Once again, it's just a joy and
a privilege to be with you. And I'm just so glad when my
day turns around or comes up here to come up to the VA home.
So thank you. Thank you very much. And thank
you for your service. And I think we probably all know
someone that was injured or fell in battle on tomorrow's Memorial
Day. So I want to be thankful for
those that allow us to do this, to gather in freedom, to worship
the Lord in freedom. And that's just an honor. And to be able to speak. I enjoy
going to Washington without having to show papers. You know, if
you live some places, you got to show papers. You got to prove
who you are every time. So we're so thankful that we
live where we do. and I'm thankful for you that
helped me to have this privilege. Well, today we're going to be
reading a couple of verses of scripture, two verses of scripture
out of the book of Exodus. Exodus is an Old Testament book,
and the first five books of the Bible, called the Pentateuch,
were authored not They were authored by the Holy Spirit, but Moses
was the penman. Now I can just see in my mind's
eye that he had his pen or whatever he used and some papyrus or whatever
paper he had and God had a hold of his arm and helped him write
everything he wrote. He didn't give him the liberty
to write because he wanted it perfect. And so when he caused
it to be written as he demanded it, we in its original form was
perfect. All right. And over here in the
book of Exodus, the second book of the Old Testament, we find
that Moses is wandering out in the wilderness, herding sheep
for his father-in-law. Now, he's been raised by Pharaoh.
He's been known to be a very rich person. He's had all of
the very finest things that the world had to offer in his day.
And he got into a conflict, and to save his skin, he left and
ran away. And he comes down to, marries
a lady, and he marries a lady whose father is a priest of some
kind, and he's out herding his father-in-law's sheep. And one
day, God, in his purpose, determined to meet this guy face to face.
Now, he knew him from the very beginning, but they're going
to meet face to face. Moses is going to meet God. And
I don't know if you have been out in the desert and seen those
great big sagebrush bushes. I mean, where I grew up, they
were this tall, sagebrush bushes. They had roots or a stump about
like that. But then you get into areas and
they're about that tall, depending on the soil. Well, I kind of
imagine when I read this that it was a big sagebrush out there
in the desert, and God put it on fire. But the miracle of it
was it was not consumed. Now, I've burned stuff before,
and after a while, there's nothing left, ashes. But it was not burned
up. God protected that bush, but
he had it on fire. Now, there was a reason for him
doing this. He wanted to get Moses's attention. And you know,
when God wants to get our attention, he's going to do it. He's just
not going to let us pass by. He's going to get our attention.
So he got Moses's attention. He says, what is that? A bush that will not be consumed.
I think I'll go take a look at it. And so he walked over there
and out of that bush, God spoke to him and said, take off your
shoes for the ground you're standing on is holy ground. God gave him
some instructions about what he had planned for him. You're
gonna go back down to Egypt. Are you kidding me? I left there
with great fear. They were after my hide. But
he says, you're going down there and you're gonna lead my people
out of Egypt. They're in slavery and I'm gonna
have you lead them out of Egypt. Well, he has all kinds of excuses
that he gives, but the Lord is not gonna listen to it. He said,
I'll provide everything you need. When it came time, there in the
book of Exodus chapter three, Moses said unto God, behold,
when I come unto the children of Israel and shall say unto
them, the God of your fathers has sent me unto you and they
shall say unto me, what is his name? What shall I say unto them? I need a name. What is your name? Well, this is the name that God
gave to Moses as he spoke out of that burning bush. He said
there, and God said unto Moses, I am that I am. Now that's a unique name. I am
that I am. I'm Norm. We have three Bobs
here today. Many others names, significant
names representing people. representing friends, representing
those that we are getting to know and are attracted to. I
just appreciate it so much. But this God's name is I am that
I am. And that means I am the self
existing one. I don't depend on anybody to
help me. He is the creator of all things.
He's the puller together of all things. He's the guide of all
things. He directs our lives. He is in absolute control of
all things. And that's what he shares with
Moses. I am that I am, and he said, thus shalt thou say unto
the children of Israel, I am, hath sent me unto you. So that's
the name that Moses goes down to Egypt and represents. He represents God, and this name
represents God. Well, the interesting thing about
this, after we travel many, many years down through history, that
we have a man born of Mary that is the God-man. He is Emmanuel,
God with us. He's a very special person. He
is 100% God and 100% man. And it's hard for me to put together
that, but it's said it in the word, and I'm just gonna take
it for fact, because it is. If we don't believe it, God still
said it. So here we have God-man King,
his name is Jesus Christ, They call him Jesus of Nazareth, several
different names, but he is the virgin born son of God. And he
came down to this earth and he began his ministry about 30 years
of age. It tells us in the New Testament
that he began to preach about 30 years of age. Well, all of
that time he is visiting with his father, heavenly father.
