RePlant Part 2
“24”
RePlant Part 2, 2007
Jeff Jones, Senior Pastor
February 16/18, 2007
Selected verses: Exodus 3 & 4
Welcome to the last week of season 1 of 24. What a ride this has been! Can’t wait for season 2. Today we come down to a very important specific: the unique role that God has carved out for you and me. In 24, we are talking about a big mission, a limited amount of time, and a unique role…today we are talking about that unique role. Though you can do all kinds of things, the Bible teaches that God has designed and equipped you for something, what the Bible calls a “calling.” A calling isn’t just for people with funny collars or people with reverend in front of their name…we all have a unique calling.
How many of you are Monty Python fans out there? Give me a couple of lines from the Holy Grail. One of the Monty Python skits from their Flying Circus shows was their take-off on the Special Olympics. One of the events was a race for those with no sense of direction. Everybody steps up to the starting line, the gun goes off, and they all run a different direction…nobody knows where the finish line is…they are all just running nowhere.
Without a sense of calling, that is how we as Christians will live our lives, just running nowhere. Yet, the more tuned in we are to God’s will for our lives, to the role that he has for us to play on this planet, the more purposeful and effective we will be. We can live life confidently, knowing that we are pursuing God’s purposes for us, like the apostle Paul who was able to say at the end of his life that he fulfilled his calling.
For a few happy people in history, God has made that calling very dramatic and clear…like the apostle Paul who got knocked off a donkey with a bright light and Jesus talks to him from heaven…or Moses who has the burning bush experience, or Balaam whose donkey talks to him. It might be nice if God did that kind of thing for us, but even the vast majority of the Bible men and women didn’t get the dramatic Jesus in the sky kind of call from God…but they still had a sense of calling and fulfilled it. As you pray about your calling, God might write it in the clouds in the sky “KIDZONE SMALL GROUP LEADER” (our children’s pastor paid me for that ad). He might make a shape in your mashed potatoes of a monkey, and you know you are supposed to work in men’s ministry. Yet, it’s probably not smart to expect that because God doesn’t reveal calling that way very often…but he does reveal it if we are open and willing to serve. The good news is that though it sounds mystical and mysterious, God’s calling in our life is actually more right in front of us than we know…discovering how God designed us is sometimes the hold up, but more often than not, it is following through and acting on what we know that holds us up.
Today we are going to look at the call of Moses, one of the more dramatic calls from God in the Bible, to learn how to discover our calling, our divine design, and how to follow through with the call. This message will be like a play with two acts.
Slide :) ___________________ Act One: The Discovery
(learning to follow the clues to our calling) and
Slide :) ___________________ Act Two: The Follow Through
(learning to push through reluctance to say yes to God). Turn with me to Exodus 3 (Exodus the 2nd book in the Bible), where we see the story, and let’s look at
Slide :) ___________________ Act One: The Discovery
to learn how to discover our own calling, find our own unique role:
Slide :) ___________________ Exodus 3:1-4
Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.” When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.” Ex 3:1-4.
Let’s stop here, because there is a key to discovering the call that is easy to miss. I know I’ve missed it all these years reading this passage. Moses sees this burning bush, which is a remarkable sight, and in the Hebrew it makes a big point of the fact that Moses “turned aside.” He didn’t just keep on going on with this life when he saw the bush, but instead, he “turned aside.” And the Hebrew also makes a big deal about his turning aside, because it says, “When God saw the Moses turned aside, then God called to him.” The way the story is written makes Moses’ decision a hinge point of the story. If Moses doesn’t turn aside, if he just goes on with his life, then God isn’t going to call out to him…If Moses does not turn aside, and he doesn’t have to, and he just goes on with his life—then there is no Exodus as we know it, Moses just lives out the rest of his life as a shepherd. Moses could have missed the call, missed his reason for being on the planet, if he did not choose to turn aside.
So, here is the question for you and me: How good are you at turning aside when God wants to speak to you? How hard is it for God to get your attention? Do you regularly stop and even ask the question, “God what is it you want me to do?”—especially at burning bush moments. The burning bush was not the call, just God’s way of getting Moses to stop his life and be open and ask the question.
Do you realize that by being in this church at this particular time, that you are experiencing a burning bush moment? I’m talking about Replant 2007. What God has us up to as a church right now is no every-day thing. It’s not like we are going to replant our church every two years. What God is doing right now is big, and it is no accident that you are part of it. It is no accident that God has led you to be in our church, right here, right now. God has a reason for you being here, a role for you to play—otherwise you wouldn’t be here. For all of us, this time in our church is a unique opportunity to listen to God, to be open to him, to ask the question, “God, what do you want me to do?”
