Hey Veritas, great to be with you guys tonight. It is fun to hear you guys sing God's praises. And it's definitely giving me a hunger for God. I hope it is you too. And tonight what we're going to hear is we're going to hear from God's Word. God introduce himself to us, and he's going to use the verb to be in a really strange way. So I want you to think with me for a second about how you use the verb to be to introduce yourself. So for example, I would say I am Drew Stevenson. I was born in Ames, Iowa. I am from Minneapolis, Minnesota. I was married to Melissa Stevenson in two thousand and eight. So what I'm describing to you, using the verb to be Is where I'm from and who I'm related to. And who am I I'm attached to? And all those types of things. But what it really reveals about me is that I am a dependent person. I am from somewhere. I am married to someone. I was born at some point, which really, if you think about it, reveals that my life was a gift from someone else. That the source of my existence comes from outside of me. And so what we're going to see in this passage is Moses asked God what his name is. And God uses the verb to be in the strangest way. He simply says, I am who I am, meaning he's not secondary. He's not created. He has no beginning. He'll have no end. He is the grand fact of the universe. He always has been. The doctrine that we're talking about is called the Aseity of God. We're going to take it from a number of different angles. But one simple way to put it is to say that to be God is to be independent, to be dependent on no one, to be the source of everything and everyone. So the first way we're going to see that in Exodus chapter three is to see that God is Entirely self-sufficient. If you have a Bible, turn with me to Exodus chapter three. We're going to start with verses one through six. Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father in law, Jethro, 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 will turn aside to see this great sight. Why the bush is not burned. 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 your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground. And 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 at God. So at this time, Moses is a nobody. He's taking care of his father in law's flock. He kind of moved into his dad. You know, his father in law's basement in modern terms, like it's not going well for him. He's out doing his normal thing, shepherding the flock. And out of nowhere, he sees this bush that also appears to be on fire. And God is speaking to him out of the bush. He turns and he looks at this great sight, and this is what he notices. This is so strange. I don't know if you've ever noticed this before, because we always call this the passage about the burning bush or the burning bush encounter. But you'll notice that what Moses sees is that the bush is not actually burning. He gets close enough to it and he's like, wait, the the leaves aren't shriveling up. And the branches, they're not actually on fire. So what you have is a bush that appears to be burning. The fire is in the midst of the bush, but it's not consuming the bush. And we'll see later. This is what God is doing before he reveals his name to Moses. He illustrates his name for Moses. This is what he's saying. I'm like that fire, entirely independent of anyone or anything for my existence. I just am entirely self-sufficient. I don't need any fuel to burn. You need food. You need water. You need sunshine. God is saying I need nothing. I'm completely self-sufficient, completely independent. Here's the way that the New Testament says this in acts chapter seventeen twenty four through twenty five. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he Himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything else. See, God has no needs. That's what it means to be God. Before the earth was formed, before the universe was made, there was God. And your kids will probably ask you this question at some point if they haven't already. Who made God? And the answer is God just is astounding. Amazing, baffling. What would you have done if you were there? What's the appropriate response to seeing the self-sufficient God reveal himself to you in a bush or through His Word? It's to take your sandals off. Why do you take your sandals off throughout the Bible. Represent Creatureliness. Sometimes at Redemption Church in the summer I wear Birkenstocks when I preach. There's a couple of our staff who are grossed out by that. Feet are gross, right? They're nasty. Some of you got some hairy toes. Some of you got that big, thick toenail because you drop something on it. It reveals about us that we are made. And Moses is like, I gotta show that I'm a creature because he's humbled in the presence of God. And then he covers his face. He hides himself from God, because just the grand fact of God's self-sufficiency is too much for him to handle. God just is. We are dependent. Here's an image for you. I love thinking about God in terms of images. Hears us when we come up against the holiness of God. It's like taking a handful of jello. Do people still eat jello? We had a lot of jello in the nineties. You know, like jello was at every church potluck I ever went to. And sometimes they put like, you know, celery in it or something. But don't do that. Nobody likes that. That's mean. But anyway, just imagine taking a handful of jello. That's us. And throwing it up against a brick wall. That's God. Our life is like a vapor. We're like jello. God is rock