Moses the Great Leader Exodus 3:10-12, NIV “So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.” Hallelujah! I would like to share the grace of God under the title, “Moses the Great Leader,” which is based on Exodus 3:10-12. Please repeat after me: Moses the Great Leader, Moses the Great Leader. We have only one life to live on earth. Our one life is very important. Christians must therefore live meaningful, rewarding, happy, and pleasing lives to God. The Israelites regard two people the most highly from their history. One is Moses and the other is David. Moses led the Israelites out of their 430 year slavery to the Egyptians. He was their religious leader who received and delivered God’s Ten Commandments to the Israelites. David was the first king of the United Kingdom of Israel. The Israelites respected King David because he was the seedbed from which the Messiah was to come. Today, I would like to ponder about the grace of God through the life of Moses. As you are well aware, Moses lived for 120 years, achieving great works to the glory of God. We can think about Moses’ life in three parts. Moses’ life was self-centered for the first 40 years. For the second 40 years, Moses’ life was self-breaking. Then for the remaining 40 years of his life, Moses was held in God’s hand and lived for His glory. First, I would like to talk about self-centered faith. To some degree, all people live self-centered lives. Moses grew up as a prince in the Egyptian palace for the first 40 years of his life. Inevitably, he must have thought he was very special. Over the 430 years that Israel lived in Egypt, they multiplied in number, scattered over the land and became too numerous for Egypt to comfortably rule. The king of Egypt became afraid and wanting to control Israel’s population; he decreed that all newborn sons of Israel should be killed. Moses was born into this time of Israel’s history. The Pharaoh said to the Hebrew midwives, “When you help the Hebrew women in childbirth, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.” But the midwives feared God, so they let the boys live. They made excuses by saying, “Hebrew women are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.” Pharaoh countered this remark and ordered his people to throw every Hebrew boy child into the Nile. Exodus 1:22 says: “Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: ‘every boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.’” A man of the house of Levi married a Levite woman, and she gave birth to a son, her third child. When she saw that he was a fine child, she could not throw him into the Nile. She hid him for three months. The boy grew as did the sound of his crying. She could no longer hide him. So she placed the baby into a papyrus basket and set him among the reeds along the bank of the Nile River. His sister Miriam stood at a distance to see what would happen to him. That day Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe and saw the basket among the reeds. She opened it and saw the infant. She observed that he was a fine baby and desired to raise him as her own. Miriam approached Pharaoh’s daughter and asked her: “Your Highness, wouldn’t you need a woman to nurse the baby? Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?” And the girl went and got Jochebed, the baby’s mother who took the child and nursed him. Then Jochebed took the child, when he grew older, back to Pharaoh’s daughter who named this young lad Moses. Thereafter Moses grew up in the Egyptian palace. Jochebed committed Moses’ life to God when she nursed him as a baby and watched him grow. She would certainly have planted his identity as a Hebrew, often saying, “You are a Hebrew. You must do the work of your God.” Although he grew up as a prince, was educated in all the wisdom of Egypt and became powerful; Moses’ mother seeded deep within him his strong identity as a Hebrew. He knew he was an Israelite. Acts 7:22 says: “Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.” He was excellent in every way. People admired Moses because he was such a remarkable and outstanding man. Herein lay the problem. When Moses was about forty, he thought that he was ready to save his people by his own hand. He went out to where his own people were and watched them in their hard labor. Then he saw an Egyptian strike a Hebrew. The Egyptian was abusing a Hebrew slave, one of his own. Moses came between master and slave, and in trying to stop the beating; he killed the Egyptian. Scripture does not give a detailed account of whether Moses pushed the Egyptian and he cracked his head on stone or Moses beat him to death. Scripture does say that in bewilderment Moses hid the man in sand. The next day Moses went out and witnessed another fight, this time between two Hebrew men. He wanted to stop the fighting and asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you fighting? Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?” The men hurled defiance at him, saying, “Who made you ruler and judge over us?” Acts 2:14 says: “The man said, ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?’ Then Moses was afraid and thought, ‘What I did must have become known.’ ” Pharaoh heard what Moses had done and wanted to kill him. Moses fled into the desert where he soon found a home with the Midianites. Instantaneously Moses fell from a prince to a fugitive. Often in our lives, we try to do something on our own. We think that we can do something with our own hands. We plan with our own understanding and ‘go for it.’ Invariably as life has all things; we then encounter unpredictable problems, and our project ends in frustration, hopelessness and even failure. This is also true in our spiritual life. When we first believe in Jesus, we become overwhelmed by God’s grace and want to serve Him with our zeal. We try to serve the church, and our cell group members with our zeal. But we quickly run into problems because we are ministering from our own ambitions. Please repeat after me, “We serve the Lord with the grace of the Lord.” There will be no conflicts if we serve the Lord with the grace of the Lord. We will encounter problems when we try to do something on our own. During my pastorate in a church in the Washington D.C. area, there was a lady cell group leader who was very enthusiastic. She went out as a street preacher and brought people to church. Her cell group grew splendidly to more than 30 members. The district pastor told her to divide the cell but she refused, saying, “No way. I am the only one who can control them. If I do not minister to them, they will leave the church. I must control them.” Our church policy was that a cell group should divide when it had more than 10 members. This lady’s cell group should have already been divided into three groups but she wanted all thirty members under her control so that she would be the one to lead them. She would go and pray for their sicknesses and family problems at their beckon call even if it was in the middle of the night. Then when our district pastor would visit their home, he would find that she had already been there. This woman’s ambition created a conflict between the district pastor and her. People in her cell group would only listen to her and not the district pastor. Leadership of her cell members fell into disorder. She had worked hard but she worked with her own zeal. She would say, “It was I who revived the cell group members, I healed the disease. I did this. I did that.” I called this lady to my office because of the problems which arose due to her overly zealous work. When she came in, I said, “Deaconess, I appreciate your service for the Lord.” Then I asked her a question. “Who brings revival to cell groups?” She replied, “It is God, of course.” This was the right answer. “Who heals diseases?” “God heals.” She answered correctly, but I continued, “How come I heard that you said, ‘I have brought revival to my cell group. I pray and heal diseases. I did this and that?’ I have heard that problems came across because of this.” Suddenly, she put an unpleasant look on her face and lost her temper. “Who told tales? Who sneaked on me to the pastor?” So I said, “Please control yourself ? please! I told you this because I admire your fervent work for the Lord.” She replied, “I am deeply offended. People are jealous of me because I have worked so hard.” I concluded that our conversation would not go anywhere so I began to pray, “Heavenly Father, this lady has a great zeal to serve You. Make her a humble servant and help her to serve You with humility.” She left my office without acknowledging my prayer with an “Amen.” In defense of her pride, she said to people that someone was jealous and slandered her work to me. She said she was falsely accused and was left deeply offended. She said the senior pastor did not appreciate her sincere labor for the Lord. This lady left our church, talking her cell group members with her. These followers should have been following Jesus not her. She took her followers and went to a neighboring Holiness Church. The pastor of the Holiness Church welcomed them with open arms as if he had gotten a double windfall. The pastor was happy to welcome a hard working cell group leader with her followers. Full Gospel Church cell group leaders were often considered better workers than even church ministers. He welcomed her and began to treat her very well. A month later I heard from others that the former Full Gospel cell group leader was randomly visiting people from the Holiness Church. She would visit and pray for sick members without the pastor’s permission, and claim that she had the power to heal them. Serious conflict began to arise in this church. So the pastor called her and said, “Deaconess, do not go and pray for the sick. Do not visit people.” Then she raised her anger and said, “I am doing the work of the Lord. How could you say that?” Then she left that church, too. For the next few months, this lady migrated from one church to another. Then after a year, she came back to our Full Gospel church. By this time her followers all left her and she came back alone. She said, “Pastor, I am sorry. I was wrong. Please, forgive me. I went to many churches and the Full Gospel church is the best.” It was good for her to realize this and then come back. The first stage in our Christian faith is the stage of self-centered faith. We can receive the grace of God only when our self-centeredness is broken. Moses failed because he wanted to deliver his people with his own strength. If Moses would have acknowledged God right at the onset, he would not have failed; but he trusted in his own strength and failed. He was in the stage of self-centered faith. We do not know when we are in the first stage