Sermon - September 26, 2010

A Man with A Mission: Fired and Hired.
     Exodus 3:1-13,  Acts 7:30-34,  John 21:17-19

          Eighty year old Moses was tending sheep in the desert, near Mt Horeb meaning “wasteland,” on an ordinary day, when an extraordinary thing happened. He noticed a bush on fire, burning but not burning up. Now you don't see that every day, so he walks over to check it out. When the Lord sees He has Moses’ attention He calls to him. “Moses, Moses.”
          In his biography, A Man Called Peter, author Catherine Marshall tells about the young Scotsman Peter Marshall crossing the moors on a foggy night. He hears his name, “Peter,” pauses but walks on. Again he hears his name, but more emphatically, “PETER!” Peter demands, “Who are you, show yourself!” Taking a few more steps he stumbles nearly falling over a cliff to his death. God gripped Peter's attention.
          As Moses walks toward the voice calling from the flaming bush that didn't burn, he replies, “Here I am.” The Lord commands, “Do not come any closer.”  Stay put. Not one more step. Hold your horses, there Moses. “Take off your sandals for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Having clerked in a department store, I have seen it often enough. A customer casually grabs a piece of leaded crystal, or porcelain figurine, and when she sees the price on the bottom, a look of  astonishment over-shadows her face as she gently sets it back on the shelf. Too pricey to touch.  Moses walked right up to God without knowing he was on hallowed ground, too holy to touch. What made that ground holy was God's presence on it. He slid off his sandals and hid his face. There we see the true Character of Moses: his honesty, humility, and reverence. 
        Most people today, sadly even Christians, have little sense of awe, of the holiness of God. We have taken such a casual attitude about church service, like Moses, striding right up to the place we are about to meet God. What does that say about us, our worship, our attitudes about God? Are we so familiar with the Almighty and His Son that we can saunter up to His Holy Presence as we would the counter clerk at Wal-Mart? Perhaps we doubt God is really here? Or are we simply unaware that the Lord is really here and truly wants us to know Him personally? This ground is holy because of His presence on it. What if this altar was suddenly enveloped in flames but wasn't consumed. Would you drop to your knees, or grab for your cell phone and dial 911? God does not need a burning altar to reveal Himself to us today. He simply looks for your attention. When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”
        The Bible doesn't tell us that Moses had heard the voice of God before. This was the first time. But his heart knew instinctively, this was the real deal: a flaming bush that doesn’t burn, and called by name by a voice that does. In the words of Donald Trump, “Moses you're fired!” Your sheep herding days are over. I have plans for you!
        Listen carefully to what the Lord says, vs. 7 “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.” Pause a moment and take that in. Have you ever felt miserable and completely alone? I have come to believe that pain is the loneliest experience any human being can have. No other human being can know, or experience with you even in empathy, the agony of physical pain or heart break. We can say, “Oh I know how you feel,” or “I understand.” But the truth is we don't. We can't possibly get inside another person's skin or in their spirit to have any inkling of what they are going through. But God has said, “I have indeed seen the misery of My people.” God is Spirit, and knows the dark depths of our spirits. In Jesus, God became a human being, and knows thirst, cold, hunger, bruises, beatings, and the agony of piercing nails.
        God is not deaf to our suffering. “I have heard them crying out.”  The children of Israel were heavily oppressed by their slave drivers who whipped them as they labored in Egypt’s heat making bricks for Pharaoh. God hears us crying out under stress and strain of our lives. He not only sees, and hears, but He feels. “I am concerned about their suffering.” This is not some distant God vacationing in elysian fields among the clouds. This is Almighty God, our Creator, Who watches over his precious creatures, loves us and longs for us. He is concerned when the medical tests come out positive, when the bank account is nil, when our hearts are broken, and our spirits are crushed.
     Because God sees, hears, and is concerned, He acts: Look here. 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... God was saying, “Enough is enough. I've had it with Pharaoh kicking around My people like bundles of chaff. I'm going to make things right. Not only will I get them out of there, but I am going to bring them to a beautiful place of abundance – the good life – just as I promised Abraham I would!'  When God delivers, He delivers completely.
         Through the prophet Joel, God spoke, “I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten. You will have plenty to eat until you are full, and you will praise the name of the Lord your God who has worked wonders for you; never again will my people be ashamed.” And again in the words of the prophet Isaiah for those who mourn over Zion:   to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.  Beyond faith I know this heart and graciousness of God to be true for I have seen it in my own life. A heart that loves God's presence will feast when once it hungered, and will praise when once it mourned: all for His glory.
        Moses got fired from his day job, literally, and was hired as God's spokesperson.   So now, God says in vs. 10,  go, I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring My people the Israelites out of Egypt.  Sounds exciting! What an adventure for an octogenarian. Moses didn't think so. Remember Moses was wanted for murder in Egypt. He fled and never looked back. No way does he want to open that can of worms. Moses stammers, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
        Sometimes God calls us to where we don't want to go. Jesus told Peter as much, indicating the death that he would die for his faith. Moses didn't want the job offer.
        Mighty God  may have thought, “Moses, were you listening? Who said you, on your own power were going to Pharaoh and sweet talk him into letting My people go? Did you not hear Me say, 'I have come down to rescue them, to bring them up.' Who you are is exactly who I want to be My instrument, not my henchman.”
        Human qualifications have nothing to do with serving God. You might be strikingly attractive, immensely intelligent, stinking rich, but if your heart is proud, unteachable, or glory seeking, you are of no use to God's service. But if you are honest, humble, obedient, and faithful, regardless of your past or present circumstances, God can use you, and will!
        The Lord assures Moses in vs. 12 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.  Two great guarantees: 1. I will be with you. This is not some wimpy little exercise in futility. The ultimate power of the universe is backing you up. Think about that. When we walk in the center of the will of God, the immensity of His almighty power is behind us. If you feel the tug of the Holy Spirit to help with a mission project, give a children's time, accept an office in the church, start a Bible Study, serve meals to a family, chair a food drive, if you are in His will, you are in the stream of his power. Whatever God calls us to do, He equips us to accomplish Himself. Simply present yourself as did Moses, “here I am,” be available to God, and let God lead you through the rest.
        The second guarantee is that God promised it was going to happen. “When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this Mountain.”  In other words, when you see that mountain move, you will come to worship Me on this one. Moses, it's in the bag. In God's mind it's a done deal. Sure it will take work, perseverance, and progressively deepening faith, but it will happen.
        That's true for us as well. What God ordains, God sees to the finish; from the days of creation, through the Exodus, the judges and kings of Israel and Judah, straight up the cross when Jesus cried out in his last breath, “It is finished.” God never leaves an unfinished project, or gives up on an unfinished soul.
        Moses is not convinced. Vs. 13 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 do I tell them?  If Moses were a cowboy he'd be sitting on the fence; the fence of what if? That's where a lot of us sit from time to time, afraid of moving ahead, of rocking the boat, of what our neighbors might say or do – and especially of failure. Remember, forty years earlier, Moses suffered an epic fail defending the Hebrew slave when he murdered the Egyptian task master. “What if” are the two words that deflate faith and cripple action. What if I give God my all? What if I sell out to Christ? What if I sense God's real presence here in this very moment, so as to not only lose my sandals but knock my socks off? What if fired, I was hired by God?  Suppose people asked me, what got into you? What shall I tell them? God answered Moses. Take off your shoes and God will answer you.    

 

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