Who Am I?
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Who Am I?
Who Am I?
INTRODUCTION
Setting The Stage
Story of Moses’ background. Joseph brings his family to Egypt at the close of Genesis. When the book of Exodus opens up, we find that Joseph’s descendants have grown. The number of Israelites in the land of Egypt has grown so much that the Pharoah realizes he has a potential problem on his hands. So the king enslaved the Israelites and had them in forced labor. He then instructed that all male Israelite babies were to be killed upon delivery in order to further control the population.
It’s at this point that our character comes onto the scene. His name was Moses. Moses was born into the tribe of Levi, and his mother knew that Moses would be killed if he was discovered, and so she took a basket, coated it with tar and pitch to waterproof it, then she placed Moses in the basket, and placed the basket in the Nile River.
Moses was discovered by the Pharaoh’s daughter, he was taken in and he was raised in the house of the King, even though he was a Hebrew child. He was given the privileges afforded an Egyptian child. Moses grew to be a young man in the house of Pharaoh, yet the heart of who he was - a Hebrew child, an Israelite - burned within him. One day, while on a walk, he observed an Egyptian guard beating a Hebrew slave. In an act of rage, Moses killed the Egyptian guard. Because of this, he had to flee Egypt for fear of his own life.
He fled to Midian, where he eventually was married and began to work as a shepherd. It is here where we pick up with our text for this morning in . Moses is tending his flock and in the distance he sees a bush that is on fire, but it is not burning up. This intrigues him and so he goes to see what is happening when the bush begins to call his name: “Moses! Moses!”
Moses responds, “Here I am.” Then, in those moments, God reveals that Moses is in the presence of the Creator God, Yahweh. In fact, he tells Moses to remove the sandals from his feet because this is holy ground where he stands. God goes on to tell Moses that he has seen how the Hebrew children are suffering in the land of Egypt and how he intends to do something about it.
Surely we can imagine that Moses was pleased to hear this from God. Finally - after 40 years! I’ve been waiting for something to be done! Finally, something is going to be done about the mistreatment of his people! Finally, God is going to intervene and rescue the Hebrew children from their slavery.
God tells Moses, I hear their cries. I see their pain. I know they are hurting. I am going to intervene.
And then he says this: I am sending you.
So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
Exodus
Now, if we can just imagine for a moment exactly what Moses might have been thinking: he goes from excitement and expectation that God is finally going to intervene and do something about the situation that has existed for generations. He is finally going to free his people from their bondage, from their physical abuse, from the death. Yay, God! Right?
And then God says: By the way, I am sending you to lead them out of that mess.
What? Who? Me?
Yes, you. But God, I have these sheep to tend to, my wife, I mean, I have been here for 40 years and that’s a long time to be gone. I am not sure they’d even remember me back there. Surely there’s someone else that can go and fill this position. I don’t even think I am really qualified.
And couldn’t YOU do this, God? Couldn’t you just handle this…I mean, you’re talking to me right now out of a bush. It’s burning, but it’s not.
But instead, God looks down at Moses and he says, “ So now, go. I am sending you.”
What? Who? Me? Yes, you.
CORE
The problem is that when God says “I am sending you,” there are often objections and questions...
Moses raises some objections and he raises some questions.
First, he asks this: “Who am I?”
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.”
But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
Exodus
Who am I?
What a great question. Who am I? I mean, what do I have to offer this situation? I am just an orphaned child that grew up in privilege, but lost it all because of my temper and now I am here, just taking care of these sheep. Who am I to be the one to lead the Hebrew children out of their slavery?
I am not a warrior. I am not a leader. I am nobody of any significance.
All of these things are good arguments, right? No training, no natural talents or gifts that we know of, just a shepherd on the hills of Midian tending his sheep.
Moses’ response makes a lot of sense: who am I?
