easily.
and my wife and the same dream.
You
We need this baby to raise her to the ground.
You
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Faithful Word Baptist Church.
If you would, please take your seats and we'll begin our service this evening.
When you find your seat, grab a hymnal and turn to song number 351.
But she just whips away.
All of you here we are, you have the honor.
trouble down the bottom night. Tell it to Jesus, tell it to Jesus. For Christ the
meaning of our inside. Tell it to Jesus alone. Tell it to Jesus, tell it to Jesus.
Thank you for the opportunity to be here at church this evening.
Please feel past to wrestle with your Holy Spirit and help them to preach boldly into us and open our hearts to hear the message this evening.
And it's in Jesus' name that I pray. Amen.
Alright, next, turning your hymnals to song number 356.
Song number 356.
I must tell Jesus song number 356.
and drive.
I can not bear my burdens alone, I must tell Jesus, I must tell Jesus.
The ushers will bring one to you. If you have a bulletin, please open it up.
And on the left hand side, we have our service times,
our soul winning times, and below is our salvation
and baptism for the year.
On the right hand corner, thank you to everybody
who participated at the Phoenix First Friday
soul winning event.
It was a huge success.
Five soul winners, 13 salvations.
Thank you to all those who participated.
And in case you don't know,
Pastor Conrad Russell will be preaching for us
because our pastor is on a missions field in the Bahamas.
So pray for him as he travels
and as he's winning souls, amen.
And please pray for the expectant ladies.
Please turn to bulletins.
On the back of the bulletin, ladies,
please mark your calendars now for our annual
Mother, Daughter Tea Party at the Spicer in Glendale.
Schedule for the following dates, Sunday, April 27th,
Sunday, May 4th, from 2.34, 30 p.m.
Registration now open.
Please RGP on the event date of your choice
in a church Facebook group,
or by email to the church at faithfulworldwantedgmail.com.
Due to other scheduling commitments,
there will be two Sundays offered this year,
so please consider signing up early
to make sure you don't miss out,
because seating is limited,
priority will be given to seat church members,
overextended family.
And our upcoming events are right there.
You take a look at them when you get a chance,
and let's go over to the soul winning.
So if you got somebody saved on Monday the 10th,
starting on my left-hand side, go ahead and raise your hand.
Let me know if you got somebody saved.
Going around, going around.
One, three.
Anybody else for Monday?
Tuesday?
One right here.
Five?
Seven?
Any of the salivations?
And today?
Anyone else?
Is that a one?
Anyone else?
Go once, go in twice.
All right.
Ladies in the next song
All right next you should find an insert in the front of your hymnal with Psalm
67
Psalm 67 if you need one raise your hand and one of the ushers will get you one song 67
First of all, to us, and bless us.
Then God's witness to shine upon us.
Now that we may be known of honor
By saving of our mongolations
Let the people praise thee, O God.
Let all...
People praise thee, O let the nations be glad And sing for joy, for thou shalt judge the people
Righteously and govern the nations of mother Earth, the nations of mother sea life
Let the people praise me, O God.
Let all the people praise me.
Oh, let the nations be glad
and sing for joy.
And shall the earth yield her in peace
and God in her own God shall bless us.
God shall bless us in all the ends.
Love the earth, shall outhear him.
Let the people praise thee, O God.
Let all the people praise thee.
Oh, let the nations be glad and sing for joy.
Song number 248, song number 248.
Now I belong to Jesus, song number 248.
Jesus, my Lord, will love me forever.
From Him no power may open sever.
my soul. Now I belong to Him. Now I belong to Jesus. Jesus belongs to me. Not for the
years of time alone, but for eternity.
Once I was lost in sin's segregation, Jesus came down to bring me salvation,
lifting me up from sorrow and shame.
Now I belong to Him.
Oh Jesus, Jesus belongs to thee
Not for years of time alone
But for eternity
Joy floods my soul for Jesus has saved me,
Bring me from sin that long had enslaved me.
This precious blood he gave to me,
Now I belong to Him.
Now I belong to Jesus, Jesus belongs to me.
Not for the years of time alone, but for eternity.
Alright, this time we're going to pass the offering place and as we're passing out the
offering place, please turn your Bibles to Exodus chapter number two, Exodus chapter
number two.
Next is chapter 2 of the Bible reads,
And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river, and her maidens walked
along by the river's side, and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid
to fetch it.
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 the nurse of the Hebrew
that she may nurse the child for thee.
And Pharaoh's daughter said to 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 wages.
And the woman took the child and nursed it.
And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter,
and he became her son.
And she called his name Moses,
and she said, because I drew him out of the water.
and it came to pass in those days when Moses was grown that he went out under his brethren
and looked on their burdens and he spied an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew one of his 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 and when he went out the second day behold two men of the Hebrews strove
together and he said to him that did the wrong wherefore smiteest thou they fellow and he said
Moses feared and said surely this thing is known now in Pharaoh heard this thing
He sought to slay Moses but Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian and he sat down by a well
Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters and they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father's flock
And the shepherds came and drove them away
But Moses stood up and helped them and watered their flock and when they came to rule their father
He said how is it that year come so soon today?
And they said, An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and also drew water enough for us, and watered the flock.
And he said unto his daughters, And where is he? Why is it that ye have left the man? Call him that he may eat bread.
And Moses was content to dwell with the man, and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter.
And she bear him a son, and he called his name Gershom, for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land.
and it came to pass in the process of time that the king of Egypt died.
And the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage,
and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage.
And God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them.
Thank you father for Faithward Baptist Church and the souls were won this week as you fill pastor wrestle with your holy spirit
Open our hearts on our ears to receive your word. I pray this in Jesus's holy name. Amen
All right, amen. Well, it's great to be back here tonight
Here at Faithward Baptist Church the first time behind this pulpit as pastor wrestle
I know many of you know me. It's great to see a lot of familiar faces and a lot of faces
I don't recognize but you know for those of you that
Perhaps forgot that pastor warned you I was gonna be here many times leading up to this evening
You really only have yourself to blame, right?
But I apologize. I'll make this as quick and painless as possible. Sorry for the disappointment
But I do appreciate the opportunity to get up here and preached to you folks. It's great to be back here
and like I said and
Just coming up here, I thought a lot about kind of where we've been as a family, as a Christian,
and just kind of how we got to where we are today, pastoring a church down in Tucson, Arizona.
If somebody had told me that back in 2013, 2012, when I first found Pastor Anderson online,
I would have not believed it, that this is where I would have eventually ended up.
And I'm very grateful for that, grateful for this church,
grateful for the influence that Pastor Anderson
and others have been in my life over the years
through this church, through this ministry.
And of course, most thankful of all to our Lord,
Jesus Christ, who saved me all those years ago
and has allowed me to have any part
in any ministry whatsoever.
But so much more so to be a part of a ministry like this.
It's such a great ministry, it's a very powerful ministry.
very effectual and has had a very powerful influence in the world, I believe that, and
only heaven will tell, I believe, the effects that this church has had in time. But, you know,
I was kind of thinking about that this evening, my way up just about, you know, where it kind of
all started for me, and I'm going to have you back there in Exodus chapter 2. But if you would,
go over to 1 Timothy chapter number 3, 1 Timothy chapter number 3. I remember
Well, back in Northern Michigan, sitting in my home and finding Pastor Anderson online
and starting listening to the sermons, and one of the many sermons that I listened to,
he preached about men going into the ministry, and it had such a, you know, profound effect.
I mean, and one thing that really took me off guard was how he interpreted 1 Timothy,
that we're taught in the new, excuse me, in the old IFB.
I spent 11 years.
I make it sound like I did time or something, right?
I did 11 years in the old IFB, right?
Now, I'm grateful for everything that the old IFB taught me.
My pastor back then taught me many things
just about life and all of that,
but they don't really have the same take
on First Timothy 3 or necessarily.
