Changing Faces Ministries Podcast
Focus on the promise not the situation!
(upbeat music) - Welcome to the Changing Faces Ministries Podcast. If you can see yourself the way God sees you, you will have a changing face. Here is your host, Pastor Jeff Landrum. (upbeat music) - Good morning, good morning, good morning. I want to welcome each and every one of you to our Changing Faces Ministries Podcast. I'm your Pastor Jeff Landrum, and where we do believe, if you can see yourself the way God sees you, you will have a changing face. Once again, it's another great Friday morning that the Lord has allowed us to be here and allowed us to see another day. So I will be glad and I will be thankful and I'm gonna praise God in it. So thank God for this day. And we would not dare begin without thanking each and every one of you for coming alongside of us, supporting us on this journey and just coming alongside of us and just being with us and supporting the ministry. So every chance you get, we would ask that you like, share and support our ministry on all your social media platforms. And just continue, let's get the word out about the goodness of our Lord. So just do that, and also we wanna thank One Voice Radio for allowing us this platform to come your way every Friday morning. So we're so thankful for that. Just having the opportunity to do that. What I wanna do today is I want to, for all of us to look at something and how we look at timing. Oftentimes, we get in situations and we find ourselves in circumstances to where we get impatient and waiting. We live in a society now where everything is, I got to have it now. I'm gonna do it now. I'm gonna do it right away. I want it now, I can't wait. It's gotta be now. Even from kids, I said, fun and jokingly, but now you got, even babies being born early. It's been around, but just think about that. Everything needs it now. Microwaves are very relevant in this time that we're in. And then when everybody wanted now, everybody got to have it now. We can't wait. I want the instant gratification. I want the instant, it's amazing to me how we look at this thing known as time. And no matter what we do, and no matter how much we try to push, force and rush things, there is God's timing to everything. I want you to think about that. No matter what we can do, everything is still on God's time because he controls time and he is not subject to the same thing that we are subject to. So as opposed to us, and what I want to talk about today, and I want you to pay close attention. So as opposed to us focusing on when or where something happens, how about we learn to focus on the one who makes it? I want you to think about that. If we can learn to focus on the one who makes it happen because the way we see time and the way he operates in time is totally different. One day for him is it seems it's a thousand years for us it's like one day for him. So I don't want us to get so tied up into this thing known as time. Oftentimes we would try to rush and we'd pray for something today and we wanted tomorrow. And he already knows what we can deal with, how we can handle and what we can't handle. And some of us and too many of us may be praying for something that we're not ready to receive, but we have to learn to operate on his time. And in today's study, we're going to look at how we can learn to get through the process of the waiting. And we're going to show you some things that if we can master these things in the waiting process, our wait won't seem as long as it is. So, when I think about that, because our ways and God's ways are not the same. You know, you look at Isaiah 55 and eight, he says, "But my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways, my ways," declares the Lord. So anytime we try to intervene and speed up time or make time longer or try to justify things anyway, God has his plan and his plan is ultimately gonna be done. So, we have to learn to be careful when you try and help God out. You know, think about that. And just think about me even saying that, trying to help God out like God need any of our help. It says he is the author and the finisher of our faith. He's in the beginning and he's already in the end. I want you to think about that. If he's already in the end, it's already been written. The time is already, we have to learn how to make sure. You gotta think about this, think about this. When he told the children of Israel, he was gonna take them from Egypt to the promised land. He was in the beginning when he got, when he started to lead them, but he was already in the end where he was gonna be taking them, taking them to. And because he was already in the end where he was gonna be taken to, don't you think it was gonna already be prepared? And don't you think what he knew, he knew what they needed in order to be able to survive once they did get there? So don't you think that God already knows where we are, when we're praying, he knows where he wants to take us. And because he already knows that he knows what we need and what we need to be prepared for when we get there. So if he knows all of that, the best thing that we can do in the process is go along with the preparation that he has for us so that when we do arrive, we're gonna already be ready to receive it. So what we're gonna learn today in our today's lesson is, I want you to go with me, and we're gonna look at something. Because one of the things that we have to understand is, him saying, God's saying that always or not his ways and not thoughts and not his thoughts, we have to understand. That means there is a way that seemed right unto man, but its end is death. So it may seem right, something may seem right to us. We're gonna learn, we're gonna see that today's lesson. It may seem right that we can jump in there and do some things to help God out, but the end thereof. So we have to think about that. So I make, I want us to understand, completely understand this as we go through this. 