Pastor Dwight Hicks - Living Word Church in Springwood, Brisbane

Understanding God's timing and plan for our lives.

The story of Moses and how God spoke to him after 40 years of waiting.

The importance of trusting in God's promises and plans.

The difference between God's timing and our own desires.

Hello everybody, I'm Wayne Clarice and welcome to Living Word Church. I pray that you guys are blessed. Now, pastor is in the house today. I know he's going to be blessed by his word. He has a word in season and out of season. Praise God. Now, before you leave, I want you to watch his broadcast right to the end and I'll see you there. I was looking at this passage through the week and I want to read it to you and it's found in Exodus and it's actually in relation to Moses you know Moses is out there you know and I'm sure you can pull all sorts of little nuggets out of this for yourself but Moses had tried to free Israel from the Hebrew children at that particular time from Pharaoh so he decided to go out you know with a sword and a spear and kill one well that was interesting he only had probably about another two million to kill you know to be able to do it so would have been tied by the end of the day so he he went out ahead of time God always has a time I know we don't I know we probably don't like it I don't like it I'll just be really honest with you because you know I I start to get into the natural feeling of a present present need so you know there's a present need so i'm believing god for whatever to happen and that i want it now i'm just like you i want it now i don't want tomorrow i want it right now and and the longer it takes i don't get annoyed at god but but i get annoyed at someone else so that i can um um in heaven so he can go and tell god you know but you know what i mean you try and always get around get around the whole system sort of thing but you know and this and this passage of poor old moses was that he goes out to do he do what he's done best gets out there next minute he finds out that pharaoh's after him off he goes and he ends up in the wilderness out there he he finds a he finds a a a a farmer well not really a farmer a sheep keeper and that and he marries his daughter and everything and they and he sits there for 40 years say 40 years do you know how long 40 years is it's a long time to be sitting on rocks in the desert looking after someone else's sheep so he's out there for 40 years and that and then we'll take up the story now in chapter 3 of exodus and a bit of reading today now moses was feeding the flock of jethro his father-in-law the priest of midian and he led the flock into the desert and came to the mountain of god uh even to hurrah and the angel lord appeared to him remember he hasn't heard from god for 40 years you know so you know i'm called of god 40 years later god decides to have a chat you know now i don't know about you but 40 years it's okay for me to be in the wilderness for 40 years waiting for god to talk to me but what about the children of israel getting the crap beaten out of them back for 40 years doesn't god care well you know you can't go down that track you can but you can't go down that track and the angel of the lord appeared to him in a flaming in a flaming bush in a flame of fire out of the midst of the bush and he looked and behold the bush was on fire and but the bush was not consumed and moses said i will turn aside and see this great sight why the bush is not burnt and when the lord saw that he turned aside to see god called to him out of the midst of the bush and said moses moses and he said here i am and he said do not draw near take your shoes from off your feet from the place where unto you are standing is holy ground moreover he said i am the god of your father the god of abraham the god of isaac the god of jacob and moses hid his face for he was afraid to look at god and the lord said i have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and I've heard their cry 40 years crying by the way because of their taskmaster for I know their sorrows and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of the land to a good and a large land to a land flowing with milk and honey to the land of the Canaanites oh here we go all the ites the Hittites the Amorites the Pezzarites the Hividites the Jezebites now therefore behold the cry of the children of Israel has come to me and I've also seen the oppression wherein Egyptians oppressed them come now therefore I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt Moses said to God who am I that I should go to Pharaoh that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt God said to him i'll be with you and this shall be a sign to you that i have sent you when you have brought forth the children out of egypt you shall worship god upon this mountain moses said to god behold when i go to the children of israel and say to them the god of your fathers has sent me to you and they shall say to me what is his name what shall i say to them and god said to moses i am i am who i am actually says it in aramaic and i can't say the aramaic i am who said i am that is the living god and he said thus you shall say to the children of israel ah ah ah or god has sent me to you and god said moreover to moses thou shall say to the children of Israel the Lord God of your fathers the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob has sent me to you this is my name forever and this is my memorial to all generations now and over here in chapter 4 now verse 1 and Moses answered and said behold they will not believe me nor listen to my voice for they will say the Lord has not appeared to you and the Lord said to him oh what is that in your hand now I want you to understand here that from my point of view God's getting frustrated God's spoken to spoken to me to