We're in a series that we're going through this year on Sunday mornings. It is called these stories aren't just for children and how important it is to really look afresh and anew at the stories that what you call stories in the Bible and to be able to look at them and see the spiritual truths that are there. I'm excited to be able to preach on this passage of scripture. But I'm also equally excited today because I have a dear friend I didn't get a chance to announce earlier in the service, John Asher. Would you just raise your hand for just a moment, John, right back here in this section here. When I was 22 years old, my wife and I, if I can put it in these terms, landed in Bonita Springs. We found Gospel Baptist Church and John Asher and his wife, Doreen, were members of that church and just accepted these two young kids in. and loved on us, and were so helpful to us. And I'm honored that you're here today. It's good to see you. I love you. I appreciate you much. And thank you for your kindness to us in many ways. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for today. Thank you for the blessing of being here. I pray that you'd work in our heart in a mighty way as I deliver the word of God. Oh, Father, cause every person to be still before thee and to hear what you have for us today. And we ask it in Jesus name. Amen. We come to this very fascinating story of this Moses and this particular time. I can recall sitting in children's church as a youngster listening to the teacher tell about Moses encountering God at the burning bush Now, while being a young person and listening to this story, I remember seeing all the things the teacher would put on the flannel board and boy, that burning bush. I was intrigued by that, how the bush wouldn't stop burning. But really, as I got older, I found out there was more to the story than just that. Forty years have passed since the sermon I preached last week and what we talked about Moses. The last time we were with Moses, he was still in Egypt. He went down to be with his people, saw some things that he thought he could straighten out and that would propel him as the leader of the Hebrew people, but instead his actions only landed him on the backside of the desert. And I believe if we come to this passage of scripture, it is imperative that we come to a very clear picture of Moses at this juncture. Moses had been the prince in Egypt, But now he's almost like a poor shepherd in a wasteland. Moses, 40 years ago, had great confidence in his abilities. Now he didn't know if he could do anything for God. Moses, back then, had taken matters into his own hands and failed miserably. Now he didn't think that God could use him at all. And it's really during these 40 years in the wilderness, while Moses is out of the limelight, it is exactly where God wants him to be and where he needs to be. It's in this time and at this particular place that Moses learns some lessons about himself. But more importantly, it's here and at this time that Moses meets with God and develops more than a head knowledge of who God is. And I want to say that meeting with God is exactly what Moses did. Here it is a particular day, Moses has an encounter that he'll never forget. No one else had an experience quite like this, but it was what Moses needed as he was now being called by God to do something very specifically this passage of scriptures we've read it is all about Moses's encounter as God calls him to do a very specific task mind you as we read the passage as we look some of the verses especially in chapter number four Moses tried taking this task out of his own hands and ignoring it but before Moses was not ready, but now God is calling him. So let's look through chapter 3, what we've read already, and some of chapter 4 in this book of Exodus. See this burning bush experience as Moses is called. And let's see Moses' excuses and why he feels that he cannot do it and how God answers him. First thing I want you to see in chapter 3 verses 1 through 6 is this. I want you to notice Moses' encounter with God. Now here it is, Moses is going about his normal activities of tending the sheep. On this particular occasion, he leads them to a place that is called Mount Horeb. This mount has great significance in the life of Moses and the Israelites, because later Moses will come to this mountain, this very same mountain, will go up there and will record what we call the Ten Commandments. But as Moses is going through, there's something that caught his attention. It was a bush that was burning. Now the bush is just your basic desert scrub bush. kind of mark the countryside. I mean, it's common to see these bushes all over. In fact, the Hebrew word that is used here refers to it as some thorny bush. But the fact that the bush was there was not the unusual part. It was the fact that the bush was burning and continued to burn that drew Moses' attention. The bush was not different or remarkable. But what was happening to it was certainly different and remarkable. And here it is, this