Exodus, When "Who Am I" Meets "I Am" - Exodus: 3-4

Welcome to the roots where it's all about Jesus. We

love God, we love people, we reach the lost, and

we make disciples. Today is the eleventh of January, so

I have a very fitting question for all of you.

How is your Bible reading plan going? Are we still

going strong? Good? Yeah? We shaky and we're starting to

kind of fall off. Maybe have those days stack up well?

Either way, you should read your Bible and that's fantastic.

It's kind of fun. Right at the beginning of the

new year, we get to try and set all these

new routines, kind of these new hopes and desires because

we want something in our life to change. We reevaluate

our routines so that we can have some kind of

change in our life. The problem is not necessarily a problem.

It's just discipline and it takes hard work. But it's

forced change, right. That's why it's difficult. It's because if

it's not in your normal routine, you're having to do

something to change how things have been. So it's kind

of this forced change. But my question for you guys

today is have you ever been in the presence of

someone or something that changed you, like almost instantly, like

something that it didn't wasn't a forced change. It was

just like, oh, I'm different now, and maybe it was

just for that moment, or maybe it was forever. Let

me give you some examples. Maybe you're on your computer

at work and your boss walks in all of a sudden,

maybe you start, you change how your posture and you

start looking like you're working. Maybe you're watching some kind

of show or something like that and your parents walk

in and then maybe you straighten up. You're kind of like, oh, like,

I don't know what's about to happen next on this

TV show, right we have maybe your grandparents are coming

over and maybe they're away, and so that might change

how you carry yourself. But my wife and I many

years ago, we went on a road chip and it

was a surprised roadchip for her. She didn't know where

were going. I was like, get in the car, we're driving,

and about twenty four hours later we ended up at

the Grand Canyon and it was really cool. It was fantastic,

and it was one of those experiences. It sounds cliche,

but it's like if you've seen it, you know like

it it changes you. It is it's almost too much

to take in It's something that when you look at it,

you just you realize just how small you are. And

it's one of those I've never experienced this in my

life before. It was something that when I like saw it,

I like actually felt like I couldn't breathe. It felt

like the entire time I had to hold my breath.

And not only that, but it was the first time

in my life that I had seen something in creation

that I was like, if I was a pagan, I

would be like, I'm wor this. It's just so beyond me.

It was so big, it was so massive. Every time

I would look at it, it would just make me. It

would make my stomach drop and make me want to worship.

I felt like it was something so beyond me, and

it was changed me. That's to kind of go like, oh,

something like this exists in this type of way. It

was this weird sense in which like I wanted to

look away because it was too much to take in,

and yet at the same time, I didn't want to

look away because I was like, nothing makes has ever

made me really feel like this before. I bring this

up because today in our text, we're gonna see a

man stand before something greater and far beyond himself, something

that makes him hide his own face, makes him feel small,

and yet he is going to receive some of the

greatest news one could ever have, and it would change him.

So we're gonna pray, we're going to get right into it.

Lord Jesus, we give you this time. We just asked

that as your word is open, that it would not

return void. He would use my words to not be

my words, but be your words. That they would be timely,

it would be intentional. They'd be ordained by your partler, God,

to speak into the lives of all of us. As

we open your word, help me rightly divide your word,

Help me be beneficial. Help all of our ears be

ready and open. Please soften our hearts, Please prepare our

hearts to receive the word that you have for us today.

And we ask all these things for your glory, for

our good in Jesus name. Amen. So we just started

last week a brand new series in Exodus. And last

week we looked at how the people of Israel are

in Egypt, and they've grown too vast numbers, so much

so that Egypt starts to oppress them, and so Israel

starts to suffer and are actually made slaves. In Egypt,

we also saw that little baby Moses was born. He

was saved from the persecution going on against the Israelites.

He was raised up in Pharaoh's house, where ultimately he

ended up fleeing from Egypt after kind of an unfortunate

series of events, and he went out to the wilderness.

But all of this, as we looked at last week,

was according to God's plan of redemption for his people.

That the people were crying to him, and God was

listening and heard their cries, and he was on the move.

