Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Hey guys, this is Naim and you've reached the Mosaic Church podcast. So excited that you're part of our listening community and love for you to be even more connected. So check out our website. There's more content there and there's more opportunities for you get connected in our ministries and events as well. Also, love for you to share this content if this is blessed to you. I know that God wants to use you to bless other people with it. So share this podcast you will. Lastly, would you consider supporting this ministry? This is made possible by other people's generosity and I'd love for you to pay it forward.
[00:00:39] Join us to reclaim the message and the movement of Jesus together. So would you consider giving to this ministry? I know that God is able to do immeasurably more through us when we come together. Thank you so much. God bless you.
[00:00:53] Good morning, Mosaic man. It is good to see you guys. Now, it's not the same when you know, we're not in person. I get that. So kind of bummed about that. But I know for those of you who join us online, you're like, this is. We do this every weekend, so it's the same for you guys. Regardless, I do want to say I'm glad you're safe. I'm glad we're online. I'm glad we're together. And I do believe that God has a word for us. Like God wants to speak to us this morning. And so I think it's also timely. Here's why. Because we were supposed to celebrate our 20 year anniversary and obviously we're not doing that. In fact, we're going to kind of delay it. And so we'll let you know when we are going to do this. We're hoping that this weather will just go away and then we can really throw a party and get an opportunity for those of you who do join online to come make an effort, if you can, to be here, live in person. And we celebrate that. But so today the plan was not to continue our series. So we've been in a series called Open Doors and the plan was not to do that. But I really believe that just the way it all works out, there is one more conversation that we need to have when it comes to open doors. Now, Open Doors is about prayer. And we've been talking about moving us all from this idea of shameless, you know, sorry. Moving us from awkward insecurity to shameless persistence in prayer. And so we've been going through that. And last week Kristen did a great job with the idea of knocking.
[00:02:22] So are we done? Well, I think that this has just worked out really well because I do want to talk about the idea of, like, okay, in prayer, we're trying to be persistent and we're trying to get God's attention. That's pretty much what we're trying to do. We're getting God's attention. But could it be possible that God is trying to get our attention? Could it be possible that God's trying to get our attention now in the culture we live in? Everybody is trying to get our attention. I mean, no doubt about it, everybody is trying to get our attention. I mean, the news is, social media is. Your algorithms on Instagram are trying to get you to pay attention or get your attention. I mean, everybody is trying to create, like, a clickbait, which basically bait you to click on it and pay attention.
[00:03:08] So does God ever have a clickbait?
[00:03:10] Like, God. Does God ever do something like that? Well, I don't know if he does that, but I do know that sometimes open doors, like this answer to our prayer doesn't look like an answer. In fact, it might just look like a question.
[00:03:25] Sometimes an open door, in fact, looks like a burning bush.
[00:03:30] Yeah, you heard me. A burning bush. It looks like a burning bush. What do I mean by that? Now, if you are familiar with the idea of a burning bush, you know the story. It's connected to the guy named Moses. Moses was a guy who grew up as a slave. His parents were slaves, and he grew up in Egypt. And back in the day, a pharaoh was concerned about the amount of slaves there were and their population growth. So he decided, which is so ridiculous and so horrifying, he decided to kill all the Hebrew boys. And so Moses story starts with that story because he was saved. His parents put him down a river, covered him up, put it down a river, and a Egyptian princess found him, took him out of the river. And that's why Moses, the word Moses, actually means to be drawn out, to be taken, to be rescued.
[00:04:25] And so he lives then as a Hebrew boy in Egypt with royalty and grows up into it. But there seems to be this idea that Moses knew that he was Hebrew and people did know. But all that to say one day, as he was older, he saw a slave being beaten by Egyptian officer, and he intervened and he killed the Egyptian officer. And he didn't confess up to it. In fact, he hid the body and took off.
[00:05:04] He takes off into the desert, and about 40 years he's there. And then he has this moment with the Burning bush. The burning bush is God.
