As I think about the Forward In Faith for Christ Alone campaign to raise money for a new Campus… I, like many, wonder how we are going to accomplish such an expensive task in a time of tremendous economic turmoil. I have a lot of questions. I have multiple fears. Will we turn off the support that we enjoy now by reaching too far? Will our congregation shrink rather than grow because people refuse to follow? Will we buy land and then sit on it for decades for lack of interest in continuing? Or worse, mortgage a paid-for church to build initial and inadequate facilities just as the money runs out? A third service seems to be working fine, why do we need to move? Are we abandoning our near neighbors? Am I the right person to do what it appears God is asking me to do? What if we fail? Wouldn’t it be easier to just go to a different church where adequate facilities are already built?
Do you remember how God called Moses to lead His people out of Egypt to The Promised Land? The people were being persecuted and abused and were crying out to God. God heard them and decided to rescue them… to lead them away from Egypt and give them open space and plenty of provision. While I am not interested in trying to convince you that we are in the same position as the Israelites and that God is somehow rescuing us from Clark and Washington, I do want to examine what it was about Moses that angered God to the point He considered killing him.
Remember the statement in Exodus 4:4 “Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses.” And later, “…the Lord met Moses and was about to kill him.” What led up to that and how can we avoid doing the same thing?
Moses had questions:
• Moses said, “Who am I….?”
• Moses said, “Suppose I go…?”
• Moses said, “What if they don’t listen?”
• Moses said, “I have never been eloquent…”
God answered patiently:
• God said, “I am sending you…”
• God said, “I will be with you….”
• God said, “I AM WHO I AM has sent you…”
• God said, “Go, assemble the Elders…”
• God said, “I have promised to bring you up out of the land…”
• God said, “I will stretch out my hand…”
• God said, “I will strike the Egyptians…”
• God said, “I will make them favorably disposed…”
• God said, “You will plunder them…”
• God said, “What is that in your hand?... this is so they will believe…”
• God said, “If they don’t believe the first sign they may believe the second…”
• God said, “who gave man his mouth…?”
But after all God’s patient encouragement and explanation, Moses said something that was really dumb:
“O Lord, please send someone else to do it.”
Huh? Moses, you don’t have to do anything but obey. It is God’s battle and He has said He will go before you. He answered all your questions, He gave you signs, He gave you help…. and you say, “Get someone else?”
So what about you? And I? God has placed us where we are. We have the abilities He has given us. We have the resources He has placed in our care. I do not know specifically how involved He is asking each of us to be in this campaign.
Ask your questions. Think creatively. Listen to your King. Consider.
But don’t respond: “Get someone else!”
