Encountering God's Presence In Our Everyday Life | Pr Gloria Paul

You're listening to a message to go from AXTS church.

We hope this message will light up your day.

Right, so let's just get into the word this afternoon.

Thank you XTV for helping out with the slides. Yeah,

the title of today's message or at least something that

God has been just even speaking to me. Have you

even shared this with our charas family? And it's about

you know, enjoying God's presence, right, how many of you?

Sometimes you know, when you have a close friend or

someone that you truly appreciate, you just enjoy being in

their presence. Right, you wouldn't mind having as many meals

with them, going for a cup of coffee, right, enjoying

their presence because they mean something to you. Right, you

have a relationship, You have a friendship with them. What more,

God's presence, right, And so we just want to learn

about how we can encounter God's presence in our everyday life. Right.

So let me just even give you a little bit

of a background to the meaning of presence. Okay, when

we look at the word presence itself, it comes from

the word panim in Hebrew, right, and what it means

here is that you have a close and a personal

encounter with God right, which means face translated you know

as the word face, meaning you look at the person

face to face. Right, And that is what it means

being presence of someone. You're not just busy on your

phone or your mind is somewhere else. If a true

present conversation is when you're seeing them, you enjoy the

person's presence, right. And that's exactly what it means when

we say the presence of God. Right. Just to give

you an example of a scripture in Psalm seventeen, verse

fifteen says as for me, I will behold your face

panim in righteousness. I shall be satisfied when I awake

in your likeness. Right. And that is what it means

to face God. Yeah. And if I can just begin

by asking this question, if you've had an experience where

you know, you meet someone after a very long time

you know, or you encountered an experience that just blew

your mind, right, you never expected and it happened, right,

And you go to another to a closed person, and

you say, guess what, you'll never know or never knew

what I saw who I met, right. And most of

the times we say those kind of you know sentences

or when we have those kind of conversation is when

something unexpected happened in an ordinary day. Right. So you're

just going to work and one day you're going for lunch,

and then you realize when you go to the casher,

someone says, hey, someone paid for your meal. That does

not happen every other day, right, And so it catches

your attention and you say, guess what, someone paid for

my meal. Or you bumped into a very good friend

who you did not meet for a very long time, right,

and so you're just so happy surprise. And when you

meet your friend or you go back home, you'll say, hey,

you know, guess who I met. Right. It's those kind

of experiences where we don't always encounter on a daily basis,

but it happens, right, It happens. And so what we're

going to learn today is how can we experience God's

presence in our everyday mundane lives? Right? I mean God

moves in church, God moves in big conferences cams that

we go for, but God is also interested to move

in our everyday lives, right, in our day to day

going to work, going to school, doing family, doing live right.

God wants to speak to us as well. Okay, and

I'd like to share with you this afternoon from a

character in the Bible and how this person encountered God

in his very ordinary moment. Right. I'm sure all of

us know Moses. What comes to mind when you think

of Moses the raid see right, So we all have

our own image and our minds. I'm sure with this

guy with long beard and having his staff and he

parted the raid seed, it's such a it's just it's

a miracle, right. You don't see this often of course, Yeah.

And it is God working through him, right, and that

happens yre. And so we have this image of Moses

doing such a powerful act, But how many of us

know that it took him a journey to get there? Right,

It was not just overnight Moses when delivered the Israelites,

but God had to deal with him as an individual first.

