Epistle Of James
God's Appointed Time | Standing Firm In Faith 08
[Music] Please show me if I was the first Corinthians chapter 16. We've been using verse 13 as our foundation scripture for this series. And I know we do series, but you know, every message I'm hoping is standalone and you can listen to them if you want by, you know, by themselves. I just seem to see big pictures and so try to relate things, okay? And I hope that, you know, if you need something that deals with a certain aspect, maybe one of these messages will hit home. So first Corinthians chapter 16, verse 13, it says, "They watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong." The new revised standard version says, "Keep alert, stand firm in your faith, be courageous, amen, and be strong." And we've been looking at various aspects of this and I left you last week with the concept of seasons, a time for everything under the sun. And we talked about the fact that we really need to be careful what we say. Our mouth gets us in trouble. Our mouth is our solution and our mouth is our problem. And you know, we found that in Hebrews chapter 10, I'm sorry, I've got a lot of thoughts going through my head at the moment, let me just sort through them. Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 35, I don't have to turn here, I just want to reference these things. But remember again, the writer of Hebrews said, "Don't cast away your confidence, okay? Trust in the Lord, which has great recompense of reward, you need patience." And we talked about patience that after you have done the will of God, you can receive the promise. And I said that there is a time between amen and there it is. And I know this is one of those, I don't know the exact term to use, but when something is sort of, there are two truths that seem to be opposite to each other. So there's the one truth that we are told that now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, that Jesus said in Mark chapter 11 verse 24, when we pray, we believe that we receive. So spiritually there's no time. But naturally there is, are you all with me? Nicole brought something up to my attention in this and I wanted to just share this with you as well. Yeah, I really need to bring this out, that there is this duality. And it was very insightful, what she said. And so I wanted to really share this with you that there is a duality here. There is in the spirit, you receive it immediately. But there is in the natural a time, you know, and we need to see kind of both of those things. In the spirit, if we don't receive it immediately, we will not receive it out here in due season. Are you all with me? So that's how the two work together. And that's what we're looking at right now and we need to sort of, I want to give you some scriptures today. I want to start in Ecclesiastes chapter 3 and verse 1, "To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven, I really need you to see those words and take those things in. To everything there is a season, everything doesn't happen immediately. We can't have this, you know, thinking that if God wants it to happen, it'll just happen straight away, no time. And people have this idea and that's why they don't know how to wait on God. You know, they think, well, if God wants me to have it, I'll have it. If it doesn't want me to have it, then I won't have it, there is just this, you know, one or zero in computer terms, okay, that's it. But that's not how this works. To everything, did you see the word everything? I really need you to see the word everything. Everything there is a season. There are different seasons in your life. You know, we all go through seasons in our life. Some seasons are good. Some seasons are not so good. But there are seasons, hallelujah. You know, when they're great, you want them to last forever. Like that vacay, you know, that you went on, just never wanted to come back. And the other seasons, you think, "Dear God, when is this going to end?" You just wanted to finish like yesterday, amen, okay. And everything is a season. I still remember when I was at work, I was sitting down across from, it was one of those times in your life where things were just going so well. And I was sitting there and I was looking across, and I saw, you know, my co-workers and two others that were with me that were just being promoted and also the wonderful things were happening. And I was sort of looking across and thinking, "Wow, this is just such an amazing time." And God said, "Yeah, it's going to come to an end." I said, "Oh, can you give him a minute, please?" You know, because we want to attach ourselves to things. And he said, "All everything in this life is fleeting." He said, "The only sure thing is heaven, the only sure thing is eternity." He said, "Don't get attached to anything down here." "Hey, man, you know, we're here to do our job. Some of us want to go on a cruise, but we are here to do our job." The cruise is waiting up there. Down here we're working. Are you all here? Down here we need to know there's seasons and times. You know, heaven