Pastor Robert and TaQuaris Smith
Robert: Praise the Lord. Good morning, hallelujah. We have made it to the third part of this series. Can we believe it, already? Hallelujah. Amen. That was a hallelujah for I'm finally gonna finish this thing. Praise the Lord. Isn't it good to be here in the house of the Lord, gather with the saints this morning. Amen. Isn't it good that our pastors can be away and get some refreshing? Hallelujah. Come on. Don't be jealous. You know, they need to get away. Yes, we are here freezing and they are on the beach, not that I'm gonna let them hear about it or anything, but you know, it's good. They are watching. Mommy and daddy are watching. Hallelujah. But it's a great opportunity, Justin and family and friends. Thank you for ushering in the presence of God and allowing us to worship in this presence. We prayed for you guys and we are glad to have you here.
I'm glad once again, I get to do this with my life partner. Outside of Jesus, the best thing that's happened to me. And you know, I have to throw it in there; the Packers lost and the Vikings are at home too, so all of you can watch the playoffs on TV with me. okay. I'll get spiritual now. I have two good friends again. I'm getting all these surprises. I have two good friends that are visiting for the first time. I thank them for being here. That is a welcome surprise. I'm glad to have you and all those that are visiting, all those that are on livestream and those that have been a part of this series.
We've been talking about faith and faith, we said from the beginning is not just something out there in the ether. I don't believe in this business about blind faith, that there has to be an object of faith. As of Christ, we know that object is Jesus Christ. Most notably, we are able to express our faith because of who our God is. And so that's why we entitled this series, faith, trusting in God.
We've been talking about different aspects of God that we trust. We began talking about faith with the definition of faith, having absolute confidence, absolute trust in God and filling in the blank. One of the very first things we said, we can trust God's character. God is who he says he is. As we sing in the song, God is who he says he is. We can have absolute confidence that God's character doesn't waver. No matter what situation we find ourselves in, we know God is merciful. We know God is just. We know God is faithful. He is trustworthy. God is loving. We can always have absolute confidence and trust in God's character. No matter what the enemy, in whatever form the enemy takes, whether it's the devil, whether it's our flesh, whether it's people, whatever it is, if it's wrong thinking, we know that it cannot stand up against God's character.
We also talked about God's promises through his word, his word doesn't lie. We have evidence in the written word of scripture that tells us what God has said. The scriptures tell us what, if God has said it, will he not perform it? We can have absolute confidence in what God has promised for you and I, as believers. This is a new covenant that we are in. It's a greater covenant than the old covenant. There are greater promises in this new covenant.
God has not been slack in letting us know what those promises are and what our future and what our destiny is in him, in Christ Jesus. If God says it, he will perform it. If God said he would forgive your sins, he is faithful that as you confess and repent, he will forgive your sins. If God says that absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, when we are gone from this earth domain, you better guarantee we will be with him forever and ever. If God said that he will provide for you, all you have to do is ask. As his children, you best believe he will provide. We can go on and on and on about all the promises of God in his word, because we know that we can absolutely trust in who God is and what God has said.
That brings us to today to conclude this series on faith, trusting in God's program and timing. How many of you are waiting for something? Waiting involves patience and time. We all have our set time expectations for things. That's a whole sermon in itself. But one thing that most of us from time to time, we can tend to forget, and it's one of my favorite subjects you will hear about it sometime as well, that God is sovereign. In his sovereignty, God has a specific purpose and parentheses program design and intent for all things. I'm going to say that again. Number one, God is sovereign and he has a specific program, purpose, design intent for how many things, all things. Ecclesiastes 3:1 sets this idea in motion.
TaQuaris: For everything, there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.
Robert: For everything there is what?
TaQuaris: A season.
Robert: And a what?
TaQuaris: A time.
Robert: A time for every activity, everything under heaven. The following verses in Ecclesiastes go through a list of these activities, that there is a time and a season to happen, which tells us that there are times for specific things to happen and there is a time for specific things not to happen for every activity under heaven. It's in those seasons where we have to apply our faith in God, in his program, in his timing because of his sovereignty, which means what to us? That means that just because we have an expectation of something to happen at a certain time, doesn't mean that it's going to happen at that time.
TaQuaris: We live our lives in time and we also make our decisions in time. However, we must remember that God, he is sovereign over time all the time, because time is not for God. Time is actually for us, but God, he is the overseer of everything that happens within time. Even in this world, God sees everything that is happening at any given moment in time.
