Paleo-Evangelism

June 2, 2024 Pastor Chris Oswald

Thesis God overcomes the unwilling evangelist not through powerful encounters or quick fixes, but through progressive sanctification that shifts our focus from self to God and from isolation to community, enabling us to participate in His certain plan to save the lost.

Series

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Type

Expository

Tone

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Method

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What's in this sermon

The shape of the argument

27 units across exposition, application, illustration, theological claim, and conclusion. The pastor's argument is built from these moving parts.

Pastoral correction · unit #17

"Applies the sanctification principle to contemporary evangelistic disobedience, calling the congregation to stop avoiding the conversation with God about evangelism and instead sit with Him to work through unbelief."

Doctrinal loci· 10 surfaced

Sanctification · 11 Soteriology · 7 Ecclesiology · 6 Theology Proper · 6 Hamartiology · 5 Pastoral Theology · 4 Providence / Sovereignty · 3 Anthropology · 1 Doxology / Worship · 1 Pneumatology · 1

Bible citations· 29

Illustrations· 2

personal story · unit #5 — Tells John Piper's story of a young woman converted through a brief "praise Jesus" spoken by a stranger on the beach, illustrating that Christ's sheep hear His voice through human messengers regardless of eloquence.
personal story · unit #11 — Tells a personal story of being humiliated by a surgeon when attempting to share the gospel as a teenager, illustrating the reality of danger (relational harm and ridicule) in evangelism.

Theological claims· 5

God's established pattern is to accomplish salvation through human instrumentality—people sent to preach the gospel so that others may hear and believe. unit #6
God's sovereignty covers the entire redemptive process, including our unbelief, and He works to unbind both the lost sinner and the reluctant witness before salvation can occur. unit #12
The fundamental choice in the Christian life is whether to place our difficulties between us and God or to stand with God against our difficulties, and this question determines whether God can overcome our evangelistic unwillingness. unit #13
Every faithful evangelistic act begins with sanctification—a pronoun shift from focusing on personal inadequacy ("me") to trusting God's promises ("He"). unit #16
God's established pattern for evangelism is community-based partnership ("me to we"), as evidenced by Jesus sending disciples in pairs and Paul's consistent co-laboring, and this principle translates into three concrete practices today. unit #21

Quotations· 6

"observe the definiteness and positiveness of Jehovah's assertions. There were no perhaps or peradventures. 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." — A.W. Pink (unit #3)

"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." — A.W. Pink (unit #3)

"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 the true to life here the picture here presented before us." — unnamed commentator (unit #9)

"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." — unnamed commentator (unit #12)

"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." — John Piper (unit #21)

"culture eats strategy for breakfast." — Peter Drucker (unit #23)

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0 · Opening prayer asking God to fill hearts with faith and prepare the congregation to receive His word with worship

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.

1 · Introduces the sermon's text and thesis: Moses' commissioning in Exodus represents a primitive pattern ("paleo-evangelism") of God's broader redemptive plan for the world

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 three and four today. Our text for today will be Exodus 3:10, all the way into Exodus 4:17. 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.

2 · Exposits Exodus 3:7 to establish God's concern for sinners, drawing a typological parallel between Israel's physical bondage to Pharaoh and the sinner's spiritual bondage to sin and Satan

For instance, in verse 7 we see God's concern for sinners. It says in verse seven, then the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings. So here we see God's concern for the sinner, specifically in relationship to Israel. He sees a people who are in at least. 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.

3 · Exposits Exodus 3:8 to establish God's sovereign choice to save and His certainty of success, drawing parallels to God's broader redemptive plan and supporting the claim with A

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 eight. And I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of the land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 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 who are, 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 the 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. AW Pink, in his commentary on this passage, says, observe the definiteness and positiveness of Jehovah's assertions. There were no perhaps or peradventures. 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 13:48. 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.

4 · Exposits Exodus 3:9-10 to establish God's pattern of commissioning shepherds to gather His scattered sheep, drawing typological connections to the Great Commission and John 10:27 to show that evangelism is Christ speaking through sent messengers

We see his concern for sinners, his choice to save some, and. And here we see the certainty of his success. Now, number four, we see in verses nine through ten that God commissions a shepherd. God commissions a shepherd. Look at verse nine. 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.

