Transcript: Exodus 4:11-12 - Willing to be Chosen | Pastor Jason Lockard

You know, we've been having conversations with fellow Christians, and we really believe, many of us believe that God is setting up something very special. God is setting up a chosen generation. You know, we are living in, sadly, well, sadly on one hand, but excitingly on another hand, we are living in the final days. We're about to see Christ return. sad in the fact that there are so many people that are going to be left behind but exciting in the fact that Christians are going to see Jesus and are going to finally see heaven at home so that's why it's exciting times but it's also sad times but in these final days because you look at it if you go and you look at all of the different signs of the end before Jesus comes. I mean, you're seeing everything. You're seeing everything. Knowledge explosions, we're there right now. We're there right now. We've never seen so much technology happen in such a short amount of time. That's the technology explosion, the knowledge explosion that has happened. The Bible talks about a great falling away. That's not coming from anything but the church of the living God. We've seen a great falling away of the church through this COVID-19 pandemic. We've seen churches lose a whole bunch of people that have just went away and never came back. So we've seen a great falling away. There's talk of lawlessness raising up. Now, just look around. You see that? So what I'm getting at is, I could go on and on, and I'm not going to do that, but what I'm getting at today is this. God in these final days is rising up a chosen generation. A bunch of followers that are willing to do their part to spread the gospel, to stand up for what is right, and to do what needs to be done. And the question today is, are we going to be part of that number? Now, many will say, there's so many. Many that are more eloquent in speech. Many that have more energy or more charisma in what they can do. Why? Why? Me. Right? Why me? I want to share with you Exodus 4, 11 and 12 today. And I want to share with you a story of what God said. Leading up to this point, the Israeli people were in Egyptian bondage. We know that story, how they were made captive and they were put in slavery. and they were building the pyramids and all this stuff in Egypt. And God said time had come. It was time to have Israeli people to be freed. But when it came to have someone to lead those people out of Egyptian bondage, God did not send a military leader. God did not send a political leader. God did not send somebody with a charismatic personality. No. God chose a fugitive shepherd with a speech impediment. Very interesting. God came to Moses and he told Moses, I want you to lead my people. I want you to go to Pharaoh and say, let my people go. This is what God has said. And Moses, knowing his shortcomings, basically said, why me, God? And in verse 11 of Exodus chapter 4, it says these words. These are the words of God. Who has made man's mouth? I love that. Who has created man? This is what God is saying. I want you to understand something. God's creation of mankind was not a random coupling of molecules. This was not some embryo, a little amoeba, a little organism that crawled itself out of the waters and began to stretch itself. this was not evolution of mankind changing itself from an ape or a primate into man that's not what this was we were created by a divine and all-powerful creator and that's the point and that's what God is saying to Moses here who has created man's mouth it was me. He says, who maketh the dumb or the deaf or the seeing or the blind? I like this. When you read that, you think at least my mind thought of the stories of Jesus in the New Testament. You go through and you look. Go through and look at all the stories. A blind man cries out to Jesus. the deaf needing to hear cries out to Jesus the cripple that can't walk cries out to Jesus the leper that is unclean calls out to Jesus when the person that has a need does now have no other way they know where to call next to Jesus now we are living in a generation right here and right now in 2021 of people that are in need. And I want to share with you something that is really interesting. When a person has a diagnosis of something terrible, when someone is sick or whatever, and they are in need, where do they come? They come to the church. They come to the people of the church, and they say, I need what? Prayer. Now, I'm not harsh about this. I'm not being mean about this. But I saying you look at that and you say you want to say you want prayer but where were you all along Did you come to church all along? Have you loved God all along? But you know where to come when you have a need. The idea here is we know what we're doing. We know where we need to be to get a blessing. When we're in trouble, we come to the Master. When we're in trouble, we come to Him. See, that's the thing. See, God was saying to Moses here, I'm the one that creates, and I'm the one that heals. I'm the one that heals the deaf and the dumb. I make the seeing to see. I make the blind to see. I make the deaf to hear. I make those that can't speak be able to speak. I cleanse the leper. I make the cripple to walk again. I am the one that does this. He says, have not I the Lord? Beautiful words. God brings