The following is a summary of a powerful message delivered by Pastor George Jainchill, Northwood Baptist Church, Columbia, MO, on Wednesday evening, August 2, 2017.
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See Exodus 4:1-11.
God wants to give us a closer look at who He is in our lives. He hasn’t put Himself at a distance. It’s our unbelief that separates us from Him.
Ability becomes a liability when we trust in the ability we have, instead of trusting in the power of God.
The natural thing to do is rely on what we can do for God.
Moses exchanged a royal life for a shepherd’s life, but didn’t experience the power of God in his own life. God would show him how that would happen.
God may bless our efforts, even when we’re not doing things His way, because of His grace and mercy. But there is a better way. We can have a better relationship with Christ.
Every believer struggles with letting God be God (matthew 16:25). We can’t lose by surrendering to Christ.
We can be successful in many areas of life, yet fail miserably in our Christian life.
You cannot achieve vidtory in the Christian life. You must receive it.
Moses was good with a shepherd’s rod. What are we good at?
You’ll never fulfill the purpose God has for you as long as you’re looking to what you can do.
Moses’ rod turned into a serpent. Likewise, God tries to take the things we’re dependent on and show us the danger they possess when we’re dependent on them.
We have to lay our abilities down before God. It’s not that He doesn’t want to use our abilities or personalities, but He doesn’t want us to become dependent on or confident in those things. When we give them to God, He gives them back to us, and they become powerful tools for His honor and glory.
We can’t flee self confidence by ourselves. We need His help.
Moses was 80 years old when these things happened. It’s not too late for us to have victory, no matter what our age.
When God asked Moses to pick up the serpent, he had to go against what he thought. He had to obey God by faith.
God then showed Moses other examples of His power. We need to see what God can do in our lives, but we have to step out of the way. We must stop leaning on the flesh.
See Exodus 4:29-31.
The people of Israel believed Moses.
God wants to work in our lives in such a way that, when we proclaim the message of the Gospel to the lost, they will stop and hear God.
See Acts 7:22-29.
Stephen tells us Moses had intelligence and great abilities. He had it in his heart early on to serve God, and he supposed his people would understand that. Yet his best intentions were full of self.
Moses had to come to a place in his life where God could use him. We must realize we’re nothing without God’s empowerment. We must come to the end of ourselves.
See Exodus 4:2-3, 20.
The rod in Moses’ hand became the rod of God.
When we serve God and something doesn’t work, what do we do? Come up with a better plan? Try harder? Does God expect us to produce people and grow the church?
We may think so, but there’s danger in self reliance.
Instead, we should ask God what He wants us to do. He will show us if we wait on Him.
God wants our hearts. We try to offer him things on our own, but He doesn’t operate that way. He says obedience is better than sacrifice.
We think if we can produce something for God, we can excuse our failures. But we’re missing what He has for us.
God wants to deal with us first, then He will build His church.
We need to stop and let God speak to us, rather than show Him what we’ve got. He’s not impressed with what we have. After all, He gave it to us.
If we want a glimpse of His glory, we’ll stop and wait on Him to move.
We get in front of God with the best of intentions. It’s easy for us to get busy. The hardest thing to do is wait on Him.
We’ve exchanged our old life for Christ’s new life, but we may not be experiencing the power and blessings of God the way He wants to give them to us.
Click here to hear “A Closer Look at What Moses Saw (The Power of God)”