Please turn in your Bibles to Acts chapter 7 this morning as we look at The Way Up Is Down! Some of you know where I am going with this, some of you may not, but I think that this true story that happened a few years back will help shed some light on this very important subject. The story goes like this:
Basketball coach Pat Riley in his book The Winner Within tells about the 1980 World Championship Los Angeles Lakers. They won the NBA Championship that year, and they were recognized as the best basketball team in the world. They began their 1980-1981 season considered likely to win back-to-back championships. But within weeks of the season opener, Magic Johnson tore a cartilage in his knee, and he needed a three-month recuperation period. The team and the fans rallied, and the remaining players played their hearts out. They determined to make it through that period without losing their rankings. They were winning seventy percent of their games when the time began to draw near for Magic Johnson to return to action.
As his return grew closer, the publicity surrounding him increased. During time-outs at the games, the public address announcer would always say, “And don’t forget to mark your calendars for February 27th. Magic Johnson returns to the lineup of your World Champion Los Angeles Lakers!” During that announcement, the other players would look up and curse. They’d say, “We’re winning now. What’s so great about February 27th?” As the day approached, fewer and fewer things were written or said about the players who were putting out so much effort. All the media attention was focused on the one player who hadn’t been doing a thing. Finally the 27th came, and as they clicked through the turnstiles every one of the 17,500 ticket holders was handed a button that said, “The Magic Is Back!” At least fifty press photographers crowded onto the floor while the players were introduced. Normally only the starters were introduced, and Magic Johnson was going to be on the bench when the game began. But he was nevertheless included in the introductions. At the mention of his name, the arena rocked with a standing ovation. Flashbulbs went off like popcorn. Magic Johnson was like a returning god to the crowd that night.
Meanwhile the other players who had carried the team for three months and who were totally ignored, were seething with jealousy, resentment, anger, and envy. They were so resentful that they barely won the game that night against a bottom-of-the-bucket team, and eventually the morale of the entire team collapsed. The players turned on each other. The coach was fired. And they eventually lost their opening game of the play-offs, having one of the most disastrous records ever.
Riley said, “Because of greed, pettiness, and resentment, we executed one of the fastest falls from grace in NBA history. It was the Disease of Me.”
- Robert J. Morgan, Nelson’s Complete Book of Stories,
Illustrations, & Quotes, p. 634
You see, not only did pride, self, me get in the way to their victory, it gets in our way of serving God. In our study this morning Stephen is on trial before the Sanhedrin on charges that he not only spoke of Jesus and His resurrection from the dead, but he blasphemed God and Moses. So as he gives his defense he goes through the history of the nation of Israel from Abraham on up to Jesus, focusing on two prominent people, Joseph and Moses.
And his point is simple and yet it is very powerful when you think about it. The first time Joseph’s brothers did not recognize him as a deliverer and it wasn’t until they saw him the second time, some 17 years after his brothers sold him into slavery and he ended up in prison and then second in command over all of Egypt, that they recognized him as a deliverer, saving the children of Israel from death by famine. Thus, as your fathers did, so are you doing by putting our Deliverer, Jesus Christ to death the first time He came, not recognizing Him as a Deliverer, as a Savior, as our Messiah, and it won’t be until He comes again that the nation of Israel, as a whole, will recognize Him as their Deliverer, as their Savior, as their Messiah!
Now, in our study this morning, we are going to look at Moses, because the same thing happened to him. So with that said, let’s begin reading in Acts chapter 7, beginning in verse 17 and see what the Lord has for us this morning.
Stephen’s point is once again very powerful, it is masterful! The first time Moses came to deliver his people, his people rejected him. It was not until he returned 40 years later that they received him as their deliverer. Thus, just like your fathers who rejected Moses the first time he came, you have rejected the Prophet that Moses spoke of, the Deliverer, the Savior, the Messiah the first time He came and you won’t receive Him again until He returns the second time!
Now that was an issue with them. Their fathers did wrong by not seeing what God was doing with Moses, but there is another point that I think sometimes we miss, even in our own lives. You see, we sometimes think these things are happening to us, that people are treating us this way to teach them a lesson, which may be true, but don’t miss the point, He is also teaching you a lesson!
For Moses, God was dealing with some very destructive issues in his life, “Me, Myself and I”! And think about it, Moses, a Hebrew, was taken in by Pharaoh’s daughter and raised in the finest schools of Egypt. He had access to anything and everything. He was the next in line to the throne in Egypt, the next Pharaoh! He lived a life of luxury, he had the best clothes, the best chariots, the finest house, all the power he could ask for, and yet, there was a burning in his heart for his people, the Hebrew people. He felt the call of God upon his life to be a DELIVERER!
