This episode explores the life-changing power of hearing and obeying God’s voice, inspired by the story of Moses and the rock in the wilderness. The speaker shares personal experiences of both obedience and regret, illustrating how following God’s guidance leads to fulfilment and purpose. Listeners are encouraged to deepen their relationship with God, recognise His voice, and act faithfully, no matter the challenge.
MKCC Messages
The Best Way to Live or Not
I'm glad to be back here. I was exceptionally emotional in the first service and I could hardly read my notes. I couldn't see for tears. I'm slightly more composed now. By the way, I was in the hotel this morning and I was talking to the lady who does the cooking. How many of you like to talk to people? It's a really good idea talking to people. It's a really good idea. You find out all kinds of incredible things. And this lady, I mean, who can resist bacon and eggs? I mean sausage, mushrooms, baked beans. I also had yogurt and fruit. I was talking to this lady and she said, are you visiting? I said, yeah, I'm here. I come a few times and I said, I'm going to MKCC. She said, I'm the mother of one of the girls in the choir. Now, I don't know who that lady is. I think she said Mary, but I'm not sure. But I said, well, I said, actually, I'm the guy who's going to be preaching today. She said, oh, it's nice. And I said, I hope so. And she said, I know about MKCC. It's that church that does all those good things. I said, yeah, they feed a lot of people. Very well known in the community. In fact, the very well trusted in the community. She said, oh, I know all about MKCC. It's a really good church. So not only is it a good church will become and worship God for a couple of minutes on a Sunday morning, but it's a church that exists all the week through and does great things. And I am truly honored and indeed proud to be part of what is going on here. I've been blessed to come here for about 35 years, but it used to be just a little building next door a long time ago. Right. Today, I've eaten up some time. Today, I want to talk about the best way to live, which is a big title, the best way to live or not predicated on a story initially about Moses. And a subtitle would be listen here, obey. It begins with Moses in the book of numbers, which is a nil testament. It's actually a book of numbers, but it's got some very interesting things in it. God speaks to Moses in numbers chapter 20. And he tells him the preface to that was the children of Israel were being critical, judgmental, nasty, and complaining, wanting to go back to Egypt, where they were slaves, saying stupid things like, I miss the garlic and onions. Well, who doesn't miss garlic and onions? But I mean, you're going to be a slave again to get garlic and onions. I mean, how brain dead is that? They're complaining about the food. And Moses gets miffed. Moses gets quite upset. So there's something stirring him. He's like, he's good. And he's feeling that. And God says to him, there it is. And it says to me, you go, you need some water. Go take your staff is rod, which was in the tabernacle in the tent. Go get it and take it. You and your brother Aaron, get them all together. And the first place it says, he says, speak to that rock before their eyes. And it will gush out water. Well, I mean, who in their right mind would speak to a piece of rock? Hey, rock. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so that they and their livestock can drink. Now, the preface to that was a few chapters before, same situation that people are all moaning and groaning and complaining about everything. And it's same situation, but in that case, God says to Moses, the rock strike it. Now, he tells him this time to speak to it. Now, just in case you're wondering what's significant about the rock, 1 Corinthians 10 verse 4 says, the rock followed them. What it says, the rock followed them through the wilderness. And the rock was Christ. Those are the actual words from 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 4. And so, when Moses struck rock first time, that was like Christ being struck on the cross. Nailed to a tree beaten half the Pope, two and three in thorns stuck into his scalp. A sword stuck up his side. Nailed to a tree dying to save our world. He was struck. And the Bible says, in that he died, which he clearly did, he died once and for all. So, when Moses struck the rock again, it's like striking Christ a second time, which was totally unnecessary because he did it all the first time. Kind of having amen to that, he did everything he was supposed to do the first time and it's done. In fact, he himself cried in his dying moments, it's finished. And at that point, he was about to vanquish death and health and Satan and set us all free from sin and bring us forgiveness of sins, peace with God and a home in heaven. And made us an unbelievable promise that we would never die. What he said, "Oh, so you're one of those crazy people that think you're just going to live and live and then fly away or something." Well, maybe, I don't know, but in terms of go back to heaven. But no, I mean, I'm quite old now. How old are you? How many of you are over 60? Wow. How many of you are over 70? One other person? What? Two? Maybe you're not going to tell us your age. How many over 80? How many of you are 80? My God, I'm the oldest person in the flipping room. I'm 80 this month and 60 years married next year, same woman. Thank you. And we have lived a life I can promise you. My goodness, what an adventure. You get my point, though. Moses struck the rock first time. Christ was struck once and for all, set us free, beat death and health, took the keys and told us we'd never die. Now, we will physically die one day and they'll put our bones in the grave or they'll cremate us or whatever other ceremony you choose to do. But I'm not dead. I've just passed from this body to the next body. Christ said we'll never die. Whatever you have been given the gift of eternal life, you are a son and a daughter of God Almighty. Who's going to threaten his life? You have God living inside you. He doesn't need to be struck again. He now needs to be spoken to. Speak to him. Meditate. Get out of bed half an hour in the morning earlier and just sit. I mean, I know it's tough because you've got eight hours job. You've got a stinking train journey where you can't even find a seat, right? I get all that or you're driving up and down the motorway. I mean, how do people drive anywhere these days in England? I don't know. You know what I mean? I get it. Life is there. But even driving when you're stuck in traffic is a good time to turn your eyes upon Jesus. Really? Start thinking. Oh, thank you, Jesus. I mean, thank God. We're still on the planet. Thank God for your wife. Thank God for your kids. Pray for her. It's just a beautiful thing. In other words, get to know him. Get to know the sound of his voice. So we're supposed to speak to him. So God spoke. Moses didn't speak. He hit and God was upset with him. So there was a consequence for Moses and God told him in Numbers chapter 20 verse 12, "Because you didn't do what I said, I'll take you. I'll show the land, the land of promise, the promised land." But he said, "You're not going to go in because you didn't do what I said. You did it differently." Basically, the point of this message is to live a God life to be directed by God. And I promise you, this means my life has obviously been well thought out and planned for many of its days. And I have to tell you, I have been taken by surprise. That's the moment when God speaks. I'll give you an illustration. My wife and I had visited America many times. I used to work in Eastern Europe. We had many friends in churches all over America. We used to go to America at least once a year, do the churches. And so we knew America quite well. And in the course of all that, one year, I go to a church in San Antonio, which was alive and was full of kingdom. And it was the worship was. By the way, the worship this morning is just wonderful. Thank you guys. And then Biden made a joint to the team. And I knew I was 44 years of age. I knew at that time, I felt a changes coming and then Biden made a goal. Well, this was immigration. My kids, my daughters were 14 and 16. My son had just gone to uni in his first term, just. And it was a terrible time to choose to do it. I knew I should go. God spoke to me. So I waited 24 hours to allow God to talk tomorrow. My wife. I mean, I'm giving God 24 hours to get his act together. You know, it's like, give me a, give me a prayer. Anyway, I waited 24 hours and I prayed, of course. And then I called her and it was 730 in England. And I said, babe, are you sitting down? She said, I'm still in bed. I said, well, I've got a question to ask you. And she said to me, it's okay. We'll go. I said, really? I said, I didn't ask you the question yet. She said, oh, I know the question. I didn't ask you. It means out of the blue. I mean, we had not contemplated or prepared for this at all. And I said, well, what happened? She said, I was just meditating, talking to the Lord and having a quiet time. And God said to me, would you go to America? She said, absolutely not. I don't want to live in America. It wants to live in America. I mean, at that point, our kids, we were all settled. The kids were having a great life. They could go on buses and trains anywhere. They had friends everywhere. I mean, it was, they were settled. Our son is off to uni. And she said, absolutely not. And then she thought, I suppose if you ask me to go, I'd have to think about it. So he said, well, I'm asking you to go. Will you go to America? So she said, are you asking me to go to America? He said, yes, I'm asking you to go to America. Will you go? She said, yes, I'll go. Five minutes later, I called her. It was unbelievable. We made a life, totally life-changing decision in five minutes. Sheck up on the word of the Lord. And it was tough. And it turned out to be wonderful. Massive learning experience for everybody, just a blessing. Absolutely. I'm just simply saying, when God speaks to you, and he's a speaking, communicating God, somehow he just won't shut up. Thank God, somebody. How many times have you said, well, how many times did he push you away to be kept at you a little bit? How many times have you are glad for that? He's a communicating God. He's the word of God. Oh, when he speaks, just exactly do what he said. Moses still got water out of the rock, but he beat the rock instead of speaking to it. And there's a consequence. He lost part of his inheritance. He wasn't cursed. I mean, the man did pretty good because he was on the mountain with Jesus, right? So I'm not belittling Moses, but he just missed out on taking the people in. Just missed it. Just for not obeying God. So when God speaks to you, listen carefully and do exactly what he says. Don't put logic on it. Don't think it through. If he's spoken to you, and you know the sound of his voice, what's that? Who is it says that? One of the big firms say, just do it. Who is that, no matter who it is? Is it Nike or somebody? I thought it might be them. I don't care about Nike or anybody else, but I mean, just do