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Fire Power: All Fired Up
By Roger Pryor, Heartland Community Church
Moses was a man whose life was significantly impacted
by fire.
The Jewish people had settled in Egypt due to a
drought in their land. Over the next 400 years, they grew to be a
nation of nearly 1million people. Unfortunately, over time, they
fell out of favor with the Pharaohs and became slaves.
To make matters worse, and to curb the Hebrew baby
boom, the Pharaoh ordered all newborn male babies killed. During
this time, Moses was born, and through a series of miraculous
events, he was adopted into Pharaoh’s family. He became a son to
Pharaoh with all the perks. He probably drove a Ferrari chariot and
wore designer clothes. It’s conceivable he could have become a
Pharaoh in the future.
At age 40, Moses was walking outside the palace when
he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew slave. Moses reacted and killed
the Egyptian. When word got back to Pharaoh, Moses became an instant
fugitive and fled to the wilderness where he hid for 40 years. At
the end of that time, God came seeking Moses. The first word to
remember this story by is “The Seek.” God is all about the
“seek.”
Exodus
3:1-4 says, One day Moses was tending the
flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he
went deep into the wilderness near Sinai, the mountain of God.
Suddenly, the angel of the LORD appeared to him as a blazing fire in
a bush. Moses was amazed because the bush was engulfed in flames,
but it didn't burn up…When the LORD saw that he had caught Moses'
attention, God called to him from the bush, "Moses! Moses!" "Here I
am!" Moses replied.
History is all about God on a relentless search to
have a relationship with us. He is a pursuing lover who is on “the
seek” for us.
Jesus, begin God, described his own pursuit of us in Luke 19:10:
For the Son of Man [Jesus] came to seek and to save what was lost."
Like
Moses, some of you are going through a desert experience right now.
Maybe it’s a spiritual desert, a health desert, a relational desert,
a marital desert, a child-rearing desert, or an emotional desert.
And you feel alone. God allows these personal deserts. Why? He wants
to get our attention -- to speak to us -- to connect with us.
It’s
interesting that
the word “wilderness or desert” in the Bible
literally means “to speak.” Jesus comes in the middle of our deserts
and knocks on the
door of our lives because He wants to invade and share the desert
experience with us. Jesus said in Revelation 3:20,
Look! Here I [Jesus] stand at the door and knock. If
you hear me calling and open the door, I will come in, and we will
share a meal as friends.
God
certainly had something to say to Moses. I call this “The Peek.”
Exodus 3:7-10 says, Then the LORD told him, "You can be sure I
have seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cries
for deliverance from their harsh slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of
their suffering. So I have come to rescue them from the Egyptians
and lead them out of Egypt… Now go, for I am sending you to Pharaoh.
You will lead my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt."
God
gave Moses a quick “peek”—a sneak preview into the future.
Often,
God gives us a little window (the next step or two) into the future
about what He wants to do through us. Rarely does “the peek” come
through some extraordinary event like a burning bush. But God has
spoken to me through friends, His Word (the Bible), the Holy Spirit,
events, music, and circumstances. It’s hard to miss God when the
extraordinary encounters come, but it’s easy to miss Him in the
ordinary events of life. The best thing you can pray is: “God help
me to recognize when you are speaking to me. Help me to recognize
your voice.”
“The
Tweak”
is the
next word to remember from this story. Exodus 3:11 says, But
Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring
the Israelites out of Egypt?"
What
else could Moses say? “Who am I? Who, me?”
He’s
been in the desert for 40 years tending sheep instead of running
around in the palace. He’s long been forgotten, since being sent
down to the minor leagues. But broken and humble, Moses allowed God
to address and tweak his fears, objections, weaknesses, and
priorities.
In the
end, Moses became a man totally dependent on God, but it took
him 40 years in the wilderness to learn that he was nothing without
God. He was able to make the spiritual and personal adjustments to
get "all fired up" for God. We read in
Exodus 4:20,
So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a
donkey, and headed back to the land of Egypt.
God
wants to get us all fired up to make a difference in this world. So
what did Moses need to know to get “all fired up” for God? What do
we need to know? First, we need to know that:
1.
