Turning Aside To See The Great Sight

            Text:  Exodus 3: 1-3, vs. 17

Moses had fled from the face of Pharaoh to the land of Midian. One day he sat down by a well and it just so happened that the priest of Midian had seven daughters who came and drew water to give water to their father‘s flock.  The Shepherds drove them away, but Moses helped the ladies water the flock.  When the ladies went back to their father Reuel, he wondered how it was that they made it back so soon.  The daughters explained that an Egyptian delivered them out of the hand of the Shepherds.  Moses really was a Hebrew, but having been raised in Egypt, he no doubt had an Egyptian accent.

So when the daughters explained all of this, their dad said, “Where is he?  Why did you leave him?  “Call him and tell him to come and eat with us!”

Well…something must have happened while the mashed potatoes and the corn was being passed around because  something wonderful called love was sparked and Reuel gave Moses the hand of one of his daughters in marriage…..Zipporah.  They even had a little boy and they named him  Gershom because Moses said he had been a stranger in a strange land (Egypt that is.)

In process of time, the king of Egypt died and the children of Israel cried out to God because of their hard bondage.  God heard their groaning and remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  God looked upon the children of Israel and had respect.

This places Moses in a situation where he is tending to  his father-in-laws (Jethro) flock. Moses is doing his thing and leads the flock to the backside of the desert.  This further led Moses to Horeb, the mountain of God.

All of a sudden, Moses sees the angel of the Lord appear.  This was rather unusual because the angel was in a flame of fire that was coming out of the midst of a bush that was burning, yet it was not consuming or destroying the bush.  The bush remained intact and whole.

This is the point in which Moses made the statement, “I will not turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush in not burnt.”

The scripture tells us that when the Lord saw that Moses turned aside to see, all of a sudden, Moses hears the voice of God call to him out of the midst of the bush.

#1:  you must take the time to see the handy work of God and hear His voice.  If we are too busy to spend time with Jesus, then ladies and gentlemen, we are too busy.  If we want to see the signs, wonders, and miracles, then we must turn aside from the things of this world long enough to hear from God!

What did God say to Moses?  He called him by name and said, Moses, Moses!  We serve a personal Jesus who not only knows our name, address, phone#, but he knows our struggles, hurts, fears, sorrows, and he knows what we like and what makes us click, tick, and slick all at the same time!

Moses responded by saying, “Here am I”  WE must make ourselves available to God.  That is what God is looking for in people….availability to His call and will.  Then God said, “Take off your shoes, you’re on holy ground.”

The presence of God is what makes a place holy and that is what the church is all about…..that is why we are set apart from this world.  Not isolated, but set apart none – the – less!

When God told Moses who He was, Moses became afraid all of a sudden and hid his face.  The genuine presence of God will expose our human weakness, but hold on, because the hope is that when we place our trust in Him….he will step in.

God had a purpose for speaking to Moses……my children…..my people….they are in Egypt….they are not in the promised land yet….my people are in pain and I hear their cry, Moses.  Every day they face taskmasters who don’t treat them right.  They don’t get the breaks and rest they need.  Unreasonable expectations are placed on my children.  Its hard to be happy under those type of conditions.

……Tell ya what I’m going to do….I am going to deliver my people out of Egypt!  I have just the place for you….it’s good and it’s large…..it flows with milk and honey….

Moses….here is the plan….I need you to go before Pharaoh.

Moses was blown away….God, I can’t do that….you know….Who Am I God?  Pharaoh is this incredibly powerful politician, and I’m just a Hebrew Shepherd.  God, you must have the wrong guy, but God never misses the mark, never.  To prove his help, God gave Moses a promise:

1.  Certainly I will be with thee.  You are going to know with full certainty that I have sent you.  We will notice that after this encounter Moses was progressively more and more confident.  But he had to go through this to gain the initial confidence he needed. Confidence comes in segments from experience to experience.

