 Good morning, reading church. How's everybody doing? You guys good? All right. Hey. My name is John. I'm the campus pastor here at Richland. I'm also infamously known as the holiday pastor. So good to be with you on a holiday weekend. All order has been restored to the universe in some way or shape or form. Just kidding. That's amazing. It's such an honor and a privilege to be here and to be worshiping with you and just seeing what God's doing in our hearts. We're super excited. So thank you again to the veterans who are here that have served and to those who have lost loved ones. We are honored to honor you and to take the time to do that. So if you brought your Bibles, you can turn with me if you would to the book of Deuteronomy, the last chapter. Deuteronomy chapter 34. And as you're turning there, I'm just going to pray. And I'm going to ask God to anoint this time. Father, in the name of Jesus, we have prepared our hearts with worship. We have entered into your gates with thanksgiving and your courts with praise, Father. And so we're asking that as your presence is here with us, God, that you administer to every single heart, that God, there would be a release of your spirit over us, God, and that every single person would be drawn to the heart and love of God in a unique and powerful way in Jesus' name. And everyone said amen. All right. Deuteronomy chapter 34. I'm going to read verses five through 10. It starts off saying this. So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died in the land of Moab according to the word of the Lord. And he buried him in the valley in the land of Moab. Opposite, Beth Peor. But no one knows the place of his burial to this day. Moses was 120 years old when he died. His eye was undimmed and his vigor unabated. And the people of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab for 30 days and then the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended. And Joshua, the son of Non, was full of the spirit of wisdom for Moses had laid his hands on him. So the people of Israel obeyed him and did as the Lord had commanded Moses, verse 10. And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel who is like Moses whom the Lord knew face to face. We've been in a series for a few weeks and it's called Heroes. And what we're doing is we're looking at the lives of people in the Old Testament. And we're seeing the way that God used them. The way that God took their lives, their situation, their circumstances and used it to further the plan that he had for his people, the plan that he had for that time, the plan that he had for creation. And that really is how God still works today. Is that when God does something, normally he does it through his people, through the church, through the willing ones. The Bible says in Philippians 2 that God is at work in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure. So we're looking at these kind of moguls of the Old Testament and seeing what is it about their lives, what were the experiences they went through that we can adopt and we can look at and we can say this is what God has called us to. This is what it looks like to be a hero. So Pastor Lee started with Noah and it was the sort of the radical obedience that Noah had when he built an ark even though it hadn't rained. And then Sarah and Abraham in week two, we looked at the journey that they had as she struggled with being barren but there was a promise of God that they knew was for them. And then last week Pastor Lee talked about Joseph and just the process that he had to go through, the pits and the prisons and so many of the trials that often accompany the dream that God has for his people. So those are all very well known. I know people in the Bible and we are going to in the future have some sort of more obscure people but today is not that day. Today we're looking at the life of Moses and Moses in fact may be the most prominent figure there is in the Old Testament. Raise your hand if you've ever heard of Moses. Okay, that's most of us, yeah. Even if you didn't grow up in church, even if you weren't in the felt board Sunday school class, most of us can associate something to do with Moses, a story that we've heard. He's a Sunday school top five for sure, am I right? By far, so you hear Moses and you think, okay, he was the one who climbed the mountain for 40 days, he was in the presence of God and God actually gave him the 10 commandments written on tablets of stone and then Moses walked down the mountain with those. He saw that his people Israel were already worshiping false gods, a golden calf that they made and he took those 10 commandments and he smashed them. The Bible says against the mountain and thus Moses became the first law breaker. Sorry, they get worse, don't worry. Okay, so then we know the story of how he rescued the people from Egypt. Remember he went to Pharaoh and he did the let my people go, right? We know the song, when Moses was in Egypt's land, let my people go. Oh, that was so weak, three people. Caleb on a diet and it's the only one. I'm not going to do it again. I'm just going to believe that we can be better in the future, that's all I'm going to do. So remember he said, you got to let my people go, release them 2 million Jews so that they could go worship on a mountain. He said if you don't, there's going to be plagues and there's going to be darkness and gnats and slow Wi-Fi and things that nobody wants in their lives. But then most famously maybe is when Moses did in fact rescue his people Israel and remember he was leading them out and Pharaoh changes his mind and the Egyptians start chasing after them and they get to the Red Sea and it looks like there's no way they can pass, there's