When God calls, the issue leans not on who we are, but on who He is. The encounter of Moses with the burning bush pictures human weakness and hesitation being met by the assurance of God’s Person, presence and power. Our excuses-feeling unqualified, unbelieved, or ungifted – are answered by His declaration, “I Am.” The message insists that identity, confidence, and ability are found not in oneself but in Christ, whose indwelling life gives strength for every calling and faith to obey even when we are most bankrupt and cannot yet see the outcome.

Automatically Generated Transcript

[00:00:00] Yes, it’s good to see you all here. If you weren’t here last week or you don’t know me, my name’s Joseph. The people here at Salisbury Baptist call me Joey. That comes from the Gibson family. I’m here because Jim has been away and you may think, oh, where’s he gone? Well, he’s back. He’s up the back. So everyone look at Jim and that’ll be good. He’s finished retreating, which means I guess he’s coming back on the offensive. All right. We’re going to look at the story of, well, the appearance of God to Moses this morning. And I’m going to read to you from Exodus chapter three, and then we’re going to get cooking. I have a lot to say, so I’m probably going to talk pretty fast. Now, Moses was keeping the flock of

[00:00:52] his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. And he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. And he looked and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, I will turn aside to see this great sight. Why the bush is not burned? When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see God, God called to him out of the bush, Moses, Moses. And he said, here I am. Then he said, do not come near. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground. And he said, I’m the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face for he was afraid to look at God.

[00:01:43] Then the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of the land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And now behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppressed them. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. If you remember last Sunday, we were talking about identity and what it means to have your identity as a child of God.

[00:02:33] Really, it’s about having Christ’s identity be your identity. And I finished with Galatians 2.20, Paul saying, it’s no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. In a world where we struggle to find who we are and our purpose, finding Christ as your identity is pretty important. And today I wanted to look at the outworking of that in this story of Moses, what it means to have a new identity when God comes with a call for your life and for mine. Because God is in the business of calling people. It’s the way that he works. You saw it here. He appears to Moses, Moses, Moses. Jesus called people in the same way. Saul’s on his way to Damascus. A light shines on him and Jesus appears to him and says, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? God comes and he calls people.

[00:03:32] And how you see yourself when God comes to call on you is going to determine how you respond to him. And here Moses is responding to God calling him in the same way. And I tried to find a picture of this scene that would describe it. None of them really seem to do it justice. I like this one because of the look on Moses’ face. It’s a pretty shocking event. The angel of the Lord in a bush on fire. He’s shocked. And here he is called by God to go to Egypt. And Moses wasn’t ready to go. He, like many of us, didn’t see himself the way that God saw him. And so when God appears to him, he’s frightened. I think you and I would be the same. We don’t see ourselves the way God sees us. And what I’ve got to look at this morning is four points that follow what we read in Exodus 3 about how Moses responded to God.

[00:04:34] And hopefully we’re going to make some application about how we can respond when God calls on us. I hope that makes sense. Is that clear? Some nods are good. Point number one. Moses says to God, I’m not someone special. And God says, I will be with you. This is verse 10 and 12. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel out of Egypt. But Moses said to God, who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt? He said, that’s God, but I will be with you and this shall be the sign for you that I have sent you. When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God back on this mountain, the mountain of God. Moses’ first response to God is to say, who am I to go down to Pharaoh? I think for many of us,

[00:05:34] it’s been a while since we were in Sunday school reading up about Moses. So a bit of a refresher for you about him. Moses was a boy born during the time when the Israelites are slaves in Egypt. And the Pharaoh was getting pretty frightened because there’s a lot of Egyptians and the Egyptian, that’s right, of Israelites. And he’s worried they’re going to rise up and take over Egypt. So the Pharaoh declares, all the baby boys born, of the Israelite women, should be thrown into the Nile and killed. And that’s when little Moses is born. And his mum obviously loved him and didn’t want that to happen to him. And so she puts him in a basket with her daughter’s help and floats Moses down the river. And Pharaoh’s daughter finds Moses, has pity on him, and long story short, he’s raised in Pharaoh’s house.

