Quick Note – Hebrews 10:24-25 – Three Reasons for Fellowship

Hebrews 10:24-25 – “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” 

In last night’s Bible study at my church, we talked about the importance of fellowship with other believers to a Christian’s growth; it was one of the four essentials, which also included prayer, reading and studying God’s Word, and witnessing.  Now, none of us can deny the influence that others can play on our lives, for we know the saying is true, “You become like the people you hang around.”  Therefore, if you spend time with fellow Christians that are growing, you certainly will become a growing Christian as well.  But how can their fellowship benefit you, and your fellowship benefit them?  I thought about these questions during that Bible study, and I found at least three ways fellowship is important – admonishment, encouragement, and challenge“ment”.

The first benefit of fellowship with other believers is admonishment.  To admonish someone is to correct him when he is doing wrong.  It is like giving a stern warning to prevent that person from doing something wrong again.  For example, at my work, I am responsible for the safety of the lab; therefore, if I see someone not following safe work practices, it is my job to admonish him and help guide him towards safer practices for himself and others in the lab.  I am not correcting him so that I can show superiority or to give him a hard time but to warn him of the potential danger he is putting himself and others in and to push him to stop.  In the same way, when you have fellowship with other believers, they can admonish you when they see you are straying out of the way of God and into the ways of the world.  They can see the sin that you might be calloused to and provide you a stern rap on the back to wake you up and get you back on the right path.  Without that fellowship, that sin could be easily overlooked and cause major damage in your heart and life.  At the same time, by fellowshipping with other believers, you can do the same for them, warning them of sin that may be in their heart.  This brotherly admonishment, which should always be done in love, will help build the kingdom of God, for it protects the church from sin that can tarnish the name of Christ.  There are plenty of verses throughout the Bible on admonishment but none as famous as Matthew 18:15-17, “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”  In those three verses, we are given a protocol for how to admonish a fellow believer in sin.  If we follow this method and do so in love, we can use the bonds that we build through fellowship with other believers to admonish them and get them back on the right track on their Christian walk.

The second benefit of fellowship with other believers is encouragement.  Being that I am a pastor’s son, I know first-hand the encouragement a pastor receives when he sees a person walk through those church doors and take a seat in a pew.  Just their presence alone can lift up a heart that is ready to give up on the work.  Using another example, in sports, why do you think a team always does better on their home court?  It’s obvious, right?  It is the presence of the fans encouraging them to push forward and win the game.  It is the same in the church; when believers are fellowshipping with each other, they can build each other up constantly.  Not only can they admonish each other, but they can specifically encourage each other to draw closer to Christ.  They can remind each other to study God’s Word and to pray daily.  They can push each other to seek after God and work on the problem areas they have been struggling with.  They can pray for each other, give words of comfort, and provide support and relief in times of need.  Encouragement helps you stay the course in Christ when all seems loss.  1 Thessalonians 5:11 tells us to encourage one another and build each other up.  This is the job of every Christian and should be actively practiced by us as well.  But the funny thing is that when we encourage another, we usually also encourage ourselves either by seeing the fruit of our work before our eyes as a fellow Christian grows closer to Christ or by heeding the words of encouragement ourselves.  By fellowshipping with other believers, we can be this tool of encouragement whether we speak a word or not.

The third benefit of fellowship with other believers is what I call challenge“ment” or simply put the opportunity to be constantly challenged.  The first benefit is to help get you out of sin; the second benefit is to help you stay the course in Christ; this third benefit is to challenge you to grow closer to God and to actively minister to Him and others.  I can’t tell you how many times in my life, just being in the presence of actively, growing Christians has challenged me to develop a closer relationship with Christ.  For example, while I was in Boston, I met some friends who loved Christ so much that it was their focus almost all the time; when they talked, it was focused on Christ; when they listened to music, it was focused on Christ; when they did anything, it was focused on Christ.  Their lives whether they knew it or not caused me to reevaluate my desires and to start seeking to have a heart that is more focused on Christ.  In D.C., I met a friend who always asked me about my Christian walk and what I was learning from God recently.  The conversations I had with him challenged me to take my walk with Christ more seriously, to have more spiritual conversations with others, and to really embed the lessons God wanted me to learn during my personal times with Him.  The thing about being a Christian in fellowship is that you are always being challenged whether outright through clear-cut words spoken by a fellow brother or sister in Christ or through a life lived out for God.  This challenge then pushes you to seek Christ and to love Him more.  The same goes for anybody who sees your growing walk in Christ, for that challenges them to seek Christ even more as well.  Why do you think good sports players always look for another player who can challenge them?  It always makes them better.  As Christians in fellowship, we will always be challenging one another to draw closer to Christ.