blaze of this bush is not dying down. So Moses kind of walks a little bit closer to peer in to see what's going on. And out of this bush, the Lord calls him. Now, in theological terms, we call this a theophany. That is, this is a manifestation of the very presence of God that is perceived by the human senses. It's a visible appearance of God in the Old Testament. It would take on a lot of different forms as you read through the books of the Old Testament. It could be that God appeared in the form of another human being, that He came as an angel, and this time we read God manifesting Himself here through this burning bush. But make no mistake about it, this is literally God speaking to Moses. Two times in this passage, verse 4 and verse number 6, Moses tells us this is God. Jesus in the New Testament, Mark chapter 12, verse number 26, also told us about this particular story and said this was God speaking. I want you to just grab this before we get into any other things. I want you to grab this encounter that Moses has and note a couple of things about it. First of all, Moses had to find something extraordinary in order for God to get his attention. God had to do something extraordinary to get the attention of Moses. Have you ever stopped to wonder about this, maybe reading this story from time to time? Over the course of the last 40 years, while Moses is in the wilderness, Do you think God might have been trying to get his attention in small ways? Maybe while he's sitting there tending the sheep, God's speaking to him, but Moses is not really hearing or listening or responding to God. It might be the time that Moses is at home with his wife and his family, and they're having family devotions, and maybe God is speaking to him, but again, Moses is not hearing God. Why? He is stuck in a rut. I read about a sign that was posted on an old Alaskan highway which read, be careful which rut you choose because you'll be in it for the next hundred miles. Well, life is like that, is it not? Be careful which rut you choose because all of us have our habits and our routines. But something happened to Moses here on a seemingly ordinary day. Over 14,000 days have passed while Moses is in the wilderness, and now, while he's out tending his sheep, something extraordinary happens. And I really believe that God does this from time to time in our lives. We're in our rut, we're in our habits, we're in our routines and God through that is trying to speak to us and we're not listening. So now God has to wake us up with something extraordinary. It could be some form of disruption in our routine. It could be an accident that we're involved in. It could be an illness. It could be an unwelcome change in a circumstance in our life. But God is doing something in our life to cause us to wake up and to notice Him. Mark it down. These things that happen in your life are not what we call luck or coincidence. God doesn't work by coincidence. God allows everything in your life to happen for a reason because He's trying to get your attention. And so through our very ordinary lives there are extraordinary moments in which God is trying to communicate to you. Second thing I notice about this encounter that Moses has is Moses is instructed to take his shoes off because this is holy ground. Now let's think about this for just a moment. Moses is not inside some ornate beautiful church building. Moses is out on the backside of the wilderness. What's so holy about that? I want to tell you something. What made that place holy where Moses came to was the very presence of God was there and where God meets with you as God is meeting with you right now. where God meets with you at home. Wherever it is that you have that extraordinary encounter with God, may I say that that is a holy place. You say, why does God say that it's holy? Why does God tell him to take his shoes off and reinforce the fact that this is a holy ground? Well, think with me about what the word holy means. The word holy in the Bible means separate, to separate. And God was telling Moses here, Moses, take your shoes off. I want you to think about this for just a moment. I want you to separate yourself from your past failures. I want you to separate yourself from your present fears. I want you to separate yourself from all the others that are around you. And I want this to be a time with you and me so I can speak to you and where you listen. But notice number three about this encounter is Moses is introduced to who God specifically is. Look at this in verses five and six. Very interesting here. In fact, specifically verse six. God introduces himself as the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. Very interesting. To me, two incredible truths come from how God introduces himself here. The same God that worked through Abraham and Isaac and Jacob is the same God that can work through Moses. And may I remind you today that God may have worked through your mama and your daddy, And God may have worked through your preacher many years ago, and God may