He had to come to him in a very personal

way before he can actually get him to do something

as big as that, to go and speak to the

Pharaoh release the Israelites that were You know, it was

not easy journey, but he did it. Why because he

had that encounter with God? Right, So let me just

introduce you a little bit more about Moses. If you're

here for the first time and you're you're not familiar

with the Bible. Yeah, just to give you a bit

of a background of who Moses is before he started

parting the raid sea, right, and so if you do

not know Moses was the Hebrew, right, he was, you know,

born in a Hebrew family. But during that time, Okay,

if you're familiar with them, if you read the Bible,

you know you'll read that one of the kings we

had was Joseph. After Joseph Joseph's time, the rest of

the kings that came started started to rule. They forgot

who God was, right, and so then they realized there

was a growth of Israelites all over the nation, and

so they felt threatened and they said, hey, we've got

to kind of get rid of this group of people

because what if they start ruling the Egyptians one day? Right,

And so that is when the king gave an order

that we've got to kill all the firstborn sons. That

that is Bird fought right, And so Moses was there

during that time. Yeah, and so is Mom gave bird

to him. She nursed him at one fine age. When

she could not hit him any longer, she actually put

put him into the river. And so that is when

we have Pharaoh's daughter who found found him and started

to raise him up right, And that is when his

journey started in the palace. Okay, so you can imagine

life in the palace, how it would be, right, he

will be He has all the authority, I'm sure, all

the fame he could communicate, well, all the riches, right,

and so it was a whole change of life from

for him, I know, from the moment from where he

came to where he was found and he was raised right,

and I'm sure there's a reason for that, right. And

then from there if you read on, if you're if

you're wondering where it's from, it's from the book of Exodus,

from chapter one to chapter three. If you have the time,

you can just read the script. Yeah, so I'm just

giving you a summary here. So Exodus chapter one, you

will read the story.

Right.

It says that once Moses grew up, he started to

feel for his people, which is the Hebrews. So when

he saw the Egyptians treating them very badly, you know,

because they were slaves, right, he started to speak up

for them, right, started speaking up for them. And then

what happened was one fine day, during one of those confrontation,

he actually killed one of the Egyptian, right. So you

can see that in the scriptures as well in chapter one.

And so when that happened, he did not realize that

others actually saw his act. So when he was having

a conversation with one of his fellow Hebrew guys Israelites,

and when he was trying to, you know, give his

advice and trying to speak to them, one of them

just said, what who made you ruler over us? Right?

Are you going to do the same like how you

did to the Egyptian. He heard that, he got afraid,

thinking that, okay, someone else knows about this. People know

that I actually killed an Egyptian, right, And so later

on as you read, you'll see that the Pharaoh knew

about it, and he started to run away. Okay, he

started to run away for his life because you're scared

that you know, they'll come after him and you'll be killed.

Right now, let's just take a pause. Think about putting

yourself in the shoes or Moses. Okay, the life that

he let Okay, he was living in the palace fame, authority,

he had all the power. But then again he chose

to do the right thing, which is to speak up

for the people. Right, you speak up for the people.

But things did not turn out the way he was

wanting it to, and then he fell back, running away, right,

he ran away. Let's just look at the scriptures here

for a while. Exodus. Okay, Exodus. If you read from

chapter two, you can see the whole story about how

Moses was born and how he went into the palace, right.

And then if you read on from verse eleven, yeah,

you can see the whole story about how he ran away. Right.

So let's see what happened over here. Okay, let's just

read our bible. You have your bibles with you, yeah, right,

So let's turn together to Exodus chapter two. Now, I

heard one at these services, one of the happening churches around, right,

responding to the word yes. Okay, let's keep that going. Okay,

So let's see. Let's read from okay, verse fifteen. Okay,

Chapter two, verse fifteen, it says when Pharaoh heard of

this matter, he sought to kill Moses, but Moses fled

from the face of Pharaoh and dwell the land of

Median and is sat down by a well. Now the

priests of Median has heven daughters, and they came and

drew water, and they filled the rolls to water their

father's flock. Then the shepherds came and drove them away,

but Moses stood up and helped them and watered their flock. Right,

let's just stop there for a while, just showing to

you the transition of what happened. He was running away,

he said, and then he saw that they were trying

to feed their flock, and he helped them, okay. And

so that is when when their father would ask, you know,

who's the one who helped how come he came back

so fast? Right, And then they say, oh, there's this guy,

Moses who helped okay. And then as you read on,

you'll see that Jericho actually gives one of his daughter

to Moses to get married. I think he saw that

he was very kind, right, and so he got married

to one of them. So that is the change of

his life. Right from living in the palace, he became

a shepherd. Okay, he became a shepherd. So again, if

you can just put ourselves in the shoes of Moses.

What could have been running in his mind?

Right?

I was just trying to do the right thing. Why Lord,

you didn't help? You know why things turn against me?

