God Prepares Moses For Ministry

In the name of Jesus, your Son, and in the power of your Spirit, for your glory and your honor and your namesake. Amen. Amen. If you have your bibles, open them to. Exodus chapter two, and here we look at the second phase in this sort of four part transition in Moses' life, this transition from being this sort of prince in Egypt to being a leader of the exodus, this transition that takes a number of years, and that takes a rather winding road. Today we look at chapter two, verses sixteen through twenty two. And this section is a very important section, although when you read it the importance of it could go unnoticed. Let's look at it now. We read, now, the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father's flock. The shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and saved them and watered their flock. When they came home to their father Ruel, he said, how is it that you have come home so soon? Today? They said, an Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds and even drew water for us. And watered our flock. He said to his daughters, then where is he? Why have you left? The man? Call him that he may eat bread. Moses was content to dwell with the man. He gave Moses his daughter, Zipporah. She gave birth to a son, and he called his name Gersham, for he said, I have been a sojourner in a foreign land. Amen simple enough passage of scripture, but a passage of scripture that is incredibly weighty. It's weighty in terms of its value to us to understand this transition, this transition from a man in Egypt of much privilege and much power to a man who leads the exodus. And the question that it raises and then. Answers, is how does God equip and prepare a man for service and leadership? That's the important question. How does God equip and prepare a man for service and leadership? Or in other words, how does God make a man fit to lead? Christian ministry today is a wash with the idea of the cult of personality. We believe that leadership is all about who a person is and the gravitas and magnitude of their personality, And so we follow personalities and we worship personalities. We get excited when famous athletes and entertainers come to faith in Christ because we are victims of the cult of personality, and we believe that somehow God is in desperate need of men with fame and fortune who can make Christianity cool as opposed to men who can make Christianity clear. We believe that if only God could save dot dot dot, if only he could get a hold of this person, if only he could get a hold of that person. Could you imagine what God could do with so and so if he only came to faith in Christ and so. We have a long history of individuals we're saved today and preaching and publishing next week a long list of individuals who are famous actors or famous athletes, or famous businessmen or famous whatever who come to faith in Christ or about whom it becomes known that they are Christian. And then you go to the Christian bookstore just a. Few weeks later. Takes the rest of the people like years to get a book published. It's amazing. A publisher has to get you into the queue, a publisher has to get you approved, and a publisher has to get you through all of their pub boards and these other things and can I mean, even for successful authors, it can take months for them to get their next book out, But it seems that when you have the power of personality, they can do it in days. Because we worship at the altar of the cult of personality. The question is how many of these individuals have lasted, how many of these individuals have actually had significant impact? You see, God is not in the business of borrowing people's names. He doesn't need to borrow anyone's name or anyone's fame. He already has a name that is above every other name, the name at which every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, the name at which every tongue will confess that he is lured to the glory of God, the Father. God does not compete. He says, I am God God, and I will not share my glory with another. And yet we continue to believe that what God needs is just the right man with the right glory, so that then the world. Will have to listen to us. And amazingly, what happens is when individuals of high profile and high popularity come to faith in Christ, they disappear almost immediately. First and foremost, because the powers that be don't want to hear from them anymore. But there's something else at work here. The history of the Church is filled with examples of extraordinary men whom God used in extraordinary times and extraordinary ways to accomplish extraordinary feats. And in every case we see that God went to extraordinary links to make them fit for the task, combated great heresies. Some took the Gospel to strategic places and peoples. Others wrote landmark books, some planted or pastored landmark churches. Still others changed the very course of history. And yet none of these extraordinary individuals were actually extraordinary individuals until our extraordinary God. Got a hold of