Pastor Jeff on the Radio

Guest (Male): You're listening to Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub with Pastor Jeff Ministries. On today's program, Jeff begins his message Responding to God's Call from the series Exodus, and shows you that when God calls you, He also empowers you, inviting you to lay down what you've been holding onto so His authority and power can work through your life.

Here we're committed to equipping you with solid biblical truth so you can live boldly for Jesus. Visit PastorJeff.com and sign up for Pastor Jeff's weekly emails for encouragement sent straight to your inbox every week. And now here's Pastor Jeff with today's message.

Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub: This morning I want to talk to you about responding to God's call. Many of us have heard the call of God in our life. We've responded by repentance and faith and trusting Jesus as our Lord and Savior, and yet for so many of us from time to time we wonder this question: What does the Lord want me to do? Or even when we begin to think about what it is that the Lord wants us to do, how do I do it? What is my next step? What do you expect of me?

How is it that I hear stories of people that have heard the Lord and followed Him and saw great things happen, but I hear the Lord and I'm not quite so sure what to do? Responding to a voice is really important. All of us have cell phones. There's features on our cell phones now when we see a call coming in, we can do things now that we couldn't do 30 years ago. We can silence it. We can see who it is that's calling. We can decide to schedule a call for the future to call them back. We can even text message them back instead of responding to a call. We can leave all sorts of messages, but we have to respond in some way.

The same is true spiritually. When you hear the voice of the Lord, the Lord is calling you not just so that you can hear Him, the Lord is calling you so that you can do something about it. Parents, when you instruct your kids, you're not just doing it so that you can pat yourselves on the back and say I'm doing my job. You're instructing your kids so that they will respond. A teacher is teaching students not just so that they can dispense information, but so that the student can respond. Even playing football, when a play is called, it's not what was called, it's that there was received and was called in the huddle that was then executed.

The same is true spiritually. Many of us come to church month after month and week after week and we hear the word of the Lord, but we don't do anything with what we hear. That's why I pray a very simple prayer. I pray it routine every time for those that want to hear the word of the Lord: who will believe what Jesus says and who will do what, by faith, put into practice what He shows you. We learn in the book of Hebrews that faith is the assurance of what we hope for, the conviction of what we do not see. In Hebrews 11:6, we learn that without faith, it is impossible to please Him, because anyone that comes to Him must believe that He is and that He rewards those who diligently seek Him.

So in answer to God's call on your life, in answer to hearing the word of the Lord, the simple answer of what I need to do is have faith or trust. The question becomes, okay, so how do I do that? What does it look like for me to trust God right now, presently, in this season? If you've been praying to the Lord or you've been wondering for a while, I just wish I knew what He wanted from me, I believe that God has a word for you today. To take a look at that word, we're going to be in the book of Exodus this morning, chapter four.

We're going to try to traverse the whole chapter this morning in responding to God's call. For those that have been with us, you know we've started this book. In Exodus chapter one, we see the dire straits that the children of Israel are in in Egypt, and God has a plan. God's going to orchestrate something significant in that He's going to raise up Moses behind the scenes to be the one that is going to deliver the people. In chapter three last week, we took a look at what God does when He goes after a problem in the world. He goes looking for a man in order to make him a worshiper so that that man that's worshiping Him will know how to respond accordingly.

Today, what we're going to take a look at in chapter four is how you respond to that call. To pick up at chapter four, just to give you an idea of what's been going on, I mean, Moses saw God. He experienced God. He heard God directly. He saw a bush in the wilderness and it was unlike any other bush in that the bush was on fire, but the bush itself was not being consumed. So he went over and said, I want to see what this strange sight is. I've seen burning bushes before, but never one that's not consumed. When he got to the bush, what did he hear? "Get back. The place you're standing is holy ground. Take off your sandals."

So Moses took off his sandals and stood in that place and began to hear the voice of the Lord call him to something special. And then when he was asking the question, "Okay, I know what You want me to do. When I go, who do I tell them sent me?" and what did God say? "I AM WHO I AM. Tell them I AM sent you." We took a look at the creator God that's self-existent and that's always been, that will always be. That's the very God that sent you. For many of us, we would say, well, if I was on my way home today and I saw a burning bush that wasn't being consumed and God spoke to me directly out of that bush and told me exactly what to do, I'd do it.

