Here are all of the ways that you can follow along with 5 Minutes With Pastor Lutzer:
- On our Podcast via iTunes and Google Podcasts
- On our Facebook page
- On our YouTube channel
Transcript: Welcome to “5 Minutes with Pastor Lutzer.” I’m so glad that you joined us again today as we continue our rather long series entitled, “Making the Best of a Bad Decision.” Today, I want to talk to you about the subject of your vocation, because maybe you feel that you are in the wrong line of work, overqualified for what you are being asked to do. You may be bored. You may not see any hope at the end of the tunnel, so to speak. Where do you go?
Well, I have many stories. For example, I know a man who worked in a lumber yard and he wasn’t being paid too much but he had an uncle who made a lot of money in real estate. So, this guy resigns his job and goes into real estate. It was a very bad decision. He was not cut out for that. He didn’t have the gifting and so he made a bad decision.
But let’s go back and talk about such a decision. Let’s talk about boredom on the job. Whenever I think of that I think of Moses. Now, here’s a man who is brought up in the court of Pharaoh. He is taught and educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. We’re talking about hieroglyphics. We’re talking about astronomy and other subjects. He goes out and he wants to help his people, the Jews, and is misunderstood. By the way, Stephen (I love this) Stephen said, “He supposed that his brethren would understand how that God, by his hand delivered them. But they understood not” (Acts 7:25). Maybe I’m speaking to you. You thought that the people of God would understand that you were called of God to be a Pastor or to do this or that. But they understood not. And often times today they don’t understand either, do they? Well, you remember, Moses killed an Egyptian and hid him in the sand. Now, Pharaoh wanted to kill Moses, so Moses runs into the desert of Mideon—unending gravel, sand, heat. He went from being somebody to being nobody overnight. He ends up, of course, learning the gift of servanthood. He serves even the young women who came there to water their flocks. He’s invited to the man’s home. He ends up marrying his daughter. I believe you’ll notice when he has a son, he calls him “Gersham” which means foreigner. “I’m a foreigner in a strange land.”
Here’s the thing. Fourty long years of boredom. Nobody is quoting him. Nobody knows that when they are in contact with him that they are in the presence of greatness. Serving in obscurity. That’s one thing but it’s worse than simply obscurity. The Bible says that being a shepherd was an abomination onto the Egyptians. Did you get that? Moses grew up in a culture where being a shepherd was an abomination and he is consigned to being a shepherd day after day after day, fourty long years. Now, God was teaching him some things because God had something better in mind and pretty soon, as you well know, the bush burned. But it’s in the desert where Moses learned servanthood. He learned he had to trust. He learned, eventually, that he had to obey when God came to him there in the burning bush. And my bottom line today is simply this: Did you know that failure often times is a better teacher than success? Here’s what I want to say: What if you were to take that vocation that you dislike and turn it into an actual call from God? Would that make a difference? I think it will and that’s why I encourage you to join us next time as we continue this series because that will be the topic, but as for today, you just go with God.