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ASI Scandinavia

Daniel Pel

In His Strength

Heavenly Father, we thank you that we can come before you this evening.

We thank you for a new year that is before us, and Lord we thank you that we do not need to enter into this year on our own.

We Thank you that you are there, that you hear us, as we have heard in the song, that you hear our prayers and that you know all that is before us and that you have promised to be with us even unto the end of the world.

Lord, thank you for these promises and thank you that we can now spend a moment together in scripture and I pray that as we open your word together that you will speak in a very personal way to each person in this room and everyone that is watching via lifestyle tv or or later that is streaming this looking at this message.

Lord may you speak to us all through your word and may we hear your voice personally.

All right, well, let me give you a little bit of a layout where I want to be heading with you this evening, and I hope you have your Bibles with you.

I know it's a little bit, you know, you've been eating, so perhaps some of you don't.

If so, just listen carefully to what I'll be reading.

Basically we're going to spend our time together in 3 texts, 3 passages of scripture.

And does anyone know the title of this message?

And we're going to look at 3 passages that I believe captivate this idea that we are dependent on God's strength.

The first text we're gonna go to is Exodus chapter 3, and we're going to look at the calling of Moses, and there are incredible lessons in this passage for us today.

Then we're gonna fast forward and we're gonna go to a text in the book of Numbers chapter 13 as we look at the moment that the Hebrews are about to enter into the promised land of Canaan.

And we're gonna see where they failed to rely on the strength of God.

And then finally, we're gonna close off our message this evening with a passage in the book of Hebrews where the Apostle Paul gives us an incredible, this incredible appeal to the Christian church to rely upon the strength of Christ.

So those are the 3 passages we'll be going to.

Exodus chapter 3, the call of Moses, Numbers 13, the moment that the Hebrews are going to enter into the promised land and their failure to rely upon the strength of Christ, and then finally this amazing appeal by the Apostle Paul in the book of Hebrews chapter 3.

Okay, so take your Bibles if you have it, or your device, or whatever you have, or listen carefully as we move to Exodus chapter 3.

Exodus chapter 3, and I love this passage and as I was studying this in preparation for this message I just felt so blessed, I was just like I could not wait to share this message because the Lord laid it in my heart, these beautiful truths and it's just like you know you just like waiting to share it with others.

I was so excited about this that I couldn't even sleep last night.

And so I woke up this morning, I was like, oh man, I have not slept.

I drove today all the way from Norway here, 9 hours in the car with my little, you know, my little son that, you know, you need to stop a little bit more often when you have a baby.

It's very differently traveling with a baby.

And so I've had a long day and I said to Sylvia, you know, if tonight, if this message is gonna really enter into the hearts of the people, the title is gonna have to be a demonstration of what I have to experience in his strength.

Okay, so Exodus chapter 3, that's where we're gonna start off tonight, and turn to verse 3.

If we go back a little bit, prior to that, he was a prince in Egypt, but you remember what happened.

He believed that he was the deliverer, and in his own strength, he slew this Egyptian taskmaster, killed him, and then realized that his own life was in danger and so he fled from Egypt, came into the wilderness, is now, has been now a shepherd for 40 years and now God calls him at age of 80.

It's never too late to work for the Lord.

And so here he is at age of 80 and how does God appear to him?

In a burning bush, and this is where we pick up the story.

Exodus chapter 3, beginning in verse 3, and the Bible reads, then Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.

So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses.

Verse 5, then he said, the Lord is now speaking to Moses, do not draw near this place.

Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is what?

So here he is, and he's standing before this burning bush and he takes off his sandals because he realizes in the presence of God.

Now there's a couple of significant things that are taking place here.

God is about to give Moses the calling of his life to be the instrument to deliver the Hebrews out of oppression, out of Egypt.

But isn't it significant that it begins with a realization of the presence and holiness of God?

Moses must realize who is there calling him, the 1 in whose strength he is going to go forward.

A little bit later in the story, actually, he is asked to let go of his staff, You remember?

So his sandals are off his feet, and his staff is on the ground.

As a shepherd, you know, when you're out in the desert with sheep, what are the things that protect you from the sharp stones, the snakes, the scorpions.

What is it that you actually need as a protection?

Well, you need sandals on your feet and you need a staff in your hand.

Isn't it interesting that God asks Moses to let go of the very things that are to protect him.

And yet at the same time, he is in the most safest place that he could ever be in the presence of God.

Could it be in life that sometimes we must let go of the things that we think we need in order to sustain ourselves, in order to be self-sufficient, in order to promote ourselves, in order to build our reputation.

Could it be that sometimes the Lord asks us to let go of those things in order for our calling to be realized?

Could it be that sometimes, you know, it's almost like there's a desert that is called life and we go through this desert and when we start this journey, you know, we have our staff and we have our sandals and we, you know, We get this degree and we rub shoulders with these people and we go there and we do that and we get this interview and we get this job and we make our way through life and it's all about building ourselves up and it's all in our own strength.

We've got our sandals on our feet and we've got the staff in our hands, and we are making our way through the desert of life, and then the Lord suddenly calls us.

You know, when you start working for the Lord, you will find out 1 thing.

And this is a lesson that, you know, I'm still a young person, I'm 34, but 10 years ago I decided to give my life to the Lord.

And for the last 10 years, I've been traveling and preaching and teaching and doing public and personal evangelism.

And if there's 1 word that could sum up the decade, and when I say that, I sound very old, but the 10 years of ministry, if there was 1 word that I could just sum up the experience, it would be dependence.

Something that I cannot do in my own strength.

You know, we like to boast about the staff.

We like to boast about the sandals and the abilities that we have and the titles we have and the achievements we have, but in the work of the Lord, you're going to find out very quickly that it is not the qualified that are called, but God is calling those that are humbly willing to be qualified in a very different kind of way.

A way in which they depend, not upon human strength, but upon a strength that comes from above.

So that's the first lesson I want us to grasp here in this passage.

Now that doesn't mean that we shouldn't qualify ourselves.

We should qualify ourselves for the ministry, but when we are called by the Lord, we cannot rely upon our own strength.

We must rely upon a strength that comes outside of us.

And this is illustrated so beautifully in this story.

Now take notice what happens next, verse 6.

Verse 6, moreover he said, the Lord speaking here to Moses, I am the God of your father, the God of Abram, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God." It's almost like God is saying, I've been around for a while.

The interesting thing is the word for God here, the name for God in this passage is Elohim.

The God that is not bound to time like you and I are.

You know, we live in this, we live in time and it moves forward, and it moves forward very fast.

I mean, we're already now entering into 2015.

But God is not in time as we are in time.

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In His Strength

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