Short Cut or Easy Way | 2-22-26 | Sunday AM Service

We're going to be in Exodus chapter 2.

Exodus 2 · chapter mention

We're going to start in verse 11 and we're going to see how far

we get believe. We're going to get through verse

22 today, but we'll see how that goes.

So starting in verse 11. Now it came to pass in those

days when Moses was grown, that he went out to the brethren and

looked at their burdens, and he saw the Egyptian, saw an

Egyptian beating a Hebrew one of his brethren.

So he looked this way and that way, and when he saw no one, he

killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

And when he went out the second day, behold, 2 Hebrew men were

fighting. And he said to to the one who

was, who did the wrong, Why are you striking your companion?

Then he said, Who made you Prince and judge over us?

Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?

So Moses feared and said, surely this thing is known.

When Pharaoh heard of this matter, he sought to kill Moses.

But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of

Midian. And he sat down by a well.

So Lord, I just lift up this time and I lift up everybody

here, Lord. And that you would just help us

to choose you, Lord, and to choose your way in our life.

And that we would just lose sight of ourselves, Lord.

And that goes for me as well, that I would lose sight of of

myself, Lord, And that I, I would just be here letting you

speak, Lord. And Lord, that you would have

something to share with all of us here, Lord, that you'd be in

in this place. Fill us with your spirit guide

and direct us and proud of this in Jesus name, Amen.

So last week I talked about kind of the genealogy of the Pharaohs

and how did, how did a Princess end up being Moses's adopted

mother? And the history in that in that

time is they there is nothing that says Moses was here.

So when I say this, this is this is one of the theories on how it

happened. But to me, when I look at it, it

really fits the fits the narrative on how Moses would end

up in the in the cat in the palace and be raised there.

And so the princess's father was that most the 1st and he was the

Black Hat in chapter 1. Like I talked about that wanted

to kill all the sons and then Hatmos married Thatmos the

second and and he was Thatmos the first son, but from another

wife. So it was her stepbrother.

And they did that back then where they they intermarried in

the royal line to keep the line pure as as weird as that is to

us today. But then in that hatmost was

still the more royal of the two because she was from the royal

queen, like I talked about. So she was the royal lion.

So she was the Regent. She was she really was the the

pharaoh when there wasn't a pharaoh kind of thing.

So that most the second didn't step into the pharaoh role role.

She was but that most the second son that most the third he would

take the throne, but he was too young to rule.

So for his entire younger years, she was the Regent.

So she would have been in charge of of the palace at that time.

And that's the time while she was raising Moses.

So that brings us up to this moment and brings us to the time

when when Moses is probably Moses.

His life was was upside down, right?

He was 40 years old and suddenly whether whether his whether his

mom had passed away or that most the third had just gotten old

enough to take power. He was he was not a fan of his

that most the second. I tried to figure out what he

would be to her because he was in multiple marriages.

The whole the whole lineage turns weird, right, multiple

marriages. So he was her husband's second

wife or third wife's son. So like her stepson, but not

really they didn't get along to the point that when she died and

he took over all he did and and there is records of this is try

to erase her from history. So there are there is places

where there are gaps in the where Chisel actually knocked

her name off of stuff where they can track it and go.

So she should be here. And it was cleared from the

record. And so that's what Moses is

living in right now. And so Moses had been in the in

the palace for 40 years. It tells us in Acts that when he

was 40 years old, it came into his heart to visit the brethren

of the children of his brethren, the children of Israel.

And his eyes were opened, right? And, and they were opened, I

think a lot like our eyes a lot of times, are opened to

privilege and his time in the palace and just what he had

compared to his brethren. And what I like to call that is

rich guilt. And that it's what we do with

that, right? And the the title in my study

today, the as I always say, my corny title is shortcut or easy

way you choose. And you'll find that very, very

often we we are shortcut takers doesn't go doesn't go well for

us, but we try. So rich guilt, just to cover

that real quick, I'm going to pick up my mom because she's

passed away and she'll forgive me when I get up there.

So my mom wanted everybody to go to heaven with all of her heart.

She just wanted everybody to go to heaven.

And she really believed with without a shadow of a doubt that

if if everybody had been raised in the house she was raised in

and given the things she was given, then their life would be

as good as her life. And guys, that's untrue.

And what I mean by that is, is that that puts a guilt on her

because she was, she was given these things, but there were

choices she made. I, I told her, I said, so mom,

as you're looking at your life now, do you remember that you

were also a single mom that that worked three jobs?

And how did you, how did you end up where you are now?

