Dr. Ron Sumners
April 23, 2006
Why is it that we feel that we can offer excuses when it comes to things of the church that would be ridiculous if used anywhere else? Have you ever wondered what would happen if people were as intense and committed and determined about church as they are sports? Some years ago, Moody Monthly ran a piece which included excuses that a person might give for quitting sports, if they used the same excuses they do in church.
"Every time I went, they asked for money."
"The people I sat with were not friendly."
"The seats were too hard and uncomfortable."
"The coach never came to visit me."
"The referee made a decision I didn't agree
with."
"I was sitting with hypocrites - they only came
to see what others were wearing."
"Some games went into overtime, and I was late
getting home."
"The band played songs I had never heard
before."
"The games were scheduled when I had other
things to do."
"My parents took me to too many games when I
was growing up."
"I read a book on sports; I feel that I know more
than the coaches."
"I don't want to influence my children; I want them to
choose for themselves when they grow up."
In chapter three of the Book of Exodus, God tells Moses that he has heard the cry of the Children of Israel in their slavery and has decided that He will send Moses to tell Pharaoh to let the Hebrews go. Moses immediately begins to give God excuses why he was not the one for the task. Have you ever responded that way?
You 're asked to teach a Sunday School Class - the excuses start.
You are asked to serve in the nursery - the excuses start.
God puts in your heart to share your faith with a friend or neighbor - the excuses
start.
You are made aware of someone with a need that you could provide - the excuses
start!
Sometimes our excuses pile up and get in the way of our doing anything for God. There are people who have been on the roll of churches all their lives and have never done anything except sit in a pew, because they have always had an excuse why they could not serve. I once heard a lady say, "I would take a job at the church, but I have never been asked." Folks, we will take volunteers! And I hate to be skeptical, but I would suppose that if that lady were asked to perform a service, she would have a great excuse why she could not possibly do it!
I heard a great story about excuses some time ago. Nine GIs were on a week-end furlough, and they all showed up late for the Monday morning roll call. The Commanding Officer was furious. The first man straggled in and said, "Sir, I'm sorry, but I had a date and lost track of time, and I missed the bus. I hired a cab so I could get back on time. Halfway back the cab broke down, I went to a farmhouse and persuaded the farmer to sell me a horse. I was riding to camp when the animal fell over dead. I walked the last ten miles, and just got here."
Though skeptical, the officer let the young man off with a reprimand. After him, seven others came into camp with the same story; missed the bus-got a cab-cab broke down-got a horse-horse died-walked to camp. By the time the ninth man reported in, the officer had grown weary of it. "Okay," he growled, "Now what happened to you?" "Sir, I missed the bus and had to get a cab." The officer screamed, "Don't tell me the cab broke down!" "No Sir, but there were so many dead horses on the road we had trouble getting through!"
Moses had his excuses for not following the call of God. He offers five excuses trying to prove to God that he was not fit for this mission God had planned for him.
Excuse One - the "Who me?" excuse (3:11-12)
The first excuse that Moses offers is a bit pitiful, but it sounds like something that you and I have said to God. Moses said, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh. And that I should bring the Children of Israel out of Egypt?" Moses, no doubt, remembers his earlier failures. Moses had murdered an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew slave. He hid the body in the sand. The next day he happened upon two Israelites fighting and he tried to reconcile them. One man replied, "Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Do you want to kill us as you did the Egyptian yesterday?"
When Moses tried this deliverance forty years earlier, he was neither believed nor listened to. If they did not believe Moses forty years prior, why should they believe him now? It is a terrible thing to believe that when we speak that no one is going to listen to us or believe us. But the past is redeemable! We may feel that everything is set in concrete, but things do change. People change. We change. Moses was living forty years in the past. God answered in verse twelve, "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."
Moses' first excuse expressed doubt in himself; his second excuse unfortunately, expresses doubt in God.
Excuse two - "By What Authority" (3:13-15)
Moses said, "When I come to the Children of Israel and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is His name?' what shall I say to them?" And God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM. Tell the children of Israel that, 'I AM has sent me to you."'
God said, "I am who I am." God told Moses that this task I have for you is not about who you are but who I am! In any conflict it is important to know who is sending you into battle. Too often we make excuses why we can't serve God because we think that it is about us, our lack of time, talent, ability, etc. It is not about us; it is all about the great I AM!
Many people are not committed to God, quite frankly, because they do not know God! They sort of know about Him. But like the Hebrews in Egypt, they have lost track of who God is. He is not a grandfather figure sitting in heaven, merely observing the antics of his mischievous offspring, and turning a deaf ear to our language, closing His eyes, and winking at our sin. He is not only the giver of life, He is life!
When God tells Moses that "I AM WHO I AM," He is literally saying, "I am he who was, and is and will always be!" or "I will continue to be what I have always been." When God asks us to do something, He does so in the authority of Himself. If He asks you, He will qualify you. It is about Him and not about you!
