Introduction:
A. Maybe you have heard the story of the day that President George W. Bush was in an airport and noticed a man in a long flowing red robe with a long flowing white hair and beard.
1. The man had a staff in one hand and some stone tablets under the other arm.
2. George W. approached the man and asked, “Aren't you Moses?”
3. The man ignored George W. and stared at the ceiling.
4. George W. positioned himself more directly in the man's view and asked again, “Aren't you Moses?”
5. The man continued to stare at the ceiling.
6. George W. then tugged at the man's sleeve and asked once again, “Aren't you Moses?”
7. The man finally responded in an irritated tone, “YES, I AM!”
8. George W. asked him why he was so irritated and why he had taken so long to answer him.
9. Moses replied, “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be rude, but the last time I spoke to a Bush I ended up stuck in a desert for forty years!”
B. Today, as we return to the story of Moses, we will look at the incident that occurred with the burning bush – where God spoke to Moses and Moses talked back to the bush.
1. Last week, as you will remember, Moses had grown up and was age 40 when he experienced his major, life-shattering failure and ran into the desert to escape the consequences.
2. Moses spent the next 40 years in obscurity, in the desert of Midian, tending his father-in-law’s sheep.
3. I’m sure at that point, Moses must have felt that he was an unusable vessel.
4. I’m sure that he felt that he messed up so much that God would never call on him for any major assignment.
5. But Moses was so wrong.
C. As a matter of fact, God specializes in working with those who have made major mistakes.
1. Last week, I mentioned that God employs imperfect people, because that’s the only kind of people God has to work with.
2. Allow me to quickly jog your memory of some of the imperfect people whom God has worked with.
3. Abraham is certainly known as a man of faith. He followed God by leaving his homeland, and he was even willing to sacrifice the son of promise when God ordered him to do so, but he had his lapses of faith – on a couple of occasions he tried to protect himself through lying, and he also tried to produce the needed heir through someone other than Sarah. God still used him.
4. King David, the man after God’s own heart, who had his share of great victories, like over Goliath, but made his share of major mistakes and sins which included adultery, deception, and murder. God still employed him.
5. How about Jonah? He didn’t get it right the first time, but God still worked through him.
6. Consider Rahab the prostitute who God used to give His people the victory at Jericho – she ends up in the lineage of Jesus and in the “faith hall of fame” in Hebrews 11.
7. What about the apostle Peter who had denied Jesus three times? Jesus wasn’t done with him; he went on to be a great leader in the church.
D. Moses is going to discover that God specializes in using imperfect people.
1. Part of the reason God does that is because God doesn’t have any perfect people to use.
2. Another part of the reason is that God wants to show everyone that what matter is not the person, but the God who is behind the person and working in the person.
3. That’s why I had us read the verses we read for the Scripture reading.
a. Paul wrote:8 We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. 9 Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. (2 Cor. 1:8-9)
b. Paul also wrote: 7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. (2 Cor. 4:7)
4. We are but jars of clay and some of us have some pretty significant cracks in our pots, but it is not the pot that matters it is what fills that pot that matters.
5. We are weak and flawed vessels, but God fills us with His power and His righteousness and He enables us to carry out His good purposes.
6. We must learn not to rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead!
7. With all this in mind let’s return to the story of Moses.
1. The Story
A. The Bible says: 1 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. (Ex. 3:1)
1. This was the day when God was going to break a forty-year silence. Pause and let that sink in.
2. Through four decades in Midian, we have no record of God’s speaking to Moses.
3. But this day, when God was going to shatter that silence, dawned like every other day.
4. It was just your common, ordinary, garden-variety, work day with the sheep.
5. Just another day at the wilderness office, under the shade of Mount Horeb.
6. The sun came up, the sheep grazed, and Moses chalked off his 14,600th day as Jethro’s assistant shepherd.
B. But isn’t that the way God usually works?
1. Without a hint of warning, God speaks to ordinary people, on ordinary days.
2. And do you remember what Scripture says about the day that the Lord will return?
3. The Bible says: 37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. (Mt. 24:37-39)
4. In other words, it will happen on an ordinary day when some people are getting married and some are getting buried.
5. But until that great day arrives, God will continue to step into ordinary days in extraordinary ways.
C. The story continues: 2 There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.” (Ex. 2:2-3)
1. A remarkable thing happened to Moses on that otherwise unremarkable day.
2. The 80 year old shepherd suddenly noticed something very unusual happening to a bush.
3. The bush, itself, wasn’t different or remarkable, but what was happening to it certainly was different and remarkable.