Is that you worked for it, You know, and, and I'm going to

touch one of those buttons when you look at welfare and this is

me and my mom's conversation. So take it for what it is.

She, she really was she, she really thought welfare was a, a

good thing And the problem with welfare, and I told her this all

the time, mom, I partied with these people.

I, I, I was one of these people. I partied, I played they're not,

they're there are people on welfare that need welfare,

right? That that they they apply it and

it's used and and it gets them to the other side.

But then there's the whole group I was partying with that we're

just trying to figure out new and improved ways to get more

welfare so they could drink and party and do drugs more.

Right. And and that's, that is the the

majority of the people I knew that were on welfare.

That doesn't mean everybody on welfare is doing drugs.

That just means mom, just because you're, if you're giving

free things out, trust me, everybody that is getting the

free things is not using them like you would right.

So that's that's a flavor of rich guilt.

But for Moses, Moses, Moses took it to an extreme, right.

Moses, he was guilty because he goes out and sees his brethren

and and what's going on. So what does he do?

He kills a guy. And the, the thing with how it

happens is when you look at it, when you look at verses 11

through 15 and you just go through how much of it was

focused on Moses, It's Moses. He went his brethren, he saw his

brethren, he looked, he saw he killed, right?

It was Moses was there and, and involved in this and was, was

going to do the thing to fix the stuff.

But in doing the thing that was going to fix the stuff, he

completely knew he was in the wrong.

And how how do we know that? Because it says he looked to the

left and to the right. We forgot to look up right?

And you, you don't get to I talked about that.

We don't get to lie and manipulate our way into God's

plan, right? Luke, Luke 817 It says for

nothing is secret that will not be revealed nor anything hidden

that will not be known and come to light.

So that's the fun thing about serving Jesus, right?

The fun thing about serving Jesus is I just get to do it his

way. And it's his problem to figure

out how that's going to work. You know, it's when I'm in

Uganda and we talk about bribing, you know, bribes and

that stuff and guys, well, how you going to get anything done

if you're not willing to bribe? Well, not my problem, right?

It's Jesus's problem and it's stuff like that.

But this is one of those moments where we're Moses and we do

this. And guys, I I'm sure that you

are as guilty of this as any as I am of killing people with our

words, right? Or just having that thing to

say, barking at someone right and and winning that argument.

When I got into excavation, I did AI lived a blessed life for

probably four or five years. I because I just showed up, I, I

was a new believer and showed up and lived Colossians 323 because

I didn't know any better, right? I just, and when I say that is

I, I found that verse, I don't remember if if who taught on it

or if I was just reading it. And it Colossians 323 is, you

know, do everything as unto the Lord and not to men.

And so I just applied that to my life and life was good.

And I mean work was easy, right, Because I didn't, I just showed

up and did my best. Doesn't mean my best was good

enough. Sometimes I, I was, I struggled.

I didn't know what I was doing, but I was doing my best And, and

God honored that. And in that, in that time, I, in

that four to five years, I became, I went from not knowing

anything and I mean nothing about what I was doing for a

living to running cruise and, and having a truck and being a

boss. But there was a guy at work that

just drove me nuts. And is his name what we're going

to say? His name was Kevin, Not because

it was, but so that I'm not calling him out.

But he drove me nuts. And he, he lied.

I mean, everything was from his perspective.

And he lied and twisted truth and did all kinds of stuff.

And my boss thought he was God's gift to excavation.

And I was determined to show the world that he was not.

So one day I went to work with that attitude.

And what I did that day was I did not lie.

I did not cheat, I did not steal, but I made him look

stupid all day long. And how I did that was just by

making him figure things out that I would normally figure out

for him. And, and we were at on that job

site, we were peers, right? I was top, I was top hand.

He was the pipe player. I didn't know what he was doing,

but he could fake it because I would do most of the work for

him. So this day I just let him look

stupid all day. Like he couldn't figure out the

math. He couldn't figure out, you

know, he and I made that look. I mean, my point was to make him

look stupid. And I was very successful.

Like I, I thought my day, my, I was happier the longer the day

went on. He was getting redder and madder

and more frustrated and, and then I got my car and he's a

bigger guy and he got I got my car and he opened my passenger

door and he is going to drag me out by my neck and just beat me

in the street, right? He's mad.

I mean, he's, he's mad and I'm just as happy as the day is long

because this is the exact, this was my plan, right?

My plan was to get him that mad and make him look that stupid.

And I just I said something to the extent of what are we in

kindergarten and drove off right.

And yeah, I lived happily ever after or I made it to the stop

sign when God said so you're going to apologize to him

tomorrow? No, I'm not.

That's not going to happen. That's I don't know.

