CAN A PERSON HAVE AN ENCOUNTER WITH THE LIVING GOD SERIES?
PART 2.
EXODUS 3: 1-9.
I would like to share with you an encounter that Barbara and I had with the living Lord. We were having revivals and the church had asked one of the organization leaders to come and be our speaker. The church had fasted and prayed for this time of special meeting as it was a week where the church body was looking forward to being ministered to. We were also inviting unsaved people to the meeting with the prayer that they would find Jesus. On the first evening you could almost touch the Holy Spirit his presence was so strong. The service started and it wasn’t long until the Holy Spirit began to minister. I want to tell you that as were coming to the end of the service that the presence of the Holy Spirit was so strong that all I felt driven by the very presence of the Holy Spirit to my knees. I can still see myself there on that platform give praise to the Lord Jesus. The next morning I received a phone call from the leader of the organization and they requested that I meet with them as they had some concerns. At the meeting the speaker told about the service and as I looked at the leader of the organization I couldn’t believe my ears. He told me that he was upset with what he had heard and that if anything like that went on again that he would take away my credentials and I would be ask to leave the church. I kind of stammered as I couldn’t understand why anyone wouldn’t want to experience the presence to the Holy Spirit and be a part of a service where the Holy Spirit ministered to the Lord’s children. I remember asking why and I was told that the organization didn’t want to have a church that was known for having unusually services. They wanted the community to look upon them the same way the community looked upon the liberal churches. They didn’t want to be known as a Bible believing/preaching Holy Spirit empowered church. I went back home and told Barbara what happened. We decided that it was better for us to obey the Holy Spirit and risk being asks to leave that follow the plans of the organization. The church had a real encounter with the Living Lord God.
Today I want to look at Moses encounter. I want us to look at the excuses that he was offering to the Lord and see if any of them are ones that we may have used or are using.
I believe that the last thing on Moses mind was a divine encounter with the Living God. Moses who is 80 years old lived in the middle of nowhere looking after sheep for his father-in-law. He lived there with his wife and family. This scripture isn’t teaching that you have to wait until you’re 80 to have an encounter with the Lord. When I read the account of Moses and the burning bush I wonder how many times he looked up into the mountain and saw the burning bush before he actually made up his mind to go and see it.
Exodus 3:2-4a. The angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed. So Moses said, "I must turn aside now and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up." When the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, "Moses, Moses!"
Let me ask you if you saw a burning bush and you could see that the bush wasn’t being destroyed what would you do.
Look at Moses reply. It is kind of o well I guess I should go over there and take a closer look. It is almost as if this is a daily occurrence for Moses. Can you picture Moses going home and his wife asking him how his day was and Moses saying not to much happen? That burning bush was still there. As I read this I realized that we might be like Moses. I don’t see Moses as being to excited over this. Now let me ask you another question what would need to happen in a service for you to be so excited that you could speak or you just couldn’t wait until you told someone. What I find interesting is that Moses is up on the mountain with the Living God; he hears the Lord speak and instead of enjoying his encounter with the Living Lord we find that he’s making up excuses so that he doesn’t have to obey the Lord.
Does that sound a lot like the church is today? I was teasing my grandson the other day about how slow he was driving the ride on lawn mower. Mark gave me about ½ dozen excuses for driving so low. I often think that we are so used to giving excuses that we don’t even realize that we are doing it. Moses actually came up with what he though was some pretty good reasons why he shouldn’t have to obey the Lord. Now what Moses doesn’t realize is that if he disobeys the Lord; his disobedience will actually affect his spiritual relationship. Did you know that everytime that a Christian refuses to obey the Lord that we put an extra layer of insulation over our heart which makes it easier for us to disobey the Lord? For Moses to have the relationship with the Lord that God wants him to have requires Moses to go to Egypt. Moses began his journey to the promise land by obeying the Lord and heading to Egypt to lead the people of Israel to the Land beyond the Jordan. This morning I wonder if we are willing to ask the Holy Spirit show us the excuses we have been using for not having the encounter with the Lord that he wants us to have.
Moses first excuse is I’M A NOBODY.
Exodus 3: 11.But Moses spoke to God. "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?" he said. "Who am I that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" Moses didn’t think very much about himself even though he grew up in Pharaoh’s house even though that was long time ago. Now he saw himself as just a shepherd and everybody know that a shepherd is someone who is taught that they’re nobody. Add to that the fact that Moses has been gone from Egypt for over forty years and he wouldn’t be much help because now everything would be different. If this was happening today we might say to the Lord there is a good chance that by now are all the people would be going to the Egypt church and they wouldn’t want to change.
