When God Says Wait | Chris Nelson

We're gonna get started, but before we do before we get into the passage. I want to open up with Just a little story and a little glimpse of my life when when we were living in New Jersey so here you guys and in Florida you guys have Disney you guys have Universal any Disney fans Wow, I'm surprised any Universal fans. Oh, yeah, I am home right Universal over Disney any day I know that again for those of you watching online This might start some controversy put it in the comments. You should be here if you wanted to give your opinion but listen When living in New Jersey, we had six flags. Has anybody ever been to Six Flags before Six Flags great adventure We used to have this ride. It was the tallest roller coaster in the world. It was called Kingda Ka it was one of the scariest roller coasters to be on because It basically Catapulted you up and if you didn't get enough momentum going up it would bring you back down Right, and so just imagine what that's like again This is the tallest roller coaster in the world And if you did not get enough momentum to go down it would bring you back and then this is so crazy They would they would ask they would say hey who wants to go again and literally about 90% of the people would get off And like nope, that was it, right? I don't want to do it. I don't care how long the wait was I don't want to do it again, but in Jersey and When you went to Six Flags, we had this thing called the flash pass, right and the flash pass What it did is you got alleviated from all of the weights for these rides, right? Because who here likes to wait? Not a single person. We had more Disney people than we have people that want to wait because no one wants to wait We do not like waiting, right? It is something that we want to get rid of So when you have this flash pass you got to skip and bypass all the lines So I remember the first time we ever did it because I went to the the Six Flags We went as a family and before we didn't have the flash pass, but I don't know me My parents got a promotion or something, but they were like, hey, we're feeling a little bougie, right? we're gonna spoil you guys and we're gonna get the flash pass and when they did I Remember how I

Reacted to everybody that didn't have a flash pass, right? So you would go it was so I don't know why they did this they could have easily thought of a way around this but basically they would they would give you a Passageway where you had to pass by the regular line to go up to the flash pass area So you're walking past everyone that's waiting for this long period of time and they're all staring at you, right? They're giving you the side-eye and you're walking by you're like couldn't be me like I would never wait on lines again That was like me last year, but I'm like, hey Favor ain't fair, right? I'm walking by like hi everyone like peasants and I'm joking But it was one of those things where I we love doing and now I will never go to any type of park and not Purchase it is the it is worth every single penny you pay because you don't have to Wait, right and so we do not like waiting Seasons, we do not like seasons that we are told to wait and the title of my message this morning is when God says wait when God says wait Because I truly believe that God does his best work in Seasons of waiting and so we're gonna read there's a lot of reading We're gonna go through it in the beginning and then we're gonna get over I do this with the youth I'll get us all the time We're gonna get the reading out of the way and then we're gonna go into the passage And I don't want to say out of the way as it's not important because this is the most important part of this message right, but We're gonna get the reading done and then we're gonna get into what God has and lessons that we learned throughout the way so turning your Bible said Genesis 17, we're gonna read 1 through 7 and It says this it says when Abraham or when Abram was 99 years old The Lord appeared to him and said I am El Shaddai God Almighty Serve me faithfully and live a blameless life And I will make a covenant with you by which I will grant guarantee to give you countless descendants at this Abram fell face down on the ground then God said to him

This is my covenant with you. I will make you a father of a multitude of nations What's more? I am changing your name. It will no longer be Abram instead You will be called Abraham for you will be the father of many nations That's where we get the song. Father Abraham had many sons. Many sons have a, okay. Don't put me on the worst of teams. Then it says in verse six, it says, I will make you extremely fruitful. Your descendants will become many nations and the kings will be among them. I will confirm my covenant with you and your descendants after you from generation to generation. This is the everlasting covenant. I will always be your God and the God of the descendants after you. So this is when Abraham is 99 years old. God had originally promised that Abraham would be a father of many nations when he was 75 years old. And so this is God coming back and reassuring Abraham that the word that I gave you is the word that I will keep. And I don't know who that is for this morning, but the word that God gave you is the word that God will keep. We serve a God that keeps his promises. Whether we keep our promises or not, right? Because again, this is a covenant that God had with Abraham. And so God is telling Abraham, if you keep your side of the covenant,

