0:00 Девушки отдыхают 0:30 In these evening meetings, the three evenings, we are going to take a Bible study related to our theme, which is the missing messages in today's Christianity. 0:51 And the theme of our Bible study will be three radical prophets. Three prophets who lived in old covenant times, and as we study their lives, we see that they came in to the history of Israel at a particular time when Israel faced a particular need, 1:16 with a message that was designed to meet that particular need. There was a missing message in Israel, and for that missing message, God sent a prophet with that message. 1:38 And these things written in the Old Testament are written for our instruction, for an example for us. That's why three quarters of your Bible is the Old Testament. So though we have finished with the Old Covenant, we don't ignore the Old Testament. 1:59 Because the Old Testament history, and some of the wonderful promises there, and the experiences described there are very, very profitable for us. If you study the Old Testament, you see how God's people fail, and history repeats itself in the church. 2:23 In the way Israel failed, the church is failing today. And so, a wise man learns from the mistakes of others. A foolish man does not learn even from his own mistakes. Most people learn from their own mistakes. A foolish man doesn't even learn from his, but a wise man tries to avoid making that mistake by looking at the mistakes other people have made and learn from them. 2:52 I mean, that's what we do in many other areas of life in general. You see, well, somebody made a mistake there and suffered the consequences. Oh, well, I better be careful about that. So the Old Testament was given us for that purpose. 3:07 That we read and see where Israel failed. And say, Lord, I don't want to fail there. And how did God correct that failure? Usually through a prophet who came in at that particular time with a particular message. And they persecuted the prophet because they didn't want to hear what was lacking in their midst. 3:35 They wanted prophets to tell them what they were doing right, not what they were doing wrong. I mean, for example, if you go in the midst of the Pentecostal church and preach, you don't have to preach there about speaking in tongues. 3:48 They're doing too much of that already. You probably need to preach there about holiness and taking up the cross and not loving money. But you go in the midst of the Brethren Assemblies, you don't need to teach them about the tabernacle and what it means. 4:00 They're studying that all the time. You probably need to teach them about the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Well, that's the way to be unpopular anywhere. Tell a church the things they are not accepting in God's word. Show them the particular portions of the Bible they have torn out. 4:19 And each group has torn out different parts of the Bible. And they have this incomplete Bible where they have left out certain portions. And if you get an opportunity to share with them, you must share with them the things that are missing, not the things they already have. 4:35 The great tragedy is that in Christendom, everybody likes to have preachers who will tell them what they already have. I like to read a lot of literature written by people who are not from my background. 4:56 And I get light. I read some things written by the old Catholic saints. I don't agree with their theology. But I learned something there. I read from God-fearing Anglican people who have written books. People like C.S. Lewis. 5:13 I get some light on it. Because they are approaching things. They are not a non-conformist like me. I don't conform to all these religious systems. They are part of that system. But they see something which I don't see. 5:28 And if they are born again, I can get some light from them. I read missionary magazines because I do very little of that. And our churches do very little of that ourselves. So I say reading that gives me some light. I say I don't want to be concentrating on just reading the things which we are always reading on. 5:47 I want to be a balanced Christian myself. So I like to be open to hear from God-fearing people some aspect of Jesus which I don't have because I want it in my life. I want to be a complete Christian as far as possible. So, I don't want to be like these Israelites who persecuted the prophet who came with a message that they needed. 6:11 So, even today, where there are missing messages, I believe God wants to raise up people. And it doesn't have to be a great prophet. Because the Bible says, in the last days, he'll pour out his spirit on all flesh. And the sons and daughters will prophesy. 6:27 So, it's possible for you, even a sister, even a young brother or sister, to share with a friend of yours who is born again. Something which they don't already have, which is in the Bible, which you have experienced, enjoyed, in which they are missing, some vitamin that's missing in their diet, which you can point out. 6:48 In that sense, you can prophesy, share, do what these Old Testament prophets did, bring a message which was lacking in their diet, so that they can become complete and whole. And that's why I want to encourage all of you to read the Bible carefully. 7:09 Read the Bible, read it, read it, and ask God to speak to you, speak to you. And as you get light on it yourself, you'll be able to share it with others. So, there's something common about these three prophets I'm going to speak about these three evenings. 7:25 One is, they were all people who spent a lot of time alone with God. And when you say alone with God, I'm not talking about going off into a wilderness or a monastery or a convent. Most of us are all working people, and many of us are mothers with small children with a lot of responsibilities. 