HEARING GOD - In Relationship // One Church Podcast, 10th July 2023

Hello, Welcome to the One Church Podcast.

We're so glad you could TuneIn today, and we pray that you

would be blessed as you listen to the word of God.

Today we have the third message in our Hearing God series.

And let's go over for a message from Susan Green in the One

Church North site. Enjoy.

We're. Going to continue our series

called Hearing God. We've been doing it over the

last two weeks. This is the third week.

The first week we listened to Simon Breaker speaking about the

different ways in which God speaks and how he can speak to

all of us. And then last week we heard

Susan speak, and she was talking about hearing God through the

Bible. And this week we're going to

look at hearing God through our relationship with him.

We're going to look at the example of Moses from the

Scriptures. And Moses was called a friend of

God. And we'll we will look at

different ways in which we can build on our relationship with

God so that we can more easily hear and recognize his voice.

So I thought just to introduce it, I I thought, I thought about

our family and we have 3 married sons and one of them is married

to an Irish girl, Catherine. And I remember she's from Derry,

Northern Ireland. And I remember when we.

First went over to Ireland. I apologize if anybody's Irish

in the room by the way before I start.

And yeah and we went and we met her parents that we met the

family. We went out for a meal and I

remember they were talking to us and I just remember that I could

barely tell a word what they were saying.

We couldn't we couldn't tell what they were saying and and

Catherine's father he was. He was telling to make sure we

could understand what he was saying.

He tried to slow his speech down.

I think I just thought, you know, as time went on and we

spent more time obviously with them, then we we found it easier

to recognize what they were saying and listen more carefully

probably to what they were saying.

And I think it's a little bit like that with our relationship

with God. It's the the more time we spend

with him and we listen perhaps a little bit closer and then

actually we will find it easier to hear and to recognize his

voice. In John Tenet says my sheep

listen to my voice. I know them and they follow me.

I do recommend that you read the book How to Hear God by Pete

Grieg. Susan mentioned it last week.

I think it's a great book. It's a very easy book to read.

I always think if I get to the end of it, I think it's a good

book. Personally, and I did.

I found it easy to read. So we're going to look at the

account of Moses. And at the burning Bush.

And it's found in Exodus chapter 3, if anybody would like to turn

Exodus 3 · chapter mention

to it. And we're going to read from

verse 1 to 12 in the New International version.

So here we go, he says. So now Moses was tending the

flock of Jethro, his fatherinlaw, the priest of

Midian. And he led the flock to the far

side of the wilderness and came to Horreb, the mountain of God.

And there the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of

fire from within a Bush. Moses saw that the Bosh Bush was

on fire, but it did not burn up. So Moses thought, I will go over

and I will see this strange sight.

Why the Bush does not burn up. When the Lord saw that he'd gone

over to look, God called to him from within the Bush, saying,

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.

His holy ground. And 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.

And the Lord said, I have indeed seen the misery of my people in

Egypt. I have heard them crying out

because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their

suffering. And so I have come down to

rescue them. From the hand of the Egyptians

and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious

land, a land that is flowing with milk and honey.

And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I

have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.

So now go, I'm sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the

Israelites, out of Egypt. But Moses said to God, who am I,

that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of

Egypt. And God said, I will be with

you, and this will be assigned to you.

That is, that it is I who has sent you when you brought the

people out of Egypt. You will worship God on this

mountain. And then it goes on to say,

Moses said to the Lord, pardon your servant.

Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past,

nor since you have spoken to your servant.

I am slow of speech. And of Tong the Lord set him who

gave human beings their mouths, who makes some deaf or mute.

Who gives them sight or makes them blind?

Is it not I, the Lord Now go. I will help you speak, and I

will teach you what to say. But Moses said, pardon your

servant. Lord, please send someone else.

And then the Lord's anger burned against Moses.

And he said, What about your brother Erin the Levite?

I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet

you. And he will be glad to see you.

He will speak to the people for you.

And it will be as if he were your mouth and if you were God

to him. So it's quite a long passage,

but I think it helps you to see the context of the whole thing.

So we read God appears to Moses, God asks him to go to Pharaoh

along with his brother Aaron, and he does what God asked him

to do and he goes to Pharaoh. God asked Moses to go to Pharaoh

because he says he was concerned about his people.

He was concerned that they were being oppressed.

And I thought to myself, God is still concerned about people who

are being oppressed. God is concerned about you and I

God is concerned about the people all in this city.

When we're praying about the church, our city, our county,

our country, God is concerned about all of them.