[00:05:15] And God speaks to him in that burning bush and tells him that he's in fact called to go and reach his people. So that's why he, Moses, goes back and rescues all the Jewish people. And there's the great Exodus. And in fact, the scriptures talk about Exodus. It has a whole book about it and stories that lead up to it and the stories around it. So Moses takes them out of Egypt and you know, you know all the things. If you don't, you've got the plagues there, you got the Ten Commandments. Moses is the guy with the ten Commandments, and he's going towards promised land and all kinds of stories there. And eventually, though, just want you to know eventually, right before he gets to the promised land, he is not allowed to go in it because of his anger issues. Because what we realize is Moses is the guy who's in progress. Moses is the guy that God's working with, but he's got some issues. In fact, he doesn't get to go to the promised land.
[00:06:11] Joshua actually leads the people into the promised land. So what does this story tell us? And I gave you the kind of, the broad stroke of his life, what do we learn from his story? I think we learn is that God communicates with us and he gives us opportunity, gives us choices. And today you might be given a choice. Maybe God's trying to get your attention to talk to you about something. Now you're praying about something.
[00:06:33] You're asking God for an answer. And maybe the answer is an invitation to interact with this burning bush. A burning bush just might be the open door that you've been praying for.
[00:06:45] So how can we learn from it? What I wanna do is I wanna take that story a little bit and go through it and, and talk about, what does that mean? What is an answer to a prayer that looks like a burning bush? Look like, what does it want us to do? And so let's jump into it. Let's jump into it. Realizing the first thing that we realize is that the burning bush needs us to be curious. It needs us to be curious. See, the story here in Exodus 3 says that Moses looks at the burning bush and he says, this is amazing. Moses says to himself, why isn't that bush burning up? I must go and see it.
[00:07:23] So what happens is he sees something in the desert. He doesn't know exactly what it is. Kind of seems odd. But then he goes to investigate. He's curious.
[00:07:32] See, for some of us, we live our lives so busy, so distracted and it's not with bad things, it's with good things. We're trying to make things, things happen. We're trying to go and show up for the world and show up for, you know, our kids and do the things, and we're just kind of just doing our thing. But sometimes God shows up and he shows up in strange ways where he invites us to be curious. He invites us to come closer and find out what's going on. And since burning bush is one of those things, so it's strange.
[00:08:10] So I wonder if God's trying to do something in your life. Or maybe he's introduced a person, an opportunity, an idea that's all of a sudden out of nowhere, seems strange.
[00:08:23] Could God be wanting you to move closer to it, to go closer and to see what's happening? Like when Moses says, I gotta go see this thing. I wonder if God wants you to investigate this opportunity to that God's given you to explore because you get to choose to do that. You get to choose.
[00:08:43] I know it's strange. It might seem like, ah, this is out of the norm. But what is an opportunity? What's happened recently in your life? You're like, I don't know what this is. It doesn't look like an answer to my prayer. What is it? I think a burning bush, when it's an open door, wants you to be curious and lean into.
[00:09:04] So what do you need to do?
[00:09:07] Do you need to move towards this burning bush situation in your life? Maybe that's what you need to do today. Let's keep going. What else does it tell us? It tells us that besides needing us to be curious, the burning bush, when it's an open door comes with a lot of grace. It comes with a lot of grace. Here's what Exodus 3 says, verse 5.
[00:09:31] This is God speaking, right? It says, do not come any closer. The Lord warned, and then he says, take off your sandals. He's telling Moses, take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground.
[00:09:45] I am God, your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.
[00:09:52] When Moses heard this, he covered his face because he was afraid to, to look at God. Now this interaction tells us so much. Number one, God had to tell him, hey listen, I'm a big deal. Like, this is a big deal. This is happening. Like, he is so clueless when it comes to even experiencing God. He knows there's something strange. He knows something's going on, but he doesn't know that it's sacred.
[00:10:15] And God just tells him what to do. He says, hey, don't come any closer, by the way, I'm telling this for your own sake. And also take your shoes off because you're standing on something sacred. What's really interesting about that is this idea of the grace of God. See, Moses, what he does is when he realizes, he covers his face and he's like, okay, this is too much for me. Because he just begins to recognize this is God moving. See, sometimes when God offers us something, when it's an open door, we don't know how significant it is.