of faith. We will often pass through this stage unknowingly. I pray that your first stage of faith will pass quickly in the name of the Lord. The second stage is the stage of self-breaking faith. Moses’ ego was completely broken during the second stage of faith. He fled into the Midianite wilderness where he lived for the next 40 years as a shepherd. During those days, a shepherd had little respect as his job was considered low in their societies. Moses fell from the highest position of being the prince of Egypt to the lowest position of being a shepherd. His new life began to break and weather down his stubbornness, his pride, his unbelief, and his self-exaltation. Living a life from one’s ego can be a life of misery and stubbornness. Those with a strong ego will often insist on their own ways at meetings. They talk about nothing but themselves. They stir up anger and leave meetings if their ideas are not accepted. They are very likely to make trouble with others. They often lose their temple which causes conflicts and fights with others. Those with strong egos want to be at the top. If they fail to be at the top, they will be uncooperative, complain and criticize others’ work. Our ego must be broken if we want to receive God’s grace. God demoted Moses to a shepherd in order to break his ego. All Moses could see when he woke up in the morning was his flock. This was his life day in and day out. A day passed as did ten days, a month, a year, ten years, twenty years and then forty years passed. His sheep were his only companions and through them Moses learned gentleness and obedience. Sheep never rebel against their shepherd. Goats will often defy their shepherd but not the sheep. According to a missionary in Mongolia, sheep do not resist even when they are being slaughtered. He once saw a Mongolian killing a sheep. It did not resist when a man stuck his knife into its neck. The sheep’s blood gushed out of its body but all it did was shed teardrops. I was deeply touched by this story. Jesus died like a lamb. He became the little Lamb who took the sin of all humankind. In complete obedience, He sacrificed Himself. Moses saw his sheep and learned from them. He must have thought, “I need to be like my sheep before the Lord. I need to be silent, humble, gentle, and obedient. Then God will use me.” Hallelujah! Life in the wilderness is lonely. Guests do not come to the wilderness. It is hot during the day and cold at night. The wilderness leaves us weary and tired. But it is in the wilderness where we are broken. There we come to understand the grace of God. God pours His grace upon us when we are broken. We can grow in our Christian life when we are broken. When we say, “I am nothing,” instead of saying, “I, I,” God will pour His grace on us. Mark 8:34 says: “Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.’ ” Apostle Paul confessed as follows. 1 Corinthians 15:31 says: “I die every day - I mean that, brothers - just as surely as I glory over you in Christ Jesus our Lord.” I die every day. We need to be broken every day. Moreover, we need to confess that we are nothing. Problems and difficulties arise when we think we are something special. Yong-Gyu Lee, a missionary in Mongolia, wrote a book entitled Putting Down and wrote his second book entitled Putting Down More. There are many touching stories in his books. Missionary Yong-Gyu Lee graduated from Seoul National University and got his Ph. D. from Harvard University. He put down his splendid academic education and in response to a call from God, went to Mongolia. The following is one such story from his book. He went to a Christian seminar in Mongolia and the speaker asked the audience, “Why does a worm wriggle when someone steps on it?” Then he said, “The worm wriggles because it has not been trampled down hard enough.” The implication here is that we also wriggle when problems come because we are still alive. Problems will only be resolved when we are completely dead. God’s power will only be manifested when we are completely broken. There were times when missionary Yong-Gyu Lee did not want to be completely broken. He would protest, saying, “Lord, I do not want to be broken. Give me a break. I want to be honored and respected to some degree. Save my face from time to time.” The Lord replied: “I cannot enter into you if your ego is too big, I want to give you Myself, which is the best thing. There is no room for Me because your ego is too big. I told you to give me what you have but it is not because I want to take it away from you. What you are holding on to needs to be broken in order that you will be complete. I could not give what is best to you because you are still holding on to something else.” What are you holding on to? There must be something that you are holding on to. There must be something that you love more than God. You need to break that. You have to let your fame, popularity, material wealth or anything else you might cherish more than the Lord go, and commit your life completely to the Lord. God blesses us only when we are completely broken. Do you know what is hidden in humankind? It is pride. Pride unknowingly emerges and consumes us from within. The praises of others will feed our pride. Our humility begins to degenerate before we even realize it. This is why we need to be completely broken before the Lord. We must continually crucify ourselves. We are nothing. The Lord is everything to us. Let us give glory to God alone. All the great servants of God experienced being broken. Abraham was called by God when he was 75 and for the next 25 years experienced brokenness. Jacob was broken over the 20 years he spent in his uncle’s house. Joseph was under the discipline of God for 13 years. God used each of these great men only after they were completely broken. It took Moses 40 year in the desert to be completely broken. Then God called Moses to go but Moses declined. Exodus 3:11 says: “But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?’” 