4. Moses, of course, was curious – there usually wasn’t much to write home about out there in the desert.
5. Verses 2 and 3 tell us that Moses did two things: First he looked, and second, he said something to himself.
D. Through the years, surely Moses had seen a bush or two catch fire because of the heat (spontaneous combustion) or a lightning strike.
1. But usually the bush only took a few seconds to burn up and all that was left was a little pile of smoldering ashes.
2. But what was happening to this bush was different – it kept burning and burning.
3. Moses said to himself, “How strange!” and wouldn’t you know it there was no one with him to share this with.
4. At that moment, he didn’t have the foggiest idea of what was going on.
5. I’m sure it never dawned on him, “I’ll bet God is in that bush!”
6. No he was simply curious, as any of us would have been.
E. This is often God’s way of getting our attention.
1. God occasionally does something very unusual or extraordinary.
2. When you or I come across an extremely unusual event, it is a good idea to stop and ask, “Is God somehow trying to get my attention?”
3. God doesn’t often speak vocally from heaven, shouting down His Word and Will, rather He uses His Book, or His people, or He uses events in our lives to direct us.
4. When God tries to get our attention, He waits to see if we are ready to listen.
F. Back to our story, the Bible says: 4 When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.” (Ex. 3:4)
1. When did God speak to Moses? Not until God saw that He had Moses’ attention.
2. God didn’t speak to Moses until Moses stepped away from his shepherding and moved toward the event that captured his attention.
3. Unfortunately, most of us aren’t inquisitive enough.
4. We often don’t stop in our tracks, turn aside, and consider what is happening in our lives and what God might be trying to say to us.
G. Moses did the right thing. He moved toward the situation and that’s when God spoke.
1. God said, “Moses, Moses!” You want to talk about a Twilight Zone experience – a voice in the wilderness calling your name from a burning bush!
2. Moses must have looked around for a jokester hiding behind a rock, or asked “Am I on Candid Camera?”, but when he saw no one, he simply replied, “I’m here,” or in our terms, “It’s me.” Or “Yeah, that’s my name don’t wear it out.”
3. Then God said, 5 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” 6 Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God. (Ex. 3:5-6)
4. Moses was standing on holy ground, and holy ground required the removal of his shoes.
5. This is very interesting. What made it holy ground? The presence of God. The special manifestation of God’s presence made that spot holy ground.
6. The removal of shoes has always been considered an act of reverence and humbleness.
7. I’m sure Moses took off his shoes, even though the text doesn’t mention it.
H. Before we move on, let’s consider what else God said to Moses.
1. God said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”
2. The text tells us that Moses immediately hid his face from God because of fear.
3. This was the God he heard so much about in his early days, but was a God whom he was sure did want anything to do with him.
4. Nevertheless, here was this God who is the one and only God, and He has paid a visit to Moses.
5. Surely Moses wondered why the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was appearing to him.
6. The Lord hadn’t yet said anything about Moses’ part in the Lord’s big plan.
7. Moses has never read Exodus, or watched The Ten Commandments or The Prince of Egypt.
8. Moses doesn’t have a clue about what’s coming next.
I. The Bible says: 7 The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 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—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” (Ex. 3:7-10)
1. If you have ever doubted the heart of God for His own, then read these words over and over until you are convinced otherwise…”I have indeed seen the misery…I have heard them crying out…I am concerned about their suffering…I have come down to rescue them…”
2. Perhaps you find yourself in a situation like the Israelites found themselves…under circumstances so harsh and hard to handle…and your heart aches…and you wonder why God doesn’t do something… and you wonder if he sees and cares.