Why was I the one that had to run away? Right?

All that? Okay? And this is where we see how

God came to him. He met him where he was

as a shepherd, imagining life of a shepherd. Right, it's

always with the sheep, feeding them, sitting down watching over them.

Right.

And this is when the burning bush moment comes in. Right. Now,

let's read the scripture. Here was chapter tree Exodus, Chapter Tree,

verse one. Now Moses was tending the flock of Jetro,

his father in law, the priest of Midian, And he

led the flock to the back of the desert and

came to horror the mountain of God, and the Angel

of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of

fire from the myths of a bush. So he looked

and behold the bush was not was burning with fire,

but the bush was not consumed. Then Moses said, I

will now turn aside and see this great sight. Why

the bush does not burn. So when the Lord saw that,

he turned aside to look. God called to him from

the midst of the bush and said Moses, Moses, and

he said, here, I am right. Let's just pause there

for a while. There's a lot of things that's going

on here though it's just five six verses, but it's

a lot, right. So he's sitting there, and then something

happened that caught Moses attention. We can show you three

points that we can draw from this scripture and learn

how God actually reveals himself and for us to encounter

is presence in our everyday life right now. The first

point that we can learn from this is that in

an encounter with God, he meets you where you are, right.

He meets you where you are, especially if you're faithfully

doing what you're doing right. I'm sure some of you

here no places that God has called you to be.

Be in the marketplace, be in your families, your communities,

and that's the reason why God planted you there, right.

And there can be sometimes a lot of voices around

that says, hey, why don't you pursue this? You know,

why don't you strive? Why don't you keep going until

you find what you're looking for? But then deep down

in your heart, especially if you have had an encounter

with God. You'll know that this is where God has

put me to either serve, to work to lead, right,

And that's exactly where Moses was, and in the midst

of doing what he was doing, he was going through

I'm sure a lot of thoughts of what had happened

from there, and that is where God met him. And

God met him in a very ordinary day. Okay. He

did not wake up extra early on the day thinking

that something is going to happen. But the scripture tells

us here that he just noticed the bush. Well, in

some countries we know that when that's very hot, the

forest can get caught fire, right, But in this incident,

we noticed that it was on fire, but it was

not consumed. So it's something different, right, that made him think, Okay,

let's find out what is this all about. Right. If

it was just a usual, usual scene, maybe you would

have just left it away, right, But he saw it

because it was something unusual, right, And that is where

God met him. If I may ask you this afternoon,

what does your ordinary day look like? How does your

routine look like? Some you might be thinking, I don't

want to think about it. It's just same, all same,

all right. But guess what, Sometimes God uses those moments

to speak to you, if only we can keep our

eyes open, keep our hearts open. Right, Because Moses could have,

you know, kind of missed it out. If he was

so caught up with his emotions, his thoughts. He might

be wondering what's going on? Or it could be so

caught up with his sheeps and work and miss out. Right.

I was just having this thought in my mind. What

if Moses had a smartphone during that time? Okay, he

either could be scrolling through his phone and missing out

that scene, or he could have seen something amazing, taking

picture or putting in his story and then looking at

what people are commenting on and miss out on what

exactly it was. Right, And that is how our lives

are sometimes, you know, we get so caught up with

the good things as well. Right, all these things are

given for our good, for the betterment of our lives,

but it takes over the way we live our lives. Right,

But who should be the bigger one? Right? Who's the

bigger one in our lives? And if you notice in

the scripture we read earlier, when Moses saw the burning bush,

only then God called his name Moses, Moses, and then

he said here I am. So it was not immediate

when he saw He did not immediately know that it

is God right, or it was something supernatural, but he

just took that step forward you went. And sometimes it

is like that with our lives. God wants us to

take that first step. The first step could be just

saying yes, Lord, right, or the first step could be

just being obedient to answer a call, right, or just

showing up. Some of you you might have paid the

price to be here this afternoon, right, and God honors that,

for you to show up to honor him, to put

him first in your lives, right, to serve week in,

week out, though it could have been tiring for you,

but you did it because God called you, right. And

when you do that, God calls and he says, here

I am, and that's when he reveals the bigger thing

that comes after that. Right. And I always believe that

God wants us to first honor the little moments less

before he can call us into bigger places, bigger opportunities. Right.

