Not Me Oh Lord! | Dr. Conrad Vine

have freedom, uh to praise God according to our conscience, to gather on the Sabbath day with brothers and sisters.

And uh we have such incredible blessings here in America. I’m not sure we always take them for granted or we we really

appreciate what God has blessed us with. And um I really appreciate the last segment there. You know, um, we often

think that that science and and the spirit of prophecy are at odds with one another. No, they’re not. True science

comes from God. And I’m grateful for every medical professional who works within a biblical worldview and brings

God’s healing to people at the innermost level. So, uh, this morning we’re going to talk about the sermon is called Not

Me, O Lord. And you may feel like that today. Not me, O Lord. And I I wrote

this sermon because we’re in the last days of earth’s history. And God is going to pour pour out his Holy Spirit

on this world in a way like we’ve never seen before. And uh we call it, you know, the loud cry of Revelation 18. We

talk about the latter rain um that’s going to fall upon the earth and bring to fruition the seeds of life that have

been swn all around the world. And so in order for this to happen, God’s looking for an army of people, young and old,

male and female, who going to answer the call and say, “Here am I, Lord. Send me.” He wants us all to use the gifts

that he’s given us. And so I remember the first time um that it was my privilege to to share my faith. And it’s

it’s kind of a very embarrassing or painful story. And I was being um checked into a hospital in England at

the age of 10 to have my tonsils out. And the nurse said, well, she said, um,

uh, what’s his religion? What’s his age? What’s his date of birth? What’s his address? When she said, “What’s his

religion?” Um, my mom said, “Oh, he’s 7th Adventist.” And the nurses, I

haven’t heard of them. So my mother, she wanted to be helpful. She said, “Oh.” She said, “Do you remember that missionary couple in Silon from England

who just died of malaria? It was on the BBC. They were Adventists.” The nurse said, “No, no, I haven’t heard of them.”

And then my mom said, “Well, do you know that hospital in California called Lom Molinda and they’ve just put a baboon’s

heart into a baby to see if it would work?” They were sent the Adventists. And the nurse says, “No, no, I haven’t

heard of them.” And I could see that my mother was struggling. So I decided to help out. I said, “You

know that lady in Australia who killed her baby? Then she claimed a dingo took it. She was a 7th Adventist as well.”

And of course, uh, that was completely untrue. The dingo did take her baby. She was innocent. Um, but the nurse did know

that story there and she said, “Oh, she yes, I know Adventists now.” And my mother looked at me with something other

than undiluted love in her eyes. And I knew we were going to have a conversation later on. But from that

moment on, I knew that I was called to something. I wasn’t sure what I was called to yet, but I knew that God had a

calling in my life. And if we look back in our own lives, we uh of many of us we can pinpoint a moment in time where we

realize that God had a claim on our lives. He had a calling for us. He had a purpose for us. He’d equipped us for a

certain role in the Lord’s vineyard. And so that the youngest person in the Bible who was called by God, um it wasn’t

Samuel, it was Jeremiah. Says, “Before you were born, I consecrated you. I appointed you a

prophet to the nations.” So before he was born, he was called by God. And

today we’re going to look at maybe the oldest person in the Bible who was called by God. And it’s the story of the

call of Moses. Because the story of Moses is fascinating to me. Uh not so

much because of the fact that for the 40 years after the call, he was one of the greatest leaders in human history.

But it’s because before Moses accepted the call, he had five good objections.

And every time God says, ‘I want you to do something, your text says, but Moses

said. And we’re going to explore Moses’ objections today because some of those objections are our objections today. And

we’re going to be asking ourselves, how did God respond to these common objections to his call to ministry? I

want to assure you today as has already been alluded to and as uh brother David said in our first sermon this morning um

it doesn’t matter where you go in life as long as you are with Jesus Christ.

And when he calls you to something only he knows the path that he’s going to lead you and sometimes he may lead you

into the fiery furnace. Sometimes he may lead you into the pits of lions and

sometimes like David he may lead you to the throne of Israel. You don’t know. What you do know is whether you’re going

to be faithful to his call in your life. And as we come to earth’s closing hours,

God is looking for a people who are not going to say, “Not me, oh Lord,” but who are going to say, “Here am I, Lord, send

me.” And so, we’re going to start out by inviting the presence of the Holy Spirit once again. And then we’ll enter our

story. So, dear heavenly father, we thank you for your mercy and your grace to us. Father, I thank you that even in

this last testimony that you’ve just blessed us with, you can work in the midst of brokenness and you can take um

clay that has no form and you can make it into something beautiful. And today

we’re asking, Father, that no matter how much brokenness there is in our lives, no matter how formless the clay of our

life may be this morning, we’re asking that you be the divine potter. We are the broken clay. We’re asking that you

will call us and mold us and shape us into a vessel fit for your kingdom.

Father, we want to be bearers of the good news of the everlasting gospel to the end of the world. So Lord, whether

we are vessels of gold and silver or of clay or wood, may we be fit vessels for

the everlasting gospel from this day forward. So Lord, as we uh discuss and study and drill into the story of Moses,

I’m asking that the same spirit who inspired this story will speak to each of our hearts today. I’m asking, Lord,

that if you’re calling us into ministry, that even if we go through the same objections as Moses, you will answer us

this morning and you’ll make plain for us the path that we are to walk in life. So, Father, speak through me and for me.

Fill me with your Holy Spirit. Forgive me for my sins. May nothing come between any of us here this morning, Father, and

you as our holy God. Protect this place of prayer, Lord, with your angels. Do

not allow men of violence to come here. And Father, we ask that in the name of Jesus, you rebuke every and all spirit

um that belongs to Satan and drive them from this place today. We ask you these mercies in Jesus’ holy name. Amen.

All right. So, we’re going to start out with a quote from Sister Whites. And she says in the book ministry of healing

that there’s our journey today actually uh we’re going to have an instruction there are five objections and we’re going to come to our conclusion. So it’s

a pretty simple structure or journey that we’re going to go on today. So uh in the book ministry of healing we read

this on page 474. Consider the experience of Moses. And I don’t

normally associate Moses with a healer. Do you? We think of Moses as the lawgiver on Mount Si. We think of Moses,

the leader of the Exodus. We think of Moses saying, “Let my people go.” We think of Moses having that confrontation

with the king, the Pharaoh, the the United States president of his era. We think of Moses leading his people to the

verge of the promised land, but not being able to enter. And so, we have all these ideas about Moses, but rarely do

we think of Moses as a healer. But in the book, Ministry of Healing, we are counseledled to consider the experience

of Moses. So Moses was a child born like Jeremiah, like Jesus, like John the

Baptist. He was a child born for a special task. I want to say to every young person here today, you are born

for a special task. You were knit together in your mother’s womb. You are the handiwork of the creator of the

universe who is setting you apart for a holy work in God’s final hours. And by

God’s providence, Moses was rescued from the death that Satan had decreed against him. and he was brought up by a

god-fearing mother with her wages paid by Pharaoh’s daughter. At the age of 12,

as you know the story well, he was taken to the imperial palace

where he was raised as the adopted son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He might you might say he went to Yale or Harvard or

Oxford in Cambridge and he received every advantage that ancient Egypt could offer. He was raised as the prince of

Egypt with the best education of the ancient world. He understood how to inspire men. He understood how to lead

um armies. He understood how to win military campaigns. He was being groomed to be the ruler of the ancient world.

