Sunday 9th November 2025

Nollamara Church Of Christ Sermons.Raw transcript of meeting:

Date Of Sermon: 9^th November 2025

Speaker: Jamie Boland

Sermon Title: Who am I that I should go?

Scripture Reading: Exodus 3:1-11

 Today's Bible reading is from Exodus chapter three verses 1, 2 11.

Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to hor rib, the mountain of God. There, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw 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 had gone over to, look, God called to him from within 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 are standing is holy ground.

Then he said, I'm the God of your father and the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. At this, Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God. The Lord said, I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I'm concerned about their suffering.

So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians. And to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land. A land flowing with milk and honey. The home of the Canaanites, Hitite, Amorites parasites. Hi heights and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.

So now go, I'm sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites out of Egypt. But Moses said to God, who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt

is on the Book of Exodus. The title of our message today is, who am I that I should go? That's what Moses says. Who am I that I should go to? Pharaoh, let's commit this time to the Lord.

Father, we thank that we can come into your holy presence sanctified by the blood of Christ. We ask and pray that your word would speak to us today. Use me, use my words as weak and feeble as they may be. Touch our hearts. Holy Spirit, we pray. In Jesus' precious name. Amen. So this man here, I dunno if you can read his name, Theodore Dostoevsky.

It's quite the tongue twister. Have you heard of him? Yes, sir. Okay. So he was a famous, uh, Russian novelist. He was born in the 19th century. He was a child of nobility. He was an aristo aristocrat, born into a quite wealthy family. At the age of 28. He was arrested for his involvement with a literary group that discussed books that were critical of Czar Nicholas.

These were books that have been banned by the state, and so he is whispered before the courts, he's charged with sedition and he was sentenced to death. Okay. This was a young man whose life had been really good up until that stage, and suddenly it's taken a dramatic turn for the worst. He was eight months on death row before they came for him.

Now imagine that time you are there on death row. You know, anytime they can come, your life is hanging by a thread. Eight months they come for him. They dressed him in a white burial shroud. So this was this very thin linen cloth. He was blindfolded and his hands were tied behind his back. And so like this, in this thin burial shroud, it's not much covering.

He's blindfolded, hands tied behind his back. They march him out into the cold, into the snow. He's taken to a public square to face a firing squad. He's there with all these other guys and, and what what they did is this, they tied him to a post along with some other co-conspirators, and then a government official came up to each one of them and read out the words.

In Russian, the wages of sin is death. They know what's coming. It's time. The official then, you know, held forward this very small little cross that they could kiss. The next thing they heard was the firing squad cocked their rivals. Then the captain of the guard said, ready, aim. And before they could, he could say fire.

It was prearranged that this messenger would ride in at the very last moment to inform them that Zah Nicholas, he was a merciful man, and right at the last minute he's declaring that he's showing clemency. He's showing mercy. And so the death sentence is commuted, and instead they're gonna be subject to, you know, hard labor.

This is an experience. Now, it's interesting how these men reacted to this mock execution. One of the men there had a complete mental breakdown. He was so devastated by what happened that he spent the rest of his life institutionalized. He just couldn't recover. It was too traumatic. But for Dostoevski, it had the opposite effect.

He described it as being like a virtual resurrection. He said, I appeared into the jaws of death and was forever changed. He wrote a letter to his brother saying that he felt more alive spiritually than ever before. He had these long eight months thinking about death. And, and, and as he's just, you know, reflecting on this in silence, often he's saying it's causing me to ponder seriously about life and about God, and, and, and meaning, and my, my place in this world.

Am I right with my creator? He's thinking about all of these sorts of things, and he's saying I'm more spiritually alive now after this mock execution than ever before. But he wasn't out of the woods, his death sentence of being commuted, but he was exiled to the Gulag for 10 years. Now, understand life in those labor camps wasn't a picnic.

It was very harsh conditions. They would often leave him shackled in chains outside in the cold for long periods of time. He suffered immensely. But as he boarded the convict train to Siberia, a woman actually came up to him and handed him a New Testament, and for the next 10 years, he read it over and over and over again.

