No more excuses!
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· 12 viewsCommon excuses for not doing what God is sending us to do.
Notes
Transcript
Read Exodus 3:7-10
Introduction:
What happens when you ask your child to do something but he doesn’t want to do it? He gives you excuse after excuse. You know none is valid but they think they’re good. If they do not have one they’ll look for it.
Same thing happens when God command His children to do something they do not want to do. Since they do not dare to say it plain and direct to God (open rebellion) or to you (they don’t want to look bad), then they look for excuses. Such was Moses’ case. In a sense, God told him, “Moses, the excuses are over!”
The excuses are over!
Background:
The people of Israel had lived in slavery in Egypt for 400 years. God wanted to take them out. He wanted to do it through Moses. Providentially, God had saved Moses from death so he would be God’s instrument to save others.
Egypt = sin; Pharaoh = the prince of this world; Israel = those who would be saved.
God has given the believers the same task: rescue the perishing (Mat 28:18-20). Just as Moses presented excuses, believers present basically the same excuses. God is telling them: the excuses are over!
What are excuses presented?
Who Am I?
Who Am I?
But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?”
He was a “nobody”.
He was a “nobody”.
He was just a shepherd. He was not accepted by the world. Shepherds were detestable to Egyptians.
But God used a shepherd to kill a giant!
He had no recognition. Neither the disciples: ignorant fishermen. But they changed the world. Moses cared only for God’s recognition.
He was a criminal sought for murder. God saved another criminal and made him an apostle.
He was nobody, but...
God promised to be with him.
God promised to be with him.
And He said, “Certainly I will be with you, and this shall be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain.”
God did not send him alone. He would go him.
When there is fear we want someone to go with us…
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
God doesn’t send you alone either, He goes with you!
What is your name? Who are you?
What is your name? Who are you?
It is not who you are what is important, but who He is!
Not what you can do, but what God can do with you if you put yourself in His hands!
His name reflects His nature.
Then Moses said to God, “Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ Now they may say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ”
Moshe, Yeshua. Illust. My name!
God’s name is not Jehovah…
Those four letters describe God as the sustainer of everything.
By giving his name to Moses, He’s telling him, “I’ll sustain you” “I’ll be with you”
He is the God who fulfills His promises.
God, furthermore, said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is My name forever, and this is My memorial-name to all generations. “Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I am indeed concerned about you and what has been done to you in Egypt.
They knew about God’s faithfulness to his parents…
If He’s faithful to me, why not to you?
He is the God who knows the future.
“So I said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, to a land flowing with milk and honey.” ’ “They will pay heed to what you say; and you with the elders of Israel will come to the king of Egypt and you will say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. So now, please, let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.’ “But I know that the king of Egypt will not permit you to go, except under compulsion. “So I will stretch out My hand and strike Egypt with all My miracles which I shall do in the midst of it; and after that he will let you go. “I will grant this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and it shall be that when you go, you will not go empty-handed. “But every woman shall ask of her neighbor and the woman who lives in her house, articles of silver and articles of gold, and clothing; and you will put them on your sons and daughters. Thus you will plunder the Egyptians.”
He know why he is sending you; He knows your fears, the reactions, the results, etc.
The third excuse was..
What if they do not believe me?
What if they do not believe me?
Then Moses said, “What if they will not believe me or listen to what I say? For they may say, ‘The Lord has not appeared to you.’ ”
To bring people to conviction is not our job.
To bring people to conviction is not our job.
“I don’t convince anybody!”
You are right! Me neither! God does it! He does it through His Spirit.
Our job is to tell them, to be faithful witnesses of a faithful God.
God will show them His power.
God will show them His power.
But the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand and grasp it by its tail”—so he stretched 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.” The Lord furthermore said to him, “Now put your hand into your bosom.” So he put his hand into his bosom, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous like snow. Then He said, “Put your hand into your bosom again.” So he put his hand into his bosom again, and when he took it out of his bosom, behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh. “If they will not believe you or heed the witness of the first sign, they may believe the witness of the last sign. “But if they will not believe even these two signs or heed what you say, then you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground; and the water which you take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.”
I am not eloquent!
I am not eloquent!
4:10-17
God knows why He made us as we are.
God knows why He made us as we are.
The Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes him mute or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?
Moses said, “I do not know how to speak”. God would say, “Don’t you think that I know that?”
Maybe you do not like yourself or something about you, but God sees you beautiful. He made you as He wanted you to be.
He has made us for His glory!// Illust. Blind, John 9:1-3
We are instruments in His hand. No hammer can hammer by itself, but in the hand of a carpenter can be used to do great things.
Illust. Beethoven deaf
God will tell us what to say.
God will tell us what to say.
“Now then go, and I, even I, will be with your mouth, and teach you what you are to say.”
To the disciples, Jesus said:
“But when they hand you over, do not worry about how or what you are to say; for it will be given you in that hour what you are to say. “For it is not you who speak, but it is the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.
You’ll be surprised how verses will flow out of your mouth when you witness about Jesus… You’ll say, “I did not know I knew that!”.
When there is a will, there is a way. If you are available God will use you.
God will give us the help we need.
God will give us the help we need.
As Moses insisted excusing himself about his lack of eloquence...
Then the anger of the Lord burned against Moses, and He said, “Is there not your brother Aaron the Levite? I know that he speaks fluently. And moreover, behold, he is coming out to meet you; when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. “You are to speak to him and put the words in his mouth; and I, even I, will be with your mouth and his mouth, and I will teach you what you are to do. “Moreover, he shall speak for you to the people; and he will be as a mouth for you and you will be as God to him.