Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Good morning. Good morning. How's everybody doing this morning?
[00:00:08] Good, good. You know, all those years that I preached every week, and then I would rotate in some of the guys on staff. You know what they did every single time they whined, they stood up in here and they griped to y' all that I gave them some very difficult texts. Y' all remember that? They always say, of course Tracy sticks me with this text. Well, obviously it's happening. Jared is getting payback today. He's like, let's give Tracy a genial.
[00:00:32] That's exciting. That's like having friends over for dinner and going, you know what I thought would be fun tonight is to show y' all how my genealogy, my family tree, goes all the way back to the Mayflower.
[00:00:44] Mary married John, and John and Mary had a kid named Susie. It's just thrilling, isn't it? And y' all be like, oh, my goodness, what time? Oh, my goodness, we gotta go to bed. So today we're going to. Actually, this is a pretty cool text because what we're going to see is God has a great reason for every part of the Bible. And I'm not just putting positive spin on it. When you see what's going on in this text, it's like, man, this is really cool. And so we've been walking with Moses through Exodus, and by now we kind of have gotten to know Moses well, and we can kind of relate to him at the burning bush, this incredible scene where the bush didn't burn up, but God's speaking to him, and. And he's like, wait, what you want me to do what?
[00:01:32] And he's got protest after protest. I think, as any of us would. Would be like, wait, this is insane. God. You got the wrong guy. But God was gracious, and he met him where he was, and he. And he answered every objection that he had. He said, all right, I'm gonna give you Aaron and I'm gonna give you this staff, man. Where is that staff? I mean, that's awesome. He gave him a staff. And he said, look, anytime you need to show that God really is with you, throw the sucke, turned into a snake. And he gave him some other signs to say, this is evidence that God has really chosen you, because that doesn't seem likely that God would use you, but I'm going to give you some things to help you out here. And so Moses starts to gain a little confidence, and he goes to the people of Israel and he says, hey, guys, God has asked me and chosen me to say let's go in front of Pharaoh. But God is about to deliver you from your slavery. And the people are excited, they're pumped up, and they're having a pep rally. And Moses kind of gets his feet under him, and he's walking up to Pharaoh and he's got the stick. He's like, don't make me turn this into a snake. You know? He's like, I got confidence. And he walks into Pharaoh and he says, pharaoh, God told me to come tell you that we all your people that you've built your economy on, we need to go worship.
[00:02:55] Bam.
[00:02:57] And Pharaoh looks at him and says, no, not gonna happen. In fact, y' all got too much time on your hands standing around thinking of these ideas. Double the brick count, and no more straw. So that just made everything miserable. And so Moses, tail between his legs, walking back to the people of Israel, trying to figure out how's he gonna tell them his miserable failure. And he comes to them and he says, guys, bad news. They're like, what? What did he say? What'd he say? He said, bad news, double the brick count. No straw.
[00:03:30] 5, 21. Tells you what they're thinking about Moses right here in 5, 21, he says. They say to him, you have made us stink.
[00:03:38] That's Hebrew, right? You have made us stink in the sight of Pharaoh.
[00:03:43] And his servants have put a sword in their hand to kill us.
[00:03:49] Thanks, but no thanks, Moses.
[00:03:53] So Moses goes back to the Lord, and he says, lord, I told you, you got the wrong guy.
[00:04:02] Why did you send me?
[00:04:04] Everything has just gotten worse. And that's how chapter five ends, right? And then you get to chapter six, and God does what God does.
[00:04:14] He says seven promises that he reminds him, I am. And here's what I will do.
[00:04:23] All these promises, I will save you. I will redeem you as a people. I will be your God. You will be my people.
[00:04:32] I will do this.
[00:04:37] And so he's gonna come in our text today, he's gonna say, at the tail end of this, I will do this.
[00:04:45] Now get back in there and go talk to Pharaoh.
[00:04:50] At that point, we know what this text is about.
[00:04:55] That's the center bullseye of what this text is addressing. It's addressing you when you are confronted with what God has called you to do.
[00:05:06] And you know what it is.
[00:05:09] And if you don't know, just read your Bible and you'll know in general what it is.
