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Voddie Baucham - God Prepares Moses For Ministry · Voddie Baucham Sermons

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Speaker 1: In the name of Jesus, your Son, and in the
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Speaker 1: power of your Spirit, for your glory and your honor
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Speaker 1: and your namesake. Amen. Amen. If you have your bibles,
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Speaker 1: open them to Exodus chapter two, and here we look
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Speaker 1: at the second phase in this sort of four part
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Speaker 1: transition in Moses' life, this transition from being this sort
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Speaker 1: of prince in Egypt to being a leader of the exodus,
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Speaker 1: this transition that takes a number of years, and that
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Speaker 1: takes a rather winding road. Today we look at chapter two,
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Speaker 1: verses sixteen through twenty two. And this section is a
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Speaker 1: very important section, although when you read it the importance
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Speaker 1: of it could go unnoticed. Let's look at it now.
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Speaker 1: We read, now, the priest of Midian had seven daughters,
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Speaker 1: and they came and drew water and filled the troughs
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Speaker 1: to water their father's flock. The shepherds came and drove
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Speaker 1: them away, but Moses stood up and saved them and
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Speaker 1: watered their flock. When they came home to their father Ruel,
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Speaker 1: he said, how is it that you have come home
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Speaker 1: so soon? Today? They said, an Egyptian delivered us out
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Speaker 1: of the hand of the shepherds and even drew water
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Speaker 1: for us. And watered our flock. He said to his daughters,
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Speaker 1: then where is he? Why have you left? The man?
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Speaker 1: Call him that he may eat bread. Moses was content
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Speaker 1: to dwell with the man. He gave Moses his daughter, Zipporah.
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Speaker 1: She gave birth to a son, and he called his
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Speaker 1: name Gersham, for he said, I have been a sojourner
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Speaker 1: in a foreign land. Amen simple enough passage of scripture,
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Speaker 1: but a passage of scripture that is incredibly weighty. It's
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Speaker 1: weighty in terms of its value to us to understand
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Speaker 1: this transition, this transition from a man in Egypt of
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Speaker 1: much privilege and much power to a man who leads
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Speaker 1: the exodus. And the question that it raises and then answers,
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Speaker 1: is how does God equip and prepare a man for
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Speaker 1: service and leadership? That's the important question. How does God
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Speaker 1: equip and prepare a man for service and leadership? Or
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Speaker 1: in other words, how does God make a man fit
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Speaker 1: to lead? Christian ministry today is a wash with the
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Speaker 1: idea of the cult of personality. We believe that leadership
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Speaker 1: is all about who a person is and the gravitas
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Speaker 1: and magnitude of their personality, And so we follow personalities
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Speaker 1: and we worship personalities. We get excited when famous athletes
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Speaker 1: and entertainers come to faith in Christ because we are
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Speaker 1: victims of the cult of personality, and we believe that
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Speaker 1: somehow God is in desperate need of men with fame
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Speaker 1: and fortune who can make Christianity cool as opposed to
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Speaker 1: men who can make Christianity clear. We believe that if
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Speaker 1: only God could save dot dot dot, if only he
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Speaker 1: could get a hold of this person, if only he
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Speaker 1: could get a hold of that person. Could you imagine
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Speaker 1: what God could do with so and so if he
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Speaker 1: only came to faith in Christ and so. We have
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Speaker 1: a long history of individuals we're saved today and preaching
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Speaker 1: and publishing next week a long list of individuals who
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Speaker 1: are famous actors or famous athletes, or famous businessmen or
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Speaker 1: famous whatever who come to faith in Christ or about
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Speaker 1: whom it becomes known that they are Christian. And then
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Speaker 1: you go to the Christian bookstore just a few weeks later.
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Speaker 1: Takes the rest of the people like years to get
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Speaker 1: a book published. It's amazing. A publisher has to get
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Speaker 1: you into the queue, a publisher has to get you approved,
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Speaker 1: and a publisher has to get you through all of
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Speaker 1: their pub boards and all these other things and can
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Speaker 1: I mean, even for successful authors, it can take months
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Speaker 1: for them to get their next book out, But it
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Speaker 1: seems that when you have the power of personality, they
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Speaker 1: can do it in days. Because we worship at the
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Speaker 1: altar of the cult of personality. The question is how
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Speaker 1: many of these individuals have lasted, how many of these
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Speaker 1: individuals have actually had significant impact? You see, God is
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Speaker 1: not in the business of borrowing people's names. He doesn't
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Speaker 1: need to borrow anyone's name or anyone's fame. He already
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Speaker 1: has a name that is above every other name, the
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Speaker 1: name at which every knee will bow in heaven and
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Speaker 1: on earth and under the earth, the name at which
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Speaker 1: every tongue will confess that he is lured to the
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Speaker 1: glory of God, the Father. God does not compete. He says,
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Speaker 1: I am God God, and I will not share my
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Speaker 1: glory with another. And yet we continue to believe that
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Speaker 1: what God needs is just the right man with the
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Speaker 1: right glory, so that then the world will have to
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Speaker 1: listen to us. And amazingly, what happens is when individuals
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Speaker 1: of high profile and high popularity come to faith in Christ,
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Speaker 1: they disappear almost immediately. First and foremost because the powers
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Speaker 1: that be don't want to hear from them anymore. But
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Speaker 1: there's something else at work here. The history of the
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Speaker 1: Church is filled with examples of extraordinary men whom God
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Speaker 1: used in extraordinary times and extraordinary ways to accomplish extraordinary feats.
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Speaker 1: And in every case we see that God went to
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Speaker 1: extraordinary links to make them fit for the task. Combated
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Speaker 1: great heresies. Some took the Gospel to strategic places and peoples.
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Speaker 1: Others wrote landmark books, some planted or pastored landmark churches.
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Speaker 1: Still others changed the very course of history. And yet
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Speaker 1: none of these extraordinary individuals were actually extraordinary individuals until
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Speaker 1: our extraordinary God got a hold of them. They were
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Speaker 1: ordinary men, sinners in need of a savior, whom God
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Speaker 1: plucked out of their ordinary lives and used them in
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Speaker 1: extraordinary ways. And it is important for us to grasp
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Speaker 1: this for at least two reasons, the first of which
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Speaker 1: is this, if we are not careful, what we do
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Speaker 1: is instead of looking to God, we look to extraordinary men.
