Ron Dunn Podcast - Getting Out Of The Desert

Episode Date: March 13, 2019

From the sermon series on Exodus

Exodus, chapter 3. Exodus, chapter 3. Now, as I have studied the different ways in which God makes his people usable, gets them in usable shape, I find that usually there were either one or more critical points in their lives. I'd almost be willing to say this morning that nobody ever drifts into usefulness. You don't just wake up one morning and say, well, how about this? I'm usable. It seems as you study the Bible and how God dealt with men and women that he wanted to use, that he would bring them to a point, a critical point, a crisis point. That might not be the last one. I don't think, you know, I wish.

I was telling Jack the other night as we were eating, I said, you know, I wish, and I prayed for this, I wish that God could just do something once and get it all done. You know, just get it finished, get it all done. Lord, whatever you have to do, just do it. You know, everything resolved at once and everything settled at once, and then let me go on from there.

But there's never just one critical point in your life. Somebody has said it this way, we move from crisis and then process, a crisis and then a process, you see. And it's as though God will initiate a crisis in our life that will lift us up to a new plateau of living. And then we'll live along that plateau for a while, but there's always more. And then God will precipitate another crisis, will bring us to another critical junction in our life, and that will raise us up to an even higher plateau, you see.

Then we'll move along that way. And so in studying how God makes us usable, how God gets us into the position where he can use us, I think you'll find that there are those critical moments in life, and sometimes they appear to us as beggars, but they're really kings. Sometimes they appear to us as curses, but they are really blessings. And so we need to always understand that God never lets us go. Oh, love that will not let me go. God is committed to making us like himself. He is committed to making us a useful vessel. And we need to understand that everything that comes to our life is just another means by which God is bringing us to a point of usefulness. We're going to look this morning at how God made Moses useful.

And our text, as I've already mentioned, is Exodus chapter 3, and we'll begin reading with verse 1, and I think we'll read through verse 6, and then we'll skip and read two or three other verses, and then we'll be referring to some more, but just enough right now to get the background. Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. And he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.

And Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. And he said, Draw not nigh hither, put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Moreover, he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God. And then the Lord goes on in the next verses and describes the affliction of his people that he has seen. And so he says in verse 9, And now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel

is come unto me. And I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppressed them. Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. And then Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? And he said, Certainly I will be with thee, and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee. When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain. Now that'll be enough. The first thing that God must do if

he's going to make us usable is to get us out of the desert of failure. I couldn't help but think as I read that first verse when it said that Moses was in the backside of the desert. I guess we'd say he was in the boondocks, he was way out. He was not just in the desert, he was in the backside of the desert. I made a note in the margin of my Bible, boy, that's a long trip from the palace to the desert. And I'm finding that a great many Christians are right there this morning. They're in that desert because they tried at one time to serve the Lord, and they failed, and they said, well, I guess I'm just a sheepherder. I thought I was a mighty deliverer, but I guess I'm just a sheepherder. And I think it would be interesting to stand in this church and any church on Sunday morning

and look out at the congregation. And to a lot of people, this building is just the backside of the desert. There was a time perhaps in their life they thought they might be able to do something for God, God might be able to use them. Maybe they tried. Maybe they failed. Maybe they got discouraged. And so they've spent the following years just living in the backside of the desert, forgotten

perhaps. Maybe they've even forgotten what they had thought they might do. Interesting to note that 40 years before, when Moses tried to deliver the people of Israel, he thought he was capable. But after living for 40 years in the desert, he no longer has that opinion of himself. When God comes to him now and says, now I'm ready to use you, I'm ready to do through you what you tried to do yourself 40 years ago, Moses said, oh, no, there's no way I can do that. I don't have any authority. I don't have any influence. I don't have any experience. Well, I do have a little experience, but it's all failure. And you see the difference? At one time, Moses thought, man, I'm able to do it.

But now, after living in the desert, he no longer feels adequate. And I've noticed that sometimes young Christians feel like they can save the world to just give them a chance in a week, you know. And I've seen the discouragement pass into the lives of a lot of young Christians because they've gone away from the glory of that salvation moment, knowing that they can just now go out and do whatever God calls them to do. And they fail, and many times they move into the backside of the desert. Then the pastor comes along sometimes later and says, Would you do such and such? I said, Oh, no, I can't do that.

