The Chatterbox - Week 2 Series

The Chatterbox - 2

Exodus 3:1-11

May 4, 2014

When we go to the store to buy groceries, we only buy the things we want. We don’t buy what we don’t want! And when it comes to eating, we are only going to eat what we want as well.

So, when it comes to listening to others and to ourselves, we can choose what voices we will listen to.

The voices we respond to will determine the future we experience.

And we have a choice as to the thoughts we consume. And if we are not careful, the thoughts we consume will consume us.

Listen to the words of David in Psalm 139 ~

14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret,

intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Isn’t there amazing beauty and power in those verses. God created us. We are fearfully and wonderfully made. But how many of us really believe that?! Because we can go through the day and we think to ourselves,

I am never ________________ enough.

Fill in the blank. We can all fill in this blank with different words. Have you ever been there? Maybe you’re there right now. We may say - - -

Smart Experienced

good patient

consistent strong

loved rich

organized awesome

pretty tall

This is part of the chatter we hear in our head and heart. The sentiment which tells us we are not ____ enough. Maybe we can just shorten it to “I am not enough.”

So, let’s look at someone from the Bible, the leader of the Israelites, a man named Moses. In Exodus 3 we read ~

1 Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

2 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed.

3 And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.”

4 When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”

5 Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”

6 And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

7 Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings,

8 and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

9 And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.

10 Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”

Now let’s just stop there for a moment. What’s happening? God has shown up in a burning bush. That definitely got Moses attention and God and Moses had a conversation. That’s pretty awesome, because God can have a conversation with you anywhere, anytime, any place, and even through a burning bush. God gives Moses this great calling, and God is going to send Moses to Pharaoh, the most powerful man in the world, so that Moses can rescue the children of Israel. That’s a pretty cool assignment. It’s kind of like Mission Impossible, Taken and MacGyver all in one.

But something happens. And I think many of us could relate to it if we were in Moses sandals. You know what happens next? The chatter starts . . . yup, Moses starts to hear the chatter. After God has identified Himself to Moses, Moses allows the chatter to take over and the chatter is drowning out the voice of God. Listen to what happens next . . .

11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”