Title: Here I am – Send Him
Text: Exodus 3:1-16;4:1;10-13
Intro:
In 1873, those who bothered probably knew Phoebe Knapp as nothing but the organist at her Methodist church in NYC. She was a wealthy enough woman – her parents had left her a large estate. But much of that was tied up in her husband’s company. Joe was the president of a declining insurance company called National Union Life and Limb. Nowadays, that company takes its name from the Metropolitan District where they eventually became successful – as MetLife. But in 1873, she wasn’t really all that special.
MetLife was started during the Civil War with the aim of helping assist soldiers who survived but were injured. After the war, making payments was hard. The great financial panic of 1873 hardly helped matters – it was like a miniature version of the Great Depression. Businesses were failing, and the insurance market was in great jeopardy. But Phoebe and Joe Knapp felt called to providing insurance. They stuck it out, and God’s providence they were able to continue their business. When the comparative wealth of the 1880s rolled around, they began to experiment with the British model of selling industrial policies door to door. With that mixture of hard work and good luck that defines most businesses, Joe and Phoebe Knapp were able to gain the wealth and fame comes with running an American icon like MetLife.
But Phoebe Knapp’s most enduring legacy was one that came in the depths. As I said, in 1873, she was just the organist at church. She and her husband were known for their piety. But, key to who they were was their trust in God, letting him work through them through their circumstances.
Exodus
In Exodus 3, Moses is in a similar situation. You’ll remember two weeks ago we learned about Moses’ eye for justice and how it compelled him to action. When Moses set out to accomplish righteous ends using his own human methods, things didn’t go so well. When Moses set to accomplish righteous ends using God’s methods, things worked out better. But still, Moses was now stuck way out in the desert. For all practical purposes, he was a nobody. Here was a man who was prince of Egypt, now stuck watching sheep. Talk about a waste of potential. You’d think that a prince would be destined for better things.
God had a plan for Moses. And if God wants to do something, it’s going to happen! God wanted Moses to be the man who gave Israel his deliverance. That’s a pretty demanding deed for desert wanderer. So God did something he doesn’t often do. He called Moses directly. We all have some image in our minds of the burning bush. It’s a famous encounter. God calls on a man, and asks man to join him in what He’s doing.
God still calls us today, even if he is less dramatic about it. One of the joys of serving this church is seeing how many of you respond to his call. But you know that isn’t true of everyone. For whatever reason, when God calls, their response is more like that of Moses – Here I am, Send my brother. Why is that? Well, I’d like to suggest an answer to that this morning – one that I think is illustrated by the questions Moses asks, and more importantly by the answers God gives.
You see, when God calls us to join him, it’s pretty natural to have questions. After all, he’s God, and well, we’re not. How we answer those questions determines what part we’ll have in his work.
The First Question
You’ll notice that Moses has a very natural reaction to God’s call in his life. Here is God Almighty, calling out of the burning bush, telling Moses that he is to act as Israel’s Deliverer. That’s no easy task. And Moses has already shown that he can take God’s call and mess it up. So, what’s Moses first question? Who am I to do this, God? I mean, come on – yes, I was once going to be a prince, but that’s many years and many miles back. Who am I?
In this age where self-esteem is the most important value we teach our children, God has an interesting answer. God simply says, “I will be with you.” Notice God doesn’t say, “Oh, Moses you’ve been trained” or “Moses, you’re a good man.” No, God says, ‘Who you are isn’t important.’ It doesn’t matter.
Saturday Night Live used to have a recurring character named Stuart Smalley would have his daily affirmation. He would look in a mirror with a straight face and say, “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and Gosh darn it, People like me!” It was a great parody of the age, but sadly I know too many people who actually think like that. And yet, what is God’s answer? It doesn’t matter who you are. If I’ve called you, there’s only one thing you need to know – I’m with you.
The Second Question
So, if it doesn’t matter who Moses is, then Moses asks the next logical question. Ok, God, then who are you?
The way Moses asks this question, I get the impression Moses is thinking back to why he fled Egypt in the first place. Notice exactly what Moses says. He says, “If people ask me…” Do you remember what the Hebrew said to Moses when he tried to intervene in their fight? That Hebrew asked Moses, “Who made you a ruler and a judge over us?” Today we’d probably ask, “Who do you think you are?” “What gives you the right?”
You see, people don’t like not being in charge. They’re still stuck on that first question – “Who am I.” They’re the type who want God’s ‘help,’ not his leadership. We as Americans like to say there’s no one above us except God. And sometimes, we even wonder about him. But the truth of the matter is this – God is God, we’re not.
And that’s why Moses gets God’s name. As I said last week, God isn’t the God of some particular thing, he’s just God. He is. That statement alone is so profound that nothing can be added to it.
When people ask, “Who does God think he is anyway?” The answer is simply, “I am.” God is allowed to be in charge, because he is God. He was God yesterday, He is God today. And when we’re dead and gone, God will still be God. He is always a present tense God. Before Abraham was, I am. When he is Alpha and Omega, I am. Even when you think he’s gone for ever, when he hides his face, look up. God is not dead, ‘I am.’
You see, it doesn’t matter who we are. God is. It’s not who I am, it’s who he is.