That's all he had in that camp. In her biography about her father, his daughter Amy, wrote, he studied that precious volume cover to cover, pondered every word, learned much of it by heart, and never forgot it. All of his works are saturated with a New Testament, and it is this that gives them their power.

If you ever read his writings, they are saturated with scripture saturated. Now, when he left the Gulag, uh, Dostoevsky took with him two things. One was that burial shroud the other was this battered copy of the New Testament, and he kept these things till his dying day. They were mementos of things that had shaped his life and the person that he had become.

Can you see how his life has had a dramatic change and he's gone through a lot and he's been shaped to become this person that can write about the grace of God. Do you know, sometimes things are gonna happen in our lives that cause us to, you know, we just take a turn and we don't always know why you've ever had that.

Life is going in one direction, everything's going well, then something happens. You didn't ask for it. It's unexpected, and your life takes a turn and you may never know why. And so the question is, do we have something to hold onto in that time that allows us to draw meaning and purpose? Or will the weight of these things, you know, come down upon us and crush us like a rock?

And then having gone through these things, when all said and done, are we able to look back and see however dimly, however dimly, the way in which God's hand has been upon us shaping us for something more, for something greater? Do you know, we're looking at the book of Exodus. Moses is one of the very few people in the Bible where we get this complete sketch of his whole life.

We get to see from birth to death, and we get to see the way, you know, God has shaped his life and how God works in him and uses him. Last week we saw that right from the beginning, God orchestrated events to, you know, protect Moses, preserve his life, and that right from the beginning, Moses has a destiny.

Okay. We saw in chapter two, he's drawn out of the water by Pharaoh's daughter, and she names him Moses. It's a word that sounds like the Hebrew word to draw out. We also saw that this name reflects his mission. Moses is gonna be the guy. He's the one who's gonna lead God's people out. He's gonna draw them out of Egypt and lead them to Canaan.

Now, the Bible tells us that when he was born, he was hidden for three months. Can, can you imagine this situation? You carry this child, you give birth, and imagine giving birth to a child and needing to hide it. A birth should be a cause of celebration. It should be a time of joy. But he's a male Hebrew, and so he's born with a death warrant on his head.

Okay, this ain't a course for celebration. This is, this is a fear. Could you imagine the mixed emotions his mother's going through? She's given birth to this child, she's brought him into the world, and now she's thinking, what kind of a life is this child gonna have? Will this child have any kind of life at all?

And so rather than celebrating this new arrival, what we see is the child is hidden. Now listen to what the writer of Hebrews says. By faith, Moses' parents hid him for three months after he was born because they saw he was no ordinary child and they were not afraid of the king's edict. Yes. So they're not afraid of the king's edict.

So when we read this, it's like we, we see the parents realize that God's hand was upon Moses, and so by faith they hide him. Now, understand hiding them comes at great risk. If they get found out, if they get caught disobeying the command of Pharaoh, they're gonna risk his wrath. But they see he's no ordinary child.

They believe God's hand is upon him. So they're prepared to take that risk. So he is hidden from Pharaoh, but he's rescued by his daughter, and this is the amazing thing that God does. What we see is that God is gonna offer this boy the best of both worlds. Pharaoh's daughter has compassion on him, and so she sees that he's raised and protected and educated in Pharaoh's household.

So what we see here is a child who has a death warrant. He's got a death warrant on his head by virtue of being born a male Hebrew boy, yet God arranges it. So he's protected by the very person who ordered his death. Awesome. Another thing God does is arrange it so his mother will be the one who's nurturing him.

We're told in chapter two that God's, uh, that Pharaoh's daughter actually pays her to nurse him. And it's during this time that Moses is gonna learn all about the stories that remind him of his Hebrew identity. He's gonna hear the stories that remind him of his roots as a Hebrew person, and these are the stories that help him understand what it means for him to be part of God's people.

