Address—Josh Stewart
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Well, please turn with me to the last chapter of Deuteronomy for an introductory passage.
Deuteronomy.
Chapter 34.
And we'll start with verse one.
And Moses went up from the plains of Moab.
Unto the mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah that is over against Jericho.
And the Lord showed him all the land of Gilead unto Dan, and al Naftali, and the land of Ephraim, and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, unto the utmost sea and the South, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees unto Zoar. And the Lord said unto him, This is the land which I swear unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed. I have caused thee to see it with.
Eyes. But thou shalt not go over thither. So Moses the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord. And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Beth Peor. But no man knoweth his sepulchre unto this day. And Moses was 120 years old when he died. His eye was not dim.
Nor his natural force abated.
Well, this evening as I look over this room, there's a lot of young people here. That's primarily what I had on my heart is I considered what to speak on.
I would say.
With.
Bernie, that we love you very much.
We want you to have a wife that is full.
I would say with the Apostle John, my desire is that your joy might be full.
With the Apostle Peter that your life would be neither barren nor unfruitful.
With the apostle Paul that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.
And so.
What I would like to speak on this evening, with the Lord's help, is the life of Moses.
Moses is an individual whose life to me is a tremendous example.
Of faith.
A life of sustained faithfulness over many, many years. You know there are individuals.
In which we see mountain peaks of faith.
But with Moses it was his whole life through a tremendous example of steady following the Lord. I would like to just set before you some lessons from Moses life.
Looking over these rows, I would say for many of you, you're not too young to begin a serious study of the Word of God, and I hope that you are studying the Word of God.
You know my my go to would be. I guess my default would be to take up a passage of scripture.
And dig into it and really try to get ahold of what God is saying, the interpretation, you might say, of that passage. But over the last year or maybe two years, I've been doing supplementing that with character studies where we follow an individual through the word of God and we learn lessons from their life. And I tell you, it has been a rich field for meditation.
So I encourage you, what we're going to have tonight is just like we have the life of Samson last night. It's just a few of the points, but to look into these individuals, we can learn so much from them.
So.
Here we have in Deuteronomy 34 the end of Moses life.
Somebody said this, Let me die the death of the righteous.
And let my last end be like his. Does anybody know who said those words?
Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his.
It's an unusual.
Speaker. Does anybody know?
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Bruce.
Balaam, that's right, numbers 23.
You know, it's a, it's an amazing thing to see someone at the end of their life.
And to see what they were like at the end. Here we have the end of Moses life.
A tremendous example.
Balaam, I think was talking about Jacob. Jacob ended his life worshipping, leaning upon the top of his staff and he said I want to end my life the way he ended his life. But you know, it didn't happen for Balaam. Balaam's life ended in a terrible way. Here's the end of Moses life and you know what it says?
He was 120 years old. Who here wants to live to be 120?
I see a few young ones that are raising their hands, but none of the older ones are.
But you know what it says that his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated. He was physically strong to the last day of his life. He had his eyesight. Incredible how the Lord sustained him through 120 years.
What was his secret?
You know I would. I'm going to make a lot of applications as we go through this and I want to try to get the.
The spiritual good out of the life of Moses and apply these things to our lives I would suggest.
That the secret of what sustained Moses through all those years is what we get in verse 10.
And there arose not a prophet since in Israel, like unto Moses.
Whom the Lord knew face to face. It was a personal knowledge of God. Now, Moses lived in the Old Testament. The Father had not been revealed. The Son had not come to reveal the Father. We can have far more of a personal relationship with God than Moses could have. And yet Moses is a tremendous example to us. He pursued that.
Relationship. We're going to hopefully touch a little bit on that, but I think that it's so important that we cultivate a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not enough to know doctrine.
It's not enough to even to serve Him. What He wants is our hearts, and He wants a relationship with each one of us. I've just finished a study of Second Peter. There's a verse in Second Peter that begins like this, according as His divine power have given unto us.
Someone finished the verse.
All things that pertain unto life and godliness.
