1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,000 We open the Word of God together to the book of Exodus again today, the third chapter, 2 00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:12,000 where we'll begin our text with verse 11. 3 00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:16,000 The theme today is excuses, excuses. 4 00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:21,000 Before I come to that, I need to read a letter to you that was passed on to me. 5 00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:27,000 Someone picked it up off of God's desk because it's entitled Dear God. 6 00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:29,000 You see, God, it's like this. 7 00:00:29,000 --> 00:00:34,000 We could attend church more faithfully if your day came at some other time. 8 00:00:34,000 --> 00:00:39,000 You have chosen a day that comes at the end of a hard week when we're all tired out. 9 00:00:39,000 --> 00:00:43,000 Not only that, but it's the day following Saturday night. 10 00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:48,000 Often we go to the movies or have a party, and it's after midnight when we get in. 11 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:54,000 In fact, the children are often late for Sunday school because it is difficult for us to get up so early. 12 00:00:54,000 --> 00:01:01,000 It is usually after nine o'clock before we get the breakfast dishes washed, and then it's time to think about Sunday dinner. 13 00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:07,000 You have picked out the very day on which the morning paper takes the longest to read, 14 00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:11,000 and also the day on which we have the biggest dinner of the week. 15 00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:15,000 Then, too, we have to think of John. He's all cooped up in the office all week, 16 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:21,000 and Sunday morning is the only time to clean the car for doing all the odd jobs around the house. 17 00:01:21,000 --> 00:01:28,000 God, you know how John enjoys fishing, and you really can't blame him for going when he can, can you? 18 00:01:28,000 --> 00:01:35,000 The whole family enjoys a picnic, and Sunday is the only time the family can have some recreation together. 19 00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:40,000 God, I'm telling you all these things because I want you to see our viewpoint, 20 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:45,000 and that it's not our fault that we're not able to go to church on Sunday morning. 21 00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:49,000 We would like to go, but we know that we should go, 22 00:01:49,000 --> 00:01:53,000 but the real reason we cannot go is that you have chosen the wrong day. 23 00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:58,000 If you will select another day, we will be glad to give the matter further consideration. 24 00:01:58,000 --> 00:02:03,000 Sincerely, I am delinquent. 25 00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:10,000 Most of us have lots of personal experience with excuse-making. 26 00:02:10,000 --> 00:02:14,000 It may have begun simply in childhood when we were youngsters, 27 00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:19,000 but by the time we were teenagers we had developed it into a proven science. 28 00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:25,000 It felt okay when you and I were doing it, but it doesn't feel so good when our teenagers do it to us. 29 00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:30,000 It reminds me of the one teen who came rushing home from school late 30 00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:34,000 and exclaimed to his mother, Mom, I'm sorry to be late. 31 00:02:34,000 --> 00:02:39,000 We were making a science display, and I had to stay to finish the universe. 32 00:02:39,000 --> 00:02:47,000 Well, if teens make excuse-making a science, adults have made it an art. 33 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:53,000 I heard a story about one motorist who parked his car in a no-parking space 34 00:02:53,000 --> 00:02:56,000 and left this message on the windshield. 35 00:02:56,000 --> 00:02:59,000 I have circled this block 25 times. 36 00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:03,000 I have an appointment I must keep or lose my job. 37 00:03:03,000 --> 00:03:06,000 Forgive me my trespasses. 38 00:03:06,000 --> 00:03:13,000 When he returned he found attached to his windshield a ticket 39 00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:16,000 with this note attached to the ticket. 40 00:03:16,000 --> 00:03:20,000 If I don't give you a ticket, I will lose my job. 41 00:03:20,000 --> 00:03:26,000 Lead us not into temptation. 42 00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:31,000 Or did you hear about the chronic car thief who was brought before the judge 43 00:03:31,000 --> 00:03:33,000 for stealing another car, and the judge said, 44 00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:36,000 well, why did you take the car this time? 45 00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:39,000 And he said, Your Honor, it was parked in front of the cemetery 46 00:03:39,000 --> 00:03:43,000 and I thought the owner had died. 47 00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:47,000 Well, if someone had said there aren't enough crutches in all the world 48 00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:53,000 for all the lame excuses, God's people are not any less tempted 49 00:03:53,000 --> 00:03:55,000 than anyone else to use them. 50 00:03:55,000 --> 00:04:00,000 We laugh at them or we wince at them, but we allow them. 51 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:05,000 And truly we shouldn't, for someone has rightly defined an excuse 52 00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:11,000 as the skin of a reason stuffed with a lie. 53 00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:16,000 When God commissioned 80-year-old Moses to return to Egypt 54 00:04:16,000 --> 00:04:22,000 to lead the Israelites out, Moses was reluctant to go. 55 00:04:22,000 --> 00:04:29,000 And he began to offer excuses to God as to why he couldn't and shouldn't. 56 00:04:29,000 --> 00:04:35,000 But God had an answer for every excuse that Moses tried. 