Lessons in the Wilderness

Intro

[Thank worship team]

Good morning Bethel Church, and good morning to our network of rural churches that are joining us live on YouTube. And if you are new here, I want to extend a special welcome to you. If you would, there are “Connect” cards in the seat in front of you. If you would fill that out there or at the Welcome Center outside of the sanctuary. We even have a free gift for you if you are new to Bethel. We would love to get in touch with you and discuss how to get connected to our church family.

Announcements:

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TRANS: Pray

Opening Hook

Have you ever received information before you needed it, and thought it was irrelevant?

Now if I told you how to put together a kid’s trampoline so you only had to do it once, you may or may not listen. You might even tune me out. You might think, “what does this have to do with anything?” I was once like you. I once believed the mysteries of the trampoline carried no purpose, its secrets must not be known.

So there I am, yesterday morning with my family, bringing out the trampoline from the garage and putting it back together. “I’ve put these together before! I don’t need a refresher. You won’t be seeing me watching a youtube tutorial for ashamed and defeated dads, who have been vanquished by a children’s jumpy toy. These springs and frame have no match for my intellect.”

You can see where this is going. I told Ashley at the start, “just hook a few springs on that end to create some tension throughout the trampoline and then we can fix it if they’re not lined up.” Well, they weren’t lined up, and it was too late. The springs were stretched like I’ve never seen them stretched before. They were diagonal, and we couldn’t get them out.

I realized, the only way to fix this is to take off all of the springs and start over. I had hope that if I had just taken off *most* of the springs that we could get it done, but alas, it was not true. So I remembered how to do it after winging it: never guess. Count it out so it’s right the first time. And then fill in the gaps.

We have all under appreciated a life-lesson. Perhaps a parent, teacher, or boss tried to help us by saying, “you know, someday you’re going to need to know this.” And we think, “yeah ok.”

But our circumstances have not yet come where we need it. Where the advice is not just information, but the only way forward. God, in His sovereignty, leads us to circumstances that challenge us. This challenge is meant to produce the felt need for us to get over our pride, sense of self-reliance, and stubbornness to actually consider wisdom from Above.

God’s Timing

God teaches us what we need when we need it.

This is what Moses was about to experience, and it was something that could only happen if he was led to the right set of circumstances where he was open to learning the lesson. God typically will teach us things before we need it too, this is not an exclusive claim. But we may not be ready to listen before we need it.

Moses was not done learning, and neither are we.

TRANS: Today we will be continuing our study of the book of Exodus called, “Forward, Trusting God in the Unknown.” If you are reading out of the Bibles in front of you, our passage can be found on page 59. If you do not have a Bible, please stop by the Welcome Center and take one. It is our gift to you.

Exodus 18:8–12 ESV

8 Then Moses told his father-in-law all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, all the hardship that had come upon them in the way, and how the Lord had delivered them. 9 And Jethro rejoiced for all the good that the Lord had done to Israel, in that he had delivered them out of the hand of the Egyptians. 10 Jethro said, “Blessed be the Lord, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh and has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. 11 Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods, because in this affair they dealt arrogantly with the people.” 12 And Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, brought a burnt offering and sacrifices to God; and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses’ father-in-law before God.

Lessons in the Wilderness

Moses celebrated.

Exodus 18:8-12

Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, traveled to meet Moses. With Jethro also came Moses’ wife and two sons. Years earlier, Jethro had extended hospitality to Moses after Moses fled Egypt. Now Moses gets to return the favor.

Moses shares all that God had done for the people of Israel, and Jethro rejoiced. Notice what Jethro says in verse 11, “Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods.” Like Egypt, most of the ancient world were polytheists, meaning they believed there were “many gods.” Each had their own territory and responsibility. Jethro would have been no exception to this mindset, yet he recognizes that there is no greater God than the God of Israel.

Upon sharing of God’s mighty acts, they perform sacrifices and share a meal with all the elders of Israel.

John Walton makes this observation about sacrificial meals:

The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament 18:1-27: Jethro and Moses

18:12. sacrificial meal. Sacrifices in the ancient world were often opportunities for communal meals. Though communal meals were used to ratify formal agreements, they were also a part of offerings of thanksgiving, more suitable to this context. This is like a banquet with Yahweh as the guest of honor.

They celebrated what God had done. They remembered His works. This is the first lesson in the wilderness.

Remembering the bad comes naturally, remembering the good takes work.

Everyone comes prepackaged with a “pain journal.” It’s called your memory.

