What to Do When Nothing Is Happening | What Do You See? Week 3

All right, we're in this season called what do you see? What do you see? Let me recap real quick. Week one, you can go back and watch any of these archived messages, but in week one, we talked about what do you see when you look at yourself? What do you see when you look at yourself? Most important question we asked was the first one. What do you see when you look at yourself? And in Jeremiah chapter one, this whole sermon season that we're in is in Jeremiah chapter one. And that's what we're doing. We're looking at how the Lord called Jeremiah out and called him forth to what he was doing. He started with his identity and Jeremiah replied, I'm too young. I'm too young. So when Jeremiah looked at himself, his conclusion was I'm too young. And remember the Lord said, don't say we talked about that week one. What are the things that the Lord would challenge you to not say the words we speak over ourselves? We too, we wrestled with the question last week. What do you see when you look at people? In verse eight, the Lord tells Jeremiah, don't be afraid of the people. So he wanted him to know you can't minister to the people unless you see them appropriately. And we talked about fear of man and how fear of man will stifle it'll, it'll, it'll stunt the calling that God has on, on our lives. And today we're going to wrestle with another question today. We're going to wrestle with the question. What do you see when nothing seems to be happening? What is your perspective? What is your view of your life? When things in your life don't seem to be going the way you wish they would go when things don't seem to be happening the way that you wanted them to happen?

What is our perspective? What do we see in those times? So let's read the same passage of scripture we've read every week just to kind of refresh our memories on, on this passage. Again, if you've missed a couple of weeks, you can go back and watch those, but this, this is the passage that we've been talking about every week. And when we get to the part that we're going to talk about today, I'll tell you, all right? So verse four of Jeremiah one, it says, the Lord gave me this message. I knew you before I formed you in your mother's womb. Before you were born, I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations. Oh, sovereign Lord, I said, I cannot speak for you. I'm too young. And the Lord replied, don't say I'm too young for you must go wherever I send you and say whatever I tell you. And don't be afraid of the people for I will be with you and protect you. I, the Lord have spoken. And then the Lord reached out and touched my mouth and said, look, I have put my words in your mouth. And today I appoint you to stand up against nations and kingdoms. Some you must uproot and tear down, destroy and overthrow others. You must build up and plant by the way, verse 10 will be next week. All right. Next week is father's day. And that's what we'll be talking about next week. Dad's is verse 10. Today, we're going to talk about verse 11 and verse 12, verse 11 and 12 say this. Then the Lord said to me, look, Jeremiah, hold on, hold on. I got to reread that. Cause there's an exclamation point. Then the Lord said to me, look, Jeremiah, I'm just reading what it says, y'all I'm not,

you know, and then, then he says this, what do you see? And I replied, I see a branch from an almond tree. And the Lord said, that's right. And it means that I'm watching and I will certainly carry out all my plans. That's good news. When the Lord says, I will certainly do something. So this whole sermon season started with this verse 11 and 12, when the Lord kind of just, I saw something that was interesting to me that with an exclamation point, the Lord says, look, and I'm like, well, this is going to be good. You know, it's telling him to look at something and asking him what he sees. And then he says that he sees an almond tree. I mean, if I asked you right now, what do you see? I mean, some of you, every one of you might have a different answer. I see John, I see a stage, I see a Bible, I see an iPad, I see a screen, I see the seat in front of me, whatever. I see the spurs going down and bitter defeat. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. I saw that too. And even when the Lord asked Jeremiah, what do you see? Of all the things that Jeremiah could have said that he saw, he says, I see a stick. It just seems so random to me that of all the things that would have been before Jeremiah, he randomly picked and saw a branch, not just any branch, an almond branch. And so I just kind of was curious and dug a little bit

and I usually go to the Hebrew or the Greek first just to kind of see what the original language was and what it said. And I kind of went down a rabbit hole. And so the Hebrew word, let's just start there. The Hebrew word for almond tree is the Hebrew word shached, shached, which isn't that interesting. But it is interesting that when he says, I see an almond tree, the Lord says, that's right. That means I'm watching. So the almond tree means you're watching. So the Hebrew word for almond tree is shached. The Hebrew word for watching, oddly enough, is shoched. And so it's like, you know, I'm a nerd, I know. But I looked up the root words and both of these Hebrew words share the same root word. And so that was interesting to me. And so God's giving Jeremiah a visual. What do you see? It's a visual. It's an almond branch. It's a shached. And then immediately he explains with a word that sounds the same, shoched. Maybe there's nothing there, but it's interesting. And then I do a little bit more research and a lot of commentaries and a lot of things, and everybody else is noticing the thing that I noticed. I'm like, well, that's kind of cool.

