God's Mercy Overcomes Man's Injustice part 2

[0:00] We're going to be finishing up the lesson from a couple of weeks ago. They're talking about Moses and his family there.! We're going to be here this morning at that.

[0:31] Exodus chapter 2 this morning. Exodus chapter 2. Because as we're going to see here, we're going to look at the life of Moses and his family.

[0:43] And continue looking here. But let's read our text here today. Exodus chapter 2. Let's pick up in verse 1. And it says this, And there went a man of the house of Levi, who took to wife a daughter of Levi.

[0:55] And the woman conceived and bare a son. And she saw him, that he was a goodly child. And she hid him three months. And when she could no longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes.

[1:07] And daubed it with slime and with pitch. And put the child therein. And she laid it on the flags by the river's brink. And his sister stood afar off to wit that would be done to him.

[1:18] And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river. And her maidens walked along the riverside. And when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it.

[1:30] And when she had opened it, she saw the child. And behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him and said, This is one of the Hebrew's children. Then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee?

[1:50] And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Go. And the maid went and called the child's mother. And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Take this child away and nurse it for me. And I will give thee thy wage.

[2:00] And the woman took the child and nursed it. Let's pray. Heavenly Fathers, we just take a few moments here this morning as we look into your word here today. Lord, help us to understand the reality that even in the midst of what we see as unfair or not the way we would want things to be, Lord, or even outright cruelty towards us as an individual.

[2:26] Lord, help us to be mindful that you are the one that is there. You're the one that's above those things. You're the one that provided the means to walk through those things in this life. And Lord, we just ask your hand upon each one today, Lord, that we might realize that our strength, even in these moments, is to trust you as we walk through.

[2:45] And Lord, we just give you all the praise in Jesus' name. Amen. You know, as we understand, you know, anybody can experience discrimination. You know, there's a lot about discrimination today, and people put a lot of emphasis upon it.

[3:00] But I don't think anybody could doubt that Jochebed and her family faced discrimination to the extreme. When you consider what Pharaoh wanted to do, if you remember, they wanted to kill all the male children.

[3:15] You know, why? Only because they were Jewish. They wanted to throw all the male children into the river. You know, but we understand as we see this picture of how Jochebed overcame that discrimination, overcame that injustice.

[3:33] And we understand that picture of what's taking place. And we understand the nation that was once had saved Egypt through Joseph is now under oppression.

[3:46] And there's people that are condemning them, and the Pharaoh wants to keep them oppressed. But, you know, even in the midst of this oppressive culture, we find a young couple by the name of Amron and Jochebed.

[4:04] They still said, I'm not going to let culture determine what I do. And they went ahead and got married and started a family, even in light of it. You know? Today, most people look, man, that'd be tough.

[4:16] Yes, it was. But you know what? Even when times are tough, when we trust God, God blesses. God blesses in the good times. God blesses in the rough times.

[4:28] God blesses even in the devastating times of life. She understood what was needed there.

[4:41] But we find here that when they got married, but not only did Pharaoh enslave the entire nation and force them to work to an extreme, just tiresome to exhaustion, and to keep them subject unto him.

[4:59] And then to bring their own son, I mean, and to kill their own children, you know. Think about Exodus 114 in our passage here. Take a look again what it says here.

[5:11] And he said, That's 2.14. Get back to 1.14. Get back a page. There we go. And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage and mortar and in brick and all manner of service in the field.

[5:24] All their service wherein they made them serve was with rigor. I mean, in the spite of oppressive work hours, in spite of the fact that their male children were going to end up killed, these young couples said, We're going to take a stand.

[5:39] We're going to trust God and continue to do what we ought to do. And it was a culture of oppression, a culture of hatred, and deep discrimination in which Moses was born.

[5:52] You know, people have faced these things throughout history. You know, discrimination isn't something that's a 21st century American problem. You know, injustice isn't a 21st century American problem.

[6:05] I want you to understand from the very beginning of time, people have faced oppression. They've faced injustices. And they understand the reality, and oftentimes it is, Well, why isn't it fair?

