Salem Lutheran Church

Pastor Jon Enter                 SalemLutheran.org

Theme: Trust The Plan

Text: Exodus 3:1-15

They left him for dead. A husband and father of two, they just left him to die. The situation felt impossible with no hope to survive. The merciless elements of the environment trapped him, and at 29,000 feet above sea level, the mountain kills. His name was Lincoln Hall and he was no stranger to Mount Everest. The Australians revered Hall as their country’s best mountain climber. He ascended many of the world’s highest heights before any other Australian. Hall even helped forge a new route on Everest back in 1984.

In May of 2006, Hall reached the top of Mount Everest for the first time, but reaching the top is only half the battle. Often the climb down provides even more danger. During his descent, Hall got sick. Lack of oxygen to the brain causes altitude sickness. The effects of altitude sickness clutched Hall with a death grip. He hallucinated; he was disoriented. The lack of breathable air at 29,000 feet, which is how high commercial jets fly, immobilized Hall. Eventually, Hall collapsed. He didn’t respond to any of the treatments his guides gave him. So, they abandoned Hall for dead in one of the harshest climates on earth. They abandoned him to forever rest with the now over three hundred other corpses still on Mount Everest. The guides sent the message down the mountain. They informed Hall’s family about his death. Lincoln Hall was left in what mountaineers call the “death zone.”

The Israelites faced their own “death zone.” They felt like they were left for dead while suffering in slavery in Egypt. That’s the backdrop of the sermon text we’re examining. The pharaoh of Egypt feared the growing population of the Israelites so he enslaved them and ordered, “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.” (Exodus 1:22) They were in a literal death zone with no hope of deliverance. Well, that’s what they thought. But God had a plan.

“The Israelites groaned… and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.” (Exodus 2:23,25) Through the same river that drown the newborn Israelite boys, another boy survived. Moses was God’s chosen deliverer of Israel but before he could lead all of Israel from death in slavery, God led Pharoah’s daughter to pull baby Moses from a watertight basket in the Nile River into her arms as her own son.

God had a plan. Moses grew up in Pharoah’s home learning all the Egyptian customs, language and leadership. God was preparing Moses for his future calling. Moses just didn’t know it yet. But he tried. Moses once saw an Egyptian slave master mistreating a Hebrew slave. Moses killed the Egyptian but the Israelite slaves didn’t trust him or follow him. Now, Moses was a wanted murderer in Egypt. So, he fled to the wilderness and lived off the land for 40 years. Again, Moses didn’t know it yet, but God was preparing Moses for his future calling. God had a plan.

Our text is God letting Moses know the plan. And Moses didn’t like it. Which sounds rather familiar. There are times in life when we are forced to walk a path we don’t want to go. And we don’t like it. Are you in a time like that right now? What’s happening in your life that makes you want to yell, “No! I don’t want this to happen!” Or maybe I should ask the question this way; what’s broken that you could help fix but you don’t want to? What conversation have you been avoiding? What needed task are you leaving undone? You know what you should do but you’re saying, “No!”

That’s basically what Moses is about to say to God. “No!” Moses was doing his thing, tending the sheep and then he saw what was not seen. There was a non-burning burning bush so Moses went to investigate. Suddenly, from the fire, God spoke and told Moses the plan. “And now the cry of the Israelites has reached Me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring My people the Israelites out of Egypt.” (Ex. 3:9-10)

When Moses heard the plan, God’s plan, he said, “No!” “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” (Exodus 3:11) Moses had the excuse that we’ve hidden behind. I’m no good at that. I tried it before and it didn’t work. And he did. Moses tried leading the Israelites to freedom but they weren’t willing to follow. Maybe you’ve tried helping fix what’s broken in your life, maybe you’ve tried having a tough conversation before and it didn’t go well. Moses knows what that feels like; he fled for his life because he tried to help.

God’s response to Moses’ excuse is what He answers to us when we don’t do what we know is right to do. “And God said, ‘I will be with you.’” (Exodus 3:12) God didn’t buy it. The Lord knew His almighty hand would bless the work of Moses. All Moses needed to do was trust God and go. Notice, God didn’t give Moses the details of the plan. The plan was simple;  GO and I will bless it.