But at the age of 40, Moses made a life-changing decision. At the age of 40, he turned his back on the throne of

Egypt and he threw his lot in with an enslaved people, the Israelites, and he decided that he was God’s instrument to

set God’s people free. Did God call him at the age of 40 to this role? No, he did not. But Moses

thought that he was ready for ministry. He’d had the best education going. He was a leader of men. He was a general of

armies. He thought that he had everything God needed to be a leader of his people. And so in Exodus chapter 2,

he intervened to save an Israelite slave who was being beaten by an Egyptian slave master. And thinking that nobody

else was looking, Moses slew the Egyptian. Then he buried that body in the sand believing that in so doing he

was covering up his crime. The following day, however, when Moses

intervened to stop two Israelites fighting with each other, the aggressor uh asked why he was intervening and the

aggressor said to him, “Who made you a ruler and a judge over us?” Like, “Who

called you to this ministry, Moses? Who gave you authority over us? who made

you a ruler and a judge over us? Moses had imagined that the Israelites would have risen up against the Egyptian

oppressors, that under his leadership as a general and commander of men, they would leave Egypt by force of arms. He

had naturally supposed that God was going to use the gifts that Moses brought to the table, that is his skills

as a military general. Many a man since Moses has brought his gifts to God,

assuming that that’s what God needs from that man. Many a man has thought that I have this

gift or that ability. This is what God needs. Moses brought his bows and arrows, his swords and his spears,

expecting them to be of use to God. But God had no such intention

because Moses was still too full of the spirit of Egypt, that of driving men by force, fear, and pain.

You cannot drive men. You have to lead men. If any of you spent time on a farm as

you were growing up, or maybe you have a farm today, uh my my my mother’s side of the family had some farms in Ireland. We

spend our summer holidays there. And I learned very quickly um that you you can never lead cattle down a main road. When

you want cattle to go from point A to point B, you walk behind them and you drive them and you use a cattle prod and

you’re whacking those cattle from be cattle from behind and they’ll go in the right direction. But if you want to make

a flock of sheep go down the roads, you cannot lead from behinds. You cannot beat sheep from behinds. Sheep will only

go when when they are led by somebody else. A sheep the sheep will follow the shepherds. And if they know the shepherd

loves them, they will follow the shepherd wherever the shepherd goes. And a good shepherd will only go as fast as

the slowest lamb in the flock. Because if the shepherd walks at his pace and not at the pace of the slowest lamb, the

flock gets strung out and the wolves take the lambs at the back. And so Moses had to learn that you cannot lead

people, God’s people, by driving them from behind with with um with cattle sticks and prods. You lead by love. And

when the sheep know that they are loved, they will follow wherever you are leading. So he had to unlearn the 40

years of Egypt, the spirit of Egypt of driving men by force, fear, and pain.

And panicstricken and aware that his killing was now public knowledge. It was on ancient Facebook, you might say. And

aware that Pharaoh was seeking his life, Moses fled the land of Egypt. and he fled to what we now believe is the the

modern Sinai Peninsula where he met um a bunch of ladies shepherds who were

trying to get water from a well and there was a bunch of other shepherds who were harassing them. So he drove away

those shepherds and he helped those ladies get the sheep the water they needed for their sheep. He met a man

called Jethro who’s a priest of God in Midian. They were shepherds. He married one of those girls called Zippora who he

believed was from modernday Ethiopia. And he settled down to a life of anonymity, a shepherd in the Arabian

wilderness, far away from the might and the power, the pomp and the majesty of Egypt. You might say he went from the

wall of the mall of Washington to rural Alaska.

It’s quite a contrast. And for men, this is a big deal because

men receive their identity more often than not through their job.

Men’s identity is bound up with their career or their profession. Whether you are a craftsman, whether you are an

attorney, whether you are a shepherd, whether you’re an auto mechanic, men’s identity is bound up with their

profession more than for women. Women’s identity is often in relation to the the

significant relationships in their life. But for men, their job often defines who they are, their sense of who they are,

their self-standing of their place and role in society. When I go to meet somebody, I have a lunch with them, the

the question I want to ask after I’ve asked their name is, “And what do you do?”

Because once I know what they do, I’ve immediately got a social picture in my mind of who they are and where do they

fit into the social strata of American society. I have an idea of their educational lack of it, of their

financial status, of their general role in society. So who you are as a man is a

big deal. And Moses goes from being the prince, the crown prince of Egypt, from I mean the commander of the armies of

Pharaoh to leading a bunch of smelly sheep in the Arabian wilderness.

I’m telling you as a guy that’s heartbreaking. That is soul crushing.

You know, when uh when when you have a high status job and you leave that job,

all of a sudden the emails stop coming your way. Some of you know what I’m talking about.

And you go from somebody where everybody wants to know your opinion on something to somebody that nobody cares what you

think about anything. And it’s a huge blow to the male psyche when you go from being a somebody to becoming a nobody.

And so God takes Moses on this journey. He allows him to go those 40 years in

the wilderness as a shepherd because Moses had to undo the learning from Egypt and learn who God truly was. He

had to learn how to live lead by love rather than to drive by fear. Uh the

book of Patriarchs and Prophets comments on this. We read, “Shut in by the bullwicks of the mountains, Moses was

alone with God. The magnificent temples of Egypt no longer impressed his mind

with their superstition and falsehood. In the solemn grandeur of the everlasting hills, he beheld the majesty

of the most high and in contrast realized how powerless and insignificant were the gods of Egypt. Everywhere the

creator’s name was written. Moses seemed to stand in his presence and be overshadowed by his power. Here his

pride and self-sufficiency were swept away. In the stern simplicity of his

wilderness life, the results of the ease and luxury of Egypt disappeared. Moses

became patient, reverent, and humble, very meek above all the men which are

upon the face of the earth, yet strong in faith in the mighty God of Jacob.

Moses had grown up among the obelisks, the pyramids, and the magnificent public temples of Egypt. If you’ve ever gone to

the Middle East, take a trip down the river Nile. It’s truly spectacular. Go

down those long tunnels in the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens, and you will climb down maybe 40 m at 45°

along a passageway that was chiseled 3,000 years ago. And all around you on the wall, painted on the wall in

brilliant blue and yellow colors, are scenes from the Book of the Dead. Then you come down to the actual tombs of the

pharaohs and you can stand in them to this day and you look at the ceiling and they’ve painted against the blue ceiling

yellow stars and 3,000 years later those stars are as bright today as they were

3,000 years ago. The Egyptian engineering their their technical skills were on a par with anything we have

today. Moses had been has had mind been filled with the wisdom of men.

