back to indexBerean Community Church Sunday Service 9.11.2022
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with this first hymn, "What a Friend We Have in Jesus." 00:17:45.920 |
we do have a welcome table in the back of the courtyard, 00:17:51.920 |
So if you wanna find out more information about the church 00:18:05.420 |
This week, we don't have Bible study at church 00:18:13.920 |
we're gonna have all church praise and prayer at 7.30. 00:18:17.920 |
So it's a good time for all of us to get together. 00:18:24.420 |
Today, we're gonna be taking a special offering 00:18:37.420 |
we're gonna have a time to give him an opportunity 00:18:46.920 |
And if you have questions to submit, please do so. 00:18:57.920 |
If you're new to the church and not a member, 00:19:05.920 |
So the sign-ups are available, so please do sign up. 00:19:11.920 |
that you need to discuss, talk to Pastor Nate Kwok. 00:19:24.420 |
with a bunch of booths and trunks with candies and prizes. 00:19:27.920 |
So if you have a trunk that you want to decorate 00:19:32.420 |
or you have donations of prizes, of toys, of candy, 00:19:38.920 |
If you have any questions, contact Esther Leung. 00:19:45.420 |
And as a reminder, please do try to send in your offering 00:19:48.920 |
electronically through Zelle, if that's your means. 00:20:00.920 |
Father, we pray that as we gather here this morning, 00:20:17.920 |
as we hear your word, and as we fellowship after, 00:20:21.420 |
Lord, would you remain very much at the center 00:20:28.420 |
So we thank you, Lord, and thank you for entrusting us 00:20:31.420 |
to steward the resources that you've given us. 00:20:35.920 |
you would use it really to build your kingdom 00:21:37.420 |
Brothers and sisters, let's all rise together 00:21:57.420 |
We will walk the valley with you by our side. 00:22:20.420 |
The Father's love is a strong and mighty fortress. 00:22:54.420 |
You will cheer me on with never-ending grace. 00:23:04.420 |
The Father's love is a strong and mighty fortress. 00:26:44.420 |
He's unshaken, unshaken by the schemes of man, 00:29:47.420 |
before we hear just the proclamation of God's Word? 00:30:01.420 |
And I pray, Father, that You would stir our hearts 00:30:05.420 |
and that You would cause them just to long to know You more. 00:30:10.420 |
So would You bear fruit through the preaching of Your Word? 00:30:15.420 |
And I pray, Father God, that You would be honored 00:30:22.420 |
The passage today is going to be Deuteronomy chapter 34, 00:30:27.420 |
and I'm going to read for you verses 3 to 12. 00:30:31.420 |
Deuteronomy chapter 34, verses 3 to 12, or 4 to 12. 00:30:43.420 |
'This is the land which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, 00:30:57.420 |
So Moses, a servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, 00:31:03.420 |
And He buried him in the valley in the land of Moab, 00:31:08.420 |
but no man knows his burial place to this day. 00:31:12.420 |
And although Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died, 00:31:20.420 |
So the sons of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days. 00:31:26.420 |
Then the days of weeping and mourning for Moses came to an end. 00:31:29.420 |
And now Joshua, the son of Nun, was filled with the spirit of wisdom, 00:31:40.420 |
And since that time no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, 00:31:48.420 |
For all the signs and wonders which the Lord sent him 00:31:51.420 |
to perform in the land of Egypt against Pharaoh, 00:31:56.420 |
And for all the mighty power and for all the great terror 00:31:58.420 |
which Moses performed in the sight of all Israel. 00:32:03.420 |
You guys know that Moses is one of the most prominent figures 00:32:08.420 |
He is mentioned in thirty-one of the sixty-six books of the Bible, 00:32:14.420 |
And I'm sure most of us can recount at least a couple of stories 00:32:21.420 |
And there are probably images of Moses that pop into our heads right now. 00:32:26.420 |
I mean, especially since our children's Bibles are full of them, 00:32:31.420 |
and that in our lifetime there are at least two very famous movies 00:32:37.420 |
The first five books of the Bible are called the books of Moses, 00:32:44.420 |
And we refer to these books as the Torah or the Law or the Pentateuch, 00:32:49.420 |
and Deuteronomy is the fifth and the final book of the five. 00:32:54.420 |
And Deuteronomy ends with an account of Moses' last moments, 00:32:59.420 |
his death, and then it concludes with a eulogy of sorts. 00:33:04.420 |
So we have a very historic setting here in Deuteronomy chapter 34. 00:33:09.420 |
The children of Israel are on the plains of Moab, 00:33:12.420 |
and they're just about to enter into the promised land. 00:33:15.420 |
They have just concluded a forty-year nomadic journey in the wilderness, 00:33:20.420 |
and now they are about to cross the Jordan River into Canaan, 00:33:29.420 |
And the twelve tribes of Israel are finally about to enter into the land 00:33:33.420 |
flowing with milk and honey, and there is a buzz and there is an excitement. 00:33:41.420 |
Among the million-plus people that are left there on the plains of Moab, 00:33:49.420 |
Everyone else that had left in the exodus from Egypt had fallen down dead 00:33:57.420 |
So there on the plains of Moab, only three people standing 00:34:01.420 |
will be able to recall a life in Egypt, Moses, Joshua, and Caleb. 00:34:07.420 |
