Wow! My time mangement is improving! I managed to post a Year of the Bible reflection and now I'm posting my sermon from this morning too. Just a little side note: we ordained and installed new elders this morning, so my sermon is leading up to that moment. I also used "The Message" version of the Bible.
INTRODUCTION
My seventh grade English teacher came up with a very clever assignment for our class. She was trying to teach us about creative writing—like writing stories. Well, when someone tells you that you HAVE to write a story, suddenly you can’t think of anything to say. Too much pressure.
So, she started out with something easy. She asked us to write excuses for why we didn’t do our homework. Clever, right? You can be VERY creative when you come up with excuses, and it didn’t really feel like you were under a lot of pressure.
I think the best one I came up with was that my mom was warming up some sweet potato baby food in the microwave and it exploded. We were out of paper towels, so she had to use my homework to clean it up.
I was looking for some other excuses you could use to NOT turn in your homework. I found a cartoon of Garfield saying, “I can’t do homework for medical reasons. It makes me sick.” Somebody else suggested, “I made a paper plane out of it and it got hijacked.” One my sister might hear in one of her math classes is this: “I have a solar powered calculator and it was cloudy.” But I think my favorite excuse for not turning in homework is a twist on the old “my dog ate it” line. This one says, “I can’t turn my homework in because my dog ate it. Seriously, look, I brought a stool sample in to show you.”
MOVE #1
But you know, it’s not just kids who come up with good excuses. Grown-ups are pretty good at coming up with excuses too. Take Moses for example. God had a job for Moses—even appeared to him in the burning bush so Moses would have no doubt that it really was God talking to him—but Moses had a million excuses to get out of doing the job.
God says, “I’m sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the People of Israel, out of Egypt.” And Moses answers, “But why me? What makes you think that I could ever go to Pharaoh and lead the children of Israel out of Egypt?” Can’t you just hear the whine that must have been in his voice?
God answers his excuse saying, “I’ll be with you. Don’t worry about it.” And once again Moses opens his big mouth and says, “Well, what if they ask who sent me? What should I say then?” And God has answer for that excuse too: “Tell them ‘I Am’ sent you.”
Moses comes up with another excuse saying, “They won’t trust me, Lord. They won’t listen to a word I say. They’re going to say, ‘God? Appear to a guy like him? Never!’” And God answers this excuse by giving him miraculous signs to do to prove that God is with him.
When that doesn’t work, Moses tries one more time to come up with an excuse that will get him out of the job God has in mind for him: “Master, please, I don’t talk well. I’ve never been good with words, neither before or after you spoke to me. I stutter and stammer. . . . Oh, Master, please! Send somebody else!” At this point God is a little angry and a little tired of all the excuses Moses is coming up with. But once again he gives an answer the last of the excuses from Moses: “Don’t you have a brother, Aaron the Levite? He’s good with words. I know he is. He speaks very well. . . . I’ll be right there with you as you speak and with him as he speaks, teaching you step by step. He will speak to the people for you.”
So, one by one, God answers every excuse Moses can come up with—eight of them in all. There is no changing God’s mind here. This says a lot about God’s character: He is persistent but patient, understanding but firm. He recognizes all the concerns that Moses has but constantly reassures him that he will not be walking this road alone; God will be with him each step of the way.
MOVE #2
God understands that we all have our insecurities and flaws. Probably God knows those things about us too well. He knows how we let our insecurities and flaws get in the way of ministry. God knows we all have our own flimsy excuses for why we, like Moses, can’t do the job God has for us: we’re too young or too old; we’re too busy or we don’t feel well enough; we’re not smart enough or we’re not good enough or we’re not worthy enough or we don’t have enough faith; we can’t pray out loud, we can’t speak in front of people, and we’re afraid we don’t know enough about the Bible. We’re full of excuses about why God should pick someone else for the job.
But deep down inside, we know these are just flimsy excuses we hold on for dear life to because we’re afraid. We’re afraid of what might happen if we let God have his way in our lives.
If we were standing in Moses’ place in front of the burning bush, we would probably try to slip away, hoping God wouldn’t notice. We know God would have an answer for every excuse we could come up with and that would leave us with no choice but to obey.
There comes a time when every Christian finds themselves in front of the burning bush. There comes a time when every Christian finds themselves taking their shoes off and coming face to face with God. God has a particular task in mind for each one of us, and sooner or later, we’re going to have to decide what we want to do about it. It’s a huge moment—it’s a huge decision. At that moment God will strip away all our excuses and say, “I know you’re afraid, but I’ll be with you every step of the way. Do you trust me?” And then it’s time for us to decide.
