From Prince to Prophet: Moses' Journey of Redemption

### Bible Reading
1. **Exodus 2:11-25** - The story of Moses witnessing the Egyptian beating a Hebrew, his subsequent actions, and his flight to Midian.
2. **Acts 7:22-25** - Stephen's recounting of Moses' life, highlighting his education, actions, and the consequences.

### Observation Questions
1. What internal conflict did Moses experience due to his dual identity as both a Hebrew and an Egyptian? ([23:28])
2. How did Moses' actions in defending the Hebrew slave and later helping Jethro's daughters reflect his character traits? ([30:59])
3. What were the immediate consequences of Moses killing the Egyptian, and how did it affect his relationship with the Hebrews? ([39:40])
4. How did Moses' life change after fleeing to Midian, and what new roles did he take on there? ([32:15])

### Interpretation Questions
1. How does Moses' struggle with his identity and belonging resonate with the complexities of our own identities and backgrounds? ([23:28])
2. In what ways did Moses' impulsive actions demonstrate a lack of reliance on God's guidance, and what were the consequences? ([44:15])
3. How did Moses' time in Midian prepare him for his future role as a leader, and what qualities did he develop during this period? ([32:15])
4. How does the concept of self-reliance versus divine guidance play out in Moses' early life, and what lessons can we learn from his experiences? ([45:52])

### Application Questions
1. Reflect on a time when you faced an internal conflict similar to Moses' struggle with his identity. How did you navigate it, and what did you learn from the experience? ([23:28])
2. Have you ever taken matters into your own hands without seeking God's guidance? What were the outcomes, and how might you approach similar situations differently in the future? ([44:15])
3. Moses' actions in Midian showed leadership rooted in service and compassion. How can you demonstrate these qualities in your own leadership roles, whether in your family, workplace, or community? ([32:15])
4. In what areas of your life do you struggle with self-reliance? How can you cultivate a greater dependence on God's timing and wisdom? ([45:52])
5. Moses' journey from prince to prophet involved significant transformation and redemption. Reflect on a time when you experienced a transformative period in your life. How did God use that experience for a greater purpose? ([47:43])
6. How can you ensure that your actions align with God's will, especially when faced with decisions that require immediate action? ([44:15])
7. Identify one area in your life where you need to surrender control to God. What steps can you take this week to begin that process of surrender? ([52:15])

Day 1: Navigating Identity and Belonging
Moses' life illustrates the profound struggle with dual identity—being raised in Egyptian royalty while belonging to the Hebrews. This internal conflict shaped his actions and decisions, reflecting the broader theme that our backgrounds influence but do not confine our spiritual journey. Moses' experience teaches us that understanding and integrating the various aspects of our identity is crucial in fulfilling God's plan for our lives. This integration is not about choosing one identity over another but about harmonizing our diverse experiences to serve a higher purpose. [41:08]

Exodus 2:11-12 (ESV): "One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand."

Reflection: How does your cultural or familial background influence your spiritual life, and how can you integrate these aspects to better serve God's purpose?

Day 2: The Impact of Impulsive Actions
Moses' impulsive decision to kill the Egyptian was a misguided attempt to deliver justice, highlighting the importance of seeking divine guidance in our actions. This incident teaches us that while our intentions may be just, acting without God's guidance can lead to unintended consequences that deviate from His plans. It's a powerful reminder that patience and seeking divine timing are crucial, especially when faced with injustice or difficult decisions. [42:38]

Proverbs 19:2 (ESV): "Desire without knowledge is not good, and whoever makes haste with his feet misses his way."

Reflection: Recall a time when you acted impulsively in a challenging situation. How might the outcome have been different if you had sought God's guidance first?

Day 3: True Leadership is Service-Oriented
Moses' actions in Midian, where he helped Jethro's daughters, demonstrate that true leadership is rooted in service and compassion. This episode foreshadows his later role as a leader who serves and protects his people. As followers of Christ, we are called to lead through service, putting the needs of others before our own and showing compassion in every action. This form of leadership not only aligns with Christ's teachings but also builds stronger, more empathetic communities. [44:15]

Matthew 20:26-28 (ESV): "But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

Reflection: In what ways can you demonstrate servant leadership in your current roles at home, work, or in the community?

Day 4: Recognizing the Perils of Self-Reliance
Moses' early life underscores the dangers of self-reliance. By taking matters into his own hands, he alienated himself from his people and had to flee to Midian. This serves as a cautionary tale about the perils of self-idolatry and the importance of relying on God rather than our own understanding or abilities. It reminds us that true strength and wisdom come from God, and leaning on Him leads to better outcomes and fulfillment of His plans. [45:52]

Jeremiah 9:23-24 (ESV): "Thus says the Lord: 'Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth.'"

Reflection: Identify an area in your life where you rely too much on your own strength or understanding. How can you begin to shift that reliance towards God?

Day 5: Embracing Transformation Through Redemption
Moses' journey from a prince to a shepherd to a leader of his people exemplifies God's power to redeem and transform. No matter our past mistakes or the roles we've played, God can use our experiences for a greater purpose. This encourages us to remain open to God's transforming power in our lives, trusting that He can turn even our missteps into opportunities for growth and deeper service. [47:43]

Isaiah 43:18-19 (ESV): "Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert."

Reflection: What past mistake or role have you struggled to overcome? How can you allow God to use that experience for a greater purpose in your life?

