Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
God is in the process of breaking that spirit within
us that desires to act independently of God's will. All
of us came into the world with it, all of
us have to deal with it all of our lives,
and his motive is to do so. And in doing so,
he's looking out for you and me. He has something
in mind that he knows the acting of an independent
(00:24):
spirit independent of God is going to be a detriment
to us.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
How does God choose the people he uses? Today? On
in Touch the teaching ministry of doctor Charles Stanley, will
be reminded that he isn't looking for polished or perfect people.
He's looking for those who will listen to him and obey.
Stay with us now for part one of doctor Stanley's message,
Brokenness the Purpose.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Brokenness is God's way of dealing with a self.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Life, that is, that.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Independence with the us which God must deal with in
order for us to become the person that God wants
us to be. And by brokenness we simply mean not
that a person could lose their zest for living, but
that rather every area of that person's life would be
brought into submission to the will and purposes of God.
(01:19):
Because it is his plan that you and I would
be controlled not by a flesh, not by our five
senses of the body, not by our own stubborn, independent will,
but rather by the presence of the Holy Spirit within us.
And so God has so arranged our life that this
outer man with which we relate to our environment, and
(01:40):
the inner man, our soul, our mind, will, emotion, conscience,
and consciousness may be brought into submission to the Spirit
who lives within us, in order that our life would
be an expression of the indwelling presence of Jesus Christ.
That is God's ultimate design for all of us. Now,
this is the second in our series of messages on
(02:03):
brokenness the Way to Blessing. The first one brokenness the
principle today, brokenness the purpose.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Why is it that God breaks us?
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Why is it that God shatters and chisels and sands
and prunes away our life until finally we are brought
into submission to him? Why is it that God keeps
on doing that when we are so rebellious sometimes and
so independent in our spirit. And if you'll turn to
Exodus chapter two, I want us to read one simple
(02:35):
passage from which we will depart, and our message on
brokenness the purpose. And you'll recall that Moses has grown
up now from that little boy who is found in
the Nile River. And verse eleven of chapter two says,
now it came about in those days when Moses had
(02:55):
grown up, that he went out to his brethren and
looked on their hard labors. And he saw an Egyptian
beating a Hebrew one of his brethren. So he looked
this way and that, and when he saw there was
no one around, he struck down the Egyptian and hid
him in the sand. And he went out the next day,
and behold two Hebrews were fighting with each other. And
(03:18):
he said to the offender, why are you striking your companion?
But he said, who made you a prince or a
judge over us? Are you intending to kill me as
you killed the Egyptian. Then Moses was afraid, and he said,
surely the matter has become known. When Pharaoh heard of
this matter, he tried to kill Moses. But Moses fled
(03:42):
from the presence of Pharaoh and settled in the land
of Midian, and he sat down there by a well.
Now forty years later, chapter three, verse one, Now Moses
was pasturing the flock of Jethro, his father in law,
the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to
the west out of the wilderness, and came to Horeb,
(04:02):
the mountain of God, the backside of the desert, and
the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a
blazing fire from the midst of a bush. And he
looked and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet
the bush was not consumed. So Moses said, I must
turn aside now and see this marvelous sight, while the
bush is not burned up. When the Lord saw that,
(04:23):
he turned aside to look. God called to him from
the midst of the bush and said Moses, Moses, and
he said, here I am. There are two primary reasons,
two primary purposes for which God breaks us. The first
purpose is spiritual maturities.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
I want you to jot that down.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
In fact, I'm going to give you a number of
things to jot down the two primary purposes. So that
are two primary points to this message, one of them
spiritual maturity. God breaks us in order to mature us
and to make us christ Like. Now in the process
of maturing, there are three things that are involved. First
of all, change if you're not willing to change, You're
(05:08):
not going to grow on your spiritual life. Immature, you
can't hold on the old ways, old ideas, old thoughts,
erroneous concepts about God, about the Holy Spirit, about the
Christian life. You can't hold onto those and grow on
your Christian life. So maturing means change. But likewise, maturing
requires growing. That is growing toward moving toward Christ's likeness
(05:33):
in your spirit, Moving toward of dependence upon the Lord
Jesus Christ, Moving toward allowing the Holy Spirit to govern
and God and guard your life. Moving toward the position
wherein your body and your soul are brought into submission
to the Holy Spirit, so that Jesus Christ can express
(05:53):
His life through you. And the third element in that
maturity is brokenness. First of all, there must be change,
secondly growth, and third brokenness. That is God dealing with
a self life within us.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
That is that.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Spirit of independence that wants to act independently of God's will,
that spirit within us that desires to act independently of
God's will. All of us came into the world with it,
all of us have to deal with it, all of
our lives. God is in the process of breaking that,
and his motive is to do so, and in doing so,
(06:30):
he's looking out for you and me. He has something
in mind that he knows the acting of an independent spirit,
independent of God is going to be a detriment to us. Now,
I want us to look at this whole question of
brokenness today as far as its purpose in the life
of Moses. And I want us to see, for just
a moment a little background in Moses' life. Remember, Joseph
(06:56):
was sold by his brothers.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
To a caravan. He went to Egypt.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
He was purchased by a certain man and became a
servant in Potiphar's household, falsely accused by his wife, placed
in the prison, stayed there for some time. God gave
the butler and the baker in prison a dream. Joseph
interpreted the dream. One day he was in prison. The
(07:24):
next day he's the prime minister of all of Egypt
and saved them from destruction because of seven years of famine.