I don't know. No, that's so you guys can

imagine how that how, how my night went, right, because I was

either going to apologize or me and the Lord weren't good and

that wasn't going to work. And I'd love to say that, you

know, by the time I got home, I had figured it out or after

dinner, I figured it out or before I went to bed, I figured

it out. No, I was, I was up till two

3:00 in the morning arguing with the Lord about why I didn't have

to apologize. And so I had to go to work and

apologize. And there there's a whole story

with that. But the point is what I, what I

wanted to do now, now, years later, he, that guy got saved,

right? And, and he came up and he

didn't say that me apologizing to him was the thing that got

him saved. He does remember I did it and it

was a moment that that made him go.

That's weird, right? But it was a it was a thing

because the thing with an apology like that, guys, if you

didn't know, when God tells you to apologize, what he does not

tell you to do is say I'm sorry, but you're an idiot, or I'm

sorry, but you know, you've just made me mad over there.

No, you don't get any of that. You get, I'm sorry.

I was wrong. I shouldn't have acted like

that. That's what you don't get.

But you're an idiot. You don't get to say that.

I tried. That was I, I went through the

apology a lot and God kept like changing my apology back to no.

And the point with that, And that is the shortcut versus the

easy way, right? The shortcut is God had a work

to do in his life. He had a work to do in my life.

And my shortcut there was that I wanted to do what I wanted to

do. I wanted to make him look

stupid, right? And then I had some training,

which is what God will do when you're on the shortcut.

He will, he will train you and you can, you can watch this.

I mean, Abraham and Sarah, they try to shortcut with Hagar.

That training is still going on today because that's Islam,

right? Hagar is, is where the religion

of Islam came from is through Ishmael, which is her son.

But that was Abraham and Sarah trying to take a shortcut to get

to where God wanted him to go, even though that is not what God

told him to do. Jacob stealing Esau's blessing,

well that cost him 20 plus years in another country, multiple

wives and and concubines and he never got to see his mom again

from the reported record. But a great example of the

difference between a shortcut and the easy way.

Which is God's way right and that is in first Samuel David's

men want to kill Saul and David stood still submitted to God's

plan right and if you you read first Samuel verse 20 or chapter

26 verse 9. It's it's just a great picture

of this. It says, But David said to

Absalom abashes, do not destroy him, for who can stretch out his

hand against the Lord's anointed and be guiltless?

David said, Furthermore, as the Lord lives, the Lord shall

strike him, or his day shall come to die, or she shall go out

to battle and perish. David understood whose problems

Saul was right. Saul was not David's problem.

David's problem was walking with the Lord.

That was that was what David was called to do.

When we push past God with an I'll do it attitude like Moses

did, we are trusting we are, we are, we are not trusting him,

but our shortcut, right? And David's example really shows

us how God, God will use our submission to his will, right?

He will use us use the the time we are willing to spend with him

to get us where he wants us to go.

David was not at any point. And if you can go through the

whole story, there was never a point that David was anti Saul.

He was pro God's plan, Moses, if you look at this, Moses is anti

Egypt. He wasn't he wasn't pro God's

plan. He was just anti Egyptian,

right? He was he was working for self

and, and in Colossians 323 through 25, it says the whole

thing about that which is and whatever you do, do it hardly as

unto the Lord and not to men, knowing that from God you will

receive the reward of the inheritance, for you serve the

Lord Jesus Christ. But he who does wrong will be

repaid for what he has done. And there is no partiality,

right? Moses here is going to take a

lap, right? And, and as we go through

Exodus, you will find that the Israelites take a lot of laps,

right? The, The funny thing with this

is, is that Moses, in doing this, he had when Moses got to

the, the moment he had a power and the moment he decided to

kill an Egyptian and hide the body, he lost all of that power.

He was he was the the adopted son of.

Of the ex Regent and and as such would have been somebody

respected right up until he killed an Egyptian and and not

kill he murdered one unjustly. Right now there was a lot of

stuff he could have done to that Egyptian right.

He probably had the power to stop the Egyptian from doing

whatever it is he was doing. It was the killing.

That was where Moses went wrong. I mean, how did Moses get get it

into his head that he was going to save the Hebrews, right.

And and that can come from like I said last week, that when

Aaron and Moses meet in their 80s, they seem like they know

each other more than A5 and AN-85 and an 8 year old would

have known each other. So there's a good possibility

that Moses had had been around Aaron or around his biological

parents in his in his years. He could have had a dream like

Joseph. You know, it could have been a

word from the Lord. We don't know, it doesn't say.

