Exodus 2:11-21 | Joining God in His Work & letting Him SHAPE you.

First question that came to my mind was how did they even get

in slavery? Like what happened?

Like how does a people group that's so big like and so great

and do some great things? How in the world do they end up

in bondage? So that's kind of where I want

to start. So what I'm going to do is we're

going to be in Exodus chapter 2 today, but let's let's let me

Exodus 2 · chapter mention

like walk us to how we got to like they are in captive nature,

right? It's like, how did that happen?

All right, so you guys remember Joseph, all right, If you don't,

it's OK. Just lie and be like.

So as we ended Genesis, you know, Joseph, he becomes second

in command in Egypt and he brings his family because

there's a seven-year famine that hits and, and God is

orchestrating all of this. They come to Egypt, they go to

the land of Goshen, which is like a very prosperous land.

And, and the family begins to thrive.

They begin to, they, they begin to just expand.

They're they're, they're growing in numbers as well as, as well

as a name. So the family's growing, they're

doing really good. A massive famine hits the

region. Joseph saves his family in

Egypt. The Israelites are honored

guests and they begin to prosper and they begin to multiply and

things are going well. What happened?

So we see the transition happened in Exodus chapter one,

verse 8. There's a passage in Exodus 1/8

that says now there arose a new king over Egypt who did not know

Joseph. Now the text says he didn't know

Joseph. And it wasn't like he didn't

know Joseph. No, he didn't care to know

Joseph. He didn't feel bound for like,

past alliances. He saw the Israelites not as a

partner, but he started seeing the Israelites as a threat.

So why would he see him as a threat?

He started thinking like, man, this is a huge group.

Like, what if? What if their military turns on

us? They could easily take us over.

What if they join Egypt's enemies?

Like, like, they end up like pulling them in?

What if I lose control? And so he, he saw the Israelites

not as a partner, but he saw them as a threat.

And as you know, any insecure king, what they do, they try to

control the situation because insecurity breeds control.

So how does he control the situation?

Well, the first thing he does, he calls the National Guard to

go, I'm joking. All right, so some of y'all got

that. Don't leave the church.

The first thing he does. So there's three things that

Pharaoh does in order to oppress the people.

So I'm going to put this on the screen.

The first thing he does is that he he puts in forced labor.

So how does he do that? He starts putting in slave

drivers and he says you guys are going to build us 2 store

cities, right? So these store cities are called

Pitham and and Ramses. A store city is pretty much to

support the military. It's to support the economic

growth and the economic needs. Remember, they went through this

seven-year famine, which was in the history of Egypt in that

region. So this kind of made sense.

So let's build. I need the Israelites to build

me a store city. But then he used harsh

oppression because the goal of oppression is not productivity.

The goal is to break your spirit, because if I could break

your spirit, then you just function without purpose.

And if I take your purpose away, then you'll just do whatever I

tell you to do. You're just going to go through

life doing what you do without asking questions.

You're now bonded. You're tied to the oppressor.

And then lastly, population control.

So what Pharaoh did was because the Israelites, even in

oppression and even in, in all of this stuff that's happening,

they continue to thrive. They continue to grow like their

population continued to expand because oppression cannot stop

God's promises on his people. So they continued to grow.

So what does Pharaoh do? All baby boys are going to be

thrown into the Nile. Sound familiar A little bit.

Remember, Jesus grew up in that era too.

Like we got to kill all the kids, the babies population

control. Just a little side note because

we see this playing out a little bit.

And today and I, and I want to show us this because I, I

believe that the enemy still uses this today.

Because if we're going to talk about abortion clinics, pay

attention to the marketing schemes and the people that

they're marketing to. That's the whole other sermon.

All right? So, so if you look at Pharaoh's

strategy, he's doing all of these things ironically, it

didn't crush them. It actually caused them to

multiply. So this is where the story

begins. But what we're going to see here

is that there's a greater story behind this.

