God calls individuals to serve Him not based on their education or perceived abilities, but by presenting themselves and what they have, even if it seems small. The sermon uses Moses' life, particularly his time in the desert and his encounter with the burning bush, to illustrate that God's school is the primary place of preparation, not formal education. It emphasizes that God uses ordinary people and their everyday possessions, like Moses' shepherd's rod, to accomplish extraordinary feats, urging listeners to offer themselves wholly to God, trusting Him to work through them. The core lesson is that God's power is made perfect in human weakness, and the response God desires is a willing "Here am I."
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I don't know if I should be up here or not, but nevertheless, you know, I know it's not a Christian habit or it's really not Christ-like to be envious, but how would you like to have a voice like they've got? Wouldn't that be nice? I wouldn't even mind singing. The people wouldn't leave then. If I were to sing now, you'd leave, and I don't want you to leave right now. But how appropriate that really was to what our brother Ray Routley had been painting for our hearts this afternoon. He is more than wonderful. There's no comparison. He's unique. Christ is absolutely without fear. He's just marvelous. He's wonderful. He's all the things that the song says and more and more.
Would you be turning in your Bibles now, again, return with me to the book of Exodus and chapter three, the book of Exodus in chapter three. The only thing I've got to say is I'm afraid that they planned that to soften me up, but he didn't do the job. I'm still the hard old callous fellow that I was this morning. I still hope the seats are, well, I don't mean physically uncomfortable because I'm sure they're that. Any seat is after a while, isn't it? You become the dead end kid. But nevertheless, I'm not talking about that I want you to be physically uncomfortable anyway because if you could be physically comfortable and not go to sleep, I'd want you to be physically comfortable. But that's pretty hard too. What I meant this morning, and I want to reiterate, again, for some of those who are just coming in, My intent is not to make you spiritually comfortable either, but it's to make you very spiritually uncomfortable, not satisfied with status quo, not satisfied with where you're at.
Paul says that we should be pressing, not resting, and that's what we as Christians need to realize more and more, because in view of First Corinthians chapter seven and verse twenty nine that I read a part of this morning, but this I say, brethren, The time is short, and it is. The Apostle Paul, let me say again, if he could say in his day that the time was short, how short is short? It's very short. The Lord could tell me at any instant, no more service in this life than to gain reward at the judgment seat of Christ. So, you see, I'm still a hard fellow, but let me restate some goals.
Now, Brother Ray Routley mentioned that he was a man of goals. I am also, believe it or not, You might not want to speak to my wife, but I am. I too like to look ahead not to the very end city, but to the next step. And that's scriptural, brother. I believe that we really need to be not looking to the millennium so much as we need to be looking to right now. Because you know something, I can't do a thing about what happened yesterday. It was disaster, and that's all there is to it. It happened, and it's done. I can do nothing about tomorrow because I have no control over that. But you know, God has given me as a breath, one breath, one moment of life at a time. That's all I can live. How many of you live three minutes at a time?
Well, I want to meet you after the meeting because you must have three heads, three hearts and all that goes with it. But nevertheless, no, we live moment by moment. And that's the way God wants us to live for His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And hey, it's possible. We were looking at the life of Moses. And let's not forget, again, let me restate, Moses was no superman. Elijah was no super duper man. They were people just like you and I. And let me tell you something. In some ways, the opportunities, I believe, for lots of reasons, are greater today than they were in the day of Moses. There's more opportunity. We can reach out and touch more, as I said this morning.
If you want to touch someone, get off the telephone and go see them. Get into their faces. Get into their lives. Get into their homes. Meet them where they are. Go right in the front door. I remember once down in Guthrie, Oklahoma, Tom McCullough was going to have some gospel meetings. And I was an up-and-coming, little aspiring fellow, you know. And so I wanted to learn from the big guys. And so I said, well, brother, Tom, I'll come help for a week. I'll carry your coat. I'll do the chores. And so one day he said, well, let's go do some visiting, Glenn. We were walking down the road. We've been visiting all kinds of people. And suddenly he just started. without notice, he just walks into the house and says, anybody home? And boy, the lady comes out with her apron on and a pie or something in her hands, you know, all startled.
