Desert Survival Series Pt 32- Moses the Friend of God — Don Courville

Now, Father, you have given, and it's up to us to receive. If there's any sin in our hearts, the Spirit of God pointed out right now that we can be cleansed because we know that a dirty vessel can't receive holy things.

You told the Pharisees that they worked on the outside of the cup and everything was shiny and bright, but they needed to clean up the inside. Do that, would you please, this morning. Thank you, Father, that you're my friend.

Thank you that no matter what the circumstances, no matter how people treat us, no matter how lonely we might think that we are, no matter if we even have a Judas, as you have one, one that would turn on you and walk away, that we still have you.

Moses as the Friend of God and the Purpose of the Series

Make this a special time now of us to worship you as you speak to us. In Jesus' name we ask it, amen. This is the last in this series, and I've titled this Moses, the Friend of God. Out of all the things that could be said on the ending, I just wanted to talk about Moses this morning a little bit, and about you.

Remember why we did this series? God led in this series. He's the one that led to give it, and I ask him for the beginning and then the ending, and he's given many vital truths. I believe that this series has contained some things that are just very necessary for us to face if we go through the dark days that the Bible prophesied that would come, if we have to go through some troublesome times.

We did this series to develop discernment. Hebrews 5, 12 -14, Paul said, so that you would be able to discern good from evil, because in the latter days the evil is going to be taken over. Then also, not only to develop discernment, but to discern doctrine, God's teaching on a subject, and also to teach us how to be a desert dweller.

Primarily this has been how to survive in this whole world. And really, I put out to the side of my notes on that, on how to be a desert dweller is how to know God, because we're not going to dwell or survive very well without knowing God.

How to survive in this world as a Christian. There are some verses that I read back in the beginning, in Isaiah 40, 28 -31, with some of those that I read. In verse 30 it says, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, and they shall mount up with wings as eagles, and they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint.

The thing about the eagle is that he rides on the turbulent winds, and we even took one special message to talk about turbulence and adversity, and how to have victory in adversity. And then Isaiah 43, 19 was another verse, behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth, shall you not know it?

I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. When you go through your desert, you look for the rivers that God has provided. Isaiah 48 and verse 21 was another verse that I had read to you about Israel, and it said that they thirsted not when he led them through the deserts.

If you get dry in your spiritual life, don't blame it on anybody but yourself. This is why we are to each cultivate our own spiritual life. I can't blame my dryness on you, or you on me. We each are accountable for our walk with our Lord.

But he says, they thirsted not when he led them through the deserts. He caused the waters to flow out of the rock, and we get our life out of Jesus, out of the rock for them, and he cleaved the rock also, and the waters gushed out.

The Way of the Cross and Victory in the Desert

Well, the way of the cross has been taught. I've taught this, whether you've caught it or not, I don't know. It's not sometimes easy to catch, because we have to be spiritually tuned in to catch it. So many years I heard it, but I never saw it until last year.

The way of the cross, that's death to self, and Christ lives when we die to self. It's the way of victory in the desert. Remember also I shared in Mark 6, verse 31, where Jesus told the disciples to come apart into a desert place, and he said, I'll give you rest, come to yourselves apart into a desert place and rest a while.

As you get into the desert, you think, well, there's nothing in this trial, there's nothing in this dry, barren place. People come to Gordon and Rushville, this area, and they say, there's nothing around here.

But God's here, God's here. I was out last night, looking around up in the sky, I do that a lot on Saturday nights, talking to God, telling him I loved him, thanking him for the privilege to just serve him wherever he wants, and saying, Lord, if you were on this earth, you couldn't be everywhere, but you went back to heaven and sent your Holy Spirit to indwell, and you couldn't be in Gordon and be in Jerusalem at the same time, so you wanted me to be here for however long.

He wants you to be where you're at for however long, because there are people. And if we miss people, and if we miss bringing people to Jesus and talking to them about Jesus, and I've been talking a lot about my neighbors real heavy.

