You Can't Bear the Weight Alone
by Sam Hodum
March 29, 2023 · Cornerstone Apostolic Church (Chattanooga, TN)
Kind: teaching
Scripture: Exodus 18, Exodus 18:12-26

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/sam-hodum--you-cant-bear-the-weight-alone
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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thank you guys so much for your patience that was probably going to happen because I had a hairbrained idea for an object lesson all right and part of my hairbrained idea was I wanted pure and utter chaos you're in utter chaos all right and the reason is we're talking about church growth and if there's anything that I've ever seen in church growth and One Thing Remains true is that there will be chaos right uh it's just gonna happen I I don't know why it just it just happens I mean I I had the hairbrained idea of of asking the nursery kids to like run around and play in here and things and Lauren she said that was a terrible idea so I Didn't Do It um she was like you you have no idea how bad that will devolve and I was like that's fair I have no idea but I I want to thank pastor and sister Sloan they they are on vacation this week and getting into joyceum and time off and I appreciate them trusting me and allowing allowing me to speak with you but I appreciate you guys allowing me to speak to you could just throw something at me uh wouldn't be that fine for very long you know if you hit me it might be funnier but uh please don't but thank you thank you so much for your attentiveness you know we all we all have something that we are called to do right uh you're here tonight for a reason I assume that you're not just here to see someone's face no probably not sister Jen said she didn't want to talk to anybody have anything to do with anybody tonight is done definitely not here for us all right and I I imagine that's the case with most of us it's a Wednesday we've had a long week it's the middle of the week this is the peanut butter but this is also this is the pick-me-up night right I mean and man didn't we last week didn't we oh man Jesus just like stepped on up in here and was like um I'm just going to refresh everybody all right now I'm not trying to like set those expectations this week so we just have to let Jesus do what he wants to do all right but like let's just be real this is Wednesday night this is this is teaching night this is and and I believe in the anointed teaching of the word of God I believe in in that God wants to edify and grow his people I think that's biblical I don't I don't think uh and some people have this opinion right they believe that church uh in the New Testament initially they went around from house to house and that that was good that was communion that was that was building culture but I don't know about y'all but I don't want all y'all at my house not every week right and so then we just built a bigger house and called it a church house and we all came together where it wasn't like super inconvenient for everyone um and we're communing together for the edification or for the building up of one another because I mean what I can come in and and be having a terrible week but I see Seth and it gets worse right and then and then Vandy he's got to encourage him word to say and we're good to go there right so uh but when God puts something on us we we're we're driven to do that's the only thing I know how to say it driven now we're not always there because sometimes we're up here and sometimes we're down here sometimes we're being restored sometimes we're developing a relationship or a walk with God and so we come together in a uh as a body to edify to build up to encourage one another this is it's part of it now sometimes and I've seen this God puts a burden on an individual and there's no one else around he just he just dumps it on them and that poor person is just left praying and digging and praying for a move of God a lot of churches have started because someone just started praying God put an impossible task upon their shoulders but and he said you can't do it by yourself now he didn't give them all the answers they just started I think I think a lot of times that that we get overwhelmed and it's an overwhelming impossible task right uh I I look I'm I love object lessons right guys I love them they speak to me that's that's just my jam all right so I didn't even I kind of asked for volunteer but like I haven't told them what they're doing yet but Anna can you help me can you Kenny I I got a job for you all right I need you to just patiently move all this water from here to here okay go ahead it's all right you can sit down you can get comfortable just be careful about spilling it all right you can sit down just get comfortable with it all right just go ahead that's that's your job tonight all right because this is what God does to us sometimes laughs yeah that's what he does to us we've got a world that's lost in dying we've got a world that is lost in dying that we have been given the commission to save them he said go ye unto all the world that's what he said Anna go ye and about the time we get tired he just says go ye into all the world and just keep doing it and that's what it feels like because guess what Time After Time After Time After Time After Time we can't do it we cannot guys do you realize the man hours if if you want to look at work things do you realize the man hours that go into saving One Soul now this is not and and let me clarify that just a little bit it's not this it's not us saving the soul but it's us nurturing the soul it's us guiding the soul it's us restoring the soul it's