Exodus 2:11-22 – What To Do When God Crushes Your Dreams – Bible study

Ex 2:11-22 What To Do When God Crushes Your Dreams We do not know how, but somehow Moses had a sense that God was going to use him to deliver the children of Israel from Egypt. At this point in his life, he is about 40; and seeing a Jewish man being mistreated, he assumed it was time for him to act. \#11-12\ Moses killed an Egyptian and buried the body. The fact that he looked around before he killed him indicates Moses decided before he helped the Hebrew that he would have to kill the Egyptian to keep word from getting back to Pharaoh. No passage in the Bible either directly condemns or approves of Moses killing the Egyptian. Even though the account in Exodus leads me to believe that Moses killed him on purpose, that may not be case. Exodus tells us what Moses did, but Acts 7:25 gives us Moses motive. Acts 7:25 For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not. So God had already impressed upon Moses what he was to do, namely, deliver Israel. Of course, the people did not understand. They probably considered Moses to be an Egyptian and could have cared less what happened to him. Moses was left with only one option. He fled for his life. Get this, Moses thought he was to be Israels deliverer. He thought he was doing what God wanted. He thought God was going to jump in and do something great! Then, he had to flee for his life. That is what I call death to a dream. From there, Moses found rest in Moab. Moab was a distant relative to the Jew. Interestingly, it was the Moabites that carried Joseph and ultimately the Jewish nation into Egypt and it was the Moabites that helped Moses so that he could lead them back out. Moses must have felt that he had either failed or misunderstood. 1. He married. 2. He had a child. 3. He started a career of shepherding. 4. He lived for 40 years in Moab, probably figuring that was where his life would end. 5. I suspect that he dismissed whatever impression he had from God got on with the remainder of his life. Moses is not the only one in the Bible who thought he had received a purpose from God only to be disappointed. 1. Joseph-Had a dream where the sun, moon, and eleven starts bowed before him. He had a second dream where every one elses shelves come and bowed down before his. Even his family could interpret those dreams. It meant that he was to be a ruler so great that even his family would have to bow at his presence. Unlike Moses, Joseph did nothing to force his dreams to come to pass, but his brothers hated him and sold him into slavery in a foreign country. What was to become of that dream now? 2. Abraham-His was not a dream but a direct word from the Lord. He was to have more children than sand on the sea shore or stars in heaven. He was to become a great and mighty nation, but after years of trying to fulfill Gods word through a concubine, Abraham turned 99 and wondered what God would do to fulfill His Word. 3. David-Just the youngest of the Obeds sons, the one who had to keep the sheep. He had no aspirations, but Samuel came to his house, called for him, and anointed him king over Israel. David did nothing to force his rise to king, but Saul began to hunt him anyway. Now after years of hiding, he was discouraged and had fled to the great enemy of Israel, the Philistines, for refuge. What was to become of the dream now? Perhaps you too have felt God had a purpose for your life. 1. Maybe you, like Moses, tried to force it and now things seem ruined. 2. Maybe like Abraham, you only tried to help God a little. 3. Maybe, like David and Joseph, you didnt do anything but the reality of the dream is so far out of sight you cant imagine it happening. 4. Perhaps you did not realize until what seemed too late that God was even giving you a dream. I. God never changes His mind about what He made you to do. A. There are many things that I probably cannot tell you. 1. I probably cant tell you if your dream, your vision, or your impression was of God or not. 2. Even if I knew that it was of God, I probably could not tell you when, where, or how God might fulfill it. 3. These are things that I some times cannot tell about my own life, let alone yours. B. However, I can tell you that God does not change His mind about what He created you to do. 1. God has created you to do some thing and He has gifted you to do it. 2. He will not change His mind. Ro 11:29 For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance C. This verse tells us two things. 1. One is about gifts. a. If God has equipped you with a gift or an ability, He will not pull the plug on the equipment! b. God does not take back His gifts. 2. The other is about purposes. a. God does not change our purpose. b. We are created for a purpose and whether we achieve it or not, our purpose will remain the same! c. If I resign this church today and walk away vowing to never preach again, I will still be a preacher. d. Nothing I do will make me into something else. D. I was called and given whatever equipping I have that I might preach Gods Word. 1. I may lose my health, my speech, my very mind. 2. But with whatever of me that I have left, God will still want me to proclaim that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world. 3. The when, the where, and the "how effective I may be" may change, but my calling, my equipping, and my purpose will not. 4. Neither will yours. II. You can force God to shelf you by having a stubborn, rebellious, and unrepentant heart. A. While God will not change your purpose for existence or take away the gifts He gave you to accomplish that purpose, He may change His mind about letting you do what He created you to do. Lu 9:25 For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away? 1Co 9:27 But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. 