[00:10:48] We don't understand it. But here's what this interaction tells us.
[00:10:54] It tells me that God gives us more grace, more grace than we could ever imagine. God gives us grace knowing that we're not gonna get it right.
[00:11:06] Like, we're not gonna get it right.
[00:11:08] Like we're not gonna know what to do. Sometimes God knows that we're actually gonna get it wrong.
[00:11:15] Do you know that? God invites us to do something knowing that we're not going to get it right.
[00:11:24] That's pretty interesting. I mean, Moses married, not married. He murdered. Murdered someone. He murdered someone. And then 40 years later, God begins to talk to him. God gave him 40 years to wander around.
[00:11:39] Have you noticed? God gives us so much time. God is so gracious when it comes to time.
[00:11:45] Sometimes God's grace is just basically time. Time that he gives us to get it together, to realize.
[00:11:52] See, the truth is, God has never looked on you and not had grace for you. He's always looked at us and has always had grace for us. See, we don't have grace for each other. We don't have grace for ourselves.
[00:12:09] We just don't. We just. I don't know what it is. We.
[00:12:14] We are just.
[00:12:15] We can't believe sometimes that people are not aware. We can't believe that someone would say something like this. We can't believe at times where people will react a certain way and not know what's going on. And we judge them. See, sometimes in life, some people are so busy just trying to make it in life that they don't have time to keep up with all the things happening in the world. And all the things happening, the latest trends or the latest news, they just don't know. But them not being aware of what's going on in the world, them not being, like, in the trenches of all the things happening in our city or in our country and all that. I mean, some people are just trying to survive.
[00:12:59] And what I mean by that is that they got so much things we have a luxury sometimes to stop and comprehend and feel all the feelings. Some people, they gotta get to two jobs, three jobs, they gotta make it happen.
[00:13:10] See, sometimes we don't give humanity grace, but God gives us grace.
[00:13:16] So when God calls you to something, he knows you might just get it wrong. He knows that people might judge you, but he doesn't judge you like that.
[00:13:27] So again, this is an invitation. This open door comes with grace. What else does it come with? Well, it comes with, I believe it comes with showing us a deeper purpose in life. It shows us a deeper purpose in life. It'll show you a deeper purpose in life. An open door went to burning bush. Will take your prayer request Will take your need and say, hey, but let's just think about it a little bit bigger. Could your life be bigger than it is? Not just your prayers about yourself, but could your life get any bigger? And Exodus 3:7 says, Then the Lord told him, he says, hey, here's why I'm trying to get your attention. He says, 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, yes, God says, I'm aware of their suffering.
[00:14:22] So I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and lead them out of Egypt into their own forces. Fertile and spacious land. It is a land flowing with milk and honey.
[00:14:35] So when God talks to him in the burning bush, what he's saying to him is, hey. So I want you to consider that your life could mean more than it is right now.
[00:14:47] It could truly be deeper. See, we begin to live deeper lives and fuller lives when our lives reflect us seeing other people.
[00:15:00] When we see the oppression of other people, when we hear their cries, when we feel the pain of other people, when we are aware of their suffering, when we do all those things, we all of a sudden live bigger lives. You see, you can't live a big life focusing just on yourself. You can't even live a God centered life, being self centered. And here God says, hey, Moses, I know you're comfortable. See, Moses was on the run. You know, he was running because he was a fugitive. He had murdered someone. And so now he was in the desert and you know, 10 years passed, 20 years passed, I mean, 40 years have passed and people have kind of forgotten. He's comfortable. He wasn't lacking anything.
[00:15:50] He was living a comfortable life.
[00:15:53] But then when God shows up with an open door, with a burning bush, he says, hey, I know you're comfortable, but your life could mean More.
[00:16:01] And so maybe God is knocking on your door, in a sense, or showing up as a burning bush, an opportunity, and saying, your life could be more than it is right now. It could be so much more. But you gotta move away from all your prayers being about you, about your needs, your wants, your desires. And this is tough, isn't it? It's tough. Why? Because.
