Sermon – “God said: Be There”

12 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Come up to Me on the mountain and be there; and I will give you tablets of stone, and the law and commandments which I have written, that you may teach them.” 13 So Moses arose with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up to the mountain of God. 14 And he said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we come back to you. Indeed, Aaron and Hur are with you. If any man has a difficulty, let him go to them.” 15 Then Moses went up into the mountain, and a cloud covered the mountain. 16 Now the glory of the Lord rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And on the seventh day He called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. 17 The sight of the glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel. 18 So Moses went into the midst of the cloud and went up into the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

8 And Moses told his father-in-law all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, all the hardship that had come upon them on the way, and how the Lord had delivered them. 9 Then Jethro rejoiced for all the good which the Lord had done for Israel, whom He had delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians. 10 And Jethro said, “Blessed be the Lord, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh, and who has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. 11 Now I know that the Lord is greater than all the gods; for in the very thing in which they [d]behaved proudly, He was above them.” — 13 And so it was, on the next day, that Moses sat to judge the people; and the people stood before Moses from morning until evening. 14 So when Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he did for the people, he said, “What is this thing that you are doing for the people? Why do you alone [f]sit, and all the people stand before you from morning until evening?” — 24 So Moses heeded the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said. 25 And Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people: rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. 26 So they judged the people at all times; the hard[i] cases they brought to Moses, but they judged every small case themselves.

32 At evening, when the sun had set, they brought to Him all who were sick and those who were demon-possessed. 33 And the whole city was gathered together at the door. 34 Then He healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and He did not allow the demons to speak, because they knew Him. 35 Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a [k]solitary place; and there He prayed. 36 And Simon and those who were with Him searched for Him. 37 When they found Him, they said to Him, “Everyone is looking for You.”

Come, behold the works of the Lord, Who has made desolations in the earth. 9 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two; He burns the chariot in the fire. 10 Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!

28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength. 30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall, 31 But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.

We hunger and thirst for him one song my message the title to God said be there do we want to be there in his presence do we want to be close to him Do we want to draw nearer to Him Do we want more of him many questions today ask what we’re going to be talking about today before I begin though before the service began Bob asked Did anything interesting or unexpected happened on your curse. And I’ll let you know what something that is. We were down at the port would already unloaded our bags and you were into the building and they have all the you know how they had the gates thing set up you’ve got to go through and you know we have four more lines ago three more lines to go so you know they herded like cattle so when you get close to the last one they say now make sure you have your passport your identification ready have it ready when you get there you know you hurry through so I had did all the boarding passes and the luggage things I did that on the computer and I went downstairs and got the passports out of the safe because I knew I need that information for boarding So anyway we had our old passports so I had gotten them out of the safe realize I had them so I took them back down and got the good ones out the new ones the newer ones they’re good from twenty thirteen to twenty twenty three so we’re staying in there in line and Cairns to get your passport and she goes. It’s one of those moment your heart drops. You got the old passports they’re no good we’re going to do who’s dad things are like with August you guys have a good cruise. What are we going to do I don’t know I guess we’ll just have to see if other forms of them occasionally work I don’t know but Vonnie then I found the take the Tama look at the passport I’m like twenty thirty is the issue date the good the twenty point three. Zero we had a oh no moments. So laughter is good for the soul on Amie come on that’s. OK. But we did we had a panic moment there. It’s one of those angel about later. But God is good we had a good time and our passports work a good the old ones are now filed into the file the right file where they are supposed to be so let’s begin this morning God said be there and I conduct I can get out of Exodus maybe next week Exodus twenty four verses twelve to eighteen and maybe I should have this proceeding the Ten Commandments series but OK. Beginning with Verse twelve then the Lord said to Moses come up to me on the mountain and be there and I will give you the tablets of stone and the law and commandments which I have written that you may teach them and that wonderful as I’ve said was I was finishing up these are God’s instructions for us emotions was to teach to people teach to people about how they should live for God teaches people about God’s character so as to teach what are we to do today to teach them or to teach not just the Ten Commandments but God’s Word we are to teach it to others teach a tour children teach it to our neighbors teach it to our friends or even our enemies teach it so Moses arose with this is system Joshua and Moses went up to the Mountain of God and he said to the elders wait here for us until we come back to you indeed Aaron and her are with you if any man has a difficulty let him go to them then Moses went up into the mountain and the cloud