In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. All right, we are in Exodus chapter 4. Exodus chapter 4, starting back up again here. Oh, man. All the things that we can learn from the life of Moses. Aren't you glad that God didn't just put perfect people in the Bible? How many of us are thankful that God put some people in the Bible that have some struggles? Because, man, we all have struggles, don't we? So Exodus chapter 4, getting started again here with the life of Moses. So where we are picking back up is in this last message, God had called Abraham, or Abraham, oh my goodness, pray for me. God had called Moses on the backside of the desert, through a burning bush, Moses, I want you to go and liberate my people from Egypt. Moses had tried to do this himself some 40 years before. And he totally fell flat on his face. And how many of us recognize when we do things our way in our own strength, that is what happens. God has not designed us in the Christian life to live it successfully on our own. And if there's, you know, if there's, I think one big lesson that we can learn from this passage, it is that. And I don't know what your responsibilities are, you know, the calling that God has placed on your life, but every single one of us, you know, we've, We've got maybe various callings, you know, maybe you are, well, we're all called to be Christians, you know, and live the Christian life, but maybe you've got a spouse, maybe you've got kids, maybe you're in some kind of a ministry, you know, maybe God wants to use your life to reach through you, to touch the lives of other people that you rub shoulders with, your friends, whatever. And so in all of these responsibilities before God, God is the one that enables us to be the kind of spouse, the kind of parent, whatever, you fill in the blank. He is the one that enables us to be those things in a way that pleases Him. So, I don't know about you, but man, I think it's like a daily thing for me where I fall flat on my face and it's like, God, you know, I messed up here, I messed up there, you know, and if I'm gonna be anything of what you want me to be moving forward, you are gonna have to give me the help to be who I need to be. So, I don't know if you're aware of that. I hope you're okay with the fact that I'm not a perfect pastor. I'm not a perfect Christian. And if you're anything like me, it's like you're regularly brought to the point where you desperately need God's help. Well, God has brought Moses to the point where, you know, he recognizes that he is not able to do what God wants him to do. And I think that in that sense, he is in a great place. But also something that we'll see throughout this passage is that Moses just he has his eyes on himself. And do you know the reality is that in the Christian life, you know, we've got to have our eyes on ourselves in the sense that we recognize that we are insufficient, but we should not keep our eyes on ourselves. You know, let's recognize the fact that if we're going to be anything of what God wants us to be, let's recognize that, but let's not dwell on it. And, you know, let's not just be discouraged by that. Recognize it, but then put our eyes on Jesus Christ right away. And say, Jesus, man, I desperately need your help for this. And so we pick up here in Exodus chapter 4, starting in verse number 1, and we're not going to get there just yet. Man, my family, we've kind of gotten surrounded by soccer lately. So Logan, he's been playing soccer for, I think that this might be his fourth season starting up. Just yesterday, Annie started reffing soccer. And so it feels like we're kind of surrounded. So I don't know if this story just kind of stood off the page to me because of that, but Mike Fisher just turned 90. But if you mention his name to his local soccer team, they probably wouldn't recognize it. He is known by his teammates as Ninja. We've got a picture of him here for you. He is Britain's oldest soccer player. And it's walking soccer, but hey, it's soccer nonetheless, right? But he plays three times a week, and actually they move pretty good here. Ninja, and some of this I think just reminds me of Moses, Ninja played up until his 40s or so, but then he stopped playing for about 40 years until he turned, he was somewhere in his 80s. Ninja, if you know anything about soccer, Ninja is a striker. So he's, you know, as far as I know, he's one of the offensive, like, you know, in the front, and I don't know which position specifically he would be, but he's like the guy up front that would be scoring goals. In fact, Ninja, he scores usually some four or five goals a game. Pretty impressive. When he was asked why he has the nickname Ninja, he says, because they say I'm gone in the blink of an eye, just like that. One minute you think you've collared me, and the next minute I'm gone and the ball is in the back of the net. Now, I don't know if I want to be playing soccer at 90, but man, I look at this guy and I'm like, man, this is pretty awesome. to see a guy at this age, a go-getter, still playing the way that he is. Well, I think about Moses. He hung up his hat as an attempted liberator some 40 years before. He's