Now God took him into the wilderness and surrounded by the majesty of those mountains,

he would unlearn the ways of men and learn the ways of God. At age 40, Moses

said, “Come with me. I can do it.” And God said, “No, you’re not ready yet.” At

the age of 80, Moses said, “I’m not ready. I can’t do it.” And God says, “Yes, now you’re ready, Moses.”

Sometimes when we think we’re not ready, that’s right when we’re ready for ministry.

Sometimes when we’re full of our own self-confidence, we’ve got that latest diploma behind our name. Some people

have more letters after their name than in their name. You’ve noticed that. And sometimes when we’re so confident in

our professional, our technical, and our work abilities, we think we’re ready for ministry and we go looking for

opportunities to serve. And generally when we have that attitude, we’re never looking for opportunities to serve.

We’re looking for opportunities to lead. Because the dominant problem among the disciples as they follow Jesus was who

is the greatest in the kingdom of God. So when we think we’re ready to serve, when we think we’re qualified to serve,

when we think God has equipped us to serve, when we think I’m good to be a conference president, I’m ready to be a

general conference president, I’m ready to be the head elder of my local congregation, that’s precisely the kind

of person who should never have that role. It’s those who are say, “Lord, I can’t

do this. If but for your grace, I’m going to be a failure.

Lord, you’re going to have to carry me through this. When Moses was 40, 40, he thought he was

ready and God says, “Uh-uh, 40 more years leading sheep.” Has any of you

ever handled sheep in your life? I’ve handled many, many sheep in my life. Literal sheep. I’m not talking

about church members here. I’m talking about literal white woolly sheep on the hillside. Sheep are smelly. Sheep are

stupid. Sheep make silly decisions. When a sheep gets wounded on the barbed wire

fence, that wound will fester. It has no way to heal itself. Sheep need shepherds

like a meal needs someone to eat it. And when you learn how helpless and

vulnerable the sheep are, you learn to love them rather than

desire to lord it over them. And so Moses had to learn before

entering ministry that he had to depend upon God. He had to unlearn man’s wisdom

and learn God’s wis wisdom. Jeremiah 17:es 5 and 7 says this, “Thus saith the

Lord, cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their

strength, whose hearts turn away from the Lord. Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is in the Lord.”

So Moses learned to lead as Hebrews 11:27 says, “As though he saw him who is

invisible.” In practice, what does this mean? It meant that at the Red Sea, the people cried to Moses and Moses turned

to God in prayer. It meant that when they found the people were hungry and they found bitter water and the people

complained to Moses, Moses turned to God in prayer. It meant when the people were hungry and they complained to Moses,

Moses turned to God in prayer. Moses led as Hebrews 11 says as though he saw him

that is Christ who is invisible. And so for his 40 years in the wilderness,

Moses had to be stripped of his self-sufficiency and his confidence in his own ability and I’m no longer a

strong independent man and I can do this job kind of attitude. And God says, “No, no, no. You’re not

ready for the task yet.” So Moses left led those fort those sheep

for 40 years. And by the end of those 40 years, he was conscience. Even though God is

invisible, he lived as though God were visible before his eyes.

So, Exodus 3:1, we come to the story of the call. The text says, “Moses was

keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led his flock beyond the wilderness and came to

Horeb to the mountain of God.” The mountain of God.

This mountain is central to Israel’s experience in the Exodus story. The Ten Commandments will be delivered delivered

on the mountain of God. Israel will be numbered at the mountain of God. God will enter into a covenant with his

people at the mountain of God. And God’s people will set out on their journey to the present pro promised land from the

mountain of God. And when the Israelites have come out of Egypt in Exodus 12-15 and they’ve escaped the armies of

Israel, they will come and they’ll meet God at the mountain of God. This is where God chooses to meet Moses.

And the first call of Moses, you think that Moses would be happy, huh? God is speaking to him.

The first time God calls Moses to service, we have the first of Moses’

five objections. And the first objection from Moses is

about his identity. Now, let me ask you today, is your

identity important to you? Yes, it is. Okay. If you’re a guy here and your

identity is not important to you, please raise your hand. All right. Every hand stays down. For

guys, our identity is so important to us. It defines who we are. It defines where we’ve come from. It promises where

we’re going in life. Our identity is everything particularly for men. And the Moses first objection to the call of God

has to do with his identity. So this is the text here. So God says to Moses, he says, “So come, I will send you to

Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” And so in

that first sentence, we have God and Pharaoh and the people of Israel and the

people of Egypt. God is giving him a call that is painted on the widest possible canvas in human history. This

is like God giving you a dream tonight and saying, “I’m going to call you to the White House to speak to the present

United States about the latter latter the latter reign.” All right. He’s

taking you from your home here in Alabama or Tennessee, however majestic or meek it might be. He’s taking from a

humble life in Tennessee to speak to the most powerful man in the world. And Moses naturally shrinks back to him.

He’s like, “Who me, oh Lord?” Like, “I know what it’s like in that palace. I lived there for 40 years. I know that

life is cheap in that palace.” And the first objection is here in red. It says, “But the first objection, but Moses said

to God, who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” And God said to him,”I will be

with you, and this shall be the sign that I am, it is I who sent you. When

you’ve brought the people up out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.”

So in this passage here, God formally commisss Moses to lead Israel out of

Egypt. And Moses’ first objection has to identity. He feels deeply inadequate. So

he says, “Who am I to do a job like this?” He has a sense of his own inadequacy and he and by himself he was

right. Just as when we think we can fight God’s battles on our own.

When God calls us into ministry, he doesn’t leave us there on our own. When God calls you to do something great for

him in his kingdom, he’s not asking you to stand out on your own when no way where there’s no help around you. And

Moses says to God, “Who am I to do this? Who am I against Pharaoh? Who am I to

set your people free from the power of Egypt? And who am I to lead this rabble of slaves to freedom? Who am I to do

this? Moses asks this question of God, who am I?

40 years earlier, when Moses intervened to stop those two, those two Israelites

from fighting, one of them turned to him and said, “Who do you think you are? Who made you a judge over us?”

And those words stuck in Moses’ mind. Who do you think you are? Who made you a

ruler and a judge over us? And for 40 years, Moses has walked with those sheep

through the wilderness, thinking, “Yes, who did I think I was to lead God’s people out of slavery? Who did I think I

was?” Words matter. Words sink into our innermost being.

Words spoken to children can be a blessing for life or a curse through

life. The words you speak to your children or your grandchildren today can

bless them through life or they can curse them emotionally and spiritually for the rest of their lives. Words

matter. And the last time when Moses met those fighting Hebrews who tried to intervene and they said, “Who do you

think you are?” Now Moses says, “Yes, Lord. Who do I think I am? I’m not able to do this.” Those words have sat in

Moses’ mind for 40 years. They’ve played on his mind and they’ve yielded a harvest of a sense of inadequacy, of

insufficiency. There’s no way I can do what God is calling me to do. Be careful

what words you say to your children. Be careful what words you use in your marriage

because these become self-fulfilling prophecies in the lives of those young people. We can bless people or we can curse

people with the words we use before them. I want to challenge you today to speak words of life and not of death.