3. We can be assured that God is aware and he cares – He is touched by it and wants to help.
4. Satan, our enemy, wants us to think differently – he wants us to think that God doesn’t care.
J. Suddenly Moses heard words that must have stunned him like a bolt of lightning – “I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people out of Egypt.”
1. Say what? Send me? To Pharaoh? To do what?
2. Next time, Lord willing, we will come back to the story and learn some things from Moses’ response to the Lord’s commission.
3. For now I’d like us to see what we can learn from this part of the story – the story of burning bushes and second chances.
II. The Application
A. First, from the story, we learn to pay attention when God calls.
1. When God was trying to get Moses’ attention through the burning bush, Moses was willing to pay attention.
2. Let me ask you: How is God trying to get your attention?
3. Has God allowed you to fall on your face hoping that you would look to Him for direction?
4. Has God slowed you down by putting you on your back or in the hospital?
5. God might be trying to get our attention through a job loss, or a house fire, or a brush with death.
6. Let me hasten to add that I’m not trying to say that everything that happens to us is God’s burning bush.
7. But sometimes God calls through the storm and other times it is through the calm.
8. The question is: are we too busy to pay attention?
9. Or do we have our minds focused on what we think are more important matters?
10. At all times, it is good to pause and ask: “Could God be saying something to me through this situation, or person?
11. We need to learn to pay attention when God calls.
C. Second, from the story, we learn that failure isn’t fatal or final.
1. Any old bush in the wilderness was suitable for God’s purposes, because the power was not in the bush, but in the Lord.
2. What is true about bushes is also true about people – God can use anyone to accomplish His purposes.
3. As we mentioned earlier, the only people available are imperfect, and so God uses imperfect people to receive and dispense His perfect message and accomplish His perfect will.
4. “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” (2 Cor. 4:7)
5. Christ living in us is the hope of glory. (Col. 1:27)
6. We are going to fail, and sin, but sin and failure do not disqualify us from God’s family nor from God’s mission.
7. Certainly failure and sin must be avoided and corrected, but it must also be learned from.
8. In some respects, our failures make us more qualified for service rather than less qualified.
9. Let me share with you a true story about Thomas Edison.
a. Have you ever thought of Thomas Edison as one of the world’s greatest failures?
b. This man tried more than a thousand different light bulbs until he got it right. Have you ever failed at something a thousand times before you got it right?
c. Actually Edison didn’t think of these failed experiments as failures.
d. He regarded them as steps in a long process.
e. But late in his life something happened to Thomas that would have defeated a lesser man.
f. Thomas Edison’s son Charles, one-time governor of New Jersey, tells the story.
g. On the night of December 9, 1914, Edison Industries was virtually destroyed by fire. Edison lost two million dollars that night and much of his life’s work went up in flames.
h. He was insured for only $238,000, because the buildings had been made of concrete, at that time and were thought to be fireproof.
i. Charles was 24; Thomas was 67. The young man ran about frantically, trying to find his father.
j. Finally he came upon him, standing near the fire, his face ruddy in the glow, his white hair blown by the December winds.
k. “My heart ached for him,” Charles Edison said. “he was 67 - no longer a young man - and everything was going up in flames. He spotted me. ‘Charles,’ he shouted, ‘where’s your mother?’ ‘I don’t know, Dad,’ I said. ‘Find her. Bring her here. She will never see anything like this again as long as she lives.’ ”
l. The next morning, walking about the charred embers of all his hopes and dreams, Thomas Edison said, “There is great value in disaster. All our mistakes are burned up. Thank God we can start anew.”
10. We must not give up after our failures – God certainly doesn’t give up on us! Thank God we can start anew!
11. We qualify for God’s service, just as we are, failures and all.
a. We must come to God in the same way: “Just as we are…Just as I am.”
b. That’s a great thought and song for our invitation…
Resources:
Moses: A Man of Selfless Dedication, by Charles Swindoll, Word Publishing, 1999
A Second Chance, Sermon by Sheldon Boyd, SermonCentral.com