And you know Tom McCullough, he went to preaching the gospel right away. He just went to tell her about Christ. Hey, that's the way to do it. That's the way to do it. Let people know where you stand right away. Don't be bashful. And that's what I'm trying to draw out. Because the real emphasis of my time with you, at least through tomorrow afternoon, and I'll share in the gospel tomorrow night, but for the ministry meeting now, and if God permits for the time I'll share with you tomorrow once, I want to draw your attention once again that if ever there was a time that the true church of God, I prefer to say the assemblies of God's people, if there were ever a time that we need men sent from God, we need them today.
Brethren, the ranks are thinning. I see a lot of names in a lot of magazines. I don't know them anymore. But I'm wondering what is the quality or the gaps that these great men of God, and I don't need to put the names in there. I don't need to tell you the names of the funerals I've preached recently. These great men of God are leading the scene and who is stepping in, my fellow Christian, to fill the gap. Notice I didn't say to fill the shoes. You can't fill their shoes. That's unique. But when they go home to heaven, there's a gap at the precipice of life between life and death that's left open. Someone needs to step in and guard that gap.
Can't you at least rise up and step in and fill the place and warn those who would rush over as a mountain stream rushes over to fall hundreds of feet to the abysmal drop below? Can't we stand in the gap and warn others? to flee from the wrath to come. Can't you at least do that? Where's the compassion for souls? That's another point I made this morning. Where are the young men, and I say this because of the public gift, where are the young men today that are needing to step forward and simply preach the gospel of the grace of God? I'm thinking of men who have vacated, and I consider Tom McCullough to be one of the greatest evangelists ever to move amongst the assemblies of God's people.
That's a personal feeling about it. He led my wife to Christ. That's the biggest job he ever undertook. And I'm so thankful for that, so very thankful for it. But anyway, those men preach the gospel with full heart and full profanity. And I'll tell you, there may be some sitting here other than my wife that can praise God for men sent from God with God's message. You know, God never sent a man without a message. He never sends a Christian without a message. We heard that every Christian has a gift. I could have jumped up for the route. I almost did. But I was afraid to, I'm a little bit inhibited here. Normally, if I'd have been in the places I normally travel, I'd have jumped up and hollered glory or something.
I'd have had to do, because when he mentioned about the young people coming to you and saying, oh, what is my gift? As if you're, I'm not going to tell you. I'm not going to tell you and find you hardly what your gift is at that point, because I'm in full accord. I believe if you'll just simply keep on keeping on, just do what you're doing. And do it well for God. Do it with a full heart for God. Whatsoever you do, do hardly as unto the Lord. And don't worry about it. Serve God. And don't worry if it's a glorious gift or a public gift or something that's being noticed. Just go on for God. That's what's going to count at the judgment seat of Christ. Not what I thought. That's not going to be worth anything at the judgment seat of Christ. But it's what Christ thinks. It's what it really was in your heart.
What motive was it? So I see in the life of Moses, this man at forty years old, he may have been a little in haste. But listen, I'd rather see you rise up and do something, as our brother said also, and make some mistakes. You'll never go anywhere unless you make mistakes. Does that sound bad? I don't know, but it's real. It may sound bad, but it's real. If you're moving forward, you're going to, you know, you're going to cause some friction. I got some people who just don't like me. Maybe a lot of people who don't like me, but at least they know I'm around. I'm making a little friction. I'm moving along a little bit. Now, I don't bring discord amongst the brethren. Don't you older Christians go away saying I sow discord amongst the brethren. I don't do that. But you understand what I'm trying to get across, don't you? You're lovely people. I can see it in your eyes.