[00:06:29] He was an Israelite born, but he grew up in the Pharaoh’s house. He would have been well-trained, well-educated. He’s, by all appearances, a strong man, a good leader. Depending on what books you read, some people even think that he’s in line to become the next Pharaoh. But then there’s a happening where Moses is walking along and he sees a slave driver beating a Israelite person. Moses is a bit angry and he lashes out and he kills the Egyptian man. And then he runs away because he’s afraid of what’s going to happen to him. And that’s where we find Moses in our story when God appears to him out of the bush. He’s run away from Egypt, he got married in Midian and now he’s tending his father-in-law’s sheep. Moses was someone pretty special. If you look at the picture of his life, you and I can see Moses was really

[00:07:33] the best person for this task. He had all the ingredients you would want for someone to go to Pharaoh and rescue the Israelites. But he didn’t see himself that way. He says, Who am I? We see ourselves the same way. God may be preparing you for something and there’s a good chance you don’t see it. And I think when God calls us to something like this, our response is often, Who am I? And if I was in God’s shoes, I think I would have said to Moses, Well, Moses, actually, you’re a great person for this job. Look at your life. I’ve been caring for you the whole time. I’ve set you up for this since you were a baby boy. That’s how I think I would talk to Moses, but God tells him something very different. God’s response to Moses is to tell him that I will be with you. What would make Moses the special person needed for this task

[00:08:41] is not who he is. It’s that God would be with him. That’s what he needed. Not to be someone special, but to have God with him. You may think yourself someone not so special too. Why would God choose me for something? Why am I here talking to all of you? The truth is it doesn’t matter whether you’re someone special. God’s the one that’s special. And when he calls you to something, you can know that he will be with you. That is what you need. In fact, Jesus said something similar. Here he is talking to his disciples when he’s about to go back to heaven and he gives them the great commission, a call to a great task. Go into all the world teaching people and baptizing them, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. What the disciples needed was the presence of Jesus. Your being

[00:09:51] someone special or not isn’t what matters. God being with you is what matters and he is special. That’s point number one. Number two, Moses again comes with another excuse that people will not believe me. God says, I am believable. This is a bit later on. There’s a lot of discourse between God and Moses. I would encourage you to read it all, but we’re going to jump to Exodus chapter four. Moses answered, behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say the Lord did not appear to you. It’s a pretty reasonable thing to say. If I came to you and said, the other day I was tending my father-in-law’s sheep and I saw a bush that was on fire and didn’t stop burning and the angel of the Lord spoke to me out of the bush, I doubt you’re going to believe me either.

[00:10:43] But the Lord said to him, what is that in your hand? He said, a staff. And he said, throw it on the ground. So Moses throws his staff on the ground and it turns into a serpent. And Moses ran from it. Also fair enough, but the Lord said to Moses, put out your hand and catch it by the tail. So he put out his hand and caught it and it became a staff again 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. Again he said to him, put your hand inside your cloak. And he put his hand inside his cloak and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous like snow. then god said put your hand back inside your cloak so he put his hand back inside his cloak

[00:11:31] and when he took it out behold it was restored like the rest of his flesh if they will not believe you god said or listen to the first sign they may believe the latter sign if they will these two signs or listen to your voice you shall take some water from the nile and pour it on the dry ground and the water that you shall take from the nile will become blood on the dry ground why would they believe moses i can imagine him telling his story no one’s going to believe it so god gives him these signs that will help people believe and there’s a lot you can say about the signs they are significant we could spend all morning here talking about why god chose these specific signs why it’s a snake that appears you can imagine the pharaohs at that time

[00:12:22] have their funny hat thingos on with a cobra on the front of their hat. And this snake would have been, in my opinion, looks exactly like those snakes. And so the symbolism is rich. God has power over the Pharaoh. And then he’s healing the leprous hand. God can heal people. There’s a lot you can talk about the signs. But what I want to get at today is that why did God give Moses the signs in the first place? And the reason is that when you go in response to God’s call, he’s the one that will convince people. God’s sending Moses with a message. He’s going to tell Pharaoh to let God’s people go. But he doesn’t need to be the one that people will believe. God does. It’s not Moses’ message after all. It’s God’s message. We like to use the same excuse that Moses does. People won’t believe me.

[00:13:26] I don’t know what to say. I’m worried if I tell my friends about Jesus, they won’t believe me and I don’t know what to say. Somehow we fall for a trap of thinking that the message is our responsibility. It’s not. It’s his. And people are either going to accept his message or they’re going to reject it. I’m not trying to say that you shouldn’t think about what you’re going to say or you shouldn’t be persuasive. That’s why we have things like Apologetics Club. That’s why lots of people here go to a home group. That’s why we spend time learning about the Bible because we should think about what we’re going to say. What I’m saying is that when God calls you to something, the power in the message comes from him. It doesn’t come from how well you’ve prepared. It’s his message.

