🎵Music🎵
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Good boy.
Yeah.
173.
Yeah.
Page 305.
Yeah.
124.
Yeah.
266.
Honey in the Rock, page 266.
Oh, there's honey in the rock, my brother.
There's honey in the rock for you.
Leave a cent for the one you love her.
There's honey in the rock for you.
Callie?
Callie, can you tell me where your name is?
Page 39.
How beautiful heaven must be.
Page 39.
On the verse.
We read of a place that's called heaven.
It's made for the pure and the free.
These truths see God's word he hath given.
How beautiful heaven must be.
Sweet home of the happy and free.
Fair haven of breast for the weary.
How beautiful heaven must be.
232.
On the verse.
Tell me the story of Jesus right on my heart every word.
Tell me the story most precious sweetness that ever was full.
Tell how the angels in chorus sang as they welcomed his birth.
Glory to God in the highest.
He sent good tidings to earth.
Tell me the story of Jesus right on my heart every word.
Tell me the story most precious sweetness that ever was full.
Last one, Brother Ramon.
41.
Sweet bind by page 41.
Now on the verse.
There's a land that is fairer than any.
And by faith we can see it upon.
For the father waits over the way.
To prepare us a dwelling place.
In the sweet by and by.
We shall meet on the beautiful shore.
In the sweet by and by.
We shall meet on the beautiful shore.
At this time we'll have our announcement.
We need a bulletin.
I think we might have a couple more left.
Too late not reprobates.
Is someone expecting me to cry today or something?
On our front cover we have a verse of the week.
It says lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust
doth corrupt and where thieves break through in steel.
Verse 19 our inside left page there.
We have our service time Sunday morning 10 30 a.m. Sunday evening
3 30 p.m. and we're in Exodus
chapter 3 tonight and let's see Thursday will be
in 1 Peter chapter 5 we'll finish the book of 1 Peter
and we had so many today. Did anybody have salvation by any chance?
Yeah it was rough. It was all uphill.
It's like that you know how these people say well I had to walk
both ways uphill and it's in the snow. It was cold outside.
So I'm glad I brought my wool socks because that was just
smart. Anyway it was cold at the doors and it was cold
outside so but you know God rewards you for your faithfulness amen.
And let's see our prayers report. You can see the
baptisms and all the stats there the last week's attendance
and our upcoming events Tuesday we have a home school
field trip. Well Monday it's Julian's birthday okay and then
November 8th is the home
school field trip and that is at 10 o'clock and it's at
Pioneer Farms in Eatonville. So it is two hours and 15 minutes
away so time yourself
accordingly on that. There's two one and a half hour tours and
you'll need to bring a sack lunch or I think
they have like things you can buy there but there's an
after lunch there's an hour and a half tour after that. So
then November 9th which is this Wednesday
there's a men's leadership class I'll be at 7 p.m. please men be prepared to preach
a short sermon. And November 20th I'll be preaching
in Spokane. November 22nd is the midweek service
change to a Tuesday and we're having a pie social that day so that
is the week of Thanksgiving. November 27th is the kids Christmas choir
beginning practices. So the Sunday
after Thanksgiving is when we're going to start doing the practice for that. So I'll give you
about a month to for the kids to have their act together
and be preparing to sing us some songs on Christmas
day. And let's see December
10th is the cookie exchange at the Bender Residence
please bring three dozen of your best cookies.
And I think it's 1130 a.m. is that correct?
And they'll be celebrating her birthday that day too.
No I'm just kidding. I just wanted to make her blush. Anyway
let's see. December 25th
December 25th is pick on juju day. No that's Christmas day.
That's Christmas day and that is an altered schedule
we're going to have a 10 a.m. service we're also going to have a prime rib dinner so we'll probably have to have
a deal for side dishes and things like that but of course
the church is going to provide the meat so and then I'll probably need
people to help cook. Is there anybody that wants to help cook the roast
this year? God bless you I see that hand. God has special
rewards in heaven for you and you and you and you
anybody else?
Who? Okay well I'm not going to remember all of you anyway but you all know
who you are and you need to sign up to cook the roast. We'll have two different sign ups. One to cook the
roast and one for bringing sides. If you're cooking a roast I don't expect you
to bring a side but if you're not then I'm just going to get you anyway.
So you know dessert or side dishes so obviously
you know you need to be watching those cooking videos where it like says what goes with
certain things. What goes with prime rib pretty much anything but
you know we'll definitely need some side dishes so anyway that'll be a great
day in God's house and I just want to remind you of the Romans Road app
it's an app that was developed with our church in mind
and it has like a step by step
presentation for people that are learning how to do soul winning
so that's an app that you should if you definitely and you can
learn stuff from it or just refresh yourself with it. There's the King James Bible
is on there there's also preaching from our church
there's preaching from other churches all of our friends
and some other stuff on there but it's a really great app I recommend
highly recommend you download it and start using it and
then of course we have I would announce this morning the King James Conference
that we're going to be having here at this church. Someone kind of mentioned to me are you going to
rent a building? Well I don't know that for sure I kind of want to get together
with the guys and see what they thought about maybe just cutting some holes
in that back wall there and definitely getting some
more chairs we'll definitely need more chairs but we can rent chairs or
whatever I'm not sure how many people are going to want to come to an event like that but we can
only seat 140 in the auditorium right here so we'll definitely
need to do some adjusting with the seating
so I'm sure people are going to want to come because it's going to be May 25th
through 28th and we're going to have some really great
preachers here to preach for us. Pastor Jonathan Shelley will be here on Thursday night
Pastor Steven Anderson will be here on Friday night
and then Pastor Mendez will be here Saturday morning to preach for us
Pastor Jones will be here Sunday morning and then we're going to have a Q&A every night
or after every service with each pastor and we'll probably do some fun things
and Brother Steven said that he was going to do a calligraphy
slash what do you call that? Offhand flourishing
okay this is something I'm not familiar with but I saw the pictures of
how he does things. So anyway he's donating his services to
do that. Most people are going to want to probably just have like old English things
written on their back or something. King James only
no I'm just kidding. But he's going to
brush up on you get that tat on the back
King James only. Just kidding
just save your emails save your stupid YouTube comments. I'm
kidding. So anyway but Brother Steven he did
offer to do some calligraphy stuff and I thought it would be cool to
like maybe ask for your favorite Bible verse or something. He kind of was like I don't know
about that but I still have the ones he did for me a couple years ago
so one was Aaron Love Sherry and then the other one was just Thompson
so anyway got those hanging in my fridge so that'll be
cool. The conference is going to be cool we're going to probably do some stuff. I'll probably give out some
King James Bibles maybe we'll have some trivia or something like that. We'll definitely have Soul Winning
of course. So anyway it's going to be a great conference I'm looking forward
to it and I appreciate all my pastor friends for stepping up and helping
and kind of part of the conference is I want it to be like
because I can't invite every pastor that I'm friends with here for the conference so
what I'm hoping is that that weekend each
church that's like of our same stripe or whatever
would preach a sermon on the King James so we could get every
church you know that you know anybody that can't
be here would preach a sermon on Sunday at least one sermon in
support of the conference and so maybe we could just make like this huge DVD
set that has all these different types of preaching so
I was hoping to get like lots of different subject
matter because the King James is a big subject matter and just the
Bible in general you know obviously there's Spanish Bibles that are good
and King James is the only one that's good so you know if there's four in Bibles
that are good I would like to see some preaching about that and I don't know
I'm really excited about it and I'm definitely excited about the King James Bible
always so I think it will be a good conference but anyway all the rest
of this stuff I kind of already went over this morning I don't see any visitors so I'm going to skip through all the rest
of this stuff we sing, do we need to sing Happy Birthday to Jolene again? No? Okay
alright well let's sing another song and then we'll receive the offering
alright
let's open up to page 302
we're going to sing Sweet Will of God page
302
page 302 Sweet Will of God
sing it on the first
burn will at last hath yielded
I would be thine in thine alone
in this the prayer
my lips are bringing Lord let in me
thy will be done
sweet will of God still
fold me closer till I
am wholly lost
in me sweet will
of God still fold me
closer till I am
wholly lost in me
I'm tired of sin but sore
and weary the darksome path
hath dreary grown but now
a light has risen to cheer me
I find in thee my star my son
sweet will of God
still fold me closer
till I am wholly
lost in me
sweet will of God still
fold me closer till
I am wholly
lost in me thy precious will
o conquering savior doth
now embrace and compass me
all discourse hush my peace
a river my soul a prison bird
set free sweet will
of God still fold
me closer till I
am wholly
sweet will of God
still fold me closer
till I am wholly
lost in me
shut in with thee O Lord forever
my wayward be no more
to roam what power from me
my soul can sever the center
of God's will my home
sweet will of God
still fold me closer till
I am wholly
lost in me
still fold
me closer till I
am wholly lost in
me
Amen. Great singing. Brother Stephen, can you bless the offering for us?
