We'll be right back.
We'll be right back.
Extremely put out and fantastically annoyed I am at this monumentally impossible request that you are making of me. This thing that you want me to do is just about the worst form of torture I could even imagine right now. I wouldn't wish this task on my worst enemy. You absolutely need to know how I feel right now.
But most kids don't have that kind of vocabulary, so they just go, "ugh." And if you're an experienced parent, you know that it's not just the "ugh." It's what's coming after the "ugh." It's the excuses that are coming. Not just, "I don't want to do this," but also, "and here's why I can't."
But it's not just kids who make excuses, is it? We adults, we also make excuses, too. We're guilty oftentimes when we're asked to do something, or we're just expected to do something because we're supposed to be the responsible ones, and we just don't want to sometimes.
So we make up excuses to cover for the things that we don't want to do. There was that boss that overheard at the water cooler that one of his employees had lied when he called in sick to work the other day, and he is livid. So he calls this employee into his office, and he starts in on him right away. He's like, "Armstrong, I happen to know for a fact that the reason you weren't at work the other day was because you were out golfing." And he's like, "No, that's an outright lie, and I have the fish to prove it."
See, we hate when there are people, not just our kids or an annoying coworker, but literally anyone who makes excuses for their poor behavior or their lack of action. For me, this was drilled into me in my high school years on my football team. Our coaches gave us this six-kind of phrase mantra that we had as a team, and it was everywhere. It was in our locker room. It was in the weight room. It was on the t-shirts we wore as a team.
And every single time there was a coaching moment, our coaches would grab one of these phrases and use it to coach us up. So these were drilled into our heads, and it has been, holy cow, 26 years since I played organized high school football. Yeah, and I still remember them to this day. You ready?
No excuses, no alibis, no regrets. Be physical, keep your poise, finish everything. That's the same thing. And the top one, and the one the coaches said the most, no excuses.
See, our coaches wanted to create a culture on the team where we didn't shy away from doing the right thing even when it's hard work. They wanted us to take personal responsibility for our own behavior and not try to pass on the blame to someone else. No excuses.
And just to be clear, excuses and reasons are two different things. See, a reason is when there are expectations and then here's how I'm not going to meet those expectations. Like, it's simply like, "I did not set my alarm, therefore I was late," right? The reason I was late was because I did not set my alarm.
An excuse, though, is when there's expectations, here's why I'm not going to reach them, and you should let me off the hook for those reasons. You see the difference? It's from, "I didn't set my alarm, therefore I was late," to, "I didn't set my alarm, but listen, you don't know how crazy it was last night. Like, my house was, the kids were going nuts, and the dog was barking, and I broke a nail, and then this morning, I had to go to Starbucks on the way in, or I'm just not going to survive today. Therefore, I'm late, and you should let me off the hook because those are all valid excuses. It's not my fault."
And we hate hearing excuses from other people, whether it's our kids, who can't take out the trash because they're playing video games, or it's our favorite team's quarterback, who's like, "Well, the reason I threw three interceptions is because my offensive line wasn't blocking for me that day."
Or the coworker, who you're supposed to be doing a group project with, and at the last minute, they're like, "Oh, I didn't get that done on time. I just didn't have the data, or I didn't have the time, or I'm being overworked," or you know, the boss, right? And everyone's making these excuses, and we hate them, except what's really disappointing is when we realize that when it comes to God, don't we oftentimes do the exact same thing?
Like, God asks us to do something, and we give him the old, "Oh, but God," and then we really expect that conversation to go well. Like, God asks us to do something, we come up with an excuse, and then God's supposed to be like, "Oh, my bad, I didn't realize you're off the hook."
Right, like, so like, I'm reading my Bible, and it's like, "Hey, God, hey, you know how this says love your neighbor? But you don't realize, see, my neighbor votes differently than me. And so you gotta let me off the hook on this one. I can't love my neighbor."
It's like, "Oh, my bad. I didn't realize your neighbor votes differently than you. Yeah, by all means, you're off the hook. Hate your neighbor. That's totally fine."
