Speaker 1: I have never met a person who doesn't struggle with
Speaker 1: an identity.
Speaker 2: Crisis in some area.
Speaker 1: You may not even be aware of the crises you
Speaker 1: have in your life, but the issues of who am
Speaker 1: I and what am I supposed to do with by
Speaker 1: life are two of the most important issues you have
Speaker 1: to settle. The greatest leader in the entire Old Testament
Speaker 1: was Moses. I mean Moses in essence created the nation
Speaker 1: of Israel. There was the family of the Jews, but
Speaker 1: the nation of Israel all came about because of Moses.
Speaker 1: Moses was the greatest leader in the Old Testament. He
Speaker 1: freed the Jews from four hundred years of slavery. God
Speaker 1: shows him to give the Ten Commandments to man, and
Speaker 1: he wrote the first five books of the Bible Genesis, Exos, Viticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.
Speaker 1: It would be hard to name somebody more important than
Speaker 1: the Old Testament than Moses. But it all started Moses
Speaker 1: learned his true identity. Because this is a guy who
Speaker 1: grew up with a confused or actually false, fake identity.
Speaker 2: You know the story.
Speaker 1: The Jews had been slaves in Egypt for four hundred years,
Speaker 1: and one day Farroh decided we're getting too many Jews
Speaker 1: in this country. So he commanded that the firstborn boys,
Speaker 1: all the young boys, be murdered, be put to death.
Speaker 1: Moses' mother created a plan, said, I'm not going to
Speaker 1: kill my son, and so she put him in a
Speaker 1: wove a little basket and put him in the Nile River,
Speaker 1: right where Farroh's daughter went out to bathe. So you
Speaker 1: can actually say Moses began as a basket case. So
Speaker 1: there's hope for you, all right, there's hope for you.
Speaker 1: Moses started off as a basket case. And as you
Speaker 1: know the story, she put the the baby in the
Speaker 1: Nile River and posted his sister to watch over the.
Speaker 2: Basket.
Speaker 1: And sure enough, Moses was picked up by Pharaoh's daughter
Speaker 1: and she took the baby home. He's a Jewish baby,
Speaker 1: she's Egyptian. Here's a confused identity. She takes the baby
Speaker 1: back to the palace and tells everybody it's her baby.
Speaker 1: Moses grows up thinking he's the son of Pharaoh's daughter,
Speaker 1: thinking he's an Egyptian royalty. Moses grows up thinking he's
Speaker 1: the grandson of Pharaoh. He's not even Egyptian. He's got
Speaker 1: a confused identity. And when he gets old enough, he
Speaker 1: learns the truth about himself. And this story of lost
Speaker 1: and confused identity and how he discovered his real identity
Speaker 1: and how it changed his own life and changed history
Speaker 1: is the story I want us to look at this weekend.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: The story is summarized actually in the New Testament in
Speaker 1: Hebrews chapter eleven, So pull out your notes. And in
Speaker 1: Hebrews eleven, verse twenty three, we have the story.
Speaker 2: By faith.
Speaker 1: Moses' parents hid him for three months after he was
Speaker 1: born because they saw he was no ordinary child, and
Speaker 1: they were not afraid of the king's edict. By faith, Moses,
Speaker 1: when he had grown up, refused to be known as
Speaker 1: the son of Pharaoh's daughter. After he found out his
Speaker 1: true identity, he refused to be known as the son
Speaker 1: of Pharaoh's daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with
Speaker 1: the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures
Speaker 1: of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for
Speaker 1: the sake of Christ as of greater value than the
Speaker 1: treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward,
Speaker 1: and by faith, he left Egypt not fearing the king's anger,
Speaker 1: and he persevered because he saw him who is invisible?
Speaker 1: Now in this passage that we've just read, there's so
Speaker 1: much material we can actually spend the entire series just
Speaker 1: on this passage. But I want this weekend for you
Speaker 1: to just see four things that knowing who you are,
Speaker 1: Knowing who God made you to be, Knowing your true identity,
Speaker 1: not the identity your parents gave you, not the identity
Speaker 1: that society has given you, Not the identity that an
Speaker 1: ex husband or wife, or boyfriend or girlfriend has given you,
Speaker 1: Not the identity that teachers gave you in school.
Speaker 2: Knowing your true identity does.
Speaker 1: Four things in your life, And that's why we're going
Speaker 1: to do this series. I want you to see this
Speaker 1: Number one, Knowing my identity demonstrates spiritual maturity. Knowing my
Speaker 1: identity demonstrates my spiritual maturity. Now, Moses, like all the
Speaker 1: rest of us, growing up, asked the same questions we do,
Speaker 1: and when we grow up, we ask questions like who
Speaker 1: am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going?
Speaker 1: What am I supposed to do with my life? What
Speaker 1: is my purpose? Does my life matter? Does my life
Speaker 1: have meaning?
Speaker 2: What am I? And who am I?
Speaker 1: You know if I held up an object up here
Speaker 1: and you had never seen it, and I said, what's the
Speaker 1: purpose of the object, You wouldn't know, because the only
Speaker 1: way you would know if I held up something you'd
Speaker 1: never seen for is you'd either have to talk to
Speaker 1: the owner who created it, the inventor some new invention,
Speaker 1: or read the owner's manual, and then you know, oh,
Speaker 1: that's the purpose of that device. The same thing is
Speaker 1: true with you. You're not going to know who you
Speaker 1: are until you talk to the creator who made you.