You will welcome again, everyone. We're so glad you're here with us today. We're excited to continue our series that we're in, in the book of Exodus. Welcome, Smyrna Campus. We love you guys. Glad that you're connected there. Everyone that's connecting with us online, we're so happy to have that connection with you as well. Glad you're joining us there today.

It seems there were these four pastors that would meet together regularly and discuss deep theological questions that they had and try to come up with decisions about what was right. It never failed; it always seemed to come down to three against one on what they thought was right. The one pastor, the odd guy out, he was just getting frustrated with it. One day in their discussion, he was just certain he was right, but the other three voted three against one that he wasn't right. He was so frustrated he decided to call on a higher power, right? He prayed to God, "God, please, I know in my heart I'm right. Please give me a sign to show these other pastors that I am the one that's right."

About that time, it was a beautiful sunny day, and a dark cloud came right over the top of them. It rumbled, and then it dissolved and went away. The pastor said, "You see, I'm right." The other three said, "No, that kind of thing happens all the time on a hot sunny day. That doesn't mean anything." So he prayed again, "Dear God, I need a bigger sign, something more convincing that lets these people know I'm right and they're wrong."

About that time, four different clouds all came out of the sky right over the top of them, and it just rumbled and boomed. A flash of lightning struck a tree, and it caught it on fire. The guy looked at him and said, "See, I'm right." They said, "No, that's just a natural phenomenon." He prayed, "I just gotta ask for an even greater sign." He had that in his mind, and he started praying, "Dear God," and as soon as he did that, the sky turned pitch-black dark, and there was a rumbling of the earth like an earthquake. A deep booming voice said, "He's right."

So he looked at the other three and said, "So?" They said, "Nah, that just makes it three to two." You see, with all of our ingenuity and advancements, we sometimes make the mistake of beginning to think we're smarter than God, that we know better than He knows. In this series that we're going through, you're going to see some examples of how people, individuals throughout this time of history—and you could pick any time in history and you would see the same thing—started thinking that they should be the ones making the decisions about what ought to be done and how it ought to be done instead of allowing God to reign and to rule in their hearts.

In today's message, we're going to be seeing this in the life of Moses. Now, part of the problem I see in society that I want us to really think about as we go through—we're going to be in Exodus chapter 2, the last half of that chapter, beginning in verse 11 if you want to be opening up there and getting ready. What I see happening in our society is not new, but it's been accelerated. There's great ingenuity; there always has been. People are creative, and they're coming up with new things and new ideas all the time. We seem to be sometimes making great advancements in different fields of science and medicine and technology.

Because we seem to be advancing so much in our ingenuity, I think it begins to numb us to the fact that our souls are still very empty down deep inside. We think the next thing is going to be the thing, the next thing is going to be the best thing, it's going to be the thing that makes us feel better, that takes away the struggle we feel deep within us. Then we get to the next thing and the next thing, and it seems to be a great advancement, and sometimes it is, but it doesn't quiet the humming in the deeper parts of our soul that's telling us something's just not right.

Even with all of this ingenuity, even with all of this creativity, even with all of these advancements and accomplishments, it doesn't change the fact that something deep in us is just not right. I think the most clear place to see this is with these things, right? Cell phones—a great advancement, right? A great achievement to come up with. It wasn't just cell phones; it was cell phones to start with, then they became smartphones, right? Where we could do so much more just on our phones than we could ever do before.

Now, I want you to understand I'm not anti-phone because I've got one and I use it, and we're not anti-technology here at Lakeshore. I think that's pretty obvious. Not only do we have our cell phones, but I'm preaching from a laptop. You just saw a bumper video; we live stream our services. We're not anti-technology at all. The problem is we sometimes in our minds and our hearts start thinking that all of that will satisfy us, all of that will be enough.

With our cell phones and our laptops and computers, we can get to information so quickly and so easily. We can find out almost anything we want to find out in just an instant. We can, in a moment, and it makes us feel pretty advanced, pretty superior to the generations before us. Sometimes that can cause an ego trip to happen with us. We're smarter than any previous generation; we're more advanced than any previous generation. Sometimes for some people that translates into, "Well, I could see where they may be turned to God and had to rely on God, but we don't need God so much anymore. We're so advanced; we're just so technologically educated, and we know how to use these things so well that we can get what we want whenever we want it. We can find out what we want to find out whenever we need to."

In every study done—and there have been several now that have been done, extensive studies about the cell phone and then like the apps that we get to have connectivity, right? And we can find out what we want to find out whenever we need to, right through the internet and our cell phones, like Facebook and Instagram and Snapchat and all the different TikTok, all the different ones that are out there that are supposed to help people connect, right? People are connecting with each other; they're more able to connect to people all over the world just like that. Right now, there are people in another country that are watching us live. Isn't it amazing?

So, with all of that advancement in our technology and our creativity that's brought us there, here's what the studies are showing: people are more anxious now than they've ever been, more nervous than they've ever been, more depressed than they've ever been, and we feel more lonely than we've ever felt as a whole, as a society. With all of this advancement, you see, there's something deep within us that these things cannot speak to and answer for us. There's something down inside of us that we can't speak to and answer for us, and the way we're made and created, I believe, is the fact that we're created by God in the image of God for relationship with God.