Well during that time and before it happened, he sent
for his family, and so those seventy people came down
into Egypt, and therefore they.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Were saved from the famine.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
And that was the beginning of a family in Egypt
that grew into something close to two and a.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Half to three millions of people.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
And now the Bible says, after Joseph died, a pharaoh
rose who did not know Joseph, and therefore they placed
the Hebrew children into bondage, and therefore they became slaves.
They were the slaves of Egyptians. So now Moses, of
course is born during this period of slavery, and because
(08:15):
of the increase of the Hebrews, the law went out
that every male child should be destroyed. His mother sends
him down the Nile river, sends the daughter along to
watch Pharaoh's daughter. By the providential hand of God, her
maiden finds little Moses in the basket, and then this
Hebrew sister shows up on the scene. And what ultimately
(08:39):
happened was that Moses' mother had the privilege of caring
for him in his early years and bringing him up.
Now he has grown up in the household of Pharaoh,
and he sees his people being mistreated. And one day,
the Bible says, he goes out and he sees one
of the Hebrew children being beaten by an Egyptian, and
(09:02):
he looks both ways. He doesn't see anybody looking, so
he kills the Egyptian buries him in the sand. The
next day he comes out overseeing what's going on, finds
two Hebrews fighting each other. Didn't know one of them
saw what he had done, and so one of them
brings up the murder of the Egyptian, and so he
becomes afraid. Pharaoh finds out about it, because Pharaoh is
(09:24):
already afraid of any kind of uprising and rebellion among
the Hebrews, and so he goes after Moses to kill him.
And the Bible says that Moses fled over Endamidian, and
as the King James says, on the back side of
the desert. That's the way he arrived where we find
him in that third chapter, forty long years Moses spends
(09:48):
on the back side of the desert as a shepherd. Now,
what is the motivation for God's breaking Moses. God chose
Moses as the man through whom he would liberate the
Hebrew children out of Egyptian bondage, through whom he would
(10:10):
establish as a nation, and through whom he would ultimately
send the Messiah. So God chose Moses for this tremendous task. Now,
what was the need of being broken in the life
of Moses. Here's a man who is very skilled, has
a tremendous background, He has tremendous credentials. He has prestige
(10:31):
and power and prominence and position, inexhaustible resources. He has
been given a position by Pharaoh. He is, by God's
providential hand, the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
That is, he became hers.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
And now he's grown up in all of this palatial
wealth and all the resources and all that is in
his fingertips. But God has chosen him to liberate them.
So God must begin to work in this man's life.
And therefore, how does he work in this man's life.
He works in his life in the same way he
works in your life and mind. The situation is different,
(11:09):
the time is different, the circumstances are different. But here's
the important thing, the purpose is the same. In order
to prepare Moses for the task that God had for
him to accomplish, God knew that he must break Moses
of his dependence upon anything and every single thing in
(11:32):
his life, so that Moses would be able to stand
saying that he had absolutely nothing but God, Jehovah and Jehovah,
God only upon which to depend. For the simple reason,
he knew that the task that he called him for
would demand that is what I want you to see.
God began the process of preparing Moses for the purpose
(11:57):
for which he'd called him, and the purpose, first of all,
was to.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
Spiritually mature him.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
And in God's eyes, spiritual maturity is not having great ability,
great talent, great prominence, great prestige, great popularity, great power,
great influence, great wealth.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
That is not spiritual maturity.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Spiritual maturity is coming to the bitter end of ourselves,
where we have nothing but God to depend upon.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
So what did he do? Driving him over to the
backside of the desert.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Moses lost his family, He lost his dwelling place, the palace.
