We're going to be in Exodus chapter 2.
We're going to start in verse 11 and we're going to see how far
we get believe. We're going to get through verse
22 today, but we'll see how that goes.
So starting in verse 11. Now it came to pass in those
days when Moses was grown, that he went out to the brethren and
looked at their burdens, and he saw the Egyptian, saw an
Egyptian beating a Hebrew one of his brethren.
So he looked this way and that way, and when he saw no one, he
killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.
And when he went out the second day, behold, 2 Hebrew men were
fighting. And he said to to the one who
was, who did the wrong, Why are you striking your companion?
Then he said, Who made you Prince and judge over us?
Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?
So Moses feared and said, surely this thing is known.
When Pharaoh heard of this matter, he sought to kill Moses.
But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of
Midian. And he sat down by a well.
So Lord, I just lift up this time and I lift up everybody
here, Lord. And that you would just help us
to choose you, Lord, and to choose your way in our life.
And that we would just lose sight of ourselves, Lord.
And that goes for me as well, that I would lose sight of of
myself, Lord, And that I, I would just be here letting you
speak, Lord. And Lord, that you would have
something to share with all of us here, Lord, that you'd be in
in this place. Fill us with your spirit guide
and direct us and proud of this in Jesus name, Amen.
So last week I talked about kind of the genealogy of the Pharaohs
and how did, how did a Princess end up being Moses's adopted
mother? And the history in that in that
time is they there is nothing that says Moses was here.
So when I say this, this is this is one of the theories on how it
happened. But to me, when I look at it, it
really fits the fits the narrative on how Moses would end
up in the in the cat in the palace and be raised there.
And so the princess's father was that most the 1st and he was the
Black Hat in chapter 1. Like I talked about that wanted
to kill all the sons and then Hatmos married Thatmos the
second and and he was Thatmos the first son, but from another
wife. So it was her stepbrother.
And they did that back then where they they intermarried in
the royal line to keep the line pure as as weird as that is to
us today. But then in that hatmost was
still the more royal of the two because she was from the royal
queen, like I talked about. So she was the royal lion.
So she was the Regent. She was she really was the the
pharaoh when there wasn't a pharaoh kind of thing.
So that most the second didn't step into the pharaoh role role.
She was but that most the second son that most the third he would
take the throne, but he was too young to rule.
So for his entire younger years, she was the Regent.
So she would have been in charge of of the palace at that time.
And that's the time while she was raising Moses.
So that brings us up to this moment and brings us to the time
when when Moses is probably Moses.
His life was was upside down, right?
He was 40 years old and suddenly whether whether his whether his
mom had passed away or that most the third had just gotten old
enough to take power. He was he was not a fan of his
that most the second. I tried to figure out what he
would be to her because he was in multiple marriages.
The whole the whole lineage turns weird, right, multiple
marriages. So he was her husband's second
wife or third wife's son. So like her stepson, but not
really they didn't get along to the point that when she died and
he took over all he did and and there is records of this is try
to erase her from history. So there are there is places
where there are gaps in the where Chisel actually knocked
her name off of stuff where they can track it and go.
So she should be here. And it was cleared from the
record. And so that's what Moses is
living in right now. And so Moses had been in the in
the palace for 40 years. It tells us in Acts that when he
was 40 years old, it came into his heart to visit the brethren
of the children of his brethren, the children of Israel.
And his eyes were opened, right? And, and they were opened, I
think a lot like our eyes a lot of times, are opened to
privilege and his time in the palace and just what he had
compared to his brethren. And what I like to call that is
rich guilt. And that it's what we do with
that, right? And the the title in my study
today, the as I always say, my corny title is shortcut or easy
way you choose. And you'll find that very, very
often we we are shortcut takers doesn't go doesn't go well for
us, but we try. So rich guilt, just to cover
that real quick, I'm going to pick up my mom because she's
passed away and she'll forgive me when I get up there.
So my mom wanted everybody to go to heaven with all of her heart.
She just wanted everybody to go to heaven.
And she really believed with without a shadow of a doubt that
if if everybody had been raised in the house she was raised in
and given the things she was given, then their life would be
as good as her life. And guys, that's untrue.
And what I mean by that is, is that that puts a guilt on her
because she was, she was given these things, but there were
choices she made. I, I told her, I said, so mom,
as you're looking at your life now, do you remember that you
were also a single mom that that worked three jobs?
And how did you, how did you end up where you are now?
Is that you worked for it, You know, and, and I'm going to
touch one of those buttons when you look at welfare and this is
me and my mom's conversation. So take it for what it is.