[6:16] Well, you know, understand you've got to learn very quickly in life one thing. It's not going to be fair. But we do have a Savior. We have a God that rises above the injustice and above those things.

[6:28] And so sometimes we can identify with those things because, you know, discrimination happens through all sorts of things. You know? Today we have class discrimination.

[6:40] I mean, where were you born as far as in the social status? I mean, you say, Well, America doesn't. Yeah, we still do. People naturally do that. You know, a few weeks ago, you know, when Brother Anathakumar was here, and they're talking about the oppression of India with their caste system.

[6:58] You know? You know what? The same thing happens every place, but sometimes it's just not as pronounced. You know? Discrimination is not something you're going to do away with, but it's something that we can face, and we can trust God, and know God is going to hold to account to understand that dynamic.

[7:18] And we ought to do our part not to be prejudiced, not to prefer one above another, the Bible tells us. And we're going to see that play out, and we need to understand the picture that sometimes, as a believer, you're going to face discrimination.

[7:34] Think about what it tells us in 2 Timothy 3, in verse 12. It says, And all, yea, all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall what? Suffer persecution.

[7:45] You know? I want you to understand, as a believer, sometimes you take a stand for Christ, you're going to find people just don't like you sometimes. You know? That's a reality that you need to understand from the very beginning.

[7:58] Sometimes you don't have to do anything but just take a stand as a believer, and they're going to have people that don't like you. But don't let that hinder you from doing what you ought to do. You know?

[8:09] We need to understand that as a person of faith, and one that's trusted in Christ, to understand that we ought not to fall for Satan's tricks. Because you know what often happens? Even to believers, sometimes we get bitter.

[8:23] You can get angry about what happened. You know, you can allow those things, or you can get sidetracked in that. And so we're going to look and finish up here today, hopefully.

[8:34] But we're going to look here at the first, review the first section we covered here, and we learn about those questions. But think about the ministry of a mom. You know, the mom's influence in the life of kids is important.

[8:47] You know, we saw how Jochebed, how she lovingly protected Moses. You know? That baby boy was a gift. It was worth pausing to note that children are indeed gifts from God.

[8:59] You know? We live in a culture that puts children second oftentimes. Now let me explain. They put them second because it's like, well, when I get my, I get enough money, I get enough of this, I get enough of that, when I'm in the right position, then we'll have kids.

[9:14] You know what that's saying? That's saying that kids are a secondary. They're like a benefit that you get after you reach a certain level. But think about what the scripture says in Psalm 127.

[9:25] It says, Lo, children are a heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his what? Reward. You know?

[9:35] As a believer, you can miss out on the reward that God has for you. You know? Having gone through the sequence, and now we're in the grandkid stage, you know what?

[9:48] Your reward is to see your children grow up to become adults. To see them take responsibility, take their own faith in Christ, to move forward in the things that you've taught them.

[10:03] That's a reward. To understand the effort and the energy and all that it took emotionally and physically was well worth the investment. But we see here that Moses' mom saw and recognized that blessing of a child, even in the midst of great discrimination, of great injustice.

[10:30] I don't know how much more unjust you could be than to say, we're going to take your newly born son and let him drown in the river. But I want you to understand that God gives parents children, and I want you to understand because we're going to see here how God uses this, not only in their life, but in the life of the entire nation.

[10:54] Their faith changed the entire nation. God had a plan and a purpose. You know, as they hid baby Moses, it must have been a challenging situation and to understand that they hide a baby three months, you know, and pretty soon it becomes impossible.

[11:13] You know, they start wiggling and they make a lot of noise. And sometimes they smell, you know, sometimes you know, yeah, there's a baby around. But they hid him as long as they could, but she formed a plan and she trusted in the providence of God.

[11:29] Not only did her mom protect, but she trusted in the providence of God. Now I want you to understand here, providence just means I'm going to trust God's plan. That God is going to work those things to his good, to what he wants.

[11:46] You know, look there at verse three in our text in Exodus chapter two, where it says, and when she could no longer hide him, she took it for him an ark of bulrushes and dabbed it with slime and with pitch and put the child there in and she laid him in the flags by the river's brink.