And we're like, "Oh, okay, all right. Well, you know, while we're at it here, it also says I should be using my gifts to serve the body of Christ. But God, you see, you don't realize it's football season. See, it's like serve one and attend one. I can't be here for two services on a Sunday, right? I already show up like halfway during the worship set. And sometimes I'll even say to O'Brien, wait till O'Brien says amen before I leave, all right? So I can't be here for two services."
He says, "I gotta go. Let me off the hook on this one." God's like, "Oh, my bad. Didn't realize it was football season. 43 and a half minutes of healthy Christian community once or twice a month is probably, you know what? It's probably too much time for you. You've got stuff to do. You're a busy person. Go off and do the thing that you need to do."
I'm like, "Okay, God, well, while we're at it, we talk about generosity a lot, and I have bills to pay."
And we come up with all these excuses, and we expect the conversation between us and God to go that way, but the conversation never goes that way, does it? In fact, if you want a more realistic conversation of an excuse maker and the almighty, all-powerful God of the universe, look no further than Scripture.
So turn in your Bibles to Exodus chapter three. Exodus chapter three. It's the second book in the Bible, the third chapter in that book, and then we're gonna hang out there and do a little recap.
Today, we're gonna finish up a series. It's called Into the Wild. If you've been here these last couple weeks, you know that we've been spending some time in the desert, spending some time in the desert, spending some time in the wilderness with some people. What brought people to that point is what we're trying to learn, but most importantly, what are we trying to find out about how they operated? What did they do in the desert, good or bad, that we can learn and apply to our own wilderness and desert experiences in life?
And if you heard some of these other sermons in the series, and maybe as you're getting into this one today, you'll probably realize that we're actually doing these kind of out of order, like out of chronological order from when these stories actually happened in history.
So week one, we kind of have to rewind 3,500 years back to the nation of Israel. They're wandering around in the wilderness, like the Sinai wilderness for 40 years from the time they've been released from slavery to the time they're actually going to get to the promised land.
And what brought them to that 40, it shouldn't have taken 40 years, what got them to that 40-year wandering was they did not believe the report of the two good spies that went into Canaan and came back and said, "We can take the land, God's got this. Like we're down." They believed and said the 10 others who were like, "These people are like giants and they're gonna crush us. We're like grasshoppers to them. We're gonna get destroyed. We can't go into this land."
So instead, they stopped trusting the almighty, all-powerful God of the universe who told them and promised them the land in the first place. And this gets them into trouble.
And then week two, we actually have to go back one more year past from when they're doing this whole spy thing to Moses coming off Mount Sinai and he's got with him the two tablets on there as engraved fresh with the finger of God, the 10 commandments. And he comes down, this is a great moment for the people of Israel. And he comes down and finds that they're worshiping a golden calf. They've totally abandoned God and they're worshiping this created thing over here.
And we see the people again, losing trust and faith in God and it gets them into trouble. And then last week, we actually see a good example of someone who actually has a golden calf. They've handled their business in the wilderness, something we can actually learn from in a positive way and wouldn't you know, it's Jesus, right?
And so we have to fast forward then from those two examples about 1,500 years into the future and we get to Jesus having his own wilderness experience where he spends not 40 years in the wilderness but 40 days in the wilderness and he's fasting and he's praying and he's spiritually preparing himself for his ministry.
And while he's there in his weakened, physically weakened state, the devil comes and tries to tempt him and try to get him to screw up. And Jesus overcomes this by trusting and relying on the almighty, all-powerful God of the universe and his word, the truth from Scripture.
And now here we are today and we have to go again back in time from that moment with Jesus, back those 1,500 years and a little bit more to a time before the people have been released from slavery. When they're still in slavery in Egypt and they've been in slavery for about 400 years and they're still in slavery for about 400 years and they're still in slavery for about 400 years and they're still in slavery for about 400 years.
The Pharaoh, kind of the king of Egypt, sees them as a threat and so he issues this rule. He says every Israelite boy that is born, you must throw into the Nile River. So to protect her baby from certain death, there's an Israelite woman who puts her baby into a basket and sends him peacefully down the river just hoping against hope that someone will find this baby and take care of him.
And wouldn't you know, Pharaoh's own daughter finds this baby, takes him out of the river, names him Moses, and raises him as her own amongst Egyptian royalty. So you have Moses, who is an Israelite, but is free from slavery because he was raised by Pharaoh's daughter.
