Exodus 6 Bible Study (God Promises Deliverance/Genealogy of Moses) | Pastor Daniel Batarseh

If you can actually stand right back up as we open up, the scriptures to Exodus chapter six verse one, and we're gonna read until verse 13. Exodus chapter six verse one. This is what the word of God says. But the Lord said to Moses, now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh. For with a strong hand, he will send them out.

And with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land. God spoke to Moses and said to him, I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God almighty. But by my name, the Lord, I did not make myself known to them. I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners.

Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. Say therefore to the people of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm with great acts of judgment. I will take you to be my people and I will be your God. You shall know that I am the Lord your God who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

I will give it to you for a possession. I am the Lord. Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery. So the Lord said to Moses, go in tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the people of Israel go out of his land. But Moses said to the Lord, behold the people of Israel have not listened to me.

How then shall Pharaoh listen to me? For I am of uncircumcised lips. But the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them a charge about the people of Israel and about Pharaoh king of Egypt to bring the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt. Would you bow your heads with me in prayer? Father in heaven, we thank you for your precious word.

Lord, we gather here today to testify as a psalmist did when he said, you have put more joy in my heart than they have when their wine and grain abound. We have joy. We thank you. That's given through your son Jesus Christ. And we ask tonight that as we eat of your word, we would receive even greater joy.

We would receive even greater satisfaction. Lord, that the hunger that is in us would find its place as we open the word of God. We pray, Lord, for revelation. We pray for clarity of speech. We pray, Lord, that every heart in this room would be drawn closer to Jesus Christ.

We pray that our emotions, our thoughts, our faith, every aspect of our being would be aligned and directed towards the Son of God. Lord, would you help us? Lord, would there be freedom from confusion, freedom from distraction, any scheme of Satan, any plan of the enemy that might rob the seed from the hearts of every person in this place? We ask, Lord, that you would cancel it by your power. And we pray we really pray sincerely, Lord, that though it is obvious that these things reach the mind, these words reach the mind, but we're praying that they would go deeper and reach our hearts and that we would be transformed by the revelation found in this chapter of your book.

And so Lord, we're asking that you would have your way and that you would receive maximum glory from the revelation that will be spoken of from every mouth in this place. We ask that Jesus would be glorified and we pray this in his precious and holy name. And all of God's people said, amen. You may be seated. Exodus chapter six.

We touched on this last time we were together because really it's a continuation of chapter five. The chapter break doesn't really do us much favor, but we know that the first word there is but the Lord, so we know that there's a continuation. To just bring a recap, a quick recap, we know that from Exodus chapter five, this is when Moses comes up to Pharaoh in his first endeavor to tell Pharaoh to let his people go, God's people go, and there was resistance that Moses put more burden on the nation of Israel, and now they are trying to find brick with no straw, and they have to find the straw themselves. And what happens near the end of chapter five? Not only does Pharaoh resist Moses and Aaron, who else comes in an opposition?

Just name it out if you know it. The people of Israel themselves, and we discussed how it's one thing to be opposed by the world, it's another thing to be criticized by the church, isn't it? By the people of God. And then we realized that Moses is obviously hurt because that obviously hurts more. And we know that the plan of Satan, aka Pharaoh, amongst many other plans, is to come against the people of God in a way in which he brings division amongst the people of God.

So Pharaoh puts burden on the people of Israel so that they can turn on who? Moses and Aaron and blame them. This burden is because of you. And there's Pharaoh with a grin on his face. This is exactly what I want to do.

Guess what? Satan still does the same thing today. If you can get in and produce offense in the heart of a Christian within a church, within the gathering, within the fellowship of the brethren, and bring division within, that's his specialty. Moses, what does he do? He goes to God.

And what does he say? He doubts God. He doubts the goodness of God. He doubts his own calling. He doubts even his ministry because he doesn't see the results.

Though even God told him, hey. Listen. They're gonna resist you. And those realities of doubt and discouragement are true because if you've been following this Bible series in Exodus, up to this point, one major theme concerning this study in Exodus is the idea of the call of God. Right?

We talked about the call of God with Moses when he receives the call, and then we know that Moses receives receives confirmation and encouragement and confidence for the call. And now last week, we talked about complications within the call. And so chapter six is just a continuation of where we left off where Moses is in doubt, Moses is experiencing discouragement, and that will be true of every single one of us that wants to fulfill the call of God in our lives. You and I will face complications and it has the potential to produce what? Doubt and discouragement.

And so if we were to put a title on this chapter, on this particular Bible study tonight, maybe we can say that God is gonna teach us how to deal with doubt and how to deal with discouragement. So we read that the Lord continues based off of what Moses complains him and Moses receives an answer. Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh for with a strong hand he will send them out and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land. God spoke to Moses. Now keep this in mind.

How do we deal with doubt? What does God want to teach us about doubt and discouragement in these verses? God spoke to Moses and said to him, I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord did I not make myself known to them. What can we say about the first three verses?

There's many lessons in there, especially verse three is an interesting verse. Let's just trust. Trust in God himself. So he's trying to provoke Moses to trust in God himself. That's an important point.