It's an amazing thing. Everything that we need for our spiritual path, God has provided. But you know what? The rest of the verse is very helpful. He's given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who have called us by glory and virtue. In other words, all that we need, it comes to us through a personal knowledge of the One who has called us.
That was an eye opener for me. That was a huge revelation to me and.
That the only way we're really going to get those things that we need for our Christian walk.
Is if it's with a personal relationship with God our Father and with the Lord Jesus Christ. I would say that's probably the number one thing I would hope that you take away from this.
Little talk tonight.
Well, Moses again, a tremendous example. The one who God raised up to deliver Israel from the slavery they were under in in the land of Egypt. The one who led them through the wilderness for 40 years, who put up with so much for those 40 years. The one who gave us the first five books of the Bible.
And through all of that, he displayed a remarkable character.
Of what the Bible calls meekness, Humility of character in Numbers 12.
Aaron and Miriam, his brother and sister, were murmuring or complaining against Moses, mumbling under their breath against him. It says of Moses now Moses was.
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The meekest man. That's not quite how it says it. Let me just briefly read it. You don't have to turn there. It's Numbers 12 verse.
Three, it says now, the man Moses was very meek above all the men.
Which were upon the face of the earth. Imagine that through everything he went through with all that he accomplished. You know, it usually takes some really tough characters to accomplish great things. If you look at the leaders of Fortune 500 companies, they're they're tough cookies.
If you look at people who have to be around large crowds for long periods of time, they develop a thick skin. Moses maintain that character of meekness through his whole life. What was it that sustained him? What gave him the strength? What gave him the endurance?
I believe it was his relationship with God.
And that's what I think we all pray for each one of you dear young people here tonight.
Is that you would grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Well, we are going to look at a couple different scriptures tonight.
I'll probably reference Hebrews 11.
I'll probably reference Acts Chapter 7 where Peter where I'm sorry where Stephen speaks about Moses and we might refer to them. I apologize if I I've been looking at these passages and they might get a little bit mixed up in my mind since that I.
We're in one and I'm quoting from the other, but I would encourage you to look at those. But we'll begin with Exodus Chapter 2.
I probably don't need to remind you of the terrible situation that the children of Israel were in at this time and how.
There was no hope for them, apparently.
Slaves in Egypt under the lash of the taskmaster.
And then the king of Egypt makes a decree that every male child that was born should be cast into the river.
It was a way of controlling the population, a way of weakening the slave populations such that they could maintain their control over the slaves.
And that's where the story of Moses begins is with that dark backdrop.
I don't know if I could title this meeting lessons from the life of Moses, but it's maybe incidents from his life that I think we can learn some practical things from.
It really begins before Moses is even born with his parents, and that's the 1St.
Thing about Moses that I want to bring out is that his parents were married in the Lord.
At least in type.
What does God do?
With such a dark backdrop, He begins to raise up a deliverer. Our prayer is that you, each one of you, would be used by God for the blessing of His people. But the way He goes about doing that is first by bringing together a man and a woman.
Verse one of Exodus chapter 2 And there went a man of the House of Levi and took to wife.
A daughter of Levi.
So there might be some of you here.
That are in relationships, there might be some of you that are contemplating getting married.
Maybe contemplating asking someone to?
Enter into a relationship.
And I just want to make a few points about this. The first thing we see here is that Moses, father Amram, his name we later find, and his mother Jacobed were both of the tribe of Levi.
You know, I don't believe that we really get a commandment of the Lord that they were to marry within their tribe.
But here they do.
This man marries within his tribe. He finds another.
Of that tribe of the family of Levi and I want to encourage you dear young people. You know marriage is not for everyone. Paul in first Corinthians 7 verse seven, he says that.
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He wished that those who were unmarried would remain as he was.
That is unmarried, that they might serve the Lord.
And there may be some of you here today that have an incredible gift.
The gift of singleness, the gift that God gives to certain ones such that they do not.
Need to be married and if you have that gift.
And you choose to use it for God. It could be a tremendous blessing to His people.
If you choose to waste that gift.
It's a tremendous loss.
