Thank you, guys. Appreciate it. Thank you so much. Beautiful music. Thank you again for letting us come and be a part.
Let me get this thing turned on. The. It's always fun. For 13 years we've been coming. I think it's 13 years we've been coming 600 miles north of where we live.
It's always 600 miles every time we do it through Illinois or Iowa. And to see our son and daughter in law who moved here for 12 months. So do the math on that. But I will say that we love Red Village. Becky and I do.
This is like our home church in Madison. It's the only church we've been to in Madison, but it's still our home church in Madison. And to see what God has been able to do over the last 13 years that we're aware of and to see. When we started, you were in a gymnasium or a cafeteria, I think in a high school, and they were setting up chairs and tearing down sound equipment. It was pretty amazing.
And then you bought this building and renovated it and made it yours. And to see the changes. One of the things that we have noticed when Becky and I first started coming to Red Village, well, it was 13 years ago, so we were 13 years younger and so were a lot of you. And so there was maybe one or two other people that had gray hair in the congregation. And now I'm happy to say that your pastor is graying a little bit.
I'm okay with that. Scott, I know he was always, always appreciated seeing Scott and there was a couple other guys. It's like there's, there's one of us, there's. There's somebody else who remembers the 60s and in the 70s, we, you know, we kind of had a kindred spirit. But.
But it's also good to see so many people. I'm so excited to be here and, and to be able to see Demetrius get baptized. That was just. That's so cool. So we're looking forward to this.
This is Exodus chapter four this morning. If you want to open it up. There's a couple of things I want to do, but I want to say that of all the sermons, this will be a little bit different style. I understand the weight of the pulpit here and the teaching you all get on a regular basis. And Pastor Aaron, I'm so glad that they're a part of this church and get the teaching that they do.
You get incredible biblical solid teaching every week. And whether it's Aaron or one of the elders, I understand who I need to follow here. But. But we trust God for the moments and we trust God from the Holy Spirit to fill us. It'll be a little different style than you're used to.
I'll move a little bit more. I'm not going to jump around or anything, but I've already moved more than Aaron does, I think maybe. So if you catch me, I'll hug a little bit more than he does, too. And by the way, it's really nice to see the folks from Kansas with the Royals hat. So kudos.
So I'll be preaching to this side mostly, and the rest of you over here. You have to be tough to be a Royals fan. I'm just going to tell you, we're good about every 30 years. And I remember from the very beginning watching George Brett and all those others, so. So I know.
I realize that for those of you who are Cardinals fan, just remember 1985, we still got you on it. So that's all I had to say on that. So I know we have a lot to do this morning. I do want to say thank you, though. This is probably my favorite passage that I've preached here at Red Village.
Now, a couple of summers ago, I got to preach out of James that said, basically, if you have any kind of savings or anything, that it's all going to rot and it's all bad. And it was really an uplifting message and so fun. Really so fun. Last year, I think it was Psalms, and that was kind of a fun one. I appreciated that one.
This one is a lot of fun and really not necessarily just the whole passage. It's just such a fun passage. But I've titled it and I've got a title and a subtitle. All right. Now, the subtitle has really nothing to do with the message, but I will tell a story about it.
So the title of the message is Just Believe him, the Story of an Unlikely Hero of the Faith. Or the subtitle is Just Grab the Snake by the Tail. All right? And you'll hear a story about that. Some of you already have.
And I got to know. I got to keep my time here a little bit. Everybody says just preach what you feel like you need to preach. But I understand that, like my mom said when I went into the ministry, it's always better when you're visiting somebody if they're glad you came, not glad that you leave, Right? So that's my prayer this morning.
And truly I'm very humbled to be here. So I always say, I always get nervous preaching here. I Don't know why, but I do. And you all are so accommodating, so welcoming. I'm going to pray, ask the Holy Spirit to do it, and then we're going to jump into this.