CONCLUSION
Now, I don’t know how the Nominating Committee feels about being compared to the burning bush, but that’s kind of what they are. God uses the Nominating Committee to help identify leaders for his church. They accepted their task of prayerful discernment and did the job God called them to do. And we are very grateful to them because they did a good job.
So now it is time to recognize some folks who faced the burning bush, who gave God all the excuses they could think of, and who finally decided to let go of their fear and to trust God. Would Patty Ferris, Craig Sinclair, and Larry Zellers please come forward for the Ordination and Installation of Elders?
BENEDICTION
Next time you see a burning bush, don’t walk on by. Stop, look, and listen to what God is calling you to do. Let go of your fear and trust God. He will be with you each step of the way.
Go in peace, to love and serve the Lord, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen
Showing posts with label excuses. Show all posts
Showing posts with label excuses. Show all posts
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Excuses, Excuses Part II
Good morning! Happy Tuesday!
I will confess that I am a little behind in my reading. And today is the day that I'm going to catch up. So, don't feel bad if you fall behind too. You'll find time to catch up. In my Year of the Bible book, I mark off the chapters I've read. That way, when I get a chance, I go back and look at the ones I missed and read those. Just a tip from someone who is always a day late and a dollar short!
Here's the question and answer from yesterday:
Mon, Jan 26: Peter asks Jesus, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me?” Jesus tells a parable as part of his answer. At the end of the story, what does the master do to the servant? (Matt 18)
Matthew 18:31-34 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened. 32 "Then the master called the servant in. 'You wicked servant,' he said, 'I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?' 34 In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
And here's today's question of the day:
Tues, Jan. 27: What is Moses disappointed about at the end of Exodus 5?
Remember, these answers are just what was in my mind as I was writing the question. It doesn't mean I'm right and you're wrong. I'd be interested in hearing from you if you disagree with me!
And here's today's reflection:
Excuses, Excuses Part II
I mentioned yesterday that someone told me she reads ahead because some parts of Genesis were so interesting. Well, now we're into the Exodus story and this is a serious page turner. It's one I can't stop reading.
As I read Exodus 5 and 6 this morning, I thought about what I wrote about excuses yesterday. Finally Moses gets up the courage to do what God is asking him to do and look what happens: his first mission is a failure. Not only does Pharaoh NOT let the Israelites being held in slavery go, but he INCREASES work associated with the brick production. And Moses is disappointed and maybe even a little bit angry. Exodus 5:22-23 Moses returned to the LORD and said, "O Lord, why have you brought trouble upon this people? Is this why you sent me? 23 Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble upon this people, and you have not rescued your people at all."
Things are not exactly going according to plan. Well, things aren't going according to Moses' plan at least. God hasn't given Moses all the details of His plan yet. But to Moses, he thinks he has done all God has asked him to and that God has let him down. In fact, if you didn't know the end of the story, it kinda looks like God set Moses up to fail, doesn't it? But God is not done yet. God's plan is much bigger than Moses realizes.
So it would seem that God is not a fan of taking shortcuts. He is not content to do things the easy way. And that is difficult for us to understand. How many times have we found ourselves in this situation? We finally put aside our excuses and say "Yes" to whatever it is God is calling us to do, and then BAM, on our first mission, we get shot down. We finally take that leap of faith, and just like Moses, we are disappointed when our situations don't change instantly.
We give up a lot more easily than God does. And praise the Lord for His mercy and patience with us!! You probably know the end of this story--you know God does deliver the Israelites from slavery eventually, BUT Moses and Aaron must endure a lot of disappointment and failure before Pharaoh changes his mind.
And this reminds me of the Canaanite woman from Sunday's sermon. She is a lesson in perseverance of faith. Even though in the disciples' eyes she was worthless because she broke all the rules, she knew God played by a different set of rules. She was persistent and her faith was rewarded.
When we take the leap of faith and it seems like we're failing, we need to be persistent. God's plan is always bigger than we can see. We can't give up just because we fail the first time. That is probably not the end of God's plan. There's still more to come. So, let me encourage you if you feel like you leapt out in faith and fallen flat. God is not done with you yet, just like He isn't finished with Moses yet in Exodus 6. God is just getting started with Moses--and he's just getting started with you and me. Don't give up now!
Keep the faith!
Allison
PS If you need some extra encouragement, just peek ahead in the Exodus story and see what God does through Moses. God wants to work through you too!
