When it Looks too late for a Comeback

Intro

We are in the 6th message on How God turns setbacks into comebacks. Tonight we will talk about How God turns a setback into a comeback when it looks too late for a come back.

Now as soon as I say it’s too late, you probably think about sports when it’s too late for a comeback.

In football when you are down 4 touchdowns with 2 minutes to go.

In baseball you are 14 runs behind in the 9th inning with 2 outs.

In those instances, it is too late for a comeback, but it’s never too late in life. There is always something that God can do in your life.

Maybe you like gardening. If you have a dead bush, you know it’s not coming back… right? You can wait but if it’s dead, it’s not coming back.

But a bush is not you. As long as you are breathing in this life, there is time for a comeback in your life.

It’s never too late for a comeback.

The life of Moses is a great example of a comeback… of how God works in our lives when it looks like it’s too late for a comeback. Maybe it looks lke it’s too late because so much time has passed since your setback. Maybe it looks that way because you have had so many setbacks. Maybe it feels that way because you have missed so many opportunities for a comeback since your setback. So you think it might happen for others but not for me. They might get a comeback but not me… I have done too much.

Let me say this.

You may not get what you lost, but God has a comeback for you.

You might not get the job… the money, the house, even the marriage back. But God has a comeback for you. He has something new He still wants to do in your life.

Moses had big setbacks, but he had great comebacks and I hope that His story will encourage you tonight.

Moses was born as a Hebrew in Egypt as a slave when Pharaoh had ordered all male Hebrew children to be killed. Moses should have been killed. But he was put into the Nile river and found, adopted and raised by Pharaoh’s daughter as an Egyptian. It looks like he is set for life. He is a prince of Egypt… possibly in line for the throne, and then this happens.

Acts 7:23–29 NLT

23 “One day when Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his relatives, the people of Israel. 24 He saw an Egyptian mistreating an Israelite. So Moses came to the man’s defense and avenged him, killing the Egyptian. 25 Moses assumed his fellow Israelites would realize that God had sent him to rescue them, but they didn’t. 26 “The next day he visited them again and saw two men of Israel fighting. He tried to be a peacemaker. ‘Men,’ he said, ‘you are brothers. Why are you fighting each other?’ 27 “But the man in the wrong pushed Moses aside. ‘Who made you a ruler and judge over us?’ he asked. 28 ‘Are you going to kill me as you killed that Egyptian yesterday?’ 29 When Moses heard that, he fled the country and lived as a foreigner in the land of Midian. There his two sons were born.

Moses will live in the land of Midian for 40 years, afraid because somebody knew he killed someone and that Pharaoh would find out. He was afraid of the consequences of that.

While in the land of Midian, he marries, becomes a shepherd, and has children. He is a shepherd… not quite as glamours as being a prince of Egypt. As Stephen tells it in Acts, years later, an Angel appears to him.

Acts 7:30 NLT

30 “Forty years later, in the desert near Mount Sinai, an angel appeared to Moses in the flame of a burning bush.

The book of Exodus goes into more detail.

Exodus 3:1–2 NLT

1 One day Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock far into the wilderness and came to Sinai, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the middle of a bush. Moses stared in amazement. Though the bush was engulfed in flames, it didn’t burn up.

He didn’t know it at the time, but Moses was being set up for a comeback. It starts with a burning bush experience. This is not unique to Moses. The burning bush part that didn’t burn up was, but Many of you have had a “burning bush’ experience in your life.

Here is what I mean.

A Burning Bush: In the midst of the routine when you least expect it you are surprised by God’s invitation.

That’s what the Burning Bush experience was for Moses and it can be for you too. Moses was just having a routine boring day watching sheep just like he did every day. There was nothing different about this day.

Some of you. You got up this morning, you came to church, just like most Sundays. You are in church one more time.

Moses had been watching sheep for 40 years… 14,600 mornings, and he expected this day to be just like the rest.

Maybe just like Moses, you expect this day or a day at work to be just like any day… nothing different.

But then God shows up and Moses is surprised.

Now what was extraordinary in this is not the bush. It was the fire in the bush… God’s presence in the middle of the bush.

God’s presence changes things.