And it's the matter of first our mindsets. God is

always more interested with what's in sight, right, human would

only see what's in the outside, how your dress, how

you conduct yourself. But God sees your heart. And I

believe at that moment God saw Moses's heart that he

was willing to take that step, and then he called

his name, right, And I think it's a good time

for us to have a heart check for ourselves, you know,

if ever God reveals himself. And I was just thinking

of this in my life as well. If I'm at

work and if God just shows up, would I be

able to recognize that? Right? Or am I so caught

up with my world, my routine, my to do and

miss out right? I pray that our should never get there. Right.

Let us be always ready, Okay, pursuing all that God

has called is to do. I'm sure He has place

different dreams, different desires in your heart. Keep pursuing that.

But in the midst of all that, do not miss

out on what God may be showing you. Amen, Right,

I just like to share a testimony with you, and

I believe it's still in the making. And this is

something that I've been dreaming of desiring. It is waiting

a st elier a lecturer. Right, I've been teaching for

twelve years now, and I remember maybe about five six

years ago, besides teaching, there was a desire for me

to actually help teachers. And this was during the pandemic.

Any teachers here just wondering, No, oh, there is love teachers.

Oh okay, great, okay, nice government school, private private school,

Okay nice. Yeah. So I've been always very passionate to

help teachers because as we know, as teachers, there's a

lot we give in not just preparing lessons, but you're

caring for their hearts, little ones or older ones. But

the little ones at least they're cute, but the older

ones you got to be a patient sometimes, right, And

I deal with the younger adults, and so a lot

of patients, a lot of emotion as well, because you're

dealing with what they go through different levels of proficiency, right,

And so we don't speak much of helping teachers, especially

with their emotion and also with the way they can

improve their teaching. And so me and my friend we

started this project called teacher Project. It's called te chur

actually cher if you know, if you're in I mean militia,

we always call our teachers church here is it our

teacher right? So bringing in the very Malaysian way of

recognizing calling our teachers out. So we had little workshops,

you know, live shows online just to connect with teachers

and to help people recognize the importance of appreciating teachers.

And so it was just a desire, a very fun

thing that we did. And then later on I realized

that even at my workplace, I just had teachers, my

colleagues who came to me for either advice or sometimes

even prayer. I could pray for some of them, so

it was a very natural thing that came for me,

and because I could understand where they're coming from, right,

because it's something I am in as well. And then

later on I received a scholarship to actually pursue a

course on coaching teachers, so I took that up. So

the journey just went on. Has been six years plus now,

and I was just asking God, God, I want to

do more beyond teaching students. I want to be in

that capacity where I can actually help teachers. And so

just early this year, I've been applying jobs because I

felt I needed a change with my career and somewhere

that I know God is calling me right and deep

down I knew I didn't want to just settle in

for anything. Right. Sometimes it can sound tempting when you

look at you know, what is a higher pay or

a better environment, you want to go for all of that.

But something in me just felt be patient. And it's

been a long wait, right, And so I've been applying

and then I came across this opportunity where it is

to actually coach. It's a private organization, but we are

sent as coaches to government schools to actually coach teachers.

And so I was very interested with the idea, went

in for an interview. The first round, I couldn't get

through because of the time frame. I was still tied

in with my organized with my current company. But I

just kept praying thinking about it, and to cut the

story shot, it's a longest story here. But I got

the opportunity about two weeks ago. Yeah, Gran Scott. So

it's you know, when I got the call that I

know that you got this job and you know explained

to me about the period when I need to join

and all that. I was just filled with so much

of joy, right, and I was just hearing thinking about

the journey God has brought me that's far. And my

friends who have journeyed me, they know that this is

not just a dream that came out of nowhere. It

was a simple desire did little things, creative thing that

I never knew that it will become part of my career.

And now I'm focusing on coaching teachers, which I believe

when you coach teachers, you're helping the entire classroom, the

next generation. Right our education system, it goes far right.

