In this sermon, the preacher discusses the story of Moses and how God called him to deliver the Israelites from Egypt. The preacher emphasizes the importance of coming to the end of oneself in order for God to begin working in one's life. He highlights how God gave Moses a vision through a burning bush that was not consumed, symbolizing God's presence and power. The preacher also emphasizes the themes of sonship and servanthood, explaining that God desires both in his people.

Will you please turn to the book of Acts chapter 7. Acts chapter 7. Acts chapter 7, we begin with verse 29. Verse 29. And Moses fled at this saying, and became a sojourner in the land of Midian, where he beget two sons. And when forty years were fulfilled, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire of the bush. And Moses seeing it, wondered at the vision. As he went up to consider it, there was a voice of the Lord. I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob. And Moses trembled, and thus not consider it. And the Lord said to him, Lose the sandal of thy feet, for the place on which thou standest is holy ground. I have surely seen the ill treatment of my people, which is in Egypt. And I have heard their groan, and have come down to take them out of it. And now come, I will send thee to Egypt. This Moses, whom they refused saying, who made thee ruler and judge, him did God send to be a ruler and deliverer, with the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. Back to Exodus. Exodus chapter three. We begin with verse one. Exodus chapter three, verse one. And Moses tended the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock behind the wilderness, and came to the mountain of God to Horeb. And the angel of Jehovah appeared to him in a flame of fire, out of the midst of a thorn bush. And he looked, and behold, the thorn bush burned with fire, and the thorn bush was not being consumed. And Moses said, let me now turn aside and see this great sight. Why the thorn bush is not burned. And Jehovah saw that he turned aside to see. And God called to him out of the midst of the thorn bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, here am I. And he said, draw not nigh hither. Lose thy sandals from up thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. And he said, I'm the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. And Jehovah said, I have seen surely, assuredly, the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and their cry have I heard on account of their past masters. For I know their sorrows. And I am come down to deliver them out of the land, hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, into a land flowing with milk and honey, into the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites. And now behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me. And I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppressed them. And now come, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. And Moses said to God, who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt. And he said, for I will be with thee, and this shall be the sign to thee that I have sent thee, when thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain. And Moses said to God, behold, when I come unto the children of Israel and shall say unto them, the God of your fathers has sent me unto you, and they shall say, what is his name? And what shall I say unto them? And God said to Moses, I am that I am. And he said, thus shall thou say unto the children of Israel, I am has sent me unto you. Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, how we praise and thank Thee for Thy mercy, Thy grace, and Thy love, which Thou hast so bountifully bestowed upon us through Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Father, we do thank Thee for gathering us together before Thee and before Thy Word. We ask that at this present moment, will not Thy Holy Spirit quicken Thy Word to each of our hearts, that through Thy Word we may be in touch with Thee, the living Word. In the name of our Lord Jesus, amen. Amen. We mentioned last Lord's Day that there are two great themes in the Word of God. One is sonship, and the other is servanthood. Sonship pertains to life, and servanthood pertains to work. Thank God we have received the life of our Lord Jesus. And it is God's will that this life of Christ in us will grow. That we may be conformed to the image of God's Son. That we may arrive at sonship, the placing of the Son. That we may enter into glory as the only begotten Son will lead us into. And then at the same time, we find that we who are the children of God are also called to be God's servants. Every child of God is a servant of the Lord. We may not serve in the same capacity, but we all serve. These are the two greatest themes you'll find in the Word of God. Now in the book of Genesis, we are shown of the kind of man that God is really after. Of course that pertains to sonship. And in the book of Exodus, we find the kind of servant that God is looking for, as typified in the life of Moses. The life of Moses is divided by the Spirit of God into three parts of 40 years each. Moses was 40 years in Egypt, he was 40 years in Midian, and he was 40 years in the wilderness. As we mentioned last Lord's Day, that 40 is a number of testing, of trial. Moses, as a servant of the Lord, was tested 40 years in Egypt by the riches of Egypt. Thank God he passed the test. He would rather choose to suffer with