Called but Unequipped - Moses

Hey everyone, this is Josh from Encounter Church Henley and thanks so much for tuning

into our podcast.

Our prayer is that through this podcast you can have an encounter with Jesus that will

change your life.

And now get ready for an inspiring message from our preaching team.

Hey, for those of you who don't know me, my name is Tex, I'm one of the pastors here

at Encounter Henley.

And the funny thing is less than six months ago is when I officially kind of stepped into

being a pastor and stepped into ministry.

I didn't really mean to either if I'm being completely honest with you.

I was a Christian, which is like a great start I think if you're going to go into ministry.

I was super heavily involved in our home church and counter prospect.

But honestly at 40 years old, I know some of you are like that old.

Yes.

And some of you are going not that old.

At 40 years old, I honestly, I just didn't see this change of script coming in my life.

It seemed pretty inconceivable.

And for those who don't know me or kind of know bits and pieces, but not the whole bit,

I'll just give like the 30 second testimony, the 30 second rundown of kind of me and my

background.

I was an atheist until I was 34 years old.

I was led to church by my now eight year old, by my then eight year old daughter who's now

14 and actually helping out in kids.

I was lovingly supported and allowed to slowly find my way in faith by my wife, who had kind

of already made a little bit more progress than I had, but was just super do per patient

with me while I got there.

And there we go.

She's not even in the room today, but she'll appreciate the clap.

I accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior at 34.

I was baptized at 35.

And then I spent the next four years running as far away from ministry as I could, as quickly

as I could.

And then I became a pastor at 40 years.

So like the secrets of the ending is right there if I'm being honest with you.

So I, I, it sounds like a weird thing to say, but like I really quite like those bits of

my story.

Even that really a bridge version, because to me, what it is, is it's less about me and

it's more about, it acts as a real testimony to God's grace and God's faith when asking

God's patients.

It's nothing about me.

If I, if you'd asked me 10 years ago where I would be today, I promise you this wouldn't

have been the answer.

Lucky for me, God know a little bit better than I did.

So I think what this story though really also speaks into is that as people, we quite often

are looking for reasons to say no.

God is looking for reasons to say yes.

And we are looking for reasons to say no.

We quite often view the word why through the prism of why not, not often looking for actually

the, the good things that can come out of asking questions like why we just refer to that negative

so often.

So while we're a real church, I'll, I'll get real for a sec.

Because when I say I ran away from ministry, that's just a really kind flowery way of saying

I was being a bit of a coward.

And I was just making heaps of excuses as to why it was not the way to go, why I shouldn't

do it.

And some of the reasons why I was wrong for it, why I was unequipped for it.

Some of those include I've never been to college to study theology.

Some of you are like, yeah, we know.

There are children in our kids' min right now who probably have more Bible verses memorized

than I do.

My past includes regular abuse of both alcohol and drugs.

I've been a gossip.

I've been someone who idolized money, idolized power.

Pretty much if you make the list of things that you kind of think will remove you from

the ability to stand on a platform like this one and talk about the Word of God, I've lived

that life.

Like I did that.

I put those things well above and beyond what I choose to now put my faith in.

And that list as a result sometimes just kind of felt endless.

When I look back now, I thought that each and every one of those things on their own

was the reason that I couldn't step into ministry.

And then when I stacked them all on top of each other, it just started to look like this

beanstalk that descended into the clouds.

And I went, well, that's going to be far too hard to climb.

That's going to be unreasonable.

I never thought I'd get there.

So there's some good news, which is though the more that I read the Bible and the more

that I pushed into Jesus and the more that I looked at these things and tried to look

at them as objectively as possible, the more I realized that the Bible was just completely

full of just damaged and broken men and women.

That it wasn't always, very rarely, these shining examples of like that is the person

you should follow, that God was equipping to step into these spaces.

And it kind of gave me this real comfort and gave me this realization to go like, actually,

each of these completely broken people were redeemed by God's grace and God's love.

And if they can be redeemed by God's grace and God's love, so can I.

So I found the more I pursued Jesus, the closer he pulled me in.

So welcome to church.

Today is the first day in a new series we're doing called called.

And I keep on saying called called and it is not getting any easier or better or more

effective.

So the series we're starting today entitled, hey, yeah, entitled called today is called

but unequipped, which as you can see before, I feel like I'm pretty good to speak into.

It's a four week series.

If you are someone who is new or you're someone who's been a little bit intermittent, you're

going to hear us say this a lot, but please hang around for the four, hang around for

all four.

You're going to hear me preach, you're going to hear Pastor Tim speak into it.