Until we turn aside, God will not reveal anything. But Moses did turn aside, and because he did, God spoke and God revealed the calling. In Moses’ case, he revealed it directly, he just told him. Let’s read that part of the story:
Slide :) ___________________ Exodus 3:7-10
The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt” 3:7-10.
For Moses, God tells him his job: to be the point person that God will use to confront Pharoah and lead the people of Israel to the promised land. So, for Moses, a very clear sense of God’s direction in his life: God just told him. And, as I said before, for a few people in history God has done that. For the rest of us, however, he reveals his calling, our unique role, over time as we begin to serve, and we can discover our calling through three very important clues. If we begin to act on these three components of our calling, we can be confident that we are being faithful. God doesn’t need to speak to us directly because he has told us how we can find our unique role. So, let’s look at these three components of our calling. We can even see these played out in Moses’ life.
Slide :) ___________________ Life Experience
The first clue to our calling is our life experience. Nothing about our life is accidental. God has allowed everything in our lives to shape us into the people we are to serve him. Even those things in our lives that seem so random (why did God allow that?), are not random. God uses all of them, and life experience shapes us and gives us passion for particular ministry opportunities.
You can certainly see that in Moses’ life. Was it just random that when Moses was a baby, that Pharoah decided to try to control the population of the Hebrew slaves by killing all the male babies? Was it just random that his mom and sister put him in a reed basket in the Nile to save his life, and he was found by Pharoah’s daughter who adopted him? Was it random that Moses grew up not in his own family but the courts of Pharoah as a prince?
Or was it random that Moses got ahead of God and sinned by murdering an Egyptian that was treating a Hebrew slave harshly? Random that he ran for his life and found the family of Jethro and for 40 years lived out in the wilderness? No, Moses needed to learn humility and his character needed to be shaped. Though many things may have looked like they were just random at the time, none of them were.
Here is a principle we need to remember in finding our ministry direction:
Slide :) ___________________ Those life experiences that seem random may be the very things God uses to shape our character and give us passion for the ministry to which we are called.
Not too long ago I heard the life story of a popular Christian author, psychologist, counselor, and educator named Dan Allender. He and Tremper Longman, also an author and a college professor, are very close friends and write books together. The story of how that happened is a cool story. Dan grew up in a very troubled home, and he had a big chip on his shoulder. In 8th grade, he was the biggest, meanest kid in the middle school, and had really no friends. He was expelled the year before for hitting a teacher he didn’t like. He had no sense of identity, no sense of worth, and was just angry at the world. This was in 1970, where it was cool to have long hair. Dan had very curly hair, so instead of long, straight hair, which was the cool look for a white guy in 1970, he was a white guy with an afro, and he was pretty sensitive about it. He always wondered why if there was a God. God would give him that kind of hair. One day before a particular class started, this small, little kid sitting behind him asked him for a comb…he said, “You probably have one hidden in that mess of hair somewhere,” and people around began to laugh. Wrong move for the little guy. Dan turned around, grabbed his shirt right around his neck, and lifted him all the way on to the front of his desk. He was going to hit him, but for some reason decided not to and just put him back in his chair.
Later that day, the little kid saw him in the hall and said, “Hey, I’m sorry about earlier today. I’m wondering if you would like to come to my house after school to hang out and have dinner with my family.” That little kid was Tremper Longman, and it was the first time Dan had ever been invited over to someone’s house like that. He said yes, and that was the start of a life-long friendship. Tremper’s family was a Christian family, and he had never seen what Christians were like. He was blown away by them, and they just made him part of their family. Soon, he too became a Christian and through Christ and the love of that family, he began to form a sense of worth and identity in Christ. Those two have been best friends sense then. As Dan told the story, he said, “So many things in my life seemed random at the time…like my curly hair. But if I didn’t have the curly hair, I never would have met Tremper. I never would have gone to his home and found Christianity. And what prompted him to ask me over in the first place? None of my life has been random…even the parts of my life that I still don’t have answers for, fit in God’s puzzle plan of my life somewhere.”
