Amen. Welcome, everyone. We're so happy that you're joining us today. Welcome to all those that are connecting with us online. We're so happy to have that connection with you today as well.
This is Memorial Day weekend, and Memorial Day is a special day set aside where we honor the memory of those who've given the ultimate sacrifice in service to our country. So we're so grateful to all the men and women who have made that sacrifice. And our hearts and prayers go out to all the families of those. We're so grateful to you that have lost loved ones in service. We know what a sacrifice it is, not only for those who gave their lives, but for those that are left behind when they do. So we certainly want to continue to lift them up in prayer.
I want to lead us in a time of prayer, but leading into it, I wanted to mention something too as a part of our prayer time today. This past week, there was a tragic incident here on our property that you may have seen on the news. But if you didn't, we want everybody to be aware of it. There was a shooting in the parking lot, and the police believe it was a drug deal gone bad. The young man that was shot ran behind our building and ended up dying behind our building there. An 18-year-old young man named Ricky Hale. We want to be praying for Ricky's family, for those that are experiencing that loss.
But it serves as a stark reminder of the danger of getting off track in your life into things that you should not be involved in, and how risky that is. I do want to reassure everyone that we take safety on our campus very seriously. Thankfully, the police were able to get video; we have cameras all over the property. We have video of the incident. The homicide detectives have been going through our video and getting the evidence they need to be able to solve this case. They believe this is a crime. They have a lot of information that will help them solve the case.
We have improved our lighting and our cameras and things like that. We'll continue to look at options on improving those things as technology advances, but we were able to provide good video for that. And we just want you to know that on Sunday mornings we have a safety team as well that serves each Sunday morning. So while you're in the building and coming in and out, we have people observing, watching, and they're ready to intervene if it's ever necessary for them to do so. So we're thankful for our safety team here. Yes, let's thank them for their service.
One of the homicide detectives shared with me, he's been on the force 20 years here in Nashville. He said, "Friend, I want you to understand something. This is all over Nashville right now. The drug problem is worse than they've ever seen it before. And it is violent now, more than it's ever been before. They're very quick to pull out weapons and shoot when things don't go well or as they wanted them to go."
So we want to be praying. Here's what we committed to when we moved into this facility. We committed to it where we were located before. Our leadership, our elder team, and our staff, we're committed to being light in the darkness. And we committed to charge toward the darkness instead of run away from it. And that's why we're here. We're here to stay. And we're going to keep lifting up the light of Jesus in this community. So let's thank our leadership team for that stand as well.
Way too many churches run from that, and that makes the areas just go downhill so badly when they do that. But we're going to continue to be the light in this place that God has called us to be. So I want us to pray for this family and all the people involved in that bad situation that happened. I want us to pray for our church to continue to be the light, as well as for Memorial Day weekend, praying for those who may have family members that they've lost in service to our country.
Let's pray together.
Father, we're grateful for Jesus. We're grateful for the comfort that can come only from you that is so great that we can comfort others with the comfort we ourselves have received. So we pray for comfort and strength for those who have lost loved ones on this Memorial Day weekend. For those who may have lost loved ones serving our country. For this family that lost an 18-year-old young man to needless violence.
Father, we pray. We pray for our community, for the city of Nashville, for communities all over our country and the world that are dealing with the ravages of drugs and other things associated with crime and the violence that seems to be so prevalent. Amen. We pray for churches like Lakeshore to stay strong and vigilant. That we can continue to lift up the light of Jesus because light shines out so magnificently in the midst of darkness. May we all individually and corporately together as a church continue to be that light. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Well, I'm glad you're with us today. As we continue, I know many people are traveling. We want to welcome you. If you're out of town, but you're connecting with us online, everybody connecting with us online there, that we can offer that. We're so happy for that.
We are continuing this series we started several weeks back now, going right through the book of Exodus. Today, we're going to be in Exodus chapter 4. I want you to turn there with me in your Bibles, if you would, or pull it up on your smartphone or tablet. If you don't have that, we've got to put the verses up on the screen as well for you to follow along with because I'm going to begin reading through Exodus chapter 4 and then we'll go back and look at some teachings that we can gather from this fourth chapter of Exodus.