We've been working up friendships and cultivating with them, and last night, the Lord showed me how to reach my neighbors, at least how to share with them, in a way that would not offend them. That's the thing about this area.

People are offended so easy because of their pride, but I'm going to do what he said. And I told you that the definition of Exodus was what? The way out. You see, one of the things that we always think is, we're going to die in our desert.

And Jesus says, no, you're not going to die in your desert. I'm letting you go through this, because I'm going to take you through it. It's the way out. This is the way out. Actually, this is the way to victory, because where were they going?

Out of Egypt, through the desert, into Canaan, the promised land. And they thought, we're going to die out here. It's been better for us to have been back in Egypt. You know, all the mumbling and complaining.

It just seems so foolish to go into a desert to get to Canaan. We say, Lord, why do we have to go through this trial? Why do we have to go through this or that? Why do we have to have this? It doesn't look good.

What are my friends going to think? What's the neighborhood going to think? What's this and that going to think about it? It just doesn't seem logical to go through our deserts, or to go through whatever trial.

Friendship with God as the Means of Survival

Now, I want to take you today for one final lesson. You see, you can't survive in this desert, in this world, alone. You need a friend. You just can't make it without walking with the Lord. I've got a little poem.

Right after I finished my sermon, Friday morning, I come upstairs, and inside of this was that grocery money I told you about. And we used it for grocery money. And the poem, God just says, you're right on.

If you hadn't got the right message, you'd have had the wrong poem. But you got the right message, and you got the right poem. Sometimes you flub it, you know. Yeah, I know, Lord. But most of the time, we're right on.

God usually confirms. And he sent this little poem, and it has to do with a friend. You see, we need a friend to guide us when we go through the desert. We need a friend to give us advice. At least I need some advice.

A lot of advice, counsel. You need a friend, somebody. A friend is someone that gives you those things. A friend is one that gives you the commands that you need. You know, don't do that. Uh-uh-uh. And you listen to your friend.

He's the one that shows you the way. He's the one that keeps you from the enemy. He's the one that protects you in the storms. You need a friend, as the Bible says, that will stick closer than a brother.

That's Proverbs 18, verse 24. And I come up, and I found this little thing. I'd been talking about friendship, and I titled this message, Moses, the Friend of God. And I come up, and the first thing I read, the heart that has a friend.

The heart that has a friend will hold a smile throughout the day. The heart that's touched by kindness will go singing on its way. The heart that shares in others' cares will never be alone. The heart that gives joy freely will gather blessings of its own.

And, of course, my thoughts have been on God as being my friend. The heart that has a friend, that had God for its friend, will hold a smile throughout the day. And I just really appreciated that little poem.

And Moses had a friend. Moses, the Friend of God. You know, we started out, I titled it, Moses, the Man of God. Then I changed it to, Moses, the Servant of God. And then for the last message, I'm changing it again, to Moses, the Friend of God.

Wouldn't that be quite a compliment? When you get to heaven, and you're walking down the streets, and somebody says, hey, there's Moses. He's the Friend of God. Hey, there's so-and-so. They're the Friend of God.

That'd be quite a compliment. I asked three questions, and really I've got a fourth that I didn't write down. What kind of a friend is God? You know, think about it. Moses walked with God. And what kind of a friend was he to Moses?

And what kind of a friend is he to me? And then the fourth one that I didn't write down is, what kind of a friend will I be to others? Will I be a friend to others like my friend is to me? Will I be a friend to God in a way that I will be different to others?

God’s Presence with Moses

Let me share with you three things quickly, just highlighting on this little series. One, God is a friend that is near. You remember when Moses started out, and God called him up there to the bush to have his cross.

Boy, it was all over. He was dead, and God was going to resurrect him. And he says, Moses, I'm going to send you to Pharaoh. What did you say, Lord? Did I hear right? I've got stuff in my ears. You know, this one here is buzzing anyway.

But, did you say, what? He said, I'm going to send you to Pharaoh. That's what I thought you said. And his old mind's at the clicking, you know. The gears are whirling, the smoke's beginning to come out.