doesn't have any of that stuff. Isn't it interesting that the Bible tells us that God put the stars and all of that stuff so that we'd have some kind of way of measuring time? But heaven doesn't need that for time. No seasons. You get up there and hallelujah. You know, that's what you're waiting for. So anyway, let's continue. In Galatians 6, 9, the Apostle Paul writes there. Galatians chapter 6 and verse 9, "For the person doing the overhead after this, I'm going to go to 2nd John, verse 8, which is not on the list." All right, just to give you the heads up. Galatians 6, 9, I'm going to read first from the New King James, then I'm going to read from the New Living Translation, my New Living Translation, I don't know what you're going to get up there. But anyway, it says here, "Let us not grow weary while doing good. For in due season, we shall reap if we do not lose heart." The New Living Translation says this, and I'll talk to you about this in a minute, says, "Don't get tired of doing what is good. Don't get discouraged and give up. For we will reap a harvest of blessing at the appropriate time." Some key words here, okay? One more scripture, 2nd John, verse 8, there's no chapters, it's one little chapter, okay? So it's just a verse. It says, "Watch out so that you do not lose the price for which we have been working so hard. Be diligent so that you will receive your full reward." That's from the New Living Translation again. I love these, okay? I want you to notice it's not a partial reward, it's a full reward. It's saying, "Hang in there. Do what you need to do. Amen. Be diligent. Don't be lazy. Don't give up halfway. So many people are champions at starting, but not so good at finishing. You know it's not how you start, it's how you finish the race. Did you hear what I said? This isn't for the sprinter. This is for the long distance runner, amen, and there's a lot of stuff along the way. So let's go back, I told you I'll go back and talk to you about all this now. So I want you to notice here, we are told that to everything there is a season, we are told that there is a due season, that we are not to grow weary while doing good for induced season, we shall reap. What is that doing good? Well, Hebrews told us that we need patience and we need to, after we've done the promise of God, we need to keep going, amen, that we don't lose heart, that Jesus Christ is the high priest of our confession and he needs to be high priest of us something good. If you are saying I want to die, he's not going to be high priest on that. Something else is going to be okay, he's going to make sure that comes with us. We need to find out what the word of God says and then stick with it. And we really need to see the big picture. We need to understand how things are working. And we need to understand that that's why it says there are seasons, there are things that are going on that we may not understand but we just need to stick to what we are told to do, understanding that, and again, I will get to the stage where I'll talk to you about trust in the Lord and lead not to your understanding because God's seeing things more than you can see. And when he asks you to do something, it's not because he just woke up that day and thought, well, I think you should be doing this today, instead of that. He sees the whole picture. He sees everything that, you know, the place you want to get to, everything that you need to do in order to get to that place and sometimes it's going in the opposite direction to get to it. Have you done one of those mazes? If you were in the maze, you wouldn't know where you were going. And even when you're looking up from on top, it still takes a little while to work it out. And I've noticed, you know, a lot of those mazes, you have to go the opposite direction to get where you want to get to. Have you all noticed that if you go in the direction that you want to go, you keep hitting blocks. This is blocks all over the place. And somewhere in my, you know, childhood, when I was doing those things and they were a thing for me, I'd figure out that I have to go the other way to get there. And so I would start looking for that and sort of thinking, okay, you know, forget all these, they're probably all going to end in dead ends, which they did. Let's go the other way. Let's see the one that's least likely and you find out it goes here, then suddenly doubles back and gets there. And all these other ones, you know, you're trying to get there and they end up over here. And you try over here and it ends up over here. You're trying to get there, but it's not the way. And that's what happens when we take, you know, the reins of our life and we say, we know what we're doing. We kind of want to head in that direction. So let's start going in that direction and God says, no, to get there, you've got to go over here. God, that's just opposite. You know, take a break, Lord, I'll do this myself. So what happens after about three places and we go and get stuck? We go, what was that again, Lord? And so we have added all that time and we have to do it