57 00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:43,000 No excuse, no excuse is worth missing out on God's best for our lives. 58 00:04:43,000 --> 00:04:46,000 Please write that in your heart. 59 00:04:46,000 --> 00:04:53,000 No excuse in all the world is worth missing out on God's very best for our lives. 60 00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:57,000 I want you to trace with me this morning in the text we're looking at 61 00:04:57,000 --> 00:05:03,000 the record of the conversation between Moses and God. 62 00:05:03,000 --> 00:05:06,000 God's commission was very clear in verse 10. 63 00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:10,000 Therefore come now, God said to Moses, 64 00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:13,000 I will send you to Pharaoh so that you may bring my people, 65 00:05:13,000 --> 00:05:15,000 the sons of Israel, out of Egypt. 66 00:05:15,000 --> 00:05:17,000 That's what God wanted him to do. 67 00:05:17,000 --> 00:05:19,000 That was his commission. 68 00:05:19,000 --> 00:05:26,000 But immediately Moses responds with excuse number one, verse 11. 69 00:05:26,000 --> 00:05:29,000 Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh 70 00:05:29,000 --> 00:05:33,000 and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt? 71 00:05:33,000 --> 00:05:37,000 Basically he is saying here, I am not able. 72 00:05:37,000 --> 00:05:40,000 I cannot do it. 73 00:05:40,000 --> 00:05:44,000 I wonder if Moses didn't misunderstand what God was saying. 74 00:05:44,000 --> 00:05:49,000 Perhaps he thought that this whole project depended upon him. 75 00:05:49,000 --> 00:05:51,000 In fact it didn't. 76 00:05:51,000 --> 00:05:56,000 He was only the instrument that God was pleased to use. 77 00:05:56,000 --> 00:05:59,000 What God was going to do depended upon God. 78 00:05:59,000 --> 00:06:02,000 He was the deliverer. 79 00:06:02,000 --> 00:06:06,000 Moses was merely the human vessel that God had chosen. 80 00:06:06,000 --> 00:06:08,000 Nonetheless, he said, I can't do it. 81 00:06:08,000 --> 00:06:12,000 I am not able. 82 00:06:12,000 --> 00:06:21,000 In fact, a sense of personal insufficiency is not bad in itself. 83 00:06:21,000 --> 00:06:23,000 Did you know that? 84 00:06:23,000 --> 00:06:27,000 That can be actually a very healthy response. 85 00:06:27,000 --> 00:06:30,000 I'd like for you to turn with me just briefly into the New Testament 86 00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:33,000 to the book of 2 Corinthians. 87 00:06:33,000 --> 00:06:38,000 And look with me at the second chapter and the fourteenth verse 88 00:06:38,000 --> 00:06:39,000 where Paul exclaims, 89 00:06:39,000 --> 00:06:45,000 But thanks be to God, who always leads us in his triumph in Christ, 90 00:06:45,000 --> 00:06:50,000 and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of him in every place. 91 00:06:50,000 --> 00:06:56,000 For we are a fragrance of Christ to God. 92 00:06:56,000 --> 00:06:59,000 Isn't that an amazing statement? 93 00:06:59,000 --> 00:07:04,000 When God sees you and me, when we come before him, 94 00:07:04,000 --> 00:07:11,000 we are to him the aroma, the incense, the fragrance of Christ to him. 95 00:07:11,000 --> 00:07:15,000 And it's among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. 96 00:07:15,000 --> 00:07:17,000 We are the aroma of Christ. 97 00:07:17,000 --> 00:07:21,000 To the one, we are the aroma from death to death, 98 00:07:21,000 --> 00:07:26,000 and to the other, an aroma from life to life. 99 00:07:26,000 --> 00:07:31,000 And who is adequate, says Paul, for these things. 100 00:07:31,000 --> 00:07:35,000 He says, who is adequate to be able to walk out into the world 101 00:07:35,000 --> 00:07:38,000 and to live such a life and to talk in such a way 102 00:07:38,000 --> 00:07:41,000 and to communicate such a message 103 00:07:41,000 --> 00:07:45,000 that to one group of people you are the fragrance of life 104 00:07:45,000 --> 00:07:48,000 and to another who reject you in that message, 105 00:07:48,000 --> 00:07:51,000 you are the fragrance of death. 106 00:07:51,000 --> 00:07:57,000 To them, you make them more accountable for the truth that they've heard. 107 00:07:57,000 --> 00:07:59,000 Who is sufficient? Who is adequate? 108 00:07:59,000 --> 00:08:02,000 Well, Paul goes on to say a few more words, 109 00:08:02,000 --> 00:08:05,000 and then he comes back to that thought in chapter 4 and verse 4. 110 00:08:05,000 --> 00:08:10,000 He says, in such confidence we have through Christ toward God. 111 00:08:10,000 --> 00:08:12,000 In other words, God makes us sufficient. 112 00:08:12,000 --> 00:08:15,000 Not that we are adequate in ourselves 113 00:08:15,000 --> 00:08:19,000 to consider anything as coming from ourselves, 114 00:08:19,000 --> 00:08:22,000 but our adequacy is from God. 115 00:08:22,000 --> 00:08:28,000 There is an appropriate sense of personal inability, 116 00:08:28,000 --> 00:08:34,000 insufficiency, when it comes to this matter of representing God in this world. 117 00:08:34,000 --> 00:08:37,000 We are not sufficient in ourselves, 118 00:08:37,000 --> 00:08:41,000 but, beloved, we dare not fall into the danger 119 00:08:41,000 --> 00:08:46,000 of hiding behind that sense of personal inadequacy 120 00:08:46,000 --> 00:08:50,000 and thus not doing what God tells us to do. 121 00:08:50,000 --> 00:08:55,000 It's fine to feel insufficient in oneself, 122 00:08:55,000 --> 00:08:59,000 because that causes us to trust the sufficiency of God, 123 00:08:59,000 --> 00:09:03,000 but we dare not hide behind our feelings of inadequacy 124 00:09:03,000 --> 00:09:05,000 and fail to do what God wants us to do. 125 00:09:05,000 --> 00:09:08,000 That's what Moses was attempting. 126 00:09:08,000 --> 00:09:11,000 Moses had learned over a 40-year period 127 00:09:11,000 --> 00:09:17,000 that his own ability was insufficient to do God's work. 128 00:09:17,000 --> 00:09:20,000 God himself must be in it. 129 00:09:20,000 --> 00:09:24,000 God himself must energize the ability of his servant 130 00:09:24,000 --> 00:09:26,000 if the work would get done. 131 00:09:26,000 --> 00:09:30,000 God gives answer to Moses in the next verse. 132 00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:33,000 Certainly He says, I will be with you. 133 00:09:33,000 --> 00:09:35,000 There's the promise. 134 00:09:35,000 --> 00:09:38,000 He says to Moses, I will be with you. 135 00:09:38,000 --> 00:09:43,000 God wasn't sending Moses off by himself to the court of Pharaoh. 