful for the ways that I worked hard? Like there's a reason that me and you don't immediately transport to heaven once we trust in Jesus. We're gonna be with him. He's preparing a place for us, but there's still work to be done. And he wants us to do it with him. And it's so much more fun when you say yes. So the text continues, and Moses now responds to God. I love this. He says, 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? So in other words, he's saying, if you're not gonna tell me who I am, will you at least tell me who you are? I love that. God said to Moses, I am who I am. 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 the generations. So in other words, the Lord says, I'll tell you who I am. I am. I am who I am. I'm the Lord, I'm Yahweh. This is a foundational moment in the Old Testament. This is a name that we will go on to see 7,000 times throughout the remainder of the Old Testament. He's saying, this is how I'm gonna be remembered forever, in this moment, even right now. He says, I am who I am.

What does it mean for God to be the great I am? It means that he's self-existent, that he's not dependent on anybody, that he's not created, that he just simply is. He's saying, I simply am. He's saying that he's from everlasting to everlasting, that he's the same yesterday, today, and forever, that he's an inexhaustible source of power, never depleted, never diminished. And so he says, who I am is gonna dictate the mission. So he continues and he says, go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, the Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob, has appeared to me saying, I have observed you and what's been done to you in Egypt. This is important. And I promise, I promise, I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jezebites, a land flowing with milk and honey. And they'll listen to your voice and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, the Lord, the God of the Hebrews has met with us and now please let us go a three days journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord, our God. In other words, he's saying, Moses, huddle up.

Here's what's gonna happen. I'm gonna tell you what to say. I'm gonna tell you who to gather. I'm gonna tell you how Israel's gonna trust that this is true. Ready, break. He says, go do this. Now, he tells them also what's gonna happen. Verse 19, but I know that the king of Egypt's not gonna like this. He will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. So, I love this. I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it. And after that, he'll let you go. He says, I got you. I am. He's gonna resist the request. He's gonna send his strong hand. I'm gonna send mine. There's gonna be moments where it feels like failure. There's gonna be moments where you attempted to doubt, but you can trust that I've promised this and I will do this. And you have asked who I am. I'm telling you who I am. He's saying, my power and my promise will accomplish that which I've said it would. He says, I'm gonna win. I'm gonna demonstrate justice on the people that I love

that have been oppressed. And it's all because he promised to send his power. My power will sustain you. Israel, on the precipice of entering the promised land in Deuteronomy 8, 17 and 18, this is what the Lord says. He says, beware lest you say in your heart, my power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth. You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers as it is this day. In other words, what he's saying is, don't you dare start thinking that you've done this. Don't think that you're the one that delivered yourself. Don't think that it's your power, your might that got you here, because it's not. What he's trying to teach them is that his power will sustain them. And what he's teaching us is that his power will sustain us. That's the third thing I want you guys to understand, that Christ's power sustains you. His power sustains you. It's able to sustain you. I remember when I first felt the call to vocational ministry, an opportunity presented itself at an event called Fields of Faith through FCA. So there was this big gathering

of all the high schools across the city that gathered on this football field, and I had been asked to speak. And I just sensed God including me in his mission, right? I was clear on that, but I thought it was to be expressed in my own power. And so I get this opportunity. I don't prepare. I didn't pray. I didn't have a text to really teach. I just, I went up there fully convinced that I was just gonna do my thing. Well, the night comes, there's 500 people there, and it went horrible. It went so bad. I was trying to make jokes, which I shouldn't have been. I was misinterpreting scripture, which I shouldn't have been, and had this inner dialogue, like even as you're teaching, you have this conscious of like thoughts that are going through your mind. The thought process was I am never, ever, ever going to go into something like this, so unprepared and so dependent on my own strength. Because something about the stage and these lights and opening up and interpreting God's word, there's a weight to this. And there's a gravity to it that's not to be taken lightly. And I just went up there in my own sufficiency

and confidence, and here's what happened. I think God loved me enough to let it not go well. So that when there's moments like this, or the moments up to this point, he teaches me you have to come to me from a place of need. You cannot depend on your own self. It is not gonna be your power that changes rooms or impacts people's lives. And that's not just for me in preaching, that's for you in anything. That's for the dads in the room when you're parenting. That's for the moms in your motherhood. That's for every employee in here. You cannot do it on your own. Or if you do, you're not gonna go far. Or you're gonna get to the end of your days and you're not gonna be proud of your work because you did it in isolation. So the Lord's inviting us in and he's saying, it's gonna be my power that sustains you. What that taught me is this, it's so simple. Trying to express our calling without depending on he who called us is a very dangerous decision to make. I wouldn't recommend it. And oftentimes we try way too hard to live out our calling without calling on the one who called us. Even in my own life, I tried to fight sexual sin on my own, in my own power for six years and it went nowhere. The addiction only grew.