He was beginning to act. Now today we're gonna be

looking at just an incredible story. It's one of the

most famous stories in the Bible, and it's Moses meeting

God in the burning bush. It's such a cool story,

and that's what we're going to be covering today. We're

going to see that Moses gets called into God's presence,

that Moses gets humbled by God's presence and then is

empowered by God's presence. So today we're going to be

looking at when who am I meets I Am? So

let's set the scene. I mean, if you don't please,

if you have your bibles open them with me now

so that you can be following along. If you do

not have a bible, please go grab one ticket for

your own, and we have multiple out in the lobby

for you to keep. We're going to be starting the

opening verses of chapter three. Exodus is the second book

in your bible, so hopefully should be a little quicker

to find. Says now. Moses was keeping the flock of

his father in law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and

he let his flock to the west side of the

wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God, and

the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a

flame of fire out in the midst of a bush.

He looked and behold, the bush was burning, yet it

was not consumed. And Moses said, I will turn aside

to see this great sight. Why the bush is not burned.

And 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. Then he said, do

not come near. Take your sandals off your feet, for

the place on which you were standing as holy ground.

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. So Moses, it's out

in the wilderness, shepherding sheep. And while he's out there,

one day God shows up, not as a man, not

in any kind of immediately recognized form, but as a

burning bush. And Moses he notices this phenomenon and goes

to check it out. And when he goes to check

it out, God calls to Moses, and Moses replies. Moses

responds to his name being called, and he says, here

I am. And if you've read your Bible even a

little bit, and you've read a lot of the stories,

you'll notice that this, this is kind of a frequent

pattern that happens. God will call to people and their

response will be here I am. As I was thinking

about it, I was wondering if we respond the same

when God calls to us, when he calls to us,

when he puts that thing on our heart, when we're

reading his word and he gives us some kind of

clear direction or call on our life, do we respond

with the same eagerness here I am, Or do we

hope and pretend that maybe that was just the wind talking,

that was just the burrito AA yesterday. Maybe that was

there's some other reason that that can't be God calling

to me. And so I'm gonna hold off before I

present myself ready to say here I am. Now some

of us, I think we'll have encounters kind of like

the prophet Isaiah. If you read in the beginning of Isaiah,

it's kind of an interesting story. Isaiah, different prophet way

down the way in the future from Moses, has this

vision of God's presence and is kind of floored, right,

He's very quickly overwhelmed by his own sinfulness and failures.

Yet on the other side of that event, he's there

standing before God saying here I am, I am. Send me.

I bring this up because I believe that many of

us are going to resonate with this encounter that Moses

has with God today, because in some senses it's actually

very similar to Isaiah, but it also goes very differently.

A lot of the same verbage here, but the attitudes

are a little bit different. Because God calls to Moses

into his presence. God initiates first by calling to Moses,

and then God next is going to reveal the holiness

of his presence, just like he did with Isaiah. And

I believe that there's a lot of us who need

to hear this. He's every believer, every one of us

who have put our faith in Jesus has been called

by God. He's called us into his presence with him.

But I think that there's some of us need to

also have the same warning that most gets here. God

doesn't just reveal himself as a burning bush, like something

that's interesting to look at, but God reveals himself as

a holy fire, a holy fire. What that means is

we need to understand God is holy once again. He's

not just something to look at, not just kind of

a cool spectacle, a bush on fire, but not being consumed.

But he's holy, He's worthy of reverence. And we get

that because he tells Moses as he approaching, He's like,

don't come to me closer. Where you're standing's holy ground.

But we need to understand that God is holy and

left to our own sinful selves, there's no possible way

that we can actually stand before the presence of a

holy God. Because of our sin, we can't even approach

God with confidence God has to say, slow your role,

calm down, don't come any closer because of our own sin.

That's why Adam and Eve, if you think about it,

back in the garden, when they sin, their first response

wasn't to run to God's presence. When they heard God

walking in the garden, what they do They ran and

hit from his presence. They ran and hid from him.

They were ashamed and couldn't stand in his presence. And

that's why the prophet Isaiah, when he seees God's presence,

his response is, woe is me. I'm a man of

unclean lips. And I think this is fitting for us

because I wonder if have we even saved and do

we kind of have that same view of God and

his holiness. Just like with the Grand Canyon, when you

stand before It's greatness, you realize just how small you are.

