Sermons / What It Takes for God To Act Exodus Series #8
Pastor Don, Pastor Jeff, and I are wearing the same ties. Yes, you weren’t going colorblind; it’s true. That is not a new staff uniform that we are wearing. And neither is it to represent the fact that only these two are involved in this trip. Certainly, my executive assistant, Mylon Novick, is more involved, perhaps, than anyone in the preparations and continuation of my ministry, as are other staff members who make it possible.
But these two brothers, along with me, bear the responsibility of sharing the word from this pulpit. Thankfully, while I am in Moscow on the first Sunday, Kera… Ovo in Siberia on the second Sunday, and Amsterdam in the Netherlands on the third Sunday, ministering. These two will bear the responsibility of ministering the word in this pulpit.
And the quality of that ministry continues. Now, I have two more Sundays to go, but we wanted to take this Sunday because next Sunday, of course, is Love America Sunday. That’s such a big time for us. I hope you’ll invite many guests to be with you. It’s entertaining, it’s so much fun, and yet it’s a wonderful celebration of this nation that God has given us.
We have the mayor joining us, along with many other politicians who are visiting with us next Sunday. Then, on the Sunday after that, the first Sunday of July, I will also be here, but Pastor Wayne Mancari is speaking in the morning service. Wayne, Diane, and the boys will be here for that Sunday. So, this was the Sunday to draw attention to that.
And so, Jeff and Don consented against their better taste in ties. Although I love this tie, I must tell you, it was designed by a nine-year-old girl named Christina. It’s one of the Save the Children ties that’s produced, featuring various flags of the nations. I think it’s very appropriate for this time.
But it’s certainly not a trend. I hope you’ll understand and relax with that truth. I want to begin this morning, not in Exodus, but in Luke. And I want you to understand a principle. Luke chapter 19 records the words of Jesus spoken in 36 A.D. during Passover time. Jesus is coming into Jerusalem to become the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.
There were about a quarter of a million lambs being roasted in Jerusalem—Passover lambs. But he set aside all of that in the offering of himself on the cross. However, the Bible says that as he approached and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “If you had known in this day of yours the things that belong to your peace, but they are now hidden from your eyes. The day shall come upon you when your enemies will cast a trench upon you, and they will surround you and lay siege to you on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and not one stone will be left upon another.” But here’s how he ended that sentence: “Because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
I want you to see those words. They’re very important. We’ve spent a lot of time in this church talking about the difference between Kronos and Kairos. Kronos is the Greek word for the succession of moments—days, months, years—as we count time by a wristwatch. Kairos means a season of time, a unique season of the dealings of God.
How seldom we know when Kronos becomes Kairos. When the normal succession of moments becomes a specific season of crisis. When the kind of wearying trumpet of time, the bells of time, eight bells and all is well, suddenly becomes a Kairos moment. I believe we’re in such a time, not only as a church but also as a nation and a world.
We’ve been studying for several weeks now from the book of Exodus how believers must undergo a going out, a deliverance, if they are ever to be able to truly enter into God’s plan for them. And last Sunday, we saw how God wants to stir up within us a sigh, a groan for deliverance, a desire to be different.
Today, we specifically study availability and what it takes for God to act. I want you to see that word. I want you to say it aloud with me. Would you say the word availability with me, please? Availability. Once again, availability. That’s the greatest ability that God desires in us: availability. Exodus 4, today’s scripture, brings us an important understanding. It’s a frequent biblical concept that although God is active and works in our world, He wants to include us. Once more, He considers us important. He enlists us. He visits us. He reveals Himself to us. He offers us the privilege of participating in His destiny.
But we’re often so distracted by lesser and insignificant goals and events that we don’t have the foggiest idea of what God is saying in a specific period of time. Now we’re going to stand in a moment. Please turn to Exodus Chapter 4. I know it would save time, and I understand that time is an issue for some of you.
Chronos time is the way you live your lives. But I want you to know we’re not going to give up the reading of the scripture. It becomes a very important part of what we do, not only in the corporate reading earlier in the service but in this time as well. Stand with me now, and let me read from the fourth chapter.
Beginning with verse one, I’m reading from the New King James Version. Then Moses answered and said, “But suppose they won’t believe me or listen to my voice. Suppose they say, ‘The Lord has not appeared to you.’ ” So the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” And he said, “A rod.” And God said, “Cast it on the ground.”
So he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent. And Moses fled from it. I think that was a very wise act on his part. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.” You’ve got to be kidding. You never take a snake by the tail.
He reached out his hand, and he caught it, and it became a rod again in his hand. “That they may believe the Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, God of Jacob, of Isaac and Jacob, has appeared to you.” Furthermore, the Lord said to him, “Put your hand in your bosom,” and he put his hand in his bosom. When he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous like snow.