There was a church choir practicing in the sanctuary of their church when an old man came through the auditorium, bent over, walking with a cane, barely, he looked like barely able to move, just shuffling his feet. He came through the auditorium and went into the pastor's office just off to the side of the auditorium there. Well, they continued their practice. It was about 10 minutes later, the guy came out walking straight up, still had his cane, but he was walking straight up, walking so much better, and the choir director said, "Oh, praise God, the pastor must have prayed over you."
He said, "Well, he did pray over me, but the thing that helped the most was he gave me a cane that wasn't six inches too short."
What we're going to be looking at today in Exodus 4 is how God does His part, absolutely, but He expects us to do our part too. There is a combination of those two things. It is the faith and the obedience, working together, that accomplishes the great things of God. And we see that clearly here in Exodus 4.
Now, just in context, if you missed the last couple of messages, you could go back to our YouTube channel and catch those. But what we're at now in the story of the Exodus is Moses, remember last week, is in Midian and God speaks to him out of the burning bush, and He tells Moses that He's the one He's going to use to send back. God is going to go back to Egypt to talk to His people and say God brought Him there to deliver them and then to go before Pharaoh on their behalf. So that's just kind of the context of where we pick up here in chapter 4.
Moses answered, speaking to God, "What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, 'The Lord did not appear to you?'" Then the Lord said to him, "What's that in your hand?" "A staff," he replied. Now why would he happen to have a staff? Remember what he was doing, what his job was there in Midian? He was watching the flocks, watching the herds of his father-in-law, Jethro. So they would carry a staff as they went out with the flocks into the countryside there. It was for protection against the animals that might attack and things like that. So he had the staff with him.
Verse 3, the Lord said, "Throw it on the ground." Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake and he ran from it. Now of all the things about Moses we read about, this is the one I relate to the most. I do not like snakes. I don't care if you tell me it's a friendly snake, it's a good snake, it helps things. I don't like snakes. If I see a snake, I'm not going to hang around to check out what kind of snake it is. That's just not me. I can relate to Moses here on that. So he ran from it.
The Lord said to him, "Reach out your hand and take it by the tail." God's asked me to do a lot of hard work. One of the hard things in my life, that would be one of the hardest. Reach down and pick up this snake that he just, the staff became. But Moses, you know, he does it. He says he reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. I would have been sweating and praying that whole time.
This said the Lord is so that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has appeared to you. Then the Lord said, "Put your hand inside your cloak." So Moses put his hand into his cloak. When he took it out, the skin was leprous. It had become as white as snow. Now you have to remember leprosy in that time. The word used here is for skin disease like leprosy. There was no cure for it. It was a pronouncement of death when you got leprosy. And even worse than that, you had to be separated from everybody else, all your friends and family because it was so contagious, so easy to spread. So it was a terrible disease in that time.
All right. When he took his hand back out of his cloak, it was leprous. It was just covered white with leprosy there, okay? So it says in verse 7, "Now put it back into your cloak," he said. So Moses put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored like the rest of his flesh. Then the Lord said, "If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first sign, they may believe the second. But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground."
So he's given them three things he can do here. If the people are doubting that God appeared to him and God sent him there to do what he's supposed to do, He said, "You do these three things to convince them that God really has spoken to you."
Moses, verse 10, said to the Lord, "Pardon your servant, Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past, nor since you've spoken to your servant. I'm slow. I'm slow of speech and tongue." Moses is trying to find a way out. That's exactly what he's doing. He does not want to go back to Egypt. He does not want to go back and try to do this thing that God is calling him to do. And so he thinks, well, here's my out. Even with all that staff and the hand and the cloak, even with all that, I'm still slow of speech.
And I love the way Moses says it. I was slow of speech before you appeared to me, God. And nothing has changed, even after you appeared to me. I'm still not going to be an eloquent speaker, God. I love this. Look at verse 11, though. God has a way of taking away excuses. Verse 11, the Lord said to him, "Who gave human beings their mouths? Good place to start when you're making that excuse. Who made that mouth that you're talking about? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight? Who makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go, I will help you speak and will teach you what to say."