7:47 And you say, where can I get time to be alone with God? Oh, yeah, you can, if you find time. You know, it could be in the middle of the night when you're awake, and probably your babies are asleep. It could be in the toilet when you're all alone. 8:03 Nobody disturbs you. If you want, you can find time to be alone with God and to hear what God is trying to say to you. So, I believe it's more important to hear what God is saying to us than even reading the Bible. The purpose of reading the Bible is to hear what God is saying to us. 8:23 Man, he doesn't say man shall live by reading the Bible. No. Jesus said man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. That means, through the Bible, I must hear a word that comes from God's mouth. 8:40 Otherwise, I can read the Bible and be a Pharisee. The Pharisees read the Bible regularly. They didn't hear what God was saying. In fact, they read it so much, they could explain it to other people, but when the person about whom the Bible was speaking, the Messiah, Christ, came into their midst, they thought he was a devil. 9:01 You see how blind you can be? I mean, there were Roman soldiers who said, hey, this is the Son of God. That Roman centurion at the cross, he never read the Bible, but he said, hey, this is the Son of God. But the fellows who read the Bible thought he was Beelzebub, prince of devils. 9:15 You can read the Bible regularly and be totally blind. And lots of Christians are like that. They read the Bible, but they are totally blind. You've got to hear God speaking to you through the scriptures. For that, you must meditate on God's word. 9:34 There are times when I've just read one verse in a day. I'm not in any record to try and go through the Bible in one year. It's more important that the Bible goes through me at least once in my lifetime than me going through the Bible every year. 9:49 It's good to go through the Bible. I remember my first six months of a tribe is converted. I read through the whole Bible because I wanted to know it. So it's good to read through the whole Bible. But along with that, you must also meditate. 10:02 I mean, that's more important. To meditate just on a verse or a number of verses to see what God is trying to say to me. Blessed is the man who meditates on the law of the Lord day and night. Not reads it day and night. 10:15 Nobody can read it day and night. But you can read one verse and meditate on it day and night. And that's what I mean by being alone with God. All these prophets, they spent time alone with God. And the second thing about these prophets were they were fearless before men. 10:30 They couldn't care less what people thought about them. They were not afraid of any man. In those days, they didn't tackle demons and the devil. But today, we need to deal with that also and say we're not afraid of demons or the devil or men. 10:46 And the third encouraging thing is that all these three prophets made mistakes. They did some foolish things. There was weakness in them, failure in them. But in spite of that, God used them. And that's the encouraging part of it all. 11:01 So the first person I want to talk about is Moses. He was a prophet. In fact, the Bible says there was not a prophet who arose in those days like Moses, who knew God face to face. God said about Moses, I speak to him like a man speaks to a friend. 11:18 Let me show you that passage. In the book of Deuteronomy. In the book of Deuteronomy, we read, first of all, in the last chapter, chapter 34, verse 10. No prophet arose in Israel like Moses, whom God knew face to face. 11:41 What is the most outstanding thing about him? He could speak to God face to face. In the book of Numbers, in chapter 12. Once, when some people criticized Moses. You know, these prophets were criticized by a lot of people. 12:04 So I'll tell you this. Even today, prophets are criticized. But the people who criticize the prophets are the ones who destroy themselves. The prophet is not destroyed. Every prophet will be criticized. And if you speak the truth to people, which they need to hear, you'll be criticized. 12:19 You must be willing to face it. If you're not willing to face it, then don't try this ministry. But I believe it's a very needed ministry today to proclaim the missing messages in today's Christianity. Okay. In Numbers, chapter 12, we read about Miriam and Aaron, who were older than Moses. 12:38 They were a bit jealous of him. And so they criticized him. And the Lord came out and said to them. Listen to me. Numbers, chapter 12, verse 6. If there is a prophet among you, I will speak to him in visions and in dreams. 12:56 But my servant Moses is even higher than that. I don't speak to him in visions and dreams. I speak to him face to face. See, visions and dreams are inferior to the Lord speaking to us directly. I don't know how many of you believe that. 13:11 You see, this is a clear passage which says that the Lord speaking to my heart is much superior, it's greater than the Lord giving me a vision or a dream at night. And yet there are many, many Christians today who talk about visions and talk about dreams. 13:29 And others think, boy, amazing. That fellow had a dream. He had a vision. Well, I say there's something superior to that. It's God speaking to me face to face in my heart. So that's what he says here. With Moses, I don't speak like that, with visions and dreams and all that. 13:46 I speak directly to him, to his heart. And I say, Lord, that's where I want to hear you. I don't want to be seeing visions and dreams. Whether you give it to me, that's fine. If you don't give it to me, that's also fine. 13:54 I've seen very, very few meaningful visions and dreams in my life. But I want to hear God speak to me every day in my heart. That's how I grow. That's how I hear what God is trying to say to me. So that's the first thing we see here about Moses. 