[00:14:18] And we need to trust him to be behind the message so that people might believe in it. Even when you’re not believable, he is. That’s number two. Number three. Moses says, I don’t have the right gifts. God says, I am the gift giver. But Moses said to the Lord, O my Lord, I’m not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue. Then the Lord said to him, Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute or deaf or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now, therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak. Moses didn’t see himself as one who can speak eloquently. In his opinion, he doesn’t have the right gifts or talents for this mission that God’s sending him on. It’s something we like to say a lot.

[00:15:24] And I think there are two key things we can learn from that. The first is that we often don’t think God should call us to things that we aren’t gifted in. In our time, we hear a lot in church about spiritual gifts, but many of us confuse spiritual gifts with our natural or personal talents. There are things that we each might be good at, but that doesn’t make them spiritual gifts. It might seem a bit of a pointless distinction to make. After all, God gives you your gifts and talents. He made you. But God also gives you spiritual gifts that you might use them for his glory’s sake. And when the difference is important is when you find yourself in Moses’ shoes. God’s called him to something that he doesn’t think he has the right skills for. But how does God respond? Who has made man’s mouth?

[00:16:23] What a silly idea to think that God can’t use you beyond your natural gifts. God gives you all of your gifts. He can give you the ones you need for what he tells you to do. It’s a pretty simple idea. And it’s a big theme in a lot of Paul’s letters, too. And as Keren prayed earlier, God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things and the things that are not to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. When you and I choose not to serve in places God’s called because we aren’t good at something, we miss out on the very way God likes to work. When you are weak, He is strong. When God calls you to something that you aren’t good at,

[00:17:18] He can use your weakness to show His strength. That’s what He wanted Moses to get. God would use him because God had called him. It doesn’t matter whether he’s good at what God wants him to do or not. God can make him good at whatever he wants. The second thing is that we don’t feel ready right now for what God calls us to. God tells Moses, if we go back here, go and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak. What he doesn’t do is make Moses a good speaker on the spot. Moses didn’t feel ready for what God called him to and God’s response is to tell him, just go and I’ll make you ready when you need to be ready. The principle is that you may not be ready for what God calls you to at the moment but Moses didn’t need to be ready for it, then and there did he.

[00:18:24] When the time came, God would help him. I think Corrie Ten Boom illustrates this best in her book, The Hiding Place. If you don’t know who Corrie Ten Boom is, look her up. In her book, she’s writing about being a young girl in the Netherlands at a time right before World War II. And she’s confronted with what’s going to happen to her family, and she’s afraid. Her family are setting out to rescue a whole lot of Jewish people in the face of Nazi Germany. And her father is going away to do a whole lot of work to look after some Jewish people. And she is afraid. I would be too. And one night before her father’s going off, she’s sitting on bed crying. And her father comes to comfort her with a question. Corrie, when you and I go to Amsterdam, when do I give you your train ticket?

[00:19:31] And Corrie says, why, just before we get on the train? God knows your needs, but more importantly, he knows when you need them. Moses didn’t need to be able to speak. Then and there, he needed to be able to speak when he’s standing in front of the Pharaoh. If he’s called you to something that you don’t feel you’re ready for, you can trust that he will give you what you need at the time you need it. And it may not come a minute before. And that brings us to point number four. And this is Moses’ last excuse or response to God. Moses has run out of his excuses and he shows his real issue. It’s one that you and I have too. If you keep reading on in the story, you’ll see that God’s a bit annoyed with Moses because he’s God and Moses is not.

[00:20:48] But he agrees to send Aaron along with him to do some of the talking. But ultimately, what God responds to Moses is, I’m sending you. It was always God’s plan to use Moses. If you look at his life, we can all see it. He was the person prepared for this task. And yet here he is in front of God, please send someone else. He’s strong, he’s powerful, he’s well trained in Egyptian culture, but still a part of God’s people. He was the one person who could do it. But Moses didn’t see it. He didn’t see God’s plan. Or maybe he just didn’t have faith in it and he’s afraid. My question for you this morning is, how do you think you would respond if God appeared to you like that? If you’re anything like me, I like to think I’d do better than Moses. If God turned up in that way.

