It's God's Plan, Not Yours
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Good morning, it is great to be able to speak this morning, I am always thankful for the opportunity. If you would please turn in your Bibles to Please stand for the reading of God’s Word.
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
1 Then Moses answered, “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.’ ” 2 The Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.” 3 And he said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it. 4 But the Lord said to Moses, “Put out your hand and catch it by the tail”—so he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand— 5 “that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.” 6 Again, the Lord said to him, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” And he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous like snow. 7 Then God said, “Put your hand back inside your cloak.” So he put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh. 8 “If they will not believe you,” God said, “or listen to the first sign, they may believe the latter sign. 9 If they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground, and the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.”
10 But Moses said to the Lord, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.” 11 Then the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.” 13 But he said, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.” 14 Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses and he said, “Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Behold, he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. 15 You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and will teach you both what to do. 16 He shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth, and you shall be as God to him. 17 And take in your hand this staff, with which you shall do the signs.”
It has been a really busy time for me. Later this week we will be travelling to Lynchburg, Virginia as I am finally graduating from college. Yes, I squeezed a four-year degree into fifteen years so we will not be with you next week. But I was also not able to be here with you last week. Many of you know that when Courtney and I lived in South Carolina I worked with a group of middle and high school boys in a program called Christian Service Brigade. Think of Brigade as a sort of Christian Boy Scouts. We work with the boys to learn leadership skills and the older boys actually lead their own small group Bible studies called “squads.” Brigade was one of my big reservations about moving to Kentucky. I really did not want to leave that ministry. But, thanks to technology, I have been fortunate and privileged to continue working with them from here in Kentucky.
This past weekend, I travelled with them to my home state of “Almost Heaven” West Virginia for an annual competition called Camp-O-Rama. The boys got to have fun shooting rifles, throwing tomahawks and boomerangs (yes, you heard me correctly), shooting bows and arrows, orienteering, disc golf, fire building, and doing a chariot race. Now, let me pause on the chariot race. This event is intense. What happens is this, there are three large sticks about five to six feet long. A team of three boys takes three ropes and ties these sticks together in a triangle. One boy then mounts the chariot while the other two drag them around a course on the field. And yes, it is filled with tumbles, chariots falling apart, total carnage and chaos. It is wonderful.
But it is not just all about fun and games. One of the events is Scripture Memory. And this year the passage was difficult. It was . Listen to what these boys, some 11 years old, had to memorize,
4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. 9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?
This is not an easy passage, especially for some guys who are 11 and 12 years old. One of my favorite preachers, Steven Lawson, would say this is “big boy football.” But I was so proud of my guys. All nine of them said the verse perfectly without any mistakes.
They also worked on a service project for Camp Hemlock which is the camp where the competition was held. This was not just raking leaves or cutting some grass or doing some cleaning. No, this year 250 boys from all over the West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and our boys from South Carolina, built a bridge. A big bridge. They laid over 100 wooden planks that were 12 feet long, 10 inches wide, 6 inches thick, and weighed more than 120 pounds each. They installed over 1400 screw bolts. They covered a surface area of over 1400 square feet. That’s bigger than my house! This was all done between 9am and 5pm in rotations of 35 minutes. All in all, they saved the camp over $4,000 in labor costs.
So why am I spending so much time talking about Christian Service Brigade and Camp-O-Rama this morning? Part of it is because I believe it is the best ministry for young men, period. But more importantly, it is because I believe if we do not act, we are going to lose a whole generation to the world. In fact, did you know that 70% of church-going high school students will stop going to church once they get to college?
We have a generation growing up without being discipled in the faith. Sure they know about Jesus, they know about right and wrong, but do they really know how to live out their faith? That is what Christian Service Brigade does. It teaches men to mentor young men and it teaches those young men what it means to live out their faith among their peers.
At this point you are probably thinking, all of that is great David, but what in the world does this have to do with Moses in ? I think that a lot of the reason we are losing ground with the next generation, and our culture in general, is because a lot of us are like Moses. We are given a task by God and we question God, we try to find a way out, we try to make excuses. Let’s take just a minute to just review Moses’ life up to this point.