You understand a lot of things. I can even see a lot of this has already happened to you. Maybe I should shut up, but I'm not going to. I'm just going to keep on because I want to stir that fire that's beginning to grow within your breast for God. I want to stir it so that it becomes a raging inferno. and you no longer can just sit still and listen to us weary old preachers, but you're going to get up and do something yourself. You say, well, I'm not a platform preacher. Hey, that's the small end of the stick. That's the least of the job. And I can say that on my part now. I don't know about my illustrious brethren here, but I feel that's the small end of the job. The real thing is to equip the saints to go on for God and do the teaching, do the ministry of God for themselves. The preachers ought to be preaching themselves off of the platform.
I used to be, quote, what they would call a resident worker and so forth. My one desire was to preach myself off of that platform, to equip the other saints to go. I know both sides of the fence, and we're going to get to that in a minute, and I'm not going to try to hurt anybody's feelings, but I'm going to tell you like it is, okay? from experience at least, and from the Word of God I trust. Let's read just a little bit again here in Exodus chapter three. Just some verses. We'll try to pick up and thread these thoughts into a tapestry that'll mean something for you and picture Christ, okay? I'll draw some of these loose ends together so you bear with me during the course of these meetings. Verse one. Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the backside of the desert.
I told you this morning that the only really necessary school is the school of God. Now, I want to be very careful. I want to walk the tightrope here. I'm going to do it. I'm going to tell you I'm all for formal education in its place if it's for a formal reason. But if you're going to school to be a preacher, you might as well quit now. God makes preachers. The schools don't. And there's brethren here that would testify to that. You don't go to make yourself a preacher. That's God's business. You may go to learn more, to be able to interpret, to be able to reference and to translate and that kind of thing. But that school can be done without.
Turn with me, and I'll show you what I'm trying to drive out because I'm on dangerous ground now. I see that now. I see some heads and the red bandanas up or whatever he said. Acts chapter four. This is fun. You know, if you can be with God's people, they can take a lot if you give it to them straight. They come back, they're a little punchy, but they come back and they just love you for it. If you give it to them from the Word of God, that's the thing that I like about God's people. That's the only reason I've existed is because of the love of God's people for Christ, and they know I'm a Christian. I'm a Christ one, so they put up with me. Love you for that. I told you, I'm going to, I thought I put you to the stress test. If you're an engineer, you understand that. Anyway... Chapter four, look at verse thirteen of Acts.
Acts chapter four, verse thirteen. For the sake of time, I'm not going to read, well, I am too. I'm going to read just a little connection here in verse eight. Verse eight. Then Peter filled with the Holy Ghost said unto them, You rulers of the people and elders of Israel, if we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man by what means he has made Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand before you, whole. This is the stone which is said it not of you builders, which has become the head of the corner.
Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. Now we get to the verse that I really won't. Okay? That was just to get you in line. Now when they saw the boldness, notice when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men. Now I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. Ignorant doesn't mean here what ignorant might mean to you necessarily. Now they were calling them ignorant men, but it's without knowledge, without formal education. Let me at least put it in that phrase. Let's read it again. Now, when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled, and they took knowledge of them.
Now, here's the thing that I want to drive home. Here it is, that they had been with Jesus. You know, if you're a God-sent, God-oriented man, if you're an enoch that walks with God, then God will make you the preacher. You don't need that formal. And I've got to say this at the risk. But I think there's a movement amongst God's people today to formalize the platform, to make the platform only for the highly educated. You know, what would that do? What would that do to God's work had we imposed that so long ago? How many of you would be here today if Tom McCullough had not been allowed to preach the gospel because he did not have the formal education?
Let me be careful, I'm not knocking that. God may lead you as he did Paul and others through the formal education, but that does not meet God's criteria. That will not leave off the school of God. You'll never be worth your salt. You'll never really be a God-sent man until you go through God's school. I don't care whatever else you have, that's between you and the Lord. Hey, that's an individual choice. I'm not knocking it, and don't you go away from here. saying I'm knocking seminaries or anything. Don't do it. I'm very well acquainted with Dallas. I'm very well acquainted with a lot of other places. I'm just saying let's don't make the mistake, the unscriptural mistake of saying that unless the man has been through all of that, he can't preach from a platform in the assemblies of God's people.
