We all have things that we rely on or look to in our lives. Often we don’t give these strong influences much thought. As Israel makes their escape in Exodus they are given a physical reminder of the presence of God in the form of a pillar of cloud and fire. Day and night, God was with them, leading their steps, and protecting them powerfully. What are you leaning on? How do you know where God is leading you? Is the presence of God a pillar in your life?
We all need to grow in our understanding of God’s process of formation. We want growth to be easy. But that’s not the reality we see in any part of creation, including our own souls. When God wants to grow us (and he does!), he takes us into the wilderness to be formed into people…
In the Great Commission, we are tasked with making disciples and baptizing them. The Exodus story powerfully shows that this has always been God’s plan. But just as there is much more to the Exodus story than moving through the parted waters, there is much more to the Great Commission. The freedom that comes from piercing the waters of baptism should be celebrated as the Spirit-enabled beginning of an incredible journey marked by learning to obey all that Jesus taught.
The theme of this week’s service is formation. That might not be a word we use every day – but it is something that God is doing in our lives every day whether we realize it or not. Formation means that God has big plans for our lives, but he needs to mold us or form us into the kind of person who can accomplish his will.
As we look into what our vision is for the church, we must ask ourselves who are we and where are we going? We get many of our answers to these questions in the book of Matthew where Jesus tells us that sight/vision is more than just physical – there is also spiritual sight. We are reminded that, while we must “go and make disciples of all nations,” church is not just about getting more people into the church but about transforming lives through love.
Holiness is often misunderstood even by Christians. Our minds might picture Puritan preachers yelling or solemn church services in cathedrals. There’s much that we can learn from Moses’ encounter with our holy God at the burning bush on Mount Horeb. When we better understand the holiness of God, holy living as disciples of Jesus becomes more accessible.
Moses’ unlikely but divine path to becoming Israel’s deliverer challenges us to look for ways that God can use his followers to be deliverers. We often over simplify the amazing and unique things that happened in our lives to allow us to be delivered from sin. This can lead to many in our churches feeling like they can’t really contribute evangelistically. In this message you’ll see how little things in Moses’ early life set him up to be a great deliverer for God.
Hebrews 11:1-20 reminds us of God’s faithfulness – from creating purpose out of chaos and nothingness to our lives today. We are reminded that, without faith, it is impossible to see God. Instead, we must trust God in our limitations because God is incapable of being unfaithful. If you wait until your life is in order to let God in, you will be waiting forever because (as with creation) only God can bring order to the chaos and nothingness of our lives.
Jacob’s story highlights that blessings come about in unexpected ways if we’re willing to look for them and even work toward them in a sense. We may have ideas about how we want God to work in our churches but they don’t always match up with his. How might God be working unexpectedly in your church? Is the Spirit working in a way that you didn’t see coming? What trends do you see? What ministries are producing fruit?
The saga of Sarah and Hagar is raw and real. We are not unfamiliar with feelings of emptiness and hopes deferred even with thousands of years separating our lives from the lives of these women. How do we deal with brokenness and loss? How can we trust when the answers to our prayers may not be seen in our lifetimes? Where is God in our deepest struggles? He sees us. He hears us.