There's a much greater story behind this because what Pharaoh

doesn't know is that God already told Abraham that his

descendants are going to be strangers in the land that

they're not, that they don't own for 400 years.

Also, Egypt's about to become the stage where God shows his

power, where God shows his faithfulness, and where God

shows his heart for liberation. And then also Exodus is going to

become the defining salvation event in the Old Testament.

And it's there's going to be all these implications to the coming

Messiah, who is Jesus. So God is setting all this up.

This isn't taking him by surprise.

And the truth is, is that God is already working.

God is doing a great work. We call this the Mizio Day, the

mission of God, and I'm going to go and put the definition.

What's the mission of God? The mission of God is to bring

glory to His name through the redemptive work for His people

to redeem all of mankind back to Him because sin entered the

world and that redemption only happens through Jesus Christ.

So that is the mission of God. So if this is the mission of God

to bring glory to my name for the redemption of all mankind,

that is where God is going. God is going to start inviting

us in to join him in his mission.

And that's what's going to happen to Moses.

You know, growing up when I I started going to seminary, I was

getting my master's degree. I took a class called

Hermeneutics, which was the worst thing that ever happened

to me because they teach you how to read the Bible.

And as I'm reading the Bible, I started seeing things in my walk

where I started asking questions.

And I was like, man, there's got to be more to this whole

Christianity thing than me coming to church and going home.

There's got to be more to it. And I started really having this

internal struggle with like, man, is this all there is?

Is like you go to church, you sing some songs and you go home.

Like I want to, I want to experience like this stuff.

I want to experience like the stuff I see in Scripture, like

the stuff that the Holy Spirit is talking about, the making

disciples, the seeing like, like miracles.

I want to see that. And I believe that there's

people in this room today who like myself, man, I was like,

man, churches felt like Groundhog Day.

It was like the same thing over and over again.

I was like, man, it really like it bothered me.

But you see, the problem wasn't the church, the problem was me.

Because I have not accepted the invitation to join God in His

work and in His purposes. I haven't surrendered my full

calling to Him. And when I did that, it changed

the way that I viewed church. It changed everything, the way I

prepared, the way that I was like, man, we got to get these,

this church outside these walls, the way like I was like, man,

we're going to go to, I want to do some crazy stuff.

Got involved in serving our city and doing stuff that made no

sense. And I was like, God, I don't

know how I'm going to do it, but we're going to do it.

And when I, when that started happening in my life, it shifted

the way that I view church. It changed the way I prepared

for church. It changed the way that I saw

people. And I want to invite you into

what God is inviting us into His mission.

And Moses is going to show us and teach us a lot of what that

might look like. So God is at work.

But here's the question I want to give us.

What happens when we decide to do God's things but our way

doesn't turn out too well? And that's exactly what Moses is

going to run into. So Moses had two parents and I'm

just going to summarize chapter 1-2.

Hebrew parents. He was born.

And because they were throwing all the baby boys in the Nile,

These, these, these, these servants save Moses.

The Bible says that they, they hid him for about 3 months.

But then Moses mom put him in a basket and she placed him in the

reeds by Pharaoh's palace. Now I know all of us are Prince

of Egypt where there's hippos and alligators and and all this

stuff. And Moses is the little baskets

riding waves and stuff. No, they placed them where he

could be found. And I know everything in movies

is real. So as they placed them in the

reeds, Pharaoh's daughter comes and finds him and they

immediately know that he's a Hebrew.

How do they know he's a Hebrew? Because of circumcision,

remember God told his people that's where you're going to

know you belong to me. Circumcise the males.

So the immediately that he wasn't an Egyptian, he was a

Hebrew. So they find Moses, then they

find his mother, and then they tell his mother to nurse him

until he's of age and they take care of his family as the mother

nurses Moses. And this is where we begin in

verse 11. So in verse 11 in Exodus chapter

Exodus 2 · chapter mention

2, says one day after Moses had grown up, he went out to where

his people were and watched them and watched them at their hard

labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a

Hebrew, one of his own people looking this way and that and

seeing no one. He killed the Egyptian and hit

him in the sand. The next day he went out and saw

two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong,

why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?