no where they can go. The Egyptians are behind them, the seas in front of them and there's that Charleston-Heston moment where Moses extends his rod and the wall of water creates a dry path for Israel to walk through and then the water falls on the Egyptians and they're destroyed and all these miraculous things happened in the life of Moses. There's even another story that's not as well known of when he returned and was seen at the White House. Moses was in the year 2004. You probably haven't heard this. True story. So George W sees this man with a long beard and a big white robe and he says, I think that's Moses. He runs out there. He says, sir, sir, are you Moses? And the man doesn't answer. And so George W runs after him again. Sir, sir, I need to know, are you Moses? And still he won't answer. And finally George W catches up to him, you know, taps him on the shoulder, turns him around. I need to know, sir, are you Moses? Moses reluctantly said, yes, I am, but I can't talk to you because the last time I spoke to a bush, it cost me 40 years in the wilderness. Okay. Sorry. See how hard I work for you guys? It's all for you. I'm just kidding. That's awful. Don't clap for that. That was so bad. Okay. We can refocus now. It's good. But here's what I do want to say. A couple things about the timeline, the life of Moses that you may not be aware of that are real, in fact. Just listen to these things. This is incredible. 767 times Moses' name is mentioned in the Old Testament. 79 times in the New Testament. 846 times Moses is mentioned in the Bible. Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. But really the story of Moses, have I been saying Joseph? Okay, good. The story of Moses begins with Joseph. And so last week Pastor Lee said that God revealed himself to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. Jacob had 12 sons. The youngest was Joseph. And Joseph was his dad's favorite. And his brothers resented him for that. So they sold him into slavery. He ended up in Egypt working for Potiphar. And then as we heard last week, he ended up in the pit and he ended up in prison. But eventually God elevated him to second in command. Only Pharaoh was more powerful than Joseph. And Joseph interpreted a dream that said, we need to store up grain and corn for seven years because there's gonna be a famine. And literally Joseph saved Egypt and Israel from famine by doing that. And his own family moved into the land of Goshen, which was a very fertile part of Egypt. And Israel's began to establish themselves there. And the Bible says that God flourished the people of Israel. They grew in number. They grew in influence. But then in Exodus one it says that a king arose, a Pharaoh who didn't remember Joseph. And so there's this new Pharaoh and he's intimidated and he's insecure about the flourishing Israelites and says we have to do something about it. So he forces them into hard labor. He forces them to be slaves, they're taskmasters, but it doesn't work. And still they flourish and still their people are becoming stronger and more numerous. So this Pharaoh is so wicked, so evil that he commands the Egyptian midwives who are helping these Jewish women give birth. He says I want you to destroy every male child. Any boy that's born to Hebrew women I want you to kill. And the midwives didn't do it. They refused and God blessed them for that with their own families, the Bible says. And when Pharaoh wanted accountability for it, they said we don't know what to do. These Hebrew women, they have babies so fast. There's nothing we can do and God spared them. But then Pharaoh said I'm gonna send my own army, my soldiers to kill the baby boys that are born to Hebrew women. And Moses was one of those boys. So his parents kept him for a period of time and then got nervous about is he gonna get taken from us. So his mom, you probably know the story, put him in a basket that she covered with pitch so it would flow and stuck him in the Nile River which I can't even imagine as a mother having to make a decision like that. But the Bible says Pharaoh's daughter was bathing in those at that moment and saw this baby and pulled him out. The name Moses means to be drawn out. So she took Moses and she brought him home with her to the palace with Pharaoh in Egypt. And so Moses's life has really broke down into three 40 year segments. The first 40 years is Moses in Egypt living with Pharaoh. The second 40 years is Moses in exile because what Moses did is he was a Jew obviously and he saw his people being oppressed and the Bible says that he saw an Egyptian beating a Jewish person. And he looked around and anger rose up him and he killed the Egyptian who did it and he hid his body, buried it in the sand. And then the next day it says he saw two of his own people, two Hebrew people fighting and he said to them, hey, why are you guys fighting? You're supposed to be brothers. And one of them said to him, well, what are you gonna do? You're gonna kill us like you did that Egyptian yesterday. And the Bible says that Moses was gripped with fear and he fled Egypt and he married his wife and he worked for his father-in-law for 40 years as a shepherd. He worked for Jethro. And then the last 40 years he died at 120 is how we know him as the deliverer of Egypt. And the Bible we just read in Deuteronomy 34 says that nobody knows what happened to his body, that God literally buried him himself or did something with him because the fear that God had was people would worship the body of Moses if they knew where it was. So Moses lived this incredible life but also and I think it's important to know is Moses was what we call a type of Christ. Meaning that his life foreshadowed the life that Jesus would