Stumbling Blocks

Pastor Burcham's Sermon

Sunday, February 19, 2006

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Whenever we start developing a deeper relationship with God, something always comes in to try to prevent that from happening. Whenever we start developing a deeper relationship with God, we start drawing closer to Him and we feel the fire of faith is more alive in us than what it was before, it's usually about that time we can hear God calling us to action. God is either calling us to lead a life that is more bold for Him or maybe He's calling us to do something specific in His kingdom and work He needs done. But, each time that happens, usually something gets in the way, some stumbling block, some roadblock, some reason why we can't do what God is calling us to do.

I've seen it played out in my life several times but never so dramatic as during a nine-year stretch of time when all these stumbling blocks kept coming into play. You see, it first happened when I was 13. At 13, I was in confirmation class and I guess I was unlike some of my other classmates because I liked confirmation class. In fact, I enjoyed it a lot. I liked the pastor. I liked what he was teaching. I was really soaking it in. Now, unbeknownst to anyone else, because like any other 13-year-old, I wouldn't let anyone know, I was really drawing closer to God during that year. It was a year of tremendous growth for me and my relationship with God and it was during that year that I first got the inclination, first had the thought cross my mind that maybe God wants me to be a pastor.

Well, that was a bizarre thought. I didn't know where that came from. I was so serious about it, I went home and I told my mother. I said, “You know, I think God wants me to be a pastor.” She had an interesting reaction to that. I don't think she knew what to make of it either. But I said, “If I'm going to do that, they tell me I probably should go to the Lutheran High School .” Because that's what you're going to do. If you're going to be a Lutheran pastor, you go to the Lutheran High School .

I ended up going to the Lutheran High School , but you know what? I quickly came to my senses, you see, because I heard God calling me to action but then all these others things kind of came into play. Like, first of all, I started thinking, “Now that doesn't make sense, because that doesn't fit into my plans.” You see, I've always been a driven individual and, although you may not believe this, since the time I was 10 years old, I knew what I was going to do. Since 10, I had declared I was going to be an engineer. So anything that required power or had buttons on it, I was all over that. So this didn't fit into my plans. “I don't know what that was talking about. I'm going to be an engineer.”

Two years later, though, once again, you go to a Lutheran High School , you know what? They have religion classes there. Wouldn't you know it? I liked the religion classes there. My classmates didn't, but I really got into the New Testament. Really liked the Old Testament classes that were there. And then I discovered something else. I discovered there was another subject that came rather easily to me other than math. It was speech class. So, all of a sudden, this introvert from the back of the room would walk up front, deliver his 5 or 7-minute speech with all confidence, and then become introverted again and go sit in the back of the room. My classmates really didn't know what to make of me at speech class. So I thought, “Well, maybe God is saying this is what I'm supposed to do.”

Ah, but then I started thinking, “No, not me. I don't fit the mold. No, as I look around, as I looked at all the pastors I had during my lifetime, I didn't fit the mold. I wasn't the one who was supposed to do that. I mean, after all, pastors were serious. They were solemn. I missed being class clown by one vote. No, this wasn't for me.”

Well, to make a long story short, I'm not sure how, but I ended up at a Lutheran College . Wouldn't you know it, at a Lutheran College , they have religion courses there, too, and I liked them. I really got into the classes that were there. And so, once again, God was knocking on my door. I was drawing closer to Him during my freshman year in college, really getting alive in my faith, and I thought, “Maybe this is what God wants me to do.” Ah, but then I looked around. “No, the other guys in my dorm that were going to study so they could go on to seminary, all their fathers were pastors. My father wasn't a pastor. They were studying Greek and Hebrew. I barely made it through English. No, I don't have the smarts to be a pastor. I don't have what it takes to go on to graduate school. Not going to happen.”

Finally, in my third year, the stumbling blocks kept coming in and I finally had to give up and say, “Okay, God, if this is what you want, then go ahead.” But my point is, each time my relationship with God started to go a little bit deeper, I heard God calling me to action, and each time He called me to action, something would happen. There would be some reason, some excuse why I couldn't do what God was asking me to do.

For four weeks, we have been striving to renew, re-energize, rekindle our relationship with God. And I believe that's taking effect because, as you study God's Word, as you hear from God's Word, I trust and I believe and I pray that each of you are becoming closer to God. You're deepening your relationship with God but, as that happens, you're going to hear God call to you and God's going to call you to action. He may call you to lead a bolder life for Christ and to be a bolder witness in your actions. God may be calling you to do something specific in His kingdom. And, as that happens, something is going to come in the way. All these reasons are going to come into your mind of why you can't do what God is asking you to do. Stumbling blocks, road blocks are going to be there.

