Are You A Stranger In Your Own Life? How God Rescues the Restless.

Key Scripture: Exodus 2:18-23; Exodus 3:1-3

Exodus 2:18–23 (NLT)

When the girls returned to Reuel, their father, he asked, “Why are you back so soon today?”

“An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds,” they answered. “And then he drew water for us and watered our flocks.”

“Then where is he?” their father asked. “Why did you leave him there? Invite him to come and eat with us.”

Moses accepted the invitation, and he settled there with him. In time, Reuel gave Moses his daughter Zipporah to be his wife. Later she gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, for he explained, “I have been a foreigner in a foreign land.”

Years passed, and the king of Egypt died. But the Israelites continued to groan under their burden of slavery. They cried out for help, and their cry rose up to God.

Exodus 3:1–3 NLT

One day Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock far into the wilderness and came to Sinai, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the middle of a bush. Moses stared in amazement. Though the bush was engulfed in flames, it didn’t burn up. “This is amazing,” Moses said to himself. “Why isn’t that bush burning up? I must go see it.”

If you read in the previous verse of Exodus chapter 2 Moses is a fugitive after killing a man in Egypt (Exodus 2:12-15). Moses saw an Egyptian beating on one of His fellow Hebrews. Now he didn’t take the route of making a T-shirt, a meme, or changing his social media profile picture to all black. Moses was “on-site”. He caught the man slipp’in when no one was looking. Moses put him to sleep, permanently. Then he hides the body in the sand. There are some who might consider this a little extreme, but there are some who might say that the man had it coming. Pharoh, Moses’ adopted grandfather didn’t think so, and when word got back that Moses had committed murder, he attempts to kill him, but Moses runs away to Midian.

Moses was sitting down by a well and saw 7 daughters of a priest being harassed by some shepherds, and Moses chased the shepherds away. Moses then receives an invite to their fathers house .

Now I want to pause here for a moment to call out the obvious passion that Moses displays for those who cannot defend themselves. He is willing to risk it all in order to stop injustice. Once for the Hebrew man who was being beaten and again for the 7 Midianite women. Moses was so passionate about this cause that it made him choose violence, but what about you?

Is there there something that you are willing to risk it all for? Is there something that you are so excited about that when you talk about it, your energy is contagious? Something, that you value so much that you’re willing to put effort into even if it’s challenging? Are you engaged in something that brings a sense of satisfaction and purpose?

Moses ends up marrying and settling down with the Midianites, and you would think that he would be happy. You’d think that after narrowly escaping capture and execution he’d be a bit grateful for the life he has, right?! But at the birth of his first son, … a happy moment, Captain Kill-joy says, I will name my son Gershom, for he explained, “I have been a foreigner in a foreign land.”

Now Moses, I know you’re not in the palace anymore, living in the lap of luxury, having servants, and fine food, but you have a wife, son, safety, a tent to call home, even a job as a shepherd… Moses would probably say to me, “Chris, I know, I should be grateful but I feel like this is not where I am supposed to be, and even though I lived in the palace I felt disconnected for my people and right now I am separated from them and I feel like a stranger to myself.

We are all saying to Moses that he should be grateful. Now, we are just going to sit here a minute and make him feel guilty for having these feelings.

Moses if you paid less attention to the negativity and focused on the positives you’d be better off.

Moses should just focus on his career or his family.

Moses you need to establish Atomic Habits.

Maybe Moses isn’t manifesting hard enough.

You know Moses hasn’t been practicing his affirmations in the morning.

His chakras are all out of alignment.

He needs help with his breathwork.

You know that specialness that we heard the scripture talking about before, what if he tapped into that?

You know Moses it will come when you’re not looking for it.

Maybe by doing that we can Moses can force himself into shutting down legitimate feelings of frustration, sadness, or anger.

When gratitude is forced or bypassing pain, then it can often compound feelings of failure and hopelessness. God never asks us to feel grateful and suppress any negative emotions, including pain or justified anger. Whether we are feeling down or downright suffering, the enemy will use whatever he can to discourage us and tempt us to wallow in self-pity while ruminating on the bad.

God himself doesn’t even ignore our pain, (Psalm 56:8) says, “You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book.”

But wait Pastor what about (1 Thessalonians 5:18) where it says, Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.

