Seeking God on Ordinary Days

All right.

Well, it is it is great to be with my church family today.

Um so good to be uh back.

I've I've I've been away for the last couple of uh Sundays, and my name is Russ.

If I hadn't had a chance to meet you, it's very strange feeling uh to know that this this room is gonna be overflowing at 11.

And and uh and so and it just feels very strange to be as empty as it is at nine o'clock this morning.

Um uh but hey, listen, today we continue our story of uh of Moses.

So our kids are gonna be learning the story of Zacchaeus, and um and and and they're gonna have a blast.

And I'm so thankful.

I'm so thankful for a church that is willing to invest in the lives of children as much as our church is willing.

I'm so thankful for those hundred-plus volunteers and and two hundred plus kids that have been on our campus this weekend, and they've been able to hear the name of Jesus lifted up in song, in word, in game, and activity.

And so I just want to say, you know, even for those of us that are here at the nine, you make it happen.

So when you give a check or or you give an offering, you help us minister to the children in our community, to the families in our community.

I'm thankful for a church that that that has loved my family well the past couple of weeks.

And I know I haven't, I have I have I feel like I've been away from everybody so much, but uh in the last couple of weeks.

But uh two weeks ago, um on May 16th, my mother stepped into eternity um on Friday night, and so uh last week we were able to uh bury her.

We already had a trip planned uh down to South Georgia to be on the lake with our extended family, my my daughter's husband's family, and and they they loved us so well over last weekend.

And and I want to thank, I'm so thankful for a church that has loved us well.

And and I just want you to know that I you know every card, every visitation, every every every word of comfort has just meant the world to us, and and so we're we're so thankful for a church family that loved us well.

And I'll tell you this, um, you know, there's you know, I I've lost a father, um uh, but but there's you know, a loss is a loss.

And so uh, you know, as I preached on Easter Sunday, death is real.

It is real, and so loss is a loss, but there is something significant about knowing, knowing, without a shadow of a doubt, that that as I have lived my life, I've I've seen it modeled before me to ask, seek, and knock.

It's a lesson that our kids are learning this weekend.

And because of Christ in me, the hope of glory, I was able to mourn, and I'm I'm and I'm sure I'm going to be mourning and grieving.

I feel like I'm just now kind of coming out of pastor mode as I've ministered to my family during this season, but knowing that I'm going to be reunited with my mom.

And that's that's just and that's fact.

That is that is absolute truth that comes from Scripture.

And so I don't know how people, and I don't know how you, if you've ever had to experience loss, I don't know how we can endure it without the hope that we have in Christ.

And so that hope is real.

And so um, and so I love this this story of Moses as Jonah kicked it off last week, and I'm so thankful for uh for Pat and for Jonah being able to step up and teach over these last couple weeks since the Jonah kicked off this this series of you know uh with this unusual story of the birth of a baby, uh, Moses.

And and so the question that that I want to ask you this morning, and I'm hoping that we can answer a little bit as we study this story of Moses, is why aren't there more of us?

Why aren't there more people willing to hear, to see, ask, seek, and knock about who God is, and and and through God revealing Christ us, why aren't there more people that that discover their unique gifts and the unique calling that God has for them?

Why aren't there more of us that are willing to step in and to serve?

Why aren't there more of us willing to step up and use the gifting and the calling that God has given us?

It's the mission that God gave Moses, it's the mission that God gave Jesus, that Jesus gives his disciples, that the disciples give the church, that the church has given every generation to the point where we are today.

And so I don't know for sure, but I think a lot of us are hesitant to step up and to step into the gifting and the calling is because we struggle with the same thing that I think Moses struggled with.

We're not worthy, we're not uh we're not able, we're not, we're not, we're not equipped, we are just not uh qualified.

We're not we don't have what it takes.

Or or we if we did ever have what it takes, we have now disqualified ourselves.

And we think I would love to serve, I would love to step up, but but Russ, if you knew what I have done in my past, if you knew what I have been going through in my life, if you knew what was happening in the secret areas of my life, if you knew what was happening.

God doesn't use people like me.

Can I tell you something?

God uses anyone that says, God, I am available.

God uses anyone.

God uses anyone that will step up.

God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things.

God uses people that are just simple people to step into the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit.

God uses anyone and everyone that's willing to stand up and say, God, will you use me?