[12:00] And, and you know, we see here this picture and dynamic is the same picture you see talking about Noah building the ark.

[12:11] It's the same terminology. That is used. It was a little ark to preserve Moses. And we see that God used that in a mighty way and how she trusted her child to God in the midst of devastating things.

[12:28] You know, as I keep reading through this story, you know, it fascinates me because today we would say that's in jest. I'm going to do something. I'm going to do this.

[12:38] I'm going to do that. But she was willing to say, I'm going to trust God first and to do what she needed to do even in light of all those things. She trusted in God's providence to understand this is under God's control because what she did is against every grain of our nature.

[12:57] You know, sometimes to honor God rubs against what we want. Sometimes it rubs against what we think. You know, to understand that the way God thinks is not the way we think.

[13:09] And we also need to understand that the way God thinks and what God does, His ways, are higher than our ways. We look at situations and say, that's not fair. And God says, trust me, I've got it under control.

[13:22] You know, we can trust God and not respond with hostility towards it, but to respond properly. To trust God, even when a refusal to react out of spite or desire to get even.

[13:37] I mean, we need to trust God and not say, I'm going to get back at Him. You know, that's a hard place because we need to understand the mercy of God. Because in this account, you'll see God's mercy play through.

[13:49] You'll see God's mercy throughout Exodus here and the power of injustice is dissolved in our lives by the mercy of God. You know, think about the mercy shown to Jochebed when she trusted God.

[14:02] Now, think about this for a moment. She goes down to the river after she'd made an ark of bulrushes and sealed it in so it wouldn't sink and puts him in the river. She had to have a lot of faith. Her faith wasn't, she didn't know whether Moses was going to survive or not.

[14:16] She had said, I've done everything I can do and I'm going to trust God. I'm going to trust His providence that God is going to do and has a plan for Moses.

[14:28] But think about the mercy shown to Jochebed. She does this, she steps out in faith and the story takes a surprising turn because who comes down by the river?

[14:42] Pharaoh's daughter. Now, Pharaoh's daughter, you say, well, she had compassion. You know what? She didn't have to have compassion on Moses. I want you to understand she recognized who he was.

[14:55] Now, I'm not talking about specifically family but she recognized he was a Hebrew. She knew what her father had said to do. What did her father command him to do? Toss him into the river.

[15:07] You know what she could have done when her maids brought her Moses? She could have just turned the basket upside down. But God says that she had compassion. I think God touched the heart of Pharaoh's daughter.

[15:19] Touched a note in a young lady when she saw a little baby cry. You know what? The one thing I've learned over the years if you get a baby to cry, every grandma, mom, little girl come, everybody, you know, it becomes like a magnet.

[15:31] You know, especially a little one. Everybody's like, why are they crying? You know what? God used that natural love in his providence to preserve Moses.

[15:44] But how did God have mercy? Think about that for a moment. God's mercy is Jochebed trusted God and God said, hey, here's your child back and I'll even give you a benefit.

[15:55] Somebody's going to pay you to raise him. Let me know the expenses. You know, I hear all the parents now, amen, that sounds good. You know, kids aren't cheap.

[16:08] They're beneficial, but it's not that they don't have a cost. But think about it, God's mercy allowed her not only to have her child back, but to get paid to raise him.

[16:18] God's mercy was there and we understand the picture here it's really an incredible miracle of God to see the daughter of the most powerful man in the world discovered a hidden baby that was forbidden and she had compassion.

[16:40] I want you to understand it wasn't coincidence, it was God's providence. God saw Jochebed, heard her prayers, knew her tears, felt her burden and miraculously intervened.

[16:52] You know, look at verse 9 there in our text. Notice what it tells us here and it says, And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Take this child away and nurse it for me and I will give thee thy wages.

[17:04] And the woman took the child and nursed it. You know, I think when Jochebed put Moses in the river that morning she had no idea what was going to play out.

