{"id":1134,"date":"2023-07-18T06:54:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-18T13:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/1thingmatters.com\/?p=1134"},"modified":"2023-07-17T09:10:21","modified_gmt":"2023-07-17T16:10:21","slug":"who-am-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1thingmatters.com\/?p=1134","title":{"rendered":"Who Am I?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

(Exodus 3:1-15)<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t imagine anyone other than Moses could really describe what it was like to see a burning bush that didn’t burn up, because I don\u2019t know anyone other than Moses who\u2019s ever seen it. I suppose we could picture those fake logs inside gas fireplaces, some of which look a little more realistic than others. But something tells me the experience Moses had was a little bit different than that. It must have been quite a thing to see; quite amazing to witness it. That would explain why Moses went over to investigate it a bit more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, just like that, his amazement turned to terror as he realize what – or rather who <\/em>– was behind it all! \u201cWhen the\u00a0Lord\u00a0saw that he had gone over to look, God called\u00a0to him from within the bush,\u00a0\u2018Moses! Moses!\u2019 And Moses said, \u2018Here I am.\u2019 \u00a0\u2018Do not come any closer,\u2019\u00a0God said. \u2018Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.\u2019\u00a0Then he said, \u2018I am the God of your father,\u00a0the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.\u2019\u00a0At this, Moses hid\u00a0his face, because he was afraid to look at God\u201d (v.4-6)<\/em><\/strong>. Moses\u2019 curiosity shifted to cowardice in the presence of God. Holy ground in the presence of a holy God? Surely Moses thought he was doomed – as if hiding his face to avoid looking at God could somehow have spared him if God was indeed there to strike him down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you remember why Moses had reason to be terrified? In an act of vigilante justice, he stepped in on behalf of a fellow Israelite and murdered an Egyptian who was mistreating him. Moses presumed there were no witnesses to his actions because he was shocked when a short time later a fellow Israelite called him out on it. In fear, he fled to Midian where he shepherded for forty years. Forty years is a lot of time to be weighed down with guilt, and now that he found himself face-to-face with a holy God, we understand why he was terrified!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are we ever terrified of God for the same reason? Amazed at what God does, yes, but terrified? Do we shutter or shiver in the presence of God because we know his holiness and we\u2019re well aware that he knows our un<\/em>holiness? Does his holiness strike us with alarm as it also exposes our sinfulness? Do we so easily forget the ways God poured out his wrath against Israel’s sin again and again – via the earth opening up or fire consuming or plagues unleashed? God doesn\u2019t have much time or patience for sin! Do we too easily dismiss or forget that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was Moses\u2019 awareness of his sin in the presence of a holy God that led the pendulum to swing from amazement at the bush to terror. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, it swung back again in the other direction once God explained to Moses why he was there. \u201cThe\u00a0Lord\u00a0said, ‘I have indeed seen\u00a0the misery\u00a0of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned\u00a0about their suffering.\u00a0So I have come down\u00a0to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land,\u00a0a land flowing with milk and honey\u2026\u2019\u201d (v.7-8).<\/em><\/strong> Amazing! God heard the cries of his people, their misery from slavery in Egypt, and he was concerned about their suffering and was going to do something about it. Hooray! Amazing!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What a great reminder of the God we belong to! When we conclude that any suffering we experience must be an indicator that he doesn\u2019t care all that much about us, look no further than these verses. God cares about the suffering of his people. Experiencing suffering doesn\u2019t mean God doesn\u2019t care; rather it\u2019s an opportunity for him to show his care by how he chooses to deliver us through that suffering. He promised to do just that for his people in Egypt. Amazing news!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then just as abruptly, once again the pendulum swung completely in the other direction when God revealed how he planned to rescue his people. He would do so through Moses. \u201cSo now, go. I am sending\u00a0you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt\u201d (v.10). <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Imagine Moses’ response! \u201cWhoa! Hold the phone! Pump the breaks! Let me stop you right there, Lord! I\u2019m all on board with you rescuing your people, but if you\u2019re planning to do it through me, well, maybe slavery isn\u2019t so bad! There’s gotta be another way.\u201d Moses was terrified! The next phase of their dialogue involves Moses trying to convince the Lord that his rescue mission can be better carried out through someone else. Moses pulled out proof after proof that he felt should serve as more than sufficient evidence to disqualify him from any such rescue mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t you just love Moses? Is he relatable or what? We are ecstatic about all the good things God promises and desires to carry out through his people, but when it becomes a possibility that we\u2019re <\/em>the ones he wants to carry it out through, we do our best Moses impression and provide 487 reasons why we\u2019re not the right person for the job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This manifests itself in all kinds of ways in the lives of those who belong to a local church. By default, we presume that someone else is a better fit than we are, either because of our own insecurity or because we forget that others didn\u2019t always do it so well when they first started out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or we use the old \u201clet\u2019s give some new people the chance to serve,\u201d when what we really mean is, \u201cI\u2019ve put in my time already and it\u2019s someone else\u2019s turn.