06/13/2021
“The Importance of waiting on God and God's Timing”
By Brother Matt PKOC
Master Knight Templar
Mini Sermon for Sunday, June 13th, 2021
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Brothers and Sisters, Knights and Dames, it has come to my attention that there is a matter of importance in which we must address. And that is God's timing.
How many times in your walk with the Lord have you maybe prayed for something to happen, and maybe have it not happen within the time frame that you wanted or needed it to happen? Maybe you prayed for a specific job to open up, or maybe you applied for a job that you just weren't granted within the time frame that you needed or for a specific job promotion maybe? What about marrying someone? Or about buying a specific car that you wanted? And out of all of these important decisions that you have placed on God's Throne, how many of them did you get a specific answer about and acted accordingly? And how many times has God maybe not given you an answer and you did the thing anyway?
There was a friend of my family; she's actually been a friend of my parents for years, and I remember about 8 or 9 years ago she had her eye on a specific car that was in her price range. We went to the dealer lot together, she was looking down several rows of vehicles and finally came to a car that had a $4,000 price tag on it. It was in her price range, but when asked about it, she really didn't know anything at all about the car. What are the consumer reviews on the car? Someone asked her. She didn't know. “God wants me to have this one!” Was her response to many questions. Someone asked her if she was going to take the car for a test drive, her response was, “God wants me to have this one!” So, she goes and talks with several sales persons, signs all the paperwork and hands them close to $6,000. Even though the sticker said $4,000! She gets into the car, turns the key and takes off out of the lot. About a block from the dealer, the car stalls. She walks back to the dealer who proceeds to tell her that since she signed everything and paid for it and drove it off of the lot, they did not have a service place on site to take the car too. She calls AAA who then tows the car to a select service place to have the vehicle looked at. As it turns out, the gas gauge on the dash was broken, it was showing a full tank when in truth there was no gas at all in the car and it was completely empty of oil. And there was minor engine damage. And I seem to recall her saying that what was only supposed to cost her $4,000 came out to more like $9,000 by the end of the day.
There was another case in point of several people who are acquaintances at our church. One woman in particular my wife and I are fairly close with. She is a widow who was looking to get back on the dating scene. Her husband was gone for about 6 years and she met another gentleman at our church. After about a month of dating, the woman tells us that she and this man are engaged to be married, and they were looking to tie the knot around Valentine's Day, which is in less than 6 months after they had been dating. So, my wife and I are congratulating them, we are loving the smiling faces, it is a very happy occasion. After the gentleman leaves, my wife asks her if she has really prayed about this decision, and if this match is truly something that the Lord has ordained. She tells her, “yes! God wants us to get married!” I tell her while that may be so, they should still pray together. I have seen couples meet at church before, get married, and then one or both just stop coming to church. Christ has to be the center of it before you declare your intentions to be married in front of God and congregation. I tell her that they should wait on rushing to get married and just enjoy their time together, getting to know one another. Especially what they are both like when they get mad or angry. How do they deal with it? So, they date for about 4 more months. At the 4 month marker, someone alerted the lady to the fact that this man might not be who he says he is, and it is discovered that he is frequenting internet sites full of sexual immorality and was participating in some of this immorality himself. Our friend was beside herself in grief and devastation. He had deceived her. Needless to say the engagement was called off.
Another example was that of my wife. She lost her dad to cancer when she was only 11 years old. But she says that for the last 6 months of his life, when he was getting sicker and sicker, she prayed for his healing, there were numerous pastors that came out and prayed for him, people laying hands upon him prayerfully and praying for divine healing. Sadly, that healing of his physical body did not come and he passed away.
So what is the answer? Many of you might be asking right now. Well, Ecclesiastes 3: 1 says this, “There is an appointed time for everything. And there is time for every event under heaven.” Ecclesiastes 8:6 “For there is a proper time and procedure for every delight, though a man's trouble is heavy upon him.” 1 Peter 5:6 “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time.”
