Introduction / Review:
Depending on the Lord Means... (Exodus 4:1-17)
- Depending on the Lord means letting go of your Past. (Ex 4:1-9)
- Depending on the Lord means letting go of your Excuses . (Ex 4:1-12)
- Depending on the Lord means letting go of your Will . (Ex 4:13-17)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:23-00:28
So Egypt sees the Israelites growing in numbers and they start to think and they're like, you know what?
00:28-00:38
We can have a problem here because like what if another nation attacked us and all these Israelites who are living here are like, yeah, we're going to join the other team.
00:38-00:40
And now it's two on one.
00:40-00:43
They're like, we're putting ourselves in a bad position.
00:43-00:48
So what the Egyptians decided to do was to enslave the Israelites.
00:48-00:49
We'll make them our slaves.
00:50-00:51
Well God had other plans.
00:52-00:59
God's plan was to get the Israelites out of Egypt and into the land that he promised Abraham.
01:00-01:09
So God was going to raise up someone who was going to lead them from point A to point B and that someone's name is Moses.
01:10-01:12
And today we're going to talk about Moses.
01:12-01:19
We can't do a series on Bible basics without talking about Moses because he's the most important man in the Old Testament.
01:20-01:20
He is.
01:21-01:24
Like, well, how can you make such a statement?
01:24-01:28
The law of God is also called the Mosaic Law.
01:29-01:31
It's also called the Law of Moses.
01:31-01:41
And I would just suggest to you, if God's cool with His law being sort of having your name attached to it, then you're probably pretty important.
01:41-01:52
Moses was the greatest man in the Old Testament, but he had to learn what we have to learn and what we're going to see in the text today, he had to learn dependence on God.
01:52-01:57
He had to learn how to depend on God and not himself.
01:57-02:02
You see, Abraham taught us what it meant to have faith and Joseph taught us what it meant to trust God.
02:02-02:06
Moses is going to teach us what it means to depend on God.
02:06-02:08
What do we mean by dependence on God?
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Dependence on God is total reliance for provision and for the indwelling power of the Lord in every area of life.
02:21-02:22
I'm going to say that again.
02:23-02:30
It's total reliance for provision and on the indwelling power of the Lord for every area of life.
02:30-02:32
That's what dependence on the Lord is.
02:32-02:36
In other words, shorter definition, like man I wish you would have heard this before I started writing.
02:36-02:42
Shorter definition is this, everything I need internally, everything I need externally, I look to who?
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I look to God.
02:45-02:46
That's what dependence is. Everything.
02:47-02:55
Everything I need physically, everything I need spiritually, everything I need mentally, everything I need emotionally, I get that from God. That's dependence.
02:57-03:00
I'm not quite connecting with that definition.
03:00-03:07
Well, Jesus obviously gave the greatest illustration of dependence, and it's in Matthew 18.
03:08-03:17
Jesus, pointing to a child, He said, "Unless you become like a child," He said, "You will never enter the kingdom of heaven." That's a bold statement.
03:18-03:23
Jesus didn't say, "You'll be more spiritual the more childlike you are." He didn't say that.
03:23-03:31
He said, "Unless you are like a child, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." What's a child like?
03:31-03:34
See Jesus was driving to the point of dependence.
03:34-03:40
He said, "You need to be dependent like a child." Parents, what are children dependent upon you for?
03:42-03:42
Everything!
03:43-03:48
They can't brush their teeth or wipe their noses or get dressed.
03:48-03:52
Like, come on man, you're three years old, you're going to have to figure it out by now.
03:53-03:57
Children are dependent upon you for completely everything.
03:57-03:59
And I know that's how it is in my house.
03:59-04:06
My kids are 13 and 12 now, and still to this day I'm like, "Didn't I just feed you the other day and you're hungry again?" Right?
04:07-04:08
Like, what are you, Pac-Man?
04:10-04:13
are dependent upon you for everything.
04:13-04:17
And Jesus said, look, you see how that child is dependent on mom?
04:17-04:21
You need to be dependent on God like that.
04:22-04:27
That attitude of I need you, I need you, I need you.
04:28-04:29
You gotta learn to depend on God.
04:30-04:33
And do you know what the biggest problem is with depending on God?