the children of God than to enjoy all the riches of Egypt. Moses for 40 years he was in Midian, he was tested by these sheep, and thank God he learned his lesson. And then for another 40 years, he was tested in the wilderness by the children of Israel. And we find that he was faithful in all God's house. Now brothers and sisters, we are all servants of the Lord. And as servants we cannot but be tested. And we will be tested from the very beginning to the very end. But thank God by His grace, with His life within us, through the help of the Holy Spirit, we also may be found worthy and faithful servants of God. Now we are not able to go back to what we mentioned last Lord's Day. But I will just mention this. When Moses was in Egypt, we find that a few principles governing servanthood are being described. Number one, a servant is chosen by God. In other words, no one volunteers. God chose us. And God chose us even before the foundation of the world. Even when we were in our mother's womb, He chose us. It is the choice of God. Our Lord Jesus said, you have not chosen me, I have chosen you, that you may bear much fruit. Number two, after God has chosen us, then one day we must choose Him. This is our response to Him. So the Bible said, Moses choosing rather the reproach of Christ than the pleasure of the world. We must choose Him too. Another thing we mentioned last Lord's Day, and we hope we will deal with it more thoroughly this morning, and that is, when Moses was 40 years old, he came to his mind to look and see how his brotherhood fared. He went out to look after the welfare of his brotherhood. In other words, he was interested in his brotherhood. Now this is a sign of servanthood. Anyone who is chosen by God and has responded to God to be a servant of the Lord. The first sign of servanthood is his interest in God's people. When we begin to be interested in God's people, interested in God's interest, that shows we begin to be God's servants. But unfortunately, you'll find that in that instance, Moses himself took the initiative. He did not wait upon God to send him out. He took the initiative, he went out himself. And in doing so, he was open to temptation. He saw an Egyptian oppressing a Hebrew. So he beat that Egyptian unto death and buried him under the sand. Why? Because he was mighty in deeds. And the next day he went out again on his own initiative. And again he was tempted. He saw two Hebrews quarreling. And being mighty in words, he tried to reconcile them by his eloquence. Not knowing that he was rejected, even by his own brotherhood. So there is a lesson to learn in the matter of servanthood. And that is, once we are interested in God's interest, once we begin to be concerned with our brothers and sisters, our temptation is, instead of waiting upon the Lord to be sent, and depending upon his power to do the work, we will just launch out and try to do it. We think our brethren certainly understand, but they don't. And the result is a complete failure. Moses had to flee for his life. He fled from Egypt. And for another 40 years, he spent in Midian, tending a few sheep, belonging to his father-in-law, Jethro. So this is what we would like to share together this morning. The second 40 years of Moses. During the first 40 years, Moses learned all the learnings of Egypt. Now Egypt was the first nation in the world at that time. It was the greatest empire at that time. And the civilization and the culture and the learning of Egypt were well known. Look at the pyramids today, and you'll find what civilization that was. Such architecture. And it was so accurate astronomically that even today it was considered as a marvel. But that was built during that time. And Moses, in God's sovereignty. You know, Moses was supposed to die because he was a Hebrew. And he was under the decree of Pharaoh that every Hebrew child must be cast into the river of Nile. There was the sentence of death upon him. He was supposed to die, and yet God in his sovereign way rescued him out of water and put him in the Egyptian palace. And for 40 years he learned all the learnings of Egypt. He was the most learned person in the whole world at that time. He was mighty in words and in deeds. He tried to use all that he had learned. He thought that he had learned. He thought he knew now. He thought that he was mighty now in words and in deeds. So he started out to save the children of Israel by his mightiness, by all that he had learned. But the result was a total failure. There he was in the wilderness, tending a few sheep. Now, brothers and sisters, if you put yourself in his place, I think you can well imagine what happened during the first few years, probably. When Moses was tending these few sheep, he must be, he had lots of time to think. He must be thinking, what has gone wrong? Suddenly God wants to use me to deliver the children of Israel. And I'm trying to do it with the best I know, with the best I can, and yet not even my brethren understood. What has gone wrong? He must have gone over the past incident, events, again and again, and trying to figure out. And he must be waiting before God and say, now God, if I have failed thee once, give me another chance. But year after year had passed, and nothing happened. 