Why so long? | Pr Sandra Chin

You're listening to a message to go from Acts Church.

We hope this message will light up your day.

Why so long you find yourself in life asking this question?

And then sometimes we might even look like, hey, why

does waiting seem forever? Yeah, especially when you're really seeking

the Lord and, you know, just wanting to take the

next step and you feel like you haven't got the

yes and okay, yes and amen, you know. Why does waiting...

seems forever. Anybody bake in this room? Anybody bake cakes here?

Any mamas here bake cakes? Yeah, some guys here, moms, sisters,

none of you bake? Boys, Iwe? I know, I heard

she's an amazing baker. Whoa, yeah, right? I bake and

some of the moms in the house who bake, you know,

you bake a cake and then your children will say,

is it ready? Is it ready? It looks like it's ready.

It's brown on the top already. Look, it's puffed up already.

Is it ready? Can we eat it now? And then...

You know you're going to be in trouble if you

just take the cake out just because you saw it

puffed up, already raised. It's like, oh, the cake's raised already.

It's risen. All the bread risen. And then it looks brown.

And then you don't, you know, you just take it out.

You can't. You have to test the cake. You have

to take a metal tester or a satay stick. And

then you poke in the middle and you pull it out.

You poke it. I poke a few times. Make sure

no liquid, no cake batter is left on the stick.

Then I'll know it's ready. Then I can take the

cake out. But if we are impatient, you owe my

favorite banana. Come on, mom. But it's not mom, you know,

it's the oven. Why so long? Right? And if your

cake is heavier, heavy-duty cake, longer. Like Christmas fruitcake. Even

banana loaf sometimes can take a bit longer. If you

put a lot of bananas habis, you get banana fruitcake.

No banana bread. Because so much banana, you want it

to be so banana. But not so good to put

too much banana. But it'll be too wet, too heavy.

We want it moist, but yeah. So you're waiting and

you're saying, why so long? Life seems like that sometimes

for our cake in our life to be baked. And

it doesn't seem to be ready. And we get a

bit impatient. So I want to encourage you this morning

that sometimes things in life does take a little longer.

But if you're waiting, and you're seeking the Lord, you're

waiting before the Lord, then we need to know what

He has to say to us. Amen. And so I

wanted to take that story up from the life of Abraham,

just a little bit to refer to Father Abraham, okay? Abraham,

as you know, was very, very old by the time

he had a child, right? I don't think any one

of us want to be his age and have a child.

Don't know if we live that long lah. But anyway,

you know, and the story of Abraham starts in Genesis

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

chapter 12 where the Lord calls him out. of his kampung, right?

He calls him out of his city, out of his

comfort zone. And you know, his father lived in Ur

of the Chaldeans, what is now known as Iran, thereabouts, thereabouts, okay?

And then the Lord called him out. And after that,

his father had passed away. But I will have to

say that his father, Tara, also was quite a, quite a,

adventurer who left his hometown and they were moving towards Canaan.

Canaan land. Not the bookstore but Canaan. Alright. What we

know today as Israel. There was this land and they

wanted to go to Canaan but then they settled at Haran.

And so they were there for some years until Terah

the father died and then the Lord called Abram to come.

He says in Genesis chapter 12 he says to To Abram,

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

the Lord said, get out of your country, from your family,

from your father's house to a land that I will

show you. And then he says, I will make you

a great nation. I will bless you. I will make

your name great. Wow. And you know, you shall be

a blessing. I will bless those who bless you. I

will curse him who curses you. And in you, all

the families of the earth shall be blessed. And I

don't know what got into Abraham's mind. Maybe he has

his father's blood. Okay, Abraham departed from Haran and doesn't

even know where exactly he's going. The Lord just said,

get out of your country and I will show you

the land. And so he didn't say it was Canaan

land or what. He just said, I will show you.

And Abraham, remember, I want you to remember, he wasn't...

He was not, there was no Jewish nation. So Abram

is the father, the first person that God called out

and created this example of a nation called Israel. Alright,

so a little bit of history. Can't go too much,

no time. But later you'll see in Genesis 17 or so,

where they say Abram the Hebrew. That's the first time

they used the word Hebrew. Abram the Hebrew, which is

in Genesis 14 and verse 13. And so Abram the Hebrew. Hebrew,

the word just simply means the one who crossed over.

So he had to cross over. Sometimes in your life,

you need to cross over some situations to go into

something new. You need to leave the old and go

to the new. We need to cross over. So the

Lord called him out. And he went and he went.

And then the Lord brought him to Canaan. And there

in Genesis 15, the Lord once again reminded him and

said to him. In Genesis chapter 15, verse 4 to 5,

Genesis 15:4–5

it says, because Abram said to God, reminded God, because

Genesis 12, God said, I'll make you a great nation.

