Your Story Doesn’t End Here

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A sermon by Matt Fitzpatrick

March 03 2019

It’s great to see you all. Let’s start off with some prayer. Dear heavenly father, we thank you for this morning. We thank you for promising to be with us here and to meet us here around your word and around your people. We ask Lord that you fill us with your Holy Spirit and that you enable us to hear from you today. We ask this in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Let’s start off by reciting our creed with one another, the apostle’s creed, which is found in the front of your hymnal on page “b”. If you would all stand as we recite this together.

I ask you, Christians, what is it that you believe?

“I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of Heaven and earth. And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. On the third day, He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. From there, He will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.”

Please be seated.

Let’s begin with the reading of our Old Testament. It’s Deuteronomy chapter 34.

Deuteronomy 34Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho. And the Lord showed him all the land, Gilead as far as Dan, all of Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the western sea, the Negeb and the Plain, that is, the valley of Jericho the city of palm trees as far as Zoar. And the Lord said to him, ‘This is the land which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, ‘I will give it to your offspring.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there. So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab according to the word of the Lord, and he buried him in the valley in the land of Moab, opposite of Beth-peor; but no one knows the place of his burial to this day. Moses was 120 years old when he died. His eye was undimmed, and his vigor unabated. And the people of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab 30 days. Then the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended. And Joshua, the son of Nun, was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him. So the people of Israel obeyed him and did as the Lord had commanded Moses. And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, none like him for all the signs and the wonders that the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, and for all the mighty power and all the great deeds of terror that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.”

This ends the reading of God’s word.

So in this Old Testament reading, we get this snapshot of the end of an era, the end of Moses’s life, who traditionally is considered one of the greatest prophets ever to walk the face of the earth. But as we get this snapshot, we start to realize, wait, so he led the people out of Egypt through the wilderness, towards the promise land, but he’s not entering into the promise. He’s dying outside of the promised land. He’s not leading them in. He’s dying short of his goal. And the questions that start to bubble up are, “How did Moses end there, why is Moses not going into the promised land, what happened that led him to this point?” So for something a little different today, I wanted to do a visual illustration. So if you’ll give me a second to set up, because we don’t have an eisel, so we’re making do with what we got. Hopefully, that’ll stay. Can everyone see this? Alright, cool. I’ll try to be as descriptive in my words, so if you can’t see certain details, I’ll make sure you can at least hear about them.

So we have Moses here at the top of the circle in this snapshot at the end of his life. I want to know how he got there. What kind of story is this? What is he doing? What is God doing? What is being told here? We have this great hero, and he’s dying in a weird way. On top of the mountain, just him and God. God’s being super generous and gentle with him, but at the same time, there’s a rebuke happening. So I want to find out how Moses got here.

We know the general story of his birth, put in a basket, floated in a river, because Hebrew males were getting killed, and he gets adopted by Pharaoh. Pharaoh’s daughter finds him in the river, adopts him, and he spends 40 years in Pharaoh’s household. And he grows up in Pharaoh’s house and lives in Pharaoh’s house for 40 years. That’s a decent amount of time, and he’s just living there. That’s his story. The normal story for him is, “I’m growing up and living in Pharaoh’s house. I’m very privileged. I have access to whatever I want. No one can really tell me no, this is a pretty good life.”

Except a slight shift in his story begins, some inciting incidents in his story that are going to change to this story arc. He starts to identify, “I’m not an Egyptian. I am a Hebrew. I want to go see what my people are up to. I want to go see what the lives of my people look like.” And he goes out and starts to identify with his people and realizes, “Oh, it’s really bad.” And so Moses begins to create this new narrative for himself, which is, “I’m going to be the hero. I’m going to be this like vigilante for my people. I’m willing to undermine the power structure, and I’m going to start to save them iwith vigilante acts.”

He comes upon an Egyptian guard beating a Hebrew. He sees it and looks around. No one else is observing. He kills the Egyptian guard, buries his body, and he’s thinking, “All right, step one of the plan. I’m going to do this. This is my new narrative. I’m going to start overthrowing the power structure. I can do this. This is who I am. I’m the hero.”

Then he goes out for his next excursion, and he comes across two Israelites fighting. That’s a little confusing. These are the people I’m supposed to save, and now they’re fighting to the point that one guy is almost killing the other, and he decides, “I have to intervene. I can do this. I can intervene. I can save these people!”

He jumps in and one Israelite looks at him and says, “Who do you think you are? Who do you think you are? Who made you judge and prince over us? What, are you going to kill me like you did the Egyptian?” And just like that, the narrative breaks. Moses realizes, “Oh, maybe I can’t do this. My secret’s out.” One: this Israelite is not grateful for what I previously did for them. Two: if he knows, Pharaoh knows, and that’s bad. Pharaoh is not going to like this. So what does he do? Does he stay to try to save the Israelites? Is he going to fight for them, become their leader, rally them, and cause a little rebellion. No. He turns tail and runs and we enter into the next part of his story.