But if you have it, I just encourage you.
To devote your life and service to the Lord, you have, as Paul brings out in that wonderful chapter, an opportunity that the rest of us can never have. To serve the Lord totally free of natural commitments, but for the rest of us.
Most of you probably in this room will, if the Lord doesn't come, be married. And my comment this evening is that I want you to marry within the tribe. Now that sounds a little cult like and.
I will explain what I mean by that.
In one Corinthians 7, I'm just going to read the verse. There's a very important principle.
One Corinthians 7.
And it's at the very end of the chapter verse.
39.
Speaks of the wife whose husband dies.
The wife is bound verse 39 by the law as long as her husband liveth. But if her husband be dead?
She is at liberty to be married, to whom she will only in the Lord.
And I think that applies for anytime.
We are before the Lord about who we should marry that it is in the Lord. And what does that mean?
Does that mean that we should marry a believer? Absolutely, Absolutely. But that is the bare minimum that this one that you would seek to.
In the presence of the Lord, be before him to marry that they be a believer.
You know who you marry.
Is the choice of who to marry is probably the second most important decision that you will make in your lifetime?
It will have perhaps the largest effect.
On the quality of your life and on the ability for you to serve the Lord.
I have seen young people get married and the person they and the match, the marriage that was formed, the union that was formed was a tremendous help to them.
The wife in the case of a man was a compliment to them. She balanced his weaknesses. She she, she complimented him. She was, as the Bible says in Genesis chapter 2A, help meet to him a tremendous blessing. Not that marriage is always easy and it's it's far from that.
But a tremendous addition.
I have also seen young people get married and their life completely go off the rails.
Even when marrying someone who was a believer.
And so to marry in the Lord is more than to marry a believer. To marry in the Lord, I believe, is to marry someone who is in submission to the Lordship of Christ. You know, someone recently asked me for some advice when they were considering.
Getting married and I prayed about it and answered with a few.
Suggestions of things to think about. And I thought maybe I would just bring those out before you. The first one was, are they actually a believer? Is there evidence in their life that they are truly the Lords #2 do they submit to the Lordship of Christ?
If you marry someone who is not subject to God.
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You are walking into a disaster.
Does she submit? Does he or she submit to the word of God?
You know, you have no idea what life is going to throw at you, but we have something that God has given to us. He has commended us. The apostle Paul prayed, I commend you to God into the word of his grace. He has given us something that we can have with us. We can read it and it will help us through those challenges and for both of you.
To submit to the word of God.
A tremendous.
Important thing to consider.
How did the local ones in his or her assembly feel about her?
Or him? Do they commend this young person?
Are your parents happy with it? Are their parents happy with it?
And there are so many characteristics to look for in someone you know. Marriage is a natural relationship and sometimes we try to over spiritualize it and we get ourselves into trouble with that. There has to be physical attraction.
Very important.
But you know.
There are other characteristics to look for as well, and I would suggest one to you kindness.
Marry someone who is kind.
Like I said, you don't know what life is going to throw at you. I shouldn't say that. I should say you don't know what trials the Lord is going to bring into your life. That's a much more scriptural way of putting it. But you know what? If you're married to someone who is kind, who emanates the love of Christ and reflects it.
Marriage, which is already difficult.
Isn't going to be made tenfold more difficult by bitterness, by anger, by competition. Someone who is kind. I just suggest those things to you.
But you know, even if we are in a relationship that isn't.
In the Lord.
The Lord can still use.
Those and there is room for that relationship to be healed and I just present that to you, not to go into that really any deeper.
But you know, even if we make a mistake and it's a it's a big mistake to marry someone that the Lord would not have us to marry, it's not the end of the story. So pour out your heart to the Lord.
And he is gracious.
Well.
That was the first thing, number one, that his parents were.
Married in their tribe. The next thing. The second thing is that Moses parents raised him for the Lord.
Verse two. And the woman conceived and bear a son. And when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. And when she could no longer hide him, she took for him an arc of bullishes, and daubed it with slimming, with pitch, and put the child there in. And she laid it in the flags by the river's brink. And his sister stood afar off, to wit, what would be done to him. And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river, and her maidens walked along the river's side.