Have you ever asked that question of God? Who am I? Who am I to talk to someone about God? Who am I to lead a person to Jesus Christ? Who am I to offer a piece of wisdom or advice? Who am I to be doing what you are asking me to do? Who am I to be teaching a class? Who am I to be leading a small group? Who am I to be serving the community? Who am I to be serving in ANY capacity in this church? I am nobody. I have done nothing of significance. I have no training, to equipping, not to mention the fact that I have done some things I am not proud of in the past. I have made decisions that were giant goose eggs, I have been a failure on multiple occasions...
Who am I?
But I gotta tell you: I think that is one of the best places we can be
I have been through this with 3 kids now, but the most recent memory would be of my son, Samuel. He learned to ride his bike right here in this church parking lot. Up until that point, he had the training wheels on his bike, but two summers ago when we lived just across the way, we convinced him to let go of the training wheels.
You know the story - if you have a child, you have probably been through it already. We came over to the parking lot and with fear and trembling began to work on riding without training wheels.
I can’t do this! I don’t know what to do! Don’t leave me alone! I need you to hold on to my seat!
It’s kind of like Moses. It’s kind of like me.
So I tell Sam: I am right here. I will be right here. You got this.
God did the same thing for Moses.
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.”
Oh, what a promise! What a thing to hear from the Creator God, the Most High God: I’m going to be RIGHT HERE! I am not going anywhere. TOGETHER. SIMULTANEOUS.
With God, being WITH us is NEVER LETTING GO. Only God can do that. Only God can make that promise and then deliver on it. He does this so that we do not boast of our own efforts. We are WITH God.
Think about the awesomeness of this for a moment: God, in all of His might and His power and His ability is reaching down and tapping the resource of an imperfect, sinful, inadequate man. Moses is not perfect. Moses is sinful - he allowed his anger to bring him to the point of taking another man’s life! He’s not even close to the greatness of God, but God reaches down and says: YOU! I will take you.
And then God follows this assurance of his presence with a sign and he tells Moses, when you have done what I am telling you to do, you will come right back here and you will worship me on this mountain.
In God’s eyes, what He was calling Moses to do was already accomplished.
As far as God was concerned, the task to which He was calling Moses was not maybe going to happen, it wasn’t dependent on just the right circumstance, it wasn’t waiting for a particular season in life, God said, you go and do what I am telling you to do, I will be with you each step of the way and WHEN YOU ARE DONE, come back here and we will celebrate it all.
The last question we should be asking God when he tells us to go and do something is “Who am I?” Right?
God is not interested in who you are, and if he was, he would begin the conversation that way: “Uh, yeah, hello…listen, this is God speaking…who am I speaking with?” Can you imagine that?
“Well, God, you called me…so...”
No, God knows who He is dealing with. God knows about Moses’ past, he knows about Moses’ failures, he knows about Moses’ insufficiencies.
By the way - He knows about your past, too. And your failures. And your insufficiencies.
He knows all of that stuff, just like He knew it with Moses, but He STILL called Moses and He still calls you.
We have talked about the call that God places on our lives. The first call is the call to salvation. But it doesn’t stop there. It’s a great place to start, but that’s not the end of the road. Then, God calls us even deeper. He calls us into a surrendered and holy life. He says, listen I need you to give it all to me. And then he calls us into Kingdom work.
Look at it like this: it’s kind of like getting in the swimming pool.
There are two types of people: I’m all in and Let Me Do This at My Own Pace.
I’m All In - jumps in the water, gets all the way in, and immediately starts telling everyone else that they need to get in the water. They’re splashing and jumping and all over the place.
Let Me Do This - starts with the toes. Slowly makes their way in. Once they’re in, it takes a while before they are ready to get their head in the water. Sometimes it takes an “I’m All In” to convince them and once they are all in, then they, too, are inviting people to get in the water.
The first and toughest commitment is just getting in. You know, the water is maybe a little colder than you’d like. It’s different. The temperature is just a little off from what your body is used to. You feel me? You see where I’m going with this?
But once you’re in, man, you gotta get in the water because THAT’s where the refreshment is found. That’s where it gets real good.
But you gotta trust. You gotta believe that God is going to be there. You gotta learn to swim, to stay afloat.