his way anyway to get there. Just know if you just follow the Lord from the beginning, things work out. What you think is taking a long time is actually the shortest route to get there. Do you hear me? God doesn't waste time. Jesus said, I'm coming quickly. I'm not going to lead you around the garden path. Hey, man, I need you to get places quickly. You need to listen to me and do exactly what I tell you to do. And don't give up. Okay. Now, let's look at some of these things. So both the Apostle Paul and the Apostle John warns us to not grow weary, but watch out, be diligent so that we don't lose out on our harvest or full reward. Understand again, there's a due season and an appropriate time for everything. The term due season in the Greek actually means, listen, the right time, opportunity due season at the appropriate moment, all of those meanings go with it. So I really want you to see something here. This tells us that it's not just the right time, but an opportune time. It's the right opportunity as well. There are things that will happen and you know, you just say, wow, that was just such a great opportunity. Yeah, God was orchestrating that the whole time. But you think was an accident that you turned up somewhere at just the right time for something to happen was God just directing you, directing you, go left, go right, do this, don't do that. All of that gets you to that place. Do you know if we saw the other side of that, you know, it's always amazed me how much planning the devil has to do to get you in an accident? No, no, seriously, you know, the timing has to be so precise that you are turning out at this precise moment for that dope to come and hit you. And we need that person, okay, who's not thinking, who's had too many drinks or whatever to do that at that time. I mean the planning that goes into that, that's why God used to say to me, you know, if you listen to me, I'll just send you another way and all this planning goes on the train. Do you know that's what he does with you all the time? Be led by the spirit and you stay out of the devil's plans because it's going to all work precisely for the thing to happen. If one domino is taken out, the thing doesn't work. Are you all with me? And yet God has so many ways of getting us places. You know why? Because we don't listen. And he says, no, don't listen over here, then we'll have to, you know, you're like your Navi. Have you noticed your Navi if you don't turn in the right place or when he turns it, tell you to turn? It recalculates another route. That's what God's doing with us constantly. Every time he says, turn right now and then turn right, they felt like going straight today. All right, let's re-fix it all up again now. God, because he's God, he can do that and thank God. Mercy is in due forever. It's another mercy route. Do you know what I'm trying to say? Okay. I'm sure I've run out of. Anyway, thank God, they're new every morning. So in other words, what this tells us is that we are not going to reap our harvest until God's right time comes at the appropriate moment and there is an appropriate moment. Did you get what I said? You know that in the Bible sometimes comes up as a suddenly? Okay. That's the appropriate moment. It's not an appropriate year or a week, it's a moment. All right. Now, knowing this, I pray, empowers your faith, stops us from growing weary and giving up right in the middle of a battle because you need to know that if you stand fast, you will receive whatever you're believing for. You need to give God time and whatever avenues he's working through, it needs to happen. It needs, you know, whatever time it takes, you might say, well, why does it take so long? Well, why do you take so long to say yes to God? Do you know you are the answer to somebody else's prayer? And while they're praying and saying, why is it taking so long, God's going, I'm still trying to get the guy to do it. I've told him six times already. What did, what did the angel say to Daniel? The moment you prayed, we were mobilized, but we had opposition. Now we don't have that anymore, now the problem is the people. And some poor person is going, I don't understand God. You said to believe and receive, y'all understand that God can't just open the heaven and drop a bundle of cash on you, because if he could, I'd already have it. Just letting you know, okay, you know, that doesn't happen, okay. You got to believe, okay, you got to fight through this. You got to exercise your faith, you need to stand, you know, this is trusting God. Faith is trust. Now there is another aspect to faith, but I won't get into that today. But it is the simple faith is trusting God, just trust that he knows what he's doing. And if something is going wrong, it's not his fault. As for God, his way is perfect. Everything down here isn't, and he's got a perfect, God has to work with an imperfect system to try and get the perfect blessing to you. Wow, that's a challenge, okay. So once again, as I said before, we need to understand that even though faith receives from God immediately, Hebrews 