No other connectivity, no other advancement, no other technology can replace that thing we were made for from the very beginning, and we're leaving out the main thing, the one thing that we need more than anything else because we think we're so advanced we don't need that. It numbs us to the fact that it's not working. You see, because the advancements keep happening so quickly, right? The next update is going to come out soon; you've got another update coming behind that. There's just so many things happening. We are so busy trying to keep up with all of that that we don't even realize how empty we are sometimes.

We don't get still long enough; we don't get quiet long enough to feel it in here. But in those moments of crisis and challenge where we are forced to stop and deal with it, we're not going to be able to deal with hard things. That's when it comes out that there's something major missing. Even with all the stuff we've got going on in our lives, all this progress has done nothing to change the human condition, and it's the human condition that wrecks all of our progress that keeps it from being the good thing that it ought to be.

That's what happens. Ingenuity moves on, but the human soul is stuck, and it's broken. Ingenuity is a good thing, but it's not the thing. It numbs us from seeing something's not right. For all of our creativity, for all of our willpower, mankind will not be able to solve the problem of mankind. You know why? Because mankind is the problem. That's why we can't solve the problem. We are the problem. We've all sinned; we all come short of the glory of God. We all have cracks and flaws and failures that all the technology in the world can't fix, can't undo, cannot make okay, and cannot heal the brokenness within us.

I'm not anti-technology; I love it. We can use it for so many good things if we choose to, but it won't fix the problems of mankind. It does not have that ability, that power to do the thing we need done the most in our lives. So I want to show you in our text how gifted this character is that we introduce here in the book of Exodus. We talked about him last week with his birth. We're looking at the life of Moses, right? Let's look here beginning in chapter 2 and verse 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. He said to him, "I'm going to kill you." Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hit him in the sand. 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?" 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."

When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well. Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father's flock. Some shepherds came along and drove them away, but Moses got up and came to their rescue and watered the flock. When the girls returned to Reuel, their father, he asked, "Why have you returned so early today?" They answered, "An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock."

Those who can come from our way, and we've come far. We always find some people in this land. We should have gone to feed them, so why don't we visit the rest of us in the shepherds? It's better to go back and make our streets a little bit healthier than we used to and visit most of our population.

I was a minor once, and I was pretty should paid. I'm not sorry I was supposed to be a minor type Kerrigan. I was just would have done that. That was what Ezekiel said in 1 Kol times. In that culture, that could happen. That was not the way it's worded here in the Hebrew; it just means as he was staying there, he ended up marrying this man who gave his daughter to him to marry. We don't know how much time for sure has passed in that process.

Well, I want to highlight some things about Moses from this encounter that we read about, these encounters we read about in this second half of chapter two. Some good things about Moses, some great attributes that we see in Moses, but I want us to also see how all of those things put together are not enough because of something else Moses was struggling with.

Let's look at the first thing I see in Moses here from these scriptures and other scriptures, and that's this: Moses, I've used the adjective, was mighty. Okay? He was mighty. When you have time later—don't do it right now because I want you to listen to me right now, okay? All right, but later on today or during the week, I want you to go read a passage in the New Testament, a section of the New Testament found in Acts chapter 7.

In Acts chapter 7, Stephen, who is a believer and a follower of Jesus Christ, is preaching and teaching about Jesus and calling people to follow Jesus. He is arrested, and he's having to speak before the authorities about why he's preaching what he's preaching and what it's all about. You can go back and read that whole chapter because in that chapter, a lot of what Stephen talks about is this very time period in history that we're looking at in Exodus chapter 2. He talks about Moses and all that was going on in his life and how God was using him.

Here's what he says in Acts 7:22: "Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action." He was mighty; he was powerful; he was persuasive. Now, he early on makes the excuse that he's not a good speaker, but God said, "Who made the tongue?" Right? Who gave people the ability to speak? We're going to look at that a little later on here in our series, but what we need to know is this: because of God preparing him for the job He had for him, for the calling He had on his life, He gave him the ability, along with his brother Aaron, to come alongside him to be able to have great influence for God. So he was mighty; he was powerful.

We also see in this text in particular that Moses is courageous in the way we think of courage a lot of times. He was a very courageous man. One of the things we know—and this is something that Stephen spoke to in Acts 7—is that Moses had been raised after he was nursed by his mother. At a certain age, they took him, right, and gave him to Pharaoh's daughter. And where was he raised then? In the palace there, right? With all of the benefits of being raised like a son of Pharaoh's daughter, which means he got the best education known in the world at that time.

We know that from our study of ancient history. We know that Moses was raised like a son of Pharaoh's daughter, which means he got the best education known in the world at that time. We know that from our study of ancient history, especially of Egypt and that culture in that day and time, that the Egyptians had a way of educating very early on in the lives of the people they thought would be the ruling elite class. They educated them in a certain way. It was to shape their thinking into believing they are elite; they are superior to others. They were especially superior to the non-elite, which meant the workers, the average blue-collar workers, right? The ruling class was elevated way above the working class in that culture.

And it was more than that. Because now the Hebrews had been enslaved by the Egyptians, they saw the Hebrew slaves as subhuman compared to the ruling class of Egypt. And so Moses is raised in a culture that's telling him—and I'm sure he's heard the story from Pharaoh's daughter of how she found him. I'm sure he's heard the story of the fact that he is a Hebrew child, yet he's being raised and taught that those Hebrew slaves are even humans on the same level as the family he's being raised with there in Egypt.

