Worship, Then Your Purpose
As a born-again Christian, you may be asking God what your purpose is in His kingdom. That is noble. However, do you have the cart before the horse? In Exodus 3:10, God reveals Moses’ purpose, and lets him know he is the deliverer. However, notice Moses’ actions that preceded this.
1. Verse 1 tells us that he served his father-in-law, Jethro, by keeping his sheep. This was a lowly service that required humility. Today, many are prideful and refuse to humbly serve others. We don’t understand that serving is the way to exaltation and greatness. (Matthew 23:11-12)
2. In verses 2 and 3, he stopped what he was doing and gave God his undivided attention. Sometimes, we have our own plans for our lives and we think we know what we’re doing. We don’t allow God to interrupt us; especially if He says or shows us something that doesn’t make sense (which He often does). Or, we try to fit Him around our schedule. Actually, we have to totally surrender our will for His.
3. In verse 4, when God saw He had Moses’ attention, He called him and Moses expressed his availability by saying, “Here am I”. You may hear or feel God calling you, but have you said, “Yes”? Show God, in your words and actions, that you are available to Him.
4. At God’s command in verse 5, Moses took his shoes off. (Even though the text does not actually say this, we can assume that he did because there is no correction or hesitation by God.) Moses did not question God even though there's nothing sinful about shoes. He just showed reverential obedience and presented himself accordingly. Today, we don’t want to give up anything. We think we have a right to present ourselves to God any kind of way and He’s supposed to receive us. We say things like “I just gotta be me” or “I’m just keeping it real”. But, like Moses, we need to recognize and honor the superiority and sovereignty of God and present ourselves to Him in an appropriate manner.
5. Because of Moses’ actions in verses 1-5, God formally introduces Himself in verse 6. Then, Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look upon God. Moses demonstrated that he was aware that he was not worthy to stand before God. Today, we come in God’s presence as if we’re doing Him a favor. His mercy and forgiveness are taken for granted. We must recognize what an honor it is to be able to stand before Him, and even more, to be specifically called by name into His presence.
In these verses, Moses showed a knowledge of who God is and the appropriate response to Him. This is worship. Therefore, God proceeded to converse with him, reveal his purpose, and answer his questions.
Typically, when interviewing for a job, the employer wants to know what you know about the company and why you want to work for them. This makes perfect sense. They want to be sure that you understand who they are, what they’re about, and what they do. Your answers tell them if you are a good fit and will represent them well. One of the problems in the body of Christ today is, because of their talents, gifts, and/or popularity, many have been given a platform to function in their purpose without having adequate knowledge of who God is and how to honor him. Consequently, God is misrepresented, and He and the church look bad. So, if you are wondering and asking God for your purpose, please consider your worship. According to Exodus 3:1-10, worship comes before purpose. God does not want to be misrepresented.