When I add my welcome to those you have already
received on the south campus and downtown and north and would like to invite
all of us on all three of these campuses to now bow in prayer. "Lord in the little speck called the universe there's a little speck called the Milky Way. And in the Milky Way there’s a little speck
called the solar system and in the solar system there's a little speck
called the Earth. And on the Earth there’s a little speck
called Bethlem Baptist Church and here we are under You the non-Speck. So God I pray, that you'd come and make your
majesty and you’re absolute Being known and felt
as the most basic foundation for all else that is. I ask this in Jesus Name - Amen. In the eleven messages that Lord willing I
will bring between now and the end of the year my ultimate goal is to spread a passion for
the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ. In other words I want to make so much of God
the Father and God the Son through God the Spirit that you would be drawn to
join me in glad adoration of our Triune God. Under that over arching goal for these eleven
messages is this. Another goal I want to awaken and strengthen a strong
Conviction in all of of you that are part of Bethlehem that the last thirty years has not been primarily
consummation but is preparation. Or, to put in a another way, I hope to help
you see and feel that the transition between Jason Meyer and me is non mainly about "landing" but about "launching". Or, to say it in another way, the focus in this transition season should
not be mainly on the great things God has done but
the greater things He is yet to do. That's my other goal. Therefore, it has seen good to me and with
the encouragement of the pastoral staff to not pick up where we left off in the Gospel
of John as much as I would love to do that and maybe finish two more chapters and leave
us all dangling in Chapter seventeen, but rather to deliver a battery of messages
based on some defining truths of Bethlehem thirty year Trademarks you could call them "biblical touch stones" that have shaped this
church profoundly for the last three decades. That's what I'm going to do Lord willing. The reason this seems like a good way to "launch"
rather than "land" is because. Jason Meyer and the Elders and the Staff and
hundreds and hundreds of you are of one mind concerning these things we are not moving blind into the transition
we are not going with a big question mark over where
we will stand under the new leadership biblically and theologically. Rather we
hold some incredibly powerful..foundational realities.. wildly untameable explosively uncontainable electrically future creating and holding these together there is no reason to think that God delights
in these things would not be here for a massive blessing. So let me make clear it's obvious I hope I
don't want to say it right out that before we launch into the "launch" here in this service with these explosive truths that'll take us for eleven Sundays,
Saturdays..I want to say I have little doubt and the little doubt that is there is not of God but of non-God. That Bethlehem beyond John Piper in this pulpit
will experience the greatest seasons we have ever known and I say, "We". The next season of Bethlehem's life will be
the greatest season. Now we've all known ministries that have flourished
for decades, a leadership change happens, and things fall a part impact
wanes, hope fades, joy departs, ministry dwindles and even dies. My deep conviction is God is not going to
let that happen and if I had to I would stake my life on that
prediction. And I don't say that lightly. Not to pump you up with some kind of artificial
hope or expectation but because of biblical realities. Present evidences of God's amazing grace and
favor on us in transition. The reason these foundational realities I'm
gong to talk about these thirty year theological trademarks these biblical touch stones give me hope is because of how
pervasive and deep is the common conviction of the staff and the new leadership
and the council of Elders and so many hundreds of you. There's more. God's finger prints the finger prints of His
grace and favor and guidance are all over this process. Some of those you can see and others for those
only inside we can see better. The last ten months are in my mind perhaps
the most miraculous months of my life here. Those of us who have watched this emergence
of Jason Meyer.. The unification of the staff around him. The unity of the Elders around him.. The stunning unity of a closed ballot vote
of 800 people around him leaves those of us who've been through these things before with our mouths open in astonishment
at God's favor on us. There more. God's Hand is on Jason Meyer. Yes the biblical realities and the unifying
theological convictions are in place and yes there's been astonishing staff and elders and congregational unity which would
all be of no avail if God's hand were not on this man. If God had not said, "Tell them 'I AM' sent Jason"! God has called him put His Hand on him some
of the evidences of that you can see. Those who've known him longer, and better,
can see more. All of this together, is why I say, "that
the transition from my leadership to Jason's leadership will not result in waning impact, loss of
hope, or joy, or dwindling effectiveness, but rather, in the world and in these cities the greatest
