ometimes we're looking for a burning bush, for God to speak to us and tell us what to do like He did for Moses. But God is looking for a burning heart: someone whose heart burns for the things for which His heart burns. If we want to see a burning bush, we need to let God see our burning heart. (Message: Eric Elder; Worship Song: "Father, I Adore You" written by Terry Coelho, led by Eric Elder; Running time: 30:31)

Lesson 3 - A Burning Heart Precedes A Burning Bush

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ERIC E.: Hi, this is Eric Elder and welcome to The Ranch. Tonight we're going to look at Exodus Chapter 2, and there's something that I really love about this chapter. It's actually because I like the next chapter so much, it's about the burning bush, Chapter 3. But I think what happens in Chapter 2 sets the stage for what happens in Chapter 3, and I think it's an important lesson that we don't want to skip over. Because in Chapter 3 Moses gets to see God or talk to God, remember, in the burning bush, this bush that doesn't burn up. And he actually gets to hear from God and God speaks to him. And how many of you guys would like God to speak to you that clearly? I mean, just be right there, and tell you what's going on, and tell you what he wants you to do?

BUD G.: It would be a lot easier.

ERIC E.: I think we all would like that kind of burning bush experience. But I think there's something that precedes the burning bush experience and we're going to see that in Chapter 2; that it's not by accident that God appears to Moses in the burning bush, that God specifically sought him out for a reason, and that reason comes in Chapter 2. And so if we want God to seek us out and to speak to us as well, we might want to pay attention to what happens in Chapter 2 so that we can be doing the things that would allow us to hear from God in the burning bush.

So why don't we take a look at Chapter 2, and if you're watching at home you can catch up on your own with this story and read Verses 1 through 10 on your own. You might want to pause the video and if you haven't read Verses 1 through 10, go ahead. Here in the room we're going to pick up with the story after Moses has been born and look at how he then got into his calling.

So if the guys in the room want to pick up at Exodus, Chapter 2, Verse 11, read a few verses and then go on.

Jim, you got a couple verses there?

JIM B.: "One 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. Glancing this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. The 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."

ERIC E.: Someone else want to pick up? Jim?

JIM S.: When 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. Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father's flock. Some shepherds came along and drove them away, but Moses got up and came to their rescue and watered their flock."

ERIC E.: Someone else?

TIM S.: "When the girls returned to Reuel their father, he asked them, "Why have you returned so early today?" They answered, "An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock. "And where is he?" he asked his daughters. "Why did you leave him? Invite him to have something to eat." Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, saying "I have become an alien in a foreign land."

PAUL S.: "During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them."

ERIC E.: Great. So here we have Moses; he was born, and the part that we skipped over is where he was thrown into the Nile River in a basket. He was picked up by Pharaoh's daughter and saved and raised in Pharaoh's household. And then he has these experiences in Pharaoh's household.

And what I've found interesting, the lesson that I saw in here was that Moses actually had a bent for rescuing people even before he ever got his call from God. That his desire was to rescue and set people free. Did you notice that as you looked through here? There were three times that I notice in here, can you find them, where he was trying to rescue someone?

ROB D.: The Israelite being beaten by the Egyptians.

ERIC E.: His fellow Israelite was being beaten by the Egyptian and he steps in, tries to rescue him.

ROB D.: Two Hebrews fighting.

ERIC E.: There were two Hebrews fighting and he has to rescue them from each other. He's trying to keep them from fighting. And do you see the third one there?

ROB D.: The shepherds attacking the daughters at the well.

ERIC E.: And the shepherds attacking the daughters at the well. And Moses once again steps in and rescues them.

Here's a man whose heart is set on rescuing people. Isn't it interesting, then, when God was looking for a man who would rescue the Israelites, who he would look to? Moses. Someone whose heart was already set in that direction.

The lesson for me is that a burning heart precedes a burning bush. Sometimes we're looking for a burning bush when God is looking for a burning heart. He's looking at our hearts, and he wants to see what the condition of our heart is. He wants to see are we eager to do the things that he wants done; and if he finds a willing servant, someone whose heart burns for the things that God's heart burns for, he'll put his finger on that person and say yeah, I choose you for this task because you have shown yourself eager to do these kinds of things.

Does that make sense? That it was no accident that Moses was chosen for this task? It was also, you know, -- it wasn't that Moses got his call at the burning bush either. He had felt this way for years, this desire to set his fellow Hebrews free. But the call he got at the burning bush was the call back to go and do it once again, this time with God's power and God's strength. And that would make all the difference in the world, which we'll see later.

But some of us are waiting for that call from God. We're saying God, what are you going to do with us? What are you going to do with me? What are you going to do with my life? Won't you speak to me like you spoke to Moses? And I think God is looking at our hearts going, let me see where your heart is and what your heart wants to do.

