Lessons from Moses: God's Plan and Our Response

Amen. Already? Well, nobody took off and ran. So that's a good sign so far. OK. So some ground rules. Those of you that heard me before, I'm a little different. Right? That was a, you missed your chance, Brad. I like feedback. I like to know that you guys are talking, so not that kind of feedback. Not that kind of feedback. So feel free, if I ask a question, what do you think I'm looking for? You guys are perfect. All right. Well, we talked in Sunday school about the word of God. And we talked about how the Old Testament is important, the New Testament is important, and they mesh really well together. How many of you hang out in the Old Testament a lot? Two or three, four, five. How many of you hang out in the New Testament? How many of you don't hang out in the Bible at all? Because I've seen 14 hands raised. How many people are here? No. I get it. You're shy. I was always a fan of the New Testament, because the New Testament applies to us. It's new and improved. It's better, right? No. Well, then I went through, started looking at the Old Testament. And you know what? There's some pretty interesting things in the Old Testament. And when I look through the Old Testament, I can see that there's a lot of things in the Old Testament that are examples to us. And I want to share with you an example of a guy. When I say Old Testament, who's the first person you think of? David? David's a good one. Moses? Good deal. I'm glad we didn't spend 20 minutes waiting to get to the name of Moses, because I thought he was a pretty important character. And turn with me if you brought your Bibles to Exodus. And I want to show you something that God really showed me. And that's how we can see ourselves in these Old Testament examples. And if we can see ourselves, if we can see ourselves in somebody else, what's one of the things we know about history? It repeats itself. So if we can see mistakes that somebody else has made, what can we do to fix that from happening again? Don't do it. We can learn from it. Anybody else in here besides me a slow learner? No. Just ask my folks next time they come up. There's still lessons I'm still learning. Exodus chapter 2. And we're going to start in verse 1. It says, and there went a man from the house of Levi and took to wife a daughter of Levi. And the woman conceived and bare a son. And when she saw him, that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. Now, I'm not going to get into what all was going on back in those days. But the point is, everybody is, well, that's OK. It's all good. That just kind of weirded me out for a minute. It's like, that's not what I was reading, but that's OK. I'm easily distracted. So Jesus, or Jesus, Moses was born. Moses was born. Now, I would ask for a show of hands, but then I don't really want to have to try to explain when half the people raise their hand and half don't on who all was born here, right? So we were all born. I'll just make that assumption. But how many of us have the exact same story about our birth? When you get down to the details of it, we're probably all different, aren't we? I was living, my parents were living in Clay Center. On my birthday, the day that I was to be born, my doctor was passed out, drunk, and trying to get to the hospital to deliver me. My parents went to a different hospital, and I was born in Salina. So that story is unique to me. Anybody else have that exact same scenario? OK. But still born, right? So we all are similar. We share that with the fact that we were all born, but we're born differently. Verse 10 says, and the child grew, and she brought him into Pharaoh's daughter and became her son. And she called his name Moses. And she said, because I drew him out of the water. Now, if you don't know the story about Moses's birth and being hidden in the reeds and all that, we can talk about that later. But everybody here has a starting point. We have a birth. It's unique to us. It's different. We go on in verse 11. It says, and it came to pass in those days when Moses was grown that he went out to his brethren, and he looked at their burdens. And he spied an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew, one of his brethren. So Moses was born a Hebrew, but he was adopted by the Egyptians. And he grew up with the Egyptians. And he's out there, and he sees an Egyptian hitting a Hebrew. And he looked this way and that way. And when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. All right. How many of you have slew some? No, we haven't flown anybody and hid them in the sand. But what we have done, how many of us in here has committed a sin at some point or another? OK. So you know what? That's great. That's comforting to me, because the Bible in Romans 323 says what? Anybody know? For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That word all means what? All, everybody. It's not just a laundry detergent. It's everybody. We have all fallen short. We have all committed sin. Have we all committed the same sin? Probably at some point or another. We probably all have one in common. Have we all told a lie at some point or