'Cause I know sometimes that it gets hard and it seems like God has forgotten you. Sometimes it appears like all hope is gone. Even like the widow woman, when she wanted to throw in the towel and quit and die, God is not slacked on his promise. I want us to understand that. There are some promises that God made. He has not forgotten. He is still on the throne. God is working things out because he knows what's best for you, for me. You must trust the things will happen in his time. And there's no better things for the things to happen to us, for us and around us than when it is in his time. I want you to understand that. What we got to learn to do is operate in his time. Because operating in his time, we can be like Joseph. When we finally get that throne, we are prepared to receive it because of all of the stuff that we have to go through to get there. So today, let's look at Genesis 21. And I'm gonna reverse it one through six. We're gonna talk about a very familiar story and I'll highlight some things ever, but I wanna make some points on what we're talking about today. So Genesis 21 is gonna reverse it one through six. It says, "And the Lord visited Sarah as he had seen. And the Lord did unto Sarah as he had spoke." And I'm noticing what you wanna notice, two things you wanna notice. As he said and as he had spoken, this is what he came to and it says, "The Lord built it, Sarah." As he said, he came to it. It says, "For Sarah can see and bear Abraham a son in his old age at the set time of which God has spoken to him." So it was on God's time. Not when they wanted it, not when they felt like they should have had it. It was on God's time. And it says, "And Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him who Sarah bear to him Isaac. And Abraham circumcised his son, Isaac being eight days old as God had commanded him. And Abraham was in a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born unto him. And Sarah said, "God have made me to laugh so that all that here will laugh. With me." For a subject, any teaching on today is, we need to focus on the promise and not the situation. Focus on the promise, not the situation. Abraham and Father God Almighty, we thank you so much once again for this awesome opportunity that we have given us to come together to study your word one more time. Lord, I'm asking that you prepare our hearts and minds to hear what it is that you have for us for us to receive it in a manner that is given Lord. And right now I'm praying that you remove me, that they hear none of me, but hear all of you and let your word go forth in power to make us better than work before we came. We would always be so grateful and careful to give you all the praise, all the honor and all the glory. And your son Jesus Christ saying, "We do pray," and we all said, "Amen." This is a various minute story that God had told Sarah that she was gonna conceive a baby in her old age, past childbearing age. And he told her that and she laughed because she couldn't see it. She couldn't understand it. Remember what I told you, God ways and always are totally different. We can't see the thing. That's why when we talk about this ministry, when you can see yourself the way God sees you. When that's when you wanna see some things, you have to see yourself the way God sees you. When you can do that, you can see some things. Our ways are not His ways and His ways are not our and our thoughts are not His thought. It's much bigger than we can ever see or imagine because whereas we can only see what we can see, God can see the beginning and the end all at the same time. God is everywhere all at the same time and has never been a place that God hadn't been and has never been a place that God has won't go. So God has never been a time that He didn't exist but we can only, we're finite. And when we think about all of the things that God can do and has done and has already been tomorrow, so don't think it's strange when God gives you visions and gives you dreams on some things that may seem impossible for you, but you can't get caught up into what you see. You got to listen to the promises of God. God made Sarah a promise on something that was gonna happen even though it may not look like it could happen, we have to understand, we're not talking to a man, God is not a man that He should like. So when we think about that, God is much bigger and greater than anything that we can ever envision or imagine, we just have to trust in Him. So instead of spending our time looking at situations and circumstances, we need to spend our time focusing on the promise and not the situation. You don't wanna spend some time on why you see what you see. Have you ever wondered why you pick up on some things at different times than others? Most people in this city have routines. We do the same thing day after day. We wake up at a certain time. We eat the same thing for breakfast. We drive the same way to work Monday through Friday. We see the same people every day. We see the same cars on the road every day. But why is it when a family friend or worker getting a car or something new, we start to notice the same things every morning? This happened because we have opened up our mind to now focus on something that has been brought through our attention. Like when you see a car, you would like to purchase. You go test drive it, then on your way home, you see 20 of those same cars. Why? Because whatever you focus on, you will see. Even though it has been there the whole time, but because you never focused on it, it's never bothered you. I want you to think about that. We're