When God Breaks Through

In the movie Castaway, Tom Hanks plays a hard-driving FedEx executive who is leaving on yet another overseas flight. Just before he boards the plane, he exchanges Christmas gifts with his girlfriend and gives her an engagement ring. He has to rush off and promises he'll be back in a couple of days and they'll begin to plan their life together. But the plane hits a terrible storm over the Pacific and goes down in the ocean. He is the only survivor of the five people on the plane and he washes up onto a small deserted island. Gradually learns how to survive and four years pass before he is rescued and returns to civilization. When he does return, he finds that his fiance has married someone else and his job seems shallow and artificial. And in the last scene of the movie, you find him standing at a crossroads, charting a whole new direction in his life, leaving the life he's known to chart a whole new direction for his life. Now all of us have turning points in our lives, maybe not quite so dramatic as that, but all of us have turning points in our lives. Times when we face a crisis event and our whole life changes, life will never be the same. There is a new direction that is charted, maybe not by our choice, but because of what happens in our lives, a whole new direction is charted. As a Christian, I believe we should see those as times when God comes crashing through. When God breaks through the routine of our lives and the monotonous day-to-day living that we've gotten used to, and crashes through our resistance and the barriers we've put up in our self-centeredness, and he works in our lives or speaks in a way that we can never be the same. Life can never go along like it has been going. Those are crisis events, those are real turning points. They are times when God breaks through to us. It may be a sudden job termination. It may be an unexpected medical crisis. It may be an announcement by a spouse or a child that shatters you. It may be the death of a loved one. The list could go on and on of life-changing events that will change you forever and you will never be the same. As God is working in our lives, he is at work through those times. Sometimes it's not quite as dramatic. Sometimes it may be that God simply speaks to you powerfully about ministry, about how he wants to use you for his glory. Sometimes it may be that God is speaking to you about sin in your life or apathy in your life, or lack of commitment to him or to his work, and God just breaks through in a very crisis moment in your life and speaks to you very directly. Those are real turning points. We can never be the same after those kind of turning points in our lives. Moses faced just such a turning point. We find it in Exodus chapter 3. It's a very familiar story, the burning bush. But I think it carries for us some lessons, some common elements that will also be true in our lives. Four elements are usually present in turning points in our lives. We see them in Moses' life where God breaks through his monotonous routine and challenges him in a way and redirects his life in a way he'll never be the same. And we also see the same pattern in our own lives. If we are observant, if we are watching, if we are awake and looking for what God's doing. So it is my goal this morning as we look into this passage that our hearts will become more tender to whatever God is doing. And we will stop and listen to him speak. And we will hear what he's saying and understand the directions he's wanting to take us in our lives. The first element in these kinds of turning points in our lives is an ordinary day. Just an ordinary day. Now that doesn't seem amazing, it isn't yet. But this is how God often works. He begins with an ordinary day. Look at verse 1. Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horib, the mountain of God. When Stephen is preaching his great sermon in Acts 7 summarizing the Old Testament story, his statement on this is that after 40 years, this event takes place. So what we find described here in Moses' day of tending to the flock of his father-in-law, leading the flock to the far side of the wilderness, trying to find a few scrub brushes for them to feed on and no aces for them to find some water. That's been going on for 40 years. This has become his daily routine. Let's think about, for a few moments, Moses' routine. He is in the wilderness. We've described it before. It is a barren place. It is a desert place. It's like a moon scape, but maybe a picture is worth a thousand words. Just look at this picture of Midian. This is actually the region of Mount Horib, another name for Mount Sinai, or at least right next to each other. Probably is Mount Sinai. Look at that. Do you see anything but rocks and barrenness? Can you imagine tending a flock of sheep in that setting, trying to find something for them to eat, some oasis for them to find some water? This is the area where Moses was. He has no idea how Sinai will play a strategic part in his life in the near future. Right now, he's just trying to find a few scrub brushes for his sheep, trying to find a little bit of water for them. And you can tell that's no easy task. But that's become his