Be a Champion for Christ! - Part 2
Exodus 3:1-15
Sermon by Rick Crandall
McClendon Baptist Church - May 6, 2007
*Of all the heroes in the Old Testament, nobody stands out more than Moses. We see him leading the Children of Israel across the Red Sea on dry ground. We see him on the mountain with God as the Lord writes out the 10 Commandments. And God used Moses to give us the first 5 books of the Bible.
*But Moses also had a past. He was a murderer, and he spent 40 years in the middle of nowhere taking care of sheep. But that was O.K., because God was preparing Moses to be a champion for Christ. And on this big day in Moses’ life, we can see how God wants to prepare you. God wants you to be a champion for Him, and you can be. Here’s how:
1. Move closer to God’s radiance. This is what Moses did in vs. 1-4:
1. Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the back of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
2. And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed.
3. Then Moses said, "I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.’’
4. So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, "Moses, Moses!’’ And he said, "Here I am.’’
*Imagine the scene. Pastor Billy Strayhorn got a little taste of what it must have been like when he went to visit a lady recovering from minor surgery on her foot. She and her husband were very active in the church, and nearly always brought their grandkids. Dustin was 6 and Ashley was 4.
*Pastor Billy said: “I had been out of town during this woman’s surgery and couldn’t be with the family or visit her in the hospital. But she was home now and I thought I would drop by to check up on her.
*I got out of the truck, rang the doorbell and here comes little Ashley running to let me in. Just about the time she got to the door, she came sliding to a stop. Her eyes were as big as saucers and her mouth just kind of hung open in surprise.
*She immediately did a 180 and went running back into the house. I heard her yell out in a very awed voice, "Grandpa, God’s at the door!" (1)
*God’s at the door! And you know what, He really is. In Rev 3:20, Jesus said, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.” And in Matthew 18, Jesus said: “Where 2 or 3 are gathered together in my name, I am there in the midst of them.”
*The Lord is here today, and He wants to turn your ordinary day into an extraordinary day! Remember that this started out as an ordinary day for Moses. He was just going through his daily routine.
*As Pastor Jonathan Edwards wrote:
“For Moses this was an ordinary day. He’d been in Midian 40 years faithfully tending the flock of Jethro. I’m sure he was expecting the day to be the same as any other day, but this day was different.
-The ordinary became the extraordinary.
-The usual became the unusual.
-The normality of life was replaced by the suddenlies by God.
*And His direction in life, his attitude towards God, his purpose for living changed the moment God came down like an eternal flame. . .
*[Moses] didn’t find God but God found him. He wasn’t looking for God but God was looking for him. And here probably to Moses it was the least likely time and the most peculiar place, but God in his grace appears to him through the flames of fire. (2)
*God met with Moses, and today, the God of Moses wants to meet with you. He wants to turn your ordinary day into an extraordinary day! So He comes with fire. And you probably won’t see a burning bush here this morning, but God comes with fire.
*When Moses later led the Israelites out of Egypt, God led them in a pillar of fire. When the prophet Elijah wanted to show the people who the real God was, the Lord sent fire down from Heaven to burn the offering. After Jesus rose from the dead, He walked along with two disciples, and at the time they didn’t realize who He was, but later they said: "Didn’t our hearts burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?’’
*Then after Jesus returned to Heaven, He sent the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, and Acts 2 tells us that He came with flames of fire. Hebrews 12:29 tells us that our God is a consuming fire.
*Thinking about all of this, Doug Henry said: “When God is present, you can expect fire whether it’s on the outside or on the inside.” (3)
*God comes with fire, but as Chuck Swindoll wrote, we have to move closer to the flame. That’s what Moses did here. He moved closer to the flame.
*Mostly he was just curious at first, but what about you? Are you curious about God? Wouldn’t you like to get closer to the God of the whole universe? Move closer to the flame. Start seeking the Lord.
*So much is riding on this! We desperately need revival in our country and in 2 Chron 7:14, God said, “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways...
-Then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
*In Matt 6:33, Jesus said: “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
*In Jeremiah 29:11-13, God also said, “I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”
*Move closer to the flame. You don’t need a burning bush. God will set your heart on fire as He speaks to you through His Word, and just like Moses, you will be a champion for Christ.