Then Abram, I summarized and said, God, I have no inheritance.

I don't, I mean, I don't have an heir. I

don't have a child. So I don't know what you

mean by you make me a great nation. Maybe my servant, Elysia,

will take that inheritance and become the great nation. And

the Lord said to him, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

This one shall not This one will not be your heir,

but one who will come from your own body shall

be your heir. Wow, from your own body. Well, he

was at that time 75 years old. So Abraham left

Haran when he was 75 years old. All right. And

you know, you know the story at the end because

you know he finally had Isaac. How long does anybody,

how old was he when he had Isaac?

Anybody?

Anybody? Hundred, right? Okay, a hundred. Uncle Abraham, Grandpa Abraham.

Grandpa Abraham. Can you imagine your grandma, grandpa? Yes, having

a baby at 100. Alright. So, but that's what happened

because he was 75 years old. Sarah was 65. It

took 25 years before the baby came. Before their son came.

25 years old. 25 years old. Yeah. Yeah. 25. Yeah.

You wait. Alright. Alright. So you're waiting 25. I don't

think it's going to happen. You know, logically, Sarah will

go like, the eggs are dead. Yeah. Dry up already. Fried.

I don't think it's going to happen. Right? And then,

I'm menopause already and beyond. She's 65. He's 100. But wait.

Wait 25 years. How old? 90 years old. Before that's

when she gave birth. Rocking. All right. And so the

Lord reminded Abraham, hey, I'm going to give you a child.

And you better believe it. Look, go out and look

at the stars. This is the promise. Always remember the

covenant that God made with Abraham. He said, go out

and look at the stars. And he says, can you

count them? Well, if you can count them, that's how many...

Your heritage will be, this is your warisan. This is

who you're going to have. Cannot count, cannot finish. So

many stars. That's exactly how many people that are uncountable

that God would then one day give. But he's still thinking,

I have nothing. But the Lord said, do you believe?

And Abraham, Abraham believed. He couldn't see it. But he believed.

It's crazy. You will probably not believe if I told you, hey, Tyrell,

you're going to have eight A's. I'm not God lah. Okay,

I'm just saying. Then you can't see. Of course, you're like,

where can lah? No lah. Now, Abraham could have said that.

No lah. But he didn't. He said, yes, Lord. Yes, Lord. Yes, Lord. Yes, yes, Lord. Yes, Lord.

Just say yes every time Jesus talk to you. The

lesser you say no, the better for you. The more

no you say to God could be in the form

of your leader, then I don't know what to say.

But yes, Lord. Yes, Lord. Yes, yes, Lord. And the

Lord said, I accounted to you for righteousness. So before

he even accepted Christ or whatever, he already was made righteous.

That's why we, who are non-Jews are given that righteousness

when we accept Christ. It was done many, many years

ago during Abraham's lifetime. Amen. So as you know, he

waited very long. Then in Genesis 17, you see that

the three men came. It could be a representation. Genesis

18 would be a representation of the three men that came.

Could have been Father, God, Son and Holy Spirit. And

then they came and gave him that promise one more time.

And Sarah was listening at the side there. Because she

laughed because she said no. This time, this year, the

same time next year, at this time, you will have

a child. And she's still wondering, I can't have a

child because time up already. At that time, maybe I

don't know how many years old. Money cut already, gone

up already. But the Lord said, you will have a child.

And so, the story goes that by the following year,

at 100 years old, and Sarah at 90, had a child.

It took 25 years. to wait. It's a very long

time and I don't believe that in your life that

you will have to wait 25 years for a lot

of things. I don't know. I don't know. Maybe. But

it was long for them. If you ever felt that

you were waiting for something for very long, take heart.

Your life is not an accident. Your life is not

by chance. And if you have surrendered, surrendered means you

don't touch, you can't touch this, then the Lord will lead.

But you must surrender lah. Abraham just had to say, okay, Lord.

You know, he had to go through the other part

where he almost lost the son. But that also he said, okay, Lord.

I don't know. Have you ever tried studying Abraham? What

sort of a man was he? Who was so, wow,

so yes to the Lord. Did he struggle that he

would lose his son? Did he struggle to think, how

was I going to? Not because he can't produce. His

wife was already of elderly age. But God made it happen.

Then you know it's a miracle. It really is supernatural.

It wasn't something you could create and do. God had

to do something miraculous. And that stands out in your life.

Desire that sometimes when you're going through things and you

don't have an answer, desire for the Lord to move

supernaturally on your behalf. So that it is a testimony

of grace of God. Testimony of God's glory in your life.

how God wants to lift you up and make you

an example. That's what God always does. He takes small

to make an example. He takes small to make extra

as an example. Don't shut down your antennas. Keep listening

to what God has in store for you. Amen. it

took a long time, but it was 25 years. You know,

a lot of people in the Bible, men of God,

waited many years. The other guy who waited a long

time was Joseph. Joseph waited 13 years. Wow, from... you know,

being betrayed by his brothers, went to the pit. From

the pit, he went to Pharaoh's house. From Pharaoh's house,

then gonna go to prison. And only finally from the prison,

he became a prince. Well, not a prince lah, an administrator. Palace.

