LIMAVADY INDEPENDENT METHODIST CHURCH
SERMON NOTES FROM SUNDAY 23 AUGUST 2020 AM
EXODUS 2 VERSES 11 - 15
We are coming back to the life of Moses, something we began last Sunday morning. We thought about his passion for the work of God. God was commissioning him to go back to Egypt and bring the Children of Israel out to a land he promised them. The encounter God had with Moses that changed the course of his life. We need that meeting with God that would change the course of our lives in these days. The Children of Israel were enslaved in Egypt. A new king had arose "that knew not Joseph". Moses would be the man to stand before Pharaoh to ask to let the people go. Pharaoh asked who would be leaving and Moses told him - our young and old men and women, our sons and our daughters, our flocks and herds all would come out (Exodus 10 verse 9). Acts 7 verse 20 "in which time Moses was born." We thought last week "cometh the hour, cometh the man." Let us look again at the life of Moses.
The focus of Moses. We know that when he was born a decree had gone out that all the Israelite male children when born were to be put into the river. There was great persecution at that time. Into this situation Moses was born. Some times we get saved and comfortable, we go through the routine of prayer, reading our bibles - we are saved and comfortable. Never anything happens in our lives. Moses was born for this particular period just as Esther was for the moment in which she lived. Has God changed you? Set you on a course and are you following on that course? Are you following after him today? Moses was hidden for 3 months then carefully placed in a basket. It was a plan devised by his father and mother. They couldn`t hide him any longer. The basket was set in the river. God was in control. God is in control of our lives today. Looking at this virus sweeping the world sometimes we forget God is in control. We must follow the law of the land. We have to be careful to follow God too. He knows the beginning and the end of the virus. Moses` mother lets the basket float off to the very place where Pharaoh`s daughter would come to bathe at. What a privilege that was for this young Jewish boy. Miriam was watching all that was happening. She jumped up and asked Pharaoh`s daughter if she needed a nurse. Moses` mother was given the job of bringing him up. She taught him all the things of God, how he was the creator God, she taught him the fundamentals of his faith. Even when he took a stand for himself in Pharaoh`s house he was able to do so because of the teaching his mother had given him. We want the same today for our children but we need to show them the way of salvation that they know in whom they are believing is able to keep their trust. Have you taught your children today the things of God? What a privilege to be brought up in the house of Pharaoh with all the education behind him harnessed to the things of God. He would have been in the second chariot riding behind Pharaoh, enjoying everything Egypt had to give him. The focus shifts when God came to him and tells him he has a task for him. Just like the maid in Naaman`s house. He shows the great plan he had for him. The plans God had for his life. Verse 11 "when Moses was grown". Stephen in Acts 7 tells us he was 40 years by now. "He looked on their burdens" His eyes are now focused not on the wealth he has in Egypt, he is thinking instead of God`s people and their cries. What is happening - his focus is now on the things of God. Acts 7 verse 25 "he thought they would have realised but they understood not." When Nehemiah went up to Jerusalem it says he had the "welfare of the people on his heart." Nehemiah 2 verse 18.
Notice the future of Moses. His focus was changing but his future was also changing. Hebrews 11 "he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh`s daughter". Facing the future and knowing God has spoken to him about his future. He knew the calling was on him. Weighing up the cost. Pharaoh`s advisors are telling him what would happen in his life but Moses turns his back on it all. The position he was looking to, the pleasures enjoying every day, the power that would be his. That he might receive the prize of the high calling of God. He turned his back on sin. The Lord himself when he was in the wilderness, the devil came to him, he was hungry, the devil said "turn these stones into bread." The Lord said it wouldn`t happen. Then he took him up to the high spire of the temple and told to cast himself down but he would not do it. Then Satan showed him the kingdoms of the earth "all these will I give you" but the Lord turned his back on him. Have we turned our back on the world? We want to enjoy God`s salvation but don`t want it to cost too much. God`s salvation calls for a mark of separation. "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you." (2 Corinthians 6 verse 17) Are we running after the pleasures of this earth? Wouldn`'t it be awful to lose out on the high calling of God, to be lost in a Christless hell for all eternity because we couldn`'t let go of the pleasure we enjoy at present?
Notice Moses` failure. God had called him to deliver the people out of bondage. One day Moses went out to visit his people - verse 11 "he looked on their burdens." He had so much sympathy, could see their difficulties and had compassion for them. A little further he saw an Egyptian fighting with a Hebrew slave. Moses stepped in to separate them. Verse 12 tells us he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. Are we standing up for our faith today? Are we taking a back seat? Are we keeping the standard of holy living today? We are to "contend for the faith" today (Jude 1 verse 3). Perhaps that means sitting in our church car park rather than in the house of God. This is what we are, this is who we are, this is what we are standing for - to win that crown. Paul tells us we must fight well and follow the rules. He told Timothy "you should be an example" before the brethren, hold the faith, the word of life even in a perverse generation. That is our responsibility today. Are we helping those ensnared by Satan, bound by a habit? The next day Moses saw 2 Hebrews fighting. He stepped in again to break up the fight. Paul spoke of divisions in the Corinthians church and said "these things should not be so." Colossians 3 verse 15 "let the peace of God rule in your hearts." Are we doing all we can to keep the harmony in the fellowship? Moses` failure came when he tried to do it himself. He had it in the back of his mind that the people would understand, that God would deliver them through him but they didn`t understand. Moses went in with his own strength and ability. This was the beginning of leading the people out surely? Moses` failure was because he tried to do it himself. The timing was not for another 40 years. We need to be careful that we are not trying to do God`s work in our own strength. The bible says it is "not by might nor by power but by my spirit saith the Lord of hosts." (Zechariah 4 verse 6) Remember how Peter lifted up his sword and cut off the ear of the servant of the high priest in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus told him to put away his sword as this was not the way he had planned to do things. Maybe there is someone we know not saved, we are trying to do our best in the situation but we need to stop trying to give God a helping hand, live in God`s timing. God could have used Moses in Pharaoh`s palace for the next 40 years but it was not what Moses wanted.
Moses fleeing. "Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh." "The fear of man bringeth a snare" (Proverbs 29 verse 25) Moses` secret was out. Someone had seen him murdering the Egyptian. For the next 40 years of his life he stayed in the desert. God had to use those 40 years to prepare him for the future. Is God working in your life today? Is he changing your future today? Don`t try to do it in your own strength. Maybe you are fleeing today. You look back and see how you failed God and fled from the problem. Come back to him today. God is saying he is waiting at the burning bush just for you.
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