The impact of divine delay

Hi, this is Dave Olson. I'm the senior leader of

Heartland Church located in Ankeny, IA.

I hope the following message challenges, encourages and

ultimately changes you. Thanks for joining us.

We started a series couple of weeks ago.

We were calling it the Three Wise Women of Christmas.

We talked about the three wise Men and in fact, there's no real

historical precedence to think that there were 33 wise men.

There was, you know, big entourage.

But we, we make a lot of the wise men, but we don't talk

enough about the the women of Christmas.

There are three characters that were very key to what God was

doing in the Christmas story. Of course, Mary, she gets a lot

of press and rightly so. I mean, she yielded her life.

We're going to, God willing, look at her next week. 2 weeks

ago we looked at Elizabeth and her husband Zachariah and this

week what I want to look at is another woman of Christmas by

the name of Anna. We often don't think of her as

one of the women of Christmas but the fact that she was part

of the Christmas story. And in fact, we could call this

the three power couples of Christmas because we have

Zechariah and Elizabeth, who God used to bring John forth.

And then Elizabeth, who was the cousin of Mary, actually

mentored Mary through the pregnancy process.

And there's a reason for that. There's all of these individuals

were connected in what God was doing.

And then we have the the, you know, of course, Mary and

Joseph, they get a lot of press. We'll we'll deal with them next

week. But this week I want to look at

a, a couple called Simeon and Anna.

Now, some of you, if you know, you're Bobby, you're going to

say, wait a minute, pastor, you're stretching that they're

not a couple. Yeah, in the truest sense of the

word. You're right.

They're not married. They're they, we don't have any

reason to believe they knew each other.

But the Bible and the narrative connects them together.

There's something that God was doing through this couple, the

the first couple, Zechariah and Elizabeth and Simeon and Anna.

So here's our point. Here's where we're going with

this, that God never works in a vacuum.

He doesn't. When Jesus arrived on planet

Earth in the infant form, the initial invasion of the Kingdom

of God on earth, it didn't just happen in a vacuum.

There were things that were going on in the background.

The backdrop of this story was very, very important.

And the fact is God never moves in a vacuum.

What we see as the visitation and actuality, there's always

preparation before the visitation.

There's things going on in private before we see the public

manifestation and the people that are the private players, if

you will, the people that are part of what God's doing in the

background often don't get talked about, but they need to

because God is using these two couples to come alongside this

couple in the middle. And so we looked at Zachariah

and Elizabeth. We know that Mary, when she, you

know, they were cousins, when the Angel shows up to Mary, he

says you're going to you're going to give birth to a child

and he will be known as the son of the most high God.

And it always intrigues me that Mary didn't assume that this

would be the product of reunion with her fiance Joe.

She was already betrothed. They were going to get married,

but she didn't just assume, oh, I guess Joe and I are going to

have a baby for some reason, unlike her great, great, great,

great grand pappy Abraham, who when God said I'm going to make

you into a great nation, he thought I'm going to help out.

He had a baby with Haggar and we're still dealing with that.

If you know your biblical history and your modern Middle

Eastern conflict history, you know what I'm talking about.

But Mary didn't assume that. She said, how can this be?

And he said that the Spirit will come upon you.

And she understood that there was something supernatural about

this. It wasn't a prophecy about the

future. It was an invitation to

something now. And so Mary would became

pregnant. She became by the Spirit of God

as a virgin and she carried the Christ.

But the the Angel at the end of that, he said, and by the way,

your cousin Elizabeth, who's not been able to get pregnant, she

is with child right now and she's in her third month.

And so with that, the Angel tied her pregnancy.

Why did he mention that? Why was that important for her

to know? Was it just encouragement that

hey, you know, there's a lot of supernatural activity going on

here. I believe it's more than that.

Immediately Mary went to Elizabeth and she stayed with

her for six months. So the first six months of

Mary's pregnancy was the final six months of Elizabeth and she

was being mentored. So you have these three couples

now. I find it fascinating.

