Diving Board Moments

Thank you so much. It is so good to be here with you this morning. As JD said, my wife Laura and I, we got to spend a year here with the Summit Church doing a church planting residency and God used that year in our life in massive ways and there were a lot of ways that we were expecting him to change us. One of the things I don't think we were fully prepared for though was how much this church family would become a spiritual home for our family during our time here. I don't think we expected how much God was going to connect us with this family, which was interesting because the whole year we're here, it's like, okay, love that you're getting connected. Don't get all that connected because you're leaving.

You're gone at the end of it, but man, it is just such a joy. It feels like we're back home at Summit this weekend and I'm so excited to study God's Word together. We're going to be in Exodus chapter 3 if you want to find that.

In your copy of the Bible, it is the second book in the Old Testament if you're sort of new to studying scripture. As you find that, let me just set up a little bit of where we're headed this morning. When I think about planting a church and I think about the journey that God has us on, I tell people often that I have right now what is, for me, the dream job. This is what God has called me to do. This is what I want to be doing. It is the greatest job I've ever had, but there's a close second in my life. It is all of the years that I spent my summers working as a lifeguard. It is pretty hard to argue with a job where the primary qualifications are, can you sit in a chair and twirl a whistle?

It's an amazing deal. And not only do you sit there, you get to work on your tan, you're paid to work on your tan, all that, but you get to watch all of the drama that unfolds in a pool on a daily basis. There's the drama of the parents trying to teach the toddler how to swim.

The toddler that has the water wings and the life jacket and the inner tube around them. And you're like, ma'am, that child cannot move, let alone swim. But there he is, all inflated. And she's like, no, stick your head in. And I'm like, he can't stick his head in.

He's so inflated. He's just there. So you get to watch that happen.

I'm playing Marco Polo. There's a lot of emotion and a lot of drama happening right there. It's a coed game, and everybody's trying to get close, but not too close, look interested, but not too interested. So there's kind of endless fascination happening there. But to be honest, all of that is just a warm up for the main event, which is down in the deep end of the pool, because that's where the diving board is. And watching kids experience the diving board for the first time is a source of never-ending entertainment. I realize for some of you, this just makes you sound sick and twisted. You like to watch kids suffer on the diving board. That's not so much it.

It's just amazing to watch it unfold. Because some kids, they just get down there and they own that diving board. They just walk right up that ladder, go out to the end of the board, dive, do their backflip, cannonball, whatever, and life is great for them. But then there's some other kids that you can tell they're just a little bit more timid about the whole diving board thing. See, they're going to pick their moment at the diving board pretty carefully. They're constantly looking. They're trying to find the time where there's not a lot of other kids at the diving board, because they want to be by themselves in that moment, and they don't want any back pressure from the line behind them. So they kind of pick the moment.

They're like, okay, there's nobody down there, and they get over there, and they get up the ladder really fast, and they get out to the end of the diving board, and some keep going, but some, they're there, and they just, they freeze. At that point, you're like, oh, no. You're stuck in this moment right there. I realize, by the way, for some of you, I'm just bringing up childhood trauma right now.

It's like group therapy. You're like, oh, I thought I was over it, and I'm not. I get it.

I know. Just lean into that with me for a minute, because you're here in that moment, and you can see what they start to do. They start doing the math. They're looking behind them, because what's happened, by the way, inevitably what's happened, there was nobody else around when they started to go up the ladder, and now 15 kids are behind them somehow. And they're totally trapped, and they're looking back. They're like, well, I can't go that way, and I'm not going that way, but I can't go that way. Now the kids are yelling at them, jump, dive, get out of my way.

There's pressure there, and they're like, but I can't do that, and they just freeze. I don't know what their long-term plan is at that point. I think some of them, honestly, are just like, look, at some point, they will have to shut the pool down. I've seen kids that are out there. They're like, look, my hope is sunset.

I will wait here until the sun goes down, and they close the pool, and that's how I'm going to get out of this moment, and they're just frozen there. And I know it's so much fun to think about that, and some of us, we can relive it. We all can envision that moment.