5 · Tells John Piper's story of a young woman converted through a brief "praise Jesus" spoken by a stranger on the beach, illustrating that Christ's sheep hear His voice through human messengers regardless of eloquence

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. I 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. 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 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.

6 · Asserts the theological principle that God uses human instrumentality to accomplish salvation, grounding the claim in A

In his story, he uses Moses. And in the larger redemption story, God uses people like you and me and Six Pack Guy. Aw. 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.

7 · Marks the structural pivot from exposition of God's plan to exposition of human resistance, signaling that the sermon's central tension is about to emerge

Now, we've gone through the first four points of the message pretty quickly, because now at the fifth point, the plot thickens. 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.

8 · Exposits Exodus 3:10-11 to reveal the sermon's central tension: God issues a clear commission, but His chosen messenger resists, establishing a pattern that continues in believers today

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? 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. 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, ground grinding to a halt. Because we, like Moses, say no hard pass.

9 · Analyzes Moses' psychological and spiritual state—distant deliverance, domestic comfort, past disappointments, personal disability, and danger—to explain his resistance and draw parallels to contemporary believers' reluctance to evangelize

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 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. 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. 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 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 like 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. Now I don't know about you, but there's a lot there that resonates with me. One commentator says it this 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 the 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.

10 · Applies Moses' five resistance factors directly to the congregation, confessing personal struggle with each and inviting listeners to recognize the same patterns in their own reluctance to evangelize

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. Let's talk about our distant 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. You were responded to with mocking or scoffing or 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.

11 · Tells a personal story of being humiliated by a surgeon when attempting to share the gospel as a teenager, illustrating the reality of danger (relational harm and ridicule) in evangelism

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.

12 · Asserts that human resistance to God's call is a normal part of God's redemptive plan that His sovereignty encompasses, and that God works on both ends of the problem—freeing both the lost sinner and the reluctant evangelist from bondage

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, 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 in 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. 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.

13 · Frames the sermon's central question (how God changes an unwilling evangelist) within the choice between putting difficulties between us and God versus standing with God against our difficulties

See, 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. And I want to spend the rest of our time 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. And that question is, how does God change the heart of an unwilling evangelist?

14 · Addresses the question negatively first: God does not change unwilling evangelists through powerful mystical encounters or quick fixes, as evidenced by Moses at the burning bush, Paul's continued need for boldness despite his Damascus road experience, and Elijah's despair after Mount Carmel

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. 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 in 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'll 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. And opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the Gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it bold, 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. 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, O Lord, take away my life, for I'm no better than my fathers. 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.

15 · Exposits the pattern of Moses' objections and God's answers to demonstrate sanctification as a progressive shift from self-focus ("me") to God-focus ("He"), tracing the pronoun battle through Exodus 3-4

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 affect 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. 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, and 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, 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 one of chapter four, they will not listen to me. Chapter two through nine, 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.

16 · Defines sanctification as the process of decreasing self and increasing God-focus, asserting that every evangelistic act begins with this pronoun shift from "me" to "He

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 where we move off of me and move on to He. 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.

17 · Applies the sanctification principle to contemporary evangelistic disobedience, calling the congregation to stop avoiding the conversation with God about evangelism and instead sit with Him to work through unbelief

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 era 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? 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.

18 · Pastoral pause to ensure the congregation doesn't miss the broad principle (sitting with God daily) while receiving the specific application that follows

Now I want to give you a far more particular answer to this question. And 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, let's talk about this. Let's talk about this a little bit every morning. Let's have a me to he transition.

19 · Exposits Exodus 4:10-14 to show God's escalating frustration with Moses' continued resistance, establishing that our disobedience frustrates God even as He patiently works toward resolution

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. 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 pass. This is in chapter four. 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 it's hurtful, but that's. Do you know what Moses says to that verse 13? Oh, 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 are. 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.

