Here Am I, Lord. Send Someone Else.

Here Am I, Lord. Send Someone Else.

Exodus 3: 1 – 15.

Introduction

I have been wanting to preach on the Book of Exodus for the past several months. Earlier in the Summer, I started thinking about what this Old Testament book has to say to us as a church at this time in our history.

The Book of Exodus tells the story of how the Hebrew people went from slaves in Egypt to becoming a nation in their own right. They were a people with no national identity. They become the Nation of Israel. They were slaves to Pharaoh, but became the People of God. This was not something they could achieve on their own. It took a mighty act of God to rescue them and to establish them as God’s people.

However, their identity did not change as soon as they left Egypt. No. God led them through the wilderness for forty years before they entered into the Promised Land. God was with them in the wilderness. God gave them his Law while they were in the wilderness. God gave them his presence while they were in the wilderness. God provided for all their needs in the wilderness. And, when they finally entered into the Promised Land, Israel was able to look back and realize that God used their wilderness years to form them into the people God wanted them to become.

I think there is a lesson in this for us as a church. For the past couple of years, we have been engaged in a long range planning process. We are dreaming about the kind of church we can become…the kind of church God wants us to be. But, we find ourselves in a wilderness. We have experienced numerous setbacks in the past fifteen years.

During this time, there have been numerous times when it seemed like things were about to turn around for our church. And just as things were improving, something happened. The paper mill closed down. Temple-Inland restructured their business. Citation Corporation closed their Lufkin foundry. Our nation entered into an economic recession. We find ourselves in a wilderness.

In Exodus, we read about how God uses wilderness experiences to grow his people. God does not abandon us in the wilderness. God is with us. AND…God will not leave us in the wilderness forever. He is using this wilderness experience to prepare us for something new. We see this in the story of Israel. And we see this in the story of Moses.

Exodus 3: 1 – 15.

1 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

2 There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up.

3 So Moses thought, "I will go over and see this strange sight-- why the bush does not burn up."

4 When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, "Moses! Moses!" And Moses said, "Here I am."

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

6 Then he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

7 The LORD said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.

8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey-- the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.

9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.

10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt."

11 But Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"

12 And God said, "I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain."

13 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 me, 'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?"

14 God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.'"

15 God also said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites, 'The LORD, the God of your fathers-- the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob-- has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.

(NIV)

At this point in Moses’ life, he was feeling like a failure. Moses’ life started out with a miracle. He was born at a time when the Egyptians were trying to kill the Hebrew people. The king commanded that all Hebrew baby boys should be thrown into the Nile River to be killed. But, Moses’ mother did not want to kill him. She made a basket-boat, placed three-month-old Moses in the basket-boat and floated it in the Nile.

Ironically, the king who wanted to kill all the Hebrew boys had a daughter. She discovered Moses in the basket-boat and had compassion for this baby he father wanted to kill. She saved Moses’ life and hired Moses’ own mother to nurse him. When Moses was weaned, Pharaoh’s daughter took him into the royal palace and reared him as the Prince of Egypt.

When Moses was about 40 years old, he first noticed the suffering of the Hebrew people. He saw an Egyptian slave master beating a Hebrew slave. He stepped in and actually killed the Egyptian. He did everything in his own power to bring justice to the Hebrew slaves. But, Moses’ efforts were not enough. His murder was discovered, and the king—his own grandfather—vowed to kill Moses for what he had done. Moses fled into the wilderness to save his own life.

In the wilderness, he met and married a woman named Zipporah. He worked as a shepherd for her father, Jethro. Moses and Zipporah had a child and began to settle down in the wilderness. We know they were settling down, because Moses named his first son Gershom, which means “an alien here.” Moses had resigned himself to a life of living as a stranger in a strange land.

Imagine how Moses must have felt like a failure. He had been the prince of the most powerful nation in the ancient world. But he had lost all the privileges of being the king’s grandson. He was no longer living in the bountiful land of Egypt. Now, he was living in the wilderness—the desert. There was no rain, no trees, no food…He was living in a barren and lifeless place. And, to top it all off…He now had to work for a living. Princes don’t have to work. The nation takes care of them as long as the king is in power. But, Moses had to work as a shepherd in the desert.

Can you imagine a more difficult job than being a shepherd in the desert? A shepherd has to provide food and water for sheep. Sheep eat grass and drink water. Grass and water are the two most difficult things to find in a desert. So, Moses had to keep moving around from one oasis to the next oasis.

One day while Moses was leading the sheep to find food and water, God showed up in the form of a burning bush. Moses approached the bush and heard the voice of God.

God told Moses that he had a plan for Moses’ life. God wanted to use Moses to lead the Hebrew people out of slavery in Egypt. This was the very thing Moses wanted to see happen. So, it comes as somewhat of a surprise how Moses answered God’s call. Moses did not immediately say Yes to God’s call. Instead, Moses argued with God.

Look at the first and last words Moses said to God at the burning bush.

Exodus 3: 4, “Here I am.”

Exodus 4: 13, “O Lord, please send someone else.”

Know Your Past.