But what he did was he attempted to seize that instead of letting

God's plan, God's plan, take its course.

And if you look at the difference over from Genesis

through Joseph, Joseph was willing to let God work and

that, and that's truly the easy way.

And when you, when we look at David, David didn't ever attempt

to seize power, right? He he just allowed, allowed the

Lord to work. And was that, was that a smooth

short plan for David? No, it was 15 to 20 years of

waiting for God's promise, right?

Because God was, God promised David that he was king.

He anointed him as king. And then it was 1520 years

before that happened. And Jesus says, take my yoke

upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart,

and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Doesn't say short, right? It's God's plan is complete.

Now, in the time that 15 or 20 years, David did many things in

obedience, protecting Israel. So it wasn't that he just sat

down and did nothing, but he didn't attempt to seize God's

promise and the blessing in that, that he didn't go for the

short way. David had a unified Kingdom, not

a civil war. Had he, had he killed Saul like

exactly like Moses in this, the killing of Saul would have,

would have shrank David's power in the eyes of the people,

because that would have been David like in a coup.

So then there would have been people on this side and people

on that side. But as you watch David all

through Samuel, all through the story, when you watch him, that

man after God's own heart, that man after the yoke of the Lord

he serves is a continuous just He wants the best for the

Kingdom. And Saul may not be the king

that needs to be, so he'll protect the people, right?

But he wasn't going to step out and ruin the Kingdom so that he

could be in that position. So in the New Testament, a

picture of this that we I can identify with, and I imagine

many of many here can identify with, it is in the garden.

And Jesus is a rest, right? There was a shortcut and there

was an easy way, and Peter had the idea of fighting a spiritual

battle with physical power and it Matthew 2651 is the end of

the end of the little stretch. And it says, suddenly one of

those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew

his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off

his ear. But Jesus said to him, put your

sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by

it. Or do you think that I cannot

now pray to my Father, and he will provide me with more than

12 legions of angels? The Gospel of John points out

that the guy with the sword is Peter.

But The thing is the that isn't the shortcut, and that isn't the

easy way, right? That that is that is fruit from

a shortcut Peter took just before this Peter's spiritual

tank was empty for this battle because when given the chance to

do some of the get TOS that I talked about right, we talked

about the get TOS and and why they're get TOS.

He had a chance to spend time and pray and be still with

Jesus. And instead Peter slept.

Peter was supposed to have been doing was waiting on the Lord

with Jesus. And that's because Jesus knew

what was coming right. And Jesus, like a great coach

took his guys that we're going to be in this this coming

battle. And and he took them to to get

them ready, right. And he had just shared with him

about washing feet and they needed to be willing to serve

and and to spend time for others.

And in verse 20 or chapter 26, verse 30, 7, it's them going to

the garden. And it says and he Jesus took

with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and he began to be

sorrowful and deeply distressed. Then he said to them, my soul is

exceedingly sorrowful even to death.

Stay here, watch and pray. Then he Jesus, went a little

farther and fell on his faith and face and prayed, saying, O

Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.

Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.

Then he Jesus came to the disciples and found them

sleeping, and said, Peter, what could you not?

Could you not watch with me one hour?

Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation.

The Spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak.

Again a second time he went away praying, saying, Oh my father,

if this cup cannot pass away from me unless I drink it, your

will be done. And he Jesus came back and found

them, Peter, James and John asleep again, for their eyes

were heavy. So he left them and went away

and prayed 1/3 time, saying the same words.

Then he came to his disciples and said to them, Are you still

sleeping and resting? Behold, our hours at hand and

the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sin.

So this was an opportunity that Jesus gave his his guys to be

ready for the battle. They, they had an opportunity

to, to spend time with the Lord and, and be prepared.

But Peter took the shortcut to rest and it'll cost him, right?

It'll cost him days of no rest. You think about the next three

days in Peter's life and you, you got a picture that there was

a point where Peter thought he was, he was feeling pretty good,

right? I mean, he just, he just did he

fighting for the Lord. He did some stuff, told his

sword out and he's swinging it and he cut his servant's ear

off, not a soldiers ear. And Jesus wasn't impressed

because that wasn't what Peter was there to do.

Peter wanted them ready for the next three day or Jesus wanted

his guys ready for the next three days.

And he knew they were going into a dark time and gave them

opportunity to be ready for it. And they took a shortcut.

And if you guys, if you guys don't know, if you've ever

decided that you're going to go home and pray, you know, you

read a book or you, you had a Bible study or something and

you're going to go home and read, read your Bible and pray

for four hours. Have you ever been that tired?