Robert: Do you know the fact that Jesus has come in the flesh happened at a specific time? There were expectations that people had of a Messiah to come. They wanted him to come at a certain time in their life for whatever reasons. They were longing for the Messiah to come. But the scripture tells us that it didn't just happen, that Jesus just happened to come, that he came at a specific time: Galatians 4:4.
TaQuaris: Galatians 4:4: but when the right time came, God sent his son born of a woman subject to the law.
Robert: It said, when the right time came. Some translation says in the fullness of time. That means that it didn't happen too early. It didn't happen too late. But to fulfill prophecy, he came at the right time. There was an appointed time. If you look out through the old testaments, many times when the word of the Lord would come to the prophets and he would give them the word of the Lord, when something was to be future, he would tell the prophets, this is yet for an appointed time, an appointed time. That means in God's sovereignty, it doesn't matter what is happening on the earth, he has an appointed time for things.
TaQuaris: There is a time for everything, but we don't set the time we act a court of. So pretty much everything that we do is either willing or an unwilling submission to God's sovereignty and time.
Robert: Proverb 69.
TaQuaris: We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps.
Robert: Do you hear that? We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps in his time. I told you this, this series means a lot to me for several reasons, but one of the manifestations about our faith and trusting in God's character and his word and his time, one of the fruits of that is us being a part of your hope family, having to trust God in a season of pandemic, in a season of unrest, in a season of transition, because as of last September, we weren't here with you guys. There was a season of transition. You best believe that there were temptations to go here, to go there, to go do this and do that. Everybody's in your ear; you should do this. You should do that.
I have many faults, but even as a little child, one of the things that I rarely had a problem with was obeying my parents, probably because I was a cry baby if I tell the truth. I did not like to get in trouble. All you had to do was look at me wrong. So I've learned to obey the father, so if he doesn't tell me to do anything, guess what? I don't do it, within human reasons, of course. I'm not perfect. But there was a season of waiting for the next move for us, for our family, for ministry until I heard from God. That was a tough test. It's a lot of the expectation, but I know that God has his best for me. I don't want to go ahead of what God's best is for me.
God gives us hopes and dreams for certain things to happen in our lives. But he doesn't always allow us to see the exact timing of his plan. Although frustrating, not knowing the exact timing is often what makes us motivated to keep going If you trust God. We don't have to know the time, but because we trust God, it keeps us going for certain hope that we may not see it now. We may not know how it's going to plan to manifest itself, but I wait because I trust God. We have something to look forward to.
There are times when we might give up, if we knew how long it was going to take. But when we accept God's timing, we can learn to live in hope and all our lives while God is working on our problems. It goes back to God's sovereignty. He is sovereign over time. The problem is we want to dictate everything. We want things to happen when we want it, how we want it and we want to determine the time and how it looks. But there is one problem: we are not God.
TaQuaris: I was thinking there are so many different intricate details that are happening that we can't even fully grasp. That's why he is sovereign in his own time. There are things that we can't even understand that the holy spirit can fully grasp everything. God doesn't share everything with us. Sometimes we can't even handle certain things. So we have to just be patient and submit.
Robert: That's where faith comes in. That's why when we were developing this series, we can talk about how we trust God and who he is and we trust God and his character. We know that God loves me. We know that God's word is true, but let that certain thing be delayed in your life. Where is your faith then? Do you still believe God is just? Do you still believe God is merciful? Do you still believe he is kind? Do you still believe he is loving? Do you still believe he is gonna provide with you when the count says 0, 0, 0? But when we have faith in who God is and in his word, and we have faith in his sovereignty, in his program, then we have faith and we know that God's plan for our lives is good. And we can entrust ourselves to him. And so that way we can experience total peace and happiness. Even when we don't necessarily see it with our own eyes, we can be content and trust in him.
I want you to repeat this after me. God's ways are not always easiest, but are always best. Let's say that again. God's ways are not always easiest, but are always best. That means that sometimes when we follow God's ways, it's a difficult path. But if we understand that his path, his ways, his desires for us are best for us, then he will make the difficult path something that we can handle. he is not going to allow us to perish through the hard thing, because if, the big if, it's his design for us, he has already made provision for it. So.