God’s vision is bigger than yours and mine.
For 40 years, Moses had set his sights too low. He had no
aspirations or expectations for anything but dumb sheep. Moses’ knee
jerk response to God was that of, “Who am I? The task is too big,
too daunting, and I’m too ill equipped to pull it off. I’m a
nobody—a benchwarmer who has done my best to stay invisible.”
Moses
didn’t want to lead or be a deliverer. He just wanted to be
invisible as he had been for 40 years. God’s bigger vision, on the
other hand, was for Moses to impact people, not sheep. So God used a
fiery talking bush not only to alter the trajectory of Moses’ life
but the entire Hebrew nation -- all because Moses had set his sights
too low. Is God asking you to do something that seems well outside
your abilities—well beyond the horizon of what you can see? Do you
sense it’s too big, too outlandish? It may mean you’re right in the
bull’s eye of what God wants to do through you.
Paul
tells us in Romans 8:15-17, So you should not be like cowering,
fearful slaves. You should behave instead like God's very own
children, adopted into his family…And since we are his children, we
will share his treasures--for everything God gives to his Son,
Christ, is ours, too. We’re not slaves, we’re God’s own children
endowed with his treasures. That fires me up! He didn’t intend for
us to be invisible.
2.
God resources you for success.
Once God asked Moses to lead the people out of Egypt, he promised to
resource Moses to pull off the huge sized project. The greatest
resource God offers us is his personal presence. God said to Moses
in Exodus 3:12, "I will be with you.”
For
Moses, God’s presence wasn’t enough. He needed more resources from
God. First, he felt like he wouldn’t be very convincing or
believable coming out of the minor leagues. Exodus 4:1 says, But
Moses protested again, "Look, they won't believe me! They won't do
what I tell them. They'll just say, `The LORD never appeared to
you.' "
So God resourced Moses with a toolbox of three
miracles—turning his staff into a snake; making his hand leprous;
and changing water to blood. Still, Moses felt ill equipped,
especially in his verbal skills. Exodus 4:10 says, But Moses
pleaded with the LORD, "O Lord, I'm just not a good speaker. I never
have been, and I'm not now, even after you have spoken to me. I'm
clumsy with words."
In Exodus 4:11-13,
God responds, "Who makes mouths?" the LORD
asked him. "Who makes people so they can speak or not speak, hear or
not hear, see or not see? Is it not I, the LORD? Now go, and do as I
have told you. I will help you speak well, and I will tell you what
to say."
But Moses again
pleaded, "Lord, please! Send someone else."
Reluctantly, but patiently, God made Moses’ brother Aaron the
spokesman.
In
much the same way, God has resourced us and equipped us as his
children to get His work done in this world. He has promised us his
presence. Yet, there’s this kind of false humility inside of us that
says, “I’ll never have enough right gifts or abilities to really
pull off the magnitude of what God wants me to do.” The Apostle Paul
reassures us in Philippians 4:13, For I can
do everything with the help of Christ who gives me the strength I
need.
3.
Success isn’t always instant.
Moses and Aaron sparred with the Pharaoh at least 16 different times
over a year before Pharaoh let the Israelites go. Success isn’t
always instant.
Success isn’t always
instant. So don’t let the fire burn out; keep fanning the flame;
keep stoking the fire.
4. Start A Fire.
Moses had to act. He had to pull the trigger. When God asked Moses
to become an international negotiator, Moses had a choice—yes or no.
To get God’s work done, you must take a proactive stance: “It seems
bigger than life. I seem ill equipped. I seem unable. Success will
be slow, but you know what, I’m going to take the first step to
serve God.”
Maybe there is
something in your life today that God wants you to act on—to start a
fire—to pull the trigger on. Maybe it’s a little out of your
comfort zone or skill set; maybe it’s something that seems a little
bigger than life; maybe it appears to be high risk; but it has the
potential to turn around your life and the lives of others. What is
God asking you to do? Maybe it’s to start a fire that will light
your world for Him. Let’s take a few moments and close our eyes and
quietly listen to God speak. Ask Him: “God, what are you asking me
to do?”
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