Maybe not the same take on 1st and 3rd, but more so, they don't have the same approach
to putting men into the ministry, I'll say that.
I'm sure there's exceptions, but by and large, if you know anything about the way they do
things, they're very big on the Bible colleges and they send people there.
And if you don't have some kind of a mystical experience or some kind of profound something
or other happened to you, then you probably weren't called into the ministry.
And I remember sitting there after having all that been taught to me all those years
in the old life, being here in Pastor Anderson.
was him preaching here on First Timothy 3
and it says there in verse one,
this is a true saying,
if a man desire the office of a bishop.
If a man desired the office of a bishop, he desired the good work.
And he went on to preach something along the lines of, you know, it's not about having
certain pedigree or certain credentials or anything like that.
Obviously, we have to meet the qualifications and all that, but that really the ministry
is something that's open to any man that wants to, you know, meets those qualifications
and wants to go in and do that work.
If you can meet the qualifications that are there in 1 Timothy 3, Titus 1, you know, if
he has that desire, that's something that, you know, and it's open, you know, and God,
you know, throughout Scripture we'll see, you know, it's looking for men to get involved
in the ministry.
To get involved in, you know, their local church, be it through soul winning and men
and women, you know, in that instance, right, to get involved in their local church, to
do the soul winning that needs to be done, to do the work that needs to be done.
But also, he's looking for men to step up and go out and start churches, I believe that.
And you know, there's a great need today for men to start churches all across this country.
And I'm not saying just any old church.
You say, well, you know, there's lots of churches that are out there,
and there's Bible colleges that are churning out.
And look, I'm not against any of that.
I'm glad they're doing what they're doing.
And I'm sure they're churning out great preachers and great pastors,
and they're doing a work for God.
But, you know, we'd need more churches like faithful word Baptist church.
You know, I didn't move down to Tucson just for the scenery and the tacos.
All right, I certainly didn't move down there for the highway system or lack thereof right
You know, I didn't and I did move down there to be a little bit cooler. Just kidding, you know temperature-wise, you know
That's a joke, but you know, I didn't move down. I moved down there so we could start another church like this church
You know, not a cookie cutter version, not one that's just patterned exactly after Pastor
Anderson, what he's done here, but you know, one that follows the example of what we've
been taught of going out and reaching the lost, you know, there's a great need.
Oh, and you know, Tucson's just one city of many cities across this country that need
a man to step up, to go out there and to start a soul-winning church.
Now, I don't know if Pastor Anderson is going to appreciate me preaching this sermon, you
know, trying to, you know, run all these guys off to go and start his churches somewhere
or not, but, you know, I know that's his burden too.
After all, he's, you know, it was his preaching that led me there to go do what I'm doing
now, all, you know, 13 whatever years ago it was.
It's been so long now, I can't even, you know, remember accurately how long it's been, right?
But that, you know, I know he has the same burden, this is because this is a biblical
calling, this is something the Bible wants done, this is something the Lord wants done.
We all know Ezekiel chapter 22, if you would go to Titus chapter 1, Titus chapter 1, the Bible says in Ezekiel 22 verse 30 it says,
And I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge and stand in the gap before me for the land that I should not destroy it.
So this is the Lord speaking and once he's saying, I was looking for a man, I was looking
for a man, just a man.
Was it the son of a pastor or was it a certain kind of guy that grew up a certain way or
went to a certain Bible college or had a certain look or had a certain past that was just
squeaky clean?
No, he just said, I sought for a man, just a man to go and make up the hedge and to stand
in the gap.
And you know what?
And the result is, you know, and the part that I want to focus in on says,
he's looking for this man wide that I should not destroy it.
You know, there's people that are, you know, obviously in Ezekiel's day,
he's talking about the literal destruction of that land.
But you know, there's people whose lives are being destroyed,
whose souls are on their way to hell.
You know, the Bible says that whole nations get turned into hell often.
That a whole nation of people can go into hell when they forget God.
And unless there's a man somewhere preaching to these people, you know, whole cities, whole counties, whole blocks, whole area codes,
thousands and thousands of people without a good soul-winning church and without a man there to stand on that hedge and make up that hedge and stand on that gap,
you know, they're going to go to hell.
You know, there's souls saved in Tucson today, and not because of who I am, but just because a man went.
Just because one man decided, hey, you know, there's a need here.
And, you know, obviously the workers there pitching in the faithful people we have down
at Straight Path Baptist Church who have been doing the work, you know, weekend and week
out for six weeks, you know, obviously, actually six weeks, you know, six years, you know,
obviously, we couldn't do it without them, okay?
And this is the case all across this country today.
I mean, I mean, we could just start going through.
The cities San Diego, you know other parts of Texas, you know
We just get go go east of the Mississippi and it just it just there's so many places
Where the Lord is saying this tonight?
I'm looking for a man
I'm just looking for someone to step up to the plate and to serve God and to take on this work of being a
Bishop or an elder look there in first the Titus chapter 1 verse 5 he said for this cause I left the increased Paul writing
To Titus for this cause I left the increased that thou should have set in order the things that are wanting the things that are lacking
The things that are needing that's how the Bible is using that word wanting
And what are the things that are wanting and ordain elders in every city you say you know Titus
I'm gonna leave you there so you can go throughout Crete and make up that hedge
So you can go throughout Crete and help find guys to stand in that gap
You know this is before there was a Bible college
You know, and everybody that's getting saved, you know, the Christianity is a new thing.
It's a bunch of heathens getting saved with who knows what kind of a past.
And I keep, you know, mentioning that because I think there's three reasons.
There's probably a myriad of reasons.
I'm not going to try and cover them all today, but I think there's three reasons that I want
to point out tonight.
Why people don't serve God like they could and perhaps why they should.
And one of those reasons is comfort.
I think that's a big part of it, is comfort.
And if you would, go back to Exodus chapter two.
And this is something I believe Moses struggled with.
A couple of these things tonight,
I wanna preach a sermon called
Comfort, Concern, and Covetiousness.
And I believe these are three things
that keep people from serving God
like they could or even should.
Now I'm not gonna get up and I might already get it
from Moses when I get to heaven for suggesting
that he had these flaws that I'm gonna suggest tonight.
And I'm not going to go so far as to say he was a cautious person, I don't believe he was.
But I believe he was a man of like passions.
I believe he was, you know, flesh and blood like me and you, that he had struggles.
And that, you know, the ministry was something that maybe he was reluctant to go into.
Later on in life, but there nonetheless he did and I think one of the reasons why he was
Reluctant is because of the fact that he had grown comfortable
Okay, now I know we know all we all know the the story of Moses here
But let's just let's just look at this year first of all where we see that Moses, you know leaves a
Life of ease in Egypt ultimately early on in the story of Moses what you see him do is he leaves a life of ease
in Egypt, right? It says here in Exodus, chapter 2, verse 10,
and the child grew and she brought him unto Pharaoh's
daughter and he became her son. Now, that's a big detail right
there, right? You're becoming the son of Pharaoh's
daughter. You're somebody now, right? And your life is not
going to be the typical life. Your life is going to be one of
privilege. Your life is going to be one of education. You're,
you know, you're going to be groomed for something. People
are going to have intentions for you. There's, you know,
This is a big deal to become the son of Pharaoh, a very powerful man, and she called this day Moses
and said, because I drew him out of the water, and it came to pass in those days when Moses was
grown, that he went out onto his brethren and looked upon their burdens and spied in
We fast forward pretty quick in the story here, right?
He's born, he's put in the Ark of Bullrushes,
he's found miraculously and given unto Pharaoh's daughter.
You know, and then all of a sudden he grows up
as the son of Pharaoh and boom, now here he is,
40 years of age, and he's going out
and he's looking on the burdens of the Hebrews
and he sees an Egyptian smiting in Hebrew,
one of his brethren.
