Pastor Brian preached a message on the blessings
of the priesthood And I left here that Sunday
and went home and for the next few days The Lord
just started to impress upon my mind this message
which was inspired by that word that was preached
two weeks ago It's another part. It's kind of
like another that goes with that because he was
talking about blessings and today I'm going to
be talking about promise and the blessings that
come with the promise Genesis chapter 21 so thank
you pastor Brian for preaching that message Genesis
chapter 21 verses 1 through 2 and the Lord visited
Sarah as he had said and the Lord did for Sarah
as he had spoken for Sarah conceived and bore
Abraham a son in his old age at the set time
of which God Spoken had spoken to him My title
today is going to be at the set time 2nd Corinthians
chapter 1 verse verse 20 says for all the promises
of God in him are ye and In him amen to the glory
of God through us God keeps his promises and
I think there's some people in this place today.
God has given you a promise maybe as a church
But as individuals also, collectively as a church,
corporately as a church, He's given us a promise.
But I think every single person in this room
today, now I think I know that the Word of God
has given every single one of us a promise. It
may not be, you may not have a specific promise
that you say, well, God told me personally this
is going to happen. But I'm going to show you
in a little while that God has given a promise
to every single person in this place. And He
will fulfill that promise if we trust in the
Lord. For a little while. I'm going to take you
through a little bit of a story with Abraham
and Sarah Many of you know the story very well
and as I mentioned that the Tyler today is at
the set time Just pray and ask God to touch your
mind today that you would receive From his word
today receive from this message in the name of
Jesus You may be seated today. I give honor to
Pastor and Sister Linder and for their leadership
and for trusting many of us who stand behind
this pulpit to bring the word of God. Everyone
wants blessings as we should. God does not withhold
blessings from us, whether we're saint or sinner.
God blesses because of his love for all. If we
took the time to take inventory in our own lives,
we can see innumerable evidences of God's blessings
in our lives. But we have forgotten most of them.
And we can miss much of what He's doing even
right now. They're blessings in our lives. The
very fact that He woke you up this morning is
a blessing. The very fact that He brought you
here today and brought you into this service
is a blessing. You were able to get dressed and
come here and and and you can hear and you can
that's a blessing from the Lord We take those
things for granted. It's a blessing from the
Lord If you have heat in your home and AC in
your house, that's a blessing from the Lord God
is good. If you have food on your table. That's
a blessing from the Lord That's a blessing from
the Lord. That's a blessing from the Lord. We
can't we have to be careful not to take it for
granted We have all had trouble We will continue
as long as we are breathing even though we are
blessed Which we have trouble in two of the most
depressing verses that you will ever read in
the Bible. Yes, they're very depressing Job chapter
4 verses 1 through 2 says man who was born of
woman is few of days and full of trouble He comes
like he comes out like a flower and withers he
flees like a shadow and continues not Turn to
your neighbor and say you're a flower Don't tell
them that they're gonna wither though. Just tell
them that you're a flower When God inspired the
writers to pen the 66 books that are in our Bible
He didn't hide the good the bad or the ugly You've
got to thank God for that transparency because
we have those types of experiences good bad and
ugly But at the end of joe's life, even though
those two verses were a bit depressing at the
end of joe's life In joe chapter 42 verse 10
and the lord restored the fortunes of joe When
he had prayed for his friends and the lord gave
joe twice as much as he had before Turn to your
neighbor and said you're gonna be even you're
gonna be even a more beautiful flower I'll leave
that there I don't know, thank you pastor. I
don't know where you are in your trial and you're
waiting for what you're trusting in the Lord
for. But as we say here often, the best is yet
to come. The best is yet to come. Psalm chapter
34 verse 19 says, many are the afflictions of
the righteous but the Lord delivers him out of
them all. That is a promise from God for the
righteous. That's a promise. Deliverance from
all of our afflictions. We are still blessed
when we go through trial. You may be in a trial
right now, but I just listed a whole bunch of
things that say we are blessed and you are blessed
even though you're going through the trial because
he keeps us and he always provides for us. but
this is where confusion sets in at times because
anxiety for the expected promise sets in when
God gives us a promise because we want to receive
what God has for us right now if You're like
me. Sometimes you become a little bit impatient.
