Women's Bible Study - September 14th, 2022
First B Jackson
2022-09-14

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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We give you thanks. As we dig into your word today in the study, would you just open our hearts? We wanna be changed by you today. We don't wanna just come, go through the motions, sing some words to some songs. Lord, we wanna encounter you.

Be changed by you. Leave this place different because we met you, the one true God, who longs to draw close to us. We praise you. We give you all the thanks. And as Deborah comes, we just ask anointing on her words.

Just thank you for this stunning. Let us get all out of it that we can, that you have for us. In Jesus' name, and everybody said,

Lisa and Carl and Ray. I don't know how we got blessed to get those two guys, Lisa. What did you do?

Thank you.

Well, first of all, we start, does everyone have a handout with blanks on it? Because that's going to be from the teaching. Can we just make sure we have one of those? Does everyone have one? Okay.

No? Where is Casey? Casey, do we need more copies? Okay. Can you raise your hand if you don't have a handout?

It's one. The blue and Alright. I think we're covered. Oh, man. Are you sensing everyone's just wound up today?

K. Let's just open with a word of prayer. Lord, I just thank you. I thank you for this rainy day. I thank you for the chatter in this room.

Thank you, Jesus, for these amazing women who came fired up and ready to go. I can feel it. And I just I thank you for your word. Thank you for Lisa and Carl and Ray for just calming our hearts with their beautiful music. And Lord, I just pray that your spirit would just fall afresh upon all of us that we would just take a deep breath and lay aside our crazy morning of getting here and just that a spirit of calmness would come over us, and we could receive your word that you have for us today.

I believe that you have a word for every single woman in this room today, And I just thank you for that in Jesus name. Amen. Alright. Wow. Okay, ladies.

So last week we talked about a plus b equals c. Do you remember what a is? A is our adversity and our problems and what is b? B is what we believe about it and what is c? The condition of our being.

What we believe about our problems and adversity affects the condition of our well-being. Right? It's not really the problems that affect us as much as what we believe about them, but more importantly what we believe about God. And so today I hope that you had a second to do chapter one. Well, hope you had far more than a second, but it's the introduction to who God is.

And as we're going to discover God went a level deeper and revealing who he is to Moses starting in Exodus three. But our key verse which was in your study guide is from Exodus three. The Lord said, I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying because of their slave drivers and I am concerned about their suffering. So I've come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey.

So remember in this verse our biggest takeaways, God hears us, God sees us, God cares about us and he wants to rescue us and lead us to a place of thriving. And we know that with the Israelites, God used Moses and Aaron as his vessels to lead them out of this land of bondage. When you see Egypt, it means bondage. And it and it's just such an amazing story because we see God doing these unbelievable miracles. And why did he do that?

Because he's establishing with these people that were in a culture with a lot of little g gods, a narrative that wasn't the narrative of truth from him. He is establishing, I'm a God worth following. I'm a God worth your worship because I am the almighty God. And God is calling. Hello.

And we I mean, just the fact that he parted the Red Sea and I was thinking about the Snake River in the spring when it's running really fast down by Big Kahuna. Can you imagine just standing on one side and having the waters just divide? Just even with the little Snake River, he parted a sea for these people. And I think that was establishing, look, if I'm this big that I can part this sea and I can move you physically out of bondage, can you imagine what I can do for you spiritually? Can you imagine what I can do for your soul?

And we, you know, we live in a land where God was leading these people. We live in a land of plenty. Even though, you know, things are shaken up a bit and our freedoms are being threatened for sure. I mean stick your head out of your tent for more than five minutes and you know something's up. Right?

But we still live in the most free land in this entire world. None of us feared for our life coming here this morning. Right? And even though we live in this free land, research after research is showing that in this post pandemic world, even Christians are answering questions and research questions. I'm not thriving.

I may not be in this state of deep depression, but there are answers go along these lines. I'm in a state of stagnation or I'm just feeling empty. I'm not thriving. And I get it because over the past three years, I think we've all lost something. And some of you would say, yeah, I've lost my peace of mind.

I mean, we've all lost something. I remember in maybe a couple months into the pandemic, I came downstairs and I looked at my husband and I have never seen him so stressed. I could feel his stress And I said, what's what's wrong? And he's like, well, we're gonna have to make some tough decisions. You know, we have a business and the way business operates is you have operating income and then you have operating expenses.

