MOSES: FROM DOUBT TO DELIVERANCE
YOU’VE GOT TO BE KIDDING?
Sunday October 13, 2002
Scripture Reference: Exodus 3:10-22
Intro.
A. Last week learned some very encouraging truths. For one thing we learned that God prefers failures. God is not going to and frow throughout he earth looking for “Superstars” to employ in His service. Let me give you a very powerful and encouraging verse of scripture that I would challenge you to memorize. It is found in 2 Chronicles 16:9 “For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him…” Notice what God is looking for, “…those whose hearts are FULLY committed to him…” Now most of us would think that God is searching the earth for those who are really good looking. Those who are slim and trim and have muscles bulging out all over the place. Those who have never known the joy of acne, or vision enhancement devices, better known as glasses. Or those who are extremely intelligent, who score over the 1500 mark on their SATs. Who have more letters after their names than letters IN their names. Those who are powerful and persuasive in speech. Who, as we like to say, “Could sell ice to an Eskimo”.
1. But these are NOT the people God is looking for. The bible gives us abundant evidence that God is looking for people who in the eyes of most of the world are failures. People whom most of us would not trust with any task of significance.
B. The second truth we learned last week that I hope we will all take to heart and apply to our lives is that God gives us a second chance. Moses had really blown it when he tried to be God’s deliverer before it was God’s time for him to do so. He failed miserably and ended up in the desert for forty years tending sheep. But God was not finished with him yet and my friends, no matter what you failures have been God is not finished with you either.
1. Today we are going to see that even though God appeared to Moses and offered him this second chance to do what God had planned for him from the beginning. Moses was still stubborn and unwilling. Boy I am sure glad that I can’t relate to Moses there, Ha Ha.
2. Have you ever asked yourself the question, “Why are we so resistant to a God who loves us so very much?” We know as we have repeated so may times from Jeremiah 29:11 that God has plans to prosper us and not to harm us, but we can still be incredibly resistant to those plans.
Trans. Let’s see what we can learn from the life of Moses that will help us to become compliant with God rather than resistant to Him. What I want to do today is focus first of all on Moses’ first objection to God’s plan, then we will look at four of his excuses that he gives to God for not wanting to join in this plan. First of all Moses simple says:
I. I CAN’T DO THIS!
Look again at what Moses said in V. 11 (read). I think the best paraphrase of this is simply, “I can’t do this.” Now I also believe there are times when we say, “I can’t do this.” When what we actually mean is “I won’t do this.” I think we need to be very careful that our attitudes are truly humble and not belligerent. Let me give you three things that I think we can see in what Moses said here.
A. Moses Wouldn’t Let Himself Believe.
1. Let me point out to you what I have tried to say several times through out this series. We need to get ourselves back there with Moses where we experience what is happening for the first time. This whole thing has been pretty incredible for Moses to comprehend. God has appeared to him in this miraculous way and told him that he has seen all that is going on with the Hebrew children and that he is now poised to deliver them.
2. Then what does God say? In V. 10 God says to Moses “I am sending you…” Can I just point out to you here that at this point Moses difficulty is not with God’s plan to deliver the Hebrew children. ** Here is where the rubber meets the road, as we like to say. Jesus said in Matthew 16:18 that he would build his church and the gates of hell would not prevail against it. We all like that, we all say “Amen” and “Praise The Lord”, but we are a lot like the story Dr. Burch told us a few weeks ago. (let her walk, let her run, let her fly). Then God says to us, “I want to use you to do this” and we say, “Wait a minute Lord. That was not what I was so excited about.”
3. You see I could stand here before you today and lay out a great vision for the church. I could share with you all the things that I felt God wanted us to do and I would be willing to bet that I could generate some excitement among you. I’ll bet I could get you to say a few “Amens” and “Praise The Lord’s”. But what would happen when I said, “You are a part of making this vision happen.” If we were honest we would probably say, “Preacher, let her walk.”
Trans. Now notice something else about what happens here.
B. Gods Calls, Not Invites.
1. Look again at V.10 (read). Do you see anything in what God says to Moses that indicates that this is something optional to him? That God was making a proposal that he wanted Moses to consider? I love those first three words of V. 10, ”SO NOW, GO.” There is NOTHING here to misinterpret, the calling was clear. It is the same calling that each of us has to share our faith in Jesus Christ with others. It is the same calling that Jesus gave to Nicodimus in John 3, “You must be born again.” Jesus didn’t say, “Consider being born again.” He did say, “Consider sharing your faith with others.” He also does not ask us to consider reading and studying His word. He doesn’t ask us to consider Praying, or worshiping Him. These are all the calling of those who are truly children of God.
Trans. Now before we get to the excuses Moses gave to God for not fulfilling this plan let me share with you one more thing.
C. We Are To Be God’s Instruments.
1. Moses’ misunderstanding of God’s call is really a lot like our misunderstanding of what God calls us to do. What did Moses hear from God? He heard, “Moses you will deliver the Hebrew children from Pharaoh and Egypt.” That’s what most of us here today also heard, but that is not what God said. Read with me again V. 8 and then V.12 (read). Did you see it? God did not tell Moses that He would deliver the people, God said that He would but that Moses would be the instrument that He used to accomplish the task.
2. He said to Moses there in V.12 “I will be with you…” Moses thought like most of us do when we feel God wants us to do something, “I can’t do this myself” and God says, “Great, I didn’t plan for you to.” “I planned to use you as my instrument to show through you my awesome power.” Do you remember what scripture I ended the service with last week? If not let’s review it, 2 Corinthians 4:7 “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” We are just old jars of clay, but it is what inside of us that makes the difference, CHRIST!
