This sermon focuses on the transformation and journey of Moses, drawing parallels to personal experiences and the need for surrender, faith, and trust in God. It emphasizes the importance of allowing God to change our names, symbolizing a deeper spiritual transformation and readiness to be used by Him for His glory.

Well, good evening. It's a joy to be with you again tonight in these days that we are together as we look at the life of Moses and his journey that God has called him out of the land of Sinai and brought him back to Egypt to bring his people out of bondage into the Promised Land. A journey that God has taken me also in the last couple of years of my own life and teaching me some lessons that he wants me to learn and how to bring that also and teach that to our people back home in South Africa and also other parts of the world. You know, one time I was reading in the biography of Manly Beasley in the introduction there was it was mentioned that there was a question inside the introduction and just some reference that if you want to grow in your walk with God, there's two things that you would need. And the one thing is that you need to surround yourself with like-minded people. People that has the same vision and the same burden and the same longing and desire that you have that God has put within your heart. You see, there are many Christian people all over the world there are many people that is Christian people reading books and studying but every now and then God gives you a friend or a companion that is a like-minded friend that speaks about prayer the same way you speak about prayer that pray the same way that you pray that long for revival and spiritual renewal and awakening the same as you do. And those are the kinds of people that bring great encouragement in your walk with God as we pray for our nations, for us in South Africa and for you here in Canada in such a time as this and even all over the world. I find God has unique people all over the world longing for the same kind of things. If you want to grow that's the kind of friends that you would need to surround yourself with. Not just Christian people but like-minded Christian people because there is a difference between the two. But the second thing that He said that if you want to grow is that you need to read good spiritual books. And as you know there are many books on the market these days in all the book shops all over the world but every now and then you find a nugget. A book that can really stretch your mind and touch your heart and somehow create within your heart a desire to long for something better and more and draw you into a deeper walk and a deeper longing that God will do something for us. And I remember just after I got saved many, many years ago apart from the very first Bible I ever bought to myself was a set of books that I pick up in a book shop in South Africa called They Knew Their God, volume 1 through 6. It's just short nuggets inside about life stories of great men of God that God has used over the years in all the continents of the world. And that created a stirring within my heart and I remember as I was reading some of those biographies and every now and then when I read some of those about the prayer life of George Mueller and his life of faith and his obedience and trusting God and a guy called Robert Murray McCain and Hudson Taylor and all these wonderful people that God has raised up over the years, just a longing that came within my heart to become such a man as they were at the places where God has put them over the years. And ever since that time, I remember one of my hobbies in South Africa is to buy biographies and to read and to study and to see what was the secret of success of this man or this woman or somehow the journey that God has taken them and brought them to the place that made them such a man as they were in that moment. And I want to speak to you about some of those men tonight in connection with Moses and the journey that God has taken him by looking at a guy called Jonathan Goforth and a man called Simeon Zimbambi from Uganda that God has used so mightily in the West or the East African revival many, many years ago. But I want us to turn back to the book of Acts chapter 7 as we have read together tonight already from verse 20 through towards the end of verse 38. But I just want to draw your attention to a few verses of scripture before we get to the message tonight. We have seen it's Moses who was learning all the wisdom of the Egyptian people and was mighty in words and deeds. And when he was 40 years old, how he tried to do something for his people but failed. And how he had to flee for his life and fled into the desert. And after some time spending in the desert, our God came to him and spoke to him at the bush that was burning as we have read together already. But I want you to see verse 35 as he said in the book of Acts chapter 7 And God said, This Moses, whom they rejected saying, Who made you a ruler and a judge, is the one God sent to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel. He brought them out after he had shown wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, in the Red Sea and the wilderness for 40 years. And then I want you to see verse 37 because this is our theme for tonight and the message God has put upon my heart. This is that Moses who said to the children of Israel The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me, from your brethren him you shall hear. This is that Moses who said to the children of Israel and this is he who was in a congregation in the wilderness with the angel that spoke to him in the mountain of Sinai. You know when you look at Moses and the journey that God has taken him spending some 40 years in the desert because of a mistake by killing a man even though we knew that God wanted to use him to bring the people out of bondage. Now he spent 40 years in the desert realizing that maybe God somehow has forgotten about him with a dream that was within his heart that has died or that's the way it seemed to him. And we have looked already this last few days that we are together at God's eternal purpose that God had in mind even for Moses in God's plan that he had put together already by bringing the people from bondage out of Egypt through the wilderness into the promised land and eventually for us as Christian people not just to be