Fellowship with other believers is essential in the Christian walk, for it provides much needed admonishment, much appreciated encouragement, and much inspiring challenge“ment”.  As Proverbs 27:17 states, “As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.”  By surrounding ourselves with fellow Christians, we will be sharpening each other in our relationships with Christ.  Don’t neglect the assembling of yourselves when you get the chance, for you will not only get something out of it, you will likely give something inadvertently too.

Quick Note – Proverbs 22:6 – Godly Parenting

Proverbs 22:6 – “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.”

Being that today is my dad’s birthday, I figured I should write about something quite relevant to him.  When thinking about a verse that fit, Proverbs 22:6 came to mind, a well-known verse when it comes to parenting, for it is because of the godly training that both my parents gave me that I am the person I am today.  The Christian example that they set and the constant reminder of the ways of the Lord through books, TV shows, and simple everyday lessons helped me to personally decide to make Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior and to grow as a disciple of His.  Although both of them worked together in training me in the ways of the Lord, each parent also taught me unique lessons.  From my mom, I learned compassion and hospitality and how to show the love of God through service.  But from my dad, I learned a lot about the inner workings of studying God’s Word, patience, and discipline.  It was actually his request that I finish reading the Bible at least once in my life many years back that helped build up my daily habit of spending time in God’s Word.  It was his willingness to allow me to preach and teach that I found my love for sharing God’s Word.  It was the way he studied God’s Word verse by verse and looked for applicable lessons that has influenced the way I write and teach the Bible.  I must say that he even played a role in this blog becoming what it is, for without his encouragement to read God’s Word and his example in studying it, I would have never found the passion to read, study, and write about the things I learn in the Bible.  My parents definitely trained me in the ways of the Lord, and I have not departed from it.

The Bible is very adamant about parents teaching their children the ways of the Lord.  God even made sure to command His people in Deuteronomy 11:9 to teach God’s commands to their children whether walking in the outside world, sitting at home, or lying down in bed.  God wanted His Word constantly shared with the next generation, for He knew how important a godly upbringing is in bringing a person to Him.  I must admit that if it were not for the influence of both my parents, I would have likely turned away from Christ and become a stalwart enemy of the Gospel; but because of their willingness to parent as God would have them do, I have made a personal relationship with the Creator of the Universe.  This post is just an encouragement for parents to raise their children in the ways of the Lord and a reminder for children who have been raised that way to be grateful.  If you fall in that parenting role today then please know that God will use your example and your training in the ways of the Lord to draw your child to Him.  It may not be this instant.  It may not be in the next few years.  But in time, He will be faithful to draw them back to Him, if they were trained in His ways.  If you fall into the category of child who was trained, then be grateful and always give thanks to your Heavenly Father above and to your parents for training you in the ways of the Lord.  And always respect and honor them.  I am very thankful for the influence my mom and dad had in raising me to seek and follow Christ, and I pray that one day I can be as good a parent as they were.  Thank you, Lord, for giving me the parents you did.

Quick Note – Exodus 17:8-13 – Three Roles in the Work of God

Exodus 17:8-13 – 8 Then Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim. 9 So Moses said to Joshua, “Choose for us men, and go out and fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.” 10 So Joshua did as Moses told him, and fought with Amalek, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. 11 Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed, and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. 12 But Moses’ hands grew weary, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side. So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. 13 And Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the sword.

One of the greatest basketball movies of all time is known as Hoosiers, which tells the story of a basketball team in Indiana, who was coached to the championship by none other than Gene Hackman.  In that movie, there were a bunch of talented players on the team, but none could work together.  To solve this problem, Gene Hackman enforced a rule where the ball had to be passed at least four times before anybody would get to take a shot.  By running this exercise, the team was supposed to learn teamwork and team play.  Of course, this type of play doesn’t work well during a game when you pass up open shots, but eventually, maybe or maybe not due to this system, the team learned to rely on each other without this rule and climbed their way up to the top.  Although this was just a simple, inspirational sports movie, it definitely illustrates something that is forgotten in many churches today – team work.  Very often, when it comes to church ministry, the one group that gets noticed and receives the credit for all the work is the group that is actively, physically ministering.  It is the pastor who does the preaching every Sunday.  It is the outspoken Sunday school or Bible study teacher, who helps disciple.  It is the choir director or music leader who leads worship.  It is the evangelist who preaches at crusades that bring in millions.  It is the missionary who goes out every day to serve people in a foreign land.  These are the people who are doing the hands-on work, and these are the people who are congratulated, maybe not by the world, but by many Christians.  The rest of us just sit in the pews, twiddling our thumbs wondering what role we can play.

