Last month my son’s ball team went to a Star’s baseball game for “Bat Night.” I tell you, there’s nothing quite like twelve six year-olds running around a ball park swinging their brand new wooden bats! Life can be exciting sometimes…
• But that’s okay… the Christian life is supposed to be exciting… an adventure!
• We’re continuing the series “the Great Adventure” this morning… taking a look at some of the great ‘adventurers’ encountered in Scripture…
• Last week we looked at Noah… how he was able to stand against the wicked, corrupt and decadent culture of his day… by his relationship with God.
• Before that, Abraham was called to a life of great adventure when God told him to pack up everything and go (he didn’t tell him where)… and then when he was almost 100, he found out he and his wife would be parents! Adventure!
• If you are bored in your Christian walk… its not God’s fault! I very much believe that he still calls us to a life of great adventure!
• We are called to FOLLOW JESUS… and that should be anything but boring!
Before we get into the text (Ex. 3) let’s remember Moses… he wasn’t exactly born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but he had one placed there pretty quickly.
• Exodus 1 & 2 tells us Moses’ story… the Israelites had been in bondage in Egypt for about 400 years and their numbers had become so great when the Pharaoh became paranoid that things might get out of hand with them. Their numbers threatened his power & possibly his claim to the throne… so he decrees that all Hebrew males be aborted at birth.
• Moses is born but the midwives let him live… so Pharaoh begins a national campaign to eradicate all the boys. Doing the only thing she knew to do, Moses’ Mother hides him. When she could hide him no longer, she places him in a basket made of reeds (a tevah or ark) and places him along the Nile where she knows he’ll be found.
• He is found… by the daughter of the Pharaoh—who takes him in and raises him as her own son.
• And so this young Hebrew grows up in the household of the Pharaoh along with every privilege that affords… the best foods, wine, clothes, jewels and education! A life of privilege & prestige… a Prince of Egypt!
• What potential he had! Think about all that Moses could’ve accomplished with what he had been given? (I even wonder if he might have been in line for the throne at some point… could he have wound up ruling Egypt?)
• Any of you grow up like that? Did you happen to catch the news last week about Warren Buffet, investment billionaire, who WOWED the world by giving nearly $37 billion to Bill Gates charity foundation? I saw an interview with his children who were asked if they were jealous that their father had given so much away and not to them. They all seemed remarkably ‘normal’! Buffet said that he would give each of his children enough money to do something with… but not enough to do nothing. Pretty wise, I thought.
• Like Buffet’s children, Moses would have grown up with plenty… wanting nothing… and with so much potential to do mighty things!
But his life would take a dramatic turn… one day he witnesses an Egyptian slave master mercilessly beating one of the Hebrew slaves.
• As you read the text it emphasizes several times for Moses, this was “one of his own people.” (vs. 11) Despite Moses’ wealth & privilege he realizes that he isn’t really one of them (an Egyptian)… there is still a connection with his own people (Hebrews).
• I imagine that it must have been the anger & frustration building up inside of him that drove him to kill the slave master… and then to try & conceal the body.
• But when he discovers that his crime is found out… and that the Pharaoh himself is coming after him… Moses is forced to flee! To run away from everything that he had… his home, his privilege, his family… for the life of a desert nomad.
For the next 40 years he would quietly go about rebuilding his life. He takes a wife and busies himself tending his father-in-law’s sheep… starting over (as it were.)
• How exciting… working for your father-in-law day after day… year after year… for 40 years. This was his life… tending somebody else’s sheep.
• At 80, he probably thought that he was done… that this was it for him! He probably expected to live out the rest of his days out in the desert… watching sheep… a far cry from where his life could’ve taken him.
• I wonder if those days of wealth & privilege were a distant memory… the hopes, dreams and ambitions of a bright, young Prince of Egypt would have been long forgotten, right?
• Moses had settled. He had accepted the hand he had been dealt. He had missed his chance to do anything really special with his life and he probably had accepted that maybe this was all there was going to be.
o I wonder if he was content and satisfied to be out there in the desert with his father-in-law’s sheep… not doing anything really special?
o Or … if maybe in the back of his mind he wished that there was more?
