The Posture of Obedience pt 7 "God's promise does not need your help"

What do you do when God's promise is taking longer than you expected — and the pressure to "help Him out" starts to feel like wisdom? In this message, we step into the tent of Abram and Sarai, where a delayed promise gave birth to a desperate plan, and a desperate plan gave birth to generations of pain. You'll discover why culture's timeline will always betray you, why the God who sees you in your wilderness is the same God who covers you in your failure, and why your shortcuts can never out-run His sovereignty. If you've ever been tempted to force what only faith can finish, this word will meet you right where you are. Press play — and learn the posture that refuses to help God, and instead trusts the God who needs no help at all.

 TO  US LIVE  CLICK ONE OF THE LINKS BELOW 

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83464020982

https://www.facebook.com/DestinyTempleministries

https://www.youtube.com/@Lindseyjones40DTM

We start at 10 am every Sunday  in the United States 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

As we turn to Genesis chapter number 16, and we're gonna pick it up at verse number one, and we're gonna go from verse one to verse number four. And it reads as thus Now Sarai, Abram's wife, bear him no children. And she has a handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. And Sarum said unto Abram, Behold, the Lord has restrained me from bearing. I pray thee, go into unto my maid. It may be that I may obtain children by her, and Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarah. And Sarah Abram's wife took Hagar, her handmaid, the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to him, gave her to her husband, Abram to be his wife. And when he went in unto Hagar, she had conceived. And when the Lord, and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes. Let us pray. Thank you for this opportunity. We have to come and sit at your feet. Thank you for the songs that were sung this morning. Let those resonate in our hearts. Because, God, for anything we'll do for your glory. And God, we just want the anointing to fall on us. By the power of the Holy Ghost. Now, God, as we sit attentively to what you are about to say, we ask that you open up our ears, our minds, so that we can receive the fullness and the riches of your word. We ask, God, that you sit and dwell in our place right now. We ask that you bless those that are watching, that they may receive a word from you on today. God, someone needs a word from you. And I believe, God, that this word will meet them right where they are at. God, I ask that you use me for your glory. I yield my mind, my body, my spirit, everything about me belongs to you. Don't let them hear me, God, don't let them see me, but let them hear and see you. Hide me behind the cross. And God forgive me for anything I said, did, thought about that was not like you. But I stand in your presence as your servant. I stand in your presence as your vessel. Fill me up now. God, my mind, my heart. That I may break forth this word as you have given it to me in my spirit. Now, God, I ask that you clear up the airways, clear out the distractions, so that we can receive everything you have for us on this morning. God, leave no stone unturned. As we sit attentively to what you have to say. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen and amen. I would like to start this Discord with two quotes. The first one says this. God's promises are all on condition of humble obedience. That is from Eli G. White. The next quote says, God's promises are not always fulfilled as quickly or in the way we might hope. They come according to his timing and his ways. That is from Detail Woodcoff. This message hit home for me. This message hit a number of areas of my life. And I pray that you receive everything that God has for you through this message. There will be seasons in your life when God speaks a promise over you. But He does not tell you when the promise will come to pass. When the word of promise comes and has to settle deep into the posture of your heart, and the posture of your faith has to wrap around it and refuse to let it go. Even when time passes and nothing seems to be moving, your heart posture still must say, I believe God. Your faith posture has to keep holding on to what he has promised you, like an anchor. No matter how long it takes, you stand in faith unto what he has spoken shows up in your life. How many times have we received a promise from the Lord and when it did not happen, when we thought it should, you started to look for other ways to make it come true for yourself. As if God needed your help to fulfill what he already has spoken over your life. Our lives are so used to having things our way, our timetable, that when it doesn't happen like we would like we planned it, we get frustrated. But could it be that the promise might have arrived sooner if you have just waited instead of putting your hands in the middle of it? Sometimes we are the reason for the delay in the promises of God. Because we keep inserting our thoughts, inserting our will, and inserting our plan to what God has already set in motion. The Bible tells us in Isaiah 55, 8 and 9, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are my ways, nor are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than yours, and my thoughts than yours. Your thoughts your thoughts about you must line up with what God thoughts are for you already. And when those two line up together, you will see the fulfillment of the promise come to fruition. You cannot allow others, no matter how close they are, to influence you to the point that your