He is way right, and guess what Dan is passionate about? He is passionate about helping other people find their sense of identity and worth in Christ. That’s what he writes about and is the focus of his teaching and counseling. Is that any accident? Of course not. Had he not struggled, he’d never have the passion or experience to do what he is doing today.
The same is true for you and me. I’ve wondered in my past why God couldn’t have let me cut my ministry teeth in my high school and college years in a healthy church that is missionally effective…I see these churches around the country that are, well like here, and wish I could have had that exposure. Don’t get me wrong, I learned about the Bible and those churches did believe in giving young people the opportunity to do ministry, so I’m thankful…but they were not healthy and not focused on mission. But guess what my ministry has been about all these years since then? Helping churches both here and around the world be healthy and focused on the mission…that’s what I am passionate about. Not so random after all.
A friend of mine has this great ministry to married couples and wives who are struggling. She has a very strong marriage herself, but it is her second marriage. She once told me she thought her ministry for God was limited because she had a divorce in her background, that God might use her a little but never a lot because of that stain on her resume. I said, “Do you think it is just coincidence that the ministry God has given you is helping couples have healthy marriages? Helping young wives and moms deal with the pressures of marriage and find their worth and meaning in Christ. Sometimes those things we think are disqualifications for ministry are the very things that qualify us. That’s God’s grace. He not only forgives our mistakes, but then redeems them…he turns them around to where we are even more qualified to help others in similar circumstances.
Take some time and think about your story. God has allowed you to experience what you have for a reason. Even your mistakes are part of your story that he can redeem and turn around for ministry.
Slide :) ___________________ Your Gifting
God has given every believer special abilities, called spiritual gifts, and they are a component of our calling. Many of us, however, do not feel that gifted. It’s like we are not in the gifted class. Moses felt that way too. Moses tries to tell God no, tries to convince God that he is not the right guy because he is not a gifted communicator. He says, “But God, I hate getting up in front of people. I’m not eloquent. I stink at communication.” He doubted his gifting. Even though we know Moses as a powerful leader and excellent communicator, he didn’t see himself that way.
You may not feel especially gifted either, but like Moses you are.
Slide :) ___________________ 1 Peter 4:10-11
says, Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ.
Slide :) ___________________ Romans 12:6-8
also says: We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully. Paul and Peter are giving some examples of spiritual gifts, and the point is not to assume you have one of these particular example gifts, though you might, but the point is that every one of us who knows Christ is in the gifted class. God has given you and me special abilities not just for us, but to serve others.
You and I are not given every strength, only some strengths, and God will hold us accountable for the strengths we have, not the strengths we don’t have. There are a few things God has wired me to do well, and that’s where I need to focus. I love teaching, for example, and preparing talks like this one…but there are parts of it I really stink at…like sermon titles. I’m terrible at doing sermon titles. In fact, let me tell you my title for this message I gave the team: “Week six of 24 on serving and the call of Moses”—inspiring title, isn’t it! Yet, there are people on the team who are great at that, and I’m happy to let them use their gifts.
If we are going to be faithful with our gifts, it helps to know what they are. Some of you know some of your gifts and abilities. You may be creative or a great singer or a teacher or encourager…but many of us have a hard time seeing our own gifts. We can see the gifts in other people and admire them, but when we look at us we don’t see much gifting because we take our gifting for granted. It’s kind of like when we stink after working out, it is our stink. After a while, we can’t smell it. It is hard also to see our own gifting. Someone who is hospitable let’s say, may not think they are gifted because they can’t sing…and they assume that hospitality is no big deal. Everyone else is amazed by their ability, but they can’t see it—because it is just something they do.
Because of that, one of the greatest gifts you can give the people you love is the affirmation of their strengths. Help them see it. Look for the strengths in others and name them. That is true for any relationship, but so important to remember for those of us who are parents. As parents, it is easy to see the short-comings of our kids and easy to name those…we can be really good at being weakness namers. And when I say weakness, I’m not talking about character weaknesses, but weaknesses of ability and aptitude. Our natural bent seems to want our kids to have every strength, so we focus on their weaknesses so that maybe they won’t have weaknesses any more…but that’s not how it works. We can make it seem like weaknesses or more important than strengths, and that is not how God sees it.
To test out this tendency, let me put this report card on the screens:
Slide :) ___________________ History: A+. English: A. Science: B+. Algebra: C-. (.JPG of report card)
Be honest here. Which grade do you think needs the most attention? Most of us would say, “Great job on history and English…but this math thing has got to change.” We’d focus on the math. Now, I know we want our kids to be able to pass and do well enough to move forward academically if they want to do so, but I think God would say, “Look at his or her gifts! Let them know where they are strong, and encourage them to use that for my glory.” They might be a great writer or speaker or historian or teacher…they can use those gifts to serve God.
