We want to thank you for listening to this week's sermon from Harvest Bible Chapel, Kansas City. We pray that you will be encouraged and challenged by God's Word today. If you would like more information about Harvest, please visit our website at www.harvestkansascity.org. up here of things moving and stuff, right? You guys like the new stage design? Pretty cool. I like it. I've been gone a little bit lately, so we were out of town and things, but I'm like, let's come back here and everything's different, you know? Seats and stage and I love it. Great stuff. So my name is Tim. I lead our student ministry here, if you didn't know that, and also our connected ministry, which is a lot of the things that happen on Sunday mornings. And it's been my pleasure over the last few years, this is my second year now giving the first message of the year, And I typically preach one message in January, just generally. But it's a unique honor, because what I get to do is set the stage and give you a charge, if you will, to get the year really going. And so that's what my goal is here this morning. Now, I love working with students. I love working in student ministry. And it's just the goofiness and the fun and the games and the passion and the life change and God getting a hold of a student's heart at a young age and seeing them be used for him is motivating. It's awesome, and that's why myself and so many leaders, we pour into students the way that we do. It's been 13 years I've been working in student ministry now, three years on full-time staff, 10 years as a volunteer, so that makes me sound a lot older than I actually am. I just started when I was like 19, so yeah. But one of the things about student ministry that I find funny at times is the excuses that I tend to receive. It's actually quite comical for why students miss youth group. So you can imagine, you know, I had to watch a football game, right? I had to do homework. You forget the two days before you could have done it, right? You know, I had a friend over. Bring your friend with, right? There's always a reason. And I love this one. I fell asleep. Like, we fell asleep? That's a good one. I forgot about youth group. I get it, okay. I forgot about youth group. Now, teenagers are not the only ones who give excuses. Now, they start getting practice as they grow up, right? But who are they learning from? They're learning from their parents who are experts in excuse-making, aren't they? You're like, yeah, I am. I'm an expert. So why do we offer excuses so readily and so easily? Why is that something that we tend to do? And I would venture to say that the excuses that we give are, they're a way of deflecting, they're a way of deflecting the reality that we don't want to deal with. It's a way of putting up a shield and saying, no, like, I don't want any part of that. It's a way of saying, of just literally saying, I don't want any part of that at all. And so today, we're going to be looking at the king of excuses, Moses. Moses is one of my favorite characters in scripture. We're gonna be in Exodus chapters three and four. If you're looking at the Bibles that are in the seats there, it's page 46, so if you want to go ahead and open up there. Exodus three and four. Now I say king of excuses because what you're going to see as we go through this message is that Moses gives the God of this universe five reasons, five excuses as to why he won't do what God wants in leading the people of Israel out of Egypt. He has five very craftily woven excuses. Now before we jump into these excuses, let's take a look at the context of why he was even giving them to begin with. So, that starts in the beginning of chapter 3. I'll read it there, starting in verse 1. It says, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And an angel of the Lord appeared to him in flame of fire out of the midst of a bush, and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, I will turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burned. When the Lord saw that he had turned aside, God called to him out of the bush, Moses, Moses. And he said, here I am. And then he said, do not come near. Take your sandals off your feet for the place on which you are standing is holy ground. And he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. and Moses hid his face and he was afraid to look at God. Then the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites. And now behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have seen the oppression of which the Egyptians oppress them." See, God says all these incredible things to Moses, and then he tells him his part in this. He's going to do all this, but then verse 10, come, I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. See, we see God calling Moses or telling Moses that he's going to complete a task for him. And the amazing thing is that God doesn't just tell him he's gonna complete a task. He tells him how it's going to happen. He tells him why it's happening. He tells him what's going to happen. He's getting a lot of information. You would think