Lessons From a Burning Bush

 Lessons From a Burning Bush

Psalms 16:11: You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

·        The reason we are learning to experience the Presence of the Lord is that once we walk in that Presence, nothing else really matters. Once theology turns to experience we are never the same again.

·        His presence lifts us above all of our problems and difficulties.

·        Everything pales in comparison. Earthly pleasures fade away, they are meaningless. There is fullness of joy unimaginable.

·        Moses discovered the presence of God in a burning bush. By examining Moses experience, we can learn valuable lessons to help us find our burning bush experience.

Hebrews 11:23-26: By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king’s command. 24 By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, 25 choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, 26 esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward.

·        Apart from Jesus Christ, Himself, there is no other person that is as well-known as Moses in the Bible. Moses was raised by the Pharaoh’s daughter in Egypt, and was probably in line to become the Pharaoh of Egypt.

·        But when Moses was forty years old he killed an Egyptian slave master who attacked a Hebrew slave and in fear, he fled into the mountains where he spent the next forty years of his life as a shepherd tending sheep.

·        After spending forty years under the stars tending sheep, perhaps the memories of Egypt began to fade away, and Moses was probably wondering about what the true purpose was of his life, perhaps he was a little discouraged; it was definitely a dry period. He was probably bored to tears.

·        Moses was in the “school of silence,” he heard the birds and the sheep; he looked to the stars at night, but was cut-off from all the noises of distraction. God took Moses out of the noise, and sent him somewhere he could hear his own heartbeat.

·        After eighty years, most are at the retirement stage of life, most are done serving the Lord, with their best days behind them. Many still want to do some good things, but it’s not about what you’re doing, it’s about who is doing it through you.

·        Who would pick an eighty year-old man and send him into Egypt to set his people free. Wouldn’t most of us choose a younger man? That’s where we differ from the Lord; He looks at a man’s heart!

·        When a man is called by God to do a work, that man then has access to all the resources and authority of God. God does not call the equipped, He equips the called! He likes to use the people who seem unlikely… foolish things of this world.

Exodus 3:1-2: And he led the flock to the back of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed.

·        God revealed Himself to Moses as fire, but God is not fire. Fire is one of the nearest things we can know and see that is LIKE God. The fire in the bush was God shining through the flames. It was the Presence of God!

·        Moses was a Jew. He knew about God.

·        But now he was experiencing God. This is the truth we are striving for. We cannot substitute doctrine for experience. The Bible is our pathway to experience!

·        The greatest ministry a church can have is “experiencing God,” and then tell others, “You can experience God, too!

·        I’m sure this was not what Moses was expecting. He had probably seen other bushes on fire, but this was something he couldn’t explain. The bush was on fire but the fire was not consuming the bush, this required a deeper look!

·        The Angel of the Lord, Jesus, appeared to Moses in the fire from the midst of the bush. This requires our looking deeper, too.

Colossians 1:26-27: The mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints.  To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

·        I believe this bush has things to teach us about the indwelling Presence of the Lord:

·        The bush was completely helpless in the fire. You will never know God as you should know Him until you are helpless in His hands, and cannot escape Him.

·        As long as you have a Plan B, you can run to safety. As long as there is a bridge behind you, you have a way to escape back to your comfortable life.

·        Even mice have a second or third hole to run to.

·        This bush could not back out of the fire, but I’m not sure it would if it could. Happy is the Christians who is caught up by the Lord and has burned their bridges, no more plan B’s!

·        I believe many Christians have never reached maturity because the door is not locked behind them. They’re plan B’s are stronger than their Plan A’s!

Exodus 3:3: Then Moses said, “I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.”

·        I believe Moses’ time in the wilderness prepared him for this moment. He didn’t just try to explain it away, or find an explanation for this burning bush.

·        Moses was ready for an encounter with God!

·        He was hungry for something real, he’d been in the wilderness forty years…it was his moment.

·        God is preparing moments for us. I’ve missed many of my moments because I was focused on something else. I hope I don’t miss any more moments with Him.

·        Another thing about this bush, the fire was “dwelling” in the bush, and the bush was at the mercy of the fire because the fire was in control of the bush.