And then in verse 14, the man said, Who made you ruler and

judge over us? Over, Yeah, over us.

Are you thinking of killing me as you kill the Egyptian?

Then Moses was afraid and thought, what did I, what did I

must have become known. So going back to verse 11,

interesting here it says that one day Moses had grown up,

right? So this is a Fast forward.

So right now we know that Moses is about 40 years old.

How do we know that? Because when you cross reference

the text, you could go to Acts Chapter 7.

Acts 7 · chapter mention

And in Acts Chapter 7, as Stephen is about to get stoned

Acts 7 · chapter mention

by the apostles or by Saul, not the apostle yet, but by Saul and

all his cronies, right? Stephen stands up and he gives

this this story of the gospel. And he talks about Moses in

verse 20. Yeah, verse 20 through 27.

And he says he goes when, and this is verse 23, it's not going

to be on the screen. But when Moses was 40 years old,

he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites.

So we know that for the 1st 40 years of Moses's life, he was

growing as an Egyptian. That means that he went to

school in the same school that the Egyptians went to.

He had the best education, he had the best training man.

He was probably like skilled in Warcraft and he was probably

skilled in like fighting and weaponry.

And also, the Egyptians are known for their mathematics.

If you look at how they built pyramids and how they built

things like Moses had it going on.

He had everything possible that he needed in order to go up in

command in Egypt. The problem was that Moses

started having an internal struggle of who he was because

of what he was seeing. And he's seeing all this

oppression and he's seeing all that's happening.

He knows that he's a Hebrew. How does he know that he's a

Hebrew? Every time he uses the bathroom,

it's a reminder. I am not like the Egyptians.

So he's hiding the secret inside, but he's also seeing.

So there's a time like Moses probably thought, like I have to

free my people. I got to liberate my people.

So what does he do? He went out where his own people

were. You see people in in that type

of capacity as being one of the rulers of Ramses.

You don't go and just hang out with normal folks.

You are a ruler. You have no business being out

there. But Moses knew what he was

doing. He wanted to go.

And it says that he watched them at their hard labor and he saw

an Egyptian beating a Hebrew. Now look at the words here.

It didn't say disciplining. He didn't say he was out of

line. No, he was beating them down

like he was beating to kill him. He was taking it out on this,

this Hebrew and then it says that Moses it look at look at

verse. This is crazy.

Look at verse 12, because I think like Moses, it says Moses

looked one way. He looked the other way to make

sure nobody's around. You know what that's called

premeditated pro. Moses knew what he was going to

go do. This is premeditated murder.

He wasn't going to go break up a fight.

He was going to go kill this dude.

And he says that he made sure that there was nobody around and

he ran. He killed.

I don't know what he did. I don't know.

He took a break. I don't know if he got a real

naked chokehold. I don't know.

He broke his. I don't know what happened if he

pushed him off of I don't know. What we do know is that he

killed him. Moses had a little bit of a

temper, but also don't miss this.

There was something inside of Moses where he loved justice.

When he saw something wrong happening, it bothered him.

And Moses ran and he killed the Egyptian.

Oh, and it gets better. He hit him in the sand.

I got to dispose the evidence. And this is like an episode of

first 48. But here's 1 something that

we're going to learn. Moses did the right thing, but

the wrong way. God never intended to take out

the Egyptians. God's purpose and plan was to

liberate the Israelites. And Moses stepped in and said,

God, I'm going to call you. I'm doing what you're calling me

to do, but I'm going to do it my way.

And because Moses decided to take matters in his own hand and

said God, I'm going to do it. He goes in there and he makes a

mess, and this mess is actually going to end up sending him the

Midian. He makes a massive mess here.

