Breaking Through Barriers - "When God get Your Attention"

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When God gets your attention, what do you do? As we think about what happened over the last couple of months in ‘Chasing Daylight’
I would guess that for some of you this past series God got your attention as we begin to talk about God’s going to use you in a way that makes a difference in the world, and all around you. That’s an attention getter! Even if you missed some of those mess. go online.

God’s got a lot of ways of getting our attention, have you noticed that? Sometimes...a little phrase that somebody says, an offhand remark that does something to you...through a problem. Sometimes God gets your attention through a success. Have you had that happen? Things go great and God does something through that success to help you realize there’s something happening here in my life.

But as you hear things about that, as God gets your attention about things like that, my question is what’s your response. How do we respond? A response is not always what you might think our response would be.
If you were setting there thinking, “That makes me feel a little uncomfortable. I'm not sure I want to do that. I like where I am. I like how things are going now.” There’s some fears that brings up of all the things that might happen. If you were feeling that way, let me just tell you, join the human race. We all feel that way. That’s how we feel as human beings.

Take a look at the Bible. People that God used in the greatest ways they all had those kinds of feelings. They had to come face to face with those kinds of feelings. In fact, we’re going to look at one of those guys today. A guy by the name of Moses.
Moses had an immediate reaction when God came and said, I'm going to do something great with your life. His immediate reaction was the same as a lot of us have. He was confused. He didn’t know what to say. He had some questions.

Let me just bring you up to speed on the life of Moses.
Moses, you remember, lived the first 40 years of his life in Pharaoh’s palaces in Egypt. He was at the top, the center of power. Then in frustration over the fact that the people of Israel were being held captive in that nation, he couldn’t do anything, he couldn’t make a change, he eventually murdered an Egyptian out of his frustration. And in fear of what would happen to him he went out into the desert. Not Palm Springs desert, but a desert called Midian. In this desert he spent forty years. He was a shepherd out in this desert for forty years. He worked for a guy named Jethro. He eventually married the boss’s daughter. He’s going to inherit the family business. He’s got this perfect little life. He can see the future all laid out for him.
Then he runs into a problem. He runs into a bush – not a George Bush but a burning bush. This bush, this fire, look at what the Bible has to say in Exodus 3 “One day Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro and suddenly the angel of the Lord appeared to him as a blazing fire in a bush. Moses was amazed because the bush was engulfed in flames but it didn’t burn up.” That moment changed everything. God got his attention. It changed everything in his life.

You and I are probably not going to trip across bushes burning and that don’t burn up. But let me explain to you what a burning bush experience is. What is it that happened in Moses’ life?
A burning bush is when in the midst of the routine, this was just a common old bush. There were hundreds like it on that mountain, very routine thing. In the midst of the routine, when you least expect it, this was totally unexpected. Moses had been living there for forty years. He’d awakened to the same landscape for 14,600 mornings. Now this. In the midst of the routine when you least expect it you’re surprised by God’s invitation. What made this bush extraordinary was the fire. It was God’s presence at the center. His presence changed things. It caused this bush to catch fire. It causes our lives to catch fire and God to do something in us.
Look at what happened when Moses began to approach this bush in Exodus 3:4-5 “When the Lord saw that He had caught Moses’ attention [you might circle “caught his attention”. That’s what God wants to do. He wants to catch our attention just long enough for us to be able to hear what He has to say, the strength the He wants to give, the faith that He can bring into our lives.] When the Lord saw that He had caught Moses’ attention God called to him from the bush, ‘Moses! Moses!’ ‘Here I am,’ Moses replied. ‘Don’t come any closer,’ God told him. Take off your sandals for you’re standing on holy ground.’”

I think the amazing thing is the first thing Moses heard was his name. It became very personal. This is a personal experience. We’re very personally seeing, God wants to do something in my life that only God can do in my life. Moses hears this great thing that God wants to do and he’s got some questions. He wonders how is this going to work, how is this going to work out. He asks the same kind of questions that you might be asking when God say I want to do something great in your life. You may very well be asking one of these four basic questions that Moses was asking.