[00:05:14] But you may even know something specific on what the application of that text, the general command is. And you're like, No, I know something specific God has said, and I feel completely inadequate.
[00:05:26] All I can think about is how this. You got the wrong guy.
[00:05:29] All I can think about is my past, track record, my failures.
[00:05:33] And all I can say is I'm terrified.
[00:05:36] I can't do it.
[00:05:40] And you know what the Lord's gonna say to you?
[00:05:44] I am.
[00:05:47] I will.
[00:05:49] Now go do it.
[00:05:52] Lord, as we look at this text today, I believe there are people in this room that need to take some courageous steps of obedience and that you have brought us here to say, I told you what to do.
[00:06:11] Now go do it.
[00:06:13] Lord, use this text to enable us, to empower us to do what you've told us to do.
[00:06:23] Even though everything inside of us screams, I am not able to.
[00:06:31] It's in Christ's name we pray.
[00:06:33] Amen.
[00:06:35] All right, so we look at chapter six, verses 10 through 30 in Exodus today. That's our text. Chapter six, verses 10 through 30.
[00:06:43] In this text, we're going to see, as I said, Pharaoh being commanded. Excuse me. Moses being commanded, go right back into Pharaoh and do what I told you to do. There's three movements in the text, which was how we're going to break it down. First of all, Moses crisis.
[00:06:59] We're gonna see his crisis of faith. Then we're going to see Moses identity, which is the bulk of it in the genealogy. And then we're going to see Moses commissioning or his recommissioning or his re. Re. Recommissioning. I said, get your tail in there and do what I said to do.
[00:07:18] Now, a little word about how this text shapes, how it works so that you can kind of be a good reader of it is. It's a Hebrew, and it's a narrative device where the writer's writing and telling the story. Moses is faced with this crisis. And then it's like the story is at this height of suspense. And then it says, all right, stop genealogy. And we're like, this is weird. Why is there a genealogy right here? And then at the end of the genealogy picks back up right where we left off. And at the beginning and the end, the frame of this genealogy is this statement where Moses says in verse 12. And in verse 30, his I am statement, right?
[00:07:58] God's been saying, I am. I am. And Moses says, well, I am not all of that.
[00:08:06] He says, I am of uncircumcised lips. We're like, that is a weird concept. Got no idea what you're talking about.
[00:08:14] We're going to work through that a little bit.
[00:08:17] This is an Aside. All right. Sorry, I can't help myself. When I get to preaching, I don't follow that 30 minute clock. Sorry. So, anyway, I remember when we were preaching in the glen, back in the early days of the church, we were meeting in the glen, therapy, cats were running around on people's legs, and it's just like total chaos. And it was great church planning, ministry. And I preached on something about uncircumcision after the service. This is a real quick version of it. After the service, kid comes up to me, my daddy said to ask you what uncircumcision is. I said, you go right back and you tell your daddy no, ask him what it is. So anyway, so we gonna talk about uncircumcised lips today. So we're gonna do that. All right, so. So it's a framing of I am uncircumcised lips. Genealogy. I am uncircumcised lips in the middle. That genealogy is the heartbeat. It's the bullseye. It's the theological point of the text. It is God's answer to his inadequacy.
[00:09:08] And the answer is your identity.
[00:09:13] Identity addresses inadequacy.
[00:09:18] That's what the Lord is doing in this text. So let's look at verses 10 through 13. This is the crisis.
[00:09:24] Moses knows he ain't enough.
[00:09:27] Moses knows he is not enough.
[00:09:31] Verses 10 through 13. So the Lord said to Moses, go in, tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, let the people of Israel go out of his land.
[00:09:50] But Moses said to the Lord, behold, the people of Israel have not listened to me. How in the world then shall Pharaoh listen to me?
[00:10:03] For I am of uncircumcised lips.
[00:10:08] But the Lord spoke to Moses. So we're going to look at what the Lord spoke to Moses. The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them a charge about the people of Israel and about Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to bring the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt. Think about the crisis Moses is in.
[00:10:34] Think about the worst performance.
[00:10:36] Maybe you're a salesman, you went in, gave it your spiel, and they're like, no.