Lord God, thank you so much for bringing us back to your house, Lord. I pray that
you would bless this offering and bless both the gift and the giver. It's just going to be great. Amen.
Amen.
Turn in your Bibles, if you would, to Exodus chapter 3, the second book in the Bible.
Exodus 3.
The Bible reads,
Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian,
and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the
mountain of God, even to Horeb.
And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush,
and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire,
and 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 the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush,
and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire,
why the bush is not burnt. And when the Lord saw that he turned
aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush,
and said, Moses, Moses, and he said,
Here am I. And he said, Draw not nigh hither,
put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest
is holy ground. Moreover, he said,
I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he is afraid
to look upon God. And the Lord said,
I have surely seen the affliction of My people which are in Egypt, and have heard
their cry by reason of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows,
and have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians,
and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large,
unto a land flowing with milk and honey,
and to the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites,
and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
Now, therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel
is, Come unto Me. And I have also 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. And Moses said unto God,
Who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of
Israel out of Egypt? And he said, Certainly I will be with thee,
and this shall be a token unto thee that I have sent thee.
When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, you shall serve
God upon this mountain. And Moses said unto God,
Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them,
The God of your fathers has sent me unto you, and they shall say to me,
What is his name? What shall I say unto them?
And God said unto Moses, I am that I am.
And he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel,
I am, hath sent me unto you. And God said,
Moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel,
The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you. This is My name
forever, and this is My memorial unto all generations.
Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them,
The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob,
appeared unto Me, saying, I have surely visited you,
and seen that which is done to you in Egypt. And I have said,
I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land
of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites,
and the Perizzites, and the Hibites, and the Jebusites,
unto a land flowing with milk and honey. And they shall hearken to thy voice,
and thou shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel,
unto the king of Egypt, and ye shall say unto him,
The Lord God of the Hebrews hath met with us, and now let us go,
we beseech thee, three days journey into the wilderness, that we may
sacrifice to the Lord our God. And I am sure that the king
of Egypt will not let you go, no, not by a mighty hand.
And I will stretch out my hand, and smite Egypt with all my
wonders, which I will do in the midst thereof, and after that he will
let you go. And I will give this people favor in the sight of the
Egyptians, and it shall come to pass, that when ye go,
ye shall not go empty. But every woman shall borrow of her
neighbor, and of her that sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver,
and jewels of gold, and raiment, and ye shall put them upon your
sons, and upon your daughters, and ye shall spoil the Egyptians.
Brother Alex, would you pray for us?
Amen, well it's been a few weeks since we've been in Exodus,
so I started preaching a new series, and I just go away from it. So we had Pastor
Menes here, and all that stuff. So if you'll remember,
basically Moses has just left Egypt in the last
chapter, and so now we're basically going 40
years into the future about. So Moses didn't
lead the children of Israel out until he was 80 years old. So
he went into the desert, remember he was 40 years old, and so we're fast
forwarding time here. And verse number one, the Bible says,
Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law,
the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the
backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even
to Horeb. So this is, I'm going to preach
just four verses tonight, but of course you know there's going to be a lot more Bible than that
in the sermon. So of course you know that, so it's just kind of
a given. But this is a great
chapter in the Bible, and I definitely want to cover a lot of the topics,
and so the title of the sermon tonight is The Burning
Bush Experience. The Burning Bush Experience. So
you see that Moses is here 40 years later keeping
the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law. So remember he helped
feed the flock, and Jethro ended up giving
his daughter to Moses, to wife, and
he was the priest of Midian, and he led the flock,
Moses did, to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God,
even to Horeb. So the first thing I want to point out to you is,
and this might not seem very important to you, but you know everything in the Bible
is important. So number one,
this evening I want to show you that Mount Horeb
is actually Mount Sinai in the Bible. So
Mount Horeb is actually Mount Sinai, so that way
if you understand this then you won't be confused when it differentiates
between the two names of the mountain. But Mount Horeb
is where Moses is at. He took the flock to this
location here, and a lot of times you'll see it called Mount Sinai,
but it actually is also called Mount Horeb. Look at 1 Kings
19 verse 8, and I'm just going to quickly go through these, but
I want to show you, there is a little bit of controversy about
this and I don't understand why, it's pretty cut and dry to me, but 1 Corinthians
excuse me, 1 Kings 19 verse 8 says, And he arose and did eat and drink,
and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights,
unto Horeb the mount of God. What's it say in Exodus 3, 1 where we're just
at, that he came to the mountain of God, even Horeb. So this is talking about
Elijah, and Elijah when he was running from
Jezebel actually went to Mount Horeb, so it doesn't call it Mount Sinai
either, so people could probably get confused by that, but it's the same mountain
that Moses got the Ten Commandments from, right?
Look at Deuteronomy chapter 5 verse 2, Deuteronomy chapter 5 verse 2.
Deuteronomy chapter 5 verse 2,
the Bible says,
The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb.
