Pathway to Purpose

Sermon Summary:

What does it truly mean to discover purpose in our lives? This exploration of Moses and the burning bush in Exodus 3 invites us into a profound conversation about meaning, calling, and divine design. We encounter Moses at a pivotal moment—forty years removed from Pharaoh’s court, tending his father-in-law’s flock on the backside of a mountain, seemingly forgotten. Yet it’s precisely here, in this unlikely place, that God issues an invitation that will transform not only Moses’ life but the destiny of an entire nation. The message challenges us to consider that God doesn’t call the qualified; rather, He qualifies the called. When Moses protests with ‘Who am I?’ and ‘Who are you?’, we hear echoes of our own hesitations and doubts. The revelation of God’s name—’I AM’—speaks to His self-existence, His eternal nature, and His active presence in revealing Himself to us continually. Drawing on Viktor Frankl’s profound insight from his concentration camp experiences that life becomes unbearable not from circumstances but from lack of meaning and purpose, we’re reminded that this search for significance isn’t merely psychological—it’s deeply spiritual. The text from Ephesians 2:10 beautifully frames our identity: we are God’s masterpiece, His poiema, created for good works prepared in advance. This isn’t about living for ourselves but discovering the abundant life God designed when we align with His purposes. Whether we’re facing career decisions, life transitions, or simply seeking deeper meaning in our daily routines, the pathway to purpose begins with recognizing God’s invitation, realizing He will equip us, and remaining open to His continued revelation in our lives.

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Sermon Points:

CALL OF GOD – Moses answered the call of God, and he discovered the pathway to purposeful living.

MOTIVATION – At the heart of the human existence is a desire for purpose and meaning.

INVITATION – God is at work in His world, and He invites us to join Him in His purposeful endeavor.

REALIZATION – One key in discovering our pathway to purpose is to realize that God equips us for His Kingdom endeavors.

REVELATION – The journey into a purposeful and meaningful life is dependent upon the continued revelation of God’s will in our lives.

Key Takeaways:

• At the heart of human existence is a desire for purpose and meaning, which is what truly makes us human and separates us from the rest of creation
• God is actively at work in His world and invites us to join Him in His purposeful endeavors rather than simply living for ourselves
• Moses found his purpose not within himself but through his dynamic and growing relationship with God
• Initial self-distrust when receiving God’s call is healthy and should lead to trust in God rather than self-reliance
• God equips those He calls—He doesn’t call the qualified, He qualifies the called
• The journey into purposeful living requires continued revelation of God’s will through ongoing relationship with Him
• We are God’s masterpiece (poiema), created in Christ Jesus to do good works that God prepared in advance for us to do
• Life’s circumstances don’t make life unbearable; it’s the lack of meaning and purpose that does
• God reveals Himself progressively as we walk with Him, meeting deeper needs we didn’t know we had

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Scripture References:

• Exodus 3:1-14 (primary focus—Moses and the burning bush)
• Exodus 2:24 (God’s concern for Israel)
• Ephesians 2:10 (we are God’s handiwork/masterpiece created for good works)

Stories:

• Moses’ life journey: 40 years in Pharaoh’s court, fleeing to Midian, 40 years working for his father-in-law Jethro, then being called by God at the burning bush to deliver Israel from Egypt
• Viktor Frankl’s experience in Nazi concentration camps during World War II and his development of logotherapy, concluding that the pursuit of meaning (not pleasure or power) is humanity’s primary motivation
• The pastor’s personal testimony of initially feeling called to medicine, wanting to play baseball for the Boston Red Sox, meeting his wife Cindy who was pursuing physical therapy, and eventually answering God’s call to ministry despite telling the seminary registrar he would never pastor a local church
• The comparison of three Viennese psychotherapists: Sigmund Freud (pursuit of pleasure), Alfred Adler (pursuit of power), and Viktor Frankl (pursuit of purpose)
• Abraham’s story referenced as the previous week’s example of someone shaped by intentional discipleship—God promised him family, land, and fame when he was childless, nomadic, and unknown

Sermon Transcript:

Well, again, church, I just want to say a word of thanks to all these folks who have helped us gather for this worship service today. Thank you for our worship team as they’ve led us in worship so beautifully today already. So you know that our theme here at First Baptist for this year is flourishing Together, and we are focusing on what it means to be transformed on the Jesus way. And every season of this year, we’re focusing on a different facet of that overall theme. So for the winter, our theme is designed to flourish, and we are just continuing to learn more and more and more about what it means to flourish.