Maybe there is something there. And some of the commentaries called it a prophetic pun that the words share such a similar root and they have the same root word, but they're meaningly two different things. And the Lord, I believe the Lord is showing Jeremiah something that he wants to show us. If you dig a little deeper, you find out some more things about almond trees. And why an almond tree? What's the point of it being an almond tree? Well, if you look through the Bible, almond trees appear quite often. One of the primary places it appears is in Numbers 17, when Aaron, his rod, remember Aaron's rod, and they put it in the Ark of the Covenant. Well, they put in the Ark of the Covenant because it had butted this dead stick, the staff of Aaron, this rod, butted and blossoms came on it and almonds appeared on it. And it was miraculous. And it was a sign of God's choice because everyone brought their staffs and Aaron's is the one that sprung to life. And so it was a sign of God's choice, God's approval, God's appointment, God's authority in that situation. In Exodus 25, almonds appear again on the scene of all things, almonds and almond trees. In the menorah, you know what a menorah is? It's that weird looking candlestick

that you see in Jewish custom. Well, at the top of every one of those branches is where the flame comes out, that little thing around it is an almond blossom. So that's an almond blossom. So as the light kept burning in the temple, you know, all the time, it was interesting that it was coming out of this almond blossom. And almond trees, if you look up almond trees, it was like, what is this, John, a lesson on almond trees? Just hang on, all right, I'm going somewhere, I promise. If you look up almond trees in Israel, they're significant. They actually call, they call almond trees the awakening tree. They call it the awakening tree because it's the first plant or tree in Israel that blossoms every year. In fact, the almond tree actually blossoms in winter before any other thing. And it is a sign, it is a sign of the spring is not here, but it's coming. And then you can start to see the Lord in this and the beauty of it. He says like, he's like, Jeremiah, what do you see? I see an almond branch. He says, that's right. It's an almond branch. And what that means is I'm watching, I'm watching. And my plans will come to fruition. They will certainly come to fruition.

Meaning that maybe it's a sign to us and to Jeremiah that even in winter, when it seems like nothing's happening, even in winter, when everything seems dry and dead and barren, that the Lord is watching. That signs of life can be present even in seasons where it seems like nothing's happening. And the Lord is like, I'm watching your life. I understand what you feel now, but I want you to know that there are blossoms. If you'll look close enough, if you'll. look close enough, I am up to something. And maybe you're in a season like that now where you feel like you're praying and nothing changes, or you're believing and nothing's moving, or you're waiting and nothing's shifting. This message is for you today. And what I wanna try to do is bring this analogy or this picture, this metaphor to life for us today and let it speak to us. So what do we see? It's important, what do you see in yourself? What do you see in other people? But it's also important what you see in your circumstances and the situation that you're currently in and the winter or the season that you feel like you're currently in, our perspective matters and it can lead and guide us. So what I wanna do is take this passage we read and I wanna try to show you three ways that God is working, three ways to see that God is working

even when nothing's changing, that God is up to something, that he is working on your behalf, all right? I'm gonna start by giving you all three of my points up front, I've been doing that lately. I think it's so that if you fall asleep, you can still pretend like you heard the whole thing. So my three points right up top, I'm just gonna give them to you. The first thing we're gonna talk about and unpack is see the small, see the small. Second thing we're gonna talk about is name your season. I'm gonna talk about the importance of not just living in your season, but knowing what season you're in and giving it a name. Name your season, we'll talk about why that's important. And then three, once we do the first two things, once we see the small and name the season, number three, you can speak your promise. You can begin to speak, your words are so powerful. You know, even through this passage we've read, Jeremiah says, I'm too young, and the Lord says, don't say that, because your words matter. And then the Lord tells Jeremiah, see, I have put words in your mouth. He wants you to use the words, not your words or your feelings words, he wants you to use his words coming out of your mouth. And these are promises that we'll talk about in scripture. All right, let's cover the first one, all right?