20 · Exposits Exodus 4:14-17 to reveal God's final answer to Moses: the provision of Aaron as a partner, establishing a second sanctification shift from "me" to "we" alongside the shift from "me" to "He

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. 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. 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 2000 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, this idea that he is not going to be alone but is going to have a partner. He's 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.

21 · Asserts the theological principle that God's pattern is partnership in evangelism, supporting the claim with biblical examples (disciples sent in twos, Paul rarely alone) and giving three concrete applications for not doing evangelism alone

Was the face to face encounter with God enough? No. Was assurance that his mission be successful enough? No. Or the strange signs of the serpent and the leper's 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 is 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 have given, you've been given many errands 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 and 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 only 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 could watch or list your pastor or some other teacher.

22 · Reiterates the three concrete applications of partnership in evangelism with an added emphasis: using resources from historical and contemporary Christians as a third form of "not doing it alone

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. 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.

23 · Concludes by synthesizing the sermon's argument: overcoming evangelistic unwillingness requires both individual sanctification and cultural transformation within the church, calling the congregation to establish a culture of mutual support in evangelism rather than relying solely on training programs

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, the pity, pitying the loss, 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. 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. 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, would you take this as a comfort and encouragement? Let's change our culture. Let's, let's as a church culture, walk together in growing in this particular area.

24 · Logistical transition explaining the altered communion setup due to lack of individual cups

Now, you may notice that communion 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, you know, split, share the cup between family members. So if you have a number of people partaking, take a cup. There's some individual cups underneath here.

25 · Gives specific instructions for how to partake of communion in light of the sermon, addressing the "distant deliverance" problem by directing three prayers: thanking God for salvation, thanking Him for sending messengers, and asking Him to help overcome 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. 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?

26 · Closing prayer before communion, confessing evangelistic sin, thanking God for grace and salvation, and asking for help to grow in faithfulness

Please 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 youo've called us to be. So, Father, would you'd. 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 the things. Thank. 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.

Where this fits

Recent preaching context

The three sermons immediately preceding this one in the preaching schedule.

May 6, 2024

Understanding Covenant Theology

God structures all of life—including marriage and parenting—through a consistent five-part covenantal framework that answers the five questions every thriving institution must resolve, and parents serve as covenant mediators who must help their children replace their innate sinful answers to these questions with God's answers, primarily by teaching them to fear a holy God who is both transcendent and immanent.

May 12, 2024

She Did What She Could Do

Faithful motherhood means doing what you can with what you have and trusting God to be faithful with everything beyond your control, rejecting the zero-sum thinking that says His resources are insufficient for the fruitfulness He commands.

Exodus 2:1-10

May 19, 2024

How Moses Became Meek

June 2 · This sermon

Paleo-Evangelism

God overcomes the unwilling evangelist not through powerful encounters or quick fixes, but through progressive sanctification that shifts our focus from self to God and from isolation to community, enabling us to participate in His certain plan to save the lost.

Take it further

Discuss · apply · pray

Small groups

6 discussion questions

In Exodus 3, Moses encounters God at the burning bush and receives a clear call to go to Pharaoh and lead Israel out of Egypt. What does Mos…

Daily readings

5-day reading plan

This week we trace how God's sovereign grace overcomes our hesitation to witness, moving us from personal inadequacy to Spirit-empowered partnership in the gospel.

Prayer

From Me to We: A Prayer for Evangelistic Courage

Father, we come before you in awe of your character—you are the God who hears the cry of the oppressed, who sees our affliction, and who mov…

Family table

From 'Me' to 'We' in God's Work

This card anchors in Moses' hesitation at the burning bush—a moment where God kept expanding Moses' vision from his own inadequacy to God's…

Couples

From Me to We: Evangelism as Partnership

What obstacle to sharing the gospel surfaced in your own heart as you heard the sermon—fear, inadequacy, or something else—and what promise…

Memorize

Exodus 3:11-12

This passage captures the sermon's central claim about sanctification in evangelism: the shift from self-focused inadequacy ('Who am I?') to God-centered trust ('I will be with you'). It establishes God's established pattern of accomplishing salvation through human instrumentality while assuring us that His presence, not our competence, is the foundation of faithful witness.