04:33-04:35
Do you know what the biggest problem is?
04:35-04:37
Everybody point to the biggest problem.
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I am the biggest problem when it comes to depending on God, because we look too much at ourselves.
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We are constantly looking at ourselves.
04:48-04:56
My strengths, my weaknesses, my resources, my deficiencies, my advantages that I have in life, my disadvantages that I have in life.
04:57-05:00
Our lives are one big selfie, true or false.
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We are constantly examining ourselves.
05:05-05:18
And dependence on God means I stop looking at what I bring to the table, which is nothing by the way, and I focus solely on what God provides to me.
05:18-05:19
That's dependence.
05:20-05:25
I want to paraphrase Exodus chapter 3. I hate doing this but for the sake of time.
05:26-05:32
Exodus chapter 3 is a familiar story to a lot of us, but the Lord shows up and He speaks to Moses through a burning bush.
05:32-05:36
Moses sees this bush that's on fire, but it's not being consumed, and that's a weird thing.
05:36-05:40
So he goes over, and the Lord actually speaks to Moses through this bush.
05:41-05:43
The Lord says, "Okay, here's the plan.
05:43-05:59
We're going to get the Israelites out of Egypt, and you're the man to do it." And Moses is like, "Why me? Because I'm nothing." And the Lord's reply is the greatest thing that God can say to anybody.
06:00-06:03
And his reply was this, mark this because this is going to come back later.
06:03-06:25
His reply is Moses, he says, "I will be with you." That is a game-changing sentence when God Almighty says, "Hey, I'm going to be with you." Moses, it's not like, "Hey, go get them and give me a call when you get to the Promised Land and let me know how it went." God's like, "No, no, no, I'm going with you." Awesome!
06:27-06:30
And truth be told, the conversation should have ended there.
06:30-06:33
Get the Israelites, you're going to be with me? Okay, great, let's go.
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But the conversation did not end there.
06:36-07:04
Because then you get to chapter 3, verses 13 and 14, Moses is like, "You know, I'm going to get there, and I'm going to be like, 'God sent me,' and they're going to say, 'What is his name?'" Moses is like, "So when they ask me what your name is, what am I supposed to tell them?" Key passage in the entire Bible, the Lord says, "This is my name." Do you remember his reply? He says, "I am who I am." "I am who I am." That is God's name.
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From that phrase, we get the Tetragrammaton.
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Four letters. Y-H-W-H. That's the name of God. Yahweh.
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Okay, so understand when we say God, that's not His name.
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That's like a title. He is the Divine Almighty One. That's God.
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In the Hebrew, that's Elohim.
07:26-07:28
But Yahweh is God's name.
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It's like the difference between "Pastor," that's my title, and "Jeff," that's my name.
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Okay, Yahweh is God's name.
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And understand that the Israelites were so reverent towards the name of God.
07:41-07:48
In your Bible, did you ever notice in the Old Testament, a lot of times it'll say "The LORD," "The LORD," but the word "LORD" is in all capital letters.
07:48-07:53
Have you noticed that? You're like, "What's up with that?" When you see "The LORD," that's Yahweh.
07:53-08:01
But they were so reverent towards the name of God, they didn't want to even write the name of God, so they replaced it with Adonai, which is LORD.
08:02-08:07
But when you see LORD in all caps, that's talking about God's first name.
08:08-08:08
Okay?
08:09-08:13
And that appears in the Old Testament something like 7,000 times or so.
08:14-08:17
If you want an exact number, you're going to have to count after service, okay?
08:18-08:19
Trust me on that.
08:19-08:21
So we get to chapter 4, okay? The stage is set.
08:21-08:23
Okay, God's speaking to Moses through the bush.
08:23-08:27
He goes, "Okay, Moses, you're going, I'll be with you." And if anybody asks who I am, well, we got that settled.
08:27-08:33
And God's like, "I'm going to rock Egypt, okay? Let's go." And Moses is like, "Hold on a second.
08:34-08:38
I have a couple of objections about the mission as presented.
08:40-08:54
Did you ever have God very clearly tell you to do something and you're just like, 'Hmmm, no thanks'?" Anybody ever done that? Can we be honest? Anybody? Raise them high, come on.
08:55-08:57
Listen, that's my testimony.