Our faith is tested. That's the only way that we grow in faith. I know we don't like that, but faith is not grown, you don't grow in faith when everything is happening the way you want it to. You don't grow that way. When you go to the gym and lift weights, you don't gain muscle without some pain. A lot of times, even in money and investing in money, you don't gain money without first losing something. When you start a business, the first few years, you are not seeing the profits that you desire to see. Sometimes you don't even make a profit the first three years of starting a business. And you know what, that's the reason why most people are not entrepreneurial, because they don't want to go through that time because they can't see beyond those times of deficits. Yeah. But see, when we trust God, it doesn't matter what the so-called delay is. If we trust in him, we know that there is a better day that's coming.
If we go through what we are allowed to go through, because remember God is sovereign and so nothing brings him by surprise— if we allow ourselves to allow the grace of God to take us through, then I believe that we will be victorious in achieving God's design and plan for us in our life. That has a personal implication for us in our day to day living, but it also has a corporate attachment meaning to it too, because there are things that apply to us universally concerning Christ that allows us to have a destiny to be with God forever. As we stay the course, as the scripture tells us, God is faithful. God has not lied about what our destiny is and that's to be with him forever and ever. That's what awaits us in this new covenant. That's what salvation is all about.
We want to invite people into the kingdom and family of God, we are saying that once you make that decision to live your life born again, to be in Christ, you are guaranteed to be with the father. God is not slacking his promise. Until we get to that destination, there are things that he has promised us in this lifetime that as we remain faithful and in Christ, we will see those things also. Amen.
The reality of it too, is that there are consequences, major consequences when we don't trust in God's program and his timing, major consequences. We were talking about some of the things that we are reading in the Bible; there are countless stories, but one of the biggest ones that ministered to me is the story of Abraham in Genesis chapters, 15 through 21. we are not gonna go through the scriptures. I'm just gonna summarize what happened. Let me give you a little backdrop, cuz this, when I speak of God's program, I'm talking about his sovereign design or you or not his sovereign plan, even for our salvation.
At the fall of man, Adam and Eve, God had already had a design, a plan for the redemption of mankind. And he prophesied way back in the garden to the first man and woman about that redemption plan. He prophesied that there would be a seed that would rise up and defeat the enemy. That prophesied seed that would manifest is Jesus. That was prophesied to us way back in Genesis. The program of God was said that there would be a chosen people that would be the carrier of this seed. That's where that term chosen people came from for the Jews. In themselves, there was nothing special about the Jews other than God in his sovereignty chose this group of people to carry forth this seed into the earth. God's plan was set so that no matter what happened, his plan would come to pass as he sovereignly designed it. Everybody following me?
Fast forward, here comes Abraham, who God establishes a relationship with. In that relationship, that promised seed was going to come through Abraham. What happened is Abraham was an old dude. His wife was an old woman, but God came to them even at an old age and said, "I'm gonna ain't cure great nation." At this time, Abraham didn't have any children of his own. So even though he believed God, he thought there would be some kind of surrogate that this inheritance would come through. But God said, oh no, Abraham, there is going to come a seed out of your own loins, and guess what, Sarah, even though you are beyond childbearing years, you are gonna have a child.
Was Sarah all excited about that? No, she laughed at God. Like, I know you are God, but God, you are crazy that at this time of my old age, I'm gonna have a son. Nah, you must be joking. I've never known God to be a comedian per se, but I think some things that he does are funny. But God was true to what he said. He had a specific purpose and design for the Messiah to come into the earth. But Abraham's wife, Sarah childbearing was delayed. She was barren. She didn't have any children and she felt bad. She felt bad to the point— she felt bad for her husband that she stepped out of God's program and timing and gave Hagar her servant to be with her husband for the purpose of bringing forth a child so that God's promise could come to pass.
Well, here is one problem: God didn't ask Sarah to help him. Our limitations have nothing to do with what God wants to do. Our limitations don't stop. God's sovereignty. God is God. He can do whatever he wants to do, how he wants to do it. It doesn't matter, my brother, my sister, if God has told you something, it will come to pass. It doesn't matter what your human disqualifications are. God knows it. He knew it before you. What is impossible for man is always possible for God. Amen.
Abraham, Sarah and Hagar decided to help God, and what happened? They produced Ishmael and everybody was happy. So we thought, but there was trouble in paradise. It didn't go so well, God allowed it to happen. But then he had to be. God, in the relationship that he has with us, doesn't always stop us from doing wrong or going out of his will. But that doesn't end for us. Sometimes God has to be God in our lives and come and say, okay, you tried it your way, but let me remind you what I said. I have a promise for you and guess what? This is not it. But because you went ahead and involved someone else, an innocent life, because I'm merciful because I'm just in all those characters that we talked about, God, I'm still going to bless this child, because it wasn't a child's fault. It wasn't Ishmael's fault. He didn't ask for it. It was his parents and the people involved in his life that wanted to speed up the process, and wanted to implement what they thought was doing the right thing. But didn't ask for their help. He told Sarah, "I have a promise. You will have a son that will come from you and that is the son of my promise."