Now that’s a medical description. “Like snow” is not repetitions. That’s a particular leprosy, a very white leprosy, the most serious leprosy of all, in which the skin becomes very white, and in fact, it produces white hair on the skin. The most dangerous leprosy of all. And he said, “Put your hand in your bosom again,” so he put his hand in again, and he drew it out from his bosom, and it was restored like his other flesh.
“Then it will be if they do not believe you, nor heed the message of the first sign, they will believe the message of the latter sign. And it shall be if they do not believe these two signs, you shall take the water from the river and pour it on dry land, and the water which you take from the river will become blood on dry land.”
And Moses said to the Lord, “Lord, I’m not eloquent. Neither before nor since you’ve spoken to your servant, but I’m slow of speech and slow of tongue.” What audacity! Not only to say “slow of speech” but saying you haven’t helped me much either since I’ve been around you. I haven’t improved any. Sounds like a lot of us.
The Lord said to him, “Who’s made the mouth of man? Who, who made the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? If not I,” saith the Lord, “now therefore go, and I will, I will be with your mouth and teach you what to say.” I’d love to preach on that text. “I will be with your mouth.” Boy, what a text that would make.
But he said, “Lord, please send by the hand of whomever you will send.” Therefore the anger of the Lord was against Moses. And he said, “Is not Aaron the Levite your brother? I know that he can speak well. And look, he’s also coming out to meet you. When he sees you, he’ll be glad in his heart. Now you shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you what you shall do.
And he shall be your spokesman to the people, and he himself shall be as a mouth for you, and you shall be to him as God. And you shall take this rod in your hand, with which you shall do the signs. Keep your Bibles open. May God bless you as you’re seated. I once heard a wonderfully amusing story of a farmer who bought a terribly run-down farm.
The fields were overgrown with thistles and briars. The ground was fallow. It hadn’t been touched for years. The barn was literally fallen in. The house was dilapidated. Shutters were falling off the wall. The roof was beginning to sag. I think it was in horrendously bad condition. And this farmer worked very, very hard to restore it.
Because he was a farmer, he knew what to do first. And that is, he took the land, and he worked the land, and he got it started on its recycling ability, clearing it. Then he rebuilt the barn faithfully, knowing that was the second step. And then eventually he restored the house, and finally, new crops were coming from the ground.
The barn and the fence had been restored. The house was shining brightly with new paint. It was a marvel! A very critical neighbor who had been waiting for this moment came out, looked over everything very critically, and said, “Well, you and the good Lord have certainly done a great job in restoring this old, run-down farm.”
To this, the sweating and overworked farmer, who had worked so hard, replied, “Yep, but you should have seen it when the Lord had it by Himself.”
I’ve always been kind of amused by that because that story tells the truth. God has chosen to be involved with our availability. I think it’s biblical to say He’s chosen to be limited by our availability. And that’s the topic for today: availability is what it takes for God to act. I know God can take a worm and thrash a mountain.
But it does say He needs the worm. If He can’t speak through a man, he’ll speak through a jackass. But he still needs the ass. God chooses to work with us, to use us, to enable us in His own divine preparation and participation. And that’s the way God works. He uses vehicles for His purpose. We really count in the plan of God.
Oh, I know He’s almighty. I know He can do anything. I know He’s omnipotent and omniscient. But He has also self-disclosed to us in the Bible that He desires to choose and involve us. And that’s not only good news, it’s bad news as well. In fact, in Exodus 4, we find out some of the bad news. Exodus 4 is one of the most amazing, revealing, convicting passages in the whole Bible on the subject of how God deals with man.
How God wants to involve us, to use us for His glory. How He wants to fulfill our lives by using us. Yet we’re reluctant, recalcitrant, and sometimes we’re even openly belligerent to what God wants to do in and through us. First, I want you to see in this passage three introductory principles which are, in fact, kind of haunting, disabling reasons why we find it so difficult to be available to God.
These principles, clearly stated in Exodus 4 in God’s dealing with Moses, are: first, the principle of capacity; secondly, the principle of self-consciousness (in a negative sense); and thirdly, the principle of consideration. Let’s look at these quickly. First, this principle of capacity. I want you to acknowledge something with me this morning: when baby Moses was born, there was a stamp on his face of divine origin.
We talked a lot about it, both in Hebrews 11 and Acts 7, and in Exodus chapter 2. It says he was a goodly, or a beautiful child, and we looked at the source of that word. It means he had the stamp of the city upon him—not the city of San Francisco or the city of Cairo, but the city of God, the city built by God.
