Moses' Five Favorite Excuses

Good morning everybody. I want to invite you to grab your message notes that look like this from the bulletins that I hope you got as you came in. My name is René, one of the pastors here and this morning we're gonna continue a series we began last weekend called Small Faith Big God. We're gonna look at different characters from the Bible every single week who really had a lot of self-doubt and doubt about God and insecurity and anxiety. In other words they had struggles with faith just like you and I do and yet they had mustard seed-sized faith and after a lot of reluctance they ended up kind of just barely moving ahead in the direction that God wanted them to move and God did great things through them and so to me that makes them extremely inspiring stories.

Now as we start let's talk about excuses today because human beings are geniuses at making excuses. Would you agree with that? I found a great article the Associated Press ran a story about some actual excuses that were sent into high schools all over America and high school teachers actually collected these. These are word-for-word literal excuses that were submitted to high school teachers. Let me just show you some of these. Please excuse Betsy for being absent. She was sick and I had her shot. Very strict parenting in fact too strict in my opinion. Please excuse Michael from being absent on January 30th, 31st, 32nd and 33rd because he was ailing spelled A L E. I bet he was. Please excuse Freddie for being out yesterday because he had the fuel. Some of that 80 proof home-brewed fuel probably. I don't know. My son is under doctor's care it should not take fiscal ed. Please execute him. Again, way too strict in my opinion but that's just me maybe. And lastly the most generic excuse of all please excuse Fred for being. It was his father's fault. I love that.

Well today we're gonna look at Moses's five favorite excuses. Now I've covered this in my book Thrill Ride. I love this story. Why do I like to keep coming back to the story in your Bibles in Exodus chapters 3 and 4? Well because when we think of Moses a lot of us think of Moses as sort of a matchless hero, almost a superhero, sort of the perfect chiseled Charlton Heston in the Ten Commandments. Like we could never identify with this heroic superhuman figure. I mean after all the Bible does say about Moses in Hebrews 11:27, "By faith Moses left Egypt not fearing the king's anger. He persevered because he saw him who is invisible." And you read this and you're like man what a hero I wish I could live like this but I am here to tell you he did not start out that way.

Now it is true that Moses was a Hebrew baby who was adopted by an Egyptian princess and then grew up in the Pharaoh's palace in Egypt. And it is true that the ancient historian Josephus in the first century tells us about the much older tradition that Moses was strikingly handsome. In fact Josephus says he was so handsome that people men and women would go out of their way just to catch a glance at him because his features were like so perfect. And yes the Bible does say he was educated as an Egyptian. Now even today the engineering that it took to build Egyptian monuments is amazing. These are the pillars at the Temple of Ramses the second around the time of Moses. So Moses would have been one of the most educated men on the planet at the time.

So you might be thinking wow wealth, education, good looks, power, adopted family connections seems too perfect for me to relate to. But when he's about 40 years old Moses makes a big mistake. He sees an Egyptian assaulting a Hebrew and Moses kills the Egyptian. How many of you have ever done something out of anger? Even just said something that you wish you could have taken back later? This is where Moses is coming from. All those who raised their hand that's great those who didn't your problem is lying because I think we've all done this at some point or another. So what happens? Pharaoh puts out a death warrant and Moses this charmed prince sees his entire life fall apart. He is forced to flee for his life into the desert of Midian.

Now I had a unique opportunity to actually fly over this desert last year and I took some pictures out the plain window that's the Red Sea at the top and Midian is a bleak desert on the other side of the Red Sea from Egypt and Moses who was raised in the Pharaoh's palace lives in this place where even today there are basically no roads. This is where you go if you want to hide out. Today this is where terrorists hide out. This is where this is the one of the places on the planet even today that you want to go when nobody is gonna be able to find you and I am sure that for the next 40 years Moses looked at himself like what have you done to yourself all that promise all that royal education all those family connections that might have helped the Hebrews out all gone all just wasted and I'm sure that for 40 years of his life living here Moses must have said to himself what a loser I am.

