Sunday 16 November 2025

Nollamara Church Of Christ Sermons.

Raw transcript of meeting:

Date Of Sermon: 16 November

Speaker: Jamie Boland

Sermon Title: Ordinary People, Extraordinary God

Scripture Reading: Exodus 3:11-17

 And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you, when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you'll worship God on this mountain. Moses said to God. Suppose I go to the Israelis 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 him?

God said to Moses, I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israeli, I am has sent me to you. God also said to Moses, say to the Israeli, the Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has sent me to you. This is my name forever. The name by which I am to be remembered.

From generation to generation, go assemble the elders of Israel and said to them, the Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob appeared to me and said, I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt. And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt, into the land of the Canons heat hikes, Amorites parasites have hikes and jebusites a land flowing with milk and honey here in the words from the Holy Bible.

Thank you for that. Uh, reading Catherine. So we're continuing our short series on the Book of Exodus, and the title of our message today is Ordinary People. Extraordinary. God, I'm sure we all agree with that. Yeah. Let's pray. Father, we just thank you that we gather freely as your people. What a wonderful blessing and privilege we have.

Holy Spirit, now we pray still our hearts, let peace fill our minds. Speak to us, Lord God, we pray in Jesus' precious name. Amen. So what does it take to be a champion? If I was to ask that question, what does it take to be a champion? Now, do you know who this is? Anyone know this guy? Yes. Michael Jordan. He's considered by many to be the greatest basketball player of all time.

The goat. He's a six time NBA champion with the Chicago balls. Now, like many champions, his path to the top wasn't smooth. Now get this in his second year of high school, he was cut from the team. He was told, you're not good enough. Your skills aren't up to scratch. You need to go away and you need to get better.

That's the advice he was given. Now instead of giving up, instead of chucking in the towel, he used that moment to serve as lifelong motivation. He was once asked about the secret of his, of his success, his reply, I have failed over and over, and that is why I succeed for Michael Jordan. Every failure became an opportunity to learn and grow, and that's what made him a champion.

And this is you saying Bolt the fastest man ever. Okay. He needs no introduction. That was clear from the very beginning that this guy was gonna be elite, but the danger was he was coasting on his natural ability and he was not pushing himself to be the very best he could be. One of his teammates once said, he's great.

Now imagine how good he would be if he just stopped the partying. And so his coach laid down the law, he confronted him and he said this. He gave him an ultimatum. Stop partying and take training seriously. That's the advice he was given. The rest is history. He knuckled down and I mean the guy's the greatest, this is Christiana Ronaldo.

He's one of the greatest footballers of all time. Now, when he first came on the scene, he had all the flicks and tricks. He was a show pony. He, you know, he'd get the ball. He wouldn't pass it. He'd run with it. He'd do all these step overs. He was flashy. He was out there to show everyone, Hey, look at me.

Look at how good I am. One day, his coach, the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson, sat him down and told him straight, you don't need to show off. You just need to score. That's the advice he was given and that's what he, he needed to hear to change his life. Cha sorry. Change his game and become a champion. Now let me apply this to our spiritual lives.

What does it take to become a champion of God? What advice would you give to someone who wants to be used of God, to someone who wants to be an instrument in God's hands? What advice would you give them? Lemme give you a picture to think about this. A man once approached Jesus. Now, we don't know his name, but we do know three things about him.

He was young. He was rich, and he was from the ruling class. Now he came to Jesus. He saw he saw Jesus. This guy's a really wise teacher, and he wanted some advice about his eternal destiny. And so he said, good teacher. What must I do to inherit eternal life? Now, think about this guy. This is a guy who's got everything fixed in this life.

He's wealthy, he's part of the aristocracy. LG life is good for this guy. And he comes to Jesus because he's thinking, I'm all set in this life, but I'm a little concerned about the next one. And what does Jesus say to him? Sell everything you've got. Give it to the poor and then come follow me. The Bible tells us this man, he, he, he became sad, he was disappointed.

