In this Christian walk of life, I notice that we give excuses after excuses when it comes to the walk of a life as a Christian and the service of God in the church? The excuses that we customize for God, would get us fired anywhere else.
I have often considered, how effective the church would be if we were to actually offer the same level of dedication, determination and devotion to the church as we do to other amusements, pleasures, and glees? It just seems like we offer God more excuses than we do services. We give excuses of why we don’t like church and why we don’t go to church.
I don’t like the preacher; well you are not there for the preacher.
There are too many lairs in there for me, they are at Walmart to, but you haven’t stop going there.
Too many hypocrites are there, well, show me church that don’t have them.
They hold service too long for me, you don’t complaint about overtime at the game.
The music is to loud, you never tell the DJ at the club to turn down.
It’s too many sinners in there for me, but I’ve got some for you this
morning, and that is the only way that you can live above sin is if you live on the second floor and there is a sinner that lives on the first floor. Because the bible says that all have sinned and came short. There are just too many excuses for why we don’t, and not enough excuses of why we should.
As we examine the lesson in Exodus 3, God tell Moses, Moses I have heard the cry of Israel for deliverance, liberation, and freedom, and he shares with Moses, Moses I am ready to deliver them. And then in verse ten we see the marching orders of God when God said, “Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people,
the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”
In this chapter what we will see is that when God confronts Moses with what he has for him too do, Moses then begins to complain and offer his excuses. And if we are honest and authentic this morning, it seems as though some of us might be a relative of Moses, because some of us can see Moses within our own lives.
Because God has mandated us to do some things and then the excuses start:
You’re asked to teach a class – there is an excuse.
You’re asked to minister to the youth – there is an excuse.
When you are asked to pray for others ohh my spirit ain’t right, I’m too busy, that’s not my ministry. Often our excuses get in the way of doing the things God mandated us to do.
As we follow Moses, and the account of his live, Moses had a series of reasons for not wanting to hear the call of God. And as soon as God gave him the orders, Moses begins with a series of reasons as to why he should not be the right person for the job for which God had given him to do.
He begins his excuses in chapter 3:11-12, when the Lord call him his respond is who am I.
Moses said to God, Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt? Who am I that I should go? Who am I that makes me qualified for the to go to Pharaoh? I think that I need to tell somebody this morning, to stop the who me syndrome. Because if God calls you then God will qualify, because this same God knew you even before you were formed in your mother womb. Moses said who am I? Moses shouldn’t known that the reason that called him is because God knew who he was. One of the reason Moses probably found issues with this calling is that Moses probably recalled his earlier encounters of failures. Because if you remember Stephen narrates and reports the events of what happen in chapter seven of the Book of Acts, (vv. 23-29), which says “Now when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel. And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended and avenged him who was oppressed, and struck down the Egyptian. For he supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand. And the next day he appeared to two of them as they were fighting, and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brethren; why do you wrong one another? But he who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away, saying, who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Do you want to kill me as you did the Egyptian yesterday? And some of you all know that people have a way of recalling what you did, but they always forget what they have done.
And when Moses remember that he had tried this deliverance thing 40 years earlier, he remember that he was neither believed nor listened to. And he used this as one of his excuses that if they did not listen to me 40 years prior, why should they listen and believe me now?
But what Moses had failed to realize is that the people of Israel and he himself are at a different spiritual place than they were 40 years earlier. Things have shifted since 40 years ago. Some of you can attest and confirm that things are now the same with you as they were 40 years ago because some of us didn’t have gray hair, 40 years ago, and now some of us don’t have hair at all. Some people didn’t have cell phones 40 years ago, but these days everyone has a cell phone. For somebody on the live, 40 years ago you didn’t know the Lord but look at you now. Moses was thinking about how things used to be, and he didn’t realize that he was not the same as he used to be.
But Moses was terrified of being rejected and feeling like a failure. But,
God comforted Moses in verse twelve; He said Moses you don’t have to worry and be uneasy about the situation because “certainly I will be with you. And this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.” Allow me to just to stop and encourage somebody with the these promises, and that is if the Lord sends you, you’ve got to know that he with you. If the Lord sends you then he will provide, protect and guide you.
Moses excuse expressed the doubt within himself, and what we must learn is that God will never send us to do a job that we can’t do, secondly God says low I am with you always even until the end of the earth which means that he won’t send you out all by yourself. In Moses primary excuse expressed doubts within himself, but in his next excuse Moses expressed doubt in God.
In His additional excuse in 13-15 he wanted to know by what name am I going in, it’s right here in the text, verse 13 says Then Moses said to God, Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and if they ask me, ‘What is His name? what shall I say to them? Yes, he doubted God. First of all, God didn’t ask Moses to go and explain to the children of Israel, he just told him to go and when God speaks to us, we must understand that if God sends us, we don’t need to understand why, we just need to be obedience.
But God responded to him in verses fourteen and fifteen, God said to Moses, tell them “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.” (15) ‘The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever.
God says, “I AM who I AM.” What God was telling Moses, is that this doesn’t have to do with who you are, but it has to do with who I am.
And I kind of understand why so many people are not committed to God, it is because they don’t know that God is sending them. They sort of know about Him. But like the Hebrews in Egypt some of us have lost track of who God is. That’s why some are scared to witness for him. That’s why some are scared to speak for him, and that’s why some are scared to stand for him.