that we're receiving all of this information and this amazing display of this bush that's burning, the non-burning bush, right? We call it the burning bush, but it's really the non-burning bush, because it's not really burning. It's just on fire, but not burning. You think that those two things alone, like what God is saying and what's happening, would be enough to convince Moses that he's just going to go and he's not going to make any excuse whatsoever. But no, what do we see? Sadly, we see sadly, that he can't help but make excuses. And so we see our first excuse in verse 11 where it says, Moses saying to God, who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt? Who am I? Sounds like a Casting Crowd song, right? Excuse number one is that I'm not worthy. Excuse number one is I'm not worthy. This first excuse is aimed at Moses's lack of identity. He's struggling with who he is. He's questioning himself. How could he be the one to do this work? She doesn't like my message, I get it. In order to understand this excuse more fully, we need to think about kind of what Moses has been going through, who he's been for the last 40 years, then also take a couple steps back to the time period just before that as well. So in Exodus 2, we see this. So we see Moses living as a prince of Egypt. Awesome movie. Used to sing the songs as a kid. It's wonderful. Prince of Egypt. He finally starts to kind of understand who he is and the burdens. He starts to see the burdens and the oppression of his people and it starts to kind of weigh on him, right? And so in his zeal, in his emotional state, he takes matters into his own hands, and it says in verse 12 of chapter two, or in verse 12 of that chapter, that Moses is witnessing an Egyptian beating a Jewish slave, and then Moses, he kills the Egyptian. He takes matters into his own hands, which is so often what we do, right, when we don't like something? Takes matters into his own hands, he kills that taskmaster, and he hides the body. And see, this incident, it causes a chain reaction in the life of Moses where he has to flee for his life. He has to flee everything that he's known, all the people that he's been around, his family, his friends, everybody, he's gotta go. Otherwise, he's done for. So he flees to Midian. This incident, it's definitely got a shaping influence on Moses' life. He really had 40 years to think about the person that he killed, the people that he left behind, all that he had been and the position that he was in, all that he'd done, you would think that that would weigh on him in a heavy way, right? 40 years of tending sheep to think about it. I believe the guilt of this whole event was still really hanging over Moses' head and causing him to say 40 years later even that I'm not worthy. I can't do this. I'm not the guy. This man of former pride and status and leadership had been turned into nothing. He was a shepherd, which is a lower kind of class position. And not only that, he was working for his father-in-law, right? It's pretty bad. It's like a double whammy of shame. I'm sure father-in-laws were better back then, right? So let me ask you a question, though. In this state of weakness, don't you think that this is the way that God wanted Moses to be? Don't you think that this is the way that God desired for Moses to be? And I would venture to say yes. If we look at 1 Corinthians 1, 27 to 29, It says, but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even the things that are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. See, God knew that Moses would be in a humble state because of these circumstances. And in that humble state, he'd be able to give him the most glory through it. because it wouldn't be Moses doing the work, it would be God. This is a lesson that is all too often learned by those who desire to serve the Lord. You see Paul in 2 Corinthians talking about his thorn and all the things that he's dealing with and he's gone through and it's brought him to a state of weakness and reliance and surrender. Christ says through him, my grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness. Now I could relate to Moses' feelings of weakness and shame over the past. In 2009, I was coming off a period of some rebellion and sin and disobedience and I was heading down a destructive path. I was making wrong choices and I felt weak, I felt powerless, I felt really defined by who I was. I was defined by my sin. Even as a believer, I was living in that. When I was in the Dominican Republic in 2009, the Lord just love which washed over me. And I realized I'm not defined by who I was. I'm not defined by my sin. I'm not defined by my past. I'm a new creation. Some of you probably can relate to that. Maybe you don't feel worthy of being used by God. Maybe this is your primary excuse for you not going forward in something that you know that God has told you to do. And the truth is that you're not worthy, and neither am I. We are not worthy, but guess who's worthy? He is. He's worthy. And we find our strength in him. See, we see in verse 12, God responds to Moses. And he says, these are amazing words, but I will be with you. 