Words of hope not of despair. Words of love not of fear. Words of encouragement

and not words of despair. Because Moses’ identity had caused him difficulties his

entire life. You think about him. He was born a Hebrew slave boy under a death

decree. He was then raised in a god-fearing but enslaved household till

he was 12. Given the fact that all the other boys were being wiped out by Pharaoh, he

probably had very few boyfriends his own age, male friends. He’d be surrounded by young girls, but very few young boys

when Moses was growing up. He was then given to Pharaoh’s household at the age of 12. He was no longer raised in a

god-fearing household, but in a household steeped in the occult and the powers of Satan and the violence of the

Egyptian Empire. He had grown up not belonging to any culture. And in his one

attempt to fit in when he tried to save the Israelite from that slave master only made it worth worse for everybody.

He spent the last 40 years as an Israelite living in Midian who spoke

Egyptian. They thought he was an Egyptian when he rescued Zipper at the well. He was living in a cross-cultural

marriage with a mixed race child. So, who does Moses think he is?

Everything is mixed up in his background. He has a pagan background. He has a God-fearing background. He has a Jewish background. He has an Egyptian

background. He has an Israelite mother. He has a Egyptian mother. He speaks um

Hebrew and he speaks Egyptian. He knows about the worship of Yahweh. and he knows about the worship of Ammonrah and

and the gods of of the Egyptian pantheon. This guy is as messed up as anybody you could imagine. When he

rescues his wife, they said, “Oh, this is an Egyptian that rescued us.” But he’s not really an Egyptian. He’s an Israelite. And he has a son from from

his his wife from Ethiopia. And he forgets to circumcise him because

he’s not quite sure what direction his life is going to go in spiritually. If there was one messed up man in the

wilderness, it was Moses. He had so many identities he didn’t know where he fitted in. In fact, the only thing he

was good for was being a shepherd on his own in the deserts of Saudi Arabia.

Mixed, mixed cultures, mixed languages, mixed marriage, mixed religions, mixed worldviews. He had lived in a slave

hvel. He lived in a palace. He lived in a desert tent. He’d both led men and he’d been pursued by men. He was both

celebrated and hunted. In his own eyes, he might say, “Who am I?”

But in God’s eyes, he was the perfect candidate. Because Moses understood about the gods

of Egypt, and he understood about Yahweh. He could speak the Hebrew language, and he could speak the

language of Pharaoh. He understood how to lead armies. He understood how to lead men through the desert. He knew

what it was to be dependent upon God. He knew what it was to lead a mixed multitude because his family was a mixed

multitude. If there was one man who was perfect for the job, it was Moses. Where

Moses saw weakness and and and and um brokenness in his background, God saw

the perfect candidate today. God knows Moses’ troubled background and

he knows your troubled background as well. He knows the brokenness in my background

and in your background. And God says, “Yes, I know your

background, Moses.” But God says to Moses, “I will be with you.”

So God switches the focus to himself. It doesn’t matter who you are, Moses.

It doesn’t matter that you’re a felon, that you’re a murderer, that everything your background is all mixed up. It

doesn’t matter that you have literally no place to call home, that you can never go back to the land of your birth for fear of being arrested or by the

Egyptians or rejected by your family. I know these things, says God, but I will be with you. And that

expression there, I will be with you in Hebrew is I

first time in the Bible you have the personal name for God. But this is a slightly different construct. This isn’t

Yahweh, but it is based on that name Yahweh for God. And so when when Moses

says, “God, I can’t do this. Who am I to do this? Look at all the brokenness in my life.” God responds by

pledging his personal presence to Moses and to all the Israelites and their deliverance from slavery in Egypt.

And God gives Moses a sign. Moses, when you’ve led the people of E

of Egypt of Israel out of Egypt, you’re going to come and you’re going to worship me at this mountain. That will be a sign to you that I am truly with

you. It was Jesus who met Jo Moses in that burning bush.

And when Jesus was creating another people at the end of Matthew 28 and he

was creating a new exodus from this world of sin so that we might become a new creation and walk not just into the

promised land but into heaven above. Jesus promised his disciples in Matthew 28 the same promise that he gave Moses

at the burning bush. Lo Jesus says I am with you always even to the end of the

age. So, you may sitting here today are thinking, “Who am I to do something

great for God? I’m bankrupt. I’m addicted. My marriage

is broken. My family is a mess. Everywhere I see, there is just brokenness and shame. I don’t want

anybody to know about my life in any great detail.” And God says, “Yes, I know about that today in 2025.”

And rather than looking in the mirror, I’m asking to look up and see how great I am. And hear the assurance that if I’m

calling you to something, I will be with you always, even to the end of the age.

What matters is not whether I am doing it. What matters is whether God is with me. Because if God before me, who can be

against me? And so the first objection from Moses is his identity. Who am I to

do this? The second objection from Moses has to do with authority. And we find that in chapter 3 13-15.

And the text says there, “But Moses said to God, if I come to the Israelites and

say to them, the God of your ancestors has sent me to you, and they ask me, what is his name? What shall I say to

them?” So, who is it that sending me? When the Israelites say, “Well, yeah, we

hear what you say, Moses, but who’s sending you on this task? Who did you say has called you to lead us out of slavery? Who did you say has lead us to

lead a rebellion against the Pharaoh, the present United States of his era? Who is sending you, Moses? Give us your

bonafide days, your credentials. What by what authority are you leading the people of Israel? And so God says to

Moses, I am who I am. That’s Yahweh in Hebrew.

God said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, I am Yahweh has sent me to you.” God also said to Moses, “Thus

you shall say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of

Jacob, has sent me to you. This is my name forever, and this is my title for

all generations.” So Moses in this objection here sees a problem. After 400

plus years of slavery in Egypt, surrounded by the fallen gods of Egypt, will the Israelites have any meaningful

memory of Yahweh, Jehovah, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? Moses is going to remind them

of, well, what was his name again? Yes, Yahweh. Maybe they’ve even forgotten how to pronounce the name of God. And even

if they do remember God, they’re going to ask Moses the difficult question. What is there in the name of God? That’s

going to help in our terrible circumstances. Because names are windows into the

character of an individual. Have you noticed that in England there is no king in the last thousand years called King

Gaza or King Waza? Apologies to anybody here who’s called

Waza or Gaza. But in England, certain names are kind of royal names. Names like Edward,

Charles or James are royal names. In the aristocracy of England, you have

names like Archerald and Roupert and Henry.

And in the lowest echelons of society, you have names like Gaza, Wazer, and Bazer.