posture shifts and you move away from what God already has spoken over your life. As we continue in the theme of the posture of obedience, I want to leave this thought with you. God's promise doesn't need your help. God's promise does not need your help. As we look at our text here in Genesis 15, the end of 15 and the beginning of 16, Abram at the end of the chapter, had just received a word from the Lord that he would have a child and that his descendants would possess the land. Now Sarai, his wife, was barren. No doubt that when God spoke to Abram and gave him that promise that he went and told what the Lord had promised. Ah, whenever God is speaking to a married couple, I can't see that either the woman or the husband, the wife or the husband not relaying what God said to each other. Why? Because you would think that you, y'all two, would come into agreement to what God spoke of or to the other person. You would think that his wife now would stand in agreement with him, just as you would think your husband or wife would stand in agreement with you if God spoke something over your life and you relay the message that she would have your back. Because the message is or was a life-altering word from the Lord that would not only affect Abram or your house, but it would affect everybody in your house. Ah, anytime God begins to speak a word to you, and you are married, and you have a house, or you have a spouse, and you have a husband, and if you're a husband, you have a wife, and God begins to speak to you, God's speaking to you, and that word that He gives you will change everything about you. So how can you keep a message like that to yourself? You can't. You got to share it with your spouse, share it with your wife. Why? Because the changes that God's making in you, you want them to have your back. Ah, and vice versa, if the wife gets the message from the Lord and she tells the husband, you would think that you would know that the husband will have the wife's back. And it will shift the dynamics of the house, it will shift the dynamic of the relationship. Why? Because now you are walking on one accord on one purpose towards what God has spoken. Abraham house received the word, which had to include Sarai, who is now around the age of sixty-five years old. So Al, after she hears the promise, in her mind, she now comes up with a plan based on the culture of her day to try to help God out. See, the custom of the day back then was that if the wife was barren, she could give her handmaid to her husband so the husband and the handmaid can have a child, but the child hopefully a son to carry on the family line. And because Hagar was Sarai's handmaid, anything that Hagar had would legally now belong to Sarai, which would include the child. So Sarai talks to Abram, and Abram takes Hagai as his wife, and Abraham agrees to go and sleep with Haggai. Ladies and gentlemen, I must pause here. Don't allow the culture to dictate your response to God's promises. Don't allow the culture to make you miss out on what God has planned for your life. God will go against the culture to fulfill promise. I'm gonna say that again. God will go against culture to fulfill promise in your life. Ah, the culture will kill you. The culture will cause you to miss out. The culture will cause you to stumble and move from what God has promised you. Don't allow culture, don't allow traditions to take you out of the will of God. Don't allow them to hold you back from what God has promised you already. Stop using culture as an excuse. Sometimes you gotta throw culture out the window when it comes to God. Abram knew what God has promised him. Sarai knew what God has promised him. But because of unbelief and what God has spoken, he agreed with Sarai. Ladies and gentlemen, we have to come to a point in our lives where we ward off the spirit of unbelief. This spirit comes at opportune times to get you to doubt what God has spoken and promised because it seems impossible. Jesus says all things are possible to them who believes. No matter what it may feel like, no matter what it may look like, no matter what I see, I believe God. Our posture of belief has to rise up in us and remind us that God's promises do not need his help, our help. I'ma say that again. Our belief posture has to rise up in us and remind us that God promises does not need our help. The only difference, the I'm sorry, the only reason we interfere is because of unbelief. See, unbelief becomes a barrier to God's working power through us. Jesus said that unbelief can keep mountains from moving, even when a seed of mustard with the with a mustard seed faith, it can be moved. With unbelief, you cannot accomplish anything. You can't do what God is asking to do with unbelief. Don't allow unbelief to kill your promise. Unbelief is there to kill. Unbelief is there to steal. But we gotta understand: do not allow unbelief to kill your promise. Here now, Hagar is pregnant, carrying the seed of Abram, and she looks and she begins to look at Sarah. Abram's wife with contempt, making Sarah feel less than because she could not conceive. Ah, ladies and gentlemen, I have to say this, and it's important. Don't allow others to look down on you because they have and you don't. All you gotta do is wait on God's promise and your life to be fulfilled. Ah, see, see, people who will get, and then because you don't have, they'll look at you like you're less than. Ah, they'll look at you like like like I'm better than you. They'll look at you like you should have had this a long time ago. They'll look at you and say, God is not moving in your life. Ah, but you need to look at them and tell them, I'm waiting on my promise. Yes, you may have now, but my