Dr. Charles Stanley:
Sometimes people will say, "Well you know,
I've read the Bible, but I just don't seem
to understand it. I would read it more often
if I understood it." Well, what I'd like to do is, in
this passage of Scripture, give you an idea how to get more out
of whatever you're reading in the Word of God. Because oftentimes we read it a
little quickly and we think, "Well, God ought to tell me
exactly what I need to know right now." And I want you to turn if you
will to the third chapter of Exodus and, I'll give you
a little idea of what's happened before the passage
we're going to read. You'll recall that Moses killed
an Egyptian and as a result he spent forty years on the other
side of the desert from Egypt and became a herdsman. And so, he had
a great downfall in his life. So now, this passage of
Scripture begins with, "Moses was pasturing the flock of
Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the
flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb,
the mountain of God, on Mount Sinai." And then, you know the part
about the burning bush, and how God worked in his life,
and how suddenly he saw and heard and felt something that
absolutely changed his life. So, I want us to look at what
happened to him and I want us to look at it in light of how
you and I read the Scripture, and not just a matter
of what it says. But how do we read
the Scripture? And because the question you
and I always want to answer is, "God, what are You saying
to me?" You know, I could read any part
of this Bible if I'm just reading it externally and have
no heart in it, most of it wouldn't make sense at times. But I want you to understand how
to read the Bible, read a narrative that you could say,
"Well, I've read that before and I know what happens." But the big question is,
"What happened to you? When you read it,
what did God say to you? How did it--
what happened to you?" And most people don't read
the Bible with that in mind. They're looking for something,
for God to say something to them, but the question is,
"What is God saying to you in that passage?" So, remember Moses is on the
backside of the desert. Forty years ago, he killed an
Egyptian. He'd been banished and he's
herding sheep. Now, I think most any of us
would learn something within forty years. And so here he is doing what he
never would have dreamed he would have been doing. And so, the first word I want
you to write down is the word, personal. If you read the Word of God only
as a narrative and you sort of exclude yourself from the
environment and you're just talking about something that
happened years ago, you'll miss God's personal message in your
life. So, we read it asking the
question, "God, what are You saying to me? And in this particular passage,
after God having dealt with him at the burning bush,
I want you to think about this. He says in the tenth verse,
and I'll read a few verses, "Therefore, come now,
and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring
My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt." But Moses said to God,
"Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh,
and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt." And He said, "Certainly I will
be with you, and this shall be a sign to you that it is I who
have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt,
you shall worship God at this mountain." So, he's in this setting now,
and God has spoken to him, so the next word I want you
to jot down is specific. God doesn't speak
in generalities. Everything about that
is specific. God says, "Therefore, I will
send you and you are to bring My people, the sons of Israel,
out of Egypt." And so, naturally,
he has a question. Think about this. When you read the Word of God,
do you read it with, with God's message to you in mind? It's very specific, he said,
"I have a mission for you." Forty years on the backside
of the desert. Now God is speaking to him. The next word is,
encouragement, because anytime God gives us a
word of something, He wants us to do or how to do it,
oftentimes He gives us a word of encouragement because He knows
we need it. So, when I think about that,
I look at this tenth verse, "Therefore, come now, and I will
send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring My people, the sons
of Israel, out of Egypt." It was a word of awesome
encouragement. Think about this. That was His idea forty years
ago when he killed one Egyptian. He had the wrong means, wrong
time, everything about it was wrong. And now, forty years later, God
says, "Alright, you're ready." And so He says, "I'm going to
send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring My people, the sons of
Israel, out of Egypt." But Moses said to God,
"Who am I. Who am I that I should go to
Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel
out of Egypt." And so, the word's
encouragement, because oftentimes God will say
something to us in His Word, and usually He prefaces it
sometimes with encouragement, sometimes afterwards. But God always wants us not only
to listen, but to believe that when He's speaking to us. You say, "Well, I don't know of
anybody God's spoken to." How would I believe? We believe God speaks to us
