Your Burning Bush - Unwavering Faith in an Unraveling World

It's amazing.

I don't know if you had a chance to turn on the news, but it's like every time every day there's there's it seems like another possible random lone wolf terrorist thing happening.

And there's another Ebola victim and you know all these it's just been compounding while we've been even since we got here.

But We're going to get back to the big picture, not the little picture of what's going on right now in the world, but the big picture God gives us of that confident unwavering faith in the middle of it all.

And it's the story as you well know of a sheepherder and the day that a sheepherder became a world changer.

It was not on his calendar for that day.

If you had looked at his to-do list He didn't say, have a meeting with God and become a world-changing liberator of a nation.

It was going to be another day with the sheep.

It is amazing how God will often speak to us. uh in in in in an everyday situation when our guard is down and we're not expecting him to show up and he will step in and intrude on our everydayness and our ordinariness With a mission from him.

And that's exactly what happened here.

Now you you're pretty familiar with the story, I think.

Let's go over to Exodus chapter 3, and we're going to read through it.

And then I want to show you out of the this story of Moses, which We already had dramatized today.

These guys are going, I'm gonna have them open a theater in Branson.

If they can do Jonah, they can do Moses.

Amazing.

They even had it themed with my messages.

I don't know.

That's pretty good for a 11-year-old girl, huh?

Putting all that together I'm d I'm sounding like a grandfather.

Sounding like a nolipah.

That's what it is.

Not a grandpa.

I'm a nolipah.

But uh let me remind you that uh Moses, we often forget this Moses was 80 years old.

I'm quite sure Moses thought anything big in his life was in the rearview mirror.

Oh no, Moses.

This has all been prelude.

This has all been prel uh been preamble to the big show.

No, this is the big stuff.

Now, I don't know if that's an encouragement to anybody here who keeps having birthdays, but don't tell Caleb it's over.

When you're 85 years old.

Oh no, he had to wait because of the stupid unbelief of everybody else.

Not his fault.

He's got to wait 40 years to get into the promised land.

And when he gets there, he doesn't say, Where's my hammock?

He says, where's my mountain?

Where are some giants?

I'm ready to go to war and fight for this place.

Come on, let's go.

I love it So I don't believe that it's part of God's plan that we coast as we get older.

I've never seen anybody slow down near the end of a race.

I mean they put on, they find reserves, they find extra strength.

They're like, this is like this is the most, I gotta run the last part of the race, the best I run the whole race.

So, you know, be encouraged that as we read this, you're looking at an 80-year-old guy here.

That means he needs a stick to hold him up, apparently, you know.

So um, and I will tell you this, I'm held up by a staff Never mind.

But um not held up and robbed, I don't mean that.

I mean supported by godly.

Um truce your words a little more carefully, boy.

Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian.

Always nice to work for your father-in-law, isn't it?

Right, Rick.

And he led the flock to the far side of the desert.

And he came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

And there the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire within a bush.

By the way, we often wonder about this angel of the Lord, and there's a lot of theologians, and I think they've got a great point. who believe that when the angel of the Lord appears in the Old Testament, often it may very well be the Son of God before he comes to Bethlehem years later.

Because no angel would accept worship.

And so when you see somebody in an act of worship or falling down before an angel, that probably is a pre-Bethlehem appearance of Jesus.

So, there the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush.

Moses saw that though the bush was on fire, it did not burn up.

He could have run, but no, there's something magnetic about a burning bush.

There's something very curious about that.

He goes.

Check it out.

So Moses thought, that's in the Hebrew, I will go over and see this strange sight.

Why the bush does not burn up.

So God managed, God will do whatever he's got to do to get your attention.

Believe me.

He's doing something now, perhaps.

When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush.

It's enough to have a bush burning that doesn't burn up.

To have the bush know your name is a little more disconcerting.

Moses.

Moses Moses began to get it.

He said, here I am.

Do not come any closer, God said.

Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.

By the way, let me just stop there.

It's not really what we're talking about this morning, but I just want to say this.

Let's think about taking off your sandals.

Joshua and others were told the same thing when they went into the presence of the Lord.

Well, I tell you what Karen was pretty big on our kids, including the big one, not putting their shoes up on a table where we were going to eat I you know I don't I mean their shoes on their feet, not just, you know, leaving their shoes up there.

And uh we use lot lot of our family leaves their shoes at the door.

In Japan, everybody does, right, I think.

And uh some native communities it's traditional it's it's dishonoring to leave your shoes on.

Well, what's the deal?

Your shoes carry all the yuck, they carry all the dirt.

You know, all Karen would have to say is, do you know where those shoes have been?

I'm starting to have flashbacks of public restrooms and all that stuff.

And I'm like, yeah, that's a pretty good point.

You know that?

Because that's what carries the dirt you've walked in all day.

God says, don't you come to me still carrying your dirt.

You might wonder why some prayers haven't been answered.

There are a lot of reasons prayers don't seem to get answered.

One of them is you're carrying dirt into his throne room.

And he can't bless that.

So he says, take off the sandals.

For the place where you're standing is holy ground.

Let's keep going.

Then he said, I am the God of your father.

There we go.

Yeah, I just love that.

I am the God of your daddy.

The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, at this Moses hid his face.

He was afraid to look at God.

And the Lord said, I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt.

I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.

Let's keep going.

So I have come down to rescue them.

I'm just imagining Moses ' reaction.

Remember how deeply stirred he was forty years before.

I'm sure he has not forgotten the scenes of the brutal treatment of his people.

And God says, I want you to know something, Moses.

I have heard their cries.

Yes.

Yes, God's heard their cries.

He's seen their suffering.

Yes.

And then he says, I'm come down to rescue them.

Yes. from the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, almost unimaginable given the current situation.

A land flowing with milk and honey, the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Stalagmites, Stalactites, Perizzites, wait, Hivites, and Jebusites.

There's so many ites.

Okay.

And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me.