Let's read verse 11 again, and then we'll pull out the first point. So it says, the Lord said to me, look, Jeremiah, just making sure you weren't asleep yet. What do you see? And he said, I see a branch from an almond tree. Number one, see the small, see the small. Of all the things that Jeremiah could have seen, he saw a branch, a small, seemingly insignificant thing. Speaking from my personal feelings and my personal life, I catch myself more often than not looking for big things, looking for the breakthrough, looking for the miracle, looking for the provision, looking for the opportunity, looking for the promotion. And I'm so caught up in begging God to do big things that sometimes I think I miss the small things. And if I don't see the harvest, then I think that I'm either doing something wrong or God's failing me or I'm failing God. When the truth is, I wanna become better at seeing small things. For Jeremiah, the branch wasn't just a branch. The branch is evidence of a future harvest. And I'm so caught up looking for the harvest that I missed the branch. And maybe there's nothing wrong with that, but if I don't see the small things and I'm not applying faith to the small things. And I really wish God didn't have to teach me anything and he could just bless me every day.

That'd be a lot more fun. But for some reason, God's always taking me on a journey to learn, to be shaped, to be molded, to be formed into the image of Christ. And what I've noticed is that God often reveals his plans in seed form long before they ever show themselves as a harvest. And I think it's really important that we become better or maybe even experts at seeing the small things. And we live in a culture where we're supposed to think bigger. Everything's supposed to be bigger. Your church is supposed to be bigger. Your house is supposed to be bigger. Your bank account is supposed to be bigger. Your job is supposed to be bigger. Your car is supposed to be bigger. We gotta think bigger. You ever heard somebody say that? Think bigger, you gotta think bigger. And I'm not opposed to that. I'm not opposed to thinking bigger. But what if God's instruction to us is more often appearing to us as small things? but we're so obsessed with big that we miss the small. And I think I could back this up in scripture. I think there's patterns of this in scripture. When Elijah was on Mount Carmel and he was praying for rain after this drought, he kept sending his servant to look at the skies

and look for rain, and his servant would come back and say, I see a cloud the size of a man's hand. Now, if you were praying for rain and you walked outside and you saw a cloud the size of a man's hand, you would think that God is failing your prayer. But it was the small thing. It was the small thing. God was working in the small. Elijah also wanted to hear from God. And the Bible says that God was not in the earthquake. God was not in the wind. God was not in the fire. That God's voice came, had to come. Small. It was a whisper. It's a small thing. And maybe that's how God approaches us. Maybe a lot of times God's trying to speak to us all the time, all around us all the time, but they're seemingly small things, so we see them as failures. Moses split the sea, and we celebrate that. And it's amazing. It's an amazing miracle. But we forget that the Lord just kept asking Moses before that, what is that in your hand? And he used a staff. The Bible says that Moses stretched out his staff and split the sea in two.

And the Lord was trying to show him that he was already holding the miracle in his own hands. And it was a small thing. It was a stick. It was a seemingly insignificant thing. But it was actually the small thing that became the big thing. David killed Goliath. What'd he kill him with? A little rock. It's always something small, like Jesus fed the 5,000 with a little boy's lunch, like something small. I've just, it's almost like God likes using small things to do big things. But I'm so busy looking for the big that I get discouraged because God isn't delivering in the way that I think he should be delivering. I mean, remember that time Jesus said that you only have to have faith the size of something that small and that insignificant. So there's a rhythm to this. There's a pattern that we see in scripture. So just a quick question for you to wrestle with at home. Write this down, put it in your notes, or at least think about this at some point during the week. Here's the question. What small sign of God's faithfulness is all around us? It's all around you, but you've overlooked it. I would stand to reason that there's God's doing things