I'm just not able. God can't use me. So I think the first thing that God must do if he's going to make us usable is to get us out of the desert. Now, this was a critical point in the life of Moses. And what I want to do is just to share with you this morning three steps that I see of how God made this man usable. And really, it's how God makes us usable. First of all, he has to get us out of the desert of uselessness, the desert of discouragement, the desert of failure, and put us in a position where he can commission us and anoint us to do his work. And let me just share with you these three things that must occur,

that will occur, when God is ready to make you usable. First of all, if I'm to get out of the desert of defeat and discouragement and uselessness, there must be a response to God's call. First of all, I must respond to God's call. This is one of the most beautiful, as well as one of the most familiar stories you'll find in all the Bible. Moses is doing his work, what he's been doing for years, and I'm sure he's seen this bush, maybe this particular bush, a thousand times. It's just like any other bush in the desert. But suddenly one day, as he's herding his father-in-law's sheep, he notices that one bush is burning. Now, maybe that's not such a strange thing, but it's burning, and yet it's not being consumed. And so God uses curiosity,

just like he uses other things. And Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. He didn't know God was going to speak to him. Friends, you don't always know when God's going to speak to you. You don't always know when God's going to speak to you. I tell you what, I'm finding that God usually comes up on my blind side and he speaks to me when I don't expect him to.

There have been times when I've said, now, Lord, here's a great opportunity for you to really say something to me when I don't expect him to. There have been times when I've said, now, Lord, here's a great opportunity for you to really say something to me. Lord, I don't miss this great opportunity. Everything is just right. I'm in the right position. Surely this is when God's going to break through. Surely this is when God is going to deliver me.

Surely this is, I just know why everything is just perfect. Everything's just right. Why we have Jack Taylor here this week and Ron Dunn, and this is the week, God. But you know, it may be that the Lord may not use either one of us to really speak to you this week in this critical way. It may be that in a few days later, a month later, God may use some bush. All I'm saying is this, that friends, you need to be ready at any moment to hear God speak. I am confident that Moses, when he woke up that morning, thought it was just going to be another day in the desert, dreary. I don't think there was much

future for him as far as he's concerned. All the record we have is that he had no expectation. And I'm sure that day as he went out, I imagine he was glad for the opportunity to get away from those sheep for a minute and look at a burning bush. Probably the most exciting thing he had seen in 40 years. And there was no indication that he had any idea what God was going to say to him, even that God was going to speak to him. I'm wondering if perhaps he hadn't thought that God had just forgotten about him. But, you know, this thing has encouraged me so much. You never know when

God's going to speak. Always keep your ears open to the Lord. He can speak to you in some of the most unusual ways. And so Moses saw this burning bush. He had no idea what it was about. It was just curiosity, that's all. And so he turned aside, and when the Lord saw, oh, that's important. The Lord was trying to get his attention, and folks, God's trying to get your attention. One way or another, he wants to get your attention. Sometimes it's a burning bush. Sometimes it's a broken heart. God wants to get your attention. And when the Lord saw that Moses turned aside, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush. Now I want you to notice the different words that are used. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside, God called unto him out of the bush.

Have you ever noticed the different words that are used of God? They're always significant, always significant. For instance, in Genesis it says, And God created the heavens and the earth. But if you'll notice in chapter 3, it's the Lord God. When he's creating, it's just God, Elohim, which indicates his power, his might, his sovereignty. But when God comes into the garden to seek Adam who sinned, it's the Lord God called unto him. When he sent Abraham and he spoke to him and sent him up on the mountain, it was the Lord God. Now, God indicates, that's that title that indicates his power, his sovereignty, the Almighty. The Lord is his covenant name, Jehovah. It's the word that's always used when

it's saying that God is meeting us in a saving relationship, in a mercy relationship. You see, when he created the heavens and the earth, it was God. But when he came seeking Adam after he sent, it was the Lord God, Jehovah God. Jesus is our Jehovah, you see. And so the Lord, when the Lord, the Lord who had a covenant with his people, the Lord who wanted to save Moses, the Lord who wanted to show mercy to Moses, when the Lord saw that Moses turned aside, then the God of dominion and sovereignty and authority, then God spoke to him, you see.

