What does Moses have to do with my marketplace call? Can I learn anything from this leader to apply to my own daily work life call? Stay tuned and we'll find out. How do I bring my faith to work? How do I tap into the power of God in my work life call? Why am I going through this adversity? It's got mad at me. I'm Os Hillman and I've been helping leaders like you enter these questions and for, for over 30 years, that's what this podcast is all about. Let's learn and grow together. Welcome to GIF. Today. God is first. Hey guys, this week I'm in North Myrtle beach. Every year I come down here between the December 26 and January 1st and I like to do a lot of my writing and just to decompress down here. Also have a very close friend of mine, Jim, who is 83 years old today. Not today, but, this year. He has been a mentor and father to me. He's been a pastor for over 32 years here in this area. And if I was to point the camera down that way, you would see a pier. And that is the peer that I accepted Christ on in 1975 at 11:00 PM one night. And so this place has a special place for me, a place in my heart for me this week. I want to talk to you about the marketplace principles we can learn from the life of Moses. And whenever I think about the ocean, I think about Moses and the red sea. Moses has a lot of things that you and I can learn from what he did. And you know, he represents a type of leader that made a lot of mistakes. You know, the first mistake he made was when he realized who he was and that God in some way wanted to use him in a very powerful way to deliver a people from slavery. He went about it the wrong way. He used his power and, uh, to try to force things to happen. And we know that he killed an Egyptian. And that led him to have to flee after being raised in the ways of Egypt and no doubt that impacted him and not really understanding how to be led by God or be used by God in such a way. And so, you know, Moses is a, a type of marketplace person where we can sometimes use our force to make things happen, but God, you know, has to take us through a process. And so God’s process for Moses was to take him into the desert and put him out there as a shepherd. And, you know, the shepherd life was something the Egyptians despised. It was the lowliest of all professions. And, uh, you know, when I think about Moses and when God, after 40 years, decides to reengage him through the burning Bush, and that when he sees this burning over to the side during his work day, I think that's interesting that he does it during his work day. And so God speaks to him. And the first thing he says to him, it says, Moses, take off your shoes for a year on Holy ground. Now what does that mean? Well, you know, even our daily work life, God says that it's Holy ground because my presence is there. And that's another principle we need to understand is that God sometimes comes to us in the day to day activities like our life. And he wants us to really experience his presence even in that place. And so after the initial discussion with Moses, God asked him a very interesting question and he says, Moses, uh, what is that in your hand? Of course, Moses said, well, it's my staff Lord. I picked up this stick here on the beach and uh, it'll just be our staff for a minute. Okay. And, uh, so he says, Moses lay down that staff. And so he lays out the staff and it turns into a snake and a imagine the shock. And so then God, Elsa and that pickup, that snake by the tail and alive was that important. Whether it was important because he was taking a car to you over the serpent, which is represented as the devil and the scriptures that caused the, uh, problems with he back in the garden of Eden. And so Moses is taking authority over that. So he picks it up by the tail. And when he does, it turns back into a staff. Now. Then God says something very interesting in the scriptures from that point on. He says, now take that staff and perform miraculous signs with it. And that also says that that staff was no longer the staff of Moses, but it was actually the staff of God. And so now he was going to be a steward over that staff, and he was going to perform miracles through that staff. Not only would he perform miracles, he would actually deliver an entire people from slavery. So we see in this example that God uses Moses in a very powerful way. And you know, Moses wasn't a perfect leader recently. I've been talking about how God uses very imperfect leaders. And he used David who was a murderer and a conniver at, uh, uh, Eno adulterer. He used Esau. And he also used Jacob. Of course he did despise Esau, but he did turn him into a nation. But Jacob who was a controller and a manipulator, he used him to birth the 12 tribes. And so today when you get upset with leadership and America realizes that God uses very imperfect people for specific assignments, you think about also the, uh, the character in the old Testament, Jehu, where God used him and Elisha and picked him to destroy Ahab and Jezebel, which was an ungodly, an evil rulership. And you know, so when we look today at our leaders, we need to realize that they are not perfect characters and they won't pass the evangelical litmus test many times. But God raises those kinds of people up. You know, Jehu, who is probably the closest thing I can think of to a Donald Trump who was very narcissistic, knew his abilities, was very good at what he did. He felt God's hand on him. And, yet he was a guy that was, you know, not going to win popularity contest. And so just think about that. When you think about the kinds of leaders God raises up around us and you know that it takes a particular kind of leader to train a swamp in a political system like America that has for the last 50 years has been going far left and you know, further and further into corruption. And so it took a, takes a person like that to really do that. And so when they see Moses now going into deliver the people, an interesting thing happens and he fails to do something that God told him to do. And that was to circumcise his son. And it says that an angel was on the way to kill Moses because he failed to circumcise his song. And you know, why is that important? Well, it's important because God's representation of covenant between he and his people was the concept that circumcision, they were to be a people set apart for his purposes. And so when Moses didn't honor that symbol of commitment and covenant promise between him and