She, she really was she, she really thought welfare was a, a
good thing And the problem with welfare, and I told her this all
the time, mom, I partied with these people.
I, I, I was one of these people. I partied, I played they're not,
they're there are people on welfare that need welfare,
right? That that they they apply it and
it's used and and it gets them to the other side.
But then there's the whole group I was partying with that we're
just trying to figure out new and improved ways to get more
welfare so they could drink and party and do drugs more.
Right. And and that's, that is the the
majority of the people I knew that were on welfare.
That doesn't mean everybody on welfare is doing drugs.
That just means mom, just because you're, if you're giving
free things out, trust me, everybody that is getting the
free things is not using them like you would right.
So that's that's a flavor of rich guilt.
But for Moses, Moses, Moses took it to an extreme, right.
Moses, he was guilty because he goes out and sees his brethren
and and what's going on. So what does he do?
He kills a guy. And the, the thing with how it
happens is when you look at it, when you look at verses 11
through 15 and you just go through how much of it was
focused on Moses, It's Moses. He went his brethren, he saw his
brethren, he looked, he saw he killed, right?
It was Moses was there and, and involved in this and was, was
going to do the thing to fix the stuff.
But in doing the thing that was going to fix the stuff, he
completely knew he was in the wrong.
And how how do we know that? Because it says he looked to the
left and to the right. We forgot to look up right?
And you, you don't get to I talked about that.
We don't get to lie and manipulate our way into God's
plan, right? Luke, Luke 817 It says for
nothing is secret that will not be revealed nor anything hidden
that will not be known and come to light.
So that's the fun thing about serving Jesus, right?
The fun thing about serving Jesus is I just get to do it his
way. And it's his problem to figure
out how that's going to work. You know, it's when I'm in
Uganda and we talk about bribing, you know, bribes and
that stuff and guys, well, how you going to get anything done
if you're not willing to bribe? Well, not my problem, right?
It's Jesus's problem and it's stuff like that.
But this is one of those moments where we're Moses and we do
this. And guys, I I'm sure that you
are as guilty of this as any as I am of killing people with our
words, right? Or just having that thing to
say, barking at someone right and and winning that argument.
When I got into excavation, I did AI lived a blessed life for
probably four or five years. I because I just showed up, I, I
was a new believer and showed up and lived Colossians 323 because
I didn't know any better, right? I just, and when I say that is
I, I found that verse, I don't remember if if who taught on it
or if I was just reading it. And it Colossians 323 is, you
know, do everything as unto the Lord and not to men.
And so I just applied that to my life and life was good.
And I mean work was easy, right, Because I didn't, I just showed
up and did my best. Doesn't mean my best was good
enough. Sometimes I, I was, I struggled.
I didn't know what I was doing, but I was doing my best And, and
God honored that. And in that, in that time, I, in
that four to five years, I became, I went from not knowing
anything and I mean nothing about what I was doing for a
living to running cruise and, and having a truck and being a
boss. But there was a guy at work that
just drove me nuts. And is his name what we're going
to say? His name was Kevin, Not because
it was, but so that I'm not calling him out.
But he drove me nuts. And he, he lied.
I mean, everything was from his perspective.
And he lied and twisted truth and did all kinds of stuff.
And my boss thought he was God's gift to excavation.
And I was determined to show the world that he was not.
So one day I went to work with that attitude.
And what I did that day was I did not lie.
I did not cheat, I did not steal, but I made him look
stupid all day long. And how I did that was just by
making him figure things out that I would normally figure out
for him. And, and we were at on that job
site, we were peers, right? I was top, I was top hand.
He was the pipe player. I didn't know what he was doing,
but he could fake it because I would do most of the work for
him. So this day I just let him look
stupid all day. Like he couldn't figure out the
math. He couldn't figure out, you
know, he and I made that look. I mean, my point was to make him
look stupid. And I was very successful.
Like I, I thought my day, my, I was happier the longer the day
went on. He was getting redder and madder
and more frustrated and, and then I got my car and he's a
bigger guy and he got I got my car and he opened my passenger
door and he is going to drag me out by my neck and just beat me
in the street, right? He's mad.
I mean, he's, he's mad and I'm just as happy as the day is long
because this is the exact, this was my plan, right?
My plan was to get him that mad and make him look that stupid.
And I just I said something to the extent of what are we in
kindergarten and drove off right.
And yeah, I lived happily ever after or I made it to the stop
sign when God said so you're going to apologize to him
tomorrow? No, I'm not.
That's not going to happen. That's I don't know.