another? But the point is, how many sins does it take to separate us from Christ? One, one. So we're all sinners, right? Differently, but we're all sinners. And Moses, no different. He slew a guy. He killed a guy. And he hid him in the sand and covered it up. It wasn't like it was an accident. He intentionally went out and killed him and then hid him. So then we go on to verse chapter 3. Long story short, Moses fled. Exodus chapter 3, verse 1, it says, now Moses kept the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest Amidian. And he led the flock to the backside of the desert and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of the bush. And he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. So I'm looking at that, and I'm thinking, really, what is going on here? And verse 7 says, and the Lord said, I have surely seen the afflictions of my people, which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of the taskmasters. For I know their sorrows, and I have come down to deliver them out of the land of Egypt and to bring them up out of that land to the good land in a land in a large--" oh, goodness, eyes aren't working. The print keeps getting smaller in my Bible. What about y'all? Out of that land into a good land and a large, and to a land flowing with milk and honey, and to a place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites. So a whole bunch of people there. So God revealed himself to Moses. Out of a burning bush, God revealed himself. He didn't just show himself. He revealed himself and kind of revealed his plan to him. So the point we see there is God reveals himself to each and every one of us in a different way. That brings us to our testimony. There has to come a point in your life where you have surrendered and said, you know what? I've realized I'm a sinner. I've realized I've messed up. I'm not alone. Everybody does it. Everybody messes up. But not everybody claims the Savior. For me, it was in January of 99 where I came to the point that I realized I was a sinner. I was lost. I grew up in a religious home. And I choose that word cautiously, because in our house, we did church stuff. Everything on TV was PG, because PG-13 was bad. And we did the right things. We said the right things. We prayed before we ate supper. And we did a religious home. And what I was missing was a personal relationship with Christ. When troubles came up, did we turn to scripture or we turn to Oprah? Oprah had it figured out. That was not exactly right. Again, we were a religious home, not a Christian home. And I grew up in that. And I was thinking, I'm OK. I'm OK. I'm religious. I haven't killed anybody and buried them in the sand, so I'm good to go. Well, those little scriptures about all for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, those really started working on me. And I started realizing, yeah, I'm a lost man. I've gone through the motions. I have never personally asked Christ to save me. And you can't just get to heaven by association. You can't join a church and automatically you're going to heaven. You've got to get on the team, right? So it was about 3.15 in the morning that I broke down and I asked Christ to forgive me, confessed that I was a sinner, asked him into my heart, and lived a life more so dedicated to him than anything that I've ever known. So we all get that opportunity to respond to God. The scary part for me at that time was, how many times has God revealed himself to me and I ignored him? I put him off. Eh, maybe later. And how many more times, opportunities, or chances was I going to get? Those were all things I started thinking about. And that really scared me at that moment when I realized that I was a lost man. I was scared. So God reveals himself to us. And immediately, he gives us a plan. And that's what he did with Moses. He revealed himself, hey, here I am. Moses could have very easily turned around and ran off the mountain. He could have turned around and ran. And then when the burning bush speaks, what could he have said? He could have said, that's just crazy, and left. He could have thought, well, you know, I'll talk to you later. Put God off. But that's not what happened. Moses answered the call. Talked to the Lord there. And God revealed his plan. God revealed his plan for him. Then we go down to verse 11. This is after God called him, made himself seen, told him his plan. And here comes verse 11. And Moses said unto God, who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? God's chosen people were in bondage. They were suffering. They were being beaten. Life was not good for them. God wanted his children out of there. So he called on Moses. Moses stayed on the mountain and talked to him. But he didn't want to put his hand to the work. He came up with excuses. Who am I? Who am I? Moses thought he was pretty insignificant. How many of us struggle with that? They're not going to listen to me. Why would they listen to me? Let's go down to verse 19. This is so much easier when we keep it all in one book instead of jostling all around. Verse 19, it says, I am sure the king of Egypt will not let you go. No, not by a mighty