He preempts God's plan for his life and for what God was going

to use him for. He tried to take God's purposes

for his own. Remember, what's God's mission?

To bring glory to his name for the redemption of his people.

And what Moses probably thought was I'm going to bring glory to

my name for the redemption of his people.

And Moses was like man, if I could lead this way.

How do we know this? Because in Acts Chapter 7 verse

Acts 7:25

25 says Moses thought that his own people would realize that

God was using him to rescue them, but they did not.

So the next day Moses came upon 2 Israelites that were fighting

and he tried to reconcile them by saying, man, you are

brothers, why do you want to hurt each other?

Moses thought this is my time. If I step in here, then my name

is going to spread all through this Kingdom and we're going to

raise the people and we're going to take over the Egyptians and

I'm going to free everybody out of here.

Didn't really work that way because when your name is too

commingled with what God is doing, it doesn't work.

God's plan, God's way for God's purposes and we get to join in,

not God's plan, my way for my purposes.

And many of us have this mentality of I need the shine

and that's not how this is. And Moses is going to pay a

price for it and what price does he pay?

It's a mess now because after the two folks were fighting,

let's look at verse 14. He goes and he tries to step in.

He's like, man, you guys shouldn't be fighting each other

like it's US against the Egyptians and they're going at

each other. But remember, harsh oppression,

broken spirit, lost purpose, right?

So what did they say? Look at verse 14.

The man said, who made you a ruler and judge over us?

Are you thinking of killing us as you killed the Egyptian?

Then Moses was afraid and thought what I did must have

been known. Whoa, this isn't good because he

tried to hide it. And what was the outcome?

Look at verse 15 and when Pharaoh heard of this, wait a

second. Stop.

Pharaoh heard. Then the other verses just say

that Moses looked this way and that way.

Make sure there's nobody around. That means that the only person

that saw and knew what happened was the was the Hebrew that he

saved. That means that his own people

ratted him out. Bro, there's no other way for

Pharaoh to know what happened unless the Hebrews told them.

The people. The Hebrews did not respect

Moses. I don't know if he was dressed

in Hebrew guard, I don't know what he had on.

But Moses thought that he was going to be the guy to free them

right then and there. But no, like they told Pharaoh

now Pharaoh's thinking treason. He killed one of our people

remember? Like he he wanted to stop the

uprisings like this is the whole purpose why they oppressed him.

So his own people ratted him out.

So when Pharaoh heard of this, it says that he tried to kill

Moses. So Moses, what does Moses do?

He fled he Fred from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian where he

sat down by a well. Hmm, Moses left.

So look, look at Moses fight here.

Egypt, Pharaoh, all my people I grew up with 40 years don't want

me dead. The Hebrews, the people that I'm

trying to free over here, don't respect me.

Forget it. I'm leaving.

I'm going to Midian. Midian is like, just to put in

context, from where they're at, from Cairo, like Egypt.

Midian's about walking from Fort Worth to Amarillo.

It is not close and I know the movie show Moses like drinking 1

bottle of water and he's like at the well the next day.

No like this is far guys. Like this is something Moses

thought about and I love like I was thinking about like Moses

ain't singing Brandon late gratitude.

He's singing Brandon fake attitude.

I throw up my hands and leave this room once again.

I mean, like he's just, he's done with it.

He's like, I'm over it. I'm done with the Hebrews.

I'm not with the Egyptians. I'm done with it.

I don't, I don't want anything to do with this.

I'm leaving. I'm going to Midian.

And it says that he ends up at a well.

I think this is an important detail in the text.

Lots of spiritual things happen around Wells when you read the

Bible. So two things.

One is this there's there's something spiritual that happens

as an example, see Jesus and the woman of the well.

But also in those times meeting at the well that was like their

version of the dating app like what That's where you would go

and meet people. Isaac met Isaac's servant met

found his wife Rebecca there. Jacob found Rachel at a well

Wells kind of a good thing. Maybe Moses is like, maybe it's

time for me sell this thing down.