now 80 years old. He works for his father-in-law on the backside of the desert. He's got a wife and a couple kids. In 40 years, Moses hasn't scraped up enough money to get to build a place of his own. He's still here with his father-in-law. And if we're thinking about someone that would have the potential, someone who's a go-getter, who's a self-starter, someone who would be a great pick to go, hey, Moses, I want you to go and go to Egypt and go bring the children of Israel out of Egypt. I don't know that Moses would be this guy. I don't know that we would pick Moses. I don't know that Moses would pick Moses. But how many of us recognize The Bible says, God says, that your ways aren't my ways, and my thoughts aren't your thoughts. And so, wherever you're at this morning, and if you recognize your insufficiency, I'm telling you, you are exactly where God wants you to be. And so this last passage that we looked at, notice in Exodus chapter 3 and verse number 10, Moses, you're the guy. You thought you were the guy 40 years ago, and you were the guy, but you weren't ready quite yet. You thought that this would happen by your own strength, bringing my people out of Egypt. That wasn't my time. You were not ready yet, but now you are ready. Moses, you're the guy. In verse number 13, if you notice in Exodus 3, notice what God tells Moses. Then Moses said to God, if I come, or this is Moses speaking rather, if I come to the people 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 if you notice like right here at the beginning, Moses starts presenting some objections to God. And if you've ever read the story before, you know that it seems like at every turn, it's like Moses had a reason that he didn't think that he would be the guy that would liberate the children of Israel out of Egypt. And if you've ever read this story, and we're going to look at these this morning, and I've got them actually outlined in your notes. So they're in the bulletin. It's in the notes there for you. We're going to look at four objections, and we're just going to kind of walk through them this morning. This outline for these four objections are not original with me. These actually come from from Charles Swindoll. I love the way that he organized this. And so starting out, number one, if you notice there, his very first objection, I don't have all the answers. I don't have all the answers. And if you look at what Moses said, we're not going to look at this, you know, do a look at the passage that we looked at last, but if you kind of step back and get the sense of what Moses is saying to God here, Moses is concerned when I go to the children of Israel, let's suppose that I do, and I go to the children of Israel, Who is it that I am going to say that, you know, that appeared to me that's authorizing me to do this, to liberate your people out of Egypt? In other words, I don't have all of the answers. What if I go to them and I just, I really just don't know what to say? And I don't know about you, but man, there's times when you and I, maybe we feel like we don't have all the answers. You know, God lays it on our heart to speak to someone about Jesus, and we're like, are you kidding me? You know, what if they ask me a question that I'm just really not ready to answer? You know, what if they ask me, you know, how it is that all the dinosaurs fit on the ark? Or, you know, whether or not Adam and Eve had belly buttons. You know, like something deep like that. Y'all thinking about that? Okay, you know, whatever they ask me, and you know, man, I might be challenged. Okay, God, I know that you want me to speak to that person, but man, I don't have all the answers. Can I just tell you, there's not one of us that have all the answers. Not one of us. Moses, go talk to my people. Moses, I want you to go tell them you talk to me. Wait a second here. Okay, now what am I gonna say to them? How am I gonna be convincing? And what we found in that passage was this. God essentially said, Moses, you don't have to have all the answers because you'll have all of me. You'll have all of me. That was the first objection. And by the way, that answer that God gave continues throughout this passage. If you notice in the objections, in the excuses, and then in the responses that God gives back to him, we see this continue. Moses, I'm going to be with you. And I'm so thankful because that is a promise to every Christian as well. Notice number two, I may not have their respect. I may not have their respect. Notice in chapter four, starting in verse number one, here's where we pick up our passage this morning. Then Moses answered, but behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice for they will say the Lord did not appear, did not appear to you. God had just met Moses in a burning bush, and now Moses is supposed to go talk to the leaders of Israel of what God had told him. And so the question, okay, well, what if they don't listen to me? And that's a good question. The last time that Moses had spoken to the Israelites, if you remember, Moses had stopped the fight between an Egyptian and Israelite, and he had killed the Egyptian, buried that Egyptian in the sand, and