When you stand before the holy presence of God, it

will reveal just how sinful you are. And the truth

is is it's more than we can bear. The more

you understand God's holiness, the more you understand just how

far you fall from it. Another way to put that is,

the more that we understand and see God as holy,

the more we realize just how sinful we are. But

there's a flip side to that. The more, if you

have a small view of God's holiness, you will have

a small view of your own sin. If you don't

take God seriously in his holiness, in his purity, in

his righteousness, if you have a low view of that,

then why is my sin such a big issue? Why

is my sin such a problem. So hopefully it's not so.

We need to have a big view of God and

his holiness. And when God calls to Moses, he warns Moses,

and he reveals himself to Moses, and Moses he responds,

like we are seeing here. He has this response to

hide his own face and be afraid. But we have

good news. We have great news that there is a

way that we can stand with confidence before the Holy God,

and that is through the blood of Jesus. Look at this.

In Hebrews ten, it says, therefore, brothers, since we have

confidence to enter the holy places by what the blood

of Jesus, by the new and living way that he

opened for us through the curtain, that is through his flesh.

And since we have a great priest over the House

of God, let us draw near with a true heart

and fullish your of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean

from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. No,

it's because of Jesus's blood that we can now stand

in holy places, that we can now stand in the

presence of God. Because we've been washed by his blood.

Our evil has been removed from us, and God now

views us instead of sin stained. We're covered in the

righteousness of Christ. Our sin is what separates us from

being able to be in God's presence. But when God

calls us and saves us to himself, we are made

righteous before God and able to stand before him. And

after Isaiah has this encounter, God sets him on mission. Actually,

he just kind of offers a mission, and Isaiah's like,

I'll do it, and God's like, sick, your mission is

to go preach to people who aren't going to listen

to you. But with Moses, like a lot of us,

might be a little bit of a different story, because

not only does God call him into his presence, but

through his presence he humbles Moses, and through his presence

he humbles us. And the result of that humility is

the result of us seeing ourselves as we truly are sinful, weak,

dependent creatures yipie, and we do need to realize this.

We do need God to humble us, humble our over

confidence in our own abilities, which is why we're going

to see Moses go from here I am to who

am I? So today there's anything that I want you

to get from the text. If there's anything there's any

one main thing that I want you to get from

today's text, it's this, deliverance isn't brought through our abilities,

but through I Am. Deliverance isn't brought through our abilities,

but through I Am. And I put it another way,

deliverance is brought by I Am, not our abilities. Want

to get this across either way. Because Moses has this

encounter with God, it's incredible, beautiful encounter. And God tells

Moses that he has seen the suffering and heard the

cries of Israel. It says, God knows their sufferings and

has come down to deliver them. But then look at

what God adds verse nine. It says, and now behold

the cry of the people of Israel has come to me.

And I've also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians

oppress them. Verse ten. Come, I will send you to

Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel,

out of Egypt. So God is going to bring this

deliverance through the instrument that is Moses. Moses is going

to be God's instrument of bringing salvation to God's people,

just like we know that when God calls us, he

saves us to himself, He humbles us by his presence,

his holiness, and then what does he do. He puts

us on mission with him. You remember the great commission.

Let's say a look at it, Matthew twenty eight. Jesus says,

go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them

in the name of the Father and of the Son

and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all

that I've commanded you. And behold, I am with you

always to the end of the age. So Jesus tells

us that he has put us on mission, and then

He's going to use us to bring this good news

to others. You guys, seeing that kind of see that pattern,

being saved, called into his presence and commissioned for him

for his own purposes, just like many of us, though

unlike Isaiah might might be too humble if we want

to call it that. The other option is we call

it fear, not fear of God, but we end up

having a fear of everything else. When God calls us

and puts us on mission with him, we might respond

with a sense of humility, but really it's fear in

fact much of us. Like today, as we're going to

see Moses do as he begins to make excuse after

excuse as to why he can't do what God is

telling him to do. Moses is going to be commissioned

by God, and Moses is going to have excuse after

excuse as to why he can't do what God's going

to do. And I was actually thinking about this because

it is a weird mix of fear that he has

in this situation. It's also a weird mix of humility

because he's going like, who am I that I would

be able to do these things? And I realized that

if you put fear and being humbled together, you get

a fumble. And that's kind of what he does here.

