THE CALLING TO FAIL (lessons from Exodus 6)

Blogging Exodus 6:1-13, 28-29

Moses had asked, and Pharaoh had said, “No.”  

Not only “No,” but “No AND I’m going to make life even harder for the hundreds of thousands of your people who are already slaves.”

So of course, Moses’ people turned on him. 

And the officers of the children of Israel . . ., as they came out from Pharaoh, they met Moses and Aaron who stood there to meet them. And they said to them, “Let the Lord look on you and judge, because you have made us abhorrent in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to kill us.” (Exodus 5: 19-21).

 

Keep in mind that Moses wasn’t “Moses” yet.  He hadn’t parted any seas or called water out of any rocks.  Moses hadn’t seen manna or the glory of God passing in front of him.  Moses hadn’t sung a song or preached a powerful sermon.  He hadn’t even built up the courage to speak directly to pharaoh.  At this point, Moses was a newly appointed preacher thrown into high stakes negotiations with the most powerful and racially hostile world leader in his world, negotiations at which Moses had clear and magnificently FAILED.

So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Lord, why have You brought trouble on this people? Why is it You have sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has done evil to this people; neither have You delivered Your people at all” (Exodus 6: 22-23).

Clearly this whole called-to-prophetic-ministry-and-social-justice-liberation thing was a huge mistake.  And he didn’t even want to be a prophet.  He’d had to leave his wife, his sons, the only healthy father figure he’d ever known.  He’d already almost died once. 

Moses was --- DONE!

But the Lord told Moses to go BACK to Pharaoh and make the exact same demands.  Now, God has already told Moses: But I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not even by a mighty hand (Exodus 3: 19).  But the same God was saying:  “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh. For with a strong hand he will let them go, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land” (Exodus 6: 1).   

God was simultaneously promising failure AND victory.

  

In Exodus 6:2-8, the Lord gave Moses a powerful sermon laying an historical and theological foundation for the promises of liberation and prosperity.  Moses received an anointed Word about God’s redemptive plan, a mightily motivational message encouraging the people to trust in the Lord!

That didn’t work either.

So Moses spoke thus to the children of Israel; but they did NOT heed Moses because of anguish of spirit and cruel bondage (Exodus 6:9).

”Because of anguish of spirit and cruel bondage” means that sometimes your people are in too much pain to process good theology.

You still have to tell them, but more importantly, you have to  SHOW THEM God working on their behalf.   

Sometimes serving God means advocating for people who ought to advocate for themselves but are too broken and disheartened to stand with you.  Sometimes you go alone to fight battles you cannot win alone on behalf of people who will not fight alongside you.

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Go in, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the children of Israel go out of his land.” (Exodus 3:10 -11)

Moses responded just as frustrated preachers have been responding ever since, “If my congregation won’t listen to me, why should anybody else listen to me?  Clearly, Lord, I’m not as good at this as You think I am.” 

 "The children of Israel have not heeded me. How then shall Pharaoh heed me, for I am of uncircumcised lips?” (Exodus 3:12) 

 

God frequently calls us into situations where failure is certain but it isn’t to be cruel.  It is to be strategic.  Sometimes momentary failures are necessary for ultimate victory.  And, God is teaching us not to define ourselves and our worth by our last battle.   At any given moment you can be hard-pressed on every side, perplexed, persecuted, and struck down (2 Corinthians 4:8-9) but not be crushed by the pressure, not despair at the confusion, not destroyed by the attacks, and never forsaken by your God.  

You can lose and still be victorious.

God doesn’t guarantee victory to the Christian who is always stronger than his/her opponent. 

God guarantees victory to the Christian who is faithful to the calling to face those opponents, even when facing them leads to failure.

And you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved (Mark 13:13).

God told Moses to go back to Pharaoh and fail again because God was going to use that failure to deepen Moses’ spiritual power, to mature Moses’ relationships with the Lord, and to set the ministry up for such a spectacular victory that we’re still writing blogs about it 3,000+ years later. 