you spoken to Moses and given him told him what he will do now the problem that we have here in this situation is that that God speaks to Moses and Moses basically says well who am I you know who am I that I should go verse 12 says that god says well i'll be with you you know verse 13 moses says well what will i say you know and what is your name if they ask me verse 14 says okay this is god okay um i am has sent me to you say that and then you know moses you know you just see moses you know okay i really need to think this through a little bit more because jehovah el smarti has got an answer for everything okay here i come up chapter 4 verse 1 moses will say behold they will not believe me nor listen to my voice for they will say the lord has not appeared to you the lord said to him now remember the lord has already done with all these things now this is the same as the things that you feel that God has promised you or that you are believing God for you know and many of the things that we believe for the reason why we're believing God is because they're difficult things they're they're not things that we really can control because they're out of our controlling environment there's so many other people that are that that are going to be affected or have to be moved to be able to get me to the place or me in the place where what I'm believing for God to come to pass you understand that don't you now i know god is god and the thing about god is that he can do what he likes he didn't have to wait 40 years he could have turned up to moses when moses was going to kill the egyptian egyptian um soldier and that and moses don't do that don't moses don't do that this is what i'm going to do we're going to do it this way and that way and and that would have saved 40 years well from my point of view and this is the trouble with you and I a lot of times maybe not you but with me the moment God says things or really I when I say God says things when I read things in the word of God and I see God speaking to me and God promising me certain things and and really as far as the Bible is because all I have to do is believe him but i don know why i i have confused believing god so much you know well you know god was to say to you well dwight do you believe me yes i do and god would say you do oh yes i do god i do believe you and then he would say yes but why do you ask me all these questions all the times all the time and why do you seem to be informing me about things that are happening to you as though i should really get a get a bit of a rev on and come down and sort that out quicker for you because you're actually having a bit of an emotional problem here at the moment this time and i've found through all of the emotional stresses that uh in my life personally or spiritually or whatever that i've found god's not really too interested and it really has annoyed me sometimes because after i've spent some some times in really low you know mental times of life and i've been crying for an hour or so and that just me and god it's sort of like that god sort of now and i know that that might sound a little bit cruel a little bit hard but you've got to remember that that the god isn't moved by my crying god's not moved by the fact is that that pharaoh is doing all these things to his children because there are seasons and there are times for everything to happen and Israel were believing for a redeemer to come but when the redeemer come that wasn't the redeemer they wanted they wanted a redeemer according to what they thought how God should answer them and what God should do and when this redeemer comes he will set up his he will set up his thousand year reign he will destroy the roman empire now remember the roman empire eventually ruled for a thousand nearly a thousand years that's a long time people and that's a lot of cruelty and persecution that he that was happening so to the human mind it's like and like god woke up oh i better do something about it oh virgin mary mary uh we're gonna you're going to have a child yeah at least mary says well i haven't known a man that was a deep thing for god not to know yeah oh what am i going to do now i know i'll send the holy ghost over you your shadow and you should the thing which you should birth shall be a child of the most highest you know and that but it wasn't as though you know god is caught out by your actions or my actions or how we feel or mentally and these times that i've been so depressed at times in myself and to myself against most would not know is at the end of the day it's like this this is my relationship with god are we finished let's get up now and let's get the job done jesus look look in the mirror jesus i'm not feeling too well oh i didn't know that so it's about feeling now oh the trouble that the trouble is with me and i say this definitely i'm not boasting i'm saying with the trouble with me is that the moment i say something to god i know what the bible's saying back to me so god doesn't have to say hey dwight straight away i go because i know what the bible says oh jesus it's been really really hard pasting for 39 years and god goes and what am i gonna oh okay you know about it now i didn't know about it right thank you for letting me know how bad you were feeling i'm really sorry that i wasn't emotionally involved in your in your decision at this time to come and tell me how how bad and how how hard things are so at the end of the day this is what we've got here we've got Jesus turning up the deliverer and they've been believing for a few hundred years he turns up nah don't want him because he he isn't going to turn up and he's not going to appear the way we want him to appear now now now it's it's It's not really too hard on the Jewish people at that time because God turns up. He did tell them that a virgin would