So, Father, this morning as we. As we start, thank you for the privilege and the honor to be here this morning. Thank you for the family, for all of our family here. I'm so glad. Thank you for the friends that we've made over the years.
Thank you for this Pastor, for tia, for this family, for calling them here, for their faithfulness to step out in faith and do something different and something challenging. Thank you for this Word of God that we lift up, that it is living and active, and that it really divides and really come down into the very soul, into the marrow of who we are. He reveals things that need to be revealed. It encourages us, it convicts us, it challenges us.
Thank you for the Holy Spirit that says, I will be with you in every season. So when I'm anxious, I know I'm not alone. So, Lord, whatever we have brought to this place, this moment, through the last week or the last day or the last year, the last decade, whatever we brought to this place, if there are things that need to be left here, if there's things that we need to release to you, give us the courage and faith and the assurance that you will take those things from us and yet still love us deeply like you always do. So, Father, as we open up the word of God, may Lord Jesus, we indeed learn these things that you want us to learn today. In the name of Jesus, I do pray.
Amen. So I'm going to do a little bit different. I'm just going to read a passage. So we're not going to read. Stand and read the whole thing.
I don't want to do that, because then It'd be like 40 minutes, and that's a long time. But it's a little weird there. So we're going to. We're just going to read a little bit. I want to start with this.
And It's Exodus, chapter 4, verse 1 through 17. You've been learning about Moses, I hear, from the last three weeks, I guess. But this is just one of those sections that's really an amazing section, and it shows a very pivotal moment in Moses life. All right, so we want to think sometimes, for those of us who are old enough to remember when it came out, remember Charlton Heston in the movie the Ten Commandments? And Moses comes down and.
And, you know, it's really very dramatic and all that stuff. And we want to remember it like that. But somehow I think maybe it looked a little bit different in real life. I don't know. As a side note, just so we kind of get a context here on a personal level, I wasn't supposed to be a preacher.
Did you know that? I mean, I will at the end of this, but did you know that? Right. I'm not supposed to be a preacher. I was supposed to be a farmer.
That's what I grew up doing. I love that. I still do. In Northwest Missouri, where we have real soil, like you guys do up here, down where I'm from, in southwest Missouri, we just have rocks with dirt on it. But where I'm from, we have dirt with no rocks in it.
And that's what I wanted to do, and that's what I thought God was calling me to do. So I went through college, and I was about ready to graduate. I had about a year left. And I went to a. Had a plan.
I was gonna go do some graduate work and some genetics and do that kind of stuff, and. And I met Becky. That changed some plans, too. In a good way. Really got to keep that up, right?
In a very good way. And then. And then I went to a conference, and I felt like God was calling me to preach. And I thought, well, it's very dramatic. I mean, it's very emotional.
There were some people you may have heard of. There was, like, Billy Graham preached. He was an evangelist. I don't know if you know him or not. Elizabeth Elliot, Josh McDowell, Bill Bright, some of those cones like this.
Howard Hendricks, who's the one who taught Chuck Swindoll, some pretty heavy hitters. So I thought, well, Lord, this is pretty. This is just an emotional decision. I really don't want to follow it if it's emotional. I have a plan.
I have a plan. I know what I'm supposed to do. But I did pray. I said, lord, if this is the plan that you want me to do, then somehow encourage it. Somehow do some things, bring some people in to say, this is really what you're supposed to do, Mitch.
This is what God wants you to do. All right? And if it's not the plan, then just let that feeling fade out. And I would be good with that. I was really better with that side than I was going into this.
Cause I didn't really know anything about the Bible. Just to be fair. I knew hardly anything about it. I'd taken one New Testament class at. At Missouri State, and the guy was weird.
I'm Just gonna tell you he was out there. And I didn't even know anything about the Bible. And I thought, this guy's out there. But I took this New Testament survey and that was it. So I was like, lord, I don't know anything about the Bible.
I don't really have any history here. I don't have a lot. I had an uncle that was a retired minister, Methodist, and that's about it. And there. There was.