God told Moses that they were going to serve him upon THIS mountain.  Hey….we can know that God has a specific place  for us to worship…..whatever it takes…find your place in Him. That is the only way to find the confidence you need.

Now Moses was a great thinker….he was thinking ahead…and he said to God, “What am I going to tell your children when I tell them you have sent me to them and they say, “What is His name?”  “God said,  “I AM THAT I AM”  First Moses needed to know for himself….then he could tell the people…..”tell my children that I AM hath send you……. The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.‍

Then God told Moses to give the people the plan….it was a plan that offered hope…you’re coming out….out of bondage…out of Egypt….out from under the taskmaster….out of pain…out of sorrow….out of fear….out of all the negative stuff that has kept you for so long…..Egypt will soon be a thing of the past….it will be history……

 

Anybody ready to come out tonight…..is there anybody who is ready to climb higher with Jesus to the mountain?  Is there anybody who is desperate for a genuine move of the Spirit….enough that you are willing to come out?  Come out of the norm….come out of tradition…..come out of your pain….in Jesus Name!

We can become used to our pain to the point that we don’t see a way out of it….but when God steps on the scene….everything changes for His Glory!

He said, Gather the children of Israel and tell them what I am about to do…….you need to know that your pain is not forever!!!!!! You are coming out!

 

It all started when Moses turned aside to see what was going on with that bush over there!  Watch out when you turn aside….if God is in it…it just might change your life forever and ever and ever!!

God didn’t say their journey out would be easy, but He did say that they would not go empty!  Hey, I can go a lot of places just as long as I know I’m not going on empty!!!!!!!!!!

He said, “you are going to spoil the Egyptians!!!!!!!”

So the devil takes you out onto temptation lane and shows you all of the stuff you are missing out on because you have chosen to be one of those Christians….well…..I’ve got news for slew foot tonight……whatever a child of God sacrificed to get closer to the King….God will make it up a hundred fold……don’t let the devil intimidate you….stand your ground and give God all the praise!

From a great chess player of Cincinnati, we learn that in the early part of the last century an artist who was also a great chess player painted a picture of a chess game. The players were a young man and Satan. The young man manipulated the white pieces; Satan the black pieces. The issue of the game was this: should the young man win, he was to be forever free from the power of evil; should the devil win, the young man was to be his slave forever. The artist evidently believed in the supreme power of evil, for his picture presented the devil as victor.

In the conception of the artist, the devil had just moved his queen and had announced a checkmate in four moves. The young man’s hand hovered over his rook; his face paled with amazement—there was no hope. The devil wins! He was to be a slave forever.

For years, this picture hung in a great art gallery. Chess players from all over the world viewed the picture. They acquiesced in the thought of the artist. The devil wins! After several years a chess doubter arose; he studied the picture and became convinced that there was but one chess player upon the earth who could give him assurance that the artist of this picture was right in his conception of the winner. The chess player was the aged Paul Morphy, a resident of New Orleans, Louisiana. Morphy was a supreme master of chess in his day, an undefeated champion. A scheme was arranged through which Morphy was brought to Cincinnati to view the chess picture.

Morphy stood before the picture, five minutes, ten minutes, twenty minutes, thirty minutes. He was all concentration; he lifted and lowered his hands as, in imagination, he made and eliminated moves. Suddenly, his hand paused, his eyes burned with the vision of an unthought-of combination. Suddenly, he shouted, “Young man, make that move. That’s the move!”

To the amazement of all, the old master, the supreme chess personality, has discovered a combination that the creating artist had not considered. The young man defeated the Devil.

Listen….the devil may be smart to a degree, but Jesus Christ is about to make a move in your life that the devil has never been able to figure out….the devil understands what it takes to get somebody into bondage….but he will never understand what it takes to deliver somebody……it only frustrates the fire out of him…..Jesus Christ is here right now to deliver anybody who wants to come clear out of Egypt….you are flat tiered of being under Egyptian slavery and you want freedom…..it’s time to come out!!!!!!!!