us helping them learn how to walk in a relationship with Christ it's them help us helping them learn how to study the word it's it's it's those things that man hours oh just Aunt man she is going to kill me after this y'all but God done that to Moses he commissioned him in Exodus uh he he commissioned Moses to go and deliver his people out of Egypt these people had been they had been enslaved in Egypt and Moses had ran from there he was raised as a prince he was raised as one that had knowledge and wisdom and understanding but God gave him a possible task he said you're going to deliver my people out of there Egypt at the time guys was the world supreme power it was the superpower that would be like walking into the U.S as an individual and saying give me all your money too bad we ain't got none so anyway that would you know it would be it would be the most impossible tasks we can imagine was go into Egypt and just get my people out that's that's what God Said So Moses had this burden and he went and he did this insurmountable odd that he had to do he he went and God was with him he was there with him and that's and he did he just did and then we get to Exodus chapter 18 verses 12. and the Bible says in Jethro Moses All right so how many of y'all watched the Beverly Hillbillies Jethro like I can't take Jethro serious here I just think of Jethro from The Beverly Hillbillies y'all that's the only Jethro I know so okay I'm sorry y'all are more Sanctified than me and Jethro Moses his father-in-law brought a burnt offering and sacrifice to God and Aaron came with him and all the elders to eat bread with Moses Moses's father-in-law before God the next day Moses sat to judge the people and stood around and the people stood around Moses from morning till evening when Moses is following us all that he was doing for the people he said why is that this that you're doing for the people why do you sit alone and all the people stand around you from morning to evening I think Jethro was pretty tired of staying out in the sun at this point I think he was trying to figure out why in the world these are these are millions of people and they're just standing around in the wilderness waiting for Moses and Moses said to his father-in-law because the people come to inquire of God come to me to inquire of God had given him a burden he was fulfilling that burden he was just doing or Anna I'm sorry Anna and when they had a dispute they come to me and I decide between one person and another and I make known to them the statutes of God and in and his loss God Moses was doing just what God had asked him he was Leading the People and Moses father-in-law said to him this verse 17. what you are doing is not good and that was it what you are doing is not good you think you're doing something good because God's placed it on you all right he it seemed to be good but it wasn't good and the next verse verse 18. he says you and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out for the thing this thing is too heavy for you you are not able to do it alone he's sitting there and he's seeing something that no one is learning no one is growing no one is contributing just Moses and Moses will burn out and he will die in a very short amount of time he was right there and and the there is a there's a cure there is a really interesting research done around orders given so in the military someone's right if you're you're trained to follow orders and there is there is psychological evidence that show that when you're given an order you don't actually there's a cognitive dissonance to it you kind of distance yourself this is not me this is my order this is what I was told to do and so there's not a there's not exactly a function that goes through of filtering it it's like someone else just is telling you telling you to do it and you just you you do what you're trained to do you you do uh that's why people can run into machine gun fire as crazy as that sound when you're ordered to do that and you've been trained to do that then you're able to just go straight into it even though there doesn't it's that it doesn't make logical sense there so in essence the people were abusing Moses in this manner they were they were bringing every problem to him not thinking about right or wrong good or bad uh great big problem or little problem they were just bringing it all to him and he was saying well this was good this was bad this is what God would do this is not what God would do and they would stand there all day doing that they were not learning the statutes in the precepts of God they were not learning the mind in the heart of God they were just simply doing that can be good and that can be bad but God did not intend for Moses to do this all alone see Moses was learned in all the ways of the Egyptians and mo that was he was mighty in word and in Deeds he was he was learned he was taught now the Egyptians they were they were a very structured in a very ordered Empire and he was taught in all this but in my opinion he left all of that aside he said those people and they he confused their method with their motive they used a method of order and structure to enslave his people and they can and so Moses wanted nothing to do with it he he felt like this structure and this order and this this is not something that I want to recreate so he stayed as far away from it as possible he said I'm just going to do what God told me to do God did not tell me to do this so I'm just going to do this and what he did was he left that wisdom and that understanding that he had that God had prepared him for God had prepared him to lead and what he was doing was not