Remember, we're just dealing we're we're we're dealing with Moses with doubts and complaints and discouragement, and God is answering him in that heart posture. So what is God trying to say here? Addressing those things in his heart. Yes. He's making sure that he promises to get a check with you.

Sure. Yes. He is. And he does that throughout the rest of these verses, really. He's reminding him of what the call was in the first place.

Absolutely. What else can we say? And you have the right to even go beyond the first three verses if you just want to give general observation. What else can we say about these scriptures here, these verses? Yes.

It is. Yeah. Anybody read this chapter? I hope you did. Anybody fall upon verse three and have a question mark?

Let's read verse three together. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God almighty, El Shaddai. But by my name, the Lord, what's that? Yahweh. Yahweh, I did not make myself known to them.

And if you've been following Genesis and Exodus up to this point, there should be a major question mark why. Yes? Did you have your hand up? Yeah. No.

Why should there be a major question mark? Well, I ask this question. Has God revealed himself as Yahweh before this point? Have we seen capital l o r d up to this point? Yes.

A lot. So how can it be that God says to Moses, you know, to the patriarchs, I revealed myself as God almighty, but I have not revealed myself as Yahweh. Can I give you a verse that kind of, on the surface level, contradicts that? Genesis 15 verse seven. Genesis 15, at the top of your head, who is God speaking to?

Genesis 15. Abraham. Abraham. Yes. And if you found verse seven, can you read it out loud for everybody to hear if you're there?

And he says, and I am the Lord I am the what? Sorry. I am the Lord. Is that capital l o r d? Yes.

So what does that mean? Yahweh. So I am the Lord. Who is he speaking to? Abraham.

But I come to this verse, and the Bible is telling me, but by my name, the Lord, I did not make myself known to them. Your Bible contradicts itself. I've even passed the first two books and your Bible already con contradicts itself. How can I even what does this mean? What is God trying to say here?

And this is where the skeptics come in and say, See, Moses was not the author of the Pentateuch, of the first five books of the Bible. These are different documents by different authors, by different groups of people at different times. But what we believe is that Moses, because Jesus affirmed him, is the author of the first five books of the Bible. So we know that Moses, he's not a dumb fellow, would not contradict himself. The Holy Spirit obviously is the author of all scripture.

So what is what is God saying in this verse? Yes. K. Yeah. That you're you you have there are ingredients in your answer right now that are very right.

So you're very close. I I know it's hard for her to, for for people to hear what she said, but she's saying, correct me if I'm wrong, that it wasn't the fullness of the revelation of who God was up to this point where Moses is gonna receive a great revelation of this God. Right? Okay. Yes.

Absolutely. There's elements of that that is very true. What else can we say? Yes, Tamara, and then Lucy. Yes.

Yes. That's a major point as well. That with the patriarchs, he gave them the covenant. With Moses, he's gonna fulfill the covenant. We're gonna put all these pieces together.

We're just getting answers from everybody here. Yes, Lucy. Is to talk about the I am who I am. Yes. That's Yahweh.

Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. That's what he said.

Lord as I am that we this this is what God revealed himself as in Exodus chapter three. It's it's it's it's very it's very important to us to understand that this is not a contradiction, but Sofia and Tamara touched on it. What do we know about names in the Bible? What can we say about names? Are they random?

When God assigns a name, is it random? Okay. So we know that a name when a name is given to somebody or when a name is changed, what's the purpose of it? What is the purpose of a name concerning the bible? What is one purpose at least?

To reveal the person's character or at least part of his character. And so we know up to this point that God has revealed himself as a certain person. El Shaddai, God Almighty that speaks of him, obviously, in many ways. He reveals himself as Yahweh. And throughout the Bible, God is progressively revealing himself to show characters and attributes that reflect him through his name.

And so we're gonna learn a lot about God's names. And all those names do what? What are the purpose of those names? To reveal something about himself. So with that in mind, what God is saying to Moses is not that they have never heard his name.

Obviously, they've heard his name. Abraham heard his name Yahweh. What God is saying to Moses in this text is that they have not experienced what that name means. You understand? If that name, if a name reveals something about God, it's one thing to hear the name, It's another thing to experience the meaning of the name.

Here's an example. God is a healer. Is he not? In fact, that's one of his names. Jehovah Rapha.

I am the God that healeth thee. Yahweh heals. Now, you can know that name. Right? We all we just heard the name, Jehovah Rapha.

It's another thing to hear that name compared to experiencing it. Maybe there are people in this room that have experienced God healing their bodies when they've asked God to heal their bodies. And they went from hearing about Jehovah Rapha to experiencing Jehovah Rapha. They experienced the meaning behind the name, not just heard the name. Here's another example.

This is probably so many of us in this room. We grew up in the church. Is it not true? Right? We grew up in the church.

A lot of us in here grew up in the church. You heard the name of Jesus how many times? Probably hundreds and thousands. You almost in robotic form repeated songs off the screen about Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. You've had you've been to Bible studies about Jesus.

You've heard the name of Jesus. You've heard the name. But many people even today haven't experienced the name. What does Jesus mean? Yahweh's salvation.

