In The Waiting | Ps. Keith Pittman

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Church family, so good to see you.

I'm so glad that you are here with us today.

If you have your Bibles, I want to invite you to join me in Isaiah chapter number seven.

I think it's very fitting that as we kick off our Advent seasonslash series, that we go to one of the OG passages that speaks about Christ's coming.

This is a messianic prophetic passage, but it's also woven into Israel's history and subsequently even for us as New Testament believers.

As you're turning there, um I just wanted to let us know that this is a season in which over the next four Sundays, this is kind of the tradition that we're stepping into that's been going on for hundreds of years, the season of Advent, where we we analyze what does it mean to live a life of hope?

What does it mean to live a life of peace, of joy, and embracing God's love for us?

Advent means arrival, it's it's it's expectation of the arrival of Christ.

So over the next four Sundays, we're gonna unpack these themes in a meaningful way.

But I think the thing that God really wanted me to center in on for this series as a whole is to kind of reinforce this idea that God is indeed with us.

And so the passage that we're going to read kind of reinforces it in a way that I think will be meaningful for us all.

So looking at Isaiah, we're gonna read through chap from Isaiah chapter 7, verses 1 through 14.

Isaiah 7:1–14

It's a large passage of scripture, but it tells a beautiful story that hopefully we can unpack.

Um, but starting here at verse number one, here's what God's word says to us.

In the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin, king of Syria, and Pikah, uh, the son of Ramaliah, the king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it.

But it could not mount an attack as of yet.

When the house of David was told that Syria was in league with Ephraim, the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people was shook as trees of the forest shake before a wind.

And the Lord said to Isaiah, Go out and meet Ahaz, you and Sher, Jashu, your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway in the washer's field.

And say to him, Be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart faint, because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands, at the fierce anger of resin in Syria and the son of Ramaliah.

Because Syria with Ephraim and the son of Ramaliah has devised evil against you, saying, Let us go up against Judah and terrify it, and let us conquer it for ourselves, and set up for ourselves the son of Table the king in our midst.

But thus saith the Lord, it shall not stand, it shall not come to pass.

For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is resin, and within sixty-five years Ephraim will be shattered from a people.

And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Ramiah.

If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.

Verse 10.

And the Lord spoke to Ahaz, Ask for a sign from your Lord God.

Let it be as deep as Sheol, as high as heaven.

But Ahaz says, I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.

And he said, Oh, hear, house of David, is it too little for you to weary men, but now you also weary God?

Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign.

Behold, the virgin shall conceive a son, and you shall call his name Emmanuel.

Emmanuel translates to God being with us.

And I know that for the modern day believer, when we hear that God is with us, that almost seems like the consolation prize of salvation.

It can almost seem like, oh yeah, God is with us.

And it can be very theoretical and not very personal, but but the Bible paints a different picture of what God being with us means.

It's actually something far more intimate.

I remember when I was teaching my children how to drive, and specifically I was remembering when I taught uh Da Niro how to drive.

I remember we were on Southside Boulevard in Jacksonville, Florida.

I'm not sure if you remember this, De Nier, but we we we pulled up at a red light, and behind us um there were sirens.

There was fire trucks, there was ambulance coming up, and so naturally you look in the rear of your mirror, cars are parting like the Red Sea, and I looked over at my 15-year-old daughter, and she has sheer panic and terror in her eyes.

Like she was about to run through the light, she didn't know what to do, and I remember in this moment, if I don't calm her down, she's gonna kill both of us.

So I I I looked over at her and I said, It's okay.

Just just gently reposition yourself and make room.

It's gonna be okay.

And can I tell you that I didn't yell, because that certainly wasn't gonna help.

I didn't take the wheel, but what I did is my presence there stabilized her, and I just gently gave her directions on where she needs to go.

When we say that God is with us, he's not yelling at us as many of us are hoping he would.

He's not taking the wheel.

I know we got someone's like, Jesus, take the wheel.

He's like, No, I won't.

But I will be with you and instruct you on how you need to navigate the sirens in your life as long as you're willing to take heed to my words.

I believe that God is sitting in the front row seat of all of our lives, and he's with us, and he's gently reminding us I know that you seem like you're under attack, but if you can just heed my words, it's gonna be okay.