leading is that fair to say he he left it behind so in my opinion here sometimes we do the same thing we come to church and we we think well I do this all day long I know this profession or I know this this principle I know this Doctrine are you finished yet almost I know this principle I know this profession but I'm not I'm not instituting it for example how many how many teachers do we have here I'm not a teacher I'm just we got a lot of teachers how many people do we have that work on a line here or work in manufacturing or yeah a few how many how many whatever do we have right we have all kinds of talent and people with interest but our our jobs sometimes we think well that that has no relation to what I do in the house of God I come to I don't know maybe I come to to the house of God I just come to just just relax and hang out for a moment and you know and that's good and that's that's all well and good but God has prepared us to do more there are certain things that entrepreneurs know how to do that no they know how to to kick-start things they know how to dig something out of nothing there are certain things that managers know how to do there are certain things that salesmen know how to do and and there are certain things that that our trades in our our interests or certain thing that Gamers know how to do there are certain things that nurses know how to do there are certain things that each one of us know how to do that we may not be translating to the house of God I I and and we'll we'll go into that I'm I am I am quite sure that you're training your career your interests your talents have a place in the kingdom of God how many can think of about 10 different ways that Anna could do this faster but she only she only has this one tool she's got this one task to get this one tool this one task and verse 19 this is Jethro talking Moses he said Now obey my voice I'll give you advice and God be with you you shall represent the people before God and bring their cases to God so thankfully there was someone that was willing to give him some advice and thankfully Moses was willing to listen and in verse 20 he continues he says you shall warn warn them about the statutes and the laws and make them known know the way in which they must walk and what they must do anybody's ever heard of processes and procedures oh that's rough stuff ain't it you love them love them some people really love them uh some people can't live without them right that but that's what Jethro's saying here uh you said Ellie May uh just kidding y'all that was a joke he said Moses you got to have some processes and procedures here now it sounds really boring I mean that's that's honestly it's the most boring thing in the world oh my Lord oh laws laws are confusing or are they they're you know they're black and white but then a judge has to find that gray area and you're like ah uh reasoning and logic those are the most rare things in the world right um forming order out of chaos this was why I wanted chaos to ensure to ensue tonight uh I wanted us to right because the natural state of the world I don't know that the natural state of the world is older if we're just being philosophical about it the Natural State there was nothing there was voidness and then God spoke order so right God's not an author of confusion but he brings order about in things he brings brings meaning to life he brings meaning and purpose and reason to things uh and with that Moses began laying down the law so to speak he laid down the law he started giving them the law of Moses there were a whole bunch of these things and and the Ten Commandments were just the basis of it but then it's like don't I don't I don't know I didn't the laws were were rudimentary at best but it's like you know if you an eye for an eye all right that's a famous one right if you plug somebody's eye out you've got to lose an eye and and it was just like just some very rudimentary things that allowed a society to start functioning without one central figure uh he gave them the word now I take that as our responsibility right we have the word of God it is our responsibility to study the word to know the word to cherish the word and to apply the word in my opinion if we're having to go and ask our pastor every little thing about the word we're abusing him and not learning what we're supposed to we're not doing what we're supposed to be doing my opinion he's not here tonight so he'll he'll he'll correct all this later but that's I don't I think I think I think I'm safe in saying that okay we we have to honor and cherish him but honor and cherishing the word that's important in guys now in the church I grew up in all right at the time that I started remembering as a kid the church was about 30 years old and we went through a time of Revival that was that was absolutely astounding I got to grow up in this I started playing the drums at like seven so I like observed this happening right I was stuck on the drums like ah like sorry but that was just from from like 7 to 16 that's I felt trapped all right that was and so with that I got to watch this though I had the unique opportunity to watch people getting filled with the Holy Ghost that were praying for people to get filled with the Holy Ghost it was weird right I mean I that was it was super cool and super unique to see in my opinion uh one couple they brought a hundred people to church in one year first time first time visitors like I mean like when I tell you it exploded and it turned our world upside down it did it was amazing uh I remember I grew up going to the jail services or I was a kid but like we had like somehow or another I