40 years earlier Moses was ready to deliver Israel by the strength of his own arm. 40 years later Moses is reduced, saying to God: “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” Exodus 4:10 says: “Moses said to the LORD, ‘O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.’ ” Moses was completely broken. Once a proud, young man, saying: “I will do this,” later a humble, old man asking: “Who am I?” It is not by coincidence or accident that Yoido Full Gospel Church has come this far. God severely disciplined and broke Pastor Yong-gi Cho in the process of establishing our church. Yoido was only a vast stretch of lowland when our church moved from Seo-dae-moon. It was nothing more than a sand land, much like a wilderness. Most people thought it would be impossible to build a church on such a land. They rumored that the church would go bankrupt before its construction was finished. I clearly remember. Initially Yoido Island had only two building complexes. One was the National Assembly and the other was the City Apartment complex. There would be no bus line coming to where our church was to be built. People said the church would begin with many problems. Our church members who came to church several times a week worried about the bus fare because they would have to change buses to Yoido. To exasperate our existing problems, construction on the church stopped right after the steel frames were put up because Korea was hit with an oil crisis. Rev. Cho often testifies on how difficult this period of construction was on him. One time he even bowed down under the rusted steel frames of the church and the dripping water mixed with rust; and prayed that the steel frames would collapse and bury him. He prayed like Elijah prayed under a broom tree, who in exhaustion and weariness of heart, asked God to take his life away. God would not bury Pastor Cho under rubble of construction, but through his brokenness performed the miracle of Yoido. Hallelujah! Let us give glory to God. During his period of brokenness, Pastor Cho confessed to God that he could not do anything. He committed all things to the Lord. The Lord completed the church construction and brought a great revival to the church. The church grew rapidly to have 50,000 members, 100,000 members, 200,000 members, and so on. God has blessed and made our Yoido Full Gospel Church the largest church in the world. Even after allotting 360,000 members to former branch churches which on January 1, 2010 became independent; our church has grown further to 450,000 members. Yoido’s growth is due to the grace of God. This is the work of God. God will perform His miracles when we are broken and completely brought low. He will bless us. He will bestow His grace upon us. Let us confess to the Lord: “I am nothing. You are everything to me.” What kind of wilderness are you in? Are you in the wilderness of failure? Are you in the wilderness of loneliness? Are you in the wilderness of hopelessness? Then it is time for you to be broken. We are nothing. We are nothing. The Lord is everything to us. God will begin to work when we are broken and brought to a completely low state. Third, Moses’ final 40 years was seized by God. His final years were glorious. Moses began self-centered, and was then completely broken when he living in the wilderness as a shepherd. Then Moses was transformed to live a God-centered life for God’s glory. Let us live only for the glory of God. Let us ask God to use us the way He used Moses. I want your life to be dedicated to God. I pray that your past self-centered life will be transformed into a broken, meaningful, and blessed life, full of God’s miracles and grace. Moses confessed that he was nothing after he was completely broken. But at the age of 80, God appointed and used Moses for His great work for the remaining 40 years of his life. One day, while Moses was tending his flock; the Lord appeared to him from within a bush aflame with fire. Exodus 3:4 says: “When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, ‘Moses! Moses!’ And Moses said, ‘Here I am.’ ” God called him and gave him a mission. Exodus 3:10 says: “So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” 40 years earlier Moses had failed. It took another 40 years of desert wandering for Moses to give up and put down all things. Then when Moses was 80, God declared He would use Moses to deliver the Israelites from Egypt. Exodus 6:1 says: “Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh: Because of my mighty hand he will let them go; because of my mighty hand he will drive them out of his country.’ ” Scripture said that Pharaoh would let the Israelites go because the Lord would be with Israel. I urge you to listen to the Lord and obey. God will perform His miracles when you listen and obey. The Lord did indeed deliver the Israelites from the hand of Pharaoh; but after the Exodus, the Israelites trembled with fear because the Egyptian army was pursuing them and the Red Sea was lying before them. Moses boldly proclaimed to them. Exodus 14:13-14 says: “Moses answered the people, ‘Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.’” The Lord will fight for us; therefore we need only to trust in Him, pray to Him, and commit our ways to Him. We need only to be still. What kind of problems do you have? What kind of diseases do you have? Do you have problems in your family? Be still and see the deliverance the Lord will bring you. The Lord will work. He will perform miracles. He will show His marvelous grace in your life. You need to pray in order to receive God’s blessings. Moses was a man of prayer. The Israelites defeated their enemies when Moses prayed and lifted up his hands. Exodus 17:11 says: “As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning.” Because Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill and prayed; Joshua was able to completely defeat the Amalekites. Moses twice fasted forty days and forty nights before he was able to successfully deliver the Ten Commandments to God’s people. Deuteronomy 9:18?says: “Then once again I fell prostrate before the LORD for forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water, because of all the sin you had committed, doing what was evil in the LORD's sight and so provoking him to anger.” For the rest of his days, Moses was greatly used by God as a faithful and humble servant. Numbers 12:3 says: “Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.” Numbers 12:7 says: “But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house.” God upheld Moses throughout the 40 years of his final stage. He blessed him with good spiritual and physical health. Deuteronomy 34:7?says: “Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak nor his strength gone.” Hallelujah! I pray that you, like Moses, will also be blessed with good health. I also pray that you will serve the Lord with all your might. God will take care of those who live a God-centered life. As surely as God took care of Moses, He will bestow His wonderful grace on you and take care of you. I read the following story from a book written by Che-Yun Lee, entitled Observing Sundays and Eisenhower, the President of Prayer. General Eisenhower played a major role in bringing victory to the Allied Forces in the Second World War. Later he ran and was twice elected President of the United States. He served as a world leader because he had a thoroughly God-centered faith. One time, Khrushchev, the Premier of the Soviet Union, was visiting the United States for a Summit Meeting. On Sunday morning, September 27, 1959, Eisenhower invited Khrushchev to go to church with him. He suggested they go to church together and have the Summit Meeting afterwards. Khrushchev, as leader of the atheistic communist country, declined his invitation. Eisenhower left Khrushchev and attended worship service alone. The Summit Meeting resumed an hour and a half later after Eisenhower came back from church. Eisenhower postponed the important meeting and made his counterpart wait because he attended a worship service. However, no one said anything because Eisenhower was well known for his faith. Meeting God was more important to Eisenhower than meeting any person in the world. Worship service was far more important than any meeting. So he first attended a worship service and later had the Summit Meeting. That meeting was shortened and then forgotten; but Eisenhower’s devoted faith is still remembered by many people. He proved his faith by serving the Lord first in spite of everything. Eisenhower observed the Lord’s Day and worshipped Him, in spite of all circumstances. He is said to have always prayed and meditated on the Word of God. There is no other US President who is recorded to have lived a more God-centered life than Eisenhower. Most of his cabinet members were Christians. US sent the largest number of missionaries while he was in the global office. It was during his presidency that American schools taught the bible and prayed before their school day began. Hallelujah! Eisenhower also started the White House Breakfast Prayer Meeting. It is true. The Lord will take care of our lives when we live centered on God. We will be left tired and weary after trying to live self-centered lives. Problems and difficulties multiply when we try to solve them by ourselves. You will be left feeling lonely, tired, painful, and agonizing. It is time for you to come to the Lord. “Heavenly Father, I come to you. There is no other person I could trust. I cannot do anything. I leave all my life to You. Lord, have mercy on me. Solve this problem by Your grace. Help me live victoriously by Your grace.” I pray that you will have God-centered faith. Dedicate your lives to the Lord and ask Him to break your self-centeredness. Then the Lord will take care of your life. He will fill your life with His overflowing grace. God will perform His miracles for those who are broken. Let us pray. Our Father of infinite love, grace, and mercy, pour Your grace upon us so that we will, like Moses, be broken in humility. Uphold us in Your hand and make us Your precious servants. I pray in the Name of Jesus. Amen. 12