He went to the palace and later became the administrator

in Egypt. 13 years of waiting, betrayal, he waited. Had

he moved something else in another direction, Not sure if

there would have been an Israel or God would have

to move and use another man. But he just had

to wait. David, before he became king, had to be

a fugitive. God made a promise, you'll be king. But

it took almost 15 years before he finally went to

the throne. Waiting again. And last but not least, maybe

the least, I don't know, even bigger, our own Master Jesus.

took 30 years before he came out into ministry. 30

years of waiting, knowing that he was born for such

a time as this to be the saviour of the world.

So can you imagine if you were Jesus? Dawn already,

you know, but still, baby. 12 years old, you're there

chatting with the lawyers and the Pharisees and your mother

comes and pulls you by the ear. What are you

doing here? I was talking to the people, talking about what?

About my father's business. Whose business? You come home now.

All right. You know, and he submitted because he was 12.

But he was there talking with the people, 12 years old.

Some of you, 80 years old, don't want to talk

to people. Big special needs lah. Yeah. Honestly, sometimes we

just hide ourselves. Don't live forever as, I cannot speak.

And we just have to go out there and speak.

Jesus was 12. I know he was, God was sent him,

sent him, right? But I'm just saying, he probably wanted

to get about the work. But nope, not time. Goes

home and then what does he do? What does he

do while he waits for 30 years? What does he do?

What do you think his trade was? What was his job? Anybody? Yeah.

He was a carpenter. My Jesus ain't no souvenir. He

made souvenirs. All right. All right. My Jesus didn't just

hang on a cross. He made the cross. He was

a carpenter while waiting. I can imagine my Jesus. Some muscles,

you know. The wood chisel forming, no name. And order,

order coming in. Cupboard, please, Jesus. Cupboard, cupboard with three shelves.

Rocking chair, Jesus, rocking chair. Okay, okay. Table, table. Thank you,

thank you. Okay, more orders, more orders. He must have

been good at what he does. I hope so. Anyway,

his father was a carpenter, Joseph. And he learned under

his father. And so he was doing this for whatever

years that he waited. And then finally it was time.

And the Lord said, it's time to go. He was

30 years old. So think about our Master. If Jesus

really is your Lord, then who should we be following?

I hope it's Jesus. That He also had a waiting time.

And then when He pecut, He pecut. He went all

the way. Three years and done. Even if it looked undone,

He was done. He had to go back to the

Father and send us the Holy Spirit. So you and

I have the Holy Spirit today. He is the other helper,

another helper. You know, you have a great helper in

your life. It is the Holy Spirit who's really the

power in our lives. Amen. Thank you, Jesus. So I

want to encourage you. If Jesus waited, you and I

can wait. You know, many years ago, I really wanted

to go full time. At 17, I just felt I

want to go. I felt this call that I will

go and be a missionary again. Do you know how

long I waited? 10 years. From 17 to 27, before

finally the Lord said, now you can go. And in between,

I was terrible. I say rong be rong everywhere. Say

lok be lok everywhere. Because waiting and then cannot wait. Yeah.

But if God gave us a promise or He's leading

us in something, you just have to trust Him for every...

And that was my journey of learning to wait But

I made some moves that, you know, like in the

chess game, moved in the wrong move. But the Lord

still brought me back. He brought me back, all right?

More of that later. So, number one, as you are waiting,

what do we do? Number one, first point, waiting requires patience. Patience.

Every parent in this room will tell the baby, patience. Yeah,

you know, your child like, patience, you know. First word

I hear many parents tell their little ones. Patience. So

now I tell you little ones. Patience. Patience. Okay. Patience. Okay.

We need to have patience and trust. We have to

trust the Lord. Trust someone. May it be the Lord. Amen. Yes. Amen. Patience. Yeah. Alright.

So we want to wait patiently. Not impatiently but patiently.

And we have to trust the Lord. So we look

at Psalm 37, 7. I don't know where else I

could find, where would you go to, but I would

go to the word of the Lord. And these are

the words that come so assuringly to us. Rest in

the Lord and wait patiently for Him. Do not fret.

Fret means do not worry. Do not be anxious because

of Him who prospers in His way. All right. Wait patiently. Now,

this verse is very important and very real for us.

Why are we impatient? Brothers and sisters, why are we impatient?