You're like God. Where is this? I want this right
now What happens though when blessings or are
unrelated to God's promise for our lives? Because
so many times there is an unknown and anxious
period of time between the promises of God and
the eventual blessings that come as a result
of the promises that he gives to us. And unfortunately,
many people give up during that period of time.
Many life -changing mistakes are made during
this period of time. The future of entire families
are altered because someone says, I can't wait
anymore. Or they say, this is too much. I need
to take control. What we fail to understand sometimes
that God is trying to prepare us for his promises
to be fulfilled in our lives. He doesn't want
us to rely on counterfeit blessings that will
eventually fall apart. God wants us to have life
-changing, life -altering blessings that deepen
our faith in him because they will bring us permanent
victories. This is the scripture that I was alluding
to before when I'm going to show you that God
has given us promises to us all. Jeremiah chapter
29 verse 11 says, for I know the plans I have
for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare
and not for evil to give you a future and a hope.
That's a promise for every single person that
is sitting in this place today. Oh, but that
is so vague. A future and a hope. What does that
mean? You know, that is a promise of every child,
but of God today. If you've never claimed that
promise I encourage you to do so even though
you may not fully understand it because it will
help us to sustain sustain us through every trial
that you will ever have to experience or ever
have to go through in your life and you're going
through it you're saying God you promise to give
me a future and you promise to give me a hope
and I'm trusting in you I don't know what that
looks like I don't know when it's going to come
but you said you promised to give me a future
and you've promised to give me a hope Notice
that that promise does not give specifics, because
God's plan for each life is different, but it's
still a promise. Counterfeit blessings are those
blessings we generate because of impatience while
we wait for God's promise. They satisfy our carnal
desire and our timeline, but can bring misery
and pain to us, leaving us worse off than we
were before. Those kind of self -imposed blessings
will make us feel good in the short term and
serve to cause stagnation in our relationship
with God. And they can cause us many and have
caused many people to walk away from God, walk
away from their relationship with God. Preparation
while waiting for God's promises to come to fruition
is key. And we will be challenged by our own
thoughts. We will be challenged by the enemy
and we will be challenged by others. We will
be challenged by all the naysayers. Most of our
life -changing and life -altering blessings will
not come overnight. They will take time because
we need emotional mental and spiritual development
that we often so do we don't often don't understand
We think that when God gives us a promise we're
ready to receive it But gotta say no, you're
not ready to receive it yet. It's still there
I'm still I promise it to you is going to happen
But he gives it to us so that we can understand
that we do have a future and we do have a hope
But in the meantime, I've got to work on you.
I've got to do some things that you cannot do
so you will attain the promise and the blessings
that come from the promise. From the conception
to a baby's birth, a fetus requires a developmental
time period. God made several promises to Abram.
Genesis chapter 12 verse 1 through 3 it says
now the Lord said to Abram go from your country
and your kindred and your father's house to the
land where I will show you and I will make you
a great nation and I will bless you and Make
you your name great so that you will be will
be a blessing I will bless those who bless you
and him who dishonors you I will curse and you
and in you all the families of the earth Shall
be blessed that was a great promise that god
made to abram and his wife his family to come
But after a good amount of time many of you know
the story After a good amount of time of waiting
the promised offspring Was not coming to fruition
So genesis chapter 16 verse 3 so after abram
had lived 10 years In the land of Canaan, Sarah
Abram's wife took Hagar, the Egyptian, her servant,
and gave her to Abram, her husband, as a wife.
Ten years now had passed. God, where's the promise?
