Day: August 18, 2025

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Nobleton Community Church
29084 Sentinel Street PO Box 224
Nobleton, Florida 34661

Rev. Paul V. Lehmann, Pastor
813-389-8683
Nobletoncommunitychurch.org
info@nobletoncommunitychurch.org

OUR VISION IS:
To experience SPIRIT-FILLED WORSHIP AND PRAYER
To be involved in EVANGELISM, DISCIPLINING AND TRAINING PEOPLE
To use our SPIRITUAL GIFTS
To SERVE AND REACH PEOPLE FOR CHRIST, BOTH
“ACROSS THE STREET AND ACROSS THE WORLD”

Nobleton Community Church
Date August 17, 2025
Text TEXT: Exodus 4:1-20
Pastor Paul Lehmann

Listen to live audio here

On a plaque marking Abraham Lincoln’s birthplace near Hodgenville, Kentucky, is recorded this scrap of conversation: “Any news down t’ the village, Ezry?” “ Well, Squire, McLain’s gone t’ Washington t’ see Madison swore in, and ol’ Spellman tells me this Bonaparte fella has captured most o’ Spain. What’s new out here, neighbor?” “Nuthin’, nuthin’ a ‘tall, ‘cept fer a new baby born t’ Tom Lincoln’s, Nothin’ ever happens out here.”

Some events, such as birthdays in Hodgenville, where Abraham Lincoln

was born. Or in Bethlehem, or a baby found among the reeds along the Nile River in Egypt, or spiritual rebirth in a person’s life, may not create much earthly splash, but those of lasting importance will eventually get the notice they deserve.

The three earthly births mentioned were deliverers: Abe Lincoln, Jesus, and Moses.

Moses was a reluctant one. Moses asked God: “Who is sending me?”

God answers him with: I AM — AM—The great I AM —I AM WHO I AM. Now this is after God has spoken to him from a burning bush that wasn’t consumed. In the last part of chapter 3, God has laid out for Moses, all that he is to do, how he is to explain everything to the elders, and what was going to happen, and how the Israelites would be able to receive plunder, l from their Egyptian neighbors, to make up for all of their hardship during the years of their bondage. All of these riches are what will make it possible for them to have the elaborate tabernacle in the wilderness to worship in.

Now, beginning in chapter 4, Moses shows incredible unbelief. Oh, he believes IN God, he knows that God is the only true God, and in his heart he has faith in God. That’s why God is calling him to be the deliverer of Israel. We too believe in God. He has provided us with salvation, we believe he is the Creator, and we believe he takes care of us. We have even seen him answer prayers and help us in so many different ways.

However, we have also seen times when he hasn’t answered our prayers, and times when we have had a very hard time of it. Nothing like the Israelites experienced, but nevertheless, we have had some trying times in our lives; but we continue to believe IN Him, even if sometimes we have our doubts. But the title of my message this morning is:

“DO WE REALLY BELIEVE WHAT GOD SAYS?” There is a difference in believing IN God and believing what he says. When we don’t believe what God says to us in his Word, or when he calls us, or tells us to do something, we give excuses to him, or we rationalize things he says; like; oh he doesn’t really mean that—-or he will overlook that—-or it will be Okay if I don’t do exactly like he wants me to do, and so forth. Or maybe we answer him like Moses did (in verses 1 -2) when God had told him what he was to do; he comes up with an EXCUSE: “What if they don’t believe me, or listen to me,” or they say, “the Lord didn’t appear to you? God just asks him, “Is that a staff in your hand? Uh, yes—“Throw it on the ground.” Moses did, and it became a snake, and he ran from it. Then in verse 4. God tells him to “take the snake by the tail.” So Moses did, and “it turned back into a staff.” God says to him, “This is so that they will believe the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob appeared to you. The staff would be his credentials before the people. God takes what we have in our hands and uses it, if we just trust Him. Of itself, the rod was nothing, but in God’s hands it became POWERFUL.

Moses didn’t have a chance to ask God—if he was going to do this in front of the Israelite elders. God just told him to put his hand inside his cloak. So he did, and when he took it out, it was leprous and completely white. “Now put it back into your cloak.” He did, and when he pulled it back out, his skin was normal, and he was completely healed.