So the Lord said to Moses: “See, I have made you as God to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet.  You shall speak all that I command you. And Aaron your brother shall tell Pharaoh to send the children of Israel out of his land. And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt.   But Pharaoh will not heed you, so that I may lay My hand on Egypt and bring My armies and My people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments.  And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them.” Exodus 7:1-5).

If you’ve been called into ministry (and every believer has in some way been called into ministry), and you’re afraid that you’re going to fail, don’t worry.  You will. 

When it happens, get up.  Pray.  Refocus.  And go fail again.  Because if you’re truly obeying God, those initial and intermittent failures are Divinely strategized set-ups for a victory of Biblical proportions.

 

 --Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Bailey Tabernacle CME Church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He writes the popular blog: A Word to the Wise at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com

Email: BaileyTabernacleChurch@comcast.net

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves 

Click here to support this ministry with a donation.  Or go to andersontgraves.blogspot.com and click on the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar. 

Visit the ministry’s website at baileytabernaclecme.org

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Bailey Tabernacle CME Church

1117 23rd Avenue
Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35401

WHEN MOSES' WIFE PULLED A KNIFE AND CUSSED HIM OUT

Blogging Exodus 4:18-26

¹⁸ So Moses went and returned to Jethro his father-in-law, and said to him, “Please let me go and return to my brethren who are in Egypt, and see whether they are still alive.”

And Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.”

¹⁹ Now the Lord said to Moses in Midian, “Go, return to Egypt; for all the men who sought your life are dead.”

²⁰ Then Moses took his wife and his sons and set them on a donkey, and he returned to the land of Egypt. And Moses took the rod of God in his hand.

. . . ²⁴ And it came to pass on the way, at the encampment, that the Lord met him and sought to kill him. ²⁵ Then Zipporah took a sharp stone and cut off the foreskin of her son and cast it at Moses’ feet, and said, “Surely you are a husband of blood to me!” ²⁶ So He let him go. Then she said, “You are a husband of blood!”—because of the circumcision.

On the way from Midian to Egypt, Moses' wife performed an emergency circumcision of their son. 

Son.  Singular.  

Moses and Zipporah had two sons and both of them were with them on the road to Egypt, which means that one of the boys was circumcised and one wasn’t.  And that may explain why God was so upset with Moses that   it came to pass on the way, at the encampment, that the Lord met him and sought to kill him (Exodus 4:24). 

Circumcising one child showed that Moses knew the Abrahamic rule of circumcision, knew that God wanted the men committed to faith in Him to bear that physical symbol, knew and applied that knowledge.

But only halfway. 

Moses compromised with the anti-circumcising culture of greater Midian.  He acquiesced to the oldest of heresies: “It doesn’t take all that.” 

God thought otherwise. 

I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth (Revelations 3: 15-16).

  The Lord had tapped Moses to confront 4 centuries of tradition, social norms, and economic policy, and break them.  Moses was assigned a task that required total  commitment and the idea of Moses negotiating some kid of half-way freedom from Pharaoh was so sickening to God that it came to pass on the way, at the encampment, that the Lord met him and sought to kill him.

Fortunately for Moses, he'd married a strong and spiritually discerning woman.  

Zipporah saw Moses sick without cause, or facing a vision of a vengeful angel, or whatever form the Divine threat to his life manifested, and she intuited both the cause and solution for her husband’s terminal condition.  Then Zipporah took a sharp stone and cut off the foreskin of her son and cast it at Moses’ feet, and her husband recovered.

Unfortunately for Moses, he had married a strong and spiritually discerning woman. 

Here was her baby (no matter his age) on the side of the road, wounded, in the kind of pain no male ever wants to be in, by her own necessary hand, and it WAS ALL MOSES' FAULT!  Likely still holding the bloody blade, Zipporah  angrily presented the priest of her household with the proof of circumcision.  She cast it at Moses’ feet, and said,“Surely you are a husband of blood to me!”  In British slang, she said, “Bloody husband!”  In Mississippi Black slang, she cussed him out.