But Moses is very much like us. Just because he hears the voice of God doesn't mean he still doesn't have questions. We're going to take a look at four ways to respond to God's call today, four requirements of faith, what faith looks like in your life. The first is this: Responding to God's call requires trusting His authority and power to accomplish His purposes.

Notice chapter four in verse one. After all that He's told them, after all He's told Moses and all He's told him that will take place for the children of Israel, chapter four, verse one says: Then Moses said, "What if they do not believe me or listen to what I say? For they may say, 'The Lord has not appeared to you.'" He's saying this: "God, I heard You. God, I know what You want me to do. I understand what You want me to say. It's clear what You want to accomplish. It's clear that You say You're going to accomplish it. I have one question. I've heard You tell me what I'm supposed to do, but what if I tell people that You told me but they don't believe that I've been with You? They don't believe that I've been called. They don't see the calling on my life that You tell me that I have."

For instance, we can sit here and we can hear the Lord month after month, week after week, and sense that God's calling us to do something, but the question that goes off in our mind is, what if other people don't sense that I have that call on my life? How will the people You're calling me to know that I have that call on my life? That's Moses's question. So God has him do a learning illustration. The Lord said to him in verse two, "What is that in your hand?" and he said, "A staff."

Now, Moses has been shepherding for a long time. How important is a staff to a shepherd? It's very important. It's his tool. It's what he uses. It is his staff. It's what he's been with. It's used for walking on difficult trails. It's used for fending off prey for the sheep. It's used for guiding the sheep. I mean, he's had this in his hand for pretty much his whole adult life. This is the tool that he needs. So God says, "What's that in your hand?" He's like, "It's my staff." So what's God going to tell him to do with this staff? This tool that's brought him comfort, this tool that's brought him protection, this tool that's been everything that he's ever needed. Then He said, "Throw it on the ground."

Throw it on the ground. In other words, He's telling Moses: Take what you think are your best resources, take what you think is most important to you, and lay it down before Me. What is it in your life that's your staff? What does that representative of for you? Maybe it is a calculator. Maybe it is a computer. Maybe it's something more internal. Maybe it's your ability to persuade people. Maybe it's your ability to build friendships. Maybe it's your ability to encourage other people. Something that you say without this I couldn't be who I'm supposed to be.

What's God say? Lay it down. What's God say? Throw it down. It's no longer you that's going to be holding that. I need you to see something. So Moses throws it on the ground, and in verse three it says: So he threw it on the ground and it became a serpent, and Moses fled from it. God is going to show him that what he's holding in his hand, when God empowers it, is way more powerful than if he just held onto it himself. He puts it on the ground and we see the first Raiders of the Lost Ark experience, right? I mean, he's fleeing from that thing.

He's like us. I mean, I've seen snakes. I live on five acres. I see them all the time. I don't go up and hang out with them. He saw that snake and he's running the other way. Here he's been holding this staff his whole adult life. He's never been afraid of his staff. He's never been afraid of his gifting. He's never seen how powerful it is when God empowers it. He lays it on the ground and all of a sudden it turns into this huge serpent and he runs away. And then he hears the voice of the Lord. And what does the voice of the Lord say in verse four? But the Lord said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand and grasp it by the tail."

No. I mean, I watch television shows like that, but that doesn't seem fun. I mean, He's telling him, hey, you better be ginger with this. You better understand that I'm the one that's empowering this. You better understand that what you've been holding in your hand, you've used and it's been your tool, but if you lay it down and you let Me empower it, it's way more powerful. Lay it down. I will show you how powerful your gifting can be. So he does and the God tells him to pick it up by the tail. Be gentle with it. Now Moses is obedient, and Moses does that. When Moses does that and grabs it by the tail, he stretched out his hand and caught it and it became a staff in his hand again.

And God said, "That they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you." He's telling them, here's how you're going to know. You're not going on your own power anymore. You're going on My power. If people don't believe you, you put that staff down, it will turn into a snake. They'll see that it's My power in you. They'll see that it's Me that's doing the work. They'll see that it's not you, because you can't do that on your own, but I can do that. So lay it down.