in your life all around you right now, but they're in seed form. And you've got on harvest glasses. And so you're missing the seed form. Instead of seeing the seed, cultivating the seed, praying over the seed, having faith for the seed, we get discouraged and depressed because we're not seeing the harvest. After we see the small, number two, if you're taking notes, write this down, you can then name your season. Name your season. Why does that matter, John? Why do I get to give my season a name? Let's go back to the text. Verse 11, we'll read it one more time. It says, then the Lord said to me, look, Jeremiah, what do you see? And I replied, I see a branch from an almond tree. And the Lord said, that's right. It means that I'm watching. Now, remember the almond tree is one of the first blooms in winter, of spring, but it happens in winter, okay? So it's, even this whole text is about seasons. And the Lord is saying, I'm watching. So I'm watching the seasons. I'm watching where you are, and I'm in charge of where you're going. And I'm going to give you small signs, like a blossom, before spring ever comes.

I'm going to begin to show you small things that are hints and clues into a coming harvest. And the blossom appears while it's still winter, you know? That's the interesting thing, is the blossom, the blossom's appearance, the small things that you, if you're watching, you'll see, it doesn't mean that winter's over, but it does mean that spring is coming. And this is where I get discouraged a lot of times, is in what psychologists call the expectation gap, you know? Like, here's what I expect to happen. And then this stupid thing called reality comes in, and there's a gap. There's a gap between my expectation and reality. And in this gap is called the expectation gap. And in this gap is where disappointment is born. And if I could just know what season I am in, then I can then adjust my expectation. So let's just, let's throw out some examples of seasons. You know, you might be in a waiting season and you're sick of it. You're sick of waiting, but it's the season you're in. You might be in a season of growth. You might be in a season of transition. You might be in a season of pruning, where it just feels like things are being cut away. Jobs, friendships, good things. It seems like God is just pruning those things out of your life. You might be in a season of rebuilding.

You might be in a season of new beginnings, of planting. Everything's a season. And if you look at your life in that regard, let me show you a passage in Ecclesiastes. This is Solomon, the wisest man, Bible says, to ever walk the face of the earth. In Ecclesiastes chapter three, verse one, this is what it says. It says, for everything, there is a season. How many things? All the things, right? A time for every action under heaven. So every single thing in your life, every aspect, every component is a season. There's a time to be born, a time to die, time to plant, time to harvest, time to kill, time to heal, time to tear down, time to build up, time to cry, time to laugh, time to grieve, time to dance, time to scatter stones, time to gather stones, a time to embrace, a time to turn away, a time to search, a time to quit searching, a time to keep, a time to throw away, a time to tear, a time to mend, time to be quiet, time to speak, time to love, a time to hate, a time for war, a time for peace. Every single component and aspect of your life is a season. And you can look at people in scriptures and see the same rhythm. Moses lived a life of seasons.

Moses had three real distinct seasons. He had 40 years of Egypt, of living in Egypt, being raised by Egypt, and then he left Egypt and lived in a season of Midian where he was a shepherd for another 40 years, and then he went back to deliver the children of Israel from Egypt. That took another 40 years to get them to the promised land. See, three seasons. And in every season, God was speaking differently, working differently, moving differently. King David, same thing. He had a life of seasons. He has a season as a shepherd boy. He had a season where he was anointed king and then he had to wait, so he had a season of waiting. He had a season where he played the harp for the king. He had a season where the king threw spears at him. He had a season where he had to go and live in a cave. He had a season where he became king. He had a season where he went to battle. Every aspect of David's life was seasons, and so was ours. So was ours. Now imagine if David was trying to go to battle as a king in the same posture and mindset as his season as a shepherd. Seasons matter, y'all. They matter. And the problem is when we look back on our life 10 years ago, I see and recognize the season.

But when I'm living in it, for some reason, I don't stop to identify and name what season I'm in right now. Farmers understand seasons. They know when to plant. They don't plant in the winter. They know when to plant, because seasons are important. A mother, if you're a mother, and you had a two-week-old baby, you wouldn't walk around going, what's wrong with this kid? He can't feed himself. Because you understand seasons. We understand seasons in almost every aspect of our life, except for the season we're living in right now. So maybe we should ask the Holy Spirit, Lord, what season am I in right now? And some of us are discouraged because we're looking for seasons of harvest when the Lord has you in a season of winter or a season of blossoms. And that's where discouragement comes in. So we can't judge a planting season off of harvest standards. Just quiet on that one, okay. But naming your season matters, because if you're in a planting season and you're expecting harvest, you'll be discouraged. If God has you in a season of preparation, but you wanted a season of promotion,

