November 9, 2025 – Ascension Lutheran, Littleton
“I’M NOT GOOD ENOUGH, BUT I KNOW THE GUY WHO IS” – Exodus 3:1 -15
There are so many interesting points of interest in this passage that it’s hard to pick one main point.
In Seminary you’re taught to choose one big thought and go with that so God’s people can take home
one, helpful teaching from the text and put it to use. So which one should we choose? Let’s look at
our text for today and decide which one God wants us to make our own.
VS 1 – “Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led
his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.”
Should we focus on shepherding? Is there anyone here who takes care of sheep? I’ve only known
one shepherd in my entire life, so that doesn’t make sense to look at that, unless we want to talk
about how the Lord is the Shepherd of our lives, leading us, protecting us, feeding us, giving us rest,
healing us when we’re wounded. Maybe we should look at the idea of being a priest like Jethro was.
Is anyone here a priest? 1 Peter 2:9 says, “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a
people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of
darkness into His marvelous light.” All who know Jesus as their Savior are part of this priesthood, so
that could be very good to look at. But then again, how about Horeb, the mountain of God we read
about here, which is also called Mount Sinai. That’s where the Lord gave His people the 10
commandments. But that’s probably too big a subject for a 15 minute sermon, don’t you think? How
can you cover all 10 Commandments that fast? We better keep looking.
VSS 2-3 – “2 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush.
He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. 3 And Moses said, ‘I will turn
aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.’”
Oh boy, lots more here. We could talk about angels. Or how about the phrase, “the angel of the
Lord,” which is mostly used to refer to Jesus before He took on flesh and bone? Or maybe we should
get into the fact that God got Moses’ attention with this highly unusual flame that didn’t burn
anything up. Yeah, we could talk about the various ways God tires to get our attention every day of
our lives. Or we could take a good look at miracles, because it was surely a miracle that the bush
wasn’t consumed by the fire. Let’s keep looking.
VSS 4-6 – “4 When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush,
“Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5 Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off
your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6 And he said, “I am the God of
your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for
he was afraid to look at God.”
Do you ever feel like God’s not paying attention to you? We see here God calls Moses by his name.
He knows exactly who he is, what his needs are, and God wants to have a personal relationship with
him. Should we talk about how interested God is in your life? Or then again, we could get into the
idea of holiness, how Moses needed to take his sandals off because wherever God is there’s perfect
holiness. Or maybe we should focus on eternal life. It says in verse 6, “I am the God of Abraham and
Isaac and Jacob.” It doesn’t say “I was” it says, “I am” their God. Abraham had died and was buried
hundreds of years before this. God is not the God of the dead but of the living! So we could delve
into the resurrection and what life will be like for eternity. It just goes on and on like this. Verse 7
talks about how God sees our afflictions and has a plan to rescue us from them. Verse 8 tells us about
the Promised Land, massive subject. Verses 9, 10, 11… There is such a wealth here of teachings from
God. How do we pick? To answer that I want to share something with you that God showed me
more than 40 years ago when I was a brand new Pastor.
When I began to serve as a Pastor in God’s Church I wanted to do everything JUST RIGHT. So I was
diligent in the Word as I prepared sermons and Bible studies. I took 2 Timothy 2:15 seriously where
it says, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be
ashamed, rightly handling the Word of truth.” And from day one the ministry I carried out was
based on a passage in Ephesians 4, “11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the
shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of
Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to
maturity.” So here goes, I thought to myself. I prepared a Bible study and a sermon, typed up the
service, ran off the bulletin on one of those old mimeograph machines, practiced playing the hymns
on the organ because I was not only the first Pastor for that congregation, we were such a small group
I was also the secretary, organist and yard man. So with the grass mowed, the bulletin printed and
folded, the lights turned on, the building cooled from the summer heat of south Texas, all was ready.
I stood at the door to greet God’s people as they arrived. Everything went as planned and it was a
marvelous time of worship. I got up from the organ bench as we finished the last hymn, made the
announcements and walked to the back of the building to greet people as they left. As I shook hands
and had brief conversations with each person I noticed something that was very unsettling to me.
Each person commented on the content of the sermon, and they were very complimentary, but what
upset me was every person shared a different idea of what they had heard, things I had spoken about
at all. How could my sermon have been so unclear, so muddled that 20 different things were heard?
The next week I worked even harder on the sermon. It needed to be better, clearer.
“Okay, that’s got it,” I thought to myself. One shining point for everyone to hear and make it their own to live it
out. Nope. The same thing happened again. What was I doing wrong?! I redoubled my efforts on
the next sermon. No change. And then the truth landed with a beautiful thud in my mind and spirit.
It’s not MY sermon, it’s GOD’S WORD and HIS PEOPLE. They’re hearing Him. Romans 10:17 came
to mind. “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing comes by the Word of God.” It was God’s
Word His people were hearing and receiving, and He was taking them to the place they needed to be.
The pressure was off. I worked just as hard, but I realized a huge truth – IT’S NOT ABOUT ME, IT’S
ABOUT GOD BEING PRESENT IN HIS PEOPLE.
From then on my goal was to preach the Word, just as it says in 2 Timothy 4:2, “Preach the Word; be
ready in season and out of season;” but now I understood it was God doing the real work, not me.
God’s Holy Spirit creates the hearing, relates the truth, leads His people into the presence of the
almighty and shows them what they need. So that’s what we will focus on today, and I hope ev ery
time we look into God’s Word together – GOD’S PRESENCE!!! With that in mind out topic becomes
obvious – VERSE 12. In verses 7-11 we see that God has a mission for Moses to fulfill. It says there,
“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, 8 and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of
the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that 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. 9 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 oppress them. 10 Come, I will send you to Pharaoh
that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” 11 But Moses said to God, “Who
am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”
God sees the needs of Israel, and He is telling Moses I am going to fix it, and Moses you’re going to be
a key player in making that fix happen. But Moses was very nervous, he was scared. Do you know
why he was so frightened? Look at Moses’ focus. We see it in what he says to God. “Who am I?”
Who AM I? His focus is on himself, his power, his ability, his preparation. And then comes verse 12.
God says, “But I will be with you.” That is EVERYTHING!!!
Don’t we have the same problem as Moses? When you get fearful about having to do something, isn’t
it because you doubt yourself and your abilities? The accuser, the devil, puts doubt into our hearts.
He tries to have us think about ourselves, make us question our potential and our power? And so we
ask,“Am I strong enough? Am I skilled enough? Am I experienced enough? Am I faithful enough?
Am I good enough?” The clear answer is NO. But here’s the thing. I know the Guy who is, and He’s
with me. His name is I AM. Am I good enough? No. When we hear the whispers in the night in
our heads, “Am I, am I?,” remember to turn that around. It’s not about AM I — it’s about the I AM.
That was true for Moses, it was true for Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Gideon and Isaiah, and just
keep going. Do a search of the Bible and see how many times when someone is in fear that God’s
answer is, “DO NOT FEAR, I AM WITH YOU.”
Next month we celebrate Christmas, and we hear one of God’s names in several of the hymns we sing
in that season. “O COME, O COME EMMANUEL.” Do you know what that name means? “GOD IS
WITH US.” Do you believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sins? If God would do that for you,
what won’t He do? He’s with you. Please say that to someone sitting near you. “God is with you.”
Now say it to yourself – GOD IS WITH ME. In Jesus’ name, amen.