Names have meaning. You can curse a child or bless a child by the names that you give them. Names

can carry a blessing from God and names can carry a curse. One of my favorite

names in the Bible is Jedodiah. Beloved of God. It’s the name that God gave Solomon. Beloved of God. What greater

name could you have than Jedodiah? The names of God are windows into his character. Each revealing a different

aspect of his character and his blessings for us. So Moses says, “What if they say to me, what is his name?”

There it is in red in the screen. Ma. Um that word ma appears later in Exodus. Mana. What is this? And so they called

the white food they ate mana, which literally means what is this? And so that word ma, what is his name? It’s not

really asking the literal name of God, but it’s asking about God’s character, his quality, the significance of the

name of God. The name is really this. The question is really this. What does that name mean or signify or do for us

caught in slavery today? Is God active? Has God seen me in my distress? Can he

help? or is he a distant remote god you cannot help in my distress. So when we say what is his name and Moses is afraid

they’re going to say well what is his name Moses is saying the Israelites are going to doubt that you can do anything

for them and you’re my credentials you give me my bonafide days but nobody believes you

can actually do anything practically for these slaves and in response

God reveals to Moses his personal name some people call it Jehovah

Some people call it Yahweh. The truth is nobody knows how that name is pronounced.

It was so sacred that whenever when they read the Old Testament scriptures from the time of Moses onwards to the time of

Christ, whenever they came to the four-letter name for God, it’s known as the tetetrogrammaton because there are

four letters in it. Four Hebrew consonants y vi they would they wouldn’t pronounce it because it they were so

reverent about it. uh they would use the word Adonai instead which means Lord and

that’s why in your King James version today whenever it has the personal name for God Yahweh it has L O R D in capital

letters this way of expressing reverence for the name of God but uh nobody knew how to pronounce this name for God Y v

Yahweh or Jehovah um through uh from Moses onwards and we only call it

Jehovah today because in the 9th century AD when the Hebrew scribes the mazar streets were putting vowels to the

consonants of the Hebrew language. They didn’t know what vowels to add to these consonants. So they added the vowels

from Adonai which is or I and they added it to y v and you get yovah. So if a

Jehovah’s Witness ever says to you this is the name of God, ask them simply to show them anywhere in the Bible where

the word Jehovah appears in the Hebrew and it doesn’t. It’s a man-made construction. But that’s another issue

entirely. What does it mean? I am who I am.

There’s also a future tense to it. I am who I will be. I am today. I am

tomorrow. I am present in your life.

There are many ideas about this name here. The gods of Egypt had definite

names. You know them yourselves. Amunra, Oscarus, Tar, Porus, or Haythor. All of these

gods existed within creation. But the name Yahweh though is not so

much a name as a description for who God is at a personal level. The name means that God is self-existence.

He depends upon nothing else. His meaningless his existence is absolute and inch changing. He is the God over

all earthly gods. He is the source of being himself. He is not caught and confined to creation. God exists outside

of creation. And so Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” And that verse

you have, “In the beginning, time. The heavens is space. The earth is matter.” So in that verse, you have time, space,

and matter, which is Einstein’s theory of relativity. And it says God existed before time, space, and matter in

Genesis 1 vers1 because God created the heavens and the earth. And heaven, time,

space, and matter cannot exist unless they’re all together. That’s Einstein’s theory of relativity. And so Genesis 1

verse1 expresses what Einstein expressed 6 and a half thousand years later that

there is God and then there was time space and matter. But Yahweh or Jehovah

is outside of time and is outside of matter. He says I’m the God of Abraham,

the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. It is Yahweh who rescued Hagar when she was dying of thirst in the wilderness. It is

Yahweh who called Abraham out of the cales. It is Yahweh who guided Abraham

through the highs and lows of his life. It is Yahweh who wrestled with Jacob by the brook before he crossed over into

Israel. It is Yahweh who appeared to Jacob as a ladder going from earth to heaven as he fled from his vengeful

brother Esau. It is Yahweh who rescued Lot from Sodom and Gomorrah. It is Yahweh who saved Noah and his family

from the flood. It was Yahweh who guided Joseph and the patriarchs through the seven years of famine. It was Yahweh who

was covenant faithful to each and every one of the patriarchs. You ask who he is? He is Yahweh. His name can be

trusted. He is the covenant-making God. He is the covenant keeping God. He honors his covenants despite our

unfaithfulness to him. He guides. He reveals. He feeds. He forgives. He delivers. He sets free. And he leads

people out of slavery into freedom. Yes, says God to Moses. You can trust your name because it reveals my character, my

purposes, and my love for his people. Moses says God the deliverance of the Egyptians does not depend on you but on

the power the presence and the all sufficiency of Jehovah God. You may say Moses and we may say to like Moses you

may say today I’m not wellconed and God responds by saying I am. I have no

power. God responds to you today I am. I have no means. I have no money. I have no funds in the bank. God says to you I

am. You say I am not confident. God says I am. God, I don’t know how to speak. I

have no speaking abilities. I am, says God to you. God, I don’t know what the future holds. I am, says God. I am in

the future. God, I’m scared. I’m not sure what to say to that one.

This is Moses complaining. We’ll come to that in the fifth objection.

Amen, brother. But whatever objection Moses comes up with, God’s answer is, “I

am.” Whatever objection you may have today to a new avenue of ministry, to a new call

for service, to God’s invitation to shine for him in earth’s darkest hours.

Whatever objections you may have today, God’s answer to you is, “I am.

I’m scared.” God is not scared. I have no money. I am, says God. I don’t

know where to go. I am, says God. They wrote, listen to me. I am, says God. My

name, look at my name in the scriptures. I can do all things for all people. Why do you think I would stop being all

things for you when I call you into ministry? So Moses’ second objection here

is based on his authority. By what authority do you come? That’s his worry.

And God says, “Just say that I am has sent you.” Sister White writes this at Councils for the Church. You all know

this quote. We have nothing to fear for the future except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us and his teaching

in our past history. Councils for the Church, page 359. When we remember God’s actions in our

lives in the past, it gives us courage for tomorrow. So when you come together in your

churches and your sanctuaries and your worship services, I noticed that island churches, people in the Caribbean, they

always have long praise and testimony times. White churches generally don’t have praise and testimony times.

People may if the pastors, anybody have a prayer request, maybe a few timid hands go up. Does somebody have

something they want to praise God for? A few timid hands go up. No. Tell and testify of God’s goodness in your church

gatherings because you engender faith and give courage and remove fear from those who are going through the same

trials in their own lives. Enter his courts with thanksgiving for his goodness in your life and your praise

for who Jehovah really is. And so when people are struggling, say, “Who am I to stand up for you? Who am I

to step forward in faith? Who am I to accept this call to ministry?” When we testify to what God has done in our

lives and we remind them that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is calling you to this new avenue of ministry, we give

them courage. We strengthen the faint of heart and we give the assurance that wherever you go in this world, I will be

with you even to the end of the age. So we come to Moses’ third objection and it

has to do with credibility. So this is the text here. Then Moses

answered, this is the third butt. Now, but suppose they do not believe me or listen to me,

but say the Lord did not appear to you. So they’re questioning his credibility. Moses, did God really appear to you at a

burning bush? Let me ask you the question. If you were to stand up next week in your local church in Sabbath

school and say, “The Lord appeared to me in a burning Ford 150 this week and he wants to give you a message today.”

