1Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the
priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb,
the mountain of God. 2There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in
a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was
not consumed. 3Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this
great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.” 4When the LORD
saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses,
Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5Then he said, “Come no closer!
Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is
holy ground.” 6He said further, “I am the God of your
father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses
hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. 7Then the LORD said, “I have observed the misery of my people who
are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I
know their sufferings, 8and I have come down to
deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a
good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the
Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the
Jebusites. 9The cry of the Israelites has now come to
me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. 10So
come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of
Egypt.” 11But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I
should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” 12He
said, “I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who
sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God
on this mountain.”
13But Moses said
to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your
ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall
I say to them?” 14God said to Moses, “I am who I am.”£ He said
further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I am has sent me to you.’” 15God also said to
Moses, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘The LORD, the God of your
ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent
me to you’:
This is my name forever, and this my title for all generations. 16Go and assemble the elders of Israel,
and say to them, ‘The LORD, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, of
Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying: I have given heed to you and
to what has been done to you in Egypt. 17I declare
that I will bring you up out of the misery of Egypt, to the land of the
Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the
Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.’ 18They
will listen to your voice; and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the
king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with
us; let us now go a three days’ journey into the wilderness, so that we may
sacrifice to the LORD our God.’ 19I know, however,
that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand.£ 20So
I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all my wonders that I will
perform in it; after that he will let you go. 21I
will bring this people into such favor with the Egyptians that, when you go,
you will not go empty-handed; 22each woman shall ask her neighbor
and any woman living in the neighbor’s house for jewelry of silver and of gold,
and clothing, and you shall put them on your sons and on your daughters; and so
you shall plunder the Egyptians.” 1Then Moses
answered, “But suppose they do not believe me or listen to me, but say, ‘The
LORD did not appear to you.’” 2The LORD said to him,
“What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.” 3And he said,
“Throw it on the ground.” So he threw the staff on the ground, and it became a
snake; and Moses drew back from it. 4Then the LORD
said to Moses, “Reach out your hand, and seize it by the tail”—so he reached
out his hand and grasped it, and it became a staff in his hand— 5“so that they may believe that the LORD,
the God of their ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God
of Jacob, has appeared to you.” (NRSV)
Criticism is a pretty common human event. Most of us participate from time to
time. An elderly lady had taken a flight
to visit her daughter. The flight had
been a little turbulent; it was nothing compared to the bumpy, rough
landing. When the plane mercifully came
to a halt, passengers began deplaning.
The pilot was standing in the doorway as the little white-haired
grandmother made her way to the exit. Tell
me, young man she asked, was that a landing, or did we get shot down?
Moses felt the sting of criticism throughout his
leadership of the children of Israel.
Each time Moses went to visit Pharaoh to tell him to let the people go,
Pharaoh made the conditions for the slaves worse. Before they even left Egypt the people were
unhappy. When they finally got under way
there was:
· fear at the Red Sea,
· complaints about the menu
of manna, and
·
downright rebellion once they got to the mountain of God.
The life of a leader under scrutiny is less than a
picnic.
Now, the whole idea of getting release from
Egyptian bondage was so that God’s people could go in freedom and possess the
Promised Land…so they could serve God. This
was God’s will for their lives.
I want to talk with you about accepting God’s will
for your life. Some folks are negative
about God’s will; some are fearful, but the overwhelming evidence of the Bible
is that God’s will is good for us.
Trust in the LORD with all
your heart, and do not rely on your
own insight. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will
make straight your paths.
Proverbs 3:5 - 6
(NRSV)
For us, the question is
never, should I do God’s will, or is God’s will good…the real question
is, how
can I KNOW God’s will!
To help us with this I want
to share with you three MUSTS in
knowing the will of God, so that we can be people who not only hear
the Word of God, but people who do the Word and (therefore)
the will of God.
Must #1. Desire to Understand
Moses knew he would never understand anything about following God if he
chose to be uninformed about God. Today
we have the same choice. To be informed
about God means we must study God’s Word.
Moses had a burning bush, but that is not the way the Lord chooses to
reveal Himself these days.
