Calling the Faithful Servant Pt2

Intro/Recap

Father’s Day Video

Good morning and Happy father’s day (Mikey Higley)

Intro:

Have you ever been asked to do something big? Something bigger than you should be able to handle.

Whether it is at work or it is just a circumstance of life.

It’s father’s day so I remember having a baby is like this…It’s like wow this is big, then another one comes along and then your adopting…Its like fatherhood just keeps growing...

Then your on the hook for feeding them, activities, college…weddings…It’s a big challenge in life...

maybe it was at your job, your boss promoted you to something

Maybe it was with your family you took on a big project...

I got in to riding bikes because I had one of those crazy youth pastors who did these crazy activities in the summer...

Every year we had a bike ride from Azusa Pacific University to Point Loma Nazarene in San Diego…As a high school student, I just thought this was completely insane…But after you do this huge bike trip, its like your imagination for what is possible gets expanded.

This is what it is like when you begin to follow God into the hard places...

This is what it is like when you follow Jesus into the tough stuff that he asks of us...

Maybe its just being obedient to Jesus, which can mean giving up a way of life…a change of your sexual ethic…A change in the way that you conduct your life…Its hard...

But when you do it…It expands your imagination for what is possible…It expands your capacity to be used by God...

And this is where we find Moses today…At an intersection.....Kind of arguing with God...

But first, if your just joining us in this series I want to give you a little recap of where we have been.

Recap:

Ok Week 1: Egypt is oppressing Israel and in the midst of it…Israel keeps growing.

And Moses…Who we found out was raised as an Egyptian but was actually an Israelite…He had to go to exile after killing an Egyptian. He was trying to Deliver his people in his own way...

And then moses had to go to exile in this place called Midian..See God had to take him out of Egypt so he could raise him up as a Jew.

Moses was fully Egyptian at this point, he was raised in Pharaoh’s court and it seems like is only just aware of his Jewish heritage

So: last week Pastor Evan took us through Exodus 3 where we found out God’s name: “Yahweh” That name is the divine name, the name that sets him apart from all other gods, the name that shows Moses who God is

And Moses is at this strange bush that is on fire but not burning up…The angel of the Lord is in it....And This might just be trivia for some of you but its actually really impotrant that this bush is thought of symbolically as a new tree of life...

And there Moses Learns that he is being called by this very personal God who will be with him to deliver his people out of slavery

But Moses has all of these objections before God.

Even though God just revealed himself and said…Hey The Israelites will be favorable to you , the Egyptians will be favorable, Go! and do!

So if you remember from Exodus 3, Moses has two objections to God

The first Objection was: Who am I that you would send me?

God’s response was, I will be with you....(God doesn’t answer the “who am I question” he only reassures Moses that he will be with him

The second objection is: what is your name

And God says: I am who I am: (Yahweh)

This is impotrant because, in Egypt there were many gods that I am sure Moses would have known all of these Gods…So moses, early in his Jewish Idendity could have been thinking…Which god is calling me!

And now we get into Exodus 4. Which has a few more objections so lets look at the first 9 verses:

Exodus 4:1–9 NIV

Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?” Then the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” “A staff,” he replied. The Lord said, “Throw it on the ground.” Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. Then the Lord said to him, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.” So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. “This,” said the Lord, “is so that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has appeared to you.” Then the Lord said, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” So Moses put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, the skin was leprous—it had become as white as snow. “Now put it back into your cloak,” he said. So Moses put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his flesh. Then the Lord said, “If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first sign, they may believe the second. But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground.”

So Moses’s 3rd Objection is: What if they don’t believe me?

It strikes me that the first two objections, I think the reassurance from God is pretty strong.

Not only does moses get the relational name of God. But he is there as the angel of the Lord, standing in a bush that is not burning up

So for Moses’ third objection his question is: what if they don’t believe me?

So God says…

What is in your hand?

Moses says its just his shepherds staff and he throws it on the ground and it becomes a snake...

Which by the way…remember in chapter 1 Pharoah is described using some of the same terms as the serpent in Genesis 3…being crafty…This is God Saying, Moses I am going to give you power over Pharoah…The most powerful person in the world

See Yahweh’s name is supposed to be used in the liberation of all humanity from the power of the serpent…not just the serpent Pharoah but the Serpent who is at the heart of all mankind. The one who entices us to sin

Then God didn’t even need an object he just used Moses’ own hand

He made it leprous and then he healed it again...

Then He did this whole water and blood thing…And this was significant: He is showing Moses, the Nile is the life of all of Egypt…He holds the future of Egypt in his hands!

