Sunday, May 31, 2009

Mountains out of Molehills - Exodus 4:1-5

Title - God makes mountains out of molehills!
Date - May 31, 2009
Text - Ex 4:1-5

Introduction

- We often have a low estimation of what God could do with our lives
- We do not recognize the gifts he has given us
- And I am not even necessarily talking about our spiritual gifts
- “Margaret Storm Jameson, the English author, once expressed the view that we all spend too much time living in the past, feeling regret for lost joys or shame for things badly done.
- “Even when our minds turn to the future, she said, we spend an inordinate amount of time longing for it or dreading it.
- "The only way to live," she said, "is to accept each minute as an unrepeatable miracle . . .
- “Work at your work. Play at your play. Shed your tears. Enjoy your laughter. Now is the time of your life." - Bits and Pieces, July, 1991
- Exodus 4:1-4
- God was telling Moses personally he was sending him to lead 6 million people out of slavery
- What an awesome task!
- But Moses did not feel adequate to the job
- He continued to come up with excuses even after God provided answers to each one, and eventually God even got angry at him!
- Moses had to learn that God could use anything for his glory

What are our abilities?

- God says to Moses, what’s that in your hand
- Moses has to say, a rod
- A rod identified Moses
- It meant he was a shepherd, who went around the desert with a bunch of smelly animals
- It meant he had a profession, even if it was lowly
- It meant he married a shepherd girl, Zipporah
- I am sure that Moses did not see his job as the ultimate in job satisfaction
- But it paid the bills, and under the circumstances, it kept him under the radar of the Egyptian FBI
- He used to be the heir-apparent of Egypt
- But his identity was now symbolized by that shepherd’s rod
- God said, what is that in your hand
- So what is in our hand?
- What are the abilities we have right now?
- Not, what did we used to be able to do, or what could we become with a lot of hard work
- God says what do you have in your hand, right now
- Right now, what you have in you hand is that you are clean and sober
- Right now, you have friendships and relationships with brothers and sisters who are making the journey with you
- Right now, you are learning perseverance, putting down the desires of the flesh and aligning yourself with God’s will and purpose
- These are your present abilities

Does God care about our past?

- For Moses, the rod also represented a former identity
- It represented times gone by, times of success
- The shepherd’s rod reminded him of the scepter he used to wield as the prince of Egypt, educated in the ways of the court
- He had been the general of Egypt’s armies and had waged a major and successful campaign against Ethiopia
- The scepter reminded him that he had all kinds of abilities
- His disability was, that that was no longer his identity
- He now had a shepherd’s staff
- What was in our past?
- We may have used to be very successful in our life before we were humbled by our addictions
- We may have used to be a top chef, or a successful carpenter, or maybe we used to teach at college, or we used to pastor a church, or lead a small group
- Our problem is that that was in the past. It is no longer in our present
- We have moved on in life, to places we wish we had never gone
- Our addictions have brought us down, and we feel we are no longer able to be of any value to anyone
- God says to us, what is that in your hand? He does not ask what it used to represent
- He does not ask, where have you come from, what have your past achievements been
- God asks what is that in your hand, today

What can God do with our present abilities?

- God was not ignoring Moses’ ability to lead people, his dedication to a task, his being educated in the court of Pharaoh
- God had a plan for Moses which would involve all his past experience
- But first of all, Moses had to focus on his present abilities, where he was right now
- Right now he was a lowly shepherd
- Isa 66:2 - This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word.
- 1 Cor 1:27-29 - But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.
- 28 He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things - and the things that are not - to nullify the things that are,
- 29 so that no one may boast before him
- Eph 3:20-21 - Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,
- 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
- God is able to use the little ability we may have, and use it in a big way
- Remember the lady in Elijah’s day, who had a little cruze of oil
- God was able to multiply it
- God was only limited by the number of jars she brought to be filled
- The only limitation on what God can do through us, is the limitation we set on him
- Moses could not see beyond the shepherd’s rod in his hand
- But God had a bigger plan for him, to be the shepherd for a whole nation of ex-slaves
- The journey starts with being humble and recognizing our own inability to do anything hugely worthwhile
- Even Jesus said, “By mysef I can do nothing” – Jn 5:30
- He tells us in John 15:5 - “apart from me you can do nothing“
- It is only as we submit what we have in the present to Him, that he can make something useful out of it
- But when we do, there is no limit to what he can do

Conclusion

- As we consider where our life may be going, don’t focus on the past, whether good or bad
- Also, don’t be all focused on the future
- There is a place for planning and preparation and goals
- But keep your focus on the present, where you are today
- God is asking you, what do you have in your hand, right now
- This is what he wants to use, for his glory
- He will make it work, he will multiply the effect and impact
- He will make your life worthwhile
- Trust God that he will do it
- Zech 4:6 – 'Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the LORD Almighty

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