When God calls us to something great and we need to see His authority and His power in our life, He oftentimes asks us to lay down the things that bring us the most comfort. He often calls us to lay down the things that we think we personally are the most gifted in. He often calls us to lay them down so that we know that He's in charge of the thing that we've been holding onto. If you want to follow the call of God, lay down your gifting. Lay down what you hold in your hand. You lay them before the Lord. My singleness, my marriage, my abilities, my gifting, the tools and resources. They're all Yours, Lord. And he lays them out before the Lord.

Now in verse 20, we're going to get to there later, but by the time he picks that staff back up, it's no longer going to be called Moses's staff anymore. You know what it's going to be called? The staff of God. Because that staff is going to be used to bring all sorts of miraculous works over the Egyptians, all sorts of plagues. It's going to part the Red Sea. Moses does not have the ability to do anything that God was going to call him to do. He needed to respond to God's authority and God's power in order to do that.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Pastor Jeff Ministries. Today's message, Responding to God's Call from the series Exodus, shows you that when God calls you, He also empowers you, inviting you to lay down what you've been holding onto so His authority and power can work through your life.

We'll return to Pastor Jeff shortly. In the meantime, Pastor Jeff is calling you to begin 2026 with a posture of radical dependence on God through fasting, scripture, and heartfelt prayer. To help with that, we want to send you a powerful resource, 21 Days of Power: Becoming a Person of Prayer, Faith, and Fire. It's our thanks for your gift of support today to share teachings like the one you're hearing on the program with more people seeking truth and the hope only Christ can offer. Request your copy today when you give at PastorJeff.com. Now let's get back to Pastor Jeff for the conclusion of today's message.

Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub: And that's what God does in our lives. God helps us see those things before we move forward. Notice what He says. If that wasn't enough, in verse six: The Lord furthermore said to him, "Now put your hand into your bosom," or inside your cloak. So he put his hand inside his bosom, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous like snow. Leprosy was a disease centuries earlier that turned your hand white. It was extremely painful, it was incurable. So He says, hey, if they won't believe this, then maybe they'll believe this. Put your hand inside your cloak and pull it out. And he does, and all of a sudden his hand's leprous. He sees that there's no cure for his hand.

And then God says this: Then He said, "Put your hand back into your bosom again." So he put his hand back in his bosom again, and when he pulled it out of his bosom, behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh. See, God had him lay down his staff because that was the tool, that was his resource, that's what he had. God showed him that He also has control over the whole body. God is the one that makes well. God is the one that can heal. God is the one that ordains all of your days before one of them comes to be.

And as if that wasn't enough, He goes on in verse eight and He says: "If they will not believe you or heed the witness of the first sign, then they may believe the witness of the last sign. If they don't believe the staff becoming a snake, then hey, perhaps they'll believe in the leprosy that I showed you." But verse nine says: "But if they will not believe even in those two signs or heed what you say, then you shall take some water from the Nile, pour it on the dry ground, and the water which you take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground."

So you can turn water into blood. How important is water for sustaining life? I've been told you can go only three days without water. You can go a long time without food. I've gone weeks without food on different fasts. You can go a lot longer without food than you think, but you cannot last for more than three days without water. What was God saying? He's like, I need to be in control of your resources, I need to be in control of your body, and oh, by the way, I'm in control of every life-giving source that goes on for you and the entire nation of Egypt. I'm in control of it all. Submit to My authority and submit to My power.

If you want to be used by God in the calling that He has for your life, submit to His authority and submit to His power. That's what Moses is learning. And what I've found over the years is that God will give you lessons that you need, little lessons that He will grow you in things to believe that He is the one who's actually doing the work.

I remember when I went into ministry at the age of 24. I had to raise about, I think 3,500 bucks or something like that. At the time it may as well have been $35,000. I didn't have any of it. And what was really hard for me at the time was when people were encouraging me to write letters and ask for provision for ministry, it made me feel weak. Because I began to think, I went to college to earn my own way, I don't need to write letters to the people I went to college with and other people asking them to give me money so I can go do ministry. It just didn't feel right. I'd been taught you work for everything that you get.

And yet God humbled me, and I wrote these different letters. And wouldn't you know the day before I was ready to go, I was $200 shy of going on this trip that I needed to go on and just assumed God will provide the rest. So I was going to a Bible study that night that was an hour and a half away where I went to college and I had called a couple guys on the phone. And both of them told me the day before, hey, don't worry about it. You're $200 away? I'll write you a check for 100, and the other guy said I'll write you a check for 100, and I said, Lord, You are so awesome. Just in time. First time I've ever seen God provide like that.

