Why Is This Taking So Long?

Why Is This Taking So Long?

(Pastor Jay Williams) Big Thought: You have prayed, waited and you give your best. Why is it taking so long for things to

come together for you ?

Text : (NKJV) • 29 I will not drive them out from before you in one year , lest the land become desolate and the

beasts of the field become too numerous for you . 30 Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased , and you inherit the land. 31 And I will set your bounds from the Red Sea to the sea, Philistia, and from the desert to the River. For I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand , and you shall drive them out before you .

I. Three Reasons Waiting Can Be Good For You

1. Waitingforalongerperiodoftimecanbeinyourbestinterest(v29) 2. Waitingisnecessarybecausewenaturallygrowlittlebylittle(v30) 3. Waitingwillgiveyoutimetoincreaseyourmanagementability(v30)

II. Three Questions That Can Help You Grade Your Waiting Record

Can you name something you prayed for and it came?

Can you name something you prayed for and you are glad it did not come?

Can you name something you prayed for and you are sorry it came?

III. Abraham and His Wife Sarah Were An Example of Two People That Had To Wait

He moved to the Promise Land with a promise without a time-table ()

He and his wife became frustrated and tried to create their own answers ()

He had to wait 25 years before he had his first son Isaac ()

IV. Three Lessons From Abraham’s Waiting Experience

1. God does not measure time the way we measure time (His days are longer than ours) • ,” A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the

night.” (NIV)

2. They did what we are often tempted to do (They created a shortcut to their dream)

• Sarai, Abram’s wife, hadn’t yet produced a child. She had an Egyptian maid named Hagar. 2 Sarai said to Abram, “God has not seen fit to let me have a child. Sleep with my maid . Maybe I can get a family from her.” Abram agreed to do what Sarai said. 3 So Sarai, Abram’s wife, took her Egyptian maid Hagar and gave her to her husband Abram as a wife. Abram had been living ten years in Canaan when this took place. (The Message Bible)

3. They were only willing to patiently wait a certain length of time

• They waited 10 years (, cp. 16:3) • He was 85 and she was 75 when they gave up

Questions : • How old were you when you gave up? • How long have you been waiting? • What are you waiting for?

Conclusion : What Kind of Things Should We Be Waiting For?

1 . Expansion (God wanted Abraham to travel to lands beyond his home, ) • 12 : 1 Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country,

From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. (NKJV)

2 . Resources (God wanted Abraham to believe for economic growth, ) • 13:1 Then Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, to the

South. 2 Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold.

Note : This idea is hard for many to process. They normally pray for a rich person to give them something and rarely pray to be the rich person giving. If they do pray to be the rich person, they have poor people habits and disciplines that prevent them from becoming richer. ( See the book , Rich Habits and Poor Habits , by Tom Corley & Michael Yardney )

3 . Reproduction (God wanted Abraham to believe for children, ) • 13:15 for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever. 16 And I will make

your descendants as the dust of the earth ; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered.

Reference Resources For You To Review Later:

• Rich Habits and Poor Habits by Tom Corley & Michael Yardney Facts From the book, Rich Habits and Poor Habits

1 . How did they became wealthy? • Between 67-80% of the wealthy are self-made millionaires.

2. How much do they work?

• Rich people, particularly self-made millionaires, work far more hours than everyone else. According to the Census Bureau, the average wealthy household (which the IRS defines as the top 20% of income earners in the U.S.) worked five times as many hours as the average poor household.

3. How educated are they? • If you were to look at a “Who’s Who” of wealthy individuals, you would find that nearly 50% of them

never completed college.

4. How do the poor manage their time?

77% admitted that they watched more than an hour of TV every night,

78% admitted to watching a lot of reality TV.

This time-wasting habit infected their own kids. The poor in my study said that their own kids spend

many hours every day watching TV, playing video games or spending their time on social media, the internet, etc.