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Speaker 1: We look at the condition of our culture, we look
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Speaker 1: at the condition of the church, and we say, oh,
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Speaker 1: if we can only find an extraordinary man, and we
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Speaker 1: see men with gifts and men with abilities, and we
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Speaker 1: run to those men hoping that they will help God.
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Speaker 1: And it's wrong, it's blasphemy, it's idolatry. We look to
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Speaker 1: God as our help, we look to God as our hope.
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Speaker 1: The second reason it's important for us to understand this
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Speaker 1: is because this entire attitude causes us to look outwardly
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Speaker 1: as opposed to inwardly. When you believe that what God
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Speaker 1: is after is extraordinary men with extraordinary talents and extraordinary
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Speaker 1: fame and extraordinary fortune and extraordinary name and extraordinary platforms,
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Speaker 1: what you don't do is look inwardly and ask God
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Speaker 1: how he can use me, because we never think of
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Speaker 1: ourselves as extraordinary, And if we're not careful, this cult
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Speaker 1: of personality always has us looking for other people to
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Speaker 1: do the work while we sit on our hands and
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Speaker 1: wait for the next extraordinary man. And you have the
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Speaker 1: continuation of the eighty twenty rule, twenty percent of the
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Speaker 1: people doing eighty percent of the work. I can't say
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Speaker 1: a man, you ought to say out but that's not
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Speaker 1: what we see here with Moses. Two things I want
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Speaker 1: us to see. First, God uses men as they are,
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Speaker 1: but not where they are. God uses men as they are,
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Speaker 1: but not where they are. Listen to this from Matyar.
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Speaker 1: Moses was so plainly the right man for what lay
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Speaker 1: ahead in the will of God. The unaided human mind
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Speaker 1: might say that with this inheritance and upbringing, Moses had
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Speaker 1: just the qualifications God was looking for. The scripturally inspired
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Speaker 1: mind sees in Moses a working of grace, whereby the
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Speaker 1: Lord brought into being exactly the man he required. It
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Speaker 1: is those whom he has trained to be fishermen that
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Speaker 1: he calls to be fishers of men. Putting in the
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Speaker 1: matter personally, whatever the Lord may call any of us,
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Speaker 1: two we may rest assured that his gracious preparation has
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Speaker 1: made us exactly right for the task. You see, we
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Speaker 1: look at things backwards. Instead of looking at Moses and
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Speaker 1: seeing God's hand fitting the man with what he needed
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Speaker 1: in order to accomplish this task. We look to Moses
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Speaker 1: as though Moses showed up and in God said, oh, excellent,
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Speaker 1: maybe that guy will do. When we flip it around,
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Speaker 1: we see extraordinary men as opposed to an extraordinary God.
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Speaker 1: Moses has the instincts of a deliverer. There is no
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Speaker 1: doubt God put him together. This way. We see this
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Speaker 1: first in the murder of the Egyptian. Just in the
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Speaker 1: last paragraph, he has the instinct of a deliverer. There's
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Speaker 1: a man who is being harmed, who is being mistreated,
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Speaker 1: and Moses couldn't abide it, and he acted. We see
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Speaker 1: that then again with the intervention between the Hebrews, because
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Speaker 1: one could say that Moses just attacked the Egyptian because
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Speaker 1: he realizes that he's a Hebrew and he wants to
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Speaker 1: defend the Hebrews. However, when one Hebrew is fighting against another,
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Speaker 1: he gets in on what he sees as the side
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Speaker 1: of right, because this is not just about being anti Egyptian.
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Speaker 1: And then thirdly, here in this scene, we see the
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Speaker 1: same instincts from Moses. As the women are being mistreated
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Speaker 1: by the shepherds. Listen to what said there. Look at
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Speaker 1: verse seventeen. The shepherds came and drove them away, but
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Speaker 1: Moses stood up and saved them. It's amazing. This phrase
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Speaker 1: drove them away is repeated a number of times in Exodus.
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Speaker 1: You see Pharaoh is going to drive Israel away the
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Speaker 1: same phrase. But look at what it says here, but
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Speaker 1: Moses stood up and saved them. Look at verse eighteen
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Speaker 1: and nineteen. When they came home to their father Ruyal,
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Speaker 1: He said, how is it that you have come home
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Speaker 1: so soon? Today? They said, an Egyptian delivered us. That
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Speaker 1: word is used strategically. What is Moses going to do
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Speaker 1: for Israel? Why is he here? He is here to
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Speaker 1: deliver Israel, says. He delivered us out of the hands
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Speaker 1: of the shepherds. He's going to deliver Israel out of
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Speaker 1: the hands of Pharaoh. And even drew water for us
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Speaker 1: and watered the flock. That's why they're back so early.
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Speaker 1: These women frequently had problems when they went to water
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Speaker 1: the flock, and it frequently took them a lot longer
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Speaker 1: than this, So it was obvious that something different had happened.
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Speaker 1: What different had happened? What was different is Moses saved them,
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Speaker 1: and Moses delivered them from the shepherds who were going
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Speaker 1: to drive them away. This is a microcosm of what
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Speaker 1: it is that Moses is ultimately going to do under
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Speaker 1: the hand of God to save Israel and to deliver Israel.
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Speaker 1: It's just part of the way God put him together.
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Speaker 1: And not only does he drive the shepherds away, but
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Speaker 1: he then goes and serves the women and waters the flock.
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Speaker 1: This was unusual, This was over the top, This was
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Speaker 1: not done, and yet it's precisely what he did. Moses
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Speaker 1: may have had the instincts of a deliverer, but he
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Speaker 1: lacked the character of a deliverer, which is why he
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Speaker 1: wasn't ready to be the deliverer. What I mean by that, well,
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Speaker 1: first of all, Moses lacked patience. We saw this in
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Speaker 1: the murder of the Egyptian. He lacked patience. He also
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Speaker 1: lacked wisdom. Again, we saw this in the murder of
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Speaker 1: the Egyptian. Moses also lacked faith. We're going to see
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Speaker 1: this presently. Moses is not rooted and grounded yet in
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Speaker 1: his faith in God. Moses is not rooted and grounded
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Speaker 1: yet in his understanding of God. So he lacks the
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Speaker 1: theological preparation necessary to be the deliverer. Remember, God's goal
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Speaker 1: is not merely to deliver his people, but to do
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Speaker 1: so in such a way that there is no doubt
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Speaker 1: as to who has delivered them. Thus, Moses needs to
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Speaker 1: become a spokesman for Yahweh, not just a powerful Egyptian
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Speaker 1: who transferred allegiance in order to help the Hebrews. Somehow
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Speaker 1: Moses's character has to be shaped, his understanding has to
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Speaker 1: be shaped in order that he might be used, But
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Speaker 1: not just in order that he might be used, but
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Speaker 1: that he might be used in such a way that
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Speaker 1: there is no doubt that he is actually being used
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Speaker 1: by God. You see, this is what's wrong with the
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Speaker 1: cult of personality. When we say, oh, if only God
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Speaker 1: could get a hold of fill in the blank, Well,
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Speaker 1: what if he did. What if God just got a
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Speaker 1: hold of the most powerful person in the world, or
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Speaker 1: the most the wealthy person in the world. What if
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Speaker 1: God got a hold of him, and all of a
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Speaker 1: sudden Oprah is converted, and Bill Gates is converted, and
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Speaker 1: suddenly there's this convergence between Bill Gates and Oprah and
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Speaker 1: Tiger Woods and whoever else, and all at the top.
