Abounding Grace

Pastor Ed Taylor: Today on Abounding Grace, amazing things can happen as we surrender our lives into the hands of God. Moses, I can take something common and do something miraculous with it. And by extension, I believe He's telling Moses, "Moses, you're common and I can do something special with you."

It was solidified in his mind. Many times in the Bible we read of the same thing happening over and over again. David's sling in the hands of God took down giants, but it was just a sling. Samson's jawbone of a donkey in the hands of God becomes a mighty military weapon, killing a thousand Philistines.

Gideon's torches and buckets in the hands of God were used to defeat the enemies. And what seems insignificant and unnecessary can become very powerful and strong in the hand of God.

Guest (Male): Hey, welcome once again to Abounding Grace with Pastor Ed Taylor. Today, we jump right back into Exodus. At this point in Moses's life, he is full of excuses and God has an answer for each and every one of them. Perhaps you can relate as you wonder if God could really use someone like yourself in light of your past or your abilities. Well, lean in and listen to what Pastor Ed Taylor has to say as we open our Bibles now to Exodus chapter four.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Open your Bibles to Exodus chapter four as we continue our verse-by-verse study in the book of Exodus. We're going to continue our study from last time and I've entitled this "Excuses, Excuses Part Two." Here in Exodus, the time of deliverance has come for the children of Israel. God has sent help for them after hundreds of years of slavery, bondage, and hard labor. At just the right time, God intervenes. He acts on their behalf.

Out of the burning bush, God's voice speaks powerfully to Moses. So He's working on both sides where there is an anticipation among the people and there is a call upon the man. God's going to bring them together. Deliverance will come through the hand of a man. How does God choose to do it? Will He send His most powerful angels to deliver the children of Israel out of bondage in Egypt? No. Will He send a well-trained, well-groomed, perfect man? No. Will He create an army and march them in? No.

Will He send a legion of angels to take care of not just the most powerful angels, but the most powerful of powerful in the angelic realm? No. Does He have a new scheme and plan that He's going to put out for them on tablets of stone? No. How does God do it? He enlists an 80-year-old failure, someone at the end of themselves. Someone that, perhaps, if we were to choose the deliverer, we wouldn't choose them.

God chooses a man who tried on his own to deliver the nation miserably and failed. A man that learned that without God, he was weak. 40 years in the wilderness has created a reluctance in Moses. Almost like the pendulum has swung to the other side where, in the beginning, he was ready to deliver the nation one Egyptian at a time. But his self-sufficient attitude is now gone and it seems like the pendulum has swung to the other side where his eagerness to lead has now disappeared.

And now we find Moses timid, hesitant, a little afraid, and full of excuses. Not everybody, as you read through different commentaries, agrees that these are excuses. Some just call them reasons. And certainly, they could be reasons. But he's talking to the Almighty God, who has spoken to him in a burning bush and given him very clear direction. I come from the school of thought that these weren't mere reasons, but really excuses.

Certainly, you've seen in your own life where good reasons can become very bad excuses, limiting yourself from obedience, holding back yourself from the clear call and direction of God. And he gave at least five of these. We looked at a couple last time in chapter three, verse 11. His first reason or excuse was, "Who am I?" declaring his own inadequacy. And what is God's answer? It's not about you. I'm going to be with you. You don't worry about that, Moses. I am with you.

The second one was, "Well, who should I tell them You are? Who am I going to say sent me?" which is reasonable, I think, because of the multiplicity of gods and the children of Israel aren't just going to follow anybody. Who is he going to say? And what does God respond? You tell him "I AM" sent you. The Great I AM. We spent a whole week looking at some of the names of God and the sufficiency of who He is, the becoming one. And you'll notice a pattern with the excuses. God always has an answer for your excuses.

He has an answer for Moses's excuses and He always has an answer for your excuses and mine. I think of the same thing happening with Gideon and the fleece. Some people put out fleeces these days, but remember Gideon put out a fleece because of his hesitancy, not for his confirmation. He heard what God said. He knew what God said, and he didn't want to do it. And God met him where he was at to encourage him to go. With Moses, the answers come and bring him to a place where, we'll see, he ends up going and he ends up obedient. He just went the long way.

