Ordinary People: Moses

This week, Brian Waugh continues our series on ordinary people experiencing extraordinary grace as recorded in the Old Testament scriptures with a teaching on Moses. What happens when we get in our own way when God is trying to use us?

Please find the slide deck for this week's teaching here.

Home Church Questions:

1. What stood out to you from this week's teaching?

2. Read Exodus 3-4 (preferably in multiple translations). What stands out to you from this passage?

3. What are some excuses that you have used to not be used by God?

4. How can we create a culture of willingness both in ourselves and in our community?

5. Pray with and for one another, our church community, and our world.

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Website: theharbournewmarket.ca
Email: david@theharbournewmarket.ca

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:23

If you've got a Bible you want to turn to Exodus chapter 3, that's where we're going to be this morning and looking at the story of Moses and affectionately Moses and the burning bush, or as I've put it today, the um the issue of Frank and the hot sauce. Well, why I chose that kind of subtitle for uh Frank's Hot Sauce, because as the commercial usually goes, I put that stuff on everything. Um you'll come to find through our journey today, that's actually the way God does it. He puts that stuff on everything in our lives. So keep that in mind as we travail through the passages of Exodus chapter 3 and 4, as we navigate our way through this passage, these basically these two key passages, and his story of Moses and his um how he found himself in basically three facets of his life in as he found himself. So let's look at beginning at Moses' life in Exodus 3. We're kind of picking it up in the kind of the middle portion of his life. Moses was tending his flock, the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horoth, the mountain of God. And there were the angel of the Lord appeared to him in the flame of fire from within a bush. And Moses saw that the bush was on fire, it did not burn up. So Moses thought, I'll go over to this strange site why the bush did not burn up. When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called him from within the bush and said, Moses, Moses, bow with me in a word of prayer for a moment. Father, we open your word this morning just to hear from you. And I believe that you have some things to say to us this morning. I know this is the time you want to speak to us, and I know that you have something to say to us. And I believe that you want to accomplish some uh some truth into our lives this morning. I pray, Lord, that you accomplish these things through the words that are said today. I ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, what are the things that he wants to accomplish? Moses and the burning bush? What are we going to look at this morning? Well, the key stopping points we're going to look at this morning is Moses, the insecurities and the excuses that he had. Now, that's one thing that we're common with. Now, we look at some of the folks that you've been looking at, and the ones that you will look at in the in the series last week and next week with David. These are all kinds of the all-stars of the Old Testament. We have a look at the ones who kind of wear the jerseys with the stars on them and kind of the heroes of our own faith, and we identify with because they they did great things. We identify with the the highlights and sometimes the lowlights, and we we pick and choose the kinds of things that we identify with very quickly. And certainly with Moses, the idea of the excuses, because, well, that's kind of the thing we can identify with very quickly. Some other things, the the holy ground moment. We've all been there, whether it's been at a a revival meeting or camp meeting or whatever, those times, or in the quiet moments of the secret place in your own life, the quiet moments when, as you're reading in scripture and in prayer, those, as it will call it, holy ground moments where God has met with you in such powerful ways. You just know that you alone with God have had this wonderful experience that God has spoken to you beyond the shadow of a doubt. Those holy ground moments, knowing his presence as Moses, knowing God's presence, and the calling, despite the apparent uh his presence with us, and then we'll come upon the application of all that Moses goes through the self-doubt, the fearing of inadequacy, and the listening through the fear that Moses had, just as we do, in hearing his voice. So, where do we go from here? How do we come to terms with what Moses is experiencing? I said earlier there were three parts or three stages to Moses' life. And we'll mark them off with 40-year increments. Now, where we started in Exodus chapter 3, that was the beginning or at the point of where he was at the second point. Because the first 40 was, well, those times in Sunday school where we were drawing pictures with our paint and crayons of when Moses was found, hidden in the bull rushes as a baby. Why? Because there was a bounty out on Hebrew baby boys. And he was hidden by his mom for protection. But he was found by the Pharaoh, by the Pharaoh's daughter. And in those first 40 years, he grew up under protection. He was in a witness protection plan. Under God's hand. Though the mother, his mom, put him in a place where he thought he would be protected, and he was. Human hands put him into