GOD'S INVITATION LEADS TO A CRISIS OF BELIEF

Here we are in week five of our teaching series, the 7 realities of Experiencing God. As I said last week, each of these 7 retaliates builds upon one another. You begin at #1 to get to #2 and so on.

I believe that if more believers recognized and experienced the work of God, the church would excel in growth and missions – I also think that if non-believers would recognize the work of God, they would experience Him and come to know Him.

Several weeks ago, we began this series with the first reality or the first step to Experiencing God and that WAS THAT GOD IS AT WORK ALL AROUND US.

THE SECOND REALITY IS THAT GOD INVITES US TO A LOVING RELATIONSHIP

THE THIRD REALITY IN EXPERIENCING GOD OR THE THIRD STEP IS GOD INVITES US TO BECOME PART OF HIS WORK.

THE FOURTH REALITY IS EXPERIENCING GOD OR THE FOURTH STEP -GOD SPEAKS TO REVEAL HIMSELF, HIS PURPOSES, AND WAYS.

THAT BRINGS US TO OUR FIFTH REALITY IN EXPERIENCING GOD.

GOD'S INVITATION LEADS TO A CRISIS OF BELIEF.

The word crisis comes from a word that means "decision." The same Greek word is often translated as judgment.

The crisis of belief is a turning point where you must decide what you believe about God. How you respond will determine whether you go on to be involved with God in something God-sized that only He can do or whether you will miss what God has purposed for your life. This is not a one-time experience.

It is a daily experience. I cannot say this enough because of the experience -How you live your life is a testimony of what you believe about God.

When believers are invited to join God at work, believers are constantly faced with a crisis of belief why because often God's invitations are God-sized assignments that can never be accomplished in our might. And it is at that point we have to make a choice.

Either we Accept God's invitation and experiencing Him in ways beyond anyone's imagination -or we believe what God is asking us to do is impossible, so we don't do it.

We see people in crisis of belief throughout the Bible.

Let's look at this crisis of belief if you have your Bible with you, I invite you to open them with me to the book of Exodus 3.

If you are unfamiliar to were Exodus is you will find it as the second book on the Old Testament, Exodus chapter 3. Exodus Chapter 3- is about MOSES and His moment of a crisis of belief.

Moses was born during a treacherous time. The Israelites were multiplying rapidly, and the Israelites would soon outnumber the Egyptians. The Pharaoh of Egypt commanded his people to kill all the baby boys by throwing them into the Nile River to die. Moses's mother did not do that.

She hid him for three months the Bible tell us. After she could no longer hide him, she placed him into a floating basket in the Nile River. Pharaoh's daughter saw the basket and wanted to keep the baby herself. Soon Moses grew, and Moses became the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Years later, after Moses was a man, He went to observe the forced labor and saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew; Moses killed the Egyptian and buried him in the sand. When Pharaoh heard and tried to kill Moses He fled. Moses fled to Midian, met a woman, married her, had a family, and became the head shepherd for His father-in-law's flocks.

We see in the beginning verses of chapter 3 that God spoke to Moses through a bush that seemed to be burning but is never consumed.

God invited Moses to join Him in delivering Israel from the bondage and savagery of slavery. Chapters 3- 4 is God's invitation to Moses at the burning bush, while He is standing on Holy Ground, Moses knows it is God speaking to Him.

If you are there in Exodus 3 begin reading with me from verse 7. This is the Word of God and it begins like this.

"And the LORD said: “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.

8 So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites. 9 Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.

(Here is God's invitation to Moses to join Him)

10 “Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”

Notice with me that God stated His agenda, then invited Moses to be part of the work. At this moment, Moses was faced with a crisis of belief, and God was asking him to accomplish a God-sized task.

Here is Moses crisis of belief verse 11: “But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?

So He said, “I will certainly be with you. And this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”

13 Then Moses said to God, “Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?”

14 And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ” 15 Moreover God said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.

Chapter 4 verse 1 look there with me-

Then Moses answered and said, “But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, ‘The LORD has not appeared to you.’ ”

2 So the LORD said to him, “What is that in your hand?”

He said, “A rod.”