136 00:09:43,000 --> 00:09:46,000 God said, I will be with you. 137 00:09:46,000 --> 00:09:49,000 Isn't that what Jesus said to us? 138 00:09:49,000 --> 00:09:52,000 Does that ring a bell to you? 139 00:09:52,000 --> 00:09:57,000 Jesus said, all power is given to me in heaven and earth. 140 00:09:57,000 --> 00:09:59,000 Go therefore, make disciples, 141 00:09:59,000 --> 00:10:03,000 baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, 142 00:10:03,000 --> 00:10:06,000 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. 143 00:10:06,000 --> 00:10:08,000 And lo, what? 144 00:10:08,000 --> 00:10:11,000 I am with you. 145 00:10:11,000 --> 00:10:14,000 Lord, I'm not sufficient to go. 146 00:10:14,000 --> 00:10:18,000 I'm not sufficient to disciple. 147 00:10:18,000 --> 00:10:21,000 Lo, I am with you. 148 00:10:21,000 --> 00:10:23,000 Under the end of the age, 149 00:10:23,000 --> 00:10:27,000 the very same promise is given to you and me as was given to Moses. 150 00:10:27,000 --> 00:10:30,000 And God gave Moses a sign. 151 00:10:30,000 --> 00:10:35,000 He says, this will be a sign to you that it is I who have sent you. 152 00:10:35,000 --> 00:10:38,000 When you have brought the people out of Egypt, 153 00:10:38,000 --> 00:10:42,000 you, that second you is plural. 154 00:10:42,000 --> 00:10:47,000 You, you and the people of Israel, 155 00:10:47,000 --> 00:10:51,000 shall worship God at this mountain, 156 00:10:51,000 --> 00:10:55,000 that is Mount Horeb, or Mount Sinai, as it's also called. 157 00:10:55,000 --> 00:10:59,000 And so God gave to Moses an assurance 158 00:10:59,000 --> 00:11:02,000 that although he was not perhaps in himself able, 159 00:11:02,000 --> 00:11:04,000 God would be with him, 160 00:11:04,000 --> 00:11:07,000 and God would prove himself to Moses. 161 00:11:07,000 --> 00:11:12,000 Has God been laying on your heart some commission? 162 00:11:12,000 --> 00:11:16,000 Has God been talking to you about doing something, 163 00:11:16,000 --> 00:11:19,000 about entering into special service for him perhaps, 164 00:11:19,000 --> 00:11:23,000 maybe on the mission field, the ministry? 165 00:11:23,000 --> 00:11:27,000 Has God been laying upon your heart teaching a children's class, 166 00:11:27,000 --> 00:11:31,000 or volunteering for this area of service, 167 00:11:31,000 --> 00:11:34,000 or going on a short-term assignment? 168 00:11:34,000 --> 00:11:39,000 Yet you've been saying, oh wait, not me, I can't do it. 169 00:11:39,000 --> 00:11:43,000 That's a wonderful place to begin, but don't end there. 170 00:11:43,000 --> 00:11:46,000 Don't hide behind that first response, 171 00:11:46,000 --> 00:11:49,000 because God says to you, I will be with you, 172 00:11:49,000 --> 00:11:54,000 and I will prove myself to you. 173 00:11:54,000 --> 00:11:59,000 But like many of us, Moses wasn't finished with just one excuse. 174 00:11:59,000 --> 00:12:04,000 In verse 13 he basically says, I don't know what to say, Lord. 175 00:12:04,000 --> 00:12:07,000 Moses said to God, behold, I'm going to the sons of Israel, 176 00:12:07,000 --> 00:12:11,000 and I shall say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you. 177 00:12:11,000 --> 00:12:14,000 Now they may, notice that, they may, 178 00:12:14,000 --> 00:12:17,000 he's beginning now to think of possibilities. 179 00:12:17,000 --> 00:12:19,000 He's hypothesizing. 180 00:12:19,000 --> 00:12:22,000 They may say to me, what is his name? 181 00:12:22,000 --> 00:12:25,000 What shall I say to them? 182 00:12:25,000 --> 00:12:28,000 So Moses is now fearful. 183 00:12:28,000 --> 00:12:31,000 He has this scenario built up in his mind. 184 00:12:31,000 --> 00:12:37,000 I go back there, and I began to present to the sons of Israel this message. 185 00:12:37,000 --> 00:12:41,000 And they will say to me, well, what is the name of the God of our fathers? 186 00:12:41,000 --> 00:12:44,000 What will I say to them then? 187 00:12:44,000 --> 00:12:47,000 You see, he feared embarrassment. 188 00:12:47,000 --> 00:12:51,000 All these possibilities came up in his mind, negative possibilities, 189 00:12:51,000 --> 00:12:53,000 and he was intimidated by them. 190 00:12:53,000 --> 00:12:56,000 Have you ever been intimidated by your own thoughts, 191 00:12:56,000 --> 00:12:59,000 your own fears of what might happen? 192 00:12:59,000 --> 00:13:03,000 But what if this happens, or what if that happens? 193 00:13:03,000 --> 00:13:06,000 Moses is saying, I don't know what to say. 194 00:13:06,000 --> 00:13:08,000 So God answered him. 195 00:13:08,000 --> 00:13:14,000 God says, you not only have my presence, I will go with you. 196 00:13:14,000 --> 00:13:17,000 Moses, you have my person. 197 00:13:17,000 --> 00:13:22,000 You tell them this, I am who I am. 198 00:13:22,000 --> 00:13:29,000 You shall say to the sons of Israel, I am, has sent me to you. 199 00:13:29,000 --> 00:13:33,000 What a name God gives for himself here. 200 00:13:33,000 --> 00:13:40,000 That name, I am, is worthy of a whole lot of thought in meditation. 201 00:13:40,000 --> 00:13:46,000 God's answer to Moses is this, you may not know what to say, 202 00:13:46,000 --> 00:13:48,000 but you have my person. 203 00:13:48,000 --> 00:13:52,000 I am is sending you. 204 00:13:52,000 --> 00:13:55,000 Now remember that when God gives us a name, 205 00:13:55,000 --> 00:14:03,000 He is giving us something that represents what He is. 206 00:14:03,000 --> 00:14:06,000 Charles Swindoll says regarding this, 207 00:14:06,000 --> 00:14:12,000 the name translated I am comes from the Hebrew verb to be. 208 00:14:12,000 --> 00:14:20,000 Thus the name is a declaration of God's eternal and immutable self existence. 209 00:14:20,000 --> 00:14:23,000 He is pure being. 210 00:14:23,000 --> 00:14:27,000 Nothing has brought or could bring Him into existence, 211 00:14:27,000 --> 00:14:32,000 nor could anything ever cause Him to cease to be. 212 00:14:32,000 --> 00:14:42,000 He has always existed and will always exist because He is existence. 213 00:14:42,000 --> 00:14:47,000 I am, says God to Moses. 214 00:14:47,000 --> 00:14:51,000 Now this is not the first name by which God has revealed Himself in the Bible. 215 00:14:51,000 --> 00:14:55,000 The first name was the name Elohim. 216 00:14:55,000 --> 00:15:01,000 Elohim represents God in His relationship to the world at large 217 00:15:01,000 --> 00:15:07,000 as creator, as provider, as ruler. 218 00:15:07,000 --> 00:15:13,000 The mighty one is the thought in Elohim. 