got to go to jail Services I'm not really sure how that worked all right um I I got to go uh to to I rode and carried people to rehabs I I went to funerals I went to uh to hospital visits I was there and and my dad was the pastor okay and I remember seeing this this this is my own memory of this of this influx of people this revival in a small community it was amazing it was it was awesome and in that and I just a side note here guys that guys that are not this is this is not from a parent standpoint this is from a child this is from my memories okay in all that you're doing for the works of God make sure you bring your kids with you because I'm not gonna lie I've struggled with it uh even now like you know I have to I have to reconcile this with something because any time that you're not you're spending on the things of God you're not spending with your family or you're not you're not so there's a trade-off at some at some level or another okay and thankfully I was able to go because I got to see that trade-off of sometimes I didn't enjoy that I'm not gonna lie I hate going to funerals right it's not I don't care just as a kid that's the biggest waste of my time I was like what in the world why am I going to this hospital visit you know but I was I was learning I was growing and I was also getting to spend time with my father so that was something that was very important to me I I would I would encourage you guys as a from a child standpoint now you parent however you feel the parent right but carry your kids with you make sure they're there I remember being at almost every music practice known in this that happened in this world okay it was awful but guess what at some point in time I learned how to play music so I'd at least have something to do all right like I'm serious it's super important if you're going to involve yourself make sure you involve your kids it will pay off or at least it has so far for me uh we'll see I guess but we'll see it's TBD Lord hadn't come back yet you know and so all those other things that can be done being done Anna do you have any kids okay good I was just making sure I was just right as as dumb as this feels for Anna that's what it feels like to try and save a soul from hell y'all it's an impossible task and your kids are going to feel like you're wasting all their time and neglecting them if you're not careful all right just just that one that one doesn't cost enough but that's that's something deep within me but in this revival the church it doubled easily it grew it expanded but I watched so many people come in and go right out because the church was not ready for that growth it was 30 30 something years old good church and and understand this my grandfather started the church my father was pastor at the time like I am not speaking disparagingly of the church all right I love those people good people but as a whole as an or an organizational level it was not ready to harness that growth for whatever reason there there was not the structure in place to be able to handle that and guys a couple couple Sundays ago we had 10 visitors all at once we looked around and there was 10 10 visitors first-time visitors now we got there has to be a plan in place for that and we're working on it aren't we Brother Gibson as he's doing security tonight there's there's a perp officers a rhyme and there's a reason to those things because Pastor can't do it all and if we think he should I I hate to say it but we're wrong I'll just keep going here thank you thank you I don't think we feel that way but please allow me as I'm addressing these things tonight and verse 21 he continues he says moreover look for men Abel from all the people men who fear God who are trustworthy and hate a bribe and place such men over the people as Chiefs of thousands of hundreds of fifties and of tens I said take somebody Moses you're not the only one that can do something but you got to find somebody that is also there's requirements there are requirements if you're going to be a chief you've got to be trustworthy can't take bribes you can't be a gospel if you're going to be able to help people in a church you've gotta you've gotta you've got to have it right in your heart you can't if you're drowning you can't try and help someone else Stop drowning you've got to get your pla you've got to get your feet set before you can help somebody else okay like that's just that's Survival 101 right there uh and I've watched it happen right I would would another spoon help you what about three more spoons no it it ain't gonna do much good is it it's about what we're doing when we're trying to make pasture where about five different hats oh sorry this is Wednesday night this is not preaching time is it uh Connor come here bud come here I need you to I need you to move water he's got a funnel don't spill it how you're gonna move water with a funnel oh Ana he's moved more water in one second than you move the whole time what how much water now hey why don't you put some water in there now honestly hey do these things hold water a good deal now look at here I added a different container what does that mean we all they have different tools they have different abilities and poor Anna she started the work and it didn't seem like she was going to make it very far but guess what somebody else came along to help her and then they couldn't all gather around the same Ben so they started another church started a dollar work and then I thought there's going to be more kids up here tonight so I got another pan but it's all right they started another doll to work because guess what guys we all can't do it in this it all doesn't