saved and born again and to be filled with the fullness of the spirit but to become more and more into the image and the likeness of his son which take place in the promised land in our work with God. Last night we looked very briefly at the place that God has in mind for Moses we looked very briefly at the encounter at the bush that was burning and the path that God has in mind for Moses starting by reminding him about his past about the shoes that he was wearing that he had to take off from his feet. But tonight I want us to look at the man that God wants to use in such a time as this from some of these passages that we have read together but especially from the book of Exodus in chapter 3 but from God's perspective and not from the perspective of Moses and I believe there are many more probably characteristics and examples that we can look at to see what we would need in order for us to become a man or a woman of God after his own heart in a day like today. But just to continue what we are doing ever since Sunday morning in the same frame of mind I want us to look at Exodus chapter 3 once again but this time from the perspective of God. You know China had many many great men of God over the years. William Burns and David Hill and Hudson Taylor and there are so many other people like Isabel Keane and even Oswald Sanders and John Song but then there was Jonathan Goforth he was a Canadian just like you guys tonight which is Canadian citizens. He was a Presbyterian, a Reformed pastor that God sent as a missionary to China many many years ago and how God used him in revival among the Chinese people. But there was a time in his life that he went through a barrenness in his soul and he said about that in his own book he said there was about 13 years in my life that I was barren in my spiritual life and by October 1932 by that time he has read through the New Testament in a Chinese language more than 50 or 60 odd times by that time the last 19 years of his life he went through the scriptures 55 times sometimes in the English language and sometimes in the Chinese language or the Mandarin as he had to learn to speak that. But even though reading through the Bible more than 60 times in the last 19 years of his life, he testified by saying that there was a barrenness in my soul in my walk with God and in that time he received, somebody sent him a book to read about Charles Finney and the biography of Charles Finney but he speaks about the law that we need to that there is specific laws that we can somehow obey or maybe get to the point of paying the price for that and God can use these laws in the spiritual harvest and send a revival and he said if there is specific things that we can do to see revival that's what we will do but then somebody sent him also the book from R.A. Torrey about the Holy Spirit and he started to study the life and the fullness of the Holy Spirit and for about 6 months day by day and week after week he was reading through the testimonies and the teachings of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament and came to the point of surrendering himself by asking God to fill him with the fullness of the Holy Spirit and then use him as a missionary in Canada but not just there but in China especially where God has placed him because he sensed there was a barrenness in his soul even reading through the scriptures so many times day after day and week after week throughout this whole here because something was missing and after 6 months of praying for the Holy Spirit to touch him and just to fill him afresh and anew with the fullness of himself he came to this point of asking God to start to use him but in that time Jonathan Goff had to go on a mission trip from the southern part to the northern part to visit all the mission stations but around that time the reports started to come all the way from South Korea about the revival that God was sending in the land in the nation of Korea longing for God to do the same thing in China but as he was preparing to travel to the next place the next day he asked God to touch him and to fill him with the fullness of himself and God said you can travel tomorrow to go to the next place but I will not go with you because there is something wrong between you and me there is a disagreement between you and one of your elders inside the local church and he said Lord you know if I look at the elder it's not me I know there is a disagreement but this time the disagreement between the elder and myself was because of the elder and if somebody has to fix the problem it's him and God said I know that he was the cause of the problem but I am speaking to you I want you to go and fix the problem with the elder before you travel tomorrow to the mission station on a missionary out routes and a preaching engagements and as he was struggling with that he came to the point of surrendering late that evening and as he walked towards the house of the elder he found that the lights were still on he knocked on the door and as he was speaking to the man they were reconciled with one another and the very next day as he traveled on a missionary outreach come to the place of preaching just a simple message as you normally were preaching in that time God just showed up and as he was preaching he made the invitation he said those who want to make right with God tonight why don't you just stand up for a brief moment where you are sitting and the whole congregation just stood up he said maybe you did not hear the question understood correctly so please just sit down and those who want to make right with God tonight and meet with God why don't you stand and the whole congregation stood again and he said no maybe there is something wrong with the invitation and as he looked backwards to the elders and the deacons to see that maybe they can help him to convey the message and invitation better he showed that the elders and the deacons were lying in their faces just weeping and confessing their own sin and God just shows up the beginning of the revival in 1932 in Manchuria in China all because of the Canadian Presbyterian pastor and minister as a missionary that came to the point of realizing even though I went through the scriptures and I studied the New Testament up to 60 times in the last 5 6 years of his life there was a barrenness in my soul and today as we look back that's why I like to read