So now he's beginning to identify
As a young man, and yes, 40 is young, okay?
As a young man, he's going out there
and he's identifying as a Hebrew, right?
He's seeing them and saying, yeah, I'm one of them, right?
So obviously, you know, he's grown up
with a great privilege as being Pharaoh's son.
And I have to believe that Pharaoh
probably had a lot of intentions for him,
that there's a lot of responsibilities
they're putting put upon him,
and that he was gonna live a life,
yes, of responsibility, but also of ease.
He's probably not gonna have to worry
about a lot of the things that the typical
Egyptian or Hebrew would have a worry back then, but nonetheless he sees this taking place
and he starts to somewhere along the line say, you know, I want to be one of these guys.
I want to be like the Hebrews.
That's who I really am, right?
Notice verse 12 and it says, and he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that
there was no man, he slew the Egyptians and hid them in the sand.
And we'd be so often forget about that Moses, don't we?
Right?
And again, maybe I'll have some crow to eat when I get to heaven.
Maybe he'll grab me by the ear and give me what for.
But, you know, it does say this, right?
That he literally went and murdered somebody.
And you say, well, it was justified.
I don't know that you can really say that.
It's just kind of telling you that's what he did.
And he goes out there and he kills this guy
and he hides him in the sand.
It goes on, it says in verse 13,
and when he went out on the second day,
behold, two men of the Hebrews strove together.
And he said unto him that did the wrong,
wherefore smidest thou thy fellow?
And he said, who made thee a prince and a judge over us?
And tendest thou to kill me, as thou killest the Egyptian?
Now notice this detail, and Moses feared
and said, surely this thing is known.
Now when Pharaoh heard this thing,
he sought to slay Moses.
But Moses fled from the presence of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well.
Now, what's interesting, if you would, keep something there in excess, go over to Hebrews chapter 11.
What's interesting here is that, you know, you have to kind of wonder where Pharaoh's coming from here.
Is he just mad that some random Hebrew went out and slew an Egyptian?
Probably not.
What he's really upset about is that this is a guy that was known, the Bible was calling him, the son of Pharaoh.
That's how he grew up.
Pharaoh's investing in him, Pharaoh's working on him,
Pharaoh's letting him eat at his table,
Pharaoh's clothing him,
you know, Pharaoh's putting a roof over his head,
Pharaoh's giving all this instruct,
Pharaoh has plans probably.
And now, at 40 years old,
Moses is turning on Pharaoh and slays one of his servants.
And hides him in the sand and Pharaoh finds out about it,
enough so to make Moses afraid.
Now notice Hebrews 11, verse 24, by faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
This is the story we're reading right now.
He refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
He's rejecting that title.
He's turning on that life of comfort,
that life of ease, that life of privilege and saying,
no, I'm not gonna be just another Egyptian.
I'm not just gonna grow up as an Egyptian.
I'm not going to just be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
I am in Hebrew.
I'm going to serve God Almighty.
And it says in verse 25, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than
enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.
I mean, think about all the things that were opened unto him as the son of Pharaoh's daughter,
all the sin that he could have enjoyed.
And look, there is pleasure in sin for a season, isn't there?
And why do you think people do the things that they do?
Why do you think people get hooked on the things that they get hooked on?
Because there's pleasure in it.
No one's so stupid to us deny that, you know, but people are stupid enough to believe that there's no consequences for that
But even then if they understand there's consequences often people keep doing it anyway
My point is is that you know
He's choosing to suffer affliction rather to an enjoy the typical life a life of comfort and ease and of privilege as an Egyptian
And I would say today, you know, whatever comforts and privileges they have they pale in comparisons the ones you and I enjoy every day
I mean, we're going to read about them going to a well and it's like well, what you know, what's a well, right?
That's where water it came out of a well. You had to like lower a bucket or something roll stones
You didn't have to do this
You know, we're I mean, we're enjoying so many things today that you know our life is a life of these our life is a life of comfort
It's not you know, hopefully it's not a one of sin, right?
But you know we are enjoying many pleasures in this world
We have all the pleasures that you know the Egypt of this world has to offer and you know what?
It can make us all very comfortable, can't it?
And we could start to forget that there's a gap
We can start to forget that there is a hedge
We can start to forget that there's people that are going to be destroyed and go to hell if we get too
Comfortable and too laid-back and too easy and too focused on the things of this world
Moses he chose affliction he said no to a life of ease why because he says in
verse 26 esteeming their approach of Christ greater riches than the
treasures in Egypt for he had respect and the recompense of the reward notice
verse 27 by faith he forsook Egypt not fearing the wrath of the king for he
endured as seeing him who is invisible now when it says that he's forsook
fleeing from Egypt after having committed murder, right, because we just read that after he
slew the Egyptian, the thing was found out, right?
The other Hebrews say, you're going to kill us like you did the Egyptian?
And Moses said, surely this thing is known?
Why do you, what was he experiencing at that point?
Fear, right?
So you got to kind of, you got to kind of take Exodus 2 and look at Hebrews 11 and kind
that he feared, and then we get over here, it says he's not fearing the wrath of the king.
What's going on here? Is this a contradiction? And it's not.
What I believe the Bible is saying here is that, you know, when he forsook Egypt is the time when he said,
hey, I'm going to go, you know, be with the people of God.
I'm going to reject the comforts of being called son of Pharaoh's daughter.
I'm going to choose rather to suffer affliction with the children of God.
Then to enjoy the pleasure of sin for a season. That's him forsaking Egypt
That's when he forsook Egypt when he said no to being the son of Pharaoh's daughter and chose to be in Hebrew
Right and to try to stand up and deliver his brethren
That's what I believe and when he did that at that time when he made that choice
He did not fear the wrath of the king
Meaning, he knew that the wrath of the king was the real thing and it was going to come.
Let me just say this, is that if you choose to serve God the way you should, the way that
you could in this life, the God of this world, the Egypt of this world, he's not going to
like it.
He's going to try and stop you.
And obviously, you know, in the story, Pharaoh was trying to literally kill him and destroy
him and catch him physically.
You know we have an even greater adversary who's going to try and stop us from serving God through spiritual means and
Maybe we would like to all think would take a lot to stop us from serving God, but I think honestly comfort really isn't
Is something that stops a lot of us a little too easily
So it says he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king.
He starts out very bold, right?
I'm not, I'm not even afraid of the king.
I'm going to go out there and then the things found out and all of a sudden he's afraid
and now he's fleeing for his life.
I've got a lot of notes here.
So I got to move on quick.
Okay.
Go to Exodus chapter two, Exodus chapter number two, Exodus chapter number two.
So Moses, he leaves a life of ease in Egypt, right?
He's bold, he's zealous, he's saying, Hey, I'm going to go do this thing.
I'm going to start out.
And then the things found out and then the wrath of Pharaoh is going to come upon him
And he's like well, maybe this isn't what I'm supposed to be doing out for all any fleas
And it says there Moses excuse me well
Let me just say Moses flees at this point in fear of getting come and ends up getting comfortable not in Egypt
But now in Horrib
So he flees and he goes into Horrib and notice of verse 16 now the priest of Midian had seven daughters
And they came and drew water and filled troughs to water their flock
And the shepherds came and drove them away,
but Moses stood up and helped them and watered their flock.
And when they came to Ruel, their father,
he said, how was it that you are come so soon today?
And they said, an Egyptian delivered us
out of the hand of the shepherds,
and also drew water enough for us and watered the flock.
And he said into his daughters, where is he?
You know, when you have seven daughters,
that's what you say.
When you find, you know, the strapping young guy shows up
and starts helping out with the chores,
you're like, where is he?
You know?
We have you know, we dads like to act like we can't you know
We're gonna hold on to their 30 the older they get we're like you start looking around and you know, where's that Egyptian Anna?
