Northside Church - Sydney
From The Heart – Week 2 PM: Michael Thomas
You're listening to another great message from Northside Community Church. If you're around last week, we started a series, a two-week series called From the Heart and in the morning service, Kristin Hadena, a youth pastor, she shared a great message on identity and in the evening service, if you're around, I'm sure you agree with me that it was such a powerful message that Michael brought on temptation and I just highly recommend if you weren't able to be here last week, please have a look at the podcast and have listened to them because I'm sure you'll be inspired and challenged. Tonight, for me sharing from the heart, the topic this evening will be the church on the move and the backdrop of the story or the message tonight is really the story of the children of Israel and the book of Exodus particularly. This book and the following books in the Bible is all about the freeing of God's people, the children of Israel, from slavery and eventually delivered to the promised land and some of you might not be familiar with this biblical story. Some of you might have been a while since you've read the book of Exodus or the early chapters, the early books of the Bible. So I'll give you a brief rundown of what the background is and then we'll take it from there. The patriarch Joseph, he rescued his family from a great famine and he brought them over to Egypt. Joseph was honoured and he had significant influence over Egypt. The Hebrews, they lived there in peace for quite some time for several generations and grew significantly in number. The pharaoh then at that time was quite overwhelmed by the sheer volume or number of Hebrews that were there and he didn't know about the story of Joseph. So he was totally unfamiliar of that and he decided to make all of the Hebrews slaves and despite that God blessed the Hebrew people and they continued to grow in numbers, more and more. And so the pharaoh, he ordered the death of all the new born Hebrew males. Moses' mother, he managed to hide, managed to hide him for a few months and then placed him in a basket into the Nile, which is just a pretty daring move to be honest, but fortunately was found by the pharaoh's daughter of all people and was adopted into that family. When Moses was an adult, he eventually began to see the pain and suffering inflicted to his family, his Hebrew family and he actually intervened when he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew and he ended up killing him. And Moses then eventually leaves Egypt, he spends about 40 years in a place called Midian where he is married, he has a family, he learns to be a shepherd and to care and love his flock. He becomes a lot more wiser and meeker and you know he's sort of adiod by the end of that. Then he has this encounter with God. Some of you may remember the story of the burning bush and where God reveals to him that he is the one to deliver the Israelites out of slavery and Moses is really apprehensive at first but then he agrees and he returns to Egypt. And the pharaoh was stubborn, he wouldn't free the Israelites so there was a series of plagues that happened over time that fell upon the people and then finally, finally Pharaoh, he agreed to let them go and the Israelites headed out of Egypt. And that's where we got to when we saw that clip tonight. They reached the Red Sea and then they realized as they looked around that the Pharaoh had sent a whole bunch of his soldiers after them because he changed his mind and then you see this incredible moment of faith from Moses as he steps out and the power of God at work as he parts the waters and then you see you see the children of Israel. They apprehensively at first but they move forward and they cross on dry land. The Egyptians pursue them and they actually eventually drown as we saw and now the Israelites are free. But it's not as simple as that because it's not actually for another 40 years that they reach their destination, the promised land. And there's lots of things that happened during that time including God issuing the Ten Commandments, Moses establishing the law. There was lots of moaning and complaining and grumbling along the way and heaps more and it's a bit sad and boring if you've ever read it. But there's a lot to learn from it, I will say that. But what the truth is it didn't happen overnight. So there was the Israelites, they were pleading with their God for a long time, several hundred years, until they were delivered and they're finally free. But then it was another 40 years after that that they reached the promised land. So the church was on the move for quite a long period of time there but to be honest in my opinion we haven't ceased moving since. We've consistently evolved and grown and developed and work constantly on the move. So that's the theme for tonight and there's some lessons that I want to draw out from the book of Exodus. The first one is that there's some similarities between the Israelites and the church today. We might have come a long way, we might look a lot different to what those guys looked there on the clip and what you understand of ancient history but we've also lost our way along the way just as the same way that the Israelites did constantly. We can be distracted by petty things and focus on things that aren't that important as a church. We can complain and moan and argue amongst ourselves. I was at a conference only a couple of weeks ago and I heard that there was something around 184 denominations in Australia alone and I just thought about that and it is a great thing that there's different flavors and that there's different churches for people to go to depending on what they want to feel connected to. But I just wondered about what the perception would be from those that we're trying to reach. If we can't get ourselves together or act together then how can we possibly establish respect and rapport with the world if there's such division and arguments and problems that we've seen over church history. If you've studied it it's appalling to see some of the things that we've done over time. We might not be in slavery, we're certainly not growing rapidly in numbers as the church. I'm talking about