In , Moses mother, Jochebed, does something extreme. Pharaoh had commanded that all the newborn Hebrew boys be put to death because there was fear that the Hebrews were becoming to many in number. So Jochebed, knowing this, decides she is going to attempt to save her baby by putting him in a basket covering it with pitch and tar and setting it down in the reeds of the Nile River. Moses’ sister stood at a distance to watch what would happen to her baby brother.
Now you know the story. The daughter of Pharaoh finds the baby in the basket and takes it to be her own and names him Moses. But God would have it that Jochebed was able to take care of her baby for Pharaoh’s daughter.
So Moses was raised as a prince of Egypt, the most powerful nation in the world. The Bible does not fill in many details of Moses life in Egypt. But we actually do know quite a bit of what happened thanks to some ancient historians.
Philo tells us that Moses was an exceptional student as a boy and extremely talented. He was beyond his years. He was trained in math, philosophy, astronomy and other subjects. Josephus tells us that Moses was summoned by Pharaoh to become a general in the Egyptian Army to fight Ethiopia, which he conquered.
Luke tells us in that Moses was 40 years of age when he went out to his people in Egypt and struck down the Egyptian. He thought nobody saw him but they had. Pharaoh was not pleased. Now, there is a lot of back history as to why Pharaoh would want to kill Moses over killing this Egyptian builder that goes much deeper than the murder itself but we do not have time for that this morning. What you need to know is that Pharaoh sought to kill Moses and Moses fled to a nearby country called Midian.
In Midian, Moses saves the daughters of Jethro, the high priest of Midian, from shepherds that were trying to steal their flocks. Jethro ends up giving his daughter, Zipporah, to Moses as his wife and they have a son named Gershom.
Now what happens next in the life of Moses is where we get our text from today. The Pharaoh who sought to kill Moses had died and a cry and groaning went out from the Hebrew slaves to God and God remembers the covenant that he made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And we come to . Moses is keeping the flocks of his father-in-law Jethro and while in the wilderness God appears to him in the flaming bush. And here is what it says in
2 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. 3 And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” 4 When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5 Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6 And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
Now, if you are like me, if I am Moses, I am pretty freaked out by this point. I see a burning bush that is not being consumed by the fire. I’m not really sure that I would approach such a thing to begin with. But then, as Moses approaches the bush, a voice calls out to him from the bush. If it were me, I probably would have dropped of a heart attack right then and there.
But God speaks to Moses and tells him who He is. “Moses, I am the God of your fathers. You are on holy ground.” At this point, I am sure God had Moses’ attention.
So God goes over the plan with Moses. Moses, you are going to go to my people and take them out of Egypt. You are going to go to Pharaoh and tell him to let My people go. You are the deliverer that I promised would come. You are the one that will be their leader.
And now we are finally at , our text for today. And what does Moses say in verse 1?
Then Moses answered, “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.’ ” The Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.” And he said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it. But the Lord said to Moses, “Put out your hand and catch it by the tail”—so he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand— “that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.” Again, the Lord said to him, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” And he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous like snow. Then God said, “Put your hand back inside your cloak.” So he put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh. “If they will not believe you,” God said, “or listen to the first sign, they may believe the latter sign. If they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground, and the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.”
But Moses said to the Lord, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.” Then the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.” But he said, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.” Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses and he said, “Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Behold, he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and will teach you both what to do. He shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth, and you shall be as God to him. And take in your hand this staff, with which you shall do the signs.”
Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, “Please let me go back to my brothers in Egypt to see whether they are still alive.” And Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.” And the Lord said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all the men who were seeking your life are dead.” So Moses took his wife and his sons and had them ride on a donkey, and went back to the land of Egypt. And Moses took the staff of God in his hand.
And the Lord said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles that I have put in your power. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go. Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord, Israel is my firstborn son, and I say to you, “Let my son go that he may serve me.” If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son.’ ”
At a lodging place on the way the Lord met him and sought to put him to death. Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it and said, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me!” So he let him alone. It was then that she said, “A bridegroom of blood,” because of the circumcision.
The Lord said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So he went and met him at the mountain of God and kissed him. And Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord with which he had sent him to speak, and all the signs that he had commanded him to do. Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the people of Israel. Aaron spoke all the words that the Lord had spoken to Moses and did the signs in the sight of the people. And the people believed; and when they heard that the Lord had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped.
