Rev. Dr. M. Taylor Bach

Exodus 6:28-7:7 John 5:31-47

Did you ever feel that you were inadequate to do the work of the Lord? Have you ever had the sense that you didn't have the talent or the abilities or maybe you had some handicaps that would hold you back? Yet the scripture lets us realize that sometimes when we have handicaps, sometimes when we have things we think make us inadequate, they actually can become part of our message and part of our witness to the work of the Lord. This has always surprised me. It is fascinating to see the people God has chosen because God has never chosen the powerhouses of the world&the presidents, the kings, the knights, the wealthy. He has always chosen the lowly, the damaged, and the insignificant to do His work in this world.

Take the example of Moses. You heard Bob read about Moses this morning. Moses to me was a highly unlikely person to be the most important person of the Old Testament. But that is what he turns out to be. What were some of his flaws or weaknesses? As Bob read to you this morning, he had a speech impediment. One Bible translation calls it a “faltering tongue”. There was something faulty about the way he spoke. Yet he was to lead the whole Israelite nation out of bondage in Egypt and to do this he had to negotiate with Pharaoh. So God gave him Aaron, his older brother, to do his speaking for him. Yet as we read the Exodus story, we discover that Moses makes an awful lot of speeches and does an awful lot of talking in those Biblical passages for a man with the handicap of a speech impediment.

There is another handicap that Moses had. To me it is comical. See if you see the humor in this. God tells him to go to Pharaoh, have his message ready, let his message go through Aaron, and then God says, “I'm going to harden Pharaoh's heart so he doesn't listen to you.” Talk about a handicap! If I were Moses, I would say, “Well, why would I even bother to go if you are going to harden his heart and he's not going to listen to me?” But God sends him anyway. Sure enough, Pharaoh doesn't listen to him and then Moses goes back and complains to God. “I did what you told me but he did what you said he would do. You hardened his heart and didn't respond to me. Now what?” As the Biblical passage said, God used this to show his power. So now, he sent Moses back and God was able to bring about the plagues that He predicted. Finally Pharaoh relented and let the Israelites leave Egypt. Then the last part of the passage that Bob read is interesting. It seemingly describes a handicap. It says, “And Moses was 80 years old and his brother Aaron was 83.” How many of you in the congregation who are 80 or 83 would like to lead a whole nation out of bondage? In your 80th decade, how would you like to pull that off? I have to say that I've had some people in that decade say to me, “I've done my church work. I think it is time for the younger generation to take over. I am going to gracefully bow out of everything.” I think what this passage shows is that there is never a time to bow out of things. If you have talents, skills and abilities, no matter what your age, then use them as God asked Moses and Aaron to do. Interestingly enough, we notice that the Jews wandered in the desert forty years and so Moses was 120 at the time of his death because he died right before they entered the Promised Land after 40 years of wandering. Wow! Talk about accomplishing something in your old age! I remember hearing where the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken started out at the age of 64 to bring about that organization and thinking, “Oh, that has really turned into a huge organization now.” Imagine starting a new business at the age of 64. If you are in good health, there is nothing to hold you back. So do what you can do.

As we look at the characters in the Bible, there was an interesting list that came through the internet and saved me a whole lot of research. I'd like to share it with you. It says&

Noah was a drunk. Abraham was too old. (He had a child at the age of 100.) Isaac was a daydreamer. Jacob was a liar. Leah was ugly. Joseph was abused. Moses had a stuttering problem. Gideon was afraid. Samson had long hair and was a womanizer. Rahab was a prostitute. Jeremiah and Timothy were too young. David had an affair and was a murderer. Elijah was suicidal. Isaiah preached naked. (That would have gotten his congregation's attention.) Jonah ran from God. Naomi was a widow. Job went bankrupt. John the Baptist ate bugs. Peter denied Christ. The disciples fell asleep while Jesus prayed. Martha worried about everything. (She was a little OCD.) The Samaritan woman was divorced five times. Zacchaeus was too small. Paul was a fanatic. Timothy had an ulcer. Lazarus was dead.

This is an interesting list of God's helpers. As I thought about this, I thought about our congregation and the flaws that we have, the “warts” that we have. It doesn't compare with this list. We are in better shape than most of these people. God can use us even with our flaws, our handicaps, our weaknesses, our limitations. There is a favorite person of mine that I've mentioned to you before because of her overcoming amazing circumstances. Her name is Joni Erickson Tada. Perhaps you remember me mentioning her before. This was a woman who is now in her late 40's who at the age of 19 dove into a lake, hit her head on the bottom and broke her neck. She is paralyzed from her neck down. She was bitter at first and wanted to commit suicide because of the pain and suffering she was going through. She said she couldn't even do that because she couldn't move her hands and legs and couldn't do anything to take her life. Then she turned to God and now she claims she has had the most incredible life. She has written books. In fact the best book I've ever read on suffering is entitled When God Weeps that Joni wrote. She has created a ministry that takes wheelchairs to people who are crippled in Africa. She collects wheelchairs, used and new, here in the United States and has created a network that takes them over to Africa to people who are less fortunate. The woman is sitting in an electric wheelchair herself unable to do anything except move by blowing into a straw to control her own movement. Yet she accomplishes something. Here is a witness with phenomenal handicaps. All of us at times think, “Oh, I can't do anything. I'm not smart enough. I'm not educated enough. I don't have any talents and abilities.” BULL! Nonsense. You are smart enough. You do have talents. Maybe you do have handicaps. Maybe you have a chronic illness that holds you back. But I know you can do some things. I know you can be a witness. The Bible says so.

Listen to Paul. Paul wrote this towards the end of his life in 2 Corinthians. He said, “Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take away the thorn in my flesh. (We don't know what the thorn in his flesh was but we assume it was some illness or something like that. It was there to torment him.) But God said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you. For my power is made perfect in your weakness.' Therefore, I will boast all the more clearly about my weakness so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions and difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” Doesn't that give you encouragement? Doesn't that give you a sense of power? I can do it, too. You can do it too. Let's give witness to Him together.