Let me tell you something about nothing. Now, I don’t mean that I’m talking about meaningless things. What I’m saying is that nothing tells us something very important about God.

Maybe you think I’ve finally lost it. Well, I haven’t, but before I lose you, let’s dig into our verse for today.

God is faithfully telling Moses what He’s about to do for the people of Israel. In the preceding verses, He has revealed His core attributes and now says, “Here’s how I’m going to come to your defense. Here is the contract or covenant that I’m going to put in place.” And what I desperately need for you and for myself to realize is that the people have done nothing to deserve that covenant. Nothing.

In fact they have done plenty to not deserve this covenant. They have done plenty that should have led to God saying, “Forget it. Deal’s off.” And yet, out of nothing comes something.

Out of nothing, absolutely nothing, God says, “You are going to see things you have never seen before. Oh, you don’t deserve it. You don’t deserve a stinking wink of this. But you’re going to see awesome things that I’m going to do for you. I’m going to make an everlasting covenant with you, and I’m going to drive out from you all of your enemies.”

Think you’re deserving of that? Absolutely not. Not a single one of us are. What we’re deserving of is death. What we’re deserving of is hell. What we’re deserving of is not even being forgiven of our iniquities or our transgressions or our sins or seeing even the smallest glimpse of God’s mercy and grace and abounding goodness and truth.

And yet, here is a God who, out of nothing being offered, provides for us everything we could ever hope for or imagine.

This is the nature of our God who never changes. This is the God who is calling to you right now, wanting to do more for you than you could ever deserve. Will you come and follow this God today?

Prayer—
Father God,
Thank You for being so faithful, even though I don’t deserve it! I come to You today and bow my heart before You. I want to belong to You!
Amen

What do you know about God? Probably quite a bit, right? Or maybe not quite so much if you’re new to the church.

The truth is that there is a lot to know about God, but what do you suppose is the most important to know? God helps us answer this question in something He says to Moses in one of the most radical experiences any human has ever had.

Now listen. There were a lot of things that Moses already knew about God. He had seen the power of God displayed incredibly throughout those ten plagues that hit Pharaoh and Egypt. But there was something more that Moses wanted than just the display of the power of God.

And God comes down and He meets him there, and He does reveal to him His glory, at least a glimpse of it, but even more and even deeper, He reveals His very heart, saying, “This is what you need to know about me as you step forth into this venture of faith that will last the next thirty-eight years. You need to know I’m a merciful God. You need to know that I am a gracious God. You need to know that I am longsuffering.”

And when you and I come under God’s leadership and Lordship, these attributes that God revealed to Moses become the attributes that He reveals to us, for they are the very attributes of love in First Corinthians 13. They are also the very attributes of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5. And we know that God is the same yesterday today and forever.

So if God is showing Himself through these attributes to one guy named Moses on Mount Sinai, you can be assured that those attributes have not changed and they are the same for you in the midst of your mountain or valley or fiery furnace.

God is merciful. God is gracious. God is patient. God is abounding in goodness and truth. God is faithful, keeping mercy for thousands. God is faithful, and He is forgiving.

You know what all this says to me? What’s most important to know about God is that nothing can keep us from Him if we will just repent and go to Him. Don’t let anything keep you from His presence in your life today. Come now, no matter what you’ve done or has been done to you, and He will take care of it.

Prayer—
Lord God,
Thank You that what You want me to know about You is that You’re big enough to handle anything in my life! I really need Your help, so I come to You today and ask you to forgive me, to set me free from my past into the fullness of all You have for me.
Amen

Have you ever been told that you’re different? I hear that one all the time, and sometimes it’s good and sometimes it’s bad.

It’s like, your wife makes a new recipe and you try it and she asks, “What do you think?” And you say, “Um, well, it’s different!” Or it could be more like, “Wow, there’s just something different about that person; I really like them.”

We’re supposed to be different, so it’s important for us to understand what makes us different. Here, in our verses for today, we find our answer—what makes us different is God’s presence.

More than that, Moses shows us just how important it is for us to have God’s presence and to be different. He tells God, “If your presence doesn’t go with us, don’t even bring us up from here. Don’t even bother.” In other words, “I’m not going if You’re not going.”

That ought to be your heart. If You’re not in, I’m not in. If You’re not going, I’m not going.

To put this in perspective, remember what Moses was talking about here—he was saying that he’d rather spend the rest of his life in the barren wilderness in God’s presence than continue on to the Promised Land without Him.

What are the dreams of your heart? What things have you pursued in your life? What goals have you aimed for and worked towards? Or, if you are in a place of transition like Israel was, where are you going? Is God going with you, or are these just plans you’ve made up on your own that you think you’ll accomplish in your own strength?