[17:15] But I guarantee you she was happy at the end of the day. You know, what mom would not rejoice that her child was safe with her. God's mercy was amazing.

[17:27] This baby boy that she was hiding is now, she can carry him openly. She can be in the presence of even other Egyptians.

[17:38] Moses became, you might say, an untouchable Hebrew child. Nobody could do anything to him because why? He had the protection of Pharaoh. You know, you think about what God did there.

[17:52] He moved Pharaoh, or he moved Moses into a position that he could be protected. You know, Jochebed probably cared for Moses until he was five or six years old, his early development. Her influence was so formative on his life though that he grew up in an Egyptian palace.

[18:10] Forty years later he still knew that he was a Hebrew. I mean, stop and think about that. His mother's influence in the early years influenced him for the rest of his life.

[18:22] Never underestimate the influence of mom in the life of a kid, in the life of a child. It was through these early things of nurturing Moses that he had a firmly rooted identity as one of the people of God because even in discrimination, God's mercy is present.

[18:41] You know, we should always be looking where is God working? What is God doing through this? Because after many years, another Hebrew prophet, Jeremiah, was watching the people that was cruelly treated and invading the Babylonians.

[18:56] And Jerusalem was under siege and the people were starving to death in the streets and in the midst of oppression, Jeremiah called to God's mercies to mind. You know, look over to Lamentations chapter 3.

[19:09] Lamentations chapter 3. In the midst of that discrimination against Jerusalem and the prophet was there suffering with them. And he says this in verse 21.

[19:19] He says, And this I recall to my mind. You know, when things happen, we need to remember. We need to stop and consider. Therefore have I hope.

[19:30] It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because His compassions fail not. They renew every morning. And great is thy faithfulness.

[19:42] I want you to understand, Jeremiah wrote that in the face of great injustice and great struggle. He said, I'm tempted one direction, but he says, I recall to my mind of who God is and what God can do and therefore I have hope.

[20:01] I have hope. We can understand, we can respond to things when they're against us with faith in God and we'll see His mercy work through that.

[20:13] But think about even not only showing to Jochebed, but showing to Moses. You know, God not only showed mercy to Jochebed, He also did to Moses through the compassion Pharaoh's daughter had on him.

[20:26] You know, a young Hebrew boy that was spared from genocide in which he was supposed to have been killed, but instead he gets a place and a room in the palace.

[20:38] Not only is he alive and in the palace, there's something else that took place, the Bible tells us, that prepared Moses for what God had for him. Moses got the premium education of the day.

[20:51] I mean, he got all the best stuff. You know, look over to Acts chapter 7. Acts chapter 7 gives us a little insight into this. Now notice here what happens.

[21:02] It says here in Acts 7, 21, it says, And when he was cast out, Pharaoh's daughter took him up and nourished him for her own son. And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptian and was mighty in words and in deeds.

[21:19] Now, we'll look a little later as we get into Moses' life. It's interesting. At one time, he was bold. He was, I want everybody to know how smart he was. He wanted to understand that he was well-educated.

[21:30] He was well-spoken. He had all the right to credentials. I mean, there was no credentials that Moses missed out on. As being the son of Pharaoh's daughter, being recognized, that he had no restrictions of what he could learn.

[21:44] He had private tutors, most likely, coming in and just giving him all the stuff, making sure he understood. He had the best schooling, the best classes, you know. But it's important that even in the times when things don't seem right, we can give pause to thank God for the blessings he gives in spite of what happens.

[22:04] You know, we need to understand the way to overcome the hurt of discrimination is to give thanks. You know, when something is unjust to you, the best thing you can do is call to mind who God is.

[22:17] You don't have to thank God for what happened, but you can thank that he's a merciful God. Because you know what it does? It changes your perspective about what's happening.

[22:30] Because if you wather in a situation, when you wather around, and get yourself all messed up and tied up in the event or the dynamic of what somebody said or did, you know what happens?

[22:43] You become bitter. You become angry. You get an attitude of why is this happening to me? This isn't fair. But you know what? When we stop and think that the Bible tells us into all things give thanks.

