The Bush Is Still Burning… It’s Not About You Anyway
Exodus 3:11-12 New Living Translation… But Moses protested to God, “Who am I to appear before Pharaoh? Who am I to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt?” 12 God answered, “I will be with you. And this is your sign that I am the one who has sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God at this very mountain.”
Introduction: Moses spent forty years caught in the chaos of being too Hebrew to be Egyptian, and too Egyptian to be Hebrew. He was stuck between his princely privilege and his biological bondage. Moses spent forty years wondering if he’ll ever truly fit in anywhere, and wandering through daily life hoping to discover his purpose.
Transition: Moses experiences an identity crisis at eighty years old…
-Who am I? I’m favored and not forgotten!
-Who am I? I’m graced and groomed for this!
-Who am I? I’m a transformer ready for my next change!
Exposition: God does not reply in affirmation but in two-fold revelation…
–Presence (he’s here)
–Promise (there’s hope)
Conclusion: When we get over ourselves, and learn that God pays the bill for whatever God orders, that’s when God is able to use us for God’s glory!
Exodus 3:7-10 New Living Translation… Then the Lord told him, “I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cries of distress because of their harsh slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of their suffering. 8So I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and lead them out of Egypt into their own fertile and spacious land. It is a land flowing with milk and honey—the land where the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites now live. 9Look! The cry of the people of Israel has reached me, and I have seen how harshly the Egyptians abuse them. 10Now go, for I am sending you to Pharaoh. You must lead my people Israel out of Egypt.”
Introduction: When it comes to God’s active presence in our lives, it demands our humble decrease so that God may be increased, giving way for our ordinary existences to be upgraded by the extraordinary God.
Transition: Exodus 3:7-10 reveals a silent Moses, who has humbly decreased (Reference John 3:30) to let God be God.
Exposition: We hear the pain and faith of the Israelites, and we hear the plan and faithfulness of God.
–Ascending Prayer
Reference Zechariah 2:8; James 5:16
–Descending Power
Rescue. Reestablish. Rich Land.
Conclusion: Between the prayer and power is over 400 years of slavery. It was a worrisome wait.
Exodus 3:4-6 New Living Translation… When the Lord saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called to him from the middle of the bush, “Moses! Moses!” “Here I am!” Moses replied. 5“Do not come any closer,” the Lord warned. “Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground. 6I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” When Moses heard this, he covered his face because he was afraid to look at God.
Introduction: Moments matter, because once time is spent you just can’t get it back.
Transition: Moses’ internal inadequacy coupled with his investigative intrigue, leads him to the burning bush.
Exposition: Moses moves closer to the bush that spontaneously ignited, expecting a visual but instead he heard a voice…
–Crackling Call
–Commanding Counsel
–Connecting Covenant Reference Exodus 2:23-25
Conclusion: Moses covered his face not in fear but in reverence.
Exodus 3:1-3 New Living Translation… 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. 2 There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the middle of a bush. Moses stared in amazement. Though the bush was engulfed in flames, it didn’t burn up. 3“This is amazing,” Moses said to himself. “Why isn’t that bush burning up? I must go see it.”
Introduction: Moses was having an ordinary day, but he was about to meet the extraordinary God.
The word ‘settled’ is noteworthy, because the first forty years of Moses’ existence was quite extraordinary. Reference Exodus 1:1-10
Transition: The Sinai Peninsula was littered with acacia bushes. The atmosphere was ripe for the combustion and consumption of the bushes.
Exposition: Paying attention is hard work, especially when you’re…
Luke 15:8-10 NLT… “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Won’t she light a lamp and sweep the entire house and search carefully until she finds it? 9And when she finds it, she will call in her friends and neighbors and say, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost coin.’ 10In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents.”
Introduction: In response to the Pharisees’ complaints over Jesus’ ministry tactics, Jesus tells parables to explain God’s relentless pursuit of those who are lost. The stories that are told, would have been repulsive to them, because shepherds and women were thought to be beneath them.
Transition: This Greek coin (drachma) has been dropped and has rolled, causing it to be lost inside the house.
Exposition:
The context of being lost is in dirty darkness.
The course of action to recover what is lost is illumination and agitation.
Conclusion: The party in this version of the parable is of the feminine persuasion.
Luke 15:1-7 NLT… Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. [2] This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people-even eating with them! [3] So Jesus told them this story: [4] “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? [5] And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. [6] When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ [7] In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!
Introduction: Luke 15 highlights the parabolic teaching of Jesus, to rebuff his combatants, the Pharisees.
Transition: God is focused on content, context, and celebration.
Exposition: Jesus admonishes the Pharisees to get over themselves in the following ways…
-Rules don’t trump revival
-Perception is your problem
-Staying instead of straying doesn’t make you more valuable
Conclusion: One of the common denominators in this chapter, is that each scene includes a house party. Celebration is a necessary component!
“David was now in great danger because all of his men were very bitter about losing their sons and daughters and they began to talk of stoning him. But David found strength in the Lord his God. Then he said to Abiathar the priest, bring me the ephod! So Abiathar brought it. Then David asked the Lord, should I chase after this band of raiders? Will I catch them? And the Lord told him, yes, go after them. You will surely recover everything that was taken from you.”