Chapter four, verse one: "Then Moses answered and said, 'But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice? Suppose they say, "The Lord has not appeared to you"?'" And here is excuse number three: "What if they don't listen to me?" Okay, God, I agree You're sending me and I'm ready. You'll be with me. But what if? It's amazing to me how many ventures of faith are stopped because of the what-ifs. The analyzing, the scrutinizing, the dissecting.

If you do it long enough, you'll always find a good reason not to obey God. You'll get there eventually. You'll keep asking and keep asking and keep asking until finally your questions are taking you to the direction where, yeah, right, I shouldn't do it. "What if? Suppose" is the word he uses here in the New King James. Suppose. Suppose. Instead of going forward with the clear call and command of God, the leading of God is squashed by what-if this and what-if that and suppose this.

One of the things we learned not too many years ago, four years ago exactly, is when the pandemic began and all of the restrictions and such. During that time, one of the things we learned as a leadership team and one of the things I learned is to really discipline myself not to live in the what-ifs. I don't know what's going to happen in the future. I can only live today. And with all those questions and what-if and what about this and what about this, I'm like, I don't know.

I don't live in the hypothetical. I live in the reality. And it was a good thing, a good lesson to learn. I think in my life I've lived that way a lot, but it was just really drilled down. I'm not going to live in all the hypotheticals. I don't know what's going to happen. I'm not sure what the future holds, but my faith in God today is strong that no matter what we walk in, we need to walk into the future faithful today. And that's how we live our lives.

Notice verse two now: "So the Lord said to him..." Excuse is met with what? An answer. God met him there. He doesn't condemn him. He doesn't flip him in the head. He's like, "Okay, here. What is that in your hand?" And he said, "A rod." And He said, "Cast it to the ground." So he cast it on the ground and it became a serpent and Moses fled from it. And the Lord said to Moses, "Reach out your hand and take it by the tail."

Quite the answer, isn't it? And he reached out his hand and caught it and it became a rod in his hand. "That they may believe the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, has appeared to you." What he had in his hand was a standard shepherd's rod. This was quite a surprising response from God. But God demonstrated to him miraculously that He was with him and that that rod would be as ordinary and as common as it was, that in the hands of God would become an awesome tool.

Moses, I want you to know I'm with you. I'm going to show you right now. He uses that rod to teach Moses a lesson. Here's the lesson. You ready? As much as it's miraculous and much of it is this little episode for Moses' sake, this is what I believe He was teaching Moses. Moses, I can take something common and do something miraculous with it. And by extension, I believe He's telling Moses, "Moses, you're common and I can do something special with you."

And it was solidified in his mind. Many times in the Bible we read of the same thing happening over and over again. David's sling in the hands of God took down giants, but it was just a sling. Samson's jawbone of a donkey in the hands of God becomes a mighty military weapon, killing a thousand Philistines. Gideon's torches and buckets in the hands of God were used to defeat the enemies. And what seems insignificant and unnecessary can become very powerful and strong in the hand of God.

You have to personalize this. It's more than a stick and a sling. It's the person holding the stick and the sling and the bucket. You need to take this truth and say, "Okay." You look at yourself and you measure yourself up and, "I don't have much education," or "I don't have many resources," or "I don't and I don't and what if and suppose." In the hand of God, exactly as you are, you become a very supernatural tool in His hands.

It's almost as if the Lord's reminding us today, it's not about you. It's what God wants to do through your life. It's how He wants to use you. All of your talent, whatever you have, you bring it to the Lord. You throw it down before Him. All of your willingness. You go, "Well, on a scale of one to ten, my willingness is about a one right now." You bring it to the Lord. All of your heart for the Lord. "But Ed, I don't know. I don't really think I have much heart for the Lord." You just bring what you have.

Isn't that what Jesus said? "Just bring it to Me." "Yeah, but all these thousands of people want to eat and all we can find is this little bread, a few pieces of bread, rolls of bread and some fish." Jesus said, "You bring that to Me." In your hands, not much. How would they ever know that Jesus wanted to multiply miraculously what they had until they brought it to Him? So this excuse is not enough to cower away from the will of God.

He's ready to use you mightily, you just got to come surrendered. You got to throw yourself down. You got to come and go, "Here I am, Lord." And the rod becomes a serpent and a rod again. Is that enough? Well, let's read on. Verse six: "Furthermore the Lord said to him, 'Now put your hand in your bosom.'" And he put his hand in his bosom and when he took it out, behold, the hand was leprous like snow. And He said, "Put your hand in your bosom again."

