Desert Survival Series Pt 13- Moses the Servant of God — Don Courville

We're on our series, Moses, the Servant of God, in our Desert Survival series, and we're coming up to Moses' fourth excuse for why he shouldn't go to Pharaoh. Actually another fear, the fear of speaking, he didn't want to speak.

Moses' Fourth Excuse: Fear of Speaking

Let's read just a short little section here, starting with Exodus 4 and verse 10. And Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither hithertofore nor since Thou hast spoken unto Thy servant, but I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue.

And the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man's mouth? Or who maketh the gun, or death, or the seeing, or the blind? Have not I the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.

And he said, O my Lord, send I pray thee by the hand of him whom thou hast sent. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses, and he said, Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well, and also, behold, he cometh forth to meet thee, and when he seeth thee, he will be glad in his heart.

And thou shalt speak unto him, and put words in his mouth, and I will be with thy mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach thee what thou shalt do. And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people, and he shall be to thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him instead of God.

And thou shalt take this rod in thine hand, wherewith thou shalt do signs, as thou prefer. Now Father again, we are dependent upon you to teach us from the Word. Lord, unless the Holy Spirit empowers the speaker and empowers our minds and ears to hear and perceive, we will get little out of it.

And so Father, I yield myself afresh to you, Holy Spirit, you just use me, and I pray that we would learn something from you today, that we would get something that we can use in our life. And again, there is one here without Christ.

As Moses was refusing to go and do what you wanted him to do, even there may be one that has been refusing to be saved, you have been encouraging them to trust Christ, to receive Christ, and without knowing it, they may be sealing their own doom by refusing Christ.

Now Father, thank you for the passage we have and what you will teach us now. You open up things to us to see, in Jesus' name, amen. This is the fourth excuse, as I said, about Moses, and each week there are different things that come out of this, and this one may be the most different yet.

I will do something really quite different today from what we have been doing, and that is I will take this in three parts and look at it. The first excuse, Moses said what? I don't have any ability. Remember God had told him in chapter 3, verse 10, he said, Come now, therefore, I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel.

And so he came up, Lord, I don't have any ability, and God said, that's okay, my presence will go with you, I'll be your ability. Then he said, Lord, I don't have any authority. He went over there and told those guys to come on, I'm going to lead them out, and he said, I'll be your authority.

Then he said, well, they won't accept me. He said, listen, you show them these three signs. And he said, the rod, you see the rod down, turned into a snake, and then the hand would go inside his shirt and come out leprous and put it back, and then he would pour the water out.

He said, you do that, and they'll believe you, and if they don't believe you, then they've got a problem with me. They're unbelieving because it's your problem. And now he says, well, Lord, I can't speak.

I can't speak. A fourth fear, a fear of speaking. The typical expression of a carnal Christian is, Lord, I can't do it. I can't do it. The typical expression of a carnal Christian is, Lord, I can't do it.

The reason is we've got our eyes on ourself. And as long as we've got our eyes on ourself, we can't do anything. And this is what God says, don't look at yourself, you look at me. Jesus says, without me you can do nothing, and then also the scripture says we can do all things through Christ, who strengthens us.

Speaking for God Rather Than Looking at Self

But our subject today is speaking for God. Actually, that's what God wanted, was a mouth. He says, I want your mouth. I want to use your mouth. Now, I want to convey what I want Israel to know through you.

I just need a mouth. Actually he wanted a yielded man, and God has taken him out into that desert to crucify Moses, and at the burning bush, which was his cross, he's finding that this dying in Christ, this becoming dead in Christ, that's actually what a Christian is, it's supposed to be, I'm dead, and Christ is supposed to be alive.

We find that sometimes dying is hard on self, but oh, it produces fruit, spiritual fruit. There's a whole problem with Christians, that we just won't die for self and let God do what he wants us to do.

I remember when my life was changed back in 1966, when I gave my life to Christ, I didn't know what happened. I really didn't know what happened. All I knew was that I had been completely miserable, and that when I gave my life to Christ, and he took over, that it's just like a cleansing come through, and a joy filled my heart.

