SPEAKER_00: Morning.
SPEAKER_00: It is a good morning indeed.
SPEAKER_00: I'm thankful for the opportunity to share the word this morning, and I'm even more thankful for God who has given us his word, both in flesh and on the written page, that we may celebrate and know him.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm excited to do that this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I'm especially thankful that I get to do it on a morning that there's just one service.
SPEAKER_00: It's a combined service because what we normally do is we normally allot 35 minutes for the sermon, but I get both both of those.
SPEAKER_00: So I get 70 minutes for the sermon today.
SPEAKER_00: So we're going to cover two full chapters of Old Testament narrative, and I'm really excited because I don't normally get to do this.
SPEAKER_00: But we are.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to cover quite a lot of ground today.
SPEAKER_00: I won't really take the 70 minutes, but we are going to cover quite a lot of ground today.
SPEAKER_00: I'm excited, but we're going to start by looking at just the first 10 verses, and then we're going to dig in.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so let's look at Exodus chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: If you'll turn there with me.
SPEAKER_00: It's a familiar passage.
SPEAKER_00: Moses at the burning bush and God's call to him.
SPEAKER_00: 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 desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
SPEAKER_00: There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush.
SPEAKER_00: Moses saw that the bush was on fire, it did not burn up.
SPEAKER_00: That though the bush was on fire, it did not burn up.
SPEAKER_00: So Moses thought, I will go over and see this strange sight.
SPEAKER_00: Why the bush does not burn up?
SPEAKER_00: When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, Moses, Moses, and he said, Here I am.
SPEAKER_00: Do not come any closer, God said.
SPEAKER_00: Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.
SPEAKER_00: Then he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.
SPEAKER_00: At this Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord said, I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.
SPEAKER_00: 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, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perzevites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
SPEAKER_00: And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.
SPEAKER_00: So now go.
SPEAKER_00: I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: God, we thank you for your word.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for the examples that we see of your goodness and your kindness and your strength and your intentions and your integrity and your holiness and your justice.
SPEAKER_00: And the list could go on forever.
SPEAKER_00: And we ask that today as we look at your word that you would enliven us with your spirit, that you would meet us where we are, that you would show us who you are, and that you would reveal a way that we can start afresh in your strength.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: New Year's resolutions.
SPEAKER_00: They're on a lot of people's minds at this time of year.
SPEAKER_00: Here we are sitting between Christmas and New Year's, and maybe you've started thinking about it, maybe you've heard it on the radio, on TV.
SPEAKER_00: We see a lot of it in our culture at this time of year.
SPEAKER_00: New books, new uh stick to your goals, plans, and organizers, and all sorts of things that come out around this time of year.
SPEAKER_00: I'm aware of this because every year I find myself in this position of recognizing that there's this truth to the fact that in a new year we have a new beginning and an opportunity, and it's fitting to go, what?
SPEAKER_00: What's in front of me this year?
SPEAKER_00: To take stock, to evaluate, to go, to go, what is what is in front of me and where am I going?
SPEAKER_00: And to evaluate our goals.
SPEAKER_00: It's a fitting place to ask these questions.
SPEAKER_00: And I confess every year I kind of am asking the same question.
SPEAKER_00: See, for me, I have a struggle with my weight.
SPEAKER_00: Just be honest, in my adult life, I have lost and gained over 50 pounds six times.
SPEAKER_00: This year, as a matter of fact, last year I set this as a New Year's resolution to lose weight.
SPEAKER_00: I lost 42 pounds going into summer, and I've gained the majority of it back, if I just have to confess.
SPEAKER_00: And so I struggle with these things.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you like me find these moments for new beginnings and fresh starts and kind of take stock and ask questions.
SPEAKER_00: But but we all have different things that we might look at at this stage, but I didn't want to just go, what is our culture doing?
SPEAKER_00: What do I do?
SPEAKER_00: What have I done every year?
SPEAKER_00: I wanted to go, what does Scripture have to say about this new beginning concept?
SPEAKER_00: Who do we have in Scripture that serves as an example of somebody who was called to something new?
SPEAKER_00: And how did they take on this new direction, this new path, this new course?
SPEAKER_00: And Moses came to mind.
SPEAKER_00: See, Moses is being called to something new here.