All I’m saying is that our culture is pretty good about naming weaknesses. We’ve just got to make sure that as parents we are pretty good at naming strengths. Recently, we went to a friend’s bar mitzvah, which was really cool. I don’t know if you have ever been to a bar mitzvah, the Jewish ceremony celebrating the coming of age of a young man, age 13. Great food, great meatballs. Plenty of chocolate, had diet pepsi instead of diet coke, but that’s okay. I lived. Really cool, though. Part of the time, different relatives including his dad gave him a blessing, and part of that blessing was naming the gifts and strengths that they saw in him. They shared their vision of how those strengths might play out in his life. As Christians, we need to learn from that.
In light of that, this past summer, I took Collin on a turning 13 trip, and though we have talked about his strengths before, I wanted to write out what I saw in his life. I wrote a letter that shared a lot of things, but part of it was on his strengths. He gave me permission to share that part of the letter. I wrote: “alksjdalskjdf;ljsadfljasd jlksajdflajds laksjdflaskjdf la sdlfjsadlj a;lskdj fals dlfjasld jflaks jdflajds flas fas f sadfljasd lkfjasd jflkjadflkj lakjdsflajdsf lkjsad flajsd flajsd flkjsa dflkja slfdja l jkas dflja sdjf aslk dlfj asdlfj aldjf ldsjf dljf .” Do you realize what a blessing that is as a kid hearing that from a parent? Give your kids that blessing.
Let me encourage you to talk about this in your life groups your next meeting…name the gifts and abilities that you see in each other. Talk about how that might be used to serve others. Talk about it with your friends or family, perhaps around lunch today. One huge component of our calling is our gifts. They are given to us to be used to serve others.
Slide :) ___________________ Current Need
In addition to your life experience and your gifting, current needs in the church and in the community are also a component of gifting. Moses had life experience and gifts, but there was a particular need. As God said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt” 3:7-10. There was something needed in God’s kingdom, and that was what Moses needed to apply his gifting to.
The same is true for us. Deciding on our calling and where to best serve in ministry is not just about us and our desires. That is part of it, but we also have to be aware of what is needed. You may have background, passion, and gifting that would lead to a bonsai tree shaping ministry…which might be cool, but that may not be the biggest need in the church or community. It might, but might not.
Right now, in replant, the need is for each of us to think about which of the three environments we can help make happen for either adults, kids, or youth. By the three environments, I mean people connecting to God, which is large group worship; people connecting to people, which is small group connection; and people connecting to need, which is helping others serve the community and build bridges to others. These are the primary needs at Fellowship because these are our core ministries, and we have huge needs in all of these environments in every age group. So, as you pray, please pray about which environment for which age group you’d like to help make happen. There are all kind of ways to use your particular gifts to do so, like the technically gifted people who are helping produce this service right now…but there are hundreds of ways to serve.
So, you really don’t need God to write out your calling in the sky. Be willing to turn aside and ask God the big question about the burning bush…why do you have me here? What do you want me to do? And then look to the components of a calling: your background, your gifts and the current needs. To help you do so, coming up on Sunday, March 18 (4:00 p.m. in the Annex) we have an opportunity called
Slide :) ___________________ Impact Workshop slide
which is designed to help you discover these components and find out more specifically what the needs are. If you have yet to go through that, I strongly recommend that you do. Possible addition: Or if you have questions about serving, Ministry Involvement team members will be at the booth across from the Welcome area in the main lobby to help you get connected to an area of service.
Slide :) ___________________ Act Two: The Follow Through
(pushing through the reluctance to say yes to God). Act 2 is a smaller act in this play, but extremely important. For Moses, discovering his calling was only half the battle. He then had to follow-through, and he struggled…because it just didn’t seem perfect. He didn’t feel ready, he had other things to do, it just wasn’t the right time. Same with us. If you wait to serve God, let’s say in this church, until everything is perfect in your life, then you will never do it. People say, “Oh, I’ll jump in later,” when they are young and starting their career. Got a new job. Then they get married, and are newly married and want to focus on that. Then they have a baby, and then another…then their kids are really busy in activities, and on and on, and that person is like 95 years old and has some time, and they don’t feel like doing anything any more.