Just pull to the side and make room for what it is I want to do.

God is indeed with us.

So today I want to unpack what that means, but ultimately, when we know that God is with us, what it will produce in us.

And so if you're taking notes, which of course you can do from our app, I've entitled today's message, Something Simple as In the Waiting.

Let's pray and let's see what God wants to speak to us.

Lord, we we breathe deep, and we recognize that as the breath is in our lungs, you are indeed with us.

Not yelling, not screaming, not taking over, but you are with us, gently reminding us of how we can navigate the sirens in our life.

So Lord, I just pray that we can calm ourselves, that we can fix ourselves onto your voice.

And Lord, I just pray that you give us open eyes to see you, open ears to hear your voice above all the chaos, and open hearts to receive everything you have for us.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen.

And amen.

You know, when I when I got here earlier for the for the nine o'clock service, um a couple of people had noticed my my my fit, and they were like, man, like you look very casual, you look very comfortable, you're you're wearing the all black.

Yes, it was you, Jasmine.

Um I I hear everything.

Um so so yes, it was it was, and I said, you know, I'm wearing black because I'm in mourning.

I'm grieving right now because my Philadelphia Eagles have not been doing that great.

It's it's been a it's been a dark season in the Pittman household.

Um and and and and specifically, we know wins and losses happen, but but losing to the Cowboys is something that it grieves the soul in a way that I would imagine only losing a child would.

It hits you in a way that you just can't anticipate.

And so it's it's been an interesting season for us in our household, but yet we're still trying to hold on to the faith.

And it made me think about how a couple of weeks ago, in fact, it was our last win that we had when we played against the Packers.

And so we're sitting in in the living room, and and I'm the only real Die Hard Eagles fan of my house.

My family, they are only part-time fans.

Um they only watch when they win.

Daniel is like a close second, but Caleb is like, uh, they didn't get the first down, I'm going upstairs.

Like some kids are just not, they're just not in it for the long haul.

But I'm I'm a diehard fan, so I'm sitting there watching, and we're we're we're into fourth quarter, and it's not looking good.

We were, we were, we were, we were losing, and and and the the energy was off.

We're in the fourth quarter, and you just kind of felt like, man, this is not gonna end well.

And so I'm I'm sitting there and I grab my phone because now I just want to dissociate it.

I'm not gonna turn it off because I'm I'm in this.

I'm a ride or die fan.

I'm a real stable, loyal person.

If you got me for a friend, you got a friend in me.

You've got a friend.

Okay, so I'm I'm locked in.

And so as I'm watching it, I grab my phone, and when I pull up my phone, I see something on my phone screen that's not what's happening in real time on the TV screen.

And what's happening is I have this app, and this app apparently it's like literally play by play.

Like it is clearly ahead of what I'm watching on my stream.

Somehow, because of the stream, because by the time it hits my TV, there's a little bit of a delay.

But my app is like instantaneous.

So the screen shows that that it's third and long.

I'm assuming we're not going to get the first down.

We haven't been moving the ball well.

But when I pick up my app, it actually shows me that we scored.

So now I have this contradiction of emotions because I'm like, okay, like what's what's happening?

I I thought I was watching this live, but but this app is giving me insight that's even more further in the future.

I thought I had a Harry Potter phone or something.

Maybe I'm getting a glimpse into the future.

So now I have this discrepancy where my screen is showing me something, but it's apparently there's a lag there.

But I'm getting instant updates that are showing me that subsequently not only do the Eagles score, but the Packers are gonna be the Packers.

They fumble the ball and we win.

But watch this.

My screen didn't show it as of yet.

But I had an update from the future that told me how it was going to turn out.

So watch, it changed the way I was watching the game when I knew what the end result was going to be.

There were still certainly some plays that frustrated me.

There were still some things that I feel like we should have executed on, but because I had a spoiler from the future, it changed how I was sitting in the present.

Let me talk to somebody right now.

Because I realize that for some of us, we're in our own third and long situation where it looks as if there's no way that we can move any further down this field.

In fact, it looks like we're going to cough it up.