And that number is going to go soon from three to two. 00:34:12.420 |
So the buzz and the excitement take a hit when Moses, 00:34:16.420 |
their fearless leader who had led them out of Egypt, 00:34:23.420 |
tells them that he is not continuing on with them into the promised land. 00:34:30.420 |
we read in the beginning of chapter 34 that God allows Moses to see 00:34:36.420 |
And then Moses dies, and the leadership of Tan is passed to Joshua. 00:34:41.420 |
And the people mourn for him for thirty days, 00:34:44.420 |
and then the book of Deuteronomy closes with a very powerful statement 00:34:51.420 |
"Since that time, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, 00:35:05.420 |
It says in verse 6 that God himself buried Moses, 00:35:11.420 |
so there's no grave site, there's no tombstone. 00:35:20.420 |
wouldn't have been an amazing line on a tombstone. 00:35:24.420 |
In Exodus 33 11, we see a similar description of Moses. 00:35:28.420 |
"Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, 00:35:38.420 |
The scriptures say that God knew Moses face to face, 00:35:43.420 |
that God would speak to Moses face to face like a friend. 00:36:04.420 |
Did this face to face kind of relationship begin on Mount Sinai 00:36:08.420 |
when Moses would receive the Ten Commandments from God? 00:36:13.420 |
When did the Lord start speaking to Moses face to face? 00:36:18.420 |
And when did Moses' intimate friendship with God begin? 00:36:25.420 |
And is this kind of relationship unique to only Moses? 00:36:31.420 |
Does the Lord speak like this to his people now? 00:36:35.420 |
Do I have this kind of access to God like Moses did? 00:36:41.420 |
And what would it be like for me to be known by the Lord like that? 00:36:52.420 |
And I want to be a person with whom the Lord talks face to face like a friend. 00:36:59.420 |
And I want to be someone in whom God, the creator of the universe, confides. 00:37:05.420 |
Scripture teaches me as a New Testament Christian 00:37:09.420 |
that I'm actually supposed to know the Lord like that. 00:37:17.420 |
And in eternity, I will have a face to face knowledge of God. 00:37:33.420 |
And for me, I know that eternal life does not begin after I physically expire. 00:37:39.420 |
So for those of us who have placed our faith in Christ, 00:37:46.420 |
And I know that eternal life has already begun for me. 00:37:50.420 |
On this side of eternity, can I know the Lord like this now? 00:37:56.420 |
And in this earthly life, can I have that kind of relationship with God? 00:38:03.420 |
So that when I die, could it say on my tombstone, 00:38:09.420 |
Peter Chung, whom the Lord knew face to face. 00:38:33.420 |
And there's a wonderful and almost shocking and offensive mystery in the Scriptures. 00:38:38.420 |
In Matthew 11, Jesus himself says that among those born of women, 00:38:44.420 |
none has arisen greater than John the Baptist, 00:38:48.420 |
but that he who is leased in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. 00:38:57.420 |
But Jesus says that you and I, if we have been made new, 00:39:01.420 |
purchased by the blood of Christ, and if we have the Holy Spirit indwelling within us, 00:39:06.420 |
we have a relationship with God that these giants of our faith never experienced in this life. 00:39:16.420 |
So today I want to walk us through the biblical account of the life of Moses 00:39:22.420 |
and explore what a life cycle of a friend of God looks like. 00:39:28.420 |
And there's a lot of material in the Bible about Moses, 00:39:31.420 |
including details about what he did, about how he lived. 00:39:36.420 |
And most of all of this material is descriptive rather than prescriptive, 00:39:41.420 |
but there's still much we can glean, gather, and observe. 00:39:46.420 |
And Moses lived 120 years, and his life is divided nicely into three periods of exactly 40 years. 00:39:56.420 |
Life as a prince in Egypt, life as a shepherd in Midian, 00:40:01.420 |
and life as a leader of Yahweh's people in the wilderness. 00:40:06.420 |
And I call these periods a period of learning, of losing, and of leading. 00:40:13.420 |
And there are things that we can observe in Moses' periods of learning, of losing, and of leading, 00:40:20.420 |
and there are things in these periods that are very common to many other heroes of the faith 00:40:28.420 |
We do not have too much detail of the first 40 years of Moses' life, 00:40:33.420 |
but the details that we do have are very interesting. 00:40:38.420 |
We know that he was born into the tribe of Levi through both his father and his mother. 00:40:44.420 |
His parents were devout and unafraid of Pharaoh. 00:40:53.420 |
And when he was three months old, his mother hid him in a wicker basket, 00:40:57.420 |
and he floated down the Nile, and he was picked up by the daughter of Pharaoh. 00:41:02.420 |
And in a strange twist of events, Pharaoh's daughter chose to adopt Moses as a son. 00:41:11.420 |
And this Hebrew child grew up in the house of Pharaoh as a prince. 00:41:17.420 |
And that you guys know, at least from "The Prince of Egypt," right, the movie? 00:41:22.420 |
In Exodus 2, we see Moses' own account, his autobiographical account of his childhood. 00:41:30.420 |
Here we go. "The child grew, and she," presumably Miriam, 00:41:35.420 |
"brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. 00:41:39.420 |
