We're going to pick up in Exodus 4 and we'll just read some of it
again, just kind of to remember where Moses is.
This is Moses just met with the Lord for the first time at the
burning Bush in chapter 3. And then he's kind of Lord's
given him his marching orders and, and Moses a lot like us,
keeps raising his hand and and explaining why maybe, maybe we
could do a different way, but just read some of it here.
And Moses said to the Lord, Oh my Lord, I'm not eloquent
neither neither before nor since you have spoken to your servant,
but I am slow to speech in slow of tongue.
So the Lord said to him, who has made man's mouth or who makes a
mute, the deaf, the seeing or the blind?
Have not I the Lord now therefore go, and I will be with
you and your mouth and teach you what you shall say.
And then Moses says, But he said, Oh my Lord, please sin by
the hand of whomever else you want may sin.
So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses, and he
said, He's 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. And so Lord, I just I lift up
this time. I lift up everybody here.
Lord, that you have something to say, Lord, and that you would
speak to us, Lord, that you would open our ears to hear one
that you'd fill us with your spirit, or that you'd speak
through me and also to me, Lord, that I would just get out of the
way. I pray all this in Jesus name,
Amen. So the my my title for the day
is one way full surrender. And that first Moses starts off
with, Oh my Lord, I am not an eloquent neither neither before
or since you have spoken in your to your servant, but I am slow
of speech and slow of tongue. So guys, this is a false
statement. And we know that because what
what he's saying is I am not elegant, but what it.
But that's actually a phrase in the Hebrew.
And it means I am not a man of words.
But if you look back in Acts, Stephen calls Moses out, right?
It says Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and
was mighty in words and deeds. So Moses, Moses knew how to
speak. He he was, you know, 40 years
earlier, he was all that he thought he was.
He was ready. And then God sidelined him
because his pride had grown right?
And Moses was mighty in Word and deed in the world's eyes 40
years earlier. And Moses thought too much of
himself. But now 40 years later, he's
sitting in the Lord's telling him what he's going to do and
Lord and Moses is now thinking too much about himself, right.
And we, we get like this humiliate and it, and it's, I'm
going to be humble, right? It I'm going to be humble and I
don't want to say I'm better than I am or I, I, I want to
false humility, that kind of stuff.
Humility is not thinking less of ourselves.
It is thinking of ourselves less.
And when the Lord asks us to do something, our answer should be
every time, OK, Lord, yes, Lord, and it, and it should be that
before he asks. And guys, we serve a God.
We, we talk about this all the time.
We serve a God that is going to ask you to do stuff that you're
not able to do. That's his point is that you
don't have it in you to do what I'm asking you to do.
I'm going to do it through you. And people are going to look at
that and go, well, look at that. You know, it's I, I think on
Wednesday I was talking about it.
Is that whole point of you know, you, I graduated high school
with AD average, not even a high D average, and I was going to
run a shovel the rest of my life.
That was my plan, right? My mom joked and said, if you
don't do better in school, you're going to run a show.
You're going to dig ditches for a living.
Well, it made a pretty good living digging ditches, but I
never in a million years thought I'd stand up front.
And anybody that knows me as, as I've grown would be amazed where
I started and where I am now. And and that isn't because I got
smarter, right? God did more work.
And so the Lord, the Lord here is pretty blunt and I like it
basically. So, so Moses says I'm not
eloquent and the Lord says, what do you have to do with it?
And that is verse 11. So the Lord said to him who has
made man's mouth or who makes the mute the depth, the seeing
or the blind have not I the Lord now therefore go and I will be
with your mouth and teach you what you should say.
You know you you don't have like with Gideon or if you go through
the the things they did in the Old Testament and even in the
New Testament right. These weren't things that were
in their wheelhouse. I my my story of so she brought
up Elizabeth Elliott this morning.
Elizabeth Elliott's husband died on a beach by tribe.
I can't remember the name of the tribe in in South America and
within within the year was it was the a year, year and a half
Elizabeth Elliott and her toddler lived in that village
with the people that had killed her husband and his friends.
That wasn't because Elizabeth Elizabeth Elliott was a good
person. That wasn't because in in that
that she looked at everything and said, you know what I should
go do I think I will take my toddler and into harm's way.
What I mean by what what that when you look at Elizabeth
Elliott and you listen to her speak or you read her books or
any of that, you will find that what she did was just the next
thing the Lord was asking her to do.