But if I could just let you know that this word that we read gives us spoilers from heaven, letting you know that you are going to come out on top, that you are going to be successful, that the things that the enemy is plotting against you that they will not stand.

You literally have a spoiler alert from heaven, and the Bible is push notifications reminding you that you are more than a conqueror.

You have push notifications from heaven, letting you know that no weapon formed against you is going to prosper.

You have push notifications from heaven, letting you know that if God before you, what can stand against you?

And when you have these glimpses from heaven, letting you know that you're going to survive, it changes the way that you sit through the present.

It produces hope.

Hope is not an idle concept in Scripture, but hope is urgent expectation that you know and believe that what God says He's going to do, you're going to see it come to fruition in your life.

Hope is not this passive concept that we just hope that it all works out.

In fact, our English doesn't quite capture the depth of what the Hebrew is communicating.

What Hebrew often defines is learning how to wait with expectation, even in attention.

That's almost like a person who's a track star, and they're waiting for the starter pistol to tell them when they go.

When they're lined up, they're not sitting there casually waiting, but they're lined up, they're locked in, and they're just waiting, they're anticipating that the starter pistol is going to go off, that's going to set them off.

What if we postured ourselves that way?

That even though I'm in this lag period, but I know that God is calling me to do something significant, and I'm just waiting.

I'm just ready.

I'm waiting for the moment when God's going to call me to step into that next thing.

That is what it means to have biblical hope.

In the New Testament, it takes it a step further.

And Peter says that we have a living hope.

Because not only are we hoping in an outcome for our circumstances, but Peter pulls from the empty tomb and says that even if I'm in the darkest season of my life, the tomb is empty, which means my hope is not in an object, my hope is in a person.

And that person is Christ Jesus.

We're not parked, but we're poised.

We're ears tuned to the promises and our feet are ready to move.

Hope prays.

Hope prepares.

Hope obeys.

While it waits, it leans forward, barring light from the resurrection that shines in our situation even right now.

But if we're not careful, we can lose our hope.

Because it's very possible to be a person of faith, but not a person who has hope.

Because oftentimes when we use the words, we use them interchangeably.

Faith and hope and hope and faith, and while they are related, they do live in the same neighborhood.

In fact, they are next-door neighbors, but there's actually a distinction between the two.

So faith, the Bible tells us, is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

It means that I'm believing for something, but it's so much bigger than that.

In fact, Romans chapter 10, verse 17 tells us that faith comes by hearing the word of God.

Romans 10:17

That means that every time that I open up God's word, I'm being exposed to God's character.

I'm being exposed to God's nature.

I'm being exposed to who God is and what he has done.

And that begins to build my faith.

My faith is anchored in who God is.

My faith is anchored in what God has done.

Let me speak specifically to us for a moment.

There's a reason why the enemy hates the idea of you reading the Bible for yourself.

He's not overly concerned about you having uh a Maverick City song on your playlist.

He's not overly concerned about you occasionally listening to a song.

What he's concerned about is you actually reading this Bible and learning who God is and who you are in Christ Jesus.

Because the moment that I am exposed to the truth of God's word, it changes the way that I navigate through this present life.

The moment that I'm exposed to the truth of who God is, it changes my expectations for things in the future.

Because I can be a person who has faith in God, but I don't have hope in my own future.

But the more that I expose myself to God's word, this is why I can't be the only one, and I'm a pastor of a whole church, that sometimes when I start to read God's word, my mind begins to wander.

That sometimes when I start a new Bible reading plan, that my mind begins to get a little bit erratic.

What that is, is that's literal spiritual warfare trying to keep your mind from being renewed with the truth of God's word.

Because if you can just get a seed of faith that begins to build up on the inside of you, you can speak to a mountain, be thy removed, and it will be removed because you have the faith, because you see that the God who spoke all things into existence lives on the inside of you.

That is faith.

But my hope is recognizing that the same God who did it then is the same God who's present now, is the same God who's gonna do it again in the future.

My hope is looking to the future.

My faith is anchored in God's history and present.

This is why the powerful moments of scripture bring us together when my faith is anchored in who God is and what he says he's gonna do, and my hope is fixed on the promises that are yet on their way.