And so, you know, maybe you don't know the story about

Moses. So I always think it's good to

just give some some background to the story.

He was born to Israelite parents who were slaves in Egypt.

Both of his parents were Levites, and at the time of

Moses birth, the number of Israelites in Egypt had grown

massively, and the Pharaoh was concerned that they would come

to overpower the Egyptians. And since the men tended to be

stronger than the women, he ordered all the male infants to

be drowned in the Nile River in order to avoid an uprising.

Imagine that, you know, we dedicated Zachary today.

Imagine all the baby boys. They all had to be destroyed.

All had to be killed. And when Moses was born, his

mother, not wanting him to be killed, obviously placed him in

a basket and set him on the water.

And then actually the pharaoh's daughter, she came down to bathe

and then she heard a baby cried in the basket, and so she had

her maid draw him out of the water.

She hired an isolite woman who just happened to be Moses's own

mother, to nurse him. But the Pharaoh's daughter

raised him as her own son, and Moses grew up even though he was

a Hebrew in Israelite, he grew up in the Egyptian court.

When Moses was older he went out one day and he saw, he saw one

of his people was being beaten by an Egyptian.

And what he did was he killed him and buried him and hope

nobody saw. But actually they did see did

get seen. So Moses he got found out and he

had to flee and then he fled to a place called Midian and he

lived there for 40 years. And while he were there, he got

married. He had two sons.

And it was in this time, when he was living in Midian, that God

spoke to him from a burning Bush, saying, I'm sending you to

rescue my people out of slavery. I want you to go to Pharaoh in

Egypt and ask him to let the whole of the Israelite nation

go. So, really quite a big ask.

So I thought, what can we learn from the story of Moses?

Well, I thought first of all, Moses stopped.

He stopped to listen. It was an ordinary day.

Mosey was simply looking after his father's flock, and God

appeared to him from a burning Bush.

And I thought, God can speak to us in the ordinary day, whatever

we may be doing. He can speak at any time, in any

place, in any circumstance. And when God did speak, Mosey

stopped could. Considered what was going on.

I think we all would, wouldn't we?

He saw a Bush that was engulfed in flames and yet it didn't burn

up. And we read that Moses said to

himself, this is amazing. Why is this happening?

I must go over and see it. And when Moses saw, when God saw

Moses come and take a closer look, then God spoke to him, It

says in the scriptures if we draw near to God then he will

draw near to us. He again I say God can speak to

us anytime in any place, in anywhere.

The thing is, are we drawing close to him?

Do we ever stop to consider that God may want to speak to us, or

maybe to get our attention? Do we give God time for him to

speak to us? I'm sure we all know the power

of stopping to listen in a relationship.

Rob and I have been married. I think it's 44 years.

I think it is. And sometimes he'll say to me,

I'm I'm sure you don't listen to me.

I say I do. I do listen to you.

But I think I know sometimes I'm listening, but I'm thinking

about something else. You know, maybe I'm the only

person ever does that but in a marriage.

But I'm I'm, I'm not really. I'm not giving him my full

attention. That's really what he's saying.

You're not giving me your full attention.

And I suppose that's what I'm saying.

Do we give God? Do we stop and give him full

attention? Do we stop and listen?

Do we give him enough time for him to speak to us?

You know every great relationship it it requires

time, doesn't it? You know, last week we heard

about the importance of the Bible in order to hear God

speak. You imagine if we just had our

Bibles and we just read, we just read about God, but we actually

never met up with God. We never sort of spend time with

him. We have to meet with him so that

we and as long as read as well as reason about him, we also

have to meet with him. You know, he's spending time

with God, a priority to us. Or or just actually, time with

God just gets squeezed into the leftovers of our day.

Generally, we will find time to do the things that we want to

do. What is important.

God wants to speak to us. He wants to speak to each one of

us. The thing is, are we listening

to him? Are we stopping to listen?

And so Moses, he he stopped to listen and then I believe that

he he had a conversation with God.

You see, God speaks. God speaks to Moses and God

tells Moses what he wants him to do.

There's a two way conversation, you know.

Wouldn't wouldn't it be great? It was a simple thing, you know,

we we speak to God, He speaks back to us, we speak to him, He

speaks back to us. Wouldn't that be great?

It doesn't always work quite like that, does it for us?

Well, it doesn't for me. But then I do think we can talk

to him about the things that are going on in our lives.

You know, God tells Moses he's great plan.