them. They were ordinary men, sinners in need of a savior, whom God plucked out of their ordinary lives and used them in extraordinary ways. And it is important for us to grasp this for at least two reasons, the first of which is this, if we are not careful, what we do is instead of looking to God, we look to extraordinary men. We look at the condition of our culture, we look at the condition of the church, and we say, oh, if we can only find an extraordinary man, And we see men with gifts and men with abilities, and we run to those men hoping that they will help God. And it's wrong, it's blasphemy, it's idolatry. We look to God as our help, we look to God as our hope. The second reason it's important for us to understand this is because this entire attitude causes us to look outwardly as opposed to inwardly. When you believe that what God. Is after is extraordinary men with extraordinary talents and extraordinary fame and extraordinary fortune and extraordinary name and extraordinary platforms, what you don't do is look inwardly and ask God how he can use me, because we never think of ourselves as extraordinary. And if we're not careful, this cult of personality always has us looking for other people to do the work while we sit on our hands and wait for the next extraordinary man. And you have the continuation of the eighty twenty rule. Twenty percent of the people doing eighty percent of the work. You can't say a man. You ought to say out but that's not what we see here with Moses. Two things I want us to see. First, God uses men as they are, but not where they are. God uses men as they are, but not where they are. Listen to this from Matyar. Moses was so plainly the right man for what lay ahead in the will of God. The unaided human mind might say that with this inheritance and upbringing, Moses had just the qualifications God was looking for. The scripturally inspired mind sees in Moses a working of grace whereby the Lord brought into being exactly the man he required. It is those whom he has trained to be fishermen that he calls to be fishers of men. Putting in the. Matter personally, whatever the Lord may call any of us two we may rest assured that his gracious preparation has made us exactly right for the task. You see, we look at things backwards. Instead of looking at Moses and seeing God's hand fitting the man with what he needed in order to accomplish this task. We look to Moses as though Moses showed up and then God said, oh, excellent, maybe that guy will do. When we flip it around, we see extraordinary men as opposed to an extraordinary God. Moses has the instincts of a deliverer. There is no doubt God put him together this way. We see this first in the murder of the Egyptian. Just in the last paragraph, he has the instinct of a deliverer. There's a man who is being harmed, who is being mistreated, and Moses couldn't abide it, and he acted. We see that then again with the intervention between. The Hebrews, because one could say that Moses just attacked the Egyptian because he realizes that he's a Hebrew and he wants to defend the Hebrews. However, when one Hebrew is fighting against another, he gets in on what he sees as the side of right, because this is not just about being anti Egyptian. And then thirdly, here in this scene, we see the same instincts from Moses. As the women are being mistreated by the shepherds. Listen to what said there. Look at verse seventeen. The shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and saved them. It's amazing. This phrase drove them away is repeated a number of times in Exodus. You see Pharaoh is going to drive Israel away the same phrase. But look at what it says here, but Moses stood up and saved them. Look at verse eighteen and nineteen. When they came home to their father Ruyal, He said, how is it that you have come home so soon? Today? They said, an Egyptian delivered us. That word is used strategically. What is Moses going to do for Israel? Why is he here? He is here to deliver Israel, says. He delivered us out of the hands of the shepherds. He's going to deliver Israel out of the hands of Pharaoh. And even drew water for us and watered the flock. That's why they're back so early. These women frequently had problems when they went to water the flock, and it frequently took them a lot longer than this, So it was obvious that something different had happened. What different had happened? What was different is Moses saved them, and Moses delivered them from the shepherds who were going to drive them away. This is a microcosm of what it is that Moses is ultimately going to do under the hand of God to save Israel and to deliver Israel. It's just part of the way God put him together. And not only does he drive the shepherds away, but he then goes and serves the women and waters the flock. This was unusual, This was over the top, This was not done, and yet it's precisely what he did. Moses may have had the instincts of a deliverer, but he lacked the character of a deliverer, which is why he wasn't ready to be the deliverer. What I mean by that, well, first of all, Moses