I Surrender All: Building and Leaving a Legacy for GenerationsSample

THROW IT DOWN If you listen closely, you can almost hear what God’s voice must have sounded like to Moses during their holy exchange on the mountain where Moses found the bush that was burning but not being consumed. In Exodus 4, God begins to speak. I want to challenge you to listen to God’s voice as though He is speaking directly to you in this moment. Because ultimately, He is speaking to you. “Moses, throw down your staff.” In this moment, God calls Moses (and us) to do this seemingly small and insignificant thing. What’s a staff? It’s just a stick right? No. It was much, much more than that to Moses. Moses was a shepherd, and his staff represents his title, his protection, his profession, his business, and his ego. What about you, what do you do? If you had to identify one thing that represents your title, protection, profession, business, and yes even your ego… what would it be? For Moses, it was his staff. A shepherd does not leave home without his staff because he can’t do his job without it. God is calling him to throw down the resource that gives him identity. Can you hear what Moses could have said in response? Ok, you are speaking from a bush, so you probably are God. But I really need this staff. I just got it. It’s made out of the best almond wood, and it is so much nicer than my old one. It was a gift from my wife, and she will be so mad if I come home without it. What am I going to tell her? It was passed down from her father, and his father. I wonder if you would accept my sandals, or maybe my outer cloak. I have another cloak at home, and I think Zipporah would understand. But Moses doesn’t say those things. He responds in obedience and he throws IT down . When God asks you to throw something down, He’s not going to ask for something easy. If he did, it wouldn’t stretch you, push you, condition you, or prepare and develop you for what He has in store for you. When you surrender, everything changes, but every time you don’t, it just kicks the can down the road. He will give you another chance later to surrender, but your life really gets going the first time you faithfully throw down what he is asking you to surrender to Him. If Moses had refused, God would have still taken care of him. But Moses would have remained a shepherd in hiding and possibly never become the deliverer that he was created to be. Several years ago, Marla & I prayed about building a place where we could retain the heritage of our family. A place where my grandkids could learn what it means to build a fence and to have open land to ride four wheelers and do risky stuff on purpose. We wanted to call this place our Legacy Lodge, and we got to the point that we were about ready to break ground. On a business trip from our home near Oklahoma City, OK in route to Little Rock, Arkansas, I started to plan in my head as I drove where I thought we should start building. We had drawn up plans and saved a lot of money for it. About an hour or so into my trip, I started feeling anxious and confused. I couldn’t really put my finger on what was causing it, but then a small voice in my head suggested I ask God what these feelings were all about. God, I’m so excited about this Legacy Lodge we are getting ready to build, but I realize, you may have a plan as to how we should get started. So, where do you think we should break ground? I had in mind a list of ways to use the money the wisest. For example, we could start with the bunkhouse, or, no, maybe the lodge first. Or no, why don’t we start with the barn. I waited expectantly, excited for God to reveal the next step to my dream. OK, God, what do you want us to do? As I listened, this is what I heard: “Well, I want you to give it away.” It wasn’t easy and it wasn’t what we WANTED, but after a discussion with Marla and a lot of prayer, we decided together that the best thing we could do was to be obedient. What is God asking you to throw down right now?