Don't Live By Excuses
Doing Hard Things • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Introduction
We all have an excuse for something in life.
We have all been in a situation where we were asked why we did something or acted as we did and then given what we knew was an excuse but claimed was a reason.
Like getting pulled over for speeding and asked why we were going so fast.
Very seldom do we just say because I wanted too which is the main reason, no there is usually an excuse that we say.
Like, “I didn’t realize I was” or “I wasn’t speeding” or “I didn’t do anything wrong.”
All excuses.
We all know the saying that says “excuses are like belly buttons, we all have one and no one wants to see it.” There is another version of this saying that is even more fitting but I will not say it in mixed company, but most of you know it.
Excuses are the easy way out of something. We many times would rather take the easy way over the right/hard way.
Like Chuck Swindoll said about excuses and us using the word can’t over won’t,
Can’t and won’t. Christians need to be very careful which one they choose. It seems that we prefer to use can’t.
“I just can’t get along with my wife.”
“My husband and I can’t communicate.”
“I can’t discipline the kids like I should.”
“I just can’t give up the affair I’m having.”
“I can’t stop overeating.”
“I can’t find the time to pray.”
“I can’t quit gossiping.”
No, any Christian who takes the Scriptures seriously will have to confess the word really should be won’t. Why? Because we have been given the power, the ability to overcome. Literally!
Frank Minirth and Paul Meier. “As psychiatrists we cringe whenever [Christian] patients use the word can’t.… Any good psychiatrist knows that ‘I can’t’ and ‘I’ve tried’ are merely lame excuses. We insist that our patients be honest with themselves and use language that expresses the reality of the situation. So we have our patients change their can’ts to won’ts.… If an individual changes all his can’ts to won’ts, he stops avoiding the truth, quits deceiving himself, and starts living in reality.…”
“I just won’t get along with my wife.”
“My husband and I won’t communicate.”
“I won’t discipline the kids like I should.”
“I just won’t give up the affair I’m having.”
“I won’t stop overeating.”
“I won’t find the time to pray.”
“I won’t quit gossiping.”
The sooner we are willing to own up realistically to our responsibility and stop playing the blame game at pity parties for ourselves, the more we’ll learn and change and the less we’ll burn and blame. (Charles R. Swindoll, 188–189).
We will examine a man today who basically should have said, “I don’t want to” or “I won’t go because I don’t want to.” But he made excuses.
We will look at Moses and what he did when he was called by God from the burning bush to go to Egypt and deliver the Israelite’s.
Moses first said to God...
I Am A Nobody
I Am A Nobody
We see this in
10 Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” 11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” 12 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.”
Yes, this is true, Moses was a nobody. He was just a man that God was about to use mightily.
Think, Moses was born into a nation that did not want him to live.
His mother sent him down stream and he was discovered by a lady of the nation that wanted to destroy him.
He was then nursed by his mother only to be given to the nation that wanted him dead.
He then killed a guy for harming his people.
Then he was ridiculed by those people and threatened to be turned in.
He fled because he was wanted for murder.
He was rejected and did not fit in. He was a nobody.
But God uses nobodies because God is the only somebody any one should see and look to.
Look at what God told Moses, He said I will be with you.
He did not tell Moses to Cheer up and believe in himself.
No, God said I will be with you.
He tells you the same thing in your doubts.
He tells you that self-confidence will fail you but I God will not.
As a pastor I know said,
“The cry from the people is far too often, I’m not strong enough for God to use me.” When, “The cry from the heavens is, You’re not weak enough for me to use you.”
“The cry from the people is far too often, I’m not strong enough for God to use me.” When, “The cry from the heavens is, You’re not weak enough for me to use you.”
When we make excuses we are looking to what we are capable of.
Stop doing that and be weak enough for God to use you.
Because if you still look at what you can do we will make the next excuse like Moses did.
I Don’t Know You Well Enough
I Don’t Know You Well Enough
In this section we read,
13 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.” ’ 18 And they will listen to your voice, and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; and now, please let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.’ 19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. 20 So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it; after that he will let you go.
Moses knew God but felt inadequate.
He was worried he did not know God well enough to go and tell these people that God sent him to be their deliverer.
He was worried they would not believe.
He feared failing, even though God just told him He would be with him.
Maybe you know God but don’t really know Him.
Maybe you worry about going out without knowing what you should do.
Maybe you fear speaking about God because of your lack of knowing Him.
Here in this section is one place Moses’s excuse led to him ask more of God.
When he did this God revealed more to him. He told him His name. That He is the God who does not change.
I am who I am means that what He has promised to people will happen.
You have this same God with you.
He is your God and He is with you.
He will give you what you need and show you what He needs you to do.
Trust Him and don’t say I can’t meaning I won’t because you are afraid.
Go and let the Promise Keeping God guide you because He will.
If you do not then you too will be like Moses and make this excuse...
The People Won’t Believe Me
The People Won’t Believe Me
We read this one in,
1 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.”
What this boils down to is that Moses didn’t believe.
He doubted God, he doubted that God would lead the way and do what He has said.
Moses doubted and then God demonstrated His power through these signs in this section.
