Moses, the Premier Prophet—The Call of Grace

Text: Exodus 3:1-10

Theme: God call all of His people.

The story before us is about God’s call to service. We tend to think of God’s call as being some significant event that is reserved for prophets, preachers and missionaries, and other vocational church or denominational workers.

But God doesn’t just call pastors, preachers and missionaries. God calls all His people to ministry and service. Throughout the Scriptures, the Bible talks about God’s calling in the believer’s life:

1) God has called us all from labor to rest.

2) He has called us from death to life.

3) He has called us from bondage to liberty.

4) He has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.

5) He has called us from enmity to peace.

6) And He has called us from the fellowship of the world to the fellowship of His Son.

God calls His people. God calls us to salvation, and He also calls us to service. He has a unique calling, a unique purpose, and a unique life mission for each and every believer.

Our Scripture passage and our video clip give us a glimpse of what Moses’ calling from God might have been like. (Play Video).

From Moses’ calling, I want to share a couple of observations.

I. OBSERVATION #1: GOD FREQUENTLY MEETS US IN UNUSUAL PLACES

1. God delights in meeting us in uncommon ways at uncommon places

a. He met Gideon while he was threshing grain

b. He met David while he was watching his father’s sheep

c. He met Elisha while he was plowing

d. He met James and John and Peter while they were mending their fishing nets

e. He met Matthew while he was collecting taxes

f. He met David Krueger in a delivery van on interstate 70 halfway between St. Louis and Columbia

2. God delights in meeting us in uncommon ways at uncommon places and when we least expect it

3. whenever and wherever you are when you hear God speak, at that moment you’ll find yourself standing only holy ground

a. whether it’s in a cubical at work . . .

b. or in front of your locker at school . . .

c. or on the tractor in the hay field . . .

d. or at the lathe in the work shop . . .

e. or behind the wheel of the car . . .

f. or even—dare we even think it—in a pew at church, on Sunday

ILLUS. A Profound Meeting with God. 1st Preacher, “A revival service.” 2nd Preacher, “A prayer meeting at seminary.” 3rd Preacher, “A visit to the Grand Canyon where I experienced the glory of God.” A UE Lineman overheard and chimed in, “My most profound meeting with God was while I was hanging upside down from a telephone pole thirty feet in the air.”

4. when God speaks your life is going to change

A. WHEN YOU HEAR GOD, YOU NEED TO DO TWO THINGS

1. FIRST, you need to worship

“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.” (Exodus 3:5–6, ESV)

a. Moses meets the God of his fathers on the backside of the desert

b. the experience is so powerful that Moses takes off his shoes and hides his face from God

1) in Moses’ meeting with Jehovah we see a God who is at once transcendent and holy and unapproachable, and at the same time He is near to us and the One who seeks to establish a dialogue with His people

“Ascribe to the LORD, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. 2 Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness.” (Psalm 29:1–2, ESV)

“Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth!” (Psalm 96:9, ESV)

2. SECOND, you need to listen

a. when God calls, it’s because He has an agenda for your life that will supersede your agenda

1) which may explain why so many people DON’T want to hear from God!

b. at eighty years of age, Moses would have undoubtedly been satisfied living out his days as a shepherd

1) any dream that Moses had of delivering his people had long faded from his mind

c. but God was not finished with Moses

3. like Moses, we don’t always like what we hear and sometimes, we too, begin to make excuses

“But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”” (Exodus 3:11, ESV)

a. we tell God, “I’m too old” ...

b. or “I’m too young” ...

c. or “I don’t have enough education” ...

d. or “I don’t have enough experience” ...

e. or “I don’t have time ... “

1) all of which are a loose translation of, “God, I don’t want to.”

ILLUS. When I got saved, it was as easy as falling off a log. God was calling and I was ready to say yes. A year later when I felt His call to ministry, I fought it tooth and claw!

4. what’s God’s answer?

a. “Moses, I’ll never ask you to do anything that I will not equip you to do and be there with you as you perform it.”

“He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”” (Exodus 3:12, ESV)

5. meeting God always puts you on holy ground

II. OBSERVATION #2: GOD DELIGHTS IN REMOVING US FROM THE SHELF AND PLACING US INTO HIS SERVICE

ILLUS. Evangelist Ron Dunn, had an extensive itinerate ministry of Bible teaching and preaching and served as the Minister-at-Large for the MacArthur Blvd. Baptist Church in Irving, TX. Speaking of Moses he wrote, "Moses at age forty has everything we could possibly want in a deliverer. He was raised by Pharaoh's daughter, was highly educated and well connected. But what about Moses at 80? He spent forty years wandering the desert, tending someone else's sheep. Now he's a has-been, a washout. Any dream of delivering his people has long since perished from his heart. It's interesting that when Moses thought he was qualified, he wasn't. And when he thought he wasn't, he was."

