Going Deeper - How Moses Walked with God

When I hear people talking about hearing God's voice and studying the Bible, really understanding what it says and what it means, I often say in the back of my mind, well, I want that too, but I'm too old or I'm not smart enough, or I guess that's only for super spiritual Christians. Well, let me tell you today, we're going to learn from a character in scripture that you can have the same experiences.

You don't want to miss today's broadcast. Thanks for joining us for this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Chip's our Bible teacher for this international teaching and discipleship ministry focused on helping Christians live like Christians.

Well, today we're continuing our newest series, Going Deeper. In this program, Chip will continue showing us how to develop genuine closeness with God by looking at the example of familiar biblical character modeled for us. So if you're ready, here's Chip with his talk, How Moses Walked with God. One of the things I love about scripture is that it's real.

I mean, it's really real. And I think of all the excuses I've had, like I don't understand the Bible. I haven't had any theological training.

I have a learning disability. I've had people tell me all those things. And then I've said, well, would you just hang out with me? Could we just kind of learn how to walk with God together? There's no pressure. We're going to go slow. I want to tell you, God wants to walk with you. And I know down deep, you want to walk with Him.

And my experience is no one ever sat down with you and said, this is how to do it. And one of my favorite characters in all of the Bible is Moses. I mean, I think about some of the family of origin issues. And in fact, even lean back if you would, let me give you a little profile of the most unlikely person to be not just greatly used by God, but to really walk with God. So it's during a time, some of you know the story, where all the children of Israel's kids were being killed by Pharaoh. They'd forgotten what a great deliverer Joseph was.

And so he was getting very concerned because they were multiplying like crazy. And the Pharaohs thought we're going to get outnumbered and pretty soon they're going to overthrow us. And so he gave strict orders that the baby should be killed. And the midwives had a lot of faith. And they would say things like, well, these Hebrew women, hey Pharaoh, we're trying, but we just can't pull it off. I mean, they had these babies so quickly, but a great number of the children were killed.

And there's one particular family that was Moses' parents. They sent something. They looked at this little baby and said, God's got a plan.

They took a big risk. They put the baby in a little basket near where they knew Pharaoh's daughter and some of the other women would bathe and wash some clothes, put it in a basket. And then his sister kind of hung out in the reeds looking and waiting and watching, you know, what's going to happen.

And the little baskets floating. And so Moses gets adopted into a very secular family. By God's grace, Pharaoh's daughter really isn't interested at this point in nursing the child. So he has some at least early years with his own mother and he gets some formative thinking and psychologists tell us that are really, really crucial to brain development, value development. I mean, those first five years of a child's life are so, so critically important. And we don't know exactly how long Moses was with his natural family, although nursing went on much farther than it is today normally. So he grows up in a home that is anti-Hebrew, anti-God, filled with idols, the greatest opportunities of education, pleasure. The world is literally all before him.

He can have everything that he wants. And during this time, Moses goes through the normal things that adopted kids go through. You know, where do I really fit?

Where do I really belong? He looks at what's happening to the Hebrew brothers and sisters. He looks at the opportunity and the pleasure. And I'm sure he felt some guilt about what he was experiencing versus what they were experiencing. And, you know, at some point in time, people that have everything find themselves with a very challenging question like, what's life really all about?

You can go anywhere, you can eat anywhere, you can have anything, you can drive any car, you can do whatever you want. I mean, he's the son of Pharaoh. Pleasure, money, women, anything he wants, he has. And in the midst of this, he realizes there's got to be more to life than this. And so he has been walking in the spirit of the world. And he sees, you know what, this isn't where life's at, but I'm not sure where it is. And he visits some of his Hebrew families and he gets a conviction that he needs to help. He needs to deliver them. This is unfair.

He's like a lot of young people right now. There's got to be justice. I'm going to stand for justice. And unfortunately, he does God's will in his time by his effort and his way. And he brings about some short-term justice by an unjust act of killing an Egyptian. And the following day, thinking he's helping them, he's rejected by his own people and they say something like, hey, Moses, you know, yeah, we're arguing right now, but who do you think you are? Who made you judge over us?

Are you going to kill us the way you did that Egyptian yesterday? And Moses comes to this realization that he's got to flee for his life. And I tell you this story because I want you to start pondering. Think of all the excuses.

And I don't mean that in a bad way, okay? I'm not down on anyone and God's not down on anyone. But we all make lots of excuses for, I can't really walk with God.

You know, I can't sit still. I could never really learn to pray. The Bible's too complicated. Here is someone who's now fleeing for their life. He's an adopted child. He's rejected by his own people. He's by his actions now rejected by his adopted family. He finds himself in a completely new world. And now for the next 40 years, he learns a completely different profession being a shepherd. And that is not viewed very highly.