My faith grips to God's character even in the darkest moments, and my hope fixes its eyes on the empty tomb because I know he said it is finished and it counts for me.

My faith obeys today, and my hope looks to tomorrow.

This is why testimony is so powerful.

This is why community is so important.

Because what testimony and community do is they take the God of the Bible and contextualize him in our everyday life.

A couple of weeks ago we had a powerful testimony service, and there are people that are sitting in our seats who are believing God for healing.

And we read passages of scripture that says that God is a healer.

But what ends up happening is I know that God is a healer, but will he heal me?

But then we have someone come up and share their story and say, hey, I was riddled with cancer and the doctor said that I wasn't going to survive.

But God showed up.

But God got involved, and not only is there no sign of cancer, but my life has turned to 180 and I'm moving in the direction of God.

That inspires hope because now my mind says, if God can do it for you, he will absolutely do it for me.

Because my Bible tells me he's not a respecter of person.

That means that he doesn't have favorites.

It simply means that what God has done for them is available for me.

I just have to wait in detention until it comes to fruition.

But until then, I still have hope.

This is why the enemy hates that we're connected to Christ-like community.

We don't tell you this because you need new friends, but it's so that you can be connected to people that can take the God of the Bible and put them in your everyday life.

If he did it then, he will absolutely do it now.

And I'm not sure who I'm talking to right now, but I want to let you know that we still serve a God who still performs miracle.

We still serve a God who still parts the Red City.

We still serve a God who says, let there be light and dark situations.

We still serve a God who brings healing to even the most broken sicknesses.

We still serve a God who brings reconciliation and healing.

I want to let you know that that God is still active and alive, but we gotta be in position to receive it.

We look forward by looking back at his faithfulness, and we trust his character more than we trust our odds.

Our hope is settled in the courage of that.

Is the word, isn't it, Jasmine?

Jasmine is gonna always shout me down.

Y'all, I don't want to start preaching to this side of the room.

Jasmine is always gonna shout me down.

Let me say that again, Jasmine, so you can write that down and put it in there.

Make sure you mention me in the comment.

Our hope.

We look forward by looking back at his faithfulness.

We trust his character more than we trust our odds.

We look forward by looking back at his faithfulness.

Trust in his character more than we trust.

Let me get back to some of you.

We look forward by looking back.

We trust in his faithfulness more than my character.

I'm trying to reach you wherever you came from, but I want to let you know that God is faithful.

If he did it then, he's gonna do it now.

And I don't know what you're believing God for right now, but I got a word from the throne of heaven that says, it is finished, your miracle is on its way, but stay in the tension with him and continue to position yourself to receive it.

Waiting is the place where our hope learns to breathe.

So even when we feel overwhelmed, we take a deep breath and we remember that God is with us.

Hope is one of the waiting season is one of our primary classrooms in the kingdom.

The promise isn't that just God will act, but he's with us while we wait.

So my single point, my single thought for us is really simple, it's really succinct.

It's this there is hope in the waiting because God is with us.

There's hope even while you're waiting for your breakthrough because you're not going through this alone.

I know it may feel like everything's closing in on you, but you're not alone.

God is with you, so there is always hope.

Let's break down this passage we were looking at.

The Bible tells us that God made a covenant with King David.

And the covenant that he made with him is said, You will always have a king that is represented on the throne from your bloodline.

He's ultimately speaking about the Messiah.

Ultimately, what God was speaking to David is that the Messiah is going to literally come through your bloodline.

This was a promise.

But unfortunately, people are going to be people, and the the United Kingdom got split.

So now there was a northern kingdom and a southern kingdom.

The southern kingdom was now known as Judah.

This was where the line of David was preserved.

So now we fast forward several centuries, and now we're at a place where Ahaz is the king.

He's a descendant of David, twelve generations removed.

And now he sees a threat is coming because the kings of the north are now marching on the south, and he is overwhelmed.

He's terrified, he's paranoid.

In fact, the Bible says that he was shook to his very core.

It gives us beautiful imagery where it says that he was so shaken that it's similar to the way that a tree is shaken by the strong winds in a forest.

That's how nervous he was at the idea of going to battle against an opponent that he knew he didn't have the manpower to defeat.