talking about focus. We're talking about focusing on the promise and not on your situation. When we can learn how to transfer our focus to the promises of God as opposed to our situation, it's gonna make the time that we have to wait on the promise to show up a whole lot easier because if the children of Israel had to focus on the promise land, they would not have been whining about what they did not have. If Sarah had been focusing on the promise that God gave her, have been focusing on enjoying the baby once it came, have been focusing on all of those things, the wait time would not be that bad. She could have been given testimonies about what God promised her. Even though people may not understood it, even though people may not have seen it, even people may have said you crazy, you too old, you too this, you too that. If she had just kept giving a testimony of the promises of God, her wait time would not have been that bad. But what we do is we focus it on the things our situation and not on the promise. Life is the same way. Whatever you focus on, it will drive you. It makes you make decisions, it distracts you. It would even cause you to try and help God out. And we all know God doesn't need our help. I want you to think about this. Sarah focused on a child or focusing on having a baby and not focused on the promise. The promise was that God was gonna allow her to have a baby, a child. Don't, even God's not worried about situation. God is not worried about what we can see, whether we see that we have or don't have, God is not worried about that because if we understand that God is the source, if we understand that the earth is the Lord and the fullness thereof, when we understand that everything belongs to God, when God calls us to do something, if God gives us a vision, if God gives us a promise, he already have made a way for that to be done. We just have to learn the trust in him and focus on the promise and not on the situation. If God is giving you a business, if God is giving you a make, if God has given you these things in a vision and in a promise, you believe in what God says, it will guide your action. It was evident that Sarah did not believe in what God said because it says she laughed. Not only did she laugh because she looked at the situation, we have to learn the focus on the promise and not the situation. Not only did she laugh, she intervened and try to make stuff happen on her own. And that's the worst thing we can do, is call God up and tell him I'm gonna help you out. I want you to think about that. The one that spoke all of this stuff we see in existence, the one that has been keeping this earth spinning for the last 2,000 years spinning around on an axle, the one who has to keep this sun just close enough to us is the one we don't freeze and fall enough away from us that we don't burn up, the one who keeps us locked on a circular planet to where we don't fall off, the one who has never allowed the sun to go out, the one who can do anything but fail, we don't call and love and tell them we need some help. Yeah, I said it, let's laugh at that because God don't need our help. What you focus on will drive you. Sarah will focus on what she didn't have in her current situation. Oh, too old to conceive. I haven't had any kids and I'm getting old because it's not natural for a woman to have a child in old age. So when you look at her situation and the natural, you will agree with her and say you are right to want to help God out. So the first thing we want to look at is we got to understand God don't need our help. Don't get so tied up into your situation on where you are and what you have and what you don't have. Because if God is in the beginning, he's also going to be in the end. If God made the promise, God cannot lie. If you trust and believe in God, you need to be about His business. Our business should be given testimonies about the goodness of God, given testimonies about what He has done for you, given testimonies about He broke us from the rockers of our cradle to this present moment. It gives testimonies about the goodness of God and when we can learn to give testimonies and we practice on giving testimony, no matter what the situation looks like, our wait time is going to be a lot less because one thing about it is when you're waiting to seem like time goes by real slow because you're not focused. But when you're working while you wait, when you're giving testimonies while you wait, it just seems like time is flying by and you're going to be where you need to be and where God will have you to be before you know it when you learn how to wait and working while you wait. Be careful who you listen to when you're waiting on God. That's going to be a point number two. First thing we talked about is change of focus when you're waiting on God. You need to think to focus, saying what you're looking at when you're waiting on God because if you start looking at the situations and the circumstances, you're going to get like those those children are Israel lying and complaining all the time about everything. Isn't being good, isn't God being good, good enough? They was lying and complaining about everything. You should have left me back in Egypt. You shouldn't have danced this. We are here in the wilderness. We don't have no food to eat. We are here. We don't have no water to drink. We are here. You should have left us back where we were and you are the one who asked to come out of it. Well, when you ask and pray for God, you got to be willing and ready to go through the process to get what it is that you're asking for. You got to be ready. And if God made the promise to you, God made Sarah the promise. And if we can become real good at focusing on the promise, if God told you you're going to be a