So I said, okay, I guess I'll do it. And I'd graduate and wait for Becky. And I thought, well, maybe I ought to learn something about the Bible, Aaron. I thought that was a good idea. So I go to seminary, and one thing leads to another, and then four and a half.
Four, not four and a half decades. Four decades in, a year later, here I am. And in a lot of ways, that's where Moses was. You see, he never signed up for this mission when he was growing up in Egypt. He didn't sign up to be the savior, to be the one who lead them out.
He didn't sign that up. That wasn't on his plan. And when he was. When he was about, you know, 48, about 40 years old, I suppose, something like that. And when he saw his people being abused, he went down and he murdered that guy, you know, and he did that.
And. And then he had to run away from Egypt. And he thought, well, I'm not going to be a preacher. I'm not going to be this prophet. I'm not going to be this person who leads it.
Moses didn't have that in his game plan. And then for four decades, for 40 more years, he's out there tending the sheep and tending the goats and the cattle. He's a farmer. He's a rancher, if you will, whatever you want to do. That context.
He was in that business, well established. He was about 80 years old when this happened. So. So he didn't sign up for that. So he could stand before you and say, I wasn't supposed to be this person.
You ever feel like that? I mean, I do. So when we read this, put it into the context of a person who is being called to do something that he never really thought he should do. All right, so let's go ahead and jump into it. So prior to verse or chapter four, he's out there minding his own business, out kind of in the.
In the wilderness, out there, out in the fields. He's a lot of people. He hears a voice. That's not a good thing if you're by yourself. You got to be careful there.
And then he hears it coming from, what, this bush? But the bush is on fire, and it's not being consumed. The. That's a little bit weird. Then the voice comes out and starts telling him this directive.
Hey, you need to go back to Egypt. And I don't know what you would do, but it would weird me out a little bit. All right? I would just feel. I don't think this is normal.
Right. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with this. And at this point, what we'd like to hear Moses say is, you know what, Lord? I hear your voice, and send my. Like, here I am.
Send me like it says, right? We would like for us to say our hero of the faith that's mentioned what, in seven verses of Hebrews 11, that great chapter on faith, we would like for our hero to have said first, you know what? I hear your call, Lord, and I'm heading my way. I'm going to go home, talk to the wife, pack up the minivan, and we're off. But that's not how it worked.
This was his response. Moses answered. God said, go. Well, behold, verse one. They will not believe me or listen to my voice.
For they will say, the Lord did not appear to you. That's the very first objection. They're not going to believe me. The Lord said to him, what is this in your hand? He said, it's a staff.
It's just a walking stick. You know what that is? It's a walking stick. It was a tool of the trade, what they used to guide and to move cattle and sheep and things like that. They were familiar with enough, the sheep and the livestock, you could direct them with that.
A lot of things like this. So what's that in your hand? It's a staff, right? Throw it on the ground. So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it.
Now, I have to be honest, at this point, this is not impressing me about Moses. First of all, he ran from the snake. All right? Now, some of you may do that. I don't know.
I mean, that's okay. But we grew up on the farm. The farm. We had a lot of rattlesnakes on our farm and a lot of snakes here and there. And, you know, kind of when you come up on a snake, they don't really like people.
So if you let them slither off, it's okay. And if you have to, you know, you can shoo it away if you have to you can do something else that you don't supposed to tell anybody about. So that's all right. All right, so. But he ran from it.
And I'm thinking, Moses, you're. You're kind of this guy out here. You're taking care of livestock. You're used to the rule and outside the nature, and you see a snake and you run from it. Now, to be fair, I've never had a stick turn into a snake, so I don't know what I would do.
But I did think when I first read this, not first, but this last time. And every time, it's like, really, it could have been better. But anyway, we'll move on. That's just a personal preference. He ran from it.
But the Lord said to Moses, put your hand. Put out your hand and catch it by the tail. So he put out his hand and he caught it by the tail. It became a staff in his hand. That they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.