routine. Day in and day out. He's been doing this for 40 years. Please get that. That's a whole career. That's what most of you will spend in your whole working life. He's been doing this day in and day out. All of his career. And in all of that 40 years, there is no record of God ever speaking to him. We just skipped 40 years in the record in Genesis. And there's no record of God speaking to him at all during this time. Now today, God will break his silence. This is going to be all that starts out an ordinary day in Moses life. God is going to break his silence on this day. But for Moses, it starts out like any other day. There is no meteor that flashes across the morning sky saying, take notice. This is going to be an unusual day. There is no angel that comes to him and announces, hey, you better be alert, Moses. God's going to do something different today. There's nothing like that. He gets up when the sun gets up. He gathers his sheep. He tries to find a way to feed them and water them in the hot sun of the Midianite desert. It's another day as assistant shepherd in the desert. A day just like every other day, an ordinary day. And that causes me to think about how God works in our lives. Think about for a moment, our routine. I believe this is the way God works. Sometimes we are waiting and thinking God works with extraordinary people in extraordinary ways. He would never do that with me. God would never work in my life. God would never want me to do anything for him. But I believe God works with ordinary people on ordinary days. God crashes through our very routine existence. And you may have no clue when that's going to happen tomorrow. You may go to your office like you've done for years. Thinking, oh boy, another Monday. Start another work week where you may walk into your fourth grade classroom tomorrow. And think, okay, I hope I'm up for it. I've had a weekend get ready for all these children again this week. Another day at the school where you climb into your car to travel to your appointment for the day and your next sales pitch. Or you wake up to take care of that baby and two toddlers again. And you're getting yourself ready with that cup of coffee for another day with the little ones. Another ordinary day. You grab your tools and head to the work site. You go to your shop like you normally do just any other day. That's your routine. And it's become a comfortable daily routine for you. It's your normal life. And it may be it may be the day that God breaks through and speaks to you or works in your life and your life will never be the same. He may change your life in a way that you could never have seen coming. And you had no warning. Nothing felt different as you were shaving that morning. Putting your makeup on like you've done day after day. Nothing seemed different. Ordinary day. You know, that's the way the Bible says the second coming will be, isn't it? People will just be about the ordinary days just doing their ordinary stuff. Driving down the road in their car. Shopping at Walmart. Working out in the hayfield, eating dinner at a restaurant, watching TV at home. And suddenly without warning, Christ comes back. There's no advance PR. No full page spread in the newspaper today is today. Be watching. There's no angel crying out from heaven. Get ready at six o'clock this evening. Jesus is coming back. It will be on an ordinary day when people are doing ordinary things. There's no drum roll or no crashing symbols to let you know this day is different. You better be alert. Jesus will just come back in the normal ordinary routine of our lives. So you see my friend this day today tomorrow next week. There could be a day in your life and it could be at any time where your life drastically changes. But it will start out as an ordinary day and you will not know what's going to happen. That's often the way God works. He begins with an ordinary day. But then secondly, the second element in the way God breaks through is an unusual event. Now we know the unusual event that took place in Moses' life. But let's read it anyway. There, at that far side of the desert at Mount Horib, there the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire, it did not burn up. So Moses thought, how gov and see this strange sight? Why the bush does not burn up? When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, Moses, Moses. And Moses said, here I am. It's amazing seeing Moses sees a bush on fire. Now there's nothing necessarily unusual about that in the wilderness. These little dry scrub brushes probably caught fire pretty easily either by lightning strike or just because of the heat of the desert, the dryness of the desert. So I'm sure Moses had seen burning bushes before. But in that kind of climate with a dry bush, it would be reduced to ashes in a matter of seconds. That's what's intriguing. There's something unusual going on here because Moses sees this bush burning, but it's not being consumed. It's still intact. And so he stops and he says, I need to check this out. This is not normal. There's something unusual going on here. Now the Bible says that the Lord appeared to him in these flames. Well, he doesn't know that yet. He hasn't heard any