Exodus: The Call

Right now, I’m finishing sheet rock. I’ve been working on it for a while now because I don’t get over as much as I’d like. But I’m chipping away at it. I've got just about all of it finished but the ceiling.

Now, it’s not perfect, but it’s close. I mean seriously. In our house, the walls are flat as a prairie....I figure there are a bunch of people who can do that. But wouldn’t it be cooler to have textured walls? I mean if our walls had these gradual curves, that would be fantastic.

To tell the truth, I know my work isn’t to the level that Michelle would accept in our home. But, i tell her these walls are works of art. They are one of a kind.

Seriously though, finishing sheet rock takes a lot of practice. I’ll probably get decent by the time I finish. But that’s ok with me.

I don’t mind trying things as long as I have somebody on video that I can watch any time to walk me through it.

To be honest though, I’d much rather have a friend who is a sheet rock guy come over and walk me through it, be available to help me when I get into difficulty.

I’d be more confident in my work if someone was with me.

Are you the same way?

Do you get boldness when others are with you? When you aren’t alone?

I bet you are. IF the person next to you would go with you, then you would probably go…

I bet you are the same. IF the person next to you would go with you, then you would probably go…

A new place

A new adventure

You might try to break an old habit if you weren't’ alone.

Why is it that we get such strength and confidence when someone is with us? You know what I mean, when someone is with us, we will try all sorts of things that we most likely wouldn’t do alone.

I guess it’s because but now imagine this...

A new adventure

a new habit

I think a lot of times, it helps to have someone with us because we aren't sure of the outcome. We figure: If things go bad, at least we won’t be alone.

I think a lot of times, it helps to have someone with us because we aren't sure of the outcome. If things go bad, at least we won’t be alone.

We are going to see that exactly what we have when God calls us. WE get and assurance that God will be with us and his call is a sign that God can accomplish the work.

What would you do if you were confident God was with you?

So here is my question. What if you knew the outcome? How would that change things? Then what might you try to accomplish?

We are going to see that exactly what we have when God calls us. WE get and assurance that God will be with us and his call is a sign that God can accomplish the work.

What would you do, or what might you attempt if you were confident that God was with you?

Truth

This is exactly what we see Moses wrestling with when God calls him in Chapter 3 of Exodus.

It started out as just another day at work for Moses.

He has accepted his place in Midian. He was at first a stranger in the land…the name of his first son. But soon after another son arrived and his name was Eliezer, which is Hebrew for God is help.

Exodus 3:1–6 NIV84

Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.” When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.” “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

It started out as just another day at work for Moses.

He has accepted his place in Midian. He was at first a stranger in the land…the name of his first son. But soon after another son arrived and his name was Eliezer, which is Hebrew for God is help.

Exodus 3:1-6It’s just another day at work for Moses.

God calls in the everyday of life

He has accepted his place in Midian. He was at first a stranger in the land…the name of his first son. But soon after another son arrived and his name was Eliezer, which is Hebrew for God is help.

Moses has found his faith in God restored in the everyday life of a shepherd, far from a prince in Egypt. But it is right here in the everyday, humdrum, “regular” life that God calls him.

God calls in the everyday of life.

Often times, God makes himself known in everyday experiences.

When God shows up in the ordinary, it becomes the extraordinary. For God extraordinary is normal.

In Moses’s life, the circumstances of his birth were for sure extraordinary, but he was more of a participant in that. He didn’t experience it even though he was there.

That's why God often uses the extraordinary, to get our attention.

God calls when he has our attention.

For Moses it came in the burning bush.

We see that God has his attention because he went to see this thing. We see that he heard the Lord’s voice and remove his shoes…then knowing this was God he hid his face.

God can use anything to get our attention.

Miracles: For many it is the birth of a child

Blessings: A few it might be good fortune; wealth

Tragedy: For most of us. Illness, death, conviction, brokenness.

You see, when God has our attention, we change our posture.

It’s hard to be like Joe cool when you are in the presence of the creator of the universe. That's why we kneel…that’s why we lay down to pray. That's why some folks lift their hands when they sing praises…that’s why some folks bow their heads and others lift their faces to heaven.

God's presence, when we recognize it, humbles us and that leads us to change our posture because He has captured our attention.

Then we can hear God calling us. God may have been calling us for years, but he hadn’t grabbed our attention. But now he has it.

God may have your attention right now.

We pick it up in vs 7

Exodus 3:7–9 NIV84

Exodus 3:7-

Exodus 3:7–12 NIV84

The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”

This isn’t news. We talked about last week. God’s purpose all along was to rescue his people. He had heard their cries and moved to call a deliverer.

God’s call aligns with His heart.

His heart to redeem his people, to set them free.

But God doesn’t just want to deliver them from Egypt, he wants to deliver them to the promised land.

That's consistent with who God is.

So we can trust that God will call us from those things that are against us and to those things that are in keeping with his heart. Things that are good and right…for our eternal well being. We can trust this.

God calls in keeping with his purpose....his will.

God won’t call us to anything that isn’t good and right.