have worked through somebody that you knew a long time ago, and you think to yourself, I don't know if God can work through me. The same God who worked back then can work today. The same God who worked in those lives also desires to work in your life. And what's powerful to me is, if God can work through failures like Abraham, and Abraham had failed, And Isaac had failed, and Jacob had failed, so God can use a man like Moses, who also couldn't get out of his mind his failure 40 years ago. You may have failed God at some point, but I'm telling you, God can still use you. What a beautiful point here of Moses' encounter with God. But notice number two, from verses 7 through 10, Moses now is exposed to the plan of God. Now that God has Moses's attention, he begins to unveil the plan of rescuing his people. Now I think as Moses starts listening to this, he starts getting a little excited. Because no doubt for a long time, for some 80 years now, Moses has been hearing about the people of Israel and how God was going to deliver them, and this is in the bosom of Moses. He desires to see God's people rescued and know that God's gonna do something at some point. And so now he's all ears to what God is going to share with him about rescuing his people. Notice here the words that God speaks in verses seven and eight are some of the same words that he said at the end of chapter two. Look at the last verses of chapter two. Verses 24 and 25. Notice here, remember I alluded to this last week how God heard, God remembered, God looked upon, God had respect upon them. But now look at verse 7 of chapter 3. Notice what God says here. I have surely seen the affliction of thy people. I have heard their cry. The end of verse 7, I know their sorrows and now because of God's seeing and hearing and knowing what's God going to do in verse 8, I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians. May I remind you of something? If you're going through some struggles right now, God knows what you're going through. God sees it. God's not oblivious to it all. God's not taking a nap on you. God knows exactly what's going on and God in His right and proper time will deliver you and help you through it. But now as Moses is hearing about this deliverance, he's realizing it's becoming a reality. God's going to do something. He's going to deliver the Israelites, and I'm sure that Moses was thrilled to hear what God was going to do, but there's a caveat. There's something that God adds into all of this, and in verse number 10, God tells Moses, Moses, I am gonna rescue my people. I am gonna deliver them out of Egypt, and I'm going to use you to do it. Oh my goodness. I bet you that took the wind out of Moses' sails. And I look here and realize something, that when God has a task at hand, when God has a job to be done, He always selects a person to do that job. And God may be calling you today to do something. And maybe just like Moses, you say to yourself, I can't do this. This is not for me. But now this becomes one of the greatest tests in Moses's life. This is now the place where Moses is given a task and a very specific call. God always has a work to be done to accomplish his will in this world. And he's calling today men and women, even across this auditorium, to answer their call in their respective roles and places. Maybe God's calling some man to be a pastor today. Maybe God's calling some of you to be a missionary. Maybe God's calling you to help teach in this local church. Maybe God's using you and calling you to be a disciple maker. Maybe God's calling you for a specific ministry in this church. I don't know what it is, but God is calling. The question is, are you answering? Third thing I want you to see. Number one, we saw Moses's encounter with God. Number two, we saw Moses's exposure to the plan of God. But now we get to the crux of the message. And notice number three here, Moses's excuses as to why he cannot do the job. Excuses. I remember hearing an evangelist years ago say that excuses are like armpits. Everyone has one and it stinks. Excuses stink. But as you read through the rest of chapter 3 and chapter number 4, we see these stinky excuses of Moses. But he's doing everything he can to get out of answering the call of God, and yet it's no different than us. I dare say all of us from time to time have said no to God, and with our no, we've told God, well, I can't do this because of... Well, let's go ahead and see this aspect of being called here. And let's notice there are five excuses. I'm going to go through these and these, the remaining part of chapter three and of chapter four, five excuses. Three of them are, if you will, the first two are in the form of questions. The third one, there's an implied question. And the last two are statements of Moses as to why he's not going. So let's note these five excuses and how God answers each one of them. First of all, in verses 11 through 12 of chapter 3, there's a question of ability. A question of ability. And literally, this is a question of Moses