biographies so much about men of God that God has used in the days gone by because as you look at Jonathan Goforth and R.A. Torrey from America and D.L. Moody and all these great men from South Africa and America and worldwide we can look at their biographies and their life stories and realize it was just a simple man just like you and I tonight that somehow God has touched their lives and used them to become a blessing for so many people you know Charles Spurgeon used to say that you live your life forward but you understand it backwards and as we look at the life of Moses in the book of Exodus tonight we find that Moses was meeting with God in the bush that was burning we think about that time of preparation that God had in mind for him in that desert time of 40 years it reminds me of Joseph that was a slave in the prison and working in Egypt for more than 13 years we think about Paul tonight living in the desert for almost like 3 years as a preparation we think about the Lord Jesus tonight who spent 40 days in the desert we think about Moses I think about John Song tonight who studied in America and became a doctor in physics and then God saved him and God called him to become a missionary to his own people in China and as he started to speak to his professors about the Lord Jesus they thought that he was crazy and they put him inside a hospital for crazy people and God said I want you to stay there for 6 months because this is part of your preparation you see sometimes failures and disruptions in life disappointments and solitude is a preparation for God what God wants to do just like in the case of Moses but God knew that time of John Song he read through the Bible 40 times in 6 months and every time from a different perspective when he came from the hospital after 6 months that was his Bible study that was the course that he went through and as he was preaching in China God sent revival so we can look at these biographies tonight the great men of God from days gone by and see where they have been and what they have become and I want us to look tonight at the life of Moses from this perspective from the book of Acts chapter 7 where the Bible speaks when he speaks about Moses he said but this is that man Moses whom God spoke to and met in the mountain of Sinai through the angel this is that Moses what Moses? which Moses? and maybe a question tonight for you as I think about that could it be that God somehow want to look down from heaven to this sanctuary tonight in Canada in Ontario and touch maybe your heart and your mind and your life whether it's old or young and say one I want to change your name tonight you see God's men over the years have come to the point of meeting with God allowing God to change your name and I wonder if God doesn't want to change your name tonight you see in the Old Testament Moses was just called Moses the greatest prophet of all but in the book of Acts chapter 7 God is using one or two verses by referencing his name with a small change and calls him this Moses the one who met with me in the desert maybe in the years to come 10 years down the road from now maybe 15 years down the road maybe 20 years from now when you look back in your life reading your own biography writing your own story from today onwards for the rest of your life maybe 10 years from now your family will look at this moment and say there was a moment where God met with Francois and changed his name from Francois to this Francois maybe tonight can be the beginning of a new biography in Canada I would love to come back in 10 years from now maybe not so long maybe it's been 5 years since I've been in this area but if you come back 5 years down the road or 10 years and to see what God has done in revival you see Genesis Revelations is God's story we think because the country is changing and the politics and the economy and people are changing and become more worldly and liberal worldwide God's work has stopped worldwide and we just have to wait for the second coming of Christ to go back home and God said listen from Genesis to Revelation it's still my story and I'm still putting my hand and my finger upon the lives and the hearts of people calling them unto myself to go and to do my work and to preach my gospel and even beyond that I still want to change your name and use you for my benefit and for my glory I want us to look at Moses tonight very briefly but from God's perspective in the book of Exodus chapter 3 you know when God called Moses in verse 10 he said come now therefore I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people the children of Israel out of Egypt so God met with Moses at the bush that was burning God reminded him of his past God spoke to him about his shoes and the place that he was standing was holy ground and God called him by name and God reminded him of so many things and then God said listen let's just repeat what we started about 40 years ago I want you still to go back to Egypt and get my people out of Egypt and bring them to this mountain because we have to make our way towards the promised land the land of milk and honey but as you know Moses had a few excuses and I remember when I was here with you a few years ago one evening I spoke about this but tonight I want us to look at this from God's perspective look what Moses was saying to God in verse 11 but Moses said to God who am I that I should go to Pharaoh that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt you know Moses had the excuse that he could not go because who am I because when he was the second in command of the armies of Pharaoh and the son of the daughter of Pharaoh he was the man in the position to lead out the people from bondage in Egypt but he failed so Moses still has this mindset in his mind that you need to become the leader of the land in order for you to bring the people out of bondage but I want you to see the answer God gave to Moses so God said I will certainly be with you and this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you when you have brought the people out of Egypt you shall serve God on this mountain what does it mean? you see all of us tonight have family members the message of Sunday morning which is not safe and born again we all have family members and friends who is saved but is walking and living a life of defeat and failure in the desert we all have family members and friends who is