You'll lose a lot of Peter's. You'll lose a lot of John's if you do that. Let these men that are God sent show forth the gift, as our brother has already said. It says that the gift, in my Bible, the gift will make room for itself. Again, let me tell you, do all that God wants you to do. I mean that from my heart. You get all the education. You get everything that God wants for you. But don't bypass his desert school. Because you see, I believe Moses was in God's desert school. It wasn't one, as I said this morning, of His choice. All the great men of God that I have known, that I have been acquainted with, went through God's school, irregardless of whatever else they had and so forth.
I used to wow them. I used to tell them, I've been to Keough University in Japan. But you know, that doesn't mean anything. That's nothing. I didn't even know the Lord. I had nothing. But, you know, let's read this verse again. Verse one, and he led the flock to the backside of the desert. Now, you think the desert is a hard school. God sometimes calls on a Christian to go to the desert school. That's what he called on Moses for, lifted him out of the palace, out, as I said, from the silken pillar and the linen sheets or whatever they were, and put him down not only in the desert, but on the backside of the desert. That's deep down.
God draws us deep sometimes into the recesses of aloneness with Him, of being away from things, of giving up things, whatever it may be. This is what God called upon Moses for in his school of the desert, only it went so deep it went to the backside of the desert. But thank God for the rest of that verse. Look at the rest of verse one, lest you despair are faint in the waves. It says, and came to the mountain of God. Be sure that you can never get away from God. Don't say because you're in the midst of a trial and God has you bound down as it were in the shackles and you're away in a lonely little place.
and a way alone and you think no one is seeing what you're doing for God and God has forgotten about you. The mountain of God is always where He puts you. It's near at hand. It's a breath away. It's a prayer away. It's a sigh away. It's a look away. So if your schooling happens to be at this time for you men who are being sent by God in God's training school and it's in the desert, don't worry if it's on the backside of the desert. Don't worry if it's been going on for forty years. I used to despair because I was already a grown man when I got saved. And I thought preachers couldn't preach if they were over twenty-one. I thought the first deal had to be there and everything in those days.
I thought that's when you had to start. I knew there were older preachers. But, you know, don't despair. If you're forty, fifty, sixty, God's work is for everybody. And God's school can begin at any moment. Anytime you're ready to present yourself, God will take you and he'll put you into school. But don't forget this. He's always by your side. He's always with you wherever you go. So even though you might be on the backside of the desert, you've come out of some trial, maybe you've been floating along in the clouds of ease and suddenly you say, God, I want to serve you. I really want to serve you. And suddenly you're plunged into his school. You lose your job.
The economy goes sour. You can't find one. You're moved off into a little town down there with five, five, five on the city limit sign. That's Brookfield. I'm still amazed. Five thousand, five hundred and fifty-five people in Brookfield, Missouri. It's a wonderful little town in assembly. Don't ever go through without stopping by and visiting those saints. Even if you're down in Brookfield, Missouri with a five, five, five against you. That's worse than six, six, six. You're down there like that and you think this is the end of the road. Don't despair or Atlantic. You know, you're not Hey, I come from the big town, man. You can't fool. I'm from Wichita. Two hundred and eighty-five thousand, so I can pop off, you see. But no matter where it's at, the mountain of God is always there, and a mountain is to be climbed.
A mountain is to be climbed. Every mountain climber I've talked to, or at least the books I've read and etc., and I said, well, why do you climb the mountain? Ultimately, the basic answer boils down to it was there. It was there. So it is with God. God is there. And he says, so Moses is down on the backside of the desert. But notice he came to the mountain of God. And that's not easy to climb a mountain. God even here, when he speaks to you, does not always do it in the lullaby. He doesn't always come say, lays away in the valley of ease. But he'll say, come climb the mountain. Come be with me. Reach up. Come up into the high places.
Have you ever read the little book, Hind Speed in High Places? Beautiful little book. I recommend it. But anyway, if you climb the mountain for God, that's a wonderful thing. Notice verse two, and the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush, and he looked and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. Now I've been told by scholars that for that part of the desert over there and the life Moses was leading, taking care of these sheep and etc., that the old greasy plants or little bushes over there would be nothing for them to combust in the hot sun and to begin to burn. So that's not the thing you want to notice in this verse. That's not what Moses really noticed.