In our passage today, we find that there are actually three major roles that can be played in the work of God.  Each one is important in its own right, and all are necessary for the work to be done to the glory of God.  The first and most obvious role that we see is found in vs. 9 with Joshua and the men who fought the Amalekites.  They were the soldiers who were presently fighting for their lives and the lives of the people of Israel.  They were the ones clashing swords, bashing shields, and defending their nation.  They were the front-line, active, hands-on workers.  In the church today, these are the ones that we know about and see in the public light – the pastors, the teachers, the missionaries.  This role comes with a special calling, for only when you know for certain that God has called you to fill one of these positions can you truly excel at them, for they are very difficult yet rewarding positions.  Without these men and women, the work would not get done, so they are definitely important and should be honored and respected.  The second role is the role that Moses took in vs. 9 as well.  He told Joshua to do the active fighting, but he did the spiritual fighting on top of the hill overlooking the battle.  He was the one that prayed and petitioned and lifted up this whole situation to the Lord.  This role was just as crucial as Joshua’s sword fighting, for every time Moses’ hands went down, the Amalekites started winning.  In the church today, these are the ones who petition and pray for the work that is being done.  They are the ones that are constantly lifting up those who are doing the work of God.  This is a role that should be filled in by each and every Christian, for we all can come before the throne of God and pray.  It is said that the actual work is done in the prayer closet.  That is so true; for prayer is where the spiritual sowing is done, the rest is the manual labor of reaping.  The last role that we see is the one that Aaron and Hur took in vs. 12.  When Aaron and Hur noticed that Moses was getting tired and was starting to lose the strength to keep his hands up, instead of just watching Moses’ hands fall, they went and helped lift them up for him.  They would not let his hands fall down.  They took a supporting role in lifting Moses up.  Without their help, Moses’ hands would have went down, the Amalekites would begin to win, and Joshua might have been overcome.  But because of their faithfulness and in a way, encouragement, Moses would continue to petition while Joshua would continue to win.  In the church today, these are the backstage encouragers.  They are the ones who encourage pastors, teachers, and missionaries; but not only them, they also encourage those who are praying and supporting the more limelight roles, for even prayer can at times become discouraging.  Without their encouragement, many of those in God’s work would have already given up on it.  I can attest that if I wasn’t encouraged by my parents when I was in school to work hard and continue pushing for those high marks, I probably would have given up and become a high school dropout.  I can also attest that without my dad encouraging me to attend prayer meeting, I would have stopped going to our church’s Saturday morning prayer meetings a long time ago.  Encouragement is so important that we are told in 1 Thessalonians 5:11 that we are to encourage one another and build each other up.  Once again, any and every Christian should fill this role, for it is crucial.

Now that you know about all three of these necessary roles, you have no excuse for sitting on the pews and just twiddling your thumbs.  God may not have you actively working on the mission field or preaching to millions, but He still has the important roles of prayer warrior and encourager for you to fill.  Without you taking a part, the whole work could crumble.  Let us not be discouraged because we may not get noticed, but let us take joy that we are an essential part of God’s ministry.  Whatever role you find yourself in today, do it to the glory of God and know that you are needed.

Series: Matthew 13:44 – The Kingdom of Heaven Is…A Treasure

Matthew 13:44 – “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up.  Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”

