SPEAKER_01: This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_01: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_00: These are two very bold things to proclaim this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we say that your spirit is welcome here.
SPEAKER_00: And we proclaim that all I have is Christ.
SPEAKER_00: To say your spirit is welcome here is to say, God, we want you to come to bear on every area of our life.
SPEAKER_00: Everything that we've planned, every great thing in our life, every bad thing in our life, everything that the jury is still out on.
SPEAKER_00: Our greatest joy to our deepest secret, we ask and we proclaim, Holy Spirit, come, reveal, bless, convict, enlighten, whatever it is that would bring glory to your name, we ask because all we have is you.
SPEAKER_00: What a bold, bold proclamation.
SPEAKER_00: And Father, it's my prayer for me, it's my prayer for all of those here this morning that that would not just be a song, that would not just be words on a screen, it would be our experience as well as our desire.
SPEAKER_00: So, Father, as we open your word, as we read and as we listen, definitely not to things that I have to say, but what your word has to say.
SPEAKER_00: This is our prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Your Holy Spirit is welcome.
SPEAKER_00: All we have is you.
SPEAKER_00: Burn up everything that doesn't look, taste, smell, and live like you.
SPEAKER_00: And we say that we trust you.
SPEAKER_00: We pray these things in your name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: If you have a Bible, uh do me a favor and turn to Exodus 4.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have a Bible, look to your left and your right.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe underneath you, you're going to see some Black Pew Bibles.
SPEAKER_00: We'll be in Exodus 4 this morning.
SPEAKER_00: If you weren't here earlier, my name is Wade Collier.
SPEAKER_00: I'm the Missions and Outreach Pastor here at Grant Parkway.
SPEAKER_00: It is my honor to continue through our sermon series on Exodus as we find ourselves in Exodus chapter 4 this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Neil mentioned, our lead pastor who does the majority of our teaching, he mentioned last week that in Exodus 3 and 4, there are five questions that God or that Moses poses to God.
SPEAKER_00: And he covered two of those last week out of Exodus 3, which were, Who am I?
SPEAKER_00: And then he says, which God answers with who he is.
SPEAKER_00: And then Moses continues to ask, God, who are you?
SPEAKER_00: And this morning, as we turn into Exodus 4, these questions are going to begin to change direction from not necessarily black and white direct questions, but what they become as their excuses that Moses offers up to God.
SPEAKER_00: And I confessed to the first service, so I want to confess to you that I experienced the beautiful gift of conviction this week about how professional I have become at excuses.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what I mean is because when we give excuses maybe at work, if we give excuses at school, if we give excuses maybe why we need to get a task done, tend to look a little bit different in the way that we approach our posture of excuses or our posture of questioning as it comes to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And let me tell you how it was so pervasive in my life was I have been in about a month-long pity party.
SPEAKER_00: I know none of you fall into these, you're all better people than me, but I've been living in about a month-long pity party.
SPEAKER_00: And here's how I know is earlier this week I was sitting in the kitchen when I ran home just to kind of play with my kids for a little bit before I had to be back up here for something we'd go in at the church.
SPEAKER_00: And my wife said, Man, you just look exhausted.
SPEAKER_00: And I thought, I'm going to pounce on this affirmation from my wife.
SPEAKER_00: I might get something out of this.
SPEAKER_00: I might get enough, you know, you're like, hey, you should take some time off.
SPEAKER_00: Don't worry about doing things with the kids.
SPEAKER_00: You look really tired.
SPEAKER_00: So I started to tell her how tired I was of just being central to everything in my life.
SPEAKER_00: We are moving my folks from East Texas up to Dallas.
SPEAKER_00: I said, I'm tired of being central to that.
SPEAKER_00: We have some stuff going on with Sally's side of family.
SPEAKER_00: I said, I'm tired of being central to that.
SPEAKER_00: We are trying to figure out, as a as many, as many of you know, we're trying to figure out how both of us are in full-time ministry with two little kids at home.
SPEAKER_00: And I found my I chuckled to myself and then felt horribly embarrassed as I thought about I'm complaining to my wife, who is home all day with two of the most ridiculously energized kids in the entire world, and balancing a full-time job, and I'm complaining about my job where I have adult conversations all day.
SPEAKER_00: And so Thursday, I leave work, I jump on my truck, and I immediately drive to East Texas, where I go to my parents' house where I'm still trying to explain to them what a thermostat is, and that on the thermostat, you can actually turn that below 82 in August.
SPEAKER_00: And after I get done doing all those things and go, I remember growing up with a brother and sister, where are they now?
SPEAKER_00: That we have to move the house, and so I get all that done after about four, about 36 hours, and then I drive from my parents' house to my wife's parents' house where we're helping her brother move.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if he's here, but I'm gonna shame him.