Speaker 1: You're not going to know what you're supposed to do
Speaker 1: with your life until you read the owner's manual. And
Speaker 1: so we start with God Hebrews eleven twenty four.
Speaker 2: Look at that verse again. By faith, Moses.
Speaker 1: When he had grown up, refused to be known as
Speaker 1: the son of Pharaoh's daughter, a circle of the phrase
Speaker 1: when he had grown up. The road to spiritual maturity
Speaker 1: is also the road to personal identity. In other words,
Speaker 1: the closer you get to God, the deeper you're going
Speaker 1: to understand you. Let me say that again, the more
Speaker 1: you understand God, the more you're going to understand you.
Speaker 1: The reason why we have so many people going through
Speaker 1: life in an identity crisis, not knowing who they are
Speaker 1: or what are supposed to do with their life?
Speaker 2: Is they don't know God?
Speaker 1: Now, when Moses grew up, it says he refused circle.
Speaker 2: That word refused. That word in Greek is ore.
Speaker 1: Now it means to reflect on and then disown means
Speaker 1: no turning back. What we got here is a use,
Speaker 1: a clear example of an identity crisis. Moses is born
Speaker 1: a Hebrew slave, That's one thing, but he is raised
Speaker 1: as Egyptian royalty. Which one is he? What's his true identity?
Speaker 1: And at some point he has to decide what am I?
Speaker 1: Am I a poor Jewish slave or am I a
Speaker 1: rich Egyptian royalty. Now he's got true choices very important.
Speaker 1: I can pretend to be Pharaoh's grandson, and if I
Speaker 1: pretend keep on pretending to be Pharaoh's grandson, I'm not
Speaker 1: really his grandson. But if I keep on pretending to
Speaker 1: be Pharaoh's grandson, I will have fame, I will have fortune,
Speaker 1: I will.
Speaker 2: Have luxurious lifestyle, and I will have a great, great career.
Speaker 1: On the other hand, if I admit what I really
Speaker 1: am and who I really am son of Jewish slaves,
Speaker 1: then I'm going to be disgraced. I'm going to be humiliated.
Speaker 1: I'm going to be thrown out and I'm going to
Speaker 1: do slave for the rest of my life. Now, which
Speaker 1: one would you choose? Would you fake it the rest
Speaker 1: of your life? Which one would you choose?
Speaker 2: Moses is a.
Speaker 1: Man of integrity, and he refuses to live a lie.
Speaker 1: So he makes a decision that only changes his destiny,
Speaker 1: it changes history. If Moses hadn't made that decision, friend,
Speaker 1: you wouldn't be sitting there right now. You wouldn't be
Speaker 1: watching online or in any of our campuses. Because if
Speaker 1: Moses hadn't made this decision, there would be no nation
Speaker 1: of Israel, there would be no Messiah, there would be
Speaker 1: no Jesus, there.
Speaker 2: Would be no Christian Church.
Speaker 1: None of this would be going on right now if
Speaker 1: Moses hadn't decided his true identity.
Speaker 2: So he makes a decision.
Speaker 1: It changes his life, and no amount of peer pressure
Speaker 1: is going to persuade him otherwise. Let me say this,
Speaker 1: so much of the stress comes in your life when
Speaker 1: you don't know who you are. When you don't know
Speaker 1: who you are, you let us other people push you
Speaker 1: into molds and into expectations that you weren't meant to fulfill,
Speaker 1: and you mold yourself to them. Now, when I understand
Speaker 1: who my identity is in and what I am, then
Speaker 1: that is the mark of spiritual maturity. Notice it says
Speaker 1: when Moses had grown up, it's the mark of maturity.
Speaker 1: Then the most mature person, spiritually mature person who ever
Speaker 1: lived was Jesus, And that is what it says about
Speaker 1: Jesus John eight fourteen. Jesus said, I know where I
Speaker 1: came from and where I'm going. That's what you call
Speaker 1: a clear idea. There was no doubt in Jesus' mind
Speaker 1: who he was. He knew exactly who he was. And maturity, listen,
Speaker 1: is having an accurate view of you. That's maturity. Have
Speaker 1: an accurate view of you. You know who you are
Speaker 1: and you know who you're not. You know what your
Speaker 1: strengths are and you know your weaknesses. You know what
Speaker 1: you're called to do, you know what you're not called
Speaker 1: to do. You know the purpose of your life and
Speaker 1: you know what's not the purpose.
Speaker 2: Of your life.
Speaker 1: You know your past like Moses did, but you don't
Speaker 1: run from it.
Speaker 2: I want you to write this down on your outline.
Speaker 1: I am a product of my past, but not a
Speaker 1: prisoner of it.
Speaker 2: You might write that one down.
Speaker 1: I'm a product of my past, but I'm not a
Speaker 1: prisoner of it. I don't know what's your past involves.
Speaker 1: You may not even know all your past. But you
Speaker 1: are a product of your past. But it's not your
Speaker 1: destiny because your past is past, and you can make
Speaker 1: choices and you're not a prisoner of your past. Now,
Speaker 1: what I'm talking about is so important because if you
Speaker 1: don't understand who you are, you're not gonna have confidence.
Speaker 2: You said, why do I need confidence?
Speaker 1: Because if you don't have confidence, you can't be what
Speaker 1: God made you to be, and you won't serve other people.