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. See, there's no greater response that God can give to Moses and to us. I will be with you. It is God who goes before you. You don't need to live in the past. God's response overcomes Moses' excuse, and it overcomes our excuse, but Moses isn't done. He's got four more excuses. The next one we see is in verse 13. It says, 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? Excuse number two is that I'm not knowledgeable. I'm not knowledgeable. Moses doesn't know who's sending him, and he also doesn't know what to say about the one who is sending him. He truly just doesn't know. The key word there is know. He has a lack of knowledge. This is an excuse that really is defined by a lack of knowledge. So Moses first, we see him questioning himself, his worth, then he begins to question who God is. And God has to explain who he is first, and this he does in his response. He explains who he is. But Moses, he doesn't have a strong understanding of the character and the nature of God. He doesn't really have, he doesn't have that kind of understanding. He doesn't realize that God is an active God. He is involved with his people in a very loving and specific way. And he's not just like a being that's out there separate. He's actually and actively involved with us. And this is something that Moses is gonna understand maybe better than anybody, because he's gonna see things that Nobody else has seen later in his life. God responds again to Moses as he faithfully will in all of these five excuses, because he loves him so much, that his response to his lack of knowledge is perfect, it's full, it's kind, it's everything that Moses needs. I see this interaction generally as just much in the same way that a father will respond when his little girl comes to him and says, hey, why do bad people want to get in the house? Why do they want to do that? You have to explain it in a way that they understand the way that their little minds can get. Just like Moses, he had a little mind. He explains this in a way that Moses needs to know. He's simply to state to the elders of Israel that Yahweh himself has sent Moses. He gets a specific message for them, and he's given a specific message for Pharaoh as well. And he's given, again, he's given knowledge of what to say, but he's also given knowledge of what the future is really gonna hold. Moses needs a lot of information, right? And some of us need more information before we'll actually act. Moses is one of those people. He needs a lot of information, and he gets it. So Moses has a great excuse here, at least in his own mind, but really God is faithful and he answers him at every turn. And the reality is that God gives his people the knowledge and the words that they need at the time that they need it most. That's true in your life as well. When you need the words of God, when you need the words to say to a family member who's hurting or doesn't know Christ, you'll be given those words. John 14, 26 says, but the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Because of this, you and I have no excuse not to share Christ with those around us. A person may seem smarter, a person may seem like they've got it all together, but you could know, you could know that you've been given the words to speak and you could proclaim them faithfully. Now one very practical application of this idea of a lack of knowledge is to be a student of God's Word. That's the blessing that we have today. As you have that book sitting in your lap, we get to be a student of that Word. And I want to give you one specific way, and that's through the Harvest Theological Training Center, which is starting on January 16th. Sal LaFossa, one of our elders, who's an amazing, amazing man of God, he's going to be teaching this class. and it's to equip you, it's to give you greater tools in your tool belt. These are some of the topics he's going to be covering, which I thought was great. He's going to be covering inerrancy of the Bible, answering critics, knowing God personally, relating to the Trinity and God's attributes. Doesn't that sound like something you need to know more about? I would love it if we were filling this sanctuary up for something at 7.30 in the morning on a Saturday morning for Sal. That would be great. So if you want to have a greater knowledge of God's word, you need to study it, and this will be a great opportunity. And so, really, our lack of knowledge, your lack of knowledge, is no excuse. And so the third excuse that Moses unleashes is more of a statement than a question, and it happens in chapter four and verse one. He says, but behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, the Lord did not appear to you. So excuse number three is that I'm not believable. I'm not believable. He's dealt with his doubts about himself and some doubts about God. Now he's turning his doubts towards the people a little bit, but it's still related to him, because he doesn't think the people will