God Still Speaks Today
(Have you heard him speak lately?)
Exodus 3:1-12
Hebrews 1:1
Exodus 3 we find Moses in the desert of Median. Moses had lived in elegance and was now herding sheep in the desert. He had gone form the sublime to the simple, son of Pharaoh to sheepherder. It was in the desert that God gave a special calling to Moses. Isn't it usually during the desert times of our life that we hear God's call?
According to Acts 7:23, Moses was 40 years old when he killed the Egyptian fighting with a Israelite slave, and 40 years old when God spoke to him from the burning bush.
In the case of Moses it was while in the desolate desert that God called him out of a burning bush. Moses saw a burning bush. Bushes sometimes have spontaneous combustion in the desert, but this burning bush was unique. This bush didn't burn it. This bush was like an ever-lit candle on a birthday cake. You blow it out and it comes back after each blow. This bush was like wood fueled by butane.
How did Moses react to the burning bush. Did he say, “Behold! Look a bush burneth!, or, “verily a bush burneth?” He probably aid, “Wow, what a strange burning bush! I'm going to check that effervescent bush out.”
Moses went over to investigate and God called to Moses from within the burning bush. “Moses,” “Moses.” Moses answered, “Here I am.” “Do not come any closer, “ God said, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” When Moses heard this he hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.
From this passage we can glean several teaching of the Lord.
I. Whenever God calls you He has a Purpose
Exodus 3:7-8 “God said, I have seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have herd them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey.”
God is always involved with His creation.
“I have seen.”
“I have heard”
“I am concerned”
“I am come down.”
“I will send you.”
Moses, may have thought, “Great, now those Egyptians will get what's coming to them. Praise Jehovah, God is going to deliver His people out of bondage.”
But then the purpose of God's call became clear. “Moses I am sending you to Pharaoh to being my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
What was Moses' response? “No problem, I'm your man. I'm ready to go.” No Moses said, “Hold on, You said You were going to free the children of Israel.” “Why are you saying to me, you go?”
God said, “Moses I am sending you.” “I have come down, Moses I am sending you.”
God spoke and Moses listened. Has God spoken to you lately?
God has a mission and calling for all of us.
God said to Moses, “You are the answer.” “You can do it. I will go with you, now get going. Then Moses said, “I don't know what to say. I'm not up to going, and even if I go my speech is inadequate.”
Has God called you and your first thought was, “I'm not adequate for the calling. I'm not worthy. Call someone else.”
I like what the President of Service Master, an outstanding Company, once said, “If anything is worth doing, it's worth doing poorly the first time.” In other words, “get going, if you wait until you are perfect and speak perfectly before you go, you'll miss God's blessing.”
Ken Davis, author of “I Don't Remember Dropping the Skunk,” relates a story that happened while he was directing a Youth for Christ group. He challenged the teens to witness to their friends. He explained that teens are the greatest evangelists on earth. One teenage girl that was active in YFC came to talk to Ken. Ken described her as a space cadet. She was spacey. She was whining and crying, “I don't know what to say.” Ken told her to pray and ask God to lay one person on her heart. She said, “Okay.” She went home and God lad a friend on her heart.
She brought her friend to the next YFC meeting. She has a tract in her pocket that explained the plan of salvation. She was praying for the right time to pull out the tract and witness at any moment. On the way home after the meeting she asked her friend what she thought of the meeting. The girl replied, “It was okay except for the Jesus part.” “What didn't you like?” Her friend explained that she lived a terrible life and because her life was so bad, Jesus wouldn't love her or forgive her.
The Christian teen pulled the car off to the side of the road and told her friend her story of how Jesus had forgiven her. When she finished her friend asked, “Could Jesus do that for me?” They prayed and she accepted Jesus as her Savior. The teenage Christian didn't know what to say, but God gave her a testimony to share.
II. God Speaks Through His Word
We have confidence that the Bible we hold in our hand is true. Regardless of the translation, the Word of God has with stood the test of time.
When you read and study the bible you can have the confidence you are studying the very Word of God. The Bible deals with history, but it is more than a history book. The Bible speaks about science, but it is more than a science book. The Bible is a book about psychology, but it is more than a psychology book. The bible reveals God’s plan of salvation through the ages. The Bible is about a person, Jesus Christ the Messiah and Savior of the world. The Word, Jesus, became flesh and dwelt among us.
The Bible, God's Word is true, it will stand up to any critical investigation. II Timothy 3:16 says, “All scripture was given under inspiration of God.” “Holy men of God wrote as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” 2 Peter 1:21
The Bible manuscripts that have been found are in basic agreement. The Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in 1947 give credence to the Old Testament text as we have it today. Over 4,000 manuscripts of the Greek New Testament have been found which are in basic contextual agreement.
Contemporaries of Jesus wrote the books of the New Testament. The writers were eyewitnesses of Christ's earthly ministry, his death and resurrection.
John 20:31, The Apostle John gives a summary of why we have what is written in the bible, John says, “These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
We can say with the apostle Paul, “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.” 2 Timothy 1:12
III.. God speaks Through the Holy Spirit.
The Apostle Paul wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that the wisdom of the world will come to nothing and this the rulers of world lacks wisdom or they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
“However as it is written,
No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him”
But God has reveled it to us by His Spirit.
