Moses initial responsibilities (response - abilities)

1. Take off your sandals (3:5)
2. Tell them who I am (3:16)
3. Assemble the elders (3:16)
4. Go to the king of Egypt (3:18) - a virtual relative
5. Do what I've given you the power to do (4:21) - not more, not less
6. Say what I tell you to say (4:22) - not more, not less
7. Take your staff, stretch out your hand

Moses is asked only to be himself. No more. No less. Not to diminish, but…(7:8, 19)

God's initial responsibilities (response - abilities)

1. I have seen and heard (3:7)
2. I have come down to rescue (3:8)
3. I am sending you (3:10)
4. I will be with you (3:12)
5. I will stretch out my hand (3:20)
6. I will affect and persuade (3:21, 4:21)
7. I will help you (both) speak (4:12, 15)
8. I will bring you out from under the yoke of slavery (6:6)
9. I will lay my hand on Egypt (7:15)
10. God gives them a guide (13:21)
11. God parts the Red Sea (14:21)
12. I will take you as my own people
13. I will be your God
14. I will bring you to the promised land

God is committed only to be Himself. No more. No less. God is going to do this. He will use Moses, bless Moses, help Moses, but this is God's deal. The same with us.

Moses has only two responsibilities. To do what he's asked to do and to say what he's asked to say. That's it! The rest is on God.

Just as Moses is responsible to this situation but not for it, so we are called to be responsible to our many responsibilities; but not for them. I am responsible to this church, but not for it. This is God's church. I can't manipulate or control your responsiveness. I won't stress over something that isn't my deal. Some of my best sermons have elicited very little response. Some of my worst and shoddiest efforts have seemingly induced wholesale inspiration and response. I refuse to take credit or blame for very much anymore, though I gladly take responsibility to be the very best agent that I can possibly be and to do all things the Lord asks. To settle for less would be to shirk my responsibility. I need to be and do what God wants me to be and do and whether or not the outcome is to my liking isn't my deal. That's on God. And that's how I sleep at night. Like a baby, almost every night.

I am responsible to my family, but not for them (semantics…but). They each and all have responsibilities of their own, and I acknowledged God's Lordship over my family and gave my family to Him (as if…) long ago. I am responsible as a husband and a parent to do my thing - to teach, model, love, protect, provide discipline, correct - but I can't control my children's lives, behaviors, choices and I certainly can't control my wife. Why would I want to?

I do what I'm asked to do. I say what I'm told to say. But I can't control outcomes, and while I care about how things turn out, in this life, the real stress in life comes from virtually stealing God's job - outcome management - or from stealing other's dignity and freedom - human manipulation and control. I care how my children behave and choose and progress because I want the best for them, but I'm not God and I'm not them. I'm responsible to them not for them. (I realize…legal not shirking).

You are not responsible for your company, unless you choose to completely own it. Then good luck and happy dreams. I don't envy your position. But if you give your business to God, it is God's and now you are responsible to it, not for it. If it succeeds, it's on Him. If it fails, it's on Him. Your responsibility is to do and to be what you need to do and be for God and His company. In other words, do what He wants you to do and say what he wants you to say, and leave outcomes to God. And those outcomes are certainly affected by others. You can't control others. You, in your role, can inspire, inform, equip, encourage, correct and corral, etc, but that's what you're responsible to. That's who you are and what you do. But you can't control; so why try and why stress?

Well, fear, that's why. Fear of what? Being disappointed? Fear of losing the things we're attached to? Fear of being exposed? "What if they find out I can't carry this whole thing on my shoulders?" Who wants to?

Everything we do in life is motivated either by love or fear. Interesting. I don't want to live by fear. Love, yes. Faith. Hope. Curiosity. Joy. Peace. Contentment. This is contentment. I want "to be a still axis on the wheel of activities that revolve around my life." That's our story. "I do. I need to succeed in order to find a sense of value in this life." How sad. Especially when we are already loved and valued enormously by God and there's nothing we can do to make Him love us more than He loves us today. Just love Him back and enjoy the ride - enjoy the relationship. Enjoy that deep sense of worth and purpose. And let love drive you, not fear.