1. Who am I?

Who am I to do this? How can I do this? Exodus 3 “Who am I to appear before Pharaoh,’ Moses asked God. ‘How can You expect me to lead the Israelites out of Egypt?’” Moses was saying, “Right God! How am I going to do this? I'm too ordinary. I am not qualified to do this job.” And the truth is if God asks you to do something great and all you’re looking at is yourself, you aren’t qualified. You’re always going to be too old or young or fat or skinny or hairy or bald. Moses says, “I can’t do this. Who am I?” God’s got an answer for him. To encourage him in the midst of what he’s facing. He was hearing knock, he was hearing God call in his life. But he didn’t feel qualified to answer that knock, that call.

Halloween. out of candy. And you know there’s a bunch more kids coming by. At that point you have two options. Option one, you dress up, get their candy, come back give it to the kids. But the other option is the one we usually use. You turn out the light, you make sure they can’t hear you. Somebody knocks on the door and you don’t go to the door because you don’t have anything to give them.

I think a lot of us feel that way in our relationship with God. We see Him invite, we hear Him knock and say, I want to do something great in your life. But the truth is we feel like “If I went to that door I don’t have anything to give Him. So why should I even answer the door. It’s going to be embarrassing for us both. I don’t have what it takes to make it.” That’s why we don’t answer.

Moses faced that feeling and God had an answer for him. When he said, “Who am I to do this?” God answered in Exodus 3:12 “God told him, ‘I will be with you.’” The amazing thing to me about that is God could have built Moses up. God could have said to Moses, ”Moses! Who are you? You’re the guy who grew up in Pharaoh’s household. Who are you? You’re the one who understands the ins and outs of that government on a personal basis better than anyone else I could call. Who are you? You’re the best guy for the job!” But instead of saying that, because He knows that wouldn’t be enough, He says to Moses, “I will be with you.” And that was enough. He didn’t point to Moses’ qualifications. He pointed to His greatness. He pointed to what He could do. “I will be with you.”

Some of you need to hear God saying that right now. You’re going through the greatest transition of your life. Everything’s changing.It’s all up in the air.Maybe God brought you here this morning so you can hear Him say to you,“I will be with you.”
Some of you, you’re going through your greatest problem of your life. It’s never been this tough. You’re wondering how you’re going to make it through. You’re wondering if you
have the strength to make it through. God brought you here to say to you, “I will be with you.”
I know some of you are feeling like God’s taping you on the shoulder. He’s saying I want to do something in your life. You’re not sure if you can do it. God wants to say to you, “I will be with you.”

Psalm 91:15 “When you call on Me, I will answer you. I will be with you when you’re in trouble. I will save you and I will honor you.” In the end it’s not your ability that matters. It’s your availability. Let me tell you why that’s more than just a cute phrase. When it comes right down to it, if God asks you to do something and you don’t have all that it takes to do that, don’t you think God is more than able to make up for your lack of ability? Of course He is. That’s why the person who isn’t very able but he makes himself available to God can do great things because God can make up for whatever lack, whatever gaps there is. It’s your availability that matters. That’s what makes the difference. Because God will be with you. No doubt about it. God is more than able.
Who am I? God will be with you. That’s where Moses starts. After God says “I’ll be with you,” there’s a second question that’s pretty obvious. The next one is, “Ok, God, You’re going to be with me.