You see, God doesn’t just want you to be in the swimming pool, and come into the deep end, he wants you to start inviting some other people into the pool. ‘Cause once you’re in, man, this is the place to be! Calling others in. Teaching swimming lessons, handing out rafts, come on, guys, let’s do a whirlpool! You know what I’m talking about.
But, who am I to do all that? I fought getting into this pool in the first place and now you want me to give lessons.
Yeah. I do.
Who are you?
And I’ll be with you. Every step of the way.
And you’d think that would be enough. You would think that if we knew that it was God who was sending us, that would be enough.
Who are you?
But Moses says, well, let’s just say that I do this. Let’s just say that I go to Egypt and I go to the Hebrew children and I say, listen, the God of your fathers has sent me to take you out of here, so let’s go. And then they say, “Really. What’s His name?” What am I supposed to tell them then? What do I say when they really start pressing me?
How are people going to know that I am representing you? How will they trust ME as a leader? Their leader? How will they know?
God
Who are you?
What Moses is essentially asking God in this moment is this: who are you anyway? Who are you and what do I tell those who will ask me who you are?
It’s a reasonable enough question when someone is sending you in to do something of this magnitude, when someone is asking you to do something that, perhaps, you don’t feel fully qualified to do.
CLOSING
Who are you anyway? Who do I tell people has sent me?
The response that God gives to Moses is an interesting one. It is, perhaps, as indirect as Moses’ question was in the first place. He responds:
God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ”
Exodus 3:14
On the surface this may seem like a confusing response. It seems circular. But it’s not. There’s actually incredible depth to what God is saying in this moment. When we look at the original text, written in the Hebrew language, we see a couple of very important things.
First, God is revealing his name to Moses and to the Hebrew children: God desires to be known. God desires to be in relationship with them. God desires to be called upon, to be needed, and to have the opportunity to respond in their lives.
You see, what God is saying here - we see this when we look deeper at the words that God uses in the original language - what God is sayin here is this: I cause to be.
Second, God is revealing that he, Yahweh, is the Creator of all that exists and is the Sovereign Lord of human history.
That original language we read as “I am who I am,” but a deeper look shows us that it’s best translated as “I cause to be what I cause to be.”
In other words, God is saying: I am in control. I am in charge. What you are dealing with now, and what you are about to deal with all is under my watchful eye.
In other words, when God responds to Moses’ question of who are you?, his response is: I am the Creator of all that exists and the Sovereign Lord of human history.
I don’t know about you, but that seems like a reasonable response to such a question. I am. I cause to be. I cause all things to be.
This also set the stage for what was to come. Plagues.
APPLICATION
Earlier I mentioned the call that God places on our lives: first, it’s the call to salvation. It’s a call that each one of us receives through the prevenient grace of God, which is the spirit of God pulling, and speaking, and reminding each and everyone of us that there is SOMETHING MORE than what you see in front of you.
God’s grace is so abundant and free and rich and full of life and it just keeps calling to us: come, there’s something more.
The second call that God gives us is a call to holiness. Being set apart. Being fully IN. Fully submersed in who He is.
The third call is the call to Kingdom work. It’s a call to service, it’s a call to engagement. I am sending YOU.
There are no benchwarmers in God’s kingdom. When young men and women try out for a basketball team, some of them may not be good enough to start, they may not even be good enough to play 2nd string, so they end up on the bench. Benchwarmers. And they feel sorry for themselves, and sometimes they just drop out of it altogether.
But in the Kingdom of God, there are no benchwarmers. You’re either in the game or you’re not. You see, Moses had gotten out of the game. He had run from where God had placed him because of a choice he made, and he finds himself riding the bench while he tends sheep in the wilderness. Life is OK, he has everything he needs, and then, BOOM!
Burning bush. God starts talking to him. God begins to poke and prod at Moses’ heart and say, listen, man, I have something MORE for you! I see what is happening and we’re going to do something about it. That’s right: WE’RE going to do something about it!
And Moses says, “what?” “Who am I?”