So he put his hand in his bosom again and drew it out of his bosom and behold, it was restored like his other. "Then it will be if they do not believe you nor heed the message of the first sign, that they may believe the message of the latter sign. And it shall be, if they do not believe even those two signs or listen to your voice, that you shall take water from the river and pour it on the dry land and the water which you take from the river will become blood on the dry land."

A couple of things here. First of all, God is giving him a little insight that it's not going to be easy when he gets back. So He's preparing him. I'm going to give you ahead of time knowing that, yeah, you're right, not everybody's going to believe you. Some of your suppositions or your what-ifs are actually going to come to pass, but I got it all covered. Don't worry about it. If they don't believe that one, I'll give you this one. And if some people don't even believe that one, I've got another one.

It's almost like God is saying, "I have unlimited resources for every single obstacle that you face." You just look to Me, Moses. All of your answers. It would be almost like God saying, you can come up with excuse and reason and reason, but I've got an answer for every one of them. Every one of them. And you would think, after a burning bush and hearing the voice of God, seeing the signs and wonder, that Moses would just go for it. All right, let's go. I'm in.

You point the way. But he's not there yet. As God's taking him little by little, helping him and preparing him. Why? Why isn't he there yet? I believe he has a heart issue, but more than that he has a matter of the will. I think his heart, his desire, he's learning to trust God. He's taking in what he's experiencing. But God is drawing out of him a willingness. It's not the issue of his inability. I believe he's still not willing.

His heart has a hardening toward God right now, toward the clear direction of God. Notice in his next excuse in verse 10: "Then Moses said to the Lord, 'I'm out of here. I'm never going to doubt You again, Lord.'" No, that's actually not what it says. He says, Moses said to the Lord, "Oh my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant, but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue." And the Lord said to him, "Who has made man's mouth?

Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say." Here is his next excuse, number four: "I'm not eloquent." Or what you might hear today, "I'm not good enough." As he shares this, he is speaking, many commentators look at this from the original language and they see that he speaks from a place where he has a speech impediment.

There's something about his speech. Maybe a stuttering, maybe a lisp, something that would draw attention that he's not as eloquent as you would expect somebody to be used by God. Because we have those categories of who's used by God and who's not used by God. And he has a serious speech impediment. But really Moses is expressing his fear that the people might not see him as their leader. Expressing worry, anxiety, and true concern.

And I think it's a common thread for many leaders. Expressing this, coming face to face with what God has called you to and measuring it with your own resources. And that always leads you to a place where "I don't have enough. I'll never measure up." Many feel they're totally inadequate to lead because of the weaknesses of their natural abilities. Where they grew up, the family they were born into, the resources available to them.

But we learn in the New Testament, in the new covenant, we have this clarified for us. Really, you could say you could overlay First Corinthians chapter one with here in Moses. That not many wise, not many noble, not many that have it all together, paraphrased, are called. But what? God says, "I've called the foolish things of the world to confound the wise." In Proverbs chapter 29 and in verse 25, it says, "The fear of man brings a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe."

And so Moses, he tells God, "I have a speech problem. You can't use me. I can't speak in front of others. I'm not good enough." But when you read Stephen's account in Acts chapter seven, inspired by the Holy Spirit, what does he say about Moses? Moses has a view of himself, but what does Stephen say? You don't need to turn there, I'll remind you. Acts 7:22: "Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptian and was mighty in words and deed." That's God's perspective of Moses.

That he was the one mighty in words and deed, but Moses is there and that's why I believe it's not merely leaning upon a speech impediment, he's offering up another excuse. It's not enough. "I really don't want to do this. I learned my lesson, God. The desert is done. I can just live in the desert the rest of my life and just ride it out. I really don't want to do it anymore. I just don't want to do it." Which is what ends up being his last excuse.

You see, Moses had it in him, but it wouldn't come out of him until he was fully surrendered. It made me think of what's being held back. Perfect timing tonight, too, for the testimony. Perfect timing of what God's doing because it made me think as I was putting the message together, what is being held back in our church right now because of unbelief? What is being held back in your life right now because of your unwillingness?

What's being held back for the kingdom of God because you just won't surrender that area? You just won't surrender that situation. You just won't surrender. And you're looking at this and you're looking like, "Well, you know, I can't this and I can't that," when it's just surrender. Somebody came up after service this last weekend to tell me about things that they—it was a husband and wife came in and as they were describing it, the woman was telling me how it was hard for her to come up.