And I want to encourage you when you read the Bible, always look

for patterns, look for connections, look for things

that are showing up that look like patterns.

And you may not have understanding about it in the

moment, but write those things down because God wants to show

you things through the patterns. And so I've been, I've been

meditating on this, just asking the Lord what the deal is with

these three ladies because they all have, there's a, there's a

circumstance surrounding their family life that was unique.

So you have Elizabeth and Zachariah, She here, Elizabeth

is a woman well along in the years.

She's already past menopause. She's past her childbearing

years. And so she is a woman that

longed to have children. She's married, but they were

never able to have children. And we know they wanted children

because when the Angel comes to her, he says, or to her husband

rather, he says to Zachariah, your prayers have been heard.

So these prayers from decades ago, we're now going to be

answered. So there here was a couple.

She was married but never was able to have children until now.

Then you've got this other couple, Joseph and Mary, They're

just engaged. They, they don't even in the

biblical sense know each other. They've never consummated their

relationship. They're good Jewish believers.

They they haven't, you know, she's still a virgin.

And the Angel comes here and said, you're going to have a

baby early. You're going to have a baby not

only before you're married, but before you've ever known a man.

Whereas this couple has been married for decades.

And then now they're beyond the childbearing years and they're

going to have a baby. And then we have this third

lady, lady who is Anna now Anna it says we're going to read

about it in a moment here. Anna it says that was she was

married for seven years, then lost her husband until she was

84 years old. So from her the death of her

husband until she was 84, she never left the temple.

It meant that that's she just spent all her time at the temple

night and day, praying, fasting, and she was known as a

prophetess. And so she has spent all these

years. So we have one couple who they

were married, she had a husband, but she was never able to have

kids until there was this divine intervention.

Then we have another couple, they're just engaged.

And now she finds herself pregnant before time.

And then we have this other gal. Not only did she not have a

child, she lost her husband. And it ties her and this

gentleman named Simeon, not not relationally, but their

narrative, their story together. And so it's intriguing.

There's a pattern here talking about their unique family

dynamics and all that they're going through.

And I'm what I'm proposing to you this morning is again, God

never operates in a vacuum. There's always many things going

on in the background. And these two bookend couples

are paving the way for what Mary's stepping into these two,

this, this couple, they had to wait well beyond the normal

amount of time to have a child. And Mary entered into this thing

early. Why is that?

And I'm proposing to you that there is a generational

connection and there always is whenever God's moving afresh in

planet earth, whenever there's a fresh move of God, there is God

is operating behind the scenes. And so this couple, they, they

had to their, their delay was a divinely imposed, OK, some of

you been crying out for something and you feel like God

is saying no, but he may not be saying no.

He may be saying not yet. And the reason he's saying not

yet is because there's something being paved.

There's something being removed. And what Elizabeth and Zachariah

would give birth to was the man known as the greatest of

prophets in the Old Testament. He was a unique man.

He was a great man. And in actuality, he paved the

way for Jesus ministry. So whereas this couple, they

were told no all these years, the divine delay was divinely

imposed. And rather than getting

frustrated and offended and thinking, well, God, you know,

God's forgotten about us, God doesn't care.

They stayed in the faith, they served faithfully only to end up

giving birth in their latter years.

And there's a reason for that because they, what they were

going to give birth to was connected to what Mary would

give birth to. And that's why the Angel said,

hey, by the way, not only are you pregnant, but your Baron

cousin Elizabeth is in her third month.

There was a connection between these two things.

So what Elizabeth carried John the Baptist, according to

Isaiah, would pave the way. He would be the preparer of the

way for what Mary would carry the Messiah.

And so there was this connection.

And so that's why Mary, when she found out she was pregnant, she

found out her cousin was pregnant.

What'd she do? She hightailed it over and she

lived with her, her cousin Elizabeth through the final six

months of her pregnancy. She was going to be mentored by

someone older. Now I want to preach to the

young people here. God, often what God will do is

he will, he will cause the previous generation to pay the

price. They will have a divine delay.

