Sermon 3-1-15 transformation – moses
and mary Ex 3 :1-14=
3 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. 2 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. 3 So
Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not
burn up.”
4 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.” 5 “Do not come any closer,” God said.
“Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” 6 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. 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 concernedabout their suffering. 8 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. 9 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?