SPEAKER_00: Moses grew up in a life of kind of a very interesting life of both privilege and this awareness of slavery and oppression at the same time.
SPEAKER_00: So he was raised by Pharaoh's daughter.
SPEAKER_00: And he had privilege, and yet he was very aware of who his real family was, and he was visited by them and even nursed to health by his real family.
SPEAKER_00: And so he had this kind of dual world that he was living in.
SPEAKER_00: And yet one day, as his people, who were enslaved in Egypt, as he witnessed one of them being beaten, from his position of privilege, he was enraged.
SPEAKER_00: And he struck out in anger and killed a man.
SPEAKER_00: And when he realized that the knowledge of that had gotten around, he fled in fear for his life.
SPEAKER_00: And he had found his way into Midian, and he had met a girl, and he married her.
SPEAKER_00: And here we meet him attending his father-in-law's sheep.
SPEAKER_00: And God says, I have something new for you.
SPEAKER_00: A fresh beginning.
SPEAKER_00: A new task.
SPEAKER_00: We come to chapter three, and he's been hanging out in Midian for a while.
SPEAKER_00: But the interesting thing here that I immediately notice is that Moses didn't just decide to free God's people.
SPEAKER_00: Moses was called to it.
SPEAKER_00: Moses was called by God to a specific task.
SPEAKER_00: And as we look at this, God does it through some very amazing circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: See, this story is in danger of the familiar familiar.
SPEAKER_00: I can't speak this morning, familiarity effect.
SPEAKER_00: See, sometimes we get so familiar with a story that we reduce the awe of it in our mind.
SPEAKER_00: And the story of Moses and the burning bush can be one.
SPEAKER_00: We've heard it growing up in Sunday school.
SPEAKER_00: I like to say that, you know, when I teach students all the time, and and and I and we talk about this, how some of these stories become old hat.
SPEAKER_00: You heard them time and time again in Sunday school, and our brains can kind of shut off, and we can reduce the awe and the wonder that should be present.
SPEAKER_00: But but when we see the burning bush, I don't know about you, but sometimes I see the little flannelgram picture, you know, the little cartoon picture of the bush on fire, and they stuck it up on the little flannel board.
SPEAKER_00: It's an old thing.
SPEAKER_00: You have to Google it, kids.
SPEAKER_00: You can Google, see what a flannelgram is.
SPEAKER_00: And we could just turn it into that little cartoon bush.
SPEAKER_00: But ladies and gentlemen, let me tell you, this was an awe-inspiring sight.
SPEAKER_00: God got Moses' attention through amazing circumstances of reaching into his life, exactly where he was, met him where he was, and grabbed his attention in a miraculous way.
SPEAKER_00: We have a bush ablaze with flames and yet vibrant and alive within it.
SPEAKER_00: And though the flame is burning bright, the bush is not consumed.
SPEAKER_00: This was not normal.
SPEAKER_00: See, you might find a bush on fire.
SPEAKER_00: You won't find one that is living vibrantly inside the flames.
SPEAKER_00: And this got their attention.
SPEAKER_00: This got Moses' attention, and it should get ours, and we should pause on the wonder of the power and the might of a God who meets us where we are in miraculous ways.
SPEAKER_00: The reality is that we have quite an amazing revelation of God's will that was custom-tailored to Moses' circumstances to get his attention.
SPEAKER_00: And I once had a conversation with a lady who talked about how she loved the symbolism of the bush of God, who's referred to in many places in Scripture as a consuming fire.
SPEAKER_00: And here, his consuming fire is burning this bush and it is not consumed.
SPEAKER_00: And she said, I think that's a lot how we come to God, that we can fear this consuming fire, and that we think that if we put our life inside of this consuming fire, that we will get consumed, and that we will lose ourselves, and that we will cease and he will begin.
SPEAKER_00: And yet that's not the picture.
SPEAKER_00: She said, I see us like the burning bush, that when we put ourselves within the flames of God's consuming fire, that then we become even more vibrant and more alive, just like this miracle that God used to get Moses' attention.
SPEAKER_00: And so as we're looking at ourselves on the cusp of potentially new beginnings and new paths that God might be calling us to, I want you to realize that to submit yourself into his flame is not one where you will lose yourself, but one where you will find yourself.
SPEAKER_00: As Moses found something that day.
SPEAKER_00: Are they just things we conjured up because we would enjoy them?