I will keep my side of the covenant. Does that make sense? And so we serve a God that keeps his promises. So let's see what happens when Abraham goes back to Sarah and tells her this story and tells her what God said. It says in chapter 18, verse 11 through 14, it says, Abraham and Sarah were both very old at this time and Sarah was long past the age of having children. So she laughed silently to herself and she said this, how can a worn out woman like me enjoy such pleasure? Especially when my master, that's crazy she called her husband, her master. I tried that with Kate, didn't work too well. Listen, I said, listen, it says in the Bible, no. So it says, when my master, my husband is so old, you know you're getting of age when you call yourself worn out. She's like, listen, I am worn out. There's no possible way that this can happen. This is the Lord's response. Then the Lord said to Abraham, why did Sarah laugh? Why did she say, can a old woman like me have a baby? Verse 14, this is important. Is there anything too hard for the Lord? For those of us that are in seasons of waiting, I wanna ask you, is there anything too hard for the Lord? For those of us that doubt, for those of us that have concerns and worries about what our life is going to look like, I wanna ask you a question.

Is there anything too hard for the Lord? And so he asked that question. He says, I will return about this time next year and Sarah will have a son. I wanna let you guys know that delay does not mean denial. Remaining faithful when you don't see the fruit of your faithfulness reveals where your trust lies. And that is what we are called to do. We are called to remain faithful when we don't see the fruit of our faithfulness. Because it's easy to remain faithful when you see the fruit. It's easy to remain faithful when things start working out the way that you thought they would. But what about when you don't see the fruit of your faithfulness? Will you still remain faithful to God? And so we're going through this aspect of waiting and the reason why we don't like waiting is because we want things now. We want convenience. We want things instantaneously. Right, that's how we operate. That's how our world is. Right, there's some of us, we don't even go shopping anymore. We select what we want and then we go to the store and pick it up. We have as much convenience as to get it delivered to our house. Right, we don't go to Starbucks anymore.

Before, back in the day, I say this like I'm way older, but this is what I remember. Back in the day, you had to go through the drive-thru to get your Starbucks. Now you can pre-order your Starbucks before you get there. Go through the drive-thru, pick it up on the way. You don't even have to talk to anybody. Right, that's how convenient. We're adding convenience to our convenience. Waiting has become a lost part of our lives. But as we look throughout the Bible, waiting is directly linked to the promises of God. You see, David had to wait a total of 22 years to become king over all of Israel. Joseph waited 13 years for his prophetic dreams to come true. And the story we're going to look over today, Abraham and Sarah, it took 12 years. 25 years for what they had been promised to come to fruition. You see, these were people that were favored by God, but in the season of waiting, it seemed as if they had been forgotten. I wonder if there's anybody out there this morning that you're in a season of waiting and you feel as if God has forgotten about you. God doesn't see me anymore. I used to hear God on a different level, but now I don't hear him anymore. Before, everything was planned out before me

and it was very specific in the way that I was supposed to go, but now I was just given a general calling to go forward, and now I don't know what that looks like. Is there anyone in here today that is saying to themselves, God, I know that you have more for my life. I just don't know what that is. God, I remain faithful, but I feel as if I've been forgotten. God, I know what you have promised me, but if I'm being honest, there's a part of me that's beginning to doubt. I don't know about you, but I've been there. I don't know about you, but I've been in parts of my life and seasons of my life where I'm questioning whether I had the same connection with God that I had before, and you start asking questions like this. God, did I hear you right? Right, God, God, did you really promise me this? And if so, why hasn't it happened yet? Again, before, there was maybe a season in your life where God would speak in specifics. Hey, do this and be with this person and go here and serve in this area, and now you're getting a bunch of generalities. And I think that this is so funny because I'm the type of person that, I need specifics when it comes to certain things, right?