I want to send you, you know, you're going to be one that do

all these things. And then actually what does,

what does Moses say? He basically says, can't you

send somebody else? You know, really I'd rather you

send somebody else. That'd rather it not be me.

I thought, I find that quite incredible in the great plan of

things. That's actually what Moses says.

Please send somebody else. And then what does God say?

Well, first of all, it looks a little bit like God's a bit

crossed with Moses says he's angry.

But then he, he actually then suggests that maybe Moses gets

his brother to speak on his behalf.

I thought how gracious really, of God, you know, he understands

this, you know, for saying, well, I'm not really very keen

on this, but then actually God says, oh, okay then.

I mean, it's probably not quite like that.

But do you know what I'm saying? That God says, well, okay, then

why not? Why not go and get your brother

to come and help you, you know, and I just think tell God about

the things that concern you. You know, there's a conversation

that goes on and actually Moses goes to him with his fears

basically. And I just want to say that God

is concerned about our fears. If the things that we, the

things that concern us, tell him about it.

The scriptures say that the Lord would speak to Moses face to

face as one speaks to a friend. You know, if we are seeking to

keep the Bible that we have talked about as a priority in

our lives and if we are seeking to have a day-to-day

relationship with God. Then I do believe God will drop

things into our minds. I do believe He will speak to

us. He wants to speak to each other.

I think The thing is, are we listening?

Are we stopping in? Romans, in the message

paraphrase, it says this. So this is it.

This is what I want you to do. God helping you take your

everyday your ordinary life. You're sleeping, you're eating,

you're going to work and you're walking around life and place it

before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you

is the best thing you can do for Him.

Don't become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit into

it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on

God. You'll be changed from the

inside out. Readily readily recognize what

He wants from you and quickly respond to it.

Talk to Him about your everyday, ordinary lives.

Have a conversation with him. You know, just take your

everyday ordinary life and bring it before God.

What else do we see about Moses? Moses had a place where he met

with God in reading. In chapter 33, we read that

Moses used to take a tent, used to pitch it outside the camp

some distance away, and it was called the tenter meeting.

Anyone who was required inquiring of the Lord would go

to the tent of meeting outside the camp.

Whenever Moses went into the tent, all the people rose and

stood at the entrance to their tents, watching Moses until he

entered the tent. As Moses went into the tent, the

pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance while

the Lord spoke with Moses whenever the people saw the

pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the tent.

They all stood and worshiped each at the entrance to their

tent. The Lord would speak to Moses

face to face as one who speaks to a friend.

Do you and I have a place where we meet with God?

A tent of meeting, so to speak. In order to build a relationship

of any kind, there has to be a meeting of some kind.

When I was preparing for this, I just had to check this.

For some reason I thought about one of our first dates, which is

obviously a long while ago, before the time of mobile

phones, You know, nothing like that.

And Rob. Rob used to live in town near

where the TLC buildings is in Highfield St. and I lived over

in Ensby and we'd arranged. Actually, it's one of our first

dates. We arranged to meet, I think at

the bus stop. I was catching the bus he was

walking to meet me. And anyway, it never happened.

I don't, I'm not sure what happened, but it never happened.

Which didn't go down too well. You can imagine, can't you?

But I just thought we never had mobile phones.

Say, are you here? Where were you?

You know, it's just one of these things.

It just didn't happen, did it? Did you hear that everybody, Rob

was like, wasn't me. It was Rob thinks it was late.

Oh, yes, I probably did. I probably got the UMP,

actually, and I probably got back on the bus of I know I

think I did. And I think what I'm saying to

say, you know, if we're to carry on like that, we never actually

met. Well, you you can't have a

relationship like that, can't you?

You have to meet up. And I think what I'm saying is

we have to, you know, in our relationship with God, we have

to have a place where we meet. We might get it mixed up, but

let's have a place where we meet with God.

You know you know now now I I'm I probably meet meet with God.

I spend time with him in in one of our spare one of our spare

rooms in the spare room you know and then I partly quite like to

go for a walk in the park and I I find it easier to do that but

when the children were little. That would not have been the

case. We didn't have a spare room for

one thing and it was a chair in the in the dining room.

And I I didn't have a park near me and I I didn't have time

necessary to go for a walk. It it was different.

But what I'm saying is I found time.

Whatever, whatever season of life I was in, I sought to find

that time, you know, personally, I find it easier to walk.

To walk and talk to God, I tend to.

If I sit, I tend to find my mind wanders.