just come from one place this is the kingdom of God she gonna help now she's not going to this is this is the kingdom of God we've all got a part of this we've all got a job in this so as they are finishing I wish you guys would stand with me let me wake you back up for just a moment verse 23 oh no verse 22. says and let them judge the people at all times every great matter they shall bring to you but any small matter they shall decide themselves hey don't don't spill it you can go to the other you can go to the other one so it'll be easier for you and they will bear the burden for you verse 23 if you do this God will direct you you will be able to endure and all this people will also go to their place in peace but peace is that's a big that's a big statement he made all these people will be able to go to their place in peace because they now know the principles and the precepts and the laws of God that they then take and build into a relationship with God guys church is not about water it's about bailing hell out that's what they've been doing trying to save a lost and dying world that's our job now we all don't do it at the same speed and and we may start earlier than some and somebody come along and do it 10 times 20 times 30 times better and that's okay because we're all given the same burden so Moses listened to the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said and Moses chose out Abel men of all of Israel made them heads over the people Chiefs of thousands of hundreds of fifties and tens and they judge the people at all times any hard case they brought to Moses but any small matter they decided themselves now this Jethro called it you cannot bear this weight alone Moses now guys thank you did y'all fill them up there you go thank you y'all give him a hand when he said you can't bear this weight alone put this weight on them guys that's the crushing part that's the soul-crushing part if a church is going to grow we have to carry that weight and I don't know how else to describe it other than await uh it is like I don't know how many of you felt that weight that God puts on you for a soul that weight that God puts on you for a department that way that God puts on you for to contribute what you need to contribute you may say I've only got a spoon but that's that's your spoon that is your talent that is what you need to do and if you do anything less you're doing a disservice to God because that's what that's what God has gifted you with all right so if we can tonight I want us to later on I want us to end with prayer and let's pray for that wait God I don't know what each and every person's Talent is okay I don't even know what my talent is sometimes it's it's easier for us to identify other peoples but God what would you have me to do what can what have you blessed me with that I can then give to you God help me to have the passion the weight for those Souls guys if you pray for a passion for something if you if you want to do something but you don't know how to do it and you don't know if you have the time pray for a passion for it got to put that on you like you've never felt and I believe it can we lift up our hands right now Jesus we love you and God we thank you for your goodness we thank you for your mercy but God I pray upon us as a congregation tonight as a group of people as your people tonight God I pray Lord that you would put upon us the passion the burden for souls and like we have never felt God Lord help us Lord to see Chattanooga the way you see Chattanooga but not in judgment because Lord help us to love it the way you love it Lord the only way we can save a lost and Dying World the only way we can empty hell God Is by working together and giving everything that we have unto you Lord I ask you Lord that not by might not the power but God that you would let your spirit to settle upon us God let the weight and the burden for the lost and the dying of this world Lord to settle upon us let it drive us Lord let it go to us Lord until reaching and pulling and calling and praying Lord let it push us Lord into doing until we have no more else to give God let that passion and that desire and that burden Lord fill this place up and fill up in the next place and fill up the next place with Souls that are being drug out of hell God we have a Dying World we have a people that God that have lost our sins of morality and lost all sins of godliness God I ask you Lord to help us God to carry the burden for Chattanooga God there are there are people there are thousands upon thousands of people that are dying and going to hell and God I pray the burden of their soul would rest upon us God equip us and move us God but Lord move us with your passion move us with your love and your God and sword help us Lord it is our job as the church as the body of Christ to reach and to pull to do what you have called us to do no matter how talented or how untalented God to put to work what you have given us to put to our God Lord I pray this all In Jesus Name Lord I plead your blood of protection over us God lord as we go as we do God I plead your blood and protection but your blood of passion Lord we'll be prayerful to give you all the praise all the glory and all the honor in Jesus name in Jesus name guys I thank you so much for your tinnitus tonight I want you to know that is as simple as that is those principles will save a world that's what God God gave us those principles they'll save the world they want it's not just to build a church it's to save a lost and dying world and I believe it will happen and I know it will and I believe that we will work together and do that and do just that