At the beginning of the passage we read of Mexus chapter 3 in verse 10, God says these words to Moses. He says, come now therefore and I will send thee unto Pharaoh that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. Just to give the context, I'm sure all of you are familiar with the story, but just in case, the Israelites have been in Egypt for at least 200 years, possibly more. They've been made into slaves. God had promised them a land flowing with milk and honey, but they are instead enjoying a captivity of slavery. And at the end of chapter two, You hear them cry out to God, how long, how long must we bear this captivity? When will you fulfill your promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? And the last words of chapter two are God heard their prayer. And in answer to their prayer, he finds Moses, this exiled prince of Egypt, this escapee. and he is a shepherd in the wilderness, in the middle of nowhere, and yet God finds him and he comes to him and he tells him, I want you, you Moses, to go and tell Pharaoh to let my people go. I'm gonna rescue Israel through you. Now we're not like Moses in that sense. We don't have that same task. This was thousands of years ago. But God comes to us also with commands. He comes to us also with a commission. Most obvious example is from Matthew chapter 28 verses 19 to 20. Jesus says to his disciples, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. God gives commission to Moses and says, I want you to go back to Egypt and bring my people out. Tell Pharaoh to let my people go. God says to us, go into all the world, preach the gospel and make disciples of all nations. Love one another. Love those around you. Tell them what I have told you. Tell them about me. Now Moses isn't too keen on his commission. You get that very clearly in the ongoing narrative. He makes excuse, I think five times I think in total, he makes various excuses. He's not keen on this commission which God has given him. And I think it's fairly true to say that we also are not always keen on the commission that God gives to us. It's not easy to tell others about Christ. It's not easy to teach everyone to observe all things that he has commanded us. And we, like Moses, can also feel fearful and inadequate and unwilling to obey what God has said. Now, sometimes that's because we're lazy. Sometimes we just simply don't want to break out of our comfort zone. We're happy with our comfortable, easy life, and so we don't want to obey what God has said. Other times, we're just scared. We want to obey. We know what Jesus says. We want to please Him, but we're just scared. We just see people's faces, and we just think it's impossible. We can't overcome that fear of talking to them. And related to that, sometimes we just don't know how. We're willing, we're willing to even conquer our fear, but we just haven't got a clue how to do it. When we live in a society with people who openly disregard God, how do you tell them about Jesus? And sometimes we just think we don't know how to do it. We're just completely unable. Well, it's interesting, because in this passage, Moses gives four or five objections. to obeying God's command. I've been surprised as looking through it, how similar his objections are to the objections we give, either in our own mind or verbally. And what I want to do is just look through the various excuses that Moses gives, and then relate them to us, how we can give similar sorts of excuses, with the end of hopefully helping us to see how God is more than capable of overcoming our fears and our doubts. And you can see the first excuse that Moses gives, or the first objection, shall we say, that he gives in Exodus chapter three, verse 11. In Exodus chapter three, verse 11, Moses says to God, who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? Moses says, who am I? Who am I to bring the children of Israel out of Egypt? This is the problem of authority. This is the first point. Moses has a problem of authority. He says, I don't have the authority to go and bring the people of Israel. Who am I? I am no one. I'm a nobody. In fact, you could say he's worse than a nobody. He is a shepherd, which were despised, who were despised by the Egyptians. But more than that, he's a murderer. If he goes back to Egypt and it comes out who he is, They might remember the fact that he murdered an Egyptian taskmaster. Anyone would say this isn't the best candidate to be the one to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt. He's not going to be the most diplomatic person to tell Pharaoh that the people should be let free. And think of it like this, Pharaoh himself was potentially at this point the most powerful person in the known world at this time. And God tells Moses, he's got to step up to Pharaoh, step into his throne room, and tell the most powerful man in the world, God says, let my people go. Now we take it for granted, now we read it with hindsight, and we've got the whole book of Exodus, and we see him leading them out of Egypt, and it seems easy. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine that, doing that yourself? Standing before the most powerful man in the world, who could easily have you killed without any compunction. And yet that's what God tells him to do. And it's similar with us, with far less reason. We can see people and we can be intimidated by people's faces. In Ezekiel, God tells Ezekiel to fear not men's faces. And the reason for that is because we are so apt to fear people's faces. We look at the way they respond to us. We're terrified that they will think badly of us. We're terrified what they will think of us. and we're intimidated by them. Just like Moses is intimidated by Pharaoh and he's intimidated by his own smallness, his own insufficiency, we can be intimidated by our perceived lack of sufficiency. Look at it this way, would you rather share the gospel with a child or with your work colleague? I think all of us would say, I'd much rather preach or share the gospel with a child than my work colleague, because I'm not intimidated by a child. A child, in a sense, I don't care what the child thinks of me. They're a child. But my work colleague, I've got to live with them. I've got to