Slide 1 A few weeks ago, I shared some questions that Gordon MacDonald believes are being asked by people at different stages of life. Now not only did those questions really interest me and cause me to think about the questions that I am asking at this point in my life, the story that MacDonald opened the article with, about a man in his small group, really grabbed my attention as well.
He began, “The man’s 51-year autobiography took more than an hour to read, and it disclosed struggles with addictions, difficult personal relationships, and career disappointments. It included accounts of success and failure, discoveries and disappointments. Mixed in were his ongoing efforts to improve a static-ridden connection with Jesus.”
Slide 2 I was struck by this phrase, ‘a static-ridden connection with Jesus,’ and I have become vitally concerned in my own life and in the lives of believers of all ages that we need to move beyond a ‘static-ridden connection with Jesus.’ Which begs the question, ‘How do we get a better and clearer connection to and with Jesus so that we are able to ‘grow as we go? For this sermon and the next two, we are going to study the lives of three Old Testament characters, Moses, King Uzziah, and Daniel, and the choices they made (or did not make) in their faith in and relationship with God.
Some of those questions that MacDonald believes we are asking I believe address the issue of developing and maintaining a better and clearer connection with Jesus as we ‘grow and go;’ through life, through joy, through pain, through disappointment, through changes and transitions, and through new opportunities. These questions are vital ones that must be answered and I believe can help us move beyond a ‘static-ridden connection’ with the Lord.
Here are the ones that I am encouraging us to write down this morning and prayerfully reflect on over the next month:
Slide 3
Around what will I center my life?
Why is my spiritual center so confused?
Why isn’t my faith deeper?
Are the best years of life over?
Slide 4
How do I deal with angers and resentments that I’ve never resolved?
How do I cope with all this increasing weakness around me?
Then there is one that I believe at a very basic level reflects all of these questions, Slide 4a ‘Can Christianity still work for me?’
(Now before I continue, I must give credit for this sermon series to God and to a pastoral colleague, Eric Simpson of Eagle Church here in Indiana, whose presentation at a Holiness Pastors Meeting in Indy last month forms the basis of this series.)
David Fitch recently wrote, ‘we do have a relationship with God which becomes personal but it is inseparable from His mission.’ And we see this personal and missional relationship in the first story we encounter in this series – Moses and His encounter with God at the burning bush.
Before we examine this familiar story, we need to remember a couple of things about Moses.
First of all Moses was born under very difficult circumstances. We first hear of Moses in Exodus 2 and as we read chapter 2 we discover that he is born an Israelite then hidden to prevent his murder as an Egyptian law had been passed to stop the births of Israelite boys out of fear of being overrun by them.
Next we notice that Moses, hidden in fear of being discovered, is found by, of all people, Pharaoh’s daughter, the very man who has decreed Moses’ execution. She takes him and, without knowing it, ends up asking his mother to be the baby’s care taker.
Years pass and Moses goes, as we read from the text, to see how his people are doing and discovers their unjust working conditions. It angers him and he kills an Egyptian foreman who is mistreating some Israelites. The next day, in an attempt to intervene in a dispute between two other Israelites, his actions are made public to others, including Pharaoh, who orders his arrest, and he flees Egypt.
Years pass and Moses grows old, very old, then Pharaoh dies but the Israelites are still in desperate straits. But God hears their crying and knows their situation and decides to send Moses to bring them out of Egypt and back to the land of Abraham.
Now I don’t know about you but my focus has always been on and my attention called to Moses and his role in this story. But, recently my attention was drawn to the fact that Moses was asked by God to do something for God. In other words I was reminded that as a follower of Christ, it is not about me and God, but about God then me, and this story, like the other stories in the Bible, is about God’s story, not my story. I have a role to play, I have a part in the story, but it is not (to use a musical analogy) as the conductor, or even first chair or first fiddle, but it is second fiddle. But how do I do that? I think that we need to look at Moses’ story or, better yet, God’s work in Moses’ story.
Charles Spurgeon, a pastor of another generation, once said, ‘It needs more skill than I can tell/To play the second fiddle well.’ Then Mason Cooley quipped, ‘Those who refuse to play second fiddle may wind up playing no fiddle at all.’
Moses’ role was to be that of second fiddle. But, as we start reading verse 11 Moses begins to make excuses when the Lord tells him to return to Egypt and lead the people out. “But who am I to appear before Pharaoh?”... “How can you expect me to lead the Israelites out of Egypt?”
As I have re-read this passage again this week, I have begun to think that not only was Moses disinterested in what God asked him to do, he also did not seem to care to be second, first, third, or even last fiddle! Why?
Slide 5 We notice in the dialogue between the Lord and Moses, he made excuses. I believe that his basic excuse is an implied one, ‘I have a past.’
Moses does not come right out and say this but I believe it is very plausible that he was thinking about his past as he responded to God. He had murdered someone which put a price on his head. Then having been seen by members of his own ethnic group committing the murder, his credibility from his own people was called into question and the combination of the shame and fear from the two experiences drove him out of Egypt.