And when she saw the ark among the flag, 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 thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, 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 stood under 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. Well, here we have the incredible story of Moses birth. You know it says in Hebrews 11. Maybe I'll just refer to the verse.
That Moses parents.
Were not afraid of the King's commandment.
If they had been, and they had loved themselves more than this little baby.
They would have thrown the baby into the river. But you know what? They were not afraid of the King's commandment.
You know, it took tremendous courage for this couple to even have a family, given what the king had just decreed. Tremendous courage.
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You know, we're living in a difficult day as well, and, you know, unbelief might rise up and say it's too hard. What's the point? We're just going to be raising children in a world that is.
Getting worse and worse, but faith rises up and rises above that. God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and of a sound mind.
It says here she saw that he was a goodly child.
It sounds as if she looked at the baby when it came out and said this is a good looking one, let's keep it.
But I don't think that's exactly what happened.
In Acts Chapter 7, there's a very helpful note concerning this. It says and.
Acts 7, verse 20 it says in which time Moses was born and was exceeding fair.
And nourished up in his father's house three months. But in the margin it says for fair it says fair to God. In other words, the translators suggest that there is a there's a correction here that it really should be beautiful or fair to God. In other words, Moses parents saw that this child was valuable in the sight of God.
You know this world does not value children witnessed by the thousands of abortions that are committed.
Every day across this country and around the world. But God values life. And these children saw the value of this. These parents saw the value of this child to God, that in his sight he was beautiful.
And so they did not. They were not afraid of the King's commandment, and they preserved him. They hid him for three months. That must have been very difficult to hide A newborn for that long. Eventually they could no longer hide the child.
And.
They put the child in the arc of bulrushes and they put it in the by the edge of the river. They put his sister to watch what would happen. I take it by that that they were expecting something to happen. They were expecting God to intervene.
And we know the the rest of the story.
You know.
The river of Egypt was the source of how that great civilization was sustained Canaan was watered by the the reign of rain from heaven, but Egypt by the river and it really speaks to us of.
That which keeps the world moving in independence from God why do we need to depend on God when we have the Nile where you can just.
Get out the foot pumps and start pumping water into the irrigation ditches and water the fields. We don't need to. We don't need God. We can operate without God. We've got the Nile. That's what the river represents, you know.
They didn't drown the baby in the river.
They had to put the baby in the river, but they didn't throw it in and have it drown. You know, this speaks to me of how Christian parents can raise their children and not throw them into the river of this world to drown them.
God can give Christian parents the wisdom to know how to raise them such that they're in the world but not of the world. And it's going to be different for each one. But God can give us that wisdom as to how to do that. And, you know, children and young people here, maybe your parents treat you differently from the other children that you go to school with or that you see at the playground.
Young people, those you go to college with.
High school with and you think my parents don't let me do that. And maybe you think of your parents as strict, but you know what? Just maybe it's because they want to preserve you from drowning in the river of the world. So instead of thinking it as thinking of it as a hardship, think of it as my parents are trying to save my life and that's why they're doing what they're doing.
And as parents, we don't always have perfect wisdom and the way we do things, but.
It's wonderful to see the care of Moses parents and you know Pharaoh's daughter was there to wash herself and she seized the ark and picks and goes over and.
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Looks inside and sees the baby, and then the very worst possible thing happens when you're trying to hide.
The baby begins to cry.
But you know what? That was exactly what God used to touch her natural heart.
And to touch her heart in such a way that she would love that baby with natural human affection, that the baby's life might be preserved and just the Providence of God to.
Have Miriam there another point. You know they could trust this girl to watch her younger brother. That is the the atmosphere that God wants to see in Christian homes is not children smashing each other's heads off and competing with each other and hating each other.
God wants to see that love fostered there in the home, and she could be trusted to watch in this perilous situation.