Here’s the deal, we need to be different, but what makes us different is God’s presence. And we have the promise that He is always with us, so it is now simply up to us to live in such a way that we recognize His presence. This means that we live as Moses did, making sure that we not just do what God says to do, but to do it in a relationship with Him that is more important to us than anything else.

Prayer—
Lord God,
Thank You for Your presence in my life! Please forgive me for times when I have not made Your presence the most important thing, and help me to always look to You before I go anywhere. Let me not run off on my own, remaining with You, so that I may be known as Yours!
Amen

What gigantic things are you facing these days? Are there any transitions you’re going through right now?

You know, transitions are usually hard. They mean leaving familiar things behind and entering into new things, and we don’t always know how we’ll do with those new things. Well, Israel had a huge transition once. It was something called The Exodus; maybe you’ve heard of it. They were leaving Egypt, where they had been slaves for four hundred years, and heading to the land God had promised to give to their forefathers.

Their first stop on that journey was Mt. Sinai, where God gave them the Ten Commandments and the instructions for building the Tabernacle. Just as God began telling them that it was time to leave the mountain, there was some confusion about who was going to go with them.

At one point, God tells the people that He’s sending an angel to help them enter the Promised Land, but Moses goes back to God and says, “You haven’t told us whom You will send with us.” It’s almost like Moses was arguing with God a bit, wanting more from Him, wanting to see more specifics of what God was saying.

But here’s God’s answer: “My presence will go with you.”

“My Presence”—it’s the greatest gift of God. Not present, like present under the Christmas Tree, presence. And wanting more of His presence in your life is what you should be asking for.

And He promises right here, “My presence will go with you and I will give you rest.” Halleluiah! What a great promise of God. Don’t miss that. Don’t somehow undervalue that promise of His presence with you. The presence of the Lord is going to go with you wherever you go.

He will not leave you. He will not forsake you. Forget about all of the rest of your “Yeah, but …” He’s with you. Done deal. “Never leave you. My presence will go with you.”

The matter is settled. There are no more questions to ask. Whatever transition you’re going through right now, whatever gigantic things you are facing, God’s presence is with you, even right now while you’re reading these words, setting you apart and setting you free into all that He has for you.

Prayer—
Lord God,
Thank You that Your presence is always with me! I know that, no matter what I face, I can always overcome it and conquer my circumstances because You are with me!
Amen

How did you like our verses for today? I think they probably hit home for a lot of us these days, don’t they?

But did you know that God was not just pointing out a problem to Israel, dooming them to be stuck there? No, He gave them the answer.

The deal facing Israel was this—all the people were saying, “It’s not time to build God’s house yet,” but God was saying, “Oh, so it’s time for you to live in lavish houses while mine stands in ruins? I don’t think so.”

I get a lot of this. I get “Bob, a giving series now? This is not the right time. Do you know what’s happening with the economy? Do you know what’s happened to my 401k? Do you know what’s happening out there with this recession and everything? Not good timing for this series.”

Really? I don’t think there could be a better time for this series. Do you know why I think that? Because God says that’s the perfect time to talk about giving, because our attitude toward giving proves where our attitude toward God is.

The Israelites had their priorities mixed up and God asked them, “Why isn’t your heart stirred towards this? Why aren’t you living for this?” And He gives them a few clues to help them figure out that the poverty of their attitude toward Him has brought about their financial poverty. It’s like, where did it all go? We bring it home, but we put it in pockets that have holes in them.

But the Lord gave them the action step: Go get wood and build My house. Go. Do this. Put Me first in your life.

Church, with all my heart, there has never been a better time to put God first than right now. Take it from my experience and don’t waste years of your life like I did, not letting Jesus really be Lord of my life. For years, I believed Him for my sins, but I didn’t believe Him for my salary. I believed Him for my future, but I didn’t believe Him for my finances.

God is our provider—Jehovah-Jireh—but He wants all of us. If you’re working your tail off to make money, but it feels like you put it in pockets with holes in them, then examine yourself today. Is God really Lord of everything in your life? Does He really come first?

Prayer—
Lord Jesus,
The verses from Your Word completely describe me, and I’m so sorry. Please forgive me for not trusting You and putting You first! I give my whole life and everything that I have into Your hands today. Please turn my life around!
Amen

Did you know that God waits for you to give before He gives you more? See, He already gave you all you have, but there is a purpose in His giving.

It’s not that God gives with strings attached; it’s just that faithfulness is important to Him. When He sees that we’re faithful with what we have, He knows He can trust us to do the right thing with more.