Where did he make the covenant at? Mount Horeb, but it's also called Mount Sinai
isn't it? So 2 Chronicles chapter 5 verse 10,
2 Chronicles chapter 5 verse 10, if you didn't even get to
Deuteronomy yet, you can just listen to, there's several verses I just want to go through really
quickly. 2 Chronicles chapter 5 verse 10 says,
There was nothing in the ark save the two tables which Moses
put therein at Horeb when the Lord
made a covenant with the children of Israel
when they came out of Egypt. So all these places are saying Horeb aren't they?
But we also know in this book, in Exodus it talks
it mainly calls it Mount Sinai too.
Well I mean it calls it both, but look at Exodus 31 verse 18.
Exodus 31 verse 18.
So the place where Moses
fasted was in Horeb, the place where God made the covenant
with the children of Israel was Horeb, the place where the two tables and everything was
put in the ark was at Horeb. Exodus 31 verse 18 it says,
And he gave unto Moses when he had made an end of communing with him
upon Mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of
stone written with the finger of God. So you see how it calls it the same exact place
but I mean it calls it Mount Sinai here but it also
called it Mount Horeb. Alright? Psalm 106 verse 19
now I'm just beating the horse to death but I'm going to continue to beat it for a few minutes here.
Psalm 106 verse 19 says they made a calf in Horeb and worshipped
the molten image. Exodus 34 verse 2
I'll have you turn, yeah just turn to Exodus 34 verse 2
and it says, And be ready in the morning and come up in the morning
unto Mount Sinai and present thyself there to me
in the top of the mount. Exodus 34 verse 29
same chapter there it says, It came to pass when Moses came down from Mount Sinai
with the two tables of testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from the mount
that Moses wist not, that the skin of his face shone
while he talked with them. So again you might be like, well why does this
matter? What is the point? Well facts matter, don't they? Things in the Bible
matter, truth matters, knowing the Bible matters, doesn't it?
Understanding facts about the Bible matters
and it helps you understand the rest of scripture. So if you never realized that
that Horeb and Mount Sinai were the same thing, well now you know that they're the same
right? So those verses should help you shore those things up. Number 2
tonight, Moses was pastoring before he became
a pastor. Moses was pastoring before he became
a pastor. Let's look at verse number 1 again in our text it says
Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro's father, the priest of Midian
he led the flock, so he kept the flock and who did he keep
it for? His father-in-law and then he led the flock
at the backside of the desert and came to the mountain of God even unto Horeb. So
what is Moses' job? He's a pastor. He's pastoring sheep. I preached
a whole sermon about this on Thursday night
but about kind of what the responsibilities of a shepherd are
but Moses, you know basically this was his job for 40 years
so do you think he was pretty good at his job by this time? If you do something
for 40 years you're going to be pretty good at it. And so he was actually
doing something, he was being prepared to do something
well before he actually took on the role of pastoring
millions of people at the same time. So I mean
it seems like God had to teach Moses for a long time
all the intricacies of doing these things and taking care of
sheep is not an easy job. Keeping the sheep is not an easy job
that kind of work is called cowboy work as we would kind of call it
you know people, any kind of cattle or animals that you're herding
or trying to feed and take care of
is a hard job. It's not an easy job. That's what Jacob's job was
and it says that he lost sleep, he didn't get sleep, he was freezing
at night, you know his wages were changed a bunch of times. It's not
exactly an easy job you know and when they were sick or when they died
or some animal killed one of his animals he had to take
it had to come out of his pocket or whatever. But God seems to have a style
of training people to be qualified beforehand.
This is something I've noticed a lot of different times while reading through the Bible
40 years have passed. So that is time.
It takes time to become a pastor. You don't just get saved
and then the next thing you know a week later you're called to be the pastor.
It doesn't work like that. God doesn't work like that in church in the New Testament.
He didn't work like that in the Old Testament. Time has to
pass. The Bible says you can't be a novice. As a pastor you just cannot
be a novice. That means you have to know the Bible, you have to know what you're
doing. It's not, you know people just think that being a pastor is an easy job
but it's not an easy job. It's actually a really hard job.
You're on the clock pretty much 24-7 and this kind of
training with animals relates to what he was going to do later on
with human beings. So God is putting him through this training process
unbeknownst to Moses. But remember Moses
he like broke free from Egypt. He didn't want to be, you know
he'd rather suffer with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for
a season. He forsook Egypt didn't he? And he was trying to lead
them at the point where he killed that
Egyptian, buried him in the sand but then the people rejected him didn't they?
They didn't really want Moses. But see it would have been too
soon for Moses to take on that task. God knows what he's doing
and he prepares people. So the first thing it takes
to be a pastor is to have some time. You know you've got to have time
doing similar type activities in order
to get yourself to the point where you're able to do something like that. Because why does the Bible say
that you can't be a novice? Well you can't be a novice because
if you don't know the Bible and someone comes to you with a Bible question or comes to you for
counsel about something or you're up trying to teach the Bible
and you obviously don't know what you're talking about, people aren't going to follow
somebody like that. People are not going to learn from somebody like that. So
there is a preparation process for those types of things.
So you know and then there's a protection that you have to
learn. He had to learn to protect those sheep and to feed them
to find the pastures for them to go into these green pastures
and to care for them, you know clean their hooves, fleece
their wool, all that kind of stuff. And you know so once
he gets the experience, what happens? God calls him
in the burning bush, right? And so Moses has this great experience
that happens, this burning bush experience, but
if you think about how Moses is like Christ, there's a lot of
ways where Moses is like Christ in the book of Exodus. We'll see a lot of those things.
But think about this, so Moses was 40 years old when he went to
do his pasturing. He had to go do the pasturing experience
and then he came back after 40 years of experience and then
was able to lead the children of Israel out. Different situation, different time stamps, but
think about this, Jesus was 30 years old when he
began his public ministry. So didn't Jesus still have to have experience?
I mean he was the son of God, he was God manifest in the flesh,
he could read people's minds, he had all this power, but
really the power from the Holy Spirit happened to him when he got baptized by John,
right? And he was filled with the Holy Spirit without measure
and then that's when he began his main public ministry, but don't you think Jesus
had to learn the Bible first? Don't you think Jesus, I mean as a kid, you know, he
grew in stature, he grew in knowledge, you know, but
we don't really know what happened in those years where Jesus, you know,
between his 12th birthday or when he was 12 years old
until the time when he was 30, there's nothing written about it. Now of course these weird
heretics will say, well, you know, he floated over to help, you know, train the
Dalai Lama or something in these Eastern religions and, you know, the book of
Thomas and, you know, there's all these things that happen, we're missing stuff out of our Bible,
we're not missing anything out of the Bible, you know, we're not missing what
Moses did for 40 years, he probably, you know, learned how to be a husband,
learned how to be a father, learned how to, you know, train all these
sheep and have them, you know, he fed them, he took
care of them and he led them away into the place where they needed to go,
he learned the experience and Jesus also learned
experience when he, and then when he was 30 years old, he starts his
public ministry. So turn to 1 Kings 19
verse 21, 1 Kings 19
verse 21, I want to show you some different
scriptures where God has obviously been training someone
and then he calls them in these certain situations.
