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God calls Moses with a clear mission: "So now go. I am sending you to Pharaoh, to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt." But Moses immediately responds with a question that reveals his insecurity: "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"
God's answer is powerful: "I will be with you." When Moses continues to ask questions—wondering what to tell the people about God's name—God responds with perhaps the most significant declaration in all of scripture: "I am who I am."
This is not just a name; it's a blank check. God is saying, "I'mma write you a blank check and put 'I am' and you can fill in the blank because you don't even know everything you need me to be yet." Right now, God is simply saying, "I AM." When you need Him to be a doctor, He'll be a doctor in the sick room. When you need strength, He'll be strength. When you need a provider, He'll provide.
This matters because we serve a fill-in-the-blank God who meets us exactly where we are.
The dangerous thing about an excuse is that it can sound completely reasonable while still keeping you completely stuck. An explanation tells you why you are where you are, but an excuse gives you permission to stay where you are.
Excuses show up in so many areas of our lives:
An excuse often starts as a legitimate explanation that we have turned into permission to remain the same.
Excuses don't just keep you from doing something—excuses also keep you from becoming someone. There's a version of you that God wants you to meet: a bolder you, a more confident you, a stronger you, a more confrontational you (from a place of conviction, not negativity). Some of us can't be giant killers because we're not willing to step on other people's toes.
At some point, you have to decide: No matter your past, your personality, or your problems—this will not become a reason why I stay where I am. God is getting ready to prove that He can move in spite of you, break through in spite of you.
To understand why Moses struggles with excuses, we must go back to Exodus 2. Moses was born under brutal conditions—his people were enslaved by Egypt, and Pharaoh had decreed that every Hebrew boy born must be killed. His mother hid him for three months, then placed him in a basket on the river.
But here's what we miss: Why does Pharaoh want to kill babies? Because the enemy wants to kill something while it's in seed form so he doesn't have to deal with it once it becomes true fruit. Some of you need to praise God because He tried to kill you while you were stuck in potential so that He wouldn't have to deal with you once you got in purpose.
Pharaoh attacked their infancy because he was afraid of their maturity. The enemy is not afraid of a believer—the enemy is afraid of a mature believer. When you're mature, you won't be shaken by threats. You know the schemes of the enemy. You have God's Word in you, and you can declare, "No weapon formed against me will prosper. I've never seen the righteous forsaken."
You know you're mature when the enemy tries to set you up and you step back and tell everybody, "Calm down. I've seen this before. If He did it before, He can do it again."
It's better to learn from instruction than from experience. Experience is the most expensive teacher because when you learn from someone else's wisdom, you get the degree without having to pay the tuition. If you're young, hear this: sometimes when you're immature, you don't deal with correction well, and that makes you vulnerable because you're avoiding correction.
While Moses floated in the river as an infant, God put a hedge around him. He floated to a specific person—Pharaoh's daughter. God will also use your enemies to protect you and promote you at the same time. Pharaoh's father tried to kill him, but his daughter didn't realize she gave birth to something that would protect him. She raised him in the king's palace as her own son.
Phraoh's daughter represents provision. Moses was born into slavery but adopted into royalty. When she needed help raising him, she hired a nanny—and it was his biological mother. Some call it coincidence; that's divine providence. Even though you may not get everything you want, God will divinely orchestrate that you get everything you need.
Moses grew up with a double consciousness—biologically Hebrew but sociologically Egyptian. He was not fully accepted by the Hebrews, and he was not fully accepted by the Egyptians either. Insecurity is the fruit, but rejection is the root. Some of us have been trying to deal with our insecurity without dealing with our rejection.
When Moses grew up and saw his own people being beaten by Egyptian officers, he couldn't take it. He realized there was a calling on the inside of him, but all he knew was the training from Pharaoh's house. So he attacked an officer, killed him, buried him in the sand, and had to run to the wilderness for 40 years.
Because he did the right thing the wrong way.