You're going to hear Cara, the aforementioned Cara before is going to speak into it.

So you're going to get really good perspective of different people and different viewpoints

in our church.

And I just think it would be really beneficial.

Come and hang out with us.

Come and listen for four weeks and see how it all sits.

So as we return to today's teaching text, really what we're entering into is in the

middle of a period of time where God's kind of decided he's seen enough pain and suffering.

So it's time his people have been imprisoned as slaves in Egypt and he's decided you know

what, enough.

It's actually time for a change and he needs someone to partner with in that moment and

he chooses Moses.

And the good news is Moses looks at that and goes, this is awesome.

I am ready to go.

I'm pumped.

I'm hyped.

Let's get going.

I'm running into Egypt straight away.

Or he does the opposite of that.

And what he does is he goes, oh, hang on God.

Or counterpoint, what if I give you all the reasons that I shouldn't do this?

What if I just begin to list those one by one?

He's like, look, I'm not your guy.

I have never read a single Pete's, Pete's Kazeero book on healthy leadership.

Never done it.

Right.

He's like, I've never been to theology college.

Let's go Moses.

I've never done an internship.

I've never even listened to a John Mark Comer podcast.

Like how could I possibly lead anybody out of Egypt?

What are you thinking?

We find as part of this, when you go back and read through that there's actually five different

ways that Moses pushes back on God during this.

And we're going to call those the five butts of Moses with one T. Boy, did I spell check

that slide a few times.

Let's go.

Okay.

So the first was, but who am I?

The second, but who are you?

The third, but they won't trust or listen to me.

The fourth is, but I'm not a good public speaker.

And then the fifth is just kind of a little bit sad if I'm being honest.

And he says, but, you know, it just send anybody else.

So the first, he says, but who am I?

But Moses said to God, who am I to appeal, appear before Pharaoh?

Who am I to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt?

Now the funny thing is, you hear that and then you go, yeah, why are you Moses?

I don't know, we'll start with someone that God has chosen to interact with directly.

Like if I were Moses, I would think that would give me a little confidence boost to begin

with, not so much.

He immediately just goes into this like, Hey, here's my why not.

Here's why I can't do this.

Here's why I'm not your guy.

And then I mean, some of them feel pretty convincing.

Some of them for the first one, he's going, look, man, he, Moses was born into a time

of genocide, right?

His people were the victims, not the perpetrators, if that's helpful, just putting that out

there.

Moses was a foster child.

He was a murderer.

He was a runaway.

And at the time that God was speaking to him, he had chosen to reach out to Moses.

Moses was 80 years old.

And you can imagine why at that point that Moses has probably gone like, that's it.

Like my life, my script is actually already written.

Like I've done the things that I'm going to do.

There's no more for me.

And you're probably with some of these context.

These are kind of silly.

Like some of these seem like not the best reasons to say no in this moment.

And you might, you know, you might be going, okay, murder, I'll give you that.

Right?

But the other ones don't seem so bad.

And you're saying, why should any of these exclude Moses from being part of God's plan?

And here's the spoiler.

Like they shouldn't.

And the truth is, even though it's the one that makes us feel a bit icky, is murderers

on that list, by the way, none of these things should remove Moses from the ability to be

part of God's plan.

The truth is that our stories and our histories and the lies that we tell ourselves always,

always enter into the equation when we're in the decision making process with anything,

especially when it's something hard.

Or when we're facing something we just simply don't think we're worthy of.

Look at Moses list.

You can refer back to my list up above before.

It's easy to do.

So when he's asking God this really simple, who am I?

He's no doubt letting each of these doubts, these concerns, these insecurities, that's

where this is coming from.

Then he comes into a second point, the second bud of Moses, but who are you?

Now I'm choosing to be gracious with Moses here and I don't think this is a sassy like

who do you think you are?

What he's doing is going, you've got to remember Moses at this point is saying, I am not confident.

I am not 100% here.

I need something else.

I need you to tell me, what do I tell them?

Who is it that sent me?

He's just looking for backup.

He's looking for something surefire.

He wants that bullet in the chamber.

God, because he's God, doesn't share the same lack of confidence.

This is one of my favorite things in the Bible.

He literally just goes, I am who I am.

Tell them I am sent you.

Whoo.

No lack of confidence there.

That is amazing.

So God in this moment is both declaring to Moses like, I am who I say I am.

But he's also putting it into language that at the time that the Hebrews and the pharaohs

will understand.

Because during this time, there are actually a lot of different gods.

People were praying to anyone for anything.

You had gods of sex, gods of virtue, gods of cakes, gods of basket weaving.