So Moses does the obvious, he steps forward to try and help his people out. At the age of forty Moses goes to see his people and as he does he sees an Egyptian man-handling one of his people. So what does Moses do? He steps forward and kills this Egyptian and buries him in the sand!
Moses must have thought, “It has begun. The people will see me, their deliverer. They will lift me up, they will support me in the work, and they will be behind me all the way. One Egyptian down, only a few million more to go!” The very next day, Moses comes to his people again, maybe he thought he will have a following now, a band of people ready to overthrow their Egyptian bondage. But as he sees his own people fighting with each other, two brethren beating each other up, and he being the deliverer steps in and tries to stop this.
Now, Moses must have thought that he had the power, the authority, the position to do that but the one who started the fight said to Moses, “. . . ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Do you want to kill me as you did the Egyptian yesterday?’” Acts 7:27b-28. Talk about your bad day, what a bummer, do they still use that word? As Moses sees that things are not going as well as he planed, that the people did not recognize him, that his plans did not work out, he knew he was in trouble. Now, why didn’t this work out? If God called him to be a deliverer why didn’t things happen so that he could respond that way? Because God was not a part of the equation, even though the trinity was, not the Holy Trinity, but the unholy trinity – Me, Myself and I! So this deliverer runs for his life and goes into the desert, to the area of Midian!
Moses spent forty years in Midian as a Shepard and he was probably wondering for a time what went wrong. Maybe he came to the conclusion that it was not God’s calling upon his life, he didn’t hear God correctly, maybe it was a bad pizza or something! He is now eighty years old and I’m sure he had given up on this idea of being a deliverer. He couldn’t do it any longer and isn’t that interesting because that is when God calls Moses to go back and deliver his people.
Why did God wait so long before He used Moses? Because SELF needed to be destroyed in Moses’ life. He was too big for God too use him at that point. Yes, God called him to be a deliverer, but it was not yet time to move out because God was still working in the life of Moses before He was going to work through him in a mighty way!
At the age of eighty Moses returned to Egypt to deliver his people and he did, not with the power of his might, but by the power of God and for forty years in the wilderness, over 2 million people, God sustained them, provided for them, and God brought them into the Promise Land by the hand of Joshua. During those forty years the people at times questioned his authority, his position, but now Moses didn’t fight, he humbled himself and let God fight for him. If God called him to this position, then God would sustain him and He did!
Listen to what we are told of Moses in Hebrews 11:24-29, “By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible. By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest he who destroyed the firstborn should touch them. By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, whereas the Egyptians, attempting to do so, were drowned.”
Mosses died to self, and he went forth by faith, trusting in God to do all He said He would do and God did! In humility, in dying to self, God lifted him up in a mighty way! In his own strength, in his own power, Moses buried one Egyptian in the sand, but in the power of God the whole Egyptian army was buried in the sea!
I like what Andrew Murray said about humility. He said: “Humility is perfect quietness of heart. It is for me to have no trouble; never to be fretted or vexed or irritated or sore or disappointed. It is to expect nothing, to wonder at nothing that is done to me, to feel nothing done against me. It is to be at rest when nobody praises me and when I am blamed or despised. It is to have a blessed home in the Lord where I can go in and shut the door and kneel to my Father in secret and be at peace as in a deep sea of calmness when all around is trouble. It is the fruit of the Lord Jesus Christ’s redemptive work on Calvary’s cross, manifested in those of His own who are definitely subject to the Holy Spirit.” What a beautiful picture of a life that is surrendered unto the Lord and is humble, self has been put to death!
The thing is, Me, Myself and I, the self-life, is one of those things that can sneak up on us and bring us down if we do not deal with it. Paul put it this way in Romans 8:13-14, “For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” There is a very sad story in the Bible of a man who started out very humble but as he gained power, prestige, the humility was put to death and the self-life reigned and it was the self life that finally brought him down to the grave!
It is the story of King Saul, the first king in Israel. He was from the smallest of the tribes in Israel, not much power or influence from his family heritage, and yet God anointed him king over Israel, and he did start out well. The people of Jabesh Gilead were in trouble, they were being threatened by the Ammonites. Because they couldn’t win in this battle, the people of Jabesh Gilead wanted to make a deal with the Ammonites, and the Ammonites had only one condition, that the right eye of the people of Jabesh Gilead would be put out, they would be blinded in it and thus, they could not do well in battle because their depth perception would be off. With this big decision before them they asked for seven days to think about it.