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Speaker 1: They all get saved. And now they pool their resources
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Speaker 1: and they create this great media conglomerate. And then all
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Speaker 1: of a sudden things go around the world and we
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Speaker 1: see numbers of people come to faith in the Lord
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Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. What happens. What happens is people say, you
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Speaker 1: see what money can do, You see what money can do? Well,
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Speaker 1: what happens when God takes a poor englishman who's one
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Speaker 1: of thirteen children, never grew up with much, and puts
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Speaker 1: a song in his heart and a pen in his hands,
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Speaker 1: and he writes hymns that are sung for hundreds of years. Wesley,
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Speaker 1: what happens People don't say, do you see what great
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Speaker 1: training can do? Do you see what money can do?
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Speaker 1: They say, do you see what God can do? That's
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Speaker 1: the difference. What happens when a powerful Egyptian moves up
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Speaker 1: the ranks and he's given the ear of Pharaoh and
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Speaker 1: then uses his position and authority to speak to Pharaoh
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Speaker 1: and have Pharaoh to let these Israelites go? People say,
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Speaker 1: do you see what position can do? And from then
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Speaker 1: on what do we look for? We look for people
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Speaker 1: in the right position. But God takes Moses out of
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Speaker 1: the right position in order to put him into the
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Speaker 1: right position. Amen, this is not about the cult of personality.
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Speaker 1: This is about the glory of Almighty God. The second
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Speaker 1: thing I want you to see is that God uses
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Speaker 1: men's circumstances to fit them for their calling. He uses
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Speaker 1: men's circumstances to fit them for their calling. You know,
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Speaker 1: there's this pattern that happens, and I see it often.
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Speaker 1: You'll go to a big conference, and I've had the
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Speaker 1: privilege of speaking at a number of rather significant conferences.
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Speaker 1: And it's amazing. If you watch it, if you just
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Speaker 1: sit back and watch, you see it happen. They're all
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Speaker 1: the young want to be preacher boys, and they're there
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Speaker 1: with all of the guys that they listen to and
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Speaker 1: all of the guys that they admire, and they're watching
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Speaker 1: the guys that they listen to and the guys that
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Speaker 1: they admire, and afterwards, they all want to come up
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Speaker 1: and they want to talk to these guys, these guys
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Speaker 1: that they listen to and these guys that they admire,
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Speaker 1: and they want to ask them questions like if there
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Speaker 1: was one book that you could recommend for a guy
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Speaker 1: like me look back And basically here's what they're saying.
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Speaker 1: I want to be like you, give me a short cut.
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Speaker 1: Where did you study? Because maybe if I study there,
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Speaker 1: I can be like you. What do you read? Because
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Speaker 1: maybe if I read what you can read, I can
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Speaker 1: be like you? What is it? What is it? What
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Speaker 1: is it? What is it? Because what I want is
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Speaker 1: what you have wrong answer the question is, and we'll
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Speaker 1: get this later on, what's that in your head? What
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Speaker 1: do you have. If you want to know how God
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Speaker 1: intends to use you, the question you ask is not
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Speaker 1: how have people been successful at this before? But the
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Speaker 1: question you ask is what do I have? Because that's
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Speaker 1: what God intends to use. If He intended to use
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Speaker 1: what someone else is, someone else has, he would have
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Speaker 1: made you someone else. Amen. And this is as true
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Speaker 1: for Moses leading the children of Israel out of Egypt
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Speaker 1: as it is for you, homeschool mom teaching your kids
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Speaker 1: at home. Or if I only had the curriculum she has, Oh,
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Speaker 1: if I only had the characters she has, If I
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Speaker 1: only had the background she has, If I only had
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Speaker 1: the husband she has, if I only if I only,
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Speaker 1: if I only here's the question what do you have?
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Speaker 1: Because God set those children to your home, and he
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Speaker 1: intends for them to be shaped and fashioned at your
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Speaker 1: hand based upon what it is that he's given you
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Speaker 1: and how it is that he's shaped you. What do
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Speaker 1: you have? That's how the providence of God works, and
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Speaker 1: the difficulties that we experience are often used by God
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Speaker 1: in order to put us in a position that He
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Speaker 1: desires for us to be in. For example, God got
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Speaker 1: Moses out of Egypt. There was a land that God
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Speaker 1: had promised his people, and Egypt wasn't it. God got
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Speaker 1: Moses out of Egypt. He got him out of Egypt.
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Speaker 1: You would think, if just looking at it in human terms,
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Speaker 1: you would think, wait a minute, Egypt is where he
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Speaker 1: has his power. Egypt is where he has his authority.
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Speaker 1: And God gets him out of Egypt. He gets him
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Speaker 1: away from Egypt. And now here he is out in
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Speaker 1: the desert, probably sitting and moping, because all he knows
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Speaker 1: is Egypt, and the only context that he has for
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Speaker 1: how it is that he's going to help these people
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Speaker 1: is an Egyptian context. If I'm going to help Israel,
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Speaker 1: and Israel is in Egypt, certainly I have to be
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Speaker 1: in Egypt in order to help them. Interestingly enough, under
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Speaker 1: these circumstances, at this particular time, Moses would have thought
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Speaker 1: that God was actually rejecting him as the deliverer of
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Speaker 1: Israel if all he looked at was his current circumstances.