Speaker 1: Let me show you. Verse John thirteen three to five.
Speaker 2: Says this Jesus knew that he had come from God.
Speaker 2: That means he knows his identity.
Speaker 1: He also knew that the Father had given him complete power,
Speaker 1: so he's very confident in who he is and what
Speaker 1: he can do. Notice as a result of his knowing
Speaker 1: his identity, it says he got up, wrapped a towel
Speaker 1: around his waist and began washing the disciples feet, which
Speaker 1: is a mark of ultimate service.
Speaker 2: I mean slaves did this in those days.
Speaker 1: Now, the Bible says Jesus was able to be a
Speaker 1: servant to others because he knew who he was. Insecure
Speaker 1: people cannot serve others. Insecure people cannot minister to others.
Speaker 1: Only when you know who you are. He said, I
Speaker 1: know who I am, and I knew where he came from.
Speaker 1: I'm from God, and I know what power of God.
Speaker 1: And with that confidence he could get on his knees
Speaker 1: and do humble work.
Speaker 2: Most people can act like servants.
Speaker 1: Because they're too afraid that people will think they're less
Speaker 1: than they are. They're worried about the feelings and others.
Speaker 1: Knowing your identity gives you confidence. Now, success in life
Speaker 1: comes from being who God made you to be. You're
Speaker 1: never going to succeed trying to be somebody you're not.
Speaker 1: You can only be who God made you to be.
Speaker 1: And success comes from accepting who God made you to be,
Speaker 1: and then mastering who God made you to be and
Speaker 1: multiplying who God made you to be.
Speaker 2: This is spiritual maturity.
Speaker 1: And so really the series we're going to go into
Speaker 1: is really a spiritual maturity series, because maturity means I
Speaker 1: don't need others' approval.
Speaker 2: To do what's right.
Speaker 1: I can do it regardless of what you think. And
Speaker 1: the fact is a lot of times at work you're
Speaker 1: afraid to do the right thing because of what other
Speaker 1: people think. You're afraid to say the right thing because
Speaker 1: of what other people think, at school, or in your neighborhood,
Speaker 1: ornywhere else. But when you're mature, you don't try to
Speaker 1: be somebody you're not. Number two. The second reason we're
Speaker 1: doing this series is because knowing my true identity not
Speaker 1: only demonstrates spiritual maturity, it defines my responsibilities. Knowing who
Speaker 1: God made to me me my true identity defines my responsibilities.
Speaker 1: In other words, it clarifies what God expects me to do,
Speaker 1: and it also clarifies what God doesn't expect.
Speaker 2: Me to do.
Speaker 1: I'm going to shock you, but God does not expect
Speaker 1: me to be an opera singer. Why how do I
Speaker 1: know that? Because I'm not wired to sing like an
Speaker 1: opera So I know that God shaped me to do
Speaker 1: what I'm doing and didn't shape me to do a
Speaker 1: lot of other things. What I'm saying is this, God
Speaker 1: created you to do some things, but he did not
Speaker 1: create you to do everything. Some of you are under
Speaker 1: stress because you're trying to do everything. If you were
Speaker 1: always under stress over your to do list. Then you're
Speaker 1: doing things God never intended you for do because God
Speaker 1: would give, never give you more to do than He
Speaker 1: gives you the time to do it. You have just
Speaker 1: enough time to do the will of God. So God
Speaker 1: created you to do some things, but not do everything.
Speaker 1: And that's a stress reliever when you realize that, I'm
Speaker 1: glad that God isn't going to hold me responsible for
Speaker 1: talents I don't have, and God isn't going to hold
Speaker 1: you responsible either. But you are responsible to be who
Speaker 1: God made you to be. And that goes back to identity.
Speaker 1: Knowing what true identity defines my responsibility. Now, let's think
Speaker 1: about this. God's goal for Moses was that he become
Speaker 1: the national deliverer of the Jews. God planned it a
Speaker 1: thousand years before Moses was born. That's what he wanted
Speaker 1: Moses to do with his life, and so God orchestrated
Speaker 1: everything so Moses could be that become what God wanted
Speaker 1: to become. He orchestrated who Moses' parents would be so
Speaker 1: he would have just the right DNA to be the
Speaker 1: leader God wanted him to be. But then he orchestrated
Speaker 1: that Moses' parents would not raise him. That was part
Speaker 1: of the plan too, that he would be born by
Speaker 1: one set of parents and he would be raised by
Speaker 1: another set, so he would get exactly in the position.
Speaker 2: That God wanted him to be. Hm.
Speaker 1: Maybe you weren't raised by your parents. Maybe you were
Speaker 1: raised by a relative or a step parent, not your
Speaker 1: birth mother or your birth father, or you were raised
Speaker 1: by somebody in societ. Maybe you were orphaned as a child.
Speaker 1: Do you realize that even then, that God had your
Speaker 1: best interest at heart?
Speaker 2: Do you realize.
Speaker 1: That that God, you said, well, why didn't why don't
Speaker 1: Why didn't even know my parents? Why did God choose
Speaker 1: my parents to be my parents? Because they had the
Speaker 1: exact DNA needed to make you, and God was more
Speaker 1: interested in you than he was in the their parenting skills.
Speaker 1: And so even if you never knew your parents, Moses
Speaker 1: didn't know his parents for many, many, many many years,
Speaker 1: And that was part of the plan, because God said,
Speaker 1: I'm going to use all these circumstances to make you
Speaker 1: use Now, when Moses learns his real identity, he immediately
Speaker 1: knows his assignment.
