Moses' Faith, Part 4

It was the late Joseph Parker who in the 19th century said that if you speak to those who are suffering You will never lack for an audience because there is a broken heart in every crowd So true He was so true He is You know that's was made evident to us on Wednesday evening as people would share out of the brokenness of their hearts The greatness of God and the things that God had been doing in their lives Through difficult times through trials through times of hardship and suffering We able to hear those things and we rejoice with those people because God has them in a place No fault of their own to bring them to a place where they would grow in their dependence upon the Lord The Bible says these words in the book of Jeremiah the 17th chapter the 17th verse it says You are my refuge in the day of disaster says in Jeremiah chapter 16 verse number 19 Oh Lord my strength and my stronghold and my refuge in the day of distress The Prophet Nahum said it this way Nahum chapter 1 verse number 7.

The Lord is good a stronghold in the day of trouble and he knows those who take refuge in him To be able to take refuge in God amidst the day of your disaster Amidst a day of whatever evil befalls you is all that God wants you to do It was Charles Spurgeon who said these words about Jeremiah 17 17 He says the path of the Christian is not always bright with sunshine He has his seasons of darkness and of storm True it is written in God's Word Her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace And it is a greater truth that religion is calculated to give a man happiness below as well as bliss above But experience tells us that at the course of the just be as a shining light That shineth more and more into the perfect day yet.

Sometimes that light is eclipsed At certain periods clouds cover the believer's son and he walks in darkness and he sees no light There are many who have rejoiced in the presence of God for a season They have basked in the sunshine in the early stages of their Christian career They have walked along the green pastures by the side of the still waters But suddenly they find the glorious sky is clouded instead of the land of Goshen They have to tread the sandy desert in the place of sweet waters. They find troubled streams bitter to their taste and They say surely if I were a child of God, this would not happen.

Oh Say not so thou who art walking in darkness The best of God's Saints must drink the wormwood The dearest of his children must bear the cross No Christian has enjoyed perpetual prosperity No believer can always keep his heart from the willows Perhaps the Lord allotted you a at first a smooth and unclouded path because you were weak and timid He tempered the wind to the shorn land But now that you are stronger in the spiritual life You must enter upon the riper and rougher experience of God's full-grown children We need winds and tempests to exercise our faith To tear off the rotten bow or bow of self-dependence and to root us more firmly in Christ the day of distress Reveals to us the value of our glorious.

Hope Mr. Spurgeon understood that the desert experience the time of trial The sentence of suffering is always the most valuable aspect of your walk with the Lord we realize that within the desert our Spiritual life begins to bloom unlike at any other time in our Christian pilgrimage If I'm a Jew and I read the book of Hebrews Hebrews chapter 11 And I begin to read about Moses. I know Moses Because Moses is my greatest leader He is the the the one who paved the way for all of Israel And so I know Moses and I know about Moses's experiences.

I understand that he was one who truly Preferred the imperishable because he perceived the invisible and was able to perform the impossible But as a Jew, I know that he had to pass through that which was invaluable before he could ever perform that which was impossible He had to go to the backside of the desert He had to spend 40 years in Midian present-day Saudi Arabia He had to be alone in a rough and rugged place He had to be in the desert a desolate place And yet it is an established place Because by faith Moses fled Egypt and he went to meet it Midian God led him there Why would God lead Moses to the backside of a desert for 40 years to live in complete and total?

obscurity Because God had to make him into the man that Egypt could not and so although the desert is a desolate place and although it is an Established place by God. It is a silent place a Place where God wants you alone with him in complete and utter silence when it's just you and him alone why because Christ is seldom a reality until he first of all becomes the necessity and That is so true in every person's life Think about Job I've stolen the people on Wednesday night that I've spent this past week writing My first now seven sermons in the book of Job Realizing that this man knew nothing about what's happening to him We know because we can read Job 1 and Job 2 we understand that the sons of God came to present themselves before God in heaven We know that Satan and God had a conversation about Job We know that God turned Job over to Satan.

We understand this Job did not Job couldn't read Job 1 There was no Job 1 or Job 2 This was over 4,000 years ago first book written is the book of Job But Job had no idea what was going on in the heavenlies all of a sudden He lost everything He lost his livestock.

He lost all of his animals all of his children all ten of them, right? He had nothing left But he was a blameless upright man fearing God and turning away from evil And then Not knowing anything He's covered in boils those open scabs filled with pus that just continually ooze from your body And they're all over his body so he can't stand Can't sit Can't lie down no morphine to take to Cause the pain to subside nothing He had no painkillers So, how does he deal with all this stuff? How did you do this do you know that in his desert there was no one there to hold his hand His three comforters were miserable comforters When they came to see him they sat in silence for seven days because they were so baffled At the tragedy that had happened to this great man Who was a blameless man who was upright man who was feared god and turned away from evil They were astonished at the pain.

