Notes: No More Excuses
Exodus 3–4
SPEAKER: Pastor Steve Wilburn
Sunday, August 23, 2015 — 8:00 a.m.
We all make excuses, some more than others.
Don't make excuses, just make good.
Several excuses are always less convincing than one.
Excuses are the nails used to build a house of failure.
1 Peter 2:9 NKJV
[9] But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy
nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who
called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
Our purpose is to serve God.
The Harvest Crusade depends on us believers to get people there.
Working as a church to spread the word of God.
You are the perfect candidate to invite people and to take them to
the Harvest Crusade.
Moses is the perfect example of how God can use those unlikely
candidates.
Moses is mentioned in the Bible over 850 times.
God is never late or or early, God is always right on time.
Exodus 3:7-8 NKJV
[7] And the LORD said: "I have surely seen the oppression of My
people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters,
for I know their sorrows. [8] So I have come down to deliver them out of the
hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large
land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and
the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the
Jebusites.
Ezekiel 2:7 NKJV
[7] You shall speak My words to them, whether they hear or whether
they refuse, for they are rebellious.
Moses was chosen to be Gods spokesman. Yet he did everything thing
he could get out of this calling.
Three points to review today:
1. Who am I?
2. What if?
3. I Can't Speak.
1. Who am I?
Exodus 3:9-14 NKJV
[9] Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has
come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians
oppress them. [10] Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you
may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt." [11] But Moses
said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should
bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?" [12] So He said, "I will
certainly be with you. And this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you:
When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this
mountain." [13] Then Moses said to God, "Indeed, when I come to the
children of Israel and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to
you,' and they say to me, 'What is His name?' what shall I say to them?"
[14] And God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." And He said, "Thus
you shall say to the children of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'"
At this point Moses was a nobody, all of his fame and fortune was
gone.
It doesn't matter what we think of ourselves or what others think,
God is looking for a heart that will serve Him.
God uses all: the weak, the feeble, the foolish and despised.
A cost of true greatness is humble sacrificial service.
People need to know that there is no problem in life that God can
not heal.
Many Christians are not used by God...most people fail to serve for
lack of purpose with a deep, subtle resistance, not a lack of talent.
The last will be first, those who gave the most will gain the most.
It was said, "we are born trying, we live complaining, and we
die disappointed".
Exodus 3:13-14 NKJV
[13] Then Moses said to God, "Indeed, when I come to the
children of Israel and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to
you,' and they say to me, 'What is His name?' what shall I say to them?"
[14] And God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." And He said, "Thus
you shall say to the children of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'"
John 8:58 NKJV
[58] Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, before
Abraham was, I AM."
God has been around since eternity past and will be around for the
rest of eternity.
Where else do you see an event like the Harvest Crusade in the world
that people can be brought to a stadium to learn about The Gospel?
John 8:24 NKJV
[24] Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if
you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins."
Don't just choose to say nothing!
2. What if?
Exodus 4:1-5 NKJV
[1] 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.'" [2] So the LORD said to him, "What is that in your
hand?" He said, "A rod." [3] And He said, "Cast it on the
ground." So he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses
fled from it. [4] Then the LORD said to Moses, "Reach out your hand and
take it by the tail" (and he reached out his hand and caught it, and it
became a rod in his hand), [5] "that they may believe that the LORD God of
their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has
appeared to you."
People in life are either a pessimist or an optimist. Who needs the
devil to discourage us, we do that all by ourselves.
Don't miss what is on the golden platter in front of you. Always
take the opportunity to serve God.
Exodus 4:6-9 NKJV
[6] 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,
his hand was leprous, like snow. [7] 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 flesh. [8] "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. [9] And it shall be, if
they do not believe even these two signs, or listen to your voice, that you
shall take water from the river and pour it on the dry land. The water which
you take from the river will become blood on the dry land."
3. I can't speak.
Exodus 4:10-17 NKJV
[10] Then Moses said to the LORD, "O 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." [11] So 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? [12] Now therefore, go, and I will be with
your mouth and teach you what you shall say." [13] But he said, "O my
Lord, please send by the hand of whomever else You may send." [14] So the
anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses, and He said: "Is not Aaron
the Levite your brother? I know that he can speak well. And look, he is also
coming out to meet you. When he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. [15]
Now you shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth. And I will be with
your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you what you shall do. [16] So
he shall be your spokesman to the people. And he himself shall be as a mouth
for you, and you shall be to him as God. [17] And you shall take this rod in
your hand, with which you shall do the signs."
Moses could speak:
Acts 7:22 NKJV
[22] And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and
was mighty in words and deeds.
Not speaking was just an excuse.
Psalm 6:8 NKJV
[8] Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity; For the LORD has
heard the voice of my weeping.
2 Corinthians 4:16-17 NKJV
[16] Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is
perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. [17] For our light
affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding
and eternal weight of glory,
Don't look at your life just in this life, but look at your life in
an eternal light. You may be in a time of affliction now, but it may be a light
affliction in eternity.
How many times has God tried to use us and we just walked away?
We lose when we walk away, but we aren't the only losers. The ones
we haven't shared the Gospel with lose out even more.
Everyone shares guilt and shame. The reason people feel guilt is
because they are guilty.
Exodus 32:32 NKJV
[32] Yet now, if You will forgive their sin-but if not, I pray, blot
me out of Your book which You have written."
We are all going to die. Either today or in the future, but we will
die.
We will all stand before God, and everything we have ever done will
be brought into the light as we stand there.
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