2. God wants you to be a champion for Him, so move closer to His radiance, and give God the proper reverence. Moses did this in vs. 4-6:
4. So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, "Moses, Moses!’’ And he said, "Here I am.’’
5. Then He said, "Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.’’
6. Moreover He said, "I am the God of your father the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’’ And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.
*God said, “Come no closer...” And I am sure Moses stopped.
*God said, “Take your shoes off...” And I am sure Moses did.
*Moses gave God the proper reverence and so should we. Does this mean we should take our shoes off? Well, yes, if the Lord tells us to.
*But here are some things we should certainly do: Stop ignoring God. Stop leaving God out of the equation in your decisions. Stop living a selfish life.
And start doing the things God does tell us to do. Start loving and giving and forgiving. Start serving the Lord.
*Worship the Lord by focusing on His goodness and greatness. Magnify the greatness of God in your heart. As Psalm 34:1-3 says:
-“I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
-My soul shall make its boast in the Lord; The humble shall hear of it and be glad.
-Oh, magnify the Lord with me, And let us exalt His name together.”
*Give God the proper reverence. In vs. 6, Moses even hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God. Now it is certainly true that God wants to be our Heavenly Father and our Best Friend, but it is always proper to have a healthy fear of the Lord.
*Fred Craddock told of a conversation he had with a 28 year old woman in Atlanta. They were coming out of church and she said, “This is the first time I was ever in a church.”
-“Really?”
-“Yeah...”
-“Well” he asked, “How was it?”
-She said, "Kind of scary."
-He said, "Kind of scary?"
-She said, "Yeah."
-"Why?"
*And she said, “It just seems so important. You know, I never go to anything important. This just seemed so important.” (4)
*It is important, because God is important.
3. God wants you to be a champion for Him, so give Him the proper reverence, and trust Him to give you His deliverance.
*The Lord had great news for Moses in vs. 7-9, where God said:
7. And the Lord said: "I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.
8. "So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.
9. "Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.
*This was great news of deliverance for Moses, and it’s great news for us too, because God sees our oppression. He hears our cries. He knows our sorrows. He comes down to us. And He will deliver us!
*God gave Moses great news, but He has given even better news to us: The Good News of the Cross! Jesus Christ loves us so much that He was willing to die on the Cross for our sins. And He rose from the dead. He took our punishment, so that we could receive His eternal life. And you will, if you receive Jesus as Savior and Lord.
4. Trust God to give you His deliverance, and let Him use you as a great influence.
*In vs. 10, Moses found out that God had a great purpose for his life, as the Lord said, “Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”
*Yes, God wants to deliver you from the oppression of sin and death, but that’s not the end of the story. God also has a great purpose for your life! He wants to use you to help other people find the freedom of salvation. God called Moses, and He is calling you to make a difference for Him.
*As Guy Caley said:
“Here in black and white is God’s plan, the way he reaches out to a suffering world: He calls us and sends us to be His hands extended.
-God sees the plight of the orphan in China, hopeless and destined to live out her days in poverty and spiritual darkness.
-He sees the successful businessman you went to high school with who has achieved everything he wanted but aches with the emptiness of it all.
-God hears the cry of the single mom who lives down the street from you, whose frustration and despair has her on the brink of taking her own life.
-He hears the cries of the refugees in Darfur, dying from disease and hunted like dogs by their enemies.
-God Cares about the Muslim who knows no other way but goes to bed each night with a gnawing doubt thinking there must be more.
-He cares about that barefoot and filthy kid who seems to have no supervision and no hope for the future.
-And because He sees, because He hears, because He cares, God says to you “Go now. I am sending you to bring them out.
*Sometimes we act as though we expect God to wave some magic wand to solve the problems of the world and rescue the perishing, but there is no magic wand. The hope of the world is sitting in this room this morning, the Church of Jesus Christ. (5)
*Let God use your life. Go where He tells you to go. Say what He tells you to say.
*Someday God may send you to a far-away place, but right now He has planted you in a place where you can make a difference for Him... And even the smallest acts can make a tremendous difference for someone else.
*Randy Aly gave the testimony of a lady whose life was changed forever by something small. She was a Christian at the time, but she had grown very cold toward God. And her husband had never come to Christ.