And how do we do this? You might be asking, well, we take the thing or item we would like to have happen and we surrender it to God in prayer. We take it to the Throne of God. And we wait. Remain patient. Someone gave me an example of patience and said that it isn't how we wait that matters, it is our attitude that we have while we wait on God's timing. Ever get stuck behind traffic, maybe you are coming home from work, and you are stuck in a 2 hour commute and it normally takes you an hour to come home. You are tired, you worked an 8 hour day, you want to come home, get your shoes off, get comfortable, eat some dinner and relax before you have to do this again tomorrow. You wait in traffic, you wait some more, people are honking, maybe offensive gestures are being tossed around, profanity, curses, you keep watching the time tick down later and later, you are mad, angry and frustrated and what would have been a comforting evening is full of anger and rage when you get home. People that have learned patience, as much comes from learning to be patient as does wisdom itself, with age and time. You could just relax in traffic. Roll up your windows if you can, block out those distractions, turn on the radio, listen to some comforting music, take a deep breath and just breathe. You will still get home and do the things you want and need to do. Learn to listen to that still, small voice from within. That is the Holy Spirit speaking to you, comforting you and edifying you to do the right thing.
If you have your eye set on a particular car, do some research first. Car sales people always want to swarm people on their lots that know nothing about cars, they will tell you the car can wash your laundry for you and do your dishes too, any promise that they can make to get you off their lot with a car, and so that they can be $6,000 richer. Educate yourself, learn everything you can about that car and when you show up, show up with some questions first. Take it for a test drive if you have that option. If it turns out that this really isn't a good a deal, learn to say “no.” Even when it comes to matters of family. It is normal and safe to have healthy boundaries.
When it comes to matters of love, learn to take your time and be patient. Do not rush into marriage. I can't help but think how miserable our friend would have been had she married that man. It wasn't a good match, but because she was learning to wait, the Holy Spirit had shown her things before they both took the plunge. A happy, healthy, and holy marriage will always have Christ at it's center, and both parties are willing to supplement the other one. I tell people that a good marriage is built upon love, and trust, and willingness to forgive each other. You will spend so much time together you will get on each other's nerves at times and there will be times you will annoy each other. That is to be expected. And both parties must be willing to serve one another. If anyone goes into marriage expecting to change that person, or for more selfish reasons, you want your man to wait on you hand and foot, or you want your wife to just stay in the kitchen, than that really isn't a healthy match, and both parties should really pray on if that is a good match. Sometimes it is, and sometimes you have to have patience in a marriage as there are many things you both have yet to learn.
In matters of waiting on healing, this is often a very tough question to answer, but I tend to look at my wife's example of her father passing away as him being healed on the other side of Heaven. We pray for healing for friends and family all the time. Sometimes, they are miraculously healed and go about praising God, and other times they succumb to illness and pass away from this world. If a person is saved, and has accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, we know that when they enter the Kingdom, they will be in their glorified bodies. Our heavenly bodies will have no illness or infirmity. It is perfected. Someone once described the Kingdom of Heaven as a picket fence. Is the fence itself all one piece? No, it is not. It is all space then? No, it is not. It's both the there and not. It is both here and what is yet to come. We know that when we pray for healing, that the person's glorified body is already healed and perfected. It's things like these that just are not easily described to an 11 year old girl, who has had multiple pastors and faith healers promise her that her dad will be healed. Thinking back on my own life and my own walk with the Lord, there were many, many times I was told something in my youth, and it baffled me then, and only upon my later adult life, do some of those things start making sense.
So, the next time you want something to happen, please pray about it. Give it to God and trust in His perfect timing. Know that God is Our Father, and as Our Heavenly Parent, only He can tell if something is for our own good or not. Sometimes he doesn't let the thing we want happen come to pass, and it's only because He has something much better in store for us. We just have to put our faith and trust in Him. Above all, do not make rash decisions or do something out of anger or spite if what you want to happen doesn't happen in your timing. Sometimes God also holds off a thing from happening because we have an important lesson to learn before that thing comes to pass. But we have to hold faith that it will still happen.
Please join with me in prayer. “Father God, I want to lift up all of my brothers and sisters here that may be asking or needing for a thing to happen in their lives. I pray that you would teach all of us the value of patience, as it is a divine virtue. I also ask that you give my friends here an answer to the things that they need to have happen and if not, please bring them your blessed assurances that you have something much better for them in store. Help us to not lose faith in you and in your timing, Lord. I ask that you would bring healing and deliverance from everything that our brothers and sisters might be going through. I ask that you would be with all of us from this day forward and as we go about this coming week. I ask this all in Jesus' mighty name. Amen.!”
If anyone here has a specific prayer request, please feel free to reach out and send a message to us, and one of the admins will be more than happy to pray for you.
And now, may the Lord bless you and keep you; May the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; And may the Lord turn his face to you and give you His Holy peace. In the name of The Father, and of The Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Have a blessed week everyone!
Deus Vult!
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