WEBVTT 00:00:00.759 --> 00:00:04.139 Howdy. You know we've been starting to have more 00:00:04.139 --> 00:00:06.900 of the sermon slides for about two years now 00:00:06.900 --> 00:00:09.900 and when I first started putting them up one 00:00:09.900 --> 00:00:14.019 of the times we did it I was showing a math example 00:00:14.019 --> 00:00:16.500 up there on the screen and a few teachers were 00:00:16.500 --> 00:00:19.460 like oh hey that's awesome and everybody else 00:00:19.460 --> 00:00:24.609 said please don't teach us math. I think I scarred 00:00:24.609 --> 00:00:28.250 a few people. It was a rough day. But just in 00:00:28.250 --> 00:00:31.289 case I'm not bothersome enough already with that, 00:00:31.429 --> 00:00:34.829 I also taught physics. So one of the hardest 00:00:34.829 --> 00:00:38.270 things for the students to grasp whenever we 00:00:38.270 --> 00:00:41.469 were learning physics was the nature of light. 00:00:42.189 --> 00:00:44.549 See, the thing is that light, it gives us energy 00:00:44.549 --> 00:00:47.329 in these little packets. They call them photons. 00:00:47.750 --> 00:00:51.429 Pew, pew, pew, pew. and one bit at a time, pew 00:00:51.429 --> 00:00:55.009 pew. It's not this smooth, continuous flow, and 00:00:55.009 --> 00:00:57.250 that's what light sounds like too, pew pew pew 00:00:57.250 --> 00:01:01.250 pew. But you have to realize is that light, though, 00:01:01.390 --> 00:01:05.469 it's not just a little particle. It also behaves 00:01:05.469 --> 00:01:09.430 like a wave. Because if it were just a particle, 00:01:10.030 --> 00:01:12.890 you would never be able to see it around a corner. 00:01:13.230 --> 00:01:15.890 It would never be able to reach all these other 00:01:15.890 --> 00:01:18.689 places where you turn on the light and it somehow 00:01:18.689 --> 00:01:23.230 Manages to creep into every dark corner You see 00:01:23.230 --> 00:01:26.790 that's when their faces got a look just like 00:01:26.790 --> 00:01:29.609 about half of yours right now Okay, that mix 00:01:29.609 --> 00:01:32.469 of confusion and just a little bit of quiet rebellion, 00:01:32.469 --> 00:01:35.530 you know It's it's as if to say that doesn't 00:01:35.530 --> 00:01:38.269 make any sense. Just tell me what to put on the 00:01:38.269 --> 00:01:42.969 test And they were right in a way It doesn't 00:01:42.969 --> 00:01:47.150 make sense, not by the categories that we're 00:01:47.150 --> 00:01:52.829 used to, but it's still true. It works. Light 00:01:52.829 --> 00:01:56.290 just works. It's a particle and a wave, not one 00:01:56.290 --> 00:02:00.510 or the other, somehow both. But I remember realizing 00:02:00.510 --> 00:02:04.730 something at that moment. When something doesn't 00:02:04.730 --> 00:02:08.909 make sense, many people don't say, if it's true, 00:02:08.969 --> 00:02:13.620 I'll try to understand it. Instead, they say, 00:02:13.819 --> 00:02:17.500 if I don't understand it, then maybe it's not 00:02:17.500 --> 00:02:22.719 true. I saw this again whenever I gave them an 00:02:22.719 --> 00:02:25.939 assignment on Einstein's theory of relativity, 00:02:26.060 --> 00:02:28.939 which apparently was in the actual curriculum, 00:02:29.560 --> 00:02:33.400 and the idea that time and space change depending 00:02:33.400 --> 00:02:36.639 on how fast you're going and the weight of gravity. 