But Moses said, "Pardon your servant, Lord." He's trying to be polite. "Please send someone else." Now at that point, look at verse 14. The Lord's anger burned against Moses. When we keep making excuses as if it's okay with God, God gets angry with us. He doesn't want to hear more of our excuses when He has clearly called us to be obedient to certain things He's calling us to do. Excuses don't cut it with God, okay?
So the Lord's anger burned against Moses and he said, "What about your brother Aaron, the Levite? I know he can speak well. He's already on his way to meet you and he will be glad to see you. You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth. I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. He will speak to the people for you. And it will be as if it were your mouth, as if you were God to him. But take this staff in your hands so you can perform the signs with it."
Moses went back to Jethro, his father-in-law, and said to him, "Let me return to my own people in Egypt to see if any of them are still alive." Jethro said, "Go, and I wish you well." Now the Lord said to Moses in Midian, "Go back to Egypt for all those who wanted to kill you are dead." Now if you weren't here for the first part of the series, you know that Moses had murdered an Egyptian. And they were out to find him, to punish him for the murder. Now God's reassuring him, those that were seeking you to punish you, they're all gone now. It's safe to go back in those circumstances, okay?
So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. He took the staff of God in his hand. The Lord said to Moses, "When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I've given you the power to do, but I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. Then say to Pharaoh, 'This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you, let my son go so he may worship me, but you refuse to let him go, so I will kill your firstborn son.'"
So already God's revealing more of His plan of how He's going to convince Pharaoh to let the people go. Verse 24, "In a lodging place on the way, the Lord met Moses and was about to kill him." Now that's a confusing verse in this account. In fact, it's a very confusing verse. In the original Hebrew, it's a very hard verse to translate. You may have some footnotes there at that verse because it's not clear that if he was speaking directly to Moses or one of the other family members or somebody there, but it's possible that Moses is still dragging his feet and not wanting to go on and do what God wanted him to do. And now Moses is facing the wrath of God.
But it says in verse 25, "Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son's foreskin and touched Moses' feet with it. 'Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me,' she said, so the Lord let him alone." At that time, she said, "Bridegroom of blood," referring to circumcision. Now remember that because down the road, circumcision plays a big part in identifying the set-apart people of God. So that's already beginning to take place here.
The Lord said to Aaron, "Go into the wilderness to meet Moses." So he met Moses at the mountain of God and kissed him. Then Moses told Aaron everything the Lord had sent him to say and also about all the signs he commanded him to perform. Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelites. Aaron told them everything the Lord had said to Moses. He also performed the signs before the people and they believed. When they heard that the Lord was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.
So already Moses is doing what God told him to do finally, even though he had to have Aaron along with him to do it. He's finally being obedient. And now the people are believing. They're believing the signs that God sent him there to do to convince them that God sent him to deliver them.
Now there's some great lessons for us to learn here. And I wanted to read through the whole thing so you see the whole picture here of what's going on in chapter 4. But now I want to go back and look at these particular lessons we can learn from how God is interacting with Moses and Moses is responding to God and what God has called him to do.
The first thing is a principle that I want you to remember always. God's Word almost always precedes God's power. God's Word almost always precedes God's power. In other words, what the Lord does is He gives His Word before He reveals His power. Now there's a reason it's in that order. It's so that we can learn to trust His Word. So that we can learn that if God says it, what's going to happen? It's going to happen. He's going to do it.
He's wanting Moses to learn to make that connection because Moses has got a long process he's going through here when he gets back to Egypt. It's going to take a long time. It's going to take a lot of obedience. It's going to take a lot of trusting God through all that God's going to do there. And he's wanting Moses to learn this lesson that all of us need to learn about who God is.
As we step into that obedience based on what He's telling us to do, that's when His power is revealed. And that's what you're going to learn. That's what you're seeing here. God reveals Himself and His plan and His power through His Word. People are always saying, "I just wish I had a stronger faith, a greater faith." Faith comes by hearing. The teaching's about God. The teaching's about Jesus. That's how your faith gets stronger.
The more time in the Word, the more you learn it and take it into your heart and mind, and the more you start practicing what the Word says to do, that's how your faith gets stronger. It doesn't go the other way. We want to do it the opposite. We just want to wake up one morning with great faith without spending time in the Word or obeying what God has already said. It doesn't work that way. You have to start by listening to what God says and doing what God says. And then you start seeing that God's Word is dependable and true and faithful.
