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Nobleton Community Church
29084 Sentinel Street PO Box 224
Nobleton, Florida 34661
Rev. Paul V. Lehmann, Pastor
813-389-8683
Nobletoncommunitychurch.org
info@nobletoncommunitychurch.org
OUR VISION IS:
To experience SPIRIT-FILLED WORSHIP AND PRAYER
To be involved in EVANGELISM, DISCIPLINING AND TRAINING PEOPLE
To use our SPIRITUAL GIFTS
To SERVE AND REACH PEOPLE FOR CHRIST, BOTH
“ACROSS THE STREET AND ACROSS THE WORLD”
Nobleton Community Church
Date August 17, 2025
Text TEXT: Exodus 4:1-20
Pastor Paul Lehmann
On a plaque marking Abraham Lincoln’s birthplace near Hodgenville, Kentucky, is recorded this scrap of conversation: “Any news down t’ the village, Ezry?” “ Well, Squire, McLain’s gone t’ Washington t’ see Madison swore in, and ol’ Spellman tells me this Bonaparte fella has captured most o’ Spain. What’s new out here, neighbor?” “Nuthin’, nuthin’ a ‘tall, ‘cept fer a new baby born t’ Tom Lincoln’s, Nothin’ ever happens out here.”
Some events, such as birthdays in Hodgenville, where Abraham Lincoln
was born. Or in Bethlehem, or a baby found among the reeds along the Nile River in Egypt, or spiritual rebirth in a person’s life, may not create much earthly splash, but those of lasting importance will eventually get the notice they deserve.
The three earthly births mentioned were deliverers: Abe Lincoln, Jesus, and Moses.
Moses was a reluctant one. Moses asked God: “Who is sending me?”
God answers him with: I AM — AM—The great I AM —I AM WHO I AM. Now this is after God has spoken to him from a burning bush that wasn’t consumed. In the last part of chapter 3, God has laid out for Moses, all that he is to do, how he is to explain everything to the elders, and what was going to happen, and how the Israelites would be able to receive plunder, l from their Egyptian neighbors, to make up for all of their hardship during the years of their bondage. All of these riches are what will make it possible for them to have the elaborate tabernacle in the wilderness to worship in.
Now, beginning in chapter 4, Moses shows incredible unbelief. Oh, he believes IN God, he knows that God is the only true God, and in his heart he has faith in God. That’s why God is calling him to be the deliverer of Israel. We too believe in God. He has provided us with salvation, we believe he is the Creator, and we believe he takes care of us. We have even seen him answer prayers and help us in so many different ways.
However, we have also seen times when he hasn’t answered our prayers, and times when we have had a very hard time of it. Nothing like the Israelites experienced, but nevertheless, we have had some trying times in our lives; but we continue to believe IN Him, even if sometimes we have our doubts. But the title of my message this morning is:
“DO WE REALLY BELIEVE WHAT GOD SAYS?” There is a difference in believing IN God and believing what he says. When we don’t believe what God says to us in his Word, or when he calls us, or tells us to do something, we give excuses to him, or we rationalize things he says; like; oh he doesn’t really mean that—-or he will overlook that—-or it will be Okay if I don’t do exactly like he wants me to do, and so forth. Or maybe we answer him like Moses did (in verses 1 -2) when God had told him what he was to do; he comes up with an EXCUSE: “What if they don’t believe me, or listen to me,” or they say, “the Lord didn’t appear to you? God just asks him, “Is that a staff in your hand? Uh, yes—“Throw it on the ground.” Moses did, and it became a snake, and he ran from it. Then in verse 4. God tells him to “take the snake by the tail.” So Moses did, and “it turned back into a staff.” God says to him, “This is so that they will believe the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob appeared to you. The staff would be his credentials before the people. God takes what we have in our hands and uses it, if we just trust Him. Of itself, the rod was nothing, but in God’s hands it became POWERFUL.
Moses didn’t have a chance to ask God—if he was going to do this in front of the Israelite elders. God just told him to put his hand inside his cloak. So he did, and when he took it out, it was leprous and completely white. “Now put it back into your cloak.” He did, and when he pulled it back out, his skin was normal, and he was completely healed.
Moses’ own hand had killed a man, but in the second miracle, God showed him that he could heal the weakness of the flesh and use Moses for His glory. His own hand was nothing, but in God’s hand, it would do wonders!
God says to him, “If they won’t believe the first sign—your staff turning into a snake, and then back to a staff again, or this second sign of you getting leprosy and then being healed, go get some water from the Nile and pour it on the ground. It will become blood. These are pretty convincing answers to them not believing that God appeared to him and called him to be their deliverer. However, these signs would eventually be imitated by the godless Egyptian magicians.
So Moses has to give another EXCUSE.
“Pardon your servant, Lord.” (he acknowledges that God has called him to serve him.)—“I have never been eloquent”—(-I don’t speak very good, especially in front of people,) neither in the past, nor since you have spoken to me. I am slow of speech and tongue ( did he stutter?) He is saying, “I am not gifted.” God had said, “I AM, and all Moses could say was, “I am not.” He was looking at himself and his failures instead of at God and His power. God doesn’t need eloquence or oratory; He needs only a clean vessel that He can fill with His message.
In verse 11, God asks him; Who makes people mute or deaf?—Who gives sight, or makes people blind. Is it not I?——–NOW GO! “ I WILL HELP YOU SPEAK AND WILL TEACH YOU WHAT TO SAY.”