And I believe that this was just because I was

just where I was when I caught that dream, when

I caught that desire, it was where I was at

the classroom. You know, I just had this image of

how this classroom was filled with happy students, you know,

students that were enjoying what they're doing, and that's because

a teacher was happy in the front. You know, they

were fulfilled with what they're doing. And that vision was

what led me to today where I am right. And

so it's been a journey, but for me, I felt

the burning bush was because I was where I was.

I'm glad I did not settle for just anything that

came my way, but I just chose to remain and

to trust that God knows what, you know, the thing

that he planted in me would come into fulfillment in

his perfect timing and his perfect way. And so if

you're here this morning, I mean this afternoon, so used

to morning. Right, Yeah, if you're here this afternoon, and

if you have a dream, a desire in your heart

and you still feel that it's not coming to pass,

to not give up, right, do not give up. Keep

holding on to it because God has a plan. God

has a purpose for positioning that dream just for you,

because it's only made for you. No one else can

understand your journey, right, no one else can understand your

story because it's created for you. And similarly, everyone has

their own journey. Yeah, just hold on to it, keep

being faithful in what you're doing, and God will open

the door at the right time. Amen. Right, So let's

not miss out the burning bush moment because he comes

to you. That is our God. You know, we don't

have to work so hard our faith. I mean, other

religions maybe like that we've got to try so hard

to please God. Right, But our God is someone who

comes to you, right, who comes to you sometimes maybe

you may not know how to pick yourself up, but

God knows how to pick you up. He comes right

to you he meets you where you are a man.

Hope you are getting something out of this, yeah, right,

So let's be aware of God's presence in our ordinary

right now. The next thing that we can learn from

the scriptures here is that in an encounter with God,

he attracts you to himself. Right, he meets you where

he are, and then he attracts you to himself. As

you read the scripture just now, when Moses responded by

taking that first step, that is when God responded back

to him, right, and he said, Moses, Moses, right. And

when he attracts himself to you, he knows what attracts you.

A Bernie Bush may not attract you in the time

and age that we're leaving now, right, But according to

your own career, according to your own passion, according to

your own interests, that thing that he puts in front

of you attracts you, and only attracts you, but also

shows you who God is, right, who God is as

we read the scripture. Let's go back to the scriptures here. Okay,

in verse four, let me say so, when Moses Exodus,

chapter two, Chapter three, Verse four, So when the Lord

saw that he turned aside to look God called to

him from the midst of the bush and said Moses, Moses,

and he said, here I am. Then he said, do

not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet,

for the place where you stand is holy ground. And

the first thing that he's trying to reveal to Moses

is that I am a holy God. Right, I am

a holy God, and that is the God my self.

Right.

We should never try to water things down when it

comes to the holiness of God. You know, as much

as we can be modernized then, you know, trying to

fit in with the world. We must always remember that

God calls us to be holy because He is holy.

And if Moses did not recognize that, he might have

missed out on listening to what God had for him.

But because he listened to it, he took out his sandals,

and then he went and encountered God. Right. So just

a hard check for ourselves. How are we living our lives?

Is it holy? Is it pleasing to God? Right? And

like I said, each one of us may have different

seasons and God could be challenging us in different ways.

You know, we cannot compare it with someone else. Or

when it comes to holiness, I believe it is what

it is. Right, It is either black or white. You

can't be halfway in and half way out. It's either

you're fully in your faith, you fully believe in God,

or you don't believe in him. Right. And that's when

we say there's no lukewarm. Right. It's either you're all

out hot, and I'm sure all of you are hot,

likeay out hot for God and you're going all out

for him. Right. And so let's have a heart check.

How are we living our lives? Sometimes it could be

in like I said, the ordinary days, how do we

leave the speech? The way we speak that says a lot,

the things that we watch, what we hear, the kind

of counsel that we have, the kind of friends, because

they say the friends that we that we mix around

with is what makes us as a person. So it's

I think good to reflect all those as we journey

thrue or what kind of changes do I need to make?

And sometimes you may not know, and you ask God,

could you reveal to me what could have not been

pleasing towards you? And you show me break my heart

for what breaks yours? Right? Only God can do that, amen.