God will tell them no longer than normal so that you can

enter in quicker than normal, so that you can move into

something. And you've got to always be

careful because we tend to put this way.

Anybody ever read about Charles Finney?

You know who Charles Finney is. If you've never read about him,

get his autobiography. Don't get the abridged version

because they kind of extract all the supernatural stuff out of

it. You need to read the the his

autobiography because he's an amazing man.

Saw a tremendous move of God known as the Second Great

Awakening in the United States and the Northeastern area of our

our United States just burned with revival.

There were 50,000 people a week getting saved at the height of

this revival. And back then the population of

the United States was much lower.

And we tend to know about Charles Finney and the great

revivals that he was. He wrote in his autobiography.

He said, I loved this phrase. He said it was as though a

pervading conviction registered upon the public conscience.

What he's talking about is there was an environmental presence of

the convicting power of God, so man could not live comfortable

in their sin. They were living under

conviction and people would people would be hanging out on

the street and someone would curse and then they they'd

apologize to each other. None of them are believer, but

there was just this pervading conviction.

What most of us don't know is that Charles Finney was the Mary

carrying the revival, but there was an Elizabeth and an Anna

behind the scenes in the form of a man named Father Nash.

Father Nash happened to be a Presbyterian pastor who, while

he was pastoring, got saved sitting under Finney's ministry.

He's he's a pastor, but he's not even a believer.

I mean, he intellectually believed he was not converted.

And Finney stirred things up. There was, I remember reading

one story where he was preaching and he was staying at the

pastor's house. He got to the pastor's house

that night and the wife she, she started yelling at the pastor at

Finney, how dare you speak of this, these types of things in

the services. If God wants to save me, he will

save me and when he's good and ready.

And she was just agitated under conviction and she stormed out

and the pastor looked at Finney and said see what your preaching

is doing to my congregation. She ended up getting saved by

the way. But what they, what happened is

Father Nash would go into a city in advance.

He'd go in two, 3-4 weeks in advance.

He would get a hotel room and he would lock himself away and pray

through until he'd had a breakthrough.

And he'd send send message to Finney, hey, we're ready.

Finney would get there and he'd say, can his father Nash staying

here? He'd go to an inn.

They'd say, yeah, this guy Nash, Yeah, he did Register here.

And he's been in his room the whole time.

He's never come out. And it's kind of strange.

There's weird noises coming out of his room, but he would pray

this thing through and then Finney would go in and it just

tremendous moves of God. Entire cities were saved, so

much so that 100 years later that sociologists were still

measuring. Secular non believing

sociologists were tracing cultural, cultural impact,

things that were part matter of fact.

They did a study of the kindest city in America.

This is about 30 years ago. And they found that Rochester,

NY was the kindest city in America.

And the way they found that out is they would have people go in

and pretend they were blind and they drop money that kind of ask

for help. And I believe it was about 30

years ago and they found it was the kindest city in America.

And these non Christian sociologists traced it all the

way back to Finney's revivals. That lasting impact.

It was an amazing move of God. But when Father Nash passed

away, Finney stopped traveling because the impact of his

preaching had diminished. And so whenever God's moving,

there are numerous figures, numerous people involved.

Whenever God uses you, there are other people that were being

used by God to prepare you behind the scenes.

And it just may be that you might be the person behind the

scenes and not the person carrying the thing.

And so we always need to realize that we are interconnected.

And so when Mary was got pregnant, she went to Elizabeth

and she walks in the door and Elizabeth says, when I heard

your voice, my baby leapt within me.

And when God is doing something fresh in your life, what you

need to do is you need to find other believers that are a

little farther along than you are.

And when it's a God ordained relationship, I'm telling you,

your babies will jump when you talk.

You'll feel that witness within you that there's there's a

fueling of what the dreams, the things that you carry.

My spiritual mother, she I worked for her.

She was worked, she ran the kitchen at the Bible school I

was in. And so she started disciple and

we finally, I'd show up for work.