And Moses grows up, and when he's 40 years old, there's that number 40 again, he sees an Egyptian beating one of his fellow countrymen, an Israelite slave. And out of anger and retaliation, Moses kills this Egyptian, and then realizes, "Oh, that's kind of against the law, I'm going to be in trouble, and Pharaoh's going to come after me and kill me." So Moses runs off into the desert.
And then we have to fast forward again, you guessed it, another 40 years, and Moses is married, and he's now a shepherd. And one day he's tending his father-in-law's flock, and he sees something weird happen, and that's when we're going to pick up reading in Exodus chapter 3.
So let's look at verse number 1. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire, it did not burn up. So Moses thought, "I will go over and see this strange sight, why the bush does not burn up." When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, "Moses, Moses." And Moses said, "Here I am."
We Phoenicians know about the heat and the desert, and so random, like, fires in the middle of the desert is probably not a weird, strange sight for us. But what if the bush wasn't burning up? That would be pretty weird, and so it gets Moses' attention. So he goes to check it out, and when he does, he hears a voice call to him from the bush.
So to recap, for 40 years, he's been hiding out, avoiding his mistake, avoiding his sin, avoiding the plight of his family. Until God gets his attention. God uses a burning bush.
And when the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, when God knew the plan had worked, he spoke to Moses, which is the first time we have a recorded instance of God speaking to one of his people for 400 years. How long that must have felt to God's people, to not hear from God for 400 years, not since the time of Joseph and his brothers.
When God's people were first arriving in Egypt, pre-slavery, has God gotten someone's attention like this and addressed them directly and personally? And we keep noticing this number 40 popping up. 40, the number in the Bible, always means a time of trials, a time of waiting, a time of preparation. It means desert. It means wilderness.
And so often, when we're in the wilderness, we feel like we're in a place where God is. We feel like we're in a place where God is. We feel like we're in a place where God is. And we feel like we're in a place where God is. And we absence. We must not confuse God's silence with God's absence. He is preparing us in that wilderness time. He is refining us. He is with us. And when the time is right, he will get our attention. It might not be as obvious as a burning bush, but like Moses, we have to be ready to respond when he does. "Here I am."
And so then Moses says, "Here I am." And God says to Moses that he has seen his people in slavery. He has seen the Egyptians mistreat them. He has heard their cries for help. He's going to deliver them from slavery and he's going to use Moses to do it.
Look at verse 10, Exodus 3:10. "So now go, I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt." And what an honor this must have been. What a privilege to be used by God in this way, to help rescue his people.
But Moses doesn't see it like that. Something's holding him back. He's holding him back. He's holding him back. He's holding him back. He's holding him back. God just said, "Now go."
Now, like now, right now, like right now, Moses, go. But spoiler alert, Moses doesn't go talk to Pharaoh until chapter five. Okay. There's 43 verses between "now go" in Exodus 3:10 and "Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh" and said in Exodus 5:1, "Why is there such a delay? Why is there such a delay?" It's excuses.
And Moses is going to make a bunch of them. Here's the first one, verse 11. "But Moses said to God, you know, there's an excuse coming when a 'but' shows up, right?" So, "But Moses said to God, who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" This is one of the five excuses Moses makes to God. And this one is basically, "What if I'm not capable enough for this task?"
You ever made that excuse to God? "God, what if I'm not good enough? What if I'm not skilled enough? What if I'm not experienced enough? What if I'm not trained enough? What if I'm not wise enough? What if I'm not old enough?"
But then God answers this question with the most reassuring response I can think of. He doesn't say, "No, Moses, you are capable." And he doesn't give him a cheesy pep talk like, "Hey, buddy, you're gonna do it. Get in there, bud. You're gonna crush it."
Here's what he says in verse 12. "And God said, I will be with you."
"But God, what if I'm not capable enough?" And he's like, "No worries. Your ability or lack thereof doesn't matter. I, the almighty, all-powerful God of the universe, am with you." God is with you. If he tasks you to do something, he's going to empower you to do it.
