We're starting a brand new series today that will hopefully help you look beyond. “Beyond what,” you might ask. Beyond what's at the end of your nose, what’s right in front of you, beyond what you are facing right now, beyond just surviving, beyond to what could be, beyond to purpose.

Most people wake up, go to work, come home, go to sleep, and repeat that cycle over again. We've all heard it said, "The one place that contains the highest concentration of lost potential is a cemetery.”

Let me ask you point-blank: Are you in that cycle?
Is your life currently in a cycle that has you only focusing on what's right in front of you? Have you stopped dreaming, hoping, imagining? If so, why?

I'm gonna go ahead and let the cat out of the bag on the series:
There is more beyond what's right in front of you, so much more than the situation or season you might be facing. God has a beautiful and impactful plan for your life, and while that is true, it also means that Satan knows enough about humanity to understand that if he can get us focusing on, what's right at the end of our nose, then he never has to worry about us reaching our potential.

We get caught up in situations and scenarios, emotions, and attitudes and frustrations. We get sidetracked by struggles and attacks, and the result is we spend all of our time focusing on getting through the day, and we can't see beyond it.

If you think about it, the plan is brilliant. All Satan has to do is to get you focused on the scenario right in front of your face, get you consumed with it, and once he does this, he can save resources going forward because he knows that as long as you are entangled with what's right in front of you, you will never even glance at what's ahead of you.

So let me say it again:
It doesn't matter what you are facing right now, what season you're in, what entanglement you are currently dealing with, there is divine purpose for your life beyond those things.

I believe all of the entanglements that you find yourself in right now are simply a part of Satan's plan to keep you from God's plan. And whether those entanglements are of your own doing, or someone else, or even if they are just a part of living life, God’s grace and mercy, his divine power through the Holy Spirit, his word, these are just some of the tools he has given us so that we can embrace his best for us in spite of what we might be facing today.

Most, if not all of you are familiar with the story of Moses. To set up where we will join the story, let me remind you that Moses was born during a time of intense persecution, as any Hebrew son under two years old was being slaughtered to help slow the growth of the population of Egyptian Hebrew slaves. Moses’ mother put him in a basket coated with pitch and sent him down the Nile river in an attempt to spare him. The daughter of Pharaoh found him and raised him as her own in the court of her father. If you want to study Moses in Egypt further, look to the name Senenmut. Some scholars believe this is the actual Moses. Link below:

We pick up the story in Exodus 2:11-15
11 Many years later, when Moses had grown up, he went out to visit his own people, the Hebrews, and he saw how hard they were forced to work. During his visit, he saw an Egyptian beating one of his fellow Hebrews. 12 After looking in all directions to make sure no one was watching, Moses killed the Egyptian and hid the body in the sand. 13 The next day, when Moses went out to visit his people again, he saw two Hebrew men fighting. “Why are you beating up your friend?” Moses said to the one who had started the fight. 14 The man replied, “Who appointed you to be our prince and judge? Are you going to kill me as you killed that Egyptian yesterday?”
Then Moses was afraid, thinking, “Everyone knows what I did.” 15 And sure enough, Pharaoh heard what had happened, and he tried to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in the land of Midian.

We will be reading here in a moment of Moses and the burning bush, but I wanted to stop here to highlight a few things.

First, some foreshadowing: v14: who made you prince and judge? Prince: rule, and judge: law/morality. Essentially one smart aleck phrase reflected the fact that Moses would one day become king and priest of Israel.

Second, Moses was looking beyond his nose in this story. He wasn’t content to live in the palace. Why? He knew he was made for more than that.

Michael Kelley
“When you combine Exodus 2, Hebrews 11, and Acts 7, you get some more facts about one of the pivotal figures in biblical history – Moses. What you find is that Moses was raised in privilege as a prince of Egypt (just like the movie says), but that he also had some knowledge about who his people were. He understood he was a Hebrew. And it’s reasonable to assume that he also had an inkling at least about what God’s plan was for him – that he was to be a great deliverer.

So in Exodus 2, you find Moses taking his destiny into his own hands. He was supposed to be the deliverer, so he decided to start delivering, and he killed an Egyptian slave-master. That act forced Moses into the wilderness, the desert of Midian to be more precise, and there he stayed for 40 years.”

v11: he went to visit his own people, and saw their struggle. Moses recognized something beyond himself.