3 And He said, “Cast it on the ground.” So he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it. 4 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail” (and he reached out his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand), 5 “that they may believe that the LORD God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”

6 Furthermore the LORD said to him, “Now put your hand in your bosom.” And he put his hand in his bosom, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous, like snow. 7 And He said, “Put your hand in your bosom again.” So he put his hand in his bosom again, and drew it out of his bosom, and behold, it was restored like his other flesh. 8 “Then it will be, if they do not believe you, nor heed the message of the first sign, that they may believe the message of the latter sign. 9 And it shall be, if they do not believe even these two signs, or listen to your voice, that you shall take water from the river and pour it on the dry land. The water which you take from the river will become blood on the dry land.”

10 Then Moses said to the LORD, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.”

11 So the LORD said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the LORD? 12 Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say.”

13 But he said, “O my Lord, please send by the hand of whomever else You may send.”

14 So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses, and He said: “Is not Aaron the Levite your brother? I know that he can speak well. And look, he is also coming out to meet you. When he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. 15 Now you shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth. And I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you what you shall do. 16 So he shall be your spokesman to the people. And he himself shall be as a mouth for you, and you shall be to him as God. 17 And you shall take this rod in your hand, with which you shall do the signs.”

Five times Moses objected– Moses was familiar with the Egyptians, knew what it was like to grow up in Pharaoh's house. He was a prince, and knew about the people of Israel, the slavery, and what a task it would be to guide them out of Egypt. There was no way that Moses could have performed this task on his own. Yet each time Moses objected, God assured Moses that He would be there to help him.

3:12 God Said, "I will certainly be with you"

Did you know that each time that God calls us to do something that we are never alone in the work?

God has never asked us to do something alone He is with us.

WHICH BRINGS US TO OUR TAKE-HOME TODAY:

OUR TAKE-HOME TRUTH IS:

MY RESPONSE TO A CRISIS OF BELIEF DETERMINES WHAT I BELIEVE ABOUT GOD.

Remember, a crisis of belief is a turning point or a fork in the road which calls for a decision. It is where we must decide what we believe about God.

God often will invite us to do God-sized assignments, and How we respond will determine whether we will be involved with God. A God-sized assignment is something that only He can do.

Listen, we will never experience God without obedience. We live in a broken and rebellious world and how we respond, whether in obedience or disobedience, says what we believe about God.

Today, I want us to look at three Biblical principles from our text of what it takes to respond to God in a crisis of belief.

THE FIRST BIBLICAL PRINCIPLE IS; MY RESPONSE TO GOD IN A CRISIS OF BELIEF REQUIRES FAITH.

Moses responded to God in faith. Have you ever heard the term put your money where your mouth is? It is an old English term to mean- show by your actions and not just your words that you support or believe in something.

Moses had to show His faith in God by doing what God requested of him.

Although we see encounters with God throughout the Bible, we also know that response to that encounter requires faith.

Faith is defined in the book of Hebrews 11:1 "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

Faith sometimes is hard to follow, wouldn't you agree? It is tough-hard sometimes.

Faith is the confidence that the promises of God will come true. You cannot see faith, yet we act in faith every minute of every day when we take a breath. It is estimated that a person at rest takes 16 breaths per minute. Each minute we exercise our faith 16 times, we believe there will be oxygen to breathe, yet we cannot see oxygen with the naked eye.

Faith is believing in something that we cannot see; in 2 Corinthians 5:7, the Bible tells us that: "We walk by faith, not by sight" if we see it, we don't need faith.

Moses reacted on faith; He had a little trouble at first but then reacted in faith- He could not see God, but he heard God. He could not see God, but God showed him the tools by which he would carry out his mission. He could not see God, but God promised that He would be there with Him. Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go" and God immediately reassured him by saying, "I will certainly be with you" This was God's promise.

Moses could never have delivered the Israelites from the grips of Pharaoh. Moses could not have separated the Red Sea so the people could walk across on dry ground.

Through faith, Moses took on the task of doing the work of God. Jesus said in Matthew 17:20 “if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.”

The book of Hebrews also tells us that "without faith, it is impossible to please God."

Notice with me what the Bible says about faith – with faith, nothing is impossible, yet without it- it is impossible to please God.