I don't know. No, that's so you guys can
imagine how that how, how my night went, right, because I was
either going to apologize or me and the Lord weren't good and
that wasn't going to work. And I'd love to say that, you
know, by the time I got home, I had figured it out or after
dinner, I figured it out or before I went to bed, I figured
it out. No, I was, I was up till two
3:00 in the morning arguing with the Lord about why I didn't have
to apologize. And so I had to go to work and
apologize. And there there's a whole story
with that. But the point is what I, what I
wanted to do now, now, years later, he, that guy got saved,
right? And, and he came up and he
didn't say that me apologizing to him was the thing that got
him saved. He does remember I did it and it
was a moment that that made him go.
That's weird, right? But it was a it was a thing
because the thing with an apology like that, guys, if you
didn't know, when God tells you to apologize, what he does not
tell you to do is say I'm sorry, but you're an idiot, or I'm
sorry, but you know, you've just made me mad over there.
No, you don't get any of that. You get, I'm sorry.
I was wrong. I shouldn't have acted like
that. That's what you don't get.
But you're an idiot. You don't get to say that.
I tried. That was I, I went through the
apology a lot and God kept like changing my apology back to no.
And the point with that, And that is the shortcut versus the
easy way, right? The shortcut is God had a work
to do in his life. He had a work to do in my life.
And my shortcut there was that I wanted to do what I wanted to
do. I wanted to make him look
stupid, right? And then I had some training,
which is what God will do when you're on the shortcut.
He will, he will train you and you can, you can watch this.
I mean, Abraham and Sarah, they try to shortcut with Hagar.
That training is still going on today because that's Islam,
right? Hagar is, is where the religion
of Islam came from is through Ishmael, which is her son.
But that was Abraham and Sarah trying to take a shortcut to get
to where God wanted him to go, even though that is not what God
told him to do. Jacob stealing Esau's blessing,
well that cost him 20 plus years in another country, multiple
wives and and concubines and he never got to see his mom again
from the reported record. But a great example of the
difference between a shortcut and the easy way.
Which is God's way right and that is in first Samuel David's
men want to kill Saul and David stood still submitted to God's
plan right and if you you read first Samuel verse 20 or chapter
26 verse 9. It's it's just a great picture
of this. It says, But David said to
Absalom abashes, do not destroy him, for who can stretch out his
hand against the Lord's anointed and be guiltless?
David said, Furthermore, as the Lord lives, the Lord shall
strike him, or his day shall come to die, or she shall go out
to battle and perish. David understood whose problems
Saul was right. Saul was not David's problem.
David's problem was walking with the Lord.
That was that was what David was called to do.
When we push past God with an I'll do it attitude like Moses
did, we are trusting we are, we are, we are not trusting him,
but our shortcut, right? And David's example really shows
us how God, God will use our submission to his will, right?
He will use us use the the time we are willing to spend with him
to get us where he wants us to go.
David was not at any point. And if you can go through the
whole story, there was never a point that David was anti Saul.
He was pro God's plan, Moses, if you look at this, Moses is anti
Egypt. He wasn't he wasn't pro God's
plan. He was just anti Egyptian,
right? He was he was working for self
and, and in Colossians 323 through 25, it says the whole
thing about that which is and whatever you do, do it hardly as
unto the Lord and not to men, knowing that from God you will
receive the reward of the inheritance, for you serve the
Lord Jesus Christ. But he who does wrong will be
repaid for what he has done. And there is no partiality,
right? Moses here is going to take a
lap, right? And, and as we go through
Exodus, you will find that the Israelites take a lot of laps,
right? The, The funny thing with this
is, is that Moses, in doing this, he had when Moses got to
the, the moment he had a power and the moment he decided to
kill an Egyptian and hide the body, he lost all of that power.
He was he was the the adopted son of.
Of the ex Regent and and as such would have been somebody
respected right up until he killed an Egyptian and and not
kill he murdered one unjustly. Right now there was a lot of
stuff he could have done to that Egyptian right.
He probably had the power to stop the Egyptian from doing
whatever it is he was doing. It was the killing.
That was where Moses went wrong. I mean, how did Moses get get it
into his head that he was going to save the Hebrews, right.
And and that can come from like I said last week, that when
Aaron and Moses meet in their 80s, they seem like they know
each other more than A5 and AN-85 and an 8 year old would
have known each other. So there's a good possibility
that Moses had had been around Aaron or around his biological
parents in his in his years. He could have had a dream like
Joseph. You know, it could have been a
word from the Lord. We don't know, it doesn't say.
But what he did was he attempted to seize that instead of letting
God's plan, God's plan, take its course.