of this. Who am I? Let me read these verses again, if I could. Notice, Moses said unto God, Who am I? That I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt. And he said, that's God, certainly I will be with thee. There shall be a token under thee that I have sent thee. When thou has brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain. Now, can I say to you, reading about Moses now and knowing what we know about him, we think to ourselves, Moses, you are well qualified. I mean, for 40 years you spent in the palace of Egypt. You had all the education. You had all the opportunities right before you. And you should be a man that is ready to serve. But I want you to understand something. Moses doesn't think that way. Moses doesn't think he has any ability. Moses has already put aside everything from Egypt. Moses tried to rescue the people of God, but he failed. And so now he comes before God and says, you've got the wrong person. I'm nobody. Who am I? Moses doesn't see it the way you and I might. How do you feel when God calls you? Maybe you do feel like Moses. Maybe you feel inadequate. Maybe you feel like you're nobody. Look at the way God answers Moses in verse number 12. I love this. God doesn't try to give some little assurance to Moses and build up his self-esteem. Oh, Moses, come on, let me pat you on the back. Come on, you got this. Come on. Come on, flex your muscles a little bit, Moses. No, no, he doesn't do any of that. Here's what God does. I will be with thee. I will be with thee. He's promising His presence. Can I remind you today that when God is with you, whatever it is that you're doing for Him and His service, you and God become a majority. Romans 8.31 says, What shall we say then to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? And I want to tell you something. I know we look at this excuse and we say to ourselves, wow, what an excuse Moses gave. Who am I? Moses begins questioning about himself and the fact that he can't do it. But I'll have to say this. This is exactly where God wanted Moses to be. And if you're going to be used by God, this is exactly where you need to be. You need to realize that you're doing the ministry for God. You're working for God. You're serving God. It is not you. If there's any greatness to Calvary Baptist Church, it is not due to its pastor. If there's any greatness to Calvary Baptist Church, it's not due to its staff, its deacons and you people that are out here that make this a wonderful church. What makes this church a great church as we go forward is that God is on our side and that God helps us. And so what God is reminding Moses is, all right, you're questioning your abilities. You think you're nobody. You're right. But I will be with you. Notice the second excuse in verses 13 to 15. Let me read these. This is a question of identity. Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come to the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers has sent me unto you, and they shall say to me, What is his name? What shall I say unto them? God said unto Moses, I am that I am. And he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you. This now becomes a question of who are you? First thing that Moses asks is, who am I? God answers it. I'm going to be with you. But now Moses says, all right, God, who are you? He moves away from looking at himself to attempting to identify who God is. Now understand this, it's not that Moses didn't know who God was, or that he didn't know his name. It's the fact that Moses is trying to figure out, how am I going to identify you to these children of Israel? Who am I going to specifically say that you really are? Now let's think about this for just a moment. When Moses is trying to identify the name of God, what is a name all about? Especially in the Old Testament, we read this, a name represents everything about power, and about a person's essence. Throughout the Bible we see this. Think about this for just a moment. The name Adam means earth or ground. It reflects how God had made man out of the dust of the earth. Man is nothing without God. Adam then gave a name to his wife Eve, which meant living or life, because Eve was the mother of all living. Remember in Genesis 17, God appears to Abram. He gives him a name of Abraham, which means the father of a multitude, recognizing the fact that there would be a populous nation that would be born through Abraham and ultimately Isaac. So now Moses is asking here, he's wanting to know what name of significance am I going to give? How will the people identify you? You have to think about what's going through Moses' mind right now. Moses has spent 40 years in Egypt and in Egypt they had a God for everything. They had a God of the sun. They had a God for war. They had a God for this and for that and for this. And they had all these gods that were named and they covered their bases for every aspect of life. And so now Moses is saying, look, the Israelites have been immersed in that culture. And I'm going to now come and talk about