He's remembering back 40 years ago when he had to leave the country because of Pharaoh. Well, that Pharaoh was dead now, and there was a new one up. But he didn't like the thought of going back. You see, one of the things about the cross, many times God wants us to die to self and go right back into that same area and have victory in that area where we had our greatest defeat.

You remember what God told Moses? You remember what it was? He says, certainly, I will be with you. Moses, you're not going to go along. I'm going to be with you. In essence, he's saying, I'm going to be your friend.

And you come over to Exodus 33 .11, and this is where I got the seed thought on this, Exodus 33 .11, it says, And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face as a man speaketh unto his friend. God just talked to Moses like he was his friend, and they had some arguments like friends too.

Of course, God always won, didn't He? It was just a really unique friendship. There's never been a man hardly like Moses. Enoch walked with God, and he was God's friend to where one day they were walking out, and he said, listen, Enoch, it's just a little bit closer to my home than it is yours.

Why don't you just come on home with me? And he took them on to heaven. Enoch never got the chance to die. Hadn't died yet. He walked with God. He was God's friend. Moses was God's friend. Something else that God told Moses, in that same passage in Exodus 33, 12, all the way down through there, it's really good, all of it down through there, in verse 14, God said, Listen, my presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.

Thirty chapters later, it hadn't changed. He says, my presence is with you. You've got my friendship. You've got my fellowship. You know, we say, well, that's great. That was really tremendous that Moses walked with God.

But what about, you know, that was back in 1491 B .C. What about today? Can I walk with God the way Moses walked with God? Can you? Think about it. Can we walk with God? Can we fellowship with God? Maybe not quite as intimate as Moses did, because Moses had some visual aids.

But let me tell you something that God said to you, and God said it to me. He said, listen, I will never leave you. Jesus said that. When He gave us the commission, He said, you go out there and you win men and women and boys and girls to Jesus.

You preach the gospel. When you win them, you baptize them. You disciple them. And He says, I will never leave you. I'm going to stay right there with you. I believe He's saying, I'll be your friend. I'll be your companion.

He says, I am with you always. Lord, I am with you always. The problem isn't that God leaves us. The problem is that we forget that God lives in our presence. That's the thing about Moses' friend. He lived in His presence.

He walked in His presence. And Jesus Christ lives and walks with us. If He's our Savior, if you're not walking with God, then you don't know Him. And I thought for many years that I was, but I wasn't.

I am with you always. And He said it again in Hebrews 13, verse 5. I will never leave you. If you sin, you will sin in My presence. If you rejoice, you will rejoice in My presence. If you fall, you will fall right in My presence.

But I will never leave you. You pray, you pray in My presence. You eat, I am there. You sleep, I am there. You take a bath, I am there. I will never leave you. You go on a long trip, I'm not going to be there waiting for you.

I'm going to go with you. You go through a storm, I'm going to go with you. You go through a desert, we're going through the desert together. And not only that, we're going to come out of that desert together.

I'm not going to leave you back there dead. I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. I probably have had many wild experiences. Probably will have many more wild experiences. When you work with people, people are wild, so you have wild experiences.

And I'm one of them. But I don't think I'll ever forget that time. I've shared this one with you. It's one of my favorites. When I was preaching in Denver. Do you remember? I was preaching the rescue mission.

And they screamed the drunks back there to try to keep the real drunk ones out. But one of them had fought his way past. And somebody had slugged him and he had a bloody nose. And this guy had come up the aisle.

And man, he was coming for the preacher. And he was mad. You know, some people when they get drunk, they just become a sponge. And some of them when they get drunk, they are mad and mean. It's the mean ones you've got to watch out for.

I don't know, I always run into the mean ones it seems like. But here comes this guy. And he'd come up there and he stood right in front of the pulpit. And he shook his fist up there. And he says, this is the way you guys treat Christians?

You Christians treat people? You know, he was so drunk they were trying to keep him out so he wouldn't disturb the service. Well, those guys get in the services, you can't preach or nothing. They just start fights and turn over chairs.

