Man on fire!

Your Plan vs. God’s Will

Moses grows up in Egypt into his adulthood.

He’s educated

Historians teach that he was a leader of battle

and he’s highly valued in Egypt.

He knew God’s will concerning his life, but did not get complete instruction going about what God told him to do.

Instead, Moses began to carry out that plan according to Moses’ way and Moses’ schedule.

As he did, sadly, many things came unraveled for him.

The trouble is, when you know the ultimate will of God for your life and things aren’t happening fast enough to suit you, you become anxious.

You begin looking for ways to jump start the process.

Without realizing it, Moses entered a vulnerable, dangerous time of life.

While I’m convinced he knew he was to redeem Israel, I also believe he grew antsy about it.

Anxious.

Impatient.

And in that state of mind, he launched a premature strike that resulted in disaster . . . and a forty-year setback.

Desiring to carry out the will of God, eager to do great things for God, he forced a situation, which led to personal disaster.

Verse 12 tells us that “he looked this way and that.”

When Moses stepped in and began his own Operation Deliverance, he was energized by the flesh, not the Spirit.

scripture says “he hid the Egyptian in the sand.” Invariably, when you act in the flesh, you have something to cover up.

You have to bury your motive.

You have to hide a contact you made to manipulate the plan. You have to conceal a lie or half-truth. You have to backtrack on a boast.

You have to cover up the corpse your fleshly procedure has created.

It’s just a matter of time before truth catches up with you.

The sand always yields its secrets.

Lessons from failures

Moses took a forty-story fall!

At first Moses may have thought he was following God’s plan in that moment, but he never bothered to check signals.

He never prayed before he killed the egyptian.

We have no record that he sought God’s face.

When God’s in it . . . it flows.

When the flesh is in it . . . it’s forced.

I believe a lesson was learned. Moses determined never to hide anything again.

Moses had to go through a desert experience in order to help navigate others through it.

It's in the dessert experience that you peel off all the masks, and shed all the phony costumes, you begin to see a true identity. some of us experience this early and other later in life.

Things the wilderness experience will do for you in your own life.

1. It will humble you.

2. It will show you your strengths and weaknesses.

3. It will help you discover yourself as never before.

Sometimes God can have you in the shadow of where he is taking you and you now even know it.

NO SHORTCUTS Can you believe it? God Slowed him down.

Lessons from the Bush

Moses at this point probably feels like a unusable vessel for God.

He couldn’t imagine God using him

And then one day he has encounter with a bush and his life was never the same.

40 years of silence, no communication from God and then suddenly Bam god shows up.

Suddenly, that’s how God like to operate. no special stars, no meteor nothing.

The angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed. So Moses said, “I must turn aside now and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up.” (vv. 2–3)

Look at what God used, a bush, there was nothing special about the bush, bush just happened to be chosen by God. and sparked on fire with a inextinguishable fire.

When the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” (v. 4)

When Moses changed his direction to toward God he heard from God!

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 3

Do not come closer,” he said. “Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” 6 Then he continued, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God.

“The place where you are standing is holy ground. . . . ” The Hebrew word translated “holy” means, literally, “separated.” God was saying to him, “Moses, I want you to separate yourself from your past.

I want you to listen only to what I am saying right now. Separate yourself from every human thing.

Look at that list: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. Whenever we read those names, we think we’re dealing with the starting lineup of Bible superstars—the heavy hitters. It’s as if these were men who floated through life in a bubble and never soiled their feet by walking on the dirty ground. Not so! If you ever do a study on their lives, you’ll find that these men were people just like us. Yes, their names are in the Bible, but each one of these men had broken piñions, too. Had it not been for God’s grace, not one of them would have accomplished anything worth remembering.

Moses up to this point thought that his life was settled in the moment, he was almost willing to accept that and then God showed up.

and look and what God says here.

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 3

7 Then the LORD said, “I have observed the misery of my people in Egypt, and have heard them crying out because of their oppressors. I know about their sufferings, 8 and I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and to bring them from that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the territory of the Canaanites, Hethites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. 9 So because the Israelites’ cry for help has come to me, and I have also seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them, 10 therefore, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh so that you may lead my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.”

God was reassuring him that he was there the whole time.

This is a reminder that when it feels like we’re at a standstill that God is there with us the whole time.

Finally......

When Moses was looking at the burning bush he was actually looking at a reflection from himself.

Nothing extraordinary, just a bush. Nothing fancy about him, nothing attractive, just a tree.

but God used this bush for his glory and his purpose. and that is us.

Some folks have all the branches, and everything going on, but can’t catch any type of fire.

don’t get caught in the tree, get caught up with being used for his glory!

And I have pruned away from you all those things you used to hang on to, and that meant so much to you. I have reduced you to a simple love for Me. That’s all you have to offer now, Moses, and that is all I want.”