A few days ago, we discussed how the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant who sold everything to get that one pearl of great value.  That parable was used to show how God will do everything to draw a person to His kingdom, for He sees us as great value to Him.  But in the reverse manner, the kingdom of heaven is also described as a “treasure hidden in a field” – a treasure worth giving up everything for.  Just as God is willing to do everything for us, we must also be willing to give up everything for Him.  We need to realize how great the value of the kingdom of heaven is.  We as people are nothing but dust and ashes; we are simply made up of the same molecules that are found in a star.  We could take every organic molecule in us, rearrange it, and get another type of animal.  Our building blocks do not set us apart from anything else in the world.  What does set us apart is the value that our God gave to us.  He placed us above all His Creation.  He breathed into us the breath of life, giving us a soul and spirit that no other creature or object on this earth has.  We are special because God made us that way.  But when we realize just how little we are and how great a treasure the kingdom of heaven is, it is not a hard decision to give up all we have for that one thing.  If you knew that by selling all you had you could own a piece of land with an endless supply of diamonds, would you not do it?  I sure would.  So why wouldn’t I give up everything for something even more precious than diamonds or gold?  The kingdom of heaven is a treasure beyond all else, for when you get the kingdom of heaven, you get to have God’s rule and reign over your life.  He will no longer be a removed God and King and Lord, but He will be your personal Lord and Savior, your personal King, your personal God, your Heavenly Father and your Friend.  Is there anything better than that?  Don’t hold back anything from God, but give it all up for Him with all joy, for you are getting something even more valuable.

Sermon: Exodus 3-4 – No More Excuses

*Note:  IN that first paragraph I was actually mistaken, for my dad shared the first week, the evidences of salvation.  The second week preparation for the ministry from Timothy.  And the third week he shared the calling of Jeremiah.  I apologize for that, but I preached it the way it is written.

Exodus 3-4:17 ESV – http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus+3-4%3A17&version=ESV

Since the start of the new year, my dad has been sharing sermons that highlight some of the first steps that need to be taken in the Christian journey.  That first week, we talked about salvation using one of the most well-known verses in the Bible – John 3:16.  This is the first step to any Christian’s journey for without placing one’s faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, one cannot be a Christian.  The second week, we talked about the evidences of salvation, or more simply, how one can know that he is saved.  This second sermon was focused on giving us assurance of our station in Christ, for if we are not secure in our position, how can we go about in service for Him?  Last week, we examined the calling of Jeremiah the prophet and how we can learn to prepare ourselves for the ministry God has called us to wherever and whatever that may be.  Before starting any work of God, we must have our hearts and minds ready; therefore, it was a perfect segue to what we will be talking about this week – the ministry that God has called every Christian to – sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ and making disciples.

Matthew 28:19-20 states, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”  These words were spoken by Jesus Christ to His disciples before He ascended into heaven.  He was just crucified about a month ago; He had been revealing Himself to many of His followers after His resurrection; and now, He was about to leave to return to His Father in heaven and prepare a place for us; and what did He think was the most important thing to tell us?  “Go and make disciples.”  When a person is about to die and starts to give his last requests, what do people normally do?  They listen.  They listen and obey.  They will take every last word that comes from the breath of that dying person and treasure it as if it was gold or diamonds.  As disciples of Jesus Christ, we must ask ourselves if we are doing the same with some of Christ’s last words to us.  They were not his last for those are found in Acts 1, but these are some of the last.  Have we treasured it and followed through with it?  Or have we just been tossing it aside and using excuse after excuse to keep from doing what He has called us to do?  If we fall in the latter group then why is that?  What excuses have we been using to try to stay away from God’s call to make disciples?  If we were to be honest with ourselves, each of the excuses we use have their counterpart in the passage we will be exploring today – a passage which shares how God responded to every excuse Moses gave to God to avoid doing the work He had called him to.  Maybe after today, after hearing the answers God has provided for each of your excuses, you will finally submit to Him.

The passages we will be looking at today are found in Exodus 3 and 4, which describe the calling of Moses and the conversation He had with God at the burning bush.  Throughout these two chapters, Moses continues to bring up excuse after excuse as to why he should not go out and be the speaker for God, but to each excuse God responded with a much better answer, to the point where Moses had to make a personal decision whether he would obey God or disregard His command.

The First Excuse – Who Am I to Do Such a Thing? 

The first excuse and response is found in vss. 10-12:

“Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”  But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”  He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you:  when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”