Hm. So what we see is we've got these early formative years with his family. He would've heard all about the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He would've heard that God foretold, he foretold these days that they would be enslaved and mistreated for 400 years in a country, not their own. And maybe he's thinking as he's growing up, it's time.

It's time. Those years have passed. Maybe God's hand has been upon my life, preserving it, protecting it. 'cause you know, I've got a special part to play. All those other boys were thrown in. I was rescued out. Maybe it was for a reason. Maybe I'm the one that God wants to use to deliver his people. So Moses has the best of both worlds, but as he grows up, he realizes that something needs to change.

Listen to what the writer of Hebrews says by faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than, uh, rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt.

'cause he was looking ahead to his reward. God has orchestrated that Moses has the best of both worlds, but as he grows up, he realizes, he realizes that he cannot straddle these two worlds. He realizes I can't have a foot in both camps. And what he's gonna have to do, he's gonna have to choose one and reject the other.

He's got a choice to make. Will I be aligned with God and God's people and suffer disgrace, or will I look to the allure and temptation, the pleasures of Egypt? And Moses makes his choice. He chooses his alliance, he chooses God. Now this is the same choice we all face. Amen. As we seek to, you know, follow Jesus, we're all gonna face situations that compel us to choose which camp we're gonna be in that day, when you raised your hand and said, yes, I'm gonna give my life to God, I'm gonna follow Jesus.

You are saying that, you know, I, I I'm gonna make those hard choices. And as you follow Jesus, we all face circumstances that test our allegiance. This is the Christian life. And there will be things that need to be forsaken If we're gonna become the person that God truly wants us to be, amen. And some of those decisions are not gonna be easy, some of the decisions we need to make to follow Jesus, they're not gonna be easy.

Some of those choices are gonna be really, really hard and it's gonna hurt. Look at the things Moses had to forsake. He had to give up wealth. Luxury, comfort, privilege. He willingly gives these things up and exchanges them for suffering and disgrace. That's the choice Moses made. Now, Jesus spoke about this.

He said, no one can serve two masters. Either you're gonna hate one and love the other, or you'll be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Now, there are many other idols that we cherish and serve besides money, but the point is clear. You cannot have a divided allegiance.

You cannot straddle two worlds with a foot in each camp. You just can't do it. You can't follow Jesus and also follow those things you used to follow before they'll trip you up. Just can't do it Now, do you notice what Jesus didn't say? He didn't say this serving two masters thing. You know it, it's quite tricky and not everyone can do it.

He didn't say, Hey, hey guys, this serving two masters thing. You know, if you are really gifted, if you are really talented, then you might be able to do it. No, Jesus never said that. He said no one, no one can serve two masters. And so Moses comes to this place in his life where he realizes it is time to make a declaration of allegiance.

And he made that choice, that difficult choice to be identified with the people of God. And what about you? We're sitting here today in church. We sing the songs. We take communion. We worship the Lord. Is there something in your life where a choice of allegiance needs to be made? Is there something right now in your life that God's putting his finger on and you need to let it go?

You need to give it up. What's God saying to you? To let those things go is to what it is, you know, is what it means to, to let the Lord shape our lives. It's not easy. Moses made this choice, this allegiance, and we're called to make it to. John once read a story from West Africa about some converts to Christianity.

Now, these were people that didn't grow up with the Christian faith. They'd actually grown up with the ways of their forefathers, the ways of their ancestors. They've heard the gospel. They've made a decision to turn from those ways. And what they did is they, they said, we're gonna make a decision to pledge our allegiance publicly through this act of baptism.

Now, like many other churches in the developing world, they didn't have, you know, a baptismal here in their, in their, their thing. It's a makeshift building often. And so what they had to do, they have to walk across town to go to the river in order to get baptized. And so they, they meet in the church.

They're baptismal candidates. They put on these white robes, and they, and they're dressed in these white robes as they're walking across the township. And of course, all the people come out. They wanna see what's going on. And as they make this long walk to the river, people know who the, who these guys are.