08:58-09:20
When I was called into ministry, I wish I could stand before you today and be like, "Okay, God, I'll go do ministry." I was like, "Wrong number, not for me." Well, the lesson that Moses needed to learn, the lesson that I needed to learn, and still need to learn, And the lesson that you need to learn is how to be totally dependent upon God.
09:21-09:22
And here's the lesson, all right?
09:23-09:25
If you have your outline, three things today.
09:27-09:30
Number one, depending on the Lord means letting go of your past.
09:31-09:34
That's number one. Depending on the Lord means letting go of your past.
09:35-09:36
Look at verse 1 in chapter 4.
09:37-09:39
Okay, so we have this stage set, right?
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And God's like, "Okay, let's go." Chapter 4, verse 1, "Then Moses answered, 'But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, 'The Lord did not appear to you.'" Moses was saying, "What's my credentials?
09:55-09:57
I mean, who's going to believe me?
09:57-10:05
Who's going to listen to my voice?" I mean, let's be honest, it's a little wacky if a guy just kind of rolls into town like, "Hey, you're not going to believe who sent me to tell you something.
10:06-10:12
Like I don't have any credentials." There's a problem right off the bat with that statement.
10:13-10:14
Do you notice the phrasing?
10:15-10:20
Moses said, "They will not believe me or listen to my voice." Do you know what the problem is with that statement?
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If you go back to chapter three, verse 18, "The Lord said to Moses, 'And they will listen to your voice.'" Did you catch that?
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God's like, "Hey, Moses, they're gonna listen to you." And Moses is like, "I have a question." "Yeah, they're not gonna listen to me." Like, first of all, that wasn't the question.
10:35-10:37
Second of all, "What did I just say, Moses?
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Put your listening ears on, man.
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I just told you they're gonna listen to you.
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And you're like, they're not gonna listen to me.
10:42-10:46
But God in his grace, graciously gives Moses some credentials.
10:48-10:49
And he does it with three signs.
10:50-11:02
Verse two, 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 it on the ground and it became a serpent and Moses ran from it.
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There's just parts of the Bible that you're like, I really identify with this.
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That's one.
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"But the Lord said to Moses, "put out your hand and catch it by the tail." Okay, now look, I'm not the crocodile hunter.
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So I'm speaking from no experience or education on this, just from having snakes in our yard and whatnot.
11:23-11:32
But if you're gonna grab a snake, you don't grab it by the tail because the business end of the snake can still turn around and bite you.
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Do you think there's a reason the Lord said grab it by the tail?
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It's like Moses, you're gonna learn to trust me, pal.
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And here's lesson number one.
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Turn around, go grab that snake by the tail.
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Man, I wish he would have started with an easy one.
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Okay, so he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand, that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has appeared to you.
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Sign number one, here's sign number two, verse six.
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Again, the Lord said to him, "Put your hand inside your cloak." And when he took it out, and he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous like snow.
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Then God said, "Put your hand back inside your cloak." So he put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh.
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Here's sign number three.
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Verse eight, "If they will not believe you," God said, "or listen to the first sign, "they may believe the latter sign.
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If they will not believe even those two signs or listen to your voice, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground and the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.
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Okay, so three signs, the staff, we'll talk about that in a second.
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Then there's the leprosy hand miracle.
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That would have been absolutely astonishing to witness because leprosy was just looked at with such terrifying dread to come down with leprosy.
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And the fact that the Bible says it was white, the words are all important, and that's indicating that's the worst kind of leprosy.
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I'm not gonna give you a medical lesson on that, but that was indicating this was a horrible kind of leprosy that was on display here.
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Then the third sign, water to blood.
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What's that all about? Like river water to blood?
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That's kind of God's signature when it comes to judgment.
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Sort of God's sign that He is judging when waters turn into blood.
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Actually, the book of Revelation talks about that quite a bit.
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Maybe we'll talk about that sometime down the road.
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But the first sign here is the staff.
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I want to talk about that for a second because at this point, Moses is a shepherd.
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And the Lord says, I just love this.
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I was like, they're not gonna believe me.
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And the Lord says, what's that in your hand?
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And you know when the Lord asks a question, you know he's not looking for information, right?
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You know that.
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Like when Adam was hiding in the garden, like Adam, where are you?