And she named him Moses and said, 'Because I drew him out of the water.'" 00:41:45.420 |
Now, it came about in those days when Moses had grown up that he went out to his brethren, 00:41:50.420 |
looked on their hard labors, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. 00:41:57.420 |
And so he looked this way and that, and when he saw that there was no one around, 00:42:02.420 |
he struck down the Egyptian and hit him in the sand. 00:42:07.420 |
So notice that between verses 10 and 11, 40 years pass, 00:42:13.420 |
and Moses goes from nursing child to 40-year-old man. 00:42:19.420 |
Notice also that Moses is given his name by Pharaoh's daughter and not by his parents. 00:42:26.420 |
And these are the only details that Moses provides of his own childhood. 00:42:32.420 |
But there are a few things we can assume about Moses' upbringing from this account. 00:42:38.420 |
He was afforded physical and educational opportunities. 00:42:42.420 |
Growing up in Pharaoh's household meant that he was going to have access 00:42:46.420 |
to whatever he needed to become a man of power in Egypt. 00:42:51.420 |
He probably ate the best foods, received the best education. 00:42:56.420 |
And because we know that the Egyptians were a fearsome people, 00:42:59.420 |
we can assume that Moses likely could fight with the best of them. 00:43:06.420 |
The Egyptians were well known for their military prowess, 00:43:09.420 |
and Egyptian princes did not grow up as spoiled pansies. 00:43:17.420 |
So no wonder that Moses easily strikes down an Egyptian taskmaster. 00:43:22.420 |
No wonder that he's tough enough and scary enough 00:43:25.420 |
to scare off a bunch of roughneck shepherds in order to protect the daughters of Midian. 00:43:33.420 |
And we get some more insight into the life of Moses through Stephen's sermon in Acts 7. 00:43:39.420 |
Moses was educated in all the learning of the Egyptians, 00:43:43.420 |
and he was a man of power in words and deeds. 00:43:48.420 |
But when he was approaching the age of 40, it entered his mind 00:43:54.420 |
And when he saw one of them being treated unjustly, he defended him, 00:44:00.420 |
took vengeance for the oppressed by striking down the Egyptian. 00:44:06.420 |
And you suppose that his brethren understood that God was granting them deliverance through him, 00:44:15.420 |
So Moses was given physical, educational, and circumstantial privileges. 00:44:21.420 |
So clearly, God was uniquely equipping Moses to be a national leader. 00:44:36.420 |
And in verse 22, it leads me to believe that Moses was a very eloquent man. 00:44:44.420 |
And keep that in mind for when we get to his interaction at the burning bush. 00:44:53.420 |
So Moses not only had the pedigree for leadership, 00:45:08.420 |
After all, the tribe of Levi in Genesis 49, 5-7, 00:45:12.420 |
Jacob uses the word "anger" and "violence" to describe the tribe of Levi, 00:45:18.420 |
and that's where both his mom and his dad are from. 00:45:21.420 |
So Moses in his first 50 years is a zealous man. 00:45:34.420 |
And this Acts passage we just read gives us an insight into the mind of Moses, 00:45:40.420 |
who believed himself to be fighting on behalf of God, 00:45:51.420 |
He may have had what we now often refer to as like a "savior complex," 00:45:57.420 |
and it is not difficult to assume that Moses himself believed to be called 00:46:07.420 |
After all, it's not every day where a Hebrew slave rises to power in the way that Moses did. 00:46:13.420 |
The last time that it happened was 400 years earlier, 00:46:16.420 |
when a young Hebrew named Joseph became second in command in all of Egypt. 00:46:26.420 |
knew the God of Israel had called him to deliver his people. 00:46:33.420 |
Moses was also a very spiritual, upright, and principled man. 00:46:40.420 |
"By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, 00:46:49.420 |
choosing rather to endure ill treatment with the people of God 00:46:58.420 |
considering the reproach of Christ's greater riches and the treasures of Egypt, 00:47:12.420 |
Moses murders an Egyptian, and then he second guesses that, 00:47:28.420 |
And this pretty much sums up what we know of the first third of Moses' life, 00:47:36.420 |
If I was Moses, I would have been very confused. 00:47:43.420 |
Moses was called by God to be used by God to bless his people. 00:47:56.420 |
So the 40-year period of learning where Moses is equipped, trained, and raised up 00:48:01.420 |
definitely is not wasted, but it turns out that this is not the period of his life 00:48:14.420 |
Moses' righteous passion for the plight of the people is noble and it's God-given. 00:48:21.420 |
But it seems that the application of this passion was premature. 00:48:26.420 |
So Moses may have been impetuous, impatient, and perhaps even spiritually reckless, 00:48:33.420 |
because after all, he is called by God to do great things. 00:48:38.420 |
By human standards, Moses at 40 was in his prime. 00:48:56.420 |
Moses was passionate for God and for God's people. 00:49:01.420 |
But why is the prime of Moses' life the least spiritually fruitful one? 00:49:08.420 |
Numbers 12.3, Moses writes this about himself, okay? 00:49:14.420 |
"Now the man Moses was very humble, more than any man who's on the face of the earth." 00:49:25.420 |
It takes a supernaturally humble man to say about himself 00:49:30.420 |
that he's the humblest man in the face of the earth. 00:49:41.420 |