219 00:15:13,000 --> 00:15:18,000 But then in Genesis chapter 2, and here more fully, 220 00:15:18,000 --> 00:15:23,000 God reveals Himself by this name, I am. 221 00:15:23,000 --> 00:15:29,000 It is often translated or I should say written in the English 222 00:15:29,000 --> 00:15:37,000 as capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, Lord, Jehovah, 223 00:15:37,000 --> 00:15:41,000 or as some think it may be pronounced in the Hebrew, Yahweh. 224 00:15:41,000 --> 00:15:47,000 It's uncertain of that pronouncement because the Hebrew has only consonants. 225 00:15:47,000 --> 00:15:53,000 And so vowels are inserted according to certain rules. 226 00:15:53,000 --> 00:15:57,000 The best guess is that this name is Yahweh. 227 00:15:57,000 --> 00:16:03,000 YHWH is simply how it's written in the Hebrew. 228 00:16:03,000 --> 00:16:09,000 This name Yahweh or Jehovah represents God in His special relationship 229 00:16:09,000 --> 00:16:11,000 to His chosen people. 230 00:16:11,000 --> 00:16:16,000 It is the Redeemer name of God. 231 00:16:16,000 --> 00:16:20,000 I am signifies not only His eternal existence, 232 00:16:20,000 --> 00:16:24,000 but His eternal self-sufficiency. 233 00:16:24,000 --> 00:16:27,000 What God is really saying to Moses here is this, 234 00:16:27,000 --> 00:16:34,000 I am all that is necessary as the occasion arises. 235 00:16:34,000 --> 00:16:42,000 Moses, you may not know what to say, but I am all that you need. 236 00:16:42,000 --> 00:16:47,000 You have my person, I am. 237 00:16:47,000 --> 00:16:53,000 This is the name of the personal God in His historical manifestation 238 00:16:53,000 --> 00:16:56,000 and in His work of salvation. 239 00:16:56,000 --> 00:17:00,000 That's why I think the Lord Jesus took the essence of this name 240 00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:06,000 and applied it to Himself so effectively as recorded in the Gospel of John. 241 00:17:06,000 --> 00:17:11,000 And certainly the Jewish leaders of that day understood exactly what He was claiming 242 00:17:11,000 --> 00:17:16,000 when He said before Abraham was, what? 243 00:17:16,000 --> 00:17:20,000 I am talking about Himself. 244 00:17:20,000 --> 00:17:26,000 And immediately they recognized from their perspective that He was blaspheming, 245 00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:29,000 that He was claiming to be God. 246 00:17:29,000 --> 00:17:34,000 And again several times in the Gospel of John He says something very similar. 247 00:17:34,000 --> 00:17:37,000 And often ties an additional thought with it. 248 00:17:37,000 --> 00:17:39,000 I am the bread of life. 249 00:17:39,000 --> 00:17:42,000 I am the light of the world. 250 00:17:42,000 --> 00:17:45,000 I am the way, the truth, and the life. 251 00:17:45,000 --> 00:17:47,000 I am the true vine. 252 00:17:47,000 --> 00:17:50,000 I am the resurrection and the life. 253 00:17:50,000 --> 00:17:54,000 Our Savior as He came to accomplish the work of redemption 254 00:17:54,000 --> 00:17:57,000 was literally claiming to be Yahweh. 255 00:17:57,000 --> 00:18:01,000 Come in the flesh, for that's who He was. 256 00:18:01,000 --> 00:18:05,000 Here He is saying to Moses, 257 00:18:05,000 --> 00:18:14,000 you have all that I am, Moses, and that's all you need. 258 00:18:14,000 --> 00:18:20,000 Have you ever been at that point where you said, God, I don't know what to say. 259 00:18:20,000 --> 00:18:23,000 If I open my mouth I'll stick my foot in it. 260 00:18:23,000 --> 00:18:25,000 I do that every time. 261 00:18:25,000 --> 00:18:28,000 And there's fear that builds up in our hearts. 262 00:18:28,000 --> 00:18:32,000 And we don't respond when God says, speak to this person. 263 00:18:32,000 --> 00:18:35,000 Engage this person in conversation. 264 00:18:35,000 --> 00:18:39,000 Or rebuke this individual even. 265 00:18:39,000 --> 00:18:42,000 What He says to us as He said to Moses is this, 266 00:18:42,000 --> 00:18:45,000 I am all you need. 267 00:18:45,000 --> 00:18:50,000 I am for you. 268 00:18:50,000 --> 00:18:52,000 We think of negative possibilities. 269 00:18:52,000 --> 00:18:54,000 What if this? What if that? 270 00:18:54,000 --> 00:18:56,000 And fear grips our heart. 271 00:18:56,000 --> 00:19:05,000 And God says to us, I am all that is needed as the situation arises. 272 00:19:05,000 --> 00:19:07,000 So don't be fearful, my friend. 273 00:19:07,000 --> 00:19:11,000 If God has called you, if God is leading you, go for it. 274 00:19:11,000 --> 00:19:14,000 And don't let fear keep you back. 275 00:19:14,000 --> 00:19:16,000 But again, Moses didn't stop there. 276 00:19:16,000 --> 00:19:20,000 He had another comment to make to God. 277 00:19:20,000 --> 00:19:25,000 God in the rest of chapter 3 basically gives to Moses the game plan. 278 00:19:25,000 --> 00:19:29,000 Tells him what's going to happen, what he's going to do. 279 00:19:29,000 --> 00:19:34,000 He promises that he will stretch out his hand against the Egyptians. 280 00:19:34,000 --> 00:19:39,000 That is a way of saying that God will deal with them Himself. 281 00:19:39,000 --> 00:19:44,000 But then Moses says in chapter 4 and verse 1, in essence this, 282 00:19:44,000 --> 00:19:48,000 I'm afraid they won't listen and I will fail. 283 00:19:48,000 --> 00:19:52,000 What if they will not believe me or listen to what I say? 284 00:19:52,000 --> 00:19:56,000 For they may say, notice again, they may say, 285 00:19:56,000 --> 00:20:01,000 the Lord has not appeared to you. 286 00:20:01,000 --> 00:20:05,000 Now frankly, this is a reasonable concern. 287 00:20:05,000 --> 00:20:10,000 It's not a concern based on faith, but it is a reasonable concern. 288 00:20:10,000 --> 00:20:14,000 You have to remember that it has been 430 years 289 00:20:14,000 --> 00:20:21,000 since the last revelation, the last appearance of God to anybody. 290 00:20:21,000 --> 00:20:25,000 Now let's just suppose this morning that you didn't have a Bible. 291 00:20:25,000 --> 00:20:28,000 I hope you brought one to church. That's why we come to church. 292 00:20:28,000 --> 00:20:33,000 Let's suppose you didn't have a Bible at all and you've never had a Bible. 293 00:20:33,000 --> 00:20:37,000 Not only that, your parents didn't have a Bible or your parents' parents 294 00:20:37,000 --> 00:20:41,000 because there has been no Bible written. 