In this powerful episode of Call to Freedom, Barbara Carmack and guest Darren explore the pivotal moments of Exodus 3, highlighting how the lessons learned by Moses are still relevant in today’s world. Throughout the discussion, they dive deep into the themes of hesitation and fear that plague many believers, ultimately reminding listeners that with God’s guidance, nothing is impossible. The episode also marks the beginning of an exciting series with teachings designed to help chart a course for success in one’s spiritual life.
Welcome to Call to Freedom with Barbara Carmack. This is Jimmy Lakey, and I’m delighted that you are joining us for this half hour. You can reach Call to Freedom at Box 370367, Denver, Colorado, 80237, or by going to the website at www.freedomstreet.org. If you want to leave a message or order a Word Power Daily Reading Bible Guide or a Freedom Street Express newsletter, you can call us toll free at 1-877-917-7256 and leave your name and address, including your zip code. If you want to talk to Barbara right now, she is expecting your call. You may call that same toll-free number, 1-877-917-7256 to speak to her. And now, let’s join Barbara in the studio.
SPEAKER 02 :
On this encore show, Darren and I are excited to do a teaching from Exodus 3, one of the most important chapters of the Old Testament. Why is this chapter so important? Because God is not only revealing himself as the I am that I am of the Bible to Moses, but that revelation is for you today because Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. We discuss Moses’ hesitancy to receive the assignment that God has given him. to deliver his people out of slavery and bring them into the promised land. And that is an issue that haunts most believers today, that they are incapable of carrying out the plan that God has for their lives. God demonstrated to Moses that nothing is too difficult when God was on his side. And that same message rings true for you today. He is for you. He is not against you. Now let’s join the program.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, praise God, we’re at the end of another week. We have an exciting show for you today, so please stay with us. Then we have a brand new series out for you that both of us are excited about. It’s called Charting a Course for Success. The first message is called Naming Your Future Days. The next message is called Success by Decree. And I believe that scripture in Job 22, 28, we need to decree our future.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes, that’s right. You’re doing this all by yourself, which I commend you for that.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s why it’s really, really good.
SPEAKER 02 :
That’s right. And so if you want to hear a teaching by Darren Solo after all these years, be sure and get that.
SPEAKER 03 :
You know, the thing that kind of did throw me a little curve is when I take a breath, nobody interrupted me. I could just keep going. That’s got a cheap shot.
SPEAKER 02 :
That is.
SPEAKER 03 :
Anyway, the second message we have there for you is success by decree. And some of you are negatively decreeing things in your life, and it’s a bad, bad deal. We need to get you to stop that because sometimes you say, oh, nothing will change for me. It will always be the same. I’m in this dingy, dirty job, and I’ll never get out of here. What you’re doing is you’re decreeing failure for your life. We want to show you how to use that spiritual law of decreeing things that you need to happen and good things. And the Bible says to create a thing, it shall be established for you and light will shine on your path. That means enlightenment.
SPEAKER 02 :
That’s right.
SPEAKER 03 :
Wow. Today we’re going to go to the book of Exodus and talk about one of my favorite characters in the Old Testament, Moses.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes. And we a couple of weeks ago, Darren, as I was reading the first part of Exodus, Holy Spirit just encouraged me, nudged me and said, I want you to. Find a CD by Ken Miedema. I want you to play it. And so it took us a while. We had to go to Briarpatch Music on the web. And praise God for that. And we got the CD.
SPEAKER 03 :
But, you know, I want to talk about your persistence there. First of all, we went to a local bookstore, Ark Christian Bookstore. And you went into their tape section, their CD section, and you asked them questions. Do you have it on hand?
SPEAKER 02 :
That’s right. And it’s old. It’s 1974. That doesn’t mean it’s not important to God. So many of the older things are so full of the anointing of God.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, but you’re kind of jumping ahead of what I want to get at here.
SPEAKER 02 :
Okay. Persistence.
SPEAKER 03 :
Here, folks, I’ll tell you. When God gives you something, and which he gave you the other day, then you start pursuing it. And you go to step one, which happened to be go to that bookstore.
SPEAKER 02 :
The Arc Store. And the guy there on the phone said, what are you looking for? And I said, Ken, meet him. And he says, we don’t have any of his CDs or cassettes. And I said, well, I’ll go to the web. And he says, do you know where to get it? And I said, well, I’ll look under Meetima. He says, try Briarpatch Music. Now, I would have never known that. We were found at Briarpatch. Yes, we went into Briarpatch Music, and there it was.
SPEAKER 03 :
Now, how come Ken Miedema, am I saying it right, is so special to you?
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, we first met him in 1974-75. And my husband, my first husband, John, and I had furnished all the pianos for Christian Artists Seminar. So one year, we took a full week and just stayed there with our girls.