I think a lot of us may not articulate it exactly the same way, but there's this self-talk that goes through our minds.

There's this there's this buy-in the enemy gets us uh to to invest in that says that that God can't use you because of, and you can fill in the blank with any excuse you want to.

I mean, for Abraham, he was he was a liar.

Abraham was a liar.

The man who becomes known as a friend of God was a liar.

Jacob was a cheater, a chiseler, and a cheat that talked his own twin brother out of his birthright.

And God uses Jacob in such a significant way that he gives them the name of his people.

He changes his name from Jacob to Israel.

And that word, Israel, it literally means to struggle with.

And so Jacob, liar cheat, Rahab was a prostitute.

She demonstrated her conversion, she demonstrated her faith and her allegiance to God in such a way that she protected a couple of spies that are spying for God's people, and her name is listed in Hebrews 11, known as the Hall of Faith, because of a simple act.

And she was a prostitute.

She was not a Jewish person.

She was not among God's people and God's chosen.

And so she is included in the lineage that gives the names of all the generations of people that are born and part of God's story that we see in the beginning of the Gospels.

Peter is the disciple that was the leader among the disciples.

He denied Jesus.

Not just once, or two times, but three times.

Peter, in the sense of how we would define the word failure, is a his picture would be in the dictionary next to that word.

If that's how God wanted to communicate it.

Listen, how about the rest of the individuals, men and women that we see all through scripture?

How about the missionary dropouts, Jonah and John Mark?

Jonah refused God's mission.

We just studied the book of Jonah a few weeks back, and he refused God's mission.

Then God uses him in extraordinary ways to position him to fulfill his mission.

John Mark left Paul, left the mission field, left Paul alone in the mission field.

Paul wrote him off and didn't want to include him.

But later, God did something, and we don't even know the details, but later on, as Paul writes in the New Testament, his attitude about John Mark is different as he encourages Timothy and 2 Timothy 4.11 to bring Mark with you.

Bring Mark along with you as we continue this mission.

And so what what I think what we see in this part of the story of Moses, more than anything else, is that God uses ordinary people to call them into his extraordinary mission.

God uses ordinary people to join him in his extraordinary mission.

I love those two words.

One is ordinary, the other is extraordinary.

And so God uses the ordinary to reveal the extraordinary.

I mean, that's part of what defines what is extraordinary.

There is no extraordinary without the word ordinary.

There is no meaning to the word extraordinary unless you know what ordinary is and what is ordinary.

Well, you might see it when you look in the mirror.

That's what I saw when I looked in the mirror.

When I was in my 30s and God called me out of the business world, and I felt probably every bit the same as anybody else that God is called into to do something ministry-wise.

And I don't think this has anything to do with being ordained or being called into public ministry.

I think this message and what we're learning about Moses, especially in this part of the story, is for every one of us.

It's not for the special, it's not for the call, it's not for the great communicator, it's not for the talented singer.

It is for everybody.

It's not just for a baby, it's not just for a child, it's not just for a middle schooler or a high schooler or a college student or a young professional.

It's not just for those of us that are middle-aged, or maybe those of us that may be a little bit past middle-aged.

It is, don't laugh at that.

It is for every individual, every person, every one of those kids that will come, they have a calling, they have a purpose.

And if they don't have old people like you and me, if they don't have us that are speaking the truth, that are, that are, that are preaching the truth, that are studying the truth, that are that are investing the truth into their life, they won't know that, hey, despite what the world defines as ordinary or what how we would define extraordinary, they have a special calling on their life and God wants them to be a part of it.

And so God specializes in calling, equipping, and using failures.

You know that?

God specializes in that.

God specializes in using not good enough to accomplish his perfect will.

Second Corinthians 4 7, Paul says this.

He says, now we now have this light shining in our hearts.

And he's what is he talking about?

He's talking about Christ and the gospel of Jesus.

But we ourselves are like fragile clay jars.

He says, You're like jars of clay.

There's probably some cracks, there's some nicks, there's some chips.

Containing this great treasure, this makes it clear that our great power is from God and not from ourselves.

Not from ourselves.

You listen, you you want to understand fragility?

You want to understand how fragile life is?

I mean, that's every time someone in our life steps into eternity, we're reminded of the fragility of life.

We're reminded how precious life is.

We're reminded that we're here for a short time on this planet.