So his self-esteem is pretty low. I mean, what am I going to do with my life? I was living at the pinnacle of society. I've made some really bad choices.

Anybody there, right? You've made some really bad choices. God could never use me.

I'm disqualified. It's all over. And so he's about 80 years old and he's just in the grind. And as he's in the grind, he doesn't know that just as God had a plan for the parents in which he would be born, where and how he would be in Pharaoh's house, what would happen when he made some very bad ungodly choices, and how he would find himself in this world of shepherding and being a nomad, if you will, and wondering what the future holds. God was orchestrating and preparing him for what was next.

And many of you know the story. He's going about his business. He sees a bush that's on fire. It wouldn't be an unusual scene in his day.

Spontaneous combustion would happen in that part of the world at times, but the bush wasn't burning up. And he goes and he has a major encounter with God. And I want you to get the background because at this point, Moses has a very deep sense that he's unworthy, unable, inadequate.

And at this stage of his life, he really brings little to the table. Like maybe some of you, I'm too old to learn something new. I'm past my prime in terms of God using me.

I have a learning disability. In fact, we'll learn shortly after he takes off his shoes, God speaks to him, tells him what he wants him to do, that Moses bocks because I can't do it. God, don't you know, I have a speech impediment in chapter four of Exodus.

I'm slow of speech and slow of tongue, and I can't do what you're asking me to do. And what I want you to know is that this is all a part of the journey of walking with God. Walking with God isn't just, oh, I read the Bible and I do listen to his voice and I want to obey. And, you know, maybe I go to a Bible study and I'm trying to be a good person. Walking with God is your whole life.

It's who you are, what you do, what's your purpose. It's walking step by step with him as he orchestrates. And he orchestrates where you got born and he orchestrates some of the environments you were in and he orchestrates and works around some of your failures and my failures. And God says to Moses, hey Moses, I got news for you. Who has made man's mouth or who made his eyes or ears?

Is it not I, the Lord? And then he says to him, I, and it's emphatic, I, even I, will teach you what you are to say. In other words, I'm going to put in your mouth what you need to say. I'll teach you.

I'm with you. We're going to walk together. And then he says to him, God, don't you know, I have a speech impediment.

I can't do what you're asking me to do. And God says to Moses, tell you what, we're going to recruit your brother. He's always been a good speaker and I'm going to send you two down there together. And I tell you that part of the story, mostly because I want you to get the background in real life for those of you that maybe have been adopted or those of you that have adopted some kids or those of you who've wrestled with abandonment issues or a learning disability or those of you that for whatever reason feel like I'm just too old or I can't, you know, I wasn't really good in school or I didn't take any advanced education. So all this stuff you're talking about, Chip, is for someone else. I want to remind you, God wants to walk with you step by step. He wants you to know his will. He wants you to enjoy his presence. He wants to guide you and direct you.

You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. We'll return you to today's message in just a second, but let me quickly ask you, do you often find it difficult to read and understand God's Word? If so, join us after today's program as Chip talks about our useful resource Daily Discipleship with Chip. This tool has helped tens of thousands of people study the Bible and develop a deeper connection to God. Stick around to learn how to sign up.

Well, with that, let's rejoin Chip for the remainder of his message. You'll learn to hear his voice. You'll be one of those people in a few months that'll say, you know, the Lord spoke to me, and not some super mystical out there crazy type stuff, but I mean, the Lord spoke very clearly to me by his Spirit in his Word and gave me direction. You'll find yourself being that person who I prayed very specifically for X, Y, and Z, and as I'm in the Scriptures, as I'm studying, as I'm walking with God, as I've learned to walk with others going the same direction towards God's destination and not mine, God answered specifically, vividly, unmistakably. That's the normal Christian life, but we've become so distracted. We have become consumers instead of people who step by step walk with the living God. We become, you know, I look at one verse or I listen to this podcast or I read this devotional that takes, you know, 90 seconds or three minutes and say, okay, you know, I got a little spiritual juice and I'll go out there and try to be a nice person, but our real focus, our real life is about our agenda and doing our thing. And then we wake up. I've been doing this for a long time.

And you wake up five or 10 or 15 years down the road and you look backwards and you realize, wow, this didn't turn out like I'd hoped. And, you know, I believed in God. I love God. I prayed to receive Christ. I read the Bible now and then. I, you know, went to church.

It's a little hit and miss, I'll admit, or I do some online and, but it's a, it's a really important part. And now you're facing some things that are like, this is not working. This is a mess.