And we have been shut down. Nothing, zero has been coming in for weeks. And he's like, I we have employees we've had with us since the beginning. Like thirty years. I need to pay them.

I need to pay for their health insurance. Wow. Stress. And then my phone rings and it's my daughter living in LA. And she's like, mom, have you seen the news?

And I'm like, what's going on? She's like, well, LA is basically burning. I mean, the rioters are coming right down into my neighborhood and she lives in a pretty safe place, But she cannot leave her apartment for fear of being attacked. Yeah, that's that's stress. And as humans we're gonna feel the barometer of stress and fear and anxiety when we get news like that.

That's only human but it's what we do with it that really matters. And I I went out on the porch and I was like, Lord, oh my gosh. I'm feeling really stressed. And you know my prayer when I can't pray, I was just like, Jesus, help me. Jesus, I trust you.

And immediately in my spirit, I heard the Lord say, turn your eyes up on me. Turn your eyes upon me. And so I grabbed my phone and I played that song, turn your eyes upon Jesus. And this is what really struck me. It says, oh soul, are you weary and troubled?

Yes. No light in the darkness you see, there's a light if you look at the savior, a life more abundant and free. And I was like, okay, Lord, I'm going to choose to believe that you are here with us, you see us, you hear us, you care about us, your desire is to rescue us from this. That's the narrative I'm going to play. And I was just recently sharing this with my daughter because she was asking me, mom, what is this study about?

And I said, really the bottom line, Jules, is it's about what narrative we're listening to because it determines the trajectory of our life. It determines whether we thrive. And she said, oh mom, that's the story of the two wolves. Have you heard that story? It goes like this.

One evening, an elderly Cherokee brave told her granddaughter about a battle that goes on inside all of us. She said, the battle is between two wolves inside us. One wolf is evil. He is angry, envy, jealousy, anxiousness, greed, self pity, bitterness, a spirit of meanness, self centeredness, but the other wolf is good. The other wolf is joy, peace, love, calmness, kindness, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.

And the granddaughter thought about it for a minute and then she asked grandma, which wolf wins the battle? And the grandmother said, the one that you feed. And I was like, wow, Jules. That is awesome. I'm like, what wolf are you feeding?

What wolf are we all feeding? You know, God gives us this tremendous power as a human. He gives us a choice every day to choose what wolf we're going to feed. And I think the evil wolf represents the false self. The false self is is the whispers the enemy whispers into our ear that you're no good, that that you're a loser, and the good wolf represents the Holy Spirit of truth, our true self.

Paul tells us in Romans six twenty three that sin brings death, but the gift of God brings eternal life. And so we and our humanists, we think that God is just sitting on his throne ready to zap us when we sin and Paul saying, you know that's really not how it works. Sin in itself is death and that's why God unpacks throughout scripture stay away from this stuff. It's not good for you. Even anxiety over time, even fear over time is not good for you.

I want you to stay away from that. That is not my best for you and that's why he gives us 7,000 promises to combat that. And we think that, you know, the the reason that God impacts it so much is because that initially, why do we sin? Because initially it looks like fun. I mean it does.

But the Bible says its end is destruction and sometimes it's physical death. I had a gal in my Bible study years ago in California, beautiful young woman, a flight attendant and over the years I could see something was going on and then she started showing up at Bible study reeking of alcohol And I was like, girl, it's 10:00 in the morning. What's going on? And she denied, denied, denied. After I moved here, she passed away from alcoholism and left a daughter in high school.

So yes, sin does bring death, not always physical death, but some kind of death. It brings death to relationships, death to trust. It brings death to our reputation. It brings death to us being able to thrive in our sense of well-being. And that's why we're supposed to stay away from that and feed a different narrative.

I read this really interesting research. It was actually secular, but it was right in line with our study about the impact that what we allow our minds to think has on us. It said that when you make a statement in your mind like, you know, I'm no good, nobody loves me, everybody's untrustworthy, that your mind actually starts to look for proof to validate those claims. It's like feeding the bad wolf. And can I just tell you, that evil wolf has a ferocious appetite?

And he will look for examples for you to go, oh, it's true then. It's true. But the research said, if instead you say to yourself things like, you know what? It's a beautiful life. People are generally loving and kind.

There are many blessings to see all around me. Then what happens is your life will be filled with more positive experiences just because that's what you're focused on. Okay. So I want to do a little experiment with you. Okay.