[22:58] We can thank God he's still there even in the midst when things are not right. That God is there in a mighty way. Yep.

[23:10] Yep. Moses was cultivated in all the elements there, but he had overcome those things.

[23:25] And the right attitude is important for us. You know, take a look over to Psalm 106. Psalm 106 in verse 1 says, Praise ye the Lord. O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good.

[23:40] For his mercy does what? Endureth forever. You know what? We can rest assured when things aren't going the way we think they ought to do that God's mercies are still there.

[23:54] God's still merciful to us. You know, the mercies that God gives in the midst of discrimination is but a precursor to his commitment to vindicate those who suffer.

[24:05] You know, I want you to understand that God makes it very clear. Oftentimes we forget this. He says, Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. You know, the one thing that will help you through that is to realize you're not the one that needs to solve the problem, but to realize God says, I'm going to hold to account those things.

[24:25] We can praise God because God's keeping a perfect record. You know, oftentimes in the Psalms you'll see David talk about, why do the wicked prosper? And if you read through those Psalms where he says that he always comes back to the fact that they're but for a season and they're going to be held to account.

[24:45] God's timing will be perfect. We need to trust God. You know, you think about Romans chapter 8, I mean, verse 28 is really the reality of what's happened here with Moses where it says, and we know all things work together for good to them that love God to them that are what?

[25:05] Called according to his purpose. All things work together for good. Now, I want you to understand it doesn't say everything is going to be good. I think sometimes we read that and we catch on that phrase and it's like, well, that means everything's going to be grand.

[25:19] No. It just says God's going to take everything that's happening in your life and if you trust him, he says he can turn that for your benefit and for his.

[25:32] To understand we can see God's mercy in that and understand the dynamic of Moses and God's mercy towards us.

[25:44] So we see the ministry of a mom, the mercy of God and then we see in this also the making of Moses. You know, as we survey Moses' life shows us how God in preserving this individual would one day enable him to be the deliverer of an entire nation.

[26:05] You know, Moses had a unique future ahead of him at this point. God developed Moses so that he would eventually lead God's people out of the oppression and bondage they had experienced.

[26:18] What Pharaoh intended for evil against God's people by killing all the children all the male children God took that very element and put Moses in the palace trained him up equipped him with everything he is going to need to know for a future thing God had for him.

[26:36] God was working there in his identity. Imagine Jochebed's influence on Moses' life was the strongest during his most formative years and though he grew up in the palace in Egypt he identified as a child of God.

[26:51] Now I want you to understand I'm going to sidetrack just for a moment here. As a parent I want you to understand your young children are formative. That's the reason we have a culture that wants to take your kids from you especially in their early years and form their thinking because you can direct a child of how they think how they perceive how they understand that's going to stay with them the rest of their life.

[27:21] It's either going to be for good or for bad. You know what? Let me just give an illustration here. Children that are abused it impacts them the rest of their life.

[27:32] I'm not saying they can overcome it. God says his mercy is able to overcome those things but you know what? The things that they taught that they were experienced in younger years impacts them.

[27:44] It impacts their decision making. It impacts the way they perceive the world. It's important and I'll just encourage parents to take your responsibility for your children. It's your responsibility. God's given them to you to prepare them especially in those formative years because there's coming a day they're going to get older and if you haven't formed things upright you're going to see it.

[28:05] It starts when they're young. It's not easy but it's beneficial to do those things and so you know the Bible tells us in Hebrews chapter 11 when it talks about the faith of Moses in verse 24 it says when he was come to years refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God and that to enjoy pleasure of sin for a season esteeming the reproach of Christ's greater riches than the treasures in Egypt for he had respect under the recompense of reward.

[28:36] In other words what did Moses' mom teach him? That to be honored by God is more important than to be honored by the world. that's the base principle that Moses' mom taught him that's mentioned here.

[28:51] If stuck with Moses you better understand where you are with God because that's more important than where you stand with the world. It impacted his life. He was a man who grew up and purposely identified with God and his people.