in Australia and the Western world but we are oppressed and you only have to read books, go to seminars, conferences and you hear about the state of the church right now and it can be quite depressing because the church is declining in numbers. Some churches, their services are closing down, they just don't have enough people, their ministers are exhausted and overwhelmed. People are trying all these different methods and different models of doing church to be relevant and the reality is we're having a tough time. If you were here this morning and you heard Graham Reed speak, he shared a little bit about the church under threat and just how tough it is at the moment in the Western world and particularly in Australia. My response to that would be the first step for us is to identify that there is a problem. There's a problem at hand and you see from Moses that he didn't see the oppression that was around him of his Hebrew brothers and sisters for 40 years. Took him a fair amount of time until he really woke up and he acted upon it and I'm not recommending that you act in a dramatic way and kill anyone but what I'm recommending that you do is that you open your eyes and have a look around you and you can take 40 years to sometimes learn a lesson or you can ask God to open your eyes a lot sooner than that. We can sometimes be so busy or overwhelmed by our circumstances that we don't see the oppression around us. I don't know if you agree with that or you experience that but even as a church we can be so focused on our programs and our events that we're blind to seeing that we're struggling, that we're not doing as well as we really think that we are. The reality is yes the church is having a tough time. People in the world are looking to all different avenues for spirituality and for answers but the church doesn't have the same trust and respect by people that it perhaps once did and you can appreciate that because we have made some mistakes along the way but the first step is identifying that there is a problem. In the case of Moses, the problem is oppression and suffering and then the next step is to start to do something about it and seeing change happen. The second thing that we can learn from the story is responding to a call. Moses was the perfect choice for God to lead his people out of Egypt. He was a Hebrew but he was raised in the Pharaoh's court. He was educated, he had a relationship with the Pharaoh, he was set apart and 40 years he spent in Midian where he learned and he grew in character, in humility. He learned to love his flock as it has been a shepherd. I like to think sometimes that I resemble Moses and then I think about it for a moment and go I don't have quite so many runs on the board. I haven't parted the Red Sea, I haven't turned a staff into a serpent or come anywhere close to that but what I do relate to Moses is being somewhat out of my depth at times. I was called to ministry when I was only 17 years old and it was really daunting for me. I left university, I was studying music and I went to head off to study for the ministry and I was a bit stubborn, I was indignant that I wasn't going to go into worship ministry because just because I could didn't mean I should, just because I had studied it and I was a musician didn't mean necessarily I had to fit into that area. So I went into youth ministry, I was loving it, I just had the best time and I really learnt so many lessons along the way but my best mate tapped me on the shoulder and dragged me into the team and said I just need you just just for one month, just one month and so I played and that one month turned into 11 or 12 years and I haven't turned back from there so I think he had that in mind the whole time but but I was quite indignant that that wasn't the path that I was going to take. Now within only a few months of me following that call to ministry the worship pastor at my church which was quite a large church, she left and I suddenly inherited this huge team and I was so green, so raw, had absolutely no idea what I was doing and I was leading people that were three or four times my age and it was pretty scary for me but then I thought about it in hindsight God has set me up, in the same way he had set Moses up and he had educated him and he had understood things about the Egyptian culture, he had relationship with Pharaoh, he was the perfect candidate for that role. I remember back to when I was only 13 years old standing before a choir of a hundred plus people that were, there was a lot of purple rinsed there, they were much much older than I was and my voice was cracking and breaking and I sounded horrendous and and I'm there trying to tell them what to do and I'm conducting a way I'm trying to develop them as musicians, as better singers and leading them and I was you know if you knew me back then I was so short and and I have one of those terrible experiences when your voice breaks and it was up and down all the time so I tried trying to teach people and sing people to sing better when you're cracking away, it was horrendous but God set me up because I learned back then to have to relate to people that were far far older than me that had very different backgrounds and experiences to me and it was exactly what I needed to learn as I suddenly had this whole big team of people that I was trying to lead and inspire and a lot of them were hurting. The way that the my predecessors she left it wasn't the best circumstances and so I had a lot of hurting people I didn't know what I was doing to try and fix that and help that along but God reminded me in the same way that you reminded Moses is that I will be with you every step of the way and so I stuffed up I made loads of mistakes and I continue to you only have to be around me a while and you see that I'm still working in progress but I knew I know looking back that God was preparing me for the ministry and so that's why I can say that God can use anyone and when we look at numbers 22 I don't know if you remember but God speaks for a donkey and if God can speak through a donkey you can speak through me and he can certainly speak through any of you guys and by the time that Moses had that burning bush experience it's the Exodus 4 10 and