What a mess that produced. If you go through the lineage in the Bible, what a mess that produced for God's chosen people to carry his seed and those that were outside of that covenant. It created a huge mess that didn't have to be because we had two human people that did not trust. They trusted God, so they say it, but they didn't trust in his program and his timing. Thank God we have examples in the Bible of those that did. I won't go into it, but think of Joseph and the promises of Joseph, being sold by his brothers being accused, slandered, imprisoned. But as we fast forward to the story, Joseph knew without a shadow of a doubt that no matter what happened in his life, God had a specific plan and desire for his life. He was at the right place at the right time.
Some things happened in our lives that we wouldn't necessarily design the way they work. It doesn't matter how you get there. It's the fact that you get to God's destination. Sometimes in our free will, God allows us to make choices, but our free will and choices does not overpower God's sovereignty for our lives. There are sovereign things that you and I cannot do anything about. That's the nature of the sovereignty of God. But if we establish a faith relationship with him, then we can have peace. Because like we repeated before, God's ways are not always easiest, but they are the best because God desires the best for you.
No matter what form the enemy takes, whether it's trials, whether it's flesh, whether it's the devil, you will be tempted to doubt God because of what we consider a delay in time. I think if we are honest, that's what tests our faith the most: those so-called delays. I'll raise my hand. You don't have to. I'll raise my hand. I'll raise it a little higher. I'll raise it. When things seem to take a little bit longer than what we— well, I knew that check was supposed to be in the mail two weeks ago, but it hasn't arrived yet. I know that job opening, they said they were gonna call me back. The Lord said I was gonna get married, but I'm 30 years old now. I don't know. I don't know when this is gonna happen. God does. God does trust him. Wait on him. Because I tell you, when we don't, we put ourselves through more hardship.
You'll never hear me say we won't go through hardship. Joseph went through hardship. He still achieved what God designed for him. But there are sometimes we put ourselves through unnecessary hardship because we step out of God's timing. But we can trust the timing of God because he knows what's best for us and he always desires the best for us. The word of God and Jeremiah 29:11 tells us this.
TaQuaris: For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord; they are plans for good and not for disaster to give you a future and a hope.
Robert: Who knows the plans for you?
TaQuaris: God.
Robert: Remember in this series we talked about when those fiery darts come and those fiery darts are seeds of doubt. The Bible tells us to do what when those fiery darts come? To hold up our shield of faith. And so we hold up this shield of faith. We can apply our faith this way when you feel that there is no hope in your future for whatever situation it is or that for some reason you have feelings of a failed destiny, no. Or there is no way to know if you have a certain destiny of victory and fruitfulness. No, the scripture tells us what? Let's read that again: Jeremiah 29:11.
TaQuaris: For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord; they are plans for good and not for disaster to give you a future and a hope.
Robert: That's the plan that God has for you. God doesn't have a destiny of desire, pastor and failure for you. That's not God. That may be others' plans for you, but it's never God's plans for you. Some of you need to lay that lie to rest. Some of you have been lied to. Some of your names have been slandered. Some people have tried to curse you, but God. Galatians 6:9.
TaQuaris: So let's not get tired of doing what is good at just the right time. We will reap a harvest of blessings if we don't give up.
Robert: We can be constantly doing good and we constantly do good and we constantly do good and we don't see any fruit from our doing good, where if you are doing good in the name of the Lord and you are doing God's will the scripture tells us in the right time, you will reap a harvest. Remember the scripture and Ecclesiastes told us that there is a time and a season for everything, every activity. Just because it is not the season of reaping doesn't mean that your harvest is not coming. You just have to endure a little longer. But if you are doing God's will, you will reap a harvest of blessing if we don't give up, don't give up. First Peter 5:6.
TaQuaris: So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time, he will lift you up in honor.
Robert: Where are some of my young people? Sometimes we can be anxious to be used by God. You have ideas. And you can say to yourself, well, they are not listening to me or I'm not recognized for that. The scripture tells us don't worry, at the right time. Just continue to humble yourself. Develop your character. Be faithful. Be faithful even when you don't have recognition. Be faithful even when you don't see a reward, and in the right time, God will lift you up and God honor you. Last scripture, Isaiah 40 and 31.