They're pointing fingers. These are the people who have rejected our ways and embraced this outside religion, the forsaken the ways of our forefathers. They've brought shame upon us. This is what's happening. Cue the insults, cue, the jeering and the mocking. Some people are spitting, others are throwing rocks, and can you see what's happening?

Even before they've reached these waters of baptism, they have taken a stand and pledged their allegiance. They are publicly unequivocally declaring where they stood. They stood for Jesus. They suffered disgrace for the sake of Christ. This is what it means to have your life shaped by the Lord. You begin to, you know, walk in the way of the cross.

And maybe I can ask you, have you, have you taken that stand? Have you taken that stand in your own life where you say, Lord, my life belongs to you. I have resolved to follow you, no matter the cost. Moses did it and he'd come at great cost for him. Now reading today, we heard chapter three, the Call of Moses, and it's interesting the parallels between chapter two and chapter three.

We looked at chapter two last week and we were told Pharaoh's daughter came down to the nail to bathe. She saw the basket and she hears Moses crying. And those very same verbs are repeated here in chapter three. God says to Moses, I have seen the misery of my people. I have heard them crying, and I have come down to rescue them.

Can you see the parallel Pharaoh's daughter? She's moved by what she sees and hears, and she acts to save Moses and God the same. He's moved by what he sees and hears, and he will save his people. Now understand this time in chapter three, this point in time, Moses is how old? He's 80 years young. He's an old man, he's 80 years old.

At this point, he's probably thinking, God, you are appearing to me in this burning bush. And if you intend to use me, then I'm sorry, but I think you're a little bit late. That ship has sailed. I'm just an old man who's looking after sheep in the wilderness. God, if, if you really think that highly of me, I appreciate the vote of confidence.

But just so you know, I'm well past my prime. Now, think of Moses life. We know the story, it can be neatly broken into three 40 year periods. And, and, and I can tell you unequivocally clearly that it's in those four first 40 years where you think, Hey, look at, look at this guy Moses. He's a guy who's got it all together.

He's gifted, he's trained, he's a natural. If God's gonna use him, then surely it's, it's in this period of time, it's in his first 40 years of life. Makes sense? Yeah. Now, listen to what Steven says in his speech. To the Sanhedrin in Acts chapter seven, I like this. He says, Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.

And what I wanna do, I wanna look at this sentence by dividing it in two, the first part of this sentence is the equivalent of saying that Moses was educated at Oxford or Harvard. Okay. There's no finer education in the ancient, nearest and world than being educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, okay?

Moses, he would've studied astronomy, law, military tactics. He would've studied, you know, politics, economics, leadership. Moses is the man. If there's ever a season of his life where you think God's gonna use him to deliver his people, it would've been this first 40 year period. All the capacity you can see is there.

He's got strength, he's got energy, he's got intellect. Let's look at the second part of the sentence. Do you notice the irony of what Stephen says? He says, Moses was powerful in what? Speech and action. Now, for Moses, the emphasis probably would've been on, the word was past tense. What's he say when God tells him to go and stand before Pharaoh?

In chapter three, he says, who am I that I should go? Who am I? And basically, I'm a nobody, Lord. That's who I am. You can't use me. I'm no one. Chapter four, look what he says. Pardon your servant. Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past, nor since you've spoken to your servant. I am slower speech and tongue.

I am reading that, and I'm thinking, really, really? You've never been eloquent despite your education in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, you've never been powerful in speech. That is not what Stephen says now. Maybe it's all these years of dragging sheep across the rocks. It's caused Moses to forget who he was.

Or maybe, maybe he's blocked it all out because it's just too painful. That's what I think's happened. That was a lifetime ago. That's who I was, but I've left that long behind. And right now he's thinking, who am I? I'm just an old, has been. I'm not good to anyone. You can't use me, Lord. Have you ever felt that way?

I'm too old. I can't serve because you know, my best days are be behind me. I'm past my prime. And yet God comes to this guy who's 80 years old and he says, I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people out of Egypt. And maybe you can't serve like you used to. But you can serve in you and different ways.