You start looking at those bills start piling up. It's like this is getting expensive man
And I they get in the teenage years. That's like this is really getting expensive
I can kind of feel Raul's, you know, Jethro is what he's later called.
I can kind of see where he's coming from here.
Where is he?
Why have you left a man?
Call him, then he may eat bread.
You know it's a secret, you know, a way into a man's heart through his stomach.
Right, he's like get this guy in here feed him. Let's you know get this thing going and Moses was content to dwell with the man
And he gave Moses support of his daughter and she buried him a son and called his name Gershimp for he said
I have been a stranger in a strange land and I think and look I'm not obviously
I'm not knocking marriage or having kids or anything like that
But you know, this is just the way of life, but life and the way it is can kind of make us comfortable
Right, I don't know if he went so far as to get a dad bod here or anything like that
I know he's a shepherd, but obviously, you know, he's
You know, starting to take it easy, just to enjoy what God has given to him, enjoy.
And look, God has given us families and spouses and children and work and just life to just
enjoy.
There's nothing wrong with that.
That's a good thing.
But what happens with Moses, I think, is that now he's kind of kicking back and kind of
saying, hey, this isn't so bad over here in Midian.
You know, maybe the, it's Beats being dead, you know, it's Beats going to an early grave
in Egypt.
You know we get out of the world we get saved it's better than oh, this is better than living a life of sin
You know this is kind of nice just you know being a church and having a family and look it is believe me
It's great. We're all for it. You know we were all about that
It's great to come up here and you know find out how many babies have been born in just a few months since I've been here
Right, we're all about that bring and bring them in and breed them in
Do your God-diving duty and fill up a pew already
Right, but what I'm saying is that life with all its, you know, can kind of lull us into a state of ease
Whether you know, it's an Egypt in the sin
You know that the devil offers and the world offers or maybe we get out of that and now just you know
The Christian life and all the peace and everything that comes with it, you know that can kind of lull us into a sense of ease
Look at Exodus chapter 3 verse 1 now Moses kept the flock
Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the backside of the desert and came to the mountain of God, even to Aurob.
So he's, you know, here keeping the flock, he's having this nice life, and he's having a nice life of ease.
And we can do the same thing, but let me just make this statement here, and it's nothing profound.
The Christian life in ministry is not supposed to be a life of ease and comfort.
It's not what God intended. Okay. I should have had you keep something in 1st Timothy. Go back there 1st Timothy chapter number one
Yeah, we want to live a quiet and peaceable life, but not at the expense of not serving God
You know, and I feel like I'm kind of preaching to the choir tonight
You know, you're preaching the Wednesday night crowd the midweek crowd, you know, probably everyone in here is serving God to some degree or another
But if you're sitting in a church like this surrounded by the type of people that serve
God that the way they do in a church like this, and you're not serving God, why?
You need to check that out, right?
Figure that out.
Well, I just want to take it easy, I just want to be comfortable.
That's not what we signed up for.
The Bible says in 1 Timothy chapter number 1 verse 18,
this charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy,
according to the prophecies which went before on thee,
that thou by them mightest what?
War a good warfare.
That's like the complete opposite of peace.
That's the complete opposite of ease.
War, warfare, that's battling, that's fighting,
that's struggling.
I mean, I think everyone in this church
has a pretty good sense of that's what ministry is.
You know in the you know 13 or whatever years, it's I've been a part of this church, you know up until a few months ago
There's just been battle after but and yeah, there's been times of peace and ease and you know all of that
But you know, I've just seen battle after battle after battle after battle come to this church
You know and you wonder why is that because the church is actually doing something
You know it always boggles my mind with like when when the church this church and other churches like this go through something
And all of a sudden it's like a bunch of people just forget. It's like all of a sudden Satan doesn't exist
You know and they start you know hurling accusations at leadership and stuff like that
And they you're saying it's this reason and that's where it's like. Oh, did you forget the big a big reason called Satan?
the devil
Because you know the devil doesn't have to worry about unsafe people they're on their way to hell
doesn't the devil doesn't have to worry about a bunch of lukewarm do-nothing Christians
Because there are no threat to him at all. There's no war. There's no fighting them
You know the devil can't be everyone once all so all he's got to do is go around every once in a while and
Just wind people up like those remember those stupid little toys. He has a kid
Maybe you got some at home your parents, and you know it's like a duck and you go
Like that right that's so a lot of you know the devil works on some Christians
He knows if I just get this guy wound up a little bit
I can just set him down and he'll you know for a little while and I just come back later pick him back up
Wind him up again, you know, and they'll just go off into sin and go off over there
But you know what then he could why does he do that so he could spend the time his time, you know going after real targets
People that are actually trying to do something ministries that are actually accomplishing something
Pastries are actually taking a stand and preaching the word of God boldly, you know, he could take his time to focus in on them
You know the Christian life is a warfare, but it's a good warfare. It's a good fight to be in
It's worth it. There's real stakes
Souls are at stake lives are at stake
You know our church isn't the biggest church down there in Tucson
But let me tell you something the people that do go there the people that have been coming
I've seen such incredible change in some of those people
You say is it worth it to not be running a church a hundred or 200 people? Yeah
Because the people that do come man, it's their their life has changed directions
Their life is is who knows where they would have been you know be if we hadn't shown up down there six years ago
Who knows?
So that's what I'm saying is that you know it matters we need to fight
We need people to step up to the challenge and go out and fight. That's the Christian life that we're called to
Well, it's not easy. It's not supposed to be
You know if it was supposed to be easy
I'm sure you know we a lot of us would have hung it up a long time ago
But it's not supposed to be easy
Go to 1st Timothy chapter number four 1st Timothy chapter number four
Look at verse 10 for therefore we both labor and what suffer reproach
You know the Christian life is work and suffering put that on a coffee mug
You know life is work and suffering. It's closing a word of prayer
I'm glad I could be an encouragement to you tonight, right?
But that's what Paul wrote, hey, we labor and sufferer approach.
Why?
Because we trust the living God.
There's a reason for it.
There's purpose behind it.
It matters.
Who is the savior of all men, especially of those that believe?
He's saying, we're going to go out and labor.
We're going to fight.
We're going to work.
We're going to have a warfare.
Because there's people in this world for whom Christ died.
He's the savior of all men, especially those that will believe.
And step out of their comfort zone and actually take on a work for God who knows what God would do with them
You know you come here. You don't you know, you're not really into the soul winning program in here get involved in it
I don't know if you've noticed it's kind of the name the game around here
Right, it's great to walk in and be like I'm sure I'm missing some maps like that map is like almost all orange. That's amazing
It didn't look like that when I got here 13 years ago
You know these maps over here are getting filled out reservations being knocked. I mean, that's what it's about here
You know get involved labor well, I might have to suffer
It's worth it labor suffer approach I
Gotta move on to my next point, but let's go to second Timothy chapter number two
I want to close on this this first point on this point
You know, Moses, he started out with some zeal, right?
It was misplaced.
It was kind of premature, right?
He was kind of trying to do it in the power of his own flesh.
I mean, his heart was in the right place.
He wants to help the people of God,
aid the people of God.
He wants to redeem them or just help them
stop being oppressed, right?
He maybe goes a little too far with it at first, you know?
But at least he's willing to say no to a life of comfort and ease, a life of sin, right?
He rejects a life of sin, sins that, like the Bible says, that, you know, they that will be rich,
you know, are drowned into destruction and perdition, that they, you know, they'll have
more opportunity to sin than the average person.
They pierced themselves through with many sorrows, the Bible says, you know, just the
wealth that he had, the privilege and the position that he had would have opened up
so many more opportunities for sin.
You know, he had the character, the integrity to say no to that temptation and to go and
suffer approach with the people of God, that's great.
But when things didn't go the way he thought they would go, when his ministry didn't take
the turn that he thought it would, when everybody just didn't get on board right away with the
program, you know, he flees.