healing to those that but ask. Now that's the point there. Now I want to share something with you that I was doing my study with this and it dawned on me something that I never thought of before. God can bring about healing to anyone. Moses had a speech impediment of some kind. Now, we don't know exactly what it was, whether it was a lisp, or whether it was a stuttering type of thing. We don't know exactly what it was. But it was some sort of speech impediment that made him feel very uncomfortable to go and try to talk to Pharaoh. so could God have healed Moses of that speech impediment yeah he could have why didn't God heal Moses of that speech impediment before he made his way to Egypt read the account what did Moses not do he didn't ask Right? He didn't ask What does the Bible say? Ask And you shall receive That's the point Moses didn't ask Moses could have said Well Lord you know I got the speech impediment Could you heal me on the first? You got it And he would have done it just like that But Moses didn't ask And if you don't ask You're not going to receive it So often what we do is we want to get the blessing, but we don't want to ask for it. We just expect God to know about it. Now, does that mean God doesn't know that we have a need? Of course He knows we have a need. But He wants to hear us say the words, I need you to touch me. He wants to hear those words. And that's the problem. Most people say, well, if he's an all-knowing God, then he already knows, so he should just give it to me. Well, that's not true. It's not true. See, Moses here could have had a blessing even more than he already had going walking with God. But he didn't ask. I look what he says in verse 12. He says, now therefore, God continuing to speak to Moses here, God continually, he says, now therefore, go. Let me tell you something. When God says go, what do you do? Get up and go. Don't wait. Get up and go. Because when we sit, we say, well, but that's so tough. Go. What about Abraham? Is there anything more tough than Abraham? Abraham was told by God to go to a land which he was going to show him. But he didn't tell him where to go. He didn't tell him. He said, start walking. When you get where you're going, I'll tell you. Can you imagine? We're scared to do things for God because we don't know where we're going in the next two seconds. Can you imagine being Abraham being told by God to pack up your stuff, get all your people together, and start walking? When you get where you need to be, when you get where I'm going to send you, I will tell you. I venture to say and I may be wrong but I venture to say the majority of the church of the living God if God would say that to us we would say no way Lord you're going to have to tell me where I'm going you've got to tell me on my GPS you've got to give me some sort of a plan before I just pack up my stuff and start walking because we don't have that kind of faith in this generation see He says, now therefore, go. And I love what he says. I will be what with thy mouth. I like that. Literally meaning what it says in Romans 8.31. If God be for you, who could be against you? See, God is going to impart himself into Moses' mouth. and wasn't nobody going to notice anything wrong because God was going to be with them. Isn't that beautiful? See, so often what we do is we say, well, I can't share the gospel of Jesus because what would somebody say if I shared something if God before you could be against you? Oh, I can't do nothing in the church of the living God because I don't know, I just couldn't do it. If God before you, who can be against you? Right? Oh, I can't stand up for what's right according to the word because we're living in such a tumultuous world that I'm going to get hate and I'm going to get all this if God before you, who can be against you? Right? That's the point here. That's what Moses was hearing from God here. Go, and I will be in your mouth. And I will teach thee what thou shalt say. The psalmist wrote in Psalm 119.33, he said, Teach me, O Lord, the meaning of your statutes. Now, I want you to understand that. He didn't say, teach me your statutes. because we can know the Ten Commandments there are a lot of people that know the Ten Commandments but they don't know the meaning of them think about it oh they can quote them they can say them because they know them thou shalt not kill thou shalt not steal thou shalt not commit authority thou shalt not they can go through all these things right they can go through all these right but do they know the meaning of it I say no because if they knew the meaning of it I don think there be as much trouble in this world as there is see the psalmist said teach me the meaning of the statutes and see that's what God was going to do on the way there Moses and God had a walk and talk on the way to angels they had a walk and a talk together talking about what was going to go on and by the time Moses got where he needed to be he got what he needed and that's the point if we have a mindset that says I'm going to stand for you God I'm going to do what needs to be done in the church I'm going to stand up for you and I'm going to stand up for what's right and I'm going to vote for the right men and women for office I'm going to do this and this and I'm going to stand up for you you know what God's going to do? He's going