then he saw two Israelites fighting, and he said, hey, why are you guys fighting? And if you remember the challenge or the response that they gave, who made you a ruler and a what? A judge over us? And so Moses is saying, well, man, what if they don't listen to me? But God had already told Moses that they would believe his testimony, so much to the point where when he stood before Pharaoh, The Israelite leaders would be with him and they would collectively say, the Lord has appeared to us. He's appeared to us. And again, I'm thankful this morning that as God commissions us and he tells us to go and proclaim his message, that that message still works today. How many of us, man, over the past, you know, the four weeks that we had of our missions month, wasn't that encouraging to hear about the lives that are being changed around the world? You know, whether it's in the Philippines or, you know, Nicaragua or Argentina. Man, we've heard from various missionaries and it's like every week we heard how God is working in hearts and changing lives. And the Bible tells us in Romans chapter 10, verse number 17, faith comes through hearing and hearing through the word of God. And I'm thankful that the gospel, when it is proclaimed, it still works today. And so for each one of us, as God leads us and moves in our hearts to share the gospel, you and I could be confident that the gospel still works today. But then there's something that becomes more and more apparent as we look at the life of Moses and his objections. Moses deeply fears the possibility of looking ridiculous. And isn't this something that we all deal with? I mean, you know, when you had a nightmare back in grade school or maybe in high school, when you had a nightmare about appearing there in your, you know, to your classmates, I'm almost not sure if I want to say it, but you know, like, you know, you appear there, okay, who said it? You know, you're like standing there in your underwear, you know? And we hate the idea of looking and appearing ridiculous. Do we see that here in Moses as well? He's so conscious about like how people will perceive him when he shows up. He's hung out with sheep for the past 40 years. And now he's supposed to go to sophisticated Egypt and lead God's people out. And he doesn't want to look like a crazy man straight out of the desert. You know what I mean? And so he asked, well, man, what if they don't believe me that you appear to me? And notice here in verse number two, notice what God's response is. 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. You know, what's interesting is, well, let's keep reading here, but he said, put out your hand, catch it by the tail. So he put out his hand and caught it. What's interesting is that there's two different Hebrew words that are used here for catch. God said, Moses, hey, catch it by the tail. And it's like, take something firmly. But when Moses actually did this and took it by the tail, the word that's used here is to take something timidly. You know, to be like, you know, not sure about it. But he took it by the tail. Where are we? Verse number five. He says that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, 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, it was leprous like snow. This was You know, the most dreaded disease, leprosy, the most dreaded disease in this time. So he put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, 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, pour it on the ground, and the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground. Do you notice something about these signs? You can almost see the fact that they are leaning into what will ultimately come to Egypt through the plagues. Do you see that? So the staff, the water turned into blood, all of these things. In other words, God is saying to Moses, listen, I'm not sending you to Egypt with cheap tricks to try to convince my people that I've met with you and what I'm doing. You know, a staff turned into a snake, his hand becomes leprous, which again, the most dreaded disease, but then becomes normal again. And he says, if they don't believe that, okay, take some of the Nile, you know, water from the Nile, pour it on the ground, it'll become blood. And there would be many more signs to come. And God wants Moses, it's like God wants Moses first to be convinced about what God is doing and going to do through Moses. And isn't that awesome how, you know, as God develops us and he wants us to live by faith and, you know, he wants us to, every role and responsibility, you know, and opportunity, he wants us to do them unto him. And don't you love how God is building the confidence of Moses here? He's building Moses' confidence. But I think that there's something more going on here. God is showing Moses that he could use something as ordinary as a stick as a piece of wood. Moses, what's that in your hand? Oh, it's a staff. Hey, go ahead and lay it down. Watch it become a snake. A simple piece of wood. It's been said that God loves to use the ordinary to do the extraordinary. And how many of us are thankful for this? Because we recognize the fact that we are able. Here's how Francis