14:11 And what did such speaking do to Moses? You know the mark of a man who's listening to God regularly? Listen, here it is, verse 3. He will be more humble than anybody else on the face of the earth. That's how you know whether God is speaking to your heart or not. 14:34 The more God speaks to your heart, the more you will go down and become little, little, little in your own eyes. Here was a man to whom God was speaking all the time, face to face. And it humbled him so much, he became the humblest man on the face of the earth. 14:53 It's the people to whom God does not speak, who are proud, who think they are very important. You know, I see people like that in the churches. People who think they are very important, sisters who think they are very important. 15:05 These are the people to whom God never speaks. That's why they are lifted up. The more God speaks to you, the more you will go down and become little and little and little in your own eyes. But the more God does not speak to you, the more you will think you are very important 15:18 and you will be thinking that you are the type of person who can give advice to everybody. So that's one way I'm just telling you, if you meet people who think they know everything and are very eager to give you advice, don't listen to them. 15:32 These are the people who don't listen to God at all. Listen to a man who listens to God. And one mark of such a man or a woman will be that they are extremely humble. How do you know whether a man is humble? He will not make you feel small. 15:49 A humble man is one who no matter how old he is, how spiritual he is, he will treat you like his equal. He may be a million times more spiritual than you, but he will treat you like an equal. He may be three times your age, but he will treat you like an equal. 16:07 That's a mark of a humble man because he listens to God. And listening to God humbles him. It makes him small. See, that's so important. It's only as I listen to God that you hear what is missing in Christendom today. You say, Lord, I'll be brainwashed by what I see if I don't listen. 16:27 I'll tell you this. Once, you know, I watched a lot of Christian television here in the United States, mainly to find out what is being preached in Christianity today. What are people listening to? And do you know, you wouldn't believe it. 16:45 As I watched and watched and watched and heard and heard and heard and heard, it sounded so convincing that I said, yeah, I'm getting brainwashed. Me getting brainwashed? I said, Lord, this is pretty powerful stuff. If it can even brainwash somebody like me who knows the scriptures. 17:06 So I said, I'm going to now go back. And I started at that time. This is some time ago. And I started reading the Gospels. That's when I made a study of the Gospels to see what Jesus preached about. And I made a study of all the four Gospels to see what all subjects Jesus preached. 17:22 I made a complete study of that. And that reinforced me so that I wouldn't be fooled by what I heard. Because I knew what he's saying is from scripture. But it is also written this. And that's what he's not saying. And then I can't be fooled. 17:38 If you don't know what's also written, you'll be fooled by a man preaching from scripture. That's why it's important to know the scriptures. So that can only come as we listen to God. Now the thing we see about Moses, first of all, what I want you to see, which all of us must need to see about our own life, is this. 17:59 Because God had a plan for Moses, and even though, you know the story, how there was a law in the country that all the male children should be killed. Somehow, this one male child escaped. 18:22 That was amazing. One male child escaped out of all these male children that were to be killed. And that was through God's special protection. You know, his parents put him in a basket, and somehow Pharaoh's daughter saw it. 18:41 It was all God's sovereignty that Pharaoh's daughter came at the same time. The river Nile is full of crocodiles. And a crocodile could have come before Pharaoh's daughter came. And that would have been the end of Moses. 18:54 How can it be the end of Moses when God has planned a particular plan? Then Pharaoh's daughter has to come before the crocodiles come. And you must believe that about yourself. That God had a plan for you, and that's why you were to be born. 19:15 You know, there are some parents who say, well, that particular child was an accident. We didn't really plan on it. Well, they may not have planned on it, but God did. I want to tell all of you sitting here, you are not an accident. 19:30 Even if your parents call you an accident. Oh, we didn't plan to have more than two children, but we got a third one, you know. But that was the one God planned. So don't any of you ever think that you are here by accident. 19:47 You're not. God knew all about you before you were born. And he protected you from crocodiles, and he protected you from a lot of other things, from road accidents, and 101 other things. That's why you're sitting here. You must believe that. 20:03 And he protected Moses with a particular reason, with a purpose. And he has protected you from many things with a purpose. And I tell you, I believe that Moses' mother was a fantastically God-fearing lady. And his father, too. 20:24 Father probably didn't have much time to help Moses because he would go off early morning, 6 o'clock. He was a slave, you know. Work as a slave and come back late at night. Probably 9 o'clock at night by the time baby Moses was asleep. 20:38 So it's the mother who brought him up. And what a mother she was. And many of you have had the good fortune of having a father or a mother. And you're very blessed if you have a father and a mother who are God-fearing. But if you have at least one who taught you certain things, 21:03 See, prophets are born and trained in homes. I mean, there are exceptional cases where they come out of homes which are not God-fearing. But it's a very blessed privilege to have parents who are God-fearing. And if you didn't have such parents, you have the next best, which is equally good, a church. 