Identity: Moses Humbles Himself

Intro:

we are continuing our series on Identity, we are going to continue looking at Moses and the early part of his story and life. If you missed last week, I really encourage you to go back and listen to last week. We went over a lot of back story and laying the foundation for everything we are going to talk about. If this is your first time ever tuning in or joining us in person, I would encourage you to go back and listen to everything we’ve talked about this year. There’s some pretty good stuff in there, especially any time Darren spoke.

Before we go any further, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I want to say how thankful I am for Darren Grimes. Everyone at the Redvers and Carlyle Campus, give Darren some love. It has truly been a privilege and honor to work alongside a man who loves God and loves his church as much as Darren does. I have learned so much from him, and he has challenged me so deeply over this past year. He often reminds me that there is a clause in my contract that if I try to leave too soon he’ll break my kneecaps. It goes both ways. I don’t have him on contract yet but I will rectify that as soon as possible.

Question 1: What are you thankful for today?

Everyone watching online, share in the comment section something or someone you are thankful for today. In Redvers and Carlyle, discuss among yourselves. If you came by yourself or feeling bold, shout out something you are thankful for today.

One of the things that Paul says in his letters is that the Old Testament was written so that we can read about the people of Israel and learn from their triumphs and their failures. Learn from their triumphs and try to replicate it. Learn from the failures and don’t do it again. They say that history is doomed to repeat itself when we don’t take the time to learn from the past.

Which brings us to Moses. Last week, met a man who had everything going for him, and almost in the blink of an eye, it was taken from him. By the time we read in Exodus 3, we meet a man that is broken and lost. Then God comes into that moment of Moses at his lowest and this conversation starts. We concluded last week by saying that the journey to discover who we are actually starts with discovering who God is. As we learn who God is, we begin to identify with the things that make up Him. Suddenly, our identity, which tends to change with time and circumstance, has something to be founded on, something that will never change, never alter.

That brings us to chapter 4, and the conversation continues between God and Moses

Exodus 4:1 CSB

Moses answered, “What if they won’t believe me and will not obey me but say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?”

Right out of the gate, Moses turns the conversation back to himself. What if they don’t believe me. What if they don’t follow me. Moses continues to look for an out, and angle that maybe God hasn’t considered.

First it was the fact that he couldn’t be used. Now he’s trying to explain to God how the Israelite's can kind of be hard headed and might need some convincing. Moses didn’t realize that he was right, the Israelites are a little hardheaded, and after they leave Egypt, he’s going to find out just how hard headed they really are.

Moses isn’t the only one who does this. How many times have we felt passionate about something, and we finally talk ourselves into it, and then we start thinking about the people that we have to interact with. This often happens when we’re talking to God about someone who doesn’t know Jesus and we are begging him to send someone to talk to them. What inevitably happens is God will send us, and then we start explaining to God why we can’t go because this person is smarter then me or we have a history and they won’t listen to me, or any other number of excuses.

When God gives us the plan, and once we begin to believe that we are actually the person that can be used to accomplish the plan, the next thing that almost inevitably happens is we find a way to discredit the person or people we are being sent to.

I can’t do this. Ok maybe I can, but I don’t think they’re going to listen. What does God say?

Exodus 4:2–9 CSB

The Lord asked him, “What is that in your hand?” “A staff,” he replied. “Throw it on the ground,” he said. So Moses threw it on the ground, it became a snake, and he ran from it. The Lord told Moses, “Stretch out your hand and grab it by the tail.” So he stretched out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand. “This will take place,” he continued, “so that they will believe that the Lord, the God of their ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.” In addition the Lord said to him, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” So he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, his hand was diseased, resembling snow. “Put your hand back inside your cloak,” he said. So he put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, it had again become like the rest of his skin. “If they will not believe you and will not respond to the evidence of the first sign, they may believe the evidence of the second sign. And if they don’t believe even these two signs or listen to what you say, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the Nile will become blood on the ground.”

God says OK, they can be a little difficult, so this is what I’m going to do. I’m going to perform signs and miracles through you, and that will convince them to follow you.

First, the snake sign. Now I didn’t have my good shepherd staff, it is still at the church in Medicine Hat, but I found this. Surely it will work. Now warning, if I throw this down and it turns into a snake, I’m not picking it up. It can slither its way right out of the church, but I’m not touching it. If it turns into a snake, we might as well stop service right now.

The second sign, Moses puts his hand in his cloak, pulls it out and it is diseased with leprosy. Now, spoiler alert for the future part of the Moses’ story, why didn’t God use this sign with Pharaoh? If you don’t know what happens, Moses would go on to confront Pharaoh about releasing the people of Israel so they could go worship God. God proceeds to plague Egypt until the people are released. The first confrontation with Pharaoh, Moses throws down the staff, it turns into a snake. Pharaoh’s magicians in turn do the same thing, thus discrediting the miraculous nature of the sign. Where is the leprous hand thing? I would like to see a magician pull that one off!