he he's so timid and shy and scared by then he says I'm slow of speech and tongue and and some theologians thought that Moses even had a speech impediment of stutter so so if the Moses could you know articulate and get people to that point where they were free and and took on Pharaoh then I think you know I'm all right I'm getting there so I have to say that it's important to know and I want you to hear this tonight that God can use anyone whether you flawed whether you're broken if you put your hand up and you take the step believe me they can use you and when when when Moses said are not me you know I'm slow in speech and tongue God replies and says who gave human beings their mouths and he goes on and says I will help you speak and I will teach you what to say and he constantly reminds Moses that I will be with you the second thing we see at that burning bush experience is that the God can use what's in your hands see when Moses was there he takes off his sandals he has this staff in his hand shepherd stuff and God says throw it down so he does obediently because you don't want to disobey God particularly when he's in flames in front of you and that's you know you would want to do what you told so he throws the staff down and and then he picks it up again and at that point that's when God empowers that stuff and it it is the tool that that does some remarkable miracles but he had to surrender it that's the reality he had to give something over so the question is what's in your hands what's God given you specifically are you using the gifts and the life that God has given you in service to God that's a question that I often ask myself what have I been given and what am I doing with it I think we will give an account to that third lesson you can learn from this is perseverance through suffering now this is something that I have learned so much about from journeying with Graham I seen you pastor he is a wonderful wonderful encouragement to developing a theology of suffering you if you look at these passages of scripture you'll see that the Israelites they suffered for many many generations before they were delivered out of slavery Moses had to endure their complaining their moaning for years but he continued to be faithful despite that he was faithful to God and he loved them you know they'd only just escaped captivity when they got to that Red Sea and they and they saw the you don't see it in the clip but they see the Egyptians coming and they start moaning and complaining and they've only just been delivered they've seen all of these miracles and they've the plagues and it's just horrific but it's just that the mighty work and power of God at work and then suddenly they're they're ready to turn back and run to slavery again it's madness and then they get to the other side of the and you saw how impressive that was you know the parting of the Red Sea for goodness sake they get to the other side of that their enemies are just wiped out in front of them and then it's not long later than their thirsty and they start winching again and it's just this constant thing that you see through scripture is that they just can't get over it and and Moses is just patient and loving and faithful and he persevered through that I don't if you know me well you know that I've suffered a health challenge for quite a long time for probably a decade or so and doctors would consider it a chronic illness and it's something that has caused me and my wife Kirsty quite a lot of struggle and suffering and uncertainty about things and about our life ahead and lots of surgeries and lots of things involved in that and that's that's been tough I wouldn't lie to you and say that it's been easy but I wouldn't change it for a second because throughout all of this I've learned so so much and you know we remember that suffering builds character and character hope and and I tell you what it's for me it's been one of those things that I've I've just learned to have so much greater dependence on God and dependence on other others and you can draw closer to him think about the people in your life or the people that you love and respect the most or the people that you revere historically I would guess that they have endured some pretty significant hardships over their lifetime to be able to have your respect and to be formed in the way that they weren't the right to be revered or to be honored by others just my thought it's certainly been my my experience with people that I respect so how do you endure throughout suffering my advice to you for someone that has suffered perhaps no one near as much as some of you here is reach out to others it's not an easy thing to do but it's a worthwhile thing to do in Exodus 18 Moses is visited by his father-in-law and Moses is working really hard to try and manage all of these Hebrews that are a bit dysfunctional they've got all these quarrels amongst them there's about two million of them we believe and and so he's single hand of the trying to manage their affairs you know whatever disputes he's trying to sort them out and he's told by his father-in-law don't be silly you can't do it it's not sustainable to do this on your own and so he's encouraged to appoint others to be able to help him and and judge over the Israelites just prior to to that conversation not long after they escaped Egypt the Israel Israelites they faced a battle and if some of you might remember this as long as Moses had his arms up they were winning in the battle but when he got tired and when his arms started to fall down they were losing to the Malachites and so what he did is he had Aaron and her on other side lifting his arms up and as a result they won they won but he needed the help of others to be having to do that I don't know about you but I've certainly needed people to lift my arms up over time and I wouldn't I wouldn't be here today if I hadn't so that's the first thing reach out to others how else do you endure through suffering hold strong to the vision that God has given you Moses was 80 years old when he was called to save his people like I can't fathom that I mean I struggle enough my age and and thinking about it thinking about 80 having to take on a Pharaoh lead a grumpy bunch of people