From His Heart

Speaker 1

There are no excuses for the truth. You'll hear today on From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve.

Speaker 2

God calls Moses to go and lead the people out of Egypt. This great, great plan of God, this great assignment from the Lord. Now, we can understand that Moses would be fearful of that because it's so huge, but we'd also think he would be excited about it.

But we're going to see in today's passage of Scripture, Moses argues with the Lord and he presents to the Lord all these excuses as to why he can't go. Excuses. You know, that's something that we as humans are good at, the excuse game.

Speaker 1

Are you giving excuses to the Lord as to why you can't do something that you know he's called you to do? We're usually pretty good at making excuses, just like Moses did when God called him to lead the people out of Egypt.

This is from his heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve. And today he'll share five relatable excuses that Moses gave and how despite these, the Lord equipped, guided, and provided for him every step of the way. The message is from Pastor Jeff's new six lesson series, Strong and Courageous, which is also our gift of thanks to you for your support this month.

And you can get it in the format of your choice. Just go to fromhishheart.org for details. Right now, open your Bible to the book of Exodus, chapter three and see if you're able to let go of your excuses and trust the Lord to enable you as you follow Him.

The lesson today is called milk, honey, and excuses.

Speaker 2

You know, in Exodus 3, God introduces a phrase that we find 20 times in the Old Testament. It has to do with the land of Canaan, the land of promise. And God calls that land, the land flowing with milk and honey. Kind of an interesting phrase that the Lord uses. I'm going to bring you into this good and spacious land, this land flowing with milk and honey. This is a fertile land. This is a bountiful land. You are going to prosper in this land. That's what that means. In a land flowing with milk and honey, the cattle are going to do well, and all the livestock are going to do well. You're going to flow with milk, and there's going to be so much vegetation and flowers and plants that the bees are going to be producing honey everywhere. So that's the meaning of a land flowing with milk and honey.

And God calls Moses to go and lead the people out of Egypt. This great, great plan of God, this great assignment from the Lord. Now, we can understand that Moses would be fearful of that because it's so huge, but we'd also think he would be excited about it. But what we're going to see in today's passage of Scripture is that Moses argues with the Lord and presents to the Lord all these excuses as to why he can't go. Excuses. You know, that's something that we as humans are good at—the excuse game. It's just part of fallen human nature. When Adam fell in the garden, and the Lord came to him in Genesis chapter three and said, "Adam, Adam, where are you?" He said, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid myself." And the Lord said, "Well, who told you you were naked? Did you eat of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" And Adam said, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate." Please consider me excused. God, you and Eve work it out, because it's not my fault. That's what an excuse is.

You know, the dictionary defines an excuse this way: it's a reason we give to explain why we did something or why we didn't do something, how it's not our fault. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus tells a parable about a man who gives a big dinner and invites all these people. The slaves go out and invite the people, and one by one they say, "Well, I can't come. Please consider me excused." One guy says, "Well, I bought some land, and I need to go look at it. Please consider me excused." The other says, "Well, I've taken a wife, and I need to tend to her. Please consider me excused." And somebody else says, "Well, I bought five yoke of oxen. I need to try them out. Please consider me excused." Well, the Lord didn't consider them excused. He was angry with them. I like this definition of the word excuse: it's the skin of a reason stuffed with a lie. But we're good at making excuses.

Perhaps you heard the song by the Kingsman Quartet, simply titled "Excuses, Excuses, Excuses." You'll hear them every day. And the Devil, he'll supply them. If at church you stay away, when people come to know the Lord, the devil always loses. So to keep those folks away from church, he offers them excuses. Well, in the summer, it's too hot; can't go, it's too hot. And in the winter, it's too cold. We got some people missing today because it's cold. In the springtime, when the weather's just right, you find someplace else to go. Well, it's up to the mountains or down to the beach or to visit some old friend, or just to stay home and kind of relax and hope that some of the kin folks will start dropping in—some of the excuses.