[00:21:57] If God put on some miraculous burning bush display, I think we’d like to think we’d all jump at the chance to go. The truth is, we’ve already seen all the signs we need. The Pharisees come to Jesus with the same response. Jesus, give us a sign. Jesus tells them that the sign of Jonah is the only sign they’re going to get. And as Jonah was in the belly of a fish three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights. God probably isn’t going to appear to you as an angel in a burning bush, but he has appeared to you in his Son. And his resurrection should be the only sign you need. God had a call for Moses’ life and he has a call for yours and mine yours probably isn’t to go to Egypt but there is a call of God in all of our lives

[00:23:04] and in the first instance it’s just to follow him but just like Moses we like to look at ourselves and when God calls you and you look at yourself you’ll find you’re not enough our view of who we are limits our ability to respond to his call we don’t see how we can do what God’s asked and so we don’t try I can’t let go of my sin it’s too hard I can’t share the gospel with my friends I don’t know what to say I’m worried they won’t like me I can’t help with this or that I’m too busy we use a lot of the word I we spend all our time worried about who we are but I hope you can see that God’s response to Moses saying I can’t do it is to tell Moses that I am God is the person who can do it like you see in his story Moses says I’m not someone special God says I am with you Moses says they won’t believe me God says I am believable

[00:24:24] Moses says I don’t have the right gifts God says I am the gift giver it was true for Moses and it’s even more true for you and me your I am is not your Christian identity you should have a new identity and it’s Christ’s Jesus gives you a new life and a new identity. That’s why Paul can say, it’s no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I said it last week and I’ll say it again. Jesus didn’t come and die on the cross to make you a better you. He came to make you new. And because of Jesus, your identity is not you anymore, it’s Christ in you. And when God comes with a call on your life, it’s not about you. It’s about him and what he can do. And his call on your life is just to have faith.

[00:25:33] To have faith that he will be with you. Faith that he will make the message believable. Faith that he is in control of the outcome. With this, I want to close. I’m sure most of you know what happens with Moses’ story. He does go down to Egypt and there he is talking with the Pharaoh and there’s a whole lot of stuff happens. Lots of signs, lots of plagues on the Egyptian people. Eventually, they do leave Egypt and they cross the Red Sea. You all know the story. Moses puts up his staff. The Red Sea is parted. They walk across on dry ground. They get to the other side and the sea crashes down on the Egyptians, chasing them and they are free. And Moses is on the other side of what God called him to. The Israelites have been led out of Egypt and here he is at the Red Sea and with the Israelites he sings a song.

[00:26:32] Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord, saying, I will sing to the Lord for he has triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my song and he has become my salvation. This is my God and I will praise him. My father’s God and I will exalt him. Moses has finally learnt that it was God’s work. The Lord is my strength and my song. He has become my salvation. Moses’ ability or inability was not what mattered anymore. God was his strength. It should be true for you and me. But I think we are just like him. The truth of that doesn’t feel real until you actually go. The exercise of faith. Moses definitely didn’t want to go. But when he did go is when he found God’s promises were for real.

[00:27:41] God’s call on your life will always require you to have faith in him. Faith to follow him where he leads. Faith to receive him in the first place. And when he calls on you, faith to respond. Maybe like Moses, you’ve got a set of excuses. But I hope you can see from him that the exercise of faith in response to God’s call is when God turns up. When you’re not someone special, he is. When you’re not believable, he is. When you don’t have the right gifts, God can give them to you. You don’t need to be worried about who you are because of who he is. The other good example alongside Moses is the disciples. A group of 12 men who were pretty unremarkable. They’re mostly fishermen. They weren’t special. They weren’t in any way qualified for what Jesus told them to do in Matthew 28. They were just average.

[00:28:57] They didn’t know a lot. But they knew one thing. They knew Jesus. And they stepped out in faith. You see it in Peter. On the day of Pentecost, he delivers probably the most famous speech in the history of the world. A man untrained with nothing special about him at all. But what he knew was Jesus. What you and I need is to know him too. Let me pray. Father, I thank you. Thank you for calling Moses. And thank you that you call people. Would you help us to listen? And help us to respond in faith? To know that you are there. And as we learn to have that faith In what Jesus has done Would you use us For your kingdom’s sake In Jesus’ name Amen