Desert Survival Series Pt 20- Moses the Servant of God — Don Courville

Learning to Follow God's Will

We continue on our study of Moses, and one of the things that I've been learning in the last year especially is to just be so sensitive to what God wants. I've spent so much of my life being sensitive to what I wanted, which is a very miserable way to exist, but to be sensitive to what He wanted in me.

And even last weekend, last Sunday, I shared five times, and each time when I got up to share, I just kept waiting for more of what He wanted me to say. How long do I want to speak, and what He wants me to share, especially in the Sunday classes and sharing with the missions committee, and then Monday I met with the men of the church.

And this was open to what God wanted, and it was really me to do that. Not do what I wanted, but do what He wanted. And this message today is what the Lord wants, not what I wanted. I wanted to get on going and put some good stuff on ahead, and the Lord said, Whoa, fella, I want you to get into the 15th chapter.

And I said, Oh, Lord, there's not a lot in there, is there? And He says, Look again. And He gave me some stuff out of here that I think we need, especially in our time. You know, it's amazing how many of us have been going through some tough times.

Lois isn't here this morning, but Lois is leaving, and Lois was packing, and she had her house hit and tore up. The north side of it, and it was filled up with hail and stuff with a lot of damage. And just to lose her husband and then be moving out and then have that happen to her house has been a real traumatic thing.

And then the Lord is leaving, and Bonnie and the Blacks have just been up in the air trying to find a job. Don't know whether they're staying or leaving. So there's a lot of things that some of us have been having other areas of trials.

Life's Timeouts as Opportunities to Pray

The Lord just said to me, Why don't you preach the message that's in here? And so I just went to Him and here's what He gave me today. I've titled it Timeouts. Timeouts to pray. I think what we forget, maybe, is that the timeouts of life has really given us the refreshment we need.

You know, vacation's good, and we always come back and recuperate from vacation. We do. You always go because you need a vacation, you need to get a rest, and then you get back. You're tired when you're left, so you're glad to get back.

Especially if you've traveled 3 ,000 miles with joy in your front seat. And it wasn't the joy of the Lord, it was a little joy of poor Will. He didn't like to ride in the back of the car. Boy, by the time we got home, we still had to get out of the front seat.

But it was fun. We had a good time and the kids really enjoyed it. We really enjoyed seeing what God could do. We prayed when we left. Our first day was so neat. We just prayed, Lord, you lead us to stop where you want us to stop.

You just do each step of the way. We prayed God would do things to give us chances to share and open up opportunities. And we just had a good rep like that. Just praying our way each way. And I had some interesting things happen too, but I won't get into it now because I've got a message for you.

Time out for praise. This is our Desert Survival Series. And this will be probably one of the most essential things to remember in surviving. And I'm just amazed at myself. I didn't see these things before.

But the Lord has a way of opening things up at the right time. Let's follow through with a prayer. Father, now you do that which you want to do. Lord, I'm just trying to be dead to self, dead to sin. Is this a lie to you of what you want?

Lord, you opened up the extra opportunities in Michigan. I knew they were there. And I really didn't want to go. I didn't want to be traveling extra time. But when we land that before you, you're opening it up.

And we'll take care of it. You know, I've been here. And I think, Father, that you're trying to teach us just to let you be the Lord of our life. We spend so much time doing what we want to do. And we get upset and aggravated and bitter and things don't go our way.

But we'll learn how you teach us. Now you open up this passage for me in Jesus' name. Amen. I shared with you before, I think, about the little woodcutter. I was listening to a message. This guy was up in Canada with Bill McCloud.

And this was a true story. The guy went out there and he chopped wood. And when nobody was looking, he would get a fowl and fowl off the top of his stump. Because when they come along, the other guys, he didn't want them to come along and say, Hey, look, you're a beaver.

You know, he had it all chopped up. And the thing was, they would look down through the trees sometimes from the top of the hill. And they'd see him down there looking around, fowling away. So it looked like he made a smooth cut.

But the thing was, he wasn't getting any trees cut. And a lot of times we're like that. We just get behind. Like another fellow that was number one in the wood chopping. In the lumberjacks up there where they chop with the axes.

And he's number one. And the second day, he moved to number two position. Third day, he moved to number three position. And on down to where he was the bottom. Well, how did he get from the top to the bottom?