11.1 and Mark 11.24, still God's kingdom works on the principle of sewing and reaping, and that even though we don't know things, you know, how things are going to work out, rest assured they will, as long as we don't give up. Amen. Sometimes you just need to say, you know, sometimes you need to say to yourself, I refuse to give up, because you know there will be parts of you screaming to give up, and you just need to fight through. Please understand something, we are here for a very short time. I said this to you before, the billions and billions of years are ahead of us, not behind us. We've only got a couple of years down here, and we are storing up eternal rewards, and there are going to be people that get to heaven that are going to regret that they didn't do more, others will dance in an abundant entrance, hallelujah. Be one of those, okay? All right. Let's go to Mark chapter 4. Let's see how the kingdom of God works. You all want to know how it works? Well, I'm going to tell you anyway. Mark chapter 4, I'm going to be reading verses 26 and 27. And Jesus is speaking here, he says, the kingdom of God, now would Jesus know how the kingdom works? This is not theory, okay, here, okay? He came from there. He said, I know stuff about there because I'm from there. You guys are all guessing down here, okay, he's saying, I know. If I tell you something, that's how it is, amen, so this is how it is. He says, the kingdom of God is as if a man or woman should scatter seed on the ground, verse 27, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow He himself or herself does not know how. Did you see that? He said, everything is there to grow the thing. You don't need to know how it grows, just know it grows. If you do the right thing, the thing will grow. Now I also want you to notice he didn't say if you plant a tree. This is so important, okay? He didn't say plant a tree, he said plant a seed. Do you understand the difference? We want a tree planted so we can have fruit off the thing straight away. God says, that's not how the kingdom works. You plant seeds, they go in the ground, they take time, and the devil will do everything for you to dig up your seed and see if it's growing. You know, kids, they've got to go check to see if the seed is growing, and they keep digging up. You're going to kill your seed, you're going to leave it alone. You water it, you do the things you need to do, and you walk by faith and not by sight. Ask Christina, she is growing things now. You know, if she kept digging stuff and going, well, let's have a look at it, oh, okay. Come on, let's have another look, you're killing your seed, you need to leave the thing alone. We pray, and then we keep checking, did you hear what I said? And we wonder why the thing didn't grow up the next day. You know, kids are always wondering how come the seed didn't sprout, and it's not a tree there the next day. This is not Jack and the Beanstalk, okay? Some days go to do a miracle, but that's not how the kingdom works. Do you hear what I'm saying? The kingdom works like this. You plant a seed, let's just take a financial seed, okay, because this is the easiest thing. I could use other things, but let's just take financial, okay? Because everybody needs it. Because we need to pay bills, we need to eat, hello, all right, so, all right, so. If I planted a seed, can I expect the thing to, you know, like return to me a hundred falls straight away? Well, why not? Can't God just do the thing? Hey, we're reading right now how the kingdom works. That's not how the kingdom works. You plant your seed, see, the devil will do everything that he can now to get you to uproot that seed and stop planting further seeds. He'll say, you know, that one hasn't come up, it's been like three days now. Where's the result? The farmer has known not to look. He takes a while for the thing to grow, and they're smart enough to know not to put just one down, hello, okay? You just keep planting seeds. Do you know the verse in, let me give you a little insight, in Ecclesiastes, you know, it talks about cost your bread upon the water, and after many days, you all ever figure out what that was about? Bread will get soaked and drowned and die in water, it doesn't go well in water. Do you know what that was talking about? They were talking about in those days, they had merchant ships that you would invest, and they would go overseas, they would, obviously overseas, okay? And they would sell and do business and come back with your profit. It wasn't straight away, it was after many days, months, weeks, whatever, weeks and months. Okay? Whatever it took, but that's how it worked, and they would pray for good weather, everything else, for the thing to get there, do whatever business, and bring back your profit. And in the same way they understood that, you know, the Bible talks to us about that, that as we cast our bread upon the water, we are putting in the hands of a God that knows how to make a profit, he knows how to bring it back, multiplied, but you need to give him time, amen? We will reap if we do not