If I'm responsible to and not for (like Moses), God is responsible for, not to. God's shoulders are big enough to carry things. God's scope is wide enough to understand things. God's power is great enough to affect things. So let God be God.

Surrender. Let God be God.

By the way, God doesn't owe us anything. He isn't responsible to us. He promises a lot and for our best delivers if and when we live in a place of surrender, and often when we're not. Our greatest gains and God's best gifts come to us in our purest moments of relinquishment. We work for God, not God for us; still, this is the greatest truth for all. Somehow this God is for us, and if God is for us, who can be against us? Ultimately, trust in God means relying on His good heart, even when we can't control or even understand everything that happens in this life.

Still, we are told to ask, seek and knock.

So, what if God doesn't do what we ask or give us what we seek or open the door that we're knocking on?

Sometimes we ask and it wasn't God's idea; it was ours. Trusting God means believing, even through our bewilderment, that God's ideas are better than ours.

Sometimes we ask and God has his own timeframe.

Sometimes we ask and "no" is a very loving answer. We don't always realize what we're asking for.

Sometimes/always we don't have the big picture. Our destinies are woven into a fabric that includes the destinies of others and the overarching plans of God.

Sometimes…who knows why God doesn't give us what we hope for. What do we do? We call out, cry out, keep asking, keep seeking. We grieve and grope through the dark and ultimately relinquish and surrender again. Why? God is God and I'm not. God has His reasons for doing this or allowing it or not doing that…

So what if God does answer or give or open doors? Too often, we forget that we asked and we give ourselves credit for being so resourceful. Or we forget to even notice our renewed health or material wealth or relational bliss as a gift directly from God. We cry out when we need God and we gush with pride when we don't.

I've seen too many miracles to trick myself into believing that I'm better off living by my own power and resourcefulness. I need God and I want God. If you can't name miracles, borrow mine or someone else's. Solzhenitsyn writes about "man's ruinous habit of learning only from experience." Others, art, instinct, creation itself are great teachers. And, of course, God's word and Jesus Himself most of all.

And over the years, I'm learning to realize that the whole world and everything in it is weird enough to remind me that it's all a miracle and that nothing happens apart from God no matter how numb and forgetful I can be. No matter how familiar, there's no other explanation for this place. Every little thing (particles and planets, animals and algorhythms, love and laughter) is a miracle. God is in charge of the whole show. My little victories and defeats matter in the moment and our rebellions threaten to infect the whole, but we don't have that much power in the big scheme, and when our actions really do matter, it's God's doing not mine. So RELAX!

And live by faith. Not just salvation faith or systems faith but real faith, actual faith, believing and trusting faith. One pastor and author writes "My study of God in seminary was systematic; my experience of God was not. He came on one like a sudden and terrifying storm, like a wrestler jumping me from behind and overpowering one. In the fury of the storm I was given a choice - bend or be broken. In the gripe of the wrestler I was forced to decide to surrender and go away limping or keep struggling and maybe never get up to go anywhere at all." Like Jacob, Give writes,

"In dislocating my hip, God taught me to cling,
In making me limp, He taught me to lean…
not on my own two legs, but on Him "

There is something so practical and matter of fact about Moses life and our lives. Do and say…At the same time, Moses is so utterly reliant on God to do the greater things and there's something mystical and immeasurably good about life lived in waiting - waiting for God to show up and prove Himself.

I cannot imagine a life so dreary, and would not wish on my friends or even my enemies a life so plain, that it's lived by our own power and with no hope or reliance or delight in the one who made us and who superimposes His will over and around both our most notable achievements and our most notable follies.

It's not just Moses who models this. Jesus tries, oh how He tries, to teach us to live this way - responsible for, but leaning on God for…