live thousands of years later. And so I wanna give you just some of the parallels between the life of Moses and the life of Jesus. Number one, they were both Jewish. Number two, they both were targets of murder when they were children. You remember that King Herod also issued a decree that the baby boys in Bethlehem be killed because he wanted to eliminate Jesus. Number three, they were both raised in homes where the men in the home were not their actual fathers. Jesus' father wasn't actually Joseph, or yeah, Joseph it was the Holy Spirit and Moses' father wasn't Pharaoh. They both began their ministry in the wilderness. The Bible says that Moses for 40 years was in the wilderness and Jesus for 40 days. Both were rejected by their own people and both did many signs and wonders. And lastly, both saved Israel and Jesus the whole world by sacrifice on a pole. You may or may not know this, John 3.16, we know that verse, right? God so loved the world that he gave his only son whoever believes in him won't perish but have everlasting life. Well, the two verses prior to that is Jesus talking about what Moses did in the desert. He says in John 3.14 and 15, in the same way that Moses lifted up the serpent and Israel looked to it for healing, I also will be lifted up as the Son of Man. So it's an interesting story in Numbers chapter 21. The Bible says that the Israelites began to complain. They had just crossed the Red Sea. It was miraculous, as we said, the walls of water. Exodus 15 says that Miriam began playing a song, singing about the horse and rider were thrown into the sea. She's singing, we split the sea. So I don't know if it was that song, but she may have. But there's this huge celebration and everybody's so happy. And the Bible says literally two months later, they start complaining to Moses. They say, you brought us out here to die. Why did you do that? We never should have left Egypt. They were complaining about the manna. We don't like this bread from heaven. Half the camp's on keto anyways. We can't eat it. We don't want, you know, so just complaining. And the Bible says that God sent fiery serpents into the camp and they bit the Israelites and they began to die. Some of them began to die. So they asked Moses, please, intercede for us to God. And Moses said, God, what do you want me to do? And he said, you make a bronze serpent and you hold it up on a pole and you lift it up. And anyone who is bitten by sin, by this snake, by judgment can look to it and they can be healed and they can be free. And it's the exact same thing that Jesus did for us at the cross. He was the serpent. He became sin, the Bible says, so that we could become the righteousness of God. And anyone who would look to him, just as the Israelites looked to Moses, could find freedom and salvation. So there's all these incredible, amazing things that Moses did as a person. And sometimes we can get overwhelmed by them. And so this morning with the time that we have, I really just want to share what I believe are three distinct decisions that marked Moses and made him a hero. Three things that he did that we can look at and we can really adopt into our own lives and say this isn't just for a select few. This isn't just for someone who can part the seas. This is for anybody who wants to be used in the kingdom of God. Who wants to be a part of what God's doing. So three things I'm gonna give them to you. I want you to write them down. First one, so what can we learn from Moses about what it means to be a hero? First one is this, that kingdom leadership always looks different than worldly leadership. Kingdom leadership, what it means to be a leader or what it means to be a hero in the kingdom of God is going to look markedly different than what the world says a hero or a leader should look like or should do. And I want you to turn in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 11. Come up on the screen, but this is, I think we've almost gone to Hebrews 11 every week because it's this hall of faith where we read the incredible testimonies and exploits of the people that God used so powerfully. And so Moses is mentioned in verse 23 and I just want to read this to you in context for what I just said. It says in Hebrews 11 23, by faith Moses when he was born was hidden for three months by his parents because they saw that the child was beautiful and they were not afraid of the king's edict. So here's the faith of Moses' parents on display but look what it says next. And by faith Moses when he was grown up, so when Moses could make his own decisions, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. But choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. For he considered the reproach of Christ a greater wealth than the even the treasures of Egypt. Underline this in your Bible for he was looking to the reward. This is an incredible powerful statement about who Moses really was. And I think it laid the groundwork for how God used him so powerfully. He was Pharaoh's son in essence. He lived in the palace with Pharaoh and his family. Pharaoh was the most powerful important man in the universe by far. So anything that Moses would have wanted would have been at his disposal in an instant. Any indulgences, any extras, any thing, any material thing that he wanted he would have, could have. But the Bible says rather than be identified as Pharaoh's daughter, he allowed his true heritage, his true lineage, his identity, identity to be formed by who God said he was, by the Jewish people, by the people of God. And he made a decision in his heart when he was able to. I'm not going to let the world's influence steer me in a direction that causes me to forget God, forget who I really am and lose my