faint, there is a due season, there is an appointed time, a time of arrivals, there's the departure, then there's the arrivals, okay? You know, when you go to the airport, you're picking somebody up, don't go to the, you know, wrong spot, because that's where everybody's going, you need to go to the place where they're coming, hello, like the guy driving goes, which is it, the other guy goes, I don't know, well, we're arriving, but then we want to depart, so maybe we need to go to the arrivals and the place in the back going, you two are just too stupid, okay? People get their arrivals and departures mixed up a little bit, hello, okay? Listen man, you need to know, do you see seasons, you need to know when things are going, when things are coming back, hallelujah, anyway, let's, let's, I want to read this from the new living translation, let me just make this, make, say this first, notice that you don't need to know how something is going to happen for it to happen, that's where faith and patience comes in, that we walk by faith, not by sight, for you have need of patience Hebrews 10 36, that after you've done the will of God that you might receive the promise, the new living translation puts it this way, it says, here's Jesus says, here's another illustration of what the kingdom of God is like, a farmer planted seeds in a field, so this is Mark 426 and now 427, and then he went on, went on with other activities, I really liked that, and then he went on with other activities, he didn't go dig up his seed, he went on with other activities, you do what God has planned for you to do, you get on with the business of, you know, the kingdom, are you all here, see sometimes we think that the business of the kingdom is we have to spend a lot of time believing and receiving and confessing and everything else, and all of that stuff is good but don't let it take you away from the things that God's asking you to do, because a lot of times as you are just going about your business, God will take care of your stuff, you take care of his business, he'll take care of your business, you're with me and I think one of the most healing things you can do is let go and just keep your eyes focused ahead, what do you need me to do Lord, it's amazing how so many times I have prayed for something, and God has led me to certain things, and I'm thinking that I'm doing him a favor, and hello, okay, and that you know this is for him now, and I'll just keep this and come back to it, and the things he asked me to do actually brought about the thing I was praying for, and he did it in such a way that I would have never guessed, so I've learnt now that if I pray with something and I have a new thought, follow it, doesn't matter if it's going the opposite direction just follow the thing, because something is happening, God is so brilliant, he can weave things in such a way that you are a blessing to somebody else and somebody else is going to be a blessing to you, he knows what needs to be done, he knows what you need to do, and also what somebody else, it's just so complicated, it's a little hard to explain, but he'll weave it all together, and it's a beautiful tapestry, and then suddenly you look back and realize, wow, God's hand was in this, from the moment I prayed, things were happening, amen, so he says here verse 27, and then he went on, he went on with his other activities as the days went by, the seeds sprouted and grew without the farmer's help, now you water it, you do that stuff, but I need you to understand that the growing of the seed itself, that's God, you do the water, he'll do the wine, you know what I'm trying to say, amen, amen, alright, we need to learn to stop trying to help God, when we think he's taking too long and not keeping to our schedules, neither should we become weary and well doing because your due season is on its way, amen, now related to due season the point of time, and I'm done with my time, my due season is over, okay, your point of time has come up, I went very quickly didn't it, okay, related to due season the point of time and having to resist the devil in time between the amen and there it is, is what James 4-7 talks about, and we're going to go to that next, therefore submit to God, it's the devil, and he will flee from you, let's have every head bowed every I close, Father we thank you today for your word and thank you Father for inside an understanding and revelation about due season, that even though we receive by faith immediately, and we must do that, that then there is this time, this due season, disappointed time that goes into play, and we just thank you Father, that you see all things, you know all things, and we thank you Lord that we want to follow you in all that we do, we know that what might seem to be long is actually the shortest cut to get from the amen to there it is, but we need to stay with your program, and I thank you for the patience, for the forbearance for the endurance to see everything, that full blessing come to pass in Jesus name, amen. 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