Brother Figeroa Friday Evening 7/17/15

Brother Figeroa Friday Evening 7/17/15

Tonight we go to the book of Exodus again. 

Exo 4:1  And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The LORD hath not appeared unto thee.

Exo 4:2  And the LORD said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod.

Exo 4:3  And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it.

Exo 4:4  And the LORD said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand:

Exo 4:10  And Moses said unto the LORD, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.

Exo 4:11  And the LORD said unto him, Who hath made man's mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the LORD?

Exo 4:12  Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.

Exo 4:13  And he said, O my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send.

Exo 4:14  And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses, and he said, Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well. And also, behold, he cometh forth to meet thee: and when he seeth thee, he will be glad in his heart.

Exo 4:15  And thou shalt speak unto him, and put words in his mouth: and I will be with thy mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you what ye shall do.

Exo 4:16  And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people: and he shall be, even he shall be to thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him instead of God.

Exo 4:17  And thou shalt take this rod in thine hand, wherewith thou shalt do signs.

The thought that is in my heart tonight, I feel a real burden to preach to you about Moses’ disadvantage with a stick. 

Without an encounter with God, without an experience with the Almighty, the fact that He can talk to you and you can talk to Him, without that, all the efforts that we accomplish are nothing.

We only have one life.  The only thing that you can do that will last is what you do for God. Diplomas, all your talents,  everything all comes to nothing when you breathe your last breath.  When we come to the end of our life, we are just a seed. 

People don’t think seriously about the reality of life until they are ready to pass on.  When we are young and have health, we feel that we can control life.  We have plans and dreams to fulfil but life will surprise you.  You will face things that will catch you by surprise.  “Why is this happening at this time in my life?” 

Life is not fair, God is, but that is not life.  We see things that happen to righteous people and things happen to wicked.  We say, “Why do the wicked flourish?  They are not afflicted or sick. 

You don’t know what is going on in their hearts and life.  We don’t know what is happening.  People are very good at putting up a front.  Some act confused; they are not confused.  Others act like they are not thinking of what you are saying; God has already been dealing with them.  They say, “Don’t preach to me.  What have you done in your past, something horrible that you are trying to pay for by serving God?” 

We look at this reality.  We see, “If God doesn’t build the house, they that build it labor in vain.”  If you are building what God has not built then you are working and sweating in vain.  If God has not built something and you try to build it anyhow, it will come to nothing at the end. 

Disappointments, becoming so frustrated with yourself, come to the point that you say, “Why was I born?”  These things come to the mind and some don’t say it. 

When Moses went up to the mountain, God gave Him the Ten Commandments and He also gave him plans, a blueprint, and said, “Build this.”  Moses brought the plans down from the mountain with him. 

There were directions as far as precious stones, metals…  Build according to the pattern.  Anything that you build if God did not build it before and give you the blueprint for your life then you will run into disappointment.  It will hit you.

God not only has a blueprint.  He has a timing.  He doesn’t do things by the spur of the moment.  He never reacts.  Nothing surprises God.  He knows you.  He is all knowing.  That is an attribute of God.  In Revelations it says, “in the fullness of time.”  The time has to be the right time.  Jesus was born just at the right time. 

Moses made a mistake:

Act 7:22  And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds.

He was a great man in Egypt. 

Act 7:23  And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel.

He came around to check on his family.  He knew that he was of the children of Israel.

Act 7:24  And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian:

Act 7:25  For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not.

It was not God’s timing.  He tried to do something before God’s timing.  He did not succeed.  It caused him to run away from Egypt.  He was a powerful man, mighty in words.  He was wrong in the hour that he should act.  Timing was very important.

When the children of Israel came to cross over Jordan it was God’s timing.  It was the time of harvest.  God separated the waters. 

Timing is very important to God for your sake.  Anything that you do out of timing will not work.  I don’t care how much you fast or how much you pray, if you do something that is out of His time then it will not work.

When you sit in a rocking chair, you do something but you are not going anywhere.  You may do that for three hours.  You are exercising but you are still in the same place that you were. 

The boxer never throws the towel.  He is too beat up to throw anything.  Someone else throws the towel.  If you are a boxer, you want to get out of there because you want to see the doctor.  There are a lot of people that will throw the towel for you.  Your attitude should be, “I will never give up.”

It is vital important that when God says “Now is the time, that we move. 

Moses was taking care of the sheep of his father-in-law.  He saw a burning bush that was burning but not to ashes.  He gets close to this amazing thing.  All of a sudden he hears a voice from God. 

God drew his attention by the burning bush.  He was impacted and amazed by what he was watching.  All of a sudden he was introduced for the first time to the source of the power.  He heard of the God of the Hebrew through his mom, but he had never had contact with God.

