If we come into the presence of God expecting no more than to be comforted, for our lives to be made a little easier, and to be out by noon; then we have an unbiblical idea of what it means to be the people of God, disciples of Jesus Christ, and people who take God’s Word seriously.

Last fall I had the privilege of attending the Willamette Valley Christian Education Conference in Salem, Oregon. I attended one workshop entitled Understanding Learning Styles, presented by Gary Dixon, who writes for David C. Cook Publishing Company. In his workshop, Mr. Dixon told us that there are four basic learning styles. And all people, he explained, have one dominant learning style, or possibly a combination of two or three of them. He told us that some people were, what he called, Innovative Learners. These are sensitive people who study life as it is lived. They see, observe and then generalize. They are attuned to others’ feelings. They value consensus and getting along more than they do "being right." Innovative learners like brainstorming and are "team players."

Then he told us about those people who are Analytic Learners. They are thinkers and watchers. They are rational and sequential. They are hard on themselves, picky, tend to be critical, and they learn best through the use of lectures and stories. Analytic learners thrive on competition and objective tests.

Next, he explained, are Common Sense Learners. These people are into logic, forming hypotheses and then testing them. They want to know what are the immediate benefits to them of everything that is new. If it is not practical and immediately applicable to them, then they don’t want any part of it. Common sense learners like problem solving, debates, logical conundrums and experiments.

Fourth, Mr. Dixon described Dynamic Learners. These are the "creative" types. Dixon even said that these were the "big-haired people" among us. They value flexibility. They like to see, to touch, hear, feel and then plunge into something to try it out for themselves. Dynamic learners enjoy drama, role playing, small groups, and extreme creativity. They do not like rigidity and routine.

After explaining the four learning styles, Dixon had a little quiz to help determine our individual learning style. I discovered that I am a mostly analytic learner with some common sense thrown in. Now, you Common Sense are asking yourselves "So what? Why tell us this?" The value of this is found in understanding yourself better and understanding people who are different than you. For example, Dixon said that people with an analytic learning style generally don’t like "Small Groups." He explained that "we" feel that they are akin to "pooled ignorance." When he said this, a light went on in my head and I said to myself, "Yes, that’s right! If I don’t know something about a subject, then what good does it do to have others who are just as ignorant as I am join me in discussing the issue?" It doesn’t do any good. Me, I want to get an expert involved; I want to get the thoughts of someone who really knows what they’re doing, not someone who will only share what they "feel" about the topic at hand.

However, if you are a person who has a more innovative or dynamic learning style, you’re going to like small groups and think that they are the way to go. We’re very different in that respect, but if we understand how and why we differ, we will be able get along and to get things accomplished. That is the value of knowing things like what different learning styles different people might have.

So, I came away from the workshop feeling enriched and somewhat better-off for the experience. But this past week I got to thinking that as good as this kind of knowledge is, there is a big potential pitfall in too much self-analysis, categorizing and classifying ourselves. The pitfall lies in putting ourselves in a box, in saying, in effect, "This is the type of person I am. I don’t do ‘small groups.’ I’m an introvert; I don’t do extrovert stuff. I’m not confrontational and so I cannot — will not — do anything that smacks of confrontation." You see, it is all well and good, even beneficial, to understand ourselves, but the image we have of ourselves can easily become an excuse for us to fail to do what God wants us to do in life.

Case in point: Moses, when God called him to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. Exodus 3, first 3 vv. … [Read vv. 1–3]

Most of you are probably aware that I have started in the middle of the story of Moses’ life. You probably know the story, whether you’ve read it in the Bible, have seen Charlton Heston in The Ten Commandments or have seen the animated feature Prince of Egypt. Moses, a Hebrew, grew up as the adopted son of Pharaoh. At some point in life, he became aware of his Hebrew heritage and one day he kills an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew slave. Fearing trouble from this rash act of compassion, he runs away to the desert. Eventually, he meets a young lady, marries her, and spends the next four decades as a shepherd, working for his father-in-law — a far cry from being a member of the royal family of Egypt.

Now, put yourself in Moses’ place on the day described here in chapter 3 of Exodus. It was just another day to be spent looking after sheep. Moses was an old man by now. Years and years had passed since he was a prince of Egypt. He probably thinks — with good reason — that this is what the rest of his life will be like. Whether he liked it or not probably didn’t enter into his thinking. The world was a hard place back then and what was, simply was. There would be no sense in wishing things had gone differently. In fact, Moses had no reason to think that tomorrow would be greatly different from yesterday, or that next year would be at all unlike last year.

An acquaintance of mine pointed out something to me that I would never have noticed on my own. He asked: "Have you ever noticed there is a difference in the way professional football teams and professional baseball teams prepare their rookies?" Most NFL teams will sign a hot-shot rookie to a multi-million-dollar contract and then expect to get their money’s worth the first season. This rarely happens. Most football fans are familiar with names such as Heath Shuller, Brian Bosworth, Todd Marinovich, Andre Ware, and Ryan Leif. They are all players who excelled in college football and were highly touted as rookies, but simply proved to not be ready for the challenges of playing professional football.