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among man know the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.” I Corinthians 2:9-12
IV. God speaks Through Prayer
Jesus expected His followers to pray. Jesus did not say, “If you pray?” He said, “When you pray.” Jesus taught the importance of prayer by His example. He prayed all night before choosing his disciples. He prayed before he revealed he was the Messiah. He prayed on the Mount of Transfiguration. Jesus prayed at the last supper, in the Garden of Gethseamane, and on the cross,
Jesus prayed alone in the early morning hours. He prayed alone at night. Jesus requested his disciples meet with Him in prayer.
Jesus prayed alone, in small groups, and before the multitudes.
Through prayer we plug into the power of heaven.
Praying for people is an excellent way to reach out in love to non -Christians. The majority of non-Christians are open to prayer. On prayer walks in San Jose, CA., I discovered about one in ten homes are open to having prayer at their doorstep. On prayer walks in St. Pete we had about a one in four people open to having prayer at their doorstep.
Simple questions can open an opportunity to pray:
“Do you have any prayer requests I can pray with you about?”
“How can I pray for you?”
“How's your life journey going?”
“What do you see are the greatest challenges in your life now?”
V. God Speaks Through Circumstances
Romans 8:28 “All things work together for good to those who love the Lord and are called according to His Purpose.”
God never guides contrary to His Word.
#Taylor FMC - A manufacture's representative called and made an appointment to talk. He was having trouble in his marriage. I shared with his God's plan of salvation and prayed with him. He said he was open to finding God's will for his life and marriage.
A couple weeks later he called one evening from Flint, Michigan. He said he was sitting in a bar and lonely. A woman came and sat down beside him and began to talk to him. She was in his motel room and he asked me if God has answered his prayer of loneliness and provided this woman to talk to him. I told him that God has not heard his payer but the Devil had answered his prayer. He needed to tell the woman good-bye and trust the Lord to provide Christian fellowship.
God never guides contrary to His Word. We are to test the spirits to see if they are from Christ. I John 4:1-2 “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This how you can recognize the Spirit of God. Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not form God. This is the spirit of the anti-Christ, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.”
VI. God Speaks His Final Words Today Through His son, Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 1:1 “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.”
Have you heard God speak to you lately?
God continues to speak today through His Son, Jesus.
God spoke to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Even in Genesis. God spoke to Abraham and other patriarchs in the Old Testament. God spoke to prophets, kings and judges. God spoke to the early Church. Jesus spoke to his disciples and the risen Jesus spoke to John the Apostle on the Isle of Patmos.
# In every opportunity for change in my life and ministry, I have sensed God speaking. During my High School years my favorite class was chemistry. During my first year of college at Central College of Kansas in McPherson I continued to enjoy Chemistry class. My thought was becoming a Chemistry teacher or serving as a research chemist.
During my first year at Central I went forward at a revival meeting and rededicated my life to the Lord. I remember testifying that I wanted to be a layman on fire for the Lord. I didn't want to be a preacher because people would think I was being paid to witness to them.
During my second year of college at Central I sense God's call on my life for full time ministry, but I believed my calling had to do with my interest in chemistry. For over a year I fought yielding to change my major.
For three summers I drove a combine harvesting wheat and the summer of my second year of College as I was cutting wheat the song kept coming to my mind: “The harvest is plenteous, but the labors are few, Ray won't you become a labor in my harvest field?”
# My Junior year I transferred to Greenville, College and early in the first semester I drove my car with a group of fellow students to Wheaton, Illinois to hear Billy Graham speak on the campus of Wheaton College. We drove up on early in the morning and returned that evening following the evening evangelistic rally. The meetings were held outdoors in a field and toward the end it started to rain lightly. After the benediction I loaded my car and we started back to Greenville. About five miles outside of Wheaton, driving on a black top highway with light rain, I didn't see a Black Angus bull wander up on the highway in front of my car and I ran full blast into the bull. I managed to pull the car off the highway near a farmhouse. We called the highway patrol to alert the other car and it came back to pick up my riders and my car was pulled into Wheaton near a car repair business.
It was late so I decided to sleep in my car. At 2 AM there was pounding on my car and two policeman told me to get out of the car. They searched me and told me it was against the law in Wheaton for anyone to sleep in their car at night. They took me to the police station and I spent the night in their jail.
I wandered why this happened to me. A drunken homeless man was in the next cell so I thought the Lord put me there so I could give good news to the gentleman. I witnessed to him, but after nearly an hour I decided he wasn't ready to receive good news.
The next day I want to the chapel service and Joe Blinkco an associate evangelist spoke on the Life and Work of the Holy Spirit. At the end of the service I want forward and fully surrendered my life to the Lord and said, If Jesus would go with me I would serve Him in full time ministry. I would rather be in the center of God's will than have anything else. The past 50 years of ministry have been an exciting journey. A journey that had a turning point in my life happened during a jail experience in Wheaton, Illinois.
Every change and new opportunity in ministry I have sense God speaking to me. When God speaks He has a purpose in speaking.
Our plans and purposes are not always God's plans and purposes. When we finally yield to God's plan He reveals His purposes so we know what His plans are for us to do.
When you are facing a challenging time in your life, listen to the Lord speak to you a reassuring word.
Have you heard the Lord speak lately?
When God calls He has a purpose. He speaks to us through Jesus.
