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The Making of a Mighty Man
Exodus 3 & 4:1 What ingredients did God
stir into the life of Moses to make him the mighty man he became?
And will this recipe work in our lives as well? It started out as a very
normal day. Like most of the
days in his 40 years on the backside of the desert, it was likely uneventful
and with no real expectations of much happening.
The sun rose, the sheep grazed, the tumbleweeds rolled.
But it is an extraordinary day, and this harsh barren landscape as it
turns out is about to become a divine location on the face of the map. Moses is about to have a
confrontation with God Almighty.
Before this day is over God is going to reveal to Moses His plan and purpose
for his life, and it’s a grand plan and an awesome purpose.
Any ordinary day becomes extra ordinary when God steps on the scene.
Any ordinary person can become extraordinary when the Lord Jehovah is
in the picture. And any ordinary
church can become extraordinary when God becomes its most prominent member!
1.
The Divine Appointment. v. 2 The Miracle of the
burning bush is a
picture of 3 things:
·
The
Nation of Pharaoh tried and failed,
so did Nebuchadnezzar and Hitler and Saddam, and now
·
God
Himself—It
reveals the power and the glory and the holiness of Almighty God.
Deut. 33:16 says that God Himself dwelt in this bush.
Exodus 3:2 says ‘the angel of the Lord’, I believe this refers to a
Christophany: an OT appearance
of Jesus. The fire is a picture of
the purity and purifying nature of God.
Heb. 12:29 says “our God is a consuming fire.”
Jesus’ eyes in Revelation were like a flame of fire!
Yes, He’s a God of love who doesn’t want to send anyone to hell fire,
but He’s a Holy God Who cannot allow sin into heaven, and He’s so holy that
any sin from His creation must be judged!
With the passion of fire He loves sinners, and with the same ignited
passion He hates sin!
·
Moses
himself—He
was a humble shepherd, but with God’s help He’s about to be set ablaze...on
fire for God...never to be quenched!
V. 6 says Moses bowed before God.
V. 5 points out that he took off his shoes...an act of humility.
That’s a guy God can use!
The same thing happened to Isaiah, when he got a look at Who God truly is he
realized in humility how small and weak he was, and how much he needed God.
There was no real greatness
in Moses. But when the common is
touched by the Divine, then the common becomes uncommon.
God is most pleased to use average, ordinary people.
You don’t have to be the smartest or the most talented...those
qualities often serve to prevent one from looking to God.
He gets much more glory when a new believer or an average Joe
believes and allows Him to fill them and use them than when I take my
seminary degrees and talents and experience and put them on display! Now hear this:
If you pledge to live a dedicated Christian life, to be faithful, to
become a disciple of Jesus, to read your Bible and pray and forsake
sin—there will be some bad days.
There will also be a lot of ordinary days...but there will also be some
special times when the bush will burn with fire!
And it’s a great feeling. In v. 4 Moses said, ‘here
am I’. He’s not the only one who
said that. Isaiah did too...but
he said, ‘here am I Lord, send me’...Moses said, ‘here am I...who, me?’
‘Can’t you send someone else?’
He took his shoes off, a
sign of respect. If I come to
your house I want you to know that it’s because I respect you that I will
leave mine on! But Moses was
standing on holy ground...and so are we right now.
The Bible says that where 2 or more are gathered together in His
Name, He’s there in the midst!
The Divine Appointment...
2.
The Divine Announcement. v. 6
Jesus used this very statement in the NT to prove the resurrection.
Matthew 22:32 Thousands of years after
the burning bush these patriarchs are still alive! v. 7 Check out these verbs:
I have seen, heard, known... v. 8 ‘I am come down to deliver them’.
What condescension! When
I couldn’t go to Him, He came to me!
What a beautiful OT picture of the gospel this is. Moses was glad to hear that
God had not forgotten His people, and was coming down to deliver them.
But he wasn’t as thrilled when he heard that God wanted to offer him
the job of being the leader of that pack!
And there’s many like that in the church today...they are glad for
all that God is doing in the church, as long as they don’t have to do the
work. They are glad for all that
was accomplished on the work day, but were they a part of it?
They are glad to see all our young families we have, but would rather
not take care of their kids.
They love the Wed. Nite meal, but wouldn’t want to have a part in preparing
it or even cleaning up afterward.
They tell others about exciting services, but they haven’t had a part
in it. They are proud of our
great missions program, but they aren’t a contributor to such.
They want very much to have a church staff, but think surely if it’s
meant to be it will happen without their tithe.
Moses wanted the job done,
but didn’t want to do the job.
3.
The Divine Assignment. The rest of chapters 3 & 4
is full of Moses’
excuses for why he isn’t the right man for the job.
·
I have no
ability.
·
I have no
message.
·
I have no
authority.
·
I have no
eloquence.
·
I have no
inclination! I don’t want to do
this. God answered every excuse.
And there’s also a NT answer to each.
“I
have no ability”—v.
11 v. 12
“I will be with
thee.” Maybe you
are being called by God to do something big, and you are saying, Who Am I to
do such a thing? God says, I
will be with thee! Where God guides, He
provides; where He directs, He protects; where He sends, He extends! Philippians 4:13 God will never ask you to
do something you cannot do with His help!
God doesn’t call the equipped, He equips the called who hear and
answer His voice!
“I
have no message”—v.
13 v. 14
“I AM”
your message! “I AM” is
the most potent name of God there is.
The eternally existent one, past, present, and future.
God says, anything good you want to qualify it with by tacking onto
the end, “I AM!” Jesus is the great I AM.
He said, before Abraham was, I AM...and they took up stones to stone
Him. To those still in the dark
Jesus says, I am the light. To
those still hungering for something they don’t have Jesus says, I am the
bread of life. To those in need
of guidance Jesus says I am the way. Back in our text God tells
Moses, “By the way, once you say I AM hath sent me - tell them that the I AM
says, Let my people go!”
“I
have no authority”—4:1 v. 2 God is saying this to us today.
God uses whatever
is available. The
best ability is availability! v. 3
[more miracles:
leprous hand, water into blood] The point is, God just
wants Moses to keep his heart right, focused on Him, walking in His power.
And that’s exactly what we need to do at our church, and God will
bless and deliver many if we’ll just keep our hearts right, focused on Him,
and keep walking in His power...there’s no limit to what can be accomplished
if God gets the glory! What is the NT answer to
this ‘no authority’ excuse? Matthew 28:18
“I
have no eloquence”—4:10 Did he stutter?
Was he not a people person?
I doubt it, because Acts 7 says he was mighty in word and deed.
I think it was just an excuse. v. 11
I made your mouth
and I can fill it when the time comes!
“I
have no inclination”—4:13 He’s saying, please, send
someone else! Philippians 2:13 This means that if you are
willing to do what you are called to do, God will then put the desire in
your heart to do it. So don’t
say, I’ll do it if I want to.
Just do it,
and you’ll want to! God gave Moses the help of
Aaron his brother to do the talking, and he did so for a while, but long
about chapter 8 Moses starts talking and he never shuts up for the rest of
the story! He had a simple rod in his
hand, but it became the rod of God.
When extended, the 10 mighty plagues fell on
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