Sermon Tone Analysis

!! *Philadelphia Baptist Church*

!!! *4~/1~/2007 Sun.

a.m.*

!!! * *

*God Raises Up a Deliverer*

*Exodus 3:1–12*

 

*Introduction:*

 

#.

*The Making of a Leader*

 

In reviewing the book /Leadership/ by Rudolph “Rudy”Giulani, Stephen Wolter poses an age-old question: “Does the man make the times, or do the times make the man?” Giuliani was elected mayor of New York City in 1993 and reelected in 1997.

During his tenure as mayor, Giuliani seemed destined to be remembered by history as an effective administrator, as one who dramatically lowered his city’s crime rate, and as someone whose style and politics polarized his constituents.

But then came the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and Giuliani’s true leadership skills became obvious to the entire world.

We often pause to wonder about what we do not know.

As we read our Bibles, do we see God finding people naturally fitted to lead and shape their times, or does God design and create such leaders through the trials they undergo?

Or is it a little of both?

Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David, John the Baptist, Paul—so many great leaders, so many unanswered questions about them!

We meet one of these leaders today.

#.

*Lesson Background*

 

Many centuries after Noah’s descendants were wandering away from God, the Lord called Abraham to be the father of a great nation.

That nation would show the rest of the world what it means to be holy.

All this must have seemed very mysterious to Abraham, but “he went out, not knowing whither he went” (*Hebrews 11:8*).

As a result the chosen family was planted in the land of Canaan, or Palestine as it came to be called.

Jacob, grandson of Abraham, had twelve sons.

One was Joseph, who became a ruler in Egypt through an interesting series of events *(Genesis 37, 39–41).

*God worked through human weakness (Jacob’s foolish favoritism toward Joseph, and the jealousy of Joseph’s brothers) to bring about a deliverance that saved a people from famine.

Then came disaster.

After Joseph’s death, a new Egyptian king became frightened when he saw all those foreigners living in his land *(Exodus 1:1–10).*

What if they joined forces with a foreign country against Egypt?

So the new king made slaves of the Hebrews and worked them under brutal overseers.

When the Hebrew people continued to increase in number, the king decreed that every boy born among them should be thrown in the river (*Exodus 1:22*).

This is the situation in which God moved to prepare His people to leave Egypt for the land that He had promised long before (*Genesis 28:10–14*).

Moses was one of the babies born in the days when the king was insisting that every baby boy of the Hebrews must be thrown into the river.

Moses’ mother did indeed put him there, but she protected him with a watertight basket that would float on the surface.

The princess found the floating baby, and her motherly instincts were stirred.

She took him home and reared him as her own.

So the Hebrew baby became a prince of Egypt, trained in all the knowledge and wisdom of that culture *(Exodus 2:1–10).*

When Moses was forty years old, he happened to see a merciless overseer beating one of the Hebrew slaves.

Angered by that treatment, Moses killed the overseer.

Such behavior was not to be tolerated, even in a prince.

The king meant to have Moses executed, but Moses fled eastward across the desert to Midian.

There Moses joined a priest and sheep grower named Jethro, married one of Jethro’s daughters, and settled down to be a shepherd for the rest of his life *(Exodus 2:11–22; Acts 7:23–30).*

For the next forty years (Acts 7:30) Moses enriched his wisdom of Egyptian culture with the lore of nomadic tribes and knowledge of desert living.

Thus he was about eighty years old when God interrupted his life in a profound way.

*I.

Strange Fire** \\ (Exodus 3:1–3)*

 

*A.

Shepherd (v.

1)*

*/Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the back side of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb./*

The land of */Midian/* is named after one of Abraham’s sons (Genesis 25:1–6).

It is a large area without definite boundaries, perhaps one hundred fifty miles to the southeast of Egypt.

Moving his /flock to the back side of the desert/ likely means that /Moses/ is traveling into /Horeb/ or Sinai, toward Egypt.

Pasture is so scarce that the sheep have to move far and wide to get enough to eat.

A certain mountain in Horeb is known as /the mountain of God,/ as this record is written many years after the fact.

We do not know whether or not it has that name when Moses first goes there.

We do know, however, that this is not the last time that Moses will visit this place *(Exodus 17:6; 33:6).*

*B.

Surprise!

(v.

2)*

*/And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed./*

/ /

It is very strange to see a /fire/ in that remote place, and as Moses stares at the /flame/ he sees something stranger still: /the bush /is/ not consumed./

No branches are vanishing in the fire.

What kind of fire could this be?

Moses has forty years of experience in desert environments—he knows what is out of the ordinary when he sees it.

But this event is not just out of the ordinary, it is a miracle.

The God who is “a consuming fire” *(Hebrews 12:29)* has created a fire that does not consume!

*C.

Scrutiny (v.

3)*

*/And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt./*

/ /

Probably */Moses/* says these words to himself; it is unlikely that anyone is with him.

We might conclude that natural human curiosity “gets the best of him” and he can’t resist stepping aside from his normal tasks to investigate what he sees.

/At certain times in history God has revealed Himself through miraculous signs.

But more often God works through the “still, small voice” or in the ordinary things of life.

God’s presence is often seen in the comforting word of a friend offered in a time of need, the encouragement received through a message from God’s Word, or the godly peace that comes in the midst of sorrow.

Seeing a new soul won to Christ or a prodigal returning to the local church are times to stop and marvel at God’s mighty presence and power./

/ /

/In a world oriented so heavily toward tasks and results, it is necessary to take time out to reflect and meditate upon God’s Word as well as His creation.

When we do, God’s presence will be unmistakable./

*II.

Holy Ground* \\ *(Exodus 3:4–8)*

 

*A.

Awe-inspiring Identification (vv.

4–6)*

*/And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses.

And he said, Here am I./*

/ /

If /Moses/ is moving toward the burning /bush,/ the sound of a voice in the desert stillness stops him short.

Or perhaps he has not yet started toward the bush.

Perhaps the audible voice replies to his private thoughts, riveting him to the spot where he stands.

If the fire is surprising, this voice must be doubly so.

Moses may be trembling, but nonetheless he answers */Here am I./*

* *

/A Voice in the Desert/

The “Mojave Phone Booth” stood for years in the desert between Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

It had been installed in that lonely place in the 1960s for the benefit of miners in the area.

Much later it became famous when information about its existence and location was put on a Web site.

Soon callers from around the world were dialing its number.

As a result the phone booth became something of a shrine.

People came from long distances just to experience the uniqueness of hearing a human voice in the midst of a desert.

People camped out by the phone for days, answering each call as it came in.

One person reported taking seventy-two calls in one four-and-a-half-hour period.

Moses’ experience in the desert was rather different from this!

The voice he heard was that of God Himself.

And to receive a “call” through a burning bush is unusual, to say the least.

Moses responded as he should have; the rest, as they say, is history.

On May 17, 2000, Pacific Bell removed the “Mojave Phone Booth” that had been in service for more than thirty years; the voice in the desert disappeared.

After thousands of years, the original bush that Moses saw is long gone.