00:02:37.139 --> 00:02:39.599 And I told them, well, this has been proven to 00:02:39.599 --> 00:02:43.800 be true, What do you think? And most of them, 00:02:43.840 --> 00:02:45.419 even though they knew it had been proven to be 00:02:45.419 --> 00:02:48.599 true, said, well, I just don't believe it. Not 00:02:48.599 --> 00:02:52.280 because there wasn't evidence, but because it 00:02:52.280 --> 00:02:56.419 didn't make sense to them. And I think it's something 00:02:56.419 --> 00:03:00.800 that we never quite outgrow. We're more comfortable 00:03:00.800 --> 00:03:04.919 deciding whether something feels right than asking 00:03:04.919 --> 00:03:08.919 whether it is right. When something about God 00:03:08.919 --> 00:03:12.099 doesn't make sense to us, when he doesn't act 00:03:12.099 --> 00:03:15.639 the way that we expect, or when his plan doesn't 00:03:15.639 --> 00:03:20.080 fit our categories, our first instinct is not 00:03:20.080 --> 00:03:24.240 always to trust him. It's often to question whether 00:03:24.240 --> 00:03:28.360 God's grace and his love and his very presence 00:03:28.360 --> 00:03:32.020 are even real. how often things are not going 00:03:32.020 --> 00:03:34.840 the way we're expecting, and we wonder if that 00:03:34.840 --> 00:03:39.419 means that God has somehow forgotten us. But 00:03:39.419 --> 00:03:43.960 God, even more so than light, doesn't fit inside 00:03:43.960 --> 00:03:49.280 the boxes that we make for him. He's not controlled 00:03:49.280 --> 00:03:53.900 or contained by our understanding. He just is. 00:03:54.379 --> 00:03:59.960 He acts. He moves. He reveals himself. And just 00:03:59.960 --> 00:04:02.180 because we can't fully explain him doesn't mean 00:04:02.180 --> 00:04:04.819 he isn't there. It just means he's greater than 00:04:04.819 --> 00:04:09.780 what our minds can hold. And that's the tension 00:04:09.780 --> 00:04:17.139 that Moses encounters in Exodus 3. And he's not 00:04:17.139 --> 00:04:19.980 searching for a miracle right now. He's just 00:04:19.980 --> 00:04:23.220 living life. He's just doing his job. He's tending 00:04:23.220 --> 00:04:26.199 sheep. He's living his life. He's raising a family. 00:04:26.339 --> 00:04:29.199 The 401k is doing well. The pension has already 00:04:29.199 --> 00:04:31.939 been achieved. He's doing great with the deductible 00:04:31.939 --> 00:04:34.980 on his insurance. And fortunately, the kids, 00:04:35.279 --> 00:04:38.019 the college fund, it's pretty well settled. Things 00:04:38.019 --> 00:04:43.279 are good. The excitement of Egypt is long behind 00:04:43.279 --> 00:04:47.639 him. Whatever dreams he once had of making a 00:04:47.639 --> 00:04:51.639 difference, they're buried under the routines 00:04:51.639 --> 00:04:55.519 of survival the day to day. And that's when God 00:04:55.519 --> 00:04:59.540 decides to speak to him. Out of nowhere in the 00:04:59.540 --> 00:05:04.160 middle of an ordinary day, the divine breaks 00:05:04.160 --> 00:05:08.839 in. Somewhere between the Wheaties of the morning 00:05:08.839 --> 00:05:13.779 and reading the daily paper, God decides. to 00:05:13.779 --> 00:05:16.939 show himself to Moses. And it's important to 00:05:16.939 --> 00:05:19.360 remember, though, that Moses never really fit 00:05:19.360 --> 00:05:23.439 in anywhere. He didn't fit in in Egypt because 00:05:23.439 --> 00:05:26.139 he was a Hebrew, the ones who were oppressed. 00:05:26.459 --> 00:05:29.819 But he also didn't fit in among the Hebrews because 00:05:29.819 --> 00:05:34.040 he grew up in Pharaoh's palace, privileged, taken 00:05:34.040 --> 00:05:39.259 care of. But after all of that, though, after 00:05:39.259 --> 00:05:42.420 he killed the Egyptian who was abusing the Hebrews, 00:05:43.100 --> 00:05:46.199 He didn't fit in anywhere at all, because now 00:05:46.199 --> 00:05:49.500 he had a criminal record, a man living with his 00:05:49.500 --> 00:05:52.600 regrets and feeling that there was no place for 00:05:52.600 --> 00:05:59.740 him in society. Yet that is the man God calls. 