Which brings me to my first point:

God can use whatever is in your hand

I mean think this through with me…

What we have in our own power is nothing

But when we surrender what is in our hands to the Lord, he will do something great with it

Later on in the Bible there is this woman whose husband dies and she is wondering how she is going to make it, Her husband owed money and she was afraid her two sons would be taken as slaves

So Elisha goes to her and says hey, what do you have on you?

The question is what do you have in your hand?

Her response: A small jar of olive oil…So Elisha tells her to collect all the jars in the town and keep pouring out oil from the small jars to the large…Pretty soon everything was full and the widow had enough olive oil to pay her husbands debts and to live off of...

What is in your hand?

When Jesus was teaching to 5000 people, The disciples came to Jesus and said..hey these people are hungry what do we do?

Then a boy with two small fish and a few loaves of bread surrendered them to God and Jesus used it to feed 5000

There are a hundred of these stories in the Bible and the point is that whatever is in your hand is worth nothing , unless it is surrendered to God

So what is in your hand? However small it might be…What is in your hand

It reminds me of 1 Corinthians 1:27

1 Corinthians 1:27 NIV

But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

Whatever is in your hands that is submitted to the lord is far more powerful than anything that you can come up with...

If God is asking you to do something with him then he is going to multiply whatever is in your hand. I have seen this over and over again.

Whatever gifts you have that you think are weak

Whatever abilities that you have that you think are small and trifiling can be great and fantastic in the hands of the Lord.

So one of the last little things here that will come up later so I will just touch on it a second…Take water from the nile…Pour it out and it will be blood…This is just foreshadowing of the plagues that will come…Its a judgment of Pharoah who was killing babies in the nile…And so much more…but I will hit on this over the next couple of weeks

Let’s keep on reading

Exodus 4:10–11 NIV

Moses said to the Lord, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.” The Lord said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord?

So This is Moses’ fourth objection:

I am not an eloquent speaker

The translation of what moses is saying is that he is heavy of mouth and tongue

Now here is the interesting thing that scholars have pointed out for generations....

Moses shows no evidence of having poor speaking abilities. Moses gives many speeches in exodus and seems like he does great!

This is probably just moses being humble...

Why me God? I am not worthy

And if you read the Bible its like Moses is just part of this biblical parade of great leaders who are really humble:

All the great leaders of the Bible recognize that they are not worthy of God doing something in and through them...

All of the arrogant leaders in the bible are humbled...

ONE SLIDE:

Gen 18:27: I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes. (Abraham)

Exod 4:10 : I have never been eloquent … I am slow of speech and tongue. (Moses)

1 Sam 9:21 : Saul answered, “But am I not a Benjamite, from the smallest tribe of Israel, and is not my clan the least of all the clans of the tribe of Benjamin? Why do you say such a thing to me?”

1 Sam 18:23 : David said, “Do you think it is a small matter to become the king’s son-in-law? I’m only a poor man and little known.”

1 Kgs 3:7 : You have made your servant king … I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. (Solomon)

Isa 6:5 : Woe is me!… For I am a man of unclean lips. (Isaiah)

Jer 1:6 : Ah, Sovereign LORD, … I do not know how to speak; I am only a child. (Jeremiah)

1 Cor 2:3: I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. (Paul)

Eph 3:8 : Although I am less than the least of all God’s people, this grace was given me. (Paul)

1 Tim 1:15 : Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. (Paul)

Moses understood his own inability to cary out God’s plan

This should be true with all of us. If God calls you to do something....You can not do it all on your own, you need God moving!

God calls you because he wants a human partner!

The story of Moses shows us that God wants human partners but one of our chief confessions before God has to be:

Lord with out you I am not able!

I don’t have the power

I don’t have the imagination

I don’t have the strength or will power

Because when you get to this point and you stop buying the hype about how great you are then God can use you in powerful and profound ways

Exodus 4:13–17 NIV

But Moses said, “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.” Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses and he said, “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and he will be glad to see you. You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him. But take this staff in your hand so you can perform the signs with it.”

See now we get to the heart of the matter

Moses’ final objection is send someone else...

And it says that God’s anger burned

This is significant because it is the first place in the bible where we see God becoming angry.

God’s not angry because he is prideful and moses doesn't like his plan

God can not be full of pride, pride is a sin and God is not sinful

God isn’t frustrated that is a human emotion

God’s anger is because Moses insisted on living beneath God’s intentions

How many of us insist on living beneath God’s intentions?

What I mean is that there is a life that God intends for you! but so many times you wont let go of whatever you need to let go of...

God has a marriage for you that you can’t even imagine but if you wont surrender your selfishness then your marriage will continue to be painful …Your living beneath God’s intention for marriage!

God has a life for you that is incredible but he wont bless disobedience. Its like having kids:

Dad’s here is the father’s day part of the message and moms you can listen in too.