And I've seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.

I've not been blind to this, Moses.

So now go.

I am sending you.

Moses is going, Yes.

He's coming.

He's heard.

Yes, he's seen.

Yes, he's going to rescue them.

No!

Me?

I liked it all till now.

I'm all in favor of you rescuing my people.

I don't want them to be in the situation they're in.

But you're saying I'm the guy?

So now go, I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.

Notice what God said.

I'm going to rescue them.

You're not going to be the rescuer, ultimately, but it's going to come through you.

It's going to look like you And I and bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.

One last comment about Moses and his age.

I heard an interesting Chinese proverb That's a Chinese something or other.

Might have been a fortune cookie, but it said, to the fool, winter Now, to the fool, old age is winter.

To the wise man, old age is harvest time.

A lifetime of experiences, a lifetime of walking with God, a lifetime of learning from your mistakes and other people's mistakes.

Man, you got more to give than ever before.

The best is yet to come, hello.

So Moses gets this assignment from God and in this story is going to be something deeply personal because there are people in this room who have been experiencing a strange and unexplainable restlessness.

You can't put your finger on it.

There's nothing really wrong.

You believe the right things.

You give to the right things, uh family, uh work, I mean things are okay, but there's this feeling of there's got to be more Well, usually a great work of God is preceded by restlessness.

So you should be excited if you find yourself spiritually restless.

Because it means that God is getting you ready.

He wants you to want more so that when he shows you the more, you're ready for the more.

And you will go after it, even though it will involve risk and change And there's this little voice going, you're made for more.

You're made for more than this.

And you want the rest of your life to make a far greater difference than your life up until now has made.

Well, hello Moses.

Here we go.

Secret number four, for living unafraid.

Answer the call.

Answer the call.

Because the scene of the burning bush minus the special effects has been repeated for century after century and there may be for you your burning bush in this room.

There are those times in your life when it is as if you hear your name And God says this isn't just generic truth.

This has got your name on it.

I'm talking to you.

Hear your name And those are moments to be excited about.

There are obviously a lot of unanswered questions, but here's you say, well, why is that a secret of living unafraid?

Here's why.

You see it in your notes.

When you answer God's call, It is fuel for an unwavering faith.

Basically, you're too busy to be scared.

You're making a difference.

And you're guided by a passion, now get this, that only gets stronger as the world unravels.

Does that make sense?

I say, man, I really got to do something about there's something eternal I can do right now.

I can get some people ready to live through this.

This is awesome.

And so the unraveling of the world fuels your fire.

It's another reason to be unafraid.

Now, in this story I find what I call six life launchers.

That's what happened that day Moses' life got launched into an orbit he would have never expected, and that might be you.

And uh it comes from a bush on fire.

Let's take the first one.

The first one's obvious.

The divine summons.

We saw it.

Moses hears his name coming from the bush.

What was the invitation?

What was the summons to?

I am summoning you.

I'm summoning you, first of all, to join me in the greatest cause on the planet.

At that time, the greatest cause on the planet. was to r was to build a nation for God that would become his face, his representation, their religion, their practices, their sacrifices. would become the whole foundation for the redemptive plan of God, the picture of what God was going to do through his son, and there was nothing more important.

And God says, I want you, Moses, little shepherd boy, who thought everything was behind you.

It was all just coasting till you go home No, you're not going to coast.

You got something very big to do for me.

And I want to ask you.

I'm coming to rescue them, but I want you to come with me.

Come on.

And he may be giving you that invitation.

The greatest cause on earth today is the mission statement of your Savior, for the Son of Man came to seek and to save.

The lost.

The mission statement of Jesus.

What are you doing here, Jesus?

I'm here for two reasons.

Number one, I've come to look for people and I've come to rescue them.

The word save, I've translated it The word save, so -zo in the Bible, we today kind of made it into Christianese.

We have the saved and the unsaved.

Well, let me just tell you this.

The word save is a life or death rescue word.

I mean it is it is uh preserving life.

It is it is uh the difference between life or death for somebody.

I've come to look for and to rescue.

In fact, Jesus' name means that.

Every time you pray, you speak his mission.

Every time you pray in Jesus' name, you're saying his mission again.

You're reminding yourself of why he came and why you're here.

Because his name means God saves, God rescues.

So you're saying in the name of the God who comes to rescue, Jesus.

So it's hard to forget the mission, even if you say his name.

It's built into his name.

And Jesus said to his disciples, as the Father sent me , now I am sending you.

And he may very well have a mission for you.

I believe he does for everyone in this room. that is perhaps greater than what you are doing now, and he's laying his hands on you, saying, as the Father sent me, and he's naming you by name, listen to him call your name.

So I am sending you, summoning you to join him in the greatest cause on the planet.

And here's why.

Moses ' name meant drawn out.

That's what Moses means.

Moses was a rescued.

He had been in a basket on the Nile River where Jewish boys die.

And he is drawn out of the water and rescued.

Well, that all of us are.

Every one of us in this room has been to Christ as our personal rescuer from our sin and its penalty.

And so because one has been rescued, he wants them to be a rescuer.

He expects Moses the rescued to become Moses the rescuer.

Put your name in there.

He expects Furfer the rescued to become Furfer the rescuer.

That's the rest of the story.

Complete the circle.

Jude 23 says this.

Snatch others from the fire.

See?

See it's life or death?

Snatch others from the fire and save them.

You see that right there at the beginning of the verse.

Snatch others from the fire and save them.

That's rescue.

He's also summoning you to be his face and his voice to people without hope.

Jesus, well I tell I I I know who said it well.

Gypsy Smith was a great British evangelist in the South in the early 1900s, and he said there are five Gospels.

I went to Bible school.

I thought there were four.

He said, no, there are five Gospels.

Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and a Christian.

And very few people read the first four.

Most people come to Christ do it because of a Christian they know.

Not because of an evangelist, not because of an event.

