WEBVTT

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 Have you ever heard of a God incident?

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 It can be defined as a blessing that you don't even pray for.

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 It's something good that happens that appears to be a coincidence,

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 but is in fact orchestrated by God.

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 This is a really dramatic one, but it's the only one I could think of.

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 So I remember lying in A&E, looking down at my very swollen ankle,

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 and two nurses about to push it into a cast.

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 I was so scared.

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 But just at that moment, this nurse popped their head around the door and said,

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 do you need any help in here?

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 And that nurse held my hand, helped me to stay calm,

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 and gave me a lot of gas and air.

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 I believe that this nurse was a gift from God,

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 that God gave to me as really, really practical help.

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 Not merely a coincidence, but a God incident.

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 Have you ever just randomly bumped into someone in the street,

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 and they say exactly what you need to hear that day,

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 just as like a passing comment?

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 God incidents.

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 Or when you can't get someone off your mind,

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 so you just send them a quick text,

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 and it turns out that they just really needed to hear from you that day?

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 A God incident.

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 Today's passage can be seen as a God incident.

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 Now, for those who are married,

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 I'm not sure whether you see the in-laws coming to visit as a God incident.

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 But God used Jethro's curiosity about Israel's deliverance,

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 not only to show Jethro how great God was,

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 but to give Moses just some really practical and wise advice.

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 To help us understand the first five verses of today's chapter in Exodus,

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 we need a little bit of a rundown of Moses' family history.

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 So years ago, Moses had run away to Egypt,

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 when the Israelites, they were still there, kept in slavery.

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 He ended up living with Jethro in Midian,

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 and married Jethro's daughter, Zipporah.

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 This explains the names of Moses' children that we read in verse 4.

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 God had saved him, and he was in a foreign land.

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 But after some time, God asked Moses to go back to Egypt

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 and leave the whole of Israel out of slavery.

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 And this included a lot of miraculous events,

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 even parting the Red Sea so Israel could walk through on dry ground.

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 No wonder Jethro wanted to come and visit Moses.

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 I mean, I'm not married, but if I was,

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 and my in-laws, I just suddenly heard that they'd parted the Red Sea,

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 I'd be like, yeah, I'm coming for tea.

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 So...

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 When I was reading this, I did get a little bit confused.

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 I don't know if you did.

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 When Moses, it said Moses sent his wife back to Jethro.

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 And if you are confused, you're in very, very good company,

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 because so were all the commentaries that I read.

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 The Bible doesn't tell us why or when Moses sent his wife back to Jethro.

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 A good guess is that she went back maybe to tell Jethro about everything that had happened in Israel

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 and about all the deliverances.

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 But either way, Jethro was very interested.

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 And so we went to go and see Moses.

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 His curiosity was sparked.

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 If you're following in your Bible, you don't need to,

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 but if that helps you, we're at verses 6 to 12.

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 We see the family come together and reunite.

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 And once Moses had welcomed his father-in-law back,

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 he told him everything that had happened about how God had rescued Israel.

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 And Jethro praised God.

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 He said, I know that the Lord is greater than any other gods.

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 So Jethro was a priest, a Midian.

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 He probably believed in other gods, small g, and probably other things as well.

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 But here he's saying, actually, no, I see the God of Israel and he's greater.

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 And he praises God with Moses and the other Israelite leaders.

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 As if converting a Midian priest was not enough,

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 God had not finished with this visit just yet.

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 In fact, for Moses, his God incident was just beginning.

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 Verse 13, Jethro was hanging around.

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 And he saw Moses was serving as judge.

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 So this was a brand new community.

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 They'd just been saved from slavery.

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 And they didn't really know how to live in all this new freedom that they had.

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 And so they needed Moses to tell them.

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 They wanted his guidance.

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 They wanted him to decide, you know, whose sheep is whose, what fence goes where.

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 He was deciding on cases of justice between them.

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 The line was long and it was making everybody really tired.

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 It is like one cachet trying to serve the whole of Asda.

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 It does actually sometimes feel like that.

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 The people were getting grumpy and tired.

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 That's me and Asda.

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 And not mentioning Moses, who was working some very long hours.

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 It was just not a fun situation.

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 So Jethro points it out.

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 Moses, what you're doing is not good.

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 Verse 17, you and all these people who come to you, you're only going to wear yourselves out.

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 If Jethro was being just critical, he would have stopped there.

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 But then he did something really loving and in fact really wise.

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 He affirmed Moses' role and Moses' leadership.

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 Verses 19 to 20, Jethro says,

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 Moses, you must teach all these people.

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 Be their representative before God.

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 Bring their disputes to him.

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 Teach them his degrees and instructions.

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 Show them the way they are to live and the way they are to behave.

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 Jethro affirmed Moses before he jumped in and gave any advice.

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 I wonder how much really good, wise advice just falls on deaf ears because it is not given tactfully.

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 Having affirmed Moses, Jethro then offers his own advice.

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 Verse 21 to 22,

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 Moses, this is your job, but maybe you could do it a bit differently.

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 He's really specific as well about the solution.

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 Even going into details about the type of people that Moses is to choose.

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 And how to set up Israel in tens and fifties and hundreds.

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 And for Moses just to have the harder cases.

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 Jethro's clearly done this before.

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 Or something very similar.

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 And his advice solves the problem of long queues and weary people.

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 You might even call it common sense.

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 Verse 23, Jethro even has the confidence to say of his common sense.