lacked patience. We saw this in the murder of the Egyptian. He lacked patience. He also lacked wisdom. Again, we saw this in the murder of the Egyptian. Moses also lacked faith. We're going to see this presently. Moses is not rooted and grounded yet in his faith in God. Moses is not rooted and grounded yet in his understanding of God. So he lacks the theological preparation necessary to be the deliverer. Remember, God's goal is not merely to deliver his people, but to do so in such a way that there is no doubt as to who has delivered them. Thus, Moses needs to become a spokesman for Yahweh, not just a powerful Egyptian who transferred allegiance in order to help the Hebrews. Somehow Moses's character has to be shaped, his understanding has to be shaped in order that he might be used, But not just in order that he might be used, but that he might be used in such a way that there is no doubt that he is. Actually being used by God. You see, this is what's wrong with the cult of personality. When we say, oh, if only God could get a hold of fill in the blank, Well, what if he did. What if God just. Got a hold of the most powerful person in the world, or the most the wealthy person in the world. What if God got a hold of him, and all of a sudden Oprah is converted, and Bill Gates is converted, and suddenly there's this convergence between Bill Gates and Oprah and Tiger Woods and. Whoever else, and all at the top. They all get saved. And now they pool their resources and they create this great media conglomerate. And then all of a sudden things go around the world and we see numbers of people come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. What happens. What happens is people say, you see what money can do, You see what money can do? Well, what happens when God takes a poor englishman who's one of thirteen children, never grew up with much, and puts a song in his heart and a pen in his hands, and he writes hymns that are sung for hundreds of years. Wesley, what happens People don't say, do you see what great training can do? Do you see what money can do? They say, do you see what God can do? That's the difference. What happens when a powerful Egyptian moves up the ranks and he's given the ear of Pharaoh and then uses his position and authority to speak to Pharaoh and have Pharaoh to let these Israelites go? People say, do you see what position can do? And from then on what do we look for? We look for people in the right position. But God takes Moses out of the right position in order to put him into the right position. Amen, this is not about the cult of personality. This is about the glory of Almighty God. The second thing I want you to see is that God uses men's circumstances to fit them for their calling. He uses men's circumstances to fit them for their calling. You know, there's this pattern that happens, and I see it often. You'll go to a big conference, and I've had the privilege of speaking at a number of rather significant conferences. And it's amazing. If you watch it, if you just sit back and watch, you see it happen. They're all the young want to be preacher boys, and they're there with all of the guys that they listen to and all of the guys that they admire, and they're watching the guys that they listen to and the guys that they admire, and afterwards, they all want to come up and they want to talk to these guys, these guys that they listen to and these guys that they admire, and they want to ask them questions like if there was one book that you could recommend for a guy like me look back And basically here's what they're saying. I want to be like you, give me a short cut. Where did you study? Because maybe if I study there, I can be like you. What do you read? Because maybe if I read what you can read, I can be like you? What is it? What is it? What is it? What is it? Because what I. Want is what you have wrong answer the question is, and we'll get this later on, what's that in your head? What do you have. If you want to know how God intends to use you, the question you ask is not how have people been successful at this before? But the question you ask is what do I have? Because that's what God intends to use. If He intended to use what someone else is, someone else has, he would have made you someone else. Amen. And this is as. True for Moses leading the children of Israel out of Egypt as it is for you, homeschool mom teaching your kids at home. Oh if I only had the curriculum she has. Oh if I only had the characters she has. If I only had the background she has, If I only had the husband she has, If I only, if I only, if I only. Here's the question what do you have? Because God set those children to your home, and he intends for them to be shaped and fashioned at your hand based upon what it is that he's given you and how it is that he's shaped you. What do you have? That's how the providence of God works, and the difficulties that we experience are often used by God in order to put us in a position that He desires for us to be in. For example, God got Moses out of Egypt. There was a land that God