So 1 Kings 19, 21 says,
This is talking about Elisha. So Elijah comes down from Horeb,
he tells him to go ordain, basically,
Elisha to be the next prophet after him and to
ordain basically the king, so
God asks him to do these things and then so he comes upon Elisha and he's
doing what? He's doing,
you know, I must have cut off the other verse here, I'm sorry, let me turn
there in the book myself. So 1 Kings 19,
sorry about this, 1 Kings 19, look at verse 20
actually. It says in verse 20,
oh, I got, what am I doing here?
Yeah, yeah, verse 19, I'm sorry, okay.
So basically Elisha was, he said
pass, let Elisha be the
next prophet or whatever, so he finds him, throws his mantle on him, but what's he doing when
he gets there? He's already working hard, isn't he? He's already plowing a
field, so he's doing what? Farm work, isn't he? And so how does that translate?
Well, you plow the fallow ground,
you plow to prepare to make seeds
and to water those things, but not only is he just
planting things, he's actually working with these beasts.
It says he found plowing with the 12
yoke of oxen before him and he with the 12.
And Elisha passed him by and cast his mantle upon him.
So the call of God came to Elisha,
but what was Elisha already doing? He was already doing something that was
preparing him for the ministry he was going to be in. And you know what his job was?
To pour water on the hands of Elijah.
So, you know, he started off slow, okay?
But, you know, Elisha, when Elijah went up in the whirlwind
with the chariots of fire, he said
that he wanted a double portion of what Elijah was able
to do, which, you know, Elijah was a great prophet of God and
you know, basically, God granted that request and
so in the end, Elisha did double the miracles that Elijah did.
But, you know, God doesn't just call people
to do great things if they're just like
sitting around eating potato chips off their chest and watching sermons online
or whatever. He's not going to call someone to be a pastor that's not already doing some kind of work.
He's not going to call, you know, you to do great things for him
if you're just lazy and not doing the work. So God is
looking for people that are already, you know, on the job training and they don't even
realize it. So, also
so, well,
okay, I got a problem here, Houston.
So this happened to me this morning, but I can't have this page
missing. Alright, where's my phone? My phone over there?
I need my phone.
Is my phone sitting over there somewhere?
No?
Well, that's his problem.
Okay, well, so basically, I was wondering
like why my notes were cut off, but it's because there's a page that didn't print
in my sermon. If someone could find my phone, that would be awesome.
Maybe it's on the refrigerator in there.
Well, this is embarrassing. What else can we talk about?
Did I bring it up here or something? It's just not in my arms
reach. Is it in my office on the desk?
Anyway, so
the point is, is that, you know, when God is calling
oh, here's, never mind, never mind, here's what happened. Alright, page
three is in front of page two, so
God's preparing you to be a pastor.
He expects you to have your notes in order. That's the problem.
Okay, sorry about that. So, anyway, I was wondering
why I was in that scripture. I was like, I know that I put verse 19 in there. Why would I not put
verse 19 in there? So, basically, so
just cut out the last few minutes that I just was really looking
stupid about how God prepares you to be a pastor, and then I totally failed.
Okay, on-the-job training is what helps you get the experience you need.
So, I want to give you an object lesson real quick.
So, and forgive me, I'm a Gen-Xer
and a lot of things revert to movie quotes and things like that, and
I watched a lot of movies when I was younger and retained that stuff, but
I'm not, like, trying to get you to watch a movie or anything like that,
but I do want to use a movie as an object lesson.
And that movie is The Karate Kid, okay?
So, I'm not talking about the one with Jaden Smith, the little queer. I'm talking about
Daniel LaRusso, okay? The Italian, you know,
from Rosita or whatever. But anyway, so The Karate Kid, he's
being bullied, and, you know, he starts, he wants to learn karate
so he can defend himself against the bullies, and he finds this
Japanese guy named Mr. Miyagi, and Mr. Miyagi is like a World War II veteran,
okay, if you've never seen the movie. But anyway,
I'm sure most people have seen the movie that are like my age, or around
my age. But anyway, how does Mr. Miyagi
train him? He does like some unorthodox ways of training
Daniel to learn karate. What's he do? Well, the first thing
he, you know, I don't know if it's the first thing, but one of the things he does is he says
sand the deck, alright? So, what's he have to do? He has to get with
paper and he has to, you know, do this on the deck all day long
and sand this deck and prepare it to be painted, right? So,
you know, he's getting, Mr. Miyagi's getting some free labor to fix up his house,
Daniel's learning karate, but he doesn't realize that he's learning karate yet.
So then he's like paint, you know, paint the fence, and he paints
the fence up and down, right? And then he has to paint this fence, and it's like
all these big, huge, you know, maintenance projects that he's doing
and brand new construction. So then, so I mean free labor is
pretty good, right? So he's getting all this free labor and then he has to
paint that. The last thing he has to do is paint the house and he goes like side to side, but the other thing
he has to do is he has to wax his cars and he has like all these old
classic cars, right? Anybody know what I'm talking about? Okay.
So he's wax on, wax off. He has to learn how to wax
the car, wax on, wax off. So, you know,
Daniel gets tired and his arms hurting or whatever and he
is like I'm done with this. You're supposed to be teaching me karate and you didn't teach me anything.
And then he stands in front of him and he says show me, you know, paint
the fence or whatever. And he's like paint the fence, right? And then he
says show me, you know, sand the deck. And he gets on his knees and he's like
get up and do it that way. So, and he like has him go through all the moves
that he learned to, and he doesn't realize their moves yet. He thinks
it's work and he's like show me wax on, wax off. He's like wax on, wax off.
And then like he's like throwing punches
and like he's like blocking them like this and like this and he's like
you know he's like he's blocking, you know, kicks and punches. And then like
at the end he just like throws this barrage of punches and kicks up. He's like
right?
And so what did he learn? Well he learned it through the
occupations that Mr. Miyagi was teaching him that
he now knew how to block things in karate. So he was learning the
defense part of karate through an unorthodox way which was
you know through, you know, fixing up his house and all his cars and stuff
like that. So, but that's the same way God
prepares us or prepares a pastor like how he prepared
Moses. How did he prepare him? Well, you know, he's like feed the sheep.
You know, or you know lead the sheep in and out.
In, out. You know he's just like, he's like doing all these
things for 40 years or whatever. But you know all these other
I'm going to show you some other people in the Bible that had this similar kind of training but
you know people don't just automatically become pastor.
People don't just automatically become preachers. People don't automatically become soul winners.
There takes training to do those things and sometimes
when we, you know, in our life we'll come across situations
where God has trained us how to do something and in the Old Testament for
sure God used the training of keeping animals
and farming to prepare men to become leaders.
So, you know, and God seems to call a lot of Old Testament
prophets this way and kings and preachers. So
you know when you're a shepherd your job is to keep
the sheep safe, to feed them, to watch over them,
keep them healthy, to shear them, etc.
Who, who, what kind of guys did that? Well how about Abraham? Wasn't he
a cowboy? What about Isaac? Didn't he keep flocks?
