The God Who Is (I Am Series - Week 1) Series

The God Who Is

I AM Series - Week 1

Main Text: Exodus 3:14

Supporting Texts: Exodus 3:1-15, Revelation 1:8

Introduction

A young seminary student once asked the renowned theologian Karl Barth, after decades of studying God, what the most profound thing he had learned was. Barth smiled and replied, "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so." Sometimes the most profound truths are the simplest ones, yet they contain depths we spend lifetimes exploring.

Today, we begin a twelve-week journey that will take us from a burning bush in the wilderness to a borrowed tomb in Jerusalem. We're going to trace the scarlet thread of God's self-revelation through history. The God who revealed Himself to Moses as "I AM" continues to reveal Himself through Jesus Christ. It all begins with three simple yet infinitely profound words: "I AM WHO I AM."

Have you ever introduced yourself to someone and struggled to explain who you really are? We define ourselves by our relationships or our occupations or our achievements. But when God presents Himself to humanity in the most definitive way, He doesn't define Himself by anything outside Himself. He simply says, "I AM."

This morning, we stand on holy ground as we encounter the God who needs no introduction yet chooses to reveal Himself to us.

1. Holy Ground Encounter (Exodus 3:1-6)

Moses at the Burning Bush

Picture Moses for a moment. Forty years earlier, he was a prince of Egypt with dreams of delivering his people. Now, at eighty years old, he's a shepherd in the wilderness of Midian, tending his father-in-law's sheep. The palace has been exchanged for pastures. The royal scepter for a shepherd's staff. It seems like the final chapter of a life that didn't quite work out as planned.

But God specializes in meeting us in our wilderness moments. As Isaiah 55:8-9 reminds us, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."

Moses is leading the flock to the far side of the desert when he comes to Horeb, the mountain of God. There, in the ordinariness of another workday, Moses encounters something extraordinary. A bush burns but is not consumed.

Notice that the bush itself wasn't special. It was likely an ordinary desert shrub, the kind Moses had passed thousands of times before. What made it extraordinary was the presence of God within it. This teaches us something profound: God transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary by His presence. Your workplace, your home, your daily commute become holy ground when God shows up.

God Breaks the Silence

Four hundred years. That's how long it had been since God had spoken directly to His people. Four centuries of silence. Generations had come and gone, hearing only the stories of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Stories that must have seemed like distant myths to slaves born in Egyptian bondage.

But here, God breaks the silence. When He does, notice how He identifies Himself first: "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob" (Exodus 3:6). Before revealing His eternal name, God connects Himself to human history. He's not a distant, philosophical concept. He's the God who has been actively involved in the story of His people, even when they couldn't see Him or hear Him.

This principle appears throughout Scripture. Psalm 46:10 declares, "Be still, and know that I am God." Sometimes God's apparent silence is His invitation for us to be still and recognize His presence. As we read in Habakkuk 2:20, "But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him."

When God seems silent in your life, it doesn't mean He's absent. He's still the God of your story, working in ways you may not perceive until you look back and see the burning bushes you almost walked past.

Taking Off Our Shoes

"Take off your sandals," God tells Moses, "for the place where you are standing is holy ground" (Exodus 3:5). In the ancient Near East, removing one's sandals was a sign of respect and humility. Slaves went barefoot. To remove your sandals was to acknowledge you were on someone else's property, in the presence of someone greater.

This echoes Joshua's experience when he encountered the commander of the Lord's army near Jericho. The divine messenger gave Joshua the same command: "Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy" (Joshua 5:15). Both encounters required the same response: reverent submission before God's holy presence.

There's something deeper here. Shoes are what protect us from the earth, what separate us from the ground. God is inviting Moses to remove what separates him from truly experiencing His presence. To be vulnerable. To feel the holy ground beneath his feet.