The whole Nile turning to blood would actually be the first plague of Egypt, and the magicians mimicked that one too. Ooooo red die in water turns the water red. It is actually after the magicians pull this stunt off and Pharaoh’s like, see it’s not that miraculous that I begin to question Pharaoh’s intelligence. Anyways...

God essentially says the same thing to Moses that he says to us. Moses doesn’t think the people will follow him based on who he is, and God follows it up by saying he is going to perform signs and wonders. The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians, says that he didn’t come with convincing arguments, but with a display of power. When you surrender your life to Jesus, and commit to follow him all the days of your life, the first thing that happens is you become sealed with the Holy Spirit. With the Holy Spirit comes spiritual gifts. Spiritual gifts are a display of God’s power in your life for others to see. When we do a study on calling, one of the first things we look at is spiritual gifts. Why? Because the spiritual gifts that God gives you help you understand what God has called you to. The two align with each other. Just as the purpose of the signs were to show the people of Israel that God had sent Moses, the point of the spiritual gifts that God gives you is to validate the calling that God has placed on your life.

What does this have to do with identity? Everything! I believe this is why we are so quick to tie our identity to what we do as a job. What we do is such an important part of who we are, but we have a wrong understanding of, ‘ what we do’. How we make money is not who we are; what God has called us to do, and more importantly, how God intends to use us and our gifts is a huge part of who we are.

Part of the reason Moses is so lost is because he never knew what God had in store for him until he saw that Egyptian beating that Israelite and he responded. Moses didn’t know there was a plan to make things right until he found God in a burning bush. Suddenly he discovers that God is bothered by the same things he is bothered by, and God is going to give him the supernatural boost he needs to get the job done.

Who you are is tied to what God wants to accomplish in and through your life. How does God intend to use you? What are the spiritual gifts that God has placed in your life to get the job done?

Question 2: Do you believe that God can use you to accomplish his will on earth? Why or why not?

How does Moses respond?

Exodus 4:10–17 CSB

But Moses replied to the Lord, “Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent—either in the past or recently or since you have been speaking to your servant—because my mouth and my tongue are sluggish.” The Lord said to him, “Who placed a mouth on humans? Who makes a person mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go! I will help you speak and I will teach you what to say.” Moses said, “Please, Lord, send someone else.” Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses, and he said, “Isn’t Aaron the Levite your brother? I know that he can speak well. And also, he is on his way now to meet you. He will rejoice when he sees you. You will speak with him and tell him what to say. I will help both you and him to speak and will teach you both what to do. He will speak to the people for you. He will serve as a mouth for you, and you will serve as God to him. And take this staff in your hand that you will perform the signs with.”

As I was reading this, I have one question for Moses. Who do you think you’re talking to? Moses tells God he’s got a speech impediment of some kind, as if God didn’t know. “Oh, you’re that Moses, I’m so sorry for wasting your time. I was looking for the other Moses that just got kicked out his country and is hopelessly lost.” Like seriously Moses!

This is what false humility looks like. Moses points out what he believes to be the deal breaker of problems. When God responds and points out that it is not the deal breaker, what Moses do? I’m not going, you have to find someone else. It is this final statement that shows that even in his lowest and most broken, Moses still had a little bit of pride. Despite everything God has told him he is going to do and that everything that has bothered him is going to be resolved, he folds his arms and says, no, I’m not going.

We do this. It doesn’t even have to be a calling from God. It could simply be just seeing a need and instead of responding, we just assume that someone else will because we imagine the worst case scenario. We know that we should do something, we know that God has told us the good we are to do, but we disqualify ourselves by pointing out all the reasons we aren’t good. Our past disqualifies us. The fight we just had with our spouse, our poor spending habits, the mistakes we have made raising our kids. We have a laundry list of things that we feel disqualify us, even in the face of clear and obvious calling. Then we bring them up to God as if he doesn’t know.

Guess what! God sees all our muck, our mistakes, all that should disqualify us, and he still sees potential in us to do good. Jesus died to take away all the sin, all the mistakes, all the muck, and now when God looks down at us, he sees his son in us. He sees all the plans and potential and gifts. He sees how it all ties together to accomplish something amazing, something that the world desperately needs and how we have a role to make it a reality.

When it comes to the plans and purposes that God wants to accomplish in and through you, the only one who gets in the way is you. Who you are begins with who God is, and then it becomes, “How can I be used by God to make his kingdom a reality on this earth?” Are you willing to be used by God, no matter what it takes? It might be scary, it might be uncomfortable, but it is an adventure like no other, and it is worth it.

Question 3: Are you willing to be used by God, no matter where it might take you?

Let’s pray.