I mean, these are his own people that they're talking about. This is his own family, his own heritage, his own background that they're saying is subhuman. It's okay to treat them badly because they're not on our level as human beings. It's okay to enslave them, to beat them, to oppress them because they're not like us. They're not on our level. I've talked about it. If you could go back to early times, probably these few messages, how that tactic has been used throughout the ages to enslave or oppress other people in different times in the history of the world. It's happened over and over again.

And here we have Moses being educated in all of the wisdom of Egypt. He's sitting under this teaching day after day. This empire has tried to shape him as an elite by teaching him that his people are subhuman. And certainly, you know that he not only was taught that; he saw that lived out in front of him all the time. He saw his own people being oppressed. He saw them having to work as slaves, doing the hardest of jobs, the worst of jobs, having the least of the blessings and the wealth of the nation of Egypt. They didn't have any of that for them. He's seen it in front of his own eyes how this plays out for his own people, yet he's being raised to think that that's okay, that it's justified, that it's the right thing to do, that it's even good that they're doing that.

So this has been backed up with all kinds of acts of oppression and violence his whole life. So he grew up not just hearing the teaching, the rhetoric, but seeing it lived out. With that said, how are we considering Moses to be courageous? Well, when he saw one of his own people being beaten by an Egyptian, he had the courage to go against everything he had been taught, to go against everything he had had demonstrated for him and how life is supposed to work and how it was okay to oppress that group of people because they are a subhuman group of people. He had the courage to do that. He had the courage to do that. He had the courage to do that. He had the courage to say, "That's not right, and I'm going to do something about it."

Hold on to that for a minute. It doesn't mean he did the right thing, but he had the courage to try to do something about this. You see, Moses knew that if he did what he was thinking of doing—I know he probably reacted quickly; he didn't have a long time to think, right? He's acting in the heat of the moment to respond to what's going on there—but he had to know deep down that if he did this thing, and especially if it got out, if Pharaoh heard about it, it would be an embarrassment to Pharaoh and to his household and to the fact that Moses was part of his household because of the daughter that had raised him there.

If that got out, it was going to be a shame on the house of Pharaoh for Moses to have done this. But he had the courage to stand up against all that to try to do something for his own people. So yeah, I think Moses was courageous. Later on, the New Testament in Hebrews 11 speaks of Moses this way in verses 24 and 25: "By faith, Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin." He made a choice. He had to be pretty courageous to make the choice that he made.

Well, I think we see another attribute of Moses that's a good one, and that is Moses seems to be a compassionate person. Even though this doesn't seem like a compassionate act, I think there was some compassion at the root of what he's doing—not just in this occasion but in several. So he's filled with, he's powerful in speech and action, and he's filled with courage, but I think he's also a person who has compassion. When he saw injustice happening, his compassion kicked in. He didn't like for people to be treated unfairly. He didn't like for people to be wrongly accused or mistreated. For some reason, when he saw someone being treated like that, his heart went out to that person who was being treated like that.

Look back in Exodus 2. Remember verse 11? It says he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He's already seen them at their hard labor, and then he sees this Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. When he saw one of his own being treated that way, his heart went out to that person for that injustice that was happening there. But it didn't stop there. Look at verse 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?" So this is just between two of his own people, and yet he knows one of them has treated the other one wrong. That one of them is in the wrong, so he's trying to, in his compassion, get him to see that what he's doing to the other person shows an element of compassion in Moses' thinking, Moses' life.

And it didn't stop there. Go on to verse 17. Remember, some shepherds came along where these daughters, seven daughters, were out there trying to take care of their father's flock. Some shepherds came along and drove them away, but Moses got up and came to their rescue and watered the flock. Doesn't it sound like he had compassion on these women out there who had no defense against these shepherds that were coming, keeping them from being able to take care of their father's flock like they were sent there to do?

So I think he's mighty; I think that he is someone who is courageous, and I think he's compassionate. But here's the thing: what I see happening in this text when you look at the complete text is something we need to consider. We need to consider the idea of taking matters into your own hands. He has all these good qualities, and sometimes when you're gifted or talented or have some good qualities or wonderful opportunities or some popularity or some success or some position of power, what you tend to think is, "It's me. It's me. And because it's me, I need to be the one in charge. I need to be the one making the decisions. I'm the one that's so gifted. I'm the one that's so talented. I'm the one that's had all this success. I'm the one who should make the decisions about what ought to happen, when it ought to happen, how it ought to happen."

And what we don't realize—because it's not usually in our thought process—that it's this: what that really is is idolatry. You see, Moses was mighty, and he was courageous, and he was compassionate, but Moses was also an idolater. Know the idol he was worshiping? Self. He decided he would take matters into his own hands. He wouldn't wait on God. He wouldn't allow God to direct. He wouldn't allow God to give him the guidance and instruction of how he wanted to use Moses for his purposes. He thought, "I'm knowledgeable enough; I'm wise enough; I'm powerful enough; I'm influential enough. I'll do this my way."

Now, you don't even have to think of yourself as greatly gifted to worship the idol itself. It can happen to people who are sometimes not even sure of themselves at all, but somehow we still come to the conclusion that even though God says this, we think we know better, and we're going to do it our way. That's idol worship. Someone has said it this way; I love this. You might want to write this down; this is good stuff. I can say this because it's a good thing.