TaQuaris: But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like Eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.
Robert: When it comes to time, trusting in the Lord often equals waiting. As a matter of fact, some translations, even for this passage, say those that wait on the Lord, because there are some time elements in trusting. We are trusting God to do something. We are trusting God for something. there is a time of waiting and travailing and tarrying and waiting and crying out. If we are honest with ourselves, that's just outright hard sometimes, because we get tired of waiting for certain things.
The people of God in Egypt were crying to be freed and delivered from their oppressors, hundreds and hundreds of years. That's a lot of waiting and crying and calling out to God. Don't you hear our cry? Don't you hear the sorrow that we are going through? Don't you hear all the things that we are going through? Don't you care? Has anybody ever cried that to God? Don't you care what I'm going through? Don't you see what I'm going through? Are you not gonna step in? Are you not going to intervene? Are you not going to provide? Are you not going to touch me? Are you not going to move this situation? The answer is yes, I am, in my way and in my time.
Daniel prayed and fasted for 21 days. After 21 days, he must have said, God, what am I giving up this food for? Why am I standing here fighting and waiting for you? What did the angel tell him? God heard you on day one. The provision came on day one, but there was opposition that I had to fight on your behalf. So let that be a lesson to you and I. It doesn't matter the time, once you cry out to God, understand that help is on the way; provision is on the way. Deliverance is on the way. But there are things that you and I can't see. But we have a great intercessor that's constantly on duty, praying, interceding, working on our behalf even when we sleep, even when we fatigue and get weary. You have a God that loves you, that cares about you, that has a specific and expected end for you. And it's all glory for his sake. We just have to continue to trust in all those things that we talked about.
When we say we trust him, we don't pick and choose which aspect we trust. See that's what happens when it comes to the sovereignty of God, a lot of people fail and struggle because as he tells us, his ways are not our are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts are not our thoughts. But when you know that God loves you. He cares for you and he wants the best for you. Then you have the heart attitude of God. I'm just gonna persevere and wait because you know best. I want us to say his prayer together, that kind of brings it all together. It's a prayer, but it's also kind of a declaration and a confession before God that we are gonna trust him. Let's pray together.
Heavenly father, thank you that you have given us the shield of faith to quench every fiery dart of the wicked. We thank you, Lord, that as we trust in your program and your timing as we trust that although your ways are not always the easiest to follow, they are always best for us. We will not succumb to the enemy seeds of doubt. We will not seek alternative paths and methods and methods that are contrary to your will for our lives. Instead, we will walk in righteousness and obedience to your word, in Jesus name. Amen.
Faith is a powerful force in our relationship with God. It's the necessary ingredient to have a fruitful relationship with God. As a matter of fact, he tells us without faith, it's impossible to please him. You know why? Because when we don't have faith, we are saying we don't trust him. Hopefully you learned in this series that when you don't trust him, that means you are denying God's character, you are denying God's word and you are denying God's sovereignty. If you deny those things, then you don't have a relationship with him. But I know that faith happens in measure, and faith is something that we can develop and grow. So my prayer for us all today is that this coming week, we will examine where we are in our walk of faith. And we will have the courage to ask God to help us in that area.
Remember what I said earlier: faith grows by testing. I just wanna remind you of that, so you can wholeheartedly enter into this prayer. But be not afraid, but be of good courage because God is with you. My prayer is that you will have a successful encounter with the Lord As he takes you and continues to help you grow in this faith journey, and that you will shine like never before in his presence. I just want everyone here in the audience to raise your hands toward heaven. Those of you online, you can join us.
Heavenly father, we thank you that we can trust you. We thank you that in our relationship with you, you don't just let us be tossed to and fro in the winds and ways of doubt and belief. But you allow us to come boldly before you to ask you to help us, to show us the way to show us the illuminated path, so that we can walk according to your direction. Lord, sometimes this walk is a scary journey, but we couldn't ask for a better walking partner. So lead us, guide us, protect us as we commit our lives to you even deeper, we pray that your manifest presence in our lives would be shown and would be evident of our surrender, of our trust and our growth in you.
I bless everyone that hears the sound of my voice in the name of the father and of the son and the holy spirit. May you go in God's love, and may you go in God's peace, in Jesus mighty name. Amen. Hallelujah. We are having communion. Please Lou and Dave, as they administer communion to you. And be blessed. Amen.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 1-23-22. If you would like to watch the full service, click the link below.