A God-Centered Message

God equipped Moses to fulfill his purpose, and He can do the same for you. No matter what He calls you to do, He will provide, direct, strengthen, and empower you to handle every difficulty. Listen as Dr. Stanley talks about all that God will do when we’re willing to obey Him. You can have the faith and confidence to say, “Here am I, send me” (Isa. 6:8). For more messages from Charles Stanley, including this week’s broadcast, go to www.intouch.org/watch

God is saying to you today,
“In case no one told you today: You are beautiful. You are loved. You are stronger than you think. Your life is valuable. You have so much
ahead of you. You are not amistake. You are important. I am with you always.”

Well, the Bible is a God centered book with a God centered message for God centered people.
Does that fit you well, love you, love you?
Certainly, I hope it fits all of us.
God centered book with a God centered message for God centered people who want to walk in the ways of God be obedient to God, experience the blessings of God, which is exactly what happens when we trust him.
When we come to this book of Exodus, and we begin to see how God works in people’s lives.
Sometimes we think, well, that’s what happened back.
Now, this book is up to date from Genesis 11 all the way to the last verse of the revelation.
It’s the issue is do we see the lesson that we do?
We see what God is saying to us? Because there’s nothing outdated about the Bible.
If you don’t see it as a God centered book with a God, send message for God, send people, then what do you do with it?
You put it on the shelf somewhere and say that’s one of my copies of the Bible.
But if you see it as a guide book as a way of life lessons that apply to all of us every single day of our life.
Then the Bible is a God centered book for you.
And there are only two ways to live according to the book and forget the book.
And you understand what happens when you see people living their life with no relationship to God, no relationship to Christ and no interest in the word of God.
So I want you to turn if you will to this um sixth chapter of um Exodus.
And I just wanna mention a couple of things here before we get into the middle of it all.
And um they have been to uh pharaoh several times asking to let the Hebrews go.
And uh he said no, each time, then the Lord said to Moses.
Now you’ll see what I will do to pharaoh for under compulsion. He will let them go under compulsion.
He will drive them out of his land.
God spoke further to Moses and said to Him, I am the Lord. Now over and over again.
He says in this pass of scripture, I am the Lord, I am the Lord, I am the Lord.
I am the Lord. And God intends to make a statement about our relationship to Him, our relationship to our life.
And what’s the principle? What is the lesson from this passage? What’s God trying to say?
Well, God has a will for each and every one of us.
And that will is according to his best plan, he knows about your abilities, your talents, your skills and whatever.
So what’s happening here is that God’s people have been in bondage all these years and God is called Moses after he reached the age of 80 to confront Pharaoh to let them go.
And that’s what he doesn’t want to let them go.
They’ve been in bondage and they have been doing all the work.
So when we think about this whole idea of the will of God for our life and how he works in our life and how things happen that we think it just happened since other than on will of God.
And so when you look at this passage, I want us to see a couple of things that um I think applied to all of us.
He says over and over and over again. I will, I will, I will.
And likewise, he says in this passage again and again, I am the Lord.
I am the Lord, I am the Lord. I am the Lord.
Would you agree that God is the Lord of your life?
Well, a few of you are now here in the middle though. What, what about, do you do?
You sense God as the Lord of your life? That means He’s in control.
You submit to his control because you want the best for your life.
And so here is this awesome servant of God who grew up in Egypt, in the palace of Pharaoh himself, banished on the other side of the wilderness.
And now God has said to him at the age of 80 I have your most important work to do that should say something to us about age.
That is, first of all, retirement is not in the Bible and to start out with, to start out with Moses at the age of 80 it’s pretty tough, but he knew he called him and how did he know it?
He made it very clear with the burning bush.
There was no question about the fact that God was giving him a new responsibility in his life and that responsibility seemed to be absolutely impossible.
And that was for the people of God from the Egyptian bondage. How could you ever do that?
Only God could do it. And there may be times in your life when you feel like God wants you to do something that you can’t figure out how to do it.
Well, God doesn’t leave it up for us to figure out how to do his will.
He’s always willing to show us what to do, how to do it and when to do it.
And so when he says I am the Lord, I am the Lord. I am the Lord.
I am the Lord. It’s his way of saying I know what you’re thinking. I know what you’re gonna question.
I know that you’re gonna doubt but remember I am the Lord, absolute sovereignty over all things, all times, all people and so forth.
So what I want us to see in this passage is a few lessons that are applicable to all of us.