Lots of bushes, I believe, during his forty years caught on fire and burned up. But that's the secret. This one was burning, but not burn up. Now for you people, I understand about Israel here and so forth, but we're not, let's use this in application today as I would like to use it. Let's see Moses as he turns aside to see a bush, not because it's burning, but because it's not consumed. Verse three, and Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. We need some turn-aside Christians. You know, most of us won't go out of our way to say a word for the Lord at all today.
We won't even go around the corner, much less go out of our way, turn aside. I'm sure Moses... must have been weary with a toil of the day because, you know, they didn't get behind the sheep and say, hey, get along there, get along there. I want to say a little dogey because I'm from Texas, but that's not sheep talk. So you don't gouge the sheep and prod the sheep along. But the real true Eastern Shepherd, he led his sheep. He walked before them. He tested the ground. He tested the pasture. He tested the wild animals. He went ahead as the guardian. He was weary. He was awake when they were asleep. They'd go into the sheep foley, put the rod down to see any cucklbers in their back. He was constantly in care for them. The Shepherd's job was a hard, old task. And you know, that's pretty tough. Sometimes God says, hey, come out of the palace, Christian, and come down and tend these old dirty sheep.
How many of you dear shepherds have been called to leave something like that and come tend the old dirty sheep? There's nothing so bleeding and so bad as unruly sheep, is there? And aren't we God's sheep? Aren't we sometimes unruly? Don't we try the shepherds? I'm sure Moses was a man who knew a lot of the rigors of the physical shepherdhood. And so it wouldn't be easy to turn aside in the rough terrain and go over and see something. He took the time. It meant enough to him that God... was doing something. I know he knew God was doing something. Let's see as we read in verse four. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, you know, God is looking. God is always looking.
He's always alert. He never slumbers or sleeps. He's always looking down upon his Christians and he takes notice of the least little bit of devotion. You even start to turn aside for God. to do something that's going to cost you. You know, we're a people in America who wants everything easy. Someday I guess they're going to grease the road to bed. So we'll just slide into it. I don't know what to get into. We're getting so easy mad. You know, we want to do everything the easy way. I would even like for you to feed me. You know, I'm getting pretty lazy. This was great food today, but it would be just as well if you'd feed me. You know, I can be lazy. We want it easy. But God, when He sees that we take even a moment's hesitation, Turn aside to honor his blessed son.
Turn aside. Go out of our way. Take some time to be alone with the Lord and the mountain of God. Take some time to respond to something God is doing in our lives. You know, God may be burning a bush in your life that's not burning up, and he's giving you ample reason to see a lesson before you. Maybe it's affliction and health. Maybe it's the mental stress and strain, and there's a lot of that today. There's a tremendous amount of mental stress and strain. We never lived in such tenuous times as we do today. But you know, God has allowed that. He didn't want us to crumble. He doesn't want us to give up. He wants us to keep on. I'll tell you how it was many years ago. Let me just give you, God wants you to keep on even when the keeping on seems to be wrong.
I went to visit in Guthrie, Oklahoma again with Tom McCullough. I can speak of him, as I said, because he's in heaven. We went up there to visit a little lady dying of cancer. And so we walked up to the room, both with our Bibles, and there was a little emancipated body grown up almost in the fetal position, just skin and bones darkened with pain. And so we walked up and she opened her eyes and they were red and bloodshot. You could tell she was in tremendous pain. And Tom McCullough spoke to her and began to talk to her. She was a Christian. I'm standing there and I'm pretty much in awe. I had never really been confronted with a Christian dying like that before.