[00:16:27] Well, I mean, I like my stuff.
[00:16:30] I'm consumed with all the stuff that I've got to deal with. I'm consumed with all my issues. I'm consumed with the fact that, I don't know, I would love such and such things to work out. I mean, I just.
[00:16:44] I don't know. I'm consumed with this stuff.
[00:16:47] But see, the truth is that some of us, we don't realize that what God wants us to do is really focus on the fact that there are other people connected to our lives.
[00:16:59] And God wants to use us. See, God says, hey, I've heard the cries, and I want to come and rescue them.
[00:17:07] And my rescue plan is you, Moses. You.
[00:17:12] You are God's rescue plan.
[00:17:15] So could you and I live lives that we are the answer to other people's prayers? Could God use us to rescue people in our lives?
[00:17:29] So this opportunity, right, it's bigger. It's odd, it's strange.
[00:17:35] It's bigger because there's a lot more out there that you're a part of. And God's inviting you to be part of that story.
[00:17:44] So what else does this tell us? Well, it tells us a lot more.
[00:17:48] Couple things more, actually. It tells us this. It says that the burning bush will not just call us to a deeper life, but it will. Its guarantee.
[00:18:00] Guaranteed to bring up insecurities. Yeah, when God opens a door that looks like a burning bush, it's guaranteed that you're going to have insecurities. Look at what Moses had to deal with.
[00:18:16] But Moses in verse 11 says, But Moses protested to God. He's like, no, no, no, no, no, I can't do. I can't. He says, who am I?
[00:18:27] Who am I to appear before Pharaoh? Like, who am I?
[00:18:31] Who. Who am I to lead the people out of Egypt? Like, who am I? Now, what's interesting about it was that he was the prince of Egypt at one point. He was one of the. He was a part of the royal family. But now years, decades have passed and he's like, I'm not this guy. But not only that, Moses had some other issues as well.
[00:18:54] So in Exodus 4:10, it says, Moses pleaded with God. He says, oh, Lord, I am not very good with words.
[00:19:04] I have never been like, ask people. I just. I'm not good. I'm not good at talking.
[00:19:10] He says, and I'm not. Now, even though you have spoken to me, I get. And he says this. He says, I get tongue tied. Like, he's literally giving God excuses, good ones. They're not even excuses. They are legit things. Hey, he's not good with words.
[00:19:28] His tongue gets tied. He says, my words get tangled. I mean, I understand that. I get that, he says. Then the Lord asked Moses, who makes the person's mouth, which is interesting, right? He's like, okay, okay, okay. Who made your mouth? Then he says, who decides whether people speak or. Or do not speak? Hear or do not hear, see or don't see?
[00:19:51] Is it not I, the Lord?
[00:19:54] Now go.
[00:19:55] I will be with you as you speak, and I will instruct you in what you say.
[00:20:03] You see, when God opens up an open door in our lives, when he opens up an opportunity in our lives, insecurities just come flooding in. The first person to show up is your inner corruption.
[00:20:14] Your inner critic comes in and says, no, hold up, hold up, hold up. You can't do this. You can't do this. I could never do this. And some of us. You understand that inner critic says something like, you gonna die. I'm gonna die. I couldn't do this. I wanna die. I'm like, no, there's no way. This is not happening. This is not me. I can't do this. The inner naysayer will show up. You know, even Negative Nancy. Have you heard of her? She'll show up and she'll go, hey, hey. I'll tell you what's gonna happen. This is what's gonna happen. This is what's gonna. And all of a sudden you're like. You have these voices. God saying, hey, do this and do. The other voice is saying, you can't do this. It's like the whole two angels on your shoulder, you know? And I was thinking about that. That's like Greek philosophy. Did you know that? It's a Greek philosophy thing. It's not in the Bible. So if you're, like, wondering, are there two different angels? No, it's not in the Bible. Not in the Bible.