And when you become a new Christian, when you become a new Christian, that joy should be there, but then you're off on a new life, growing, and there's many things to learn, and sometimes many, many years to learn, all the things that you need to learn.

Matter of fact, you'll never learn it all. The Christian life is we just keep on learning, and learning, and learning. But I remember when I went into the Air Force, just about a month after that, and sitting in basic training, sitting on a locker, trying to talk to guys, and we'd sit around, and I had a little New Testament, and I didn't hardly know anything about the Scriptures.

I didn't have many Scriptures that I really knew that I could use, even though I'd been in church all my life, but all I knew is God had changed my life, and the best I could do was try to maybe get some guys to go to chapel with me, so we'd get ourselves all lined up and marched off, and you had to march everywhere you went, you know, in basic training.

But I tried, tried to do my best, and tried to do what the Lord had said. Matter of fact, this parallel lesson that we are getting from this is the great commission that Jesus gave us. When he said, Go, all power is given unto me in heaven and earth, go, there's three things.

Go, ye therefore, and teach all nations, and baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and Lord, I am with you always.

But basically, we're to go. This is what God is telling Moses, go, he's telling us to go, and he says, teach, he said, I want to use your mouth to teach, to speak, to preach through. I want your mouth, and that's what he wants with us.

Actually, when we become a Christian, when Christ comes in, we're not our own anymore. We were bought with a price. We have a new master. And if you want some misery, as I found out how to have misery, is you just try to argue with your master.

You just try to say, well, I want to do it my way. And so the Christian life is a struggle between obedience and disobedience, when we obey these blessings. Now, in going, in going, there's great blessing.

Actually, what it means is, as we go through our daily life, he wants us to be talking about Jesus. And if we're filled with the Spirit, we will be talking with Jesus. If we're not filled with the Spirit, controlled by the Holy Spirit, we will be occupied with self, and we'll not care about others.

I remember one time, I was thinking about the Lord, and I had a special assignment. I was at the base there in Omaha, and I remember, I can't remember what I was, what my title was. Anyway, I was in charge of the whole base for the weekend, for emergency phones.

I don't know what they call that thing. I think it was officer on duty or whatever. And I had to go, I went to the mess hall, and I was coming back, driving in the military car, and then I went to turn into a diagonal parking spot.

And as I turned in, I heard this, I felt this little bump. What was that, a mosquito? And I looked around, a bug. It ran into me. A guy in a Volkswagen. It ran into my car, you know. And man, he just, he was really plowing along.

What was that? And this guy ran into me. And we got out, and we looked at the situation, and man, he put a little bitty scratch in the fender. And I looked over at his car, and it almost totaled up front of him with that Volkswagen.

I was driving one of those little Valiants, made out of, like a tank. But anyway, they just about wrecked his Volkswagen. We called the MPs, and they come and look at it. Well, just a scratch on a military car.

And I don't know if we need to do much about it. I don't know if you should get in trouble over this. And so they let him go. But I made a contact with that guy. And to make a long story short, I led him to Christ.

Just a little while after that, I led him to Christ. And I remember I gave him my old Bible, a Bible I've had for a long time, because he didn't even have a Bible. And I gave him that Bible. And he became a new Christian through that.

I think this is what Christ is saying. He says, as you go, and as you bump into people, and as they bump into you, talk to them about me. Tell them about me. And he said to Moses, now I want you to go.

And I'm going to talk through you. You're going to be my mouth. And this is what it means for us. Now, it isn't that we fail when we try in our Christian life. It's not that we fail when we try. The problem is that we fail to try.

We fail to even try. So many times, somebody would bump into us, and Moses would say, don't do it again. But instead of taking that for an opportunity, we're all occupied with self. Look, guy, don't bump into me anymore.

You put a scratch in my car. But we take these opportunities to reach out to others. People are hurting. And if you and I don't reach out to them, who is? I'll tell you. Don't say nobody, because somebody is.

