Step By Step

Good evening everyone. Thanks Pastor Tom for leading us so wonderfully! And before I
begin I wanted to say thank you to Paul Franks for asking me to speak today. This is a
pretty big moment for me.

For those of you who might not know me, maybe you came this morning to our BLAST
Camp service or you are just checking us out tonight - welcome. My name is Kristen
Cameron and I have been attending this church for 31 years - I know, shocking! I have
grown up at this church, attended kids programs, BG clubs, youth, served on the worship
team for a bit, served in youth for a long time, and now I lead the Elementary Kids
program!

My best friend is here tonight and we often talk about the time where we wanted to make
all the ladies in their really nice high heels slip in the bathroom - I was much younger then
- so we hid in the bathroom and dumped water all over the floor and surprisingly no
ladies came into the bathroom and fell. I don’t think we were too quiet so they probably
knew we were in there.

All of that to say is I grew up in this church. I have called this church home for a really long
time and I am so thankful that I now get to have a hand in shaping the next generation.

When asked what my favourite scripture is or Book of the Bible is - which happens a lot in
Kids - I always without a doubt talk about Exodus. The Book of Exodus has so many stories
that you can really visualize - or try to. I can’t wait to talk to Moses about the plagues, the
parting of the Red Sea, or how they followed a flame in the wilderness at night or a cloud
during the day.

The thing I like about Moses is that I can find myself in him a lot. I can see the questions he
asks and how he is trying to process everything.

But tonight I want to start with Moses’ origin story. I want to start by giving you a bit of
background on Moses. Maybe you have heard about this guy, maybe you have studied
him, but what I always tell my kids upstairs is that we can always learn something new
when we open God’s Word.

I am going to set the scene for you :
- The Israelites are slaves in Egypt. Joseph has died - and he was protecting the
Israelites in Egypt.
- The new Pharaoh has noticed that the Israelites are still flourishing despite being
enslaved and so he comes out with that all Israelite baby boys should be killed.
- Moses’ Mom has him, hides him for quite a while until she can’t any longer. Puts him
in a basket and sends him down the Nile River - where his sister watches from the
banks of the river and sees that Pharoah’s daughter finds Moses in the reeds.
- Moses is now being raised in the Palace - in the Egyptian palace - when his people
are being enslaved and oppressed and he knows he is different.
- He stands up for a Hebrew that is fighting an Egyptian, kills the Egyptian, then sees
two Hebrews fighting and doesn’t understand that.
- So then finally Moses leaves Egypt and flees to Midian.
- In Midian he helps these ladies water their flocks of sheep and meets their father
and ultimately marries one of the women.

Pfew, that was a lot, but I needed you to know the story line to see where we are going.
And this is where we pick up our story today : I am going to preface that this is a chunk of
scripture. We are going to read Exodus 3 - 4: 17

As I was preparing for this message in my Bible there was a little write up about the
burning bush and it was something that I hadn’t noticed before. In Exodus 3:3, it says “So
Moses thought,
‘I might go over and look at this remarkable sight. Why isn’t the bush
burning up?’”

Moses had to go. God wasn’t already speaking to him or calling him over. Moses had to
take the first step.

Sometimes in our lives we can hope that God will just yell at us. What to do, where to work,
how to work through a situation. But there are times that He is just waiting. He’s waiting for
us to take the first step.

1) THE FIRST STEP

Maybe that looks like opening a Bible, praying. Seeking wise counsel, coming to church,
spending more time in the Scriptures. Serving. Taking that first step is always hard and
kind of awkward. But I am so glad that Moses took the first step towards that burning bush
- which really would have been cool and I can’t wait to ask him about it one day.

So whatever your first step is, I pray that you will make it today. Cause God wants to come
close to you, He wants to help you and guide you, but sometimes He waits until we are
ready and seeking.

I really love the whole interaction between Moses and God in this story. Can’t you picture
an older man standing at a bush that isn’t going up in flames but still burning, shoes off
because it’s holy ground talking to a bush.

God is telling Moses to go back, to go back to the place where he fled from because God
has heard the cries of the Israelites.

God hears you - He hears your cries. Your loud cries, or the cries of your heart that you
don’t want to say out loud yet. He hears you and He wants to help you. Just like he helped
the Israelites.

Moses’ response in verse 11 is where I see myself a lot. God is telling Moses to go back and
he says :
“Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

2) WHAT IS HE CALLING YOU TO?

Have you ever thought that about something God is calling you to?

Maybe it's a career change, maybe it is talking to someone about Jesus, inviting someone
to church, maybe it's about getting involved and serving at your church, it could be a
plethora of things.

But I have definitely thought WHO AM I?

But God reassures Moses. Quickly. Which I like. God responds and says in verse 12 ‘I will
certainly be with you…’

What a comforting sentence. God is certainly with you when you trust Him. Trusting Him
with everything, every decision, every thought, we have to trust Him because He knows
and He sees the whole picture.

Who’s ever done a puzzle? Who likes puzzles? I’m in Kids Ministry remember so I like
audience participation. If you were to do a puzzle without the box or the little paper that
shows you the picture it would be pretty hard.

God sees the picture. He knows the plan. Even when we question or when we don’t
understand what is happening He does. We have to trust Him through it.

In late 2019 I had just come back from a 6 month stint in Scotland. I went and worked with
an organization. It was a weird situation but I grew a lot when I was there - and Scotland is
stunning so that helped.

But when I came back from Scotland I wasn’t working, I didn’t have a job, I had nothing
lined up. I was at church one Sunday and I was approached to do some admin work for
the Kids department here. I was stoked. I had always wanted to work for a church after I
graduated Bible college in 2016. Then in 2020 the world shut down.

All of our worlds were shut down, and I went from scanning attendance sheets and
prepping for Sunday classes to being thrown into making videos to be posted online.

I had ZERO idea what I was doing. I never served in Kids before, I had the curriculum that
we were going through but that was it.

I felt like Moses in Exodus 4 : 1 - 2

3) WHAT IS IN YOUR HAND?

What was in my hand at that moment was an iPhone propped up on a bunch of books in
my bedroom filming services, that I was just putting together on the fly for our kids and
families during a really hard and uncertain time.

Then I will NEVER forget when we came back to church. Rosie and I had our combined
classes in the South Sanctuary. Remember I never served in Kids before this - I had ZERO
experience. So I was just following Rosie’s lead through all of those services. Then Rosie
took a much deserved vacation and I was left on my own. With leaders and I was like a
fish out of water.

I felt like Moses, going What if? Why me? Are you sure God?

I remember thinking about this story and the ‘what is in your hand’ question that God asks
Moses.

But I knew that with that first step, with leading, with anything that if God is calling me to
this he was going to help me. If He is giving these opportunities have to to run with it. And
once I led a service alone once, I was more comfortable and now I don’t really think about
leading or getting nervous speaking in front of my students on a Sunday or during BLAST
Camp because I know that God is calling me to this. I know that He has placed me here
for this time, and that with every step I take I am going to follow Him because He sees the
whole picture.

So what is in your hand? What is God calling you to? What step does He want you to take
today? Be faithful with what he has given to you. Let Him guide your life and bring glory to
His name by shining brightly in your worlds.

So before I close today, I wanted to remind you that you aren’t here by accident. You
aren’t a mistake. God has an amazing plan for your life if you let Him guide you and walk
with you through it. He wants to be there with you. He wants you to depend on Him
through the mountain tops and the valleys that we all go through.