So Kate would tell me like, hey, like go grocery shopping, like yesterday is a prime example, all right? We went, she had some friends over, so I was like, okay, you need snacks. She's like, yeah, get some snacks. So I go to the store and I go get some snacks, right? I went to Trader Joe's, and so Trader Joe's has like a bunch of like, and they even give you samples, so you get to try it before. I'm like, oh, this is good, right? So I get the sweet snacks and the salty snacks, and I'm like, I'm even like going above and beyond. I'm getting drinks too. I'm like, okay, I'm patting myself on the back. I'm doing a good job. And she comes back and she's like, hey, did you get the coffee? And I'm like, I'm looking at the list. I'm like, you told me to get snacks, right? But she's like, hey, but we need coffee, right? So then I go back and it was too long to like go to the store and get coffee. So I go and get her seven brew, because I think that's going to like make up. I go get her the seven brew and she comes back and say, hey babe, did you get the paper towels? I go back to the list. I'm like, snacks, coffee.

We didn't say anything about paper towels, right? But she's like, no, if you would see, if you will look at the house, you would understand there's just things that we need over and over and over again. I'm like, listen, that's above my pay grade, right? I don't, it's, you have to give me the specifics on what you want me to get, right? Anything outside of that, God himself would have, Chris, get the paper towels, all right. All right, but here's the reality of it. Sometimes the hardest part of faith isn't believing that God can do it. It's believing that God will do it when your circumstances say otherwise, right? We have an understanding of the power and the authority and the ability of God to do things in our life. But the question that we have to get, that we battle with is, will God do it when my circumstances say otherwise? Will God do it when the bills start stacking up? Will God do it when that child that I've been praying for to come back seems as if they're getting further and further away from God? I don't have a problem of understanding the ability of God being able to do something in my life, but I begin to question when my circumstances begin to pile up in my life. It's not a question of if God can do it.

Sometimes we question if God will do it because our circumstances say otherwise. And here is where Abraham and Sarah find themselves. God had given Abraham a promise. He said, I will make you into a great nation. God promised. descendants, he promised blessing, he promised purpose, but there was one problem, everybody say problem. There's always problems, always problems, there was one problem. But the more I begin to grow in my faith, I begin to realize this, that problems precede promises. Right, whenever God has a promise for your life, whenever God has something for you, a purpose that he has given to you, a lot of times before you get to the promises of God, you face the problems of this world. And their problem was that they did not have a child. God, how are you telling me that I am going to be the father of a great nation if I don't even have a child yet? God, how are you telling me that I'm going to be a successful business person when the business isn't even started yet? God, how are you telling me that I'm going to live in the idea of having a great marriage when I don't even have anybody in my life yet? God, what does this look like? There are problems that we face in our lives. And the problem for them is that they didn't have a child.

And so you can just begin to see that as the years went by, doubt began to creep in, and the promise seemed less and less possible. Why? Maybe it's the outside factors and the outside sources that were coming into their lives. Think about it. When they first got the promise, they were probably so excited that they told everybody. But now everybody knows about the promise, but in those seasons of waiting, people are questioning if that promise is going to be true. Right? Hey, Sarah, didn't you say you guys were gonna have a baby? Where's the baby shower? Right? Where's the gender reveal? Didn't you guys say that God promised you? It's been 10 years already. What happened to the God that you believe? Now there's doubt creeping in. There was a problem that they faced. But here's what we need to begin to understand. God's silence is not God's absence. Just because you cannot hear God doing something doesn't mean he's not doing anything in your life. God's delay is not God's denial. Again, when God promises you something, he always comes through with his promise. The question is, are we going to uphold our part

of the covenant that we made with God? You see, going back to where it started, again, this started when Abraham was 75 years old. He said, I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great. And as I begin to read and study, this is something that I think we need to take for our own lives, but this is something that Abraham had to deal with. God gave Abraham the promise. He never gave him the timeline. God gave Abraham the promise, but he never gave him the timeline. God said what he would do, but he never told him when he would do it. And the reason for that is because there are lessons that need to be learned in seasons of waiting. That is what we need to understand. There are lessons that God wants to teach us in the seasons of waiting. So God may have promised you something. Understand that that's the only thing that you need to hold onto. We don't need to know all the details. Right, we need to, and this is why I say, I love the fact that the Bible tells us to have a childlike faith, because children don't need to know the details. Right, I remember when I was 11 years old, I remember this vividly.

