Here are the extended notes from yesterday's message "God's 'A' Team." Special thanks to an incredible message by Christian humorist and speaker, Ken Davis for several of the thoughts and concepts in this message.
Download a free mp3 of the message on our website or by typing "a2 Church" into the Search Engine on iTunes.
Here are the notes...
Three Truths About How God Speaks and Who God Uses:
1. GOD SPEAKS TO ORDINARY PEOPLE, ON ORDINARY DAYS.
Exodus 3:1 (NLT), One day Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro…
Exodus 3:2-3 (NLT), Suddenly, the angel of the LORD appeared to him as a blazing fire in a bush. Moses was amazed because the bush was engulfed in flames, but it didn’t burn up. 3 “Amazing!” Moses said to himself. “Why isn’t that bush burning up? I must go over to see this.
Important: When God breaks into the course of an ordinary day to get your attention, pay attention!
2. GOD SPEAKS THE MOMENT WE TAKE THE TIME TO LISTEN.
Exodus 3:4 (NIV), When the LORD saw that [Moses] had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”
“Here I am!” Moses replied.
QUESTION: “How good are you at turning aside? How hard is it for God to get your attention? Do you pay attention to the opportunities and moments that God regularly brings into your life?”
Do you realize that there is not an inch in space or a moment in time that God doesn’t inhabit? Every moment is jammed with God-sized opportunities.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning said it much more poetically…
Earth is crammed with heaven and every common bush afire with God; but only he who sees takes off his shoes. The rest sit around it and pluck blackberries.
Moses “turned aside.” The whole story hinges on that act.
Exodus 3:4-8, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”
“Here I am!” Moses replied.
5“Do not come any closer,” God told him. “Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground.” 6Then he said, “I am the God of your ancestors—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” When Moses heard this, he hid his face in his hands because he was afraid to look at God.
When Moses heard God introduce himself by saying, “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, wrapped in that introduction was the message that God is a God of grace!”
All three of these men had a “tainted past.” Abraham lied… Isaac, his son, followed in his dad’s footsteps… Jacob’s name actually means, “deceiver, schemer, or con artist.”
The moment Moses turned aside, God spoke. “Moses… Moses… I’m the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob… I’m a redemptive God… Take off your shoes… Come closer…”
Then, God lets Moses see His heart… God reveals His plans…
Exodus 3:7-8, Then the LORD told him, “You can be sure I have seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cries for deliverance from their harsh slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of their suffering. 8So I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians…”
If you want to know the heart of God for people, it’s described in four phrases contained in this passage.
Verse 7 – “I have seen…”
Verse 7 – “I have heard…”
Verse 8 – “I am aware…”
Verse 8 – “I have come down to deliver them…”
3. GOD USES ORDINARY PEOPLE TO ACCOMPLISH EXTRAORDINARY THINGS!
Exodus 3:7-8, 10 (NLT), Then the LORD told him, “You can be sure I have seen the misery of my people… I have heard their cries for deliverance… I am aware of their suffering. 8So I have come down to deliver… 10 Now go, for I am sending you…”
Our Excuses and God’s Responses:
• Excuse #1: "Lord, what do I have to offer? I am a nobody!"
Exodus 3:11 (NIV), But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
God’s Response: “I will be with you!”
Exodus 3:12, Then God told him, “I will be with you…”
• Excuse #2: “Lord, I don’t have all the answers. I don’t know what to say.”
Exodus 3:13 (NLT), But Moses protested, “If I go to the people of Israel and tell them, ‘the God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ they won’t believe me. They will ask, ‘Which god are you talking about? What is his name?’ Then what should I tell them?”
Exodus 3:14-15 (NLT), God replied, “I AM THE ONE WHO ALWAYS IS. Just tell them, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” 15God also said, “Tell them, ‘the LORD, the God of your ancestors—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’ This will be my name forever; it has always been my name, and it will be used throughout all generations.