SPEAKER_00: So we were moving him, and so then I load my truck up with his stuff, and I'm driving at home and I'm thinking, God, I am I feel so sorry for myself, and I gotta preach on Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: And I started to think about what God had laid in my heart about these excuses we put before the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, You big baby.
SPEAKER_00: And then I just clear as the bell, the Holy Spirit in very ominous voice, said, Man up, ladybug.
SPEAKER_00: And so this morning, as we talk about these questions, where Moses is shifting more from these questions of there's a burning bush, and God's speaking to me, and I've been here for 40 years away from my homeland.
SPEAKER_00: Now, as God is putting a call on his life, we're gonna see Moses begin to offer up excuses in a sermon we've titled Our Excuses and God's Answers.
SPEAKER_00: Our excuses, God's answers.
SPEAKER_00: Exodus chapter four, verse one says this.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord said to him, What is that in your hand?
SPEAKER_00: And he answered, A staff.
SPEAKER_00: And God said, Throw it on the ground.
SPEAKER_00: So he threw it on the ground and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it.
SPEAKER_00: But the Lord said to Moses, Put your hand and cat put out your hand and catch it by the tail.
SPEAKER_00: So he put out his hand and he 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, the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.
SPEAKER_00: Verse six.
SPEAKER_00: Again the Lord said to him, Put your hand inside your cloak.
SPEAKER_00: And he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous like snow.
SPEAKER_00: And then God said, Put your hand back inside your cloak.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: If they will not believe you, God said, Or listen to the first sign, they may believe the latter sign, and if they will not believe even those two signs, or listen to your voice, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it out on the dry ground, and the water you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: But Moses said to the Lord, O 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.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord said to him, Who has made man's mouth?
SPEAKER_00: Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind?
SPEAKER_00: Is it not I, the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.
SPEAKER_00: But he said, O my Lord, please send someone else.
SPEAKER_00: And then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses, and he said, Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite?
SPEAKER_00: I know that he can speak well.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart, and 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, and he shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth, and you shall be as God to him.
SPEAKER_00: And take in your hands the staff with which you shall do the signs.
SPEAKER_00: This is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Last week I mentioned that we we heard about our understanding of God should be shaped by God Himself.
SPEAKER_00: Who am I?
SPEAKER_00: Who are you?
SPEAKER_00: The questions we talked about last week, but it's very clear from the very beginning of chapter four that Moses is not listening.
SPEAKER_00: He's not listening to what God said about himself.
SPEAKER_00: He's not saying who Moses is in relation to God, and he has missed it.
SPEAKER_00: He's not connecting.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 1 again.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: And so in this, Moses is asking these first three questions that I mentioned to you earlier that we'll look at today.
SPEAKER_00: This first question is, What if they don't believe me?
SPEAKER_00: God is saying, Go.
SPEAKER_00: He's made his plans clear, and Moses' response is, What if they don't believe me?
SPEAKER_00: Bruce Getchi paints it perfectly.
SPEAKER_00: He says, This the problem was that Moses was trusting his imagination rather than God's promise.
SPEAKER_00: He was seeing obstacles while God pointed to opportunities.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what we mean by God is pointing to opportunities, and Moses has missed it.
SPEAKER_00: God has already told Moses that his plan's going to work.
SPEAKER_00: He's already told him, I'm going to send you, you're going to say what I told you to say, and then Pharaoh is going to set my people free.
SPEAKER_00: But clearly, Moses, much like many of us, as we'll talk about this morning, we're not paying attention.
SPEAKER_00: Moses wasn't paying attentions, and paying attentions, that'd be plural for attention, I guess.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we we don't pay attention either.
SPEAKER_00: God tells us things like, I will supply all you need.
SPEAKER_00: And we don't listen.
SPEAKER_00: God says, I will never leave or forsake you.
SPEAKER_00: And we don't listen.
SPEAKER_00: God says, you can do everything through Christ who gives you strength.
SPEAKER_00: And we don't listen.
SPEAKER_00: Ask and it will be given to you, God says.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit will guide you into all truth.
SPEAKER_00: And we don't listen.
SPEAKER_00: And so when God tells us these things and we aren't listening and we disregard it, it looks a lot like this picture that's behind me on the screens.
SPEAKER_00: It looks like this.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, okay, wizard, make the connection.
SPEAKER_00: How is the pink toy kitchen like this?
SPEAKER_00: Things like this come with a set of instructions, right?
SPEAKER_00: And then when it comes time to put it together, we put those instructions aside, believing that we know better.
SPEAKER_00: We struggle, we get angry at the stupid manufacturer, and we know better, and so we cast it aside while all the time the instructions are right before us.
