Rick SnodgrassSerious Faith in a Serious World • Exodus 2:11-15, Acts 7:22-25

Jeremiah 18:5-6Then the word of the Lord came to me. He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand…”

1. It’s never good for me to look at my shaping in one moment in time.

Exodus 2:11One day, after Moses had grown up…

Acts 7:22Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites.

1. It’s never good for me to look at my shaping in one moment in time.

2. Sometimes I need to just grab the mallet and chisel and help God out.

Exodus 2:11-12One day, after Moses had grown up he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

1. It’s never good for me to look at my shaping in one moment in time.

2. Sometimes I need to just grab the mallet and chisel and help God out.

3. Every time I look left then right and not up I begin to “lean on my own understanding.

Exodus 2:13-14The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?”The man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “What I did must have become known.”

2. Sometimes I need to just grab the mallet and chisel and help God out.

3. Every time I look left then right and not up I begin to “lean on my own understanding.

4. What I have done is always known.

Acts 7:25Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not.

3. Every time I look left then right and not up I begin to “lean on my own understanding.

4. What I have done is always known.

5. Action before calling always brings confusion.

Exodus 2:15When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well.

4. What I have done is always known.

5. Action before calling always brings confusion.

6. My history doesn’t have to be my destiny.