This is many years ago. And so Tom, just out of the blue, was his habit. He said, Glenn, give us a little word. Well, I swallowed my Adam's apple and a couple more if I'd had them. And I just didn't have anything I thought at all. And the Lord brought a little psalm to my mind. So I hurriedly opened up, you know, and I ruffled over to this psalm. And I began to read. And this dear little lady closed her eyes and appeared to go into a deep sleep. And I thought, boy, you're some preacher. You're some worker. You put them to sleep. At the last moment, you put them to sleep. Man, my old chin was dropping to the floor. It was going to wipe out my tracks on the way out. I was all moaning and groaning. Finally, I finished, and I thought to myself, I'll never open my mouth again. I'm going to put this Bible down when I get home, and I'm going to run for Texas, never coming back anywhere again to speak from the Bible.
Now, this is the truth. Suddenly those eyes opened and there was not a red streak in them. The white as a pearl was in the eye. And she looked up at me and she smiled, a smile from heaven. And she said, Glenn, keep on keeping on. She closed her eyes. I never saw this side of the glory again. And I expect to see her today. I'm going to shake her hand and say thank you for telling me to simply keep on keeping on. God may be working in your life. A little bush was burning. If you didn't take the time to see it, turn aside to see it, you can miss all kinds of blessings from God. So he turned aside, and notice in verse four, to see.
God called unto him out of the midst of the bush. You know, when, not before, usually, but when you turn aside and pay attention to God, when you get in contact with God, no matter what the circumstances, no matter what the drudgery, And it's the work of the world, fellas, that gets us. I can rise to this occasion. Boy, the adrenaline flows. I walk them real good when you know, throw a few stones and run back to Texas. I can really rise to the momentous occasion. Well, what gets me down and what gets me and takes away something of what the world terms as Christianity out of me is the rut of life. Get up, go to work.
Fush with the wife and kids, come home, fuss with the wife and kids, go to bed, get up, go to work, and all that kind of, maybe you don't fuss with it, but you didn't smile. Maybe you don't fuss with your wife. We do down in Texas, it keeps them alert. But anyway, I thought I'd wake you up, I pray you're going to sleep. But anyway, you know, we go along in life like that, kind of in that rut, that's when it really takes something to live for God. If you have an eight-hour day job, ten-hour day job, You housewives, listen, your work is truly never done. I wouldn't say this to my wife other than publicly. She'd get the big head, but I recognize the wife's work. I recognize it's harder than mine and longer than mine.
I really do. So ladies, don't despair. God sees your toil. God watches you as you go on for him. God's looking down. You know, the thing of it is that's when God's going to speak to you. When you're really going on for him no matter what the circumstances, you test it out in past experiences of your life and you watch for it in the future and you'll be a wiser Christian. When you're going along but you're going along for God, you're trusting him. God's about to speak to you. Maybe even as he's speaking in the conference through these brethren today and tomorrow, God can speak to you at any time that you're aware of him in listening. He spoke out of the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses, you know, Christian never despair.
God will call you to you. Listen if you want to hear. God will speak your name twice. God is not proud. God will talk to you. And he'll get your attention. And listen, he not only knows your name. He knows every hair on your head. He knows it all. You know, listen, I used to deal with a lady who thought somebody was going to rob her of her reward. Well, I think she took the verse a little bit long wrong in the Scriptures. What can happen is you can miss your reward by being influenced by others. We need to go on for God no matter what others are doing. That's a good lesson to learn. No matter what your brother or sister in Christ is doing, you go on for God.
Do you remember in the Gospel and the ending there when Christ could look back and say, what is that to thee? Follow thou me. We need to have our eyes on the one central figure, the one who can never fail and never disappoint. And that's Christ. We Christians get our eyes on the other sheep. And that's the greatest mistake that you can make. I was never more stumbled than I was in my early Christian life by looking at my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Don't do that. I don't mean don't appreciate them. Don't love them. Don't understand their woes. Don't go to them and bind up the wounds. I don't mean don't go and visit. Don't speak. I don't mean that. And I think you know it. But let me be careful and say to you.