Can you find me a wife? He goes to a well.

So look what happens. I think this is this is just so

cool, right? So now Moses is stepping into

like God is going to start drawing him in to prepare.

Moses tried doing God's thing. His way didn't work out.

So now God is going to start drawing Moses to him.

How does he do it? Look at verse 16.

It says now a priest of Midian had seven daughters and they

came to draw water to fill the trouts, to water their father's

flock. Some shepherds came along and

drove them away, but Moses got up and came to their rescue and

watered their flock. When the girls returned to rule

their father. Another name is Jethro.

He asked them why have you returned so early?

And they answered. An Egyptian rescued us from the

shepherds. He even drew water for us and

watered the flock. OK, so third time's a charm for

Moses because remember, he wanted to rescue his people and

he ended up killing an Egyptian, and then he tried to reconcile

to Hebrews and that didn't work. They ended up turning on him.

So now remember, there's something in Moses where he just

loves justice. He jumps in because somebody's

mistreating these ladies. And it works because God is in

it now. And just side note, I started

thinking I was like, man, Rick, you keep talking about like this

whole like doing God's thing my way.

How do we know? How do we know that it's my way,

not God's way? And real quickly, just to go

backtrack a little bit, in verse 12, we see three things that I

think are indicators of doing God things our way.

So I'm just going to throw these real quickly and then we're

going to move forward because it's said that Moses looked both

ways and no one saw him to make sure no one was looking.

Listen, if you're trying to do God's things all secretive and

sneaky, probably not his way. When you're snooping around and

you're trying to like do things without telling people and, and

trying to keep secrets and be super quiet about it and all

strategic, listen, that's not God's way that ends up actually

being your way of doing things. That doesn't turn out well.

How else? It says that he killed an

Egyptian. That means that it's dead.

Listen, if it's not bearing fruit, God's not in it, Ricky,

but the timing of it all, No, like there's a piece about this

stuff that God injects in what he calls you to.

And if you're doing something over and over and over and over

and over again and, and nothing is working, maybe you need to

take a step back and ask the question, God, am I doing it in

my way or yours? Who am I following here?

Is it from my name or yours? And then lastly, it says that he

hid him in the sand. What are you hiding?

What are some things in our lives that we are hiding in the

sand? What are some things in your

search history that you keep erasing?

Somebody sees it. What are some people that you

keep dogging without telling anybody anything?

Where are you sneaking off to that you're making sure nobody

tracks you? Listen, there's a lot of things

that as believers, we hide in the sand and we do it in the

name of God when God is the one who forgives us of our sin and

and puts it to rest. So listen, if we are trying to

do God's things in our way, there's some indicators here

that we have to pay attention to because it's not going to work

and it's actually going to become a greater mess.

And because it became a greater mess, it had an impact on those

that he was trying to help out and that they didn't even want

to be a part of it. So we have to be careful how we

do things. So moving forward, Sorry, I just

just came to my mind here. So, so Moses, Fast forward to

verse 17. Moses saves, he rescues, and he

waters their flock. I want you to pay attention.

Moses did not just rescue, he served them.

When it comes to things of justice, our goal is not just to

do what's right. Our goal is to serve and the way

you serve. The best way to serve is to lead

people to Christ. The reason why we do things and

stand up for what is not right is not to make ourselves feel

good. It's because God has invited us

in his work in order to serve him in justice.

But justice is justice separated from the gospel.

You're just doing good things. The gospel is what's going to

change things and what's going to fix things.

So Moses, this is third time around.

Now we see that God is in this, It's working.

Why does it work? Because of the outcomes.

And when you do things, God's God's things your way, you

cannot re engineer outcomes. You can't engineer results.

A lot of us try to like, especially like when you when

you go deeper in missions and church planning, people try to

engineer numbers and it's like, no, like, man, if God's working,

you're going to see it. You got to be careful.