those bull rushes, but it was God's plan to preserve for something that was surely going to come later. A much greater plan. It started in the reeds by the edge of a water. But it would turn into something far greater. And it did. But for in those first 40 years, he grew up educated, learning languages beyond just Hebrew. Though he was a Hebrew who grew up under uh Egyptian tutelage, all the way to the point, all the experience he had to the time of which when he was 40. But then, prior to the passage which we read in Exodus chapter 2, there was a day, a fateful day, a day like no other, when he came upon a couple of Hebrew guys who were arguing. Or excuse me, Hebrew guys who were who were being threatened by an Egyptian. And Moses couldn't stand that. He knew that, although he was under, quote, the Egyptian witness protection plan, as he himself, a Hebrew-born man, took the life of that Egyptian, only to find a day later these same two Hebrew men arguing amongst themselves. And he came forward to settle the argument. What are you guys doing? You're two brothers arguing. And they turned at him and looked, aren't you the man who took that Egyptian's life yesterday? What are you gonna do? And he knew that he'd been found out. He'd been found out and his identity had been found. He was no longer in Whitseck anymore. His identity had been revealed. And what did he do? He ran. He ran like he'd never run before. He wasn't even in the Olympics. And he ran the gold medal to then work for his father-in-law. And for the next chapter of his 40-year life, he tended sheep. The man who was once living in Egyptian protection was now guarding sheep. Smelly sheep. And the only language he knew now was the sound of blotting sheep for 40 years. Until the day came. Exodus chapter 3, when he would hear and see something else he had never seen before. And then something different happened. And God calls him out of a bush. He calls him by his name twice. Moses, Moses. He calls him by name. There was a problem though. Moses had already come to some issue with in his first 40 years. He'd experienced in that first 40 years of trying to do things on his own. He began in trying to take things into his own hand by killing Egyptian. He was running before he was actually sent. Trying to take things into his own hands. And then he retreated as he ran into the desert for the next 40 years, retreating after failure. And we've all experienced that. We've messed things up. We tried to do something to set things correct and do something for God. But now we've retreated because we failed. And what happens after failure? We're feeling the insecurities that round out our off our shoulders like the weight of the world. And then God comes in Exodus 3 to Moses and calls him by name. Calls him twice. What are the odds? What are the odds that God would call a man who'd failed so miserably? A man in his 40s. But now, when God calls a man, this man is no longer 40. He's 80. Because he wandered in the desert for 40 years. This man was 80. Does God not know you don't call people in their 80s to lead a revolution? If you and I collectively were sit here as a committee to design what it would look like to raise up God's people and lead them out of captivity, what would that person look like? But even before he would even decide that, let's take a look at the sum of the people that God did put together and lead in victory. Look at Abraham at age 75, at the promise he kept to him for a son. 75 years old. Let's take a walk over to South Lake Hospital and see if there's any new fathers walking into the maternity unit and holding on to their newborn sons or daughters. 75-year-old fathers. I wonder if there are any? Probably not. And then there was Anna that's 74. A mom? What about Daniel? You know, when he was in the lion's den, he was not a young cut man. He was at the age of 82. Standing there. In solidarity with God. The book of Revelation was written by John in his 90s. Jehoiada. Now, you're going to have to look for his name in what we're often called the pots and pans area of the Old Testament. Affectionately called 1 and 2nd Chronicles. They say pots and pans because when you start looking for that part of the Old Testament, that's what's going to sound like when you start flipping the pages. And dust will start flying in your Bibles. But you'll find him. He's a priest. Wonderful man. Did wonderful things in the midst of such evil around him. But he was a great man. And he was the one man at the age of 130 when he passed away, was the only priest who was buried with kings. And then there was Caleb, who at 85 was led in the defeat of Hebron. That's just a small taste of the kinds of people. If you're going to just look at their birth certificate and see how old they were when God was using them. So age has nothing to do with it, it's the availability and how God will take on that. And often used as we move on to the things or the excuses that Moses would use. Some of them we use. And some of them we'll come back to in our life. And some of the challenges that God will give to us. What are the excuses that God gives to us? In chapter 3, verse 14, he said, I won't have all the answers. Well, it's true. He wasn't wrong. Moses saying to God, I'm not going to have all the answers. That's often use. I can't do this. I'll look foolish. I don't have all the answers. You know what God's response to that was? Well, it isn't said explicitly in the scripture. But he could have said, You're