He begins to make excuse excuses as to why he

can't do what God tells him he is to do.

Exodus three eleven. Look at this it says, but Moses

said to God, who am I? That I should go

to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt.

So if we had only this verse, we might think

that maybe he's just very humble. But actually the problem

is that we're gonna see Moses continue to make excuse

after excuse as to why he can't do it. And

let's listen. I'm gonna list him out, and then we're

going to talk about him. In fact, we see five

excuses here in our text today. Let me summarize them,

and then we're gonna dig in. The first one is

who am I? The second is what will I say?

Third is what if they don't believe? The fourth is, well,

I'm not really good at talking. What if I get

it wrong? The fifth is please just send somebody else. Now.

I don't know about you, but I feel like I've

heard all these excuses before, coming from my own heart.

God has commissioned Moses, and Moses takes one look at

himself and with an accurate assessment, says me, are you sure?

And are you sure? You're sure? And how many times

have we said the same exact thing to God? When

he makes it clear that there's something he wants us

to do. You want me to preach the gospel of

that person? Me, what am I even gonna say? What

if they don't believe me? Can you just have someone

else do it? But Moses is looking to the wrong

place because each one of those excuses are all me focused.

All those excuses are him looking at himself. He says,

who am I? What will I say? They won't believe me?

I don't talk good, don't make me do this? Please

get someone else. But God is so good because he

points Moses every single time to where he should be

looking to what Moses should be remembering, And no, look

at this and this next verse verse twelve, he said,

this is God speaking. He says, this is so beautiful.

But I will be with you, and this shall be

the sign for you that I have sent you. When

you've brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve

God on this mountain. God's like, this is gonna happen,

and this will be the sign. When you're on the

other side of it, you'll see that I've been with you.

He says, I will be with you. God removes our

excuses by giving us himself. We look at ourselves, our

own ability or lack thereof. Then we're going to easily

come up with a bunch of excuses as to why

we can't do something. But if we look to Jesus,

all our excuses will fade because what can't he do?

So we're gonna look at these excuses and how God

provides answers every single time. And the answer is in

I Am not our abilities. So we already kind of

looked at the first one. Moses says, who am I?

And God says, but I will be with you, and

think about how good this word is because God is consistent.

God does not change. God is the same in his nature,

and he's good for his promises. And so why it's

awesome is because when you read your whole Bible, as

you're going to continue to do in your Bible reading

plan this year, I'm rooting for you. We're all gonna

do it. Guys, We're gonna make it as you're going

to continue to Notice when God commissions his people, he

doesn't send them alone, he doesn't send them by themselves.

Think about it. We already looked at it. Jesus in

the Great Commission. What did he say at the end

of it, he says, go make disciples, and at the

very end he says, and I will be with you.

I'm always with you. That's what God tells Abraham. Famine

hits the land that he's in and he was considering

going down to Egypt, and God says, nope, stay in

the land and I will be with you. Joshua before

he when he's taking over for Moses and he's gonna

go in and take the Promised Land, It's gonna be

a lot of fighting, he assures him by saying, but

I will be with you. Think about the story of

Gideon and Judges. God comes to him to say, hey,

I want you to lead an army and go fight

against Midianites. And Gideon's like, me, are you sure you're

talking to the right person. I'm from the least clam

and I'm the least in my family. And God's response

is the same, but I will be with you. And

how many of us just need to remember this, how

many of us just need to hear it, But I

will be with you. We make excuses about the deficiencies,

and God's like, yeah, I know. God's not surprised that

we are weak. He's not surprised that we're dependent. He

knows that, but the promise that he gives us is

that he will be with us. Moses goes to the

next one and says, this is his next excuse. He's like,

all right, fair enough. If I go to these people

and they begin to question me about the things that

you've told me, what will I say to them? If

I tell them that God, the God of our Father,

sent me, and they say, what's his name? What should

I say? And God does something incredible here He tells

Moses his name. Look at this verse fourteen. God said

to Moses, I am who I am, and he said,

say this to the people of Israel. I Am has

sent me to you. And this this phrase or this

word can actually be translated a couple different ways, and

I think it's helpful to kind of get a picture

of what God is saying here. It's I am who

I am, or I am what I am, or I

will be what I will be? And what a name

way to name yourself? What a way to describe yourself.