Here's my question. How much does that look like your walk with Jesus, though? Because I think there's a lot of us that God has led us to a place in life where we know he's calling us to do something that is thrilling and terrifying all in the same moment. And we don't want to run away from it. We don't want to back out, but we're not quite ready to jump either. I think there's a lot of us that are in some form of spiritual paralysis where we're stuck at the end of a particular diving board.

And what we're going to see this morning is that if that's where you are, you're not alone. In fact, one of the great heroes of the Scriptures finds himself in a very similar spot. His name is Moses, and you may have already figured out Exodus 3 and 4 is the story that we commonly refer to as the burning bush. And what we're going to see, kind of the quick summary of this story, is that God calls Moses to do something that is absolutely extraordinary. And then Moses is going to spend nearly two chapters of Scripture offering objection after objection to God, basically explaining to God, here's how I'm going to try to get out of your plan for my life. But ultimately, God is going to answer Moses' objections. And the reason we're studying all this, by the way, is because Moses' objections look very similar to the ones you and I are tempted to offer God. And as God answers Moses' objections, he's going to be developing confidence in us that will carry us over our objections into a life of risky obedience to Jesus.

Because the simple reality of it is that to have continued spiritual growth in our life, we must confront those diving board moments. Growth in Christ requires us to deal with risky obedience to Jesus. So we're going to pick up the story in Exodus 3, verse 7, but let me just give you a quick summary to make sure we're all on the same page. Moses was born into a Jewish family during the time of Israel's enslavement in Egypt. And Pharaoh, who was the ruler of Egypt, he was starting to get worried about the power of Israel.

So he gave a decree that said all Jewish males were to be killed at birth. Moses' mom couldn't stand the thought of that, so she put him in a basket. You've seen Prince of Egypt, you know how this works. Puts him in a basket and floats him down the Nile River. Pharaoh's daughter finds him, takes him into her home, loves him as her own. But ultimately, Moses goes into exile, flees Egypt, goes into exile. At the time of this story, he's living in a land called Midian where he's working as a shepherd tending his father-in-law's sheep.

And one day he's out there hanging out with the sheep, and in the distance he sees a bush that is on fire. That all by itself is not particularly remarkable. It's a desert area. It's very dry. It takes very little to light that kind of a bush on fire.

So that all by itself isn't interesting. What's interesting is this bush is on fire, but it's not being consumed. It's not being burned up. There's just this fire that has come to rest on the bush. And Moses, honestly, probably out of sheer boredom, decides to go over and take a look at this bush. It's like, hey, I can either spend an afternoon hanging out with the sheep, or we could wander over and see what's happening with the bush.

Yeah, let's go check that out. As he gets closer, what he comes to realize is this is no natural phenomenon. What's happening is that God himself has actually come to rest his presence on this bush, and God himself is speaking to Moses. And what God himself is about to say to Moses is absolutely extraordinary. Exodus chapter 3, verse 7. The Lord says, I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of the land to a good and a broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And now behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. If you're Moses, that's an amazing moment. I mean, not only is God himself speaking to Moses, but what he's saying is absolutely extraordinary. He's saying, Moses, I see the suffering of my people.

I've heard their cry. It matters to me, and I'm about to lead Israel into freedom. All this time of slavery, it's about to come to an end. I'm about to do a whole new thing in Israel. Moses would have gone home at that point a very happy man if that was the end of the story. It would have been an interesting dinner table conversation that day. It's like, hey, Moses, how was your day?

Well, fairly ordinary until God showed up. Then he started talking. And by the way, I think Israel's on their way out of slavery in Egypt. That would have been interesting. That would have been worth tweeting out in the moment. He'd be like, wow, that's pretty fascinating, and life would have been great. The problem is God's not done talking yet. You've got to go to verse 10 where God says, Come, I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. Now we get to Moses' diving board moment. Moses is absolutely terrified. He's loving God's plan, and he's terrified because God's plan is to send him into Egypt.

God's plan is to send him to confront Pharaoh. And we're going to pick up the text in just a minute, but let's pause for a second. Because in order for this to really come alive in our lives, we have to ask the question, what is the diving board moment in your life right now? Where is God leading you to do something that is thrilling and terrifying? Where's God asking you to do something that makes you incredibly uncomfortable?