So then, it's not as hard to obey the next time. As you learn more and more and you obey more and more, your faith becomes stronger more and more because you see that God is trustworthy. His Word is true. It's been that way the whole time. In the Gospel of John, I love the beginning of that Gospel. It's different than the other Gospels in the way John introduces the good news of the Gospel. In John 1, beginning with verse 1, he says this, "In the beginning was the what? Word." Here we are back to the Word again.
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him, all things were made. Without Him, nothing was made that has been made." So all of creation had its source where? In the what? In the Word. This is the Word that Moses is learning to listen to. This is the Word. This is the Word we need to learn to listen to in our lives.
Okay? Verse 4, it says, "In Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." In fact, in the original Greek there, it means it can never possibly overcome the light of the Word. That's why we're not running from darkness here at Lakeshore. That's why we're charging the darkness. That's why we're entering into it with the light. Because darkness can never overcome the light, ever.
The only way darkness wins is when light leads. That's the only way darkness wins, is when light pulls out of the darkness. The only way darkness can have victory is for us not to shine the light of Jesus into the world. So it's been that way from the beginning, right? But God's Word precedes the demonstration of God's power.
There's another passage. Remember, all the way back. Genesis 1, beginning with verse 1. "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." I believe that to be true. I hope you do, too. That's what it says in the Bible, right? "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." Now, the earth was formless and empty. Darkness was over the surface of the deep. And the Spirit of God, which is connected to the Word, remember, the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters, and God said, "Let there be light." And there was what? You read the rest of it. "And God said, 'Let there be,' and it happened. And God said, 'Let there be,' and it happened."
God's Word precedes the demonstration of God's power. Why is it that order? So that we can learn to trust God's Word. He wants us to trust His Word. To put our hope in His Word. Being true and faithful. God says it. And then, God does it, and we can count on it every time.
So, let's grow. That's what Moses is needing to learn in Exodus 4. Because God's given him such great work to do. And he's going to be so influential in the history of God's plan to bring the Savior to the world. Moses is playing a critical part in that story, in that plan. And we are, too. We're still part of God's plan to bring the light of Jesus to the world. And He wants us to learn, in order to be what we need to be to fulfill that plan, we've got to trust His Word. To be true and right and dependable.
The Bible as we have it today has all kinds of evidences to support that what we have today in the Bible is accurate. It's true and it's right and we can count on it. This is what God revealed. If you have doubts about that, or you have friends that question that, this old ancient book, just go to Christian Apologetics and look up the evidence. It's for the scriptures as we have them today. We have more evidence for the Bible and the time period it comes from than any other writing in the history of the world from that time period. It's well attested to that what we have is an accurate version of what God revealed.
And so we can put our hope and our trust in this Word to guide our lives today. So here's the second principle. The first one is, right, God's Word precedes His power. Or the second one, is God's power flows through obedience. God's power flows through obedience. Now God can work apart from obedience, but if we want the effects of God's power in our lives, it flows through what? Obedience. That's how you experience the power of God.
You don't experience the power of God by reading the Word. Not the fullness of it. You don't experience the power of God by discussing the Word. I know a lot of Christian people that like to sit around and discuss theology. And I like a good discussion on theology. I enjoy that once in a while. But here's the bottom line. You can sit around and talk about it all day long and there's no power there. Where's the power? It's in the obedience to the Word. That's where the power is.
At some point we've got to stop discussing it and talking about it and just... Let's start what? Doing it. Being obedient to it. That's where you see the power flow through your life. The power of God is flowing through the channel of Moses' obedience. He said, "Throw the staff down." What if Moses hadn't thrown the staff down? He would have never seen the power of God turn it into a snake. And what if he had said, "Reach down and touch the snake?" And Moses said, "I'm not touching that thing." Right? That would have been my first inclination.
But when he did it, what happened? He saw God's power. Right? It's in the obedience that you see the power of God at work. He put his hand in his cloak like he was told. When he pulled it out it was leprous. But God said, "Put it back in." He put it back in and pulled it out again and it's healed. Had he not done that he would never have seen God's power at work there. Later on he is going to take the water from the Nile and pour it on the ground and it's going to turn to blood. And he's going to see that that's the power of God.