Her answer was yes, Lord, not yes, this is going to be
comfortable. I mean the when you listen to
her that year that the time she spent with that tribe
translating they, they lived in they lived in huts without walls
and they, I mean, there was nothing about her time in that
village that was pleasant to her flesh, but she was being
obedient and the Lord met her and did amazing things, right.
And that's, that's the God we serve.
But in order to do that, in order to be that you have to
understand how big he is and that he is able right?
It's it's not Lord, I don't have it in me and and his answer
whenever I say that is always I know.
And you got to know that as he's as he's kind of as he goes
through this part of chapter 4, he scolds, he scolds Moses, he
he rebukes him, he corrects him. And Moses is going to become a
man that God calls a friend, right?
And in Exodus 3311, it says so the Lord spoke to Moses face to
face as a man speaks to his friend.
And we are always growing and Moses here this I looked at this
whole chapter and you kind of condense it.
This really is a is a testimony of Moses, right?
Where he because by the end of chapter 4, guys, there'll be
moments where where Moses questions the Lord but not
questions him in a not so Lord or I'm not doing that Lord, but
a why or how is this going to work?
You know, that kind of he has those, those, those questions,
but he, this is, this is where his life where the light switch
flips. It's Hudson Taylor called it an
exchanged life, right. By the end of this chapter,
Moses is just on board, right? I've, I said it a while back.
It's, you know, Moses got in, he sat down and he held on and and
from here on out, he's just going to go.
And it's fun to watch. But to get there, he had to walk
through all the things he had to remember who was speaking.
You know, the God that that is was and will be not not a not
not a created thing, something that created everything and and
to know Moses. Moses was created for the
purpose that God has him for right that he that he's going to
be used in in in Psalm 13913. It says for you were formed for
you formed my inward parts. You covered me in my mother's
womb and I will praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully
made, made marvelous are your works and that my soul knows
very and that my soul knows very well and that by the end of
this. That's where Noah or Moses is.
He is just OK Lord, and if we, if we believe the first verse of
Genesis, which is in the beginning God created, then I
can believe he can do any of the stuff he asked me to do, right.
So when God clearly says go, my answer is yes.
When, when I know what he wants me to do, I do it without,
without hesitation, without reserve.
And and that's where you want to be.
You know, if you think of Noah when he built the ark.
So the Lord comes down and asked Noah to build a boat.
He doesn't ask him to build a boat on the water.
He asked him to build a boat on the ground.
And it's not a little boat. We were talking about it
yesterday. It's like from from the bridge,
from bridge to bridge, 900 feet long and it's 450 feet wide,
right? It it's a boat.
And what did Noah say? Yes, Lord, that was it was he
built the boat. It was 120 years until it
rained. But his, his answer was because
he knew who he was talking to and he just said, yes, Lord,
another point of automatic obedience that it definitely
hits a bit closer to home. And it's Abraham and his
household, right? In Genesis 1710, it says, this
is my covenant, which you shall keep between me and you and your
descendants after you. Every male child among you will
be or shall be circumcised and you shall circumcise in the
flesh of your foreskin and it shall be a sign of the covenant
between me and you. And then if you go to Genesis
1723, it says so Abraham took Ishmael, his son, all who were
born in his house, all who were brought with it, bought with his
money every male among the men of Abraham's house, and
circumcised the flesh of their foreskin that very same day, as
God had said to him, OK, so in just funny, Can you imagine that
conversation when he got done talking to the Lord?
So in Genesis 14, Abraham went out to rescue Lot and he had 318
trained men. So train many as 318.
Then you've got their, their their children, right?
And you have slaves that stayed behind, say 500 people get
circumcised. How does that conversation go
when you walk back into camp and say, so guys, I was meeting with
the Lord and here's what we're going to do.
But but it doesn't say that this was it doesn't give you that
Abraham went, Lord, I, how am I going to talk to these?
It doesn't say that the men had anything to say about it.
They just OK, yes, Lord, it was, it was automatic obedience and
it was obedience in the sense it was, it was dying to their self,
right? It was.
So for Abraham, it was knowing who God was and knowing the God
he served and for all of his men, some of them may have that
relationship with God, but they all looked at Abraham and
trusted he heard from the Lord. And that is, that's a big ask,
right? And then you have you have us
and you have Moses. And verse 13 it says, but he
said, oh Lord, please send me by by the hand of or sin by the
hand of whomever else you want to send.
Lord, don't make me do this. I don't want to do this.
And I don't know if you guys been there.
Have you had those? I in Uganda, we had a long
conversation with a bunch of different people over the years
that we've talked about. And I said, it's really for me,
it's pretty easy a lot of times to know whether or not the Lord
wants me to speak up in a particular situation.