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Speaker 1: Hear me sayings, this is true for all of us
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Speaker 1: at different times in our lives, because all we can
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Speaker 1: see is right here and right now. We do not
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Speaker 1: know the plans of God, and all of a sudden
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Speaker 1: we find ourselves in a difficult place and in a
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Speaker 1: difficult patch. And here's what we've given into. We've given
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Speaker 1: into the idea that if God has called you, and
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Speaker 1: if God is going to use you, it's going to
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Speaker 1: be a great smooth road. And if it's not a
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Speaker 1: straight smooth road, it must not be God. God help
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Speaker 1: us for thinking like that. God help us. We're wide eyed,
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Speaker 1: doe eyed, and in love, and so we marry because
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Speaker 1: we found the one, one one one. And now just
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Speaker 1: a little while into it, there is the clash of sinners.
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Speaker 1: And what do newlyweds often think at that moment? I
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Speaker 1: must have found the wrong one one one? Why? Because
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Speaker 1: we watch too many movies, that's why. And we believe
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Speaker 1: in happily ever after, when the fact of the matter is,
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Speaker 1: when two sinners get together, it's conflict ever after, and
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Speaker 1: it's difficulty ever after, and it's sin ever after, and
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Speaker 1: repentance ever after, and reconciliation ever after, and forgiveness ever after,
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Speaker 1: and conflict ever after, and sin ever after, and reconciliation
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Speaker 1: ever after, and repentance ever after and forgiveness ever after.
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Speaker 1: That's what it's like. The wide eyed pastor who comes
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Speaker 1: out of seminary and thinks he's God's gift to the church,
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Speaker 1: starts pastoring his church, and it's a wonderful honeymoon as
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Speaker 1: everyone is smiling at him. And then all of a sudden,
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Speaker 1: several months into his pastorate, he realizes that sheep have teeth,
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Speaker 1: and oftentimes he begins to think, I must have come
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Speaker 1: to the wrong church. I must have taken the wrong job.
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Speaker 1: And there is no doubt that is Moses was sitting
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Speaker 1: here by this well thinking that he's blown it, because
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Speaker 1: here he is with this passion for the people of
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Speaker 1: Israel and this desire to save and rescue Israel, and
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Speaker 1: all of a sudden he finds out Pharaoh found out
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Speaker 1: about the murder, and Pharaoh wants him dead. Now Here
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Speaker 1: he is sitting in the wilderness, sitting by this well.
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Speaker 1: He has to be thinking, I've blown it. I made
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Speaker 1: the wrong decision. I could have been used by God
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Speaker 1: and now it's done. But it wasn't. God was getting
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Speaker 1: Moses out of Egypt. God was also getting Egypt out
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Speaker 1: of Moses. Amen. God was getting Egypt out of Moses.
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Speaker 1: God was getting him away from Egyptian privilege because he
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Speaker 1: didn't want him to rely on Egyptian privilege. God was
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Speaker 1: getting him away from Egyptian paganis because Moses is not
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Speaker 1: just delivering the children of Israel out of Egypt. God
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Speaker 1: is actually using Moses to deliver them the law and
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Speaker 1: to deliver them the Tabernacle. We often forget that God
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Speaker 1: establishes through Moses this law, but he also establishes through
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Speaker 1: Moses the priesthood and worship. So it's not just that
25:24
Speaker 1: God's people need to be delivered from the location of Egypt.
25:27
Speaker 1: They need to be delivered from the paganism of Egypt,
25:30
Speaker 1: and Moses to lead them needs to be delivered from
25:33
Speaker 1: the paganism of Egypt. He doesn't see that though, He
25:37
Speaker 1: couldn't see that Moses is also being led away from
25:43
Speaker 1: Egyptian culture because God is not merely establishing Israelites who
25:50
Speaker 1: practice Egyptian culture and happen to worship at the Tabernacle.
25:57
Speaker 1: It's amazing thing we have forgotten the last part of
26:00
Speaker 1: the Great Commission. We understand that God has called us
26:04
Speaker 1: to take the Gospel to every people group, to make
26:07
Speaker 1: disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of
26:10
Speaker 1: the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. But
26:12
Speaker 1: then what else does it say and teaching them to
26:14
Speaker 1: observe everything that I have commanded you. God doesn't want
26:19
Speaker 1: people stuck in godless pagan culture. God wants to impact
26:24
Speaker 1: even that, and so he gets Egypt out of Moses,
26:29
Speaker 1: as well as getting Moses out of Egypt. Thirdly, God
26:34
Speaker 1: gave Moses a mentor and teacher. It's interesting that this
26:37
Speaker 1: paragraph starts out, now, the priest of Midian had seven daughters,
26:43
Speaker 1: an issue. We're talking about Moses, and all of a sudden,
26:45
Speaker 1: now the priest of Midian Ruel here called Jethro elsewhere.
26:51
Speaker 1: In fact, it's the only time that we referred to
26:53
Speaker 1: as Ruel. And there's a lot of discussion as to
26:55
Speaker 1: why this name is used excuse me used here, Whether
26:59
Speaker 1: this is a formal name for him as the priest
27:02
Speaker 1: and jethrows more common name, or maybe there's an idea
27:05
Speaker 1: of a surname or whatever. But the idea is that
27:09
Speaker 1: it's the same individual. This is Jethro, who is here
27:11
Speaker 1: and only here called Ruel. The rest of the time
27:14
Speaker 1: in the Book of Exodus, he's called Jethro. He's a
27:16
Speaker 1: descendant of Abraham. He's a Midianite. The Midianites are descendants
27:20
Speaker 1: of Abraham, amazingly, how does Israel get into Egypt? Well,
27:26
Speaker 1: they're these eleven brothers. Ten of them decide to sell
27:31
Speaker 1: number eleven? Are these twelve brothers? Rather ten of them
27:34
Speaker 1: decide to sell number eleven into slavery? Number twelve was
27:37
Speaker 1: not a part of the plot. And when they sell
27:39
Speaker 1: him into slavery, they put him in this pit. And
27:42
Speaker 1: who comes along but some Midianites? Where did the Midianites
27:47
Speaker 1: come from? Abraham? And Hagar? Hagar was what an Egyptian?
27:55
Speaker 1: So a Midianite caravan takes Joseph into Egypt so that
28:00
Speaker 1: Joseph can rescue his brothers from the famine and bring
28:03
Speaker 1: the rest of Israel into Egypt. And now a Midianite
28:07
Speaker 1: priest is whom Moses comes into contact with as he
28:13
Speaker 1: comes out of Egypt. Don't lose the importance of that irony.
