Abounding Grace

Guest (Male): Next on Abounding Grace.

Pastor Ed Taylor: It's amazing the great grace of God. Because you're here, you might be listening in, maybe from a distance, and you're like, I don't deserve this. That's grace. If you've ever come to that conclusion, that's exactly what grace means. Of course, we don't deserve it. What could we possibly do to deserve the favor of God? What could we possibly do to earn the favor of God? What could we possibly do in our lives? The answer is nothing. Nothing. God's heart is for us to remember we're his special treasure. Maybe you didn't grow up in a home like that, and so it's hard for you to receive that special favor. But God is going to get you through so that you might receive that place in Christ.

It's time for Abounding Grace with Pastor Ed Taylor. We're in the middle of a new study in Exodus, and today we make a return visit to chapter 19. Now, those of you into serious mountain climbing know it's not easy. You train for it, have the right shoes and equipment. But imagine trying to climb a mountain with sandals on and none of your climbing gear. That's where we find Moses. He was willing to brave the climb because he desperately wanted to hear from God. Here's Pastor Ed.

Open your Bibles, would you, to Exodus chapter 19. We'll pick up where we left off last time. I've entitled our Bible study, "Deeper Directions for the Future." We're following this new nation freed from slavery on their way to the Promised Land. They don't know where they're going exactly, where they're going to land. They know the direction they're going. They don't know how long it's going to take to get there. They don't even know up ahead of the failure that the nation will experience in expressing a lack of faith and ending up wandering in the wilderness for forty years. They just know God.

They're trusting God. Everything about their life right now is narrowing in, laser-focused trusting God. They're trusting God in the present, looking back on God's faithfulness in the past, knowing that each step of the way God is going to remain faithful, no matter what it looks like, no matter what it feels like. Remember, they're not perfect in their obedience here. They're not perfect in following. They're complaining, they're murmuring, they don't like being hungry, they don't like being thirsty, they're not so excited about Moses. You'll see a lot more unfold moving forward in Exodus, but they're trusting God.

Trusting God is so messy. It's not as clean as sometimes we make it out to be. You might even beat yourself up and condemn yourself because you've got somebody in your life that seems to have their life in such a great order and yours isn't. The reality is that we're all making this journey together. Some of us are a little more up-front, some of us are behind, but we're all together. Notice with me now in verse one, just by way of review of chapter 19. It says, "In the third month after the children of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on the same day they came to the wilderness of Sinai. For they had departed from Rephidim and had come to the desert of Sinai and camped in the wilderness. So Israel camped there before the mountain."

"And Moses went up to God and the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, 'Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the children of Israel, you have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people. For all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.'" I love verse three. In verse three, it says Moses went up to God and the Lord called to him.

We see both sides of what's happening. We see man's side and we see God's side. Moses goes up the mountain to receive instruction from God, and as he's going up, God calls to him. He has a clearer sense of the voice of God. While we're not climbing mountains to seek the Lord, although maybe you go hiking or something on the weekends, when you and I gather together with the saints, it's like we're going up to hear from the Lord. When you go up to hear from the Lord, or you go out to hear from the Lord, or you go forward to hear from the Lord, you know what? He's going to call to you.

You will hear his word. Every time you open the scriptures, you're going forward to hear from God. When you read the Bible, you hear the voice of God. When you settle your heart to pray, you're seeking after God. When you pray, you're going to hear the voice of God and sense his presence in your life. We have an ordinary man going up to God, listening closely for his words, taking a special effort and discipline to go up. What does it say? God came down and he called to him and spoke to him. I love verse four, by the way. Verse four is so sweet.

He first tells them, and you may need to mark this, this might be the word of the Lord in the season you're in right now. This might be just exactly it. Number one, he tells them, "You have seen. You have seen." Can't you say that today? I think so many, yes. Can't you say that today? I can. I have seen the hand of God in my life over and over and over and over again. You know what really blows my mind and what has been blowing my mind recently is looking back and seeing the hand of God in my life before I even got saved, before I even had a desire. Not only did I have no desire to follow God, but everything in my life was at enmity with God in a very real way.

I'm the kind of guy, and maybe you can share in your own testimony, but I'm the kind of guy that you would come and share the gospel. As my friends were getting saved before me in high school, they'd come and share the gospel with me and they would tell me, "Ed, if you don't receive Jesus, you're going to go to hell." I'm like, "I don't care about hell. When I get to hell, I'm just going to continue partying with all my friends just like I'm partying now." You know what I learned in the Bible? There is no party in hell. That is not the eternity of life separate from God you want to live in the future, but also it's really not the life you want to live today.

