This summer were doing a short series called Lead Like Moses. Last week we talked about Discovering God's Purpose. Our lives are shaped by so many different dynamics. Think about all the choices you've made in life. Choices are accumulative, and increasingly binding. Childhood choices can affect you for life. Teenage choices. Young Adult choices. Life can feel like you’re painting yourself into a corner, like there is no way out. Moses felt like that when he fled his own people and household. But what limits us doesn't limit God. God still has a purpose for us.
And one of the marvels of Scripture is the mercy of God. I never fail to point out that Moses murdered an Egyptian. David murdered Uriah, to conceal his adultery. The Apostle Paul orchestrated murder of Stephen, all early Christians. If you subtracted out the collected writings of Moses, David, and Apostle Paul you'd have a pretty skimpy Bible. God is bigger than even your most regrettable choices.
So, the other part of this conversation is that our lives are shaped by the choices of other people. We're alive because of a mother's choice. We're here because of our family. Moses came from a blended family. He had Egyptian influences—Pharaoh's daughter. He was Hebrew biologically, homeschooled in the ways of his fathers. But Moses is being raised in a savage environment of ethnocentrism, fear and cynicism, cruel slavery, murderous genocide. Moses was surrounded by, and deeply triggered by, injustice, and unrighteousness.
Yet one of the marvels of Scripture is the mercy of God. God was no more limited by the cruelties of Pharaoh than by choices of Moses. It's amazing thing to encounter God in the character of his holiness, righteousness, and justice. When we jump into Isaiah, we'll see that God never sells out his holy character. Moses learned that it wasn't God who needed to change. Moses, take off your sandals, you're standing on holy ground.
Moses also encounters God is his merciful love and compassion. What an amazing thing for Moses to realize his pain was first God's pain. His anger and rage at injustice was in concert with God's wrath. His tears were God's tears. His cries reverberated in heaven. Exodus 3:6-8, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. . . I have observed the misery of my people in Egypt, and have heard them crying out because of their oppressors. I know about their sufferings, 8 and I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and to bring them from that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey. . .” Purpose is not just about seeing the tears and hearing the cries of our generation, but seeing the tears and hearing the cries as God sees and hears them.
In the Gospels, Jesus bitterly wept over the city of Jerusalem. He was moved in depth of his spirit as people desperately pursued him for their daily bread, for physical healing, for living water, for some word from God. John 4:35 Look, and you will see that fields are ripe and ready for harvest. Our prayer ought to be, “God give us your eyes to see, give us your ears to hear, give us your heart to care, give us your spirit to move us to obedience!” If it takes a burning bush, so be it.
But as promised, the next part of leadership is this. God doesn't desire, nor allow us, to be mere “bystanders.” Imagine Moses's joy one moment—God is coming down to confront Pharaoh, to rescue Israel! AMEN! YES LORD! MORE LORD! But then Moses’ joy turns to utter fear and dread the next… Exodus 3:9-10, “So because the Israelites’ cry for help has come to me, and I have also seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them, 10 therefore, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh so that you may lead my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.”
The pattern of God's working is this… He allows us to hear, see, feel, and weep over the human crisis. But then God immediately asks, “Who shall I send…” And as much as we want the answer to be somebody else… God is tapping your shoulder. I am sending “you” to lead, “you” into the harvest, “you” into cultures of earth, “you” to be my witnesses to ends of earth. You preach. You teach. You're my servant. And this is where things go nuclear.
As you read along, Moses does everything he can to deflect God's call on his life. Starting immediately in Exodus 3:11. Literally, the first words out of Moses's mouth. “But Moses asked God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” Please hear me, there are no three words that do more to derail our calling, rob us of our potential, and rob God’s Kingdom of our contribution (and God of his Glory) than those three pesky words, “Who Am I?”
Now there are a hundred variations of, “Who Am I?"
• Exodus 3:13. Well God, what if I go the Egyptians and they ask who you are, who sent me, what's your name? What should I tell them?
• Exodus 4:1. What if people don't believe me? What if they don't obey me? What if they question whether you actually appeared to me?
• Exodus 4:10. Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent—either in the past or recently or since you have been speaking to your servant—because my mouth and my tongue are sluggish.
• Exodus 4:13. Please Lord, send someone else.
Maybe, there is some young person here this morning with ears to hear what I'm about to say. Younger than me. I've spent so much of life crippled by a sense of inadequacy. Indeed, we all have inadequacies. We're human beings. We're finite creatures, we're not infinite. But that is not what I'm talking about. The Law of Physics will not allow this body to play like Michael Jordan once did! No, there is this sense in which we amplify our own sense of inadequacy. We say to yourselves, “Who am I?” Who am I to stand, to talk, to speak, to lead?
On my bookshelf I have a book called Vocal Power—it’s about finding your confidence to speak. All our childhood we were shushed, silenced, scolded, shamed. Who are you to speak? Be quiet. Take your seat. Listen don't talk. You have two ears and one mouth. Well okay…
When I was younger, I had a speech impediment. But what I actually had was an anxiety disorder. Social anxiety. Fear. I'd begin to talk and other kids would laugh because I'd slaughter my “S's” and “SH's". My parents were told, “your son needs speech therapy.” So, every week some sweet therapist labored to help me try and talk right. And my mom, bless her heart, would try to minimize my fear. It's okay, it's okay.