And so the Lord is always seeking us. but it is God that speaks to us. And those two words simply means that the Lord is one of love and mercy who's seeking us, but God also is not only one who loves us, but he's one who wants to dominate us, who wants to reign over us. He wants to commission us and have the authority over our lives. And so he says, when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, here am I. Here am I. Moses made a response to God's call. And folks, that's where it's going to start. And I wonder, are you ready this morning to respond to whatever God says to you this week? I want to say three things

about this call. And remember, this call is God calling us to where he can make us usable. First of all, it is a personal call. It is a personal call. Moses, Moses. You know our God is a personal God. He's an individual God. God rarely saves people in mass. Now, he may save a mass of people, but he saves them one by one. God rarely, if ever, sends revival in mass. Now, he may send a revival to a mass of people, but he saves them one by one. God rarely, if ever, sends revival in mass. Now, he may send a revival to a mass of people, but he sends it one by one. And I want to say something to you this morning. God wants to deal with you personally, personally. You know, we have sometimes a corporate desire to see God and to have God bless. When I'm praying with somebody in a prayer meeting or at an altar, I can always tell when they really get down to business.

It's when they stop saying we and start saying me. I can always tell in a testimony service, in a confession time, when the fellow really is with it, when God's really broken him, or when he's just going to the motions. Sometimes they'll say, we need revival, and we've sinned, and we've done this. But I'll tell you, when that fellow gets down and says, I've sinned, I need revival, I need this, then I know God's moving in. You see what I'm trying to say? God deals with you on the personal level. And I think all of us this week want revival for Muldoon Road Baptist Church in Anchorage. But I want to ask you this morning, are you willing for God to deal with you personally? You see, that can be painful at times. God can put the spotlight on us. I think sometimes the reason we pray,

we, we, we, like this, is because then it somehow excludes us from any responsibility, you see. Dr. R.A. Torrey had a recipe for revival. He said, the best way I know to have revival is to draw a circle and get inside that circle. And this is Lord's Sand Revival and started within this circle. And it says, Lord, send revival and start it within this circle. It's a personal call. It's a personal call.

God wants to speak to you personally. Now listen very carefully. God may not speak this morning to anybody else in this service, but he may speak to you. God has dramatically taught me this. Well, let me put it another way he is trying to teach me I'm a slow student but I thank the Lord that he's going to keep on giving the examination until I finally pass you never flunk out of God's school by the way uh you may you know you may stay there for a long time but he'll never flunk you out. You'll keep on giving the test until you take it, until you pass it.

But one of the tests, one of the things that God keeps trying to teach me is that his word always touches somebody. You know, there have been many times when I have done such a lousy job of preaching that I've been so embarrassed. And this is, of course, an indication I was thinking more of what the people thought than what God thought but there have been times when I was faster I'd do such a lousy job of preaching I felt like oh it was so I was so embarrassed I'd go out the back door I mean that back door I wouldn't go out that door I didn't

want to shake hands with anybody I didn't want to see anybody I was mortified I thought if anybody saw me they'd fire me on the spot. I did such a lousy job I'll never forget one Sunday morning some years ago when we were having two Sunday morning services I'd worked all week on a message and I preached at the 830 hour. No, I didn't either I just preached at it Oh, it was terrible. The only time I can ever remember I said everything I knew to say in 10 minutes. I, pastor, I preached that thing in 10 minutes, and I said everything I could think to say and threw in a few things I'd never said before, and it was it. I was so embarrassed and mortified. We gave an invitation, and it happened exactly what I expected to happen,

nothing. And I went back over to my office, and I started working on a new message. Somebody knocked on the door. Pastor, I want to tell you something. I said, yes. I tell you, you said that's the greatest message I've ever heard in my life. I want you to know what God said to me this morning in that message. Well, you know what? We have this treasure in earthen vessels. I discovered something. Regardless of what I preach, regardless of what a lousy job I do, do. God always will speak personally to somebody there. In every congregation

there's a broken heart. In every congregation there's at least one hungry heart. And everybody else may go out, unmoved really, but I want to tell you something. God will speak to somebody. It's a personal call. Number two, it's a priority call. Notice, he turned aside. And Moses said, I will now turn aside. That phrase says a great deal. I will turn aside.