My parents, and sorry to all the Disney people I offended, because this is a story about Disney. My parents told me we were going to Disney World. I never once asked them, how are we gonna get there? Do you guys have enough gas to get us from New York to Florida? Like, what was the hotel? How much, how expensive was it? I didn't need to know the details. The only thing that I was depending on was you told us we were going to Disney World. So when it comes to the things of God, when God gives you a promise, you don't need to know the details. The only thing you need to know is God said it, so God will do it, amen? Amen. So, lessons we need to learn in the waiting. Here's the first lesson. Waiting builds your faith. Waiting builds your faith. Hebrews 11, one says this, and some of us know it. It says, faith. shows us the reality of what we hope for and is the evidence of things that we can not see, right? The evidence of things that we can not see. So faith is the evidence of things that we cannot see. So if I can see it, guess what? I'm making a decision based off of fact and not on faith. If I told you guys, I bet you $10

that tomorrow will be Monday, what will you say? There's no faith involved in that, guess why? Because tomorrow is Monday, that is a fact. And so when we understand this aspect of faith, faith is something that you cannot see. Faith is something that you don't have all the details around, that's the difference between fact and faith. Now, here is a fact. When God says he's going to come through on a promise, our savior is going to come through on his promise. He is going to uphold his word, that is a fact. We see that over and over and over in the Bible. So when God says he's going to do something, he's gonna do it. But as we look throughout and here at TC, we've been in this series called That's Crazy. And we look at the woman with the issue of blood and she suffered for 12 years. That's 12 years for looking for an answer, looking for facts to back the suffering that she had been going through, looking for doctors and physicians to give her the facts of her season of waiting. Why am I bleeding? Why has nobody been able to come up with an answer or a solution? What in my life is indicating that this should be happening to me? She was looking for answers. She was looking for hard facts and hard evidence

of what was happening in her life. But it wasn't until she put her faith in Jesus. It wasn't until she put her faith in Jesus. She literally said, if I could just touch the hem of his garment, then I would be healed. Guess what? She did not know that for a fact. So she had to have faith. That is what it looks like to understand the lessons in our waiting. Guess what? She went through 12 years of lessons. This doctor didn't know what to do. This doctor didn't have the facts. This physician that I went to didn't know what was going on with me. But you know who did? Jesus. And Jesus was able in moments to do more for her in a moment than doctors and physicians were able to do for her in years. Even when you go into the emotional damage that she was dealing with. Again, we don't know this woman's name. How do we refer to this woman? The woman with the issue. Imagine for 12 years that you have an issue. That's the only thing people know you by, by your issue, by the bad things in your life. Jesus saw this woman.

She touched the hem of his garment. Jesus turned around. What did Jesus call her? Daughter. That's probably the first time in over 12 years she's ever heard somebody call her something else other than her issue. Jesus not only healed her physically, but the emotional healing that she must've went through knowing that Jesus saw her for who she truly was. Jesus didn't see her as a woman with an issue. Jesus saw her as a daughter. And so, so many of us have been looking for answers of our situation, trying to navigate our way through this season of waiting. And we have put our faith in other things. And again, I don't know if I'm speaking to anybody in this room, but I know I've done these. I put my faith in jobs, right? Because they bring me a certain level of security. I put my faith in relationships, right? Because I said, okay, if I have people to depend on, then it will make my life a little bit easier. Sometimes we put our faith in ourselves. I'm the best solution for what I'm going to complete in my life. I put my faith in myself. I put my faith in my education, because if I get this degree, then that would be the answer that I'm looking for.

And then all of these doors are gonna begin to open up for me. I put my faith in my status and who I made myself to be, realizing that none of that would be possible if it wasn't for God. But when you put your faith in Jesus, everything changes. Waiting determines where you are placing your faith. So my question to you this morning, TC, is. Where is your faith? Have you placed it in the things of the world or have you put your faith in Jesus? Point number two, the second lesson that we learn is waiting requires obedience. Seasons of waiting are the greatest test of whether you are going to be obedient to God or not. You see, during this moment, again, Abraham finds out about this when he's 75 years old. 10 years go by. And Sarah, she's like, listen, God is not able to do this on his own. God needs some of our help. And I love the fact that we can look at these stories and we can look at these Bible characters and reading throughout the story, because we know the end of it, right? We can see the other side, but reading it through, you're like, Sarah, how could you? How could you ever think that you are going to help God out? But a lot of times, that's what we do, right?