another God to them that they don't seem to identify with anymore. What am I going to say is your name? And I love what God says to him. Tell them I am. that I am. Now I don't know about you, we read that and we go, okay. Doesn't seem to make any significance to us. But if you understand the Hebrew for just a moment, it really comes from the first person common singular of the verb to be. Now when we use the idea of I am, let's use it in a couple sentences. I am watching television. I am walking down the aisle. I am speaking. So we use it here of things that we are doing. We're being something. We're acting upon something. But when God used this, it was this. I am that I am. Or we could say it this way. I am period. I am exclamation point. And the emphasis of this name is this. is that the I Am is the ultimate expression of the self-sufficiency of God, the self-existence of God, and the immediate presence of that God. That's the I Am. You see, in Egypt, yeah, they had a lot of other gods, but those gods were made by the Egyptians. Those gods were named and made by those people. But the God who is now identifying himself to the Israelites as the I am is the one who has always been and always will be. Nobody made him. Nobody created him. Nobody named him. He is the I am. That I am. Wow, what a great emphasis. In a day when there were so many gods, God let them know He's a self-sufficient one. But He also reminded them that He is the I Am. He's the God of the present. I love this. He didn't say, I was. He didn't say, I will be. I am. May I remind you that God is a very present God in your present time of need. He's the I Am. So Moses gives this excuse. Basically asks the question, who am I? God answers it, says to give his presence. Then he asks this question, who are you? How am I going to represent you to the children of Israel? God gives an answer. But now notice number three, go to chapter number four. Look here, if you will. Moses answered and said, But behold, they will not believe me nor hearken to my voice, for they will say, the Lord hath not appeared unto thee. Imagine with Moses going to Egypt now to the Israelites, he said, hey, hey, I want to tell you something. God spoke to me in a burning bush. Most of the Israelites were go right, right. You ate a little too much pizza last night, upset your stomach. And you're telling me that you met God at a burning bush. Why don't you go feed that line to somebody else? This is Moses's concern. But notice verse two, the Lord said unto him, what is that in thine hand? He said, a rod. And then you can notice down to verse number nine, God begins performing some of these miracles that are a preview of what will happen to come. So notice number three in verses one through nine, this is now a question of credibility. A question of credibility, and the question becomes for Moses, if you will, what if? What if? In other words, What if they don't believe me? I'll be honest with you, as I've read through this story multiple times here in the last few weeks, I've come to this conclusion. We're getting to excuse number three, and Moses is getting pretty good at giving excuses. Wow. All right, God, who am I? I'm a nobody. God answers that. Who are you? God answers that. Well, what if they won't believe me? That's a big, big question. But you know, God had already answered that in verse number 18 of chapter number three. God told Moses, he says, they shall hearken to thy voice. But God does something miraculous here. He takes that rod and turns it into a serpent and tells Moses, go ahead and grab it by the tail. And it became a rod again. Then Moses tells him to put his hand inside his bosom when he pulls it out, his leprosy puts it back in, it's made whole again. Then God begins to tell him about what he's going to do with the Nile River and all of that. And that's going to wait till Moses gets there till Egypt. But there are 10 plagues or miracles that God is going to perform. And God shows to Moses that he is the God of miracles. And he's going to show the Israelites who are looking for signs that God is the God he promised to them. But I want to reflect upon this question for just a moment. What if? What if? Because I hate to say this, all of us have this question in our mind from time to time when God asks us to do something. What if? It's one of the biggest drawbacks in our life. Well, God, what if my health fails? Well, God, what if I start giving to the local church and I start tithing and I can't afford it? What if I plan a ministry and I don't see people responding? What if I invite somebody to church? What if I witness to them and they get offended with me? What if somebody asks me a question and I don't know the answer to it? What if we as a church take on this particular project and maybe the economy crashes? Can I say that we have all sorts of what-if questions we bring about? You know, it was just before the D-Day invasion of France in 1944, General Eisenhower, faced all sorts of what-ifs. What if the weather was too bad? What if the