[00:21:01] And it's a Greek philosophy thing. But what's interesting is basically one of the angels is asking you to be brave and bold and be courageous, and the other one is saying, no, no, no, no, you can't do it. You're comfortable. Don't see the Truth of the matter is, if you're gonna live your life as big as you can, if you reach your potential, if you're gonna allow God to move in your life, if you're gonna say, God, your will be done, not my will be done, you're gonna know you're gonna have to face this. And that is that courage is never comfortable.
[00:21:31] It's never comfortable. You're like, that's just great name.
[00:21:36] I know. I wish it was the. I wish it was the most comfortable thing to do. And we would all be courageous and all be noble and all be brave, but that's really not it. It's not.
[00:21:48] And so how do you deal with your insecurities? How do you deal with them? Do you have this inner voice?
[00:21:57] Here's what I want you to know. You're not alone. We all have it. We all have it. I have it. I have an inner voice that tells me all kinds of things that I will not do correctly, that I'm not good at. I'm gonna mess things up. Even when I speak or I'm trying to read, or I'm trying to lead, I just have this.
[00:22:19] I don't know, this voice that tells me, hey, hey, hey, what about this? What about that? It reminds me of all the things and all the ways that I'm not enough in my mind.
[00:22:28] And I want you to know that Moses dealt with that as well. But yet the invitation stands.
[00:22:37] The burning bush is there.
[00:22:40] It's still there.
[00:22:41] The reason why you are given this burning bush, the reason why you're given this opportunity, this open door, is because God knows that in spite of your insecurities, in spite of your insecurities, it's not about you. It's about who called you to do it, who's asking you to do it, and on whose behalf you're doing this. And here he. He reminds Moses. He says, hey, I'm the one who made all these things. And also, by the way, I'm the one that's gonna be with you. I'm the one telling you to go, and I'm gonna be with you all the way. Which right there is what this story tells us, what the last thing it tells us. And that is that a burning bush reminds us of the promise that we have in God, that God is going to be with us. Exodus 3:12. It says, and God answered, I will be with you.
[00:23:35] And this.
[00:23:36] And this is your sign that I am the one who sent you. This is the sign. When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you Will worship God at this very mountain.
[00:23:48] Now, I don't want you to miss what I just read. First of all, he says, I'll be with you. It's is reminding you of the promise. He's reminding us of the promise. The promise that we have in God. That in spite of all the things that we're not good at, in spite of all the difficulties, in spite of all our issues, in spite of all the things, God's gonna be with us. And so when God calls us to something, he doesn't say, okay, well, have fun with this. I'm out.
[00:24:14] He promises to not leave this mission. He promises to be with us this whole time.
[00:24:21] But did you catch what he said? He says, and this is your sign.
[00:24:27] This is gonna be your sign. Right?
[00:24:30] What's the sign? When you bring the people out of Egypt, Basically, God's saying, hey, as you move towards this, you're gonna feel like, I'm not with you. You're gonna feel afraid.
[00:24:48] And I just want you to know that you're not going to know, like, your sign that you know that I'm with you. You're actually gonna realize this. On the other side of your obedience, you're gonna. The sign. You're gonna. When this actually happens, when you lead the people out of Egypt and into this space, and when this happens in this very mountain, they'll worship. You'll see that then actually, you'll remember, oh, my gosh, God, yes, your promises are true. Oh, yes, you are with me. You see, sometimes we just want the feeling first. We want the feeling first.
[00:25:25] We're hooked on a feeling. Isn't that a song? I think it is. Okay. It's like, yeah, this is this.
[00:25:31] And God says, hey, you're not gonna feel that.
[00:25:34] I just want you to know. You're not gonna feel that.
[00:25:36] You're gonna know it, though. On the other side of this, you're gonna know you're gonna wake up one day go, oh, wow, I'm so glad I did this. I'm so glad that happened because now I know that God is with me.