SPEAKER_00: Are they things that God is literally calling us to?
SPEAKER_00: I'll use the example of weight loss because I told you that's one that I struggle with, and it's one that a lot of people struggle with.
SPEAKER_00: If you Google New Year's resolutions, you will find that the one at the top of the list usually is weight loss.
SPEAKER_00: In America, this tends to be the highest seller of books at this time of year.
SPEAKER_00: Gym memberships skyrocket through the roof at this time of year.
SPEAKER_00: Gyms love it.
SPEAKER_00: They get a hundred people signed up, and then only five of them actually use the memberships they're paying for.
SPEAKER_00: And we we tend to do this thing in cycles, but the reality is weight loss or any other goal, we can do the same thing, the same action can be taken on for good motive and bad motive.
SPEAKER_00: And let me give you an example when I face this in my life.
SPEAKER_00: One when I had to ask myself, Am I doing this for me or for God?
SPEAKER_00: See, I I walked away from God in some very severe ways as a young man.
SPEAKER_00: Um, got involved in some things that I shouldn't have been involved in, ended up uh yeah, doing a lot of illegal things, and uh found myself gaining weight.
SPEAKER_00: Health was not a concern for me at a time.
SPEAKER_00: And then God called me out of that.
SPEAKER_00: And he placed me in the middle of this camp in a discipleship program where he nurtured me back to health, and while I was there, we had an opportunity to go on a mission trip to Panama to reach a group of people.
SPEAKER_00: And I was told that we were gonna go, and we were going to the Wai-Me Indians, and you know, that's a weird name.
SPEAKER_00: It's spelled G-U-A-Y-M-I.
SPEAKER_00: Huaymie.
SPEAKER_00: But it sounds like Wai Me.
SPEAKER_00: And so I said, well, tell me, tell me about this.
SPEAKER_00: And they said that this was a really interesting Indian tribe in the mountains of Panama, and and and the reason that we were going is because very few people ever tried to minister to this particular group of Indians.
SPEAKER_00: And the same reason that few people tried to minister to them was the same reason that they had another uniqueness, and it was that in that area of the world they were one of the few Indian tribes that had been defeated by the conquistadors that had taken over so much of that part of the world at a particular time.
SPEAKER_00: And the reason the conquistadors could not reach them and defeat them is because they really didn't have any central cities.
SPEAKER_00: You see, in the mountains you would have a hut, and there would be a hut and a family living in it, and then you'd walk five miles of mountainous terrain to another hut, and those huts were considered part of the same village.
SPEAKER_00: They spread out so far that there was no central place to attack.
SPEAKER_00: And for that same reason, few people ministered to them because there was no central place to gather.
SPEAKER_00: So you had to go and hike the five miles of mountainous terrain between one hut and another hut just to share with different families on the same day.
SPEAKER_00: And so your day could be really, really stressful and strenuous.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm going, okay, I'm gonna have to hike through mountainous terrain with 50 pounds on my back.
SPEAKER_00: I'm out of shape.
SPEAKER_00: And I began to realize that weight loss wasn't just something that might serve my desire of looking good in a swimsuit, but God might actually use my health to enable me to better reach people with the message of his gospel.
SPEAKER_00: See, I think for many of us, we can take good goals and make them self-serving or God-serving.
SPEAKER_00: And so, what I want you to ask yourself this year is when you're setting goals, is it a response to something God is calling to you to?
SPEAKER_00: Or is it your own ideas?
SPEAKER_00: And in what ways is God trying to reach you that are custom tailored to your circumstances?
SPEAKER_00: Just like he did with Moses, is God trying to speak into your life in a way that he is going, wake up?
SPEAKER_00: I want you to chart a new course.
SPEAKER_00: I'm calling you to new things.
SPEAKER_00: I'm calling you to leave certain things behind.
SPEAKER_00: I'm calling you to head new places.
SPEAKER_00: And are you ready to walk in obedience?
SPEAKER_00: See, to do this, we have to be open to hearing the unique ways that God may be calling you to a new beginning.
SPEAKER_00: Don't get me wrong, I think sometimes we're too eager to see the burning bush in our life.
SPEAKER_00: I think sometimes we create our own signs.
SPEAKER_00: We like you to go, God, give me a sign, and we do it in ways like this.
