Kairós | Derek Staaland

Let's put it together for Cape Coral, David. Hello, good morning, a big round of applause for Cape Coral. Welcome, goodbye behind the bars, get behind bars, thank you for being here. And well, we start next week, the Sunday of freedom, and we start being here. We can see online, right, the day of independence. So well, today we are going to do something beautiful. I'm not going to, let's make a pact to say it like that. We're going to agree, an agreement, not a pact, an agreement. We're going to agree that today we're going to motivate. This message is going to be motivating today, because I say, I want you to turn around. I turned around to see someone like this, kind of weird. Well, if you saw someone like this, kind of weird today, with the eyes. Well, let me tell you, anyone, left or right, you're going through something. We walk in, you know, we get to the church, we have a smile on our face. Everybody is going through something. And look, this is what I feel that God said to me. The people here, the people who are watching online, are tempted to quit this world. And you know what? God is telling you, you have to keep going. You can't give up. This is today's message. You know, I grew up in the 90s. I was a fan of the Chicago Bulls. Let's see, who are the fans here? It's not fun to watch them anymore, but back then, when you won all the time, it was a lot of fun, right? So, I didn't miss any game. I loved watching them.

I love basketball. And we did this ritual, and we said, let's watch it. I'm going to tell you what it looked like. I'm going to tell you what it looked like. I like that. What's up everybody? I'm excited. I'm ready to go play basketball. And he says, well, what time do you play? Well, it's time to play. What time is it? I don't know how to say this, right? It's how you spell the huddle, right? When they all get together and do the huddle. But well, imagine, every day they would get together and they would say, no matter what's going on in your life outside of basketball, right now is the time and we're going to focus as a team to motivate ourselves because something special is about to happen. You know, it's motivating to see it, but it would be weird to say, what time is it? And Scottie Pippen would say, 7.30. Right? No, no, no, it wouldn't make sense.

They would say, hey, it's time to be there together, as a team. You know, and I tell you that I feel like God is asking the same question. What time is it in your life? Are you focused in the day-to-day distractions that are going on? Or are you going to continue to believe that you're going to keep doing the impossible in your life? I love the Chicago Bulls, but I love this context because I say, we have to motivate each other because something special is about to happen. And I feel like that's what today is about. So, when we talk about time, if you asked people who don't have enough, they would say, time and money. In fact, we have this phrase that says time is money, right? I don't know. People say it. But there's a study that says there are two million Americans and 80% feel like they don't have enough time to do what they want to do

or what they need to do. And I'm surprised because I don't know what kind of life they're living, but 80% say, I don't have time to do what I want to do. 2.5 million Americans don't have time to do what they want to do. And that's a study on poverty. And it says, poverty through time is a feeling that has many obligations. Amen, right? And you don't have enough time for essential things. Let's see, they define like sleep, exercise, relationships, cooking, health, and rest. And what they're saying is that the poverty of time is so distracted day to day that you can't have time to focus on the basic things. And God wants to pull us for a minute and I'm here

to make it impossible. But I need you to walk in faith. You know, time does not have power over us. We give power and time does not have power. In fact, many of us, that's me, I'm evangelizing myself as well. I'm not just telling you to do it yourself. I'm telling myself as well. And you know, we're trying to grab everything. And well, now we have a phrase called FOMO, right? Fear of missing out in English, which has been the fear of not finding everything. And time is a resource that doesn't come back. But I want you to change your mentality a little bit today. Take a picture of this. Does time move us through time? You know, I know it's Sunday morning. I know I've been watching online. I know it's science, but does time move us through time? We are moving through time. And we can choose how we move through time. Think about Jesus. Think about Jesus. If you think about Jesus's life, if you think about Jesus's life, why?