And if you look at the difference over from Genesis
through Joseph, Joseph was willing to let God work and
that, and that's truly the easy way.
And when you, when we look at David, David didn't ever attempt
to seize power, right? He he just allowed, allowed the
Lord to work. And was that, was that a smooth
short plan for David? No, it was 15 to 20 years of
waiting for God's promise, right?
Because God was, God promised David that he was king.
He anointed him as king. And then it was 1520 years
before that happened. And Jesus says, take my yoke
upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart,
and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Doesn't say short, right? It's God's plan is complete.
Now, in the time that 15 or 20 years, David did many things in
obedience, protecting Israel. So it wasn't that he just sat
down and did nothing, but he didn't attempt to seize God's
promise and the blessing in that, that he didn't go for the
short way. David had a unified Kingdom, not
a civil war. Had he, had he killed Saul like
exactly like Moses in this, the killing of Saul would have,
would have shrank David's power in the eyes of the people,
because that would have been David like in a coup.
So then there would have been people on this side and people
on that side. But as you watch David all
through Samuel, all through the story, when you watch him, that
man after God's own heart, that man after the yoke of the Lord
he serves is a continuous just He wants the best for the
Kingdom. And Saul may not be the king
that needs to be, so he'll protect the people, right?
But he wasn't going to step out and ruin the Kingdom so that he
could be in that position. So in the New Testament, a
picture of this that we I can identify with, and I imagine
many of many here can identify with, it is in the garden.
And Jesus is a rest, right? There was a shortcut and there
was an easy way, and Peter had the idea of fighting a spiritual
battle with physical power and it Matthew 2651 is the end of
the end of the little stretch. And it says, suddenly one of
those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew
his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off
his ear. But Jesus said to him, put your
sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by
it. Or do you think that I cannot
now pray to my Father, and he will provide me with more than
12 legions of angels? The Gospel of John points out
that the guy with the sword is Peter.
But The thing is the that isn't the shortcut, and that isn't the
easy way, right? That that is that is fruit from
a shortcut Peter took just before this Peter's spiritual
tank was empty for this battle because when given the chance to
do some of the get TOS that I talked about right, we talked
about the get TOS and and why they're get TOS.
He had a chance to spend time and pray and be still with
Jesus. And instead Peter slept.
Peter was supposed to have been doing was waiting on the Lord
with Jesus. And that's because Jesus knew
what was coming right. And Jesus, like a great coach
took his guys that we're going to be in this this coming
battle. And and he took them to to get
them ready, right. And he had just shared with him
about washing feet and they needed to be willing to serve
and and to spend time for others.
And in verse 20 or chapter 26, verse 30, 7, it's them going to
the garden. And it says and he Jesus took
with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and he began to be
sorrowful and deeply distressed. Then he said to them, my soul is
exceedingly sorrowful even to death.
Stay here, watch and pray. Then he Jesus, went a little
farther and fell on his faith and face and prayed, saying, O
Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.
Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.
Then he Jesus came to the disciples and found them
sleeping, and said, Peter, what could you not?
Could you not watch with me one hour?
Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation.
The Spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak.
Again a second time he went away praying, saying, Oh my father,
if this cup cannot pass away from me unless I drink it, your
will be done. And he Jesus came back and found
them, Peter, James and John asleep again, for their eyes
were heavy. So he left them and went away
and prayed 1/3 time, saying the same words.
Then he came to his disciples and said to them, Are you still
sleeping and resting? Behold, our hours at hand and
the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sin.
So this was an opportunity that Jesus gave his his guys to be
ready for the battle. They, they had an opportunity
to, to spend time with the Lord and, and be prepared.
But Peter took the shortcut to rest and it'll cost him, right?
It'll cost him days of no rest. You think about the next three
days in Peter's life and you, you got a picture that there was
a point where Peter thought he was, he was feeling pretty good,
right? I mean, he just, he just did he
fighting for the Lord. He did some stuff, told his
sword out and he's swinging it and he cut his servant's ear
off, not a soldiers ear. And Jesus wasn't impressed
because that wasn't what Peter was there to do.
Peter wanted them ready for the next three day or Jesus wanted
his guys ready for the next three days.
And he knew they were going into a dark time and gave them
opportunity to be ready for it. And they took a shortcut.
And if you guys, if you guys don't know, if you've ever
decided that you're going to go home and pray, you know, you
read a book or you, you had a Bible study or something and
you're going to go home and read, read your Bible and pray
for four hours. Have you ever been that tired?