not living in the promised land the land of rest and victory but addicted to pornography and alcohol and cigarettes worldwide and to be a rather good reputation and maybe somehow addicted to finances and whatever the case might be tonight we all know people worldwide that God is bringing across our ways and paths day by day that God wants to send us to bring a blessing to them that God can lead them out of bondage through the wilderness into the promised land starting with our own families tonight then somehow God looked down from heaven and he said Francois I have come down, I have seen the affliction of your people, your friends and your family members in South Africa your colleagues all over the world therefore I have come down to do something about this and I want to use you but before you can go I need to change your name to five things, number one I want you first of all to look at this commission from my perspective in verse 11 he asked the question who am I that I should go to my family members and my friends and my neighbors and my colleagues at work and who am I and God said listen Moses I will be with you you see Moses was having a focus problem because inside this verse of scripture there is a number of truth that we need to understand tonight God said Moses forget about yourself for a brief moment forty years ago you tried but you failed I want you to look at this now from my perspective I this time I will be with you this time I am going to go with you and there will be a sign as well, you will come back to this mountain to serve me but you need to understand something you need to look away from yourself you need to look away from your own abilities and your own preaching your own way of doing things and I want you to look at me look at me God himself because I this time will be with you you know in January this year when I was taking my daughter to New Zealand to drop her off at the Bible school in Cape Henry in New Zealand you know for the last several years of my life I've been traveling away from my home week after week preaching about revival in South Africa and I've come accustomed to the fact that I only see my family on Thursday nights and Fridays and Saturdays and sometimes even less than that and somehow my wife has become not just the mother but the father at home because she takes my place for the benefit of my daughter and because I've said goodbye so many times at the airport it was easy for me to think that I'm going to drop off my daughter in New Zealand and just leave her there for a year and that's okay because we've done that so many times and I remember one day as I got back home after a preaching engagement I saw my wife and my daughter inside the bedroom and I saw the door was closed and as I peeped around the corner I saw that they were just inside the bedroom they were inside the bathroom and my wife was sitting inside the tub and my daughter was just sitting next to her and they were just talking and I could see that my wife was just weeping and crying because in the next two or three days Leone will board the plane and fly all the way to New Zealand and I just closed the door and walked away because I sensed my wife needs time to to let go you know we arrived in New Zealand we stayed at the house of a family member in Pukakole south of Auckland just outside not too far away from Hamilton and one morning as my daughter went for a walk with the lady of the house I was having my quiet time and as I was reading that time for the book of Matthew it's the beginning of the year so I started fresh in Matthew and as I came to chapter 26 in the time when Jesus find himself in the garden of Gethsemane that passage said and Jesus became sorrowful and he said father if this cup can go past me but not my your will be done and as I reading that sorrow and about this cup I suddenly saw my daughter just like the father saw Jesus and he gave his son and I have to give my daughter and God just broke my heart and as I was sitting in that bed just weeping I just wept and I remember as I got up from that place of prayer and weeping I went to take a shower and as I was showering I was just weeping and weeping it's almost like I cannot explain that to you but luckily for the shower there was a sound nobody could hear you know as I went back my daughter was not finished yet and walking with the family the lady from the family and she came back but before she came back I went after shower back to my bed and as I continue reading and praying I came to Matthew chapter 28 the very last verse God said lo I am with you and as I read that God spoke to me he said Francois I I am with your daughter I am with your wife it's all about me do you remember the story in the Old Testament when the prophet Elijah and the Syrian army was fighting against the people of Israel and as he walked outside the servant he saw the great masses of people he came inside he was so afraid and the prophet said Lord would you just open his eyes and verse 16 that he can just see that those who are around us and with us is so much more than what we see in this room because I am here you see sometimes we fail because we our focus is completely wrong it's time for us to readdress the issue of our focus and as I look at all these biographies of men of God it's men and women that has become God conscious God conscious you know when Mary became pregnant with the baby Jesus in that moment when the angel came to visit with her and said listen you are favored by God you have found great mercy and you will be the one Mary said how can this be how can this be because I knew no men we are not married yet with Joseph how can this be that I will get pregnant with the Messiah the baby Jesus you know when you grew up in that area there was the anticipation the whole time that somehow people from this region from this community will be the one which is the chosen one the young lady I can just imagine if you grew up in Galilee and you studied the Old Testament and the New Testament by that time some part of what they had and there was discussions day after day and week after week after the rabbi was preaching on the Sabbath day and they come back and they talk about the fact that the Bible tells us in this community in this area somebody will become the mother of the Messiah Jesus imagine if God somehow would send a prophecy to this community to this lighthouse