When God Called Moses

*WHEN GOD CALLED MOSES*

Call of Moses Series Exodus 3:1-12

Dorn Ridge September 16, 2012

(Apx. 25% of message from Preach for a year #2 by Roger Campbell)

INTRODUCTION

1.) The Setting of This Text.

A.) Moses is in Midian.

B.) Israel is in misery.

2.) God Calls Moses to Deliver His People.

A.) Moses is now eighty years old.

B.) He is tending sheep.

C.) He is startled by a bush ablaze

ca.) The bush is not consumed.

cb.) God speaks to Moses from the burning bush.

cc.) Why Moses May Have Questioned God's Call.

cca.) Moses had been willing earlier, but God couldn’t use him at that time. Now he is 80 years old. He feels he is getting too old, and to unqualified for what God wants him to do.

ccb.) I want us to see this morning in the call of God on Moses, how he can move and call any one of us for his service.

ccc.) But what I want us to also see, is that God’s call is only half of the equation. The other half is our willingness to surrender to His call and to His will.

I. GOD CALLED MOSES WHEN HIS SCHEDULE WAS BUSY (V. 1)

1. Moses was tending a great flock of sheep.

A.) He had grown up in the home of Pharaoh.

aa.) Certainly, where Moses was now was not where he had been meant to be.

aaa.) Moses had been trained in all the language, culture, and education of Egypt.

aab.) Moses had been trained and raised to be the next Pharaoh of Egypt.

aac.) But Moses had also been raised with the knowledge that he was an Israelite.

ab.) But Moses was now tending sheep instead of getting ready to be the leader of Egypt.

aba.) The turnabout came when Moses took a stand as an Israelite, and killed an Egyptian man.

B.) His early years had been times of ease.

ba.) But for the last 40 years he had been hiding in the desert as a shepherd.

C.) Now he is a working shepherd and God calls him.

2.) Does your schedule seem too full?

A.) We all have busy schedules, and lives.

B.) But sometimes the things that will fill our lives may be things that have taken too high of a priority in our lives.

C.) Sometimes, even the good things in our lives are so important, that God has trouble to have the place He desires in our lives.

ca.) Sometimes we need to do some emptying out of our lives to give God the room he requires.

cb.) There are times when we do not see our own needs, that God will work in our lives to help us empty some of those spaces out.

3.) You are the one God is calling to serve.

A.) It is quite possible that in this room there are those here today whom God has been speaking to trying to get your attention.

B.) If you have been hearing his voice, do not silence it.

4. God always calls when we are busy

A.) Elisha plowing

B.) Peter fishing

5. Satan calls when we are idle.

A.) When Satan called to King David and left him into sin with another man’s wife, it was at a time that David had idle time when Satan could get through to him.

B.) But when God calls us He often does so at a time we are busy.

II. GOD CALLED MOSES WHEN THE SITUATION WAS BLEAK (V. 7)

1. In Egypt, things were bad for Israel.

2. The cruel taskmasters; low morale.

3. Forty years earlier things were different.

A.) Moses then had political power.

B.) Now he is but a shepherd.

4. Moses thinks the obstacles are too great.

A.) 40 years earlier, Moses felt ready for the task of leading God’s people.

aa.) At that time he was very cocky and full of himself, and his own abilities.

B.) Though Moses felt he was then ready for the task before him, God knew he was not ready.

ba.) The reality with Moses, and often with each of us, is that God at times has to break us down, and defeat us, in order to build us up into who he wants us to be.

bb.) Certainly, when we come to the times in life when God has to discipline us, and to rebuild us for His glory, it is not a fun time, or a time that is particularly enjoyable.

bc.) In fact often those are the most painful and difficult times of our lives.

bca.) Those times are so difficult because often we are not wanting or desiring to follow on the path that God would lead us on.

bcb.) Sometimes God works hard on us to empty us of our idols, our dreams, plans, and ourselves that have taken the place and the pre- eminence of Almighty God.