So when he's in this place of paranoia, when he's in this place of panic, when he's in this place of being overwhelmed, he disconnects from his community.

And some of us know exactly what that feeling is like.

That moment of being shook to your very core, that phone call that you weren't expecting to get, that diagnosis or prognosis that you received, that that loved one that cut you off, those things that seem insurmountable to us.

We know what it feels like to have something that shakes us at our core.

So for Ahaz, he he went to this location where kings would often go to take inventory as they're preparing for war.

It's called the aqueduct, which is the place where water would be transported into the city.

Because in the battle, water is life.

Stick with me on this.

He was trying to take inventory of how much water do we have in this community?

Because once we get into war, we may run out of water, and if we run out of water, we're going to run out of power.

So he's now at this space and he's taking inventory and getting real about what he is currently facing.

I have an enemy that is stronger than us.

That is more than us, and I don't even have the resources to endure a long battle.

The aqueduct is a place that all of us probably can relate to because that's the space where we become very practical.

That's the space where we become very truthful.

That's the space where we take inventory of what we don't have.

I don't have enough grace.

I don't have enough peace.

I don't have enough resources.

This is the space where facts begin to speak louder than truth.

Once again, facts and truth can be used interchangeably, but they're two different things.

The fact is, yes, he was facing an opponent who was coming to remove him from the throne.

But the truth is, God said that David's line would always survive, but he was looking at the reality that he was facing, and he lost sight of what God's truth had spoken beyond that reality.

We've all been there.

Well, we know that God's word says something about us, but the discrepancy of what we're currently experiencing, we can find ourselves leaning towards our own understanding.

So Ahaz is in this space of vulnerability, this place where he's collecting the data so he can make an informed decision.

It's the space where our fear begins to spike up.

It's the space of insecurity and vulnerability, and yet it's in that very same space that the word of the Lord met him there.

I want to reorient somebody right now because some of us believe that we have to have it all together in order for us to hear a word from the Lord.

Some of us will be led to believe that we got to be in a perfect position in order for us to hear from God.

But I want to give you an instance that God meets you exactly where you are.

He meets you in your place of fear.

He meets you in your space of brokenness, he meets you in your space of insecurity, and he speaks a word that's meant to lead you out of it.

The Bible tells us that Gideon was threshing wheat in the wine press, afraid, scared of what he was going to face, and the word of the Lord met him there.

The Bible tells us that Hagar was out in the desert, out of water and out of options, and God met her there.

The woman at the well was living a very mundane life, perpetuating sin, and Jesus met her there.

We often will find God in the spaces where we're lacking the most things because what he's trying to show us is that you may not have that, but you've lost sight that you have me.

And if I'm on your side, it doesn't matter who is against you.

Maybe you've been counting the wrong things.

Maybe we've been looking at what we don't have instead of looking at who we do have.

God meets us at this aqueduct and he interrupts anxiety story with his word and moves us from limited water to living water.

Because while there may be limited resources from the world standpoint, the Bible says, out of our belly shall flow rivers of living water.

What if I were to tell you that God has something that he wants to put inside of you that will make sure that you never go through a spiritual drought again, to ensure that you never go through a season of lack again, but you gotta be willing to change the source in which you are leaning to.

The word of the Lord comes to Ahaz and He speaks to him in a very prolific way.

He gives him what I consider to be one of the best four-point sermons I have ever heard.

These four points are powerful.

Because while Ahaz is in this place of terror, when he's in this place of overwhelm, here's the four points.

It's really clear.

He says, Be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart grow faint.

In other words, don't grow weary.

He says, be careful.

So when he's using that word careful, the image that I want you to pull from is similar to if you're in your kitchen and you drop a plate and glass shatters everywhere, and now you're there barefooted.

Before you can take a reckless step, you have to be very careful of the steps you're taking.

This is the image that God is presenting to Ahaz, and I believe He's speaking to us.

I know that you're in a space where you feel overwhelmed, but be careful of how you move in this season.

Because it's possible that we will start to walk by sight and not by faith.

But we are called to walk by faith and not by sight.

So he's saying, slow down.

I know that you feel overwhelmed.

I know that you feel this urgency to hurry up and run, but slow down, be careful of where you step right now, because I'm going to order your steps.