it. Consequence. Thank God Jesus spoke. You know, when his life was being threatened, and he was in the garden of Gethsemane, all the guys came. Judas had just betrayed him, and he's there with all the boys, and they all got these guys rushing to arrest Jesus. So he said to them, well, who are you looking for? He said, well, looking for this guy, Jesus claims to be the claims to be the Son of God. Well, he said, that's me. He knew the consequence. He said, that's me. I'm not even glad that he didn't back out. I don't know if you are glad that when he was challenged deeply within his spirit and his soul, he said, Father, this is too much to bear. He was sweating as it was, and blood was dripping out of him, such was the intensity of the emotional moment. And he said, no, is there any other way we can do this? And the father said, of course, no, there's no other way. He said, nevertheless, I will do whatever you say. How many of you are glad that he said that? Oh, my God, I mean that reverently. I am deeply thankful that Jesus Christ said, yes, I'll do it. Because there was nobody else who could, we would have been sunk forever. He spoke, and he was honest about it. And then when he was before Pilate, and he's being beaten up and everything else, you know, they battered him half to death. And mocked him, slapped him in the face. And Pilate says, well, I've heard that you're supposed to be the Son of God, the Son of Man. He said, are you the Son of Man? He said, it is, as you say, I am. What a wonderful statement. What a wonderful moment. See, this is like those episodes, and the episode of Jesus dying and going to hell, and beating the snort out of death and hell and taking the keys and setting us free from the fear of death, all the rest of it. I really hope God's got it all on video, we used to say, whatever you, whatever technology God is using, I think God already knows about AI and all that, don't you? I mean, I think he knows all this stuff. But whatever system he's got, I hope he can press a button and say, I want to see, I want to see Gethsemane, I want to see the trial, and I want to see the cross. Can you imagine? I hope he's got it. And I hope he's got Jesus descending into hell and beating the devil. I always got that bit too. Thank God Jesus spoke. You know, life consists of either obeying or disobeying the Word of the Lord. Now, please listen to me a second here. I'm not putting myself as Mr. Wonderful and Majesty. Well, that guy's a, well, you know, there have been times when I didn't do it. And boy, I'll tell you one story. Thank God we've got more times in my life of obeying than disobeying. Thank God for that. Because I, you know, you should be a fairly quick learner. And I remember once our church was exploding in Nottingham and we couldn't get the people in. So we rented the Albert Hall, which was an old Methodist building that sat about 1,500 people, and it had one of those balconies that went all the way around at the top. And I was, it was my turn to preach. So I just got to the pulpit. And the Lord said to me, see that quick look up there. He said, the third row up on the right hand side, the second lady in, and I looked up there and I saw her. And the Lord said to me, go up there right now, lay your hands on her and pray for her. She's got cancer and I'll heal her. And oh my God, to this day, I deeply regret it. I went up and I said something like, I said something like, there are people in here with cancer. I know that to be true. And I'm going to pray against cancer right now in the name of Jesus, which I did. But that's not what he told me to do. Did you get me? So to this day, I promise you, I have no idea what happened to that dear lady. So you talk about an expensive lesson. And that trained me in a very real way when he says jump, I just simply say how high. I'm serious. I'm serious guys. If we'll just don't add to it, don't put bits on it, like I did. If he said it to you and you need to know the sound of his voice, this church is perfectly capable of helping you and training you in how to hear the voice of God. Pastor Mark, who has built a great, done a phenomenal job here. And to be honest, George wouldn't be able to do what he's doing in Uganda without Mark. Simple as that. So thank God. This church knows how to train people and disciple them into understanding and hearing the word of the Lord. It's the truth, right? I'm not bragging on you too much. It's the truth, isn't it? It's the truth. And we need to know the word of the Lord and just do it. Jesus told us that we're dependent on his word. He said this in Matthew 4 verse 4. He said the Scripture says, Judah on him it was, Judah on me was quoting. The Scripture says, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. The word of God in a way is more important than bread. Man shall not live by bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. And I honestly, in my life, have been failed miserably the way I did, not knowing the consequence of my lack of faith and lack of courage. I decided that's never going to happen again. It never has. I've done some apparently stupid things that have turned out to be phenomenal. I remember once Christmas 2005, I was in Arizona living in our home in Arizona and I woke up on Christmas morning and the Lord said to me, sell this house now. I said, sell this house now, that's what I told you, sell the house now. So, I looked over and Mo was just waking up, I said, baby, you awake? She said, she said, yeah, I'm awake. I said, the Lord just told me to sell the house now. She said, Andrew, you're crazy. I have been told that a few