 And after the Lord released Moses from the attentions of the death angel, she cussed him out again.

So He [the Lord] let him go. Then she said, “You are a husband of blood!”—because of the circumcision.

MOSES had been trained by her father the priest of Midian. MOSES had been educated in the best schools of Egypt.  MOSES had seen the burning bush and heard the voice of God. MOSES was the spiritual one.  But SHE had to recognize the move of God AND do the thing with the razor sharp knife on her baby’s wee-wee. 

So yeah.  Zipporah was cussin’ mad.

To be clear, Christians SHOULD NOT CUSS. 

But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth (Colossians 3:8).

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear (Ephesians 4:29).

Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving (Ephesians 5:4).

But, Exodus 4 reminds us that you can be saved, sanctified, filled with the Holy Ghost, and on a mission for God; but every now and then somebody still makes you (want to) cuss.

So, the morals of the story are:

1.  You must be FULLY committed to your God-given purpose because God is deathly serious about your calling.

And 2. Do what you’re supposed to do cause if somebody else has to do your job, you might get cussed out.

 --Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama. He writes a blog called A Word to the Wise at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves 

Click here to support this ministry with a donation.  Or go to andersontgraves.blogspot.com and click on the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

FEAR OF FIRE

Blogging Exodus 3: 1-6

Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the back of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed.

3 Then Moses said, “I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.”

4 So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!”

And he said, “Here I am.”

5 Then He said, “Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.”

 6 Moreover He said, “I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”

And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God (Exodus 3: 1-6).

Moses saw a bush on fire.  In the desert. 

And?

Brush fires weren’t unusual in the desert, but this particular fire was . . . weird.  It didn’t do what fires normally do. 

Fire is light and heat.  Fire light reveals, symbolically and literally pushing back darkness. 

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path (Psalm 119: 105).

The heat of a fire transforms the internal chemical nature of its fuel, and unless exposure to the heat of flame is controlled, fire will consume and destroy whatever it burns. 

For our God is a consuming fire! (Hebrews 12:29)

A great move of God in your life and the life of a community can be frightening, like spotting flames in the brush surrounding you.   In that moment your instinct may be to flee or to douse the flames.  You might escape into distracting entertainment, mind-numbing social media, or the soul-clouding anesthetic of sin.  You could quench the Holy Spirit by rationalizing providence as coincidence or by submerging your head in the sands of anxiety and self-doubt.

Moses, the introvert, chose to retreat into himself. 

And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God (Genesis 3:6).

Fear is the opposite of faith.

Jesus said to them, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26). 

Fear is also the opposite of love. 

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love (1 John 4:18).

The only good fear is the fear of God. 

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge (Proverbs 1:7).

Knowledge is also called enLIGHTenment. 

Moses hid his face in fear, but not fear of being destroyed by the Lord’s fiery wrath.  He already knew that this was a fire that didn’t consume.

He looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed (Exodus 3:2).

Moses hid his face because he was afraid to SEE what new and disruptive things God wanted to show him.  Moses didn’t want to know.  He didn’t want to be enLIGHTened.

When God lights a fire in your life, you don’t have to fear.  The fire isn’t sent to destroy you.  It’s there to light your way.

For I am the Lord, I do not change; Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob (Malachi 3:6).

If you’re afraid like Moses was, do what Moses did:  Follow your curiosity and draw closer to God in study. 

Then Moses said, “I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn” (Genesis 3:3).

If you’re afraid like Moses, do what Moses did:  Draw closer to God in worship. 

Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground” (Genesis 3:5).

If you’re afraid like Moses, do what Moses did:  Be present in the presence of God. 

God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!”

And he said, “Here I am” (Genesis 3:4).

When God called me to preach and when He called me to serve in the community full time, I was a scared as a shepherd watching a weird brush fire in the desert.  I hid from, ran from, and rationalized away those callings for years.  But while I wrestled, I studied, I worshipped, and I learned by fasting and meditation to be present in the presence of God.  Then I laid all my excuses out before God.  And then I followed His calling on my life.