SPEAKER_00: Like, um, we might say, God, I'd really like a new Porsche.
SPEAKER_00: I would love to have a German sports car that could go faster than I could legally ever desire to go.
SPEAKER_00: And I just wonder if you want me to have one of those, God.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm looking for a sign.
SPEAKER_00: So if I see a Porsche in the next five minutes, God, I'll know you want me to get a new Porsche.
SPEAKER_00: And then we turn our car towards a Porsche dealership and drive by it, right?
SPEAKER_00: I want us to be careful when I say that we're looking to what God is calling us to and we're looking for the signs.
SPEAKER_00: This can be a tricky game.
SPEAKER_00: We don't all have the benefit of a burning bush calling out to us.
SPEAKER_00: So how do we know when God is getting our attention?
SPEAKER_00: How do we know when he is reaching into our specific circumstances in a way to get our attention and call us to something new?
SPEAKER_00: Well, there's some things that rank high on this list, but the primary one is this.
SPEAKER_00: God will never, ever, ever call you to something that contradicts his word.
SPEAKER_00: Ever.
SPEAKER_00: His word stands forever.
SPEAKER_00: Not one dot will pass away.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you are feeling inclined towards something and you're asking, does this match God's will?
SPEAKER_00: The best way to find that out is to search his will.
SPEAKER_00: And we have two primary tools of searching his will, and that is through prayer and the word.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes, though, we can base a lot on our feelings, and it can get confusing because even in prayer, we can feel a certain way.
SPEAKER_00: But I will tell you that you should check your prayer against his word and go to his word and search his word.
SPEAKER_00: Meditate on his word and see how it aligns with the things he may be calling you to.
SPEAKER_00: And then we, like Moses, can know that God is calling us to something new.
SPEAKER_00: So, what has God been calling you to?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: For each of us it's different, right?
SPEAKER_00: Here's a few examples of things that would be in alignment with his word.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe they they hit you where you're at.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe he's calling you to get out of debt so that you're free to respond to the needs of those around you instead of worrying about your own financial problems.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe he's calling you to take a less demanding job so that you can be more of an example of love and presence in your family.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe he's calling you to quit gossiping so that you can be a more effective witness for him.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe he's calling you to seek reconciliation in a relationship that's broken, whether that be with a brother, a sister, a mother, your own spouse, even.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe damage has come into a relationship and you know that things need to move forward, but pride is holding you back, and he's going, step.
SPEAKER_00: Because we see that all of these things are in alignment with his will.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a hundred other things it could be.
SPEAKER_00: The truth is God might be reaching you in a way that I can't even imagine.
SPEAKER_00: But I can tell you that it will fall into alignment with his word.
SPEAKER_00: So this year, let your goals be driven by God's calling.
SPEAKER_00: But the problem with this is that when Moses receives this call, he does something that we do too.
SPEAKER_00: And that's make excuses.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody here ever make excuses not to do the things you know you're supposed to do?
SPEAKER_00: Anybody here?
SPEAKER_00: Well, only a couple of hands.
SPEAKER_00: We're just okay, there we go.
SPEAKER_00: Now we're telling the truth.
SPEAKER_00: I'm great at excuses.
SPEAKER_00: Can I just be honest with you?
SPEAKER_00: I'm really good at them.
SPEAKER_00: And when I looked at the scriptures here, and this is where we're going to bounce all over chapter three and four to kind of look at it, I looked at Moses' excuses.
SPEAKER_00: They don't necessarily come in a particular order, but I broke them down into two primary categories.
SPEAKER_00: Moses' excuses fall into two primary categories, and they tend to reflect the same categories that I find myself struggling with time and time again.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the I can't do it excuse, and second, it's the everybody else is getting in my way excuse.
SPEAKER_00: So let's look at first at the I can't do it excuse.
SPEAKER_00: Moses, when God tells him these things right after verse 10, which is where we left off our reading, we come back at verse 11, and it says, But Moses said to God, right?
SPEAKER_00: God said, So now go, I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: And immediately, but Moses said to God, Who am I?
SPEAKER_00: That I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: He's going, I'm a nobody.
SPEAKER_00: Who am I?
SPEAKER_00: Why am I special?
SPEAKER_00: And God says, You're not.
SPEAKER_00: You're not special, but I am.