conceive and a child and his name would be Emmanuel, which is God with us. But when he does turn up, no, that can't be him. Because what they wanted him to do, they didn't want him to do what he came for. They wanted him to do what they wanted him to do. that was to get rid of the um the roman empire and set up a thousand year reign of christ then the great white throne judgment then we'd all be doing hallelujah and eating eating veggie sandwiches for the rest of our lives in heaven and that and just enjoying a great peaceful what's the name and saying to one of the angels could you bring some more grapes over please thank you i'll put it in my eye that one's got seed could you get the ones without the seed please you know and that and and that's not what life or heaven is about um in any way shape or form so but we have like darren said we have people trying to understand god understand the universe and and understand understand that and okay let's just say we've been planted by aliens but who made the aliens the aliens made the aliens it made the aliens it made the aliens Now, the truth is not out there on the TV series. The truth's in here. And people are looking outside for truth when we are to look inside. What are we going to do about the petrol prices? What are we going to do about the food prices? What are we going to do about the power prices? What are we going to do about all the things that are going to go up? What are we going to do about all the people who are leaving the church? what are we going to do about it? You know what we're going to do about it? Nothing. Because it's not my problem. And it's not our problem to solve. Yes, but. No, no, no, no. Hang on here. But what if we run out of petrol? We walk. Well, what if I get tired walking? We'll find a horse somewhere. We'll do that. We'll go back to the dark. No, what we will do, what we will do is we will not blame God or assume that God is going to change things or the seasons that are put in place by God and for God by our complaining and whinging and whining. There's loads of things that I think are unfair, but it has nothing to do with God. And it was a shock to me, and I've said this to you before, years ago when I went to God, what are we going to do about this? And God says, well, what are you going to do about it? What do you mean what I'm going to do about it? It's your earth. What are you going to do? I gave it to you to rule it and to reign, to look after it. But I can't do the earth. The earth's too big, Jesus. My mower only does so much. Can't mow everyone's yard and do and fix everyone's problem. No, but what you can do, Dwight, is the earth that I have given you. The earth that I have given you, Jesus is saying, what are you doing with the earth that I have given you and some people's earth is bigger than other people's earth and that's not what we're talking about we're talking about what are you going to do with your earth are you going to live in the future wanting everything to change all the time so that your earth will be pleasant and nicer or will you by faith stand up and and speak the word of God and control the environment over your earth because Jesus said nothing shall hurt me nothing will yes there'll be interference and yes there will be a fight and there will be a battle but he said to Adam and Eve to have dominion to rule and control in a government control not the government but in a ruling control yes but whatever yes but whatever there are many many unfair things that have happened to you and I and to good people And we can get into the mental realm and say Jesus you should have came earlier You should have told me You should have told me the second time about the car accident Why didn't you remind me over and over and over again? But I told you. You know, I probably wouldn't have listened anyway. I don't think I was listening. So we've got Moses here. And what's happening in Moses' life is that we've got a burning bush. we got what God's speaking to him and God telling him all these things and God giving him answers and then Moses for for a few short verses is listening to God speaking but he's not listening he's listening to himself saying I really got to think up some more things here because you know at the end of the day he's probably right but hang on I'm going to give you a little bit more information and Moses answered and said behold they'll not believe me nor listen to my voice for they will say the Lord has not appeared to you the Lord said to him what is that what is that in your hand and he said oh it's my staff it wasn't his servants his staff his rod and the Lord said to Moses put forth your hand oh no sorry on the ground and he cast it on the ground and it became a serpent and Moses fled from it. He just didn't go, oh snake. He picked up his little and off he went. He fled from it. We've got a burning bush and now he's running from a snake. So off he goes and eventually, Moses, Moses, Moses. He gets Moses' attention, verse 4. put forth your hand and take it by the tail i'm not taking no snake by the tail but you know what unless you take the devil by the tail he'll never respect you you know that unless you take the devil the situation by the tail he'll never respect you and he'll just keep on playing the old mind game all the time with us he doesn't win lord said to sir put forth your hand take it by the tail put forth his hand and caught it and the moment that he caught it it became a staff in his hand now remember this is God doing all this this is not Moses you know he's barefoot he's packing it with a stake now on the ground God says pick it up picks it up turns into a stick this is pretty good right then he said this is done that they may that they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob has appeared to you now let's just look