The Divine Setup

Fresh Faith Review

Satan wants to discourage you from serving God.

In fact, that is a little weak for what he really does. Let me say it this way - Satan wants to destroy your walk with God.

He does this subtly by stealing little things in our lives.

Actually they aren’t little, but he comes in and does it in little ways and before we realize it they are missing.

Then as that happens, he begins to kill things in our lives, our hopes and dream, our faith, our joy

And then finally he get us to a place where our walk with God is nonexistant

Or maybe we cannot trust God for something and we get upset when God doesn’t move the way we thought he should of.

And we are mad. I’ve met mad people - people who are furious with God for not coming through like they thought he should.

And out point in all of this, was that no matter where we find ourselves, even if we are mad at God, God still loves us and never gives up on us.

He is a God of total, full restoration

He is a God who will remove the enemy’s hold and destructive forces in our lives

And He is a God who can halt the furthering destruction of what the enemy has done and cancel it in our lives, our families, our communities and our church.

The Jews know him as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but in this series we have seen him as the God of Ephraim and Manasseh

The God who can make us forget all of our trouble

And the God who can make us fruitful in the land of our sufferings.

But do we have our faith in that God?

So this summer has been all about how we see God. What we know about Him. What we have the ability to trust in him for, and how we can grow that ability to trust him more.

We said that we need a base of faith to stand upon

That is what we know about God

How much of that knowledge becomes understanding of who God really is

And how willing we are to take God at his word.

We said that we need to ask God to Teach us - make us spiritual life-time learners

to ask God to tear us - to bring us down to where he needs us so that he can build us up in him

that means our faith too

to ask God to make us part of the team - take us out of selves and into oneness with the Body - or give us a kingdom mentallity

We said that we have to have the kind of faith to put God first

And that comes from just putting God first - making him the center of our lives

And then we will trust him for everything.

Because we have a natural sin born tendancy to want to preserve ourselves

to save ourselves and to promote ourselves

And when these two things are in action in our lives, we will never be able to trust God fully.

We will promote our own ideas, and plans and agenda’s above those of Gods.

Putting God first is realizing that our perservation and promotion comes From God

It’s is aligning our lives with the molds that we were created in and for.

It is to stop discussing life with others and ask God, what do you say about this?

It is....

Trusting God with Our Time

Our time is crucial

We cannot ever get time back again

We are affected by time - the second curse of death over Adam

We measure everything in time

We have not control over time

It would actually fall into our thinking of self preservation wouldn’t it? - I only have so much of this, so I want to use it all for myself, or as much as I can get of it.

What we don’t understand is that this also affects our faith the same too.

We want God to move in our lives, and our lives are marked by time.

Time is flying by so that means that we need God to move now. And when he doesn’t , we get upset.

We saw that with Martha and Mary when their brother Lazarus had died - Jesus if you had just come when we called, he wouldn’t have died.

We see this in the Old Testament with Elisha and the widows son. Why did God bless me with this child if he was going to allow him to die?

Pastor Jim Cymbala covers the story of the birth of John the Baptist very well in our reading.

But let’s look over at

Mark 5:21–43 NKJV

Now when Jesus had crossed over again by boat to the other side, a great multitude gathered to Him; and He was by the sea. And behold, one of the rulers of the synagogue came, Jairus by name. And when he saw Him, he fell at His feet and begged Him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter lies at the point of death. Come and lay Your hands on her, that she may be healed, and she will live.” So Jesus went with him, and a great multitude followed Him and thronged Him. Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for twelve years, and had suffered many things from many physicians. She had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment. For she said, “If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well.” Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction. And Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that power had gone out of Him, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My clothes?” But His disciples said to Him, “You see the multitude thronging You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’ ” And He looked around to see her who had done this thing. But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction.” While He was still speaking, some came from the ruler of the synagogue’s house who said, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?” As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, He said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not be afraid; only believe.” And He permitted no one to follow Him except Peter, James, and John the brother of James. Then He came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and saw a tumult and those who wept and wailed loudly. When He came in, He said to them, “Why make this commotion and weep? The child is not dead, but sleeping.” And they ridiculed Him. But when He had put them all outside, He took the father and the mother of the child, and those who were with Him, and entered where the child was lying. Then He took the child by the hand, and said to her, “Talitha, cumi,” which is translated, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.” Immediately the girl arose and walked, for she was twelve years of age. And they were overcome with great amazement. But He commanded them strictly that no one should know it, and said that something should be given her to eat.

This is what Pastor Jim saw as the Divine Setup

the time that God works in will probably never be ours. Because though time is important to us - It is not to God. He lives outside of time

The only time that God is concerned about is the ends of the earth - and the harvest

But in anything else, God doesn’t rush things.

We always rush things, because we don’t have time

God does things perfect because he created time. He makes it.

(recap story)

You see, time is so great to us because it is fleeing

But Do you have faith in a God who is greater than time?

If you don’t, you will never be able to trust the He will get things done - because of the time frame that he moves in (or should I say out of)

And God uses time to his advantage.

our concern for time and tracking time is the greatest thing to God.

Here is how you can have faith in the God who is unmoved by our time restrictions

He is going to get a GREATER Praise!

