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EXODUS 3:1-12

"WHO AM I"

Intro: God's watchful care over His people,  "I have seen, etc."

I. WHEN DID HE ASK THE QUESTION.
        A. After forty years of herding sheet In the desert regions of Median.
        B. Forty years earlier he would not have asked the question, "Who am I?"
                1. He was the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
                2. He was trained for the throne.
                3. He was conscious of God's call on his life.
                        a. He figured God had placed him in this unique position for this
                           reason.
                        b. He thought all the Israelites would know this also.
                        c. When forty years earlier he was asked "who are you made you to be
                           ruler over us?" He was shocked,  Acts 7.
        C. After God had called him again to lead the people out of        .
                1. He had started to do this forty years ago without success.
                        a. He did not succeed in burying on Egyptian.
                        b. God was wanting to bury the whole army.
                2. Moses' call was right, his timing was off.
                        a. He was forty years too soon.
                        b. God not only calls to a task, but will tell when.
                3. Moses sought in the energy of the flesh to fulfill a purpose of God.
                        a. Sought with carnal weapons to fight a spiritual battle.
                        b. God does not call us to a task and then say "have at it," but he
                           also seeks to equip us for the task.
        D. His question revealed that the second phase of his preparation was completed.
                1. He had spent his first forty years in the schools of Egypt training to be
                   something.
                2. His  next forty years where to be spent in the isolation of the desert
                   learning he was nothing, "who am I?"
                3. His next forty years were to be spent in learning how God could take
                   nothing and make of it the greatest human leader in history.

II. THE ANSWER OF THE QUESTION REALLY DOESN'T MATTER.
        A. We all have a personal estimation of ourselves.
                1. Sometimes they are exhalted.
                2. Sometimes very low self-estimate.
                        a. Tried & failed so often.
        B. Who I am doesn't count, it is who God is that matters.
                1. God said "certainly I will be with you."
                2. It is not a matter of - my strength.
                                         my qualifications.
                                         my wisdom.
                                         my abilities. 
                3. God was just seeking an instrument through which He might do His work.
        C. God is sufficient for any task He has called you to perform.

III. THE QUESTION FOLLOWED THE REVELATION OF GOD - WHAT HE WAS DOING.
        A. I am the God of thy Father... I have surely seen...
                I. have heard their cry... I know their sorrow....
                I. am have come down to deliver.
                1. God's true revelation always reveals our moral imperfections.
                Isa. a. "I am a man of unclean lips."
                Dan. b. "My comeliness was turned onto corruption."
                Job. c. "Behold I am of small account."
                Peter d. "I am a sinful man."
                Paul e. "The chiefest of sinners."
                These are the men through whom God worked to magnify His grace.