SPEAKER_00: See, my wife and I have had two instances in ten and a half years of marriage where divorce was a reality.
SPEAKER_00: The first one was about six months into marriage where I decided that we should be the couple that runs together.
SPEAKER_00: Me is the most competitive human being ever to walk the face of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: And so about a mile into the run, I became Tom Hanks from a league of their own.
SPEAKER_00: There's no walking and running.
SPEAKER_00: No walking.
SPEAKER_00: Remember?
SPEAKER_00: No crying in baseball?
SPEAKER_00: No crying?
SPEAKER_00: Anyone?
SPEAKER_00: It's a movie, people.
SPEAKER_00: And my wife, about a mile in, finds herself hiding behind a tree crying, swearing that for the rest of our lives we will never ever participate in anything that involves athleticism.
SPEAKER_00: The second time was when Santa had left a box unassembled under the tree, requiring St.
SPEAKER_00: Nick's grumpiest elf to assemble this kid's craft pink vintage kitchen set you see behind me.
SPEAKER_00: Like any red-blooded American man, I took the instructions and cast them aside and went to work on my own because I knew better than the instructions, right?
SPEAKER_00: And then three hours later, and many regrettable, angry outbursts later, my wife comes walking in calmly and picks up the instructions and methodically begins to lay the parts out, much like the instructions said you should.
SPEAKER_00: And then everything starts to snap together.
SPEAKER_00: As I was just previously sitting amidst the pink Fermica shrapnel that covered my living room floor, this thing came together.
SPEAKER_00: And so here's the deal my daughter, now at almost seven years old, has outgrown this.
SPEAKER_00: But we leave this, I leave this as kind of an Old Testament symbol.
SPEAKER_00: They would call this a Karen in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: When God made a promise or reminded you of his covenant, you would pile stones up.
SPEAKER_00: This is what I have.
SPEAKER_00: So anytime I doubt God and I think I know better than God, I just go in and I look at the pink kitchen set in my daughter's bedroom.
SPEAKER_00: So why take that picture down?
SPEAKER_00: That's embarrassing.
SPEAKER_00: Why do I share this embarrassing peak into my personal dysfunction?
SPEAKER_00: Because hear this church, our excuses do not override God's promise.
SPEAKER_00: The excuses we make for not listening to God do not override God's promise.
SPEAKER_00: What God wants done, he gets done.
SPEAKER_00: And he has laid the instructions out right in front of us.
SPEAKER_00: And I could line person after person who has lived a lot of life, and they would say, the sooner you understand this, the better.
SPEAKER_00: The sooner you understand that God knows best and what he wants done will get done.
SPEAKER_00: But Moses, much like us, has convinced himself that his excuses override God's promise to get done what he wants done.
SPEAKER_00: And so Moses fashions these five questions between chapters three and four to basically say, send someone else.
SPEAKER_00: And he'll eventually find himself just saying, just send someone else.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 1 again.
SPEAKER_00: Moses answers, but behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice.
SPEAKER_00: They will say, The Lord did not appear to you.
SPEAKER_00: But the best part of this sermon, and the more importantly, God's text and God's character is his response to our excuses, which is his promise.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I mean.
SPEAKER_00: Moses finds three ways in 13 verses to try and convince God that his carnal excuses override the promises of the Creator God.
SPEAKER_00: That he sees things clearly, and God doesn't.
SPEAKER_00: God says, I'm going to do this, and Moses says, No, wait, but this.
SPEAKER_00: And God says, No, I'm going to do this.
SPEAKER_00: And Moses says, No, wait, but I know clearly.
SPEAKER_00: Because remember, I told you earlier that God had already told Moses what the plan was and that it was going to work.
SPEAKER_00: In chapter 3, verse 10, it's going to be on the screens behind me.
SPEAKER_00: In chapter 3, verse 10, God says, Come, I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: Moses knows this, and now he's trying to convince God that this plan won't work, and this is why.
SPEAKER_00: And hear this, church.
SPEAKER_00: There's going to be a few things I want to point out that we have to be very aware of.
SPEAKER_00: This is something that we need to be on guard against as a church and in our families and in our personal lives, because much like with the case with Moses, this is seldom an isolated issue.
SPEAKER_00: That we just have one excuse for one situation.
SPEAKER_00: This is very seldom isolated.
SPEAKER_00: We begin to create a habit of doubt and excuses that begin to intertwine into our lives, and it is pervasive.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what I mean by this as we encounter a situation, and I think Neil even mentioned this, I know he did in the 10 o'clock service last week.
SPEAKER_00: As we encounter a situation where we're in a conversation, and in the scripture that God has told us to hide in our heart, we're in the midst of a conversation, and God is saying, Hey, I want you to bring my word, my promise, my will through scripture.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to bring that to bear on this conversation.
