Lessons from Moses: Vices, Obedience, and Divine Purpose

1. "When I started this church, some of you may not know this story, but I called the church, this church wasn't called Zion Church at the beginning. It was called the Love and Worship Outreach Center. And that's what I thought it was supposed to be called, the Love and Worship Outreach Center. Let me explain it. I always wanted this to be a church where people felt loved, no matter what their condition, what their issue is, whatever their situation, that they would feel loved. And then worship was, I wanted the words to represent what you would get if you came. And I'm a worshiper. I love worship, almost to a fault. Sometimes when I'm worshiping, I feel like preaching is an interruption." [00:00:09] (47 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "And one of the signs of his being chosen was early in his life, actually at the beginning of his life, there was a hit out on all children his age, all male children. The Pharaoh at that time where he was born, every Hebrew woman that had a son, they would kill the baby. And though all male babies around his age were being killed, he survived. One of the reasons why you know you're chosen is because of what you survived. Let me talk to somebody over here. I said, one of the reasons why you know you're chosen is because of what you survived." [00:02:22] (35 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "And some of you made it farther than anybody in your family. That ain't cute. That's chosen. You've been chosen. That's why you've been able to accomplish the things you've accomplished. And with being chosen, we see that one of the things that happened was his life was protected. Some of you should have been in cars that crashed and people died or should have been in situations where you got killed. And some of you should have been out before the shooting started or God just protected you. And something happened to the other children in the family. And you said, that didn't happen to me. It's only because God covered you. Amen. You understand what I'm saying?" [00:03:27] (36 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "Because like all of us, he may be anointed and gifted and called, but he also has shortcomings and vices. And we see it first show up in his life. Now, you got to understand what I'm about to read to you today is only highlights of his life or lowlights of his life. It's not the totality of his life. These are flaws that show up in his life because he got caught doing them. How do you know that there's some stuff you did that ain't nobody catch? They still don't know it was you, right? Yeah. Anybody glad that your stuff ain't in here and they preaching about you?" [00:04:16] (37 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "So now he's on the run and it was all triggered by his anger and impulsivity. Any angry people that snap, you got a snap ability. We must snap ability Kirk out. What do they call it now? Huh? Crash out. Just crash out people. Amen. You crash out, say stuff. Then you come back later and say, my bad. Snap, right? That's, this is his behavior. So we get to chapter three. Of Exodus. And then we're introduced to a new vice that he has. In chapter three, we get to chapter three. And now check this out. God comes to him and appears to him in the form of a burning bush. And God is saying, you're my guy. I'm calling you." [00:08:53] (40 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6. "If God tells you to do something, and you don't do it, or you fight him, that's called disobedience. So now we got a person who's clearly got an anger problem, who will snap and kill somebody, and somebody who also won't respond in submission to the call of God on their life. So here's what God does. God has changed his whole plan up. So verse 14, the Lord became angry with Moses and said, all right, what about your brother Aaron, the Levite? I'm going to have to do this another way. I know he speaks well, and look, he's on the way to meet you. He would be delighted to see you." [00:11:02] (30 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7. "And I'm saying something more than politics. Something more than racism or discrimination. What can keep you from your promise more than anything. It's your own uncontrolled vices. God said, you can't go now. Let me show it to you. Deuteronomy chapter 32. So this is what God says. The same day, the Lord said to Moses, Deuteronomy 32, 48, go to verse 49, go to Moab, to the mountains east of the river and climb Mount Nebo, which is across from Jericho. Look out across the land of Canaan, the land I'm giving to the people of Israel, because I want you to see it." [00:22:13] (35 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8. "And I'm not saying that everybody that dies early in life or dies young in life died because they were disobedient. Jesus died at 33 and was perfectly righteous. But you know if I'm talking to you. See, whoever I'm talking to right now, all the Moseses listening to me right now, this is what you have to say, Pastor, with me? I'm so gifted and so wild, this thing can go either way. I can serve God the rest of my life, possibly. Or I can get off track and be so far out there, you never knew I knew him." [00:28:22] (33 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9. "you go hard for god or go hard for the devil you just go hard and i'm saying that is the fight you gotta fight i understand that fight and this is the this is the thing about it every time you win a battle against your vice you get promoted i'm telling you this is how you this is how it works when you fight that thing and you win and you submit to god you get promoted but you know what you get promoted into a new battle but it's the same vice the vice never changes you're gonna fight the same devil at every level you go to so if you're about to watch this if you're not tempted by money and corruption that's not what's going to tempt you it's the same stuff that's been tempted you who understands what i'm talking about you understand what i'm talking about" [00:29:02] (48 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


10. "Joshua now gets to go where Moses can't go because Moses has the vision, but Joshua has the character. And it's a trip when you have mentored somebody, and they walk where you were supposed to go because you was too wild to go. So he was cool with being too wild. If you read the story of Joshua, he never wanted to be one. Even when they told him he was going to be one, he was fighting it. But he was forced to be one because one was wild. Are you a wild one? Ooh, that was so good. I want to write that. Are you a wild one? Because if you're a wild one, two will have to replace you." [00:31:01] (43 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)