I've seen God, and some of you need to pause and see the hand of the Lord in your own life. For him, he points out, "I'm telling you guys, you have seen what I did in Egypt, how I delivered you. I bore you on eagles' wings. I brought you to myself." This is an interesting perspective that God gives because the children of Israel didn't feel this way. Weren't they the ones upset when there was no water? Weren't they the ones upset when there was no food? Weren't they the ones upset, "Have you brought us out here to die?" God's saying, "No, no, you've got it all wrong. You're not seeing it with spiritual eyes. You're seeing it with your human, fleshly eyes. With spiritual eyes, you've got to understand all that you've experienced as hard as it's been, I've been drawing you to myself. I've been hovering over you and protecting you and taking care of you."

Because of that, he says in verse five, "If you're going to obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you're going to be a special treasure to me." There's a special relationship I have in order for those who obey. I love this coming back to verse three. I want to touch on it because we didn't get to it last time. This going up to God, ordinary men, or in our case, ordinary men and women. One of the things we learn here is that God longs for fellowship with his people. He enjoys fellowship with us. Literally the word means communion or oneness, and he loves when we become more in union with him where we come together to be in union with him.

That's exactly what God desires for us. God is calling out to Moses, "Come up to me. Come up to me." Moses is going, "Okay, I will." Before Moses, he had to move a little bit. He had to go up in order to hear of God's faithfulness and how God describes it. I don't know that Moses necessarily saw it this way either, because from a perspective that he had in leadership, he's dealing with problems. He's dealing with problems. Remember what he just learned with Jethro. That's all he did, morning, noon, and night, was deal with all of the minutiae of problems among the people.

Jethro was sent to him to go, "Hey, Moses, it's a better way. There's a much better way for you to lead." I don't know that Moses saw us leading us on eagles' wings. I'm just doing what's in front of me. I don't even have time, or at least I don't even think I have time to see your faithfulness. God says, "That's the first thing I want you to know. When you come to me, I want you to know that I care for you." He reveals his gentle, caring security that's found in him. Fellowship, it's so important. I don't know who it was along the way that invented the concept of an angry, distant, unapproachable, uncaring, unloving God. It does a great disservice to the character and nature of your loving father.

A great disservice. He is intimately concerned with all that's going on with you. Jot this down. I found this scripture in Deuteronomy chapter 32, verse 11. It says, "As an eagle stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, spreading out its wings and taking them up, carrying them on its wings, so the Lord alone led him and there was no foreign god with him." Would you turn forward in the New Testament? Because this principle is carried on in the gathering of the saints, or what we would commonly refer to as church, or what's really happening right now as I'm speaking during the teaching of God's word, during the singing of worship to God, during the discussion surrounding God, during the time of prayer to God. Automatically, what's happening is fellowship.

Notice with me in Acts chapter two in verse 42. Acts chapter two, verse 42. The strength and the health of the early church is right here. This is the strength and the health of your life right here. If this is all that you focused on the rest of your life were these four things, you would grow exponentially. Not only would you be going up to God, but God would then be calling down to you and you would be better suited to hear his voice if you would just follow this instruction that is an example given to us by the early church. Acts chapter two, verse 42. "And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine," so read your Bible, "and in fellowship," be together, "in the breaking of bread," take communion, "and in prayers."

That's it, those four things that will accelerate your spiritual growth. Togetherness in the word of God. *Koinonia*, that's the Greek word, if you like to write those things down. *Koinonia* is the Greek word for fellowship. Being together, sharing life, coming together when things are good, coming together when things are difficult, coming together when nothing special is happening. Just come together. Be in the word together. This is the model of our church. This is in the most simplest way the model of our church. This is what we follow. Acts 2:42. This is our heart. This is our desire, which to some and many over the years, that's too simple.

The Bible is never too simple to follow. It's right here in the scriptures. How did the first-century church without technology, without television, without the internet, without VeggieTales for goodness sake? They had nothing, but they had everything. How did they turn the world upside down in a matter of a few years? Because they came together constantly and continually, steadfastly, seeking God. Fellowship. I want to focus in on this word fellowship just for a moment. The word means to share in common. It has a generic word. It can be used in the ancient Greek language just to describe sharing in things in common.