believe him. He has thoughts in his mind like, they'll think I'm a fraud. They'll remember what I've done. I'm not believable. The thing that Moses is forgetting, or maybe purposely not listening to, which I'll come back to, is that God had already told him what was gonna happen. If you look at chapter three, verse 10, and also verse 18, he says that Israel will listen to his voice, and in verse 18, that Moses will bring the people out of Egypt. God's already said it. He's just not listening. You almost get a sense that Moses just wasn't actually, you know, there's a difference between hearing and listening, right? Like you hear something, it kind of hits your ears, but then it doesn't actually go in your head and you think about it. Moses is missing the point here. He's hearing it, but he's not actually listening. And I can imagine that some of you here are guilty of that. I know that I am. You know, where you literally, you think that, what you're saying is more important than what you're actually supposed to be dealing with. And a great representation of this is in the political debates. Is anybody watching those? Yeah? So you ever notice that when a candidate, like, they're asked a question by the moderator, and then they'll listen to that question and be like, well, that's an interesting question. And then they just talk about something completely different that's not even related to what the question was? It's so true. And now you'll notice it even more. I always find it funny, though. I'm like, come on, answer the question at least, you know, try to. But Moses is doing the same thing. It doesn't seem to matter what was just said to him. He has a point and he's trying to make it. Now this is a sanctifying process for Moses. He's really like, you're seeing the layers of the onion be peeled off as time goes on. We're seeing the issues and the problems and the things that Moses is dealing with, like in his heart, they're kind of coming to bear. God is getting below the surface. And one of my favorite verses that I like to pray, which is kind of a scary verse for me to pray, is Psalm 139, 23, 24. It says, search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. See if there's any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Like, any way that I'm grieving your heart, God, let me know. If there's a small area, if there's a big area, Wherever I'm grieving you, show me. See, as God draws us closer, he shows us the depth of our sin. He shows us the countless ways that we continually grieve his heart. And for Moses, his lack of faith grieves God's heart. Moses is struggling with a lack of faith, and it's Moses really asking throughout this excuse, will you really do what you say you will do? We do the same thing. Now, we could easily indict Moses, but it's because we see it in ourselves, right? We ask questions like, God, will you really light my path? I don't know where I'm going, I don't know what I'm doing. Will you really provide for me? I don't know what I'm going to do, I don't have a job, I don't know what's going on. Will you really speak through me when I share Christ with that person that doesn't want to hear it necessarily? Will you really let me not be tempted beyond what I can bear? That's a big one, right? because sometimes our sin feels so great and so overwhelming that we're like, I just, I can't seem to do this. That promise doesn't seem true because I cannot overcome this sin. That's what we tell ourselves, right? But is his word true? Is it right? Yes. See, this is the crossroads, ultimately, where your struggles, your temptations, your attitudes, they clash with God's faithful and truth-filled word, and one of them is going to win. Which one is it going to be? So your decision in that moment is going to show what you really believe about God and what you really believe about his word. See, at this point we see God respond to Moses again and again. And so Moses is given various signs. And as Pastor Jeff has mentioned while going through the book of Acts, signs are given to really validate God's word. And so Moses is given three. He's given a staff that will turn into a serpent. He's given a hand he can kind of, you know, put in his jacket and out comes leprosy. And then, you know, he's got, he could turn water into blood, basically. These are to validate God's word. Now we are not given signs like these, but we are given other tools, other ways that we could share and proclaim the reality of God changing us. And that's our testimony. Your testimony of faith is your personal story of how Christ has come down in your life and in power changed you into the person that you are. We need to share that story. That's the greatest story that you can tell. It's a story of everything. It's how you become who you are. We have to share it, we have to use it. And when we proclaim his word and our testimony, people may respond in unbelief. They may not believe you still. They may say the Lord didn't appear to you. But, but God will know that you're being faithful. And that's what we're called to be, is