SPEAKER_00: Look at God's response to the who am I?
SPEAKER_00: And God said, I will be with you.
SPEAKER_00: And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you.
SPEAKER_00: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this.
SPEAKER_00: And He goes, I'm gonna do it.
SPEAKER_00: You can do this not because you're special, but because I'm special, because I'm calling you, because I'm gonna enable you, because I'm gonna be with you.
SPEAKER_00: I love the phrase.
SPEAKER_00: God used this phrase in my life to call me into ministry when I was struggling with my own incapabilities and weaknesses and my past and my baggage.
SPEAKER_00: And a friend spoke to me the phrase, God does not call the qualified, he qualifies the called.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what he's basically saying to Moses here, is he says, Look, I'm going with you.
SPEAKER_00: Moses says, Who am I?
SPEAKER_00: I can't do it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going with you.
SPEAKER_00: Moses uses the same excuse later down the road.
SPEAKER_00: If you keep going, I'm trying to make sure.
SPEAKER_00: Did I cross into chapter four here?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, in chapter four, verse 10, Moses said to the Lord, Oh Lord, I've never been eloquent, neither in the past, nor since you have spoken to your servant.
SPEAKER_00: I am slow of speech and tongue.
SPEAKER_00: He goes, God, I'm not a good talker.
SPEAKER_00: Not fancy.
SPEAKER_00: God's going, I don't need that.
SPEAKER_00: And then Moses goes, He So far, is he just kind of basically just begs, please don't send me.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 13 in chapter 4.
SPEAKER_00: But Moses said, Oh Lord, please send someone else to do it.
SPEAKER_00: And I feel like sometimes when God calls us, we're going, God, not me.
SPEAKER_00: Please.
SPEAKER_00: I'm weak.
SPEAKER_00: I can't do it.
SPEAKER_00: I don't talk well.
SPEAKER_00: Who am I?
SPEAKER_00: I'm not special.
SPEAKER_00: Really?
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: I'm old.
SPEAKER_00: I'm set in my ways.
SPEAKER_00: You can't expect me to start over at this point.
SPEAKER_00: Look at what God says to his I can't do it excuse about speech.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 11 of chapter 4, the Lord said to him, Who gave man his mouth?
SPEAKER_00: Who makes him deaf or mute?
SPEAKER_00: Who gives him sight or makes him blind?
SPEAKER_00: It is, is it not I, the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: Now go.
SPEAKER_00: I will help you speak.
SPEAKER_00: Again, the Lord is pointing to his strength, his power, his ability in the face of Moses' inability.
SPEAKER_00: And then when Moses just says, But please, and someone else, he says, The Lord's anger burned against Moses.
SPEAKER_00: He was getting irritated.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, look, okay, hello.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is telling you he's gonna do it, and you're not getting it.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord's anger burned against Moses and said, What about your brother Aaron the Levi?
SPEAKER_00: I know he can speak well.
SPEAKER_00: He is already on his way to meet you, and his heart will be glad when he sees you.
SPEAKER_00: You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth.
SPEAKER_00: I will help both of you speak.
SPEAKER_00: I will teach you what to do.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: But take this staff in your hand, so you can perform miraculous signs with it.
SPEAKER_00: See, the Lord will not allow our weakness to hinder his greatness.
SPEAKER_00: And so there's two things that we said already.
SPEAKER_00: We said this year, are we gonna let our goals be driven by our desires, or are we gonna allow them to be driven by what God is desiring in our life?
SPEAKER_00: But see, there's not only that step of allowing our goals to be set by God, but they're allowing them to be accomplished by God.
SPEAKER_00: See, sometimes we go, I hear what you're asking me to do, I'll go do it.
SPEAKER_00: And that's not how it works.
SPEAKER_00: See, we need God not only to give us our goals, but to accomplish our goals in His strength and in His power, not our own.
SPEAKER_00: But see, sometimes we get so wrapped up in doing things ourselves that we think we think we should be able to conjure up the ability to do these great things.
SPEAKER_00: But as long as you're trying to do them in your own strength, you will, you will fail.
SPEAKER_00: Why do we pretend like we can do it?
SPEAKER_00: As if we have to believe in ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: Our culture is big in that.
SPEAKER_00: Look at all of the talk shows and the things that are going to be talking about your New Year's resolution.