What about Jacob? Yes, I already mentioned him. Joseph
he did that until he was sold into slavery by his own
brothers but then he still became a great leader in Egypt
didn't he? And because he was keeping, he was learning to follow
others even though he was forced to do it in most cases but through that following
he himself became a great leader and he basically
saved the whole world through his, you know, through the
transactions that he did by storing a fifth of the grain,
storing a fifth of the food so that when the dearth came he was able
to sell to all the nations that came to him for sustenance.
So God uses these kind of methods, these on the job training
type methods to call great men to do great things.
So also when you're a farmer what do you do? Well you plow,
you plant, you water, you dung
things, you protect them from the elements, you protect
them from bugs, you reap, you pluck up, you
thresh, you divide wheat from the chaff. There's all these different
processes that are in farming. People just think that growing things
is an easy thing but there is a science to it. There is ways to do
it and ways to not do it. You know, when are you supposed to plant? Certain times of the year
certain flowers grow, certain types of fruits and
vegetables grow. There's a season for everything isn't there?
But God uses people that did farm work
and those things apply in our daily
lives as Christians but also in soul winning
and preaching. You know obviously Jesus uses a lot of farming
examples in his parables. He uses a lot of keeping
sheep. He talks about sheep quite a bit. Turn to Judges chapter 6
and I'm just going to show you a few great men of God that God used
and when he came upon them just like when I was out of order with Elisha
but there's other men. So
look at Judges chapter 6 verse number 11.
So Judges 6 verse number 11
you know and this guy Gideon who I'm about to talk about
he was just like the poorest. His father wasn't
a great man in his tribe
and there was nothing really super special about him except for the fact
that God saw something special in him. So you can rise from
mediocre beginnings from being poor or whatever
to being a great person in God's kingdom. So you don't
have to be born into royalty. You don't have to be a king. You don't have to be a pastor
to do great things for God. You can do great things for God just as a regular Christian.
But you know when he called men to
lead charges and to go against these great nations
he would call someone that I think could do the job.
And when he called them they were doing the job. Look at verse 11 it says
and there came an angel of the Lord and sat under an oak which was an oprah
and that pertained unto Joash, the Ebies, right?
and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress.
What is threshing wheat? Well threshing wheat is separating
the wheat from the chaff so that you can get the stuff that you can make bread
or whatever tortillas or whatever else you're trying to make with it. But
what is he doing when he finds it? When the angel of the Lord finds him
what it says, so he did it to hide from the Midianites, verse 12
and the angel of the Lord appeared unto him and said unto him, the Lord is with thee
thou mighty man of valor.
So he didn't go and try to pick someone that's not doing anything.
See Gideon, he's hiding what he's doing but he's still working
hard. Couldn't he have had the excuse well if the Philistines see me
doing this, they're going to take my sustenance, they're going to
I'm going to be in trouble for this, they're going to steal my stuff. It doesn't say that he came upon
anybody else, nobody else is doing this. He's hiding but he's still working for the Lord
even though he's hiding and he's doing something what farmers would do.
He's taking the wheat and threshing it.
And so I already showed you 1 Kings 19
but let's look at Amos 7, verse 14.
Amos 7, verse 14 and
Amos 7, 14, he's both, he's a farmer
and he's like a person, like a
pastor that would lead animals. Look what it says in verse 14.
Then answered Amos and said to Amaziah, I was
no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son, but I was an herdman
and a gatherer of sycamore fruit. So not only was he
a herdman but he was also, you know, he picked fruit. That's what he did.
And both of those jobs are hard jobs. It says in verse
15, and the Lord took me as I followed the flock
and the Lord said unto me, Go prophesy unto my people Israel.
So God picked him, why? Because he was already hard working.
He was already doing the job. Look at, God is not going to call you
to be a pastor or some other full time worker if you're
not a hard worker. He's just not going to call you. He's not going to do it.
All the examples you see are people that are at least willing
to answer the call and not just drag their feet.
In the New Testament we see kind of a switch where it goes to
fishermen. So he just, he gets these abundance of fishermen to work for
him. And you know what, being a fisherman is a hard job also.
I know that some of you have done leisurely fishing maybe. Has anybody done commercial
fishing before? Anybody? Have you seen it done?
Have you seen like in Alaska where they go on these big ships
and then they like, yeah, they grab all these fish and do a big giant net
and then they have to sort through them and clean them and they're working
20 hour days and it's hard. I'm sure that they weren't doing all that.
But, and they weren't in Alaska, they were in a nice place, but it was a little warm.
But I'm sure there's challenges to being a fisherman there too.
But let's turn to Matthew chapter 4 verse 18
and we'll see where kind of God jumps from using
or calling these people that are farmers and herdsmen
and he starts calling these fishermen. Why? Because in the New Testament
the focus is going and reaching the lost, isn't it? That's the main focus. That's the
first works. That's the first thing that we're supposed to do
is go out and preach the gospel. And so why not call fishermen?
Because when you're going soloing it's a lot like fishing.
Right? So verse 18, Matthew 4 says
And Jesus walking by the sea of Galilee saw two brethren, Simon and
called Peter and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea
and they were fishers. So the first, these first two guys
Peter and Andrew, casting a net in the sea and he saith unto them
Follow me and I'll make you fishers of men.
And so that's something they can relate to, right? They're fishing fish
and now Jesus said if you follow me I'm going to make you fishers of men.
You're going to get people saved. Verse 20
And they straightaway left their nets and followed him and going on from thence
he saw other two brethren, so two other sets of brothers
James the son of Zebedee and John his brother
in a ship with Zebedee their father mending their nets
and he called them. And they immediately left the ship and their
father and followed him. So you have four of the twelve disciples
are fishermen. So God is calling
these hardworking trades to be his
preachers, to be his emissaries to a lost and dying world
and obviously, you know, God uses regular jobs too.
You know, I think just the fact that if you're a man and you're working, you know, God
likes that. And if you're working hard, God appreciates that. And if you're
just like a lazy loaf that doesn't want to do anything, then he's going to have
a hard time using you because you already won't work doing the other things, so
why is he expecting you're going to work hard doing something else for him?
So, and if that's you and you're just not really that hard of a worker, well just get better.
Do better. You know, God always calls us to do better and greater
things. You know, there's a lot of things that we can overcome in life. You know, being
lazy is something that you can overcome in life, isn't it? You just learn
a work ethic. You know, learn that work ethic and just
put it in your mind, put it in your heart, you know, to do, you know,
to be diligent in your work. You know, to labor
and do the hardest work that you can do
and try to learn your job the best you can. But God does use
regular men. Let's turn to 1 Chronicles 21 verse 18. I just
want to show you an example of someone that God used who wasn't
necessarily an ordained minister, he wasn't a king or anything
like that. Obviously I think that he ended up working for David in some capacity
but, you know, David probably saw what God
saw in this man and, you know, obviously God blessed this man.
