Was Matty and Jack Bennington come forward to read our text
for us. Let's stand they'll be reading
from Exodus chapter three thirteen and fourteen through
4:20 thank you. Exodus chapter 3 verses 13
through 14 and Chapter 4, verses 1 through 20.
Then Moses said to God. If I come to the people of
Israel and say to them the god of your father's has sent me to
you and they ask me. What is his name?
What shall I say to them? God said to Moses, I am who I am
and he said, say this to the people of Israel.
I am has sent me to you. Then Moses answered, but behold.
They will not believe me or listen to my voice for they will
say, the Lord did not appear to you, the Lord said to him.
What is that in your hand? He said a staff and he said,
throw it on the ground. So he threw it on the ground and
it became a serpent and Moses ran from it.
But the Lord said to Moses put out your hand and catch it by
the tail. So he put out his hand and
caught it and it became a staff in his hand that they may
believe that the Lord the god of their fathers.
Others, the god of Abraham, the god of Isaac, and the god of
Jacob has appeared to you. Again, the Lord said to him, put
your hand inside your cloak and he put it inside his cloak.
And when he took it out, behold his land, his hand was leprous
like snow. Then God said, put your hand
back inside your cloak. So he put his hand back inside
his cloak, and when he took it out, behold it was restored like
the rest of his flesh. If they will, not believe you
God said, or listen to the first sign.
They may believe the latter sign.
If they will, not believe even these two signs or listen to
your voice, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it
on the dry ground and the water that you shall take from the
Nile will become Blood on the dry ground.
But the Lord said to, but Moses said, to the Lord O my Lord, I
am not eloquent either in the past, or since you have spoken
to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue, then
the Lord said to him who has made man's mouth.
Who makes him mute, or deaf or seeing or blind?
Is it? Not I the Lord now, therefore go
and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall
speak, but he said, O My Lord please.
Send someone else then the anger of the Lord was kindled against
Is and he said is there not Aaron your brother the levite.
I know that he can speak well be cold.
He's coming out to meet you and when he sees you who would be
glad in his heart, you shall speak to him and put the words
in his mouth. And I will be with your mouth
and with his mouth and we'll teach you both what to do.
He shall speak for you to the people and he shall be your
mouth and you shall be as God to him and taking your hand this
staff with which you shall do the signs.
Moses went back to Jethro. His father-in-law law and said
to him, please let me go back to my brothers in Egypt to see
whether they are still alive. And Jethro said to Moses, go in
peace and the Lord said to Moses in Midian, go back to Egypt for
all the men who were seeking your life are dead.
So Moses took his wife and his sons and had them ride on a
donkey. And went back to the land of
Egypt and Moses took the staff of God in his hand.
This is the word of the Lord, please be seated.
We're going to spend time in this passage this morning as
well as next week. I asked our staff if they would
provide some of our new members to read this morning and I
didn't have any part in the selection, but the woman who
just read is my daughter Maddie who was 4 years old when she
came to this church, Four years old.
You helped to raise her. And our help raising her.
She's helping raise other Covenant Children's Church.
Her husband Jack this is Seminary Student at Dallas
Theological Seminary. He felt no pressure from me to
join our church, but there were many, many more than five
questions that I asked him a little over a couple of years
ago. Okay.
It's 10:22. You're wondering.
How long will we be here? Well, I've already told you
we're going to move this text in the next week because I don't
want you to miss it. Not a person in here hasn't wish
that God would give them a sign. Not a person.
At some level in some way. You said, If Only God would but
I don't believe you. I don't believe you would
believe it. Even if the sign was as great as
a burning bush because Moses had to sign God in the theophany I
believe Christ himself and that Burning Bush was not enough for
Moses to say, okay I'll go four times.
God told him to go but there was a louder voice. and you know,
that voice It was his own voice. Even as the Bush was on fire.
And even as he responded, God himself to Moses question, what
am I supposed to say to them? If they ask who sent me and he
says, tell them, I am Tell them, I am.
Since you do, you know what I am means?
It is the ultimate statement of self-existence self-sufficiency
omnipresence omnipotence, all-knowing omniscient.
It's God standing right now, ever-present unchangeable.
Completely sufficient in himself to do what he wills.
And to accomplish his plan of rescue, he cannot be stopped.
But Moses, who saw the burning bush, Who Saw the Sign was
reluctant? The reason he was reluctant and
I'll go into this more next week was because there was something
louder and it has to do with his eyes and it has to do with his
ears. He had not planned on anything
spectacular happening that day. He was just doing his job and
it's so like God to interrupt what is normal in an ordinary to
make himself known and he does and it's through this theophany
this visible expression of the Living God.
