God’s call is not a call to succeed, but a call to obey.
Sermon Title: HERE I AM LORD… SEND SOMEONE ELSE!
Sermon Text: EXODUS 3:11-4:20 (NIV)
Sermon Series: MOSES: LIFE LESSONS FROM THE HESITANT HERO
By: PTR NESTOR SY
Sermon Notes:
EXODUS 3:10-14 NIV
10 “So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” 11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” 12 And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.” 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 shall I tell them?” 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.’”
It is not our failures that make us. It’s what God does next that matters.
Excuse #1. I DON’T HAVE THE QUALIFICATION.
If God is with us, then we cannot fail.
Excuse #2. I DON’T HAVE THE AUTHORITY.
In spiritual matters, if we come with our authority, then we are nothing.
God’s has a plan that covers all the details.
Excuse #3. I DON’T HAVE THEIR RESPECT.
EXODUS 4:1-4 NIV
1 Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you’?”
2 Then the LORD said to him, “What is that in your hand?” “A staff,” he replied. 3 The LORD said, “Throw it on the ground.” Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. 4 Then the LORD said to him, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.” So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand.
The call of God is always a bigger thing than what we bargain for.
Excuse #4. I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO SAY.
EXODUS 4:10 NIV
10 Moses said to the LORD, “O 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.”
EXODUS 4:10 TLB
10 But Moses pleaded, “O Lord, I’m just not a good speaker. I never have been, and I’m not now, even after you have spoken to me, for I have a speech impediment.”
EXODUS 4:11-12 NIV
11 The LORD said to him, “Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD? 12 Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”
2 CORINTHIANS 12:9 NIV
9 But he 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.
We were made by God and for God so when the call comes, all we need to do is follow.
Excuse #5. I CAN’T DO IT.
EXODUS 4:13 NIV
13 But Moses said, “O Lord, please send someone else to do it.”
EXODUS 4:14-17 NIV
14 Then the LORD’s anger burned against Moses and he said, “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and his heart will be glad when he sees you.
15 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.
16 He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him. 17 But take this staff in your hand so you can perform miraculous signs with it.”
EPHESIANS 2:8-10 NIV
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
God’s call is a serious, individual matter.
God’s call is not a call to succeed, but a call to obey.
EXODUS 4:18 NIV
18 Then Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, “Let me go back to my own people in Egypt to see if any of them are still alive.” Jethro said, “Go, and I wish you well.”
What does it mean to be willing?
“Lord, I am willing.
Author Unknown
I am willing to receive what You give.
I am willing to lack what You withhold.
I am willing to relinquish what You take.
I am willing to suffer what You require.”