Small-group discussion

6 questions for your group this week

In Exodus 3, Moses encounters God at the burning bush and receives a clear call to go to Pharaoh and lead Israel out of Egypt. What does Moses's immediate response reveal about how he perceives both his own inadequacy and God's character?

Exodus 3:11

→ When Moses says 'Who am I?' (Exodus 3:11), what is he really asking—and what is God's actual answer to that question?
Moses raises three objections across Exodus 3 and 4: 'Who am I?' (3:11), 'What if they don't believe me?' (4:1), and 'I'm not eloquent' (4:10). What pattern do you notice in these objections, and what does that pattern tell us about how we typically respond when God calls us to difficult obedience?

Exodus 4:10
God's response to Moses shifts from addressing his fears to reminding him of God's attributes and promises. How does God's answer in Exodus 4:15–17—'I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak'—address not only Moses's eloquence but the deeper fear underneath it?

Exodus 4:15-17

→ What is the difference between God saying 'You will be fine' and God saying 'I will be with you'?
The sermon describes a fundamental choice: whether to place our difficulties between us and God, or to stand with God against our difficulties. As you look at Moses's journey from the burning bush through his actual mission, what does it look like to shift from the first posture to the second?
The sermon emphasizes that evangelism begins with a 'pronoun shift'—from 'I can't do this' to 'He will do this.' How does this shift reshape not just our confidence but our actual behavior as we consider sharing the gospel with someone this week?

→ What would change in your approach to witnessing if you genuinely believed that God's power, not your words, is what opens hearts to receive the gospel (see Acts 13:48)?
The sermon highlights that God's pattern for evangelism is never solitary—Jesus sent disciples in pairs, Paul constantly co-labored, and we are called into 'me to we' partnership. What are the practical barriers in our own church community to living out this pattern of shared evangelism, and what would it require for us to move toward it together?

Draft · pending review

Daily readings · Monday–Friday

5-day reading plan

This week we trace how God's sovereign grace overcomes our hesitation to witness, moving us from personal inadequacy to Spirit-empowered partnership in the gospel.

Monday Isaiah 55

Isaiah 55 unveils God's design: His word goes out from His mouth and accomplishes His purpose, yet it does so through human messengers who call people to turn and find mercy (55:6-7). We are not the source of salvation, but we are the appointed vessels through whom God's effective word reaches the lost, and this privilege rests entirely on His sovereign plan to work *through* our proclamation.

Tuesday Acts 13:48

When Paul preached, 'as many as were appointed to eternal life believed' (Acts 13:48)—a declaration that God's election is absolute and effectual. Yet notice the structure: God appointed; Paul preached. God's sovereignty does not bypass our witness; it secures its fruit. When we grasp that God Himself is sovereignly at work to open hearts, our paralysis over 'what if they reject?' dissolves into glad obedience.

Wednesday John 10:27

Jesus' sheep 'hear His voice' and 'follow Him' (John 10:27)—a portrait of responsive obedience born not from fear but from trust in the Shepherd. Our hesitations in witness often arise when we listen to fear's voice louder than faith's. Standing with God against our difficulties means choosing to hear His call and follow, even when our flesh whispers that we are inadequate, that rejection will sting, that the task is too large.

Thursday Ephesians 6

Ephesians 6 clothes us in God's armor—not our own strength, but His righteousness, His salvation, His word (Ephesians 6:14-17). Sanctification is precisely this shift: we stop gazing at our weakness ('me') and gaze instead at His adequacy ('He'). When we stand firm in His provision, we can speak boldly, because our confidence rests not on our eloquence but on the Spirit's power working through us.

Friday Matthew 28

The Great Commission is given to the assembled disciples, not to isolated individuals (Matthew 28:19-20). Jesus sends us *together*, with the promise of His presence *with us*. This community structure is not incidental but essential: we witness in pairs, we encourage one another, we bear burdens together, and in doing so we embody the gospel message itself—that God's grace creates a people, not lone rangers. Our partnership in gospel work is itself a testimony to the reconciling power of Christ.