She should just sit down. I'll do the dishes, read this

article. And then she'd preach to me and

I'd read, reading these articles, but we'd go out for

coffee, we'd meet at McDonald's. And she was an old woman of 29.

I was 19. She was this real old gal.

But here's the thing. She used to tell me, some of you

have heard me say this before, but she used to tell me, listen,

Dave, you can either make your own mistakes or you can learn

from mine. And I thought, hey, she's paid

the tuition on that. I'm going to learn from her

mistakes. That is, that was a wise thing

for her to tell me. But she had an uncommon

relationship with the Lord. And the reason is she had been

through some hard things. And So what, when she was 16

years old, she got pregnant with with her boyfriend.

They got married, then they had another daughter immediately.

She had two daughters. And I believe by the time she

was 19, her husband had abandoned her.

And so I met her ten years later.

Again, she was this aged person of 29.

But because of what she'd been through, and she didn't allow it

to make her bitter, she tied into God and really sought the

Lord. And she had an uncommon

relationship. And that is who Anna was.

Let's, let's, let's look at this.

Anna had gone through some uncommon things and it made her

a tremendous woman of God. All right, look at a verse 25 in

Luke chapter 2, verse 25, it says now there was a man in

Luke 2:25

Jerusalem. So we're we're looking at the

wise women, a Christian, but we're going to look at the power

couples. OK, so we're going to start with

Simeon. This morning there was a man in

Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. And this man was righteous and

devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel.

So let's just pause there. Jump with me to verse 36.

So in 25, it says there was a man in Jerusalem and explains

him in his circumstances in the scenario in which he runs into

Jesus. And then in verse 36 and it

says, and there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter

Ephanuel of the tribe of Astra. What is it talking about?

It's tying these two people together that there was this

aged man named Simeon and this aged widow named Anna.

And so although they're not connected relationally, they

were connected in the purposes of God.

So let's jump back to Simeon. I love this.

Listen to what he says, a man named Jerusalem whose name was

Simeon. Now, a lot of scholars surmise

that Simeon was the. Let me see if I can open this

up, this little note I had written one time.

There are many who believe that Simeon was the son of a famous

rabbi by the name of Hillel and the father of Gamaliel.

Now many of you will remember Gamaliel because Paul was was

disciple by Gamaliel and he was a famous rabbi.

And he also was the one who stood before the Sanhedrin and

cautioned them, remember, when they were coming against Jesus?

And he said, hey, guys, just be careful because in coming

against this guy, you may find you're coming against God

himself. And he was rightly discerning

that was the case. That was Gamaliel.

And so many believe that Simeon was, you know, in the

generations of that. And he was a man of the Spirit.

Listen what it says, whose name was Simeon.

This man was righteous and devout, waiting for the

consolation of Israel. And the Holy Spirit was upon

him. I love that he was anointed to

wait. Some of you need an anointing to

wait. It's one thing to wait.

It's another thing to wait with the anointing.

There is an anointing to wait. I remember years ago a young

couple that I I'd known for years, they came to me and they

said, Pastor Dave, they said we're, we're, we're leaving the

church. They're still serving the Lord.

We're still in touch. We write, you know, they, they

live out of state now, but This is why they said, they said we

just, it's too hard to wait for the promises of God.

They said, man, God has given us promises and we've been waiting

nine months and we've still seen no movement.

And they said, and you talk about promises God gave you 20

years ago. We don't, we can't do that.

I appreciated their honesty. I was a little disappointed in

their approach, but the fact is you need an anointing to wait.

We need to protect the promises of God.

We need to cultivate those promises because all of our

hearts can become faint. In fact, I would propose to you

that the reason we see these two people, Simeon and Anna, run

into Jesus along with Mary and Joseph, see Mary as as she's

conceiving by the Spirit. She goes to Elizabeth so

Elizabeth can encourage her and mentor.