invasion gets stuck on the beachhead? What if the paratroopers can't hold the approaches and keep reinforcements from coming in? What if it all fails? General Eisenhower so seriously considered the what-ifs that he actually wrote a letter of apology in advance and here's part of that letter. Our landings in the Cherubim-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold, and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based on the best information available. The troops, the air, and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt, it is mine alone. Eisenhower definitely wrestled with the what-ifs. But he did all he could to prepare and plan, and then it was time to go. Some of us need to do that same thing. Don't let the what-ifs hold you back from serving God. When God's calling you to do something, don't say, what if, say, God what, when, how. Step out in faith, obey God, and God will be with you. Fourth excuse is found in verses 10 through 12 of chapter 4. There's a statement here now of adequacy. Moses flat out says here that he can't. I can't. Look at this in verse 10. Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I'm not eloquent. Neither heretofore nor since thou hast spoken to thy servant, but I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue. Look at that. I don't know. Some have said that Moses stuttered. Maybe it's possible. Might have been just a simple excuse that Moses was giving, but we do know that Stephen in Acts chapter seven said that Moses was mighty in word. So whether he's just throwing this out or not, trying to stave God off, I don't know what was going on, but God has something that he gives back to Moses. He asked Moses, all right, Moses, you say your mouth, your tongue, your slow of speech, I want to ask you a question. Who made your mouth? The answer is obvious, but God answers it. He made his mouth. Every ability that we have is given to us by God. It's often been said where God guides, He provides. Where God calls, when God calls, He will enable you. And I want to remind you of something that you may say to yourself, I can't do this because of this frailty. I can't do this because I can't speak. I can't. And we throw it all of excuses. of why we have no adequacy. But I want to remind you of something. God made your body. God gave you the ability. And if God is calling you, he will use you. Remember years ago, reading about the great preacher from the 1800s by the name of D.L. Moody, D.L. Moody was preaching in England. And after one of his preaching sermons, a university student came up to him and said this, Mr. Moody, Do you realize that you made 18 grammatical mistakes in your sermon today? Now, if you think that doesn't happen, you need to be in a preacher's home. My children, many times, will say, Dad, do you know you use this word that many times? I'm like, you're counting? Really? Honestly? Ask them today after the service. They probably got things they're writing down right now. But if you knew anything about D.L. Moody, D.L. Moody would slaughter the king's English. I mean, he just, he didn't know his English well. So here's this university student telling me, Mr. Moody, did you know you had 18 grammatical mistakes in your sermon today? To D.L. Moody's response, which he was always quick to respond, here's what he said to the young man. Yes, I may have made many mistakes, but listen, young man, I use all the grammar I have for the Lord. What are you doing with yours? I like that. I like that. See, we put all sorts of excuses why we can't do it. We think we're going to make mistakes. But I'm telling you, get up and make the mistakes, follow God, do what you need to do, do what God's asked you to do. But notice, lastly, there's a declaration of rejection. The remaining verses that are given here Verses 13 and following to the end of the chapter. Notice what Moses said in verse 13. He said, Oh, my Lord, send I pray thee by the hand of him whom thou wilt send. You know what Moses is basically saying? God, you've answered every excuse I have. I tell you what, I don't want to go. Would you send somebody else? And that was Moses. That was his excuse. He basically says, I won't do it. Send somebody else in my stead. And that may be the very reason why some people that are here today don't hear God's call. They just flat out don't want to hear it. They don't want to do God's will. They have their own life plans, and they don't want to do what God's asked them to do. And may I remind you that when we forsake to do what God has asked us to do, there's a very simple three-letter word for that. It is known as sin. Sin. Sin is not just doing evil. Some have often said that is the sin of commission, the sins we commit. But it is also not doing the good that we know we ought to do. Those are the sins of omission. Not doing the good that we should do. How sad it is that people are not close to God because they have rejected His call in their life. Today I'm heavily reminded of what God is doing in our lives. Throughout this