Most people come to Christ do it because of a Christian they know Most people who don't come to Christ don't come to Christ because of a Christian they know.

Yeah, see, he's summoning you to to put flesh on his offer, to put flesh on his rescue.

They need to be able, they they can't see Jesus, they can see you to be his face and voice to people without hope.

Doesn't it make you sad And have you ever met people like this?

I meet them quite frequently where somebody will go, yeah, you know, the thing is, I'm just so, I wasted so many years before I came to Jesus.

I just, I wish somebody, I wish I'd known about them sooner, because they happened to respond fairly soon after they understood what Jesus did for them.

I said, looking back now, did you know any Christians?

Oh, I've worked with Christians.

Yeah, I think I had a Christian neighbor.

And you gotta shake your head and go, all those wasted years, the guy had to wait till he's 52 when he met somebody when he was 22 who could have led him to Jesus.

But they were the silent secret agents of Jesus.

2 Corinthians 5. 20 says, we are Christ's ambassador.

You are Christ's ambassador, as though God was making his appeal through you.

We beg you.

Be reconciled to God.

This is a passionate Not laid back.

This is a passionate ambassador.

What does an ambassador do?

Well, you'll see it in the next point.

You deliver his messages.

That's what an ambassador does.

They don't say what they want to say.

The president contacts them and says, you or the Secretary of State or whoever, and whoever made him an ambassador says I have a message for you to deliver.

I can't come.

I won't be there.

The president can't go and deliver all his messages.

He has an ambassador to do that.

Jesus, physically speaking, will not be in your neighborhood, will not be at work. will not be, if you're taking classes, he won't be at the college or the school.

He will not be in your rotary club.

He will not be at the golf course.

He sends you and to be his face and his voice.

That's why you're there.

You're not there for a paycheck, ultimately.

You're not there for recreation, ultimately.

You're not there because you need a nice house and a nice neighborhood.

Ultimately, you've been assigned there by the chief executive of the universe to represent him there.

How you doing?

To help people from there be in heaven.

You're the difference.

That's what he was asking Moses to do?

That's what he's asking you to do.

Every time we have a new emergency or a new crisis in the news, we get a new vocabulary.

Now we have contact tracing.

Have you seen those words?

Well you will.

It's Ebola.

Yeah, right after right after we uh uh the man from Liberia came, and right after the nurse uh was infected with Ebola They started doing what they call contact tracing.

It's part of containing Ebola.

Who are all the people that were potentially close enough to this person to be infected by them?

I thought to myself, what if God, what if we did that for you for your last week or two?

What if we did a contact tracing?

Not because you have Ebola, but you got Jesus.

You got something to make them well, not sick.

And what would we I wonder how many people there it was surprising how many people are like Oh, I wasn't, I just saw a couple people.

And then you start making the list, you're like, oh, for heaven's sake, I I in some way or another touched the life of 40, 50, 60, 70, 100 people, whatever over the next last couple of weeks.

Here's the question.

How many of them got some Jesus from you?

That's the purpose of our influence.

And then in that group, the ones that you contact a lot, how many of them have actually heard explained to them that what happened on the cross was for them?

To be his face and his voice to people without hope.

And to deliver his message.

Moses was told in chapter 7, verse 1, go tell Pharaoh, let my people go.

God's told us his message.

We know what it is.

It is that there's a relationship we're created to have.

We were made for it.

We got a hole in our heart until we have it.

Created by him and for him.

It's a relationship we don't have, because instead of living by him and for him, we live for me And that's put a wall between us and the God we were made for, and that's why there's never enough love, there's never enough peace, there's never enough fulfillment, because we're away from the one who's got everything we were made to have.

There's a wall between him and us.

So it's a relationship you created have you don't have, but you can't have.

You don't have it because of what you did, but you can't have it because of what Jesus did, because he took the penalty.

He did the dying.

You did the sinning, he did the dying.

So much he loves you.

And it's a relationship you have to choose.

It's not automatic.

You have to open your heart, pin all your hopes on him.

Oh yeah, that that's the message closest to God's heart.

And he's given it to us to deliver.

He's trusted us.

And then he's summoned you to hear the cries of the people around you.

God was basically saying to Moses, I've heard their cries, have you?

Have you forgotten the cries?

You've gotten the cries of your people you 40 years ago you murdered a guy because you heard him.

Are you aware of the pain of your people?

It's gotten worse.

Some of you around very successful got it all together.

I show no pain.

I I look great people.

A lot of us have a lot of friends like that.

Oh, but behind closed doors, and all alone, there's an epidemic of quiet desperation. of disappointing relationships, love that has never turned out right, brokenness.

Pain from the past that I can't tell anybody about, but I carry like baggage with me everywhere I go.

Oh, so much. a quiet desperation, and many people with destination sickness.

Destination sickness, what is that Everybody's climbing Mount Happiness.

We a couple of us were talking about this yesterday.

They're climbing Mount Happiness now.

I know why I'm not fulfilled.

I know why I got a hole in my heart.

Because I can't get to the top.

In fact, I can't even get on Mount Happiness I can't even start to climb.

I know why I'm miserable.

Some people are halfway up, they're going, man, I thought I'd be feeling a little better up here, but you know, the view is better, but I don't, you know, I still don't I know when I it's the problem is I didn't get to the top The people at the top are going, go back, it's an ambush.

There's nothing here.

They climbed all the way to the top.

And some of them just jumped off because there was nowhere else to go.

That's destination sickness.

They got their dream.

Everybody admires them.

And the hole in their heart is still there.

Now, where you look, when you looked everywhere, you wanted to look.

Just keep putting quarters in a vending machine that doesn't give you anything back?

Yeah, I just maybe need more.

I just put more in the broken vending machine.

Yeah, he's asking you to hear their cries.

Let me ask you a question, and I want you to think about it for a minute, and I'll come back to it in a minute.

One thing that breaks my heart, I want you to think of a lost person you know.

