In
my country of origin (Congo) a driver’s license doesn’t exist and many people don’t
have a passport so to identify myself I will tell you my father’s name, my grandfather’s
name, my tribe and where it is located and the chief of that tribe. This means that in Congo you have to know
your roots to clearly identify where you are from because anybody can steal
your passport.
The
true identity can never be changed. An identity
crisis is to forget who you are and in the Bible we have such stories where
people don’t know who they are.
Acts
7:35, “This is the same Moses they had rejected with the words, 'Who made you
ruler and judge?' He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself,
through the angel who appeared to him in the bush.”
This
Moses who was a human being was told in front of his brothers, “who made you to
be a ruler and a judge?” But of course,
we know that Moses was called by God to be a ruler and a deliverer. I’m reading this verse because of what was
said the last Sunday service where I talked about the nest and said, “you should
never die in your nest”. In your nest
the eagle chicks are just there to wait for their mother to do everything for
them. In the first few weeks they don’t
have any feathers so that cold and rain can attack them and they face any
season and are completely powerless but the eagle mother will come and protect
them against any danger.
Those
chicks don’t know who they are in the same way when we were saved we were
spiritual babies. Just like when we were
first physically born, we were babies and we didn’t know that we were a human
being. Babies don’t think or act like an
adult or even make an effort to discover their identity.
The
first category of Christians are those that act according to their flesh with
one foot in world and another in Kingdom of God. The second category of
Christians are those that are spiritual and stick with God and are committed to
work with God until the end of life and when they do make mistakes they repent
quickly. The third category of Christians
are also known as animal Christians because they know about Word of God but spiritually
they behave just like animals.
Identity
is important and when you don’t know who you are it means you are wrong because
we should know our identity in the Kingdom of God. The eagle chicks will start to grow big and
their feathers will grow and some chicks will try to remove the feathers but
the body will keep growing regardless of having no feathers. Like us, when we try to shave our head, the
hair keeps growing without explanation. When I was a child I asked my mother, “why
does God have such a big store of hair”.
I blamed God because it’s so painful to cut African hair when it’s dry
so I wished it wouldn’t keep growing after it was cut. In the same way that God makes things to grow
physically, He also makes things miraculously to grow up inside of us without
us knowing.
Eagle
chicks at some stage are supposed to leave the nest and live their lives
outside of the nest and the mother won’t come back anymore to feed them. Once this chick leaves the nest, they have to
work for themselves. This is the same for
us Christians, a point comes when we have to work for ourselves and we have to
know our own identity because we are not spiritual babies anymore – we can read
the Bible and understand it and what God wants from me and we can pray and know
who we are in God.
One
time I heard a story about a hen that didn’t want to die so she thought, “let
me remove my feathers so they won’t know I am ready to eat and will still think
I’m a chick,” but the size will let us know that the chicken is no longer a
baby. You and I don’t want to work spiritually
and we try to stay behind. Are you
strong enough to collect the food to bring those who are spiritual babies? Eagle chicks try to keep their eyesight short
in the same way that people don’t want to know what God is doing, or know that Jesus
is coming soon. They only want to hear
about the blessings and what good things God will do for us.
When
Moses was in the palace of Pharaoh, he grew up in that town as a prince but did
he know that he wasn’t a prince? The Bible
says that everybody bowed before Moses and respected him because he was a
powerful man. At some point Moses
started to see there was a connection between him and the Hebrews and he
decided to go and see his brothers working but when he saw them something
touched his heart. Sometimes we feel we
have to pray for others and we have to come close to pray for our brother who
is maybe a drunkard and we feel it is painful, and we pray, “God he has been
living this life of torture for long now and if Jesus comes back where will he
be?” and you feel sorry in your heart because the person lives in slavery.
Moses
saw how his brothers were tortured and he killed an Egyptian. The next morning two brothers were fighting
and he gave simple advice not to fight and they said, ‘who are you to make yourself
a judge and ruler of us’. How often in
your life do you try to intervene in a situation believing you will bring a
solution but everything falls on you and suddenly you get all the blame.
Moses
until that minute knew he was Hebrew but also knew he was Egyptian. Let me be honest...if New Zealand provides me
everything…their passport, food, and beautiful country, nationality and my
other country (Congo) is in war and someone will ask me what is your
nationality I will say New Zealander because I don’t live the life of Congo
anymore. I took the nationality of New Zealand
and lost the nationality of Congo.