295 00:20:41,000 --> 00:20:45,000 And then let's suppose that the last time God said anything to anybody 296 00:20:45,000 --> 00:20:53,000 in the world was in 1550 AD, 430 years ago. 297 00:20:53,000 --> 00:20:59,000 And then someone comes in and he says, hey, God has appeared to me. 298 00:20:59,000 --> 00:21:02,000 What do you think your response would be? 299 00:21:02,000 --> 00:21:05,000 Do you think that Moses is unreasonable and suspecting 300 00:21:05,000 --> 00:21:08,000 that there may be this response? God hasn't appeared to you. 301 00:21:08,000 --> 00:21:18,000 Come on. It's been over 400 years since God said anything to anybody. 302 00:21:18,000 --> 00:21:24,000 To this concerned prophet, God gives three signs 303 00:21:24,000 --> 00:21:30,000 that will serve to authenticate that indeed God has appeared to him. 304 00:21:30,000 --> 00:21:36,000 The first sign is in verse 2. It's the sign of the rod. 305 00:21:36,000 --> 00:21:39,000 The Lord said to him, what is that in your hand? 306 00:21:39,000 --> 00:21:44,000 And he said, a staff. He said, throw it on the ground. 307 00:21:44,000 --> 00:21:46,000 So he threw it on the ground and it became a serpent. 308 00:21:46,000 --> 00:21:50,000 And Moses fled from it. 309 00:21:50,000 --> 00:21:56,000 My, there have been all kinds of liberal explanations of what happened here. 310 00:21:56,000 --> 00:22:01,000 Moses threw his rod down and scared a snake out of the grass. 311 00:22:01,000 --> 00:22:05,000 But what it says is that he threw the rod down, the staff down the ground, 312 00:22:05,000 --> 00:22:09,000 and it became a snake. 313 00:22:09,000 --> 00:22:12,000 And it wasn't a little six-inch garter snake. 314 00:22:12,000 --> 00:22:14,000 Whatever it was scared Moses to death. 315 00:22:14,000 --> 00:22:19,000 Now listen, here's a shepherd. He's used to dealing with creatures in the wild. 316 00:22:19,000 --> 00:22:21,000 But he's afraid. And the Lord said to Moses, 317 00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:24,000 stretch out your hand and grasp it by its tail. 318 00:22:24,000 --> 00:22:29,000 Oh, come on. I don't know about you. 319 00:22:29,000 --> 00:22:34,000 But if I'm going to touch a snake, it's not going to be on the tail. 320 00:22:34,000 --> 00:22:38,000 If you're smart, the only place to grab a snake is where? 321 00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:42,000 Behind the head. And you better be quick. 322 00:22:42,000 --> 00:22:46,000 If you grab it by the tail, the thing can turn around and strike at you. 323 00:22:46,000 --> 00:22:48,000 It hits you. 324 00:22:48,000 --> 00:22:51,000 That's what God told him to do. 325 00:22:51,000 --> 00:22:58,000 And so he stretched out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand. 326 00:22:58,000 --> 00:23:02,000 God said that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, 327 00:23:02,000 --> 00:23:07,000 the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob has appeared to you. 328 00:23:07,000 --> 00:23:09,000 That's the first sign. 329 00:23:09,000 --> 00:23:16,000 By the way, the snake was a symbol of power and of life to the Egyptians. 330 00:23:16,000 --> 00:23:24,000 And so God is saying here that Moses would be given power to overcome 331 00:23:24,000 --> 00:23:29,000 that symbol of life and power to the Egyptians. 332 00:23:29,000 --> 00:23:36,000 If God's power was greater, it could put an end to the snake of the Egyptians. 333 00:23:36,000 --> 00:23:38,000 Then the sign of leprosy is given. 334 00:23:38,000 --> 00:23:41,000 The Lord said, put your hand into your bosom. 335 00:23:41,000 --> 00:23:43,000 So he put his hand into his bosom, and when he took it out, 336 00:23:43,000 --> 00:23:48,000 behold, his hand was leprous like snow. 337 00:23:48,000 --> 00:23:50,000 Then he said, put your hand into your bosom again. 338 00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:53,000 And so he put his hand into his bosom again, and when he took it out of his bosom, 339 00:23:53,000 --> 00:23:57,000 behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh. 340 00:23:57,000 --> 00:24:00,000 They shall come about that if they will not believe you or heed the witness 341 00:24:00,000 --> 00:24:05,000 of the first sign, that they may believe the witness of the last sign. 342 00:24:05,000 --> 00:24:07,000 So we have here the sign of leprosy. 343 00:24:07,000 --> 00:24:12,000 Leprosy probably in that day was not exactly the same disease 344 00:24:12,000 --> 00:24:16,000 that we call leprosy today. 345 00:24:16,000 --> 00:24:20,000 Leprosy though was a very hideous disease, and it was certainly incurable. 346 00:24:20,000 --> 00:24:25,000 Leprosy was prevalent among the Egyptians. 347 00:24:25,000 --> 00:24:31,000 God is saying here that he had power to cleanse, power to heal, 348 00:24:31,000 --> 00:24:34,000 the sign of leprosy. 349 00:24:34,000 --> 00:24:35,000 Then there's a third sign. 350 00:24:35,000 --> 00:24:39,000 If they will not believe, he says, even these two signs, 351 00:24:39,000 --> 00:24:43,000 or heed what you say, you shall take some water from the Nile 352 00:24:43,000 --> 00:24:46,000 and pour it on the dry ground. 353 00:24:46,000 --> 00:24:52,000 And the water which you take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground. 354 00:24:52,000 --> 00:24:59,000 Remember the Nile was a source of life and fertility to the Egyptians. 355 00:24:59,000 --> 00:25:01,000 And so God is saying you take some of the Nile River 356 00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:04,000 and pour it out on the ground, and what is life and fertility 357 00:25:04,000 --> 00:25:11,000 to the Egyptians will turn to blood and to death. 358 00:25:11,000 --> 00:25:15,000 And so there's the sign of the water. 359 00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:20,000 Moses is afraid here that the people won't listen to him, 360 00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:23,000 that he will fail, but you know in the end, 361 00:25:23,000 --> 00:25:27,000 success or failure is not the final issue. 362 00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:29,000 It's not for us today either. 363 00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:36,000 The real issue is obedience. 364 00:25:36,000 --> 00:25:39,000 To this prophet who used a third excuse, God says, 365 00:25:39,000 --> 00:25:46,000 you have my power, Moses, and these are the three signs that I give to you. 366 00:25:46,000 --> 00:25:50,000 Beloved, today as God tells us to serve him, 367 00:25:50,000 --> 00:25:54,000 as he tells us to be his witnesses to the uttermost part of the earth 368 00:25:54,000 --> 00:26:02,000 beginning across the street and going to the furthest regions of the world, 369 00:26:02,000 --> 00:26:09,000 he says that he gives to us the power of the Holy Spirit, Acts 1-8. 