God gives you the same command. “GO and I will bless it.” Is that hard for you? Are you the type of person who needs to know the full plan before taking the first step? Are you the type of person who needs to be assured everything-will-work-out-perfectly before you GO do what God is telling you to do? That’s not how God works.

God’s plan is: Go and I will go with you. Go and trust that I’m God and that I’ve got you. That’s how God works. That’s who God is.

That’s what God said to Moses. “Go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring My people the Israelites out of Egypt.” But Moses wanted more details to the plan.

So Moses asked a follow up question that no believer had asked God before. “God, what’s your name?” “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is His Name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” (Exodus 3:13) I read this text to you during the lessons portion of the service. Do you remember how God answered this question? Do you remember God’s name? “This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” (Exodus 3:14) God’s name is I AM.

Do you remember in the New Testament when Jesus was teaching in temple, the people there were hanging on His every word. They were trying to find out who He was. Jesus said that anyone who listens to His Word will never die. (He was referring to the fact that we will never die spiritually and that those who follow Him will live forever with Jesus in heaven.) They thought Jesus meant physical death so they were offended and asked if Jesus thought He was greater than Abraham. Then Jesus said this, “Before Abraham was born, I AM!” At this, they picked up stones to stone Him, but Jesus hid Himself.” (John 8:58-59) Why did they want to suddenly stone Jesus? Jesus called Himself “God”. Jesus called himself “I AM”. Jesus called Himself the same name that God told Moses from the burning bush was His holy name. I AM.

And what does the name I AM reveal? God is. I AM. God is always present. That’s what God promised Moses. “And God said, ‘I will be with you.’” Trust the plan, Moses.

That’s what God promises you. “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5) Trust the plan. Trust God will be with you, guide you and bless you as you go, as you do what’s right in your life.

I’m going to go back to the questions I asked earlier in the sermon. What’s broken that you could help fix but you don’t want to? What conversation have you been avoiding? What needed task are you leaving undone? You know what you should do but you’re saying, “No!” when God says, “Go!” What’s holding you back from doing what you know God is calling you to do is YOU.

It’s time to confess those fear and sins. It’s time to confess that we have hidden behind our failures of the past so we don’t make the changes in the present to make a difference in our future. It’s time to confess to God that we have not trusted Him as we should and stepped forward in faith knowing He will help us and bless us and be with us.

When we lay our hearts open before Him, when we confess our sins of the past that have held us back in our faithfulness to God, Jesus lovingly, mercifully and graciously replies, “That was then, this is now. Trust the plan. Trust Me.” Jesus has forgiven your past with the work on the cross He did in the past. That was then! And it’s gone; your sins are gone; your past is gone; your past is forgiven. It cannot hold you back!

I know it’s scary; it was for Moses. I know it seems impossible; it seemed that way for Moses. But this is why we read and remember the Bible. Moses demanded of Pharoah, the world’s most powerful and ruthless man, “Let God’s people go!” It took time. It took ten plagues. It took the miraculous parting of the Red Sea. It took 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. But God’s people made it to God’s promised Promised Land. God delivered. God’s plan worked.

The Israelites thought they were doomed to die in the Egyptian death zone but God delivered them. God can do the same for you. Trust Him.

Remember Lincoln Hall, the Everest climber left for dead? Somehow, miraculously, he survived that night at 29,000 feet. When he was found the next morning, he didn’t have a hat, gloves, oxygen mask, or goggles. He was sitting just two feet away from a 10,000 foot drop-off. He didn’t have a sleeping bag and he was so delirious that he unzipped his thick parka and was changing his shirt when rescuers found him.

The group that found him was led by Daniel Mazur. Mazur was on his way to the top of Everest, but he abandoned his Everest glory to rescue Hall. Mazur launched one of the largest rescue attempts on Mount Everest to save Hall. Miraculously, Hall survived his ordeal. His family still had their father and husband.

The world left you for dead in the death zone, so God launched a miraculous rescue mission. Jesus gave up His glory in heaven to free you from the death zone, just like Daniel Mazur gave up his Everest glory. Jesus freed you from the eternal consequences of your sins. Jesus forgives your sins of anxiety, anger, and stress. He forgives you for the times you have lost your temper with your loved ones and with God because life wasn’t going right. Jesus forgives you and loves you and is leading you to do what is right. Trust Him! Trust the plan that He will always be with you. Jesus takes you away from the death zone forever. Amen.