Getting Out Of The Desert

Notice how God made Moses usable:

1. First thing God must do to make us usable is to get us out of the desert.

2. Moses was on the backside of the desert. It is a long way from the Palace to the backside of the desert.

3. A great many Christians are living in the backside of the desert. Why?

a. They like Moses, tried to serve God and failed. Exodus 2:11-14

1) You try teaching a class; Failed.

2) You tried building a bus route; failed.

3) You tried tithing or witnessing; failed.

b. Now you don't try anymore, you're just a sheep herder. You are living on the backside of the desert.

There were three outstanding steps in Moses’ call back to usefulness.

I. Response to God’s Call

1. God called at an unexpected time.

a. I wonder how many times Moses thought God had forgotten him.

b. I wonder how many times Moses had passed by that same Bush.

2. God wanted to get Moses’ attention. Verse 4

a. Sometimes he speaks through outward signs.

1) The need of mankind: lost, sin, and hell.

2) The need of church workers.

b. Sometimes He speaks through loved ones.

1) Abraham and Isaac.

2) Tommy and Amy Rammy

3) Bro. Howard Ingram

c. Sometimes He speaks through heartache and pain.

1) Men in the church.

2) God can get your attention.

3. Moses made a response to God’s call. Verse 4; three things about this call.

a. It was a personal call.

1) Everything God does, He does one at a time. Salvation is one at a time. Revival is one at a time.

2) There may only be one person God is speaking to tonight, but I do believe God is speaking.

b. It was a priority call.

1) Moses left everything to listen to God speak.

2) Only when Moses turned aside, did God speak to him.

c. It was a call to prepare.

1) God always gives his message to a prepared heart.

II. There Must be a Reverence for God’s Character

1. Moses was told not to rush into God’s presence.

a. The greatest need among men today is a reverence for God’s character. He is not the good old God, or the man upstairs. We would never rush into a hospital operating room or a court room.

b. How much more we need to reverence God’s presence.

c. Not like rushing into a filling station and saying check my tires, give me a dollars’ worth of gas, and I will be back.

2. This reverence involves two things.

a. We must come into the presence of God with holiness, “take your shoes off, you are standing on holy ground.”

1) What convicts’ men of sin is not preaching about that sin but showing God’s holiness.

a. Isaiah 6:1-5

b. John 21:3-7

c. My holiness is determined by my concept of God.

2) Story of girl loving the wrong boy, must be shown a better one.

b. We must come in humility. Moses hid his face.

1) Proverbs 1:7

2) Genesis 28:16-17

III. There Must be a Responsibility in God’s Cause. Verse 10-12

1. God not only wanted to get Moses out of the desert, but also to get His people out of Egypt.

2. There is a time to take your shoes off, but also a time to put them on again and go.

a. Matthew 28:18-20

b. John 15:16

c. Luke 14:21-23

d. Acts 8:26; 9:11

3. The only reason that God ever reveals Himself to you is that He might reveal Himself through you.

4. There are two things needful if we are to take a responsibility in God’s cause.

a. We must see our one weakness. Moses began to offer reasons why he should not be used. Exodus 4:1-11

b. After all of Moses excuses, God said you are just the man I am looking for.

c. We must see our weakness and denounce our own strength. Exodus 4:1-3. The rod was a symbol of Moses’ strength. A man’s gift is a man’s greatest danger. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

If tonight, you will, through something that gets your attention, know that God is calling. If you will respond to that call with a reverence for His character, willingness to take responsibility to the cause, you will never be the same again.