Contrast that practice with Major League Baseball, which uses a completely different strategy. It is not uncommon for a baseball team to sign a rookie to a high-priced contract, and then send him to play Double-A ball in Birmingham or Omaha. For example, Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire both began their careers in the minors; each was brought up to the majors when they were deemed ready to perform. In fact, Sosa bounced from the majors to the minors a couple of times before settling in with Chicago.

God seems to work more on the MLB model of preparation than He does on the NFL model of preparation. What Moses probably thought of as years of tedious shepherding was actually God preparing him — as well as other people and circumstances — for what was to be the greatest challenge, the greatest task, of his life. You see, if Moses had lived today, he would be viewed — up to this point — as someone who had such great potential; but who, for some reason, had failed to capitalize on it. He would be seen as someone who had not lived up to their promised potential. That vision of him would be short-sighted, to say least.

I believe there is a lesson here for all of us: What, at times, can appear to us as nothing more than spinning our wheels in life might very well actually be God getting us ready for a specific challenge He’s going issue to us. What we often think of as tedium or hardship might be God’s prep work on us. I don’t want to read too much symbolism into this story, but I believe this is a valid observation.

Now, after Moses noticed the burning bush and heads over to check it out, this is what we’re told happened next … [Read vv. 4 & 5]

I want to stop there for a bit because something significant happens at this point. God calls Moses’ name, and then when Moses gets near, God says to him, "Don’t come any closer! In fact, take off your shoes because this ground is Holy Ground." I wonder, did Moses look at the ground around this bush to see if it was somehow physically different from the ground twenty yards away? We’re not told, but I seriously doubt it. If 40 years of shepherding had taught Moses anything, it had probably taught him that dirt was dirt was dirt!

So, the question then becomes, "What made this particular ground holy at this time and place?" Of course, it was this ground’s association with God that made it holy. Last summer I went to Experience Music Project in Seattle. The EMP, as it is known, is a popular music museum built by Paul Allen. For the rock and roll history buff, that place is a little like heaven. It contains all sorts of pop and rock memorabilia and it holds many exhibits that are just amazing. By far, the best thing I saw during the one day I spent there was an electric guitar. This was not just any electric guitar, but a Fender Stratocaster electric guitar. It is a notable model and make of guitar — a "Pre-CBS" brown sunburst "Strat" — so it has some intrinsic value, but that’s not why it’s in this museum.

This particular guitar is in this museum because it was once owned by the legendary blues guitarist Eric Clapton. In fact, it is the very guitar he used to record his classic rock album Layla. Now, granted, that may not mean thing to anyone here but me. However, for many people, the fact that this particular guitar was closely associated with a famous guitarist makes it special, unique, and unlike all the other of the hundreds of guitars in the EMP. In fact, when Mr. Clapton auctioned it off for charity, a year ago last June, it brought nearly a half million dollars!

Now, certainly, this analogy is imperfect. But it shows how the value of a thing can increase because of who is associated with the item, because of who used that item. This is what was happening when the Lord told Moses to take off his sandals. He was softening him up for what he was going to tell him next. The message he was sending Moses was that even dirt becomes holy when it is associated with God — when God puts it to good use.

One of the implications of God’s command to Moses to take off his shoes is that nothing is inconsequential when God gets involved. Anything and anyone can become holy when they become associated with God and are used by Him. Once God gets associated with some thing or person, then the value of that thing or person skyrockets. Let’s keep this in mind as we continue to look at this story.

Let’s look at vv. 6–10 … [Read vv. 6–10]

Undoubtedly, this started out being nothing more than an ordinary day for Moses. He’d probably gotten up early, rounded up the sheep, and then taken them out to pasture — an ordinary day in a life that had probably been very consistent from day to day over the last 40 years. However, Moses’ simple, uncluttered, predictable life was about to change, and change radically.

I imagine that when Moses heard the first part of God’s message —how God was finally going to do something about the oppression of the Israelites in Egypt — he welcomed that news. I mean, what do we know about Moses up to this point in his life? We know one thing, at least: that he was a compassionate, caring person. Remember, he intervened when he saw a Hebrew slave being mistreated — this is not something an uncaring, self-centered person does. We also know the story of how he met his wife. After Moses fled from Egypt, he came to a place where shepherds watered their flocks. Seven young ladies were there drawing water for their father’s livestock. Other shepherds who were also there with their flocks drove the girls away. Moses intervened and made sure that the girls’ animals got watered.

When these girls got home, their father said, "Why are you home so early today?" "Well, this Egyptian fellow stopped the shepherds from making us wait until they were done and he even helped us water the animals." Their father said, "Well, why didn’t you invited him over for dinner? Go find him and bring him back here!" They did as they were told and Moses came for dinner. Eventually, he married one of the seven daughters and forty years later was still living there with them.