[00:10:42] And you're like, okay, I'm gonna go now. And you go back to the boss and you're like, sorry, didn't go well. And he says, okay, go back and talk to him again. Or maybe it's a relationship that just went horrible. And the Lord says, go back and talk to them again.
[00:11:00] I mean, it's hard enough the first time to go, but after massive failure, it's way harder to go back again. He is in a crisis. I can just hear him saying, are you kidding me?
[00:11:15] What are you thinking, Lord? Did you not see how bad that just went?
[00:11:21] I mean, even the people who should be inclined to listen to me, your people, my people, they're not listening to me. Why in the world do you think Pharaoh is going to. He's king of the kingdom, he's the most powerful man of earth. I am a nobody. And you are telling me this is not going to end well.
[00:11:41] And so that's the crisis that Moses is in.
[00:11:45] But I want you to notice Moses didn't just think he was inadequate, like he didn't have enough skill. It's not just that we all seem to think he had a speech impediment or he wasn't a great speaker. I mean, there's something to do with that in the text. But the way he phrases this, I am of uncircumcised lips, that is saying something much deeper than, I'm just not very good at speaking.
[00:12:08] In the Old Testament, circumcision is the sign of identity. It was the way of identifying I belong to the chosen covenant commissioned people of God, that the circumcision was a sign that was performed to say, this child belongs to the chosen people of God. And in that being chosen and set apart and being circumcised, there was a I am now fit, and I know who I am. And in knowing who I am, embedded in that, being chosen as the people of God embedded in that identity came with it a certain purpose, a certain calling, a certain, I know who I am, so I know what I'm supposed to be doing.
[00:13:01] So that's the level of objection that Moses is saying. He is not just saying, I'm not a good speaker. Why would you send me? He's saying I'm the wrong guy.
[00:13:14] I am not the right person. I don't have the material that is, I am not fit for this.
[00:13:22] This can't work.
[00:13:24] I can't be used for this. I don't have the authority to stand before almighty Pharaoh.
[00:13:33] I'm just the wrong guy.
[00:13:37] That's what he's saying. When he gets down to this identity of being of uncircumcised lips. That's a phrase he's using intentionally.
[00:13:47] He's being honest to God, saying, I don't think I'm the right guy.
[00:13:51] I don't think I'm. I mean, think about his past and he killed a guy, and he's been on the run and many. And I mean, his life has not been like, hey. I mean, it's just kind of been God doing all this for him. And every time he steps up to do something, he messes it up.
[00:14:08] So he's being honest with God. And God doesn't seem to get frustrated with him. He just responds to him.
[00:14:15] I think God's heard this before from just about everybody who's ever been asked or commanded or commissioned by God to do something. Gideon's like, nah.
[00:14:23] And Jeremiah's like, ah, I know, it's certainly been me my whole life. And he certainly heard it from me. I want you to serve full time ministry. I'm like, ah, I don't think you got the right guy.
[00:14:37] I don't know the Bible.
[00:14:39] I don't know. I'm not the right guy. And then I'm serving at a church and I'm sitting in a meeting with the head pastor and another pastor and we're talking and he says, hey, what do we need to do about South Shreveport where all those people are? And I was like, I think I should plan a church. I'm like, where'd that come from?
[00:14:57] I was like, I think we need to plan a church and I should be the pastor of it. And he got excited and he got excited and next thing I know, the ball's rolling and I'm like, this is awesome. I found why I'm on this planet.
[00:15:08] And then he comes in and he goes, nah, we're not gonna do that. I mean, I was devastated.
[00:15:14] I'm serious. I was crushed. And I was like, wait.
[00:15:18] I thought I finally knew what this great calling on my life was, and now you're saying no?
[00:15:25] I was devastated. And months went by of me just kind of spinning and trying to figure out what I'm supposed to do now. And I knew I really wasn't supposed to be there anymore, and I thought it was.
[00:15:34] And then a church in North Carolina starts to talk to me. And that other pastor friend of mine said, basically, it's your job if you want it. And I was like, oh, boy. Move to Cary, North Carolina. I don't know. Let me look this up. USA Today's number one place to live in America.
