Reverend Steven Felton's Sermon

August 10, 2003, 8:00, 9:30, 11:00 AM

Rev. Ronald Burcham

Typed from audio transcript

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Anybody remember Alexander Haig? Remember Al Haig back in the 1980's? He was Secretary of State for President Ronald Reagan. Do you remember what happened with him back in 1981? There was the assassination attempt on President Reagan; and, as they were taking him off to the hospital, Al Haig got up in front of all the reporters and said, "I'm in charge here." That wasn't a good day for Al Haig, was it? No, that wasn't a good day at all because All Haig was not in charge. The Constitution is very clear that if the President is incapacitated, it is the Vice President who is in charge; and, unfortunately, Al Haig found that out from a series of late-night talk show hosts. He was the brunt of many jokes. From reporters and from numerous sources, he found out that he really wasn't in charge. But you can't blame Al Haig too much. He wanted to be in charge. He wanted to take control over the situation. He wanted to make sure that things were going to go right.

In reality, don't you like to be in charge? Don't you like to be in control? Specifically, your life? Don't you like to be in control of your life, in charge of your life? All those of you who are Type A personalities like me, don't raise your hand. We don't want to admit to it. We like to be in control. We like to think that anything and everything that comes along in life, we can handle.

But, what happens when something comes up in life that we can't handle? What happens when a situation arises that we don't know how to deal with it, whether it's financial, whether it's personal, or it's a relationship, or it's job related, or it's medical? When something comes up that is out of our control, something that we don't fully understand and something that we don't really know how to react to, all of sudden, this self reliance that we had, this confidence that we had that we could handle everything, it's gone and we're lost.

This morning, what I'd like for us to learn is from Moses. You see, Moses liked to be in charge. And he thought he was in charge, and he thought he was pretty self-reliant. But, in a very dramatic way, he found out that with him in charge, things weren't going too well. So he learned that he had to put God in charge. He learned to put God in charge of his life; and , when God was in charge of his life, let's face it, miraculous things happened.

You see, the shocker came for Moses one day when he went out to see how things were going with his people. Now what wasn't included in our reading for this morning was the fact that this was a time when the Israelites were in captivity in Egypt, and the Egyptians were worried about their ever-expanding population. Therefore, the Pharaoh made an edict that every male child would have to be killed. Well, Moses was born during that time and so we read about how his mother hid him for three months. And then she sent him down the Nile river hoping something would happen. Well, God had plans for Moses. And so the Pharaoh's daughter adopted Moses, so Moses grew up in the Pharaoh's palace, an adopted son of the Pharaoh, he was Prince of Egypt. I'm sure that he had people under him, and h could just simply ask them to do something and it was done. So it's not all that surprising that Moses was full of a lot of confidence. He had a lot of self-assurance about him. If he wanted things done, he could do them. I'm sure that he thought to himself," You know, there's not a situation that will come up that I can't handle." So one day, as he rides out in his chariot, he sees what's happening with his people of the Israelites and he is shocked and can't believe the way they're being treated, the way the Egyptian slave drivers are beating upon them, oppressing them. He sees one particular individual, and he's enraged by it. Scripture says he looked this way and he looked that way, and he reached out. Moses is going to handle this. Moses is going to be the deliverer of his people. He's going to rescue them, and he starts with this Egyptian. He jumps down. He ends up killing the Egyptian and hiding his body in the sand. Moses is still feeling pretty good about himself. Except the next day. The next day, Moses goes out and he's riding around feeling like, "I've started something here. I'm taking care of my people. I'm in charge." And he sees two Israelites arguing with each other, and he goes up to them and he says, "Brothers, don't argue with one another. Our fight isn't with each other. It's with those Egyptians." Now he thinks he's going to have a hero's welcome. After the preceding day, this should be great.

Instead, the Israelites look at him and say, "What are you going to do, Moses? Kill us like you killed the guy yesterday? Are you going to hide us in the same place that you hid him?" That's not how it's supposed to work. And while Moses is reeling from trying to understand why the Israelites are not welcoming him as their savior, uh oh, Daddy found out, that is, his adopted dad, the Pharaoh. And the Pharaoh all of the sudden doesn't have any good relationship with his adopted son. In fact, he orders that Moses is to be killed. Everything falls apart. Moses is in charge of his life. Moses things he's going to redeem the people. He's going to be their savior. And everything falls apart. He has to run for his life, and he escapes to Midian and he starts working for a man named Jethro.

How often do things fall apart for you when you think you're in charge? When you think all you need to rely upon is yourself? Isn't that something that we Americans like is self-reliance? We're self-made men and women. We pick ourselves up from our bootstraps. We've been through tough times before, and we'll get through tough times again. But what happens when the tough times come, and it's out of your control and you don't know what to do? You see, Moses had to go through that time to come to the realization that if he really wanted to see things happen in his life, he had to move out of the way. He had to realize that he really shouldn't be in control, but God should be in control. With God in control of his life, miraculous things would happen.