identity. And it's one of the most powerful decisions that he ever made. He said, when he was old enough, I'm going to be marked, even though there are sufferings, his people were slaves. That's who I'm going to identify with. And the reason Moses did that is because the reward that he knew was there for serving and knowing God was greater than what the world could offer him. He saw beyond everything that the world says is important, that the world says will bring joy, that the world says are the pleasures that are going to fulfill your life. And as Christians, we need to realize that we cannot allow the world to conform us into its image. It doesn't mean that we hate the world or we're at odds or that we're mad at people or that we isolate ourselves and say, you're bad and we're good. It simply means this. We identify ourselves as being marked by Christ and that we're holy and we're set apart and ultimately we need to look different than the world does. The world says this is what leadership is. This is what a hero is. It's somebody who's got a million Instagram followers. Somebody who's got celebrity status. Somebody who has tons of popularity. That's what we look at and we say, wow, those people, there are heroes in America many times. And we're enamored by celebrity status. But I'm telling you, that is not what God has. God doesn't care if you're famous. God wants you to be faithful. That's the call of God. That we run the race God has given us and we finish well and we finish strong. And we understand that the only mark I'm going to make in this world are the things that I leave behind. The legacy that I have that Moses understood there's more to the world than just getting stuff. Than just having anything that Egypt might be able to offer me. And so he refused those things. And again, like Pastor Caleb said, it's not bad to have money. It's not bad to have things, but only you know in your heart of hearts when things start to have you. And when our focus begins to shift. And we're more enamored with the things of the world than the things that God has called us to. And in the kingdom of God, it's easy. In our culture, it's easy to be popular because if you want popularity, you really just have to say and do what keep the masses happy. What other people are saying and doing and you'll be popular. But if you want kingdom influence, if you want to be a leader, if you want to be a hero, you're going to have to be able to stand sometimes on an island and stand for what's right and stand for what God has says, even when culture and everything else is going the other way. That's what it looks like to be a kingdom leader is not to be moved, not to be swayed. Again, not to hate or to be angry, but to shine and to say God's way is true and I don't care what the rest of the world is doing. And I'm just going to say this, that has seeped. That idea of what it means to be a leader is trying to creep into leadership within the church and into Christianity. Where we have leaders sometimes who don't want to say controversial things, don't want to rock the boat, don't want to upset the apple cart so we don't address those issues. We don't want to talk about that. We're going to keep it all neat and clean and milk and giggle cookies. And that's all we're going to talk about. And I, for one, am grateful that in this church we have a leader in Pastor Lee Cummings who says, look, what God says is true and all of society can think that and move that direction but until God changes his word, this is what we're going to preach and this is what we're going to believe in love to the glory of God. Amen? Come on. It's good. It's good. I'm so grateful. I'm so grateful because I'm telling you that that's what kingdom leadership looks like. Paul said this, I have fought the good fight. I have kept the faith. I have finished the race that God has for me and now there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness in Christ Jesus. Don't allow the world to sway or swerve you from God's view of what it looks like to be a hero and what it looks like to be a leader. So that's number one. And kingdom leadership looks different than worldly leadership. Number two, thing that Moses did, and this is so huge, he made relationship with God his focus. Moses made relationship with God the focus of his life. And I know sometimes we think, well, Moses, he was the one who had the Ten Commandments and we associate him with the law and keeping the rules and all of that. That is not the thing that marked the life of Moses. It wasn't keeping rules, keeping laws, going through systems and making sure everybody did everything right. And I want to show to you what I believe in scripture gives us a glimpse into why Moses had the relationship with God that he did. A decision that he made early on in his encounter with God and in his walk with God that forever marked him to be somebody that we read in Deuteronomy 34 no one else has ever been like. He said, and no one has arisen a prophet like Moses whom the Lord knew face to face. Exodus 3311 tells us that God spoke to Moses like he was speaking to a friend. That there was a relationship, an intimacy with Moses that was unparalleled with anyone else. And sometimes when we hear that and when we read that, we can automatically dismiss it as, well, that's not for today. I mean, that's great for Moses, but that's not how it works for normal people. I mean, that's unobtainable or that's impossible. How could I have a relationship like that? And so I just want to take these next few minutes and just encourage you about what does it look like to have the hero mentality that Moses did when it comes to relationship with God. So turn to Exodus chapter three. This