A call for us to get a hold of them. Somebody will come along with some false doctrine. And here's something else. He'll say, well, I don't know what to say. I don't know what to say. You've got the most powerful weapon in your heart that you could ever use, and that's your personal testimony.

As you talk with somebody, say, listen, let me share something that happened to me. The greatest thing that ever happened in my life was when I received Christ. Can I share that with you? Can you share how you got saved?

Your testimony. Don't underestimate the power of your testimony to share with others. So many of us have been duped. We've been fooled by Satan into thinking that we can't do anything, we can't say anything.

We can. You've got your testimony. And if you don't have a testimony, you better get saved and get one. I've heard a lot of people say, well, I'm a Christian, but yet they don't have a testimony. You've got a testimony.

Somehow you know the Lord has saved you. And if you can't get up today and tell how Christ saved you, then maybe you better be like Paul said, and examine yourself to see whether you're in the faith. See whether you're in the faith.

Because for many years we could carry along and think that we're saved and not be. I want to show you three things. One, I want to show you what God expected of Moses, what God expected of the early church, and then what God expects of us.

God's Expectation That Moses Go and Speak

Like I said, this will be a little bit different. But look at verse 12 of Exodus 4. Here's what he expected. He expected Moses to go. And you know what happened in verse 13? God got mad at him because he's bucking the system, so to say.

And we don't buck it against God. But God just simply, I want you to go. Don't look at yourself and don't listen to others. One thing that will stop you is you look at yourself. Another thing is you listen to others.

I remember the story of Moody. Remember Moody was preaching one time and thousands would come. And this little old lady had the audacity to come up to him, Mr. Moody, I counted 18 mistakes in your grammar.

You know? And then thousands of people getting saved under his ministry. And he just said, ma 'am, I don't have very good grammar. I didn't have a very good education. But I'll tell you what I'm doing.

I'm using all I've got for God's glory. How about you? So many people. All they can do is criticize and cut. Cut the preacher. He made a mistake. Well, I'm sure he's going to make mistakes. He's going to make a lot of mistakes because he's doing a lot of things.

The reason maybe you don't make so many mistakes is you're not doing so much. But you're making one mistake, and that's you're not going. Well, God wants them to go. Just wants them to go. Some of us, you know, are a little stubborn.

I wouldn't like to say that about myself, but it might be true. And I've had one person that has for years told me that I'm not going to make it. I'm not going to make it. Well, I'll just stick my jaw out and say I'm going to make it.

Maybe if we would learn to use all of our opponents, all of our negative things to turn it around just to encourage us to keep on going, we'd get a little bit more mileage out of it even. And Mulder, he's looking out here at these people, he said, Lord, I can't go talk to them.

I already tried once. And he's looking at himself. It's holding him back. And God, before he's done, he's going to give him a boot. He's going to be going on the fly. Well, after he gets God mad, he says, well, I better go.

But he ends up, there's an interesting thing. He ends up with a crutch. Actually, we'll get into this next week. God told me this week something about next week's sermon. I never saw it. I never saw it.

We'll get into it. But let me share this with you. Mulder's ended up with a crutch. What was his crutch? Everywhere he went, God talked to him, told him what to do. K .S. Goldman whispered in Aaron's ear.

For 40 years, he whispered in his brother's ear. Oh, poor old Aaron, he had a soggy ear. Moses quite slobbering when he whispered in my ear. But that was a crutch. I believe many times Christians, because we fail to obey God the first time, we will obey him the second time only we'll have a crutch, we'll have a limp.

We'll limp through our Christian life. Disobedience always has a higher price tag than obedience. You check it out and see if that isn't true. It's been true in my life. It's always been harder after I've disobeyed.

Because usually if God's asking you to do something, you're going to do it. But you've got to go through some kind of stinking. It's like you tell your child to go do this. Well, he doesn't do it. You get a hold of him and convince him that he's going to do it.