You're going to live life in one of those two ways: you trust God or you're trying to be Him. Because as soon as you don't trust God, who are you trying to trust? Yourself. Who's trying to be God? Now you are. You're trying to be God. You're challenging yourself, trying to be God. And you don't always know clearly God's will in every particular moment or situation, right? None of us can. But when God has clearly spoken to something and we simply choose to do something else anyway, who's God in that situation? We are. And the scripture says you are to have no other gods before me. That's idol worship. You're putting yourself as God above the God when you decide that your way is the way you're going to choose, even though God says do it this way.

We don't ever want to think of ourselves as idol worship, but I want to break it down into four categories of making yourself an idol and how that plays out, and we see it in Moses. We're going to see it throughout this whole series, okay? With Moses and others that are the people of God. One area it comes out in is the area of comfort. What happens is it's because God's way would get us out of what we're comfortable with. What do we choose? Comfort over what God says.

But I'm comfortable doing it this way. Everything seems to be fine; everything's going all right. This is where I'm most comfortable. About this, Moses in this account ends up fleeing to Midian, and over the next couple of weeks, we're going to see the next steps in the process of God using Moses, calling Moses to be used for this great thing. But remember, I'm just going to give you a little preview here. I don't want to give it all to you because you won't listen next week, sorry. But God speaks to Moses and says, "I want you to go to Pharaoh. Go back to Egypt and go back to Egypt and go back to represent your people and go before Pharaoh on their behalf to get my people freed."

Now, at that point, we don't always know the time frame, all right? But the Bible gives us this time frame: 40 years have passed that he's been in Midian. Right now, we already know while he was there, he gets married, he has kids, he's got a career as a shepherd with his father-in-law's flocks. His life is pretty set. He lives out in the remote area, so he's out in the country. He's got some land; he's got a family, and it's peaceful and quiet out there. Do you think he might be kind of comfortable there? Yeah. And what's God going to call him to? Not only out of that comfort but into one of the most uncomfortable situations you could imagine: to go before Pharaoh and make demands.

You see, oftentimes we're not doing what God teaches us to do in scripture because we like our comfort more than we like God. That's why we don't talk to people about Jesus at work; that's uncomfortable. Or at school, that's why we don't sacrifice going to events to be in church with our church family because we're comfortable at those events. It's uncomfortable to have to get up and go to church. That's why we don't give sacrificially to support the work of the kingdom because it's more comfortable if we keep the money and do with it what we want to do with it. That's our comfort zone where we're the ones controlling that, not letting God have the control of that.

See, when you start choosing comfort over obedience, that's self-worship. That's idol worship of self. Well, that's one category we see that some in Moses' life, but we see it in others. We probably see it in ourselves sometimes, don't we? But there's another area—this is the one I think Moses was struggling with the most at this point in his life—that's control. You heard the phrase today, "That person's got control issues," right? We probably all have some control issues. I mean, don't we all like things a certain way? Don't we all get a little upset when somebody wants to change the way we like it?

Yeah, we like our way. We like to be—we think in control. Now, I just want to give you a little clue before I say the rest of this: you don't control anything, people; neither do I. We can't even control ourselves, much less anything else, right? So let's stop fantasizing that somehow we have control. We don't. But we like to think we do. We like to think we have control. I want to do things my way. God's way is too slow, or it's just not right for me, or He just has to understand my circumstances are different, and what He said to do is not the right thing. So I'm in control here. I'm going to choose to do it my way.

Oh, we need to be careful when we start thinking we're in control because God can show us very quickly we're not, can't He? All it takes is one phone call you didn't expect, one report from the doctor, one layoff at work, one house fire, one flood, one tornado. It doesn't take much to happen really quickly just to prove to us we're not really in control at all. When we start thinking we ought to have control, that is idol worship of self. When you're not willing to surrender control to God, and this is closely connected to the third one, and that's the third one—that's the power part of self-worship, idol worship is power.

You see, control is connected to this idea: I want to be in charge. I want to be looked up to. I want to have influence. I want to be respected and even feared. I just want people to think of me as that powerful one, that they have to come pleading to get help, right? I'm the one that is their answer. Sometimes it's on a large scale, like Pharaoh, like Moses. Sometimes it's on a small scale, like in your family and how you interact with your family and your friends, where you want to be the one that's the power mover of the group, and you don't want anyone else to have that power and that influence.

And yet the scripture tells us that the only all-powerful one is God, and that ultimately there is no power and there is no power and there is no power and there is no power and there is no power that is not under His power. So to think that we ought to be the ones who have the power is putting ourselves in the place that God is supposed to have in our lives. He is the all-powerful God, not us.

There's another one that I think is very prevalent, and we see it in Moses' life, but we see it in others too, maybe in ourselves too—that is approval of others. Doesn't that rule sometimes? Overrule things that you know you ought to do or not do because you so much want others to like you? I don't know anybody that doesn't like to be popular. They may act like it; you know, they think it's cool to act like they don't care about popularity, and you see them doing the things that they would think would make them popular, right?

See, I think deep down all of us kind of like popularity. We like for people to like us. That's not a bad thing; it's not evil to want people to like you as long as you're not letting that rule, right? Especially as long as you're not letting that overrule God and what God says about things. In fact, the scripture teaches us that the early Christians, they were doing such good works and good things in the community. People at first liked them very much. That's not a bad thing; it gave them the opportunity to talk to people about Jesus. It's a good thing.