21:25 Where you have elders who are like parents for you. Who fulfill what your parents never did for you. Just like Moses' parents trained him. You got to thank God for the fact that God gave you a church where you could hear the most wonderful truths that you can't hear anywhere else in this country. 21:46 I'm not boasting. You tell me if you hear these truths anywhere else. We're just talking about facts. I mean, if I say the sun is brighter than the moon, that's not something great. It's just a fact. So, God has given us light on so many things. 22:06 You must remember, it's a tremendous privilege. And you must recognize, Lord, you not only preserved my life from crocodiles and road accidents and 101 other things. But you also gave me a God-fearing home in the church. 22:23 Where I could hear the most amazing things. Where Moses heard amazing things from his mother. And your mother was the church. Where you heard amazing things. Which other people haven't heard. And the whole purpose was that Moses would be gripped by these things as a little child. 22:42 So that when he grew up and went out, like some of you grow up and go to college. Moses went out to the palace of Pharaoh. And there he went to college in the midst of very worldly people. And I'm sure he had his struggles. 22:57 Like all teenagers have their struggles. He had his struggles. But he came through it all. And by the time he was 40 years old. God was first in his life. Because of the training he got from his mother. And if you listen to what you hear in the church regularly. 23:18 One day you may go through your struggles. Don't get discouraged. In those teenage years a lot of people have ups and downs and struggles. And they fall and they get up and fall. And in their teens and twenties are a very difficult time for many believers. 23:28 Some people go through it smoothly. Some people go through it up and down. And I'll tell you something. Some people go through ups and downs have greater compassion for those who have fallen than those who have had smooth sailing. 23:45 So don't get discouraged. If you have had ups and downs in your teens and twenties. Doubts, fears, failures. Sin. Don't let that discourage you. Repent. And say, Lord. I've learned something through all this. And I will be compassionate towards others who fail and fall. 24:09 And I can be a blessing to them. I won't be hard on anybody now. Because I've been a failure myself. So don't have nobody need to get discouraged. God has brought you to the place where you're encouraged. Where you can be trained and prepared. 24:23 So that you can see those things very clearly. The things that are missing. So that you can share them with others and bless other people. And I want to say to you in Jesus' name. That every one of you can do that. This is not the Old Testament period where there was one rare prophet over here. 24:45 And then after a hundred years there'd be another rare prophet over there. We're not under those times. The spirit has been poured out and all sons and daughters can prophesy. But because God respects your free will. You may not prophesy because you don't respond to it. 25:04 Or that you believe the devil says, oh you're useless. You've failed so much. And he tells you all those things. And you say, oh that's true. I've failed so much. God can't use me. That's a lie. Don't listen. Stop listening to the devil. 25:16 So, here was Moses preserved in childhood. And with a plan, a purpose, just like you. We'll see a lot of similarity between you and Moses. And the other thing we see here is, when he became 40 years old. He got a little, you know, he was mature and he said, hey, I belong to God's people. 25:40 I'm living here in the palace. People think I'm Pharaoh's grandson, but I'm not really Pharaoh's grandson. And it's good for you to remember that in the midst of a wicked worldly college or office. Yeah, people think you're just another person. 25:55 No, you're not. You're one of God's people there. Moses, a lone man in the midst of what was perhaps the most corrupt society in the world at that time. And you may be in the midst of the most corrupt office or college. 26:12 Well, Moses grew up there. And that was part of his training and testing. Will you recognize with all the wealth surrounding you, Moses, and all the opportunities for sin, that you're a man of God, with God as a purpose? 26:28 And it says in Hebrews chapter 11, I want you to see this. Moses made three choices, which you can also make. Hebrews in chapter 11, we read that when Moses came of age, Hebrews chapter 11, and verse 24. 26:51 By faith, Moses, when he had grown up, and most of you here are grown up, there are certain things he refused, which you must refuse. He refused to seek the honor of being known as Pharaoh's grandson. He refused the honor of this world, the greatest honor the world could give him. 27:15 He said, no. I belong to those despised people of God who meet in that little shed. Not part of this big honored group, no. And secondly, he refused, verse 25, the last part, the passing pleasures of sin. 27:36 This is the one verse in the Bible which says that there is a pleasure in sin. And you know there's a pleasure in sin. But it also says it's a passing pleasure. You get the pleasure for two minutes, five minutes, and then it's over. 27:48 After that is years of regret for the five minutes of pleasure. He rejected that. I don't want that. And the third thing he rejected was the treasures of Egypt, verse 26. There are three areas where you need to refuse something. 28:06 The honor of the world, the pleasures of sin, and the wealth of this world. It doesn't mean you can't get money. It means you don't go after money. You go after God, and you leave it to God to decide what your salary should be. 28:23 You may get a very good salary. God may decide to give you 50,000 rupees a month. Praise the Lord. Take it. That's up to God. But that's not what you're living for. You're living for God. I've always told people, always take a job with the highest salary, but don't sacrifice your conscience. 