Not Perfect, Just Forgiven

Exodus 3:1-6

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Me? Really? Who am I? Maybe you’ve asked that question before when someone has just given you the opportunity to step into a new role. A new job. Who am I to do this? Maybe you can also think about that question in terms of just being a Christian. Who am I to go and tell somebody else about their Savior? What will they think of me?

Moses in Exodus, chapter three asked the very same question when he was called into service By God. This is the story of Moses and the burning bush. Exodus Chapter three.

Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”

When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”

And Moses said, “Here I am.”

“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

Let’s pause there for a minute. Here we have Moses, and God is appearing to him in these flames of fire. In just a little bit, he’s going to call Moses to go and set his people free from the land of Egypt. And Moses will reply, Who am I to do this? Why is he asking that question? Who am I?

One of the reasons is because God has just revealed to him He’s on holy ground. He’s in the presence of the Almighty, holy and perfect God, and he sees His sin so clearly, God, I am not perfect. And He’s going to give all kinds of excuses and reasons why he’s not the guy who should go and share this deliverance with God’s people.

It reminds me of a sticker, a decal that was on the back of a truck that’s been in my family or had been in my family for a long time. When my mom and dad got married in 1982, they bought a little blue Toyota pickup truck together, a brand new one. It was in our family until I was just finishing up college. A really neat truck. It was a four speed with a manual transmission. I remember once my little brother was a baby, just a toddler. He crawled into that truck and I was amazed because he drove it backwards down the driveway and I just thought he was the most miraculous child ever, that he could hop in and drive a truck. I realized later he must have pulled the clutch or stepped on, stepped on the clutch or something like that, and it just rolled down down the hill.

But I grew up and I took that truck until it wouldn’t drive anymore. My wife and I drove around in that, and when we had our first child, we put him in his car seat in there, took a picture and then got rid of the truck because it hardly had any brakes anymore. But in the back of this truck was a little sticker, a little, little decal. And on it it said, Not perfect, just forgiven. And it was just something we thought about a lot because when we start to ask these questions, who am I to do this? Again, we’re looking at ourselves and we’re trying to find perfection. And the perfection that God asks for is the perfection that He gives to you.

You’re not perfect. But you are forgiven. And in God’s sight you are holy and perfect and without any stain. And he calls you to go and represent him to the world. Not perfect, how can I do this? You’re forgiven. And that’s enough.