But sometimes that desire, that need for approval, to want everybody to like us, to be popular, to be admired, causes us to make choices that we know are outside the will of God in our lives. I mean, this is the way the world is doing it. So if I want to fit in with that group at work, then I need to do that too. They're all being sexually active outside of marriage, so I need to, you know, if I'm going to be part of the group, I gotta do that. They're all going out drinking all the time, so if I'm going to fit in, I need to do that.

If I—you know, we make excuses that, and sometimes we even try to put a spiritual spin on it, right? Well, Jesus hung out with sinners. I love it when people try to use that against the church, right? Jesus hung out with sinners, so we should be doing that too. But He didn't hang out with sinners to do what they were doing; He hung out with sinners to transform their lives. There's a big difference in those two things, right?

So we don't need to think that we can put a spiritual spin on this idea that if we can just fit in with them, we can bring them to Jesus. We're not going to bring them to anything if we're doing what they're doing, acting like they act, talking like they talk. What are we going to bring them to? We're already doing what they're doing. What are the worst mistakes the church has made in our day and age? It's becoming so much like the world; there's no distinctiveness anymore.

The world and the church—see, when we try to do that, what's really happening is idol worship. We so much want to be liked—even the church so much wants to be liked by the world that we will compromise the clear teachings of God's word to be liked by the world. And sometimes we don't have to be like the world. We don't have to be like the church. It's in little incremental steps, right? So you don't feel it right away; you don't see it right away. You don't see that you're gradually getting further away from God's word, God's will, God's intent for your life.

You know, you make one compromise on one thing, and everything seems to be fine. You don't have any negative consequences; everything seems to be still okay in your life. You can still go to church and do that; you can still attend life group and do that; you can still play on the praise team and do that; you can still preach and do that. You can just little incremental steps of compromise of letting yourself become a little more like the world than the word teaches that we need to be.

But you know what the scripture clearly teaches for the church, for Christ followers, is that we are to be called out of the world and into His marvelous light. It doesn't happen all at once; it's a process. It's an ongoing process where we're constantly being called out of the world and into Christ and in His teaching and His example. The goal is not to become like the world; the goal is to become like Jesus.

Because Jesus says, "If I'm lifted up, I will draw all people to me." He's the one that's going to do the drawing. Let's just become like Jesus and let Jesus draw people to Jesus. We don't have to compromise anything for Jesus to do what Jesus said He's going to do, right? We don't have to become like the world to win the world to Jesus. In fact, what the church is finding out finally, I hope, in America is that the more we've become like the world, the weaker the church has become in America, the less effective the church has become in America, the less able to change lives of the people in America we have become as we've become more like the world.

See, the world is supposed to see a distinctly set-apart people in the church, not people who look just like them. We've been so busy trying to convince the world that we don't think we're perfect and we don't think we do everything right. We don't think we don't ever—we've been so intent on making the world comfortable with us that they're not comfortable with Jesus because we're nothing like Jesus anymore.

We're letting ourselves rule our lives, not Jesus. And yes, it's hard, and yes, it requires sacrifice, but that's exactly what Jesus was willing to do for us, right? He was willing to do the hard things; He was willing to make the sacrifices that needed to be made for us. He's calling on us to do that. You see, in Moses' life, he thought, "Well, this Egyptian's beating one of my people. I need to rise up and do something for them. I need to do something for them. I need to do something about it."

He didn't talk to God; he didn't pray to God; he didn't ask God how this was going to be worked out and what God's plan was. He just jumped in there and did what he wanted to do. He was wanting to be in control and have the power. He even wanted the approval of his people. He actually thought, "If my people see me do this, they will think I'm their champion; they will think I'm their hero." But then he goes to two Hebrews arguing, and he finds out that's not what they think of him at all.

He says, "Why are you being unfair to your Hebrew brother?" And he says, "Who made you judge or ruler over us?" Right? They don't look to him as a hero now because of what he did. He didn't do it God's way; he did it his way. But he wanted to be popular with his own people; he wanted to be seen as powerful and influential for them, and instead, he had to run for his life because he did it his way instead of God's way.

In Moses' life, all through this process of God calling him, what he's had to learn to do is forget any plans that he had for his own life. Even now, as a sheep herder in Midian, he had to just decide that's not what God wants for me. I have to surrender to what He's calling me to. It didn't come easy for him, and it won't come easy for you or for me either to give up that role, that position of power of ruling over God because we think we know better.

My life verse—I was talking to someone before the service; they were talking about Romans 12 and Romans 12:1 and 2. It's my life verse, those two verses. In Romans 12:1, I want to close with this. This is such a powerful verse because it's the crux of what we're talking about here when it comes to the idol worshiping of self.

Okay, here's what it says: "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters—what's the therefore? He tells us right here in view of God's mercy." All right? Therefore, what's it therefore? Therefore, in view of God's mercy, here's what you need to do. That's what he's leading into, okay? And he's already been talking about God's mercy, God's care, God's provision, the sacrifice that we made for you. He's talking about all of that.

"Therefore, in view of God's mercy, I urge you, brothers and sisters, to offer your bodies to God." In view of God's mercy, "offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God." This, he says, is your true and proper worship.

Well, I thought worship was singing, playing music. I thought that was worship. It's part of worship because that's part of our lives. I thought it was a service on Sundays. We're going to the worship at the church, right? We're going to worship services. That's part of worship. It's an element of it. It's part of your life. But he says offering your body, your whole selves, sacrificially to God is really your worship, which would include not forsaking the assembly. It would include singing praises. It would include, yeah, tithing. It would include handling not just the tithe but managing the rest the way God wants you to manage it, right?