00:06:00.740 --> 00:06:03.480 Not when Moses has his life together, but when 00:06:03.480 --> 00:06:06.160 he's simply tending someone else's flock in the 00:06:06.160 --> 00:06:09.540 wilderness. So when Moses hears God's voice, 00:06:09.819 --> 00:06:13.759 he's understandably hesitant. He wants to know 00:06:13.759 --> 00:06:15.920 how this could possibly work. Why would anyone 00:06:15.920 --> 00:06:20.199 listen to him? What if they don't believe me? 00:06:21.040 --> 00:06:26.139 What if they ask who sent me? He's not just asking 00:06:26.139 --> 00:06:30.779 for a name. He's asking for reassurance, for 00:06:30.779 --> 00:06:35.040 something solid to stand on. And what God gives 00:06:35.040 --> 00:06:39.870 him isn't a formula or a strategy. or one of 00:06:39.870 --> 00:06:42.250 those really quick phrases that you can come 00:06:42.250 --> 00:06:46.730 up with and just chant well. It's his name. He 00:06:46.730 --> 00:06:52.810 gives him his name. I am who I am. It's a name 00:06:52.810 --> 00:06:56.649 that means both presence and promise. It's as 00:06:56.649 --> 00:07:00.949 if God is saying, I will be who I will be. I 00:07:00.949 --> 00:07:06.750 will do what I will do. My being is not dependent 00:07:07.040 --> 00:07:11.600 on your understanding or your comfort. For a 00:07:11.600 --> 00:07:15.319 man who had never quite belonged, that's an invitation 00:07:15.319 --> 00:07:18.100 into something that's larger than just belonging. 00:07:19.040 --> 00:07:21.579 It's about participating in the living purpose 00:07:21.579 --> 00:07:24.920 of God Himself. But you've got to remember, Moses, 00:07:25.120 --> 00:07:28.560 he probably didn't know the traditions or the 00:07:28.560 --> 00:07:31.579 stories, Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob, the way that 00:07:31.579 --> 00:07:33.920 the other Hebrews did, because they had spent 00:07:33.920 --> 00:07:37.120 all that time listening and learning. from the 00:07:37.120 --> 00:07:39.860 elders. So when God tells him, I am the God of 00:07:39.860 --> 00:07:43.819 your fathers, he's not just giving Moses words 00:07:43.819 --> 00:07:45.740 that he's going to say, he's actually giving 00:07:45.740 --> 00:07:49.240 him a connection to a history that he never truly 00:07:49.240 --> 00:07:52.959 felt part of. He's being drawn back into the 00:07:52.959 --> 00:07:56.800 story of his own people through the revelation 00:07:56.800 --> 00:08:02.199 of God. But here's the turning point. Even after 00:08:02.199 --> 00:08:06.000 seeing the burning bush, even after hearing the 00:08:06.000 --> 00:08:09.339 voice, even after realizing he's not actually 00:08:09.339 --> 00:08:12.439 crazy with either one of them, he still has to 00:08:12.439 --> 00:08:16.519 decide whether or not to trust it. The people 00:08:16.519 --> 00:08:19.740 are going to have to do the same as well. Just 00:08:19.740 --> 00:08:21.839 like those students who had to decide whether 00:08:21.839 --> 00:08:25.379 to believe once what I taught them went beyond 00:08:25.379 --> 00:08:29.279 what made sense, Moses had to decide whether 00:08:29.279 --> 00:08:33.320 to trust God beyond what felt comfortable to 00:08:33.320 --> 00:08:37.629 him. Because in the end, faith is not just about 00:08:37.629 --> 00:08:40.549 what we can actually explain because we learned 00:08:40.549 --> 00:08:44.750 it in confirmation class. It's about who we trust 00:08:44.750 --> 00:08:48.490 when the truth is bigger than what we grasp. 00:08:49.730 --> 00:08:54.690 But that same theme continues in Luke 20, when 00:08:54.690 --> 00:08:57.409 the Sadducees come to Jesus not with an honest 00:08:57.409 --> 00:09:01.629 question, but with a test. Whenever somebody 00:09:01.629 --> 00:09:05.000 comes up to me, and says, hey, I want to ask 00:09:05.000 --> 00:09:08.299 you a question. I'm not going to lie. I'm always 00:09:08.299 --> 00:09:11.059 nervous when I hear that. You know those times 00:09:11.059 --> 00:09:12.759 whenever somebody says that they're trying to 00:09:12.759 --> 00:09:15.919 just ask you an honest question, or have an open 00:09:15.919 --> 00:09:19.019 debate, or let's just kind of put everything 00:09:19.019 --> 00:09:21.600 on the table, and you always wonder, yeah, but 00:09:21.600 --> 00:09:24.600 I think you're trying to trick me. Because how 00:09:24.600 --> 00:09:26.960 often is it that people want to get into difficult 