40 years. You remember Moses wrote in Psalm 90? You know, in that collection of Psalms, Psalm 90 was written by Moses, the man of God. And in that Psalm he said, the years of a lifetime are three score and 10. If by reason of strength, he may reach four scores. In other words, so far as Moses was concerned, he knew that a lifetime of a person was 75 years old. And if he was strong, he could reach 80 years old. 80 was the limit to Moses of a man's life. But you know, Moses was 40 years in Egypt and 40 years in the wilderness in Midian. He was 80 years old. In other words, in his own estimate, that was the end of life. During those 40 years tending the sheep, he unlearned everything that he learned in Egypt. You know, that's a wonderful thing. What he learned in Egypt was the reason for his failure. If he were not a learned person, if he were not so mighty in words and in deeds, he might not be a hindrance to God. Probably God could use him. But because he was so mighty, but because he was so learned, because he knew so much, therefore he failed. God could not use him. Now, how good it would be if God did not give him the opportunity of learning all the learnings of Egypt. Now, why should God allow him to learn all the learnings of Egypt and yet God just wiped it away and said, I couldn't use you because of this. Isn't that strange? A paradox. It was God's sovereignty that made possible for Moses to learn all the learnings of Egypt. And yet these very things that he learned became a hindrance to God's using him. He had to unlearn all these things. Now, think of that. 40 years with a few sheep, your eloquence will be gone. There is no one to talk to. You talk to these dumb sheep and they just don't understand. So after 40 years with these sheep, he unlearned all his eloquence. No wonder when God began to call him, Moses said, I cannot speak. And that's true. He couldn't speak. In 40 years, he unlearned all his mightiness indeed. He was a great warrior. He was strong in his arm. He could beat an Egyptian to death. But when you are taming the sheep and try to use your mightiness, my, these sheep will certainly die. Oh, you have to be tender with these sheep. You have to handle them very gently. Therefore, you'll find after 40 years, he learned, unlearned all his mightiness indeed. When God called him, he said, you call somebody else. I couldn't do anything. There's nothing I could do. He had to unlearn everything that he had learned indeed. You know, it is very difficult to learn, but I think it is more difficult to unlearn. How in God's sovereignty, he allows us to learn lots of things. You know, even before we know the Lord, he knew us. Even before you were saved, all your past was known by God. God arranged your past. God allowed you to be somewhere. God allowed you to be in some family. God allowed you to learn something. And all these are under God's sovereignty. God allowed you to learn all these things in the world, and you learn a lot. But do you think because you have learned a lot, therefore you can serve God? On the contrary, because you have learned a lot, you cannot serve God. If you try to depend upon what you have learned, if you try to depend upon what you know, if you are doing it on your own, with your own cleverness and with your own strength, you'll find that all these things are not only not a help, but a hindrance. And certainly God will reject all these things and say, I have no use of these things. Then you ask, why God do you allow me to learn these things? Well, he allowed you to learn these things that one day you may unlearn them. Not in the sense that you forget, but in the sense that you will not depend on them anymore. You know, dear brothers and sisters, God wanted to use Moses to lead a whole nation out of Egypt through the wilderness into Canaan. Not just a few people, a few nations. If Moses had never learned what he learned in Egypt, he must have learned government, management, military, whatever it may be. He must have learned politics and all these things. And because he had all these backgrounds, one day God could use him to lead a nation. Now, a person who has never had such background, God could not entrust him with a nation. Just like Paul. God used Paul so mightily. Half of the New Testament was written by Paul. Why? Because Paul was a Pharisee, a learned person. Now, God will use these things, but unless these things be first gone to death and be resurrected, they are useless. Natural talents, education, experience, all these things are useful to God only after you unlearn them. In other words, if you learn them and you never unlearn them, no doubt you will depend upon these things to serve God. Remember, God has no use of your natural talents, your education, and your experience. But God does use natural talents. He does use your education. He does use your experience. When? Only after you have unlearned them. Only after you have come to a day and said, Lord, I don't know a thing. I let all these things go. I do not take pride in any of these things. These things are absolutely useless unless you want to use them. Help yourself. And it's only at that time you will find God can use what he has allowed you to learn before. Why? Because these things will not be your idols. These things will be instruments in God's hand. Therefore, you'll find God allowed Moses to fail. What if he should succeed? If he should succeed in beating to death an Egyptian, if he should succeed in reconciling the two brothers, you know what will happen. He will never be able to deliver the whole nation out of Egypt. He may do a little thing here and little thing there, but that's all he could do. But God wanted him to deliver