Maybe you struggle with if people will believe you.
Maybe you think they will outsmart you or say something you do not know how to answer.
Maybe you struggle with going out to people because, lets face it, people can be mean and rude and exasperating.
You still have God with you.
You still have the same God that turned the Nile to blood, brought locusts in, sent intense fire and hail, brought boils to the people, made it dark, filled the homes with frogs, and took the first born.
That God is with you today, why fear?
He is with you and He will impact people, not you.
His Word will not return to Him void.
Just go to the people and tell them about the Lord.
Trust Him not yourself because as said earlier, we are not ever strong enough but need to be weak enough for the Lord to use us.
Because if we do not get to this point we too will be like Moses and say...
I Can’t Talk
I Can’t Talk
In this section we read,
10 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.” 11 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? 12 Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.”
Moses doubted God could use a stutterer, his hillbilly accent, his lack of vocabulary, his simple word use, his monotone, or whatever other speech issue you can think of.
I have read somewhere that the majority of people fear speaking publicly more than they fear death.
Dying is less a fear than public speaking, and we carry this fear into our daily conversations with people when it gets to sharing the gospel.
Moses feared this more than God, I would venture to say that many of us are like Moses.
But we need to hear what God told Moses, “Who made man’s mouth?”
God did and since He did He can use whatever speech impediment we think we have.
He will take what we think is an impossibility and use it to His glory.
Remember He is with you. He made you. He made your mouth.
He is more than capable to use you and what you fear to His advantage, if we will simply submit to Him over our desires and fears.
Because if we do not then we will finally get to the reason, we don’t want to do it. We won’t go and we say...
Another Can Do Better
Another Can Do Better
In this section we read
13 But he said, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.” 14 Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses and he said, “Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? 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. 15 You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and will teach you both what to do. 16 He shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth, and you shall be as God to him. 17 And take in your hand this staff, with which you shall do the signs.”
Moses still doubted and wanted out of this obligation.
Moses did not want to go.
He was not saying I can’t anymore but I won’t send another.
Send someone eloquent and polished.
God said no.
No Moses you are going. You are my man because in you through all your weaknesses my power will shine bright.
Maybe you feel the same as Moses.
Maybe you really wish God would send another person to share the gospel with that coworker, family member, friend, or spouse.
But He has you where you are to be the voice.
You see Moses made God angry here.
He was saying I won’t go, so God in His holy anger gave Moses what he wanted.
He gave him Aaron his brother.
But, Aaron was the one who allowed the golden calf to happen, Aaron tried to overthrow Moses, Aaron was a burden more than a helper in many ways.
What this teaches us is that when God in His holy anger gives us what we selfishly want, that gift is usually not a blessing but a punishment.
Aaron caused a lot of grief to Moses that would not have been there if Moses would have just done what God said to begin with.
The easy way leads to more grief in the end over the hard way.
The hard way, the right way, may start hard but will become easier as we go because we are trusting God and letting God do the work He has for us.
God has a plan and purpose for you.
Yes, it will be hard.
Yes, it may be painful.
Yes, it may be one of your fears.
But just as God would not let Moses go because he did not want to do it, neither will He stop calling you to go and proclaim the gospel to all.
Moses finally moved from can’t to won’t to seeing he was avoiding the truth and deceiving himself to taking courage in the Lord, trusting God, and started walking in the direction God had set for him.
You can do the same thing in this life now.
God has you where you are for a purpose.
He has you working where you are for a reason.
He has you where you are so you can glorify His name to those you are around.
And you can do this because He is with you just as much as He was with Moses.
Be weak so He can use you.
Recognize that self-confidence will fail you but the Lord never will.
Jesus promised the disciples to be with them but He also said He would be with us when He said until the end of the age.
Jesus has saved you and He has called you like Moses was called to go free those who are captive.
Trust Jesus Christ your savior and go into the world, go into the Egypt that is holding so many captive and bring them into freedom through the glorious gospel of grace.
You can do this in spite of all your fears because the Lord is with you.
It is Him working not you, so go and glorify His name in all you do.
Conclusion
Too often we are like
Lawyer and statesman Daniel Webster who was a powerful orator who gave early evidence of his quick mind and way with words. One day Webster's father, who was to be absent from home, left Daniel and his brother Ezekiel specific work instructions. But on his return he found the task still undone, and questioned his sons about their idleness. "What have you been doing, Ezekiel?" he asked. "Nothing, sir." "Well, Daniel, what have you been doing?" "Helping Zeke, sir."
“Helping Zeke.”
This is what many of us do rather than going and doing the work we have to do.
We make the excuse that so-and-so isn’t so I don’t need to, but that is living by excuses.
Lets stop making excuses and stop living by excuses and be open to what the Lord has for us to do.
Remember that the Lord is with you if you are His.
If you are not in Christ, sealed by the Spirit, have everlasting life in Christ, then God is not going to use you but He is calling those of you who are saved to go to the one who is not.
Go and glorify God and Don’t Live by Excuses any longer.
Christ is in you and since He is, you have all you need to be an agent of change in this rotten world.