Our verses today compare our finances with seed and liken giving to sowing. Now, if we’re going to sow sparingly, it doesn’t give Him much to work with. But if you sow bountifully, He is going to bless you for that and you will reap bountifully, for God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you always having all sufficiency in all things may have an abundance for every good work.

Now, if you’ve ever wondered what God’s perspective is on prosperity, there it is. He’s saying that He supplies all things for all sufficiency so that we may abound in every good work. And in all the “alls” there, don’t miss the point—the good works we do with the seed He gives us.

God is saying He will supply seed to the sower, okay? He doesn’t say he’ll supply seed to the hoarder. He wants to bless you so that you can see this miraculous, faithful hand of His provision showing up in what you have sown.

If you’re holding on so tightly, then you’re not going to be able to see the fruit of the promise that He will be with you there, that He’ll supply for you there, that He’ll multiply for you there. He will increase the fruits of your righteousness there so you can be more generous, so you can give more away.

Do you see that word in our verses—liberality? Do you know what that word is? Liberal. You need to become a liberal. And I don’t mean politically, but I do mean generously. Become more liberal and generous, so that God can bless you with more seed, so that you can bless more people, so that He can bless you with more seed, and on and on.

You are enriched in everything for all liberality. Find somewhere today where you can be liberal in giving.

Prayer—
Father God,
Thank You for providing for all my needs, giving me more than just enough so that I can sow seed into good ground! Thank You that I can trust You to provide for me as I simply live by what Your Word says!
Amen

Life is full of choices, and, you know what, sometimes it’s nice when people simplify my choices for me. Would you like this, or would you like that?

Our verses today show us two sides of the biggest choice you will ever have to make—the choice of whether or not to believe in Jesus.

The first thing we see—or hear, really—is a song that is being sung by the saints who have died during the Great Tribulation. Now, these are saints who chose not to believe in Jesus before the Rapture, but have chosen Jesus after that time and have now stood strong against the anti-Christ, perhaps even being martyred for their faith. These are people who have paid the ultimate price for Jesus, just as He did for them.

And the song these people sing is a song of deliverance, glorifying God as the great and marvelous Lord God Almighty and declaring that all nations shall worship Him. Stop there. All nations will worship Him. That means everyone. And by that, I mean that eventually you won’t have a choice; you will worship Jesus someday. The only question is whether you will choose while it is still an option.

But what about those who do not choose while it’s an option. What about those who not only reject Jesus now, but also after the Rapture during the Great Tribulation? Well, that’s where the second half of our verses today comes in, where the angels come out of the heavenly temple, carrying seven plagues, and are given the seven bowls of God’s wrath.

They pour this wrath out on the earth, the final measure of God’s judgment and warning, the final plea to all remaining people that they must turn and follow Him

Which brings us back to our choice. There is time right now to believe in Jesus and begin living for Him. In fact, now is the best time, because no one knows how much more time we have. What I do know is that you want it to be you who makes the choice to worship Jesus. You don’t want Him to make that choice for you, because once He makes that choice for you then it’s too late—too late and His wrath is coming for you.

Choose Jesus today. Choose Him today, and receive mercy.

Prayer—
Lord Jesus,
Thank You for coming to save me! I know that I’ve done wrong things and run from You, but I turn to You today and receive You into my heart. Please lead me in a new life with You!
Amen

You know the picture of heaven. We’ll all be sitting around on clouds, with wings like angels, and we’ll all be playing harps, right?

Well, actually, no. Our verses today talk about certain saints who are standing on the crystal sea and playing harps, but the harps are just a symbol to tell us that they are praising God. And what I want you to see is the song that they’re singing. The song that they sing is the song of Moses, and the words they are singing are so powerful for us today.

See, I think it’s getting harder and harder for us to put a positive spin on life if we’re living it for anything other than the Lord. And it almost seems like sin is winning. But we need to remember what scripture teaches us, that greater is He who is in us than He who is in the world. You can be that witness out there in the world. You can be that light that God’s calling you to be. You can sing this song, “Great and marvelous are Your works!”

Then it says this: The Lord God Almighty. They’re singing the song. The first time they sang this song was when all Israel sang together once they crossed onto the other side of the Red Sea.

Now when they got to that Red Sea, they were freaking out because they saw those Egyptians coming down on them fast in their chariots. And they’re like, “What are we going to do?

And all of a sudden, Moses puts that rod out and sees the salvation of the Lord. This great wind comes along and parts the waters. They get over to the other side and they break out in this amazing song, which now these tribulation saints pick up their version of the same song.