The Third Question
But the truth is that’s not easy to accept. So Moses asks another question. He raises it as an objection – he says, ‘Okay, I realize it’s not me, I realize it’s who you are.’ But what if people don’t believe me? That’s a reasonable response. People like proof. People want proof. After all, if I started saying, “God called me to x, y, or z,” I think you’d be fair in asking, “Why do you say that?”
Our proof today, of course, comes from this – the Bible. For nearly two thousand years, we have had eyewitness testimony of the acts of God. We can show the consistency of what he’s called each of us too with what he has done in the past.
But in Moses’ time, most of them probably wouldn’t have even been able to read, so God talks to them in their terms. God gives Moses a miracle to show that he really he has been called by God. It makes you wonder, why doesn’t just use a miracle to miraculously move his people out without Moses? But that’s not God’s style. He gives Moses a staff – a sign to follow, but he leaves the following up to them.
You’d think that would be enough. But Moses finally runs out of excuses. He just lays it on the line. Lord, please send someone else. I don’t want to do it. I know you made me. I know you care for me. Moses is saying, “That’s just not who I want to be.” And so God says, “Okay. Have it your way, I’ll give you Aaron.” Aaron isn’t always a helper – think about the Golden Calf, the grumbling. But God says, “You insist on doing it your way? I can use that too.” It may not be Plan A, but I’m God. I can work with it.
You see, God cares for his people, but God doesn’t care about their own “self-images.” He simply wants people to realize, it doesn’t matter who they are. God is with them. The miracles, the great stories, they inspire, but they are not what we aspire to. In four thousand years of God’s relationship with us, there is only a finite number of miracles. There are only so many stories. Ultimately, God allows us to join him, and he pleads with us to join him, but if we are to be God’s people, eventually we have to put up or shut up. If we are to God’s work, we must do it in his power.
Phoebe Knapp and Fanny Crosby
Fanny Crosby, of course, knew that all too well. I’m sure you’ve heard her story many times before. You know that when she was only six weeks old, she came down with a cold that affected her eyes. Since the family doctor was out, a man who stood in his place thought he knew what do, but ended up blinding the little girl instead. That “doctor” ended up running out of town for his mistake. But God hadn’t given up on Fanny Crosby.
She was a smart girl. By the age of 10, she had memorized the entire New Testament. When she was in her 20s, she became a teacher and a well known poet. She became good friends with the school secretary, a man by the name of Grover Cleveland, later President of the United States. Even in the White House, he would often take her dictation still. She was something of a wonder to behold, but even she was still missing something.
When she was 30, a cholera epidemic swept through her town. As she watched loved ones die all around her, she realized even with her great accomplishments, that she only lived because of the power and grace of God. Upon hearing the words of that great hymn, “At the Cross, At the Cross, where I first saw the Light,” her burden rolled gladly away.
God had given her an amazing ability to put into beautiful words the truths of his Word. If you’ve ever sung, ‘To God Be the Glory,’ you’ve sung one of her songs. If you’ve taken comfort in ‘Safe in the Arms of Jesus,’ you’ve been comforted by her words. ‘Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior,’ ‘All the Way, My Savior leads Me,’ ‘Jesus is Tenderly Calling,’ ‘Rescue the Perishing,’ and nearly 8000 other hymns came out of this one woman’s pen.
In her lifetime, she knew kings and presidents and was always in demand as a speaker. Like Helen Keller, her story was special, but the way in which she said it spoke of the Savior who worked through her.
And so, in 1873, Fanny J. Crosby was living in God’s power, doing his work. At her church, the organist wanted a part in that too. Phoebe Knapp eventually could have been successful being the wife of a life insurance tycoon. But that’s not what Phoebe Knapp is known for today. She had composed a tune that she believed to be of God, but she wasn’t a poet. Going to the home of her fellow church-member, Phoebe asked Fanny, what does this song say to you? Phoebe played the notes, and Fanny spoke these words: “Blessed Assurance, Jesus is Mine.”
It doesn’t matter if you are farmer, a wealthy woman, or a blind poet. It doesn’t matter who you are, only who he is and what he will do through you. You can have that blessed assurance, but only is Jesus is yours. Or more importantly, that you are his. Would you pray with me?
Long Branch Baptist Church
Halfway, Virginia; est. 1786
Sunday, April 02, 2006
Enter to Worship
Prelude David Witt
Invocation Michael Hollinger
*Opening Hymn #43
“All Praise to Thee”
Welcome & Announcements
Morning Prayer
*Responsive Reading [See Right]
*Offertory Hymn #40
“All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name”
Offertory Mr. Witt
*Doxology
Scripture Exodus 3:1-16;4:1,10-13
Special Music Alesia Walp
Sermon
“Here I am – Send Him”
Invitation Hymn #334
“Blessed Assurance, Jesus is Mine”
Benediction
Congregational Response
May the grace of Christ of Savior / And the Father’s boundless love
With the Holy Spirit’s favor / Rest upon us from above. Amen.
* Congregation, please stand.
Depart To Serve
RESPONSIVE READING
For thus says the LORD: surely I know the plans I have for you, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.
When you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you.
Jesus said, You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.
I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”
As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live.
Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.
I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.
Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.
I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
- Jeremiah 29:11-12; John 13:13;6:35,51;8:12;9:5; 10:9,11;14:6;11:25;8:58;15:5;14:12; Phillippians 4:13