solid. And when we encounter him, we are Undone by that experience, we are unraveled a couple places that we can experience that today. Have you ever really thought about the law of God? The Law of God is a revelation of his perfect character. So just think with me about one command. Let's just take the tenth one, right? It seems pretty easy. Do not covet, which means do not even want what anybody else has. Do you think you've ever done that for one day in your entire life? I mean, social media was designed to help you covet, right? Advertisements. An enticement to covetousness. God reveals this small thing, that we are not to be unthankful and want what he has given other people. What other people have instead of what we have. And that thing, when we really think about it as is essence, UN does us. How about going to a place, a beautiful place? Your pastor Jake. Each and I both love the boundary waters. You go to the boundary waters and you sit on a canoe in the absolute stillness of God's creation, and you look out and even imagining it, you might start to get tears in your eyes. You don't go to the boundary waters of the Grand Canyon or the Rocky Mountains, or the Swiss Alps to build your self esteem. You go there to be undone. And they're all created. By the all sufficient God. Imagine what it will be like to come face to face with him. He just is okay. The second thing we see in the text, we're just getting started is that God is unconditionally compassionate. So what flows from God being entirely independent is that he has the capacity, we'll see, to be unconditionally compassionate. Then the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of the land to a good and 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 Jebusites. And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress 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 have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain. So remember, the Israelites have been slaves in Egypt, the most powerful nation in the world, for four hundred years. God comes out of nowhere to. This guy named Moses shows up of all places in a bush and tells him. To go to the most powerful ruler in the world and to tell him to let his people go. Here's Moses's question. It's probably the question all of us would ask who am I? Who am I? Why would you be so compassionate to use me? Why? Why would you choose me? Why? What in the world do you see in me? Moses thinks that the only reason God could be attracted to him is that there would be something in him. And so he's maybe expecting God to see, like you're a world class leader. You're an amazing guy. That smile that'll get anybody real charismatic, man. You're tall. You're handsome. No. Moses is in the eighties. God immediately changes the subject. He says, I will be with you. Do you see what God is saying, Moses? You're a lot like that, Bush. I don't need your help. I want to use you as my instrument of revealing myself. But I'm not dependent on you for anything. Your dependent on me. See, the grace goes one way from God to us. We respond to that grace with worship. The compassion goes from God to us. And here lies our great hope in life and ministry. God can use anybody. As we were talking about this earlier today. Me and Jake and Jeff and Mark, like I almost laugh every time I come up on the stage. I'm so glad that all my immediate family members go to my church now. I have to preach the gospel. They've known me since I was a kid. I look out. They can't believe I'm up there. I'm looking back. I can't believe I'm up here. God can use absolutely anybody because he is dependent on no one. The only conviction that you need to have to be used by God is that God is with you. I love seeing young men and women have this aha moment in ministry. It is so exciting. I was sitting across from a young man in our church. His name is Austin Miller. We'd had a lot of transition on our staff and he didn't know it, but I was about to ask him to be our college pastor, and I'm sitting at a restaurant with him, and here was his life situation. His mom had, within the past nine months, been diagnosed with breast cancer, and she was about to die. and he had very little relative ministry experience. And I looked at him and I said, Austin, I want to ask you a question. Would you lead Saulw company at the University of Minnesota? And Austin looked at me and he said, God can do this. And he said, I am going to live this year on my knees. See what he's saying? My suffering isn't going to be an obstacle. My inadequacy and inexperience isn't going to be an obstacle. If God is really calling me to do this, then he's going to be with me and he's going to do it in and through me. What if All of our excuses can get thrown out of the window when we throw ourselves on the compassion of God. What if God wants to use us as sort of a great cosmic joke? It's hilarious. He wants to use us because he doesn't need us. And so in a sense, the more inadequate you are, the more he can show off through you. All you have to say is yes to him. He's changing the subject. You're asking the question, who am I along with Moses? He's saying, I will be with you. And that's because of who God is. See, God is entirely independent, which means he's self-sufficient, unconditionally compassionate. And the third thing we get to the essence, we finally get to him introducing himself directly. It's all because he just is. This is remarkable. Look at verses thirteen through fifteen with me. Then Moses said to God, 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 to them? 