Moses
was confuse, “who am I exactly?” He was
telling himself, “I know I’m a prince” in the same way we tell ourselves, “I
know myself and I can’t do that, I can never be tempted in that way, I’m never
rude or proud”. Maybe you are still a chick
spiritually but you believe you are an adult.
Maybe you believe you are something that you are not.
Moses
knew he was in danger of being killed by Pharaoh for killing an Egyptian so he
ran from the punishment. He ran into the
desert where there are no roads so he didn’t know where he was heading. Suddenly God changed Moses’ life from being a
prince to being a refugee. In New
Zealand, people are so good, if they are in trouble they surrender themselves
to the police but in Congo that would never happen because they would be afraid
of dying. If you ran over someone in
Congo you would run away because people would burn you in your car immediately
and the police would do nothing.
Moses
met the seven daughters of Jethro which means ‘exodus’. Jethro’s other name was Reul which means ‘friend
of God’. Those girls reported to their
father that they had met an Egyptian (not a Hebrew man) and he told them to
bring the man to him. Moses was now in
the house of ‘exodus, friend of God’. If
you meet someone called friend of God, you will feel everything now will be
fine. In Jethro’s house, regardless of
the garment Moses was wearing, he was offered the job to take care of the
sheep. Moses now had to discover his
true identity - not what he found in Egypt but what he found in Jethro’s house.
Jethro
may have said something like, “Moses take off your jacket, what time did you
start your day in Egypt…oh, Moses, here in Midian you will wake up at 4am and
go to count the sheep without having breakfast”. When you wake up, what is the first thing you
do in the morning? Do you give glory to God? We can praise God because, “My hands work, my
arms move” and we can count all the blessings to praise God for everything.
Jethro
may have continued, “Ok Moses you have counted sheep, now clean that area,
clean the mess from the sheep”. Maybe
Moses replied, “but I’m a prince. “Yes you used to be but here your identity
has changed”. Moses would have cleaned
and felt tired and pain and Jethro was there to tell him, “yes, you have to do
it” and maybe Moses said, “but your name means ‘friend of God’, how can you as
a believer force me to do this”.
Sometimes your children, friends etc will think you are mean to them
when you say no and tell you that a Christian wouldn’t do this. Sometimes we blame satan for a situation we
are crossing saying that God would never allow this.
Then
Moses had to lead the sheep after cleaning in order feed them and give them
water. Waking up at 4am, cleaning mess
and then 8am he has to take the sheep to feed them. The desert is not like here in New Zealand
with green everywhere. Moses with zero
knowledge of being a shepherd now has to play the role of a dog leading the sheep. At the end of the day Moses came home
completely tired. For 40 years he hadn’t
yet discovered yet exactly who he was.
Sometimes God can make Christians live for a very long time without
discovering who they are. When people
are going to the nightclub they join them, they join the drugs and then at
church they sing and when preacher starts to talk they feel bored and don’t
have the joy to do God’s work.
If
I was Moses with Jethro treating me in that way, I would feel I should be
somewhere else and I would run away to find a better a life.
We
all fight for a better physical life (not spiritual) to feel comfortable where
everything will please their bodies.
People will tell you they know who they are physically but they don’t
themselves spiritually. One time a
person said to me, “I can’t share the Word of God because I’m not good looking”. Do you really know who you are? You stop yourself to look at your physical
appearance while God has created us perfect.
It doesn’t matter what other people think of you so long as God
remembers he created you, that is enough.
When
Moses saw with the fire in the bush he decided to come closer. That was the first time for God to speak to
Moses - not when he first saw the fire, only when Moses came closer. How often have you experienced the fire of God
in worship, reading the Word of God, in someone’s preaching and then afterwards
that fire is gone. Moses wanted to come
closer. The Holy Spirit speaks to you
and you feel it but what do you do afterwards? You close your Bible and say, “I’ll
see you next week”.
Moses
stopped because he wanted to see how a fire could burn without consuming the
bush – he wanted to understand how it works.