And so, and so even in the in loss, God reminds us, hey, this is this is here, that you are here for this short period of time, you were here on this planet, and then your life is like a vapor, is what James says, and you're gone.

And so every time somebody steps from this world into the next, it's simply a reminder that we are dependent upon a God.

So what we learn from this calling, so this is you know, Moses is born, he's the central character of this story.

He's born, he's as a baby, he's born in a period of time when when in Egypt, God's people have grown from a group of a family of about 70 people now to hundreds of thousands, a million people.

And so the Pharaoh that had favor on God's people now has gone on, and there's a new pharaoh, and there's new leadership, and there and this new leadership is nervous because God's people are continuing to grow into a larger, larger group of people, so much so that he decides to put this plan into place as when a Hebrew child is born, that that child is immediately thrown into the into the river, the Nile River.

And so he's gonna eliminate all these male children.

And so, what does Moses' family do?

They take him and say, here's our plan.

We're gonna hide him in a basket and put him in the river, and we're gonna play that God's sovereign plan works out in such a way that his life would be spared, and God would have a plan.

And they have no idea.

They have no idea what God has in store.

They their thinking about the immediate salvation of the child, having no idea that their step of faith, their action, their extraordinary response would set the stage for this ordinary little baby to grow up and to accomplish God's will.

And so he spends, Moses, a Jewish child, is taken out of the river by Pharaoh's family.

And he spends the first 40 years of his life in royalty, living in a palace.

He's been rescued out of the river as a baby, he's been raised as the son of Pharaoh.

Forty years into his life, he is restless, and he ends up murdering an Egyptian, an Egyptian task masker who is who is abusing his own people, the Jewish people.

And so he he murders in this moment of rage, in this moment of anger, this moment of protection, he murders an Egyptian.

He realizes that somebody may have seen this happen.

And so what does he do?

He runs into the wilderness.

So he spends the first 40 years in royalty.

He spends the next 40 years in obscurity in the wilderness.

God using 80 years, which gives me a little hope.

I got 20 years of preparation left before God's calling really kicks in.

Hopefully.

Right?

And I hope I have 20 years.

I love to have 20 years.

If I don't, I don't.

But it gives me encouragement.

What do we learn from this calling that God has put on the life of Moses?

Here's a few things that we learn.

Number one, that God uses ordinary people in the mundane routines of life to carry out his mission.

God uses ordinary, mundane to accomplish his mission.

God uses ordinary people in the mundane routines of life to carry out his mission.

And what am I saying here is first of all, I want to tap into this idea that you think of yourself as ordinary.

When God has created you to be who you are, which is extraordinary.

You're unique.

There is no other you.

There is no there you're not you're not just lumped in with everybody else.

You are unique.

Your calling is unique, your purpose is unique.

God uses ordinary people, ordinary people from ordinary families, from ordinary backgrounds.

Verse 1, one day Moses was tending the flock.

What is first of all, who is Moses?

He's a Hebrew child whose parents loved him and cared for him.

He would have been considered ordinary in the scope of things.

What is he doing?

He is doing something mundane.

He's already been, he's been raised in royalty.

He has committed a sin that many of us would consider a pretty serious sin, the murder of another human being.

He runs away, ends up as a shepherd caring and working for his father-in-law out in the wilderness for 40 years.

There's not much more mundane than that.

So one day, Moses tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, he led the flock far into the wilderness and came to Sinai, the mountain of God.

So he spent 40 years after fleeing Egypt caring for sheep.

God seems to be silent.

But let me tell you something.

In what we consider the silent areas of life where we wonder whether or not God is working, he is always at work.

And he is faithful.

And he is good.

Where does God come to meet him after 40 years of silence?

At a beautiful church building, right?

What is that?

In this point in history, nobody would have known that word church was not a part of the vocabulary.

I mean, certainly meeting in a building is not part of this season of Moses' life.

God meets him in the ordinary activity, where he is being responsible for what is handed to him.

He is being faithful to carry out his daily duty in the midst of the Monday responsibilities.

God speaks.

God speaks.

Charles Swendol says this.

He said, God speaks to ordinary people on ordinary days.

God speaks to ordinary people on ordinary days.

And I thought about this, you know, just in light of it's hard not to prepare a message in light of what's going on in my life.

And I thought about this quote that we use, and I'm trying to remember where I've heard it, but I repeat most of my creative ideas are simply stealing somebody else's idea, repeating it until someone has forgotten that I have mentioned that person's name, and then at which point I will claim that idea as my own.