28:39 I mean, if you have to sacrifice your conscience, give it up. But otherwise, take the best job you can, and earn the highest salary you can, and live as comfortably as you can. But don't make that your goal in life. No. 28:52 Say, I don't live for sin. I don't live for the pleasures of sin. I don't want the honor. If you get honor in the world, okay. But don't live for it. My point is not whether you get it or not, but is that what you're seeking? 29:05 So don't think that you shouldn't get first prize in your class if you're brilliant and you do well. By all means, take it. Or you're a good athlete. You came first in the 100 meters or one mile run. Take it. But don't live for that. 29:20 Moses, I'm sure he was a very brilliant man, and he got many awards and all that, but it didn't bother him. He didn't live for those things. So that's the thing we see here as he grew up. He made certain decisions, and that's what God saw. 29:32 And that's what God's looking for in all of us. If God is to use you to be a light for him, to expose the darknesses in different areas of people that you meet, he must first test you in these areas. Test you with the opportunity to sin and see whether you accept it or not. 29:52 Test you with the opportunity to live for money and see whether you say you spent all your life living for money. To see whether you pursue after the honor of this world. And you say, well, if I get it, that's fine, but I'm not going to live for that. 30:06 And then we read, when he was 40 years old, we read in the book of Exodus in chapter 2. One day, you know, Moses was, he never walked. He was always going in a chariot. And he rode his chariot down to different places. 30:27 And one day, he said, let me go and see my brothers. Exodus chapter 2, verse 11. He knew those slaves were his brothers. Because his mother had told him from childhood, don't ever forget when you're in Pharaoh's playlist that you're an Israelite. 30:43 You're a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You're one of God's men who may live. He saw one of his brothers and he saw them working hard. And he saw an Egyptian beating one of those slaves unmercifully. And he got really angry. 31:04 I mean, a sense of justice came up in him. How can he treat that person so unjustly? Treat him so badly? And he looked this way and that. And nobody was watching him. He caught that Egyptian and gave him one blow and killed him. 31:23 He was a muscular man. It's not easy to kill a man with one blow, I'll tell you that. And these Egyptians, taskmasters, are pretty strong people themselves. Moses came down and killed him and buried him in the sand. Well, you could say the fellow deserved it for treating somebody so badly. 31:48 That's not exactly the, you know, you read later on, Moses was the mildest and meekest person on earth. He certainly wasn't that here. See, there are, you know, you've got to understand humility and meekness. When a man like this becomes meek, you know God has done a work. 32:11 Really done a work. But some people, by nature itself, they are very mild. They can see anybody hammering anybody and say, you shouldn't do that, man. And quietly go away. It's none of my business. I'll just keep quiet. 32:25 As such a person, I mean, he may become mild and humble, but you don't know whether God's done a work or whether it's natural. I've seen some people like that. They're naturally very mild and quiet and you don't know whether it's human or divine. 32:41 But these prophets were not like that, the ones I'm talking about. They were fiery people. And in their fieriness, they did some things which were, humanly speaking, wrong. But God used them in spite of that. And he never used some of those mild people. 33:03 The mild people got a reputation with other undiscerning believers. But God used the prophets. And I, as I've studied through the Bible, whether these different prophets, even Paul, you know, Paul was the type of person, even towards the end of his life, he'd tell a judge, 33:21 God will smite you, you whitewashed wall. This is 60-year-old Paul. And you think, hey, what type of guy is this? There's something I find in the personality of when God makes a man a prophet. There's something in his personality that he never completely gets rid of because he's 33:36 fighting Babylon, Babylon all the time. Sometimes that comes over into his relationship with other people as well. But that all comes in the same package. But it doesn't disturb God because he knows the man's heart is right. 33:50 So don't be disturbed. Don't wish that you were that mild type of person, this half effeminate with excess female hormones who just goes around and not disturbed by anybody. I mean, if you're a woman with female hormones, that's fine. 34:03 I'm talking about men with excess female hormones who just don't disturb anybody. Don't think that that is what, if you find yourself full of male hormones and fiery and all that, maybe God has a ministry for you. He's got to make you mild and meek, but he has a ministry for you. 34:20 I'll tell you that. And sometimes the old thing will come out because we are human. It came out in Moses, it came out in Paul, it came out in different people. You'll see that. But it didn't disturb God. It may have disturbed some carnal Christians who would have judged Paul. 34:35 Uh-huh. This is the guy who talks about victory over sin, is it? I see how he spoke to the high priest. Where were those believers and where was Paul? So don't let, that's what I'm trying to show you, that these men were men with weaknesses. 34:50 And other people saw their weaknesses. All the people whom God never used, they were there sitting criticizing the weaknesses. But these men went on and did something for God, despite their weaknesses. So I say that for your encouragement. 