But Moses was not a humble man when he was growing up in Egypt. 00:49:53.420 |
The humility would come as the end result of the next 40-year period of his life 00:50:07.420 |
that comes after the 40-year period of learning. 00:50:11.420 |
So after leaving his home in Egypt, Moses comes to Midian. 00:50:24.420 |
And Jethro, who's called Reuel in chapter 2, invites him to stick around. 00:50:29.420 |
Okay, and I'm going to read this account for you. 00:50:31.420 |
"Moses was willing to dwell with the man, and he gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses. 00:50:38.420 |
And then she gave birth to a son, and he named him Gershom, 00:50:42.420 |
for he said, 'I have been a sojourner in a foreign land.' 00:50:45.420 |
And now it came about in the course of those many days that the king of Egypt died, 00:50:50.420 |
and the sons of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried out. 00:50:54.420 |
And their cry for help because of their bondage rose up to God." 00:51:00.420 |
"So God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 00:51:05.420 |
God saw the sons of Israel, and God took notice of them. 00:51:11.420 |
Now Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. 00:51:16.420 |
And he led the flock to the west side of the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God." 00:51:22.420 |
So for the next 40 years, the second section of 40 years, 00:51:30.420 |
He's pasturing the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. 00:51:36.420 |
If Moses had been called by God to a noble purpose, as Hebrews 11 alludes to, 00:51:41.420 |
imagine how confusing it would have been for him to first be misunderstood and rejected by the very people he's trying to help, 00:51:50.420 |
and then to have his education and his oratory skills all go to waste from neglect for 40 years. 00:52:00.420 |
No matter what you've studied, if you don't use it for 40 years, you will likely forget everything. 00:52:09.420 |
Up until 2012, I was pretty conversant in Mandarin. 00:52:14.420 |
I'm ethnically Korean, but I could speak Chinese. 00:52:18.420 |
It's been 10 years since I've left China, and now I'm like, "Uhhh," and Spanish comes up. 00:52:38.420 |
My last math class was a calculus course in 1996. 00:52:44.420 |
26 years since I took calculus, all but forgotten. 00:53:01.420 |
You may not pick up on this at first glance, but for a person who has been trained up in all the wisdom of Egypt, 00:53:08.420 |
and all the learning of Egypt, being a shepherd is the last thing you want to do as an occupation. 00:53:16.420 |
So if you remember the accounts of Joseph in Genesis 46, this is a scene where Joseph is prepping his family to meet Pharaoh. 00:53:24.420 |
And he says, "This is what you should say when you meet Pharaoh." 00:53:27.420 |
And we get a glimpse into the worldview of the Egyptians through this passage. 00:53:32.420 |
Genesis 46, 34, "You shall say your servants have been keepers of livestock from your youth even until now, 00:53:39.420 |
both we and our fathers, that you may live in the land of Goshen. 00:53:44.420 |
For every shepherd is loathsome to the Egyptians." 00:53:50.420 |
Every shepherd was loathsome to the Egyptians. 00:53:56.420 |
That's a strong word. The NIV uses the word "detestable," "disgusting." 00:54:02.420 |
So in Genesis 43, we see that the Egyptians and Hebrews, they couldn't even eat together for this reason. 00:54:10.420 |
So this is a very far cry from who Moses used to be, and what he used to be, and where he used to be. 00:54:21.420 |
And at the tail end of this 40-year period, God hears the prayers of the people. 00:54:27.420 |
He mobilizes Aaron in advance, sets a bush on fire, draws Moses to himself, 00:54:34.420 |
and Moses, the now lowly shepherd, speaks to God on Horeb in the midst of a fiery bush. 00:54:47.420 |
"The Lord said, 'I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, 00:54:51.420 |
and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings. 00:54:56.420 |
So I have come now to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians, 00:54:59.420 |
and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey. 00:55:05.420 |
Therefore come now, and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring my people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.' 00:55:12.420 |
But Moses said to God, 'Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, 00:55:19.420 |
and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?'" 00:55:25.420 |
Notice what Moses says to God in verse 11, "Who am I?" 00:55:31.420 |
Moses, the once impetuous, passionate, zealous man, is now begging for confirmation, affirmation. 00:55:47.420 |
So God promises to be with him, and he promises to perform miracles through him, 00:55:56.420 |
So God shows him two miracles in his sight on that spot, but still Moses says, "No, thank you very much." 00:56:04.420 |
And we see his arrogant response, Exodus 4 10. 00:56:09.420 |
"Then Moses said to the Lord, 'Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, 00:56:16.420 |
neither recently nor in time past nor since you have spoken to your servant, 00:56:27.420 |
And the Lord said to him, 'Who has made man's mouth, or makes him mute or deaf or seeing or blind? 00:56:35.420 |
Now then, go, and even I will be with your mouth and teach you what you are to say.' 00:56:45.420 |