The only one that this could really truly be fitting

of is God himself. How do you describe God? He is?

That's pretty baller This is where we get the word

from the Hebrew Yahweh. So God reveals his name to Moses,

and he tells Moses, aright, you're gonna go tell them

my name. Tell them that God has heard their christ

seen their affliction, and he promises to deliver them. And

something really interesting here, God says, he tells Moses, when

you tell this to the people, they will listen to you.

Catch that. God tells him, when you tell this to

the people, they will listen to you. He also tells them, hey,

and then make sure you go to the king tell

him to let my people go. And he's not gonna

The king won't do it unless he's compelled by a

mighty hand. And so what's God gonna do. Look at

this verse twenty. He says, So I will stretch out

my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that

I will do in it. After that he will let

you go, and I will give this people favor in

the sight of the Egyptians. And when you go, you

shall not go empty. But each woman shall ask of

her neighbor, and any woman who lives in her house

for silver and gold, jewelry, and for clothing. You shall

put them on your sons and your daughters, and so

you shall plunder the Egyptians. So God is gonna be

with Moses, and he's revealed his name to Moses, and

he's told, hey, Moses, these people will listen to you,

and you leave Pharaoh in Egypt to me. Well, what

does j say next? It's another excuse And actually it's

kind of crazy because it's not just another excuse, but

he low key openly contradicts God. Look what he says

verse one of chapter four. Then Moses answered, but behold,

they will not believe me or listen to my voice,

for they will say the Lord did not appear to you.

That's actually crazy, is what did God just tell him?

Tell him I am sent you and they'll listen to you.

And Moses is like, yeah, I don't think so. I

don't think they work like that. Have you met these people?

I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna say that, and they're

not gonna listen to me. So he just blatantly disagrees

with God here, which is crazy. That's crazy. But what

does this show us? It shows us that Moses is struggling,

even in God's presence, to trust God. He's struggling to

trust God with his own future and with the promises

that God is making to him, even to the point

where God says they will listen, and Moses like, but

they won't. Here's the deal. We could give Moses a

hard time, but how many of us do the same

exact thing in our relationship with God. God tells us

something very clearly in his word. He's like that you're

no longer a slave to that sin anymore. You can

say no, And we're like, I don't know about that. No,

we can't. Maybe tells us to love and show forgiveness,

and we're like, I don't, I can't do that. Tells

us to be generous and that he'll take care of us,

that all things, all things work together for our good.

We say it, I don't know about that. He says,

you can share the gospel and make disciples, and we say,

who's actually going to believe this? Which is crazy, because

you did, you believed it. To deal with that, really,

we've gone from humility kind of maybe this proper low

view of ourselves, of our own inability. We have this humility,

and we go from humility to just being heathens. Just

we don't trust God. We start living like he can't

do anything, that he doesn't have adequate power, that he

can't that he's not good for his word and able

to do what he said, like he doesn't actually make

a difference in our life, Like he can't work through us.

But over and over again in this text, God is

showing us that the deliverance he brings is not found

or dependent on us, but it's on him. God calls

us into his presence. He humbles us by his presence,

but we need to be empowered by his presence. Our

strength isn't that we're strong. Our strength is that He

is with us. That's crazy, He just gives that to us.

So he makes these remarks, who's gonna believe? They're not

gonna listen? God shows them even more grace, and God

actually gives them three signs. They're kind of cool. He's like, hey,

your staff, you can turn into a snake. Now. He

makes it so that his hand can become leprous, which

is basically just like a skin disease. And then not again.

And then the last one was that he'll be able

to pour out water from the nile on dry ground

and it would turn into blood. So God assured assured

Moses that he would be with him. He gives them

his name, he gives them these signs, and Moses is

still not done with the excuses. He's still not done

with it. And here's the deal, you guys might potentially

be sitting here going like, all right, we get it.