It would include relationships. How's your dating life if you're single right now? If you're married, you shouldn't be dating anybody, all right? Except your spouse. You need to keep dating your spouse. My wife and I go on dates all the time. I love it. I don't date anybody else, though, right? But how's your dating life if you're single? Are you doing it God's way or your way? The world's way? How are you spending your money? How are you acting at work? How are you as an employee or an employer? Is it an act of worship that you're doing?

Sacrifice? How are you doing sacrifice? How are you doing sacrifice? How are you doing sacrifice? How are you sacrificially for God the way you're doing it? He says the sacrifice needs to be holy and pleasing to who? You talk about popularity, wanting people to like you. Who's the most important person you ought to be pleasing in your life?

See, that's what worship is. Moses is going to have to learn that his whole life is going to have to be surrendered for God to use him for this important call that he had on Moses' life. He's going to battle with that all the way through. You know what? We are too. We're going to battle with that. We're going to go back and forth where sometimes we're doing this really well. Sometimes—I've said it before. You can write this down too. It's not original with me either, but it's really good. The problem with living sacrifice is we keep crawling off the altar, right?

We get up on there for a little while when it feels good. We were thinking, "All right, this is great. I'm going to sacrifice for God. I'm going to live for Him." But then there's something we want to do that's outside of that, so we crawl off the altar for a little while and go do that thing that we want to do that is outside the will of God. Then we get back up on the altar again. True worship is the offering of your bodies as living sacrifices, holy, which means set apart for Him.

You see, that again is telling us that the true worshipers of God are going to be distinctly different than those who don't worship. We are holy, set apart, distinct people. Now, the only way we can do that, friends, is to get ourselves off the throne of our lives and the throne of our hearts and put God back where He belongs. And we surrender to Him under that authority as giving ourselves to Him as a sacrifice, a living sacrifice for Him.

You remember when Peter is being told by Jesus in the upper room right before he's arrested and all that? He says, "Peter, before the night's over, you're going to deny me three times." You know what Peter said? "Not me, Lord." He said, "I would even die for you." That sounds good, doesn't it? That sounds impressive. "I'll die for you, Jesus." But what Jesus is asking for is not, "Peter, would you die for me?" In that moment, "Will you live for me?" In that moment, that's the question—not will you die for Him, but will you live for Him?

Let's pray. Father, we thank You. We thank You that we can see in the life of Moses this battle that's common to the human race. It's common to us, this battle for authority, this battle for supremacy, this battle for who's going to be in charge, who's going to be in control in our own lives. Father, we confess to You that we've not always let You have that place. We've not always let You rule and reign as You should.

So we thank You for Your grace, and we ask for Your forgiveness. We thank You that the blood of Jesus can wash us clean and make us new. We thank You that Your mercies are new every morning, even this morning for all of us. But Father, we've just had this clear example in teaching in Your word again today that's repeated all through Scripture that what You're calling us to is surrender, to give ourselves as a living sacrifice to You.

And maybe those today are ready to take that step. Father, You know their hearts. I pray that You would prompt them through Your Spirit to take those steps today of surrender to You, allowing You to become the one who reigns and rules in their hearts. May they come professing faith in You, repenting of sin. May they submit themselves and surrender to being baptized in the Christ, to rising up to a new life with Him where You rule and reign. Because, Father, we know where You rule, where You reign, where Your will is done, it's a good, pleasing, perfect will for our lives.

As we talk to You just as a speaker, help us to take this in our hearts. To those of us who already know Jesus, help us to quit crawling off that altar, to put ourselves and be living altars of sacrifice, to stay there under Your reign and Your rule in our lives because that's where the blessing is of living for You. The abundant life that You've called us to is found there in the sacrifice, the living sacrifice of our lives for You. That's where the joy is; that's where the blessing is. I pray we would make that step of surrender even again today.

In Jesus' name, amen. Today we're going to offer you a time to make a decision, and we're going to have our praise team lead us, and we want you, as we're having this time of invitation, to come right up front while we're standing and singing, and we'll lead you in those next steps.

Somebody have a seat, please. You guys come on up here. Keep thinking we're tall people, though. Yeah, see, we can relate. We can relate. That's right. Got this song. Yeah. Just tell the church, and she wants to apologize. Oh, yeah. And she'll want me to check on her, I know. She's not calling you. That's right. That's right. She wants to be sure I know that she's here or not here. But that's a good thing because she so much wants to be connected to the body here, and she thinks of this as her family. So we're thankful for that.

Let's pray together. Father, we just want to lift up this situation. You know the details. You know the struggle that she's going through. You know the surgery that's happened and the healing that needs to take place from the surgery. Father, we just come to You in faith, knowing that You are at work through all of this. Help them to sense more than ever Your presence and Your power and Your provision through this as You take care of all the needs there. And they're able to be back with us together in the fellowship as soon as possible. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

Amen. Thank you. Thank you. Before Walter comes to lead us in a time of communion around the Lord's table, another prayer item that a lot of you already heard about, but we wanted to share with you. Ollie Cole and Fran Cole have been long-term members here. And Ollie is actually our oldest member right now here at Lakeshore. He recently went through a fall, broke his hip. He was at a care facility. His wife, Fran, also had a fall.

