hey beloved grace and peace be unto you from god who loves us as mother and father and jesus christ who alone is our resurrected our risen our reigning and our returning redeemer i'm excited and grateful to god for this opportunity to get back into the series we began last week god is trying to tell you something if you remember i've invited you for these next few weekends to journey with me as we examine and explore some of those rare places in scripture where god speaks to someone by calling their name twice before we get into the word of god i ask to join with me in prayer there's some deep things i want to share today and i'm going to ask the holy spirit to guide us not only in the preaching but in the receiving i want to do more teaching than shouting today to make certain that we grasp what the holy spirit would say come on about with me as we prepare our hearts our minds and our lives to receive the word of god that word o lord is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path we believe that when we engage the pages of holy scripture that the holy spirit meets us there that you speak to us and guide us i pray now god that for open ears and receptive minds that we become those that bear the fruit of your word lord rise through the frailty of this flawed preacher and may the name of christ be made glorious in the name of jesus our savior we do pray amen you all recall that the premise behind this series is very simple we have a god who speaks to us a god who speaks in many ways through his written word and his preached word through our prayer life through the wise counsel of others whom god has sent around us through dreams through signs and wonders through experiences of what we go through god is always speaking to us in an attempt to gain our attention and garner our devotion god wants you to know his will for your life that's kind of what jesus is emphasizing in john chapter 10 when he says i'm the good shepherd and my sheep those who follow me they know my voice and they do my will because god really wants you to be able to discern his voice among all the other voices that you hear and influence your life but the reality is that we in our human nature struggle to sometimes clearly discern when god is speaking last week we looked at one of these instances where name is called twice when jesus calls martha's name twice in luke chapter 10. and i suggested to you then what i remind you of now is that all of us at some moment in life need a second martha another calling because there's some things that stand in our way of hearing and discerning the voice of god sometimes our arrogance stands in the way that we've convinced ourselves we can handle this without god our busyness blocks our hearing we've got time to talk to the lord but not enough time to pause and to listen our desires sometimes block our discerning of what god wills for us and then ultimately our sin always stands in the way because whenever we sin we stray from the lord and you can't stray from the source and think that you'll still hear the voice but here's the grace of god god loves you too much not to keep calling not to keep knocking on the doors of your heart and god knows how to structure experiences that destroy our arrogance and cause us to realize i can't handle this on my own god has a way of interrupting our busyness and reminding us that we need god more than ever god has a way of changing the desire of your heart to make you realize that what you desire is not what you really need in life and god has a way of breaking our sin and calling us to repentance by reminding us i can't live my life like this anymore because the lord knows that we struggle to discern his voice but mark the struggle is much more than just discerning the struggle is also surrendering you see our challenge is not simply discerning god's voice the challenge is learning to obey it because the truth be told god sometimes oftentimes and most times calls us to do that which we are not naturally inclined to do he calls us to do that that we feel we can't do god calls us to do that that sometimes we don't want to do beloved i came by to share with you today that god's will is not always easy it's not always convenient it comes with challenges and oftentimes enemies god calls us to that which scares us that which doesn't feel good the will of god does not always tickle god's will does not always bring rapid reward or swift success or guaranteed gain and so our instinct is to sometimes rebel against the will of god even when we know it clearly one place that is clearly seen to us is in this double calling of the name of moses i'm going to invite you as part of the devotional reading and background for today's sermon to read in its entirety exodus chapter three and chapter four you need chapter three and four to fully grasp the message allow me to read just a few selected verses from chapter three in your hearing exodus chapter three beginning in verse number one and you're going to read three and four this week for devotional now moses was attending the flock of jethro his father-in-law the priest of midian and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to horeb the mountain of god there the angel of the lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up so moses thought i will go over and see this strange sight why the bush does not burn up when the lord saw that he had gone over to look god called to him from within the bush moses moses and