That obedience showed the flow of God's power through that obedience. Moses was having to learn the lesson we all have to learn. It's not enough just to attend church and read the Bible. Those are good things. We're supposed to be doing those things. You shouldn't neglect those things. But it's in the doing that you see the power of God in your life. That you experience the mighty works of God in your life. And in my life it's the same way.
I love how in the New Testament James really spent some time talking about this because evidently even in the early church here's what was happening. People were claiming to have faith and talking about their faith but they weren't living out their faith. And so James is going to clarify it. Now we don't have anybody like that at Lakeshore I know. But just in case if you've got family or friends you need to share this with, let's look at James chapter 1 beginning in verse 21.
"Therefore get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent, and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you." And then he says, "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves." If you're just listening to it you are self-deceived if that's as far as you go with it. Satan doesn't mind you listening to the word. He doesn't mind you being in church every Sunday. He doesn't mind you doing the daily devotions. He doesn't mind you being part of a life group. Satan doesn't care if you do those things as long as you don't practice what you're reading and learning.
He's fine with all of that as long as you don't put it into practice. Here's what James goes on to say, "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and after looking at himself goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.
Now he's trying to use a little humor. Sometimes we don't catch the humor in the Bible. This is kind of a humorous thing here. What do we have mirrors for? We look at it to see what we look like, right? If something's not right we'll see it in the mirror and what can we do? We can fix it, right? Like when I have a spinach salad for lunch and I go back to the office and I've got spinach all in my teeth, right? Most people here are too polite to tell me. But if I have a mirror what can I do? I can say, "Oh, I've got spinach in my teeth," and if that's all I do what good has the mirror been for me?
But if I use it to get the spinach out of my teeth, to make the correction that needs to be made, then the mirror has served the purpose that it was designed for. The same thing is true with God's Word. It's there to expose two things, that which is right and good. You see that and you can say, "All right, that's great." Or it also can reveal something. There's some things that need to be changed, some things that need to be corrected, some things that need to be worked on.
Now, you know, the humor only goes so far. We can only correct so many things when we look in the mirror, right? I can't make myself have more hair or be any taller. I just got to work with what I've got, right? And all of us just have to work with what we've got. But we can correct what we can correct, right? That the mirror exposes to us. And God's Word is there for us, for us to see what's right and good and correct that which is not right and good in our lives. And it's useful for that as long as you're doing what it reveals that you need to do.
He says, verse 25, "But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues in it, not forgetting what they've heard, but doing it, then here's the result. They will be blessed in what they do." You can only have the blessings of the Word of God in obedience to the Word of God. Those two are connected.
But we have a whole culture. We have a culture of Christians in America today that want the blessings of God without the obedience to God. We want God to bless our relationships. We want God to bless our careers. We want God to bless our finances. We want God to bless everything about our lives, our families, without being obedient to what God is telling us to do in those areas of our lives. Those two things never go together. You don't have the blessings of God without the obedience to God. They don't come separate. They come together.
So if we're wanting God to bless our relationships, if we're wanting God to bless our finances, to bless our parenting, our marriages, or whatever it is, then we need to be obedient in those areas of our lives that we're wanting God to bless. They're connected. So James makes it clear. There's no doubt that he's saying what God is revealing to Moses here in these actions that he told him to take. Throw down the staff. Put your hand in your cloak. Right? Get the water from the Nile and pour it out. He's telling him, be obedient, and that's when you're going to see the power. That's when you're going to get the results and the blessings that you're wanting to get in what I've called you to do.
That's how it's going to work, is you understand what I'm telling you, and then you do what I'm telling you to do. You put those two things together. Now, here's the thing about our obedience. This is the third principle. Our obedience needs to be rooted in faith. Our obedience is rooted in faith. The power of God is flowing through the channel of Moses' obedience, which is rooted in faith that God is, as we saw last week, He is the I am who I am God. I be who I be God. Right? He is God, the only God.
And if you believe He is the God that He's saying that He is, then it's easier to put your faith in Him to be obedient. Obedient to what He's telling you to do. See, all of it's tied together. Your faith in God is what will produce a greater response of obedience, and it will become more and more obedient in your obedience when you have your faith where it needs to be.