because He is God, and because He's a God of love. And how does He encourage us? He doesn't just encourage us by
giving us things. That's what most people think. Well look how wonderful God is. Look what He gave me. Well, what about the time you
were sick. What about the time you were
going through difficulty and hardship and pain, sorrow, loss? Well, did God love you then? Yes, He did. So, what I want you to see is in
these narratives, there's truth. There are things that God wants
to say to us that oftentimes we overlook. The next word is, serious. This is serious business. The burning bush was God's way
of miraculously getting Moses' attention. Attention from anything and
everything else that he'd ever thought of and reminding him
that He's a God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and that God
is still there, that He has not left him in forty years though
he is suffering from the result of doing things his way. And so, what does He say? He says, "Therefore, come and I
will send you to Pharaoh." Moses said to Him, "Who am I?" "Certainly I will be with you,"
God says. What an encouragement word
that is. Listen to that. He didn't just say I'm going to
be with you. He said, "Certainly." That is, rest in this. Make sure you know this, "I will
be with you and this shall be the sign to you that it is I who
brought you, the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God at
this mountain." God always wants--watch this
carefully. He wants us to understand when
He's speaking to us. Well, can God speak to us
anywhere anytime? Yes, He could. But I think God wants to speak
to us oftentimes when we're not listening, but our minds are on
other things, our attention is on other things. God loves you. Jesus died for you and God
intends for you to listen to Him because He has something to say
to you. Nobody's beyond the voice
of God. Because He's always calling,
always to get our attention. And so little by little,
He speaks to Moses. So, what did God do? To get his attention He started
a fire in this bush that was not consumed. He knew exactly how to get
Moses' attention. He was a herdsman. He'd seen lots of bushes. He'd been in lots of situations,
but he'd never seen a bush burn that was not consumed in the
burning. Now listen carefully. Sometimes God may say something
to you, show you something, send you somebody, do something in
your life that you know that it has to be God. How many times have I heard
people say, "Well, you know, I wondered about that, but I--
It had to be God. Had to be God."
Why? It was something unusual. God spoke through a person that
maybe you don't even like. Or He did something in your life
that you didn't particularly like. He took something away from you
or gave you something, but He got your attention. God always wants our attention. He wants our attention because
He is speaking to us. He wants the best for us. He'll guide us if we'll listen
to Him. But if I'm not listening and
paying no attention, I'm not going to follow the will of God. So, the next word is, command. Now it's wonderful to listen
to God and it's wonderful to think how wonderful God is
and how gracious and good He is. But when He gives a command,
what does He expect? One word. What is it? You got it, obedience. And so, listen to what He said
in the tenth verse, He said , "Therefore, come now, and I will
send you." Now, that's the part I think all
of a sudden really got his attention. It's one thing to see the
burning bush, maybe God's speaking to somebody,
but He said, "I'm sending you to Pharaoh. Yes, Pharaoh in Egypt. The Pharaoh that cast you out is
dead, but there's another Pharaoh. I'm sending you to Pharaoh so
that you may bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of
Egypt." Totally unbelievable. How send me there to take
two million people out of Egypt, when Egypt is armed
like an armory. God, You--I must have
misread that. God, say that again. "Come now, and I will send you
to Pharaoh, so that you may bring My people, the sons of
Israel, out of Egypt." Moses said to God,
just what you and I would say. What would we say? "Who am I? Who am I, that I should go to
Pharaoh, that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt." That is, "God, You've knocked
on the wrong door. You have the wrong person. You rang somebody's doorbell,
but not me. I'm a fugitive. I'm an enemy as far as Egypt is
concerned." You listen to God. You don't put God in a box. When God says,
I want to send you somewhere, or I want you to do something,
He means what He says. Now, inescapable. Write that word down. Inescapable. When God chooses to do something
in your life, when He chooses to use you in a certain way
to speak to someone to win them to Christ, or to do something
whatever it might be, it's inescapable. That is, in the eyes of God,
He doesn't change His mind because you don't like it,
because you think you can't afford it,
because you don't know what somebody will say,
or you don't question their particular viewpoint,
that's not the issue. God says,
"I'm going to send you. I'm sending you to Pharaoh. And when God--
listen, when God says, "This is what I'm going to do." You don't change God's mind. So, the next word is,
frightening. You say, "Well, why do you use