at this God has been so subtle and been so tricky here he actually tells them about Pharaoh talking to Pharaoh now he's actually saying Moses has turned around says okay we have to do something else here the people won't believe your people won't believe me they won't listen to me and he said okay we got a few tricks we're going to do but I want you to listen so now we're trying to convince the the children of god that god is here to deliver them now verse six and the lord said furthermore to him again put now your hand into your bosom and he put his hand in his bosom when he took it out behold it was leprosy white as snow health insurance didn't cover it verse seven then the lord said and put forth your hand back into your bosom again and he and he put his hand back into his bosom and when he took it out his bosom behold it was clean like the other flesh and if they will not believe you neither hearken to the voice of the first sign they will believe the voice of the latter sign and if they will not believe also these two signs neither listen to your voice you shall you shall take some of the water of the river and pour it upon the dry land the water which you take from the river shall become blood upon dry land now you can imagine moses i know nine and ten verse nine you imagine moses stepping back and going oh man i've got to figure something else he's cutting me off at every part oh i'm not really good at speaking when i get up to do communion i'm not really good speaking when I get up to preach. You know, I didn't pass my exams. I didn't do this and I didn't do that and didn't come from a good family, didn't have a Christian family, didn't have a silver spoon, even a timber spoon in my mouth when I was born. You know, all of these things and our natural carnal mind wants to bring up all of these things because this is what humanity does. If God was God, why would he let that happen to the six million Jews? Why would he let all these things happen? But if you read the Bible, you know why. Yes, but isn't that unfair? Isn't that cruel? No, no, it's in the Bible why it happened. And this is what God doesn't do. God doesn't come and interfere with what you are believing or what you are thinking is going to happen within your mind. It's up to you to deal with your mind. it's up to you to exercise your faith. God won't give you faith. It's up to you to exercise your faith. He's given you it as a grain of mustard seed and you are to build onto that. You are to make it grow. Can't blame God for why I'm sick. Can't blame God why this happened to me. Can't blame God why the building isn't full. I'm believing for the building, Jesus. It's been 39 years of believing. And God says, and? Well, what do you want me to do now? Believe. Oh, how long do I believe? You believe. Believe doesn't have an end, but it does have a beginning. So we've got Moses here. And he's got all of these excuses coming. Then he says, hang on, I'm not really good at speaking, Jesus. I'm not eloquent. My brother's good. My brother's really good. Use Wayne. Wayne's good. Wayne really talks well. Use him. you know it's like when you're at school you know you got everyone's lined up there you know there's something's gone in the classroom it quite didn't now classes and they line us all up then and we knew we knew we knew the um we knew the rule don't dob on your mates because if you dobbed on your mates at lunchtime you've got the crap beaten out of you and after you got it beaten out of you we put it back in then beat it back out of you again but that was just the way it was everyone was afraid of everyone there was a certain amount of hierarchy that was in our class of course the teacher wanted to know who threw the dust at him and I've got my mate up there, we're all standing in line there, the teacher was riding on the board, next minute I don't know how the dust flew through the air, I think it was levitation but anyhow he lined us all up he's got the cane this is not the head teacher he's got the cane now this is the teacher that would if you didn't say something straight away he would just grab your hair in the back of your head and bash your head on the desk with your nose that hurt so anyhow the hero of the class who do you think that was? it was me so he says who has done this okay if if if if someone doesn't own up who has done this it wasn't me by the way uh but my mate did he said you know you're going to stay behind you're going to stay behind until someone owns up well you know we can't sleep there you know you're going to stay through lunch you're going to stay after school and that you know so i said i did sir well I got the six cuts you know what I got the six cuts but I tell you what the school was frightened of me the class was frightened because I owned up for someone else and it wasn't afraid of the teacher that would give the cuts but you see what we've got to do as Christians not only do we own up to ourselves but we have to protect each other it may not be their fault but we have to protect them we have to protect our brothers and our sisters because they are our brothers and our sisters like the bible says when we see a brother or sister sin a sin that not under death we to ask forgive it oh who gives us stuff about them jesus just like no if we see a brother or sister make a mistake we say father forgive them in jesus name father forgive them in jesus name you know because our prayers for each other will do great things as we pray for each other i believe that seven minutes ago so moses what happens with moses is that things are not going too well i can't speak verse 10 moses said i beseech you oh my lord i'm not eloquent neither hither for two nor since thou hast spoken to thy servant for i am a stutterer and slow speech i wonder if that was really true the lord said to him