He lost his people, separated from them. He lost his privilege,
he lost his prominence, He lost his prestige, He lost
his power, he lost his pride, He lost everything. God
stripped Moses of everything he had. Here he was before
(12:57):
addressed in the finest of clothing, riding in the finest
of chariots, the finest of servants. And now he's over
on the backside of the desert, tending sheep. So I
want you to notice how God changed Moses' circumstances.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
He changed him.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
For example, he changed his vocation from a superintendent to
a shepherd. He changed his dwelling place from a palace
to a tend his home from this big.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
City over into the desert.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
He changed his attitude from haughtiness and self confidence to humility.
God changed everything about him. He changed his focus from
self syneredness to God. He changed his methods from his
own ways to God's ways. He changed the outcome from
failure to success. Everything about him he changed. You say,
(13:53):
do you mean to tell me that's what God has
to do to everybody? Now, first of all, you're not
Pharaoh's sons, so don't worry about that. But God does
utilize the same principle. And God's purpose in your life
and my life is not to make us famous. It
is not to make us prominent. It's not to make
(14:13):
us prestigious, it's not to make us wealthy. His purpose
in life is not any of that. His purpose in
your life and my life is to bring us to
the position of absolute nothingness, whereby we recognize all we
have of any value is God and God alone. Now,
(14:35):
God may give you the position of being wealthy. He
may give you a position of prominence in your business,
or whatever it might be. He may give you all
of these things. But any time any one of those
stands in the way of your totally and absolutely depending
upon God and your goal of Jesus Christ being expressed
(14:58):
through your life, you can ark it down. He draws
a bull's eye on that area of your dependence, and
he zeros in on it because he knows any dependence
upon anything is going to hinder God's purpose.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
For your life.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Now, I want to show you a moment how difficult
this was. But God knew that he had the absolutely
strip Moses of any self dependence, any of his personal plans,
any of his personal ambition, any of his personal ideas
about how to liberate God's people until he had nothing left.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
You say, well, why did it take him forty years
to do it?
Speaker 1 (15:34):
My friend, God will break and keep on breaking until
all resentment has been broken out of our life, all hostility,
all anger. And you see growing up in this family
and watching his people mistreated be mistreated as they were,
I'm sure that Moses must have had some anger and
hostility and self determination. I'm going to free my people.
(15:57):
I'm going to get it done.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
I will see that it happens.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
God had to absolutely shatter all of that until he
was a man who had dependence upon nothing except God
and God alone. Helplessly and hopelessly, he faced an uncertain future,
knowing that the cries of his people over in Egypt
were still going up and God somehow was not answering
(16:23):
their prayers. God had to shread him of everything. Forty
long years it took to weed out of Moses' life
and break out of Moses' life, cleanse him from that
anger and hostility. He had to walk in the steps
of God, in harmony with God, in absolute obedience to.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
God, or it would never have worked.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
You know why, Oftentimes God can't accomplish in our life
what He wants to accomplish.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
Too much self we think we have it worked out.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
We want to do God's work our way. We want
the plan to fit our schedule, our purposes, our goals,
our dreams, and the path that we've set out. God
sets it out, and our objective must.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Be to follow him.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
And so therefore he must break all threads of independence
within us so that we're willing to.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Say yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes Lord.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Over in Midian on the back side of the desert,
out there tending sheep, Moses didn't have anything but God,
nothing but God. Now many people are threatened by that.
They don't want to hear sermons about being broken and
suffering and pain and all this, because you see, they've
been taught it's self confidence, self determination. Set your goals,
(17:37):
set your plans, go after them, don't move, don't budge.
I understand that the only problem that is this. God
works his greatest work in those men and women who
realize how hopeless they are apart from His supernatural intervention
(17:59):
in their life. It's either going to be the flesh
or it's going to be the spirit. That doesn't mean
that you're not to achieve in your business. It doesn't
mean that you're not to build a godly family. It
does not mean that you're not to do the work
that God has called you to do. But we must
be careful that we do not do it based on
our experience and our prestige and our resources.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
But rather on God.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
You see, God's gold for your life and mind is
he said, He predestined that we would be conformed to
the likeness of his son. How did Jesus operate based
on his relationship with father? He says, I only do
the things I see my father doing. I only say
the things the Father tells me to say. Jesus was
living out the divine life, and Jesus Christ, living within us,
(18:44):
desires that he be able to live his life out
through us. And in order to do that, every shread
of self must be broken and shattered. It must be
laid aside until it is God and God alone. As
someone has said, a soul is cony in a moment
of time, but a saint it takes a lifetime. A
(19:05):
saint is manufactured in a lifetime, a moment of conversion.