Schaeffer puts it. He says, consider the mighty ways in which God used a dead stick of wood. So God used a stick of wood can become a banner cry for each of us. Though we are limited and weak in talent, physical energy, and psychological strength, we are not less than a stick of wood. The scripture emphasizes that much can come from little if the little is truly consecrated to God. Moses, what's that in your hand? You know, I love the, this reminds me of, do you remember the feeding of the 5,000? And so, you know, hey, Peter, or Philip, man, go ahead and feed these people. You know, 5,000 people plus, you know, probably with families and children. And man, we don't have enough to feed people here. Oh, but we found this kid, you know, what was that? Five loaves and two fishes, am I getting this right? And he simply offered it. You say, man, Pastor Mike, I don't really feel like I have much to offer God. You know, the very first step is recognizing just that. If we get to the place where we're like, man, I can't, I don't make the cut, God, and I know that you're working in my heart as to how I should live in this area or that area, and God, I recognize that. I just don't have it in me. Great, you are at the right place where God can reach down and work through you. But you see, there's something that's more happening here. The serpent or a snake is actually a symbol of Egyptian power. How many of us have ever seen like a headdress from a pharaoh, you know, and we see the cobra on the front? Okay, so specifically the cobra, it was a symbol of Pharaoh's royalty and power. And it constantly appears, it seems like in Egyptian art. And so God is showing Moses through this sign, I am going to exercise my authority over Egypt. But I think that there's something even more here. When we think about a snake in the Bible, what else do we think of, or who else do we think of? We might think of Satan. Revelation chapter 12 and verse number nine, and the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who was called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. You know, it seems like God is showing here right at the very outset. Moses throws his stick on the ground. It becomes a serpent and God is showing. It's like on every level that God is about to show his authority. He's going to do great wonders. Number three. Moses' next objection. I am slow in my expressions. I'm slow in my expressions. Notice in verse number 10, we've got it on the screen here for you. Chapter four, verse number 10. But Moses said to the Lord, oh my Lord, I am not, what's that word there? I am not eloquent. either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant. You know, some people think, in fact, some Jewish writings would even suggest this, that Moses had a speech impediment. I don't know if it's true or not, but you see what Moses is saying here. He's like, Lord, I'm not eloquent. You know, you're supposedly the one that made the entire earth, and guess what? When you made me, you gave me a disadvantage in my speech. Oh, and by the way, in the time that we've been talking here in this little conversation, you know, from the burning bush, you're talking to me, yeah, even in this time, you haven't fixed the problem that I have. I'm not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue. I'm slow in my expressions. And I think again about the fact that over the past 40 years, Moses has been in the desert with the sheep, hanging out with sheep. And now God is calling Moses to go to the educated, the eloquent in Egypt. As Philip Rikens said, notice this, getting Israel out of Egypt required a public spokesperson with the oratorical abilities to persuade the world's most powerful leader to do something he had no intention of doing. So Moses is picturing himself, I'm going to the world's most powerful leader, and I'm gonna tell him he needs to let the Israelites go, something that he doesn't want to do. God, this just doesn't make sense. You know, I've got these speech issues, this is how you've made me in this conversation, you could heal me and yet you don't, and you want me to go stand before Pharaoh? There's someone else that we might look at in the Bible. That also tells us he did not possess an authority, an authority of speech, or he was not an impressive orator, and that is the Apostle Paul. And we might imagine, you know, like when Paul is speaking, you know, and there's a church there and he's talking to people, you know, how he would hold people captive and, you know, that they would be in fear and trembling as they are listening to the Apostle Paul. But you know that the Bible tells us the exact opposite? Here's what's interesting. Paul writes, 1 Corinthians 2, And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. And I was with you in what? Weakness and in fear and in much trembling. Now again, I don't know about you, but I would picture it being the exact opposite. You know, Paul's out there and he's just waxing eloquent and people are just like, you know, but the Bible, again, says the exact opposite. Why is it that God does this kind of stuff? You know, why is it that God calls us to be more than we could possibly be