He was called by God, but he was raised in Pharaoh's house. Some of us are coming into God's house but only trying to exercise and live from the training we got from our earthly house. When someone tries you, you say, "I'm about to clap back," when God says, "Bless those who curse you." When somebody betrays you and hurts your feelings, you're done with them, when the Word says, "Forgive them. How many times? Seventy times seven."
We get saved, but we don't get home training. We keep behaving like our earthly bloodline without behaving like our heavenly bloodline. At some point we have to get rid of what's been called vampire Christianity—where we want Jesus' blood but nothing else. "Give me your blood but don't give me your principles."
Moses spent 40 years on the backside of the wilderness, married with a family, working and trying to avoid jail. Then God spoke to him from a burning bush—a bush consumed with fire, with God speaking from within it.
We need to learn to discern the voice of God. For some of you, God is calling you, but you don't discern it. He may not be speaking through a literal burning bush, but through passions, desires, and burnings you're having in your life. Maybe you can't hear God because your life is too loud. Moses discerned the voice of the Lord because he was away from the noise of Egypt.
God tells Moses: "You're the one. You're about to get your people free. They tried to kill you when you were born. They tried to throw you in prison for life. But now I'm about to spin the block and you're going back to get the people and you are going to set them free."
Moses replies: "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"
But Moses didn't ask for this assignment. The people who rejected him did. For over 400 years they've been enslaved, and now they're crying out to God for deliverance. The problem is: God didn't talk back to the people who were crying. God talked to the answer. The people have a problem and they cry out to God, but God doesn't speak to the problem—He speaks to the answer. He talks to Moses.
You should be shouting because you are the Moses in your family. While your family may have problems, God may not be speaking to your family. He may be speaking to you because you are the answer. Your family may be frustrated because it wasn't a conference call—it was a one-on-one conversation. He says, "I'm using you to bring everybody out."
In this season, you're not just coming out—everybody connected to you is coming out too. God's deliverance isn't just for you; it's for your whole circle, your children, your siblings. We're all coming out of this together.
You are the answer your family is waiting for. While your family may have problems, God may not be speaking to your family—He may be speaking to you because you are the answer. Your family may be frustrated because it wasn't a conference call; it was a one-on-one conversation. He says, "I'm using you to bring everybody out."
In this season, you're not just coming out—everybody connected to you is coming out too. This isn't just your freedom; it's for your whole circle, your children, your siblings. We're all coming out of this together.
Moses is being called by God, but he's insecure. Here's what must change: You can only be as spiritually mature as you are emotionally mature. What if your next breakthrough doesn't come from sitting in the church crowd, but from sitting on the therapist couch? At some point, you have to be willing to do the heart and soul work that's needed to handle what God wants to do. Otherwise, you're going to be saved and mean at the same time. You'll be saved and insecure. You'll be saved and stuck in a cycle at the same time.
You can come to church, speak in tongues, but can't speak to your family. You can serve in God's house but get upset whenever you get corrected or don't get your way. Without correction, you cannot have growth. The Bible says the Lord who loves you, He chastens. He corrects. So correction is a love language of God.
Excuses minimize what God is trying to maximize. God is trying to maximize the calling on Moses's life, but Moses is using excuses to minimize the flaws that make him avoid being used. Insecurity kills your calling by making you question it. You start asking: Should I even be doing this? Is that really God telling me?
The first thing Moses says is, "Who am I?" Insecurity will blind you from seeing yourself correctly. Everybody else will see you right, but you're the only person who sees yourself wrong.
Here's what's beautiful about God: He doesn't answer Moses's insecurity by telling him who he is. He answers Moses by reminding him who he's with. Moses says, "Who am I?" God is like, "I'll be with you."
Your confidence doesn't come from who you are. Your confidence comes from who you're with. Some of you need to learn how to praise God because you're not in this by yourself. Look back over your life—when you think it was over, there's no way you could have gotten through that by yourself. God was with you. Why don't you praise Him for every mountain He brought you over and for every valley He pulled you through?
We overcome insecurity not by becoming more aware of our gift, but more aware of God. One of the plagues in the body of Christ is this: We celebrate gift and sit on growth. Moses had a huge gift, but it was his gift that made him die short of the promise of God.