great leader, if God told you you're going to be a great mother, if God told you you're going to be this business person, if God told you all of these things, you got to trust in the promise of God, not in what you see or can't see. So in the midst first thing, then get your focus left. The next thing is you have to be careful who you're listening to when you're waiting on God. Not all counsel is good counsel. Even if you're having self conversation. I want you to hear me. I want you to hear me. Not all counsel is good counsel. Even if you have an internal conversation. How many of you have ever had those conversations and you start to believe what you're telling yourself? We're going to see Sarah laugh when God told her that she would have a son. During these times, it's always important to focus on what God words said, not on what we feel, even though our feelings may be justified by our limited knowledge, God plans Trump how we feel. I want you to hear me and hear me good. I think they deserve to be repeated. During the times of your way, it's going to be extremely important to focus on what God words said. Now, focus on what God words says, not on what we feel, even though our feelings may be justified based on the circumstances of what we can see, but our limited knowledge, we need to understand that God plans Trump how we feel because we are limited to see only what we can see or don't see. You may not see how God is going to work it out and make you a ruler over a whole nation. You may not see how it's going to work out where God is going to give you a prosperous business. You may not see how it's going to work out where you're going to be healed from that sickness or that disease. You may not see how all those things how it's going to work out. So you may be feeling a certain kind of way, but even in your feeling that you need to understand that God's word and God promise Trump's how you feel because you got to remember, God is already in where you prime and go. God's plans are perfect. We say God has never failed me yet. Well, why will he start now? I want you to ask yourself that question when you're in the waiting process. If God plans are perfect and he has never failed you yet, a perfect God, you think he's going to ruin his record by failing you now? Just because it don't look like you think it should look just because it don't feel like you think it should feel. God plans trough all of that. We say he's an onetime God, but we have trouble waiting. You ever heard somebody say that? It's even a song that goes he's an onetime God. Yes, he is. But then when it, if we know he's onetime, why is it that we have trouble waiting? All of this stuff sounds good, especially when you're telling somebody else, but when you're going through it for yourself, it's a hard thing when you're trying to wait on the load. And we need to understand, because of God promises, and because God works things out in his way and in his time, oftentimes things ain't going to look like how we want them to look. We ain't going to feel good in the process as we go through it. We ain't going to understand everything that we need to understand while we're in it. But as my grandmother used to tell me and she used to say, we'll understand better by and by. We just have to be prepared. This is a process that we must learn. Paul said it best, I have learned to be content in whatever state I'm in. I'm not saying it's easy, but the quicker you learn this, the faster God works out situation. Learn how to phrase God despite what it looks like. Focus on promise and not on your situation. Sarah was so busy looking at what she lacked. This caused her to step in and help God out, putting her plans into action, showing God, I've got this. The worst thing we could do is start messing in God's business. Isaiah 40 and 31 says, "But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They should mount up with wings as eagle. They shall run and not be weary and they shall walk and not face." So during your wake process, focus on the promise and not on your situation. You go back and you read the story for yourself. I was she brought another woman in the place and the conceived the child and all of these things that she did. But what we have to understand is if we learn to wait on God's plans to unfold itself, we will be amazed. We will be amazed because God is amazed. God is so amazing that He will blow your mind. He's been blowing my mind as I look around and I see things and I can't explain it, but God is the only answer that I have. When I see my financial situations turned around, I can't explain it. The only thing I can say is, "But God." When I saw my health one doing so good and I went to the doctor, the doctor gave me a prescription and I didn't understand it because when I started taking stuff, it wasn't working in the beginning. The only thing I can say is, "But God," when I look back over my life and I understand how far God has brought me from, the only thing I can say is, "But God," I don't understand it and when I was going through it, it didn't make sense. The only thing I can say is, "But God," when we're going through situations and circumstances, we need to learn to focus on the promises of God and not look at our situation. The situation is gonna be there. The situation is part of the process, but when we learn to focus and trust in Him, so during your wait process, focus on the promise and not on your situation. And we have to hold on to the promise, which is gonna be the last point we're gonna look at. So when it seems like things aren't working for you and it seems like all hope is gone, give it all over to the Creator, the only one that is able to keep us from falling and He will do the impossible. He can turn your midnight into day. He