So I get to the Bible study and our Bible study leader was there and I was so excited. We did our Bible study, but the other guy didn't show up. And at the end of the Bible study, he wrote me a check for $100, and the other guy wasn't there. Like, what was I going to do? I don't want to call the guy and be like, yo, I still need 100 bucks. But I end up calling him and saying, hey, I'm not going to get to say goodbye to you, I'm moving to Minnesota, but hey, just keep me in your prayers. He's like, oh yeah, the check. I forgot. I'll be right over.

And he came by and he wrote a check and I got in my car and I was backing out of the driveway and I'm not a detailed person and I thought you better look at the check because if it doesn't have a date or a signature, it's not going to count. And I look at the first check, it was for $100. And I look at my friend's check that came later and it was for $1,000. And I was like, what? So I went back in the driveway, went back in the house, I'm like, bro, I only need 100 bucks. He's like, that's okay. He goes, the Lord's provided me with so much, you'll find some way to use it in ministry, which I did. And I remember thinking, the Lord always provides for my needs. And I've watched the Lord now for 30 years do that over and over and over and over again. The Lord is the one that provides.

So when I read scriptures like Philippians 4:19, "And my God will supply all my needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus," I 100 percent totally believe that. 100 percent. God taught me that. I used to read things in the Bible about people that would get cured of diseases or they'd be delivered from demons. I didn't grow up in a church that talked like that. I never saw that. Only thing I saw was stuff on TV that looked weird and strange. You know why? Because it's weird and strange. But I'd never seen the power of God. But over time God had me praying for different people that I saw get healed, and God had me praying for people that I saw get delivered. And now to this day I believe that the God of the Bible that we read about is the same God that we serve today and He's capable of doing it all.

But then I remember when it came to preaching. I changed my major my sophomore year in college to speech communications at the University of Illinois, but I wasn't a top communicator. I mean, I sat in the classes where we had to give different kinds of speeches, informational speeches, persuasive speeches. I did all the same things y'all did. And I wasn't one of the better ones at it. I remember I did a persuasive speech in the early 90s in college on the new seatbelt law. Some of you remember this because when I grew up, the way the seatbelt law worked is when you were driving, whoever was driving when they put their hand on the brake would extend their right arm. That was the seatbelt law and it seemed to work pretty effectively.

But then they changed the laws and they said people need to wear seatbelts, "click it or ticket." And so I gave a persuasive speech, a five-minute speech on why you should wear your seatbelt and encouraged everybody to do. I think I got a B on it or something like that. It didn't change my life or anybody else's. And I remember thinking, I'm not that good of a communicator. My friends are all good communicators. Even at my wedding when they came the night before and they all gave speeches, it was hilarious. I mean, they roasted me and they told the best stories and they're all good communicators. I'm not.

And so I always told the Lord, You got to pick somebody else that can do this. But what I learned was that when God started using me to speak, it wasn't me speaking. It's God speaking through His word. And the reason I love to preach rather than give a speech is when I'm preaching the word, I know God is using what He wants to get done in the lives of each one of you individually even though it's different things that you're all hearing. Somebody will come up to me a week after I preach and say, loved that sermon on forgiveness. Loved that sermon on marriage. Loved that sermon on singleness. Loved that sermon on giving. I don't remember saying any of those things. Who was that? That was the Holy Spirit through His word telling you what you needed to hear. Amen?

I remember the first time I shared the gospel in this small little church where I was called, which about 100 people big. We had 20 youth show up for our first meeting. I remember I shared the gospel and several of them raised their hands to respond by repentance and faith. And I remember thinking, I don't even know if they heard me right, because why would they be responding? So I went back over it again because I wanted to make sure they really understood what it meant to repent and believe in Jesus. And then I watched God do that over and over and I realized it was just being faithful, that's what was doing it.

And I still see those stories now. I was just at a wedding on Thursday night and know the bride and groom really well, know the father of the bride. And the father of the bride was telling me this story. It was so powerful I made him tell my daughter later in the evening. He's 71 years old, he told this story. He said, "Jeff, from the time I was six," he goes, "I kind of accepted Jesus, I believed the truths about Him, I've always carried my Bible, people have always made fun of me for being a Christian and all these different things, and I've done all the good stuff I'm supposed to do."

