Just Another Day In The Desert Series

Intro: Exodus chapter 3 is the continuing journey of God to set His people Israel free. Moses failed in his own power to set his people free. He fled to the desert and seems to be leading a normal life.

Remember failure does not disqualify you for being used of God. Only men determine that you are of no use because you failed.

Moses is about to find out what we all need to find out, God uses broken things!! Soil must be broken to produce a crop, grain must be broken to produce bread, the pots of Gideon had to be broken to produce victory, the alabaster jar had to be broken to anoint Jesus, Peter had to be broken of his pride in order to be restored to be humbly used of the Lord.

Psalm 51:17 “The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. God, You will not despise a broken and humbled heart.”

Right before this passage it says that God doesn’t desire offerings. God doesn’t want offerings that come from pride and self-reliance. He wants us to offer ourselves as living sacrifices. Broken over our sin and rebellion against His holiness.

Paul gave a vivid picture of what we are as people. 2 Corinthians 4:7 “Now we have this treasure in clay jars, so that this extraordinary power may be from God and not from us.”

An earthen vessel is nothing other than a clay pot. JB Phillips translates it, “a common, earthenware jar.” That is in reference to our bodies and abilities in the power of the flesh. All we are to God is a container. You may be brittle but beautiful china. You may chip and break easily. Or you may be a rugged scarred hunk of heavy pottery not very attractive but really useful. You want to know something amazing? It isn’t the condition of the pot but the value of the treasure inside it. The treasure in our clay pots is the light and glory of Christs’ salvation! All the better if a few dings, dents and cracks allow others to see the beauty and glory of Christ!!

Don’t you imagine that Moses must have felt like a useless pot? Raised a son of the Pharaohs daughter, taught, trained and forgotten. Exodus three gives us an up close and personal look at how God views and chooses to use broken vessels.

I. Just another day

Moses has gone 40 years without a word from God. Moses was just like us. He probably told his sheep good night and laid down to rest. When he woke up it was just another day with the sheep. He washed his face, had his breakfast, counted his sheep and was off to the office

There was no shooting star, no signs above, no neon signs that said, “God will peak to you today!” It was just another day to make it through. Getting sheep out of crags, leading them to green pastures. We do the same. You wake up get breakfast and go to work. You get up get dressed and take the kids to school or take care of them. Expecting to go through just another day!

Moses day was so normal that if he had a calendar he would mark off his 14,600th day as Jethro’s assistant shepherd. (Some of you know there is nothing like begin an assistant manager!)

What we can easily miss is that God loves stepping directly into ordinary days and doing amazing things! He shows up in an otherwise normal routine day and speaks to ordinary routine people.

The Bible tells us that Jesus return will be this way. Matthew 24:37-39 “As the days of Noah were, so the coming of the Son of Man will be. 38 For in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah boarded the ark. 39 They didn’t know until the flood came and swept them all away. So this is the way the coming of the Son of Man will be”

People will be going about their daily business oblivious to the coming of Jesus. That is God’s method. He doesn’t need to announce, or put up a billboard, Hey, get ready today your life is going to change. Some of you came in here expecting to sing and hear a sermon and didn’t realize that God was going to change your life forever!!

God works by simply stepping into the ordinary, normal routine we call life and saying what He wants to say. Here’s what I want you to be, here’s what I want you to do!

II. Just another bush

A) A moment of curiosity

Isn’t it amazing how God can use our curiosity?! What I want you to recognize is that Moses was not curious about religion. It would be easy to make a leap and say he was curious about God and curious about religion. No! This was just another day in the desert taking care of dumb old sheep. What on earth does God use to break through the dry and barren desert that Moses was in? A bush! Another ordinary thing used in a supernatural way!