Sainthood it takes a lifetime. He begins the prone, he
begins to break. He will never break your spirit, but
only your will. It is not God's purpose to leave
you lifeless and broken in your spirit so that you
(19:26):
have nothing within. To break your will, to revitalize your spirit,
so that in your spirit you have him him only,
but my frame. When you have God, you've got enough.
When you have Him, you have everything. And so that
is his purpose for doing so. So when you look
(19:46):
at the life of Moses, God began to mature him
by doing what, stripping him of everything so that it
was God and God only. Isn't it amazing how a
person becomes a Christian ern in life and then they
begin to climb and claw and gather and ain and
accumulate and assimilate and a range and a mass as.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
If this is the Christian life. You know what the
Christian life is.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
It's getting rid of this and getting rid of that,
and ridding ourselves of this and anything and everything that
God puts his finger on, until it's just you and him.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Thanks for joining us on in Touch the teaching ministry
of doctor Charles Stanley. You may not know exactly why
God is allowed your suffering, but if you're a Christian,
you can be sure that God always works things for
his glory and your ultimate good. We'll continue learning about
the purpose of brokenness tomorrow and you can visit us
at intuch dot org to find a wide variety of
(20:45):
resources that can encourage you on your journey of faith
that includes a replay of today's message. Just look for
the link to today on radio, and if you'd like
to order a copy of doctor Stanley's complete message, Brokenness
The Purpose This at our online bookstore. It's also included
in his teaching set Brokenness The Way to Blessing Again.
(21:06):
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You could do so at one eight hundred in Touch
To write to us, address your letter to in Touch
Post Office Box seventy nine hundred, Atlanta, Georgia, three zero
three five seven. The Bible answers some of our questions
about Heaven. Other things we can only guess about. Today's
(21:28):
moment with Charles Stanley is coming up.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
You've got to be willing to set aside time.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
That's a real victory.
Speaker 4 (21:34):
Just imagine what it would have been like to look
over doctor Stanley's shoulder as he was spending time with
the scriptures. Doctor Stanley spent hours in preparation for his sermons,
with photos of his Bibles, resources, and handwritten notes. This
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Stanley's daily walk with the Father God turned the light
on Charles F. Stanley's personal Bibles, books and notes Available
(21:55):
now go to InTouch dot org slash store.
Speaker 5 (22:00):
In places where churches have closed or never existed, the
need for discipleship beyond evangelism is urgent. Our mission is
to train people on the front lines of ministry through
life principles training based on the biblical teaching of doctor
Charles Stanley, shaping people to reflect Jesus and empowering them
to fulfill the Great Commission. For more info, visit in
(22:23):
touch dot org slash global.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
You're listening to in Touch, have you been thinking about
heaven with some insight into a believer's future. Here's the
moment with Charles Stanley.
Speaker 6 (22:43):
When we stand in his presence. The scripture says we're
going to know as we are known. I think that's
going to be this perfection that so totally eliminates the
past that we won't be into the past. We will
be into who He is and whatever He gives us
to do for all. Now, somebody will ask, well, do
you think folks in heaven look down here and see
(23:04):
what's happening. I don't think they could and still be happy,
not with all the stuff that's going on down here.
And after you get to heaven, it's going to be
worship and serving the Living God for all eternity in
such a way that there's no end to it. There's
no measurement of it. There's no clocks, there's no darkness,
he says, there won't be any darkness. The throne of
(23:24):
God will illuminate all that is in existence. And you know,
for a person to live in this life and go
through a heartache and trouble and trial, and you're having
such a hard time down here, isn't it sort of
foolish to die and have a whole lot worse? Get
right with God and know that for all eternity life
is going to be absolutely beyond human understanding.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
And a person gets right with God by trusting in
Jesus Christ as their savior from the penalty of sin.
Learn more about salvation at in touch dot org. Are
these truths impacting your walk with Jesus? Please tell us
your story tomorrow on in Touch The Life of the
Old Testament, Leader Moses can teach us how broken this
(24:07):
works in our lives today. Our series continues Wednesday on
in Touch, the teaching Ministry of doctor Charles Stanley. This
program is a presentation of in Touch Ministries Atlanta, Georgia
and remains on this station. Through the grace of God
and your faithful prayers and gifts
God is in the process of breaking that spirit within
us that desires to act independently of God's will. All
of us came into the world with it, all of
us have to deal with it all of our lives,
and his motive is to do so. And in doing so,
he's looking out for you and me. He has something
in mind that he knows the acting of an independent
(00:24):
spirit independent of God is going to be a detriment
to us.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
How does God choose the people he uses? Today? On
in Touch the teaching ministry of doctor Charles Stanley, will
be reminded that he isn't looking for polished or perfect people.