The first excuse that Moses presented for God’s work to deliver the people of Israel was that he was nobody – “Who am I…”  Moses, a child saved from the brink of death in the Nile, raised in Pharaoh’s court, defender of the Hebrew people before he ran away to Midian, now considered himself nobody.  Just forty years earlier, Moses thought of himself as the one to deliver the people of Israel from Egyptian slavery and even killed someone to do so (Ex. 2:11-15), but now, he did not even feel worthy enough to walk into Pharaoh’s court to petition for the freedom of his people.  It was likely that Pharaoh was a childhood friend, seeing that they must have both grown up in the court together, but Moses still did not feel like he could speak in that situation.  He had been humbled, humbled to the point, where he no longer felt worthy to be a spokesperson of God.  But look at how God responds.  Not once in that answer in vs. 12 did God mention Moses’ qualifications for taking the job; instead, God responds with a simple yet powerful “But I will be with you…”  God had no concern about Moses’ qualifications, his education, his background, his ability to speak; all God wanted was a willing heart that would trust in Him to do the rest of the work.  All Moses needed to know was that God called him.  Just look at what followed the phrase, “I will be with you,” “…And this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you…”  He doesn’t follow up “I will be with you” with a list of reasons why Moses is equipped for the job.  No!  He goes straight into the only reason Moses is perfect for the job – because God sent him to do it.  That’s all Moses needed to know.

As disciples of Jesus Christ, we also throw around this excuse pretty often, when God has called us to share the Gospel with someone.  We simply tell Him, “Who am I to do such a task?”  And the funny thing is that God responds in the same way He did to Moses except He responds in Matthew 28:20, “…And, behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”  God looks at us and says, “This is exactly what I want, a man/woman humbled before me, trusting me to do every work I have called him/her to do.”  Just as with Moses, all we need to know is two things:  1)  God has called us and 2)  God is with us.  It’s like if you were the spokesperson for the President.  Does it matter whether you have had formal speech training at an Ivy League college?  Does it matter whether you have ten or fifteen degrees from the most prestigious universities?  No!  All that matters is that you have been told to speak by the President and that he backs what you are saying.  Who are you to go out and speak for God?  You are nobody, but God is everything, and that’s all there is to it.

The Second Excuse – Who Will I Tell Them You Are?

The second excuse Moses gives comes right after God’s response to the first excuse.  It is found in vs. 13-17:

Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ” 15 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘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, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations. 16 Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt, 17 and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.”

This second excuse that Moses presented to God was in issue to what he would tell the people of Israel or Pharaoh if they asked who sent him; simply put, Moses was telling God, “I don’t know what to say.”  The first excuse was in reference to who he was – “I can’t do it, because I’m nobody.”  The second excuse was in reference to what he knew – “I can’t do it, because I don’t know what to say.”  Just like in any situation, if we were told to relay a message to another, we would want to know exactly what that message was.  The best illustration I have for this is when I am told by my parents to call one of my relatives on the phone and tell them something.  Instead of calling them themselves, they ask me to do it; but very often, they don’t tell me what to say until I’m already on the phone with them.  Then, I have to juggle two conversations at once, trying to get information from my parents while dealing with my aunt or uncle on the other side of the phone who is also trying to figure out why I called.  It is extremely frustrating to be in the middle, which is why I usually tell them to just talk themselves.

In Moses’ case, God was sending him to be the middle man.  He was the one to relay the message, so Moses, like myself, tried to wriggle his way out of the job by saying that he didn’t know what to say.  But once again, God quickly responded with a simple answer – “I AM WHO I AM.”  Moses asked, “Who should I tell them sent me?”  God told him, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”  What did this even mean?  When God said, “I AM WHO I AM,” He was basically telling Moses that He is self-existent.^[1]  He is not dependent on what people say about Him, what people believe about Him, or what they want Him to do.  He is not dependent on anyone or anything.  He is who He is.  This illustration might help provide a better understanding to this statement.  There is a famous comic book series out right now called Fables, which tells the stories of famous fairy-tale characters who live in our modern world today.  It shows what it would be like for Snow White, the Big Bad Wolf, Pinocchio, and others to live in what they call the “Mundy” world, our world.  In this series, they present an interesting fact about themselves, in that, they get their strength from how popular their stories are with us.  So if people recently made a movie about the Big Bad Wolf, then the Big Bad Wolf would be even stronger than he normally is, being able to do what he could not have done without that popularity.  It was even said that as long as you were popular among the “mundy folk” you would basically be immortal.  Simply put, how strong they were and how they lived was dependent on us and how we thought of them.  Their lives were in a way defined by us.  God is not like that.  He is not dependent on us in any way, shape, or form.  God is God.  That’s it.

He goes on to clarify to Moses who He is by telling him to tell the people that He is “The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”  In saying He was LORD, He gave Himself a formal name to call Him by YHWH, Jehovah, “the Existing One.”^[2]  This name is called the Tetragrammaton likely because when Jews would write it they would write it with only four letters YHWH.  The Jews held this name with so much reverence that they avoided writing and saying it and replaced it with adonay.  They honored God and His name so much that they would not even want to risk saying His name incorrectly.  But in this second phrase, God helped Moses to have a clearer picture of who He was.  He was not just self-existent and separated from human kind, He was also personal – the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of their fathers.  Now, Moses had no excuse.  He knew what to say.

