that you would fill our hearts full of faith as we open the word of the one who is, has always been, and will ever be. Lord God, we are so grateful to be able to call upon the great name of the great God. You are indeed the King of kings and Lord of lords, and we worship you with sincere hearts. And now pray that you fill our hearts with faith as we open your word. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
You can be seated. We'll dismiss our kids to children's ministry. And if you'll open your Bibles to the book of Exodus, we're in chapter 3 and 4 today. Our text for today will be Exodus chapter 3, verse 10, all the way into Exodus chapter 4, verse 17. Now, the title for this message today is paleo evangelism, paleo evangelism. And what I mean by that is that here we see in this commissioning of Moses to go into Egypt and proclaim words of freedom over the people in bondage, here we see a very primitive and early form that represents God's general plan for redemption for the whole world.
For instance, in verse 7, we see God's concern for sinners. It says in verse 7, So here we see God's concern for the sinner. He sees God's concern for the people who are in the people who are in at least carnal, fleshly, earthly bondage to a great tyrant. But of course, this image of Israel enslaved is represented throughout the New Testament as a way of describing what a lost person is. They are bound to their own sins and transgressions, and they are captured by the tyrant that is far above Pharaoh. Pharaoh's got nothing on the devil. And secondly, we see in verse 8, not only do we see God's concern for sinners, but we see in verse 8 God's choice to save some. God's choice to save some. Look at verse 8. While he sees these people in a terrible state, he has a plan to transform them. He has a plan to deliver them out of the domain of darkness and into the kingdom of light. And so here again, we see a parallel with God's broader redemptive plan for the whole world. God has chosen to save many of the people he now sees as sinners, and he's made that choice before the foundation of the world. So think about this. This is pretty remarkable. God looks into the world right now and sees people who are at this time his enemies, but that in the fullness of time will become his sons and his daughters. He sees right now in the world people who are at this time dead in their sins and transgressions, but who in the fullness of time will be made alive and raised and seated with Christ in the heavenly places. This is a remarkable idea. God has concern for the sinner, but he also has chosen to save many of them. And so at this time, he looks at a people whose sins are like crimson, but who in the fullness of his time will be white as snow. So we see God's concern for sinners, God's choice to save them. And number three, we see God's certainty for success. Notice the certainty of the language in verse 8. I have come down to deliver them and bring them up to a good and broad land. So God's not making a proposal here. He's making a promise. God is saying what he will do, not what he merely desires to do, but what he will do. A.W. Pink in his commentary on this passage says, observe the definiteness and positiveness of Jehovah's assertions. There were no perhaps or per adventures. It was no mere invitation or offer that was made to Israel. Instead, it was the unconditional, emphatic declaration of what the Lord would do. I have come down to deliver. And so it is now, Pink continues, the gospel goes forth on no uncertain errand. God's word shall not return unto him void, but it shall accomplish that which he pleases, and it shall prosper in the thing whereunto he sends it, which is a quote from Isaiah 55. So we don't believe at Providence that God tries to do things and sometimes comes up short. We believe that God determines what will come to pass, and it does indeed come to pass, including God's choice to save sinners. One of the most remarkable examples of this in the Bible is found in Acts chapter 13, verse 48. Paul and Barnabas had just preached a sermon to a bunch of Gentiles, and listen to how verse 48 describes the end result of that preaching mission. And when the Gentiles heard this, it says, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. So here we see the certainty of God's evangelistic mission. We see his concern for sinners, his choice to save some, and here we see the certainty of his success.
Now number four, we see in verses 9 through 10 that God commissions a shepherd. God commissions a shepherd. Look at verse 9. And now behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppressed them. Come, he says to Moses, I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. Now in this story, God is literally commissioning an actual shepherd. That's what Moses has been doing for the last 40 years. He has been a shepherd, and his vocation is no accident. God sees his people as a kind of lost sheep, sheep without a shepherd, and like Jesus in the Gospels, God sees them as harassed and confused, as sheep without a shepherd. God sees the people of Israel as sheep who have been stolen by Pharaoh, as sheep that will need to be tended to and herded out of Egypt, through the wilderness, and into the Promised Land. So God commissions a shepherd.