work with them. I do care what they think about me. We are easily intimidated by those around us. And that's why God's response is so helpful to us. God responds graciously to Moses' excuse. You can read it in verse 12. It says, and he, that's God, said, certainly I will be with thee, and this shall be the token unto thee that I have sent thee. When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain. God says to Moses, Certainly, I'll be with thee. I love that certainly. Didn't need to say certainly, but he does. He says, certainly, I will be with you. Now notice what God doesn't do. And this is important in the society we live. God doesn't try to improve Moses' self-esteem. He doesn't say, oh, don't be hard on yourself, Moses, you're great. You were a prince in Egypt. You've had the best training anyone could ever imagine in the world at this time. You're great, Moses, you can do this. I've heard you speak, you speak great. He doesn't say any of those things to Moses. Instead, in essence, he says, yes, Moses, you are small. Yes, Moses, you are insignificant. Yes, Moses, you're not the best candidate for the job. but I will be with you. Certainly, I'll be with you. And do you remember Jesus does exactly the same thing for us at the end of Matthew's gospel. At the end of Matthew's gospel, Jesus gives us our commission. He tells us go into all the world and preach the gospel. But at the end of it, he says, and behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. All authority is given me unto heaven. He basically says, no, you don't have the authority. No, you're not great. No, you're not impressive. But I am. And I will be with you. I have all the authority. I own this world. And I give you the authority to go into the world and tell them about me. God doesn't try to improve Moses' self-esteem. He's aiming at improving Moses' God esteem. That's the best way to conquer fear. Improve your opinion of God. Realize how big and how great he is. So that's the first problem. That's the first excuse Moses gives. The problem of authority. He says, who am I? I'm nobody. How can I have the right to go to Pharaoh? And God says, don't worry, I will be with you. But then we have the second excuse, reason, that he gives, and that's in chapter four, verse one. And in chapter four, verse one, it says, and Moses answered and said, but behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice, for they will say, the Lord hath not appeared unto thee. And this is the problem of authenticity. We've had the problem of authority, now we have the problem of authenticity. He says, okay, I'll go, but they won't believe me. I will tell them, I'll tell them that you've sent me, but the children of Israel will not believe what I have to say. They won't know that I am authentic. It's the problem of authenticity. And God gives him signs. He gives him the first sign of casting his rods to the ground, and it turns into a serpent. He tells him to put his hand into his cloak, and when he brings it out, it's leprous, and when he puts it back in again, it comes out clean. And God says, if those don't work, I'll even give you a third sign, and he says, if you take some water from the river and pour it on the dry land, it will become blood. So God gives Moses undeniable signs that God is with him to authenticate his message. Now, you might think, well, how does that apply to us today? Because I don't know about you, but I haven't done any miracles recently. I haven't been able to make a stick turn into a snake, and I wouldn't want to if I could, but I haven't been able to do any miracles recently to prove that God is with me. What the Bible says is that God has authenticated his message. When you read the Bible, what you're reading is the word of the prophets of God and the apostles of God. That's the summary of what the Bible is. It's God's prophets and it's God's apostles. And God authenticated their message. This is one example of Moses. God authenticated his message to them He authenticated the prophets by giving them signs and miracles. He authenticated the apostles by signs and miracles. They healed the sick, they raised the dead, they healed the blind, they made the lame walk. And God authenticated his message to them. And then God gives us their word still to this day. Now you might still say, well, how do we know it's true? That's fine for them when they wrote it back then. But how do we know today that it's true? Well, here's the interesting thing. Do you remember the story of the rich man and Lazarus? Jesus told a parable about a rich man who lived his life in pleasure and enjoyment, and in his gates was a beggar called Lazarus, and he lived his life in pain. But when it came to it, at the end of their lives, the rich man went to hell, and the poor man, Lazarus, went to heaven. And in hell, in the story which Jesus tells, the rich man cries out to Abraham in heaven and says, please send Lazarus to my brothers, that they won't come to this terrible, terrible place. And Abraham says something really interesting to the rich man. He says, they have Moses, they have the prophets. If they won't believe them, neither will they believe if someone rises up from the dead, even if we send Lazarus, they still won't believe. The reality is, it's not a miracle we need, well, it is a miracle we need, but it's not a miracle that we see. The miracle that we need is a change of heart, which the Holy Spirit works in us. The reality is, if the Holy Spirit isn't working in someone's heart, you can throw as many miracles as you like at them, and they will not believe. Our fundamental problem is a problem of the heart, not a problem of authenticity. God's authenticated message in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, our resistance ultimately is a resistance of the heart, and the miracle is when the Holy Spirit overcomes our resistance. That's what the Bible says God does through preaching. He says that as we speak, as we share what Jesus has done, the Holy Spirit opens people's blind eyes. We can't do it. We can't do it ourselves. I can't convince someone who's blind to be able to see. All I can do is shine the light. All we can do is shine the light. But when we do shine the light, the