I will confess that I am a little behind in my reading. And today is the day that I'm going to catch up. So, don't feel bad if you fall behind too. You'll find time to catch up. In my Year of the Bible book, I mark off the chapters I've read. That way, when I get a chance, I go back and look at the ones I missed and read those. Just a tip from someone who is always a day late and a dollar short!
Here's the question and answer from yesterday:
Mon, Jan 26: Peter asks Jesus, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me?” Jesus tells a parable as part of his answer. At the end of the story, what does the master do to the servant? (Matt 18)
Matthew 18:31-34 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened. 32 "Then the master called the servant in. 'You wicked servant,' he said, 'I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?' 34 In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
And here's today's question of the day:
Tues, Jan. 27: What is Moses disappointed about at the end of Exodus 5?
Remember, these answers are just what was in my mind as I was writing the question. It doesn't mean I'm right and you're wrong. I'd be interested in hearing from you if you disagree with me!
And here's today's reflection:
Excuses, Excuses Part II
I mentioned yesterday that someone told me she reads ahead because some parts of Genesis were so interesting. Well, now we're into the Exodus story and this is a serious page turner. It's one I can't stop reading.
As I read Exodus 5 and 6 this morning, I thought about what I wrote about excuses yesterday. Finally Moses gets up the courage to do what God is asking him to do and look what happens: his first mission is a failure. Not only does Pharaoh NOT let the Israelites being held in slavery go, but he INCREASES work associated with the brick production. And Moses is disappointed and maybe even a little bit angry. Exodus 5:22-23 Moses returned to the LORD and said, "O Lord, why have you brought trouble upon this people? Is this why you sent me? 23 Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble upon this people, and you have not rescued your people at all."
Things are not exactly going according to plan. Well, things aren't going according to Moses' plan at least. God hasn't given Moses all the details of His plan yet. But to Moses, he thinks he has done all God has asked him to and that God has let him down. In fact, if you didn't know the end of the story, it kinda looks like God set Moses up to fail, doesn't it? But God is not done yet. God's plan is much bigger than Moses realizes.
So it would seem that God is not a fan of taking shortcuts. He is not content to do things the easy way. And that is difficult for us to understand. How many times have we found ourselves in this situation? We finally put aside our excuses and say "Yes" to whatever it is God is calling us to do, and then BAM, on our first mission, we get shot down. We finally take that leap of faith, and just like Moses, we are disappointed when our situations don't change instantly.
We give up a lot more easily than God does. And praise the Lord for His mercy and patience with us!! You probably know the end of this story--you know God does deliver the Israelites from slavery eventually, BUT Moses and Aaron must endure a lot of disappointment and failure before Pharaoh changes his mind.
And this reminds me of the Canaanite woman from Sunday's sermon. She is a lesson in perseverance of faith. Even though in the disciples' eyes she was worthless because she broke all the rules, she knew God played by a different set of rules. She was persistent and her faith was rewarded.
When we take the leap of faith and it seems like we're failing, we need to be persistent. God's plan is always bigger than we can see. We can't give up just because we fail the first time. That is probably not the end of God's plan. There's still more to come. So, let me encourage you if you feel like you leapt out in faith and fallen flat. God is not done with you yet, just like He isn't finished with Moses yet in Exodus 6. God is just getting started with Moses--and he's just getting started with you and me. Don't give up now!
Keep the faith!
Allison
PS If you need some extra encouragement, just peek ahead in the Exodus story and see what God does through Moses. God wants to work through you too!
Monday, January 26, 2009
Excuses, Excuses
Woot woot! Did you notice? We finished Genesis! Hurray!
I love hearing stories from people about how it's going as they read the Bible. One person said it's so interesting that sometimes she keeps reading beyond the assigned chapters! Another couple were on a car trip and decided whoever was NOT driving would read to the one who was driving! And the person I was visiting in the ER Saturday night was lamenting the fact that he wasn't going to get his reading done for the day because he didn't have his Bible with him. (I guess "Do you want to bring your Bible with you?" is not a standard question ambulance drivers ask.)
As a pastor, it does my heart good to hear stories like this because I know it does God's heart good too. I think I'll schedule a "Year of the Bible" evening at the church, for people to chat about how things are going and so they can ask their "Stump the Pastor" question. Check back here in a couple of days for more details.