God, that was a very serious thing. And so his wife actually saved him by circumcising the child. And Moses was able to go on and perform what God called him to do. So now Moses is with the people. He's delivering the people. Finally after the plagues and you know the situation, it gets to the point that he got the people released,but during the journey he comes to the Red Sea and it's interesting what God said about the Red Sea. He took them to the Red Sea. Now the route that he took them to was a route that ended on the shores of the Red Sea. There's an alternative route they could have taken to the North end so that they could go around it and get to the other side. But God didn't take them there. He took them right at the Red Sea. Now if you imagine, let's imagine that that's the Red Sea behind us, that would be an incredible thing to think that that sea could part and that you could walk through that seat unfathomable for you and not to imagine such a thing happening. But if we're believers that we know that the word of God is true and we need to believe that that in fact took place. And so they go through the Red Sea and God takes them along the way. They get thirsty and hungry and God uses manna to feed them because they can't care for themselves and they need water. And so God tells Moses to strike the wrong in order to get water for the people. And here again is a, you see the symbolism of the staff and how God used the staff to be the instrument of power. And so he strikes the rock and the water comes out of it. And then later on we see a similar situation in which the people are thirsty again. And God says to him, now, Moses, this time I want you to speak to the rock. And this is a very important thing that God does with the people. Now he's now telling Moses, I want you to use the authority of the spoken word. You know, the Bible is very clear about the power of the spoken word and the authority he gives us to speak the word in power. And so he tells him to speak to the rock. But Moses is not having a good day. And he's very frustrated with the people. And so instead of speaking to the rock, he strikes. And when he does that, an interesting thing happens. The water still comes out of the rock, but it's at a cost to Moses that he actually loses his ride to be able to go into and participate in the promised land that God had promised to the people. And that was the consequence of his disobedience because he dishonored the people by doing that. And that's what the scripture tells us. And so there are a lot of lessons there that Moses tells us. And so I would encourage you today to think about this staff, what is your staff? Your worklife call and what God has put inside of you to deliver a people and to bring people into a place of worship. That's what God also said about Moses. And the reason they were going to go into the desert was to worship God and have the freedom to worship. And so that's what we see taking place today. That you know, our rights as believers are being fronted every time we turn around in our nation right now. And God needs you and I to stand in the gap, to be able to use our staffs, to really perform the miracles needed to re see our nation restored to some, some foundations that will not be cracked. And so, you know, I've been thinking about, uh, what we can do to help many of you out there who struggle with how to live out your faith in the marketplace, how to live out your faith as a business owner. What can you do to be more successful then applying your faith life and to your work life. And so we're going to be announcing before too long a new initiative that's going to help you, that that's a, an interest in that you have to be able to go deeper into the things of God to connect with other leaders in a community that will allow you to rub shoulders with others who have the same DNA, the same arc for you, that you have to be able to represent Christ in all that you do. So, you know, if I, when I think about, um, where believers are and how they're getting equipped today, you know, you got to admit that it's, it's, uh, there's not too many places you can go to get equipped, coach, mentor, and uh, so, you know, the church, the local church hasn't done a great job with that. But where do you go to find an opportunity to be equipped, you know, by leaders who are in the marketplace, who've gone the journey, who, who paid the price for those things. So that's what, uh, the kind of thing that we're planning to release before long. And if that's of interest to you, uh, then you might want to go on our waiting list. And, uh, we've set up a web page that you could go on to, uh, be notified when we released that. It's called become God's change agent.com become God's change agent.com if you'll go there and put your information there, you'll be able to be on our waiting list and you'll also have the opportunity to, to be the first ones to get a discounted opportunity to the initiative that we're going to launch. There's also a download of my top 10 success principles that I've recorded over the years that I found to be most influential. Things I've done that have helped me walk the walk that I've met. So as we enter 2020, I pray that God will really use you this year in the via time where God will use believers to really bring the gospel into our nation and pray for revival in our nation. Pray for just an awakening of men and women in the marketplace to be used by God. And so if you're watching this on YouTube, I pray that you'll subscribe to our channel so that others can get notified about these things. And if you're hearing this on iTunes, please give us a rating that helps us to be recognized as by Apple to come and listen to our podcast. And so thanks for letting me share with you that this a year end message. And do you ever get to come down to North Myrtle beach? It's a great place to come. So we'll see you next week. Blessed take care. Are you a biblical worker? Do you know what the Bible says about how to work biblically? I've got a great one for you. I want to give you a resource called, Are you a biblical worker? It's a 50 question. True false self-assessment, great for personal study and small groups. Plus you get the answers with supporting scriptures to help you apply what the Bible says about your daily work life. It's a value of $25 but we want to make it available to you as a free. Just go to www.threebiblicalworker.com that's free biblical worker.com.