auditorium right now, as we reflect upon Moses, all of us not need just think about Moses alone, but you need to think if you're a born-again Christian, God is calling you to do something. It could be a great task. It could be something that might seem minimal to many other people. But regardless of whatever it is, God's calling you. Are you heeding the call? Or are you like Moses, giving all sorts of excuses? I'm going to tell you something. If God's calling you, He'll be with you. He'll help you. I remember some of the first times I stood up to preach at Gospel Baptist Church. My knees shook. Smote one another, got tongue tied. Not much different 30 years later, you know. But I'm here to tell you something. I knew God's call. And I knew I needed to follow through with it. God's calling you to do something. He's calling you to reach that neighbor with the gospel. He's calling you to teach in this local church. He's calling you to perform a ministry. He's calling you to speak to someone about the word of God. He's calling you to invest in somebody else's life, to disciple them. I don't know what he's calling you to do. But now is the time for you to answer that call. In just a moment, we're going to have an invitation. I'm going to invite you to come and just pour your heart out before God. Say, God, I don't know what you're calling me to do, or maybe you do know specifically, but God, I'm yielding myself to you. I'm willing to follow you. I might feel like I can't do it. I might feel inadequate. I might not know how to go about this, but God, I'm willing to give my all to you. Let's bow our heads and close our eyes, please. Father, thank you for today. Thank you for the word of God and this very call of Moses. What a powerful, powerful portion of scripture we have here today. And oh God, I pray that you'd help people across this auditorium. Many you've been calling for some time. Some are sensing the call of God in their life right now. I pray that they would heed that call. While heads are bowed and eyes are closed, please nobody looking around. This is a very solemn time. This is a very important time for you to reflect upon the message and what God is doing with you individually. Could be that over the course of the last number of years, God has been speaking to your heart about service for Him. Could be full-time service, where you are part of a church as a staff member, or it could be that you're a volunteer and performing some ministry. I don't know what it is. but God's calling you. Maybe you've rejected that call. Maybe today you just sense God doing something. You can't put a finger on it. You can't identify it right now, but you know God is just drawing you right now. Whatever condition you find yourself in, you're sensing God's call. I'd just like to have a word of prayer for you, and I want to invite you to really yield to God. How many would be here today and say, Preacher, God's speaking to my heart. And I want to answer God. I want to follow Him. I want to do His will. Would you just lift your hand for just a moment here? God bless you. God bless you. Number of hands throughout the auditorium. Anyone else here today? You can put your hand down once you put it up. Anyone else here today? God speaking to me. God bless you in the back there. Anyone else here today? God speaking to me. Then may I invite you In these moments, when we stand in just a moment, we're going to have an invitation to piano begin playing. And I want to invite you to make your way down to the front and treat this like an old fashioned altar. To pray before God and just speak to him and just say, God, let me talk to you for just a moment. Let me let me let me unload with you. Let me share with you. And let me yield to that call upon my life. We'll have personal workers will be up here that you can pray with, speak to, counsel with, whatever it is that you need. But I want to invite those that are here today that may be without Jesus Christ. Primarily, this message was directed to believers, to Christians. But it's possible you're here today and you've never placed your personal faith in Jesus Christ. If you were to die today, you don't know that you'd go to heaven. You don't know that you'd spend eternity with God forever. I want to encourage you that today, if you're uncertain about where you'll spend forever, that today could be your day of salvation. You see, just like God identified to Moses and told him, you tell the children of Israel, I am. Can I say to you today that Jesus Christ is the great I am? Jesus is the bread that satisfies. Jesus is the water of eternal life. And you here today are trying to find satisfaction. You're trying to find what it is that will get you to heaven. You are going to lose in this life trying to find it here. Jesus is the answer. And if you would acknowledge your sin today and place your faith in Christ, Believe that He died on the cross, shed His blood to wash your sins away, and you'd have faith in Jesus and in Him alone, the Bible says, that you can be saved.