voice yet, but he's going to check out what he's seeing that is so unusual. Now sometimes we miss key parts of the story. And I think one of the key parts of the story that we often miss in this one is the first few words of verse four. Verse four says, when the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush. Do you notice that? It was when God saw that Moses stopped to investigate what was so unusual. It was when he stopped that God then spoke to him. God's not screaming at him to get his attention as he walks by. It's when Moses stops to look that God says Moses, Moses. You know, that makes me wonder what would have happened if Moses had kind of walked to see the burning bus up simply in the L.O.s and shrugs it off and walks on. I wonder if someone else would have ended up delivering God's people from Egypt. No way to know that. We know it was God's sovereign choice to choose Moses and prepare him. So he's at work in all of this, but it was when Moses went to look when he stopped that God spoke to him. And Moses just simply said, here I am. There's no mention of all of his accomplishments. There's no reminder to God. Well, God, you know, 40 years ago, I was ready to do whatever you wanted me to do. There's no, oh, I'm glad you find the found me out here. God, here's my resume. You see all my accomplishments, everything I've done. I'm your guy. There's none of that. He just says, here I am. He's been humbled in God's school of the desert. And all God wants to hear from him and all God wants to hear from us is here I am. Here I am. It's that simple. God's not looking for your qualifications. He's looking for your availability. He just wants you to say, here I am. You say, well, I'm not qualified. Well, Moses didn't feel qualified either. But God just wants you to say here I am. So God speaks to him in this unusual event when Moses stops long enough to see what that's about. And that reminds me of the way God works in our lives. Think about think about the unusual events in our lives in an ordinary routine day. Something happens that's a little out of the ordinary. You come across someone something happens in your life. A circumstance comes up that is a little out of the ordinary. It breaks your routine. It's not what you're used to. God's doing something unusual. It's not a coincidence. There are no coincidences in the life of a believer. There is no such thing as well just happened or you know who I saw today. That was amazing. That was a real chance occurrence. No. There are no chance occurrences or meetings in God's working in our lives. God is trying to get our attention. What he what he's saying is stop. This is your burning bush. Now stop. I have something to say to you. So when that happens when something unusual happens in your daily routine and you're thinking well that's kind of unusual. That's different. Stop and ask God. Are you trying to tell me something? Are you speaking to me? Are you trying to get my attention? Things don't just happen in the life of a believer. God is at work through the people you meet through the events that happen in your daily life. There are no. I was really lucky about that or man how unlucky I was about that. There's none of that in a believer's life. God is at work. But most of us do not take the time. We don't stop to go over and investigate that unusual occurrence so that God can then speak very clearly and say this is why I'm getting your attention. Most of us shrug it off. Go on about our busy lives and it's just too noisy anyway to hear the voice of God. God's wanting us to pay attention. He wants to get us to stop to think to say here I am. If you've got something to say to me. Here I am. If you've got something to show me. Here I am. But we need to slow down long enough to pay attention to the burning bushes in our lives because those are the events that God is using to stop us. Whatever it may be it may be a radical change in your life a circumstance that may come into your life in a particular day that changes everything. See that as God slowing you down causing you to stop asking him what do you want to say to me Lord. What are you trying to show me through this God uses unusual events on very ordinary days to then get us to what he wants to do next the third element in changing the direction of our lives the third element in a turning point is an awareness of a need. Now that God's got our attention he's going to show us some needs and sometimes the first needs he will show us quite often in fact I think it's the normal thing he does is that we will see our own needs first. So what he did with Moses look at it verse five do not come any closer God said take off your sandals for the ground where you are standing is holy ground. Then he said I am the God of your father the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob at this Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God. You see what's happening here God says okay Moses you need to realize where you are who I am and who you are. First of all you are on holy ground it's not that there's a greater mineral content or a huge oil reservoir underneath that little patch of property. Holy means to be set apart God is setting