So they keep him out. But if they'll be good, they can come in and listen to the sermon and get a meal. And man, he was mad. Man, I thought he was going to come right up over the pulpit and get me. He was a mad rascal.

And then a couple guys come and grab him and drug him out. And I didn't find out later, until later, what happened. Behind the scenes. Remember my music director? Gary Rhodes, he's a pastor up in Alaska.

By the way, his wife has a book that's advertised in your Baptist Bulletin. On Proverbs. Sharon Rhodes, she was writing that when we were out there on Proverbs. But Gary, 240 pound, ex-Green Beret, special forces elite.

They would use him to guard the generals over in Vietnam. He told me stories how he'd go out and live in the jungles. Live under the ground in the daytime. And breathe up through a reed and stuff and infiltrate the camps.

He was a gorilla. I guess they got a movie out. Rambo. That was maybe him. Anyway, he got saved. And he was my music director. And he told me later on that when that guy had come up, he had come up and just stood right behind me.

Like that. And I was there shaking. Look at that, that guy. And he was up there. I really wasn't shaking. Probably was too scared to shake. But he said, if that guy had reached up for you, I was going to wring his neck.

I can just imagine him just coming around and pulling that guy over. He had arms that big and they were steel. You couldn't do nothing to bend his arm. And I thought about it. That's the way God is. He's just standing right there.

And he'll let people say things to you. And he'll let people do things to you. Because he's going to let that happen just to draw out of you the old flesh. To reveal to you that it's there. And we get defeated.

We get mad or whatever. But he's always right there. And if that person would just go one inch too far, farther than he's supposed to go, God will just reach out. Listen, that's as far as you go. Nobody's going to touch us.

He is right there. He's our friend. Who is it that will stick closer than a brother? You know, even a brother will turn his back on you sometimes. Even a wife or a husband. It happens. But Jesus says, I am closer than the closest of your kin.

God’s Warnings and the Faithful Wounds of a Friend

Not only that. Not only was God near to Moses. But God is a friend that warns Moses. He warned Moses. A friend warns you. You know, this summer, I had one of my closest friends just tell me something about myself that he didn't like.

I really appreciated that. A friend will open up to you. If I'm your friend, I'll open up to you. If you're my friend, you'll open up. But if we're really not friends, then we don't really communicate to one another.

God is a friend that warns. The Bible says faithful are the wounds of a friend. The best wound you will ever get will be the wound from a friend. They say, listen brother, I think you better not be going over there.

I think you better maybe not do this. Can we pray? I notice that there's something going on or whatever. Faithful are the wounds of a friend. You know, Moses learned this lesson the hard way. God had warned him, you know.

And he blew it. We've already gone over that lesson on how his temper got him. And he didn't get into the land. But you know what Moses did? He passed it on. And I was looking in Deuteronomy chapter 8.

How when he was telling Israel, now before you go into the land, boys, I've got to tell you something. Listen. I want to warn you. Deuteronomy 8, 11 through 20, he went through a series of very stern warnings.

Not because he was mad at them because he couldn't get into the land. That was his fault. He tried to say because he, later on he does say because you did this, I did that and I didn't get into the land.

It was really his fault. But he says in Deuteronomy 8, verse 11, he says, beware. Listen, when you get into the land, you're going to go into the land, there's going to be houses and everything. All the crops.

Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God in not keeping his commandments and his judgments and his statutes. Verse 14 he says, Thine heart be lifted up and thou forget the Lord thy God that brought thee out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage.

I think one of the most atrocious things is when somebody does something good for you and you in turn forget them. I go up to their rescue home. We have our service every seven weeks. We as a church. That's our ministry.

This is one of the things I had to die to. When I first came here, just a few of us would go up there and I thought, what is this? This is our church's ministry to these people. And I've learned to die to it.

Let God take it away. I'd go up there and here are these people that are neglected and forgotten. And there would be a little old mother. Where's your son? Well, he lives around here somewhere. How often does he come to see you?

Oh, he comes in every so many months. Months? That's not good. Not good to forget. And this is what Moses said, Listen, God took you out of the land of bondage and he brought you into this beautiful land.