When you think about flourishing, y’ all remember that we have actually studied these various domains that Harvard and Baylor have chosen to isolate as they’re trying to get a fuller picture, fuller understanding what it means to flourish. And one of those domains is meaning and purpose. And that’s really where we’re going to give our attention this morning. We began this series in the beginning of January as we’re learning that God’s created us to flourish. And we are now making our way through the Scripture.

And we’re looking at examples of people who have flourished. We’re looking at examples of disciples. We are on a journey of intentional discipleship as a church. And so we’re looking at some of these folks who’ve been shaped by intentional discipleship in the Bible. And today’s example is going to be Moses.

We talked about Abraham last week. This week we’re going to talk about Moses and learn from his example. It’s what I would like for us to do today. So with that said, I’ve entitled the message today, Pathway to Purpose. And the text is found in Exodus, chapter three.

Very familiar story out of the life of Moses. And Moses has, you know, his story. He has been banished, if you will, from Egypt. He fled to Midian, and he’s been in Midian for 40 years. And that’s where we pick up the story today in Exodus 3.

So let’s look at the first 14 verses of Exodus 3. Now, Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, his father in law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And there the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire, it it did not burn up.

So Moses thought, I will go over and see this strange sight and why the bush does not burn up. When the Lord saw that, he had gone over to look. God called to him from within the bush, Moses. Moses. And Moses said, here I am.

Do not come any closer. God said, take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. And then he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. At this, Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God. And the Lord said, I’ve indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt.

I’ve heard them crying out because of their slave drivers. And I’m concerned about their suffering. So I’ve come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey. It’s the home of the Canaanites and the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I’ve seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.

So now go. I’m sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt. But Moses said to God, who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt? And God said, I will be with you, and this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you. When you brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.

Moses said to God, suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you. And they ask me, what is his name? Then what shall I tell them? And God said to Moses, I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites.

I am. Has sent me to you, as I said, what a. What a familiar story. Moses and the burning bush. So here’s what I want us to do this morning.

I want us to see if we can learn about discipleship from the example of Moses. So let’s start with the call of God as we read this text. Moses answered the call of God, and he discovered the pathway to purposeful living. In fact, what I’d like for us to do this morning, if you still have your Bibles open, if you look back at chapter 2, the last couple of verses of Exodus 2, verse 24 says this. God heard their groaning, and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.

And he looked on the Israelites, and he was concerned about them. So the concern that God had for Israel is expressed at the end of Exodus chapter 2. And it’s also lined out again in Exodus 3 as God shares with Moses the concern that he has for these people. So if you remember Moses story, Moses, of course, grew up in Pharaoh’s court and spent about 40 years there, as best we can tell. And then you know the story.

You know that Moses ends up being banished from Egypt. Long journey, finds his way to Midian. He gets to Midian, he finds a wife in Midian. His father in law’s Jethro, he’s a priest in Midian, some kind of a priest. We don’t really know all the details about it.

So Moses gets married and he starts a family, and he goes to work for his father in law. And he spends 40 years there working for his father in law. So he goes from Pharaoh’s court to his father in law’s flock. And now we pick up the story in Exodus 3, and he finds himself on what scholars refer to as the backside on the west side, if you will, of Mount Horeb, which is in the region of Sinai. So sometimes we’re not really sure, but we think this is probably Mount Sinai, Mount Horeb are the same place.

And as we read the story, God calls out to him, calls him by name. Moses. Moses. There’s some messenger from God that God sends. Verse 2 in the NIV says the angel of the Lord.

We really haven’t gotten too much information about angels yet in the Bible. When you’re in Exodus 3, maybe a word messenger might be a better translation. But regardless, the point is God has a message for Moses, and he’s speaking the message from a bush that’s on fire and not being consumed. And so after this interchange between Moses and God, God tells Moses, you need to remove the sandals from your feet. You’re standing on holy ground.

Incidentally, it’s the first time the word holy appears in the Bible. And so Moses recognizes that this is not just a normal encounter. And God begins to share the plan with Moses. We’ve read it at the end of chapter two, he’s concerned about his children. He remembers the promise he made to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.

And now it’s time to fulfill the promise. If you will bring these people out of bondage, bring them to the promised land. And he says to Moses, I’ve chosen you. I’m going to use you to deliver these people. Moses answers that call by saying, who am I?

