Speaking from my experience, it seems to be because we’re afraid of the response. “He’s a big, mean-looking guy. He won’t want anything to do with Jesus, and even if he does he’ll just blow off whatever I have to say.” This is a comon mistake. We automatically throw up a wall and refuse to speak what Jesus has planted in our hearts.

Another mistake we make is thinking “Well, I’ll just let Jesus’ light shine through me. Others will see Jesus in me without having to do anything else. I’ll just live a Godly life the way I know how, and everything will fall into place.” Yes, overall this is true, but Jesus did say in Matthew 17:20 “I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” He said that if we step out and have faith, then when we speak things will happen. So yes, we can live our lives, but if we keep our mouths closed nothing will ever happen. I believe the same thing applies to school, church, or any other activity that requires us to be around people we can reach.

What happened to Christians with the confidence of Christ behind them? Do we truly believe that nothing is able to hinder God’s revival? I think that part of the reason we haven’t seen everything we are expecting is that we let what people think of us or what people may say silence the words He is so ready to loose from our lips. What will happen when that fire, that energy rises within our young people’s hearts? It will be a world-wide revival this world could only hope to imagine. What would happen if you walked into your workplace and, instead of being silent, you spoke with God’s power behind you? What if you let your confidence in Him blast through your school or work?

We will see all the events God has promised. The thing is, will you be someone who helps bring it about, or will you be just another young person sitting on the sidelines and watching the rest of us catch the fire? Remember what Jesus said: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” (Matthew 28:19-20)

This is our job. Today I’m giving you the challenge I received at CT Youth Camp 2011: “Do you have your game face on?” Let’s change this world and stop hiding behind insecurities and excuses. Let’s have God-confidence and turn this world upside down.

Aaron sighed loudly as he looked up the mountainside to see the same rocks and scattered foliage as the day before. No sign of Moses. Not for weeks. He could hear the more vocal dissenters approaching, but he didn’t turn around. They wanted the same thing as yesterday: a new symbol, a new direction. And with Moses gone, maybe they had a point…

The story of Exodus 32 is familiar and sad. God’s chosen people decided to abandon Him even as He was giving Moses plans for the tabernacle to hold His glory. But there is a very curious detail of this story that’s worth mentioning: let’s examine the excuses that are used. The people caused Aaron to make the golden calf, saying “as for this Moses, the man that brought us out of Egypt, we wot not [Ed: know not] what is become of him.”

Wait a minute. The man that brought us out of Egypt? Go back to chapter 20, verse 2: “I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt…” Had they already forgotten after only forty days? God made it very clear that He expected them to recognize that He was responsible for their deliverance. But it’s easier to ignore a man than to ignore God, so we humans tend to “decide” that it wasn’t God. It was convenient to believe that Moses was the one they followed because, hey, Moses wasn’t there anymore.

What about Aaron? Surely he knew, right? Surely he was faithful, or at least he owned up to what he’d done? Well, no. “And I said unto them, Whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off. So they gave it me: then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf.” As far as excuses go, “the fire made me do it” is right up there with “the dog ate my homework” on the lameness scale. Less subtle, but just as useless as the peoples’ argument that Moses had gone missing again.

God judged the congregation of Israel that night: many lost their lives for the sake of a god they had invented for themselves. The calf could not save them or provide for them. It had no bearing on current events except in what they ascribed to it — and they even attributed their miraculous deliverance from Egypt to the calf Aaron had just made. It didn’t have to make sense; it just had to be comfortably docile so the people could enjoy themselves.

God was not mocked. He didn’t buy their excuses, and He didn’t play their little game. If not for Moses’ intercession, the entire nation of Israel would have been destroyed. God did not (does not!) tolerate idolatry. You can’t mask that with stupidity, either.

We would do well to remember that while people like pastors, group leaders, and mentors are humans that can be fooled or ignored, the God who placed them in our lives cannot be fooled. He didn’t buy excuses at Sinai, and the odds haven’t improved since then. (Excuses are cheap anyway; supply exceeds demand.) The Living God does not make excuses for Himself, doesn’t need to, and He won’t accept them from you and me. It’s not always easy to do, but I want to look past the things that trip me up and see His glory. I want to live for the God of no excuses — with no excuses.