Obstacles to Faith

Exodus: Called Out • Sermon • Submitted 4 years ago

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Confronted with the calling of the Lord, Moses makes one excuse after another about how he could not answer the calling of God. The calling of God will always seem to be greater than us and more than we can bear. This is because God’s calling is never given to us alone, but rather, God’s calling is designed to be met by the tandem partnership of God and you. Where we fall short, God is more than sufficient. Where we are strong, God strongly supports our strength. Our excuses serve as obstacles that divide us from God and His plan, power and purpose.

Notes

Transcript

Greater than I

Exodus 4:1–9 NIV

Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?” Then the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” “A staff,” he replied. The Lord said, “Throw it on the ground.” Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. Then the Lord said to him, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.” So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. “This,” said the Lord, “is so 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.” Then the Lord said, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” So Moses put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, the skin was leprous—it had become as white as snow. “Now put it back into your cloak,” he said. So Moses put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his flesh. Then the Lord said, “If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first sign, they may believe the second. But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground.”

We so often blame our failure to follow the Lord and have more faith on the lack of visible response by the Lord to reveal His presence. We say things like if I could only see Him or hear Him, my faith would be so much stronger. We make the excuses when we carve out time to spend with Him that our inability to connect with Him is based justified because we do not feel His presence or His Spirit. Our need for our faith to be validated is an obstacle to our faith. If our faith needs to be validated by a physical sign or an emotional pull, it is no faith at all.

Hebrews 11:1 states that faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. I am sure that the Lord is working all things out for His glory and my good in the face of every circumstance. I am certain that the Lord is present with me whether I hear His voice or the hair stands up on the back of my neck or if I am as dry as the desert. God is God whether I adhere to that belief or not.

Matthew 16:1–4 NIV

The Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus and tested him by asking him to show them a sign from heaven. He replied, “When evening comes, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,’ and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.” Jesus then left them and went away.

Jesus addresses our lack of faith or misplaced faith.

What do we place our faith in that is undeserving of our faith?

Greater than Me

Exodus 4:10–12 NIV

Moses said to the Lord, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.” The Lord said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”

Notice that even after the Lord showed three miraculous signs to Moses of His power and authority, Moses still makes excuses creating more obstacles to faith. In spite of seeing all you wonder, you have not seen my limitations.

Our view of our own strengths serves as an obstacle to our faith in the Lord. When we rely on self, we stop relying on God.

John 3:30 NIV

He must become greater; I must become less.”

John the Baptist understood that he was an obstacle to his own faith. We are our own worst enemies. But John saw the way that we remove ourselves from being this obstacle. I must decrease that He might increase. Use less personal first person pronouns and more third person pronouns recognizing the Lord’s hand in your life.

Greater is I Am

Exodus 4:13–17 NIV

But Moses said, “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.” Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses and he said, “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and he will be glad to see you. You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him. But take this staff in your hand so you can perform the signs with it.”

As Moses continues to stand in the way of the Lord’s calling upon his life, the Lord’s anger begins to burn against him. Do you notice though that even after denying the power, might and authority of the Lord, the gentleness by which the Lord approaches Moses? God has the planned already worked out to perfection.

Jeremiah 29:11 NIV

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Will we continue to rely on self and stand in the way of the Lord or will we allow Him to rule and reign as He is and will continue to do?

What are you clinging to that keeps you from surrendering and trusting in the Lord?