This shook him up.  He was introduced to this source that he need to know.  The Lord told Moses to take the serpent that had been a rod by the tail.  God then told him to stick his hand in his bosom and bring it out and it was covered with advanced leprosy.  He then put it back and withdrew it and it was healed.  He was introduced to this mighty power.

We read of miracles and sometimes we think nothing of them.  We wonder why we read them.  We know what will happen.  This is the eternal Word of God, a fountain that never ceases to bring water to you.  You read a scripture and get good.  You go back again sometime later and you get something else.  The water is fresh. 

The water from a fountain is never the same water again.  It is a fountain, it is always fresh.  That is the same as the Word of God.

God spoke Moses’ name twice, “Moses, Moses, Snap out of it, I am talking to you.” 

“Who are you?” 

“I am the I Am.  Go back to Egypt and bring my people out.  Now.  You tried before but you did it at the wrong time.” 

Moses means taken out of the waters.  We have been taken out of sin.  Those that got saved young, be glad that you did.  Be glad of what you missed.  “Remember your creator in the days of your youth.”  I think of the things that I avoided.  There are things that I don’t have to deal with.  I was never in it. 

If God cleanses you of sin, it comes to your mind sometimes.  The devil tries to make you remember, “The good old days.”  He keeps away the bad times.  Remember the billboards that showed smoking and drinking as glamorous?  They didn’t show you the lung cancer and the tube in the nose.

Sin gives pleasure that is not lasting and you have to pay a high cost for it.  It is like a drug.  You have to do more and more.  There is no satisfaction in it.

“Moses you were taken out of the waters that were infested with crocodiles and snakes.  As long as you stayed in the little ark that your mother prepared, you were traveling safely by God’s mercy.” Moses was protected by the hand of the almighty God.  He was taken out at the right time by the right person.

Moses was not drawn out by a worker in the filed but by someone of power.  Pharaoh’s daughter. 

God protected me in sin in spite of my ignorance and rebellion so that He could save me later.  He has done the same for you. 

“Moses, Moses,” He cried to Him.  The church is a called out people. 

Now in the second time in his life God wants to take him out this time from anger, frustration, insecurities, complexes, limitations.  He is living with two cultures in his mind.  He had been a prince, here he is taking care of sheep.  He is married to this woman that he did not even know who she is.

God appears to him and gives him a mission.  Nothing will help you so much in life as when God gives you an assignment.  People live without a plan that makes any sense for the future.  They raise children without a plan.  What will happen when Johnny flip-flop comes and wants to date your daughter?  What happens if she rebels?  Face reality.  Not everything that glitters is gold.

Moses faced frustration and anger with his self, “Why did I kill this man?  Why did I do it?  Because I did this, then I am in this mess.  I could be in power in Egypt.” 

God had a purpose for Moses.  He allowed all these things to come through because God had a mighty plan. 

God has a plan for you.  Your plan will only take you so far.  You may get sick.  You might not be able to carry forth your plan.  If it is God’s plan then He will carry it all the way.  No matter if you get sick.

God has all things in control. 

Exo 3:10  Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.

Exo 3:11  And 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?

The question is not, “Who am I?”  The question is, “Who is telling you to go?”  In the New Testament we find out who the I Am is.  I am the truth, I am the life, I am the resurrection, I am water, I am bread, I am anointing, I am joy, I am forgiveness...  All these things come in a package. You cannot receive redemption without forgiveness and repentance. 

You may be a good husband, and I applaud you.  But if you have not repented of your sin then you are going to hell. 

Moses’ humility is amazing.  God said, “You will go.”  Moses was powerful in words and mighty in deeds.  He did not say, “It took you a long time.  Why did it take you so long?  I fought for my people.”  Instead he said, “Who am I?”

God confirmed the commission and told him the second time in chapter four.  Some of you are kicking at the pricks and are trying to do it on your own without repentance.  You think, “There has to be another way.  I see other churches.  Why cannot I be like them and go to heaven?” 

They are not going to heaven.  You can see church mice in a building, you see cock roaches in churches:  They hide and slither around. 

God asked him, “What do you have in your hand.”  He had a stick.  Dry and unfruitful. 

God did not give the rod to him.  He asked, “What do you have in your hand?”  David had to have stones.  He killed the giant.  But He had to go and find stones.  He had something in his hand that God could use.

This is just a dry stick, just a rod.  Throw it, and it became a serpent.  Surprise.  All of the sudden it is not Moses’ rod anymore, it is God’s rod.

Exo 4:17  And thou shalt take this rod in thine hand, wherewith thou shalt do signs.

Exo 4:20  And Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them upon an ass, and he returned to the land of Egypt: and Moses took the rod of God in his hand.

Exo 17:9  And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek: to morrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand.