Because we are very worried and anxious and green-eyed by

look at your best friend, your neighbour and say, how

come he already reached before 30? Millionaire already. Waiting about,

how come they got ready three cars, I only got

one motorbike. Hello. You know, we are always looking at

what other people have. And we always want what other

people have. They should be looking at you and say,

I want what you have. It's powerful. What is it? Jesus.

But they're not looking at us because you're always looking.

That's why the Ten Commandments, one of it says, do

not covet whatever. Your neighbor's car, your neighbor's wife or so.

So do not covet. But I think many Christians, many

of us, if I ask you what you really want,

the real truth is, we want what that person has.

We admire what the world has. We admire it so

much that we think, yeah, we should be like that person.

And then you look at your pastors, your leaders go, oh,

these poor fellas. You know? No. You look at them

because they prosper in the way of the world. I

don't know what God is doing. Yes, good character. Fine, fine.

But you are looking at something else so that you

want that. You are coveting it. And then you become anxious.

I don't have or I want or... But then you

never look in and say, who do you have? You

have the Master, the King of Kings and the Lord

of Lords. If you surrender, He will lead your life,

my life. So don't worry about what that person is

prospering in. You wait on the Lord. You trust the Lord. Amen.

Wait patiently. Many years ago, many years ago, after my

Form 6, I didn't do very well. So I didn't

even bother to try to apply to UPU to get into,

I think I could have, but I would have to

do a very lesser subject. Back then, nobody wanted to

do English Literature. If I had done it, I would

have got it. But I didn't, I lost hope when

I didn't do so well for Form 6. And then

my father lost everything. So there was no money. There

was no house. There was nothing. So what do you do?

You don't sit down and cry. I just thought I

was sampah masyarakat, the scum of the earth. I was like, oh,

my friends will go to university and I'll never make it.

But anyway, life's got to go on. And so I

had to work and somehow found a job which gave

me a lot of experience in accounts because I studied

accounts and failed it. But anyway... study account because my

church members say you do accounts very good one anytime

can find job it's true I got a job but

I failed the exam paper because I don't understand you

know but anyway because I worked I learned I got

better I never ran away from accounts because later when

I studied my professional course I had two to three

papers that was finance and accounting based oh my goodness

you cannot run away just cannot run away from counting

numbers you know But you just learn. You know, so

I had to put myself to school to work and

study because we didn't have the money to do that.

And I was worried because as I looked at my classmates,

we're all very good friends, I felt that I'll never

graduate the same year that they will graduate because I

can't go to university. But you know, when you wait

upon the Lord and you trust Him and you're patient,

God will open doors for you. And I continued to

work and the Lord opened doors for me to be

able to finish all of my studies in two years.

Three years is university. I finished everything because they allowed

us to do multiple papers. So I had multiple papers

myself and graduated the same year as my classmates. So

I graduated at 23 and I went out to work

at a different job, to the job that I could

use my paper to work with. You wait patiently. God

provided a financer, a sponsor, sponsored my studies so I

could stop studying. finish my education. But because it's sponsored,

I don't want to waste. I worked very hard to

finish my studies in two years. I have six years

or more to finish but I finished it in two

years by the grace of God. I could see God's

power working. Wait patiently. Rest in Him. Don't worry what

other people are ahead of you. You trust and He

will prosper your way. Amen. Next verse, just to encourage you,

is Psalm 27, 14. Wait on the Lord. Wait on

the Lord. Be of good courage. He shall strengthen your heart. Wait,

I say, on the Lord. He's the one who strengthens

your heart. When you feel weak, you know, you don't

know how, this is when you say, okay, I will

trust the Lord. Trust in Him. He strengthens your heart. Amen.

So waiting requires some amount of patience and trust. Boleh? Yeah,

I know. It's easily said than done but I walked

through that before and then not that's just one, not

just the one time. Many other times I had to

wait patiently and trust the Lord. So I want to

say there's some ingredients is waiting patiently. Amen? And trust

the Lord. Hallelujah. The Lord is the one who opened

the way. Secondly, while you're waiting, you're waiting, waiting, waiting, right?

Then you... So what happens in the waiting? Right? You

all ask me to wait, wait. What do I do?

So in my waiting, I work lor. I work lor.

I keep doing life. I carry on with life. The

little I have, I just keep going on. While waiting,

life continues with your daily routines. Okay? And in that time,

you speak to the Lord. This verse, Psalm 25, 4-5.

So while waiting, your life continues with daily routines. Psalm 25,

Psalms 25:4–5

verse 4-5 says, this is my prayer on a day-to-day basis.

Show me your ways, O Lord. Teach me your paths.

Lead me in your truth. And teach me For you

are the God of my salvation. I wait all the day.

On you, I wait all the day. I will just

wait on you, Lord. Who else will be patient with

me but the Lord? Amen. God, show me. You ask

the Lord. Show me. And you know, He will show

you not the way you want to see it. He

will show you the way He wants you to see it. Amen.