right. You don't. But you know what you will have? All of me. Isn't that cool? You won't have all my answers, Moses. Well, here's what you will have. You will have all of me. I don't know where each of you are right now, but whatever you're facing, are you facing some cement walls in your life? And you're wondering what you're going to do? What resources you have? Lord, what am I going to do? I don't have the answers. I don't have the resources. I don't know what to say. You're exactly in the place where God wants you. Because you are at the end of your rope. You don't have all the answers. You don't have all the resources. But what you do have is all of him. Every bit of them. Because God says, I am who I am. Literally translated into Hebrew, Yahweh. The most intimate term used in Hebrew. You have Him. But then he went on to another one, another excuse. But what if they don't believe me? Which is perhaps an issue of, well, if I go back and tell them what you told me, what if they don't respect me? Which is maybe an issue about pride, because if you go back to what he says in verse 18. And what God did say. When the elders of Israel will listen to you, then, because this is what God saying to him, the elders of Israel will listen to you. They, then you and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt and say to them, The Lord of Egypt, the Lord God of Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the desert and sacrifice to the Lord. He already instructed them, Moses, exactly what to say. And you skip down then down to verse 4, verse 1. But Moses answered, What if they do not believe me or listen to me or say the Lord did not appear to you? That sounds like he's doubting exactly what God just told him what to do. Well, we've been there. In other words, the what ifs. So then he comes to the demonstration of, well, like we all like and need a little object lesson. So God pauses for a moment and he says, Okay, Moses, how about this? What do you got in your hand? He says, a staff. He says, throw it down. The simple piece of instrument, the only one he ever had, the one he used for the last 40 years to watch over those sheep and care for them, guide them and lead them. The only instrument he had known for all those years, throw it down. Instantly turning into a snake. Well, he knew what a snake was. He knew what kind of a challenge that would be for himself or for the sheep. Then he said, pick it up. Pick it up? Are you sure? Are you on my side, Lord? Are you really thinking I'm gonna pick up a snake? Years ago at college, I sang in a choir. And we did a song that was based on this whole Moses story. And we came to the part of the song, and the the the song emphasized this part of the story. And we came to a line in this when you pick it up, and by the tail? Yes, by the tail. Well, I don't know if any of you had the the challenge of picking up a snake, one thing you do not do, whether it's a poisonous, excuse me, a venomous snake. Snakes are not poisonous, they're venomous or not. You don't pick up a snake by the tail. Why? It's the wrong end. You're gonna get bit. So he did. He picked it up. Instantly turning back into the staff. God wasn't done. He wasn't just done with one object lesson. Moses, your hand. Yeah, it's pretty good, isn't it? Put it into your cloak, which he did. And he pulled it back out, instantly turning into a leper's hand. Now, that wasn't just a, you know, you gotta you need to go to the dermatologist kind of thing. This is a deadly disease because you are now a nobody. You are alone. Nobody wants to be near you. You can't be near anybody. This is a death sentence. Instantly changing his life forever because he has leprosy. Put it back in your coat. He does, pulls it back out, instantly changing back. Have you got the picture, Moses? I can do some stuff. It isn't just about you, but he also went on in the later portion of the passage talking about taking that information to take back of what he could do and will do and was going to do and did do in Egypt to bring the message home that he was going to be a God of his promise and his word to deliver his people. This message was more than Moses. It was about his promise of what he was going to do. Moses wasn't done. Even though he had just seen two valid and extremely personal object lessons to his life. Excuse number three. But I'm I can't speak well. I stutter. I have a language problem. I'm not good at speaking to people. You have no idea how hard this is for me. Third excuse. Please, Lord, I can't do this. I don't speak well. There's another person who was not quite as good, may not have been so good at speaking. And may not be the person that you might think of. But in the New Testament, in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Now we think one of the big shots of the New Testament being Paul. He wrote so much of it, he must have been a great speaker. Here's Paul talking about himself. When I came to you, brothers, I did not come to you with eloquence or superior wisdom. I kept proclaimed to you the testimony about God. I resolved to know nothing amongst you except what was uh except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And in verse 4 of 2 Corinthians chapter 2, my message and my preaching were not with wiser persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power. He didn't care how he spoke, he cared about what he spoke with in the power of God. So as eloquent as many many thought he was. It's not. It was