God saves. So it's one thing to hear the name, it's another thing where Jesus becomes your salvation, and now you experience the name. The power behind the name is now something that you can testify to. And so what God is saying to Moses here is that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they heard my name because I made a covenant with them, but you and the people of Israel in your generation are going to experience my name. That's what he's saying here.

Here's a here's a verse to prove that argument that I'm saying that you can hear the name and experience the meaning behind the name. Here's a verse in Jeremiah. This is important. You can even jot this down behind this verse here in Exodus six:three. Jeremiah sixteen twenty one.

Therefore, behold, I will make them know this once I will make them know my power and my might, and they shall know that my name is Yahweh. Do we see that? So it is experiencing the power of God and the might of God in which they will not just hear the name Yahweh, but they will really know the name Yahweh. Does this make sense tonight? It's one thing to hear the name, which reveals the character of God.

It's another thing to experience the manifestation of the name. And so what he's saying to Moses is, hey. They heard about the covenant. You're gonna experience it. They heard about how I'm gonna deliver them from Egypt.

Remember when he talked to him in in Genesis 15? He says there's your people are gonna be in bondage for fifteen, rather four hundred years, and we'll pull them out. Remember? You're going to experience my covenant name, Yahweh, not just hear about it. So there's no contradiction here.

All he's saying is what he's saying in Jeremiah sixteen twenty one. Abraham, Isaac, they they had a limited revelation of what Yahweh was, but you're gonna get the fullness of it. And the people with you in this generation, Moses, are gonna be able to testify that they know my name, Yahweh. So there's some application for that. Let me ask you a question.

How do you see God? How do you perceive God? You would be amazed of how many Christians have different perspectives on God. In fact, you can tell where somebody is in their faith if you just ask them who Jesus Christ is to them. Isn't that true?

If you just ask them who's Jesus Christ to you? And you just take literally takes thirty seconds, Doesn't take much discernment to know who Jesus Christ is to them. What I love about this is to Moses, he received the revelation of Yahweh and his fullness. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob received the revelation of El Shaddai, but we in the new covenant experience an emphasis on a certain characteristic of God, which is so glorious. What characteristic of God do we have the emphasis on?

Salvation. Yes. That's one. But one, there's one in particular that is so emphasized and that so many believers sing about and hear about, but don't really feel. Somebody said it.

Matthew six nine. And when you pray, say, our father. Our father. One of the greatest emphasis in the New Testament concerning our relationship with God is not El Shaddai, though El Shaddai is part of it. It's not Yahweh, though Yahweh is an important part of it.

Jesus comes in and emphasizes one quality about God, which is so glorious, and it's God being father. What does he say if we can turn to Romans eight verse 15? Romans, one of the greatest new testament books. They're all great. It's all scripture.

For all of you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but all of you have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. This is what we emphasize on in the New Testament. Yes. We don't we don't overemphasize in the sense where we neglect the other attributes, but Jesus himself comes in and says, even when you address God, call him father. And so it's seeing God.

Yes. And and the beauty of this is we have the full revelation of God. These guys are receiving progressive revelation of God. But in the new covenant, we have the privilege of being able to address God as father and feel the spirit of adoption that we're sons and daughters because of what Jesus Christ has done on the cross for us. What else can we say about this?

Exodus six three. There's something about this that I think is so important for us to grasp. Think about it. These Israelites have been in bondage for many, many, many, many, many, many years. And it is through that bondage that they did not willfully put on themselves.

They did not make stupid decisions necessarily that they received this slavery upon themselves. No. Circumstances outside of their control, here they are in bondage, but they are going to experience something out of this bondage. They're gonna experience God as Yahweh. All powerful, almighty, covenant promise keeping God.

And that tells me something, that in every circumstance, every trial, every tribulation that you and I face in this life is an opportunity for God to reveal himself in a special way. You understand what I'm saying? Because all things work together for our good, whatever circumstance I face in life is an opportunity for God to reveal himself in a special way. For example, there are so many people that say, you know, I wanna see God do something miraculous, man. I wanna see God do miracles.

But hold on. If you, by nature, wanna see God do miracles, you would have to be in a situation where it's impossible for something to happen. We sometimes have no idea what we're asking God for. Oh, God. I wanna see your hand intervene in my life.

Okay. Let me put you in a situation where it's so frustrating, where you can't plan anything in your human effort, where everybody will you wanna experience a miracle? I'm gonna put you in an impossible situation first. And sometimes in life, things happen. But in those situations presents an opportunity for God to reveal himself, not in some extra biblical way, but in a way in which we do see him.

For example, through brokenheartedness, that person has the opportunity to experience God as healer. Right? You you can't experience God as healer unless you go through brokenheartedness. Right? Or for the person that's lonely or for a person that's been abandoned by everybody, they can experience God as friend, as father.

And so every circumstance that life dishes out to us, that is outside of our control, is an opportunity for God to unveil himself in a way that we would not have known otherwise. You know what that says to you and me? Anything that we walk into despite the pain and the hurt should create anticipation. God, you're gonna do something, and I'm gonna see you in a way. And people who have been through brokenness, that have clinged to Jesus, people who've experienced hurt and pain on different levels can testify coming out of it that God is faithful.