His gift was in that staff. Red Sea in front of him, Pharaoh behind him—Moses raised his staff and the Red Sea parted. When the people were thirsty but the water was bitter, he put his staff in the water and made it sweet. When they were attacked, he raised his staff and they won.
But what happens when God says, "Don't use your gift anymore"? The people are thirsty again. God says, "I know last time I told you to strike the rock, but this time I want you to speak to it." Instead, Moses strikes what God told him to speak to. Moses has now made his gift his God.
God still made water come out of that rock because He cared more for the provision of His people than Moses's disobedience. But He said, "Moses, you're done. You see the promised land, but you'll never seize it." Nobody ever deals with why Moses disobeyed. It's because he felt pressure from the people, and his insecurity made him a people pleaser. He did what the people wanted instead of what God told him to do. Because of his insecurity, he died short of God's promise.
Are you stuck at the promise God has for your life because you won't deal with the insecurity in your life?
We already covered this. Moses questions his own identity when God has already chosen him.
Moses allows the possibility of rejection to become a reason to hesitate with obedience. It wasn't rejection—it was the possibility of rejection. Fear of rejection makes you lean on paranoia instead of leaning into purpose. You're looking for a problem instead of pursuing His presence.
The fear of rejection stunts our growth by making us care about people's acceptance of us more than God's anointing on us. Sometimes being in the will of God will put you out of the grace of people. We think we're anointed because now we're accepted. But what if what some people are calling anointing is actually just adrenaline? Just because we're hype doesn't mean we're holy.
Anointing isn't always loud. There are three phases: the outer court, the inner court, and the Most Holy Place. God showed up in the Most Holy Place, but everybody else was in the outer courts. We have believers who only settle for the outer courts because it's loud and noisy.
When you get into the inner courts, that's where the brazen lever is and sacrifices are made and blood is shed. But once you get into the Holy of Holies, it's not about what you want to say or what you want to do—it's about the presence of God filling the room, changing your mind, changing your life.
The person praying the loudest isn't necessarily the most anointed. Sometimes the most anointed person is the quietest person in the room. A prophet called down fire from heaven, won the victory, then ran away in depression and wanted to commit suicide. God didn't fix him spiritually first. He told him to go to sleep. "Go to sleep," God said. "When you wake up, eat this food. Sometimes you're not toxic—you're tired."
Elijah ran to a mountain expecting God to show up in the storm, the loud wind, all the theatrics and dramatics. Nothing happened. Once the storm and wind went away, the Lord began to speak in a small still voice. We're looking for God in the theatrics and dramatics when His presence often comes in stillness.
This is why the pandemic drove many of us crazy—for the first time, we had to sit with ourselves. God was like, "I got you right where I want you, because you've been using work and business to run from yourself." We think something is anointed when really it was emotional.
Exodus 4:10 says: "Moses said to the Lord, 'Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past, nor since you have spoken to your servant. I'm slow of speech and of tongue.'"
Self-doubt helps you stay stuck by convincing you that you don't even have the skills to start. What do you do when God is calling you to do something that you don't have the experience, degree, or connections to do? He says, "Do it anyway."
The anointing is for what you cannot do. Sometimes we idolize people's ability, but I know a lot of people who are able but not anointed. They can impress you but they can't free you, because it's the anointing that destroys the yoke.
There are people who have the ability to preach and they can impress you with nice intellectual words, but it's the anointing that'll change your appetite, change the way you think, change your mind.
I never want to stand on God's stage and preach off of ability. God, anoint me to do this. Because when I preach with ability, I preach a word. But when I preach under the anointing, I preach His word.
And I'm not just talking about preaching. For some of you, you need to assess if what you're calling a career is also a calling. Are you going to work just out of ability? For some of us, we've limited anointing to Sunday. But you have to be anointed to parent your kids. You have to be anointed to be a spouse. You have to be graced for that, because your power will run out at some point. That's right. You'll do all that you can do, and I'm so glad that when I run out, God runs in.
