SBC Philippi
10/31/04 am
God Calls Moses
Exodus 3:1-12
This morning, we are looking at a man named Moses and his encounter with God. As we look at this passage, we want to remember that just as God called Moses, he also calls us to tasks that He has designed for us. God is in the process of equipping each one of us uniquely for the tasks that he has assigned to us. Just as Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Read Scripture)
I. God calls out to Moses by name v.4. Moses is walking along with some sheep and goats just as he has been doing for the past 40 years. He sees a bush burning up which wasn’t all that unusual in that area. Quartz crysals were there in abundance and at times the suns rays would reflect off these crystals to reflect and burn the tender leaves off of the bushes. Yet, this bush was not being consumed by the heat v.2. So, Moses attention is diverted for a moment to see what is happening with the bush.
Many of us are like Moses at this point in his life. He has settled into a comfortable routine. He isn’t expecting God to speak to him. At this point God hasn’t spoken in 400 years. He is busy with his own tasks. So, God has to do something to divert his attention, so that he can get his attention. This is the problem with many Christians these days, they are so busy that their attention has been diverted to other things besides God. God wants to speak, but He wants us to listen. Jamie Buckingham has said about this “The tragedy of our wilderness experience is not that we have to go through grief and suffering- but that we often miss the blessings from burning bushes.-the things through which God speaks. God still calls us by name and make His eternal purposes known.” (A Way in the Wilderness, Jamie Buckingham, pg.36)
II. God calls Moses to a great task. V.7-10 God reveals using some very personal statements that he has “seen”, “I am aware” and “I have come down” to say to Moses that he is going to respond to the needs of his people. God told Abraham that this day would come.
Back in Genesis 15:13-14 it says, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years. But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve; and afterward they will come out with many possessions.” So, this had been a part of the plan of God from the very beginning. Now, Moses has the honor of being used by God to fulfill this word. He is not going to be the deliverer, but to be used by the deliverer. God is calling Moses as Henry Blackaby says, to a God sized tasks. It is a task that without God at work through Moses that Moses will be unable to fulfill. It is a task that requires for Moses to take a step of faith.
III. God calls Moses to step out on faith. V.11. Moses tries several times to argue his way out of this calling. He doesn’t believe that he is the right man nor that he has the ability to do what God called him to do. But, God called Moses by name. God had been equipping Moses for a task that he was now ready to assume. Perhaps Moses didn’t really believe he was capable as a lowly shepherd to respond to God’s call. But, God knew what was in Moses better than he knew himself. He knows you also.
Psalm 139:2-3 says, “thou dost know when I sit down and when I rise up, Thou dost understand my thought from afar. Thou dost scrutinize my path and my lying down, and art intimately acquainted with all my ways.”
God’s answer to Moses was that he would not go it alone. He says in v.12 that “Certainly I will be with you. . .” If that was true for Moses how much more true for us. As a believer, I have the Holy Spirit to equip and empower me. Jesus said in John 14:16,18 “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”
God calls us today to God sized tasks uniquely designed just for you. We can resist our call just as Moses did and even chose to deny Him. But, the abundant life that God calls us to is not meant to be lived on the sideline. God calls us to take steps of faith with Him and to trust Him. He goes with us when we yield ourselves to Him and works through us.