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It's like, hide and seek world champion.
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No, that wasn't it.
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When God asks a question, he already knows the answer.
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And he asked the question to get us to realize some things, right?
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It was a staff.
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It wasn't anything special.
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It was just basically a big stick.
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I mean, shepherds, again, as Moses was at this time, they'd use it to protect the flock, defend the flock, sometimes discipline the flock.
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It was just like the Gerber multi-tool of shepherding.
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But I want you to think for a minute of what that staff would have represented to Moses.
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That staff to Moses, every time he held that staff, his thought would have been, "I'm just a shepherd now." Because once upon a time I thought I was going to do something great for God and for Israel, but I completely blew it.
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I completely blew it.
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"What do you mean you completely blew it?" Well, you go back to chapter 2, verse 11, you don't have to turn there, but you can certainly do that later.
15:24-15:36
But chapter 2, verse 11, Moses saw he was in Egypt, And he saw an Egyptian beating on a Hebrew, just like beating him down.
15:37-15:40
And the Bible says that Moses took a look around, anybody watching?
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And he killed the Egyptian, buried him.
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And as I confess to you my inadequacies this morning, and my lack of experience in certain I'm not an expert in this either, but I don't think it's a great plan to try to save his people by killing one Egyptian at a time.
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Right? I mean, can we say that fairly?
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That Moses is like, "Israel's in trouble. I've got an idea.
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I'll just kill one Egyptian at a time." He'd still be working on that today.
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Moses thought he got away with it, but he was found out.
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And the Bible says the Pharaoh actually sought to kill Moses Moses fled to Midian and there he got married and became a shepherd for his father-in-law. Don't miss this. For 40 years. The reason I say don't miss this is sometimes we read the Bible we think the action is just like boom boom boom boom boom boom like you know Moses you know kills an Egyptian at breakfast time and then he's a shepherd at lunchtime and we're talking 40 years have passed in the text, 40 years.
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And how much do you think Moses would have thought about what was happening with his people, Israel and Egypt, and how he blew it, and how he had to flee.
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And, you know, I thought I was going to do something great for God, and here I am, just a shepherd standing out here with my stick, watching the stupid sheep, every day for 40 years.
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And at this point in Moses' life, he was 80 years old.
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He was 80 years old.
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And I don't want to offend anyone, but I'm just saying, if you're 80 years old, that's usually, generally, a little late to be thinking about going to Bible college.
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Okay? So he's 80 years old at this point.
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Usually, look, usually.
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But my point is, at this point in Moses' life, he was thinking that the ship had sailed.
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He was thinking, "My best days are behind me.
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This is just life for me now.
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My window of opportunity for God to use me is over because I messed up bad.
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I just want to pause here and say, you know, church, I think all of us to some degree, we tend to let the past define us, don't we?
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I made some mistakes.
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Maybe God just can't use somebody like me because I messed up so bad.
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Or maybe God won't use somebody like me because I've messed up so bad.
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And if you've had that thought, listen, if you've had that thought, "Oh, Pastor Jeff, I did some bad things in my past." If you've had that thought, I want to introduce you to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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When you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, your sins are all forgiven, and you are completely restored as a child of God, and nothing can change that.
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You are forgiven and you are holy based on what He did, not based on your performance.
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We are such a performance-driven society.
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When I do good, my boss is happy.
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When I do good, my wife is happy.
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When I do good, my parents are happy.
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And when I do good, God is happy.
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Your salvation, your sanctification, your very life in the Lord is based on Him, on the blood of Jesus Christ.
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It's not based on your performance.
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It never was, and listen, it never will be.
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In Christ, your past is not an issue to God.
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In fact, in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, in Jeremiah and in Hebrews, God says, "I will remember their sins no more." God is willing to forget your sins.
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But sometimes, don't we?
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We hold on to them, don't we?
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"Oh, I messed up so bad! God will never use me now!
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I messed up so bad!" Or, maybe, maybe you have embraced forgiveness from God.
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Okay, maybe you're sitting there like, "You know, Pastor Jeff, yeah, I totally, My theology is good. I understand what the blood of Jesus Christ has accomplished.
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I understand that I have embraced the thorough and full forgiveness from God.
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Absolutely. But maybe you're stuck on this.