Don't fall into that trap. So it's working and check this

out. Jethro has seven daughters.

So when he hears like there's a man who came in, handles the

business, served my daughters and it's strong.

Where's he at? I got 7.

Like I need to meet this guy. Like this is good and listen.

And this is where my single people listen.

Good men are hard to find. And all the women said, see, I'm

telling you good man, a heart man like this is like this

somebody that's strong, that's going to fight, that's going to

stand up, that's not lazy, that that's going to serve like, are

you serious? Where's he at?

It's hard to find. So Jethro brings him in and he

says, man, like, I, I, I want to meet him.

Where is he? This is verse 20.

Hello. Look, verse 20 trips me out.

He's like, where is he? Why did you leave him there?

Why didn't you like invite him to come get something to eat?

Remember back then sharing a table is a big deal.

You're inviting people into your life.

It's more than food now. It's like friendship.

It's it's it's getting deep now. And in verse 21, Moses agreed to

stay with the man who gave his daughter Sephora to Moses in

marriage. So now Moses is married and

Midian. And then verse 22, Zipporah gave

birth to a son and Moses named him Gershom, saying, I have

become a foreigner in a foreign land.

During the long that long period the king of Egypt died.

The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their

cry for help because of their slavery went up to God.

God heard their groaning, and he remembered his covenant with

Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.

So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.

And how crazy is that? Like all of their cries?

Just saying. God heard it all.

The first part of Moses's life, He spent 40 years in Egypt

learning and acquiring and getting all these things, which

makes sense why Moses would write the first five books of

the Bible because he was skilled in it.

But now the second 40 years of his life, he's going to spend in

Midian, where God is going to begin to work on his heart, and

he's going to begin to help Moses have empathy for his

people, not just justice. He's going to start building

Moses up. God's way is starting to happen

in Moses's life and we see some evidence of this.

Moses killed an Egyptian. His friends didn't want no help,

but now he rescues these women. He serves them and it works.

That's what justice Moses was looking for.

Moses is raised by Pharaoh the 1st 40 years, someone who

doesn't believe in God, actually believes in many little G gods,

trains them up, raises them up. But now the second 40 years,

he's going to be under somebody named Jethro, who is a man of

God, the one true God. And Jethro is going to walk with

Moses and develop him spiritually and get his heart

right and align his ways with God's ways.

And then Sephora, Moses now is married.

See, in Egypt, he wasn't married.

And I think because because he didn't want people to realize

that he was a, a Hebrew in the Egyptian camp.

But now God sends somebody alongside of him in support.

And it becomes listen, support becomes really, really important

in the mission in the life of Moses.

And we're going to start seeing that in the next few weeks

because listen, behind every great man is an even greater

woman. And anybody that is serving the

Lord and anybody in ministry, you know this like I'm nothing

without rage. Like they said, the man's the

head, but she's the neck. She turns the head.

And what God does is that God partners, He aligns us with

someone who's going to serve just as well and just as much.

And it's the same mindset for the mission of God.

Listen, if you are striving for the mission of God and somebody

comes alongside of you, and it's like, Nah, I'm not feeling it

wrong. You went to the wrong.

Well, the Lord is going to put you together.

So if you're walking with Jesus, he's going to send somebody

right next to you that has that same fire and desire to walk

with Christ as well, and you're going to serve the Lord

together, hand in hand. It's going to be amazing.

Sapora came alongside Moses. Really important for him, his

life, because it's going to take 40 years to get Egypt out of

Moses. So that way Moses could go back

to Egypt and get his people out of Egypt.

There were some things that had to be developed in Moses,

Moses's life and there was some things that he had to die to.

He had to die to self. He had to die with past traumas.

Think about it like he grew up not really knowing his parents.