Before you answer that too quickly, let's make sure we understand the characteristics of these diving board moments. Number one, it's God-initiated, not man-initiated. This is God having a plan for Moses. This is God's vision for Moses' life. This is not Moses dreaming up some great idea, lighting a bush on fire to see if God will possibly show up and see if he can talk God into blessing his plan.

This is God saying, Moses, here's what I'm asking you to do. By the way, you know it's a God-initiated vision when it's also a God-glorifying vision, not a man-glorifying vision. The whole point of this story is not that the whole world is going to see the greatness of Moses. The point of the story is that Israel and Egypt are going to see the glory of God. And by the way, it is an absolutely terrifying vision for Moses, not an absolutely comforting vision.

So please, as we walk through this passage together, please let's just all be clear about this. This is not three steps in how to get God to do what you've always wanted him to do. This is how do we respond in the moment where God calls us to do something that's absolutely terrifying. So let me ask you again, what is the diving board moment in your life right now? For some of us, it might be getting baptized. You've heard it over and over and over again, and you know God's asking you to take that step, but you keep resisting, you're stuck at the end of the diving board. For some of us, it's joining a small group. You know you're meant to live in community, but you just keep pushing it off. For some of us, it's sharing the gospel with a particular coworker.

You know exactly the person that I'm talking about. For some of us, it's using vacation time to go on a short-term mission trip. Maybe for some of us, it's forgiving somebody that's hurt us badly. Maybe for some of us, it is moving to a whole new city for the sake of the gospel. For some of us, by the way, the diving board moment today is probably placing faith in Jesus for the first time. Now, you've been coming to Summit for a while, and you've heard the story of the gospel. You know that there's nothing you can do by yourself to earn God's favor.

There's nothing you can do to make yourself acceptable to God. You know that Jesus died in your place. You know that eternal life is found only in him. You know that the doorway to that life is repentance. You know it happens through faith. You know all of that, yet for some reason, you've just hesitated and waited to make that decision, maybe because you know it's going to cause you to change your lifestyle fairly significantly, and you're camped out at the end of the diving board of faith. And what God's calling you to do today is just to believe.

And let's be honest. With the number of people that call the Summit church home, campuses all over this city, there's a good number of us who are sitting here right now and probably thinking, I don't even know what my moment is anymore. I've gotten so complacent in my walk with Jesus that I'm not even sure where he's trying to lead me anymore.

There was a time where I had all this vision. There was a time where I felt like he was leading me to do things like share the gospel. He was leading me to take risks with my faith. He was leading me to give. He was leading me to serve.

But I've just been so complacent, I'm not even sure I hear his voice anymore. And you're camped out at the end of the diving board of complacency in the moment for you today saying, God, I just don't want to live my life that way. Would you lead me to something specific? Would you show me what is it? You saved me from something a whole lot more significant than just taking up a seat in a church. Lead me, God. Show me, speak to me. Show me what that moment is.

But whatever it is for you, whether it seems like it's something massive or it seems something relatively small, I want you to hold on to that. And I want you to be thinking about that as we follow the rest of the way through the passage because as you think about that moment, there's objections in your heart, and they're probably going to look very similar to the ones that Moses offers. To be honest with you, if you don't have some objections in your heart to the thing God's calling you to do, it's probably not one of these true diving board moments because Moses responds with a whole series of objections.

The first of one is that he's inadequate. He just comes right out and says, look, God, I am not able to do what you are asking me to do. Exodus chapter 3, verse 11. But Moses said to God, who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt? By the way, who am I in the original language?

That is a classic way of expressing inadequacy. The prophet Isaiah, the prophet Jeremiah, they both respond the same way when God calls them into ministry. It's the way that David responds when Saul offers him one of his daughters in marriage. He says, who am I that I could marry one of the king's daughters? It's the way Elizabeth responds when Mary comes to visit her with Jesus in her womb, and Elizabeth says, who am I that the mother of my Lord would come to visit me?

It is a classic expression of inadequacy. It is Moses saying, look, I can't pull this off, God. This vision is way bigger than me.