can turn your enemies into your friends. He can bring the lost child back home. Is there anything too hard for the Lord? He would do exceedingly abundantly above all you can ask or think we need to learn to give Him honor, give Him glory and praise His name for who He is. Whether He don't do, if He don't do anything else, He has already done enough for me because He has kept you. He kept that car that you didn't know about from hitting you. He kept that disease, that sickness, that illness away from you, even when you was unaware of it. It was God who kept you. It was God who brought you. It was God who opened that door on that opportunity and that job that you have. It is God keeping you in the right state of mind to keep doing the things that's going. We need to learn to be patient and wait on the Lord in the process, learn how to focus on the promise. And the only way you're gonna know the promises of God and spending time in His Word. And when you can spend time in His Word, He will reveal things to you. Things will come up. You will get insight on different things. And if we can learn that while we're in the process and learn to strengthen that relationship we have with Him, our wait time won't be as bad as it was because we're working in His kingdom, doing His will, doing His way that the time won't seem so bad because we're keeping ourselves easy and we're focusing on the promise because we know one day even if this thing that I look at now don't work the way I think it's gonna work, I have to learn and trust that it's gonna be something great and that's coming because I trust and believe in a God that never failed, He's always on time. I need to learn to focus in on the promise. We know how the story came up. We know that at age 90 Sarah had a child. They were him 100 years old. Only God can do that. Only God can take a situation that seemed hopeless and make it whole full and change things that we can't see, make it work out for our good. Only God can do that. When God can take some things and put it all together, just sort of like cooking. I always like to cook and put things together. God can take some things that when my mom was cooking, she can take all this stuff that was left over from different things, you know. It might take some meat that was left over, some vegetables that was left over, some other things that was left over. And she can take all of those things that were left over. And she can say, and when I don't see anything because of my eyes, but because of her eye, her creativity, when she gets behind under at the stove and start to cook, she can take things that other people might throw away and put it in a pot and come up with some soup that's good enough for everybody to eat. God can take things, situations, circumstances of people and faces and things that other people may have thrown away and forgot about. He can put all of that stuff together. He can take your enemy and prepare a land for you to go and the habitating. God can do that. We need to stop talking about what is not possible because my Bible said all things with him. And when we can understand that, Sarah laughed when God gave her a promise. So you may be, I ain't gonna say laughing, but may not be believing the promises of God because of how your situation looked, because of the circumstances that you're in. What I wanna do this little time I got left is just give you something to think about that's gonna change, that could possibly change what you think during your process. I know many of you have, if you got young kids or even yourself, you go to work and let's say you get the work and your shift starts at seven o'clock. And it's one of those days where you don't wanna be there and one of those days you're ready to go home as soon as you get there and you get there at seven o'clock and you look at the clock and say seven o'clock and you clock in and this seems like time, 100 hours the went past and you look at the clock again it says seven o'clock. Only five minutes to pass because you're spending time looking at the clock and not being busy. And then there's sometimes you come in and you barely get in there all the time and you go to work because you got so much work that you gotta do and you trying to work and it seems like you go in there, seem like you ain't been in there 10 minutes and go back and look at the clock. And it's already almost time to get home. Isn't it amazing how fast time flies when you work? Isn't it amazing how fast time flies when you're about to program a God? Isn't it amazing? So what I'm telling you and what I'm challenging you to do today that in your way and why you're waiting on God and looking for and why you focus on the promise don't just sit there, I don't say I'm just gonna wait until you do it. Learn how to be busy about his program, his plan and do the things that he has called you to do while you're in the process. When I look at Joseph, like Joseph wasn't just idle and Joseph didn't understand where God was taking him. He had given him a dream and in the dream, Joseph was told that he was gonna be, that his brothers and fathers are gonna be piling down to him, he didn't fully understand that, but in the whole process where he was going through it was one key thing that was always said in the law with, in our process, if we know that the Lord is with us, what is the problem in waiting? I would rather wait the Lord being with me than waiting just to see something that happened. I'm waiting while God is with me because while God is with me, he's gonna help me grow. He is developing me, he's preparing me for where he's taking me because where he's taking me is gonna be good and it's gonna be very good. I just need to learn how to wait on him and when I can learn how to wait on him, what I'm