I don’t think I’m qualified to do this. And then Moses eventually asks the question, and who are you? And God reminds him well, I’m the God of Abraham, I’m the God of Isaac, I’m the God of Jacob. But here’s who I am. Here’s my name.

I am. Very interesting little phrase there in Hebrew. I am who I am or I will be who I will be. In other words, it’s kind of an interesting phrase. It’s really hard to put into English.

But the bottom line is, Moses says to God, I can’t do this on my own. God says, you don’t have to. And so as we keep reading, we didn’t read all this, but you can read the rest of the text. Rest of Exodus 3, Exodus 4. God says, Take that rod, throw it on the ground.

It becomes a snake. Pick it up by the tail. He does. God turns it back into a rod. Moses is still a little bit unimpressed.

And God says, put your hand inside your cloak. Pull it out. It’s leprous. He puts it back in, and then it’s healed. And basically, God just performs these miracles and says, when you get to Egypt, I’m going to give you the ability to perform these kinds of miracles, and you’re going to be able to accomplish what I’ve sent you.

Accomplish. And so when you get there, assemble Aaron, the elders, and make a plan, because I’m about to redeem my people. So as you read the rest of the story, that’s exactly what Moses does. It’s a challenging journey for him. But eventually, Moses will do that.

He’ll go back and visit with Jethro. He’ll tell him, I’ve got to move back to Egypt. He loads up his family, and he moves back to Egypt. And then we have the incredible story of the Exodus. And so Moses then becomes one of the most famous men who has ever lived.

Now, with all that said, what I would say for us this morning is that Moses found his way to purposeful living. And isn’t that what you want? Don’t you want your life to count for something? Don’t you want to live a life that is characterized by purpose and by meaning? That’s what we all want, actually.

So what can we learn from Moses? Experience and somehow translate it all the way to the 21st century and baptize it here in Arlington? That’s what I want us to do this morning. Okay, so let me just walk you through some things that I notice in this text and in this story that I believe will help all of us. Let me start with motivation.

At the heart of the human existence is the desire for purpose. And Meaning, in fact, I think I would argue that in some ways that’s really what makes us human. It’s what separates us from the rest of creation. Henry David Thoreau said, it’s not enough to be industrious, so are the ants. What are you industrious about?

That’s the real question. And then Chris Jami said, find a purpose to serve, not a lifestyle to live. Meaning and purpose, you know, psychologists and therapists through the years have tried to help human beings grapple with the challenges of life. There’s kind of a very interesting connection between three very famous therapists. They’re actually all from Vienna.

One of them is Sigmund Freud, one of them is Alfred Adler, and the other one is Viktor Frankl. Those three men all actually came from Austria and each one of them established a different school of thought, if you will, about how to treat people, how to help people navigate through the challenges of their lives. And when you study those three psychotherapists, it’s interesting to their conclusions are and what motivated them and what guided them in their. In their therapeutic processes. So Sigmund Freud came to the conclusion that the principal desire of human beings is this pursuit of pleasure and that the challenges that we all face are actually resting in the subconscious, if you will.

Alfred Adler came to a different conclusion also there from Vienna. Adler said that actually the chief goal of humanity is to somehow to fit in society. And he said that there was this will to power, if you will, this desire to have this superior relationship in the society. And so the draw to power is the primary motivation of humanity. And then Viktor Frankl came to a different conclusion.

Viktor Frankl, whose therapeutic methods were already in place before World War II. He was then captured by the Nazis in Germany at the height of the war. He ended up spending most of World War II in concentration camps. And he came to a very different conclusion. He had already begun to work on this before the war, but it was truly proven to him through his experience in the concentration camps.

And he concluded that even though he had learned from Freud, he’d learned from Adler, he decided that it wasn’t the pursuit of pleasure, it wasn’t the pursuit of power. He says, here’s what really drives a human being. It’s the pursuit of purpose. It is a desire for meaning is what he said. And so he ends up writing this landmark book, Man’s Search for Meaning and that Purpose Particular book is somewhat of a memoir of Frankl’s.

On the one hand, he tells the story of his experiences in the concentration camps. But then he also shares his views on what he called logotherapy, focusing on that primary motivation for humanity to have meaning and purpose. So here’s one of the things he said. He said life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose. In other words, Frankl, who had come through this horrible and horrific experience in these concentration camps, he said those circumstances of life didn’t make life unbearable even for the people that he observed in the concentration camps, including himself.