Because when I really, really, really want to say something, I
should probably be quiet. And when I really, really,
really don't want to say something, Lord, this is going
to be awkward. I don't want to have this.
I should probably start talking because our flesh wants both
sides, right? I want to voice my opinion when?
When I want. I'm you.
You. You've upset me and I want to
tell you what I think of you. That's my flesh.
You're, you are. I am being called by the Lord to
say something that's going to affect your eternity.
My flesh doesn't want anything to do with that.
So which one am I supposed to say yes to?
Right? I'm supposed to say yes to the
one I don't want to say because, you know, I, I go back to you
guys have all heard the story of me having to apologize.
And after I had dug the hole, that meant I was going to have
to apologize and me arguing with the Lord.
And I'm not going to do that. Lord, I'm you know that isn't
going to work, but do you understand in those moments when
you just say yes, Lord, when it especially when it's something
you don't want to do, the joyous thing about those moments that
day that I had to apologize to him and I, you guys, you'll hear
the story again down the road. But the day I had to apologize
to the guy in that moment, in that moment when I apologize
because it wasn't I'm a sorry, but you're a jerk.
It had to be an apology that was, that was I'm sorry, not I'm
sorry, but no excuses, just I'm sorry.
I acted like a jerk in that moment.
You know what? It was exactly where God wanted
me to be doing exactly what God wanted me to do because I didn't
want any part of it, but I knew he did and I was doing it.
And so I probably knowing me at that time in my life, I probably
5 minutes later screwed up and I was no longer where God wanted
me to be doing what God wanted me to do.
But for that moment, right? So being obedient, especially
when it goes against what we want to do is a great place to
be because it tells you you are walking where God wants you to
walk and get into this is this is be careful what you ask for
right? Verse 14 So the anger and this
is after Moses whines and sends somebody else and Lord says 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. Now you shall speak to him and
put the words of words in his mouth.
I will be with your mouth, and with his mouth I will teach you
what you shall do. So he shall be a be your
spokesman to the people, and he himself shall be as a mouth for
you. You shall be to him as God, and
you shall take this rod in your hand with which you shall do the
signs. So Moses's punishment is getting
what he wanted, right? Aaron is given and if you if as
we go through Exodus, you're going to find out that Aaron may
not have been the gift that Moses would have wanted right
you I'm sure you I'm sure that you guys know the story is
Aaron's. Aaron's name means exalted
mountain of strength or light bringer and I would tell you
that Aaron is like the anti version of his name.
That doesn't mean Aaron's a Sinner that's going to burn in
hell forever but he just was not strength to Moses most of the
time he was difficult and he caused issues right?
Moses is on the mountain talking to God after there's a moment
where the leadership of Israel and Aaron with Moses have dinner
with God and then God tells them that Moses is going to go to the
mountain for go up on the mountain and Moses gone 40 days.
And in that 40 days they all panic and say we don't know what
happened to Moses and Aaron makes him a calf.
You guys know the story, right? And when questioned about it,
you know what happened? I threw the gold in and a calf
came out like so we we've established he's a liar.
But in in Moses's life, there were this, this is one of those
guys that Aaron, Aaron looked at Moses like we a lot of times
look at all kinds of stuff. We can look at churches,
denominations, traditions, people, leadership because he
says you will be as God to him. And I, I was like, what does
that mean? Lord, this is God speaking and
God's telling Moses you will be like he, you will be like God to
him. What does that mean?
And so digging into that, that is Aaron.
Aaron had a relationship with Moses and recognized that Moses
spoke to God face to face and you we as we go through Exodus,
you will see all kinds of moments in this right?
But there was another guy that God did give Moses and and he
was quiet and Moses didn't know this was coming.
But if you go back to that, Exodus 33 verse 11 says so.
The so the Lord spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaks to
his friend. And he would return to camp, but
the servant Joshua, but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun,
a young man, did not depart from the Tabernacle.
OK, so Aaron and the leadership did not want literally told
Moses, God scares us. You talk to him and you tell us
what he has to say. And Joshua understood that Moses
spoke to God or God spoke to Moses, but God can speak.
And Joshua's life, if you is just that, right?
He is a he is a man that that truly ends up being the the one
that takes over for Moses when Moses passes away.
But Joshua's eyes were fixed on the Lord, not on not on any of
the I got on here. Jesus is the only thing every
everything else will fail us if we are focused on it, right?
We are to focus on Jesus if it's our or if it's the organization,
the denomination, the, the traditions, the leaders, the
church. The only thing that that this is
about is growing in our relationship with Jesus.