It wasn’t and isn’t easy, but it was and is worth it.

So you are not alone.  WE aren’t alone.  Moses knew the same anxiety. He felt the same self-doubt.  He, like us, felt the same fear at what God was going to reveal to us about us this time.  Moses, like us, dealt with his fear through study, worship, and practicing presence with God. 

Those tools still work.  I know they do. 

You don’t have to fear the fire.

You can listen to the full sermon that led to this article. The audio version is posted at http://andersontgraves.blogspot.com/2017/03/dont-fear-fire.html

--Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama. He writes a blog called A Word to the Wise at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves 

Click here to support this ministry with a donation.  Or go to andersontgraves.blogspot.com and click on the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

THE END OF CONTENTMENT & THE BEGINNING OF PEACE

Blogging Exodus 2-3.

Then Moses was content to live with the man, and he gave Zipporah his daughter to Moses. And she bore him a son. He called his name Gershom, for he said, “I have been a stranger in a foreign land.”

Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died. Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage.

So God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged them.

Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the back of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush.

So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed.   Then Moses said, “I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn” (Exodus 2:21-3:3).

Moses had tried, but it didn’t work.

He’d tried to use his education to enlighten his people.  He’d risked his position and personal prosperity as an example of commitment to the cause.  He’d fought for them, killed for them.  He’d believed that if he told them and showed them and sacrificed himself for them then they would listen, and see, and rise up with him to take back their freedom.  Moses had tried to be a revolutionary.

It hadn’t worked.

So Moses left.  He put a (literal) thousand miles  between him and Egypt.  Met a nice Midianite girl.  Got married.  Adopted her dad as his dad.  Quietly took up the family shepherding business.  Had kids.  You know, normal life.  He’d been a son of pharaoh, a prince of Egypt but the whole time he’d been so angry.  In Midian he was old Jethro’s son-in-law, a husband and father, the shepherd.   In Midian Moses was content.

Then Moses was content to live with the man (Exodus 2:21).

Content means Moses didn’t feel like something was missing in his life. He didn’t sense the absence of a greater destiny.  He’d gotten past all that change-the-world, save-my-people stuff.  He was good.  No, really.  Fine as he was.

Then God set a bush on fire.

And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. . . .  God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses! . . .  Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt” (Exodus 2: 2-4, 10).

And Moses told the Lord, “No, thank you.”

The next 29 verses (Exodus 3:11 – 4:17) is Moses making excusing and God refuting Moses’ excuses, until Moses finally says point blank,  “O my Lord, please send by the hand of whomever else You may send” (Exodus 4: 13).

Basically, “Send somebody else.  I don’t wanna go.”

I understand Moses.  I understand how it feels to be genuinely and truly OVER IT. 

You get tired of repeating the same truth to people who say, “Amen” and then live like they don’t know what truth is.   You get tired of pulling all-nighters to figure out solutions for folks who begged you to figure out a solution, but when you offer the solution they say, “Who made you a prince and ruler over us.”   You get tired of fighting Pharaoh for your people AND fighting your people to get them to fight Pharaoh.    When you realize that “your people” ain’t gonna lift one finger to protect you from bankruptcy, stress-related high blood pressure, student loans, strained relationships in your own house, or Pharaoh’s guards ---- then you might decide to put as much distance as you can between them and you.  You might decide to just be husband, father, and local shepherd.  You might not even miss trying to be a revolutionary because you might actually be content. 

Now godliness with contentment is great gain (1 Timothy 6:6).  

But then WHY IS that bush STILL on fire?

Because GOD was not content.

Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died. Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage.  And God  heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.  And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged them (Exodus 2:23-25).

600-plus years after the promises to Abraham, God’s people were still His people.  400 years after Joseph, 4 centuries of being addicted to life Pharaoh’s Goshen, 4 generations of forgetting who they were and Whose they were ------ God’s people were still His people.  And the Lord had not given up on fulfilling His promises to His people. 