This vision is beyond my ability. And I think Moses was feeling not only a general sense of inadequacy, but he had some specific inadequacies in mind. Exodus chapter 4 verse 10 makes that a little bit clearer. Moses says to the Lord, oh my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue. In other words, God, you seem to be hiring me as your spokesman. And the problem with that is I'm not a really very good public speaker. I'm not all that eloquent. I'm not going to do a very good job.

God, we need a different person because I am totally inadequate. And here's what's amazing about God's response to Moses. Because I think we hear that, oh, Moses doesn't feel up to the task, and I think our 21st century American culture has led us to believe that what's going to happen now is that God is going to give Moses a pep talk. We kind of expect God to say, Moses. Oh, Moses, stop with all this negative self-image.

What is wrong with you? You are a special boy. You always have been a special boy. You floated down the river.

Man, that's good stuff. You had potential floating down that river. You were a little basket of potential, even back then when you were born, and you've had a great upbringing.

And what I need you to do, Moses, I need you to envision yourself confronting Pharaoh, and I need you to see your greatness, and I need you to believe your greatness, and I need you to put your big boy pants on, and I need you to get in there and go get it done, Moses. I believe in you, buddy. Why do you think I lit this bush up? It's because you're awesome.

We were like, oh, yeah, way to go. You're like, that's a word from the Lord for me today. Isn't that great?

Okay, here's the problem before you go ahead and claim that one for yourself. That's not what God says. Moses is over here like, hey, I'm pretty inadequate, and God's response is essentially, oh, good point. You are pretty mediocre.

Nothing awesome happening with you. And he just kind of leaves them in that moment and says, you're right. That's true. But, but, I'm going to go with you, and I'm going to be your adequacy, and I'm going to be your sufficiency. Verse 12, God says, I will be with you, and that will be the sign for you that I have sent you, that when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.

In other words, Moses, here's what you need to know. I called you to do this. I'm going with you, and that's enough for you to know you are going to be successful. You're coming back to this mountain, but the next time you come, you're bringing about three million of your friends, and you're going to worship me here because it's going to be a sign that I am the one that delivered you. Listen, some of us are camped out at the end of the diving board because we don't feel adequate. To be perfectly honest, you shouldn't feel adequate. If you feel adequate for what God is calling you to do, you are either shockingly arrogant or you haven't really heard from God because God's call on our lives is always bigger than what we can do in our own power. God's always going to lead you to moments where you say, God, I can't do this. Because it's in those moments of personal inadequacy that we experience the sufficiency of God. I mean, can I tell you, I do not wake up in the morning feeling sufficient to plant a church. I do not wake up in the morning feeling like I've got it all figured out, like, oh, here's our strategy, here's our plan, here's everything.

Oh, God, absolutely, you're going to bless this. More mornings than not, I wake up thinking, God, we have no hope of being able to reach this city. There's 50 people in our church plant, and we look out over Washington, D.C., and we say, God, we're asking you to use us to reach this city. And I'll tell you, when 50 people are huddled together on a Sunday morning looking out over a city of 6 million people that is a city that is hostile to the gospel, we're saying, God, we want to reach these people for Jesus, we want your gospel to go forward. We do not feel adequate to that task. And I know there's more people here in the Summit Church than there are in our tiny little church plant, but can I be honest, this church, with all of the blessings it has, all of the resources, all of the blessing of God on this church, all by ourselves, we're not meant to feel adequate for the task of reaching Raleigh-Durham.

We're meant to sit back and say, God, I can't do this. God, I can't even share the gospel faithfully at my workplace without your help. God, I can't even love my wife the way I should without your help. God, I'm terrified to go and start serving on a Sunday morning.

I don't even know that I'll do that right. God, I need your help. And in that moment that we feel inadequate, we are poised to be reminded that God's story for our lives has always been one of, yes, we're inadequate, but he is adequate. That's the gospel. Jesus didn't save us because we were adequate. The gateway to following Jesus was admitting our own inadequacy.

We start inadequate and we stay inadequate throughout the whole journey. It's not like we start by admitting our need for a Savior and then we grow out of that. Jesus was fully aware that his church was always going to need his help. That's why he promised a helper to you and to me. John 14, verse 16, Jesus says, And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper, to be with you forever.