370 00:26:09,000 --> 00:26:14,000 We have the power of God given to us as well. 371 00:26:14,000 --> 00:26:19,000 It dwells in us in the person of the Holy Spirit. 372 00:26:19,000 --> 00:26:24,000 But yet again the prophet speaks and he says in verse 10, 373 00:26:24,000 --> 00:26:27,000 I am not qualified by my gifts. 374 00:26:27,000 --> 00:26:32,000 He says, please Lord, I have never been eloquent. 375 00:26:32,000 --> 00:26:34,000 Oh, Moses. 376 00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:39,000 I have never been eloquent, neither recently nor in time past, 377 00:26:39,000 --> 00:26:42,000 nor since thou hast spoken to thy servant, 378 00:26:42,000 --> 00:26:47,000 for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue. 379 00:26:47,000 --> 00:26:51,000 And so he says, God, I am not qualified. 380 00:26:51,000 --> 00:26:55,000 I just don't have the ability, I don't have the gifts to do that. 381 00:26:55,000 --> 00:26:58,000 Now this seems to be a strange statement from Moses, 382 00:26:58,000 --> 00:27:04,000 especially in light of what the Holy Spirit says in Acts 7-22 through Stephen 383 00:27:04,000 --> 00:27:13,000 when he calls Moses a man of power in words and deeds. 384 00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:16,000 Why does Moses say what he does here? 385 00:27:16,000 --> 00:27:24,000 Well, perhaps it is that he was referring to his slowness in reply. 386 00:27:24,000 --> 00:27:28,000 Though he could use words persuasively, 387 00:27:28,000 --> 00:27:32,000 perhaps because of his training in Egypt, 388 00:27:32,000 --> 00:27:38,000 perhaps it was that Moses felt that he could not come back with a quick response 389 00:27:38,000 --> 00:27:44,000 in a situation like he would face in the presence of Pharaoh. 390 00:27:44,000 --> 00:27:50,000 Have you ever been tongue-tied around somebody who is well known? 391 00:27:50,000 --> 00:27:55,000 This last week I was in a conference in Washington 392 00:27:55,000 --> 00:28:03,000 and I was in a small group meeting where Leighton Ford walked in the room early. 393 00:28:03,000 --> 00:28:06,000 He was a brother-in-law to Billy Graham, 394 00:28:06,000 --> 00:28:10,000 an associate evangelist for many years with Billy Graham. 395 00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:13,000 And I was sitting in the back row, 396 00:28:13,000 --> 00:28:17,000 and would you believe he came straight to the back row and shook my hand 397 00:28:17,000 --> 00:28:20,000 and started talking to me. 398 00:28:20,000 --> 00:28:22,000 All of a sudden there were no words in my mouth. 399 00:28:22,000 --> 00:28:24,000 I just went speechless. 400 00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:27,000 I started almost babbling, I felt like. 401 00:28:27,000 --> 00:28:30,000 Have you ever been in a situation like that? 402 00:28:30,000 --> 00:28:33,000 Where all of a sudden the presence of somebody else that maybe you've known, 403 00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:36,000 you've heard about, suddenly overwhelms you? 404 00:28:36,000 --> 00:28:44,000 Well, what would you do if suddenly you were in the presence of the President of the United States? 405 00:28:44,000 --> 00:28:47,000 Right? 406 00:28:47,000 --> 00:28:50,000 Well, now Moses says, now if I go to Pharaoh and I stand in his presence 407 00:28:50,000 --> 00:28:53,000 and he begins to talk with me and to argue, 408 00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:56,000 I'm going to go toward him, I'm slow. 409 00:28:56,000 --> 00:28:58,000 Have you ever gone away from a situation 410 00:28:58,000 --> 00:29:02,000 and half an hour later said, boy, I wish I had thought to say that. 411 00:29:02,000 --> 00:29:05,000 See, that's what Moses seems to be struggling with here. 412 00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:11,000 Now, it may be that this is again a matter of self-image and it's not true at all. 413 00:29:11,000 --> 00:29:15,000 Maybe this is only a feeling of inadequacy, but this is genuinely what he's saying. 414 00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:17,000 I'm not qualified to do that. 415 00:29:17,000 --> 00:29:20,000 I don't have the gifts to do it. 416 00:29:20,000 --> 00:29:22,000 Well, God gives an answer. 417 00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:28,000 First of all, he points him to his sovereign design of every person. 418 00:29:28,000 --> 00:29:36,000 Who has made man's mouth or who makes him dumb or deaf or seeing or blind? 419 00:29:36,000 --> 00:29:41,000 Is it not I, the Lord? 420 00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:46,000 Very pointed question. 421 00:29:46,000 --> 00:29:51,000 You know about each of us, there are things that we wish were different. 422 00:29:51,000 --> 00:29:57,000 There's not a person in this room who could look at his life and say, 423 00:29:57,000 --> 00:30:04,000 well, I wish I looked different, I wish I spoke differently, I wish, I wish, I wish. 424 00:30:04,000 --> 00:30:12,000 And we have feelings of inadequacy that may be imaginary or real. 425 00:30:12,000 --> 00:30:19,000 You and I need to remember that God has designed us too just the way we are. 426 00:30:19,000 --> 00:30:26,000 And if there are weaknesses about us, if there are indeed inadequacies, 427 00:30:26,000 --> 00:30:33,000 those are God designed and make us a special servant of His for a special purpose. 428 00:30:33,000 --> 00:30:35,000 God makes us just the way that we are. 429 00:30:35,000 --> 00:30:39,000 We need to learn to accept that. 430 00:30:39,000 --> 00:30:43,000 And then God promised Moses that he would supplement for his weaknesses. 431 00:30:43,000 --> 00:30:52,000 He says, now then go and I, even I, will be with your mouth and teach you what you are to say. 432 00:30:52,000 --> 00:30:57,000 So he says to Moses, you have my promise. 433 00:30:57,000 --> 00:30:59,000 You have my presence, Moses. 434 00:30:59,000 --> 00:31:01,000 You have my person. 435 00:31:01,000 --> 00:31:03,000 You have my power. 436 00:31:03,000 --> 00:31:05,000 You have my promise. 437 00:31:05,000 --> 00:31:06,000 I'll be with your mouth. 438 00:31:06,000 --> 00:31:08,000 I'll show you what to say. 439 00:31:08,000 --> 00:31:09,000 I will be your strength. 440 00:31:09,000 --> 00:31:11,000 I will be your enablement. 441 00:31:11,000 --> 00:31:17,000 Don't worry about being disqualified because of some inability that you imagine. 