moses said here i am verse 10. god speaking and says so now go am sending you to pharaoh to bring my people the israelites out of egypt but moses said to god who am i that i should go to pharaoh and bring the israelites out of egypt and god said i will be with you and this will be the sign to you that it is i who have sent you when you have brought the people out of egypt you will worship god on this mountain as we get into part two of this series god's trying to tell you something last weekend we learned about can you hear me now today i want to preach from the subject no more excuses no more excuses what happens in the third chapter of exodus is familiar to many of us who spend any amount of time in the word of god and in church the children of israel have fallen under slavery in the hands of the egyptians and they've cried out to god god hears their cries and god has it set that he's determined to deliver them because slavery and oppression is not god's will for god's people god has it set to deliver them the problem is that god needs someone whom he can use to be part of the plan let me pause parenthetically and keep the car running and tell you that god is always looking for an available heart god is always searching for someone who like the prophet isaiah can say here am i lord send me god is looking for someone that has the spirit of jesus that will say not my will but thy will be done god is always looking for you and for me to say here i am lord you can use me so god's looking for someone whom he can use to help usher the children of israel out of slavery and god has the right person in mind his name is moses and moses is uniquely qualified over all the earth because moses is born hebrew but he's raised egyptian so moses has a heart for the people but also knows the language and the protocols and the processes of the egyptian and if anybody can get to pharaoh it's moses the problem is that moses is a fugitive from the law he's killed an egyptian so when god finds him moses is in midian on mount horeb tending to the flock of jethro his father-in-law god comes there and god says to moses listen i've got a plan i'm going to bring the children of israel out of egypt and i'm going to take them into a land flowing with milk and honey and moses here's the best part i'm going to use you for what i plan on doing god shows up and god says i've heard there please i've got a plan i'm giving you a promise and now i've got a person watch this i've heard the police i'm making you a promise i've got a plan and now i've got a person moses i'm going to use you to bring the children of israel out of egypt and everything male seems to be going well until we get to verse number 11. and verse number 11 opens with this phrase but moses and let me suggest to you that that when god has presented a plan and made a promise and our first response is but you know something is not about to go right verse 11 declares to us that moses is clear on the plan but he objects to his participation make certain you catch this the issue is not whether moses discerns the will of god the issue is that moses will not surrender to the will of god moses knows what god wants to do but moses objects to being part of what god is up to and you will find from chapter 3 verse 11 all the way to chapter 4 verse 17 time and time and time again moses raises a butt there are five objections moses gives to god's plan and three of them are excuses as to why he can't do it and by the time you get to chapter 4 and verse 14 god is so frustrated with moses that the bible says god's anger is kindled against the man he's trying to use as if to suggest moses i'm tired of your excuses i'm tired of you coming up with a reason as to why you can't do what i've called you to do moses no more excuses beloved we need to hear that because i can't speak for you but i can testify for myself that there have been some moments in my life when i have deliberately discerned what god required of me and i excused myself from the plan there have been times when my issue was not trying to figure out what god wanted my issue is that i didn't want to do what god had called me to do think about how often we excuse ourselves from being part of god's plan excuse ourselves from forgiving those who've done us wrong excuse ourselves from walking by faith and needing more evidence excuse ourselves from walking away from a relationship because we feel we can't live without that person excuse ourselves from being generous as god called us to because we value our money more than obedience excuse ourselves from starting that business or applying for that home excuses excuses excuses and at some point you can push god to the place where god says to you what god said to moses no more excuses moses raises five objections two of them are questions three are excuses let's look at some of the excuses moses uses when god calls him and maybe we can learn something about living our own life god comes to moses and he says listen i've got a plan i've heard the plea i've got a promise you're the person i want to use and in chapter 3 verse 11 here's moses first excuse lord who am i that i would go to pharaoh and bring the children of israel out of egypt lord you sure you got the right person do you know who i am do you know i committed murder do you know i've got a stain on my criminal record do you know i'm not perfect do you know i've done some things i'm not proud of lord are you sure you've got the right person