Now look at this. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him. And only then did God call. I tell you, God's trying to get our attention. God's trying to draw us to himself. God's trying to bring us to our knees. And sometimes we wonder, why in the world hasn't God said anything to me? Listen, I believe this. If you go through this week and the next week and the next few days and say, God's not said anything to me, I think it's because he's been waiting to see if you're going to be turning aside.

What I'm trying to say is that this must take priority over everything else. This has to take priority over everything else. Moses forgot about his sheep for a while. He forgot about his job. He forgot about everything else. He turned aside. He turned aside. He turned aside, and he gave priority to this one thing, and it's highly significant.

The Word says, and when the Lord saw, the Lord was watching. The Lord was watching. Is it all right with you if I let my imagination just kind of roll? I like to think the angels were kind of hanging around. I said, well, what do you think? Do you think Moses will turn aside? Oh, I hope he turns aside. I hope Moses is not so caught up in himself.

I hope Moses doesn't think those sheep are so important that he can't spare the time to walk over there and see what's going on in that burning bush. And the Lord was watching, watching. And when he saw that Moses turned aside, that's when he called to him. That's when he spoke to him. Priority call, priority call.

You know, God has ways of showing us what our priorities are. And I have an idea that God is watching us. Maybe he's watching you and he's saying, Oh, I hope that dear brother turns aside this week. I hope he turns aside. I hope that dear wife doesn't think that housecleaning is more important than coming to the burning bush. I hope that student this week, while they've got school and homework, That housecleaning is more important than coming to the burning bush.

I hope that student this week, while they've got school and homework, I hope they're not thinking that that homework can't just wait for an hour or two. I hope they'll turn aside to hear what I've got to say to them. It's a priority call. Folks, I tell you what, God, God never clamors for attention. Have you ever tried to talk to somebody when everybody else was talking and they couldn't hear you? I don't think God does that. I believe we treat God sometimes the way a fellow treated me.

It's interesting how little incidents will stick in your mind, isn't it, and will speak volumes to you. I found since this incident happened, I found myself doing it. And every time I find myself doing it, I rebuke myself. But some time ago, I went to a convention, and I saw a fellow over there that I had gone to school with. And in the passing years he had become quite well known. I guess you'd say he had become a big wheel.

And I wasn't even rolling. I was just nothing. But he became well known. And I went up to him and spoke his name, spoke my name, and shook his hand, and said, man, it's great to see you again. I'm just glad to see you. And he said, Ron, it's great to see you. How are things going? What have you been up to? We stood there, and I started telling him, and I noticed that while I was answering his question, talking to him, he was looking around like this, looking for somebody else to talk to, looking for somebody else to see. And I just stopped what I was saying and he never knew I even stopped. And I said, it's good to see you. And I turned and walked away.

I've never forgotten that. I think the reason that God's not let me forgot it forget it is not because to rebuke that brother but to rebuke me because I find myself doing that and I have an idea that sometimes God comes to me and says listen I want to say something to you and I said oh Lord I want to hear what you've got to say and all the time God's trying to talk to him I'm looking around to see something else. You understand what I'm saying? It's a priority call. But the third thing about it is it's a preparatory call. It's a call to prepare us. Beginning in verse 7, God gives a commission. God gives a marvelous revelation. But he doesn't say anything until verse 7. Verses 1 through 6 are preparation, you see. First of all, God has to prepare Moses, and God's message is always given to a prepared heart.

And so the first thing is this. There must be a response to God's call, and God calls us that he might prepare us to receive what he has for us. And I am more convinced every day that God never, God never shares his intimate secrets and his blessed revelations with us until we're prepared to receive them, until we're prepared to receive them. And so verses 1 through 6, you see, just preparation. And God called Moses aside, why? To prepare him, first of all, to receive. Now, the next point I want to share with you is that preparation. First of all, there must be a response to God's call. Secondly, there must be a reverence for God's character. There must be a reverence for God's character. And I believe this is how God

prepared Moses to hear what he was going to say. Listen, and when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. Notice what God said. Verse 5. Isn't it strange? God says, Come here.