The same goes with us.  Another excuse that we like to use with God when asked to share the Gospel is that we don’t know what to say.  We act like we have no clue what salvation is and how we received it.  But we do, or we could not have become disciples in the first place.  We know who God is by reading His Word.  We know what God did for us, for we experienced it ourselves.  We know how God saves, for He has shared that with us through His Son.  As with Moses, we know exactly what to say and how to make disciples – by teaching them to observe all that Christ has commanded us.  If the only excuse we can muster is that we don’t know what to say, we have been answered back in two fold.  First, study God’s Word and be ready with what to say and share as I Peter 3:15 states, “…Always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you…”  Second, trust Him to speak through you, for Mark 13:11 states, “And when they bring you to trial and deliver you over, do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit.”  And most important, just as Moses was to tell them who God is, we are called to do the exact same.  If you don’t know what to say, do the simplest thing, tell them who Christ is, for we are not to preach anything but Christ crucified.  Not knowing what to say is not an excuse that we have.

The Third Excuse – How Are They to Know That You Sent Me?

The third excuse Moses presented to God is found in Exodus 4:1-9.

Then Moses answered, “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you.’ ” 2 The LORD said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.” 3 And he said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it. 4 But the LORD said to Moses, “Put out your hand and catch it by the tail”—so he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand— 5 “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.” 6 Again, the LORD said to him, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” And he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous like snow. 7 Then God 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 rest of his flesh. 8 “If they will not believe you,” God said, “or listen to the first sign, they may believe the latter sign. 9 If they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground, and the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.”

Moses’ third excuse shifted from “I cannot do it, because I am nobody” to “I cannot do it, because I don’t know what to say” to “I cannot do it, because they won’t believe that you sent me.”  He was running out of excuses and was desperately grasping for straws, so he went with the next logical issue that might come up – “They might ask me to prove that you talked to me.  How will I do that?”  This time God did not just respond with simple and clear words, He showed Moses His power.  He shared with Moses three different signs that he could perform to prove that God had spoken to Him and was calling Him to do this work.  The three signs included turning a staff into a serpent, turning a hand into a leprous hand, and turning the water of the Nile into blood.  These were three incredible miracles that could not be done simply with a wave of a hand.  There needed to be a great power behind it to pull something like that off, much less all three.  But God gave Moses all three of them to prove that he was sent by God.  If they questioned him, all he would have to do is show sign after sign and that would validate God’s calling him.  He had no excuse here.

We like Moses can also present that same excuse, “They may ask me to validate my credentials for sharing the Gospel.  They may ask me to prove that God has sent me and chosen me to do this work.  How will I do that?”  It’s pretty simple.  You live showing God’s work in your life.  To think that God took a wretched sinner as I am and put me here on the pulpit before you today; that is a miracle.  To think that God could take Nixon’s hatchet man and made him a key player in prison ministry; that is a miracle.  To think that God could take people who are immoral, greedy, conniving, judgmental, slanderous, and all other wicked things and make them pure and right before Him and before the world; that is a miracle.  Like Moses, we have the opportunity to show the world, the power of God by showing them what He has done for us.  There is no greater witness, no greater proof, no greater evidence of God’s calling you to His service than you living your life for Him.  What draws people away from God is not a lack of evidence but a lack of Christians truly living out their lives for Him.  We need to do that and display His power before we even speak.  The power of God is best seen not in the miracles of healing or provision but in the plan of salvation.  How He can turn a worthless lump of clay into something great is a miracle of epic proportions.  It is a “miracle of miracles.”  Once again, another excuse bites the dust.

The Fourth Excuse – How Am I Even Capable of Such a Task?

Moses was running out of room to run, so he went with his last ditch effort in Exodus 4:10-12:

But Moses said to the LORD, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.”  Then the LORD said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth?  Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind?  Is it not I, the LORD?  Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.”