But maybe that's just me. But I I don't find it quite so

easy. And then when I heard about

Nicky Gumbel, apparently he finds it easier to do that, that

that made me feel better that that actually that's what he

does. And then I thought about when I

was at work, I often used to probably just go in and when I

have a lunch time, my pops go in in the car and just sit in the

car and that's when I would have it.

And you know, I think what I'm trying to say, just find the

time. Make it work.

Whatever season of life you're in, you find the time.

Stop, listen. Make time for him to speak to

you. Susanna Wesley here.

This was the mother of ten children and she lived in the

1700s and she was called the the Mother of Methodism.

And I want to read you this quote about her.

If a passing stranger walked through the rural village of

Epworth, England on any given day between 1700 and 1720.

And appeared through the window of the home of the rector of the

local Anglican church. He might have caught sight of

something quite strange. Depending on the time of day,

this observer might have seen a woman sitting in a chair with

her kitchen apron pulled over her head, where ten children

would read and study or play all around her.

Two of the ten children would have been little boys John and

Charles Wesley, who grew up to shape the course of Christian

history and thus changed the world.

The woman under the apron would have been Susanna Wesley, who

assumed this odd posture for two hours almost every day.

Yes, Laura's just gone 2 hours. She's probably thinking, but I

think. Yeah, but you know what?

What I'm saying is she found time.

She had ten children and a lot of the time my husband was not

there. You know, she was virtually a

single parent. So what I'm saying if she if she

could do that and she had ten children.

Surely you and I can find the time in some way, whatever our

week might look like, whatever our day was like her tent of

meeting, basically. It was under her kitchen apron.

Really. And I suppose I want to say,

where is your yours and my place, my our tent of meeting.

You know, this is the place where we meet with him, where we

read his word, we talk to him and we listen to him, Psalm 46

says. Let be and be still and know and

recognize and understand. That I am God, You know, let us

make time to be still before him.

Let us find a place where we can be still, even if it's just for

a few moments or a few minutes, you know, as to say we have

different seasons. But let us find a time to be

still. Let us make time to build our

relationship with God so that we can listen and hear his voice

again. I say it again, John.

John, 10, says my sheep listen to my voice.

I know them and they follow me. When we do hear God speak, then

there has to be an application of what we hear.

We're not meant to just be hearers of the word, but do us

as well, you know, what will you and I do as a result of

listening to to the the series that we've been doing?

What will you and I do differently?

I mean, what will we do, even this week differently to in

order to see, to draw near close to God so that he can draw near

to us? And then my final point is do

whatever he tells you. Moses stops.

He listens. He has a place of meeting.

And then in the end, Moses does call him to do it, and he does

it. He goes to Pharaoh, and he asked

him to let the people go. It wasn't without its problems,

but it did happen. We asked God to speak, and then

he speaks. We need to obey what he's

telling us to do. In the story of the wedding of

Cana, in John's Gospel, Jesus is there with his mother Mary, and

all of a sudden there's a big problem.

There's no wine left, which would have been a huge

embarrassment to the family. And then Mary, the mother of

Jesus, she speaks, she speaks, she goes over to Jesus knowing

that actually Jesus can do something about the situation.

And I think I want to say she went to Jesus 1st.

And I just want to say she just go to Jesus first in a

situation, go to him, talk about him.

You know, whatever your situation may be, you know,

maybe it's about a job, maybe it's your health, maybe it's

your finances, your relationships.

But go to Jesus 1st and then she says to the servants, which

always, always touches my heart. Really.

She says do whatever he tells you, You know, Really.

Because they did what? What?

You know, whatever he told them to do.

Actually, that brought about the miracle and the water was turned

into wine. You know, when we hear what God

is saying to us and we do whatever he tells us?

And at some point there is a breakthrough.

There's a miracle even. It's just a small miracle.

There's something that happens as a shift that takes place in

Pete Reed's book. He writes this.

And of course this is not a one off thing.

I don't just hear Jesus once and say yes to him once on the day

that I first asked him into my life.

As the weeks and the months and the years unfold, I tried to say

yes again and again. In great big terrifying life

defining ways. And also in tiny, tiny tiny

ways. And 1st and most obviously this

means saying yes to his word. In the Bible, saying yes to come

follow me, yes to be in repent and be baptized.

Yes to pick up your cross, to love up your love your enemies

and go into all the world. And I say OK, but it also means

saying yes to his whisper day by day.