gospel and say one of these young girls here tonight will be the mother of the next grain in Canada the great the John the John's son the Jonathan go for the Simeon in Zimbabwe of East Africa in Uganda I can just imagine the anticipation that will be in this community as you grew up as a young girl looking at the boys maybe if we can date somehow when you are 18 or 19 and get married and maybe there's a baby coming along the way he might be the one so Mary lived with the same expectation and then the angel came and said you are the one how can this be he said Mary you need to change your focus you tend to think about getting pregnant like the normal people get pregnant what's going to happen with you is coming from the Holy Spirit but before you understand that I want you to look up he says I have been sent by God the Almighty to you to speak to you you have a focus problem forget about Joseph for a brief moment and getting pregnant start to focus on the one who is speaking to you now God himself the power of the Almighty will overshadow you today you see we tend to look at the command and in our own abilities God said forget about your abilities forget about the commission, the command I want you to start focusing on me I God but in Moses you know he went through the motions like we all do we all have this excuses look at the next verse so he said then Moses said to God verse 13 indeed when I come to the children of Israel and say to them the God of your fathers have sent me and they say to me what is his name what shall I say to them so Moses had the second excuse because he was fearing rejection because the last time that he was there he tried and he failed but God said to Moses I am who I am and he said thus you shall say to the children of Israel I am has sent you and then from verse 15 to the end of verse 22 you should read that in your own time when God spoke to Moses he said this you shall say to the children of Israel the God of your fathers the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob has sent me to you because this is my name forever you see one of the meanings of I am means I am eternal God I am faithful it's time for me to do what I have promised to the people of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob so many years ago you see the man whose name is changed is a man that God has allowed God to start to work in his life and standing on the promises and not just the promises of God but allowing God to set the agenda of his life you see Moses was trying to figure out a way how to go back and tell the people but God said forget about that for a moment think about my promise what I have said that I will do to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob because remember Moses in Genesis right through revelations is my story and you are part of my story and I want to use you, you just become a part of history but I want you to start living your life based upon my word and my promise because I have given you my book, my word and my promise and I want to set the agenda and if you read verse 16 and verse 17 and verse 18 God tells him exactly what's going to happen when he goes back to Egypt let me ask you something tonight, does God set the agenda of your life? and as I was reading through the study in the life of the Lord Jesus I told you last night that every month of December I read through the gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke and John looking at the life of Jesus, one time as I was reading through these gospels I start just to look at the relationship that Jesus had with his father and one of those verses in the book of John chapter 5 verse 19, the Bible tells us that Jesus said but the son of man can do nothing except what he sees from his father so Jesus is looking to his father to set the agenda of his life to set the tone of the day, how do I know that? and if you understand the simple principle of Jesus doing only what his father told him and showed him if you read the gospels again you see how many times Jesus changed the course of his life and his agenda, even in Mark chapter 1 after praying a day his father summons him to the mountain to go to pray in the night and he changed the course of direction through Samaria and John chapter 4 his whole life was set according to the agenda of his father because verse 16 and 17 and 18 and 19 and 20 and 21 and 22, God gave a detailed plan for Moses to show him what's going to happen in Egypt when he goes back because Jesus was living his life set upon the world and the promises and the agenda of his father does God control your agenda tonight? You know Duncan Campbell as he was preaching one time God spoke to him so clearly and said you need to walk away from the pulpit right now and Duncan Campbell just got up from his seat as he was sitting in that moment and he walked away from a service like this and got onto a boat and he sailed to the Hebrides and he started preaching God sent revival because God set the agenda when was the last time you prayed about your program for tomorrow? You see people whose names are changed live their lives according to God's word not just the Bible, God's word there's a difference between the two and his promises and his agenda. Moses this Moses has become this Moses when he changed his mind allowing God to set the agenda. What is in God's heart tonight for you and your family and for the next week and the next month? You know Moses he continued to say no he said Lord if you look in chapter four verse one then Moses answered and said but suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice suppose they will say the Lord has not appeared to you for the Lord said to him what is in your hand and he said a rot and God said cast it to the ground and he cast it to the ground it became a serpent and Moses fled and you can read verse four and verse five and verse six and verse seven and verse eight and and verse nine God doing a number of miracles you see Moses was struggling with doubt and unbelief but a man whose name is changed is a man who has become a man of faith and trust trust in God there is a difference between faith and trust am I right we all believe God can do miracles and God said trust me we all believe God can provide for us and God said trust me you know I've realized in the last couple of weeks as Dorothy and myself were spending some time 40 days of