Now the end of his story you know well I mean the Ten Commandments and the Exodus it's just epic right we know that the last third of his life or so was the best of his life but all the stuff that he's really famous for happened after he was 80 years old by the way so don't ever tell yourself that you're too old for something but this is the end of his story what I want to look at today is the one episode that was sort of the hinge that his life turned on where he went from has been to hero back in that parched desert where he fled for his life full of fear God appears to Moses an 80 year old man he's married he has a family his children but he must have looked at himself as somewhat of a has been and God appears to him in a burning bush and he says Moses go I am sending you back to Egypt back to Pharaoh the place that's got the death warrant out on you yeah you're gonna go back there to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.

Now in response to this amazing call of God did Moses go yes Lord I've been waiting for 80 years to redeem my life I go with confidence not fearing the Kings and anger because I see who him it he was invisible did he did he say that no what Moses does is he acts just like a 21st century person just like you and me dropped into like a Bible story he is so filled with fear about this idea of stepping out in faith in this way so he gives God a list of excuses and suddenly becomes just like you and me. Let me ask you have you ever made an excuse to God? I have. Have you ever felt inadequate to do something that you know God is calling you to do? I have. How many show of hands how many parents here how many of you are our parents or grandparents how many of you have ever felt inadequate at any moment as a parent right you know God wants you to do one thing and you just feel like you can't do it.

Here's another show of hands how many of you have ever felt somewhat inadequate or intimidated about the idea of sharing your faith with somebody? Anybody ever felt that way? Because I sure have. You ever felt inadequate to serve God? I definitely have. Ever feel like God can't use me or even I don't know if I can be a Christian because of the things I've done in my past and because of the way I acted because I feel like I don't have enough faith? Well this morning I want you to check out all of Moses's five excuses and all of God's answers to Moses and by the way to me and to you because I want to show you how each one of God's answers to Moses's excuses is repeated in the New Testament for all believers so this is really a story about you and me.

So jot these down his excuse number one is this I'm a nobody. I'm a nobody God he says in verse 11 of Exodus 3 but Moses said to God who am I who me who am I that I should go to Pharaoh? Moses is like you must be kidding me you must have like dialed the wrong bush wrong valley here because think about Moses is going God God Lord I was raised in Pharaoh's palace don't you understand I saw the dignitaries that wanted to get an audience with the most powerful human on the planet at the time and I can tell you they were not 80 year old sheep herders stinking of the desert I couldn't even hope to get an audience this is an impossible thing I'm a nobody Pharaoh only sees some bodies.

You ever feel like that? I have. I mean there's probably things about you that make you feel self-conscious that make you even cringe that make you feel like a loser or worse a has been and you say who am I? Well I want you to hear God's answer I will be with you. I'll be with you next verse verse 12 of Exodus 3 and God said but I'll be with you. You know what I love? I love that God doesn't go come on Moses you're the man don't be so down Moses you're the man you can do it. God is like you know what you kind of are a nobody I will concede that point I won't argue with you there but I am somebody Moses and I will be with you.

A woman named Gladys Aylward was a missionary in China. She became pretty well known actually Ingrid Bergman did a movie about her life called the Inn of the Seventh Happiness it's a good movie but she was famous for something she saved the lives of hundreds of orphans that were in her charge at an orphanage in Shanghai when the Japanese invaded she fled with these orphans to safety over the mountains and this is an actual old photograph of some of the orphans whose lives she saved. It was a harrowing trip they had to go through freezing temperatures with these small children they didn't have enough food and one night she was in despair just ready to give up and the oldest child she was a 13 year old girl saw her crying and she said but miss Gladys don't worry you are leading us to safety like Moses led the children of Israel in those stories that you've been reading us and Gladys looked at her and said but honey I'm no Moses.

And then this little girl looked at her and said oh well we know you're no Moses but what I'm saying is Moses's God is your God and Gladys said that moment was the turning point for her confidence she didn't have to be confident in herself she just needed to be confident that the God of Moses was also her God. But do you understand what's happening in this story psychologically? Even Moses is saying you know I'm no Moses not that Moses not anymore that was a lifetime ago Lord but listen like Moses you can find that when you reach the end of yourself it's only the beginning of God. When you reach the end of yourself it's only the beginning of God. This is the whole point of this small faith big God series because listen Jesus said to you and me in Matthew 28:20 surely I am with you always to the very end of the age.