The mistake we usually make in trying to determine God’s will for our lives is that we try to look forward into the future. We forget that this is humanly impossible and that God doesn’t want us to even try. And we forget that it is only in hindsight that we have 20/20 vision.

We can learn this from Moses’ call by reflecting back on Moses’ life and the way God prepared him for a specific task, or calling.

It was by God’s Providence that the Hebrew people were in Egypt. They came through Joseph being sold into slavery by his brothers, and God used this to save their lives. After Joseph died, the Hebrews stayed in Egypt and multiplied in number. This was because of God’s promise to Abraham.

Egyptians began to fear the Hebrews because of their number. The Hebrews were kept as slaves so that they would not overthrow government. Then Pharaoh ordered that all Hebrew baby boys to be thrown into Nile.

Moses was born at this time, and his mother saved his life. She put him in a basket boat and floated him in Nile. His sister Miriam watched him from the bushes. Pharaoh’s daughter found the basket boat while she was bathing. Miriam offered to get a Heb nurse for the baby & brought own mother. Moses was nursed by his own mother and returned to the Princess when he grew older.

First, we see that Moses was fully Hebrew, but reared in the palace of the Pharaoh.

He knew both languages and was accepted in the palace.

Second, we see that Moses had a strong desire that the Hebrew people receive Justice.

He identified with the Hebrews more than his Egyptian upbringing. This became apparent when Moses saw the Hebrew slave being beaten by the Egyptian. Moses came to the rescue of the Hebrew and killed the Egyptian.

Third, we see that Moses knew how to be a shepherd.

This is important for at least a couple of reasons.

On one hand, Moses was the shepherd for someone else’s sheep. Moses had all the responsibility for providing for the sheep…But they weren’t Moses’ sheep. They belonged to his father-in-law. When Moses became the shepherd of God’s people, he found himself in the same situation. Moses had all the responsibility, but the people belonged to God.

On the other hand, Moses learned survival skills while he was in the wilderness. He learned how to deal with the heat; where to find food and water; and how to navigated the barren land. Interestingly, this is the same wilderness where God led the Hebrew people during the forty years after they left Egypt and before they entered into the Promised Land.

God equipped Moses for this specific task. Moses was the best choice for the job. God knew what he was doing when he called Moses, because God had been at work in Moses’ life to prepare him for leading God’s people.

Trust God’s Future.

Moses’ call experience is actually a struggle between Moses and God. God is trying to assure Moses about the future, but Moses can only think about the past. And when Moses thinks about the past, he can only remember the places where he has failed.

Exodus 3: 10 – 12.

10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt."

11 But Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"

12 And God said, "I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain."

(NIV)

Moses asked who am I? I’ve never amounted to much. God said, “Forget about your past, and trust me with your future.”

Exodus 3: 13 – 14.

13 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 me, 'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?"

14 God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.'"

(NIV)

Moses asked, who is this God of the past and my ancestors? God said, “I am who I always will be. I will always be in the future what I am right now.”

God is faithful and unchanging in the past and future.

If we want to do God’s will in the future, we have to let go of our past failures and trust God with the future. After all, only God is present in the past and the future. We have never lived the future.

Live the Present.

But, God’s will requires one last thing. Simply knowing the past and trusting the future are never enough. God wants us to act on these two things. If we want to do God’s will, we must actively live the present.

We cannot Re-Live the Past. . .

Although there are many people who try… Hanging on to their younger years…Trying to pretend they are still an 18 – 20 year old.

Some even try to live as if the church were the same today as it was 15 – 20 years ago. I hate to admit this, but church is no longer the most important thing in people’s lives as it was 15 – 20 years ago. The culture we live in has changed. The churches which are most effective today recognize that we have to change our methods to reach a changed culture. If we want to be effective in reaching people for Christ in the 21^st Century, we will have to accept that, let go of the Past and live in the Present.

We cannot Pre-Live the Future. . .

Any time we engage in long range planning for our church there is a temptation to skip over the present in order to live in the future. But we must be honest with ourselves and admit that we do not know what the future hold.

The only thing we know with certainty about the future is what God told Moses at the burning bush. God is already there. God is in the future, and God in the future is the same as God in the past or God in the present. God in the future drawing us into the future to join him. If God had a plan for us in the past, and if God has a plan for us in the present, then God has a plan for us in the future.

We can Live the Present. . .

The past is not better than the present. The future is not better than the present. In fact, if you really think about it…the present is really all we have. The past has come and gone never to be recovered. There is no guarantee that any of us will live to see the future. God has given us the Here and Now. We must be faithful with the Present God has given us.

If we cannot be trusted with the Present, How can we expect God to give us a Future?

Conclusion

Today, God is speaking to each of us. He is speaking to us individually about his plans for your present and your future. Like the story of Moses, God has been using your past and your present to prepare you for something. How will you answer? Will you say, “Here I am, Lord. Use me?” Or will you say, “Here I am, Lord. Use someone else?”

God is also speaking to our church. God has been using our past experiences and our present wilderness to prepare us for something. How will we answer? Do we want to be the church God uses? Or do we want God to find another church?