Suddenly you're the most, you're, you're as tired as
you've ever been. You know, you're, you're reading
your, you're reading your Bible at noon and you're falling
asleep, right? Because your flesh wants nothing
to do with it, right? And so, so that that time of, of
doing this, of, of saying, Lord, I want to spend time with you.
And Lord, give me, give me your heart, give me your, your plan,
your, your ability, right? We don't, I don't have what it
takes to get to do the get to. And you know, and we'll get into
what those are again in a little while, but I don't have in
myself. I'm not, I'm not strong enough.
You know what? I'm no different than Peter and
John in this case. You got to imagine just, you
know, they just ate a meal. They walked out to the garden.
It's quiet. It's it's mellow there.
I'm just tired. I'm just going to go sleep for a
little while, right? And and that is US very often,
very often to prepare for the battle.
It's we don't notice we don't notice the battles coming when
we're comfortable, when we're 6, when we're in success hard
times. It's easier sometimes that I
mean, very often it's easier. My my lying about embrace the
suck. It's easier to embrace the suck
when life sucks then to embrace the suck of, of watching and
praying. And I know that, you know,
we're, we're Christians and we're all going to sit here and
go. I just, I just love to sit and
prayer is hard. Not not the, you know, saying
grace or, or standing in, but spending time with the Lord and,
and really having those moments with him of Lord.
I need you to tell me what's between me and you.
I, I need, I need real guidance. You know this.
Getting quiet and alone and waiting and watching and
listening for Him is against our flesh.
Our flesh does not like it because when we do it, we are
surrendering ourselves to Him. And our flesh likes the throne
it's sitting on. And when life is going easy,
like a Prince in a palace, we get lazy, right?
And I would say that when we're lazy like that, it means that
when the time comes, we won't be ready.
Moses had the time to seek the Lord and his plan, if he had
rested in him. You know, he's 40 years old.
He had been taught in all the things of Egypt, but he had time
as a, as a Prince to have spent time with the Lord, right?
He, he had that time, just like his biological parents had time
that they had, they had spent with the Lord and knew what his
will was for their life. Moses had that time.
And when, when push came to shove, he wasn't ready.
He would have, if he had spent that time, he would have been
ready to say, not my will, but yours be done.
And he wasn't ready, like Peter wasn't ready.
And that, that embrace the suck I talk about is, is a lot of
times it's our flesh that thinks it sucks, right?
It's I'm, I'm doing a class online right now and and I was
sharing with Bob yesterday one of the this is not a brag thing.
We'll see if I can even do it, but one of the things that is
going to be required in the class is to read through the
Bible in 12 weeks. So I'm going to be reading a
lot, right? And I'm not a reader, so it's
going to be a lot of like face like, so I'm never going to see
you, but that I had the opportunity to do that right in
the in. I'm a pastor here and I don't
have a 40 hour hour a week job that I go to right now.
So I'm here, I have that opportunity and I should be at
my flesh is is dreading that idea right.
But my spirit is getting excited for of and the idea of reading
through the Bible that quickly is that you get the you you get
kind of a full picture in your head right as you're going
through it, that you, you, you have the whole thing together
where you can see it all is the idea of the class.
But something about our flesh that it doesn't like.
Is that what we are to be is John the Baptist who said I must
increase and he must increase or hema, I must decrease and he
must increase. I just reversed that because
it's he must increase and I must decrease.
But anyway, and God will lead us to that.
But the one that's fighting is half of me doesn't want that.
Half of me wants to be in charge.
Micah 68 says he has shown you, oh man, what is good and what
does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy and
to walk humbly with your God. You can't do that.
I can't do that. Jesus can do that and his way
right. It's I always tell people that
Jesus is a free gift that will cost me everything.
I am right because it's it's complete surrender to him.
And that's what Moses didn't understand right now going on to
verse 13, Moses is feeling pretty good on the second day.
You know, he'd sit, stand back. Lord, I have this now he's going
to go out and, and I'm sure like Peter that he was feeling
pretty, pretty good about what he had done and that they would
now understand that he was there to help and, and who he was.
They weren't impressed because like I said, in doing that, he
had given up all his power. You know, if you think about the
same thing with Peter in the in the garden.
So if you guys have read the story of the garden, they, all
the guards showed up to arrest or arrest Jesus and they said
we're looking for Jesus and Nazareth.
And he said I am he and they all fell down.
So it was very clear who was in charge.
And then they stood up again, and I imagine they were much
quieter about. So who?
I'm him, and you can take me. But you got to let them go.
And then out jumps Peter with a sword and cuts off an ear.
You're missing it, Peter. You've slipped.
But in that moment, Peter had given up.