on our own? Charles Swindoll says this, back in the first century, Why didn't God choose a more powerful, eloquent spokesman? He had a good reason for that. He didn't want people hung up on the man's speaking style and craft. The Lord knew what he was doing. He didn't want men and women walking away from Paul's meeting saying, I am impressed, what a communicator, what an awesome speaker. When the apostle Paul finished, people had met God. When he stepped away from the podium, men and women had heard from the living Savior. When Paul penned a letter to a church, it was as if God's own hand had written it. Their faith became anchored to the solid rock of God's power, not the shifting sand of human personality. Paul himself was never the attraction. And isn't that true what God wants to do in every one of our hearts and lives? Does God wanna make us the attraction or him the attraction? And so when you say, man, I feel like I just fall short, and I just, at the end of every day, I'm having to throw myself on the grace of God and just admit my weakness, you know, whatever category, whatever responsibility, whatever calling, and you're like, I'm just constantly reminded how I'm coming up short, and you know that that is by design. God does not intend for us to be sufficient in ourselves. Do you know this morning that your abilities and your disabilities have been ordained by God for you? that even your disabilities, God has uniquely given them to you. Wherever you fall short, he has given them uniquely. They are ordained by God for you somehow in a way that would glorify him. And I don't understand it. Just this last week, I found this article. We've probably all heard of Beethoven, right? Pastor always gives me a hard time for never knowing who Roy Rogers is. Okay. And I know we've got some millennials in here. We've all heard of Beethoven, right? We all do. Yeah, okay. So, so, you know, I came across this article this last week. I don't know how they determine this stuff, but, you know, he's a famous composer and recently Beethoven's DNA was analyzed from a hair sample. And I don't know what the original reason was for, but according to this article, they set out to investigate his genetic musical predisposition. And his genes revealed quite, it says, a low predisposition for musicality. Now, I don't know how they determined that. Evidently, they compared it to thousands of other people. A low predisposition for musicality. I don't know how they come to that conclusion, but how many of us recognize, man, I've got some shortcomings. We've all got some areas where we're like, God, if you would have only made me this way or that way or whatever it is, and God tells us, listen, this is all by design. I've made you this way so that you would rely on me. Notice in verse number 11, he continues and says, 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. Moses, you've got your eyes too much on yourself. I will be with you. Moses says, I am not eloquent. I am slow of speech and tongue. God says, Moses, I will be with you. Get your eyes off yourself. Notice number four. I'm not as qualified as others. I'm not as qualified as others. Verse number 13. But he said, oh Lord, oh my Lord, please send someone else. Now here, don't we get down to what the real issue is for Moses? I think Moses really just doesn't wanna go. God, can you please send someone else? God, there's got to be someone that's more qualified than I am, someone who is more capable, someone who knows the culture better, someone who is more persuasive. And isn't it interesting, even in our culture, we think that the power, that power comes through the externals. We think that the power is on the outside. We think about human sufficiency. We think that if we're going to be acceptable, if success is going to come, it's going to come through our wisdom, our skills, our efforts, et cetera, et cetera. And we do this in a variety of areas. I don't know if you remember, but it's been months ago now, we were looking at the Pharisees in the New Testament and how they all thought that cleansing came from the outside in. And so they were so consumed about like physical washing. And if you remember, I'm borrowing this from months ago, but we think from the outside in, and so we think in terms of religion. If I stay away from bad people, if I read my Bible and pray, then I'll be accepted. That acceptance comes from the outside in, that I can clean myself up in a way that's pleasing to God. We've thought about this politically. C.M. Jode, after World War II, he's, he was a social philosopher who had at one time been an atheist. He says, it was because we rejected the doctrine of original sin that we on the left were always being so disappointed, disappointed by the refusal of people to be reasonable. by the behavior of nations and politicians, above all, by the recurrent fact of war. This was after World War II. After the Holocaust, Lord David Cecil wrote, the jargon of the philosophy of progress taught us to think that the savage and primitive state of man is behind us, but he says barbarism is not behind us, it is within us. And so the thought has been, you know, more education, and