Then Comes the Call

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-WV-TTjzR4

Psalm 43 NIV

1 Vindicate me, my God, and plead my cause against an unfaithful nation. Rescue me from those who are deceitful and wicked. 2 You are God my stronghold. Why have you rejected me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy? 3 Send me your light and your faithful care, let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell. 4 Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and my delight. I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God. 5 Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.

Opening Hymn

Habakkuk 2:2–3 NIV

2 Then the Lord replied: “Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. 3 For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.

3 Worship songs

2 Corinthians 4:1–12 NIV

1 Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. 2 Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. 3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. 7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. 12 So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

Prayer Chorus

Prayer

Then Comes the Call

Sermon Intro:

Habakkuk was distressed over the things that were happening in the world. He went and poured out his frustration and gave revealed some amazing things that would take place. When Habakkuk enquired of God when these things would take place God responded...

The revelation awaits an appointed time. . . . Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay. (Habakkuk 2:3)

In the captivating booklet Expectation Corner, one of the characters, Adam Slowman, was led into the Lord’s treasure-house. Among the many wonders revealed to him there was the “Delayed Blessing Office,” where God stored the answers to certain prayers until it was wise to send them.

For some who pray expecting an answer, it takes a long time to learn that delays of answers are not denials. In fact, in the “Delayed Blessing Office,” there are deep secrets of love and wisdom that we have never imagined! We tend to want to pick our blessings from the tree while they are still green, yet God wants us to wait until they are fully ripe.

“The LORD longs to be gracious to you. . . . Blessed are all who wait for him!” (Isa. 30:18). The Lord watches over us in all the difficult places, and He will not allow even one trial that is too much for us. He will use His refining fire to burn away our impurities and will then gloriously come to our rescue.

Do not grieve Him by doubting His love. Instead, lift up your eyes and begin praising Him right now for the deliverance that is on its way to you. Then you will be abundantly rewarded for the delay that has tried your faith.

Cowman, Mrs. Charles E. ; Reimann, Jim. Streams in the Desert (p. 260). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

This was a recent devotion I read from Streams in the Desert, and I felt it relevant to our study in Exodus.

We weight things from our perspective. This means that we often feel like we suffer for long periods of time. However, God weighs things from an eternal perspective of what comes later and He knows the blessings far outweigh the difficulties.

In Exodus, we see an example of God’s perspective. The first two chapters cover the 400 years of tribulation, but then the following 38 chapters describe a year of liberation.

God does not deny that his people suffered, but He always had His eye upon them. He had a plan and He had to wait until the time was right for it to all play out. And keep in mind, that God’s plan is not just for their deliverance from Egypt. God is setting things in place for the deliverance of all people from sin. Moses becomes an archetype of the Christ who will come and deliver all who believe in Him, from sin for all eternity. God’s actions in the past, always have an eye on what is coming in the future.

When we last looked at the people of Israel, they were laboring hard as slaves in Egypt. It seemed like God heard their cry, but it didn’t seem like He was doing anything. But today, we will see that God was doing something. He had a plan, but the time was not ripe yet for it to be fully put into play. Now, 40 years later, God begins to move on Israel’s behalf.

My text today is Exodus 3:1-10. You may wish to read through Exodus 4:17 this week as I do not plan to cover that in a sermon, though some aspects may be spoken of here today.

Exodus 3:1–10 NIV

1 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.” 4 When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.” 5 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” 6 Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God. 7 The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

The Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.

Pray

Sermon:

I. Then Comes the Call

We have been away from our subject for a few weeks, so lets quickly review.

Israel has been in Egypt for some 400 years as God had revealed to Abraham back in Genesis 15. This is pretty incredible if you think about. Hundreds of years later, things are transpiring just as God said.

Then Moses is born and God inspires His parents with an incredible plan that saves him from the death sentence imposed upon all other children his age.

Moses, though raised as a son of Pharaoh, understands that God has spared him to deliver his people from Egypt. However, he takes it upon himself to make it happen and when he fails, he runs for his life to the desert of Midian becoming a common shepherd.

Moses had expected to be a conquering hero, but instead resolves to live his life as a common shepherd married to a common shepherdess. He has no wealth of his own, only what comes from his father-in-law.

Moses must have felt like a failure. He had failed God and his people. However, God is not through with Moses. God’s plan hasn’t changed. God knows that Moses is not yet ready. He has far more to learn and unbeknownst to Moses, he is learning them in this wilderness area.

It is 40 years later in this desert wilderness, that the official call finally comes. However, the call is not for him to go as a conquering hero. The call is for him to go as a humble shepherd consecrated fully to God. In other words, he goes not in his strength and ability, but in the power of God.

When something or someone is consecrated to God, they are separated from all else accept God. It means yielding every aspect of themselves and their life to God. And if you think this kind of call is isolated to just certain people, you are wrong. It is a call to all of us.

