The Five Words That Change Everything

Our citizenship is in heaven, and this place is not our home. So what do we do in the meantime?

In the Scriptures, Moses saw that his people were oppressed, and he tried to take matters into his own hands. Acts 7 tells us that though Moses thought he was doing what God wanted him to do, he moved ahead of God and, without God, made a mess out of everything.

That tends to happen when we react and move instead of waiting on God.

Moses ends up guilty of murder. And the word spreads quickly. In less than 24 hours, Pharoah knows and is on the hunt for him. So now, Moses is a fugitive on the run in the Midian desert. He marries a foreign woman, settles in a foreign land, and lives his next 40 years taking care of her dad's sheep.

So, here he is in our text—80 years old. Plagued by his past. Downtrodden. Discouraged. Washed up. Nothing left to offer. Guilty. And in many ways, he thought he would just die in the desert, having lived an insignificant life.

Maybe you can relate to that.

Moses is at Horeb. Which means desolation, barren, solitude. And in that place, the Angel of the Lord appears. God knows how to find you.

You are not so far away, that God can not reach you.

Foreign ground…became Holy Ground. And from that desert and desolate place…God makes himself known to Moses.

Can you imagine what Moses must have felt? What must his first thought have been when God called to him?

He hasn’t forgotten me. He still knows my name.

He hasn’t forgotten you, friend.

The character of God is on display here:

• I’ve seen the misery of my people.
• I’ve heard them crying out.
• I am concerned about their suffering.
• I have come down To rescue them.

Seen // Heard // Concerned // Rescue

This is the heart of God.

• He sees you, and what you are going through.
• He hears your cries. No tears are wasted, and no cry has fallen on deaf ears.
• He is concerned about your suffering. He cares for you.
• He has come down through His Son to rescue you.

We also see here…that God is a sending God! Moses, I am sending you. “There is no such thing as an unsent Christian.”

In these verses, he is clear: “I” have come down to rescue them. It is God who rescues, but he includes and invites Moses to be a part of his plan.

The “Here I am” in verse 4 has turned into “Who am I?” in verse 11.

He didn’t forget who he was. This is not an identity crisis. Moses knew exactly who he was, and that was the problem: He was disqualified in his own mind for the task that God was calling him to.

Failures have a way of doing that, don’t they? They stay with us. They hang over us. They steal from our future. They paralyze us. They cripple us.

We lose sight of who we are when we see ourselves through the lens of our failures.

Remember that failure is an event, not an identity.

Who am I? We have missed so many opportunities by obsessing over that question.

If failure is hanging over your head. Own it. Admit it. Confess it. Apologize for it. Do anything you can to fix it. Be grateful for the grace of God. AND THEN MOVE ON.

40 years later….it’s time to move on.

God always gives us assignments that are over our heads. If not, we would have no reason to look up.

If you are not desperate for God to come through in order for you to do what you feel called to do, it’s likely that He isn’t the one who called you to do it. You may have settled for comfort at the expense of the mission.

Desperate and dependent on him—that is the best place to be.

God's response wasn't:

• Come on, have some confidence
• You’ve got what it takes
• You got this, Moses.

His response was:

• Why are we talking about you?
• This isn’t about you

We do that ourselves, don’t we?

Especially in our culture where we are obsessed with self.

• Self-motivation
• Self-confidence
• Self-talk
• Self-care
• Self-improvement
• Self-help

He responds to Moses’s question. No, no, no, this isn’t about you. This is about me! This is my rescue mission, and I will be the hero of the story. And I will be with you!

God’s presence is essential to God’s call!

Never for, always with.

The question is not "Who is Moses?"

The question is, "Who is with Moses?"

The Lord is with you.

As the story unfolds, the promised coming one arrives in a no-name today into the calloused hands of a Jewish carpenter and a teenage girl. And his name is Immanuel…God with us.

Moses is just a foreshadowing of a greater Moses to come. Moses is a deliverer, but ultimately, he points to THE deliverer.

• Moses miraculously escaped the decree of an evil decree by Pharoah that all the male babies should be killed. Jesus was born and miraculously escaped the evil decree by Herod that all male babies should be killed.
• Moses was the mediator of the old covenant. Jesus is the mediator of the new covenant.
• Moses led God’s people out of bondage to an evil ruler. Jesus led His people out of bondage to the ruler of evil.
• Moses led people out of the oppressive taskmasters. Jesus led us out of sin and death.

The Hebrews writer tells us…..Jesus is the greater Moses.

An assignment over our heads. Isn’t’ it? I don’t think it’s the best plan. Not about me.

I AM WITH YOU. THE I AM IS WITH YOU.