It’s a song of deliverance, a song of declaring that great and marvelous are the works of the Lord, that the Lord God is almighty, that just and true are His ways.

Moses and all Israel sang this song when God delivered them from Egypt. The saints from the Great Tribulation sang it when they had overcome the beast. What are you facing right now? Where do you need the Lord’s deliverance? He’s there for you, just as He was there for Israel and will be there for the Tribulation saints.

Call out to Him today and let Him give You a song to sing.

Prayer—
Lord God Almighty,
Thank You that You know what I am facing today! Please come and deliver me, because I certainly cannot overcome these circumstances by myself. Give me a song of deliverance to sing for You!
Amen

It was so perfect. It couldn’t have been more perfect, and I’ve never seen it anywhere close to that perfect again.

Back when I was in high school, I was way into surfing. I was so into surfing that I sacrificed to save up money to go to Hawaii to surf with nine of my best buddies. When we finally went, we found one particular surfing spot. We paddled out and it was absolutely perfect.

Hardly anybody was there. We couldn’t believe it. I mean, it was amazing. It was an outer break. And then after the outer break, it surfed into a mid break that connected to a shore break. It was absolutely awesome.

I’ve been back to Hawaii a number of times since and I’ve looked for that place, and I’ve never, ever found it again. I’ve even asked people who live in Hawaii about that particular spot that I got to surf on that day and they look at me like, “No way. You actually surfed there?” It’s almost like if I didn’t know it actually happened, I would think maybe I was dreaming. It was that perfect. It was that epic. It was that awesome. And it was that rare because it’s never happened again.

The problem with that surfing spot is that the conditions are very rarely right to be able to surf there. And I wonder if sometimes the same is true about our witness, if maybe our witness so rarely shows because the conditions just aren’t right.

Maybe the timing isn’t convenient. Maybe we’re afraid of being rejected. Maybe we feel shame from things we know we shouldn’t have done. Maybe we feel like those relationships are too broken to be a witness in them. Whatever it is, we just feel that the conditions aren’t right.

And maybe you’re right that the conditions certainly aren’t idea. But there is one thing I know, and it’s that Jesus told us to beware the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

This means that we don’t get to be fake. If our faith is real, then it comes out. No masks. No hiding. Just simply living out the light of who we are because of Jesus’ work and presence in our lives. Our witness shouldn’t depend on our conditions, because the only condition that matters is Jesus in our hearts.

Don’t let your witness come around once in a lifetime. Instead, let the light of Jesus shine every day in everything you do.

Prayer—
Lord Jesus,
Thank You that Your presence and work in my life is what qualifies me to be a witness! I give myself over to Your work and presence in me completely. Help me to let my light shine!
Amen

Have you ever been confused by things the Bible says? Or have you ever left a church service with more questions than answers?

Honestly, I hope that you have. I think that it’s good to care enough about what God is saying in His Word and through His servants in the church that we allow those questions to come forth. Do you know why?

It’s because, when we have questions, we’ll look for answers. We’ll dig even further into scripture. We’ll pray. We’ll talk to other believers to see if maybe they’ve learned the answer to our questions. And then when they tell us the answer, we’ll go back to the Bible and test their answer to see if it checks out with the Authority on truth.

So I love questions. I love them because you can never have answers unless you have questions. A person with a lot of questions will become wise and intelligent over time. But here’s the thing about questions—we’ll always have more.

That’s right. No matter how deep we go into the mysteries of God, there will always be more. No matter how much we know the Bible, we’ll never know it all.

This could be frustrating for many of us, but here’s some good news—a day is coming in which the mysteries of God will be finished. And this day is not far off.

We’re in the last days before Jesus’ return, which will mark the beginning of the Great Tribulation. During that Great Tribulation, God will send seven angels to blow trumpets. The last of these angels, when he blows his trumpet, he’s going to hold it out for a long blast.

This long note will usher in the final things of the Tribulation—the bowl judgments, the five visions that John saw, and eventually Jesus’ return to conquer and rule the earth. It will also mark the end of something very important—the mystery of God.

What does that mean? It means that, no matter how ignorant we are now, we have the promise of knowing Him fully, even as He fully knows us. It means that all of these questions that we have now, all the times that you have said, “I can’t wait to ask God this when I get to heaven,” all of these will be answered. The mystery will be revealed!

So if you have questions about God, seek Him for answers. And for all those questions that just never get answered, just wait; a day is coming when God will answer all your questions.

Prayer—
Father God,
I confess that I have a lot of questions, and some of them are even painful sometimes. Thank You for the hope of Your promise that one day the mystery will be finished and You will give me the answers I need.
Amen