But once she's given birth to this child, we're kind of going

after Christmas this morning. They go to dedicate Jesus at the

temple, and it says that Simeon was stirred by the Spirit that

day. He'd been waiting for the

consolation of Israel. What it's saying is he was been

waiting for the Messiah to arrive.

And the Lord had told him, you will not die until you lay hands

on the Messiah. He will be born before you die.

And that morning it says he was stirred by the Spirit.

The Spirit was upon him and he had been waiting.

He'd been anointed to nurse that promise.

Mary had been pregnant with something, Elizabeth had been

pregnant with something. But make no mistake about it,

Simeon had been pregnant with something for a long time and he

was about ready to give birth. A guy giving birth.

Let's just say it guys, most of us couldn't handle that, OK?

But anyways, we honor you women, OK?

So, but Simeon is carrying something, and that morning he

was stirred and he went to the temple and he saw Jesus.

Put that picture up there. Guys, some of you have seen this

picture before. I'm not sure.

I don't know if it was by Kincaid or what, but I love that

picture and it's Simeon dedicating Jesus.

Look at that tear coming down. This is a man who's carried a

promise for decades. Just keep that up there.

He's he's been carrying this promise for decades.

He'd been anointed to wait. And that morning he woke up and

the Lord said today's the day, go to the temple.

And when he saw the baby, listen to what his prayer is this this

so moves me. Listen to this he as it had been

revealed in by the Spirit of God that he would not see death

before he had seen the Lord's Christ and he came in the spirit

into the temple. So he's in the spirit that day.

He's being led by the Spirit. And it says when the parents

brought in the child Jesus to do for him according to the custom

of the law, he took him in his arm.

So the parents had come to fulfill the the dictates of the

law and dedicate their first born son and Simeon.

So I mean, you know how people come up.

I'm one of those, hey, can I hold your baby?

And people let me usually because I'm a pastor and they

trust me and I can I hold your baby.

And so he scoops the baby up and listen to what he says.

This is beautiful. Keep your eyes on that picture.

Listen to this, Lord. Now you are letting your servant

depart in peace according to your word.

What he's saying is God, I'm ready to die.

I have been living for this moment all these decades, and

now I've laid my eyes on the promise.

This is what I've been living towards, and I could die a happy

man. That's the Dave Olson version.

I could die a happy man. You see what Mary was carrying

in a physical pregnancy. There was this couple, Simeon

and Anna, independently of one another.

But the Spirit of God ties them together in the narrative.

They had been praying this thing through.

They were the father Nash for the finny birth of Jesus.

They had been praying behind the scenes.

God never moves in a vacuum. Anytime you see God do anything

in anybody's life, there's other people involved that you may not

know about. But rest assured, there were

other people paying the price and often it's a generation

previous. Mary was a young version.

These two, these two couples were elderly and well along in

years. And the fact is God allowed a

delay in their life so that Mary could enter in early.

So I want to speak to those who are a little longer in years,

there might be have been a delay in some of the things you're

praying for, but God is faithful and it just may be that you're

paying the price for what the next generation is going to

enter into. And that is a noble thing in the

Kingdom, man, we are, we are indebted to some people that

held the line in this church. It was about 35 years ago now,

they almost closed this church. Heartland was on the other side

of town. There was probably 20, 25 people

left and it was, it was a struggling church and we almost

closed and there were a few people that held the line and

many of them have now passed on. There was Bill Culver, he was

here first service. He's still here.

One of the one of the last ones that are still with us, Jerry

and Kay Marlowe, they they're still with us.

There was Barb McAfee, who just went to be the Lord a few months

ago. But there were, there were

people who held the line here and there were they went through

some barren years at Heartland and stayed faithful.

And you and I are the recipients of that.

And we are actually reaping the benefit of their laborers.

And we're looking in this great thing we got going.

Yeah, thanks to them. And we've got to realize that

there's a humility that's required of us to honor the

laborers of those who have gone before us.