So when I tell Becky, hey, I'm preaching on this passage, and she reads it and. And she reads this passage, and she reads this verse, and it says, put out your hand and catch it by the tail. This is what she said. Huh? I wonder who else would say something like that.
This story has nothing to do with the passage, but I gotta tell it because it's the subtitle. All right, so the subtitle is Just Grab the Snake by the Tail. In our yard, back when the boy. When Rob and Autumn were growing up, we had some snakes and stuff once in a while. And there was a nest of garter snakes that had, I don't know, back there by the barn.
And Becky has a very strict rule about snakes. If they're in the field behind her house, that's theirs, right? If they cross through the chain link fence, I don't know how they know the difference between there and here. But if they cross it, it's her territory. And she calls my name, and it's a snake call.
It's a whole distinct sound. And I know to take the proper tools. Now sometimes, and most of the time, I just try to relocate them, right? I just try to get them out. I know they're good snakes and they're harmless snakes.
If I have to, I'll get rid of it other ways because I like Becky more than I like the snakes or opinions. All right? So I'll do what I need to do this particular day. Rob's with me, and I grab a snake and I have it by the tail, right? And Rob says, hey, can I hold a snake?
To which I say, being a good father, you want to teach them these lessons, Scott? So being a good father said, sure, just grab the snake by the tail. That's exactly what I said. So he takes the snake by the tail. Now, the snake at this point did what snakes do, but he shouldn't have.
So the snake comes up and bites Rob right on the knuckle. Just like that. Just bites him. For no good reason, right? He had no reason to bite Rob.
Rob wasn't doing anything. Just holding him, so he bit it. So I had to do two things. I had to pry the snake off of Rob's knuckle. And I knew I was going to have to tell Becky.
And she did not blame the snake. She did not blame the snake. I did not bite Rob on the knuckle. I did not tell the snake to bite Rob on the knuckle. All he did was hold it like this, right?
So I pry the thing off because it was kind of tight. Pry it off, and I throw it off. And I know I'm gonna have to tell Becky, and I don't know how I'm gonna really do this and put a spin on it. That's good. And you just have to live through it.
And we have. Alrighty. So she looks it up and you can get lockjaw. And, I don't know, whatever that does, you know, you can't turn your neck and you don't talk and stuff. Rob wasn't a big talker when he was growing up, so if you wanted to ask him something and get an answer, he'd tell you.
But, you know, he figured you probably need to ask the question, right? So. So every once in a while, Becky would say, rob, say something. It's like, mom, I don't have lockjaw. All right?
That has really hardly anything to do with the message, I guess, guys, if you. If you pick up a snake by the tail and want to give it to one of your kids, you're on your own. I'm just telling you that you're going to have to respond to that one. He did fine. So no hospital visit that time, so.
And it still wasn't my fault. All right, let's move on. Verse 6. That was the first sign again. The Lord said to him, put your hand inside your cloak.
And more is like the. You know, the cloak like this, what they wore in the bag in the old Days. And then he did that, and he put his hand inside the cloak. And when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous, like snow. I don't know if any of you are in the medical field or if you've seen this.
There's still some leprosy around in the world and a little bit around, but it's more like gangrene if you've seen that. And it's awful. It's really awful. It's just a very terrible, terrible look, a terrible smell. It's just something that you just look at and you see, and it's hard to unsee that.
So that would be alarming. He comes in and his hand is full of leprosy. So that's going to be alarming. All right, so it's not done, then. And then he said, put your hand back inside your cloak.
So he put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, it was restored like the flesh. That's the second sign. If they will not believe you, God said, or listen to the first sign, they may believe this sign. Moses said, what if they don't believe me? That was his objection, right?
What if they don't believe me? Well, throw your staff on the. Throw your stick. Throw your staff on the ground. It's going to turn into a snake.
Grab the snake by the tail, it'll turn back into the snake. The stick, by the way, it won't bite you. And then do this. That's two signs. All right.