God. He tells Moses said, he has a
heart to rescue his people and he's going to use, Moses his
servant. Moses sees and hears the burning
bush, but there's something louder.
And what is louder is where his eyes have gone, though.
He may have still been looking at the burning bush.
Where his eyes had really gone was to focus on the audience.
The audience to whom God would send him and the audience would
first be the Elders of Israel. And what does Moses say?
Look with begin at verse 1, chapter for Moses answered, but
behold they and they is the Israelite Elders.
They will not believe me, or listen to my voice.
Moses is having an imaginary conversation, it's not with the
burning bush, that's real. But the imaginary conversation
is that the people who are the Elders of Israel, will not
believe me and he has a right to believe that because the last
time he was with them, they said to him who was made, you judge
over us. So he has this imaginary
conversation taking place, and he can't imagine that the people
of Israel, the elders would listen to him.
And so what he does is he has that imaginary conversations,
this eyes are focused on the audience is he disbelieves the
very word that God had spoken because in Chapter 3 of Exodus
vert to verse 18, the Lord said they will listen to you.
Moses is calling God a liar. It's not that clear but that's
what he's saying. They will not listen and the
reason is because the audience their voice was louder than
God's. The second part of Moses is
reluctance is centered on whereas eyes went next, and they
went to himself. What does he say?
He says, in verse 10, Moses said to the Lord O my Lord, I am not
eloquent either in the past or since you've spoken to your
servant but I am slow of speech and of tongue.
Well, if you ever felt inadequate motifs, Moses's eyes
move away from the audience for a moment.
Now to look at himself and he sees that he's not sufficient,
he's not able, he's not eloquent you want.
A mouthpiece. I can't speak that way.
This is important. You can miss this Moses.
His disbelief is seen and how he addresses the Lord look at
making it verse 10. You've got to look but Moses
said to the Lord, you noticed that by the way, babies do that,
get over it. All right, you do it too.
It's just not as loud. But Moses said to the Lord now
notice in verse 10. Of chapter 4.
The word Lord is capitalized. All letters capital L capital O
capital r capital D, it's Yahweh.
It's the name that God revealed who he was.
But how does Moses address the Lord in verse 10?
Oh my Lord. He doesn't use the name that God
had given him. God is small in Moses mine, even
though he's in a burning bush, the only time in history, he's
seen the sign. God is small in Moses.
His eyes and his ears and the noise of the audience and his
inability is loud. You ever feel that way?
Do you ever feel like if I just knew a little bit more than I
would be able to answer any possible question?
That my friend, my note, my neighbor, my family member, or
somebody on a plane might ask me, we have everything we need.
Because our focus is not up on our abilities, it's on him his
ability and that's what God does.
So I want to do a quick summary of what Moses now experiences is
God deals with his reluctance. I want you to see that God
doesn't really focus on Moses, he focuses on himself, but what
he does is he does things. With ordinary means go back up
into the text verse 2. Chapter 4, Moses is complaining,
he's scared. And so, the Lord says to him.
What is that in your hand? He said a staff.
Now, what does the staff? It's a piece of dead wood It's
something that he picked up or maybe was made that he would use
as a Shepherd, but it's dead. Would God take something
ordinary that is in his hands. And he tells Moses to do you do
what children are going to love this?
He says to him, throw it on the ground.
And when Moses takes this dead-stick, the staff that he is
used as a shepherd and throws it on the ground.
And it turns into a real snake and we imagine it's a poisonous
snake and is it suddenly begins to do what snakes do.
This thing that Moses has held all the time has used to serve
as a Shepherd he runs from it. The very stick that is in his
hand. He's now running from because
it's a snake. The snake.
The serpent was the big sign and the big emblem of the people of
Egypt. It was on everything everything
that had to do with power and now that serpent is moving along
so the God who turned that dead wood and to a living snake says
to Moses in verse 4, put out your hand and catch it by the
towel. By the way, this is being spoken
from a burning bush. Don't forget.
So he puts out his hand and he caught it.
Can you imagine It's a really cool in the Hebrew language When
God Says, pick it up its strong language.
It's graphically new language. It means grab it.
When it tells us what Moses did, it's very weak language.
It means that he just kind of snatched it.
But he did. He was obedient.
The voices in Moses's head. His own about his limits and the
audience are louder. So then the Lord says this in
verse 6, put your hand inside your cloak.
And he put his hand inside his cloak when he took it out to
hold his hand was leprous like snow.
Well, here's the point. The God Who is Sovereign over
the stick, is also Sovereign over the hand.
That holds the stick, and Moses puts his hand inside the cloak
and it really does become leprosy.
We know the end of the story, so we're not shocked by that.