Moses’ own hand had killed a man, but in the second miracle, God showed him that he could heal the weakness of the flesh and use Moses for His glory. His own hand was nothing, but in God’s hand, it would do wonders!

God says to him, “If they won’t believe the first sign—your staff turning into a snake, and then back to a staff again, or this second sign of you getting leprosy and then being healed, go get some water from the Nile and pour it on the ground. It will become blood. These are pretty convincing answers to them not believing that God appeared to him and called him to be their deliverer. However, these signs would eventually be imitated by the godless Egyptian magicians.

So Moses has to give another EXCUSE.

“Pardon your servant, Lord.” (he acknowledges that God has called him to serve him.)—“I have never been eloquent”—(-I don’t speak very good, especially in front of people,) neither in the past, nor since you have spoken to me. I am slow of speech and tongue ( did he stutter?) He is saying, “I am not gifted.” God had said, “I AM, and all Moses could say was, “I am not.” He was looking at himself and his failures instead of at God and His power. God doesn’t need eloquence or oratory; He needs only a clean vessel that He can fill with His message.

In verse 11, God asks him; Who makes people mute or deaf?—Who gives sight, or makes people blind. Is it not I?——–NOW GO! “ I WILL HELP YOU SPEAK AND WILL TEACH YOU WHAT TO SAY.”

“Pardon your servant Lord” (here we go again)—

‘PLEASE SEND SOMEONE ELSE!!!” In verse 14, we read, “Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses and he said, ‘What about your brother Aaron? ( I can just hear Moses saying—yeah—what about him?) but no, he didn’t say that to God. God says, “I know he can speak well, and he is already on his way to meet you, and he will be glad to see you. You will speak to him and put words in his mouth, and I will help you both to speak, and I will teach you what to do. He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth, and as if you were God to him. But take this staff in your hand so that you can perform the signs with it.”

Moses’ reaction to what God had said was one of UNBELIEF.

Next, we also see a question of INTEGRITY.

Moses returned to Jethro’s house and told him all about his encounter with the Lord, and asked permission to return to Egypt and see if any of his people were still alive. Now he wasn’t honest with Jethro. God had told him his brothers were still alive.

This was the first uncovering of a lack of integrity. However, his father-in-law, Jethro, encouraged him to go. Moses wasn’t a very good testimony for the Lord to his father-in-law, then — he was a lot like we are sometimes. We just don’t come out and tell people what God has said to us, or what he has done for us. Later on in the wilderness, chapter 18

The Lord told Moses in Midian that all of those who sought to kill him were dead, and that he should return to Egypt. God wanted Moses to trust Him and not be afraid. How patient God is with His own. How encouraging are His promises.

Then God says to Moses, Be sure that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. BUT, I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. What does this mean? How is it that God caused Pharaoh’s heart to harden, and that he refused to let the Israelites go free? Think of it this way.

The heat of the sun beats down on the clay on the ground, and makes it hard. That same sun, when it beats down on wax, softens it. It is the substance that causes the result. In the same way, since Pharaoh’s heart was already turned against the One true God, God’s power forced a response from him. Then you are to say to him, “This is what the Lord says; Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you, Let my son-(that is, my people) go, so he may worship me.” But you refused to let him go, so I will kill your firstborn son” (verse 23). Then the next verse, 24, we read a very shocking statement. “… The Lord met Moses, and was about to kill him.” Many commentators and theologians have trouble with this verse. It goes against all of our understanding of who God is, and the mercy, love, and forgiveness he shows us. But this isn’t anymore harder to understand than his instructions to the Israelites when they went to battle; in some cases, they were told to kill every inhabitant in a village. That is, men, women, children, and animals. That too is hard to understand.

WE MUST GRASP THE HOLINESS OF GOD, THEN WE CAN BEGIN TO UNDERSTAND BETTER WHAT HE DOES.

But once we grasp the holiness of God, and how he hates sin, and the fact that he will not tolerate someone ignoring Him, it becomes clearer how serious it is when we refuse to bow down to Him and obey Him. It is only because we live in a day of Grace that he holds back his wrath now,

but some day on the day of judgment, everything that we have done against God, and all of man’s rebellion, will be dwelt with.

