Will you please turn to the book of Hebrews? Hebrews 3, just one verse: Hebrews 3:5.
And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a ministering servant, for a testimony of the things to be spoken after.
Let us have a word of prayer.
Dear Lord, as we continue in Thy presence, our hearts are wide open for Thee. Lord, speak whatever is on Thy heart, and enable each and every one of us to hear Thy voice.
Lord, we are here for Thee, and pray that Thou wilt be glorified in the midst of Thy people. May all Thy will be done in and among us, as it is in heaven. And we give Thee all the glory in Thy precious name. Amen.
Brothers and sisters, we are saved to serve.
We find it in the Scripture. When God was to deliver His children of Israel out of Egypt, He sent Moses to speak to Pharaoh. In Exodus 8:1, He says:
Let My people go, that they may serve Me.
You know, when God created man, He created man with a purpose. And the very purpose is that we may serve Him.
So, brothers and sisters, none of us are saved for our own sake. Thank God that because He has saved us, our sins are forgiven. Because He has saved us, we have eternal life; we have hope.
But this is not the main purpose for which God has saved us. He saved us because He wants to use us. He wants each and every one of us to serve Him.
I do not think we need to remind brothers and sisters that it is not a few of those who are saved who are to serve, but every brother and sister, young and old. As long as you are saved, remember: you are saved to serve God.
And this is God’s purpose for each and every one of us, in spite of the fact that we do not all serve in the same way. God may call you to do this for Him, and another to do that for Him. Nevertheless, it is to serve His purpose.
Now, how are we going to serve Him? I think this is a basic and tremendous problem.
I do not think I need to remind you: as long as you are saved, I think you know within yourselves that you are saved to serve God’s purpose. You are not to live any longer for your own self. We used to do that, and what a miserable life we have lived.
But immediately after one is saved, I believe God has put in each and every heart the thought of serving Him. In many different ways, nevertheless, the purpose is the same: we are saved to serve.
So the problem with us today is this: How do you serve? In what way are we going to serve?
I remember, by my own experience, after I was saved, I was so grateful to God. I wanted to serve Him, and I tried to serve Him according to the way that I knew.
We tried to start some meetings in our school. We had prayer reading; we had meetings for ministry. Young as we were—I was only fifteen at that time—we led a prayer meeting. We prayed, and we also preached the Word of God.
The way I preached the Word of God was to go to my father’s study and find a book. I still remember vividly: it was by Dr. Jowett, who at that time was a famous preacher in this country.
So I got his book and translated one chapter, which was on Noah’s ark. I translated it into Chinese and memorized every word of it. And on that day I went to preach. You know, after I preached, I felt good. The only thing I regretted was that nobody praised me.
That was the way we tried to serve God. I still remember that I led a prayer meeting, and when the students, as well as some teachers, came, I gave a short message on prayer. Again, I copied it from my father’s book. Then I asked everybody to kneel down and pray.
But, you can see, nobody prayed. Instead, some students began to laugh. And I severely scolded them. I said, “We are in the presence of God. There should be reverence there.”
Brothers and sisters, I think we all try to serve Him in the way that we think He should be served. It took some time for me to realize that serving God is not a simple matter.
Now, suppose you are called to serve the President of the United States. Do you think that you can serve him in a way that you think fit? Do you feel that you should learn how to serve?
And strangely, among God’s people, it seems as if we are all experts. As soon as we are saved, and as soon as we start to serve, we know how to serve and what God should be pleased with. Can you imagine that?
How can we serve God—He who is the Creator, the Redeemer, the King of kings and the Lord of lords? Do you think we need to learn how to serve?
Because of that, I am thinking of Moses. In the Old Testament, you find Moses called, “My servant.” Moses in the Old Testament represents God’s servant. So I think we have much to learn from Moses. How did he serve God?
Basically, I would say that he tried to serve God when he was forty years old. Evidently, his mother, while nursing him, was able to impress upon him that God had saved him for a reason.
He was born during that time when Pharaoh commanded that if any Hebrew woman should give birth to a male child, he should be killed—thrown into the River Nile. And Moses lived under the sentence of death.