He walked away. Now, think about this. Jesus was there in the flesh. How many of us wouldn't, you know, give up everything to be in his shoes and to, to come and sit at the feet of Jesus? But he walked away. He walked away because he had all this stuff in his life that he couldn't, he couldn't let go of. The opportunity was there, but he let it go.

'cause there was things he wanted to hold onto. Let's contrast this to young men like Peter James and John. Jesus said the very same thing to him. To them, they're fishermen and he says, lads, drop your net. Come follow me. Now understand this. They weren't just fishing for a hobby. These guys were fishermen for life.

This was, this was a real sacrifice to them. He's telling them, let go of the family business. Let go of the very thing that sustains and supports. You let go of the very thing the, you know, this is all you know, let it go. And they do. Now, here's the thing. This guy who was wealthy and had a great life, he's forgotten.

We don't even know his name. He's just remembered as the man who walked away. And yet these simple fishermen, Peter, James, and John, they help change the world and their names will be spoken in churches all around the world Today. They're remembered because they, you know, they impacted the lives of others and made a difference for eternity.

And that's what we're talking about when we, we think about what does it mean to be a champion of God? We're talking about living lives that have an impact on those around us and make a difference for eternity. Now, is that the sort of life you want to have? Do you want your life to make a difference? Do you want to leave a positive mark on those around you?

Yes. Now we're looking at the book of Exodus and the life of Moses. At the end of chapter two. We saw a few weeks ago, God has heard the cries of his people. And God is is, you know, he's determined he's gonna do something about it. And so what he does is he comes to Moses. And understand for Moses, this is just another routine day.

You know, Moses once had the belief that God was with him, that God would use him. But that was a long time ago. That's what we looked at last week. He had this belief, God is with me, he's preserved my life. He's gonna use me. That dream's gone. And so here he is, he's 80 years old and, and this day for Moses is a day, just like any other day, it's just Moses, his staff, and the sheep, same as it's been for the past 40 years.

But this day will be different. This day is gonna mark your turning point in the life of Moses. 'cause God comes up to him, taps him on the shoulder and says, Moses, it's time. It's time to fulfill your destiny. It's time to do the very thing I preserved your life to do. Let me read from the start of chapter three Now, Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midn, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and ca to horrib the mountain of God.

There, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses sees this, saw this strange sight. Sorry. Moses saw that through the bush. That though the bush was on fire, it did not burn up. So Moses thought, I will go over and see this strange sight, why the bush does not burn up.

When the Lord saw that he'd gone over to, look, God called him from the bush. Moses, Moses and Moses said, here I am. Do not come any closer. God said, take off your sandals for the place where you're standing is holy ground. And so we get this picture. Moses sees his strange side. He's naturally inquisitive.

So he goes and takes a look and God calls out him and says, take off your sandals. Now, think about this for a moment. Moses is not entering someone's nice clean house. He's he's, he's just walking around the desert, okay? He sandals are dirty. His feet are dirty. Even the dirtiest dirty, keeping his sandals on is not gonna change anything in relation to how clean the area around this bush is gonna be.

And so what difference will it make? In the ancient world or the ancient near East, removing your sandals, it was considered a sign of reverence. And so as Moses draws near to God, God basically reminds him, Moses, you can come near to me, but you can come only on my terms, not yours. And that's how we approach God.

We don't come on our terms, we come on his terms. Now imagine you received an invitation to meet King Charles. Wouldn't that be great? Some of you who are. Nope. Fallen flat. You get a good meal, good dinner. But just imagine, just imagine this is something that floats your boat. You get an invitation to meet the, the king.

You're given a date, you're given a time. You'd also be given some strict instructions as to how to behave. You know how to dress, and you'd be told, don't speak unless spoken to. And when the king walks past, he's gonna hold out his hand and, and, and you can shake his hand, but not too tightly. Don't squeeze it too tightly.

And whatever you do, don't ever put your arm around him or hug him or anything like that. It's strictly forbidden. Now think back to 1992. Do you remember this? Paul Keating, he put his arm around the queen. Do you remember what the, the British press called him? The lizard of Oz. That's why they called him.