And then he says, Don't. You notice that. Draw not nigh hither. First of all, God set that bush afire because he wanted Moses to turn aside and come over. And then when Moses got the message and was going to come over, God said, Don't. Come too close. What was he saying? He was saying, Moses, now I don't want you just to rush into my presence.

This bush is different than any other bush, and I'm different than anybody else. You don't rush into my presence like you rush into a friend's presence. May I share with you what I believe is one of the greatest needs among Christians today? A new reverence for God's character. A new reverence for God's character. Folks, we've gotten too flippant with God. We have been influenced by Hollywood-type religion that calls him the man upstairs and good old God. And I know those songs mean a lot to me, you know, talk about him being my friend, but I think sometimes we need to back off

and not only see my friend, but he's also the thrice holy God that the angels couldn't even look upon. And we just rush into God's presence like we pull into a filling station and say, check the air and fill it up, give me a dollar's worth, and I'll be back when I'm running out again. And we just rush into God's presence, and God says, no, wait, stop, draw not nigh hither. And immediately he was saying, Moses, there's something about me. You must have a reverence and a respect for my character.

And I believe this involves two things. First of all, we must come into his presence with holiness. He says, take the shoes from off your feet, for the ground on which you stand is holy ground. It's holy ground. Do you know what holiness is? It is a response to the holiness of God. Man's holiness is nothing more than a reverence and a response to God's holiness.

What I mean by that is this. If I have very little regard for the holiness of God, I'm going to have less regard for my holiness. Did you know that I began to treat myself the way I treat God? And I began to have the same amount of reverence for my own character as I have for God's character. Did you know that? The Bible teaches this all the way through.

The God that a man worships determines his character, the man's character. My conception of God determines everything else about me. If I have a conception of God that isn't too high and lofty, then my life's not going to be too high and lofty. And I want to tell you something. We're trying to get people to live holy lives by preaching against sin. That's not the way to get people to live holy lives. What convicted Isaiah of his sin was not a revelation of his sin, it was a revelation of God's holiness. When Peter broke down and wept, it wasn't somebody coming up and saying, Oh, you denied the Lord, you denied the Lord. No, when he broke down and wept was when he saw Jesus. And when he was out fishing and they had toiled all night

and hadn't caught anything, and Jesus came and said, Cast your nets on the other side, and he did it, and they brought in a whole draught of fish. What happened? Simon Peter fell down and said, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man.

You want to live a holy life? We usually say, well, I'm going to stop doing this, I'm going to stop doing this, I'm going to stop doing this. Friend, that's not the way you live a holy life. You must first of all come to a reverence for the holiness of God, and the deeper your reverence for God's character, I'll tell you, the deeper your reverence for God's character, I'll hear the deeper your reverence for your own character. I preached a sermon once, and I think I want to preach it again sometime, called I Can't Stop Loving You. Remember years ago there was a popular song called I Can't Stop Loving You? And I preach it on the world. It's about the world. Love not the world.

And the Greek tense there says stop loving the world, 1 John 2. Stop loving the world. And I preached a sermon once on I Can't Stop Loving You and I said, you know, that's the theme song of most Christians. God says stop loving the world.

We say, well, I just can't stop loving the world. And as I studied that passage, I saw something I'd never seen before. How do we usually try to get Christians to stop loving the world? By showing them how mean the world is. Showing them how ugly the world is. Showing them how sinful the world is.