Now as a body, we can grow in our relationship with each other
and we're the body of Christ. And and that's true, But if at
any point you put this ahead of your personal relationship with
Jesus, you're missing it, right? It is.
It is about that personal relationship.
And that is the the gift God gave Moses.
And Aaron is a man that would just follow Moses, but he had no
depth, right? He had no, he had no
understanding a lot of times on who God was.
He did understand that Moses understood and I will just do
what Moses says. But his and, and you can watch
all of Israel follow Moses exactly like that, that he spoke
for God, but they didn't understand very often that God
was the one doing the speaking. And that's for us guys.
And that's, you know, all kinds of different churches over the
years, different leadership, different, different big
evangelist, all of them, right. The good ones would say it's
just Jesus. Do not look at me.
If I am on a pedestal, knock me off the pedestal.
I'm not on a pedestal. But if, if they, if you have
somebody on a pedestal, knock them off the pedestal because
the only the, The thing is, it's between you and him, right?
That's when I got saved. That was Pastor Steve.
That was the, the thing that amazed me was that he was
standing up front. And Steve is very, very mellow,
more college, college, college professor type as far as he's
not animated. He doesn't talk with his hands.
He's very, and he's, he's going through revelation and he's just
saying what it says. And I'm like, that is what that
says and that is what that says. Because guys, at the end of the
day, the thing that changes your life is not what I say, but what
God says, right? So what you should be doing is
digging into the word and making sure that I'm not saying
something wrong, but also digging into the word so that
you know what he's saying, right?
Because they're the words that change your life.
I might have AI might have an illustration or something that
points you to the word, but that's what you need to be
looking at. Not not, hey, I had this, this
guy had a neat illustration. You need to be looking at the
word, right? And that is Moses.
And that's the joy about all this is Moses gets there right?
And he gets there quicker than the rest of us.
But it did take him 40 years of stillness before he was ready to
get there quickly. So Exodus 418 says So Moses went
and returned to Jethro, his father-in-law, and said to him,
Please let me go and return to my brother's house, brethren's
house, who are in Egypt, and see whether they are still alive.
And Jethro said to Moses, Go in peace.
Now the Lord said to Moses and Midian, go, return to Egypt, for
all the men who sought your life are dead.
Then Moses took his wife and his sons and set on the set them on
the donkey. And he returned to the land of
Egypt. And Moses took the rod of God in
his hand. And I love this because it's
Moses just says, yes, Lord. Oh, and so it's all done, right.
He's he's on his way. He's just going to do the next
thing. Lessons learned.
I don't have to. I'm in motion except for that
one thing. And Exodus 24 through 20 or 424
through 26 says, and it came to pass on the way at the
encampment that the Lord met him and sought to kill him.
That's a took a turn for the worse.
Then Zephora took a sharp stone and cut the foreskin of her son
and cast it at Moses feet and said, surely you are a husband
of blood to me. So we let him go.
Then she said, You are our, you are a husband of blood because
of the circumcision. So Moses is headed off for the
Lord. He he is doing what the Lord
wants him to do, but half obedience is full rebellion and
the Scripture, the Scripture here, that's what it tells us,
right, That those those two verses, 3 verses, that's it.
There, there isn't a lot of commentary on this.
There isn't somewhere else I can look that says, Hey, what was
going on here? But I'm going to I'm going to
give you some a possibility. How's that God told Abraham the
covenant and so Moses, because his his parents were were God
fearing and knew who the Lord was, he would have been
circumcised. It only says the one son.
You know, it doesn't say sons, it says sons.
So you got to imagine that the oldest son was circumcised.
And I would imagine when the oldest son was circumcised, the
four went, what did you just do? No, that's not so Then the
second son comes around and Zaphora's like you want to do
what to my baby? No, we're not doing that.
And so Moses is I'll talk to God.
It'll be all right. You know, I don't have to do
everything. We'll just, you know, some of
it. And as you can tell, when the
the Lord sought to kill him, that wasn't going to be OK,
right? It Moses going into this needed
to have all the walls built, not he didn't need to have breaches,
right? We've talked about that, that if
there is sin in the camp and Joshua goes through that in in
the book of Joshua, when they go to AI, there was sin in the camp
and men died. This is one of those moments
that God's like you've sinned in the camp, you are not being
obedient. And now this had longer lasting
effects. I believe when you look at it is
that it did. He was obedient at this point
and she, Zephora did the circumcision.
Moses was alive, but we don't hear about Sephora again until
chapter 18. And I believe at this point she
went home. She took her kids and went home.