SPEAKER_00: Just believe in yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: I'm a failure.
SPEAKER_00: I just told you how many times I've fought the weight loss battle.
SPEAKER_00: G.K.
SPEAKER_00: Chesterson once said, the men who really believe in themselves are in lunatic asylums.
SPEAKER_00: See, the whole basis of the gospel, the whole point of God's message of Jesus coming was the fact that we can't do it.
SPEAKER_00: That we don't have the strength, that we aren't able to accomplish these things in and of ourselves, that we need him.
SPEAKER_00: We come to him with the gospel and we say, Lord, I know I could not do this.
SPEAKER_00: I look at my life, I know that my heart is evil, I know that I fail, I know that I'm sinful, I know that I do not stack up to your perfection, and I know that I need you and your forgiveness given freely, not based on my merit, but on the work that Jesus accomplished on the cross, and we confess our inability in and of ourselves, and then somehow we allow the culture that we're in and the habits of time to tell us in our heart, now get out there and do it on your own.
SPEAKER_00: And we start striving for the Christian life in our own strength, and we start setting up Phariseeism and legalism and markers of what makes somebody good, and we stack ourselves up to it and we try harder.
SPEAKER_00: And that's not the message.
SPEAKER_00: When Moses says I can't do it, he says, Yeah, I know.
SPEAKER_00: But I can.
SPEAKER_00: So this year, let your goals be driven by God's calling and accomplished in his power.
SPEAKER_00: Then we look at the other excuse.
SPEAKER_00: It's the it's everybody else standing in my way excuse.
SPEAKER_00: I like this one.
SPEAKER_00: If I can blame somebody else, it's so much better for me.
SPEAKER_00: All those things God called you to.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever you were thinking of.
SPEAKER_00: Now think about the times that you've looked at that problem and convinced yourself that the reason you weren't working on it was because somebody else stood in your way.
SPEAKER_00: Because Moses goes there.
SPEAKER_00: Moses said to God, suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they ask, Well, what's his name?
SPEAKER_00: What should I tell them?
SPEAKER_00: They don't know I'm coming from you.
SPEAKER_00: They don't know who you are.
unknown: What do?
SPEAKER_00: On and on and on.
SPEAKER_00: This is God's response.
SPEAKER_00: God said to Moses, I am who I am.
SPEAKER_00: This is what you are to say to the Israelites, I am, has sent me to you.
SPEAKER_00: And this is a very famous passage because this is where God reveals his name.
SPEAKER_00: A name that was so revered that the Israelites would not speak it.
SPEAKER_00: Then in our Bibles, we we don't write the name of either Yahweh or Jehovah.
SPEAKER_00: We write the Lord in all caps because there was this mystery behind his name because it was so revered, but the meaning of his name was basically I exist.
SPEAKER_00: You want to tell him who sent you?
SPEAKER_00: The real God, the one who is, the one who exists, the one who is not carved by human hands, the one who is a self-sustainer of all in the universe, the God that is sent you.
SPEAKER_00: And he reveals himself and he says, I don't let other people stand in my way.
SPEAKER_00: I don't.
SPEAKER_00: You look at.
SPEAKER_00: He tells him in uh chapter three, verse seven.
SPEAKER_00: That he's gonna show his power through him.
SPEAKER_00: He says, other people doubt you, this is what you do.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, let's back up.
SPEAKER_00: Hold on.
SPEAKER_00: I have too many pages of notes.
SPEAKER_00: This is a problem for me.
SPEAKER_00: No, chapter four, not chapter, chapter three.
SPEAKER_00: See, I gotta follow the numbers on the bottom of the page.
SPEAKER_00: Simple.
SPEAKER_00: Um, we're gonna back up to chapter four, verse two.
SPEAKER_00: And no, verse one.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: We're starting over.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just scratch all the mistakes from the recording.
SPEAKER_00: Moses answered, what if they do not believe me?
SPEAKER_00: So after he tells them this name and all this stuff, and he talks to him about all this stuff, he said, What if they do not believe me or listen to me?
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord didn't appear to you.
SPEAKER_00: Then the Lord said to him, What is that in your hand?
SPEAKER_00: He said, A staff.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord said, Throw it on the ground.
SPEAKER_00: Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake and he ran from it.
SPEAKER_00: Then the Lord said to him, Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.