2. Who are You?

That’s the next question. Who are You if you’re going to be with me? Excuse me for being doubtful God but how are You going to give me strength. God gives him a real simple answer. Two words: “I am.” That’s His answer.
Exodus 3:13-14 “They will ask, ‘Which God are you talking about? What’s his name? What should I tell them?’ God replied, ‘I am the one who always is. Just tell them I am has sent me to you.’” Moses had to be thinking, “That’s really going to help! I am. Could You at least finish the sentence? Give me something here God that’s going to really help them. What does this mean – I am.” That’s one of the most powerful and important names of God but what does it mean?
What God was saying to Moses and what He was giving him to give to the people he was going to talk to was, “Tell them this. Tell them that I am the one who can meet their needs. Whenever needs arise, I am the one who can meet those needs.” How do I know that? Because when you look at the rest of the Old Testament God uses this name again and again, this “I am” name. And as He uses this name He keeps tacking different endings on it. As a new need comes up in their lives God says I am.
Then had a need for food, they had a need for provision. When that need came up God said, “I am your
provision.” “Jehovah” which means “I am” and jireh which means provision.
When they had need for victory in their lives, their personal lives and in the life of their nation, God said “I am your victory. ”
When the need came up for peace in their lives, God said “I am your peace.” “Jehovah” – “I am” and shalom which in Hebrew means “peace.”
When they just needed to know that God was there, God said, “I am there.”
Each time someone had a need, God gave them a new name that was the way that He said, “I will meet that need in your life.” What He’s saying is, I can meet the needs of your life. In a world where we say, I wish, God says “I am the one who can meet your needs.”
Who are You? I'm the one who can meet your needs one at a time.
Moses isn’t done. He’s talked about himself, he’s talked about God, but he’s got somebody else in mind. He says, I’ve got another question.

3. What about them?

What about this group I’m going to? What about these people of Israel that I'm going to go talk to? They might have some questions. The Bible says in Exodus 4:1-2 “Moses protested again, ‘Look! They won’t believe me. They won’t do what I tell them. They’ll just say, “The Lord never appeared to you.”’” He’s almost saying, “God, I hate to be difficult here but I’ve got a bad feeling about this. I'm going to go in and I'm going to say, ‘God told me to set you free,’ and they’re going to say, ‘How do you know God told you to set us free,’ then I'm going to say, ‘Well this bush talked to me.’ And, God, it’s not going to work. It’s going to go downhill from there.”

He had this feeling that they were going to reject him. And it wasn’t an invalid feeling. Forty years earlier when he said, “I'm going to set you free,” they rejected him. Part of the reason he left was not only was he afraid of getting arrested for that murder but because the people of Israel had rejected him. So he’s walking right back again into that fear.

And it is serous business. It really is. It’s amazing what they keep us from in our lives. “What will they think? They might reject me. They might ignore me. They might ridicule me. They might not accept me.” The thoughts of that are huge in many of our lives. Sometimes it’s even people who are gone. Some times it’s a friend who moved away years ago. It’s a parent who died years ago but still somehow that voice is in your mind. And it echoes. And when you hear somebody say, “God wants to do something great in your life? There’s a change that He wants to work in your life.” The first voice you hear is some them voice that say, “It’ll never work. It’ll never happen.”
How do you break through that?

Here is God’s answer to Moses. “‘They won’t listen to me,’ Moses said. The Lord asked him, ‘What do you have there in your hand?’ ‘A shepherd’s staff,’ Moses replied.”

God’s answer: What’s in your hand? You can see what God’s doing. God’s saying, “Moses get your eyes off of them and just look at what’s in your hand. Get your eyes off of the unknown and get your eyes on the known. Get your eyes off of what might happen or what they might say and look at what you do have and what I can do. Look at what’s in your hand.” God’s taking familiar things and He’s using them to take care of Moses’ imagined fears. But Moses has to do something to make this whole thing work. God says “Moses, what’s in your hand? I want you to take it and place it in My hand.”

You break thru when you realize that you can’t give God what you don’t have. You don’t need to worry about giving to God what other people have. All you can do, all I can do, is give God what I do have. When I make that choice it begins to break through some of those fears.
Exodus 4:3-4 “God said ‘Throw it on the ground.’ So Moses threw it down and the staff became a snake. Moses was terrified so he turned and ran away. The Lord told him, ‘Take hold of its tail.’ Moses reaches out and he grabbed it [which I think took a lot of faith, I don’t know about you. But he took it by the tail] and it became a shepherd’s staff again.”