In more particular and personal ways, he's learning to discern

that still small voice. Telling me, for example, to turn

left at the end of the street. To listen to my kids, To wear a

particular blue T-shirt. To put £57 in the offering, to

sort out my attitude. To take a day off, maybe to call

my mom, to strike out in a new direction, to share my faith.

To shut my mouth. To pay attention to a certain

word in the sermon. To pause and to pray.

Little by little, as I learn to live this way, to attentively

towards God's Word in the Bible and to the whisper of His

spirit, I discover the intricate goodness of His guidance.

Gradually, my neural pathways get realigned by 10,000 little

Yeses. Slowly, my character is refined.

By each righteous choice, and ultimately my destiny is

defined. Listen, believe and obey and

just say yes to Jesus. So do whatever he tells you,

whatever, whatever it might look like or whatever you may think.

When I went to the Assemblies of God conference back in in May

time, there's a man called Mark Ritchie who's an evangelist and

also a comedian. And it's very good, very good to

listen to. And he sensed that God was

saying to him to make a big cylindrical cross and to carry

it all around Great Britain, Great Britain, and to give

people an opportunity to post their little post notes to God.

It was evangelistic event and he just felt that that's what God

was telling him to do. And he arranged to see two

significant church leaders about his vision.

And when he went to the first leader and told him about it, he

just laughed in his face. And said what it what a

ridiculous idea and then he called his assistant and this

this leader did and actually they both just laughed at Mark

and thought what a crazy idea that was And so he went home and

he he thought you know I've obviously not got this right so

to speak and and he spoke to his wife and he said I think I'm

going to cancel the second appointment and and she said no

go go and and see him and so actually when they went to the

second person it was actually Jay.

John. He was an evangelist, and Jay

John just said what an incredible vision.

He called his assistant in and they actually wrote a check

there and then to actually help him with his vision.

And I think what I'm trying to say is that actually he felt

that's what God was saying to him and he needed to go with

what God was telling him to do. And sometimes what we sense God

is telling us to do might look a bit crazy to somebody else.

But if God has said it to us, we do check it out with people, but

we'd we'd believe that. That's what God is saying to us.

So we do whatever He tells us. Let us just say yes to whatever

He's telling us to do, You know, even if you know, wherever you

may be, just stop and listen to him.

Remember, he can speak to you in the ordinary days of your life,

whatever you may be doing. Expect to have a two way

conversation with him. Talk to the things that you are

concerned about, whatever it may be.

Talk to him and listen to what he has to say.

And then make time to have a tent, so to speak, a place, a

chair, a room, a walk, whatever it may be.

Make time for that place where you can meet with God and then

be open to what he's telling you to do.

And do whatever he tells you. Thank you, Susan.

Even right now, let's take a moment to pause and ask a simple

question. Father God, what are you saying

to each of us? Lord, we want to hear you and we

want to hear your voice. Thank you that you are always

speaking and you have created us to walk in relationship with

you. Come and help us tune our ears

and our minds to hear and notice and then respond when you are

speaking. If you want to get in touch with

any of the team, know that we are here for you and we'd love

to stand with you in prayer. This week there's much coming up

in one church, so here is your family news for me.

This week is the last week of the school summer term and we

know that there are children all around Leicestershire getting

ready and excited for a holiday, so if you want to join us at our

last weeks in our midweek clubs, you'd be so welcome.

Come to one church kids on Tuesday night at 6:00 o'clock.

Come and join our young people elevens to fourteens at 6:00,

o'clock on Friday and then fourteens to eighteens at 8:00

o'clock. Come and join us and celebrate

summer together. If you are new to one church or

considering calling one church your home church, then come to

Newcomers. This Thursday night at 7:00 PM

at the one center on Frog Island.

We're going to gather have food together.

There is a space to hear the vision and the heart of 1

Church. Meet many of the leaders, get to

know others who are joining the church, and ask any questions

you have. We would love to see you.

On Thursday and if you want to sign up, get in touch with the

church office. This year, Open Hands is

partnering with the Run Leicester Festival where you can

get involved running a 10 kilometer race or a half

marathon to raise money for Open Hands.

Let's make a difference in the lives of people in need all

around our county by raising money together.

If you'd like to know more, head to the Open Hands website and

finally save the date. On the 9th and the 10th of

September we are opening the new One Center, newly refurbished,

refreshed and ready for the next season.

We're going to do this with A1 Church Together gathering and if

you'd like to be part of it, make sure you're there Saturday

night at 7:00 o'clock or Sunday morning at 9:15 and 11:30 and

that is your family news for.