Well, he doesn't. He just finds it easier to do it the first time the right way. So disobedience always has a higher price tag. Many times I believe I have failed God. And if I would look at those failures, I would stop.

I would have stopped this morning. This is why God said, don't look at yourself. He said, don't look at yourself, keep looking at me. Look at the times when you did do something. I believe one of the things when the judgment seat of Christ, I'm not looking for it, is you're going to see these blank spots maybe.

God's been short. Christ's been short. What's that blank spot? The Lord said, well, that's where I had something for you to do and you didn't do it. Maybe you'll show us what you did. And I'm just glad for the times I have done something.

I'm really trying to watch for times when I don't repeat the past mistakes. I remember a time. Remember me telling you about the time I was going down to South Omaha? And I saw this couple out in the rain.

It was raining. Sometimes it can rain. But it was really raining. And sort of cold. And the Lord, as I was approaching them, He said, stop and pick them up. I said, Lord, I don't want to. He said, stop and pick them up.

Okay. And so I stopped and picked them up. This was back in the early 70s. I picked them up and I was going down to the base, about 13 miles. And I said, I'm going down here. Where are you going? Well, they were going to the college, Peru State College down there.

And that's about 70 miles. And you know what the Lord told me to do? He said, take them all the way. What? Would you run that by again? That's 70 miles. That's 140 miles round trip. And the Lord said, I didn't stutter.

And so I took them down there. We got to the turnoff and they expected me to stop and let them out. And I said, I'm going to take you all the way. Man, I couldn't believe it. People didn't do that. They said, let us out.

You're nuts. Yeah. But I took them down there. You know what? When I got there, they invited me in. And we went in and we sat around the kitchen coffee. And they made some hot chocolate, I think it was.

And I've been talking to them about Christ. As we're going down there, we got in and you know what? They said, we want to get saved. We want Christ. Why? Because I was obedient and they saw Christ. They saw Christ.

The Early Church's Mission to Speak the Word

Stephen and Sonny were with me yesterday. We listened to a guy that has a fantastic testimony. Man, that guy would like to get him in here sometime. That he was rich. He had lots of money. You know? And he gave up all of it.

And how he lives now is simply by faith. He's driving this old van. He said he hadn't even seen the title to the van. You know, he went through motors, several motors. He just let God provide for everything.

Well, God's given him the faith for that. So just to be a servant. And that's what we're going to get into next with Moses. Is just to be a servant. At the cross, we give up our right to do what we want to do.

Moses is where? He's at the cross. The burning bush is his cross. And God is saying to Moses, you don't have any right. You don't have the right to refuse me. I want to use your mouth. And Moses is thinking, well, I've got the right to refuse.

And God, before he's over, you know, he stunts old Moses on the noggin. You don't have that right. It's little demons if you won't do it. I've found that Calvary is a two-way street. Two ways. Salvation and service.

So many people think they're on one-way street. It's just I'm saved and I can do as I please. That's not salvation. That's self. Now, if you get saved and try to go that route, and be saved and do as you please, it's not a smooth road.

It's a bumpy road because he saves us to use us. This thing of go. He says, go and teach and preach and baptize. It's not an option. He says, that's a command. And you do it. Or I'll stump on you. Now, that's what God expected of Moses to go.

What did God expect of the early church? Remember when the church was saved in Acts chapter 1? Turn there, by the way. I'm going to do something with you. It won't hurt you. But I might do something. Acts chapter 1.

And God empowered the church with the Holy Spirit in Acts 1. In verse 8, he told them to wait. He said, you shall receive power after that. The Holy Ghost will come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and in Samaria, and to the outermost part of the earth.

And then he says, you're going to go. You're going to go in the power of the Spirit. Now, look at chapter 2. In Acts 1 .8, he gave them the power. He promised them the power. In chapter 2, the Holy Spirit comes down and empowers them, and they go.

And there was a unique thing that he had empowered them to do, and that was to speak in other languages. Something that we see a counterfeit movement going on in our country today. Not the same as in the New Testament.