cover to mountain now the glory of the Lord rested on the Mount rested on Mount Sinai in the cloud covered it six days and on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the clouds the sight of the glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire on the mountain top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel so Moses went into the midst of the clouds and went up into the mountain and Moses was was on the mountain forty days and forty nights they got his blessings to the hearing and reading of His Holy Word let us pray Father God we do thank you for your word and we thank you for what it teaches us father every day when we open your word we should pray that I Spirit would help us to learn something new and father we know that there’s words of hope words of wisdom insight father that we could live for you that we can share your great mercy and love with others and father may your spirit be present today may your name be lifted high and you receive all the glory in Jesus’ name amen. Before we left for vacation my daughter Rizana gave me a couple books that I could read while we is away when I have a lot more time to read the one. Or book that actually I spent most of the cruise reading on them a screw but that’s when I finished up was written by Lois verb or GK And it was called reading the Bible with Rabbi Jesus and the book it was about not just learning some Hebrew words but learning and trying to understand their culture obviously our culture today is slightly different than Irv right. How about extremely different than the others and so because of this vast difference sometimes the Scriptures especially the Old Testament of them not just the Old Testament even the new can sometimes be hard to understand so if we can understand their culture sometimes a new way that they would have thought it helps us to understand a little better so hopefully. We can understand God’s instruction little better when we understand their culture because some things are complicated the old Hebrew language does not have nearly as many words as our own language and that’s not necessarily a bad thing because I think sometimes we have so many words that complicates things. Over complicates things the old the Oxford English dictionary contains. One hundred seventy one thousand four hundred seventy six words that are currently in use today in English language there are forty seven thousand one hundred fifty six words that they now consider obsolete we don’t need them anymore and we’ve got so many words that we got some we got tired of and we don’t even use to get that many words that’s a lot of words especially when you compared to the Hebrew the Bible has approximately eight thousand words. In those words are derived from about fifteen hundred words. So man we have an excessive amount of words compared to the Hebrew it’s my main focus today is going to be verse twelve were God said to Moses come up to me on the mountain and be there. According to the teachings of rabbis when God called Moses up to the mountain to receive the tablets of the law he was literally saying to him Come up to the mountain and be here Be Here Now some might think well this sounds kind of repetitive obviously if you’re going to go up the mountain you’re going to be there right but translators interpret this text to simply mean that Moses instructed to wait there Wait wait for me their one thousand nine hundred century rabbi pointed out that there is. Of such a thing as going to a place and not actually being there completely. Are you going to say wait a bit now you’re getting kind of weird on me. Just bear with me. What this actually means a person could expand a great amount of energy to climb up that mountain. And I mean you know you’re tired it might take you days I don’t know but you get to that summit you’re physically there but your mind’s back there to bottom of the mountain. You’re thinking about what you’ve got to do you’re you’re back there your mind is so you’re not there completely So this rabbi says that’s what God’s telling most is be there completely be there completely Mind Body Spirit God saying I want you to be there fully I want your complete attention I want all of your concentration to be on what I’m going to tell you because you’re going to teach it to the nation of Israel leave behind all extra new Was thoughts on this momentum momentum escaping of receiving the law in the Commandments that I have for you I don’t want any distractions I want all of you there be there hold. Don’t leave your mind somewhere else some people might wonder well what in the world could Moses possibly have had to distract him. Ah come on now think back to back in the biblical days they didn’t have all the gadgets and whatnots and all the stuff the distractions we have today right I mean they didn’t have tablets computers unfelt cell cell phones they didn’t have all that stuff right. Well I got some just various scriptures from Exodus eighteen to reveal how busy Moses was and how distracted he could have been Moses father in law would come to visit so I got Exodus eighteen beginning with Verse eight through eleven and some others and Moses told his father in law all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel sake all the hardship that had come upon them on the way and how the Lord had delivered them then Jethro rejoice for all the good things which the Lord had done for Israel whom he had delivered out of the hands of the Egyptians and Jethro said Blessed be the Lord who had delivered you out of the hands of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh and he was delivered from the people from under the hand of the WHO has delivered the people from under the hands of the Egyptians now I know that the Lord is greater than all the gods for in the very thing in which they have behaved proudly he was above them all assured that because there’s Jethro’s fallen all now because of the great things that God has done he realizes who is the One True God I believe that Jeff became a believer. Versus thirteen and fourteen and so it was on the next day that Moses. The next day that Moses sat to judge the people and the people stood before Moses from morning until evening I’m sure many of us have probably read this Moses set there judging the people from morning until late in the evening all day long so Moses father and all solved all that he did for the people and he said What is this thing that you are doing for the people why do you alone sit and all the