God of the Big Things
Listen to the Sermon
Scripture: Exodus 2:11–25
Series: Where is God?
Speaker: Drew Caperton
Sermon Summary
Exodus fast-forwards four decades and brings Moses back into the story as a forty-year-old man. He has lived most of his life as an Egyptian, trained in all their wisdom, yet still knows he belongs to the Hebrews. When he finally sees their oppression with fresh eyes, something shifts in him. What looks like a string of random events—anger, failure, exile, marriage, obscurity—is actually God threading small moments together to prepare a deliverer.
This sermon shows how God forms people long before He uses them, and how His quiet work in our ordinary lives is often the setup for something larger than we can see.
Big Idea
God lines up small things over long seasons in order to enact big things in His timing.
Outline
1. The Narrative Zooms In (Exodus 2:11–14)
– Forty years pass between verses 10 and 11.
– Moses sees an Egyptian beating a Hebrew “one of his people.”
– He reacts with misguided justice—kills the Egyptian and hides the body.
– The next day, two Hebrews reject him: “Who made you prince and judge over us?”
– Moses’ attempt to deliver fails, and his secret is exposed.
2. Running Into the Wilderness (Exodus 2:15)
– Pharaoh seeks to kill Moses.
– Moses flees roughly 250–300 miles to Midian—harsh desert travel.
– He collapses at a well, exhausted and alone.
3. Moses Can’t Stop Delivering (Exodus 2:16–22)
– At the well, he rescues seven sisters from abusive shepherds.
– Their father, Reuel (Jethro), welcomes Moses.
– Moses builds a new life: marriage, a son, a home.
– His life takes shape not through strategy, but through responding to what’s in front of him.
– Scripture teaches that God directs our boundaries, our seasons, and our steps (Acts 17:26–27; Matthew 6:26).
4. God Had Been Preparing Moses All Along
Everything in Moses’ background becomes a piece of God’s design:
– Raised in Pharaoh’s house
– Trained in Egyptian wisdom
– Burdened by injustice
– Forced into exile
– Connected to a Midianite priestly family
To Moses, these looked like random disruptions. To God, they formed a future deliverer.
5. The Shift in Heaven (Exodus 2:23–25)
– Another forty years pass.
– Israel groans under slavery.
– God hears, remembers, sees, and knows.
– After eighty years of quiet alignment, God is ready to act.
– Big moments often come after long seasons of unseen preparation.
Why This Matters
Most people don’t live out a perfectly executed plan; they live through small decisions, detours, failures, and unexpected turns. Moses shows us that God uses these very things to shape us into the kind of people who can carry His work. If your life feels random or disjointed, Exodus 2 reminds you: it isn’t. God may be lining things up quietly, patiently, purposefully.
Discussion Questions
Where in your life do you feel the same disconnect Moses felt—wanting to do good but seeing it fall apart?
What are the “small things” God may be lining up in your present season?
How does Moses’ forty years in Midian reshape the way you think about your own waiting?
What would it look like for you to respond faithfully to the situation directly in front of you right now?
How does knowing God “heard, remembered, saw, and knew” change the way you handle discouragement?
Call to Action
Visit Chisenhall Fellowship this Sunday.
Find a Home Group and take your next step into community.