He was he was experiencing But there was no one to hold his hand His own wife was not even there to hold his hand Curse god and die she says And yet job In all this Did not sin Job is the first example of biblical manliness in the bible no church No synagogue No temple no men's bible study No small group No book to read on marriage and family and manliness none None But he was the quintessential family man He was the quintessential man He defines biblical manhood when there was nobody else around him to hold his hand teach him or lead him He was the man If you want to know about manhood bury yourself in the book of job He's a real man's man And this man was in complete stillness and silence For seven days he sat there Pondering what god was doing and he never got an answer God never told him why he was doing what he was doing.

God never told him like many of you You've gone through hardship and difficulty. You've asked for answers, but you have no answer Because god has chosen not to reveal that to you But there's always a purpose that's there And so job in his desolate place That was an established place Which was a silent place was an essential place. It was a rugged and rough place And it was a timeless place that is he knew not how long he would suffer Because your desert is a timeless place Some the desert lasts for a week for others months for moses 40 years, but if i'm a jew I know about the book of exodus I know about what moses went through I know about moses's leadership Leadership The writer of hebrews doesn't have to record that because he's writing to a jewish audience So they're not you don't have to fill in all the blanks for them, but for us Us gentile people you gotta fill in the blanks Because we don't know all that's happening And so we've talked to you about over the last couple of weeks the desert experience Today I want to talk to you about the design Of that desert What is it designed to do?

And i've told you already that it it's there to erase our independence from god to establish our dependence upon god What does that look like? We pride ourselves in autonomy we pride ourselves in being self-sufficient we pride ourselves in being Self-confident we pride ourselves in being I can do this. I don't need your help We love to live in that realm But god says oh you do need me So i'm going to take you to a place that will remind you of how much you need me Because you see moses thought I could pull off the exodus.

All I gotta do is kill an egyptian They'll realize that i'm an all-powerful guy All I gotta do is bring together two hebrew people that are arguing show them that i'm a great peacemaker that I can lead But nobody was following You know chinese proverb, right? He thinks he leads but has no one following him only takes a walk That was moses he was taking a walk no one was following right and so after 40 years of the backstop of the desert People would be ready to follow But Well, we don't know all that took place in the desert We know that he found his wife We know he had two sons We know that he herded sheep, that's all we know Except on the backside at the end of the 40 years We see a whole new different man a whole new different attitude a whole new different approach to leadership So if you got your bible journey back with me if you would to exodus chapter 3 and let me show you this weekend And next week what is What happens when god has designed a place for you To establish your dependence upon him We know the bible says That all things work together for good to those who love god and are called according to his purpose, right?

We know that god's in the process Of molding us into his image We understand that god is moving us toward christlikeness So god will stop at nothing to make you like him God will stop at nothing to mold you into his image God will stop at nothing to make sure you understand that you must look act behave like the lord. Jesus christ You're a child of the living god He wants you to respond as he would respond He wants you to learn the things that you need to know to walk in intimacy with him And the lord will do everything he needs to like he did with job To make sure That job was intimate with him like moses was intimate with him like paul Was intimate with him All those great men of god whether they're prophets in the old testament apostles in the new testament God had to strip them from their independence from him to establish their dependence upon him So the bible says in roman chapter 8 that god works all things together for good to those who love god and are called according to his purpose Now we know that verse, right?

We like the product We just don't like the process See we want to be conformed to the image of god. We just don't want to take experience what it takes to get us there but you have to It's a place where You bloom to the fullest It's a place called the desert a place of isolation ruggedness pain turmoil place of isolation a place where There's no one to hold your hand Can you do that? See god wants you to hold his hand But we want to hold somebody else's hand God says I want you to lean upon me Nobody else I know that i'm seldom a reality until first of all I become a necessity.

So i'm going to make me a necessity in your life That's what god does That's why it's called the place that's invaluable You can't change it out for anything else and what happens in those places is seen in the scriptures So let's look at exodus chapter 3 And i'm going to give you some principles I'll probably only give you one maybe two this morning What is god's design for you?

Okay exodus chapter 3 Verse number Seven god see says to moses through the burning bush. I've seen the affliction of my people i'm coming down I'm going to deal with that affliction. I've given heed to their cry. I am aware of their sufferings now.