442 00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:23,000 And then we come to the bottom line in verse 13 when Moses says, 443 00:31:23,000 --> 00:31:28,000 please Lord, now send the message by whomever thou wilt. 444 00:31:28,000 --> 00:31:32,000 Or in other words, Lord, please send somebody else. 445 00:31:32,000 --> 00:31:42,000 God is patient with fear, but God is not patient with disobedience. 446 00:31:42,000 --> 00:31:45,000 And that is the bottom line. 447 00:31:45,000 --> 00:31:51,000 Moses did not want to return to Egypt. 448 00:31:51,000 --> 00:31:54,000 His heart was obstinate. 449 00:31:54,000 --> 00:31:59,000 Actually this fifth response is not an excuse. 450 00:31:59,000 --> 00:32:04,000 It's an expose. 451 00:32:04,000 --> 00:32:07,000 It shows what's really in the bottom of Moses' heart. 452 00:32:07,000 --> 00:32:11,000 All of the excuses now have been stripped away. 453 00:32:11,000 --> 00:32:19,000 In truth, behind every excuse is rebellion of the will. 454 00:32:19,000 --> 00:32:22,000 That's the root of it. 455 00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:25,000 And so it is with us. 456 00:32:25,000 --> 00:32:29,000 So it is with us. 457 00:32:29,000 --> 00:32:33,000 Excuses are only the wrappings. 458 00:32:33,000 --> 00:32:43,000 What's contained in the package is refusal, obstinacy. 459 00:32:43,000 --> 00:32:50,000 I don't know what area of your life that you may today be trying to fend off God with excuses. 460 00:32:50,000 --> 00:32:53,000 But I challenge you to examine that area of your life closely 461 00:32:53,000 --> 00:33:00,000 and see if there isn't behind all of the facade some disobedience in your life. 462 00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:05,000 Where you're saying, God, I will not do this. 463 00:33:05,000 --> 00:33:11,000 It may be that that is a struggle with you in the matter of baptism. 464 00:33:11,000 --> 00:33:19,000 There is no question but that the New Testament commands disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ to be baptized. 465 00:33:19,000 --> 00:33:29,000 We have excuses upon excuses as to why we will not do that or should not do that or cannot do that. 466 00:33:29,000 --> 00:33:33,000 The real problem is we just don't want to. 467 00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:37,000 It's the will. 468 00:33:37,000 --> 00:33:39,000 On the matter of stewardship. 469 00:33:39,000 --> 00:33:42,000 I can't do it now. 470 00:33:42,000 --> 00:33:49,000 And the real problem is we do not want to give. 471 00:33:49,000 --> 00:33:54,000 But Lord, you're asking me to do too much. 472 00:33:54,000 --> 00:33:57,000 I can't spend the time involved. 473 00:33:57,000 --> 00:33:58,000 I don't have the time. 474 00:33:58,000 --> 00:33:59,000 Too many other things. 475 00:33:59,000 --> 00:34:08,000 My family and the problem with service for Christ is we just don't want to do it. 476 00:34:08,000 --> 00:34:11,000 Lord, I know I should be in church. 477 00:34:11,000 --> 00:34:19,000 But you know, just this weekend, I don't get to go fishing just like I am delinquent. 478 00:34:19,000 --> 00:34:23,000 And the problem is we just don't want to get up on Sunday morning and go to church. 479 00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:27,000 We don't want to come back on Sunday night. 480 00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:32,000 It's a matter of the will. 481 00:34:32,000 --> 00:34:38,000 God is patient with fear as He was with Moses. 482 00:34:38,000 --> 00:34:43,000 But now He gets to the bottom line where Moses says, send somebody else. 483 00:34:43,000 --> 00:34:49,000 I don't want to go. 484 00:34:49,000 --> 00:34:56,000 And then the anger of the Lord burned against Moses. 485 00:34:56,000 --> 00:35:01,000 And He said, Is there not your brother Aaron the Levite? 486 00:35:01,000 --> 00:35:06,000 I know that he speaks fluently and moreover behold, he is coming out to meet you. 487 00:35:06,000 --> 00:35:09,000 When he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. 488 00:35:09,000 --> 00:35:12,000 You are to speak to him and put the words in his mouth. 489 00:35:12,000 --> 00:35:16,000 And I, even I, will be with your mouth and his mouth. 490 00:35:16,000 --> 00:35:19,000 And I will teach you what you are to do. 491 00:35:19,000 --> 00:35:22,000 Moreover, he shall speak for you to the people. 492 00:35:22,000 --> 00:35:28,000 It shall come about that he shall be as a mouth for you and you shall be as God to him. 493 00:35:28,000 --> 00:35:34,000 And you shall take in your hand this staff with which you shall perform the signs. 494 00:35:34,000 --> 00:35:39,000 God is getting rather strong now with His servant. 495 00:35:39,000 --> 00:35:48,000 God gives to him a mouthpiece, Aaron, his own brother. 496 00:35:48,000 --> 00:35:52,000 God says to him, You have my provision. 497 00:35:52,000 --> 00:35:56,000 God says, You are going to go. 498 00:35:56,000 --> 00:36:04,000 You and I will never deal with the real problem by merely reciting excuses. 499 00:36:04,000 --> 00:36:10,000 We must honestly expose the roots of the problems in our life. 500 00:36:10,000 --> 00:36:13,000 And then there will be some basis for change. 501 00:36:13,000 --> 00:36:16,000 I don't know what Moses' real problem was. 502 00:36:16,000 --> 00:36:19,000 I've tried to think what it would be. 503 00:36:19,000 --> 00:36:28,000 I wonder if we don't have here a man who is 80 years of age and who is saying, 504 00:36:28,000 --> 00:36:34,000 I have a routine established and I'm an old man. 505 00:36:34,000 --> 00:36:43,000 And life has gotten comfortable and I don't want to go back. 506 00:36:43,000 --> 00:36:45,000 I don't want to face all of that. 507 00:36:45,000 --> 00:36:50,000 God is saying to him, Go. 508 00:36:50,000 --> 00:36:54,000 Change becomes hard, doesn't it? 509 00:36:54,000 --> 00:37:00,000 Linda Kling has written these words, Change. 510 00:37:00,000 --> 00:37:03,000 Even the word threatens me. 511 00:37:03,000 --> 00:37:11,000 The thought of going from a comfortable though boring situation into unknown territory is frightening. 512 00:37:11,000 --> 00:37:16,000 It's hard enough to adjust to a room full of furniture that's been switched around, 513 00:37:16,000 --> 00:37:22,000 much less adapt to a whole new set of circumstances that God is arranging in my life. 514 00:37:22,000 --> 00:37:30,000 I guess the Lord had to make us basically hesitant and wary of change so that we'd be stable 515 00:37:30,000 --> 00:37:35,000 and wouldn't go running away every time we encountered an unlikable circumstance. 