Look at 2 Corinthians 9:8 from the Bible. The apostle Paul says, "God is able to bless you abundantly so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work."
But for some reason, this isn't good enough for Moses. So we get excuse number two. Verse 13, "Moses said to God, suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' Then what should I tell them?"
So the first excuse has to do with Moses' identity. "Who am I?" And then the second excuse has to do with God's identity. "Who are you? Like, are you someone that I can trust?"
And notice the change in audience here. God told Moses he was sending him to talk to who? Pharaoh. And then Moses goes, "Yeah, but what about the Israelites? What if the Israelites ask me about your," which they don't, by the way. They don't ever ask that question, right?
It's like us and our rebellion and our anxiety and our aversion to do what God wants us to do. We might invent hypothetical situations that won't even ever come to be in order to evade the task. And God could have responded to this excuse by pointing that out. "They're not gonna ask that, Moses. Let's just move on. Get out there, go, stop making excuses."
But he doesn't. He actually takes the time to answer Moses' question directly. He chose to reveal himself to Moses in a way he hadn't done to anyone else ever. How patient and gracious God is in the midst of our excuses.
And even though God doesn't owe Moses an explanation for this hypothetical situation that won't ever come to be, he still says this in verse 14. "God said to Moses, I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I am has sent me to you."
God also said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites, 'The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has sent me to you. This is my name forever, the name you shall call me from generation to generation.'"
Well, who am I? I am God. I am who I am. God basically says that he is like the verb of existence, "I am." I always was and always will be. That's who was promised to be with you in this task, Moses. The "I am," the Lord. Capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, but with smaller font.
Whenever that pops up in your Bible, you know that is the holy, revered name of God, Yahweh in the Hebrew. Every time you see that there, that is God using his personal, yet holy and revered name to describe himself and to reveal himself.
And this God has another task for Moses. Verse 16, "Go assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, 'The Lord, Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, appeared to me and said, I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt. And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.'"
And then look at verse 18. "The elders of Israel will listen to you." Remember the original task? It was go to Pharaoh, but then Moses brought the Israelites into this. So God's like, "Okay, and go to them too. You're gonna go to Pharaoh and you're gonna go to the Israelites and you're gonna tell the Israelites that Yahweh will set them free. You're gonna tell Pharaoh that Yahweh will set them over there free. And you need to go. You need to go right now because why? The elders will listen to you, trust me."
But Moses can't move past his fear. He's got another excuse ready to go for God and it's probably his lamest excuse yet. Chapter four, verse one, "Moses answered, what if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, 'The Lord did not appear to you?'"
It's like, come on, Moses, God literally just said they will listen to you. He's like, "Yeah, but I'm gonna go to them, but what if they don't?" The worst excuse ever.
"Moses, why do you still doubt the promise of God? Why do we doubt the promises of God? Why do we look at the potential opposition in our way and we go, 'Oh my gosh, that is so much bigger and more formidable than the almighty, all-powerful God of the universe. I can't do that. I can't overcome that.' Why can't we just trust God and obey?"
We don't have time to read God's full response to Moses here, but he moves from verbal to tactile. He's like, "I need to change up my learning styles here with Moses," and he decides, "I'm gonna show my power to Moses through miracles."
We have Moses perform all these miracles. It's really God doing all these miracles, and he's trying to show Moses, "Moses, it's not gonna be you that's convincing Pharaoh or the Israelites about anything. It's me, God. It's my power. It's my ability."
But even this isn't enough for Moses, so he makes excuse number four. In verse 10, "Moses said to the Lord, pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past, nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue."
And now we're getting into it because now we're starting to see Moses' actual insecurities rise up to the surface, specifically that he's not an eloquent speaker.
And I can relate because growing up, I hated public speaking. I hated anything involved with this right here that I'm doing right now. I will gladly do the entire group project. I will do all the work. I'll do all the research. I'll write the paper. I'll come up with the flashcards. If someone else would please just present it to the class.
Because if I get up there, it's just gonna be just me fidgeting around. It's terrible. Until college. Until college. When I was in college, the youth pastor at my church asked me to start teaching to the junior high group. And I was like, "Me? Are you insane?" And he's like, "Yeah, you."
