What's your excuse?

God uses unlikely ordinary people!

If there was one thing about you that you could change what would it be?

For me it would be the way that I stumble over my words when speaking.

That was actually one of the excuse I gave to God when I felt him calling me to full time ministry.

Last week we saw how Moses killed an Egyptian and fled out of Egypt. He went from being a prince in Egypt to being a lowly shepherd who had a bounty on his head from Pharaoh.

We ended last week with God hearing the cries of the Israelites in slavery in Egypt. The Israelites had been in slavery for over 400 years and they continually prayed for deliverance even when it was not immediate.

We need to remember that God’s timing is so much better than our own timing!

This week we will be diving into Moses’s call into ministry.

Moses was a normal man just like any of us and God used him even with his flaws to do great things.

1. Moses’s call from God

Exodus 3:4–10 NLT

4 When the Lord saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called to him from the middle of the bush, “Moses! Moses!” “Here I am!” Moses replied. 5 “Do not come any closer,” the Lord warned. “Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground. 6 I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” When Moses heard this, he covered his face because he was afraid to look at God. 7 Then the Lord told him, “I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cries of distress because of their harsh slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and lead them out of Egypt into their own fertile and spacious land. It is a land flowing with milk and honey—the land where the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites now live. 9 Look! The cry of the people of Israel has reached me, and I have seen how harshly the Egyptians abuse them. 10 Now go, for I am sending you to Pharaoh. You must lead my people Israel out of Egypt.”

Moses’s call from God was one of the most memorable calls in the OT due to God speaking through the burning bush.

God called Moses to do something that was seemingly impossible and it was impossible and in part insane to do! God called Moses to return to the place in which hurt him in order to deliver the Israelites out of slavery!

God called Moses and Moses’s response was Here I am! Moses knew it was God calling and his natural response was that of worship.

As God calls us to do things in our lives our natural response to the God we love and serve should be Here I am.

God then says a profound sentence that should bring us comfort now and forever. God identifies that he is the God of Abraham and Issac not that he was the God of them. God is a living God and if we follow him we have an eternal relationship with him. God’s people never DIE they live forever with him!

God also stated that he was the God of Abraham and Issac to clarify that he was a known God throughout history. He is the God of his spiritual leaders.

God finally shares his plan for Moses and that Moses is going to deliver his people from Egypt!

Moses is a normal person who God uses to do incredible things.

2. Moses’s Excuses

Exodus 3:11–12 NLT

11 But Moses protested to God, “Who am I to appear before Pharaoh? Who am I to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt?” 12 God answered, “I will be with you. And this is your sign that I am the one who has sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God at this very mountain.”

Moses’s first excuse was that he was not qualified to be used by God!

How many times have we said that to ourselves? Do any of us ever feel worthy to be used by God?

We are just ordinary people who mess up constantly why would a HOLY God use us for his word?

None of us are qualified to be used by God but God qualifies us to be used by him. We must be attentive to him calling us do things and we must know that God is with us through his calling.

There is a saying that people say that is completely false.

God will not give you more than you can handle!

That is the furtherest thing from the truth because God calls us to do things that are impossible on our own.

This brings about the next excuse the Moses gave:

Exodus 3:13–16 NLT

13 But Moses protested, “If I go to the people of Israel and tell them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ they will ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what should I tell them?” 14 God replied to Moses, “I Am Who I Am. Say this to the people of Israel: I Am has sent me to you.” 15 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: Yahweh, the God of your ancestors—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you. This is my eternal name, my name to remember for all generations. 16 “Now go and call together all the elders of Israel. Tell them, ‘Yahweh, the God of your ancestors—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—has appeared to me. He told me, “I have been watching closely, and I see how the Egyptians are treating you.

Moses then makes up the excuse that even if he did go that no one would believe that he is sent by God because he doesn’t have enough information.

How many times have we been afraid to share because we feel as if we don’t know enough about the Bible or about God?

We are never going to know enough to share Christ because we can never know everything about God.

God is too big for us to know everything there is to know about him.

Honestly I feel as if I don’t know enough to share about Christ sometimes but the good thing to know is that whenever God calls us to do something God is going to prepare us during the task!

It is also ok to tell people you don’t know something!

Exodus 4:1 NLT

1 But Moses protested again, “What if they won’t believe me or listen to me? What if they say, ‘The Lord never appeared to you’?”

The other excuse Moses gave was that he was not influential enough or a leader.

Moses was an outcast of Egypt and a coward who ran away from his troubles for 40 years. Of course he is not a typical leader!

But God commanded him to lead his people. God also equipped Moses to gain the attention of the elders of the nation!

God doesn’t call the equipped but he equips the called.

Whenever God calls us to do something we know that we just put our faith in Him and he will provide the necessary tools to accomplish the plan!

God gave Moses 3 different signs in order to convince the elders that God had sent him! When we allow for God to use us then it is evident that the work that we are accomplishing can only be done through God.

Exodus 4:10–12 NLT

10 But Moses pleaded with the Lord, “O Lord, I’m not very good with words. I never have been, and I’m not now, even though you have spoken to me. I get tongue-tied, and my words get tangled.” 11 Then the Lord asked Moses, “Who makes a person’s mouth? Who decides whether people speak or do not speak, hear or do not hear, see or do not see? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now go! I will be with you as you speak, and I will instruct you in what to say.”

The excuse that speaks most to me that Moses gave was this one! Moses blamed his speech on not being able to be used by God. Like I said at the beginning was that if I could change one thing about myself it would be how I stumble over my words and studder sometimes.

This was my excuse whenever God began calling me to ministry and this is the verse I read that same night in my personal bible study.

God instantly puts this excuse to rest because he tells Moses that he created the mouth and the tongue and speech and everything. God speaks through us whenever we allow for him too.

Any excuse that we come up with demonstrates our need to place our complete faith in God!

Exodus 4:13–17 NLT

13 But Moses again pleaded, “Lord, please! Send anyone else.” 14 Then the Lord became angry with Moses. “All right,” he said. “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he speaks well. And look! He is on his way to meet you now. He will be delighted to see you. 15 Talk to him, and put the words in his mouth. I will be with both of you as you speak, and I will instruct you both in what to do. 16 Aaron will be your spokesman to the people. He will be your mouthpiece, and you will stand in the place of God for him, telling him what to say. 17 And take your shepherd’s staff with you, and use it to perform the miraculous signs I have shown you.”

Moses finally runs out of excuses and pleads that God would send someone else instead of him.

This is an excuse but ultimately Moses is saying if you want me to go I can only go with you guiding me and in your power.

3. Moses Obeys

Exodus 4:18–20 NLT

18 So Moses went back home to Jethro, his father-in-law. “Please let me return to my relatives in Egypt,” Moses said. “I don’t even know if they are still alive.” “Go in peace,” Jethro replied. 19 Before Moses left Midian, the Lord said to him, “Return to Egypt, for all those who wanted to kill you have died.” 20 So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey, and headed back to the land of Egypt. In his hand he carried the staff of God.

Moses ultimately obeys God and carries his whole family to Egypt!