to teach you He's going to prepare you and He's going to give you what you need. But that's the point. We've got to be willing to stand up. And we've got to be willing to be that chosen generation. Now therefore go. And this is for us in this generation as well. Now therefore go. And I will be in thy mouth and with thy mouth. And teach thee what thou shalt say. It's not about us. I don't want my words coming out. When I'm up here, I don't want my words. I pray, Lord, you speak. I pray, Lord, you talk. Father, God, just let me stand in the background and you speak. Because I don't want to be the one heard. I want God to be heard. I want God to be heard. I think it's a beautiful example of someone being willing to do something. and that's the point for the chosen generation. We must be willing, and that's the point. We've got to be willing. Willing means, Lord, my desires don't matter. What you want matters. And there was an interesting year that the king had passed away. The prophet Isaiah walks up into the temple. Isaiah had this realization of his sinful ways and of the generation that he was living in and all their sinful ways. And he said, basically, I'm a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips because I have seen the king. I have seen the true king. Not King Zai, not any other king, not King David, not King Saul, not King anybody. No, King, Lord God Almighty. Lord Jehovah, the King of kings, the Lord of lords. That's the king he saw. Hallelujah. And he looked and he said, I'm a man of unclean lips. The angel came and takes a coal off of a fire. And he lays it on Isaiah's lips. and he burns. For the simple purpose of this, it was a metaphor. It was a physical thing of what God was doing internally. God was burning away all the wickedness, all the perverseness, all the bad stuff to get down to what God wanted, which was a pure and perfect example Example of what God's love is. Then God says to Isaiah, he says, Who shall I go? Who shall I send and who will go for us? That's what he said. And what did Isaiah say? He said very simply, Here am I. Send me. Hallelujah. Here am I. send me. See, he had a want to. And that's what we have to have. We have to have a want to. If we don't have the want to to do our part, we can't be part of the chosen generation. Now that's harsh, and that seems very harsh sometimes when I say that, but that's what it comes down to. If we don't have a want to, we can't be part of the chosen generation. We have to have a want and a desire that says, I want to be a part of this generation that stands up against the evil of Satan and his forces. I want to be one that is used by God to share the gospel with my family and my friends, those ones that are out of the ark of safety. And I want to bring them in. I want to be part of the solution instead of part of the problem. Because America right now is a problem country. Now that's not popular in this generation because people don't want to hear that, but it is true. America is a problem country. there's too much stuff going on too much divisiveness too much strife too much fighting going on that we can't come together and if we come together under the banner of God Almighty we will be a strong nation again and if we don't come under the banner of God Almighty and His Holy Word we will be destroyed that's the point that's the point now we don't want to hear that and people don't want to hear that because they want to feel that And what we're doing is okay because we're trying to make everything okay for everybody. Give everybody their part. Let everybody have their part in this country. But the point is, God's word is true. If we stand for God, He will stand with us. And if we stand against God, we will be destroyed. And that's the point. So we must stand up. We've got to be part of this chosen generation. And we've got to look and we say, well, but even if the church stands up, there's too many, too many that will be against God. Let's go back to Abraham. Look at the story of Abraham when Lot went down into Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham started saying, Well, if he found 20 people righteous, would you destroy them all? What about 15? What about 10? You know, he went through this. He should have went down to one, but he didn't do that. The idea here was that if a chosen generation would have stood up and would have been righteous in that city of Sodom and Gomorrah, they would not have been destroyed. But there wasn't. and if we as a chosen generation of Bible believing people around world around this country right now will stand together stand up link hand in hand link with our Bibles in hand and in our hearts and stand together and say, we will not go into the darkness. We will not be pushed aside. We are going to stand for what God says. And if we do it all around this country, God will not destroy this land. but we've got to be part of that solution. So the idea here today is this. Are you willing to stand up for what is right? Are you willing to share the gospel, the word, to a world that is going straight? Are we willing to go where God sends us? And if you say, well, I'm a little scared, I have one final thing to say to you today, and that is simply this. Deuteronomy 31 and 6 says, Be strong and of a good courage. Fear not, nor be afraid of them that is against us. For