When things don't work out the way he was hoping they would work out. He's he's running from Pharaoh
You know, he's going out to deliver the itch the Hebrews and now they're like, well, are you gonna kill us?
They kind of turn on him and so he's fleeing so it's great
You know that he got away from a life of sin, but then we find him in Aura, you know married having kids
working a job
Get comfortable. That's what he's doing and
God had a purpose for him and and God's not gonna let him off that easy
And what we need to understand is that, you know, the Christian life is not supposed to be of life of comfort and of ease.
It's just not.
Look at 2 Timothy 2 verse 1,
Thou, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus,
that the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, excuse me,
and the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses,
the same commit thou to faithful men also, who shall be able to teach others also.
He wants the ministry to be perpetuated.
If men don't rise up and come out of churches like this and others, then this thing is going
to peter out.
This thing is going to die, eventually, because all the men that are willing to take a stand
and give up a life of comfort and of ease are going to get old and die.
If young people don't rise up, if young men don't rise up and take on the mantle of ministries
like this, it's only a matter of time.
And to all we have, again, are just good churches that, quite frankly, aren't doing the work
that they could be doing.
And I'm not trying to say that to be mean.
That's just a fact.
That's just the way it is.
So we need people to rise up.
Young men to rise up and serve God the things that thou has heard among me among many witnesses the same commit thou to faithful men
Who should be able to teach others also thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ
Well, I thought I thought the Christian life is supposed to be easy
No, it's it's laboring suffering your approach and during hardness being a soldier
So you can fight the good fight of faith so that you can war a good warfare. That's the Christian life
That's the ministry
And yet, comfort, you know, keeps people from taking all of that on.
The next thing, I think, people is a hindrance to people serving God the way they could and
the way they should, specifically, and I know I'm kind of narrowing in on men going in the
ministry.
It's not just comfort that prevents them, but it's also concern.
And by concern, I mean care or worry, okay?
And I think you see this in Moses' life,
and I'll read quickly here if you want to go back
to Exodus chapter three, Exodus chapter number three.
It says there in verse two,
and the angel, Lord, appeared unto him in a flame,
a fire out of the midst of the bush, right?
So he's keeping the flock of Jethro.
This is many years later after he had fled Egypt,
and he looked and behold, the bush burned with fire.
The bush was not consumed and Moses said I will now turn aside and see this great sight why the bush is not burnt
And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see a God
He called on him out of the midst of the bush and said Moses Moses and he said here am I and he said draw not draw not
Nigh hither put put off thy shoes from the off thy feet for the place where I now stand is is holy ground
More he said I am the God of thy father the God of Abraham the God of Isaac the God of Jacob and Moses hid his face
For he was afraid to look upon God
You know, we just read over this, you know, and I know I got to get through this sermon
I know it's a midweek and everyone's tired and wants to go
This is such a cool story. I mean, I love the story of Moses. I love the book of Exodus. So it's amazing, right?
I mean imagine being Moses put yourself there, right?
And you see this bush and burning and it's not consumed and you just think oh
It's in the wildfire then you get close to it and this voice calls out
You've never heard before and says calls you by name, right? Moses. You know, whoa, this bush knows my name
I didn't know, one, I didn't know bushes could talk.
Two, I didn't know bushes knew who I was, right?
I mean, it's amazing, right?
And God speaking to him, and who knows what that,
it just says, and the Lord appeared unto him.
Like, who knows what exactly that means?
Like, when he gets close and God sees Moses coming
and it's an amazing story, but I gotta move on.
And I put myself in these stories
and it's just, that stuff just jumps out at you
when you do that.
And he says he's the God of his forefathers, verse 7, and the Lord said,
I have surely seen the affliction of my people, which are in Egypt,
and I have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.
And I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them
up out of the land unto a good and large, and unto a land that flowing with milk and honey,
on the land of the Canaanites and so on and so forth, look at verse 9,
now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come unto me,
and I have seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them,
come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people,
the children of Israel, out of Egypt." Now, the first time you read this story you might think,
I mean, this is what Moses has been waiting for, right?
Because remember, we just read in chapter two how Moses is so bold and so zealous for
the Hebrews that he literally kills an Egyptian and hides his body in the sand.
I mean, then we read Hebrews 11, how he's forsaking a life of pleasure and of sin, and
he's choosing rather to suffer approach with the people of God.
And now you're reading this story and you're thinking, okay, now Moses is just going to
get on fire.
He's going to get zealous.
No, Moses, God's ready to move, God's ready to do something, but all Moses has got is a bunch of excuses.
And we'll see, I think, ultimately what his real concern was.
But Moses starts to make a bunch of excuses, Noah's verse 11, and Moses said unto God,
Who am I that I should go into Pharaoh?
Now, it's true that Moses is called by the Bible the meekest man upon all the face of the earth, and he was.
Now, I don't know if that's the case all the way through right, but maybe this is an example of his humility or
Maybe this is I'm not saying this is the case, but it could be for some of us
We can have this feigned humility and we just think, well, who am I to go and serve God?
Who am I to take on the role of pastor?
Who am I to take on the role of deacon?
Who am I to go and preach the glorious gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to us?
Who am I to do that?
I'm just so humble and so meek I could never do anything like that.
Get over yourself.
Just get over yourself.
Who are any of us?
That's why he said, I sought for a man.
Not a particular type or a particular person with a particular predigree, right?
So we need to just not use this excuse. Well, who am I that I should go into Pharaoh?
And that I should bring forth the children of Israel I need. Well, Moses correct me if I'm wrong, but in chapter 2 you thought you were that guy
Right, you know now here he is all comfortable fat and sassy
In the back side of the desert, just enjoying the milk of the flock, enjoying his wife, his children.
All fine and good, nothing wrong with that. You know, you can do both.
It's like, sorry honey, I'm in the past right now. We can't have a relationship.
You kids, you're never going to know your father. You think that's how that went?
We're enjoying each other more than we ever have.
Right? I mean, but Moses is here, you know, he's all comfortable and he's got this excuse. Well, you know, who am I to do any of this?
You know, well, you know what? Who are any of us?
And it's it and he said verse 12 and he said certainly I will be with thee and so God's like, okay, Moses
I hear you, but I just understand this it's not about you anyway, buddy
I will be with thee and this shall be a token unto thee that I have sent thee that Thou may
That thou has brought forth the people out of Egypt. He shall serve God upon this mountain
And Moses said to the God,
all right, I'm convinced, I'm sorry about that.
Nope.
Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel,
they shall say, it's in them that the God of my Father
says, sent me unto you, and they shall say to me,
what is his name?
What shall I say to them?
I don't even know what to tell these people.
I mean, you really want to send me?
You know, who am I?
And I really don't even know what to say
or what to tell these people.
It's just, he's making excuses.
And again, we'll see why I think he's,
what his real excuse is,
And maybe these are all the jit concerns that he's having or maybe it's just Moses again, just making excuses
And of course we know God says in verse 14 God said in Moses I am that I am and he said
Thou shalt I'll say to the children I am hath sent me under you
He's saying don't worry about that. You'll fit. They'll figure it out real quick. Oh
Who it is that sent you Exodus chapter 4 jump down there and look at verse 1
because, you know, the Lord goes on there, and I've got to move along, and Moses answered and said,
right, third time, Moses is replying. I forgot just taking after him with this excuse, taking
away this excuse, taking away that. You think he's going to run out of excuses? No, he's got a list
of excuses along with his arm. And Moses answered and said, but behold, they will not believe me,
and nor hearken unto my voice, for they will say, the Lord hath not appeared unto thee.
You don't count. You're nobody like who are you? You know, he's he's saying there's another excuse that he's coming up with
And the Lord said to him, what is that in nine hand? I love this response
What is this and then and I only thought about just preaching just on this verse
This is such a profound thing that the Lord does here. What is that at nine hand?