And there are times in our life when we wonder what God’s up to.
And Lord would, would you ask me to do this at this point in my life?
And so this is where Moses is at this point, God is saying to Him at the age of 80 I want you to go back and I’m gonna free your people.
Just trust me and follow, just do what I tell you to do.
So this is where we get in trouble when we can’t quite figure out how God wants us to do something, we hesitate doing it.
And as a result, what happens is we step out of the will of God and God is not able to accomplish what he wants to do in our life.
And I think about a lot of people who’ve lived half their life or most of their life or whatever it might be and are still wondering what God was up to in their life when they were born.
The truth is He has a purpose for every single one of us.
And it’s, and it’s a joy to find out what the purpose is. Sometimes it’s frightening.
It must have been frightening too.
Uh Moses to find out you want me to go back and um talk to pharaoh about letting the people know go and God, you know he’s not going to.
So it looked like an impossible task.
But the issue is this when he says four times, I am the Lord, I am the Lord, I am the lord and I am the Lord.
He was making a point. You don’t have to worry about it.
What the responsibility is gonna be or what the consequences are gonna be.
All you have to remember is this He who sent you is the Lord, the sovereign of the universe.
So when you and I are faced with situations and circumstances and we think, well, God, you, you couldn’t expect me to do this.
And so well, remember who’s calling you, remember who’s telling you, remember who’s talking to you that is almighty God and yet he was asking him to do something that appeared impossible.
So I want us to look at this in this light, whatever God calls you to do.
He assumes full responsibility. Did you get that? What did I say?
He assumes full responsibility for equipping you, enabling you, supplying you with whatever is necessary for you to do what he calls you to do.
And I think many people miss out on God’s blessings because they think, well, Lord, here’s what you’re asking me to do.
Forgetting the fact. He would never ask you to do anything that He would not equip you to do provide for you to do whatever that might be.
And what he was asking of, of Moses was impossible from all humans point of view.
You mean God, you’re asking me to go back where I was thrown out of and asking Pharaoh who’s the ruler of the world as far as they were concerned to do anything?
Yes, I am. Well, think about this, be blessed with the very idea that God would choose to have you do anything.
There was if, if almighty God, the sovereign of the universe decides to ask you to do this or that or whatever it might be, be blessed.
The fact that He sees within you the potential and with his command or his charge or his responsibility, his requirement comes all that is necessary to enable you to accomplish it no matter what it is.
So when you look at it from that perspective that um Moses had to think about God, you’re sending me back where I got torn out of and you’re asking me to do what is absolutely impossible and over and over and over again.
He said to him, I am the Lord. I am the Lord, I am the Lord, I am the Lord.
So what is there going on in your life that you wonder if God could enable you to do it?
It may be something that’s large in your eyes.
It may be not large in somebody else’s eyes, but God has made a request of you.
And so here’s the awesome promise that God made to Him.
He said to Him, I will bring you out from under the burden of the Egyptians.
I will deliver you from their bondage.
I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with a great judgments, I will take you for my people.
I will be your God. I will bring you to the land which I sought to give to Abraham Isaac and Jacob and on and on and on.
He goes. So what does God say? Here’s what I’ll do.
But then again, in the seventh chapter, in this third verse, what does he say?
He says, I will harden Pharaoh’s heart and I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring out my host, my people, the sons of Israel from the land of Egypt by great judgment.
Now here is Moses over on the backside of the desert and here’s God telling Him something that seems absolutely impossible.
How many of you believe that nothing is impossible with God?
How much, how much, how much nothing, nothing is impossible with God.
So remember we said, this is a, this is a God centered book.
His message is God centered everything about God send it.
So if that be true, do you believe that whatever God calls you to do?
He’ll enable you to do it. Well, a few people down here in front think about this.
Do you believe that God will enable you to do whatever He requires you to do, then you should be open to whatever He requires you to do.
Right? So why are you hesitating?
And maybe God has said something to you about your job, about your marriage, your home, whatever it might be, your, your health.
God is able to equip you, enable you give you whatever is necessary in order to accomplish His will, His purpose for your life.
So he’s committed himself to Moses.
I’m sending you to do an impossible task and I’m going with you.
I am the Lord, I am the Lord. I am the Lord. I am the Lord.
And here’s what I will do and he promises over and over and over again.
This is why prayer is such an important part of our life.