Somebody that as far as you know is doing life without Jesus another day.

Unless there's some intervention, they'll probably do the rest of their life and possibly eternity without him.

One thing that breaks my heart for a lost person that I know is I should think about that for just a minute.

I want some of you to share what you might be thinking.

Hear their cries.

Oh yeah, and to live for a mission that is literally life or death.

To live for a mission that is literally life or death.

Proverbs 24, 11 and 12 says this, rescue those, rescue those who are being led away to death.

Put names in there.

You know them.

Rescue who is being led away to death.

They don't know it.

Hold back those who are staggering towards slaughter.

Somebody stand at the edge of the cliff, please.

There's all kinds of gaps in the line along the edge of the cliff as people plunge unknowingly into an abyss.

So you are receiving a divine summons.

We were at Ocean City, New Jersey, where we took kids to a youth conference every year.

And uh one of our volunteers, Jamie, uh decided there's a boardwalk there, it's like a two and a half mile boardwalk, and it was Saturday night, it was, you know, everything was lit up and alive on the boardwalk and now the the lifeguards only work uh days there and so at night of course the beach is closed and the lifeguards are gone.

Jamie decided to slip out a little g get a little fresh air.

I think it was because I was speaking and she went out on the boardwalk and decided, you know, I'd get a pizza or something.

But in the po in the process, she's walking close to the fence of the boardwalk and she thinks she hears a scream.

Can't see the water, it's pitch black, but she thinks out there she hears a scream.

Jamie goes running down to the beach.

And sure enough, there is somebody screaming out there.

Somebody is drowning.

Still can't see him.

And she thinks for a minute and she she yells back, she says, somebody come and help.

I think somebody's in trouble out there.

At that point nobody moved.

Hard to hear, but all the mayhem on the boardwalk She hesitated for a minute, ripped off her shoes, and jumped in the water.

Eventually a couple other guys joined her.

And they uh they managed to rescue a woman.

It was all over by the time I got out there at the end of the meeting.

And they managed to save her life.

I said, Jamie, what in the world were you thinking?

What in the world were you feeling?

She said, Ron, she said, there's nothing scarier than the ocean at night.

I said, and you went in.

You were afraid.

She said, You bet I was afraid.

I said, why'd you go in?

She said, because I was there.

And somebody would die if I didn't.

Your Jesus assigned lifeguard on your stretch of the beach.

And it's scary to go in for the rescue.

But you're there.

You're the one close to them And someone will die if you don't.

So he's inviting you to join him.

God uses the word rescue. for a mission that is literally life or death.

So I have to stop and ask the question.

Remember all this is written for our examples we heard the first night?

Are you in this picture?

Hearing your name, summoned to make a far greater difference.

For people without hope and with a unthinkable eternity, currently, where they're headed.

We've been consumed with enough mini causes in the church.

This is the maxi cause right here.

We uh had one of our on Eagleswings Warriors um who decided she was going to come back to the team this year after some years away.

And she wrote this on her reapplication for the team.

She said, during this past year, I have come to fully acknowledge and accept God's call for me to enter the ministry.

I thought this was so cool.

I finally stopped letting his call go to voicemail.

And I answered that call.

Has it been going into voicemail?

Answer the call.

Oswald Chambers said, once someone begins to hear that call.

Suddenly every ambition, every desire of life, every outlook is completely completely blotted out and extinguished Only one thing remains.

I am separated to the gospel.

Woe to the soul. who tries to head in any other direction once that call has come to him.

Answer the call.

Okay, here's the second life launcher is this.

The Holy Passion.

First you got the divine summons, then you got the holy passion.

Now let's go back to verse 2.

Can we go back to Exodus 3.

2?

And I think there's more going on here than just a special effect from God.

Pierce in flames from a fire within the bush, Moses saw that although the bush was on fire, it did not burn up.

Now, uh honestly, that was to get his attention, that was to make it clear that it was God.

It was a dramatic way for God to introduce himself. as Yahweh and he does that there, but I kind of suspect and I this is not in a verse, but I think God was saying to Moses, I don't want just you to see the bush.

I want you to B the bush with a fire inside you that never goes out With a passion.

That's a picture of you, Moses.

I want you to always remember a bush on fire that never burns up.

For it is certainly the will of our God, who is not willing that any should perish, not one out of seven billion people, not one should perish.

It is the will of our God that the fire in his heart be in the fire of his kid's heart.

That's us.

The holy passion.

Well, God's saying don't just see the bush.

Be the bush.

With a fire on the inside.

2 Corinthians 5. 14 describes that fire this way.

For Christ's love. compels us.

The way he's loved me, the way he loves them, I can't do nothing, not after what he did.

I'm worried about what it's going to cost me Look at what it cost him.

How dare I stay in my comfort zone?

He left the greatest comfort zone in the universe to come to this hole.

To be butchered like a lamb.

Christ's love compels us because we're convinced that one died for all.

So all ought to know that.

Everybody ought to have the chance you had.

Well, let's go on.

He's asking, he wants you to have eyes that see what Jesus sees When you look at your neighbors, you look at your co-workers, people at the club, people at the gym, people at PTA, people whatever you're involved in.

I can tell you what he sees.

Let's go to Matthew chapter 9, verse 36.

When he saw the crowds, he saw potential followers.

No.

When he saw the crowds, he saw customers, clients, no.

When he saw the crowds, he saw obnoxious people.

Sin people, no.

He had compassion on them, which means way down deep in his guts.

He felt something.

Literally means that.

Because they were harassed.

They were helpless.

They were like sheep without a shepherd.

I asked a Navajo shepherdess one time. 80 years old, wearing the 80 years of weather on her face.

And I said to her, Catherine, I've heard a lot about sheep.

But tell me, what happens when a sheep gets away from the shepherd?

She gave me a native people aren't known to be verbose usually like me.

They gave, she gave a one-word answer.

She squinted and she said Coyotes.