I've experienced God this way. I I really knew God in my financial trouble as Jehovah Jireh, the Lord who provides. So every circumstance, every situation in life that seems dreadful, that seems painful, once again, I know I'm repeating myself, repetition is good, is an opportunity for God to unveil himself in a way in which you and I would not have experienced otherwise. And I think another thing to note with this too is that remember, we're talking about doubt and discouragement. God is trying to lift up the heart of Moses here.

And so doubt and discouragement is reversed in the revelation of the character of God himself. That's what God is doing. The first thing he does to encourage his servant Moses is, I'm gonna just reveal how awesome I am to you. And really that's, that's the root of all doubt and discouragement, is it not? We fail to see God for who he is.

And so God says, I'm gonna reveal myself to you. I'm gonna remind you of who I am. And that is the first step. And that is why, guys, guess what? We have an advantage over Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and Moses.

You know why? Because God in this point of history is progressively revealing himself. We have the full revelation of who God is. And so it is your responsibility and my responsibility to understand God for who he is in his entirety. You know why?

The more you know God in his entirety, the more whatever situation you face, you have an understanding of who God is for that specific situation. Let's do this real quick. Just just as an example, I need one person to turn to Hebrews Hebrews 13 verse five and six. Hebrews thirteen five and six. I need another person to turn to Psalms one forty seven verse three.

Another person, Psalms one forty seven verse three. And I need one more person to turn to second Timothy four sixteen and seventeen. Hebrews thirteen five and six. And if you're there, if you have a low voice, you have every permission to shout it out. Go for it.

So if you're there, shout it out. You guys catch that? He says don't be covenants. Don't look at other people's stuff and and desire it because of your lack of possession. Why?

Because the Lord says he is with you and he will never forsake you, and you can know this, that the Lord is with you and he is your helper. What can man do to you? So, here we go. I have a revelation of who God is, so whenever I find myself in financial crisis, I don't need to worry about it. Why?

Because the Lord is with me. I don't need to covet. I don't need to worry. He's with me. He's my helper.

He will never leave me nor forsake me. Boom. But what if I'm going through brokenness? What if my I've been shattered emotionally? What if something's happened to my life in which I literally feel like no doctor in this world can reach down and heal what I need to be healed?

Psalms one forty seven verse three. Who has it? He heals the brokenhearted and binds up my wounds. He shields the brokenhearted, and he binds up my wounds. So God is the great physician.

He can reach down as deep as possible and heal all the pain inside. What if we've been experiencing loneliness? What does the apostle Paul say? Whoever's at second Timothy four, can you read it? Verse sixteen and seventeen.

This is the apostle Paul. What does he say? Well, we can read it here. At my first answer, no man stood with me, but all men forsook me. Who said that?

The apostle Paul said that. Everybody deserted me. Complications in the call of God. We think it's just Moses. But what does he say?

I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge. What a man of God. Notwithstanding, the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, that by me the preaching might be fully known. So he goes on to say, everybody deserted me, but the Lord stood with me, and he strengthened me. You and I can't experience that unless we experience betrayal.

Do you understand what what's being said here? In those circumstances, in those things in which no man outside of the faith would wanna even get near to, We have confidence that God is the God for every circumstance and situation we face, and it's our duty to know it or else we'll crumble in those situations. Get yourself in the Bible and know God. The more you know God, the more you know His entirety, His characteristics, His names, the more confident you can walk through these circumstances that we face in life. So he reminds them and encourages them with himself.

But then we read in verse four, I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners. Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. So God first, to reverse this discouragement, to reverse this doubt in the heart of his servant Moses says, hey, Moses, remember who I am. I am Yahweh. I am that I am.

I am unchangeable. I am immutable. I am eternal. If I made the covenant promise hundreds of years ago, I'm gonna fulfill it. But not just with himself.

He does something in verse five four and five. How else does he encourage his servant? By doing what? What is he doing here by telling verse four and five? He's reminding him of what he's already done.

Right? Saying, look. I made a covenant with them. Not only that. Moreover, I've heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves.

So he's reminding Moses, Hey, I've been faithful up to this point. And so what does that say to you and me as servants of God? That when we face opposition or when we face a season of our life in which we see a lack of results, we have to remind ourselves of what God has already done. So if I'm praying for something or someone, and I'm not seeing that come to pass, in fact it's been weeks and months, you know what you and I have to do in that moment? Look back and see how God has answered prayer in the past.

If I'm preaching the gospel and nobody I mean, the fly isn't getting saved. Nobody's getting saved. What do I do? I look back at how God has saved my brother or my cousin or that coworker I witnessed to. And if not if it's something that we can't even look at and examine our own life, we should look at how God has done in other people's lives.

And so what we have to do is remind ourselves of what God has done in the past when we face situations where we don't see what we want to see. Quickly, I know we can stay on this for a while, but I'm just gonna go with one Psalm that depicts this so gloriously it is worth memorization. Psalms 13. It's a short Psalm, but let's go there quickly. Turn turn your pages to Psalms 13.