Just last Monday, I read another devotion that was on this very subject. It, too was from Streams in the Desert, August 1. It said,...

Offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life. (Romans 6:13)

One night I went to hear a sermon on consecration. Nothing special came to me from the message, but as the preacher knelt to pray, he said, “O Lord, You know we can trust the Man who died for us.” That was my message. As I rose from my knees and walked down the street to catch the train, I deeply pondered all that consecration would mean to my life. I was afraid as I considered the personal cost, and suddenly, above the noise of the street traffic, came this message: “You can trust the Man who died for you.” I boarded the train, and as I traveled toward home, I thought of the changes, sacrifices, and disappointments that consecration might mean in my life—and I was still afraid.

Upon arriving home, I went straight to my room, fell on my knees, and saw my life pass before my eyes. I was a Christian, an officer in the church, and a Sunday school superintendent, but I had never yielded my life to God with a definite act of my will. Yet as I thought of my own “precious” plans that might be thwarted, my beloved hopes to be surrendered, and my chosen profession that I might have to abandon—I was afraid.

I completely failed to see the better things God had for me, so my soul was running from Him. And then for the last time, with a swift force of convicting power to my inmost heart, came that searching message: “My child, you can trust the Man who died for you. If you cannot trust Him, then whom can you trust?” Finally that settled it for me, for in a flash of light I realized that the Man who loved me enough to die for me could be absolutely trusted with the total concerns of the life He had saved.

Dear friend, you can trust the Man who died for you. You can trust Him to thwart each plan that should be stopped and to complete each one that results in His greatest glory and your highest good. You can trust Him to lead you down the path that is the very best in this world for you. J. H. M.

Cowman, Mrs. Charles E. ; Reimann, Jim. Streams in the Desert (p. 295). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

I am convinced that there are 4 kinds of people in this world.

First, there are people like Moses. They are set on making a name for themselves on God’s behalf. They look at their abilities, and their strengths and think, “I got this! I can do a mighty work for God.”

That is where Moses was when he decided to make his move. He would kill the Egyptian slave driver, rally the Israelites to his side, and conquer Egypt all in the name of God Jehovah.

Of course, we know the rest of that story. He failed miserably. The plan was his, not God’s.

The second kind of people, are like the man in the devotion. They are people who believe in God and even appear to be serving God, but for various reasons they are reluctant to fully commit themselves to God. They make the call regarding what they will or will not do for God. I fear that the majority of Christians fall into this category.

The third kind of people, are those who want to believe in a benevolent God, but they never really invest themselves in learning about God. I see these people on YouTube videos a lot. Someone asks them, “Do you believe in God?” And they will reply with a chuckle, “Well, I suppose I do. It is nice to think there is a god out there who is watching over things.” Then they walk away never asking anything further.

The fourth group are those who seem, if you will pardon the expression, hell-bent on denying God. They prefer to believe we descended from ape than to accept that there is a God who created us. Many will argue to try to destroy the faith of another just to rationalize their own denial of God.

Now, you may wish to suggest a 5th type. One who is committed and following God in a healthy way, but if you were to investigate these further, I believe you will find in their past, that they started as one of the above. I would also assert, that all four can become that 5th type, if they come to a point of consecrating their lives fully to God.

Moses is about to take that first step that leads him from being type one, to type five.

Moses had a sense that God had saved him for a purpose, but he had not yet officially, received the call from God. But he is now about to receive that official call. What I will refer to as...

A. The True Call of God

The first thing to understand about God’s calling is that...

1. The Call Is Part of God’s Plan

God always has a plan. It is not something that comes at the spur of a moment. It is well developed. It has been in the works well before we are aware of it.

God knew what would transpire in the future of Abraham’s family. He gave Abraham a rare insight into it in Genesis 15.

Genesis 15:13–14 NIV

13 Then the Lord said to him, “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. 14 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions.

God was already planning to deliver them and prosper them. When you are in the thick of a disaster, remember that God has been aware and preparing for your deliverance long before you knew it was coming. Nothing surprises God. God cares for you every bit as much as He cared for the plight of Israel.

Not only does God have a plan, but that plan was in God’s mind when you were being formed in your mother’s womb. God was already designing and shaping you for the part He intended for you to play.

Psalm 139:13 NIV

13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

Psalm 139:16 NIV

16 Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

With any plan, there are events set in motion prior to the major action. There are right times to act and wrong times to act. God’s timing is always perfect. It is the time that will have the greatest benefit. The exact moment of God’s official call, is according to His plan.

Next,

2. The Call Comes When You Least Expect It

Moses thought he had failed God. He had moved on thinking he had lost the opportunity to be used by God. He felt he no longer had anything to offer God. What could a poor shepherd offer?