I want to talk to a group here maybe like Moses you're here today and you have made a major mistake in your life maybe recently to your chagrin. Well one of the lessons of Moses's life is that failures don't need to be final. Moses would have been voted least likely to be used by God especially in Egypt especially before Pharaoh after his mess up but God can do more with a nobody than anybody else can do with a somebody. God can do more with a nobody than anyone else can do with a somebody so don't think who am I I'm too like sin stained I'm too old or I'm too whatever God is with you.

But Moses has another excuse up his sleeve excuse number two I don't know what to say. I don't know what to say literally verse 13 he says in the very next verse Moses said to God well suppose I go to the Israelites kind of sake of argument and I say to them the God of your fathers has sent me to you and they asked me all right what's his name then what will I tell him? You know I don't know what I was not raised Hebrew I did not go to a Hebrew seminary I was raised Egyptian and I know some of the things that were taught me but I'm not gonna be able to answer all their Hebrew theological questions I don't know what to say.

Do you ever feel like that? Well God gives Moses an awesome answer this has a lot of depth to it so put on kind of those thinking caps here this morning because God tells Moses one of his names. I can imagine the burning bush kind of firing up more intensely as God's voice thunders verse 14 say to the Israelites I am has sent me to you. Now hit pause there I am. I love the old King James translation I am that I am it just means simply God is he was never born he'll never die he exists totally outside of any beginning or end he needs nothing to sustain his existence and by the way this was a totally new idea all the other ancient gods like in Egypt gods like Rah had a beginning to their lives they all had an origin story like a superhero and they could die and in Egypt at least they were dependent on human beings for sacrifices to survive supposedly they were basically just superhumans.

But God says to Moses I simply am he is totally transcendent from time and space completely sacred completely holy eternal unchangeable always the same yesterday today and forever he is self-existent he has being because of himself no one else ever can say that what a revelation about the nature of God. But don't miss what's inside this text what is God actually saying to Moses? He's saying this is what you are to say tell them what you're experiencing right now you don't have to explain it because ultimately I'm incomprehensible so just tell them what I'm saying to you and tell them what happened to you say to them I am has sent me to you.

Verse 15 say to them the Lord the God of your fathers has sent me to you. Verse 16 say to them the Lord appeared to me. In other words God's answer to the excuse I don't know what to say is this just tell them what you've experienced tell them what is happening to you right now and this is God's answer to your excuse to tell them about the God you met and about the peace you've experienced and about the prayers you've seen answered.

You know I had an atheist philosophy teacher when I went to college eons ago but he said you know I am learning that the one argument for Christianity that I cannot rebut is when somebody argues from his or her personal experience. Now I think there's a lot of other good arguments too I'm just telling you what my professor told me he said I can't stand here and say that prayer was actually never answered you never experienced that peace he said that that's an argument that still gives me pause and this is why perhaps even the Apostles say in 1 John 1:3 John says we just proclaim to you what we who knew Jesus what we have seen and heard and this can still happen today.

I want to tell you a story this last week I met a man in his 30s from Iran his name is Hamid and that's Hamid there on the right in the stripe sweater I'm on the left and just so that you know the difference but I met Hamid. Hamid actually and I were both speaking at a conference this week up at Redwood Christian Park in Boulder Creek and I really enjoyed some meal times with Hamid getting to know his family that was there with him all from Iran and he tells me his fascinating story this is just a small part of it raised in a conservative Muslim home he tells me his whole generation he's in his 30s is becoming disillusioned with religion because of what they see happening with Isis and so on and so he decides about 14 years ago he is going to go on a spiritual pilgrimage a spiritual quest he has access to the internet and so he checks out all kinds of other spiritual paths out there and he tries a few of them out he finds the Bible online and he decides rather than just assume he knows what it is that the Bible teaches and what Christians believe he's going to read the Bible for himself.

And from the very beginning from the book of Genesis he is struck by how personal the God of the Bible is and he longs to have a relationship with his God and then he gets the Gospels and he is riveted by the personality of Jesus that comes through those pages just riveted and then he gets the Apostle Paul's letters and he reads about grace and Paul's logic that if we're saved even one tenth of one percent by our own works then it's like we've made God our debtor and God can't be anybody's debtor he's you know he's always the one who's sovereign and in control so our salvation must be by grace all grace all a gift of God that we either accept or reject.