But Moses said, 'Please, Lord, send the message by someone else, by whomever you will.' 00:56:54.420 |
And then the anger of the Lord burned against Moses." 00:57:01.420 |
So for 40 years, Moses had been living a very ordinary life in Midian, and in his mind, 00:57:13.420 |
My guess is that he was thinking something like, "Well, if only you had used me 40 years ago. 00:57:18.420 |
I was already stationed there. I was eloquent. I was charismatic. 00:57:24.420 |
I was young and passionate. I had leadership. I could throw some hands. 00:57:30.420 |
But now, I'm just a lowly, smelly, abominable shepherd." 00:57:39.420 |
Moses is not a humble man at this burning bush. 00:57:48.420 |
He is struggling with what we would call an inferiority complex, 00:57:54.420 |
comparing his 80-year-old self with who he once used to be. 00:58:01.420 |
Inferiority complex, insecurity, self-deprecation, those are not the same things as humility. 00:58:14.420 |
Some of you in here struggle with self-confidence. 00:58:18.420 |
That's not humility. That's just damaged ego. 00:58:32.420 |
It burns toward those who minimize the power of God, 00:58:37.420 |
and those who believe that their inability is greater than God's ability. 00:58:44.420 |
And there at that bush, Moses is arrogantly saying, 00:58:55.420 |
My mouth is now completely useless. I am useless. 00:59:03.420 |
I have too much failure in my life. I'm too old. Don't use me." 00:59:10.420 |
So the 40 years tending sheep in Midian has not only humbled, 00:59:16.420 |
but has humiliated this once confident and passionate man, Moses. 00:59:21.420 |
And he needed these 40 years to be emptied of himself, 00:59:26.420 |
to lose confidence in himself, in his talents, in his experiences, and in his strength. 00:59:33.420 |
And the story continues, and Moses goes back to the Hebrew people, 00:59:39.420 |
and initially it looks like there's some hope, 00:59:41.420 |
but as soon as Pharaoh makes things a little bit harder, 00:59:59.420 |
And you immediately see a whining Moses, whining to God in Exodus 5. 01:00:06.420 |
"They said to them, 'May the Lord look upon you and judge you, 01:00:09.420 |
for you have made us odious in Pharaoh's sight and in the sight of his servants, 01:00:18.420 |
'Oh Lord, why have you brought harm to this people? 01:00:25.420 |
Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, 01:00:28.420 |
he has done harm to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all.'" 01:00:46.420 |
Moses, we see him being stripped of all that he thought himself to be. 01:00:51.420 |
A.W. Tozer, the great American pastor-theologian, once said, 01:00:56.420 |
"It is doubtful whether God can use a man greatly until he has hurt him deeply." 01:01:08.420 |
Moses' ancestor Joseph was more useful to God as a prisoner 01:01:15.420 |
than as a young man in the prime of his life. 01:01:18.420 |
And Joseph is in prison innocently for 13 years. 01:01:23.420 |
We see in the New Testament the apostle Peter 01:01:32.420 |
than while he was wielding either a sword or a fishing net. 01:01:37.420 |
We see the apostle Paul was more useful to God 01:01:41.420 |
as a thorn-bearing former murderer and persecutor 01:01:51.420 |
It is doubtful whether God can use a man greatly until he has hurt him deeply. 01:01:58.420 |
Moses was being prepared to be used by God in very powerful ways. 01:02:03.420 |
He just needed to lose, completely lose all confidence in his own flesh. 01:02:09.420 |
It's interesting because in the wilderness, you know what? 01:02:16.420 |
In using Moses to shepherd sheep in the wilderness, 01:02:19.420 |
God was training him to shepherd people in the wilderness for another 40 years. 01:02:26.420 |
So the first 40 years of Moses' life in Egypt was a period of learning. 01:02:31.420 |
The second 40 years of Moses' life was a period of losing his confidence in himself 01:02:44.420 |
So for many of us sitting here today who have a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, 01:02:50.420 |
we're probably somewhere in between these two phases of friendship with God. 01:02:57.420 |
Some of us in here, you're excited about your faith and you're feeling antsy 01:03:06.420 |
We want to do some great and extraordinary things for God. 01:03:10.420 |
Some of us in our youthful pride and arrogance feel somehow that God needs us for his ministry. 01:03:19.420 |
And this learning period is a period in which young men and women of God can get restless 01:03:25.420 |
and want things to move to action in the name of righteousness. 01:03:30.420 |
And this is a period in which great and exciting things are expected. 01:03:36.420 |
But on the contrary, this is a period where oftentimes there is no movement, 01:03:40.420 |
there is no fruit, and there are tons of mistakes made in the name of righteousness. 01:03:48.420 |
We've learned some things, and we're frustrated because the people around us 01:03:57.420 |
The learning stage is not a bad stage, but this is a stage where caution, watchfulness, 01:04:08.420 |
If you're excited about your faith and about making your mark for the kingdom of God, 01:04:18.420 |
Some of us may be in the second stage, but we're being humbled. 01:04:33.420 |
Circumstances are revealing to us that we aren't as godly as we may have thought ourselves to be. 01:04:40.420 |
Perhaps we're being broken down and beaten up, wondering how God could ever use 01:04:45.420 |
