Moses - An Unlikely Choice: So You Got an F (Exodus 2:12-22)

Series: Moses - An Unlikely Choice

Sermon: So You Got an F

Scripture: Exodus 2:12-22

Date: May 26, 2019

 

So he looked this way and that way, and when he saw no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.  And when he went out the second day, behold, two Hebrew men were fighting, and he said to the one who did the wrong, "Why are you striking your companion?"  Then he said, "Who made you a prince and a judge over us?  Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?"  So Moses feared and said, "Surely this thing is known!"  When Pharaoh heard of this matter, he sought to kill Moses.  But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian; and he sat down by a well.  Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters.  And they came and drew water, and they filled the troughs to water their father's flock.  Then the shepherds came and drove them away; but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock.  When they came to Reuel their father, he said, "How is it that you have come so soon today?"  And they said, "An Egyptian delivered us from the hand of the shepherds, and he also drew enough water for us and watered the flock."  So he said to his daughters, "And where is he?  Why is it that you have left the man?  Call him, that he may eat bread."  Then Moses was content to live with the man, and he gave Zipporah his daughter to Moses.  And she bore him a son.  He called his name Gershom, for he said, "I have been a stranger in a foreign land."  (Exodus 2:12-22)

What do we do when we fail?

We need to learn to think about life with God's thoughts.

Failure can be used as a discouragement or a development.

When we respond to failure like God wants us to, then God can use failure to promote:

1. Obedience
   • Exodus 2:14-15
   • 2 Corinthians 7:10
   • Sometimes when we see the consequences of our sin, it helps us to not sin.  It might be: 
     • your child's broken heart
     • your spouse's hurt
     • the pain of regret
     • the wasted opportunity
     • the guilt that comes
   • "God's ways are too good to miss."  -Charles Stanley
   • Satan's ways - and my ways - are too bad to embrace.
2. A teachable spirit
   • "Success is moving from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm."  -Winston Churchill
   • Experience is the best teacher...learn from someone else's experience.
   • Exodus 2:15
   • We can be taught that:
     1. spiritual ends are not achieved by fleshly means
     2. timing is as important as action
     3. hiding wrong does not erase wrong
   • Exodus 2:12
3. A servant's heart
   • Exodus 2:16-17
4. Humility
   • Humility helps us to see that we need God and each other.
   • Exodus 2:16-21

You may have wandered
You may have stumbled
You may have tripped
You may have fallen
You may have crashed
You may have failed

It doesn't mean you're finished
It doesn't mean it's over
Throw yourself into the gracious, loving and merciful hands of God

He will pick you up!
-Christine Caine