Now I would never just reach down and pick up a snake if I didn't believe God told me to do it and God was with me in doing it, then I would do it. But I wouldn't do it any other way. Right? And I wouldn't go in front of a bunch of people like Pharaoh who could have me executed and say, "Watch this," and throw down my staff and hope it turns into a snake if I didn't believe I had faith that God was going to keep His promise to keep His word to do what He said He was going to do.
Right? When you know the God who says, "I am who I am," tell them "I am" has sent you here to do this, then because of your faith in Him, you can be obedient to what He's calling you to do. James went on to talk about that in James chapter 2 in the New Testament. He says, "What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them?" You know what he's saying? That kind of faith doesn't save anybody if it's only a belief without it producing obedience.
Remember this, even the demons believe. They're not saved. That doesn't save them. Just because they believe. It's only the kind of faith that will produce obedience that is a saving kind of faith. Our churches in America today have gotten that so mixed up because they're so emphasizing you're saved by grace through faith, not by works. That's absolutely true. It's not the obedience that saves you, but it's the faith that produces the obedience that saves you. You see the distinction there?
If it's not a level of faith that produces obedience, then it's not saving faith. So he goes on to say here, verse 15, "Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. One of you says to them, 'Go in peace, keep warm and well fed,' but does nothing about their physical needs. What good is it? Have you really helped them? No." So he goes on to say, verse 17, "In the same way, faith by itself, if it's not accompanied by action, is dead, worthless, useless, cannot produce life. If it's not accompanied by action."
So we need to make the connection. God's Word precedes God's power. There's no doubt about that. God's power flows through obedience, and our obedience needs to be rooted in our faith that God is the I am God who will do exactly what He says He will do. So here's the question. Is your life marked by obedience that's rooted in your faith? Is that the identifying mark of your life? That you are obeying because of your faith in God?
Now the reason I bring that up is some people go through the motions of obedience without real faith in God. They have faith in themselves and in getting what they want done like they want doing it. Now it used to be in America, it's not so much this way anymore, that if you could present yourself to be as a Christian, as a good church-going Christian, you're more likely to excel in business, you're more likely to excel in politics, you're more likely to excel in life in every way. Because that was just something that was looked up to in America.
Now it's not so much that way anymore. In fact, it's almost like a detriment to you now for you to say those things about yourself. But for a long time people would present themselves as Christians because of the benefits they could get for themselves to present that. So they would be obedient in attending church. And they would be obedient in giving some money and be obedient in some different things without it really being sincere faith in God that was producing that obedience.
What God's looking for is both the obedience and the sincere faith and trust in God and His Word. He wants both of those things to be together in our lives. Now I'll tell you why this is such a huge question and whether or not this is how your life is really marked and rooted. And that's the biggest thing. Why is it rooted in obedience rooted in faith? Why is that such a big deal? Well, God's rewards are enjoyed through obedience. That's why it's such a big deal.
God's rewards are always enjoyed through obedience. We've already talked about this a little bit, but here's where we are. Here's where Moses is. He's standing on this holy ground. God's telling him, "Here's what I want you to do." He keeps making excuses about why he can't do it. And God's not having it. God's not having the excuses. He's not going to accept the excuses that he's making. And oftentimes what God is hearing from us as Christians today is a whole bunch of excuses.
Why I can't do marriage the way you say you want me to do it. Why I can't date in the dating world the way you tell me to do it, God, in your Word. Why I can't handle finances the way you tell me to handle finances. We make all these excuses to God. I'm going to tell you something. Those excuses don't fly with God. What he's looking for is obedience. That's rooted in the fact that you so believe in and trust God that even when it doesn't make sense to you, you're going to be obedient to what he's telling you to do.
That's the level of faith and obedience he wants to see in all of us. Now, none of us are perfect at this. And that's why I'm thankful God's mercies are new every morning. His grace is sufficient. I'm thankful for that. But I also don't want to be guilty of abusing the grace of God. Do you? So he's calling on us in faith to be obedient to what he's calling us to do.
But here's the good news. When we are willing to do that, that's where the blessings are. That's where the rewards are. That's where God comes through and keeps His promises and we get to enjoy the faithfulness of God in our lives. That's why the psalmist says, in Psalm 16, verse 11, here's what he said. "You have made known to me the path of life. You fill me with joy in your presence."