oh who has made man's mouth you know straight away i didn't have a good upbringing i didn't have this this happened to me this happened and and and the lord said to him are you just going to keep blaming your parents and blaming everyone what's happened to you where you are today he says if you if you don't want to continue on in your life well then stop blaming your past and live for the future now which we find in god's word and this is what he this is what he said the lord said to him who has made me who really has made you my mom and dad no no no let's just forget about trying to be smart to me right who really has made you you're born again i belong to you right do you think if i told you that you're more than a conqueror do you think i lied to you no no i don't think so why are we having this conversation you're telling about everything that you can visually perceive and everything that you are mentally feeling and your word says that you are to walk by faith and not by sight. But if I close my eyes and don't walk by sight, I'm going to fall over something, Jesus. No, you're going to walk by faith. You're not going to ignore what you see and what you feel, but it's not going to dictate to you who you are and what you are, because I've made you more than a conqueror. Your mum and dad didn't. I've made you the light of the world. I've made you a son or a daughter of me. I have infused you with my spirit. I will never leave you nor forsake you. But I don't feel you at the moment. It's not about feeling, Dwight. We have to settle this. It's not about feeling. Yes, but. No, no, no, there's no but. It's not about bank account. It's not about how many people in church. It's not about if this is happening in your business or that it's happening. It's what you are doing with the situation. I don't want to have to deal with these things all the time, Jesus, because I'm sick and tired of dealing with these things all the time. Yes, but I've given you the strength to do it. Yes, but I feel weak. Oh, it's back to feelings again, is it? Okay, it's not about feelings. I feel real strong now, Jesus. What are you going to do about it? I'm going to keep pursuing what the book says to pursue. And I'm not found that I am strong standing still. I'm strong when I'm moving. because when you're in the way or on the way the Lord leads us and Moses said to him oh the Lord send I beseech you by the hand whomsoever verse 13 wilt thou send now God is actually he's peeved off and the anger of the Lord kindled against Moses and said to him oh send your brother then with you and the brother never did me speaking anyway this is God I'm finishing up now this is God okay Moses let's just have the chat this is what you said to me what shall I say I said I'll tell you what to say right what is your name this is my name what's in your hand oh it's a rod it's a snake pick it up by the tail turn back in a rod put your hand in your bosom who did all these things i did you know um yes but but look oh i could nearly use the b word but i won't because i don't use the b word but but if i was god i I would say, Moses, all I'm telling you to do is to pick up the beep and rod and go to Egyptians. I'm not telling you to do anything else. Pick up the rod and go. Oh, okay. Goes back to Jethro. So, I've got to go to the Egyptians and free all the people. What? oh okay been out in the sun too long bush was burning god spoke to me you know and while he's away for a short while um jethro was writing up the divorce papers for his his daughter could all moses had to do was listen to what god is saying to do just like we say we read in the word of God it says have faith the God kind of faith nothing else just just have the God kind of faith and speak to the mountain yes but the mountain's not moving I didn't say to respond after that I just said speak to the mountain and I'll tell you something Dwight it's a real secret I'll do the rest you preach the gospel you pick up the rod the word of God I'll do the rest for you it may not be that what's God saying to you but God is saying something to every one of us and he's saying it all the time but he isn't saying hey Darren hey Wayne it's in our daily life we know God is speaking to us yes but what about no don't do the what about because the water bow up is a real empty room of nothing. Let's bow our heads. Heavenly Father, we love you today. We appreciate everything, everything that you have done in our lives. And we will not be slack concerning your promises towards us because your promises are yes and they're amen. And when I say this, Lord, I'm not meaning this this way. it's not that you are trying to get us to believe you're just telling us believe you're just saying to us speak the word of god and believe what's spoken so what are you saying to us to do you're just saying dwight i'll do the rest you believe and speak to the mountain and when you come back tomorrow the leaves will be dead and it will start to die. I'll do that. Don't try and be healed. Just be healed. Don't try and think this or think that. Just believe what the Word of God says. In your limitations and your ability and your knowledge that you have of the Word of God. Let him do the rest. and remember that life and death are my life and the death of my life are in the power of my tongue in Jesus name that's why when we drive into this street we'll say thank you Father we have a great church thank you that you have blessed us with a wonderful building you've blessed us with wonderful people we don't understand what's happening Lord but we don't have to understand all we have to do is what a great broadcast Now, before you leave, I'd like you to like, subscribe, and tell your friends about Living Word. My name's Wayne Clarice. See you next week.

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