He made a lot of excuses, but we do the

same thing. So we're sick and tired of hearing about

all these excuses. I'm not saying God is, but maybe

I don't know. Moses isn't done with the excuses. He says,

I don't talk good. Moses says this to God, and

God rebukes him, and it's still with grace. But look

at this in verse ten. But Moses said to the Lord, oh,

my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past

or since you have spoken to your servant. But I

am slow with speech and tongue. And the Lord said

to him, who has made man's mouth, who makes him

mute or death, or seeing or blind? Is it not

I the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be

with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.

God says, watch it. Now, you're insulting that thing I made,

Who made man's mouth, who gives him ability to do anything?

But second, here God only says his presence and power

are going to be with Moses. But he now just

tells Moses like, hey, dude, I'll do the talking for you.

I will even be with your mouth. I will even

teach you the words that you need to say, which

is a beautiful even picture of Jesus when he talks

about like what I'm teaching isn't from me, but from

the Father and man. Do we need to trust God

more in this area? He reminds me. When Jesus is

sending out his disciples, he tells them not to worry

about what they should say. Why, let's look at it,

Matthew ten. It says when they deliver you over, do

not be anxious how you are to speak or what

you are to say, For what you are to say

will be given to you in that hour. For it

is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your

Father speaking through you. God's so good, It's the same God,

Old Testament and New Testament, the entire Bible. How many

of us, though, are too afraid to speak the Gospel

to our neighbors or our families because we fear we

just don't have the right words. We're just gonna get

it wrong. I got the basic idea, but what if

I just don't say it right. I'm not really good

at talking. It's not really my thing. We need to

hear God say I will be with you. I will

be with your mouth. It doesn't depend on your speaking power,

but it depends on God's presence with you. And finally

Moses gives it one last go. He just comes right

out says what he's really thinking. He's tried all the excuses.

God is not letting up. God's provided for every single area,

and now Moses is just gonna come clean. And I

love this because Moses is the one writing this. That's

why I love this. Moses just like, let me just

tell you what's up. He doesn't sugarcoat it at all.

Verse thirteen. But he said, oh my Lord, please send

someone else, Please send someone else. And I love that

Moses can admit this. He just tells us He's like,

you know how, I'm the guy who like kind of

helped bring all this up about and happen. They didn't

start off this way, Okay, the whole crossing the red

sea and the crazy stuff, the bread from heaven. Yeah,

I kind of tried to turn down this whole job

offer thing here, But I love that Moses can admit this,

because how many times have we prayed this same prayer? God,

Please just send someone else. I've tried, or I haven't

even tried, and I'm kind of unwilling. I don't even

want to try once. Have somebody else do it. And

here's the deal. This is like the fifth excuse. So

God does start to get angry with Moses. God does

start to get angry with Moses, but he's still still

shows grace. Look at this verse fourteen. Then the anger

of the Lord was kindled against Moses, and he said,

is there not aaron? You're the Levite. I know that

he can speak well, which is actually kind of funny

because that makes it sound like God did kind of

know that Moses couldn't talk well. I was thinking about that. Anyways,

it doesn't matter. He says, Behold, he's coming out to

meet you, and when he sees you, he will be

glad in his heart. You shall speak to him and

put the words in his mouth. But now catch this,

and I will be with your mouth and with his

mouth and will teach you both what to do. So

what's really cool here is God tells Moses, all right, fine,

you don't have to do it alone. I'm gonna give

you aaron. Now, he wasn't gonna be alone in the

first place. Let's just be real why. Because God said

he was already gonna be with him. Moses wasn't actually alone.

He had God with him, which is like way better

than Aaron. But still he gives Moses a buddy. He's like,

all right, I'm gonna be with both of you. I

will help both of you. I'm gonna be with both

of your mouths. I'm gonna teach you both what to do.

And so Moses has exhausted all his excuses and God

has given him so much grace. Every excuse was met

with God answering Moses's doubt with himself. But I Moses

kept saying, but I can't, but I can't, And God's like, yeah,

that's why I'm gonna be there. I'm gonna do the thing.

I'm gonna be with you. So God provided for Moses

in every situation here by leaving no room for any

more excuses. And I really have to make this so clear.

Our takeaway today is not make more excuses before God.

That is not the takeaway for this text. It's not

all I should just keep making excuses because He'll just

keep going along with me. No, this is an example

for us. This is not how our response should be.

What we do see is God's goodness and his graciousness,

despite how we can be as people. We should learn

from this example. God over and over again is telling Moses.