So somewhere along my life, I wrote this down.

Your greatest contribution to the kingdom of God may not be something you do, but it might be someone you raise.

And as we invest in the life of children, that's that's you want to why?

Because that it it may be somebody that we invest in rather than something great we do as a church.

It may be a life that we invest in that in turn becomes a voice for the next generation.

God uses ordinary places and paces to get our attention.

If you're a note taker, God uses ordinary places and paces to get our attention.

God uses, listen, he God can use an extraordinary place, God can use a tomb in the in the Middle Eastern part of the world.

God can use a donkey in the middle of what we now know as a major place where world events have happened.

God can use a donkey.

God can use a shepherd boy.

God can use all types of things.

He can use different paces.

He can use the busyness of our life.

He can use the silence and the solitude of your life.

Verses 2 and 3 say that they're the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the middle of a bush.

Moses stared in amazement.

Though the bush was engulfed in flames, it didn't burn up.

This is amazing, Moses said to himself.

Why isn't that burning, why isn't that bush burning up?

I must go see it.

And so God uses ordinary places and ordinary paces.

He uses the things that we don't necessarily equate to being extraordinary.

He uses all those things.

What does he use in this story?

He uses really what in the Hebrew this idea of a burning bush.

This bush, it's a thorny shrub.

That's the literal meaning of that word.

A thorny shrub.

You think out west, it would be a tumbleweed or one of those bushes in the middle of a desert that's somehow remaining alive in the midst of drought and heat.

And so this is how God reveals himself.

He shows up in the middle of a desert in a thorny bush, a shrub.

So how many times has Moses passed by this thorny bush?

How many times has he just gone about his mundane responsibility and passed through this area?

And then all of a sudden, this bush is on fire, but it's not being consumed.

It's not being burned up.

And so as we read through all of Scripture, God's method of revealing himself, it changes.

He reveals himself through creation.

He reveals himself through through speaking, through the power of the Holy Spirit.

He reveals himself through the spoken word, through the written word.

He reveals himself through prophecy.

He reveals himself through miracles.

And so somehow in the midst of a wilderness, he burns a bush or he sets a bush on fire that doesn't even burn up to get Moses' attention.

And somewhere along my journey, I've come across the story of Brother Lawrence, a humble friar that lived in the 17th century in a French monastery, and he's assigned to work in the kitchen.

What's his assignment?

What's his job?

His job is and his calling is to peel potatoes, to scrub pans day after day.

But out of his ordinary repetitive life came a powerful book titled Practicing the Presence of God.

Where does that book come from?

It comes from an ordinary friar that received a call from God, but he spends his life scrubbing pans, working in a kitchen, cleaning up dishes day after day.

And we are at a point in our life where we hear his words.

Here's a quote, and I don't think this is on the screen.

It says, the time of busyness does not, the time of business does not with me differ from the time of prayer.

And in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were upon my knees.

And he's saying, you can experience the presence of God standing at a sink, changing a dirty diaper, cleaning up after a meal.

You can experience the presence of God in all of the ordinary areas of our life.

What else do we learn?

Is the story is always more about God and his character than just our life and our circumstances.

Verses 4 and 5.

When the Lord saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called him to him from the middle of the bush.

Moses! Moses, here I am, Moses replied, Do not come any closer, the Lord warned.

Take off your sandals, for you're standing on holy ground.

God has never given up on Moses.

Moses commits murder, he runs away.

God does not give up on him, and it may have seemed at times that God might give up on us.

It might seem like at times that God is silent, but he is always working in the background.

He is never mundane in his purposes for us.

He is never ordinary in his desire for relationship with us.

God desires a people identified with him by him.

God calls Moses by name.

It's personal with God.

And he commands Moses to consider his posture.

Consider your posture, Moses.

You are standing on holy ground.

What he's doing is he is introducing himself to Moses.

And he's saying the first thing you need to know is there is something different about me in my presence and who I am in my character.

I am set apart.

What does that word holy mean?

It means separate.

It means other than ordinary, other than us.

God is holy.

God is other than us.

He is beyond us.

He is the one who is outside of us setting standards and putting in place laws and governing the universe while we are piddling around in the mundane, dirty, ordinary areas of our life, God is the architect of the holy because He is holy.