had promised his people, and Egypt wasn't it. God got Moses out of Egypt. He got him out of Egypt. You would think, if just looking at it in human terms, you would think, wait a minute, Egypt is where he has his power. Egypt is where he has his authority. And God gets him out of Egypt. He gets him away from Egypt. And now here he is out in the desert, probably sitting and moping, because all he knows is Egypt, and the only context that he has for how it is that he's going to help these people is an Egyptian context. If I'm going to help Israel, and Israel is in Egypt, certainly I have to be in Egypt in order to help them. Interestingly enough, under these circumstances, at this particular time, Moses would have thought that God was actually rejecting him as the deliverer of Israel if all he looked at was his current circumstances. Hear me sayings, this is true for all of us at different times in our lives, because all we can see is right here and right now. We do not know the plans of God, and all of a sudden we find ourselves in a difficult place and in a difficult patch. And here's what we've given into. We've given into the idea that if God has called you, and if God is going to use you, it's going to be a great smooth road. And if it's not a straight smooth road, it must not be God. God help us for thinking like that. God help us. We're wide eyed, doe eyed, and in love, and so we marry because we found. The one, one one one. And now just a little while into it, there is the clash of sinners. And what do newlyweds often think at that moment? I must have found the wrong one one one? Why? Because we watch too many movies, that's why. And we believe in happily ever after, when the fact of the matter is, when two sinners get together, it's conflict ever after, and it's difficulty ever after, and it's sin ever after, and repentance ever after, and reconciliation ever after, and forgiveness ever after, and conflict ever after, and sin ever after, and reconciliation ever after, and repentance ever after and forgiveness ever after. That's what it's like. The wide eyed pastor who comes out of seminary and thinks he's God's gift to the church, starts pastoring his church, and it's a wonderful honeymoon as everyone is smiling at him. And then all of a sudden, several months into his pastorate, he realizes that sheep have teeth, and oftentimes he begins to think, I must have come to the wrong church. I must have taken the wrong job. And there is no doubt that is Moses was sitting here by this well thinking that he's blown it, because here he is with this passion for the people of Israel and this desire to save and rescue Israel, and all of a sudden he finds out Pharaoh found out about the murder, and Pharaoh wants him dead. Now Here he is sitting in the wilderness, sitting by this well. He has to be thinking, I've blown it. I made the wrong decision. I could have been used by God and now it's done. But it wasn't. God was getting Moses out of Egypt. God was also getting Egypt out of Moses. Amen. God was getting Egypt out of Moses. God was getting him away from Egyptian privilege because he didn't want him to rely on Egyptian privilege. God was getting him away from Egyptian paganis because Moses is not just delivering the children of Israel out of Egypt. God is actually using Moses to deliver them the law and to deliver them the Tabernacle. We often forget that God establishes through Moses this law, but he also establishes through Moses the priesthood and worship. So it's not just that God's people need to be delivered from the location of Egypt. They need to be delivered from the paganism of Egypt, and Moses to lead them needs to be delivered from the paganism of Egypt. He doesn't see that though, He couldn't see that Moses is also. Being led away from Egyptian culture because God is not merely establishing Israelites who practice Egyptian culture and happen to worship at the Tabernacle. It's amazing thing we have forgotten the last part of the Great Commission. We understand that God has called us to take the Gospel to every people group, to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. But then what else does it say and teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you. God doesn't want people stuck in godless pagan culture. God wants to impact even that, and so he gets Egypt out of Moses, as well as getting Moses out of Egypt. Thirdly, God gave Moses a mentor and teacher. It's interesting that this paragraph starts out, now, the priest of Midian had seven daughters, an issue. We're talking about Moses, and all of a sudden, now the priest of Midian Ruel here called Jethro elsewhere. In fact, it's the only time that we referred to as Ruel. And there's a lot of discussion as to why this name is used. Excuse me used here, Whether this is a formal name for him as the priest, and Jethrows is more common name, or maybe there's an idea of a surname or whatever. But the idea is that it's the same individual. This is Jethro, who is here and only here called Ruel. The rest of the time in the book of Exodus, he's called