And the next verse, Isaiah 40, 31. All of you

know this. But those who wait on the Lord shall

renew their strength. Amen. They shall mount up with wings

like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They

shall walk and not faint. Note the pace of the

three levels. Mount up with wings. Wings like an eagle

fly lah, fly. Then cannot fly what? You run lah.

Then run cannot what? You walk lah. So my encouragement

to you brothers and sisters, God is not worried about

your pace. You are worried about your pace. You and

I are worried about our promotion. You are worried about,

will I graduate with the rest of them? Aiyo, will

I have this? Will I have that? Not same time

like everybody, kiasu a bit. You not Singaporean. Do not

send this to Singapore. You just trust God. You wait.

You do your daily routines. And you ask the Lord,

show me your ways. Your pace is not to be

compete with another person. God, 40 years, you know, the

children of Israel, 40 years. Was He scared that it

was 40 years? No, He waited 40 years. Sometimes I

feel anxious for people. Why so long? But God is

not affected by the weight. He's more interested in the

development of the person. Wow, you know, to make the connections.

Maybe He's bringing you to make a connection with this

person or that person of influence and open the door

for you. God uses people all the time. God uses circumstances.

But He says, wait. So the pace... If we are

mounting up, we're going to mount up. We're going to

fly as you wait. If you're going to run, you're

going to run. Don't you worry. Don't you worry about

a thing. Because the Lord is with you. Amen. And

you will walk and not faint. Even if we have

to walk, it's very far. You will not faint. Your

pace is slow. It's okay. Slow, steady. Look up to Jesus.

Continue your daily routine. Amen. I tell you a real story,

not to make you discouraged, but it's my story. It

won't happen to everybody, but what I went through. So

don't feel sorry for me if I tell you the story.

Don't feel like, oh, you're going to cry. No, I

won't cry one. You know, I was married for nine

years and had no children, right? We wanted, my husband

loves children a lot. I'm okay, all right? I go

out because, you know, I don't have enough, left, right? Disciplinarian. So,

one children. And then after nine years, I got pregnant.

Praise the Lord. Everybody who said, you're barren. Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah. No,

I'm not. But I didn't know I was pregnant. And

of course, finally, at the end, I lost the baby.

We were very happy when we found out. But then

I lost the baby. I had a miscarriage. And then,

even the doctors were going like, how old are you?

Do you take any, what, those fertility tablets to get pregnant? No. Wah. Wah.

You so old, no? 37. Call me old, no? Eh,

old is 100 lah. Right? 37 still young leh. So,

you better try again. You better try again. Of course,

I try lah. I try lah. And when we tried

and it didn't happen. Usually could because I'm not barren.

Once you have a miscarriage, likely you can have a child.

I don't know. Maybe it was our lifestyle. Maybe God

knows better. Whatever it is. Someone asked me after some time,

they say, hey, if you don't regret, you know, maybe

you should quit everything and try and have a job.

Just quit because you don't want to regret. I said,

I ain't living in regret. Okay, never mind, I'll think

about it. But as I thought about it, I didn't

hear that I should stop everything, you know, like stop

my full-time ministry. The thing that I waited for 10

years to be sent out as a missionary to go full-time,

just stop, just stop working, just stop and stay at home.

And do what? Wait to have a baby. Oh my God.

Poor husband, right? Husband, now time, fertile time, fertile time. Okay, children,

you're learning. Okay, better you hear from church, right? Don't

feel glee, okay? Mama is talking, it's okay. Not your

friend telling you rubbish, right? So no ma, how can

I sit there, wait, to get pregnant, wait. That was

not my dream leh. My dream is to fly like

the eagle, walk also never mind. But sit there, wait,

cannot la. No. But I didn't feel that was the

call for me. And my friend, this lady, she said,

don't regret it, you know. And I don't know if

I'll regret it. But I continue in my daily routine.

I carry it on with life. And I said, Lord,

if you are going to bless me, you're going to

bless me. I'm not going to dictate and cry and,

you know, like lose sleep over not being able to.

I don't let anybody tell me I'm barren because I'm not.

I just had to, I don't know, many days, now

I'm so old already, I still, I'm old. And then, no,

not 100 yet. Then I say, did I make a

mistake for not stopping? I don't know. I didn't hear

that word to stop. But the waiting. Wait lah. Until like, yeah,

no more egg. Unless God want me to be 90

and have one. Thank you, Jesus. Oh, Lord. You ask

God to show you His way. Teach me lah, Lord.

Let me wait on you and renew my strength. And

may the Lord help me to pass through this valley.

Because it was a valley. It was tough. Everybody's asking

you when you have a kid. Then they keep thinking,

I look so young. Until today, they say, never mind.