He knew of a lady that took care of him till three months and

nursed him. But his whole childhood was in

the Egyptian camp. So what God is doing is that God

is preparing Moses because what Moses is about to do, he's about

to go. He's going to join God in his

mission, but he's going to see and experience some things that

if he's not spiritually prepared for, it's not going to work.

Moses is going to walk with the Lord in a way that many people

are not going to be able to understand or comprehend, and

it's going to take some time to get him ready.

That means that if he's going to walk with God, he has to die to

self ambition, to pride, to ego, to past traumas.

He's going to have to die to a many things in order for him to

fully trust in working alongside with God.

The way I want to close is with this.

I think many of us God is giving you and I that same exact

invitation. God is doing in a great work.

I think like our generation is we're ready to do something.

We want to see some change. Like we're tired of talking

about it like we're, we're over it.

Like let's jump in. Like what, what can we do

together? And my, and my answer to you is

God is inviting you right now. He's inviting you to join him in

his work and to come alongside. And many of us are like, well,

Ricky, what does that look like for my life?

What is that? What is that like, how do we,

how does this work? And I think of an acronym called

shape, right? Like just think Ed Sheeran, I'm

in love with the shape of you, right?

Just keep that in my shape. God shapes us.

Once we give our life to Christ, he begins to shape us.

So shape is an acronym. So we'll go and put it up there.

So let's walk through this and I pray that this is an encouraging

to you, an encouragement to you. The first thing God does, he

gives you spiritual gift. So if I surrender my life to

Christ, I'm like, OK, awesome, what's that?

I have the Holy Spirit. And if you look at Ephesians 4,

like God, God is, there's a gifting that takes place and

he's going to give every single one of you that follow Jesus.

He's going to give you a specific gift.

Now take this out. The gift that he gives you is

not for your benefit. The gift that he gives you is

for the benefit of others. So if you're not serving people

with this gift, if you're not doing anything with this gift,

then it might not be a gift that God gave you.

It's just talent. But God's going to give each one

of us a gift. For Moses, whether it was his

hot temper, whether it was his thirst for justice, whatever

that looked like, it was a gift from God.

And Moses is going to start adding value to God's people.

All of us have a gift, whether it's mercy, whether it's the

gift of grace, whether it's the gift of hospitality.

Some of y'all are like great listeners.

That's a gift. Some of you guys are patient.

It could be musically, it could be for teaching.

Listen, whatever gift you have, God gave it to you.

Ingenuity, whatever it is, God has blessed you with this gift

so that way you can add value to his people.

So God's going to give you a spiritual gift age.

God is going to give you a heart some you're like, well, Ricky, I

feel it. No, no, no, God is going to give

you a heart for people, a specific people.

He's going to give you a unique passion for things and your

heart is going to long for that, right?

And how do I know that I have a unique passion for things?

How do I know I have a heart for things?

Because action causes you to move.

Passion causes action. So if you say I have a heart for

this, but yet you do absolutely nothing, you don't, right?

Like you don't have a vision, you just have a Daydream.

Like you just feel nice right? Now Listen, a heart for people

causes you to do something. So if you have a heart to serve,

if you have a heart for a specific population, if you have

a heart for the lost, if you have a heart for the church, if

you have a heart for church plant, whatever that is, Listen,

God is going to steward that heart inside of you and you're

going to start feeling a strong desire inside.

And I think that's why the local church is so important, because

now you have a place that God has brought you to so you could

utilize your spiritual gifts and you could activate your heart

for people. Next, He gives you abilities.

He gives you abilities. God gives you all these

abilities in order to use you for his plan.

Some of us are like, man, I don't know, I could barely read

Rick. I can't even spell.

I stutter. And what God is saying, no, I

gave you an ability and you're going to use it.

The problem is, is that what you think he needs is not what he

needs is what other people want. Forget what other people want.

It's what he wants. So you use what the ability that

God's giving you for your purpose.

And he's going to he's going to form you like he's knitting you

together and he's giving you everything you need in order to

fulfill his plan and his purposes for his mission.