for 40 whole years until they reach the promise land and even didn't get to the promised land because he he was disobedient so he didn't actually manage it but 40 years is a heck of a long time to hold on to a vision that God had given him but he did and I hope that you can take away some some inspiration from that so don't be despondent if things don't happen in your timing if God's given you a vision then trust in him and hold strong to his promise I hope for your sake it's not 40 years but be inspired that people have done it for a lot longer than what probably you or me will have to so be mindful of that the fourth thing is personal relationship with God you see Moses that it was such an important thing for him Exodus 33 11 said the Lord would speak to Moses face to face as a man speaks with his friend Moses took the time out to build a relationship with God to listen to the Lord and to commune with him now I'm not suggesting that you spend 40 days and nights up a mountain like Moses did and starve or be you know sleep deprived or whatever but but taking that time out is a really valuable thing to do because you hear from God you can adjust your path you can sort of renew your vision and you relate to him face to face so the question is are you taking the time out to spend with God to hear his voice you might be frustrated with the particular situation in your life the question is are you stopping still and you actually communicating to God and you're listening at the same time Moses received criticism he received opposition discouragement that happened often he would go away and commune with God and then he would come back refreshed renewed inspired with clarity of vision and purpose and then off he went the fifth lesson is the importance of faith faith is an essential key to this story and it's essential to our lives for generations the enslaved Hebrews they called out to God they prayed and prayed that they would one they be delivered that took a lot of faith a lot of waiting Moses stepped out in faith to oppose the Pharaoh and he could have lost his life in the process of it he had faith that God would protect him and uphold him when the Israelites reached the Red Sea and they saw the Egyptians approaching like we said but they were pretty scared but Moses had faith and encouraged his people to trust in God and as a result you saw that miracle happen the Israelites needed faith to move forward and that's why I love that movie clip because you see the fishes and or the fish in this the shark and it's could you imagine being there and walking in these all this pile of waters on either side of you it would be pretty daunting to be perfectly honest and you can see a shark just there and you don't know at any point whether this water is going to come crashing down on you that takes faith you see so much of it through the life of Moses but you see it through so much through descriptions often when we face challenges we can respond in one of two different ways fear or faith often the Israelites they were overcome by fear or dismay and they wanted to turn and they wanted to run back I felt that way I'm not sure if you have to responding in faith it actually often means that we can conquer our fears I'm sure Moses had plenty of fears about his relationship with God his trust in him and ultimately his faith in the Lord he led him to change history so remember it's important to know that Moses wasn't the one that was performing the miracles it was God I don't think Moses could part the sea on his own I don't think he could turn a wooden staff into a snake by himself I would be impressive if he could bring on ten plagues to the Egyptians and all the many more miracles that he accomplished that was that was all God he was God was the one that performed the miracles but he used Moses's acts of faith and his boldness to carry them out often you see in Scripture that Moses the God instructs Moses to stretch out his hand and then the miracles were performed it required an action from him a response to him and there are times when God is calling us to stretch out our hands maybe it's to reach out to pray for someone that's struggling or that needs healing maybe it's to put your hand up and stand up for something that you really believe in perhaps it's in worship as a sign of surrender to God to say I can't do this anymore and you stretch out your hands to God it's hard to do it's easy to allow fear to overwhelm us see the Israelites they they witness the power of God in the most extraordinary way through all of those miracles that they saw even manner falling from heaven and God provided bread quail water everything that they needed was provided for them yet they still doubt it they still feared they still lacked faith faith is such a core component to the Christian message so much so that the writer of Hebrews he devoted seven verses to it in chapter 11 so if you've got your bibles have a look at Hebrews 11 chapter 23 onwards it says by faith Moses's parents hid him for three months after he was born because they saw he was no extraordinary no ordinary child and they were not afraid of the king's edict by faith Moses when he had grown up refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter he chose to be meant to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time he regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt because he was looking ahead to his reward by faith he left Egypt not fearing the king's anger he persevered because he saw him who is invisible by faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel and by faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land on dry land but when the Egyptians tried to do so they were drowned faith or fear we're gonna be singing about it shortly give me faith to see beyond this moment here to believe that there is nothing left to fear think about that what are some of the lessons that we learn from from Exodus and from these early books of the Bible it's a story relevant to the 21st century firstly the church is on the move the church is constantly evolving and we often say the message remains the same but the way that we communicated changes healthy churches are churches that embrace change in the same way