Sorry, brother. So you wouldn’t be speaking. you wouldn’t be speaking. No, they’d be calling 911 and putting you on sedatives

or something. So, it takes courage to stand up and say, “I met the God of the universe in a

burning bush and it didn’t burn the bush and he came to tell me that I’m here to set you free.” So, Moses is naturally

concerned about his credibility like people who think I’m crazy. Are you off your meds, Moses?

For the Lord answered him. The text said, “What is in in your hand?” to Moses said, “A staff.” And God said,

“Throw it on the ground.” So he threw the staff on the ground and it became a snake. And Moses drew back from it. Then

the Lord said to Moses, “Reach out your hand and seize it by the tail.” So he reached out his hand and grasped it and

it became a staff in his hand. And so that you may believe that I, the

Lord, the God of their ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, God of Jacob, has appeared to you. And the text

goes on this third call. Again the Lord said to him, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” He put his hand inside his

cloak. And when he took it out, his hand was lepous, as white as snow. Then God said, “Put your hand back in your

cloak.” So he put his hand back into his cloak. And when they took it out, it was restored like the rest of his body. If

they will not believe you or heed the first sign, this is God speaking to Moses, “They may believe the second

sign. If they will not believe even these two signs or heed you, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour

it on the dry ground. And the water you take from the Nile shall become blood on the dry ground.

So Moses’ objection to God is this. They’re not going to believe me, God.

I’m some guy coming from 40 years in the wilderness. If they know anything about me, they I’m a murderer and a vagabond

and a fugitive and a runaway and I and I’ve killed people in the past. And when

I say to them, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob appeared to me in a burning bush, they’re going to think I’m

crazy. They’re not going to believe me. Moses says to God, “They rejected me 40 years

ago when I was the crown prince of Egypt. What makes you think they’re going to accept me now?”

What What’s going to make them accept me now? It’s natural to be wary of speaking

to a large group. Is that not true? Yeah, my preacher brother is laughing at

that one. Yes. I think one of the top three fears in the west for people is

the fear of speaking in front of a group of people. I’m not sure what the other two fears

are. Maybe heights or sharks or something, I don’t know, or the dark.

But one of the top three fears in the west is the fear of speaking in front of a large group of people. And Moses was

no different to us today. To stand in front of a large group of people means everybody’s watching you, everybody’s

evaluating you, everybody’s judging you. You may do well in the pull pit. You may do badly in the pulpit. We may be

Adventists and vegetarian by profession, but we often dine on the flesh of the preacher over our pot luck.

It takes courage to stand before a crowd. And Moses is worried about his credibility. And God gives him three

signs. And God says to Moses, “You’re right, Moses. They’re not going to believe you because what you’re saying

is kind of crazy. You met the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in a burning bush in Saudi Arabia. Now he’s sending

you to set us all free. Yeah, it doesn’t sound right. It’s something doesn’t add up with your message, Moses. So God says

to Moses, “Yes, what you’re saying is correct.” Correct. They’re not going to believe you, but they’re going to believe me.

And Mo God gives Moses three signs. The first is he says, “Take your staff and

throw it to the ground, and it’s going to turn into a serpent.” And Moses takes his staff of wood and he throws it to

the ground and it becomes a serpent. Then Moses says, “Now you pick up that serpent by its tail.” And Moses does.

And that serpent once again turns to a staff of wood in the hands of Moses. That staff would later become a symbol

of God’s power in the hands of Moses and of Aaron. In Exodus 7 and 8, Moses was

reminding God was reminding Moses that he is the creator. And if God can

fashion a serpent out of a wooden staff and turn that wooden staff into a serpent and vice versa, then God can

perform any miracle today. The miracle of the staff indicates to Moses that the

creator of the universe is with him. Then God says to Moses, “Put your hand into your wallet. Don’t into your

clothes.” So Moses does and he pulls it out and he has leprosy.

Leprosy. Has any of you seen somebody with leprosy on their hands?

Leprosy is a fearful disease. In those days, it was a death sentence where the fingers, the digits of your hands and

your feet and nose would slowly rot and drop off. It was a It was a living death sentence.

If God can work with a diseased hand, how much more can you do with a healthy hand?

You may be sitting here today worried about a cancer diagnosis,

out of control type 2 diabetes, whatever it may be,

God can do just as much through a disease hand as through a healthy hand. It’s because God is working through that

hand. Nobody should sit here today and say, “Lord, I’m limited by my human

frailties. I’ve got type 1 diabetes. I’m dependent upon my daily insulin shots. There’s not

a lot I can do for you, God.” Lord, I’m suffering from depression. Send somebody else. I had a battle with

depression once. It lasted two awful years. It’s not pleasant.

It’s awful. But I can testify that God still works through you in the midst of your depression. And God can give you

victory over these ailments as he gave me victory as well. God can work through the diseased as

much as he as well as he can work through the healthy hands. Your physical strength, your physical abilities, uh

your your lack of physical capability is no objection to God calling you into ministry today.

where you may see a diseased hand or a lepros hand. You might say if a leprosy hand if that means you’re you have a

deadly disease you may have type three cancer or moving on tight stage four cancer and say Lord there’s nothing I

can do for you. I’m just passing time until the grim reaper knocks on my door.

The message for you today is God can still work through you and God still has a call in your life. He doesn’t need the

perfectly healthy hand. He can work through a diseased hand as he showed to Moses in this story. And then the story

of the water of the Nile. The Egyptians worshiped the Nile as the source of life, their economic strength. The Nile

represented to them life and death. And by turning the Nile into blood, God is affirming to Moses and to us today that

God alone has authority over life and death. God did not ex dismiss Moses’

excuses. He said, “I’m going to equip you to overcome all your human frailties.” So Moses was thus invited

not to trust in his own strength or his own abilities. He was invited to lift his eyes from his own frailties and his

own imperfections and to turn his eyes upon Jesus. In 1 Timothy chapter 4:12-14,

we find the Apostle Paul writing to a young man, his protetéé Timothy, who was worried because he says, “I’m a young

man. Nobody’s going to listen to me in the church.” Any of you young people sitting here today, you think, “I’m a young person. I

can’t stand up and teach a Sabbath school lesson. I can’t lead Bible studies. I I’m not in a position yet to

preach. Preaching is for those with gray hairs. And God speaks through Paul to this

young man Timothy and he says, “Let no one despise your youth.” So young people here today, hear this. Let nobody

despise your youth. But set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in

purity until I arise, says the Apostle Paul. Give attention to the public reading of scripture, to exhorting, to

teaching. Do not neglect the gift that is in you that was given to you through prophecy with the laying on of hands by

the council of elders. And so to us today who like Moses are worried about

our credibility. And Lord, they’re not going to listen to me. The Apostle Paul says, “Don’t remember

that when the elders laid hands upon you, you received the anointing of the Holy Spirit.”