It can cause a bush to catch fire. It can cause people to come to life. That’s what God can do.

So Moses sees the Bush, and begins to move closer to the bush.

Exodus 3:4–5 NLT

4 When the Lord saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called to him from the middle of the bush, “Moses! Moses!” “Here I am!” Moses replied. 5 “Do not come any closer,” the Lord warned. “Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground.

What surprises Moses first about the bush is that he hears his name. I want some of you to hear your name called today as we go through this story.

Then God tells Moses you are standing on Holy Ground. That chair you are sitting in… wherever you are heairng this message, is Holy Ground. I am not saying to take off your shoes because no-one around you will appreciate that. But right where you are can be a space that God shows up in your life.

Moses has this meeting with God that gave him the power to take the next step in his life and as you watch what happens with Moses and God, you might gain insight into the struggle we all go throw when God challenges us to make a comeback. It’s not always easy when God says, Hey I have a comeback for you… It can be scary. We looked at that last week.

So Moses and God have this conversation. When God has a comeback for you, you will have to have a conversation with God. Sometimes it’s been so long you think… this won’t work. The truth is that you are afraid to hope. You don’t want to be disappointed again. Moses goes through all of that in this meeting with God. He goes through many of the same emotions we go through when God says, hey, I have something for you to do… I want to do a new thing… to give you a comeback.

Moses has a lot of the same questions that we have when God says these things to us. So let’s look Moses 4 questions.

4 Questions when God turns setbacks into comebacks.

1. Who am I?

IOW, God, who am I to do that? I don’t have it in me. Don’t you see I am just a … shepherd, waitress, maintenance person… Who in the world do you think I am that I could do THAT? Look at Exodus.

Exodus 3:11–12 NLT

11 But Moses protested to God, “Who am I to appear before Pharaoh? Who am I to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt?” 12 God answered, “I will be with you. And this is your sign that I am the one who has sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God at this very mountain.”

Moses is in protest mode. He has his argument up as to why it won’t work. Who am I to appear before Pharaoh? to lead the people?

God’s answer: I will be with you.

Moses basically said… yea right. I am just too ordinary… I am not qualified. The truth of the matter is that if we look at ourselves, we will never be qualified. You will always be too short… to tall… too small… to big… too smart… too dumb… too young… to old…you fill in the blank. There will always be an excuse why we can’t do what God is telling us to do.

God is telling Moses, don’t look at your qualifications… that’s the wrong place to look. Sometimes we settle into our setbacks and it becomes the routine in our lives. That’s what happened to Moses. Sometimes we just think… it’s just the way I am. But God says, no. I have something better for you to do. Sometimes we become stuck in our setbacks and think there is no way out. We hear God knock but we feel like we are the last person on the planet that could answer that call. That’s how Moses felt. And God had an answer for him. God told him that He woudl be with him.

God could have built Moses up. That’s what we do. Remember Moses was an Israelite who grew up in Pharaoh’s household. God could have said that Moses was the most qualified person to lead these people. You are the only Israelite that grew up in the house of Pharaoh. But he didn’t do that. He didn’t point to Moses qualifications.

He told Moses, I will be with you.

What that says to me is that when I am looking at a comeback in my life, even when it seems too late, I don’t need to look at my qualifications, I need to look at who God is and know that He is with me.

If you are going through a tough time, what are you looking at? Your ability or God’s. Look to the Lord. He said he will be with you just like he was with Moses.

So God is giving Moses an object lesson. It was the burning bush. It wasn’t that the bush was special, it was God’s presence. Someone once siad, Any old bush will do…

The point is that Moses saw it was God that would work in and through his life.

It’s not your ability that matters to God, it’s your availability.

God is more than able to make up for any lack of ability that you feel that you have. Maybe you don’t feel like you have anything of worth for the Lord to use. Maybe you feel inadequate. God says he will be with you in the middle of those feelings. It’s not about Him taking them away, instead it’s a matter of stepping in by faith and realizing God’s going to be with you no matter what.