1. God took a has-been prince, a murder and a fugitive from justice and now an old shepherd from the desert and used him as a tool of divine providence

a. if God can use a man like this, I suspect that He can use anyone here today

2. God delights in removing us from the shelf and placing us into His service

a. God only need two things from us

1) availability

2) obedience

ILLUS. Consider Isaiah’s call to service. He’s had a vision of God high and lifted up. He sees and hear winged creatures glorifying God. An angel takes a burning coal and touches Isaiah’s lips with it, declaring that his guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for. How does the prophet respond? “And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.” 9 And he said, “Go, and say to this people: ... “

3) Isaiah makes himself available, and he is obedient to the heavenly calling

3. God does not call us to merely wander thorough life

ILLUS. Millions of people loved the television show Seinfeld when it aired. A college drama department did a study to find out why Seinfeld was so popular. They determined that the reason was because of its plotless programming. Seinfeld just meandered haplessly from one scene, one circumstance to the next without connection. The drama department concluded that Americans who lead plotless lives prefer plotless TV programs. There’s a plotlessness that exists in many Christian’s lives today. They move from one scene, one circumstance, to the next without purpose. They wander from high school to college, from college to their first job. Then they are just dying to get married. Then they are just dying to have kids. Next they’re dying to get the kids out of the house. Then they’re dying to retire, only to find out that they’re just ... dying—never having known why they were alive in the first place.

a. this, I think may well be Moses over the second forty years of his life

b. too many believers don’t live with the sense that God has given them a divine

purpose in life

4. each member of the body of Christ has a unique role to play

a. but when some members don’t fulfill their God-given destiny, the body cannot function as it was designed to function

1) others are affected negatively when you do not live out your purpose

b. we are all interconnected in God’s kingdom, and that’s why it’s critical that we all make seeking God and living out our purpose an important thing to do

c. not just for others but also because it will benefit you

5. God Delights in Removing Us from the Shelf and Placing Us into His Service

III. OBSERVATION #3: GOD USES ORDINARY PEOPLE IN EXTRAORDINARY WAYS

“For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” 20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?” (1 Corinthians 1:18–20, ESV)

1. God rejoices in using the common in uncommon ways

a. some of you might be saying to yourself, “I’m a nobody. I don’t have the background, the education or the experience of a person like Moses. What can I do for God?”

b. the truth is that you can’t do anything for God

1) Moses tried to do something for God and he failed miserably

2. but when he surrendered himself to God and allowed the Lord to work His wonders through him, Moses was wonderfully successful

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.” (2 Corinthians 4:7, ESV)

ILLUS. One of my favorite stories about God’s use of ordinary people comes from the life of Peter Marshall (Peter Marshall the Scottish preacher, not Peter Marshall the game show host). He grew up on the west coast of Scotland near Glasgow. As a teenager he thought he heard to voice of God saying, “Get up and go west with me.” As soon as he could, he booked passage on a ship headed for the United States. He writes in his memoirs, “As I stood on the afterdeck and looked back at the screw-threshed waters and the receding purple hills of my native Scotland, I thought I would never see it again. He made his way to Birmingham, Alabama where a men’s bible class at a first presbyterian church paid his way through seminary. Having graduated he pastored in Covington and then was called to Atlanta, Georgia. And a strange thing happened. When this young man from Scotland stood to preach with accute power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, people thronged the church. They tore out the balcony and put in a bigger one and even then it couldn’t contain the crowds. In the middle of that, the prestigious New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington D.C. called and said, “Come preach here.” He refused them for more than a year. Finally he surrendered and went there to preach. Just as he was beginning his ministry there, the United States House of Representatives said, “Come pray for us before we make the laws of the land.” And he refused them for some time, until finally he capitulated and became the Chaplain of the House of Representatives where he served for two years, retiring only after having a major heart attack. He died two years later at age 46. People would come and fill the gallery of the House just to hear Peter Marshall pray. Then they would leave before they made the laws of the land.

3. one day in the hills of Scotland, God met an anonymous, unknown, untutored, and unlikely teenage boy from a poor mining family

a. He called him,

b. He commissioned him

c. and eventually God gave him a ministry that touched hundreds of thousands of lives

4. God uses ordinary people in extraordinary ways

In every church, there are four types of people.

First, there are those who are fulfilling their calling. This small percentage of people understands their gifts and abilities. They have a passionate relationship with Jesus. They focus on living out the life mission for which God designed them.

Second, there are those who are aware of their calling. They know what God wants them to do, but have yet to do it. Their problem is not knowledge but obedience.

Third, there are those who are searching for their calling. Most of us fit in here. We want to be obedient, but we don’t know exactly what we are to do. If this is you, don’t feel too bad. Moses was 80 years old before he fully understood his calling. Chances are God is still preparing you for your mission.

Forth, there are those who don’t care about any calling. To you, all I have to say is, REPENT!