When You Have A Bad Day
Introduction: John 16:33 “I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world”.
Transition: Reference I Samuel 29
Exposition: What do you do when you have a bad day?
–Your deliverance depends on the quality of your relationships (But David found strength in the Lord his God)
–Consult God on making your next step your best step (Then he said to Abiathar the priest, bring me the ephod! So Abiathar brought it. Then David asked the Lord, should I chase after this band of raiders? Will I catch them?) Reference I Samuel 23:9
–Remember that bad days can become better day, when we’re obedient to God’s instruction (And the Lord told him, yes, go after them. You will surely recover everything that was taken from you.”)
Conclusion: The providence of God allows ripples in your life, not out of rejection but for restoration!
Matthew 28:1-6 “Early on Sunday morning, as the new day was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went out to visit the tomb. 2 Suddenly there was a great earthquake! For an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, rolled aside the stone, and sat on it. 3 His face shone like lightning, and his clothing was as white as snow. 4 The guards shook with fear when they saw him, and they fell into a dead faint. 5 Then the angel spoke to the women. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6 He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead, just as he said would happen. Come, see where his body was lying.
To be empty means containing nothing; not filled or occupied. I was raised to believe that emptiness is not a good thing. Empty pantries, empty freezers, empty wallets, empty actions, and most importantly empty words (we should not say what we don’t mean; my grandfather went as far to say that we talk so much that we talk up all the talk; James Brown calls this talking loud but saying nothing).
Emptiness is generally a sign of one’s inability to fill a void. I’m implying that when something is missing, someone feels the absence but doesn’t know what to do about it. At the death of Buddha, one of his followers was left so emotionally empty, that he said, “To the end of us that began”. He was empty, on spiritual E and didn’t know if he’d ever be filled again or if anyone or anything could ever take Buddha’s place. But today, resurrection day, Easter Sunday, with billions of believers all over the world, we don’t pity our future, but we celebrate a greater level of existence! In antiquity, death was all that life had to offer. Death was the pinnacle; it was the ceiling. But when Jesus stormed out of the grave, he stripped death of its sting and demoted death from being the ceiling of life that caps our existence, to be the floor! Now we don’t fear death as if it’s our enemy, but we use death as merely a means to usher us into the blissful presence of the God who sought us, saved us and secures us in the palm of his own hand!
After an earthly ministry that was so successful that we’re still talking about it and have been positively affected by it over two thousand years later, Jesus was s executed by crucifixion on Golgotha’s skull shaped hill, on Friday. His body was encapsulated in a first century garden grave; literally a cave carved in rock, with a stone sealing the corpse of Christ from the world, for what the Roman government and the Jewish clerics hoped would be forever.
Jesus’ burial was so rushed, so hurried, that he was not properly embalmed. But thank God for women! When men are more concerned with getting finished, so they won’t disrupt their rituals, that women know how to not just get the job done but they know how to get it done right. Some women showed up with burial spices, in order to properly embalm the body of their Lord, early Sunday morning. They speculated on the way there about who’d roll the large stone away from Jesus’ grave. I like that they didn’t allow an obstacle that they didn’t know how to overcome, to stop them from arriving where they’d set their minds to go.
It’s funny how life works out sometimes. What the women were so worried about, wasn’t even a concern at all. The stone was already rolled away when they made it to the cemetery. It was God’s way of saying “Don’t worry about the stone, because what’s heavy for you is of no consequence to me. I’ll handle your light weight before you even get to it”! Thanks be to God that when we’re up twiddling our thumbs trying to figure it out, that God has already worked it out! That’s why you don’t have to worry about the heavy stones of life, and you can go to sleep tonight, because God is up working the night shift all night long!
These dear women made it to the tomb, expecting for it to be full. Full of their dead savior. Full of their dead hopes and full of their dead dreams, for him to be their messiah; their Christ; their deliverer. But when they arrived at the tomb, for once in their lives they were overwhelmed and overjoyed that something that was supposed to be full, had turned out to be empty. Maybe emptiness in this instance, isn’t such a bad thing at all. I don’t know how you feel about it, but this Easter, I’m grateful for emptiness! Just when they thought Christians were washed up and the fat lady had sung, Jesus rose from the dead, giving us all a new lease on life! Frank Sinatra/Ol’ Blue Eyes sung what I feel Jesus may have thought on getting up morning: I faced it all and I stood tall, and did it my way! Your way said the grave should be full and stay full, but I did it my way, and emptiness sealed the deal of salvation for evermore!
I’ll land this lesson when I tell you what I came say. All of that was just my introduction. Here’s the meat of this message. Late verse 5 and verse 6 says “I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6 He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead, just as he said would happen.”
I’ve got to wrap this up so you can get to brunch, so here is my one line Easter speech: Jesus’ grave was empty, but his words are full! He meant exactly what he said, and it happened just like he said. Don’t doubt the Lord, because his word is true! He did in fact die. He did indeed fill a garden grave. But it’s EMPTY now! And because of the empty grave, we can say that his words are full of help for today, full of hope for tomorrow, and full of certainty that he lives within my heart! The application of my little Easter speech for today, is that because of the empty grave, and the fullness of Jesus’ words, our hearts should be filled with grateful commitment. I’m talking about a heart promise, that we’ll live for Jesus with all of our lives for rest of our lives!
