Sermon Central
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Four Keys To Effective Living - Moses
Contributed by Jerry Shirley on Nov 5, 2004 (message contributor)
Summary: Moses settled four basic questions of life: *Who am I? What are my choices? What is really important? What are my goals? [Rick Warren outline] Powerpoint at website.
FOUR KEYS TO EFFECTIVE LIVING
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Why was God able to use Moses in such a significant way? Because Moses settled four basic questions of life:
* Who am I? (vs. 24)
* What are my choices? (vs. 25)
* What is really important? (vs. 26)
* What are my goals? (vs. 27)
Hebrews 11 is about winners. It’s God’s Hall of Fame of Faith. These were ordinary people who accomplished extra-ordinary achievements. They weren’t perfect. They often failed. But they all reached their goal. The purpose of this series is to encourage you, and the church!
This morning we look at Moses, who was the greatest man in the Old Testament. Moses got the Ten Commandments from God. He wrote the first five books of the Bible. He led the children of Israel out of captivity and slavery in Egypt. Why was God able to use Moses so effectively? I think it was because Moses settled some basic questions in his life.
1. Who am I?
2. What are my choices?
3. What is really important?
4. What are my goals?
He deals with these questions in these verses. So we’re going to look at them this morning. Four Keys to Effective Living:
1. BE YOURSELF.
Don’t try to be somebody else. God made you for a purpose. He made you for a plan. There’s nobody who can be you except you. Moses had to deal with this right off in his life. He had an identity crisis. In Egypt the baby Jewish boys were condemned to die, so his mother put him in a little boat in the Nile river. It happened that the daughter of Pharaoh was taking a bath and she happened to take this little boy back into the palace to raise as her own son.
So Moses had an identity crisis. He was born Jewish but he was raised Egyptian. He had to decide at some point in his life "Who am I?" This was quite an important choice because it would determine the rest of his life. If he said, "I’m an Egyptian" and faked his heritage, he would live a life of ease. He would have an outstanding career. He was in line to be Pharaoh. He would have fame and fortune.
If he said what he really was -- "I am Jewish" -- he would be humiliated, kicked out of the palace, sent to live with a bunch of slaves for the rest of his life.
Yet Moses saw his people being badly mistreated as slaves and he could not be silent. He was a man of character and integrity. He could not quell his conscience. So he made a decision that cost him the next eighty years of his life.
v. 24 Circle "refused". The word in the Greek literally means to reject, to deny, to totally disown. Moses cut himself off from a promising career as an Egyptian and he refused to live a lie. Instead, he wanted to do what God had made him to do.
There’s something liberating about being your self. The quickest way to an ulcer is to try to be somebody you’re not. If you want to live an effective life, step one is to relax and be yourself.
v. 25 Circle the word "choosing". The word literally means "to select" or "to decide". The second principle of an effective life is this,
Be yourself…
2. BE RESPONSIBLE
ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR OWN LIFE
Don’t blame somebody else for your life. Don’t say, "It’s not my fault." Do something about it. Decide to change. The fact is, I have choices I can make in life and so do you. I have options of making these choices. God has given me the freedom and so do you. What I choose today will determine my tomorrow. That’s called accepting responsibility. The Bible teaches that people who accept responsibility for their own lives tend to lead effective lives.
In v. 24 we see Moses refusing and in v. 25 we see Moses choosing. There’s a principle here. The negative is followed by the positive. God never says, "Don’t do this. Don’t do that. Don’t drink, smoke, cuss, chew, run around with girls that do. Don’t do anything." He says, whenever you take something out of your life, you put something positive in its place. You see the refusing and then you see the choosing. Christianity is not a negative religion of a bunch of don’ts.
In v. 23 as a baby, God chose Moses.
v. 23 God chose Moses as a baby. But when Moses grew up, v. 25, it says he had to choose God.
God has chosen you. Have you chosen Him? Some of you young people need to make that choice. Can’t have it both ways…only 2 choices on the shelf: pleasing God and pleasing self!