Yes, we do need to have contact. We do need to look on our brother's burdens, but don't let that take us away from Christ. He must have the preeminence, and so it is. And we're not going to have the time, but I want to get to one other little thing here. First of all, though, before we go to that, I want to very carefully back up. I am of the opinion that you'll never amount to anything for God until you're willing to go through God's school. And every Christian is capable of that. You know, I could not have paid my way through a PhD. There was no way. No way. The money wasn't there. A lot of us can't even hardly get through high school.
But don't let that deter you from serving God. The criteria is God's school, and that's open to any saint of God. It is exclusive. It's for saints only. But if you meet that criteria, then you can go forward in God's school if you're willing. I like to think of this about Moses here because of what he says in verse four. Listen. And he said, Moses, Moses, and he said, Here am I. That's the response God wants from us. Here am I. Not here's John Joe. Not here's Sister Lucy. Not here.
You get him, Lord. Oh, Bill needs to be gotten there. Now he's the one that needs to serve you, Lord. No, we need to realize that God is speaking to me. And God wants the response, here am I. Not my brother, but here am I. So it is if you're in God's school, when the temper is just right, when the molten has come to the right degree of temperature and the dross is ready to come off, we need to say, here am I. In other words, it goes along with Romans chapter twelve. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies, and I'm going to stop right there.
No, I'm not. A living sacrifice. You know, it's easy to kill, as it were. It's easy to do one thing that's suddenly consumed for God. It's just burn up. But again, it's the living sacrifice that's daily going on for God. That's what... God expects for us. And that's the first step here, if you want to be a man or a woman sent from God. And I'm speaking in particular to the men because of the public gift situation, taking platform. I'd like to say, God wants to hear us say, here am I. In other words, God won't force you to serve him. Some Christians seem to be waiting around for the button to be pushed and the electric jolt to come like I was teasing you about this morning and God suddenly just banging you over the head.
Well, it didn't work that away with me. God spoke to me and God will speak to you. Moses, Moses, Moses, if that's your name. Moses, Moses, but he waits for the response. Here am I. If I were going to have time to, and maybe we will touch on them tomorrow in Isaiah and Elijah, I wanted to go on to about five, you would see. that this is a characteristic of all the men that are sent of God. They first present themselves. You know, that's what God wants, not what you don't have, but what you do have. So many times Christians say, oh, but you know, I can't witness. I just don't have that gift or I this. It's not you anyway.
It's not you anyway. It's God working through you. It's God that has the power. You need to present the vessel. You need to say, here am I. A little further example, turn over with me to chapter four of Exodus, chapter four. I think this is so familiar. I'm not going to try to read too many connecting verses, but I just want you to get the picture I'm trying to draw. Not the one of the head that I grew with words this morning. We don't want any just head Christians and no feet and no arms, no hands of service. We want to be well-bodied Christians. We want to have all members under control. We want to have hands and feet and eyes for God.
Not little squinty things that can only see our way. You know, that's the thing about it. My eyes maybe are too squinty. I can only see my little thing. My ears are so big, though I hear everything about my brothers and sisters in Christ. I just hope my mouth doesn't tell them. but what my mouth needs to be telling is the glories of God. So what I'm getting at, look here now, and we must read verse one of chapter four. And Moses answered and said, But behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice, for they will say, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee. And the Lord said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And what was Moses' response?
And he said, A rod. You know, he was a shepherd, and all shepherds carried the rod. God didn't ask him, hey, go do this, go gain that, have you got something you didn't have. He said, but he took something right at hand, and he said, Christian, what do you got? Well, I've got a mouth, I've got a home, I've got a car. God says, that's what I want. I want what you got. He looked at Moses. Here's Moses' strip to the palace. No longer the silver spoons. No longer the acclaim of being the great engineer or whatever that they might acclaimed him of, second only to Pharaoh, but he's a simple old shepherd. Just a dirty old shepherd on a dirty old desert doing a dirty old job.
You know, that's where God gets his greatest men and women from. It's from the dirty old desert doing a dirty old job in a dirty old city and just going along. The routine of life is what I'm trying to picture. The routine of life, God picks his choices, gems, out of the darkest velvet. And there he displays them. You say, I'm telling you, Christian, God wants you. God wants you, not your neighbor. He wants you. And he wants you to respond with, here am I. And he doesn't ask for what you don't have. He says, Moses, what is it in your hand? Moses says, well, it's what I always carry, Lord. It's a rod. Lord, it's a rod.