if we get social structures just right, then we'll be able to fix the world that we are in. And we constantly think from the outside in. Another statement that I read, Christina Kelly, she is a successful editor of Young Women's Magazine, and she writes this. Why do we crave celebrity, celebrities? She says, here's my theory. To be human is to feel inconsequential. So we worship celebrities and we seek to look like them. All the great things they have done, we identify with in order to escape our own inconsequential lives. She says, but it's so dumb. With this stream of perfectly airbrushed, implanted liposuction stars, you would have to be an absolute powerhouse of self-esteem already, not to feel totally inferior before them. So we worship them because we feel inconsequential, but in doing so, but doing so makes us feel even worse. We make them stars, but then their fame makes us feel insignificant. And so we are constantly in this world that we're in, the mindset of mankind, we're thinking from the outside in, we're thinking that we can polish ourselves up. We're thinking, okay, Moses, if it's going to happen that I'm gonna liberate the Israelites out of Egypt, it's gonna be because of human strength and persuasiveness and all of these things that man looks at and says, wow, that is powerful, that is significant. But you see, mankind, we think from the outside in, and God says, man, I don't want you to think that way. I am with you. I'm the one that's gonna do the work through you. You might not see much impressive with yourself, but you're just the human instrumentality. You're just the tool that I'm going to use to liberate my people. Moses, don't think about skills, don't think about abilities, don't think about appearance, don't think about persuasiveness. I made you, I will be with you, and I am all that you need. Is this not what God tells us in the New Testament? John 15, verse number five. Apart from me, you can do how much? You can do nothing. Do you know the fact of the matter is, Ben, I'm gonna borrow your stool here for a second. The reality is, is that I cannot be, I cannot be the kind of Christian. And I cannot be the kind of spouse. I cannot be the kind of parent, look, I can't be the kind of dog sitter that God wants me to be. I can't be the kind of unicycle rider We saw one of these the other day, it was about a month and a half ago, and a unicycle rider going across a road just down the street here. I can't in any way be who God wants me to be without his help. And so do we recognize this? You know, whether it's speaking truth and speaking the message of Jesus or, man, having the wisdom that I need for my kids in the moment or how to minister to a friend. You know, I just, I'm getting my weeks mixed up. It's been almost two weeks ago now where You know, me and my family, we went down and saw some friends of ours who have, they've got their daughter Zoe that almost a year ago, she was diagnosed with a brain tumor. How on earth do you be an encouragement to someone who has a burden that you can't even imagine? Did you know that God has designed our insufficiency this way? And notice this statement here by Kerry Schmidt. And I changed this so it's, every place where you see the word Christian, this was a statement made to pastors, and I took out the word pastor and I put in the word Christian, just so, just to kinda, and I think that it applies equally to both here. Notice the statement that he makes. He says, insufficiency is built into the faith life. Christian wellness begins with embracing insufficiency as the ever-present reminder that we are not the savior. Do we recognize that? Acknowledging insufficiency delivers us from the burden of being the hero of the story. Embrace it means reckoning with reality, accepting this new pesky forever friend, and expecting God to leverage it into his strength. Even our weaknesses? Yes, our weaknesses. God's people do not need to see a sufficient leader, or a sufficient parent, or a sufficient anything. They need to see an insufficient leader or spouse or whatever, joyfully trusting and obeying a sufficient Savior. A healthy Christian shakes hands with insufficiency daily, but then tells it to take a seat before the sufficient Savior, before the sufficient Savior, Jesus. God does not want us to be the hero of the story. At the end of the day and say, man, I really killed it today. Man, I really just knocked it out of the park. Our insufficiency is by design. Where we come to God at the end of every day and say, God, I am humbled. I recognize, man, moving forward tomorrow, if I'm gonna be anything of what you want me to be, it's gonna be by your help. And God is bringing Moses to this very place. Moses is going to be leading the children of Israel out of Egypt. And God wants to put before the Israelites a leader that is entirely and totally and completely dependent upon God. And guess what? God wants to put your life before a spouse, before kids, before a friend. If you've got a ministry here at Faith Baptist Church, teaching in class or opening a door on Sunday morning, whatever it is, Do you know what God wants other people to see in you? Someone who