The Comeback Week 2: Cleared to Play

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Intro

We are in part 2 of a series we have called: (THE COMEBACK)

We are looking at some comeback stories throughout the scriptures to help you realize that a comeback isn’t something that just happened, but it is something that can happen in your life.

Today’s story is one of the best. If you have your Bibles turn with me to the book of Exodus chapter 3,

we are looking at the comeback of a guy by the name of Moses.

Exodus 3:1 NKJV

Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the back of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

Exodus 3:7–10 NKJV

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. 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. 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. Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”

Exodus 4:18–21 NKJV

So Moses went and returned to Jethro his father-in-law, and said to him, “Please let me go and return to my brethren who are in Egypt, and see whether they are still alive.” And Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.” Now the Lord said to Moses in Midian, “Go, return to Egypt; for all the men who sought your life are dead.” Then Moses took his wife and his sons and set them on a donkey, and he returned to the land of Egypt. And Moses took the rod of God in his hand. And the Lord said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you do all those wonders before Pharaoh which I have put in your hand. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go.

Title: Cleared to Play

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Opening Illustration

Im calling it cleared to play, because there is no feeling like sitting on the sidelines due to an injury.

I broke my ankle my junior year

I hated watching my friends play and noticing the vacuum that was left by me not being in.

But there is no feeling like when you finally have the follow up with the doctor and they let you know that your days of sitting on the sidelines are over…you’re cleared to play.

Today we are looking at a moment in Moses life wherein he gets cleared to jump back into the game.

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Contextualize Moses life

To give you the context, I have to dive into some of the back story of this comeback kid named Moses.

Moses’ story is one of the greatest comeback stories of all times.

Moses’ mom and dad are slaves, living in Egypt. The leaders in Egypt are getting threatened by the growth of the slave population that they decided to kill all the young boys born in the land.

Moses’ mom comes up with a plan to save him by shipping him down the river in a basket.

By God’s providence, Moses drifts to the pharoah’s place and some ladies take him in and he gets raised as a royal member of Pharoah’s family.

Isnt it crazy how God can take you from slavery to royalty in a matter of seconds?

Moses would spend the next 40 years of his life in Egypt. Living the high life, hanging at

the pyramids.

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Something is Different about moses - He’s A Hebrew

The story goes that Moses has this “one thing is not like the other” moment. Where he

doesn’t look anything like his Egyptian family.

Awkward conversation is had and he realizes he is actually a Hebrew. His heart immediately goes out to these Hebrew slaves.

Exodus 2:11–12 NKJV

Now it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out to his brethren and looked at their burdens. And he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. So he looked this way and that way, and when he saw no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

Straight up Mafia type. You don’t mess with Moses, that man means business.

Well it turns out that some guys did see him,

when they told him that they were going to share what he had done,

Moses’ at 40 years old, runs for this life and moves into the wilderness.

He moves to Midian and meets a girl named Zipporah.

Stereotype Zipporah

Moses would spend 40 years in Midian, as a shepherd, taking care of sheep, married to Zipporah, having kids.

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Moses was not a young leader

So don’t let Hollywood fool you, the pictures we have of Moses leading the people out of Egypt is this young guy… He wasn’t.

Based on this timeline, He is 80 years old before heading back to Egypt.

Born

40 years old moves to wilderness

80 Years old heads back to Egypt.

120 Years old Dies

Why am I telling you all of this…

Because if you arent careful, you will want everyone’s success without understanding their story.

Moses wasn’t an overnight success that changed history.

He had a long back story with decades of it being a dark season.

If you feel like you have gone through a difficult moment of being hidden, overlooked, forgotten about, God is speaking today and calling you back in action to the purpose and destiny of your life.

One of the key excuses I hear from people when God is calling them back in action, clearing them to play…

back to serve, back to their purpose of reaching people, I hear, well

I have been out of it for far too long..

I want to remind you today

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1. No season is wasted with God

You need to know this, because if you don’t you will be so discouraged by the time that you feel doesn’t fit your calling…or the behind the scenes seasons

But if you know anything about God, no season is wasted with him.

He uses even the hidden, struggling seasons of our life to prepare us for our ultimate purpose.

Let me prove it in the life of Moses.

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Egypt taught to read and write

Moses spent the first 40 years of his life in the palace of Egypt. He was in the best educational system in the known world. He was being educated by the best of the best.

Moses would go on to be the author, through the inspiration of the Holy spirit of the first 5 books of the Old Testament.

Where would he have been trained in these skills? Where would he know how to read, write? No other culture in history has done better at preserving history, and moses would have learned that his first 40 years of life.

Acts 7:22 NKJV

And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds.

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The wilderness taught to wrangle and navigate

And then he gets to the wilderness. He is no longer in formal education, he is now herding sheep.

Now if any season was wasted it was this one.

But what is he doing in the wilderness? He is learning the art of shepherding.

He is learning how to handle the climate, the unknown terrain. Moving sheep from place to place.