Humanly speaking, he was not allowed to live. But somehow, his parents saw something in that child, and they tried to save his life. But after three months, his crying was too loud, so they had to do something for him.
You remember how the mother made an ark of acacia wood and put Moses in it by the River Nile. God, in His providence, allowed Pharaoh’s daughter to come by.
She saw that ark and asked her servant to bring it to her. When they opened the little ark, she saw a little boy there, and he cried. You know, the cry of a baby touches the heart of a woman. That is how Moses was saved.
And evidently, his own mother impressed upon him, “You were saved for a reason. You were saved to save the children of Israel.”
In spite of being forty years in the Egyptian palace and learning all the learning of Egypt—for at that time Egypt was the greatest nation in the world—he learned all the learning. He was mighty in words and deeds, and yet the impression his mother put in him was there.
So, when he was forty years old, he went out to see his brethren, how they fared. And you know how he saw an Egyptian beating an Israelite. He looked around and saw that there was nobody there. So, mighty in deed, he beat the Egyptian to death and buried him under the sand.
The next morning he went out again to look after his brethren, and saw two Israelites fighting each other. He was mighty in words, so he tried to separate them. But he was rejected even by his own people. He had to flee for his life.
In other words, brothers and sisters, at that time Moses tried to serve God according to himself—by his words and deeds, in his own way.
Thank God, God allowed him to fail. What if he should succeed?
Brothers and sisters, can you see the picture? When we are saved, I do not think there will be anyone here who is able to serve God in his own way. I do not think so.
I think everyone, when our heart is turned by God and touched by God, wants to do something for Him. We all try to serve in our way and by our own strength and wisdom.
Now, if the Lord should allow you to succeed, what will happen? Because you are not serving God; you are serving yourself.
And thank God if He makes you fail. Have you been a failure? If you are, thank God for that. But if you are successful, woe to you, because you will continue in that way, and you are just serving yourself instead of God.
So, brothers and sisters, we are saved to serve. But that does not mean that we should serve in our own way, in our own wisdom, depending upon our own self. No.
If you want to serve God, you have to serve Him in His way, by His will. This is an important lesson for each one of us to learn.
Thank God for putting in us that inward desire to serve Him, because that is what it should be. When God created man, He did not create man for man’s own reason; He created man for His own purpose.
And it is only right that, when we are saved, we have the desire to serve. But let us remember: we cannot serve God by ourselves. We can only make things worse instead of fulfilling the will of God.
So, first of all, you find Moses learning this important lesson. Of all people in the world, Moses, who was so learned and mighty in words and deeds, should have been the first one to succeed in whatever he wanted to do.
We are told that he was a great general in Egypt at that time. He was powerful. But it was God who allowed him to fail because he tried to serve God in his own way. He tried to deliver his brethren by his might and by his eloquence.
So God allowed him to fail. He fled. He spent another forty years in the wilderness looking after a few sheep.
And, brothers and sisters, after he had done that for another forty years, no wonder when God really wanted him to go, he said, “I cannot, because I am nobody. I do not have eloquence.”
Now, if you have spoken to sheep for forty years, all your eloquence will be gone. And all your might will be gone, because you cannot use your strength; otherwise, all the sheep would die.
So, in those forty years in the wilderness, Moses unlearned everything that he had learned in Egypt before.
Brothers and sisters, if you are naturally gifted, or if you have received such training, do not think that this is a plus to you in serving God. As a matter of fact, it is a minus, because God has no need for your help.
We have to serve God according to His will and by His strength. And how can we do that? Where does it come from? It comes from vision.
So, brothers and sisters, we feel that it is basic—and not only basic, but important—to know that we cannot serve God if we do not have vision.
By vision, I simply mean that God has revealed Himself to you. God has revealed His mind to you. He has shown you where you are and what He can do with you.
So you remember Moses when he was eighty years old. If you have read Psalm 90, you find in Psalm 90:10 that he said a man will live three score and ten years—that is, seventy years old. But if you are strong, you may reach four score years, eighty years old.
Remember, Moses at that time was eighty years old. So far as he himself was concerned, he considered himself dead—of no use. He was already eighty years old. What could you do with that?