516 00:37:35,000 --> 00:37:39,000 But God doesn't want us to be stagnant either. 517 00:37:39,000 --> 00:37:44,000 For a long time I've been praying that I would do something in my life, 518 00:37:44,000 --> 00:37:46,000 that He would do something in my life. 519 00:37:46,000 --> 00:37:52,000 But when He tries to answer that prayer by introducing something new and challenging to me, 520 00:37:52,000 --> 00:37:53,000 I run scared. 521 00:37:53,000 --> 00:37:59,000 I had expected He would bring some new interest into the old familiar situation. 522 00:37:59,000 --> 00:38:02,000 But He surprised me. 523 00:38:02,000 --> 00:38:06,000 Instead He closed that door and opened another saying, 524 00:38:06,000 --> 00:38:09,000 This is the way, walk ye in it. 525 00:38:09,000 --> 00:38:13,000 I've never been an adventurer or explorer. 526 00:38:13,000 --> 00:38:17,000 Cozy, familiar surroundings are what I prefer. 527 00:38:17,000 --> 00:38:25,000 But I am going to take a step of faith and show the Lord I really trust Him. 528 00:38:25,000 --> 00:38:27,000 I'm going to follow. 529 00:38:27,000 --> 00:38:31,000 Follow Him no matter where He leads. 530 00:38:31,000 --> 00:38:35,000 Is God disturbing your nest? 531 00:38:35,000 --> 00:38:41,000 Is God rearranging the furniture of your life? 532 00:38:41,000 --> 00:38:46,000 Don't use excuses. 533 00:38:46,000 --> 00:38:49,000 But say as did this writer, 534 00:38:49,000 --> 00:38:53,000 I'm going to follow Him wherever He leads. 535 00:38:53,000 --> 00:38:58,000 When God calls you and me to serve Him or to some act of obedience, 536 00:38:58,000 --> 00:39:01,000 He gives us all that we need. 537 00:39:01,000 --> 00:39:04,000 Like Moses of old, He gives us His presence. 538 00:39:04,000 --> 00:39:06,000 He gives us His person. 539 00:39:06,000 --> 00:39:08,000 He gives us His power. 540 00:39:08,000 --> 00:39:10,000 He gives us His promise. 541 00:39:10,000 --> 00:39:13,000 And He gives us His provision. 542 00:39:13,000 --> 00:39:17,000 And so let's put away the excuses and be obedient. 543 00:39:17,000 --> 00:39:22,000 Living by excuses will cause us to miss God's best. 544 00:39:22,000 --> 00:39:25,000 And it's a lousy way to live. 545 00:39:25,000 --> 00:39:28,000 So let's live by faith. 546 00:39:28,000 --> 00:39:30,000 Obeying God. 547 00:39:30,000 --> 00:39:38,000 The God who calls us and who will provide all that we need. 548 00:39:38,000 --> 00:39:44,000 Let's bow together. 549 00:39:44,000 --> 00:39:49,000 What do you need to say to the Lord this morning? 550 00:39:49,000 --> 00:39:52,000 Is there an area of struggle? 551 00:39:52,000 --> 00:39:57,000 Have there been excuses? 552 00:39:57,000 --> 00:40:04,000 Will you put them away and give them to Jesus this morning? 553 00:40:04,000 --> 00:40:09,000 Will you say to Him, Lord, I'll follow You wherever You lead? 554 00:40:09,000 --> 00:40:13,000 Lord, You rearrange my life. 555 00:40:13,000 --> 00:40:20,000 You feel free to make the changes. 556 00:40:20,000 --> 00:40:25,000 You may have to honestly say, though I struggle, 557 00:40:25,000 --> 00:40:29,000 I am willing to be made willing. 558 00:40:29,000 --> 00:40:31,000 Can you say that much? 559 00:40:31,000 --> 00:40:37,000 I am willing to be made willing. 560 00:40:37,000 --> 00:40:41,000 For it is God who works in you, beloved, 561 00:40:41,000 --> 00:40:49,000 both the willing and the doing of His good pleasure. 562 00:40:49,000 --> 00:40:52,000 Let's sing together. 563 00:40:52,000 --> 00:41:00,000 All to Jesus I surrender. 564 00:41:00,000 --> 00:41:09,000 All to Him I freely give. 565 00:41:09,000 --> 00:41:18,000 I will ever love and trust Him 566 00:41:18,000 --> 00:41:27,000 in His presence daily live. 567 00:41:27,000 --> 00:41:35,000 I surrender all. 568 00:41:35,000 --> 00:41:43,000 I surrender all. 569 00:41:43,000 --> 00:41:54,000 All to be my blessed Savior. 570 00:41:54,000 --> 00:42:02,000 I surrender all. 571 00:42:02,000 --> 00:42:09,000 Our Heavenly Father, we sing these words not because they are set to a nice tune, 572 00:42:09,000 --> 00:42:19,000 but because they express the attitude of our hearts. 573 00:42:19,000 --> 00:42:25,000 Wherein we have been using excuses, 574 00:42:25,000 --> 00:42:31,000 we set those aside and we say to you this morning, 575 00:42:31,000 --> 00:42:36,000 we'll follow where you lead. 576 00:42:36,000 --> 00:42:42,000 With our heads bowed, may I say one more thing to those who are here 577 00:42:42,000 --> 00:42:47,000 without a personal saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. 578 00:42:47,000 --> 00:42:54,000 My friend, beware of the excuses that the devil will give to you to keep you from Christ. 579 00:42:54,000 --> 00:43:00,000 Excuses like, I'll have to turn over a new leaf in my life first. 580 00:43:00,000 --> 00:43:04,000 I have to reform. I have to clean up my act. 581 00:43:04,000 --> 00:43:10,000 Or, there are so many hypocrites in the Church. I don't want to be a Christian. 582 00:43:10,000 --> 00:43:17,000 Or, I'll do it later. There's plenty of time. 583 00:43:17,000 --> 00:43:25,000 Recognize that those are empty, that the real problem is in your will. 584 00:43:25,000 --> 00:43:32,000 Will you today believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and make that step of faith? 585 00:43:32,000 --> 00:43:37,000 If we can help you do that, will you come to the front of the auditorium afterward? 586 00:43:37,000 --> 00:43:42,000 There will be some staff members or elders here. I'll be shaking hands at the door. 587 00:43:42,000 --> 00:43:48,000 Let us know of your desire today to understand better what it means to trust Christ. 588 00:43:48,000 --> 00:43:53,000 Let us pray with you, without coercion and pressure, 589 00:43:53,000 --> 00:43:57,000 but with sincerity and love for your soul. 590 00:43:57,000 --> 00:44:02,000 Let's stand together. We'll be closed in prayer. 591 00:44:02,000 --> 00:44:12,000 Now Father, as we go from here, I pray that we will go in obedience to that calling in our lives. 592 00:44:12,000 --> 00:44:18,000 That we will sense the commission that you've given us to be your witnesses. 593 00:44:18,000 --> 00:44:25,000 May we know, deeply know, and experience in our hearts all the provision that you've made for us 594 00:44:25,000 --> 00:44:31,000 that we might obey and fulfill the mission you've given to us in life. 595 00:44:31,000 --> 00:44:59,000 In Jesus' name, Amen.