There is no such thing as the self-made man, the self-made

organization. There's always people that

deserve credit and honor, and it just may be that God has imposed

a delay on you so that someone else can break in early.

And they're the ones that that is going to be talked about.

But rest assured, when you get to heaven, there's going to be a

shared reward in these things. And so, but we need those

Zechariahs and Elizabeths. We need those simians and those

Anas. So listen to what it says here.

He said, Lord, verse 29 Now you are letting your servant depart

in peace according to your word. For my eyes have seen your

salvation, that you have prepared in the presence of all

peoples, a light for revelation for the Gentiles, and glory to

all your people. Israel.

And his father and mother marveled at what was said about

him, and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, This is heavy.

Behold, this child is appointed for the rising and falling of

many in Israel and for a sign that will be opposed.

And then he mentions this and a sword will Pierce through your

soul as well. So the thoughts of many hearts

will be revealed. He was a man of the spirit that

had been carrying this thing. And just think about that.

This guy, he's not blowing smoke here.

He said, Lord, I'm ready to go home.

This is the moment I've been living for, and now that it's

fulfilled, I can go home. I've finished my assignment.

He understood his life, his prayers, his walk with the Lord

was intimately connected to Jesus breaking into human

history. And once it was done, he said,

I'm ready to go home. I've got my reward.

But he's not the only one. Listen to this verse 36.

And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Fenuel,

the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years,

having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a

virgin. So conservatively speaking, if

she got married as an old woman of 20 in Jewish culture, if she

waited till she was 20 and she was married for seven years, she

was and her husband died at 27 and now 85, she's had a she's

had decades of seeking the Lord. That's what's going to tell us

now some translations, because the the Greek is a little

unclear. It we don't know if it says she

spent 85 years in the temple or if it was 85 years that she was

when, when she blessed the baby, you know, when she blessed

Jesus. We don't know.

Suffice it to say there's a whole lot of decades going on

that she's walking with the Lord.

Listen to what it says of her having lived with her husband

seven years from when for when she was a virgin.

So she was married seven years, and then as a widow until she

was 84, she did not depart from the temple worshipping with

fasting and prayer night and day.

And coming up at that very hour, she began to give thanks to the

Lord and speak of Him to all who are waiting for the redemption

of Jerusalem. So both of them, God prompted

them to come to the temple that very day so they could lay their

eyes on what they've been praying about, what they've been

fasting for, what they've been going after.

Let me give a shameless plug for the 21 day fast we're going to

be going into in January. We've been doing a 21 day fast

for I think 2324 years now in January, I want to encourage

everyone of you to pray about what how you should take part in

that fasting. Jesus taught in the Sermon on

the Mount. He said when you fast.

He didn't say if you fast, if you decide to be one of those

radicals, you know you're going to fat.

No, he didn't say it. He said when you fast, you do it

this way. There was an assumption by Jesus

himself that those who follow him as disciples would learn to

live the fasted lifestyle, learn to fast from time to time.

And so we're going to go into a fast.

It's going to start January 5th. And I really want to encourage

you ask the Lord how you should take part in that some form or

fashion. Let's set aside the beginning of

the year and dedicate it to the Lord and say, God, we need to

hear from you afresh. I always, always take note at

the end of January, there's worship, isn't is it's

heightened. There's a potency to the

worship. It's because everybody's coming

down to the end of the fast. God wants to speak to us.

Take that time and set it aside for the Lord.

It's what Anna did and I believe the reason Anna and Simeon are

mentioned is because what the lifestyle they lived was

clearing the way for Jesus to enter human history.

Scripture says it was a Galatians.

I want to say it's chapter 4. Paul writes in the fullness of

time. God brought forth his son born

of a woman brought born under the law.

It says it's in the fullness of time.

That's a, that's a pregnant phrase right there.

The fullness of time. What is the fullness of time?

What he's saying is that time needs to come to fruition.

The fullness of time. There's the beginning of a time

and then there's the fullness of a time.