Let me give you a little insight for those that don’t know Church history, when the Israelites left Egypt, they were led by Moses into the wilderness, where he would spend the next 40 years

moving them around. Herding the people.

Where would he have learned those practical skills?

Those previous 40 years.

Put timeline back up

40 years of formal training in Egypt

40 years of hands on training in the Wilderness

40 years of formal learning, 40 years of hands on learning, 40 years of leading

Moses understood:

Difficult seasons are not desirable, but they are developmental.

God is not punishing you, he is preparing you.

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Developing the capacity to talk to everyone while talking to noone

Example: Radio Station in London -

God wasn’t punishing me, he was preparing me.

Your current season isn’t a dead end.

We have all these people that say I’m in a dead end class, dead end job, dead end relationship.

God is using the job you are in

The trials you are facing

The class you are attending

And it is a necessary part of your story.

It’s the route that God wants to use to get you to your destiny.

1 Corinthians 15:58 NKJV

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

You keep serving God in this season, and he will eventually use everything for a greater purpose.

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Transition to Point 2

Our story goes that Moses is called back to Egypt.

If you don’t remember, the reason he left Egypt was that there was trauma there. He killed a person. That is like the low of life.\

If there was ever a reason not to go back in Action, it was the trauma and hurt that he faced, but we realize through the life of Moses:

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2. The place of our greatest pain is usually the place of our greatest purpose.

Pain has a crazy way of defining our life.

Christmas a few years ago I ate brisket for dinner

I got a stomach virus

No lie, it was a few years ago before I got the nerve to try eat briskit again…

Even the smell of one got me sick to my stomach.

Pain has a way of shaping who we are.

Your life has been marked by pain points

The death of a loved one

The loss of a job

The diagnosis of a disease

The ending of a relationship.

Pain is part of life.

Moses tried to avoid his pain.

But he didn’t realize that his greatest pain was the point of his greatest purpose.

He was drawn there for a reason.

Our ministry is best discovered by evaluating our messy moments in life.

The best indicator of what you are called to is to look back at what you have went through.

Often what I’m called to looks like what I’ve been through.

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Practical Application

I love to see people who had really rough teenage years serve in student ministry.

You went through divorce? How are you using that pain

You went through loss? How are you using that pain

You went through bankruptcy? How are you using that pain

Let that pain drive you to your purpose of reaching other people.

Maybe its not something that you went through, but maybe its something that annoys you or irritates you.

People get so frustrated and they don’t realize that no one else cares like they do.

When we find a discover a problem we have two options:

be an agent of change or

be an agent of criticism.

The abuse, the neglect, the poverty, you can be critical, or do something about it.

The Lord had to remind Moses:

Exodus 4:19 NKJV

Now the Lord said to Moses in Midian, “Go, return to Egypt; for all the men who sought your life are dead.”

It didn’t kill you, so get back up and go back and do what God had called you to do.

Get back into the action.

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Why would anyone follow me?

Moses asked how are people to know I am sent by you?

Why would anyone listen to me…I’m washed up..

This is the last major excuse people use:

It has been too long

It has been too painful

I am too weak

You read the story, you will see that Moses goes on a whole different chapter giving God all the excuses about why he couldn’t do what he told him to do.

But God told him the solution:

Exodus 4:21 NKJV

And the Lord said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you do all those wonders before Pharaoh which I have put in your hand. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go.

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3. God’s power is most evident when you are doing God’s Work.

So many are missing out on the activity of God because you arent where the action is. You arent on the front lines.

Im just discouraged pastor,

I havent seen the miraculous.

Are you serving?

Are you giving?

Are you attending?

Do you see the baptisms?

Do you hear the reports?

You will never see front line miracles from the back row .

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People ask all the time, why do we see so many miracles on missions trips, but we don’t see them in America.

Because we are intentional there, and we are on autopilot here.

Jesus’ life was packed full of miracles, why?

Jesus wasn’t just friendly to sinners.

He was an intentional friend to sinners.

He got involved in their life, so that he could have a greater purpose of bringing them to new life.

This cant be all my relationships, but it better be a few of them.

Some of you guys are just too surrounded by church people.

Moses has this moment, but we aren’t saved to soak, we are saved to serve.

If your salvation isn’t impacting others…it hasn’t properly impacted you.

Some wish to live within the sound of a chapel bell; I wish to run a rescue mission within a yard of hell. -- C.T. Studd

This is where the action is.

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Get back in the action because once you have accepted Jesus…you’re cleared to play.

If you arent serving: join the dream team

If you arent giving: honor God by tithing

If you arent inviting: reach your friend

Moses’ story was not immediate breakthrough. He heads to Egypt, gets in this war with

Pharoah to let the people go. Its get crazy, but the fact is that at 80 years old, he leads the people

out of slavery, and on a path towards total victory.

No season is wasted with God

The pain is pointing towards your purpose

Gods power is most evident when you are reaching people.