It doesn't say that, but you don't hear about her at all.
And when you do hear about her in in chapter 18, it's Jethro
bringing her to Moses. So there was there was more
here, right? This is that that trying to make
his wife happy, trying to make someone else happy in
disobedience breaks relationships.
And so doing what the Lord says, when the Lord says it is your
best plan, he, he sees the whole picture.
I see, I see what's hard to hear, right?
I, I can look at if I got to say something to Faye that she
doesn't want to hear. But the Lord's telling me, this
is the way we need to go. This is what we need to do.
And I kicked the can down the road, guys, sooner or later I'm
going to say that to Faye, whether I say it today or I
kicked the can and I got to say it in six weeks.
And it's probably worse when I say it in six weeks, whatever
that you know, if it's being, being obedient now is important.
John 1421, which is one of my life verses.
I beat you guys up with He who has my commandments and keeps
them. It is he who loves me and he who
loves me will be loved by my Father and I will love him and
manifest myself to him. How you grow is through
obedience. And it's obedience to the word,
but it's also it's it's never against the word, but it's also
that the Lord's going to ask you to do things and he's going to
he's going to convict you of stuff and he's going to say you
need to do this. See, we're putting a water line
in on my construction stories. And this is one of those that,
you know, lay awake at night going, Lord, is there a way we
cannot do it this way. Is there, is there any way we're
putting in a water line to 12 inch water line?
I, I have my, my crew was, was new, but they were experienced
enough. I, I gave them all the tools
they needed and all the time they needed to put the water
line in right. I gave them, they had elevation
hubs. They had everything they needed
to do it right. And so I wasn't worried about it
because they, they knew what they were doing.
And they get the water line in. We have thrust blocks ploured.
I got a crew doing services and my main line crew is putting in
fire hydrants. Well, fire hydrants and I'm
going to tell you more than you really need to know, but fire
hydrants come off the main line level.
And so however deep the main line is, is how, how much pipe
you have on the built fire hydrant.
And they come to me and they go, we need shorter fire hydrants.
And I'm like, no, you don't. And we go, I, I go and, and I
think they've just made a, a math error.
So I go and take some shots and it's like 4:30 in the afternoon
and we're, we're leaving at 5:00.
And I take some, some grade shots and I do some math And I'm
pretty sure I know what the problem is, but I'm not not
confident. And so I let I have them all go
home and I don't sleep that night because I'm pretty sure I
know what's going to have to happen.
And I show up at 5 O clock in the morning.
I set everything back up, nobody's there.
And I shoot and I, I, I shoot where they've been putting in
services. I, I take shots on the elevation
of the actual pipe. I have a 12 inch pipe that's
supposed to have 3 1/2 feet of cover and it has 2 feet of cover
on it, which means what that means is is that I have a 12
inch pipe that's supposed to flow water that's going to be 2
foot underground instead of almost 4 feet underground.
As you can imagine that isn't OK.
The the problem and the reason this was it wasn't that I had to
tell him to dig it up. It was that I had to explain to
my boss. It wasn't even that I had to
explain to my boss that we needed to fix it and that we had
done it wrong. It was that it was all bought
off. The only person that knew it was
wrong was me. The inspector had bought it off
as it was, the thrust blocks were poured, the services were
in and the only one, I mean, I could have buried it and it's
done except over the, over my decades work in the construction
field, I knew what would happen if I did that.
And what would happen is I'm coming back to dig it up.
Whether I dig it up today and we waste a whole day or I wait, I
wait a week, a month, whatever, Sooner or later God's going to
beat me up to the point that I have to do what he said I have
to do. So that's what we did that
Friday was they had to dig up a water line and the inspector
showed up on Monday. They weren't there and they're
like, why are we like, well, we were low or we were, we were
high and he was amazed that I had that we had repaired.
I'm like, guys, I wasn't my my standard line to everybody is
that I don't work for my boss. I work for God.
But in in that case, when I told my crew is guys, there's a line
that says it's good enough. It's good enough for my house,
you know, looks good for my house kind of thing.
Guys that bury everything I do. If that's my standard, I should
quit, right? My standard is to do it right
and, and to follow what the Lord has to say.
And if and if we're not doing that, trust me, guys, if you
have a relationship with the Lord and you were trying to cut
corners, he is going to make you straighten them out, right?
He is going to he's going to confront you.
And and I imagine, I mean, it doesn't say how old Moses's sons
are. It doesn't say it doesn't give
you much in the way of information there.
But that was probably an ongoing.
This wasn't his son wasn't born right before they left, right?