1 Chronicles 21 verse 18 says,
And when he spake in the name of the Lord,
and Ornan turned back and saw the angel and his four sons
with him hid themselves, now Ornan was, what was he doing?
Threshing wheat. He's working. So isn't it
strange how you just see all these different things where these men are already doing
the work, they're already working hard and then God just comes and shows himself
and reveals himself to them. Ornan was threshing wheat
and David came to Ornan. Ornan looked and saw David and went out
of the threshing floor and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground.
And David said to Ornan,
Grant me the place of this threshing floor that I may build
an altar there unto the Lord. Thou shalt grant
it me for the full price that the plague may be stayed
from the people. And Ornan said unto David, Take it
to thee and let my lord the king do that which is good in
his eyes. Lo, I give thee the oxen also
for the burnt offerings and the threshing instruments for the wood
and the wheat for the meat offering. I give it all.
So what was Ornan's, what was his manner?
Well, he's working hard. He sees that there's a need.
David's asking him to make his sacrifice but
also to sell the things for the sacrifice.
So David's like, he basically says to him, I'm not gonna
make a sacrifice without paying for it. But I just want you to see
Ornan's attitude. So David's his king
and he's a Jebusite by the way. He's not an Israelite. He's a Jebusite.
And he says, Take it to thee. He's got what?
A giving attitude. And he says, Let my lord the king do that
which is good in his eyes. He also is willing to follow that leadership
in whatever he sees fit to do. And it says, Lo,
I give. So he has a very giving attitude.
He's willing to give all of his stuff away for nothing. He says even at the
end here, I give it all. And so God will use
just regular people that want to do great things for him
but you know, obviously, you know, he's gonna, he wants to pick
and use people that are already doing the work. They're already
you know, working hard and love the Lord. So you know,
obviously, modern day, if you want to apply this to
people that would like become pastors or leaders in some way
or just leaders within the church. You don't even have to be a pastor to be a leader.
There's a lot of leadership availabilities in our church.
And there's a lot of men here that like to lead and do things
and they do a great job. You know, they preach
when I need them to. They, you know, bring stuff in that I need them to.
They do the offerings. They count. They take all the money to the bank.
They do all kinds of things. But then we also have a lot of ladies that are doing a lot of things here too.
You know, cleaning up and helping out and
just, we have a working church and God wants to use people
that want to work. And so, you know, you're like, well maybe, you know,
maybe it's not such a classy thing that I'm doing or maybe
it's not, you know, it's a menial task or something. Who cares?
You know, because God is going to reward you for the great things that you're doing even if it does seem
like a menial task. Because every task needs to be done, doesn't it?
And if someone's not doing it, then the work's not going to get done.
So God needs us all to do something pitch in and work.
But modern day leadership
jobs would be, you know, like, I don't know, there was
other people that got put into leadership that were not necessarily in these
categories that I mentioned. Like Matthew was a tax collector.
You know, that doesn't translate super good. But
you know, maybe he was good at collecting ties after that. I don't know.
But Paul was a Pharisee. So he, you know,
if someone's book smart, they're still a hard worker. They're just working hard in whatever
you know, book smart thing that they're doing. But he was also very
zealous in his physical labor too. You know, he was a tent maker.
I'm sure that wasn't an easy job. And he learned that trade
probably before he became the Apostle Paul. Right? And so
you know, obviously God's willing to use anything that you do, but
you know, the key point is that he's going to use people that work hard. Okay?
So, and here's the other thing is that you must be a good follower
before you can become a good leader. You must be a good follower
before you can become a good leader. Look at Luke chapter 16.
Luke chapter 16, verse number 10.
So you've got to be a good follower before
you can be a great leader. You've got to be faithful in the small
things and God will bless you with the big things.
He that is faithful in that which is least is
faithful also in much and he that is unjust
in the least is unjust also in much.
So this is Jesus talking here, right? So
is what I've said in agreeance with what Jesus says?
Yeah, because he's looking for people that are willing to
just be faithful in the smallest matters and then he's going to
use them in the big matters because if they can be faithful
in the smallest matters, then they can be faithful in the biggest matters.
But if you're unjust in much, you're going to
or unjust in little, you're going to be unjust in much.
So you can't say, well, if I just got the opportunity, I'd do a lot better.
No. If you already weren't doing it when it was a menial
task, how's he going to, how are you going to expect him to do
something greater when he can't be faithful in the smallest things?
Look at verse 11, if therefore you have not been faithful in the unrighteous
mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?
And, you know, mammon is just like things, stuff,
you know, money. And it says if you can't be faithful in that,
who's going to commit to the true,
to your trust the true riches? What are the true riches? Things
that are eternal. Souls, you know,
great works for God that last forever.
You know, leading the kingdom of God in some way, shape,
or form. Or just being a faithful member in church that God blesses
because you're doing a lot of great things in the local church for God.
Look at verse 12, it says, if you have not been faithful in that which is another man's,
who can give you that which is your own? No servant
can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other,
or else he'll hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve
God and mammon. So here's another lesson for people that
want to serve God. If you're like having this fight, you know, because we have
a fight between our soul and our flesh, you know,
your soul, I mean, the new man against the old man, the
new man is always fighting against the old man. But you can also have these types of
fights with, you know, the things in this world.
The things in this world, like, would represent like worldly things,
but like, some people just think, well I've got to make all this money and then I can serve God.
That's not the right way to look at it. If you, you know,
if God's going to give you the things that you need, he's going to provide for you
what you need to get through in this life, and really, I mean,
getting rich should not be a motivation for a Christian. I'm not saying
if you are rich that that's wrong. I'm just saying that that shouldn't be your motivation
as a Christian. You can't serve both things. You're either going to have to
serve God or serve money. Serve God or serve your
things. You know, you cannot serve God and mammon at the
same time. Now obviously there's balances to everything. You have to
live. I mean, it's not cheap to live in this area. I know that for sure.
And, you know, it's really tough because we preach
that, you know, ladies should stay home and take care of the house
and that men should go out and work. So that puts an extra amount of pressure
on the men because you're having to work more
because, I mean, if you want to get what the median household income is,
what were you saying it was? $73,000 for the median
income in this area in Vancouver is the median
income. But that's what two people
and one person, I think, was it men?
It's $35 per person. $35 per person.
So I guess there is equal pay. So anyway, that's another sermon.
But think about that.
But can a household live off of that much?
Well, little is much when God is in it. You know, and you're like, well, I don't
understand how I can afford to do this, you know, tithe and do all the things
you know, do all this extra stuff. You're asking me to drive two and a half hours to, you know,
Eatonville for, you know, how can I afford this? The gas prices are $5 a gallon.
Look, God is going to take care of us.
You know, the world out there could be going through a dearth. The world out there could be going through
all these problems, but you know what? God's still going to take care of us, you know.
But if you get off track and you're just like, well, I got to
do something different. Well, you're just
allowing the world to worry you and the things and the riches of this world will
choke you and you'll become unfruitful. So, you know,
we can't serve both things. We either have to serve God or we have to serve
mammon. And mammon, again, is things, money, all these other
extra things. But, you know, God is going to reward us
one day and, you know, it's hard for us because we can't see those things.