What he said was he noticed that the people who lost their lives oftentimes in those concentration camps, many of them had lost their sense of meaning or purpose. And he said those circumstances combined with that is what led to a number of people’s demise. Now, there were many people we know, and he knew as well, that died in these concentration camps simply because they were completely abused physically before they even had a chance to think about meaning and purpose. Of course that’s true. But as he watched the people over time, because he’s going to be one of the survivors, he noticed that this deep desire for meaning, purpose, seem to keep people with the ability to thrive or survive in the midst of horrific circumstances.

It’s a powerful, powerful perspective. And I find myself in a lot of agreement with Frankl’s core conclusion, Mark Twain, who didn’t give as much thought to all of this as Victor Frankl did. He said this, though, the two most important days in your life or the day you’re born and the day you find out why. And so, as I think about that with you this morning, I just wonder, have you found that true sense of meaning and purpose in your life? Because that’s really what God has designed for you, is for you to have that profound sense of meaning of why you’re here on this planet.

You know, today we are watching in our society, people deal with and grapple with so many difficult situations and challenges. And one of the things that’s quite interesting, I’ve just been doing some reading about it, is that in the developing world overall and in general, the birth rate seems to be declining in the developing nations. There are all types of theories about it. In fact, there are some who are proposing that the government needs to intervene. And maybe if the governments of these developing nations would offer more financial support to parents and young families, birth rates might start ticking up again.

But the research and evidence doesn’t seem to indicate that that’s the core answer. Really and truly, what people are researching right now is what is behind the declining birth rate. And there’s certainly no easy answer. But let me share this note with you. Christine Emba, who writes for the Atlantic, she’s doing some research in this particular issue, and here’s her conclusion.

She says there’s a need, all right, but she doesn’t think it’s the need that people are exposing, and that is financial need. Here’s what she says. She said that need is for meaning. In trying to solve the fertility puzzle, thinkers have cited people’s concerns over finances, climate change, political instability, or even potential war. But in listening closely to people’s stories, I’ve detected a broader thread of uncertainty about the value of life and a reason for being.

Many in the current generation of young adults don’t seem totally convinced of their own purpose or the purpose of humanity at large, let alone that of a child. It may be that for many people, absent a clear sense of meaning, the perceived challenges of having children outweigh any subsidy the government might offer. What an interesting take on these declining birth rates in the first world, if you will. I’m not sure that she has found the answer to that situation, but what I would say is she has her finger on the pulse of what’s at the heart of every human being’s desire. In fact, what the Bible teaches.

The Apostle Paul. Let me just share this with you. The apostle Paul says this in Ephesians 2, verse 10. For we are Christ’s handiwork. Paul says that word that’s translated handiwork in Greek, poie ma.

We get our word poetry from it, but it implies artistic work. Sometimes you could translate with the word masterpiece. We’re God’s masterpiece, if you will, Created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do. So Paul the apostle says, we’re living into a reality as the people of God. And one of the ways that we become these masterpieces, if you will, these poetic expressions of God’s genius, is when we live into the life that he’s designed for us.

In other words, when we realize that God has actually prepared a life for us. And one of the ways that we discover purpose is that we live into that design. So let’s take all of that and let’s apply it to what we’re learning from Moses. Okay? Are y’ all still with me?

Okay, so let’s do that real quickly. And the way I’d like to do it is to focus first of all on the invitation. Here’s the invitation from God to you. God is at work in his world, and he invites us to join him. In his purposeful endeavor.

So God has a plan. And God is at work making sure that that plan is woven throughout the history of humanity and ultimately will find fruition when the end all comes. So if you remind yourself just real quickly about Moses, God in Exodus 2 says, I hear the cries of the people there in Israel. I’ve remembered my covenant. I’m going to redeem Israel.

Moses, here’s your invitation. Join with me in that. Give yourself to this. He invited Moses to participate. So here’s what I would say about God and you.

For whatever reason, God has chosen to carry out his purposes and his endeavors through human beings. That means that he’s given you an opportunity to respond to his invitation in your life, to respond to him, and now find yourself in the middle of his grand endeavor, just like he gave Moses that invitation. Even though Moses lived at a different time, had a different role and a different responsibility than anyone else, Moses discovered his purpose. He discovered his identity, his sense of meaning through obeying God and answering this core invitation. Obeying God, loving God, living in the presence of God, fulfilling God’s will.