season is coming." We will find ourselves moving into greater
works of God, and so, we turn now to the battery of foundational realities. The defining truths,the thirty year theological
trademarks, the biblical touch stones, what ever you want to call them, we turn to them now which have so shaped us and
will continue to shape us, and it is precisely because they are, you will find, wildly untamable. And utterly uncontainable and electrically future creating. You will see this. Unless, you are blind. Here's the first one. "God..is".. Or to say it with our text.. "God is who He is".. Or to say it philosophically.. "God absolutely is". PERIOD! And everything changes. One of the billions of facts Of all the Billions and billions of facts, That there are, this fact "God Is"..is the
most basic, And the most ultimate. All other facts rest..here. All other facts..go..there. There is nothing underneath the fact - "God
Is".. holding it up.. nothing above the fact.. "God is".. To which all is tending. This is the most basic, most ultimate fact
that is! God is. Nothing is more foundational to the church Than "God is".. Nothing is more foundational to your life, Your marriage, Your job, Your health, your mind, your future, than "God is". Nothing is more foundational to the Bible. Or, to the self revelation of God in the Glory
of the Gospel of Jesus Christ than - "God is"! That's the point of today's text. And I invite you to turn there with me. Exodus 3. Let me set the stage. For several centuries the people of Israel,
God's chosen people, has lived as aliens in Egypt.. and now for some time they've been..slaves. And God has seen.. This great God has said, "No More!" And He comes and causes the little baby to
be born named "Moses". And miraculously he escapes the death edict
by the rescue of the Pharaoh’s daughter and is raised in the court of his enemy. Amazing stories in the Bible. And then he kills an Egyptian to save a Jew
and has to escape to Midian and in Midian God comes in a burning bush. And addresses him like this - verse 6 Chapter 3 of Exodus.. He said, "I'm the God of your father, the
God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, Moses hid his face For he was afraid to look at God.. "Then the LORD said, “I have surely seen
the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of
their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down
to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to
bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey,
to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites,
and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And now, behold, the cry of the people of
Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians
oppress them. Come, and I will send you to Pharaoh that
you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” So, Moses is God's chosen leader. To bring the people of Israel out of slavery,
into the promise land, and he shrinks back.. Who would not? Would not Jason shrink back? Have not I shrunk? Would you not shrink back? Verse 11 Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and
bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” And God said verse 12 "I will be with you, and this shall be a sign for you, that I have
sent you: when you have brought this people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this very mountain.” And then Moses brings us to one of the most important things God has
ever said. Verse 13 "Then Moses said to God, If I come to the people of Israel and say
to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to
you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” "God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM." ”And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” "And God said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘The LORD, now.. Hebrew.. YHVH.. "the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, "the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is My Name forever, YHVH! "and thus I am to be remembered throughout
all generations. So.. You ask My Name? I have three things to say to you Moses.. Number 1.. Verse 14 God said to Moses, "I AM Who I AM" That's not His Name. He didn't say His Name. He didn't answer the question first. He said in effect, "Before you worry about
My Name.. "before you line me up..in all the names of
the gods of Egypt or Babylon or Philistia.. "before you ponder conjuring Me with My Name. Before you wonder if My Name lines up with
the God of Abraham, The God of Isaac, The God of Jacob..before you think
about My Name know.. "I AM!" "It's the most basic thing you need to know
Moses! "The most basic thing those people need to
know is I AM Who I AM!" That's first. Before name. That's foundational. That is infinitely important, that's basic,
that's at the bottom of - EVERYTHING! Second. Verse 14 middle of the verse.. "And he said, “Say to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” That's not His Name. He hasn't got to the Name yet. He's building a bridge from His Being to His
Name. Here it is simply.. The One Who Is - is sending you. "So get My Being right." "My absolute Being right." "Put Me and My Being at the bottom of everything. And then go tell the people, "that's where