35:02 If you find some weakness in you, don't let it disturb you. Maybe that's part of your personality, which is needed for the ministry you have. Work on it. Humble yourself when you do, when you've known something is wrong, then you admit it. 35:16 That's fine. Paul was quick to admit. Yeah, yeah, that was wrong on my part to say that. Do it. Be quick to admit it. But don't get discouraged. Say, oh, well, I try so hard to get rid of this, but this always seems to come up. 35:31 So that, that's what we see with Moses. And the other thing which may encourage some of you was that Moses used to have fights with his wife. That may also be an encouragement to some people. That you can still be a prophet. 35:45 You read that in Exodus chapter 4. That, you know, he spent 40 years in the wilderness. And here's another thing that may encourage some of you. That Moses had to live with his father-in-law for many years. He didn't have enough money to have his own home. 36:06 Boy, he said, do prophets come out of people who live with their fathers-in-law? Yeah, yeah. God has the most unusual places to train his prophets through humiliation and poverty. I remember when my wife and I got married, I didn't have money to rent a house. 36:28 I had given up everything in the Navy to serve the Lord. And I had to live in one room of my parents' home for two or three years. It wasn't easy. It wasn't easy for my wife. It wasn't easy for me. All of you fellas who got married and set up your own home, you were luckier. 36:47 But God did the work in me. He broke me, humbled me, because he had a ministry for me. He had a ministry for Moses. He kept him with his father-in-law for 40 years. Don't compare yourself with others. If God calls you to a particular ministry, he will train you in the most unusual ways. 37:08 And humble you. He may make you poor for a period. He may make you struggle. Because he's training you to be a prophet. One day. And prophets have very unusual training. Hosea had to marry a woman who was unfaithful, a prostitute almost. 37:27 I mean, boy, what he had to go through to be a prophet. So Moses had to go through that. And one day it says in chapter 4, in verse 18, he went to his father-in-law and said, I need to return to my relatives in Egypt. And so he took his wife, we read in verse 20. 37:51 He had married. He had two sons. He took his wife and two sons. Put them in a donkey. And he took his staff and went. And we read here on the journey back, verse 24, Exodus 4, 24. As they camped for the night, God met Moses and would have killed him. 38:13 How's that? God preparing a man for 80 years and then wanting to kill him. I tell you, God is very strict with those for whom he has a special ministry. He deals with them much more strictly than he deals with all the run-of-the-mill believers 38:33 who are casual and who want to live for the world. And I'll tell you this. If you want to be among God's chosen ministers, be willing to let him jealously guard over your life. I know times in my life when God has stricken me down 38:51 with a fever or something, some physical ailment, and I lay down in bed there and said, Lord, why is this? And the Lord points out some small, trivial little thing. Oh, so small and trivial, which would not disturb 99% of believers 39:08 that happened the previous week. I said, Lord, I'm excited that you pulled me up for such a small, trivial thing. And the Lord says, yes, I got over you jealously. And I wept with joy. And I said, Lord, please treat me like that always. 39:31 Pull me up if I slip up even a wee tiny bit, things that don't seem to disturb other believers. Pull me up. That's how Moses was. God tried to kill him. There were multitudes of worldly people like Pharaoh. God never tried to kill him. 39:47 Here's God trying to kill Moses for a small, little thing. You know what it was? He had not circumcised his son. He had two sons, and I don't know whether maybe he circumcised the first one because it says here only one son was circumcised here. 40:04 He had two sons. Maybe he circumcised the first one. And the husband and wife had a big fight over it because Jethro's tribe did not believe in circumcision. And Moses believed in it. And so by the time the second son was born, 40:20 maybe his wife said, nothing doing. I'm just not going to let you circumcise my little boy. Moses, for the sake of peace in the home, said, okay. Forget it. But God said, hey, you can't be a leader if you don't obey God in your own home. 40:39 You're supposed to be the head of your home, man. What are you doing? What are you going to say? Oh, Lord, Zipporah is a tough lady, Lord. You don't understand. Tough lady or not, you're supposed to be the head of your home. 40:51 How can you lead Israel if you can't lead your own home? So important to lead your own home first. I remember once a young man who was getting married came to me and said, Brother Zach, do you have any advice for me? I said, yes. 41:11 I know the girl you're marrying. She's a very strong girl. Be the head of your home, like the Bible says. Years later, I met him. He said, Brother Zach, do you have any advice for me? I said, same thing. Be the head of your home, because I can see that you're not. 41:31 He said, Brother Zach, if I try to be the head of my home, there'll be war at home. I said, let there be war. Fight the wars of the Lord and win them. If that is the way, you have to establish your headship. The Bible says the husband is the head of the wife, 41:50 as Christ is the head of the church. Just because the church rebels against Christ, does Christ say, okay, okay, I'll let you be the head, please. Can you imagine Christ saying that to the church? No. Okay, we may disagree, but the Lord told Moses, 42:10 you want to be in my service, you better practice in your home first. Leadership. You can't lead my people if you can't lead your own home. I said that every male child born in the tribe of Israel must be circumcised. Your child