the word frightening? Well, verse eleven, "But Moses
said to God, "Who am I?" And He said, "Certainly I will
be with you, and this shall be the sign to you, it is I who
have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt,
you shall worship God at this mountain." And so, was he frightened? Yes, you and I ever have a right
to be frightened when God tells us to do something? I've heard many people say over
the years, "When God called me to preach, I said,
'Absolutely not. I can't, I'm scared to death. I couldn't stand up
in front of anybody. I couldn't remember anything. I know I'd forget.'" People are frightened. And so, what was God's answer
to this? This is an awesome answer. What was God's answer? So, look at verse thirteen,
"Then Moses said to God, 'Behold, I am going to the sons
of Israel, and I will say to them, 'The God of
your fathers has sent me to you. Now they may say to me,
'What is His name?'" This was the answer,
"Just tell them I AM sent you." What? I AM, just tell them that. "I AM WHO I AM", and,
"Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel,
'I AM has sent Me to you. I AM has sent me to you.'" What would you have said
to that? "Who is I AM?" "The Great I AM." That's who He is. He's the sovereign God
of the universe. And He introduced Himself
to Moses by saying, "You tell them that I AM. The maker of all things,
the One true God has sent you to free My people out of Egypt." Now, how else could God have
said so much? He could have said,
"Well, I have armies," or, I, this, that, and the other. But when He said,
"Tell them that I AM sent you. I AM, I AM, I AM the sovereign
God of the universe in control of all things, therefore,
I sent you." What should that say to them? Well, first of all, they
wouldn't understand that, but He said that's what
you're to say to them. But, He also made him a promise. He said, "I'm going to send you
and I'm going to be, I'll be with you, and this'll be, this
shall be a sign to you." So, remember this. Whenever God tells us to do
anything, we have the promise of His assistance, His presence,
His power, His whatever we need, He's there. God would never send you
empty-handed to do a task. When you trusted Jesus Christ
as your personal Savior, what happened to you? One thing that happened to you
is this. He came into your heart to
dwell, and the Holy Spirit who now inhabits you, speaks through
you, has all the answers you and I need to be obedient to God. He says, I'm going to be with
you. You and I can write this down. You can write this by this
verse. That is that God will always be
with you no matter where you go, where He sends you, what goes on
in your life. He says, "I will never leave you
nor forsake you." Have you ever felt forsaken
by God? I have, once, forsaken by God. Was I a believer then? Yes, I was. But the circumstances,
I felt forsaken. I knew He hadn't forsaken me,
but I felt it. But I finally I also realize,
I don't live by my feelings, I live by the truth,
the truth of the Word of God. And so therefore,
I can claim His presence. So, He made a promise,
I'll be with you. And then, here was His word
of assurance to them. He said in verse nineteen,
"But I know that the king of Egypt
will not permit you to go, except under compulsion. So I will stretch out My hand,
strike Egypt with all My miracles which I shall do in
the midst of it, and after that, he will let you go." Think about that. You say, "Well, I don't think
God would be that clear to me." Yes, He would. I'll tell you how clear
God will be. He'll be clear enough
that you understand what He's requiring of you. God would never tell you to do
something without helping you understand how and remind you
that He will aid you in the process, a word of assurance. Then, requirement is
another word. Remember what He said to him
at the burning bush? What was His requirement? He said, "I want you to take off
your shoes. I want you to recognize
you're--listen. I want you to recognize
you're standing on holy ground. Not on shoe leather, not on
sandals, on holy ground." It's you, Me, God says,
the fire and holy ground. There is a reason. And so, He said, "Take your
shoes off, now." Once in a while, when God's
working in our life, He'll require something of us that we
think's foolish. Say, "Lord, I don't need to do
that." If God tells you to do something
that, He won't do, He won't tell you to do something wrong. But He may require of you
something that appears to be foolish to you. Let's say, if God spoke to my
heart about something and He said to me, "I want you to give
him that sport coat." "Well, Lord, he's got a lot more
money than I have. And, besides, it may not fit
him." "Give him the sport coat." I could argue all day. I may have twenty sport coats or
it may be my last one. But the important thing is,
we obey God and do what He says do,
as simple as it may be. And He said to him,
what did He say? "Take off your shoes. Do what I tell you to do." And many people miss the will of
God because, before God brings them to the thing that will make
a difference in their life, He takes them, He takes us step
by step. Then, He says,
"What's the goal?" The goal is real clear. The goal is to set My people
free. God will never tell you to do
