Not By Accident Series

MOSES: FROM DOUBT TO DELIEVERANCE

NOT BY ACCIDENT

Sunday September 15, 2002

Scripture Reference: Exodus 2:1-10

Intro.

A. Can I introduce you to a thought that I think most of us never consider and may even feel is a little irreverent at first glance? I am going to anyway so just say yes. Have you ever considered that the God we reverence the creator of the universe, the God who alone is absolutely holy, the God who knows all things from beginning to end. Have you ever considered the fact that this same God whom we are taught to fear, in the proper sense of the word. That this God is also realistic about us? Let me give you a few scriptures to show you what I mean by that. Look at Isaiah 55:8-9 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” God clearly tells us that His ways are not like ours and that His thoughts are much different than ours. Now look at Psalm 103:14 “for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.” Now I do not have time to fully delve into this subject but let me say that these words do not mean that we have no hope of ever understanding God and what He desires or wants for our lives. What these words mean is that God is far greater than where our own human ways can lead us and greater than our deepest thoughts can take us.

1. What I find very encouraging about these words is that in them I understand that God is realistic about me. He knows that I am frail. He knows that I cannot fully understand all the things He is trying to do in my life. I like the way Church Swindoll puts this, he says that God understand that we were created out of a few pounds of garden soil.

2. The reason I bring this subject up is because I think that our expectations both for ourselves and for others are unrealistic. We either tend to expect too much or too little from others or ourselves. * And if you would like my opinion (of course whether you would like it or not is irrelevant because I am going to give it to you). We expect too much of others and to little of ourselves. We think that others, like the preacher ought to have the faith and courage of Moses but certainly not ourselves.

B. I want to say to you again that I think one of the most exciting and encouraging things that are going to come out of this series is that if we will listen carefully we will learn that God can use ANYONE who is willing to put themselves in His hands.

1. Moses’ life can be divided into three parts consisting of forty years each. The first forty years were the years of his upbringing. The second forty were the years of his waiting and learning in the desert of Midian. The final forty were the years that God used him to bring the children of Israel out of Egypt and to the boarder of Canaan. The great preacher Dwight L. Moody put together a great little synopsis of Moses’ life. It goes like this; “Moses spend his first forty years thinking he was somebody. He spend his second forty years learning he was a nobody. He spent his third forty years discovering what God can do with a nobody.”

1. You and I will not in all likelihood live to be 120 year old but of this I can assure you. Each of us will experience one or all of these stages. Whether or not we make it through to that final stage of realizing that God can use us will all depend on whether or not we chose to trust and obey the Lord.

Trans. Last week we set the context for the time in which Moses was born. Today we are going to focus our attention on his birth and the circumstances surrounding it. What I hope we will learn by the time we are done today is that our lives do not have to consist of a series of random acts or events that have no rhyme nor reason for our lives. Our lives are not accidental. Let’s begin by looking at what I think can best be described as:

I. AN UNENVIABLE BIRTH.

I think that from what we learned last week we could safely say that these were desperate times.

A. These Were Desperate Times.

1. Even though times were hard and the oppression of the Hebrew children was great, life still moved on. I wish I could stay here for a few minutes and elaborate on this point let me at least say this. We cannot let trouble or hard times stop us, either individually or corporately as a church. This life will always have its difficulties but we can’t let these things stop us from living our God’s plan for our lives.