He's looking for those who will listen to him and obey.
Stay with us now for part one of doctor Stanley's message,
Brokenness the Purpose.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Brokenness is God's way of dealing with a self.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Life, that is, that.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Independence with the us which God must deal with in
order for us to become the person that God wants
us to be. And by brokenness we simply mean not
that a person could lose their zest for living, but
that rather every area of that person's life would be
brought into submission to the will and purposes of God.
(01:19):
Because it is his plan that you and I would
be controlled not by a flesh, not by our five
senses of the body, not by our own stubborn, independent will,
but rather by the presence of the Holy Spirit within us.
And so God has so arranged our life that this
outer man with which we relate to our environment, and
(01:40):
the inner man, our soul, our mind, will, emotion, conscience,
and consciousness may be brought into submission to the Spirit
who lives within us, in order that our life would
be an expression of the indwelling presence of Jesus Christ.
That is God's ultimate design for all of us. Now,
this is the second in our series of messages on
(02:03):
brokenness the Way to Blessing. The first one brokenness the
principle today, brokenness the purpose.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Why is it that God breaks us?
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Why is it that God shatters and chisels and sands
and prunes away our life until finally we are brought
into submission to him? Why is it that God keeps
on doing that when we are so rebellious sometimes and
so independent in our spirit. And if you'll turn to
Exodus chapter two, I want us to read one simple
(02:35):
passage from which we will depart, and our message on
brokenness the purpose. And you'll recall that Moses has grown
up now from that little boy who is found in
the Nile River. And verse eleven of chapter two says,
now it came about in those days when Moses had
(02:55):
grown up, that he went out to his brethren and
looked on their hard labors. And he saw an Egyptian
beating a Hebrew one of his brethren. So he looked
this way and that, and when he saw there was
no one around, he struck down the Egyptian and hid
him in the sand. And he went out the next day,
and behold two Hebrews were fighting with each other. And
(03:18):
he said to the offender, why are you striking your companion?
But he said, who made you a prince or a
judge over us? Are you intending to kill me as
you killed the Egyptian. Then Moses was afraid, and he said,
surely the matter has become known. When Pharaoh heard of
this matter, he tried to kill Moses. But Moses fled
(03:42):
from the presence of Pharaoh and settled in the land
of Midian, and he sat down there by a well.
Now forty years later, chapter three, verse one, Now Moses
was pasturing the flock of Jethro, his father in law,
the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to
the west out of the wilderness, and came to Horeb,
(04:02):
the mountain of God, the backside of the desert, and
the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a
blazing fire from the midst of a bush. And he
looked and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet
the bush was not consumed. So Moses said, I must
turn aside now and see this marvelous sight, while the
bush is not burned up. When the Lord saw that,
(04:23):
he turned aside to look. God called to him from
the midst of the bush and said Moses, Moses, and
he said, here I am. There are two primary reasons,
two primary purposes for which God breaks us. The first
purpose is spiritual maturities.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
I want you to jot that down.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
In fact, I'm going to give you a number of
things to jot down the two primary purposes. So that
are two primary points to this message, one of them
spiritual maturity. God breaks us in order to mature us
and to make us christ Like. Now in the process
of maturing, there are three things that are involved. First
of all, change if you're not willing to change, You're
(05:08):
not going to grow on your spiritual life. Immature, you
can't hold on the old ways, old ideas, old thoughts,
erroneous concepts about God, about the Holy Spirit, about the
Christian life. You can't hold onto those and grow on
your Christian life. So maturing means change. But likewise, maturing
requires growing. That is growing toward moving toward Christ's likeness
(05:33):
in your spirit, Moving toward of dependence upon the Lord
Jesus Christ, Moving toward allowing the Holy Spirit to govern
and God and guard your life. Moving toward the position
wherein your body and your soul are brought into submission
to the Holy Spirit, so that Jesus Christ can express
(05:53):
His life through you. And the third element in that
maturity is brokenness. First of all, there must be change,
secondly growth, and third brokenness. That is God dealing with
a self life within us.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
That is that.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Spirit of independence that wants to act independently of God's will,
that spirit within us that desires to act independently of
God's will. All of us came into the world with it,
all of us have to deal with it, all of
our lives. God is in the process of breaking that,
and his motive is to do so, and in doing so,
(06:30):
he's looking out for you and me. He has something
in mind that he knows the acting of an independent spirit,
independent of God is going to be a detriment to us. Now,
I want us to look at this whole question of
brokenness today as far as its purpose in the life
of Moses. And I want us to see, for just
a moment a little background in Moses' life. Remember, Joseph
(06:56):
was sold by his brothers.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
To a caravan. He went to Egypt.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
He was purchased by a certain man and became a
servant in Potiphar's household, falsely accused by his wife, placed
in the prison, stayed there for some time. God gave
the butler and the baker in prison a dream. Joseph
interpreted the dream. One day he was in prison. The
(07:24):
next day he's the prime minister of all of Egypt
and saved them from destruction because of seven years of famine.