But he also says, I need you to be quiet.

Why would he tell him to be quiet?

You would think that it would make logical sense for him to begin to rally the troops, maybe have a brave heart speech.

We're going to have our freedom.

You could be a man, it would be a great opportunity for him to exert his leadership.

But God says, No, I just need you to be quiet.

Because I want to speak something to you that your fear may drown out if you're not silent in this moment.

Do you know what's possible?

That we can be so overwhelmed and caught up in our situations that we can speak in such fear that we're missing the still small voice of God's promises being reinforced in our soul.

So he's saying, be quiet.

Just because you're walking through the season doesn't mean that you have to post it on social media.

You have a right to remain silent.

And we need to exercise that more.

Because sometimes we feel it's necessary for us to bleed all over everyone instantaneously.

I love every one of you.

I don't know if I need to know when you went to the bathroom.

It's okay if you if you leave that information out.

It's okay if you leave that detail out.

Listen to me.

It's important to bring people around us, but God is saying that life and death is in the power of the tongue, and the way that you speak to the situation can shift the atmosphere of your entire household.

This is why the children of Israel, when they were sent into the promised land to take inventory of what they saw, two came back with a promising word.

Joshua and Caleb.

Everyone else said, Man, we can't get this battle.

There's no way we can overcome this.

And that literally shifted the atmosphere of the entire community and it delayed the promise by 38 years because they weren't mindful of their words.

Listen to me.

I know that you see some weapons that are being formed against you, but let's not make an idol out of them.

The Bible says that if God is for you, if God is with you, then who is the enemy that can stand against you?

Life and death is in the power of the tongue.

Be mindful of how you speak around your situation.

He also tells him to not be afraid.

That means that I'm going to depend on God's power more than I'm going to look at my own weakness.

And he says, Don't grow weary, don't give up.

And I want you to see what he does from there because he wants to make sure that they have perspective because they were so shook.

But God's words concerning his opposition, it says that they are two smoldering stumps.

Let me break that down in a way that I think that my people of Celebration Orlando will get it.

Let me give you a little bit of ebonics here.

He said, yo, they're all smoke but no fire.

They talk a whole lot, they got no hands.

They got no weaponry.

They got a lot of fancy moves, but when it's really time to get active, they not about that life at all.

They got no switches.

So he was trying to help them to understand that they talk a lot, but they don't have any artillery to back up everything that they're presenting.

So I want you to see something.

God was not minimizing their pain, he was right-sizing their enemy.

Because sometimes we're looking at our opposition and we're thinking that they're a forest fire when they're literally just smoke that's about to burn out completely.

Why do we make idols of our pain?

Why do we elevate our suffering above the power in the hand of our God?

God says, you are so consumed with this.

In my eyes, this thing is about to burn out.

Let me tell you, in a couple of years, they will not even exist anymore, but your name will still preserve.

And then God provides the most powerful bar that I've ever seen in scriptures.

He says that everything the enemy is trying to establish in your life, it will not stand.

Everything that the enemy is trying to establish against you, it will not stand.

He's letting them know that the enemy does not have the stability to set up the ecosystem that's necessary to tear you down.

It will not stand.

You shall not pass.

It's not going to happen, is what God was trying to communicate.

And I don't know whose spirit I'm trying to spark right now, but right now you're so overwhelmed looking at the itinerary, you're so overwhelmed looking at the opposition that you've lost sight of the voice of God saying, It will not stand, because anything that comes against us is coming against God.

And when the enemy comes in like a flood, the spirit of God lifts up a standard.

It will not stand.

So God then says, I want you to, I want you to take this word and bank on it.

In fact, I'm willing to give you evidence that what I'm saying is going to come to pass.

So we see something really unique here because God says, Man, ask me for a sign.

What do you need for me to do to reinforce this promise in your life?

Because it was very common back then that when Moses was being sent to set the children of Israel free, God gave him the staff to turn into a serpent.

Let me give you a sign.

We see with Gideon that when he was told that he was from the smallest camp and he was the smallest man, but he was going to be this big leader, God gave him a sign.

So God would often give people sign to help them understand that what I'm saying about this is going to come to pass.