is Moses' first encounter with God which I think is interesting because he's already in his probably at least 50s at this point, and this is where he meets God. And so when he's in Egypt and he's seeing his people oppressed, he doesn't have a church he goes to. He doesn't have a Bible. He doesn't have a pastor in his life. Do you know what sustained Moses during that time? Is oral traditions that had been passed down about how God used to move through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and how there used to be this guy, Moses or this guy Joseph and Israel used to flourish under his leadership but that was 400 years ago. Israel's been slaves for 400 years. That's all they know now. And so Moses has killed this Egyptian. He's fled and he's working for his father-in-law and this is where he meets God in chapter three of Exodus. It says, now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Median. And he led the flock to the back of the desert and he came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him. That's capitalized I bet in your Bible because scholars believe this is what is called a Christophany, meaning Jesus showed up in this moment. Jesus isn't just coming on the scene in Bethlehem. The Bible says Jesus was there before the foundation of the world. So God, Jesus shows up in this moment, appears to Moses in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. You're probably familiar with the burning bush story. And the Bible says, look at this, so Moses looked and behold, the bush was burning with fire but the bush was not consumed. So here's Moses, he's tending his sheep, he's on the back part of the desert. There's not a lot going on. It's probably pretty desolate and he's just going through his day and he notices a bush but there's tons of bushes and things. It's not like a bush is this unicorn or anything like that, but he sees that it's on fire and he says that he notices it, he looks at it and I don't know what he says, maybe he thinks, wow that's weird, why is there a bush on fire? Maybe he got struck by lightning. Maybe Tom Hanks and Castaway was trying to make a fire. I don't know what Moses thought but it drew his attention but then look what happened. It says, so he looked and behold the bush was burning with fire but the bush was not consumed. Then, verse three, then Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight. Why the bush does not burn? And what I felt like the Lord spoke to me as I was preparing for this is that in the time that God showed up and the way that God wanted to reveal himself in that bush it caught Moses' attention but he could have said something like, you know what, that's weird, it's cool, whatever but I got responsibilities and I got things I gotta do and I'm busy and there's a lot going on and he could have just walked away but he made a conscious decision to put his focus and his attention on the presence of God where God showed up in that bush and he said, no, I will now turn aside meaning I'm going to remove distractions I'm gonna not worry about my sheep right now or what's going on and I'm going to draw near to the place where God's presence is and I'm going to examine this and there's something about this I need to know I need to be a part of this I need to see this for myself so he makes this conscious decision and then look what happened verse 4 so when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses here's this burning bush it represents the presence of God and in the moment that Moses not from a distance not from a, oh what's that but the moment Moses draws near it immediately captures the attention of God God sees God notices and it's in that moment that God speaks to Moses by name no longer is it just a burning bush it's the voice of God that says Moses, Moses and it's in that moment I believe with all my heart intimacy was unlocked between God and Moses and the relationship began to form because Moses made a decision to go after the things of God to go after the presence of God in that moment and he spoke his name and there's many of us and here's what I believe as Christians this is the burning bush of today God speaks to us through his word through his presence through the Bible and many times we don't have an issue with the Bible we kind of see it from a distance or we have one in our home but I'm telling you when you make a decision to focus your heart and say God I want to know you more than I do now I want you to reveal your heart I want you to speak to me like you spoke to Moses it's going to take an intentional decision to spend time with God to spend time in his presence and I'm not talking about just going through the motions I'm not talking about checking a box I'm talking about a hunger for God recognizing who he is what he's done for you and saying God I want to know you more I want to focus my attention on you because when this goes from a book we blow the dust off to bringing on Sunday to God I want to know who you are I want to know what you say about me I want to know the truth that's in Jesus that's when the presence of God begins to speak your name begins to talk to you personally the Holy Spirit illuminates the word of God and that was the difference maker in Moses' life I truly believe in that moment he could have just walked away just on the presence of God in that moment and sometimes I get it it's easy to say well if God showed up to me in a burning bush I'd listen you know check our shrubs at home or something like that but here's what I want to submit to you is in the moment there was nothing supernatural about that bush or about this whole experience it was just Moses taking care of sheep there's probably bushes everywhere he's in the