And he said a rod right and you say what's he got? Well, he's a shepherd. What's he got with a rod for?
He's a shepherd
You know, he's hiking, he's using this rod, he's got the staff, you know, he's, you know,
herding sheep with it, and, you know, it's something a shepherd has, it's a shepherd's
tool, right?
There's probably, lots of guys walking around with the rod, lots of shepherds probably,
every one of them probably had this.
And the Lord says, what is that in nine hand?
And he says a rod, and we know the story, right, verse three, and he said, cast it on
the ground.
Again, you got to really put yourself in these stories. When you start doing that, you find these little humorous nuggets, right?
Moses is afraid of snakes, apparently. And I can't blame him. I mean, I'm not a big fan. I wouldn't say that I'm terrified of him,
but I don't know that I would flee from it. Maybe it was the fact that his rod became a snake that really frightened him.
I don't know. Or maybe he's just got a fear of snakes, you know?
But you know you kind of see Moses like you know running away, okay, and I love what the Lord says next
Oh, it's okay Moses. Don't worry about it. You know he turns it back. Oh, it's okay. It's all right
No, and the Lord said in Moses put forth thine hand and take it by the tail
It's like well, could you turn it back into a rod first?
I don't have you know, I was fine carrying the rod, you know, that wasn't a problem. It's like
I just saw you turn into a snake. I know you could do it.
You could really make touch a snake and I always imagined Moses like, you know,
like, how did he do it? Right? He's like, ah!
I mean, imagine having to pick up, you know, some kind of something you're afraid of, right?
And God's making him face his fear here.
And he said, and he caught it, of course, and it became a rod.
And what we see here is that, you know, what God is doing is just, he's just taking away all of Moses' excuses for why he doesn't want to go serve him.
And what, you know, and he has all these concerns, right?
Well, who am I?
And what should I tell them?
And they're not going to believe me.
And, you know, they're not, so on and so forth.
He's got these excuses, because that's really all these concerns are.
They're just excuses.
Well, I can't do it.
I don't, you know, I don't have the ability.
because God said, what's that in thine hand?
Meaning this, that Moses had everything he needed
to go and deliver the children of Egypt,
right there in his hand, because God was with him, right?
It's not about our ability, it's not about,
obviously, if you're gonna go into the pastor,
you have to have some level of aptitude
to be able to preach and teach the word of God,
I get that.
But what I'm saying is that there's people
who have that aptitude, who have that ability,
this church and other churches that won't do it and they have you know they
have excuses and they have concerns and one of them might be well I know I
don't have the ability well do you have the Holy Spirit do you have the King
James Bible in your hand you've got everything you need you got a pulpit I
mean here you got a pastor who invests in you you got a pulpit that's open you're
preaching classes you can go out and go soul winning I mean
Throw the rod down throw it down watch God work. God'll do something
You know that rod is representative of the Holy Spirit the Bible the pastor your church
You got everything behind you to go and serve God everything you need you've already got
To go and serve God and yet people you know they make excuses
And, you know, this still isn't enough for Moses.
And we know the story.
Then he has him put his hand in his breast,
he pulls it out, leprous, white as snow,
he puts it back in again, comes out clean,
tells him that, you know, when you pour water
on the ground in Egypt, it's gonna become blood.
He's like, he's saying, I've got you, I'm with you.
Don't worry about your ability.
Don't worry about whether people are gonna think
you're valid or not, I'm gonna be with you.
We're gonna take care of that when we get there.
It's all about God anyway, his power.
But notice verse 10 and Moses said unto the Lord, Oh Lord, my Lord, I am not eloquent
Neither here to force nor since thou was spoken unto thy servant, but I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue
now a lot of people, you know
Probably correctly assume that this is talking about having a some kind of a speech impediment like a stutter
Or maybe just saying, you know, he doesn't really know how to put his thoughts together
You know that I can kind of relate with and deliver a very eloquent moving speech. I don't know
But, you know, whether it's true or not, I'm not really sure.
Maybe it is true.
Maybe Moses did have some kind of thing, because God does kind of seem to, you know, give him this one by sending Aaron and saying,
well, he'll be your mouthpiece, or maybe that's just him taking away an excuse again.
But I love the Lord's reaction.
Oh, and the Lord said on him, who hath made man's mouth?
Who hath made and makeeth the dumb, or the deaf, or the seeing, or the blind?
Have not I the Lord?
Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth.
and teach thee what thou shalt say."
Well, you know, I don't know what I'm gonna get up and preach.
How about this?
How about you do like Timothy was instructed to do
and just preach the word?
You preach this, you can't go wrong.
Well, I don't know what I'd preach.
Really?
It's a big book.
There's a lot of it.
Look at verse 13, and he said,
"'O my Lord, I send, I pray thee by the hand of whom.'"
It's like, is this the same Moses from chapter two?
Is this the same guy that 40 years earlier was killing an Egyptian and ready to just
take on the world and just burn Egypt to the ground?
Where did that guy go?
What happened to him?
And notice verse 14, and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses.
He's like, finally God has had enough.
You know, we all understand God's long suffering and merciful and patient and kind and loving.
You know and God will you know, we keep giving him excuses and giving me excuses of why we can't and why we won't why we shouldn't
You know might just make God mad
That's one person you don't want mad at you
He was he was kindled against Moses and he says you know is not leave Aaron the Levite thy brother
I know that he could speak well
It also will be holy comeeth forth to meet thee and when he seeeth thee he will be glad in his heart now
She'll speak in him and I put words in his mouth and he jumped down to verse 16 at the end there and thou shall be to him instead of
God he shall be to the inside of mouth and thou shall be to him instead of God right he's saying
Aaron's gonna be your spokesperson. Let me take that excuse away to
And finally, in verse 18, we see something that Moses finally agreed, he doesn't, we don't see him verbally going along with it, saying,
okay, Lord, you got me.
All right, I'll do it. You convinced me.
What you see is that Moses, it says in verse 18, goes and starts the process, right?
Verse 18, and Moses went and returned to Jethro, his father-in-law, and said unto him,
let me go I pre thee, and return unto my brethren, which are in Egypt, and see whether they be yet alive. And Jethro said to Moses, go in peace.
So, by verse 18, after all those excuses and the Lord taking him all away,
eventually the point where he's getting mad and maybe Moses recognizing,
okay, I've upset God, now let me, I should probably just go do this.
He finally goes along with the plan.
He's finally getting on board with the program, albeit after much excuse making.
But notice verse 19, this just is so interesting to me.
And the Lord said unto Moses in Midian, Go, return into Egypt for all the men that are
dead that which sought thy life.
Where does that go?
This is like out of the blue.
This happened in chapter 2, 40 years ago with Moses.
This is something that's happened decades ago.
And we don't read anything about it in chapter 3, it's like, it's just ancient history by this point.
It's not, Moses doesn't bring it up in his conversation at the bush.
And it's not until he actually gets on the program and goes and sees Jethro and asks to be excused so he can go and do God's will
that God finally, just on his own, of his own volition, comes to Moses and says,
oh, by the way, don't worry about everyone that sought your life, they're all dead.
And you know, and I think this is probably what Moses was really concerned about the entire time.
He's got he's saying oh, it's this and it's this and I'm slow speech
And they're not gonna believe me and this and I've got this and what's really bothering him is his past
What's really bothering him is something that happened decades ago?
Well, you know if they find out I'm a preacher
You know some skeletons gonna come out of the closet
Right and look obviously there's certain thing, you know the Bible says we have to have a good report of them
Which are without?
But don't let that become yet another excuse to not serve God.
You know, don't let some boogeyman from the past that doesn't even exist anymore keep
you from doing God's will.
You know, you go soul-winning and it's like, you know, what if I end up knocking on my
co-worker's door?
Well, don't they already know you're a Christian?
