Heroes of the Faith 5
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Moses
Moses
Good morning everyone. Wow, what a movement this morning. Good good Father. He is all the time. Well I also know that today is my last preaching time for a while because thankfully pastor is back, so yall gonna get a whole lot today lol. That being said let’s go ahead and get into it. Please stand for the reading of the word.
23 By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.
24 By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter,
25 choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.
26 He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.
27 By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.
28 By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.
29 By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned.
Now this sounds like a resume. Doesn’t it? Much better than just laying hands on your grand-kids. But that is why I didn’t write the bible. God knows what he is doing.
Moses what a character. This man was saved a birth and placed in a basket at the edge of the river, where his mother knew he would be found by the princess. He was surrounded by all the right materials to protect him as his laid there. And done so by faith we just read because they saw something different about him. So we see that at the very beginning of his life, the thing meant to destroy him, the Nile, was the very thing that saved him. Because God has a plan. We actually see that water has a major role in Moses life and maybe we will talk about that in a little bit.
Now what I like to do is take each of these events and break it down and give you some revelational truth. But it is not about me or you. It is about Him. So when He says, “I want you to teach this”, its what I teach.
First I am looking forward to next weeks message with Pastor because he and I talked and after we did, I had to change my message this week because what he was saying was exactly what God was saying to me and well I don’t want to preach his message. So then that had to lead me to seek what God wanted me to speak.
Then coincidentally, my family and I are going through Exodus, and we are only on chapter 3 because as someone so eloquently pointed out, I talk a lot. But I have yet to have someone fall asleep and fall out of a window and die and need to be raised back to life as Paul did, sooooooo....there’s that.
But let’s look at Exodus 3. Though it isn’t the start it is the beginning of the call. Maybe
I do want to give a little bit of goose eggs as we go. We start in chapter three verse 2
2 And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed.
If you have been in our lift group or have come on Wednesday nights something should have caught your eye. The Angel of the Lord. This is called a
Theophany
Which is a term that denotes Jesus pre-incarnate visit to earth for a cause or interaction before he actual virgin birth.
The taking off of shoes, when talking with the family about this, I really didn’t know the significance of this or found a reason that would suffice. But at the continuance of study for this there was something that intrigued me so I kept going and did get an answer that sufficed. But that will come at the end. Yep just dangling the carrot.
So we keep going and God begins to talk about the reason why He is talking to Moses now. I won’t give you every gooses egg through out this interaction but, I want to. Here is one.
God calls to Moses in verse 4.
4 So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”
My family is going to know this as some of you may. But there is a significance of God using Moses name twice.
When that happens it denotes intimacy. God did this with Samuel. He did with Abraham, Martha, Jacob, Simon, Paul. Some pretty exclusive list. But Jesus had something to say about this.
46 “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?
So you claim to be intimate with the Lord but you do not obey what he says. You are claiming something with your mouth that is not backed up by your actions. You mean I have to obey God in order to be in relationship with him. No. You should want to obey God because you are in relationship with him. You don’t have to kiss my wife but I should want to.
Look at this one
21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
You see this. Even those that appear to have intimate relationship with me, will not enter into the kingdom of heaven. We talked about this on Wednesday.
But God is calling you to a more intimate relationship.
If you listen you can hear him calling you. Maybe in the middle of the night saying wake up and talk with me. I have something to say. He says Ricky Ricky. He says Jessica Jessica. He says Derrick Derrick. He is calling you.
His immediate call to you is not something that is void of intimacy. His immediate call is closeness and powerful and completely. Not part not spare time.
Then God begins to tell Moses that he has heard the cries of his people. He has seen their oppression and he is ready to deliver them.
Sounds good right now. That is in verse 7. So verse 7 God says I have come to deliver them. Then verse 10
10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
Ha yall catch this? God is so funny. He starts off telling moses all that he has heard. I have seen. I am going to do this. So He gets moses buy in. Yeah God you go get them. i am so glad you finally heard all that and seen all that. Go get’em
Moses go cuz I am sending you to do. But lord you said you was gonna do it. I mean I would go Lord but you know its kind of late. I am old.
So Moses starts laying out all these excuses as to why he cant go. Why he cant do what God is asking him to do. The first one
Who am I?