What’s going on here? Why is God doing this? He’s saying Moses take this familiar thing – it’s the most familiar thing in his life, carried with him every day of his life – take the most familiar thing in your life, the most ordinary thing in your life and make it available to Me. Watch what I can do with it. It was a snake and Moses picks it up. That staff, that simple stick, Moses is going to hold it out over the Red Sea and it’s going to split in two. Moses is going to touch the Nile River and it’s going to turn to blood. He’s going to strike a rock with it and water’s going to flow out of a rock. God’s saying this is what I can do if you’ll just give it to Me. Something amazing happens when you and I look what’s in our hands and we say, “God it’s not mine, it’s Yours.” So the question obviously is “What’s in your hand?” I don’t know what it is. What is it that you need to give to Him. It might be some ability that you’ve been holding on to pretty tightly. It might be a relationship. It might be a step of faith in your life. What’s in your hand? It might be a failure. It might be a hurt in your life. Sometimes those are the things we’re holding in our hand, things that are most obvious to us, things that we’re living with every day. If you give those things to God He can even use those. He can use your failures, He can user your hurts. He can use anything when we put it in His hands. You’d think after this snake thing that Moses would have been done. That’s pretty cool really if you saw this whole thing happen. But he isn’t finished. He’s got one more question. You can almost sense that he’s been saving this one till the end. The big question.

4. How about this?

It’s the big this in his life. It is the thing in his life that he feels like “I cannot serve God because of this. I cannot do what You’re asking me to do because of this.” This is the big gun. He says in Exodus 4:10 “Lord, I'm just not a good speaker. I never have been and I'm not now even after You’ve spoken to me.” Do you see a little blame toward God, some little jabs in there? “You’ve spoken to me. I’m not any better. Obviously I'm not going to get better. God, I'm clumsy with words. How about this, God. You’re telling me to go speak to Pharaoh. I'm clumsy with words. This isn’t going to work. So take that!” It’s almost that a moment. It’s as if God didn’t understand what Moses was going through. It’s as if God wasn’t aware of what Moses was going through. “I can’t talk!”
Moses felt handicapped. There’s all kinds of handicaps. Some of you feel handicapped by your past. You’re not but you feel that way. Some of you feel handicapped by your education. You’re not but you feel that way. You might feel handicapped by your age or your health or your emotions or your circumstances. You feel that way.
God has an answer. God looks at Moses and He says in Exodus 4:11 “Who makes mouths?” That’s pretty simple isn’t it. “Moses, who makes mouths? It’s as if I didn’t under stand that you’re clumsy with words. I'm the one who made the mouth. Don’t you think I can help you?” In fact, the next verse says, “Moses, I’ll help you. I'm the one who made your mouth.” He’s saying, “I'm in control. I'm aware of your handicap but I want you to be aware of My strength, My ability.”
And God’s aware of your handicap. But He also wants you to be aware of His power. He’s aware of your shortcomings. And who doesn’t have those? But He also wants you to be aware of His overcoming strength.

My big question about Moses is how was he able to do it? A lot of us have heard these answers. We know that God will be with us. We know we shouldn’t listen to them. We know all these things. But somehow we can’t break through those barriers. What enabled Moses to get a different perspective on life to help him begin to live this great life that God had planned for him?
The New Testament talks about that. This different perspective that Moses had. Hebrews 11:26 “He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value that the treasures of Egypt because he was looking ahead to his reward.” Circle “reward”. He’s talking about eternal reward he was looking ahead to. How could Moses make this decision? He wasn’t just looking at this earth. He was looking ahead at the eternal reward that God had. That enabled him to break through these questions that he had.

There’s another thing he was looking at. Hebrews 11:27 “He had his eye on the one no eye could see. So he kept right on going.” He had his eyes on God. So by putting his eyes on God and not on the circumstances he was able to have the strength to make the tough decisions and the tough choice in life.

The truth is many of us are stuck in our little world that’s comfortable. We’ve got things figured out. We know what’s going to happen each day. We get stuck there and that’s all we have. We know that there should be something more but it is scary. How do you break out of your little world?