We have to look through our eyes of faith of the things that God has in store for us
but much greater things than we have here.
You know, people chase the almighty dollar, the American dream, the
picket fence with the four bedroom house and the two and a half dogs and the two and a
half kids. It might be one and a half kids now or whatever it is.
But, you know, instead of living the American dream, why don't you try to
live the kingdom dream, which is, you know, storing up
things in heaven for later on and obviously you still have the, God's still
going to bless you in all the other stuff you do but you just got to put him first.
That's the difference. And, like, it doesn't work out mathematically
for us, does it? It's hard to fathom all these things
but, you know, God will do it for you. That's the thing.
So, if you're willing to serve him, he's going to provide for you.
Right? So turn to Jeremiah chapter 12 verse 5. Jeremiah chapter 12
verse 5. So I talked about how, you know,
Jesus isn't going to commit these great things
to you if you can't be faithful in the little things that he gives you to do.
But, in Jeremiah chapter 12 verse 5, there's a great scripture here
and it kind of poses these couple
questions here. It says, if thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, how
canst thou contend with horses? How are you going to be able
to beat a horse in a race if you can't even beat the other
people that are human beings next to you? So if you aspire
to, what's it saying? So, like, if you aspire to do these great things for God
and you can't even do the littlest things, you can't
beat the people that are next to you that are human beings and you're trying to, you know,
contending against a horse is a hard job, isn't it? Anybody ever raced a horse
before? Human beings can beat horses over long distances but you still
have to train to do that. And I'm sure
it's not easy, but it also says that if
in the land of peace where in thou trustedest
they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?
Like, when the hard times hit, when the floods come
of life, if you can't do it when it's easy, you're not going to be able
to do it when it's hard. And you know what? There's hard times coming
and are you going to be able to get through them? Are you going to be able to
you know, if you're not doing the work now, when it's hard to go soul winning
I mean, yeah, it's hard to go in the rain. It's hard to go in the cold. I get
that. But I'm talking about when they're saying, you can't do this
anymore. You can't go soul winning. You can't meet in the building.
You can't, whatever it is that they're going to try to throw at us, you
can't preach this. You can't preach that. You know,
times are going to get harder. Right now it's easy to do, so
if you feel like you're going to do great things in the tribulation or whatever
if it comes in our time, then how are you going to do great things in the tribulation
if you're not even doing the little things right now?
We're going to do great exploits, brother, in the tribulation. It's like, do you go soul winning now?
No, but you know, I'm going to do it. No, you're not. You're going to fold
like a cheap chair. You're going to go hide in some cave.
You're going to take your MREs and your machine guns and go hide in a cave
or something, and guess what? They're going to find you. And they're probably going to send
a drone to kill you. I mean, you're not going to be able to escape. The only
way we're going to be able to escape the things is if we're doing what God said to do.
And maybe the drones won't find you. Maybe the military people won't find you.
Or maybe you just have, you know,
you have great boldness because you had it before and then
you're not going to be so afraid to have boldness when you have to have it because
it's your life is on the line. So, you know,
to be good leaders, you have to first become a good follower.
To do great things, great things, great works for God,
you're going to have to do little works for God first.
Does that make sense? Joshua was just the
minister of Moses. And then what happened to Joshua? He became
a man worth following. He became a great man of God. And the children of Israel
followed him to the day he died. They didn't do that with Moses, did they?
But that's just, you know, and obviously Moses was a great leader himself.
I'm not trying to take anything away from him, obviously, but, you know, he
learned from Moses and probably learned maybe some of the things. Because Moses had
a hot temper and that's what got him in trouble a lot. You know, striking
the rock when he was supposed to, you know, talk to it. You know, breaking the Ten Commandments
and, you know, making people
eat powdered gold and whatever else.
He'd get mad and he would cloud up
and rain on people. But Elisha was a minister to
Elijah. He washed his hands. That's how he started out and then he did double the miracles.
See, they were faithful in the little things. Just ministering
to these men of God and then God used them to do great things afterwards
because they were already faithful in the little things first.
Gehazi, bad example of a follower. You know, he told them to do one thing
and he's like, I'm going to get some talents of silver and some talents of gold and
all these different changes of clothes because he was tempted because
he wanted the worldly things. And so he
became a leper until his death and he was not, you know, a faithful
servant like he was supposed to be.
Last thing here, let's go back to our text
in Exodus chapter 3 verse 2. I know it went on for a long time there.
But last thing is when God called Moses answered.
See, the title of the sermon is The Burning Bush Experience.
So, what was your burning bush experience? Did you have a burning,
I mean obviously not a literal burning bush experience. I'm talking about the time when
God set you on fire. The sermon that you heard that changed
something in your life so much that you said, you know what, I'm done
going to these weak churches or I'm going to change this about myself.
You know, something changed in Moses that day and
changed him into the man that he became. He had already trained up to do all those
things and he was already ready to go and even though he was a little bit hesitant
he still did answer the call of God, didn't he? Look at verse 2 it says,
And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a
bush. And he looked and behold the bush burned with fire and the
bush was not consumed. That'd be a strange thing to see. And Moses
said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight why the bush
is not burnt. So, it's on fire
but it's not consuming. The leaves are not, you know, going up in flames.
What happens when a bush catches on fire, all the leaves dry out
and burn up and everything burns to a crisp, right? But that's not
what's happening here. So, the picture of the burning bush reminds me of a lot
in the book of Acts when the Holy Spirit of God was poured out upon the
people at Pentecost and the cloven tongues were upon their
heads, right? The cloven tongues
and so that was a symbol of the Holy Spirit of God
resting upon those men and those men went out and
preached and got a bunch of people saved and they, you know, spoke with other tongues
and whatnot and that was, you know, Jesus said that he was going to
pour the Holy Spirit upon everybody after, you know, he went up to heaven
and then the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit would
empower them to do great miracles and great things for God.
So, Moses sees something, he sees
you know, obviously the cloven tongues were upon their head but they didn't burn up.
So, God, you know, basically, you know, the Bible says that God's a consuming fire.
So, he is going to consume those that
need to be consumed. You know, hell is stoked by the breath
of God but, you know, he's also
going to put people on fire and they won't be consumed.
So, that's a picture of the Holy Spirit firing you up, getting you
fired up and being filled with the Holy Spirit. So,
yet, so, Moses is seeing this bush and it's like a picture
of the Holy Spirit, you know, something being on fire
and not being consumed and that's what God wants us to be, right? Turn to
Romans chapter 12 verse number 1 and, you know, I'm going to the well here
again. I think I've preached this verse quite a few times recently
but it's a great verse. It's something that God expects from us
and Moses, was Moses truly a man on
fire after this burning bush experience? Didn't he go all
the way back to Egypt into a place where he was an outlaw basically
for murdering somebody and burying them in the sand? You know, he's going
back there like, you know, what am I going to do?