By God. So the point is, and I won’t argue with you about this, but the point is that this child, when he was born, had the stamp on his face that Amram, Jochebed, and even Pharaoh’s daughter immediately knew that this child came from God. There was divine origin. Psalm 139 declares our bodies and our days are numbered by the Lord, specifically described, and you need to learn this principle, that in all-knowing, omniscient God was at work; He knows you.
His call and purpose will always conform to what preparations and destiny are already within you. He’ll never push you or test you beyond what you are able, and that’s Bible. He’ll only bring forth that which He knows to be within you for His purpose. One of the greatest Bible scholars of the past decades was Dr.
Our success is to be measured not by the character of the capacity, but by its realization and its full use. In the book of Judges, left-handed Ehud had a single dagger. Shamgar had an ox goad. Gideon’s three hundred had only pitchers and lamps. When David went against Goliath, he had a sling in his hand.
When the widow appealed to Elisha for help, he said, ‘What do you have in your house?’ She said, ‘A cruise of oil.’ He said, ‘That’s the answer.’ Among the judges who later ruled Israel, one was left-handed, another was born illegitimately; several were from the least significant families in Israel. One was a woman, one was a weightlifter, a bodybuilder.”
All of these people, God had uniquely known them by their destiny. When God said to Moses in Exodus chapter 4, verse 2, “What is in your hand?” Moses replied, “Nothing but a shepherd’s staff.” God responded, “That’s exactly what I need right now – a shepherd’s staff.” God was teaching Moses an important principle, which I call the principle of capacity.
God builds a capacity into every life, and if you deny it, you make Him a liar. He embeds into each life a capacity that He knows and understands. Some modern teachers refer to this as motivational gifts, distinguishing them from supernatural gifts. However, the truth is, there’s a gifting.
The psalm emphasizes again the uniqueness of your life in the way you were made and formed according to God’s provision – a capacity that God calls into His service. Secondly, in this early introduction of these foundational principles, is the principle of self-consciousness, and I mean that in a negative sense.
I’m referring to that complex mental process of training and experience that generates strong feelings of inability and inadequacy. Some label it the “paralysis of analysis,” and it occurs in all our lives. Once again, a quote from Dr. F. B. Meyer: this time from his devotional commentary on the book of Exodus.
He outlines seven distinct objections that Moses raises over three chapters against God’s purposes. Moses says, “I can’t do what you want me to do,” seven times. Twice in chapter three, thrice in chapter four, and once in both chapters five and six. First, he claims, “I lack fitness. Who am I that I should go?” (Chapter 3, verse 2.)
Secondly, he cites a “lack of words. What shall I say?” (Chapter 3, verse 13.) Thirdly, he expresses a “lack of authority. They will not believe me.” (Chapter 4, verse 1.) Then, a “lack of power of speech. I’m not eloquent.” (Chapter 4, verse 10.) Followed by a “lack of special adaptation. Send someone else.” (Chapter 4, verse 13.)
Then, he anticipates a “lack of success when he first attempts. Neither have you delivered your people at all.” (Chapter 5, 22-23.) And lastly, in chapter 6, verse 12, “The children of Israel have not heeded me.” A “lack of acceptance.” You won’t grasp this unless you understand: God ensures that capacity is real. He never summons you beyond your capacity.
However, our first response almost invariably is, “I can’t. I’m not suited. It won’t work. They won’t accept me. No one will believe this.” It’s intriguing how becoming self-awareness is absolutely necessary, yet simultaneously, it poses a problem. The very self-awareness that is imperative can become troublesome.
Moses’ self-awareness began when he saw the burning bush, stopped, and God addressed him. This marked the inception of his self-awareness: “I’m significant. I’m aware of myself. God wants to work through me.” I often quote Dr. James Dobson, the eminent Christian psychologist, who identifies six psychological tools Satan employs against believers: guilt, fear, anxiety, fatigue, doubt, and pessimism.
Yet, the sixth, he asserts, is the most potent in Satan’s arsenal – the persistent self-doubt about who and what we are. The feeling of inadequacy that immobilizes us and obstructs our usefulness. It taints our relationship with God, compelling us to conform to others or withdraw from people altogether. These feelings of inadequacy paralyze us, hindering the boldness necessary for the work God has prepared for us and prepared us for.
Now, pause for a moment. If you think this is merely a clever statement, you don’t comprehend this message. There’s a job God has prepared us for, and there’s a task He’s prepared for us. Do you grasp the distinction? Being prepared for the task ensures that God gets the job done. Preparing the task for us signifies we derive fulfillment and purpose from accomplishing that job.
It’s not solely work for you; it’s also work for Him. God doesn’t choose superstars for His work; we’re all imperfect in some way. We’re flawed, bent, twisted, and inadequate. Take a moment and acknowledge, “Yes, I am inadequate.” This is actually good news. Our inadequacy in God’s service provides an opportunity for God to reveal His character and provision through Christ in us, which is the hope of glory.