But knowing Moses, he said, all right, let's do another one. If they will not believe even these two signs in verse nine, listen to your voice. You shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry land. And the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the ground. Now, at this point, you would think, okay, God, Moses would say, okay, I have it now.
I trust you. I got it. I'm going to go. Because those are some pretty significant signs. I did not get that when I called into the ministry.
Maybe you did, Aaron. I don't know. Maybe you threw their stick on the ground. Hopefully, Tia wasn't around. I don't know what she is.
I know where Becky would be. Right? So Moses said to the Lord, oh, my Lord. Not eloquent either in the past or since. You have spoken to your servant.
But I am slow of speech and of tongue. What this possibly could mean is that he probably wasn't able to navigate both of those languages very well. It's been 40 years. It could mean that he just didn't feel comfortable talking in front of people. Whatever it was, he was hesitant.
Says, I know I'm going to have to talk to people and be in front of them. And it's a little bit scary. I mean, y' all are nice enough people. It's a little bit scary, right? And you know that some of you have this fear of doing this.
So he said, I'm slow of speech. I can't do it. He saw three signs. And he says, well, you know, I believe the signs, but I'm just not that quick with my words. And so the Lord said to him, who has made a man's mouth?
I mean, it seems like an easy one, doesn't it? Who makes him mute or deaf or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord. So, so God again, dialoguing with Moses, says this. Not only am I giving you the signs, not only am I telling you to do this.
And I know you're not confident in your abilities, but here, I made you. I created you. I put the words in your mouth. I put the ability for you to speak. I did this for you.
Trust me. And you would think, man, Moses, come on, you got this.
So he says in verse 12, now, therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth, and I will teach you what to speak. He doesn't even have to come up with the dialogue. He all he has to do is listen to God. God says, say this. And he says that it's not that hard, right?
But he says, and this is where it lands, O Lord, oh, my Lord, please send someone else. And God is distinctly calling him to this task. He is very intentional, with purpose, saying, moses, this is yours. And Moses doubles down. They're not going to believe me.
I can't speak. I'm going to be in front of the Pharaoh and all these leaders and all these people, and I'm going to embarrass myself or whatever. And then he finally says, just send someone else. This next passage is really interesting. I'm not going to get into it too much today.
But it says then in verse 14, then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses. And that's an interesting phrase. You don't see that a lot. And I'm not going to dive into it a lot, but I know the love of God didn't diminish, and the mercy of God didn't diminish, and the plan of God didn't diminish, and his promise to be with him wasn't gone. He was just Irritated.
Sounds like to me, he was giving Moses every chance to say yes. And then all of a sudden, he keeps saying no, right? So then he says, is there not Aaron, your brother, The Levite? He's 83. He's three years older.
I know that he can speak. Well, behold, he is coming out to meet you. And when he sees you, he will be glad. In his heart, he's going to be glad to see his brother. So you will speak with him or to him in verse 15 and put the words in his mouth, and I will be with your.
With your mouth and with his mouth, and will teach you both what to say. So Moses arguing with God, dialogue with God, saying, this is that, and this and that. No, I can't do that. I know you're calling me this. I know you're wanting me to do that.
I'm not able to do it. They're not going to believe me. They're going to doubt me. I'm not that quick. All that kind of stuff says, all right, I'll send both of you.
Really didn't end up that well. When you read the story throughout, he should have just went by himself. That worked, but there were some issues. And then verse 16, he says, he shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth, and you shall be as God to him. Now, what that really, I think infers is that God is going to speak to Moses, and Moses is going to tell God, Aaron.
So that's really. He wasn't saying, you're going to be God like the Creator, but you're going to be this. This mediator between me and him. And now take in your hand His. This staff with which you shall do the signs.
And then we start. So again, he didn't sign up for the mission. He was 80 years old when this happened. 80 Years old. I'm only 65.
I know I look 80, but I'm only 65, right? I'm only 65. So at this point in life, I'm. Here's what he was. He was saying, moses, I have another thing for you to do.
