Getting To Know God Part 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Some people think God can be manipulated.

Others think He's too busy to care about what goes on down here. But Moses learned the truth. In Exodus 4 and 5, Moses learns that God is absolutely sovereign and absolutely holy. Today we'll watch as Moses finds God to be absolutely faithful.

From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, we're learning some key lessons as we trace the life of Moses, lessons he learned as he was getting to know God. And you know, Dave, we have to learn the very same lessons.

Of course, they come to us in a different form, in different circumstances. But ultimately, God tests us in the desert with disappointment, with a sense of hopelessness, and then He begins to show us His glory. You know, I'm saying this from memory.

I hope I got it right. But Woody Allen is quoted as saying, history has to repeat itself because nobody learned its lessons the first time. And that's why it is that all of us as human beings have to keep relearning what others have learned. And that's why the life of Moses is so encouraging. And from it, we gain insights into our own struggles. I've written a book entitled Getting Closer to God.

It's actually based on this series of messages. So you can receive it, of course, then you'll have it in permanent form and you can share it with your friends. Getting Closer with God, go to rtwoffer.com.

For a gift of any amount, it can be yours, rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. And now let us get some insight into God, even as we study the life of Moses. So Moses has had a lesson in the sovereignty of God. He's had a lesson in the holiness of God. And now he needs a third lesson.

Let me tell you why he needed this third lesson. It's because when he went to Egypt, he did get a chance to talk to Pharaoh. And he said, Pharaoh, would you please let us go and worship God for three days? He's making a request that is very reasonable. He's not saying we're going to leave permanently, but he's saying at least for three days. The king of Egypt says to himself, what are these Jews up to?

They're asking these questions because they don't have enough to do. And now notice what the text has to say in verse 7 of chapter 5. You are no longer to give the people straw to make bricks as previously.

Let them go and gather straw for themselves. Let's skip to verse 19. And the foreman of the sons of Israel saw that they were in trouble because they were told you must not reduce your daily amount of bricks. In other words, what Pharaoh did was he responded negatively and said, look, in light of the fact that all that you're worrying about is taking three days off, I'm going to even give you more work. The children of Israel were slaves. They were building cities. They were building with bricks. And they were given straw to do it.

And he said, I want the same quota of bricks, but you gather your own straw. And those whips that were used for those Jewish slaves were brought down on the backs of God's people. And there was a reaction toward Moses.

Let's read of it. It says, verse 20, when they left Pharaoh's presence, they met Moses and Aaron as they were waiting for them. And the Lord said to them, may the Lord look upon you and judge you for you have made us odious in Pharaoh's sight and in the sight of his servants to put a sword in their hand to kill us. Then Moses returned to the Lord and said, oh, Lord, why has thou brought harm to this people?

Why didst thou ever send me? Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he has done harm to this people. And thou has not delivered the people at all. Here's Moses, obedient, trying to do God's will, reluctantly dragged out of the desert, brought back to Egypt. And now is the time when he expects finally the people will accept him. He already experienced the pain of rejection 40 years ago. And he comes and in obedience to God, it blows up in his face, the people rebel, and now his own people are angry with him. One of the hardest things for us to endure is when we do right and get blamed for it or get misunderstood for it.

It is difficult to take. So God says, Moses, you understand now something about my sovereignty. I'm sovereign in history. Pharaoh's heart is in my hand. You are my chosen people.

Understand that I work in and through the events of history. You understand something about my holiness you need to obey when it comes to your family and in all other commandments that you know about. But now, Moses, to comfort you, you need to understand my faithfulness.

And what the Lord does in chapter 6 is he says, Moses, I'm going to tell you something that is going to give you the courage to keep going despite your setback. He says in verse 3, I appear to Abraham and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name, Lord, I did not make myself known to them. Bible scholars have wrestled with this. They've said the word Jehovah occurs before this. This is the word Jehovah.

Yes, it does, but God never revealed what that name really meant. And now he says, Moses, I'm going to reveal myself to you as the covenant keeping God. And I want to assure you of some things that will carry you through the black discouraging times when you are blamed for being obedient. And what the Lord says in verses 6, 7, and 8, 7 times he uses the word I will.

He says, I am the Lord. I will bring you out from under the burden of the Egyptians. I will deliver you from their bondage. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm. I will take you for my people. I will be your God. Verse 8, I will bring you into the land and I will give it to you as a possession. Moses understands something, that the opposition that you encountered is temporary opposition. If you can see the big picture, you will know that I am absolutely faithful to who I am no matter what you may be going through.

The faithfulness of God. I'd like to just bring you up to date on what has happened in my life in the last 12 hours. This past week I spent a couple of days in Orlando, Florida. A friend who was a former member of Moody Church encouraged me to go and I had the opportunity of being in Orlando. And in order to save money I spent last night such as it was in Orlando. Now, you have to understand that I left at 6 o'clock this morning Chicago time, 7 o'clock Orlando time and to be picked up by the shuttle service at my hotel.