a whole nation. So there you'll find another principle concerning servanthood. And that is we must learn. Well, if God gave you opportunity to learn it. Now, don't say I won't learn it since it's no use. Why do I learn it? God put Daniel in Babylon and Daniel learned all the learnings of the Chaldeans. Learn it. If God gave you opportunity, learn everything you can, but be ready to unlearn all of them. You remember what Paul said? In Philippians chapter three, he said, what I consider as gain. Oh, what a gain. A Pharisee knowing the law. According to the righteousness of the law, he was perfect. But he said, what I considered as gain, I now reckon them as loss. In order to gain Christ. Remember, it is not only dross, it is loss. Dross is bad enough, but loss is more than dross because it's a loss. He said, I consider all these things loss. Why? Because these tinder me from gaining Christ. I would rather lose all these things, I consider them as a loss, that I may gain Christ. Oh, to gain Christ, to know Christ. But after he gained Christ, you know, Christ can use what he considered as loss. That is the first thing you'll find in the 40 years in the wilderness. Unlearn what? Had been learned. Number two, there in the wilderness, Moses was to learn to know himself. You know, we know everything. Today, people know everything. They even know outer space, but they don't know themselves. This is an unknown. And how can we know ourselves? Moses could not know himself in the Egyptian palace. Why? Because there in the palace, his ego was so boosted, so nourished, he was so inflated, he thought he was somebody, a big shot. He didn't know himself. But there in the quiet of the desert, with a few sheep, he began to see who he was. Not the adopted son of the daughter of Pharaoh, but a good for nothing. He began to see himself. After 40 years in the desert, he came to the conclusion that he was as good as dead. He was 80 years old now, and 80 was the end. Ambition was gone. Hope was gone. He was no longer ambitious as he was before. He had given up hope that God would ever use him, or he could ever be of use. He considered himself as dead. Who am I? I'm nothing. He saw himself so nothing that he even tried to convince God, that God, you couldn't do anything with nothing. Send something, somebody else. Don't send me because I'm just nothing. He came to know himself. Dear brothers and sisters, there is one lesson every servant of God must learn, and that is to know himself. You know, it is not enough just to know the Bible. It is not enough just to know the method and the ways, the techniques. You must know yourself. If you do not know yourself, if you do not see yourself as God sees you in yourself, you are no use to God. But thank God, in the wilderness, he not only learned to know himself, which he could never know while he was in Egypt in a palace. You know, you know yourself when you are put into low position, difficult situations, in failures, afflictions. These things will help you to know yourself. If you have never been afflicted, if you have never suffered, if you are always on the top, if there is no failure, you never know yourself. But all these things come to you with a reason. And the reason is, you may know yourself. That you may humble yourself before God. But thank God, together with this, you'll find he also learned to know God. In Egypt, in the palace, he did not know God. It is true he had a feeling that God had called him. Probably his mother put that into his little heart when his mother was feeding him as a baby. But aside from that, we have no proof that he really knew God. Moses really knew God. He had met God before. But here in the quietness of the desert, at the backside of the desert, under Mount Horeb, you'll find there he began to know God. To be a servant of the Lord, the knowledge of God is not only basic, but the most essential. What if you don't know God? You know the Bible, or you know the technique, or you know the people, or you know yourself, but if you don't know God, how can God use you? So there you'll find 40 years Moses was brought to face to face with God. He was brought away from man, away from the multitude, away from all the hustle and bustle of society. There in the quietness, he was brought to face with God. And he began to know God. You know, actually, the experience of the burning bush is the consummation of his 40 years experience. That vision of the burning bush is the consummation of that second 40 years. It did not come suddenly. It came as the result of 40 years in the desert of Midian. So you will see that in that vision, it consummated all that he had unlearned and unlearned during those second 40 years. 