who am i when the lord calls moses moses responds from a place that many of us respond to and from when god calls us a place of insecurity a place of unworthiness a place of embarrassment a place of shame a place of remembering who we are and wondering if we could really do what god has called us to do moses is wrestling with the personal insecurity and i suggest you their personal insecurities always reveal themselves in seasons of opportunity that whenever a new opportunity from god knocks at your door the enemy always whispers in your ear you're not worthy the enemy tries to get you to believe that you you don't have what it takes you're not qualified your resume isn't right your family's broken you've got some secrets in the closet the enemy always tries to tell you you're to this or you're to that to get you to believe that you cannot possibly do what god is calling you to do and insecurity will cause you to talk yourself out of what god is calling you into let me say that again insecurity will cause you to talk yourself out of whatever it is god is calling you into they say a third time's a charm for terrence all the way in the back insecurity will cause you to talk yourself out of whatever god is calling you into and brook one of the things i've noticed in the world today is that people are attempting to confront their personal insecurity through the power of self-affirmation you can go out on social media on the internet and find all these counselors and influencers who are suggesting to people this what you ought to do every morning stand up and look in the mirror and affirm yourself affirm that you are good enough affirm that you are beautiful no matter what size color or shape you are affirm that you're smart enough affirm that you deserve the best affirm who you are that there's something powerful about self affirmation believe it i came by suggesting you that every now and then you ought to affirm yourself but that's not how god responds to moses make sure you catch this moses says who am i and god's answer is i'll be with you okay paul stop rewind moses wonders who am i god says i'll be with you okay you look slow last time moses says who am i god's response is not to affirm that moses is good enough not to affirm that moses deserves it not to affirm that moses can god's response is moses i will be with you moses is looking at himself god is affirming who god is because moses the issue is not who you are the issue is who god is and you are not good enough but the reason you're going to be successful is because god is attached to this and i am calling you the issue is not who you are the issue is who god is and whatever god calls you to do god will give you the strength to do you can't do this on your own you aren't good enough you can't handle it by yourself but with god in your life and with god involved in it god will give you the strength to do whatever god has called you to do come here beloved and so you're going to find that in a few verses after god says i'll be with you moses says well who are you what is your name and god gives moses the name yahweh now i need you to know something in hebrew and dr judy will tell you this yahweh is not a proper pronoun kisha yahweh is not a name yahweh is a verb that god doesn't give him a name god gives him an action god says you won't know who i am i am what i am i'll do what i'll do i'll be what i will be because no situation and no circumstance can confine me or limit me i will do whatever i want to do i will be whatever i want to be i will do whatever needs to be done and moses the reason you know you can do this is because nothing can confine me and because i am with you you will get it to moses this ain't about your resume it's about my righteousness this isn't about what you've done it's about who i am this isn't about what you can achieve it's about what i can accomplish that i am god and my name will get it done okay so some of you're not feeling me um i remember when i first started working i was renting an apartment and i believe that it was time to own a home i didn't want to rent all of my life i want to own a home and so i went to a mortgage broker to try to get pre-approved and after looking at my credit score which was not good at the time looking at my income which was not much at the time the broker had the audacity to tell me you probably won't qualify for a mortgage you can't get the house because your credit's not good enough and you don't earn enough money i said well wait wait hold on i want a home he said but you can't get it on your own i said what do i have to do in order to get the house and this is what he said he says real simple go to your dad and ask your dad to co-sign your application because if you can't get it on your own you've got a father who's got enough credit and enough resource that his name on your application will get the application through and i came by to preach to someone today the reason you can get it done the reason you can do what god is called the reason you can achieve it is not because of you because you ain't good enough but when god has cosigned on your life there's nothing that god cannot do moses i will be with you here's the problem y'all can i push it the problem is that moses feels unworthy because of what he's done i killed someone and i had to run from egypt there's a warrant out for my arrest in egypt moses is looking in the past but god is looking in the future watch what the lord says i love