recognizes their insufficiency, someone who every day casts themselves on the grace of God to make any of this work. And so if you're, man, if you're like me and you're like, man, it seems like daily it's showing you how much you need to rely on Jesus, I just gotta tell you, welcome to the club. In fact, I don't know if we've got anyone new here this morning. You're looking for a perfect church, I guarantee you this is not a perfect church. There's not one person in here I know of that knocks it out of the park every day. If you think that you do, man, you're just, you're deceiving yourself. We totally and completely need the grace of God. Notice number one, here's our first point. Say, oh my goodness, this is just our first point. Don't be nervous, okay? This is gonna wrap up pretty quick. I am weak, God is strong, God designed it this way. You say, well, what is the deal? Without me, you can do nothing. What's Moses realizing here? Without me, you can do nothing. Why is it that we fall flat on our face at the end of every day? And we, man, we just so desperately need the grace of God. Without me, you can do nothing. You say, well, Pastor Mike, you know, I was doing a ministry at one time and I just, man, I just, I recognize I can't do this on my own. Without me, you can do nothing. Whether it's a spouse or a parent, you just fill in the blank wherever it is. Without me, you can do nothing. And God is the one that designed it this way. Have you and I come to the point where we recognize our need for God's grace every single day? Man, I hope that you have. Because the sooner that we do, the sooner we come to the place of the healthy and the normal Christian life. And if you knock it out of the park every day, I was just saying, maybe I can take some notes from you, but I don't know that I want to. Because again, this is how God designed it. It's how God designed it. To cast ourselves on the grace of God every single day. Notice in verse number 11. We're gonna wrap up quickly here. Chapter three, verse number 11. But Moses said to God, who am I that I should go to, oh no, let's go to Exodus 4, 11. Sorry, you got that with you? Maybe I put the wrong verse in there. Okay, Exodus 4, am I in the right place? No, it is, ah, sorry, keep it up there. Okay, so this is what God said to Moses. So Moses said to God, who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt? He said, God said, I will be with you. And if you remember when we looked at this passage, God says, Moses, you wanna know who you are? Your identity is now, and this is for every Christian, okay? Every child of God, you've accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior, the Holy Spirit of God is within you, your identity is no longer what you've done, what's happened to you, or what you hope your track record might be. Your identity is now Jesus Christ. And so if you bring that back up there, Moses, God says to Moses, your identity now is I am with you. That's your identity. That's who you are. This is now who you are. And isn't this similar to Matthew 28? Behold, I am with you. Sometimes, you know, like when things are going good, I'm with you always to the end of the age. Notice in verse number 14 now of chapter four, we're going ahead here. And notice here, then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses. God, I'm not eloquent, et cetera, et cetera. And he said, is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Behold, he is coming out to meet you. And when he sees you, He will 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 will 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 take in your hand the staff with which you shall do the signs. But if you know anything moving forward, we might first of all think that this is a compromise and God says, okay, I give up, you're gonna take Aaron with you. But how many of us know the story that happens sometime later when Aaron builds a golden calf? And he tells the Israelites, hey guys, this is the God that brought you out of the land of Egypt. Is Aaron always a blessing to Moses? So here's their second point here. I must trust God's plan in his presence. You know, I think God had something good going on when it was just Moses. You know, It's been said, it's better to have no companions at all than ones who don't share your heart and vision what God has put in your heart. And I think what Moses learns in the time ahead was that it would have been a lot better to just go it alone versus having a thorn in his side like Aaron was later on, which we'll look at at a later time. I must trust God's plan and presence. Notice in verse number 18, this is maybe one of my favorite parts here. Moses went back to Jethro, his father-in-law, and said to him, God has appeared to me in the wilderness. There was this burning bush, and now I'm gonna go back to Israel, I'm gonna go back to Egypt, and I'm gonna liberate Israel from Egypt. Is that what he said? Please let me go back to my brothers in Egypt to see whether they are still alive. Jethro, I'd love to go back. I'd like to take some time off. You know, I wanna go check out the pyramids. I've heard that they've gotten some work done on them. I'd