So that's what's great about this repetition is this repetition

is also there for us to see it, to just

drill it into our own heads. Oh, maybe we're not

getting it. Why does the whole Bible? Eventually you're kind

of like, all right, guys, I kind of think I

got this thing figured out. It's like the Israelites are

like following God and then they stop, and then things

are bad and they call out to God, and then

things get really good and they stop following God. Like

it just keeps happening over and over and over again,

almost like it's trying to teach us something. It's trying

to remind us. God over and over again is telling Moses,

I am with you, but I will be with you

even in this area, even in that spot, even in

this place, even in that concern. I'm going to be

in all those places. It's not about your abilities. It's

really not even about you. It's about how God is

going to work through him. So really, all we need

to do is just be obedient and trust him, trust

him specifically with the results. That's what we're so worried about.

What if I mess it up and they don't believe.

What if I do what you said and it doesn't

work out. That's not on you. That's not your job.

That's his job. And he just said do the thing.

So we need to stop making excuses in our own

life and let God work through us. Stop doubting how

God can use you in your family, your workplace, your neighborhood.

And again it's not because you're so special, but because

God and his presence are with you. So right after this,

Moses goes back. He's like, he's done right. God wins.

That's awesome. Moses goes back, gets his family heads back

to Egypt. On the way there, kind of a couple

weird stories happen. One first. The first one, God gives

him kind of the ultimatum. This one doesn't as weird,

but he tells Moses, this is the ultimatum you're going

to give Pharaoh. Let's look at it, says verse twenty one.

And the Lord said to Moses, when you go back

to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the

miracles that I've put in your power. But I will

harden his heart so that he will not let the

people go. Then you shall say to Pharaoh, Thus says

the Lord, Israel is my firstborn son. And I say

to you, let my son go that he may serve me.

If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will

kill your firstborn son. Crazy intense. Once again, we're standing

maybe at the edge of the Grand Canyon, going like, okay,

I should maybe take this thing a little bit more seriously.

God is a plan in place to really show that

it's God's hand at work here. Pharaoh is going to

resist God's plan, and God is going to make sure

his own glory is made known in all of it.

And as we're gonna see you in just a couple

of weeks, that's exactly what's gonna happen. That being that

Pharaoh wouldn't let God's firstborn go. The punishment will be

that God will take his God doesn't mess around once again.

It's coming into his presence, going like, you should slow down,

you should take me seriously. But even if this seems

tough to work through, God himself would one day offer

his own son, Jesus Christ, to pay the ultimate price

to ransom his own people, the church. That God would

use one day give his only son to die in

our place so that our failures, our excuses, all of

our sins and disobedience would be paid for by Jesus

giving his life for hours. God is always the one

who provides. He's really the only one who can truly

deliver us. The story kind of continues about a really

really strange event. You can go study if you want,

but basically Moses wasn't doing something he should have been doing.

His wife kind of gets him out of trouble with God.

But ultimately, just like God had said, Aaron comes out

to meet Moses. Moses delivers this good news to Aaron,

and they go back to Egypt and together equipped with

God's presence and power, tell the Israels and good news

and you know what happened. The people listen, The people

believe all the things he was afraid about didn't happen.

The people believe him just like God said they would.

And I need the bandicompies. God is so faithful through

the entire story of Exodus, and we're just going to

see it over and over again. Well, look at how

the people respond Verse thirty. Aaron spoke all the words

that the Lord had spoken to Moses and did the

signs in the sight of the people, and the people believed.

And when they heard that the Lord had visited the

people of Israel and had that he had seen their affliction,

they bowed their heads and worshiped. They worship or the

people worshiped God. That's the response. The people see that

God has seen them and has promised to save them.

And Moses had so much fear about sharing this good

news with the people, but it ended in God being praised.

It ended with God being worshiped. It ended with people

in affliction hearing actual life giving news hope that could

actually sustain them for the days to come ahead. And

I believe that we two get to take good news

to a lost and dying world, a world in desperate

need of Jesus and his saving presence and message to

be able to go out and tell people that He's

seen their affliction, He's seen their bondage to sin, that

God has made the way of salvation in Christ alone,

and every single one of us can rest assure that

God is with us, that the results are not dependent

on our ability, but they're dependent on God's presence and

more really his plan. That God's faithful, He's good for

his word. So what should we do with this? I

think every single one of us should stop and think,

we're we've been making excuses based on our own inability.