is not circumcised, 42:24 and I don't care if you're the most important person to me on earth, I'll kill you. We think that we are so indispensable to God. Oh, God cannot do without me. It's a lot of rubbish. I've always said to people, God's work went on in this earth long before Zach Poonin was born. 42:44 God's work will continue on earth long after Zach Poonin is dead. I'm just a small little figure that came in at a particular time, did my job, and move on. We are not indispensable. I'm not, and you're not. God can get rid of us and get somebody else. 43:01 Almighty God who runs this universe, you think that's a problem for him? But he will not tolerate disobedience in the home. And he had a conflict with his wife. They argued about it so many times, I'm sure, that when Moses was dying, 43:16 his wife knew exactly why he was dying. And he took, she took a knife, she knew that, I don't want to lose my husband, she took a knife and circumcised her son, and threw the foreskin down at Moses' feet. Oh, you're a bridegroom of blood to me. 43:34 And then he, God healed him. Yeah. Sometimes God's servants have conflict in their home, but they've got to obey God and not please their wives. So conflict in the home is not something that should discourage you 43:54 if the cause of it is not, oh, the food was not right. Don't have conflict over something like that. Or the house is not arranged properly. Or the clothes were not ironed or washed properly. These are silly things. Moses didn't fight his wife over these things. 44:08 But matters of obedience to God. Those are the issues where you've got to put your foot down and say, sorry, in this area, I am going to obey God. All other things are unimportant to me. How you cook your food is completely unimportant to me, 44:25 my darling wife. What you do or don't do at home, you can make the home as a mess. It's unimportant to me. But in God's word, I'm not going to disobey. Those of you who are married, brothers, sisters, be firm on that, even sisters. 44:45 God's word must be more important than your husband. You don't have to obey your husband if he tells you to do something contrary to the word of God. You've got to be firm too because Christ is your head above your husband. 44:59 Your husband's headship comes from Christ. So if Christ tells you to do something and your husband tells you to do something else, you listen to Jesus. If it's clearly written in his word, that can be conflict. Okay. It's best to have peace at home, 45:12 but I'd rather have conflict and obey God than have peace and disobedience to God. Oh, any day. Choose that way. But choose it graciously. Don't call your wife all types of names and all that. Moses didn't do that. It's the wife who said, 45:30 ah, you're like this. Let her say what she likes, but you be a man of God. So we see here that that was the type of situation there. And the other thing we see that when Moses went out into his ministry, you see, what was his ministry mainly? 45:46 God's people had, listen to this, God's people had religion, the right religion. They worshiped the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. They used to go home at night and worship. They didn't worship the idols of Egypt. 46:01 They had the true religion. They didn't have a Bible those days, but they knew about the history of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And they worshiped the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but they were slaves. And that's the condition of God's people today. 46:15 Many of them. They've got the true religion. They are not worshiping some false God. They worshiped Jesus Christ, but they are slaves. They have to listen to Pharaoh. Today's Christians have got the right religion. They sing the right songs. 46:32 They sing the right tune also, but they serve the devil. When the devil tells them to get angry, they get angry. When the devil tells them to lust, they lust. When the devil tells them to love money, they love money. When the devil tells them to hold a bitterness 46:45 against somebody, they hold that bitterness. When the devil tells them, don't talk to your husband for three days, they won't talk to the husband for three days. They are slaves of Pharaoh. But, oh, listen to them sing. 46:57 You'll think they are angels. Right tune, very melodious, but they are slaves. See, that is the situation into which God sent this prophet. My people have got the right religion, the right doctrine, but they are slaves. 47:16 And Moses, I'm not sending you there to teach them doctrine. I'm sending you to there to deliver them from that slavery. I want to say to all of you, my brothers and sisters, and it includes the sisters, because 50% of India 47:28 is women. And those women, you know, in India, hardly any man can reach them. You sisters, if you don't reach them, who's going to reach them? Who's going to sit and counsel them? I can't sit and counsel them. I don't sit and counsel women. 47:47 You've got to do it. And if you don't do it, a lot of people are going to suffer and miss out. You have a ministry. You have a ministry to 500 million people in India. And for that, God is seeking to prepare you, 48:09 equip you, and he'll take you through difficult times. He'll take you through and he'll test you and equip you. God's people have got the right doctrine, but they are slaves. And God prepared Moses for that particular task 48:25 to lead them out of slavery. And I tell you, there's a great need in our land for men and women who know what it is to be free, who will stand up to the devil like Moses stood up to Moses, to Pharaoh, and said, 48:46 let my people go. God says, let my people go that they may serve me. We've got to stand up to the devil and say, you're going to let that person go because he's a child of God. She's a child of God. You can't have, you can't touch her 49:02 in any way. You can't touch him in any way. Her body, her mind and her spirit belong to