fasting and seeking the face of God for specific things in South Africa we came to the realization that we have unbelief in our belief and trust I mentioned the name of manly beastly tonight in the very beginning of the service you know he became sick different diseases cancer and God asked him a question do you want me to heal you or do you want me to keep you alive and he said Lord if you heal me tonight I will tell everybody tomorrow what you've done for me but for the next three or four or five weeks or three months I will do so but then I will forget about that because we are only human I want you to keep me alive because that's the greatest miracle you should read the biography and see how day by day how God has led him into a life of faith and trust and one time 600,000 American dollars of medical bills that needs to be paid in one year he never asked for money he wrote a few things about prayer and faith there's intellectual faith he says there's emotional faith and then there's political faith but I told Henry as I came on Friday that he wrote a definition of faith he said faith is to act upon the belief that thing is so when it is not so in order for it to be so because with God it's already so when you get up from your knees it's finished God has answered and prepared and provided already you know one time I read the story of a pastor called one of his friends that was living in Moldale Baptist Church in Louisiana they were praying together for three days about the upcoming conference and as they were praying together towards the end they trust the Lord to provide them all the food and the finances and the means for the conference for three or four days in Moldale and take care of all the needs and as they came together then they asked him how much are you trusting the Lord for for the weekend and he mentioned a number a figure of finances that God used to send in to pay all the bills over the weekend so Sunday morning they took up the love offering and as they have the money right in front of them manly beastly walked to the front and said inside that bag is let's say five or ten thousand American dollars for the cost of the weekend without counting the money because he said if you believe that's what God has said then it is settled without counting the money as they opened the bag they found exactly the same amount as they said you see sometimes they only want to open the bag first to count and then we will tell he walked to the front and told all the people inside that bag that amount of money and if it was not so he'll make a fool of himself but he said faith is to act upon the belief that it is so because God said so you see a man whose name is changed he's a man who's standing not just on the promises of God but a man who's come from the point of having faith and believe in God in trusting what God said he's going to do do you believe God can provide the answer is yes do you trust him for the impossible you see there's a man called Caleb in the Old Testament and as he was sent out with all the spies in the book of Numbers chapter 13 they came back and they tell Moses you see there's a lot of things happening in the promised land and even Joshua was favorable he said we have to go back and I know there's giants but God has given this land to us already it's ours for the taking you know the story how they end up in the desert because of the unbelief of Tim but you know in the book of Joshua chapter 14 verse 6, 7, 8 and 9 and Joshua was dividing the land Caleb Caleb came to Joshua in chapter 14 verse 6 and he said the following he said give me that land that God has promised me in Numbers chapter 13 because I'm still standing on the promises of God and by faith I'm going to go inside and inherit my promise even though there is giants Moses you must allow me to change your name from a man that believes I can to a man that trusts me and that's the difference do you trust him or you just have belief that God can or faith in what God can do or do you trust him you see trust means to lean on to lean on to lean in and to lean on and to put your full weight upon something like the Lord Jesus you know when Peter looked at Jesus as he walked on the water he was able to walk but the moment he looked at the things around him he was sinking but God said Moses I want you not just to believe in me I want you to come to the point of trusting me this time because I God has given you my word based upon my promise and I want to set the agenda by sending you but you will have to go by faith in trusting me to do the impossible are you willing he says and as we read together tonight in Acts chapter 7 God said oh this is that Moses who allowed me to change his name to a man do you trust him even though you cannot see anything trust oh Moses was still struggling look at the next few verses in verse 10 he said then Moses said to the Lord oh my Lord I'm not eloquent neither before nor since you have spoken to your servant for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue and oh we know that Moses was lying we read that together tonight in Acts chapter 7 and Moses was well educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and could speak well you know how to speak you know how to point the finger to criticize tell a story and a joke to be the man in a conversation but now as he was standing before God he said Lord I cannot speak and so the Lord said to him who has made man's mouth and who has made the mute and the deaf the seeing and the blind have not I the Lord now therefore go and I will be your mouth and teach you what to say God speaks about two things didn't Jesus say in the book of Luke that don't be afraid when you appear before kings and governors in the world it will be told to you what to say at the same time he speaks about somebody inside him that will tell you what to say he speaks about God himself in you and we can only come to this point as we surrender unto him he speaks about the fullness of himself the Holy Spirit but at the same time he speaks about getting our words from God it reminds me about the life of the Lord Jesus in the book of John chapter 8 verse 28 in chapter 12 verse 48 where Jesus said but the son of man can only speak what the son of man has heard from the father so Jesus said I can only speak what I've heard from my father now God said I will tell you what to say in other words Moses