Well, you know, in our modern world today, we're used to the idea that God calls men and women into full-time vocational Christian service.
The full-time ministry, if you will. Pastors, people who work on church staffs, missionaries, seminary teachers, etc., etc. But what you may not realize is that Moses was the very first person in history that God ever did this with. I mean, before Moses, many people had walked with God and had been faithful to God's plan in their life.
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Noah. But Moses, at the burning bush, God calls him into a special life of service for God. A special life of leading God's people spiritually that goes far beyond just walking with God in his own life. Now, last week, we saw that God is still calling men and women into the ministry today. Some of us, he calls into full-time vocational ministry, like he did Moses. Most of us, as followers of Christ today, he calls into volunteer ministry.
But whether the ministry God calls us to is full-time or volunteer, God calls every Christian to a life of service and a life of ministry for the risen Lord Jesus. Friends, this is why, as followers of Christ, we study the lives of the men and women in the Bible whom God called to serve him. Because in seeing how God taught them lessons and the lessons that God taught them, we learn how to serve God with power and with effectiveness in our world today. And this is what our lesson for today is all about. We're going to go back 3500 years and we're going to watch God teach Moses a critically important lesson about being a servant of God. And then we want to bring all that forward and talk about, well, what difference does that make to you and me as servants of God today? So if you brought a Bible, I'd like you to open it with me to Exodus chapter 4 in the Old Testament, second book in the Bible. If you didn't bring a Bible today, reach under the armrest there next to you. And we're going to be on page 42 in our copy of the Bible, page 42 in our copy, Exodus 4 in your copy.
And while you're turning, let me give you just a little bit of background. Remember at the burning bush that God called Moses to a very special ministry opportunity. Exodus Chapter 3, verse 10. So now go, Moses, God says, I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt. Well, last week we watched as Moses spent 30 verses arguing with God, giving God five excuses why God had picked the wrong man for the job. And after God had a solution to every one of those objections Moses offered, finally, Moses made up his mind that he would go.
And that's where we are, so let's pick up the story. Chapter 4, verse 18. Then Moses went back to Jethro, his father-in-law, and said to him, Let me go back to my own people in Egypt.
And Jethro said, Go. Verse 20. So Moses took his wife and son, put them on a donkey, and started back to Egypt.
And he took the staff of God in his hand. Verse 24. At a lodging place along the way, the Lord met Moses and was about to kill him. But Zipporah, his wife, took a flint knife and circumcised her son. Then she threw her son's foreskin at Moses' feet and said to him, You are a bridegroom of blood to me. And after this, the Lord let Moses alone. Now you may say, Lon, I've read that before in the Bible. What in the dickens is going on here?
This is like one of the weirdest things I ever read. Well, let's talk about what's happening here. Friends, the Bible says at the beginning of their journey back to Egypt, when Moses, his wife, and his son stopped overnight at an inn, that God was about to kill Moses. Now, the Bible doesn't state how it was that God sought to do this, whether he sent some illness into Moses' life or whether it was something supernatural. But the important point for us is the reason why God struck Moses down. The reason is because Moses had failed to circumcise his son. Now, as I'm sure you know, God had commanded, there's our key word, God had commanded Abraham that every Jewish father must circumcise his sons. Genesis 17, verse 9, God said to Abraham, You must keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you, for all generations to come. And this is My covenant with you and your descendants, the covenant you are to keep, every male among you shall be circumcised.
Friends, this was an integral part of what it meant to be an Israelite. And somehow Moses' wife, Zipporah, figures out what the problem is here, that Moses had not done that. She takes a sharp stone and she quickly circumcises her son.
Now, I might add that her son, Gershom, was in his 20s at this point. And then she takes the foreskin and she throws it at Moses' feet. And immediately after this was done, the Bible says, God let Moses alone, confirming that this circumcision of his son was the issue that God was dealing with here in Moses' life. Now, folks, this is one of the most gruesome passages in the entire Bible, but it is also one of the most valuable passages in the Bible when it comes to teaching us about how to serve God with power.
