The year was 1992 and I was a young single man serving as an intern in Deshler, Nebraska. One quiet evening I turned on the TV and saw the Billy Graham crusade taking place somewhere in Russia – the stadium was full, the people were pouring down filling the field at the altar call. And right then and there I prayed: "Lord if you want to use me to serve in Eastern Europe, I’m willing to go." 2 ½ years later I was living in the Czech Republic amazed at God's calling.
Is there any kind of ‘impossible’ burden on your heart? Is there any wild dream that you have for your future? I mean something that God has laid on your heart. I believe that God will lay on every person's heart a desire, a burden to serve him in some unique way custom designed for you. It may not be serving as a missionary but it could be something totally different – right here. What is that called? A calling! What is YOUR calling?
This morning we are looking at the calling process in Moses as an example of God’s calling process. No – this isn’t just for preachers or prophets. But for ordinary people and it begins with a burden placed in your heart.
1. God puts a burden on your heart (2:11-15a)
[read 2:11-15a] Moses had a burden for his people. How did he get that burden? "Draw near to God and he will draw near to you." (James 4:8) Spend time with the Lord, seek his will, pray, read his Word, and the Lord will do something in your heart – he will put a burden on your heart for someone or something, for some way to serve him. He will do it!
Where Moses learned of this great need, we can only guess. He grew up in the palace of the Pharaoh. Moses definitely had contact with his family as we know from the fact that he was nursed by his mother. But how much influence she later had on him we don’t know. It is certain that he would have had access to all the family records brought from Canaan. He would know about the covenant and how his people came to Egypt. He would know about the calling of Abraham (Gen. 15:13-14).
Apparently a time came when Moses decided which people he would live with and who would be his people. There came a kind of fork in the road for him. Heb. 11:24-26 alludes to this time in which he left the house of Pharaoh and was among his own people. The timing of this and how long it was before the following events, we can’t say. But he obviously had a burden for his persecuted people.
What did he do about it? As we read, he discovered an Israelite being beaten by an Egyptian and Moses killed the Egyptian. Here was his chance! Yes, his calling was to free his brothers from bondage, but there was one serious problem: He carried it through in his own power. Everything fell apart because he tried to fulfill God's plan in his own way, through sin. Notice – he looked this way and that. If this was from God, he wouldn’t have to be afraid but could boldly act. This was his own flesh trying to accomplish his will.
David Guzik said this: “If Moses ever sat down and decided to deliver his people from their Egyptian bondage, he would never have thought: ‘My brother Aaron and I will go to Pharaoh with a special stick that turns into a snake. We'll ask him to let us go back to Canaan, and if he says no, we'll bring plagues of blood in the Nile River, frogs, mosquitoes, flies, cattle disease, boils, hail, locusts, and darkness. If all that doesn't work, we'll kill all the firstborn of Egypt and escape across the Red Sea, which will part for us and flow back to drown the Egyptians. Then we'll cross the wilderness and come to Canaan.’” God’s plans seem ridiculous – that’s why he only gives us a little piece at a time.
Our plan isn’t God’s. Like Moses, so often we feel that the only way to complete the plan of God is to sin – break the rules – but that just shows that we haven’t waited upon God. God’s plan seems crazy to our flesh - impossible. I can’t do that! And that’s a clue that it’s the plan of God! Because God does the impossible.
Moses’ plan didn't work but his heart was in the right place! His vision died as he ran away into the desert. He forgot about the burden for his people. But all during this time, God was training him for the future! God was preparing him for service! He wasn’t ready for the job yet.
How about YOUR calling? God will or already has put a burden on your heart for ministering to a certain group of people, or he tugs at your heart to serve him in a certain way. Don’t ignore that but keep praying about it. Is this from God? If it’s from him, he won’t let you forget about it or ignore it. He won’t let you have peace until you answer his call.
2. God trains you for it!
The second key part of God’s calling is his training. The Lord trains you in his own special way – sometimes through school – but always through the school of life. And this training occurs all your life. Even before you were a believer, God was using the experiences in your life to prepare you for a special ministry custom prepared for you.
a. 40 years of leadership training
Read 2:10. All along during these first 40 years God had been preparing Moses for this great responsibility of leading Israel. Being the adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter, Moses was in the royal family.
If we study the history of Egypt, Moses was under one of the greatest kings of Egypt – the 18th dynasty. This was the beginning of the highest point of Egypt’s power. And Moses was in the very middle of it living in the palace.
Jewish historian, Josephus, says he was heir to the throne of Egypt; and that while a young man, Moses led the armies of Egypt in victorious battle against the Ethiopians.