now you're discouraged. It becomes really important to know what season you're in. And then the third thing, so once you see the small, And then you can step into naming your season. Then number three is the most important thing. It empowers you to do it. Now that I know my season, number three, I can speak my promise. I can speak the promise. If I know that I'm in a season of waiting, then I can begin to tie promises from this book into the season in which I'm living. So if the Lord shares with me that I'm in a season of waiting, I don't like to wait. Doesn't mean I'm happy about it. But I can find scriptures in the Bible like Isaiah 40 that says, those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength. They'll mount up on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They'll walk and not faint. And I can't apply that promise to my life until I recognize what season I'm in. And once I recognize what season I am in, then there's a promise in this book that speaks to my season. Because I know we think we're real special, but the truth is we're living the same life that these people did.

If you can find your season in this book, and then there's a promise from God about your season in this book that you can speak over yourself. Well, why is it so important how I speak? I don't know, but God made it that way. Why else would Jeremiah say, I'm too young? And God said, don't you dare say that you're too young. Because the truth is he was too young, but the Lord was more interested in the words coming out of his mouth, right? And then we'll talk about this one next week, but the Lord tells him, I have put words in your mouth. I have put words. Think about that. The Lord has put words in your mouth, but so has the enemy. And every day we get to choose which words come out of us. And some words, we'll talk about this next week, some words build up and some words tear down. And so the power of our words are so important, and that's why it becomes so important to speak your promise. Speak your promise. Well, I don't know what to speak. Go back, see the small, name your season. Let me give you a couple of other examples, okay? Let's say you're in a new season. You get a new job. You're a new mom. You've just started a new business.

You just gave your life to Jesus. You're a baby Christian. It's new, you're in a new season. Once you identify that you're in a new season, then you can find things in scripture that back you up to embrace it. Don't minimize it. Zechariah chapter four, do not despise small beginnings. For the Lord rejoices to see the work begin. That's a promise that encourages you in the season that you're in. If you're in a season of grieving, you've lost a loved one, you've lost money, you've lost a job, you're grieving the loss of something. Well, Psalm says that the Lord is near the brokenhearted. So now I can find promise in my pain, but I can't do that unless I name my season. I have to know what season I'm in. Some of you are in a season of transition. You're not where you were, but you're not where you're gonna get to. I'm in a season of transition. So we lean into scriptures like Proverbs three, that says man plans his ways, but the Lord directs his steps. So Lord direct my steps. I'm in the season of transition. I need you to direct my steps. I think you're getting the point, but we have to name our season.

And then once we name our season, we can speak over our own lives. The Bible says that David encouraged himself in the Lord. Now we should encourage one another. The Bible tells us to encourage one another. I'm not speaking against that, but very few Christians know how to encourage themselves. The only way to encourage yourself is to know where you're at, and then know what this says, and to speak truth over the lies that the enemy is speaking over you. Most of the enemy's attempts to sidetrack you is to discourage you. And the Bible says that the devil is the father of lies. So let's guess what he's gonna use to discourage you. Lies. And many times we just end up rolling around in these lies all day long. So I really, I just, I can't overemphasize the importance of naming your season. So that's my homework for you, okay? Not that you do the homework or have to bring me, write me a five-page paper on what season you're in and bring it back next year. week. I won't read it, so don't do that. But you really should ask the Lord, talk to your spouse, talk to your friends, process it with godly men and women in your life, and really come to terms with what season you're in. What season? Really, where are you? What season of life are you in? Are you in a season of raising kids, young kids? You know, Jace, my son Jace,