Now I want to tell you he's getting all this just by reading the Bible for himself online he's never met a Christian no one's teaching him anything but he decides that's it I want to be a follower of Jesus Christ and he doesn't know any other Christians and then he thinks well in the Bible it says that Jesus calls us to be the church so I'm going to start a church and it was just him he said on Sunday mornings he would just watch sermons on the internet. Now at the time he's in the Iranian army he's working on an army base he is in the IT department that's how he has access to these internet sermons and so on and over there your ID card kind of like a driver's license says what religion you are as it does in many many countries of the world.

And so he calls the local office of the State Department of Religion and he says hey I want to change my ID card because I want to register as a Christian. Now contrary to popular belief it is legal to be a Christian in Iran but the way they see it you are whatever religion you are because of your family heritage that goes back centuries so it's confusing when Hamid calls the local religious council and yes there is a State Department of Religious Registration there with local offices just like the DMV or something over here so he calls the local religious council says I want to change my religion on my ID and the guy he talks to tries to argue him out of it says but you don't have a Christian family name so you can't be a Christian and Hamid said so you're telling me that when you stand before God at the Judgment Day he's gonna look at your last name and say whether you're in or out that doesn't make any sense.

The guy says you know you got a point but do you have anyone in your ancestors who is a Christian? Hamid says no I don't even know any other Christians. The guy says now tell me why you are a Christian when you don't have a Christian name nobody in your family is a Christian you don't even know any Christians that doesn't make any sense to me. And Hamid says all I can tell you is it's like this I was reading the Bible and something drew me in and then something happened inside me and I met the living Jesus and I cannot explain it but what can I tell you that is what happened my heart was drawn to Christ and now I identify as a Christ follower.

Well Hamid says three times a week for a month he's on the phone with the same bureaucrat from the same Department of Religion and he's telling his story to this guy over and over and over just trying to register as a Christian and finally at the end of a month of this red tape the bureaucrat calls him back and says Hamid having heard your story now several times I have come to a decision and Hamid says yes and the guy says I have come to a decision to become a Christ follower too and then he's like what is this a trick and the guy says no it just made a lot of sense to me.

Now let me press pause do you see what happened here? Hamid had never had any Christian teaching all he did was tell him his personal experience he literally didn't know anything but that and what he'd read in scripture. So now the guy says well do you know what church I can go to? And Hamid says I do go to a church but it's pretty small and the guy says how many people go there he goes well one me that's it and so the guy goes okay and he told me over lunch last week René my church doubled in size in one day from one to two but it gets better because he and this guy keep running into other Iranians who've also become Christ followers just on their own kind of in very similar ways and after just two months this church full of people who have never themselves met any other Christian is up to 20 and every Sunday they meet in a hotel lobby and then the hotel tells him you got to move out it's too big and Hamid becomes the pastor of this little group and he is studying now in Dallas Texas with his wife and his kids and he's gonna go back to the Middle East as a pastor.

But this is how God works it is not dependent on us it's not dependent on our cleverness there is actually a God who actually has real power so when God tells you to do something you know you can just tell people about how you met the living God and God tells us to Moses but Moses continues to be very creative his third excuse yeah what if they want don't believe me? I could tell him that but what if they go right Exodus 4:1 what if they don't believe me or listen to me and what if they say the Lord did not appear to you? Now if you've got your Bible open you got the notes there circle the words what if and what if do you see that there twice? What ifs can paralyze you they really can. Moses says what if they reject me ever wanted to share about Christ or do something God is calling you to do something and then stop and said what if this what if that what if that bad things that what if they think I'm mental same with Moses.