Like Peter wasn't in power, right?
What? His sword.
He's one sword against everybody.
Jesus had already proven his power, right?
Well, Moses had lost all that power that he had because he was
the Prince. He was a Prince of Egypt,
adopted or not, that's who he was.
And his shortcut stripped him of that.
And the Hebrews understood that, right?
Because he's no better than them.
He has to, he gets to kill an Egyptian, but he has to hide the
body. So he's, he doesn't have any
power, right? And so they, they come and he
comes to him and they're like, who are you?
And why should we listen to you? And you?
Are you going to kill me like you killed the Egyptian?
And he suddenly figures out how powerless he is.
And in this part of it, Moses is not a humble man.
But if you if you get into deeper into Exodus and Numbers,
it talks about Moses after after he spends his time in the
wilderness. It says in in Numbers 12/3.
It says now the man Moses was very humble more than all men
who were on the face of the earth.
And this is this is a moment Moses is being attacked by his
older brother and sister. And The thing is, when you read
the story, he doesn't say a word, but the Lord hears.
And when the Lord hears, the Lord says, Aaron, Miriam, you
want to come here for a minute, Let's talk.
And it doesn't go well for them, right?
Do we trust God like that? Because Moses doesn't defend
himself? He actually he actually, of
course, because he's Moses, he ends up actually praying for his
brother and his sister because they were in pride and that The
thing is, guys, have you reached when until we reach the end of
us, we're not ready for the easy way right until until we we get
to that point. We think that we should be on
the attack. We should take a shortcut.
I can get there if I just if I just go this way, you know, it's
it's the and I pick on us tremendously over the years.
But as Americans and probably the Western world, but as
Americans, we are incredibly good at the.
Yeah, but excuse. Yeah, but you don't understand.
But yeah. But I, I was, I was, I had a
hard life. Yeah.
But this. Yeah.
But that God says yeah, but this, I wrote it down and it's
true. And The thing is, is that his
way when we follow it and we listen to it, it says hard
things, guys, I won't. I mean, if we get through exodus
year, we're going to get the stuff that guys, that's what it
says. But it is the best way.
You know, it's it's the easiest thing with that.
You know, it is that is that not bribing people in Uganda?
It is it is an out loud thing in Uganda that you just bribe
people. It's not a.
America, when I say bribe, you think dishonest and in Uganda it
is not dishonest to bribe people.
It's doing business. I have to actually take you into
the word of God and show you where God says bribery is bad.
Not not specifically bribery because that's just their
culture right there. Yeah, but is you just bribe
people, that's how you get things done.
And we have lots of things in America that we just do because
it's, I don't know, it's just just the way we do things.
And God, the thing that is, is joyous for me though, guys, is
no matter where you're at, no matter where on the shortcut,
whether you've chose the shortcut or the easy way, God
will get us where we're going, right?
He's he's always faithful to finish the work he started.
Psalm 138 verse 7 says, though I walk in the midst of trouble,
you will revive me. You will stretch out your hand
against the wrath of my enemies and your right hand will save
me. The Lord will will the Lord will
perfect that which concerns me perfect.
Sorry, it's like that's wrong. The Lord will perfect that which
concerns me. Your mercy, O Lord, endures
forever. Do not forsake the works of your
hands. And all of that to say is you
can trust him. You can trust him to just do it
for him to be on the easy path. Isaiah wrote 700 years after
Moses. Behold in in chapter 25 it says,
and it will be said in that day, Behold, this is our God.
We have waited for him he will save us.
This is the Lord we have waited for him.
We will be glad and rejoice in his salvation and guys that is
the easy way is is to trust that he is bigger than my problems.
I, I doing doing trips Uganda and the attacks come and I, I
used to tell everybody and I, I say it to this day, even here is
God's answer is bigger than Satan's question always God is
bigger. It isn't a it is not a it is not
a battle between good and evil, right?
God is God wins period. His way is the right way period.
Now when I talk about the the get to's, it's, it is being
still with God, which is just on purpose time with the Lord,
right? It's slowing down.
It's it's quiet time to read the word.
It's fellowship, it's witnessing to other people.
It's fasting, memorizing, meditating on his word, on his
word. But those are things we, we
especially as as Americans in the Western world, we have time
to do that. We are able.
Ray Lewis, not a guy I'm rooting for as far as character, but he
had a great line. It's wins and losses come a dime
a dozen, but effort, nobody can judge effort.
Effort is between you and you. And what I would tell you is
that effort is between you and you and Jesus, right?
That is all you can put in when it says, when it says, do
everything as unto the Lord and not to men you know.