But that's not how the Bible uses it. The Bible uses it to describe a partnership or a communion together. Christian fellowship is never done alone. Have you noticed that? You always have to have a couple guys, a couple gals together. When we're together, the Lord is in the midst. One of the things I've noticed over the years, for many, many years now, even years as a new believer myself, we as the church have mistaken fellowship for just hanging out. Just hanging out. Somehow that's fellowship. We'll just go grab a meal together and talk about sports. Let's go grab a cup of coffee and talk about the latest fashion, whatever. Just hanging out.

"Well, Pastor, what's wrong with hanging out with other Christians?" Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I know you could be partying. Don't go back to partying. You could be hanging out at the club. Don't go back to the club. You can go get a bottle. Don't get the bottle. Hang out with believers, but understand this: hanging out with believers is not fellowship. It's hanging out with believers. That's a good start. Step number one: find a believer. Step number two: see if they will hang out with you. Yes, that's good. Good beginning. But just because you're hanging out and you're rallying around a common cause or you're talking about a common hobby or you have something that you like, you like coffee together, you like the restaurant together, that's not fellowship.

That's hanging out. Christian fellowship is so much more than hanging out. Christian fellowship begins the moment you begin to talk about the things of the Lord. That is true fellowship, where you can share in common your life in the Lord. When you begin to talk about the things of the Lord, you begin to talk about how God's presence is in your life, when you begin to say, "You know what? You will not believe what I have seen." "Well, what have you seen?" "I have seen the faithfulness of the Lord." "Well, tell me." You begin to share the faithfulness of the Lord and then they respond, the faithfulness of the Lord.

It happened today. It was so good. I was doing the radio program, had a brother call in from back East. I forget exactly where he was, he was on the East Coast somewhere. He had a prayer request, but then he said, "I want to share some scriptures." As he was sharing the scriptures, I said, "Well, share them, we'd love to hear them. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. Share the scriptures." As soon as he shared the first scripture, God immediately put it into my mind a scripture to match it and to come alongside. You have to be careful when you're talking to someone, you can't get in your head and stop listening. Did you know that?

Sometimes we think conversation is, "You keep talking and I'm going to figure out how to argue with you while you're still talking." Don't do that. Listen to it all. I had to dismiss it really quick and let him finish. I go, "Hey, brother, you won't believe this scripture the Lord put in my heart when you shared that scripture." Now, listen, I wasn't thinking of that scripture. That was not on my mind. It wasn't in my list. It wasn't in my devotions this morning, nothing. It came to mind when this brother began to share what was on his heart in the Lord. t stirred up what wasn't even there before, but I had memorized it. I looked it up to make sure I quoted it properly.

I memorized it why? Because the Bible says to hide God's word in your heart so that you won't sin against him. That's a scripture I put in my heart, and as he was sharing his spiritual, speaking spiritual things to me, the word of God triggered in my heart the word that was already there and I was able to share it with him. Here we can have fellowship over the phone lines and the radio lines and all of that thousands of miles away because we were talking about the things of the Lord. Now, I know it doesn't get a lot of attention. Fireworks don't go off when we're sharing about the things of the Lord.

Sometimes we're sharing difficult things, sometimes we're sharing victories. It doesn't get a lot of attention because there's not much to Christian fellowship except that we get to talk about our Lord together. Whether we feel it or not, whether we acknowledge it or not, he's building us up through that. Christian fellowship. The thing is, you have to be careful because you come to a Bible study, God's speaking to you on different topics, different things. Whether you're awake or asleep, it doesn't matter. If you're asleep, God will get it right under your sleep. Don't worry, it's fine you're here, you're in the atmosphere. You'll wake up soon enough. I'll be gone and you'll be here, lights are out, but that's fine.

You are here, you're seeking the Lord, your effort is to be here, you're tired. God's going to speak to you. As soon as you leave, if you change the subject, you lost the fellowship. Like God has been speaking to you, "I can't believe this, there's no parking out here. I can't believe this." Now you're all fellowshipping in complaining. The brothers with you or your sisters with you, your kids are with you, they want to talk about what's on your heart, they want to hear from the Lord. If you're not careful, if I'm not careful, because it happens to all of us, we forget that our lives center and surround Jesus.

We're so quick to give that up. We're so quick to dismiss it with other empty things. For example, we weren't here last week, previous week in Bible study, and you left here and did whatever and said whatever. Do you remember what you gave up Jesus for when you left here? Probably not. "Well, I was thinking about my Chipotle order." Big deal. Now you ate the food and it came right back out of you. That's it, it's over. But you gave up Jesus for Chipotle? You gave up Jesus for pickleball? You gave up Jesus for complaining about parking? We allow fellowship to be broken both with others and with God so quickly and so cheaply.

