CAREER & CALLING (EXODUS 3:1-11)

Sermon by Ps Helen Hoe

Intro

“What I want to be when I grow up” – it keeps changing

-         what’s your first aspiration as far as you can remember?

-         You know what’s mine? 

When we talk abt career & calling, some hesitate praying, or go before God with a paper completely empty: God what shall I do with my life?  mid life career change or fresh graduate.

In our mind, nagging feeling that he is going to ask you to do something that you will say “no way!”  Scott Wesley Brown: So afraid of answering altar call, wrote a song:  Please Don't Send Me to Africa, by Scott Wesley Brown O Lord I'll see that the money is sent

God, Please don't send me to Africa  

Ex 2:11-14

Moses saw the plight of his own people. He tried to intervene, stood up for them. He went from being in line to the throne of Egypt to taking care of sheep. In man’s eyes, what a flop!

40 years later, when God appeared to Moses and called him to bring God’s people out of Egypt, Moses’ very first response was: “who am I?”

(1) When we look at calling, most of us grapple with the issue of identity---Who am I?

a) Who am I ?: Forty years earlier he might not have asked this question, "Who am I?"

• He was the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
• He was trained for the throne.
• He figured God had placed him in this unique position for a purpose

After 40 years in the desert, He went from a self-centered, confident person to one who think nothing of himself. Finally he came to that place where we too, often find ourselves: “yes God, I heard you. Here am I …., sent someone else.”  (4:13) I believe that encounter has a familiar tone. We may not respond to God with the same answers, but when we are faced with a dilemma, at a cross road, need to make a decision, God called us either through people or other means, we based our decision on a personal assessment of ourselves.

• Sometimes we feel exalted or confident. 
• Sometimes we feel very low, esp when we’ve tried & failed so often.

Who am I? Am I up to the task? Am I the person for this? Do I have what it takes?  If our answers are yes, chances are higher that we take up the challenge. If no, then most probably we say “no”. But the question that we should be asking ourselves is not so much “who am I” but WHO GOD IS. 

II. WHO I AM DOESN'T REALLY MATTER, IT IS WHO GOD IS THAT COUNTS.

b) Who God is?         

God is completely independent; that He relies on nothing for life or existence (Isaiah 40:28-29; John 5:26). God doesn't need anybody or anything - life is in Himself. Because of that, God becomes whatever is lacking in our time of need.

• When we are in darkness, Jesus says I am the light;
• when we are hungry, He says I am the bread of life,
• when we are helpless, He says I am the Good Shepherd.

When we know the God who is with us, our respond is then to step forth, to trust and obey. 

Notice that God did not take away Moses’ apprehension or remove any of his securities by assuring him that he got what it takes. Instead, God assured Moses that "I will certainly be with you."

God's reply is intended to take Moses' focus off of where it is (himself) and on to where it should be (God).

What Moses needed to do was trust God, God already provided a precise action plan:

-         To bear simple testimony of God’s revelation of himself to the Israelites (3:14)

-         To go before the Pharoah to convey a message

-         To do what God commanded, on the assumption that God himself would produce the results

Who we are doesn't count, it is who God is that matters. It is not a matter of your strength, your qualifications, your abilities, If the God who calls you, the God who says He will be with you is the  “I AM WHO I AM”, then that is enough, that is sufficient for any task He has called you to perform. The challenge is whether we trust him and obey by faith. To do that, we need to find ourselves in the presence of God.

(3) The starting point of the calling: coming into the presence of God

Coming into the presence of God

By appearing before Moses in the burning bush, God is inviting Moses to come into his presence. Serving God begins with coming into the presence of the Lord, hearing him. Moses used his time alone with God to unload all his hang-ups. And that is an example for us. WE can be real before God; there is nothing we cannot bring before Him. We can even come to him and say “Lord I don’t want to”. For when we come into his presence, heart to heart, having him to ourselves and he has us to him. That is the place where ministry begins. Moses reaction was “I can’t, therefore I won’t”. God brought him to the point where ultimately he would say:  “I can’t, but He can, therefore I will”

Responding to God’s call

What does this mean for all of us? How do we respond to what we have just heard? You may respond in the following 3 areas: 

1. Our interaction with people: Don’t be too quick to write off people. When we look at Moses, a person with all these insecurities, weaknesses and inadequacies, so defensive and so unwilling. Pray that God gives us his eyes, his heart in our interaction with people. Don’t be too quick to persuade people to take up a task, pray together, seek god together
2. Spend time seeking God: Talked abt God’s calling, its not just to full time. Could be a call to stand up for a cause (in politics, in office); mid career change, or it could be serving him full time. Many of which often require us to step out of our comfort zone. God gave us a mind, think. But don’t just use logic (evaluate your situation, yourself, table of pros and cons etc) Don’t be too quick to say “I do ” when you see a need. Have a heart to heart talk with him; do not fear, not necessarily send you to Africa. Clarify your call, make sure you hear him right.
3. You are more than an instrument : Talk about call, links it to fulfilling a purpose of God, like being an instrument of God. Yes & No. The land of Canaan had belonged to Israel since the day God promised it to Abraham; but God is moving Israel there now because of the compassion of His heart. The actions were ordained long ago, but the timing is prompted by God's heartfelt love for His people.
• Notice the connection: I have come down to deliver them . . . I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people. If God was going to do it, why should He mess around with Moses? Why not just do it Himself?
• Because it is always God's plan to work with and through people. Because in the process of that, he is at work in our lives, bringing us to perfection.

Phil 1:6:      He who began a good work in you, will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ. 

• Moses was not just an instrument through which God delivered the Israelites, God shaped him into a man of God.

 God’s call: not just a challenge to do something, eg, to commit life to missions or ministry. First & foremost, to commit our lives to Christ.

 Man challenges to go, to do this, do that.

God said, "Be still and know that I am GOD."

Many times God in His love, strips us of what we are, in order to make us what He is.

It is out of his love for you and I that he invites us and calls us. Below is the video link to "You are Mine"