Most of us claim to be Believers, and as Believers, we claim to have faith in God and His promises to include the promise of eternal life in heaven because of His Son Jesus Christ, we will one day go to heaven. AMEN?

But when it comes to living for God, most don't live by faith, and we live by the reality of what we see.

Last week I shared with you the testimony of how God sent us to Michigan, but I did not tell you how sure I was. The faith that I had that God was preparing a church to pastor. I was the pastor of one of the most caring and loving churches. To be truthful, we did not desire to move there, in fact, the first winter there, we had the most accumulative snow in history, the second winter was the coldest in history. If our grandson had not had cancer, we would not have moved. But God said Go, and so we went.

We did not go in the call of a church, and we obeyed God. In all the fuss and muss of everything, through cancer, the family issues, travel to and from the hospital, searching for a church, God was preparing a church. Nine months later, after going to Michigan, We accepted a call to a church where God has placed us. Living by faith often means that we say- God, I know that you are with me, and I will join you in your work, no matter what.

We must respond to God in faith, knowing that He will be with us as we join Him in the work that he is doing.

Faith is not something you can turn on; it is a decision of what you believe about God. If we are going to respond in obedience to God, it requires us to believe that He can do what He says.

BIBLICAL PRINCIPLE 1:

MY RESPONSE REQUIRES FAITH.

BIBLICAL PRINCIPLE #2

MY RESPONSE TO GOD IN A CRISIS OF BELIEF, REQUIRES ME TO UNDERSTAND MY ENCOUNTER WITH GOD IS GOD-SIZED.

God can call us on some douses'; cant He?

In our scripture, today God called MOSES- to bring over a Million Israelites from the bondage of Egypt. The grips of Egypt were so great that 80 years before when Moses was born and the Egyptians Killed all the male babies by drowning them in the Nile River.

Moses was 80 years old and was called by God.

What was God-Sized things for Moses?

The Burning Bush.

Rescuing over 1 million people.

His Staff- His Hand.

These were all God-sized moments for Him.

The Bible tells how God called NOAH to Build an ARCH. A boat to carry 2 of everything when the flood came. The earth had never experienced rain before, certainly not a flood- but God called Noah to have faith to build the Ark.

The Bible says in Hebrews 11:7 "By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.”

According to the Bible, Noah was 500 years old when he is first mentioned in Genesis chapter 5, and then the Bible says that Noah was 600 years old when the flood came. That is a God-sized mission that took 100 years to accomplish.

Today a full-sized replica of the Ark has been built according to the dimensions of the Bible. It is 510 feet long, 85 feet wide, and 51 feet high.

This was a God-sized mission. The Old Testament is full of people called by God to do God-sized missions.

IN THE NEW TESTAMENT, THE DISCIPLES WERE CALLED TO BEGIN THE CHURCH.

Jesus hand-selected 12 ordinary men who would change the world. One betrayed Jesus, but God called the other 11 to do something never done before, and that was to start the Church.

Jesus called the Apostle Paul an enemy of the church to do the work of God, and Paul started many churches.

God still calls us today to God-sized missions. To do things that take complete faith in Him. Things that we cannot do without Him.

One of my favorite verses of the Bible tells in Phil 4:13, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

I remember the day that God called on me to put on a Christian concert in the middle of Soulard, where the nation's second-largest Mardi-Gras is held.

We were called to shed light in the city of darkness- I did not know anything about hosting a concert, nor did I know about booking bands and other performers. But we did it, and each year it improved and turned into a Christian festival with thousands of people coming through on one day to hear our mighty God being praised. We had 19 different bands and performers, having booths of Christian businesses and several other churches coming together to help. We called it Faith-Fest, and today that idea of God's calling to shed light in the darkness of that city by hosting Faith-Fest is still alive.

God calls us to do things we think we could never achieve. But when God calls us to do God-sized things in our lives, He is always there with us.

Just as He was with Moses- Noah, Abraham, and the Disciples.

MY RESPONSE TO GOD IN A CRISIS OF BELIEF FIRST REQUIRES FAITH.

SECOND MY ENCOUNTERS WITH GOD ARE GOD-SIZED.