I have something else on my mind for you. Now, at this point, what we have to do is we have to ask the question, what do I do in this century with this story?
Because it's a little bit out there.
I know some shepherds, and I know some ranchers, and I know some farmers, and I know people who have cattle and sheep and some other things, horses. I don't know any who have heard God speak through a bush. I don't know that.
So what do we do with this? So one of the first things I think that we need to understand is that God knows you and he still calls you. He knows who you are, and he still calls you. Listen to what Moses did here. He kept reminding God his faults.
Do you ever do that? Whenever God's saying, I need you to do this, and you think, well, Lord, but do you remember back in. Well, you probably don't remember back in 1970 something, but back when and when I did this, and I'm just not that good. I mean, there are people who can speak much better than me, Lord. People who know the seminary or know the Bible much better.
So when I went to seminary, I didn't know anything. I really didn't. I did find out quickly that you don't ask questions to your professors to prove a point. All right? Because they saw through that, and then they were good to answer in a good way.
I'm thinking. I'm never asking a question in class. And I didn't. I don't even want to make eye contact with my professors is what I kind of determined. Especially the Greek and the Hebrew.
But he kept reminding him of his faults. I can't do it. I'm not good enough. I'm not strong enough. I'm not young enough.
I'm not old enough. I'm not this or I'm not that. And God knows that. He understood that, but he also reminded God of his mistakes. Don't you remember the time that I got angry and mad and I lost my temper and I killed that guy?
It's not great on a resume, really. It's really not. I mean, you can redeem yourself from it. And we know that God can redeem everything. But you go in, you say, I'm going to be the savior of this group of people.
I'm going to be the one who leads them from slavery to freedom. Well, what's your resume? Well, not too bad. I had a pretty good upbringing. There was a little hiccup.
What happened? Well, I killed the guy. What did you kill him for? Well, he was kind of being honored to some of my people. Well, it's kind of a bad deal, right?
So he reminded God of those things. He reminded of his weaknesses. He reminded of the reasons that he was not the best person for the job. Really, Lord. There are other people that are better.
There are other people that are more qualified. There are other people that are more comfortable. There are other people that have this in their wheelhouse, have this in their experience. There are other people that I can name. You.
Let me give you a list. There's Aaron. He's going to be better than me. He's younger, he's smarter. He's going to be able to teach better.
There's people like this that are going to be able to do it better. Don't you want somebody else? And so often when God is calling us or urging us to do something, it may not be, you know, leave your home and go to Egypt. It may be. It may just be, get out of your comfort zone and call somebody.
Restore a relationship, Comfort someone in grief or loss or tragedy. Speak to them about the word of God, about salvation. Ask how they're doing. Dive into their life, invite yourself into them. It's a little bit uncomfortable, but there's going to be people better.
You're always going to say, lord, there's somebody better. And this is what God said. This is the truth. God knew exactly who Moses was. Listen to this.
He knew exactly who Moses was. And then knowing who Moses was, this is what he said. I pick you.
That's powerful.
I was never a great athlete. You can see that. I was never that big or strong. And whenever you're picking teams on a playground or something, I knew it wasn't going to be the first. I mean, that was a hands down solid truth.
I just didn't want to be the last or just not get picked, right?
But God says, listen, I see you, I know you, I choose you.
Yet we say, lord, you don't really know me or you wouldn't. Yeah, no, he does. Another thing that we understand is that God or Moses was trying to argue about this mission. So we have to understand that God understood the complexity of the mission. It wasn't a simple thing.
So for what, for centuries, this group of people had grown in population, grown in power. And then they got a little bit. They intimidated the Pharaoh and the leadership. So the leadership and the government oppressed them and made them slaves. And they were crying out to God to save them.
And then God sends this guy who was banished 40 years prior to this to come back to Egypt where he was wanted for murder. Only those people were gone now. It was safe. At this point, he had to go back into this plague and then tell these, probably, I don't know, different variations, but hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people. There's a lot of folks, you can pick out what number it was.