back of the desert the presence of God the fire of God on that bush made all the difference and it changed everything and you may look at the Bible it's just a book and I don't really understand it and I don't have time for it and I'd rather have someone else teach it to me and I'm telling you if you will make the switch to saying I want to know God in a deeper way God will begin to speak to you the Holy Spirit will take the bush and let the fire of God in your life I'm encouraging you this week go a little deeper in your relationship with God don't be satisfied with where you're at don't be satisfied with knowing God turn aside and direct your attention towards the things of God because I'm going to say this with love there's too many Christians who are willing to farm out the relationship with God to somebody else we don't always want to do the work ourselves we want someone else to do it for us so we say that's why I have a pastor or that's why I have a podcast or that's why I'm reading this book or I'm doing something else or I own a commentary or whatever it is and we say that's how I know God and all I'm saying is God wants to know you intimately and you cannot know God apart from developing a relationship with him and it's not always going to be a burning bush moment it's not always going to be the kind of glory and angels coming out of the prayer closet in your life but I'm saying if you will invest your life into knowing God, worshiping God growing in the things of God it always produces fruit Galatians 6 says that when you sow to the spirit you will of the spirit reap everlasting life don't grow weary and well-doing for in due season you will receive a harvest and we're having a series in August about it, it's going to be about how do you hear the voice of God how do you grow in your relationship with God, what does that look like 2,000 years later and I'm going to encourage you even now begin to ask God to reveal his heart to you in ways that you've never experienced before because sometimes it's too easy to have what I call Bette Midler Christianity do you know who Bette Midler is? anyone? yes she's saying a great song, I love it from a distance, right? you look like my friend too many of us when it comes to God, like God a lot, love God and God loves us but it's from a distance it's Bette Midler, it's like okay I don't want to go crazy I don't want too much of God but I certainly want God in my life and we're satisfied with knowing God from a distance we're satisfied with knowing God from or through somebody else and one of the passions of my life is releasing this in people and because I have experienced it myself in 1999 when I gave my heart to the Lord I was broken, my identity was shattered, I had all of these issues and wrong mindsets and I'm not perfect by any means but all I had was a pastorly coming saying I want you to read your Bible I want you to grow in your relationship with God I want you to realize that you do have worth, you do have value, you're not a broken piece of glass that needs to be ashamed and God began to rework the things in my heart and all I can say to you is it doesn't happen in an instant it doesn't happen instantaneously every burning bush isn't just this miraculous now I know God it's line upon line and precept upon precept and it's growing in your relationship with God and that's my prayer for every single one of you is that God begins to just reveal his heart to you, not even theologically even but just through his love and his grace so that you're empowered to do the things that God's called you to do. The last one that set Moses apart he made relationship with God his focus he knew kingdom leadership had to look different and the last thing is he was just a regular person that God used powerfully. I love this I think it's so comforting to know that you don't have to be a superhero with all of these you know magical powers to be a hero in the kingdom of God. Sometimes we look at Moses and we think well I could never do that and I could never split the seas and what I'm here to tell you is yes Moses was used miraculously but he was far from perfect. He had his own issues, he had his own insecurities, he had his own problems in his past that kept trying to rise up and identify him and he struggled to see himself as valuable he struggled to see himself as being able to be used by God and many times that's the thing we ignore about Moses and we think of all his exploits and all the amazing things he did but I'm telling you he had to overcome some battles in his life. In Exodus 3 the Bible says God said to him here's what you're gonna do. I'm gonna send you to Egypt you're gonna talk to Pharaoh you're gonna say let my people go you're gonna sing it better than the 11 a.m. service did and it's gonna work and they're gonna go and worship on this mountain and so God gave him the plan said this is what's gonna happen but listen to what Moses said in Exodus chapter 3 verse 11 but Moses said to God who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt God said I have a plan for your life I have a purpose you're going to be used powerfully in the kingdom of God and instantly Moses said well why would I be the one I've got my own issues I've got my own problems I don't have everything together in fact I have a past in Egypt where I killed somebody and this this this isn't I don't think this is the plan and listen to the response that God gave him in verse 12 so God said I will certainly be with you and this shall be a sign to you that I've sent you when you brought the people out of Egypt you shall serve God on this mountain Moses had insecurities he had fears he had things that he felt like weren't good enough in him to do