The picture of Moses that is painted by these stories is a picture of a man who truly cared for others. He obviously didn’t like to see injustice or the weak being bullied. So, almost certainly he was glad when God told him He was going to free the Israelites. He probably had a smile on his face … right up until v. 10, when God told him, "So now, Moses, get going. It’s your lucky day because the job is yours!"

The situation kind of reminds me of the time one preacher asked another, "Do your people expect anything when they come to church?" "Yes." he said, "They expect to out by 12:00." Moses’ expectations were way off target. Picture it: God’s explaining what’s going to happen to Moses. Moses is probably smiling and nodding his head, thinking, "Yeah, this all sounds great. I’ve been wishing, hoping and praying that You would do something about this injustice, Lord." But then Moses’ smile disappears when God says, "And you’re the agent my resolve. I’ve got a job for you. You are the one who is going to take this message to Pharaoh!"

So what was Moses’ response? "But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?’" Moses’ reply was a typically human one: he pleaded "discomfort." "Gee, Lord, I’d like to, but, you know, doing that would really put me out of my comfort zone. Pharaoh’s not going to listen to me, anyhow. I’ve got the wrong Myers-Briggs personality type indication. I’ve got the wrong type of learning style for this. I'm an introvert and this, this is clearly a job for an extrovert. I'm uncomfortable doing this type of thing. I don’t handle confrontation well. Surely someone else is more naturally inclined for this type of work."

Actually, Moses first pleaded a general inadequacy, and later went on to get more specific. First, he said, "I'm nobody, why would Pharaoh listen to me?" God said, "Don’t worry, I will be with you." Moses then said, "I'm not smart enough. I wouldn’t even know how to answer them if they asked Your Name." God answered that for him. Then Moses said, "What if they don’t believe me?" God said, "No problem, I’ll give you a few tricks up your sleeve to guarantee their full attention." Then Moses tried another tack: "I'm not a very good public speaker. In fact, I stumble over phrases worse than George W. Bush." God answered him by saying, "Don’t worry, I made your mouth — I’ll take care of what you say."

Finally, Moses simply pleaded not to be given the job: "O Lord, please send someone else to do it." He had no excuse left other than "I don’t wanna do it!" At that, God got a little upset with Moses. All of us know how the story ends. Moses eventually went to Egypt, did what God told him to do, and everything worked out just the way God said it would.

Elizabeth O’Connor, an author, said this: "Often the Creator takes us where we do not want to go, trampling over our stereotypes in an effort to show us what we have not seen before." Her thought captures, I believe, the essence of a very valid message that we need to take away from this story about Moses — a man who was called by God to a job he felt he was not up to and therefore disinclined to accept.

Often we counsel people to "know when to say ‘No’." We tell them to be careful what they take on when someone approaches them with a request to "do this" or to "get involved in that." It is very easy, in this world, to become over-extended in your life’s activities; and that is counter-productive. Knowing our natural tendencies, our psychological make-up and the extent of our talents is a good thing. We need to learn when we should say "no" to a request for our time, talents, or other resources. But what I’m wondering is this: Do we limit how God can use us by automatically rejecting a request if it sounds difficult or the thought of it makes us uncomfortable? Do we box ourselves in too much with all of our self-analysis? Do we justify laziness and timidity with self-serving psychobabble and an overly large comfort zone?

If we come into the presence of God expecting no more than to be comforted, for our lives to be made a little easier, and to be out by noon; then we have an unbiblical idea of what it means to be the people of God, disciples of Jesus Christ, and people who take God’s Word seriously. For every time someone asks us to be a part of a program or ministry, or to get involved directly in someone’s life and we accept that challenge, there are — for all of us, no doubt — plenty of other opportunities presented to us where we resist, doubt, struggle and rebel.

All I’m saying is this: Keep this story in mind and realize it is possible that when a brother or sister in Christ comes to you and says, "We could sure use your help on this committee … can you work on befriending this person … can you make, do, show up for, or be a part of …" — you all know the type of things I'm talking about — just consider that maybe, just maybe, their request is truly the voice of God, speaking out of the burning bush, saying "I’ve got a job for you. It’s not going to be easy, but I’ve picked you to do it anyway. So, knock off the excuses. Saddle up. Let’s go."

Following God is meant to be a vigorous way of life. It is easy to get way too comfortable in life and to develop an attitude that says, "This is what I do, and this is what I don’t do, ever." The problem with that is that sometimes God challenges us to do the uncomfortable, the difficult, and the unlikely.

Permission is granted to subscribers to use this document in total or in sermon preparation in the context of the local congregation only. Publishing it in a book, on the Internet, or anyplace beyond the local congregation is prohibited.

 

The author of this sermon, Derek Helt,  may be reached at: dphelt@actionnet.net

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