And I came up with every single excuse in the book as to why I should not be doing that job. And for some reason, he was super persistent. And he kind of wore me down, and he found me in a moment of weakness. And he was like, "You need to be teaching to the junior high students." And I went, "All right, fine. I'll do it."
And he's like, "Cool. There's like 50 or 60 of them this coming Sunday. Here's the curriculum, have fun." And I was like, "All right." And guys, it was the, it was, I didn't teach. I just read straight off the paper. It was like, I read the curriculum off the page like this. I never looked up. I looked it up once. It was the absolute worst. It was the worst. And it's the toughest audience. It's junior hires.
And I did that. And for some reason, the youth pastor's like, "I'm gonna give you another shot." And I was like, "What? Are you insane?" But he didn't give up on me. He actually sat down and worked. You probably should have done this the first time. He sat down and worked with me. Like, how do you craft a sermon? How do you deliver a sermon?
And you know what? It clicked. It clicked fast. Like, it clicked too fast to where I absolutely knew it wasn't me and my ability. It was God now working in me to do this thing that I could not do before and now have the ability to do.
It was the Holy Spirit empowering me with the spiritual gift of teaching. He just needed a willing participant, which we don't have in Moses yet. He, like us sometimes, is still focused on his weaknesses. He believes that his weaknesses are bigger and more formidable than the almighty, all-powerful God of the universe.
As if God was not there. As if God doesn't already know all about every single one of our weaknesses and he calls us anyway. The apostle Paul has the right perspective on this, which we see in 2 Corinthians 12:9 in the Bible. Paul's talking about God. He said, "But he, God, said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.'"
God's power is made perfect in weakness. God's power is made perfect in our weakness. He knew I wasn't the greatest speaker and that's probably why he chose me to do it. Because now he gets to speak through me.
And we get to see this in God's response to Moses. Verse 11, "The Lord said to him, who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, Yahweh, the Lord? Now, go, for the fourth time, go. I will help you speak and will teach you what to say."
Our weaknesses and our shortcomings are not valid excuses. They're not. God knows all about them. He makes up for them. And in fact, he thrives in them.
But Moses still can't get past this. And so then we have verse 13, where Moses said, "Pardon your servant, Lord, please send someone else." It's like, pardon your servant, Lord. It's like, at least he's disobeying politely. I don't know. Is that a good thing? "Please send someone else."
And we're like, "Oh man, Moses is so humble. You know, he doesn't think he's worthy of the job." And he's like, "This isn't humility." It's not humble when God calls you to do a job, like a specific job he has called you to do. And he's empowering you to do it. He says he'll be with you in the midst of it. And he's like, "You go do this."
You go, "No, no, no, God, you send somebody else." That's not humility. That's insecurity. That's a lack of faith and trust in the almighty, all-powerful God of the universe who has called you, who has promised to be with you, who has revealed himself to you, who knows all about your weakness and himself will prove to be powerful in the midst of your weaknesses.
But still we don't go. And still Moses doesn't go, and it's going to cost him. Verse 14, "Then the Lord's anger burned against Moses." And he said, "What about your brother Aaron? I don't know if God's being sarcastic in this. This is what I would do. If I'm talking to my kids, it's like the ninth time. And you're like, 'Well, what about,' and I start getting sarcastically angry."
So I'm going to read this like God's sarcastic. I don't know if he actually was. "What about your brother Aaron the Levite? I know he could speak well, right? He's already on his way to meet you and he will be glad to see you. You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth. I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. He will speak to the people for you. And it will be as if he were your mouth, as if you were God to him."
God has been more than patient with Moses here, but now God's anger is burning against him, which I would just recommend. That's not a good place to be. If you feel like God's anger is burning against you, get out, change everything, do something else.
Because of Moses's unwillingness to obey, God gets Aaron to speak for Moses, which is great because you know what helps? Communication between two parties. Just add another middleman in there. That's always like, this is going to go well.
And here is where it helps to have this sermon at the end of the series, I think. Because now we can see from what we saw in weeks one and two, we already know what's going to happen. We already know about the 40 years. We already know about the grumbling and the complaining.