such sin-tainted, messed up, incompetent people like us, especially after all that we've done. 01:05:06.420 |
I remember vividly the events of that day and that week, 01:05:10.420 |
because that was right smack in the middle of my very first year as a pastor. 01:05:16.420 |
21 years have passed, and objectively, I am a very different kind of pastor. 01:05:26.420 |
My understanding of Scripture has for sure increased. 01:05:31.420 |
But I have a whole lot less confidence in me. 01:05:37.420 |
I have more fear now, speaking on behalf of the Lord. 01:05:41.420 |
The phrase, "Thus saith the Lord," sends me chills. 01:05:46.420 |
Because I don't want to speak or teach or say anything in vain. 01:06:03.420 |
And I constantly feel like I'm poorly stewarding the people and the relationships that are in my life. 01:06:15.420 |
Back in 2001, I remember thinking--I mean, I never voiced this, but I remember thinking, 01:06:24.420 |
And obviously, I packaged that in a humble way. 01:06:33.420 |
"Use me like David. Use me like Joshua. Use me. I will be in your service." 01:06:40.420 |
Now in 2022, I more often pray that God gives me the grace so that I don't get in the way. 01:06:52.420 |
Now I'm painfully aware of how much God does not need me. 01:07:13.420 |
I want so much more to know God intimately as a friend. 01:07:22.420 |
I don't need extra blessings either in this life or in heaven. 01:07:32.420 |
I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection 01:07:36.420 |
and the fellowship of sharing his sufferings and becoming like him in his death. 01:07:44.420 |
And I want to know him without my sins just getting in the way of that knowledge. 01:07:53.420 |
For believers in Jesus Christ, there are ups and downs and varying seasons in our walks. 01:07:59.420 |
And at times we actually can go back and forth from season one and season two. 01:08:03.420 |
From learning to losing to learning to losing all over again. 01:08:08.420 |
We can go from being equipped and then being excited and taking ourselves too seriously. 01:08:14.420 |
And then we plummet into seasons where we are being broken and humbled and embarrassed. 01:08:19.420 |
And we wallow and we forget that his power is made perfect in our weakness. 01:08:29.420 |
I want to live a life where I'm truly thriving and leading people to Christ. 01:08:37.420 |
And I want to one day be at a point in my friendship with God 01:08:42.420 |
where my ministry is completely devoid of me. 01:08:49.420 |
Where everything is about Christ and Christ alone. 01:08:54.420 |
In Exodus 34, the glory of God is shining off of Moses' face. 01:09:00.420 |
Initially, he doesn't even realize it. He's unaware. 01:09:04.420 |
He starts putting a veil over his face because people around him are freaking out. 01:09:09.420 |
That the glory of God is reflecting off this mortal man. 01:09:19.420 |
Here's a word of caution as you ponder what season of the Christian walk you are in. 01:09:30.420 |
At every stage in Hebrews 11, we see that Moses refused to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. 01:09:45.420 |
If the majority of your day-to-day thoughts are on enjoying this world, 01:09:51.420 |
and seeing how much you can toe the line of being worldly and still squeaking somehow into heaven, 01:09:59.420 |
you are likely not on either stage one or stage two. 01:10:04.420 |
You are on the outside of the friendship of God. 01:10:09.420 |
Because scripture teaches us that friendship with God and friendship with the world are mutually exclusive. 01:10:17.420 |
So James 4:4 says that friendship with the world is hostility toward God. 01:10:24.420 |
And we serve a very good, but a very jealous God. 01:10:29.420 |
Matthew 6, 24, "No one, you are not an exception. 01:10:34.420 |
No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, 01:10:41.420 |
or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. 01:10:45.420 |
You cannot be a friend of God and be a friend of sin. 01:10:56.420 |
And the things that I've discussed thus far will not pertain to you if you are a God-hater. 01:11:05.420 |
You were created by God and for God to love God and to serve God, 01:11:11.420 |
but you've completely misunderstood your purpose if you think that God exists for your happiness. 01:11:19.420 |
As it says in Isaiah 55, for you guys who are in that situation, 01:11:24.420 |
"Seek the Lord while he may be found and call upon him while he is near, 01:11:30.420 |
because he is slow to anger, gracious and compassionate." 01:11:35.420 |
So I don't know exactly when Moses starts speaking to God face to face, 01:11:41.420 |
but when we get to Deuteronomy, Moses is a changed man. 01:11:54.420 |
And we see him walking with God and speaking on behalf of God like a friend. 01:12:01.420 |
So we are going to look at the final 40 years of Moses' life, 01:12:10.420 |
And at the onset, this final 40 years looks great. 01:12:17.420 |
But it's the most painful, most frustrating, most challenging, 01:12:25.420 |
but still most God-glorifying third of Moses' life. 01:12:32.420 |
Do you really want ministry success and be a friend of God? 01:12:36.420 |
Yeesh! For the final 40 years of Moses' life, 01:12:42.420 |
Moses leads God's people in and through the wilderness, 01:12:48.420 |
And that begins with Moses' second departure out of Egypt. 01:12:54.420 |
"Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, 01:12:57.420 |