40 years had passed. As we said before, Moses was 80 years old. He considered himself as good as dead. All his ambition, his hope were gone. He was quite contented to live a shepherd's life and to end his life in obscurity. But one day, while he led his sheep to the backside of the mountain, Mount Horeb, he noticed something. He noticed a thorn bush was burning. You know, in the desert, thorn bush is a common sight. In the desert, because there's a lack of water, therefore you find you do not have all these oysters and all these trees and all these, you know. But the thorns, thorn bush, you find everywhere in the desert. Why it is thorn? We are told that thorn actually is aborted growth. It should be leaves, it should be flowers, it should be fruit, but because there is not enough water, not enough nutrition, therefore you'll find the growth is being arrested, aborted, and become thorns. So in the desert, you'll find all these thorn bushes, bushes, not trees, bushes, and full of thorns because it's all aborted. You know, it's very common in the desert. And because these thorn bushes are so dried, lack of water, and the sun was so hot, so in the desert you'll find it is a common thing. Suddenly you'll find a thorn bush will catch fire by itself. It will ignite by itself. You don't need to use a match. It will ignite itself, and suddenly it will flash, burn, and go. Very fast. There's a common sight in the desert, and Moses must have seen it thousands, ten thousands of times in these 40 years. It was just nothing. But that day when Moses saw a thorn bush begin to burn, maybe in the beginning, oh, it's another burning. But he noticed that the thorn bush was burning, but it was not consumed. Now that is a vision. That is out of the ordinary. A vision was given to Moses at the most unexpected time under the most unexpected circumstance. You know, we are thinking of a vision. Oh, that God would give me a vision. Now what are you thinking? You are thinking of something spectacular. You are thinking of something tremendous. Oftentimes God gives vision in the most ordinary thing, occurrence. Something that must have happened every day, and yet one day is different. The very same thing that has happened every day one day becomes different. A vision comes. That thorn bush was burning, but it was not consumed. Why? So Moses moved to that place and tried to see the reason why. And as he drew near to that place, a voice came out of the thorn bush. Why? Because the angel of the Lord dwells in the thorn bush. And Moses says, here am I. Now you see, Moses knew God. If Moses did not knew God, Moses cannot say, here am I. He knew the voice of God. It is the consummation of 40 years. He began to know God. So when God called him, he said, here am I. God said, I'm the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And when Moses heard this, he was afraid. He hid his face. And God said, take off your shoes. This is holy ground. And there God revealed his heart. Concerning his people to Moses. God said, I have heard the cry of my people. I remember my covenant. I'm sending you to deliver my children out of Egypt into a land flowing with milk. 40 years ago, it came into Moses' heart to go out to see what happened to his brethren. Good intention, but on his own. But now, another 40 years later, he saw a vision and God sent him. He thought he would never be sent. And he was given up any hope of being sent. But the end of man is the beginning of God. Dear brothers and sisters, our problem is we do not come to our end. One day, if we really come to our end, period, remember, that's the day that God will begin. God began with Moses by giving him a vision. A vision of a thorn bush. Now, of course, in this vision, you find three parts. The thorn bush, the fire, and the angel of the Lord. And these threes are together. Now, the application may be personal, may be corporate. You may apply this vision to Moses himself, or you may apply this vision to the children of Israel. That would be Moses' work. But either is applicable. This thorn bush represented Moses. That's very humbling. When Moses was in Egypt, he was a cedar of Lebanon. Oh, he considered himself as great. And the whole nation of Egypt considered him as great. He was a great man. Powering over the rest. But after 40 years in the desert, he considered himself as a thorn bush. I am not a tree. I am a bush. I do not bear any fruit. I produce only thorns. And thorn is a sign of curse. Dear brothers and sisters, do we see ourselves as thorn bushes? The world is a desert. If you really have vision, you will see the world is but a desert. Dried, barren, scorched. And you are but a thorn bush. You are nothing. Nothing. You are the result of curse. You do not produce any fruit for God. A thorn bush is good for nothing. Not even for burning. Because when it is burned, it burns quickly. It does not give enough heat to warm the travelers. Nothing. That's what you are. That's what I am. If we really have a vision of what we are, really in ourselves, we are nothing but thorn bushes. And thorn bush deserves nothing but to be burned. Fire in the scripture speaks of judgment. The wages of sin is death. It is appointed that all men shall die and after death, judgment. We are all under the curse of the law. And when the law is being carried out, that is judgment. Consumed. If we were not consumed, it is because of the mercy of God. But fire not only consumes and burns, fire also purifies and sanctifies. It will burn away everything that can be burned. But if there is something that cannot be burned, then it will be purified and glorified. Gold, silver, and precious stones. If they go through fire, they will be refined, they will be purified, and they will aglow. But if it's worth stubble and hay, they will be burned and will be lost. Fire as judgment also as purifying power. It will purify even to glorify it. Now look at that thornbush. That thornbush was supposed to be consumed. And yet, it was not consumed. Not only not consumed, but what a sight! Why? Because you can see the fire was burning and the thornbush was aglow. Was shining. Isn't that wonderful? And what is the reason? The reason is not in the thornbush. The reason is in the one who dwells in the