Don't they already know that you believe the Bible?
I mean, you haven't preached the gospel doing yet?
Right?
I've actually seen that happen. It was out slowing one of my church members
They knocked on the door and it was a guy that he worked with me. It's like, hey, you know
Preach in the gospel, right and it wasn't like the guy was shocked like what do you do not hear with the Bible?
Well your question was crazy, right
But you know, this is this is the kind of thing that I think goes on with people
They're worried about something and they have all these excuses and but the whole time God knows exactly what the real problem is
And when and notice it's when Moses decides, okay, I'm just gonna step out my faith
I know I have this concern that I haven't been voiced to God
I'm just gonna go ahead and do God's will anyway. That's when God shows up and says you don't even have to worry about it
Because they're all dead
Right. It's all taken care of. It's nothing to even worry about
I mean imagine the peace that Moses had
Like oh
You know, I don't have a warrant out for my arrest right now from Egypt
Don't have to worry about getting you know thrown in the clink when I show up over there. I
Mean he's probably been living with that for decades in the back
You know seeing somebody coming does it look like an Egyptian? I don't know. Is he wearing a badge?
Do you have a night stick?
He's probably been living with that this whole time and the whole time the guy's been dead the people are all dead
But he doesn't find out about that. He doesn't get any peace about that until he gets on God's program
You know Moses excuses it seems like to me we're really just a cover for his actual concern, which was his past
And God ends up reassuring Moses after Moses begins to comply
Did I tell you to keep something for Timothy because I really should have all right?
Go back there again. You're probably really used to finding it by now. All right. Hopefully you didn't get a paper cut
I promise I won't come pour lemon juice on it if you didn't look at 1st Timothy chapter 1 verse 12
You know, there's another guy that had a pretty checkered past that served God
Probably greater than any other man that's ever served God
Outside of Lord Jesus Christ the apostle Paul
And notice verse 12, and he says,
And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who hath enabled me
for that he counted me faithful,
putting me into the ministry,
who is before, get this, a blasphemer and a persecutor
and injurious, but I obtained mercy,
because I did it ignorant and unbelief,
and the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant
with faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus.
This is a faithful saying, worthy of all exception,
that Christ Jesus came to the world to save sinners
of whom I am chief.
He's saying, I am the chiefest of sinners.
And yet God counted me faithful
and put me into the ministry.
Who was what before a blasphemer a persecutor and injurious, you know
He doesn't just have some shameful sin that you know, he hasn't learned to live down yet from his past
He literally was killing Christians hauling them off persecuting the church that he's now serving
He's preaching the faith which he once tried sought to destroy. I
Mean if anyone has an excuse for something coming out of the past about his past
It's Paul
But God's like well, that's not a problem and he say well, why did God use Paul like that? Well, he tells us
He looks at verses 16 he says how be it for this cause I obtain mercy that in me first Christ Jesus Christ might show forth
Well all along suffering
for a pattern to them which would hear on, believe on him to life everlasting.
He's saying, the reason why God chose me, the chiefest of sinners, despite all my persecution
and all my injury and all the things that I did, my blaspheming that I did, and me destroying
the church, despite my past, God used me so that I could actually be an example to other
people and do what?
Take away their excuse.
No, we need to not let our past become an excuse to keep us from serving God the way that we can
There's one last thing and this is something I think that you know
This is a topic that I bring up often
And I've even preached this from behind this pulpit in years past and the last excuse that people have for not serving God
The last reason really is covetousness now. I can't turn to a part
I know we got a hopefully this and turn into two sermons here. Okay, we've got a we've got to abandon Moses because Moses is not a man
given to covetousness
right? Moses was content to just be a shepherd. It's not exactly, I mean, he's
forsaking Egypt and all the sins thereof. I mean, he could have had all the
wealth and all that. That's not him, but there is another example, and that's
Gehazi, all right? Now, we all probably know the story of Gehazi, but let's go
to 2 Kings chapter number five. 2 Kings chapter number five, we're going to pick
up in verse 19, and this is after, you know, Naaman has come to Elisha with
Elisha kind of undratomatically heals him.
I mean, it's still pretty amazing to be healed from a life-threatening disease, miraculously, however he does it.
But you have to remember, name him and want him to come out and clap his hands and you know,
put on a big show that he was saying, and he just told him, hey, just go, he sent a messenger, right?
Elisha did and said, just go, just go jump in the river seven times.
Just go throw yourself in the water.
Right, and if you remember Naomi gets all upset, but then he eventually ends up doing it his servants
You know talk him into doing it and he does and then
And then he he starts you know goes back and offers Elisha a reward, right?
He's trying to give him money silver and garments and things
And Elisha responds and said it you know refuses and and then Naomi and you know asked to be excused when he worships in the house of
Riman
And, you know, Elisha gives him a pass, and he said unto him,
Go in peace, so he departed from him a little way.
But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, the man of God said,
Behold, my master has spare name in the Syrian,
and not receiving in his hands that which he brought,
as the Lord liveth, I will run after him,
and take somewhat of him.
So he's saying, I'm gonna go get some of that reward.
Look, look, if Elisha don't want it,
I'm gonna go get mine, right?
He's gonna go get his cut.
He's gonna go get his share of the wealth.
He thinks he's entitled to something,
although he really hasn't done anything up to this point.
Now, think about who Gehazi is, he's the servant of Elisha, who is the servant of Elijah, powerful
men of God.
I mean, Elijah is just one of the great, powerful preacher, great prophet calling down fire
from heaven.
I mean, what a story, right?
Elisha, his servant is another one who goes on and does many, many miracles, more so even
than Elisha.
And she caught him all out.
And Gehazi, you know, for all intents and purposes, very well may have been the next
in line.
Right, I mean he could have been the next guy up if his heart had been right
He could have been the next great prophet. He could have been the next great preacher
We could be reading, you know whole chapters about Gehazi and all the great things that he did
But you know what he had a problem. It's called covetousness
And it kept him from serving God the way that he could the way that he should
So he goes after him and we know a little the story
So gays I followed after name in verse 21 and would name and saw him running after him
He lighted down from the chariot to meet him and he said is all well and he said all is well
All is well
Right my master has sent me behold
Like saying behold even now they're being come to unto me from out
If you're too young man of the sons of the prophets give them my prayer the Italian silver and two changes of garment
and Naaman said be content take two talents and he urged him and brought two talents and two
of silver and two bags with two chains of armament and laid upon him
two of his servants and they bear it before him and he's got so much he's got servants carrying
it for him right he's like hahaha right he's cashing in and he came to the tower and he took
them from their hand and bestowed them in the house and then let the man go and they departed
but he went in and stood before his master right because he's serving him
And Elijah sent him, wince, come astow, Elijah, or excuse me, Gehazi, and he said,
My servant went no wither, oh, I didn't go anywhere, really, because you were gone.
You know, I'm pretty sure you were gone for like, you know, however long it was.
Where'd you go?
Oh, I didn't go anywhere.
And he sent him, went not my heart with thee.
When the man turned again from his chariot to Mithy, notice what he asked him.
Is it a time to receive money and to receive garments and olive yards and vineyards and sheep and oxen and men's servants and maid servants?
He said is this what we're about? Is this what your life is about?
Is this what you're here to do, Gehazi? Is this is why you joined my ministry?
Is this why you've been following me around? Is this why you've been serving me?
Is this why you've been involved in this? Is so you could just go get gain?
Is that what you're really concerned about? Just all of yards and vineyards and sheep and cattle and money?
Is that all you're really concerned about?
And you know the sad answer for Gehazi is yeah, that is all his life was really about.
He's just covetous.
That's all he really wanted out of life. Just gain stuff things
Now and then notice this verse 27 the leprosy therefore of name and shall cleave unto thee and under thy scene forever
And he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow. I mean how?