SPEAKER_00: But instead, we choose our version of keeping the peace.
SPEAKER_00: Because we don't want to offend.
SPEAKER_00: And so what we've done is we painted ourselves into this corner of tolerance instead of having this great opportunity, as we just saw a guy get baptized and we talked about we get to be salt and light.
SPEAKER_00: Instead of having a salt and light conversation, we decide to make the excuse of peace.
SPEAKER_00: And we ignore what Proverbs 3.5 says in this great promise where it says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
SPEAKER_00: God says, just trust me.
SPEAKER_00: And so when you're in another situation and the Holy Spirit begins to nudge you and begins to speak to you and tell you to act, instead of just following God, what we can do if this has become a habit in our life.
SPEAKER_00: And remember, I said the excuses, they're pervasive, and they don't always come out verbally.
SPEAKER_00: They'll come out in the way we respond to the Lord or don't respond to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And we immediately begin to rationalize why this can't be God and whatever He's calling us to do is irrational and it's uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm I'm pastor good news for you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I have great news.
SPEAKER_00: Are you ready, church?
SPEAKER_00: God is in the business of calling you to the inconvenient and the uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_00: It's what God does, right?
SPEAKER_00: Don't forget, Exodus 4 is part of one big conversation where one, God has called Moses to come speak to him through a burning bush.
SPEAKER_00: Moses is out tending his flock and a bush catches on fire and doesn't burn up.
SPEAKER_00: And then God's voice comes out of it, right?
SPEAKER_00: And then two, he's calling Moses to return to Egypt after 40 years.
SPEAKER_00: Moses has been gone for 40 years, and God says, I want you to go back.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to walk straight into the courts of the Pharaoh, and I want you to tell him to set his free workforce, or his workforce free.
SPEAKER_00: His unpaid slave workforce, I want you to set them free.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not the brightest guy breathing oxygen.
SPEAKER_00: I'm aware of that.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm going to walk out on a ledge and say that what God is doing with Moses is both inconvenient and uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_00: But then God isn't done.
SPEAKER_00: It continues.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 2.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord said to him, What's in your hand?
SPEAKER_00: And Moses said, It's a staff.
SPEAKER_00: Just very stimulating conversation.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, Throw it on the ground.
SPEAKER_00: And so he threw it on the ground and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it.
SPEAKER_00: Because Moses gets some things right.
SPEAKER_00: If there's a snake, I will run.
SPEAKER_00: But the Lord said to Moses, Put out your hand and catch it by the tail.
SPEAKER_00: And so he put out his hand and he caught it.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: Just a few observations about what God is doing here.
SPEAKER_00: This is this great response of God to Moses' excuse.
SPEAKER_00: What Moses is holding is his tool.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: This is what he uses to guide his flocks.
SPEAKER_00: This is what he uses when he's walking around the desert terrain to balance himself, to hold himself up.
SPEAKER_00: This is what he uses if he needs to as a weapon to defend himself, to defend his flock.
SPEAKER_00: It is his security, right?
SPEAKER_00: And what God tells him to do is throw it on the ground.
SPEAKER_00: And I would be a horrible ambassador of God's word if I didn't point out that God, who remember, is in the business of calling you to things both uncomfortable and inconvenient and irrational, just told Moses to throw probably the most precious item that Moses carried, the symbol of his authority, this literal scepter that Moses is calling.
SPEAKER_00: He's using this to rule the world in which he lives, and he's telling him to throw it on the ground.
SPEAKER_00: There's an old song by this guy named Ken Medima.
SPEAKER_00: And yes, for all of you who grew up in church, I just climbed in Mr.
SPEAKER_00: Peabody's Wayback Machine to talk about a song from a guy named Ken Medima.
SPEAKER_00: You haven't heard that name in about 20 years.
SPEAKER_00: But he has this song that's aptly called Moses.
SPEAKER_00: And I asked the guys to put this one line from his song up on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: And he says this What do you hold in your hand today?
SPEAKER_00: To who or to what are you bound?
SPEAKER_00: Are you willing to give it to God right now?
SPEAKER_00: Give it up, let it go, throw it down.
SPEAKER_00: And what we see is this God who what he wants done gets done, he will take your security and he'll make it his.
SPEAKER_00: And probably what he was taught.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what I mean is he goes and he tells Moses to pick the serpent up by the tail.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I I have a rank of three things that I think might be the devil's work.
SPEAKER_00: One, our Texans fans.
SPEAKER_00: That's right, I said it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not afraid of any of you.
SPEAKER_00: Alright?
SPEAKER_00: Second to that is snakes, alright?
SPEAKER_00: But here's what I know about snakes you don't pick a snake up by the tail, alright?
