"WHO SHALL I SAY SENT ME"

TEXT: Exodus 3:11-14

THESIS: Romans 15:4 what is written in the scriptures, Old Testament, is written for our learning; Matthew 28:18-20 (Mk. 16:15-16) we are commanded to “go” and sometimes it can seem to be intimidating to follow that command, especially in our world today; but we can draw courage from Moses and many others because they were told to “go.”

INTRODUCTION: “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.”

1. When we think of the state of things today it can be hard and discouraging, especially in trying to obey certain commands.

a. The command to “go” for instants, this is a command (Matt. 28:19-20; Mark 16:15-16).

b. Yet, at times we fear following; coming up with serval reasons not to follow this command.

1.) What do I say?

2.) I do not know how to teach.

3.) That is the preacher's job because I do not know what to do.

2. Let us look at the command “Go ye therefore and teach all nations baptizing in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I command you…”

a. “Go” who is Christ talking to; the disciples.

b. “Teach” who are the disciples to teach; those that are not disciples.

c. “Baptize” those whom you have taught and make them disciples.

d. “Observe all things” they need to be doing what you have done for them.

1.) This is the command, and we understand that, and we all are here why because we love the Lord.

2.) We show that by keeping His commands (John 14:15).

3.) His commands are not hard to follow in fact they are easy, what makes some of the commands “hard” is that some are against what we want (1 John 5:3).

3. This morning we are going to take a lesson from Moses, and his hesitation, this man one of the greatest leaders of human history did not want to follow the command “Go.”

4. These will be our four points:

a. Moses excuses.

b. God’s Assurance.

c. Moses Reluctance.

d. God’s Authority.

DISCUSSION:

I. MOSES EXCUSES (V.11).

A. Moses' story is familiar to us.

1. The Hebrew writer gives a summary of this man's life (Heb. 11:23-29).

a. Moses was hidden by his mother for three months, and his mother did not fear the king (Heb. 11:23).

b. Moses, even though he was raised by the pharaoh’s daughter, refused to be called her son (Heb. 11:24).

c. Moses had picked to suffer with the people rather than to live in comfort (Heb. 11:25).

2. The Hebrew writer paints the picture for us of the faith of Moses, but before he led the people.

a. Before he struck the rock.

b. Before the parting of the sea.

c. Before the plagues that destroyed Egypt.

3. Moses was a shepherd to his father-in-law, Jethro.

a. From here (Exodus 3:2-10) we are familiar with the story.

1.) Moses went looking for a wayward sheep.

a.) Came to a bush that was on fire but was not consumed by the fire (V.3)

b.) Out of the fire he hears a voice which gives Moses a command.

2.) Now we understand this voice was the voice of the Lord (God).

a.) God, is giving Moses a command to go and take a message to the pharaoh.

b.) This is directly told to Moses; You are going to go and do the things that I tell you Moses (Ex. 3:3-10).

b. God tells Moses that this is what you are to do, and we are going to get to Moses in one minute.

1.) Imagine if you or I were in Moses' position what would our reaction be in this situation?

2.) How would we be thinking, after the shock, and we concluded that we are not crazy and seeing things.

3.) You, God, out of all people want me, Savion to do what?

B. This is what Moses’ reaction was; You want me to do what?

1. Exo. 3:11, “Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharoah, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?”

a. “God who am I to go,” that is what Moses said; God gave Moses a direct command.

b. Moses, just like any of us, Moses responded with I am nobody, why should Pharaoh listen to me.

c. Can this not be applied, as we have a similar mindset today?

2. Now we are not directly today by God, but through his word to “go.”

a. We can understand this, Matt. 28:19-20; Mk. 16:15-16, this is a command to evangelize no question about it.

b. Then, we go and knock on doors, tell our friends, and family, and are rejected or confronted with questions we cannot answer and get discouraged.

1.) That is when we stop, and then excuses are made as to why we shouldn’t do this and that.

2.) Now I want to make this clear, I am not speaking of any one person, but Christians as a whole.

c. The church that Christ built Matt. 16:18; Acts 2, is dying and it is dying.