A story where he realizes, “I can’t save them, so I’m going to run away. I’m going to live in this desert for another 40 years as a shepherd, as a coward in hiding, running away from my failure of trying to be a hero and realizing I can’t be that hero. So I’m going to go hide. I’m going to now spend 40 years serving a pagan priest.” Previously, he spent 40 years in a house of a Pagan God, Pharaoh, and now he’s living out the next 40 years of his life serving as a shepherd for a pagan priest. This is first two thirds of Moses life.

But then, we get another turning point. God shows up in the burning bush. He confronts Moses with a new call, says, “Moses, I want you to go back to Egypt, because I want my people to be free.” What does Moses hear? How does Moses interpret that?

Moses hears, “You want me to save the people. I tried that. That didn’t work. I can’t save those people. I don’t even think they want me to save them.” God says, “No, no, Moses, you misheard me. I’m saving the people. You’re just going to be there. You just get to be with me in all of this. You’re not saving anyone. No, Moses, the truth here is I save.” So now we have a turning point where a truth is revealed and it’s, “God saves.”

Now we have this era of hiding and failure and cowardice turning and now it goes up into a new era. A new part of the story where Moses realizes, “Oh, I’m with God. God saves. I can run with that story.” This is the most exciting part of all stories right here. When the truth is revealed and we see our hero enter into a season of success. We see Moses go into Egypt with God, and God does amazing things, wipes out the Egyptians, completely annihilates their economy, saves His people, leads them through the Red Sea into a wilderness, where they’re now living and thriving. And Moses is just there listening to God, talking to God face to face, and just repeating the words of God to the people. And everything’s okay. God is providing, God is saving, God is doing the work, and Moses is his friend.

We get a little weird skirmish among the people. The people decide, “We don’t want to go into the promised land just yet.” And God says, “Fine, you won’t. You’re going to spend 40 years in this desert and your kids will go into the promise land.” But even through that, Moses is still strong. Moses knows, “Yeah, God can do that. God will save. Great. Awesome.” So he spends 40 years in the wilderness. He watches kids be born in the wilderness and grow up. Children who never knew slavery. All they know is, “God provides for us even in the wilderness.”

This new generation grows up. The old generation goes away, and then we enter the Dark Night of Moses’ Soul.

This is where we find out what kind of story we are participating in here. This is where we find out what change has really happened. God tells Moses, “Hey, it’s time for the people to move into the promised land, move them from the wilderness towards Canaan.” So they moved to a new location and there’s no water at this location. It’s not the first time this has happened. The first time that maybe it’s happened for this new generation. But it’s not the first time. They’ve also been living in the wilderness for 40 years. God’s been providing. Everyone should be good. Who cares? There’s no water. It’s no big deal, but the people think it’s a big deal. There’s an uproar. There’s almost a mini rebellion where they threatened to kill Moses and Aaron saying, “There’s no water. You brought us out to die. We should have just died with our parents in the wilderness. That would’ve been a better story, Moses. What are you doing?” And this is where Moses realizes, “Oh no, it’s a new generation, but it’s the same people. No one’s changed. Nothing’s changed in this story. They’re the same people!”

He goes to God and says, “They’re the same people. What’s going on?” God says, “Don’t worry, I have this. Go out, go to the rock, and you’re going to speak to the rock. You’re going to speak to this rock, and it’s going to pour out water. They’ll have water and everything will be good. Do not worry about this.”

But Moses is the same Moses.

Moses goes out angry and bitter, goes out in front of the people, stands on top of the rock and says, “What, do I have to provide water for you now? It’s not enough, everything I’ve done for you!” And as he slams his staff on the rock, we find out that he’s the same Moses from the beginning. There is no difference. We find out now that we are dealing with a tragedy, because our hero did not learn the lesson. He did not take the truth to heart that God saves. He’s now replaying what he played out in Egypt. “I tried to save you!” And all Moses can hear is the rebuking voice of the Israelites saying, “Who do you think you are? Who made you prince and judge?”

But this time, instead of turning away and running, he turns against them and condemns. He hits the rock, instead of talking to it, because he wants them to die. He’s done. “I’ve done everything for you. I risked it all. You’re done. I want you to die.” And then God steps in and He says, “Time out, Moses. This isn’t the way. This is not how it’s going down. You’re not the guy who saves. You’re not the one who saves. So Moses, you’re gonna come up to me onto of the mountain. I’ll show you the land that your people are going to go into, these rebellious people, these ungrateful people. I will lead them in, but you’re not going to, because you don’t get it. Moses, you’re still trying to save. You’re still trying to be the hero of this story, but you’re not.”