Here is a fact. Everybody has felt inadequate at one point or another. Some will admit it and some won’t. Have you ever wondered why we all feel inadequate? Because we are. We are all inadequate for the things God wants to do in and through us. If we weren’t, we wouldn’t need God. Look what Paul said in 2 CO 3:5

2 Corinthians 3:5 NLT

5 It is not that we think we are qualified to do anything on our own. Our qualification comes from God.

When we feel inadequate, and we all will, we’ve got a choice. We can go after our comfort and control to try to make ourselves feel better or we can go after God’s love and find the strength to answer that question… who am I?

So instead of trying to build ourselves up so that we feel better, we need to trust God and trust that he will give us the strength and ability to do what he calls us to do.

That brings us to Moses 2nd question.

2. Who are you?

Ok, you say you will be with me, but who are you? He wants to know who God is if he is gong to depend on him, and we need that too.

Exodus 3:13–14 NLT

13 But Moses protested, “If I go to the people of Israel and tell them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ they will ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what should I tell them?” 14 God replied to Moses, “I Am Who I Am. Say this to the people of Israel: I Am has sent me to you.”

He didn’t even know what that meant right then. It probably sounded like he didn’t finish the sentence. But that is the truth about who God is… write that in.

God’s answer: I am.

When God says He is I am, he is saying I am the one who can meet your every need. He adds something to this name to meet whatever circumstance someone is in.

Here are a few examples.

Jehovah Jireh - I am your provision.

Jehovah Nissi - I am your victory.

Jehovah Shalom - I am your peace.

Jehovah Rapha - I am your Healer

God is saying that he can and will meet every need. In a world where we will say, I wish I had… God says, I am not about wishes. I am. I am the one who can meet all your needs. Once you understand this, I am takes on a new meaning and brings us comfort.

Look at Moses 3rd question.

3. What about them?

He is saying what about these people I am going to? He is thinking that he has abad feeling about this. It’s just not going to work.

Here's how the conversation is going to go, I can sense God, what's going to happen. I'm going to go to them and I'm going to say, “Well, I was talking to this bush one day” and it's just going to go downhill from there.  I mean, nothing good is going to come out of this. I'm going to go into the whole I am thing, they're going to be just as confused as I was. God, this is not working. By the way God, I tried this once before. I tried to be the savior of these people. I tried to set them free, and it didn't work. Do You remember that? God's going, yeah I think I remember that.

Moses is saying what about them? This argument goes on for a couple of chapters.

Exodus 4:1–2 NLT

1 But Moses protested again, “What if they won’t believe me or listen to me? What if they say, ‘The Lord never appeared to you’?” 2 Then the Lord asked him, “What is that in your hand?” “A shepherd’s staff,” Moses replied.

Let me ask a question. What are “they” keeping you from? What are they keeping you from doing? How are they keeping you from God’s best for you? What if they reject me? don’t approve of me? ignore me? look down on me? don’t like me? When we think like this, we never take risks… we never step out. We have this tape of someone going on in our minds. The people may be gone, but we still hear their voices.

So what do we do when we are paralyzed by the fears of what someone might think, do or say? First, realize you are not alone. Moses was paralyzed by those same fears at first. We have to get our eyes off of them and onto God.

You may be thinking that sounds good but how do I do that? Here is God’s answer to Moses.

God’s Answer: What’s in your hand?

The answer to the fear of them, what other people think, what other people might do, in this case it's look at what God's put in your hand. Quit looking at the unknown them and look at what's in your hand. God uses some very familiar things to take away Moses' fear of what they might do or think. He says look at your hand. He looks at his hand and he's holding a shepherd's staff. Take a look… Exodus 4:3-4

Exodus 4:3–4 NLT

3 “Throw it down on the ground,” the Lord told him. So Moses threw down the staff, and it turned into a snake! Moses jumped back. 4 Then the Lord told him, “Reach out and grab its tail.” So Moses reached out and grabbed it, and it turned back into a shepherd’s staff in his hand.

Here is God’s answer to Moses. Take what’s in your hand and put it in God’s hands. Trust me with it. It may seem like something simple, but whatever it is that is in your hands, when you put it in God’s hands things begin to change. Whatever talent you have, give it to God and let him begin to change it.

In God's hands, a staff can become a snake.

In God's hands, a failure can become a focus on God's purpose in your life.