faithful. The fourth excuse that we'll jump into here is maybe Moses' greatest fear. This is a scary thing for him, and it's in verse 10 of chapter four. Moses says 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. Excuse number four is, I'm not skilled. I'm not skilled. The word eloquent simply means man of words. Moses is stating that he's really never had much to say. He's never been a person who speaks very poetically or with a beautiful rhetoric. He doesn't speak in haiku like some of you maybe do, right? That's not Moses. And eloquence in general just has a very special place in Egyptian culture. They really revere people that can speak eloquently. And Moses has fear about that. His lack of skill in speaking caused something called glossophobia for Moses. This is my hypothesis, anyway. Glossophobia is fear of speaking. It comes from the word, well, glosso is tongue and phobia is fear, something like that, right? Glossophobia, it's speech anxiety expressed in either a fear of public speaking or of speaking in general. I found this interesting that 75% of people struggle with this fear, fear of public speaking. Some of you are like, yes, I do. I'm so scared of speaking publicly, right? Some of you do, but to the point where it's even considered by some to be more frightening than drowning or than snakes. Really scary, right? Moses is, he has a fear of speaking for some reason. Now commentators are divided on what that reason actually is because there's a few different, it's not incredibly clear. Some think it's because he had a stuttering going on of some sort. or maybe it was just the lack of social interaction. I mean, think about it. He's been hanging out in the wilderness with the sheep for 40 years, so, I mean, he's got his family, but I'm like, you're just hanging out there with the sheep? You're kind of always with them? He doesn't have a lot, like, he probably speaks sheep, right, if that's a language? It could be that. It could be just that he really didn't do well when he actually spoke Egyptian. Maybe he wasn't very eloquent when he was familiar with the language, let alone the fact that he hasn't been speaking Egyptian whatsoever. So there's a lot of different reasons why he could be suffering or thinking about this in the way that he is. But he just doesn't feel ultimately that he could be used as God's mouthpiece. This is really striking at the core of some of his insecurity. He doesn't think he could be used because of this. I would imagine this excuse is a big one for many of you. I know that many men have problems expressing their feelings and their thoughts through their mouths, right? Ladies are like, yep, it's my guy, you know. It's an easy thing to struggle with, right? Now, maybe this is not your struggle, per se. Like, you don't struggle with speaking. Maybe it's something else. Maybe it's some other form or some other skill. Maybe you're just not creative enough. You're not thorough enough. You're not a good encourager. You're not merciful. You struggle in one-on-one relationships. You don't work well in groups. You struggle in conflict. You don't listen. You can't make decisions well. Hopefully not all of those, I imagine. Hopefully I'm not describing one person specifically, right? But there's any number of skills that could be your excuse, but you have to really just, like, what's yours? What's the thing that I'm just, I stink at this, and this is holding me back? What causes you to retreat when you know that God has something bigger for you? The amazing thing is that God responds to Moses yet again in verse 11. He says, who has made man's mouth? A very rhetorical question. Who makes him mute or deaf or seeing or blind? Is it not I the Lord? Now go and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak. God promises his help in two different ways, and I love this, especially because I speak all the time, publicly, but it's, he says, I will be with your mouth. I will be with your mouth. And not only that, I will teach you what to speak. Those are two amazing truths, right? He's not only going to be with him, as he's promised before, like he will be with him, he will be with his mouth, and he will speak through him, he will teach him what to say. That's amazing. Peter ends in his commentary in Exodus, talks about how whatever the problem, legitimate or illegitimate, with Moses, it is not enough to deflect God from his path of action. The Lord directs the mouth, ears, and eyes. Moses' speech problem is hardly a challenge. Your and my lack of skills is hardly a challenge for the God of this universe. He simply calls you to be faithful and to go. Again, Peter ends stating, I love that. You'll be adequately prepared for the work that God has for you. Ephesians 2.10 backs this up. It says, For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Isn't that an encouraging truth? Like that God actually knows the works that we're going to be doing and he prepares beforehand and then we walk in them in the preparation he's provided. I love that. So at this point, Moses really oversteps his boundaries