That’s how he discovered purpose. You see, God, he did not create you for you just to simply live. That’s not really it. He did create you to live, but God has designed you to live abundantly. And the way you do that is you discover the purpose for your existence and you live fully into the meaning that God has designed for you.

Maybe the person in our generation who has spoken to this most definitively is Rick Warren. You’re familiar with Rick and his ministry called the Purpose Driven Life. Let me read you a quote from the introduction to that book. The purpose of your life is far greater than, than your own personal fulfillment, your peace of mind, or even your happiness. It’s far greater than your family, your career, even your wildest dreams and ambitions.

If you want to know why you were placed on this planet, you must begin with God. You were born by his purpose and for his purpose. So what I love about reading the story about Moses is that he found his purpose. He didn’t find it within himself. He found it in his dynamic relationship and growing relationship with God.

Well, here’s what I would say to you. God is inviting you to a purposeful life. He has issued his invitation and he’s at work in this world. And he has a place for you and a role for you. You know.

You know, years ago, when I was a young man, one of the questions that I was asking myself is, what is it I’m supposed to do with my life. How am I supposed to live this out? And so when I was in college, I had felt like what I really wanted to do was to become a medical doctor. I tried. Y’ all know, many of you know the story.

I wanted to be a baseball player. And I really thought that my destiny was to play third base for the Boston Red Sox. Red Sox never agreed with that. It’s all good. I still love them.

I don’t hold it against them, but so I enrolled in college. I was on a scholarship, and so I felt like this is what I was going to do. So I began that journey of finding my way through the field of medicine. Met Cindy. Cindy was also on a similar journey.

Cindy was eventually applying to physical therapy school. And we had this. This sense, this. I don’t know if you’d call it a vision. That’s probably not the right word.

But we had this sense that together in tandem, our lives were going to somehow be lived out in that field. Her mom was a nurse, and her mom was kind of a parish nurse. So Cindy had been with her mom caring for people in the community. I had good friends that were on the journey to medical school, and so that’s where I felt like we were headed. And, excuse me, toward the end of that journey in college, if you will, we both begin to sense that God was up to something else in our lives and there was some kind of calling.

And to be honest with you, I didn’t quite know how to respond to it. And I was. I think I would say, in all honesty, I was resistant at first because when I looked at the people who had served as pastors in my church growing up, I just didn’t see myself as one of those. I had never really done any kind of public speaking. And so I didn’t sense that I felt led to be standing in front of a church and preaching or teaching the Bible.

That just didn’t seem to be something I was gifted to do or even felt like I was supposed to do. But I still felt like there was some kind of calling. There was something that God was just drawing me to. And so Cindy and I began to talk about it and pray about it. We finally realized that this is where God was leading us.

And so we eventually will leave all of the medical journey behind. We get married, we move to Fort Worth to go to seminary. We felt this call to mission. Maybe the Lord just had this call in our lives to take us across the world. We weren’t really sure.

I do remember this. I was Sitting in the registrar’s office at Southwestern Seminary. And the registrar said, can you tell me what you feel called to do? And I said, I don’t know that I can answer that. I can tell you what I’m probably not going to do.

And he had a legal pad just with a pencil, taking notes. And he said, what would that be? I said, I just don’t think I’ll ever be the pastor of a local church. Well, he wrote that down. So somewhere over in the halls of Southwestern Seminary, there’s a legal piece of paper with my name on it that says, doesn’t think you’ll ever pastor a local church.

Well, you know, at that time, that’s just, that’s just where I was. I wasn’t sure. Plus I was a little reluctant to think that I had the skills to do that. And so it took a while for the Lord to lead me on this journey. And I kind of made my way through that general calling at the beginning of the call to a much more specific sense of calling to where then I began to realize that actually God had gifted me to do this.

And so think about it. For me, it’s pretty much the only thing I’ve ever done in my adult life. But it took me a while to get to it. Well, that leads me to this next point. At some point along the way, after you get the invitation, there’s a realization.

And one of the keys in discovering our pathway to purpose is to realize that God is the one who equips us for his kingdom endeavors. We don’t necessarily see that in ourselves initially. What did Moses say? When God said to Moses, I’m calling you to this. Moses said, well, who am I?

First thing, the first thing Moses said was, here I am. That’s verse four. Then you get the call and he says, well, who am I? And then he says to God, who are you? And then he’s going to have this little battle with God.