Speaker 2: He goes whit.
Speaker 1: Minute, I'm really a hebrew An Israeli, I'm a Jewish slave.
Speaker 1: But I was raised in Pharaoh's court, and so I
Speaker 1: know all about algebra. I know geometry, and I know leadership,
Speaker 1: and I know geography, and I know architecture, and I
Speaker 1: know all these things I wouldn't know if I were
Speaker 1: a slave. Moses knew his assignment. He could not ignore
Speaker 1: the cries of the people in pain. He accepts his mention,
Speaker 1: He accepts his responsibility. Knowing my identity clarifies defines my responsibility.
Speaker 2: Now here's what it says, verse twenty five.
Speaker 1: As a result, Moses chose to be mistreated along with
Speaker 1: the people of God, that's the slaves, rather than to
Speaker 1: enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time.
Speaker 2: Now here's an interesting thing.
Speaker 1: In verse twenty four, God chose Moses as a baby,
Speaker 1: but in verse twenty five, Moses had.
Speaker 2: To choose God when he grew up.
Speaker 1: See God chose you before you were even born, but
Speaker 1: now you got to choose him as an adult. In
Speaker 1: Verse twenty four we have Moses refusing. He refused to
Speaker 1: be called called Fhroh's grandson, refusing, And in verse twenty
Speaker 1: five we have Moses choosing. He replaces a negative with
Speaker 1: a positive, following God in your life is going to
Speaker 1: mean saying no to some things and saying yes to
Speaker 1: some other things, a negative and a positive in your life.
Speaker 1: And in verse twenty four, it says when he had
Speaker 1: grown up, when Moses was a little baby, it was
Speaker 1: okay for him to live off his parents' faith, but
Speaker 1: eventually he had to make his own decision. So we
Speaker 1: find a couple more marks of maturity in this passage.
Speaker 1: I want you to write these down. Here are two
Speaker 1: more marks of spiritual maturity. Number one is I stop
Speaker 1: blaming others for my life's direction.
Speaker 2: That's a mark of maturity. Have you got there yet?
Speaker 1: I stop blaming others for my life's direction. That's a
Speaker 1: mark of maturity. Now, in today's culture, that's pretty hard
Speaker 1: to do because in today's culture, in today's society, we
Speaker 1: are taught nothing is ever your fault. You are a
Speaker 1: product of your environment. It's always somebody else's fault. It's
Speaker 1: the government's fault, it's the school's fault, it's your parents fault,
Speaker 1: it's society's fault. And we have a society and a
Speaker 1: generation that is allergic to personal responsibility, particularly in the
Speaker 1: areas of money and sex. We are allergic to personal responsibility.
Speaker 1: Even bring it up, and people get upset with you
Speaker 1: if you talk about being responsible and spending I mean
Speaker 1: in the government or responsible in sex. I stop blaming
Speaker 1: other people for my life's direction. Now, let me just
Speaker 1: say this. Other people can hurt you, and they will.
Speaker 1: Other people can hurt you.
Speaker 2: Other people can harm you, other people can scar you.
Speaker 1: But nobody can ruin your life without your permission. It's choice.
Speaker 1: Nobody can ruin your life except you. And maturity is
Speaker 1: when I stop blaming other people for my life's direction.
Speaker 1: Second market maturity we see here in Moses is this,
Speaker 1: I stop living off others spiritual commitment. I stopped living
Speaker 1: off of others spiritual commitment. As a baby, Moses didn't
Speaker 1: have any faith, but his parents did, so they hit him,
Speaker 1: and then they had faith to put him in a
Speaker 1: little basket, believing that even God was in control there.
Speaker 1: And they had faith to believe that when their son
Speaker 1: was being raised by Pharaoh's daughter that it was all.
Speaker 2: Part of the plan. It was all their parents' faith there.
Speaker 1: But when he grows up, Moses had to accept responsibility
Speaker 1: for his own life. I can stop living off other's commitments.
Speaker 1: You know, sometimes hear people say, well my parents were Christians.
Speaker 1: Well that didn't make any difference. You got to make
Speaker 1: that person. My girlfriend loves the Lord. My boyfriend loves
Speaker 1: the Lord. How about you? I stopped living off other's commitment,
Speaker 1: Who were you blaming for the pain and the direction
Speaker 1: of your life? And who are you using incas excuse
Speaker 1: to live off their faith? While my wife's a strong believer,
Speaker 1: well how about you, When are you going to stop
Speaker 1: living off of her faith? It's time to accept responsibility
Speaker 1: for your own spiritual condition. Romans fourteen twelve says this,
Speaker 1: each of us will give an account of himself to God.
Speaker 1: And when I'm standing for God one day, I'm not
Speaker 1: going to say, but you know, Kay was pretty good
Speaker 1: at prayer, and God's going to say, well how about you?
Speaker 2: How about you? All right?
Speaker 1: Number three in the back of your outline. Third reason
Speaker 1: we're doing this series on creating a positive ID is
Speaker 1: that knowing my true identity decides my priorities. It decides
Speaker 1: my priorities. It helps me know what to focus on
Speaker 1: and what to ignore.
Speaker 2: Knowing my true.
Speaker 1: Identity helps me know what's important in life and it's
Speaker 1: not important in life. Knowing that true identity helps me
Speaker 1: do what's valuable in life and what's not valuable, what matters,
Speaker 1: and what doesn't matter.