Because when you and I humble ourselves before him and get quiet and ask God to speak to Howard, what is he going to do?
He’s gonna give us direction for our life and with that direction, listen, that direction may not have to come but one time.
But, but the reassurance and the enlarging of our confidence may come over and over and over again because he knows that some things he may require of us, we just don’t see how we can do it.
And I think all of us would agree with, with Moses at this point.
It it here he is at a point in his life. That.
Uh, first of all, he was banished out of, out of Egypt and now God is sending him back and he’s sending him back to free a whole nation of about two million people.
And he doesn’t have an army.
He doesn’t have anything but the word of God and watch this carefully.
That’s all you need to obey. God is his word.
I did watch this when He tells you to do something with that command is everything you would possibly need in order to be obedient to God.
And oftentimes people head in the right direction, wanna do what God wants them to do and because they can’t figure it out, they, they, in other words, it just doesn’t all add up.
They say, well, God, you must be talking to somebody else.
Well, naturally, naturally, Moses probably thought that but notice how God spoke to him.
He spoke to him through a burning bush that he would never forget.
He didn’t just whisper in the dark and the burning bush.
He said, I’m sending you to do an impossible task, but I’m going with you and with me will be your power because I’m going to exercise my power through you to get it all done.
How many times have we missed opportunities in life?
Because we were interpreting the opportunity in the light of the way we see ourselves.
Well, I could never do that. Well, that, that would never ever work for me.
That must be, you must be speaking to somebody else.
No, you say, well, at this point in my life, God couldn’t do this and so don’t underestimate what God can do in your life.
Listen, it may be something that no one else thinks is fantastic.
But you know, in your heart being who you are, being, where you came from, being in your past and what’s happening in your life.
It’s an awesome thing. So don’t compare God’s command to you, to God’s command to someone else because God in all His wisdom knows exactly what you’re capable of doing and being with his help, with his strength, with his guidance, with his power, with his support, with his encouragement.
And when you have that nothing is impossible.
That is whatever God requires of us, watch this with the requirement comes everything necessary to get it done.
And this is why He said to him four times. I am the Lord. I am the Lord.
I am the Lord, I am the Lord.
And this is why he said to Him in this passage, I’ll lay my hand on Egypt, bring out my host, my people, the sons of Israel from the land of Egypt.
But listen, he said by great judgment.
This is and so he didn’t tell him a lot, but he says by great judgment, I’m gonna do it.
So you and I don’t have to figure out how God is gonna do whatever he wants.
To do in our life. Obey God and leave all the consequences to him.
So the question is this, do I believe God can handle all the consequences? Yes or no.
If I hesitate to obey him, here’s what it says. I don’t trust Him. I don’t believe him.
I don’t think he can handle it. No, we trust him.
If Moses had waited until God had shown him all the details, he would never have left the mountain top.
But he says, here’s what I’m gonna do, trust me and he trusted him.
So when I think about this passage description, think about what he faced and think about the impossibility of it.
It was possible only because one man was willing to trust God.
So I wonder what would happen in your life if you honestly and truly said today, Lord, I don’t know how much time I have left, but for the rest of it, I’m gonna give it all to you.
I don’t understand what you’ll do with me. I don’t understand how you’ll do it.
I don’t understand with whom you’d have me to do it.
But Lord, I, the rest of my life belongs to you for, forgive me, for waiting this long to give it to you.
But for the rest of it belongs to you.
I wanna know Lord, what could you do in my life at this point?
And one of the first things the devil is gonna say to you is, oh, you’re dreaming. No.
What does God want to do in your life? Now, watch this. You may be 80.
And what God wants to do in your life may be through somebody else who’s 20 whom God will use to do an awesome work in the lives of many other people.
But he started with, you don’t underestimate what God is willing to do in your life because you can’t, you can’t figure that out.
And when I read these passages and read what, what he says, I’m gonna lay my hand on Egypt and bring out my host, my people, the sons of Israel, the land of Egypt by great judgments.
The only, the only thing he told him how he was going by great judgments that is I’m going to judge Egypt.
He would never have figured out how he was going to do that.
When God wants to accomplish something, he finds somebody or some people through whom he wants to do it.
And the question is this, are you living available for God to choose you to do something that maybe you never even thought about before?
Don’t, don’t underestimate what God can do in your life. Can you imagine?
First of all, let’s take, let’s take who Moses is born in?
The slavery, placed in a basket placed in the river and miraculous ends up in Pharaoh’s household, educated with the very best in 40 years tossed out of the country, other side of the desert.