Don't see it coming. Unfortunately, it was a
wrong move for Sarah, wrong move for Abram, wrong
move for Hagar. When Hagar became pregnant, she
had disdain and disrespect towards Sarah. A rivalry
and hatred was born instantly that continues
to this day, if you know anything about the Middle
East, between the children of that promise and
the do -it -myself blessing. I can't wait. I
have to do it myself. Although Ishmael, who would
become the son, that was born to Hagar and Abram,
although Ishmael was not the promised heir that
God intended for Abram and Sarah. This is what
God did. God blessed him and his offspring because
God had made a promise to Abram. God keeps his
promises. But here's the situation. We sometimes
do things that cause us to struggle. with the
promises that God will eventually give to us
or struggle alongside because of the things that
we've done. Hagar ran away into the wilderness
because Sarah had noticed that and became very
upset with her. And then in Genesis chapter 16
verse 10 through 12 God looked down and he was
very merciful to her and the angel of the Lord
also said to her I will surely multiply your
offspring so that they cannot be numbered for
multitude and the angel of the Lord said to her
behold you are pregnant and shall bear a son
you shall call his name Ishmael because the Lord
has listened to your affliction he shall be a
wild donkey of a man His hand against everyone
and everyone's hand against him, and he shall
dwell over against his kinsmen. Once again, the
grace of God, but he was not the promise. He
was the counterfeit blessing that they made up
because they could not be patient for the Lord.
The negative consequences of that decision by
the three of them became worse when Hagar saw
that she had a son. For Abraham and Sarah did
not. Ishmael was not the promise that God had
in mind. He was a blessing to Abraham and Sarah,
but he was not the true. Promise but God in his
mercy and kind so he's God himself named him
and made a promise to Hagar He said I want I
want you to take note of verse 12 where it says
that God with his hand would be against every
One and and everyone's hand against him God said
and basically what God is saying Hagar Abram
I gave you a son I blessed your son. He's not
the true promise. The true promise is still to
come. But this is what's going to happen as a
consequence of you doing it yourself. I'm going
to make him an enemy to you. You're going to
continually struggle against him. Those peoples
are going to continue and always struggle against
each other. The promise of God, promises of God
are guaranteed. Once he gives a promise count
on it coming to pass The question is will we
wait for his promise or will we create our own
fulfillment of that promise? There is no need
for us to be impatient with God I know we feel
it in our flesh We feel it in our carnal nature
second Corinthians chapter 1 verse 20 says for
all the promises of God and him are yes And in
him amen to the glory of God through us as I
read before Again, God keeps his promises. So
whatever promise God has made to you Be certain
that it would be certain that it will come to
pass in due time Because the Bible says in Numbers
chapter 3 verse 20, I'm sorry Numbers chapter
23 verse 19. God is not man that he should lie
or the Son of Man, that he should change his
mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or
has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? If
God has given you a promise, you can take it
to the bank. You can be promised today. You can
be certain today that God has not lied to you,
but that it will come to pass at the set time
that he wants it to come to pass. The problem
that we run into is that we think our timing
should be God's timing. God does not work on
the seasons that he has given to us. He doesn't
work on the times. He doesn't work by our clock.
He's the one that created time. He doesn't work,
but he's outside of time. Everything is done
according to his will and is done according to
the faith that we have in him. That's how it's
done. He brings promises to pass according to
his will and when he knows that we are ready
to receive Those promises then they will come
to pass No, regardless of how much time it takes
So now 13 years after Ishmael was born God spoke
to Abraham again to remind him about the earlier
promise and to instruct him now to prepare to
receive it As if to say, okay Abram, okay Sarah,
you did it your way now. Now I want you to be
prepared. And that wasn't the only time when
they kind of generated their own thing. Because
when you read their story, you read in the Bible,
you see there was a couple of times, because
Sarah, the Bible says, was such a beautiful woman,
when they would go into places, Abram would say,
hey, do yourself, do us a favor. Tell them that
you are my sister so they won't try and kill
me so that they can have you. Okay, so when you
go there I'll put it in my and just my words
I'm not gonna trust God to protect this So here's
a deal. Here's my backup plan Tell them that
you are my sister and that we're not married
keeps me alive You'll stay but it'll keep me
alive. You'll be alive, but I want to stay alive
a little bit longer also Technically, they were
brother and sister, they were half brother and
half sister. But he kind of twisted it. I just
want to say that when we get to heaven, we ought
to give Abraham and Sarah a big hug, because
their business is all over the place. And we
get to listen to it, we get to hear it, and when
you tell them thank you. Tell them your business.