[00:15:48] I hear you calling, God.
[00:15:51] And I went to my wife and I said, babe, we need to pray about this. This looks like a real opportunity and it's an amazing place, and I think it's mine for the taking, Lord willing. And she says, okay, let me pray. And then she's like in this dark place for a week.
[00:16:05] And then she woke up one morning and I still remember it was the day George Bush was being inaugurated. Whenever that was, I remember that day. And she just had this glow on her. I'm like, what in the world? Who are you and what have you done with my wife?
[00:16:19] And she said, the Lord has made it clear to me what we're supposed to do. And I'm like, well, tell me.
[00:16:27] She said, go and come. We're going to go to dinner tonight. We'll talk about it.
[00:16:30] And she was different.
[00:16:33] And God had made it clear to her. I didn't expect to get emotional.
[00:16:41] God made it clear to her, you're supposed to plant this church in Shreveport.
[00:16:48] And so she said that.
[00:16:50] And I was like, oh, wait, no, that door's been closed. The chains around that door, it's dead bolted. It's locked. I ain't going back in there again to tell him God's told us to plant his church.
[00:17:04] No, I know how this is gonna go. I've been in there. I was rejected. I was devastated. I'm not going back in there. And she did not. She said what she's never said before. I don't know how, but I trust the Lord on this. See, she's a CPA for her faith means all the cells in the spreadsheet are filled out.
[00:17:25] And this one. There was no answers, but she knew. And so she said, this is what God's called us to do. You'll see.
[00:17:34] It was crazy.
[00:17:36] And so I had to go back into the lion's den.
[00:17:39] And they're not the lions den. I love them. They were great. They supported us in a huge way. But at the time, I didn't know how Pharaoh was gonna respond.
[00:17:47] I was like, I know you already said no, but we really think God's told us that we're supposed to plant this church.
[00:17:56] I'm not asking for people, I'm not asking for money. I'm just asking for your blessing so that it's not like a splinter or anything. And not only did he say, yeah, yeah, that's good, we pray about it. Let's go. They supported us in a huge way, but I didn't know how they were going to respond. And I had to kind of crawl back in there again. And it was scary. I didn't know how to do anything.
[00:18:19] And so how did God respond to Moses?
[00:18:23] He says the Lord spoke to Moses and he tells him some things. Now, what I think he told him that day is what Moses, 40 or plus years later, is writing this book that we're reading, and he's Revealing to us. This gets at the heart of what he told me that day.
[00:18:45] So we get the genealogy. So in response to Moses, honest acknowledgment that he's not enough, God shows Moses, Moses true identity.
[00:18:58] Did you get that in response to Moses?
[00:19:02] Let me put it in your terms. In response to you saying, I'm inadequate, God says, let me show you who you really are.
[00:19:12] And we'll explain that as we go. But let's look at the genealogy, the identity answer. This is our second point, the identity answer.
[00:19:19] Moses is God's chosen.
[00:19:23] So here's how we're going to do this. I'm going to read through this genealogy. I'm going to read it fast and confidently as if everything is pronounced correctly. And you're going to go, man, he must speak Hebrew. Okay? Which none of that's true, but you're going to play with me. And as I read it, there's going to be a.
[00:19:41] A family tree that is on this. This is AI generated. You didn't think AI could make its way into church? It did. So I said, write me a genealogy that highlights what the text highlights.
[00:19:53] So this is really what is going on. And it's right. I didn't just trust AI. I kind of checked it out. All right, so here's why the genealogy is there. There's a tracing of a specific family line and the way it's a selected genealogy. Anytime you read a genealogy, it's not just like everybody. It's like choosing certain people in the family line to make a point.
[00:20:15] All right, so I'm going to read it. You kind of follow along. Hopefully this is helpful. So here we go. These are the heads of their father's houses. He's going to work through the sons in order. The sons of Israel, he says. The sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel, Hanak, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi. These are the clans of Reuben, the sons of Simeon, Jamil, Jamin, Chad, or excuse me, that was a C. Ohad, Jake and Zohar and Sha', Ul, the son of a Canaanite woman. These are the clans of Simeon. Now he gets to Levi, and this is his main focus. This is where he's going to really spend the time. Because this leads to Aaron and Moses.