Excuse three - The "What ifs" (4:1-9)
Moses answered God, "Suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, 'The Lord has not appeared to you."' Moses offered some totally hypothetical "what ifs." Moses was afraid they might ask him questions that he did not have the answer to.
Have you ever used that as an excuse for not sharing your faith? "I would share but I am not an expert on the bible, they might ask me a question that I don't have the answer to."
"What ifs" are victory stealers and zeal quenchers. These excuses will always relegate us to second best. Moses was so concerned with what might happen that he could not hear God telling him what would happen.
God asked Moses what he was holding in his hand. It was a shepherd's staff. He told Moses to throw it down on the ground and it became a snake. God instructed Moses to pick the snake up and it became a staff again. God did not ask Moses to use something that he did not already have. He asked Moses, "What is in your hand?" God uses what we have and has never demanded from us what we do not have. We will never know the full potential of what can be done until we are willing to offer what we have to God. God is not looking for ability, he is looking for availability!
When God called, we are tempted to put our assets and abilities in one column and our limitations and liabilities in another column to determine if we can do what the Lord has called us to do. God is not interested in all that. If He did not deem you qualified for the task, he would not have asked you. God often allows us to enter a place where we feel confident, yet we flounder and fail, and then He puts us in a place where we feel inadequate and we are forced to depend on Him, and we discover that through His strength we are adequate to the task.
Excuse four - "But Lord I don't speak well"
Moses then says that he is not an eloquent speaker and can't communicate well. He may have been slow of tongue, but he is fast enough with his excuses! This seems odd for Stephen; in Acts 7:22 it says that Moses in his first forty years in Egypt was a man "mighty in words and deeds."
The Lord responds to Moses, "Who has made man's mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing or the blind? Have not I, the Lord? Now go, and I will be your mouth and teach you what you will say."
Our inadequacies are not a problem for God; He made us the way we are. But if we do not make ourselves available to God, then God's plans for our lives can't go forward.
Excuse five - "Send someone else" (4:13-17)
No matter what, signs or no signs, whether God promises to be with him or not, staff to snake and back again, of no affect, Moses does not want to go! The last objection was not based on any reason or excuse. Moses just did not want to go. If we are honest, that is where most of us find ourselves when all our excuses have fallen useless at our feet. We simply do not want to do what God has asked us to do!
Exodus 4:14 tells us that God was angry with Moses. If you get nothing else from this sermon, please hear this, God does not accept our excuses, in fact, they make Him angry! His blessings are withheld from those who whine. It is not that God has patience for four excuses but not five. Moses is refusing to trust God's answer. When Moses begs God to send someone else, he is telling God, "I don't trust you." And this angers God.
The sin of excuses someday will come to judgment. One day we will stand before the eternal judge - our excuses will all be gone; we will stand with nothing but the truth and what we have done or not done in the name of Jesus!
Not only do our excuses anger God, but they also cause discouragement within the body of Christ. Excuses force the few to carry the burden for many. Every time you say, "No" to God, someone, who is already doing their share, has to take another burden. Satan can use this as a wedge to bring division and discouragement.
We do not need for someone else to do what God is calling us to do. Have you ever stopped to consider the harm you are doing to the Kingdom when you refuse to do what you are called to do?
In the later part of verse 14 God says to Moses, "Is not Aaron the Levite your brother? I know that he can speak well. He is coming out to meet you .... I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and I will teach you what to do. So, he shall be your spokesman with the people ... " God accommodated Moses' lack of faith, but the compromise was less than what God intended. Moses was God's man for the job, but He allowed Aaron to assist him. Once the children of Israel left Egypt, Aaron got his brother and the Children of Israel into serious trouble. It was Aaron who constructed the golden calf that the people worshipped while Moses was communing with God receiving the Ten Commandments!
God's perfect will is always better than His permissive will. If Moses had obeyed God, Aaron would not have been there to lead the people astray! If you say, "No" to God, he may have to use someone else to perform your task, but it will not be what he desired.
Moses does finally respond in obedience. Exodus 4:20: "So Moses took his wife and his sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand." Moses ultimately did what God asked. Think of the lives that he touched because of his obedience. When we walk in obedience, we too will touch the lives of the people around us.
BJ Miller once said, "It is a great deal easier to do what the Lord gives us to do, no matter how hard it is, than to face the responsibility of not doing it." The cost of obedience is nothing when compared to the cost of disobedience.
We often tell God that we can't do a thing that He has asked. The truth of the matter is that our true response is, "I won't!" We disobey because we choose to, not because we have to. The sooner we accept the truth, the sooner we can change. I believe that God has called every person in this room to service. I know he has called me, and I am just as sure he has called each of you.
The ministry of this church is less than it could be and less than God intends because too many of you have said, "No!" You have said "No," not because you can't but because you won't!
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