SPEAKER 03 :
Now, this is the one they hold up in Estes Park.
SPEAKER 02 :
That’s right. And we furnished all the grands and all the pianos. We took up 15 pianos, I believe, for that. And so those five years that we furnished those pianos, we became really well acquainted with some of the artists. And Ken Miedema was a man who was so phenomenal in his delivery of scripture by music that we fell in love with him. And we got him to have a concert in Greeley, at a church in Greeley. Our two daughters drove him down from Estes Park to Greeley to do this concert. And in the process, we had him at our home. And we had dinner with him. And he is such a precious man. And you will discover he is a fine musician and a great singer, has such control. And he’s been totally blind since birth. And you would never know it. It’s amazing how this man motivates by sound and just the environment around him. He’s so in touch with his environment and comfortable with it. Well, he did this, and this is a live performance. He did this song called Moses. And it’s the one I remembered. And as I was reading Moses 3 about God telling Moses, I am that I am. That’s when Holy Spirit says, I want you to get a CD. So you will be hearing this in a few minutes. What we want to say is that Moses, who had been drawn out of the water. And you know the story of Moses. Pharaoh’s daughter raised him, and he saw one day an Egyptian beating one of the Hebrew people, and he killed the Egyptian, and then he ran from Pharaoh for his life. He lived in Midian, and he married Jethro’s daughter, Zipporah. And the Midianites are descendants, Darren, of Abraham from Keturah, the lady that he married after Sarah died. And so Moses lived in Midian, backside of the mountain, for 40 years, herding sheep for his father-in-law. One day he’s herding the sheep, and this is chapter 3 of Exodus, one of my favorite chapters in the Old Testament. And he saw a bush burning. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush. And he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed. And verse four, when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush, Moses, Moses. And he said, here I am. And he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. He goes on to explain to him that he wants him to deliver his people who are in oppression in Egypt. And Moses is concerned because he stutters, he doesn’t speak well, he’s afraid, and God is trying to encourage him. And in the 14th verse, Darren, God is saying to Moses, I am who I am. Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, I am has sent me to you. And Moses was still, he was full of fear, and he said, well, give me a sign, Lord, give me a sign. And here in chapter 4, Moses is given powers. When Moses answered, what if they will not believe me or listen to what I say? Or maybe say the Lord has not appeared to you. And the Lord said to him, what is that in your hand? And he said, a staff. And he said, throw it on the ground. So he threw it on the ground and it became a serpent. And Moses fled from it. And because these serpents, they are venomous in the desert. But the Lord said to Moses, stretch out your hand and grasp it by its tail. And when we listen here in the next few minutes to Ken singing this whole chapter in song, you’ll find that these snakes, when you grab them by the tail and they’re venomous, they’re going to strike back at you.
SPEAKER 03 :
They’re going to try to get you.
SPEAKER 02 :
That’s right.
SPEAKER 03 :
I’ve been watching the animal channel.
SPEAKER 02 :
So he stretched out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand again, that they might believe the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has appeared to you. Then he tested him again with leprosy, and his hand was leprous, and then he put it within his robe again, and it was turned white again. This was God confirming that he was going to go before him. Well, we want you to listen to Ken. He’s going to be speaking a little bit here at first, but listen to this.
SPEAKER 03 :
Listen to the man’s heart. Listen to the message. Listen to the words because they’re awesome. The first time I heard this was when that CD came to the house. And you told me about Ken Miedema for years. And I was so glad that I finally got to hear what you were talking about.
SPEAKER 04 :
But there’s a difference between the fake ones and the real ones. As I told you, the real ones are loving people and they’re powerful people. I asked one of them one time, how does one become a real one? How does one follow your leader? What does it take? And he said to me, it’s a matter of surrender. I said, surrender? What do you mean surrender? He said to me, it’s a matter of surrendering to his lordship. Lordship, I said. Man, these are democratic times. No lordship for me. But sir, he said, if you want to be one of us, you must surrender completely to his lordship. It’s like Moses way back there in the wilderness. Old Moses, way back there in the wilderness, saw some smoke, came to the bush, and the bush was burning, lords. I’ve chosen you to be my man. Moses, way down in Egypt’s land. Moses, I’ve chosen you to work for me. Moses, you’re going to set my people free. Not me, Lord. Don’t you know I can’t speak so good? Well, I stutter all the time. Do you know my brother Aaron? Well, he can sing like an angel, talk like a preacher. Not me, Lord. I can’t talk so good. And another thing, how will they know that I’ve been here with you? they know what you’ve sent me to do don’t you know in egypt they want little moses head don’t you know in egypt they want little moses dead don’t you know they’ll never hear a single word i say you better get your dirty work done another way What you got in your hand, Moses? It’s just a rod. Well, throw it down, Moses. Do you mean like on the ground? Yes, throw it down, Moses. Lord, don’t take my rod away from me. Don’t you know it’s my only security? Don’t you know when you live here all alone, a man’s gotta have something he can call his own. Not me, Lord. Throw it down, Moses. Throw it down, Moses. But… Throw it down, Moses. Moses threw the rod on the ground, and the rod became a hissing snake. Moses was running. I bet you’d run. I know I’d run. Well, running from a hot rod. Yeah, he was running from a hissing snake. Running scared of what the Lord’s gonna do. Running scared he’ll get a hold of you. And the Lord said, stop. Pick it up, Moses, by the tail. Lord, you have not been here very long. Lord, you got the whole thing wrong. Don’t you know? That you never pick up a hissing snake. By his. Pick it up. Moses.
