Game Changing Events Series

Game Changer Series

Game Changing Events

November 14, 2010

VIDEO: MARCUS DUPREE

One tackle changed everything. Many would say Marcus missed his calling.

What about you?

Perhaps you’ve been so busy pursuing a career that you’ve missed your calling.

Moses’ career was tending sheep. His calling was bringing freedom. It wasn’t until He was willing to “throw his stick on the ground in service to God that God could use him.

Let me explain what I mean

Exodus 3:1 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 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. 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.

10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

Moses then comes up with a series of logically sound and important excuses why he’s not the man for the job. Including this one…

4:1 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.”

The game changed for Moses and his stick that day.

The prayer surrounding this short 3 week sermon series is that somehow the game changes for you and then you in turn will help change the game. Just like Moses did.

Today we are going to look at two events in Scripture that should rip the helmet off our heads. The goal of this morning is to knock the wind out of our predictable game plans as a church.

Flannery O’Conner once said “The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.”

We will leave this morning unsettled, but by the end of this series we will finish inspired to do amazing things in the months to come.

Event 1: The Neighbor On the Road

Luke 10:30 Jesus said: “A [child] was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the [child], he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the [child] was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him.

“Wait, preacher, it says man, not child.” I know but doesn’t it hit harder when you think of this person as a child. Forgive me for taking so much liberty with the Scripture, but we have to start somewhere. After all, a man can take a punch much better than a 10 year old boy can. If anything, we can start by looking out for the women and children first.

I put a child in Jesus’ parable because every day over 26 thousand of them belong there.

More than 26,500 children died yesterday of preventable causes related to their poverty. Statisically it will happen again today tomorrow and the day after that. Almost 10 million children will have died by the time the clock strikes midnight closing 2010.