Sermon Tone Analysis

*WHEN LIFE DOES NOT MAKE SENCE*

*EXODUS 2:10*

 

At time's life does not make any sense.

Many times there is no explanation, no under- standing as to why this crisis or why that crisis.

But at times, God pulls back the curtains of his sovereign will, and He allows us to see why we are in a crisis.

Such will be the case as we look at the life of Moses.

Moses once lived in a palace, but as we look at Exodus 2:15 now he lives in a desert.

Moses once was a ruler and a leader of men, but soon he will be a ruler and leader of sheep.

He has no idea that God was preparing him for an even greater ministry.

We are going to pull back the curtains of heaven, and we are going to see how God used Moses' desert experience as preparation for incredible service.

I do not know if you are going through a crisis, but for Moses it was preparation for being used greatly by God.

And may I suggest that if you are going through a crises  God is preparing for future service.

Alan Redpath while pastor of Moody Memorial Church put it this way "When God wants to do an impossible task, he takes an impossible person and crushes them."

Everything I have to say today as it relates to the life of Moses has to do with that statement.

If the truth were known many of us would admit that we are impossible people.

I mean our slogan in life is, “I want it my way.”

And until

we are divinely crushed, until we are broken to the place of submission of God's will, God will not use us in that particular manner for which he has called us.

A.

W.

Tozer put it another way, "It is

doubtful that God can use anyone greatly until He has hurt them deeply."

There are times when God has allowed deep and severe trials.

And when you are in those trials you will wonder about the justice of God.

There will be times when God will kick the crutches out from under you.

There will be times when God will take away your comforts and remove all your rights.

And you will wonder why?

It may be that in God's great plan He wants to use you in a great way.

In the life of Moses that is exactly God's intention.

God is going to crush Moses.

Today we will experience the brokenness of being crushed.

*A.

MOSES LIFE, PRIOR TO BE BROKEN BY GOD.*

One thing that I want you to see in Moses is that he was highly qualified.

Look at *ACTS 7:22*:

 

*1**22** **Moses** was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.

*

 

            Do you see the word "*powerful*" in the New International Version, ("*mighty*" in the King James Version)?

The Greek word is dunamai, from which we get our word dynamite.

Meaning this, Moses was very powerful in communication and action.

He was an incredible debater and a military hero.

A historian tells us that Moses led the Egyptian Army in numerous military campaigns, and he was always victorious.

Moses had all the ability, all the intellect, and he had all the education.

He was highly qualified, but he was entirely useless when it came to doing God's will, God's way.

Look at:

 

*ACTS 7:23-29*

*23** **"When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his fellow Israelites.

**24 **He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian.

*

 

            Moses, in attempting to do God's will, kills an Egyptian.

That’s Moses' way of doing God's will.

After all Moses thinks, I am the champion of Egypt.

I'm a hero.

I can do no wrong.

So he just kills the Egyptian.

Now he is trying to do God's will, his way.

So many sincere Christians try to do God's will their way.

I have seen where some will sincerely hold back their tithe for their own purposes, thinking that they are sincerely doing God's will, but they are sincerely wrong.

Others will spread rumors discrediting someone so they can accomplish their own purposes.

When we attempt to do God's will our own way, it always backfires.

Look at *Acts 7:25*:

 

*25** **Moses** thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not.

**26 **The next day Moses came upon two Israelites who were fighting.

He tried to reconcile them by saying, `Men, you are brothers; why do you want to hurt each other?'

**27 **"But the man who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside and said, `Who made you ruler and judge over us?  **28 **Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?' **29 **When Moses heard this, he fled to Midian.*

Look at *EXODUS 2:15* to get a good look at Moses.

 

*15 **When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well.*

Here is Moses, the champion of Egypt sitting in the sand, by a well, as a murderer.

To get a good picture of what Moses is feeling as he sits by the well, imagine being highly successful and losing everything.

Or imagine being happily married, but one day as you are at work, you are served divorce papers.

Those of you who have been there, know that when you are by the well, it is a lonely place.

You can not imagine it, unless you have been there.

The question most often asked is, by people who are by the well is, "How did it happen?"

You don't have to do anything wrong to loose your business, all your prophets can be embezzled, or you can be swindled by a shady business partner.

In Moses' case, he sits by the well, it is not by the actions of others, but attempting to do God's will his own way.

I was listening to David Jeremiah's radio program and he told the story of a very successful businessman.

He said that the businessman was a Christian.

And David Jeremiah believed that he was.

He had done a great deal of good work for the Lord.

He had founded ministries and funded them with his own money.

He was well known in his community.

He had a wife and a family.

From all outward impressions, he was a model of a godly Christian businessman.

But financial difficulties took over his empire.

And as hard as it was for David Jeremiah to believe, the man conspired with two underworld characters to force his wife off the road and shoot his wife in the head.

The police suggested that he was involved in the brutal murder.

All the evidence pointed towards him.

The week before, he had taken out a very large insurance policy on his wife.

His own testimony was filled with inconsistency and holes.

Today, he is serving time for the murder of his wife.

Some would say he couldn't be a Christian and do something life that.

I'm not telling the story to debate whether he knows the Lord.

I'm just illustrating the story that even a person who seems to know the Lord can stray from the will of God.

How does it happen?

How did it happen to Moses?

I have a better question.

How does it happen to us? 

 

            Allow me to tell you how it happens.

*FIRST -- IT HAPPENS WHEN WE TRY TO DO GOD'S WILL IN OUR OWN WISDOM AND STRENGTH.*

Look at *EXODUS 2:12** *at Moses' actions just before killing the Egyptian.

*12** **Glancing this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

(NIV)*