apart this particular meeting place this place where Moses is meeting with God at this burning bush he's setting apart this place for a unique purpose to accomplish something in Moses life to do something that he wants to do to show him some things about himself and about God that he needs to see. So I'm separating this property this time this encounter from anything else that's going on in your life or has happened in your life this is a special moment a special place. So take your shoes off which was in that day and still is in the ancient in the Middle East was a sign of reverence and respect. Take your sandals off what God is doing is showing him that he is in a holy place a place where God is going to do something special in speaking to his heart. And so he first of all needs to realize I'm in the presence of a holy God the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and here you are Moses a sinful man in my presence take your shoes off and Moses is afraid to even look why because he feels so unworthy he knows he's a sinner and he's in the presence of a holy God and so he is humbled before God God is showing him something about himself. And that's where often God starts with us when God breaks through through whatever event may take place in your life that seems to be a life changer. The first thing he wants you to see is something about yourself who you are and who he is so that you get the proper idea of your relationship with him that you need him more than you've ever needed him before in your life. That you are a great sinner in need of a great savior you are a very needy person in need of a deliverer a helper a great God a holy God so he wants us to see our needs first of all. But he doesn't stop there in verses 7 through 9 he goes on to describe the needs of others and so often God will after he gets us to understand who we are in our relationship with him how much we need him you want us to see others needs others needs verse 7. The Lord said I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land a land flowing with milk and honey the home of the canonites, hit tights, amurites, parasites, hivites and jabu sites and now the cry of the Israelites has reached me and I've seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So God calls us Moses to remember the need of his people that God cares for them he sees what they're going through he knows what's happening and he wants to deliver them and you know I'm thinking maybe Moses is feeling good wonderful God I'm glad you finally decided to do something about this. I'm glad you care I thought about it a lot while I've been out here and I'm glad you're touched and you care about the needs of others I sure hope and I'm so glad that you're going to do something about it now. You see God is touched with the needs of people around us God's heart is moved by what's happening in your family God's heart is touched by what's going on with your neighbor God's heart is grieved with the sin and hopelessness and despair that he sees in our community all around us God's moved by that God's touched by that God's moved by what some of your co-workers are. Workers are going through at work and their families are devastated and their lives are shattered God's moved by that and he wants you to see that he wants you to share that concern with him and he wants you to know he wants to deliver them he wants to help them. God doesn't stop there because God doesn't want us just to see the needs of others after we've seen our needs through some unusual event on an ordinary day. There is a call to action in verse 10 notice what God does next so now go I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt if Moses was thinking up to this point God I'm glad I'm glad you finally decided to do something about what you and I both know is a terrible situation with your people down there I'm glad you finally decided to do something. Moses hears words that shock him when God says now you go I'm going to use you to deliver my people and Moses is thinking who me God don't you remember 40 years ago I failed at that I can't do that we'll see more of his response next week but God is calling him to be involved with God. Regardless of past efforts regardless of past failures God is calling Moses to do something and when God breaks through to us on that ordinary day with an unusual event or seemingly chance encounter with someone and shows us both our need for him and the needs of others for him then he wants us to do something about that. Not sit on the sidelines any longer not hang out in the wilderness any longer he wants us to do something about that when he has broken through and gotten our attention he wants us to respond when God speaks to you about sin in your life he wants you to do something about it. He wants you to do something rather than just saying okay okay understand what I'm doing is wrong he wants you to change by his grace he wants you to do something about that when God speaks to you about apathy or a lack of passion in your life for anything spiritual or for God's work he doesn't want you to just recognize that and say well God thank you for showing me that I know I really needed that and just