Now when we look at evangelism more broadly, or we look at God's redemptive intentions, not just for Israel in this particular moment, but across all time, we can see that Jesus sees sinners like God saw sinners in this passage, like sheep who have gone astray, who are harassed and confused. And in reality, the Great Commission in Matthew 28, which we'll read as our benediction, is essentially Jesus, the Great Shepherd, commissioning a group of under-shepherds to go out into the world and find the lost sheep who are part of his herd.
Now, the idea of how that happens is simply this. God commissions people to go out into the world speaking the gospel, and Jesus says, as a result of that, his sheep, who are bound in sin and scattered throughout the world, that his sheep will hear his voice. Jesus says in John 10, 27, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal life, that they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. So let's just be clear here. A lost person isn't saved simply because a person shares the gospel with them. It's a little bit more magical than that. A lost person is saved because Jesus is speaking through the person he is sending. His sheep hear not your voice or my voice, but the voice of Christ.
6 · The pastor recounts Piper's story of a young woman converted through a stranger's casual 'Praise Jesus' on the beach to illustrate how Christ's voice reaches his sheep through the simplest proclamation
In his book, Finally Alive, John Piper tells a kind of cute little story. He writes, A young woman told the story of how she was joining our church and of how Christ had saved her. She said that she knew a good bit about Christianity because of her parents, but had thrown it all away as a teenager and was now out on her own. One day, she and her friends were walking down the beach and several handsome guys approached. And her thought was to impress them and to be as attractive and as cool as possible. But as those guys passed, one of them called out, Praise Jesus! And just kept walking. And Piper goes on to say that that little phrase cut that girl to the heart. It was exactly the opposite of what she was expecting. That little phrase, Praise Jesus, resonated in her heart in a remarkable way. And thereafter, she surrendered her life to Christ and was saved.
7 · The pastor unpacks the Piper illustration to reinforce the theological point: the woman heard Jesus' voice speaking through the young man, demonstrating that God accomplishes salvation through human instruments
So let's just review what happened there. You've got this young, handsome beach chad in his vineyard and vine trunks and his undeserved six-pack. It's all undeserved at that age. Didn't earn that six-pack. Being a beach chad, a Christian beach chad, he's just walking down the beach and says, Praise Jesus! Now, did that woman here, hear him? Well, in some respect, yes. But as a lost sheep who Jesus had determined before the foundation of the world to gather back into his fold, that little girl heard Jesus coming through that kid on the beach. The point is this. God does his delivering work through people.
8 · The pastor synthesizes the exposition: God's method in Exodus—using Moses—is God's method now—using believers to proclaim the gospel
In his story, he uses Moses, and in the larger redemption story, God uses people like you and me and six-pack guy. A.W. Pink says, God's way then, speaking of Exodus, is God's way now. Human instrumentality is the means he most commonly employs in bringing sinners from bondage to liberty, from death to life. This, of course, is what Paul's talking about at the end of Romans, or toward the end of Romans, in Romans chapter 10, when he writes, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But how will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel.
9 · Structural signal that the sermon is shifting from exposition of God's redemptive plan to the problem of human resistance
Now, we've gone through the first four points of the message pretty quickly, because now, at the fifth point, the plot thickens.
10 · The pastor introduces the sermon's central tension: God's chosen spokesman resists the commission
We see that God has concern for sinners, and that he chooses to save some, and he's certain of his success, and he commissions shepherds, and here's the fifth point. God's chosen spokesperson sins. God's chosen spokesperson sins. Look at verse 10 and 11 with me. God has outlined his concern, his plan, assured everyone of this, assured Moses of the certainty of his success, and now look at verse 10. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. But Moses said to God, who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children out of Israel? Pharaoh. This passage, this entire section of scripture we're looking at from Exodus 3, 7 through 4, 17, has a very simple structure. We see in verses 7 through 10, God issuing a commission, and then from there we see a series of objections and answers. Moses' objections and God's answers. We see five of them in the passage.
11 · The pastor asserts that resistance to evangelistic calling is not exceptional but normative—both in Moses' story and in the broader pattern of Christian obedience
Now, we'll get into some of the details in a moment. What I want you to stick out right now is that both in this story and in God's wider plan for evangelism, this is how it usually goes. God has issued his promise, his concern for the lost, his promise to save them. He's commissioned people like you and me to go out, and suddenly all of it comes grinding to a halt because we, like Moses, say, no. Hard pass.