It is not “With my rod.”  It is God’s rod.  It is not a dry stick any more.  If I point it at the waters the waters will divide.  If I point it at the wall then something will happen.

The disadvantage of Moses with a stick:  Things change with God.  Things that you thought were great, all of a sudden you find something greater.  It is satisfying.  He takes the lemon face: sometimes people look like they tasted lemon and were baptized in vinegar. 

When you get saved things change.  Before I was saved, we had family altar and I endured it.  We went to prayer meeting and I did not like it.  I told my mother that I was not going.  Wrong timing.  I was not eighteen yet.  My mom had a switch.  She switched me for two blocks all the way home.  It cured me, the next week I was the first one ready to go.

These were things that I endured because I did not know God in my life.  I hated going to a church service.  To me it was boring.  I did not understand half of what he said.  There was a preacher that stood all the time with his hands clasped, and talked very slow. 

If my parents had not subdued me and broken my will then how far would I have gone in sin?  If your children don’t fear you then how do you expect them to fear God?  If they don’t fear someone that they see, then how can they fear what they don’t see?

What is dry in your life?  Your joy, your peace, your fellowship?  We can put on a good act.  Especially in front of people that you don’t know.  You cannot use dry things.  The devil loves dry places.  When the spirit came out of the man they were told to go to the dry places. 

Be sure that you don’t become dry.  Be sure that you are drinking fresh water from God.  This is about me and God, not about others.  Of course we have this wonderful fellowship.  This experience that we have with God goes beyond that.  There are some situations that are just between God and you.  You have to plow through until you reach that place of victory.

Moses’ last disadvantage was that he was slow with words.  He had had a trauma.  Something had happened.  Earlier we read that he was a man mighty in words and deeds.  All of a sudden, he stutters.  “Wwwwwhat ddddid you say?  …”

What happened to your mighty words?  Where does the stuttering come from?  “I am traumatized.”  He had a disadvantage.  Thank God for His mercy.  He always has someone to help you with your disadvantage. 

Sometimes we go through life and it leaves us traumatized.  It could be that a loved one passes away.  It could be that your body is not able to do what you used to be able to do. 

Sometimes in the ministry we go through so many things that we have in our mind a kind of soup.  There are pieces of potatoes and so on, “How do I get the clear broth?”  Sometimes in life you try to get everything out in your spiritual life, you get tired of trying to remove everything with a ladle, and you decide to drink it anyway.

Here Moses is traumatized.  He had been mighty in words and because he went through this, it left him in this condition.  People that stutter can sing but they cannot speak.  They can get a guitar and sing but when they try to talk, then something happens.

Something happens in our life that leaves us stuttering.  We cannot complete a sentence in our life.  Maybe a child goes astray.  Maybe something happens in your life and you begin to stutter.  “Iiiiii ccccccannot do it.  I have this dddddisadvantage.  Yyyyyou are asking sssssomething from me that I cccccannot do.” 

It is a blessing when you find that you cannot do it.  As long as you feel that you can, then God will draw himself back, “Keep hitting yourself against the wall.”  When you come to the knowledge that you cannot, that you have this disadvantage, a trauma has happened that has crippled you, all of a sudden the mighty things that you used to say, you cannot say because you are traumatized. 

All through this history it was Aaron that spoke.  It reads, “Aaron said.”  Aaron was an eloquent man, he could speak.  Moses would talk to Him and he would translate and speak to Pharaoh.

When they came out of Egypt and God accomplished His mission.  There was over a million people came out.  All of a sudden Moses did not stutter any more.  He spoke directly to the people.  He got the victory over his disadvantage.

We may ask, “Why did the Lord call someone like Moses?”  It is because he had a problem.  Today we find people that have problems that have problems. And those problems also have problems.  Unless God intervenes, it is not easy to deal with them.

The stick that was dry, God changed.  God changed him and gave him a helper until Moses did not need it anymore.  God has something good for you in spite of your disadvantage. 

Don’t let the disadvantage keep you from knowing that God is a God of disadvantages.  God is able to bring people here without you inviting them by bringing fear on this community.  God is dealing with hearts.  “I need God.  I need to get saved.  I have been thinking about God all of the sudden.” 

As you grow older all the sudden you change your teenager mentality.  Through these disadvantages, God is trying to draw you to Him.

If you are not saved then you have a big disadvantage.  “Let me hear some more, one of these days I make a decision.  I have a lot of time.”  A daughter that was going home from a church activity died of a heart attack at 20 years old.  She died in the backseat.  She was dead before they got to the hospital.  Thank God that she was saved and had a good testimony. 

You with your plans, and thoughts, “I am going to do this, travel, and go here or there,” listen.  If God does not build the house, they labor in vain.  You can only have success if God gives it.