Kintsugi: Moses The Tounge-Tied Prophet(morning)
Notes
Transcript
Now yesterday we talk about a guy named Gideon, that pretty much was a nobody. He came from a small family. He lived in a land that was under constant attack. He was fearful and had hardly any faith. He was broken yet God used him. Repaired him and made him useful.
How many of you feel like there are things that you are just not good at? Maybe you aren’t as athletic as some of your friends. Or maybe there are things you just don’t seem to understand at school and you feel like maybe your not as smart as other kids. Maybe you feel like your not well liked by other kids, or you have trouble making friends.
When I was in school, I would have trouble reading lines. When the teacher would ask me to read a word. I knew all the individual words but ,when I was asked to read sentences I would mess up a lot.
In fact, I used to get scolded for not paying attention. This made me feel kind of dumb, like I wasn’t as smart as the rest of the kids.
But in reality, I just had problems with my eyes. Where most peoples eyes would move in a straight line back and fourth. My eyes would dip up and down causing me to lose my place.
Sometimes we can begin to believe that maybe we just don’t have as much to use for the Lord. Like maybe we just aren’t as important as other people.
Today we are going to talk about a man named Moses. Were going to call Moses, The tongue tied prophet. Did you know Moses has some issues too?
Now Moses was a man that was spared from being killed as a baby. His parents were Hebrew slaves in the land of Egypt . Pharaoh had decided there were to many Hebrews in Egypt so he decided to kill all the male babies. Moses parents hid him in a floating basket and he was found by one of the princesses of Egypt and he as raised as royalty.
However, one day Moses saw a slave master beating one of the Hebrew slaves. Moses trying to defend him killed the Egyptian slave master. Moses knew he had to run away.
After several year Moses married and became a shepherd. Putting all thoughts of his former life away.
This brings us to our story today.
1 Meanwhile, Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
2 Then the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire within a bush. As Moses looked, he saw that the bush was on fire but was not consumed.
3 So Moses thought, “I must go over and look at this remarkable sight. Why isn’t the bush burning up?”
I mean a bush that is on fire but not burning, I’d want to see that too. I mean that would be a pretty curious thing to see.
4 When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called out to him from the bush, “Moses, Moses!” “Here I am,” he answered.
5 “Do not come closer,” he said. “Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”
6 Then he continued, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God.
Can you imagine, first you hike up this mountain to see the craziest thing. A bush on fire, that is not burning. Then when you get close to it a voice begins to come out of the fiery bush and it’s God the creator of the universe calling your name. I mean this is a pretty bid deal.
Let’s listen to what God tells him.
7 Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people in Egypt, and have heard them crying out because of their oppressors. I know about their sufferings,
8 and I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and to bring them from that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the territory of the Canaanites, Hethites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.
9 So because the Israelites’ cry for help has come to me, and I have also seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them,
10 therefore, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh so that you may lead my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.”
Now Egypt at this time is the most powerful nation in the world. So that makes Pharoah the most powerful man in the world. So do you think Moses said to God, “hey no problem this old shepherd will tell Pharoah what’s up. I got this.”?
Of course not…He’s scared.
He tells God , Whom do i Tell them sent me? So God tells Him his name “I am”
Then Moses asks well what if they don’t believe me?
So God shows him these signs
1 Moses answered, “What if they won’t believe me and will not obey me but say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?”
2 The Lord asked him, “What is that in your hand?” “A staff,” he replied.
3 “Throw it on the ground,” he said. So Moses threw it on the ground, it became a snake, and he ran from it.
4 The Lord told Moses, “Stretch out your hand and grab it by the tail.” So he stretched out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand.
5 “This will take place,” he continued, “so that they will believe that the Lord, the God of their ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”
6 In addition the Lord said to him, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” So he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, his hand was diseased, resembling snow.
7 “Put your hand back inside your cloak,” he said. So he put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, it had again become like the rest of his skin.
8 “If they will not believe you and will not respond to the evidence of the first sign, they may believe the evidence of the second sign.
9 And if they don’t believe even these two signs or listen to what you say, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the Nile will become blood on the ground.”
Now surely after all that amazing stuff , Moses finally agreed to go right?
No.
I mean come on Moses. What else can God show you that would convince you to go?
10 But Moses replied to the Lord, “Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent—either in the past or recently or since you have been speaking to your servant—because my mouth and my tongue are sluggish.”
11 The Lord said to him, “Who placed a mouth on humans? Who makes a person mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?
12 Now go! I will help you speak and I will teach you what to say.”
13 Moses said, “Please, Lord, send someone else.”
14 Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses, and he said, “Isn’t Aaron the Levite your brother? I know that he can speak well. And also, he is on his way now to meet you. He will rejoice when he sees you.
You know we often do the same thing. We have the bible that records for us the great works of our Lord. We have way more signs than Moses had.
Yet because we are not good at something we think God would be better off using someone else.
But God reminded Moses of an important truth.
11 The Lord said to him, “Who placed a mouth on humans? Who makes a person mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?
God is not limited by our lack of ability.
In fact, God takes what is broken and uses it for his Glory. Moses biggest problem was not that he didn’t believe God was powerful, he just didn’t believe God was powerful enough to use him. In this way Moses was broken. But we are going to see God repair his brokenness and use it for his purposes.