I think of Bud and just putting your billboards around town or your radio ads and things that you're doing for your business. You've got a regular business, but you're really using that, you're using the advertising and the time that you invest into that to really be an outreach to people as well [putting Christian sayings and thoughts on the billboards and radio ads]. And I think God looks at that in your heart and he knows where your heart is. And I think that -- I don't know whether you've had your burning bush or not, but definitely that precedes when God wants to do.

BUD G.: Still looking hopefully.

ERIC E.: Sometimes we don't want a burning bush. I mean, I say 'Who wants to see a burning bush?' but you may not want it, because God says go free the Israelites and you're like 'no way, I don't want to do that, thanks.' Get a can of water and dump it on the bushes.

DALE R.: Am I getting this right then? Is it he had a natural desire to do this? He wanted to do it in the natural, and God used that?

TYSON R.: He had an awareness of the call.

DALE R.: I mean, he just felt driven. I mean, sometimes if you find yourself like you want to do something and you find yourself doing it naturally, that may be the way God's going to choose to use you.

ERIC E.: That may very well be. That may very well be. Whether it's natural, or whether it's God implanted from birth.  You know, I do believe that we all have a task and a purpose that God has fore-ordained, preplanned from the beginning of the world, a reason for our life. And so a lot of times we're wired that way. So whether it's wired naturally because of circumstances or wired naturally by nature and the God of nature, I'm not quite sure.

But as I look back over my life as I looked at this, I remembered little things as a kid, you know, that I loved. I loved watering the grass out on the farm. I'd take a hose and I would just water the grass and water the grass, and I could just see the grass come back to life. You know, when it's been dry and parched, you could just see it coming back up. It made me feel so good. And it almost struck me -- and this is goofy and silly to talk about -- but it almost struck me like people and bringing them back to life and giving them the water that they need. And it was such a rewarding thing for me to water the grass. We didn't even have to water the grass on the farm. I mean, if your grass dies, your grass dies. It's not like you're worried about your neighbor or whatever. But it just was rewarding to me.

And then in high school, I had a guy at the alumni banquet last year, one of my teachers, and he came up to me and he's become a Christian now since high school. And I said the prayer at the alumni banquet and I sat down, happened to sit at the table he was at. And he said, 'Eric,' and he was talking about how he'd become a Christian since then. And he said 'You were witnessing to me even back in sophomore English class in high school.' Now, I wasn't even a Christian. I had not even put my faith in Christ at the time. But I was going to church; I was trying to help my peers and my buddies. I've mentioned how, you know, they were off drinking, they were off doing things that were destroying them. And I was trying to say, you know, 'Come back, come back to a better way of living.' And he remembered that from class. And he was saying, 'I was really shocked because you went to a different church than I went to, and I couldn't believe how bold you were in talking about God and talking about these things that would make a difference in peoples' lives.'

And it made me think back and think, you know, I have been sort of wired this way I guess, to try to help people, to try to rescue people, to try to pull them back. And then when I had my burning bush experience so to speak where God really called me nine years ago to go into full-time ministry, I would say it was not exactly a shock, although it was a huge dramatic experience.

And I can look back at various things in my life where I've felt that call. And I look in the Bible and I see like Paul. You know, Paul, when he was Saul and he was on the road to Damascus, if you remember the story, he had this dramatic encounter with Christ, was blinded for several days, and he was out trying to kill Christians.

And you think, 'What a bigger turnaround in somebody's life.' Here's this guy, he's out murdering Christians and giving consent for them to be murdered. And then to have this dramatic encounter with Christ, and now he's out preaching Christ. It's almost like he did 180 turn.

But if I look at that story closer, Paul was actually wired from birth to do the very thing that he ended up doing, which was write much of the New Testament. He was a Pharisee. He was one of the religious leaders. He was trained as a religious leader. In fact, he was so zealous for God that that's why he was killing Christians. Because of his zeal for God and the Word of God, that here came this man who said that -- claimed to be the Messiah, and Paul said how could this man possibly be the Messiah here in my lifetime, here a guy from Galilee, and all the reasons why it wouldn't be the man.

But I believe it was because of his incredible zeal for God that that's why he was killing Christians and people who would follow what he thought was a deviant way. So it wasn't exactly 180 degree turn. It was in terms of his faith in Christ, but in terms of his zeal for God and his zeal to study the word of God and his zeal for all the things that God would have and for the truth, it was almost like one more natural progression. And all of a sudden he had this dramatic experience and God said, I'm going to show you what's going to happen with your life. And he ends up writing some of the most well written, some of the most theologically rich verses that we have in the whole Bible, the book of Romans, Corinthians, and various books.