They've been in In egyptian bondage for over 400 years So The bible says in verse number 10 Therefore come now and I will send you to pharaoh God speaking to moses said you may bring my people the sons of israel out of egypt But moses said to god who am I that I should go to pharaoh and that I should bring the sons of israel out of egypt Wait a minute.

Where is your self-confidence? Moses that you had 40 years earlier Where is all That pride you had 40 years earlier when you knew you were the leader that you knew you were the man Who am I he says now? He's a broken man And he said certainly I will be with you And this shall be the sign to you That it is I who have sent you When you have brought the people out of egypt You shall worship god at this mountain The very first design for moses And for you and for me Is that we would adore his Presence Adore his presence Certainly he says I will be with you now how many of us would say We would adore the presence of god Most of us would say I do I love being in the presence of god But but moses Learned to adore god's presence so much.

So then the book of exodus the 33rd chapter. It says in verse number Number 12 then moses said to the lord see you have You say to me bring up this people, but you yourself have not let me know whom you will send with me Moreover, you have said I have known you by name and you have found favor in my sight Now therefore I pray you if I have found favor in your sight, let me know your ways that I may know you Said I may find favor in your sight consider too that this nation is your people And he said my presence shall go with you and I will give you rest Then he said to him if your presence does not go with us Do not lead us up from here For how then can it be known that I have found favor in your sight I and your people Is it not by your going with us?

So we I and your people may be distinguished from all the other people Who are upon the face of the earth? Moses says listen lord, if you don't go with us, we're not moving Because the only way we are distinguished from everybody else Is your presence in our lives? Other than that we like everybody else But if your presence goes with us With that comes all that you are all that you want us to be This distinguishes us from everybody else So moses says lord. I I I need you lord I adore your presence And I wonder How many of us truly adore?

the presence of the living god psalm was said in psalm 23 The reason he feared no evil Was because of the presence of the living god Thou art with me in psalm 119 verse 151 The psalmist says thou art near oh lord moses in the book of deuteronomy Says these words In deuteronomy 31 So moses went and spoke these words to all israel verse number one He said to them I am 120 years old today Anybody here 120 years old?

No, moses was 120 years old on this day I am no longer able to come and go and the lord has said to me you shall not cross this jordan It is the lord your god Who will cross ahead? of you He will destroy these nations before you and you shall dispose them Joshua is the one who will cross ahead of you just as the lord has spoken The lord will do to them just as he did to sion and og the king Kings of the amorites and to the land when he destroyed them The lord will deliver them up before you And you shall do to them according to all the commandments, which I have commanded you Be strong and courageous do not be afraid or tremble at them For the lord your god Is the one who goes with you?

He will not fail you or forsake you Then moses called to joshua and said to him in the sight of all israel be strong and courageous For you shall go with his people into the land which the lord has sworn to their fathers to give them And you shall give it to them as an inheritance. The lord is the one who goes ahead of you He will be with you. He will not fail you or forsake you do not fear or be dismayed So moses speaks from experience God is going to go before you He is going to go with you You have no need to fear you have no need to be dismayed Why you can be strong and courageous?

Why because the lord is present among you? Moses learned to adore the presence of the living god The psalmist did it this way in psalm 75 Whom have I in heaven but you? And besides you I desire nothing on earth my flesh and my heart may fail But god is the strength of my heart and my portion forever For behold those who are far from you will perish you have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to you but as for me the nearness of god Is my good I have made the lord god my refuge That I may tell of all your works The nearness of god's my good Just to be near The lord I adore is everything You see we go through life As if god is not present with us, that's why we sin see Think about this if you wouldn't sin if you were sitting right next to the lord, right?

If he was sitting next to you in your car Next to you as you watch television next to you at your home alone. Guess what? You wouldn't sin because the lord's right there with you, right? But we forget he is right there with us all the time He's not only in us He's around us. He's with us When we adore his presence we want him with us so that we don't engage in iniquity engage in sin But as soon as I forget that god is near as soon as I Don't remember that he is present with me I think that I can get away with my sin And nobody else will know But god knows Because he's present With you so the question comes How do you know?

You adore god's presence For you to take a test today and say okay all those who adore his presence Raise your right hand. I'm sure most of you would raise your right hand Maybe because you don't want to be embarrassed that you don't adore his presence. I don't know But you'd all say yes, I adore his presence. But how do you know you do? How do you know you truly live in adoration of the living god that you want him by you? You want him with you you want him next to you. You want to look to him for everything How do you know you adore the presence of god we can speak about these principles But unless we explain them to you, then we can't We can't help you understand how to live them out, right?

so Let me give you Seven words So you can determine whether or not you adore the presence of god, right number one There's an excitation to be with him That's a great word Excitation that means you're excited, right?