But God says relax and gives him a really interesting answer chapter 4 verse 2 the Lord says to Moses what is that in your hand? Moses goes uh well a staff and God says okay throw it on the ground. Moses throws it on the ground and it becomes a snake and he runs from it did not get to be 80 years old in the desert for nothing right and then the Lord said to him reach out your hand and take it by the tail. Let me ask you a question because we've got snakes around here what's the worst possible way to pick up a snake? By the tail? Yeah honestly what I assume is happening here is Moses is going okay three times now I've said no to God and he's killing me so I'm 80 I've lived a long life all right here we go death by snake bite right but it becomes a staff in his hand again when he touches it and then God keeps talking to Moses but I the way I picture it is Moses is kind of going like this to the staff like what just happened to my business but God gives Moses two other signs he says if you put your hand into your robe and take it out it'll miraculously become leprous and then you put it back in again and take it out it'll be healed and he says if you pour out a cup of water from the Nile it'll turn into blood and he says this is so that they by the way who's they it's the Israelites at this point may believe that the Lord has appeared to you and so Moses's third excuse what if they don't believe me is silenced by God's answer well I'll give you power.

And we forget this because this is a promise to you and me too. Jesus said but you will receive what power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you so that you can be my witnesses. Now maybe we're going well I don't have a staff that turns into a snake that would be super cool and I don't have the ability to turn anything into blood and back again I imagine I could share Christ more effectively if I had this arsenal right you know go downtown to the new cat and cloud or something hey brother give me your latte you know now it's coffee now it's blood coffee blood coffee blood except Jesus that would be awesome right don't have that this doesn't mean God is gonna give you the power to do magic tricks right but it means he'll give you power to do whatever he's calling you to do just relax and let God work through you.

Sometimes we forget this but look at verse 10 believe it or not Moses is still making excuses excuse number four I don't speak well. Apparently the tradition is that Moses was something of a stutterer in any case he felt he was a terrible speaker can you relate to this? Verse 10 Moses said to the Lord oh 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 like I could witness maybe through my actions but not my words I could put a bumper sticker on my chariot something like that but don't ask me to actually say something to someone and God's answer is this well I'll help you speak I'll help you speak poetic answer verse 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 if I do all that go I can help you speak I will help you speak I will teach you what to say.

Now maybe you're thinking that's great for Moses but what about me? Again all of God's responses to Moses are mirrored to all of us in the New Testament. Jesus said do not worry about how you'll defend yourselves or what you'll say for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say. Now of course he's not saying don't prepare I've known pastors who said well Jesus said don't worry in advance and so I just go up there with a Bible and I just let the Holy Spirit teach me in the moment what to say what to say and I'm like well I'm trusting the Holy Spirit to teach me on Tuesday what my outline should be for the weekend right he's not saying don't prepare what he's saying is don't worry.

I'll tell you a weird story that happened to me in college I volunteered for a group called his way ministries in San Francisco and one of our goals was to distribute a modern language Bible translation to every home in the city and during our lunch breaks and at dinner we'd go to the financial district or Broadway or something and kind of see if we could get into conversations with people about the faith that was in college and and it was exciting and adventurous and we had some great conversations but I'll never forget one I met someone who was down there from Austria and and so we began to speak in German. Now I my first language was Swiss German when I was a small child but I grew up here in San Jose and then I learned German in high school high German proper German and so I'm chatting with this guy and he starts telling me well I grew up in the church but I don't believe it anymore because I don't believe in a lot of these things about Christ's Atonement and so on so I'm able to have a nice long conversation with him about the Atonement and about redemption and about sacrifice and about propitiation and what God did for us on the cross all these theological concepts and he's really into it and at the end we shake hands he's like man that really helped me out a lot thanks a lot.

So I'm like oh that went well that was awesome and then as I get into the van to go home I might just get goosebumps on the back of my neck I'll never forget it my hair just kind of stands on end as I realize I don't remember ever learning any of those words in German I was using theological concepts propitiation you know redemption atonement that I'd never learned in my high school German class that I never learned when I was a little kid learning Swiss German and either one or two things I suppose happened to either God just dropped some words into my brain Allah speaking in tongues that I needed in that moment or perhaps I'd heard my parents and their friends talking about these things when I was a child and those words lodged in my brain and I didn't remember them but God kind of allowed me to spit them back out in context either way it was a miracle.

Either way what that man who God loved needed to hear in that moment was taken care of by God's power working through me in ways that I did not anticipate what I'm but I would never have known that God was going to work that way if I hadn't stepped out and tried it. You may never know what God is going to do through you if you don't with small faith go I got small faith but I believe in a big God and just step forward.