people stand before you from morning till we meet. Jethro saw that Moses had way more than he could possibly handle was like What are you trying to do with these people so Jethro says Moses you need to appoint men that could set and take some of this responsibility off of your hands so Moses he did his responsibility and he appointed others to Moses he did his voice the voice of his father in law and did all that he said to Moses chose Abel men out of all Israel and made them heads over the people rulers of thousands rulers of hundreds rulers of fifties and rulers of ten so they judge the people at all times and the hard cases they brought to Moses but they judged every small case themselves so yes Moses could have had a great deal on his mind when he went to point to that mountain when Israel went into Egypt there were seventy people we all know the story of Joseph and how his brother sold him into slavery and he wound up in Egypt Corsi was doing well for a bit but then. Ponder first wife accused him as so he want up in prison he was in prison for twelve years felt forgotten about but God delivered him out of that prison we’re not going to go into the whole story but God delivered him out of that prison and he was second in command in all of Egypt only Pharaoh was over him he was basically ruler of Egypt you know about the play the famine that was the calm so they brought in all the grains for the seven years of the great harvest but during the years of the famine Egypt had all the grain so that’s the only way his family could survive was to go down to Egypt seventy people one in does anybody have a clue how many went out. Six hundred thousand men on foot now the six hundred thousand only includes able bodied military age men that does not include women or children or older men. So the number very well could have been so in just a little over four hundred years they went from. Seventy to around two point four million people awesome. Whata great multiplication isn’t it. And that didn’t include some of the Egyptians that may have joined them so two point four million people you think responsibility. May not know what it’s like just being a safety guy for a hundred fifty people I hear all their problems and really how is that part of safety come on but every little problem they bring to me two point four million people Moses he needed a break he needed to go to that mound inning so I’m sure he had a lot on his mind. God did not want to hit him up there on that mountain think about that dispute between George and Henry George saying Ah how comes I had to spend ten hours a day watching Law stock and only there for six or Martha and Susie you know how close my kids didn’t get as big a portion is what my neighbors did so he didn’t want Moses up there worrying about that kind of stuff or even thinking about that stuff come to me completely Who here has been ever driving down the road. And I’m going to call it your subconsciously driving. I want hand already when up driving down the road and yes you’re seeing the road come before you yes you’re seeing cars but your mind is somewhere else all of a sudden you’re like oh I miss my turn. You know you’re three miles past your turn so what do you turn around and you hope you can concentrate enough to make the turn the second time I’ve never missed it the second time anybody else. Who missed it the second time right nobody. So you hope you can concentrate enough to make it the next time but we do that we have things our mind get to thinking about well we’ve got to take the kids to dance this week all we got ball practice and we got got this to do I got that to do work we got so many things on our minds. That we’d subconsciously drive and how many said near knew your wife or your husband like Who are you there you know other concentrate and yeah our minds are always going aren’t they I’ve done that driving down the road. You know when we come to church. Or when we go to the Lord in prayer or we open his word he wants you to be there he says Be Here Now I share a little bit in bible study the other night that when I was younger when we were younger we were married and there’s times when I went to church that I may have been there bodily. But my mom wasn’t there. My mom was somewhere else my mom was distracted I was thinking about what I wanted to do later of the day or where I wanted to be but it wasn’t there. Now I don’t do that so much anymore and that’s a good thing. It’s a really good things and if I’m ever a parent you can have to go like this. Does ahead of time. But I don’t know how long but I did not pay attention to finally the spirit of the word hey maybe it’s one of these listen up listen to what the pastor say and listen what the teacher say and listen to what that friends tell me about the world listen. Get your mind off those things listen to me is what he say and be here I think I could safely say. Now. In Sabbath school we were talking about the small Jesus and the disciples the disciples couldn’t drive out the demon the young boy the boy is possessed and so they bring him to him and he cast it out that he walk couldn’t we and he says of faithless and perverse generation he was not just talking to the disciples He was talking to the multitude there this was a teaching moment for Jesus he wasn’t just singling them out so when I say this I’m not singling anybody out I’m just saying to our culture today I could safely say that we have a great amount of distractions today in our culture and on that you know it can be many things it can be our electronic things it can be our computers it can be our cell phones it can be whatever multitude it doesn’t have to be electronic things but we have so many things that distract us today. And it’s a great problem it’s you know sometimes I think we have to we might need to D. talks a little bit from our electronics. Unplug them awhile get away from them. I have a challenge for you. Keep track just for a week when I maybe just for a day I don’t know because you track how much time we spend before our electronics be it a T.V. or computer or tablet and then keep track of how much time you spend with the Lord. In his words prayer and let that scale balancing you know is our time on that electronic stuff way down here and you know just a feather up here for how much time you spend with God. Must balance it out. I’m speaking to all of us I’m stepping on my own toes let’s balance it out must go the be there with God Let him speak to us give him our mind get away from