Amen. As you get older, you can serve in new and different ways. There are generations that can look to you for wisdom and experience. It's a wisdom and experience you didn't have in the past, but you have it now, and often it's a wisdom and experience that you have derived through life experiences that were hard and painful, but God has brought you through and now God can use you.

God can use you to sow that into the lives of those who are up and coming. Do you believe that? Are you willing to raise your hand and say, here are my Lord. Use me.

Moses is old, but he can still be useful.

Look what happened the last time Moses tried to serve chapter two. One day after Moses had had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people looking this way and that, and seeing no one. He killed the Egyptian and hit him in the sand.

This is what he did last time. Last time he served. Now if you watch the film The 10 Commandments, you'll see that Moses doesn't look this way and that what he does is he sees this Hebrew being beaten and he, he just reacts in this fit of uncontrolled rage. It's like this crime of passion. He sees that happening, it's going down, and he just responds in this fit of anger.

But this is not what the text says. This says he looked around, he looked left. He looked right. He sees this. No one's, no one's there, no one's watching, and he's strategic in what he does. It's like he already has this in mind. He's just waiting for the right moment. He sees this moment. Now is the time.

It's time for me to act. The question is why. Listen to what else Stephen says In Acts seven, when Moses was 40 years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites. He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian first. 25 is key.

Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did. Not. The reason Moses kills this Egyptian is so that he can present himself and say, Hey guys, here I am. I'm your man. God has preserved my life. He's protected me. He had me drawn out. He had me raised and educated for this very purpose.

For this moment right now, I am your man. Wow. This wasn't some spur of the moment thing. Moses saw what was happening and he thought, this is the time God's about to use me. And it says he assumed the people they're gonna get on board with this too, but they don't. 40 years ago, 40 long years ago, Moses was thinking it's time.

The moment has presented itself. He's got the strength, he's got the energy, he's got the zeal. And now when he doesn't have the strength, the energy or the zil, God says, it's time I'm presenting myself. And he says, I have come down to rescue my people. From the hands of the Egyptian, I have come. I will do it.

It's not about you, Moses, it's me. And here's poor Moses. Despite all his weaknesses, despite all his inadequacies and fears and doubts, God says to him, I'm gonna use you, but I will do it. So what I want you to do, Moses, is get your eyes off yourself and put them on me. And so he appears to him in this burning bush 'cause he wants to get his attention and he wants to give him a glimpse of the power of his presence.

He wants Moses to leave that moment in the wilderness with this etched upon his mind about the power of the presence of the living God.

We understand that God has orchestrated and shaped the events of Moses life, but it wasn't for that moment 40 years ago. It was for this moment here and now in the wilderness. This moment of divine revelation where Moses finally understands that it's not about him and it never was. Amen. Amen. Can I say the same is true in our own lives?

It's true in our own lives. It's usually in the wilderness that we get this revelation that it was never really about us, but that's all about him. It's all about him. These are these moments where we engage God. They're often not in the good times. They're in the wilderness where we're lost, we're broken, we're alone, and God comes to us and we get a, a sense of his power and presence, and we realize it was never about me, Lord, it's all about you.

So here's Moses. Instead of being this proud leader, he finds himself empty. He's completely aware, fully aware of his limitations, and it's here at this point of brokenness that God now says, I can use you now. You realize you've come to the end of you now. Now I can use you. Has that ever been your experience?

Do you know God doesn't need Moses to come up with his clever ideas and strategies? He doesn't need him to use his muscle. All he has to do is go to Pharaoh and tell him exactly what God tells him to say. He just needs to be obedient, but he had to be broken before he could do that. Any person who is used by God first needs to be broken.

It's painful. It's hard. But he brings us to those places where he shows us it's all about him. It's not about us. Yes, he will use us, our gifts and our talents and our experiences. He will use that. He shaped that in us for a purpose, but he can't use us. He'll only take us so far unless we are prepared to be broken and say, Lord, I give myself to you.