I felt the same way. When I first decided I wanted to be in full time ministry, I saw myself as a full-fledged Christian, devout and faithful to all things righteous. You would have never convinced me that I would become an unwed mother. I was determined I would never go that route.

Let me tell you, never underestimate sin. One act of unfaithfulness can spiral out of control far faster than you would believe.

This is why God warned Cain.

Genesis 4:6–7 NIV

6 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”

Now, I am not suggesting that we must sin to find God’s true calling. However, I am saying that we need to come to the end of our own weak righteousness to understand our need for God. It does not necessarily requiring us sinning, but it usually, if not always, involves some kind of failure.

It is in these moments of failure when we see that we are too weak to be righteous on our own, and we accept our need for God, both for salvation and for the power to do the work He calls us to.

Psalm 42:5 NIV

5 Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.

When we accept our defeat, we are ready to hear God’s call. Moses had lived with his failure for 40 years. Perhaps it took that long because he was still trying to work out in his mind, how he could accomplish the task. But by this time, he has completely given up. It is in this moment that God reveals Himself. You see,

3. The Call Requires Our Full Attention

God begins the call with something that gets our attention.

For the man in the devotional, it was a phrase that was nagging at his mind. “You can trust the Man who died for you.” It consumed his thoughts until it drove him to his knees, then God spoke to his heart. This was the work of the Holy Spirit in his life. This man had accepted Jesus as His Savior, he had just not yet fully yielded himself to God. However, now the Holy Spirit knew the time was right for this man to be ready to do so.

For me, it was the thought that there had to be something more than what I was living. Surely, God had something more than my fighting to earn a wage to support me and my son day in and day out. This drove me to look deeper into God’s word. It became a fever and I was reading God’s word morning, noon and night until I eventually felt so driven ,I left work early to go to the church and implore God to help me understand. Then and only then, did God speak.

Of course, for me and the gentleman above, we live in the era of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was not released until Jesus return to Heaven and then the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost and has worked among us since that time on a continual basis.

In Moses day, it was different. The Holy Spirit was not a permanent entity among God’s people yet. So for Moses, it took a more physical means to draw his attention.

For Moses, it was a burning bush that was not consumed. It would not be something he immediately noticed. He probably observed a small bush on fire and did not give much thought to it. However, as time went on, the fire did not spread, nor did it burn out. Curious to why it continued without spreading or going out, he went forward to see it. It was not until it had his full attention, that God spoke.

Exodus 3:3–4 NIV

3 So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.” 4 When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.”

It wasn’t until Moses had gone to look and the bush consumed his full attention that God spoke.

Moses then responded, “Here I am.” Essentially, me and the gentlemen above, initially were saying the same thing when we dropped to our knees before God. “Here I am.” We were each now ready to listen to God. God had our full, undivided attention.

The next thing we see about the call is that...

4. The Call is Pronounced in God’s Holy Presence

When the call is given, it comes from God Himself. The very ground we are on becomes holy, not because the place is special, but because God is there.

I was kneeling in a church. Okay, yes, that seems like a holy place!

The man in the devotion was kneeling in his bedroom. Well, that does not seem quite so bad, however, it is not what we would typically call a holy place (though I have known children whose parents had convinced them that it was, placing a holy fear in them not to enter. LOL!)

But the desert floor, with all that dirt, and rocks, and who knows what? How can that be considered holy? And yet, God said...

Exodus 3:5 NIV

5 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”

It was not that place that made it holy, but who was present in that space. Almighty, Holy God was there. There is no time we are ever so much in the presence of God as that moment when God extends to us His call.

I cannot even begin to describe it to you. If you have experienced, you know what I mean. You can only understand it if you have truly experienced it. The sad truth is, there are far too few who have, because it calls for our utter consecration and too many are unwilling to go that far. They view that as only necessary for pastors and evangelists, but that is not true. God has a call for every person, if we are just willing to consecrate ourselves to Him with no reservations.

Now, that does not mean we always accept it perfectly. Sometimes it takes a little persuasion. Remember, we are often in a place of failure when God calls. Sometimes we allow our sense of failure and inadequacy to hold us back. Moses was just such a case. Look at some of the excuses he gave God.

Exodus 3:11-Who am I, that I should go to Pharoah? I am a poor shepherd, why would Pharoah listen to me?

Exodus 3:13-Who should I say to the Israelites sent me? They will not see me as creditable. How will I persuade them that I do not come on my own account?

Exodus 4:1-What if they do not believe me?

Exodus 4:10-I cannot do this, I am not eloquent enough to speak to or for your people.

Exodus 4:13-Please send someone else? I already failed once. I do not want to go through that again.