And so listen, where you are, whether it's in a building or standing in a field, or whether it's watching a child eat a frozen piece of sugar, or whether they are in here saying, Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, praise the Lord.

So much better than I can.

God's part of all of it.

God's the architect.

It's about him, the story.

He is the central character.

He is perfect.

He is holy.

He says in verse 6, I'm the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

When Moses heard this, he covered his face because he was afraid to look at God.

He recognizes, oh, this is the God that I have been taught about.

I am in his presence.

And so Moses has an encounter.

He crosses paths with the creator of the universe.

God is holy, he's perfect.

And Moses thought his potential had been to be used by God and passed him by.

He's messed it up, he's sinned, he's committed murder.

I am disqualified, would be Moses' excuse.

I'm disqualified because look at my story.

Verses 7 through 9, it says, Then the Lord told him, I have certainly seen the oppression of my people.

Listen to what God says.

I've certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt.

I've heard their cries of distress because of their harsh slave drivers.

Yes, I am aware of their suffering.

So I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and lead them out of Egypt into their own fertile and spacious land.

It is a land flowing with milk and honey.

God is taking us on a journey.

Here's what he's saying to Moses.

Moses, we're on a journey.

And you're going to play a huge role in the beginning of this journey as I guide my people.

Oh, by the way, Moses, part of your central role and the center of this story is to obey me as I send you back to set my people free.

See, I would have been all good with everything up to this point.

Maybe like God.

Russ, you like fishing?

Yes.

I love to fish.

I love to fish.

But Russ, you're going to have the biggest catch in your life.

You're going to catch the greatest, I mean biggest fish you could ever imagine.

Oh man, that sounds so awesome.

All you've got to do is see, see that cage right down in the water?

See that cage right there in the water?

Russ, all you've got to do is get into that cage, and I'm going to put you right in the middle of where this great big fish lives.

Whoa, wait a minute, God.

You didn't say anything about getting down in the water.

In a cage?

Like right next to the shark?

I mean, I want to catch one of those, but you're going to do what?

Here's what God, I love this.

He's saying, Moses, I have come, hearing your cries, I've come to rescue God's people.

I've come to rescue your family.

I've come to rescue.

So I've come down to rescue them, verse 8, from the power of the Egyptians to lead them out of Egypt into their own fertile and spacious land.

It's a land flowing with milk and honey, the land where the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites now live.

Look, the cry of the people of Israel has reached me, and I have seen how harshly the Egyptians abused them.

Let's just stop for a second.

What's God saying?

He's saying, I have certainly seen.

God sees.

I've certainly seen.

I have heard their cries.

What is he saying?

He said, I've seen my people.

I've heard their cries.

I'm aware of their suffering.

I have come down to rescue them.

I've come to lead them into the land I've promised.

What's the final lesson we learn in this section about Moses and really what's going to happen in the future of his life?

He sends Moses.

He sends him.

Here, you mean to encapsulate everything?

He says, Moses, I am sending you.

I am sending you.

Moses was sent by God.

Moses is the first of many who are sent in the name of God.

Moses is sent by God.

Abraham has been sent on a journey by God.

Moses is sent by God.

Moses will rescue.

He will take this message back to Pharaoh, and he will lead God's people out into freedom, but not just for freedom and rescue in and of itself.

He is marching them out to rescue them for a purpose, for a mission.

You will be a light to many nations on this planet.

And Jesus continues as he shares, as he teaches.

What does he say in the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount?

He says, You're the salt of the earth.

You are the light of the world.

What is he doing?

He's sending his disciples.

He's telling his disciples, I'm sending you so that you can send more.

And so God hears the cry, even that we have in our struggle to understand our purpose and calling.

He's saying, I'm sending you.

You are a sent people.

You are a sent people.

You know why the church struggles?

Because we get to a place of comfort and convenience and we forget the calling that he placed on us when he first established this church in the heart of a group of families.

And he says, I'm sending you.

I'm sending you.

I'm sending you.

So when we go out here after the 11 o'clock service and we stick a shovel in the ground, God is saying, I'm sending you.

I'm not done with you.

I'm sending you.

Why do we break ground?

Why do we move forward?

Why do we plant?

Why do we why do we multiply?

Why do we prepare for growth?

Why do we care about four generations, multiple generations?

Because of what God tells Moses.

He says, Now go.

Now go, for I'm sending you to Pharaoh.