28:21
Speaker 1: Jethro is a priest. There are some who argue that
28:24
Speaker 1: Jethro was not a priest of the One True God,
28:28
Speaker 1: not a priest of the God of Abraham, and they
28:30
Speaker 1: make that argument based on chapter eighteen. Going me to
28:33
Speaker 1: chapter eighteen. Now, I don't agree with this assessment, but
28:45
Speaker 1: this is basically the extent of the evidence for their
28:49
Speaker 1: argument that Jethro was not a priest of the One
28:52
Speaker 1: True God or a worshiper of the One True God.
28:56
Speaker 1: Verse ten and chapter eighteen, Jethro said, blessed be the
29:03
Speaker 1: Lord who has delivered you out of the hand of
29:06
Speaker 1: the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh, and
29:09
Speaker 1: has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians.
29:15
Speaker 1: Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods,
29:19
Speaker 1: because in this affair they dealt arrogantly with the people. Now,
29:26
Speaker 1: mind you, Jethro says, now I know the Lord is
29:31
Speaker 1: greater than all gods. After this battle between all of
29:35
Speaker 1: the Egyptian gods and the One True and Living God,
29:39
Speaker 1: where God says he's doing this to demonstrate his greatness. Basically,
29:45
Speaker 1: Jethro is saying, I agree with God. He is greater
29:48
Speaker 1: than all gods. There is no other God. Now you
29:51
Speaker 1: don't have to be a polytheist in order to make
29:53
Speaker 1: that statement. And that's the only evidence that they use
29:56
Speaker 1: in order to say, well, you know, it's not until
29:58
Speaker 1: that point that Jethro be comes a monotheist. I believe
30:04
Speaker 1: this reading a little too much into that text. Others,
30:08
Speaker 1: for example, Phil Reichen takes this position. It was in
30:13
Speaker 1: the same home that Moses grew in relationship with God.
30:19
Speaker 1: From when he accepted Zapora's hand in marriage, he became
30:24
Speaker 1: a member of her clan. The Midianites seemed to have
30:30
Speaker 1: worshiped the One True God, the God of their father Abraham.
30:34
Speaker 1: It seems significant that Ruel was a priest and that
30:38
Speaker 1: his name means friend of God. In all likelihood, Moses
30:42
Speaker 1: receives spiritual instruction from his father in law, so that
30:46
Speaker 1: by the time he saw the burning bush, he had
30:49
Speaker 1: already been reintroduced to the God of Abraham. Do we
30:57
Speaker 1: know this for certain? We don't know it for certain.
31:01
Speaker 1: But we do know that Jethro is a priest. We
31:03
Speaker 1: do know that he mentors Moses, no doubt he meantors Moses.
31:08
Speaker 1: And we do know that he doesn't just mentor Moses
31:11
Speaker 1: before the deliverance out of Egypt, but even after the
31:16
Speaker 1: deliverance out of Egypt. But Jethro is also a Midianite,
31:22
Speaker 1: which means he knows the land. This is where he dwells.
31:28
Speaker 1: This is going to be important because when Moses leads
31:31
Speaker 1: Israel out of Egypt, they're going to be in this
31:34
Speaker 1: very land, not only did God give Moses a mentor
31:40
Speaker 1: and a teacher, but God gave Moses a family. Remember
31:45
Speaker 1: this is to make him fit for his task. In
31:47
Speaker 1: order to be fit for his task, he needed a mentor,
31:49
Speaker 1: he needed a teacher, he needed someone to prepare him.
31:52
Speaker 1: And in order to be fit for his task, he
31:53
Speaker 1: needed a wife and children. God can definitely use a
31:57
Speaker 1: single man. However, there are certain things a man simply
32:02
Speaker 1: cannot learn without the unique, irreplaceable experience of being responsible
32:08
Speaker 1: for a wife and children. There's just certain stuff you
32:13
Speaker 1: won't know. There are things you won't know about the
32:16
Speaker 1: human condition, and there are things you won't know about
32:18
Speaker 1: yourself until God gives you a wife and God gives
32:23
Speaker 1: your children. There are just certain things you learn. Does
32:26
Speaker 1: that mean you can't serve without those things? Absolutely not.
32:28
Speaker 1: It doesn't mean that. The apostle Paul who gives us
32:32
Speaker 1: first Timothy three and Titus one talking about the requirements
32:36
Speaker 1: of eldership and the examination of an elder as a
32:38
Speaker 1: husband and a father. The apostle Paul who gives it
32:41
Speaker 1: to us, we have no evidence that he had a
32:43
Speaker 1: wife or that he had children. So no no one
32:47
Speaker 1: has ever said or is saying that you can't be
32:50
Speaker 1: fit to lead without a wife and children. However, there
32:53
Speaker 1: are some areas that if you're going to lead, you
32:59
Speaker 1: need that knowledge and you need that experience. God gives
33:05
Speaker 1: Moses a family to shepherd. It's a microcosm of pastoral ministry.
33:12
Speaker 1: It's a protection against certain sin that would disqualify, and
33:18
Speaker 1: it's also a sense of multi generational responsibility. There's an
33:22
Speaker 1: amazing thing that happens when you recognize that you're responsible
33:26
Speaker 1: for someone who, under normal circumstances, is going to outlive you,
33:34
Speaker 1: that you have to give them something that they can
33:36
Speaker 1: hold on to beyond your lifetime, because they're going to
33:40
Speaker 1: be here beyond your lifetime, and then grandchildren who will
33:44
Speaker 1: even outlive them under normal circumstances, and our ability and
33:48
Speaker 1: our opportunity to transmit things to them. In essence, this
33:52
Speaker 1: is a microcosm of what God is calling Moses to
33:55
Speaker 1: do with Israel as their shepherd. God also gives Moses
34:00
Speaker 1: a vocation speaking of shepherds. God makes him a shepherd.
34:05
Speaker 1: Interestingly enough, this is also part of God getting Moses
34:08
Speaker 1: out of Egypt and getting Egypt out of Moses. As
34:11
Speaker 1: I can notice, this is hardly the profession Moses would
34:14
Speaker 1: have chosen because he was raised in Egypt, and the
34:16
Speaker 1: Bible says that quote all shepherds are detestable to the
34:20
Speaker 1: Egyptians end quote Genesis forty six thirty four. So he
34:26
Speaker 1: takes him out of Egypt and he gives a vocation.