the distractions of the world it could be work Dr Dobson sends out a daily faith thing and I generally read in it’s for couples and he said this woman shared that her husband. He would go to Tom He would come home from work he had nothing left for her you know he’d go to lunch with his buddies and and then would go out for they might even go to golf for they might go here might go there and she gave him a little astray she says you know I feel this is what me and the children feel like you go to lunch with your buddies and you have a nice lunch and you scrape off a few crumbs and put them in a bag for them in your pocket and then you go here with your friends and again you scrape off your crumbs put them in a bag and the time you get home that’s all we get is the crumbs the way since I don’t want to just the crones. I want you to be there I want you to come I want you to sit down I want you to listen to what I have to say I want to hear what you have to say he get home to be so tired he would even share how it was they was so there was no communication there and there was no being there. So that’s good advice even for a merry Dry be there for your wife be there for your husband and be there for God he says be here God wants us to have quiet time with him he wants us to be able to focus on what he wants to speak to us whether it’s through prayer or if there was we’re we’re through a brother in Christ. Jesus is he not or example yes he is. And even Jesus had to find quiet time in Mark chapter one verse thirty two thirty seven that evening when the sun had set they brought to him all who were sick and those who were demon possessed and the whole city was gathered together at the door then he healed many who were sick with various diseases and cast out many demons and he did not allow the demons to speak because they knew him now in the morning having risen a long while before daylight on the emphasize there are a long while before daylight mornings my time I’m a mind mornings morning is my time to have my quiet time with him. A long while before daylight he went out and departed to a solitary place and there he prayed and Simon and those who were with him search for him and when they found him they said to him everyone is looking for you. But he needed to get away he needed to let his mind soak up what the father had for him get away from the multitude even for a while. Charles Windell says this about the business of people today says business rapes relationships it substitutes shallow frenzy for deep friendship it feeds the ego but starves the inner man it fills a calendar but fractures a family it cultivates a program the ploughs under priorities many a church boast about all of its activities something for every night of the week for everybody what a shame with good intentions the local Semele can create the very atmosphere that it was designed to curb. It’s not just a matter of business but it’s a batter of quietness listening being there for God On the other side of the being there it also means that we may have to wait wait a while be patient be patient and I know that being patient is something is something that many doesn’t have a very high level of very high level of patients I mean. We get impatient the grocery line don’t we I mean if that person in front of us has a bucket full of groceries and we’re like there they are they got forty two items in there an earned a fifteen item or less now I mean I’ve got things to do don’t they know that I have places to go they need to they need to open up another cash register Ammash and have to wait here this long we get impatient wait Norma microwave my goodness. We do welcome on do you laugh when we’re impatient waiting on a marker wave. But when God said to Moses be there he met Be prepared to wait a while. What did it say he what up on the mountain in the cloud cover that mountain for how many days do you remember. The way he was there for forty days but it’s beginning the it covered the mountain for six days there was nothing he went into the cloud and for six days he heard nothing and the word said on the seventh day he called out to Moses six days he waited and heard nothing how many would have walked down that mountain after six hours well you departed been writing from your right bottom and right. More be honest he waited for six days you talk about patience now Moses had the patience of a saint. He was a saint great patience he waited six days and then the Lord called out to him and he heard and then I was is I’ve pondered on think about it it might have taken six days for Moses mind to calm down enough to hear God. If he would have been ready on the second day God would have called out to him on the second day get your minds ready to hear what God has for you. Be there be here you may have to wait a while. But please wait on the Lord wait on Him Be patient. Psalms forty six eight through ten says Come behold the works of the Lord who was made. Who was made desolations in the earth he makes wars cease to the ends of the earth he breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two he burns the chariot in fire BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD and I will be exalted among the nations I will be exalted in the earth then also in Isaiah forty twenty eight thirty one have you not known Have you not heard the everlasting God the Lord creator the Lord the Creator the earth’s the ends of the earth I can’t read neither Fanks no reason weary his understanding is unsearchable he gives power to the weak and to those who have no might he increases strength even the use shall not shall faint and be wary and the young man shall only fall but those who wait on the Lord shall we knew their strength they shall mount up with wings like eagles they so run and not be wary they shall walk and not faint wait on the Lord let him read New your strength let him read New your mind. Let him renew your heart wait on him when we desire to commune with God We must be willing to wait we must be willing to abide in abide means to remain. God’s calling us to come near to him it may not be up a mountain that might be into your prayer closet it or wherever that quiet place for you may be but God says wait God says BE THERE BE HERE body mind and spirit not just bodily Don’t just be an empty vessel walking around. But be there mind body and spirit and receive what he has for you. And he will bless you he will renew your strength if we just Or they’re willing to receive what he has for say men.