Tell them what God has done for you. Tell them
the things that you messed up on and tell them
how God has blessed you as he has blessed them.
13 years after Ishmael was born, God spoke to
Abram again and reminded him. Genesis chapter
17, verses one through two. When Abram was 99
years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said
to him, I am God Almighty. Walk before me and
be blameless. that I may make my covenant between
me and you and I may multiply you greatly. This
is what God wants from us. While we wait for
his promises, he wants us to walk before him
and be blameless. The word blameless or perfect
does not mean without fault. Rather it refers
to walk before me in uprightness of heart walk
before me in sincerity and walk before me in
wholeness God knows that we're not perfect. He
knows that we have faults There was only one
sinless and spotless man and that was Jesus Christ
But he made the way for us his grace and his
mercy has covered us and it helps us through
all of our mistakes some Mark 37 verse 37 says,
mark the blameless man and observe the upright
for the future of that man is peace. So walk
in uprightness of heart, walk in sincerity in
your walk in your relationship with God and walk
in wholeness before him. Now we skip down to
Genesis chapter 17 verse 16. I will bless her
and moreover God speaking to Abram I will give
you a son by her and I will bless her and she
shall become nations Kings of peoples shall come
by her. So now later on it is now 14 years after
Ishmael was born that the real promise of Isaac
was born So if you are counting from the first
time that God gave gave Abraham the promise that
he was going to make him a great nation to the
time when Isaac was was born 24 years had elapsed
When God originally gave him that promise to
us That's a long time But to God it's not a long
time He sees the future better than we can see
the future. He knows the path that he wants us
to take So we need to trust him, regardless of
the date that's on the calendar. We need to walk
before him and be blameless while we wait for
him. If we look to God and trust in him, his
word promises in Psalms chapter 121, verse three,
he says, he will not allow your foot to be moved.
He who keeps you will not slumber. Verse five
goes on to say the Lord is your keeper. The Lord
is your shade at your right hand God will keep
us God will bless us or whatever it is that you're
waiting for know that it will it shall Come to
pass because he said I've given you a future
and I've given you a hope I think because we
live in a society that expects instant gratification,
we have this idea in our mind that we should
constantly be receiving fireworks of blessings
in our lives every day, all day long. It doesn't
work like that. Sometimes we just have to walk
with him. We just have to walk day after day
so that when God speaks his promises to us, we
think that they should immediately come to pass
so that we can have a testimony to share with
the world right away. You know, we want to put
it on Facebook. We want to put it out there so
that we can get the clicks and someone can pat
us on the back and say, isn't God good? But that's
not what God is all about. He's not all about
clicks. He's not about us getting a pat on the
back He's about his perfect will being done in
our lives because we are his children He doesn't
want to give us blessings for us to feel good
about ourselves. He doesn't work that way We
tend to grow impatient with God because we don't
have anything to show others For our waiting
as if others are the authors of our lives God
is the author of our life. God does not bless
us to impress other people. He blesses us because
of his love for us and for us to be a blessing
to other people. Sometimes we will receive blessings
instantly, but most of the time we will have
to wait. We'll have to wait for those promises.
God may not be on your time or my time, but he
is on our side. He is there for us. There's a
promise in the waiting because listen to this
This is a verse that we all verses that we all
know very well Isaiah chapter 40 verse 31 says
but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their
strength They shall man up with wings like Eagles.
They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk
and not faint That's a promise from the Lord
That's a promise from the Lord. That's a promise
from the Lord Don't neglect that promise It's
a promise of strength when you read those verses
that it's a promise of promise of strength It's
a promise of power. It's a promise of energy
and it's a promise of endurance That's a promise
now The promise hasn't come to pass that he gave
to you years ago. But he said in the midst of
your promise, I'm going to give you another promise.
You're going to be able to run. You're going
to be able to walk and not faint. You're going
to be able to man up with wings like eagles.
