God's Man — Francois Carr

Well, good evening it's a joy to be with you again tonight and 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.

Journey that God has taken me also in the last couple of years of my own life and Teaching me some lessons that he want me to learn and how to bring that also and teach that and preach 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 and 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 and Studying but every now then God gives you a friend or a companion.

That is a like-minded friend That speaks about prayer the same way you speaks 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 on your walk of 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 as as he's 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's 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 in all the bookshops all over the world. But every now then you find a nugget book that can really stretches your mind and touches your heart and and somehow create within your heart a desire to long for something better and more and 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 bookshop 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 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 and every now then when I when I read some of those about the prayer life of George Mueller and his life of faith and his obedience and entrusting 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 go forth and a man called Simeon's and Bambi From Uganda that God has used so mightily in the West or the East African revival many many years ago.

Moses in Acts 7: From Rejection to Divine Commission

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 verse 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 he tried to do something for his people but failed and how we had to flee for his life and fled into the desert and and After some time spending in a 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 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 Delivered 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 in 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 the 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 look already this last few days that we are together at God's eternal purpose that God had in mind even for Moses.

And 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 of God. Last night we look very briefly at the place that God has in mind for Moses. We look 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 and many many great men of God over the years William Burns and David Hill and Hudson Taylor and and there are so many other people like Isabel Keene and even Oswald Sanders and and John sung but then there was Jonathan go forth.

He was a Canadian just like you guys tonight, which is Canadian citizens. He was a Presbyterian a reform pastor that God sent as a missionary to China many many years ago. And how God used him in revival amongst 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 in the biography of Charles Finney and but he speaks about the law that we need to.

There are specific laws that we can somehow obey or maybe get to the point of of paying the price for that and God can use these laws in a spiritual harvest and Send the 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 RA Torrey about the Holy Spirit and he started to study the life and the fullness of the Holy Spirit and For about six 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 six 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 in a mission trip from the southern parts to the northern parts to visit all the mission Stations, but around that time the report 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 of 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's something wrong between you and me. There's 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 it's not me.

I know there's a disagreement but this time the disagreement between the elder and myself was because of the elder and 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 of the elder before you travel tomorrow to the mission station on a missionary out routes and the 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 they 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 he normally normally were preaching in that time God just showed up.

And as he was preaching here make the invitation. He said those who want to make right with God tonight. Why did 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's something wrong with the invitation and as he looked backwards to the elders and the deacons to see that maybe They they can help him to convey the message in 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 a 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 five six 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 Goff and RA Torrey from America and D Almudian and all these great men from South Africa and America and worldwide we we can look at their biographies and the 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 three 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 sung tonight. We studied in American 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 six months because this is part of your preparation you see sometimes failures and disruptions in life and Disappointments and solitude is a preparation for God what God wants to do just like in the case of Moses.

But God used that time of John sung. He read through the Bible 40 times in six months. And every time from a different perspective. When he came from the hospital after six 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 for 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 in your life whether it's old or young and say one I want to change your name tonight. You see God's man. 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 own 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 five years since I've been in this area. But if you come back five years down the road or ten years and to see what God has done in Revival.

You see Genesis to Revelations is God's story. We think because the country is changing and the politics and the economy and and people are changing and become more worldly and liberal worldwide and 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 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 me about his shoes and the place that he was standing was holy ground and God Called him by name and 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 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.

Moses’ Excuses and God’s Promise of Presence

But as you know Moses had a few excuses. And I remember when I was here with you a few years ago. I I want 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 a 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 saved and born again. We all have family members and friends. We say 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 and to be a Rare a good reputation and maybe somehow addicted to finances and whatever the case might be tonight.

We all know people worldwide that God has bringing across our ways and paths day by day. But God wants to send us to to bring a blessing to them that God can lead them out of bondage through their 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've 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 with five things. Number one I Want you first of all? To look at this Commission from my perspective in verse 11 You Ask the question who am I?

That I should go to my family members and my friends and and my neighbors and my colleagues at work and 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's a number of truth that we need to understand tonight. God said Moses forget about yourself for a brief moment. Forty years ago you try, but you fail. I want you to look at this now from my perspective.

I This this time I will be with you. This time I am gonna go with you and there will be a sign as well. You'll 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 we know in January this year when I was taking my daughter to New Zealand to drop her off at at the Bible school in Caponry 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 and I 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 a mother.

But the father at home because he takes my place for the benefit of my daughter. And because I've said goodbye so many times at the airports. It was easy for me to think that I'm gonna Drop off my daughter in New Zealand and just leave her there for a year and and that's okay because we have 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 I as I peep around the corner I saw that they were just inside the bedroom.

They were inside the the bathroom and my wife was sitting inside the top and my daughter was just sitting next to her and they they were just talking and I and I could see in that my wife was just weeping and Crying because in the next two or three days lunae will board the plane and fly all the way to New Zealand.

And I just closed the door and walked away because I sense my wife need time to To let go, you know, we arrived in New Zealand. We stayed at the house of a family member and took a call a South of Auckland just outside not too far away from Hamilton and One morning as my daughter went for a walk with a 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 in Jesus became sorrowful.

And he said father if this cup can go past me. But not my will 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 the sounds 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 and but before she came back I went off the 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 of you. And as I read that God spoke to me he said Francois I Am with your daughter. I Am with your wife.

It's all about me. Remember the story in the Old Testament when the Prophet Elijah In the Syrian army was fighting against the people of Israel and as he walked outside the servant He saw the 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 moment 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 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 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 and you studied the Old Testament in the New Testament by that time some part of what they had and there was discussions day after day in a week after the 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 Billy Graham in Canada.

The great DL Moody. The John sung the Jonathan go forth. Oh 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 and maybe there's a baby coming along the way. That 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 gonna 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 then our own abilities. God said forget about your abilities forget about the Commission the command. I want you to start focusing on me.

I Am but then Moses, you know He went through the motions like we all do they all have this excuses and 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 As sent you and then from verse 15 till 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 or has allowed God? To start to work in his life and Standing on the promises of God. 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've given you my book my word and my promise. And I want to set the agenda. And then 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 the 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 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 and Showed him.

And if you read the Gospels again You see how many times Jesus Changed the course of his life on 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 in 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's in 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 4 verse 1 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.

So 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. He became a serpent and Moses fled and you can read verse 4 and verse 5 and verse 6 and verse 7 and in verse 8.

And verse 9 God doing a number of miracles. You see Moses was struggling with doubt and unbelief. But a man whose name is changed. He's a man who has become a man of faith and trust trusting God. There's a difference between faith and trust.

Am I right. We all believe God can do miracles and God said trust me. You 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 feast 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 and cancer.