And every one of us has wandered away from him like sheep, Isaiah 53, 6 says, and the coyotes eat us alive.

You see when you see what Jesus sees and your heart feels what Jesus feels, you won't just see a neighbor.

You won't just see Mr. or Mrs.

Success.

You won't just see a coworker or family member.

You will see a future inhabitant of eternity in one of two places.

That's who they are.

I was asked by a high school student years ago, Ron, what will people in hell look like?

I said, the kids in your school, look around your school.

That's what people in hell will look like.

We see, I'll tell you, traveling with you on Eagles Wings team.

Let's tore my heart up.

Because they will come back for a debriefing.

And native guys are not known for showing feelings at all.

The opposite.

But our men, our women, will come back and they will weep, sometimes embarrassed that they're weeping publicly, but uncontrollably Because someone will not come to Jesus.

And I said to myself, and I've I've I've been I've prayed with a lot of Native Americans.

And I've seldom ever been with Native Americans who can pray for their people without weeping.

There are always tears.

And I wonder about the dry eyes of my people.

What's wrong with us?

For Jesus wept over his city that rejected him.

Where are my tears?

He wants to put the fire inside, a heart that cannot stand to leave them lost.

I can 't stand to have them go into eternity without a chance and you look in the mirror and say, I am their chance.

Third life launcher from that bush is the life preparation.

It's pretty exciting.

God comes to, I don't know who would have picked this, you know. uh felon, we'd have called them today, um, who has blown it before uh in the wilderness, 80 years old, too old for the job.

But and and but if God were to put out a wad for who he needed for the job, it will go something like this, wanted.

A man who knows the Egyptian government, the Egyptian way of life, understands the Egyptian culture.

And can speak to Egyptian leaders.

Great.

Well, okay, I think I got a guy in mind.

Oh no, wait, wait, wait.

Wanted.

Also, wanted.

A man who is conversant with the Jewish people, with their culture , speaks their language, and knows the Jewish faith.

Well wait a minute, we got two guys here.

Obviously we're gonna you mean you need two guys for the week because you know if you're d up with the Egyptian leadership, you obviously not down with the the Jewish slaves learning there.

So we've got two guys.

Oh, and thirdly, a wanted, a man experienced in surviving the wilderness.

Okay, now we got three guys.

We got a Jewish guy, we got an Egyptian guy, we got some wilderness guy.

Well, how about this?

How about a Jewish guy who is raised as Egyptian royalty who spends 40 years in the wilderness?

Go figure.

There's one on the planet.

And God calls his name.

Moses has been perfectly prepared by his biography to be a rescuer.

So have you.

Your entire life has prepared you to be the very kind of ambassador God needs wherever he sends you.

He knows what he needs, and don't you argue with him.

He picks his ambassadors.

You don't pick yourself.

And you don't argue with him, even though Moses tried, you won't win it.

Moses didn't win it, and it's a good thing he didn't.

Moses was biographically credentialed, credentialed by his life for the rescue mission to which God was calling him.

And you have been too.

Your pain is a door opener to people's hearts.

If you can show them the difference of going through that kind of pain and going through it with a savior like Jesus makes.

See, they got the pain, but they don't got the savior.

The loss you've gone through.

That's biographical credentialing.

The failure.

The success.

All of them position you.

They position you to rescue people.

The medical challenges you've had.

And you've gone through them with Jesus.

And you know the difference.

You can only imagine what it would be like to have gone through without a Jesus like him.

Your occupation is divine positioning.

That's why you got it.

That's why you have the talent you have, the interests you have, the history you have.

That's what it's all about.

The changes you've been through, the empty nest.

This is stuff all but everybody goes through, but they're going through without a Jesus.

You do it with Jesus.

You know what our message is supposed to be?

1 Peter 3. 15 says that people are going to want to know about the hope you have, not the beliefs you have, or the meetings you go to or the bad things you don't do.

They're gonna be they're gonna want your hope.

What is hope?

Hope is knowing that when you go through a long, brutal winter, it isn't always gonna be winter, you know there's spring coming.

It isn't always going to be this way.

It may look like it's going to be winter forever, but this can change.

You are the living proof that things that people can't change got changed in you.

You are the living proof that Jesus is a life changer.

You are living somebody in this room is living proof that Jesus, that a temper can change because of Jesus.

That a father can change, a mother can change, a husband can change, a wife can change, a single person, a widow can change Somebody a slave to the pain of their past can change.

Someone who's done unthinkable things can change.

Someone addicted can change.

You're the proof.

You're like a walking resurrection evidence.

Because no religion could do that.

Only a living Savior could have changed, because you tried to change you.

That's hope, and that's what you have to give away.

2 Corinthians 1 verses 3 and 4 hints at our biographical credentialing when it says this.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles.

You've walked through your valleys, like Brian said this morning from the music.

The difference Jesus makes, who comforts us in all our troubles so that we can be comfortable.

Oh, excuse me. so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.

Yes, I went through what you're going through, or something like what you're going through, but I went through it with a Jesus.

I went through it with a Savior.

And he put you through it really in many ways to credential you.

By the way, um Do you know that most people in America, you you see how Native Americans, we go and reach people in tribes?

Well shoot, you're in a tribe.

Did you know that?

Everybody assumes in tribes.

There's occupational tribes.

There's recreational tribes.

There's associational tribes like clubs and things and recreational and oh there's all kinds yeah generational all kinds of tribes You know who people listen to?

Somebody from their tribe.

They don't listen to an outsider.

When Jesus went to Samaria , Greatest evangelist in history.

He did not go into Sychar, that Samaritan village, and have a crusade.

Not initially.

No, what he did was he got a Samaritan to go to The Samaritans.

And who would have picked her, for heaven's sake?

But he knows that Samaritans listen to Samaritans, not Jewish preachers The Bible says many of them believed in him because of the woman's testimony.

Oh.

Wow.

And then it says many of them came out to meet him because of her.

She was what interested them.