A lot of people. It was more than just this, right? It was thousands upon thousands. And he said, Listen, I'm back. I'm here to save you.
Right? That was the mission. And I don't understand, I mean, I understand Moses hesitation at this point saying, I don't know that I'm up for this. He. Yeah, he is.
He is. All right. So Moses reminded God of the people who would doubt. And sometimes when God calls you to do something and you say, I really feel like God is calling me to do this, somebody's gonna say, are you sure? I was fortunate.
When I told my mom that dad that I was going into the ministry, it didn't surprise my mom. Mothers are crazy scary like this. I'm just going to tell you. So I graduated of high school. And my brother in law, one of my brother in law said, I think he's going to be a farmer.
And my mom said, I think he'll be a good minister. And she never told me that. She never told me that.
I don't trust you guys. I don't trust you women.
So he reminded of the people who would doubt, but they're ones who believed. And he reminded God of the people who would not be impressed. Can you imagine being the king or the pharaoh or the leader of really literally, legitimately one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful nation at that point in time, certainly in that region. And we see this shepherd who was banished 40 years ago with a staff. He didn't have an army.
He has a stick, and he has a brother and a couple of family members and a few other things. And he's bringing some people. And he says, pharaoh, I'm here to take all of your labor, and I want to take them back to where they came from. That's going to be impressive, isn't it? Don't you think?
No, that's a complex mission. So Moses reminded him of that. Moses reminded him of the barriers. I don't speak the language that well. It's been four decades.
Things have changed. Moses had a list of reasons while this plan wouldn't work. And so often when God calls us to do something, the very first thing we do is say, well, we don't have enough money, we don't have enough resources, we don't have enough volunteers, we don't have enough experience. We don't have this or we don't have that. Like God doesn't know this.
And the other thing is God does know it. Because the truth about this is that he knew exactly the complexity of the mission. He knew the difficulties and the barriers. And this is what he said. He said Moses I know who you are.
I know all of your faults and all of your mistakes and all of your weaknesses and all of your anxieties. And I know. I know you. I created you and I choose you. I also understand that this is a big deal I'm asking you to do.
And God may not be calling you to do something quite to that magnitude, but I have a feeling God's calling you. And the Holy Spirit is urging you to do something outside your comfort zone. And all of a sudden, it's not. It's too much. And then God says, I get it.
But I know. I know the complexities of it. I understand that it's good when you're known.
It really is. It's good when somebody knows you and believes in you, and God does. So Becky and I have been married 41 years. I say this all the time, whenever she's around or not. And there's nobody on this planet that knows me better than her.
Nobody. Not one person. Nobody that knows my weaknesses and my mistakes and my weirdness. And somebody says, oh, golly, you know, he's so good, you ought to live with him. That's what she's thinking, and I get that.
But there's nobody I trust more, and there's nobody that I'm more appreciative to look over here is where she usually sits. And I'll tell you, whenever there's big things happening and maybe large events or large funerals or large things like that happening, I always know that she's going to make sure that I see her and that she sees me. You know why? Because I'm better knowing that.
Now take that. Magnify that a thousand times or a million times how God knows you. So let's start to wrap this up. Here's another truth. God is capable of doing much more through you, with you, than you could ever imagine.
What you're saying is, God, I'm not old enough. I'm not young enough. I'm not strong enough. I'm not rich enough. I don't have enough education.
I don't have enough resources. I don't have this. I don't have that. There are other people better than me. And there are.
There are people that can preach better than I can, many of them. There are people who can lead better. Yes, that's a fact. There are people, when I was doing electrical work or whatever, or farming people that could do it better. Absolutely.
There's not a doubt in my mind about that. And I understand when I follow people and great pastors and in good churches like this, that I have to follow that. And I get to follow that. And I understand that I can't be that way. And I can say, God, there's people who are better than me.
And he would say, yeah, but I'm not choosing them, choosing you.
