Exodus Week 2 Sermon Notes - Pastor Johnny Scott

Moses
-Jude / Satan / Michael / bones
-Most iconic leader in antiquity
-Mentioned in the NT 80X
-Wrote the first 5 books of your Bible

Mount of Transfiguration:
-Moses → Law
-Elijah → Prophets
-Jesus → Fulfillment

When heaven pulls back the curtain…
Moses is still in the conversation

“This is the man Jesus said—
‘If you don’t understand him, you won’t understand me.’”
John 5:46–47
“If you really believed Moses, you would believe me, because he wrote about me.
47 But since you don’t believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?”

And here’s what’s crazy…
He didn’t even want the job.

Moses is a RELUCTANT LEADER
Burning Bush Moment
→ You can have one too

Acts 7:23–25
“When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites…
He thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not.”

Moses Story
-Birth / drawn from the water

Moses’ Identity is Complicated
-Hebrew by birth
-Egyptian by upbringing
-Prince with privilege
-Slave by bloodline

He belongs everywhere and nowhere

Moses grows up in the palace
that is oppressing his people

God will often prepare you inside the very system
He’s going to call you to confront


Calling Misalignment
Reveals Moses already sensed a calling
BUT:
-Right calling
-Wrong timing

Calling hasn’t happened yet
Training isn’t over
No burning bush moment yet
Moses knew he was called…
he just didn’t know how


Moses Story
Moses kills an Egyptian
He tries to step into his calling:
-Too early
-In his own strength

Moses had the right calling
but the wrong method

When you try to do in your flesh
what God called you to do in His power…
it always creates a mess


ACT 1
FORMED IN CONTRADICTION
-40 years old
-Murderer
-Runs away from conflict
-Avoids / hides / shame
-Messed up life
“It’s over” (in his mind)

Moses Story
Midian
Helps women at the well

Benched Calling
Exodus 2:21–22
Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage.
22 Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, saying,
“I have become a foreigner in a foreign land.”

Names his kid:
“I’m not supposed to be here”
Moses disappears for 40 years

→ Another lifetime

From:
-Palace → desert
-Influence → obscurity
-Leadership → tending sheep
= BENCHED!!

(…except I don’t believe in benched calling)


Not a downgrade
That’s training

God:
-builds
-trains
-uses pain
-redeems waste
-fixes in obscurity

Parallel Tension
-God is preparing a deliverer
-God is hearing a cry

“While you’re waiting on God…
God is preparing something you can’t see.”

40 years misalignment
40 years feeling benched
= 2 lifetimes


Moses Story 
Calling Moment — The Fire
Fire in Scripture = presence of God
But this fire doesn’t destroy…
it draws

Exodus 3:10–11
“So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
11 But Moses said to God,
“Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”


Calling Moment Excuse #1
“Who am I?”
-I’m not enough
-Identity
-Insecurity

God’s Answer
Exodus 3:12
“I will be with you.
And this will be the sign…
When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”

What if that isn’t enough?
(That’s what we say, right?)

God doesn’t answer your insecurity with a resume…
He answers it with His presence

Moses:
-2 lifetimes
-Murderer
-Avoider
-Coward
-Not from anywhere
-Father-in-law = priest
-Moses = watching sheep

Calling Moment Excuse #2
Exodus 3:13
“Suppose I go… and they ask me, ‘What is His name?’
Then what shall I tell them?”

Who Are You?
(Uncertainty)

God’s Answer
Exodus 3:14
“I AM WHO I AM…
‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

The ultimate setup

“Eventually, our excuses stop being about ability…
and start being about who God is”

Moses is not the hero
God is

“God didn’t choose Moses because he was ready…
He chose him because God was ready”

Gospel Connection
-Moses = Deliverer
-Jesus = Greater Deliverer

Moses → brings people out of slavery
Jesus → brings people out of sin

“Moses points to a BETTER Deliverer
who wouldn’t just confront Pharaoh—
He would defeat sin, death, and the grave”

Application
Some feel:
-Unqualified
-Disqualified
-Overlooked
-Afraid

God is not looking for the most qualified
He’s looking for the most available

“You are standing in front of your own burning bush moment…”
-A calling
-A step of faith
-A conversation
-A surrender

Who Are You?
Exodus 3:15
“Say to the Israelites,
‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—has sent me to you.’
This is my name forever…
the name you shall call me from generation to generation.”

The most quoted answer to: Who is God? → STORY
GOD → “Google me” (Kurt cig ill)
You are getting the same answer as Pharaoh…
right now

“Moses thought the problem was his ability…
God showed him the real issue was his perspective”


“You don’t need more confidence—
you need to trust the One who said, ‘I will be with you.’”

“God wastes nothing—not even your wilderness.”

“Your past doesn’t disqualify you—it prepares you.”

“What you call a detour, God calls development.”

“The thing you feel weakest in
may be the very place God wants to use you.”