the power that was behind the words of what he spoke with. There was a fourth excuse he came with. Moses wasn't done yet. You think after all this, surely he's going to pack up his bag, lay down his staff, and start heading back to let my people go. No, he's got a fourth one. His issue of credibility. Let somebody else go. Let somebody else do this. In fact, the word actually is put. He actually didn't say N of E the New International Version puts it, let someone else go. Literally, what it means in the original language, anyone else. This has the idea of what he was doing, what Moses was doing, is he was beginning to compare himself with anyone else. And we often do that too. When we think there is a calling upon our life, we start to compare ourselves to someone else who could do the job even better than us. Oh, look at that someone else who could speak better than us, who could teach better than us in Sunday school, or with children's programs, or with youth programs, or to reach out to others. We put it so that we're not good enough. The calling upon your life isn't dependent on who you think is the better one. The calling on your life is because God has infinitely called you, put his hand upon your life for now. God doesn't call you by accident. God doesn't put you in the place he has you right now by mistake. Moses goes on even further, but send Aaron. Send Aaron. You know my brother? Send him. He's pretty good at talking. He can talk his way around anybody. There's a word that goes on here later in chapter four when it says God's anger burned. But he relented. He accommodated. He accommodated and he went with him. Now, there's a problem that would flesh itself out. You would see it come out, and as you know, the rest of the story and how it works its way out, because there would be a problem. God accommodated Moses, but let's remember, Aaron would come become an albatross to Moses. Because as the story goes onward, and things go on later in Moses' life, remember it was Aaron who built the golden calf. It was more in Aaron's life. So Moses goes. And as the story goes on here in chapter 4, we see what Moses does. He's all set to go now. He seems to have all the boxes checked of his excuses. And God's calling upon his life to go back to Egypt to stand up to the Pharaoh and said, Let my people go. That's the commission that God has given to him. This is what he does. He goes to his father-in-law and he says, Yeah, uh, Pops, um, I I I gotta go, I gotta head back home. Like I got check out maybe a family reunion and see if my some of my peeps are still alive and and and you know, check on the people back home. Is that really what God had sent him to do? But that's the story he gave. He softened the whole thing down to his own story. He didn't really stand up and say, I'm going back to Egypt to stand up to Pharaoh, to look him square in the eye and say, Let my people go. He didn't do that. He softened down, he watered down. He didn't even cut it by half. He went even way less than that. So, how do we respond to God's call? How should we? Moses eventually does go back. The story does happen. There's more to the story that flashes out later. But for now, how do we clearly respond to God's call? Let's be certain first. Be certain first that it's God's call that we're listening to. You know, we get fired up of a lot of things. But first we need to be certain that it's God's calling us and not a personal passion. Moses going to his father-in-law, that wasn't the passion. Going back home to see if we've still got some family alive. That's that that's not that wasn't God's call. That was his own made-up story. Be certain of his power, that you are his vessel. See, when God, when he first complained, when Moses first complained, I'm not eloquent. I don't have everything. You're not. You're not supposed to. You're not supposed to have all the answers. You're not supposed to have all the words. That's not us. We're supposed to be the vessel. All we're supposed to be is the clay. He's going to fill that clay pot. You are to be the ones that are empowered to fulfill the calling on his life on your life. And then to be comfortable with his plan. Don't change it. Like Moses did. I'm ready, Lord. Send Aaron. Because that messes things up. Don't substitute. Don't change God's plan. Don't alter it. Don't change it. Don't dumb it down. Don't water it down. Be his vessel. Don't add an Aaron. Don't eat it. Don't add something to it. And finally, as we conclude, you know, we're called to be sheep, not mules. We're called to be sheep, not mules. If one could be said that Moses at least was part mule, not a sheep in his story. Let me leave you with this. If we're willing to be called of God, we need to be willing to be receptive to what he gives. We need to be willing to lack what he withholds. We need to be willing to relinquish what he takes. And we need to be willing to suffer what he inflicts. And finally, to be willing to be what he requires. Join me in prayer. Father, you put a calling on every one of us here. And I believe that. What that is, only you know. And each one here knows. And I pray that each one will be excited and content to be that vessel. Not panicked or anxious, knowing that they have to have all the answers. But relaxing and resting in your power for their calling. Fill us, Lord, with that desire to fulfill each of those callings we have on our life. Lord bless us each in the path we have before us. I ask in Jesus' name. Amen.