Print

EXODUS 3:11

"WHO AM I?"

Intro: We hear much talk today of "identity crisis." There is a great attempt to bring
       people to a consciousness of themselves as persons rather than a role player. You
       are not a wife or mother first, you are a person first. Any self-centered concept
       will lead you to emptiness and frustration. We need a God-centered personality and
       life.

I. "WHO AM I?"
        A. God had brought Moses to this identity crisis.
                1. Forty years earlier, he would never have asked the question.
                        a. He was extremely good looking.
                        b. He was well educated.
                        c. He felt a divine commission.
                2. He had gone out one day among his brethren he saw an Egyptian smiting a
                   Hebrew.
                        a. He looked this way and that way and saw no man.
                                1. He did not look up. He was man conscious not God
                                   conscious.
                        b. Moses smote the Egyptian and killed him, he then attempted to
                           bury him in the sand.
                                1. He was attempting in the energy of the flesh to do the
                                   work of God.
                                2. He could not successfully bury one Egyptian. God desired
                                   to bury their whole army.
                        c. He had committed himself to a task not to God.
                                1. I am leary of these calls to commitment to church,
                                   programs.
                                2. We need to be committed to Christ.
                3. The next day when he went to break up a fight between two Hebrews, the
                   identity crisis began.
                        a. "Who made you to be ruler over us?"
                        b. He saw the plan of  God so clearly, he thought they all knew.
                           Acts 7:25.
                4. Shocked and afraid Moses fled.
                5. His next forty years spent as a nothing shepherd.
                        a. From being in line to the throne of Egypt to herding sheep. What
                           a come down.
                        b. It was really excellent training in the wilderness shepherding
                           sheep.
                        c. For he was to lead God's sheep forty years in this wilderness.
                        d. He went from a self-centered. Self-sufficient person to a "Who 
                           Am I?"
        B. His self-image pretty shattered.
                1. No ability vs. 11.
                2. No message vs. 13.
                3. No Authority vs. 4:1.
                4. No eloquence vs. 4:10.
                5. No desire vs. 4:13.
        C. God promised His sufficiency for Moses inability.
                1. "I will be with you." vs. 12.
                2. God gave him the message to speak.
                3. God sent him in the authority of His name - "I AM" hath sent me to you.
                4. "I will be with thy mouth."
                5. God's anger kindled against Moses.

II. WHO I AM DOESN'T REALLY MATTER, IT IS WHO GOD IS THAT COUNTS.
        A. Moses was conscious of his failure, this helped to now qualify him.
                1. Not self-reliance, God reliance.
                2. Not my strength, ability, wisdom.
        B. God said, "I will be with you."
                1. He is capable to do any work He has called you to perform.
        C. Many times God in His love strips us of what we are in order to make us what
           He is.