Well, he found out he wasn't taking time out to sharpen his axe. He wanted to get back to it. Now, we all need these breaks. These time outs. You know, sports, we need our time outs. Basketball, you can't get stuff done without a time out.

Football, soccer, whatever. Even our cars need time outs. You know, the times of maintenance. Our bodies need the time outs. Well, the time out for the Christian is what? Praise. The church has been teaching me just to have an attitude of praise.

Well, the time out is to sports, praise is to the beaver. And it's not that I take time out to go over here and praise the Lord. It's that I praise the Lord all the time. And that is my time out. That is my resting in the Lord.

That's the relaxing. It's been such a peaceful life to watch the Lord. We had one trial down in Texas. And I just praised the Lord. It was one of those dumb things. But I hopped out of the car at a rest stop.

Out in the middle of nowhere. Going from nowhere to out of nowhere. In west Texas. Really, we were coming from Dallas, heading down to Midland. But we stopped. I hopped out, found my ball phone. So I got back and I looked in the car real quick.

Couldn't find it. I lost it in the motel. In my pants. I turned them off. I figured they probably dropped down in my pocket. Got kicked out of the bed or something. There we were. Without our time. This is the passage that we have here.

Israel's Deliverance and the Song at the Red Sea

Now, here's the setting. They've just come through the Red Sea. They've just come out of tremendous pressure. And now they're going to go into tremendous pressure. But God is leading them. And now, what he does.

He stops. They stop. And Moses gives this psalm. That's when we cease to praise the record of this deliverance. In Psalms 106. It tells how he saved them for his name's sake by his mighty fire. He rebuked the Red Sea.

And he came on down. It says in verse 12. It says they soon forgot him. Then in verse 21. It says they forgot God. The people that pulled me out of the water when I was drowning. Mom and Dad talked over that situation.

I remember going up and down. How can we forget God? And when we praise, we remember. When we praise, we remember. You go through Deuteronomy chapter 4. Deuteronomy chapter 6. God was telling them, you remember me.

You remember me. He warns them. Now, I want to just go through quickly about five things. Five keys to praise. In this 15th chapter. Really, Ezra is going to go through several tests. I can't remember how many there were.

I think there were seven major tests. And I want to get into that. Things here. When do we praise the Lord? Praise the Lord. And so, there they were. They were up on the other side of the bank. And they're singing this song.

They're praising the Lord. I believe we praise him when we're free. And so, one of the three. You look in their eyes. Do you have a testimony? If you're in bondage, there's three things. You won't be in your life.

You won't be in life. There won't be any song. There won't be any joy. And there won't be any praise. It won't be there. And I've found that the most relaxing thing. The most relaxing life is just to let God do whatever he wants to do.

And it's not always easy. Because we forget that he will lead and direct. And he'll guide. We went over to Carlsbad Caverns. We were nearby there. We got there about just a few minutes after the gates of the door closed to go into the cave.

So, we couldn't get into it. That meant we had to go get an extra clutch today. So, we got a tent set up. We put up our tent. And we got ate up by these little mini creatures that night. Well, they were praising the Lord for all these little bites.

They were like mosquito bites because you didn't itch very much. But you were just covered with them. Your face looked like a plague when you walked into some place. People would say, just a minute. They didn't praise the Lord for these things.

They soon went away. But, you can get upset. They're sowing into the Lord and spilling. You can shed his blood. Scripture. How much more will he care for us? Food, clothing, shelter. I believe mostly because we cease.

Because he's trying. Over in Psalms 107. I got to going into that psalm. That was right after 106. And I got to looking over there. Because I had four things highlighted. These four verses say exactly the same thing.

Verse 8. Verse 15. Verse 24. He goes right at them because he's satisfied. Four of our buildings in their sanctuary alone. Their building covered two blocks. Two blocks. But it's interesting. As they took us around and drove and showed us some of the homes.

Some of these people have been living such shallow lives. They've been living off all of this wealth. And all of a sudden they've just lost everything. They couldn't have their home, their car, or nothing.

And it just showed how abandoned. The term of men. For he had broken the gates of bread. Sin, the bondage of sin. Loneliness. Complex. Depression. Discouragement. Or fear or whatever. You'll have praise.

But if you don't have praise, then there's something that's binding you. There's something that's binding you. And I'll share this because I, a little bondage, didn't realize. There's something else that praise will do.