00:09:26.960 --> 00:09:29.679 questions when they don't already have it in 00:09:29.679 --> 00:09:31.960 the back of their mind about how to make you 00:09:31.960 --> 00:09:36.149 look stupid? But you see, the sadducees, the 00:09:36.149 --> 00:09:41.090 reason why they were sad, you see, is because 00:09:41.090 --> 00:09:44.769 they didn't believe in the resurrection. They 00:09:44.769 --> 00:09:47.330 come up with an example that's meant to sound 00:09:47.330 --> 00:09:51.889 absurd, okay? Instead of telling the story of 00:09:51.889 --> 00:09:54.570 seven brides for seven brothers, they have the 00:09:54.570 --> 00:09:57.580 one bride for seven brothers. They tell a story 00:09:57.580 --> 00:10:00.139 about a woman who marries seven brothers one 00:10:00.139 --> 00:10:03.379 after another because each of them dies without 00:10:03.379 --> 00:10:07.519 leaving a child For the kids it was a movie seven 00:10:07.519 --> 00:10:09.659 brides for seven brothers. It's it's somewhere 00:10:09.659 --> 00:10:14.039 on streaming go find it. It'll be great But Jesus 00:10:14.039 --> 00:10:19.399 they ask in the resurrection whose wife will 00:10:19.399 --> 00:10:23.080 she be? And I got to make sure I point out to 00:10:23.080 --> 00:10:25.120 you, it's important to realize their question 00:10:25.120 --> 00:10:29.019 is not actually about marriage. That's not the 00:10:29.019 --> 00:10:32.100 reason they came to talk to him. It's about control. 00:10:33.240 --> 00:10:36.460 They're trying to control the conversation to 00:10:36.460 --> 00:10:40.080 expose what they think is ridiculous about the 00:10:40.080 --> 00:10:44.080 resurrection. The details about marriage and 00:10:44.080 --> 00:10:47.659 inheritance, those are just props for an argument 00:10:47.659 --> 00:10:50.529 that they're starting. And Jesus says that in 00:10:50.529 --> 00:10:53.470 the resurrection, people neither marry nor are 00:10:53.470 --> 00:10:56.210 given in marriage. We need to be careful. This 00:10:56.210 --> 00:11:00.129 is not about Jesus dismissing marriage or saying 00:11:00.129 --> 00:11:02.929 that relationships won't matter. If you're kind 00:11:02.929 --> 00:11:06.350 of thinking, hey, I kind of like my spouse. I 00:11:06.350 --> 00:11:08.509 think it would be nice to spend time with them 00:11:08.509 --> 00:11:13.769 in heaven. It's okay. You can do that. He's not 00:11:13.769 --> 00:11:17.389 talking about that. That was not the point. He's 00:11:17.389 --> 00:11:19.269 talking about how the systems of this world, 00:11:19.389 --> 00:11:22.309 the legal, the social, even the religious ones, 00:11:22.909 --> 00:11:25.509 they don't carry the same meaning in the age 00:11:25.509 --> 00:11:29.950 that is to come. Marrying, which in this context 00:11:29.950 --> 00:11:34.590 was talking about the man's initiative, and then 00:11:34.590 --> 00:11:37.549 being given in marriage, which at that time was 00:11:37.549 --> 00:11:41.029 a woman's legal status, These were both parts 00:11:41.029 --> 00:11:44.309 of a world that were defined by property, inheritance, 00:11:44.669 --> 00:11:47.929 death. What happens to what you have whenever 00:11:47.929 --> 00:11:51.509 you pass away? It was asking questions about 00:11:51.509 --> 00:11:55.909 the legal ramifications. But in the resurrection, 00:11:56.090 --> 00:11:59.909 the old structures, they just don't apply. Because 00:11:59.909 --> 00:12:02.649 death itself no longer defines what's even possible. 00:12:03.610 --> 00:12:06.549 But what's fascinating, though, is that even 00:12:06.549 --> 00:12:09.879 within the story of the Sadducees, Their logic 00:12:09.879 --> 00:12:14.080 fell apart. I mean, even before going into it, 00:12:14.759 --> 00:12:18.120 anyone who knew that, I mean, technically, the 00:12:18.120 --> 00:12:20.740 first one was her husband, because all the other 00:12:20.740 --> 00:12:22.580 ones, when they married her, were giving her 00:12:22.580 --> 00:12:26.259 children, or supposed to, to pass on the first 00:12:26.259 --> 00:12:30.460 husband's inheritance. But notice, Jesus is intelligent, 00:12:31.039 --> 00:12:33.879 but He doesn't bother untangling the details. 