Let me explain to you what I mean. Moses, folks, knew about circumcision. He himself had been circumcised by his own father. Moses also knew that God had commanded every Jewish father to circumcise his sons. But apparently what happened here is that when Moses fled into the Sinai wilderness and he married Zipporah, who was non-Jewish, and he had a son with her, apparently she objected to Moses doing this to her son.
She said something to him like, hey, look, Moses, you are never going to see your people again, son. Your son that we've just had is never going to be a part of the Israelite nation. So why should we put our child through this? Why should we inflict this pain on our son? I don't want to do it.
Forget it. And Moses apparently listened to her logic. Now, it was human logic, it was ungodly logic, because God had declared that circumcision, Genesis 17, 13, was an everlasting covenant between every individual Jewish male and God. It had nothing to do with whether the Moses would ever see the Israelites again. And let's admit that circumcising his son must have looked like a small matter to Moses as he headed back to Egypt. I mean, he's going back to stand toe to toe with Pharaoh. He's going back to turn staffs into snakes. He's going back to call down the ten plagues on the land of Egypt.
He's going back to open the Red Sea. I mean, circumcising your son must have looked like a small consideration. But you see, folks, Moses needed to learn a crucial lesson about the God he is setting out to serve. And that lesson is that God demands total obedience from his servants. God demands total obedience from his servants. For God, no act of disobedience is trivial.
No act of disobedience is minor. Disobedience is sin, and sin quenches and chokes off the power of God in a person's life, regardless of the relative size of that sin. Moses had to learn that. You see, friends, it was sheer foolishness for Moses to head back to Egypt and to try to pull off the exodus, for him to count on God's power to flow through his life in a mighty way. It was foolishness for him to assume that, with sin in his life, disobedience in his life, before God that he had not dealt with.
I mean, it would be like a fireman running to a fire, hooking up his hose to the hydrant, unleashing the hydrant, and nothing coming out. That was what was about to happen to Moses in Egypt. And so God was not doing what he did here to be mean to Moses. I've read commentators who said God was just being mean.
No, he wasn't. God, listen now, was being merciful. It was in mercy that God met Moses at this inn. It was in his mercy that God obstructed Moses' way. It was in mercy that God forced Moses to get this sin right. It was in mercy that he forced Moses into a position of full obedience before God, because it was in mercy that God wanted to make sure before Moses went back to Egypt that when he turned on the fire hydrant, the power of God actually came out of it.
And we know, of course, that's what happened when he went back to Egypt, but it only happened because Moses dealt with this area of disobedience in his life before he went back there and tried to serve God. Now, that's as far as we want to go in the passage today because it's time for us to stop and ask our most important question. And you know what that question is, so ready? Ready? Ready? All right, here we go.
One, two, three. So what? Yeah, you say, Lon, so what? Say, you know, that really is kind of a weird passage in there.
I mean, what difference does that passage make to my life today? Well, let's talk about that. You know, have you ever thought what the most hated word in the English language might be?
Well, I gave it some thought. You know, in January, I think it's visa bill. In this coming week, what's the most hated word in the English language? Taxes.
I haven't done mine either. In the summer, it's humidity. In the fall, it's the cowboys.
In December, it's the mall. But all year round, I think the best candidate I've come up with for the most hated word in the English language is the word obedience. Two-year-olds hate that word. Elementary school children hate that word. Teenagers hate that word. College students hate that word. Boot camp soldiers hate that word.
Employees hate that word. Obedience may be the most hated word in the English language. However, as we've just seen today, God loves the word obedience. And, folks, when it comes to obedience, God is not just interested in the large issues, the major issues of life. No item of obedience is too small or too insignificant for God to care about in the lives of His servants. And God needed to teach this to Moses. He needed to teach him that even in small matters, obedience is mandatory for God's servants. And, folks, God needs to teach that to you and me as well. Whenever I think of this truth, I think of a verse out of the Song of Solomon, chapter 2, verse 15.
It says this. It says, It is the little foxes that spoil the vine. And what this means is that most of us as followers of Jesus Christ, it means that we don't lose the power of God on our life. We don't lose the blessing of God on our life over the big foxes in life, over the big areas of disobedience in life. For most of us, it is the little foxes, it is the little acts of disobedience that devastate our Christian experience so often, that rob us of God's richest blessing, and that take away from us the joy of our salvation.