Now use me.

Are we okay with this? Yeah, when I came outta Bible college, I knew it all. I was the man. I look back and think, what a young fool I was. Can I tell you my, my education's just begun. And verse 12, God says, I will be with you 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 will worship God on this mountain.

I like this. The goal of our service is worship. Everything we do should point others to God, not to ourselves. It's not about, Hey, look at me. Look at me, look at me. I'm the big man of God. It's not about me, it's about him. Every act of service should point others, not to us, but to him, and this is exactly why it could never have been about Moses.

I like what we read in Exodus chapter 18. It's the end of the story. Moses has returned to the palace. He's fulfilled this role of delivering God's people out of slavery. In verse four, we read that he and Spora have a second son. As we saw last week, his first son was named Gersh, which sounds like the Hebrew word.

A stranger there a. And remember Moses said, named him this saying, I've become a, a stranger in a foreign land. Now, this is when he first had fled to median, as we saw last week. This is a name that catch captures how Moses felt. He tried to do it his way. God, I'm gonna do it my way. He falls flat in his face, he fails, and this is his lament.

He names his son, Gersh. I'm a stranger in a strange land. The second son, he names Za. Za means God is my helper. Moses names him. This saying, for my father's God was my helper. He delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh. Do you see these words? God was my help. God was my help. God did it through me. God was my help.

This is how Moses fulfills his destiny. Lemme close by bringing things full circle. Some of you may be familiar with Malcolm Ridge. He was a, uh, British journalist who was also a, a writer, wrote some Christian books. Probably his most famous book is Jesus the Man Who Lives in the 1970s. He was talking with a Russian dissident by the name of Anatole Ov, who was living in exile in in England.

And OV was telling him, this is quite remarkable. He's telling him how there was scarcely a single writer or artist or musician in the Soviet Union who was not exploring spiritual themes. Now understand this is the 1970s. And so Ridge said, I asked him how this could have happened given the enormous anti-religious brainwashing J job done on the citizenry and the absence of all Christian literature, including the gospels.

How's it happening with all this stuff you know, that the communist government's doing? 'cause nets of reply was profound. He said this, they've suppressed the Bible, they've suppressed the church, but there's one thing they forgot. They forgot to suppress the works of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. The most perfect expositions of the Christian faith of modern times.

Now we know the 1970s. We know the time period. You've got the communist government. They're a godless regime. They're just bombarding their people with atheistic propaganda. They've banned the Bible, they're trying to control the church, but they were so proud of these Russian, you know, classics of literature that there's no way they're gonna suppress them.

They would never suppress something that they could use to boast of Soviet superiority. And it was these very works that they boasted in that became a source of God's grace to the Soviet people. Isn't it amazing how God works now? Think of the life of Dostoevsky. He went through this time of in, you know, incredible hardship and and preparation.

And after all the suffering, after all the hardship, God's able to use him to write about the grace he had experienced. And what he did is he left that Gulag and he infused this in all of his stories. And it was these stories that spoke to future generations of people who will be denied the very New Testament he held onto tightly in that Gulag.

It's amazing. Now, think about your own life. In what way has God shaped you? What has God taught you? Never underestimate the unexpected ways in which God can use your life experiences to speak grace into the lives of others. Never underestimate the ways in which God can use you, even now in old age. He did it in Moses.

He can do it in us. Amen. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you that you've called us. You ask us to follow you, help us to do that. Help us to follow Jesus more clearly, more dearly. And Father, you want to use us and we thank you for that. We thank you. What we see in chapter three of Exodus, that we never passed our use by date. We never expired.

Lord God, you can always use us and you have been using us and shaping us, preparing us our whole lives. And until that day when we see Jesus face to face, we can serve you. And so Father, help us to do that. Help us to look to you and the ways in which you can use us even now. Help us to focus on you and the power of your presence.

Use us that we can be a light to those who would look to us to speak grace, to show Jesus to glorify you that others would worship the God that we know. We ask all this in Jesus' precious name. Amen.

Amen.