So I want you to trust in that because I have
given you a future and a hope that I don't want
you to neglect and forget about. Those are blessings
that we Forfeit while we wait because we do things
our way instead of God's way At the set time
God will fulfill his promises in our lives I
really wonder if Abram and Sarah didn't do what
they did if it would have actually taken 24 years
for Isaac before Isaac was born. I don't know
Remember that the children of this is how much
God regards faith our trust in him the children
of Israel when they got to the promised land
remember that at the first time because of their
lack of faith and unbelief God was not Happy
with them. So 40 more years they had to wonder
in a wilderness So what does that tell you about
our promise and what God is promising to us?
All he's saying to us is have faith have faith
have faith It's gonna come to pass have faith
have faith. It's gonna come to pass If you don't
have faith, then we are putting ourselves in
danger by doing things that he doesn't want us
to do We need to trust in God and God will honor
his word Wait on his promise, don't doubt it,
it will come to pass. But unfortunately, while
we wait, weariness sets in. And we can't allow,
we have to fight against weariness. Because what
weariness does is it brings compromise. Galatians
chapter six, verses seven through nine, listen
to what the apostle Paul says. He says, do not
be deceived. God is not mocked for whatever one
sows that will he also reap. For the one who
sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap
corruption. But the one who sows to the spirit
from will from the spirit reap eternal life.
And listen to verse nine, he says, and let us
not be weary, let us not grow weary of doing
good. For in due season we will reap if we do
not give up. The apostle Paul links sowing to
our flesh. By being weary That's what he's saying.
He said when you become weary, then you begin
to start sowing to your flesh That's what Abraham
and Sarah did they began where they got weary
and waiting till they said You know what flesh
started to take over and they started they sold
to their flesh. Don't fade faint or lose courage
while waiting on God weariness will bring impatience.
Impatience will cause us to make bad decisions.
Oh, do we all feel it? Absolutely, we all do.
But when we feel that weariness, we've got to
go to God and say, God, help me today. Give me
strength, your word. I just read it to you in
Isaiah. Your word says, I will mount up with
wings like an eagle. I will walk and I will not
faint. I will run and not beware. I will just
go to him, remind him of his promises to you.
Remind him of his promises and he will do it.
They grew impatient I can understand if you were
99 or 89 years old and God said I'm gonna give
you a such you'd be like so I Sarah laughed he
was like If you say so Lord But that's why we
need the supernatural strength of the Holy Ghost
to help us Because when we're going through all
kinds of stuff, we may not be 99 and 89 years
old in a natural But in the spiritual we feel
like God I've been waiting for ever and this
is not coming to pass So we need the supernatural
help of the Holy Ghost to help us to endure Genesis
chapter 18 verse 14 is anything too hard for
the Lord This is what God said to Abram when
they were snickering and wondering is it gonna
happen God said to them at the appointed time
I will return to you about this time next year
and Sarah will have a son A year later, Genesis
chapter 21, verses one through two, and the Lord
visited Sarah, and he had said, and the Lord
did for Sarah as he had spoken. For Sarah conceived
and bore Abram a son in his old age at the set
time of which God had spoken to him. I believe
that one of these days, God is going to come
back to us and say, remember that promise? In
such and such a time. It's gonna it's about to
come to pass When he comes to us during that
time, are we gonna be easy? Is he gonna find
us holding on by faith? Are we gonna be trusting
in him? I don't want I know, you know I'm not
here trying to kill Abraham and eyes and Sarah
for the mistake that they made But God doesn't
want us to bring along extra baggage with us
When he brings us into the promised land he doesn't
want us to he wants to he wants us to trust in
him He doesn't want us to bring extra stuff.