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 generations. Moses like, wow, you've shown up in a bush that's not really on fire. That's strange. Then you took away all my excuses by saying, I will be with you. Got a question? What's on your name tag? And God says, I am who I am. God is who he is. This is amazing to think about. Think about this moment that we're in right now. We're here collectively sitting on the edge of our seats with a hunger for God. We're saying, God, please show up. Please hear our cry. Please come through for us. But my suspicion is we have this question in the back of our minds. What's your name? Who are you? Like, no matter how long we've been walking with God, that question still remains in our heart. Like we're with the Apostle Paul who said, like, now we see in a glass darkly. We're longing to see face to face, but we want to see a little bit more. And we see even in this passage that God graciously tips his hand to us. And he says, listen, I'm not just revealing myself to Moses as the all sufficient God who just is. I'm revealing myself to you. Throughout all generations. I'm pretty sure the current generation that we're in counts as one of the all of the generations. I get so tired of all the stuff about Gen Z and Gen X and Baby boomers and have me read this and how me have me read that Gen Z, Gen X, baby boomers, whatever group you're in. There's probably a new one that I haven't even heard of yet. They all need the same thing. God, every generation needs God. This God, this all sufficient overflowing fountain. God that just is the only God that is guys the same God that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob prayed to as they looked up at those starry skies. The same God that Moses talked to, even though they have lived and died and gone to be with him, that same God is the God that we have access to and talk to. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. And that's because we come and go. We have birthdays and tombstones and we eat food and we laugh together, and then we have an expiration date. We're completely gone. But he remains the same. He just is who he is. And so when God introduces himself, it's always Some form of this. Let me give you a few examples from Scripture. Psalm ninety, verse two. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world from everlasting to everlasting you are God. If you ask God where he's from, he would say, from everlasting to everlasting. And you would say, that's not a place. And he would say, that's because I'm not from a place, I just am. I can't describe myself in the same way that you describe yourself. How about the opening verse of Scripture? In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. See, the Bible doesn't start with an argument for God's existence. The Bible starts with God because before the beginning was God, everything was created. As we heard last night by his speech, because he just is. He's the creator of the ends of the earth. Everything that we see comes from him. We were made by him. How about Psalm one fifteen, verse three? God is absolutely sovereign. This is amazing. Our God is in the heavens. He does all that he pleases. See, when you're the source of everything, nothing is ever outside of your control. When you just are. Everything derives from you. Everything is going according to plan. God is on the throne. He's doing exactly as he pleases. And even though time is happening to us, one moment at a time, God exists outside of time and sees all of it at once, and he just knows what's happening and he is in control. Absolutely. Because he just is. How about this? We all love this verse as Christians, and we should. First John four eight. God is love. He always has been. He always will be. He just is love. Love is not God. God is love. He defines the essence of what love is. You guys know why we're so disappointed by life. So devastated by the circumstances of our life. Because we were made. For the permanent God to be the object of our worship. Not our ever changing world. And until your heart is resting on this God who always has been and always will be the same and just is, your heart will be in turmoil. But when your hunger for God exceeds your hunger for this world, you begin to taste an otherworldly satisfaction. I'm reminded of this every time I go to my office. I love this picture hangs on my wall. It's a picture of my grandparents farm. They had a farm that's still in my family, just east of Des Moines, Mitchellville, Iowa. And I love this picture of the farm because it reminds me of my grandma making me French toast. And it reminds me of putting on my cowboy boots and going out in the tractor, or the combine with my grandpa and eating ginger snaps and drinking hot chocolate while he drank coffee. But here's what immediately happens nostalgia gives way to deep sadness. Because those memories are gone. I'll never go back to the farm again. Both my grandparents are with Jesus. The world is so impermanent. We are longing for home. Question. How do we know that this God, this huge, holy self-existing mind blowing God is for us? This is crazy. Jesus gets in this argument with some Pharisees and he's making some pretty bold claims. And they ask him the question, who do you think you are to be making these claims? And in John eight fifty eight, Jesus says this Before Abraham was I am. Sound familiar? They picked up rocks to kill him. They knew exactly what he was claiming to be. You can ridicule him or