What? It's just an old rod. I'm just an old country boy. I'm just an old farmer. I don't know nothing about anything but corn and cattle and kids and things like that, you know. And the Lord says, now, wait a minute. That's what I want. That's what I want. He wanted the rod. But notice then on further down in the chapter, verse twenty. And Moses took his wife and his sons and set them upon an ass and returned to the land of Egypt. And Moses took. Get it. And Moses took. the rod of God in His hand. A simple shepherd's rod given up to Him becomes a rod of God, a rod of power.
Something simple and plain, an old farmer can preach the gospel and live a life for God and do wonders. The world can be turned upside down by Christians that are on fire for God. I still believe it. Maybe I'm simple. Maybe I'm even dumb. And I'll agree to that. I never was too smart. And I don't care. But I know the Savior. And I know he wants you. And I know he wants me. And I know that he equips. And he takes what you got. So give him what you got. And don't worry about what you haven't got. This is where sometimes young men get in trouble today. They're looking for something they don't have instead of using what they've got for God.
And this can apply to women too. You know, God wants us where we're at. doing what we are to go on for him. But when it's given up to God, that life that's given up in totality to God. You know, you can't just have part of a rod. Moses gave him the rod. Moses, as it were, let me at least say this. Moses gave him all that he had. But you give a little to God, and he'll give you much back. Little with God is much. That's something men can't do. Men need much to make much, money to make money today.
But when you give that life to God totality and His totality, you just give everything up to Him and say, Lord, I'm yours. Here I am, not much, but you can have the rod, God. That's all I got. You'll find out in the days to come that that which was little in your eyes taken up with God and given to God becomes the rod of God, the rod of God, which parted the waters, which done marvelous things. It's the power of God working through an earthen clay vessel.
I'll be closing shortly, but you listen to me. There's a mystery I don't understand, and I see a lot of them. Maybe I should say there are mysteries I don't understand. And I'm looking at them. Pretty blue eyes, brown eyes, shine shoes, pretty scarfs, nice hats. I'm looking at people. I'm looking at people. You see, I believe what was mentioned already, the very stones would cry out if God wanted them to. But He's chosen to work through the earthen vessel, the human instrument. Now, you think about that if you want to get profound.
If you want to get theological and deep into the scriptures, you think that God has chosen, the Creator has chosen to work His works in the main through people like you and I. He could speak in the world would disappear. He spoke it into being. I don't need an atomic bomb to end this world. God just has to say, it's done. It's finished and it's done. It's finished. So it is, beloved, as I close out now, I pray you, I beseech you, in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, give what you have to Him and don't worry about what you do not have.
Turn all you have over to God and let Him work the miracles. Let Him work through that clay vessel. But I'll tell you, I'd like to spend a little time, I'm not going to, but I'd like to spend a little time with you on sanctification. That'll make your eyes roll back. But I'll tell you, God wants a clean vessel. You see, I'm one of these foolish ones who believes in holy living. H-O-L-Y living, not W-H-O-L-Y. There's too many that wants to holy live, you know, just live it up, eat, drink, and be merry for it tomorrow you may die and you probably will with cholesterol or something everything kills you today you know I can't eat sugar they won't let me have sugar too much no caffeine kill all my life taking everything away from me but listen you let God have all of you but let that all be sanctified unto him Christian don't let anyone fool you God looks for holy people, He expects you to live what you profess out of your mouth.
And that means you stay clear of the things that defile even the good things. Now, isn't that a subject? All things don't work to God's glory. I may have the liberty for a lot of things. Football is a little touchstone with me. I love football since I began to enjoy it with my son a couple of years ago. But you know, even that can be bad if it takes the time away from the Lord that I should be given to him. So even good things can become hindrances. Shall we pray? Our loving God and Heavenly Father, we thank thee so much for your tender mercies and your love.