And so, this second major thing needs to be noted clearly: the self-consciousness of Moses. However, there’s a third background principle in Exodus 4 that is equally important. In chapters 6, you will find Moses asking, “What will others say? What will others do? How will they respond? Do you like that lady?”
I’m not responsible for this artwork; I want you to know that. How will they respond in reference to the call and purpose of God in my life? Now, this third background principle in this story, which is equally important to the subject of availability, is the principle of consideration. If you read through these chapters, you will see Moses speaking all the time.
“What will they say? What will they do? How will they respond? How will they think in reference to me?” Now, I need you to hear something in the next moment. This is absolutely critical, and you wouldn’t know this without studying it. It’s a background, a New Testament straightening out of this story in Exodus 4.
In Acts 7, verse 22, Stephen says, “Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. Now listen, can you read these words? He was mighty in word and in deed.” Now, that’s very interesting. Of course, when he came to his own, you remember, he chose to identify with the people of God presumptuously. He slew the Egyptians.
In fact, let’s look at Acts chapter 7 for just a moment, verses 23 through 29. The Bible says that Moses had supposed his brethren would have understood that God was going to deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand. Now, here are two things we’re keeping in mind, right? Number one, when he was in Egypt, he was a skillful man in words.
Number two, he thought the people of God were going to give him great credit. Now, let’s get to the third point. Stephen says in Acts 7:35, “This Moses whom they rejected, saying ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’ is the one God sent to be a ruler and a deliverer.” Now I need you to see this principle. One of the things that happens the moment God wants you to be available is not only self-consciousness, not only in that particular moment that we fail to understand our capacity and that God has provided it for us, but one of the things that happens in the process is we begin living in consideration of what happened to us in the past.
What I want to say to you right now is so very vital. It isn’t just Pharaoh who attempts to break your spirit and crush you, as a part of the means of keeping you in slavery away from God’s purpose, but we are crushed and broken by our brethren, we are crushed and broken by prior experiences, and we are especially crushed and broken by rejection. We try to move into some new dimension of ministry, and immediately there’s criticism.
Or someone comes against us. And I want you to know that criticism by your brethren is the sharpest sword that the enemy has in disparaging the purpose of God for your life. So, one of the things that Moses lists is, “God, you must remember what I was like in Pharaoh’s house. True, I was eloquent then.
I was powerful. I led military campaigns. But I’m not the same man now. I’m crushed now. I’m broken. I’m embittered. I’m not the same man. And you’re going to send me back to the very same people who refused me when I came out at first? Come on, God! Think this through again!” Now, are you listening to me? If you can’t see how much that’s the story of what happens in all of our lives, God says, “I want you to do this, I want you to have this ministry, I know your capacity, I designed you in your mother’s womb,” and you immediately begin to fall into a consideration of past efforts and a false estimation of your inadequacies and guilt.
Now, that is so important. And with these three background principles, these haunting, debilitating reasons why we find it difficult to be available to God, I want you to know that Exodus 4 also reveals another three things. It reveals to us God’s answers to our personalities and experiences.
I want to move on to that immediately, but before I do, don’t you note, I mean, haven’t you read this chapter? Don’t you consider how patient God is in the process? I mean, when I ask somebody to do something and they give me an answer like this, I’d say, “Then buzz off, turkey. God’ll find somebody else.”
You know? God isn’t that way. God understands us. He knows our personalities, He knows our experiences, He especially knows how deeply we are affected by our past. He works to help us so we can be available to Him. He doesn’t judge us, He doesn’t condemn us, He works with us. I’ve ministered to you many times from Zechariah 3.
That’s a message I’ve used around the world. Here is the high priest of God in a moment of restoration, standing before God with excrement on his garments. Satan is standing there, accusing Adam, saying, “Look at those dirty robes. How dare you come before God?” But God doesn’t condemn him. In fact, God speaks to the angel and says, “Strip off the dirty garments and put on clean garments.”
And to this young priest who had offended God by his choices – he was not only a sinning man, but he had also led Israel to sin – yet God says, “I chose you and I continue to choose you.” And He says to Satan, “I rebuke you and I continually rebuke you.” Then to this young man, He says, “And I put you in charge of my house.”
“I want you to take charge of my courts. I want you to rule in my house.” What God does is amazing to me. I need to quickly mention these three principles and then we’ll talk about them specifically. First is the amazing act of God’s self-revelation – God revealing. We saw it last week. If you didn’t get last week’s message, I think it’s the most important message in this series.
When God says, “I’ll show you who I am. I am that I am,” and he uses, as I discussed with you last week, a Hebrew infinitive that has recently begun to be translated, “I will be there, however I will be there.” In other words, “I don’t know, or I don’t want you to know, all that’s going to happen in your future.”