SPEAKER 1 :
No.
SPEAKER 04 :
It’s right again. It’s. It’s a rod again. Do you know what it means, Moses? Do you know what I’m trying to say, Moses? The rod of Moses. Strike the rock and the water will come. With the rod of God, part the waters of the sea. With the rod of God, you can set the people free. What do you hold in your hand this day? To whom or to what are you bound? Are you willing to give it to God right now? Give it up. Let it go.
SPEAKER 1 :
Throw it.
SPEAKER 03 :
You know, I’m glad you made that phone call, Barbara. I really am, because there’s such a fabulous message in that song by Ken Miedema, and we’re glad that you’re listening. And I know it took a little while to share that with you, but it’s worth it.
SPEAKER 02 :
It really is. If you want a CD or a cassette by Ken Miedema, this particular one is People of the Sun. The original Moses was lost, Darren, and so they took this off a copy. But you can get it through Briarpatch Music, and Briar is B-R-I-E-R. I looked under A-R, and it’s B-R-I-E-R, Briarpatch Music. Ken Miedema. I remember, dear.
SPEAKER 03 :
And you can find that on the Internet, right?
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 03 :
Why don’t you give the complete Internet address?
SPEAKER 02 :
Briarpatch, yeah, Briarpatch Music. I don’t see an Internet address.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, if you look under briarpatch.com, I’m sure you’ll find it.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes, it will get there.
SPEAKER 03 :
And spell his name one more time.
SPEAKER 02 :
It’s Ken, and M-E-D-E-M-A. In the future, we’ll have some more songs by Ken. He’s a marvelous man. I remember one time John and I were at a workshop in the morning, and workshops lasted for an hour and a half or two hours, and these fabulous people, Kurt Kaiser had workshops, Ralph Carmichael, some of the biggie people. who knew the technical part of music, not just the singers, not just people that can carry the melody, but these great geniuses behind the scenes who know the technical part of music. He did a workshop, and he was showing the people how to do counterpoint and original music, how to write music, how to write the lyrics. And he got through, and he sang songs like this. And the whole hall was full that morning with Ken Medema’s workshop. And it’s the only time I’ve seen in the many years that John and I attended that after the workshop, the entire congregation stood and clapped for probably five minutes, standing ovation at a workshop. Now, we’ve seen that at the concerts at night when, you know, Patty Roberts sang or Evie sang or the Imperial sang. We saw that happen at nights at the concerts, but not during workshops. And this is a precious man, totally blind since birth. You couldn’t tell it. I mean, when he had dinner with us that evening at our home, He said, just tell me where the vegetables are, like a clock, and the meat and the potatoes, and I can do the rest. And he rides bicycles, mows the lawn. He’s just marvelous. He’s a marvelous man. So if you ever see Ken Miedema in concert, make sure you go to one of his concerts.
SPEAKER 03 :
There you go. Well, you know, when we talk about Moses here, he had to have been herding the sheep with that staff. And I believe there’s an application here when some of you say, well, I don’t have anything going for me. Well, wait a minute. What’s in your hand? And maybe you need to take a look at it from another angle. You know, what do you have going for you? And God has given and anointed all of us with something that he wants to use. And I think when Moses threw down this staff and it became a problem, it became a serpent. And yet God says, now grab that thing by the tail. Some of you are running from your problems. And maybe God wants you to take both hands and jump in there. See, you’re not going to do it alone. God is with you like he was with Moses. And this rod became the miracle rod of God. And every time Moses used that rod, one of the plagues came down on the Egyptians, which had to happen. Because at some point, see, they’d gotten so comfortable in slavery, they didn’t want to leave. And God said, we’ve got to get them out of this idolatrous nation. And ten incidents happened from God’s hand through Moses, through the rod, that persuaded the Egyptians to drive God’s people out of there. Some of you are being driven out of your circumstances, and you’re screaming bloody murder because you’re scared. Now, Moses was scared, understandably so. He was. Because he was a former murderer in the land of Egypt. And, of course, he’d been gone 40 years. But now he’s coming back and he’s going to face Pharaoh. And God is saying, here’s your challenge. And you know when that challenge is probably your deliverance. It’s probably your way out. Don’t run from it. You and God can stand still because you can hold on to God’s hand. And he’s not going to let you down. Mm-hmm. You’re not going to let you down. And you know, when you got in a real tight spot after they got out of Egypt and all the people were standing there and the Egyptians were coming over the hillside on their horses and their chariots and everything, they could see the dust, I’m sure. And the people were panicked and Moses was panicked. And God said, don’t cry to me. Stick that rod out over that sea. And guess what? The Red Sea parted.