Two weeks ago, which would have been two weeks ago today, he was watching online, listening to our online service, watching it on a screen while he was 12 feet up on a ladder. And he was complaining to God while I was preaching and he was saying to himself, "How come it is, God, that You never really answer the simplest prayer of mine and I don't see You work like Pastor Jeff's talking and none of these things seem to be happening in my life?" And right as I was saying that to God, "Jeff, here's what you said. You said sometimes the hardest people to get saved are those who think they're saved who really aren't."

And I heard a voice behind me, this is him talking. I was 12 feet up on a ladder. I heard a voice behind me coming through the pine trees saying his name and saying, "That's because you've never been saved." He said, "I about fell off my ladder. I got down off the ladder on my knees, repented and trusted Jesus." He goes, "I've been saved for 12 days and it's awesome." Now how's that work? That's not something I planned, that's not something I predicted, that's not something I wrote in the sermon. That's something that the Holy Spirit had for that man from eternity past. Amen?

And God does all those different things to us to grow us. And when He grows us, He's not asking you to change your temperament and personality. Did you know that? You can't. Sometimes people think if I go all in with God, I've got to change everything about—you can't. God made you just the way He made you. Psalm 139 says you're fearfully and wonderfully made, you were knit together in your mother's womb. You can't change your temperament. You can't change your personality. What I find that God likes to do over time is sanctify it, but He uses all sorts of different things.

I mean, we see the first story of David and one of his first victories of slaying Goliath. David says, "Well, that's no big deal. I've already slain the lion and the bear. What's this Philistine doing here?" Or what about Peter? All throughout the gospels, all Peter ever did was talk and accomplish nothing except foolishness. And yet when he was empowered by the authority of the Holy Spirit, he stood up and gave one message and 3,000 people came to Christ in a moment. Or what about the Apostle Paul that spent his life as a religious zealot studying the Hebrew scriptures, and then got saved. Did God change his personality? No. He just became a religious zealot for the Lord Jesus Christ and a phenomenal apostle and wrote two-thirds of the New Testament.

God doesn't change your personality. He doesn't change who you are. He wants you to be who you are. And this is a big deal, because sometimes when you talk about laying yourself down or coming to Christ or giving Him your best, you falsely hear the devil say something like this: That means you've got to become one of those weird Christian people. That means you've got to become like them. You don't have to become like anybody else. You want Christ to fill you and be the fullness of who Christ is in your life.

I argued with the Lord for a long time. I'm like, I do not have the pastor temperament. That's not who I am. I'm visionary, I'm directing, I'm bold with my words. That's who I am, God. I'm not sweet by nature, I'm not kind by nature, I'm not shepherd-y by nature. That's not who I am. You got the wrong guy. But here's what I've found. God doesn't care. All God wants to do in the process is have us be obedient and then sanctify that as we continue. Amen?

You don't have to change who you are. God's just asking you to be you because He's the one that made you. He's the one that gave you your temperament. He's the one that gave you your personality. All He's asking is will you let My authority and My power be what works through you? Amen? And one of the reasons that we have a hard time taking the next step is we want to do it under our power and our authority and accomplish our purposes with our decisions. And then we wonder why we're not seeing the power of God at work in our lives. All He's asking is this: Will you lay it down? Will you lay it down? Will you let Me empower what you have? Because when I supernaturally empower who you are, I can do far more than you ever dared dream or imagine according to the power that is at work within you. Amen?

Guest (Male): Thanks for listening today. That was Pastor Jeff with his message Responding to God's Call from the series Exodus, showing you that when God calls you, He also empowers you, inviting you to lay down what you've been holding onto so His authority and power can work through your life.

We're glad you joined us today. And don't forget, Pastor Jeff is challenging you to begin 2026 with a commitment to radical dependence on God. And when you give a gift of support to help lead others to the same kind of surrender to the Lord, we'll send you 21 Days of Power: Becoming a Person of Prayer, Faith, and Fire, to help you develop the life-changing disciplines of prayer, fasting, and study of God's Word. Your support helps connect others to God and shares the gospel with those searching for truth. So request your copy of 21 Days of Power when you give today at PastorJeff.com. Thanks for listening, and for being on mission to share Christ with others.