Moses’ last ditch excuse was “How can I speak?  I don’t have that skill.”  Moses had tried everything in his arsenal from not being a person worthy enough to speak to not knowing what to say to not being able to prove that he was sent by God.  Now, he was left with his last chance, “I cannot do it, because I am not capable of such a task.”  God didn’t even waste time on this excuse, for He could clearly see that it was a last-ditch effort.  God went straight to another simple answer, “I made you.  I made everything.  I know if you are capable of doing it or not, and I will be with you to do it.”  God would not allow Moses to hide behind this petty lie, for it was likely a lie being that Moses was trained in the house of Pharaoh.  Moses was not afraid to speak when he first tried to free his people in Exodus 2.  Moses was not afraid to speak to God and give Him excuse after excuse.  Moses clearly could speak and wasn’t slow to do it.  God knew that and called Moses out on it.  God knew everything about Moses.  He formed him in his mother’s womb.  He planned for his life even before he was conceived.  God knew what Moses was and wasn’t capable of.  And even if Moses was not a silver-tongued orator, God gave him no wiggle room, for He said, “…I will be your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.”  God would be the speaker not Moses; all Moses needed to do was obey.

Like Moses, many of us have also tried this excuse with God – “I am not capable of doing what you called me to do,” to which God always answers, “I’m God.  I made you.  I know what you are capable of.  And even if you don’t have that skill set, I will fill that part in for you.”  Who are we to think that we know more than the God of the universe about ourselves?  People say, “No one knows you better than yourself.”  But that statement is completely wrong.  God knows you better.  He knows all the in’s and out’s of you.  And if you follow and obey Him, He will show you parts of you that you never dreamed could have been in there.  If you heard me share the Bible the first time, you would have likely came to the same conclusion that I had come to that day, “Preaching and teaching is not for me”; but surprisingly, God has taken me from a boy who cried about not saying the right words to a guy who is no longer afraid to make a fool of himself in front of you so that God may be glorified.  God has shown me that He knew me better than I knew myself.  He did that when I first left home for a summer internship in Boston.  I didn’t think I could survive alone, yet He took me there for two summers and even left me for a year in Maryland.  God did some amazing things that I didn’t even know I was capable of.  Just look at Lottie Moon.  She was a little nobody, a person that nobody thought would be capable of serving as a missionary to China; but with God’s blessing, she became one of the biggest foreign missionaries in Christian history lending her name to the Southern Baptist foreign mission fund.  Look at Gladys Aylward, a poor servant, who nobody also thought could become a missionary, but with God’s help, she helped saved dozens of children and even had a movie made about her life called The Inn of the Sixth Happiness.  God can do some amazing things, if we will just let Him be God in our lives.  God said that He would speak through us through His Spirit (Mark 13:11), so why don’t you let Him?

The Conclusion of the Matter

In the end of this whole conversation between God and Moses, Moses was left with one choice – obedience or disobedience.  Surprisingly, even after all of God’s rebuttals, Moses still answered with the stubbornness of Jonah, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.” (Ex. 4:13)  He was without excuse now; all Moses could do was come to the conclusion of the matter, “I don’t want to do it, so I won’t.”  Instead of obeying God whole-heartedly, he would rather go reluctantly, having Aaron do the speaking instead of him.  To this choice, God was angered, yet God never gave up on Moses but still continued to use him, eventually having a willing servant who would lead the people of Israel to the Promised Land.  It is just a sad ending for this conversation, for instead of obedience, Moses chose to rule his own heart.

Today, we are faced with that same choice.  You are without excuse now.  You say that you cannot share, because you are not anything special.  God has told you that He is with you and that doesn’t matter.  You say that you cannot share, because you don’t know what to say.  God has told you to share the simple Gospel truth you know as in 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 – Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, He was buried, and He was raised again according to the Scriptures.  You say that you cannot share, because you cannot prove that God has called you.  He has told you to live for Him and that is enough evidence.  You say that you cannot share, because you are not capable.  He has told you that He knows what you are capable of and everything else He will fill in.  What more excuse can you give Him?  That today is not the day to share?  Well, He has said that now is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2).  That you did not know that you needed to share?  Well, He has made that clear to you now and will not excuse you for it as stated in Proverbs 24:11-12.  You are without excuse, my friend.  If you are not His child, then turn to Him today for He wants you to be part of this glorious ministry, but you must first give your life to Him.  If you are already His disciple, you have been called to share the Gospel.  Do it today.  You have no excuse any longer.

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^[1] Henry, M. (1994). Matthew Henry’s commentary on the whole Bible: Complete and unabridged in one volume (99). Peabody: Hendrickson.

^[2] Strong, J. (2001). Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.