You ever been there? You might be here this morning and you’ve been riding the bench of your walk with God. You are content to be out of the game, you are just biding your time and waiting for the game to end or for something better to come along and I’m telling you: this is not how it works in God’s kingdom.
You can’t swim in God’s pool and not be all in.
In , God is speaking to the church in Laodicea, and his words are still true today:
I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!
So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.
God isn’t interested in anyone riding the bench of Christianity, and so when he calls us into action, there is a reason. There is a purpose! There is a plan and God doesn’t ask you to understand it all, he just asks us to get on board.
Moses made objections, he asked questions, and God was full of grace to tell him what was to happen, but understand that when God appears to us and speaks to our spirit and tugs at our conscience, this is not the time to start questioning who we are in the big picture of things, it’s time to stand up and start doing what God has told us to do.
Each one of you here this morning has a role that you play in the Kingdom. A role that God has designed you to fulfill. Even if you are walking outside of God’s plan for your life at this point, even if you have rejected the first call and free gift of salvation, God has a plan for you inside of His Creation and He’s just waiting for you to answer! He’s just waiting for you to respond. He’s just waiting for you to get up and do something what all that He has given you.
And when He calls, and the first thought that comes to your mind is: who am I? I mean, I am a failure, I am a misfit, I am a liar, a cheater, a thief, I am guilty on all fronts…His response is always going to be: NONE of that matters. I am here with you.
Just like He told Moses: I will be WITH you.
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.”
And when you have been obedient to what God is calling you to do, He promises to meet you. That’s one of the beautiful things about our corporate worship.
Listen, if you come in here on Sunday morning and you just can’t figure out where God is in all of this, if your spirit is so down and dumpy that you question whether or not the Spirit of God is even present, I would challenge you with this: have you been obedient to God’s call this week? Have you responded to God’s command:
So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
Cloud Illustration/Story - God is there, we just have to see Him.
I believe that God promises us his presence for the task at hand, just as he promised Moses. And when we obey, He promises to meet us in places like that. On the mountain. In our worship. It’s not that God is not here, it’s just that you’re not seeing him because of disobedience in our own lives. It’s not that God is not here, it’s just that we have come into this place looking for everything BUT His presence.
When we begin to see God as the I AM who is I AM, as the one who causes all things to be, our perspective changes. We put on a new set of spiritual lenses through which we see the world, and we start to believe that can and will work miracles.
DECISION
Moses had a decision to make: will I answer the call of God on my life?
Will I be obedient and follow God’s leading for me?
The first call is to salvation:
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
The second is to holiness:
As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
1 Peter 1:14-16
The third is to Kingdom work:
Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
This morning the the question is not “Who Am I?” The question is not “Who Are You?”
Some of you here this morning have a decision to make, and the decision is this: am I going to be obedient to what God is calling me to?
Is it the call to salvation? Do you feel the tug in your heart this morning - that grace of God pulling at your heart? Are you ready to stop fighting
The question is will you answer the call? Will you recognize that you belong to a God that loves you, created you, breathed life into you today, and who wants to be WITH you?
Will you answer that call today?
At the close of John’s gospel, we see an account of an interaction between Jesus and his disciples that took place after Jesus’ death and resurrection. The disciples were out fishing, having no success, and Jesus appeared to his disciples, the Scripture says, standing on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. He calls to them and inquires about their catch. They have had no luck, so he instructs them to cast to the other side. So they did.
The scripture tells us that their nets were filled to overflowing and in that moment, they recognized who Jesus was. Peter was so excited, he jumped out of the boat and swam to the shore to see Jesus.
It was a few moments and the rest were at the shore, having pulled in a huge catch, and Jesus sits down with them and offers to make them breakfast. And in verse 12 of it says this:
They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.”
Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord.
They KNEW it was the Lord. Why? Why did they know it was Jesus?
Why did they not doubt who He was? Who He said He was?
It would have been easier, perhaps more helpful if Jesus had just said, “By the way, it’s me, Jesus.”
But in that moment, they SAW Him. The breaking of the bread, the miraculous catch of fish. This was Jesus. Their eyes were open.
CLOSING