So remember that you are God's uniquely prepared rescuer.

The Bible guarantees it in Ephesians 2. 10 when it says you are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, for the very works he prepared for you to do In advance, before there was a you, he wired you to do the things that he put you here to do.

They certainly include the mission of his son.

By the way, you know what Moses' greatest qualification was?

He thought he wasn't qualified.

Did you get that?

His greatest qualification was, he said, I'm not up to it.

God says, you're my man.

It's the people who think they're up to it that God says, forget you.

You're gonna block the view.

You're gonna want the glory.

You won't depend on me.

This is a mission I can alone accomplish through somebody who thinks they can't So if you say, I'm not qualified, I don't really think I can do this, God says, you're my guy.

You're my girl.

You think you're not qualified?

You just qualified yourself just like that.

You didn't disqualify.

You qualified.

Isn't that awesome?

Because in 2 Corinthians 3. 5 it says this, look, not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves.

Our competence comes from God.

I love that.

So who can't do that?

He made us competent as ministers of the new covenant.

Well, I want to give you an example of how our biography gives us credentials to share our Jesus.

From the life of my daughter-in-law.

Anna.

This is her story.

Oh no, you got the guy.

You knew this way I was doing it.

I took the ring.

You saw the ring.

You knew I had a ring.

I don't know why she puts up with him.

I wish he would just leave and never come back.

But I know that will never happen.

He treats mom the worst.

But we're all afraid of him.

I'm careful what I say to him He scares me.

I wish he would just stop drinking.

I wish that I had a happy home.

A place where I'd feel safe.

Where I wouldn't have to lock the doors.

He has never told me he loves me.

I know what happens to kids like me who grow up in a house like this.

They hurt themselves, even kill themselves.

I watched them go that way.

Three nephews, two cousins, a brother.

I felt what they felt.

Just wishing it could all end.

Then I heard about a different kind of father.

A heavenly father that wouldn't hurt me.

Who would Love me.

Keep me safe.

A father who rescued me.

I wasn't looking for him, but he found me.

He found me on this reservation.

And now I have a home.

Not a place with walls or doors.

But a place where I am loved.

A place where I feel safe.

A place where I belong.

In Father's love, I am home.

And so a little girl from a reservation who will go on now to tell about in Jesus, the father she found as you click, and Anna is there to share the rest of the story.

The worst thing that's ever happened to her in her life have become her credentials to share with the world through on Eagles Wings films.

A world of hurting kids who've never had a father who was a dad.

About a Jesus who are you'll finally be safe.

Biographically credentialed, you are.

Are you in the picture?

Let me go real quickly through this the other life launchers.

The fear antidote.

We gotta do something about the fear.

Because when you hear about all those people who go, yeah, I've lived all these years and nobody told me about Jesus, even though I was around people who knew him, they didn't tell me, I can tell you why they didn't.

Same reason we don't.

We are what For afraid.

We're afraid of what?

What is it that we want to?

It's like back to the first message, I should, but I can't.

I should but I can't.

What is it that stops us?

They're of Well that was that was that on a card somewhere?

Fear of rejection, what else?

Fear of being in the loser tribe?

Possibility?

Fear of Yeah, losing, they'll think less of me.

I might miss something.

Fear of failure.

I'm not very good at this.

Sounds like Moses.

I can't talk.

I can't Ron, you can talk fast.

I can't talk.

All of Moses' arguments.

And you know what?

I thought this was interesting.

I decided to look at his arguments.

I believe. . .

Forget it.

I don't need the glasses.

Listen to this.

This is really interesting.

As you go through, and you can do it yourself, through chapters three and four, I found out what the common ingredient is in our fears that keep us from rescuing.

Verse 11, chapter 3, who am I?

A couple verses later, suppose I go, and they say this to me.

And then a little later in chapter 4, he says, I circled these in my Bible.

What if they do not believe me?

And say to me , I am slow of speaking.

Do you notice a common denominator here?

All of our fears are about me.

What will happen to me?

They'll reject me.

I might blow it.

I might me, my, my, me, my, my.

The conversation goes like this.

Moses says, Lord, who am I?

God says, wrong question, Moses.

Who am I?

Did I say this was about you?

It's my mission.

You're my choice.

Stop with the I mean my stuff Let it be all about me and let it be all about them and forget about you.

So Moses brings up one fear after another, reasons not to go, it's quite almost perversely amusing.

And he demonstrates that one thing about our paralyzing rescue fears, they're all about me.

But Philippians 2. 13 says, For it is God Remember, I am the Lord.

For it is God who works in you.

It is God who works in you, both to will give you the want-to, and to do the how-to, his good pleasure.

It's God's words.

God guaranteed Moses the words to say if he'd step up.

You don't have them now in Moses because you don't need them now.

When you get there, you'll have the words.

God draws people.

Nobody ever came to Jesus without the Father drawing them.

Jesus Himself said that.

God opens the heart.

God persuades them.

God makes you care in the first place.

It's all God's stuff.

So you don't, except for your obedience, he's offering to let you join him in this rescue mission.

Because you're his choice.

God 's answer to our fears across the generations and the centuries comes once again in five words this time.

Look at Exodus 3.

12.

This is like, pardon me, but this is like, shut up, Moses.

If I can put it that way, it's this.

And God said, I will be with you.

Yahweh Elohim, the constant and close one, the all-powerful one.

What's the question here?

I'm going with you.

I will open the doors.

I will open the hearts.

I will give you the words.

What's the problem here?

I'm going with you.

Centuries later, Jesus will say to eleven men on a hillside, all authority is given to me.

In heaven and in earth.

They needed to hear that because of what he was going to say next.

Therefore, what's the therefore?

Therefore, let's go back.

I've got all authority in heaven and earth.

Based on that, I want you to go.

And make disciples of all nations.

Oh , and I will be with you.

From the burning bush to the Great Commission, I will be with you.

I will be with you.

I will be with you End of discussion.