SPEAKER_00: So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand.
SPEAKER_00: 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, the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.
SPEAKER_00: Then the Lord said, Put your hand inside your cloak.
SPEAKER_00: So Moses put his hand in his cloak, and when he took it out, it was leprous like snow.
SPEAKER_00: Now put it back in your cloak, he said.
SPEAKER_00: So Moses put it back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his flesh.
SPEAKER_00: Then the Lord said, If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first miraculous sign, they may believe the second.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground.
SPEAKER_00: This is God kind of flexing, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Moses is going, but people stand in my way, and God's going, Hey, hey, watch this.
SPEAKER_00: He's going, you don't stop me.
SPEAKER_00: You don't scare me.
SPEAKER_00: People, people, I created them.
SPEAKER_00: You need help convincing people?
SPEAKER_00: You let me convince people.
SPEAKER_00: You let me take care of the naysayers.
SPEAKER_00: You follow me.
SPEAKER_00: I will take care of the naysayers.
SPEAKER_00: This is huge.
SPEAKER_00: Here we have the creator of the universe, the Almighty God, calling Moses to a task, saying, I gave you the goal.
SPEAKER_00: I'll accomplish it.
SPEAKER_00: I can overcome your weaknesses and the opposition of others.
SPEAKER_00: See, sometimes we set our own goals and we face opposition and we back down because there's no backing.
SPEAKER_00: But when you know beyond shadow of a doubt that this is what God desires of you, we have not self-confidence, but confidence based in his ability, his promises, his word, his integrity, his holiness, and the fact that he said, I will never leave you.
SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden, I really like what's happening with Moses.
SPEAKER_00: Because as I look into another year that potentially marks my failure, I realize that if I allow him to guide my goals, I don't have to worry about the naysayers.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have to worry about my weakness.
SPEAKER_00: And if people criticize and people come at, you can say, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: But this is how God has asked me to proceed.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go forward.
SPEAKER_00: So how are you gonna respond?
SPEAKER_00: This upcoming week, you're gonna hear about New Year's resolutions everywhere.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe your friends and family are talking about it.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's on TV shows.
SPEAKER_00: You know, Beth and I, when we get ready in the morning, we we listen for the weather.
SPEAKER_00: And and uh, but you turn on the news to check the weather, see what you're supposed to wear that day, although usually at that time they're not showing the real news, right?
SPEAKER_00: They have like kind of this uh today show or something like that, and and it's mixed in with social commentary and reviews of the latest movie, and then every now and then they pause to give the weather.
SPEAKER_00: So you just turn on the TV in the background, and then when you hear the weather, you like run in the room and find out what you're supposed to wear.
SPEAKER_00: And and they always have something going on talking about the latest book, or they have some health fitness coming on, talking about how you stick to your goals this year, and you're gonna hear it everywhere, right?
SPEAKER_00: And our culture gets kind of obsessed with this, but are you gonna allow the culture to influence you this upcoming year?
SPEAKER_00: Are you gonna let God's calls push you towards his goals and his strength?
SPEAKER_00: And so today I want to do something just a little bit different.
SPEAKER_00: I want us to close in song differently than we normally do.
SPEAKER_00: It's just gonna be our voices, no instrumentation.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna sing a very simple song.
SPEAKER_00: I don't even think you need the lyrics for it.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've heard of it.
SPEAKER_00: It's called Jesus Loves Me.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a spot in there that says, it says, Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.
SPEAKER_00: Little ones to him belong.
SPEAKER_00: They are weak, but he is strong.
SPEAKER_00: But I want us to change that they to we.
SPEAKER_00: We are weak, but he is strong.
SPEAKER_00: Because the truth is we are all like little ones, we are all hindered, we all have weakness, but in our weakness, his power is made perfect.
SPEAKER_00: Because that's where he gets a chance to flex, to show off, to show his capability.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna pray.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna ask you to stand and we're gonna sing this song, and I'm gonna send you towards a new year with something to think about.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we ask you to please take what we've seen in Moses' life and apply it to ours.
SPEAKER_00: Reach into our hearts and rid us of the I can't do it excuses.
SPEAKER_00: Convince us that you aren't scared of everybody else standing in our way, excuses, and push us towards your goals and your strength.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name, amen.
SPEAKER_00: Stand with me.