Where have we been making excuses for basically be disobedient?

Where have you been making excuses to do what God

has called you to do? Where have you not been

relying on God's strength and power? So we need to

trust that God is good for his word and will

be with us and the things that he calls us

to do. Because we have this incredible story here reminding us,

we have the rest of the Bible reminding us that

He will be with us. We need to repent of

where we've been rejecting His call in our life because

of our own excuses, Like actually repent of that. They're like, oh,

that's a bad thing that I've been doing and I'm

going to stop doing that. We need to accept the

fact that we're weak and incapable, but realize that we

shouldn't be relying on ourselves in the first place. I

think that's a lot of frustration. That's where we get

a lot of frustration because we're like, I just can't

do it. It's like, yeah, and as sooner you accept that,

the better, because then you can stop relying on yourself

thinking your own strength can save you, but actually trust

in the one who can do anything. So I want

to give us at least kind of two challenges. The

first challenge would be to actually share the gospel this week,

share the gospel with someone someone where you're like I

have a lot of excuses as to why I shouldn't

win that person, and just try give it to the

Lord results depend on him. Now, I don't know who

that person is for you, but you might know who

they are on your own heart, and you're gonna see

those excuses show up. That's why we have a second thing.

This doesn't just apply to the evangelism, but it also

it definitely should, but also there's other things that we're

dealing with. Other sins. We're dealing with other problems we're

dealing with in our own marriages and our own lives,

our own friendships, our own workplaces, our own walk of

like sanctification to look more like Christ. There's all kinds

of areas we're wrestling. So the second thing would be

when that when you go to make an excuse, take

notice of it, Be aware that you are now making

an excuse, and use that opportunity to go I'm not

gonna make an excuse here, look at me trying to

weeeze a lot of this. But instead I'm gonna use

this opportunity to take notice of the excuse that I'm

relying on my own strength and power, and now I'm

gonna rely on him. I'm gonna turn to him. I'm

gonna use this as some kind of like almost triggered

to point me to Christ. Oh, I'm making excuses again,

must mean I'm not relying on him. God reveals oftentimes

our weakness and uses it to remind us not to

look to ourselves, but instead to trust in Him. So

I want to close with just two things. It's a

picture of when Paul was wrestling through something in his

own life, his own thorny had actually been given, and

he said that the thorn was there to keep him humble,

so that the things that he was doing, the things

that we were being accomplished through him, didn't go to

his head. And when he cried out to God to

remove it, God reminded him with this, look at this

Tewod Corinthians twelve. But he said to me, my grace

is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect

and weakness. So look at Paul's conclusion. He says, therefore,

I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses,

so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

For the sake Christ, that I'm content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions,

and calamities, for when I am weak, then I am strong.

To Paul and Moses, both came to realize that deliverance

doesn't come from our own abilities, but from I Am.

And this is the same message for us today. Stop

relying on our own abilities, stop relying on I Am,

start trusting in the Lord. And one last thing I

wanted to look up or we'll take a look at,

is God's the one who gets all the glory in

all of this None of this is by accident. This

is all by design, which is incredible. Look at this first, Corinthians,

for consider your calling, brothers. Not many of you were

wise according to worldly standards. Not many were powerful, not

many were of noble birth. But God chose what is

foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose

what is we in the world to shame the strong.

God chose what is low and despised in the world,

even the things that are not to bring to nothing,

things that are so that no human being might boast

in the presence of God. God's the only one who

gets the glory. A shepherd from the wilderness who's eighty

years old is going to lead the people out of

Israel against the King of Egypt, the powerhouse at the time.

That's ridiculous. He chose this lowly man to put to

shame the king who thought he was something. So this

weak shepherd was actually the perfect person for the job

to God made him to be. And as who God

used him. God doesn't remove our inabilities, but he tells

us to rely on him instead. So let us hear

this word, let it take root in our lives, and

let us keep have it keep us relying not on

our abilities, but I am Amen. Would you please stand

to your feet