Who knows if I'm doing everything as unto the Lord me
and Jesus. I know if I'm faking it.
I know if I'm trying to take a shortcut and so does He.
I can look like I'm doing all the right things.
I can say all the right things. I can attempt to kill all the
right Egyptians, and God knows where I'm at and what I'm doing.
So walking with Jesus doesn't mean that I get there faster
than other people. It doesn't mean that my Rd. is
smoother than other people. It means that my way is sure.
And because of that, it is the easier way because I have that
hope when I get to say not as I will, but as you will, right?
And this is Moses. Moses at the end is not where he
wants to be, but he, he runs off right because he's in front of
God. And suddenly his shortcut is as
far from being in charge of that palace or rescuing his people as
he can get. So like so many people in the
Old Testament, which I love the end of verse 15, Moses ends up
at a well. And if you live Moses is, is no
different than Jacob or Abraham's servant.
You find him at a well, which must have been the best place to
meet girls because that seems like all that ever happens at a
well, right. And and it talks about the
priest of Midian and the very beginning of verse 16 says now
the priest of Midian. And so who is this guy?
And you'll find this guy is, is somebody in, in all, of all of
the books of the law, the only, the only person that Moses that
you would call a mentor, somebody that Moses listened to,
somebody that, that Moses got wisdom from was the priest of
Midian, his father-in-law. And, and so who was this guy
that so Jethro or or Raul, he's he's called different things.
Like we have different names as well.
They could call me Adams, they can call me pastor.
They can call me Nick. And so he's called different
things, but the priest of Midian is a Midianite, and they would
have been sons of Abraham's son Midian.
And somebody that Abraham had had with concubines after Sarah
had died and he was sent Midian, was sent east by Abraham.
But The thing is, is that Midian would have had this same
knowledge of God as Isaac had. And and with that, that doesn't
mean that he was in a he was in this perfect position.
But if you get to verse 18 or chapter 18 of Exodus, Jethro
before the law is given sacrifices to Yahweh.
And it says chapter 18, verse 10, it says and Jethro said,
blessed be the Lord who has delivered you out of the hand of
the Egyptian Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh, and who
has delivered the people from under the hand of Egyptians.
And now I know that the Lord is greater than all the gods.
For the very thing in which they behaved poorly, he was above
them. Then Jethro, Moses's
father-in-law took a burnt offering and and other
sacrifices to offer to God. And Aaron came with all the
elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses and his
father-in-law. So the law was given in chapter
19. So this is before that.
This is, this doesn't mean that Jethro Star, that the priest of
Midian served God perfectly. But what it does point out is
that that everybody across the world is accountable for their
knowledge of God. Job knew who God was.
That's way before Israel Noah, something I, I just picked out
the other day. Noah knew all the clean animals
because he was supposed to take extra clean animals.
God doesn't tell him what the clean animals are in that
moment. God has been talking to dirt
since the day he made us. And if you don't know that joke,
I, I, I say we're all we were made out of dirt.
So God has been talking to us and if they were willing to hear
and obey, right and that that that's that.
What about those people that haven't heard?
We are all descendants of Adam who was we're all descendants of
Noah. The truth has been given right?
It is what you do with it. And Jethro, I would imagine,
watched, watched Moses in the what went on in Egypt and what
he heard about when they came in and his understanding of how big
this God, his, his father had told him about was right or his
his father's father's father had told him about.
And so I'm not saying that that the priest of Midian was serving
Yahweh, but he definitely had an idea of who this God was.
This takes us to Moses at the well and here we get a little
get a little Jason Bourne action, right, because he
there's seven daughters guessing they were beautiful.
He marries one of them later on. But the other shepherds would
drive the daughters away. Well, then Moses came and helped
them. So one guy, Moses helped the
girls basically drive off the other shepherds.
So what it doesn't say is Moses killed any shepherds, right?
He wasn't he wasn't killing shepherds.
He was he was helping women right of people.
The idea there is he was helping those weaker than him and he was
trained in all the all the things in Egypt.
So he would have known how to fight in in he was trading words
and deeds. And but this kind of goes
against what I what I've been talking about and and to
clarify, it doesn't mean that being with God that you are
stagnant and not not out about his business.
He doesn't have to tell you every moment of your day.
There are things that are just yeah, that's serving the Lord
Job 2912 through 17. And this really is like I said,
this is all the guys here. You should have Job 29.
The whole chapter should be in your back pocket.
Like I would tell all the ladies here that Proverbs 31 should be
in your back pocket, that you should just know what those
qualifications are. This is our job as as believers,
as men, This is what we're supposed to be doing.