Speaker 2: Now, Moses born Hebrew slave, raised.
Speaker 1: Egyptian royalty, confused identity, and at some point he goes
Speaker 1: who's the real me? And what he decides on that
Speaker 1: is going to affect the rest of his life. And
Speaker 1: he's got plenty of excuses to ignore those in pain
Speaker 1: all around him. He can look out there and see
Speaker 1: all these slaves starving, being mistreated, being abused, dying in
Speaker 1: the pits as they're building the pyramids and all these things.
Speaker 1: And he could have made up all kinds of excuses.
Speaker 1: He could say, well, you know, really, it's none of
Speaker 1: my business. Do you ever say that when you see
Speaker 1: people in pain?
Speaker 2: It's none of my business. He could have said, besides,
Speaker 2: I have palace priorities, things to do. Here's Pharaoh's grandson.
Speaker 1: He could have said, I'll work from the inside, I'll
Speaker 1: work in the system. No, once Moses knows his identity,
Speaker 1: it completely changes his priorities.
Speaker 2: Things that he thought were important, they are not important anymore.
Speaker 1: Things that he thought weren't important, all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: they're of utmost important.
Speaker 2: We'll find that.
Speaker 1: In verse twenty six, Moses regarded disgrace for the sake
Speaker 1: of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt,
Speaker 1: because he was looking ahead to his reward now.
Speaker 2: Circle the word regarded.
Speaker 1: That word there in Greek means to evaluate. It means
Speaker 1: to consider. It means to weigh in the balance. What's
Speaker 1: Moses doing. He's making a value judgment. He said, what's
Speaker 1: more important in the way I use my life? Have
Speaker 1: fun in the palace or help the slaves in pain?
Speaker 1: He says, I regard the disgraces crisis of greater value.
Speaker 2: Circle the word value. Let's just get real personal. If
Speaker 2: I were to ask you, what are the five most
Speaker 2: important values in your life?
Speaker 1: Could you name them? And could you name them in
Speaker 1: order of importance? If I asked you to name what's
Speaker 1: the five most important values in your life? What's number one?
Speaker 1: What's number two? Number three, number four, number five? What
Speaker 1: are the priorities in your life? Could you name them?
Speaker 1: Have identified them? You know what, if you don't know
Speaker 1: what matters to you, If you don't know what's important
Speaker 1: to you, other people will decide it for you. Other
Speaker 1: people will decide for you what's important Do you want that?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 1: So, And by the way, if you haven't set your priorities,
Speaker 1: what are the five most important values in my life?
Speaker 1: What are the five most important things I want to
Speaker 1: do with my life? What are the five things that
Speaker 1: matter most to me in life? If you haven't set those,
Speaker 1: you certainly can't live by them, if you haven't even
Speaker 1: identified them. So that's your homework this week. I want
Speaker 1: you to go home. I want you to sit down.
Speaker 1: I want you to make a list of what's the
Speaker 1: five most important things in my life in order because
Speaker 1: if you don't know that, other people are going to
Speaker 1: pressure you and push you and conform you and mold
Speaker 1: you into what they think is important. Now here's what
Speaker 1: Moses rejected. He rejected the world's priorities, and he set
Speaker 1: his own priorities. So let's look at what the world's
Speaker 1: priorities are. In verse twenty four, twenty five, and twenty six,
Speaker 1: we have three priorities that Moses rejected, and now thousands
Speaker 1: and thousands and thousands.
Speaker 2: Of years later, you know what they are. They're still
Speaker 2: the same.
Speaker 1: There are three things that are most important in this
Speaker 1: world to most people. Every advertisement is built on one
Speaker 1: of these three values here. They are number one, popularity.
Speaker 2: Ularity. I want to be popular.
Speaker 1: It could be called status, it could be called prestige,
Speaker 1: it could be called power. But the idea is, I
Speaker 1: want to be famous. I want to be admired. I
Speaker 1: want to be valued. I want to be worshiped. I
Speaker 1: want to be loved and esteemed. And I want to
Speaker 1: be popular. I want to be liked. Now, Moses already
Speaker 1: had that one down.
Speaker 2: He already had that one.
Speaker 1: He's a celebrity, he's Pharaoh's grandson. He gets into all
Speaker 1: the clubs. He doesn't even have to show any idea.
Speaker 2: Oh that's Moses. Let him in. He's a VIP, Pharaoh's grandson.
Speaker 2: He's a celebrity.
Speaker 1: He's got status, he's got fame, he's got power. He's
Speaker 1: going to walk away from it. The second thing that
Speaker 1: the world values is pleasure. Popularity and then pleasure. Verse
Speaker 1: twenty five talks about he rejected the pleasure of sin.
Speaker 1: Now Moses lives in the Palace in Egypt, which is
Speaker 1: the pleasure capital of the ancient world. Anything he would
Speaker 1: want would be given to the grandson of Pharaoh. I mean,
Speaker 1: if he wants his grapes. Fieled they're going to feel
Speaker 1: his grapes if he wants champagne and caviar with every meal.
Speaker 1: The son of Pharaoh's a grandson is going to get
Speaker 1: all he wants. Okay, there is a harem in the palace.
Speaker 1: He can have all the sex he wants. Is he
Speaker 1: has got every known pleasure to man at his fingertips
Speaker 1: as the grandson of Pharaoh.