12 · The pastor analyzes Moses' psychological state at the moment of commission: distant deliverance, domestication, disappointment, disability, and danger
Now, we're going to spend some time thinking about this, so let's try to get into Moses' head a little bit and understand sort of what, what was Moses' mindset in this particular moment. I think there are at least four things you should, or five things you should kind of notice, so let's go through these very quickly. First of all, let us establish that Moses' own deliverance was very distant in his mind. He had a distant deliverance. God had actually delivered Moses out of Pharaoh's hand many years prior, but that was a long time ago, and Moses' own deliverance is far back in the rearview mirror, and the reality of his own salvation is not front and center. He doesn't remember the people that God used to spare his life and to take him out of Egypt. He doesn't remember all of that. His deliverance is distant. Secondly, Moses is a domesticated man. His deliverance is distant, and I also want you to notice his domestication. He's gotten old and grown comfortable. He's got a job that keeps him busy, a wife and two sons to greet him in the evening, and like a few of you in this room, an awesome father-in-law. Number three, in addition to the distance between his present and his past conversion and his own kind of domestic bliss, shall we say, Moses has had some disappointments. You know, a long time ago, 40 years prior, he had tried to help, and he was utterly disappointed in the results of his effort. He had tried to get involved, and what seemed to have happened at that time was a lesson in don't get involved. I also believe that Moses had a disability. In chapter four, Moses says that he struggles with his speech in the Septuagint. It really seems to imply that there was a real problem with his speech. Josephus records that when Moses was in Pharaoh's household, Moses was a man of war. He was a kind of a general in Pharaoh's army. I think the best way to think about this is that Moses was far more naturally a man of war than a man of words. I think he really did have a disability in his speech. And finally, number five, danger. Besides all of these other things happening, this looks like a suicide mission. For Moses to go all the way back into Egypt and tell the mightiest man in the entire world that some distant God that nobody had ever heard of commands him to let his people go. There's a lot of danger in that.
13 · The pastor applies Moses' five factors to the congregation, confessing that Moses' psychological profile mirrors the contemporary believer's resistance to evangelism
Now, I don't know about you, but there's a lot there that resonates with me. One commentator says it this way, were it not that we were acquainted in some measure with our own desperately wicked hearts, it would appear to us well nigh unthinkable that Moses should continue objecting and cavilling. But the remembrance of our own repeated and humiliating failures only serves to show how sadly, true to life, here, the picture here presented before us, the Lord had favored his servant with awe-inspiring sight of the burning bush. He had spoken of his tender solicitude for the afflicted Hebrews. He had promised to be with Moses. He had expressly declared that he would deliver Israel from Egypt and bring them into Canaan. And yet, all of this is not sufficient to silence unbelief and subdue the rebellious will. Alas, what is man that the Almighty should be mindful of him? nothing but divine power working within us can ever bring the human heart to abandon all creature props and trust in God. Again, everything I described in Moses' mindset looks eerily like my own, and I feel probably certain that many of you see a lot there as well.
14 · The pastor makes Moses' five factors intensely personal, walking through each one with first-person confession and direct application to the congregation's lived experience
Let's talk about our distance, the distance between our now and our deliverance, our distant deliverance. You know, I was saved a long time ago. As a child, it's easy to forget what that even felt like, if I'm honest. Let's talk about domesticity. I have a happy home life, and many of you do as well. In homes, you've worked hard to make nice and hospitable, and how tempting it is, night after night after night, to snuggle in with your soulmate, rather than opening up your house to your neighbors. Disappointments? I've had a few. There have been times when I've tried to share the gospel. I'm sure this is true of you as well, and either you failed, or you were responded to with mocking or scoffing, or you lost a friendship as a result. Disability? Well, I don't think I have a speech disability, but isn't it in the moments when you're called to go do something like this, all of your own weaknesses and inabilities come to the fore? Social awkwardness, limited understanding of apologetics, a feeling of theological immaturity, and danger. Well, I don't think that if I share the gospel with someone, they're going to kill me, but I do think that they're going to hurt me, hurt my feelings, make me feel foolish, separate me out as some kind of backward Bible-thumping hillbilly.
15 · The pastor shares a personal story of a failed evangelistic attempt to illustrate the fear of danger and mockery that paralyzes believers
I remember one time when I was a teenager and I tried to share the gospel with my knee surgeon. I was 16 years old and he cruelly eviscerated me in every effort I had to share the gospel with him. He sliced and diced my mind and my mouth and my heart long before he ever got to my knee. Didn't do a good job on the knee either by the way.