Now, for us, it's no big deal, but for them they were mortified. Why? Because she's royalty. And with royalty you don't get to, you know, just rock up and set the rules and do as you please. There are protocols that you must observe, and one protocol is no touchy. Touchy. Now the same is true when you approach the living God.

Wow. You don't get to come in any way you like. There is a need for reverence and wherever God is, that place is holy, and we need to always be mindful of his holiness. Amen. Amen. What I like about this story is this. God comes to Moses not to reveal his holiness and push him away, but to have him draw near and use him.

That's why he appears. The same thing happens in Luke chapter five. Jesus hops into Peter's boat. He begins to teach. And when he is finished speaking, he tells Peter, you know, put out into deep water, cast your nets, and you know, try and get a catch. Now Peter's there, he's been fishing all night. They didn't catch a thing and he knows the sun is out.

Now Jesus, it's not the right time to catch fish. Under the cover of darkness is the time when the fish are there. That's the right time to catch. Now Peter could have said, Hey Jesus, you know, you're an excellent teacher. You are the best. And you perform amazing miracles and thanks for healing my mother-in-law by the way, but Jesus, if there's one thing I know it's fishing, so don't presume to tell me how to fish.

Jesus. This is the one thing I've got over you. But he goes, what happens? They catch so many fish that the nets begin to break. And what does Peter do? Does he say, Hey, Jesus, I've got a great business idea. Okay, we can go into fishing together. Peter and Jesus fishing enterprise, oh, hang on. No, Jesus and Peter, fishing enterprises, that's not what he does.

He falls upon his knees and he says, apart from me, Lord, from I'm a sinful man. Peter recognized the holiness that is in Jesus, and his natural response was to create distance between him and Jesus. The same thing can happen to us. We can get a glimpse of the holiness of God and we just wanna run and hide.

But Jesus says to Peter, Peter, don't be afraid. I've drawn you near because I want to use you. I'm gonna help you become a fisher of men. And that's exactly what was, you know, is happening here in Exodus chapter three. God reveals himself to Moses in the splendor of his holiness, not to push him away, not to show the difference between him and us.

He wants to draw Moses near because he wants to use him. In verses seven to 10, God tells Moses that he's seen the misery of his people in Egypt and he's got a plan. He says, Moses, guess what? My plan is? Moses like, I dunno. And he says, Moses, you are it. You are my plan. I'm gonna use you to set my people free, and Moses is like, ah.

Um, God, do you have a plan B? You're gonna use me. Now, understand God could do it himself. Yeah. He's appeared to Moses. He could also appear to Pharaoh, but that's not how God works in this world. God longs to display his glory through weak, vulnerable people. People like Moses, people like me, people like us.

I like this quote from St. Augustine. Without God, we cannot. Without us, God will not. When God works in this world, he doesn't choose to go it alone. He chooses to involve us. He wraps his plans and purposes around ordinary people like you and me. That's how God works in this world. Now, Moses, he's not so convinced when it comes to God's plan and what we're gonna see is he is got five objections as to why God can't use him.

And I think at least some of them will resonate with us. The first objection found in verse 11, Moses says to God, who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt? He's tuneless changed the first. The first objection is, who am I now? We looked at this last week. Moses tried 40 years ago, and he fell flat in his face, and that was the time when he had the strength, the energy, and the zeal.

Now he's older, he's jaded, he's really jaded, and he says, Lord, this is beyond me. I can't do this. You are talking to the wrong guy. God, you've got the wrong person. Can't you see? I'm on the downward slide. I'm not even in the game anymore. Lord. Why are you choosing me? Have you ever felt that way? Who am I to serve God?

I'm not trained. I'm not professional. It's just little old me. Lillian Carter was the mother of former US President Jimmy Carter and age 68. Age 68. She's almost 70. Some are saying that's on the downward slide. She sees an advertisement for the Peace Corps. I love this story. Now, this advertisement showed a glass of water being poured and they stopped halfway and asked the question, is your glass half empty or is it half full?