The shuttle service, the only time that would fit is 5.20 this morning. And so I phoned the hotel operator last night in Orlando and I said, you know, I need to be awakened at 4.45. I said, can you absolutely assure me that I'll get that wake-up call? And she said, your name is on the computer, sir, and hung up. All right, here I am now. My name is on the computer. And I begin to go to bed and thinking, Lord, you know I need to sleep and I'm quoting some verses of scripture, but I can't get this computer out of my mind. Because, you know, to me, reliable computer is an oxymoron.

It's something like army intelligence or mail service or tax benefit. I put it in the same category. So last night as I was sleeping I thought to myself, now, you know, whether or not I make this flight and whether or not Daryl has to preach at Moody Church this Sunday morning is totally dependent on a computer I have never seen. And I began to think, you know, the computer may not break down, but what if she got the wrong room number because it was a four-digit number and she obviously was in a hurry. So I could imagine the telephone ringing three doors down at 4.45 in the morning.

And I thought to myself, you know, maybe she has the right number and maybe the computer won't break down, but what if she didn't get the right time? So I thought to myself, there's only one way to do that and that is to make sure that even apart from this phone call which is supposed to come that I will be awake by the time it's 4.45. So I'm sleeping and suddenly I wake up and I think, surely this is the time I turn on the light, 2.15. I think to myself, it's too, it's too long before I have to go. I guess I should get some more sleep. Go back to sleep for a little while, wake up, turn on the light, 3.05. So I'm waiting there and I'm saying to myself, you know, I wonder, I wonder whether, is it worth going back to sleep? Let's see, 4.45, how long is that? And I guess I drifted off, but I began to think, you know, I could get up and I could practice my, my sermon.

I could, I could learn my notes and I could pray, but then on the other hand I need sleep too. And I guess you can guess which one of those won out. Suddenly the phone rings and I can't believe it. It's 4.45 and you probably know the rest of the story. I made my flight.

My lovely wife and daughter were at O'Hare Field to pick me up and here I am. Now I'm not telling you that story because I want you to feel sorry for me and say, well, you know, the pastor's really tired this morning. Listen, when you're my age, you can take a night like that. It's just that you don't want two in a row like that.

Nor am I telling this story so that for those of you who think perhaps I'm not as sharp this morning as I should that I'm trying to grope for an excuse. But on the flight I thought today, you know, there is such a thing that is not an oxymoron. When God puts us in his computer, when our name is written on his hands, when his covenant towards us is absolutely certain and he says, I will. The faithfulness of God is not an oxymoron.

That is something that you can depend upon. And when the final wake up call comes, we will be with him because God has said, I will. Now what I'd like to do is to simply summarize what I have to say to you this morning and remind you that every single trial that we have in life, every single experience that you had this week that you do not like, all is designed by God to nudge us closer to him.

I want you to know today that God wants to strip away all things so that we love him supremely. And remember, we seldom depend upon him unless we absolutely have to. And that's why sometimes we meet people who are stubborn and there are those personality conflicts and those needs. And that's why sometimes we experience in life our own disobedience and as a result we are disciplined by God and we have needs within our own families.

And that's why we oftentimes may be discouraged because we do what is right and it backfires. We feel betrayed. And God says to you and me, I want you to know that I am there and I am drawing you closer to myself. I am lifting you up because I want you to come directly to my heart. And so there are some hearts that are hard. I need to tell you this morning that undoubtedly in a congregation like this there are some people whose hearts are turned off and are hard toward God. There are other people whose heart is home with God.

I urge you today to open your heart to God if you find any desire to seek him, to do so, and to come to Jesus Christ because that is the first step that needs to be taken in getting to know God. At the conference I attended, Joni Erikson was there. Joni Erikson-Tada, many of you will recognize her as the young woman who was paralyzed, quadriplegic 26 years ago in a diving accident. And you've read her books and you know of her.

She was interviewed by one of the local people at the conference and I want to read a couple of excerpts. She said, I've been in a wheelchair for almost 26 years. That's a long time to be paralyzed.

Just when it seems I'm managing it, I get a new affliction that prevents me from keeping commitments, deadlines, and the like. But God is more concerned with my growing closer to his heart than in keeping my commitments. Could I say parenthetically that Joni told us that the reason that she looks forward to heaven is not because she's going to have a whole body finally. She said it is true that she can hardly wait until she has her own set of legs by which she can stand so that she can immediately fall at the feet of Jesus Christ. But she said the reason that I long for heaven is not because of that, but I long to be free from the struggle of sin within my own mind and heart.

But let me continue to read. The questioner asked her, what roadblocks on the quest for God has your suffering caused you? She said it's odd, but my suffering, mostly my physical affliction, has been that which has made my quest for God easier. At night I have to lie down by 8 o'clock and I can move.

All that I can move is just my head. She said that's like fasting. My disability is a physical condition that subdues my wanton spiritual appetites. She said I have to go to God. I have no other place to go. So my affliction has not been a roadblock on my quest for God.