Speaker 2: But he walks away from it.
Speaker 1: In verse twenty six, the third thing the world values
Speaker 1: is possessions. We value popularity, pleasure, and possessions. And the
Speaker 1: Bible calls it the treasure of Egypt, because at that
Speaker 1: time all the wealth of the ancient world was stored
Speaker 1: up in Pharaoh's palace. Pharaoh was the most powerful and
Speaker 1: the wealthiest man in the world at that time. There
Speaker 1: was no other place where he could find more wealth
Speaker 1: than where he was. What am I saying by the
Speaker 1: world standard, Moses has it made. He's got sex, he
Speaker 1: got salary, he's got status, he's got possession, position, and pleasure,
Speaker 1: and power, and possessions he's got. Moses walked away from
Speaker 1: what every American spends their life trying to get more possessions,
Speaker 1: more pleasure, more popularity. He walked away from what we
Speaker 1: walked away Why because he knew they don't last. And
Speaker 1: because his identity determined his priorities. His identity showed his maturity.
Speaker 1: His identity showed his responsibility, what he's responsible for, what
Speaker 1: he's not responsible for. And his identity shows his priority,
Speaker 1: what matters and what doesn't. And he walks away from it. Because,
Speaker 1: as I said, to say yes to God, you often
Speaker 1: have to say no to some other things. So what
Speaker 1: did Moses consider? We're his priorities? You might write these
Speaker 1: down because here's what these verses say. It says three
Speaker 1: things Moses as ided. Number one, fulfilling.
Speaker 2: God's purpose is better than popularity. That was obvious.
Speaker 1: He said, you know what, here's what God wants me
Speaker 1: to do with my life. I may not be as
Speaker 1: popular as if I stay as the eventual pharaoh of Egypt.
Speaker 1: But he said, you know what, Fulfilling God's purpose is
Speaker 1: far more important to me. It's better than popularity because
Speaker 1: fame doesn't last. Yeah, fulfilling God's purpose better than popularity.
Speaker 1: Number Two, he said, you know what I learned this
Speaker 1: Loving God's people is better than pleasure. He said, I'm
Speaker 1: going to walk away from the pleasures of the palace
Speaker 1: to hang out with a group of slaves for the
Speaker 1: next forty years. I'm going to love God's people, and
Speaker 1: that's better than pleasure. And number three, having God's peace
Speaker 1: is better than possessions. He said, you know what, I've
Speaker 1: got all this stuff here, But if I stay here
Speaker 1: in the palace, I'm not going to be happy. I'm
Speaker 1: not going to be at peace because I know I
Speaker 1: wasn't made for this. I was made for something else.
Speaker 1: I was made for something better. I was made for
Speaker 1: God's purpose. And God's peace is better than possessions. And
Speaker 1: peace comes from doing God's purpose, and you can't buy that.
Speaker 1: Think about this if you go back and read this passage.
Speaker 1: Moses rejects the world's measure, the world's treasure, and the
Speaker 1: world's pleasure. He rejects the world's measure of success. I'm
Speaker 1: at the pinnacle, I'm fair grandson. He rejects the world's treasure.
Speaker 1: All the wealth is in the palace. He rejects the
Speaker 1: world's pleasure anything I want, and he walks away from
Speaker 1: the world's measure, treasure and pleasure.
Speaker 2: In order to follow God.
Speaker 1: Now, what in the world would motivate Moses to do
Speaker 1: that to change his priorities long term thinking. Verse twenty
Speaker 1: six says this he looked ahead to his reward. He
Speaker 1: looked ahead to his reward. Would you write this down
Speaker 1: on your outline? Vision determines values. Vision determines values. My
Speaker 1: vision determines my values. What I'm looking at, what I'm
Speaker 1: focusing on, is going to cause me to decide what's
Speaker 1: important in my life. And Moses was a man vision.
Speaker 1: He looked ahead to his reward.
Speaker 2: He wasn't looking.
Speaker 1: At what he was going to experience in because it
Speaker 1: wasn't very promising. I'm going to go walk through the
Speaker 1: desert for forty years. But it was a man of vision.
Speaker 1: He looked ahead to his reward. By the way, so
Speaker 1: did Paul. Paul was a man of vision. Look at
Speaker 1: this verse on your outlines Philippians three eight. Paul says,
Speaker 1: you know, yes, everything else is worthless when compared with
Speaker 1: the priceless gain of knowing Christ Jesus.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, it just doesn't matter. It's worthless.
Speaker 1: I have my priorities, right, all right, So let's review.
Speaker 1: When I know who I am and I figure out
Speaker 1: what God made me to be, then it shows my
Speaker 1: maturity it defines my responsibility and I don't have I'm
Speaker 1: not responsible for everything.
Speaker 2: I'm only responsible for what God wants me to do.
Speaker 1: And it.
Speaker 2: Decides my priorities.
Speaker 1: And I know what's important, And no it's not number four.
Speaker 1: It determines my destiny. Knowing who you are is important
Speaker 1: because your true identity determines your destiny.
Speaker 2: And if you live a fake ID.
Speaker 1: You're gonna end in a fake destiny, a false destiny,
Speaker 1: not the one God planned for you having and knowing
Speaker 1: my true identity determines my destiny.
Speaker 2: What do I mean by this?
Speaker 1: Once Moses realized who he was, his life takes on
Speaker 1: a whole new direction.