Suddenly you're the most, you're, you're as tired as

you've ever been. You know, you're, you're reading

your, you're reading your Bible at noon and you're falling

asleep, right? Because your flesh wants nothing

to do with it, right? And so, so that that time of, of

doing this, of, of saying, Lord, I want to spend time with you.

And Lord, give me, give me your heart, give me your, your plan,

your, your ability, right? We don't, I don't have what it

takes to get to do the get to. And you know, and we'll get into

what those are again in a little while, but I don't have in

myself. I'm not, I'm not strong enough.

You know what? I'm no different than Peter and

John in this case. You got to imagine just, you

know, they just ate a meal. They walked out to the garden.

It's quiet. It's it's mellow there.

I'm just tired. I'm just going to go sleep for a

little while, right? And and that is US very often,

very often to prepare for the battle.

It's we don't notice we don't notice the battles coming when

we're comfortable, when we're 6, when we're in success hard

times. It's easier sometimes that I

mean, very often it's easier. My my lying about embrace the

suck. It's easier to embrace the suck

when life sucks then to embrace the suck of, of watching and

praying. And I know that, you know,

we're, we're Christians and we're all going to sit here and

go. I just, I just love to sit and

prayer is hard. Not not the, you know, saying

grace or, or standing in, but spending time with the Lord and,

and really having those moments with him of Lord.

I need you to tell me what's between me and you.

I, I need, I need real guidance. You know this.

Getting quiet and alone and waiting and watching and

listening for Him is against our flesh.

Our flesh does not like it because when we do it, we are

surrendering ourselves to Him. And our flesh likes the throne

it's sitting on. And when life is going easy,

like a Prince in a palace, we get lazy, right?

And I would say that when we're lazy like that, it means that

when the time comes, we won't be ready.

Moses had the time to seek the Lord and his plan, if he had

rested in him. You know, he's 40 years old.

He had been taught in all the things of Egypt, but he had time

as a, as a Prince to have spent time with the Lord, right?

He, he had that time, just like his biological parents had time

that they had, they had spent with the Lord and knew what his

will was for their life. Moses had that time.

And when, when push came to shove, he wasn't ready.

He would have, if he had spent that time, he would have been

ready to say, not my will, but yours be done.

And he wasn't ready, like Peter wasn't ready.

And that, that embrace the suck I talk about is, is a lot of

times it's our flesh that thinks it sucks, right?

It's I'm, I'm doing a class online right now and and I was

sharing with Bob yesterday one of the this is not a brag thing.

We'll see if I can even do it, but one of the things that is

going to be required in the class is to read through the

Bible in 12 weeks. So I'm going to be reading a

lot, right? And I'm not a reader, so it's

going to be a lot of like face like, so I'm never going to see

you, but that I had the opportunity to do that right in

the in. I'm a pastor here and I don't

have a 40 hour hour a week job that I go to right now.

So I'm here, I have that opportunity and I should be at

my flesh is is dreading that idea right.

But my spirit is getting excited for of and the idea of reading

through the Bible that quickly is that you get the you you get

kind of a full picture in your head right as you're going

through it, that you, you, you have the whole thing together

where you can see it all is the idea of the class.

But something about our flesh that it doesn't like.

Is that what we are to be is John the Baptist who said I must

increase and he must increase or hema, I must decrease and he

must increase. I just reversed that because

it's he must increase and I must decrease.

But anyway, and God will lead us to that.

But the one that's fighting is half of me doesn't want that.

Half of me wants to be in charge.

Micah 68 says he has shown you, oh man, what is good and what

does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy and

to walk humbly with your God. You can't do that.

I can't do that. Jesus can do that and his way

right. It's I always tell people that

Jesus is a free gift that will cost me everything.

I am right because it's it's complete surrender to him.

And that's what Moses didn't understand right now going on to

verse 13, Moses is feeling pretty good on the second day.

You know, he'd sit, stand back. Lord, I have this now he's going

to go out and, and I'm sure like Peter that he was feeling

pretty, pretty good about what he had done and that they would

now understand that he was there to help and, and who he was.

They weren't impressed because like I said, in doing that, he

had given up all his power. You know, if you think about the

same thing with Peter in the in the garden.

So if you guys have read the story of the garden, they, all

the guards showed up to arrest or arrest Jesus and they said

we're looking for Jesus and Nazareth.

And he said I am he and they all fell down.

So it was very clear who was in charge.

And then they stood up again, and I imagine they were much

quieter about. So who?

I'm him, and you can take me. But you got to let them go.

And then out jumps Peter with a sword and cuts off an ear.

You're missing it, Peter. You've slipped.

But in that moment, Peter had given up.