What's the path for life? God fills us with the path to life through His Word. That's where it is. That's God's plan. God's plan is revealed through God's Word. People are always saying, "I just wish I knew what God's will was." And they're not spending time looking in the Bible and praying, seeking the will of God. They want some magical answer to pop out of the sky. I wish God would just write it in the sky for me. Well, He's already written it in the Bible for you. Maybe you want to spend some time there.
Through that and prayer, the Spirit gives us our understanding of God's will in our lives. So we need to understand that God is leading us to the path of life and He's going to fill us with joy in His presence. I love that. When we're walking down the path God wants us to walk down, it doesn't mean things will never be hard. It doesn't mean we'll never have mountains to climb or rivers to cross or valleys to get through that are dark. It doesn't mean that.
But it means He will be able to give us joy because we're dwelling in His presence when we're being obedient to the path He's called us to. Friends, one of the greatest testimonies Christians can have in the world today is when non-Christians can see us. They can see us have a joy deep within and a peace in our hearts and minds that is beyond their understanding of where it could come from. Where do you find that? It's found in obedience to God. That's where it's found.
You can't generate that. You can't create that any other way. We keep trying to create that through the ways of the world. That's why we fill our lives with entertainment. That's why we think if we got a raise, it made a little more money. That's why we think if we lived in the right neighborhood, the right house, drove the right car. That's where we're going to find the joy and the peace is when we get all that worked out.
How many people do you know that already have all that that still don't have joy and peace in their lives? Because that's not what produces it. What produces that is knowing you're dwelling in the will and the presence of God in your life. That's where the joy, the peace, the fulfillment comes is obedience to the will of God. Because that allows you to dwell in the presence of God.
I want to close with my life verse. Some of you have heard me share it many times before, but it really speaks to what we're talking about here. The process that God is trying to lead Moses through to get Moses to this place that this life verse talks about that I have. Romans 12, 1 and 2. Here's what it says. "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy." All right? So it starts with knowing about God. The character of God. Who God is, right?
When you know He is the I am God, full of love and mercy and power and all of that, when you know God, therefore, in view of God's mercy, here's what He wants us to do in response. "To offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God." So He says in view of who God is, what's our response to a God like that? To offer your bodies as a living sacrifice. Holy and pleasing to God.
Now, what's holy and pleasing to God? It's obedience to the will of God and the teaching of God. That's what's holy and pleasing to God. Okay? So He wants us to present our bodies, which means our whole lives. Our bodies are representing our whole lives, our whole selves. Present that to God. And He says this about doing that. He says, "This is your true and proper worship."
We have, I've talked about this a lot. It's been a theme of my ministry. We so misdefine worship in our culture. Today, we make it so much less than what the Bible says it is. We make it showing up for a couple of hours on a Sunday and singing some songs. And we call that our worship. And that can be very much a part of our worship. But our true and proper worship is this. Present your body as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.
That's not just for an hour or two on Sunday mornings, friends. That's life. Present our whole lives to God as an act of worship. And then He says, here's how this is played out. Verse 2, here's how you live that out. "Do not conform to the pattern of this world." In other words, don't follow the world's plan for life. Be transformed by the renewing of your what?
How does our mind get renewed? We're thinking one way. How do we change that? We're thinking like the world thinks. How do we change that? We learn what God says about it. Where do we find that? In the Word. All right, it goes back to the Word, doesn't it? Our minds are transformed by learning what God's Word says about those things. And then we start thinking differently about those things.
Instead of the way the world says we should do it, and the way the world thinks about it, now we see what God says about that, and what God is revealing to us about how that should work. Now we start thinking differently about those things. We think like God thinks about those things. He says, "Then, you want to know God's will? Listen to this. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is."
You know how you start understanding God's will? You start having your mind transformed by the Word of God. What does God say about that? What does God teach about that? You let that form how you think about those things. That's the transformation of the mind. That happens through the Word of God. That's the transformation of the mind. That's why we're committed to be a teaching church. Because there's nothing more beneficial we could do for you.