It has paved the way. She's written a book entitled The Glorious Intruder. And she says the only way in which we can enjoy the thought of heaven is to allow God to take our heart home first. And then she says I love the verb, the tense of the writer of Hebrews used in describing us in Christ. He says that we have already come to the heavenly Jerusalem, to Mount Zion, to the joyful assembly. Sometimes I feel like physical affliction causes me to see beyond time.

Others who are severely disabled have told me they experienced the same thing. When you so long for eternity, it's as though time doesn't exist. That doesn't make people like me know earthly good. It just makes us understand more and be more circumspect in our lives. I want to conclude by speaking to you very plainly. I want you to know today that if you accomplish nothing in life at all, except to know God and to worship him, you will have delighted his heart.

To a woman who had had five marriages and now was living with a sixth man because she didn't even want to go through the rigmarole of marriage after five bad experiences. Jesus said that the Father seeks worshippers and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth because God seeks worshippers. Getting to know God is the most important quest that you and I could ever embark on. For as Augustine says, oh Lord, thou hast made us for thyself and our hearts are restless until they find they're all in thee.

And that's why you had those experience you did last week. That's why life is tough. God is nudging us as Johnny Erickson has learned.

God is nudging us to come directly to his heart. Moses had to learn it. You have to learn it.

I have to learn it. And it begins by knowing Christ. Let's pray. Our Father, we do want to thank you today for those who have gone on before, whether Moses or Johnny Erickson, who are our examples in the flesh of knowing you. Father, cut away all the branches, all the things that stand in the way of our knowledge of the Holy One and bring us, oh Father, until we say I have no other desire except to know God. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Now before I close in prayer, what is it that you need to talk to God about? As a Christian, what is it that keeps you from pursuing God? If you're not a Christian here, would you open your life to God and say, Lord Jesus, be my Savior. Don't harden your heart.

It'll only get harder. You talk to God. Father, don't let us go until you've blessed us. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, this is Pastor Lutzer, and my friend, I want to just share my heart with you. This morning I got a text from someone who said this, I am learning that God is sovereign not only during the good times, but also during the bad times. That's a lesson you and I have to learn.

God is sovereign when Moses is parting the Red Sea, but God is also sovereign when Moses is in the desert. I want to encourage you today. And if you'd be encouraged as a result of these messages and you'd like to listen to them again and again, you can certainly do that for a gift of any amount.

They can be yours. Go to RTWOffer.com. That's RTWOffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Ask for Getting Closer to God, Lessons from the Life of Moses. Go to RTWOffer.com. And as I mentioned, for a gift of any amount, if you go there, this book can be yours.

Or if you prefer, call us at 1-888-218-9337. It's time now for another chance for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question about the Bible or the Christian life. Prodigal sons and daughters can mean great heartache. An anonymous Running to Win listener got in touch with us to ask this, any suggestions on how to connect and share your faith with rebellious adult children?

Well, my friend, what a heartache you must have. Just think of having rebellious adult children. First of all, let me say this, that spiritually, you probably can't have a lot of input into their lives, especially if they were raised in a Christian home. They've heard it all. They know what the Bible teaches. They know the verses.

They perhaps went to camp and memorized verses of scripture and won Bible reading contests. If that's true, what you need to do is to maintain a good relationship with them, a loving relationship, a prayerful relationship. And don't preach to them because they already know the truth and it'll only drive them farther away from you. Live the Christian life. Secondly, in your prayer, and I've mentioned this a number of times because people ask a similar question, when you pray for them, pray first of all for yourself, that God will teach you the lessons that you need to learn as a result of these wayward children.

Because the relationship of the father and the mother oftentimes is critical in these relationships. So pray for yourself. Pray for their heart change, not just a lifestyle change, because people can change their lifestyle without having their hearts changed. Pray that God will change their hearts. Pray that sin will have its consequences, that the consequences will run their course so that your adult children finally agree that they need God. It's amazing what God sometimes has to do in the lives of wayward children to bring them back to himself.

He has to pull them through a whole lot of briar patches, so to speak, like the prodigal son who came to his senses in the pigsty. So do that. At the same time, connect with them one on one. Have lunch with them. Share your heart with them. Show them your love.

And when they're ready to return to home and to God, be there for them just like the father of the prodigal waiting for his son to come home. The end of the day, most important, give them to God. You can't convert them. You can't change them.

They are what they are, but God can do what you and I can't. Some wise counsel, as always, from Dr. Erwin Lutzer. Thank you, Dr. Lutzer. If you'd like to hear your question answered, go to our website at rtwoffer.com and click on Ask Pastor Lutzer, or call us at 1-888-218-9337.

That's 1-888-218-9337. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. Today, Dr. Erwin Lutzer concluded Getting to Know God, the third in a series of 12 messages about Moses, a man getting closer to God. Next time on Running to Win, we'll confront idolatry, both in Moses Day and in our own. Don't miss Smashing Our Idols. For Dr. Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.