SPEAKER_00: Because that thing's gonna turn around and it's gonna bite you.
SPEAKER_00: And Moses probably knows this.
SPEAKER_00: He's worked in the wilderness, he knows about snakes, and God says, pick it up by the tail, because God is in control, and God will break your instincts if they distract you from his sovereignty.
SPEAKER_00: God will break your instincts if they distract you from his sovereignty.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what I mean is God will take your dignified excuse and he'll invite you into undignified freedom.
SPEAKER_00: Neil mentioned this last week that there is this unhealthy tendency of polite society that we can get caught into as Christians, but that's not what God has called us to.
SPEAKER_00: God has not called us into polite society, God has called us into this undignified, excuse free freedom that He offers.
SPEAKER_00: And if you embrace that and you lean into it and you say, God, I want you to take my instincts and break them because they have been distracting me from your sovereignty.
SPEAKER_00: You ever been somewhere or had the uncomfortable uh experience of being somewhere where someone's credit card gets cut up in front of them?
SPEAKER_00: I had a very short season in my life where I worked in retail.
SPEAKER_00: And if you work in retail, God bless you.
SPEAKER_00: Man, you were long-suffering.
SPEAKER_00: But I worked at a t-shirt shop and I had to, I it was, this was back in the day we had to call the credit card company when it got declined, and they said, hey, we need you to cut that card up.
SPEAKER_00: That is rough, right?
SPEAKER_00: But here's the deal.
SPEAKER_00: Here's why I share that is if you embrace this excuse-free, irrational freedom that God gives you, it's like taking that polite society card and just having it hacked up right in front of you.
SPEAKER_00: Because then it's about the inconvenient and the irrational and the uncomfortable that God calls you to.
SPEAKER_00: If you embrace what God promises, you find yourself like David.
SPEAKER_00: You remember this in 2 Samuel chapter 6?
SPEAKER_00: And he's dancing and he's worshiping, and he worships so hard his clothes fall off, and he's down to his underwear, and polite society looks out the window and they go, That is so undignified.
SPEAKER_00: And David has the greatest response ever.
SPEAKER_00: And he goes, I will become much more undignified than this.
SPEAKER_00: He's the original Doc Holiday.
SPEAKER_00: I have not yet begun to undignify myself, right?
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for all the tombstone fans in the room.
SPEAKER_00: If you I want to take a moment, just a little caveat.
SPEAKER_00: If you if you're a parent or you have parental authority, if you have authority over young people, I want you to hear this and how this should and can play out if you really embrace this.
SPEAKER_00: Because much like Moses, you have this opportunity to set a precedent, an example of obeying and answering God's call on your life.
SPEAKER_00: And if you do this, and this can be recreated and echoed by your kids or those that you have authority over as they watch how you respond to God's call on your life.
SPEAKER_00: And you have this choice right now, church, hear this.
SPEAKER_00: You have this opportunity that instead of a legacy of a safe, dignified, tolerant, excuse-ridden life, wouldn't you much rather be 80 years old and you got that little bit of crazy look in your eye?
SPEAKER_00: And you're just like, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: I missed it a couple times, but I missed it full speed, and there's some me-shaped holes in that wall over there.
SPEAKER_00: Because I ran full speed because God is so good.
SPEAKER_00: And and you can say, man, once I realized that the illusion of safety, and I realized and recognize and confess that the power that people's opinions had over me, once I just let that go, man, I have a little less in the bank and a little bit more gray hair than I planned on, but I've got to experience this freedom of just being excuse-free before the king.
SPEAKER_00: I have these good friends, Sal and I had these good friends that have accepted a call to go to Bali, Indonesia, and work alongside a ministry there.
SPEAKER_00: And so they spent the last year doing all the things you got to do to go be full-time missionaries, and so they left their really cushion jobs in the woodlands and they sold their great house in the woodlands and got on a plane, took their three small kids, and they're serving.
SPEAKER_00: And I had the opportunity to go to their going away dinner at their church put on for them, and I was sitting next to the wife's husband who I've known for almost 20 years now, and I was just joking with him and said, How long do you think you can keep your wife away from these three young grandchildren?
SPEAKER_00: And this is a guy that just retired in March, retired really well, has a house paid for in the back of the woodlands.
SPEAKER_00: You guys have been in the woodlands and what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_00: In the back, he's got that house paid for.
SPEAKER_00: He's got three project Jeeps that he paid cash for.
SPEAKER_00: He's got a boat he didn't have to finance.
SPEAKER_00: He's set.
SPEAKER_00: And he looks at me with tears in his eyes and he says, Wait, there's just got to be more.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, I'm starting to realize I might be spending retirement as a missionary in Indonesia.
SPEAKER_00: What an opportunity to live in the freedom.