He doesn't want us to bring and have to deal
with an ishmael through the rest of our lives
You know why God's promises sometimes take a
while is simply because he wants to build faith
in us and This is what happened with Abraham
and Sarah because Hebrews chapter 11 verses 11
through 12 says by faith Sarah herself received
power to conceive, even when she was past the
age, since she considered him faithful who had
promised. So there came a point when Abraham
and Sarah said, you know what? We've messed up
enough. We've done it our way. And as soon as
their faith kicked in, God said, okay, now you
are ready to receive the promise that I have
for you to receive. And verse 12 says, therefore
from one man and him as good as dead were born
descendants as many as the stars of heaven and
as many as the innumerable grains of sand by
the seashore. God's promises he's he's gonna
bring it to pass as God has given you a promise
for heaven view If he's given you a promise in
your own personal life, it's coming to pass I'm
not here telling you today that he told me that
for you But he told me according to his word
that his promises are gonna come to pass for
each and every one of us It's coming to pass.
Whatever is happening in your life today. His
promises are coming to pass This promises are
coming to pass When I left New York over ten
years ago, the only thing God gave me Jeremiah
29 11. That's the only thing he gave to me It
wasn't even actually was not when I left it was
a cup it was like a couple years before and I
knew that where I was there was going to be a
transition coming at some point and Before I
had even left that position. God gave me that
verse Now, did I know that it was going to take
over five years later? I had no idea. Did I go
through stressful times? Absolutely. There were
times I had to go through and I had to remind
God. I said, God, what do you know? What are
you doing in my, what are you doing? What are
you doing to me? It's just, this is just tough.
This is hard to take. But God will later on would
just lead me and guide me to here And I don't
have time to get into the ins and outs the things
that he was doing behind the scenes But I'll
get but get into that in a moment and what he
was doing what he's doing in each and every one
of our lives While we wait for his promise Faith
that Abraham and Sarah had faith Even though
they laugh the promises of God are worth waiting
for the changes that he desires to make in our
lives is for us to know that our future is bright
and That we definitely can trust in him. God
is working while we wait for our promise to come
to pass The disciples of Jesus with Easter coming
next week and we celebrate the death burial and
resurrection of Jesus Christ The disciples of
Jesus were dismayed at the point of losing hope
Because their promise to them it seemed like
was dead Because Jesus was crucified and buried
their promise the Messiah was dead to them It
seemed that all hope was lost Some of them went
back to their lives as they knew it, but Jesus
was not dead He was working. He was doing things
and working in places where they couldn't work
where you and I cannot work To his enemies Jesus
was dead But guess who didn't who understood
that Jesus was not dead the devil knew that Jesus
wasn't dead Because Jesus was walking through
his territory Taking back the keys to death and
hell that it would no longer that death and hell
would no longer have power over us Jesus was
taking authority so that we can be confident
that death is not the end of those who receive
salvation. That is something that we could never
do ourselves. So the devil knows that your promise
is not dead. He just lies to you and I to try
to convince us that our promise is dead. The
devil worked very hard in your life to convince
you that your promise is dead Meanwhile over
his shoulder. He knows that I see what God is,
God is working something out on these, because
the demons are reporting back to him saying,
hey, something is happening over here. These
people that God, that something is happening
there, just like when everyone thought he was
dead, he was in hell shaking things up. He was
in hell taking back power. Well, this is what
God is doing in your life and my life while he's
having us wait. He's snatching power from the
enemy. He's snatching power from this one. He's
snatching power from that one because he's about
to give. He's about to give us the victory that
we couldn't attain for ourselves He's about to
give it to us if we just have trust and faith
in him Revelation chapter 1 verse 18. He says
I am he who lives and was dead and behold I am
alive forevermore Amen. I have the keys of Hades
and of death While it may look to you and I like
our promises of dead God is busy working. He
is busy working for art for you and I he's working
the scenes right now With that promise that you're
waiting on He's working in a situation that you
would never be able to work on if you give if
you were given a million years to live You would
never be able to work on that in that area where
God is working because only he can work there
Your promise is not dead because your resurrection
Sunday is coming Your resurrection Sunday is
coming your promise is not dead While we wait
on the promises and the blessings to be manifested
our lives there are two things That we need to
do as I hurry to a close Jesus said in Acts chapter
1 verse verse 4 And after he had been resurrected
and being assembled together with them he commanded
them not to depart from Jerusalem but to wait
for the promise of the Father, which he said,
you have heard from me. Verse 12 says, then they
returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet,
which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day journey
away. Verse 14 says, all these with one accord
were devoting themselves to prayer together with
the woman and Mary, the mother of Jesus and his
brothers. First Thessalonians chapter 5 verse
17 says pray without ceasing What was happening
there Jesus told them to go to the upper room
they obeyed They went they waited and while they
were in prayer the promise came We have to keep
our focus on God by making prayer a priority,
maintaining an awareness of God's presence throughout
our day, turning our thoughts into prayers. Let
prayer be your first response in every situation,
whether the situation is good or bad. Jesus commanded
them, they went and they tarried. They obeyed
him explicitly what he said. Because I think
if the if the Apostles and the and those had
went and did something else if they went someplace
else They probably would have been convinced
What did he promise you? I don't think that's
going to happen But they went straight to Jerusalem
They didn't turn to the left or to the right
and they waited because they obeyed and then
obedience leads to spiritual preparation So many
times we're not ready right away to receive what
God has for us. So many times we're not ready.