Go do it.

William Barkley, the Bible commentator. said, it must have been a staggering thing for eleven humble Galileans to be sent To the conquest of the world.

Can you count, Lauren?

You said the world?

I count 11.

How about you guys?

We got a little football team, but.

Even as they heard it, their hearts must have failed them.

But no sooner was the command given than the promise followed.

They were sent out With the greatest task in history, but with them was the greatest presence in the world.

You can do this because you ain't doing it.

He's doing it through you There are reasons we can be bold.

You can look it up for yourself in the verses.

You're summoned by God.

If God called you to do it, for heaven's sake, faithful is the one who calls you.

He also will do it.

1 Thessalonians 5.

24.

You're sent by God.

God's the one who lays people on your heart.

The lost person you thought of today, God put that on your heart because he loves them.

He cares about them.

You're scripted by God.

God says, I will write the script for this.

You'll have it when you need it.

You are supported by God.

He says, oh Moses Moses' final response is I can't go.

After all of this, he goes, here am I, send him.

God says, you know what?

I know where you're weak.

I already got somebody coming to help you.

I've already Aaron's already been dispatched.

He doesn't know why he's coming, but I see he's got the sudden urge to come see you.

Yeah Okay, he'll do some of the talking for you if you need some help.

You are supported by God, you are strengthened by God, and the good news is your job is to present Jesus, not to persuade anybody, because the Holy Spirit, Jesus said, the comforter, when he has come, he will persuade.

All you gotta do is present.

Here's that fifth life launcher.

You have a liberating message Exodus 5. 1, well you know what the message was.

It's pretty simple.

Go to Pharaoh and say, let my people go.

It's a message about rescuing people from slavery.

So is Galatians 1, 3 and 4.

Look at the New Testament version of our message.

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

And what about Jesus?

What is it about him that gives you grace and peace?

Let's go.

Verse 4.

Who gave himself for our sins to rescue us?

from the present evil age.

You don't have to be at the mercy of all this unraveling world.

He's come to rescue us.

So here's some pointers on your message.

Keep it all about Jesus.

Make sure your whole message is Jesus, not your church.

It's not about your church.

We got a great church and we should come sometime.

No, it's not about your church.

It's not about your denomination.

It's not about your religion.

It's not about their sinful lifestyle.

You don't clean fish before you catch them It's not about politics.

You don't have to be a Republican to follow Jesus.

It's not about lifestyle.

Paul said it, the greatest theologian of all time.

1 Corinthians 2, too.

I was resolved to know nothing when I was with you except Jesus and him crucified.

That's all.

It's Jesus and his cross.

That's all I've got to tell you about.

It's pretty simple.

Moses had a simple message.

Let my people go.

You have a pretty simple message God loves you enough to have paid for the wrong things you've done so you can be with him forever through his son Let me give you two common denominator starting points.

You say I never know where to start.

Let me give you two.

I want to tell you that there are two things that I think are inside of almost every person you know.

Rich, poor, religious, atheist.

Number one, there is this deep feeling inside of them, something's wrong.

There's just something wrong in our world, something's wrong with our world, something's wrong with our country, something's wr was My friends, something's wrong with the people at work, something's wrong with my family.

There's just this gnawing feeling, something's wrong with me Your gospel answers the something.

It gives the name.

We are away from the God who gave us our life.

We are away from the one we were wired to revolve our life around.

We're like the earth away from the sun.

Of course something's wrong.

We have the answer to the something wrong inside of them.

And someone's missing.

High school.

I just get a boyfriend.

Someone's missing.

I just need a boyfriend.

Well, wrong boyfriend.

Need another boyfriend.

Girlfriend, couple boyfriends, couple girlfriends, a lot of friends, a lot of friends on Facebook.

A lot of people call me friends on Facebook.

Someone's missing.

Someone's still missing.

I'll get married.

Get married.

Someone's still missing.

What's going on?

I need kids.

I have kids.

Someone's still missing.

I need standing ovation.

I get standing ovations.

Someone's still missing.

Lots of people love me, but someone's still missing.

Your whole life, someone's missing.

Someone is.

It's a capital S Because you were created by him and for him.

So you have this massive hole in your heart.

Do you have him?

And the more you've had in life and the more you've experienced and the more you've acquired, the more you know that that ain't it.

So That's what if you can if you can testify in your life to the something's wrong and the someone's missing, that's something everybody gets.

Have you ever felt, you know, you can ask, and I I find that people understand that Understand that prayer is a very powerful door opener, by the way.

You say, I don't know how to get started.

Well, let me suggest two things.

Pray with them.

You say, Ron, you mean pray for them, don't you?

Well, yeah, but I'm saying pray with them.

Look, all of you have somebody who tells you about something they're going through.

They hit a wall, and I hope they get a vibe from you that you care.

I believe they do.

So they will tell you so going on with their kids, got bad news from the doctor, or they just look troubled.

Um they're they're uh there there's obviously um something something's happening in their life and there's some pain, there's some difficulty, or something they can't fix, or something they can't change, or something they can't control.

What do you do?

You say, well listen, you know what, I'm going to pray for you.

No, no, no, no, no.

Don't just pray for them.

Given the opportunity, if it's right and it's not in front of a lot of people, won't embarrass them.

If it's the right kind of situation, you say, well, listen.

When I face stuff like this, I'll tell you what I do.

I just right away run to the most powerful person there is, because I want to get him involved in this, and that would be God.

And I would like to talk to him, I'm going to talk to him about this.

But could we start right now?

I'd like to start right now while I'm with you.

Is that okay?

I've never had anybody turn me down, ever.

A lot of lost people, but I've uh it the moment was right.

Spirit was in it And so, you know, and I don't pray with, oh great heavenly Father, potentate of the universe, creator of heaven and earth.

Don't get preacher tone or preacher vocabulary.

Say, God, I know, I know that everything that Chuck has told me, you know.