And she spoke up at just the right moment and she said, do you want me to call a nurse? And we know that God allowed it, that Moses could be raised in his parents home. And you know, it says he was nursed by his mother. But we read the verse in Acts 7 that says he was nourished up in his father's house. It takes two. It takes a mother and a father.
Paul says Fathers provoked not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
Fathers, it is our responsibility to set before our children the things of God, to raise them up. That's the love, the discipline, the teaching, all of those things, even natural enjoyment. We need to set before our children in such a way that we raise them up to know the Lord and to have a relationship with the Lord.
But it's not just fathers, it's mothers.
And how mother gives and gives and gives of herself.
You know, John Wesley said. I learned more about Christianity from my mother than from all the theologians in England.
I learned a tremendous amount from the Word of God from my mother sitting around our dining room table as she would have those readings every morning.
And I'm so thankful for that.
Teaching our children is not just words, but it's by the example that we set.
And you know, we need as parents to be careful that we set a consistent example before them. And I speak to you as someone who has failed in this, but it is so important. Paul, when Speaking of himself as a father to the Corinthians, speaks about and to others the Thessalonians. He speaks about that consistent example that he set before them.
Someone said this.
To give children good instruction and a bad example.
Is but beckoning to them with the head to show them the way to heaven, while we take them by the hand.
And lead them in the way to hell.
Consistency is so important.
But again, I will say this if we failed in this.
God's grace can overcome, and so I just put that before you for those of you who are parents or soon to be parents. And now we move on to the lessons that Moses learned in his life.
Let's look.
At Hebrews 11 now for something that happened when Moses was 40 years old or around that time.
A tremendous turning point in his life.
Because it says in Acts 7 that he was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, Says there in Exodus that he was raised in the the House of Pharaoh's daughter, but something tremendous took place in his soul.
We find it in Hebrews Chapter 11. It says in verse 24, by faith, Moses, when he was come to yours, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach of Christ's greater riches than the treasures.
In Egypt.
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There came a time.
When Moses realized who he was, I'm sure the instruction that he received from his parents stuck with him.
But there he was, for years, raised in Pharaoh's house. How those?
Things he was taught might have faded in his mind.
We don't know whether it was a sudden thing or where or whether it was a gradual thing of the Lord working in him that he got to the point where he said, I refuse to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Why? He realized who he was. He was not an Egyptian. He was one of the children of Israel and you know.
It's possible and I think very common for us.
We can grow up.
We can believe the gospel, we can be saved when we're young, and yet we can just go on almost like we're in a coma spiritually.
Without realizing who we are.
When he does that, two things happen #1.
He has a care for his brethren. I need to protect these ones who are being beaten by the taskmasters. The other thing was is that he separated from the world and he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, and he would rather have the reproach of Christ than the riches of Egypt.
Moses left behind a tremendous career. He left behind probably a tremendous tomb that he could have had in the Valley of the Kings or somewhere like that.
And he walked away from that because he realized who he was. Young people, maybe you haven't realized who you are now.
Dakota, who are you?
Dakota Good. All right.
We think we know who we are.
But do we really?
I want to just read a verse.
From first John chapter 3.
This hit me the other night when we were reading it and our assembly.
I, John. Chapter 3.
In verse one, Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved now, are we the sons of God, or the children of God? And it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see him as he is.
You are a child of God.
And you know what? To realize what that means that God is your Father.
When you're walking down the street with a bunch of other people, you are different.
God is your father. You are no mere person. You are a child of God.
The world doesn't see it yet. We are in disguise right now. We are disguised as regular people, but we are the children of God. When he appears, that disguise is going to be taken away.
And we are going to be glorified, our bodies are going to be glorified to be like his glorious body. And the world is going to see it and say.
He was a child of God. They don't see it now. Maybe we don't even see it now. The tremendous love that the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God. And so we muddle along sometimes like earthlings, but we are citizens of heaven. We are the children of God. And there comes a time in your life.
I hope when you wake up and you realize that and it's going to have tremendous consequences, suddenly, Moses said. I'm an Israelite and my people are slaves. I've got to do something. And he went out and we know what happened. He loved his brethren.