Moses was in the middle of an identity crisis. He didn’t know who he was. Look at his life. He was born a Hebrew, raised an Egyptian, his bloodline says slave, but his heir line was king. Now living with the midianites the son-in-law of a priest. So is he slave? is He king? Is he royalty? Is he a priest? Then on top of all of that he made the decision we read earlier that by faith he forsook the the Egyptian life. So he turned away from that but the ones he turned to, turned their back on him. He according to his life situation had no home or roots.
Who am I lord? What am I supposed to tell people? Who am I that you would send me. Lord I gotta know before I walk up in that bosses office who am I. I have to know before marry this man or this woman. Who am i. I gotta know before my kids are born, or maybe your like moses and forgot who you were and now your life is spiraling. Because you made a decision that didn’t pan out maybe because you acted too quickly, you let emotions get the best of you or deception in your life derailed it. Who am i?
this is exactly what happened to moses. He knew who he was, he just didn’t the when of who he was to be it come from God. Look at this.
Goose egg the number 40 is the number of testing in Hebrew. Jesus 40 days of fasting. Noah 40 days on the ark. Children of Israel 40 years in the wilderness. Moses was 40 when ran away from Egypt. He failed that test. In exodus burning bush he is 80. 40 years in the wilderness and here we come to the next test.
How do I know it was a test the first time? Can you prove that in scripture pastor? Well let’s see…stay with me
22 And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds.
23 “Now when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel.
24 And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended and avenged him who was oppressed, and struck down the Egyptian.
25 For he supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand.
Did you see the test?
MOSES KNEW WHO HE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE! The deliverer of the Jews. His mama and daddy had taught him that. He had a relationship with God. Look at it again.
27 By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible.
So he left Egypt and didn’t care what the king had to say about it because he had seen who was invisible. Now this can’t be the actual exodus because the next line talks about the passover which happened in Egypt before the exodus. So he had seen the invisible one. He grew up in relationship with God. So on year 40 he decides now is the time my people to go. He goes down and kills the Egyptian because that is who he is. Not a murderer but a deliverer. You are harming my people. He thought they will follow me now. They will be behind me. He had the strength, the intelligence, the upbringing. What he didn’t have was his right timing. He failed the test. He fails.
Now he is going to give God this excuse of who am i because moses is living his life detailed by the failure. He does it again in his 3rd excuse
1 Then Moses answered, “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.’ ”
How does he know they will do that? Because they already did that. Remember…Who made you ruler and a Judge? That is what they said when he ran ahead of god in the first test and jumped the gun. So he has history.
Some of you have history that you claim will dictate your future…But I tell you
When God redeems your history, He has rewarded your future.
Your history, your family history, your genealogical history does not dictate how or when or where or who God will make you to be. Do not let your history hinder your future. I don’t stand up here today an adulterer because of God. I don’t stand up here a liar because of God. I stand up here today redeemed and set free and made better because a loving father decided to call my bluff and discipline me and I and my wife and my kids are all the better for it and look out if you try to say any different. I am his and so are you. He made moses the ruler and judge and there was nothing that any of them could say about it. Oh but I knew you when. You used to do… fill in the blank. That is irrelevant. In fact, if you bring up someones past as a judgment against their future…you are participation with the devil. The devil is the accuser of the brethern not god. So God is calling moses and saying it is now time to step back into your rightful place. Moses has all these but God excuses and God just keeps stepping right in front of them and is not going to allow moses to live in his failure any more.
Look at this excuse
10 Then Moses said to the Lord, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.”
I don’t know what to say lord. I am not smart enough to convince them. I don’t have the right words to say to get them to believe me. Why does he say that. We just read that he was mighty in word and deed. Because he couldn’t convince them the first time which he assumed was his fault or the issue was who he was.
You are not your issue. You are not a drug addict. You are not a porn addict. You are not a promiscuous person. You are not a liar. If you are in him. This is not some psycho babble of reverse psychology. no this i your wake up call that He has called you something greater. Not he called you to something greater.