My kids, for those of you that are older, you're saying they don't have my values. They're, they're not walking with God. You're looking at our world, you're looking at our country, you're looking at world events and you're going, I'm not sure what's going to happen in the world. And I certainly don't know when Jesus is coming back, but this is a different world.

This is a world of chaos and evil and I mean, kind of crazy things I never dreamed in my lifetime. If that's where you're at, all is not lost. I mean, that's where Moses was at. The reason I wanted you to get the story, not just a little Bible version, but like the real story is it's never too late.

You're never too old. God wants to walk with you. In fact, he wants to use you.

And so I'm not going to sugar coat it. When you engage and walk with God, notice first Moses is listening to God. They're having conversations now. Moses recognized God is holy. He takes off his shoes and he, I mean, he is reverent. And then Moses begins to move in the right direction. And as he moves in the right direction, he gets something that's very common.

His wife for understandable reasons is really not on board. And this whole idea of circumcising a son and he begins to cave in and is fearful to do what God has clearly shown him to do. And we have this unusual passage where it says the Lord is purposing to kill him. In other words, yes, God is loving. God is kind.

God has a plan. But willful, rebellious disobedience has some very heavy, heavy consequences. And in the nick of time, he gets that resolved, obeys God. He's obeying now. He doesn't feel like obeying. And he's obeying when people really close to him don't want him to obey.

Does some of this sound familiar? Did you realize God wants to walk with us, but so many of us, boy, when that important person in our life doesn't agree with what God showed us to do, all of a sudden we, we often back away. And then again, we experience, well, Lord, where's this peace? Where's this power?

Where's this? And the Lord is saying, I want you, I need you to keep walking with me when you stop walking with me. When you do your own thing, you get what you can produce. When you walk with me, you're going to get what I want to produce in you and through you. And I like that he's so patient with Moses. He gives him a real jolt and lets him know this is really serious. And then he begins to really walk with God and this is real. Instead of, oh, the Hebrews going, oh great, glad you're back.

Fantastic. He confronts Pharaoh and things get worse before they get better. By the way, I want you to know that it often will get more difficult before it gets better because you're not in some neutral territory. When you begin to walk with God, you're walking in the light, you're walking in love, you're walking in holiness, you're walking in righteousness, you're walking in integrity. That is counterculture. That's counter even the church at times, which is so unfortunate.

That's counter the values of family members sometimes. So all I'm saying is it can be lonely, it can be difficult, but he who began a good work in you and began a good work in me, he's going to fulfill it. And when we do that, the fact of the matter is it might be hard early, but you will begin to impact all those other people. But just early on, you'll have to be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord and say, you'll be times God, I just can't do this, but I won't give up. I won't give in.

Please help me. And it's in those kind of moments that you will experience him in a very, very powerful way. You know the story.

He delivers them. There's the Red Sea. He then goes on the mountain to talk about spending personal time with God, right? Forty days, brings down the Ten Commandments. While he's gone, they're now, the word is revelry. They're worshiping a calf and involved in sexual immorality.

They have in a very short time forgotten all that God has done. Moses gets really ticked off, very angry, breaks the Ten Commandments, deals with the issue, ends up going back up on the mountain. God speaks to him again, gets things realigned, and the word of God now is given the law or the covenant, the first covenant here with God and his people.

And you know what it's all about? It's not about rules, although there's six hundred and I think fourteen commandments. It was God making a people for himself that he could be with them. But because he's holy and he's showing up in this tabernacle, in this mountain first and then this tabernacle, this cloud by day and fire by night, he wants to lead them, he wants to guide them. All of those commands and all those early times will create a system and a way where a holy God could be with his people. And so they build a tabernacle and it's long involved.

It's very cultural. He's creating a nation for himself and all that is taught and all that is done is so that he could be with his people. He could guide them and direct them and love them. He could teach them through the manna to trust him.

He would want them to know what kind of God is he. You need to remember this is a world where there's thousands of gods. I mean every nation has a god. There's a sun god and a moon god, a frog god.

All ten of those plagues were in response to one of the gods of Egypt. And God wants them to know, I alone am your God. The great verse in Deuteronomy 6 for the Lord our God is one God and you have worshiped the Lord. And these commands with all your heart, your soul, your mind, your strength, it's about loyalty. It's about one God. It's about an education and he wants to walk with them and be with them and bless them and encourage them and all the promises that your cattle will flourish and your fields will flourish and your marriages will flourish and your children will flourish. But that's when you obey me.

Trust me. Again, walk with me. And we're in the new covenant. But those principles of why God gives us commands are the same. It's to protect us.