[00:20:56] These are the names of the sons of Levi according to their generations. Gershon, Kohath, Merari. The years of The Levi were 137 years. Now he's going to quickly go through those sons and he's going to come back and focus on one, the sons of Gershon, Libni and Shemeel, by their clans, the sons of Kohath, Amran, Izhar, Hebron and Uziel. The years of the life of Kohath being 133 years.
[00:21:23] The sons of Merari, Mali and Mushi. Those would be two great kids names or two dog names, I think. Mali and Mushi, these are the clans of the Levites according to their generations. So now he's working through that, going to return back to Amram. Amram took as his wife Jochebed, his father's sister. Yes. So he married his aunt and she bore him Aaron and Moses. The years of the life of Amran are 137 years. So Aaron and Moses and both of their parents were Levites. That's important there, even though it's a little weird.
[00:21:59] The sons of Ishar, Korah.
[00:22:02] Korah ends up being someone who leads a rebellion and swallowed up by the earth.
[00:22:07] But the sons of Ishgar, Korah, Nepheg and Zikri, the sons of Uzziel, Mishael, Elzephan and Sri.
[00:22:17] Now he's going to mention Aaron's future wife. So now he's kind of projecting past Aaron and Moses time.
[00:22:24] So Aaron took as his wife Elisheba, the daughter of Amminadab and the sister of Nahshon. That's going to be interesting. Nahshon is the line of Judah, which is the line of David, which is the line of Jesus. And she, being Alishiba, bore him Nadab and Abihu, who later on after this time, Nadab and Abihu are the two priests that give unauthorized fire. Bad dudes Eleazar and Ithamar. The sons of Korah.
[00:22:54] That rebel leader that we talked about are Asir, Elkanah and Abiasaph. These are the clans of the Korashites. And now we get to Aaron's family. Eleazar, Aaron's son, took as his wife one of the daughters of Putiel, and she bore him Phinehas. No Ferb, just Phinehas. That's Aaron's grandson.
[00:23:16] These are the heads of the fathers. Listen to how he ends this. This kind of helps you go. These are the heads of the fathers houses of the Levites.
[00:23:26] They're going. The Levites came from by their clans.
[00:23:30] These are the Aaron and Moses to whom the Lord said, bring out the people of Israel from the land of Egypt by their hosts. It was they who spoke to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, about bringing out the people of Israel from Egypt, this Moses and this Aaron.
[00:23:49] All right, so what, what in the world do we make from all this?
[00:23:53] I've kind of already alluded to some of it, but let me just pull out four points that I think are vitally important to the text. This is the theological punch in the text. Number one, Moses and Aaron are in the covenant family of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel. That is their identity. They are circumcised lips. They are chosen by God. They are set apart and made of his people. Their identity is they are the people of God. And with that identity tied up with that identity is their purpose and their calling. Knowing that they are these people, they know their calling.
[00:24:39] If you are the people of God, you know your calling.
[00:24:46] Number two, Moses and Aaron are full Levites.
[00:24:51] Later on from these events, we see the Levites become a very important chosen line of God. I'm going to backtrack real quick. Hopefully I don't lose you. You remember the Passover?
[00:25:02] The firstborn was spared.
[00:25:04] God said, from now on, all the firstborn are mine. This is before Moses, before this text. I mean, and then he said, all the firstborn are mine. And then he's going to say, you know what? All the firstborn, I'm trading those out for all the Levites.
[00:25:20] And all the Levites are going to serve me. They're dedicated, special to serve me. They're going to be the intercessors between God and man. They serve at the temple. That's going to come later. And then of the Levites, there's Aaron.
[00:25:35] And Aaron's line becomes the Aaronic priesthood.
[00:25:40] So the priesthood.
[00:25:41] The priesthood, they are the ones who stand before God and intercede before the people and God at the day of atonement and offer the chief head priest of the priests, he basically sat down with him. You have no idea who you are that day.
[00:26:00] I can't do it. I'm uncircumcised lips. I don't belong. I'm unfit. He goes, you don't have a clue who you are.