*When they moved to a new community, they were visited a couple of times by members of the local church, but this couple very rudely made it clear that they wanted to be left alone.
*Then, one day the wife was looking out the front window, and she saw the mailman delivering her mail. As she watched him, he stopped right in front of her house, and sat down on the curb to eat his lunch. Then he bowed his head to thank God for his meal. It was a simple thing that we should do every time we eat, but the Holy Spirit used that simple act of faith to melt the woman’s icy heart.
*She talked to her husband. They decided to go to church, and after hearing the message they both came forward! She rededicated her life to Christ and joined the church, and her husband trusted in Jesus as Savior and Lord. But that’s not all. The very next week they brought their parents, who also accepted Christ. (6)
*Thank God for that mailman who loved the Lord enough to be thankful for his food! God used him and He wants to use your life too. Let your voice be heard!
*In the bulletin today there are three simple ways to do it:
1-Invite people to church...
2-Tell someone what God has done in your life...
3-Email me or give me a note of testimony about how you let your voice be heard.
*You can make a difference!
5. God wants you to be a champion for Him. Let Him use you as a great influence, and make Him your supreme confidence.
*Moses was a reluctant leader. We see this starting in vs. 11, where Moses asked God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?’’ Moses needed confidence to serve the Lord, and God wants us to know that we can find all the confidence we need in Him.
1-Put your confidence in God’s closeness. Moses asked, “Who am I to go to Pharaoh?” But the Lord didn’t even bother to answer the question. God just told Moses in vs. 12, “Certainly I will be with you.”
*It’s as if God said: “Moses, it doesn’t matter who you are. It doesn’t matter if you don’t feel qualified. The only thing that matters is that I am sending you, and that I will be with you.”
*God will be with you too! Chuck Swindoll told the story of a dad who listened as his son told him about his first serious conflict at school. The boy had been picked on by three bullies who punched him and knocked him off his bike as he was riding home. These bullies had made life difficult for the boy, and they threatened to do more harm the next morning. The boy was greatly disturbed and didn’t know what to do.
*That evening Dad taught his son some basic techniques on how to defend himself. And together they talked about all the possibilities, including trying to win the bullies over as friends. Dad worked hard to build up his son’s confidence.
*The next morning they prayed together. Then with a big hug, Dad smiled confidently and said, “You can do it, son. I know you’ll make out all right."
*So the boy got on his bike and rode off to school. But what the son did not know was that his dad followed him in the car that day. He stayed just far enough behind to remain out of sight, but close enough to come to his son’s rescue if needed.
*The son might have thought he was alone, but his father was behind him all the way. And your Heavenly Father will be with you all the way.
2-Put your confidence in God’s closeness, and in His character. In vs. 13-15, Moses was still afraid, so, he said:
13. Then Moses said to God, "Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, `The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, `What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?’’
14. And God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM.’’ And He said, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, `I AM has sent me to you.’ ’’
15. Moreover God said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: `The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.’
*God is saying here, “Before time was: I Am. Through all eternity: I Am. I Am your Strength and Salvation. I Am your Healer and Helper. I Am your Guard and your Guide.”
*Or as Jesus said in John’s Gospel:
-I am the Bread of Life.
-I am the Light of the World.
-I am the Door of the sheep.
-I am the Good Shepherd.
-I am the resurrection and the life.
-I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.
*And Jesus died on the Cross to give us His life. Put your confidence in Him.
Conclusion:
*God made Moses into a champion for His cause, and wants to do the same thing in your life. Be a champion for Christ.
1. Adapted from an online sermon: “A Table for Two Please” by Billy Strayhorn - Exo 3:1-15 - 09/01/02
2. Adapted from SermonCentral Sermon: “The Fire of God” by Jonathan Edwards - Exo 3:1-7
3. Adapted from SermonCentral Sermon: “A Burning Heart” by Doug Henry - Luke 24:13-35
4. Fred B. Craddock, Craddock Stories, Chalice Press, (St. Louis, MO, 2001) p. 132 - (Adapted from an online sermon: “A Table for Two Please” by Billy Strayhorn - Exo 3:1-15 - 09/01/02)
5. Adapted from SermonCentral Sermon: “When God Calls Your Name” - Guy Caley - Exo 3:1-10
6. Adapted from SermonCentral illustration contributed by Randy Aly
