If God Is Now What
5/23/04 NLF Exodus 3:1-22 1 Cor. 10:1-3
Let’s suppose for a moment that your car insurance payment and your house insurance payment both came due at the same time. You had misplaced the bills, and had received your final notice that your insurance would be cancelled if payment was not postmarked by Friday. You quickly write your check and hurry off to the post office, you rush in and drop the letters in the box on Thursday.
On Saturday, you’re driving along and get a call on your cell phone. It’s your neighbor telling you that there are fire engines in front of your house and flames are coming out the roof. In your panic, you don’t see the stop sign and you crash into a car that has the right of way. Nobody is seriously injured but you have totaled both cars.
By the time you get to your house, it’s in total ruins. The only thing that’s left standing that’s usable is the mailbox. You’re thinking, well at least I’ve got insurance. You look inside the mailbox, and you see the envelopes containing your car insurance and house insurance payment sitting in the mailbox, returned because you forgot to put stamps on the envelopes. You know that as of yesterday, your insurance had expired.
As you stand there crying, a black lexus limousine pulls to the curb. The window in the passenger side goes down. A guy asks you to come over for a second. He asks what happened. You tell him about the car accident, the house burning down, and the insurance being cancelled. You show him the payments returned because of a lack of stamp. The stranger pulls out a card and says here, come down here on Monday morning and let me take care of this for you. Before you can say anything, he pulls off.
On the business card it says, Bill Gates. CEO of Microsoft. Now for those of you who do not know Bill Gates or Microsoft, he is one of the richest people in the world thanks to the computer. Now if that person in the car was really who is the same person as on the card, how many of you know that you do not have anything to worry about as far as the house and the cars are concerned?
How many of you also know, you have the power to wipe out the kindness and favor of Mr. Gates, just by simply ignoring the card or choosing to believe, Mr. Gates would never do something like that for you? How many of you know that your unbelief will not do anything to remove the billions of dollars in Mr. Gates account.
If you believe that was Bill Gates in the limousine, you are going to read the information on that card and follow it to the letter. You’re not going to say, “well it says here 5356 Addington Drive, but I don’t feel like going that far up the street, so I’ll try 200 Addington Drive, because it’s much closer and I feel more comfortable in the that neighborhood.” You are going to get up on Monday and cancel whatever you were planning to do, so that you can and make it to 5356 Addignton Drive.
Even though we do not know it, our lives from a spiritual point of view or on the brink of disaster without a real relationship to God through Jesus Christ. We are in a far worse predicament than simply losing a car and a home. We are going to live forever. According to Jesus, we will either live forever with Him after we die, or we will spend all of eternity in a lake of fire in torment. Our only hope of eternal life is to receive Jesus, just as you received that card from Mr. Gates, and believe the message Christ has to give.
If we truly believe God is, then there ought to be some kind of change in our lives as a result. If you are speeding and you believe a policeman is around the next bend, what are you going to do? If your boss tells you, that if you miss one more day this month you’re fired, but you wake up the next day with a bad headache, what are you going to do? If you believed I was going to give a $100 to everybody who would meet me after church up in the balcony, what are you going to do. If we believe, we gave our lives over to Jesus Christ, then what are we going to do? Too often we quickly try to take back control from Jesus.
Have you ever met a Black person whose skin was light enough and hair was straight enough to pass for being white, but you knew the person was black because you knew the person’s family. Now let’s go back to the 1930’s, in which you have a black person passing for white in the state of Mississippi . He goes to the white segregated school. He drinks from the white only fountain. He lives in the white neighborhood. He’s got all the benefits from the white society.
But one day he sees a member of a local KKK just beating a black person mercilessly. He knows inside that he’s black, and there in the middle of Mississippi, he rises up against this KKK fellow, kills him and buries him in the swamps. The black who was being beaten goes and tells somebody else what happened. When word gets out, that this fellow that’s been passing is really black, how many of you know he had to get out of town and get out in a hurry. He needed to get further than just out of town, that brother needed to get to Mexico as soon as possible. How many of you know it would take a miracle and a half to get him to go back to Mississippi? How many of you say it would take more than that to get you to go back if it were you?