We know that Moses does lead the people, but it is a headache the whole time. And certainly it's more nuanced and complicated than this. There are definitely multiple factors that led to Israel's disobedience to Moses and to God.
But maybe we can infer that one of those multiple factors is the fact that Aaron spoke to the people instead of Moses. Moses and Aaron, this is, sorry, this is verse 29. "Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelites and Aaron told them everything the Lord said to Moses. He also performed the signs before the people and they believed."
So what if you're at work and they're like, "Hey, we got a new CEO who's going to come in and address the office." Or you've got, like, you're at school and they've got a new principal. Or you're on a team and they've got a new coach. And they're going to, like, bring the leader out. And the leader's going to, like, talk. And you're like, "Cool, I hear what this person has to say. Where are we going as a team, as an organization, as a school? What's going to happen next?"
And the leader gets out there. But the leader doesn't say anything. The leader just starts whispering into this guy's ear. And this guy's like, "I just want to let you know that this leader here is a great leader. And they've got a fantastic three-part... What's that? They've got a four-part plan to make us the greatest organization that's ever existed."
And they lay out this whole plan. And you never once hear from this leader over here. You just hear from this guy over here, his mouthpiece, talking. And at the end, he's like, "Thank you. We will be taking no questions. Please don't talk to this guy. He gets nervous in front of groups."
And you're like, "That can't be the best first impression for a leader, right?" How many of you would be like, "Oh, I'm going to follow that guy. Sign me up." No hands? Okay, great.
Over time, might you begin to wonder who the real leader is in that situation? Because it sounds like it's the person doing all the talking. Might this person's leadership equity be kind of compromised in the minds of his people? I don't know.
Maybe they would start to distrust the leader's plans. Maybe they would begin to doubt their words. Not even his words anyways. No wonder they followed Aaron's advice to worship the golden calf when Moses was away.
But there's another one. We don't have a verse in the Bible that says this explicitly when it comes to Moses and the Israelites. Nothing that plainly says Moses sacrificed his leadership equity because he made excuses and didn't follow God's plan. Nothing actually says that.
But there is no way Aaron speaking on behalf of Moses helped the situation. There is no way Moses gained leadership equity with these people who he's been avoiding for 40 years and then doesn't want to talk to them when he gets in front of them again.
There's no way he gained leadership equity with them because of the speaking arrangement. There's no way. There's no way this made it easier for the people to trust Moses, and therefore, easier to trust God, who is meeting and talking with Moses.
All we know for sure is that for the next 40 years, the Israelites are going to grumble, and they're going to complain, and they're going to disobey. They're going to rebel against Moses, and they're going to rebel against God.
My reluctance to obey God rarely affects only me. My reluctance to obey God rarely affects only me.
Now, were God's plans thwarted by Moses's inaction? No. The Israelites heard the plan, right? Pharaoh heard the warnings. Miracles were performed. The people were set free from slavery, and they got to the promised land. Eventually, got to the promised land.
And God's plans weren't thwarted, but was it way messier than it had to be? Were there way more headaches, and incidents, and problems along the way? Yeah, looks like it. Because my reluctance to obey God rarely affects only me.
It's like this one time I was getting a haircut, and this thought popped up into my head, and it wasn't the audible voice of God, like the booming audible voice of God, maybe like a level or two below that. And the voice or the thought told me, it said, "You need to invite the hairstylist to go to church."
And the reason I knew it was God was because that was not my thought. I'm a, get in, get the haircut, get out. I don't want to talk to anybody. I don't want to know who you are. I want you to know who I am. Let's not make small talk. Just get the thing done. I'll pay you and we'll leave. That's not what I want to do.
In this moment, this thought comes into my head that is definitely not my thought. And it's definitely something that God would ask me to do. So I immediately started arguing with God in my head. The lady's like, "Please keep your head still," and I'm going to be doing all this. And I'm like, "God, what do you mean I have to talk to this person? Like, what do you, I don't want to sound weird. Like, how am I supposed to just bring this up out of nowhere, like a cold call kind of situation? Like, the haircut's almost over. I can just, she's, she's shaving the back. She's almost done. Let's just get out of here."
And God's like, "Trust me, just do it." And I'm like, "Oh. Oh, right."