What should I say? You know, he doesn't even know what he's going to say.
And God tells him what to say and what to do and what the power he's going to give him
and, you know, he'll explain it more in the next chapter but we've got one more sermon
out of this chapter but anyway, the burning bush
experience is basically, in my mind, the moment that God sets you on fire to serve him.
And my question would be, have you had
that experience? Have you had that experience or has
your fire been quenched? Because, you know,
I can think back in times where God really fired me up but like
if you don't, if you don't, you know, go with that
and continue in that being on fire, then your fire will get
lower. What happens when you set a fire at first? It's blazing
and everything and eventually it kind of goes out but you've got to put more wood,
you've got to put more fuel on it to make that fire go. Look at Romans 12
where it had to turn, it said, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present
your bodies a living sacrifice. What kind of sacrifice? A living
sacrifice. You know, where you're on fire for God
but you're not consumed by that fire. Holy,
acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service.
And so God expects you to do these things, he wants
you to be a living sacrifice for him. Holy,
set apart, acceptable unto God. You know, a sacrifice
that he's pleased with, right? And so it says, be not conformed
to this world but be transformed by the renewing of
your mind that you may prove that,
excuse me, prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect
will of God. So God's okay with us
proving things, he's, you know, but he wants us to renew our mind with what, the Bible?
You know, we can't just keep living our life day after day
on that initial fuel. See, don't we need
fuel every day? Don't we have to eat every day to live pretty much?
I mean, obviously you can go three weeks or whatever without food and you can still live.
But we definitely, if you're going to be doing some kind of strenuous activity,
you know, I wouldn't suggest, you know,
fasting before doing a marathon. You're going to need some fuel
because you're going to burn a lot of calories. So
we need to consume fuel in order to continue to go, right?
And so we need to also consume the bread of
the Word of God to sustain us every single day of our lives
and, you know, if we let that run dry
or we're not eating, you know, God's Word every day, it's going to be hard
to transform your mind when everything else going into it is wicked.
Right? So we need to prove what is good. We need to prove what's
acceptable and the perfect will of God. Turn back to our
Exodus chapter 3 verse 4 where it says,
And when the Lord saw that
he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the
bush, and said, Moses, Moses, and what did he say?
Here am I. So Moses
heard the call of God, he looked to see what was
going on with this bush, and then God called him.
But see, this day was a long time coming with Moses.
Moses didn't know it. Moses was just like, I'm just leading the sheep out to the edge of the wilderness
by this mountain like I always do. But something special happened
to them that day. And God said, you know what, today's the day. Moses is ready,
I'm going to call out to him, and, you know,
hopefully he answers. Right? Matthew 22 verse 14 is the last
verse I'll have you turn to and we'll be done. Matthew 22 verse 14.
See, you say, well, you know, Moses didn't really have a choice.
Yeah he did. We're not Calvinists here. Everybody has a
choice. God calls every single person in this room
to be saved. He calls every single person in this room to serve him
in some way, shape, or form. You might not be the pastor,
but you might just be a soul winner. You know, you might just be, you know, someone that just
wants to do great works for God no matter what the job is. But God
is going to call you. And you might, it might not be a burning bush
that you see, but maybe it's just a burning, red-hot sermon that
you hear. Maybe it's just something in the Bible that you didn't
see before and you're like, hey, I've got to obey this.
I've got to follow what this is saying. Hey, I understand this now.
You might not have the burning bush, so to speak, experience
like Moses did, but what is the answer to the
question when God calls you for something?
Obviously, to be saved, it's easy. You just believe on Christ.
But, like, when he wants you to work for him, you know, what's your answer
going to be? Is it going to be, here am I, or pick somebody
else? Or, I don't have time for that right now. I've got to make
money. I've got to do this. I've got to do that. I just can't do it right now.
No, you can do it right now, and you should do it when
you're called into that action. And I'm not saying that God's going to
audibly talk to you from the sky. That's not going to happen. You know how he's going
to talk to you through this book right here. He's going to say something to you
through the Word of God, but if you're starving yourself of fuel, how
can you be on fire if you don't even have the fuel for the fire?
If you're saved today, read your Bible, and God's going to show you
wondrous things out of his law, and he's going to teach you how
to live your life. He's going to teach you what he wants you to do. There's only so many things
that God wants us doing, and the number one thing is to get out there and win some souls.
But, man, it could be for you to be a pastor. It could be for you to be
a preacher someday. Or for somebody that hasn't
actually gone soul winning or still is not giving
the gospel. Hey, why don't you push yourself to get the gospel
out to people. So, what did I have you
turn to? Matthew 22 verse 14. Look what it says. For many are called
but few are chosen. Many are called
but few are chosen. And I would say this, that God has called everybody
in this room to do something, but have you answered the call?
Now, obviously, salvation is a different story, but if God calls you for salvation,
you know, he's calling everybody for salvation. But what
about to serve him? What about to serve him in some capacity?
He's going to call you, but will you answer the call like Moses said, here am I?
Like Samuel said, speak Lord, for thy servant heareth.
You know, whatever it is, these men
were already doing something great or already working hard and God
just blessed them for what they were already doing. So, my burning bush
experience might be different than your burning bush experience, but what
was yours? Have you had it yet? What is God calling you to do?
Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for the scriptures. We thank you so much
for Exodus chapter 3. What a great passage of scripture, Lord. I pray you'd help
us all to, Lord, live our lives as a living sacrifice for you,
Lord. I pray that you would like, Lord, just catch us on fire.
And Lord, that we wouldn't be consumed, but that we'd be consumed
in another way, consumed with serving you and loving you
and doing what you say. And I pray that you just bless this church and bless us
as we go our separate ways. Protect us on the road. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
The last song, page 15 in her green hymn books.
Page 15, lead me to Calvary.
Page 15, lead me to Calvary. Sing it out loud on the first.
King of my life, I crown thee now.
Thine shall the glory be.
Lest I forget thy thorn,
crown, brown. Lead me to Calvary.
Lest I forget
Gethsemane. Lest I
forget thine ache.
Lest I
forget thy love for me.
Lead me to Calvary.
Show me the tomb where thou
was slain. Tenderly morn
and wept. Angels
and robes of white array.
Guarded thee whilst thou slept.
Lest I forget Gethsemane.
Lest I forget
thine agony. Lest I
forget thy love for me.
Lead me to Calvary on the third.
Lead me like Mary through
the gloom. Come with a gift to
thee. Show to me
now the empty tomb. Lead
me to Calvary.
Lest I forget Gethsemane.
Lest I forget
thine agony. Lest I
forget thy love for me.
Lead me to Calvary on the last.
May I be willing, Lord,
to bear daily my cross
for thee. Even
thy cup of grief to share.
Thou hast borne all for me.
Lest I forget Gethsemane.
Lest I forget
thine agony. Lest I
forget thy love for me.
Lead me to Calvary.
Amen. Great singing this evening. Thank you for attending our services today.
I'd like to see you next week, next Sunday.
Until next time, you want to end us with a word of prayer.
Amen.