Look what the psalmist does. In Psalms 13 verse one. Verse one of Psalms 13, a psalm of David. How long, oh Lord, will you forget me forever? Have you ever felt like that?

How long, oh Lord? Will you forget me forever? Answered prayer hasn't come. Has it felt like forever? You've seen nobody saved.

Has it felt like forever? That breakthrough, whatever you needed God to do in your life, has it been like it felt like forever? Well, he's saying it feels like forever. Are you gonna forget me forever? Now look what he says.

How long will you hide your face from me? Have you ever felt that? Man, I cannot sense God. Have you ever asked that? Have you ever said that out loud?

Have you ever thought that driving work? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? Not part of the day, talking all the day. How long will I have sorrow in my heart twenty four seven?

How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and answer me, oh lord my God. Light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death. Lest my enemy say I have prevailed over him. Lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.

The psalmist is depressing up to this point. But it's a reflection of what we go through in life. But the psalm does not end there. What does he say in verse five? But I have trusted in your steadfast love.

My heart shall rejoice in your salvation. Look how it ends. I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt bountifully with me. He starts one way in verse one. He ends another way in verse six.

What was the turning point? Yes. He pours out his heart before God. Yes. He comes before God honestly.

Yes. He prays, but he ends with singing. He ends by singing. How does somebody have the ability to sing in which we think we can assume that he's obviously going through a hard time, his enemy seems like he's winning, we don't know when the Psalm was written per se. How do you have the strength to even sing?

Well, he tells us, I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt bountifully with me. Because he's been faithful in the past, I have every right to sing in the present. Because he has met me up to this point, I can by faith rejoice and know that he'll deliver me from this. That is the place where we need to get to. And when you waltz into church and you had a terrible weekend, terrible week, where you haven't prayed and heard God for a while, you can come in and look past.

You can look at the past. You can look at your journal. You can remember what God has done, and that produces joy in you, enough strength to at least sink them and say, God, you are awesome and you are worthy. But we go back to Exodus six. What does he say?

Verse six to eight. Say therefore to the people of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with the great acts of judgment. I will take you to be my people. You guys seeing a trend here? And I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.

I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for your possession. I am the Lord. How do we reverse discouragement and doubt? What does God do to Moses?

He says, hey. I'm God. Remember me. Just me, who I am as a person. Two, do you know what I've done up to this point?

I appeared to the people of Israel when they cried out to me. I've answered that prayer, and here I am. You think I'm gonna stop at this point so he reminds them of what he's done? So what is he doing here in verses six to eight? How is he encouraging them?

He's giving them promises again. So how do we reverse discouragement in our hearts? With that cliche answer we all know. Bank on the promises of God. It's so easy to say, all this Christianese stuff, you know.

God is faithful, brother. He's faithful to his promises. Yeah. But it's another thing to really believe it. And so how do we reverse doubt?

Know who God is. The more you know who God is, the more you can face different circumstances because he has he has a name for so many circumstances. You remember what he's done in the past of your life already, but you also remember what he can do for the future. Promises for the future. He's reassuring them with what he is able to do, and it's no different for you and me.

He says, I will do it. But it's more than that. I believe it's a humbling thing for Moses up to this point too, because Moses is learning up to this point that it's not up to Moses. It's up to God. In these two verses, God says, I will seven times.

I'm gonna do it, Moses. I'm gonna do it, nation of Israel. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do it.

I'm gonna do it. And so we need to know the promises of God, and we need to come to a place like these Israelites and like Moses and receive it. So what happens? Here's Moses coming with his doubt and saying, God, I don't even know why you called me in the first place. God says, remember who I am.

Remember what I've done. Know what I can do. Awesome. He's got his sermon ready. He's heard from God.

He's ready to go to church Sunday morning. He's gonna preach this message that came straight from the heart of God. The people of God are gonna hear it. Revival is gonna break out. People are gonna be encouraged.

They're gonna go back into Egypt, they're gonna see deliverance. Right? That's what happens. Right? What happens?

Moses spoke best to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses. I mean, anticlimactic or what? You come up to God after the people opposing you and say, God, why? God gives you a message, God encourages you, you're fired up, you're ready, and you're thinking this is gonna go in the right direction. You come up and the people say, no thanks, man.

They reject the message. Why did they reject the message? For two reasons. What does it say in this verse? Because of two things.

What does it say? Because of their broken spirit, one, and because the harsh labor. In other words, the people rejected the word of God because of how they were feeling in the inside and of what they were seeing from the outside. Broken spirit, that speaks of the internal man. Harsh slavery, what they were experiencing in their circumstance.

And these things quenched the encouragement that God wanted to give them. Listen. Doubt is fueled by two things. Doubt is fueled by emotion, and doubt is fueled by circumstance. If a believer lives by emotion and if a believer is dictated by circumstance, you can expect a roller coaster ride in this thing called life.

Doubt is fueled. I mean, if doubt's already a fire, you can fuel it by how you feel, and you can fuel it based on the circumstances that you're experiencing. But doubt is quenched. How? When you rehearse the truths of God over your life concerning his character and his faithfulness.