There's an excitation to be with him You want to be with him You long to be with him. I asked the children today. Do you like coming to church? Do you love coming to church? What separates those? Who love coming to church versus those who don't love coming to church? Why is it some can't wait to get here and others can say well when I show up I show up If i'm early i'm early if i'm late i'm late who cares, right? Versus the guy who says I can't wait to get there. So he sits outside while the doors are still locked waiting to get in Where's that person?

see Do I adore? the presence of the living god There's an excitation To be with him The psalmist says in psalm 119 Verse number 20 These words psalm 119 verse number 20 My soul is crushed with longing after your ordinances at all Times My soul is crushed My soul is smashed Because I long for your ordinances all the time. I don't long for your ordinances on sunday I long for your ordinances all the time Here was here was the individual who adored the presence of god there was this Excitation to be with him psalm 42, you know these words over in psalm 42 The psalmist says these words Psalm 42 verse number one As the deer pants for the water brook.

So my soul pants for you Oh god, my soul thirsts for god for the living god When shall I come and appear before god my tears have been my food day and night while they say to me all day long Where is your god boy? I thirst for god. I hunger for god. I want god How many people really actually live that way? Well psalmist did right? Moses got to that place He learned to adore the presence of god so much that there was such an excitement about being with his god That he would not leave where he was unless he was assured of god's presence Do you have this overwhelming excitement?

To be in the presence of god to be with the people of god in the church of god Worshiping his name if you adore his presence There's an excitation To be with him Number two there is a proclamation About him if you Adore the presence of god.

There is a proclamation about him. In other words. I'm going to tell other people Who my god is? The psalmist says it this way Psalm 107 verse number one.

Oh give thanks to the lord for he is good for his loving kindness is everlasting Let the redeemed of the lord say so whom he has redeemed from the hand of the adversary Oh god is good. His loving kindness is forever if i'm redeemed I'm gonna say so There's a proclamation about him I want others to know about my god. I want them to understand who my god is That's why peter says it this way first peter 2.

You are a chosen generation. You are a royal priesthood And you are designed to proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light If you are a chosen generation if you are a royal priesthood if you are one of god's own people you are redeemed And if you have been redeemed you can't wait to tell other people about who your god is Listen fellas, if you love your wife, don't you want to introduce your wife to people you meet? Of course you do unless of course you're embarrassed of your wife Then you want her to stand over in the corner talking to somebody else But if you meet someone new I want to introduce you to my wife I want you to know who my wife is.

I adore my wife. I love my wife. This is my wife lori I want you to meet her. This is what? God has given to me. This is my great gift. He who finds a wife finds a good thing If you love your wife you want to introduce your wife to those you come in contact with That's in the physical realm but in the spiritual realm You want to be able to introduce your people to the true and living god? So take the quiz Do I adore? the presence of the living god Is there an excitation to be with him and is there a proclamation about him that characterizes my life number three number three there is a meditation Upon him psalm 119 Verse number 97.

Oh how I love thy law It is my meditation all day long There's a meditation upon him You don't only want to read the word You just don't want to study the word you want to meditate upon the word of god you want to chew over the word of god You want to be able to digest the word of god you want to be able to? Take all that it says inside of you So there's this meditation upon god. Remember remember when mary had heard what the with the um, the shepherds had said She pondered all these things up in her heart She lived in meditation upon all that took place All the surrounding elements of the birth of the messiah But she pondered them joshua followed moses To lead the people into the promised land, right And that had to be a very intimidating thing After all you're following The greatest leader that's ever lived in fact God said That moses was the greatest leader And the people said that moses was the greatest leader And now you're going to follow the greatest leader who's ever lived That's got to be intimidating, right?

So what does god tell joshua joshua chapter one be strong and courageous and you shall meditate upon the law day and night That you may strive to observe all that's written in it For then I will make your way prosperous then you will have success only if you meditate day and night upon my word And you read that you think well It's easy for joshua to do no, it's not joshua was a man who had to lead two million disgruntled jews into the promised land Nobody in the room in fact everybody in the room add up everybody that reports to you.