We're gonna take like three seconds. Look around the room and find three things that are red. Three objects that are red. I'm gonna just give you a couple seconds to do that. Okay.

Do you have your three objects? Okay. Now if I were to ask you, can you name three objects that are brown? You probably couldn't without looking around the room. Why?

Because that's what not what your mind was focused on. Our thoughts feed who we become. Where is our focus? And so my ask for you, when you go through the study guide, don't just go through it as check, I did that. I mean I did that for many years back in the day.

But just sit with it and say, Lord, am I really believing what your word says here? Am I playing that tape in my head? Am I choosing to live that out? The gift of God is eternal life. We know it ends well for us, but his other gift is life now.

He doesn't want us to be like research keeps indicating that we're just barely getting by. He wants us to thrive. And I think that's the story of the Israelites. God said, I want you to play a different narrative. I know you came from a culture where the little g gods reign supreme.

But I am leading you to a place and I'm gonna show you that I'm real by these crazy miracles where you can trust me. I am worthy to follow. But you know, how did did they do it? Rarely. Moses did though.

Moses is a great example. And in Exodus three, the Lord came to Moses and he said, I have heard the cry of the Israelites. Their cry has reached me and I've seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So I'm choosing you Moses. Go and lead them out of Egypt.

But Moses said to God, well, who am I that I should go to pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt? And God said, I will be with you. And Moses said to God, okay. So suppose I do go to the Israelites and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you and they ask me, what's his name? Then what should I tell them?

And God said to Moses, you tell them I am who I am. This is what you say to them, I am has sent me to you. So why didn't Moses ask God for his name? Because Moses is going thinking, wow, this is a big ask. You want me to go back to Egypt and lead 3,000,000 people out of Egypt to the promised land?

I need to know who you are exactly. And I think what comes to mind when we think about God, a w Tozer says is the most important thing about us. And John Mark Comer in the introduction of his book, God Has a Name, he shares this comment. He's talking to a rock star and the rock star is asking him about, you know, God. And pastor Comer is telling him and the rock star goes, you know what, I just can't believe in a God who would seriously limit sex to one man and one woman for life.

And John Mark Comer goes on to say, what was so shocking about the rock star's logic is that he couldn't believe in a God who, and you fill in the blank. It says, if what we think and feel about God is an accurate barometer as to who God really is. And I think many of us are worshiping, I don't think us in this room, I think us in general in America are worshiping a God of our own making. It's not even the God of the Bible. So Moses is like, I wanna know who you are.

I'm going to the source. I'm asking you who you are. But what's really interesting about that is before Moses asked God what his name was, Moses says to God, are you kidding? Who am I for this task? I am not equipped.

In case you haven't noticed, you know, I've been in the wilderness for forty years being a shepherd. So I'm a shepherd, I'm gonna march back I mean, just picture this. I'm gonna march back into 3,000,000 Hebrews. I wasn't even raised a Hebrew, although I am a Hebrew. I was raised an Egyptian prince.

I'm gonna march back in and they're gonna say, yeah, sure Moses will follow you. Moses like, I'm the wrong guy. Who am I? And I love this because God could have taken a moment and said, let's have a little self esteem class, Moses. He could have easily done that.

But you know what God did instead? He didn't even address that. He said, I am that I am will be with you. And I will tell you the reason we we gave the the handout for the names of God, whenever I am in crisis mode, I don't wanna know what I can do. I know how limited I am And I I know how fickle I am too.

I go to the names of God. And I sit there with his names until that peace comes to me. And I promise you, God has never let me down. The names of God we in order to thrive, we need to know this God who made us, who knows us better than we know us, who will never leave us, who is a good good father. And Moses somehow knew he needed to know this God.

And so he asked him, he said, okay, what's your name? Like Moses knew some things about God. Prior to Moses, there were certain things that people knew. They knew he was Adonai, Lord and Master. They knew that he was a God El Ra'i that could see them, but they didn't really know a lot about his character.

And the reason I think Moses asked for his name, because names in the ancient world had a big significance. It was almost like if I shared my name with you, I was sharing a little short story about myself with you. And that's not necessarily true today, but today names still have a great meaning, don't they? When we share our name, it's like a when I think of Janet Wittmeyer, I just don't think of the name Janet Wittmeyer. I know Janet Wittmeyer follows Christ.