Not sure if they still do this… but in grade school each grade was divided into two segments. There were those 3rd or 4th graders who were more “advanced.” But then there we're those trailing behind. I trailed behind. But of all the trailers, I was borderline. The teacher told me parents, he doesn't pay attention, he acts bored, he stares out the window. He’s different—but of course what they meant was “bad-different.” “He's gifted"—that was the word back then. “He's gifted!” That's like when a Southern Baptist says, “Ah, bless your heart.” But understand, it became convenient for me to believe that I was disabled-gifted-different-inferior. It was a ready-made excuse (a condition) I could invoke anytime someone challenged me, or pushed me!
But our whole lives are filled with this nonsense. When I was in high school, I joined the football team. When all the same guys played LOT football down the street, I always played quarterback. I could throw perfect spirals. I had a great, accurate arm. But on the first day of practice when other boys were lining up for positions, I said those three damnable words to myself, “Who am I?” So what happened is the coach told me to go be a tight end and defensive end. Well if I didn't fit with the quarterbacks, I definitely did fit with the beef-cake line men!
The first-string defensive-end was a steer-wrestler. He threw guys around like rag dolls. He abused the snot out of me in practices. But later in the season he got injured. He was so great. One week the coach called my number, and said, “Jon you're going to be our guy.” But I was filled with fear and a sense of inadequacy and I asked the coach, “But who Am I?” The truth was he thought I could do the job. The truth was that all those guys who had abused me had made me stronger in practice. The truth was that I belonged on that field in that moment. But when those words entered my spirit and exited my mouth even the coach was persuaded. So, they put in some other guy and I sat on the bench.
I could give you many other humiliating, more recent examples.
The truth is that every time throughout life we'd said, “Who Am I" we've painting ourselves into smaller, tinier space. In the end we live tiny, ineffectual, inconsequential lives. And it's not because we didn't have a calling. It's not because there wasn't an opportunity. It's not because there was someone there to help us along the way. No, we did it to ourselves. We tackled ourselves in our own huddle before the play was even called!
There comes a time when a pivotal shift has to happen in the would-be leader. Yes, God has to get your attention. Yes, you have to have God's ears, tears, and heart for your world. But for your life to matter you have to put your fear to death. And the only way to put fear to death is to allow your faith to come alive. This is all God wanted of Moses. Not for Moses to focus on his own personal inadequacies—but for Moses to focus on God's infinite sufficiency.
Notice the juxtaposition of these two verses. Exodus 3:11: “But Moses asked God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” And then God's response! Exodus 3:12, “He answered, “I will certainly be with you, and this will be the sign to you that I am the one who sent you: when you bring the people out of Egypt, you will all worship God at this mountain.”
I think some confidence can be cultivated pointing within a person. When someone asks, “Who am I?” we often say you’re great, your beautiful, you’re so smart, you’re this, you’re that. . .” That's not unhelpful. But what's really liberating is when someone asks and we say, “Sorry friend, it is not, nor has it ever been about who you are. . . it’s always been about who God is! And if God is with you, and God is for you (because you are for Him and for His purpose)… then who or what can stop you? God told Moses… this is who I am, this is what I'm doing, this is what I promise, here's what you need to know, here is how this is going to go down, here is why you can trust (not your own ability or power which elicits fear) but trust me! God does not call the qualified, but qualifies the called.
It's all about me!! Nope. Hebrews 13:21, “God will equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.” 2 Peter 1:3, “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness.” 1 Corinthians 12:4-6, “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” 2 Corinthians 3:6, “Who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”
There was a point early in my life when I realized I needed to get over myself and learn to trust God more, that is, if I were to lead. It's actually quite hilarious how God deals with Moses' inadequacies. Exodus 4:11-12 Moses' says, “I can't speak…” but then God asks, “Who placed a mouth on humans? Who makes a person mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now go! I will help you speak and I will teach you what to say.” My preaching professor used to say if God can speak through a donkey, he can speak through you. Jesus said, if God wants to raise up rocks to speak, he will.
So, faith in God must drive out fear of men, fear of inadequacy. The making of a leader isn't replacing “I can't…” with affirmation, “God can.” I can't get my s's and sh's right. I am anxious and dull and slow of speech.” There was a moment God flips the script of your life from being all about you to being all about him. And for this preacher, with God, the impossible becomes possible. Because it’s nothing for me to now say, “Susie sells seashells down by the seashore.”
Spend some time this week in Exodus 3-4. Those are the inadequacy chapters, the excuse making chapters. Let God speak into your life, let God put fear to death, invite God to awaken your faith and confidence in Him, let God call your number, answer that call of God boldly, “Here I am send me.” Obey God's commandment, “Go, I’m sending you.” Be my witnesses. Be my servants. Be my instruments. Be my church. Not by your power or might, but by my Spirit.
Exodus 13:12, “I will certainly be with you, and this will be the sign to you that I am the one who sent you: when you bring the people out of Egypt, you will all worship God at this mountain.” What greater confirmation? Changed lives! Because of God.