But the promise is, “I will be there.” And you need to understand this word corporately for this church, as well as personally. God says, “As you move out, I will be there.” Jesus took that word, “I am,” and used it 22 times. In Greek, “Egoimi” means, “I am the one who will continue to make things happen. I am presently making things happen.”
Secondly, in this passage, God evidences himself in the ordinary life of his being with us, working with us. And thirdly, of course, this very serious principle that God comes to an end, God terminates his dealings with us. Each of these is important, and each of them are issues we need to look at. Let’s look quickly at them, though.
But first! The first answer of God to all the debilitating reasons – “I can’t, my past, look what’s happened to me” – is that God gives a revelation to us that he will meet us at the place of our deepest needs.
The God who knows exactly what it is we fear meets us at the point of that fear. The God who knows our frustration meets us at the point of that, as he did with that young priest. The issue was his sin and Israel’s sin and the fact that he felt ashamed before the Lord. God dealt with that thing, and that’s why you have to have a personal revelation with God in reference to this.
But the second of the second answer of God is to evidence himself in guaranteeing both his full knowledge of our person and his willingness to meet every inadequacy in our lives. Now look at me. Look with me, rather, to Exodus four, eight, and nine. You’ll see an interesting word repeated three times.
“Then it will be, if they do not believe you, nor heed the message of the first sign, they will believe the message of the latter sign. And it shall be, if they will not believe these two signs, then you shall do a third thing.” I need to tell you something about this word. This is not the normal Hebrew word for wonder.
That word is used a lot in Exodus later on. Now a wonder or a miracle is a marvelous, terrific, startling, awful kind of thing that reveals God’s predominance, power, and majesty. But the word used here, a sign, is from a Hebrew word that means to come or to appear. It’s a flag or a beacon or a monument.
A sign is a revelation in our ordinary life of some characteristic of the divine that is at work in our life. It’s a symbol of the unseen. You see, where there’s a wonder or a miracle, it predominates power and majesty. But a sign predominates truth and grace. The one is terrible. The other is tender.
It’s interesting to read commentaries at this point. These three signs that God gave, particularly one and two, are not for the Egyptians. No, of course not. They’re for Moses. They are evidences of God’s dealing specifically and uniquely brought to pass, referring to him. They are answers to God’s dealing with him.
It’s as though God is saying, “I know your inadequacy, I know your brokenness, I know what’s happened in your past. I’ve called you, I know you, I demand you to be responsible, but I’m willing to help you see what will happen.” And of course, the first of these signs that God gives is to tell Moses, “Take this shepherd’s rod and throw it down,” and the rod becomes a snake, obviously a poisoned serpent.
Most people think it’s a cobra, probably because of the nature of the Egyptians at this moment in time. The cobra was the symbol of Egyptian power and the pharaoh. But as the rod becomes a serpent and begins to move, Moses flees from it. Now, some of you remember, because several people have sung this song, Ken Miedema wrote a song several years ago about the rod of Moses becoming the rod of God.
Understand something with me. Moses is an older man at this point. He’s elderly. And rods… And canes become a signet of this year. Some of you have already gone through the traumatic experience of accepting corsets, or at least some form of clothes that keep the ungainly parts of your body within. And then you accept other modifications.
Some of you do things to your hair or replace your hair if it’s not there. But the absolute ultimate is the dependency on the cane. The rod of Moses has a lot of understanding in it, simply in this issue. He had already lost the dependency of the court. That had to be broken out of him. It’s almost like that breaking had gone too far.
And now there’s a suggestion of a totally different figure. And that is his ability to be a shepherd. And God says, if you want my enablement, you must relinquish your dependencies. My enablement cannot come to you while you’re gripping onto your own independence or dependence. You must cast it down. And of course, when you cast it down, it becomes a snake.
Commentators are filled with understanding of this. When Moses is told to take it by the tail, they suggest that maybe this is his power over Pharaoh or power over the Egyptian system. I don’t think that, because it would violate the whole principle. The rod turning into a snake is a statement concerning the dangers in Moses’s own life.
Now, what I have to say to you in the next few moments is some of the most important things you’ll ever learn. The tendencies within Moses, particularly the tendencies or dangers in Moses, would only come to pass as he began moving into the authority of God. I need to say something to you. If you want to be a pew warmer, which most of you do want to be, at least apparently you want to be that at most.
If you want to be a pew warmer, don’t worry about what I’m going to say in the next few moments because it doesn’t affect you. If you just have a carnal assent and a casual assent to God in the correct day or moment, then this doesn’t offer danger to you. But the moment you begin to move out into the authority and calling of God, the moment you begin to directly proportion God’s purpose for your life, then in direct proportion to your moving out will be a danger, a release of dangers that is immediately proportionate to the release of your ministries. Did you hear that?