and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore." 01:13:04.420 |
"When Israel saw the great power which the Lord had used against the Egyptians, 01:13:20.420 |
"And then Moses and the sons of Israel sang this song to the Lord and said, 01:13:24.420 |
'I will sing to the Lord, for He has highly exalted the horse and its riders. 01:13:33.420 |
If only Moses' last 40 years of his life were all like this. 01:13:38.420 |
The people not only believe in the Lord, they believe in Moses. 01:13:42.420 |
And the whole community erupts in praise with Moses leading the charge. 01:13:48.420 |
But if you guys are familiar with the Old Testament, 01:13:51.420 |
you know that this is very, very short-lived. 01:13:55.420 |
In the same chapter, toward the end of chapter 15, 01:14:11.420 |
And then they complain that Moses doesn't make himself available enough to handle all the disputes. 01:14:16.420 |
So Moses has to, he listens to Jethro and sets up little advisors. 01:14:22.420 |
And then when Moses is meeting in Sinai with God, 01:14:27.420 |
one of history's most amazing moments where God comes down and meets face to face with a man, 01:14:37.420 |
They're dancing around a golden calf that his brother made. 01:14:45.420 |
And then they have to take the sword and plunge it through 3,000 men. 01:14:52.420 |
And then Nadab and Ebihu, at a moment that was supposed to be super sacred, 01:15:01.420 |
They get struck down and they're Moses' nephews. 01:15:18.420 |
And then they start blaming Moses for all this hardship. 01:15:24.420 |
The people make an outcry saying that they should elect a new leader and then go back to Egypt. 01:15:34.420 |
And then the ground opens up and swallows them up. 01:15:38.420 |
14,700 people get hit with the plague. They die. 01:15:43.420 |
The vipers come, bite them. They still grumble. 01:15:55.420 |
So there is so much heartache and death for this friend of God. 01:16:04.420 |
everyone that Moses led out of Egypt has died in the wilderness. 01:16:15.420 |
And I do not think Moses as a heartless, cold man who celebrated their deaths. 01:16:22.420 |
My guess is that he lamented each and every single death. 01:16:44.420 |
Moses' ministry fruit came from representing Holy God to hundreds of thousands of stiff-necked, stubborn people for four decades. 01:16:52.420 |
Intimate friendship with God often leads to great loneliness and rejection while ministering in this life. 01:17:05.420 |
Intimate friendship with God often leads to great loneliness and rejection while ministering in this life. 01:17:20.420 |
True ministry success, true God-glorifying service, 01:17:40.420 |
But ironically and interestingly, it always produces compassion, mercy, and love. 01:17:51.420 |
And we see these things in Moses' humble third season alive. 01:17:58.420 |
We see that he sees the people dancing around the golden calf. 01:18:01.420 |
And then he returns to the Lord to intercede. 01:18:04.420 |
On the next day, Moses said to the people, "You yourselves have committed a great sin, and now I'm going up to the Lord. 01:18:18.420 |
And then Moses returned to the Lord and said, "Alas, this people has committed a great sin, and they have made a god of gold for themselves. 01:18:26.420 |
But now, Yahweh, if you will forgive their sin, and if you will not, please blot me out from your book which you have written." 01:18:41.420 |
The people around him have sinned grievously when they worshiped the golden calf as God. 01:18:51.420 |
And Moses asked the Lord to forgive the sins of the people. 01:18:55.420 |
And if that means that Moses himself is blotted out of the book of life and sent to hell to face eternal condemnation, so be it. 01:19:06.420 |
That's how much Moses desires God to be glorified through mercy. 01:19:13.420 |
That's how much godly compassion now resides in this friend of God. 01:19:24.420 |
Even in the face of insult and personal betrayal, that humility and that compassion is there. 01:19:31.420 |
Numbers 12, we see Miriam and Aaron, fellow leaders of the nation, Moses' own sister and brother. 01:19:42.420 |
And they say, "Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us as well?" 01:19:56.420 |
I mean, imagine if God was on your side like that. That'd be great. 01:19:59.420 |
If someone injures me and God says to them, "Hey, get over here." 01:20:04.420 |
"Not so much," I mean, I don't speak in visions and dreams of Moses. 01:20:08.420 |
"Not so much with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. 01:20:12.420 |
With him I speak mouth to mouth, even openly, not in dark sayings. 01:20:19.420 |
Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant, against Moses? 01:20:24.420 |
So the anger of the Lord burned against them." 01:20:35.420 |
"And then the cloud had withdrawn over the tent, and behold, Miriam was leprous, wide as snow. 01:20:43.420 |
As Aaron turned toward Miriam, behold, she was leprous." 01:20:49.420 |
Moses, seeing his sister covered in leprosy because of her sins, 01:21:03.420 |
"Moses cried out to the Lord, saying, 'O God, heal her, I pray.'" 01:21:31.420 |
I can forgive because I've been forgiven so much by my friend. 01:21:39.420 |
The latter years of Moses' life, you see him walking with God, 01:21:43.420 |
and he submits fully to the sovereign purposes of God. 01:21:50.420 |
that he's not going to lead the people into the promised land. 01:21:56.420 |