Let me help you. We need to be more aware of our feelings, why? Because our feelings are not always based in the truth. I am not thankful based on my feelings, but I am thankful based on what God has done for me in the past, and that truth helps me trust him for my future. Listen, it’s never about what you feel, but it’s about what you believe. I can be mad and and still have faith. I can be sad and still have faith. I can be depressed and still have faith. I can be frustrated and still have faith. We are always pressuring people to give God praise, but I want to encourage you right now that if you want to cry out in need, go ahead. GOD I NEED YOU!

I wish Moses knew that God had already deemed him special from birth. I wish Moses knew about God keeping him while other baby boys were being killed. I wish Moses knew about how God was working in the background keeping him safe as his mother created a raft for him to float down stream, and be picked up on the other end by a woman who happened to be the daughter of the very king who was trying to kill him in the first place. I wish he knew that God was granting him safety as he hid on the backside of the desert until the proper time for him to have a encounter with God in front of a burning bush.

I know that you may feel as if there is no hope for you, you may feel like you hit rock bottom:

when this life makes you mad enough to kill

when you want somethin' bad enough to steal

when you feel like you've had it up to here

Cause you mad enough to scream, but you sad enough to tear

In spite of that I want to let you know that the Lord is good and his mercy endureth forever. I am confident I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

Moses clearly has a short circuit between himself and his purpose. He needs an opportunity where his passions can flow into something productive. Think about a time when you felt that spark of passion for something, but the circumstances just didn't allow you to pursue it. That's the kind of frustration Moses is experiencing. He's got the passion, but he needs the chance to let it shine.

Moses is disconnected from himself. Sometimes due to circumstances life veers off into a direction we didn’t plan. Maybe we're afraid to go after a dream, or we've convinced ourselves that we don't need anything. The truth is as human beings we always need something. Having unfulfilled desires or being disconnected from our desires can feel like living in a muted world. The spark that ignites motivation seems to have vanished. Daily tasks feel like going through the motions

Doing life with our husband or wife but going through the motions

Going to work everyday, “How are you? I’m fine!”, but going through the motions

Dropping the kids off at school, but going through the motions

Spacing out in the middle of conversations with friends while at brunch

Faking smiles and emotions, all the while screaming inside hoping for something more

We wake up everyday as if it’s curtain call and it’s time to put on this itchy skin that’s really just a costume so that we can perform, “I’m not the real Chris, but I play one on TV.”

Excitement is a distant memory.

Life can seem like you’re meandering with no destination. Nagging feelings of not using your talents or reaching your full potential lingers in the background. Seeing others pursue their passions can trigger envy, while those who seem content in their own skin might spark resentment. There's a void that can't be filled with material possessions or external validation. And a deep sense of purposelessness can creep in.

We make sad attempts to trying to fix ourselves from the outside in, rather than the inside out.

The type of transformation that you’re seeking doesn’t happen with yoga and breathing or a new exercise routine, there’s no self-help book, no seminar, nor quiz in a magazine, no guru.

Don’t focus on appearances. It’s a myth that buying a new car, outfit, or bigger house will bring lasting happiness or fix underlying feelings of insecurity. I am a huge advocate of health and fitness, but conforming to unrealistic beauty standards through diet, exercise, or cosmetic procedures, all in the hope of feeling better about ourselves is not the answer. At the end of the day it is all just people pleasing behavior and only serves to create a temporary illusion of progress, while the real issue still remains.

In (Exodus 3:1) We see Moses with all this passion relegated to the life of a shepherd. The passion he had has grown lethargic, which in no way looks like someone who was on fire when it came to fighting for the weak. He is guiding the sheep trying to find green for them to graze. I wish that I could tell Moses that this same mountain that he was guiding these sheep to, would soon be the same mountain that he would lead the Israelites to have an encounter with God as well. I wish I could tell Moses that his potential wasn’t going to waste, but God has a plan for Him.

I wasn’t around to spoil the ending for Moses. But I am here to give a spoiler for you. God has a plan for you. God wants to connect you with someone bigger than yourself, which is Him. God wants to connect you with a purpose bigger than yourself. And when you're connected to the source of your true desires and purpose, the dimmer switch is cranked all the way up. You're bright, vibrant, and full of energy.

Just like God was trying to get Moses’ attention he is attempting to get yours too. God get his attention by using a burning bush. I don’t know what that burning bush is for you. It could be...

Whatever it is God is attempting to draw you to Himself inorder to make a real connection that matters.

God says nothing about Moses’ identity.