1Ti 1:19 Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck: 20 Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme. B. All of these verses describe a real possibility for Gods highest creation. 1. Namely, they may serve God or they may be shelved by God. 2. What will decide? The life the one called lives. C. Paul both knew those who had become shipwrecked. 1. They had been granted the abilities and the calling from God to preach the gospel, but they had ship wrecked their lives and shelved themselves. 2. You are never too old, too important, nor too experienced to ruin your life and service for God. 3. I know that might stir up some fear in some who are trying to do right, so let me tell you what I think. D. I do not think that you will be shelved because of honest errors or being inadequacy. If one could, I would be shelved. 1. I do believe you can sin the opportunity God gives and end up living an unfulfilled life sitting on a shelf. 2. I think many have sinned away their ability to ever be fulfilled and happy. 3. They will spend the remainder of their lives selling used cars, insurance, or scratching out a living doing something that they were not created to do because they chose to rebel against God or enjoy some sin instead of serve Him. 4. But I do not think if you serving God will an honest, humble heart you will ever fail so badly that God will shelf you. E. And if you chose not to serve God in the past, I do not think it is ever too late to get started. 1. I think you might have lost a lot of opportunity, but I do not think it is too late. a. If God gifted you to handle His Word, you may never be a pastor. b. If God called you to a be a missionary, you might never reach foreign soil. c. If God called you to write books, to sing songs, or to paint pictures to glorify Him, you may never reach the heights you could once have reached; but I do not think it is ever too late. 2. Time lived in a backslidden or worldly condition may cost us some effectiveness, but God will not pull our gifts and will not nullify our calling. 3. We alone can end our ministry and that by choosing to sin so that God will have to put us on the shelf. III. So what do we do when you think you know what God wants but it doesnt seem to be coming to pass? A. Do not connive. 1. Our conniving steals Gods glory and compromises our integrity. 2. Moses killed a man thinking he was doing God a favor. 3. Abraham had Isaac and while he was a good man, from his loins nations have risen who have plagued the people of Israel. 4. When God makes a promise, God will make a way. 5. Our job is not to kick open a closed door or to blast open a solid wall. 6. Our job is to: a. Prepare ourselves to be the best we can be. b. Wait for God to open doors for us to step through. c. To stay faithful to the call of God regardless of how difficult, disappointing, or prosperous we may be. B. Dont fall into the pit of doubt and despair. 1. Discouragement and despair are two tools that Satan has certainly mastered. 2. I was one who was subject to those tools at one time and am still affected by them. 3. Any time anything goes wrong, a sensitive person is likely to think it was their fault. 4. Whether it is or not, you cannot let the devil cast you into his pit of despair. a. As long as you have life, there is something else God wants you to do. b. Learn from your mistakes and keep going. 5. I do not claim to be an expert on depression. The only things I know are: a. Depression is not of God. If God wants to rebuke you, He will not do it by making you feel about everything. He will convict you and offer to build you up in the area of your weakness. b. Depression is not productive. c. The longer you stay depressed and the more times you give into it, the more grip it will gain on you. d. God will help you over come depression. Depression is no bigger than any other problem people have and the promises of God are include depression. Php 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Joh 15:7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Isa 40:29 He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. 6. As the believer, you are going to have to figure out how God will deliver you and use that power. 7. For me, there were several keys. a. I had to realize I was being attack by the devil. (People say, "You need to realize it is a mental illness. Not me. For me, I had to realize that I was being spiritually attacked.) b. I had to resist the devil, to make up my mind that I was going to win the fight through Jesus. c. I had to catch myself early. I soon realized that I could tell when the attacks were starting. d. When I sensed an attack, I would use that as a signal to start doing something for God. (1) I would start praying for people, memorizing Bible verses, go pass out tracts, call someone and try to encourage them in the Lord. (2) I dont think the devil like that. 8. One day I realized it had been a long time since I felt the urge to climb into the devils pit. 9. I believe the Apostle Paul had to fight depression: Php 3:14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. a. He pressed or pushed himself onward. b. If God has spoken to your heart about something, just keep moving forward. C. Stay humble and tender to the leading of God. Whether you have a dream from God or not, the only way to be lead of God is to be obedient to Him. D. Be patient. 1. God measures time in millenniums, not days. 2. All of these who received dreams had to wait until long past a reasonable time for them to become reality. Is this what Moses did? I am not sure. He will spend forty years in Moab. Thats a long time to forget the dream God gave, but God didnt forget it and didnt let Moses do anything that would shelve him. Beside, Moses didnt have the Biblical example of Moses. If Moses made some mistakes, we can learn from them. Dont give up on the fact that God is going to use you.