I tell you all this to give you a different insight to a man who has been passing for someone he was not for forty years. He should have been a slave, but he was living in the palace passing. In a moment of anger at the cruelty of another he became a murderer and had to flee the country for his life. You know him in the bible as Moses. He tried to run away from his past, and never intended to revisit the land of his birth. He never wanted to see Egypt or the Nile River again. He ran away for 40 years
There are many things we may never intend on doing, but if God is , then who should have the final say so. So often we think, the reason we do not fully obey God is that God needs to do something dramatic to really prove that He is God. Oh yes, If God performed a miracle in my life or in front of my eyes, then I’d really give myself over to the Lord. But do you realize, if God is God, then it does not matter whether He does 40 miracles or no miracles, our response to Him should be the same.
Let me show you that miracles don’t change people, but obedience to God will. One day Moses got up to go to work, just like he had for years. But this day, he led his flocks further out toward the far side of the desert. He went near Mt. Horeb. Then God got Moses’ attention. God sent one of his angels to a bush and the angel appeared in the bush as flames of fire. Moses looked and saw the bush burning with flames coming out in all directions, but the bush itself was never burned.
Moses thought to himself, “I’ve got to go and check this thing out.” As Moses is walking toward the bush, God calls out His name, “Moses, Moses.” Now some of us would have taken off running in the opposite direction scared to death. I want you to notice something about God. God knows exactly where to meet you. God knows what He has to do to get your attention. And God knows you by your name. God is not some distance being way out there. God wants to be close and a personal part of your everyday life in the choices you make.
Moses kept his composure and called back, “Here I am.” In introducing Himself, the first thing God does is let Moses know, “You and I are not on equal levels.” God said, “don’t come any closer than you are, and take off your shoes, because the place where you are standing is holy ground.” There is a way that we come to God. If Moses had of kept on getting closer to the bush and refused to have taken off his shoes, we never would have read about Moses leading anybody anywhere, because he would have died there on that mountain.
Jesus said, “I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me.” We take Jesus words at face value, and then we try to change them and try to come to God without going through Christ. We use the bargaining method. God if you do this for me, then I will do that for you. To go to God through Christ, means to approach God in the way that Jesus did. How did Jesus approach God, He approached God, the saying not my will, but your will be done.
This means each time we have a problem with somebody, an attitude we have to deal with, a situation we do not like, we approach God not with bargaining chips, but with the goal of doing God’s will. You tell God the whole story of the situation and instead of telling God how to fix it, you remember that God is God. God knows how to fix it, so you ask, what should I do to fulfill your will.
For instance, “Lord, that person really did hurt my feelings and I just feel like slapping him against his head, but what’s your will for me.” “Love your enemies and pray for those who despitefully use you.” “But Lord that’s not how I feel.” “It’s not based on how you feel, but because I am God.” “Lord I’m really struggling with this temptation and I want to give in.” “Go tell someone stronger than you that you are struggling and then do all that you can to get yourself out of temptation’s way.” “ But Lord this temptation is really big.” “Your temptation is faced by others everyday and they are victorious, because they believe that I am.”
God told Moses, “ I am the God your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Their children, my people have been in Egypt for some 400 years. Look I have seen all the misery of my people as slaves in Egypt. I have heard their cries from their beatings and their oppression. I will answer their prayers to remove the power of the Egyptians. I have decided to give My people land, food, and homes of their own in an area so wonderful, they will call it the promised land. So now go, I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
God is quite specific in stating who He is, and what He wants Moses to do. We often say, if I just knew God’s will, I would do it. How many of you know that we already know plenty of God’s will and are not doing it? We actually do not believe God is God and is going to do what He told us He would do. The word of God tells us, that God is going to judge us for the decisions we make. If we believe that, now what.
Now Moses was pretty impressed with God and with the burning bush. He had taken off his shoes and was proud to be on holy ground. He was excited that God was finally going to deliver his people out of Egypt. Don’t forget many of Moses’ family members were still there as slaves. Everything sounded good until, God told Moses, “Go I am sending you.”
Moses reply is , “Aww Man. Why would you choose me of all people. Who am I that I should go to Pharaohs and bring the Israelites out of Egypt.” Now before you get too harsh on Moses, remember the guy who was passing for white, who killed a member of the KKK in the heart of Mississippi and had to flee to Mexico. Now what God is asking of Moses is like asking that brother who was passing, to leave Mexico, go back to Mississippi and tell the governor of the state to pay the way for all blacks who want to leave the Mississippi to go to Mexico.