16 · The pastor asserts that God's sovereignty extends to both sides of evangelism—unbinding the lost and unbinding the reluctant messenger
This fifth point, God has concern, he has a plan, he's going to succeed in that plan, he calls us to obey that plan. This fifth point, when we say no, I want you to understand this morning that this is actually a normal part of God's redemptive plan. Everything I've said, all five points, these are all normal. These are all things God has to deal with in his choice to redeem sinners. It shouldn't be normal that God's sons and daughters resist him when he calls them to go and share the gospel. It shouldn't be normal, but it is normal. We should respond with faith, but we often don't. And first and foremost, let's establish that God's sovereignty isn't somehow like a blanket that doesn't cover this part. It covers the whole bed. It covers everything, including our unbelief. One of the things we'll see if we pay careful attention to this passage is God is working on both ends of the problem. He's working and he's with the people and their bondage. He sees them and he is working and is with the one whom he is going to send. I would say that in many respects, before God could ever lead any single person to Christ, he has to undo bondage on both ends of the equation. Eventually, he has to undo the bondage of those bound to sin, but in order to send someone to that sinner, he has to unbind the heart of the reluctant witness, full of unbelief and excuses. God is able, by the way, to deal with sin on both sides of the problem. The same God who will deliver the lost out of their sin will deliver you and I from our unbelief. A commentator says that if God were to wait until he found a human instrument that was worthy or fit to be used by him, he would go on waiting until the end of time. God is sovereign in this, as in everything. The truth is that God uses whom he pleases. Not yet was Moses ready to respond to Jehovah's call. There were many other difficulties which the fertile mind of unbelief was ready to suggest. But one by one, divine power and long sufferance overcame them.
17 · The pastor offers a memorable binary choice: either we put our difficulties between us and God, or we stand with God against our difficulties
Let us take this lesson thoroughly to heart and seek that grace which will enable us to place God between us and our difficulties instead of putting difficulties between God and us. There's really two ways of doing life in general. It's me and my difficulties against God or it's me and God against my difficulties. I'm either going to put my difficulties between me and God, my fears between me and God, my unbelief between me and God, or I'm going to go stand with God and say let's work on this. Let's work on this unbelief. Let's work on this difficulty. Let's work on this fear together.
18 · The pastor signals a major structural shift, framing the remainder of the sermon around a single question: how does God change the unwilling evangelist?
I want to spend the rest of our time, it won't be super long, answering what I believe to be one of the most pressing questions of our time. I actually can't think of many other questions more pressing than this one that I'm about to ask. That question is, how does God change the heart of an unwilling evangelist?
19 · The pastor refutes the idea that dramatic spiritual encounters produce instant boldness in evangelism
How does God change the heart of an unwilling evangelist? The fields are white with harvest right now, friends. The fields are white with harvest. God has concern for the sinner. He has chosen to save many of them. They will hear his voice as the word goes forth that we've reached a bit of a bottleneck in the story, haven't we? And if we can answer this question, well, I just don't know how I could overstate the impact successfully answering this question would have on the world around us. How does God change the heart of an unwilling evangelist? Well, firstly, I want to point out, I think this will be edifying, I think I want to point out how God does not do it. Remember the details that this scene begins with where Moses sees a burning bush, this fire that is not consuming the bush, and how he has hid his face when he realizes that it's the Lord. Verse 6 of chapter 3 says, Moses hid his face for he was afraid to look at God. When I was younger, I read a lot of books on revival, and I suppose you could say a lot of books on the more mystical side of things, and the powerful personal encounters with God. And I think that was running through our culture at a particular moment, at that particular time of my life. I think it's probably influenced everybody here more than they realize. But I used to, I sort of came to this conclusion that if I just had a very powerful encounter with God that I would instantaneously become more inclined to obedience, and specifically more bold in evangelism. Well, our passage really pushes against that notion. Moses is right there in God's presence, friends. He's about as close as you can get. He's standing on holy ground. His face is warmed by the fire from the fire of God. His ears are full of the audible voice of God, and yet he is acting just like you and I act when we are presented with the call. So I think it's important to note that there is no quick fix, and that even a face-to-face encounter with God did not cure Moses of his fears. You know, we love the quick fix. And it's pretty easy to think that there's some kind of religious experience out there that will just suddenly burn away all of our unbelief. Doesn't seem to be what the Bible teaches. Even the mighty Paul who encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus and was later caught up into the third heavens, you know what Paul asked people to pray for him for? Like, what his prayer request was? Well, we see it in Ephesians chapter 6. He says, pray for me that the words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak. Downstream of all of Paul's amazing insights, world-class intellectual training, complete conversance with the scriptures and powerful encounters with God. He still struggled to be bold.