this here's come some bible god says moses i'm with you and here's how you know i'm with you when you bring them out of egypt you're going to worship me right here don't miss this moses is looking at what he's done and god says to moses in chapter three when you bring them out at the end of exodus you can worship me on this mountain god is looking in the future moses is looking in the past and god wants moses to know that i can't have you going forward looking backwards you've got to see what i see that this is not about your resume it's about your possibility it's not about what you've done it's about what you can be that when god looks at us god doesn't see us the way we see ourselves that god sees our destiny god sees his plan god sees his promise you're looking at your mistake and god is looking at what you can do okay yeah yeah yeah i know i know you're a little slow i'm gonna help you so you all know that my oldest son now is driving y'all pray pray pray my strength in the lord pray my strength in the lord because this is the most nerve-wracking experience i've had in my life deuces driving and the other day we almost we almost bobby lost our lives deuce was merging on the highway changing lanes and he did not check his blind spot and there was a truck right there in the lane that almost ran us off the road y'all you almost had a funeral for your pastor deuce did not check his blind spot so now i have to teach him i said son you cannot change lanes without checking your blind spot you've got to make certain something is not right there so the very next time we get on the highway i'm watching him now because i want to live and not die i got god came that i might have life and have it more abundantly i ain't about to die with this boy behind the wheel he's driving and he's getting ready to change lanes and so he looks in his blind spot but here's the problem here's the problem angie now he's looking and he's continuing to look behind him while stepping on the gas and the problem i have is that you're looking backwards but we're driving forward because whenever you're changing a lane you can't look behind you but so long in order to keep going ahead i came by to declare to someone that when god is changing the lane in your life and calling you to something new to be something you've never been you can't look behind you but so much because god is calling you to go forward beloved let us put behind those things that are behind and press on towards the mark of the calling of jesus in our lives do me a favor somebody chat stop looking behind stop looking behind stop looking behind moses has an excuse he says lord who am i but it gets gooder it is gooder what's the second excuse second excuse comes in chapter four verse one in chapter four verse one after dealing with who am i here's moses second excuse he says lord what happens if they won't listen to me you're calling me to go to the israelites to bring them out of egypt but the last time i talked to an israelite they didn't receive me they looked down on me and said who do you think you are and so moses now has not only spoken from a place of insecurity he speaks with the fear of rejection what if people won't listen what if they won't like what if they won't trust what if they won't believe me moses is afraid of being rejected and may i suggest to you that deep within every human heart is the desire to be affirmed you may not name it as such but all of us want to be approved everybody wants to be respected everyone wants to be appreciated wants to be applauded everyone wants to be celebrated everyone wants to be recognized everyone wants to be liked everyone wants to be honored everyone wants to be spoken of well at some point in your life you may not be afraid of rejection but none of us run to it all of us desire to be affirmed by people everybody wants to be liked to some degree you don't want everyone in your life to hate you all of us desire to be affirmed by others if i can testify the lord revealed this to me in my own life i watch the broadcast like you after we film it i watch it on sundays usually at eight and i used to watch it on the laptop i used to watch it on the laptop so i could interact with the chat but but i've stopped watching it on the laptop for a reason let me tell you why i stopped watching it on the laptop this may this may blow your mind but but i don't watch it on the laptop anymore i watch it on my tv and the reason i don't watch it on the laptop it has nothing to do with the chat going on it has to do with the function on youtube that messed me up a thumbs up and a thumbs down and i was watching service the other week and i noticed that one somebody had the audacity to hit thumbs down on my sermon now we got seven thousand eight thousand folk watching and i saw one thumbs down and it messed me up i got angry i'm trying to find out who had the nerve to hit thumbs down on pastor wesley's sermon and the lord revealed to me that i have become addicted to approval the enemy's greatest weapon to lead you outside of the will of god is the applause of other people because you will sacrifice obedience for applause you will deny what god wants you to do searching for other people to affirm you for other people to like you that that's why i'm so amazed at the testimony of palm sunday when jesus enters the city and the whole city is up in applause and jesus never acknowledges it because jesus knows that the applause of people never confirm the will