I think Jim Morris longed for more…
• In 1999 Jim Morris was a 36 year old father, teacher and high school coach who thought his childhood dream of making it to the major leagues was over.
• He had had his shot twelve years earlier as a young man… but a shoulder injury had put him on the bench and forced him to retire from baseball before ever making it to the big leagues.
• But he made a bet with his son’s little league team that if they won the district championship he would try out for the majors. To everybody’s surprise, they won! So, Jim Morris found himself at tryouts… and found out that he could still throw a 98mph fastball!
• To everyone’s surprise, he made the team… he found himself stepping up to the plate in the major leagues (at 36 yrs old) and played for 2 seasons for Tampa Bay.
• Jim Morris was fortunate to get another chance at bat!
Moses was, too. His 2nd chance at bat comes in chapter 3.
Exodus 3:1-10
1 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, "I will go over and see this strange sight — why the bush does not burn up."
4 When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, "Moses! Moses!"
And Moses said, "Here I am."
5 "Do not come any closer," God said. "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground." 6 Then he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.
7 The LORD said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey — the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt." NIV
Life was anything but over for Moses! He may have thought he was done, but God was just getting started… he had BIG things for Moses to do!
• I read this week that Billy Graham (87) just preached what he said is probably his last sermon before a large audience at Camden Yards – home of the Baltimore Orioles. At 87, God was just getting started with Moses!
• We know the rest of the story… the deliverance of the children of Israel out of Egypt would become THE seminal event that would forever change them as a people! … forge them into a nation … define them as God’s chosen people!
• It has been immortalized in our day by Cecil B. DeMille and Charlton Heston (as hard as I try I can’t get his image out of my mind when I think of Moses standing on Mt. Sinai holding the 10 Commandments!)
• We cannot hardly under-state the significance of the Exodus and the important role that Moses played as Israel’s deliverer!
What an adventure God called Moses to!
• From all those plagues brought upon Egypt because Pharaoh was unwilling at first to let the people go…
• To their exciting flight out of Egypt… taking the riches & plunder of the country with them…
• To being chased by Pharaoh’s army into the desert and to their miraculous escape through the parting of the Red Sea…
• And then to the 40 years of camping out along the Sinai Peninsula before being allowed to re-take the Land of Promise (we’ll talk about Joshua next week!)
• What a great adventure God called Moses to! What an opportunity at the plate!
Can you believe that Moses didn’t want to step up?
• Despite all that God had done to prepare Moses, when it came down to it… Moses didn’t want to go… look at vs. 11
11 But Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"
• He begins making excuses. “Who am I?” God responds by saying, “It doesn’t matter who YOU are, I’ll be with you!”
12 And God said, "I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain."
• Moses isn’t finished offering excuses.
13 Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ’The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ’What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?"
14 God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ’I AM has sent me to you.’"
15 God also said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites, ’The LORD, the God of your fathers — the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob — has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation. NIV
• He says again, “It doesn’t matter who YOU are… I AM God! Moses has more objections, however… jump down to chp. 4
Exodus 4:1-5
1 Moses answered, "What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ’The LORD did not appear to you’?" 2 Then the LORD said to him, "What is that in your hand?"
"A staff," he replied.
3 The LORD said, "Throw it on the ground."
Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake,
and he ran from it. 4 Then the LORD said to him, "Reach out your hand and take it by the tail." So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. 5 "This," said the LORD, "is so 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." NIV
• Proof positive… but look at his next excuse in vs. 10
10 Moses said to the LORD, "O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue." NIV
• This has led a lot of scholars to think that maybe Moses had a speech impediment, perhaps a problem with stuttering or the like? He at least didn’t think himself very capable… and he pleads with God in vs. 13, "O Lord, please send someone else to do it."
• By this time God is getting pretty angry with Moses!
14 Then the LORD’s anger burned against Moses and he said, "What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and his heart will be glad when he sees you. 15 You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. 16 He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him. NIV
• Can you believe… God has something great for Moses to do and Moses isn’t wanting to do it?
• You ever done that? You ever NOT wanted to do what you knew God wanted you to do? We wouldn’t be that way would we?