So as I look at this arc, I have to realize that I am in this same cycle. I’m in the same story. I am playing this out. The same cycle of, “Oh, I kind of know God saves,” but then when a real crisis hits I realize, “Oh I think I’m the one who’s supposed to save myself and everyone else around me.” I am in a broken narrative. I am in a broken cycle, and I’m playing out a tragedy all the time. This is true for everyone in this room. We are all playing out a tragic narrative. We are all trying to be the heroes of our own story. We are all trying to solve our own problems and it’s not working. It’s not working. We need something else. We need someone else to break into the narrative. Who can start here at the top, at the beginning, already having the truth that’s down here embedded. We need someone to start at the beginning who already embodies the truth that “God saves.” Otherwise, we are going to continue to play out this tragic broken narrative forever.

Moses was the best of us. He had 40 years of speaking to God in a very personal way. One of his stories would be a life story for all of us in this room. Seeing a staff turn into a snake would be our life story. He saw that stuff every day for 40 years, and he still ended up saying, “I am the savior here and as the savior, I’m condemning you all to die.” That’s Moses, the greatest prophet who ever lived!

There has to be something better. So we’re going to turn to Luke 9 verse 28.

Luke 9:28-36Now about eight days after these sayings, he took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white. And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. And as the men were parting from him, Peter said to Jesus, ‘Master, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents. One for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah” – not knowing what he said. As he was saying these things, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. And a voice came out of the cloud saying, ‘This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!” And when the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and told no one in those days anything of what they had seen.”

What we just read here changes this narrative. There is something big that is happening here. There is a change in the narrative. Moses isn’t dead. Moses is very alive, and he is standing in the promise land. Standing in the one place that he wasn’t allowed to be. He’s standing there talking to his God face to face, very much alive, having, what I imagine, a very emotional conversation.

Moses’ story doesn’t end here, because of the work of Jesus Christ. Because of his life, death, and resurrection, he breaks into our narrative. He breaks into our broken stories with the embodiment of the truth that “God saves.” He’s the hero. He’s going to do everything that we couldn’t. He’s going to make it around this arc without ever faltering. He’s going to make it to the dark night of the soul, push through to death, and then rise again to announce to all of us, “Your story doesn’t end in death. Your story is no longer a tragedy. I’m the hero. God saves!”

Jesus Saves. He steps into our story and says, “I’m pulling you out of this tragic narrative. It doesn’t end in your death. It’s no longer a short, temporary, easily forgotten of failure. Your story is now eternal.” This story now changes. It actually changes how we engage this life because he says, “You know what? You can start to partake of the new eternal story now. You can actually put it on and practice being the people of God, practice living under the truth that I save you. You do not have to save yourselves. I’m breaking you free from that lie. You do not have to save yourself. I’m going to save you, and even when you fail, even when you make mistakes, even when you trip up, it doesn’t matter. I’m the one who’s going to save you.”

This is life now. You get to try on and practice the story that you’re going to live forever. You get to have moments of love, of joy, of peace. You get to see glimmers of that now. You get to have a good relationship with me, so that one day you in your new body with Moses next to you will stand on a new earth, and you will look your savior in the eye, and you can walk up to him and say, “Thank you. Thank you for not giving up on me. Thank you for saving my story, for making it something better than I could ever imagine, for redeeming who I am, for seeing value when no one else could see it. Thank you for giving up everything for me.”

Let’s pray, “Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you. I thank you for breaking into our broken story, and for giving us a new story. One where we are not trying to save ourselves, where we can honestly look to you and say, ‘God, do you have this? Cause I don’t. Can you save the people around me, because I don’t even think I can save myself. Can I just be, can I just be with you Lord?’ And you say, ‘Yes, that’s all I want. I just want you to be with me, and I’ll worry about everything else.’ Thank you Lord. Forgive us for the countless times we forget that and try to live as if we can save ourselves. Forgive us for that and continue to lead us into those peaceful pockets where we can actually rest in your saving power. I ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

So as a way for us to actually practice and try on this new narrative that we’ve been given through Jesus. We have interactives within the church. God has created interactives, and one of these is offering. One of these is a way to change the story of you don’t have to save yourself. God provides for you. You can now afford to be a generous person. You can be a person who is free from financial fear and be a person that is generous. You can take this time to write prayer requests on the board and prepare for the Lord’s Supper.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread. And when He had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take and eat. This is my body which was given for you. This do in remembrance of me.” In the same way, he also took the cup after supper and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them saying, “Drink of it. All of you. This cup is the new testament of my blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. This do as often as you drink of it in remembrance of me.”

This is another way for us to interact with this new story that God has given us, where he says, “I know you constantly feel the need to save yourself. That’s okay. You are forgiven. You can come up, receive forgiveness, and re-receive the story. I died for you. I saved you. I rose from the dead, so that death is not the end of your story.

I want to end our time with us praying the Lord’s prayer together. Let’s pray the prayer that our Lord taught his apostles. “Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day, our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

I will announce the Lord’s blessing on you.

The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord look upon you with favor and give you peace now and forever. Amen.