Do your
best to present yourself to God as one approved by him, a worker who has no
need to be ashamed, rightly explaining the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15
That “word of truth” is the
Bible, God’s Holy Word. Many folks have
said to me, I read, but I don’t
understand. One Bible promise I have
come to love and appreciate – because I am a simple person who needs help – is
that God is willing for me to understand His word:
If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously
and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you. James 1:5(NRSV)
Allow me to sum up this
desire to understand God’s will – if you really want to know God and begin to
understand His leading for your life, you must spend time in His Word.
Friends, to say that we
believe the Bible, love the Bible and are willing to live by the Bible is
nonsense if we do not take the time to study it. To say we have a desire to understand His
will for our lives, yet we do not undertake to study the Word which should
govern our lives is not being totally honest.
Genuine desire to live for Jesus is worked-out by people who dig deep in
the rich soil of God’s truth! Must #1 is
a desire to understand His will.
Must #2. Divine Encounter
A divine encounter with God is something that is born
of a willingness to cooperate with God’s word discovered. Moses was eagerly seeking God, and God still calls people who
are willing to listen and respond.
Moses found himself on holy
ground. I believe that people who are
willing for a divine encounter can still experience holy ground, because God
reveals who He is to us on holy ground!
Where is this holy
ground? I heard one speaker put it this
way: Holy ground is whenever you're in
agreement with the Lordship of Christ.
Now, there is a lot of
truth to be gotten from God’s Word when you’re standing on holy ground. You can’t do it all in one day, or even in a
lifetime. God never intended for you to
settle everything. Often He begins
leading you in one direction, and then reveals more of His plans which take you
in a slightly different direction. The
key to following the Lord’s will is to stay close to the source, and be willing
for the changes in direction.
How are we to be
willing? With the desire to understand
there often comes a divine encounter, which leads to:
Must #3. Daring Beginnings
One of the most dreaded
(and often despised) words in the English language is “change”. People don’t like it.
· Adam and Eve didn’t like
the new arrangements when they had to leave the Garden of Eden.
· Peter didn’t want to hear
the Lord Jesus say that there was going to be a cross and a tomb.
In the words of Moses, Change stinks!
Consider what happened when
God told Moses that he was being sent back to the land of his birth – the land
where he was wanted for murder – so he could tell Pharaoh to give up 3 million
slaves – Pharaoh’s property, Pharaoh’s bread and butter. If ever there was a daring beginning, this was
it, and Moses looked around for some committee ruling to get out of it!
Then Moses
answered, “But suppose they do not believe me or listen to me, but say, ‘The
LORD did not appear to you.’” The LORD
said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.” And he said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he
threw the staff on the ground, and it became a snake; and Moses drew back from
it. Then the LORD said to Moses, “Reach
out your hand, and seize it by the tail”—so he reached out his hand and grasped
it, and it became a staff in his hand— “so that they may believe that the
LORD, the God of their ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the
God of Jacob, has appeared to you.” Exodus 4:1-5 (KJV)
The significance of God’s
provision for working out His will in the life of Moses cannot be
over-stressed; the mission could not be denied.
Moses had more crises of belief down the road, but after earnestly
seeking to understand God’s will, a divine encounter with the Word of God, and
the doorway opened to a daring new beginning with God, Moses was never the
same.
The question before the
house today is no different – what’s that in your hand?
· Are you eager to understand
the will of God for your life? If not,
perhaps the first order of business for you is to turn aside to see this
marvelous bush that still burns today.
You don’t have to go to Mt. Horeb, the bush is a cross. After two thousand years, the flame of
salvation is still lit. The resurrection
is God speaking to our hearts saying, come,
all of you that are weary, burdened-down and at the end of your rope…this is my
offer of rest for your soul.
· Are you eager for a divine
encounter…the offer still stands.
· Are you eager for a daring
new beginning?
What’s that in your
hand? God has equipped you with the most
unique qualities that He needs in His kingdom, starting with unique
fingerprints, a gift of faith, and an offer to go along with you all the way
through this life.
What’s that in your
hand? It is His offer of grace…Just say
yes!
In the name of the Father,
Son and Holy Spirit, Amen!