I mean, think about it now. It was a little fox that cost King Saul his kingship. He went to this town. God said, I want you to wipe out everybody and everything in the town. And he did 97% of what God told him to do. He only left a few animals alive.
He only preserved the life of one person, the king. But, friends, that was 3% disobedience. And as a result of that, God met him along the road where Samuel, the prophet, was, and God took away his kingship over something that looked very small to Saul, I'm sure, looked very inconsequential to him, but the lesson is that no disobedience is inconsequential in the sight of God. I think, for example, of the Israelites invading the land under Joshua. You remember what happened at Ai after their great victory at Jericho. One of the men in the camp, a fellow named Achan, had kept some spoil from Jericho that God had commanded the Israelites not to do.
He had hidden it in his tent. And so the Israelites went out and fought at Ai their next battle, and they got schwacked. And Joshua was in his knees, in his tent, praying and saying, Oh, God, what are we going to do? Oh, God, what are we going to do? And the Lord said to him, Get up, get up, get up, get up, God said to him.
Get off your knees. God said to him, Joshua chapter 7, Israel has sinned. That is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies, and you will not be able to stand against your enemies until you remove that disobedience from among you.
Joshua went and dealt with the disobedience and the power of God returned. Friends, it's the little foxes that will get you every single time. I mean, all it takes is a little bit of immorality to quench the power and blessing of God in our lives. You know, people say, Well, it's just a magazine. Or, Hey, you know, it was just a little bit of Internet porn. I only looked at it for a second. I've had people say, Well, you know, not all the movie was bad. There were just a couple parts of it that were really, really bad.
I didn't stare at her chest a long time, just for a second. My boyfriend and I, you know, we just have a little bit of sex. We don't go all the way. I mean, we just kind of have a little bit of sex. You know, friends, all it takes is a little bit of lying. I've met people who've said to me, Well, you know, you've got to be a little bit deceptive in business to survive today. Law and business is business, and the church is the church. Well, I'm sorry.
That's not how God sees it. It just takes a little bit of cheating. I've had students say, Well, you know, everybody does it. So what? A little bit of income tax evasion. Well, if they catch me, then I'll pay it. A little bit of refusing to make restitution. Well, they've probably forgotten all about it anyway.
Why should I go back and deal with it when they don't even remember what I did wrong? A little bit of hatred, a little bit of bitterness, a little bit of jealousy, a little bit of unforgiveness, a little bit of rebelling against our parents, a little bit of disobeying our boss, a little bit of disrespecting our husband, a little bit of lack of esteem for our wife. Folks, as followers of Jesus Christ, we dare not underestimate the destructive power of the little foxes.
We must let God teach us what He taught Moses, that we must take every item of obedience to God seriously if we are going to see God's full power and God's full blessing rest on our lives. Now, what I have here is a crescent wrench. And this may not look like a little fox to you, but it is. Let me tell you about it. Years ago when I was a seminary student, I had a roommate, I shared an apartment with another seminary student named Jim Miles. And Jim used to lend me a crescent wrench that looked very much like this one that I would use to unloosen the drain plug on my oil pan and change the oil in my car. Well, when we moved out from being roommates together, I stole the crescent wrench.
I just didn't give it back to him. And I used the crescent wrench for the next ten years to change the oil in my car. And often when I would be under the car unloosening the drain plug, the Holy Spirit would tap me on the shoulder and go, Hey, Lon, you know, that's Jim Miles' wrench you got. And I would say, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, but he probably has forgotten all about it now, God, you know.
And I would ignore it. Well, when I came here to McLean Bible Church in the early years, I was really concerned that I just didn't see God moving with power and moving with the kind of intensity through my ministry that I wanted to see him move. And so I was praying one day and saying, God, what is it?
There's something that's hindering the power of God through my life. And the Holy Spirit said as clear as a bell to me, Lon, it's the wrench. And so I called Jim Miles up.
He was married with children by now. And I said, Hey, Jim, it's Lon. And we talked for a few minutes. And I said, Hey, I said, You remember that old big silver crescent wrench that I used to use of yours to change my oil? And he said, Yeah. He said, I always wondered what happened to that wrench. I said, Well, Jim, I stole it. I got it.