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 And God so commands.

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 God's voice didn't boom from heaven.

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 We don't read that anywhere in there.

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 There was no twinkling on the keyboard or the guitar.

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 But it was discerned that that was God's will.

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 Sometimes God's will is just really practical and displays a lot of common sense.

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 Moses was new to leading.

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 And Jethro had a lot of experience.

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 As a priest in Midian, that's what his experience would have been in.

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 Leading people.

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 His faith in the God of Israel may have been only a day old.

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 But God did not.

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 But that did not mean that all the practical experience from his life up to that point went to waste.

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 In fact, God used it to help Moses.

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 I can say as a younger person, I don't know what younger it is.

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 I'm 30.

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 But I honestly really value wisdom for older people.

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 I love it when Russ and Clive come into college and speak to us about leadership and stuff.

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 And I'm probably speaking for other younger people as well.

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 Practical experience.

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 It's not against the will of God.

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 Even if it's gained in a secular environment.

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 Teachers.

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 Counselors.

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 Doctors.

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 Electricians.

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 Motherhood.

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 The church needs all of these vocations and the experience that they have to offer.

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 Just like God took Jethro's wisdom.

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 Wisdom that came from experience.

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 And used it to bless Moses and the people of God.

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 A few weeks ago, Jay was preaching and he rightly told us about biblical wisdom.

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 And how that does not discriminate against age.

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 But there's also wisdom gained from experience.

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 And just living in this world.

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 Practical wisdom.

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 Common sense.

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 As long as it doesn't go against the godly wisdom that we read in the Bible.

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 Wisdom from experience.

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 Wisdom from fields.

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 In other areas of vocations.

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 They're really valuable and they're gifts from God.

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 Verse 24.

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 Moses listened and did everything that Jethro said.

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 Notice there are two sides to wisdom giving.

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 Giving it and receiving it.

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 Proverbs 19.20 says.

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 Listen to advice and accept discipline.

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 And at the end you will be counted among the wise.

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 Moses was wise because he listened to those who have more experience.

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 Have you ever noticed that those who are really happy to receive wisdom.

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 Even when they're older.

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 Those who are always teachable.

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 Are the ones who people are really happy to receive wisdom from.

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 The last verse is actually my favourite.

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 Verse 27.

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 Jethro returned to his own country.

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 Jethro didn't stick around to receive all the glory for his advice.

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 And he allowed Moses to just get on with it.

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 It appears that only people that knew about Jethro's advice was Moses and Jethro.

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 It doesn't even look like he stuck around long enough to see if it worked.

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 Jethro didn't big himself up.

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 Tell everybody.

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 Rub it in Moses' face.

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 Or try and do it for Moses.

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 His heart forgiving wisdom.

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 Just came because he wanted to benefit somebody else.

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 Jethro was confident in his wisdom.

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 But he was humble in his delivery.

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 And it's a humility that we see all over God's word.

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 But most of all we see it in Jesus.

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 He left the glory of heaven and came amongst our mess to die on a cross.

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 And that is true humility.

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 All wisdom came from him.

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 Even the practical experiential wisdom.

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 He's older than anybody in this room.

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 And yet he did not think of leaving his throne in heaven for our benefit.

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 He didn't think that that was too much.

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 So maybe us not receiving the recognition for our wisdom is too much either.

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 Maybe just wanting to help somebody else is enough.

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 James 3.13 says,

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 Who is wise and understanding among you?

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 Let them show it by their good life.

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 By deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.

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 In some ways, this story in Exodus 18,

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 it's incredibly powerful.

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 Because we just see God at work all over it.

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 And in other ways, it's just so normal.

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 This was just the conversation that happened because Jethro visited Moses

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 for a completely different reason.

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 Jethro didn't visit Moses to offer wisdom.

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 He went initially because he was just plain curious.

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 But God used it as an opportunity to establish good administration

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 and leadership for Moses and his people.

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 A God incidence.

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 God taking a conversation and using it to impart wisdom.

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 I can't help but see God all over this conversation.

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 Maybe this week we can pray for God incidences.

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 We can pray for God.

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 Unexpected gifts of wisdom in the conversations that we have.

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 Being alert to the gifts of wisdom God may have for us.

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 Even if it's really practical stuff.

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 In fact, especially if it's really practical stuff.

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 Maybe we could also pray for God incidences

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 where God uses us to pass on wisdom to somebody else.

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 Let's ask God and look out for these God incidences.

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 Be alert to the Holy Spirit prompting us where we can give and receive wisdom

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 just in the coming and going of our daily life.

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 But let's be humble enough to not want the glory for it

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 and acknowledge that the one really at work in all the God incidences,

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 in all the wisdom that is ever exchanged on this planet,

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 is God.

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 Let's pray.

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 Dear Lord Jesus,

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 thank you for wisdom and experience and common sense.

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 Help us to be wise.

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 Wise like Moses who listened

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 and wise like Jethro who was courageous enough to speak

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 and didn't discount his experience as too worldly.

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 Help us to be watching out for the God incidences

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 where God may be speaking to us

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 and for the prompts of God's Spirit

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 where he might want us to speak,

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 even if we think our experience is too secular.

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 We give back to you the experience

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 and the life skills you have taught us,

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 recognising that they are a gift from you

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 and ask that you use them to build your church,

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 not for our glory but for yours

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 and out of love for each other.

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 Amen.