Because he says, I don't want to be day-to-day. I'm here to work on the basic things of God. So imagine, the best friend of God, Lazarus, his sisters notified Jesus that he was sick and dying. And if you've read the story, you know that Jesus talked to his disciples and he said, hey, we're just going to be here for three days. And he said, hey, we're just going to have to let him die. Look, this was his best friend. I don't know about you, but me. But if I was dying and my best friend was waiting for me for three days to come and help me, we wouldn't be best friends, would we? But of course, I'm dead. But Jesus is saying, let's wait three days. And the story goes on to say that when he came with Mary and Martha, they were angry. We said, we told you that he was sick. Why didn't you come? And Jesus knew there was something big that was going to happen. But Jesus wasn't worried or in a hurry, right? In fact, there's other worries about food, where they were in a hurry. And Martha was preparing the food, she was in the kitchen, she was making the food, and what did she do? Well, Jesus says, tell Mary to please call and come and help me, because she's weak, she doesn't help me. No, and what does Jesus say to her? He says, Martha, you're distracted by so many things. He says, Mary has chosen one thing,

to sit down, to sit here. So Jesus says, don't worry about what you're going to eat, what you're going to drink, or what you're going to drink. My father knows, in verse 33, he says, first seek the kingdom of God, and all the rest will be added unto you. We're moving through time, right? We're here, how are we going to focus? How are we going to focus? Are we going to focus, or are we going to be distracted, or are we going to focus on the essentials, like Jesus does? And why do we have a problem with this? Because here, we have a word for time. It's time to eat, it's time to sleep, it's time to have a baby, it's time to get married, it's time to have a baby. Everything is in this word, it's time to. But in the Bible, the Bible has two words for time. And the Bible, the first word is chronos. And I want you to take a note of this, of chronos. Chronos means the measure of time, days of the week, hours, morning and afternoon. That's the order, you can say the chronological order. The second word that the Bible uses is cairo. Maybe you've never heard that the Bible uses this word, but when I tell you about it, you're going to know what it is. But when I tell you about it, you're going to know what it is. And look at the definition. Cairo is the second word. What is the definition?

Cairo is the word that intersected in the time of chronos, a moment that changed life. It's a definition, right? A moment that is marked, opportune, decisive, in which God acts, it requires an answer or fulfills his purposes. I'm going to read it again and again. It's a decisive time in which God acts. It's a decisive time in which God acts. Now, for those of you who think linearly, we have a graph here. Now, for you who are creative, I have something else. Logically, I have a graph here. Here's your chronological time, the days, the years, the chronos, the life. And God has put those moments of Cairo to come and intersect, right, day to day, where your day-to-day life will never be the same. And God has come here. He says, well, if you think, you know what we're talking about. Maybe a Cairo moment for us was maybe in the 2000s, when we were thinking, me and my wife, Carrie, that I wish I could stay without you. to stay home and take care of the kids. And I said, Kerry, we don't have money and I don't like this organization. And my wife, Kerry, came and said, get up from your bed, please, get up and I'm going to get dressed and we're going to go, whatever.

And I don't remember, maybe it wasn't exactly like that, but my wife forced us to go to that meal. And yes, she forced us to go to dinner. We were sitting there at the table and one of the guys said, hey, what are you doing? And I said, well, I want to hire someone to help me take over my territory. And that's how it started. And 24 years later, it's what I'm doing now. And that's what I do. Of course, yes, thank God, and my wife, Kerry. Yeah, another moment in Cairo, we went to a class in the church and the teacher said, it doesn't matter to God your life, but also your finances. I went to the house and I said to my wife, I want to believe him, but I don't believe him. God doesn't care about my finances. I want to find this. I, in the next three years, I read all the scriptures that I could find in finances. God used those three years to transform our lives. And my way of seeing finances, that moment was a moment in Cairo that changed our lives forever. But let me tell you this. What if I was angry with my wife or I was a bully to her, telling her I didn't want to go that day, or I didn't want to go.