He's talking about the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit that lives inside of you and inside of me if you're a follower of Christ. Jesus doesn't need to offer a helper to adequate people. Jesus offers a helper because he knows our inadequacy.

So if you're at the end of the diving board waiting until you feel ready, it's never going to happen. You just need to jump anyway and see that God is adequate. Right, Moses goes on from there. His next objection is a little irreverent. It's a little like, ooh, can you say that to God? Because essentially what he says to God is, Hey, your plan, yeah, it doesn't make any sense.

God, this is a really bad plan. Essentially Moses is kind of calling time out here. He's like, hey, God, let's just review the fundamentals of your plan.

You would like me to go back to Egypt, march my little shepherd self into Pharaoh's throne room, and if I understand the script correctly, you would like me to tell him that you and I were having a little chat out by a bush, and it would please you greatly if he would let all of Israel go, thereby upending the Egyptian economy and throwing everything into total chaos. God's like, yep, that's the plan. And Moses is like, okay, well, that's not a very good plan.

What if they don't believe me? That's not going to work, God, and God is going to answer Moses' objections very specifically, but I think for our purposes today, we need to kind of see ourselves where Moses is, because Moses, number one, is concerned about the plan, and Moses is, number two, concerned about the cost of the plan. Remember earlier I told you Moses was living in exile at the time that God appears to him in the burning bush? Let's just remember why it is that Moses was in exile.

Moses was in exile because the last time he was in Egypt, he killed an Egyptian slave master with his own hand. So Moses is thinking, wait, God, you want me to go back to Egypt? Okay, problem number one, I'm wanted for murder there.

You want me to go back to Egypt? Okay, here's what's likely to happen. They are going to kill me, arrest me.

They're going to do something with me when I get back there, because the last time I was there, I killed a guy. So first of all, God, your plan is potentially very costly to me personally. And number two, this plan is illogical. God, it's just not going to work, and for some of us, that's why we're camped at the end of a diving board, because we're saying, God, what you're calling me to do is incredibly costly. God, what you're calling me to do is incredibly illogical.

That plan doesn't make sense, and can I just remind us that if God is calling you to do something that is illogical, and God is calling you to do something that's costly, you are in incredibly good company. Just think about all the great characters in the scriptures. Think about Abraham.

Remember that guy? God had a conversation with him. He said, hey, Abraham, I'm going to make you the father of a great nation. Here's what we're going to do.

I need you to leave everything behind and move to a whole new land. Abraham's like, hey, where are we going? God's like, I will tell you on the way. Let's go.

What are you waiting for? Abraham's like, I don't even know where we're going. God's like, excellent.

We'll get started. Noah, think about that guy for a minute. God's like, hey, Noah, great to see you. What I need you to do is get started on a boat.

I'm going to need a boat out of you. And Noah's like, why with the boat? And God's like, well, it's going to rain. It's rained before.

We haven't had to build a boat. God's like, yeah, this rain's different. It's going to last for about 40 days, and truth be told, I'm sort of going to wipe out creation. So you need to build a boat so I can spare you and your family, and you know, that's awesome. And Noah's got to be sitting there thinking, what?

God, that makes no sense. God's like, oh, dude, don't worry. You're going to end up in the Bible, and someday Russell Crowe's going to play you in a movie. It's going to be awesome. You're fine.

You've got no problems. And Noah's there, and he's like, no, this makes no sense. God always does the illogical thing. He takes the apostle Paul, a former professional killer of Christians. I'm just going to assume nobody in your small group has that testimony.

They're like, hi, I used to kill Christians for a living, and now here I am. And Paul turns him into one of the great evangelists in history and writes so much of the New Testament. That one doesn't make sense. The gospel doesn't make sense. Jesus is incredibly illogical.

The Father who created everything, who created you and created me, sent his only son, innocent, sinless, blameless, sent him to walk among us as a man, and sent him to die in our place on a cross so that a traitor rebel people who had turned our backs on God, who were hostile to God in every way, could be adopted into the family of God. That one doesn't make much sense either. The whole thing is illogical. We're saved by wonderful, illogical, amazing grace. Yet, we see all that and we're like, that's right. Abraham, Moses, Noah, Paul, Jesus. Yet, we get to our diving board and we're like, oh no, God, your plan for my life needs to make sense.

