Excuses (Part 2) Series

The Story of Moses: Excuses

Exodus 3-4 (Part 2)

Pastor Jefferson M. Williams

Chenoa Baptist Church

03-30–2025

In My Mind I’m Going to Carolina

Last week, I began the sermon with a sad story of letting fear keep me from a summer of working with handicapped children in Virginia.

I had never been away from home, I had never worked with handicapped children, I had a car payment. I had excuses galore.

I have always wondered how my life would be different if I had not let my fear win the day that summer.

Fast forward three summers. I had been born again at a fall retreat in Moscow, Tennessee which gave me a whole new perspective about my life and my calling. I wanted to do whatever God called me to do and go wherever God wanted me to go.

After much prayers and searching, I was offered a job at a Christian children’s home / school in the mountains of North Carolina.

I was excited. And then I was terrified. I had started graduate school, had a job, a serious girlfriend, a great church and, for the first time since high school, an amazing group of friends who encouraged me spiritually.

Could I just drive away from everything I knew into the great unknown of the Blue Ridge Mountains? I felt the fear rise and the excuses start.

What happened? You will have to stay to the end to hear the rest of the story.

Review

Last week, Moses was still speaking to a burning bush in the middle of nowhere.

God made it clear that Moses was His first and only choice to be the deliverer of the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt.

Moses heard the call and started his response with the word “but.”

It’s never a good thing when God calls us and our first word in response is “but…”.

“But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” (Ex 3:11)

Moses’s first excuse? Who I am?

Forty years ago, Moses was arrogant and impetuous. Forty years in the desert had humbled him. But this wasn’t humility. He was questioning his adequacy.

Forty years earlier, he was confident and impulsive. He knew he was the deliverer. He didn’t hesitate to kill the Egyptian taskmaster. But that all blew up in his face. That was a long time ago.

How did God respond?

“And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.” (Exodus 3:12)

God promises His presence. He will be with him as he accomplishes this mission. He will not go alone.

More than that, He also promises a sign to support the promise. After Moses leads them out of Egypt, they will end up right back here at Mr Horeb, better known as Mt. Sinai. This is where they will worship God and where Moses will receive the Ten Commandments from the very hand of God.

It is not about who we are. It is about Who goes with us, Who empowers us, Who strengthens us, and Who supports us.

No worries, Moses. I will be with you. That’s all you need.

Some of you know this feeling. God has called you to something and your response has been “God, I’m really a nobody. I can’t do this.”

You need to hear God say, “You are right, you can’t do this. But with me, you can!”

Ian Thomas once prayed, “Lord Jesus, I can’t. But You never said I could. But You can, and You always said You would. That’s all I need to know.”

God doesn’t called the equipped. He equips the called.

Moses reluctantly agrees to entertain the idea of going back to Egypt but now reveals another excuse.

Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” (Exodus 3:13)

Moses’s second excuse? What if they ask me questions I don’t know the answers to? Specifically, what if they ask me what Your name is?

God doesn’t strike Moses dead for offering another lame excuse. He reveals His covenant-keeping name:

But what is God’s name? God told Moses:

“I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” (Exodus 3:14)

In the Hebrew, there are no vowels, only consonants. So this is YHWH, where we get the name - Yahweh. Jehovah in Greek. The self-existence one, the Alpha and Omega, with no beginning and no end. The eternal and unchanging One. The personal God who is near to us. The One who is/will be. Nothing about me will ever change.