Welcome to Resurrection Parish, whether you are joining us here in the church or from home via our live-stream. This is the second week in our summer message series, “Moses: Lifelong Journey of Faith.” In this 8-week series we are looking at one of the most important people in the Old Testament, but not merely as a historical person, but what his life of faith can still teach us as we continue our journey of faith.

Last week we started with Moses’ birth and the beginning of his life. And it's a familiar story, Moses should have been killed when he was born, but instead, his mother saved him, and hid him away for a few months, and then sent him off in a basket down the Nile, and then Pharaoh's daughter rescued him and brought him into Pharaoh's household, and he was raised there. And we said last week that Moses would have grown up with an understanding of his story. He knew his story, he knew that he had been saved, and as a result, he was grateful. And we too, if we are in Christ, then we too have been saved and we have a lot to be grateful for. As we said last week, gratitude is the foundation for greatness.

Most people are pretty comfortable with the gratitude part. Most of us agree that we all could use a little bit more gratitude in our lives, and hopefully this past week you started being more mindful of the things in your life that you are grateful for. The greatness part, however, we might be a little bit more uncertain about. We might quickly recognize that we have a pretty good life, but we would hesitate to say that we are great. This sense of greatness that God would want to do something great with our lives is maybe a little farfetched, maybe a little far off in the distance.

When we were little kids, we wanted to be great, we had these great professions picked out for our lives. We were going to be astronauts, or rock stars, or baseball players, or basketball players, or doctors, or nurses. But then we kind of get into a routine, and life just sorta settles in, and our lives become a little bit more normal, and greatness is maybe not a part of it.

Well, that's where Moses found himself at this point in his life. Picking up with the story of Moses, a lot of time goes on between last week and this week, and something crazy happens in Moses' life, and he ends up fleeing Egypt. He flees Egypt hundreds of miles and ends up in a place called Midian. You can read about it in Exodus 3. It's a crazy story, but I just don't have time to tell it today.

While in Midian Moses gets married, he works for his father-in-law as a shepherd. It is a good life, a routine life. Any sense of greatness, perhaps, in his life is left behind in Egypt, it's left behind in Pharaoh's household. Like for many people, a significant change caused Moses to reflect on his life. He and his wife have a son, and Moses names him Gershom, which means “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land.” The birth of his son is bittersweet for Moses. Of course he is loves him and is excited, and like most new parents probably also a little afraid. But Moses is also sad that he cannot share his wonderful news with his own family; his parents, and his older brother and sister.

It is when Moses is in this reflective mood, that one day as he is shepherding his flock near the base of a mountain that he sees something amazing. Here is what the Bible says, “There the angel of the LORD appeared to him as fire flaming out of a bush. When he looked, although the bush was on fire, it was not being consumed. So Moses decided, “I must turn aside to look at this remarkable sight. Why does the bush not burn up?” (Exodus 3:2-3).

So Moses starts up the mountain to see this burning bush, and God calls out to him, telling him to remove his sandals for he is on holy ground. Moses does as he is told, and falls to the ground, hides his face for he is afraid to look at God. God tells Moses, “I have witnessed the affliction of my people in Egypt and have heard their cry against their taskmasters, so I know well what they are suffering. Therefore I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and lead them up from that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey, the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Hivites and the Jebusites” (Exodus 3:7–8).

Moses must've been cheering God on, saying, "Yes, this is what I want for my people. At long last, finally, God, you're gonna do this great thing that I've always wanted for my people." But God wasn't finished, he says, “Now, go! I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt” (Exodus 3:10). Moses would've been like, "Wait, what? Me? Who do you think you're talking to here, God? It's just little old me, Moses."

Moses goes on to make five objections to why the Lord should not send him. First objection, Moses says, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” God answered: I will be with you” (Exodus 3:11–12). Next Moses says to God, “if I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what do I tell them?” God replied to Moses: I am who I am. Then he added: This is what you will tell the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you” (Exodus 3:13–14). 

But Moses isn't finished yet. Moses answered, "What if they do not believe me, or listen to me and say, "The Lord did not appear to you." God says, "Well, I'm gonna give you these signs and wonders, and they will surely believe you when you perform these miracles for them."

Moses continues to object, “said to the LORD, ‘If you please, my Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor now that you have spoken to your servant; but I am slow of speech and tongue.’ The LORD said to him: Who gives one person speech? Who makes another mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now go, I will assist you in speaking and teach you what you are to say’” (Exodus 4:10–12). 

Moses has one last objection, and by far, this is the best one, “’If you please, my Lord, send someone else!’ Then the LORD became angry with Moses and said: I know there is your brother, Aaron the Levite, who is a good speaker; even now he is on his way to meet you. When he sees you, he will truly be glad. You will speak to him and put the words in his mouth. I will assist both you and him in speaking and teach you both what you are to do’” (Exodus 4:13–15). 

This conversation may seem amusing, but it is the heart of today’s message. If you think about it, this is something that Moses wants to do. He wants his people to be set free from their captivity in Egypt, but he doesn't believe that he can do it. He doesn't have the confidence in his own abilities, he doesn't believe that he's the man for the job. Moses needs to believe in the possibility.

There are two ideas happening here, “limiting beliefs” and “liberating truths.”  Limiting beliefs are the things we believe about ourselves, about others, about the world around us, about our situation that limit our potential.  For example, when I ask someone to be an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion, and they say, “Father, I am not holy enough to do that.” We have to identify what these limiting beliefs are and then replace them with liberating truths that will set us free to act.

Moses’ objections were his giving voice to all of his limiting beliefs about his life. He's telling God all the excuses, all the reasons why he can't do it, because this great thing, this great challenge that God has called him to, it's something that he wants to do, but he just doesn't believe that he's capable of it. The good news is the conversation doesn't end there, right? When Moses voices all of these objections, this moment becomes a turning point in his life. Because you know what happens? With each objection that he voices, God listens, and then God answers him. Moses is voicing all his limiting beliefs, and then God is replacing them with the liberating truth of God. 

So, the question for us is, what are our limiting beliefs? What are all the beliefs that we have about our world, or about the people around us, or about our circumstances that keep us from pursuing what we want to pursue? What do we believe about ourselves and our very own abilities that keep us from the greater things that God has in store for us in our life? And these greater things, they don't have to be glorious, they don't have to be tremendous, they just can be greater things for you and for your life, greater things for your health, or for your finances, for your relationships, or for your family, or your work. What is that greater that is in store for you in your life?

Again, this week, can we be like Moses? Can we take whatever these limiting beliefs are and lift them up to God? Can we turn to God in prayer and voice what our limiting beliefs are to Him, and then listen to Him, and hear His word and His voice and how He can offer a liberating truth that can set us free? It's not cliché at all to say that God wants to do great things in and through your life, it's just that sometimes we don't believe in ourselves. So, let's turn to God this week. Let's hear him respond to our beliefs with those liberating truths that can set us free.