the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee. He will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Hallelujah. So stand up and walk with the Lord and do your part and be part of that chosen generation. And when we do that, we are going to see the blessing of God in America. And it will branch out throughout the world if we're willing to do our part. Let's bow our heads before the Lord this morning. Let's bow our heads before God. And I want you to just look in your heart this morning. Are you willing to be part of that chosen generation? Are you willing to share the gospel with family and friends that are not in the arc of safety? Are you willing to do your part in your church to make it the best it can be so that when people hear about your church, they want to come? Are you willing to do your part, to do the best you can to make the kingdom advance? Are you willing? And if you say within your heart today, I am willing to do whatever it takes, I say amen and keep pressing on. but as you heard those words this morning as you heard those things sharing the gospel standing up against the world that is going so far away from God's word doing all these things maybe you would be honest to God today and say God I have a little bit of fear about this and I want you to wipe away the fear that is in my heart I want you to help me to stand for what's right because I'm going to be part of that chosen generation will somebody be honest to God today and say, God, help me to stand up and be part of this chosen generation today. Hand going up, hand going up, hand going up. All over the place. Hallelujah. That's beautiful. All over the place. That's awesome. I want you to know I got my hand up too because I want God to wipe away every bit of fear, every bit of trembling, every bit of anything that's in my heart. If there's even a little doubt of fear in my heart, I want to wipe it away so that I can stand up and be counted for what is right. I want to be part of this chosen generation. I don't want to be on the outside looking in. I want to be on the inside. I want to be part of it. So Father God right now today, you saw these hands going up with people saying, we were a part of this chosen generation. We want to be part of the generation that sees the blessing of God come to our nation. We want to be part of this chosen generation that sees the coming of the Lord. And when he does finally come, we go into heaven with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, a rejoicing, a mighty army, a blessed army, rejoicing in the goodness of God that has led men to repentance. Father God, we want to be part of that chosen generation. Father God, may we be part of it. And Father God, right now I pray that you will put in us, Father God, the desire, the desire to stand up for you, to share your word, to Father God to do what needs to be done, to make your kingdom advance, to make your church the best it can be so that we can see the blessing of God, so that you will be proud of us, Father God, so that we can be the head and not the tail, that, Father God, that we can be what you want us to be. I pray for those ones that raised their hand today, and I pray, Father God, right now for those. Father God, for whoever was watching our video, and maybe someone there, they watched that video, or they listened to the audio, and they raised up their hand today, I pray that you will help them be part of that chosen, generation and that Father God we will go all together all around this country. We'll join hands and we will start to see the blessing of God in this world. That this country will make it about face. That we will turn around. That we will begin to see the change in America. That we will begin to see things happening. That God blessing and that God anointing this generation to do good things. That America will turn around. Father God, you're saying, you're work with my people, which would humble themselves and tighten them, see my faith and turn their wicked ways, that you would hear from heaven and you would forgive the sins and you would heal the land. We pray it right now in Jesus' name. That you will heal our land and use us, Father God, to be part of those that are chosen to be a part of the solution. We pray it right now in Jesus' name. We thank you, Father God, for it right now in Jesus' name. And now, Father God, we want to thank you. We want to thank you for it all. We want to thank you, Father, for your blessing. Father God, as we dismiss this morning's service, Father God, we ask that you will not dismiss us. But, Father God, we ask that you will go with us, that you will give us the blessing of God, that you will, Father God, give us the anointing as we go out this week, that something we say or do may impact someone's life, that they will see what it is to be a child of the King and that they'll come along for the ride too. And that, Father God, little bit by little bit, we will see the blessing. I pray right now in Jesus' name. Now, Father, as we dismiss, don't dismiss us, but, Father God, go with us. And, Father God, keep us safe until we meet again. now Father for all that you are and for all that you do we give you the praise and honor and all the glories for you deserve it all in this friend Jesus name we beg his blessings today and we say a hearty Amen Thank you.