challenging you to do today. He focused on the promise because when you're focused on the promise, it's not gonna, I'm not telling you focusing on the promise is gonna stop the situation and circumstances from coming upon you. But what I am telling you, when you focus on the promise, on the promise, how situation and circumstances, when they come, I ain't gonna say if they gonna come, I say when they come 'cause they still gonna come, you're gonna have a different outlook and a different feel about 'em because your focus is not gonna be on the situation and the circumstances, your focus is gonna be on the promise that God made you. And when you can learn the focus on the promise that God made you, you're gonna start to understand that you're gonna arrive in your shoes and even more out. You're gonna tell me y'all don't get that because the truth of them is real, they would have understood the promise. We refer to it as the promise lab for a reason because it was the promise. And we need to just understand who is piloting this life. See, because if you think you're the pilot of your own life, when the turbulence come and the weather come, it ain't always clear when you take a flight. It ain't always clear. One thing I've learned and I learned this from my mentoring as I started to travel the world and start to fly, one thing I learned when a flight takes off, most of the time it's all off course. The amazing thing is you always arrive at the time that they say you're gonna arrive. I want you to think about that. If you travel on a plane and you're not the pilot, the only thing that you can do is get in on that plane and take your seat because the pilot has been equipped, been trained and been certified to fly the vehicle, to fly the plane that you're home. And the pilot tells you the lock scrapping in, buckle your seat belt because you're about to take off. Now you don't know all of the stuff that goes on around the plane, outside the plane because there's nothing you can do about it when you're on the plane because there's somebody that's qualified to take you to where you wanna go. 'Cause you already have made a decision when you purchase your ticket on where you want it to go. And when you got on that flight, if it's just a regular normal flight outside of the things happen, that flight is scheduled to leave at a certain time, this is planned at a certain time, based on what they already know about the conditions of the flight. You're gonna live, if you're scheduled to leave at 615, you'll leave that flight with takeoff at 615. If you're scheduled to land at a certain place at 1015, you're gonna land at 1015 because they've already taken in consideration everything that you're gonna have to go through. I want you to think about that. Now, as human beings, if we can dictate and regulate the time you're gonna take off in a time that you're gonna land, and all we're subject to the time that God has given us, and God has not said at the time, God can do some things that man can't do. God got somebody that can pile this plane of your known as your life, it can take you to a place and God can do some things that man can't do because God can even get you there faster sometimes than you wanna go, because God is not subject to the same thing we're subject to. If we can learn to focus on, one of the things I do when I travel, because I hate transition, I hate the in-between part. So what I've learned to do is focus on where it is that I'm going. And when I learn to focus on where it is that I'm going, the journey is not that bad. When we can learn to spend time with him in the process, spend time with him in all of the things and enjoying the part that where he's taking us, if we can learn to get to that mindset and focus on where it is that we're going and not what we have to go through. Now, I'm not telling you you're not gonna go through it. I keep repeating it. I'm not saying that you won't have trouble. My Bible says the man that is born of a woman is but of a few days in life, it's full of trouble. So I'm just telling you that if you refocus on the promise that he has for you and not on your situation, the journey won't be that bad. I'm here to tell you, no matter what you're going through, no matter how you're dealing with it, could be the loss of a loved one, could be a loss of a friend, it could be the closing of a business, it could be losing a job, it could be family, it could be any number of things. But what we have to understand and what we need to get in, what is the promise that God made you in all of this? And we can learn to focus on the promise and not on our situations. What we going through won't be that bad. My prayer for you today is that this will help you get through whatever it is that you're going through, that this will change your focus to get you refocused on the promises that he had made you. The promises like I will never leave you nor forsake you. The promise like if I be for you more than the whole world of the issue, the promises that you're more than a conqueror through Christ Jesus. The promises that I go to prepare a place for you, the promises that he has made us. And if you look in this word, there are promises all in his word, learn to focus on the promise and what you're going through won't be that bad. God bless you and God keep you as my prayer for you and we'll see you again on next Friday. This will be the end of the change in faces ministry podcast where we do believe if you can see yourself the way God sees you, you will have a change of faith. God bless you and God keep you as our prayer. Thanks for tuning in to the changing faces podcast. Be sure to download the podcast as well as like, subscribe and share. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) [MUSIC PLAYING]