SPEAKER_00: And so God tells Moses in verse 6, he says, Put your hand inside your cloak, and he puts his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous like snow.
SPEAKER_00: And God said, Put your hand back inside your cloak, and 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.
SPEAKER_00: And if they will not believe you, God said, or listen to the first sign, they may believe the latter sign.
SPEAKER_00: And 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 ground, and the water you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.
SPEAKER_00: And so this second miracle that God shows to Moses is to say, I am all about healing and restoration.
SPEAKER_00: I am patient beyond your excuses.
SPEAKER_00: And so I want you to see how I can heal you and heal my people.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says, I want you to take this Nile water and I want you to pour it on the ground.
SPEAKER_00: And God is saying to Moses, Hey, I will take everything that people put in front of me.
SPEAKER_00: Because in Egypt, the reason this is very important with what God was doing with the Nile water was that was a God to them.
SPEAKER_00: This was their, this was what they worship instead of the one true God.
SPEAKER_00: And God said, I'll take that and I will literally have you pour it out as an offering to me, and I'll take that water and I'll turn it into blood.
SPEAKER_00: And God wants Pharaoh to see, and he wants the Israelites to see, hey, this is my man who I am going to speak through.
SPEAKER_00: I, Yahweh, will use this person.
SPEAKER_00: And so Moses gets to see, and the Egyptians will get to see.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the difference between Moses and us, and here is one of those things I told you about that we need to hear.
SPEAKER_00: You and I don't need these kinds of things.
SPEAKER_00: We don't need these kinds of things.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what I mean is we have history.
SPEAKER_00: We have the resurrection of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We have the word of God, right?
SPEAKER_00: We have the evidence of changed lives all around us.
SPEAKER_00: Moses didn't have these things.
SPEAKER_00: God gives him these things, and here's what I believe, here's what I submit.
SPEAKER_00: I think Moses believes in God at this point.
SPEAKER_00: I think he just still doesn't want to go.
SPEAKER_00: I think he trusts in his excuses more than he trusts in God.
SPEAKER_00: But we have all these things.
SPEAKER_00: We're not like Moses.
SPEAKER_00: We have all these things.
SPEAKER_00: We have the history, we have the resurrection of Christ, we have the Bible, the Word of God, we have the evidence of changed lives all around us, and we still come up with excuses why not to answer the call of God, right?
SPEAKER_00: So Moses, like us, continues with his questions of God's ability.
SPEAKER_00: And he continues to question God's ability to work through him in this form of excuses.
SPEAKER_00: So just to catch up as we kind of make this turn towards home, just to be clear, just to make sure we're all on the same page here, beginning back in chapter 3, God manifests himself as a burning bush.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: It's a bush that is on fire, that is not consumed by the flames.
SPEAKER_00: And then he's speaking audibly to Moses from the bush, calling him to be his mouthpiece to Pharaoh as well as the Israelites.
SPEAKER_00: And when Moses doubts and he continues to volley up all these excuses, God takes Moses' staff and he turns it into a snake.
SPEAKER_00: And then he turns it back into a staff.
SPEAKER_00: And then he inflicts Moses with leprosy and then he takes it away.
SPEAKER_00: And then he gives Moses the power to turn water from Nile River into blood.
SPEAKER_00: God's done a lot.
SPEAKER_00: Are we on the same page with that?
SPEAKER_00: And so where do we find Moses?
SPEAKER_00: He's casting his doubt onto a sovereign God of the universe.
SPEAKER_00: He's been given three incredible answers of God's sufficiency in the face of his excuses.
SPEAKER_00: And now Moses ponies up yet another excuse.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: Moses said to the Lord, Oh my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in speech in the past, or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.
SPEAKER_00: Which is Moses' next question.
SPEAKER_00: What about my poor public speaking?
SPEAKER_00: What if they don't believe me?
SPEAKER_00: And now what about my poor public speaking?
SPEAKER_00: It's interesting how the word excuse in our culture has developed in the English language.
SPEAKER_00: Originally it meant to give a defense or reason for something.
SPEAKER_00: However, now it's come to mean an unjustified or false reason for something.
SPEAKER_00: A false reason given to cover up the real reason.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, at this point, Moses hasn't brought himself to the point where he just says, just send someone else.
SPEAKER_00: He's still making a case for why he knows better than God.
SPEAKER_00: And so instead of doing what many of us are just like Moses, are equally unwilling to admit, which is just to say, how freeing would it be this morning if we just said, God, I've spent my life embracing what is safe instead of what is undignified.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm scared to death of trusting in you instead of my own competency.
SPEAKER_00: But let's just do this.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever it is, I'm all in.
SPEAKER_00: Here's all my chips.
SPEAKER_00: But Moses, like many of us, hides behind what he considered to be a hindrance.