[29:06] He was in an Egyptian world but identified as a child of God. I want you to understand that when we talk about identifying it's not a cultural identity. Moses was identifying with a spiritual heritage, a spiritual identity of who God is, the one that made promises to his forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

[29:31] You know there's a great pressure today, particularly on our teens and young adults and even adults today, to conform their identity to a culture that's anti-God, anti-Christian, and anti-Scripture.

[29:43] Just do this and be quiet and it'll be fine. You know what? We need to identify with Christ. We talked about that this morning, didn't we? And not just in salvation but in our life, the things that we do, the choices we make.

[29:57] To identify with him, just as Moses made an intentional thing to say, I'm going to follow what God would have. Just as we have to follow Christ, must be ready to identify with Christ no matter the cost.

[30:13] Sometimes you're going to find out there's a cost to standing for Christ. Are you willing to pay the price or is it easier just to go with the flow? You think about today when you think about the Bible. We live in a generation.

[30:25] If you teach things to your children or make public statements about marriage or about identity of male and female, they say, oh you're a bigot, you're this, they're that.

[30:36] They call you all sorts of names. You know what that is? That's pressure to conform, to identify with the world instead of identifying with Christ. God says something totally contrary.

[30:50] What God says is there's men and women and there ought to be a marriage between a man and a woman. We ought not to kill our offspring. You know, it's one of those things, the choice happened way before that moment.

[31:06] But you know what, the world loves to twist to say, just go along with this, it'll be fine. It's amazing how many people that say they follow the word of God suddenly deviate when the world puts pressure. And sometimes it's as simple just sit down and be quiet.

[31:21] The thing about the world's dynamic is you can have that opinion, just be quiet about it. Sometimes you're not going to be accepted. You know, think about creation. If you take what God says in Genesis 1 and 2 literally, you're going to have people in academia say well, I got news for them.

[31:38] When you actually do do science, when you actually do understand what science is, it lines up with the word of God. That's a whole other lesson. But Moses chose to identify as a Hebrew.

[31:52] I want you to understand it wasn't easy because remember, he grew up in the palace most of his teenage years through his early teens. But at this point when Moses tries to get ahead of God, we find he's 40 years old.

[32:08] That's a good span of time. As I say, there's a lot of water under the bridge between the time he was in the palace up to that point. He's probably living in the palace for 35 years.

[32:19] But he identified as a Hebrew. But even in, not only in his identity, but in his failure. You know, although Moses showed a strong faith in his choice to identify with the people of God rather than being called an Egyptian, when he witnessed discrimination, he reacted in the flesh rather than in faith.

[32:40] Now, this is important because Moses failed because he got ahead of God. He said, I'm going to take care of the problem. Look here in Exodus chapter 2.

[32:50] Look down at verse 11. It says, It came to pass in those days when Moses was growing that he went out unto his brethren and looked on their burdens and he spied an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew, one of the brethren, and he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

[33:09] You know, think about what happened here. Moses has taken the oppression of his people into his own hands. I'm going to fix it my way.

[33:19] Look over to Acts chapter 7 in the New Testament because another insight you have into this, Acts chapter 7, down in verse 24, it tells us this, it says, Seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defending him, avenged him, that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian, for he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them, but they understood not.

[33:42] That's a lot of insight into Moses' mindset. What was Moses thinking? He says, God raised me up and I'm going to take my authority God's given to me. You know what, oftentimes people try to take authority that God's given, but I want you understand, authority isn't power, authority is responsibility.

[34:00] What did Jesus say? If you're a leader, you're what? A servant. Responsibility. Moses said, I have power, and God says, no, you have a responsibility.

[34:11] You know, Moses had good intentions. You know, oftentimes we justify things, but my intentions were good. You know, I want you to understand that good intentions don't always produce the right outcomes.

[34:24] when we take those intentions out of and go against what God has told us to do. You know, usually when we think we're ready to do something great and noble and know just the way to do to go about it, that's a good intention, but we need to understand that we're not ready.

[34:44] Because until we have faith in God should lead us to bold actions, but we need to trust God in that. To understand that Moses had to trust God in God's timing.

