Wednesday Service | Lessons From God’s Leaders – Part 1: Moses | Jordan Brawner

[1] The devil hates the rising of a leader

Exodus 1:15-17 (NIV)

¹⁵ The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah,¹⁶ “When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.” ¹⁷ The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live.

• Moses life was saved because of who chose

Exodus 2:1-6 (NLT)

2 About this time, a man and woman from the tribe of Levi got married. ² The woman became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She saw that he was a special baby and kept him hidden for three months. ³ But when she could no longer hide him, she got a basket made of papyrus reeds and waterproofed it with tar and pitch. She put the baby in the basket and laid it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile River. ⁴ The baby’s sister then stood at a distance, watching to see what would happen to him.

⁵ Soon Pharaoh’s daughter came down to bathe in the river, and her attendants walked along the riverbank. When the princess saw the basket among the reeds, she sent her maid to get it for her. ⁶ When the princess opened it, she saw the baby. The little boy was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This must be one of the Hebrew children,” she said.

[2] Moses had a life experience

Acts 7:22 (NLT)

²² Moses was taught all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was powerful in both speech and action.

[3] The person at the wrong time is the wrong thing

Acts 7:23-29 (NLT)

²³ “One day when Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his relatives, the people of Israel. ²⁴ He saw an Egyptian mistreating an Israelite. So Moses came to the man’s defense and avenged him, killing the Egyptian. ²⁵ Moses assumed his fellow Israelites would realize that God had sent him to rescue them, but they didn’t.

²⁶ “The next day he visited them again and saw two men of Israel fighting. He tried to be a peacemaker. ‘Men,’ he said, ‘you are brothers. Why are you fighting each other?’

²⁷ “But the man in the wrong pushed Moses aside. ‘Who made you a ruler and judge over us?’ he asked. ²⁸ ‘Are you going to kill me as you killed that Egyptian yesterday?’ ²⁹ When Moses heard that, he fled the country and lived as a foreigner in the land of Midian. There his two sons were born.

Proverbs 14:12 (AMP)

There is a way which seems right to a man and appears straight before him,
But its end is the way of death.

[4] God didn’t on Moses… and he doesn’t quit on us

Acts 7:30-35 (NLT)

³⁰ “Forty years later, in the desert near Mount Sinai, an angel appeared to Moses in the flame of a burning bush. ³¹ When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight. As he went to take a closer look, the voice of the Lord called out to him, ³² ‘I am the God of your ancestors—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’ Moses shook with terror and did not dare to look.

³³ “Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground. ³⁴ I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groans and have come down to rescue them. Now go, for I am sending you back to Egypt.’

³⁵ “So God sent back the same man his people had previously rejected…

[5] God directs Moses to do certain things to build

Acts 7:36 (NLT)

³⁶ And by means of many wonders and miraculous signs, he led them out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, and through the wilderness for forty years.

Two reasons why God directed these signs and wonders…

• So Moses and the people would put their trust in

• And so the people would build their trust

Exodus 19:9 (NLT)

⁹ Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will come to you in a thick cloud, Moses, so the people themselves can hear me when I speak with you. Then they will always trust you.”

[6] God helps Moses with wisdom from an elder

• Some of the most valuable insight you will receive will not come from a but an elder

Exodus 18:13-17 (NLT)

¹³ The next day, Moses took his seat to hear the people’s disputes against each other. They waited before him from morning till evening.

¹⁴ When Moses’ father-in-law saw all that Moses was doing for the people, he asked, “What are you really accomplishing here? Why are you trying to do all this alone while everyone stands around you from morning till evening?”

¹⁵ Moses replied, “Because the people come to me to get a ruling from God. ¹⁶ When a dispute arises, they come to me, and I am the one who settles the case between the quarreling parties. I inform the people of God’s decrees and give them his instructions.”

¹⁷ “This is not good!” Moses’ father-in-law exclaimed.

• Effective leaders learn how to

Exodus 18:24 (NIV)

²⁴ Moses listened to his father-in-law and did everything he said. ²⁵ He chose capable men from all Israel and made them leaders of the people, officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. ²⁶ They served as judges for the people at all times. The difficult cases they brought to Moses, but the simple ones they decided themselves.

²⁷ Then Moses sent his father-in-law on his way, and Jethro returned to his own country.