walk out the same he wants you to do something about it. He wants you to do something about that when God speaks to you about your lack of involvement in God's work he wants you to do something about that when God presses on your heart of burden for the needs of people in our area or a burden for the people around the world who have never even had the chance to hear the name of Jesus when God burdens your heart about that he wants you to do something about it not just thank him for showing you that you want to do something about it. He wants you to do something about that one of my favorite Christian artists today is Matthew West he puts out a lot of great music a lot of it is pretty challenging one of his recent songs says the very thing that this text is saying to us today do something in the song he talks about recognizing the problems and injustice and heart aches all around him. I mean kind of getting bitter against God shaking his fist at God saying why don't you do something about this God in God speaks to him and says I did do something I created you but he's got a better way of saying it than me so let's watch Matthew West tell us. I'm going to get so far down and I'm going to turn around so I turn my eyes to heaven I thought God why don't you do something well I just couldn't bear the thought of people living in poverty children sold in the slavery the thought this got into me so I should not miss it ever I think God why don't you do something I created you When I It's time for us to do something So I gotta talk here about how we all got hands with feet So it's easier to stay than the pain Live like angels without the pain Tell us how it's worth It's alright, somebody else could do something I don't know about you, but I'm sick and tired Life would know this I am I don't wanna play my wanna fire I wanna be the one who stands up and says I'm gonna do something If not a day, who? If not me and you Right now If I'm rough and you're so thin Yeah, it is Come on If not a day, who? If we see it And I can say Oh, oh We're not enough to do nothing If I'm rough and you're so thin We are the thoughts of the earth We are sitting on a hill We never thought change the world by standing still No, we won't sit still No, always like a fool If not me and you Right now If not a day, who? If not a day, who? If not a day, who? If not a day, who? If not a day, who? If not a day, who? If not enough to do nothing If I'm rough and you're so thin Today is an ordinary Sunday. You got up, got ready, came to church. Like lots of Sundays. Like most every Sunday. Ordinary day. But today something is different. God's got to hold your heart. God's spoken to you. And that's unusual. That doesn't happen every Sunday. But God's spoken to your heart. And what he's saying to you is I want you to see who you are so that you can be used by me. I want you to see the needs around you. And then I want you to do something. You see most of us when we see a need. We think somebody else ought to be doing something. Why does somebody else respond? And maybe God's saying to you this morning, I want you to take Todd DeCryger's place in Togo as a missionary. Young missionary with four sons who just died last week. I want you to go tell your neighbor the gospel. It's not enough to see the need and to pray that someone will do it. Maybe he wants you to do it. Do something. Don't just sit. Don't just expect or prayer hope that God will get it done somehow. Maybe this morning, my friend, you've been thinking for some time about the fact that you need to get saved. You need to trust Jesus as your Savior. You've been trying to put that voice out of your mind and heart. But you know God's been speaking to you. You need to today trust the Lord Jesus as your Savior. Maybe you've been sitting on the fence and you've been real apathetic. And there's better total lack of commitment in your heart and life toward the work of God. And maybe God's been pushing you and speaking to you. Maybe you did this morning and you realize I need to do something. I need to get off the fence. I need to start serving. I need to start letting my light shine for Jesus. I'm going to do something. Maybe that's you this morning. If so, I urge you. I urge you this morning. Let God speak to your heart on this very ordinary Sunday. Let Him crash through all of your barriers and resistance. Show Him who you are and the needs of others around you. And then by God's grace, do something. Do something that's pray together. Father, thank you for showing us very simple truth through the life of Moses. Oh, God, I pray that you will move in my heart the hearts of all of us when we see needs around us. To realize that you've put us in a place, a holy place where we can be used of you, if we'll recognize our need of you, and then help us Lord to move out to do something. And not just hope it'll happen. Hope that somehow you'll address those needs. I pray, Father, that we would listen to your call of action today. Help us to stop in the business of our lives. To listen, to look at the burning bushes in our lives when you get our attention. Help us to ask what you want and then do it. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.