But man’s end is God’s beginning. So when he came to the end of himself, God began to use him.
Brothers and sisters, have you come to the end of yourselves? Are you still thinking greatly of yourself, mighty in words and deeds? Or have you come to the point when you realize there is nothing in you that God can use?
You have to unlearn everything you have learned in the world in order to allow God to begin His work in you. So you find, in the case of Moses, when he was eighty years old, God waited for him.
He waited for him for forty years to unlearn all he had learned in Egypt, because God had no need for such things. At the end of himself, that is the beginning of God.
Dear brothers and sisters, how difficult it is for us to come to the end of ourselves. The more talented you are, the more educated you are, the more experience you have, the less you are able to see the end of yourself. The more you will depend upon yourself.
Brothers and sisters, God has no need of you. He has to be the beginning and the end. So thank God if one day we come to the end of ourselves, because this is where hope really begins.
Moses was eighty years old. I think he had given up the idea of saving his people. It took forty years for him to give up his ambition. Now he was nothing, and he was ready to go.
But it was at that time that God’s calling came to him.
You know, in the wilderness it was so dry and so hot. Only bushes were there. But these bushes were of no use, and they burned very easily. Because of the heat, they could suddenly be burned by themselves; and when they were burned, they were gone.
You could not eat them or even use them as fuel, because they were gone so quickly. Nothing—of no use. It was a common sight in the wilderness. Moses must have seen this many, many times.
But Moses was a very observant person. One day, as he was keeping the sheep, he saw a bush burning. But strangely, it was not burned. Now, there was a miracle. So that caught his attention.
He drew near to see what had happened. It was most unusual. And as he approached that burning bush that was not burned, the Lord called him from the burning bush, because the Lord was there.
And because the Lord was in that bush, when it burned, it was not burned; rather, it glowed. It glowed brilliantly with glory.
And God said, “Put off your shoes, because this is holy ground.”
Dear brothers and sisters, we need such an experience. We need to come to the place where we can see something which is most common.
You know, we sometimes expect something spectacular and say, “Now, because it is spectacular, God is in it.” No. God is in the very common thing, but because God’s presence is there, it becomes uncommon.
It should be burned, but the presence of the Lord kept that bush. Instead of burning, it glowed with glory.
And, you know, that vision of the burning bush speaks of Moses himself. He used to consider himself as the cedar of Lebanon—high up, glorious.
But now God showed him, “You are but a bush in the wilderness. You will be burned very easily.”
The reason why you are not burned, but rather aglow with glory, is because of the presence of God.
Dear brothers and sisters, what do you think of yourself?
I think we are all familiar with the story of how Mary took a pound of nard in an alabaster flask. She came to the Lord out of her grateful gratitude to the Lord.
Probably that was the only worthy thing that she had. Probably it had been accumulated for her marriage. But because of what the Lord did to her brother, she was so grateful. She was thinking, “What can I do for the Lord to glorify Him?”
She had nothing else but that alabaster box of nard. So she came, she broke it, and let the nard fall upon the Lord. And the fragrance filled the house.
And you know how the disciples, especially Judas, said that it could be sold for three hundred dollars—that is, three hundred days’ wages of a man. “Why do you waste it on the Lord?”
But the Lord said, “She did a good thing.”
Brothers and sisters, do you consider yourself as an alabaster box? Or do you see yourself as just a flask—nothing? Are you willing to break yourself and allow what the Lord has done in you to pour out for the glory of God?
And I believe God taught Moses a very precious lesson. Throughout his life, you can see, in spite of the great things that he had done, the Bible says Moses was the meekest person in the world.
You know, we often think of Moses, when you see the pictures of Moses, as a most muscular person. But he was the meekest person in the world. Think of that. Why?
Because he had been given a vision that he was just a bush in the wilderness—less than a bush, a burning bush. Here for a minute, and then gone. Nothing.
Dear brothers and sisters, I think the greatest lesson that the Lord has for us to learn is to see that we are nothing.
We always want to be somebody, and we try to be somebody. But in the sight of God, we are nothing.