SPEAKER 02 :
Praise God. Oh, what a great story. Amen.
SPEAKER 03 :
And I love it.
SPEAKER 02 :
Next week, I hope to have a tape of Keith Green. Now, he’s gone to be with the Lord, Keith has, but he has a song called So You Want to Go Back to Egypt. And you’re absolutely right, Darren. In their slavery, they became so comfortable. And, Darren, I believe that’s what grieves our hearts sometimes when we see callers and listeners whose whole situation is deplorable and almost impossible, and yet they’ve become comfortable in it.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, let me say something else, too. Many of our dear friends have potential absolutely up the kazoo, as they say, whatever that means. You’ve got potential running out your ears, but you’re in a slimeball situation and you’re too scared to get out of there. Why don’t you conquer that fear, spirit of fear, through the power and presence of God and get up and get going?
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes, there are many people who are blind, like Ken Meadamy is, and they use the excuse, well, I’m blind. I don’t have money. I don’t have work. I don’t have a job. I don’t have da-da-da-da-da-da-da. I’m blind. They use that as an excuse. Well, Ken used it as an opportunity. He really did and still does. He does 200 concerts a year. Bunch.
SPEAKER 03 :
He travels a lot.
SPEAKER 02 :
And the piano playing was his. Now, when he does a concert, he has a synthesizer on top of where the music rack is because he can’t read music. So everything is memorized by ear. Yeah, that’s right. And so he puts the synthesizer where the music usually is, and he plays both at the same time. And, you know, John, my first husband, was such a fine piano player and could play in any key, anything that you wanted him to play. And yet he was… He was transfixed when he listened to Ken. He said, I have never heard a musician with such great talent and such a gift. He was blind. That does not give anybody an excuse. These disabilities, quote Darren, does not give anybody an excuse to lie down and not do something.
SPEAKER 03 :
But you know, so many of our friends and acquaintances are blind spiritually. And I have to tell you folks, that’s a grief that I carry when I see people that won’t pick up the Bible. And they won’t take the scriptures for what it says and go for it. I’ll probably die with that, you know, that in my heart because human nature is what it is. But I’m telling you, you don’t have to stay where you are. And the people of God, that God’s chosen race. I mean, he chose out of all the nations on the earth, out of all the tribes on the earth. He chose the Hebrew people. And he rose up and these people rose up and the nation was destroyed that was keeping them in bondage, keeping them in slavery. I don’t know what he’s going to have to do to get you out of where you are, but God has a plan. And you need to say, God is within me. And I think of Ephesians 3.20. Now unto him who is able to do beyond all you ask or think, exceedingly abundantly beyond all we ask or think, according to the power that is within you. You know why you don’t have enough power? You’re not spending enough time in the word. And you ought to start decreeing, I have the power of God within me to get out of this mess.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, you know, Moses had the rod of God. We have the sword of the Spirit. And I’ll tell you, I mean, this can do so much more than even what Moses did. Darren, if we use it, if we take it and use it as Moses did the rod of God in his hands, we can use this wonderful word of God to help our friends, to get them set free from their horrible situations and circumstances.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, here’s the scripture along with what you’re saying, Barb. This is found in John chapter 14, verse 12. Truly, truly, I say to you, and this is Jesus speaking. Jesus is being quoted here. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, shall he do also. And greater works than these shall he do, because I go to the Father. Boy, I’m telling you, that just about lays you in the shade when you think about the potential that we have in Jesus. And, folks, I tell you, we’re here to encourage you, to irritate you sometimes probably more than you’d like. But we’re here to challenge you, to say, come on. With Jesus, nothing is impossible for you. And I believe that this story here about Moses is so pertinent for today. And I would recommend you go back and read that. And what scripture, what chapter were we in, Moses?
SPEAKER 02 :
We were in Exodus 3 and 4.
SPEAKER 03 :
Exodus 3 and 4. Great, great, great portions of scripture. And I like what Moses is quoted as saying in the latter part of Deuteronomy. He says, these are not idle words to you. These are your life. There is so much life in the stories about Moses. We’d like for you to get into it. Listen, we’ll see you on our next broadcast. I want to tell you, God is so good to us and we don’t have to fail because we have Jesus.
SPEAKER 01 :
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