Circumcision was an important part of the Jewish faith, yet Moses had neglected to bring his own son into the covenant (Gen. 17:10).

This was his second lack of INTEGRITY before the Lord. God had to discipline Moses (perhaps by sickness) to remind him of his obligation. How could he lead Israel if he was failing to lead his own household in things spiritual? Especially since he was going to kill all the firstborn sons of the Egyptians, because of Pharaoh’s refusal to listen to God. His wife Zipporah probably was against doing this before, but now, reluctantly and with disgust, she circumcises Moses’s son herself. The Hebrew phrase that she uses, “you have become a bridegroom of blood to me,” refers to this command to circumcise male babies. Moses later sent his family back to Midian. (Because in chapter 18:2, we see that Jethro, Zipporah, and Moses’ two sons come from Midian and join him in the Wilderness.

God had promised that Aaron was coming (v. 14), and now He fulfilled that promise. While both Moses and Aaron had their weaknesses, and each failed God and each other more than once, it was a great help to Moses to have his brother at his side. They met at “the mountain of God” where Moses had seen the burning bush (3:1-5). Verse 5; “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”

Moses told Aaron all that God had told him to do. When they performed the signs before the people, they believed. When they heard that God had heard their cries and seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.

God sees everything you are going through and is still providing deliverance for you. Today, the power of the Holy Spirit will give you strength to withstand anything the enemy throws at you

Jesus is your deliverer. He wants you to believe everything he has told us in The Word. Let’s not give him excuses when he asks us to do something for him.

Moses’s reluctance and fear were caused by overanticipation. He was worried about how the people might respond to him. We often build up events in our minds and then panic over what might go wrong. God does not ask us to go where he has not provided the means to help. Go where he leads, trusting him to supply courage, confidence, and resources at the right moment

A shepherd’s staff was commonly a three to six-foot wooden rod with a curved hook at the top. The shepherd used it for walking, guiding his sheep, killing snakes, or pulling a lamb out of a crevice. Still, it was just a stick. But God used the simple shepherd’s staff Moses carried as a sign to teach him an important lesson. God sometimes takes joy in using ordinary things for extraordinary purposes. What are the ordinary things in your life—your voice, a pen, a hammer, a broom, a musical instrument? While it is easy to assume God can use only special skills, you must not hinder his use of the everyday contributions you can make. Little did Moses imagine the power his simple staff would give when it became the staff of God.

For us today, Jesus Christ, God’s son, is the ROCK that we stand on. Because of him, we can do anything he asks us to do. Because of his shed blood on the cross, we are delivered from sin, healed from sicknesses and addictions, and BECAUSE OF HIM, WE TOO, CAN HELP OTHERS TO BE DELIVERED. JUST BELIEVE HIM, AND DO WHAT HE SAYS WHEN HE CALLS US TO ACTION.

Scroll down past Sermon for more info

Nobleton Community Church
29084 Sentinel Street PO Box 224
Nobleton, Florida 34661

Rev. Paul V. Lehmann, Pastor
813-389-8683
Nobletoncommunitychurch.org
info@nobletoncommunitychurch.org

OUR VISION IS:
To experience SPIRIT-FILLED WORSHIP AND PRAYER
To be involved in EVANGELISM, DISCIPLINING AND TRAINING PEOPLE
To use our SPIRITUAL GIFTS
To SERVE AND REACH PEOPLE FOR CHRIST, BOTH
“ACROSS THE STREET AND ACROSS THE WORLD”

Nobleton Community Church
Date August 10, 2025
Text Luke 16: 1-13 I Corinthians 4:1-5
Pastor Paul Lehmann

Listen to live audio here

Verse two in this passage that Paul wrote to the Corinthian church says, “It is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.