1.) Within the U.S., membership in the churches of Christ has declined by 12% between 1980 through 2007.

2.) That was in 37 years and has only gotten worse, one reason is the lack of evangelism.

3.) That simple command to “go.”

C. Just like Moses, we can make excuses not to follow the command because of whatever reason.

1. Moses' excuse was who am I, and sometimes that is ours as well.

a. I have heard this illustration used: if God told you to go tell the leader of your nation and make demands and then tell him God said so; You would make excuses as well, but does that excuse the command?

b. No, but, God still told us what we need to be doing.

II. GOD’S ASSURRANCE (V. 12).

A. Here is Moses a man who was raised in Pharaoh’s house he knows what Pharaoh can do to him.

1. We also just saw that he was coming up with excuses for why he cannot do what God has tasked him with doing.

2. But look at how God handles this concern.

a. “He said, Certainly I will be with thee…”

b. Let’s examine this for a moment because this is a very important thought.

3. God knows everything, think about the excuses of Moses, and more importantly let’s put ourselves in his position.

a. What is one of the top excuses?

b. If I go and do this I will be by myself, I am all alone.

1.) This fear is not a unique fear, Elijah the prophet, asked for death because his life was being threatened and he felt alone.

2.) 1 Kings 19.

3.) So, do you not think Moses felt this way, if we feel alone, Elijah the prophet felt alone.

c. Moses probably felt like he would be by himself, going up against the most powerful man of the time.

1.) Then, God said, when you Go I am with you.

2.) Does he tell us the same thing (Heb. 13:5)?

3.) In the command to go, I find it interesting he tells Moses that I will be with you; and when we are told to “go” God in the flesh tells us the same thing (Mat. 18:19-20; Mk.16:15-16).

B. Let’s continue with the verse.

1. “. . .this shall be a shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee…”

a. So, again God knows everything, including what we need, and he gave Moses what he needed to execute the command.

1.) That, in itself, is a sermon or study of things we need vs. wants.

2.) God, tells Moses you have everything that you need.

b. God gave Moses the tools that he needed to do the work.

1.) Never said the work was going to be easy.

2.) Never said the work was not going to cause discomfort but he had what he needed.

2. Guess what God has done the same for us.

a. God has given us everything that we need to do the work that He has set us to do.

b. 2 Peter 1:3-4:

1.) According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:

2.) Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

3. God, gave to Moses and He gave to us as well.

a. But, you know what could possibly be a problem that we have?

b. How often do we use the tools that He has given us?

1.) Could that mean reading and studying most definitely.

2.) Could that mean using the resources made by faithful brethren of course?

3.) But, that is not the only thing, an old preacher once said, “The motto for every preacher should be 1 Timothy 4:16.

a.) I think it should be the motto for every Christian.

b.) “Take heed to thyself and unto the doctrine, continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt save them that hear them.”

c. Knowledge is the application of learning.

1.) Wisdom is the application of knowledge.

2.) Prudence is the application of wisdom.

3.) These are the tools that God has given us that we need to apply when following any command.

a.) Knowledge – study God’s word so you can know God and apply it to ourselves and be ready to share with others.

b.) Wisdom – After applying the word of God to ourselves and others seeing the change encourages them to want to know the truth.

c.) Prudence – knowing the right time and place and being open to the opportunity.

C. Moses had assurances from God.

1. He had the promise that God was with him, and we have that same promise that God is with us (Exo. 3:12; Matt.28:19-20).

2. He had tools from God to help him accomplish the tasks that needed to be accomplished; Although we do not have the same tools that Moses did, we have the greatest tool given to us by God so that we can accomplish our tasks.

III. MOSES RELUCTANCE (V.13).

A. So, now Moses made his excuses and God has assured him.

1. Wouldn’t you think that once you take away the excuses of a person that would be the end of the discussion?

a. Especially when it is with the being who created everything.

b. Gen. 1.

2. I mean God cannot do this because of A, B, or C.

a. God says okay I am going to take away reasons A, B, and C.

b. You would think that would be the end right?