She's a wife. She's a mother. She's a friend. A name tells a little story about us today too. That's why I said in the study guide, something like, that's why we wouldn't share our name with the serial killer because we don't want him to know anything about us.

A name shares something about us. It's an invitation into a relationship with me when I share my name with you. And don't don't you think it's interesting, like in World War two, the Nazis with the prisoners in their death camps, they would not call them by their name. They assigned a number to them. Why did they do that?

Because it was to dehumanize them and to stick them in a category. If you're in a category, you're a nobody. And a name says, I'm Carol. I'm somebody. Your name tells everyone that you are somebody on this earth.

And Moses said to God, what is your name? And I just love this because up until this time, God had not shared his name. The name Yahweh was used but God did not reveal himself as Yahweh until this moment with Moses. And he said to Moses, he said, Moses, you tell them I am who I am. So on your handout, number one, what does that mean?

I am who I am is another word for Yahweh. And it comes from the Hebrew word, Haya, meaning to be or I am and is connected with the ideal that Yahweh is the eternal one. He is the eternal one. Psalm 92 says, before the mountains were born, before you gave birth to the earth and the world from beginning to end, you are God. Before any of this was here, you were still God.

He was God yesterday. He's God today. He'll be God tomorrow. He is eternal. He is the only person, God, thing ever that is eternal.

You and I are not eternal. We are everlasting. Everlasting means we had a beginning, but as Christians now we have eternal life. But we had a beginning. We haven't always been.

Everything in our universe, everything in our world was created, invented, or made except for God. So God is establishing, there's no one above me. I am eternal. And number two, Yahweh means he is self existent. John five twenty six in the Amplified says, just as the father has life in himself, which means he's self existent, so does the son have life in himself.

And and didn't Jesus say that? Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. I don't just give life, I am life. And I know that's a mind bender because nobody made God. He just always was.

He is self existent. The blue letter Bible says, there was never a time when Yahweh came into existence and there will never be a time when he goes out of existence. Because he created time, he is not limited by time. And I think this is so interesting from the Christian Courier. They had this article about scientists and they said that scientists agree that matter or physical things, cells for example, were all created at some point.

Matter did not always exist. Therefore, their conclusion is, whatever existed prior to the creation of the earth was not material and there and was therefore non material. That is spirit. And I just love when scientists back up scripture because what does Genesis one one through two say? In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

The earth was formless, empty and dark, and covered with deep waters. And what hovered over the waters? The spirit. So God is eternal and he is self ex he he doesn't need anyone or anything. He is God.

And when Yahweh said to Moses, you tell them I am that I am. It was a declaration and an invitation. The name Yahweh implies an invitation. And I love how in Matthew chapter one, Joseph had just found out Mary was pregnant and they weren't married. And he's thinking, I'm definitely divorcing her.

I'm not gonna marry her. But in a dream, we're told the angel of the Lord came to Joseph and he said, don't be afraid to take Mary as your wife. She's going to have a son and you're to call him Jesus because Jesus means he will save his people. And check this out. This is so cool.

I just love how the Bible is just also intertwined. The name Jesus is from the Greek form of Yeshua which literally means Yahweh saves. Jesus saves. Isn't that just amazing how God just intertwines it all together? And in John eight fifty eight, Jesus said when he was in the temple and and the people were like, well, who are you to be teaching us?

And Jesus said, before Abraham, I am. And how did the people react to that? Well, they picked up stones to kill him because they knew what he was saying. He was saying, I am the eternal God. I am the self existent God.

I am the king of kings and the Lord of lords. That's who I am. When Moses shared with the people that I am was sending him, it was an invitation to them. Come follow me. Let's walk out of bondage.

Let's walk out of this life of stress and fear. Let's walk into a place of thriving. But sadly, you know, the people struggled with that, didn't they? In Exodus 32, Moses was on the mountain and the Lord was giving him the 10 commandments. And this is what it says, when the people saw that Moses was so long and coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and they said, hey, come on.

Let's make some gods to go before us that we can follow. Let's go backward to the gods that we left, those little g gods. This guy Moses is taking so long. We don't even know what happened to him. And I get it.

Sometimes God doesn't answer our prayers for a long time. This this New Year's, I always ask for a new verse or a new word from the Lord. And I remember going to church right after New Year's, and I was just struggling with the spirit of despair because there were two prayers, one for me personally and one for someone I love. I've been praying for almost ten years. And I was like, Lord, I'm done.