This morning, we have sung about the faithfulness of God and of our Savior Jesus Christ to bless us, help us to solve our problems, relieve the burden of the suffering heart, and so forth. It seems natural that we, in turn, should be faithful to Him for all He has done and is doing, and will continue to do for us. Yet we do not understand what it really means to be faithful stewards. I wonder if we would or could give an account of our stewardship like the steward in the parable, what we would say if our master would say to us, “What’s this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship or your management. The picture here was of a steward or servant who was in charge of an estate or household, dispensing tasks to other servants. He is called in the text a manager in some translations. He probably was a “slave” put in charge of running his master’s estate. In Palestine, there were many absentee landlords. This steward in this parable had followed a career of embezzlement. The debtors were dishonest, too. No doubt what they owed was rent. Rent in Palestine was often paid to a landlord not in money, but in goods. It was a lot like the old system of “sharecropping.” Someone who rents land and farms it for the owner, and he pays for the land by giving the owner a share of the crops he raises. Palestine was like that. It was often an agreed proportion of the produce of the part of the estate which had been rented.

The steward knew that he had lost his job. He therefore had a brilliant idea. He falsified the entries in the books so that the debtors were debited with far less than they owed. This would make them grateful to him, and he had also involved the debtors in his own misdemeanors, and if worst came to worst, he was now in a strong position to exercise a little judicious blackmail! The master wasn’t shocked but appreciated the shrewd brain behind it, and actually praised the steward for what he had done.

One important meaning is to teach that all men are God’s stewards. Those who are unrepentant are bad stewards without doubt, but also those who claim to want to serve their master sometimes are bad.

The apostle Paul writes in I Cor 4:2 about what is required by those who have been given a trust; a steward must prove faithful.

THERE ARE FOUR LESSONS FOR US TO LEARN FROM THIS PARABLE. In verse 8, the lesson is that:

I. CHILDREN OF THIS WORLD ARE WISER (IN THEIR GENERATION) OR (IN DEALING WITH THEIR OWN KIND), THAN ARE THE PEOPLE OF LIGHT.

If only the Christian were as eager and ingenious in his attempt to attain goodness as the man of the world is in his attempts to attain money and comfort, he would be a good servant for his Lord.

If only men would give as much attention to the things which concern their souls as they do to the things which concern their business, they would be good stewards.

It is a fact that people will spend twenty times the amount of time and money and effort on their pleasure or recreation, their hobby, their golf (or watching sports), their gardening, and so forth, as he does the Lord’s work. (ie. Things in church for the Kingdom.

Our Christian service will only begin to become real and effective when we spend as much time and effort on it as we do on our own worldly activities.

You may say, “But Pastor Paul, we are told that whatever we do, we are to do it for God’s glory. Can’t I serve the Lord just as easily doing the things you mentioned? They are legitimate activities. Yes, you can, and I trust you do, and some of you are doing them a large proportion of your time. Others, not so much. Many of us need to examine this area of our lives. We should be faithful in giving of ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ and His purposes. This means a full life commitment of doing HIS WILL, not ours. We must quit trying to run our lives according to our selfish interests and allow the Lord to take control and show us areas where we have not yet surrendered to Him.

A few years ago, there was a small boy, described as a “shy” second grader, eight years old, “a little owlish in spectacles,” who was guilty of committing a crime in a New Jersey school. It was Valentine’s Day. He brought a Valentine and put it on the teacher’s desk; then he went down into the basement and set fire to the school by lighting wastepaper in the boiler room. When the Fire Commissioner conducted an inquiry, evidence pointed to the boy. He readily admitted that he had done it. When he was asked why, he explained, as the news report put it, with childish simplicity, “In class yesterday teacher took away my bubble gum.”

The child says in effect, “ I am on the throne of my life, and I want everybody else to bow down before me. I want to rule. When I want anything, I want it, and that is sufficient reason for my having it. If I want to chew bubble gum, I should get to do it. If anybody takes it away from me, I have a right to lash out and destroy anything that stands in the way of my whim and desire.” Maybe we don’t burn down schools, but we lash out in our own way. The only way to curb that desire is to have our Adam sin nature cleansed and changed by the Spirit of God by a new birth experience. This isn’t just “trying again” as the world sees it; “a new start on our own,” but rather by life-transforming power when Christ enters our life. II Peter 1:3, 4 says that His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by His own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.”