you have to slow down the message from last night and you have to make time to listen because before you can speak I tell you to say what you need to say but in order for you to do that you have to listen and how do we listen we stop and slow down and spend time and listen as we sit at the feet of our father in this case the Lord Jesus of the Bible as we read and as we listen so Jesus is saying father I can only speak what I've heard from my father and every one of these verses of scripture as I realize that every one of them Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in the red letters that Jesus spoke he said I got that from my father I will tell you how to speak to your wife and your husband and your family members and the unsaved ones and those in the wilderness and those in the promised land and those that I will send you to because I am preparing a way for you to speak to them I will tell you what to say but you have to make time to slow down and to sit and to listen before you can speak let me ask you something can you honestly say that what came from your mouth today you got that from your father think about that for a moment when you open your mouth you got that from your father that pointing finger that criticizing that slander that joke the harshness of the words the jealousy the things we say the things we do Jesus said I got that from my father God said to Moses I will give you something because I will be your mouth before we will allow God to speak through us we have to surrender to Him that speaks about the fullness of God at the same time His word you see a man whose name is changed is a man who is allowing God to take him on a journey and to become His all in all that's the ultimate goal of Christianity that God be all in all in you and through you even the way you speak but before we can do that we have to listen and before we will listen we have to make time and to surrender our agendas and our lives you see a man whose name is changed is a man who has surrendered His all that God can be all in all but even that moment Moses was struggling then he came to the point of almost missing it he said Lord look at verse 13 Lord please send by the hand of whomever else you may send choose somebody else you see a man whose name is changed is a man who is not living an opportunity to be used by God and be a blessing go to the wayside you know how many times God has touched the hearts of people worldwide sitting in a gas station in a truck stop in a supermarket in a church building in a shopping mall, in an aeroplane and touch your heart invite you to join Him to bring blessing to people and He said no He missed the blessing He almost missed it but partly He did because God then said there is your brother Aaron that also speaks about the Holy Spirit but there is your brother Aaron he is on his way to you already but you know when the people sinned against God in the book of Exodus chapter 32 and God sent Moses down from the mountain Moses did three things in the camp he looked at the problem and part of the problem was his brother Aaron and he spoke to his brother and he said why did you allow this to happen and Aaron said but the people made me do this you see if Moses in the beginning did not say no to God completely God might have not chosen another so the calf was partly Moses problem maybe the problems you experience tonight in your walk of God in your ministry, in your finances in your family, in your marriage is because maybe one time you said no to God and God had to find another that became the problem in your life Numbers chapter 12 in one moment Aaron looked at his sister Miriam and said does God only speak to Moses and God called them together and he said listen I kind of would like to speak to you too but you are not there you see Moses almost missed it but a man whose name is changed by God is a man that sees the opportunity to become a blessing you know one of the things that I'm praying for while I'm here on my prayer list in Canada is that God would set the divine appointments for me that God inside me and through me become a blessing for people while I'm here, in the homes I'm staying and sometimes we mess up and we miss opportunities, that's true but not to miss the opportunities because that will change you and people look at you they will remember there was a moment when God touched my heart I have to close my time is finished you know there's a man his name is Simeon Zimbambi he was a black man from East Africa it all started with a man called Dr. Joe Church in that moment in Uganda Joe Church was a missionary doctor all the way in Rwanda in a mission station called Dahini and then there was a drought and there was no rain for almost like a year in the north eastern parts of Rwanda and all the people started to flee down towards Uganda because there was rain and there was harvesting and there was food and there was jobs available for the people and Joe Church said there was a time as a missionary doctor that more than a thousand people per day went through the Dahini hospital on the way to Uganda. He said some of them just came for miles and for miles and for days and for days without any food and some just was just crawling into the mission station and just simply died. And after one year of helping people like that sick people and dying people and they were struggling with food and he was just drop dead tired and burned out so he took a break for a couple of weeks and went all the way to Entebbe, Kampala in Uganda to rest and one Sunday morning as he was walking towards the church on Namirembi Hill, it was a place just outside Entebbe, he walks towards that building and there was a black man that walked towards him, his name was Simeon Nzambambi and he said sir I recognize you a few months ago you were preaching at a bible study and you spoke about the full surrendered life and I remember what you said that day, I made some notes and I went back and I gave me all to Jesus but somehow something seems to be missing in my life, there's a barrenness and Joe Church said the following, he said you know I've been working so hard and I've come to this place to rest but in my heart, in my mind there's just this longing for a fresh touch and a fresh meeting and encounter of God so for the next two days they came together in a small little room where they stayed and they read through the