"God Calling: Moses"
Exodus 3:1-12, 4:10-12
The Israelites were in slavery in Egypt.
Before this they had immigrated to the land because of a severe famine.
Due to the amazing ways that God used Joseph, son of Jacob to save the Egyptians and thus the Israelites as well they were still living there in the time of Moses--but with a new king in power, who didn't know Joseph, and who was paranoid and afraid of the "foreigners in his midst."
And so trouble was brewing.
In Exodus 1:11 we are told: "the Egyptians put foremen of forced work gangs over the Israelites to harass them with hard work."
"But the more they oppressed, the more they grew and spread, so much so that the Egyptians started to look at the Israelites with disgust and dread.
So the Egyptians enslaved the Israelites."
Eventually, the Pharaoh gave an order to throw every Hebrew baby boy into the Nile River to try and kill the Israelites off.
Moses was saved.
When he was three months old, his mother put him in a reed basket, sealed with tar and placed him on the riverbank.
Pharaoh's daughter found Moses, and took him in.
As a result, Moses, a Hebrew child, became the adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter.
Moses grew up in privilege, but when he became an adult, he saw the forced labor camps and an Egyptian beating a Hebrew.
And Moses killed the Egyptian.
Finding out about it, Pharaoh sought to have Moses killed--but Moses ran away becoming an immigrant and a fugitive working a minimum wage job in the wilderness.
And a long time passed.
And we are told in Exodus Chapter 2:23-25 that "The Israelites were still groaning because of their hard work.
They cried out, and their cry rose up to God.
God heard their cry of grief, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
God looked at the Israelites, and God understood."
That's the lead-up to the story we just read.
The powers that be were wreaking havoc on other human beings.
The Israelites were suffering.
They were in bondage.
They were enslaved.
And they cried out to God.
And their cries didn't fall on deaf ears.
"God heard their cry of grief..."
Is there anything more beautiful in all the world?
Are you suffering this morning?
Most of us are in one way or the other, are we not?
We might not even be aware of how we are suffering.
Perhaps we have become so accustomed to suffering that it just seems like the normal thing.
We don't even notice it.
And there are all sorts of different ways people suffer.
Some people suffer like the Israelites did so long ago.
They might be living in slavery or bondage to other people's fears, hatred and discrimination.
Some of us might be suffering from the aches and pains of our bodies.
Perhaps we suffer under the knowledge that we just can't do the things we used to be able to do.
Others of us might suffer under great economic burdens.
Perhaps you work 2 jobs and even that isn't enough to pay your rent, buy groceries, put gas in the car, pay for childcare for your kids...
...not to mention medical expenses when you get sick.
On top of that, there is no money nor time for any "extras," like going out to eat every once in a while, taking a vacation or a day off.
You may be a slave to the grind with no foreseeable way out.
A few years ago, I was speaking to one of my best friends from high school days.
He now lives in Colorado.
He has a wife and one child.
He's having a rough time making a living.
He said to me in our conversation: "Kenny, I do nothing but work and it looks like I'm just going to have to work all the way until I fall to the ground and die."
He's not alone.
There is a new and growing class of people in this country.
They are called "the working poor."
They are in slavery to a system that has somehow gotten way out of whack.
Maybe you feel this way this morning.
Others are in bondage to their addictions.
I have met so many folks over the past few years who are in slavery to either crack or meth-an-phed-amines.
It is heart breaking, to say it mildly.
I have had so many folks sit in my office and tell me how they have lost everything in their lives to their addictions, and yet they can't stop.
They hate their lives.
Many are suicidal.
They know that their slave driver is the drug that is killing them, but they keep going back.
They cry out to God.
Does God hear their cry?
Does God hear your cry?
What are you in bondage to this morning?
Are you depressed?
Do you feel as though you just can't measure up to the material wealth that the Jones' have next door?
Does the love of money and the desire for more hold you captive and make you miserable?
Have you cried out to God?
Again, we are told that the Israelites "cried out, and their cry to be rescued...rose up to God...God heard their cry...God understood."
And as a result, God appeared to this guy named Moses...
...Moses, a murderer, a fugitive, a minimum wage migrant worker who had "led his flock [of sheep] out to the edge of the desert"...
...to a place beyond the wilderness--to a place of utter desolation.
And God called to Moses.
And Moses was afraid and he hid his face.
Then the Lord said another beautiful thing: "I've clearly seen my people oppressed in Egypt.
I've heard their cry of injustice...
...I know about their pain.
I've come to rescue them."
Do you believe that God hears your cry?
Does God know about your pain?
God is in solidarity with people--with you, with me.
God "understands" our hurt, our pain, our heartbreak, our issues, our fears.
God certainly calls Moses to set His people free, but God doesn't expect Moses to do this on his own or through his own might or resources.
"God said, 'I will be with you...Now go! I'll help you speak, and I'll teach you what to say.'"
In a very real way, God Himself comes down to deliver the people from the Egyptians, and to bring them to the land flowing with milk and honey.
God never leaves us alone.
God never expects us to escape our bondage and slavery without God's personal help.
And so God sends Moses, to be His vessel, His arms and feet and mouthpiece.
And who is Moses?
Moses is a sinful guy.
But God calls him anyway.
God works through humble people, people who are rejected, people with vices, and He uses us to announce His Kingdom and good news to the world!!!
Remember what Mary Ellen read from 1 Corinthians at the beginning of the service?
"Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.
But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God."
God called Moses to set His people free.
Moses didn't have much going for him, and he sure didn't want the job.
Moses wasn't a good speaker.
And he might not have even been the brightest bulb in the room.
But that doesn't matter to God.
Thankfully, Moses finally relented.
And God set the people free.
In Christ, God has come down to us...not using someone else, but has come down to us in the flesh to show us the way, the truth and to bring us life.
God has come to rescue us from our slavery to sin and death.
God, in Christ, has come to set us free.
I want to ask you this morning.
Are you free?
Have you cried out to God?
Do you know that He hears you?
Do you know that you can lay all your burdens on Him?
Do you know the Savior?
Again, there are so many things that hold us in slavery, in bondage.
It may be illness, it may be sinful behavior...
Whatever it is, don't be afraid.
Look at what Moses had done, and God appeared to him and called him to do a huge job for Him anyway.
We all sin.
We all fall short.
We all need healing and forgiveness and release from our captivity.
If you are in slavery to something this morning...
...if you are in need of healing right now, come forward.
Kneel at the Chancel rails and be anointed with oil.
God said, "I'll be with you."
"I've heard your cry."
"I've come to rescue you."