just drove off this week for the first time by himself in a car, and while they drive away you're like, oh Lord, please don't kill anyone, you know? You're just like terrified as they drive off, but then you're also rejoicing like, oh my gosh, this is the greatest thing ever. Like, Michelle and I are starting a new season this week. We are no longer taxi drivers. We're done. We're done with taxi driving. For 18 years, with our daughter and our son, we've been taxi drivers. It's a season. Season. Our next season will be empty nesting, and I think we're gonna do fine with that season. I think it's gonna be great. Yeah. Let me read you one more passage. I'm almost done. Psalm 121. So I love this idea the Lord tells Jeremiah, that's right, Jeremiah, it's an almond tree, and what that means is I'm watching you. To me, it's reassuring to think that the Lord's watching me. Most of the times I feel like, if I feel alone, it's because I feel like no one cares, no one's watching, no one notices, no one cares. But I love the seasonal thing of this, that the Lord is using this illustration of almond trees to say, hey, Jeremiah, even in winter, even in winter, I'm watching. I'm here. And we serve a God that never sleeps, never slumbers. And that's what this passage says in Psalm 121. It says, I look to the mountains. Does my help come from there? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. He will not let you stumble. The one who watches over you will not slumber. Indeed, he who watches over Israel never slumbers or sleeps. The Lord himself watches over you. The Lord stands beside you as your protective shade. The sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord keeps you from all harm and watches over you. The Lord keeps watch over you as you come and go, both now and forever. If you're in a season of loneliness, if you're in a season where you feel like the Lord has abandoned you and nothing's going your way, I just gave you a really good promise to speak over your life. If that's the season you're in, that's another example of how the Lord wants to speak to you and watch over you. All right, I'll recap one more time and then we're going to pray. If you're just now waking up, you're fine, because I'm just going to recap and it's all good. All right? It's the beauty. Get it the front and the back. All right. First thing, in your life, not everything that God is doing is obvious.

Okay? If everything God was doing in your life was obvious, you wouldn't need faith and you, quite frankly, you wouldn't need the Lord, because he would just dump it in your lap. So we have to become really good at seeing the small. That's my challenge, okay? This week, see the small. I know you don't have enough money in your bank account, but you have your health. Right? See the small. You begin to appreciate what God, you become less mad about what God isn't doing and more appreciative of what he is doing. And now I have seeds in the ground that I can cultivate because I've seen the small. And before every harvest is seed form. I want to become better at seeing the seed form. Okay? Number two, not everything God is doing is ready for harvest. Okay? So name the season. Name your season. Some of you already know your season. You've already written it down on your paper. You know what it is. There was a stretch there for about two years where Michelle and I, we, it was a desert season. And we had named it what it was. We knew what it was. But, Then we knew scriptures like you are like a tree planted by the waters. So then the Lord begins to minister to you in your season. But if you don't know your season, you're lost. You're lost. So name your season. Number three, not everything God is doing is visible, but you can speak as though it is. Okay. So everything that God was going to do in Jeremiah's life wasn't visible. It was at the, it was at the, it was at the very beginnings of Jeremiah's calling, but it still mattered how, how Jeremiah spoke in his winter season. I'm too young. Don't say, don't say you're too young. So when you're in your winter season, when everything is in seed form, your words matter. Your words really, really matter. When your kid is a teenager and you want to rip their head off and you want to speak to them in that manner, your words matter. You're not speaking to your son or daughter of what you hope they would be. You're speaking to them in seed form. They are seeds. Speak to the seeds, but you can speak to the seed like it's already a harvest. It's faith. It's faith. So whatever aspect of your life, whatever expectation gap that you're disappointed in, whatever harvest you hoped for, but didn't come, your words still matter in how you speak to it. Let's pray. Lord, would you forgive us for missing the small things, for becoming so obsessed with the big and the harvest and the breakthrough and the miracle? Yes, you are the God of miracles, but what we're learning today is that you're also the God of little by little, that you do small well, as you do, you do small as well. So, so God,

give us the right pair of glasses to see the small in our life. And may we begin to see and may we begin to speak to that seed. God, in the next coming hours and days and weeks and months and for the rest of our lives, honestly, Lord, would you help us identify what season we're in? Just show us our season and then let us speak to the season with the truth of what God's word says. What do you see when nothing is happening? We're so grateful that you joined us today. At Victory, we pray big prayers to a big God, and we expect big results. If you would like to receive prayer, you can submit a prayer request by visiting victory.church.pray. If this message or any of our messages have impacted your life and you would like to partner with us through giving, you can do so at victory.church.give. Thank you again for joining us. At Victory Church, we live life to the full.