Promise Land

Scripture

Exodus 12:37–42 KJV 1900

37 And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot that were men, beside children. 38 And a mixed multitude went up also with them; and flocks, and herds, even very much cattle. 39 And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they brought forth out of Egypt, for it was not leavened; because they were thrust out of Egypt, and could not tarry, neither had they prepared for themselves any victual. 40 Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years. 41 And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. 42 It is a night to be much observed unto the Lord for bringing them out from the land of Egypt: this is that night of the Lord to be observed of all the children of Israel in their generations.

When you get up and look in the mirror each morning what do you see? Do you see a person who can’t wait to change his or her appearance in order to be more presentable to the world, or do you see what God sees. God sees greatness waiting to happen, if the right decisions are made throughout the day and there is a willingness to serve God.

One of the reasons God sees what He does is that God created you. He knows what a difference He could make in your life if given the chance. God knows that your potential for greatness far exceeds, your willingness to pursue and to obtain it. Just as a sculptor sees not just a large rock, but rather the magnificent statute hidden inside, when God looks at you, God sees something wonderful that you can be chiseled and shaped into greatness.

What do you do if you want to build a great team in professional sports? The first thing you do is try to find the best coach that is available. Then you begin to scout other teams to see who you might can get in trade deal from other teams. Then you wait for the draft to come up. In the draft, you look for the players with the greatest athletic ability who can truly make a difference on your team. Most of the time you know ahead of time who you want because of their past performance on the court or on the field.

Now when God set out to establish a great people, God did not look for the strongest, the biggest, the brightest or the best. In the Old Testament, God said, “I did not choose to love you because you were the largest group of people, but because you actually was the smallest group. The Jews or Israelites were nobodies until God came on the scene and chose them for Himself.

When you look at Jesus’ choice of the disciples, the only one among them that had much social standing was Matthew or Levi the tax collector and we know little about what Levi did when he was with Jesus. If you had of evaluated Jesus’ choice of the 12, you would have realized this too is a group of nobodies. One was a thief before Jesus called him, and remained a thief the whole time he was with Jesus.

In the New Testament, Paul lets the Christians know in Corinthians, that when God made a choice to save them to start the church, not many of them were super intelligent, not many of them were well known in the community, and not many of them had a lot of power. In other words, once again a group of nobodies.

Yet God used the Israelites, the disciples, and the early church to change the course of the world through His power at work in their lives. Although we may be tempted to say, “wow, what a great group of people”, the reality is , they were a part of Great God.

God cannot use people who think they are all that. Why? Because they think they are doing God a favor by serving him, by coming to church, by singing songs, and by giving money. God is not like Nike. Now Nike knows, there is nothing really special in a pair of Nike shoes. It’s basically rubber, plastic, and cloth. Nike needs a name like Michael Jordan to give its shoes a value above other identical shoes. So Nike goes after the name of someone to accomplish what it wants to do.

God has value in and of Himself. God is great all by himself. God does not go after big names in order to accomplish great works. He seems to prefer to use some nobodies and turn them into somebodies, who know they are still nobodies, without continuing to stand next to God.

God has always reserved the right to choose whomever He wants to choose, at whatever time He wants to use them, for whatever purpose He has in mind. Now we all came from Adam and Eve. Our genetic makeup is basically the same no matter what race we are a part of in any part of the world. In the beginning, we all worshipped the one true God.

In chapter 11 of Genesis, the people had a common language and were attempting to build a city to make a name for themselves that would reach into heaven. God had told them to fill the earth.

God then confuses their language, and scattered them from the middle east to all parts of the earth. Twice the passage makes it clear that God scattered them.

So when God decides to choose a people to let them know, who He truly is and what is the proper way to worship Him, He has a choice from the whole world. Do you know who God chose? He chooses what today would be an Iraqi. Abraham, who was the father of the Jews and the nation of Israel was from the land of Ur which would be in present day Iraq.

For the most part, Abraham was a nobody. He was 75 years old when God called him. His wife was 65 and they did not have any kids. Is this the person you would have chosen to build a great people out of on the earth? It wasn’t that Abraham and Sarah were great. They just happened to have gotten connected to a great God.

As we celebrate Black History month, we hear of a number of things that African Americans and other Blacks have done through the centuries. It’s great, but not surprising. You see the same God created Blacks, Whites, Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans and everybody else. We were all in the loins of Adam and Eve. Our differences have more to do with the places God scattered us to than anything else. Those scattered in hot climates needed more pigment in their skin than those scattered to cold places. Yet we all possess intelligence and creativity. When it is all combined from all the races, we get the rapid increases in technology that we see today.

So I we say, that God led a group of Africans out of Egypt into the promise land, would we be accurate. After all God’s special people had been in Africa for 430 years. Racism has trained us to not say, they were Africans, but to say they were the children of Israel. Both statements are true, but even the man Israel lived his last 17 years in Africa. Some people will say, yes they were African but they could not have been black Africans. Egypt was a multiracial nation in biblical times. You can even see it in Egyptian art. Racism led us to accept all negative imagery when it came to the continent of Africa. But that was racism and not God. God had positive plans for Africa and its people.