What if we went to God, that moment in the food class, you are a failure, you failed to take this moment in Cairo. I'm taking that first moment away. And I said, if we went to the food class, God, those moments that we had in the food class, I would have been so happy if we hadn't gone to that food class. I might have met this person that helped me. Because God loves you so much and he has those moments, Cairo. And maybe he loves you and he can do so much, right? But I want to give you peace today. You can't, you can't lose the will of God. He's going to reach you. He's going to help you. Sure, let's give God a round of applause. Yeah, let's give God a round of applause. And you know what? God's will, you're so stressed, you say, I don't know if this is true or not true. If you fail, God is going to wait for you in that moment, even if maybe in that moment you lost it. And let me tell you this, it says in Isaiah 48, it says, God declares the end of the beginning, of ancient times, the things that I have not done, I will do with all my heart. He declares the end of the beginning.

And he declares the end of the beginning. He says, I can predict what's going to happen as long as I do that for you. And in Psalms 39, it says, your eyes saw my body in gestation. Everything was written in your book. All my days were designed, even though one did not exist, right? You, God, wrote all the pages of my life and you came back to the beginning and you created me. And you gave me everything that I needed for my life. And it says in 1 Peter, look, I can tell you, you're not going to lose the will of God. And God is not standing there with a clock saying, you have this time to get there, run, hurry up. We feel like, like he says, wow, God, I'm not going to let you walk through this moment. God, God, it's not like that, right? No, we have to believe and have hope of those Cairo moments. Let me tell you, for those of you who think linearly, let's talk about the creatives. Let's talk about this. We all think differently, but well, imagine this is a beach at the hotel. And you say, oh God, this is my Cairo moment, right? Let's go to the beach. Don't get lost in the picture.

Wait for me, listen to me. I need you to look at the hotel, don't get lost in the picture. And we're just standing here looking at the hotel. Do you see the hotel? Do you see the hotel up in the distance? And we are sitting at the hotel. We are sitting at the hotel. And he is going to come closer to us. Now, there's a boat, a hotel. Now, there's a boat, a hotel. Now, there's a boat, a hotel. Now, there's a boat, a hotel. Listen, if you get to the hotel, if you don't get to the hotel, you will stop walking, okay? Listen, if you get to the hotel, you will stop walking, alright? And you will stop feeling like you're walking. Listen, if you get to the hotel, to get to that Cairo moment in your life. you will start walking. And I'm going to tell you this, that maybe it's going to shock you, Boys and girls, but nothing can stop you from getting to that Cairo-type moment more than yourself. Nobody can stop you, more than you.

Listen, you're going to have obstacles, yes, because if you go to the hotel, maybe there's a, I don't know, a storm, right? And there's going to be obstacles, a storm on the way to the hotel, etc. But what happens most of the time is that when we get to those obstacles, we stop. And you know, God is not angry. He's not saying, you only have an hour. This is not, you're not competing with someone. God is waiting patiently. But your job is not to give up and keep working, and keep, keep walking. It's like the story of the Israelites. All the time we talk about this, we judge them, they're terrible people. We also do things that the Israelites did. Sometimes we don't believe in God, we disobey God, but what did God say? Right? He set them free from Egypt to the Promised Land.

You know how long did they walk from Egypt to the Promised Land? 11 days. How long did it take them? 40 years. Not 40 days, eh? 40 years. How long did it take them? If God said, I'm going to take away the moments of Cairo, He would have taken away the Promised Land. It's patience. It's love. Of course, God had to discipline them. And in fact, God had to wait until a generation died because they walked with brutal disobedience, right? But God didn't take away the moment of Cairo. They were there waiting while they were still walking. And that's what I love about God, that in His love, He knows we're going to make mistakes, but He's saying, I'm patiently waiting for you. Don't give up. Don't stop believing. Walk in faith. That's your job. But look, here's my concern.

