The Call

January 11, 2009

Exodus 3 - 4

THE CALL

Have you ever been asked to do something which you really did not want to do?

Maybe you were asked or TOLD by your parents to . . .

Clean up your room

eat your veggies

do your homework

sit down . . . stand up . . .

Be quiet . . . speak up . . .

Or at school the assignments you have to do are ones you really do not want to do. The same holds true at work . . .

The same may even hold true with your spouse. And even when you tell yourself to do something, you may not want to do it.

But often times we are asked, and told and sometimes, we are even called to do something we never thought we could do or that we were even supposed to do.

Last week so many of you stood up at the end of the message to say, YES, we want to help and serve Christ to build His kingdom at FBC. The question many people have is, what am I supposed to do now.

I believe we are all called by God to be involved in a significant way to build His kingdom. It will look different for every person.

God calls each one of us, and that is the key, God will call you, in fact, He may have already called you, but you were not able to hear His call because you were distracted. Maybe you were too busy, maybe you were angry, maybe you were aloof, maybe you were running away, we can say all the maybes we want, but the fact is, God calls every believer in Jesus Christ to be involved in ministry.

So, today, I want to look at one person’s call and see how they responded, then I want to give a personal example from someone I know.

Let’s look at the life of Moses . . .

His first 40 years were in royalty in the palace

His next 40 years he was a shepherd.

His life had dramatically changed when he left Egypt and ended up as a shepherd, but it seemed that Moses was living a good, normal and satisfying life.

All was calm, all was bright, then came the call.

Moses was in the desert with the flocks on Mount Horeb when he came across a bush which was on fire, but not burning to the ground . . . we know it as the Burning Bush. This is what happened . . .

4 When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God CALLED to him from within the bush, "Moses! Moses!" And Moses said, "Here I am."

God then asks Moses to lead the people our of their misery and slavery in Egypt. Moses has now been called by God. But Moses is not really thrilled with this new job opportunity. After all, he is 80 years old and is living very peacefully as a shepherd and is wealthy. Who in their right mind wants to give up the comforts of home for the unkown?

So God says to Moses, 10So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt."

So how does Moses respond to God’s call?

First Moses says, 11"Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"

Then Moses is reluctant because he does not know God’s name, saying, 13"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?"

God gives Moses some instructions, then Moses answered God, 4:1"What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ’The LORD did not appear to you’?"

After God performs 3 miracles in succession, Moses is convinced . . . NOT?!

Moses then says to God, 10“O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.”

After God tells Moses, He will help Moses to speak and teach him what to say, Moses is finally gets it. NOPE!?

Moses tells God, 13 "O Lord, please send someone else to do it."

14 Then the LORD’s anger burned against Moses. It’s about time God got a little frustrated with this guy.

Now Moses is ready to go to Egypt. He tells his father in law, Jethro, and Moses and his family; and his brother Aaron set out to Egypt.

THE CALL - - -

leads to PASSION - - -

leads to COMMITMENT and

even SACRIFICE.