In other words, do you look at the problems in this world and you think they're too big, I'm too small, I can't make a difference. That's the half empty approach. Or do you think to yourself, I might not be much, I may not have much, but I have enough to make a difference that's half full. And then the advert said this, join the Peace Corps and change the World.

Age is no condition. She was 68 years young when she made the decision to step out, broaden her horizons and make a difference. Can I tell you? People thought she was crazy. All her friends and family saying, your son's the governor. He might be the next US president. What on earth are you thinking? Stay at home support.

And she says, my glass is half full. I've got something I can give. And that's what she's known for. A compassionate life. You know, there's no point waiting around to die. We can sit, we can vegetate, or we can allow the Lord to use us to make a difference. And that's the place Moses was in, was in. He's saying, Lord, I'm outta the game.

Life has passed me by, but God says, no, I still want to use you. The second objection is found in verse 13. Moses says, 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? The second objection. What if someone asks a really hard question?

Now, have you ever been afraid to share your faith because you don't have all the answers. You can think of all the objections that people are gonna have. When I share my faith and talk about Jesus, people are gonna say this, they're gonna say that, and they're gonna tear me to shreds. I don't have all the answers.

I tell you what God, I'll share my faith when I know exactly what to say about everything. But until that time, I'm gonna sit, ba, sit back, and you know, leave it up to the experts. You know, there's one thing that you can share that I can't, you can share about what God's done in your life. How fresh is your most recent, recent testimony?

Is God still doing things in your life that you can share with others, things that you can share that I can't. Every single person here has a story, A story about how Jesus found us and took us and made us into something new, and that's something only you can share. I spoke last week about the Russian writer, Dostoevski.

He wrote a book called The Brothers ov. Now this has been called by many people, the greatest novel of all time. Now in this book, what he does is he draws a contrast between two brothers. You've got Ivan the brilliant agnostic. He's got a really sharp mind, and it's his brother who's a devout religious guy.

Now Ivan is the man who can, you know, he can raise all the objections, he can think of everything, all the objections he can outline and critique the failures of, of mankind, along with every, you know, political system devised to, to deal with these failures. He, he's got all this stuff going on in his mind.

But the one thing he cannot do is offer any solution. He's got all the objections but no solutions. His brother, on the other hand, he's very devout, very prayerful. He has no solutions for the intellectual problems that his brother raises. But having met Jesus, he does have a solution for humanity and that solution is love.

He says, I do not know the answer to the problem of evil, but I do know love. Can I encourage you? You don't need to have all the answers to share about what Jesus has done in your life, what He's doing in your life, and what he will do in your life. Amen. You can share love. You don't have to have it all.

You don't have to know it all. The third objection, chapter four, verse one. What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, the law did not appear to you. Do you see those opening words I've highlighted? Highlighted? What if they're two very dangerous words? God, what if I go and your plan doesn't work?

You've appeared to me. You've called me, but what if I go and it doesn't work? What if I go to the elders of Israel and they say, who are you? Who are you? What you think you heard from God? A burning bush that talks. Yeah. Right. Sure. That's what he's thinking and he's thinking, God, you want me to go and stand before Pharaoh?

Yeah. Good luck with that. God, can you see what Moses does? In his mind, he creates this fictitious scenario and he responds in fear to that scenario. How often do we do this? All the time. We preempt what might happen and then we take it so far in our heads and we respond in our minds not to what's actually happening around us, but to where we've gone in our head, that's what Moses is doing.

You know, we start to act and respond based on this fear rather than, you know, what is actually happening rather than what God has called Moses to do. You know, God, what if I share my faith and people reject me? What if I pray and, and, and God doesn't answer? Can I tell you when you do that, you're not gonna go any further?

You are not gonna pray. You're not gonna share why I might look stupid. What if. Now, interestingly, God indulges Moses and he gives him three signs. He firstly says, Hey, Moses, what's that in your hand? What is, what's he holding? He's holding his staff. It's just an ordinary bit of water, a stick. He's probably picked up many years ago on his travels through the desert, and he's been using it for years to guide the sheep.