That's how doubt is quenched. When you rehearse that God is with me, when you rehearse the scriptures that we just read, that's how doubt loses its power over you. But it's fueled when you say, but this is how I feel, and this is what's happening, and this is what I see. You're just adding more fire to the doubt. Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery.

There needs to be an ability within each of us to have strength to overcome our emotion and what we see and grab a hold of the word of God. We need to. That's on us. That's on us to do. I don't feel this way, but I trust what the word of God says because God is this.

And you rehearse that over your heart, and you will see how doubt will be quenched and will shrink in your life. So what happens to Moses? I mean, he just came into this situation with doubt and discouragement, and he's thinking that this is gonna be reversed. And now what happens? Just even more.

So you know what God says? So the Lord said to Moses in verse 11, go in and tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the people of Israel go out of his land. It's like, yeah, but, God, I know that you're all seeing. Look at verse 12. But Moses said to the Lord, behold, the people of Israel have not listened to me.

How then shall Pharaoh listen to me? Fry him of uncircumcised lips. My church doesn't even wanna hear my sermon. You think that the people in the streets wanna hear my sermon? What's Moses experiencing now?

Seems like the preacher needs to preach his own sermon to himself. Preachers need to do that sometimes. What happens here? Yes. You nailed it.

He gives a reason why he thinks that the results were produced in such a way. He says, how am I going to speak to pharaoh when the people of Israel didn't listen to me? Why? For I am of uncircumcised lips. So you can interpret that one way in which he does before say, I'm not eloquent of speech.

I can't I can't say fancy words. I can't say big words. But there's another connotation here when he's speaking of uncircumcised lips, like, unworthy. Like, these lips aren't even clean. They're not they're not worthy to even speak these things, so there's a sense of unworthiness.

There's a sense of lack of qualification. And so he's putting the blame upon himself due to the lack of results. This is so important. He feels like a failure. Why does he feel like a failure?

Because he he did what God told him to do, and the results didn't show forth. Now in the eyes of the world, does he look like a failure? Perhaps. But was Moses a failure? Why was he not a failure?

Because he's obeying God. This is so necessary for longevity in any type of ministry. It doesn't matter if you're full time vocation. It does not matter if you're part whatever you wanna do for God, this right here is vital to understand. Moses feels like a failure because he did what God told him to do, and the results did not show forth.

Now we, the readers, look at that and say, no, Moses. You're not a failure. Why? Because you obeyed God. And that needs to be true of us as well.

We need to understand that as well. Results don't determine success. Results do not determine success. The world measures success by results. God measures success with faithfulness.

So Moses is frustrated because he's saying nothing's happening. And God is saying move on. Why? Because you did what you were supposed to do. Let's not sit on camp here.

Now go to Pharaoh. But, God, nobody answered. You don't understand. It's not about how they answer. It's about the fact that you answered me, listened to me, and obeyed me.

You're faithful? Move on. And so many people are paralyzed and wanting to serve God and moving forward and serving God and wanting to go and hit the streets to serve God and wanting to pray another prayer meeting to serve God because of what didn't happen last week when we went out and talked to people about Jesus, and what didn't happen when I witnessed to my family member. Is this not true? Due to the lack of results, there's a lack of motivation to wanting to serve God continually.

And God's saying, you've got it all wrong. Listen. No man in this room, no man in this nation, no man I don't care how great of an orator, I don't care how much commentaries they've written, there is not one person in this lifetime, not one person in history that has ever impressed God. There's no revival that's been ushered in by any man that has ever God not once was in heaven and says, that is amazing. Wow.

I cannot believe you did that. Michael, Gabriel, check this out. Not once. The only thing that can impress God is God. God himself is the only thing.

No man, no ministry, no service, no amount of times you pray, doesn't matter if you fast to the point where your ribs show through your shirt, does not matter what matters that you're faithful, that you're faithful. Here's a striking picture of how results does not necessarily mean success. Numbers 20. We're dealing with the same guy. Numbers 20 verse 10.

What happens in this text? Israel is thirsty again, and they complain to Moses. And Moses says, alright. Lord, round two. He says, I want you to do something, Moses.

I want you to go up to that rock. I want you to speak to that rock. When you speak to that rock, I'll take care of the water. Clear. Right?

Moses, all you need to do is obey me. Speak to the rock. What happens? Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, hear now, you rebels. Somebody's angry.

Shall we bring water for you out of this rock? Shall who? We. And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank and their livestock. Stop.

Moses, I want you to speak to the rock. You rebels, I'm sick and tired of you. And you would expect nothing to happen. But the most striking thing out of all the things that we can learn from this portion of scripture, probably the most striking thing in this text is the fact that the water actually comes out. He disobeyed, and water gushes out.

To the people of Israel, this is awesome. He did it again. Water's out. But there's one person that's not pleased, God in heaven. Results always equal success, not in God's eyes.

Because God says something in verse 12, and the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, because you did not believe in me to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore, you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them. God is not impressed nor is he moved by the results that we can produce for him. This is a picture of Moses acting in the flesh. You say how? Because if you were to speak to the rock, God would have been glorified, but instead, in his own strength, he strikes the rock.