3. Let me ask you a question is it the end for us?

a. When I was living at home, and I did not want to clean my room my mom would leave a trash bag, a broom, and a dustpan in my room, taking away my excuses right?

b. Then when it was not clean at the end of the day, she asks Why is it not you know what I said?

1.) “I was going to after this…”

2.) “I was waiting on that to get finished…”

B. No, I was reluctant to clean my room because I just didn't want to, and with that reluctance came hesitation and more excuses.

1. Something I should have already done.

2. Something that I had every tool and no real good reason not to do.

a. In the next verse that is exactly what we see Moses doing the same thing.

b. God gave Moses the assurance that he needed to do the work.

3. But look at how Moses responded to God, “And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them…”

a. God, I am going to go do the task that you would have me to do, but they are going to ask me questions about what I should say to them.

b. Better yet, God I know you told me what I should do already, but can you clarify what you mean?

C. This reaction Moses was him saying well if I did do this then that will happen, and I do know what to do about this and what should I say.

1. Moses is clearly showing reluctance here to do what God has commanded him to do after God assures him.

2. The same can be said for us, and this is a man who was given direct revelation from God.

D. Our reluctance comes from what people might say or think possibly.

1. A fear of being rejected, is probably what Moses was fearing as well, and although we know the outcome of Moses going; he did not know what the outcome would be when God was talking to him at this moment.

2. We often show reluctance because we do not know the outcome or how things will turn out and we, base things on our own experiences, instead of just following the commands that God lay before us and trusting in Him.

3. Our experiences are flawed why; just because something did not work the first second or third time does not mean it will not work here is an example.

a. A fisherman was fishing all night and came up empty, and this is the man's livelihood how he feeds his family.

b. Maybe a little discouraged or down he went and listened to a sermon from a well-known preacher, then after the sermon the preacher told the fisherman to go back out on the water.

c. The fisherman might have thought it was an odd request, but he listened to the preacher, and when they got out on the water, the preacher told the man the cast his net, and thought this was an even odder request because he was fishing all night and came up empty, but he said okay I will.

d. The result of the fisherman was his boat overflowed with fish, this preacher was also a carpenter and had no experience fishing and the fisherman was taught by the carpenter how to fish (Lk. 5:1-11).

4. The point is that our experiences we should learn from, but God's commands should overrule our own personal experiences.

IV. GOD’S AUTHORITY (V.14).

A. We see Moses make excuse after excuse.

1. Oh, I can not do what you ask who am I?

2. Oh, I do not know what to tell the people when I go unto them.

B. We also have seen God assure Moses.

1. God assures Moses and tells him I am going to be with you.

2. God has also told Moses I have given you all the tools that you will need to do What I have commanded.

C. We have made some applications along the way.

1. One is that we also make excuses for not doing what God says.

2. Another is that God has given us some assurances as well.

D. However, tired of excuses, done with the back-and-forth.

1. Closes the case.

a. God the self-existing one – Gen. 1:1; Jhn. 1:1; Psa. 90:2; Gen. 21:3.

b. God the creator – Psa. 19, 119; Isa. 40:28; Rom. 1:25.

c. God the Sovereign One – Eph. 1:11; Rom. 8:28; Col. 1:16-17; Pro. 16:33.

d. God the Unlimited One – Job 36:22-33.

2. God says, “I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say…”

3. CASE CLOSE!

a. You would think, but continuing in chapter four Moses continues to make more excuses and shows more reluctance, and in verse 14 God’s angered was kindled on a matter that should have been closes.

b. How do you think God feels when we do the same?

CONCLUSION: God with his unrivaled authority, has given a message that is life-giving, soul-saving, one that is able to make men free and it is the gospel of Christ (Rom. 1:16-18).

1. With all authority God in the flesh has told us how this message was to be delivered (Matt. 28:18-20).

2. So, we must decide if we are going to believe the command that God has given it.

a. Do we believe God?

b. Do we love God?

c. John 15:14 – “if you love me then. . .”