She'd been waiting to do this for two years to share something that was on her heart and how hard it was. And I looked her in the eye and said, "Yeah, it was only hard until you did it, right? And now it's not hard anymore because you're standing right here. And what you've been delaying for two years, here we are. It's no big deal, is it?" "Yeah, you know, it's not that big a deal, Ed." And I know why, because it took you two years.

And I wonder right now, coming up to talk to a pastor is one thing, but I wonder what else God has put on your heart where now that's a breakthrough. That's just a breakthrough. That's something that God led you to that's simple, that's going to lead to something else, that's going to lead to something else. You really have to deal with your heart, church. You really have to deal with that yieldedness, surrendered heart or lack thereof. That's where obedience begins.

What's waiting to be unleashed in our church because of a refusal to surrender? "I don't have the natural qualities. God can't use me." All you can see is what you can't do, but somebody's watching your life and going, "Man, that dude's mighty in words and deed." And you're sharing with people, "I don't know what to say." And you just need to step into it. And I think, like Stephen, the Holy Spirit, this is where the gift or the practice of encouragement and the spiritual gifting of exhortation is very important in the body of Christ.

For example, if you're like Stephen here, perhaps, and you're looking at someone's life that's in your—a contemporary, right? Because he's writing way after, the Holy Spirit's inspiring him and he's writing way after Moses. But let's just say it's now and you have a contemporary friend, you just see something in them, you should tell them. You should tell them, "What I see in you is you're encouraging," or "What I see in you is you love to pray with people," or "What I see in you is your faithfulness." You should tell them.

Because they may be at home wondering, "You know, I'm just so unfaithful. God could never use me." And there's like 20 people around them that's so blessed by them, so encouraged by them. They share a scripture or they—if you don't tell them, they might talk themselves out of being used by God. And then here you are, but I don't want to tell them. And God's saying, "Tell them. Tell them." Even as you go out to shovel the snow tomorrow, begin to pray about who the Lord has put in your life.

You're going to have a lot of time, I hear, out there shoveling. You have a lot of time to think, a lot of time alone. Just put the earbuds in and put on a Bible study, put on some worship music and be praying for people that you can encourage. That you can stir up like the Bible says, "love and good works." There might be a Moses in your life that thinks, "Look at my—I can't even speak," and it could be a literal true speech impediment.

But then there's a person in your life that has a literal true speech impediment who's such a blessing. That just brought to mind right now. I don't have permission to share his name, but I just think of a brother who has a real speech impediment who's part of our church for many years who truly was an encouragement in many different ways. I mean right now, just the Holy Spirit put a brother—I'm going to have to text him after service. It's like, "Brother, as I was teaching, I was just reminded of you. I was reminded of you and your blessing that you have been to our church for many years."

Think about this: if God was only looking for the best or the perfectly qualified, we would look at them and say, "Well, of course they're the ones God uses. Of course. That's the one I would pick, too." And you just step back and go, "Well, they're not me, and I'm not them, so God will never pick me." But God can and God will and God delights in using knuckleheads in this world. And lest you wonder if that's even true, just look who's standing in the pulpit tonight of what God has chosen to use.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Abounding Grace with Pastor Ed Taylor. If you joined us late or would just like to hear this message from Exodus again, turn to aboundinggraceradio.com or you can listen through our app as well. Search for "Ed Taylor" in the App Store or Google Play. If you take a brief moment to write or call, that would make our day. Let us know the station you're listening to and if today's study was a blessing in your life. We'd also love to pray for you.

You can email us through the website at aboundinggraceradio.com then click "Contact". You know, the New Year is a great time to kick-start or breathe new life into your devotional life and we've got a book that can help. It's titled "Jesus Every Day" from Jim Cymbala. Each day brings its own set of challenges and events that can at times leave us dazed and confused.

But in Christ, we can find the grace, strength, and peace to face those days with hope. Living by God's unshakeable promises will challenge you to consider what your life might look like with Jesus every day. We'll send you a copy with our thanks for a gift of $25 or more to Abounding Grace. Call 877-30-GRACE or visit our e-store at calvaryco.store. And then be sure to join Pastor Ed Taylor next time for more teaching from the book of Exodus, right here on Abounding Grace.