[00:25:48] See, God wants you to know that the promise of him being with you is not one that he's just giving you. It's also one that he's given you when you were born. See, God has always been with you. He's always working in you. He's giving you time and space. And his promise is that he's always gonna be with us. In fact, the birth of Jesus tells us, tells all of humanity that God is with us. He lived among us. He is God who choose to be a part of human history. He's always going to be with us. So why does that matter? What matters is that because this burning bush, this burning bush is so interesting because God gives us an opportunity, right? And it shows up in a strange way. But to Moses, the burning bush, I believe, is significant for his life. Here's why. The bush was on fire, but it was not being consumed.
[00:26:44] So what was happening to the bush?
[00:26:46] Now, you might not get a literal burning bush. Moses did, because I believe God was speaking a promise to him. You see, he was looking at the bush being burnt up, but it was not withering away.
[00:27:00] See, that is a sign of a refiner's fire.
[00:27:04] A refiner's fire is a process where you take an object and you put it into the fire to burn off the impurities.
[00:27:13] And so I believe God was showing him a picture of like, hey, this is what I've been doing in the desert for 40 years with you.
[00:27:21] For 40 years with you, I've been. The promise is still true. You're still chosen. You're still Moses, the guy who was drawn out and who's going to draw out people. But here's what I've been doing. I've been putting you through the fire, and it's gonna burn off Egypt.
[00:27:38] Like God was burning off Egypt off of Moses for 40 years before he called him. You see, when God gives you this opportunity, it's an opportunity for us to be really refined by fire. Refined and be the person we were really meant to be. It's burning off the shame that Moses had it burning off the luxury he had. It's burning off the guilt that he had of murdering a guy.
[00:28:07] See, God's working in your life, and he's trying to burn off some things. Not to consume you, but to refine. You.
[00:28:16] See, here's the deal.
[00:28:18] Moses, when he murdered someone, he left. He was on the run, and he kept on being on the run.
[00:28:27] I mean, even 40 years later, he's still on the run.
[00:28:30] See, sometimes in life, when we have a past that's really traumatic or painful, when we have past, it's not that great.
[00:28:40] When we live in a situation that we're kind of so glad we're not in the same town, we're not living in the same home, we're not staying in that same relationship. What we end up doing is we start running away from that.
[00:28:53] And see, I think sometimes in life, we fall in two categories. We're either running away from our Past our whole life, or we're running towards purpose.
[00:29:04] Moses was running from his past, and God intervenes with an open door that looks like a burning bush and says, hey, I want you to stop running from your past. I want you to run towards purpose. And it's bigger than you. It's bigger than you.
[00:29:18] So today, what do you need to do?
[00:29:21] What do you need to do? I pray that you. If you see this idea, this opportunity, it's kind of like you don't know it's an open door, but you feel like, yeah, I guess it's a burning bush, because I don't know what it is.
[00:29:35] I say, let's be curious. Let's move towards that, knowing that you have grace, also allowing God to speak it, deeper purpose in our life. And let's fight our insecurities and step into what God has, knowing that he's promised to be with us all the way.
[00:29:57] So that's my prayer for us. And I pray as a church, as a community, that we would look at our burning bush opportunities and run towards them, knowing that that, in fact, is an open door. So can I pray for you? Let's pray together. Lord God, I thank you so much for today. I thank you for our lives. I thank you, God, that in the midst of this interesting day this week in our city, that we find ourselves and in our homes maybe surrounded with family and friends, and we're trying to figure out what you're gonna. What you're doing in our lives. The truth is, God, I think some of us don't realize this, but you're trying to get our attention. So I just pray, God, I pray that you would allow us to see something that is a burning bush. You give us the courage to move forward. God and Father, I pray for all the other things that are trying to get our attention. I pray that, God, that we would not allow those things to get our attention.
[00:30:52] God, we would stop and consider. God, how are you working?
[00:30:56] Where are you working? Maybe recognize what you're doing and move towards that. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.
[00:31:04] Amen. Well, Mosaic, it's been so good to spend some time with you. I hope this word encourages you. Make sure you share this with someone and, yeah, we'll see you next week. See you guys.
[00:31:16] Thanks for listening to this message from Mosaic Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.
[00:31:22] For more audio and video content, Visit us at MosaicChurch TV.