Jethro. He's a descendant of Abraham. He's a Midianite. The Midianites are descendants of Abraham, amazingly, how does Israel get into Egypt? Well, they're these eleven brothers. Ten of them decide to sell number eleven? Are these twelve brothers? Rather ten of them decide to sell number eleven into slavery? Number twelve was not a part of the plot. And when they sell him into slavery, they put him in this pit. And who comes along but some Midianites? Where did the Midianites come from? Abraham? And Hagar? Hagar was what an Egyptian? So a Midianite caravan takes Joseph into Egypt so that Joseph can rescue his brothers from the famine and bring the rest of Israel into Egypt. And now a Midianite. Priest is whom Moses comes into contact with as he comes out of Egypt. Don't lose the importance of that irony. Jethro is a priest. There are some who argue that Jethro was not a priest of the One True God, not a priest of the God of Abraham, and they make that argument based on chapter eighteen. Going me to chapter eighteen. Now, I don't agree with this assessment, but this is basically the extent of the evidence for their argument that Jethro was not a priest of the One True God or a worshiper of the One True God. Verse ten and chapter eighteen, Jethro said, blessed be the Lord who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh, and has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods, because in this affair they dealt arrogantly with the people. Now, mind you, Jethro says, now I know the Lord is greater than all gods. After this battle between all of the Egyptian gods and the One True and Living God, where God says he's doing this to demonstrate his greatness. Basically, Jethro is saying, I agree with God. He is greater than all gods. There is no other God. Now you don't have to be a polytheist in order to make that statement. And that's the only evidence that they use in order to say, well, you know, it's not until that point that Jethro be comes a monotheist. I believe this's reading a little too much into that text. Others, for example, Phil Reichen takes this position. It was in the same home that Moses grew in relationship with God. From when he accepted Zapora's hand in marriage, he became a member of her clan. The Midianites seemed to have worshiped the One True God, the God of their father Abraham. It seems significant that Ruel was a priest and that his name means friend of God. In all likelihood, Moses received spiritual instruction from his father in law, so that by the time he saw the burning bush, he had already been reintroduced to the God of Abraham. Do we know this for certain? We don't know it for certain. But we do know that Jethro is a priest. We do know that he mentors Moses, no doubt he meantors Moses. And we do know that he doesn't just mentor Moses before the deliverance out of Egypt, but even after the deliverance out of Egypt. But Jethro is also a Midianite, which means he knows the land. This is where he dwells. This is going to be important because when Moses leads Israel out of Egypt, they're going to be in this very land. Not only did God give Moses a mentor and a teacher. But God gave Moses a family. Remember this is to make him fit for his task. In order to be fit for his task, he needed a mentor, he needed a teacher, he needed someone to prepare him. And in order to be fit for his task, he needed a wife and children. God can definitely use a single man. However, there are certain things a man simply cannot learn without the unique, irreplaceable experience of being responsible for a wife and children. There's just certain stuff you won't know. There are things you won't know about the human condition, and there are things you won't know about yourself until God gives you a wife and God gives your children. There are just certain things you learn. Does that mean you can't serve without those things? Absolutely not. It doesn't mean that the apostle Paul who gives us first Timothy three and Titus one talking about the requirements of eldership and the examination of an elder as a husband and a father. The apostle Paul who gives it to us, we have no evidence that he had a wife or that he had children. So no no one has ever said or is saying that you can't be fit to lead without a wife and children. However, there are some areas that if you're going to lead, you need that knowledge and you need that experience. God gives Moses a family to shepherd. It's a microcosm of pastoral ministry. It's a protection against certain sin that would disqualify, and it's also a sense of multi generational responsibility. There's an amazing thing that happens when you recognize that you're responsible for someone who, under normal circumstances, is going to outlive you, that you have to give them something that they can hold on to beyond your lifetime, because they're going to be here beyond your lifetime, and then grandchildren who will even outlive them under normal circumstances, and our ability and our opportunity to transmit things to them. In essence, this is a microcosm of what God is calling Moses