Here's the question and answer from yesterday:
Sun, Jan. 25: When the new king (who didn’t know Joseph) comes into power in Egypt, what does he decide about the Israelites and their pro-creation rate? (How else can I say that?) (Ex 1)
Exodus 1:8-11 8 Then a new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt. 9 "Look," he said to his people, "the Israelites have become much too numerous for us. 10 Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country." 11 So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh.
And here's the question for today:
Mon, Jan 26: Peter asks Jesus, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me?” Jesus tells a parable as part of his answer. At the end of the story, what does the master do to the servant? (Matt 18)
And here's today's reflection:
Excuses, Excuses
Hmm . . . I've always noticed something about Moses, but until reading through the Bible like this, I never really noticed that it took up almost two whole chapters! Moses is FULL of excuses! He comes up with every excuse in the book for why he's can't be "Johnny on the spot" for God. And one by one, God takes away every excuse. One by one, God answers Moses for every concern and insecurity he comes up with to use as an excuse.
We know we all have excuses. We all have flimsy excuses we cling to as reasons we can't do something for God: too young, too old, too busy, too ill; not good enough, not smart enough, not enough faith; can't pray out loud, can't speak in front of people, can't teach a class. Inside, we know these are just excuses. We know that if we were in Moses' shoes God would have an answer to each of these excuses.
But we're not in Moses' shoes. We didn't see the burning bush. Or maybe we did, but we were afraid so we just kept walking on by. God's probably not standing in front of us with a clear task that He wants to do. Or maybe He is standing in front of us, but we're slinking by with our eyes averted.
I could preach until I'm blue in the face about casting off our excuses and facing up to what God is calling us to do, but the truth is, I can't make you do anything. I can't; I'm just one person. What I CAN do is encourage you each to find an accountability person--someone you know and trust and love. Find someone--if you haven't already--who can look you straight in the eye and say, "That's just an excuse." Find someone who will encourage you to look at the burning bush and to listen to where God is calling you to go.
Keep on reading!
Allison
I love hearing stories from people about how it's going as they read the Bible. One person said it's so interesting that sometimes she keeps reading beyond the assigned chapters! Another couple were on a car trip and decided whoever was NOT driving would read to the one who was driving! And the person I was visiting in the ER Saturday night was lamenting the fact that he wasn't going to get his reading done for the day because he didn't have his Bible with him. (I guess "Do you want to bring your Bible with you?" is not a standard question ambulance drivers ask.)
As a pastor, it does my heart good to hear stories like this because I know it does God's heart good too. I think I'll schedule a "Year of the Bible" evening at the church, for people to chat about how things are going and so they can ask their "Stump the Pastor" question. Check back here in a couple of days for more details.
Here's the question and answer from yesterday:
Sun, Jan. 25: When the new king (who didn’t know Joseph) comes into power in Egypt, what does he decide about the Israelites and their pro-creation rate? (How else can I say that?) (Ex 1)
Exodus 1:8-11 8 Then a new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt. 9 "Look," he said to his people, "the Israelites have become much too numerous for us. 10 Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country." 11 So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh.
And here's the question for today:
Mon, Jan 26: Peter asks Jesus, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me?” Jesus tells a parable as part of his answer. At the end of the story, what does the master do to the servant? (Matt 18)
And here's today's reflection:
Excuses, Excuses
Hmm . . . I've always noticed something about Moses, but until reading through the Bible like this, I never really noticed that it took up almost two whole chapters! Moses is FULL of excuses! He comes up with every excuse in the book for why he's can't be "Johnny on the spot" for God. And one by one, God takes away every excuse. One by one, God answers Moses for every concern and insecurity he comes up with to use as an excuse.
We know we all have excuses. We all have flimsy excuses we cling to as reasons we can't do something for God: too young, too old, too busy, too ill; not good enough, not smart enough, not enough faith; can't pray out loud, can't speak in front of people, can't teach a class. Inside, we know these are just excuses. We know that if we were in Moses' shoes God would have an answer to each of these excuses.
But we're not in Moses' shoes. We didn't see the burning bush. Or maybe we did, but we were afraid so we just kept walking on by. God's probably not standing in front of us with a clear task that He wants to do. Or maybe He is standing in front of us, but we're slinking by with our eyes averted.
I could preach until I'm blue in the face about casting off our excuses and facing up to what God is calling us to do, but the truth is, I can't make you do anything. I can't; I'm just one person. What I CAN do is encourage you each to find an accountability person--someone you know and trust and love. Find someone--if you haven't already--who can look you straight in the eye and say, "That's just an excuse." Find someone who will encourage you to look at the burning bush and to listen to where God is calling you to go.
Keep on reading!
Allison
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