Well during that time and before it happened, he sent
for his family, and so those seventy people came down
into Egypt, and therefore they.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Were saved from the famine.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
And that was the beginning of a family in Egypt
that grew into something close to two and a.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Half to three millions of people.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
And now the Bible says, after Joseph died, a pharaoh
rose who did not know Joseph, and therefore they placed
the Hebrew children into bondage, and therefore they became slaves.
They were the slaves of Egyptians. So now Moses, of
course is born during this period of slavery, and because
(08:15):
of the increase of the Hebrews, the law went out
that every male child should be destroyed. His mother sends
him down the Nile river, sends the daughter along to
watch Pharaoh's daughter. By the providential hand of God, her
maiden finds little Moses in the basket, and then this
Hebrew sister shows up on the scene. And what ultimately
(08:39):
happened was that Moses' mother had the privilege of caring
for him in his early years and bringing him up.
Now he has grown up in the household of Pharaoh,
and he sees his people being mistreated. And one day,
the Bible says, he goes out and he sees one
of the Hebrew children being beaten by an Egyptian, and
(09:02):
he looks both ways. He doesn't see anybody looking, so
he kills the Egyptian buries him in the sand. The
next day he comes out overseeing what's going on, finds
two Hebrews fighting each other. Didn't know one of them
saw what he had done, and so one of them
brings up the murder of the Egyptian, and so he
becomes afraid. Pharaoh finds out about it, because Pharaoh is
(09:24):
already afraid of any kind of uprising and rebellion among
the Hebrews, and so he goes after Moses to kill him.
And the Bible says that Moses fled over Endamidian, and
as the King James says, on the back side of
the desert. That's the way he arrived where we find
him in that third chapter, forty long years Moses spends
(09:48):
on the back side of the desert as a shepherd. Now,
what is the motivation for God's breaking Moses. God chose
Moses as the man through whom he would liberate the
Hebrew children out of Egyptian bondage, through whom he would
(10:10):
establish as a nation, and through whom he would ultimately
send the Messiah. So God chose Moses for this tremendous task. Now,
what was the need of being broken in the life
of Moses. Here's a man who is very skilled, has
a tremendous background, He has tremendous credentials. He has prestige
(10:31):
and power and prominence and position, inexhaustible resources. He has
been given a position by Pharaoh. He is, by God's
providential hand, the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
That is, he became hers.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
And now he's grown up in all of this palatial
wealth and all the resources and all that is in
his fingertips. But God has chosen him to liberate them.
So God must begin to work in this man's life.
And therefore, how does he work in this man's life.
He works in his life in the same way he
works in your life and mind. The situation is different,
(11:09):
the time is different, the circumstances are different. But here's
the important thing, the purpose is the same. In order
to prepare Moses for the task that God had for
him to accomplish, God knew that he must break Moses
of his dependence upon anything and every single thing in
(11:32):
his life, so that Moses would be able to stand
saying that he had absolutely nothing but God, Jehovah and Jehovah,
God only upon which to depend. For the simple reason,
he knew that the task that he called him for
would demand that is what I want you to see.
God began the process of preparing Moses for the purpose
(11:57):
for which he'd called him, and the purpose, first of all,
was to.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
Spiritually mature him.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
And in God's eyes, spiritual maturity is not having great ability,
great talent, great prominence, great prestige, great popularity, great power,
great influence, great wealth.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
That is not spiritual maturity.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Spiritual maturity is coming to the bitter end of ourselves,
where we have nothing but God to depend upon.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
So what did he do? Driving him over to the
backside of the desert.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Moses lost his family, He lost his dwelling place, the palace.
