When God Breaks Your Stick

Ecclesiastes 3: 1

Exodus 4: 1-4

Text Scripture:

Ecclesiastes 3:1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

Exodus 4:1 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.

2 And the LORD said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod.

3 And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it.

4 And the LORD said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand:

Intro:

As I began to study and prepare for the three sermons I will preach here this week, strangely, God caused me to think of the Prodigal Son in the pigpen, and gave me this thought … God couldn’t bring him out until he had spent enough time in the pigpen to change him.

From this God focused my thoughts on … time … and the passage I read from Ecclesiastes

Then I found myself thinking about a wine commercial that aired on television years ago. Their slogan was: We will sell no wine before its time.

It was about this time that I began to realize God wanted me to preach … on … time.

As I meditated, prayed, and studied, three thoughts began to clearly emerge:

1. A time of CONFRONTATION
2. A time of SEPERATION
3. A time of PREPARATION

Today it shall be my intention to address the subject of: A TIME OF CONFRONTATION by preaching a sermon I have entitled: When God Breaks Your Stick

Today I want to cover three important lessons God teaches us as He matures us in our Christian life:

1. The Crucible of Readiness
2. The Crutch Removed
3. Character Revealed

1: The Crucible of Readiness

In the text scripture I have read, we are allowed to peer into the scene where God is preparing Moses to deliver the Children of Israel from Egyptian bondage.

It is obvious that before Moses can confront Pharaoh, GOD MUST PREPARE MOSES

TO CONFRONT PHARAOH BY DESTROYING THE INSTRUMENT OF POWER HE RELIED UPON.

§ God had to teach Moses that his power isn’t in the stick … it’s in Him!!!

§ Note what God then instructs him to do … pick the serpent up by the tail!!! (Head maybe, tail … no way! It’ll bite you!!!)

§ Two things God did:

o He took away the thing Moses was relying upon

o He made Moses confront his greatest fear

§ God hasn’t changed much since Moses day, has He?

§ He works the same way today

§ He still takes away the things we rely upon for our power … and causes us to confront our greatest fears

Good has Moses in what I call The Crucible of Readiness

God breaks Him to the point where he has no choice but to totally relies upon God

God is preparing him for the battle to come

*It’s to late to prepare when the battle begins!!!

We all want the power that Moses had

None of want to go through The Crucible of Readiness that Moses had to go through!

1: The Crucible of Readiness

2: The Crutch Removed

Vs. 3 (b) And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it.

ILLUSTRATION:

• Movie The Natural

o Robert Redford plays Roy Hobbs … perhaps the most gifted baseball player ever

• Roy gets a shot at the major leagues … straight out of high school
• His dreams of the major leagues are cut short when he is wrongly convicted of murder
• Years later, an aging Hobbs gets a second chance
• He is signed by the New York Knights … the worst team in the league
• Because of his giftedness … he is able to lead them from worst … to the playoff game for the National League Pennant

• In the bottom of the ninth the score is Pittsburgh 2 Knight 0
• The Knights have men on first and third with two outs when Hobbs steps to the plate

• This is his moment!

• Now there is something you must know …

• Ever since high school, Hobbs has always batted with a bat he made himself from the heart of a tree felled by lightening in his front yard.
• Burned into the bat was a “lightening bolt’ with the words, “wonder boy.”
• That bat is his symbol to himself of his greatness
• He has never played with another

• He swings at the first pitch and misses
• The second pitch is a foul ball
• The third pitch is a solid hit that looks like a homerun, but it curves foul

• When Roy Hobbs returns to the plate, he discovers his bat lying there in pieces … it shattered on the last swing.

• Roy faces a critical moment in his life … one we have all faced …one where all we have counted on comes crashing down …

• When the Golden Bat Breaks … investments fail … the company lets you go … the church fires you … you’re leveled by an illness … your spouse walks out … your daughter comes home pregnant …

• What is he to do? … Will he stay in the game? … Will he shrink back to the dugout? … Will he scramble to put the bat back together? …

o The mark of Christian Maturity begins when we can no longer rely on what we have used all our life … and are forced to rely upon God … AND WHAT HE HAS PLACED WITHIN US!!!

• *THE REAL JOURNEY BEGINS WHEN OUR FALSE SENSE OF SECURITY IS TAKEN AWAY … AND IS REPLACED BY OUR REAL SECURITY … OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH CHRIST!!!

o SOMETIMES GOD HAS TO TAKE OUR BAT AWAY … TO TEACH US TO RELY UPON HIM!!!

• Roy turns to the batboy and says, “Bobby, go pick me a winner.” And he promptly hits a homerun and wins the game!!!

Do you remember the man called Job?

Any crutch the man may have had was removed in a day

He became nothing more than a ping-pong ball being batted back and forth between God and satan

Yet, when his life lay in pieces before him … WHEN GOD HAD TAKEN HIS BAT AWAY … he picked out a winner … and hit a Homerun!

Job 1:21-22:

21: And said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.

22 In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.

Job 13:15 Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.

Do you remember Joseph?

God broke his bat!

• Thrown in a pit by his brothers
• They told his father he died
• They sold him into slavery
• Potipher’s wife tried to seduce him … then told a lie on him
• Thrown in prison … interpreted the butler’s dream
• Interpreted Pharaoh’s dream
• Made ruler second to Pharaoh
• Brothers came to get bread

Genesis 50:20 But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.

1: The Crucible of Readiness

2: The Crutch Removed

3: Character Revealed

Moses Humanity was revealed when he ran before the serpent

Moses Character was revealed when he picked the serpent up by the tail

Character is what we are in the dark when nobody is looking!!!

I wonder, do we have the Character of Christ abiding in us to the point where we can pick the serpent up?

Note: God couldn’t reveal Himself fully to Moses until Moses believed God enough to do what He said!!!

Close:

Preached: Michael Grier’s Church, Phenix City, Alabama

Preached: 10-09 @ Lighthouse Church of God LaGrange GA