we're starting". His Being. The One Who Is! Absolutely sent me to you. That's number two. Third thing he says. Verse 15 "God also said to Moses, “Say to this people YHVH that's His Name. Always translated in the ESV with all caps
L-O-R-D YHVH The God of your fathers, the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is My Name forever! So finally, he tells Moses His Name. Four thousand (4,000) times plus in the Old
testament - YHVH. This is amazing. God gave himself a personal name like "James",
or "Peter", or "John". this is not a title this is a name. "Pastor" is a title. "John" is my name. "YHVH" is Elohim's name. Elohim is God. YHVH is "James". YHVH. And He built the Name.. "YHVH" If you knew Hebrew you could just see this. He built the name "YAH-WEH" out of "YHVH"
or "yeh-ho-vaw". Be "I AM!" So that every one of those forty-five hundred
times (4,500) that it is said or read we would know - "I AM!" "I absolutely AM!" That's what He chose to highlight as His Name. In case you wonder, you know this word because
the shorten form of it is "YAH", and you hear it at the end of the word "Hallelu-JAH"! Every time we sing.."Hallelu".. Imperative praise! "YAH" is "YAH-WEH"! So I hope, I hope.. Now, whenever we say "Hallelu-jah".. "Hallelu-jah!" We mean, praise the One Who Is! Praise The absolute Being of God. 'Cause he told us to know Him that way in
His personal Name. So this is the first of eleven (11) foundational
realities, defining truths, thirty year trademarks, that has shaped Bethlehem profoundly for these
thirty years we are blown away by the truth that God is! And if you aren't? You are asleep! It is a staggering thought and reality! God Absolutely "Is"! This is explosively uncontainable. This is wildly untamable. This is electrically future creating. And so what I want to do now Is to tell you ten (10) things that it means. A people who are stunned, by the reality that
God Is Who He Is Will be a people to whom God loves to come. Our Triune God loves to Stoop down and show up in gracious power where
people are blown away by His Being! Here's what it means For God to be God. Number 1. God's absolute Being means He never had a
beginning! This staggers the mind ask any child. "Daddy who made God?" Every child asks that question. It is a Understandable question. And every wise parent says, "Nobody made God. God has always been." Never came in to Being? No. No beginning. Always was. Number two. God's absolutely Being means God will never
end. He won't go out of being. If He did not come into being He can not go out of being because He is Being. There is no place to go outside Being. There is only He. Before He creates That's all there is. God. And no place to go cause there is no place. There's only God. Number three. God's absolute Being means God is absolute
reality. There is no reality before God. There is no reality outside of God. Unless God Wills it and makes it. He is not one of many realities before He
creates. He is simply there. And He is Absolutely there. He is all that was. Eternally. There was no space. There was no universe. There was no emptiness. There was only God. And that's all that ever was eternally. And there is no room for emptiness anywhere.. because there is no "where". Number four God absolute Being means that God is utterly
independent. He depends on nothing to bring Him into Being or to support Him or to council Him or to make Him what He is that is what the word "absolute Being" that
I am using means. All other being is contingent and dependent
that the opposite of absolute or independent. So He is utterly independent. Number five. God's absolute Being means rather that everything that is not God depends totally on God. All that is not GOD is secondary. Dependent. The entire universe let it be said clearly
and matter of factly The entire universe is secondary! And God alone is primary. The universe came into being by God Stays in Being moment by moment on God's decision
to keep it in being. It is utterly totally fragile. And dependent. And secondary. And God Holds it in existence every milli-second of
it's being. If He changed His mind It would be Nothing! Sixth. God's absolute Being means all the universe
is by comparison to God as nothing! Contingent dependent reality is to absolute
independent reality as a shadow to a substance, as an echo to a thunder cloud, as a bubble to the ocean. All that we see All that we are so amazed by in this universe is compared to God as nothing! Isaiah 40:17 "All the nation are as nothing before Him "They are counted by Him as less than nothing
and emptiness." Parenthesis. Unless those kinds of truths in the Bible
concerning our majestic God land on you and have their appropriate effect it will
mean very little to you when He shows up to save those nations and DIE for them! If you try to jump over this statement they're
"nothing to Him" And get to the cross.. where He pays the highest possible price for
them you won't get it! So many people do an end run around so many
truths in the Bible. On their way to what their comfortable with. And they get there and the foundations on which they stand are
this thick. And is there any wonder there's so many fragile
Christians in the world? Close that parenthesis. Number 7. God's absolute Being means that God is constant. He is the same yesterday today and forever. He can not be improved. He is not becoming anything. He is who He is. There is no development in God. There is no progress in God. Absolute perfection can not be improved! Number 8. God's absolute Being means that He is the
