The Person God Uses

Exodus 4:10-12

10 But Moses pleaded with the Lord, “O Lord, I’m not very good with words. I never have been, and I’m not now, even though you have spoken to me. I get tongue-tied, and my words get tangled.”

11 Then the Lord asked Moses, “Who makes a person’s mouth? Who decides whether people speak or do not speak, hear or do not hear, see or do not see? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now go! I will be with you as you speak, and I will instruct you in what to say.”

Today I want to talk to you about Moses.  Many of you know this story.  One day Moses came to a mountain and saw a bush that was on fire and yet it did not burn.  So Moses wanted to go up and see this sight.  When He got there God told him to remove his sandals because he was standing on Holy Ground.  Then God told him that he had seen his people suffering in Egypt and would send Moses back to Egypt in order to free them from Egypt.  Moses instantly began to make excuses of why he could not go.  One of the points he makes is that he’s not good at speaking.  Some think that Moses may have had a stutter.

What can we learn from Moses?

First, God can use us in spite of our weakness.  In fact our weakness is our greatest asset.   God uses our weakness because the he is made strong in that weakness.  

Second, God helps us precisely because we cannot help ourselves.  This is what Grace is about. God came and brought us out of our sin when we could not come out of it.  This may sound like a contradiction to what Jaime said last week - but in a way both statements are true.  We are responsible to do certain things (i.e. turn away from sin, study and grow in God’s word, pray etc....)  but there is a key point that needs to be remembered: We do these things only through God enabling us to do them.  I can only learn the Word if God gives me a desire and hunger for the word.  I pray because God places that desire within me and helps me in that.  So when we hear the statement “God helps those who help themselves” we need to remember that even the “helping ourselves” is done with God’s help.

 Thirdly, God works through us.  God instructed Moses in what to say.  In the same way, if we rely on him, if we fall back on God’s grace, he will enable us and speak and work through us.  After all it is God who empowers us to do everything we are called to do for him.  We are not doing it in our own strength but rather in God’s strength and then we can be used by God.  A good example is  Jesus himself.  Even though he was God, he said he did nothing that he did not see God do - therefore he did nothing on his own but rather did what he saw God do.