When God tells Moses that “I Am who I Am” he is literally saying that “I am He who was, and is, and always shall be. In other words, I will continue to be what I have always been. And that’s God and God alone. Tell them that I am sent you.
Look at his next excuse. He says Lord suppose they will not believe, “Then Moses answered and said, “But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, ‘The LORD has not appeared to you. Moses’ third excuse was, but suppose they will not? What if they ask me a question that I don’t have an answer to?” I’m not an expert on the Bible, they might ask me a question that I do not know the answer too? Saints you have to know that the But suppose they will not, are victory killers, But suppose they will not, are zeal quencher, But suppose they will not, are dream killers, But suppose they will not will drown visions. But suppose they will not stipulates excuses. Moses was so concerned about what might happen; that he didn’t hear what God said would happen.
God gave Moses three supporting verifications that he was with him: First, his Staff turns to a serpent and back again (vv. 2-4). “So, the LORD said to him, “What is that in your hand? He said, “A rod.” (3) And He said, “Cast it on the ground.” So, he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it. (4) Then the LORD said to Moses, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail” (and he reached out his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand), (5) “that they may believe that the LORD God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”
It is important to note that God did not ask Moses to use something that he does not have. God asks Moses, What is in your hand? God uses what we have and will never demand from us what we do not have, and we will never know the full potential of what can be done, until we are willing to offer what we do to God. For God is not looking for ability, he is looking for availability.
God’s command to Moses is simple, “Throw it down.” Okay that’s simple. And he throws it down. Because of his obedience it becomes a serpent. And now the LORD says, “Pick it up.” God says, Moses obeyed, and the snake again became a rod, and his faith is strengthened. So, know that in the act of obedience God will strengthen you.
Next, Moses is given the signs of his hand being made leprous then clean again (vv. 6-7) and the ability to turn water into blood (vv. 8-9).
God has thus far revealed himself to Moses, and he told Moses of his desire to deliver the people, has promised him success, and given him three signs that the people will believe him. However, despite all of this revelation God gave him, it’s still not enough for Moses to believe. Because then Moses gives the Lord another excuse why he wouldn’t be a good candidate for the job – he said “But Lord I Don’t Speak Well”
(4:10-12) Moses said to the LORD, Lord, I am not of eloquent speech, and I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.”
So, the LORD said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the LORD? (12) Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say.”
Brothers and sisters our inadequacies are not a problem for God, because he made us just the way we are. And if we do not make ourselves available then God’s plan for our lives cannot go forward. So, I’m here to tell somebody don’t worry about how well you talk, walk, don’t worry about your education or your teaching. Moses was worried because he studder, Moses was worried about his capabilities, but God was concerned about is availabilities.
With everything thing that God had given Moses he still had one more excuse, Moses said Lord just send someone else” in verse 13 he said He said, O my Lord, please send by the hand of whomever else you may send.” And bye this time the bible said that the anger of the Lord was kindle.
And I think that I need to tell somebody here this morning that the last thing you want to do is make God mad. You might want to make you friends mad, but don’t make God mad, you might want to make your family mad, but please don’t make God mad.
You see the problem was Moses didn’t want to go. This last objection, the last protest, and the last opposition Moses gave was Lord, I just don’t want to do it. Moses is simply putting his foot down and telling God, I don’t want to do it.
Exodus 4:14 says “Then the LORD’S anger burned against Moses. Somebody write this down. God will become angry at our excuses when he knows the outcome of the case. And when he’s angry His blessings are withdrawn. Moses was refusing to trust God’s answer. When Moses ask God to send someone else, he is actually-telling the Lord, “I don’t trust you.” And this angers God.
In other words what I am saying is we do not need to send someone else to do what God is calling us to do.
So, as God is now angered, finally in in Exodus 4:20 we see a breakthrough in Moses. Moses finally known that he is out of excuses and he responds in the act of obedience. Exodus 4:20: says “So Moses took his wife and sons and put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand.” Moses finally did as the Lord asked, and look at how many lives that he saved because of his obedience. Look at the millions of Israelites that was delivered from slavery because Moses obeyed. And Saints of God when we walk in obedience, we will touch the lives of those around us. When we walk in obedience, we can help others be set free.
Let me leave you with this final thought, on this journey first of all, you have to know that God is sending you.
On this journey you must know what God has put in your hand.
On this journey you must to know that God won’t send you by yourself
And finally, on this journey you must you’ve got to know that God will give you victory
You need to know that everything that you need to have too work with God has it for you.
Don’t let no devil in hell stop you from going fourth, if God tells you to sing, just sing on and don’t let anybody stop because God has a reward for you
Pray visit the sick
Preach
Teach
Evangelize
Because God has a reward for you.
Stop giving God excuses and start giving him service because all of your excuses has been excused.
I’m reminded of a story of the fellow whose lawnmower that was broken, and he went next door to borrow his neighbor’s lawnmower.
As he knocks and he knocked on the door finally the neighbor came to the door and he ask his neighbor, neighbor my mower is broke, can I please borrow your mower?
The neighbor explained that he could not let him use the mower because all the flights had been canceled from Chicago to New York, and it doesn’t look good tomorrow either.
The borrower said wait a minute, you said what, you said to me all of the flights has been canceled from Chicago to New York and it doesn’t look good for tomorrow either. It doesn’t make since, what does that have to do with borrowing your lawnmower.
The neighbor said it doesn’t have anything to do with it, but I don’t want to let you use my lawnmower and one excuse is as good as another."