Many of us are at the end of our lives and we're going to get to the end of our lives and God is going to teach us moments, Cairo, that we don't take advantage of because we took advantage of them. He didn't take them away, but because we ran out of time. And I'm telling you today, many of you are watching here online and God brought you here, not by mistake, but to motivate you, that what you're considering taking advantage of, it's not time to take advantage of it. You have to keep going. This is your moment in Cairo, where He motivates you. Let's give God a big round of applause. Look, listen, this message has been in my heart for a long time. If you're in the men's event, share it with my son. But let's believe that my son is healing. He's had problems with his knee. The doctors, we've been to 10 doctors in nine months. If you have something that you think can help us, we appreciate it, but we're not trying. We're trying. But look, I was waiting for a couple of months when I knew I was going to talk today,

to be here in front of you and say, we had our moment in Cairo, and God healed my son. But it hasn't happened yet. It hasn't happened yet. But let me tell you, I told my son, and God is healing. We're not going to give up yet. The wine is working. I told him, my son, I'm exhausted, emotionally, physically. This pain hurts like hell. And if you're a dad, you know it's painful to see your kids walk through hard times. And as your parent, my son, is in bed, I see him and I say, you know, we're not going to give up. There's no way that we're not going to walk in faith. I don't know what God is doing, but you know what? We're going to praise God and glory that he healed him. And it hasn't happened yet, but it's going to happen. I'm going to stand here today and tell you, let's give God praise. But look, like the song that Sam spoke, that he said, I saw God. And he spoke to me and answered. I know that one day we're going to do that.

And God is going to say, I answered your prayer. It's coming. It's coming. Even though it's not here yet, I answered your prayer. It's coming. And the same thing is happening to you today. It's coming. I answered your prayer, even though it's not here yet. I don't know what's happening. It's coming. And sometimes we try to compare what we're going through, the difficult times. You say, oh Derek, you've been thinking that you're going to heal for nine years. I don't know. You say, maybe I've been asking for healing for 30 years. We're not going to compare that you've been waiting for nine months and another 30 years. But we have to have faith and keep walking. A step at a time, a step at a time. And these moments of Kairos are one of two things. There are two things. One more step, one more step. The first is what is marked by a moment.

Marked by a moment, moments in your life that you can change. We all have this moment where you come back and say, yes, it was a moment where God marked me and my life was never the same. In Mark 115, when he came to his ministry, Jesus says, the moment where the time is marked by God. The word, what does it say? The word is a moment, Kairos. Jesus came to start his ministry. It was a moment of Kairos. He says, the promised time of God has come. Kairos moment, right? And in John 5, it also talks about that, right? If you read the story, it says in John 5, 4, it says, imagine a moment of Kairos, right? He was in this pool, because what happened? What happened here in John 5, 4? He says, well, let's see, in this chapter, it says, right, an angel came at a certain time and to this pool and the water moved. And whoever got in first would be the one who was healed, right? But there comes a moment where the water moves. In a moment, Kairos, and you were, if you were that person who jumped into the pool first and was healed, you have been marked by that moment. And the story continues saying, you can hear this pool of Bethsaida, and it comes. In fact, Jesus says, hey, you can read that story. And you can see how this man felt discouraged.

He says, you want to heal, but he doesn't answer you. I don't even know how, and you know what? There's no one to get me in, because this man couldn't walk. This man didn't have faith. Maybe he didn't even know who Jesus was at that moment. But Jesus said, come, young man. This is your moment, Kairos. Stand up and heal yourself in the name of Jesus Christ. And there's two moments of Kairos in the story, in the whole scripture. And he says, you know what? You're going to see them in the scripture, the people who changed for a moment, right? And then the second time is a meeting with God, right? And the second was this, what does this mean? A meeting with God, right? And well, that's the Hebrew word for a Kairos meeting. And well, the same word in Hebrew is called Moed. This is a moment, Kairos, it means all the same, but it adds one more thing. So I want you to know, this word Moed means a meeting of the tabernacle. Listen to this, right? When he got there, he got there to pray, right? It was a Kairos moment, just like in the Bethesda tank. And well, your lives wouldn't be the same. You can give thanks to your life. Look, I was praying.