And so he proceeds to bless each of the tribes of Israel. 01:21:59.420 |
He gives them warnings to keep the covenant of the Lord 01:22:02.420 |
and to be faithful once they enter into Canaan. 01:22:13.420 |
This is a man whose primary desire was usefulness to God, 01:22:21.420 |
And Moses is not going to lead his people into the land of promise. 01:22:27.420 |
And Moses' job is now simply to pass the baton. 01:22:42.420 |
I think God slays him and then buries him himself. 01:22:52.420 |
So Moses, a servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab 01:22:58.420 |
and he, capital H, buried him in the valley in the land of Moab 01:23:04.420 |
But no one, no man knows his burial place to this day. 01:23:09.420 |
And although Moses was 120 years old when he died, 01:23:14.420 |
his eye was not dim, and he was perfectly healthy. 01:23:27.420 |
And like Enoch in Genesis 5-24, Moses walked with God, 01:23:38.420 |
God put Moses, his friend, to physical death. 01:23:47.420 |
And I doubt that Moses, when he entered glory, regretted anything. 01:24:00.420 |
This is what a humble friendship with God looks like. 01:24:11.420 |
and faithful service and perseverance in the midst of loneliness, 01:24:15.420 |
fruitfulness, all the while completely oblivious 01:24:34.420 |
you take the baton and you pass it to the next guy. 01:24:46.420 |
That's the growth of the heart of the friend of God. 01:24:50.420 |
And I want to close with a look at this great baton pass 01:25:08.420 |
performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, 01:25:10.420 |
shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, 01:25:13.420 |
escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, 01:25:17.420 |
became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight, 01:25:20.420 |
women received back their dead by resurrection, 01:25:23.420 |
and others were tortured, not accepting their release 01:25:27.420 |
so that they might attain a better resurrection. 01:25:29.420 |
And other friends of God experienced mockings and scourgings, 01:25:36.420 |
They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, 01:25:48.420 |
Friends of God, men of whom the world was not worthy, 01:25:51.420 |
wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground, 01:25:56.420 |
and all of these, having gained approval through their faith, 01:26:00.420 |
and faith alone did not receive what was promised on this side of eternity, 01:26:06.420 |
because God had provided something better for us, 01:26:10.420 |
so that apart from us they would not be made perfect. 01:26:14.420 |
Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, 01:26:23.420 |
let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, 01:26:28.420 |
and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 01:26:32.420 |
fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, 01:26:36.420 |
who for the joy set before him endured the cross, 01:26:39.420 |
despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 01:26:44.420 |
For consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself, 01:26:51.420 |
so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. 01:27:07.420 |
and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings. 01:27:35.420 |
to minister in and through the power of your Spirit. 01:27:44.420 |
Lord, would you grant that we live lives that are very useful, 01:27:53.420 |
that we would be ambassadors for Christ wherever we are, 01:27:58.420 |
and that when you deem fit, you take us away to glory. 01:28:04.420 |
For the time that you've given us to steward while we're here, 01:28:10.420 |
may our cry with John the Baptist simply be that you must increase, 01:28:21.420 |
For we know that therein lies our greatest joy. 01:28:26.420 |
Remind us of these truths, regardless of whatever season that we find ourselves in. 01:29:08.420 |
♪ He is my joy, my righteousness and freedom ♪ 01:29:14.420 |
♪ My steadfast love, my deep and boundless peace ♪ 01:29:40.420 |
♪ All is mine, yet not I, but through Christ in me ♪ 01:30:25.420 |
♪ To this I hold, my shepherd will defend me ♪ 01:30:37.420 |
♪ Oh, the night has been won, and I shall overcome ♪ 01:31:08.420 |
♪ The future's sure, the price it has been paid ♪ 01:31:14.420 |
♪ For Jesus fled and suffered for my pardon ♪ 01:31:48.420 |
♪ I am free, yet not I, but through Christ in me ♪ 01:32:05.420 |
♪ With every breath, I long to follow Jesus ♪ 01:32:12.420 |
♪ For He has said that He will bring me home ♪ 01:32:44.420 |
♪ When the race is complete, 'til my lips shall repeat ♪ 01:33:11.420 |
♪ When the race is complete, 'til my lips shall repeat ♪ 01:33:24.420 |
♪ When the race is complete, 'til my lips shall repeat ♪ 01:33:52.420 |
- Father, we are thankful that you've provided for us 01:34:00.420 |
just the freedom to gather, the opportunity to meet together, to worship. 01:34:04.420 |
And we're thankful, Lord God, for just your truth. 01:34:09.420 |
And as we walk out of here, I pray that you would strengthen and empower us 01:34:14.420 |
to live in application of the truths that we know. 01:34:19.420 |
And in our lives, in the lives of our families, in the lives of our children, 01:34:24.420 |
we pray that you would be magnified, that you would be honored, 01:34:33.420 |
and love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, 01:34:38.420 |
be with each and every one of us who's striving to walk with God as a friend,