1 Then Moses answered, “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.’ ”
Moses questions God, he gives Him an excuse as to why he cannot be the one to do this. He says “Don’t you understand God? Your people will not listen to me? They will just say you did not appear to me and I am just making it up!”
So how does God respond?
Exodus 4:2-
2 The Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.” 3 And he said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it. 4 But the Lord said to Moses, “Put out your hand and catch it by the tail”—so he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand— 5 “that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.” 6 Again, the Lord said to him, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” And he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous like snow. 7 Then God said, “Put your hand back inside your cloak.” So he put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh. 8 “If they will not believe you,” God said, “or listen to the first sign, they may believe the latter sign. 9 If they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground, and the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.”
So the first thing we see is that Moses doubted God’s plan. He doubted God’s plan. So what did God do when Moses doubted his plan? He gave him signs of His power. He showed Moses a glimpse of what He could do.
Church, how often in our lives do we doubt God’s plan? God is telling you to do something and your response is that it just won’t work. Are we really in any position to question the plans of the Almighty God?
What plan is God telling you today? Are you having doubts about that plan? Now hear me on this, there is a difference between questioning whether something is truly God’s plan and questioning the plan itself. Obviously, we want to pray for wisdom and guidance as to whether or not something is truly the plan of God. But if you know it is the plan of God, don’t you dare question the plan itself. After all, Jonah dared to question God’s plan and he ended up in the belly of a fish for three days and nights because he ran from God. Do not question the plan of God. His plans are perfect.
So Moses doubts God’s plan but he continues in verse 10:
Exodus 4:10-
10 But Moses said to the Lord, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.”
So the second thing Moses does is to doubt his ability. He doubts his ability. But what does God do this time? He doesn’t give another sign to Moses. No, this time he rebukes Moses and puts him in his rightful place.
Exodus 4:
11 Then the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.”
Moses doubts his ability to the One who made him and gave him those abilities. Now, when we put it like that, it sounds crazy doesn’t it? But is that not exactly what we do sometimes? “I can’t do that God! I don’t know enough! I’m not smart enough! I don’t know how to do that! I’m not old enough, I’m not young enough, fast enough, whatever fill in the blank enough!” We question the very person who created us.
But what did God say to Moses? Who are you Moses? Who are you to question Me on your ability? Who made you? Who determines your ability? Is it not Me the Lord? Now go and do what I told you to do!
Church, when God gives us a task to do He is not asking our opinion about our abilities. He already knows what our abilities are. He knows what we are or are not capable of. He is not going to give us something that we cannot handle because He is the one that made us. He designed us. He built us. And if He says we can handle a task, you can count on it that we have the ability to carry it out for His glory and His glory alone.
So Moses has doubted God’s plan, he doubts his God-given abilities and in both cases God has rebuked him and shown him His power. But Moses was still not convinced. So finally, he defies God’s command. He resists the command of God.
13 But he said, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.”
Exodus 4:
But God had enough. It says in verse 14 that His anger was kindled against Moses. Yet, God still provided a way for the plan to go forward and sent Moses’ own brother, Aaron to him.
We know the story. We know what happens. Aaron and Moses go back to Egypt and go to Pharaoh and tell him to let the people go. Refusal after refusal and plague after plague plays out and finally, after the death of Egypt’s firstborn, the Hebrews are allowed to leave Egypt.
God had a perfect plan to bring His people out of Egypt in glorious fashion. In a way that no man could take credit. It was of God. But He also had a purpose for Moses to be an instrument in that plan.
The plan was going to play out either way. God is sovereign. But a lot of back and forth and the anger of God could have been saved if Moses had just received the plan and said, “Here am I Lord, send me.”
So what about you? What is God calling you to do today? What is something that the Spirit may be pressing against your heart but you are doubting the plan would ever work? Or maybe you are doubting your abilities? Or maybe you are just saying “God send someone else?”
Friends, God is the one who created the universe. He created you. He knows your circumstances. He knows your limitations. He knows what you are capable of. Who are we to question Him?
As we leave here today be sensitive to what God may be calling you to do in your life. Don’t be like Moses. Be ready and willing because whatever God calls you to will be for His glory. It may not be as big as bringing down ten plagues on top of the most powerful nation in the world or parting a sea to walk across, but it will have eternal impact for His glory.
If there is anything that you are holding back from doing come and talk to God about it this morning as we have our closing song.