HE CALLED YOU SOMETHING GREATER
He called you his. Don’t you dare diminish his sacrifice and declare yourself of your old name. You may have an issue with those things I listed or something else. BUT DO NOT ALLOW YOURSELF TO BE LABELED AS THAT. I declare freedom to you in Jesus Christ. You can be set free his blood has done that for you.
Here is the deal. You have to get over yourself. everything we have or don’t is for his glory.
Stop focusing on what you lack and realize who you have
That is a good one. We all have heard that. You sit in here or sit at home and focus on everything you don’t have. Then you make excuses as to why you can’t do something. I don’t have the money. i don’t have the age. I don’t have the intelligence. I don’t have the skills. BUT YOU HAVE HIM! Jesus tells you that you will never be alone. He says I will never leave you. This is the exact same promise that God tells moses.
12 So He said, “I will certainly be with you. And this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”
So he will never leave. You don’t have to wonder. You don’t have to fret. You don’t have to doubt. You just have to know. He is with you. Say it out loud. He is with me. So tell the devil and the lie of your own head to cram it clown. You cannot listen to the lie any more.
Worship team
We amen and hallelujah this stuff all the time but what is the first thing we do when trouble hits. Lord I don’t have this to complete that. Lord if you gave me this my life would be so much better. No it wouldn’t. You’d waste that just like you are wasting what you have today. Lord if I had this it would be the greatest and i wouldn’t ask for anything else. Yeah right.
Honestly though it isn’t about what you don’t have it also isn’t about what you do have.
God ask moses what do you have?
He said a rod. He says throw it down.
Even what you have must be cast down at his feet.
Because it isn’t about what you don’t have or do have it is all about who you have.
Every excuse moses gave could have been true. they wouldn’t believe. He didn’t know who he was. His speech couldn’t convince anyone. But every answer God gave was look to me.
Moses excuses were given because he was looking through the wrong lenses.
You give reason based on your perception of you and God is not interested or limited by your perception of you. He is interested in your perception of him. But you can’t quit looking at you long enough to look at him.
God who am I? I will go with you means it doesn’t matter who you are.
What if they don’t believe what I say…I will convince them through my power.
Lord I cant think of the right words to say.... Who made your mouth?
Moses you are looking at the wrong person. I say to you today. you are looking at the wrong person. Oh father. Ok here we go. Some of y'all have heard nothing else i have said today because you have been worried about why moses had to take his shoes off.
It was Hebrew tradition and law that if a person had a relative to die, they could go and redeem their property, their family, etc if there was no heir. We see this story play out in the story of Ruth and Boaz.
Naomi’s husband and son’s die. Ruth was married to one of them. THey go back to Naomi’s homeland and there she comes to Boaz. Who is called the kinsman redeemer. he rescues them and redeems them. But in that story Boaz has to go and meet with another person who could be the redeemer if he wanted. But he chooses not to. Look what the man has to do..
5 Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the land from Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the dead man’s widow, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property.”
6 At this, the guardian-redeemer said, “Then I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate. You redeem it yourself. I cannot do it.”
7 (Now in earlier times in Israel, for the redemption and transfer of property to become final, one party took off his sandal and gave it to the other. This was the method of legalizing transactions in Israel.)
8 So the guardian-redeemer said to Boaz, “Buy it yourself.” And he removed his sandal.
God tells Moses to remove his sandals because…He was never meant to be the deliverer. He was never meant to be the rescuer. He was never meant to over power pharoah. He was never meant to convince. Moses that wasn’t your responsibility. Your responsibility was to be obedient. I will handle everything else. I am the redeemer.
Church you were never meant to save yourself. Save others. You are meant to be obedient. You are meant to follow. You are meant to glorify him. HE carries that load not you. You can’t do it. You can’t carry the load.
Give him praise he is the redeemer!!!! the redeemer has come. The redeemer has come. Submit to him. Moses said and God demanded it, that he realizes who the true God really is. Have you done that. Have you laid the burden at his feet and said ok God I trust you to handle it. Whatever the outcome, whatever the trials…it is up you.
Last thing I promise. Put exodus 3:12 back up there. Look at what the sign was the God never left. It wasn’t the absence of problems or trials or the addition of riches or that people followed. Here was the sign when you stand on this mountain and worship me. When you stand before me and worship, that is your sign I never left you.