of god let me say that again the applause of people never confirm the will of god there's nowhere in bible where god uses a crowd to confirm what he has personally spoken to his son or his daughter you've got to be careful of searching for the applause of people so watch what happens moses says well lord what if they don't believe me what if they won't receive me where if they reject me and you'll find that in response god gives moses three signs i want to teach these he says number one throw your staff on the ground it becomes a snake god tells moses to reach and pick it back up and it becomes a staff again sign number one sign number two put your hand inside your cloak pull it out it was white with leprosy put it back in pull it out and it's healed sign number two sign number three pour water on the ground and it will turn the blood here the three signs make certain we do some bible say moses is wrestling with the fear of rejection and god says here's the lesson the staff to a snake back to his staff the hand leprosy the land hand healed and water turning into blood the three responses to the fear of rejection are the staff the healed hand and the water turning into blood let's hang out right there take your staff throw it on the ground he throws it on the ground it becomes a snake moses jumps back because rightfully he's afraid of a venomous snake pause let me show you some exegetical work the snake was a symbol of the power of pharaoh the one the images the egyptians used of pharaoh were snakes to emphasize how powerful they were and how you ought to be afraid of pharaoh so the snake is an intentional representation of pharaoh throw it on the ground it becomes a snake god then tells moses grab the snake by the tail moses courageously reaches down to grab the snake by the tail now anyone that's ever dealt with snakes will tell you the most dangerous place to grab a snake is by the tail because when you grab it by the tail the mouth will come around and bite you the safest place to grab a snake is by its head control the mouth and you can't get hurt but god tells moses grab the tail why because i want you to see that if you obey me and have the courage to do what i've called you to do then when you grab the tail i'll handle the mouth when you grab the tail i'll deal with the poison in their mouth when you grab the tail their mouth cannot do you any harm and somebody needs to hear this because god can handle mouths what comes out of someone's mouth cannot hurt you when you are walking in the will of god i wish i had a witness here of someone who knows that god knows how to handle mouths their mouths can't do you damage their rumoring can't do you damage their gossip cannot hurt you their name-calling cannot hurt you just obey god and let god deal with the mouth god can handle mouths some of you ought to be shouting a man right there i'm about to walk off this set god can handle poisonous mouths says moses i get the mouth take your hand put it in your cloak pull it out it's got leprosy put it back in pull it out it's healed moses here's the lesson whatever happens to you i can undo it whatever their words do to you i can undo it y'all came by tell you that no one can do to you what god can't undo no one can do to you what god can't undo they may hurt you and god can heal you they may cause you pain and god will cause you to prosper they may close a door in the room god will open up another one no one can do to you what god cannot undo and somewhere right now you know that that's been the experience of your life because your testimony goes like this they said one thing and god did something else have you ever had someone false prophesy over your life and declare what will not what cannot and what should not only for your god to show up and show himself strong and god undid what they said and what they thought god can undo whatever they've done to you why are you worried about whether they like you why do you care if they reject you why are you held up trying to win their approval god says i will undo whatever they've done god says grab the tail i got the mouth don't worry i'll undo it here's the deep one he says now take some water and throw it on the ground and it'll become blood and these signs will make them believe so watch what happens moses goes in the presence of pharaoh and what is the first plague of his of egypt the nile becoming blood moses performs in pharaoh's presence what god instructed him to do on the mountain don't miss us in chapter seven and eight moses does what god showed him would happen in chapter three that the water would become blood and here's the kicker moses with the power of god changes water in the blood and pharaoh doesn't believe him he doesn't believe that god has sent him moses also takes the staff throws it on the ground it becomes a snake pharaoh sees it and pharaoh doesn't believe him don't miss this moses says god what if they don't believe me god said all you got to do is throw a snake on the ground turn water into blood and they'll believe you moses throws a step staff on the ground turns water into blood and pharaoh still doesn't believe him hold on god hold on i thought you said that when i put the staff on the ground and it became a snake and when i turned water into blood uh that everyone who saw it would believe me i did it and pharaoh did not believe me that's right moses cause here's the lesson you can't make some people believe in you no matter what you do no matter