They devoted themselves to prayer and we need
to do the same. This is how we wait on the Lord.
We need to seek God through prayer and his word
for those promises because his timing is perfect
as they come to the instruments. When his time
is right, when the time was right, God poured
out His Spirit upon the 120 on the day of Pentecost
because they went to Jerusalem, waited, and they
prayed. In your life and in my life, God is saying,
those that wait upon the Lord, if we wait, He
will do it. If we trust in Him, it's guaranteed
He will do it. We just have to work with this
O 'Connell nature that wants to do it our way.
We can't do it our way. If you're in this place
today and you need the gift of the Holy Ghost,
that is one promise that you don't have to wait
for. That promise is available today. It's already
out there. He just says you just have to receive
it. All you have to do is repent of your sins.
Receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For he says
in 2 Corinthians 6 verse 2, He says, in an acceptable
time I have heard you, and in a day of salvation
I have helped you. Behold, now is the accepted
time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. Could
we all stand today? The promise of the Holy Ghost
is for everyone. Whether it's your first time
today or it's been a while since you've spoken
in tongues, it's been a while since you've really
Touch God. He wants to renew you today. If you
need the Holy Ghost, if you need to be baptized
in His name, the water is ready, the robes are
ready. You can be baptized in the name of Jesus
for the remission of your sins. You can receive
the promise today. But I also wanted to tell
anyone else today in this place, if there's a
promise that you've been waiting for from God,
I want to help you to understand today that you've
got to believe. Trust in God for that promise.
Don't do anything that he hasn't asked you to
do. Just trust in him and believe on him, and
he will bring that promise to pass. As we all
come to this altar, I want you to come with that
in mind. Today, things may seem like they're
hopeless in your life. Maybe you have questions
as to what God is doing. But I want you to remind
I want to remind you of Jeremiah chapter 29 verse
11 He says I know the plans I have for you He
said the plans are not of evil. It may feel like
evil is happening all around you may seem like
things are depressing But don't I want I don't
want you to focus on that He said I have a future
and I have a hope for you So whatever it is that
you're waiting on the Lord for it's gonna come
to pass I'm telling you today, I'm guaranteeing
it today by the word of God. If you trust in
God, it's going to happen. Regardless of what
other people are saying, regardless of what the
naysayers are saying, it's going to come to pass.
Trust in the promises of God because at the set
time, he's going to bring it to pass. Can we
go before the Lord today, worshiping Him? Lord,
God, renew promises in heart today. Renew your
spirit in the hearts and lives of everyone in
this place today. Remind us today, Lord God,
that your promise is gonna come to pass. It may
have been 10 years ago. It may have been 20 years
ago that you gave the promises, oh Lord, but
they're gonna come to pass because you're working
things behind the scenes that we can't see and
we don't understand. Whatever God has promised
you, believe for it right now. Don't doubt it.
Don't let the enemy try and confuse you and tell
you a lie to you and say it's not happening.
Repute the enemy right now. Submit yourself therefore
to God. Resist the devil and let him flee and
he will flee from you. But trust in God. Trust
in the Lord today.