I want you to know that when Abraham, and Jacob needed a place to survive the great famines that hit the land, God sent them both to Africa in Egypt. When Joseph was second to Pharoah , Africa fed other parts of the world. That means we as Black people were on the providing side of feeding others rather than being the ones needing a handout. If only we knew the potential God has placed within us, and would say yes to the will of God, we could transform our lives, our families, our church and our community. We are a great people not because of our color, but because of our God.

We know from ancient pictures and sculptures that many of the Pharaohs of Egypt were black. Their tombs indicate they were black. Statutes have large flat noses and large lips. Their paintings have people with black skin, brown skin, and light color skin. It is more likely than not that the Pharaoh whom God gave the dream of the oncoming famine in Joseph’s time was black if not at least dark skin.

Yet we are programmed to believe that the Pharaoh’s could not have been black. We dismiss this because we saw the 10 commandments and the Pharaoh in Moses’s time was completely white in Yule Brenner and Moses also was white in the form of Charlton Heston. Therefore we assume that white European looking people were the Pharaohs of Egypt in Africa. Historically we know that there were no Europeans going to Africa at this time.

You know if you go to France and see the Eiffel Tower , or to China and see the Great Wall, or to the United States and see the Empire State building, there is no question as to who built it. The French built the Eiffel Tower in France , the Chinese built the Great Wall in China, the Americans built the Empire State Building.

Why do people keep saying, I wonder who built the pyramids in Africa? Doesn’t it make sense that the Africans built them? But we are programmed to believe that Africans were too stupid to build things that required technology far beyond that in existence in Europe at the time, therefore we’ve come the conclusion that aliens from outer space must have built the pyramids. Well one good thing about the Mars rover is that it shows the aliens did not build pyramids on Mars, so maybe one day Africans will get credit for building the great pyramids.

There were Black Africans among the people of God when they left Egypt. I know that there were Blacks Africans among the Africans when God delivered them out of Egypt because of what the bible says. Look at numbers 12:1 and you will see racism rear its ugly head. It says, Moses’s sister and brother, Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses because of his Cushite wife, for he had married a Cushite. Now we know that the Cushites were Black and they were from the southern Sudan.

Do you remember that Moses was the most important figure in the Old Testament in leading God’s people? Do you remember that God spoke with Moses as he did no other man? Do you realize that this outstanding man of God could have had his choice of beautiful women to marry, and of all these women, it was a beautiful Black woman that caught his attention. It was a Black woman that Moses went home to help him carry the burdens of leading that rebellious group of people. Black women didn’t just become strong, they’ve been strong a long time.

Do you realize that even though King Solomon had many wives , the only one to whom a Book in the Bible is written involving him is to a Black Woman. Turn in Song of Songs chapter 1, verse 5 in which she says "Dark am I yet lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem, dark like the tents of Kedar, like the tent curtains of Solomon. Do not stare at me because I am dark.

Jesus never talked about his earthly background or his race as being significant to his cause. He constantly identified Himself the with the greatness of His Father. As followers of Christ, we may remember where we come from, but we know that our greatness is based on the vertical relationship we share with God.

Jesus comes into the world and dies for all humanity. His blood was for people of all races, backgrounds, ethnic groups and any other division we make among ourselves. When you watch the movie the Passion, recognize that it was your own sin who caused the beating and the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Don’t think if only you would have been there, you would have done something to save Jesus. No, we all added to the amount of pain and agony he suffered.

Originally, only the Jews were connected to Abraham to whom God gave a new promise. But then we read in Galatians 3:26-29

Galatians 3:26–29 KJV 1900

26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

God had good in store for Abraham when he called him out. God has good in store for us as he calls us out of whatever condition we find ourselves in today. When God makes a promise, he keeps it. Because of God’s promise to Adam and Eve, Jesus had to come into the world.

God could have chosen a different place and a different group of people to make his plan for salvation known to all, but He didn’t. He choose Abraham and the Middle East.

A. The Steps To Building A Great Team

1. Coach- Trade-Draft

2. God—Strongest, Best, Largest ??

3. God’s Choice Of Israel

B. God Is Not Looking To Be Endorsed

1. Greatness Because Of Relationship

2. God Is Not Like Nike

3. Paul - I Count It As Rubbish

C. God Reserves The Right To Choose

1. Our Genetic Makeup Worldwide

2. All From Adam & Eve

3. Problems With Disobedience

God Lead Africans To The Promised Land

If We Only Knew Our Potential

History Reveals We Were There

Closing

When the people see Moses telling Pharaoh, God said let my people go, the people see greatness. Moses is greatness waiting to happen. Look around this morning. It does not matter whether you look to the right, the left, in front or behind you, you will be looking at greatness waiting to happen. He or she may not look like much at the moment but take one more look and you may see a person whose going to make a difference in this world, by making a difference at home, at work, at school or in the church.

When Moses looks over all the people that are leaving out of Egypt, he likewise is looking at greatness waiting to happen.

Jesus gives us the model for spreading the greatness that we are called to reach. Jesus said in John 12:23,

John 12:23 KJV 1900

23 And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified.

It takes courage to allow the greatness within each of us to manifest itself.

If you are big enough to take these steps of faith, you will discover yourself on a road to greatness, far beyond anything you had thought possible for your life.