Not the pew warmer. You know, they do all they can to follow the hymn. But the person who begins to move out in the authority of God is going to have to have exposed to him the dangers of his gift. And when it is the rod submitted to God that Moses has to be made aware of, it’s the dangers within that particular ministry.
It’s as though God is declaring something very interesting. God is saying, “I want your present abilities. I want your present strength. But I can only use your abilities or your capacities if you are thoroughly aware of their potential for danger. Only when you’re willing to flee from that which is in your own giftedness, only when you flee from that which is within your own abilities, will there be a full release of the power of God and purpose of God.” Have you seen that? Has God brought you to a point where you’ve seen the danger of your tongue? The very tongue that he uses to praise him, yet it’s used to destroy people. Has God shown you the snake in your music ministry? Do you see the serpent in the gift and release that God has shown you?
Do you see the serpentine nature? Has God shown you the serpent in your giftings? Has he shown you the serpent in your capacities to such a degree? Let me tell you something. I’ll tell you frankly, if I were Moses, I’d never go to sleep again unless I found a closet to put that rod in, a closet that would lock very thoroughly and had no cracks in it.
Because if that rod became a serpent once, it might become again. I’ll tell you one thing, if that rod rather became a serpent, I wouldn’t take that rod to bed with me, I don’t know about you. But having seen that rod become a snake once, I’d treat that rod with great gentleness from that point on. I’d certainly never turn my back to it.
It’s like sitting in an Italian restaurant; always have your back to the wall.
When your rod, your strength, your gifts, which God has revealed to you, are shown to be the container of serpentine issues, then you’re never careful, you’re never comfortable again resting on your gifts and abilities. The second sign is equally interesting, especially when you read what commentators say about it.
This thing of leprosy, hand in the bosom coming out white with leprosy, hand back in the bosom and coming forth clean. Is this Israel? Does it mean the pollution of the present state of Israel? Is it a sign of resurrection like one commentator says? Probably, all that’s there to some degree. But you need to hear me this morning.
Not only the serpentine issue, but also the serpent has to be defeated. However, you need to understand that within your life, there is a continuing issue of purity and impurity that must be dealt with if you’re ever to be an instrument usable before God. This is an illustration of holiness. It’s a call from God for His view of us versus our view of ourselves.
I don’t know any man or woman who can ever be effective in the purpose of God without first understanding their impurity, the devastating depravity of their own human nature. And when a person claims to stand before God without recognizing their impurity, their consistent impurity, then God says their works of righteousness are filthy rags.
Your greatest protection is your awareness of your potential to sin. The greatest protection you have is the awareness of the leprous nature within you, even after God has redeemed you. The nature of that human flesh is abominable and will always detract from God’s purpose. Then the third sign: God simply shows Moses that when he works in cooperation with God, the power of nature will submit to him.
And that, of course, is when he poured the water out. So three signs, all of which speak to Moses about specific issues in his life. I don’t know what you think about immortality. Some of you, I think, believe that it’s going to come from a grave. I remember back east where they build these huge monuments, and you walk in, and you see the names over the monuments as though that makes them immortal.
I want you to understand something about walking in the full purposes of God, and it brings me to this third major division. I said there were three problems exposed about human nature, but God had three answers. However, the last answer is a dangerous one. Because God basically says there’s an end to my patience.
After God had said everything that He needed to say to Moses, and Moses continued to detract, saying, “I can’t, I won’t, it’s not possible,” the Bible says the anger of God blazed against him.
So we have a revealing God, an evidencing God, but we also have a terminating God. Those who say, “Lord, I’m not eloquent,” and the Lord responds, “Who made your tongue?” Those who plead, “Lord, please send someone else.” Then in verse 14, the anger of the Lord was kindled against him. I wish I could guarantee that in the next few moments, you’ll understand what I have to say.
The difference between humility as God sees it and humility as the world sees it. Some of us need humility, I’ll grant you. How many arrogant people do we have here today? I had one man raise his hand this morning.
A lot of us are arrogant, aren’t we? But most of us are not arrogant. I heard about a kid in a youth camp. The whole camp was about “I” and “me,” and what “I” did and what “I” am and what “I” said. One day, this arrogant kid was out swimming, and he began to drown. He was screaming at the top of his voice, “HELP! HELP!” The lifeguard dove in and reached him, rescuing him. The poor kid was almost dead. The lifeguard pulled him back, breathed life into him, using resuscitation to revive him. As the young boy coughed out the water, all the kids were standing around, praising the lifeguard for saving him.
The first thing he heard was them praising the lifeguard. The kid said, “Well, after all, I was the one who hollered for help.” You know, some people just can’t stand someone else getting credit.