Moses is thinking. I tried that liberation thing 40 years ago, and I have been hiding in the desert ever since then. But Moses did not know God 40 years ago. He did what he did on his own. God says, “but this time I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you. When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”
Now God is offering Moses a sign, that will be after the fact and more like a confirmation of a promise. Moses is more concerned with the up front part of the job. Moses says, “Suppose I go and tell them, you sent me and they ask me what is your name. I wouldn’t even know what to tell them.” God says, well you tell them that “I Am Who I Am” Sent you. I’ll be known as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
“Look Moses. Call the elders of the people together. Tell them I’m going to deliver them and bring them to a land flowing with milk and honey. They will listen to you. Then tell Pharaoh, you need to take a three day journey for a worship and sacrifice service. Now Pharaoh will not listen to you until I do a number of signs and wonders. But in the end, I’ll touch the Egyptians so that when they do let them go, all of the former slaves will come out with money, jewels, clothing, and other items beyond their wildest dreams.”
Now Moses is thinking, this is too good to be true. The people are going to think the same thing. God has not done anything like this for 300 years. Now here he comes back an 80 year old man from the desert with something that sounds like a man that’s lost his mind. He says, “But God, what if they say man you’re crazy. The Lord did not appear to you.”
God sees where this thing is going. He knows Moses wants some up front signs. So God says, throw the staff you have to the ground. Moses did and it turned into a snake. God says, “now grab it the tail.” Moses does and it turns back into his shepherd’s staff. God says, “put your hand inside your jacket.” Moses does. “Now pull it out.” Moses hand has gone from a very dark sun burn to being leprous almost as white as snow. God says “do it again.” He does and it goes back to normal. God says, “now if they don’t believe the first and second sign, then take some water from the Nile river and pour it on the ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground.”
God has given Moses a promise on the back end and signs up front, but Moses continues to look at his own abilities. He says, “Lord, you know I never have been a good speaker. It’s hard for me to get the right words and they come out sort of slow. Even since I’ve been talking to you today, you can tell that I have a real problem.”
The signs and miracles that God has performed, have done nothing to move Moses in the direction of obedience. There will always be reasons to disobey what God has told us to do. Sometimes we will confess our disobedience and other times we will be like Moses and think our disobedience is fully justified. Well God knows my circumstance.
Now God has told Moses, I promise to be with you. I guarantee you, you will not fail in this mission. What would you be willing to attempt to do for God, if the Lord guaranteed you, you would not fail? Now Moses knew it was going to be a tough job. He was scared to death for his life. He understood that God was asking him to lay everything on the table and hold nothing back. If you looked at your life today, what are you holding back to keep for yourself out of the hands of God.
God told Moses, “look I know all about your speaking problem. I’m the one who made your mouth. I can use you and your ability just like I gave it to you.” We do not have to be somebody else to be used the God. One guy who has preached to millions of people has cerebral palsy and it takes about five minutes for you to adjust to understanding him. Yet God has used him tremendously. People told him not to go to Bible college because no one would listen to him. That guy has preached on national tv more times than I can mention. If God is, then there is no limit to doing what God calls you to do.
Moses is thinking, “I’ve got a wife that I am happy with and children that I love. Nobody is giving me a headache, in a few years I’ll be retiring. These past 40 years have been peaceful. I like my life just like it is. I really don’t want to change.” You know sometimes, at the heart of our situation is, “I really don’t want to change. God I know what I’ve seen you do for me, and I know the power you have, but I want to leave things like they are.”
Moses knows God is calling him, and he finally gets the truth of his heart out into the open. He says, “Oh Lord, please send someone else to do it.” He did not want to do God’s will. Have you ever been there? You didn’t want to do it, so you didn’t. You knew what you were to do, but chose not to do it.
There is a verse in Hebrews that says, “Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” Do not mistake doing religious things or going to church with knowing Jesus Christ. Jesus put it this way, Matthew 7:21-23 "Not everyone who says to me, ’Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22Many will say to me on that day, ’Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ 23Then I will tell them plainly, ’I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
If God is God, now what. Are you going to simply go through life hoping to be religious enough to make it to heaven? A relationship with Christ, is not just for heaven, its for making a change right now. God has a better way for us to live right now. Our life at home, at school, and at work should be just as holy as if we were in school. All ground that we stand on is holy ground, because we are called to take Jesus with us where ever we go.