We need to discover how to get over those stumbling blocks, to get over those stumbling blocks so we can continue to grow and deepen our relationship with God and our commitment to Christ. Once again, we turn to our friend, Moses. Moses had a number of stumbling blocks he had to get past, and we see how God gets him past each and every one of those.

First of all, let's understand what stumbling blocks are all about. Stumbling blocks all center on us, not on God. And there are three different kinds of stumbling blocks we can run into. The first one is the emotional stumbling block. We saw it last week probably more than this week with Moses. It was the whole fear thing Moses had. So, at Chapter 4, Moses says, “What if they don't believe me or listen to me? What if they say the Lord didn't appear to me?” It's all the “what if” questions Moses had. Moses was scared. He was frightened to go back to Egypt . He was frightened to talk to the Israelite leaders because, “What would happen? What was going to go on?” It's an emotional roadblock that was thrown in to say to Moses he can't do what God is asking him to do.

Emotional roadblocks come up for you all the time. It's all the “what if” questions that happen. So, for instance, let's say Tim Kightlinger, our Director of Youth Ministry, walked up to you and he said, “You know, I've been praying about this and you're the exact person to teach Junior High on Sunday morning.” That's right, 39 13 and 12-year-olds in one room with you and you're going to do a wonderful job, aren't you? Frightened to death, wouldn't you be? Rightfully so. Maybe not a good example. It's the emotional roadblock that says “what if.” “What if I invited my friends to youth group? How would they react?” “What if I approached a co-worker who's going through a painful divorce and said, ‘You know, I'm going to pray for you and if there's anything I can do, just let me know.'” What would happen if you approached the neighbor and you said, “You know, why don't your kids come with my kids to Vacation Bible School over Spring Break?” It's all those emotional roadblocks that come in that want to prevent us from doing what God is calling us to do.

The second roadblock we run into are what I'm going to call intellectual roadblocks. That is, we're saying we just are unable, we don't have the skills, we don't have the smarts to do what God is asking us to do. That's basically what Moses was saying to God. God is sending him off there, so Moses answered Him and said, “Lord, I've never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you've spoken to your servant.” He's saying, “God, I can't think on my feet. You need somebody who's a lot better at thinking on their feet, can answer the questions of the Israelites, can sort of spar back and forth with Pharaoh and well, you know, before this conversation, I wasn't real quick on my feet and I have to tell you, God, now that we're in the conversation, I'm still not real quick on my feet here. I really don't have the skills, the gifts that are necessary for me to do what you're asking me to do.” It's an intellectual roadblock that comes up.

That happens to us all the time. We hear God asking us to do something, calling us into action, and we come up with all the reasons why we are not qualified to do that, why we simply don't have the skills to do that. So when you were asked to lead a small group, you said, “Well, I can't lead a small group because I just don't know the bible very well. And, you know, a leader really should know the bible pretty well. I don't enter into religious discussions with people because they might ask a question I couldn't answer and, you see, I don't have the training you have. So, therefore, we just don't talk about it because I don't want to do any more harm than good.” It's intellectual roadblocks when we're saying we don't have the gifts, we don't have the skill, we don't have the knowledge to do what God is asking us to do.

The third roadblock we run into is the physical stumbling block that says, “I physically can't do what you're asking me to do.” That's what Moses said to God. He said to God, “I am slow of speech and of tongue.” He says, “God, I have a speech impediment. Now how ridiculous to ask me to be your spokesman to Pharaoh. How's that going to work? I can't talk to the man. He probably wouldn't be able to understand me. The people might laugh at me because of this impediment I have. I'd love to help you out, God, but I simply physically can't do what you're asking me to do.”

How many times have you said to God, “I just simply can't do what you're asking me to do. I'd love to help out, God. I'd like to do this, but I can't. I'd like to help out in the ministry here, God, but, you know what, I can't. I simply don't have the time. Here, let me pull out my DayTimer for you, I'll show you, Sunday through Saturday, I'm booked solid. I have kids to deliver. I have a job to do. Every ounce of every day is taken up. I simply can't do what you're asking me to do. I physically am unable to.”