That's not the way you do it. That's not the way you do it. Some of you have daughters that are older. My daughter is just 10 years old. Some of you have teenage daughters now that are falling in love, and it seems as though they fall in love with the worst choice possible, doesn't it, sometimes? I've had some pastor friends, and they've shared with me their heartbreak. There's a mother instinct, I suppose, and I'll not apologize to the Women's Live Movement

for this statement, but there's a mother instinct that God has put in a woman. And it seems that even a teenage girl has this mother instinct, and sometimes they'll find the raunchiest, the worst choice as far as the parents are concerned, and they'll set their love on that boy. How do the parents usually try to get that girl to fall out of love with that boy? In the worst way possible. You know what they do? Well, they make fun of the boy. They him down they try to convince her of he's no good he has no future and all they do is drive her deeper into his arms have a very dear pastor friend who went through this with his daughter and the man was unsaved and he was not just unsaved he bordered on atheism and all their hearts were breaking. But now

she fell out of love with him and married a fine young man. I said, how did y'all handle that? I said, now I know how most parents I've talked to handle that. They said, oh no, that's not how we handled it. I said, what'd you do? They said, we started

introducing her to some of the finest boys we knew. And we said, we overcame her love for this other boy by helping her to love a better boy. And you know, I went back to 1 John and it says, Love not the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. And I saw, friends, if I want to get people to stop loving the world, it's not to show them how sinful and mean and godless the world is. It's to show them how beautiful the Father is.

Get them to fall in love with the Father. You see, you can't love the Father and love the world at the same time. That's what that verse is saying. It's impossible. You can't love the world and love the Father at the same time. All right, how are you going to displace the world?

Start loving the Father. Get them to fall in love with the Father. Just show them how wonderful He is. Just show them how beautiful He is. What I'm trying to say is this. God was saying to Moses, Moses, Moses, I want you to understand who I am. And you must come to me in holiness,

a reverence for God's character. Not only must we come in holiness, but we must come in humility. Because it says in that sixth verse, And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God. Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God. All right, that time is just about gone. Let me go now to the last point.

If we're going to get usable, God's going to make us usable, get us out of the desert and get us on the road back to usefulness. First of all, there must be a response to God's call. Secondly, there must be a reverence for God's character. And number three, there must be a responsibility in God's cause. A responsibility in God's cause. Listen to what he says. He says in verse 10, Come now, therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. God said, I want to do something with you. And notice verse 12. Certainly I will be with thee, and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee. When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain. Look at the twelfth verse in chapter 3. He says, Now therefore go, and I will

be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say. Go. Friends, there's a time to take your shoes off, but there's a time to put them back on again. Now I want to tell you, the only reason God ever reveals himself to you is so that he might reveal himself through you. The only reason God ever reveals himself to you is so that he might reveal himself through you. Do you know what God was wanting to do with Moses? He was wanting to deliver his people. He wasn't wanting just to deliver Moses.

Moses could have said, Whoopee, I'm out of the desert. And could have had a great time being out of the desert. But God's primary interest wasn't in getting Moses out of the desert. His primary motive was getting Israel out of Egypt. And God reveals himself to you in order that he might reveal himself through you. And so if you're wanting God to meet you and get you out of the desert, are you willing to take a responsibility in God's cause? Now, I know the Lord never blesses me just that I might be blessed, but that I might be a blessing to others. 2 Corinthians chapter 1, Paul says,

We have received the comfort of God, but why have we received the encouragement of God? So that we may comfort others with the same comfort wherewith we have been comforted of the Lord. It's a passing on situation. Somebody said the gospel came to me on its way to somebody else. And the divine arithmetic is multiplication. And God blesses me that I might be a blessing. You know that. You've heard that time and time again. Let me just mention in closing, I think there are two things

essential if we're going to take a responsibility in God's cause. First of all, we have to recognize our own weakness. We have to recognize our own weakness. You say, well, now that's a strange thing to say. You've just got through telling us that God wants to use us. You've just got through saying to us that God wants to reveal himself to us, that he might reveal himself through us. And then you say, if we're going to be used of God,

we've got to recognize our own weakness. That's absolutely true. That's the first thing. I like to think of it this way. You know, Moses began to argue. He began to offer reasons why he ought not to be used. Pastor, I'm sure you've never tried to enlist anybody in your church that did this. I'm sure every time you asked somebody to visit or to witness or teach a class,

they all said, man, I've just been waiting. I've just been waiting. And all usually they say, what? I don't know how to speak, and they won't listen to me, and I can't do this. I like to think of it like this. God said, Moses, I want to use you to deliver my people. And Moses began to recount all of his bad marks against him. He said, well, I want to use you to deliver my people. And Moses began to recount all of his bad marks against him. He said, well, I have no eloquence.