Do you see how Paul was actually sort of wired this way? And I would say he had a burning heart for God long before he had his Damascus road experience. Does that make sense?

DALE R.: Well, I was reading Joseph, you know, at the end of Genesis. And the same thing with Joseph, Joseph in his early youth, you know, he had a relationship with God that people did not understand and he had that vision, he had that dream. And then if you read at the end, he said God -- 'you know, they meant it for harm but God meant it for good,' so that he would rescue his -- those people. And God had that prepared in mind so he took -- he had that plan in time. And maybe, you know, it's the same type of thing. It's hard to understand ahead of time.

ERIC E.: Great example.

TYSON R.: I think another thing is Moses probably felt like an alien a lot of times because the fact that he was a Hebrew -- he probably eventually found out he was a Hebrew -- living in an Egyptian place, he would feel a bit different when all your brothers or all the rest of your race is dying off, you survived. And then to be, you know, run out into the middle of nowhere where you don't know them either, you know, that -- I mean, not really knowing anyone as really -- even though he had, like, established good relationships with people like, you know, Jethro, and he had a wife Zipporah and their kids, he probably kind of still felt secluded. And so that seclusion probably, you know, left a big hole, you know, that God could fill since he had that huge hole that since he couldn't really fill with anything else or with other friends, God could, you know, take over and have a privileged relationship with Moses.

ERIC E.: Yeah. I think there are a lot of natural reasons why he would want to rescue the Hebrew people as well as a God-given reason. There's no doubt God called him, but there's also no doubt that he was the man for the job. I mean, he had a unique situation where he was -- he had access to Pharaoh because of being raised in his household. He also had the Hebrew connection and –

TYSON: Another thing is –

ERIC E.: Same with Joseph, similar story.

TYSON R.: It's kind of amazing because he had the training from both -- from the -- he had the position, you know, and so he had all that authority, you know, but then he also had -- in the wilderness when you tend sheep, you know, he would know the wilderness so that when they went out there, he knew it like the back of his hand. So when he went out to the wilderness, all these Israelites are like, where are we, and he would teach them where to get water maybe, where to dig up all the stuff.

And not only that was, he was a shepherd. And shepherds, what they're supposed to do, is he was supposed to tend his father-in-law's flock. Well, the Israelites were kind of like a flock in the same way. They weren't his flock, but he was kind of like shepherding them to the Promised Land.

ERIC E.: Great point. He was wired and trained not only in the courts of Pharaoh, but he was also trained in the desert and the wilderness where he spent the next huge portion of his life. And none of that time was wasted. His times in the courts and his times in the wilderness were both good.

ROB D.: He also had a choice to make, because he could have stayed in this position. He could have stayed in this position in Egypt in leadership and never taken on, you know, the calling that God had for him. So in a sense it's just like with us, we all have a choice.

ERIC E.: Very good. Very good. He had two. He could have stayed in Egypt and then when he went to the desert, he could have stayed in the desert.

DALE R.: We were talking about sometimes in a church, you've been in a situation where you feel like you left and it wasn't really -- it was almost hostile. But then when you look back at it, it really wasn't. It was just that sometimes God pushes you into doing something. Otherwise, you'd just stay there and not do what God really called you to do. So you stay there and you're miserable until finally he gets his way with you and you look back and you go wow, if I'd been awake and paying attention, I would have known from the beginning what he had been asking us to do.

ERIC E.: That's good. That's good. There's a verse in 2 Chronicles, if you want to flip over there to the right about this many pages. 2 Chronicles. Actually, double that; I had my marker in the wrong place. 2 Chronicles, 16, Verse 9. 2 Chronicles, 16, Verse 9. This I think underscores the idea that God is looking for burning hearts. God is looking for people whose hearts are committed to him. Someone have that, they want to read it? 2 Chronicles, 16, Verse 9, just the first half, the first sentence of that.

ROB D.: “For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strength those whose hearts are fully committed to him.”

ERIC E.: For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. Another translation says the eyes of the Lord look to and fro throughout the earth looking for those whom he can strongly support.

It's like God's eyes are scanning the globe looking for people that -- whose hearts are committed to the things he's committed to. And then when he finds them, he will strongly support them in what they do. Is that encouraging, if you've been wanting to do something for God, that God's actually looking for people like you? And the flip side is if you haven't been wanting to do something for God, and you're waiting for a burning bush, maybe you're not getting a burning bush because you don't have a burning heart. And God wants to see your burning heart first.

I remember a missionary came from Germany and he was speaking to us in Texas. And he said, "How many of you would like to be missionaries in Germany." And a few hands went up, and they said they'd like to go. He said, "Okay, what things have you been doing here in Texas with German people, what kinds of work are you involved with with German people?" None of the people had an answer for him. He said, "Well, when I see that you're working with German people and the Germanic people and you have a heart for them, then let's talk about coming over to Germany and helping me with my work. But until then it's more just an adventure or something that you're wanting to do. But I want to know that your heart is in it."