He lost his people, separated from them. He lost his privilege,
he lost his prominence, He lost his prestige, He lost
his power, he lost his pride, He lost everything. God
stripped Moses of everything he had. Here he was before
(12:57):
addressed in the finest of clothing, riding in the finest
of chariots, the finest of servants. And now he's over
on the backside of the desert, tending sheep. So I
want you to notice how God changed Moses' circumstances.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
He changed him.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
For example, he changed his vocation from a superintendent to
a shepherd. He changed his dwelling place from a palace
to a tend his home from this big.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
City over into the desert.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
He changed his attitude from haughtiness and self confidence to humility.
God changed everything about him. He changed his focus from
self syneredness to God. He changed his methods from his
own ways to God's ways. He changed the outcome from
failure to success. Everything about him he changed. You say,
(13:53):
do you mean to tell me that's what God has
to do to everybody? Now, first of all, you're not
Pharaoh's sons, so don't worry about that. But God does
utilize the same principle. And God's purpose in your life
and my life is not to make us famous. It
is not to make us prominent. It's not to make
(14:13):
us prestigious, it's not to make us wealthy. His purpose
in life is not any of that. His purpose in
your life and my life is to bring us to
the position of absolute nothingness, whereby we recognize all we
have of any value is God and God alone. Now,
(14:35):
God may give you the position of being wealthy. He
may give you a position of prominence in your business,
or whatever it might be. He may give you all
of these things. But any time any one of those
stands in the way of your totally and absolutely depending
upon God and your goal of Jesus Christ being expressed
(14:58):
through your life, you can ark it down. He draws
a bull's eye on that area of your dependence, and
he zeros in on it because he knows any dependence
upon anything is going to hinder God's purpose.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
For your life.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Now, I want to show you a moment how difficult
this was. But God knew that he had the absolutely
strip Moses of any self dependence, any of his personal plans,
any of his personal ambition, any of his personal ideas
about how to liberate God's people until he had nothing left.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
You say, well, why did it take him forty years
to do it?
Speaker 1 (15:34):
My friend, God will break and keep on breaking until
all resentment has been broken out of our life, all hostility,
all anger. And you see growing up in this family
and watching his people mistreated be mistreated as they were,
I'm sure that Moses must have had some anger and
hostility and self determination. I'm going to free my people.
(15:57):
I'm going to get it done.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
I will see that it happens.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
God had to absolutely shatter all of that until he
was a man who had dependence upon nothing except God
and God alone. Helplessly and hopelessly, he faced an uncertain future,
knowing that the cries of his people over in Egypt
were still going up and God somehow was not answering
(16:23):
their prayers. God had to shread him of everything. Forty
long years it took to weed out of Moses' life
and break out of Moses' life, cleanse him from that
anger and hostility. He had to walk in the steps
of God, in harmony with God, in absolute obedience to.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
God, or it would never have worked.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
You know why, Oftentimes God can't accomplish in our life
what He wants to accomplish.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
Too much self we think we have it worked out.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
We want to do God's work our way. We want
the plan to fit our schedule, our purposes, our goals,
our dreams, and the path that we've set out. God
sets it out, and our objective must.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Be to follow him.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
And so therefore he must break all threads of independence
within us so that we're willing to.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Say yes, Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes Lord.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Over in Midian on the back side of the desert,
out there tending sheep, Moses didn't have anything but God,
nothing but God. Now many people are threatened by that.
They don't want to hear sermons about being broken and
suffering and pain and all this, because you see, they've
been taught it's self confidence, self determination. Set your goals,
(17:37):
set your plans, go after them, don't move, don't budge.
I understand that the only problem that is this. God
works his greatest work in those men and women who
realize how hopeless they are apart from His supernatural intervention
(17:59):
in their life. It's either going to be the flesh
or it's going to be the spirit. That doesn't mean
that you're not to achieve in your business. It doesn't
mean that you're not to build a godly family. It
does not mean that you're not to do the work
that God has called you to do. But we must
be careful that we do not do it based on
our experience and our prestige and our resources.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
But rather on God.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
You see, God's gold for your life and mind is
he said, He predestined that we would be conformed to
the likeness of his son. How did Jesus operate based
on his relationship with father? He says, I only do
the things I see my father doing. I only say
the things the Father tells me to say. Jesus was
living out the divine life, and Jesus Christ, living within us,
(18:44):
desires that he be able to live his life out
through us. And in order to do that, every shread
of self must be broken and shattered. It must be
laid aside until it is God and God alone. As
someone has said, a soul is cony in a moment
of time, but a saint it takes a lifetime. A
(19:05):
saint is manufactured in a lifetime, a moment of conversion.