Gods answer to Moses excuses is I will BE with YOU. I don’t know if you know this but I believe you do, the Lord always has an answer that will dispel our excuse. The Bible tells us that Moses chose to live with the Jews in Egypt instead of staying in the palace. Moses knew who he was, Moses knew about the Lord calling Abraham out and Moses knew about the promises of the Lord to the Jewish people. Moses knew everything that the Lord had done for the Jewish people so when the Lord replied to Moses that he would be with him Moses understood just what that meant. I guess when the Lord say that he will be with us the question is to we act like Joshua did and instantly begin to move forward or do we say that we have to think about it.
Some of the statements that Jesus made have always intrigue me because when Jesus asked that question I knew that Jesus had looked ahead and that He knew the answer.
Jesus asked in Luke 18:8. if at His return if there would be faith on the earth.
Paul said that in the last days there will be a falling away of the faithful. Paul wasn’t talking about new Christians he was talking about mature Christians who for one reason or another decided that they just didn’t want to serve the Lord anymore.
You may not agree with me but I believe that we don’t have much time left until the triumph sounds and the church is rapture. I happened to mentioned this to another Christian and they said do you really believe that Jesus is going to come back. You all know my answer. As I talked to the Christian I realized what the Lord and Paul meant about finding people of faith. If we continue to ignore the Lord Jesus we may find the consequence to be greater than we are willing to pay. I find Moses next excuse as almost a slap in the face of the Lord.
Moses second excuses is NO ONE KNOW YOU NAME.
EXODUS 3:13. Then Moses said to God, "Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you.' Now they may say to me, what is His name? What shall I say to them?
I find this question of Moses very interesting. I believe that Moses felt that just because all the gods of Egypt had a name that the Living God needed to have a name. The thing is that the name of the Lord was so sacred the Jewish priest would even say it. They would use letters to let people know that they were speaking about God. I know from experience what Moses is saying. We may have been there when we were talking to someone and we got to thinking about the fact that people just may not believe us. I remember one situation where I knew that the Lord wanted me to tell Randy that we were gathering every morning to prayer for revival. I remember telling him some lame excuse instead of the truth. All I was really doing was attempting to find an out instead of obeying the Lord. On the last day of the prayer time I remember Randy again asking only this time he asked what a more direct question and this time I gave to him the answer that the Lord wanted him to have.
God second answer to Moses excuse is I AM WHO I AM.
How does God tell a created being how to describe the Lord to people? The Lord could have said that he is the One who made the earth and all the stars; that he is the one who is holding everything together. The Lord could have said I am the one who created you or that the Lord is the one who direct the path of mankind. When you think about it what better words could be used to actually describe the Living Lord? This could also be translated I AM THAT I AM. Someone put it this way; it isn’t the name of God that is important it is who God is that is important. The thing is that God is all we need. He is the Source of grace, mercy, love, holiness, strength and protection.
Moses third excuse is WHO WILL BELIEVE ME?
EXODUS 4:1. Moses answered, "What if the elders of Israel won't believe me? What if they won't listen to me? Suppose they say, 'The Lord didn't appear to you.' Then what should I do?
I have had many times when someone came to me and said that they had a message for me from the Lord. I just stood there and listen. They asked me what I though. I said I would have to wait and see. There have been times when someone actually did have a message for me from the Lord but they didn’t know it. I have learned to test what people say to me by the scripture and I also wait and see if the message will be authenticated by the Holy Spirit. When the Lord ask us to witness to some one and we don’t; usually the reason why we don’t is because of fear that the people we are to witness to just won’t believe us. Something we pass the buck or like Moses we come up with excuses that kind of make us feel good about not doing what the Lord asks. The same is true when things don’t go the way we planned. We blame someone else. It doesn’t surprise me that this is one of the reasons why the Church is ineffective. We like to blame our personal ineffectiveness in sharing Christ at the feet of the people we are suppose to share Christ with because that relieves us of any personal responsibility. As one church told me we didn’t want to do it that is why we hired you as the pastor.
God answer to Moses excuses is I WILL GIVE YOU SIGNS.
The signs that God gave to Moses was snake and leprosy. Now these signs were at first for Moses so he would know beyond a shadow of doubt that he was dealing with the Living God. I want you to notice just how patience the Lord is with Moses. Look at the situation Moses is talking to the Living Lord in front of a burning bush that wasn’t actually being consumed by the fire and he is saying to the Lord; I don’t have enough faith to believe. I believe the truth is that Moses just didn’t want to do what God wanted him to do. Now you are probably wondering if the Lord is going to give you signs that will help you in witnessing. Well the answer is yes. I believe that the biggest sign that the Lord gives to us is the effect that the Holy Spirit has been having on transforming our lives. I remember a young man who told his family and his church that he felt the Lord was calling him to become a youth pastor. The young man started out going to University but when it came down to where he had to actually tell people about Jesus and where he had to actually had to encourage people to accept the gift of salvation offered on the cross the young man quite. He said he felt that the Lord had made a wrong decision. Well I want you to know that the Lord never makes a wrong decision. The young man found out just what was require of him as a youth pastor and he decided that he didn’t want to serve the Lord by doing all what they were asking of him at the university.