34:28
Speaker 1: What vocation? What's a great vocation for an Egyptian that
34:32
Speaker 1: you're trying to make not an Egyptian anymore? How about
34:34
Speaker 1: something they hate? How about a shepherd? There you go
34:37
Speaker 1: that works. This does not feel to Moses like God
34:42
Speaker 1: is preparing him to be used mightily. And yet throughout
34:49
Speaker 1: redemptive history we see this picture Abel. It's a shepherd.
34:57
Speaker 1: He was killed by his brother Kan. The patriarchs were shepherds.
35:03
Speaker 1: King David was a shepherd. The prophets used the idea
35:09
Speaker 1: of a shepherd as an illustration of the leaders of Israel.
35:13
Speaker 1: Jesus is the good shepherd, and those who serve in
35:17
Speaker 1: pastoral ministry are called to shepherd the flock. In fact,
35:20
Speaker 1: that's what pastor means. So God has given Moses a
35:26
Speaker 1: vocation that number one is significant throughout redemptive history, and
35:30
Speaker 1: number two is specifically designed to prepare him for the
35:36
Speaker 1: task that he has ahead of him. In addition to
35:42
Speaker 1: all of this, God gave Moses time because he needed time.
35:50
Speaker 1: And this is something that we overlook. You look and
35:53
Speaker 1: you read this paragraph, and you just miss it. All
35:55
Speaker 1: of a sudden, Moses is gone. He's sitting by the well,
35:59
Speaker 1: as he says, by the well, these you know, these
36:01
Speaker 1: seven daughters come. He rescues the seven daughters. They go home. Daddy,
36:07
Speaker 1: there was this man. He goes there. Next thing you know,
36:09
Speaker 1: he's married. Bam, there's a kid. I mean, it just
36:12
Speaker 1: all happens right here in a single paragraph. But what
36:15
Speaker 1: you don't know is that this takes forty years because
36:21
Speaker 1: the text didn't tell us that. But in the Book
36:24
Speaker 1: of Apps Acts, chapter seven, Verses twenty three and twenty four,
36:27
Speaker 1: talking about the first when he was forty years old,
36:33
Speaker 1: it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the
36:36
Speaker 1: children of Israel, and seeing one of them being wronged,
36:39
Speaker 1: he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking
36:44
Speaker 1: down the Egyptian. He's forty years old when that happens.
36:48
Speaker 1: So he's forty years old when he goes out into
36:50
Speaker 1: the desert. In Midian Acts, chapter seven and verse thirty now,
36:53
Speaker 1: when forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him
36:56
Speaker 1: in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, and a flame of
36:58
Speaker 1: fire in a bush. Forty years in the wilderness before
37:02
Speaker 1: his call to go back. Eighty years of preparation. By
37:08
Speaker 1: the way, how long do they wander in the wilderness?
37:10
Speaker 1: Forty years? Eighty years of preparation for forty years of ministry.
37:15
Speaker 1: Two years of preparation for every one year of ministry.
37:21
Speaker 1: You think we may be a little bit impatient if
37:26
Speaker 1: there was just one book that I could read. How
37:31
Speaker 1: about you go sit by a well, come see me
37:35
Speaker 1: in forty years, hey man, forty years of preparation. There's
37:42
Speaker 1: a term that people used to use. I started preaching
37:45
Speaker 1: when I was twenty and there was a term that
37:48
Speaker 1: people used, and they used to talk about seasoned preachers.
37:53
Speaker 1: I mean, if we were using that term, you know,
37:55
Speaker 1: seasoned preachers. The fact of the matter is, there's certain
37:58
Speaker 1: things that takes a long time to learn. Nor do
38:02
Speaker 1: I claim to have arrived, because there is much more
38:06
Speaker 1: I have to learn. But as I stand here at
38:10
Speaker 1: forty five and look back in my mind's eye at
38:13
Speaker 1: that twenty year old preacher, oh how I wish I
38:17
Speaker 1: could sit down with him today. Amen. God gave him time.
38:26
Speaker 1: What did that time do? It taught him patience. For
38:31
Speaker 1: forty years he waited in Egypt, and then he acted,
38:34
Speaker 1: and he acted rashly, and because he acted rashly, he
38:37
Speaker 1: ended up out of Egypt. He was impatient. Now for
38:41
Speaker 1: forty years he tends sheep in the desert. That taught
38:46
Speaker 1: Moses patience. And he needed patience in order to do
38:51
Speaker 1: what God had for him to do. Not just the
38:53
Speaker 1: instincts of a deliverer. He needed patience. God taught him humility,
39:00
Speaker 1: and he needed humility. It takes humility to shepherd God's sheep.
39:09
Speaker 1: We have to be humble. Takes humility to lead, whether
39:15
Speaker 1: you lead in church, or you lead in your company,
39:17
Speaker 1: or you lead in your home. It takes humility to lead,
39:23
Speaker 1: and Moses had to learn humility. I don't usually like
39:29
Speaker 1: to wax autobiographical from up here, but I could not
39:34
Speaker 1: resist this when God called me to preachieve call me
39:44
Speaker 1: when I was in college, and at the time, I
39:47
Speaker 1: was one of those individuals playing football and people knew
39:50
Speaker 1: my name and so on and so forth and all
39:52
Speaker 1: this sort of stuff. And so I start preaching and
39:57
Speaker 1: people start inviting me places to preach just because I
39:59
Speaker 1: was a football player. And all of a sudden, through
40:04
Speaker 1: a series of events, God calls me away from that,
40:10
Speaker 1: and that part of my life is over. I'm not
40:11
Speaker 1: playing football anymore. Immediately my phone stops ringing. Nobody wants
40:15
Speaker 1: me to come preach for him anymore because I'm not
40:17
Speaker 1: a football player anymore. An amazing thing happened. It wasn't
40:21
Speaker 1: forty years and Sini, but it was a wilderness. And
40:27
Speaker 1: then in addition to that, God sent us to a
40:29
Speaker 1: church where a pastor who I'm convinced just uniquely hated
40:34
Speaker 1: my guts. He treated me horribly, I mean just horribly,
40:44
Speaker 1: and it was so blatant and so obvious that there
40:47
Speaker 1: were people in the church who from time to time
40:49
Speaker 1: would ask me what I had done to offend the man.