Like you had gods for everything.

And in this moment, God's saying, hey, guess what?

I am God.

I am the one true God.

God's saying, Yahweh literally means, translates to, I am.

God is saying, you cannot minimize me in this moment.

You cannot put me into one of these other boxes.

I am the box.

Right?

That's who sent you.

So I'm the God of Jacob.

I'm the God of David.

I'm the God of your ancestors.

That's who sent you.

Now, I'm sure again in this moment, when a burning bush with the voice of God is speaking

to you, I am probably sounds pretty hardcore.

That probably sounds pretty good.

Pretty hard not to be confident in that.

And Moses is like, yeah, right on.

But wait a minute.

It will be me saying this, not you.

And still he kind of slinks back into a little bit of uncertainty.

Like but what, but what though?

What when it's me, which leads into his third, which is, but they won't trust me.

They won't listen to me.

God's pretty awesome in this, in this moment.

God's pretty awesome in general.

We'll just go with that.

But in this moment in particular, I love how God responds.

He recognizes it and he kind of almost goes like, yeah, I get it.

Like physical something you can feel, you can see, you can touch that'll probably be

pretty helpful.

So he immediately begins to do two amazing like acts of miracle.

Really.

He tells Moses, throw your, throw your staff onto the floor.

And he does.

Well, Moses being obedient to that exact moment.

That's a good start.

Right.

So Moses throws his staff onto the floor.

God immediately turns it into a snake and then turns it back again.

Then he says, Hey, Moses, do me a favor to slip your hand into your robe.

Moses goes, I can do that.

And he slips his hand into his robe and he pulls it out.

He has leprosy.

And then God goes, just do me a favor, slide it back in there.

And he does that.

I'm paraphrasing, of course.

I don't think God's doing like do me a favor.

Right.

So he paraphrases, he slides the hand back into the robe, pulls it out again.

The hand is healed.

Right.

So what he's done in this moment very quickly.

God has gone.

If I can show you, I can show them.

So he's giving him the confidence.

Like I'm telling you who you are.

I'm telling you who I am.

And if those aren't enough, I will allow you to show people that I am with you.

Right.

So these are pretty cool.

These are two signs.

And then he offers the assurance of a third.

And he says, if they don't believe you or listen to you, even after these two signs,

then take some water from the Nile River and pour it on the dry ground.

And when you do the water from the Nile will turn to blood on the ground.

Now this is one of those moments where it's actually pretty easy to miss.

There's a pinnacle word in here.

I talked a couple of weeks ago about how important one word can be.

And the word I want you to focus on in this moment is you.

Right.

Because what he's saying in this is if you don't feel confident in this moment, that's

okay.

Because when it comes to time, when it comes to the really important time, you are going

to do this.

The other two goddess said, I'm going to do this.

When it comes to this miracle of turning water from the Nile into blood on the ground, God's

like, you're going to do it.

I'm going to do it through you, but you're going to do it.

And this is a beautiful concession by God.

It's a promise that he is working not just with Moses, but that God is working through

Moses.

It's a confirmation of everything he's promised up until now.

Like, hey, reminder, you don't actually have to do anything because I'm doing it.

You just so happen to be the guy who I'm doing it through.

Which leads us to our fourth, which is, but I'm just not a good public speaker.

Now this one speaks to me on a few different levels.

Personally, not because it's like, I'm not a good public speaker, although some of you

have, feel free to agree with that part.

It's the next part in which Moses is still pretty certain that to convince the Pharaoh

and to convince the Israelites themselves to leave Egypt, to go on a certain journey,

that it's going to come down to him.

Moses is still, despite everything else we've heard, is like, hey, it's going to be my confidence.

It's going to be my turn of phrase.

It's going to be my words that are going to make this happen.

There's still that playing in the back of his brain.

And then God goes, God's getting pretty heavy-headed with this stuff now in this interaction.

And he's like, hey, just who makes a person's mouth?

Who decides what people will see, what they'll hear, what they'll believe?

The answer is God.

God is again just kind of pushing back and like, you're not quite getting it yet.

It's me, not you.

And he starts to get a little bit annoyed, which I think is pretty fair.

He's like, I am telling you, I am affirming you, I am showing you, and still, Moses,

like still, we're still doing this.

He can't be more explicit than he's been.

This isn't just your story, Moses.

This is Moses' story and God's story.

Okay?

There is no just you in this.

There is me inviting you into this incredible story of hope and redemption and salvation.

Yet Moses continues to make excuses.

He continues to claim, hey, man, I'm just not your guy.