It all began for Moses when all of a sudden he turned his attention to God. Did you catch that in our reading for today? Moses is going along with his flock noticing things here and there, and all of a sudden, he sees this bush is on fire but it's not being consumed. Now we should note that I read that in the desert over there, in such extreme heat, its not all that unlikely for a bush to spark into flames. It is, however, a little bit unusual when the bush is not consumed by the flames. So he notices that's happening, but what did scripture say. Scripture says, "When the Lord saw that Moses turned towards the bush, then the Lord called out to him." You see, the Lord had been with Moses the whole time. He'd been with him back in Egypt. He'd been with him through the desert. He was with him when he was out in the flock. And the Lord was waiting, waiting for an opportunity so that Moses would turn his attention to God, give his attention to God where it needed to be. Moses could have very well just passed by the bush and not even realized that it made him take note that something unusual was happening here. God wanted his attention, and Moses gave his attention to Him.

Now I am doubtful that any of us are going to see burning bushes that are not consumed, possible as it may be, because God can do whatever He wants to do. But I really don't think that's how He operates today. But God is with us each step along our way, and God is always there wanting to be in charge of our life, wanting to help us through life. Sometimes, we just don't pay attention to Him. We don't put our attention to God. Sometimes, God reaches out to us. Maybe it's a series of coincidences that we can't really understand or maybe it's a tragedy that happens in our lives and that draws our attention back to God. Maybe it's through a time of worship or when we're in prayer or through a moving song but there are certain ways, and I hope you've experienced that, where all of a sudden you sort of wake-up and say, "I thing God's trying to get my attention here."

If we want to put God in charge of our life, then we've got to not miss those. We have to turn, as Moses did, and give our attention to God. Find out what He has to say. It's what Moses did. Moses went over to find out what God had to say.

The second thing that Moses did, and this maybe is a little bit more difficult, is Moses humbled himself. He humbled himself in the presence of God. As soon as God called out his name, as soon as Moses came to the realization that this was the God, this was his God, this was a holy God, and he was standing on holy ground, Moses could do nothing but fall flat on his face. You have to wonder in that instant, did he remember the countless offenses that he had done against God? And there he stood, this sinful individual, in the presence of the holy God. Moses humbled himself in front of God.

If we want God to be in charge of our life, we have to humble ourselves before God. And we have to humble ourselves spiritually before anything else. We have to come to the painful realization that we are sinful individuals and that, when we come into God's presence, we come into the presence of holiness. We have to humble ourselves to realize that there are so many things out of our control, so many things that we can't do a thing about; and the number one that we can't do anything about is our relationship with God. We cannot make our relationship right with God no matter how many people say, "He's a really great guy or gal." None of that counts in front of God. And we humble ourselves with the realization that, in front of God, we're nothing. It is nothing. It is only through His grace, only through His mercy that He picks us up and He forgives us through blood of His son, and He calls us His own. It's only God who is able to lift us up so we won't have to bury our face in front of Him. If we want to put God in charge of our lives, we have to humble ourselves. Humble ourselves spiritually and humble ourselves to the acknowledgement that really we can't handle life on our own, that we need God to handle life, we need God in charge of our life. And God will use that because the next thing that happens is God will shift our focus from ourselves onto Him.

It's what happened with Moses. God lays out this plan for Moses. God says, "I want you to go back to Egypt, and I want you to save my people. I want you to lead those people out of Egypt and into the promise land." Now Moses had to think back to himself, "You know, I tried that about 30 years ago and it really didn't work out to well." So he says to God, "Who am I?" Moses is still stuck a little bit. He doesn't have the focus right yet. He's still thinking about what can he accomplish, what can he, Moses, do? And as he thinks back to his previous experience, he comes to the conclusion, I can't do a thing. I tried it once. It didn't work out. So how does God answer him? God really doesn't answer the question when Moses says, "Who am I?" God could have left him a list of qualifications. He could have said, "Well, Moses, from since you were born, I've been preparing you for this. I raised you in the Pharaoh's palace so that you know the language. You know the customs. You know your way around the place." But God doesn't do that. God doesn't list all the credentials that Moses brings into this because that's irrelevant. So God doesn't answer the question of Moses, "Who am I?" Instead, God says, "I am with you." He shifts the focus of who is Moses to who is God. The right question is not, "What can Moses do?" "What can God do?"

If we want to have God in charge of our lives, we shift our focus. We don't ask ourselves, "What can I do about this? How can I handle this situation?" The question is not about you. It's about God. It's not about what you can do. It's about what God can do. It's not about your qualifications. It's about God's qualifications. It's not about how much you'll accomplish. It's how much God will accomplish through you. And when we move out of the way and we put God in the driver's seat, miraculous things happen. Moses learned it. It took him awhile, but he learned the fact that it wasn't he who was important. It was God. It was not Moses who was leading the people. It was God leading the people through Moses. And when Moses did that, when he let God be in charge of his life, miraculous things happened. Pharaohs all of a sudden give in, and they let all of their free labor walk out of the country. The Red Sea parts in front of him. Manna is found on the ground in the morning, and quail falls from the sky at night. Miraculous things happen as Moses comes to the conclusion that God is the one in charge, not him.

Miraculous things happen in our lives when we put God in charge and we move out of the way. Situations that we think are hopeless all of a sudden become resolved. Relationships that are broken that we think can't be put back together all of a sudden are healed. Financial matters that burden us and keep us up at night all of a sudden get resolved. Miraculous things happen when we move out of the way and we let God be in charge of our lives.

Let God be in charge of your life. Humble yourself before Him. Know all that He has done for you, and then shift your focus. Shift your focus from yourself to God. Don't ask what can you do. Ask what can God do. And the answer is, "All things." Amen.

Copyright 2003 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church