Moses for that moment, had leprosy the incurable disease,
the contagious disease. The one that we know was rampant
in Egypt would have, which would have people placed and leper,
colonies Moses has it and then the Lord says, stick it back in
your cloak. And when he does he's healed, He
gives them a third sign. The third sign is this?
He says, in verse 9, if they will not believe even these two
signs or listen to your voice, you shall take some water from
the Nile and pour it on the dry ground and the water that you
shall take from the Nile, which means life to the Egyptians, by
the way, will become Blood on the dry ground.
And this very miracle that Moses does will become the first
plague. It's pretty amazing.
Isn't it all? It's here.
So Moses still complains Reveals His disobedience.
Verse 13. Oh, my Lord, capital L small
case ORD. Please send someone else, the
Lord is angry and he's a right to be angry because Moses is
living in the reality of a god. That is small, even though he's
speaking from a burning bush, Because the audience is so loud
and we're just like him. He speaks of Aaron as a gift.
We'll talk about more of that next week.
The text Ends by saying Moses took his wife and his sons and
had them ride on a donkey and went back to the land of Egypt
and Moses took the staff of God in his hand.
That staff had just been a serpent that hand that had just
had leprosy and he was obedient. What a sign.
The staff became a sign for the people of Israel.
An incredible sign. He would use it to part the Red
Sea. He would use it is the plagues
were ushered in. He would use it to strike.
A rock and water would flow what a sign.
But friends, in Jesus Christ, we have a greater sign.
A sign that is much greater than the staff.
Because there was a much greater profit.
A prophet who was not reluctant and disobedient.
Is Moses, who understood? What was happening in cried out
to the Lord. Lord, if you are willing, take
this cup from me yet. Not my will be done but yours be
done. He knew what was coming, he was
sobered by that but not disobedient.
And Christ himself would be placed on Deadwood.
And his own hand would be nailed to the cross and his blood, for
our sins would be shed and dropped on dry ground.
And the cross is our sign and that sign is so much greater
than the burning bush. That sign is so much.
Greater Than the staff. It's so great because when we
see the cross, what we see is what Christ did for us, past
tense, did for us. That's why we don't have a
crucifix with Jesus on the cross.
It's because he's not on the cross anymore.
Because, along with the cross are great, sign is the empty
tomb. His body wasn't there.
This is the fifth Sunday of Easter.
And we celebrate that every Sunday because it's our sign.
A God has called us just as he called, Moses to go.
The 84 new members are going to go places, I could never go to
Islands, I don't have access to, and places of work and
Recreation you go with the sign of the cross and the empty tomb
to let the radiance of Christ shine out of you.
So people will wonder, why are you responding so differently?
Why are you able to admit evil and Brokenness in the world?
And yet you are not without hope.
It's because of the cross. It's because of the empty tomb.
These signs that God has given us. the church today though,
friends, we must confess when the voice of the audience The
audience can be scary, it wasn't just the Elders of Israel.
It was also the most powerful man of the most powerful nation
that Moses was to speak. Truth to But when that audience,
no matter how powerful they are or how familiar, they are when
they speak louder. Then the God who has given us
his word. We won't obey.
And we missed the blessings. when our own in abilities, our
own perceived lack of giftedness is louder than the God who
revealed himself in the burning bush and who became a living
man. Jesus Christ.
Incarnate When our inability is greater and it's noise than who
he is. And what he's able to do?
We will like Moses resist. And there, you see again though
he's angry the grace of God. Providing everything we need.
That's what the sign of the cross and the empty tomb are all
about. It's not just a neat story once
a year. Its power its power.
It is I am power for on that cross the one who said I am the
bread of life. I am the light of the world.
I am the door. I am the Good Shepherd.
I am the resurrection and the life.
I am the way, the truth, and the life.
I am the vine. You are the branches.
The one who said truly, truly, I say to you before Abraham.
Was I am. He lives in us through his
spirit that I am power goes with us everywhere.
He is called us. To go.
It's the power of the cross. And the resurrection alive alive
alive in us. Father Thank you for the
patience. Of your people.
And the hunger of your people, The Thirst of your people for
giving us that and enabling us to hear what we could never hear
and see what. We could never see.
We all Lord at times asked for a sign, let us see that you have
given it to us. You are the sign.
Holy Spirit, illuminate Christ, his death, his resurrection, his
Reign and his promise return. Let us father bring you glory
now with the way we lift our voices and singing of the power
and what you have accomplished. We pray in Jesus name.
Amen. Please stand and sing with full
voice. Holy Spirit, illuminate Christ,
his death, his resurrection, his Reign and his promise return.
Let us father bring you glory now with the way we lift our
voices and singing of the power and what you have accomplished.
We pray in Jesus name. Amen.
Please stand and sing with full voice.