But you see, most of us are on the other side. Most of us are not arrogant. We think it is humility to deny a grace. Oh, I just, you know, I can’t really sing well. Boy, if I ever hear a singer get in this pulpit and say, “Y’all pray for me, I can’t sing well, but I’m going to do my best for Jesus,” honey, that will be the last time that person is ever in this pulpit to sing or minister.
That is, false humility is greater pride than arrogance. (1)
Corinthians chapter 4, verse 7 says, “What have you that you didn’t receive? And if you received it, why do you glory as though you did not receive it?” Or as Eugene Peterson says in the wonderful message that we’ve been using around here for months now, “Who do you know that really knows you, knows your heart?”
And even if they did, anything they would discover in you, you could take credit for? Aren’t everything you have and everything you are sheer gifts from God? So what’s the point of comparing or competing? Hear me, nothing is more dishonoring to God or more dangerous for you than mocking humility. And I’m talking about that time when God calls you to occupy a position, He guarantees His grace to you, He assigns you a specific responsibility, He guarantees you that you have the capacity and you refuse it.
That is not humility; that is a mocking act of rebellion against the sovereignty of God. There’s an interesting verse in Colossians chapter 2, verse 18: “Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and the worship of angels, intruding into things which he is not seen, vainly puffed up by a fleshly mind.”
The message translates that: “Don’t tolerate people who try to run your life, ordering you to bow and scrape, insisting that you join their obsession with angels and that you seek out visions. They’re a lot of hot air. That’s all they are.” That’s a great passage, Colossians 2, by the way. It’s the passage that goes on to say that eventually God subjects angels unto us.
And that God has conquered principalities and powers and made a public spectacle of them. But please get this word: Let no one defraud you of your reward by taking delight in false humility. It’s a kind of game. It’s a pretense. People bowing their heads and saying, “Oh well, you know I’m really not good at this and I really can’t do this.”
And God says, that’s deceitful. That’s false humility and it will destroy your reward. I need to say something to you in closing this message. Did God use Moses? Of course he did. But he didn’t use him as the sole leader as he intended to.
And some folks say, well isn’t that a good example anyway? It was Moses and Aaron and Miriam. You study it. The problems of Moses and Israel’s leadership from this point on are Aaron and Miriam.
Sure, God will take you exactly as you are, but the point is, you so limit the effectiveness of what God wants to do. What argument are you having with God? What argument are you having with Him right now about your abilities? It’s an amazing thing. It’s funny, almost every Sunday here, I sit down in the front pew, as many of you know, and that exposes my left side to the aisle.
And as all my staff know, I watch everything that goes on in these services. Nothing, including the sound room, is beneath my observance and understanding. And the next word you hear may not be heard.
And when the men come down with the ritual of friendship, they will, or women, depending on who’s answering their point, they will sometimes stand there for several moments trying to hand that thing to me, not knowing that I have no peripheral vision at all on the left side. And unless by chance I happen to turn or I’ll see Ken or someone who’ll point.
This morning the man in the first service tried to pass it to someone else because he thought I was just not going to get with the message and didn’t understand I couldn’t see. That’s why Anita won’t drive with me. That’s why some of the rest of you foolishly do drive with me.
I look back at the time when God called me at 15.
I was surrounded – I’m talking about the generation – I can see their faces today. I was surrounded by friends in the church who were more talented, who had their own self-image together, who weren’t dealing with issues of inadequacy or self-esteem. I remember very well when I was 12 years old, the medical doctor said to my parents, “Make sure this young man has some kind of talent because he’ll never be able to finish school. He’ll probably never finish high school, certainly never finish college, because his eye will not stand the strain of being a student.”
I remember my parents coming home; my books were already out, and my walls were lined with books at that time. They told me that I would never be a student.
God doesn’t choose beautiful people to do the work He has to do. There are no superstars in the kingdom of God. He finds people who are available. Availability is the issue. And then the Holy Spirit begins a process. But let me give you the lineup again, one more time before we pray. The lineup is this.
One average pew-warmer Christian is never going to be affected this way. So the first crisis is coming specifically to the point where you’re dealing alone with the issue of whether you’re going to be available or not. That’s the first issue. And that’s a big issue, isn’t it? Just to get to that point: “Okay God, you know my background, you know how I’ve been crushed, you know how I’ve been rejected, you know all this stuff that’s going on—my self-esteem and inadequacy—you know all this stuff, and yet you still want to use me.”
“Okay God, I’m willing to be useful. What’s the next thing?” He has to show you the serpentine qualities in your giftedness. He has to show you. Many folks say to me every time I preach in this church, “It’s too much! Just take one or two of those points.” You see, I know the serpentine quality of me.