Praise as a Response to God's Deliverance

Not only will praise win the praise. Why do you praise? Praise does. I found this in Psalms also. Praise. Exodus 15 .2. Remember, he's singing this song. He says, he triumphs in verse 1. Gloriously, the horse and his rider have been thrown in the sea of remorse.

It's the same. Also, you can find that in Revelation. Verse 2 says, the Lord is my strength at Saul. He has become my salvation. He is my God. I will prepare him a habitation. My Father is God and I will exalt him.

I've never noticed this before, but Moses said, I want to prepare him a place to live. And I believe that when we're set free, we want God to just be in our life and do in our life whatever he wants. If someone did save you, you'd want that.

And so he says, I will prepare him a habitation. Now, how does that apply to the Christians today? We can't prepare him a place to live like they did. They went out in the desert and made a tent out of badger skins and other types of material.

And they hauled that thing all around the desert. And whenever they stopped, they put up the tent, and God would dwell there in that tent. Where does he walk today? This is why the Bible says, do you know, because when A. Penter writes out letters, he puts this one verse amongst some other verses on there.

Holiness as a Dwelling Place for the Spirit

He puts 1 Peter 1 .16, which says, Because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy. If praise is in my life, I will want to do something for him. And one of the things I can do is just keep myself clean, my body clean, my mind clean, so the Spirit of God can work through me.

Because we're a clean house. 1 Corinthians 6 .19 .20 says what? Don't you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, which dwells within you? He says, don't you know that? Your temple is the body of the Holy Spirit.

You're bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit. It's with God. When I am praising him, I will want him to live. Because he broke our band of sin, and then we come to find out that praise will want him to do something.

The Sacrifice of Thanksgiving

Praise causes us to love him, to sacrifice for him. Can I share a little extra thing with you? In Psalms 107, I ran across something that's strange. It's called the sacrifice of thanksgiving. Which is similar to the sacrifice of praise.

Psalms 107. In verse 21, O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, to sub down to twenty-two, and let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving. Do you know what the sacrifice of thanksgiving is?

I'm not sure what I think it is. I think the sacrifice of thanksgiving is when you want to cry, and you praise him instead. When you want to cry, and you praise instead, that's the sacrifice of thanksgiving.

Paul and Silas Praising in Prison

Now let me give you another expression. In Acts chapter 16, Paul and Silas. God had told them to go over to Macedonia. They got over there, and they got to preaching. And they got into trouble. They got thrown into jail.

They were beaten with stripes. They were humiliated. They had their clothes taken off. They were beaten. And after they were beaten, they were treated like criminals. He was a Roman citizen in a town in Roman Providence.

But they took him, and they threw him in the prison. Instead of slamming him into the prison, they threw the stocks on their feet. Put the chains on them, and there they were. Now that was when the jail got started.

And they just let out a big crowd gathered around them to get it done. So I sat down, and I got it done. The whole thing. I studied it. I probably passed it. How many seconds do you follow behind a car?

It's two, at least. And that guy's probably got some pressure now. Lord, save that guy. I'm trying to put pressure on my priest. In eternity, we're going to find out all these stories. Because we leave tracks everywhere, you know.

Leave your tracks. We're going to find this person that saved that track. Or maybe he didn't get saved. Or maybe somebody else found it when he threw it away. And God's going to put all of this together.

Because you were praising me, and you were telling people about me doing whatever. You're unusual, God. Because God. Who praises him? David said, I will praise thee. Do you know what the Bible says in relation to the dead being 17?

The people that we studied. They were ranchers down 150 miles south from Midland. And they were really trying to make it at ranching and farming. And every time, he shared how, I think, of course you know how the cattle is.

No money on the crops. No money on the cattle. And he finally, I think the sixth year, he gave it back to an anchor company. He had some old guy come in, and he'd run around a little bit and race. Put some seed down.

And he had a little bumper crop. He says, I want it back. He got it back the next year. It was nothing. And then he kept trying to invest money in these wells. Whichever ones he would put money in would never produce any oil.

Unless he could find oil for other people. You know, get paid a little salary or something for doing that. Because he wouldn't get the percentage. And so he said, OK. The Lord told him that they would give him what.

They invited us. They said, we invited a few. All my notes were on Noah's. But though my prison walls can only hold a few gales. If somebody else doing something away with my neighbor. Thank you, Father.