So the first thing that he reveals to Moses is

that he is the Holy God. Right, he is the

Holy God. And you know, sometimes God uses certain situations

in our lives to get our attention. It could be

a good one, testimonies, breakthroughs. Right, sometimes it could be

not good ones, and it draws us closer to Him. Right,

that does not I mean, nothing changes who God is. Right,

our situation, our circumstances may change, but God never changes. Right.

And if I'm just thinking about my life, just to

share with you a little bit, you know, the same

time this well last year, I lost my mom, my

mom and home to be with the Lord. It was

a very unexpected incident in my life. Yeah, I was

very shocking to me and my sister. And one thing

I remember at that time was, you know, I mean

it's still a journey. Yeah, I'm still journey, trusting God

for his strength. I asked God, you know, how am

I going to go back to preaching because nothing makes sense?

You know, I had questions. I spoke to him, you know,

and I remember telling this to Pasasandra. I don't know

what I'm going to preach about. I don't know if

I have the strength to stand in the front and preach.

And so when I told this to God, he told

me after a while, because he gave me that period

to rest in him, to recover, he told me just

focus on preaching of who I am, and he reminded

me of the seven Ims. And that is when he

inspired me to write on the seven Ims. So I

brought through the church. I brought the church through seven

series on the seven Ims of who God is. Because

when we read how God reveals himself to Moses, he says,

I am the im, meaning I am everything that you're

looking for. You don't need an extra explanation of who God,

who this God is, but I am everything you need.

And I just did that, right, I just did that.

I followed I preached. I remember the first sermon I preached.

I was still they shaky, my stories, you know, emotions,

but he took me true. And I can stand and

testify this afternoon that I know what peace that surpasses

all understanding truly means when you go through hardships. Right

as believers, sometimes you we here this this verse so often. Right,

Peace of God, the joy of the Lord is my strength.

But it's only when you are hit the most, when

you have nothing else left, and all you have is

God to pick you up. And that's when you know

what He's peace actually truly means. Right. And if you're

seeing me standing here today, it's only by His grace,

only by his strength. Right. And now I'm just more

dependent on him. I say, God, your presence is all

I need. And you know, we wouldn't want to come

upon in time in our life where God's presence leaves us. Yeah,

sometimes you can just go on, we can keep doing things.

But the question is is God with us? Am I

welcoming him to journey with me? And say, God, I

need you by my side because well, I can maybe

still do it, but I may not be able to

do it your way. I may not be able to

listen to your voice. And what is it that you're

telling me? Right? And so I told God, I don't

want to just be preaching through my wisdom or you know,

because you are capable, But I want to preach what

you want me to that riches to your people. Right.

And so it's just been a journey with him. Yeah,

And I pray that all of us will be able

to encounter Him in a very personal way, not just

because someone else told me who God is. But because

I have tasted and see, I have tasted and know

that God is good, and he is good all the time.

Nothing changes about that, Amen. Right. When you turn to

the person next to you and tell them God is good. Right,

God is good, nothing changes about him. Amen. Right. So

that's something that we can learn from here. Right. He

attracts us to himself. Right. And as we read the scriptures,

we can see that, you know, God keeps telling him

about how who I am. Right. I am the God

of Jacob, you know. So he keeps reminding him about

all of this. So let's us read a couple of

scriptures here, okay, okay, Worse six, Chapter three, Chap the

Tree Orse six. Moreover, he said, I am the God

of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,

and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face,

for he was afraid to look upon God. And the

Lord said, I have surely seen the oppression of my

people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry

because of their task masters. For I know their sorrows.

So I have come down to deliver them out of

the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up

from that land to a good and large land, to

a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place

of the Cannonites and the Hittites, and the Emorites, and

the Parasites, and the Hibits and the Jabosites. Now, therefore,

behold the cry of the churn of Israel has come

to me, and have also seen the oppression with which

the Egyptians oppress them. Come now therefore, and I will

send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people,

the children of Israel, out of Egypt. Amen. So as

you read this scripture here you will see how God

chose Moses with a specific task. And don't you think

it's the same thing that Moses wanted to do previously? Right,

he was always compassionate about his people. It's always compassionate

about speaking up for them, even when he was in

the palace. And so God never forgot never, you know,

he always remembered Moses' desire and Moses's dream. Though he

had to go through that hardship, he still said, you

are the chosen one. And I think this reminds us

of something about how when you have a passion, you

have a desire, God remembers it. Right, God remembers it.

