From 1st Presbyterian Church of Chattanooga, here's Dr. Michael Milton. God sent Moses, and God sends us, and we have to be sent in His authority. This is absolutely vital truth and very similar to being sent in His name. But that name has authority, and you are sent in authority. You can preach and teach. You can go evangelize. You can go be a missionary. You can go do all of that. You can try to live the Christian life. But if you don't have the anointing and the power of the Holy Spirit resting on your life, you're going to find yourself getting beat up and wounded in an ineffective ministry. Are you ministering in your family? In the authority of Jesus Christ resting on your life?
The Bible declares faith comes from hearing and hearing through the Word of Christ. Welcome to Faith for Living with Dr. Michael Milton, the radio outreach ministry of 1st Presbyterian Church of Chattanooga, a ministry with one great passion and belief that faith comes from proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as found in God's Word, and that faith in Jesus Christ is faith for living. This week, Dr. Milton brings to us a message entitled, Trusting God, who sends, as part of our series, Trusting God. The Bible texts for today's broadcast is from Exodus chapter 3, verses 13 through 17. And be sure to stay tuned with the close of today's message for a very important announcement from Dr. Milton. Now here again is Dr. Mike Milton with today's message he's calling, Trusting God, who sends. We're going to be reading about sending, and I trust and pray that we will come to love and trust the God who sends even more this morning as we read about the God who sends. Would you join me this morning as we conclude our series in Trusting God by turning again to Exodus chapter 3. And I want to begin with verse 10 and read from there. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. But Moses said to God, who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt? He said, but I will be with you, and this will be the sign for you, that I have sent you. When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain. Then Moses said to God, if I come to the people of Israel and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they ask me, what is his name, what shall I say to them? God said to Moses, I am who I am, and he said, say this to the people of Israel, I am, has sent me to you. God also said to Moses, say this to the people of Israel, the Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has sent me to you. This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations, go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, the Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham of Isaac and of Jacob has appeared to me, saying, I have observed you in what has been done to you in Egypt, and I promise that I will bring you up out of the afflictions of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Parasites, the Hivites, and the Jebiusites, a land flowing with milk and honey. In the New Testament, chapter 20 of John, you'll join me as we look there, Jesus appearing to his disciples, and what does he say to them, verse 19 and following. On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, peace be with you. When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side, then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, peace be with you, as the Father has sent me, even so, I am sending you. The grass withers and the flower falls with the word of our God will stand forever. We are meant to be sent. That's the title of a sermon that a friend of mine preached, John Huffman of St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach, California. He's also the Chairman of the Board of Christianity today, but I like the title of John's sermon, and I like his sermon even better as I read it, because John talked about what that meant for him personally in over four decades of ministry. That the one thing that he could count on constantly, that if he was going to yield his life up to the Lord, that there was always going to be this time of sinning. And as he talked about it, he talked to his people and he said, you know what, this is not just the life of a preacher or missionary, this is the life of a Christian. For Jesus said, as the Father has sent me, even so, I am sending you, and so sending becomes a characteristic of the life of a believer in one fashion or another. When God called the Apostle Paul, of course, the first thing that happens to him is he sends him somewhere. He goes to Damascus and there he is sent to someone, and in fact someone, Ann and I, is sent to Paul to lay hands upon him to bring healing to him and to baptizing. And then Paul was sent from there, we learn later in his own writings to Arabia. And in Arabia, he had a sort of three-year seminary experience. We can imagine that God taught him that the resurrected Christ appeared to him. We can imagine that during that time there was an intense time of study and of understanding the Christ of the Old Testament and how he had to preach him to the Gentiles as well as the Jews. And then he was sent to Peter in James to receive his ordination as it were to preach in the churches where it was great suspicion. And then he was sent to Antioch and he labored there as a teacher, and then he was sent from Antioch into Europe and he was sent and he was sent, he characterized his whole life. I think John was right that all of God's children, like Abraham, like Paul, and like in our texts in Exodus 3, all God's children are meant to be sent. Because if God is going to accomplish something great, whether that is being sent across the living room to be a godly wife or a godly husband to an unbelievable spouse, whether that is being sent to grandma's house at Thanksgiving and bearing witness with your very life of the beauty and joy of Jesus, whether that is being sent across the ocean as a missionary, all of us are meant to be sent. Because Jesus said, as the Father sent me, even so, the necessary parallel between my life Jesus is saying and your lives as my disciples is this, sending. And so this morning as we look at Exodus and consider this, I want us to think about four truths about sending. The way that God sent Moses teaches us things about how God sends. First of all, it is absolutely necessary to understand that a Christian is sent from his presence, from the Lord's presence. Moses sending would have been nothing unless Moses would have been in the very presence of Almighty God at that burning bush. You can trace the Reformation back to Martin Luther understanding that salvation comes by grace alone and through faith alone. And you can trace it to an encounter that Martin Luther had with Almighty God in the Book of Romans. You can trace the Methodist movement and much of the evangelical movement to John Wesley at Alders