Any Old Bush Will Do

ANY OLD BUSH WILL DO

Ex. 3:1-10

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR

1. President Bush was going through an airport when he saw a man who looked like Moses. He asked him, "Are you Moses?" The man acted as if he didn't hear.

2. He asked him again, "Are you Moses?" The man refused to look at him. The third time, Bush got right up close and asked, "Are you Moses?" "Yes!"

3. "Why didn't you answer me the first two times I spoke to you?" "Because the last time I spoke to a bush, I spent the next 40 years on the backside of the wilderness."

B. TEXT

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."

C. THESIS

1. When God lights a fire, you can expect it to have effects. In every generation, God has caused His sacred fire to burn among His people. In fact, he commanded us to never let His fire go out.

2. This morning we're going to look at what God's fire did in the life of Moses and see how it is applicable to our lives. This message is entitled, "Any Old Bush Will Do."

I. BACKGROUND: THE FAITHFULNESS OF MOSES

A. MOSES’ UPBRINGING

1. "Train up a child...." Moses’ mother did train him in the ways of God. He afterwards was trained in all the lore/wisdom of the Egyptians, yet he never forgot the faith of his fathers.

2. According to the ancient historian, Philo (Life of Moses, 1:13), Moses was the adopted son of Hatshepsut. She was her father's only child and she was otherwise childless.

3. If true, then HE WAS HEIR TO THE THRONE! To throw away such wealth and position must have seemed an act of folly. He owed his life to the Princess (That’s why He was a ‘basket case’).

4. Surely God had put him there to help his people from the throne. IF YOU HAD BEEN MOSES, WOULD YOU HAVE BEEN WILLING TO LEAVE IT ALL FOR GOD?

B. MOSES HAD TO CHOOSE ONE LIFE OR OTHER

1. 24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. 25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. 26 He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward” Heb. 11:24-26.

2. QUESTIONS:

a. Have you refused to play along with the world?

b. Rather be mistreated than enjoy the pleasures of sin?

c. Have you chosen disgrace rather than world’s rewards?

d. GOD CALLS US TO A CHOICE!

3. ILLUS.: “IT’S EASY WITH THE DEVIL”

a. Red Devil Tool Company of Union, N.J. has as their slogan, “It’s easy with the devil.” Of course, they are boasting that their tools transform difficult tasks into simple ones.

b. That’s just like Satan who makes sin appear to be attractive. He shows how pleasant sin and immoral conduct can be.

c. Of course Satan never shows the tragic end of sin: the premature deaths, the broken and dysfunctional homes, plus the loneliness and the heartache sin brings.