Your people don’t stop being your people.  

Your calling to your people doesn’t cease to be your calling to your people.

And no matter how genuinely OVER IT you are, the fact that you still draw breath means God is not done with you yet.

When Moses said “O my Lord, please send by the hand of whomever else You may send” it pissed off God. 

So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses (Exodus 4:14).

And God made Moses go back to Egypt ANYWAY. 

They keep calling and emailing you, don’t they?  

You deliberately missed all the meeting and they still want you to work on the project.

Your social media feed, the commercials during your favorite show, that song that made you weep on the way to church, that radio sermon that almost made you pull over on the way to work, even the advice you hear coming out of your mouth to somebody else . . .

I said, “I will not make mention of Him, nor speak anymore in His name.”  But His word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, and I could not (Jeremiah 20:9).

 Now, you understand some things you didn’t before.  Now, you’re not naïve about how easy the war will be.  Now, ironically, when you don’t want to lead anymore, you’re ready to lead. 

And yeah, you have reasons and excuses and 29 verses worth of prior engagements and conflicting obligations, but guess what? 

You’re still gonna go.

You’re not going to change God’s mind about your calling.  You might piss God off.  But you aren’t going to change His mind about your destiny. 

For I am the Lord, I do not change; therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob (Malachi 3:6).

You still doing what God called you to do is the reason you are still around to do anything.  You might as well accept it.

So Moses went and returned to Jethro his father-in-law, and said to him, “Please let me go and return to my brethren who are in Egypt, and see whether they are still alive” (Exodus 4:18a). 

You’ve had your season of contentment on the sidelines.  Now the only place you’ll find peace is back in the middle of the game.

And Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.”  (Exodus 4:18b). 

If the blog moved you, listen to this message from our Exodus preaching series.

If you can’t get the audio on your device, use this link:  WHEN GOD DOESN'T LEAVE WELL ENOUGH ALONE (audio)

--Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama. He writes a blog called A Word to the Wise at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves 

Click here to support this ministry with a donation.  Or go to andersontgraves.blogspot.com and click on the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

WHO TOLD YOU THAT WAS A GOOD EXCUSE?

            

Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”

So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”

And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?” (Genesis 3: 9-11)

In Genesis chapter 3, God came down for His usual evening meeting in the cool of the day with Adam, but Adam wasn’t there.

The Lord called, “Adam, where are you?”

God didn’t ask because He couldn’t find Adam.  We wish that was why God asked.  We wish that we could hide from God when we sin, but that’s not the case.

God was really asking, “Adam, why aren’t you where you were supposed to be?  Why aren’t you in the place where I told you to meet Me?”

When the Lord shows up in worship, at your church, on Sunday morning----- Where are YOU?

Since the very first time, mankind’s sin has caused us to miss worship, to skip his time of fellowship with God, and then to make excuses.

“Lord,” said Adam, “I just couldn’t make it.  See, I’m naked, Lord.   I didn’t have a thing to wear.  And I couldn’t show up like that.”

And God said, “Who told you you were naked?”

Again, it’s not that God didn’t know.  God wasn’t requesting information.  God was saying, “Who told you that you were naked because I never brought up the fact that you were naked?”

You say you can’t serve because you’re not educated.  Well, who told you that you weren’t educated?  Who brought it up? Because God never brought up the fact that you don’t have a degree.

You say you can’t give because you’re not out of debt.  Who told you that you’re not out of debt?  God didn’t bring that up when He invited you to test Him with tithes and offerings and see won’t He open up the windows of Heaven and pour out a blessing that you don’t have room enough to receive. (Malachi 3: 10)

You say you can’t lead or help in ministry because you’re not comfortable with the responsibility.

Well, who told you that you’re not comfortable enough?  God didn’t bring up comfort when He called Moses to go back to Egypt and lead Israel out of bondage.

God never brought up comfort when He called a prophet, or a king, or an apostle, or a poor Jewish girl from Nazareth to go and walk out a great calling before His people.