Where do we get that from? Somewhere along the line, we started selling a version of Christianity that said God would never ask you to do something that's uncomfortable. God would never ask you to do something that's difficult.

God's plan is always going to make sense. God's following the American middle class playbook, and I don't know where we got that from, but we didn't get it from Jesus. If God didn't spare his own son, isn't it possible he might ask you to take a pay cut for the sake of the gospel?

We're like, whoa, no he would not. Not my Jesus. Well, I don't know who your Jesus is, but the Jesus that's in scripture, here's what he says, Luke chapter nine, verse 22, 23. And he said, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me, for whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. You and I are called to a life of risky obedience. Risky obedience implies that it's costly. It implies that it's illogical at times. It implies that we get to the moment where we say, God, I have been dreaming about retirement and planning for it for 30 years, and I've got my plan in place, and I'm ready to rest, and I'm ready to just call it quits and call it easy and just play golf all day. And God said, hey, how about this? How about you use retirement for mission?

How about you use these years where you don't need an income to go pour into the next generation? We say, oh God, nobody does that. Don't let the fact that it's illogical, don't let the fact that it's costly stop you from following God. I think about the people that came to plant Restoration City with us, the people who said, look, I don't yet have a job in DC, but I know God is calling me to go there. I don't yet know how it's all gonna come together, but God is calling me there. I have a great church here in Raleigh-Durham. I'm part of the summit church, yet I'm willing to leave that for a tiny little church plant which most people would say, you are crazy. You're part of one of the great churches in America.

When are you gonna go move your life to some sort of fledgling little church with a vision of reaching the nation's capital? Yet people say, hey, you know what? It's illogical. It doesn't make sense.

I don't have a job. It's costly, yet I'm going anyway because I know the God who has called me to do it. Don't wait at the end of the diving board until you can play it safe because as I read the scripture, play it safe doesn't exist as an option for the people of God. Jump anyway. All right, there's one more objection. I wanna do this one really quickly because it's just so real.

It's so raw. It's where so many of us find ourselves. Objection number three is essentially Moses saying to God, can't you find someone else? How about, okay, God, why don't we just use somebody else in your great big plan here?

Let me show you where I get that from. Exodus chapter four verse 13, but he, that's Moses, said, oh my Lord, please send someone else. I had to do a lot of work on that one to get to point number three. A lot of careful exegesis went into that one.

Moses is basically saying, God, okay, fine, you got your plan. It's awesome. You're gonna be glorified. Let's just get somebody else to do it if we could.

Can we just find somebody else to do it? I feel like that is where so many of us are in life sometimes. It's great to see Moses in the same place.

I think about that objection when I see JD calling a church to embrace three services on a Sunday morning and calling a church to step up and serve and to get out of our comfort zone and to volunteer some time for the sake of the gospel going forward. I think what happens, just real honestly, I think what happens in moments like that is we think, wow, that's inspiring. That's awesome. That's great. That's a wonderful vision. Thank you for that, JD. That's great.

We start looking around the room, and we're like, oh, there's a lot of other people here, and there's a lot of other services that are happening, and there's a lot of other campuses that are out there. You know what? I just think somebody else will do it. God, let's just get somebody else to do it.

That's great. In fact, I nominate that guy three rows up. He's about to fall asleep in the sermon, clearly needs to do something, so let's have him get involved. That guy right there, God, you should send him, but I'm not gonna do it because I am perfectly happy and perfectly comfortable with what I'm doing, and here's what I want you to see because God's response to Moses is both merciful, encouraging, and a little unsettling all at the same time because God's response to Moses is essentially what he's gonna show him and show us is you're right. God's plan does not rest on our cooperation. The future of the Summit Church does not rise and fall on whether or not you start serving. The future of the kingdom of God does not rise or fall on our level of obedience, so yeah, maybe God could send somebody else, but in the moment that you and I don't respond to the call of God in our lives, we're the ones that miss out.

We're the ones. That's why you serve, so you don't miss out, right? Here's what God says to Moses, Exodus chapter four, verse 14. Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses, and God is not happy with Moses by this point, and he said, Is there not Aaron your brother the Levite?