And I'm going to tell you how I feel about that—how God works. It's a sad thing, but it's a beautiful thing. They were in the same care facility together, in the same room. And the workers there recognized what they really wanted and put their beds right next to each other in the care facility there. And Ollie had always prayed that he could do this if Fran went first before him, or if he went first, she could do this for him—that he could be holding her hand when she passed.

And that's exactly what happened. They were laying in beds next to each other in that care facility. He was holding her hand as she passed on. So we want to be praying for Ollie and for Fran and Fran's family in this loss that they're feeling for all of their friends and family. Fran was well-loved and had blessed so many people here at Lakeshore, but not just here at Lakeshore. She's blessed people throughout the whole community.

And we just want to thank God for the blessing that she has been. There will be a memorial service later. Ollie can't do that right now as he's recovering from his fall and the healing that he needs to go through. But soon we'll be planning a memorial service to honor Fran and remember and honor Fran's life. So just keep them all in prayer with that if you would. Thank you.

Walter is going to come at this time and lead us in a time around the Lord's table. From sin, Father, we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. We want to thank you again for being here today. What a joy it is to have this assembly time together as the people of God. We're glad that you're here. If you'd like to continue worshiping through the giving of an offering, we have offering boxes available. There's one in the back of the auditorium on the post there; there's one in the hallway as you exit the auditorium. There's a slot in the top there; you can just drop your offerings in that top slot.

You can also give online at lakeshorechristian.com. Click on the gift tab there; it'll take you to that page. You can also scan the QR code on your bulletin shell; it will take you to that page as well. And of course, you can mail in your offerings to the church office. And either way that you do it, do it as an act of worship, as a way to honor God and support the work in the ministry of the church.

We're able to do the good work that God called us to do through the support of those who love the church and support the church. So thank you so much for your gifts there. We're going to have Jeremy come in and share some announcements with us. And before he begins that, there's one that's not in the bulletin I want to share with you just as a reminder. He'll talk about some upcoming youth events like camp and CLI conferences and all that.

There is a board out in the lobby there by the bookstore that has envelopes on it, and that's just a way for you to get in touch with the church and you to pick one of those and give that amount to help offset some of the cost of sending our young people to those conferences and camps like that. So if you'd like to take one of those, donate that money, and give it back to them to help out with that, you could do it that way. Of course, you can always just call the church office or email us if you're interested in supporting one of our kids going to one of those programs.

Sometimes we have family—we always, every year, have some families that don't have kids of their own that are going to be going, but they want to help some other kids go, so they donate the money to help cover the costs of other kids. So just let us know if you want to help out with that; we'd love for you to do that.

### Quotes for Outreach

1. "With all of our ingenuity and advancements, we sometimes make the mistake of beginning to think we're smarter than God, that we know better than He knows. In this series that we're going through, you're going to see some examples of how people, individuals throughout this time of history, and you could pick any time in history, started thinking that they should be the ones making the decisions about what ought to be done and how it ought to be done." [23:28](Make raw clip | Make vertical clip | Make vertical captioned clip)



2. "We can with our cell phones and our laptops and computers, we can get to information so quickly and so easily, we can find out almost anything we want to find out in just an instant. We're not anti-technology at all. The problem is we sometimes in our minds and our hearts start thinking that all of that will satisfy us, all of that will be enough." [24:56](Make raw clip | Make vertical clip | Make vertical captioned clip)



3. "It's not evil to want people to like you as long as you're not letting that rule, right, especially as long as you're not letting that overrule God and what God says about things. In fact, the scripture teaches us that the early Christians, they were doing such good works and good things in the community, people at first liked them very much." [55:38](Make raw clip | Make vertical clip | Make vertical captioned clip)



### Quotes for Members

1. "For all of our creativity, for all of our willpower, mankind will not be able to solve the problem of mankind. You know why? Because mankind is the problem. That's why we can't solve the problem. We are the problem. We've all sinned, we all come short of the glory of God." [29:16](Make raw clip | Make vertical clip | Make vertical captioned clip)



2. "Moses was mighty and he was courageous and he was compassionate, but Moses was also an idolater. Know the idol he was worshiping? Self. He decided he would take matters into his own hands, he wouldn't wait on God, he wouldn't allow God to direct, he wouldn't allow God to give him the guidance and instruction of how He wanted to use Moses for His purposes." [45:52](Make raw clip | Make vertical clip | Make vertical captioned clip)



3. "The problem with living sacrifices is we keep crawling off the altar, right? We get up on there for a little while when it feels good. We were thinking, alright, this is great. I'm going to sacrifice for God. I'm going to live for him. But then there's something we want to do that's outside of that. So we crawl off the altar for a little while and go do that thing." [01:06:21](Make raw clip | Make vertical clip | Make vertical captioned clip)



4. "True worship is the offering of your bodies as living sacrifices. Holy, which means set apart for Him. You see that again is telling us that the true worshipers of God are going to be distinctly different than those who don't worship. We are holy, set apart, distinct people." [01:08:03](Make raw clip | Make vertical clip | Make vertical captioned clip)



5. "We don't have to become like the world to win the world to Jesus. In fact, what the church is finding out, finally I hope in America, is that the more we've become like the world, the weaker the church has become in America, the less effective the church has become in America." [01:00:08](Make raw clip | Make vertical clip | Make vertical captioned clip)