And that's something that I encourage, that each one of you is the love of the brethren to realize who you are and then to realize who the rest of us in this room are, that we are children and the family of God. And the love that is in that family is a powerful love.
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And then to realize that the world hates the family of God.
How can I be an Egyptian when my people are being beaten? And so he esteemed the reproach of Christ. He esteemed that that persecution that he would receive to be worth more than the treasures of Egypt. Do we realize the treasures of Egypt and what Moses walked away from tremendous wealth beyond.
Probably our wildest imagination. And he left that on the table and he walked away from it because he said it's worth it. It's worth it what I have.
I can't say in Christ because he wasn't a Christian, but in type, what we have in Christ is worth more than if we gained the whole world. It's worth more than that, and it justifies walking away from it all.
Well, I need to keep moving here. I'm not going to get through all of these, but we'll go until we have to stop or until you all tell me you're you're done.
He came to grips with who he was. One last thing about that. It's not that Moses, that Moses was trying to be something he wasn't. He was realizing who he already was.
Sometimes.
Young people.
Maybe we give you the wrong idea that we want you to try to be something that you're not already. That is not the message in in Christianity. That is not the message that God has given us. He put he gave us the life of Christ. He made us his children, the children of God. And then he says, I want you to realize who you already are. And then that is going to change you.
OK, let's move on from that.
Moses experienced #4HE experienced failure and restoration.
That's verse 11 of chapter 2, when Moses was grown.
That love that he had for his brethren that I believe God had put in his heart propelled him to do something about it. And so he did.
We know he went out and he smote the Egyptian. He slew the Egyptian and he hid him in the sand. I think it's in verse 12 he says he looked this way and that way, which would indicate perhaps that what Moses did there wasn't exactly was not right and.
It was for perhaps he went out there for a good reason, but he tried to do something when God had not asked him to do it, and he, you might say, fell on his face.
I won't ask everyone in this room to put up their hand who has tried to do something for the Lord and then fallen flat on their face.
OK, people are putting their hands up anyways.
You know.
God is so gracious. He's so gracious. The desire that Moses had in his heart.
God was going to grant to him to deliver his people, but it was going to be in God's time when Moses was ready. It wasn't God's time. And perhaps there was something of self in this. And so Moses had to flee, or he fled, let's put it that way. And I believe it was part of the chastening hand of God in his life. So he experienced failure.
And where he went was the Sinai, was the desert the land of Midian.
And you know, the wilderness in Scripture often speaks to us of a time where we learn God's heart and where we learn our own heart. And Moses needed to learn that at the on the backside of the desert. Very few details are given to us about those 40 years that Moses spent there, 40 long years learning.
That he was nothing apart from God.
Growing, emptying himself, learning.
Very few details are given to us. It's private. It's between US and the Lord. Maybe you've tried to do something for the Lord and failed.
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Take the discipline, the chastening of the Lord.
As his love, whom the Father loves, he chastens, encourages every son whom he receives.
I think this would later prepare Moses for their own Wilder, or later prepare Moses to lead Israel in their own wilderness experience another segment of 40 years where they too would learn.
Who God was and who they were.
Well #5.
Moses learned a shepherd's heart. These are things that we pray for each one of you.
Starting in verse 15, it talks about how Moses fled and he came to the land of Midian sat down by a well.
And then in verse 16, we read of the priest of Midian, his seven daughters, how they were coming to water their father's flock. And these shepherds, who ought to have been far kinder, were driving away the flock of.
The daughters of Jethro.
And we know what Moses did. He stood up and he helped them.
And, you know, Moses later on went on to marry one of these daughters, and he kept the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, and he learned to do the work of a shepherd. I love this subject because it's so needful.
You know, not all of us have the gift of a pastor, but I think we can all benefit from learning the heart of a shepherd.
You know, Paul told the Corinthians that you have many teachers, yet you have not many fathers.
You don't have many of those who care about you who love you enough.
And have a close enough relationship with you to draw alongside you and tell you something that might be hard to hear.
That's the heart of a shepherd.