I go and I try to pray alone. And I felt that God said to me, Derek, I want you to get out of debt. I want you to get out of debt. And read the story where Sarah was 90 years old. And so I felt, let's see, God, it's incredible. What a good story. I'm excited, but how are you going to do this? And I felt that God said to me, you know what, if I'm going to use your financial testimony, I need you to get out of debt. I need you to tell people what you did in my finances and kind of use the stuff. So I said, God, I'm going to be walking in faith. And I'm going to tell you, this was the size of my faith. I'm going to be honest. Getting out of debt, paying your car, your house, that's big. And four years later, God had us completely out of debt for what he did. That meeting was a Kairos moment for me. That meeting with him, where he told me to get out of debt, where my finances started to improve. My life would never be the same. And in the New Testament, look at what Ephesians says. It says the following, pray always. So that word of pray always is Kairos. Be wise in your Kairos moment, where you are supplicating in the spirit,

be careful of what you do. Look at what it says, pray in the spirit at all times and at all occasions. Be alert and be persistent in your prayers for all the believers everywhere. And that word is Kairos too, right? In the moments of refreshment. Well, who needs to be refreshed by God? Who? It's going to come to those moments. It says, repent of your sins and return to God so that your sins are erased. There's a story in Genesis of a man, Jacob, that was marked as he was gathering with God. Let me read this story. There's eight verses, so be patient. It says in Genesis 32, it's talking about Jacob, and it says the following, it says, during the night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two slave women, and his eleven sons, and crossed the river Jacob with them. After taking them to the other side, he made them cross all his belongings. So Jacob was left alone in the camp, and a man came and fought with him until dawn. Think about this. If you're camping, let's see who likes camping here. Raise your hand. Oh, I'm sorry for you. Some are applauding.

You're not going to find me camping, not even glamping, right? No, no. Yo, this man was alone in the stars. A man comes and starts fighting with him. If you've been to church, you've heard that story. But let's realize that's weird, right? This man is alone, and someone comes, and out of nowhere, starts fighting with you. And they're not playing. They're really fighting all night until dawn. This is the story that we're seeing. And God comes until the day is gone. And it says, when Jesus saw, he says, what does it say? It says, when the man saw that he would not win the fight, he touched Jacob's hip and said, and God said, let me go until dawn. I will not let you go unless you say, I will not let you go unless you bless me. He said, what's your name? Jacob. He said, your name was not Jacob. He said, from now on, you will be called Israel. Some of you today, right? Because he said, I will not let you go unless you bless me. Many of you feel like you're fighting, you've felt like you're fighting God all the time, and you want to give up.

I was here, just a couple of weeks ago. I was praying this, and I said, God, I'm not going to let you go. I'm not going to let you go until you find my son. I'm going to keep fighting. I'm not going to give up. And so here it says, Jacob, I'm not going to let you go unless you bless me. And he said, God, what's your name? He said, Jacob. Jacob's name said, what does it mean? In the word Jacob, what does that mean? It means that you're a liar. And God's whole life is based on lies, right? And God said, your name is not going to be Jacob anymore, but you're going to be called Israel because you've fought with God and with men, and you've won. And God said, tell me your name, said Jacob. And he said, why? Why do you ask my name? So I want you to bless him there. Jacob is right. I want you to think of the following. Jacob is fighting with God, and he says, I'm not going to let you go until you bless me. Jacob, in this tough moment, he changes his name from Jacob to Israel. The word Israel means God prevails.

And I'm not encouraging you to change your name, but I'm telling you that God prevails in your situation. God prevails no matter what you're going through. And he's here to tell Jacob, and he says, well, your name is Israel, right? And he says, God prevails. God prevails, this is the reason. And well, all day, he's saying, I'm not going to let you go. And what if God was there, right? I know what your life has been through, I know what you're going through. And I want you to be there, because in his dark moment, he changed his name, and he was blessed. And then he says, what? He says, then he left, he walked. So, you know, that's what's interesting. He changes it, but for the rest of his life, he starts walking a little bit weird. That changed, for the rest of his life, some of you would remember that God prevails. Right? Some of you might feel like we're lame, sometimes we feel like we're lame, and we don't walk well, and the pain that that brings. And we're using this to say, God prevails. You are, we're conquerors and victorious in your name, God. And we're not going to give up. My motivation today is to be like Jesus. I'm going to let you go, until you bless me.

