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Foundations of Leadership Series
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Welcome to the Foundations of Leadership series, where we're studying Moses and uncovering biblical principles for leading with faith and purpose. Every single one of us has been called to leadership—whether we realize it or not.
In 2 Corinthians 5, we learn that we are Christ's ambassadors. Jesus taught us to pray, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." God designed the earth to look like heaven through his ambassadors. Rather than complaining about what others aren't doing, we must take responsibility to lead ourselves and operate in the fullness of what God has called us to do.
"Now go, for I'm sending you to Pharaoh. You must lead my people Israel out of Egypt. But Moses protested to God, 'Who am I to appear before Pharaoh? Who am I to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt?'" (Exodus 3:10-11)
Here's the big idea: You don't discover your identity in comfort. You discover it in calling.
Moses had an identity crisis. Raised in an Egyptian palace but born a Hebrew, he didn't belong anywhere. When you don't know who you are, you will resist what God is asking you to do. The burning bush experience wasn't really about a burning bush—it was about a burning question: "Who am I?"
Moses spent 40 years in Egypt, where his identity was shaped by culture and status. Then he spent another 40 years in Midian, running for his life after killing an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew slave. In Midian, everything familiar was stripped away.
The wilderness wasn't punishment for Moses—it was preparation. Egypt taught him status and power, but the wilderness taught him surrender. When God finally spoke to him, Moses had nothing left to depend on except God himself.
Don't reject your wilderness seasons. Instead, surrender to them so they can produce the leader God sees in you. You don't find identity in what you've achieved. When everything external is stripped away and you have nothing left, that's when you really find out who you are.
God didn't speak to Moses in the palace where he had everything figured out. He spoke to him in obscurity, in the wilderness. What if your wilderness season is where your false identity is dying? What if God is redefining who you are because you've depended on accomplishments and external things to give you identity?
Your excuses reveal your identity struggle. Moses gave God five excuses, and each one is a window into where his identity was fractured.
"Who am I to appear before Pharaoh? Who am I to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt?" (Exodus 3:11)
Moses was saying, "I'm not enough." He was battling insecurity, comparison, and self-doubt.
God's response was not, "Hey Moses, let me remind you how great you are." Instead, God said, "I will be with you." God never answers insecurity with self-esteem. He answers it with his presence. In your insecurity and self-doubt, God is calling you—and he's going to be with you.
"If I go to the people of Israel and tell them the God of your ancestors has sent me to you, they will ask me, 'What is his name?' Then what should I tell them?" (Exodus 3:13)
Moses was saying, "If I don't know you, I can't represent you." This was an intimacy problem. Some of us make the same excuse: "I'm not spiritual enough. I don't know how to pray. I don't know if God can trust me to represent him."
God's response was: "I am who I am." (Yahweh)
This was an identity shift. God is not defined by Moses, but Moses is defined by God. You don't build God into your identity. God builds your identity into himself. The Hebrew word Yahweh means "I am present and I am active in your life right now." God was saying, "I'm not just calling you to do something and leaving you out there. I'm going to be present in your life and take action."
"What if they won't believe me or listen to me? What if they say the Lord never appeared to you?" (Exodus 4:1)
Moses struggled with fear of rejection. What if he stepped out and failed? What if he wasn't accepted?
Here's the truth: Your identity cannot be built on people's approval. If it is, you'll never fully obey God, and if you can't fully obey God, you can never fully lead.
The solution to fear of rejection is understanding two principles:
First, Christ on the cross bore our rejections. Isaiah 53:3 tells us:
"He was despised and rejected, a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief... He was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins... The Lord laid on him the sins of us all."
Christ experienced rejection—for us. What the enemy meant to keep us separated from God, God transformed through redemption. Instead of rejecting us, he sent his Son to be rejected so we could be accepted.
Second, there's an exchange. Ephesians 1:6 says:
"To the praise of the glory of his grace by which he made us accepted in the beloved."
We are now accepted because of his rejection. Once you understand this, you can forgive those who've rejected you. You can release bitterness, resentment, hatred, and rebellion—the four reactions to rejection that plague our society.
Before you ever messed up, before you were ever born, God already made the decision to send his Son to die for you. He already accepted you knowing you would be a mess. Accept God's unconditional love for you. Accept yourself. God didn't ask you to be perfect or flawless.
Romans 9:20 asks us:
"But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?'"
In a culture where people try to identify as something outside of what God has made them, we must ask: Why fight against the identity in which God has formed you? If the enemy can get your identity, he can steal your purpose.
Shift your focus from man's approval to God's approval.
"O Lord, I'm not very good with words... I get tongue-tied and my words get tangled." (Exodus 4:10)
Moses believed he wasn't gifted enough. He wanted to limit what he could do because of his past, his upbringing, his experiences.
God's response: "Moses, who made your mouth? If I created it, I can use it. I don't care what you said before or what you did before. If I made it, I can use it. Just surrender it."
Your limitations don't disqualify you. They reveal where God wants to show his power. I never call anything that I can't equip.
"Lord, please send anyone else." (Exodus 4:13)
This was Moses' reluctance to embrace his identity. This is where God got angry. Moses wasn't just rejecting a task—he was rejecting who God was calling him to become.
When you surrender, God will take you places that people thought impossible. Only God can take you there. God specializes in speaking into chaos. Before the universe existed, when the earth was void and dark, God spoke into the chaos and it lined up with what he spoke. No matter how chaotic your life is, when God speaks into it, he creates a new identity.
Your identity is rooted in God's presence, not your performance.
Notice that God never fixed Moses first. He called him while he was still in process, still unsure of himself. Identity doesn't come because of obedience. It's formed through obedience.
It's like a passport. You don't prove your citizenship by how you act. You act differently because of your citizenship. If you're a citizen of heaven, you don't prove it by your behavior. You act differently because you are a citizen of heaven, and the Spirit of God helps you do so.
Moses didn't act like a deliverer to become one. He acted like one because he was one—because God said so.
You can't walk in purpose until you settle identity. If you don't settle identity, you will constantly negotiate your call.
God says go, and you say, "What if?" God says speak, and you say, "I can't." God says lead, and you say, "Use someone else." When identity is unclear, obedience becomes optional.
Don't let the enemy confuse you about identity. Which excuse sounds like you?
Your excuses aren't random. They reveal where your identity is fractured.
Your identity doesn't come from how much you make or what you do for work. Your identity comes from the one who made you.
God already knows you're broken. He knows your past, your inadequacies, your difficult upbringing. He's okay with all of it. He doesn't care about any of that. He's using your wilderness experience to prepare you for the calling on your life—to be his ambassadors right here on earth so that earth can begin to look like heaven through you.
He's choosing you—your broken you. He's choosing all of you to lead.
Moses came to the burning bush as a fugitive, a failure, a confused man. He left as a called deliverer. Nothing externally changed yet. The only thing that changed was who he believed God was and who he believed he was because of that belief.
If you're sitting in your wilderness moment or at your burning bush moment, questioning who you are—today, don't allow yourself to be imprisoned by a limitation mindset. Respond through surrender so you can be all that God's called and created you to be.
The Lord is saying to some of you: Stop striving. You're working so hard to prove you are something because you want others to see it. But the Father says, "No, you're something because I made you something." Not because of money or accomplishments, but because before you were in your mother's womb, I thought of you.
Just trust him. Surrender. Get understanding of who you are in Christ. The truth sets us free to be who God has made us to be.