20 · The pastor cites Elijah's post-Carmel collapse as another biblical example of how even dramatic victories and divine encounters do not immunize believers from fear and unbelief
Sometimes my mind on this subject turns to old Elijah coming off the heels of a miraculous showdown in which God used him mightily and almost immediately he is consumed with defeatism and unbelief and cries out, it is enough, oh Lord, take away my life or I'm no better than my father's.
21 · The pastor reinforces that God's method for changing unwilling evangelists is not simple or instantaneous—but Moses did eventually obey, so the text contains the answer
I think we would all love it if we could propose a quick fix to this particular problem. But I will tell you that the story of Moses and the story of many other mighty men in scripture tell us that that is not the way God changes this particular problem. Here's the deal. This seems to be the pattern. God has people he wants to save, he wants to use you and I to effect their salvation, and we often resist the call. Now we see that Moses eventually did obey, and so we can find an answer to our question. How does God change the heart of an unwilling evangelist? The answer just isn't simple. The answer isn't some sort of moment you can wait upon.
22 · The pastor offers the broad answer: sanctification—God progressively shifts Moses' focus from 'I' to 'I AM
Moses did eventually obey. What did the trick? Well, I'm going to give you a broad answer and then a very, very, very specific one. The broad one is I think all we're seeing in this particular passage is the process of sanctification. God patiently and progressively moves Moses' eyes off of himself and on to God. You know, a lot of attention gets paid these days to pronouns. One article called it the pronoun battle or the pronoun war. Friends, do you realize that from the very beginning of humanity there's been a pronoun battle afoot? It's the pronoun battle between me and he. It's the battle between I and I am. And you can look at this passage and you can see these objections and they all feature prominently Moses' wrong pronoun. He's looking to the wrong eye. Verse 11, who am I? God's answer, I will be with you. Verse 13, if I come to the people and they want to know your name, God's like, I am! Verse 1 of chapter 4, they will not listen to me. Chapter 2 through 9, they will listen to you, I will make them. Verse 10, I'm not eloquent. verse 11 and 12, I will be your mouth and teach you what to say.
23 · The pastor defines sanctification as the 'me to he' transition and applies it to evangelism: every evangelistic act begins with God sanctifying the messenger by shifting their gaze from self to God
What we're observing here, I think, is really just plain old sanctification. And let me be super clear about what I mean. Sanctification is simply this, a process that involves our decreasing and his increasing. A process in which we take our eyes off of me as the solution to the problems that lie ahead, and I place our eyes on he. Think about it this way. Not every evangelistic encounter ends with salvation, but they all start with sanctification. Every single time any of us would be faithful in God's call to share the gospel with another, it will always start with some kind of pronoun shift, God is freeing people daily from their unbelief and filling them daily with faith in him by simply getting them to stop focusing on themselves and focus on him. Stop focusing on what you can't do, start focusing on what he has promised to do.
24 · The pastor diagnoses the contemporary church's evangelistic failure and issues a concrete call: stop avoiding the conversation with God about evangelism
So we're living in this era of profound evangelistic disobedience. I don't know if there has been another generation in the history of the modern church in particular that has been more disobedient in this area. And our world shows it. how do we change that? God has to change us. And that change will not be quick and painless. It will take place as we converse with God. And friends, if I could ask you to do one thing, I can't ask you to just change. Could I ask you this? Could you stop running away from the conversation? could you just sit still with God and have it out with him? Could you stop distracting yourself and leave this thing that he's called you to do undone, undone, undone, undone? Because, well, we have lots of ways to avoid this conversation, don't we?
25 · The pastor restates the core mechanism: all Christian growth is the progressive shift from self-focus to God-focus, accomplished by standing with God against our doubts rather than letting doubts stand between us and God
How can God do this work? He will do it progressively as we, again, stop putting our doubts in between us and God, and we stand with God and ask him to help us with our doubts. All progress in the Christian life is simply a me-to-he transition.