[34:59] Instead of waiting on God's instruction, he got impatient. You know, you can read through scripture, there's a whole lot of people you find that believed in God but got impatient with God.

[35:12] Got ahead of God. And you think back, Abraham was a prime example, him and Sarah. God promised them a son. They couldn't have a son, they couldn't have a son, said, we're going to solve the problem for God.

[35:25] What did they have? They had a good intention. I needed air. They got ahead of God and caused a lot of grief. If you study history, you'll find out his choice still impacts the world today.

[35:37] If you want to see the ripple effect of the world around us. But also in his solitude, you know, God knew that Moses would never lead Israel out of Egypt with an impatient anger.

[35:50] So God brought Moses to the backside of the desert where he would spend the next 40 years herding sheep. You know, I've never been around sheep much, but I've talked to some people who raise sheep.

[36:02] They're not the brightest critters. one thing about it. To raise sheep, you have to learn patience. You have to learn to wait. You know, it tells us in Exodus 3 that Moses kept the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the backside of the desert and came to the mount of God to Horeb.

[36:22] You know, I'm imagining here that Moses must have thought he lost his only opportunity to deliver Israel. Now he's out here cast out into the desert. But you know what? Even in this, God used it to prepare Moses for what he needed to do.

[36:39] Because you stop and think about for a moment, was the anger-filled, I want to do it my way, going to be a good fit for the children of Israel coming out of Egypt?

[36:49] Did they test patience a little bit? You know, the children of Israel tested God, they tested Moses. I mean, Moses would have reacted totally different when God said, well, I'll wipe them out, we'll start again with you.

[37:03] And Moses pleaded for the people. You know what the Moses in Egypt would have done? Yeah, God, go ahead and do it, they deserve it. But you know what the Moses that learned to really trust God and God's timing said, Lord, have mercy on him.

[37:19] He was a meek man, the Bible tells us. He was a proud, arrogant, young man that left Egypt, and he returned a humble, willing to follow God.

[37:31] Man. Willing to trust God. When God allows trials into your life, he desires to mature and strengthen your faith. Moses' trials in his life matured his faith to another level.

[37:48] He was bold, but he wasn't mature. If we're going to be bold for Christ, we also need to be mature. Because in other words, you get ahead of God.

[37:58] God will do things our ways. Moses' early, undisciplined, immature faith led him to taking things into his own hand.

[38:09] He had to learn that God was not interested in what we can offer in the way of our energetic anger. He was simply looking for our faith-filled! obedience. That leads us to the last thing in his surrender.

[38:24] Forty years later, we meet Moses. He's a humble man. After a direct encounter with God, he's a transformed man. At the burning bush, he met God and he was changed once again.

[38:41] God called Moses to the very job he had earlier tried to assume. You know, it's interesting that the bold, well-spoken, kind of outgoing, and even you might say, I imagine Moses was even might have been considered a little arrogant in his attitude when he left Egypt.

[39:00] Think about when God talks to him at the burning bush, and he says, Moses, this is what I want you to do, what does Moses say? Lord, I can't talk, I can't do, and we know that he was trained in all the right things, he knew all the things.

[39:11] His past failures thought it made him unable to do it, and we understood that he says that Israelites would not believe that God had sent him, and they would want evidence, you know, Israelites would not believe him or obey his voice, he could not speak with elegance, but was now slow of speech, but finally Moses surrenders to God's will, it brought him to the place of humility that God could use him.

[39:38] You know, sometimes God has to bring us to a place where he can use us, because there's things in our life that need to mature for what God has for us, because God wants us to mature in our faith.

[39:52] Because ultimately we see God's triumph through it. You know, we see as God uses Moses to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt.

[40:04] What started in oppression, God made a way of deliverance. When things are unfair, don't get bitter and angry, and try to do it your own way, but look for God's instruction on how God wants you to handle the situation.

[40:22] Because what's God doing? He's maturing you for service. Let's pray. Heavenly Fathers, we come before you this morning. Lord, we just thank you and praise you for your word.

[40:33] Thank you.