How about this one? "Well, the preacher, he's too young." You know, I told somebody the other day that I'm going to quit dying my beard gray because I just think I don't need it anymore. "Well, the preacher, he's too young," and maybe he's too old. "The sermons, they're not hard enough," and maybe they're too bold. "His voice is much too quiet," like sometimes he gets too loud. "He needs to have more dignity, or else he's way too proud." "Well, the sermons, they're too long." I've heard that one before. And maybe they're too short. Never heard that one. "He ought to preach the word with dignity instead of stomp and snort." "Well, that preacher we've got must be the world's most stuck-up man." One of the ladies told me the other day, "He didn't even shake my hand." Just excuses.

We make all kinds of excuses as to why we can't do what God has called us to do. I've entitled this message "Milk, Honey, and Excuses," and we're going to see the five excuses Moses gives to the Lord. Amazing that the Lord didn't just say, "Forget it, I'm going on to somebody else." But he didn't. And Moses became one of the greatest men of God who has ever lived.

Exodus chapter 3, beginning in verse 1: Now, Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. Mount Horeb, Mount Sinai—same place. Wouldn't be a fun place to hang out there. That's the wilderness. When the Bible talks about the wilderness, it's rocks and dirt, and you're trying to find places for your flocks to graze. And so he was there.

The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush. And he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed. So Moses said, "I must turn aside now and see this marvelous sight while the bush is not burned up." When the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said to him, "Moses, Moses." And he said, "Here I am." Then he said, "Do not come near here. Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." He also said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

The Lord said, "I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters. For I am aware of their sufferings. So I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. Now behold, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to me. Furthermore, I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians are oppressing them. Therefore, come now, and I will send you to Pharaoh so that you may bring my people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt."

And thus is the backdrop for five excuses. Excuse number one: such a common excuse we fall into—all these that Moses says. But the common excuse there is the "Who am I?" excuse. Well, who am I to do that? You're saying that I'm going to deliver Israel? Oh, you got the wrong guy. Who am I to do that? And that's exactly what Moses says in response, verse 11. But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?"

Now, if you know anything about Moses' past, you know his past is miraculous because in the early chapters, chapter one and two, we find out that Pharaoh's trying to kill the baby boys that are born to Israel because they're growing too fast. So kill the baby boys. Well, Moses' mother, her name was Jochebed. Some of you looking for a name for your child? Jochebed's her name. Not a really good name, but that was her name. Anyway, she hid Moses. And then when he was three months old, they put him in a wicker basket, put him in the Nile River, and God saw to it that Pharaoh's daughter saw the basket. And then Moses' sister was able to say to Pharaoh's daughter, "Hey, you want me to get somebody from the Hebrews to breastfeed this kid?" And she said, "Yeah, that would be great, and I'll pay you for it." And so Moses' mother got to take Moses back and feed him and take care of him till he was old enough to go. And she even got paid for it. God provided.

Moses grows up in Pharaoh's house. And you know, Moses is a big shot. He's thinking he's somebody. He knows that he is of Hebrew descent. And so he sees what's going on with the Hebrews, and he knows it's bad. And so it says in Exodus chapter two, when he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew slave, he intervened. The Bible says he looked this way and that way—didn't look this way, but he rose up and slew that Egyptian and buried him in the sand. And he didn't think anybody saw, but God saw. And the Jews heard about it, and Pharaoh heard about it. And Pharaoh was intending to kill him. And so Moses, trying to deliver Israel on his own, didn't go very well, and he had to flee.

He's about 40 years old, and he flees to Midian and marries a girl, Zipporah, there, and they start having kids. He's working for his father-in-law, Jethro. He's tending sheep on the backside of nowhere—not a fun place to be. And so for the first 40 years, he thought he was somebody. And for the next 40 years, he's learning he's nobody. And so he says, "Well, how can I deliver Israel? You got the wrong guy. Who am I that I should do this, Lord?" But the Lord likes to use somebody who's learned that he's a nobody. And God uses that somebody who's a nobody for great things.

In that objection, we've all had it. We've all had that excuse. We sense the Lord is calling us to do something big, way beyond our abilities, and we say, "Well, who am I that I could do that, or should do that, or would be able to do that? I'm a nothing nobody." And God says, "Yeah, I like to use nothing nobodies." See, you can never be too small for God to use, but you can definitely be too big for God to use. Because God is opposed to the proud. He gives grace to the humble.