And um you were here, I know, when you came here, Jesus, and and and I know you you feel our pain because you walked our you walked our trail and Um you know, you know, the woman he loves has just heard the C-word cancer and he's scared, she's scared, and I just want to thank you right now that um I know you made him and you made her and I know you love him.

I know you love her.

I know that because you you sent the best you had, you sent your son Jesus to to die for both of them and And for me too.

And um I just pray that you would give him peace that he can't understand and I pray he'd feel you're close to him more or close to to him closer than he's ever felt me.

God could ever be and that you would show them where to get the best medical help.

And you see what I'm saying?

You pray for them.

Sometimes when I've opened my eyes, there were tears in their Because they never heard their name in a prayer.

They never heard anybody talk to God like that.

They heard about prayers out of books and all that stuff, but They heard you you know what you just did?

You just had your personal relationship with God right in front of them.

And immediately they know there's something there that isn't there in them.

And maybe even have the opportunity to say, you know what?

They'll say thank you for that prayer.

You see, we know I wasn't always able to talk to God like that because there used to be a wall between him and me.

It wasn't always this way.

Yeah, I'd love to tell you how that wall came down if you're ever interested.

Just let me know if you'd like to know.

Don't be surprised if they click right there and want to go to the next screen and want to hear more.

But you also pray for them.

And when you pray for them, Don't be with them for this one.

You pray the three open prayer.

And for many of you, this is a review, but you ain't gonna be around me very long if you don't hear the three open prayer.

Colossians 4, 3 and 4 says Pray for us that God will open a door for us and that He will help us to declare the mystery of Christ to proclaim it clearly as we should.

Here's the three-open prayer.

Lord, open the door That means give you a natural opportunity to bring up Jesus.

Probably something going on in your life.

Something going on in their life.

Something going on in the world right now.

There's a lot of those.

Lord, open the door.

Secondly, Lord, open their heart.

Would you get them ready?

If you're going to tell me to talk to them, I know you're going to be working on the other end.

You're not just going to work on my end.

Lord, open their heart.

Thirdly, Lord, open my mouth.

That might be the tough. part.

Give me the boldness, give me the words, give me the attitude, give me the approach.

Give me the tone.

Lord, open the door.

Lord, open the heart.

Lord, open You do not have to pray, Lord, if it be your will.

It is.

Prayer is a very powerful door opener, and I've talked to so many people, and when they've started to pray that way.

One of two things happened.

Either lots of opportunities that had never been there showed up, or lots of opportunities that had been there and they never saw, they now saw.

Count on God to answer that prayer.

He's been waiting for you to open up like that.

Last of all, this is a surprising weapon.

The surprising weapon.

I love the question God asks Moses. in chapter four, when he says, what is that in your hand?

Answer, a stick.

What's with the stick?

Why would you care about my stick?

It's a staff, but that might not be a big deal to you.

So what's a big deal with a staff?

Well, if you're a shepherd, it's a tool of your trade.

It's what protects you.

It's what protects your flock.

It's what holds you up.

It's what supports you.

You've been had this stick for a long time.

It's been your your it's kind of the the symbol of who you are and what you do right here.

And God says, throw it down.

What you will I get it back?

What w what what what do you what what do you what what what what do you what am I gonna do with it?

No, I I I know you don't I know it's just a stick, but I want you to throw it down.

The fact you're having a hard time throwing it down says it's more than a stick to you.

Throw it down.

Okay Surprise, it's a snake.

Now pick it up.

Oh, starts to reach for the head.

No, by the tail.

Lord, I've been in the wilderness a long time.

I'm not just a city boy.

I know you don't pick up snakes by the tail.

Because the head goes boom like this and bites you.

So uh he says, pick it up, Moses.

Rod again.

We read later in the chapter that Moses left for Egypt with the rod of God.

Same rod.

Same tool.

But it's not the rod of Moses anymore.

It is now all God's.

And God can do with your stick what you could never imagine.

For that rod that was just enough to support a shepherd.

And round up a couple sheep.

Now turns the, is God's tool to turn the Nile to blood and Pharaoh's heart to melt and depart the Red Sea.

Try that with your stick, Moses.

Throw it down and let me make more of it than you ever could and use it to rescue people who are slaves right now.

Throw it down.

Don't be afraid of what I'll do with it.

Your talent, your influence, your interests, your personality, the natural stuff of you.

Your business.

Lord, it's an instrument to bring people to you.

That's what my business is now.

I throw it down for you to make more than you ever could.

What you do athletically.

Your technology, your insight into people, all of those things.

What do you got in your hand?

Throw it down and let me use it.

It's been years for long enough Surrender it to the rescue mission of Jesus.

So I have to ask you to ask yourself, what do you have that God could use to draw someone to Jesus?

You see, I'm really shy.

There's a reason you're shy.

Probably because you're supposed to be.

Because guys like me scare shy people to death.

He 's like, ooh, back up, buddy.

You scare me.

It's overpowering.

Shy people, listen to shy people.

Feel safe with them.

You're perfectly prepared for what you do.

And you've got a weapon you never thought was a weapon.

And by the way, one thing every believer has, and it might be the greatest spiritual door opener of all, is your hope story.

Your story of Jesus changing what you could never change and that happened because of when you discovered what he did on that middle cross was for you to heal your broken relationship. with God, your hope story is the most powerful door opener you have because it's about you and they can't argue with your hope story.

They can argue with your beliefs, but they can't say Jesus didn't do for you what Jesus did for you.

These guys may not have liked the fact that that blind man was healed by Jesus, but they couldn't argue with the fact he could see and before he couldn't.

That's a hope story.

So you are the living proof.

You are the living proof that Jesus can change what nobody else could.

Did you see what you got at the end of your notes?

Heaven's orders to hell.

Let my people go.

They were made for me.

They were paid for by my son.

Let them go.

Heaven's orders to you.

Go.

I am sending you.

Heaven promises you.

I will be with you