Day by day we must submit our lives to the control of the Lord Jesus Christ in order that He may keep the old nature crucified with Him. All He wants is our lives and that we yield to His will. Now that isn’t so bad, because we were created to serve God and to glorify Him. Some of you may have learned the Heidelberg Catechism (written in Germany in the 16th c. and used in the Reformed Church then, and many churches today), which says “the chief aim of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” Some of you have gotten that confused and have thought that your chief aim in life is to enjoy the good things God has given you forever.

THE SECOND LESSON IS FOUND IN VERSE 9

II. THAT MATERIAL POSSESSIONS SHOULD BE USED TO CEMENT THE FRIENDSHIP WHEREIN THE REAL AND PERMANENT VALUE OF LIFE LIES.

It could be done in two ways.

1.) It could be done as it affects eternity. The Rabbis had a saying. “The rich help the poor in this world, but the poor help the rich in the world to come.”

Ambrose, who lived from 340-397, was Bishop of Milan and later Governor of Northern Italy. was contemporary with other early Church fathers like Jerome and Augustine. In his commentary on the rich fool who, in the parable that Jesus told, built bigger barns to store his goods, Ambrose said, “the bosoms of the poor, the houses of widows, the mouths of children are the barns which last forever.” It was, in any event, a Jewish belief that charity given to poor people would stand to a man’s credit in the world to come. A man’s true wealth would not be in what he kept, but in what he gave away.

2.) It could be done as it effects this world.

A man can use his wealth selfishly or he can use it to make life easier for his fellowmen. Possessions in themselves are not a sin, but they are a great responsibility that God has given to us because he has given our possessions to us. We are stewards.

“You might say; “Oh, no wonder I don’t have much; I probably wouldn’t take care of it very well—I would blow it!”

Yes, you might be right, because you might misuse it.

Jesus made a point about this. He said; “whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.” So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?

LOOK AT VERSES 10 AND 11. THE LESSON IS THAT:

III. A MAN’S WAY OF FULFILLING A SMALL TASK IS THE BEST PROOF OF HIS FITNESS OR UNFITNESS TO BE ENTRUSTED WITH A BIGGER TASK.

Jesus says that; “upon earth you are in charge of things which are not really yours. You cannot take them with you when you die. They are only lent to you, so to speak. You are responsible for them. You are only a steward or manager over them. On the other hand in heaven you will get what is really and eternally and essentially yours, and what you get in heaven depends on how you used certain things on EARTH.

IV. THEN FINALLY VERSE 13 LAYS DOWN THE RULE THAT NO SERVANT CAN SERVE TWO MASTERS.

In our economy today many people, if they still have a job, it isn’t enough, and they try to have two jobs, and work for two different people. We can use our spare time in this way but a slave could not, actually he had no spare time; every moment of his day and every ounce of his energy, belonged to his master. He had not time which was his own. So, serving God, can never be a part time or a spare time job. Once a man chooses to serve God every moment of his time and every bit of his energy belongs to God. God is an exclusive master we either belong to Him totally and altogether or not at all.

You probably remember the account of a former city employee in Albany, NY, who attended an evangelistic service, and received Jesus Christ as His personal Savior. The Holy Spirit convicted him of some of things he did when he worked for the State, but more importantly he was convicted of what he didn’t do; for the hours he wasted by “goofing off” instead of working. He then mailed a check for $100.00 to the then city treasurer Frank J. O’Brian, and with it a note which read;

“FOR STOLEN TIME”

Not very many people would have done that.

We should think about the way we use our time. I know I have thought about this. I believe all of us need to consider how we spend our time, in the days that the Lord gives us. Time at work; time for meditation, devotion, and prayer; time for the Lord in worship, “singing spiritual songs” (as they did in the early Church); time serving Him and listening to Him when He tells us we should do a certain thing; time in fellowship with God’s people.

Let’s ask ourselves the question this morning; “Am I serving self, and ultimately Satan when I do that, and is it he who has mastery over my time, or am I serving my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and is it He who is master over my time, my money,

over my talents, my abilities- maybe to sing, to teach or work with children; are there spiritual gifts the Lord has given me, that I am not using to serve Him?

Remember it is required that we as stewards be found faithful. Then, when we see Him some day, He will be able to say, “WELL DONE, MY GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT.”