I can’t say that here, I’m on holy ground. I can’t do that here, I’m on holy ground. I can’t run with you anymore, I’m on holy ground . If God is not God, then nothing any of us does is ultimately going to matter. But if God is God, now what. What changes do we need to allow God to make in our lives? Let’s give up the excuses and start saying yes to the will of God.
Sermon Outline By Pastor Rick
If God Is, Now What?
5/23/04 NLF
Exodus 3:1-22 1 Corinthians 10:1-13
A. When Things Do Start Falling Apart
1. Insurance Notice Cancellation
2. The Rush To The Post Office
3. The News On The Cell Phone
4. The Loss Of Property
5. The News In The Mail
6. The Tears Start To Flow
B. The Man In The Lexus Limousine
1. Take My Card & See You Monday
2. No Deviations Attempted
3. 5356 Abington Drive
C. The State Of Our Spiritual Condition
1. The Cost Of Living Forever
2. Where We Choose To Spend It All
3. The Hope Of Jesus Christ
4. Belief Brings About A Change
5. Who Gets The $100.00
D. When Somebody Tries To Pass
1. The Forties In Mississippi
2. A KKK Member Is Killed
3. The Flight To Mexico
E. Moses-A Man Running From The Past
1. Good bye Egypt—I Won’t Be Back
2. Do We Need A Miracle To Obey
3. God’s Angel Appears In The Fire
4. Moses Spots The Burning Bush
F. Our God Wants To Be Personal
1. God Knows Where To Meet Us
2. God Knows How To Get Our
Attention
3. God Knows Our Name
4. God Is Not A Good Buddy
5. Jesus Is The Way To Approach
6. Not My Will, But Your Will Be
Done
7. There’s An Attitude Problem
8. God Does Not Have To Bargain
9. Tell God The Whole Story, But Not
How To “Fix It”
10. I Want To Slap Somebody
11. When We Don’t Feel Like It
12. Choosing To Handle Temptation
G. God Describes Who He Is And What
He Will Do
1. God Will Deliver His People
2. God Wants Moses For The Job
3. If We Only Knew What God Wanted
4. Will God Actually Judge Us.
H. Moses Is Impressed Tremendously
1. The Bush, The Holy Ground
2. Freedom For Family Members
3. It All Sounded Good Except
4. Aww Man, Why Choose Me
5. The Man Passing In Mississippi
6. Talking To The Governor
7. I Tried Setting Them Free
8. Trying It On Our Own
I. God Makes A Promise With A Sign
1. I Will Be With You
2. You Will Worship On This
Mountain
3. Is It A Sign Or Confirmation
J. Moses Has Some Questions
1. Who Shall I Say Sent Me
2. I Am That I AM
3. Just Call The Elders
4. Leaving Egypt With Money In
Their Pockets
5. What If They Think I’m Crazy
K. God Offers Moses Some Credibility
1. The Shepherd Staff To The Snake
2. The Snake To The Shepherd Staff
3. The Hand Becomes Leprous
4. The Hand Is Restored
5. The Nile River To Blood
6. But God I Can’t Speak Well
L. The Good Reason To Disobey God
1. Miracles Do Not Move Us
2. We Will Confess Or Justify
3. What Are You Willing To Do
4. Laying It All Out On The Table
5. Understanding The Cost Of
Obedience
M. God Knows About Our Limitations
1. The Preacher With Cerebral Palsy
2. God Uses Us Where We Are With
What We Have
3. Moses Is Happy With Life As It Is
4. Please Get Somebody Else For The
Job.
N. Today, When God Calls, Do Not
Harden Your Heart
1. Mistaking Being Religious With
Knowing The Lord
Matthew 7:21-23
"Not everyone who says to me, ’Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22Many will say to me on that day, ’Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ 23Then I will tell them plainly, ’I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
O. If God Is, Now What
1. What Is Our Real Plan
2. Jesus Starts The Change Today
3. Everywhere We Go Is Holy Ground
4. Moving From Excuse To Obedience