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God can't use me because people know how badly I've messed up, and people will not take me seriously.
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That was Moses.
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You feel like you can't share Christ with people who knew you before you knew Christ.
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Has anybody else ever been in that situation?
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Oh, I sure have.
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"Mark, it's happened in prison ministry.
20:11-20:18
We'll go in and have Bible study in prison, and I'll see guys that I went to high school with." Did you ever see anybody you went to school with, maybe knew you before you knew Christ?
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Boy, is that awkward.
20:19-20:22
Guys that I went to high school with come in, and they're like, "What are you doing in here?
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Why aren't you wearing striped pajamas?" Like, "What?" Like, "I'm in here to tell you about the Lord and the difference Jesus Christ can make in your life, and to give you a Bible." And they're like, "Jeff Miller is in here to tell me about Jesus?
20:34-20:45
And I was just like, "What the heck?" And there's times, honestly, I felt like, "I'm not the guy to go in there, because I've done a lot of horrible and wicked and sinful things, and they're not going to believe me.
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They're not going to believe me.
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I know what I've done, they've known what I've done, they're not going to believe me." And we sort of become paralyzed by the past.
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You know, one of the greatest sermons I've ever heard, on this passage by a man named Ron Zapia, he's another Harvest pastor.
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I want to sum up this exchange this way, which I love so much, I just want to share this with you.
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That Moses comes to the Lord and he says, "God, they're not going to respect me." And God's answer is, "They'll respect me." What a reminder it is for all of us that when we share the Gospel of Christ with people, we don't need to worry so much about our reputation as we need to proclaim the Lord's reputation.
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So don't let the past be an issue.
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Be willing to let God work through you in the present.
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So, depending on the Lord means, secondly, letting go of your excuses.
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Letting go of your excuses. Look at verse 10.
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"But Moses said to the Lord, 'O my Lord!'" Now that phrase in the Hebrew is so emphatic.
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What this means is Moses is pleading at this point.
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He's like, "O Lord!" He's pleading.
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"I am not eloquent, either in the past, or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue." I am the least qualified person I know.
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I don't know, this cracked me up.
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Do you see what Moses said here?
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He goes, "I'm not eloquent either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant." I just think that's such a funny way to say that.
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He's like, "God, here's the problem.
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Okay, here's the problem.
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I have a history going back to childhood of never being a guy that talks so good.
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That hasn't changed in the last 20 minutes that you and I have been talking, God." That's what he's saying.
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Like, God, I hear what you're calling me to do, but nothing's changed.
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I'm still stuttering Moses, or whatever his speech problem was.
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I mean, I saw your power, God.
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Moses, I mean, he just saw God's power on display.
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But we have a major problem.
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The problem is I have problems speaking.
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Look at verse 11.
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"Then the Lord said to him, 'Who has made man's mouth?
22:54-23:08
Who makes him mute or deaf or seeing or blind?'" "Is it not I, said the Lord? Is it not I, the Lord?" You've got to admit, this is a pretty sobering verse, isn't it?
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I mean, if our eyesight's perfect, we say, "God blessed me with perfect eyesight." If our hearing's perfect, we say, "God blessed me with perfect hearing." Not too often you hear the blind person say, "God blessed me with blindness." You're like, "Wait a minute, did God really say?" I mean, I understand that because of the fall of man and sin and the world's under a curse, I know, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I get all that, but did God really say He's responsible for somebody being mute?
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Or somebody being deaf or blind? Did God really just say that? Yes, He did. Yes, God is ultimately responsible. There is, and I wrote this phrase down in my studies this week, I read this phrase and it just really stuck out to me and I encourage you to write it down.
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There is providence in deprivation. There is providence in deprivation. What we view as deprivation That is, there is providence in that.
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And this isn't an easy lesson for Moses or for us.
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"God, I have all these physical problems." Yeah, God's aware. He's aware.
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"But God, I have all these physical problems." And God's response is, "I know. I made you." God is saying, "Every detail about you, that was me.
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I'm responsible for that." Okay, so what's your solution?
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Look at verse 12.
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"Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth, and teach you what you shall speak.
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I will be with you." Go back to chapter 3, verse 12.
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God told Moses the same thing at the beginning of this conversation, right?