hand. And I will stretch out my hand and smite Egypt with all my wonders, which I will do in the midst thereof. And after that, he will let you go. We have a unique advantage. Oh, let me read on. And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. And it shall come to pass that when you go, you shall not go empty. But every woman shall borrow her neighbor. And of her that sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver and gold and raiment. And you put them upon your sons and upon your daughters. And you shall have the spoil of the Egyptians. So not only are they going to be leaving, they're going to be leaving very wealthy. And the cool thing about that, if we've read our Bible, we know how the story ends, don't we? How does the story end? That's a question. How does the story end? How's the Bible end? God wins. God wins. Is there going to be a battle? There's going to be a battle. And it's just like a good movie. There's this big battle scene. And then the hero wins, right? Well, that's how the Bible is going to end. Jesus is going to come back for his church. He's going to take his church, go to heaven. We get judged. It sounds like a bad thing. It may just be shortchanged, for me so. We get rewarded according to our works. And then God comes back and judges the world. And everything that doesn't make it to heaven gets cast into the lake of fire, and it's gone. And then we just forever hang out with the Lord. And it's cool for all eternity. And we know how the story ends. Moses knows how the story is going to end. And we have the same hiccups that Moses have, right? God already told him his plan, told him how it's going to end. And God tries to use him. He tells him exactly how the story is going to work out. And then chapter 4, here's where I find myself. Chapter 4, verse 1, and Moses answered and said, but behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice. For they will say, the Lord hath not appeared unto thee. You know, when God calls us to do something, the first thing we like to do is come up with excuses. That's what Moses did. He came up with an excuse again. He knows how the story is going to end. We know how the Bible ends. We know what's going to happen. But we still come up with excuses. How many of you have blown a witnessing opportunity this week, besides me? They're not going to listen to me. They don't want to hear that right now. No. So best messages I've ever taught, they're all at me. So don't think I'm judging y'all. I'm judging me here. I come up with excuses. Then verse 2 says, and the Lord said unto him, what is that in thy hand? And he said, a rod. And he said, cast it to the ground. And he cast it to the ground, and it became a serpent. And Moses fled from before it. So there's a bush burning on a mountaintop, and it speaks to him. And that doesn't freak Moses out at all. But he drops his stick, and it becomes a snake, and he runs like a little girl. How many of you are scared of snakes? Wow. How about spiders? Yeah. If they would have turned that into a spider, I would have been the one screaming. And yeah, the Lord's not going to get me to come back. It's just not going to happen. So that's my nemesis. So Moses comes up with an excuse, and God changes his perspective. God has introduced himself to Moses, and he's taught him a new way to look at things. The staff that he had in his hand, he threw it down, and it became a serpent. Once you accept Christ into your life, you start looking at things differently, don't you? When I think back to my childhood, some of the most catastrophic things in my life that, wow, the world is going to end, pretty insignificant. I'm still here. It was pretty insignificant in the broad scheme of things. But when God starts revealing things to you, you don't get excited about them anymore, or some things you get more excited about than others. Some people just give up. But God changes our perspective, and that's what I take from that. When he throws the rod down, God changed his perspective. He saw things in a different way. Verse 6, and the Lord said furthermore unto him, now put thy hand into thy bosom. Now he's not physically putting it into his chest. He's putting it under his robe, under his garment. And he put his hand into his bosom, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow. How many of you have known somebody with leprosy? Thank God for small favors, right? Anybody ever seen case studies on leprosy? What color is leprosy? White. Your skin, flesh just dies. It turns ashen white. So it became leprous as snow. It doesn't mean he had leprosy. It just meant it turned white. It looked dead. And he said, put thy hand into thy bosom again. And he put his hand back into his bosom again, and plucked it out of his bosom, and behold, it was turned again as his other flesh. So not only did God change his perspective, but God did a work within him. God did a work within him. And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, nor hearken unto the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign. And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe these two signs, neither hearken