Sermon Tone Analysis

*Crossroads** Baptist Church*

*Pastor Thomas S. Myers*

 

*FAITH FOR THE FUTURE*

*EXODUS 1-2*

 

            A 19 year old College student got on a bus and he sat down by a middle aged man.

He said to the man, "Could you tell me what time it is?"

And the man did not respond.

The college student said, "Excuse me, could you tell me what time it is?"

The man just looked straight ahead and did not respond.

The college student said, "Sir, would it be too much to give me the time of day?"

The man said, "I am not going to tell you the time of day.

Because if I tell you what time it is, the next thing you will want to talk about is the weather.

And once you talk about the weather, you will want to talk about politics.

And once you talk about politics you will want to talk about  sports.

And once you get into sports, the you will want to know where I work.

Then you will want to know where I live.

Then you will want to come over to my house.

And I have a 19 year old daughter.

And you will get interested in her, and you will want to marry her.

And I don't want my daughter marrying any man who can't afford a watch."

Isn't it amazing how we jump to conclusions?

I want to tell you, as we look at the life of Moses, do not jump to any conclusions.

Because many of us think of Moses as a very successful prophet of God.

But for a  large portion of his life he considered himself a failure.

He questioned his adequacy, his gifts, his calling, and even his purpose for living.

If there is anyone in the Bible who you would not think of as being a failure, it is Moses.

And yet he is the classic illustration of a man who wrestles with failure.

Someone has put it this way, "Moses spent his first 40 years in Pharaoh's house learning to be somebody.

He spent the next 40 years of his life learning to be a nobody.

And he spent his last 40 years learning what God could do with somebody who had learned the first two things.

D.L. Moody put it this way: "Moses spent his first 40 years thinking he was somebody.

He spent his 2nd 40 years learning he was a nobody.

He spent his 3rd 40 years discovering what God could do with a nobody."

I believe we are all in one of those 3 areas.

Right now we are either in the stage where we think we are somebody, or we are in the stage of learning we are a nobody, or we are learning what God can do with a nobody.

What is it that makes somebody great in the sight of God?

I believe it is anybody who by faith believes that God can still use a nobody.

I am firmly convinced that it was the faith of Moses' mother that God used to start the faith building process in the life of Moses.

Moses was raised by faith, but I do not think that in his early life he lived by faith.

But I do believe this:  That it was the spiritual nurturing of his mother that God used as the springboard for Moses' spiritual stability.

While listening to Billy Graham's radio program called "The Hour of Decision" I heard an incredible story about Layton Ford.

He had shared that he was adopted and how he first met his mother.

And it was just a short time before the radio broadcast that he wanted to find out just who his mother was.

So he approached the adoption agency asking for his mother's name and address.

They gave him her name and he began his search for her.

He found her in Ontario, Canada.

Not knowing what her reaction would be, he made his way to her address.

He knocked on her door.

She opened the door and Layton Ford introduced himself by saying, "Hi I am your son."

She invited him in.

And this is what she shared.

"Every day of my life I wondered about you.

As I shopped, I often wondered If I had just seen my son.

Not knowing what had happened to you, I faithfully prayed for you daily."

She had no idea that she had actually heard Layton Ford speak just 3 ago months at a crusade.

Isn't it great what faith and prayer can do?

Her faithful prayer was the foundation stones to the faith of Layton Ford.

I also believe that the foundation stones for Moses' faith rested upon the faith of his mother.

Let's look at the life of Moses.

*FIRST -- MOSES, BORN IN ADVIRSITY.**

EXODUS 1:8-22*

 

            Moses was born a slave.

There is very little joy being a slave.

Imagine being a prisoner in Dachau, or Auschwitz of Nazi Germany.

You would have no rights or privileges.

Perhaps one source of joy would be the birth of a child.

But if your baby was found, it would be taken away and killed.

I can see a mother's joy over the birth of a child, but also seeing the fear that settles in realizing that if the child is discovered it will be killed.

That's the situation of Moses.

Pharaoh has given the command for all males to be killed at birth.

Look at EXODUS 1:15-16

 

*Exodus 1:15-16** *

*15 **The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, 16 "When you help the Hebrew women in childbirth and observe them on the delivery stool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live."

(NIV)*

 

            Pharaoh was saying, "Look, if you midwives help give birth, and the baby is a boy, you're to kill it."

*SECOND -- MOSES, RAISED FOR *SUCCESS*.

ACTS 7:22-25*

 

              Most of you know his life story.

Let's look at what the Bible has to say about his life.

*ACTS 7:22*

*22** **MOSES** WAS EDUCATED IN ALL THE WISDOM OF THE EGYPTIANS AND WAS POWERFUL IN SPEECH *

*AND** ACTION.

*

 

            The Jewish historian Josephus tells us that Pharaoh's daughter had actually trained and reared young Moses to be the Pharaoh of Egypt.

Since Pharaoh had no son,

Moses was next in line to be the Pharaoh elect.

Moses entered a total cultural and mental transformation.

His new mother was molding him into an Egyptian.

Look again at closely at* verse** 22.*

 

*"MOSES WAS EDUCATED IN ALL THE WISDOM OF THE EGYPTIANS"*

 

            He was trained in all the Egyptian sciences, mathematics, astronomy, chemistry, medicine, philosophy, law, music, sculpture, painting, and the broadest knowledge of Egyptian literature.

He was being groomed to be the next pharaoh.

The results were incredible.

Look at the results

 

*ACTS 2:22*

*"MOSES WAS...POWERFUL IN SPEECH AND ACTION"*

 

            The Greek word for "powerful" means mighty in influence.

Moses was very articulate.

He was an incredible debater and soldier.

Outside of Biblical literature it says that Moses was a military officer who became a hero in an Ethiopian war.

He was the brightest star on the Egyptian horizon.