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Moses is like, "So you don't got anything new?" No! Nothing new! Still that!
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And this is the first and the last thing you need to know about your walk with the Lord.
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The first and the last thing you need to know about your walk with the Lord is the Holy Spirit.
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He is God, and He indwells all believers in Jesus Christ.
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There is not a situation you face that will confound Him.
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There is not a physical problem that you have that is going to slow Him down.
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And there is not an obstacle that will hinder what He wants to do through you.
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So bag the excuses, because your problems are not bigger than God.
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Instead, your problems should teach you how to depend on God.
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And finally, number three, "Depending on the Lord" means letting go of your will.
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Means letting go of your will.
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At this point, Moses is sold, right?
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"I will be with you, I'll be with you." "Okay, let's go." Look at verse 13.
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"But he said, 'O my Lord, please send someone else.' Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses.
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And he said, 'Is there not Aaron your brother, the Levite?
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I know that he can speak.
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Well, behold, he is coming out to meet you, and when He sees you, He will be glad in His heart.
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You shall speak to Him and put the words in His mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with His mouth, and will teach you both what to do.
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He shall speak for you to the people, and He shall be your mouth, and you shall be as God to Him." Biblical basis for doing ministry with your brother.
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Verse 17, "And take in your hand this staff with which you shall do the signs." What you have to see here when we get to verse 13, A very serious shift in the conversation, because at this point Moses was like, "I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't." But verse 13, Moses says, "I won't." Did you catch that? Did you catch that? He said, "I won't." To illustrate with a much lighter scenario, it would be like if I came and I said, "Hey, Tony White, it is really important that you take notes on the sermon today, and I see that you are, but let's pretend that you're not, and let's pretend the sermon just started." I'm like, "It is really important you take notes in the sermon." And you're like, "Pastor Jeff, I can't. I don't have the resources." And I'm like, "Here, Tony, here, here, here.
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I'm going to provide you everything that you need.
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There's an outline, and there's a pencil.
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You have been provided everything you need." And then Tony says, "Yeah, can you get somebody else to do it?
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How do you think that makes me feel?" Well, the Bible says, at this point, "The anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses." See that?
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And I believe that's the first time that expression shows up in the Bible.
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God was angry.
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Why?
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"I just gave you everything you need for the job with all of your 'I can't, I can't, I can't.' I gave you everything and I promised that I would go with you.
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Remember like the staff into a snake thing?
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Do you remember the leprosy hand thing?
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Do you remember the water into blood thing?
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I provided everything you need, again, including myself, and you're still not on board?
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Moses was saying, God, your provision isn't good enough.
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Would you keep asking around for help?
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So apparently the speech thing wasn't the real issue.
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The excuses are over.
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And this is just a matter of the will at this point.
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In church, it always boils down to the matter of the will.
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It always boils down to the matter of the will.
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God is not going to call you to anything based on your skill set, based on your looks, based on your talent, based on your reputation in the community.
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What God is looking for from you is one thing, and that is your will.
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Are you willing to trust God, to do what only God can do?
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Now in all my reading and studying this week, you know there's a lot of preachers, theologians, and commentators, and scholars, and people much smarter than me.
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But this came up a few times, and I really got to thinking about it, But a lot of people said this, "You know, if Moses was going to flat out refuse to do what God wanted him to do, God would have just moved on to somebody else." Have you ever heard that?
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If you've ever heard a sermon like that, or maybe on this very passage, God would have just moved on to somebody else.
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And look, I gotta be honest with you.
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I just don't see that in the text.
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Do you?
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I don't see it.
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This passage is not about recruiting Moses.
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This passage is about informing Moses, right?
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God didn't show up and say, "Moses, will you?" God shows up and says, "Moses, you will," right?
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So was God angry?
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Yes.
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Was Moses in the wrong?
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Absolutely.
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Was there any indication that God was going to let Moses off the hook?
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I don't see it in the text.
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You know, Jesus, when he taught us to pray, he taught us to pray, "Thy will be done." But too often we find ourselves guilty of praying, "Oh Lord, my will be done." And I just want to encourage you, church, when God is clearly calling you to do something, when God is clearly calling you to do something, and you fight Him on it, I'm not convinced that God's going to move on to somebody else.