It doesn't come close to two million people right So don't give me this stuff that well joshua. He wasn't that has a job I have Oh, no, he's got a job much more detailed than you can dream of But god said to him you meditate day and night upon my word i'll make your way prosperous I will make you successful But it comes only if you are strong and courageous and that only happens if you meditate upon the law of god day and night So joshua did And josh joshua was used by god in a mighty way So if you adore his presence There's an excitation to be with him If there's a proclamation about him There's a meditation upon him There's always a satisfaction with him The bible says psalm 107 verse number nine He satisfies the thirsty soul And the hungry soul He is filled With goodness are you satisfied With the lord himself Are you satisfied with god plus something else?

Remember the psalmist said and in psalm psalm 62 My soul waits in silence for god alone From him is my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation my stronghold. I shall not be greatly shaken He is my only refuge. He is my only rock. He is my only salvation Says it again verse six. He only is my rock and my salvation my stronghold I should not be shaken on god my salvation and my glory rests the rock of my strength. My refuge is in god Now the reason the psalmist wasn't shaken is because his trust and hope was only in god the reason our lives are as fragile as they are is because we hope in god plus My bank account we open god plus My wife we open god plus my abilities we open god plus Something else but we don't hope in god alone You're hoping god only trust in god only see Because you are completely enamored with him.

You are completely satisfied with him alone See, that's why that's why god puts you in the desert Because you're not satisfied with him alone You want something else to satisfy your longings you want something else to feel the void of your life god says I want to feel your void I want to do all that I want you to adore me So how do I know I do there's an excitation to be with him There is a proclamation about him.

There's a meditation upon him And then there's a satisfaction With him what does peter say first peter 2 verse number 6 He who believes in him Is never disappointed Never If you're disappointed, maybe you don't believe in him, maybe you never really believed in him at all Or maybe you've been just bewildered by what someone taught you on tv some tv preacher I don't know But he who believes in him will never be disappointed And then number five understand this if I adore his presence there is a celebration of him I'm going to celebrate christ.

We live in a world where we're too busy celebrating us Think about it. We celebrate everything. We celebrate birthdays. We celebrate anniversaries. We celebrate births. We celebrate weddings. We celebrate Everything we even have funerals at our celebrations, right? Everything we want we live our lives from celebration to celebration to celebration and christ says I want you to celebrate me Celebrate who I am.

That's why mary way over in luke chapter 1 said this my soul Exalts the lord and my spirit has rejoiced in god my savior For he has had regard for the humble state of his bond slave for behold from this time on All generations will count me blessed for the mighty one has done great things for me and holy is his name And his mercy is upon generation after generation toward those who fear him and she goes on and Celebrates all that god is and all that god's done If you adore his presence There is a celebration of him You want to celebrate him more than you want to celebrate you?

You see that's hard Because we love us and we love us more than we love god But you gotta love god more than you love yourself to celebrate him And then there's this there's always if you adore his presence ready There's always a presentation to him A presentation Presentation To him remember the magi when they came to the house and there the christ child was what happened? They bowed in adoration to him and they gave him gifts of gold frankincense and myrrh They gave him the best of what they had Why because if you adore his presence, there's always a presentation you give to him.

What shall I render to the lord? For all of his benefits toward me the psalmist says What on earth can I ever give to the lord for everything he's done for me? Listen, if i'm satisfied with him and i'm celebrating him. I am looking for ways to give him more of who I am Not just my talents and time but my treasures as well I just want to keep giving to the lord because I love him so much I want to present him with all my gifts all my talents all that I have Because I want to present it all to him and lastly there's always an appreciation Of him thanks be unto god for his indescribable gift 2nd corinthians 9 15 If I adore his person or his presence I Always have given thanks to god There's an appreciation for his presence in my life.

There's an appreciation for his power in my life There's an appreciation for how he's worked in my life. There's always something I am thankful for There's something I can always give praise to god for why what marks the believer from the unbeliever? his praise He has a thankful heart He's grateful to the lord so God says to moses Certainly I will be with you Moses I'm speaking to you from a bush that burns Because I want you to know that I will be with you wherever you go And I need you to completely adore my presence I will always be there I will never leave you nor would I ever forsake you But it took moses 40 years to get to that place And once he did God was able to use him To perform the impossible But he passed through that which is invaluable the desert Because its design is for you to adore his presence Number two next week, let's pray Father we thank you lord for today the chance and opportunity you give us to spend time in your word Thank you lord for our children being in church with us today They thank you that they could sit next to their parents Watch mom and dad As they sang praises to your name Gave gifts to you Listen to the word A testimony for the children Our prayer father is that you would help us to adore you all the more We know lord that our adoration will always be waning this side of eternity And when we get to heaven It'll all be about the presence of the living god Until that time lord help us all to adore you all the more As you see the day drawing near will you return and take us home to be with you in jesus name?

Amen