3. I for one do not believe that God calls us to things that we feel entirely capable of doing. I think that God normally calls us to things that are greater than ourselves. That way our dependence has to be on Him and not us and that is how it should be.
Trans. Now after Moses tells God that He has chosen the wrong man for this job he began to make excuses for why he cannot do what God is asking. He tells him all the reason why this won’t work. Let’s quickly look at them.
II. HERE ARE THE REASONS WHY.
Excuse number one.
A. I Don’t Have All the Answers.
1. Look at V. 13 (read) That’s a classic argument we have all used, haven’t we? I know I sure have. Lord I can’t share my faith with that person, what if they ask me some questions that I don’t have the answers for? What if they ask me about all the killing that took place in the Old Testament; I don’t know what to say. What if they ask me about the Trinity, I’m no theologian I don’t know what to say? Lord I can’t lead that bible study, I can’t teach that Sunday School class. I haven’t been to Bible College or seminary. I don’t have all the answers.
2. Have you ever considered what is behind this excuse? If we will look carefully we will discover that it is pride. If we don’t have the answer to everyone’s questions we are afraid they will think less of us, they may even laugh at us. Who said that you had to have all the answers to share what Christ has done in your life and to teach what the bible says? If you or I had to have all the answers we could never do anything because we never would have all of the answers. I am not advocating that we not bother to learn to share our faith and learn how to answer some of the questions that come to us, and I am not saying we ought not to get some training to teach or lead a bible study. I am just saying that we can’t allow these things to become our excuse for not serving the Lord.
3. Look at God’s response to Moses V.14 (read). There is a great deal in what God says here but let me refine this down as simply as I can. What God said to Moses is that He is all in all. What you need is what I will provide. He told Moses that the infinite God of the universe had dispatched him to do this incredible task.
Trans. Here is excuse number two.
B. People Won’t Respect Me.
1. Look at 4:1 (read). It is quite probable that Moses was thinking back to that experience he had before he fled to the desert when he tries to intervene when the two Hebrew men were fighting with each other. If they had no respect for him then when he did have some clout, what would they think NOW? Before he was the prince of Egypt and now he is an 80-year-old sheepherder, who will listen to anything he has to say?
2. We are all familiar with the term “Thickheaded”? This is what Moses was. Look at what God just said to Moses in 3:18 (read). God said Moses they will listen to you. Then as soon as God takes a breath Moses responds with, “What if they don’t listen to me?” I don’t know about you but I see an awful lot of myself in Moses. Not in the great leader he was but in the great doubter he was. I think I would be a rich man if I had a dollar for all the times I felt God ask me to do something then I began to tell Him all the reason this won’t work.
3. Moses got caught in the trap that ensnares most of us. It is the “What If” trap. What if this happens? What if this occurs? Isn’t it amazing how many of us are professionals at building scenarios for our lives that are filled with failure. I mean really, how many of us build what if scenarios that look like this. “What if God just blesses my life in ways I can’t even imagine? What if I trust God to help me lead this bible study and it grows beyond my wildest imagination? What if I share my faith and people respond in mass? What if I give my tithe and God blesses my life with a pay raise that provides more than I am even tithing? Why are we so prone to imagine scenarios for our lives that normally include failure instead of success?
Trans. Here is excuse number three.
C. I Am No Public Speaker.
1. Look at 4:10 (read). There have been a fair amount of questions asked about this verse. Did Moses actually have a speech impediment of some kind? Acts 7:22 tells us that Moses was a man might in speech and action. In my research what I found is that Moses probably did not have a speech impediment. What Moses was using as an excuse here was that he simply did not have enough to say. [] It would be something like it is for us who feel a call to pastor. When we first get started we feel like we have nothing to say. How are we going to preach every week? But after preaching for a few years we end up with more to say than we have time for.
2. Once again we find in 4:11-12 that Moses is going to be God’s instrument as we learned earlier. God wasn’t concerned whether or not Moses could impress Pharaoh with his presentation. All God asked Moses to do what stand up and speak; God would do the rest.
Trans. Let’s look at Moses last excuse.
D. I’m Not Qualified.
1. I think you have to love the honesty of Moses at this point. He has gone through a litany of excuses for why he cannot do what God has called him to do. They are all really good excuses; they are the same excuses we would use as well. God continues to come back and show him that he will be with him and that His presence in Moses’ life will overcome ALL obstacles. So when Moses realizes that none of his excuses will hold water he finally say, “Oh Lord get someone else to do it.”
2. Moses says, I simply am not qualified to do what you are asking. Certainly there must be others who are much more qualified than I am. I think any of us would feel this way. But please remember this, it is not all those accomplishments you list on your resume that qualify you for God’s business. What qualifies you is God’s presence in your life. Let me take you back to the words of the apostle Paul. In Philippians 4:13 “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” Paul did not say he could do all things because of his great education or because of his lineage. He said he could do all things because of Christ who lived within him.
Trans. Here are today’s life lessons.
LIFE LESSONS:
1. Be certain it is God’s Voice. We may fail at something we tried to do but our failure was because we tried to do what others were telling us to do and not what God called us to do. Now I do believe that God will use others at times to show us what he would like us to do. [] It was that way in my call to preach. But people can sometimes want us to do what they want and not what God wants. Just be careful. Seek the advice and counsel of trusted Christians before you launch out.
2. Be Confident In God’s Power. If God has called you then faithful is he who will also help you to accomplish that work. What ever God calls us to do He will also empower us to do.
3. Be Comfortable In God’s Plan. In other words, relax and enjoy! I have to go back to the words of Jeremiah again. God’s plans are to prosper and not to harm us. Don’t try to rearrange God’s plan. There will be times of difficulty and hardship but God has not abandoned you.