When Saul heard this the Spirit of the Lord came upon him and he united the tribes of Israel together to fight for the people of Jabesh Gilead and God gave them a great victory! Those humble years of Saul were powerful as God sustained him and the nation, giving them many victories. But then, because that inner man, that spiritual man was not nourished in Saul’s life, the self-life began to manifest itself.
The Philistines gathered their army against Israel and
it was so bad that some of the people of Israel left, joined the
other side and the rest of the nation trembled in fear! We read
of this in I Samuel 13:8-14, “Then he waited seven
days, according to the time set by Samuel. But Samuel did not
come to Gilgal; and the people were scattered from him. So Saul
said, ‘Bring a burnt offering and peace offerings here to
me.’ And he offered the burnt offering.
Now it happened, as soon as he had finished presenting
the burnt offering, that Samuel came; and Saul went out to meet
him, that he might greet him. And Samuel said, ‘What have you done?’ Saul said, ‘When I saw that the people
were scattered from me, and that you did not come within the days
appointed, and that the Philistines gathered together at Michmash,
then I said, “The Philistines will now come down on me at
Gilgal, and I have not made supplication to the LORD.” Therefore
I felt compelled, and offered a burnt offering.’
And Samuel said to Saul, ‘You have done foolishly.
You have not kept the commandment of the LORD your God, which
He commanded you. For now the LORD would have established your
kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall
not continue. The LORD has sought for Himself a man after His
own heart, and the LORD has commanded him to be commander over
His people, because you have not kept what the LORD commanded
you.’”
Here is the start of his fall, not trusting in the Lord and doing his own thing and because of that, his kingdom was not going to last, he is going to be removed from ministry you might say! Thus, in knowing these things Saul is going to try to hang on with all of his might, he is king and no one is going to take that away from him. But where is God in all of this? You see, it is not about God but it is all about Saul, and when we get to that place where we put ourselves above others, above God’s will, our rights above what God wants to do and we fight to hold on to what we have and it won’t work. You don’t fight with God, you surrender to His will!
We are going to skip a few years, a few battles and come to a place where Saul is instructed by God through the prophet Samuel to go and wipe out the Amalekites, which in the Scriptures are a type of the flesh! Samuel told Saul “Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.” In other words, the picture that is being painted for us is not to leave any part of the flesh nature alive because it will destroy you!
So Saul goes to battle, gets the victory, but is not completely
obedient to what the Lord said through the prophet Samuel. We
read in I Samuel 15:10-26, “Now the word of the LORD
came to Samuel, saying, ‘I greatly regret that I have set
up Saul as king, for he has turned back from following Me, and
has not performed My commandments.’ And it grieved Samuel,
and he cried out to the LORD all night.
So when Samuel rose early in the morning to meet Saul,
it was told Samuel, saying, ‘Saul went to Carmel, and indeed,
he set up a monument for himself; and he has gone on around, passed
by, and gone down to Gilgal.’
Then Samuel went to Saul, and Saul said to him, ‘Blessed
are you of the LORD! I have performed the commandment of the LORD.’ But Samuel said, ‘What then is this bleating
of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?’ And Saul said, ‘They have brought them
from the Amalekites; for the people spared the best of the sheep
and the oxen, to sacrifice to the LORD your God; and the rest
we have utterly destroyed.’ Then Samuel said to Saul, ‘Be quiet! And
I will tell you what the LORD said to me last night.’
And he said to him, ‘Speak on.’
So Samuel said, ‘When you were little in your own
eyes, were you not head of the tribes of Israel? And did not the
LORD anoint you king over Israel?
Now the LORD sent you on a mission, and said, “Go,
and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against
them until they are consumed.” Why then did you not obey
the voice of the LORD? Why did you swoop down on the spoil, and
do evil in the sight of the LORD?’ . . .
. . . And
Saul said to Samuel, ‘But I have obeyed the voice of the
LORD, and gone on the mission on which the LORD sent me, and brought
back Agag king of Amalek; I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of
the plunder, sheep and oxen, the best of the things which should
have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice to the LORD your God
in Gilgal.’ So
Samuel said: ‘Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings
and sacrifices, As in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to
obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams.
For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, And stubbornness
is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He also
has rejected you from being king.’ Then Saul said to Samuel,
‘I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of
the LORD and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed
their voice. Now
therefore, please pardon my sin, and return with me, that I may
worship the LORD.’