John 12:1-11 NLT… Six days before the Passover celebration began, Jesus arrived in Bethany, the home of Lazarus—the man he had raised from the dead. 2 A dinner was prepared in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, and Lazarus was among those who ate with him. 3 Then Mary took a twelve-ounce jar of expensive perfume made from essence of nard, and she anointed Jesus’ feet with it, wiping his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance.
4 But Judas Iscariot, the disciple who would soon betray him, said, 5 “That perfume was worth a year’s wages. It should have been sold and the money given to the poor.” 6 Not that he cared for the poor—he was a thief, and since he was in charge of the disciples’ money, he often stole some for himself.
7 Jesus replied, “Leave her alone. She did this in preparation for my burial. 8 You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”
9 When all the people heard of Jesus’ arrival, they flocked to see him and also to see Lazarus, the man Jesus had raised from the dead. 10 Then the leading priests decided to kill Lazarus, too, 11 for it was because of him that many of the people had deserted them and believed in Jesus.
Introduction: This story is one of four stories that are included in all four gospels. Matthew 26:1-13, Mark 14:1-9, Luke 7:36-50, and our text in John 12:1-11 (the most detailed account) all record the anointing of Jesus prior to his death.
Overwhelming Observations: Judas lets us know that you cannot make today count when…
–you’re counting someone else’s coins.
–you’re critical instead of constructive.
–you’re conspiring instead of contributing.
Exposition: We can make today count when we offer our most sincere sacrifice to Christ, not for what we can ascertain but solely for adoration. I like to call this sacrifice foot work. Mary’s life is a feature trilogy of the investment of time around the feet of Jesus. Foot work requires humility (Acts 20:19).
Foot work involves…
–Studying (Luke 10:39) sitting
–Surrendering (John 11:32) falling
–Submitting (John 12:3) kneeling
Conclusion: Mary made today count without saying a word. She was silent because your actions speak louder than words.
Psalm 28:1 New Living Translation… “To you, O Lord, I call; my rock, do not refuse to hear me, for if you are silent to me, I shall be like those who go down to the Pit”.
Our text is a psalm of lament. It is the prayer of King David after the rape of his daughter Tamar by his son Amnon, and his son Absalom has avenged his sister by killing their brother Amnon and assumed responsibility of his sister Tamar by moving her into his home. However, Absalom also held his father guilty of his sister’s rape because of his negligence to punish Amnon. So, David, God’s chosen leader/a man after God’s heart/a proven military tactician/the king of Israel is on the run, from his own son. David’s family, has become his enemy.
It is under these horrendous conditions that David prays for the mercy of God for his protection. He appeals to the Lord, his rock.
Rocks are incredibly versatile. Through the annals of history, they’ve been used as tools. They were good for hammering and scraping. Rocks have also been used as weapons. There was no way for me to raise this fact, without mentioning David slaying Goliath the giant, with a sling shot and five smooth stones. Memorials have made good uses of rocks. Sometimes rocks would be stacked in remembrance of God’s mighty acts in the lives of his people. We’ve adopted that ancient sentiment by carving headstones and using them to display epitaphs, reminding us of our mortality. But rocks are also good for construction. I could use a bible reader to help me here. Ephesians 2:20 says “Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself”. Cornerstones are imperative in building. They must be without imperfection, so that the structure will be stable. Strangely enough, a building project begins and ends with a cornerstone. Jesus Christ is the stone that the builders rejected, but he became the chief cornerstone, the alpha and omega; the first and the last!
God is referred to as a rock thirty-three times in the Old Testament. Sixteen of those thirty-three times are found in the Psalms. Psalm 18:2 “The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer” … Psalm 62:6 “God alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken”. Psalm 89:26 “He shall cry to me, You are my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation”! Psalm 95:1 “O come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation”! Psalm 144:1-2 “Praise the Lord, who is my rock. He trains my hands for war and gives my fingers skill for battle.He is my loving ally and my fortress, my tower of safety, my rescuer. He is my shield, and I take refuge in him. He makes the nations submit to me”. Brothers and sisters, there’s no doubt in my mind, that the Psalmist is conveying to us that our God is the Rock at life’s bottom! He is strong. He is safe. He is steady. So much so, that when all else around us gives way, that we find out that God is all we have, because God is all we need!
This text boiled down to a single word for me, and that word is relationship. That’s what David hints at, suggesting that since relationships are sour while others are sweet. Some are negative while others are positive. Some relationships aren’t worth the investment and others are worth every penny because they add to the quality of our existence.
–Personal: To you, O Lord,
Jehovah
–Prayer: I call;
Sacred communication with the Divine
–Provision: my rock,
You are my strength and stability
–Possibility: do not refuse to hear me, for if you are silent to me,
(Father I stretch my hands to Thee…)
–Perspective: I shall be like those who go down to the Pit.
Antonie E. Walker Ministries 