But he told them to speak. They could speak in other languages. Look at verse 14. Now, I want to take you through the first 8 chapters of Acts. Grease your fingers, because we're going to go fast. In chapter 2, verse 14, notice.

Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice. What did God expect him to do? He expected them to speak. And you know what he did? He preached. And when he was done, you know what happened? Thousands of people got saved.

In verse 38, it says, Peter said unto them, repent. They said, what are we going to do? And he said unto them, and he used his voice, Repent ye therefore, and be baptized. He came down to verse 40. And many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, save yourselves.

Verse 41, they gladly received his word. Actually, it was the word of God that they were receiving. They were baptized. Come over to chapter 3. Peter and John were going into the temple, and they see this guy that's lame.

And they come along, and they look at him. They lift him up. He gets healed. And Peter sees the crowd. And when he sees the crowd, in verse 12, it says, When Peter saw it, he answered unto the people.

He opened his mouth, and he started preaching. All Peter needed was a crowd. Boy, he starts preaching now. Look at chapter 4. And as they speak unto the people, the priests and the children. Look at verse 2.

Being grieved that they taught the people. Satan is upset when somebody starts talking about Jesus Christ. If you want to be on Satan's side, don't say anything to anybody this week about Jesus Christ.

You make Satan happy. And God's sad. Look at verse 4. Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed. This is what happens when people hear they get saved. And then over in chapter 4, verse 17. Satan got mad.

He stirred up some stuff. But that it spread no further among the people, let us straightly charge them that they speak henceforth to no man in this name. They did not want him speaking. Satan does not want you talking about Jesus.

He doesn't want you talking about Jesus. Verse 18. And they called them and commanded them not to speak, or at all to teach in the name of Jesus. Verse 19. But Peter said, answered and said unto them, whether it is right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, you judge it.

But listen, we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. Look at verse 29. And now, Lord, behold, they are threatening. And granting to thy servants that with all boldness we may speak thy word.

What's happened to the church today? The church is playing games and not talking about Jesus. If you're not talking about Jesus, if I'm not talking about Jesus, we're not with Jesus. We're with Satan.

This is what it's about. Go. Moses wants you to go and I want you to speak. And to the church he says, I want you to go and I want you to speak. We might say many different things. We might just say the Lord loves you.

We might just say, oh, the Lord did that for me. In a conversation or however, but we give the Lord credit. We talk about it. How do we get a chance? Verse 31. Notice. The last thing. They spake the word of God with boldness.

And then you come down to verse 33. With great power gave the apostles witness. They were speaking of the resurrection of Christ. Look at chapter 5. Chapter 5, we have the first sin that enters into the church.

Impurity in the church body. And after that, many people got saved. And verse 11. A great fear came upon all the church. And upon as many as heard these things. They were hearing the word of God. Verse 20.

Go stand and speak in the temple to the people. God was telling to an angel to the disciples to go stand and speak. Speak, speak, speak, speak, speak, speak. You know, you getting the point? Take a verse 28.

Satan did not leave. Satan got in trouble again. Did we command you that you should not teach in this name? And verse 29. They again, they say, well, we must obey God rather than men. And come down to verse 32.

We are his witnesses. We are his witnesses. That's why we're speaking. We're giving the witness for Jesus. Look at verse 33. When they heard that, they were cut to the heart. It is the word of God that comes out of the mouth of the child of God.

Empowered by the spirit of God that leads people to get saved. Look at chapter 5 and verse 40. Again, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus. Don't you get the point? God wants us to speak.

Satan doesn't want us to. Verse 42. And daily in the temple and in every home, because they were obedient to God, they seek not to teach and to preach Jesus Christ. Come over to chapter 6. Verse 7. It says, and the word of God increased.

They were speaking about the word of God. The number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem. Verse 11. And they, the born men, which said, we have heard him speak. Talking about Stephen. They're getting on to Stephen.

Now, we've heard him speak. He was talking with his lips. Talking about Jesus. Verse 13. They set up false witnesses, which said, this man speaks, it's not to speak. That's in this word. It's the word that was after him.