like to go fish the Nile. Spend some time. Why doesn't he just come out and say, God wants me to liberate my people? Moses, man, why are you holding back on some of the details? I don't know all the reasons, but here's what I do know, is that Moses is still growing just like me and you, and God is patient. You know, what it would have been just an act of faith for him to just come out and say, this is what God is doing. But you know, he doesn't do that. Moses is still growing and God is patient and he's working on Moses and Moses is going to grow. He's not yet ready to reveal God's full plans. He doesn't want to sound like an idiot, you know, maybe in his mind, whatever. But God is not done with Moses and he's not done with me and you. And our third point this morning is that God is gracious. You could also put the word patient, whatever. God is gracious. How many of us this morning? we recognize our need for Jesus Christ, and for his life through us, and the fact that we do not measure up on our own, and we constantly come up short, and God designed it this way. You say, Pastor Mike, why is it so painful? Why is it that, you know, it starts to make a little bit more sense why Paul called the Christian life a marathon. Now, don't you see that? It's like, you know, man, is it over yet? And constantly just, and God designed it this way. You say, Pastor Mike, I just feel like in the Christian life I fail so often and I've just gotta go back to God and just ask him for his strength. That is exactly where God wants you to be. But God is faithful and he is gracious. His plan is perfect. And so we could trust Him. We don't need to enlist in Aaron or whatever here. And God is gonna continue to be faithful and work on us and to make us into who we are to be. Without me, you can do nothing. And if you've recognized that in your life, that is exactly where God wants you to be, totally and fully reliant upon him. God, it's not from the outside in. It's not gonna be a DIY project where I make myself into who you want me to be. We're impressed with the outsides. Moses is thinking, man, choose someone eloquent, choose something whatever. But God said, I am with you. That is now your identity. You are the human instrumentality, but I'm gonna be the one that does the work through you. I don't know in what area in your life this morning if you feel overwhelmed, some calling that God has placed upon you in your life and you feel like you constantly come up short, welcome to the club. But I'm so thankful that God is willing to give us his grace at the moment that we need it. God, we are thankful for these truths and for the example that we see here in Moses. God, we thank you for coming to earth 2,000 years ago for and giving your life for us. And I pray if there's someone here this morning that has never called upon you for salvation, I pray that even in this time that they would open their heart to you and that they would recognize their need for you. God, I pray that you would help us as Christians to just see our desperate, desperate need for you. Just just day by day. I pray that we would rely on you and your grace. God, I pray that we would see that your plan is perfect and wherever we might be, that you are patient. God, we are so we are so thankful. I wonder if you're here this morning and maybe there's never been a time in your life where you've looked at the cross and you've recognized what Jesus did on your behalf 2,000 years ago, dying on the cross for you, becoming your payment. And now all that we must do is put our faith and trust in Jesus, open our hearts to him, call upon him, ask him for his forgiveness. He is ready. He is ready to give you his life to become your salvation. And even right here from your seat, you can pray and say, God, would you please save me? Would you please give me your new life? I wonder maybe if life has just, maybe over the past few weeks or months or years, maybe you've come to that place where you recognize your desperate need for God's grace. God made it this way. And maybe, even in this moment, you wanna cast yourself at his feet and say, God, would you help me? Man, there's no way that I can do this on my own. Please. God, would you give me your grace? Use me, transform me from the inside out. And God so patiently, so patiently does that. God, we thank you for this time. God, we thank you for your grace that is always sufficient. God, you're always ready to reach down. It stirs your heart. to hear someone cry out to you that desperately needs your help. And God, we see Moses, how he was thinking from the outside in, and his wisdom and talents and abilities, and God, I pray that you would help us. Although the culture thinks that way, I pray that we would think just the opposite. And to know that as you are present with us, You will use us and transform us and make us from the inside out and the fact that you made it this way. God, I pray that we would trust in your grace and in your patience. God, we are so thankful for what you have done in and through our lives and for what you constantly do. I pray that you would help us so that you would get the glory. And I pray this in Jesus' name.