He was well past eight days old and it had been an ongoing
thing. Hence when the Lord confronted
him said you're going to do this or you're going to die.
So have you ever had that? And it's not condemnation, it's
conviction. Have you ever had that
conviction on your life that that you have a choice.
You can, you can do what the Lord says or you can walk away.
Those are your choices. And not because God's giving
them to you, but because those are your choices.
You, you can. This is what this is what is
required for you to be at peace. And so you can run away or you
can do this thing. And, and I've had, I'd love to
say I learned all my lessons, you know, one and done kind of
thing. But I've had numerous times in
my life where where me and the Lord reached that point, whether
it was chewing or having to confess something at work or
whatever that thing is that the Lord says you need to do this.
And I came up with excuses on why I didn't need to do that.
No, it's all right. I don't need to do that.
No, Lord, I'm good and he just keeps coming back to it.
And that's all we're talking about until I do it so that that
first time obedience, the quick right, the yes, Lord, this is
going to hurt, but it's not going to hurt as bad as if I
wait. And it's that idea that in First
Corinthians 118, it's it's about that we are in a process, right?
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are
perishing, but to us who are being saved, that being saved,
it is, it is the power of God. And that is we are we're in a
process. I mean, I'm saved, but I just
keep getting more saved as I get more obedient, right?
Each of that that he continues to manifest himself to me more
and more. And Luke 923 then he said to
them all, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny
himself and take up his cross daily and follow me forever
desires to save his life will lose it.
But whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.
And that is God's going to ask us to do things that our flesh
wants nothing to do with. And and I say that that that's
our our our selfishness, right. I guess flesh is kind of a
Christian word or whatever that our self, our selfishness
doesn't want to do things that that are awkward, doesn't want
to do things that are, are difficult, right?
I just want to fit in. I just want to go along and
God's going to ask you to stand in those places, right, And dig
up those water lines, whatever that that thing in your life is.
But he's going to be transforming us in the process.
And you watch this in Moses's life, that he will be
transformed into somebody that is not, that is just obedient.
He starts as a guy that that is excited and wants to kill, kill
Egyptians for the Lord, even if the Lord isn't asking.
And by the end of it, he is. He is just standing wherever the
Lord wants him to stand. And this is done by remembering
at all times who who we serve and that it's not about MO, it's
not like Aaron and Moses, it's like Joshua and the Lord.
It's that we are supposed to be in the word being washed by it,
which which being Tran, that being transformed is being
washed by the word. And in we we know the verse
because it's it's about husbands and wives.
But it's Ephesians 525 and 26. It's his husband's love your
wife just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for
her that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of
the word. Now we read that and we say
husbands, you need to make sure you're you're pouring into your
wives with the word. But but let's go back to what it
says. We're husbands love your wives
just as Christ. So Christ loves the church and
is wants us to be washed in the word is washing us in his word,
which is both his written word and speaking to us right though
those that still small voice that says I mean in the the
water line and dig up the water line.
But it's all kinds of little moments in your life.
Apologize to that guy. You know go talk to that person,
whatever that thing is right having that having that inward
position. You know I mean when when going
doing St. witnessing this is well, Lord, I just don't speak
good. I don't know the verses well, I
think, I think the Lord directly confronts Moses on that.
Who made your mouth, right? He'll give you the words to
speak. If, if, if the Lord asked you to
go speak to somebody, He's got something to say to them.
You, you just need to be obedient.
And guys, if you're in sin, if you have secret sin, if you got
things that the Lord's telling you about, know that the Lord
loves you too much to leave you there and your sin will find you
out, right? That that he isn't.
I mean, like like that the Zephora and the children.
I mean, Moses knew the right thing to do.
And I like I said, I don't know how long it went on that he
wasn't doing it, but then it found him out and there were
penalties, right? Like I said, he, it doesn't say
that Sabora was gone at that moment, but it doesn't talk
about her anymore. And so there was there was
consequences on earth for delayed obedience.
And Hebrews 12/6 says for whom the Lord loves, he chastens and
scourges every son who receives him.
Which means, guys, I am a work in progress and the Lord is
going to rebuke and correct me on a regular basis, right?
There isn't a point this side of heaven that I go.
I've arrived. I am a sinless, perfected being.
And if you don't if, if anybody believes that I've got Faye up
here, you can talk to her after service.
She'll explain all the things. I'm definitely not that, right?
It's all about the moment we hear clearly God's direction and
go the other way. Our growth stops when we clearly
hear God's direction. Our answer is yes, Lord.