what God called him to do and the answer God gave Moses is the exact answer he wants to give you today I will be with you my presence will go with you wherever I send you you're never going to go alone wherever you're facing whatever insecurity you have whatever battle you find yourself in God's promise to you I will be with you I'll never leave you and I'll never forsake you and the same promise that God gave to Moses he gives to us today says look it's not always going to be easy it's not always going to unfold exactly as you plan there's going to be mountains there's going to be storms but the promise isn't hey you're qualified you're the perfect person for the job God didn't say that to us he didn't say what are you talking about you're you're excellent at this you're the most amazing prospect I have no he understood there's going to be weaknesses he understood you have your own problems but I will be with you you know why God does that because God wants to receive the glory God isn't going to use God doesn't use perfect people there aren't any but God wouldn't if he could he uses people who are broken people who have their own issues going on but he says you can grow you can become who I've called you to be and he promised Moses I'll be with you and then Moses said again in verse 13 but what if I come to the children of Israel and say to them the God of your father sent me to you and they say what's his name what am I going to tell him so again he's still doubting and God said to Moses I am who I am and he said thus you shall say to the children of Israel I am has sent you and eventually he gave the exact same answer I am is this idea of the constant presence of God is with you I'm not the I was I'm not the I might be in the future I am I'm with you right now tell the people I am sent you and still Moses doubts and he says in verse 10 of chapter 4 then Moses said to the Lord oh my Lord I'm not eloquent neither before nor since you've spoken to your servant but I'm slow of speech I'm slow of tongue basically he said I'm not a good communicator I don't have the skill set needed to do what you're asking me to do and let's be honest many of us in this room know God's called you to be a light at your school a light at your work a light to your family and often the excuses that Moses has the same ones we have I'm not good enough I have a past I have my own issues what if they don't believe me I'm not a good communicator I'm not a pastor that's someone else's job am I challenged to us as the church as we're living in days when people need the truth of Jesus Christ when people need the love of God that passes understanding is that we look at our own lives and we say God I want to be a vessel of honor used for you I'm not perfect I don't have it together but my eyes are fixed on you and I want to be salt and light used for the kingdom and I need the same promise that you gave Moses that you will be with me and I can do all things I can do Christ who gives me strength the days of us hiding in our church walls and saying they're out there and we're in here that has to be over God said you're an ambassador your salt your light you're a witness go into your world and when we have insecurities we have issues we have questions God's reply is my presence will go with you you're never going to be alone will you guys stand on your feet and let me just pray with you and the kingdom of God aren't perfect people it's not some elite status that only a few people obtain it's people who willingly lay down their lives and say God all I have I give to you all that I can be I give to you let the center of my life the focus of my life be Jesus and him crucified that's what God's asking for each one of us and I just want you to close your eyes right now and I want to pray a prayer of boldness over us as the church a prayer of boldness that says not not pride not I'm better than you or not I go to church and you don't this is I'm good you're bad but a boldness that says God no matter what comes against me no matter what situation I find myself in I have the presence of God and the power of God to be salt to be light to be a witness and I can be a difference maker you don't have to be loud you don't have to be extrovert you don't have to be outgoing you have to be a person of prayer and a person who willingly surrenders your life to God and so father in the name of Jesus I pray a spirit of boldness would come over us as your people God that Lord you would break apathy in our hearts God that we wouldn't see lost people and not be moved that we wouldn't see those that are hurting and not be moved but that God you would break our hearts for what breaks yours God that Lord you would use make us instruments of your peace instruments of righteousness God make us rods in your hand father that go out in strength that go out in love that pierce the darkness of the world God they're not our enemies father they're the prize that we're fighting for God break our hearts change our perspective fill us with compassion for a world that's hurting and lost and dying and let the light of Christ flow from each one of us father I come against right now the lies of the enemy the lies that say you've gone too far it's been too long you're not qualified you're not good enough father let the voice of God right now father drown out the lies of Satan the voice that says I've called you my own you're my son you're my daughter greater is the one that's in you than he that is in the world father let the Holy Spirit fill us with boldness and conviction to be who you've called us to be send us out into your world we pray in Jesus name and everyone said amen let's give the Lord a hand clap we didn't do that this morning