[00:26:06] Let me give you a glimpse of what I'm doing.
[00:26:10] Let me give you a glimpse of who you really are.
[00:26:14] To address what you say, your inadequacies.
[00:26:20] Then number three, with the mention of Elisheba, that's the way I'm pronouncing it. Aaron's wife.
[00:26:27] We see the dotted line, connection to the line of Judah.
[00:26:30] This is like inserted in there. He didn't mention everybody else's wife. He just said, now his wife is this she came from the line of Judah.
[00:26:39] Judah is the royal line that God said. This is the line from which King David of the first king of Israel or the real king of Israel will be.
[00:26:49] And this is the line that will be the Messiah, the king of God's kingdom will come from this line.
[00:26:56] Jesus.
[00:26:58] And so what he is saying is, you don't realize something. You think you're not fit.
[00:27:03] You are of the royal priesthood.
[00:27:08] That's who you are.
[00:27:10] And then he has our next point, final point.
[00:27:14] He lists these other little guys in there. One of them is kind of a hero. The other ones are a bunch of scoundrels like you.
[00:27:22] The other ones are a bunch of scoundrels like me.
[00:27:26] What's the reason for including them in there?
[00:27:29] He's saying, I didn't choose you because your genealogy is impressive.
[00:27:37] I chose you because I chose you.
[00:27:42] I am who I am and I chose you and I brought you into this family. The royal priesthood, the line of God Almighty in flesh.
[00:27:56] Don't tell me who you are.
[00:28:00] Get back in there and do what I said to do.
[00:28:06] The genealogy reveals their identity. Their identity reveals they have the authority to go and stand before almighty Pharaoh and say, almighty God of the universe has told me to say this.
[00:28:27] Notice he didn't say Pharaoh. I mean Moses. Go in there and convince him or get them to do this or get them to do that. He said, just go. Be my mouthpiece. Just go and tell them. God said, let my people go.
[00:28:45] God is in charge of the fruitfulness.
[00:28:48] We're in charge of the faithfulness.
[00:28:52] Right? When God says, go do this, just do what God said. It's not your job to make it all fruitful and successful.
[00:29:06] This is what he is saying to us today.
[00:29:09] If you are trusting in Jesus Christ as your savior, you're in that line, that royal lineage, because Jesus adopts you into his family.
[00:29:20] The scripture says clearly that you are members of a royal priesthood.
[00:29:26] That's who you are. Because God chose you in Christ.
[00:29:34] And that is the identity that you need to believe. That is truer than the voices of fear and inadequacy in your head.
[00:29:44] He's chosen you.
[00:29:45] And in that choosing, in that identity, he's given you a purpose and a mission.
[00:29:51] You are God's chosen. You are God's commissioned.
[00:29:55] That should be enough.
[00:29:59] God's choice overrides your inadequacies.
[00:30:06] God's commissioning overrides your failures.
[00:30:16] So the crisis Moses knows he's not enough.
[00:30:20] The identity answer.
[00:30:22] You're God's chosen now. The Commissioning, or I would say the recommissioning. 2830 after the genealogy. It's basically a repetition of where we were on the day when the Lord spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt. The Lord said to Moses, I am the Lord.
[00:30:40] Tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, all that I say to you. But Moses said to the Lord, behold, I am not.
[00:30:46] I am uncircumcised lips.
[00:30:49] How then shall Pharaoh listen to me? You know the way this reads when you read.
[00:30:56] Reads like, after all is said and done.
[00:30:59] At the end of the day, after the sermon, I go home and I feel better because I'm chosen by God. I'm a member of the royal priesthood. I've got the Holy Spirit in Christ. I'm equipped. He's told me who I am. He's told me what to do. You know what happens at the end of all of that? When you stop talking.
[00:31:18] The commandment is still there. Now go and do the what I said.
[00:31:25] The problem is the reminders of your identity does not eliminate the fear.
[00:31:33] It does not eliminate the sense of inadequacy. It's tempting to preach this in kind of this, like, who's the fear? You don't have to. Let's be real. You're still going to be terrified.