Like Peter wasn't in power, right?

What? His sword.

He's one sword against everybody.

Jesus had already proven his power, right?

Well, Moses had lost all that power that he had because he was

the Prince. He was a Prince of Egypt,

adopted or not, that's who he was.

And his shortcut stripped him of that.

And the Hebrews understood that, right?

Because he's no better than them.

He has to, he gets to kill an Egyptian, but he has to hide the

body. So he's, he doesn't have any

power, right? And so they, they come and he

comes to him and they're like, who are you?

And why should we listen to you? And you?

Are you going to kill me like you killed the Egyptian?

And he suddenly figures out how powerless he is.

And in this part of it, Moses is not a humble man.

But if you if you get into deeper into Exodus and Numbers,

it talks about Moses after after he spends his time in the

wilderness. It says in in Numbers 12/3.

It says now the man Moses was very humble more than all men

who were on the face of the earth.

And this is this is a moment Moses is being attacked by his

older brother and sister. And The thing is, when you read

the story, he doesn't say a word, but the Lord hears.

And when the Lord hears, the Lord says, Aaron, Miriam, you

want to come here for a minute, Let's talk.

And it doesn't go well for them, right?

Do we trust God like that? Because Moses doesn't defend

himself? He actually he actually, of

course, because he's Moses, he ends up actually praying for his

brother and his sister because they were in pride and that The

thing is, guys, have you reached when until we reach the end of

us, we're not ready for the easy way right until until we we get

to that point. We think that we should be on

the attack. We should take a shortcut.

I can get there if I just if I just go this way, you know, it's

it's the and I pick on us tremendously over the years.

But as Americans and probably the Western world, but as

Americans, we are incredibly good at the.

Yeah, but excuse. Yeah, but you don't understand.

But yeah. But I, I was, I was, I had a

hard life. Yeah.

But this. Yeah.

But that God says yeah, but this, I wrote it down and it's

true. And The thing is, is that his

way when we follow it and we listen to it, it says hard

things, guys, I won't. I mean, if we get through exodus

year, we're going to get the stuff that guys, that's what it

says. But it is the best way.

You know, it's it's the easiest thing with that.

You know, it is that is that not bribing people in Uganda?

It is it is an out loud thing in Uganda that you just bribe

people. It's not a.

America, when I say bribe, you think dishonest and in Uganda it

is not dishonest to bribe people.

It's doing business. I have to actually take you into

the word of God and show you where God says bribery is bad.

Not not specifically bribery because that's just their

culture right there. Yeah, but is you just bribe

people, that's how you get things done.

And we have lots of things in America that we just do because

it's, I don't know, it's just just the way we do things.

And God, the thing that is, is joyous for me though, guys, is

no matter where you're at, no matter where on the shortcut,

whether you've chose the shortcut or the easy way, God

will get us where we're going, right?

He's he's always faithful to finish the work he started.

Psalm 138 verse 7 says, though I walk in the midst of trouble,

Psalms 138:7

you will revive me. You will stretch out your hand

against the wrath of my enemies and your right hand will save

me. The Lord will will the Lord will

perfect that which concerns me perfect.

Sorry, it's like that's wrong. The Lord will perfect that which

concerns me. Your mercy, O Lord, endures

forever. Do not forsake the works of your

hands. And all of that to say is you

can trust him. You can trust him to just do it

for him to be on the easy path. Isaiah wrote 700 years after

Moses. Behold in in chapter 25 it says,

and it will be said in that day, Behold, this is our God.

We have waited for him he will save us.

This is the Lord we have waited for him.

We will be glad and rejoice in his salvation and guys that is

the easy way is is to trust that he is bigger than my problems.

I, I doing doing trips Uganda and the attacks come and I, I

used to tell everybody and I, I say it to this day, even here is

God's answer is bigger than Satan's question always God is

bigger. It isn't a it is not a it is not

a battle between good and evil, right?

God is God wins period. His way is the right way period.

Now when I talk about the the get to's, it's, it is being

still with God, which is just on purpose time with the Lord,

right? It's slowing down.

It's it's quiet time to read the word.

It's fellowship, it's witnessing to other people.

It's fasting, memorizing, meditating on his word, on his

word. But those are things we, we

especially as as Americans in the Western world, we have time

to do that. We are able.

Ray Lewis, not a guy I'm rooting for as far as character, but he

had a great line. It's wins and losses come a dime

a dozen, but effort, nobody can judge effort.

Effort is between you and you. And what I would tell you is

that effort is between you and you and Jesus, right?

That is all you can put in when it says, when it says, do

everything as unto the Lord and not to men you know.