Stumbling blocks, they come in three varieties, but they center on one thing. You. Stumbling blocks center on us, not on God. They center on what we can and cannot do. They center on how we feel or don't feel. They center on whether we're qualified or not qualified. They're not centered on God. Somehow, we get the idea, when God is calling us to action, God is calling us to help Him out. It is not God is calling upon us to help Him. It's not what you can do for God, but it's all about what God is going to do through you. It's not what Moses could do for God. It's what God was going to do in and through Moses. And when God calls us to action, it's not what we can do for God but what God is going to do in and through us. That's why we have to remove the stumbling blocks. We have to get past the roadblocks so we can discover how God is going to work in and through us to accomplish what it is He wants to get done.

We get past stumbling blocks when we stop focusing on ourselves and we focus on God and we focus on what God is going to accomplish. And God promises us three things: First of all, God says He qualifies you. God qualifies you. It isn't that you're qualified. It's the fact God is the one who qualifies you. There's an old statement I think is true. It goes like this: God doesn't call the qualified. He qualifies the called. He qualifies the called. That's how it is with Moses. Did you see how He reacted to Moses' objections to stumbling blocks? The first thing He said to him, “The Lord said to him, ‘Who gave man his mouth? Who gave him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord?” Who is it who qualifies you to do something? It's God who qualifies us. It's not about our qualifications. It's about God qualifying us and asking us to do things. So all the questions of “what if,” all the wondering of how things will turn out, they're really moot questions because God's going to accomplish it. God is the one who created you and, if God is calling you to do it, you can be certain that you are able to do it. You see, Moses didn't think he was qualified. And, in once sense, he wasn't, but, in another sense, there was no one more qualified than Moses. Think about it for a moment. Moses grew up in the Pharaoh's palace. He knew the inner workings of the palace. He knew the politics. He knew how to approach the Pharaoh, what channels to go through, and he was a Hebrew by birth. Therefore, he was one of God's chosen race plus he knew all the inner workings of the palace. He was qualified for that because God qualified him. From the moment he was born, God had designed for him, for this moment, right now, right here to go back and lead his people out. God qualified him for that specific task, and God qualifies you.

If God is calling you into action, whether to lead a bolder life for Him or to do something specific in His kingdom, God has uniquely gifted and blessed you. He's promised that. And if He's calling upon you to do something, then you are qualified to do that. God says He empowers you. That's what He said to Moses. He said He's empowering Moses. That's why He said to Moses, “I will help you speak. I'll teach you what to say.” He's not going to abandon Moses. He's not going to send him back to Egypt and say, “Well, you're on your own. Let me know how it turns out. Should be okay.” He says, “I'm going to be there every step along the way and I'm going to teach you. I'm going to help you.” He says, “I'm going to empower you to do what needs to be done.”

God's made the same promise to us. When God called us to faith, He also gave us the gift of His Holy Spirit. When God called you to faith, either through your baptism or through the power of the Word, when He turned your heart around so you put your trust and your love and your hope in Jesus Christ as your Savior, He put a deposit in your heart of His Holy Spirit. And He says about that spirit that it's a spirit of power. Acts 1, He says, “You'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.” Luke 10 when He's talking to the disciples and they're worried about, “Well, how are they going to react to people when they're questioned about their faith,” Jesus says, “Don't worry about what you're going to say.” He says, “The Holy Spirit will teach you at that very moment exactly what you need to say.” God empowers us to do whatever He asks us to do. He even gave Aaron to Moses. Moses was complaining about his speech impediment. He says, “Fine, your brother-in-law is coming.” He's going to give you whatever you need to accomplish the task He's calling you to, because God equips you.

He equipped Moses. He said, “I'll teach you. I'll be there every step along the way.” You continue following through Exodus, you find out God is leading, guiding, teaching, telling Moses exactly what to say. He equips him with whatever it is he needs. God equips you. Not only has He uniquely gifted you and qualified you, He's empowered you through His Spirit and He's going to provide whatever is necessary so you can do what He's calling upon you to do.

Basically, when God enters into the picture, roadblocks are blown away. They're simply removed. Because roadblocks are all about us. It's not about what we can do for God. It's about what God is going to do in and through us.

For four weeks, we've been rekindling the fire of faith and trying to renew and re-energize that passion we have for God and for all things spiritual. As that faith grows and as that relationship deepens, God is going to call on you. He's going to call on you either to live more boldly for Him or to do something specific in His kingdom. I don't know if He's going to call you into full-time church work. He might. I don't know if He's going to call you into the ministry here and to do something among His people, or maybe He's just going to call you to reach out in your neighborhood. I don't know, but I know He's going to. And I'm also positive that roadblocks, stumbling blocks are going to come in the way and you need to overcome those. And you overcome them by focusing on God and not on yourself. Know that God qualifies you, empowers you, and equips you. Amen.