But we see here that Ahaz was like, nah, man, I don't need you to give me a sign.

Now here's what I know.

For some of us, and we read this verse in verse 12 and 13, it looks as if he's just so full of faith.

Man, Ahaz is so strong in this faith.

He said, God, I trust you.

I don't need you to give me a sign.

I don't need you to give me proof.

That sounds very pious, but it will require us to look a little bit deeper into the scripture to see what's going on here.

When you read 2 Kings chapter 16, verses 7 and 8, write it down, put it into your memory, go back and look it up later.

2 Kings 16:7

I don't have time to turn to it right now.

2 Kings chapter 16, verses 7 and 8.

2 Kings 16:7

We actually get this same story, but told from a different perspective.

And do you know the reason why Ahaz didn't ask God for a sign?

It's because he already began to compromise his faith by linking up with Assyria.

So instead of him trusting in the Lord and not leaning on his own understanding, he began to compromise his very faith and convictions in partnership with a kingdom that was saturated in idolatry.

It's possible that sometimes our confidence is rooted in the wrong thing, that we're looking to the wrong resources, we're looking to the wrong people.

Listen to me, family.

Don't substitute Emmanuel for Assyria.

Because when Emmanuel is with us, you will preserve all of time.

But Assyria, that kingdom was wiped out.

In fact, scripture tells us that Assyria was the very element that the enemy used to bring idolatry into Israel that caused Ahaz to be compromised.

But God had Emmanuel on his mind when he spoke this word.

And I believe for some of us, it's possible that when we find ourselves in the most dire situations, that we begin to look to man instead of recognizing that God is with us.

And the beautiful thing about this is that even in spite of his insecurity, in spite of his compromise, God's promise remained true.

Under Ahaz, he brought in idolatry.

Under Ahaz, he brought in people that were led away from the things of God, but God kept his promise to David.

So God preserved David's line in spite of Ahaz instead of because of him.

What that means is that what God has spoken over your life, there's nothing that the enemy can do to stop it.

No one can curse what God has blessed.

And if God has blessed you, then no matter what the opposition is doing against you, it will not come to pass because God's fidelity will always outlast our failure.

His covenant will even survive our compromise.

God guarded David's line through sieges, through betrayals, and bad leadership.

So I assure you that he can guard your calling through layoffs, through diagnosis, and delays.

The sign is God is saying, I am with you, but will you wait with me?

Don't outsource the grace of God to Assyria when Emmanuel wants to take up residence in your life.

Many centuries later, another descendant of David is in a very vicarious situation.

His name is Joseph, and Joseph was engaged to this pretty young thing named Mary.

But then he finds out some information about Mary.

There's something about Mary.

And Mary was pregnant.

And Joseph is like, I am not the baby daddy.

So Joseph, a descendant of David, was like, okay, like because I'm an honorable man, I'm not going to dishonor her and disrespect her, but I didn't sign up for this.

Because he's a descendant of David, he would have been raised saturated in the scriptures that we just got finished reading.

So now here we are, centuries later, him preparing to dissolve the relationship with Mary, and an angel comes to him and says to him, Do you remember that passage in Isaiah where God was speaking to Ahaz and said that a virgin was going to give birth to a son and his name was going to be Emmanuel and he's going to save the people from their sins?

Yeah, I was raised reading about that.

That moment is happening right now.

And now you have a responsibility of literally stewarding what it means for God to be with us.

What a powerful thought.

That that Joseph, who would have heard these stories of the Bible, now finds himself inserted into the story?

What I want to let you know is that the same thing is true for us today.

And in the same way for Ahaz, when he heard a word in real time, here's a sign that I'm going to give you, Ahaz, that you're going to be okay.

A virge is going to give birth to a child.

If I can be real, what relevance does that have for a person who's dealing with battle right now?

What does a baby being born hundreds of years from now have to do with my current situation?

It can sometimes feel like, God, I need an answer in this, and you're answering that.

Have you ever been in a space where you're like, God, I just need a breakthrough in this particular area, and he answers a prayer that you weren't even asking him to answer?

Lord, if we could give a list of priorities, here's the list that I suggest you work through based off of what I have.