So I break literally, it was the best haircut. She wasn't talking. I wasn't talking. It was perfect. And I break moments, like minutes of silence with this awkward, "So how long you've been a hairstylist?" And she's like, "Oh, you know, a few years." "Cool, cool. I work at a church." I'm like, "Oh."
To my utter shock, I don't know why I was shocked, but it was. She goes, "Oh, I've been thinking about going to a church. Where do you work? Tell me." I'm like, "Oh, here's the service times."
It was like the easiest church invite of all time. I don't know if she ever came, but I know in that moment, that day, she was thinking about it, and God knew she was thinking about it. And he's like, "You go to church, invite her."
And he just like told me to do this thing, even though it was outside my comfort zone. He knew she needed community. He knew I had the community. And he's like, "You need to say something to her." And my excuses almost got in the way of that.
And then the bigger thing for me was when it comes to excuses, and I've told this story before, I think, up here, so I'll try to keep it short. But the short version of this is my wife said we should be foster parents, and I said, "You're nuts." That's how that starts out.
And so we had this back and forth for months, where she's like, "We should be foster parents. I really feel like God's calling us to this." And I went, "No, and here's 10 excuses why we shouldn't be doing this."
And then she sneakily signed us up for the training classes. And I really, I had so many reasons and excuses, like why I was gonna argue this until I was blue in the face, why we shouldn't be doing this.
And then I got a check on my spirit that was like, "You'll be sleeping on the couch for a long time if you argue this." So we go to the training classes, and we're driving home from each one, and she's having this conversation. She's like, "What do you think? How's it going?"
And I'm like, "Excuse number one, excuse number two, excuse number three." And she very graciously would just say, "Well, I still feel like this is what God has called us to." And I go, "I politely disagree."
And then that would be that conversation. And we'd do it again the next week, and the next week. And then week four, around week four, comes around. And I'm like, "Okay, I'm gonna do this."
And I'm like, "Something happened in that class." Because as soon as she asked me, like, "How are you feeling on the way home?" And I expected the excuses to pop out of my mouth. Magically, out of nowhere, I just go, "I think this is what God's called us to."
And she's like, "Yeah, I know. I've been, where have you been?" You know, it's like, and then eight years, 17 foster kids, four of whom we needed like homes forever. And we adopted them. And that's my family. That's my family.
So how do we learn from Moses's mistakes and accept God's purpose for our lives? A few quick concepts. Hopefully we've already picked these up. This will maybe just help you put words to the things you're probably already thinking right now.
Number one, it all comes down to trust. It all comes down to trust. The most important thing to remember is this. It all comes down to trust. Our willingness or our reluctance to obey God is actually a litmus test to how much we actually trust God.
Do I trust God is for me? Do I trust God is with me? Do I trust God being with me means that I can accomplish the things that he is calling me to do?
Do I trust that God will work through my weaknesses? Do I trust that God can redeem the situation even if I somehow mess it up? Do I trust God?
Number two, obey right away. Obey right away. The longer we wait, the more room we give to excuses. Anxiety increases. Fear increases. We start to create those hypothetical situations that won't actually come to be. We let doubt get a stronghold. We need to get into the habit of obeying right away.
There's an author and theologian named Dallas Willard. He describes Christian discipleship as the way to become the kind of person who does easily and routinely what Jesus said. Does it without having to think much about it. Obey right away.
Number three, a burning bush appears in many forms. A burning bush appears in many forms. Clear and obvious signs like a burning bush or like a booming voice from heaven don't happen that often. I mean, if they do for you, that's awesome. Please come tell me stories afterward. I would love to hear them.
But for most of us, those are few and far between or maybe even never happening for us. But that doesn't mean God's not trying to get our attention. Because God speaks in a ton of different ways, not just burning bushes and booming audible voices from heaven.
He definitely speaks through the Holy Spirit. He definitely speaks through other people into our lives. He will speak to us in prayer. He'll speak to us through the word of God, through scripture. The question is, are you paying attention?
Are you looking for God? Do you expect him to communicate with you? Are you looking for God to communicate with you? Are you looking for God to communicate with you? Are you taking the time to talk with him? Not at him or to him. I mean, actually a conversation with him. Are you listening as well as talking in that conversation?