Who knows if I'm doing everything as unto the Lord me

and Jesus. I know if I'm faking it.

I know if I'm trying to take a shortcut and so does He.

I can look like I'm doing all the right things.

I can say all the right things. I can attempt to kill all the

right Egyptians, and God knows where I'm at and what I'm doing.

So walking with Jesus doesn't mean that I get there faster

than other people. It doesn't mean that my Rd. is

smoother than other people. It means that my way is sure.

And because of that, it is the easier way because I have that

hope when I get to say not as I will, but as you will, right?

And this is Moses. Moses at the end is not where he

wants to be, but he, he runs off right because he's in front of

God. And suddenly his shortcut is as

far from being in charge of that palace or rescuing his people as

he can get. So like so many people in the

Old Testament, which I love the end of verse 15, Moses ends up

at a well. And if you live Moses is, is no

different than Jacob or Abraham's servant.

You find him at a well, which must have been the best place to

meet girls because that seems like all that ever happens at a

well, right. And and it talks about the

priest of Midian and the very beginning of verse 16 says now

the priest of Midian. And so who is this guy?

And you'll find this guy is, is somebody in, in all, of all of

the books of the law, the only, the only person that Moses that

you would call a mentor, somebody that Moses listened to,

somebody that, that Moses got wisdom from was the priest of

Midian, his father-in-law. And, and so who was this guy

that so Jethro or or Raul, he's he's called different things.

Like we have different names as well.

They could call me Adams, they can call me pastor.

They can call me Nick. And so he's called different

things, but the priest of Midian is a Midianite, and they would

have been sons of Abraham's son Midian.

And somebody that Abraham had had with concubines after Sarah

had died and he was sent Midian, was sent east by Abraham.

But The thing is, is that Midian would have had this same

knowledge of God as Isaac had. And and with that, that doesn't

mean that he was in a he was in this perfect position.

But if you get to verse 18 or chapter 18 of Exodus, Jethro

before the law is given sacrifices to Yahweh.

And it says chapter 18, verse 10, it says and Jethro said,

blessed be the Lord who has delivered you out of the hand of

the Egyptian Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh, and who

has delivered the people from under the hand of Egyptians.

And now I know that the Lord is greater than all the gods.

For the very thing in which they behaved poorly, he was above

them. Then Jethro, Moses's

father-in-law took a burnt offering and and other

sacrifices to offer to God. And Aaron came with all the

elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses and his

father-in-law. So the law was given in chapter

19. So this is before that.

This is, this doesn't mean that Jethro Star, that the priest of

Midian served God perfectly. But what it does point out is

that that everybody across the world is accountable for their

knowledge of God. Job knew who God was.

That's way before Israel Noah, something I, I just picked out

the other day. Noah knew all the clean animals

because he was supposed to take extra clean animals.

God doesn't tell him what the clean animals are in that

moment. God has been talking to dirt

since the day he made us. And if you don't know that joke,

I, I, I say we're all we were made out of dirt.

So God has been talking to us and if they were willing to hear

and obey, right and that that that's that.

What about those people that haven't heard?

We are all descendants of Adam who was we're all descendants of

Noah. The truth has been given right?

It is what you do with it. And Jethro, I would imagine,

watched, watched Moses in the what went on in Egypt and what

he heard about when they came in and his understanding of how big

this God, his, his father had told him about was right or his

his father's father's father had told him about.

And so I'm not saying that that the priest of Midian was serving

Yahweh, but he definitely had an idea of who this God was.

This takes us to Moses at the well and here we get a little

get a little Jason Bourne action, right, because he

there's seven daughters guessing they were beautiful.

He marries one of them later on. But the other shepherds would

drive the daughters away. Well, then Moses came and helped

them. So one guy, Moses helped the

girls basically drive off the other shepherds.

So what it doesn't say is Moses killed any shepherds, right?

He wasn't he wasn't killing shepherds.

He was he was helping women right of people.

The idea there is he was helping those weaker than him and he was

trained in all the all the things in Egypt.

So he would have known how to fight in in he was trading words

and deeds. And but this kind of goes

against what I what I've been talking about and and to

clarify, it doesn't mean that being with God that you are

stagnant and not not out about his business.

He doesn't have to tell you every moment of your day.

There are things that are just yeah, that's serving the Lord

Job 2912 through 17. And this really is like I said,

this is all the guys here. You should have Job 29.

The whole chapter should be in your back pocket.

Like I would tell all the ladies here that Proverbs 31 should be

in your back pocket, that you should just know what those

qualifications are. This is our job as as believers,

as men, This is what we're supposed to be doing.