And I believe it is the first lesson, if we want to serve God, to see that we are nothing. We are nobody.
And if there is anything that is done, it is not because of us; it is because of Him, because He dwells within us. And that is the reason why the bush is not burned, but aglow instead.
So I think, in order to serve God, brothers and sisters, we may serve in many various different ways, as the Lord is pleased. But the principle of serving God is the same: we have to come to the point of seeing that we are but a burning bush.
But thank God, He is in the midst.
Now secondly, I think this burning bush also is a revelation from God concerning the work that Moses was sent to do.
So far as the children of Israel were concerned, they also were like a burning bush. The children of Israel were beloved of God because of their ancestors, and yet, in themselves, they were nothing but like a bush in the wilderness—very common.
And worse than that, they were a burning bush. Israel was supposed to die under the command of Pharaoh. Israel, as a nation, was to be annihilated.
But the reason why Israel was not annihilated was because God was there. He watched over them.
And this is the mission that God gave to Moses: to go back to deliver the children of Israel out of Egypt, but more than that, into the promised land. This is the mind of God.
Brothers and sisters, God’s purpose with us is more than negative—just delivering us out of bondage. His purpose with us is positive. He wants to bring us into the promised land.
And, of course, we know our promised land is Christ. He wants to bring us into Christ—not just to have Christ, but to be full-grown in Christ.
Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Now, how was He going to deliver the children of Israel? Moses said, “Who am I to go to see Pharaoh? What can I do to deliver the children of Israel?”
So God said, “What is in your hand?” And he said, “A shepherd’s rod.”
And God said, “Throw it down.” He did, and it became a serpent. Moses fled from it. And God said, “Take it by the tail.” He took it, and it became a rod—the rod of God.
Brothers and sisters, what does it mean? You know, a shepherd’s rod is the shepherd’s skill. It is his instrument for keeping the sheep.
And yet we do not know that what we depend on for our life and livelihood actually is a serpent. We have to take it upside down, and then it becomes the rod of God.
So, in other words, so far as our profession is concerned, if you consider your profession as your rod to make a living out of it, remember, it is a snake, a serpent. The enemy is using it to trap you.
But if you hold that upside down, then it becomes a rod of God. In other words, God can use your skill, your profession, to perform His miracles.
That is the first lesson that Moses had to learn.
And then the second lesson: God said, “Put your hand into your bosom.” When he took it out, that hand was leprous. And God said, “Put it in again,” and it became whole.
In other words, it is not only your skill or your profession that you have to hold upside down; it is your own life. By yourself, it is leprous, full of sin. But by the grace of God, it can be a hand used by God.
And how God used Moses—not only his rod, but especially his hand—to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt, through the wilderness, to the border of the promised land.
So, dear brothers and sisters, whatever seems to be natural to us has to be held upside down before these things can be used by God.
Put it another way: it does not mean that everything you have learned in the past, and what is of yourself, is absolutely unusable to God. On the contrary, if you handle that in the right way, God can use these things to accomplish great things.
May I suggest that unless Moses had learned all the learning of Egypt, do you think God could use him to lead such a people out of Egypt for forty years in the wilderness? Who can do that?
Humanly speaking, it is something beyond man’s ability. But you see, if you are really yielded to the Lord, and consider yourself as nothing, and depend upon the Lord, the Lord can sanctify these things and use them for His glory.
So this is the way God prepares His servant to serve in His house.
So, dear brothers and sisters, none of us should think that we are of no use to God. He saves us because He wants to use us. The only thing is: what do you think about yourself?
If you think of yourself as great, God says, “Nothing to you.” If you think of yourself as nothing, God says, “I can use you.”
So this is the lesson that I feel we all need to learn today. Let us pray.
Dear Lord, bring us to nothing, that You may be everything to us.
We want to praise and thank Thee that Thou wilt not use one who considers himself as great, but Thou dost use the one who knows himself as nothing.
O great God, we just commit ourselves to Thee and say, “Lord, reduce us to nothing and nobody. And out of that nothing, Lord, glorify Thyself with each and every one of us.”
We do pray that this lesson will be learned by each and every one of us. We are in Thine hand. Amen.