And I picture this idea, us standing on the sidelines, God is in the game, the game is being played and whatnot, and we're standing on the sideline. And again, God's gonna put us in it during the right time, but we're sitting on the sideline going, he looks like he's struggling out there, right? The scoreboard is a little heat. I know what he needs. Trust, he needs my help. I'm the X factor. If you put me in the game, turn the whole situation around, right? And we have this idea and this mantra that we will be the difference maker in the things that God is trying to do in our lives. Not understanding like, hey, that's the creator of the universe. He did not need your help when he created the heavens and the earth. Now, when it's your situation, he needs your help. But that's the reality that we live in. God, you need me. So I know you have a lot on your plate. Let me take some of that weight off of you. I know you can handle it. You said it before, but let me do me, you do you, and we'll see how it all works out. And what we do is we accelerate and manipulate the promises of God. Rushed decisions are never good ones.

When we rush a decision, it is never a good one, right? But we decide that we want to make this reality into something we say, God, you need our help with fulfilling the promise. Hey, God, you promised me that you are going to bring me a spouse. So the next person that looks at me for more than five seconds, that's the love of my life, right? And then we get into a relationship and now there's all this damage and all this trauma and all this baggage that we just added on, why? Because we accelerated the promise of God. God, listen, I know that you have this job planned for me. So the next job that we see, we accept it, not realizing that every open door is in a door that we need to walk through. That makes sense? And so we need to understand that rushed decisions are never a good one. Why? Because one of the most dangerous places we can be is in control of our own future on our own terms. So Sarah, this is where she's at. She's like, listen, God needs our help. Let's accelerate this process. I have a servant named Hagar. Abraham, you go do your business with Hagar, right? You guys are gonna have a child.

And then after that, we're gonna take the child and raise it. And in that time, that was culturally acceptable, right? If you were a wealthy family, you can do things like that. You could have a child with another person and then take that child and raise that child because you had the financial means to do so. And so this is exactly what happens. And then Hagar gives birth to a son and his name is Ishmael, right? And so Ishmael is Abraham and Hagar's son. And when we talk about the Old Testament and we refer to God, we refer to God as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We never say Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, and Jacob. Why? Because there was a separation that happened. Now Sarah got upset that Hagar was pregnant. And now Sarah is saying like, listen, we need to get Hagar out of here, right? She mistreated her and she acted wrongly towards her. And so what happens is Hagar runs away, that God has to send an angel to say, hey, go back to Sarah and Abraham. And because of that, I am going to make your descendants great. There will be a strong nation and a strong people. If you trace the line of Ishmael. All the way to current day that makes up modern day Muslims that's why they are such a strong group of people and a strong nation because

God had promised that this is what's going to happen And what do we know about our God when God promises something he always comes through with this promise And so now you have the the modern modern-day Muslims through the line of Isaac We have modern-day Christianity Christianity So the war that's going on right now in the Middle East Yes It is physical over territory But it is also spiritual because there was someone that decided to manipulate the promise of God That's what happens That is what happens when we decide to accelerate the promises of God So Ishmael still received a blessing because he was Abraham's son But Isaac was the son that was the fulfillment of the promise that God had originally attended so through the line of Isaac came Through the line of God Isaac came Jesus and the idea of modern-day Christianity That's what happens, right? There are still ramifications of manipulating the promise of God That's what happens when we decide to take matters into our own hands and I know this to be true in my life because For for me, I went to Bible school and in Bible school. They had this thing. It's called ring by spring, right? so that basically means that when you are a freshman It's the craziest thing ever when you're a freshman You're expected to be not expected But most people are married or at least engaged by the time they are sophomore, right that was the expectation That it's called ring by spring people. Literally we we heard stories and I was like that can't be true until I realized it's actually true People would literally go to Bible school to find a spouse and then they will leave Right. It is the craziest thing right because they figured like hey what better place to find them than someone that is studying to you know, be called and and have this aspect of Christian raising a Christian family and all that stuff and I know for for my life I know that God called me to be with My wife right which is right here in the front seat. Shout out Kate But here's the thing because of all of this outside pressure. Hey, you guys should be married by now