But maybe he doesn't want you to take things in

your own accord right or do it your own way,

but he's saying, come trust in my way, because you

know what you saw what Moses did. He tried speaking up,

he tried using all the talents and the abilities he could,

but it didn't work out. He had to run. And

then now God had to speak to him again and say, hey,

it is still your task, but do it my way, right.

And so sometimes we go through those times to understand

and know who God is and that he still wants

us to answer the call and to keep pursuing what

he has called us to do. Yeah, so that is

when God calls Moses to go and deliver the Israelites

from the Egyptians. So when God calls you stop what

you're doing. God doesn't want you to give a long

speech or you know what if can I do this

or that? All he wants you to say is here,

I am stand still and know that, yes, Lord, I'm here.

I'm just gonna answer you, right, And I'm glad Moses

did that. He chose to say, yes, Lord, I'm here

to answer your call. Amen, right, And so what is

that that's in your heart this afternoon. Is there something

that God has put in you? Don't forget that, right,

keep pursuing it, keep asking God for his leading, for

his guidance, and in the due time he shows you

what to do. Right, And even if you go through

things that seems to be like, is this actually working out?

He's our greatest counselor he shows you. He reveals things

that you may not be able to see through our

physical eyes. Amen. Now, the last point that we can

learn from this scripture about encountering God's presence is that

in encounter with God, he reveals who he is. Right,

he reveals who he is. So firstly, he meets you

where you are, in the very more place, the very

moment that you're at, and when you see him, when

you're attracted to him, he knows how to attract you

to himself, meaning all of us have our own personalized

encounter with him, right. And the third thing is that

he reveals who he is to us. Yeah, and so

that is how we reveal to Moses as well. So

there are few things that we can see. What God

reveals here, firstly is that he is a redeeming God. Right,

he is a redeeming God, and that is why he

wanted Moses to go and help the people. You know,

there's a scripture that we read earlier that I've heard

the cry of the people. They've been crying and praying,

and God hears, right, And it's a reminder for all

of us that God hears your prayer. You don't get

an immediate answer, but he hears. Never stop praying, Okay.

The Word of God reminds us to not be anxious,

but pray, keep praying. That's always the care of our

life as a believer, right, Never miss out our prayer time,

never miss out the reading of the Word, because that

keeps you going. Not just for ourselves, but pray for

those around you, your homies, your church, because you'll never

know that sometimes there may be people out there who

may have not had the strength to pray for themselves.

But your prayer goes a long way, right, Your prayer

goes a long way. So God is a redeeming god.

He remembers any answers. Yeah, he is a redeeming God

who delivers these people. Does not only just listen and remember,

but he also delivers. He makes things happen. How many

of you know that, right, He makes things happen. He

can change things around that no eyes is seen, no

years as heard, but it's possible. True God, Yeah, he

can change things around. And if you're seated here this

afternoon and you're wondering, is God ever going to be

changing this situation, let me encourage you to say, yes,

he will. In He's perfect timing. All we got to

do is just to wait on him, not to wait

on that need or wait on that unanswered prayer, but

to wait on him. Seven reminds us to wait on

the lot, and he strengthens your heart. Right, weigh on

the lot, and he strengthens your heart. And that was

a portion of scripture that I remember reading every other

day after losing my mom. I had no words to

to pray, couldn't make sense of things. But I just

waited on the lot. That's all I could do. Was

I fully convinced of the whole situation. No, But I

could just wait on him. And you know what, he

strengthens your heart in his own way. It's very different

for you and me, but he knows what works for us, right,

So wait on him and he deliver us. And then

when you read the scriptures earlier. We could see that

he is readinging God who sends a savior for his people.

