A man that God use-Outline

A man that God uses

(Acts 7:17-37; Exodus 2-4)

Introduction:  In your mind, what would be the ideal person that God can use on the mission field?  Does he have to be a good speaker?  How about a people person?  Must there be a lot of education behind him?  How about experience?  If we had to pick the ideal person for the mission field, what would he look like?

Moses’ Résumé: (Acts 7:17-28)

1.      Birth – all other babies were killed but Moses.

2.      Background – He was nourished up in his father’s house and Pharaoh’s daughter took him up and nourished him for her own son as well.  He was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.

3.      Big time speaker – he was a great orator.

4.      Battler – he was mighty in deeds.  Josephus said that by the time he reached thirty, he had already led the Egyptian army to a smashing victory over the Ethiopians.  Moses knew how to lead a multitude and win a battle.

5.       Burden – he had a heart for his own people. 

What did Moses do that was wrong? (Ex. 2:12) Moses took matters into his own hands and tried to establish his authority without allowing God to do it.  Moses fought the wrong war, in the wrong place and at the wrong time!

Illustration:  When I graduated seminary, God brought me to the desert.

Exodus 2:15  15 Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian: and he sat down by a well.

1.       A man who God uses is one who is willing to be a servant. (Ex. 2:16-19)

Illustration:  Preaching in Cumberland, Iowa I had the opportunity to hold a baby lamb in my arms and feed it with a bottle.  What does a servant do?  He does the “next task.” 

2.      A man who God uses is one who is willing to be a stranger. (Ex. 2:20-22)

Illustration:  One of the neat things that God has enabled us to do on deputation is to spend some time with my wife’s parents.  He is content to live with a man who smells like sheep!

3.      A man who God uses is one who is willing to be submissive.  (Ex. 2:23-25)

Rather than rushing God’s will, He did God’s will in God’s timing.

D.L. Moody said of Moses, “Moses spent his first forty years thinking he was somebody, He spent his second forty years learning he was a nobody. He spent his third forty years discovering what God can do with a nobody.”

Moses responds to God’s calling by saying “Who am I? (Ex. 3:11).

God gave Moses the same promise He gives to us (Ex. 3:12; Matt. 28:20).