Certainly, he was raised with both the science and learning of Egypt. Acts 7:22 says Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds. Egypt was one of the most academic and scientific societies on the earth at that time; Moses would have been instructed in geography, history, grammar and writing, literature, philosophy, music.
This was one of the best gifts God could give to a person if he would use it for his glory. None of the Israelites had the advantage of such training. None of them were educating in writing, for example. None of them had the great experience of leading an army as he did. Living in the palace, he had the best leadership training possible in the whole world – the world power!
But the Israelites were to be living in very unique circumstances – in the wilderness for many years. That was one area Moses was not ready for. So that was the next area of his training by God.
b. 40 years of wilderness training (2:16-22)
Let’s read 2:16-22. For 40 years God trained Moses how to survive in the wilderness. That wasn't part of Moses plan but God knew better. God controls circumstances! Moses learned how to survive with very little - it was training for his future job of leading people into the wilderness - he would know how to survive. I'm sure Moses never thought that living in the wilderness was training. He never realized that God planned that but all the time it was part of God's school of training.
He also needed to learn service and humility. After living in the high life at the top and thinking he had everything, he needed to be humbled by God so that he would listen to him. It doesn’t matter how much education and knowledge a person has, if there is no humility, it’s all a waste and can’t be used by God.
The Midianites had descended from Abraham through his second wife, Keturah (Gen. 25:2-4). They lived on one side to the southern point of the peninsula. There Moses helps save the flock of the 7 daughters of Reuel (Jethro). He is taken into the family and given the daughter, Zipporah.
It is interesting to note that Reuel is a priest. It’s likely that he worships the Lord too since he is from Abraham. His name means “Friend of El,” El being the name for God that the patriarchs used. But Moses certainly learned humility in this clan like family. He has to be a normal shepherd (3:1). He names his first son Gershom meaning “expulsion, banishment” (2:22). We can just feel God breaking Moses pride and humbling him.
And what about your calling? God has controlled the circumstances in your life too. He will lead you and train you for how you can serve him. Maybe things don't go the way you want and you don’t end up where you thought you would be - God has a better plan. He will use another way that is better in training you for the future. Maybe there is a disaster or tragedy in your family - God will somehow use it to train you for the future! "God works all things together for good to those who love him." He uses everything we experience in life for ministry. Your tragedies can be used to help someone else going through a similar crisis.
And when he's trained you, He will remind you and put that desire in your heart for what he wants you to do. Moses vision died, forgotten, but God revived it. God doesn't forget! God never forgets you and never forgets that he has a ministry for you!
3. God does the planning (3-4)
God puts a burden on our heart, he trains/prepares us, and then when the time is right he places the ministry before us. God interrupts his normal shepherding day with a burning bush and then he tells Moses this: …(read Exodus 3:6-10).
God revived the burden that Moses had for Israel. By now Moses has lived so long in the wilderness, that he’s given up the dream. He was a different kind of man – a humble man, a wiser man. A man who knows his weaknesses. And so God calls him and Moses gives many excuses to serve God. Therefore God was able to use Moses because he was totally dependent on him. Moses was like clay in God's hands. Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding. In all of your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight."
Does God have a plan for you? God says to you: “trust in ME and not on YOUR understanding.” The plan sometimes seems so impossible - maybe God put a burden on your heart to do something that you think is crazy, it's a ministry you just can't picture doing. But if God put that burden on your heart, GOD WILL MAKE IT HAPPEN. Let GOD be in charge and it will happen. You just have to trust him and be willing to go out of your comfort zone.
Moses had a relatively peaceful and safe life in the wilderness with his wife and children. He had a home, good food, nice swimming by the oasis, he wasn't bothered by neighbors, by complaining people. It was an easy life and a peaceful life. He didn't want to go back to Egypt and have to deal with all those problems - it didn't look very fun. But God pushed him because God had a plan to use him to free the people. God has a plan for you but you have to be willing to go out of your comfort zone - do something that you have never done before, step out and let God take over - trust in Him! If he's planned it - he will do it!
God’s done everything for us – saved us, filled us, trained and equipped us, and called us. And then all he asks from us is a willingness to step out where he calls.
Annie Dillard, “I had been my whole life a bell, and did not realize it until I was lifted and struck.” Maybe you're that bell that has never been struck. Trust the Lord - follow His leading. You may discover that you are called in ways you never dreamed possible!
As with Moses, the first step is a difficult one because it demands walking in faith but “Faithful is he who calls you, and he also will bring it to pass.” (1 Thes. 5:24)