It's the word of God. Verse 14. When we heard him say that this Jesus, he's talking about Jesus. You know, the devil doesn't have to do much. As far as stopping the gospel, amongst most of the Christians, it's already done.

We do it by our own disobedience. All we have to do is just be silent. Chapter 7. Verse 54. Stephen went through a whole sermon with those religious leaders. When he gets done, when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart.

To speak about Jesus. To speak the word of God. Many times, all I've done is just quote a scripture to somebody that was totally, didn't want it. And so before I would leave them and walk away, I'd just say, well, they'll remember this.

The Bible says, as it is appointed unto man once to die, after thence the judgment. Just want you to remember. God has warned you. And leave them with the word of God. I believe when I get to heaven, there's going to be a lot of people that never got this saved through that one verse.

Because the word of God will not return void. And then chapter 8. Verse 4. Therefore, they that were scattered abroad received persecution and entered in. Satan was mad because they were speaking. And so persecution entered in.

It says, they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. Verse 4. They went everywhere preaching the word. Verse 5. Philip spake. Philip spake the word of God. And verse 25. And they, when they had testified, preached the word of the Lord, returned to Jerusalem, and preached to the gospel in many villages.

Just everywhere they went. Verse 35. Philip was walking along. He got in with this Ethiopian eunuch. Well, God put him there. Philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus.

Verse 40. You see, Philip is that Exodus, passing through. He preached in all the cities until he came to Caesarea. Now, that's just the first eight chapters. Where does Acts end? Where does the book of Acts end?

Do you know what the book of Acts is? The book of Acts is the history of the Church. Do you know where the last chapter is? It's right here, April 20, 1986. It's so far the last chapter in the book of Acts.

God's Expectation That Believers Speak

God planned that we would speak about Jesus. This is how you'll know. This is how you'll know. Well, that's what he expected of the Church. What did he expect of us? You know what it is, don't you? Point three is real easy.

God expected Moses to go and speak. God expected the early Church to go and speak. And God expects us to speak. Do you want me to share something with you about the Apostle Paul that is an amazing thing?

You know, Paul preached all over the known world. He talked up and down the Roman Empire, preaching. You would think he was a great orator, wouldn't you? Listen to what he said about himself. And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech, what a fancy speech, megas, or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.

For I determined not to know anything among you, say, Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. Do you ever get afraid? Do you ever get over your fear?

When you go to talk to somebody about Jesus Christ, then there's something wrong. I never do. Talk to somebody about Christ, and what? There'll come a tremor. There'll be something there. Dealing with spiritual things produces some results in us.

We get afraid. Well, what are they going to think of me? You know? What happened to this guy? He's going to, you know, lay it down on me. But he says, my speech, verse 4, and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.

All we've got to do is keep ourselves clean and filled with the Spirit and speak. Just tell them. Hire them. Give them a track. Whatever. Just say something about Jesus. Somehow, talk to them about Jesus.

Testimony, Holy Living, and Evangelism

Now, one of the problems in this area is you've got to live clean if you're going to talk with somebody. Especially if you're talking with somebody you're living around and you're working with. You can't talk one thing and live something else.

You get yourself all ripped up one side and down the other, and when they get done with you, then God's going to work on you. The unsaved will not stand for any hypocrisy in our lives. That's why it's so important that we do it in demonstration of the power of the Spirit, as Paul said.

Let me tell you about a fellow. His name was James or Jerry McAuley. You may have never heard of Jerry McAuley, but he is the pioneer of rescue missions. Let me tell you a little bit of something about him.

Do you know how he got saved? He got saved through the testimony of a guy he used to run around with. Let me give you a little bit about his background. Jerry was one of the worst criminals of his day in New York.

He had been one of the ten most wanted men of his day. It was said of him that he was unfit to be on the loose. He was unfit to die, unfit to live. He was just unfit. He was a river thief, a gambler, a drunkard, a prize fighter.