Sermon/Study Guide: The God You're Looking For Author: Steve Hixon Table of Contents	PDF version (155K)	Home

Exodus 3:1-15 1 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, "I will go over and see this strange sight--why the bush does not burn up." 4 When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, "Moses! Moses!" And Moses said, "Here I am." 5 "Do not come any closer," God said. "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground." 6 Then he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God. 7 The LORD said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey--the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt." 11 But Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" 12 And God said, "I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain." 13 Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, `The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, `What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?" 14 God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.'" 15 God also said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites, `The LORD, the God of your fathers--the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob--has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.

Who am I? People have a tremendous thirst to know who they are, to have a sense of identity. Name at least three sources from which people gain their identity: Who is God? Ask three people this week who they think God is. List the answers you hear in the space below: Who was Moses? Moses’ life can be divided up into three sections of forty years apiece. What was Moses’ "job description" in each of those life stages? (Feel free to use a Bible dictionary for this one.) "The Bible tells us that we are made in the image of God. But can we accurately understand that image until we know the One whose image we bear?" R.C. Sproul, The Character of God What "stage" was Moses in when he has this "encounter" with God in Exodus 3? When Moses asks the question, "who am I?", what is he feeling and expressing? How does God first describe Himself in this passage (v6)? Who is Moses father? (see Ex. 2:1)

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — these 3 ancestors played key roles in Israel’s history. What was it like for them to know and follow God? Consult a Bible dictionary for help.

	Born Where?	Died Where?	Married to Whom?	God Appeared?	Name (means what?) (was it changed?)
Abraham				Genesis 18
Isaac
Jacob				Genesis 28:10-17

"YHWH" This is not in reality a word but is known as the "Tetragrammaton," the four consonants standing for the ancient Hebrew name for God commonly referred to as "Jehovah" or "Yahweh." The original Hebrew text was not vocalized. YHWH was considered too sacred to pronounce, so adonai ("my Lord") was substituted in reading. When eventually a vowel system was invented, since the Hebrews had forgotten how to pronounce YHWH, they substituted the vowels for adonai, making "Jehovah," a form first attested at the beginning of the 12th century AD.

In verse 10 God calls His people the "Israelites". That’s another way of saying they are the descendants of what man?

"I AM WHO I AM"
When God reveals Himself with this name, what do you think He is communicating to Moses and to all of us?

Jesus’ use of "I AM" (John 8:31-59)
Jesus’ listeners claimed to be "descendants of Abraham", but Jesus challenged them to see if their faith was real or simply “inheirited”. As the conversation continued to heat up, some of the Jews became extremely offended. Finally Jesus revealed that He had existed before Abraham, and in doing so he used the sacred name of God, "I AM", to identify himself. What exactly is Jesus claiming?

APPLICATION
Write your own definition of each of the following terms that describe God’s character, and then think of one way in which each one affects your life personally:

He is self-existing (never created)

He is self-sufficient (doesn’t need anything)

He is eternal (beyond constraints of time)

He is immutable (never changes)

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