Of course, we know that Moses finally accepted and obeyed…
19 Now the LORD had said to Moses in Midian, "Go back to Egypt, for all the men who wanted to kill you are dead." 20 So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand. NIV
• [pick up the bat] He finally was willing to step up to the plate and accept what God wanted to throw at him!
• What about you? What about us?
Is God calling on you this morning to step up to the plate? What is he wanting to throw your way?
Is He calling on you to step up to the plate and take a greater role in his church?
• We have 4 Elders and 9 deacons and we need more! It isn’t because we haven’t asked… we just need more men to step up to the plate! If everybody came to church on the same day, we would have over 500 members here… we need more men to serve as Shepherds. We need more men to serve as deacons. We need more men to serve as small group leaders.
• Not everybody is called to be an Elder or deacon… that’s okay. Paul said in Eph. 4:11-f that the reason we have leaders anyway is to “prepare God’s people for works of service.”
• As God’s person, what is he preparing YOU to do? Surely, he wouldn’t have inspired Paul to write this about God’s people if he didn’t have something in mind for all of us… for YOU? What is that?
o It doesn’t have to be leading a nation out of slavery or building an ark…
o it could be visiting in the nursing homes, sending encouraging notes to our shut-ins, preparing a meal for somebody…
o it could be teaching a Bible class or going with the youth group on an outing…
o getting involved in World Bible School or learning how to sit down with somebody and teach the Bible.
o it could be helping us out around the building with projects…
THIS, I think, is the FUN of the Christian life!
• Discovering who you are and what God has given you to do in the Kingdom is the fun and exciting thing about being a Christian!
• I see too many Christians who just don’t look like they’re having any fun… maybe its because they haven’t figured out how to use what God has given them in works of service in the Kingdom?
• I think too many of us have ‘settled’ and become ‘content’ or ‘satisfied’ to just be… when God has things for us to do!
o “Sad is the day when a person becomes absolutely satisfied with the life he is living, the thoughts he is thinking, the deeds he is doing—when there forever ceases to beat at the door of his soul a desire to do something greater for God.”—John Maxwell (Running With the Giants, 42)
• Don’t you have the desire to ‘do something greater for God?’ Or are you content to just sit on the bench?
Is God calling you to step up to the plate in your family?
• Men, do you need to step up and be the spiritual leader in your homes that you need to be?
o A lot of guys have the idea that if they put food on the table and shelter overhead then they’ve done their job… WRONG! Your wives need more from you. Your children need more from you!
o In too many homes its Momma who makes sure the kids get to Sunday School and have their lessons. Its Momma who makes sure the prayers are said and church is a priority…
o Do YOU need to step up and take the lead in the spiritual direction of your families? It is interesting that when Paul tells parents not to “exasperate the children, but raise them up in the nurture & admonition of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4) … its FATHERS that he addresses, not Mothers!
• Ladies, do you need to step up and be the supportive, loving spouse to your husband that you need to be? Do you encourage him?
o I’ve seen that a lot of guys don’t take the lead in the home because when they do, they’re cut & criticized by their wives. You wouldn’t do that would you?
o Your husband needs you to praise him and encourage him!
Do you need to step up and be the child of God that He calls you to be?
• What’s been keeping you on the bench? Out of the game?
o An old injury? You stepped up back in the day and somebody criticized you? Lou Gehrig was called the “iron man” of baseball for a reason. He played 2,130 consecutive games without missing a one! When he retired after 15 years they x-rayed his hands and found that every single finger had been broken at one time or another. But he never missed a game! Is it time to get over your injury and get back into the game?
• Are you waiting for the fans to settle down and stop calling you names?
• Are you waiting for the Umps to start calling the pitches fairly? Folks, don’t hold your breath. Life isn’t fair. Get back in the game!
God is calling you to step up to the plate! Step up to the great adventure!
1 Corinthians 9:25
25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. NIV
• Are you aiming for that crown this morning?
• To step up to the plate, you’ve got to turn away from sin and ask God’s forgiveness for missing the mark
Have you put on the uniform and been clothed with Christ in baptism?
• You’ve got to accept him as coach, Lord of your life and live that way!
• Have you done that?