You believe that you have a savior in your life. Yes, yep,

you have a savior that you can call any time,

any answers. And if you're here this afternoon, if you

have not responded to this savior, I pray that you will. Yeah.

You keep your hearts open and say, God, I want

to receive you as my savior. I want to know

you as my personal Lord and savior. Yeah. And he

comes and works in our lives. So this Moses, who

was somebody you know, and then he became a nobody.

But God raised him up. God raised him up because

he could recognize that there is a savior who is

able to use me or see someone who is fully

prepared for the task. Well, he had his own things

to deal with, right, He kept asking God, who am I?

Can I do this? The conversations went on. But that

is the thing about God. He doesn't just use you

when you're all ready. I mean, we can never be

fully ready, right, We're all working progress. You're never perfect.

And if you're going to just always wait for the

right time to answer a call, let me tell you this.

It's never going to be a right time. It's either

you answer it now or you don't. Okay. And how

many of us know that life is short, right? And

so what you have in front of you, do it now.

If you have someone in front of you, they've got

to pray or to bless them, do that. If God

is calling you to forgive someone, do it today. Don't

wait until the other person comes and tell you I'm sorry.

Maybe you've got to be the bigger person and say

I forgive. What's the point of keeping things in our hearts? Right?

So what is it that God is calling you to do?

And like I said, God doesn't just use us when

we are fully ready. God calls you in your brokenness.

God calls you when you're figuring things out. You know.

God calls you when you are still waiting for your

unanswered prayer and wondering when it's gonna happen. But he

uses you at the time because you are still faithfully

trusting him. And let's say something about your faith. You

know where people can be wondering, hey, how come you're

still praising this God who is not making things happen?

Or a disappointment happened in your life and you're still

praising him. But if you keep praising, I think it's

going to attract more people. And to ask you, hey,

what's about this God that you keep serving, that you

keep praising despite what happens in your life? Right? And

that speaks so much about who our God is. He

gave his one and only son for us so that

we can leave a victorious life. Right. So my encouragement

for all of us this afternoon is that let's not

just wait for the right time. Let's just answer it today.

If you want to praise him, praising today, Okay. If

you want to serve him, go and speak to someone

after service and say yes, I want to serve right.

If you want to pray, do that. Do not wait, right,

do not wait. Do not wait for the new year.

You can still start now. Okay, don't start resolutions just

because it's the start of the year. I don't think

it's gonna be always working out, right, Start it now.

Then you can celebrate and wow, I'm doing this even

in a new year.

Right.

And so today is the day. Yeah, today is the

day that the Lord has made. That's what the scripture says.

I will rejoice and be glad in it. Yeah, So

let's make the most of what God has given. I'm

sure all of you have something to give. Your talents,

your abilities, your smile goes a long way, right, So

never just feel that I'm not good like the other person.

Let's not compare, but just do what you need to do.

Because God meets you where you are, right, God meets

you where you are. It's gonna invite extreme forward. Yeah,

And as we draw a close to today's message, my prayer

for all of us this afternoon is that all of

you will be able to encounter God right to end.

Encounter is presence in a way where you wouldn't wait

to tell someone about it. Right, Just like how you

have all those amazing moments in your lives, different encounters

that you face, let those moments that you have with

God be special as well. Right that we don't just

take it for granted, especially when we've been in the

faith for some years. Let's not just get very comfortable. Okay,

let's not get or take it for granted, you know,

but let's see God in an intimate way. You know,

Let's look at the burning bush that He may be

showing to us. Right, let's just say yes Lord, yes, lot.

And sometimes to say yes Lord, or to experience his

presence is to give up something. What could that be?

Could it be our time that is taking up too

much on other things? Could it be our minds that

keeps going on and on without stopping. Could it be worry?

Sometimes we tend to worry so much. Right, well, it's

just human. But the word of God tells do not worry.

Do not worry, because if He created you and me,

he has a beautiful plan for all of us. He

is the beginning, he is the end. He knows your life. Right,

we can only see very limited, but God sees the

big picture. He sees the whole you as a person. Amen.

We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

information on our church, please visit as church Org. We

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this week is going to be a good week, a

hit for you. God bless