I'm not trying to tell you what to do, but I do got some notes for you, Lord.

Um, why are you answering number six when I'm asking you for number one?

And God is always filled with, I believe, humor and patience because He's, oh, if you only understood, I'm answering the prayer of the future, which means you're going to survive today.

Because if I'm speaking about what I'm going to do tomorrow, evidently that means you're going to survive today.

You've missed the answer because you were so fixated on the pain that you didn't realize that I've already moved past it.

Well, God will sometimes speak to tomorrow to let us know that you're going to survive today.

He is with you.

It's okay.

Take a deep breath, reposition yourself, and make room for what God wants to do.

But until tomorrow becomes today, we wait with expectation, knowing that what God said is going to come to pass, it's going to come to pass, and I will survive this.

I want you to hear this from the depths of my soul.

You will survive this.

Let me speak prophetically to somebody that needs to hear this.

You will survive this.

I don't know what your this is.

I don't know what that attack that you're dealing with is, but you will survive this.

You will overcome this.

You will get your breakthrough.

You will survive this.

That is what God's word is for us as a community.

With every head bowed and every eye closed, I want to ask us a quick question.

I want to pray for us.

And there's two ways I want to do this.

First one is if you're in here right now, and if you take inventory, you're in your own aqueduct season, so to speak.

You're in your own inventory season.

And as you're looking at where you are, you're looking at what you don't have, you're looking at the limitations in your own life, and it can feel overwhelming.

Remember, God doesn't minimize the pain, but he does right size our enemy.

If that's you, if you're going through a season of just feeling challenged, feeling overwhelmed, feeling surrounded, I wanna I want to pray for you.

One, two, three, you can lift a hand up.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

God bless you.

Amen.

Hands up everywhere.

We all have things that we're facing that we can feel the world.

You can put those hands down.

I want to pray for you in just a moment.

I'm gonna declare God's word over you.

But I do want to ask another group of people something really quick.

If if you're in here and you would say, Keith, I'm away from God right now.

Maybe I was a follower of Christ at one point, but right now I am not in fellowship with him.

I'm distant from God.

And I realize that in order for God to be with us, I have to be willing to be with him.

And that requires me surrendering my life to him.

So if that's you, you want to surrender, commit, or recommit your life to Christ.

I want to create space for you to do that.

So I want to count on three.

I just want you to boldly lift your hand up saying, yes, I want to be with God in the same way that He is with me.

One, two, three.

Amen.

Amen.

God bless you.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Church, can we put our hands together and celebrate with every person that is saying yes to Jesus?

Maybe for the first time.

We have some resources and things we're going to make available to you.

Um, so meet us outside of the Connect 10.

But I want to pray over us.

Um, and then I'm gonna have Pastor Vinny come up.

He wants to share a couple things with us on what you can expect to see with us in this present season.

But I want you guys to lift your hands to heaven, stay in your seats, but I want to declare God's truth over you.

Lord, we thank you so much for your faithfulness.

We thank you for your grace, and we thank you that even in seasons where we feel overwhelmed, when we feel weary, that you will meet us exactly where we are, in our insecurities, in our fear, in our mess, and you will speak a word of truth over us.

So, God, I pray over our community that for the areas that we need to be careful, help us to be careful.

In the areas that we need to be quiet so that we don't speak out words that could shift the atmosphere, unless they're words of faith allow us to hold our tongues.

God, I also pray that you continue to strengthen us so that we're not afraid and that we don't grow weary, God.

I pray that the truths of your word begin to resonate so deeply inside of us because there is hope in these waiting seasons because you're with us in it.

You're not taking the wheel over, but you're simply gently reminding us of how to navigate through this season.

So I pray for every person that's burdened here who feels overwhelmed.

I pray that they first feel your presence, they feel your your peace that surpasses understanding, and they can recognize that there are spoilers from heaven, letting them know that they will survive this.

And so, in this lag, we worship, in this lag we serve, in this lag we surrender, in this lag we engage because we have anticipation and expectation that you are who you say you are, and you're gonna do what you say you're gonna do.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thank you for joining us to learn more about Celebration Orlando, a church devoted to reaching the loss, equipping the found, and helping the hurting.

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