 Adam wanted his lack of clothing to excuse him from showing up where God called him to be to do what God had called him to do.    What excuse are you using?  And who told you that that’s a good excuse? 

Cause God didn’t.

And by the way, when Adam said that he’d skipped the meeting with God because he was naked----- Adam wasn’t naked anymore.

Before God showed up in the Garden, Genesis 3: 7 says Then the eyes of both of [Adam and Eve] were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.  

YOU, like Adam, need to stop bringing up old stuff as an excuse for not walking in your calling now.

O.K., you messed up a marriage.  Where are you supposed to meet and serve God now?

O.K., you used to be an addict.  Where are you supposed to meet and serve God now?

O.K., you were a fool in college.  Where are you supposed to meet and serve God now?

O.K., you have been shirking and shaking your responsibilities in the church for a long time.  We get that.  Come back.  Meet God where He placed you and serve Him NOW!

But I have to warn you:  When you come back and face God, He is going to skip right past your excuses and force you to deal with the REAL PROBLEM.

Naked wasn’t Adam’s problem.  He had been naked and serving God just fine for the first 2 chapters of Genesis.

Naked wasn’t the problem.  Naked was a circumstance.  SIN was the problem.

So God called on Adam to deal with the real problem. 

“Ain’t nobody worried about you and naked,” God said.  “But tell me this Adam: Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?” (Genesis 3: 11)

(This is where God cocks His lip, fold his arms, and taps His foot)

See, all that other stuff---about how you grew up, and how folks mistreated you, and what you didn’t used to have----- that’s all just circumstantial.

Stop putting the blame on your parents, or your boss, or White people, or immigrants, or the media, or your ex, or the woman whom You gave to be with me, Lord (Genesis 3: 12).

What did YOU eat that you weren’t supposed to?

What is YOUR SIN?   

What is YOUR role in your failures?

What did God tell YOU to do that you ain’t doing?

What (or whom) did God tell you to leave alone that you’re still messing with?

Adam never dealt with that.  And so, God stopped asking.   God stopped asking Adam to meet Him and serve in His garden.  But, Adam’s PURPOSE in the garden was to serve. So, since He couldn’t fulfill his purpose, he had to go.

Oh, wait.  You might be thinking that Adam’s purpose in the garden was to be fruitful, multiply, and have dominion.    I see where you’re coming from.

That’s was Adam’s purpose in the larger world, but to fulfill that purpose in a state of perfection and favor, Adam had to fulfill His purpose in the place where He was to meet God and serve.

When Adam lost Eden, he lost God’s favor.  Adam and Eve still went out to multiply and pursue dominion, but now they had to pursue it on cursed ground, through thorns and thistles, by sweat of his brow, with the ever-present oppressive possibility and inevitability of death dogging his every move.

Only grace kept Adam and Eve alive.  But grace doesn’t stop bad from happening.  Grace makes it possible for you to carry on despite the bad that happens.

Grace gave Adam and Eve a 3^rd son named Seth.  But Grace did not stop the curse from manifesting in Cain and making him the murderer of his own brother.

Our lives are a constant cycle of frustrations and failures.  We survive.  We persevere.  We find happiness because of grace.

But if we would meet God where He wants to meet us, deal with our own sin, and submit to His plan and calling, then we would experience something even better than grace.

We would experience FAVOR.

Now don’t get too crazy over terminology.  Grace and Favor are overlapping and sometimes indistinguishable concepts.  The point is that things can be better.

We can do better than just kinda, sorta, barely survive.

We can live and live life more abundantly.  We can.  You can.

But you have to stop making excuses.  You have to get up and show up where God called you to meet Him, experience His presence, and walk out the holiest, most spiritually intimate part of the God’s great calling on your life.

See you, Sunday.

  

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama, executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO) and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

To listen to sermons and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme.blogspot.com .

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Support by check or money order may be mailed to

Hall Memorial CME Church

541 Seibles Road

Montgomery, AL 36116