Sainthood it takes a lifetime. He begins the prone, he
begins to break. He will never break your spirit, but
only your will. It is not God's purpose to leave
you lifeless and broken in your spirit so that you
(19:26):
have nothing within. To break your will, to revitalize your spirit,
so that in your spirit you have him him only,
but my frame. When you have God, you've got enough.
When you have Him, you have everything. And so that
is his purpose for doing so. So when you look
(19:46):
at the life of Moses, God began to mature him
by doing what, stripping him of everything so that it
was God and God only. Isn't it amazing how a
person becomes a Christian ern in life and then they
begin to climb and claw and gather and ain and
accumulate and assimilate and a range and a mass as.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
If this is the Christian life. You know what the
Christian life is.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
It's getting rid of this and getting rid of that,
and ridding ourselves of this and anything and everything that
God puts his finger on, until it's just you and him.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Thanks for joining us on in Touch the teaching ministry
of doctor Charles Stanley. You may not know exactly why
God is allowed your suffering, but if you're a Christian,
you can be sure that God always works things for
his glory and your ultimate good. We'll continue learning about
the purpose of brokenness tomorrow and you can visit us
at intuch dot org to find a wide variety of
(20:45):
resources that can encourage you on your journey of faith
that includes a replay of today's message. Just look for
the link to today on radio, and if you'd like
to order a copy of doctor Stanley's complete message, Brokenness
The Purpose This at our online bookstore. It's also included
in his teaching set Brokenness The Way to Blessing Again.
(21:06):
Log on to InTouch dot org to call our text.
You could do so at one eight hundred in Touch
To write to us, address your letter to in Touch
Post Office Box seventy nine hundred, Atlanta, Georgia, three zero
three five seven. The Bible answers some of our questions
about Heaven. Other things we can only guess about. Today's
(21:28):
moment with Charles Stanley is coming up.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
You've got to be willing to set aside time.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
That's a real victory.
Speaker 4 (21:34):
Just imagine what it would have been like to look
over doctor Stanley's shoulder as he was spending time with
the scriptures. Doctor Stanley spent hours in preparation for his sermons,
with photos of his Bibles, resources, and handwritten notes. This
new book will give you an intimate look into doctor
Stanley's daily walk with the Father God turned the light
on Charles F. Stanley's personal Bibles, books and notes Available
(21:55):
now go to InTouch dot org slash store.
Speaker 5 (22:00):
In places where churches have closed or never existed, the
need for discipleship beyond evangelism is urgent. Our mission is
to train people on the front lines of ministry through
life principles training based on the biblical teaching of doctor
Charles Stanley, shaping people to reflect Jesus and empowering them
to fulfill the Great Commission. For more info, visit in
(22:23):
touch dot org slash global.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
You're listening to in Touch, have you been thinking about
heaven with some insight into a believer's future. Here's the
moment with Charles Stanley.
Speaker 6 (22:43):
When we stand in his presence. The scripture says we're
going to know as we are known. I think that's
going to be this perfection that so totally eliminates the
past that we won't be into the past. We will
be into who He is and whatever He gives us
to do for all. Now, somebody will ask, well, do
you think folks in heaven look down here and see
(23:04):
what's happening. I don't think they could and still be happy,
not with all the stuff that's going on down here.
And after you get to heaven, it's going to be
worship and serving the Living God for all eternity in
such a way that there's no end to it. There's
no measurement of it. There's no clocks, there's no darkness,
he says, there won't be any darkness. The throne of
(23:24):
God will illuminate all that is in existence. And you know,
for a person to live in this life and go
through a heartache and trouble and trial, and you're having
such a hard time down here, isn't it sort of
foolish to die and have a whole lot worse? Get
right with God and know that for all eternity life
is going to be absolutely beyond human understanding.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
And a person gets right with God by trusting in
Jesus Christ as their savior from the penalty of sin.
Learn more about salvation at in touch dot org. Are
these truths impacting your walk with Jesus? Please tell us
your story tomorrow on in Touch The Life of the
Old Testament, Leader Moses can teach us how broken this
(24:07):
works in our lives today. Our series continues Wednesday on
in Touch, the teaching Ministry of doctor Charles Stanley. This
program is a presentation of in Touch Ministries Atlanta, Georgia
and remains on this station. Through the grace of God
and your faithful prayers and gifts
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