It's not running a bunch of programs for you. It's putting God's Word in your heart and in your mind. That's what changes your life, which changes the world. That's when we put the Word of God into our hearts and our minds. The church, the main focus of the church, should always be that. Because that's what transforms. It's life for the better.
Listen to what he says. "Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is." But listen to how he describes God's will. "His good, pleasing, and perfect will." Do you believe that about God's will? That God's plan for you is good? Because you're not going to do it if you don't believe it's good. Do you believe that's where it will be the most pleasing life for you? Is when you do it God's way?
Do you believe that about who God is? The character of God and God's plan for your life? Because you're not going to follow through with this if you don't believe that's really going to be the most pleasing way to live life. Do you believe God's will is perfect for you? That God's will for you is perfect. That word perfect means whole and complete and perfection. That if we could just learn and do God's will, that plan is the most complete, perfect plan for how to live life you could ever find.
Because that's the plan He was saying, Moses, you need to surrender to my plan. My plan for you, Moses, and for your people and my people is good and it's pleasing and it's perfect. That's what I want you to follow, Moses. Do that. And now He's calling us in Christ to His good, pleasing, perfect will for your life.
And as much as we say we love God, you cannot separate God from you. You cannot separate God's plan, God's will from God. So if we love God, it means we embrace God's plan, God's teaching, God's direction for our lives. Otherwise, we don't really love God. Not the I am God of the Bible.
Maybe there's somebody today, maybe listening online, maybe in the audience, who's ready to take that step to say, "I'm ready. I've been doing it my way long enough. I've been doing it the world's way long enough. It's time. I'm going to surrender to the will and the plan of God because I believe it's good and it's pleasing and it's perfect for me."
Let's pray together.
Father, we thank you. We thank you that in Christ, we see even more of the fulfillment of this plan that God was revealing through Moses way back then. A plan to send the Savior, a deliverer. A plan that through Him, we could come to know more of your love, and your compassion, and your willingness to do whatever needs to be done to redeem us and give us the life you designed us to have.
Father, I pray that for someone today who's ready to take that step of faith and obedience to you, that even now, even as we offer this invitation today, they would respond in faith and obedience together so that they can enjoy the benefits, the blessings, the joys, the pleasures of your will in their lives. It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen.
We're going to stand and sing. As we're singing, if you have a decision you need to make, just come right up front here, and we'll lead you in those next steps. Let's stand and sing together.
Everybody have a seat, please. Sandy, come on up, man. Sandy comes asking for prayer. Without going into details, God knows the details. There's a circumstance, situation in his family that... But he's just wanting to have wisdom to know how to respond, what to say, what to do to help lead through this in the right way. So let's just be lifting up the situation with his family.
Father, we thank you that in Christ's name we can come to your throne of grace with confidence that you will hear us and that you desire to do what's best for us. So I pray that you would give Sandy the wisdom and discernment to handle this circumstance in his family, the situation that he's dealing with. Father, we all need wisdom from you that only you can give, and I know that's what he's seeking. And we come together as a family of God before you, Father, on Sandy's behalf, just lifting him up, that you would grant him that wisdom and that discernment. In Jesus' name, amen.
God bless you, brother. Thank you. This time, Walter's going to come and lead us in a time of communion around the Lord's table.
I want to thank you again for being here together for this assembly time on this Memorial Day weekend. It's such a joy to have this time together. I know we've got some first-time guests here. We're so glad you're with us today. Hope you'll come back again.
Before we go to, we want you to know, if you'd like to worship through the giving of an offering, we have offering boxes in the back, one on the post there in the back of the auditorium and one in the hallway as you exit. You can drop your offering in the top slot there. You can also give online at lakeshorechristian.com or you can scan the QR code on your bulletin shell there. It can take you to that page as well. And you can mail in offerings to the church office.
When you give your offering, that's an act of worship. It's showing that you're honoring God. You've got to put God first. It's also a way that God designed for the church to be supported to do the work in the ministry that God has called us to do. And so we operate based on those offerings that are given to do the work God wants Lakeshore to be doing. So we thank you for your faithful support of the work and ministry here at Lakeshore.
At this time, I'm going to have Jeremy come up. He's going to share a few more announcements with us and then close us out with prayer. Thanks, Jeremy.
on May 27, 2024