Holy Spirit opens their eyes to see it. Not everyone, but those whom he chooses. And he opens their eyes to see the light. It's the Holy Spirit who authenticates our message. Don't worry about whether they believe or not. Don't worry about if the people you're talking to believe what you say or not. That's not your problem. Your problem is to be faithful with what God has said to you. That's the problem of authenticity. But Moses has a third excuse, and the third excuse you can read in chapter four, verse 10. We've had the problem of authority, the problem of authenticity, but then in verse 10, Moses says to the Lord, oh my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither hithertofore nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant, but I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue. He basically says, me no speak good. I'm ineloquent. I can't explain what needs to be said properly. This is the problem of ability. We've had authority, authenticity, and now we have the problem of ability. Moses says, I just don't have the ability. I'm just not physically capable to share this message. And we can be similar, can't we? We know what God said that we need to go and tell people about him, but we say, I just don't have the ability. I'm not like a preacher standing in a pulpit. I'm not like so-and-so who can explain things really well. I just simply don't have the ability to do it. That's someone else's job, not me. I can't do it. I can't preach. I can't explain the gospel. I love God's response to Moses to this objection. And you can read that in verse 11. And it says, And the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man's mouth? Or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or seeing, or the blind? Have not I the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say. God says, who's made your mouth? Moses is like someone sitting in a Porsche with Ferdinand Porsche sitting right next to him, the maker of the Porsche car, sitting right next to him in the car. And Ferdinand Porsche says to you, if you're driving, and he says, go on, take it a bit farther, the car can handle it. And you say, oh, I'm not so sure. I'm not sure this car could handle that corner. I'm not sure that this car can handle that bend at this speed. If the designer says it can do it, it can do it. The designer is supposed to know. The designer should know what his own car can handle. God has made your mouth. God hadn't taken a wrong turn. He hadn't chosen the wrong bush address when he was talking to Moses. He knew who he was choosing, he knew more than Moses himself knew, he knew who Moses was, and he chose Moses. So Moses' excuse is daft in the extreme. I can't speak, I have no eloquence. God says, I've made your mouth, and I'll be with your mouth, so go, and I will teach you what you shall say. It's the same with us. Again, we can so often say, well, I just don't have the gifts. We've touched on this already. We don't have the gifts. We don't have the ability to share God's word. But listen to what Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter two, verses one to four. These are the apostle Paul's words himself. He says, I brethren, when I came to you, This is to the Corinthian church. Did not come with excellence of speech or wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God, for I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Hear what Paul says, he says, I came in weakness, in fear, in much trembling. My speech and my preaching were not persuasive words of wisdom. Do you feel weak? Do you feel fearful? Are you trembling? Then taking Paul's words, you're qualified. You're qualified to share God's word. You do not need to be fearless. You do not need to be confident. You do not need to be persuasive. You just need to be faithful with what God has given to you. So that's the third objection. Moses says, I don't have the ability. God says, don't worry. I can give you all the ability that you need. But Moses, he's still not happy. He's still not giving in. And in verse 13, he gives his last excuse. And it's not really an excuse. It's just complete throwing in of the towel. In verse 13, he says, oh my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send. You know what that means? Basically it means just send someone else. Says, look, I just don't want to go, God. Just choose someone else and send the message by them. The truth's come out, and at the end of the day, he just simply doesn't want to obey God. He doesn't want to do what God said. Now up to this point, God has been very gentle with Moses. Up to this point, he's been very gracious with Moses. Moses has been given objections, but each one, God has responded to. He's like a parent speaking to a frightened child. And he's easing his fears, he's saying, do not worry, I'll be with you. I'll help you, I'll be with your mouth. But God's mood, if I could put it that way, changes in verse 14. And in verse 14, it says, and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses. The Bible says God is slow to anger, not that he's never angry. God is slow to anger, not never angry. We can test God's patience. Sometimes we can be disobedient because we're afraid, and we have genuine fears and genuine concerns, and God is gracious to us with those concerns. Think of Gideon in the Old Testament. He's afraid to go against the Midianites, and God, in his mercy and in his grace, offers him sign after sign to prove that he will be with him. But it comes to a point where our fear becomes simply rank disobedience, where we're just rebellious against God. And that's when God becomes angry. When we simply refuse, despite all his reassurances, despite all his help that he offers, we simply refuse to obey him. That's when God gets angry at us, as he gets angry here with Moses. God doesn't just pet us when we're disobedient. The Bible says God chastens those he loves. He doesn't just say, I'm fine, if you don't want to do it, I'll find someone else. He works on us, like a good parent who won't allow their child to simply be rebellious. God loves us too much to let us resist him completely. comes a point where God will take drastic measures to make us obedient to him. I heard a story