Well, I would say this in that initial stage when the calling comes for whatever it is as God’s directing you, because I’m not talking about a call to ministry necessarily to be a pastor. I’m talking about just a call of God in your life to live as a Christian in the world he places you in, we still have to answer that call. It’s okay in the early days to have some self distrust. In fact, I think that’s a healthy thing. And it means that you recognize that self distrust is supposed to lead to trust in God.

That lack of self reliance is supposed to lead to reliance on God. Now if it turns into stubbornness, well then it becomes sin and a lack of faith. So I’m not saying that. What I’m saying is, is when God calls you, you have this realization he’s going to equip you. You know that old saying that God doesn’t call the qualified, he qualifies the called.

That’s my experience, Moses experience. I believe it’ll be yours too. And then what I would say, once you have that realization that he’s going to equip you, it leads you on this long journey of what I would just call Revelation. Because the journey into a purposeful and meaningful life is always dependent upon the continued Revelation of God’s will in our lives. It’s this ongoing journey with Him.

And the longer you serve him, the more you learn about him, the more of him he reveals to you. You’re on this journey with him. And what happens is along the way, you begin to realize that you have deeper needs than you ever knew. And as God reveals Himself to you, he’ll guide you through as he meets those deep needs in your life. And it’s amazing how it works.

Think about Abraham. We talked about Abraham last week. Abraham was childless and God said, I’m going to give you a family. Abraham was a nomad, and God said, I’m going to give you land. Abraham was an unknown person.

God said, I’m going to make you famous. And Alan Cole, who’s written a wonderful commentary on Genesis and on Exodus rather, he says, you know, Abraham was longing for what only God can provide. Sustainability and an understanding of identity and continuity. He said, all those are the kinds of things God provides for us. Those are kinds of things human beings need.

So Moses says, well, who are you? How can you do this for me? And what does God do? God has already told him, I’m the God of Abraham, I’m God of Isaac, I’m the God of Jacob. This is not a new God.

Here’s what’s happening. God is just revealing more and more of himself. It’s a fuller Revelation of the one they already know. Well, that’s how it works. In fact, God says to Moses, let me reveal this to you, Moses.

I am. It’s a statement of his self existence. It’s a statement of his eternal nature. But it’s also a word about how active he is in revealing himself. And so along the way, Moses is going to learn more and more and more about God.

Think about it right here at this part of the story, Moses is saying who are you? I don’t really know you necessarily. I don’t know you. Well, who are you? Who am I?

Or. Well, think about what’s going to happen to this guy. This guy Moses. He’s going to receive the Ten Commandments. He’s going to become the lawgiver.

He’s going to be the one that records the actual law of God. Moses is going to tell God, I’m not really good with words, right? I’m slow of speech. And he’s going to become. If we believe that he’s the author of the first five books of the Bible, he’s going to write more of the Bible than any other one author.

Here’s a guy who said, I’m not really good with words. And. And God trusts him with the word of God. It’s an amazing story. This guy who says, I’m not eloquent of speech.

Well, read the book of Deuteronomy. It’s a sermon. It’s an eloquent message from a powerful and faithful preacher. So Moses was flawed. Of course he was.

We all are. But he was a faithful leader of God’s people. And so this morning, I just want to encourage you, we’re all flawed. But God’s issued you an invitation. He’s issued me an invitation into his will and his purpose and a meaningful life.

And he wants you to answer it. And along the way, you’re going to realize that you don’t always have everything you need to do it. But he’ll answer you in those needs. You’re going to realize you don’t always know what you need to know. He’ll reveal more of himself in the moments when you need him.

And you’re going to experience the beauty of what it means to be used by him in his endeavor. And as you do that, that’s how you discover your purpose and your meaning for life. Moses. It’s amazing what God did with Moses. But you know what?

God created you. And according to the teachings of the scripture, he’s prepared good works beforehand for you. I hope you’ll find your way on the Jesus way. May it be so. Let me pray for you.

Well, Father, I just thank you for this time that we can gather around your word. Learn these valuable lessons from the life of Moses. And right now, Lord, for those within the sound of my voice who are searching for meaning, for purpose, for an answer to the question, why am I here? I just ask you, Lord, right now, to meet them in this moment. Encourage them with your presence.

Help them to become sensitive and aware of your invitation for them to know you and respond to a call to your will for their lives. I pray they’ll answer that affirmatively and that they will truly find their way to this abundant life that you’ve designed for all of us. That’s my prayer today. In the name of Jesus, amen.