Turn with me back to Exodus 3. God gives a very clear call to Moses, but five times Moses tries to tell God no. He is listening to his reluctances instead of listening to God’s call. Here are his five reluctances:
Slide :) ___________________ Five Reluctances: I am the wrong guy!
Slide :) ___________________ Exodus 3:11
Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharoah and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” 3:11. Maybe you can relate when you think of being used by God. By this point in Moses’ life, he had really blown it big. Among other things, he had murdered someone. Why would God want to use him? Maybe you feel the same way. But I’m divorced. I’ve had an affair. I’ve had an abortion. I’ve struggled with addiction. If you are ever going to be used by God, you have to accept his grace.
Maybe you have heard that Jesus Christ died on the cross in your place. You understand that forgiveness of sin is offered as a gift and that new life is available by following Christ, but you have not yet personally responded - you have not yet decided to take Jesus as your Savior and your Teacher and your Friend and your Lord. This is your time.
This is your burning bush experience. And your heart's pounding right now, because you know God is saying to you, 'Don't leave here without doing that.' For some of you, now is the day to enter into grace - to receive the grace of God, forgiveness of sin through Christ's death on the cross. You need to say a little prayer tonight before you leave. You need to tell a friend, or come talk to me. Start a life of grace. Some of you are here tonight, and you're Christians, but you have not been living in grace. You have been beating yourself up. You live in guilt or shame over something from the past.
And you need to hear God say to you, "I know who you are - doesn't matter! Don't you know, the cross has made all of that irrelevant? Your sin and your guilt, your limitations, your shortcomings, are no longer the ultimate truth about you. God offers grace. God says, 'Live in grace, Moses. I'm going with you.’
Slide :) ___________________ Five Reluctances: I don’t have all the answers
Slide :) ___________________ Exodus 3:13
13 Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?"
Maybe you feel like that, too.
Slide :) ___________________ Five Reluctances: I’m afraid!
Slide :) ___________________ Exodus 4:1
He’s afraid people won’t respond, so God does these miracles to show Moses that he won’t be on his own. You and I need to know that, too. If God is leading you to do something, but you are scared…join the club! But God promises his presence. He will us you.
Slide :) ___________________ Five Reluctances: I’m not that gifted!
Slide :) ___________________ Exodus 4:10.
We’ve covered this one.
Slide :) ___________________ Five Reluctances: Can’t you just find someone else?
Slide :) ___________________ Exodus 4:13-14
After all this, Moses says to God, “O Lord, please send someone else to do it.” 4:13. And the next verse says, “Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses.” God got frustrated, because Moses was waiting for some perfect situation, some perfect time that just doesn’t exist. Moses was listening to the voice of reluctance instead of listening to the voice of God.
Everybody who ever does anything for God has to push through the voice of reluctance to say yes to God. God has a role for you to play, but he won’t force you to do it. You can walk away from the calling.
Yet, I believe you are here because you want to fulfill your calling. So, I want to give you an opportunity to take a step today. Today is a burning bush experience. You can turn aside and consider your calling or just keep on living. But today is a burning bush. To be sure, the need is huge. As we replant this church, it is all hands on deck time, and we need every one of you to be engaged. And the truth is that God has led you here not just to be served but to serve. Nobody can do in this church what God has uniquely equipped you to do. So, jump in. Let God use you.
When you came in, you received a little card that says, “Sign up to Serve” on the top.
Slide :) ___________________ .JPG of the card
On there is an opportunity to respond. (read the card). “You will see several areas listed for you to serve. Pick one. Someone (with the Ministry Involvement team) will contact you this week and walk beside you to help you determine if this is the right spot for you. If it’s not, they will assist you in finding the one that fits.” Take a minute, fill it out, and take a step. Many of you are serving, and let us know how. Push through reluctance, and take a step.
Card filling out time.
Seeing everyone filling out the cards is quite an experience, because just think of the potential in this room. The truth is that a lot of great things are happening in and through this church, which is great…but it is also true that we have barely even seen a tiny blip of the potential that is really in this church because most of the people here today are not engaged in ministry. Imagine what God would do if we all stepped forward. And imagine what he would do in our lives, too, as we are used by God and fulfill our calling.
That’s what 24 has been about: a huge mission, limited time, and a unique role. Let’s not just let time fly, but invest our life in things that matter. Let’s commit to fulfill our calling.
Pray.