40:53
Speaker 1: It was awful. It was awful. And so here I
40:58
Speaker 1: went from you know, everybody wants your name and your
41:04
Speaker 1: everybody wants your autograph, and everybody wants you to come
41:06
Speaker 1: preach because of what you do to nobody's calling you anymore,
41:14
Speaker 1: and your preacher hates your guts. You know what I've
41:19
Speaker 1: learned as I've reflected on that I was incredibly proud
41:29
Speaker 1: and I needed to be humbled, and I needed to
41:34
Speaker 1: be humbled, like in a significant way. And so God
41:39
Speaker 1: used that in a series of other things to just
41:43
Speaker 1: absolutely crush me onto the weight of my own pride.
41:55
Speaker 1: Am I now mister humble? No, no, I'm not, but
42:03
Speaker 1: praise the Lord. I'm not who I used to be.
42:08
Speaker 1: Moses needed that. God taught him dependents. Forty years keeping
42:20
Speaker 1: sheep in the desert, forty years watching for wild animals,
42:27
Speaker 1: watching for thieves and poachers, and all you have is
42:33
Speaker 1: a wife and six sisters in law. God taught Moses dependence.
42:41
Speaker 1: He didn't have his Egyptian heritage to depend on. God
42:44
Speaker 1: taught Moses discipline. You don't survive in the desert without discipline.
42:51
Speaker 1: Water is hard to come by, and it has to
42:54
Speaker 1: be treated like it's hard to come by, and it
42:56
Speaker 1: takes discipline. God taught him discipline, and he would need
42:58
Speaker 1: that to shepherd God's people. God taught him maturity, and
43:06
Speaker 1: he needed to mature. He needed to not be the
43:11
Speaker 1: impetuous man who struck and killed an Egyptian. He needed
43:16
Speaker 1: to mature so that he could go back ten times
43:20
Speaker 1: to Pharaoh and say, let my people go. God needed
43:28
Speaker 1: to form character in him, and it takes time to
43:33
Speaker 1: form character, testing to form character. And God needed to
43:43
Speaker 1: shape weakness in him. Because God resists the proud, but
43:50
Speaker 1: he exalts the humble, and he uses the weak things
43:54
Speaker 1: of this world to shame the strong. Moses was a
43:57
Speaker 1: strong thing when he was forty years old. He was
44:01
Speaker 1: in his prime, and he was powerful. And now forty
44:05
Speaker 1: years later, in the desert, he is a weak old man.
44:09
Speaker 1: And it is not the proud Egyptian prince that God
44:13
Speaker 1: uses to deliver his people, but the weak eighty year
44:17
Speaker 1: old man who stands before the most powerful man in
44:20
Speaker 1: the world with a stick in his hand and says,
44:23
Speaker 1: let my people go. God needed to teach him weakness,
44:32
Speaker 1: and it took forty years in the desert in order
44:36
Speaker 1: for him to learn that God uses our circumstances to
44:42
Speaker 1: make us fit for our calling. God uses our difficulties
44:45
Speaker 1: to make us fit for our callings. Nor is this
44:50
Speaker 1: just for individuals whom God calls to be in leadership.
44:53
Speaker 1: There is a sense in which every believer must identify
44:57
Speaker 1: with this reality. Why because this is also the reality
45:00
Speaker 1: of our savior. What yes, our Savior, The Prince of
45:08
Speaker 1: Heaven left Heaven just like Moses left Egypt. And Moses
45:15
Speaker 1: spent forty years in the desert being prepared, and Jesus
45:18
Speaker 1: spent thirty three years in a human body being prepared.
45:22
Speaker 1: Having condescended to this form, he left his royal place.
45:29
Speaker 1: Jesus also learned obedience during those thirty three years Hebrews five,
45:34
Speaker 1: verses seven through ten. In the days of his flesh,
45:38
Speaker 1: Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and
45:42
Speaker 1: tears to him who was able to save him from death,
45:46
Speaker 1: and he was heard because of his reverence. Although he
45:50
Speaker 1: was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered,
45:54
Speaker 1: and being made perfect, he became the source of eternal
45:58
Speaker 1: salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God
46:03
Speaker 1: a high priest after the order of Milki is to day,
46:05
Speaker 1: that's amazing that that said of the Son of God.
46:09
Speaker 1: But in order for the son to identify with those
46:12
Speaker 1: whom he would save, he wrapped himself in flesh, and
46:15
Speaker 1: he wrapped himself in weakness, And he actually learned obedience
46:19
Speaker 1: in his human form through suffering, why so that he
46:28
Speaker 1: could identify with the flock whom he now shepherds Hebrews
46:34
Speaker 1: four fifteen. For we do not have a high priest
46:37
Speaker 1: who was unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one
46:41
Speaker 1: who in every respect has been tempted as we are.
46:44
Speaker 1: Yet without sin, Christ can identify with our weaknesses. He
46:48
Speaker 1: could not before his incarnation. There's no weakness in the Godhead,
46:52
Speaker 1: none whatsoever. There is perfection in the Godhead. But the
46:56
Speaker 1: second person of the Trinity took weakness upon himself that
46:59
Speaker 1: he might identify with us, with those of us who
47:01
Speaker 1: are weak. Christ is our high priest, and he is
47:05
Speaker 1: our good shepherd, and he identifies with us because he
47:08
Speaker 1: endured weakness, just like we endure weakness. It's amazing. The
47:16
Speaker 1: incarnation is amazing. What Christ brings into his experience as
47:22
Speaker 1: the son of God is amazing, and the reason for
47:25
Speaker 1: it is amazing. So that he might deliver God's people,
47:34
Speaker 1: that he might identify with God's people, that he might
47:38
Speaker 1: shepherd God's people, that we might have in him. This
47:44
Speaker 1: picture of living a life of obedience to God, even
47:52
Speaker 1: in the midst of weakness and frailty. It's an amazing thing.
48:00
Speaker 1: But even the Son of God underwent it, which makes
48:04
Speaker 1: it even more ridiculous for us to think that God
48:10
Speaker 1: is going to call us to something and that we
48:14
Speaker 1: won't have to endure suffering in order to be made
48:17
Speaker 1: ready for it and in order to be made right
48:20
Speaker 1: for it. Christ came to deliver us not just through
48:27
Speaker 1: his passive obedience and death on the cross, but also
48:31
Speaker 1: through his active obedience. And in his active obedience we
48:36
Speaker 1: see righteousness displayed, actual righteousness displayed by a man, the God, Man,
48:44
Speaker 1: who was completely righteous, so that his righteousness might be
48:48
Speaker 1: imputed to us, as our sinfulness is imputed to him.