I'm going to continue to fight, I'm going to continue to battle, I'm going to continue to walk in faith, I'm going to continue to walk in faith, because he says, Hebrews, he says, faith is the substance of things that are not seen, what you need, the hope that you have. Don't give up on the hope that you have, right? He says, don't give up on the hope that you have, because that's how you walk in faith. You might say, well, Derek, I understand, I appreciate it, but how did I get to this point? Well, there are three steps that we're going to talk about. and then we're going to talk. Step number one is to humble yourself before God. It says in 1 Peter 5, it says to humble yourself. It says in 1 Peter 5, it says to humble yourself before the hand of God that he may exalt you in his due time, in your time of Cairo. God says, listen, humble yourself before the hand of God that in his time, when the time comes, when your time of Cairo comes, he will exalt you. The first obstacle to finding your time of Cairo is the ego, the pride. When we walk with pride, it's not that God doesn't love us, but God says, I can't bless you. I can't bless you because you're proud and I don't want you to take the credit. So when you do, if you're humble in your time, you're going to have your time of Cairo.

So when many of you walk like this, you're so angry and you say, God, I don't love you anymore. I don't love you in my marriage. I don't need you in my finances. We're done. My first motivation is to say, God, I humble myself before the hand of God and say, God, I can't do this without you. The second step after humbling yourself before God is don't get tired. In Galatians, it says, don't let us get tired of doing the right things. Because in the right time, you will reap what you sow if you don't give up. Now, some of us love this verse, but we don't like the last statement. We want to say, don't get tired of doing good. In the right time, we're going to have a harvest. Yes, you're going to reap what you sow, but the rest of the verse says, if you don't give up. Remember what I told you before, the only one that can stop us from this moment, God is saying, is take one more step. Take one more step of faith. Stop standing there. Stop walking the other way. This moment is coming. Take one more step. And finally, after we humble ourselves and don't give up, the final step is to enter the throne of God.

Hebrews 4.16, we're going to bravely enter the throne of grace to obtain mercy and grace and help in the moment of need. In that moment, Kairos, so many of you are so close to having that moment, Kairos. God is excited. He's applauding you, but he doesn't want to keep walking towards that goal or that you have. And you came today here, or you're doing this today for God to motivate you. Humble yourself before me. Don't give up. Enter with courage with me and ask me what you need and want. So we're going to finish today. We said it before. We're in this agreement. We said it at the beginning of receiving motivation to motivate other people. And look, I'm telling you today, this has been a discouraging day. It's been a dismotivating day for me, for my family, up and down. We're seeing where we're at. The other one, no, because my son is not healed yet. But look, I am standing in faith today and I'm asking you to do the same, no matter what you're going through. And if you believe, raise your hand.

If you're waiting for a moment, Kairos, raise your hand if you need a moment from God for this. And these are people that are saying, I need motivation. Raise your hand. Raise your hand. If you just need a moment, Kairos, if you're going through something difficult and you raised your hand, pray for those people. Raise your hand too if you feel comfortable. And last week they talked about Brock's testimony. He testified that last year there was a service where he came. God spoke directly to him about your identity. And he said, my life is never going to be the same. Today is the day for you where you're going to testify the same as him. We're going to pray. God, we see all the hands that are up today. And God, we speak life. We speak strength, hope, and faith in them and in us, Lord. That we have moments, Kairos. You have a moment, Kairos, for us. You have created them for us. And I hope that in the wait, each one of us strives for whatever it is. God, we ask you for a testimony for healing, healing of marriage, healing of finances,

healing of body, healing of soul. There's going to be a lot of testimonies from this place. We thank you for those testimonies from now on, Holy Spirit, for what you're doing. And according to Hebrews, I speak that you don't lose confidence in God and that you ask him because a great prize is coming. And in the name of Jesus, amen. We give God a big round of applause for what he's going to do. Look, listen, this is my motivation, as you leave today, God is planting a seed in your heart, when you leave today, the enemy is going to try to steal what you have, we have already determined it, we are not going to let that happen, take a step to faith, one more step, keep believing what God says, Amen, Amen.