But don't you forget him. And you know that's what we do. We live in the presence of God. We have Jesus Christ our Savior. We're indwelled by the Holy Spirit. But when we forget him, God's got a mighty strong elbow.

He'll come around, Hey, I don't like to be forgotten. Have you ever seen the little kids? When I drop them off at school, Vicki's been telling me about the girls. Sometimes she said, These girls can really be catty.

Two of them would be playing really good together and then up a walk a third and guess what happens? You got a war. One of them will become a traitor. All of a sudden, turn her back on her friend and go off with the other friend.

That is cruel. Kids can be awful cruel, can't they? Well, what's the difference between a kid being cruel to a kid and us being cruel to God? Moses, the friend of God. God is our friend. He's a friend that warns us and we better take heed to his warning.

Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God, Moses told him. And he went on down through there and in verse 19 said, It shall be, if thou do it all, forget the Lord thy God and walk after other gods and serve them and worship them.

I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish. God is a jealous God. Do you know that God has said in the New Testament too that he is jealous of us and our fellowship with him? And I believe maybe many times it's okay, you're going to go after the lust of the world.

You're going to go flirt around with it. I'm just going to let you have what you're going after. How many broken Christians do we know? I can name a lot to you. One day they were in church fellowshiping and all of a sudden they just seemed to slip away.

Broken, wrecked lives. I can name a lot of them to you. Many of them have never come back to the Lord because they begin to flirt with the world and the Lord has warned. You know, a warning from a friend is about as strong a warning as we can get.

I was back on the backside of Pikes Peak one time and there were cliffs back there. That's why we were back there because they were nice, big, ugly, mean, far down to the bottom cliffs. And you wouldn't believe what we were doing off these cliffs.

We were jumping off these cliffs. Not only were we jumping off these cliffs, but we were jumping off backwards off these cliffs. That way you don't see when you hit the bottom. But we had a guide and he says, now you take this rope, you throw it over your shoulder, you put it through this little hook here, you hang on here, put these gloves on, and you stand there on the edge and then when I say, you jump.

But he says, make sure that you do everything that I tell you to do. And you know, we're repelling, we're jumping off. And you know, you're holding your whole life in one hand. Basically. What you're doing.

You guide with this one hand and you hold with another. And then you repel. That's a lot of fun, you know. And you ought to hear the screams from some of them. I can't do it, I'm too young to die. I loved it, I thought it was great.

But, if I had not listened to the guide, if we had not listened to the guide, you could get into very serious trouble. And this is why God is a friend that warns us. You know, Jesus warned, you know what he warned his disciples about?

He said, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. He was especially, meticulously painful in pointing out the sin of the Pharisees. And you know what it was? Hypocrisy. It seems like hypocrisy is just a cancer that will spread.

And if it gets in a church, it will take over your church and you'll be dead. You're a hypocrite when you profess one thing and you don't do another. When you agree, you commit yourself to one thing and you don't do it.

And he warned them about it. And Paul, when he was departing, he warned them with tears. He says, listen, I know that when I leave, when I leave, that there's some wolves going to come in. And he warned them.

In Acts 20 and 28 -32, he just warned them. He said, take heed thereto in yourselves. He said, be very careful because I know that after I leave, grievous wolves are going to come in. And he went into verse 31.

He says, I cease not to warn everyone of you night and days with tears. It broke his heart, but he knew that when he left, the wolves were going to come in and get him anyway. I wonder why he knew that.

I wonder if he knew that they really hadn't decided that they would go all the way with Jesus. That they were flirting around. And it happened. They got him. The Ephesians. The great church. As long as the pastor was there, they were great.

God’s Faithfulness When His Servants Are Attacked

But if the pastor left, then the cat leaves, the mice are going to play. Anyway, he warned them. There's one other thing. God is a friend who sticks with you no matter what. You know, Moses went through a lot of things.