And God says, Moses, I want you to throw that stick on the ground. What happens? It becomes a snake. God then says, I want you to pick it up, and he picks it up by the tail. That's not how you hold a snake. You pick it up from near the head, but he does it and it becomes the staff again. Now, that's the first sign.

For the second sign. God tells Moses, put your hand inside your cloak. What happens becomes lepers. He's then told to stick his hand back in his cloak again, and it's healed. God then gives him a third sign as if one and two aren't enough. God gives him a third sign. He says, if they don't believe either of these first two signs, then take some water from the Nile, pour it on the ground.

It will become blood. Do you get what God's doing? He's saying, Moses, I want you to stop worrying, brother. I'm five steps ahead of you. Everything will work out. I just want you to go. I've got this. That's what he's saying. Sign upon, sign upon sign to say, I've got this. I've got you. The fourth objection, chapter four, verse 10.

Moses says, well, I didn't show that one. What if your plan doesn't work? There's that if you're taking a copy of them. The fourth objection. Oh Lord, I have never been eloquent. Neither in the past nor since you've spoken to your servant. I'm slow of speech and tongue. Now, we touched upon this last week.

Moses is saying, I'm not gifted. I'm not good enough. I can't do it. I can't do the very thing you are asking me to to do. You've got the wrong guy. Can I tell you often feel like this on a Sunday morning. What you see up here is not what God sees on a Sunday morning. I'm on my knees. I'm crying out to God, Lord, I can't do this.

It's too much. Guess what? God always carries me through. God always carries me through. He humbles me and then he carries me. They'll do the same with us. There's a well known saying, God doesn't call the equipped. He equips the cold. You heard that? It's so true. And that's basically what God says to Moses in the very next verse.

He says, who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not? I the Lord? Now go. Go. I will help you speak and will teach you what to say. That should be the end of the matter. Yeah. Four, four strikes and you're out. That's it. No more objections.

Moses, you think that's enough? He's seen the, the, the talking bush. He's had the other signs and God says, I know you can't do it, but I'm gonna carry you. Thanks Lord. I needed that. No, there's a fifth objection and it's the excuse that trumps all other excuses. Chapter four, verse 13. But Moses said, pardon your servant Lord, please send someone else here.

Am I Send her. Do you hear what he's saying? He's saying, God, even if you equip me, I'm still not going. Thanks, but no thanks. You know, you see God, it's not my problem. God, it's not my problem. It was 40 years ago, but not now. I've moved on and I've made a nice, comfortable life for myself here in the desert.

That's, that's his response. There's nothing logical there. This is just a straight out refusal and denial to do the very thing God wants him to do. Now you may be f familiar with the story of the four people named everybody, somebody, anybody and nobody. You familiar with this story? Let me read. An important job needed to be done and everybody was sure that somebody would do it.

Anybody could have done it, but nobody did. Everybody thought that anybody could do it, but nobody realized that anybody wouldn't do it. It ended up that everybody blamed somebody when nobody did what anybody could have done.

That's Moses.

The great commission is never gonna get fulfilled if this is the response of God's people. Lord, send someone else. It's not my problem. Someone else will do it. Lord. A local church can't survive with that attitude. The great commission will never get fulfilled if this is how God's people respond. Do you know we sit here, we want to grow our church and have young families in our midst?

Amen. We wanna see the young, the next generation come through, and yet we're struggling even at this moment to meet the needs of the few young children we currently have. Now, I'm sure if I asked everyone, he would raise their hands and and agree, yes, these children that come into this church, they need to be taught the Bible.

They need to learn about Jesus. And yet, do we have people who are willing to raise their hand and say, here are my Lord. Use me now. Let's put one. One need we have. We have many, many more. Look at how God responds to Moses. Verse 14, then the Lord's anger burned against Moses. God's fed up with all the excuses.