God will give you one. You know how old I

am now. Pity me. They say, I'm not that young

to have a child now, you know. So having children

to me is not everything. If it comes, it's a blessing.

And I will be a steward of the child, to

give it back to Jesus. It's not mine, it's the Lord's.

But that was my path. Like I said, this is

my waiting. And I waited. And I trusted the Lord.

And I asked Him to show me the way. Amen.

And then I had to renew my strength, knowing that

it has not happened again. Could be my lifestyle, I

don't know. Very busy. But all I'm saying is, Sometimes

while you're waiting, don't just stop. Because this thing happened,

totally stop, don't want to go to church also. Totally stop,

don't want to work. Totally stop, don't want to eat anymore.

Don't like that. You're scaring your daily routine. Do things

that you've been doing and wait. While you're waiting, there

are miracles. Miracles can still happen in your desert moment

as it happened for the children of Israel. They were

in the desert, but they were having angel food. They

were having birds flying to their feet to catch. They

got the cloud to guide them, the fire to guide

them at night. Wow, miracles can still happen in your waiting.

But you wait and you see God's provision. Amen? Alright,

and moving on. In the time of waiting, deepen our

faith and stay anchored in Jesus. Amen? Deepen our faith means... Really,

if we didn't trust God as much, how about learning

to trust Him with everything that we have? That, Lord,

I don't know how I'm going to trust You, Lord.

But remember, friends, even as you trust the Lord, the

answers that God wants to give to you may not

necessarily be the way you want it. Because why? Because

His ways are higher. If you go to the other slide,

because if we don't deepen our faith, we won't have

a foundation. We won't have an anchor. And the anchor

is Jesus. So Hebrews 6, 19, 20 says, we have

this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.

So it may not be the way you want it,

but please stay secure. Be secure in Jesus. Yes. Amen.

I tell you, we all got our insecurities one. Again,

we look at other people, we fretting away. No, come

deepen our faith and say, Lord, teach me to go deep,

grow deep roots.

Amen.

Be the tree, you want to be the tree that

is tall and lots of leaves, then we have to

build deep roots. Amen. And the roots will go and

look for water and it will supply you strength. Amen. Amen.

How do you think those big trees? They love big trees,

you know. We love to see strong trees. We don't

have oak trees here, but I think we have some

nice trees in Malaysia with the nice leaves. So pretty.

I can't say the name. I don't know what's the name.

But those, yeah, even the biji saga tree also very nice,

big and strong. But they cannot just be strong. You

think only they look nice on the outside. Have you

looked down? Oh my word. Messy roots going here and

there and everywhere. Digging deeper and moving deeper and deeper

to look for water. So that is the firm foundation.

Anchor in onto Jesus. Because He is your firm and

secure foundation. Hebrews 6, 19-20. And the other one is

Micah 7, 7. Therefore, I will look to the Lord.

I will wait for the God of my salvation. My

God will hear me. Can you be as so confident

that my God will hear me? Sometimes you feel that,

is He hearing me? Why so long? But that promise is,

Micah says in the scripture, my God will hear me. Amen. Amen.

So allow yourself to hear, allow yourself to talk to

Him so that you know and assured that He hears you. Amen.

Deepen your faith. Time to know the Lord. Come before

Him and say, Lord, I don't know everything. Teach me

who You are. Lead me in Your truth. Read the Scriptures.

Fall in love with the Lord through the Scriptures, how

faithful He is. Amen. And stay anchored. So, you know,

anchored means when a ship is anchored, it will move

in the water, right? And then sometimes it can float

away a bit. But it doesn't go very far. It

comes back. It doesn't go far, far away. We need

that anchor so that we don't go far, far away.

Yeah?

And... This waiting time is very important for us to

grow foundation. But I have to say that in my waiting,

I also was impatient. And so I crawled somewhere, you know.

But thank God there was a little anchor there, you know.

So I tell you another story. Waiting for life partner.

Life partner. Okay. You always hear pastor's story, but I'm

not telling much of the story. I just want you

to know the waiting. If you... Not because I was looking.

They were always looking for me. So they all came.

Then I'm like this, you know, friendly person. Friendly, friendly.

Okay lah, you go out. Okay, go out. Then waiting lah.

17 years old, no call. 18, no call. 22, no call. Lord,

are you going to send me? I think he's not

going to call me. So maybe I should just get

married like everybody else. Not true. Not everybody gets married. Anyway,

everybody else. And you know, maybe there's a new chapter there.

So when somebody offered, you know, melamarkan perkahwinan kepada saya.

They want to marry me. I'm like, I couldn't take it.

I'm like, Because, because as I get to know somebody,

I'm like, oh, so not there. So not up, not spiritually,

tak boleh lah, you know, cannot. But I swayed over there.

But he broke up with me. Yeah, you know why?