After reading the Word of God do you read it again back at home and ask
yourself, what was the preacher telling me? Do you go back to the previous
weeks? My sister will take notes at
church but later you will see those notes in the rubbish and when you ask her
how was the preaching last week, she doesn’t remember. Maybe you are one of those people - do you
take notes to impress people? There is no
bigger mistake in life than cheating yourself.
People say, I’ve made a decision and this is what I will be, from now on
I’ll be a good Christian and I’ll be committed to do this and that. How many times did you tell yourself to be a
very good committed Christian? You make
that decision today and tomorrow you forget about it.
When
Moses was told by God, “this place is holy take off your shoes” Moses covered
his face and understood that it was God speaking and forgot his duty with the
sheep and now it was just him and God.
When you stand in the presence of God, are you there with God alone or
are you thinking about your tasks, lunch after the service, family, and other
people. Many people are in church but
their brain is somewhere else. God is
talking to them, odon, odon, take off your shoes and Odon thinks to himself, “it
sounds like God” but then I’m quickly distracted, “oh, I have work tomorrow”.
God
is trying to reveal your identity. When
you hear the voice of the father you hear your true identity but people try to
shut him down and listen to other voices in their head. When a program is changed people feel so bad
but when an appointment with God is cancelled, they don’t care…it doesn’t
matter we’ll have another opportunity.
When
you start to commit yourself that is when God will reveal your true
identity. Moses was told by God, “go
free My people”. Moses was no longer a
prince or shepherd but is now charged by God to work with people - more than
1.5 million human beings. That’s more
than 10 times the population of Hamilton to be freed by one person who was once
told, “who made you to be a judge or ruler?”
Who are you, God is sending you to your family, your friends, your work
collegues who humiliate you every time, while you are just a women or just a
child.
When
I was a child, my sisters would isolate me because I was a boy. Whatever I would say, they wouldn’t care. Maybe you cross a situation where God puts
you in a position in a community, church or work and no one will listen to you
and they say, “who appointed you to be a judge or to give advice?” The true identity God gives to us is to be a
deliverer and judge so go back to those people and rule them, deliver
them…how? Once you know you are a
deliverer or a ruler it will be very easy to be a servant of God, “my boss, how
are you today?” find your way to start a conversation, “good to see nice
weather today”. Don’t stop there, they
will fight against you but keep praying for them and go back to them.
When
I was young, around 10-12 years old, in my country they started to immunize
against cholera and to avoid that I would say I was too young and all my
friends would say we are in the same class.
Sometimes we try to hide ourselves but the world and the Lord will
expose us. You are capable of fulfilling
Gods work, just get yourself ready.
Moses
tried to excuse himself, “I can’t talk” and we also try to use excuses. You might not be ready but God is ready to
use you, you might not feel strong enough but God is strong, just keep your
commitment and God will discover your identity.
Anyone
can sit an exam and if you fail, just take it again and again. Make a decision to live as a person with an
identity. Ask God to clarify who you
are, “am I a child or a chick, let me discover” and regardless of what happened
previously, come close to God and let Him give you a mission for march.
The
mission for Moses was to be a leader. “Lord
if I’m a leader, show me how to do it, if I’m a messenger, show me how to
preach, give me the tools” and whatever God gives you share and save as many
people as possible. Jesus was rejected,
Moses was rejected and to be rejected is normal and the misfits are the ones
that God uses. You don’t fit in because God
doesn’t want you to.
My
son is good at dancing and everyone appreciates his dancing. In church he doesn’t dance but out at a party
he will prove to everyone how capable he is to dance but when it’s time to read
the Bible there is zero chance he will do it.
I tell God, “look at this, what kind of child is this”. He knows God but is too lazy and lacks
commitment except for food. He can move
from outside and come home for food but after eating if I tell him to clean his
plate he becomes sick. He moves from
happiness to sadness and tries to find another way. If I ask him to vacuum it’ll take ten minutes
to vacuum two meter square because he keeps changing the song on his i-pod
instead of just working. Why is he like
that? No commitment.
It’s
very important to identity yourself in Kingdom of God. Come close to God and He will speak to you. If you speak from a distance, God will say, “come
close, I want to talk to you face to face and I will see those commitments”. Moses did not know that he was a redeemer and
ruler until he came close.
Pray
for yourself and family and friends.