[ELABORATE]

TRANS: But God had more lessons for Moses while his father-in-law was here. Read on in verse 13:

Exodus 18:13–18 ESV

13 The next day Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood around Moses from morning till evening. 14 When Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, “What is this that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone, and all the people stand around you from morning till evening?” 15 And Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God; 16 when they have a dispute, they come to me and I decide between one person and another, and I make them know the statutes of God and his laws.” 17 Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “What you are doing is not good. 18 You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone.

Moses listened.

Exodus 18:13-18

Moses was acting as the judge of all Israel. When he sat in that seat, court was “in session.” The people brought their cases and grievances to Moses, and Moses did this all day. All legal matters, civil and religious, were to be addressed with Moses.

But Jethro could see that this was not sustainable. Jethro says in verse 18, “you and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out.” In other words, you guys will make each other go crazy. The issues will never stop, and one man cannot sustain a morning-til-evening routine like this.

Moses needed to face up to the fact that the kind of leadership he was offering was unsustainable in the long run.

Here’s the truth about leadership in any organization:

Your organization is perfectly designed to get the results it is currently getting.

If you don’t like the outcomes, you must look at the process. Jethro was not making a personal attack against Moses, he was showing him that the system was designed to fail.

Moses was sincere, but sincerity alone does not remove human limits. Jethro recognized that an unsustainable pattern was harming both Moses and the people. This passage reminds us that burnout is not always caused by bad motives; sometimes it comes from faithful people trying to do too much by themselves.

TRANS: Jethro did not just point out the problem, he offered a solution:

Exodus 18:19–26 ESV

19 Now obey my voice; I will give you advice, and God be with you! You shall represent the people before God and bring their cases to God, 20 and you shall warn them about the statutes and the laws, and make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must do. 21 Moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. 22 And let them judge the people at all times. Every great matter they shall bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you. 23 If you do this, God will direct you, you will be able to endure, and all this people also will go to their place in peace.” 24 So Moses listened to the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said. 25 Moses chose able men out of all Israel and made them heads over the people, chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. 26 And they judged the people at all times. Any hard case they brought to Moses, but any small matter they decided themselves.

Moses heeded.

Exodus 18:19-26

Jethro told Moses to delegate. To create lower courts to handle smaller civil matters, and then Moses would handle the “hard case[s]” (verse 26).

If you have a business and you have people who report to you, try the two week test. No email, no calls, just leave for two weeks. When you get back, see what went wrong, and if things could go on without you.

You don’t know how good of a leader you are until you leave.

“My mentor told me this once: if I can’t leave my business & have it still be operational and making money, I don’t have a business. I have a high stress job with lots of liability.”

I have had to learn early in my ministry that being gone was not something to fear (because something could go wrong), but an opportunity to see where I could improve. Gaps in my leadership are covered when I’m here, because I can cover them. But when I’m gone, the gaps are obvious. This is a chance to equip others in a way that ministry is not dependent on one personality (me!).

Moses had set up the entire society to be dependent on him. If he took a day off, the entire nation stopped. Think about that. No one’s problems would be resolved. So he heeded Jethro’s advice.

You cannot gain wisdom without age, but you can gain age without wisdom.

Maturity is the distance between knowing what to do and doing it.

The more time distance, the more immaturity.

The less time distance, the more maturity.

Moses showed great maturity as he listened to and heeded Jethro’s advice.

Cooperation is important for success

Science: The Scottish biologist and pharmacologist Sir Alexander Fleming is rightly credited with discovering in 1928 the antibiotic, or bacteria killer, penicillin. Subsequent research revealed that penicillin would destroy the bacteria that cause scarlet fever, pneumonia, meningitis, and diphtheria. However, Fleming struggled to find a way to isolate the antibiotic agent and in the end abandoned his attempts to mass-produce penicillin. Soon afterward, during World War II, Howard Florey and Ernst Boris Chain succeeded in producing penicillin in large quantities. The contributions of all three men were recognized in 1945 when they shared the Nobel Prize for their work on penicillin. Their efforts are a reminder of the importance of cooperation for the common good. No one of us is as smart as all of us together.

TRANS: Moses needed to learn to celebrate and delegate. Both lessons in the wilderness came at just the right time, and he learned them through his relationship with his Father-in-law, Jethro. Now we consider these same lessons for us:

Application

Don’t be a lone wolf.

Something I appreciate about rural people like us is the attitude that we will “figure it out.” This is not just an attitude, it is engraved as a survival necessity.