God will never call us to sin, he will always call his people from sin..

God won’t call us to have an affair but to faithfulness. Never to manipulate a customer but always to serve. Why? Because that is his character.

The same holds true for us as a church. God won’t ask the people of God to do things that aren’t in keeping with his purpose for his church. He won’t call us to be a club…or a BBQ joint. Because we are the church. He calls us to be a place of his peace and healing. Not a country club. He will never lead us to do anything that doesn’t glorify Him, but he will always call us from those things that are out of line with his purpose of making disciples.

Just as God calls the church to build up and send out as disciples, so he sends Moses:

Exodus 3:10 NIV84

So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

Exodus 3:1

God’s call aligns with our SHAPE.

God's call aligns with our SHAPE

We saw this last week Moses was shaped to be God’s deliverer…he just needed the calling that he is now hearing. He had the spiritual gifts, the heart, the abilities, the personality, and experience that made him a deliverer.

We are called to respond

Now God called him to Go and deliver.

But must altar our approach

We know, because we read it last week; that Pharaoh is dead, but we don’t know if Moses knows. So he is a bit anxious. Maybe even a little in awe that God would ask him after his last failure.

That’s a powerful reality for us today, God doesn’t call us to go anywhere that he isn’t planning to go with us.

Now knowing that should be a game changer for Moses right.

I asked earlier, what would you do if you were confident that God was with you? Well look what Moses did.

Exodus 3:11 NIV84

But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

Exodus 3:11

That’s a normal response right, God, Do you know who I am? The people sure do. They already rejected me as leader once. Are you sure you want to use me?

Maybe your response is: Don’t you know how I used to doubt you lord? Don't you know how I have struggled with I lust, or gossip, or how greedy I have been or how prideful people know me to be?

God says yes Moses, I know who you you used to be…but more than that, I know who I AM.

The apostle Paul said it this way.

Philippians 3:13–14 NIV84

Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

We can’t change our past, but when God calls us, it is an opportunity to be faithful again.

That’s why:

God’s call is an opportunity to be faithful.

When God calls it truly is a second chance. Its God saying I’m not finished with you yet. I have more for you. You aren’t done.

Get back in there.

Moses was 80 years old.

Moses had all kinds of doubts …We are going to talk more about what all Moses was doing here next week, so I hope you can come back for that, but look at this. Moses says, who am I.

Exodus 3:12–14 NIV84

And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.” Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ”

Moses is reluctant.

But this time God says, I will be with you.

Moses is reluctant.

We do this with God's call on our lives too.

Whether it is the call of God to become part of his family, to trust in Christ for salvation that so many people question and doubt. We wonder how people can not just accept God’s call to surrender their lives.

We wonder that in one breath and then in the next we doubt or question God’s call on our lives to go and make disciples or to introduce ourselves to someone, or to pray with someone suffering, or tell someone about Jesus, or even invite someone to church. We doubt it…we question it…we argue with it.

But then we doubt or question God’s call on our lives to go and make disciples or to introduce ourselves to someone, or to pray with someone suffering, or tell someone about Jesus, or even invite someone to church. WE doubt it…we question it…we argue with it.

Just like God knew Moses and his fears, he knows ours. That’s why the call is an opportunity. It’s an opportunity for us to trust Him.

Many of us though hear and respond to Gods call to join the family of God.

It’s an opportunity for us to accept and be faithful to God’s call. Moses had to go for there to be a story here. Same in our lives, we have to say yes lord....then go. its an opportunity.

Then God presents us with a second call, to join in Kingdom work.

The call of God is a promise of His power to accomplish the work.

He goes on in the chapter 3

But for God it is a promise; a a sign or a witness of his power to accomplish the work…that he calls us to.

The call of God is a promise of His power to accomplish the work.

No way could Moses deliver the people all by himself, but with God.

In the close of chapter 3 to tell how Moses will call the elders of Israel who rejected you earlier…and they will listen to you.

Moses You will then go to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, from whom you are a fugitive…He won’t listen to you Moses, but don’t worry, I will be with you.

Then Moses when he finally lets you go, They will give you gold and gifts on your way out.

With Moses alone, this was impossible. But as tells us, with God all things are possible.

these things were possible

You see, God promised to be with him and then gave him a picture of the outcome.

God also knows what he is doing with Moses and he knows what he is doing with us.

Same for us:

John 15:5 NIV84

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

John 15:15 NIV84

I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.

Jesus gave us a picture of our faithfulness to God’s call will look like

Jesus gave us a picture of our faithfulness to God’s call as well.

We have been called.

that the faithfulness of Moses can bring about the redemption of His people.

But he doesn’t know how we will respond.

2 Timothy 1:8–9 NIV84

So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, who has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time,

For example, as Wesleyan Methodists, we understand the grace of God working in our lives differently in different seasons of our life. For instance, before we know Christ, God is at work. It’s what we know as prevenient grace. It’s God's love drawing us, wooing us in to a relationship with him. But many people turn away. But just because many people turn away doesn’t diminish that God’s call is real.

1 Timothy 1:8-9

We often doubt or deny

The call of God is very real.