Because I delivered the poor who cried out, the fatherless, and

the ones who had no helper. The blessed, the blessing of the

perishing man came upon me, and I caused the widow's heart to

sing for joy. I put on righteousness and

clothed, and it clothed me. My justice was like a robe and a

turban. I was eyes to the blind, I was

feet to the lame. I was a father to the poor.

I searched out the case that I did not know, and I broke the

fangs of the wicked and plucked the victim from his teeth.

But how do we know to do what God?

That these are God things? How do we know that we know what

God's will is? And we know that God's will has

us delivering the poor we have that we should be delivering the

fatherless right? That we should be taking care of

the widows. That we should be eyes to the

blind and feet to the lame, a father to the poor and the part

with breaking fangs to save the victims.

This isn't cutting off heads and killing people.

This is getting the victims out of the out of the clutches of

the wicked. And that's all stuff we are

called to do as believers, right?

This is. And the thing with these things

is they are not shortcuts. Your flesh doesn't want a darn

thing to do with one of those. Your flesh actively doesn't that

that is all hard for your flesh to do.

Now swinging a sword and killing the killing the wicked.

Absolutely. I want sign me up.

Take care of the poor, take care of the widows, save the victim.

Stand in right places. And that's hard, right?

And but that is that is the easy way, right?

That is the doing everything as unto the Lord and not to men.

Now back to the story. The priest of Midian said in

verse 20, So he said to his daughters, and where where is

he? Who is where is he?

And and that the question there is they're like, why he's asking

them why they got back early. And they said, well, there's

Egyptians showed up and helped us.

And he's like, did you not notice there's seven of you and

you left the bachelor at the well, No, it's but he but like a

culture of this would be the same culture that Uganda has.

It's there. There's a stranger that helped

you. And why did you not invite him

back for dinner? And in that obviously more to

the story, but Moses was content to live with the man and he gave

Zephora his daughter to Moses and she bore him a son and he

called his name Gresham before he said, I have been a stranger

in a foreign land. And Moses lived happily ever

after. Well, so his shortcut leading to

the easy way was to take a lap. It was a 40 year lap, right?

The the chapter, chapter 3, we'll get into it.

It'll be a page turn, but it's 40 years of Moses's life and the

training God did with Moses is is not explained right.

It's a page turn, but from a Prince to a shepherd, the level

of dependence he would have been taught on that really long

shortcut, Moses, his whole life would be in God's hands right as

a shepherd. This is one of those that you

never really think about as a shepherd.

He would spend weeks or even months alone in the wilderness,

right? Not, not with a bunch of Cowboys

on horses, just him and the sheep.

And tell me there wasn't time for him to get to know his Lord.

The palace may have been an easier place to do it as far As

for your just comfort, but this was a place that he was going to

get to know the Lord. And he was going to get to know

the Lord by relying on him, finding water, protecting the

flock from predators. You know, sleeping outdoors and,

and sleeping outdoors in the wilderness is, can be, can be a

scary thing, right? Especially for a Prince.

You know, he had to endure the heat in the cold.

And like David, he, I'm sure he had to fight off lions and

wolves and thieves. And this was all opportunities

for Moses to learn the easy way of just relying on the Lord.

God will take whatever, whatever He needs to do to train you, He

will take you as far as you as He needs to go to get us where

He needs us to be. And that's my embrace the suck

Turner verse which is James 1/2. My brethren counted all joy when

you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your

faith produces patience, but lest the patients have it's

perfect work that you may be perfected and complete, lacking

nothing. When we embrace the easy way our

flesh takes it as suck, but it is the way that's going to get

us where we want to go, right? Christ will get us there.

The question is, how much training do we want, right?

And I, I think of God has been using free will to work out his

plan from the beginning, right? Don't don't think that we're

making choices that haven't been made from the beginning.

Adam and Eve had a choice. They could get knowledge from a

tree, the knowledge of good and evil, or they could do it the

easy way and get it from the guy who wrote it down, right?

Get it from the author of Knowledge.

What did they pick? We very often are just like our

ancestors and we pick the shortcut and we take laps, but

don't think that because we're on a lap that God isn't working.

And then he doesn't have a plan for your life, for my life.

But what he wants, his relationship, what he wants, his

time with you, with me, that's what he wants.

That is the easy way. So choose, do you want the

shortcut or the easy way? And Lord, I just, I lift up this

time and everybody here. And Lord that you would just

help us to see the easy way and the the joy of that, Lord,

however long it takes to get us there, Lord, that we would just

rest in you or when you would guide and direct us.

Amen.