what you do there are some people who will never believe in you that's a word because the minute the enemy knows you are addicted to approval he'll surround you with people who'll never give it to you the minute he knows you need to be affirmed and you need to be liked and you need to be applauded he will surround you with co-workers and cousins and friends who never mention your name who never clap for you who never affirm you because he knows you are addicted to affirmation you can't make pharaoh affirm you can i give you the shout that was a hallelujah here's the shout the signs that god gives moses right here were never meant to persuade pharaoh moses says i need some signs because the israelites won't believe me so god says you read your bible he says to moses listen hear the signs so that the israelites will believe that the god of their ancestors has called you these signs were never for pharaoh these signs were for the israelites because watch this you never needed pharaoh to believe in you you never needed pharaoh to affirm you there's some folk god said you've never needed them to stand in your corner stop killing yourself trying to affirm with people who you don't even need stop jumping through hoops and changing yourself and going through the motions for folk whose affirmation you don't need can i give you another shout let me give you a buy one get one free the shout is you can't make pharaohs the shout is you don't need pharaoh but here's the best one the signs were for the israelites but nowhere does moses have to perform the signs for the israelites because they already believe him don't miss this you're worried about whether they reject you but the people god has called to your life you never have to prove yourself to because god has already spoken to them i came by to deliver somebody from jumping through hoops and trying to please everyone when god says you don't need that group and the group you need you never have to prove yourself to if you've got to prove yourself that someone god is not called to your life my god god who am i lord what if they don't believe me let me give you this last one and we're done god's getting frustrated with moses and moses says to god in verse number 10 of chapter four he said but but but lord i i i i i i i i i i i i i i'm lord i'm i'm slow of speech i i i i i stutter lord i i i don't get my words out right moses gives an excuse of his stuttering now on the surface this makes a lot of sense right because if my assignment is to speak to pharaoh and i stutter i might mess up what god wants pharaoh to hear so lord it it it it can't be me because i i i i'm gonna mess up what you want from me and pharaoh won't hear it correctly because of my stutter lord i can't do it because of my speech and notice what god's response is who made you that way who gave you the stutter who made you speak like that i did moses i created you with the stutter i would not call you to something i know you can't do hear me whatever god calls you to god has already given you the power to do it i created you with the ability to do in a matter of fact moses can't nobody do it like you watch this someone's got to get to pharaoh and pharaoh is not going to take an audience with just anybody you can't just walk in pharaoh's house and say i want to speak to the king of egypt it has to be you moses why because pharaoh knows you you were raised in pharaoh's house for 40 years you were raised as pharaoh's grandson pharaoh knows you he knows how you talk and pharaoh knows your language pharaoh's been listening to you for 40 years so don't tell me you can't do it everything i made you and every experience i took you through put you in a place to be able to do what i've assigned you to do so beloved moses your issue is not that you stutter your issue is that you don't want to do it the issue is not whether you can the issue is whether you desire to and the lord sees through it to suggest that every excuse you come up with is really invalid because the end of the day it's not about capability it's about desire whatever god has called you to you're capable of you can forgive you can walk away you can apply you can start the business the question is do you want to do you have the desire to walk in the will of god this isn't about ability it's about what your heart wants so i'm not going to leave you with a shout i'ma leave you with a question do you want to walk in the will of god do you want to do what god has called you to do do you want to obey god's commandment do you want to live holy do you want to live righteous stop coming up with excuses when the real issue is the desire of your heart how badly do you want to live in god's will no more excuse us god we bow before you with your word resonating through our ears and our life [Music] and we confess to you that the real issue is our hearts desire lord i know that that i'm not worthy but with you and my life all things are possible i know lord that i have not been created to try to please and appease other people the lord you have the ability to send to me the people i need and everyone else i don't need their approval or affirmation [Music] and ultimately god my heart desires to do right my heart desires to obey you my heart desire is to please you and therefore i know i can do whatever you've called me to do lord may your word find fertile soil in some hearer's life today [Music] that we will live with you with no more excuses in jesus name we pray amen