unto the voice that thou shalt take of the water of the river, and pour it upon the dry land. And the water which thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land. So God does a wonderful work inside of Moses. Not only does he change his perspective, but he does a work within him. And I know God does works within us. All throughout my middle school and high school years, my nemesis, my fear, not only was spiders, but public speaking, public speaking. And by public speaking, I mean a group of two or more people. That was too public. English class. I can still remember fifth, sixth grade, book reports. Everybody have to do verbal book reports as a kid? I hated them. I hated them. You know how many oral book reports I did in class? None. You know how many F's I got? I ran out of fingers. I would not, would not, would not stand up and speak in front of my class. My teachers felt so sorry for me. It was, Tim, just stand up and tell us the title of the book. We'll figure out the rest. Mm-mm. Just stand up? Mm-mm. Mm-mm. Anybody else afraid of public speaking? So maybe you can relate. I stood up once, maybe twice, and you get the feeling like the room is shaking. Shaking, does that sound familiar to anybody? The room shakes, or I'm shaking, I can't tell what because it's happening at the same time. Get really flustered and turn red. I still do that occasionally. But the whole world just seems to be changing. The heart is pumping so loud you can't hear what's going on. Does that sound familiar to anybody? Great times, right? Great times, that was my life. And when the teacher said stand up and just tell us the title of the book you read, I'd stand up and then all that would go on. The knees would get weak and I just knew either the world was gonna crash on me or I'm gonna fall on the world. Something's gonna happen and it's gonna be bad. So I took an F for every book report that I had to do orally. Just couldn't make me do it. So then when God called me by name in January of 99 and said, hey, I'm giving you another chance. You better hear my call. And I said, yes, sir. I answered his call. He decided for me, hey, you're gonna speak once in a while. And said, no, I'm not. I did a Moses. Lord, they're not gonna listen to me. You know how much trouble I got in as a kid? Do y'all know how much trouble I got in as a kid? Most of you don't. Guess what? It's water under the bridge, right? I came up with excuses and God said, do it. I said, okay. And he took that fear away from me. He took that anxiety, he took that anxiousness away and here I am today. Am I nervous? Yes, but the world is not shaking and I'm feeling pretty okay. So God can do a work in us. What do you think the biggest hindrance to God's work is? Ourselves, ourselves. God wanted to do something in me and I just wanted to hold him back. And that's what I saw with Moses is God did, he turned a staff into a serpent, back into a staff and then he turned his hand into leprous, nasty looking flesh zombie type stuff and then turned it back to normal. So God can do a wonderful work around us and in us and then after all that, here's Moses' excuse. And Moses said unto the Lord, oh my Lord, I am not eloquent. What does eloquent mean? Take it, smooth, not a smooth talker. Oh my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore nor since thou has spoken unto thy servant, but I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue. Sounds like an excuse, doesn't it? Do you think God knows Moses' condition? You think he knows? Yeah, he's all knowing, isn't he? Would he ask us to do something we're incapable of doing? No, no, if he's gonna ask you to do it, he can get you through it, he can get you through it. So here's the Lord's answer. And the Lord said unto him, who hath made man's mouth? Or who maketh the dumb or the deaf or the seeing or the blind? Have not I the Lord, now therefore go and I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say. So God's telling Moses, I know you're of a slow tongue. Have you ever heard anybody talk at 100 miles an hour? Do you understand a word they're saying? No, and I get that way once in a while and if I do, just tell me, slow down. That's my nerves kicking in. Talk fast, get through the paper, we can be dismissed. So of a slow tongue, he's a slow speaker. I appreciate a slow speaker. I can hear them, I can understand them, I have time to take notes if needs be. Do you think God knew what he was doing when he's calling Moses? Yeah, God knew exactly what he was doing. And Moses threw up an excuse. God still demands obedience. Verse 13, and he said, oh my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him who thou wilt send. Somebody else, send somebody else to do it. In verse 14, how many of you would find comfort in this verse? And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses. Do you want your name in that sentence? The anger of the Lord was kindled against him. That just doesn't sound right. That doesn't sound like a fun place to be. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses and he said, is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well, and also behold, he cometh forth to meet thee, and when he seeth thee, he will be glad in his heart, and thou shalt speak unto him, and put words in his mouth, and I will be with thy mouth, and with thy mouth will I teach you what ye shall do. So, God got frustrated at Moses. Who do you think won that battle, that argument? God did, God did. Moses thought he did. God still demands obedience. God gets frustrated. God gets frustrated. It just baffles me to think that God would get frustrated at me individually. That just, that kind of scares me. That scares me, because what we see here in Moses' life is he's got a habit of doing things his way. He's got a habit of doing things his way. Lord, I'm not gonna listen to you. I'm gonna do it this way. We're gonna do it my way. How many of you have tried life your way? How does it work? It doesn't, it doesn't. Turn with me over to Numbers. It's the last section we'll look at, and there's a few verses there that cause and effect. You see, Moses got his way. Supposedly. But is he really gonna want what he gets? What would have happened, do you think, if Moses would have been obedient right out of the gate? Do you think life would have been different? I think things would have been different. Let's see if you agree. We're gonna look here at chapter 20, verse one. It says, then came the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, into the desert of Zin in the first month. And the people of Boden, Kadesh, and Miriam died there and was buried there. And there was no water for the congregation, and they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. And the people chode with Moses and spake, saying, would God that we would had died when our brethren died before the Lord. And why have you brought us, brought up the congregation of the Lord into this wilderness that we and our cattle should die there? And wherefore have you made us to come up out of Egypt to bring us in unto this evil place? It is no place of seed or figs or vines or of any pomegranates, neither is there any water to drink. And Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and they fell upon their faces, and the glory of the Lord appeared unto them. So you can see the stage. They're still traveling. How long do you think it should have taken the children of Israel to get from Egypt to the promised land? Three days? 11 days? I guess it depends if they had bicycles or cars. You know, it shouldn't have taken very long. How long did it take them? 40 years. And I thought I was a slow learner. These guys were really slow learners. So they're griping, they're complaining, they're beginning to second guess, hey, if you would have just left us in bondage, you know, at least when we were prisoners, we had food, we had to work for it, but they provided us food. So they're whining. Freedom, is freedom really free? We've heard the phrase, freedom isn't free. You have to fight for it sometimes. And these people, the children of Israel were on their way to freedom, and they were just unhappy. So now they're thirsty, and God has done many wonderful things for them by bringing water at different times, food from heaven, leading them by fire during the day, or smoke during the day and fire at night. God's really shown up and done a lot of things for them. So these people are thirsty, and they're wanting some water. And the Lord spake unto Moses and said, take the rod, that same one that turned into a serpent, and gather thou the assembly together, thou and Aaron, thy brother, and speak unto the rock before their eyes. What's he supposed to do to the rock? Speak, how many of you talk to a rock today? How many of you have kids? No, I'm just teasing. Sometimes it's like talking to rocks. And it shall bring forth water to them, water out of the rock. So thou shall give the congregation and their beasts drink. So what's the commandment? What God tell Moses to do? Speak to the rock. What did Moses have a problem with earlier in Exodus? Speaking. God's got a sense of humor, doesn't he? Verse nine. And Moses took the rod from before the Lord, as he commanded him. And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock. And he said unto them, hear now ye rebels, must we fetch you water out of this rock? So Moses had a tough time speaking, but when he did, he kind of came uncorked, right? And Moses lifted up his hand and with his rod, he smote the rock twice and water came out abundantly and the congregation drank and their beasts also. What did he do to the rock? Struck it. What did God command him to do? Speak, speak, strike, it doesn't matter, right? Moses was used to getting his own ways, his own way. So there we saw a pattern of disobedience. It seems pretty small. It seems pretty insignificant. We go down to verse 12. And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, because ye believed me not to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation to land, which I have given them. This is the water of Meribeth, because the children of Israel strove with the Lord and he was sanctified in them. The consequence for his sin, Matt, Moses did not get to lead the children of Israel into the