If we had been God and had watched Moses do some of the things we do, we probably gave him the boot long ago. But God stuck with Moses. He hung in there. Moses would make some mistakes. And you know, he'd get angry.

God would get angry sometimes too. God sometimes had to get Moses going or whatever. Moses was just a man like us. But you know what? When things really got tough with Moses, you know where God would move in the fiercest?

Is when they would begin to attack Moses. Have you ever noticed that? As we went through this tremendous study. You know, they go through this. But if they would turn on Moses, what would God do? Why, they would face the wrath of God.

The smoke would come out of the mountains. You remember the time even when his sister Miriam and Aaron turned against him? The Bible says that God came down, the smoke came down, and he called them, you three, come out here.

Then he called Miriam and Aaron out on the carpet. And he says, Wherefore then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? I haven't got this one marked in my Bible. I wish I had marked it.

But he went on to say, you know, if there's a prophet, I'm going to speak to the prophet in a vision or in a dream or whatever. But not with my servant Moses. I speak face to face with him, right in his presence.

Why were you afraid? He's my friend. Don't attack him. God's going to stick with you. You know it's a dangerous thing to attack a man of God. Especially one that God is using. I'll just give you that warning.

The Bible in the doctrinal section of Timothy goes through how to do it. Be very careful. Be very careful. I make a lot of mistakes. Pastors make mistakes. But I have seen that the greatest mistake, and a pastor can do this too, is to attack a pastor.

I see some wrecked lives back behind. That's a dangerous one. Well, they attacked Moses. When you're attacked, God's going to stick with you. When you're neglected, God's going to stick with you. When you're lonely, God's going to be there.

If you're lonely, it's because you're not recognizing his presence. If you're discouraged, he's there. If he's defeated, remember your friend. Whatever you go through, whatever trials, don't forget Jesus, your friend.

Friendship with Christ and the Duty to Witness

And you know something? Not only do we need him to survive, he needs us to be a friend to him, to be a friend to others. I'll tell you, we can only do what we're doing now while we're alive on this earth.

Do you know that you can only witness to a lost person as long as you're on this earth? After you die, and it may be who knows when, you can't do it anymore. This is our only chance. Today may be our last chance to talk to a certain soul.

That soul may go into eternity, or we may. To talk to a friend about our friend. To talk to another desert dweller. To talk to a lost seeker. Let me read you one passage. McCall's up, give you a poem, let you go home, eat your pot roast.

You know what Jesus said about friends? Listen to what he said about friends. You know what he said, John 15. You are my friends, if you do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants, you know we started off, we were really dealing with the servant, mostly the servant of God.

Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth. But I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard of my Father, I have made known unto you. What is it?

He says, verse 13, here is where a friend really is a friend. Greater love hath no man than this, than a man lay down his life for his friends. First of all, then he said, a friend will die for his friends.

I am your friend because I died for you. You will be my friend if you would die for me. All he wants us is to die to self, and maybe sometimes to die physically. To die to self. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, not I, but Christ lives within me.

Paul said that is dying to self. Dying to self. And then a friend will do what he requires. He says, you are my friends if you do what I want. Then he says, you are my friends, and I show you what I am doing.

Moses was his friend because he showed him what he was doing. He knew what his friend knows. And then there is one other verse. And he says in verse 16, you have not chosen me. He said, you did not pick me up to be your friend, I chose you first.

I loved you first. So you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

Just how does being a friend of God affect you? We saw how it affected Moses. He loved. He laid down his life on the altar. Lord, if you are going to, you just wipe me out, instead of the people. He stuck his life in the gap.

He loved his people, because he loved God. You know, I want to read you a little poem that has probably never affected me like any other poem on being a friend. How many of you have a friend somewhere?

Well, we've probably got several friends around. How many of you have a friend that's unsaved? Someone you work with? Someone you talk with? A relative or whatever? What if that friend were to die and to go to hell, and you never told him about Jesus?

I wonder if that friend were to be able to write back and write back a poem like this, how it would affect us. Listen to this. It's titled, My Friend. My friend, I stand in judgment now, and feel that you're to blame somehow.