Now, the divine response to Moses' question, excuse, question: "Who am I that I should deliver Israel?" God doesn't really answer the question directly. "Well, who are you, Moses? Let's go over who you are." He doesn't do that. He just says to him in verse 12, "Certainly, I will be with you." The Lord says, "And this shall be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you. When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain." They were coming back to Mount Horeb, Mount Sinai. And that's where Moses was going to go up to the mountain, commune with God, and receive the Ten Commandments.

So here's the thing: the "Who am I?" excuse. Who you are doesn't matter. Who he is matters. "I will be with you, Moses." And I think it's interesting because you have the burning bush. So Moses was attracted to the burn. "I must turn aside and see this bush that burns but is not consumed. This must be some kind of special bush." It wasn't a special bush. See, God would say to Moses, "Oh, you. You're really excited about this burning bush. This bush that burns but is not consumed? I can do the same thing with that bush and that bush and that bush and that bush. It's not the bush. It's the God in the bush." So it doesn't matter who you are. What matters is who I am. And I will be with you.

So the "Who am I?" excuse withers and falls because it matters not. What matters is who God is. And as Paul said in Philippians 4:13, "I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me." Where God guides, He provides.

Excuse number two: Not only the "Who am I?" excuse, but there is the "Well, I don't know enough" excuse. I don't know enough to do this. You're calling me to do this? I can do this. I don't know that people are going to ask me stuff. I don't know things. And so Moses comes in with that excuse, beginning in verse 13. Then Moses said to God, "Behold, I'm going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you.' Now they may say to me, 'What is his name? What shall I say to them?'"

Well, now, this is an excuse. I can't go because I don't have enough information. But it's also a good question. God doesn't answer the question, "Who am I?" But he does answer the question, "Who are you?" See, who you are—who I am—doesn't matter at all. Who God is matters supremely. And he asked that question. "Well, when they ask me questions, who is it that sent you? What is his name? What shall I say to them?"

Verse 14: God said to Moses, "I am who I am." And he said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I am has sent me to you.'" The name "I am" is the name Yahweh. It's the four letters: YHWH. In the Hebrew, that's the special name of God. God, furthermore, said to Moses, "Thus, you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'The Lord.'" Now, if you have a Bible like mine, when "the Lord" is in all caps, that's to tell you that's the name. When it's capital L, lowercase O, R, D, that's typically Adonai in the Hebrew. But "the Lord," all in caps, is the name YHWH, Yahweh—the Latinized version of Yahweh. If you wondered where the word "Jehovah" comes from, it's the Latinized version of YHWH, Jehovah. But a more accurate translation of those four letters is Yahweh.

And so he says, "You shall say to the sons of Israel, 'The Lord Yahweh, 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 this is my memorial name to all generations. Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, "The Lord Yahweh, the God of your fathers, appeared to me, saying, 'I am indeed concerned about you and what has been done to you in Egypt.'" So I said, "I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite." There's a test after. To a land flowing with milk and honey. He says it again, "Okay, this is where you're going. A land flowing with milk and honey." He says it twice to him in this chapter. "They will pay heed to what you say. And you, with the elders of Israel, will come to the king of Egypt. And you will say to him, 'The Lord Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. So now please let us go a three days' journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.'"

"But I know that the King of Egypt will not permit you to go except under compulsion. So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all my miracles, which I shall do in the midst of it. And after that, he will let you go. I will grant this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. And it shall be that when you go, you will not go empty-handed. But every woman shall ask of her neighbor and the woman who lives in her house articles of silver and articles of gold and clothing, and you will put them on your sons and your daughters. Thus you will plunder the Egyptians."

"I don't have enough information, God." Well, here comes the information. "Who are you?" God. God told him, "I am who I am."

Speaker 1

Am.

Speaker 2

Now, this is the passage of Scripture that Jesus quoted in John 8. When they said, "You're not yet 50 years old," he said, "Abraham rejoices in my day. And he saw it and was glad."

And they said, "You're not yet 50 years old. How do you know Abraham?"