And then number four, I have to be honest about my butt. And I thought I'd bring a little levity into the end there, but I promise you it's butt with one T. Okay? Butt with one T. I have to be honest about my butt. I have to be honest about my excuses. The excuses that I have been making that hopefully you've been thinking about as this message has gone on.
Like, what are the excuses you have lately been making to God? When it comes to following Jesus, you got to ask yourself questions like, what have I been delaying? What have I been avoiding? What have I been putting off till later? What has God been prompting me to do or asking me to do or commanding me to do? I just haven't done it yet.
And you've just been like, "I don't know, God." Is it serving? Is it getting baptized? Is it giving your life to Jesus for the first time? Is it going on a missions trip? Is it taking someone out for coffee? You know needs a friend? Is it inviting someone to church? Next time you're getting a haircut. Is it sharing with a friend? Is it reading your Bible on a consistent basis? Is it joining a life group or an activity group or a rooted group? There it is. Definitely join one of those. They're fun.
Is it going to care night or celebrate recovery? Admitting you need help? Walking away from that sin or that toxic relationship or that bad habit? Be honest with God about those things. Stop making excuses and obey right away.
Let's pray.
Jesus, we thank you for your grace. We thank you for your grace. We thank you for your grace. We thank you for, let's call it conviction. The times when we hear about the problem we've been dealing with, the struggle we've had, and it's time to come to terms with it, to stop dancing around the issue and to actually trust or not trust, do or not do.
God, every single one of us in here probably has something that we've been putting off, an excuse we've been putting off, something we've been making, something we've been saying no to or not yet to or maybe later or I don't want to do that.
But God, today you are coming back to us just like you did to Moses for the third, the fourth, the fifth time, and you are saying to us, "Now go. I will be with you."
God, give us the faith we need to take that first step and obey because who knows what cool thing is going to happen on the other side of that. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
So in Luke 14 in the Bible, Jesus is telling a parable. He's telling a story to kind of make a point. And he talks about this man who is throwing this big elaborate banquet and he sets his table and it's set for all these people and he sends out all the invites and all the invites RSVP, no, no, no, no, no, no. And every single one of them has an excuse of why they couldn't come to the banquet table.
But instead of canceling the dinner party, instead he sends out new invitations. This time it goes out to the poor and the crippled and the blind and the lame, those who have been overlooked by society. And then in verse 23 in Luke 14, it says, "The master told his servant, go out to the roads and the country lanes and compel them to come in so that my house will be full."
The original invites came back, no, but God's plan was not thwarted. New invites went out and God's house will be full.
The question is, will you be there? Will you be there? Every single one of us has received an invitation to God's house, to God's kingdom, to God's family. God has set a place at the table for us.
The question is, are we going to stop making excuses and cross that line of faith? Paul, earlier when he was talking in communion, he was sharing with us about that being the way that God has provided for us to be set free, like the Israelites were from slavery, to be set free from sin, to be in a relationship with God.
And it's Jesus dying on the cross for our sins and rising again to give you his eternal life. Have you been avoiding that invite like a spam call from an election pollster, a text message from your church this Thursday? Don't decline that one. And don't decline this one.
Jesus is offering you grace and forgiveness, entrance into his family. We've got to stop making excuses and say yes. So if you feel like today is that day, like God is prompting you right now, in a moment, not yet, but in a moment, we'll all stand on our feet and we're going to sing one more song.
And we've got prayer partners, you already see them down here, and there's some in the back as well. If you need prayer, first of all, for literally anything, like you got anything going on in your life, you want to celebrate something, you need help with something. Please come down, share that with one of the prayer partners. They'd love to pray with you over anything.
If you've got something maybe more specific to this message, an excuse you've been making, you're trying to discern something from God, like what to do or how to handle a situation, they'd love to pray for wisdom and help walk you through that.
But you know what they love the most? They would love to have a conversation with you about following Jesus for the very first time. They would absolutely love to talk with you about that and help pray with you as you make that decision.
So let's stand on our feet. And at any point during this song, if God is prompting you to go, obey right away. Let's sing together. Let's sing together.
on Nov 03, 2024