This is the first step to embracing what is beyond:

1. Open your eyes to what is around you
It's amazing what tunnel vision can do to you. While it can be beneficial to keep you focused on one thing, like blinders on a horse, it keeps you from being able to see the grander picture. This is actually what we are telling people through times of tragedy when we say, "God has a plan for all of this." Admittedly, it's not a lot of comfort in the midst of the pain, but it's a simple encouragement to allow God to expand your vision beyond the trial that is before you and onto something greater. This is precisely what Paul is talking about in Romans 8:18-21
18 Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. 19 For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. 20 Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, 21 the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay.

Paul is saying, "Yes I know you are suffering right now, but make sure you don't spend all of your energy wrapped up in the trial so much so that you miss the glory.”

Interestingly, enough, the suffering of the Hebrews did not start the moment Moses realized what was going on. But if you notice, Moses’ active response did.

If you are going to embrace this opportunity during this series to look past the end of your nose, to look past the trial that you might be facing right this second, and open your eyes to what is going on around you, the realization that comes as a fruit of what you see is the first step in getting you to do something to change it.

Now, did Moses respond well? No, I don't think he did. I do not recommend murder as a solution to end suffering. But even so, God used his horrible reaction to bring about his plan and purpose. How? He escapes to Midian. For 40 years.

Side note here:
Moses was so upset about how his people were being treated that he committed murder and then left the Hebrews to their slavery for 40 years.
The side note is this: What you don’t deal with only grows. It might be easy to just put it out of your mind, but if you are going to have true freedom in an area of your life where there is resistance, it is going to take you being willing to confront it.

Let’s pick up this story with Moses in the land of Midian for 40 years. Moses ended up stopping by a well and while he was resting, some women came to draw water to feed their flocks of sheep. Some other shepherds came and started to run the women off, but Moses intervened and rescued them. The daughters went home to tell their father, Reuel, and Moses was invited to their home, where Moses settled. In time, Reuel gave Moses his daugher Zipporah as his wife.

Meanwhile, Exodus 2:23-25
23 Years passed, and the king of Egypt died. But the Israelites continued to groan under their burden of slavery. They cried out for help, and their cry rose up to God. 24 God heard their groaning, and he remembered his covenant promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 25 He looked down on the people of Israel and knew it was time to act.

Up next comes the burning bush, which is where we are going today, but before we get there, we need to address what Moses was doing in the wilderness for 40 years.

Sometimes in church, especially churches like ours that are very focused on helping you become discipled and developed, it can seem that any moments of calm or stillness are bad. We are looking for contentment, not complacency.
- When you are content, you are satisfied with where you are in life, but there is still a yearning inside of you to improve, grow, embrace purpose, etc.
- When you are complacent, you may or may not be satisfied with life, but there is a sense of either giving up at the maximum or simply not trying at the minimum to improve, grow, or embrace purpose.
Contentment is biblical, complacency is not.

If you have lost your "want to, your giddyup,” I'm praying the Holy Spirit would instantly give you a revelation as to why. If your get up and go has gotten up and gone, you need to get your get up and go back. That’s a complacent season.

But if you are in a contentment season, almost like you are good with what is going on but you know there is more, you might be in an in-between season.

2. Let God use your in-between season.
Midian was an in-between season for Moses: In-between Egypt and the Exodus. Interestingly enough, while this was Moses’ in-between season, the period between Egypt and the Promised Land was the Israelites in-between season, yet that was also Moses’ purpose season. This is why you can’t judge your walk against someone else’s. You might end up comparing their purpose season with your in-between season.

So what was Moses doing?

In chapter 2 we learn he got married and had a son. In the opening of chapter 3 we learn he is tending his father-in-laws flock.

Two things you need to know here:
First, Reuel from chapter 2 and Jethro from chapter 3 are the same dude.
The reason Reuel was used first even though Jethro was his common name is because Moses wanted the reader to know that Jethro served Yahweh, as his name contained the suffix, “El.” Reuel means “friend of God.” Interesting because what Moses really needed was just that.

Second, it is interesting that after 40 years of being a shepherd, Moses was still tending someone else’s flock. Why didn’t he have his own yet? Is this an example of complacency in Moses’ life? “I’ll just do my job and keep my mouth shut. Bare minimum.” This is speculation of course, but it is interesting that it seems Moses hustle was gone and he’d settled into that cycle of wake, work, sleep.