And the fun thing, guys, I say that it sounds, it's an amazing
moment when you say yes, Lord, and you're doing what he wants
you to do where he wants you to do it because he gives you the
power to do what he's asking you to do.
And that is the God we serve, right?
It's it. That's something Aaron missed is
the living God, that he had the power to do it.
Exodus 44 starting in verse 27 to the end it says 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 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, and Aaron spoke all the words which
the Lord had spoken to Moses. Then he did the signs in the
sight of the people. So the people believed, and when
they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel
and that He had looked on their affliction, they bowed their
heads and worshipped. And I would love to tell you
that from that moment forward, Israel just said, Yes, Lord, but
they act like us. And that's that's one of when I
first got saved. That was one of my I went to a
Bible study and we were going through the book of Judges.
And I'm kind of mocking the Israelites.
Like, man, they are not very bright.
I just keep doing the same thing over and over again.
And one of my good friends now, but a elder at the time looks at
me and goes remind you anybody, you know, like, oh, oh, yeah.
That's yeah. And Israel is just fickle,
right? They were they were all in until
there was struggle and they over and over again they are all in.
We are following you are God. It is great.
Did you see it's raining? I don't like it when it rains,
right? And that's literally they are as
fickle as you get right. But Jesus in in Mark talks about
this kind of belief, right? And Jesus all through, all
through his Gospels says, if anyone has ears to hear, let him
hear, which is just listen up, hear me, listen to what I'm
saying. Mark 43 And this is the the
parable of the sower. And he I'm going to read the
read what he says. And then he explains it, but
says, Listen, Behold, the sower went out to sow, and it happened
as he sowed, that some seed fell on the wayside, and the birds of
the air came and devoured it. Some fell on Stony ground, where
it did not have much earth. Immediately it sprang up,
because it had no depth of earth, but when the sun was up
it was scorched, and because it had no root it withered away.
And some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and
choked it out, and it yielded no crop, but other seeds fell on
good ground and yielded A crop that sprang up and increased and
produced some 30, some 60, and some hundredfold.
And the disciples asked something that I that I'm sure
we all ask, what does that mean? And so Jesus then goes through
it in verse 14, and it says the sower sows the Word.
And these are the ones by the wayside where the Word is sown.
When they hear. When they hear, Satan comes
immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their
ears. These likewise are the ones sewn
on Stony ground who, when they hear the word, immediately
receive it with gladness. And they have no root in
themselves, and so endure only for a time.
Afterwards, when tribulation and persecution arise for the word's
sake, immediately they stumble. Now these are those.
These are the ones among, Did I just use thorns?
No storms. They are the ones who hear the
word and care for the world, care for this world and the
deceitfulness of riches and their desires for other things.
Enter in, enter in, choke the Word, and it becomes unfruitful.
But these are the ones sown on good ground.
Those who hear the word, accept it and bear fruit.
Some 30, some 60, and some hundredfold.
And if we look back at this, this time with Moses, right,
these first 4 chapters, it is, he's speaking to the Lord,
right? He starts off, he hears from
people what he's supposed to, you know, he's going to, he's
going to rescue, rescue the Israelites and he tries to do it
in his own strength. And he lost his position, right?
He killed an Egyptian, has to run off.
God has to humble him. And for us guys, if there's
anything in our lives, right, if you're, if you're not a believer
and even if you are a believer, if there's anything in your life
that before you can come to the Lord, you think you need to
clean it up. You are, you were you were in
that position where Moses was at, where you, you are, you were
letting Satan steal something before God's even had the
opportunity to give it to you because you're trying to, you're
trying to clean yourself up before you come to the Lord.
And my, my example of how that can go really wrong in, in
Uganda, a Ugandan pastor will teach that you cannot drink
alcohol and be a Christian now teaches not to get drunk.
It teaches all kinds of things. But there's a, there's a tension
there. And a Ugandan pastor will teach
you are not allowed to drink ever.
And everybody knows it. So if I am a, if I'm a 20 some
year old kid and I've, I'm a drunk and I, I drink and they,
they, they, it's the drunkest company.
It's the drunkest country per capita.
They drink the most alcohol of any country in the world.
So they drink a lot. But if I'm a 20 year old kid and
I've been drinking alcohol since I was 15 years old and I have
tried to quit numerous times, I'm not going to church because
I can't, because I drink and I can't quit.
If, if you're, if the teaching is that you have to not drink
alcohol to be a Christian. No, no, you have to love Jesus
and Jesus takes alcohol away, right?