THE THIRD BIBLICAL PRINCIPLE IS: MY RESPONSE TO GOD REQUIRES ME TO TAKE ACTION.

How we live our lives demonstrates what we believe about God.

Notice what God has done with Moses-God was preparing Moses all his life for this day. Look what happened with me-

First God revealed Himself, Verse 4, How did He do that through the burning bush-

2nd God revealed His work. He told Moses what the mission was to rescue His people v8.

3rd God invited Moses to a relationship V5-6

4th God then invited Moses to join God in the work v 10, then what comes next is Moses is found to be in a crisis of belief. How Moses responded to God shows what He believed about God.

5th Moses responded in obedience to God by action.

Our belief requires action. And that is what we know of Moses; He went back to Egypt to free the people from the bondage. V4:20

Folks, the truth is this WHAT I DO NEXT SHOWS OTHERS WHAT WE BELIEVE ABOUT GOD.

Exodus 4:27-29 “And the Lord said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So he went and met him on the mountain of God, and kissed him. So Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord who had sent him, and all the signs which He had commanded him. Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel.”

Moses had a great life; He was His father-in-law's shepherd, He took care of all the flocks, He had a family, a home, it is evident that he was going to inherit his father-in-law's wealth, He had everything to look forward to. Then God spoke to Moses, and Moses had a crisis of belief, and He acted on what God was calling Him to do.

A crisis of belief is the turning point in our faith- it is when we go from talking about faith to walking in faith.

Moses had to do it, and when he went to Egypt, the people had to act as well- James, the brother of Jesus, says it this way: "be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves" James 1:22.

The Bible is full of examples of people who adjusted their lives to do the work of God. Today, we have many examples of people who have put their faith into action through a crisis of belief.

This Easter season, we take up the Annie Armstrong Offering. Many know Annie Armstrong only as of the name of the annual offering for North American missions.

Annie Armstrong followed God's calling as she helped found the Woman's Missionary Union, what we call the WMU- in 1888 and served as its corresponding secretary. In one year, she wrote more than 18,000 letters on behalf of the WMU and its mission. According to her biography, she often traveled great distances in her work with WMU, once covering 3,300 miles in 21 days, visiting 19 places, stopping at 26 different addresses.

Her work as corresponding secretary for the WMU created the necessity of purposeful organization for missions, home and abroad, in Southern Baptist life.

Each year, gifts to the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering support missionary salaries and training, church planting, and evangelism efforts right here in America, in places like Detroit.

Just like Moses never dreamed the impact of His faith in action, I am sure that when Annie Armstrong began, she never would have thought of God's impact through her. God called her to a God-sized calling, and through her response God's people are being affected.

Like with Faith Fest, I never dreamed that it would last over 10 years and that probably tens of thousands of people have heard the Word of God in song and Word because I acted in Faith.

God is still calling us to a crisis of belief- it is not that we don't know what God's will is; it is, are we willing to do it? Our actions indicate what we believe about God.

I have shared with you many times when God has called me to a crisis of belief from becoming a 3rd and 4th grade Sunday School teacher to Men's leader to adult Sunday School, to becoming a preacher and pastor- preaching in a Biker Bar- to sharing my faith with so many people- to standing up for social injustice, moving to Detroit- to starting a Bible study in the Federal Building in Detroit to becoming the leader for the Greater Detroit Baptist Association of 45 churches and three chapels. Each time God has asked me to join Him in His work, I had to rely on Faith as God called me to a God-sized mission that required me to put my faith in action.

Folks, don't get sidetracked - Today is about a call to action- God is calling us to do amazing things right here in our communities and beyond, and what we do next will tell others what we believe about Him.

Is God's Spirit speaking to you today?

HOW I RESPOND TO A CRISIS OF BELIEF DETERMINES WHAT I BELIEVE ABOUT GOD.

MY RESPONSE TO GOD REQUIRES FAITH.

MY ENCOUNTERS WITH GOD ARE GOD-SIZED.

MY RESPONSE TO GOD REQUIRES ME TO TAKE ACTION.

BECAUSE YOU DO NEXT SHOWS OTHERS WHAT YOU BELIEVE ABOUT GOD.

Remember this, no matter what you do in your life- YOUR Actions speak louder than words.