from a missionary to Colombia, a man called Russell Stendhal. And when he was a child, his dad read to him from a book. And in the book, it showed him some, I think it was Colombian natives who hadn't heard the gospel. And in the book, it had them, their kind of where they lived and how they lived. And Russell, as a child, I think young five-year-old, asked his father, why do they live like this? And because it was telling about how they worshipped, I believe, idols and other things. And Russell asked his father, why do they live like this? And his father answered, well, I guess it's because they don't know any better. And Russell asked him, well, why don't they know any better? And his father responded, well, I guess it's because no one has ever taught them or shown them a better way. And Russell says, well, why hasn't anyone gone over there to help them? And his father was wondering, well, I guess it's because no one really cares about them, Russell. And then he turned to his dad and said, well, don't you care, Dad? Why don't you go? That'd be awful when his son said that to you. But he says, well, don't you care, Dad? Why don't you go? And he writes this, Dad started to get a little uncomfortable. He said, well, Russ, a person can't just take off for a foreign country. Why? That would be missionary work. God would have to call you. Maybe when you grow up, you can be a missionary. Dad looked pleased with himself and thought he had slipped nicely off the hook by putting all the responsibility on God. He didn't notice that I wasn't listening anymore and I'd slipped off his lap. I was kneeling by the side of the couch, praying aloud. I prayed, dear God, please call my parents to be missionaries so I won't have to wait until I grow up. Dad looked a little thoughtful for the rest of the evening. The point is, we can easily make excuse after excuse after excuse not to serve God. And it doesn't always mean going across the other end of the world. It might simply mean going across the other side of the room to talk to someone who we wouldn't normally talk to. But we're so quick to make excuses. So often our unwillingness really indicates our unwillingness to care. That's what it amounts to. But look what God says, even at this point, his patience hasn't run out with Moses. And it says, And the angel of the Lord was kindled against Moses, and he said, Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well. And also, behold, he cometh forth to meet thee, and when he seeth thee, he will be glad in his heart. And thou shalt speak unto him and put words in his mouth, and I will be with thy mouth and with his mouth, and will teach you what you shall do. Even now, God's grace hasn't run out. And he says, okay, you're finding it difficult, Moses? I'll give you help. Your brother Aaron is coming, and I'll send him with you. You're too scared to go alone? I'll give you help and support, and he will speak. I've heard him, he can speak well if you can't. And I'll send him, and he'll be with you. He didn't have to go alone. And did you notice that line? where it says, God says, also behold, he cometh forth to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. And I think what God is saying there is that you might not be glad to go, Moses, but he will be glad that you're coming. You might not want to go, but he wants you to go. The whole people of Israel will be grateful, will be glad when you come and when you rescue them through me from Egypt. It's the same with us. God doesn't send us out alone. God doesn't give us the whole weight of the world on our individual shoulders. If you read the Great Commission, Jesus clearly says, go ye into all the world. Go ye into all the world, i.e., not you by yourself. You can't reach the whole world. No human being can reach the whole world. It's the church as a whole, all of us, all of us are told to go out into the world. I've heard it put like this. I heard the example from a mission organization of you have people, some people go down into the well and they have to dig the well and have to go down. Other people hold the rope. And that's what the church is like. Some people go down into the mission field. Some people go to Colombia or Papua New Guinea or Indonesia or wherever it is. Other people hold the rope for them. But the point is you're one or the other. You either help those who are going or you go yourself because it's a church effort. It's a group effort. We all are part of the mission. All of us are supposed to be helping in whatever way we can to help fulfill the Great Commission. God doesn't send us alone. He doesn't pull the whole burden of it on our shoulders alone. He sends us together to support one another, to help one another. That's the commission to us. So you can see, and that last excuse was the excuse of availability, the problem of availability. Moses wasn't available. So you can see those four excuses which Moses gives. The first one was the problem of authority. Who am I to go? God says, don't worry, I am with you. Second one was the problem of authenticity. God says again, don't worry, I am with you. The third problem was the problem of ability. God says again, don't worry, I am with you. And the last one is the problem of availability. And God says, I am with you, and I won't send you by yourself either. I'll send others to go with you." I just heard a quote, and I'll close with this. A quote I heard, I can't remember where I read it now, but I thought it was good. The quote is this. It says, opportunity knocked once, but by the time I switched off the alarm system, removed the safety bar, loosened the guard chain, and unlocked the deadbolt, it had gone. Opportunity knocked once, but by the time I switched off the alarm system, removed the safety bar, and loosened the guard chain, and unlocked the deadbolt, it had gone. The point is, we can be so reluctant to be obedient, we can be so fearful, and so afraid of what might happen, that we don't take opportunity when it comes. Bible says God is with us. God is more than capable to help us to obey Him. We don't go alone. We don't have to depend upon ourselves. All we need to do is depend upon Him and He will accomplish great things through us if we trust Him.