That that is when you, when you, if you get the cart before the
horse, you're slamming the door on people or people are slamming
the door on themselves, right? When you, when you come into a
church and you, you hear a convicting message and you're
going to raise your hand, but you're like, well, I got to, I'm
living with my girlfriend. No, you get right with Jesus,
he'll take care of the rest of it, right?
And and that's, that's where Moses thought he had something
that he brought to the table. Then when you get the Stony
ground, this is back in chapter, the beginning of chapter 4 where
Moses was supposing. So Lord, have you thought of
this? You know, have you, have you
thought of the the, I mean, I'm excited, but there's a lot of
there's a lot that you haven't really put in the in the story.
And I wondered if you thought about it and that's, you know,
you got saved and then you went home.
And, you know, I'm Greg Laurie. I don't know if you guys know
who he is, but Greg Laurie is a evangelist.
Calvary Chapel and Harvest, Harvest Foot.
Is it Harvest Valley? It's not Harvest Valley anyway.
California Church. And he does, I mean, evangelist,
awesome. But when he got saved, he was
scared to death of his friends finding out.
So like he went over to his, he went over to his friend's house
and had a Bible because he just gotten saved.
And he was all excited and he got to the front door and he put
the Bible in the Bush because he didn't want to take it in the
house because it was embarrassing.
OK, He had to grow up from that because that was Stony ground,
right? He was letting the world tell
him and that there's a whole story that he has with that.
Obviously you can see the fruit in his life that he, he decided
that Jesus was worth looking a little stupid for.
And then Moses fell among thorns when he worried about what his
wife had to say. And, and I'm using his wife, but
it's anybody, right? That's your, your, it's that he
was willing to be disobedient to what the Lord was telling him to
do because he was worried about what the world had to say about
it, you know, but then there's good ground.
And where did, where did Moses end up?
Moses ended up bringing God's people out 2 million fold,
right? 2 million people came out of
Egypt. So his seed definitely was, was
fruitful. But victory for us comes when we
apply his blood to our lives. It isn't enough to know all the
things. That's when I got saved.
When I walked into a Calvary Chapel the very first time I
walked in and I would have told you I was saved.
I believe Jesus, Jesus lived. He was a real person who really
lived. I believe Jesus died on a cross.
He's a real person that really died on a cross.
I even believe Jesus rose again for the third day, believed it
all. And if I had to believe those
things so that I could go to heaven, I believe me, they're
done. Stamped it.
The problem with that kind of belief is Satan believes all
that stuff. I didn't believe he was my Lord.
I didn't say yes, Lord, and it wasn't until I got to that point
that I just that I said yes, Lord, which is not cleaning
myself up, not worried about what the world says, but saying,
Lord, this is where I'm at. I'm broken and useless in your
Kingdom and the only thing that I have to offer is my surrender
to you, right? And that's, that's the one way.
The one way is by faith, the faith that God is who he says he
is, surrendering your life to him.
And that is that's it, right? The question is, is Moses is all
in. And like I said at the
beginning, at this point, from this point forward, we're going
to see Moses. He got in, he sat down and he
held on or even to the even to a more drastic, he got in, he sat
down, he shut up and he held on. Because Moses doesn't have any
more complaints he goes through. He's going to go talk to the
Pharaoh, a guy that can just have his head cut off because
he's having a bad day and he's going to say some very blunt,
direct things to the point up to and past your first born son is
going to die. And when he says that when we're
in that Pharaoh had just got done telling him, the next time
I see you, I'm going to kill you.
And the next thing Moses says to him is your first born son's
going to die, right? Moses gets in, sits down and
holds on to what God tells him to do.
How about us? Is that where we're at, right.
We're supposed to get in, sit down and follow him wherever
we're supposed to go. And guys, it's worth it's not a
hard it. That's the fun part.
It's not the the getting in and the sitting down that's telling
our flesh to sit down and shut up The the holding on dude, it's
joy. It's a kick.
I mean, there is nothing I would rather do than be where God
wants me doing what God wants me to do.
And so, yeah, is that good? You have a good week.
So Lord, I just I thank you for that, Lord, I thank you that
you, you just want to use us. And Lord, you want to use us in
a way that shows who you are. And Lord, in doing that, Lord,
you want to stretch us, you want to grow us, you want to
transform us. And Lord, you gave us all the
tools in your son, Lord, that, that you would just give us
that, that heart that just wants to follow after you.
Lord, that we would just exchange all of our knowledge
and our information and our thought process here on this
earth. Lord, for yes Lord, whatever you
want to do, however you want to do it.
And I pray all this in Jesus name, Amen.