In God's hands, a problem can become a promise of personal growth.

In God's hands, a disappointment can become a new dream.

In God's hands, your greatest hurt can become your greatest ministry.

In God's hands, a cross of torture can become a place of forgiveness, a tomb can become a place of resurrection.

God can do anything.

When you look at what yo have to get past… that fear that’s keeping you from taking the next step of faith… of taking the next step towards what God wants to do in your life… We take what we have in our hands, put it in God’s hands and say God I am trusting you with this.

You break free when you realize you can't give God what you don't have so stop waiting to give God something you don't have yet. All you can give is what you have, and it's more than enough. What you have when you put it in God's hands, it is more than enough because God isn't looking for the extraordinary. Guess what? God is already extraordinary.  It's not like, wow, you brought me that, I've never seen that before. That's the best, fill in the blank I've ever seen. Whoa, I'm so impressed, I'm just blown away. That's not what God's looking for.

He's looking for ordinary people to bring it to Him, because that's what's extraordinary. That's when He does extraordinary things in our lives because then He gets the credit, then He shows the world who He is. That brings Him glory and that brings us all joy. What's in your hand? That's the question, what's in your hand? You want to take that step of faith, says God? Here it is. You can do that in your mind right now. God, here it is.

Moses has one more question…

4. How About this?

This is the big reason it won’t work. Moses saved his best argument for last. Check it out…

Exodus 4:10–11 NLT

10 But Moses pleaded with the Lord, “O Lord, I’m not very good with words. I never have been, and I’m not now, even though you have spoken to me. I get tongue-tied, and my words get tangled.” 11 Then the Lord asked Moses, “Who makes a person’s mouth? Who decides whether people speak or do not speak, hear or do not hear, see or do not see? Is it not I, the Lord?

He is almost blaming God. He says, I don’t speak very well, and you haven’t changed it since we’ve been talking. Look at God’s answer to Moses in Exodus 4:11 “11 Then the Lord asked Moses, “Who makes a person’s mouth? Who decides whether people speak or do not speak, hear or do not hear, see or do not see? Is it not I, the Lord?”

Moses says’ I am not a good speaker. Moses felt handicapped. There are all sorts of handicaps… physical, emotional, mental. People are often handicapped by their decisions or their past or they feel handicapped by their education, family, age or even their emotions.

When you feel that way, and you begin pointing out why you can’t do something, God has an answer.

God’s answer: I’m in control

That’s what God was saying when he said, Who made your mouth? He is saying I am in control. I made your mouth and I can work through your words. God can work with and through your handicaps. He cares about you and about your handicap, but he wants you to be aware of HIS power even in the midst of your shortcomings. He reminds Moses that he cares, he understands but he still wants to work though him.

Two people God has used greatly to speak to those who face handicaps are Joni Erickson Tada, and Nick Vujicic. Joni was paralyzed as a teen in a diving accident. Nick was born without any arms or legs.

Joni wrote in her autobiography, I wonder how many weeks and months of depression and boredom I could have bypassed had I agreed with God in the beginning. I spent so many of my early days in my wheelchair idling away time in front of a television, apathetic and self-pitying. Stubbornness makes for long transactions between us and God. It's amazing that God continues to work in the lives of stiff necked contrary people. He just won't take no for answer. That fact begins to shed light on another more amazing fact. If God is so heaven bent on using us, even when we resist Him then He must have something extraordinary in mind. Think of it, you are worth the effort."

I'm saying that to you, you are worth the effort of God never giving up on you.

Nick writes. You should never live according to what you lack. If you can't get a miracle, become a miracle.

Your handicap is not in control, God is in control.

Moses listens and finally he says yes to God. What a comeback he has. What a life he has because he says, “Yes” to God that day. If he hadn't said yes to God, think of what he would have missed.

He would have missed the splitting of the Red Sea.

He would have missed seeing God's presence in a pillar of fire and a pillar of cloud leading the people.

He would have missed seeing manna fall from heaven to feed them.

He would have missed receiving the ten commandments from God up on the mountain.

He would have missed leading the people to the edge of the promise land.

But he said yes.