26 · The pastor signals a shift from the broad answer (sanctification) to a specific answer from the text: what finally moved Moses to obedience
Now, I want to give you a far more particular answer to this question. I don't want you to get lost, because I'm going to give you a particular thing. I don't want you to get lost in the particular and miss out on what I just said. You really do need to just sit with God and say, God, this is an open tab, an unmarked task in my life, a thing I've been putting off. Let's talk about this. Let's talk about this a little bit every morning. Let's have a me-to-he transition. But there is something particular that I do want to point out, because this is a back and forth that doesn't appear to be yielding any progress. For every answer that God has, Moses simply brings up a new objection, but there is an end to this conversation. God does something that seems to finally make, affect the change.
27 · The pastor traces Moses' final objection and God's anger, establishing that persistent disobedience frustrates God—but even theological assurance is not enough to move Moses
Now, I want you to notice in verse 10, Moses said to the Lord, O Lord, I am not eloquent. This is either in the past, this is in chapter 4, O Lord, I am not eloquent either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue. And the Lord said to him, Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute or deaf or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now, therefore, go, I will be your mouth and teach you what you shall speak. And we keep trying to overcome evangelistic hesitation with more theology. I don't think that's, I don't think it's hurtful. That's, do you know what Moses says to that? Verse 13, O Lord, please send someone else. I want you to notice in verse 13, 14, this phrase, then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses. I want us to understand that our dullness and disobedience in this area, our constant leaning on our own understanding, is frustrating to God. Yes, the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ has placed you as a believer in him in a permanent relationship with God. And yes, he is your father, but don't take that to mean he doesn't get frustrated with you. He does. your disobedience, my disobedience, your unbelief, my unbelief, frustrates God. Our relationship isn't what it should be as long as we keep telling him no, or we keep avoiding the conversation. But God is patient and kind. He shows Moses grace. His anger does not fall on Moses. I think Moses notices it. Moses is the one who records this particular passage. Moses notices it, but that's not how the story ends.
28 · The pastor reads the climactic moment: God gives Moses Aaron
What is the thing that finally gets Moses over the hump? Well, look at verse 14. Is there not Aaron your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. See, God's working both sides of the problem. He's in the wilderness, he's back in Egypt. Behold, he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart, and you shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and will teach you both what to do. He shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth, and you shall be as God to him. And take in your hand the staff with which you shall do the signs.
29 · The pastor delivers the sermon's specific answer: God changes unwilling evangelists by embedding them in community
One key point of application emerges, and that is this. We're answering the question, how do we overcome the unwilling evangelist? How do we motivate the unwilling evangelist? And here's my point of extraordinarily practical application. You do not have to do this alone. God gave Moses, his brother Aaron, and God has given each one of us, many brothers and sisters, to co-labor in the gospel. We have brothers and sisters in the local church, in this local church, and we have brothers and sisters in the invisible church going all the way back 2,000 years. I said a moment ago that sanctification, you know, it's just the shift from me to he, but there's something else happening in this passage that seems to finally put Moses over the edge into obedience, and it's a shift from me to we. It's a shift from me to we. This idea that he is not going to be alone, but is going to have a partner, is going to have his brother, and his brother's going to have his back, and they're going to work together. Well, this seems to be what finally did it for Moses. Was the face-to-face encounter with God enough? No. Was assurance that his mission be successful enough? No. Were the strange signs of the serpent and the leprous hand enough? No. Don't get me wrong. I'm sure that these aspects contributed to Moses' change of heart. But let's not miss out on what the text says. It's the final thing, because this conversation could have gone on forever, the final thing that moved Moses into obedience. Moses, you don't have to do this alone. Friends, Moses was given Aaron, and that is enough for him. But you've been given many Aaron's, and they're sitting to your left and your right. I think there's a real reason why Jesus sent his disciples out in twos, and I think there's a real reason why we rarely see Paul ever proclaiming the gospel alone. This shift from me to he, and from me to we, made a substantial difference, not only in Moses' life, but in the lives of many other gospel proclaimers, both in the Bible and throughout history. You don't have to do this alone. Let me give you three examples of not doing it alone. Number one, bring your unbelieving friends into your home, and surround them with your brothers and sisters in Christ. Number two, bring your unbelieving friends to church. Let them see the family of God at work. In his book, Finally Alive, Piper says, in your relationships, invite people to church even before they are Christians. Some of the sheer strangeness of what it means to be a Christian can be overcome by a growing familiarity with how we sing and talk and relate in the church, and the preaching of the word has a unique power. Every kind of speech is unique in some way, but preaching is not the only or main way that we communicate, but it is unusually appointed by God to have special effectiveness. And nowadays with the internet, if people are hesitant to come to church, invite them to a website where they can watch or list your pastor or some other teacher. So bring people into your home. Surround them with your brothers and sisters. You don't have to do this alone. Invite people to church. And in addition to these two, there's a third thing. You have all these brothers and sisters throughout history that have written books and modern ones that have recorded podcasts. podcasts. And you can pass that stuff on, friends. You don't have to do this all alone. You can't do this all alone. But you can walk with your brothers and sisters and learn this particular obedience.