·        When you put an iron rod in a fire, soon you have fire in the iron as it glows red. The iron is still the iron, and the fire is still the fire, but you have them fused together in experience. Take the iron out of the fire the fusion stops.

·        When God enters into the human heart, they do not become one, but experientially they become one. The glowing fire in the man causes the man to become a little like God, because there’s so much of God in him.

·        And yet he is not God and God is not the man. Forever God remains God and the man remains a man. And yet, there becomes shared experience!

Exodus 3:4: So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”

·        The Lord waited to call Moses until Moses turned to see the fire. Moses had already decided to see the bush on fire, but now He was looking at the fire in the bush.

·        Moses saw the bush with his natural eyes, this was not a “vision,” but now, after the “school of silence,” Moses wanted to see more than just his eyes could see.

·        God wanted to say some things to Moses, and He did. The Lord had spent years preparing Moses for his moment. He had led Moses out of Egypt after forty years, now it took forty years to get Egypt out of Moses.

·        We’ve spent many years in the world so that we have become “worldly.” The Lord wants to get the world out of us so that He can put kingdom things in us.

·        Moses didn’t have the “self-confidence” in himself that he had in Egypt.

·        The years in the wilderness, listening to his own heartbeat and questioning everything he knew had him ready to say, “Here I am.”

Exodus 3:5:  Then He said, “Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.” 6 Moreover 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 upon God.

·       The first thing that the Lord wanted Moses to understand is that God is Holy. His Holiness is an infinite purity that consumes that which is impure. He is Holy, Holy, Holy, and His glory fills all creation! He is not to be taken “lightly.”

·       The next thing Moses needed to know was “the fear of the Lord.”

·       He is not only a good God, but He is a just God, therefore law breaking, disobedience, and rebellion will be judged. Awesome respect is required for the things that are “sacred.”

·       We come from God, He is the source, and we go back to God. Therefore there is an upward moral trust that we must believe because we will be judged for the things we do while here.

·       We are not independent from Him, there is a central control of the universe, and He is Holy. And we must regard His ways as sacred.

·       Sinners don’t regard the throne of God to be legit; they do not want the Lord to rule over them.

·       But when a sinner repents and is born again, he leaves the old world and comes into the kingdom of God—under His rule.

·       One of the greatest losses to the modern church is this sense of sacredness, we have allowed “casualness” and anything goes attitude. No great movement of God can come out of this sort of thing.

·       We need a revival of reverence where worship leads to the wonderful moment of experience. Maybe we ought to take off our shoes, and come into deep worship until the fire falls and covers us in His sacred Presence.

Exodus 3:6: Moreover 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 upon God.

·       The Lord revealed Himself to Moses and his life was never the same. I am also sure this bush was never the same. This flame so transfigured the bush until it became the most famous bush in history.

·       However, its glory was not its own glory, the glory came from the indwelling fire.

·       Have you ever stopped to think that all the fungus, the bugs, larvae, and worms that plague bushes… they all perished in the fire!

·       Not a single thing there but bush and fire.

·       I’m no expert in entomology, but there’s no bugs that can survive raw fire.

·       I believe with all my heart that the fire of the Lord burns away all of our impurities, including our illnesses.

·       The fire of the Lord is a refining fire!

·       The bush was transfigured in the fire.

·       It had only been scrub brush. There were millions like it all over the wilderness, but the glory of God got into the bush and was great in the bush.

·       The bush also got its meaning and purpose and significance there. It was related to the other bushes but was no longer similar to them.

·       When Jesus lays ahold of a person, the first thing that happens is to give him significance and meaning. God dwells in the man and he becomes transfigured in the fire.

Acts 2:1-4: When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

·       We are all called to become “burning bushes.”

·       On Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came upon those hundred and twenty as a flame of fire.

·       Each one had his own flame. It was not one flame… but many flames.

·       He was now bringing those disciples into His experience with power to change their world. Their lives would never be the same.

·       They had purpose. They were transformed. They were burning bushes that the Lord spoke through.

·       We never hear of the disciples being sick, they were protected in the fire until their time was finished. They changed the world.

·       Do you want the fire? It’s available for you! But know this, it’s an all or nothing deal.