that healthy people are people that embrace change following God's leading and being relevant to your context number two respond to God's call are you holding back from something that you know God is calling you to do step out in faith I dare you make yourself available to God and see where it leads you number three persevere through suffering Romans five four surf of as I said before suffering produces perseverance perseverance character and character leads to hope I encourage you to persevere if you're struggling allow God to make you a better version of you number four prioritize relationship with God take the time out of the busyness of your life to commune with God to be still to listen to his voice not only will you discover more about your creator but you'll learn more about his plan his vision for your life we see that through Moses we see that all through scripture do you mean what you sung before my heart will sing no other name Jesus drawing near to him prioritizing him as number one in your life and finally the importance of faith which I'll come back to in a moment I suppose if I when we're talking about this topic sharing from the heart I'm passionate about a lot of things in my world but the thing that that I'm probably the most passionate about following our God is his church it's not this building the lights the music the programs that we do they're all good but I'm passionate about God's people his community I remember in my ministry where something changed in me where it was no longer about getting the job done or hoping that lives would be transformed and just in that way I realized at one point that I actually really loved I loved the community of God I love the people that I was relating to and I was ministering with it was a massive shift in me there is so much potential for the church of Jesus Christ and there's so much potential in each and every one of you is gifting all the way across this room so many so many of you that could accomplish so much if you still stood out in faith a question is are we moving forward as a church and as individuals in our faith and in our lives are we trusting in God and communing with him the reality is that in Australia in the Western world the church is suffering but we've seen all over history that the churches had plenty of bad moments I want to remind you of John 15 the vine and the branches the scripture that passage of scriptures that say remaining me and you'll produce much fruit apart from me you can do nothing how about looking at this passage throughout a different lens tonight what it means for northside community church what it may be it means for you a fellowship of gifted of capable people because to think about apart from me you can do nothing might not resonate well with you because you know the amount of things you can do in your life you know what gifting you've received so how about reading it this way I am the creator you are my creation I've given you gifts and talents and opportunities on your own you could achieve some success in the eyes of this world but without me you will not make an eternal difference for my glory as a father has loved me so have I loved you now remain in my love if you walk with me and follow my voice you'll remain in my love and I'll help you every step of the way Moses was privileged he was educated but he couldn't have led his people out of Egypt by himself just no way he couldn't have performed performed those miracles on his own but he put his life on the line for those that he loved his God and his people and it sounds really familiar to the gospel message doesn't it Jesus putting his life on the line for those that he loved northside community church is on the move and the question is are you on board are you a part of that if you've been around the traps long enough you'll see that northside is constantly evolving I've been here six and a half years and the church doesn't look anything like what it did when I first came some of you might say that even in the last twelve to eighteen months it's changed dramatically remember what we're saying it's it's healthy to embrace change to allow God to change us but the core components remain the same here at northside doesn't matter about the building doesn't matter about the change of light some style of music or programs that we run the key fundamental things remain the same here at northside and that is love that is commitment to God and to one another faithfulness desire to be fruitful and honor God with our lives the church of Jesus Christ says endured challenges and it will continue to we see that through the Bible what it has taken and what it will continue to take to move the church forward is you it's me it's a person sitting beside you and the question is are you up for it it's people bold in their faith abiding in Christ and prepared to stretch out their hands to make a difference for his namesake let's pray Father God we thank you so much for the inspiration that we receive when we read your word when we see people that have endured more than we could possibly ever fathom when we see miracles that have been performed through a simple man or a simple female Lord that your truth your words is that you could you can move mountains through each and every one of us that Father by your spirit you can empower us to to achieve all things we thank you so much for that we thank you for for all that you have given us through Jesus Christ we see Moses so devoted to his people that sacrificed everything and we see that in Jesus so Father tonight I just pray for those that may be struggling that are hard funny it hard to to keep persevering in their journey maybe those that struggle in their relationship with you Father Father we pray for those that are struggling in their faith that are ready to pack it all in God we just trust in you and we just pray that you would move in this community of believers in the way that you have throughout history may we make a difference for your namesake may we be the men and women that you've called us to be and help us to to surrender what we need what's in our hands to be able to use it for your glory so take us as individuals as a body and help us to glorify your name in Jesus name amen