Sunday sermon with Apostle Chisale
GREETINGS beloved nation in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
As we come to the end of 2021 it is important for us as believers to look back and reflect on our spiritual journey this year.
We need to ask ourselves these questions, have we grown closer to God or the troubles we experienced during the year have pushed us further from God, because the bible tells us to draw nigh unto God and He will draw nigh unto us.
Have we grown in the knowledge and understanding of the things of God or we are still at the same level we were when the year started? Did we seek God in a deeper way such that He revealed his mysteries and secrets to us because God is not found in shallow places?
Did we thirst and hunger for the presence and intimacy with God such that we entered into deeper dimensions in our spiritual walk because there are things that are only found in the depths of the presence of God? Some people measure their spiritual success in terms of what God has done for them during the year and not how their relationship with God has grown from one level to the next.
They look at His acts and not His ways.
The bible tells us in Psalms 103:7 that “He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel” KJV.
The New Living Translation says, “He revealed his character to Moses and his deeds to the people of Israel”.
The scriptures tell us here that God made His ways known and revealed His character to Moses.
So, meaning Moses got to actually know God Himself.
Wow as believers this is what we should be aiming at, having such a relationship with God our father.
On the other hand, the people of Israel only saw His acts and deeds, meaning what He did.
Israel saw His acts, deeds and miracles but Moses knew God’s ways, character and nature.
The people knew what God did, but Moses knew God.
In our spiritual walk it is important that we do not become content with the substance of God’s gifts, blessings and miracles and fail to acquire a relationship with the giver of those gifts.
Yes, it is good to be blessed and experience the miracles of God in our lives.
But over and above that we should know the ways, nature and character of God.
So, when we reflect back on this year, how have we grown spiritually? Would we say we know the ways of God or it’s a case of knowing his acts only and our relationship with God has not grown?
The bible tells us in Exodus 33:13 that Moses said to God’ “If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so that I may know you and continue to find favour with you (….) 18. Then Moses said, ‘now show me your glory”.
When Moses was sent to deliver the children of Israel, he did not have a full revelation of who the God of Israel was.
He was just told, ‘I AM’ sent you. Moses had seen many acts of God from the time the children of Israel were in Egypt and how they were delivered by God, the parting of the Red Sea, the provision of manna, the drawing of water from the rock and other acts of God.
Yet all of these acts were not enough for Moses, he wanted more, he wanted to know God’s ways.
In other words, he wanted a revelation of who God is, His nature, His attributes.
He was saying ‘Lord reveal to me who you are.’ To Moses this was what mattered the most.
Ladies and gentlemen this should be our attitude, seeking God for who He is and not what He can do for us.
The bible tells us in Exodus 34:5-7 that God came down and passed in front of Moses and proclaimed His name saying, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.
Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished”.
His compassion allows Him to deal gently with weak and failing people, ready and always willing to forgive sins and restore people back to Himself.
Slow to anger meaning He does not hasten to punish the sinner.
When Moses saw the revelation of God’s glory, that He is good, loving, caring, gracious, forgiving, he quickly fell to his knees and worshipped in verse 8 of Exodus 34.
He was overwhelmed by this revelation of how merciful, long suffering and patient God is with His children who were stiff-necked and rebellious. For the first the scriptures mentioned that Moses worshipped God.
Before this revelation of God’s glory, we find Moses praying and interceding, weeping and pleading with God for the children of Israel. We see Moses talking with God face to face.
We hear of the many things that Moses did, but for the first time we hear of him worshipping.
Worship is ‘an act of a heart that has been overwhelmed by a revelation of God’s glory and his incredible love for us’.
Worship is a response of gratitude.
Worship recognises how we should have been destroyed because of our sins long ago, incurring the full wrath of God for our failures and faults, But God came to us with the powerful revelation of ‘I still love you’.
At this point Moses was no longer interceding but was marveling at the revelation of the glory of God, His nature, His attributes.
So, ladies and gentlemen this is the question that we should be asking ourselves as we come to the end of the year, do I know God’s ways or do I know God’s acts.
How can we measure our spiritual growth during the course of this year, is it by the things that God did for us or is it by growing in the knowledge of who God is, His nature, His ways, His attributes, His character.
I want to encourage you all that even as we prepare to enter a new year, let us enter with the attitude of wanting to know God at deeper dimensions so that we may grow spiritually.
Once again, I would like to invite you to receive Jesus as your personal Lord and saviour, by believing in your heart and confessing with your mouth that Jesus is your Lord and saviour, and you shall be saved.
May God bless you all and this beautiful nation Zimbabwe. Amen
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