Later this week, take time to read through this passage. You will find that God has a plan for each contingency. God equips Moses with facts, skills, and answers for every concern he has. Of course, Moses last plea is the real reason for all these excuses. He really wants God to choose someone else. He is afraid, probably because of his past experience. The difference is that last time he acted on his own, and trusted in his person identity (Pharaoh’s son) and his own skill sets. This time the plan is God’s and God will provide the skills and powers he needs: God’s identity - “I AM” God’s skill set demonstrated through a staff turned into a snake and physical health manipulated showing God’s power over man’s well being.

We can learn a good lesson from Moses. God shares the weaknesses of Bible heroes of the faith, so we can learn from them. They are no different than us. No braver, no stronger, nor more skilled. If they can do it, so can we. If you need further encouragement, look at the life of Gideon. He obeyed, but under cover of darkness. When it came time to meet the enemy, he hid away in a threshing barn, yet God used him to achieve an incredible victory.

The last thing we need to learn about God’s call is how to accept it. Moses shows us what not to do. He was still focused on himself and his skills. He still was not fully understanding that the skills would be that of God. Yet, in the end, Moses did yield. The proper way is this...

5. The Call is to be Accepted in Humble Obedience

We cannot allow our feelings of inadequacy deter us from accepting the call. If we do, we have learned nothing. We are still depending on our own wisdom and ability. Instead, we acknowledge that we are incapable of responding in our own strength, but that we humbly accept that what God calls us to do, God will provide the power and abilities needed to achieve. It rests not with us, but with HIM! Moses didn’t turn the staff into a snake. Moses didn’t change his hand from healthy to diseased and back again. Nor would Moses turn the Nile to blood, bring about swarms and pestilences or death. All Moses needed to do was be willing to follow the instructions God gave. He was God’s physical representation before God’s people and Pharaoh.

If you doubt the truth of this, look again at Moses. This man standing before God groping and grasping for excuses why he cannot do this task, and compare him to the man standing on the banks of the sea parting the waters, or standing on the mountain side delivering the law of God to the now freed people of Israel. Remember this man, who was at times so close to God that his face radiated the glory of God. Something we will never experience until we are finally fully in God’s presence.

Do you think that if Moses looked back he would have said, “I wish I had just stayed in the desert as a poor shepherd. It was boring and well below my skills, but I would have been satisfied with that for the rest of my life.” I do not think so. I am sure he was tired at times and frustrated at times with these stubborn people, but oh the things he saw and experienced. It was a glorious adventure that made his heart soar and sing at times. Those are the things he would have missed!

What about your life? Have you experienced the adventure of living a life fully commited to God? Or just lived the ordinary life faced with the difficulties of ordinary living. Nothing really adventurous to speak of beyond various heartaches of this world?

Conclusion:

The Bible is full of inferior men accomplishing incredible, divine acts on behalf of God.

Now does that mean that if we all listen and humbly accept the task God calls us to that we will become well-known heroes of the faith?

Certainly not. There are many wonderful people doing the work God called them to that are totally unknown. Chuck Swindoll wrote a book on Moses and he shared a story about a couple from our day.

Their names are Larry & Venita Schlopfeldt. They had determined to be missionaries in Caracas, Venezuela. But before they had accomplished much, they were in a car accident and Venita was paralyzed from the neck down. Her husband had to resign his life to taking care of her much as one would a child. He had to do everything for her. Basically, he became a single parent in a way, though she was much less able to do for herself what even most children can do.

However, they live surrendered to God. They opened a bookstore ministry in Caracas and Venita has had an incredible ministry through there. She speaks fluent Spanish and is always sharing the good news of the gospel and has lead many to come to know Christ.

I have met many through the years that have used ordinary businesses or skills to minister in various ways leading many to Christ. They have seen God use their skills and their businesses in ways most people would never dream of. Their life is anything but ordinary by any measure.

The call of God is always an adventure. It propels us to live anything but ordinary lives. In fact, the adventures we experience are often our best testimonies of God’s existence and His love for people.

Are you living an ordinary American life? Or have you come to understand the truth of the Christian life. It is motivated and propelled by God. It comes through a total consecration of everything we own and everything we are.

Perhaps today is your opportunity to fully understand that, you too, “can trust that Man who died for you.”

As we close this morning, I would encourage you that the altars are always open. They are an excellent place to come and kneel before God.

Do not allow others around you to intimidate you. If you cannot even do this humble exercise of coming before people to God’s altar, how can you ever expect to serve God.

We will close with a final song. As we sing, listen closely. What is God saying to you this morning? What is your one take away from this service that gives evidence that God is speaking to you?

You can sing or just listen, which ever ministers to your heart. There are a couple places where the men and women sing separate parts. The women can follow me as their part is quieter in the video. Men, just follow the worship leaders lead. As we sing, if you wish to come to the altar, please do so.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32AAPEceqBs

Close in prayer