[00:31:45] You're still going to feel inadequate. The point is this. You don't wait till that goes away to obey. You obey even when you're terrified.
[00:31:56] That's courageous faith. It's not the absence of fear. It's obedience in the presence of fear.
[00:32:04] We must take steps of courageous faith. Our whole planting journey was one filled with absolute inadequacy, absolute fear, absolute uncertainty. Every step of the way. The church that we just planted, the whole time, people ask me, well, what's the plan? I'm like, no idea.
[00:32:28] Obey the Lord one step at a time. Here's what I think. But I thought we were going to replant a church. Guess what? That didn't happen.
[00:32:36] But there's a church there now. It's nothing that I thought was going to be the plans. And yet there's a beautiful church plant that 25 people left here, and now there's 60, 70, 80 people there worshiping God on Sundays every step of the way. Will it succeed? No idea. When I went back to see them and say, hey, I think this is what God called it, I didn't know if he's going to say, really? That's very interesting, and you're fired.
[00:32:59] He didn't. He said, okay, we're gonna support you in a Big way. What?
[00:33:02] Okay.
[00:33:04] Go do it. Okay. I got no idea how to do this. People start showing up. Oh, my gosh. I didn't know if anybody was gonna listen. I literally told Dana, I don't know. I might have to go back into my old job. I may have to make money that way. Cause I don't know how this is gonna play out. And she's like, okay, well, here we go. And people started showing up, and people started staying. They didn't leave. And I was like, well, I guess now I gotta figure out how to preach. I literally had no idea.
[00:33:25] I guess I gotta preach. I'm preaching to people on my couch. They didn't leave. Okay, we're doing all right. Every step of the way. The Lord just said, here's what you need for today.
[00:33:35] It is just a daily obedience filled with uncertainties and fear the whole stinking time. I wish I could tell you it goes away. It doesn't.
[00:33:45] But thankfully, we knew one more thing. Beyond our fear and adequate uncertainty, we knew we were God's. And he had commissioned us.
[00:33:55] And we just knew to obey.
[00:33:58] And you know what? That was just enough.
[00:34:00] Just barely enough. Some days I don't know if it was enough, but most of the days, it was just enough. And that's what I want you to hear.
[00:34:07] Know who you are in Christ, a royal priesthood. Know he has commissioned you. And let that be just enough for you to obey.
[00:34:15] For some of you hearing what God's called this church to do, if you're a member of this church is to be a church. Plant churches that are characterized by personal holiness, radical generosity, and intentional discipleship. Some of you going, you asking me to go see Pharaoh right now?
[00:34:31] I don't intentionally disciple people. I got questions myself. I don't know what the Bible says. What if they ask me this? Who am I? Who am I? I am uncircumcised. Lips to go. Disciple someone.
[00:34:45] Be holy. Be known as a person who is holy. Do you know my track record? People in town know the mistakes I've made. And you want me to live a life that's characterized by holiness.
[00:34:56] You got the wrong person.
[00:35:00] Be radically generous. You hadn't seen my checkbook and my calendar. I've got no margin. I've got no room to give in any way, shape, form or fashion.
[00:35:13] I am unfit.
[00:35:18] God is saying, your inadequacy is overcome and overridden by your identity.
[00:35:23] You are in Christ. He is the chosen one. He is the word. He is the mouthpiece. He is the holiness of God. He is the radical, generous Son of God. He is the disciple maker, and you are his.
[00:35:41] Now go do what he told you to do.
[00:35:45] Father, we ask for the courage.
[00:35:47] By the power of your Holy Spirit, empower us to do what you've called us to do. Not when we aren't afraid. Not when we don't feel so inadequate. Not when we feel capable. But now may we remember who we are in Christ.
[00:36:12] And may your spirit embolden radical steps of obedient faith.
[00:36:19] Even though we feel totally afraid, inadequate.
[00:36:25] Because you are the ultimate God and you've chosen us.
[00:36:35] And in that identity, we are commissioned to take your gospel to the ends of the earth until you come back.
[00:36:44] Make us faithful by your spirit.
[00:36:48] It's in Christ's precious name we pray.
[00:36:51] Amen.
