Exodus Week 3: No More Excuses
Read
Exodus 3:13-4:17
13 Then Moses asked God, “If I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what should I tell them?” 14 God replied to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.” 15 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the Israelites: The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is my name forever; this is how I am to be remembered in every generation. 16 “Go and assemble the elders of Israel and say to them: The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, has appeared to me and said: I have paid close attention to you and to what has been done to you in Egypt. 17 And I have promised you that I will bring you up from the misery of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, Hethites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey. 18 They will listen to what you say. Then you, along with the elders of Israel, must go to the king of Egypt and say to him: The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Now please let us go on a three-day trip into the wilderness so that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God. 19 “However, I know that the king of Egypt will not allow you to go, even under force from a strong hand. 20 But when I stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all my miracles that I will perform in it, after that, he will let you go. 21 And I will give these people such favor with the Egyptians that when you go, you will not go empty-handed. 22 Each woman will ask her neighbor and any woman staying in her house for silver and gold jewelry, and clothing, and you will put them on your sons and daughters. So, you will plunder the Egyptians.”
4 Moses answered, “What if they won’t believe me and will not obey me but say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?” 2 The Lord asked him, “What is that in your hand?” “A staff,” he replied. 3 “Throw it on the ground,” he said. So, Moses threw it on the ground, it became a snake, and he ran from it. 4 The Lord told Moses, “Stretch out your hand and grab it by the tail.” So, he stretched out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand. 5 “This will take place,” he continued, “so that they will believe that the Lord, the God of their ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.” 6 In addition the Lord said to him, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” So he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, his hand was diseased, resembling snow.[b] 7 “Put your hand back inside your cloak,” he said. So, he put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, it had again become like the rest of his skin. 8 “If they will not believe you and will not respond to the evidence of the first sign, they may believe the evidence of the second sign. 9 And if they don’t believe even these two signs or listen to what you say, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the Nile will become blood on the ground.” 10 But Moses replied to the Lord, “Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent—either in the past or recently or since you have been speaking to your servant—because my mouth and my tongue are sluggish.” 11 The Lord said to him, “Who placed a mouth on humans? Who makes a person mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now go! I will help you speak and I will teach you what to say.” 13 Moses said, “Please, Lord, send someone else.” 14 Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses, and he said, “Isn’t Aaron the Levite your brother? I know that he can speak well. And also, he is on his way now to meet you. He will rejoice when he sees you. 15 You will speak with him and tell him what to say. I will help both you and him to speak and will teach you both what to do. 16 He will speak to the people for you. He will serve as a mouth for you, and you will serve as God to him. 17 And take this staff in your hand that you will perform the signs with.”
Summary
I am too tired, it’s too late, it might rain, I rather watch a movie. Those are all excuses people have used to stay home from church and from Community Group. Welcome back to another week of Community. This week we find ourselves in Exodus chapter 3&4. This is week 3 of our Moses series and it is all about excuses.
This is one thing we can all relate to. I don’t think there is anyone watching that has not used an excuse to get out of doing something or going somewhere. Today we will be looking at all the ways Moses tried to get out of doing what God had called him to do.
God, you can’t use me because I don’t have the answers. That was his first excuse. It was a weak excuse because God never expected him to have the answers. God wanted Moses to realize that He (God) was the answer. As the old Carman song said, “the answer is Jesus, period”. Well here the answer was God, period. Moses needed to realize that if God was sending him, God would provide what he needed to accomplish what God wanted to accomplish.
The second excuse posed by Moses was, I don’t think they will believe me. That is actually a very good excuse because we as humans are prone to lying. Some may say that an excuse is a form of a lie. Again, Moses failed to realize who was sending him. God’s reply was, they don’t need to believe you, they need to believe Me. Believing God is a lot easier than believing Moses. Simply because, God does not lie!
His third excuse was, I don’t have what it takes. Of course, Moses didn’t have what it takes, if he did, the glory would have gone all to him. I remember Pastor Rex saying, “God doesn’t not call the equipped, He equips the called”. By doing this, all the glory goes to Him. Moses failed to realize, this is not your mission, it’s God mission. This is not your plan, it’s God plan. This will not be your victory; it will be God’s victory. So, stop making excuses!
Well, he should have stopped there, but he had one more. His final excuse was, there are others more qualified than me. God knew there were others more qualified than him. That’s why He chose him. He wanted to pick a person that when all was said and done, people would scratch their heads and say, “How did he do that”. The answer is, he didn’t. It would be obvious to all that there was someone else pulling the strings behind the scenes. Moses was not qualified, be he was called, and not by just anyone, he was being called by God.
When God asks us to do something, He has an answer for ever excuse you will throw His way. You will never have all the answers, people will not believe you, you don’t have what it takes, but if you are called, God will take care of all of that.
Discussion
Have you ever had to follow God even though you did not have all the answers? Share
Have people not believed you when you were doing what God has called you to do? Share
Do you ever feel you don’t have what it takes to serve where you are called to serve? Share
Have you ever told God to ask someone else? Share
Share a victory that came from obeying God, even when it did not make sense.
Announcements
A big SHOUT OUT to all the CG’s that participated in our Harvest Bash this week. The Lord allowed us to serve close to 4,000 people. Thank you for all your hard work, and for not making excuses!
I am looking to implement the next part of our CG Leadership Plan. We have over 40 CG’s and two new ones just started this week. I will be reaching out to 4 couples asking you to pray about being CG Coordinators. I want you to know that I am already praying for the ones the Lord calls. If He is calling you to serve, DON’T MAKE EXCUSES!
Let’s continue to pray for each other and send prayer requests through our WhatsApp thread. If you are a CG Leader and are not on our WhatsApp thread please contact Meichelle at meichelle.vasquez@bt.church
Pastor Isuaro Medina
Isauro.medina@bt.church
Cell: (956) 984-9380