00:12:34.559 --> 00:12:37.470 He doesn't care. He moves straight to the heart 00:12:37.470 --> 00:12:39.970 of the matter that they actually were focused 00:12:39.970 --> 00:12:44.029 on. He is not the God of the dead. He is the 00:12:44.029 --> 00:12:48.090 God of the living. Jesus doesn't just say it 00:12:48.090 --> 00:12:52.870 though. He proves it. His own resurrection doesn't 00:12:52.870 --> 00:12:55.909 just blow a hole in the Sadducees logic. It blows 00:12:55.909 --> 00:12:58.850 open the limits of what we even thought was possible. 00:12:59.970 --> 00:13:03.190 The resurrection is not just rebutting somebody's 00:13:03.190 --> 00:13:07.610 theological argument. It's the evidence that 00:13:07.610 --> 00:13:12.210 God is not bound by death. He's not bound by 00:13:12.210 --> 00:13:15.289 time. He's not bound by our categories of what 00:13:15.289 --> 00:13:19.769 makes sense. The Sadducees wanted to keep faith 00:13:19.769 --> 00:13:23.629 neatly divided. This life or the next. What we 00:13:23.629 --> 00:13:27.250 can see or what we can't. Human power or divine 00:13:27.250 --> 00:13:30.509 promise. And we should just focus on the here 00:13:30.509 --> 00:13:33.110 and now and stop bothering us with this crazy 00:13:33.110 --> 00:13:37.789 resurrection talk. But in Jesus, the false boundaries, 00:13:37.909 --> 00:13:41.950 they collapse. The resurrection reveals God is 00:13:41.950 --> 00:13:45.590 not setting up a choice between caring for this 00:13:45.590 --> 00:13:49.450 world or caring for the next. It's about redeeming 00:13:49.450 --> 00:13:54.289 both. Life now and life eternal. They don't compete. 00:13:55.470 --> 00:13:57.990 It's one continuous story held together by a 00:13:57.990 --> 00:14:02.210 living God and a God of the living. When Jesus 00:14:02.210 --> 00:14:05.049 rose from the grave, He didn't just conquer death. 00:14:05.309 --> 00:14:08.230 He connected heaven and earth. He showed that 00:14:08.230 --> 00:14:10.289 God's power, it's not waiting until the end of 00:14:10.289 --> 00:14:14.330 time. It begins now in every act of trust, every 00:14:14.330 --> 00:14:18.250 step of faith, every moment that we dare to believe 00:14:18.250 --> 00:14:21.029 that what's possible for us is still possible 00:14:21.029 --> 00:14:24.730 with Him. The issue here is not marriage, it's 00:14:24.730 --> 00:14:28.850 mindset. The Sadducees cannot imagine a world 00:14:28.850 --> 00:14:32.210 that operates beyond their categories of life 00:14:32.210 --> 00:14:34.830 and death, marriage and inheritance, control 00:14:34.830 --> 00:14:39.789 and power. So if they can't control it, they 00:14:39.789 --> 00:14:43.870 mock it. And they ridicule what they don't understand. 00:14:45.029 --> 00:14:48.350 They reject what they cannot explain. And we 00:14:48.350 --> 00:14:51.149 do the same thing all the time. We create our 00:14:51.149 --> 00:14:54.490 own little Sadducee scenarios. We come up with 00:14:54.490 --> 00:14:58.259 extreme examples. that we put out there as straw 00:14:58.259 --> 00:15:01.519 people and ridiculous comparisons to try to make 00:15:01.519 --> 00:15:05.179 our point and to show we're comfortable, we're 00:15:05.179 --> 00:15:07.960 justified in it, and anybody else trying to push 00:15:07.960 --> 00:15:13.120 us, don't bother me, you're ridiculous. I can't 00:15:13.120 --> 00:15:15.539 talk about this with my spouse because if I do, 00:15:15.700 --> 00:15:19.620 it'll be the end of the world. I can't tell my 00:15:19.620 --> 00:15:22.559 child no or put rules on them because they're 00:15:22.559 --> 00:15:24.860 going to think I don't love them and throw a 00:15:24.860 --> 00:15:28.629 fit. I can't welcome these