There was what a mixed up, messed up life that looked like God’s hand was in it all the way.
He was taking a Hebrew from among the Hebrews into a pa in the land and doing what educating him, listen, educating him not to serve in Egypt, educating him to do what to spend 40 years in the desert.
Recognizing that it was God who put him there, it was God who had kept him there and God kept him there long enough that they had no hope of anything until God arrived on the scene.
Watch this never too late to listen to God.
It may be too, it may be too late for some things, but it’s never too late to listen to God.
So now that he’s 80 God uses him in the most awesome way, think about this, the only thing that Moses had was the word of God.
All that pharaoh had was all of his armies, all of his power and all of his enslaved Hebrews.
So what could one man do against all of this power and might nothing unless with him?
And because he was walking in the will and the way and the power of God, what did he do?
God used one man to absolutely upset a whole the most powerful nation in the world.
And not only that, he not only freed them but remember what he told them, he said, I’m gonna work in the lives of these Egyptians.
So when you leave, you’re not gonna leave like you started out here, you’re gonna leave with their gold and their silver because I’m telling you, you’re going to plunder Egypt.
When I exit you out of Egypt, you coming out wealthy, you coming out with what they owned, they can never have figured that out.
And probably when Moses was saying to them, God’s gonna set you free, they’re probably looking around what little they had because they were slaves, set us free to do to do what, what, what are we gonna have?
And then God set them free. And he said, I’m free, wealthy.
And you say, well, then look what happened to them.
They’re down at the Red Sea and here comes and all of his chariots did that frighten Moses.
No, because Moses listen, echoing in his heart and mind. I am the Lord. I am the Lord.
I am the Lord. I am the Lord. He could never forget it.
He knew he had obeyed God.
But think about that for those few hours, maybe it looked like it was all a total disaster.
Watch this carefully. There is no disaster in any man or any woman’s life who’s obeying God.
It may look like it, but it’s not because God is going to accomplish his purpose in your life.
If you will simply allow, don’t try to figure it out.
This is what gets people in trouble trying to figure out how God’s gonna do this, how he’s gonna do that.
Well, I wouldn’t have enough money and think about what those people were thinking. Now. We’re leaving Egypt.
But where are we going? At least we have a hut over their heads.
At least we have something to do. Now, where are we going?
Don’t try to figure out God’s next step in your life, just obey him.
So, God worked in their life and I in situations that all looked impossible.
What is it that kept Moses feet on the ground and his heart toward God?
That is I am the Lord, I am the Lord. I am the Lord. I am the Lord.
I’ll take you for my people. I’ll be your God.
I’ll bring you out, I’ll give you a possession, I’ll heart and heart. In other words, what’s God saying?
This is why as we start this message off and that’s simply this.
The word of God is a God centered book with a God centered message for God centered people.
This is the book and this book should not be on your shelf but on your table or in front of you or whatever it might be.
What is God saying to you? You say, well, now I don’t know if that applies to me.
Yes, it does watch this.
Do you think that God has kept all this together for all these years and did not apply to you?
Which part of, it doesn’t apply to you when you say, well, well, what about that part about Daniel being in the lines?
Then that doesn’t apply to me. Well, they’d better reply to you for the simple reason.
There are lots of dens besides lions, dens. Amen.
And therefore, if you’re walking in the will of God living in the will of God, nothing can touch you anymore than can touch Daniel.
This book is applicable from beginning to end in any situation, circumstance we’re in.
What, what else do we need to know?
But what I am the Lord, I will, I will take you, I’ll be with you, I’ll bring you, I’ll give you, I’ll make you God’s awesome promise to us.
We should live by His promises.
So when somebody says, well, that old Testament part, that’s the part I don’t believe how foolish all of that was getting ready for the coming of Jesus.
All of this. This isn’t just history, this is life lived out in the power of God.
So that you and I have with example, after example, after example of God’s grace and love and mercy and goodness, forgiveness, and cleansing, and eternal life.
That’s what this book is all about.
So if you don’t read the Bible, you just cheating yourself.
And that’s why God who knew Moses perfectly said to Him.
I will, I will, I will, I will 11 times. This is why He said to Him.
I am the Lord, I am the Lord. I am the Lord. I am the Lord four times.
Why do you think God says it so many times?