I know that he can speak well. Behold, he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. So the merciful side is, All right, I'll send you Aaron. I'll get you some help, Moses, but it's interesting that he identifies Aaron as his brother the Levite. It's as if God is saying to Moses in this moment, Hey, I'm gonna send you help, but when it comes to the line of the priests, when it comes to the Levites, that's not gonna be your line.

That's gonna be your brother's line. You look at the story of Moses, and he is a guy who believes the promises of God, yet there are a couple places where he comes up short, where he doesn't enter the promised land, where he misses out because of some of the hardness of his heart. So here's my question.

Where are you missing out? Where are you camped at the end of the diving board praying that God would send somebody else? And by the way, if that's you, I don't want you to feel beat up because it's the logical reaction at times when God calls us to something great. By the way, Jesus prayed something very similar the night before he went to the cross in the Garden of the Gethsemane. Luke 22, 42, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. I get it, there's moments where the diving board terrifies us. We say, God, I'm inadequate. God, the plan doesn't make sense. God, just send somebody else. I get it.

Faith is believing that if God has called you to do it, he's gonna be faithful to see you all the way through it. I remember one day that I saw a kid who's hanging out at the end of the diving board. His parents were down at the shallow end of the pool, and he was just frozen there, and he had been there for a couple of minutes when all of a sudden his dad got up out of the lounge chair, and his dad started moving quickly.

I was interested, because his dad was the assistant football coach at the local university, so I was kind of up in the chair. I'm like, I don't actually know how this is gonna happen. What's about to happen here? Part of me was like, you know what? Dad is gonna pick the kid up and just fling him into the pool and be like, no son of mine. I'm like, I don't know what's gonna happen.

He's gonna yell at him, blow a whistle. I'm like, I don't know what's gonna happen right now, because we were all intimidated by this dad, and he kind of came walking with purpose down the side of the pool, and I was like, I don't know what's about to happen, and as he got down by the side of the pool, he just very casually slid into the pool, swam out underneath the diving board, looked up at his son, and he said, I'll catch you, and that kid's face lit up like you wouldn't believe, and he just went for it. It wasn't the pressure of the line behind him that made him jump. It wasn't that the board somehow got lower. It's that he absolutely trusted that man in the pool who was saying, why don't you jump, and that's the story of what God is trying to say to us today.

I am not trying to be, if you will, the line behind you that forces you off the diving board. I want to get out of the way and point into the pool and say, there is a heavenly Father in that pool who loves you and who is for you and who has promised to be faithful to all of his promises. You can trust him, right, because the story of the gospel is not the story of a father who gets off the lounge chair gets off the lounge chair. It's the story of a son who gets up off the throne of heaven, and he didn't walk down the side of a pool.

He became a man, and he died in our place, and he died on our behalf, and he was faithful to all of his promises, and he was faithful to us, and that God, you can trust that God. He said, I don't know if I can join a small group. You can join a small group. Why? Not because you're adequate, but because he is. You can do what God is calling you to do, not because it makes sense. You can do what God is calling you to do because he's faithful. Don't jump off the diving board because it all rests on you.

Jump off of the diving board to experience the joy of the Father's embrace. That's why we're going to end our time together by taking communion, because really to deal with our fear, to deal with our inadequacy, we've got to be reminded of the goodness of God. We've got to be reminded that he who knew no sin became sin for us so that in him we could become the righteousness of God.

We've got to look to that cross and think, you know what? I can trust that God. He's going to be faithful to me in this moment. So let's think about him together, and let's pray together. Father, you are good.

You are faithful. God, we just thank you for Jesus here this morning. We thank you that he has gone in our place on that cross. We thank you that he's rescued us from sin and from guilt and from shame and from condemnation. We thank you that he's faithful, God. Now I just want to pray over all of our lives this morning.

Lord, all of us face these diving board moments over and over and over again. In those moments, whether they're big or whether they're small, would you remind us that you're faithful? Would you remind us that you're adequate? Would you remind us that you're good and we can trust you? God, that's all we're asking. We need to see you this morning. We need to see your power. We need to see your greatness this morning. So just bring that to life in our hearts now, I pray. In Jesus' name. Amen.