Mount Sinai in Arabia

In one paragraph

Brian recorded this message before flying to the Middle East with Lissa to visit what some researchers believe is the actual location of Mount Sinai in Saudi Arabia. The sermon opened with the week's news of hostages being released in Gaza, which led into a reading from Exodus 19 and a conversation about why the geography of Sinai matters for everyday faith. The week leading up to the sermon was...

Read together

1. Exodus 19:1-9 read aloud as the main passage introducing the scene at Mount Sinai
2. Exodus 19:16-20 read aloud to describe the thunder, lightning, fire and shofar blast at Sinai
3. Exodus 6:6-8 read aloud to present the four promises God made to Israel at Sinai
4. Song of Solomon quoted as 'I am my beloved's and he is mine' to illustrate being claimed by God

Talk about it

1. Brian described Monday's celebration in the town square as feeling like Christmas morning after a long wait. Has there been a moment in your own life where something you had hoped and prayed for finally arrived, and what did that feel like?
2. Brian pointed out that the Hebrew text of Exodus 19 puts the arrival at Sinai in the present tense, so that the reader arrives there too, not just Israel. What does it change for you, if anything, to read that passage as something happening to you right now rather than something that happened a long time ago?
3. Brian compared the way many people relate to the geography of the Bible to the way someone relates to the geography of Middle Earth, real within the story but not real in any other sense. How much does the physical reality of biblical places matter to your own faith, and why?
4. Brian walked through four promises from Exodus 6 that he said are available to us today: I will free you, I will redeem you, I will claim you as my own, and I will be your God. Which of these is easiest for you to hold onto, and which one is the hardest to actually receive?
5. Brian asked how satisfying life was when you were your own God, before surrendering to Jesus. How would you describe that honestly, and what did the shift look like for you when it happened?