How far that apple has fallen from the tree when it comes to Gehazi
I mean you think about who Elisha was and how he got started, you know Elisha just shows
up one day, throws his mantle on to him and walks away and Elisha catches up and Elisha
kind of has an attitude, you know, what have I done under thee, you know, seen out of it.
And he's like, well let me go bid everyone goodbye and he's like whatever, you know,
you know what I'd say, you know, I think Elisha might have been kind of a grumpy guy, it's
the impression I get that he might have been kind of contankerous, kind of one of those
hard to be around sometimes good guy you know but just
i don't know maybe you know somebody like that
but uh... you know
elijah
you know he just goes and literally
if you remember the story
Kills the oxen that he's been plowing with he's found, you know plowing with the oxen
You know, he's in there with the oxen in the oak. He kills the oxen. He burns all the instruments
He burns everything he destroys it and goes and follows the man of God
And then he really don't hear anything about him other you know
And all we find out later is that what he did all those years was poor hands on the water of Elijah. I
mean, I mean
I mean, that's that's that's kind of demeaning almost in a way not I wouldn't say it was maybe back then but I
Mean for a grown man to pour water on the hands of another grown man
I mean, what if I came to the service and it's like can you follow me to the bathroom?
Turn that sink on
Turn it off, you know dob me. Do you have a mint?
It was like the what do they call the guy that waits in the in the lavatories, you know the what is it?
Bathroom valet like that's all you want to go to the ministry
Give me my bathroom valet for about a decade
Like I get it's more practical back then because it was I can't imagine
You try to pour a pitcher of water on this hand the next one
You know you get it clean but this now the handles dirty so you grab it with your clean head now
It's dirty. You know, how do you do it?
All right, you got to get the other guy to just pour it on there for you
But still it's got to be kind of like what do you do for a living? I pour water on the dootings
and look I get he did other things right I get that that wasn't you know all
that he did but he did do that and that you know I would never even dream of
asking anyone any man or anyone really in this room to pour water upon my hands
right but that's that's the difference between a guy like Elisha and Gehazi
How can I serve?
I'll do anything.
You want me to clean a toilet?
You want me to mop a floor?
You want me to vacuum?
You want me to straighten up chairs?
You want me to put him those away?
You want me to put stuff out?
You want me to, you know, help brothers or girls?
You want to help me?
I'll do anything.
Just give me a chance to serve.
He doesn't care.
You know, what it is.
And he goes on and becomes one of the greatest prophets that ever let this mighty works for God.
Because, you know, his heart was not about covetous.
He didn't have a bunch of excuses.
And then you got a guy like Gehazi comes along and it's just it's just about money
It's just and that's I mean he gets called out for it. Is it a time to receive is that what our life's about?
Look if it is
you know
We you know that's covetousness and you know if it's stopping us from serving God
I mean it's a sin in of itself
But how much worse is it if it's stopping somebody who could do a great work from God for God
How much worse is that?
You know, I'd hate to be that guy and get to heaven and God go, you know, you could have done a lot for me
I could have used you in such a powerful way
But you're you were all about gain your life just came all about money
And Jesus warns us about covetous repeatedly and look I bring this up a lot, you know
That's why no one from Tucson came up here because like we know what you're gonna preach about
I actually did warn them. I said, hey, I'm preaching Exodus three again.
You know, if you want to come up and say hi, great, but you already heard it.
But I do preach about coverage a lot. And the reason why is because, you know,
we're living in a time where it's so easy to let this creep into our lives.
I'm not exempt from that. Nobody.
It's so easy to just you know get into a hobby and get things and start collecting and just have all the stuff and look
I'm not I'm not saying we can't ever and have stuff that we enjoy and do things and have hobbies and stuff like that
But when that's all our life becomes when that actually hinders us from serving God
Something's not right
Something's wrong somewhere
And Jesus warns us about this repeatedly, and I'll close, I promise, if you would, just go over to Mark chapter 4.
And I know we all know this, and I've preached this exact passage in this exact interpretation from this pulpit.
I'm going to preach it again, because that was a while ago.
Look at Matthew, or excuse me, Mark 4, verse 18, where you have the parable of the sower, right?
And the ravens come and snatch it up, and it has no time to even take root, right?
Representing people that hear the word of God with their hearts are just so hardened, so compacted.
that it can't even take root, and the devil just snatches away that which is sown.
And then you have the stony ground where, again, it can't take root.
But notice these last two types of ground, right?
And I'm just giving Jesus interpretation of the parable in verse 18.
And these are they which are sown among thorns, right?
So the last two are thorns and the good ground, right?
Such as hear the word, and the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches,
and the lust of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becomeeth unfruitful.
Notice this next type of ground and these are they which are sown on the ground on good ground
Such as hear the word and receive it and bring forth fruit some 30-fold some 60-fold at some 100
Now is there a problem with the ground in the with the thorny ground I?
Mean the soil think about this. Is there a problem with the soil itself?
No, because it's it's not the stony ground right because rocks you know as far as I know I'm no botanist
But you know plants can't grow on a rock right you have to have soil right that's the problem with the stony ground
You know the wayside the hard-packed ground they can't you can't penetrate the earth can't get down to the soil
But here in the in this you know the second the last one when you have the thorny ground that ground is supporting life
The things are blossoming
You know thorns are a plant right?
They just don't bear, you know, they don't you know that plant isn't bearing fruit. It's bearing thorns things. It's useless
It's prickly, right? It just doesn't like to be touched, right? So stay away. Don't bother me
We know a thing or two about thorns around here
But you know the ground there there's nothing wrong with it. The problem is what it's producing
You know, the good ground is the one that doesn't have the thorns in it.
And what is the Bible saying that the thorns are?
The cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering
in.
Covetiousness, covetousness creeps on into good ground and it literally chokes out anything
We need to take, as Jesus said, take heed and beware of covetousness, for a man's life consists not of the abundance of his possessions.
You know, that's the message that Gehazi needed to hear. It's not about silver, it's not about garment, it's not about your things and your stuff.
That's not what the Christian life is about.
You know, we need people to serve God. And look, serve God in whatever capacity you can, right?
But we need tonight and I and look maybe there's guys here
That that you know would like to serve God, but are limited in somehow or just can't do it
You know, I understand sometimes there's legitimate excuses of why people can't do even something
Maybe they desire to do maybe they are disqualified
But you know, maybe there's some guys here
That would serve God that could serve God if they would just stop
Being so comfortable
If they would stop just being so concerned
About things that don't even really matter stop making excuses and I and I hope this isn't the case
I hope it's not covetousness. That's keeping people from serving God
The way that they should and the way that they could
Let's go ahead and close in a word of prayer.
Dear Lord, again, thank you for this great opportunity
to come and preach to your people tonight
and to preach your word.
Lord, I pray it's something that was said,
was edifying, encouraging, convicting
to the power of your Holy Spirit.
Lord, I pray, Lord, that you would help all of us
to root out covetousness and to root out the concerns
and the cares of this life from our hearts
to keep those thorns far away from us
and Lord, so that we could be that good ground
that you've called us to be, Lord,
and to
to step up and serve God to serve you Lord in any way that we can and Lord Lord if there's men that can
take on that role of pastor Lord I pray you'd lay it upon their heart and Lord that you would give
them that desire and Lord you'd help us all to put away any excuses we might have that prevent us
from serving you as we should we ask these things in Christ's name amen. All right we'll go ahead
Amen.
Lastly, turn in your hymnals, if you would, to song number 355.
Song number 355.
What a friend we have in Jesus.
Song number 355.
to bear. What a privilege you carry. Everything to God in prayer. Oh, what peace we often forfeit.
trials and temptations. Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged.
Drink it to the Lord in prayer. Can we find a friend so care?
to the Lord in prayer.
Let's fight for safety, take it to the Lord in prayer.
The winds are so tight and chill, we now will find a starless land.