A Moses fourth excuse is that HE ISN’T VERY GOOD AT SPEAKING.
EXODUS 4:10. Moses spoke to the Lord. He said, Lord, I've never been a good speaker. And I haven't gotten any better since you spoke to me. I don't speak very well at all.
I remember trying to get the people in one of the churches I pastor to share the gospel. Here are some of their excuses.
I don’t have a university degree.
I didn’t study theology.
I am not called to be a witness.
I sooner have my friends like me than let then know about Jesus.
I don’t know anybody.
Why doesn’t the pastor do that?
If I knew I had to do that I wouldn’t got saved.
This is Moses last ditch effort to avoid the trip back to Egypt. It is believe by a lot of scholars that Moses had a speech problem. Moses may have though that after chasing sheep for 40 years his Egyptian was rusty. There is a serious battle taking place within Moses. Every person after they get saved has to fight the battle of selfishness or the battle of the I’s. Moses is more concerned about himself than he is with what the Living Lord requires.
D.L. Moody was serving the Lord as an evangelist in the U.S. The news soon spread to England about how the Lord Jesus was using him and that many people were getting saved. In England a group of minister got together and decided to bring Moody to London. Their plan was to send someone to the U.S. to speak with Moody and to set up the time for when D.L. was to come back to London. The plan was that Moody would be come the next year. Now in every group you will always face some opposition. Moody was booked for a month and after the first week this small fraction that was opposed to having Moody in the first place requested a meeting with the committee as they had some serious concerns. At the meeting their shared their concerns which started with he didn’t dress right and that he was an American. Then they said we have one last concern and that is that Mr. Moody doesn’t speak very good English. His grammar is always wrong. We feel that he is a disgrace to the Lord and to our cause. We want him gone. One older minister stood and said, yes he doesn’t dress like us, he isn’t from England and he doesn’t speak the Queens English but do you see how the Holy Spirit is using this vessel to reach thousands for the cause of Christ. Jesus is more concern about availability to His purpose than He is about our qualifications.
Moses last excuse is that HE JUST CAN’T DO IT.
EXODUS 4: 13. But Moses said, "Lord, please send someone else to do it.
Finally Moses comes out and says I just can’t do it.
When I was in Saint John I wanted the church to do something for Easter. I talked to the church and I encourage the church to at least try. With some help we decided to put on a three act play. The first scene had to do with Jesus arrest. The second scene was Jesus on the cross and the third scene was the empty tomb. Now we had stories and songs through out the three scenes. I encouraged the church to do one on Saturday evening, Sunday Morning and Sunday evening. I remember one practice where we had some people singing and the curtain was open and they say Jesus on the cross. They lost it and many started to cry. When we actually put this on we had sent out flyers and personal invitations. I want you to know that we packed then in and the great thing is that at every service we had a completely different crowd. When it was all over we talked and they said we though we were too small to do anything like this. Can we do something for Christmas?
The concerns of Moses when they are laid along side of the request of the Lord seem pretty small because we are talking about people souls and where they will spend eternity. The point is God is able to help us. Is Moses situation really any different than our. Only is that Moses is being ask to liberate a whole nation and the Lord only wants to liberate one person at a time using us. The God of the burning bush is the God who will fill us with the Holy Spirit so we can fulfill the purpose of the Lord. The Lord will respond by coming near to us and making His power and presence known!
God final answer is I’LL GIVE YOU HELP.
God told Moses that his brother Aaron would go with him and be the spokesman. When Jesus send out the disciples to testify about the kingdom of God Jesus send the disciples out by twos. Mark 14:13. Another example is Paul and Silas.
Ecclesiastes 4:9. Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor.
When I was in University you had to take part every semester in witnessing within the community. I remember the first time I was asked to go. I was scared but when I was informed that I wouldn’t be along that changed everything.
I know that at time we feel inadequate for the task. The questions do we doubt Gods ability to take care of us according to scripture? Maybe we think that the people won’t believe us. The Lord isn’t asking you and me to believe for the people, all Jesus wants us to do is tell them. Once they are given the knowledge they are responsibility.
The God who sent Aaron to help Moses will have someone come along side of you as you witness for Jesus the Lord is looking for people who have a desire to encounter Him.