Speaker 2: Why is that?
Speaker 1: Because change always starts in your mind.
Speaker 2: You know what.
Speaker 1: We want to change our circumstances. God wants to change us.
Speaker 1: That's a problem we have in life because we had
Speaker 1: a different agenda than God. We want to change our circumstances.
Speaker 1: God wants to change you. Now, you can change your circumstances,
Speaker 1: but you're gonna keep on having the same problems because
Speaker 1: you take you with you. You could move to a
Speaker 1: whole new location, get a whole new marriage, but you
Speaker 1: take you to the new location and into the new marriage,
Speaker 1: and you're the problem. So what do you need to do?
Speaker 1: I need to change me. And so when I change
Speaker 1: my identity, I change my destiny. Change always starts in
Speaker 1: your mind, with your identity Hebrews eleven twenty seven.
Speaker 2: Here's the next verse. It was by faith.
Speaker 1: That Moses left the land of Egypt. He wasn't afraid
Speaker 1: of the king, and he kept right on going because
Speaker 1: he kept his eyes on the one who is invisible.
Speaker 2: He's talking about God.
Speaker 1: Now, notice this is very important verse because it says
Speaker 1: that learning my true identity does two things to me, okay,
Speaker 1: two things. It does it first, it gives me the
Speaker 1: courage to leave my past behind. Circle the phrase left Egypt,
Speaker 1: he left Egypt. Why did Moses have the courage to
Speaker 1: leave Egypt?
Speaker 2: Because he knew who he was now.
Speaker 1: And when you know your true identity, it gives you
Speaker 1: the courage to leave your past behind. By the way,
Speaker 1: what does Egypt represent? Every time in the Bible? It
Speaker 1: represents slavery and bondage? Question what's your Egypt? What's what's
Speaker 1: your Egypt? What's got you enslaved? What's got you in fear?
Speaker 1: What's got you in bondage? What's got you all stressed
Speaker 1: out and all uptight and in a nott and worried sick?
Speaker 2: What's your Egypt? Have you had the courage to leave it? Yet?
Speaker 2: Have you had the courage to walk out of it? Yet?
Speaker 2: To leave your past behind?
Speaker 1: Remember I'm a product of my past, but I'm not
Speaker 1: a prisoner of it. You know, once you become a Christian,
Speaker 1: Satan loves to remind you of your past. He loves
Speaker 1: to remind you. Go, remember when you did that, Remember
Speaker 1: what you were.
Speaker 2: Listen.
Speaker 1: Whenever Satan reminds you of your past, you remind him
Speaker 1: of his future. Because your future is good hidden it
Speaker 1: in so good, so you remind him of his future.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: God has areas of leadership that he wants you to serve,
Speaker 1: and your area of leadership will often be your area
Speaker 1: of loss. In other words, where you felt the loss,
Speaker 1: where you felt the lack, where you felt the failure,
Speaker 1: where you felt the need. God's going to use that
Speaker 1: to help others. Remember, God never wastes the hurt. So
Speaker 1: he says, when I know my identity, gives me the
Speaker 1: courage to leave the past behind. He had the courage
Speaker 1: to leave Egypt. He wasn't afraid of the king, and
Speaker 1: number two, it gives you the courage to keep going.
Speaker 1: Notice the next that verse, it says he kept right
Speaker 1: on going because he kept his eyes and the one
Speaker 1: who's invisible. See, when you know who you are, Critics
Speaker 1: can't hurt you when you know who you are. Problems
Speaker 1: can't stop you when you know who you are. Sickness
Speaker 1: may delay you, but it's not going to destroy you.
Speaker 1: When you know who you are, you just keep on going.
Speaker 1: So many people start for their dream or their goal
Speaker 1: in life, and they never make it because they give
Speaker 1: up because they've forgotten who they are. Notice it says
Speaker 1: there he was not afraid of the king. You realize
Speaker 1: how important that. It doesn't sound like a big deal
Speaker 1: to you, but in those days in Egypt, Pharaoh was
Speaker 1: the supreme lord and ruler and god of everybody, and
Speaker 1: Pharaoh could command you to do anything, and you had
Speaker 1: to do it or your head was cut off.
Speaker 2: I'm not afraid of you. Why he knows who he is.
Speaker 1: You See, the reason you're afraid of disapproved, the reason
Speaker 1: you're afraid of rejection, the reason you're afraid of other people,
Speaker 1: the reason you're afraid to witness.
Speaker 2: Is you don't know who you are.
Speaker 1: And what we're going to do in this series is
Speaker 1: look at who you are in Christ, and that's going
Speaker 1: to raise your confidence and it's going to lower your stress.
Speaker 1: He was not afraid of the king. Moses looks at
Speaker 1: that guy, goes, I'm not afraid of you letting my
Speaker 1: people go. I report to a higher authority. You may
Speaker 1: be a god in Egypt, but there's a god over
Speaker 1: the whole world, and that's the one and only God.
Speaker 1: And he kept on going. If there's any one word
Speaker 1: that describes the life of Moses, it's this endurance. Moses
Speaker 1: endured so much. Forty years of waiting in the desert
Speaker 1: and Midian, forty years of leading a bunch of spiritual
Speaker 1: babies across a wilderness, forty years of putting up with criticism.
Speaker 1: He waited eighty years to see the fulfillment of God's
Speaker 1: vision in his life. Could you wait eighty years? The
Speaker 1: secret of success is persistence. But the secret of persistence
Speaker 1: is vision. Notice it says there you might circle it.