He is a carpenter's son. He probably worked in his stepfather's
carpentry shop. He was a person of good report.
He didn't have any sin against him because he didn't sin. This
one man is the only man that ever walked this earth that didn't
commit one sin. He didn't think a bad thought.
He didn't do a bad thing in his heart. He didn't do a bad thing
with his hands. He didn't go anywhere that was a bad place
to be. But he was here to save his people from their sins. Well,
when it came time to tell the people who he was. In the book
of John, it mentioned several times that this is who he said,
I am. Now that's an interesting term,
I am. Jesus used this several times
in the book of John. And the first one that we looked
at is in John six and it says, I am the bread of life. He is
my father. Yes, he is. And he's the bread
of life. Now we look at that spiritually.
He's not talking about a loaf of good bread. He's talking about
himself being the bread that feeds his people. He's talking
about sustenance in himself and he's the only one that we can
have spiritual life through. We find there's none other name
under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. He
is the only savior. No priest can save us. No baptism
can save us. No good works can save us. It's
going to have to be the grace of God. So he's the bread of
life. The next time we looked at, I
am the light of the world. You know, he is the one that
created the lights that we see. Heaven, the stars, the moon,
the sun. He's the one that created all
of that. But when it comes to life in here, he is the light
that must light us. We come into this world pretty
dark. In fact, it says we're dead in trespasses and sin. So
he has to be the light to lighten us. We can't do it ourself. You
know, have you ever seen someone trying to strike a cigarette
lighter and there's no fluid in it? Nothing happens. Well, you put
fluid in it and it'll light up. Well, that's kind of what God
does for his people. He puts fluid in us. He lights
us up. He gives us his spirit. And so we have spiritual life. And that spiritual life is in
fellowship with a spiritual God. So he says, I am the light of
the world. And the next thing he says, I'm the door. Now the
door is for entrance, but it's also for protection. It's an
exit place, but it's also for protection. I'm thankful for
a steel door on my home. It's for protection. Now, it
doesn't mean that someone can't break it down. They could. But
this door that Jesus is, nobody can bully him. Nobody can push
him around. He is going to be the protection
for his people, but he is the door of entrance too. It is by
him we enter into the kingdom of heaven. And then he said,
I'm the good shepherd. Well, I just love that verse
of scripture. I've never herded sheep. I've never known many
shepherds. I've seen them out in the woods
with their band of sheep, but I don't know much about them.
But I do know this about Jesus Christ. He is the shepherd of
his flock. He knows them all by name. He knows our frame. He knows
our thoughts. He knows our intents. He knows
how we're doing. He knows what chemicals or minerals
we might need. He knows all about us. We're
fearfully and wonderfully made is what God said. So he is the
good shepherd. He's the shepherd of the church.
He watches over the church. He protects the church. And he
said, with regard to the sheep, my sheep hear my voice and they
follow me. So his sheep are going to follow
him. What he has to say is what they're going to believe, and
that's what they will share, nothing more. And then he said,
for today, I am the resurrection and the life. Now that passage
of scripture is found in the book of John chapter 11. And I want to go over there to
John chapter 11 and read that verse of scripture. And then
we'd like to look at a little context that brings up some points
about this. I am the resurrection, the life.
So John chapter 11 and there in verse 25, we have these words. He said, Jesus said, unto her,
unto Mary, or Martha, back up here, Martha, it's Martha, and
it says, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth
in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. Now, we often
think about that as when our life is over. We die, we're buried,
and then we think, well, he's gonna come and resurrect us.
Well, he is, but we better have another resurrection first. We
need to be raised from death. We need to be raised from the
spiritual dead. We need to have a new birth. And Jesus Christ
is sharing with them. Now, it's interesting that this
verse of scripture is couched in a wonderful passage of scripture. Jesus is over here and he gets
word. Now, I don't know how he gets
word, whether it's someone brings him a letter, whether someone
travels, I don't know how he gets it, but he already knew
what was going on before he got the note. He knows all things. And he knew what was going on
over there with his friend Lazarus. But he gets a note. Someone shares
with him that Lazarus is sick. Now, just the other day, we got
word, Mike and I got word, that a dear friend of ours was sick.