But Samuel said to Saul, ‘I will not return with you,
for you have rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD has rejected
you from being king over Israel.’”
You see, incomplete obedience, making excuses instead of repenting and getting right with God and in the end Saul lost even though he defeated the Amalekites! God knows what He is talking about if the flesh is not dealt with, it will destroy you as it destroyed King Saul, it will remove you from ministry!
King Saul and the nation of Israel were fighting against the Philistines and Israel was defeated in that battle. King Saul was severely wounded and his son Jonathan was killed in this battle. And in II Samuel chapter 1 we see a man come from King Saul’s camp with words for David about the battle – that Saul and his son Jonathan were dead. And he continued to tell David that he came upon Saul in this condition and Saul pleaded with him to kill him before the enemy came upon him and he did! This messenger was an Amalekite. What killed King Saul – not a sword but the FLESH! It is as Saul said regarding this kind of life, the self-life, “. . . Indeed I have played the fool and erred exceedingly.” I Samuel 26:21.
Don’t play the fool, don’t error exceedingly, but deal with the flesh, put it to death, crucify it. How do we do it? By walking in the Spirit and letting the fruit of the Spirit flow from our lives. Paul said in Galatians 5:22-25, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” And in Romans 6:6-7 Paul tells us “knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin.”
I do realize that this is not a very popular topic or subject to talk about today, crucifying the flesh. The world is telling us that self-esteem needs to be built up and that same philosophy has now entered the church under the misguided notion that this is a scientific fact – self needs to be built up – but it doesn’t, in fact that is the problem, we think more highly of ourselves then we ought to!
In Matthew 16:24-26 we are told, “Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”
If you want to follow Jesus, He said the first thing you must do is deny yourself, let the flesh life melt away! It is not about you, but Him and as you humble yourself before Him, your needs will be met in Him! You must take up your cross daily, and that is not speaking of your mother-in-law or whatever you want to place there, it is speaking of death, as the cross was a symbol of death, and Jesus is saying death to the old life and anew in Christ! And lastly, we are to follow Him, keep our eyes on Him, the Author and Finisher of our faith!
As I begin to rap this up this morning, listen to these contrasting statements about self and service from Richard Foster. He said:
Self-Righteous service comes through human effort. True service comes from a relationship with the divine Other deep inside.
Self-righteous service is impressed with the “big deal.” True service finds it almost impossible to distinguish the small from the large service.
Self-righteous service requires external rewards. True service rests contented in hiddenness.
Self-righteous service is highly concerned about results. True service is free of the need to calculate results.
Self-righteous service picks and chooses whom to serve. True service is indiscriminate in its ministry.
Self-righteous service is affected by moods and whims. True service ministers simply and faithfully because there is a need.
Self-righteous service is temporary. True service is a life-style.
Self-righteous service is without sensitivity. It insists on meeting the need even when to do so would be destructive. True service can withhold service as freely as perform it.
Self-righteous service fractures community. True service, on the other hand, builds community.
- Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline, “The Discipline of Service”
Let me give you one example of what this all means. Many years ago, back in Illinois, we were at Calvary and at Sunday morning worship we had a very talented musician and a member of our church. He could play the keyboard, the guitar and had a beautiful voice. That morning he was playing the keyboard and all of a sudden, during one of the worship songs he just stopped playing and got up and left! The other members of the worship team continued on but all of a sudden the focus of worship went from the Lord to “Where in the world did so-and-so go?” I came to find out that he messed up on the song and he was so mad that he got up and left. Now, I know for a fact, most if not all the people that were worshiping the Lord that morning had no clue that he hit the wrong note or key or whatever a keyboard player does. But when it is about you, it is about you and his actions that were manifested that morning were what were in his heart and it wasn’t long before he was gone, out of ministry, placed on the shelf by God. Why? Because of self!
Don’t be put on the shelf by God because you are too big for God to use you. Self can get in the way if you let it. And please remember, you can never be too small for God to use you, but you can be too big! It took Moses forty years of learning humility, servanthood before God used him. God wants to use you, won’t you let Him? It is as Micah 6:8 says “He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?” He has shown us, now we need to do it as we surrender to Him and humble ourselves before Him. Or else, we can find ourselves in the position that Pat Riley and the Los Angeles Lakers found themselves in, “Because of greed, pettiness, and resentment, we executed one of the fastest falls from grace in NBA history. It was the Disease of Me.” Don’t let Me get in the way of what God wants to do in you and then through you! You see, THE WAY UP IS DOWN!