Who gets glory? Moses does. And God says, listen. You might have fed everybody. The water's still gushing out.

Why is the water gushing out? Because God is gracious. But there's somebody that's not pleased. God. Because God is concerned about faithfulness more than what you can produce for him.

Don't be fooled by numbers. Don't be fooled by followers. Don't be fooled by any of those things. If those things are being produced outside of what the scripture says, I can guarantee there's somebody that's not pleased. Oh, though the people, they're drinking water.

Oh, they're oh, we're being ministered to though. Yeah, but what are you more concerned about, your results or about pleasing God? It's about being faithful. That will set you free from so much hardship as you serve the Lord. From so much anxiety, from so much distress.

Who cares? Moses needed to know that. He goes, I don't know, God. And what does God do in verse 13? The same thing he did in the beginning of the chapter.

The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them a charge about the people of Israel and about Pharaoh king of Egypt to bring the people. He says, Just keep going! God, but but I'm on the uncircumcised lips. And he goes, You don't understand. It's not about what you can do for me.

It's about just obeying me. Keep going. Just go. Keep serving me the way you're serving me. I'll take care of the results.

And if we really grasp that, this thing, walking in the calling of God, will be enjoyable. You'll enjoy it. Why? Because you know that you're doing this thing for God, and you know that as long as you're doing what God called you to do, He's pleased. What more do you want than that?

So if you have your Facebook ministry and you like to post things, if you're concerned about how many likes you got on that post and it's not the same amount of likes you got on the other post, you're gonna dread serving God. We're so results driven. I love what Brother Keith says, Keith Daniels coming in a few weeks. He goes, Whether you bless me at the door or curse me at the door, does not matter. The only thing that matters to me is after I preach that I get to my room as fast as I can and know that Jesus smiles.

That is the freedom we need when we serve God. And all for a sudden in verse 14 down to verse 30, it's just this genealogy. And without getting too much into it, though there are many reasons for it, it's almost like a commercial break to the story, really. The author, the Holy Spirit pauses and brings us to a place to understand where Aaron and Moses came from, And I think that's where we get some significance because the genealogy is not of all the fathers of the nation of Israel, all the tribes. It goes from Reuben, verse 14, verse 15, Simeon, verse 16, Levi, and it stops at Levi, and it breaks it down.

It's there to show us that Moses and Aaron are from the tribe of Levi. Then when we go to verse 28 down, it just brings us back just like if if you're watching a show, commercial break, and when you come back to the show, it tells you the last bit where you left off before we go back to the story. But I think there's something significant here, that we know the origin of Moses and Aaron. What tribe did they come from? What tribe did they come from?

The third tribe. What was the third tribe? Levi. Now this is the beauty about connecting books of the Bible. We talked about the tribes of Israel when we were concluding the book of Genesis.

What do we know about Levi? That's later on. Yes. They were the priesthood, but what did we learn from them from the end of Genesis? What kind of people were Simeon and Levi?

Yes, Phoebe? Yeah. Shechem. Remember when there's those blessings at the end in Genesis 49? It speaks of Simeon and Levi, how they forfeited what they could have received from Reuben because Reuben forfeited it.

Why? Because they were torturous, vicious men. They went in there and they slaughtered animals and people. That that is the last residue we have from the people of Levi. And here we are.

The nation of Israel knows this well that Reuben forfeited it, Simeon forfeited it, Levi forfeited it. But who comes out of the tribe of Levi? The deliverers of Israel. What does this speak of? This speaks of the grace of God.

Why? That regardless of the history, regardless of how other people might label you, God is able to redeem it and use somebody out of it. Moses and Aaron come out of the tribe of Levi, the murderous, blood shedding people, and he says, I'm gonna use you. You know what that says you to mean? Whatever the history of our family is, whatever even the past of your life is, God is able to redeem it and redeem you and use you again for his glory.

That is the hope that we have through this. God specializes in taking things that seem hopeless and making something out of it. That's the God that we serve, and that's what we can take out of this genealogy, that Moses and Aaron come out of the tribe of Levi. Though Levi forfeited the blessing, God is still able to use somebody out of that and say, I'm gonna use you to deliver this nation. And we're gonna find out that Levi later on, in fact, becomes the priesthood.

And we talked about that last time in Genesis. Dealing with doubt and discouragement. Are you doubting today, God? Are you discouraged on how you're serving God, not seeing the results that you would like to receive for God? Here's the remedy.

Know who he is. Get familiar with him. I love the fact that he says they have not known me as Yahweh because Yahweh is the covenant name of God. It's his personal relationship name. Know him and know how dear he is and know how near he is.

Know him in the new covenant sense that he is your father. Know what he's done in the past. I answered your prayers up to this point. You can look back. There's one thing that you and I can never say of God, that he lied to us, that he's failed us, and that he's forsaken us.

You will never be able to say that about God. Never. You might feel like he's not there, but he is there. You may not see the fullness of the fruit that you wanna see, but he didn't fail you. And there's one thing for certain, he'll never lie to us.