Hey, you guys should have kids by now. Hey, you guys should should accelerate your life now. There was a pressure To get married and to start a family when we weren't ready to do so There are things that I needed to work on Right. There are a lot of things that I needed to work on Right and things that she needed to work on and instead of doing that separately coming prepared into our marriage What we tried to do is we tried to get married first and then figure all the rest out later and there was so much pain so much hardship that was caused because we decided to rush and accelerate what we knew God had for our lives and Whenever someone asks us where we're about to be married in September for five years right Yeah, amen to that Now we love each other guys, you don't have to worry everybody's like we love each other but back then as well, but That's they need to make that a point that but when people ask us they said hey, what's one of a word of advice that you would give us as people that that are dating or or people that are pursuing other people in our lives and two things Always make God a priority and then we tell them this you say Make sure that you wait Wait until God gives you that right time to be together because there was so much pain so much heartache that would We didn't have to go through if we would have just waited a lot of people they go through their honeymoon phase in their first Years, maybe two years of marriage. We literally joke about it all the time We're like, I think we're going through our honeymoon phase right now, right? Because that first year we completely skipped because there was so much that we needed to deal with in our lives and so We're posed with two responses. We can either take matters into our own hands or We can be obedient to do what God has called us to do Because we believe that he is fulfilling the promise that he gave us

You need to be obedient to the words of God even in times of waiting and When you're saying hey, well God hasn't said anything to to me, I'm not hearing from him clearly, then be faithful to what he told you originally. That's what Abraham had to do. That's what Sarah had to do, even after they took matters into their own hand. And here's the last point. Here's the last lesson that we learned in the waiting. Waiting is preparation for the promise. Waiting is preparation for the promise. If you wanna leave this, I want you to leave this place understanding that what you see as pointless waiting, God may be using as preparation. You see, the mundane of being in your word, praying the same prayer over and over again, has anyone ever been there? Praying the same prayer over and over again, serving on a dream team, coming and giving God your best, being in community and small groups, that takes work. Being a part of community takes work. Why? Not only is it because you're dealing with people, but it's a commitment that you're making. Dying to yourself daily. You think that you have been forgotten, but in due season, God will show you that you have been favored.

And I always ask God, why is it? Why is it that you only give us a glimpse of the promise? Why can't you just tell us everything? Why can't you give us all of the details? The reason why God only gives us a glimpse of the promise is because he wants us to be expected. You see, when you don't know when he is going to fulfill his promise, when you don't know what he is doing behind the scenes, it puts you in a position where you have to stay prepared. That's why we do not know the time or the hour when Jesus is going to come back. So guess what? We have to stay prepared. We have to have this mindset that I need to remain faithful. I need to remain obedient because there's a time where God is going to come back and I need to be ready. I need to be prepared. Preparation seems mundane until the time is right. And before I talked about my favorite movie of all time, I think it is a classic. The movie is Remember the Titans. If you haven't seen it, go see it. Has Denzel Washington in it. He's a goat. But it was a great movie. And I think of another classic movie to explain this idea as we begin to close up. And the movie I'm talking about this morning is Karate Kid.

Has anybody ever seen Karate Kid? It's a good movie, right? And so in the Karate Kid, there's this character, his name is Danny LaRusso. And Danny, he is a kid from New Jersey, right? And he goes and he moves, and he's having a lot of trouble, right? He's getting into a lot of fights and he's getting beat up, right? And he's like, listen, I'm making up a decision in my mind that that will not happen to me ever again. And so he wants to learn karate. So he goes to Mr. Miyagi and he says, hey, can you teach me how to fight? So Danny shows up to Mr. Miyagi's house and he's thinking that he's about to teach him some new moves, all right? Teach him how to throw those hands. But here's the reality. He's like, okay, I'm gonna learn some kicks. I'm gonna learn some jabs and some punches and some defense mechanisms. And this is what it's going to look like. Mr. Miyagi comes and it seems as if he has him do a bunch of chores, right? He gives him a rag and a sponge and he says, all right, here's my car. This is what you're gonna do. Wax on, wax off. Wax on, wax off.