Draft · pending review

Pray together this week

From Me to We: A Prayer for Evangelistic Courage

Father, we come before you in awe of your character—you are the God who hears the cry of the oppressed, who sees our affliction, and who moves with sovereign purpose to accomplish salvation through your people (Exodus 3:7–9). We confess that we often stand where Moses stood: aware of your call to witness, yet paralyzed by our own inadequacy. We say, "Who am I?" and "What if they don't listen?" and "I am not eloquent." We allow our difficulties—our fear, our sense of unworthiness, our doubt about whether God can work through us—to stand between us and obedience. Forgive us for placing ourselves at the center rather than standing with you against these obstacles.

Yet the gospel declares that you do not ask us to accomplish salvation; you ask us only to be faithful in speaking. In Christ, we have been given everything we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). His resurrection power covers our weakness, his Spirit supplies the words we cannot find, and his promises hold firm regardless of our feelings. The gospel humbles us as it assures us: we are not enough, but Christ in us is more than enough.

Grant us grace this week to make the pronoun shift from "me" to "we"—to recognize that you have woven us into community precisely so that we might witness together, in pairs and partnerships, as Jesus sent his disciples and as Paul labored with his brothers (Luke 10:1; Acts 13:1–3). Open our eyes to one person in our sphere whom you have prepared to hear, and give us courage to speak. Free us from the burden of results and anchor us in the joy of obedience. Make us faithful witnesses, together with one another, leaning on your strength and not our own.

To you, our sovereign and gracious God, be all glory and praise. We commit ourselves afresh to your redemptive purposes.

Draft · pending review

Sunday-evening family table

From 'Me' to 'We' in God's Work

For the parent

This card anchors in Moses' hesitation at the burning bush—a moment where God kept expanding Moses' vision from his own inadequacy to God's sufficiency and partnership. Use this to help your family see how we often shrink back from sharing our faith because we focus on ourselves, when God wants us to see Him and His people working together.

Moses kept saying 'I can't do this' when God called him to go to Egypt. But God didn't leave him alone—He promised to be with him and eventually sent Aaron to help. When have you felt too small or scared to do something God was asking, but then realized He was with you or had given you friends to help?

Works for ages 7+; younger children can listen and share simple stories with help from parents

Draft · pending review

Couples · three questions over coffee

From Me to We: Evangelism as Partnership

What obstacle to sharing the gospel surfaced in your own heart as you heard the sermon—fear, inadequacy, or something else—and what promise of God most directly counters it?
How have we as a couple either partnered together in witness or stood alone, and what would it look like for us to move toward co-laboring in evangelism rather than leaving it to one of us?
Who is one person the Lord has placed in our path that we could approach together in prayer this week, asking God to give us courage and opportunity to share the gospel?

Draft · pending review

Memory verse this week

Exodus 3:11-12

But Moses said to God, 'Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?' He said, 'But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.'

Why this verse: This passage captures the sermon's central claim about sanctification in evangelism: the shift from self-focused inadequacy ('Who am I?') to God-centered trust ('I will be with you'). It establishes God's established pattern of accomplishing salvation through human instrumentality while assuring us that His presence, not our competence, is the foundation of faithful witness.

Draft · pending review

Where this was preached

About the church

Providence Community Church

Lenexa, KS
Sundays · 10:00 AM
About us · What we believe

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# Providence Community Church

A church preaching expository sermons through the books of the Bible.

## Sermons
- [Understanding Covenant Theology (2024-05-06)](/ProvidenceLenexa/sermons/2024/05/understanding-covenant-theology)
- [She Did What She Could Do (Exodus 2:1-10, 2024-05-12)](/ProvidenceLenexa/sermons/2024/05/she-did-what-she-could-do)
- [How Moses Became Meek (2024-05-19)](/ProvidenceLenexa/sermons/2024/05/how-moses-became-meek)
- [Paleo-Evangelism (2024-06-02)](/ProvidenceLenexa/sermons/2024/06/paleo-evangelism)

## About
- [About the church](/about)
- [Plan a visit](/visit)

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