Looking back at what he's done, but also clinging to the promises that he's able to perform, and knowing this, Moses, stop thinking about the results and how you think you influenced the results. Just serve me. Just do what I tell you to do and I'll take care of the results. I will. I will.

I will. I will. I will. You just do what you need to do. There's freedom in that.

There should be freedom. There should be joy to say, Lord, here I am. Whatever you want me to do, I'll do it. Whatever I fail to see or whatever I do see is by your grace. Side note, maybe God does not want you to see everything because it might puff you up a little bit, And so he hides things.

God in his wisdom knows what to do and how to do it. All you need to do and all I need to do is be thrilled with understanding that he's pleased when we obey him. Let's pray. Bring your doubts and discouragement before the living God tonight saying, Lord, here's my heart. And ask him, Lord, I don't wanna be about stats and numbers and seeing thing.

I just wanna be driven by being faithful. And if nobody else sees what I do for you and appreciates what I do for you, as long as you're pleased, That's a that's tough, but it's possible. And even if you have to pray that prayer 10 times in ten weeks, if you have to pray that 10 times a day throughout ten weeks, if you have to pray that prayer over and over again, do it. Why? Because it is so freeing to walk in a way in which you are not beat down by what you see or you don't see, but you're driven by pleasing him.

As you're there in that place of prayer, I'm gonna read one more story just just to give you a counterexample of what we're saying here. Just continue in that place of of prayer. There's these two kings in first Kings 22, Ahab and Jehoshaphat. And Ahab wants to go to war and he invites Jehoshaphat. And Jehoshaphat says, listen, let's inquire first of the word of the Lord.

Let's get some prophets in here to give us direction, and we should do this. Then the king of Israel in first Kings 22 gathered the prophets together about 400 men. And these 400 prophets come, and here are these two kings, the king of Israel and the king of Judah. And the prophets are saying, go up for the Lord will give it into the hand of the king. But Jehoshaphat, the other king said, is there not here another prophet of the Lord of whom we may inquire?

And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, yeah. There is one that can inquire of the Lord, Micaiah, the son of Imlah, but I hate him. Why? For he never prophesies good concerning me, but evil. And Jehoshaphat said, let not the king say so.

So then they go and they fetch Micaiah. Here's 400 prophets. They're saying, go for it. Yes. Do it.

You'll get victory. Verse 13, and the messenger whom was sent to summon Micaiah said to him so here's the messenger that fetches this prophet, and he says, Behold, the words of the prophets with one accord are favorable to the king. Let your word be like the word of one of them and speak favorably. So here's Micaiah. Here's 400 prophets.

The the messenger goes on and goes, hey, listen. Everybody is saying the same thing. If you want your ministry to be awesome, if you want to be you really want to be liked, say the same thing. Say the thing that's favorable to the king. Alright Micaiah?

What does Micaiah say? Verse 14, but Micaiah said, as the Lord lives, what the Lord says to me, that I will speak. So they bring in Micaiah. He says, Micaiah, what's the word? And he goes, yeah, go up.

Victory. And Ahab says, I know, I know, I know you. Stop playing games. Tell me the truth. Then he gives this whole vision about how he's gonna pretty much die.

And verse 24 says, then Zedekiah, the son of Shinanah, came near and struck Micaiah on the cheek and said, how did the spirit of the Lord go from me to speak to you? And Micaiah said, behold, you shall see on that day when you go into the inner chamber to hide yourself. And here's these 400 prophets mocking Micaiah, striking Micaiah. They end up throwing up in jail. But Micaiah wasn't bent on the thing that was favorable nor on the thing that was popular.

He had one thing that was driving him. Whatever God says to me, that's what I speak. If you don't like it, I'm not doing this out of love, I'm doing this in love, but I'm here to serve an audience of one, and his name is Jesus. That's the heart we need to have. So father tonight, you've revealed yourself in your fullness because all scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for connect correction, and for training in righteousness that the man of God may be complete.

Lord, if there's any man in here that's facing doubt or discouragement concerning themself, how they're serving you, the lack of results that they anticipate. Would you, Lord, remind us of how good you are? Would you remind us of what you've done in the past in this house and the lives that are sitting in these chairs, and family members, and our friends. And Lord, would you help us have a hunger to memorize and know the promises of God. To know that in every circumstance there's a promise.

Finally, Lord, may we be driven by faithfulness. Every person in here driven by just knowing that they're pleasing you in what they do. And to be free from comparison, from competitiveness, from looking at our limitations instead of looking at your all power and might. And to take the instructions that you've even given Ezekiel. Whether they receive your word or reject your word, tell them what I tell you.

May we be like Micaiah even when we're just seduced to compromise, even when we're seduced for any reason outside of your will, we may say, I'm just doing this for the Lord. In your name we pray. Amen. Just stay in that place of prayer. We're gonna sing in a moment.

But we just read the word of God and it's a living word and he just spoke through his word. The words that we just read, God just spoke to us. Now respond to him in prayer saying, Lord, I want my heart to change as I leave this place. And in a moment, we're gonna sing together.