When God Calls, Say, "Yes” Series

Intro: The following excuses are from a collection of excuses that have actually been turned in at school:

• "Ralph was absent yesterday because he had a sore trout."

• "Please excuse Joyce from P.E. for a few days. Yesterday she fell off a tree and misplaced her hip."

• "Please excuse John from being absent on Jan. 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, and also 33."

• "My son is under the doctor's care and should not take fizical ed. Please execute him."

• "Please excuse Johnnie for being. It was his father's fault."

• "George was absent yesterday because he had a stomach."

• "Please excuse Sara for being absent. She was sick and I had her shot."

• "Please excuse Ray from school. He has very loose vowels."

• “Please excuse Casey from school. It was Take Your Daughter to work day. I don't have a job, so I made her stay home and do housework.”

• Actually received at a high school attendance office: "Johnny was late today because of a shallow gene pool."

• “Please excuse my sister/daughter from school. We told her that her mother is her grandma, her sister is her mother and daddy is still daddy this weekend and she hasn't come out of the bedroom since.”

What do we mean by “excuses”? Where does it come from?

It’s the reason I shouldn’t be held responsible. It’s the way it’s someone else’s fault. It’s me, being relieved of obligation. It’s the reason I shouldn’t be expected to serve, to give, to participate.

I’ve reached the conclusion that excuses are really a symptom. Behind all of them are a few basic causes:

1. fear – I’m afraid of a confrontation, so I begin to make excuses as to why I haven’t made a certain phone call.

2. wrong priorities – I wasn’t very careful with my time – spent it with Fortnite instead of studying for school, so I begin to make excuses for why my homework isn’t done.

3. apathy – Deep down I really don’t want to get involved with someone else’s problems, so I begin to rationalize, to make excuses, for why I’m avoiding them.

Help me out here. Call them out: What are some common excuses you hear in the church culture, when it comes to something that needs to be done?

No time

Can’t afford it

Too tired

They won’t listen

They won’t believe (Your message isn’t good enough, Lord)

I’m not able

Someone else will do it

I already did my time

Excuses aren’t new.

Barak had an excuses: “I won’t go alone!” - Judges 4:8

Gideon had an excuse: “I’m a nobody” - Judges 6:15

Jeremiah had an excuse: “I’m just a kid” - Jeremiah 1:6

Jesus talked about excuses and our relationship to His Kingdom.

Luke 14:16-20

But he said to him, “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’

If you get nothing else from this story, you can at least learn that God doesn’t like excuses. Let’s set the scene by looking together at

Exodus 3:1-10

Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. 3 And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” 4 When the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5 Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6 And he said, “I am the God of your 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. 7 Then the LORD said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, 8 and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 9 And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. 10 Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”