to do with Israel as their shepherd. God also gives Moses a vocation speaking of shepherds. God makes him a shepherd. Interestingly enough, this is also part of God getting Moses out of Egypt and getting Egypt out of Moses. As I can notice, this is hardly the profession Moses would have chosen because he was raised in Egypt, and the Bible says that quote all shepherds are detestable to the Egyptians end quote Genesis forty six thirty four. So he takes him out of Egypt and he gives a vocation. What vocation? What's a great vocation for an Egyptian that you're trying to make not an Egyptian anymore? How about something they hate? How about a shepherd? There you go that works. This does not feel to Moses like God is preparing him to be used mightily. And yet throughout redemptive history we see this picture Abel. It's a shepherd. He was killed by his brother Kan. The patriarchs were shepherds. King David was a shepherd. The prophets used the idea of a shepherd as an illustration of the leaders of Israel. Jesus is the good shepherd, and those who serve in pastoral ministry are called to shepherd the flock. In fact, that's what pastor means. So God has given Moses a vocation that number one is significant throughout redemptive history, and number two is specifically designed to prepare him for the task that he has ahead of him. In addition to all of this, God gave Moses time because he needed time. And this is something that we overlook. You look and you read this paragraph, and you just miss it. All of a sudden, Moses is gone. He's sitting by the well, as he says, by the well, these you know, these seven daughters come. He rescues the seven daughters. They go home. Daddy, there was this man. He goes there. Next thing you know, he's married. Bam, there's a kid. I mean, it just all happens right here in a single paragraph. But what you don't know is that this takes forty years because the text didn't tell us that. But in the Book of Apps Acts chapter seven, verses twenty three and twenty four, talking about the first when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel, and seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. He's forty years old when that happens. So he's forty years old when he goes out into the desert in Midian Acts, chapter seven and verse thirty. Now when forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, and a flame of fire in a bush. Forty years in the wilderness before his call to go back. Eighty years of preparation. By the way, how long do they wander in the wilderness? Forty years? Eighty years of preparation for forty years of ministry. Two years of preparation for every one year of ministry. You think we may be a little bit impatient if there was just one book that I could read. How about you go sit by a well, come see me in forty years, Hey man, forty years of preparation. There's a term that people used to use. I started preaching when I was twenty and there was a term that people used, and they used to talk about seasoned preachers. I mean, if we were using that term, you know, seasoned preachers. The fact of the matter is, there's certain things that takes a long time to learn. Nor do I claim to have arrived. Because there is much more I have to learn. But as I stand here at forty five and look back in my mind's eye at that twenty year old preacher, oh how I wish I could sit down with him today. Amen. God gave him time. What did that time do? It taught him patience. For forty years he waited in Egypt, and then he acted, and he acted rashly, and because he acted rashly, he ended up out of Egypt. He was impatient. Now for forty years he tends sheep in the desert. That taught Moses patience. And he needed patience in order to do what God had for him to do. Not just the instincts of a deliverer. He needed patience. God taught him humility, and he needed humility. It takes humility to shepherd God's sheep. We have to be humble. Takes humility to lead, whether you lead in church, or you lead in your company, or you lead in your home. It takes humility to lead. And Moses had to learn humility. I don't usually like to wax autobiographical from up here, but I could not resist this when God called me to preachieve call me when I was in college and as the time, I was one of those individuals playing football and people knew my name and so on and. So forth, and all this sort of stuff. And so I start preaching and people start inviting me places to preach just because I was a football player. And all of a sudden, through a series of events, God calls me away from that, and that part of my life is over. I'm not playing football anymore. Immediately my phone stops ringing. Nobody wants me to come preach for him anymore because I'm not a football player anymore. An amazing thing happened. It wasn't forty years and Sini, but it was a wilderness. And then in addition to that, God sent us to a church where a pastor who I'm convinced just uniquely hated my guts. He treated me horribly, I mean just horribly, and it was so blatant and so obvious that there were people in the church who from time