God. And you can't touch her body, you can't touch her mind, you can't touch her spirit. You must have the faith to help people. That is the ministry of Moses, 49:18 a radical prophet who was sent to help people out of slavery. Surrounded by slaves. All over he saw people with the right doctrine. Two million people with the right doctrine but all of them slaves. Don't you see Christendom like that? 49:38 I see it very often like that. What is the missing message? Is it you're singing that tune a bit wrong? That's not the missing message. I don't care if the tune is wrong. If the words are right, God listens to it. Or the pattern 49:54 of your church is not right. You shouldn't call people pastor. Call him brother. Yeah, that may be true but that's not a major issue. The main issue is slavery. Jesus said whoever commits sin is the slave of sin. And that is why 50:12 my brothers and sisters it's so important that you yourself break out of that slavery. You can't lift a man out of the pit if you're in that pit yourself. You say, Lord, I want to break forth from the slavery because I need 50:28 to help other people. God wants to use you. I believe he wants to use all of us. And the devil is trying his best to keep your mouth shut. I want to say to you it's desperate that you get victory over sin. It's not an optional 50:46 thing like the ice cream at the end of a meal. You say, well, I don't want the ice cream. It's okay. That's all right. Skip the ice cream but get the victory over sin. That's not an optional thing at the end of the meal. 50:57 It's the main meal. You shall call his name Jesus because he shall save his people from their sins. That is the missing message in Christendom today. Isn't there songs that we sing? Oh, the name of Jesus. There's a song 51:14 called You can sing that all your life 51:34 and be defeated by sin. The name Jesus means he shall save his people from their sins. What's he saying that it's the sweetest name you know? If it doesn't help you, it's a ritual. It's a form. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love 51:49 Jesus. Who? The one whose name means he came to save you from your sin. It's all emotional froth. It's like these bubbles, soap bubbles. Ah, it blows like that and then disappears. A lot of singing today in Christendom is like that. 52:08 Dear brother, sister, God wants you to be free so that you can help others into that freedom. Ask God to help you. Say, Lord, I want to be free. I want to break out of this bondage in my life. Otherwise, I'll never be. The around me 52:24 are people who are slaves of peril, slaves of the devil. And the word of God comes forth saying, let my people go that they may serve me. I believe the great need in India is among Christians. Jesus said, you're like the salt 52:42 of the earth and the light of the world. See these little bulbs. In terms of area, how much area does that powerful bulb take? Very little compared to the size of this hall. But look at the light. That is like India's 2% 52:57 Christians. But the thing is, India's 2% Christians, only 2%, but they're like 0-watt bulbs. You've got to come near it to see if there's a light there at all. You know how we're supposed to be like these halogen lamps, 53:10 bright. It doesn't matter our size. It can be powerful. That's how we're supposed to be. God wants you to be like that so that we can deliver other people out of their darkness. So the ministry of Moses is something that 53:30 you can have chosen by God from childhood, trained through difficult circumstances, made his mistake of in his anger he killed people and murdered. Can God use a murderer? Yeah, if he repents and comes to God, even a murderer, 53:46 adulterer, God can use anyone. You may have done all types of foolish things in your younger days. Don't let that hold you back. Imagine if Moses said, oh God, how can you ever use me? I've murdered people. I've murdered 53:59 a man. How can you use me? God can use murderers, adulterers. If they turn and say, Lord, here I am. I don't claim to be anybody, a sinner saved by grace, but you can fill me with your Holy Spirit and make me Lord. Bring forth 54:15 the message that is missing in the Christians I see around me. I want the Christians around me to shine like these halogen lamps. Will you use me? Maybe some person you know who knows the Lord but who does not hear in their church 54:31 the truth that you hear here. Will you be available to the Lord? I hope you will. I want to say to you, God needs you. He needs you. He needed Moses. He spoke face to face to him. His face 54:51 began to shine when the Lord spoke to him. And that pictures our own life radiating the glory of Christ. Moses' face gradually lost that glory but in our case the Bible says the glory increases as the Holy Spirit works in 55:05 us. So we have a tremendous example in Moses who came to a religious people with the message that they needed to hear. God has come to save you from this slavery and he actually delivered them. May God help us. Let's pray. 55:25 Heavenly Father as we bow before you we are so greatly encouraged that you could take up people who were failures even a murderer like Moses to be one of the greatest prophets in the Old Testament times. I believe therefore you 55:40 can use all of us. Most of us here have sinned much less than murder and if you could use him you could use us. Our past failures don't hinder us hinder you. We want to believe you Lord. We want to believe in the power of the 55:55 blood of Christ. We want to believe in the fullness of the Holy Spirit that can use every brother and every sister and this tremendous lie that the devil has propagated that God can't use women. Lord get this rubbish out of our 56:07 heads. God can use children. God can use women. God can use anybody to help others to be free. Lord we want to believe that. We want to be filled with the Holy Spirit in these days. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.