Speaker 1: He kept his eyes on the one who is invisible.
Speaker 1: That's the key to success in your life. You can
Speaker 1: do the impossible when you see the invisible.
Speaker 2: Now, let me warn you two of the easiest mistakes to.
Speaker 1: Make in life, and we all make them, and they're
Speaker 1: right here in this passage. Two of the easiest mistakes
Speaker 1: we make are forgetting your identity, who you are, and
Speaker 1: losing your focus the vision God gave you.
Speaker 2: When you forget who you are, it's.
Speaker 1: Very easy to get sidetracked, and you forget what you're
Speaker 1: called to do. Your focus and your vision, you're going
Speaker 1: to give up. So let me close with these two
Speaker 1: verses Hebrews twelve to two. The Bible says, keep your
Speaker 1: eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished the race.
Speaker 1: We're in study how he did it because he never
Speaker 1: lost sight. Notice never lost sight. Underline that, keep your vision,
Speaker 1: keep your identity. He never lost sight of where he
Speaker 1: was headed. That exhilarating finish with God. He could put
Speaker 1: up with anything along the way, cross, shame, whatever. Next
Speaker 1: couple weeks, Olympic runners are going to be running all
Speaker 1: kinds of races. I can guarantee you this. None of
Speaker 1: them are going to be watching each other, because if
Speaker 1: you do, you lose the race. They keep focus on
Speaker 1: the goal keep your eyes on Jesus, who began and
Speaker 1: finished the race. He never lost sight of where he
Speaker 1: was headed, so you keep your eyes on him Colossians
Speaker 1: three one and two. Set your sights, that's vision. Set
Speaker 1: your sights on the realities of heaven where Christ sits,
Speaker 1: and let Heaven feel your thoughts. Don't only think about
Speaker 1: things down here on earth, like bills and budgets and
Speaker 1: baseball games.
Speaker 2: I threw that part in.
Speaker 1: Now as we begin this new series on figuring out
Speaker 1: who you are in Christ and what God made you
Speaker 1: to be creating a positive ide I want to ask
Speaker 1: you to make a decision, and I want.
Speaker 2: To ask you to make this decision.
Speaker 1: Decide that you're not going to miss a single one
Speaker 1: of these messages. It could make the difference in the
Speaker 1: rest of your life. Your destiny is determined by your identity,
Speaker 1: and if you don't know your identity, you will miss
Speaker 1: your destiny. If Moses hadn't figured out who he really was,
Speaker 1: he'd be some mummy in some tomb, in some you
Speaker 1: know pyramid, you'd never heard him. He'd be in king
Speaker 1: Tut in the rut. But because he figured out who
Speaker 1: he was and he realized, you know, what God even
Speaker 1: had a plan in this I was born by these folks,
Speaker 1: but I was raised by these folks, and.
Speaker 2: That's the plan.
Speaker 1: That's the plan of God for my life, that I
Speaker 1: would be born here and raised here so I could
Speaker 1: do this and that's my true identity. And if you
Speaker 1: will decide that you're not going to miss any week
Speaker 1: in this series, I guarantee you it will deepen your confidence,
Speaker 1: and it will strengthen your ability to handle stress and
Speaker 1: avoid pressure and bring somebody with you each week, because
Speaker 1: you know what everybody around you is struggling with this issue,
Speaker 1: the issue of personal identity. I have never met a
Speaker 1: person who doesn't struggle with an identity crisis in some
Speaker 1: area now. One you may not even be aware of
Speaker 1: the crises you have in your life, but the issues
Speaker 1: of who am I and what am I supposed to
Speaker 1: do with my life are two of the most important
Speaker 1: issues you have to settle. That's powerheads. Would you pray
Speaker 1: this prayer in your heart? Father, I want to grow
Speaker 1: to spiritual maturity. I don't want to remain a baby
Speaker 1: in spiritual diapers. I want to know who I am
Speaker 1: and what I'm called to do, and I don't want
Speaker 1: to let other people push me into their molds. But
Speaker 1: because I'm often insecure, I let that happen. Because as
Speaker 1: I often feel insecure, I feel unable to be like
Speaker 1: Jesus and wash the feet of others, to serve my wife,
Speaker 1: or to serve my husband in a christ like way,
Speaker 1: or to serve my neighborhood, or to serve those who
Speaker 1: need it most.
Speaker 2: And father.
Speaker 1: The truth is, I often feel overwhelmed by all the
Speaker 1: things that I think I'm supposed to be doing. It
Speaker 1: just reveals that I don't know my identity and I'm
Speaker 1: trying to do more than you made me to do.
Speaker 1: I want to learn my responsibilities and set the priorities
Speaker 1: that are important, to know what matters and know what
Speaker 1: doesn't matter, and do not worry about the rest. I
Speaker 1: want to focus on what you made me to be
Speaker 1: and do, and I want to fulfill the destiny by
Speaker 1: which you created me.
Speaker 2: I want to keep my eyes on you, Jesus.
Speaker 1: If you've never invited Christ in your life, said Jesus, Christ,
Speaker 1: come into my life right now. I want to begin
Speaker 1: a relationship with you.
Speaker 2: I want to get to.
Speaker 1: Know you in this series and follow you and fulfill
Speaker 1: my destiny.
Speaker 2: And year and am I pray amen