Monday, March 9, 2015

We All Have a Story to Tell: Moses & Mary, 3/1/15

Sermon 3-1-15 transformation – moses and mary  Ex 3 :1-14=

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 Horeb, the mountain of God. 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, “I will go over 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.” “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Then he said, “I am the God of your father,[a] 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. 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 concernedabout 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 Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” 11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” 12 And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you[b] will worship God on this mountain.” 13 Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.[c] This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’

Series – transformation – change
How it comes to us.  Are we open to it?

Today – moses and mary Magdalene.
Why these two?  One a man, one a woman.  Both had a past.

Moses. Life spared as a child.  Raised in pharoh’s home. Kills an Egyptian.  Flees.  Decides to retire to the desert.  Marries.  Tends sheep.  Sees a burning bush. Argues with God.  I cant do it. 

How does he feel?
Maybe moses was thinking about years & years ago and the man's life that he took

“That man would never be able to see his kids grow up”
“Did that man deserve what I did to him?”
“Well I ever be anything other than a murderer?”
“What about my people?  I've let them down.  I ran away.”
“I got to live the high life and they're back there making bricks, literally dying to make bricks.”
It would be easy for Moses to think, "who am I to lead these people out of slavery?

Do you ever feel like this?
How could someone like me turn into anything. Amount to anything ?
Grace. And I know everyone is as broken as me.
So when they act like they are all that I just want to pinch them in the head.

But what does moses do?
Goes to pharaoh.  Plagues.  Leads people out.  Thru the wilderness. To the promised land.
God can do amazing things with people who are willing.

Mary Magdalene- a woman of the first profession?. Jn 8.  Had 7 demons cast out of her.  Possibly the woman in luke 7 washing his feet with her tears. 
Shes a woman
A checkered past
Becomes a disciple
There for the crucifixtion
Doesn’t run away like the men
Is one of the first ones to bear witness to the resurrection.
Mary went from being demon possessed to Christ-filled

Both of these incredible people had a myriad of excuses at their disposal
Mary Mags excuses                                Jesus’ answers
I'm just a woman                              Come, follow me!
I'm unclean!                                     Come, follow me!
I've been possessed by demons.          Come, follow me.

Moses’ excuses                                God’s answers
Who am I??                                      I AM with you
What if they don’t believe me?         Here’s some signs I’ll provide
But I stutter!                                     I will help you speak
But, but but                                      come and follow me

After all these excuses …
“God’s anger burned against Moses…” 
BUT it didn’t stop God from using Moses!

Amazing experiences with God
Moses and mary and many biblical figures all had a mazing experiences w god
I know people who would give their left arm for such an experience of god.
If you have had one, don’t hate it, you are lucky.

If you haven’t, don’t worry, people don’t earn such things.  Just keep being faithful
Your life purpose does not revolve around receiving such signs
The purpose driven life book- everyone wondered what their purpose was
No one questions their purpose when they go shopping or go to the lake.
We often hide in pleasure instead of asking our purpose.

Anyway, One a murderer, one demon possessed- Both converted.
From zero to hero.  From worst to first.

This is the power of grace.  The core of the Christian faith.  We are not stuck in our past.  We are not stuck in our sins.

They both have a past. 
We all have a past.
Some people like to measure you by your past, by your worst days.
We might measure ourselves in this way as well.
Living under the crushing memories of guilt.

Think of the worst thing that you ever did.
Joanne reedy
Would you like to spend the rest of your life measuring yourself by that incident?

The law focuses on retribution
Some churches live here……..making people publically confess their sins
Have you ever been required to stand up and apologize for the worst that you did?
Imagine if we all had to stand and tell our stories and apologize……..
Graced based churches focus on the remedy
Not the problem, but the solution.

We must decide who we are
Moses had to.  Mary had to
Jesus invites us to be more.
God has something to say about who we are
His love is transformational
What does god say to you about you?
Can you see who you really are?

Story of the sheeply lion.
Once upon a time, a lion cub was found by a momma sheep.  Being a kind mother sheep, she took the lion cub in and raised it as one of her own lambs.  So effective was his indoctrination that he grew up thinking that he was a sheep, eating grass, baa-ing, and walking with a stiff little sheep gait.

One day a lion came out of the forest and found the flock of sheep, and saw the sheeply lion.  The sheeply lion ran as did the other sheep.  The forest lion, not believing what he was seeing, gave chase.  Finally, he caught the sheeply lion and cornered him at the base of a large tree.  Cowering in fear, the sheeply lion said, “please don’t eat me, please don’t eat me.”.

The forest lion came near the sheeply lion and inquired of him, “what are you doing…cowering and shaking in fear?” The sheeply lion replied he was afraid the forest lion would eat him.

The forest lion grabbed the sheeply lion by the neck and dragged him to a nearby pool of water.

He forced the sheeply lion to gaze into the reflection from the pool. “What do you see?” inquired the forest lion.  The sheeply lion looked at the forest lion, back at the reflection in the pool, and then back to the forest lion. 

For the first time, he saw himself as he really was.  The sheeply lion raised up from the pool and gave a great roar.  He was never a sheep again.

It doesn’t matter if we feel distant from God.
It doesn’t matter what BIG SIN we think gets in God’s way.
It doesn’t matter how unclean you feel about yourself.

To be transformed it to take off the human glasses and see things as god sees them.
It is usually a process

As a part of this series we have made videos of your members……
Watch jennifer’s video………
“Some kind of momentum that has built in my soul that I want to bring to LS … something that can’t be described”

“God can transform lives -- It’s happening to me”

What do we remember moses for?  Mary for?
What will you be remembered for?

God can transform you.
Jesus can use you.
The Holy Spirit can work in & through you.

Transformation comes when we, with god’s help,
Put down our excuses and pick up our potential
God is calling……..what will you do?

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