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I'm not convinced of that.
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But here's something I'm absolutely convinced because of the text, you risk forfeiting a blessing because of your stubbornness.
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You risk forfeiting a blessing because of your stubbornness.
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It's like you can hold my hand across the street, or I will drag you across the street.
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You pick how you wanna go across the street.
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Sounds like I've said that to my kids before.
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You see Moses still went.
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Oh, spoiler alert.
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Moses still went.
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And Moses still did the job.
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But you know, Moses lost the opportunity to see God do a miracle with a speech.
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Do you see that in verse 12?
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God says very clearly regarding the speech thing.
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"I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak." And you're like, "Well, what was that going to be?" We'll never know. We'll never know.
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Because Moses forfeited the blessing of allowing God to do a miracle because Moses wasn't willing to receive it.
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So when God's calling you to do something, don't fight Him on it.
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Don't forfeit the blessing with your stubbornness.
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Alright, so, I know what you're thinking.
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"I'm hungry. Is the sermon almost over?" No, I know what else you're thinking.
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If Moses was going to do it anyways, why did they go through this whole exchange?
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Why Exodus 3 and 4, if Moses was going to do it anyway?
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Why didn't God just, in His Word, record this?
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God told Moses He was going to do something, and Moses did something.
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Why this whole exchange? Well, here's why.
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Because this proved to Moses, and this proved to Israel, that everything that was coming was the power of God, not the power of Moses.
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You know what I mean by everything that's coming?
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Do you know what I mean by that?
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Ten plagues, right?
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How about parting the Red Sea?
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How about manna from heaven?
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How about water from a rock?
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How about bitter waters made sweet?
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You know, there'd be a tendency for people to look at Moses and be like, "Wow, he's pretty awesome." And there would be a tendency for Moses to say, "Right, Stacy? I'm pretty awesome." I think this exchange sort of set the table to say, "Moses, this was never about you. This was never about your ability." Moses, like all God's people, including those of us today, need to learn to depend on God.
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I heard another preacher say one time, this always stuck with me, I love this, he said, "Moses, he lived to be 120 years old." And you can divide Moses' life, you can section it into three sections, 40 years each.
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That's 120, right, Sean? Three 40-year sections.
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And they are this, the first 40 years of Moses' life, he thought he was somebody.
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The next 40 years of Moses' life, he realized that he was a nobody.
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And the last 40 years of Moses' life, he saw what God could do with a nobody.
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You know, several years ago, I was going through a really rough season.
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Every facet of my life, issues with the kids and health issues, And the church planting thing was just a season just crushing, crushing me.
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And it just seemed like every avenue of my life was just...
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everything was against me and nothing was going right.
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And I'll be honest with you, I felt like I was just being smothered by inadequacy.
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And I will never forget this to my dying day, but there was a point in this where I was on my face before the Lord weeping.
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Just, I mean, crying out, and I just don't mean saying my prayers.
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I mean literally crying out, lamenting all of these things that were going wrong.
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And finally I cried out this to the Lord.
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I said these words, I said, "God, I don't know why you thought I could do this!" And you know, He responded very clearly in His still small voice.
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He said, "I never thought you could.
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I had to learn to depend on God, and so do you." And as we close our service and the worship team comes up, We're going to gather around the Lord's table, and what better picture do we have of dependence?
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And I really believe, and I've said this before, I really believe that's one of the reasons that the Lord has told us to do this.
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That when we think about our salvation, our walk with the Lord, our forgiveness, our adoption as children, we as prideful, sinful, fallen people by nature, would have a tendency to sort of think, Yeah, yeah, I can totally see why I'm saved.
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I can totally see why I'm one of God's.
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And I think the Lord's Supper sort of serves as an anchor for us to keep bringing us back to the point where we say, "It's all Him, and I am completely dependent upon Him."
Small Group Discussion
WHOLE GROUP
Read Exodus 4:1-17
Tell of a time you KNEW God wanted you to do something - and you didn’t want to do it.
Have you ever felt a physical problem kept you from being what you (or God!) wanted you to be?
Do you believe that if God calls you to something, and you won’t do it, He will just move on to someone else? How did that scenario work out for Moses?
BREAKOUT
Pray for one another to learn greater dependence on the Lord!