He's like, all right, that doesn't make sense. Maybe if I come back tomorrow, this guy will get some sense. He comes back, he says, all right, cool. This is what we're gonna do. We're gonna paint the fence. And he's like, bro, listen, I came here to fight. What are we painting the fence for? Right, and so he's like, up, down. Up, down, okay, cool. Again, third time's the charm. Maybe the next day I come back, this guy's going to have some sense. He says, hey, listen, you're going to sand the floor. Side to side, side to side. And he doesn't understand why this mundane task, to him, it seems pointless. But in reality, he was preparing him for a moment that when the time was right, you saw that he was prepared. And so, we're going to watch this, a little bit of movie time. They're going to dim the lights. They're going to watch this scene from The Karate Kid, and then we're going to close up with the servant. Now, show me wax on, wax off. Wax on, wax off. Wax on, wax off. Wax on, wax off. Concentrate. Look in my eye, lock the hand, thumb inside. Wax on, wax off.

Wax on, wax off. Wax on, wax off. Show me penta fence. Up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down. Other side. Look eye, always look eye. Show me penta house, side, side. Knuckle wrist, side, side, side, side. Show me wax on, wax off. Wax! Wax! Wax! Wax! Show me penta fence. Hey, hey, yes, yes. Show me side to side. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Show me sandal floor. Ha, yes, yes, yes. Yes. Yes! Yes, yes! Look eye, always look eye. Come back tomorrow. You see, Danny couldn't fathom in his head how wax on, wax off would help him in a fight. But if you keep watching, you understand that when attacks came, he was prepared. That is a word that we need to understand, that we may not understand that the times of waiting,

they may seem pointless. But when attacks from the enemy come, we will be prepared. We love the promises of God. But the question is, when you receive the promise, are you able to steward what God has given you? The lesson that Abraham and Sarah had to understand is that there was a moment of mistaking a season of waiting as pointless. But do not mistake a season of waiting as pointless when it is really preparation. God was teaching Abraham and Sarah, listen to me, church, that he was in control. God is in control. And so when he gave them the promise at 75, he always intended to come back 25 years later to show them that he was in control. And in this moment of waiting, it seemed pointless. It seemed as if their faithfulness was not showing, they weren't seeing the fruit. But God was telling them, I am in control. The same word that was for Abraham and Sarah is the same word that is for you. God is in control. When we seem as if we don't have it all together, guess what? God is in control. When the bills start piling up, guess what? God is in control. When your marriage is on the ropes, guess what? God is in control. When you don't know what the results are going to look like

and you have to stay prepared and you have to stay ready, God is in control. No matter what you may be going through, no matter what the season may look like, if you don't know the direction to go in, as long as you are faithful and you keep on moving forward, you know that God is in control. That's the reality that we need to live in church. It is not our plan. Because the most dangerous place that we can be is determining our future on our terms. But the greatest place that we can be is understanding God's future. on his terms. I wanted to end the message with this, Hagar is when she ran away there are multiple names of God right and so God has different names that that he attributes to himself and and that's what people the people recognized him by. There's one person in the bible that actually named God and it was Hagar because Hagar she ran away because she's like listen these people they put this on me they told me to have the child now I'm getting mistreated to the point I had to run away. The angel of the Lord comes back to Hagar and says listen I will make your descendants as countless I will make your descendants great and you will have countless descendants and he says go back to Sarah and Abraham and remain faithful in what I have called you to do. Hagar goes back and she calls God El Roy which means God sees me and so in your season of waiting in your season of uncertainty when you don't know what it looks like on the other side understand that God is El Roy and God sees you. God sees you. Thank you so much for tuning in today we hope you enjoyed it and if you did make sure you subscribe also if something spoke to you in a special way share it with a friend because you never know how it could transform someone's life. If you're interested in checking out our service times make sure you go to our website at transformtlh.com and we hope to see you at TC on a Sunday. Thanks so much and have a great day.