They're not limitations to what's fun and good and great. They're guardrails to keep us on this path. The Lord God is a sun and a shield. The Lord gives grace and glory. No good thing will he withhold from those who walk uprightly. It's such a different view. I think of the Ten Commandments as God's boundaries for abundant living. But if you're like me, a lot of my life they've been very hard and very difficult because basically they were against the kind of things that the world was telling me, the flesh was telling me, and the enemy was telling me, Chip, satisfaction, joy, outcomes that you really want are down that path. And God's saying, no, it's down this path.

Walk with me. And what I love about Moses' life that may be the most profound, you find it in an interesting place. In Psalm 103 verse 7, it said God made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the sons of Israel.

Moses saw all the power, the Red Sea, the manna, the quail, the water out of the rock. He saw magnificent experiences with God, as did all the people. But how many of those people continue to walk with God?

Very few continue to trust him. If you want to walk with God, here's the takeaway for today. You need to ask God for a passion, not just to get good things from him, but to actually know what he's like. What are his ways? Moses said, God, show me your glory.

In other words, I want to know all of who you are. And if you don't show me your glory, if you don't walk with me, if you don't go with this, then just kill me. I don't want to go there without you. Do you get the intensity and the passion? And it says the Lord put him in the cleft of the rock and passed by. And it's so interesting. The very first thing about the Lord he revealed of himself is that he is good. He's a good God. He's abounding in loving kindness. He's merciful and compassionate. God is slow to anger. And yet, it goes on to say, and yet, he provides judgment and consequences for people at active rebellion against him.

And it was that passion. He wanted to know God's ways. And God would say of this man who most people would say, he's too old. He started too late. He's a murderer. He doesn't qualify. He had some sort of speech disability, so he can't be a great charismatic leader. He's got all these things working against him.

But in his heart, he has this passion and this desire. And God says Moses is the most humble man on the earth. Moses had an accurate, sober self-assessment. Moses got a late start. But Moses learned to walk with God on God's terms.

And here's what I want you to know. Moses reminds us that God can take the most difficult childhoods, the biggest rejections, our biggest mistakes, some of our biggest failures, and if we are open, if we are willing, he wants to put his arm around us and say, this is the way, walk in it. Could I encourage you? Let's walk with God together. Let's get into scriptures, not to say we read so many chapters or I heard this podcast or I read this book. All of that has its place. All of that is wonderful. I'm so glad for the resources that are created and the wonderful teachers that we have and the many Christian books and the great devotionals and YouVersion and reading plans. All of those things are wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.

However, none of those take the place of you personally opening your Bible, learning to study it for yourself, hearing God's voice, reading a passage and knowing this is what it says, this is what it means, this is what it means to me, this is what God, the maker of all things, is saying to me personally and then obeying those and seeing and experiencing his presence and his power and not only working in you but then working through you. This is the normal Christian life, to walk in love, to walk in the light and to experience the very best of God and to be used in the greatest way possible to fulfill his purposes for your life and for you. Thanks, Dave. Let me pause and ask you a direct question. How do you see yourself? And more importantly, how do you think God sees you? So often we believe lives about ourselves based in shame and guilt or insecurities and I want to give you a divine mirror to see yourself the way God sees you. Let me encourage you to sign up for our daily discipleship series, Discover Your True Self, based in Ephesians chapters one through three. This is a free video resource where you and I will study the Word together for 20 minutes a day, 10 minutes with me and then 10 minutes on your own. I promise that if you'll join me on this 20-day adventure through Ephesians, you'll break through the lies that we all believe about ourselves.

You'll get God's perspective on who you really are and you'll build a life-changing habit of meeting with God. I sure hope you'll check it out. Thanks, Chip. To learn more about our daily discipleship with Chip series, Discover Your True Self, go to LivingOnTheEdge.org. This free video tool will help you ignore the lies the enemy tries to tell you and embrace your value as a child of God. Again, to sign up for this or any of our other daily discipleship series, go to LivingOnTheEdge.org. App listeners, tap discipleship. Well, just before we close, I want to quickly thank those of you who regularly give to Living on the Edge.

You're making a big difference in helping Christians live like Christians. But if you're benefiting from our ministry and haven't started giving yet, let me encourage you to join the Living on the Edge team. Now, you can do that by setting up a recurring donation at LivingOnTheEdge.org or by calling us at 888-333-6003. That's 888-333-6003. Or visit LivingOnTheEdge.org. App listeners, tap donate. And thanks for doing whatever the Lord leads you to do. For Chip and the entire team, this is Dave Drewy thanking you for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge, and I hope you'll join us next time.