If you feel you are in that cycle, I want you to ask yourself a question:
If money was no issue and you were guaranteed success, what would you be doing? If you can’t answer that, it is evidence that you are not dreaming.
Have you gotten complacent?

Back to Moses, what was he doing for 40 years?
He was shepherding sheep in a desert. What could Moses possibly learn from that? Any of you know anything about sheep? Sheep are really dumb.

Again, from Kelley:
“Moses was a shepherd, in the desert, for 40 years. He went from being the prince of Egypt and a revolutionary with a dream to a nobody. But here’s what’s encouraging to me. During those 40 years, I’m sure Moses had a lot of questions. He had a lot of doubts. He had a lot of humility thrust upon him. And while he may have felt like he was doing nothing with his life, God was busy. And I believe God was busy in at least 2 ways – one outside, and one inside.

On the outside, God was busy preparing Moses to know what life was like in the desert, which would come in pretty handy when he spent the next 40 years of life wandering around there. The stuff he learned about finding water, sleeping arrangements, wildlife, plant life – you name it – would be invaluable. Moses had no clue he was learning all this, but he was.

On the inside, God was also busy. He was busy helping Moses become the sort of person who could walk into the court of the most powerful man in the known world and say “Let my people go.” He was preparing him to be the kind of person who could deal with the impatience and bellyaching of a newly liberated people. He was preparing him to be someone who knew what it was like to depend on the work of God and walk deeply with Him. And Moses didn’t even know it. He was becoming someone in the desert, and he thought he was just herding sheep.”

To that person in this room right now that feels like you've been in a holding pattern and you can't quite explain why, God is working. He's been using this in between season to teach you some things, whether you've known it or not. He's been using this in between season to work some things in and out of you, whether you've known it or not. He's been using this in between season to prepare you for what's next, whether you’ve known it or not.

I'm asking you today to open your eyes to what is around you to see something greater than the struggle you're facing, but I'm also asking you to embrace an in between season if that's where you are, because this is the training ground for what's next, the proving ground. Everything Moses learned in his first 40 years in the wilderness helped him lead in his second 40 years in the wilderness. I know you might not like the heat and the sand and the dumb sheep, but if you will learn to love what God is doing in and through you in an in between season, you will love what he is doing in and through you in the purpose season, too.

God was just as present in the river as he was in the palace, in the desert as he was in the promised land. If you feel the Holy Spirit churning in you, as you hear these words, you need to understand where you are: you are in between. You are in between the oppression and the promise, between the struggle and the success. Look beyond the uncomfortable nature of the desert to what God is trying to show you, teach you, and develop in you.
Be careful you aren't so mad at the desert you miss what God's trying to teach you in it. In the same way, don't get so wrapped up in your struggle that you miss the glory that lies beyond it.

And finally to the burning bush.
Exodus 3:7-10
7 Then the Lord told him, “I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cries of distress because of their harsh slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and lead them out of Egypt into their own fertile and spacious land. It is a land flowing with milk and honey—the land where the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites now live. 9 Look! The cry of the people of Israel has reached me, and I have seen how harshly the Egyptians abuse them. 10 Now go, for I am sending you to Pharaoh. You must lead my people Israel out of Egypt.”

Open your eyes to what is around you. Let God use your in-between season.

3. Don’t kick against the goads.
What!?!? This is the phrase Jesus used when he appeared to Saul who was renamed Paul. Kicking against the goads comes from the use of a pointed stick used to prod an oxen. When the oxen would kick against the goad, it would hurt itself. This idiom is used to say essentially, “Don’t fight the hand that is directing you.” Yet, this is precisely what we do when God calls us to something beyond. And we’re in good company as Moses did this, too.

Moses responded to God’s call to be the deliverer of his people with 5 protests. These 5 protests are just as relevant in our lives today as was in his.

1. Unworthiness
Exodus 3:11
"Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"
Moses feels inadequate for such a monumental task, given his status as a fugitive shepherd. God responds by promising His personal presence, saying, "I will be with you," and assures Moses of success with a sign: the people will worship God at Mount Sinai.

We often see ourselves through the lens of value, and if we don’t think we’re worth it, we can easily slide into a place of complacency, refusing to look beyond what is in front of us simply because we don’t think we deserve any better.

FIX: God determined your worth at Calvary.
Isaiah 49:15-16
How could I forget you. I have inscribed your name on the palms of my hands.