Gate Street having heard about God's grace in the preface to the Book of Romans written by Martin Luther. And on Alders Gate Street John Wesley falls to his knees and feels his heart strangely warm and believes that Christ could save even him and he understands that his holiness has to come through the righteousness of God. Or he would be saved only by faith in Christ, not anything he did as a missionary to Savannah or being a clergyman or anything else. It was only because of Christ and you can trace every believer's life back to that time, to that presence. It's not too early in the sermon for me to ask you can you trace your life back to the time when you begin to understand that Jesus Christ was real in your life. There is no sending without that time. And if you've never had that time then today could be that time because I offer you the beautiful Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And I pray that this could be a moment where you would come into his presence and know his power to forgive you and to free you from the pain of your past and to begin his powerful work of showing you that the things that have come to hurt you become the things in the hands of a sovereign God that actually bring healing to you. And you can be sent out with that message for other people. When Jesus appeared to his disciples and he said, the Father sent me even so I'm sending you Jesus was showing us that being sent is what being a Christian is all about. I wonder if so many in the church today are weak. I wonder if our witness is compromised, our heart for missions cooled because we really haven't had that encounter. I wonder if there is so much agitation in the broader church today in North America, so much concern about consumerism and churches and worship and styles and church leadership. Because of this one thing, we really haven't been in his presence. We haven't lingered in love before the Lord. My beloved, if we neglect his presence, we will forfeit our power. But if we will ask forgiveness and invite Jesus Christ to come to us and we draw nearer to him, he promises he will draw near to us. And our lives will have meaning and purpose. And Jesus Christ, the one who has sent will send you. Another thing that this sending of Moses teaches us is that we have to be sent in his name. You no doubt picked up in the reading that there was much concern by the Lord himself about his own name. He says, you should go in the name I am. Now that name is God's special name for his people. It's his covenant name. There was something else that I think Moses needed to hear is that you're not going in your name. You're going in my name. You've already done that your name stuff. Some of you have too. And I have. It's time for you to go in my name. And my name is I am. Now if you look in your Bibles, anytime you see Lord with all caps in the English, it is seeking to translate this covenant name of God. Which we sometimes add vowels to the consonants which don't appear in the Hebrew. There are no vowel pointings. And we say Yahweh or in the Old King James Jehovah. Many devout Jews will not say that name even when they read over the scriptures. When they come to that covenant name, they'll say out of an eye. Which is another name for Lord. So when you see Lord L, capital L and then small or D, you're seeing that word. But the name is holy. It's God's covenant name. But that's actually the name. That's the name Moses was to go in. I love what Matthew Henry taught about that. He says it teaches that when God says I am, Jesus you remember said that before Abraham was I am. And we have all the I am statements of Jesus in the Bible. Matthew Henry says of that I am God that he is number one self-existent. He has his being of himself. He's not dependent upon anyone to create him. He is eternal and unchangeable and always the same. Yesterday, today and forever. Number three, he is incomprehensible. You can't put this God in your pocket. You can't get your arms around this God. Number four, he is faithful and true to all of his promises. He is unchangeable in his word as well as in his nature. You go tell him Moses. I am. I am. This sent you. So it is when we go forth. Moses needed to know that because he was going to have a lot of challenges and so were you. And you're not going to be able to take care of those challenges just in your own power. You need to be in the power of another. And that leads me to a third point that God sent Moses and God sends us. And we have to be sent in his authority. This is absolutely vital truth and very similar to being sent in his name. But that name has authority and you are sent in authority. Moses thought he had authority before you remember after the murder of the Egyptian. He tried to give some commands to the Hebrews and tell them what to do. And they said, who are you to tell us what to do? Now God says you're you're going in another authority. You're going in my authority. You tell him the Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob appeared to me and said, I have sent me to you. There's an amazing story in the book of Acts. You got your Bibles. Now hope you do turn with me to chapter 19 of the book of Acts. And let me read this very interesting story to you. Begin with verse 11. And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul so that even the handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick. And their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them. Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcist undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits saying, I assure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims. Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Skivel were doing this, but the evil spirit answered them. Jesus, I know. And Paul, I recognize, but who are you? And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them so that they would so that they fled out of the house naked and wounded. Isn't that an amazing story? It's a bad day when demons start talking to you. It's a bad day when they start attacking you. But what happened in this passage? They looked and here was a man of God, an apostle acting under the authority of the living and raining Lord Jesus Christ. And they said, well, we'd like some of this action. Maybe they wanted some of the glory. Maybe they wanted some money. But they, how weak it sounds. I assure you about the Jesus whom Paul proclaims. Boy, that really is something, isn't it? The demons don't recognize that because religious incantations can't do anything unless the anointing of Almighty God is on your life. You can preach and teach. You can go evangelize. You can go be a missionary. You can go do all of that. You can try to live the Christian life. But if you don't have the anointing and the power of the Holy Spirit resting on your life, you're going to find yourself getting