I stutter and stammer. They won't know who I am. I've been gone 40 years. They won't recognize me. I have no authority. I have no experience. And the only time I tried to do anything for you, I failed. God said, you're just the man I'm looking for.

You have to, first of all, renounce your own weakness. I'd rather recognize your own weakness. Oh, Paul in 2 Corinthians talking about the ministry God had given him. What a ministry it is. To minister life to others, to have the responsibility to be entrusted with the gospel of the grace of God, the revelation of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

And Paul is saying, this is our ministry. And then he comes up and he says, who's adequate for this? Who's sufficient for this kind of ministry? And then he comes down and he says, who's adequate for this? Who's sufficient for this kind of ministry? And then he comes down and he says, our sufficiency is of the Lord. Our sufficiency is of the Lord. You see, the first thing Paul recognized was what? His weakness. Isn't this what he said in Philippians chapter 3?

You read there his list of credits in Philippians chapter 3. He was FFV. That's the first family of Virginia. He said, I'm a Hebrew of the Hebrews, a tribe of Benjamin, a member of the Sanhedrin. As keeping the law, as touching the law, I'm immaculate. But all that was gained to me, I counted loss. First thing you have to do is to recognize your own weakness. Second thing you have to do is to recognize your own weakness. Second thing you have to do is to renounce your strength. First of all, Moses recognized his weakness, and then God forced him and made him renounce his strength. You see, sometimes

we're ready to recognize our weakness, but we're not ready to renounce our strength i would imagine that many of you here this morning would say yes i i've got a lot of weakness but you might not be so bold as to say it but you sometimes feel like well there's one thing that i can do i am strong one place notice over in the fourth chapter, we'll just have to skip over to the fourth chapter. And I'm not going into this, but you know the story. It's the continuing conversation between God and Moses while God's trying to convince Moses he can handle a situation with his help. He says, what is that in your hand? He said, a rod, a staff. I thought it was highly interesting to observe that when Moses turned aside to see the bush,

he left the sheep, but he took with him his staff. That must have meant a great deal to him. It seemed to me like sheep would be a lot more valuable than that old staff, that rod. Jack's got a tremendous message on the rod of God. And that rod symbolized Moses' strength. Notice what God says, cast it down. Cast it down. Renounce your strength. Renounce your strength. A dear friend of mine said something to me this past week that has ministered to me as much as anything anybody has ever said to me.

He came to me and he said, Ron, you have a certain gift. And he said, that gift is your greatest danger. And so God has to constantly keep you where he can use you. Moses recognized his weakness, but that wasn't enough. He had to renounce his strength. But I want to tell you something. After that, Moses was never the same again. He was never the same again. It was a life-changing experience. And I want to tell you something, folks.

If perhaps this week God should call to you personally, trying to get your attention, you've been floundering around the back side of the desert. If through one of the messages or through a song or maybe through an old burning bush out here, and if you saw a burning bush here, you would really turn aside to see it. It might even be a frozen bush. bush but if through something something gets your attention something different a fault dropped into your mind and suddenly your attention God calls you I want to tell you something if you'll respond to that call with a

reverence for his character, willing to take the responsibility in his cause, you'll never again be the same. It'll be a life-changing experience for you. Let's pray. Now dear Lord, I almost want to pray that when we go out today, we'll keep our eyes open for burning bushes. And, Lord, I do want to pray that. Lord, I wonder how many burning bushes I've passed by. Oh, God, I wonder how many times I've been so busy serving you that I didn't have time to seek you.

Lord, how many times have I been so busy being good I've had no time to be godly? Father, if today you could give us a revelation of how many burning bushes we've passed by because we were just too busy to turn aside, it'd break our hearts. The Ron Dunn Podcast is available only for personal edification, not to be duplicated, uploaded to the web, or resold without prior written consent. It is managed and operated by Sherwood Baptist Church. If you would like to listen to additional Ron Dunn messages, visit sherwoodbaptist.net slash bookstore and search Ron Dunn. For more Ron Dunn materials, including sermon outlines,

devotions, and scanned pages from a study Bible, please visit rondunn.com.