And we drove up to the Seattle area to see him. He was very
sick, in fact. And I just think about, well,
Lord, why didn't you Go right over there and help this man
that's sick. Now, he could have healed him
from where he was, because he has done that in the past in
the Bible. Or he could have went over there and took care of business,
but he didn't. He stayed where he was until
they got word Lazarus is dead. Well, a lot of people say, well,
it's over now. No hope for that man now. He's died. And he's going to
be buried before Jesus gets there. But so Jesus says to his disciples,
let's go over there. And they said, well, what's the
use? He's dead. And besides that,
those people over there don't like us. They'll kill us. But
Jesus said, we go and went over there. And he comes into town. And he notices that his friend that died had two sisters,
Mary and Martha. And when one of them heard about
Jesus coming, she ran out there. Oh Lord, if you'd have been here,
my brother would not have died. And then he brings up, I'm the
resurrection and the life. Well, conversation between both
of the sisters. And finally he said, show me
where he's laid. Now he happened to be in a tomb
with some sort of stone in the front of it. It's not like we
are in the West. We usually bury people in the
ground. But there was a stone rolled in front of this cavern
or whatever it was. And Jesus said, take that stone
away. And you know what the sisters had to say? No, by now he stinketh. He's been dead four days. He's
in the state of decomposition. There's no hope from any doctor,
no hope from anybody, natural man, to get this man to come
out of that grave. He's dead, so leave him alone.
Jesus said, roll the stone away. Now, Jesus spoke to his father
and he said, we're here on purpose to show your glory. And he cried
out, Lazarus, come forth. And guess what? Lazarus came forth, came right
up to the door. He is wrapped in his grave clothes,
and the Lord says, take him out of his grave clothes, but he's
alive as he's ever been. He raised him from the physical
dead. Now, I'm convinced that there
was a time in Lazarus's life when he had raised him from the
spiritual dead, but he's died, now he's raised back up. You
know, the religious people of the day, when they heard about
it, what they wanted to do with Lazarus, you know what they wanted
to do, they wanted to kill him. He's such a testimony that Jesus
is the resurrection and the life. Let's kill him. They weren't
happy about it. They were not glad about what
God had done, what the Lord had done. They were really peeved
and they started to plot how they're going to kill Jesus and
how they're going to kill Lazarus. Well, Lazarus is so well, he
starts to eat. He's just back to normal, thankful. And so the Lord Jesus shares
with us, I am the resurrection and the life. I'm the resurrection
and the life to bring dead people out of tombs. And he did that.
He will do that at the end of time. He'll raise everybody.
There will be a general resurrection and everybody will be raised
out of the tomb. But this is so important is that
we have his spiritual resurrection, that he comes to us in our life. that he comes to us in his power
and raises us from the spiritual dead. Now, the Bible calls it
the new birth. The Old Testament says a circumcised
heart, a new heart. That's all through the scriptures.
We have terms that relate that to us. And that's what he must
do. And it's something we can't do.
I've asked many, many people, how much did you have to do with
your physical birth? And you know, I've never had
anybody say, well, I was involved. No, we weren't. Mom and dad were
involved, but we were just unattached from them. And then how do I
know that you were born? Well, I've had to show my birth
certificate to show, prove that I was actually born. And here
I am a walking, talking, warm person in their face, but they
won't take that. Well, I want to say this next
time I quit kicking my mama. I'm out of her womb. She has
some relief now. Well, how do I know that I've
been born again? I've told a young man this many
times. I quit arguing with God. God gave me peace in Christ Jesus
the Lord, and I don't have to argue with God anymore about
what his word has to say. I can be given the spirit to
believe it as it is written, and that's what I've been given
a gift to do. No more arguments with God. What he said is the
truth, and he is the way, the truth, and the life. but how
glorious it is I am the resurrection in the life I will take care
of your spiritual resurrection and in due time I'll take care
of your physical resurrection and all his will be raised to
newness of life now everybody's gonna be raised Daniel wrote
about it over there in the book of Daniel. He said, some to life
everlasting and some to eternal punishment, but everybody's going
to be raised. Some are going to meet him and
say, the Lord's going to say, welcome, you good and faithful
servant. And we're going to look at him
and say, are you talking about me? My goodness, what a wreck
my life has been, but it's been wrecked around Jesus Christ. And then he's going to say to
those others, depart from me. I never raised you in this life. I've raised you in death. Now depart. So there is only
one way. Jesus Christ is the way. He is
the resurrection and the life. And Lord willing, next time we
get together, we'll get to that point. I am the way, the truth,
and the life. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. And that's what Jesus said about himself. And that
is his name, I am. The Old Testament said, I am
that I am. The New Testament says, I am
the bread of life. I am the light of the world.
I am the door. I am the good shepherd. I am
the resurrection and the life. I am the way, the truth and the
life. And then he says, I'm the true vine. So we'll in time catch
the last two of these and share that with you. It's been a blessing
to be with you today and I'm going to have My friend Mike
come and lead in a couple of songs in closing and then we'll
have prayer.