And that culminates in the fifth one, which is let's face it, it's the weakest one of

all, which is just, hey, cool, thanks, just do me a favor, but just send anybody else.

Not like find somebody good.

Not find someone exceptional.

Moses at this point doesn't care.

It's like just as long as it's not me, right?

It's wild.

And this is really like a pretty sad conclusion because despite God's best efforts, he's using

his literal voice.

He's giving him assurances.

He's giving him signs and wonders.

And Moses in this moment is still just like, I'm not so sure.

And it's one of these things that I almost pity Moses a little bit in this, because

just imagine, imagine how strong his own lack of confidence and how much his self doubt

must be just bubbling away within him to have God do all of this and still want to respond

with like, nah, just you need to send somebody else.

My real response is it's a little bit pathetic, but it's desperately relatable.

Because there's always reasons for our pushback.

There's doubt, there's uncertainties, there's this broken belief that I believe most of

us carry, which is what we've done and who we've been in our past somehow negates who

it is that we can and will become in the future.

The most important truth that Moses thought he knew, and this will give you that better

context again, he was convinced, if I go back to Egypt, I am going to be killed.

I am a murderer that fled the scene of the crime.

If I come back, I fled the Pharaoh's house, I am going to be killed.

What he's really saying is like, God, I really, really, really need to know that you've got

my back on this one.

And I think part of the reason that he's still feeling this doubt, you're like, are you sure

like you need a real reason text?

Like God's given him a bunch of assurances over here.

The truth is to me, those assurances is that Moses just wasn't looking hard enough.

Because I think even with all those obvious ones, we have this tendency to forget the

places where God has already been working in our lives.

Because it's true that Moses was born in a time of great persecution of his people.

At the time of his birth, the Pharaoh had literally ordered that all first born male

babies were to be just thrown into the Nile River and drowned.

Gone completely.

This is 80 years on, not Moses, right?

Moses was hidden and kept under God's protection.

He survived.

Now, I don't know if many of you know this.

Babies cry a lot.

For three months, his mother was able to keep him completely hidden from guards from anybody

that may have been out looking for these babies.

But how is it that Moses was able to still push through all that, that he was able to

be kept safe, that his cries would stop when the guards came to visit?

How is that possible?

And it's true he was a foster child.

When his mother no longer felt like she could keep him concealed, she made a, you know,

we've all seen the story, we've all heard it, you know, she makes the basket of reason

and she sends him down the Nile.

And he's found by someone.

Now, who's he found by?

He's found by the Pharaoh's daughter.

This is the same Pharaoh that has ordered all these babies should be killed.

And she doesn't pick up the baby and go back in the Nile with you, no basket for you.

She's like, no, no, I'm going to raise this child as my own.

And she says, I'm going to take care of this baby and I'm going to look after him.

She recognizes, by the way, his origin.

She recognizes where he's come from, not specifically, but she knows this baby is not

meant to be.

And she says, I will take him on board.

I will raise him as my own.

But of course, you know, she's not given birth to this baby.

She needs a wet nurse to look after this baby and who gets selected to be Moses Wet Nurse,

his own mother.

So even despite this, he's had to be sent away from home.

He's been adopted by somebody else.

And then it's still his own mother is brought in to take care of him.

And now it's true also that he was a murderer.

I can't actually skate over this one.

Just living in Egypt, living in the Pharaoh's palace, he sees an Egyptian guard attacking

a slave and an adjustable fit of anger.

Moses just kills the Egyptian.

And in the moment, completely fine.

Nobody sees anything.

And then the next day, it's actually his own people.

Somebody sees him and they call him out.

And they're like, aren't you the guy who murdered someone?

Maybe you don't tell me how to do my thing over here.

So Moses, though, he escapes.

And he's able to run away.

He's able to live another day.

And he's an 80 year old man and he's assuming that his best is behind him and he's failing

to see his own worth.

He fails to see what could live ahead of him still because he's believing the narrative.

And let's go ahead and say at the lie that because of this, because of that, he's just

list them all together.

And the final was just like, I'm 80 years old.

I'm an old man.

I'm done.

Nothing left for me.

And God's like, that is 100% not true.

Moses is constantly pushing back and back against God.

He's giving him all the reasons he can.

He can to not do this.

But hear this.

It's easy to miss.

Not once does God agree with Moses.

Moses is pushing back against God over and over and over again.

And not once does God entertain any of these doubts.

He provides solutions.

He provides assurances, options, support.

Have your brother come along.

I'm going to do this.

I'm going to do that.

He's doing all of that.

And not once does God go, you know what?

You're right.