I know I’ve got an Irish ability to speak. I could stand up in front of you and rap, and you’d love it. I mean, I could take an illustration and wrap a scripture around it. You know, that’s when I get my greatest compliments from you. When I’ve been up all night and wasn’t able to prepare, and I just kind of get up.
Of course, that doesn’t happen very often either way. I get up and take a text. “Boy, that was great! Whoa! Preach that way every Sunday!” See, that’s falling back on my natural giftedness. I know the serpentine quality of that giftedness. That’s why I prepare like there’s no tomorrow. Number one, you’re not the audience; He’s the audience.
That’s not putting you down, but I want you to understand the ultimate thing isn’t that. God wants you to hear, but you understand the ultimate audience of my giftedness is He who called me, not those who hear me. But to be aware of the serpentine involvement in this gift.
So the first crisis is to get to the place of saying I’m available, and then the second crisis is for God to show you the ugliness in the giftedness He wants to use.
I want the rod, but I want you to understand what’s in the rod. I want your hand, but I want you to see what’s in your hand. I want you to know this so that when you begin moving in my power and authority, you’ll be aware.
We’ve had 30 years of a charismatic movement that’s emphasized giftedness and hasn’t taught people about the serpentine nature of giftedness. So we’ve had 30 years of a movement with emphasis on gifts and no character. And then we wonder why the world’s going to hell in a basket, why this great renewal is going on.
No foundational character. Hey, I wasn’t kidding when I said Moses never slept with that rod without putting it in a closet.
Moses never looked at that rod again, which represented his own dependency and giftedness, without saying, “I see the serpent in the rod. I see the leprosy in my hand.”
Then that’s the man—the man first available and then shown the dangers of his giftedness. That’s the man who becomes humble.
Not “I can’t do it.” No. The man who says, “Yes, I can, but I know if I do it in myself, it’s gonna be wrong.” That’s the man in whom God has blended the elements, or the woman in whom God has blended the elements. Moses is called, from this point on in the scripture, the meekest man who ever lived. What does that mean?
See, most of you think meekness means weakness. Jackie Vernon once said, “The meek will inherit the earth because no one else will claim it.” See, that’s the way we think about it. Oh, meekness is not weakness. Meekness is ultimate strength because it knows where the dependency is and it knows what never to depend on.
Have you ever noticed that when you’re really weary, that’s when you start falling back on natural giftedness again? You know, when you’re under stress, you start falling back to that natural stuff. “I can get by. I can just do this and get by because I know how to do it with my eyes closed.”
I never go on these trips, please believe me. I’m not aware that I may never return. That’s the nature of involvement. The man of God is immortal until God’s finished with him. Traveling on Aeroflot through Russia is going to be a great experience, especially this summer. I tell you, that is where you have long ago moved beyond that issue.
People say to me, “Well, it must be wonderful to travel like you do,” and I say, “Are you kidding? Are you kidding?” You know, my wife’s company may put her in five-star hotels, but when I go… It’s prison camps. Converted or not, they’re still camps. I want you to stand with me, heads bowed, please. Every head bowed, every eye closed in these moments.
With our heads bowed and no one looking around, I want to ask a question. How many of you are aware that God himself has begun to ask you to be available in an area of life? And that’s the battle, the struggle that is going on now, which has to do with availability, willingness to move under God’s direction. You’re aware that the Lord is asking this of you.
May I see your hand? The struggle for availability. That’s a key issue. Thank you. You can put it down again. How many of you have come to a point where God, and this seems so contradictory, first gets you started, and then he shows you all this stuff. And that’s where you are right now.
There’s a revelation of God’s Spirit upon your life about the wickedness in the very gift that he wants to use. May I see your hand? That’s what’s going on in you. God is saying, “Throw it down,” and then he’s saying, “Pick it up by the tail.”
Lots of hands raised, thank you. Please understand, that is more, that’s a deeper level of his involvement in your life. Because that’s the next step before release. You’ve said, “I’m available,” then he’s showing you what you need to see, so you’ll never rest on your laurels again, never rest on your natural giftedness.
Father, I thank you for these people; I pray. Lord, for the release of your spirit, and tonight as we come together to pray for deliverance from fear issues and other things that are happening in our lives, which keep us from moving in the ultimate sense of your purpose. Lord, our destiny is with this great warm group of people gathered here today who love you and want to serve you, most of them with all of their heart.
But Lord, we come against the enemy’s plan through background wounds or self-confident dependency. Lord, we come against anything that would cause us to move except under your anointing. And we ask for the release of your giftedness in Jesus’ name. And everyone said, “Amen.” I hope many of you are going to walk right out this door, down one block, and join us on Main Street.
You’re dismissed. God bless you. Say “I love you” to somebody before you go, alright?
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