But when he said yes that day, he didn't say yes to all those things. He didn't know anything about it. What he said yes to you is taking one step towards Egypt. Just one step. Just the first step. That's how you start the comeback. You don't know how the story is going to end, all you can do is take one step in the direction of which you know God is telling you to do. God was telling Moses to go to Egypt, he took one step in that direction, changed his life.

What's God telling you to do? What step of faith do you need to take? You take one step in that direction, it changes your life. I got a question about this, because it's not always easy to take those steps. My question is what caused Moses to be able to do this? How did he take that even first step? We get some insight into this.

The book of Hebrews talks about Moses and his faith and it tells us a couple of things about the kind of faith that he had.

Hebrews 11:26 NLT

26 He thought it was better to suffer for the sake of Christ than to own the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking ahead to his great reward.

Moses changed in his mind what the true reward is. It wasn’t all the stuff he could have had on earth. All of a sudden it was His connection to God. That’s what gave him the strength to take that first step and it stayed with him the rest of his life.

Check this verse out.

Hebrews 11:27 NLT

27 It was by faith that Moses left the land of Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger. He kept right on going because he kept his eyes on the one who is invisible.

He couldn’t see God but he trusted God. Only he who sees the invisible can do the impossible. He is more powerful than anything we can see.

When we think about setback in our lives some of us are stuck in our on little world. We get stuck in the day to day stuff. The question is “how do we break out? We have to realize that God is bigger. He is the only one big enough to give us purpose and meaning.

Is the 70, 80, 90 years on this planet, is it really all that I was born for? Is the day to day of this busyness all that I was born for?

How do you get from being stuck in either your little world or your great big world? You realize that God is bigger. God's bigger than our little worlds, He's bigger than our big worlds, because He's bigger than everything. You realize that He's bigger. He's got a great significance. He's got a greater purpose.

Moses had been stuck in both. First 40 years of his life he's stuck in a big world, he's in the palace of Pharaoh and God helped him break out. Then the next 40 years he's stuck in a little world taking care of sheep every day, day after day after day. God helped him to break out.

I love D.L. Moody's famous quote about Moses.

Moses spent 40 years thinking he was somebody and then he spent 40 years on the back side of a desert realizing that he was a nobody and finally he spent the last 40 years of his life realizing what God can do with a nobody.

Whether you feel like a somebody or a nobody, that's not the point. God's the point. He is bigger than however you feel about yourself. He's bigger than whatever is happening in your life and He has the power to do something new in your life. It starts where it started with Moses.

Have you heard God call your name? Even right now, this sense that sometimes your heart just starts beating faster when that happens. You can't quite describe it. You haven't felt that way before, you haven't felt that way for a long time. God's calling your name.

God's saying will you take the next step towards what I have in your life? Next step towards Egypt? Next step towards faith? Next step towards following me? Because this same God who called and sent Moses is still meeting people just as unsure of themselves as Moses was that day, revealing His purposes, saying take the next step, and then doing amazing things in our lives.

I got one last verse, because I'm concerned. I'm concerned that for some of you your issue isn't with a circumstance that you're facing, that you feel like you need to overcome that setback in your life. Your issue isn't with a person, your issue is with God. You feel like it's too late for you and God. You had opportunities to make a decision, to have faith in God. You passed Him by, it's too late or you did some things, even though you were a follower of God you're ashamed of still today. It's just too late for you to ever hear from God again.

I don’t know what is between you and God but I want to show you a verse where God speaks to this with absolute clarity. If you feel like it's too late for you and God. Here's what God has to say in the book of Joel 2:12

Joel 2:12 CEV

12 The Lord said: It isn’t too late. You can still return to me with all your heart. Start crying and mourning! Go without eating.

Prayer time -

If that’s you and that verse gives you some hope, act on that hope. Thank God that he is giving you hope… that he is saying, it’s not too late. Tell him that you are going to trust Him… for forgiveness… with every area of my life.

God, you have my attention.” “God, thank You that You will be with me. God, thank You that You are the I am. You are the one who can meet my every need. Thank You, God, that You can use me as I am, as I take what's in my hand and I give it to You. Thank You, God, that no matter what I face, I can be confident that You are in control. In Jesus name, I thank You. Amen.