Enough is enough. He's had enough. It's as if Moses hasn't been paying attention. Now think about everything that's happened. God has appeared to Moses in a bush. Now I can tell you this wasn't a special bush. It was just a simple ordinary bush. Do you know what made this bush special? It was special because God was present in that bush.

That's what made that bush special. God could have picked any bush, and as long as God's presence was in that bush, then his glory and his purposes will be revealed. And that's the connection that that God wants Moses to make. And the same thing is true of that stick in his hand. It's just an ordinary stick to stick like any other stick.

And yet this stick will be wielded by Moses in his confrontation with Pharaoh as an instrument of divine power. And it's the same stick that Moses is gonna use later, much later to, you know, part the Red Sea and lead the people out of of Egypt. But it's just an ordinary stick. There's nothing special about that stick.

What God wants Moses to understand, what God wants us to understand is that he doesn't need extraordinary things to display his glory and accomplish his purposes. Do you believe that our God is the God of sticks and bushes? That's what someone once said. Yes, and like Moses, we can have our excuses. We can have our big long list of objections, but God wants us to come to that place where we begin to see that He, that we as ordinary people, we have an extraordinary God.

Don't look within and make all the excuses. I'm not good enough. I can't do this. I'm limited. I have a past. I've failed. Don't do that. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. We are ordinary people with an extraordinary God. A God who uses ordinary things to accomplish extraordinary purposes. The beginning of the message, I asked the question, what does it take to become a champion of God?

What advice would you give to someone who says, here am I. I want to be an instrument in God's hands. Here's the answer. You just need to be available. You just need to be available. You just need to say, Lord, here am I. Use me, and God will see that hand and God will use you. I like the title of this book.

It says, available Any Bush will do remarkable stories of God at work through available lives. Question is, is your life available now to do extraordinary things doesn't mean you need to change the world. It just need means you need to be faithful to that which God has called you to do within that sphere of influence that he's given you.

Let me close by looking at one such story of a, an ordinary life that was available in God is using this person to do extraordinary things. Some of you may be familiar with Christine Kane. She's a, an Australian evangelist and activist. Listen to her story. When she was born, she was left unnamed and unclaimed in a hospital.

It's not a good start. She was later adopted, but grew up feeling unwanted and invisible. As a teenager, she was verbally and sexually abused, and because of all this, she was deeply insecure and she struggled with, you know, deep feelings of shame and guilt. She once said, I should have been a statistic, should have killed myself.

I should have been dead. Everything changed the day she met Jesus. God began to heal her and restore her identity. She will openly state that things changed when she came to understand that her worth wasn't in her past, but in God's purposes for her life. She says, God is not limited by your past. He is only limited by your unbelief.

Today. She's a preacher, she's an author, and she's the co-founder of an inter international organization called A 21. It's a group that fights against, you know, uh, human trafficking, and she rescues. They're all involved in rescuing victims of modern day slavery. It's an amazing work. Being voiceless and powerless once represented.

Her deep shame, that was, that was her problem. I'm voiceless, I'm powerless, but this is the very area where God is using her to bring hope and freedom to thousands of other people. Now, there would've been a time when Christine Cain said, who am I? Lord? I'm no one. You can't use me. I've gotta put my hand down.

But she met Jesus and she heard God whisper, I will be with you. And it's through this divine partnership that God has turned a life of pain into a testimony of purpose. Our God delights in using ordinary, even broken people to dis display his glory. Amen. We are ordinary people. Of an extraordinary God.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you that you can take broken vessels and display your glory. Father, every single one of us here, we have a past, we have failings. We have things we could point to that could hold us back, or we could lift up our eyes to you. We could see that you are the God of sticks and bushes, the God that takes ordinary things to do extraordinary things.

And so, father, let us be open vessels, fill us afresh, we pray, give us faith, renew our faith that we can still be used by you in extraordinary ways, in simple ways that magnify and glorify your name. And so, father, may we be found. In you willing to say, here am my Lord, use me and that we would live to glorify you.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Amen.