Not Forgotten

God Demands Reverence From His People

   Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the back of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. Then Moses said, “I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.”

So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!”
And he said, “Here I am.”
Then He said, “Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.” Moreover 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 upon God.
Exodus 3:1–6 (NKJV)  

What made the ground on Mount Horeb "holy". Holy means set apart, removed from common use. This place was special. But why? Because God was there! The dirt was just dirt. The rocks were just rocks. The bush was just a bush. But God's presence made it special.

The same thing makes us holy. God being present with us... in us. His church is to be separate from the world. His people are called to "come out from among them and be separate." So, the modern goal of making worship more appealing by making it more worldly ultimately fails the reverence test. God defines how he is worshiped. And He is to be worshiped in spirit, that is with hearts set right through faith. And He is to be worshiped in truth, which is consistent with His Word.

If God said, "treat the dirt" as holy. How much more should we set apart the task of coming together to worship Him? God demands that we reverence Him.

God Remembers His People

 And the Lord said: “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites. Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”Exodus 3:7–10 (NKJV)  

We work on a small timeframe. Days, weeks, when we are thinking really big picture, years. But God's operating on a much larger timeframe. Such that we usually don't catch what He's working while He's doing it. Israel had been in Egypt for 400 years. For 80 years at this point, the leadership didn't know Joseph and was actively trying to reduce through violence the Israelite population. For 40 years, Moses had been in exile, tending a flock that didn't even belong to him. But God was not done with this people. In fact, we know that he was just getting started at this point!

God Sees

God was well aware of what was happening to His people. And though it seemed he had not intervened, he already had the man, the method, and the moment of Israel's deliverance planned out.

God Hears

God heard His people's cries. We tend to pray with our problem, and also tell God the best solution to that problem. When the solution doesn't materialize (the next day), we conclude God has not heard our prayer, or the more spiritually minded might say that God has just denied our prayer. But maybe He heard, and He's got a better and bigger solution to your problem. The Israelites wanted a lighter load. God wanted them to give them their own land. 

God Knows

God not only sees and hears, but he knows what is going on. God is "all-in" with his people. When they suffer, He feels it. That's a really big claim, but its Biblical. Saul found this out on the Damascus road after he had been persecuting the church. The risen Lord asked him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?"

What do these things tell us? That as His people, God is well aware of what we are are going through in this life, that He hears us even when we cry, and He knows how bad it hurts. He literally feels it. He remembers us.

God Remains With His People

   But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”

So He said, “I will certainly be with you. And this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”
Exodus 3:11–12 (NKJV)  

Moses's question is the same one we all ask. Who am I? I'm nobody right? We're all a bunch of nobodies. But its not so. Because we are God's people, that makes us somebody. What God commands us, we can do, because He is with us. Think of Moses. An exile. Death Sentence. 80 years old. Shepherd. Failure. Surely Moses could have identified with these things. He wasn't someone who could accomplish something great. Maybe once he thought so, but now? Surely he was resigned to living his life simply and uneventfully. It was his lot. 

But it wasn't. God had enormous plans for Moses. He is one of the most well known individuals from all of history. God was about to use him in a mighty way. No one scoffs at the name of Moses today. But from his perspective, he was a nobody.

Friends, God uses nobodies. 

For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.
1 Corinthians 1:26–29 (NKJV)

Moses could accomplish everything ahead of him, because God was with him. And he wasn't going to leave him. He would remain with him into Egypt, and back to this very place. You are somebody when you belong to God. He remains with you. He never leaves you.

In a world where too often, the important things are forgotten, and sometimes even God is forgotten, we need to remember. We need to remember that God demands our reverence. And that he remembers us, intimately, and personally aware of all we go through. And that he remains with us, making the impossible tasks ahead of us, possible. 

Raw Spirit Preaching

   And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
1 Corinthians 2:1–5 (NKJV)

Education has value. So does eloquence. But they are also dangerous when it comes to preaching. How? In what way? The danger lies in the ability to construct a sermon solely consisting of that which stimulates the intellect magnified by the manner of delivery. In Paul's day, Greek rhetoric (the art of persuasion) was a popular tool taught and used by Sophists (professional debaters and teachers of debate skills). In the present day, the power of intellectualism is still wielded by fast talking philosophers schooled in the ability to persuade and convince. But what if the message is wrong? No amount of education makes it right if its wrong. No matter how persuasive the argument is, wrong remains wrong.

Paul chose to approach the Corinthians without the intellectual rhetorical toolkit that the Greek speaking world had come to expect, so that the Gospel might not be communicated and believed by these carnal means, but by the power of the Spirit of God. That one might be convinced of the truth of God's redemptive work in Christ with the plain spoken message of the cross was unexpected by the hearers and served as a demonstration of the messages power.

Today the psychology of persuasion is widely studied and applied in business, politics, and advertising. It is also heavily used by those who claim to be the messengers of the Gospel. This can be seen in the empty and false doctrines that are spouted on so many late night television billionaire preaching programs. They are also widely imitated by many legitimate preachers, probably through ignorance, as they repeat and ape what they have seen others do. This is unnecessary and damaging. The Word of God is powerful all by itself. It needs to be delivered without guile, just as Jesus came and brought the message to the world.

Lets not be clever brethren. Lets be clear. And when we step down from the pulpit, lets know with certainty that any lives change were change by the power of God's word, not through the manipulation of our words.