Because He knows their minds are so full of so many other things that He wants to remind us that He’s still God and that he still does what he promised to do and that he’s still the God of the Old Testament and the New Testament.
He’s the same God who led one man, one man who is a shepherd to free.
Two million people deserve God. One man don’t underestimate what God wants to do in your life.
And don’t listen, don’t try to compare yourself with somebody else in the mind of God.
You don’t know what’s gonna happen in that person’s life who’s gonna influence somebody else’s life who’s gonna be influenced in somebody else’s life in a way that you and I could never figure out.
And when I read this over and over and over, it comes to me that in these few verses, he says, I will do the pharaoh, I will bring them out.
I will deserve Him. I will redeem them. I will take you.
I will be yoga, I will bring give, make art. I’ll do all of those things.
Why do you think God said that so many times to Him?
Because He knew that Moses would have a lot of reasons to doubt Him.
I was an enemy and you’re sending me back I’m a shepherd besides that.
What a mixed up crowd that is, besides that, they’d probably take my life if I went back.
Think of all the, all the justifiable reasons Moses had to say I can’t do that. That’d be suicide.
I’d make a fool of myself. They would never accept me. I’m pro, I’m, I’m an enemy.
I couldn’t do that. Don’t underestimate what God will do in your life because what you’re doing is you’re limiting God.
What you’re doing is you’re doubting God. But he said to him, I am the Lord.
I am the Lord. I am the Lord. I am the Lord.
It must have been in, in moses’ mind night after night after night, I am the Lord.
I am the Lord. I am the Lord. I am the Lord.
Don’t underestimate what God can do in your life.
It may be that you may have a conversation with somebody who will change their life, whom God will use to change many other people’s lives you say?
But I’m if forget the butts of the ifs just say, Lord, here I am, whatever you want to do in my life.
Lord, here I am, I’m gonna trust you. God.
Maybe I haven’t trusted you many years the rest of my life, I’m gonna trust you.
I just wanna see what you can do in my life.
God, you don’t ever have to worry about God failing.
He will use you beyond your expression. If you will trust him.
And Moses is a perfect example of it. Who am I? Lord?
And God showed him, who are you? God will show you.
You can have one or two responses.
You can walk out of here thinking well, that was, that was just a sermon that was about Moses.
No, it’s about you. And about me, it’s about us.
It’s about, it’s about all of us who name the name of Jesus as our savior and watch this.
Here’s the reason it’s so important.
You don’t know what God is gonna do through your life today that you won’t ever see a generation from now.
You may be living for the day and God sees that, but he also sees the influence the testimony.
You witness somebody else’s life. The important thing is this, are you living to the fullest of your life each day so that whatever God has in mind, he’ll be able to say to you well done thy good and faithful servant.
If I was sitting out there where you and I were not a Christian.
Here’s the question, I think, I think we’ll know if that’s really the truth.
What should I do? I’ll answer that question.
Surrender your life to the Lord Jesus Christ and say, OK, God, here’s what’s left, here’s what’s left.
Lord, I give myself to you and whatever you choose to do the answer is, yes, maybe you already saved and you’re sitting here this morning and you’ve got your life pretty well planned out or you think you have or you about to get out when you think you’re gonna die, how long you’re gonna live and all those things, why don’t you forget all about that?
And for the next 30 seconds, think this God, here I am, this is all I have to offer this morning.
But I’m giving you myself so that the rest of my life demonstrate what you can do to a man or a woman.
My age, my capacities demonstrate what you can do through me. The rest of my life.
Here I am in Jesus name.
Hey man, father, we love you and praise you and bless you for your forgiveness and cleansing, forgive us for our doubts, our fears, forgive us for trying to program our life better than you programmed it.
Forgive His father for thinking.
There’s some things you can’t do in our life for limiting your possibilities, for limiting your will in our life.
Father, forgive us for comparing ourselves with other people, what they can or cannot do or what we think we can or cannot do.
Thank you for being this awesome indescribable, invincible, God who can do anything, everything and all things and who’s waiting for us to yield ourselves totally completely and absolutely to you.
Lord God, may each one of us a fresh and new this morning. Say yes, yes, yes, yes.
God do whatever you have. Yes. Is the answer. Yes, yes, yes.
And then watch you work and know in our hearts, you make no mistakes.
You provide all of our needs.
You enable us to do whatever you require us to do and you will reward us for our obedience.
We just say thank you. Thank you. Thank you for patience, love, kindness and generosity in Jesus name.
Hey man.