And God gave you his presence. And God gave you some gifts for ministry. He

gave you the gift of preaching or of teaching or of exhortation or intercessory prayer, the gift of being

an apostle, the gift of leadership, the gift of service. You may think that you’re a young person

here today and say, “Ministry is not for me. I need to be 50 plus with gray hair.

Well, God called Samuel when he was three. He called Jeremiah while he was in his mother’s womb. John the Baptist

responded to the Holy Spirit when his mother was 6 months pregnant and he was still in his mother’s womb.

God can do amazing things through teenagers and young children. Today, I’m speaking to the young people here today.

Don’t think you have to wait 40 years before God’s going to call you into ministry. Be asking today, Lord, how can

I be of service in your kingdom? What are you equipping me for? What are you calling me for? What are you giving me

the gifts to do? What doors of opportunity for ministry are you opening in my life? Well, I started standing at

the front. Um, my dad was a pastor and I was we were going to one of his churches. He had five churches and I was

about 12 years old and the Sabbath school teacher in the main sanctuary class didn’t turn up that Sabbath.

And the congregation sat there think what are we going to do? no teacher. So I jumped up.

Why did I do that? I have no idea. But I jumped up. I said, “This is the lesson

book.” I didn’t know what the adult lesson was. We never went through that in our when we were 10 and 11. We went through the kids Sabbath school. And I

opened up the Sabbath school. This is because I know what to do. This is the scripture reading. Who’s going to read the scripture? And these are two

questions at the bottom of the first page. And I discovered at the age of 11 that I like speaking in public.

And then a few weeks later there was a day of fellowship and all the churches coming locally and I said to my dad I

said I want to speak in front of those people. She said what are you going to say? I want to speak and I discovered

that you know I can speak in public and if you don’t ask those opportunities and

you don’t pray for doors of opportunity to come your way you’re never going to discover the gifts that God has given you. Now that the truth of the matter is

I saw jaws when I was 11. If I have one fear above all else, it’s

of sharks. We were flying across the Atlantic from London to Chicago. I was 10 or 11 years old. And as we were

flying across Mid-Atlantic, they were showing Jaws on that 747 or the big screen in front of us all. I couldn’t

avoid that scene. I was transfixed with horror watching Jaws. And I was old enough to know that over the North

Atlantic, Jaws was right beneath us. I I remind mind mind of that joke of the

pilot who comes on the intercom and says um we’re sorry to say but the first engine has gone we’re going to be half

an hour late into JFK and a few minutes later he comes on the intercom and says I’m sorry folks but the second engine

has gone we’re going to be an hour late into JFK and then a few minutes later he comes on the intercom and says I’m sorry

to say but the third engine has gone we’re going to be an hour and a half late into JFK at which a point one young

boy turns another and says if that fourth engine goes we’re going to be up here all

But the point is to young people, just because you’re young doesn’t mean God has a place for you in his kingdom. Just

because you’re young doesn’t mean God doesn’t have a place for you in his vineyards. Go looking for those opportunities. Ask those around you more

mature in the faith. What do you see as my spiritual gifts? What have I got? They may not be perfect. They may be

young and immature, but what gifts do I have? And please point me in a place where I can use my gifts for God’s

glory. And if God could call Samuel to speak to Eli and Esther to speak to Aueras and um

Jeremiah as a teenage boy to speak to the people of Israel. And if God um can call Timothy as a young man to be um a a

proteége of the Apostle Paul, he can call you today into ministry.

He can call you today into ministry. God gives us the gifts today of miracles, of

tongues, of healings. God gives divine appointments. He gifts of teaching, evangelism, preaching and pastoring.

When you receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit, he promises to transform your character even as a teenager and as a

pre-te with Moses. So with us today, God equips us to overcome and he gives

victory wherever he sends us. So Moses’s third objection is credibility.

And God says, “No, I’m going to do things through you that make everybody see that I am working through you. I

have called you into this ministry. The fourth objection is his ability. And Moses says in verses 10 through 12,

the fourth but is here. But Moses said to the Lord, “Oh my Lord, I’ve never been eloquent, neither in the past nor

even now that you spoken to your servant. But I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” Then the Lord said to

him, “Who gives speech to mortals? Who makes them mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I the Lord? Now go and

I’ll be with and I will be your mouth and teach you what you are to speak.

So so far in the story, God has already told Moses where he is to go, who he’s to speak to, what he’s to say, and he’s

promised Moses that he’ll be with him wherever he goes. And Moses is still full of his objections. Lord, I can’t

speak. I’m no good public speaker. I’m terrified of standing up in front of a crowd. Honestly, my number one fear when

I stand up in front of a crowd is whether my zip is up or down. And whenever I stand in front of a

crowd, I have this fear. Is it up or is it down? I tried to discreetly find out sometime in the sermon.

But Moses is terrified of public speaking. But Moses has made his excuses. I’m not a good enough speaker.

We know later in his life that throughout the story of the Exodus and the book of Deuteronomy, Moses was

actually a superb public speaker. But he was a humble man. He was aware of

what he thought were his weaknesses. Maybe after 40 years of list looking after those sheep, he was experiencing

what many have today. He was having a crisis of confidence.

He was absolutely a very good public speaker. He was just having a midlife crisis or a crisis of confidence.

And he was 80 years of age. Surely if God wanted him to be a great

leader of men and women, God would have called him into ministry before he was 80.

The prophet Daniel received his first vision in Daniel 7 when he was in his upper 70s. Moses is called by God to be

the greatest leader in human history when he’s 80 years of age. So whereas before I’ve spoken to young people and

I’m speaking to those who’ve got gray hair and look a bit like me. The greatest chapter of your life for

God’s kingdom may come when you’re in your 80s, not when you’re in your 20s, 30s, or 40s.

And God may have a flowering of your life, a flowering of your spiritual gifts, a flowering of your ministry, a a

glorious display of God’s goodness and what God can do for a sanctified human being. Not when you’re in your 20ies,

but when you’re in your 70s, when you’re in your 80s, don’t think that just because I’m 60, 70, 80, or even 90 that

I’m beyond God having a use for me. If God could call Moses at the age of 80, he can call you at the age of 80 today.