God’s Response: “I will tell you what to say.”
• Excuse #3: “Lord, what if they don’t believe me?”
God’s Response: “That’s not your job!”
Exodus 4:1, But Moses protested again, “Look, they won’t believe me! They won’t do what I tell them. They’ll just say, ‘the LORD never appeared to you.’”
Exodus 4:2-4, Then the LORD asked him, “What do you have there in your hand?”
“A shepherd’s staff,” Moses replied.
3“Throw it down on the ground,” the LORD told him. So Moses threw it down, and it became a snake! Moses was terrified, so he turned and ran away.
4Then the LORD told him, “Take hold of its tail.” So Moses reached out and grabbed it, and it became a shepherd’s staff again.
Exodus 4:6-7 (NLT), Then the LORD said to Moses, “Put your hand inside your robe.” Moses did so, and when he took it out again, his hand was white as snow with leprosy.
This clinic was all about TRUST. God said, “Moses, take a few simple possessions… Take your shepherd’s staff that you use to herd sheep… Take your hand, a part of the body that I gave you… Give them to me… I can do amazing things with them, if you will just trust me… Just trust me enough to give me what’s in your hand…”
That’s the same question God is asking some of you: “What is in your hand? Just give it to me…” Your job is obedience! Your job is trust! The rest is up to God!
• Excuse #4: “Lord, I’m not capable.”
Exodus 4:10 (NLT), But Moses pleaded with the LORD, “O Lord, I’m just not a good speaker. I never have been, and I’m not now, even after you have spoken to me. I’m clumsy with words.”
11“Who makes mouths?” the LORD asked him. “Who makes people so they can speak or not speak, hear or not hear, see or not see? Is it not I, the LORD? 12Now go, and do as I have told you. I will help you speak well, and I will tell you what to say.”
God’s Response: “I made you!”
• Excuse #5: “Lord, I’m not as qualified as others. Send someone else.”
Exodus 4:13 (NLT), But Moses again pleaded, “Lord, please! Send someone else.” 14Then the LORD became angry with Moses.
God’s Response: “No! You are my answer!”
Take a quick inventory of the people God used…
• Abraham was a liar and on Medicare…
• Jacob was a con man…
• Joseph was an ex-con…
• Moses was a fugitive who also struggled with a speech impediment…
• Joshua had problems with jealousy…
• Rahab had a pretty notorious sexual past…
• Gideon was a wimp…
• Samson was the poster child for impulse control disorder…
• Eli was a finalist for the worst father of the year award…
• David had an eye for beautiful women… He was an adulterer and involved in a conspiracy to commit murder…
• Elijah was probably bi-polar… One minute he could outrun a chariot, and the next moment he was suicidal…
• Jeremiah said He was too young…
• Sarah thought she was too old…
• Jonah was directionally challenged…
• John the Baptist ate bugs…
• The disciples didn’t have a lot of faith…
• Zaccheus was vertically challenged and integrity challenged.. He also worked for the IRS, which meant, nobody like him…
• James and John had anger control issues and were status seekers…
• Thomas doubted…
• Paul wasn’t exactly “Dale Carnegie” in the tact department…
• Peter was the poster child for attention deficit disorder. He denied that he knew Jesus three times in the same night, and even cut a guy’s ear off…
• Martha obsessed over housekeeping and food preparation… (We’re talking Martha in the Bible, not Martha Stewart…)
What’s your excuse? All of these people made excuses, but when God gives a challenge, there are no excuses…
I love what Henry Blackaby said in his book, Experiencing God.
Some people say, “God will never ask me to do something I can’t do.” I have come to the place in my life that, if the assignment I sense God is giving me is something that I know I can handle, I know it is probably not from God. The kind of assignments God gives in the Bible are always God-sized. They are always beyond what people can do, because God wants to demonstrate His nature, His strength, His provision, and His kindness to His people and to a watching world. This is the only way the world will come to know Him.
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