scriptures the old testament and they look at the new testament and they look at every verse of scripture that they could find reading together about the Holy Spirit and the fullness of God himself in and through them and after two days of just sitting and reading and listening to one another they were kneeling together at the bed, black and white and as they were kneeling they were praying and as they were praying they were surrendering themselves completely into the hands of God one was a medical doctor wanting a fresh touch the other one was a simple worker from the state government department of medical health an official with a very good job a high paid salary wanting to have more of Jesus two different people two different empresses with the same needs and then a few days later Simeon stood up and he sold his house he sold his vehicle, he bought himself a jacket and he started to walk down the streets of Antioch and Kampala preaching the gospel by asking people only one question are you saved? with two different meanings the one, do you know Jesus Christ as your savior? are you born again? are you saved from your sins? do you go to heaven when you die? then he looked at the Christian people and he said listen, are you saved from yourself? is God all in all in you? does he control does he sit on the throne of your heart? two questions, in fact only one of two. A few days later one of the people came to church and said listen what have you done with Simeon Zimbambi he said what do you mean? he said because he's different, he's a different person, he has changed and he started to preach and the people from the church gave a nickname to Simeon Zimbambi and those people that started to follow him every Friday they had Bible study, 40 people and more and so it spread all over the east of Africa today known as the East African Revival you know what was their nickname? it was Balecole, it is the saved ones, because something has happened in the heart of the Christian people, they start to live and speak as if they are saved all over again Ah this is that Simeon Zimbambi, it could be you tonight that start to live and start to speak and whose name will be changed if you allow God to do so you see Moses was just Moses in the desert but then there was a moment when he met with God and God took him on the path last night and I gave you some points but tonight God spoke to Moses and said listen, I want you to start focusing your life on me that one that's inside you Jesus Christ that you have accepted it's me because Jesus said if you have seen me you have seen the Father, God the Father is living his life through his Son and by the working of his Spirit in us and through us but we live as if God is still up in heaven God said allow me to give you a word and a promise and an agenda allow me to change your faith into Christ allow me to fill you with the fullness of myself, allow me to speak through you, allow me to create the opportunities for you to change your name and be used by me let me ask you something tonight what is your name? what do you want your children and your grandchildren to say about you when you are not here anymore, that you were the elder the deacon that you have so much property and so much money or will they look at you and see that you are a man of peace a man of prayer a man of faith will they look at you and see that there was a moment that God met with my Father and he changed my Father's name not Jacob anymore it's Israel not Moses anymore it's this, it's that Moses not Francois, it's that Francois that God can use it's not Jonathan Goffold anymore it's that Jonathan Goffold it's not Simeon Zambambi oh it's Bala, golly Simeon Zambambi Henry that Henry so God is standing before you tonight ever since Sunday morning and he will continue tomorrow night and Wednesday night to show you what can be if you allow him to do that in you and through you old or young it's not too late two old ladies, one was 80 years old one was 84 years old in the Hebrides, one was blind the other one was full of arthritis arthritis and God used them to become these two ladies that prayed down a revival in the Hebrides a medical doctor in Rwanda a black official in Uganda a Presbyterian pastor in Canada a shoemaker in Chicago America a mine worker in Wales and so we can go on what about you tonight God says when you look at your life in years to come what do you want me to say about you a man that has lived his life focused upon God until the very end his name is changed let us pray together Father as we come together tonight Lord you know what you have spoken to us about tonight maybe it's our agenda maybe it's the way that we speak to our family members and friends maybe it's about just trying to be in control of our own lives or maybe we struggle with unbelief, disbelief like Moses or maybe Lord we are living our lives thinking that God can only see on Sunday at Bible study maybe on Wednesday not realizing that I am with you every second of the day that we can live in the fullness of the power and the glory of God day by day and Father tonight I believe with my whole heart that you can find a young man or a young girl or any man or any woman tonight old or young that you can just lay your finger upon that is willing to say like Moses Lord I'm willing I do not know how I've got no idea when and where but I'm willing to go wherever you want to send me a family member, a friend and to be used by you but I just want to live my life in the fullness and the glory of God in me and through me for his benefit and for his glory so Father I pray that even as we come to the close of the meeting tonight Lord that you would continue to speak and to stir and to draw us unto yourself even right throughout this night whatever the cost might be that we would come to that point and say yes Lord take off the shoes to surrender the staff and the rock as we accept the commission and the calling either to go or just to be but sick and tired of living in failure failure day by day missing something in our hearts and lives because with you there is so much more that you want to give to us so Father I pray that you would speak to our hearts and even Lord that you would bring us to the place and the point of surrender that we can say yes Lord irrespective the cost but you can be in all and all in and through us for your glory in Jesus name I pray Amen Henry