The providence of God never stops working in your life.
Sermon Title: GOD’S UNSEEN PROVIDENCE
Sermon Text: EXODUS 1:8 – 2:10 (NIV)
Sermon Series: MOSES: LIFE LESSONS FROM THE HESITANT HERO
By: PTR NESTOR SY
Sermon Notes:
EXODUS 3:1-10 NIV
1 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 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. 3 So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight--why the bush does not burn up.” 4 When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.”
5 Do not come any closer, God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” 6 Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God. 7 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. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey--the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
The calling of God is so important because we live in a world where his calling doesn’t matter any more.
I. GOD’S CALL IN THE MIDST OF FAILURE.
EXODUS 2:11 NIV
11 One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people.
HEBREWS 11:24 NIV
24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.
DON’T GET AHEAD OF GOD.
EXODUS 2:11-15 NIV
11 One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. 12 Glancing this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 13 The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?” 14 The man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “What I did must have become known.” 15 When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well.
ACTS 7:23-25 NIV
23 When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his fellow Israelites. 24 He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian. 25 Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not.
When we move ahead of the Lord, we will make foolish mistakes.
God knows what he is doing, even when nothing around us makes sense.
HEBREWS 11:25-26 NIV
25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. 26 He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.
When it comes to God’s calling, God’s timing is everything.
EXODUS 2:15 NIV
15 When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well.
PSALMS 46:10 NASU
10 Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.
II. GOD’S CALL IN THE MIDST OF THE ORDINARY.
There is a God-arranged plan for this world, which includes a specific calling for you.
GOD’S GRACE QUALIFIES THE UNQUALIFIED.
You can be everything God called you to be.
“God was telling Moses, ‘I don’t need a pretty bush or an educated bush or an eloquent bush. Any old bush will do as long as I’m in the bush. If I’m going to use you, it won’t be you doing something for me, but me doing something through you.’”
Ian Thomas
God doesn’t ask us to be spectacular, just ready to yield to him.
The calling of God is so important because we live in a world where his calling doesn’t matter any more.