The shepherd nourishes and protects the sheep. Moses learned to do both of those things. He drove away the shepherds and he watered the sheep. He watered the sheep.
And you know, I'm just going to give you 1 little anecdote to encourage you.
In Shepherding.
There's a brother that I know and that most of you in this room know who has a tremendous heart.
He told me earlier this year.
That he learned the Shepherd's heart from another brother years ago. And that encouraged me so much.
I know that there are those who have the gift, but.
I believe that we can learn to have a heart like that.
And God wants us to, and I believe he said to Moses, he said, as it were, Moses, you're going to have to learn to have a heart, the heart of a shepherd, if you're going to lead my people. So for each of you young people here to spend time with others, to listen, to develop relationships, to feed those who look up to you, to feed them with Christ, you can learn these things even at a very young age. You can develop that character.
And if you do, God can use that for tremendous blessing.
Number six.
He came to know and fear God. Let's go to the burning Bush now.
And we're just going to in the last two or three minutes.
Talk a little bit about.
Moses first personal encounter with God in the invisible form.
Verse one of chapter 3 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 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, hit her, put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place where on 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 was afraid to look upon God, and then just.
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Read verse 13. And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel.
And say unto them, The God of your Father's has sent me unto you. And they say unto 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.
Well, we're just going to stop there. But you know Moses.
God revealed himself to Moses in this burning Bush. A tremendous thing to see.
Fire the judgment of God and this Bush that somehow was not consumed. How could this be? Moses said. I have to turn aside and see it.
You know.
There's so much here, but God was going to judge Egypt the fire, but Israel was going to be spared. The Bush was not burned.
But you know, I just want to mention this here, that God says something to Moses when he says, Who shall I say has sent me? I am that I am, you know, Moses has said, Who am I?
That was going to be my next point. Who am I that they would listen to me? And God says it's not about who you are, it's about who I am. It's one of the great lessons of the wilderness.
But when God tells Moses who he is, he uses this name. I am that I am.
When I was a child, I did not understand that at all. I heard it talked about and it was just like going over my head.
But what I believe God is saying to Moses is I exist just because I exist. I am that I am. Nobody caused me to come into existence. I had no beginning. I have no end. I just am because I am. I'm the self existing 1. The eternal 1.
And you can ask, well, why? Why are we here? Well, we drove here. Well, why did we drive here? Kids like to ask why and you can ask why and they're good questions, But eventually you come back to a question when you ask why and there is no answer. And that's why God, he is the absolute. He is the effect that has no.
'Cause he is the rock on which everything is built.
The one who has no beginning, who has no end. And he just is, because he is. And this I believe.
Grabbed Moses heart and Moses pursued a relationship with him in a deeper way. Later on he would say, I beseech thee, show me thy glory here. The holiness of God. Draw not nigh. Hit her.
You know the beautiful thing is the first thing that God says to Moses when he shows, when he shows himself in the burning bushes. Don't come close to me. Stay where you are. And we need to learn to fear God. But what is Moses response?
He spends his lifetime getting getting closer to God. I love that.
It's beautiful to see later on in Moses intercession for the children of Israel how the Lord says I'm going to destroy them, move out of the way, I'm going to consume them and I'll make a view a great nation. Moses wanted to be would rather be blotted out of God's book than.
To have the children of Israel perish and Moses intercedes with God.
And God is pushing back in his and Moses intercession. He's pushing back on Moses.
And it's, and Moses is pushing and it's a beautiful picture. I wish we had time to go there, but we don't. But to see that God, that Moses knew the heart of God such that he could ask God to do what he knew God already wanted to do, Beautiful.
To see how he had come to know who God is. Yes, he is the God who is holy, holy, holy, holy.
And we need to never forget that. But he's also the God who is love.
And Moses came to know him face to face. No prophet.
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Like Moses before or since?
Well, there were some other points we didn't get to, but I'm just going to read one verse in closing back in Hebrews 11.
And then we'll pray.
Verse 27 By faith he forsook Egypt.
Not fearing the wrath of the king.
For he endured.
Seeing him.
Who is invisible?