Self-doubt questions God's judgment more than your ability. You're questioning God when you think you're really doubting yourself. You're like, "God, I don't know if you made the right pick." And God is like, "I don't miss."
Moses is attempting to tell God—the God that created him and called him—why He shouldn't use him. He's trying to give God information about himself as though God didn't know it before calling him. Moses says, "I'm slow of speech," as though God discovered his weakness after giving him his assignment.
Your weakness may reveal what needs work, but it doesn't automatically mean that you need to walk. Just because you have a weakness doesn't mean you should walk away from it all. When Moses says, "I'm slow of speech, I can't talk," God doesn't correct him or even change him. God is like, "Exactly. That's why I'm calling you."
Because when people see you talking and they know your issues, they're going to look at you and say, "That ain't nothing but God." People are going to see where you were in your past and see you in your future, and they're going to have to take a double take and say, "That's nothing but God."
The Lord who gave him his mouth and gave him the ability to speak had a series of conversations with Moses. All of this had been fluff because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Sometimes you need to ask somebody one question and just let them keep talking. Don't interrupt them. Let them keep talking because at a certain point, you're going to hear their heart.
Exodus 4:13 says: "But Moses said, 'Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.'"
God, get somebody else to do it. There's a progression here. Sometimes people's heart has already left you. It's just waiting on their legs to catch up.
There are people I love, but I realized what I desired to do to serve them in the condition of their heart, I was going to be wasting my time. Sometimes people need to feel that hurt by doing it on their own so they can appreciate when wisdom shows up.
Moses has finally had a direct, honest conversation with God. All of the previous excuses had been fluff because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Sometimes you need to ask somebody one question and just let them keep talking. Don't interrupt them. Let them keep talking because at a certain point, you're going to hear their heart.
"But Moses said, 'Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.'" (Exodus 4:13)
Can I make that 2026? "But Moses said, 'God, get somebody else to do it.'" There's a progression here. If you're an entrepreneur, a business leader, in middle management, a parent, or in a relationship, this principle can help you discern what someone really wants.
Sometimes people's heart has already left you. It's just waiting on their legs to catch up. I started realizing around 40 that there were some people I love, but what I desired to do to serve them in the condition of their heart, I was going to be wasting my time. Sometimes people need to feel that hurt by doing it on their own so they can appreciate when wisdom shows up.
I'm a living testament of that. I had to go and lose on my own for a decade, for 10 years, only to repent and come back and say, "Hey, I learned my lesson."
Moses' heart finally speaks with this fourth excuse. Here's what I'm saying: sometimes what starts as "I can't" eventually reveals itself as "I don't want to." He started off saying, "I can't. I'm slow of speech. I can't. Who am I?" But now he's being honest: "I don't want to do this no more. I'm done."
You have to remember where he was when he says this. He's in Midian in the wilderness for 40 years. He's been minding his business, gotten married, built a life, has children. He doesn't have to worry about being under attack. His felony got wiped off his record. He's got a good job. His 401k is going. He said, "I'm finally in a place where I feel safe. Why you come bothering me now?"
God cares more about your calling than your comfort zone. Some of you right now, that's the excuse you're struggling with. You're too comfortable. You don't want to give some stuff up to be who God has called you to be.
What do you do when God calls you to let go and win without what was already working? What do you do? He says, "No, in this season, I need you to die. Die to your preference. Die to your comforts. I need you to trust me because I'm more committed to your calling than I am to your comfort."
That's why I'll send you the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will comfort you. You're going to walk through that valley, through the shadow of death, and you're not going to fear no evil. Why? Because I'm with you. In other words, you're going to walk through some uncomfortable places, but I'm not going to leave you by yourself.
Go tell Pharaoh, "Let my people go." For some of you, God is telling you, "Go do what I told you to do and leave your excuses behind."
Your calling isn't just about what you're supposed to do. The calling is also about who you're supposed to become. God wants to cut away the personality traits, the attitudes, the way you talk, the way you think as He calls you forward. Forgive us for allowing our pride, our fears, our insecurities to hold up what you want to do through us.