We all have a past. We have all have skeletons in our closet. We all have said things and have done things (and perhaps still say and do things) that we are ashamed of. But that has never stopped the Lord from calling us to Him, has it? Though there are changes we must make to live in a right relationship with Him, God knows what we have done but He also knows what we are capable of as we give ourselves to Him.
A second excuse Moses made was (Slide 5a) ‘I don’t have the ability.’ I don’t have the ability to appear before Pharaoh, I don’t have the ability to lead the Israelites out of Egypt,’ and then, as we read in chapter 3, ‘I don’t have the ability to speak clearly.’
I like what Louie Giglio says about our weaknesses. ‘God knows you better than you know yourself. He knows just how small and frail you are. He knows that you’re just one person, and a tiny one at that. He knows all the things that you are not-and He made you that way for a purpose. That’s why He has never asked you to be more than you are-little you with a great big God.’
I really think that we have trouble accepting the truth that God knows all the things that we are not. I think that we have been thoroughly indoctrinated with the belief that we can do anything we want and God will help us. That’s not Biblical! The Biblical truth is that God will help us to become the person that He wants us to be and sometimes, “we just don’t wannna” be that person!
Moses comes up with all sorts of excuses to not go back, ‘I don’t have the power,’ ‘they won’t believe me,’ ‘I can’t speak well!’ But God, who, as we read in Exodus 4:14, got impatient with Moses, finally told Moses that his brother Aaron, who was on his way to meet him, would be added to the team.
Moses was limited in his abilities and the Lord already knew this. That is why he kept saying over and over to Moses, ‘I will go with you, I will be with you, I will do this and you will do that! The same hold true for us!
St Paul spoke of this same issue in a couple of places in the New Testament. He spoke of having a ‘thorn in the flesh;’ some kind of impediment that kept him humble. He also talked about being inadequate to task of preaching as we read in 1 Corinthians 2 where we read verse 3, “I came to you in weakness—timid and trembling. And my message and my preaching were very plain. I did not use wise and persuasive speeches, but the Holy Spirit was powerful among you. I did this so that you might trust the power of God rather than human wisdom.”
The Christian faith is about God’s power being released in and through us and us cooperating with that power so that God’s grace and love transforms us as well as others as God directs us. So one of the ways our connection to Christ can have less static and more clarity is Slide 6 by accepting our place in God’s story and mission and then, for God’s honor and glory, serving in that place. But how do we do that? How do we discover God’s place for us?
Here are a couple of things to consider:
(Slide 6a) We need to remember that we are not alone. God’s constant reminder to Moses that He would be with Moses and that He would give Moses what he needed when he needed it, is a reminder to us of the same thing.
(Slide 6b) We acknowledge our limitations because the Lord can work with them. Moses, out of fear, listed his limitations and the limitations of his situation. But, God still said go! The same holds true for us. God knows our limitations and those of our situation, but He will go with us as He leads in the way He wants us to go according to His plans and purposes. He will, and does, work with our limitations.
(Slide 6c) We partner with others to accomplish God’s work. Moses had Aaron and together they took on the world’s most powerful man, Pharaoh, in God’s name and led the people of Israel out of their slavery and bondage. We have the church; we are the church!
When the Holy Spirit came on Pentecost Day, He came to a group of people, not one single individual. God created the church to proclaim the faith, it is not the sole possession of one person. We grow much better in our faith when we grow together.
Remember the Fitch quote I gave a few moments ago? He said, ‘we do have a relationship with God which becomes personal but it is inseparable from His mission.’
But what he says just prior to this statement gives us an important insight into Moses’ situation and ours as well, ‘The gospel is not about getting something,’ he says,’ it is about participating in something—God’s work of reconciling the whole world to Himself. And yes, we do have a relationship with God which becomes personal but it is inseparable from His mission.’
Going and growing in Christ, gaining a more static free connection with Him, requires us to join the team, God’s team, and a humble admission of our own limitations that requires us to play second fiddle, because the story that has made a difference in our lives, is not our story, it is His story, it is God’s story, we are the supporting cast.
Have you felt out of touch and out of tune in your relationship with the Lord? Are your frustrated with your life and faith? Then I encourage you to reconnect with the Lord in these ways. He knows you, He loves you, and He has a place of service where He wants you to be. When you hear Him say ‘Go’ and do what I am asking of you, obey and respond. A group of people and God Himself, is counting on you. Amen.
Sources: MacDonald story and questions are located at: http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/2007/003/14.48.html
Fitch quote is from: http://blog.christianitytoday.com/outofur/archives/2007/10/me_myself_and_j.html
Spurgeon and Cooley quotes are from bartleby.com
Power Points for this sermon are available by e-mailing me at pastorjim46755@yahoo.com and asking for ‘101407slides’ Please note that all slides for a particular presentation may not be available.