So what is God calling you to do? That's the question. Because we have to take the word of God and we have to say, what does it mean for me right now? We want to learn the truth of it and the scripture of it and the theology of it and the history of it. And we want to stand on solid ground.
But we also want to take it and apply it to school or to work or to home or to driving down the freeway or whatever it may be. Right? We want to apply it to where it's practically implemented in our life. That's what we are called to do. And I believe that sometimes God calls us or is urging us through the Holy Spirit to do things that are uncomfortable.
One person told me, he said, man, when I was reading this passage, I knew that one of my best friends was just killed in a tragic car accident. And. And God was telling me, I need to go and somehow help his widow and help his family, help his children. But I knew that I wasn't able to do that. I wasn't capable of doing that.
There's people who know more. I don't know what to say. I'm going to probably make it worse. He said, all I want to do is help, but I have no idea how to do it. And he read this and he heard this, and he said, maybe I could go.
Maybe that's it. I don't know. Maybe it's vocational ministry. Maybe it's not. Maybe it's a mission trip.
Maybe it's doing vvs. I don't know what to do. With kids, you might say, you don't have to really know that much. They'll tell you when you're doing it wrong. They'll let you know what to do.
What task do you think is too much for your abilities? Ask yourself that. Well, God is calling me to this, but I'm not able. I'm not asking you if you're able, if you think you're able. I'm asking you what is it that you think you're not able to do.
Just list it, Lord, you're asking me to do this. I'm not able to do that. List it out there. What excuses are you giving God? Well, Lord, you know, I'm not as young As I used to be.
That's obvious. I'm not surprising anybody. Well, I'm not as smart as I used to be, probably on all levels. I'm not as quick. I'm not this or I'm not that.
At this point, I thought I would know more. Right now, when I answer a question, I don't really even get the question right. Mostly because I don't hear that well. So the answer is not really even relevant to the question. Right.
It's entertaining to the family. That's about it. I'm okay with that. All right. I figure I can maybe get some Hearing AIDS another 20 years.
Take heart. What task do you think is too much? What excuses are you giving? Have you been like Moses? This is where it gets personal.
Have you been like Moses and God is saying, I want you to do this, and you said, send someone else. It's not too late.
It's not too late. It really isn't.
Take heart. We want to put Moses up on this pedestal and say, boy, when he heard God, he went in reality. When he heard God through a bush that wasn't being consumed, he said, send somebody else. He ended up going, and we know the rest of the story. But if you think it was easy for him, think again.
If you think he automatically said, you bet, God, I got it. No, it wasn't like that. So my encouragement to you as I close this, and I'll pray because I know we've got some other things we need to do. We have some other things we need to do. Is this look back on your journey or even where you are right now.
I really believe God is calling you and urging you through the Holy Spirit to do some things that are outside your comfort zone that you're just certain that somebody else is better at. And you may very well be right, that you're not comfortable with that. This is. That things are changing and you don't like it. I get that.
I don't like change. I was talking to somebody that used to be epic, and we just learned epic in the hospital I worked for as a chaplain. It's like learning German. I'm just going to tell you, nothing is epic. I just, you know, always like it when somebody who calls and says, do you have a password?
Like, heck, I don't know if I have a password. All I know is the thing comes on and then I call it when it doesn't. Right. So I don't change. I know all this stuff.
But trust God, trust him. Step out at the end of everything. There will be people that can pray with you. So if you have a choice that you need to make about joining the church, about accepting Christ as your savior, about following in baptism, about doing something in the church or in your life that. That you need prayer for, there'll be people up here praying for you.
All right, Father, in the name of Jesus, let the Holy Spirit move in us, and let the word of God dwell deeply in us. And not if, but when we are in over our head. Please, Lord, let us look back to a guy named Moses. It didn't come easy for him, either. So, in the name of Jesus, take us where you want us to be.
Use us where you want to use us. Let us trust you in the path. And that's that name I pray. Amen.