Broke up because I told him I wanted to go

full time. And he said, that's rubbish. Believer, but said

not good. No, I'm going to break up with you now. Yay.

All right. Because, oh, maybe that's a good thing because

God has other plans for me. And the routine, the

staying anchored is to be able to have an anchor

and not fly away and get upset. They came lah.

They came. Banker, doctor. I don't know what else. Whoever,

then lawyer. Right? That time lah. Then my church auntie,

uncle also worried for me, you know. Poor thing, 27 already,

not married. Then they sent boys to my office, guys. Said, Sandra,

this is a good guy. Only son of the mother. Oh,

no thank you. Only son or the mother, I will

be the servant. Never mind. So, then I say, you know,

you're waiting, right? So, I have to wait. Don't rush. So,

the thing for me is, I'm not desperate to get married.

I'm okay. I know uncle, auntie think. So, I say,

you think my face very bad? Cannot find Cannot find

Send me all to my Send to my office Sit

in the waiting room Wait for me Then I see Aiyo,

it's not possible Aiyo, serious I'm so pressured You know

Come and say You want to go badminton Badminton Then

I worship leader in church My church very big 2,000, 3,000

So I worship leader. Then I saw the guys sitting

somewhere at the balcony at the back. I worship leader.

I love Jesus. I love people who worship. Come on, worship.

Lift up your hands. Sorry. Sorry. Not going to happen.

This is not off the road. Off the list. Alright.

I'm so bad. Okay, I'm naughty. But I'm just saying

if you don't have an anchor. And if you only

have one thing in your label on your head that

the thing in life to do is to be married off,

then I would have been sorely, poorly made a very

poor decision. But if you live by saying, teach me

your ways, oh Lord. Yes, I'm 27, not happened yet.

So what? Carry on doing my daily routine, stay anchored.

Then the Lord will send. And then Gannett Jin came.

Never dated anyone. Prayed for three and a half years.

I was the wild horse. Okay. Alright. Okay. Okay. Every time,

first my very good friend, every time I have a

new boyfriend, hello Kenneth, meet my new friend. Break up.

Hello Kenneth. Then he's like, he should give up on me, right?

Such a godly person praying for me. But he didn't

give up. So, yay. Yay. Naughty girl. Anyway, when you

are in your waiting, you wait patiently. You trust the Lord.

You carry on with your daily. You do what needs

to be done in life. Amen. And then you have

a deepening of your faith and make sure we anchor

into Jesus. Amen. Don't not have, do not not have

an anchor. a belief, a faith that will keep you steady.

As the Lord kept me steady, kept me from making

all those wrong choices to finally then meet a friend

that I have known for so long who had been

praying for me. Nobody ever said I prayed for you,

but this man did. He's worthy of me. Okay, all right.

So naughty, yeah. But in your waiting, as I close,

be careful of one thing. Don't give birth to an Ishmael. Don't.

Don't say, like, while you're waiting, but then you cannot,

not patient, then you try to create a door, a way,

when the Lord didn't open that way. And you know,

Abraham knew the promise of God that it would be

his own son born of his own body. But then

Sarah was being very helpful, said, never mind, here, take

my Hagar, my helper. I cannot give you children. Maybe

you can have it through my helper. So here's Hagar. Aiyo,

the Abraham, now I have to say, he should have said, right? No,

God promised already. Our friend didn't say no. He said, okay,

another one. And then give birth to an Ishmael until

today we are suffering, you know. That means, that say wrong,

that detour, until today we are paying for it. Again,

is God afraid of all our detours? No, He's very

centre otak one. He just wants to get His will done.

In our life, sometimes we, many people I know have

taken a detour, not patient because it was too long,

25 years waiting. So long, Lord. Maybe the promise was

just around the corner. You couldn't see with your natural eyes.

But the Lord has spiritual eyes. He's the Lord. He

can see what's at the corner. But we didn't know.

So we took a turn on our own flesh, which

is what happened. And you know, it was a difficult thing,

a difficult time, both for Hagar and her son, and

then for Sarah. Everybody was uncomfortable. But yet the Lord

still kept His promise on His side to Abraham and

just said, never mind, I will bless Ishmael, but you

are going to have your own son. But having an

Ishmael will cause us many regrets sometimes or many troubles sometimes.

So can I encourage us, try not, when you're in

your waiting room, make sure you stay close to the Lord.

