Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

George Carlin quotes:

“When I discovered the meaning of life, they changed it.”

Change is tough.

Responding to the changes that come about in life can be difficult.

One of the greatest struggles we face is changing ourselves.

'The measure of intelligence is the ability to change' -Albert Einstein

'The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude' -Oprah Winfrey

'Every great dream begins with a dreamer.

Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.' -Harriet Tubman

The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

-Nelson Mandela

The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.

-Walt Disney

These are all interesting thoughts, very motivating thoughts by people that have been change agents in this world, but greater is what the One says that operates out of the confines of the world.

All things are possible in Christ Jesus.

Amen?

Last Sunday we began message one in The Back of the Desert Series.

We over viewed a nation that was in the back of the desert and we looked specifically at a man, a man by the name of Moses that found himself in life at the back of the desert He was in a parched place mentally, emotionally, physically, but most importantly, spiritually.

We previewed Moses life and in the first forty years he was a somebody, the next forty ears he is a nobody, and we meet him at 80 years of age when he feels as he is a nobody, God will do something spectacular and extraordinary in his life and the life of Israel.

Let’s read again and overlap a little in the text to be thorough to God’s message for us today.

Exodus 3:4-15

Moses has an encounter, we call it a theophany with God.

God spoke to Moses in the Burning Bush.

I want to begin where I ended last week.

If you desire real change, God ordained, God honoring change, it will come about by you answering His call.

The response is a response of surrender and submissiveness to His will for your life.

Moses responded to God in verse 4, “Here I am.”

We discussed that Moses was saying in essence, “here God”.

I am present and accounted for.

I am ready to be a clay pot that you form, you mold, you make.

Lord, I want you to burn the impurities out of my system that I may be a pure abiding vessel of you.

Let’s press on.

I will not rehash the fact that we must live holy lives for God to use us.

IN verse 6, God reminded Moses that I am the same God that has worked in your life and your ancestors life all this time, “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

Those words are very important to the story this morning.

Because, Moses is going to be confronted with the most important question we can all ask: Who am I and who is God?

If you want to discover the meaning of life, that question is answered in the bedrock of:

Who am I?

Who is God?

For you see God was the God regardless of Abraham’s flaws-telling Abimilech that Sarah was his sister, Isaac followed his father’s footsteps, Jacob stole the blessing and birthright from Esau.

Yes, I am the God of those liars, swindlers, and thieves.

I am the same God who loves them unconditionally, regardless of their sin and I love you as well.

Furthermore, God knows the intimate details of your concerns.

God Knows the Intimate Details of your Concerns VV. 7-9

Exodus 3:7-9 “7 And the Lord said: “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.

8 So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.

9 Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.”

A. Awareness

The Holy Spirit was there when the days were long on His fellow children, the Israelites.

Can’t you see a family huddled around a fire late into the evening in an adobe hut and treating each others wounded hands, backs, and feet from the grueling lifting, toting, climbing, hauling and shear misery of the task at hand.

Can’t you see a husband or wife rubbing or treating each others ailments from the relentless, tireless, day in day out drudgery of work?

God was there.

He heard, He saw their anguish.

He heard the mother break down in the late night after the children were asleep and say, “I can’t do this anymore.

I do not have it in me.” “Honey, hell could not be any worse than what we are living in right now.”

B. Engaged

“I have come down”

We learn here a deep truth about our Lord today and we learn a deep truth about ourselves as it relates to ministry.

Have any of you ever worked on a job before and you are down at ground zero in the organization, maybe you have worked in the plant, and someone from the upper office (and by the way, has never set foot on the factory floor) instructs you how to correct a matter ?

And the person has never set foot on a factory floor?

In fact, he tries to supposedly offer you assistance from his ivory tower office suite?

God promised Moses that He would leave the confines of heaven and He would come down with an objective in mind.

“I will deliver them out of the hands of the Egyptians.”

Dearly beloved, what am I saying today?

God is totally aware of the filth and the dirt and the grimes of life.

He knows exactly where you are and what you are facing.

And, God is willing to roll up his sleeves and come down to the trenches of your life to work with you (and I reiterate, work with you) to turn your life around.

Notice the depths of God’s engagement.

God does not return you to factory specs.

He is not only motivated to come down where you are, but His aim is to do as God’s Word promises:

Ephesians 3:20 “20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,”

Furthermore, we should be engaged in ministry as God was engaged here in the life of Israel.

James 2:15-16 “15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?”

“bring them up”

God never intended to bring them back even to a life as when Joseph was living and the prior Pharoah was a fair leader.

Notice what He says:

“ I will bring you up to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey.”

Moses and the people of Israel were from an agrarian society.

Moses understood what God was communicating.

God stated to Moses, “I am going to give you your own land to farm.

I am providing you plenty of space and plenty of good soil and you will be blessed with abundance beyond measure.”

God keeps His promises.

Genesis 50:24 “24 And Joseph said to his brethren, “I am dying; but God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land to the land of which He swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.””

Not only does God want to bring us up above our present place, not to place us where we once were, but to offer us a life beyond our wildest imagination.

Furthermore, He knows the obstacles ahead in getting to where He wants you to go.

Read with the later part of verse 8:

Exodus 3:8 “8 So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.”

God even knows the obstacles to you reaching His goal for your life.

Why these names are important is because they were the names of the nations of people that were presently living in Canaan.

These people groups would be hurdles that the Lord would have to see them conquer to occupy the Promised Land.

It could be a possibility this morning that the Lord has a literal mess in and of your life to clean up and He knows as the journey begins what hurdles have to be jumped for you to be all that you can be in Him.

What holds you back from the promised land of life in Christ today?

Is your enemy bitterness, temperament, gossip, lying, addiction, worry, guilt, materialism, financial pressures, health fears, narcissism, pornography, or simply to put in an nutshell, unconfessed sin?

Listen to me this morning, you must be honest with what is holding you back because as the Scripture proves, God already knows anyway.

God Overcomes by Working In and Through You VV. 9-15

We begin to see a turning of the tide as God speaks to Moses.

I am going to deliver Israel from bondage and I am going to do it through you.

Can’t you almost see Moses’ face as God makes that comment.

I imagine his expression was more extreme than when Hankey Bally and the Four Reasons were asked to sing and dance last night.