type of people into 00:15:28.629 --> 00:15:31.570 my life because someone might think I approve 00:15:31.570 --> 00:15:35.850 of everything they've done. We frame our choices 00:15:35.850 --> 00:15:38.190 in these little false dichotomies of either this 00:15:38.190 --> 00:15:42.710 or this. All or nothing, right or ruin. But when 00:15:42.710 --> 00:15:46.129 we do that, we're doing exactly what the Sadducees 00:15:46.129 --> 00:15:49.370 did. We're trying to trap truth inside these 00:15:49.370 --> 00:15:52.990 boundaries of our own comfort. Because the resurrection 00:15:52.990 --> 00:15:55.879 like the burning bush, it's It's God's declaration 00:15:55.879 --> 00:16:00.019 that we cannot be trapped. God will be who He 00:16:00.019 --> 00:16:02.820 will be. He's going to work in His own way and 00:16:02.820 --> 00:16:06.419 in His own time. And our part is not to try to 00:16:06.419 --> 00:16:09.779 reduce the mystery into something safe or sensible. 00:16:10.600 --> 00:16:14.000 We're just supposed to trust God with whatever 00:16:14.000 --> 00:16:17.139 the next faithful step is. Even when we don't 00:16:17.139 --> 00:16:20.620 yet see the whole picture. Because when we do, 00:16:20.970 --> 00:16:23.509 If we're following God in faith when we don't 00:16:23.509 --> 00:16:26.970 see the whole picture, then we discover that 00:16:26.970 --> 00:16:31.070 God's reality is larger, richer, more alive than 00:16:31.070 --> 00:16:34.090 anything we could have imagined. Because if we 00:16:34.090 --> 00:16:37.350 could imagine it, then it's not nearly as good 00:16:37.350 --> 00:16:40.970 as it could be. What do we do with all this though? 00:16:41.750 --> 00:16:43.490 Because honestly, we're not that different from 00:16:43.490 --> 00:16:47.830 Moses or the Sadducees. We feel inadequate, uncertain. 00:16:48.090 --> 00:16:50.830 sometimes even unqualified for what God calls 00:16:50.830 --> 00:16:53.730 us to do, like Moses. We look around and we think, 00:16:53.750 --> 00:16:56.950 who am I? Who am I to speak? Who am I to lead? 00:16:57.029 --> 00:17:00.149 Who am I to believe that God could use me? And 00:17:00.149 --> 00:17:03.769 God is looking and saying, I will be who I will 00:17:03.769 --> 00:17:08.690 be. It's not whether you're going to be enough. 00:17:10.130 --> 00:17:14.869 It's that I will be. And God's promise is that 00:17:14.869 --> 00:17:18.049 it's not that you have it all figured out. It's 00:17:18.049 --> 00:17:22.910 that He'll be with you even when you don't. So 00:17:22.910 --> 00:17:27.329 like the Sadducees, we often, we let our discomfort 00:17:27.329 --> 00:17:31.569 masquerade as logic. When something doesn't fit 00:17:31.569 --> 00:17:34.769 our ideas, we call it unrealistic and unreasonable. 00:17:35.809 --> 00:17:38.210 And when God's ways don't fit our expectations, 00:17:38.309 --> 00:17:42.130 we treat them as if they cannot be true. But 00:17:42.130 --> 00:17:45.130 faith isn't about explaining mystery. It's about 00:17:45.130 --> 00:17:48.809 walking within it. You see, when we stop chasing 00:17:48.809 --> 00:17:53.490 the comfort of tidy answers, when we stop saying, 00:17:54.410 --> 00:17:57.150 it's got to be this because I don't think the 00:17:57.150 --> 00:18:00.450 other things make sense to me, something begins 00:18:00.450 --> 00:18:04.049 to shift in us. We start to notice that how much 00:18:04.049 --> 00:18:07.009 of our decision -making, how much of it's been 00:18:07.009 --> 00:18:10.869 shaped by what felt convenient instead of what 00:18:10.869 --> 00:18:16.079 felt faithful. Instead of saying, This is what's 00:18:16.079 --> 00:18:18.900 in front of me. When do we start saying I'm gonna 00:18:18.900 --> 00:18:23.299 wait for God to show me what he wants? You see 00:18:23.299 --> 00:18:26.420 we begin to see how easily that we've been settling 00:18:26.420 --> 00:18:29.099 for what other people told us was reasonable 00:18:29.099 --> 00:18:33.140 Instead of asking for what God was actually saying 00:18:33.140 --> 00:18:36.500 Sometimes waiting on God means stepping back 00:18:36.500 --> 00:18:39.559 from the quick fixes or the easy answers The 00:18:39.559 --> 00:18:42.119 ready -made plans that promise certainty but 00:18:42.119 --> 00:18:46.440 drain our faith It might mean refusing to rush 00:18:46.440 --> 00:18:48.940 into the next opportunity just because it looks 00:18:48.940 --> 00:18:52.480 secure. It might mean pausing before you send 00:18:52.480 --> 00:18:55.059 that message, before you sign that paper, before 00:18:55.059 --> 00:18:59.539 you take that job, and instead asking, God, where 00:18:59.539 --> 00:19:04.720 are you in this? And if you're not, show me not 00:19:04.720 --> 00:19:08.519 to do it. Waiting on God doesn't mean doing nothing. 00:19:08.740 --> 00:19:11.579 It means doing the slow, deliberate work of listening. 00:19:12.160 --> 00:19:15.809 The kind of listening that makes room for God's 00:19:15.809 --> 00:19:20.609 timing instead of forcing our own. It means listening 00:19:20.609 --> 00:19:25.390 to sit in the tension between promise and fulfillment 00:19:25.390 --> 00:19:29.069 without trying to fill the silence ourselves. 00:19:30.269 --> 00:19:33.450 And often that's where God begins to move. He's 00:19:33.450 --> 00:19:37.029 in the waiting. He reshapes what we desire. He 00:19:37.029 --> 00:19:41.940 changes us. He teaches us to trust Him. not only 00:19:41.940 --> 00:19:45.720 for the outcomes that we want, but for the direction 00:19:45.720 --> 00:19:49.339 He leads. He exposes where we've been relying 00:19:49.339 --> 00:19:54.140 on approval, control, comparison, and He replaces 00:19:54.140 --> 00:19:57.579 those things with something far stronger, His 00:19:57.579 --> 00:20:01.160 presence. Because when you stop taking what the 00:20:01.160 --> 00:20:04.960 world offers as good enough, you make space for 00:20:04.960 --> 00:20:08.599 what is truly good, the presence of the I Am. 00:20:08.960 --> 00:20:12.920 who does not need your timeline or your plan 00:20:12.920 --> 00:20:16.660 to keep his promises. And in that stillness, 00:20:16.660 --> 00:20:19.299 when you stop trying to force God into your categories 00:20:19.299 --> 00:20:23.859 and instead wait on him to reveal himself, you 00:20:23.859 --> 00:20:28.079 begin to see glimpses of his nature. Mysterious, 00:20:28.660 --> 00:20:34.079 steady, radiant, like light itself. And think 00:20:34.079 --> 00:20:37.779 about light. It's not a wave, it's not a particle. 00:20:38.250 --> 00:20:40.789 But the moment you try to force it into a box, 00:20:40.789 --> 00:20:44.670 you miss out on what it really is. If we can 00:20:44.670 --> 00:20:47.609 stop forcing God into what makes sense to us, 00:20:48.049 --> 00:20:52.529 then maybe we can see who He really is. So God 00:20:52.529 --> 00:20:57.789 is not what we may find easy. But God doesn't 00:20:57.789 --> 00:21:02.829 need to be simple in order to be good. He doesn't 00:21:02.829 --> 00:21:05.710 need to fit into our plans in order to be faithful. 00:21:06.750 --> 00:21:11.259 He simply is. So the invitation is this, trust 00:21:11.259 --> 00:21:16.579 the I AM more than your I understand. Let go 00:21:16.579 --> 00:21:18.319 of the need to have it all make sense before 00:21:18.319 --> 00:21:21.759 you say yes. Let God reveal in His own way and 00:21:21.759 --> 00:21:24.420 time what you cannot yet see. Because when you 00:21:24.420 --> 00:21:28.519 do, you'll start to notice something. The bush 00:21:28.519 --> 00:21:32.759 still burns today. The voice still calls today. 00:21:33.559 --> 00:21:36.680 And the resurrection still happens when each 00:21:36.680 --> 00:21:40.329 and every person believes in Christ Jesus. And 00:21:40.329 --> 00:21:45.849 when it does, that is when life, real life begins 00:21:45.849 --> 00:21:48.470 again. Thanks be to God.