SPEAKER_00: What do I mean by a hindrance?
SPEAKER_00: Is most theologians or many theologians believe that Moses had some sort of speech impediment or some sort of stutter.
SPEAKER_00: And why is this important?
SPEAKER_00: Because many people in here have a hindrance in their life.
SPEAKER_00: They have an impediment.
SPEAKER_00: They have something that is a legitimate struggle of which I'm nor God making light of.
SPEAKER_00: But what God does with confronted with what Moses believed to be, I can't speak eloquently, I have a speech impediment, I can't do this.
SPEAKER_00: God does is remind him who created him.
SPEAKER_00: God says, I know you do.
SPEAKER_00: I'm the one who created you.
SPEAKER_00: And by doing that, he draws a line in the sand for Moses on two things.
SPEAKER_00: He's reminding Moses who he is, who God is, and who Moses is in relation to God.
SPEAKER_00: What do I mean?
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord said to him, Who has made man's mouth?
SPEAKER_00: Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind?
SPEAKER_00: Is it not I, the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.
SPEAKER_00: There are many people with legitimate physical, emotional, mental struggles, and I know that they feel like an anchor around you, but bigger than that, God knows how they feel like an anchor around your neck.
SPEAKER_00: But what God is saying to Moses and what he's saying to us in the simplest of terms is do you think this surprises me?
SPEAKER_00: Do you think it surprises me that you have this struggle?
SPEAKER_00: Do you think it surprises me that this is in your life?
SPEAKER_00: I made you.
SPEAKER_00: I sewed you together in your mother's womb.
SPEAKER_00: I'm your creator, I'm your father, and now you want to use this as an excuse.
SPEAKER_00: And if we allow ourselves, church, to be defined by a lifelong excuse, what you're telling God, hear this.
SPEAKER_00: What you're telling God is your sovereignty has limits.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Moses was saying.
SPEAKER_00: Hey God, it's cool.
SPEAKER_00: The burning bush thing, that was pretty cool.
SPEAKER_00: And I threw my staff on the ground, you made that a snake.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't really want to pick it up by its tail, but okay.
SPEAKER_00: The leprosy, I could have done without that.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for healing that and God, you're big and you do good miracles, but I don't talk very good.
SPEAKER_00: So your sovereignty stops at my ability to communicate.
SPEAKER_00: Do me a favor and uh direct your attention to the screens behind me real quick.
SPEAKER_02: I was born in Melbourne, Australia, 1982, and my parents had no idea that I was going to be born without arms or legs.
SPEAKER_02: I was the only one that I ever saw without limbs.
SPEAKER_02: My faith in Jesus Christ was sealed after seven years of wondering why God I was born this way.
SPEAKER_02: And I gave my life to Jesus at 15 after reading about how he came across a man who was born blind.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, hey, hold on a second.
SPEAKER_02: This looks interesting.
SPEAKER_02: And no one knew why he was born that way.
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, perfect.
SPEAKER_02: So I read on, and in verse 3 of the ninth chapter, Jesus said it was done so that the works of God would be revealed through him.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, wow, God, if you had a plan for the blind man, you do have a plan for me.
SPEAKER_02: And that was the beginning of my personal relationship with Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Youth groups were starting to call me, churches were starting to call me, opportunities were opening up everywhere for me to share my testimony.
SPEAKER_02: I was speaking in front of 300 sophomore public high school students.
SPEAKER_02: Three minutes into it, half the girls were crying.
SPEAKER_02: One girl in the middle of the room started weeping.
SPEAKER_02: She put up her hand and she said, I'm so sorry to interrupt, but can I come up there and give you a hug?
SPEAKER_02: In front of everyone, she came and she hugged me.
SPEAKER_02: She cried on my shoulder and whispered in my ear, No one's ever told me that they love me.
SPEAKER_02: No one's ever told me that I'm beautiful the way that I am.
SPEAKER_02: I couldn't believe it.
SPEAKER_02: It changed my life.
SPEAKER_02: At that moment, I knew God was ministering to her through me.
SPEAKER_02: It's not by my speech or my power, it was God.
SPEAKER_02: And my heart was ignited with a passion.
SPEAKER_02: And it was an awesome day to see one soul transformed forever.
SPEAKER_02: That was when I knew I was called to be a worldwide angel.
SPEAKER_03: You don't know what I can do with your broken pieces until you give your broken pieces.
SPEAKER_02: From university campuses, 40,000 students in China to India, where we're talking as sex slaves, to crowds in the jungle of India, 110,000 people, down to Indonesia and all of Southeast Asia to speak in at Congresses of nations like Colombia and Costa Rica, where you see the leaders of that nation commit that country to the Lord Jesus, to Korea and speak into the next generation about depression and suicide and to Eastern Europe, where we did Serbia, Slovenia, and Croatia.