Because of who He is and How He does things, It is God’s Right and Privilege to be praised

In fact, the scriptures declare in

Luke 19:40 NKJV

But He answered and said to them, “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.”

Luke 19:37–40 NKJV

Then, as He was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen, saying: “ ‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!’ Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.” But He answered and said to them, “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.”

God will be praised. And He wants the Greater Praise.

Let’s be honest, God does a lot of things in our lives, and doesn’t get praised the way that he should be.

We forget to thank him most of the time

We don’t share the testimony the way that we should

Sometimes we don’t see the situation for what it is and explain it away as coincidence or fate

But when you are praying for something and that situation goes from bad to worse

And you are praying some more and that situation goes from worse to impossible

And then God moves - The praise is LOUD AND CLEAR - Look what God has done

The doctor couldn’t do it

The Lawyer couldn’t make it happen

The system didn’t work, everything else failed

But God did THIS!

This is what it’s all about.

This is why God moves in His perfect Time

You know what? Maybe if we made a little more fuss over God in our lives and gave Him more of our lives, we wouldn’t have to rely on him to the very end.

But no matter what, Thank God He is faithful.

We saw a couple of weeks ago with Mary and Martha where he says about their brothers death - Didn’t I tell you that if you would only believe that you would see the glory of God?

In , Jesus heals a man who had been blind from birth. The religious leaders are furious. They want to pin something on this Jesus to have him killed

And so they trap the parents of the man

Then they question him and then they tell him that this Jesus is a sinner

And he says in verse 25

John 9:25 NKJV

He answered and said, “Whether He is a sinner or not I do not know. One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see.”

You see, you cannot deny that. The doctors could do nothing for him. These religious leaders had no power, but Jesus

And believe, me this man praised Jesus wherever he went.

So if you want to have faith in the God who can do all things and will But time is getting short? Begin to praise him.

Lift up your hands

Declare who God is to you to yourself, to your neighbor, to your situation and to the devil

God will move because he wants the higher praise

He is Going to get a GREATER Testimony!

Maybe these go together, but I see a difference in them

The praise is lifted up to God

The testimony is what you say about God - even your praise.

This man we just looked at, had to be thorn in the religious leaders side.

They wanted to stir the people against Jesus - but he kept saying, you can tell me all you want about who you think he is. But this is what I know.

Mary and Martha had a testimony about how the grave is not final

Abraham and Sarah had a testimony about how God defies biology and physics

Jairus had a testimony about how his daughter was restored to him

How even in the midst of a miracle in another woman’s life, Jesus never forgot him

And how God’s timing was not his timing. But even when time was out, God still moved.

Do you know that today?

Do you trust that God today, Is your faith founded in the God who even when time is out, it’s still not done

When the clock stops, God is just getting started

How do I know that? - Because we haven’t even begun to live in eternity yet. This is just the beginning.

Jesus tells Jairus not to tell anyone - how do you think that went?

The woman at the well - runs and tells everyone - come meet this man

And Jesus is launched into a two day Samaritan revival - and that town was never the same

What does Jesus want to do in your town? Do you know? Have you asked him?

Do you know where you fit into it? Better get testifying

Do you know what’s happening at Brooklyn Tabernacle? Do you know why it’s growing like it is?

Two things

First prayer - a church committed to prayer

Second - testimonies. the reason why we like reading these books is because of the testimonies and stories that we are hearing.

And it’s changing brooklyn

And lastly,

He is Going to get a GREATER Generation!

Listen to me church. This thing isn’t for us. It’s for our grandchildren and great great great grandchildren

Last week in the baby dedication I spoke about the verses where God says to tell your children about the things that God has done

Remind them when they go to bed and wakeup. When you are walking. When you are sitting or eating

Let me ask you this question - how much do you talk about God in your family?

How many times do you discuss what he has done.

Do you know that my father was always doing that. His grandchildren knew what he stood for. And they knew that he would not back down from it no matter what.

When my mother gets a chance to speak to my grandson and her other grandchildren about her healing from cancer - that’s going to mean something

When we share with our children about the things that God has done - it has an effect

Matthew 19:13–15 NKJV

Then little children were brought to Him that He might put His hands on them and pray, but the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” And He laid His hands on them and departed from there.

The church is losing this next generation of young people. Why?

No, not because it is boring

No, not because we don’t have enough technology or aren’t millennial minded

We are losing them because they do not know the power of God.

The church doesn’t know the power of God

The church is week, the church is compromising with the world and watered down.

And the children who grew up in it are leaving. Who wants to be there. It’s amazing the adults are staying and some of them aren’t.

It’s time to have faith in the God who does great things

It’s time to pray in our services expecting results

It’s time to testify about who God is and what He has done

It’s time to release our children to pray for us and with us

It’s time that we gave God a GREATER Glory

It’s time to reclaim through prayer and expectancy the next generations of God believers.

And that comes from being a church that believes, preaches, and lives in the power of the God who transcends time

A church that recognizes that time is not an an enemy or even a friend, but a chance for God to be seen and proven

A Church that will allow God to use the time that they have to reach the world around us

And I want to be one of those churches. How about you?

Let’s Pray