“Pardon your servant Lord” (here we go again)—
‘PLEASE SEND SOMEONE ELSE!!!” In verse 14, we read, “Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses and he said, ‘What about your brother Aaron? ( I can just hear Moses saying—yeah—what about him?) but no, he didn’t say that to God. God says, “I know he can speak well, and he is already on his way to meet you, and he will be glad to see you. You will speak to him and put words in his mouth, and I will help you both to speak, and I will teach you what to do. He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth, and as if you were God to him. But take this staff in your hand so that you can perform the signs with it.”
Moses’ reaction to what God had said was one of UNBELIEF.
Next, we also see a question of INTEGRITY.
Moses returned to Jethro’s house and told him all about his encounter with the Lord, and asked permission to return to Egypt and see if any of his people were still alive. Now he wasn’t honest with Jethro. God had told him his brothers were still alive.
This was the first uncovering of a lack of integrity. However, his father-in-law, Jethro, encouraged him to go. Moses wasn’t a very good testimony for the Lord to his father-in-law, then — he was a lot like we are sometimes. We just don’t come out and tell people what God has said to us, or what he has done for us. Later on in the wilderness, chapter 18
The Lord told Moses in Midian that all of those who sought to kill him were dead, and that he should return to Egypt. God wanted Moses to trust Him and not be afraid. How patient God is with His own. How encouraging are His promises.
Then God says to Moses, Be sure that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. BUT, I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. What does this mean? How is it that God caused Pharaoh’s heart to harden, and that he refused to let the Israelites go free? Think of it this way.
The heat of the sun beats down on the clay on the ground, and makes it hard. That same sun, when it beats down on wax, softens it. It is the substance that causes the result. In the same way, since Pharaoh’s heart was already turned against the One true God, God’s power forced a response from him. Then you are to say to him, “This is what the Lord says; Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you, Let my son-(that is, my people) go, so he may worship me.” But you refused to let him go, so I will kill your firstborn son” (verse 23). Then the next verse, 24, we read a very shocking statement. “… The Lord met Moses, and was about to kill him.” Many commentators and theologians have trouble with this verse. It goes against all of our understanding of who God is, and the mercy, love, and forgiveness he shows us. But this isn’t anymore harder to understand than his instructions to the Israelites when they went to battle; in some cases, they were told to kill every inhabitant in a village. That is, men, women, children, and animals. That too is hard to understand.
WE MUST GRASP THE HOLINESS OF GOD, THEN WE CAN BEGIN TO UNDERSTAND BETTER WHAT HE DOES.
But once we grasp the holiness of God, and how he hates sin, and the fact that he will not tolerate someone ignoring Him, it becomes clearer how serious it is when we refuse to bow down to Him and obey Him. It is only because we live in a day of Grace that he holds back his wrath now,
but some day on the day of judgment, everything that we have done against God, and all of man’s rebellion, will be dwelt with.
Circumcision was an important part of the Jewish faith, yet Moses had neglected to bring his own son into the covenant (Gen. 17:10).
This was his second lack of INTEGRITY before the Lord. God had to discipline Moses (perhaps by sickness) to remind him of his obligation. How could he lead Israel if he was failing to lead his own household in things spiritual? Especially since he was going to kill all the firstborn sons of the Egyptians, because of Pharaoh’s refusal to listen to God. His wife Zipporah probably was against doing this before, but now, reluctantly and with disgust, she circumcises Moses’s son herself. The Hebrew phrase that she uses, “you have become a bridegroom of blood to me,” refers to this command to circumcise male babies. Moses later sent his family back to Midian. (Because in chapter 18:2, we see that Jethro, Zipporah, and Moses’ two sons come from Midian and join him in the Wilderness.
God had promised that Aaron was coming (v. 14), and now He fulfilled that promise. While both Moses and Aaron had their weaknesses, and each failed God and each other more than once, it was a great help to Moses to have his brother at his side. They met at “the mountain of God” where Moses had seen the burning bush (3:1-5). Verse 5; “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”
Moses told Aaron all that God had told him to do. When they performed the signs before the people, they believed. When they heard that God had heard their cries and seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.
God sees everything you are going through and is still providing deliverance for you. Today, the power of the Holy Spirit will give you strength to withstand anything the enemy throws at you
Jesus is your deliverer. He wants you to believe everything he has told us in The Word. Let’s not give him excuses when he asks us to do something for him.
Moses’s reluctance and fear were caused by overanticipation. He was worried about how the people might respond to him. We often build up events in our minds and then panic over what might go wrong. God does not ask us to go where he has not provided the means to help. Go where he leads, trusting him to supply courage, confidence, and resources at the right moment
A shepherd’s staff was commonly a three to six-foot wooden rod with a curved hook at the top. The shepherd used it for walking, guiding his sheep, killing snakes, or pulling a lamb out of a crevice. Still, it was just a stick. But God used the simple shepherd’s staff Moses carried as a sign to teach him an important lesson. God sometimes takes joy in using ordinary things for extraordinary purposes. What are the ordinary things in your life—your voice, a pen, a hammer, a broom, a musical instrument? While it is easy to assume God can use only special skills, you must not hinder his use of the everyday contributions you can make. Little did Moses imagine the power his simple staff would give when it became the staff of God.
For us today, Jesus Christ, God’s son, is the ROCK that we stand on. Because of him, we can do anything he asks us to do. Because of his shed blood on the cross, we are delivered from sin, healed from sicknesses and addictions, and BECAUSE OF HIM, WE TOO, CAN HELP OTHERS TO BE DELIVERED. JUST BELIEVE HIM, AND DO WHAT HE SAYS WHEN HE CALLS US TO ACTION.