I just can't do it anymore. I can't I even fast over these prayers and I know they're they're part of your will. I know I'm not asking for anything you don't want. Why aren't you moving? Why aren't you moving?

And the the pastor said, just as I'm thinking this in my head, he said, if you're struggling, ask the Lord for a word. He'll give you a word. Immediately, in my spirit, I heard this word ungrasp. Ungrasp. You're stressing about the things you're praying about.

I've got it. I see you. I hear you and my perfect timing is gonna happen. Persevere. You will never regret persevering with the Lord.

And I think that's how Moses fell. He didn't regret because the Lord said to Moses, I think I'm done with these people. You know what? They keep breaking covenant with me. I'm faithful to them.

They keep breaking their promise with me. I'm not going with them. I will send an angel of the Lord to go before them. They can have the promised land. I promised them that.

I'll give it to them. I'll send an angel to to for safe passage, but I'm done. And Moses says, Lord, you know what he basically says? He said, it's it's not the promised land without you. It's just gonna be ugly.

Please go with us. And the Lord relents and he says, okay, Moses. I'll go with you. And you know Moses is thinking, this God is amazing. Like, he just always forgives.

He is so faithful. So Moses leans in and he says, lord, can I see your glory? I mean, you've told you shared your name with me. I tasted that. I saw how good it was.

I want more. Can I see your glory? And the Lord says, yeah, Moses. Get up tomorrow morning, take some new tablets because you broke the 10 commandments, symbolic of the people breaking covenant with me. Bring those new tablets, I'll meet you on the mountain, and I'll share more of who I am with you.

And so Moses got up the next morning. He carried the the two tablets and a cloud with the Lord came. And we're told the Lord stood there with Moses, and he passed in front of him and he declared this. Said He this is who Yahweh is. Yahweh Yahweh, a compassionate and gracious God.

Slow to anger. We think he's always angry with us. He isn't. He is slow to anger. Abounding in love and faithfulness.

He's like, Moses, I love these people. As unfaithful as they are, I still love them. I will be faithful to them. And not only that, but my promise is I will extend my love. You have prodigal kids in here.

I will extend my love to generation after generation after generation, and I am quick to forgive. I am don't begrudgingly forgive you. I sit on the edge of my throne itching to forgive your sin, your rebellion, even your wickedness. That's the God I am. Don't you know Moses was undone, I'm sure.

Moses was like, wow, I am so glad I chose to follow you. What a God. This is the God that is worthy of our worship, and he is inviting us. Walk out of that land of stress and worry. Come into the land with me where you can thrive.

Lord, thank you so much that you give us so many promises that we can claim that we can feed the good wolf. We can feed the true self who you called us to be. And Lord, our challenge this week is to ask to see your glory. We wanna see your glory, Lord. I pray that tomorrow morning when these ladies take a sip of coffee or tea or water, whatever, that they just say, can I feel your presence today?

Can I have a glimpse of your glory today? I just want more of you, Lord, like Moses prayed, like Moses always asked, Lord. And I pray that this week, we feed the good wolf, Lord. And I just thank you for loving us. Thank you, Jesus.

Amen.

We thank you that everything we need is found in your presence and when we just turn our eyes to you, we don't have to have it all figured out. The circumstances around us still exist, but it's in your presence, Lord, that there's hope. When we truly stand on who you are, we know just like Deborah said, the limitations are our own limitations. We don't wanna know what more we can do. We wanna surrender quickly to you.

So as we go into our small groups today, Lord, we just pray for soft hearts. We pray for revelation from your word and from the study. We give you all the glory for today. Let us see you in everything. Let us look for you in everything.

In Jesus' name. Amen. Ladies, thank you so much, Deborah. That was amazing. Alyssa, thank you for the worship.

We're gonna dismiss you into small groups. For the ladies that weren't there last week, I'd love to have the group leaders all stand up and just raise your hands for me. We're gonna go around the room and just say your name and what group number. That way the ladies know who to follow. We're gonna have two groups downstairs today to try and alleviate some of the noise.

I know it was pretty noisy last week. For group leaders, we technically go until noon, so probably around 11:40 would be a good time to start taking prayer requests and, letting everyone chime in on that. Alright. Why don't we start with number one, and you guys can just go around the room. Say your names.