When you bless disobedience you show your kids that they can act however they want and get whatever they want.

You actually are setting them up to walk away from God later in life, because this is not how God works! He will not bless your disobedience

God forgives disobedience and Dad’s you should too…But you can never bless it…Because you are saying…Its okay to live beneath my intentions for you…And guess what…they are going to treat God the same exact way!

So …God is actually angry at Moses because he refuses to live up to God’s standards.....So when our kids fail to live up to our standards, why do we bless that? Are we not teaching them a life of disobedience?

dad’s you can’t be a jerk about this either

My kids are going to camp today…So desiree had them all wake up early and give me a father’s day present…And My youngest just burst into tears and said…Dad I am so sorry I couldn’t get you what you wanted…And I was like Jake that’s crazy…this is awesome what are you talking about...

Well a few weeks ago I had to pick up a part for my bike at Mike’s Bikes and we walked though the bike shop and there was this like $15,000 bike and I jokingly said to Jake…hey if you want you can get me this for father’s day...

Obviously I was joking....But this morning…Jake was seriously grieved because he though he was living beneath my intentions for him! I had to pull him aside and tell him I was joking, but it was a very sweet moment.....

God won’t bless disobedience

It’s against his nature.

We don’t like passages where God shows his anger and his discipline…We want a God who is like our grandpa…Always there cheering you on. But at times God gets angry!

And father’s we have to help our kids live up to our intentions for them so that one day they will treat God the same way!

The lesson that the Israelites will have to learn, the lesson that Moses has to learn... and we need to learn today is

God won’t bless our disobedience

Ok So lets get to the very last section of chapter 4

Exodus 4:18–23 NIV

Then Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, “Let me return to my own people in Egypt to see if any of them are still alive.” Jethro said, “Go, and I wish you well.” Now the Lord had said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all those who wanted to kill you are dead.” So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand. The Lord said to Moses, “When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. Then say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you, “Let my son go, so he may worship me.” But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.’ ”

So Israel is Moses’ First born son: This is hugely significant as in the ancient world the first born son represents their father. This language will pay huge dividends in the new testament as Jesus is the first born of all creation

But then there is this little strange thing in the rest of this chapter that we have to cover

Exodus 4:24–31 NIV

At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met Moses and was about to kill him. But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it. “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me,” she said. So the Lord let him alone. (At that time she said “bridegroom of blood,” referring to circumcision.) The Lord said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So he met Moses at the mountain of God and kissed him. Then Moses told Aaron everything the Lord had sent him to say, and also about all the signs he had commanded him to perform. Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelites, and Aaron told them everything the Lord had said to Moses. He also performed the signs before the people, and they believed. And when they heard that the Lord was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.

Now this passage is very strange…Its like…God just called Moses…now he’s going to kill him? Why?

So as you can imagine…In the world of Biblical studies there are a thousands ideas on what might be going on…But here is what I think is the most Biblically consistent idea of what is happening here

Moses had a son and he didn’t circumcise him...

Circumcision is part of living in right relationship with God at this point…what you have to understand is the reason why in ancient times God called them to this is that it is a blood covenant...

You literally cut a covenant in your flesh…You spill blood saying, I will raise this child in the shadow and protection of your covenant! I will be your covenant partner...

And what they couldn’t ever foresee at the time is that God the ultimate covenant partner would spill his own blood and have his own blood covenant one way or another

How Could moses go free his people....How Could he be God’s covenant partner if he wasn’t going to raise his children this way!???

Which would have been a huge issue because this is literally the sign of the covenant of God…So Zipporah, Moses’ wife actually cuts off the foreskin and touches Abraham’s feet, which in Biblical Hebrew is a nice way of saying genitals

And she says, you are now a bridegroom of blood to me!

This is obviously very weird here…But Zipporah by doing this ends up saving Moses…It is her obedience that saves her husband...

And her statement may actually be an ancient criticism to Moses for failing to circumcise his son

But it shows God’s continued grace towards his people

This episode as strange as it is shows us that Moses deserved death but that His wife Zipporah interceded for him

By the way, Intercession is what Priests do…And this is the first time we see a woman acting as a priest in the bible…Pretty cool

Band comes forward

So where do we go from here

I believe that God is calling you all to something:

Maybe its general, just be a light for Jesus in this world

Maybe its specific: God has a calling in your life

Either way:

What is in your hand?

God will equip you for whatever he is calling you to..>What is in your hand? Whatever is in your hand, submitted to Jesus is great and powerful!

Maybe your here and you are you living beneath what God intends for you?

Or your a parent and your letting your kids live that way…This is disastrous for you and for them

The way to begin living up to what God intends for you is to surrender…To surrender the deep dark spots of your life…to surrender everything to Jesus

father’s your kids need to see you living surrendered