Exodus 2:15 – Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian: and he sat down by a well.

Exodus 3:1 – Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb.

Hello readers, today I’m talking about missing out. Maybe you won’t get saved or won’t obey God because you feel like you would be missing out. You’d be losing out. We intuitively know there’s a cost, there’s a consequence to what you do with Jesus Christ. We have an example in the Bible today, a man called Moses. He was meant to be killed, but his parents floated him in an ark in trusting God to keep him alive. And God preserved his life by Pharaoh’s daughter seeing him, taking pity on him, and taking him for her own.

As a side note, you know, we’ve been in a pretty crazy year, and it’s still going. You want to float on the river of lies? The river of deceit? The river of death? You need to be in an ark. You need to trust God and his word. When you believe in Jesus Christ, you’re safe in the ark, because he is the ark. Moses was born at a time of great trouble for the Hebrews, in a time of darkness in an evil system under and evil ruler… they were being ordered to chuck their boys in the river… it wasn’t an option… slaves don’t get many options. But the Bible says Moses’ parents weren’t afraid of the king’s commandment. We shouldn’t let the times, the rulers, the powers, the circumstances, the fear, or whatever it is… keep us from trusting God’s word and looking to him. In the toughest times, a boy called Moses was born, a deliverer. In the toughest, darkest, most uncertain hour… that’s when God is going to birth a mighty deliverance in your life. It’s by trusting in God’s word, what God has said… because what God has said is the truth.

Moses would be looked after by his parents and then raised as an Egyptian. And the boy grew, and the Bible says in Acts 7:22 – And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds.  So get the picture, Moses was raised as Pharaoh’s daughters son… that’s pretty distinguished! It’s pretty hard to leave being distinguished and titled and respected to go and identify as a scummy Hebrew and their stupid God right? Moses was a guy going places in life, the world his oyster. Think of the friends, activities, events, fun, pleasure, business opportunities, he had everything we could dream for… he had it made and all in front of him. That’s quite a bit to leave behind, that’s quite a bit to forsake… all to obey God’s word. It sure seemed like he would be missing out when you consider how for forty  years he’d be a nobody shepherd in the wilderness. What a downgrade! All those wasted years right that he could’ve been having fun, doing stuff, being part of the action!

For forty years Egypt was Moses’ life… but a seed had been sown and taken root… he wanted to obey God’s word. At forty years old the Bible says he came to years. At some point are you going to come to years? It’s time to grow up and do something rather than procrastinating, waiting, putting off, knowing what you should do, but delaying. It’d be understandable in Moses’ case. Maybe that’s why it was at forty years old, maybe he’d been thinking about it a while. He saw those slaves out there, he knew he was one of them, he knew God’s promises, he had heard God’s word… but hey this Egyptian life. Hey I’ll be missing out if I obey God’s word.

Maybe everything that Egypt could offer never did it for him. Clearly it didn’t, because it’s not a small thing that he did. Egypt is always remembered today for dead people, Genesis ends with Joseph buried in a coffin in Egypt. This world and everything it has is really death. It might give you some temporal pleasure, fun, fulfillment… but at the end it’s emptiness. Everything I’ve done in my life personally, when it hasn’t been about obeying God… at the end it’s vanity, just like Solomon said. There’s a great emptiness that comes from a life spent on self, even doing well in the world system… yet a hole, an emptiness, an unfulfillment there. It’s because you were created for God’s glory, when it’s about you it’ll never fulfill you.

One of the many things that can stop us from obeying and serving Jesus Christ, from answering the call, from doing something with what we know in our hearts we should do… it’s fearing missing out. It’s missing out on Egypt. Moses had this decision to face. Obeying Jesus Christ or having his Egyptian identity and Egyptian thinking and Egyptian future and Egyptian life.

Fearing missing out, fearing loss … it’s hard. Jesus said if you lose your life for his sake, you’ll find it. But if you try and preserve your life (as we all do), you’ll lose it. It’s one of those tough things. It really tests our heart. Because losing your life for Christ’ sake, that requires truth faith and a genuine trust and commitment to his word. See, anyone can say they’re a Christian… but not many of us our claims are justified by our actions. James talks about how Abraham’s faith was justified when he offered his son Isaac… see his faith was justified by what he did in being willing to lose what was most precious to him, to miss out on Isaac in favor of obeying God’s word. It really is shocking how much we don’t believe, don’t love, don’t trust… and I  mean truly. We say we love people, really we don’t. We say we trust God, really we don’t.

I know we can just read the story of Moses again and again and yeah he’s a great man and it’s a cool story. But think about it. He had it made as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. And then next minute he’s living in Midian, a nobody shepherding a few sheep. You think on his own in that desert he ever thought about what he was missing in Egypt?