Actually, I'm going to get somebody else.

You know, there is a little bit of God around us.

We are too hard.

I'm sure there was a little bit of God.

At some point, it was like, I'm not.

We just, we did the stick thing, like we've made the snake.

What do you need, man?

You know, but he doesn't.

At no point does he look to give up on Moses despite the fact that Moses is willing to give

up.

All of his responses are all but imploring Moses.

Like, why can't you see you the way that I see you?

Why don't you believe me?

What do I have to do to get you to trust me?

With fear and doubt in his heart,

Moses is ready to give up on God's mission, but not God.

He is not ready to give up on Moses.

Now truth be told, I knew for a while

that God had a call on my life.

I knew that this church, this plant, this encounter church,

I knew that this was where I was meant to be.

And I knew that he had plans for me.

I couldn't comprehend and I fought really hard against it.

And why?

Truth be told is I just didn't like the man that I used to be.

And I thought that, that was it.

That was my story.

Truth be told sometimes.

I think this is people again.

I don't always love the guy that I am right now.

I thought maybe that'll exclude me.

No difference Moses, probably no different to you.

The truth is that God has never, ever faltered.

God never wavered.

God has always had a plan for me

as he has always had a plan for you.

He has always loved me as he has always loved you.

Now it's impossible in this moment for me to not be drawn.

You always think about this stuff

and not to be drawn to Jesus

and not to be drawn to his own response to God's call

as he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane.

As he said, my father, if it is possible,

let this cup of suffering be taken away from me.

Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.

Now Moses thought that should he return to Egypt,

he would be killed.

Jesus knew that by following God's call,

he was going to a painful execution on the cross.

His response, Moses' response is,

do something with anybody else.

And Jesus' response is, father, not my will but yours.

The calling that God places on our life

is not our calling to control, it's God's.

Right?

None of us are worthy.

None of us.

We all fall short of the grace and the glory of God,

every single one of us.

I'm pointing to me first, okay?

So don't worry about that.

But here's what I need to tell you

is that that does not exclude us

from God's mission nor his vision.

Our God is a redeeming God.

Now here's the fun part.

We live, as we read the Bible,

we actually get to live with the benefit of hindsight.

So we know that Moses eventually said,

all right God, I'll be your guy.

What happened?

He freed his people by responding to that call.

Moses, God through Moses freed these people

from a life of slavery with God's call,

with God's power, with his discernment,

with his willingness to say yes, there was victory.

Jesus won, not the battle.

Jesus was crucified on the cross.

We know that's why we're here.

But Jesus won, conquered death.

As a result, we all win.

Not because Jesus avoided pain or hurt

or avoided crucifixion,

but because he put his full trust

and his full obedience into the call of God.

That's how we won.

And he won a victory that we couldn't

have possibly won on our own.

Why?

Reiterate, because it's the most important thing

I'm gonna say all day.

Because in his moment of greatest doubt

and greatest weakness,

Jesus simply said, father, not my will, but yours.

As we come to a close and band,

I'd love it if you could come back up.

I really do wonder, church, what are the doubts?

What are the buts?

What are the question marks you've put on your life?

What are the things in your past

that you've convinced yourself mean that you are excluded?

That God can't, what does it you think?

God can't fix this.

Yeah, he can do that.

And I'm glad he did all that stuff with UTex.

And I'm glad he was able to get through to Moses,

but not me.

He can't get through to me.

What are those things?

Because again, church, hear me when I say and reassure you,

God can and will fix and change and redeem everything.

Your story is redeemable.

Your history, your past is not exclusionary.

It is the way that God will work through you moving forward.

So as we come to a close, I'm gonna say this,

we're gonna come into a time now of response.

The band's gonna play.

We're gonna have a couple of people up the front here

to pray if you'd love some prayer,

we would love to pray for you.

Think about those buts.

Think about those things that you think exclude you

and take it to Him.

Take it to Jesus.

Take it all to Him and speak,

but then you have to listen.

You have to be willing to listen.

And whatever it is that you might hear,

I pray that you have the strength

to make your only response in that moment.

Father, not my will but yours.

Heavenly Father, we are just so thankful

that we have a God that redeems us.

We are so thankful that we have a God

that never looks at our past and says, not you,

but he looks at our future and says, yes, you.

And he is able to see the inner workings of us

that you know it all already, Father.

There is no secrets from you.

There is nothing we can hide from you.

All we can do is reveal it to you and say, God, use me.

Father, not my will but yours.

And as a result, we will bring this to you

at time and time again, Father.

Thank you.

Your heavenly name, we pray.

Amen.