Trying harder, doing better, didn't work. I needed the Holy Spirit to soften my hardened heart, to show me that abundance was actually found in him, that the solution was outside of me. I even think about my own family. My brother and his wife just had a baby. They cannot be the parents God's asked them to be if they try in their own power. I think of my sister who just started PA school up in Sherman, Texas. She's two weeks in. She can't get through these next two years if she does it in her own power. I think of my mom and dad who both lost a parent. It's something I mentioned earlier. They can't grieve that with hope in their own power. I think of my wife, Ellie, who's gonna be a resident here at Harris Creek next year. She can't do that year the way that God wants her to in her own power. His power sustains us. So for those of you in the room, I don't know, maybe you're preparing to be empty nesters. Your son's about to leave, your daughter's about to leave. You're overwhelmed at the idea of an empty house. You need Christ's power to sustain you. To the grad student who realized quickly that undergrad was a lot easier, you need Christ's power to sustain you. To the people who have heard a cry,

just like God heard the cry of Israel. Maybe it's a cry to adopt or a cry of foster care or a cry of some need in the city of Waco as we seek its welfare. You're not gonna be able to do it in your own power. And the scriptures are so clear of this. It says the Lord's gonna fulfill his purpose for you, but it's not gonna be in your own power. Paul says, I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness because when I am weak, then I am strong. This is what Moses is gonna see. This is what we need to see. You see at age 40, Moses thought that he could deliver the people of Israel by his own hand and he quickly learned that he couldn't. But this time he's not convinced that it's his own human strength that's gonna accomplish divine deliverance, but it's God joining him in the mission. So my question to you is where do you need the Lord's power to sustain you? Where you need his power? Where are you trying on your own and instead need to depend? See, when Christ interrupts the ordinary, when he steps into the monotony of our lives, we have a decision to make. What are we gonna do? And my prayer and my hope is that when we're awakened to his presence,

we recognize that we're included in his mission and when we're included in his mission, we are so aware that it's gonna be his power. It can only be his power that sustains us. So one of my favorite aspects of that trip to Pakistan was the way that we'd get to share the gospel with him right before we left. So we came in, we had paid their debts, we had settled the accounts, we'd gather all the people up together and then we would sit them down and we would get them in a circle and we would tell them some of our story. And we would begin and say something along the lines of, we too were actually born into slavery. We were enslaved to sin. And we too had a debt that we could not pay in and of ourselves. We were powerless to fix it. But God, in his loving goodness and kindness, sent Jesus to come to earth, to live the life that we couldn't, to die the death that we deserve, to triumph over death, sin, and Satan, who's now ascended to heaven and is promising to come again. He stepped in, lifted us out of the miry clay, set our feet on a rock, and what's happening to you on the outside is what has happened to us on the inside in Christ.

And as you are being set free physically today, Christ has set us free spiritually. And you can begin seeing it connect the dots in their minds as they understand, oh my goodness, there's so much more happening than what appears on the surface. And they love the story of Exodus because they can resonate with what the people of Israel were experiencing. Their understanding that in the Exodus, God was saying, I am, is gonna set you free. And in the Gospels, God says, I am will set you free. In Jesus, he comes to the earth and he says seven times, he makes seven I am statements. He says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. I'm the resurrection and the life. I'm the good shepherd. I'm the true vine. I'm the door to the sheep. He's claiming deity with God. He's saying everything that you need, I am. Wants to set you free. In Exodus, God delivered the people of Israel from slavery to Egypt, but in the Gospel, God delivers his people to church from their slavery to sin. We're either free or enslaved. Some of us feel like the people of Egypt. We feel stuck in Egypt. We're crying out.

I want you to know that God sees Some of you, you need to be awakened to his presence. Anxiety, grief, shame, the numbness. This morning, God wants to, in his grace, wake you up. Get your attention again. If that's you, we wanna pray for you. Some of you may feel like the Lord's including you in his presence. He's saying, I am the way, the truth, and the life. I'm the good shepherd. I'm the door to the sheep. Like the Lord's including you in his mission, but what he's called you to is scary. And there's fear in your heart because it's gonna require you to reconcile with somebody that you don't wanna reconcile with. He's knocking on the door of your heart to evangelize to someone that you don't wanna evangelize to. You need courage from the Lord. We wanna pray for you. Some of you may feel exhausted. Like you haven't been sustained by Christ's power. You're parenting on empty. You're wrestling with sin on empty. And you feel a burden on you. You feel an unnecessary responsibility that God isn't even asking you to carry. He wants to lift that this morning and to give you his burden, which is easy,

and his yoke, which is light. As you become awake to his presence, as you recognize you're included in his mission, and as you know for certain, you can be sustained by his power. And so I just want God to rid this room of independence and self-sufficiency. And whatever he has called us to, I do not want us to leave these doors thinking we can do it on our own. And so as we respond, and as we think about the good plans that God has for us, let's have our minds be fixed on that. And there's gonna be a group of people here in front we would love to go to war in prayer with you. Father God, we thank you. That you heard the cries of the people of Israel. That you intervened through a burning bush on an ordinary day in Moses' life, God. So we just ask, may we become more aware of your presence in this moment. May we recognize that you have included us in your mission, that you don't need our help, you just want our company. God, as we live our lives, defined by a long obedience in the same direction with an hopeful expectation of what you might do, we wanna say yes to that. Will you strengthen us this morning? May we depend on you, and know that when we're weak, we're strong.

We thank you for your word, we thank you for your Holy Spirit, we thank you for the good plans that you have for us. We ask all this in your name, amen.