I look at the old farm houses spaced miles from anyone else and think, “how did those people make it?” Well, as you know, it was brutal. Many stories could be shared of harsh winters in the decades after families immigrated to North Dakota to farm. But they “figured it out.” This is a good thing, this was a necessary thing.

But here’s the unintended consequence of such a mindset, “I will figure it out” with the subtext being “[by myself].” Somehow we’ve equated…

asking for collaboration as giving up

asking for help as weakness

going to others as defeat

But nothing could be further from the truth. God often applies just the right pressure to push us out of the “ill figure it out by myself” mindset. We were made to be in relationship with God and with others. We actually cannot flourish without relationships. We cannot do it all ourselves.

Illustration set up: There is actually no such thing as a “jack of all trades, master of none,” because God designed us to each have gifts and abilities that compliment each other.

God’s church is built not by one individual but by many people working together

Art: The art world goes through phases. At times, art can confound those of us who are “less sensitive” to the complexities expressed in forms that only other artists can understand. Consider French artist Alphonse Allais, critically acclaimed for his poetry, painting, and musical composition. His most famous works in each arena were bound by one common feature—extreme minimalism. For instance, his Funeral March for the Obsequies of a Deaf Man was a musical score with nine measures but no notes. His painting Première communion de jeunes filles chlorotiques par un temps de neige (First communion of anemic young girls in the snow) was a single, unmarked sheet of white paper. He pioneered a form of poetry in which every line was homophonous (i.e. , each word pronounced the same).

For most of us, what makes good art is not undifferentiated sameness. It takes contrast and complement to make something worth reading, hearing, or seeing (think Starry Night by van Gogh). In the same way, the beauty of the church is best expressed when many people are being used by God, performing service according to their gifts.

If you have a tendency to withdraw and isolate, what does this story from Moses teach you? You are wearing yourself out from trying to do it all. You need others.

Who is an ally you could bring into your life to help you? Help with…

Task

Advice

Encouragement

Prayer

TRANS: Don’t be a lone wolf. But there’s one more lesson for us…

Tell stories of God’s faithfulness.

Psalm 105:1-2

Psalm 105:1–2 ESV

1 Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples! 2 Sing to him, sing praises to him; tell of all his wondrous works!

“Make known his dees among the peoples!” Tell stories. Write them down. Remember the God you serve and what he has brought you through.

Do you know your own testimony?

A testimony is the story of God in your life and when you became a Christian. Every testimony has three parts:

BC

Cross

AD

The format for this testimony is simple. “BC” describes our life before Christ. Identify a specific issue, behavioral pattern, or internal struggle that was part of your life before you met Jesus. The cross (†) briefly, but clearly, provides the basic message of the gospel—our guilt, Jesus’s free sacrifice, and our confession of faith. “AD ” describes how Christ is bringing transformation to the area we identified from our “BC ” life.

Another way to modify this is by simply describing how we have seen the Lord come into an area of struggle in our present Christian life.

For example, take this story: “I’ve always struggled with anxiety about the “What ifs …” of life. Recently, the Lord helped me see that this fear is rooted in a failure to trust him. I’ve been realizing it is crazy to doubt! If God sent his own Son to die for me, then surely he’s going to take care of me. I still struggle, but I’ve had a lot more peace as I keep reminding myself of this truth. Even better, I can actually feel God helping me remember to trust him.”

Celebrate what God has done. Tell stories of His faithfulness. Why? Because that encourages those you tell it to. It’s one of the reasons why I love baptizing people. We get to hear the mighty works of God in their life that led them to that place. All glory to Him. And when we tell stories or hear stories of God’s faithfulness, this prompts us to worship Him. Trust Him. Obey Him when it’s difficult. Stories are powerful. What’s your story? How might God use your life to encourage others?

Conclusion : God teaches Moses some lessons in the wilderness. Moses celebrated, listened, and heeded. When we allow God to teach us the lessons we need according to His timing, we are truly trusting Him in the unknown.

Pray

Talk About It/Think About It

Why is it important for God’s people to regularly tell stories of His faithfulness?

What can happen in our spiritual lives when we stop remembering what God has done?

Why do people sometimes resist asking for help even when they are clearly overwhelmed?

What does Moses’ response to Jethro teach us about humility and teachability?

How can wise delegation strengthen both leaders and the people they serve?

In what areas of life or ministry are you most tempted to carry things alone?

What is one specific story of God’s faithfulness that you need to tell more often?