It's in my hand right now as I'm talking to you. And I said, I'm sending it back to you. He said, Forget it. I already bought another one. I said, It doesn't matter.
I don't know. You'll have to. But it's coming back to you today.
FedEx, son. And it did. And I went out and bought another one just like it that you see in my hand today.
This one's mine, not Jim's. And, you know, it was amazing what began happening in my ministry after I did that. You wouldn't think something as little as a crescent wrench could make all that much difference. But, friends, the issue wasn't the crescent wrench. The issue was full obedience to God. Friends, little foxes come in all shapes, all sizes and all colors of wrenches.
They come in all different sizes and shapes. But the important thing for us to remember is that we if we really want God's blessing in our life, if we really want God's power flowing through our life, and I sure hope you do, then we must learn to pray what David prayed. Psalm 139, verse 23. He prayed, Search me, O God, and know my heart and see if there's any wicked way in me. We've got to ask God to show us where the little foxes in our life are hiding. And once he shows us, we have to then have the courage to go back and to deal with those acts of disobedience before God and before people, regardless what that costs us, in time or energy or money or effort or humiliation. Because if we're going to serve God and if we're going to see God work through our life, we must stand in a position of full obedience to the best of our knowledge at every moment in our life.
I love what A.W. Tozer said. The great writer, he's with the Lord now, but here's what he wrote. He said, Have you noticed how much praying for revival has been going on of late and how little revival has resulted?
Considering the volume of prayer, Tozer says, that is ascending these days, rivers of revival should be flowing. That no such results are in evidence should not discourage us. Rather, it should stir us to find out why our prayers are not being answered.
And here's his assessment. I believe that our problem is that we have been trying to substitute praying for obeying and it simply will not work. End of quote. Remember what the prophet Samuel said to King Saul. He said, Saul, does the Lord take as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as he does in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than to sacrifice. Friends, to obey is better than to come to church. To obey is better than to put money in the offering plate. To obey is better than to sing in the choir. To obey is better than to do anything if you and I are interested in seeing God's richest blessing and power on our life. And the church today does not need to pray more. The church today does not need to give more. The church today does not need to become more relevant nearly as much as the church today needs to become more obedient to God.
And you don't need anything else in your life more than you need and I need to become fully obedient to God. This is the lesson that God wanted to teach Moses before he headed back to Egypt. And friends, this is the lesson God so desperately wants to teach the church and you and me as followers of Christ today.
I hope we can learn it. Let's pray. With our heads bowed and our eyes closed, I want to give you a moment to talk to God. And I want to ask you to pray the prayer that David prayed. Lord, search my heart. See if there's any crescent wrenches in my life. Any little foxes that I need to deal with and bring me to a place of total obedience in my life.
You take a moment and pray and if the Lord shows you something, you tell him that you're going to go get it right this week. Lord Jesus, I don't know what popped up on everybody's radar screen as they asked you to show them the little foxes. Maybe some of us here need to go file amended tax returns. Maybe some of us here need to speak to our boyfriend or our girlfriend about a change in our sexual behavior.
Maybe some of us here need to go home and call DirecTV and drop HBO and Showtime. Maybe some of us here need to go speak to someone and humble ourselves and seek forgiveness or make restitution or apologize. Lord Jesus, I don't know what you showed people. I know what you've shown me as I prepared this week for this message. But I pray you would give us the courage, no matter what you showed us, to go and fix the things that we need to fix, to get rid of the little foxes in our life, so that we can stand in a position of total obedience before God to the best of our knowledge, that the power and the blessing of God would be unhindered in our lives. Teach us, Lord, that it's the little foxes that spoil the vines for us as servants of Christ and help us become incredibly sensitive to the little things that so often cost us the big things. Lord, change our lives because we were here today the way we live every single day and make us powerful servants of Christ and a powerful church in this town for the Lord Jesus Christ, so that people might come to know you and have their eternal destiny and their human life completely transformed. Lord, souls are at stake in terms of our obedience. Help us understand that and help us live in a way that the power of Christ is evident in our life. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. And God's people said, Amen. Amen.