You must lead my people, Israel, out of Egypt.

But Moses protested to God.

Who am I to appear before Pharaoh?

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

God answered, I will be with you.

And this is your sign that I'm the one who has sent you.

When you've brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God at this very mountain.

He says, Moses, you're going to come back through this place.

And it'll be different.

It will not be with the people in bondage.

It'll be with people that I've set free.

And it will be people who are not constrained, but are free to worship and to respond to a holy and perfect God.

Dio Moody says this.

He says, Moses spent 40 years thinking he was somebody.

And then he spent 40 years learning he was a nobody.

And then he spent 40 years discovering what God can do with a nobody.

And so can we close it up this morning with just a challenge?

Is that God, God has a plan and a purpose for your life.

And listen, can I encourage you that your pathway to discovering that plan and that mission and that purpose is not to remain isolated, it's to press into the community of God, and so you will discover that God has given a mission to his people.

And he, listen, before you write yourself off thinking that you're unqualified, you're ill-equipped, or you don't have what it takes, then you follow along in this story.

You read it for yourself.

Every one of you, every single one of you has within you the same Holy Spirit.

If you are in Christ, have the same Holy Spirit available to you that Moses had came to speak to him in a burning bush.

And God, listen, God, as we sang earlier, he's made you for more.

What's our response to be?

It's to say yes to Jesus.

And listen, and it's to say, I'm available.

I'm available.

I don't know how the story is going to continue on, but I'm available.

I'm not sure exactly specifically, maybe what God has given me, maybe, maybe your first response is to say yes to the first request or opportunity you hear as you walk out of here this morning.

Maybe your step this morning is to is to is to come back next week and to study this with us over the summer.

Maybe your step of obedience is to say yes to Jesus for the first time, but understand that the gospel is all through scripture.

The story of the gospel, which is the good news that I'm sending a messenger to you to proclaim who I am, a holy God who cares about his people.

I hear their cries, I see their suffering, I know that they have a plan, and I'm sending a rescuer, I'm sending a messenger.

And so he sends Jesus to us through through the and through the gospel.

Jesus says, listen, repent and believe the good news.

And so maybe your first step is to say yes to Jesus for the first time.

Maybe your first step is to go through the obedience of baptism over this summer.

Maybe your first step is to write your testimony.

Maybe your first step is to share your story with somebody you care about deeply.

And so can we just pray together as we consider what God's called us to this morning?

And consider this song that we're about to close with.

That simply says, I'm available.

I'm available.

Father, we love you.

We thank you for your goodness and your grace.

We thank you for the story of Moses that doesn't just say that we're available, but calls us into making ourselves available, to be a part of a grander story, to be a part of something bigger than ourselves.

And Father, would you lead us and guide us as a church family and how we are to take steps and how we are to carry out your mission?

God, help us to see burning bushes in the mundane and the ordinary of our life, and that we would see you and your true character.

God, as we look at a smiling face this morning, as children come in, as they go out today, as God, as we think about next week and taking summer jam down to social circle, Father, we pray that you would prepare for a great harvest next week.

God, God, may we see ourselves standing on holy ground in your presence.

May we be willing to take off our shoes or whatever it is.

Maybe it's pride, maybe it's control or comfort or fear.

And God, may we surrender.

Surrender the mundane areas of our life.

May we surrender the ordinary areas of our life so an extraordinary God can send us.

Maybe your step of obedience is to change how you see yourself.

Rather than see yourself in crisis mode, always needing to be rescued, may you see yourself as an instrument that is sent by a holy God.

Sent for a specific purpose.

And it may not be something grandiose and what we kind of imagine and what we think about when we hear stories about how God uses people.

It might simply mean for you that you are a faithful parent, you're a faithful child, you're a faithful parent, you're a faithful spouse, you're faithful church member, you're faithful in whatever area that God has put you.

Fill in the blank of your profession.

You are a faithful, fill in the blank, and in your faithfulness, in the ordinary, mundane areas of life, somebody will see something different, something supernatural, something that is set apart.

They'll see it in your character, and over the course of your life, you will speak truth.

You'll speak hope.

You'll speak the language of rescue that God establishes with Moses.

We're sent.

We're all on a mission.

So, Father, would you use today, would you use this summer to call us into something?

And may our response be Yes.

Yes, Father.

I am available to you.

It's in Jesus' precious name we pray.