Well the truth is he didn’t really, because he had made his choice. He’d rather obey God’s word and have nothing than be in disobedience to God’s word and compromise his faith and identity in Christ for Egyptian acceptance, fun, pleasure and future.

From our perspective he looks like he certainly made a downgrade in trading out the life and future he had to follow and obey Jesus Christ. He swapped ease, comfort, acceptance, popularity, pleasure for being a shepherd in the desert. He traded in all of Egypt’s wisdom and philosophy and thinking for God’s word. He traded away a life of parties and fun in Egypt, he swapped it all in for the reproach of Christ. This is why he’s such a great man in the Bible. He wasn’t afraid of missing out on Egypt, he was more concerned with missing out on obeying God’s word. That’s what we should not want to miss out on… we should not want to miss out on Canaan land people. Just think, all those people that came out of Egypt, they all missed out on Canaan because they didn’t want to miss out on their flesh, lust and sin.

Was Moses really missing out? Remember when you were a child, you didn’t want to miss out on going to the party where all the cool kids where and maybe a girl you liked. You didn’t want to miss out on your slice of life.

He traded Egypt in for God’s word. He identified as a Hebrew, as a child of God, a follower of Jesus Christ… and that cost him his Egyptian identity and Egyptian life. Why are so many Christians trying to be dual citizens? Moses realized he couldn’t be a dual citizen. He couldn’t be an Egyptian and follow God’s word. Why are we trying to be dual citizens? So many Christians are trying to be citizens of this world and of the kingdom of Jesus Christ, trying to have both. But you can’t have both, it’s one or the other people. Moses really did fail as an Egyptian in delivering Israel, but when he came back with the authority of God’s word, God used him to deliver Israel. God’s not going to bless your Egyptian clothing, your Egyptian thinking, your Egyptian speaking, your Egyptian delivering. It’s God’s way or the highway.

To relate it to our own lives, often we don’t want to miss out on the friends, the fun, the events, the activities, the acceptance… the whatever it is. You have to choose between missing out on what you want in Egypt versus missing out on what God wants. One day, Esther was confronted with a choice she didn’t want to have to face, but that was thrust upon her. She’d either miss out on God’s calling and purpose for her life in going to see the king or she’d miss out (so she thought) on staying alive. See, turns out, you actually FIND your life in losing it for Christ’s sake. We see so much loss, but really to follow Jesus Christ and obey him is gain… just Satan hides it and our flesh don’t want to see it.

Moses wasn’t really missing out, but if we were in his position, which of us would think we were missing out? When you’re cooling your jets in the desert for year after year, there’s gotta be a feeling of… I’m wasting my life here. I’m missing out! But he wasn’t. God was getting the Egypt out of him. His time scale isn’t our time scale.

Unless you’re truly saved, unless God’s word really means everything to you, you won’t be willing to leave Egypt and forsake all it has to offer to follow Jesus Christ. It’s not really missing out, it’s actaully finding life when you miss out on Egypt in favour of Jesus Christ. Moses would’ve never done all he did without forsaking Egypt. Hebrews 11:27 – By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible. It was simple faith that underpinned Moses’ life. He believed God’s word. He put God’s word at number one in his life, that was the most important thing to him. Think of how lightly we esteem God’s word… that’s why we have no salt and light … and that’s why there’s noone like Moses today.

Matthew 16:25 – For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. Jesus said that. That’s a toughy isn’t it. Remember Elisha going with Elijah the whole way, including crossing the Jordan. The sons of the prophets watched from afar off… not many people are willing to go this far. Do we really believe God’s word? Do we really trust God? Do we really think God is the great reward that he said he was to Abraham? Is he our great reward? You know, I’ve been thinking recently about those treasure cities they built in Egypt, those Hebrew slaves. Their treasure was in Egypt. No sooner did they get out, then they wanted to go back. Maybe all your treasure is in Egypt, that’s why you’re in Egypt, because that’s where your treasure is. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Where’s your treasure at… is your treasure God and his word… or is it something, someone or somewhere else?

All this, just like fear of missing out, it all really just reveals our own heart condition, and the truth is usually pretty revealing and pretty damning. It’s not missing out to obey God’s word, to follow Jesus Christ… but there is a price, there is a cost, but God’s got something far better, just as he had for Moses. There was no burning bush in Egypt people, without missing out on Egypt, he’d have never found his true calling and true life and true purpose at the burning bush. If he’d stayed in Egypt, he’d have missed out on what really mattered. You’ll miss out on God’s best in Egypt reader, he’s worth it.

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