God does it.

I don't think I've ever mentioned or linked to a sermon from our Pastor, Eric Wait.  While I do give him a lot of guff, my lack of reference to him isn't because of any lack of his effectiveness or lack of respect on my part.  He does a good job with his sermons and sometimes he hits one out of the park.  Well, he doesn't really.  But we'll get to that.

Take the time to download this to your iPod, phone, mp3 player or whatever. You can also just play it on your computer.  Take a listen, look at the outline, and then come back and read the rest of this post.  Here's a link: SERMON

Got it?  Done?  Yeah, I didn't think so.  You just skipped listening and went right on reading this post, didn't you?  Oh well, I expected it.  I'll give you the re-cap, though I think it still would do you good to take a listen.  Eric does a better job than I do.

These lovely ladies didn't make up excuses to avoid coming to the
clinic we put on.  They were already Christian and you could just feel
the spirit hope in their lives.

The text for the sermon is from Exodus 5:22-6:12, although the sermon actually referred to some of the background for this exchange between God and Moses.  In a nutshell, Moses has spent some time trying to get out of what God wants him to do, namely go to Egypt and convince Pharaoh to free the Israelites.  God finally gets fed up and says "Listen up, chump.  You're going and I'm sending you.  Don't worry, I'll provide the skills and tools to get the job done.  I'm going to lay down the smack on the Egyptians and in the process show you, the Israelites, and the Egyptians  that I am God.  I'm going to make it happen and you're the one I'm going to use to do it.  I'll take care of Pharaoh and I'll free the Egyptians.  Just go."

OK, he didn't really say it like that.  I think that's from the BOP (Bob's Obvious Paraphrase) translation of the bible.  Go ahead, look it up.

Like many people, I've read this before....probably many times before.  One of the amazing things about scripture is the way that different people can get different lessons from the same piece of it.  Heck, even the same person can get different lessons from the same portion of scripture.  I've always read the above portion pretty dryly, that is, as if it was just reporting an order of events.  In contrast, Eric was able to extrapolate a lot of lessons out this portion of the word.  In this case I think the lessons that Eric points out were particularly important for me to hear as I prepare for this trip.

EXCUSES:  We all make them and just prior to this exchange, Moses tries to use every one he can think of including his own weakness, his lack of certain skills, the timing, etc.  In the end it all boiled down to the fact that Moses just plain didn't want to do it.  I know I do the same thing all the time.  And, as always happens, God finally has his way.  He sweeps away my excuses, countering each one by giving me the time, energy, tools, money........whatever I need, to do what He want's me to do.  The point is, if He wants us there and doing what He wants us to do, He'll make it happen.

GOD DOES IT:  As Eric pointed out in his sermon, if he were to ask the average person who led the Israelites out of Egypt, a vast majority of them would answer "Moses."  But it's really God that does it and He makes that clear in this exchange.  As He is describing what is going to take place, He uses the personal pronoun "I" almost exclusively.  HE hears the cries of the Israelites, HE deals with Pharaoh.  HE delivers the people out of Egypt.  God uses Moses to do these things, but Moses is just a tool, much like a carpenter uses a hammer to complete a job.

These are all great things to hear and be reminded of as I prepare for this trip.  I can think of a lot of excuses not to go, but in the end there really isn't a good one.  I can and do worry about whether I'll be able to raise the funds, but if God wants me there, He will provide what I need to get there.  Finally, while God used Moses to deliver the Israelites from slavery, it was God that actually did it.  He can use me to do the work on the ground in India and He can use you to support me in doing that work, but ultimately it is God who is doing the work and lending the support.