You've Got a Calling On Your Life, Part 3

For years I struggled with doubt about the calling of God in my own life. Calling doesn’t have to preaching or pastoring. God calls everyone of his children through a vocation, through a job. Sometimes its for a season, sometimes, its for a lifetime. So when I say I struggled, I mean that I struggled with whether the thing I was doing at the time is what God was calling me to do or was it something else that I should have been doing. When it became clearer what direction the Lord was moving me in, I began to doubt whether I was fit for the situaiton.

There are many of you that are listening have felt that same ambivalene. That same reluctance. You feel you are too short, not loud enough, not smart enough, not equipped enough, not beautiful enough for the task at hand. Today I’ve got a word for you from Exodus 4:1-17

Moses has received a visit from God the Son in the Bush and he has been tasked to go to Israel and tell Pharoah to let his people go!

Exodus 4:1–17 ESV

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.”

I want to tag this text. You’ve Got a Calling ON Your Life, Part 3

The big idea i want yout o see and rejoice about is that God doesn’t call the qualified, he qualifies the called.

If you struggle with God’s calls, I’ve got three main questions that you ought to ask yourself.

What’s In Your Hand?

Moses is locked into a war with himself and his doubt. Will he overcome, trust the Lord, and obey?

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.”

snakes were a sign of deity and royalty. The Egyptian Pharaoah and his queen would wear a crown with a cobra embedded in it. and to show dominion over the snake was to show dominion over pharoah

leprosy was a thing they suffered from.

nile water into blood. Judgment on israel.

God was gracious and caring to Moses, even in his reluctance to give him signs to share weith his people that declared that God was judging Egypt and through that judgment freeing Israel.

It is a sign pointing us to another prophet that did not have a staff to throw out as a sign, but he surrendered his whole body to be used in the hand of God as a sacrifice that would liberate his people, you and I from our sin. Jesus is a prophet greater and surer than Moses. Because he gave his life, we are qualified to use what is in our hands to serve the Lord.

Illustration: He had a gift of putting words together and a passion to see people changed. But having no major label backing and a fulltime college student with three majors would he be able to fulfill that calling. 12 years later. 100s of songs, 5 projects, music has been heard in penitentiaries acrross the county. Countless people have been ushered into the kingdom. He now sits in the Mayor’s office and state officials in Florida telling them how the juvenile justice system can be redeemed from a fully Christian worldview. He used what God had placed in his hands.

What has God placed in your hands. What gifting however meager you think it may be. Whatever it maybe use it for his glory not yours and see what happens. Sometimes we sit on our gifts because we don’t think they are worthy or we prostitute them because we think its for ourselves, but the Lord is calling us to evaluate what he has given us and pray and strategically think before the year turns what we are going to do with that gift.

Whose Word is In Your Mouth?

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.

He said I made you and I will give you what to say.

Moses again points to a prophet whose being, life, and words are so connected to the Fahter that he is called the Word of God. He did not fail to tell his people about the liberation in God, they could have if they repented from tehirs sin and believed on him.

Because He fulfilled his call and preached the word, we are qualified to tell people this clorious message with joy. Hurt people may hurt people. But Liberated people share liberation with other people.

Illustration:

I watch this same brother read the same tore up bible over and over again. He didn’t want to be an artist. He wanted to be a missionary that have an artist. I talked to this brother frequently, and I’m amazed how consciously or unconsciously his worldview and his art is shaped by the words of God. But I saw the time that he put in to bathe himself in the Word of God. I see the Spirit trying to speak through him, to others to me.

Whose Word is in Your Mouth?

Gossip or Gospel… Gossip and speech like it pushes people away. Gospel pushes people towards it. The good news is that Jesus paid for our failure to speak good news to the captives, freeing us to with joy tell people about the one we keep having to depend on for grace.

Matthew 10:19–20 ESV

When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

Job 23:12 ESV

I have not departed from the commandment of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion of food.

Who is Going With You?

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.”

He sent a priest with the prophet. He sent help with the prophet. He sent an assistant with the prophet. God again shows his patience that although this man didn’t need help He had God, he sent with him help anyway.

Moses was reluctant, but this story points to the testimony of Jesus Christ who was the eager prophet. Who where all the ancients were reluctant he went forward in his calling that happned before the beginning of the world. Called to die

It’s because of his qualification, I too am qualified because I believe on him. And he doesn’t send me into the calling by myself, I have Moses and Aaron, priest and prophet in on eman in Jesus Christ, so I don’t go alone. I go in the grace of God.

Who is Going with You?

—God

—Holy spirit

— Community of saints.

Psalm 40:8 ESV

I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.”