30 · The pastor concludes with a call to cultural change: individual training and strategies will fail without a culture of mutual support and collective growth
Here's the thing. If we're going to change, this is my conclusion, if we're going to change in this area, we're going to have to change together. And I don't think God would have it any other way. The old management consultant Peter Drucker is perhaps most known for one particular quote. He says, culture eats strategy for breakfast. Culture eats strategy for breakfast. What does that mean for us? Well, it simply means that we could talk until we're blue in the face about evangelistic training, evangelistic equipping, evangelistic wise, God's promises, God's concern for the lost, pitying the lost, having compassion on the lost, and so on and so forth. Or we could establish a culture where we look to our left and right and say, we're all trying to get better at this. Let's help each other. Let's do it together. We've seen God's concern. We've seen God's choice. We've seen God's certainty. We've seen God's commission. We're bottlenecked by this point. We've got to overcome our unwillingness. And it seems to me that God's final answer to Moses' constant objections was, I'm going to give you another person to do this with. God's So would you receive that word as an encouragement to you? That as we continue to grow in this particular area and stop being the most un-evangelistic generation in the history of the modern church, would you take this as a comfort and encouragement? Let's change our culture. Let's as a church culture walk together in growing in this particular area.
31 · Practical logistics regarding the communion setup
Now you may notice that communion is set up a little bit differently. No, we're not going to bring out ping pong balls. We ran out of communion cups, and so these cups are placed here so the family could maybe split, share the cup between family members. So if you have a number of people partaking, take a cup, and there's some individual cups underneath here.
32 · The pastor frames communion as a remedy for 'distant deliverance'—an opportunity to remember salvation, the messengers God used, and to ask for help with unbelief
But with communion, we have an opportunity to solve a particular problem that we discussed earlier related to Moses and ourselves, and that is the distance of his own deliverance. It was a long time ago that Moses was delivered. It was a long time ago that I was delivered. It might be a long time ago that you were delivered. So here's what I want to ask you to do. I want you to come and partake, take an element, go back to your seat. Here's what I want you to do. Number one, thank you God for saving me. Before we're partaking, thank you God for saving me. Number two, thank you God for sending people to share the gospel with me. Thank you God for saving me. Thank you God for sending people to share the gospel with me. And number three, God would you help me? Help my unbelief. You love me. You're kind to help me work through this. I want to stand with you against my problems and not put my problems in between you and me. So would you partake of the table in that way today, please?
33 · Closing prayer preparing the congregation to partake of communion, echoing the three-part liturgy and confessing sin while resting in God's grace and sovereignty
Let me pray for us. Father God, we praise your holy name that you are kind and compassionate not only toward the lost but toward us as we often struggle, God, to obey you. thank you that you have shed your own blood for the remission of this and all of our sins and that Lord, even though we must confess we have indeed sinned in this area, Lord, we know that where our sin abounds, your grace abounds much more. We want to deal with our sin not so that we can escape hell. We want to deal with our sin so that we can enjoy you, love others, and be who you've called us to be. So, Father, would you, as we partake in this table, as we celebrate the shed blood and given body of Jesus for the remission of our sins, would you, Lord, help us as we partake to thank you for saving us. Thank you for sending people to tell us about Jesus. And, Lord, just give us a faith, a heart of faith to learn how to do this better than we are now. Thank you for loving us, for being patient with us. We trust that your grace is not in vain. We know that he who began a good work will carry it on to the day of completion, that you're not only the author of our salvation, but also its finisher. So, Lord, bless our time. In Jesus' name, amen.