Beauty From Ashes

Beauty from Ashes

CCCAG Jan 9h, 2019

Scripture- Exodus 3

Intro-

Today is the first Sunday service of 2019.

This time of year is a time of reflection and looking back at the last year and seeing where we may have gone well or look at ways we could have done better.

It’s our feeling that we need to do better that leads to us making NY resolutions.

Has anyone here made any new years resolutions?

According to an Internet survey these are the top 10 new years resolutions for this year

1. Diet or eat healthier (71 percent)

2. Exercise more (65 percent)

3. Lose weight (54 percent)

4. Save more and spend less (32 percent)

5. Learn a new skill or hobby (26 percent)

6. Quit smoking (21 percent)

7. Read more (17 percent)

8. Find another job (16 percent)

9. Drink less alcohol (15 percent)

10. Spend more time with family and friends (13 percent)

It's hard to argue with any of those but if you notice that there is one common theme among all of them

They all have to do with making our lives better here on this earth.

Surveys like this or fun to take and to look at, but for us as Christians we shouldn't be asking ourselves how can I make my life better here on earth but rather how do I make myself more productive for the Kingdom of God.

When I speak to people who really have never committed their lives to Jesus Christ and I bring something up like this most of them tell me that they could never be used by God because of their past. They feel they have messed up so bad that they have been permanently disqualified being saved, getting to heaven, or being used by God.

This feeling is not one that just comes on people outside of the church but often it also comes to us within the church.

New Year’s is the time that you look backward upon your life. Some of us, or even many of us, look back and feel a sense of shame about what we have done or about what we have left undone. Many of us may feel like we have blown it and are outside of God's grace and the best we can hope for is an easy death and hopefully that God lets us into heaven.

If that’s you- you’re not the first person to feel that way. The Bible has many examples of men and women who have blown it big time with God. This morning we're going to study God's call on one of these men and through it we're going to see how even our failures cannot stop the plan of God in our Lives.

Turn to Exodus chapter 3 and we're going to start by reading God’s call to a man named Moses. Moses once held what was one of the most powerful positions in the most powerful Kingdom of that time.

Then he messes up big time and ends up spending the last 40 years banished to the backside of the desert.

When we find Moses in Exodus 3, he is like many people today- marking time. Moses has no real hope for anything great in his life, and he figures that his best years are behind him.

But God has other plans. Let's read about that

Scripture: Exodus 3

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 wilderness 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.

Prayer- that we can see our worth in God’s sight despite our failure

There is a truth that I want the word of God to impart to you this morning. It is one of the most powerful points that you and I can ever incorporate into our thinking.

It is the thought that as long as you're still breathing God ain't finished with you yet.