It's something we need to guard. Fellowship has even become a verb in the church today. We talk about, "Hey, we were fellowshipping with one another." It usually just means we had some coffee and donuts and set our Bibles aside. Actually didn't even need our Bibles, we left them in the car because we weren't even planning to talk about the things of God. We wanted to catch up on life. But it's impossible to really catch up on life unless your life has been centered on the Lord. It's impossible to catch up on life without including the Lord. Fellowship. Fellowship's never done alone.

In order to grow as a Christian, it's essential that we step into each other's lives and we make ourselves available, like Moses does here. He goes up to God, it says, and God called to him. Fellowship first with God, then with others. He gives the direction. Notice in verse five, "If you'll indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then," so this is a conditional covenant, "if, then." You see that? "You shall be a special treasure to me. You shall be to me a kingdom of priests and holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the children of Israel."

If the nation didn't already know this, God is being very gracious to remind them of how special they are. Everything that's happened to them is incredibly unique, a special treasure. Not only that, with all the groaning and all the moaning and all the complaining and all the corrupting, both what's happened and even what's going to happen in the future. They doubted, they despised, they whined, they cried, but still a special treasure. The same could be said for you and me, whatever this week was, whatever we offered to the Lord. We sang and we enjoyed, but we probably complained this week. We probably was frustrated this week.

We probably got into the flesh this week. All of that about us and still a special treasure. This is picked up over in the New Covenant in even greater way in Ephesians chapter one. In Ephesians chapter one, there's that sense of all that we are in Christ, all that's ours. First Peter, you can jot it down in chapter two, verse nine, God is looking for that special people, that special treasure unto himself. It's amazing the great grace of God. Because you're here, you might be listening in, maybe from a distance, and you're like, I don't deserve this. That's grace.

If you've ever come to that conclusion, that's exactly what grace means. Of course, we don't deserve it. What could we possibly do to deserve the favor of God? What could we possibly do to earn the favor of God? What could we possibly do in our lives? The answer is nothing. Nothing. God's heart is for us to remember we're his special treasure. Maybe you didn't grow up in a home like that, and so it's hard for you to receive that special favor. But God is going to get you through so that you might receive that place in Christ. Maybe you didn't grow up later on in life in a marriage like that, where you've been treasured and valued, but God is going to give you that value as his own special treasure.

Maybe as a single person right now, you feel abandoned and alone, but you have to understand the favor of God is upon you as much as any married person in this place. You get to share in so much. Not only that, I just feel it's a word from the Lord, you guys that are single. You don't have to shout it out or anything, that's fine. I just want you to know this. Anyone that's single here gets to completely devote themselves completely, totally to serving the Lord during that season. You don't have to be concerned about your spouse. Did you know that? "But I want to be concerned." Okay, soon enough, soon enough.

Come on, the singles among us, I know there's a great desire to be married and we say amen to that. But then there's a few married people that have that desire to be married, of course. Now, stop it! Don't you follow along. You guys all repent.

Guest (Male): This is Abounding Grace, and Pastor Ed Taylor is leading a study of Exodus right now. You can hear these radio programs on our website anytime at aboundinggraceradio.com or listen to us wherever you get your podcasts. Another way to go and grow in the word is by downloading our app. Search for Ed Taylor. This is a great way for you to take in the word of God wherever you may be.

Do you struggle with anger as so many do? We'd like to recommend an excellent book on the subject from Tim LaHaye and Bob Phillips. It's titled "Anger Is a Choice." Whether you're dealing with the rage of others or battle it yourself, you'll discover how to keep anger under control instead of it being in control. Request a copy today when you give a gift of twenty-five dollars or more to Abounding Grace. Call 877-30-GRACE. I should also mention the book is available online at our e-store. Take a look at calvaryco.store. calvaryco.store. Again, the toll-free number: 877-30-GRACE.

There are some costs that go with being on the radio like this, and we're looking to the Lord to provide for us. If he's leading you to take an active role in the ministry through either a one-time gift or ongoing monthly support, please visit us online at aboundinggraceradio.com or call 877-30-GRACE. Well, that will do it for today. Come back tomorrow and Pastor Ed Taylor will pick up where we left off in Exodus here on Abounding Grace. Abounding Grace is brought to you by Calvary Church Colorado here in Aurora.