promised land. Moses missed the payout. Moses missed the blessing. Moses missed the fruit of the labors. He got to see the land, but he didn't get to set foot into the land. And that kind of makes my heart flutter a little bit because how many blessings am I missing out on with my disobedience? How many times have I kept my mouth shut when I should be open it? How many times did I give somebody the Sunday school answer instead of a heartfelt answer? How many times did I just show them kindness when I could have shown them love? How many times have I just taken the commandment of the Lord and done what I thought was right instead of what he told me to do? That's scary stuff. That's scary stuff. And that's kind of what I've been thinking about this last couple of weeks is, you know, I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in that feeling, but, you know, it's crazy. God does a new work in us. He creates us. We are a new creation when we've asked Christ into our hearts. Maybe somebody today has not ever done that. Maybe somebody in here has never asked Jesus into their heart or yielded to him, surrendered to him or offered to be obedient to him. That's something you gotta work out with God. Be happy to help you. I'm not gonna lure you up here or anything, but don't leave. If you've never asked Christ into your heart, don't leave here until you've talked to somebody about that and get it worked out. But here in a moment, I'm gonna close. And what I want you guys to do is examine your own lives. If you find yourself falling short, you're not alone. I'm up here to say that I'm a great example of Moses. I'm a great example of Moses. I come up with excuses way too often. Biggest excuse I have is I don't have time. Anybody use that excuse? Don't have time. We're all busy, right? We're all busy. Don't have time. They're not gonna listen to me. They don't have time for me. Excuses, if you need some excuses, I think I've got a chapter in the back of my Bible that I wrote, every excuse I use. Yeah, we use a lot of them. And I just, God just kind of laid it on my heart that I'm not alone. I think we all use excuses way too often. And there's tremendous blessings that we're forfeiting. And if we wanna see a God do a mighty work in our lives, we gotta be willing to work for the Lord. We gotta be able to take that step of faith and see what he's got for us. Had Moses spoken to the rock like he was supposed to, he'd still experience the blessings of God. Had Moses just said, yes, Lord, in Exodus 4.10, okay, you want me to go? I'll go. Had he just obeyed, do you think that journey would have taken 40 years? No, because leadership sets the example, right? And if he would have been a responsible leader, the followers would have followed suit. They would have followed suit. Every single one of us is a leader in some capacity, whether it's at work, whether it's at home, whether it's in our peer group, our sphere of influence, we're all leaders in some capacity. And if we're the example that we need to be, others will follow. Others will follow. Happiness is contagious. Happiness is contagious. If you're around somebody that smiles and is happy, what do you just naturally do? Smile and are happy. If you're around somebody that's cranky, what do you naturally do? Get cranky. Emotions are contagious. So if I'm not alone, that's gonna be my prayer is that God gives me the strength and the courage to say yes more and quit coming up with excuses. We're gonna close, we're gonna pray, and we're gonna have a song. And I really don't know how the whole closure thing works. I'm not the best at that. But if you need to do business with God, you can do it from right there in the pew. Get things right with him and experience his blessings. Amen? Father, Lord, we love you. No doubt about it, we love you wholeheartedly. And Lord, I just pray that you would forgive us for our arrogance, our laziness. Lord, our procrastination and the times that we just put you off and our excuses. Lord, just pray that you would forgive us. Give us the courage and the encouragement to move forward and to live in testimonies for you. Lord, just help us to recognize those excuses that we've used. And Lord, they probably are so habitual in our lives that we don't even know we're using them. And just help us to surrender to your calling and just to say yes, Lord, instead of but, Lord. And Lord, we just give you all the glory, honor, and praise in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. How do we do the closing? We'll just sing. Let's just sing. When all else fails, sing. That's what I go by. Did you wanna have a time of, to come up and pray if people wanted to? Mr. Rusty, you look like you know what you wanna do. It's whatever you wanna do, Denise. We love to sing. One of the things that we always try to do in our church is give the opportunity to respond to God. So if you're here this morning, God's been talking to you, and you'd like somebody to talk to you, I'll be here at the front. Of course, you can always talk to God. That's one of the things that I really enjoy about Sundays. I hate to miss because I know God's gonna.