absolute standard of truth and goodness and beauty. There's no law book to which He looks in determining
what is right and just. There is no almanac to establish the facts
for God. There is no guild to determine what is excellent
or beautiful in art. Music. Creation. He Himself is the Standard of what is right,
what is true, and what is beautiful. Number 9. God's absolute Being means God does what ever
He pleases and it is always right and it is always beautiful. There are no constraints on Him from outside that could hinder Him from doing what He pleases. All reality that is outside Him He created,
He designed, He governs ws the absolute reality. So, He is utterly free from any constraints
that don't originate in the council of His own Will, and therefore, being absolutely free He always
does His good pleasure. And it is always right and beautiful. And number 10. God's absolute being means that he is the
most important, and the most valuable reality, and the most important and the most valuable person, that is! He is worthy of your highest interest, your
greatest attention, your deepest admiration, and your sweetest enjoyments. Including being superior in all those ways
to the whole universe. That is what we believe. God "Is". It is a wildly untamable, explosively uncontainable,
and electrically future creating reality! God "Is". I wrote a devotion for the staff a month ago
on this topic. And read it to them and I'm going to read
you a piece of it. This flows from what we just seen. "Therefore it is a cosmic outrage "billions of times over "that God is ignored "treated as negligible "questioned "criticized "treated as virtually nothing "and given less thought then the carpet in
people’s houses. "It is a cosmic outrage. "Being the most significant reality there
is "nothing is not rightly known apart from its
relationship to Him. "He is the source and golden definer of all
things and all persons. "We will therefore be a God-besotted people. "To know Him, to admire Him, to make Him known
as glorious is our driving passion. "He is simply, overwhelmingly dominant in
our consciousness. "All will be related to him." Bethlehem. That's who we are. God helping us we will not blaspheme this God by taking Him for granted. By making Him peripheral. By calling Him the "Foundation" while we enjoy EVERYTHING but God! Like a house! Where all is held up by these foundational
walls and the basement.. how we NEVER think about them.. but the food in the kitchen, and the TV in
the den, and the sex in the bedroom.. it is our LIFE! No. No. Not on Jason's watch. We're not going to call him our "Foundation", He's the kitchen. He's the bedroom. He's the den. And everything rightly enjoyed and it is rightly
enjoyed. Each of those rooms is enjoyed in and through
and for His great Being! Or we haven't yet learned what it is to be
- HUMAN! So, God please don't let me, us, ever come
under the criticism out of Albert Einstein. Twenty years ago, I close with this, Twenty years ago I read an article by Charles Misner In which he quoted or referred to Albert Einstein
and when I read it: I'll tell you how I responded But let me read it to you first. "I do see the design of the universe as essentially
a religious question. That is,(this is Misner talking) that is,
one should have some kind of respect and awe for the whole business of the universe It’s very magnificent, and shouldn’t be
taken for granted. In fact, I believe that is why Einstein had
so little use for organized religion, although he strikes me as a basically very
religious man. He must have looked at what the preachers
said about God and felt that they were blaspheming. He had seen much more majesty than they had
ever imagined." And when I read that ten years into my ministry I said, "Never. Never.Never. Never. Never will that happen to me." To me. Jason and I believe with all our hearts that
there are thousands of people in these Twin Cities and billions among the
unreached peoples of the world who would love to know this God! Who absolutely IS and we we and you we know the news! We know the news! That on this little speck of a planet, in
this little speck of a solar system, in this little peanut of the universe,
God Almighty came for us! In the Person of His Son. And stretched Himself on the most agonizing
way of dying possible in order that we might know Him. And enjoy Him. We know this news! And therefore, we exist to spread a passion
for the supremacy of this great God for the joy of all peoples through the
crucified King of Kings! And Lord of Lords who said, "Before Abraham was 'I AM!'" That's why we're here. And if Jason continues on loving, exalting
Him, and lifting up a people. And if these passions God will show up! I'll tell you why next week. Let's pray. So Father in Heaven, I don't doubt because I know Jason and I know
the Elders, I know the staff, and I know where we are, and I know what we love and I know something of your Word and your
Glory, and therefore I am brimming, with a sense of tip toe anticipation of what
you are about to do in this transition and this new season of this great, God dependent,
Church. I thank You. Help us to know You. In Jesus Name. Amen.