something for which He does not have a reason, a purpose or a
goal. And listen carefully. The sooner you and I are willing
and ready and able to obey Him in simple things, little things,
then what will He do? He will test of larger things
and greater tests and greater tests. But with each one comes a
blessing. Many people live their whole
Christian life, miss out on God's best, because their faith
only got three feet long, when God had intention a mile long. "Trust Me for big things, trust
Me, trust Me for all that I can do for you." And yet, we limit Him because we
can't see our way clear. He doesn't tell Moses, "Now,
here's what you do. As long as you can see your way
clear," no. Then His reassuring word. Listen. He says, "I'm going
to stretch out My hand, in this twentieth verse, "I will stretch
out My hand and strike Egypt with all My miracles which I
shall do in the midst of it, and after that, they will let
you go." God's awesome promise. And what's the promise? If you'll notice in all these
passages, the promise is His presence, His wisdom, His power. God's working. If somebody asks you,
"Does God change?" What would you say? Well, most of you don't have
any idea. Let's just think about this
for a moment. Does God change
in His character? What about His power? Does God change in anything? God is omniscient. He knows all things. He doesn't know some things
today and something tomorrow. That's the way we operate. He knows all things. He has all power. And when He says,
I will be with you. And He says,
"Here's what I'm going to do. I know they're not
going to let you go. I will stretch out My hand
and strike Egypt with all My miracles which I shall do in
the midst of it, and after that he will let you go. Pharaoh will let you go. I will grant this people favor
in the sight of the Egyptians, and it shall be that
when you go, you will not go empty-handed." He says, "Look,
not only am I going to free you, but here's what's you'll happen. When you leave, you're going to
have their gold and silver and pots and pans and everything
that Egyptians treasure. You're taking it with you." That took a lot of faith from
man in sandals and now in bare feet to believe that God will
use him on all those Egyptians, with all their might and power
and chariots and soldiers, and a bunch of Hebrews heading toward
a sea, cross the sea, free from Egyptian bondage forever. It took faith. It took obedience to God. Now you say, "Why do you, why do
you list all these words up here?" Because I want you to think
about it. When you read a passage of
Scripture, ask yourself some questions. Ask yourself some questions. God, what does this say to me? You can ask Him anything. He will share with you what you
need to know to be obedient to Him. In other words, God is so
willing to fill us up with Himself, and to meet every
single need of our life if we'll trust Him. And this passage is a wonderful
passage about a man who forty years on the other side of the
desert, he had nothing. What does that say about
forgiveness? But what does it say about
chastisement? What does it say about being
disobedient to God and paying the consequences. There are some sins that are
very, very, very costly. We have to put ourselves in that
passage, think. What would I think? Why was there a burning bush? I'll tell you why. Because Moses would never have
believed out of the blue, we would say, that God would speak
to him forty years later as a mere shepherd and tell him to go
back and meet Pharaoh, challenge him, and then, personally lead
all of the Hebrews out of Egyptian bondage without firing
a shot. Nobody would believe that. But that's exactly what God did. Well, you may know in your
heart, God's been speaking to you and you've been putting
it off. Maybe you're not even really
sure what God is saying. But would you be willing to say
to Him today, "Lord, I don't know what You're saying, but I
humble myself before You, and I'll make it my priority to
listen to You, quietly listen to You until I hear what You want
me to do." If you've never trusted Jesus
Christ as your Savior, I can answer that question. He wants you to ask Him to
forgive you of your sins, place your trust in Him, rely upon Him
and watch Him begin to work in your life things you would never
dream of. You know what? God will do far more in your
life than you expect, if you'll ask Him, watch carefully, ask
Him and obey Him step by step. It all ends up in obeying God. Trusting Him no matter what He
says and watch Him work. Amen? Father, we thank You for being
who You are. Being patient with us,
helping us through those difficult times. We know that we will never see
a burning bush as Moses saw it. We don't need to. We don't need a bush,
we just need the cross. And what we see at the cross
is your love, goodness, mercy, kindness, generosity,
help, it's all there. We say,
"Thank You for loving us. Thank You for forgiving us. Teach us the truth. Teach us how to walk in it and
teach us how to be obedient." And we pray that you'll use
each of us to bring Yourself glory and honor. And Lord, not that we would
bring people out of bondage by the thousands,
but one at a time, with a personal testimony
of Your grace in our life. In Jesus's name. Amen? Amen.