SPEAKER_02: And then doors in the Middle East, the message of hope was spread throughout the whole Arab world.
SPEAKER_02: That is gone.
SPEAKER_02: And we know we've just begun.
SPEAKER_02: By the grace of God, we have seen face-to-face a half a million souls say yes to Jesus and be plugged into a local church.
SPEAKER_02: As crazy as it sounds, our goal at Life Without Limbs Ministry is to preach to every single soul on the planet.
SPEAKER_02: Seven billion people.
SPEAKER_02: God is good and all the time.
SPEAKER_02: Alright.
SPEAKER_02: My story is a story of redemption.
SPEAKER_02: Help us share it with the world so that others would be free indeed.
SPEAKER_00: What is it?
SPEAKER_00: What is the power of that greatest excuse?
SPEAKER_00: Which is our last question.
SPEAKER_00: Which is, why me?
SPEAKER_00: Why me?
SPEAKER_00: But he says, Oh Lord, please send someone else.
SPEAKER_00: Moses finally gets down to it.
SPEAKER_00: He says, God, you've reshaped my understanding of who you are.
SPEAKER_00: You've burned up all my excuses.
SPEAKER_00: And now I'll just get down to it.
SPEAKER_00: Send someone else.
SPEAKER_00: Just send someone else.
SPEAKER_00: I feel my excuses far outweigh you.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder how many people are living miserable lives right now because they refuse to do what God has told them to do.
SPEAKER_00: A guy, Bruce Getchy, that I mentioned at the beginning of the service, he says this.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I read the text, and Moses seems to be saying, I don't want the job.
SPEAKER_00: God's anger burns against Moses, and he is stalling, and he's digging in his heels, and he's bordering on throwing a tantrum.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, I don't want to.
SPEAKER_00: And God says, Tough.
SPEAKER_00: And what happens is God is Moses runs out of excuses and he realizes he has a job to do.
SPEAKER_00: And consequently, he and Aaron are going to walk into an impossible situation because God is going to say, Hey, if you can't do this, and if you're going to keep making excuses, I'm going to bring your brother alongside you.
SPEAKER_00: And through this, I'm going to teach you that my will and my desire are bigger than your excuses.
SPEAKER_00: And as a result, Moses will become the leader of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And as a result of Moses moving forward, he came to talk with God as a friend.
SPEAKER_00: And in the end, Moses came to know an intimacy with God unlike any other individual other than the Lord himself.
SPEAKER_00: And so the answer to the question, and this is how we'll close, and this will be our response.
SPEAKER_00: A little bit different.
SPEAKER_00: If you've never been here before, typically a response to Grant Parkway is Clyde and the band, or Clyde will come and he'll sing, and we'll just give you room to listen.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the invitation to respond today is the guys are going to put one Psalm 139, and I want to read about 17 verses of that to you, 18 verses of that.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to hear the answer to the why.
SPEAKER_00: Why me?
SPEAKER_00: Because hey, look at me, and we'll be done.
SPEAKER_00: Is God knows you.
SPEAKER_00: God knows you.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to respond.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to hear, I want you to hear, maybe even for the first time, how well God knows you and still is calling.
SPEAKER_00: It says, O Lord, you have searched me and known me.
SPEAKER_00: You know when I sit down and when I rise up, you discern my thoughts from afar.
SPEAKER_00: You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all of my ways.
SPEAKER_00: Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
SPEAKER_00: You hem me in, behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me.
SPEAKER_00: Such knowledge is too wonderful for me.
SPEAKER_00: It is high.
SPEAKER_00: I cannot attain it.
SPEAKER_00: Where shall I go from your spirit?
SPEAKER_00: Or where shall I flee from your presence?
SPEAKER_00: If I ascend to heaven, you're there.
SPEAKER_00: And if I make my bed in Sheol, you're there.
SPEAKER_00: If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.
SPEAKER_00: If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night, even the darkness is not dark to you.
SPEAKER_00: The night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you.
SPEAKER_00: For you, for you formed my inward parts.
SPEAKER_00: You knitted me together in my mother's womb.
SPEAKER_00: I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
SPEAKER_00: Wonderful are your works, my soul knows it very well.
SPEAKER_00: My frame is not hidden from you.
SPEAKER_00: When I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Your eyes saw my unformed substance.
SPEAKER_00: In your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.
SPEAKER_00: How precious to me are your thoughts, O God.
SPEAKER_00: How vast is the sum of them.
SPEAKER_00: If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
SPEAKER_00: I awake and I am still with you.
SPEAKER_00: God knows everything about you.
SPEAKER_00: Look at me.
SPEAKER_00: God knows everything about you, and He's calling you.