times in my life. In that way, it's in the quite nice to be a bit crazy sometimes. You know, walk off the map, maybe, sail on wider seas where storms will prove his mastery. So, I said, no, he told me to sell the house now. She said, no, no, no. Nobody buys houses at Christmas. I said, I know. Americans, nobody buys houses, but Americans don't usually buy houses anything like Christmas. They buy them March, April, and May ready for the next school year for the kids. That's the way most of it works or used to anyway. And she said, well, okay, let's sell the house. We've had a few like that. Mo's had, I can give you many script times. Most of the word of the Lord, the house we're living in now, she had the word of the Lord and it was a pigsty. It was demon fested, rat infested, junkhole, the stairs, go upstairs, we're outside. It was wretched place. And the moment she said, God said to her, God is trying to do something for you. If you don't do it, it'd be like slapping Jesus in the face. So, we very quickly decided not to slap Jesus in the face. And at that moment, I knew it by that house. And we did. We're living in now. The rats are gone, the demons are gone, Chico. And there's a nice garden. And the sun shines. Sell this house now. So I said, okay, so I get a real estate guy. He comes around about December the 28th, 29th or something. He does all the comparisons, the comps. And he comes back with the price and said, no, put it up 50,000. He said, Mr. Chairman, you're crazy. I said, I'm well aware of that. But anyway, put it up 50,000. He said, okay. So we put it on the market, January the 2nd. And we sold it January the 3rd. To the first person who came along, he's a cash buyer. And I'd ask for 50,000 non-returnable dollar deposit. And I got a 50, so if anything up, I got a 50 grand anyway. Second at 30 January, sold the house. Then we had to stand the house to the March to April the 17th for two years to avoid capital gains tax. I'm sure you understand that. And this was now January the 3rd. So I'm talking January the 3rd to April the 17th. And I'm getting ready to tell Johann the guy that bought it. He was a VP for Wells Fargo. And so I'm getting ready to tell me, he comes to me and says, Andrew, I've got to talk to you. I said, okay. He said, I can't move until May the 1st. I said, what? What do you mean? I've got to wait four months before you pay me. I just couldn't keep it up long enough. And I just burst out laughing. And he laughed too. And it was fantastic. And you know, by the time he moved in, you remember the housing crisis, the stock market crisis, the banking crisis, 2006-7. But the time who moved in, the house was worth 100,000 less. And I didn't have to pay capital gains tax. So it's like, okay, that's a practical thing. God will we speak to you that way, to give you guidance in your dealings and spiritual things. He wants to converse with you. And he wants you to do just what he said. Let's finish with Mary and Joseph. Joseph's dreaming. And Gabriel comes to him in his dream and says, listen, your betrothed, your beloved, your, I guess Beyonce, is pregnant. And it's a disgrace that she'll be put away and that's just a social disaster. But I want you to be at peace because what is conceived in her is from God. So, marry her. And he says this, Joseph did exactly what the angel said. And he married Mary. Hallelujah. Good old Joseph. I'm going to shake his hand one day too. Really, good old Joseph. Mary, the lady, of course, ate Gabriel himself, didn't come in a dream. He came to her personally and said, you're going to have a baby. She's probably 18, 19 years old. You're going to have a baby, but don't worry about it. It's God's gift to you. It's the Son of God who's going to be born from you and he's going to save the world. And she said this, be it unto me according to your word. And we have no idea what social risk she was at. But it is grace. And she just did exactly what the message from God said. Can I ask you please to ramp up your listening to God? Make a decision even right now. Yes. Red, hot, hot. Yeah. And an ice cold brain. Think, make a decision. You know, I'm going to make a decision this morning that whatever God says to me, I'm just going to do it. And if you married, agree together, please. We have no idea what God's got in store for us. I'm excited. I hope you are. And I say, I've failed and I've succeeded. And failure taught me an awful lot. I don't want you to fail. I want you to do it. You come into Advent. Thank God for Mary and Joseph. But they did exactly what God said for them to do. You need to make a decision today. You know what? You might have emigrating when my kids were 14, 16 or 20 ridiculous. And it worked out fabulous after six months. Let's hold strong. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. I'm not going to look full in his wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely deep in the light of his glory. One more time, Louie. We've got a couple of minutes. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely deep in the light of his glory and grace. Father, I pray you'll help us all. Me included to hear your voice clearly. We know you're a communicating God and you desire to speak to us and you're speaking to us. I pray you'll help us all to make decisions this morning. A single people, as married people, as moms and dads of grandparents, as young people, with life ahead of them, 16 or 18 years old, same age as Mary. To say whatever he says to me, I'm going to do it in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. God bless you all guys and have a fantastic Christmas. [Music]