Just like God told Moses how he would use his obedience to redeem his people, in the same way, he promises us, when we obey his call, he redeems us.

The call is an opportunity.

But when God aligns his purpose, our shape and the opportunity to call us Just like the call to faith. What we know as prevenient grace

One of the times Jesus called us was in his sermon on the mount:

Matt 5:13-

But he it’s up to us to accept the call.

That's what he reveals to Moses in the rest of Chapter 3.

Called to trust in God’s saving work offered to us in Christ. Some of you have been called to things that you don’t see any way it can work out. That’s exactly right, but God can work it out.

Matthew 4:1–16 NIV84

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’” Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him. When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he returned to Galilee. Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali— to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah: “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea, along the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles— the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.”

Matthew 5:14–16 NIV84

“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

Matthew 5:13–16 NIV84

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

Called to trust in God’s saving work offered to us in Christ. Some of you have been called to things that you don’t see any way it can work out. That’s exactly right, but God can work it out.

His call is a promise that he has the power to accomplish it…even though you don’t think you can…he can.

The call to deliver the people was way beyond Moses’s ability, but with God, it would be a reality. You see how the call was a promise of God’s power to accomplish it?

The same way for us today.

The call of God is a promise of His power to accomplish the work.

I mean, most of us understand we fall short. WE understand how we have this but we fall short. We can’t be satisfied on earth. But God says, He can satisfy. God promises that he can deliver contentment, peace, forgiveness, love hope and joy.

Those are big promises that will be ours if we are faithfully obedient to his call on us to surrender our lives to God. That when we place Jesus as the Lord of our lives, we will experience the fruit of God’s Spirit alive in us. That he will transform our desires.

You see the call to surrender is a call that God will deliver the faith for us to surrender.

SImply, God delivers.

Just like he would use Moses’s obedience to deliver the Israelite, so he used the obedience of Jesus to deliver us.

....proof is in the pudding

That’s what the grace of God does in our lives when we are obedient.

You may have heard me say, if God calls you to it he will see you through it. It’s true.

But the call is still an opportunity for us to be faithful.

Look how it played out for Moses

You will call the elders and they will listen.

You will talk to Pharaoh, but he won’t listen to you. Don’t worry though because I am with you.

When you leave the people are actually going to award you.

God’s like, you are going to leave…it’s already decided. Now just do what I tell you.

Some of you have been called to things that you don’t see any way it can work out. That’s exactly right, but He can work it out. That’s what the grace of God does in our lives when we are obedient.

You have been called to a ministry that is out of your comfort zone.

Some of you have been called into relationships at work or in school that you don’t think you have the patience to maintain.

Some of you have been called to relationships that you didn’t have the patience to maintain.

Some of you have been called to forgive someone who is now out of your life, but you still carry the pain with you.

Some of you have been called to bless someone financially who you hardly know.

To invest time in a people or a project that is bigger than your ability.

To go back there where you were rejected and stand fast.

That's where God is calling you. He wouldn’t call you to something that beyond his ability, contrary to his will, or outside your shape.

God doesn’t want to just set the people free, he wants to lead them to the life that he promised to them.

Exodus 3:8 NIV84

So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.

That’s what we should know today about redemption.

God delivers to something, not just from something

WE can trust him in that...

But what are we going to do?

What would you do if you were confident that God is with you?

Application

We have all been called.

No Pastor, I’ve never seen a burning bush…neither have I, but I have found myself on holy Ground.

Mine: November of 1996

For you maybe it was a

Our calling came the moment we joined the family of God. The moment of our salvation, God called us to be a part of the kingdom of God.

You have been called to a ministry that is out of your comfort zone.

Some of you have been called into relationships at work or in school that you don’t think you have the patience to maintain.

Some of you have been called to forgive someone who is now out of your life, but you still carry the pain with you.

Some of you have been called to bless someone financially who you hardly know.

To invest time in a people or a project that is bigger than your ability.

To go back there where you were rejected and stand fast.

That's where God is calling you. He wouldn’t call you to something that beyond his ability, contrary to his will, or outside your shape.

WE can trust him in that...

But what are we going to do?

What would you do if you were confident that God is with you?

In spire you with stories of amazing obedience to God's call on their lives.

Maybe some missionary serving in a 3rd world country.

But what about the husband and wife faithfully married for 60 years.

Regular people who radically obedient to God’s call for their lives to surrender their lives to Jesus, that he would be the Lord of their life.

Guinea Legg

He had a past....but he was faithful

He loved, he served, he sacrificed, he made disciples.

Jesus makes this life possible.

How is God calling you?

Salvation…from something?

or Faithfulness…to something?

Related Media

Related Sermons

Exodus: The Call

What would you do if you were confident God was with you?

God calls in the everyday of life.

God calls when he has our attention.

God’s call aligns with His heart.

God’s call aligns with our SHAPE.

God’s call is an opportunity to be faithful.

The call of God is a promise of His power to accomplish the work.

The call of God is a promise of His power to accomplish the work.

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God delivers to something, not just from something