And when the fullness of the time is met, all the criteria,

all the purposes of that season are met and it triggers into the

next season. And in the fullness of time, God

sent forth his Son and inaugurated an entirely new age.

The Kingdom age was inaugurated then.

And now we're living in in between the this present evil

age and the age to come. And we're living in the reality

of both. So it's the already and the not

yet. There's this battle we live in

right now. But make no mistake about it,

the age started then. That's why Peter stood up at

Pentecost. He said this is that in the last

days he's quoting from Joel. He said this is that this is

what Joel said in the last days that will pour out of my spirit.

The last days began then and you and I are living in that and

we're living. It's already broke in, but there

had to be a fruition. The the fullness of time and God

will introduce things into your life and that the time has to

come to fruition in the fullness and I would give a little

theology of time here. Time from a biblical perspective

is not the hands on a clock or the date on a calendar.

It is the fulfillment of a purpose and so time is either

compressed or elongated depending upon the human

cooperation with God's will. So a season when the children of

Israel came out of that of Egypt, an 11 day journey became

40 years. Why time was elongated because

of human disobedience. And so God is looking for those

who will enter into his purposes.

God is looking for those that take the tragedy in their life,

be it a a Zechariah and Elizabeth.

They didn't get bitter. They didn't understand.

They just, they had a they had a just settled.

I guess we're never going to have children.

But then one day the Angel shows up and says your prayers from

decades ago are still coming before the throne of God and

it's time. And they were delayed all those

decades. Why?

Because what was going to come from them was going to be

something of great impact. Or you have an Anna who this

young young gal, all the hopes and dreams of a young bride,

marries, and seven years into her marriage she loses her

husband. But coming to that fork in the

road, rather than getting bitter, rather than getting

frustrated, rather than abandoning her face faith, she

dug in more and she sought the Lord.

And God began to use that what she was going through for the

purpose of bringing Jesus into the world.

Many times we don't understand the impact of what we're going

through, but it's a matter of keeping the faith and those like

my spiritual mother that I told you about, I, I've, I've tracked

this over the years often, especially single moms who

really go after the Lord. They have an uncommon walk with

God because they need it. And rather than getting bitter,

those that choose to seek the Lord, there's this depth to

their relationship with God, AW, Tozier famously said one time.

It's doubtful that God can ever greatly use a man until he

deeply wounds him. What he's saying he's he's not

saying that God just tortures you to see, you know, test your

faith. What he's saying is that there

needs to be a tenderness in our life.

And often it's those, those junctures in our life where we

go through something, the very thing that makes some people

walk away and say, God, if your friend like that who needs

enemies and they get offended, others respond to that and say,

God, I don't understand this delay.

I don't understand this death. I don't understand why this is

going. But I know this, I'm going to

keep seeking you. I'm going to keep going after

you. And that opportunity for

disillusionment actually is an invitation into revelation and

something deep in the heart of God.

And God is longing to release things into human history.

But there's always people that have to work behind the scenes.

I don't know if the frustration in your life, I don't know if

the crisis in your life, the spiritual warfare you're going

through right now. I don't know if it's because

you're going to give birth to something great or you're going

to be one of the players that paved the way for that to

happen. But I know this.

Not one tear is ever wasted in the Kingdom of God.

God will always use the pain you go through.

If you offer it up to Him, He will use it to open things up in

the human history. So I just want to encourage you

this morning, don't allow the enemy to cause you to be

disillusioned and frustrated with God.

If you are, take it to him and talk it through.

Don't turn your back on him because if you will, I'm often

some of the greatest revelation, some of the, the, the, the, the

the greatest revelation lies right behind what seems to be a

contradiction in the Kingdom. And if we'll press in, God will

begin to show you and he will give you an uncommon

relationship And what comes from you will be an uncommon thing

that will actually be the John the Baptist type thing that will

pave the way for Jesus to come afresh.

Let's stand. Thanks for listening to our

podcast. If you'd like to help more

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If you'd like to support the ministries of Heartland Church,

you can do so at Heartland Church online.com/give.