He doesn't send you somewhere I'll equipped.

God is going to give you and listen, for some of us, having

his presence is all we need. You just need to go number,

number. Then we have P, which is God is

going to give you all a personality.

Some of us are laid back people. Some of us are pretty intense.

Some of us are pretty dramatic people.

Dang that got loud so. Some of us are silly, some of us

are introverted, some of us are extroverted, some of us are

social, some of us have a really dry personality or sense of

humor. Listen, that is your

personality. And God has given you a

personality in order to help fulfill His purposes, in order

to align with the heart He's given you because He's giving

you the abilities to do it, because He's giving you

spiritual gifts. Your personality is who you are

and God made you that way. So don't, don't act like you

have to change. No, like come to the Lord, He

will use it. And then lastly, your

experiences, listen, every experience is used by God.

He does not waste anything, any experience in your life.

He will exploit them. When you surrender your life to

God. The Bible says in Romans that

everything happens for the good of those who love them.

Your experiences in life are going to help you along.

And some of you are like man, Ricky, but I used to jump

people. Yes, you did.

But now that you're coming into Christ, you're not jumping

people into gangs, you're jumping people into the family

of God. You are coming at them like

Ricky. I used to lie all the time, but

no, you don't lie anymore. Now you tell the truth.

I used to steal all the time. You don't steal anymore.

Now you give. Listen, every experience that we

have, God uses and he takes that and he redeems it and He uses it

for His will and His way. How do I know this?

Moses spent 40 years of his life being trained in Egypt.

How in the world do you think he was able to fight all those

dudes off at the well, because Pharaoh taught him MMA.

He was trained. This isn't because he was like

super get no, he was trained in this.

How in the world does he he write the Pentateuch like the

five because he was trained in it.

And listen, what we're going to look at in in Moses life is that

all of his experiences, everything that God allowed him

to experience, God is going to use that and he's going to bring

it all in in order for him to fulfill the purposes of God.

So listen, don't be ashamed because some of your experiences

were horrible or were trashed. I'm here to tell you that God's

going to redeem it and then he's going to exploit it for his

glory. Let him do it, stop hiding, stop

being ashamed. Stop.

Stop man, stop being quiet about it.

Let him use your experiences so you can serve others.

You could love others so you could join him in his purposes.

Just a quick example. Like man I was thinking about my

life when I was in in 8th grade they invited me to a mission

trip to Juarez this before it got crazy.

So don't, don't. And I was so mad because my mom

made me go with my brother. I was like, dude, I get to hang

out all week in the summer. I'm inviting my friends over and

my mom's like, you're going too. And I'm like, Dang it.

And I remember going to Waters and I didn't know any.

And they were like, hey, Ricky, you're going to help with the

third graders. I need you to translate.

And I'm like the Sabo Espanol type people.

We go out there and they're like, hey, we don't have anybody

to teach. You're going to have to teach

these kids. I'm like, OK.

And at that moment, right there is when I entered into God's

work, I didn't panic. I didn't freak out.

I was like, let's do it. God put something inside of me

in the eighth grade where I started seeing I'm like, you

know, Ricky, like whatever God asks you to do, you're going to

do it. Out of high school, I actually

did tape embedding and painting. And I look now at all the times

that I've actually used that skill set for His purposes and

for His glory. I look back at all these times

where I've been asked to do things.

Well, it didn't make sense to me and I messed up all these times.

But you know what? I look back now and God has been

preparing and planning and He's been molding and He's been

sculpting, and He's using all this stuff to prepare for the

next phase of what God is inviting me into.

And I'm telling you, He's doing the same thing for every single

one of you guys. He's preparing you for the next

phase of what He's inviting you to.

The question is, are you going to say yes or are you going to

run to Midian? But what's funny is that when

God has a calling on your life, you can't run from him.

He's going to chase you down and you're going to have a crazy

experience with God. But that's next week, so let's

pray.