48:52
Speaker 1: In his passive obedience, we see in Christ an example
48:56
Speaker 1: of obedience to God the Father. See in Christ an
49:01
Speaker 1: example of what it means to be shaped by that
49:04
Speaker 1: weakness and to learn obedience through suffering, so that Christ
49:09
Speaker 1: is not only the one who saves us from our
49:11
Speaker 1: sin and delivers us from the wrath to come, but
49:14
Speaker 1: Christ is also the one who walks with us day
49:18
Speaker 1: by day in our weakness, and not as one who
49:21
Speaker 1: cannot understand. We have a perfect savior, We have a
49:32
Speaker 1: perfect deliverer, so that he might make us as perfect
49:40
Speaker 1: people that we might accomplish God's perfect will. I don't
49:49
Speaker 1: know what it is that God has called you to
49:51
Speaker 1: do where it is that God has called you to serve.
49:56
Speaker 1: But I do know this. Everything that you have and
50:00
Speaker 1: everything that you are is by God's providence. God did
50:09
Speaker 1: not make you who and what you are so that
50:12
Speaker 1: you could spend your life just this far away from
50:15
Speaker 1: usefulness in His kingdom, so that you could spend your
50:20
Speaker 1: life thinking, Oh, if only I had, Oh if only
50:24
Speaker 1: I was. But God has made you who and what
50:26
Speaker 1: you are, that He might redeem you just as you are,
50:30
Speaker 1: and not make you someone else, but that He might
50:33
Speaker 1: redeem you, that he might use you, and that he
50:36
Speaker 1: might gain glory. Yes, but I don't have what so
50:39
Speaker 1: and so has. All the more glory to God, because
50:48
Speaker 1: if you did have it, he would have to strip
50:52
Speaker 1: it from you in order that he might gain full glory.
50:57
Speaker 1: Do not despise your weakness. Embrace your weakness. Despise your strength,
51:05
Speaker 1: Despise your self reliance. Despise those things that make people
51:09
Speaker 1: look to you and not to God. Despise those things
51:13
Speaker 1: in you that make it hard for you to give
51:15
Speaker 1: God glory. Because it is impossible to make much of
51:19
Speaker 1: yourself and to make much of God simultaneously. You cannot
51:22
Speaker 1: do that don't despise your weaknesses, despise your strengths, and
51:32
Speaker 1: use those things to the glory of God. And even
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Speaker 1: as you use those strengths, go to extra measure to
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Speaker 1: give glory and honor to God as he uses them
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Speaker 1: for his purposes and by all means. Never forget that
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Speaker 1: Moses is not the only picture of this. That our Savior,
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Speaker 1: our mass, redeemer and friend, Jesus Christ, the second person
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Speaker 1: of the Trinity, also took weakness upon himself, did not
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Speaker 1: exercise his power and authority, and instead submitted to the cross,
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Speaker 1: and through weakness save many. This is also true as
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Speaker 1: we look at our salvation. Strength and believing that we
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Speaker 1: can stand before God on our own is the exact
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Speaker 1: opposite of what is required for those who would be
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Speaker 1: saved looking to our own hands, and what we bring
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Speaker 1: is the exact opposite of what God requires for those
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Speaker 1: who would find mercy. But those who will find mercy
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Speaker 1: are those who despise their stre and recognize that we
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Speaker 1: have nothing to bring. Nothing in my hands I bring
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Speaker 1: simply to the cross, I cling. We come empty handed,
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Speaker 1: recognizing that even those things that we count as strengths
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Speaker 1: are weaknesses, because there is nothing in us or about
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Speaker 1: us that makes us worthy to stand before a holy
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Speaker 1: and righteous God. But it is Christ and his finished work.
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Speaker 1: It is the good shepherd who is the door for
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Speaker 1: the sheep, that is the one on whom we depend.
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Speaker 1: Lay down your arms, lay down your strengths, take up
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Speaker 1: your weakness, take up your cross, and trust in Christ
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Speaker 1: and Christ alone to be saved. This is the picture
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Speaker 1: of Christianity, not one that says, oh, if only God
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Speaker 1: could save dot dot. He uses weak things to shame
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Speaker 1: the wise man. We ever, pray, God, make me a
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Speaker 1: weak thing and use me for your glory. Let's pray,
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Speaker 1: Oh God, our Father. We bow before you as a
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Speaker 1: as a proud people who desire to be humble, who
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Speaker 1: bow before you as a as a self reliant people
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Speaker 1: who desire to be dependent. We bow before you as
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Speaker 1: a people who have learned to look to the world
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Speaker 1: for rescue, pleading with you that you would purge us
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Speaker 1: of that need and that desire, and that you would
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Speaker 1: instead make us glory and weakness and run to the cross.
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Speaker 1: Grant by your grace that we would embrace this truth.
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Speaker 1: Thank you for your servant Moses, and all of the
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Speaker 1: things that we have learned from and through him, and
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Speaker 1: for using him today to remind us that though you
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Speaker 1: use what we have, you don't use us where we are.
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Speaker 1: It teaches weakness and humility and patience. You bring us
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Speaker 1: to maturity, and you make us instruments in your hand
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Speaker 1: that can be used to bring you glory and not
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Speaker 1: fame to ourselves. Lord, I pray for the one who
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Speaker 1: wrestles with a sense of inferiority. I pray for the
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Speaker 1: one who constantly looks down on herself, believing that somehow
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Speaker 1: she cannot be used because she doesn't have whatever that
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Speaker 1: thing is that she sees in others. Grant by your
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Speaker 1: grace that she would embrace this truth. Father, I pray
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Speaker 1: for that one who is constantly striving for that one
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Speaker 1: thing that will put him over the top. Lord, grant
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Speaker 1: by your grace that he would be content where he is,
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Speaker 1: and not only stop looking for that one thing to
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Speaker 1: put him over the top, but that he would despise
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Speaker 1: even his own strengths. But I pray for the one
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Speaker 1: who has been trusting in their own righteousness and their
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Speaker 1: own goodness to please you. By your grace, grant them
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Speaker 1: repentance that they might flee to Christ, and be found
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Speaker 1: in Him and in his righteousness alone. Thank you for
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Speaker 1: the gifts that you give to your body, the ways
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Speaker 1: in which you use them to deliver your saints from
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Speaker 1: the Egypt of their sin, and that make us fit
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Speaker 1: for service to the most High God. Grant by your
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Speaker 1: grace that this would be more and more true of us.
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Speaker 1: We ask in christmame and for his sake Omen