Finding God

A Public Faith PART VI
Dr. Timothy Keller
03 November 2013

Exodus 3:1-14
3Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.  2There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush.  Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up.  3So Moses thought, "I will go over and see this strange sight--why the bush does not burn up."

4When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, "Moses! Moses!

And Moses said, "here I am."

5"Do not come any closer," God said.  "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground."  6Then he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob."  At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

7The Lord said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt.  I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.  8So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey--the home of Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, HIvites and Jebusites.  9And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.  10So now, go.  I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt."

11But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharoah and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"

12And God said, "I will be with you.  And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you:  When  you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain."

13Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?'  Then what shall I tell them?"

14God said to Moses, "I am who I am.  This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I am has sent me to you.'"

Moses's conversion experience as a Journey and Process of how someone comes to believe

Belief in God vs Encouter with God

DISRUPTING SITE
--Impossibility of the burning bush.
--Detour--Moses's normal path was interupted.
--Paradigm Shift--the reality of a burning bush doesn't fit in with our understandings.
--Involved the courage to investigate.

EXPANDING CONCEPT OF GOD
--God is dependent on nothing.
--Has no beginning or ending.
--I am existence itself.

PERSONAL PROBLEM
--Holiness of God is part of God's nature that is dangerous to us sinners.
--Being in the presence of someone much better than us.
--Isaiah felt unclean in the presence of God.
--God is dangerous because he shows us who we are.
--Doesn't tolerate sin and evil in you.
--Getting the God we prefer (or try to control) is easy
--God's Holiness becomes the problem for us.

GRACE
--Enables us to stand in God's presence.
--In the Old Testament, Angel of the Lord is how He could be in our presence.
--2Peter 1-3