to time would ask me what I had done to offend the man. It was awful, It was awful, And so here I went from you know, everybody wants your name and your everybody wants your autograph, and everybody wants you to come preach because of what. You do. To nobody's calling you anymore, and your preacher hates your guts. You know what I've learned as I've reflected on that, I was incredibly proud, and I needed to be humbled, and I needed to be humbled, like in a significant way. And so God used that in a series of other things to just absolutely crush me onto the weight of my own pride. Am I now mister humble? No, no, I'm not, but praise the Lord. I'm not who I used to be. Moses needed that. God taught him dependents. Forty years keeping sheep in the desert, forty years watching for wild animals, watching for thieves and poachers, and all you have is a wife and six sisters in law. God taught Moses dependence. He didn't have his Egyptian heritage to depend on. God taught Moses discipline. You don't survive in the desert without discipline. Water is hard to come by, and it has to be treated like it's hard to come by, and it takes discipline. God taught him discipline, and he would need that to shepherd God's people. God taught him maturity, and he needed to mature. He needed to not be the impetuous man who struck and killed an Egyptian. He needed to mature so that he could go back ten times to Pharaoh and say, let my people go. God needed to form character in him, and it takes time to form character testing to form character, and God needed to shape weakness in him. Because God resists the proud, but he exalts the humble, and he uses the weak things of this world to shame the strong. Moses was a strong thing when he was forty years old. He was in his prime, and he was powerful. And now forty years later, in the desert, he is a weak old man. And it is not the proud Egyptian prince that God uses to deliver his people, but the weak eighty year old man who stands before the most powerful man in the world with a stick in his hand and says, let my people go. God needed to teach him weakness, and it took forty years in the desert in order for him to learn that God uses our circumstances to make us fit for our calling. God uses our difficulties to make us fit for our callings. Nor is this just for individuals whom God calls to be in leadership. There is a sense in. Which every believer must identify with this reality. Why because this is also the reality of our savior. What yes, our Savior, The Prince of Heaven left Heaven, just like Moses left Egypt. And Moses spent forty years in the desert being prepared, and Jesus spent thirty three years in a human body being prepared. Having condescended to this form, he left his royal place. Jesus also learned obedience during those thirty three years Hebrews five, verses seven through ten. In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered, and being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of milk is a day. That's amazing, that that said of the Son of God. But in order for the son to identify with those whom he would save, he wrapped himself in flesh, and he wrapped himself in weakness. And he actually learned obedience in his human form through suffering, why so that he could identify with the flock whom he now shepherds Hebrews four fifteen. For we do not have a high priest who was unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are. Yet without sin, Christ can identify with our weaknesses. He could not before his incarnation. There's no weakness in the Godhead, none whatsoever. There is perfection in the Godhead. But the second person of the Trinity took weakness upon himself that he might identify. With us, with those of us who are weak. Christ is our high priest, and he is our good shepherd, and he identifies with us because he endured weakness, just like we endure weakness. It's amazing. The incarnation is amazing. What Christ brings into his experience as the son of God is amazing, and the reason for it is amazing. So that he might deliver God's people, that he might identify with God's people, that he might shepherd God's people, that we might have in him. This picture of living a life of obedience to God, even in the midst of weakness and frailty. It's an amazing thing. But even the Son of God underwent it, which makes it even more ridiculous for us to think that God is going to call us to something and that we won't have to endure suffering in order to be made ready for it and in order to be made right for it. Christ came to deliver us not just through his passive obedience and death on the cross, but also through his active obedience. And in his active obedience we see righteousness displayed, actual righteousness displayed by a man, the God, Man who was completely righteous, so that his righteousness might be imputed to us, as our sinfulness is imputed to him. In his passive obedience, we see in Christ an example of obedience to God the Father. See in Christ an example of what it means to be shaped by that weakness and to learn obedience through suffering, so