worship him with me. He's saying that he's God. That he just is. But here's how you can know beyond a shadow of a doubt that this I am is for you. Get this. Jesus was from Nazareth. Jesus mom's name was Mary. Jesus ate food and drank drinks like us. Get this. The independent Self-existing God became human. He walked on the earth. He was one of us. He went to the cross for us. The word became flesh and made his dwelling on this planet. And so over and over again, I wonder which of these is going to hit you? Jesus reveals himself as this great I am. And no matter where you're at tonight, Jesus has a word for you. A word that speaks to your specific pain, your specific situation. Because he's the same yesterday, today, and forever. And he meets needs because he's the source of everything good. And he proves that he's for us because he died in our place for our sin and became human. And so there are these seven I am statements in John. I wonder which one you need tonight. Here's how Jesus reveals himself. John six thirty five. I am the bread of life. Are you hungry? I mean, deep down in your soul, hungry like you've been chasing so many things. You thought your spouse was going to be the bread of life. You thought your kids were going to be the bread of life. You thought your job was going to be the bread of life. You thought once you had that, finally that soul hunger would go away. And Jesus is saying, I am the food your soul needs. Your search can end in Jesus. How about this one John eight twelve. I am the light of the world. Do you feel like you're walking around in the darkness? You're scrolling on your phone. You're looking at your news sources, and you get more baffled and more confused, and you're like, what is true? Which way is up? Which way's down? I feel so lost. You feel like you're grappling around in the dark. And Jesus is saying, I'm the light. I'll show you the way. Follow after me. I'm the one that you can trust. Look to me. How about John ten seven? For some of you, I am the door of the sheep. He's the way into the family of God. Some of you have felt like you're standing on the outside of the family of God. You're honestly in this room and in this hunger for God that people have. And this this sense of family is strange to you. Every person enters the same way into the family of God through Jesus. He's the door so simple a child can understand it. You just go through him. He's got the key. You just walk right through. How about John ten eleven? For some of you, I am the good shepherd. You know it's true about sheep. They're stupid. You know it's true about us. We're stupid. It's okay to need a shepherd. Jesus is the strong, Gentle shepherd that we need, who is also willing to take that staff and bop us on the head when we try to run off a cliff. He loves us. He is the source of all wisdom. Don't know who to follow. Don't know where to go. Don't know what to read. You need Jesus as your shepherd. Scared of death. John eleven twenty five. Jesus says, I am the resurrection and the life. You don't have to be afraid of death. Because Jesus, if you trust in him, will raise you up and you get a better body than the one you have, and you live forever with him on this earth, skipping like a calf never die and never getting old. Because if he's the source of life, it's easy for him to be the source of eternal life. John fourteen six. I am the way, the truth, and the life. Lost your way. Need the truth. Need life. One stop shop. Jesus, he's got you. You need him. This is so great. We're all so broken, so dependent, so needy. And none of the people in our lives can handle us. And Jesus is saying, I got you. Come to me. He wants high maintenance, messed up, crazy, broken people to come to him over and over again and it doesn't wear him out. I get worn out by my five kids after like two hours. He's not annoyed by you. He can listen to all of us pray at the same time. He likes all of our singing, even mine. I'm terrible. John fifteen one I am the true vine. You know what branches are without vines? Dead. He's saying, listen, just come take your dead life. Attach it to the true vine, and you're going to have a fruitful life. You feel spiritually dry, like fruits not being produced in your life. You can't just go try to duct tape some apples onto your apple tree. You got to connect to the source of life, who is Jesus? And by connecting to him, he'll produce the fruit. He'll do the work for you. Isn't it good news that God just is? He's entirely independent. He doesn't need us at all, and he has everything that we need and is leaning in like. Like we don't need to convince him to give us what we need. He's sitting on the edge of his seat. That's why he gave his one and only son to us. He's not reluctant. He's overflowing. So let's just come to him right now in prayer and ask him to to meet all of our needs. Jesus, this is crazy. Awesome, remarkable, amazing that for all these people, I don't even know what I need. We don't know what each other needs. But you know what every single person in this room needs. And you've given us your son, and you've given us your spirit. And I just ask that you would come. God, we're saying collectively, we're hungry, we're thirsty, we're desperate, we're needy, we're high maintenance. We're sinners. We're helpless. And you just are the source, not dependent on anyone ready and willing to give us exactly what we need. Would you even show us what we need so that we can ask for it? And would you come through for us again and again? In Jesus name I pray. Amen.