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re really busy in life right now, but when things slow down we\u2019d love to be able to do this or that.\u201d But we forget that we\u2019re the ones who choose all that busyness in other areas of life, and until we say no to some other things, the time that we claim to long for in service to ministry never magically seems to show up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s one version or another of the same pushback Moses gave to God: \u201cWho am I?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it isn\u2019t just ministry in general where this applies, but also to our consideration of God\u2019s possible call into the public ministry as pastors and teachers. \u201cWho am I?\u201d Not for me. Send others. We may not know what we want to do, but we know we want to make money, so ministry doesn\u2019t make the cut. The hours and expectations extend well beyond the course of a school day, so I couldn\u2019t be a teacher. I could never get up in front of people and preach a sermon, so I can\u2019t see myself being a pastor. These and so many other concerns are different versions of the same question: \u201cWho am I?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How does God respond to such concerns today? The same way he did to Moses. Moses asked, \u201cWho am I?\u201d but God pointed out that question needs to be asked the other way around. Not “who are you, Moses,” but rather “who am I, God, the Lord?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

God might as well have been saying to Moses, \u201cGet over yourself. Just because I am sending you, just because I am using you, does not mean you\u2019re doing the work. It\u2019s still MY work. I\u2019m still the one getting it done – I just need your hands, your feet, your mouth – really just your heart, and I\u2019ll get done what I need to through you.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note how many \u201cI\u2019s\u201d there are in this section! Moses keeps trying to shine the spotlight on himself as a disqualifier with each excuse he leverages, but each time God turns the spotlight back to himself with one \u201cI\u201d after another. \u201c\u2018I\u2019 am sending you.\u201d \u201c\u2018I\u2019 am with you.\u201d \u201c\u2018I\u2019 am.\u201d Not you, Moses, but I – the Lord, is where your focus ought to be.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that makes perfect sense, doesn\u2019t it? If we are looking for reasons to avoid carrying out the ministry God has given us – whether it be our own personal ministry as Christians or the public ministry as called workers – look no further than the mirror in front of you. Of course it\u2019s filled with reasons or excuses that would disqualify us! If God needed us to measure up to his standards before he could actually use any of us, he\u2019d end up empty-handed! He wouldn\u2019t be able to use anyone!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But have you forgotten what he did to ensure that he could use everyone? He qualified everyone at the cross. There he paid for our sin. There he freed us from selfishness and pride. There he washed away our excuses and insecurities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because ministry, our service, is about him. He sends us. He is with us. He\u2026is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that, frankly, is all we need. We remember it\u2019s all about him from start to finish. My service to him and others is not about my service; it\u2019s about him. My ministry in his name isn\u2019t about my ministry; it\u2019s about his name. My calling to fulfill his purposes isn\u2019t about my calling; it\u2019s about his purposes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ministry means keeping the emphasis in the right place. It means we can let go of the \u201cWho am I?\u201d and instead recall all of the wonderful answers to that question when God is the one asking it. When God reminds us to think of who he is, there is nothing that can\u2019t be done when he\u2019s behind it.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So go. God is sending you. Be his hands and his feet. Be his mouthpiece. Be those things and everything else he calls you to be because he is behind it. Who am I? Who are you? Instead, let\u2019s always remember who He<\/em> is.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Exodus 3:1-15) I don\u2019t imagine anyone other than Moses could really describe what it was like to see a burning bush that didn’t burn up, because I don\u2019t know anyone other than Moses who\u2019s ever seen it. I suppose we could picture those fake logs inside gas fireplaces, some of which look a little more… Continue reading Who Am I?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[65],"tags":[5,243,286,287,109,36,288,108],"class_list":["post-1134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons","tag-jesus","tag-ministry","tag-moses","tag-pastor","tag-preaching","tag-sermon","tag-teacher","tag-teaching"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p842FN-ii","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1thingmatters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1thingmatters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1thingmatters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1thingmatters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1thingmatters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1134"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/1thingmatters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1135,"href":"https:\/\/1thingmatters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1134\/revisions\/1135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1thingmatters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1thingmatters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1thingmatters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}