Closer Than You Know
21 July - 25 August 2024
Exodus 2-3 · Have you ever felt like you really needed to hear from God, or simply to know that he was there? Perhaps you faced an opportunity, a difficult decision, or a tough situation.
Or, perhaps God seemed so far away. Join us for this six-week series - focussing on one situation in the life of Moses - as we explore whether God is closer than we realise; how to know if he still speaks today, and how to work out if God cares about our lives.
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Exodus 2:11-25
At some point in our lives, we wonder if God is there, or why he doesn’t seem to intervene. Moses might have wondered that at a very low point in his life. Amid the noise of injustice, sin and crisis, God hears and sees even in the circumstances where it might seem that he doesn’t.
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In Exodus 3:3-4, the exact same phrase is used twice: Moses ‘goes over to look’ at the burning bush, and God sees that Moses has ‘gone over to look’.
This phrase is important and has two aspects to it: a) turning away from one direction; b) giving attention to another direction. This is crucial in our search for God. We often long to experience that he is close, or hear his voice. But what if it starts with us and what if the first step is actively turning towards him.
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Have you ever been in a situation when someone's has really surprised you in the way they act? What if God is like that? If we have the wrong view of God, it dramatically impacts what we presume he might be doing or saying.
If we have an unhealthy view of God, when we go through times where God seems distant or silent (as we all do in life), it can be devastating. Having the right view of ourselves and God changes how we expect him to act and how we expect him to care.
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So often, we look for the spectacular. We long for God to do amazing miracles that calm our doubts and help us believe. But, what if miracles are sometimes more mundane than that? God’s people were looking for a miracle. No doubt Moses was, too! But what he didn’t bargain for was the he might end up being the miracle.
It when we look back through our lives, we see God’s fingerprints in our lives. And then we begin to see his plan for our lives.
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We all need guidance in life at some point…whether a decision is wise, what we should do, or which is the best opportunity to take? How do we know what God wants? How does God guide us and can we ever be 100% sure?
Moses learnt some crucial lessons about God’s guidance. But, he also discovered that there’s only ever one way to really know…it's after you’ve taken a step of faith and see what God has done.
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God has shown in the Bible that he is faithful through the generations. And he asks us to love him with all that we have. But do we find it too easy at times to compromise on his commands?