And he said, "Before Abraham was born, I am."

And they gasped and picked up stones to stone him.

Speaker 3

Why?

Speaker 2

Blasphemy. That is the name of God. John, chapter 10. When Jesus said, "I and the Father are one," they again picked up stones to stone him. And Jesus said, "I've shown you many good works from the Father. For which of them are you stoning me?" And they said, "For a good work, we do not stone you, but for blasphemy. Because you, being a man, make yourself out to be God." Well, he is God. He is God. Anybody who ever tells you Jesus never claimed to be God, have them read the Gospel of John. He made it very clear that he is God. And he used that name, the great I AM.

This is also used when the Sadducees, who didn't believe in the resurrection, came to Jesus with that convoluted, stupid thing about the man who has a wife and then he dies. And then she marries his brother, and marries a brother, and marries a brother, and you know that one. And then they said in the resurrection, "Whose wife will she be?" You know, they asked this weird question. Jesus said, "You are mistaken, not understanding the Scriptures or the power of God." But hey, you guys don't believe in the resurrection. There is no resurrection in the first five books of Moses. That's all the Sadducees took: the first five books—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. And they threw out the rest. They said, "There is no resurrection in those first five books."

And Jesus took them to the most famous passage in the first five books of Moses and said, "Have you not read in the passage about the burning bush that God says, 'I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob'? He is not the God of the dead. He is the God of the living. You are greatly mistaken." And they just had to pick their mouths up off the floor because they were gutted through the word of God. They had missed it as big, as plain as day, but they had missed it.

And so God is telling Moses, "You don't have information. I'm giving you information. Here it is." And a ton of information—not only who God is, but how things are going to play out. We have that excuse, "I don't know enough." Well, you don't matter, but God matters, and God is going to weigh in, and God is going to make the difference.

Speaker 1

Have you used the "I don't know enough?" Excuse me.

Well, next time on the broadcast, Pastor Jeff begins talking about the "what if they don't believe me" excuse. Make sure you're with us for part two of the message entitled "Milk, Honey and Excuses" tomorrow.

But before we go, Pastor Jeff has some special words for you today.

Speaker 3

Christians today are under increasing pressure to stop standing for the truth. But listen, we all know that now is not the time to shrink back. This is the time to rise up with bold faith to stand strong in God's truth and courageously live it out, no matter the cost.

And you can help us spread that word each day on this broadcast when you stand boldly with From His Heart to proclaim the real truth of God's word without compromise. In a world that wants to silence us, it's only out of love for Christ and love for the lost that Christians must refuse to water down their convictions. God's command to you and me today is the same as he gave to Joshua: Be strong and courageous.

Your gift will make this possible as together we call men, women, and young people all over the world to walk in courage and share God's truth. And to say thanks for your gift, we'll send you my brand new six-message series called Strong and Courageous, where we'll take a close look at the command God gave to Joshua. Joshua needed to know that his strength and courage came from God alone. We still need this same reminder today, and that's why I'm so grateful for your partnership to help proclaim Jesus to a lost and hurting world.

And God bless you for your courage to share the truth with the world through From His Heart Ministries.

Speaker 1

Pastor Jeff's new six-lesson series, *Strong and Courageous*, is our thank you gift for your support this month to From His Heart of any amount. It's available in the format of your choice on CDs, DVDs, USB flash drive, or MP3 download. We hope you'll consider a helpful and timely gift for us this month.

Call 866-40-BIBLE (866-40-24253) or go to fromhisheart.org to request the series *Strong and Courageous* when you make that gift.

And thanks again for joining us today. I'm Larry Nobles, inviting you to be right back here next time for part two of the lesson *Milk, Honey, and Excuses*. That's when Pastor Jeff Shreve will open up God's word and share real truth, real love, and real hope. From His Heart.

Speaker 2

There is tremendous truth. There is blessed love, There is hope that you always dream. Love he can heal.

Speaker 1

From his heart is the listener supported Broadcast Ministry of Dr. Jeff Shreve speaking the truth in love to a lost and a hurting world.

Remember, no matter what, God loves you and he has a wonderful plan for your life.

Find out more about that, go to fromisheart.org.