Stay close to the persons that are what we call

in our church, huddle leaders, disciplers, people who disciple us,

our pastors. Speak to them. Sometimes I wish I could

have spoken to someone, but I didn't have those kind

of leaders back then. I had my pastor, but we

didn't have female pastors then. It's very hard to talk

to male pastors, right? Very few lady pastors actually. So,

or women who wanted to help us. But, you must

remember this. God's thoughts are higher. Next slide. His thoughts

are not our thoughts. His ways, your ways, His ways

are very different. And so, as high as the heavens

from the earth, so are His ways higher than your ways,

so are His thoughts than your thoughts. Amen. God's thoughts

are higher. God's ways, His thoughts are higher, His ways

are higher. Amen. And I want to say to us,

Now unto Him who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly,

above all I could ever imagine. You are all that

I need. Amen. He can do exceedingly, abundantly, above what

we can ask or think. According to the power that

is in you, which is the power of the Holy

Spirit living in us. Amen. But there is a waiting period.

No good thing comes about without a waiting period. without

sometimes just having to trust the Lord. Amen. Waiting. It

costs us. It costs us time. It costs us blood

and sweat sometimes. It's waiting period. Don't give up. Don't

throw in the towel and say, that's it. But it's

only been a few hours. Maybe it's been four hours

of waiting. Maybe it's been one year of waiting, six

months of waiting. Don't throw in the towel and And

when you don't, especially when you don't know what to do, meaning,

do you leave this job and join another job? Do

you leave this place and go to another place? Do

you get upset and just change your mind about things? No,

when you don't know, you wait until you have a

clarity that, yes, you have to take this bitter pill. Okay,

I have to choose this path. God give me assurance,

then I take that path. But you're assured of it.

But if we don't know, then before we know an answer,

we already jump out of the boat and try to

do other things, try and do other things. A lot

of heartache and pain can happen, regrets, and then you

blame God. He didn't stop you. Friends, you have a choice.

Always blame God. Like what? Some people blame devil also.

Nothing to do with devil. You lah. You didn't wait.

Your free will, God never touch. God just says, I'm here.

I love you. I know the plans I have for you.

I have plans for your future and a hope for you.

I do. I have thoughts like the sand on the

seashore about you. So many dreams for you. Would you wait?

Would you come? Would you trust me? That's what, when

you read the word, that's what God speaks to us.

And then sometimes we didn't know better. And yet, I

tell you what, God is so patient. When we went off, see,

I went off tangent and yet the Lord pulled me back.

And caused me to awaken to, you know, just, come on, girl.

I have a plan for you. Really. Do you know

how God spoke to me? I didn't even recognize that.

But when I was going out with one of these guys,

and I followed him to his church for, oh my goodness,

he asked me to go for this pre-marriage counseling thing.

You know who was the pastor who was teaching? It

was Raymond Koh. When Raymond was young. And he just

looked at me and he called me out and he

gave me a word of the Lord and I thought,

that's not a word. So proud. He said, God is

going to stir up. You feel that you're okay, you're still,

you're like a lake that is just very still and

calm like you're okay. He says, God's going to stir

up and He's going to change the path that you're in.

I'm like, yeah. But I tell you, God stirred up

and my path changed. Wow. I didn't even know that

was Raymond Raymond, you know. Years later, I met him,

I was so shy. Because then I was Pastor Sandra already.

Then I'm like, I'm going to hide from Pastor Raymond.

But my path changed. And God knows, He'll lead us

if we will just wait. Amen.

Amen.

Wow, he just sends people at the right time to

tell you. He opens doors. He closes doors. He causes

things to happen. for us just to keep us assured

that He's with us still in the waiting. In the waiting,

you're not alone. Amen. Hallelujah. God is so good to

each and every one of us. I want to assure

you this, brothers and sisters, in the walk of the

child of God is a waiting. Don't rush your life. Like,

you know, my mum used to tell me, I think

we were, you know, for girls, you know, we always

want to put makeup, want to put makeup, want to

dress up, adult clothes, right? But my mum would never

let me grow up before my age. You're 12, you

behave 12. If you're 15, you behave 15. If you're 17,

you just grow up in your own time. Not, and

I want to, no one to be another age, you know,

like six going on 30. You know, And you grow

up in the pace. And then you enjoy everything in

that season of your life. And even though you're waiting

so long, you know, waiting to be 25. Man, I

got to 25 and I was rolling down to 30. Right?

So you must enjoy every stage of your life, even

if it's in the waiting. You just do the routine.

God will still open doors, still will bless you. You

haven't seen that. 10 years before I went full-time, 10 years.

And then I kind of like messed it up a

bit in there. Yet the Lord draw me back. Why?

Because there was an anchor and it was Jesus. Amen.

Because I kept serving. I kept doing, while waiting, a

bit impatient. Are you impatient? Are you giving up already?

Don't be too fast to give up. Amen, church. Because

God never lets us go. Yeah, we said the word was,

we belong to Him. Who do you belong to? You

belong to Jesus. And Jesus has done everything so that

you would come. So that you could come. Amen.

We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

information on our church, please visit xchurch.org. We are also

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is going to be a good week ahead for you.

God bless.