Does that make sense? That you can be -- your heart can be for these kinds of things even here in the States or maybe you have a love for a certain people group in the world. As you develop that and nurture that -- I had some other friends who really loved Chinese people, went on a missions trip to China, just had this heart for Chinese people, began inviting people back to their house when they came back to Texas, and inviting Chinese people over and making their way to find out more about the Chinese culture and learning everything they could. Now, guess what? They're full-time missionaries in China. But they acted on that desire even while they were still here.

Moses was trying to rescue people even while he was in the desert. We're looking for a burning bush. But God's looking for a burning heart. Do we have hearts that burn for the things that he burns for? And if we don't, I want to pray tonight that God will light that fire in our hearts so that we'll start doing the things and thinking about the things that He wants done.

And if your heart already burns for the things of God, I think you can feel comfortable, feel at ease in your soul that God will use that in your life, that God's eyes are looking to and fro throughout the earth looking for those whom He can strongly support. And I believe if you're in that position right now, you can wait with anticipation that God will speak to you, that God will call you, and one day you'll be able to see those dreams realized just like Joseph, just like Paul, just like Moses.

I want to take a minute just to worship the Lord, just to sort of jump-start our hearts tonight and think about the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. And just to spend a few minutes in worship to Him and then we'll close with prayer.

We're going to sing a song, Father, I adore You, lay my life before You, how I love You. And then Jesus, I adore You, lay my life before You, how I love You; and then Spirit, I adore You, lay my life before You, how I love You.

We're just doing this one song tonight so this is our worship time. So go straight into worship and you may want to close your eyes if you'd like just to think about God and just to start kindling that fire or stoking that fire if it's already going just in worship and adoration to God.

And next time we get together we'll talk about the burning bush when that fire is fully going and God speaks in it.

Let's sing Father, I adore You. (Written by Terry Coelho)

Father, I adore You, lay my life before You, how I love You

Jesus, I adore You, lay my life before You, how I love You

Spirit, I adore You, lay my life before You, how I love You

ERIC E.: Let's pray. Father, we do adore You; we do love You. Lord, we want our hearts to burn for the things that You burn for. Lord, I pray You would kindle and renew that fire in our hearts tonight. God, I pray as people watch this sometime later on the Internet, Lord, who knows how much in the future they would watch this, Lord, but I pray that right now in this moment that You would kindle their hearts as well. Let their hearts burn for the things that are on Your heart.

Father, I pray for those who feel discouraged right now, who feel like they've been kindled and their flame's almost going out because they just are discouraged. They feel frustrated, they feel like You're not calling them, Lord. You're not using their gifts. Lord, I pray that Your eyes would search throughout the earth and land upon them and strengthen them, Lord, fully support them, God, fully support them, God. God, give them an indication right now of Your presence. Give them an indication right now that You are with them, that You care about them. Lord, give them the resources they need to carry out your will, give them the vision they need, give them the answers they need, give them the people and resources and help that they need, Lord, to fully support them in their work.

Lord, I pray for those who feel like their time may have been wasted and they feel like their heart may have never burned for anything in their life. Lord, I pray You would redeem those years and show them that their time, whether they grew up in a palace or whether they grew up in the desert, Lord, whether they had servants or whether they were the servants tending sheep, Lord. Help them to know that like Moses they can be used. Lord, whether they've committed such crimes even as murder, Lord, as Moses committed murder. Lord, let them know that You not only forgive that, but You can redeem that and You can use that to strengthen theirs and channel that strength into a way that can rescue thousands of people, hundreds of thousands of people, Lord, if their hearts will simply submit to You.

Lord, I pray for anyone who's not put their faith in Christ, that they would turn right now and put their faith in Jesus, trusting that He died for their sins so they can be forgiven, so they can have a new life, and so they can have eternal life with you in heaven forever.

Thank You, Lord. We love You, we adore You, we lay our lives before You. In Jesus' name, Amen.

As we sang that song, I was thinking about sitting around the campfire in camp and that's where we used to sing that, at church camp and sing it in a round, sit around the campfire, little burning bush imagery going on right here in the center of The Ranch, as I was thinking about that campfire.

Next week we'll look at that burning bush and how God can speak out of it, and how He can use that flame to kindle us to go and do what He wants us to do.

I'm glad you came. If you want to chat or talk with us, or you have some prayers that are on your heart, feel free to write to us here at The Ranch or join us in the chat room or on the discussion board. And I hope you will join us again next time at The Ranch.

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