into his last excuse, and it's not even so much an excuse as it is just a statement, a brash statement in excuse number five. And he says in verse 13, oh my Lord, please send someone else. This last excuse, number five, is that I'm not willing. I'm not willing. See, Moses is now in a bit of a desperation mode, if you will. His previous four excuses have failed miserably. God is answering him at every turn with the things that he needs to hear. But now Moses' fear, his frustration, his stubbornness, it kind of all boils over into this one defiant statement. Send someone else, just not me. Moses' real motive finally shows up, and that he simply has a lack of desire. He just doesn't want to do it. It's been the real issue this whole time, really, if you think about it. If you think about the previous four excuses, they've really just been excuses for the real excuse, which is, I just don't want to do it. Now at this point, God has been patient, he's been reassuring, and I think he's even patient and reassuring in what I'm about to share, but at this point, anger is God's response. God gets angry at Moses, rightfully so. Now God's anger is often misunderstood. In our day, we think of God's anger from a human perspective, but what we need to think about is it from a holy perspective. We need to think about it in terms of God's anger is perfect, it's righteous, it's just, it's deserved, it's loving. We don't often think of God's anger and his love combined, but he's lovingly angry here. The Got Questions site in response to this idea of God's anger states that, God gets angry at the wickedness in people, and he opposes that wickedness in an effort to turn them from evil, that they may find true life and freedom in him. Even in his anger, God's motivation is love for his people, to restore the relationship that sin has destroyed. I think that's great. Even in the midst of God's anger, you can still see the amazing love that God has for Moses. I'll go ahead and read it. So the anger of the Lord is kindled against Moses. And he says, Isn't that amazing that Aaron is on the way there, right? Moses is having this excuse before God, but Aaron is already on the way there. God already knows that he's gonna have this problem. He already is dealing with Moses' excuse by sending a helper. He sends Aaron, the man who could speak for him, speak with him. I think that's awesome that even in the midst of God's anger, he's still lovingly reassuring to Moses, I'll send somebody with you. Moses has nothing to say at this point, and really neither should we. And I don't know about you, but I see so much of myself in Moses. I see my own stubbornness, my own excuses that I make for why I don't do what God wants me to do. See, it's just easier to make up an excuse, to put up that shield, if you will, rather than deal with our own issues of pride and stubbornness and lack of love and selfishness. For Moses, the excuses, they finally end, finally, and you know the rest of the story, don't you? He's used powerfully. He sees things that no one has ever seen. He speaks to God as like a man speaks to his friend. He sees the glory of the Lord. Moses has a special relationship with God. and God was so faithful to him, he finally stops fighting God, and this is the key word, he surrenders. He surrenders. Think about that word, surrender. It's unconditional. We have to stop making conditions for our surrender, don't we? Like, Lord, I'll follow you, Let me do this first. Go ahead and bow your heads. Just listen, I have a question for you and a few statements. What is causing you to say no to God? What is causing you to say no to God? Is it a lack of worth, of knowledge, faith, skill, desire? Maybe even right now you sense the holy and righteous loving anger of God over you. Maybe you've been making excuses for a person in your life that you know that relationship needs to change. Maybe you need to have a conversation with somebody. Maybe you have a sin issue that you need to deal with. Or maybe simply you just need to surrender your life to Christ for the first time. Hear this, that he loves you and he wants you to stop making excuses. He wants you to respond simply with the words, here I am, Lord, send me. God, may we say those words. We say those together, Lord, here I am, send me. Here are we, send us. God, I pray that you would use this church, Lord, that we would not be stuck in ourselves, God, but you would use us as your hands and your feet and your mouthpiece, God, and that you would teach us the words to say, Lord, I pray that 2016 would be a new year, genuinely, not just in one that we're going to say is a new year, but an actual new year where we stop making excuses for areas of weakness in our lives and we deal with them, God, because you are with us and because you will give us the words. Lord, we bless you and we thank you for your word. We thank you for the fact that you cut to the heart and you get to the real issues that are at hand in our lives. Lord, may we deal with that accordingly. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.