Jeremiah complained that he had no good public speaking skills. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 10 that he had terrible

public speaking skills. These men were not the first, nor were they the last to shrink from public speaking. But God’s

response was striking to Moses. I am your creator. If I can create your body in general, and your tongue in

particular, don’t think I can’t give you words to speak. God works through flawed

people, through cracked people, through broken human beings. There is no pre perfect preacher of righteousness. There

is no perfect elder or deaconess. There is no perfect Sabbath school teacher or public ministries leader. There is no

perfect public evangelist. God worked through Rahab who was a prostitute. Worked through Jeffa who was a bandit

and an outlaw. He worked through Samson who was a womanizer and a playboy. He worked through Thomas whose heart was

filled with doubt. He worked with Paul who was a jihadi killing Christians. He worked through Matthew who was a tax

collector and IRS agent. Need I say more? And he was a traitor to God’s people. He worked through Esther, who

was an orphan in a foreign land. He worked through Jacob, who was a deceiver. He worked through Samuel, who

was an infant boy. He worked through Joseph, who was a slave boy. He worked through a demoniac, through a leper, a

donkey, and a whale. And if God can work through all of these, then God can work through me, and he can work through you today.

He can work through me, and he can work through you today. Jesus repeats the same promise that he

gave Moses here. He g speaks the same promise in Mark 13. Jesus says this,

“When they bring you to trial and hand you over, do not worry beforehand what you are to say, but say whatever is

given you at that time. For it is not I who speak, but who? The Holy Spirit.”

You’re afraid of public speaking. You’re afraid of a hostile audience.

I know, says Jesus. I’ve been there. I’ve stood before trial on trial before

a hostile audience. I’ve stood before lying witnesses. I’ve stood before false

accusations. I’ve listened in silence as they lied about me and and cast dispersions on my

character as they assassinated me in the public sphere. I know, says Jesus. I’ve been there and I’ve got the t-shirt.

I’m promising you because I’ve walked that path before you. When you follow me in that path and you speak before a

hostile audience, I will give you words from on high. I’m not asking you to speak. I’m asking you to stand up there

and open your mouth and trust me that I’m going to speak through you in that moment. Let me tell you as a preacher

and those of you preachers in the hall know this today. When you’re preaching, sometimes you’re listening to your own sermon. You have your sermon prepared.

You could prepared to preach A, B, and C, but you produce you preach F, GG, and H. And when how does that happen? and

you stand there and you preach and you’re listening to the Holy Spirit dragging the the sermon in that

direction and that direction and you’re wondering in your mind is that you’re detached thinking when is this going to come back to what we’re supposed to be

talking about today. Then you realize no this is the Holy Spirit that’s taken over right now. God doesn’t ask you to

come perfectly prepared like a a height Supreme Court attorney. He asks you to just to be standing up and to be willing

to testify and he says words will be given you from on high.

The most famous martyr in the New Testament was maybe not Steven but it was Antipas.

Revelation chapter 2, the church of Smyrna during the 10 years of persecution

AD85 AD 1895 approximately those years. And Jesus says to the church of Smyrna

says you did not deny your faith in me even the days of Antipass my witness my faithful one who was killed among you.

Now the word for witness there is martus. We get the word martyr from that. And we think a martyr is someone

who dies for his faith. No. A martyr is someone who lives for his faith and is willing to testify for his faith

up until the point of death if necessary. We’re called to be witnesses for the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Which means we don’t die for Jesus. We live for Jesus today. Securing the knowledge that he will speak through us.

Our final objection and our time is moving up here. I’ve been told I need to bring this to a close.

Is there Moses finally says the crux of the matter? Oh my Lord, please send

somebody else. He’s gone on about his identity, his

authority, his credibility, and now he comes to the heart of the matter. Lord, I’ve run out of excuses.

Just send somebody else. I want to read about Martin Luther. I

don’t want to be Martin Luther. I want to read about Steven. I don’t want to be Steven. I want to read about

the Apostle Paul. I don’t want to be the Apostle Paul. Anybody else, Lord, but me. Moses gets to the heart of the

problem, which is the problem of the human heart. He simply doesn’t want to go. Send somebody else. Yes, Lord. I

believe in you, but don’t ask me to sacrifice any creature comforts or my family, my career, or my home for you

today. Don’t ask me, Lord, to step out in faith. Don’t ask me to risk my reputation. Don’t ask me to inject to

jeopardize my finances, my retirement, my career, my professional license, my goods, public standing, or my retirement

for your cause. Don’t ask me to stand tall for you when others are cowering in fear. Don’t ask me to to call sin by its

right name. Don’t ask me, Lord, to stand for the right, though the heavens fall. Don’t ask me to be as true to duty as

the needle is to the pole. Don’t ask me to be your ambassador for the lost. Lord, send anybody else but not me.

And Jesus says in response to men and women who maybe have no

background in soulwinning, who already have comfortable jobs and their own careers, Jesus says, “Follow

me and I’ll make you fishes of men.” He doesn’t call us as the finished product.

He simply calls us. And if we are willing or we follow in obedience to the

commands of Jesus, he will do in us what we cannot do for ourselves. He will make

us into fishissures of men. Sister White describes it thus. In the common walks of life, there is many a man patiently

treading the rounds of daily toil, unconscious that he possesses powers which, if called into action, would

raise him to an equality with the world’s most honored men. But he who loves Christ the most will do the

greatest amounts of good. There is no limit to the usefulness of one who, by putting self aside, makes room for the

working of the Holy Spirit upon his heart and lives a life wholly consecrated to God.

You don’t feel equipped. I will make you a fisher of men. I’m not

a great speaker. I am. They’re not going to listen to me.

I’ll be with you wherever you go. I don’t know what to say. Words will be

given you in that moment from on high. When that old man Moses finished his

excuses, he accepted God’s call. He became one of the greatest leaders of

of world history. Moses who led the Exodus and the giver of the law of God to Mount Si. When

Moses died, Jesus came for his body. He rebuked Satan and took faithful Moses to

heaven. And today in 2025 in Tennessee,

God is calling you into ministry as well. He’s calling you, regardless of your

occupation, regardless of your profession, regardless of your career, to lead

people into the promised land. In your faithfulness in seemingly small matters, God is testing you. He is

weighing you. He is preparing your character for the call of God.

Every successful ministry begins with an encounter with the living God. When we have an experiential knowledge of God’s

love and his grace, when we experience the beauty of his character for ourselves and we’ve been bathed in his

love, we can face any challenge the world can throw at us. Knowing who called us into ministry carries us

through all the attacks of the evil one. So, in conclusion, our time really is up

here. Three simple things. Each day, bow down.

Begin your day with praise and worship. Remind yourself of who called you and who is with you. Bow down. Look up.

Don’t look your own weaknesses. Don’t look your own frailties. But look to him and claim his promises.

And when you’ve bowed down and you’ve looked up, then step out in faith with the assurance that he is with you

wherever you go, even to the end of the age. Bow down, look up, and step out.

Shine for Jesus. And may a multitude of souls be won here in Tennessee and Arkansas and all the states around here.

Because from this day forward, you didn’t say to God, “But but but but.”

But he said, “Here am I, Lord. Send me. In my weakness, may your strength be

made perfect.” May God bless us as we shine for him until Jesus comes again.

Amen.