2. Spiritual Inferiority
Exodus 3:13
"If I go to the Israelites and say, 'The God of your fathers has sent me,' and they ask, 'What is His name?' what shall I tell them?"
Moses is concerned about his authority and the Israelites’ acceptance.
God reveals His name, "I AM WHO I AM" (Yahweh), emphasizing His eternal, self-existent nature and covenantal relationship with Israel.

We can easily see ourselves in this situation, trying to understand not just who we are, but who is this God who calls us into something bigger than we could imagine. Maybe you feel like you aren't where you need to be with God in order to do this thing he's called you to, or maybe you are struggling in an area and when you compare yourself to others around you, you feel inferior. It is true we need to maintain and grow our relationship with Jesus, but Satan loves to beat you up making you think you are way worse than you actually are. We've got to get close and stay close to Jesus.

FIX: God makes himself known through scripture and prayer.
John 10:27
My sheep hear my voice and they follow me.
The closer you get, the clearer you hear his voice.
The clearer you hear his voice, the better you obey.

3. Fear, especially fear of peoples’ opinions
Exodus 4:1
"What if they don’t believe me or listen to me and say, 'The LORD did not appear to you'?"
Moses fears rejection by the people. God equips him with three miraculous signs to validate his mission: a staff turning into a snake, his hand becoming leprous and healed, and water turning to blood, demonstrating God’s power to the Israelites. We are consumed with what other people think about us to the point where it keeps us from stepping out and doing something incredible for God.

FIX: Value God’s opinions over others’ opinions.
Galatians 1:10
I’m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant.

There will always be naysayers and haters. There will always be people who doubt you until you you can't do it, And then they will give you a laundry list of reasons why they think that. But if God has told you to do you can ignore the haters and you can let the naysayers know I'm not trying to win the approval of people, but I am here to please God Almighty. This does not mean to ignore your reputation, but it means we are not going to idolize what someone says that contradicts what God has said.

4. Self doubt
Exodus 4:10
"I am slow of speech and tongue,"
Moses highlights his perceived limitations, specifically his ability to speak.
God counters by affirming His role as the Creator of speech, promising to help Moses speak and teach him what to say, ensuring his words carry divine authority.
Interestingly, enough, once this burning bush moment is finished, no one can get Moses to shut up, until one specific moment: When he faced the Hebrews. That's when Aaron spoke up. It's amazing how certain people can make you feel stronger levels of self-doubt. Even more amazing how that can inhibit your purpose.

FIX: Complete and total confidence in the one who called you, not in your own ability.
1 Thessalonians 5:24
He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it. HE not you. If you could do it, you’d have done it. You can’t do it, so you need him to help you do it.

5. Reluctance to obey
Exodus 4:13
Please, Lord, send someone else.
God never called you to run my race, or me to run yours. He has set a race before each person, and that race is specific to your life. That means that no one else can do what God wants to do through you. At this moment, in the story, God got so angry with Moses that Moses almost missed out, but God and his great love moved upon Aaron, Moses’ brother, to help. I don't have time today to go into the depths of what that meant for the rest of mankind, but I know for a fact there are many people in this room right now who have not stepped out into what God's called them to simply because their own protest have made them reluctant to obey.

FIX: Just do what he says.
Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.

You are going to experience constant moments where you don’t understand, but God is not asking you to get it. He’s just asking you to do it.

I am not trying to be mean today. If I were, I would have just summed this whole message up by saying, “You aren’t living out your purpose because you are simply refusing to look beyond the end of your nose.”

But I am not mean. I want you to understand that there are reasons why you aren’t. It isn’t because you don’t want to obey God and step out into that thing he called you to do. You’re just scared, and maybe insecure. You are afraid to fail. Maybe you just don’t know what lies in the beyond I’ve been talking about.

Maybe you feel like Moses and you have a laundry list of reason why not.
Let me give you one reason why you should look beyond your struggles and situations and embrace what God has for you beyond.

Here’s why: He’s called you to it. And he who began a good work in you will see it through to completion. If you are willing to let him.

I want you to ball up that fear and anxiety and doubt and reluctance and unworthiness and lay it at the feet of Jesus today.

I want you to commit your life to him, not just to be saved, but to know him more.

I want you to be willing to look past your current trials and tribulations and let God show you the plan he has for you.

I can’t respond for you. This is your moment. Let’s pray.

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you through this message?

How does he want you to respond?