I heard brother Andrew who was a famous European distributor of Bibles to the Soviet block back in the days of the iron country he would smuggle in Bibles and people would say aren't you ever afraid and he goes here's here's what happens here's how God's power works he calls you to do something and you see all these obstacles but they don't move until you move forward. He said the first time I saw in my life I saw automatically opening doors in a store that would slide open was here in the United States he said I've never seen them before and I kept looking at these doors they're closed and I don't see door handles how am I going to get in and it wasn't till I stepped toward the doors that they just slid open and he said that's what it's like doing God's will you take a step in the direction that you know God wants you to go and you start to see God's power at work however you need it.

Now are you convinced yet? Is Moses convinced yet? Absolutely positively not basically he's got one last excuse and this isn't really an excuse really because here's what it amounts to Lord just send someone else am I not being clear right? Verse 13 Oh Lord please send someone else to do it. The bottom line for Moses is he just didn't want to he was settled his wife and his kids were settled he was old it was way out of his comfort zone but isn't this just like you and me? Because I mean most of us have heard these promises from God right God says I'll be with you God says I'll never leave you or forsake you God says you'll receive power from the Holy Spirit we've all most of us I would say probably 98% of us in this room have heard those things and we kind of go God like that's a great speech that's super inspiring generally speaking but in my particular individual instance sorry I'm not not going find somebody else.

And so God's answer is this I'll tell you what Moses you are not alone verse 14 then the Lord's anger burned against Moses it's just he's kind of becoming impatient like this conversation has got to come to an end here and he says what about your brother Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well he's already on his way to meet you his heart will be glad when he sees 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.

Now listen God had an Aaron for Moses and God has people all around you that are also working for him that like Moses you you don't really know about until God reveals them to you. I'll close with this story I used to have a neighbor I'll call him Ed because that was his name he was a young guy shaved his head you know neck tattoos and piercings and for some reason he reminded me of Michael Stipe from REM if you remember that band just super wiry and kind of like amped all the time and honestly our other neighbors were kind of like suburban families and I thought of all of our neighbors he's probably the one least likely to be into the fact that one of his neighbors is a pastor and so I was sort of afraid to bring it up with him thinking he would be antagonistic and he was always moving to the beat of his own drummer he was he'd be like in the middle of our street doing Tae Kwon Do moves because he was studying Tae Kwon Do super aggressively you know so it's like okay wide berth around Ed you know.

So he comes up to me one time I'm putting out the trash and he's out there doing Tae Kwon Do and he sees me goes René I'm like yes and he goes I got a question to ask you do you know how do you know for sure you're going to heaven when you die? And I'm like are you going to kill me right now Ed is that why you're asking me this question? No that's what I thought but I told him and I took him to scripture and that weekend somebody here at church walks up to me and says and I gotta thank you for talking to your neighbor Ed's my brother and my grandma and I have been talking to him and praying to him for years but it really meant a lot to him to hear you kind of reiterating what we've been sharing.

Now if I had known that he had Christian family members sharing with him I think I would have been a lot more bold but you know there's always someone else you're never alone doing God's work. Now you may never know who those other people are but there's always a buddy at work or there's a grandma or a mom there's people you don't even know having an impact on the same people that you're called to minister to you're not alone.

I love how in the book of Revelation God reveals this to John when he feels isolated and solitary on the island of Patmos and God says to John and to you and me look you know there's billions of you out there so don't be afraid. So look back over your notes Moses is I'm a nobody I'll be with you I don't know what to say tell them what you've experienced and seen what if they don't believe me I'll give you power don't speak too good I'll help you send somebody else you're not alone I'll send help we're all out of excuses so step out in faith.

Maybe you feel like I can't do it I don't know enough I'm so average and Jesus is looking at you saying but you're the exact kind of person I've been using for centuries. Somebody once said this nothing ever happens to people who always say no so say yes to God and see what happens it just takes small faith in a big God. Heavenly Father thank you for calling us and I pray that you would help us to go boldly and with confidence and gentleness and love knowing that we truly can help change the world as you work through us and we pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.