Because I delivered the poor who cried out, the fatherless, and
the ones who had no helper. The blessed, the blessing of the
perishing man came upon me, and I caused the widow's heart to
sing for joy. I put on righteousness and
clothed, and it clothed me. My justice was like a robe and a
turban. I was eyes to the blind, I was
feet to the lame. I was a father to the poor.
I searched out the case that I did not know, and I broke the
fangs of the wicked and plucked the victim from his teeth.
But how do we know to do what God?
That these are God things? How do we know that we know what
God's will is? And we know that God's will has
us delivering the poor we have that we should be delivering the
fatherless right? That we should be taking care of
the widows. That we should be eyes to the
blind and feet to the lame, a father to the poor and the part
with breaking fangs to save the victims.
This isn't cutting off heads and killing people.
This is getting the victims out of the out of the clutches of
the wicked. And that's all stuff we are
called to do as believers, right?
This is. And the thing with these things
is they are not shortcuts. Your flesh doesn't want a darn
thing to do with one of those. Your flesh actively doesn't that
that is all hard for your flesh to do.
Now swinging a sword and killing the killing the wicked.
Absolutely. I want sign me up.
Take care of the poor, take care of the widows, save the victim.
Stand in right places. And that's hard, right?
And but that is that is the easy way, right?
That is the doing everything as unto the Lord and not to men.
Now back to the story. The priest of Midian said in
verse 20, So he said to his daughters, and where where is
he? Who is where is he?
And and that the question there is they're like, why he's asking
them why they got back early. And they said, well, there's
Egyptians showed up and helped us.
And he's like, did you not notice there's seven of you and
you left the bachelor at the well, No, it's but he but like a
culture of this would be the same culture that Uganda has.
It's there. There's a stranger that helped
you. And why did you not invite him
back for dinner? And in that obviously more to
the story, but Moses was content to live with the man and he gave
Zephora his daughter to Moses and she bore him a son and he
called his name Gresham before he said, I have been a stranger
in a foreign land. And Moses lived happily ever
after. Well, so his shortcut leading to
the easy way was to take a lap. It was a 40 year lap, right?
The the chapter, chapter 3, we'll get into it.
It'll be a page turn, but it's 40 years of Moses's life and the
training God did with Moses is is not explained right.
It's a page turn, but from a Prince to a shepherd, the level
of dependence he would have been taught on that really long
shortcut, Moses, his whole life would be in God's hands right as
a shepherd. This is one of those that you
never really think about as a shepherd.
He would spend weeks or even months alone in the wilderness,
right? Not, not with a bunch of Cowboys
on horses, just him and the sheep.
And tell me there wasn't time for him to get to know his Lord.
The palace may have been an easier place to do it as far As
for your just comfort, but this was a place that he was going to
get to know the Lord. And he was going to get to know
the Lord by relying on him, finding water, protecting the
flock from predators. You know, sleeping outdoors and,
and sleeping outdoors in the wilderness is, can be, can be a
scary thing, right? Especially for a Prince.
You know, he had to endure the heat in the cold.
And like David, he, I'm sure he had to fight off lions and
wolves and thieves. And this was all opportunities
for Moses to learn the easy way of just relying on the Lord.
God will take whatever, whatever He needs to do to train you, He
will take you as far as you as He needs to go to get us where
He needs us to be. And that's my embrace the suck
Turner verse which is James 1/2. My brethren counted all joy when
you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your
faith produces patience, but lest the patients have it's
perfect work that you may be perfected and complete, lacking
nothing. When we embrace the easy way our
flesh takes it as suck, but it is the way that's going to get
us where we want to go, right? Christ will get us there.
The question is, how much training do we want, right?
And I, I think of God has been using free will to work out his
plan from the beginning, right? Don't don't think that we're
making choices that haven't been made from the beginning.
Adam and Eve had a choice. They could get knowledge from a
tree, the knowledge of good and evil, or they could do it the
easy way and get it from the guy who wrote it down, right?
Get it from the author of Knowledge.
What did they pick? We very often are just like our
ancestors and we pick the shortcut and we take laps, but
don't think that because we're on a lap that God isn't working.
And then he doesn't have a plan for your life, for my life.
But what he wants, his relationship, what he wants, his
time with you, with me, that's what he wants.
That is the easy way. So choose, do you want the
shortcut or the easy way? And Lord, I just, I lift up this
time and everybody here. And Lord that you would just
help us to see the easy way and the the joy of that, Lord,
however long it takes to get us there, Lord, that we would just
rest in you or when you would guide and direct us.
Amen.