bush. The angel of the Lord was in the bush. And every time in the Old Testament, when it says the angel of the Lord, it refers to the second person of the Godhead. Deuteronomy chapter 33, verse 16, it said, he that dwells in the bush. In other words, God dwells in the bush. Think of that. God dwells in heaven. The heavens are his throne and the earth is his footstool. And God said, what is it you are building for me? But God said, I will look at the broken and contrite spirit, those who tremble at my word. The heaven and the heaven of heaven cannot contain him. And yet he dwells in a broken and contrite. God humbles himself to dwell in a bush. Not just to visit a bush, but to dwell there, to make his home there. Oh, brothers and sisters, that is the gospel. What is the gospel of Jesus Christ? The gospel of Jesus Christ is God. The almighty God, the holy God, shall dwell, shall make his home in humble men and women such as we are. He not only visits us, he makes his home in us. A humble dwelling, but a great God. And it is because the angel of the Lord dwells in the bush, therefore the fire cannot consume the bush, but the fire glorifies the bush, purifying it and glorifying it. Oh, brothers and sisters, when Moses saw that vision, he could see himself, that thorn bush. He could see the fire consuming him. But strange, he was not consumed. Why? Because God was with him. God was purifying him, burning out all the rubbish in him, all that needs to be burned himself. And God glorifies him by being. It's a glorious sight. It gives hope to Moses. And if you apply it to the nation of Israel, it's the same picture. The nation of Israel is like a thorn bush. Look at that situation in Egypt. They were not even allowed to live. The whole nation would be annihilated. A thorn bush, under curse. Judgment of death was upon them. And yet somehow this nation will not die. Why? Because God was with them. God used affliction to bring them back. That's the vision. Dear brothers and sisters, we need that vision. Everyone who desires to be used by God must have this vision. You must see yourself as a thorn bush. You must see that you deserve nothing but to be consumed. But somehow God miraculously preserves you. Why? Because he's in you. He is with you. He is purifying you. He is glorifying you. That he may use you. If you see this, you will never boast of yourself. It's foolish to boast. You will never try to share God's glory. Because it is his glory, not yours. And also you need to see the vision of the work that God wants you to do. Look at the children of God today. It's like a thorn bush. No beauty, dried up, nothing. The church, as you see it, should die. There's no reason for her, but the church has continued for 2,000 years. Why? Because the Lord is there. He is using affliction, sufferings, persecutions, problems, troubles, to purify his church. That he may present to himself a glorious church without spot or wrinkle or any of such. Brothers and sisters, unless you catch that vision, there's no sense to work to serve the Lord. If the church is going to die, let it die. It does not deserve to be rescued. But oh no, you have a vision. You know God is going to have a glorious church. And because of that, you go on. You go on serving. With a vision comes the commission. Go out to Moses, you go. You know, if you don't have a vision, you have no commission. You may be commissioned by man, but you have no divine commission. But if once you have that heavenly vision, you get a divine commission. A vision without a commission is a mirage. Every time a vision comes from above, there is a commission coming to you. God does not just give you a vision for you to enjoy it. A vision is given with a meaning, with a reason. The reason why God gives you that vision is He wants to commission you to fulfill that vision. That's a commission. And with the commission comes the vocation. Brothers and sisters, what is our vocation? Your vocation is not to be a teacher or a doctor or a nurse or an office worker or an engineer or a housewife or whatever it may be. That's not your vocation. Your vocation is to serve God. That's your vocation. But if you don't have vision, you have no vocation. Moses, after he saw that vision and he was commissioned by God, that became Moses' vocation. That is the one thing he had to do. It's very costly. It costs him everything, but it had to be done. Everything had to be subjected to that vocation, whether your family, whether your business, whatever it may be, had to be subjected to that vocation. Because our vocation is to serve the living God. There is no vocation higher than this. And thank God, it is a vocation that can be shared by all believers. It is not just a few have that vocation. So far as God's calling is concerned, every child of God is called to be a servant of God. And that is our vocation. Oh, that we may serve Him with all our hearts. Shall we pray? Our Heavenly Father, we do bow before Thee, marvel at Thy mercy. We who should be consumed, and yet Thou has glorified us. Oh, that we, humble as we are, are called to serve Thee and serve Thy purpose. Our Father, do make us forget everything and just give ourselves completely to Thee and let Thee work out that which Thou has commissioned us to do. Father, we dare not trust any more in ourselves, but thank God we can trust Thee. Thou art with us. And the work that Thou has called us shall be done in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.