that Christ is not only the one who saves us from our sin and delivers us from the wrath to come, but Christ is also the one who walks with us day by day in our weakness, and not as one who cannot understand. We have a perfect savior, We have a perfect deliverer, so that he might make us as perfect people that we might accomplish God's perfect will. I don't know what it is that God has called you to do where it is that God has called you to serve. But I do know this. Everything that you have and everything that you are is by God's providence. God did not make you who and what you are so that you could spend your life just this far away from usefulness in His kingdom, so that you could spend your life thinking, Oh, if only I had, Oh if only I was. But God has made you who and what you are that He might redeem you just as you are, and not make you someone else, but that he might redeem you, that he might use you, and that he might gain glory. Yes, but I don't have what so and so has All the more glory to God, because if you did have it, he would have to strip it from you in order that he might gain full glory. Do not despise your weakness. Embrace your weakness. Despise your strength, Despise your self reliance. Despise those things that make people look to you and. Not to God. Despise those things in you that make it hard for you to give God glory. Because it is impossible to make much of yourself and to make much of God simultaneously. You cannot do that. Don't despise your weaknesses, despise your strengths, and use those things to the glory of God. And even as you use those strengths, go to extra measure to give glory and honor to God as he uses them for his purposes and by all means. Never forget that Moses is not the only picture of this. That our Savior, our mass, redeemer and friend, Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, also took weakness upon himself, did not exercise his power and authority, and instead submitted to the cross, and through weakness save many. This is also true as we look at our salvation. Strength and believing that we can stand before God on our own is the exact opposite of what is required for those who would be saved looking to our own hands, and what we bring is the exact opposite of what God requires for those who would find mercy. But those who will find mercy are those who despise their stress and recognize that we have nothing to bring. Nothing in my hands I bring simply to the cross, I cling. We come empty handed, recognizing that even those things that we count as strengths are weaknesses, because there is nothing in us or about us that makes us worthy to stand before a holy and righteous God. But it is Christ and his finished work. It is the good shepherd who is the door for the sheep, that is. The one on whom we depend. Lay down your arms, lay down your strengths, take up your weakness, take up your cross, and trust in Christ and Christ alone to be saved. This is the picture of Christianity, not one that says, oh, if only God could save dot dot. He uses weak things to shame the wise. May we ever pray, God, make me a weak thing and use me for your glory. Let's pray, Oh God, our Father. We bow before you as a as a proud people who desire to be humble, who bow before you as a as a self reliant people who desire to be dependent. We bow before you as a people who have learned to look to the world for rescue, pleading with you that you would purge us of that need and that desire, and that you would instead make us glory and weakness and run to the cross. Grant by your grace that we would embrace this truth. Thank you for your servant Moses, and all of the things that we have learned from and through Him, and for using him today to remind us that though you use what we have, you don't use us where we are. It teaches weakness and humility and patience. You bring us to maturity, and you make us instruments in your hand that can be used to bring you glory and not fame to ourselves. Lord, I pray for the one who wrestles with a sense of inferiority. I pray for the one who constantly looks down on herself, believing that somehow she cannot be used because she doesn't have whatever that thing is that she sees in others. Grant by your grace that she would embrace this truth. Father. I pray for that one who is constantly striving for that one thing that will put him over the top. Lord, Grant by your grace that he would be content where he is, and not only stop looking for that one thing to put him over the top, but that he would despise even his own strengths. But I pray for the one who has been trusting in their own righteousness and their own goodness to please you. By your grace, grant them repentance, that they might flee to Christ and be found in Him and in his righteousness alone. Thank you for the gifts that you give to your body, the ways in which you use them to deliver your saints from the Egypt of their sin, and that make us fit for service to the most High God. Grant by your grace that this would be more and more true of us. We ask in Christ name and for his sake. Omen