beat up and wounded in an ineffective ministry. Are you ministering in your family in the authority of Jesus Christ resting on your life? Greatest Christian I've ever known in my life. If you've heard me for any time, you would guess was my anointing who raised me. She didn't have any degrees. She had no money, no prestige, no name. She really had no unique giftedness other than love and faith. But I have seen businessmen come into our little country home to seek her counsel. When I was involved in a church planning ministry in Kansas, I remember very clearly facing challenges and obstacles and kneeling down before the bed of a 98-year-old woman and asking, and even what do you think? Why? Because she had power. She was operating in her life under an authority that was not her own. The authority of Jesus Christ in his word. And I believe that the world will take notice when a church or Christian stands in the authority of Jesus and speaks. We will never lack an audience if we are ministering in his name. And the powers of this world recognize the name of Jesus. And when we are under his authority, lesser powers must give way. A fourth and final thing that we learn from Moses being sent is this, we are sent with his promise. For we read, and I have promised to bring you up out of your misery and Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Parasites, Hivites and Jebiusites, a land flowing with milk and honey. What was God doing? God was rehearsing to Moses the covenant promises that he had made to the forefathers, the patriarchs, the covenant promise that he had made all the way back to Adam and Eve that there was going to come one. It was going to crush the head of the one who had tricked them into sin and misery, and they would be unleashed. This now has come to Moses, and this promise is at work in his life. My beloved, this is the promise that has got to be at work in our life. The promise that God is doing for us, what we can't do for ourselves. That Jesus Christ lived the life we could never live. He died for our sins on a cross, and that covenant of grace is just hovering all over this place, but you've got to receive it. You've got to repent of your sins and your self-dependence and receive Jesus Christ that you may receive this promise into your life, and that this promise becomes like a powerful force in your family moving through the generations. It's been my pleasure since I've been involved with our world missions each year to commission our new missionaries, and I really look forward to that, because I seek to send them forth with the promise of God that Jesus Christ will be victorious. This morning I want to send you, because I simply want to stand under the authority of Jesus, because he says that's what I'm supposed to do, is to call you to go. Wherever that is, maybe a new person, maybe you're being sent to be a new person, maybe you're being sent to ask forgiveness. Maybe you're being sent to teach, maybe you're being sent by God after an encounter with Him and with His promises. To preach, my friend John Huffman said this, remember this, no matter how old or young you are, you are meant to be sent. Be willing to be surprised by God. Open yourselves to a maturing faith that enables you to be continually used by God. That is what I pray for you, that you will be sent from His presence in His name, under His authority, and with His promise. To share the life of Jesus Christ with those who are in bondage to sin, to be Christ to someone in your life today who needs Jesus, to be God's agent of comfort, to those who mourn, to be a comfort to those who are lonely, to be a friend. And because of how the Father sent the Son to us in the manger on the cross, how He raised Him from the dead, you can trust God, that's what this series has been about, trusting God. You can trust God that wherever God sends you, He will not only be with you, He will go before you. Are you willing to be sent wherever God is sending you? Jesus sent His disciples into the world to preach the gospel and make disciples of all the nations, and He promised, low I am with you always, even to the end of the age, and I will never leave you nor forsake you. Well, as I mentioned earlier, Mike Milton is a very important announcement that we'd like to pass along to you, so let's rejoin Dr. Milton. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, after much prayer and counsel, may and I believe the Lord is leading me to accept His call, to become the president and the professor of practical theology of reformed theological seminary in Charlotte, North Carolina. Let me tell you this, we have been blessed and we have been honored to have served Jesus Christ at First Presbyterian Chattanooga, and we will always cherish our ministry among you. We love you as a congregation more than you'll ever know. There is no good time for transition when love is involved, but we believe this is God's time. We do believe that we are being sent from you by God to raise up a new generation of pastors and missionaries and teachers to preach Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth in our generation, and I have no other vision than that. My son, John Michael, told me one day as I was weeping about answering this call. Dad, we are not leaving a place or a people, we are going to a place and a people, we are following God's call. He was right, and I want you to know that and I love it. I have sought to tell the story that I think I've heard from God. It's a story of God's grace in giving us His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to save poor sinners, broken toys that need to be mended, and the grace of God is the glue. And that's a story that says no matter how broken we can be healed and used for service to Jesus Christ. It's a story that says the very things that are there to hurt you, become in the hands of a loving God the things that bring you to Christ. I hope this story is just a story of the cross, and I hope that has been my theme. I have watched others embrace that story and it has become their story, and that story will go on because it's the old old story of Jesus and His love. The God is now calling us to tell that story to others, and to seek to raise up others who will also tell that story. I am praying for you that you will stay focused on the great commandment to love one another and the great commission to go and make disciples of King Jesus. And our prayer is that you will stay broken and dependent on our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ at the foot of the cross. Trusting that the God who calls and the God who sins is the God who will supply all of our needs according to His riches and glory. With pastoral love for you all, I am your servant for His sake. Mike, I love you. I'm Dan Parker, and this has been a presentation of first Presbyterian Church of Chattanooga.