promise is right around the corner. Ah, we cannot allow them, the ones that have, to dictate to us and shift us out of the promises that God made us. Hang on now is puffed up because she believes that she is now superior to Salah simply because she was pregnant. Ah, see, see, see, when people get what they have, they get puffed up in their mind. They get puffed up in their head, and they walk around with a chip on their shoulder. Why? Because they look down on those that don't. Uh, ladies and gentlemen, don't get so puffed up that you look down on somebody that does not have. Why? Because you're one slip up away from getting what they don't have. Ah, you're one slip up away from God taking everything away from you. You're one slip up away from everything crumbling at your feet. Don't despise what you have, don't get so puffed. Up at what you have. Be thankful to God He gave it to you. Be thankful to God that He graced you with it. And pray that somebody else can get what you have. But don't look down on them. Sarai became enraged and upset with Abram, laying the blame at his feet for something that she herself put in motion. And after she puts it in motion, she expected Abram to fix the situation. See, Sarai did not want to accept accountability for what she had done and wanted Abram to resolve the issue for her. But instead of bringing resolution, Abram made it worse by pushing back the responsibility to Sarah, causing a shift or a rift in the family. Abram still had an obligation to Hagar. Why? Because she was carrying his baby. Yet he allowed Sarah to mistreat her, and as a result, Hagar left feeling like she was nothing, and that she was not noticed or cared about. This shift didn't have to happen. This shift didn't have to come to pass. It all came to pass because of unbelief. It all came to pass because Sarai and Abram have unbelief at what God has promised them. See, unbelief shifts blame. Unbelief will have you mistreat people. Unbelief will have you say things out of the ordinary, out of the character that God placed in you. Unbelief is a sin that needs to be rooted out of the heart and the lives of the believer. Unbelief caused Sarai to now mistreat Hagar. And it pushed Hagar to a place where she never acts to be alone, pregnant, and on the run. Maybe you know what it feels like to be caught up in a fallout and someone else's bad decision. Maybe you know what it feels like to be caught up in someone's decision that you had nothing to do with, but you're catching heat for it. Maybe you fall, maybe you know what it feels like to be caught up in mess and you had no issue with it, but but somehow you got caught up in the middle. But this is where grace shows up. Look at somebody and say, Grace shows up. Hagar may have left Abram's house, but she did not leave God's eyesight. The Bible tells us the angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert. It was a spring as if it was a spring on the road on the bed on beside the road to share. She was running from the problem. She was running because she had nowhere else to go. She was running because now she felt mistreated, unnoticed. She felt like nobody cared, but that's the moment where grace shows up. Ah, have you ever been in a situation where because you were mistreated, because you felt so alone, you decided to run, and when you started to run, you got weary, and God showed up. Ah, ladies and gentlemen, God will show up when you least expect it. God will show when you least expect it, but he knows that you need him, so he'll show up right on time. Ah, ladies and gentlemen, when God shows up, he shows up with a plan, he shows up with grace, and he shows up with mercy. God shows up in the midst of pain. God shows up in the midst of uncertainty. God shows up in the midst of loneliness. God shows up when you're scared. God will show up. So don't let's let nobody tell you that God don't care about you, that God has forgotten about you. Say, no, no, no, no. God showed up when I was in despair, God showed up when I was lonely. God showed up in my dark situation. God showed up and shined a light on me. Don't you let nobody tell you you're not important to him. Don't you let nobody tell you you can't make it in God. You have value, you have purpose, and God cares about you. God grace showed up, God instructs Hagar to return and submit to Sarah. But he just don't send her back empty-handed. See, see, when God shows up, when God shows up in the midst of your pain, when God shows up in the midst of what you're going through, when God shows up in the midst of your loneliness, when God shows up in the midst of your hard times, he shows up, and when he shows up, he's not gonna leave you empty-handed. Yo, I don't know who this is for, but God said, just hang on in there, because when God shows up, a blessing comes behind it. I don't know who I'm preaching to, I might be preaching to myself, but when God shows up on the scene, everything has to shift. When God shows up on the scene, everything has to change. When God shows up on the scene, whoo, blessings will follow. He speaks a blessing and a promise over her life. Ah, isn't it ironic that God will wait until you hit your lowest point before he speaks a promise over your life? God will wait to the moment where you have no choice but to hear him because of where you're at. You're down and out, you're lonely, you're hurt, you're crying out for attention, and here comes God. And what God is saying, sometimes, oh God, I feel your spirit. Sometimes I have to take you to the point where you will be forced to listen to what I gotta tell you. Ah, you didn't want to hear my voice before because you were puffed up. You didn't want to hear my voice before because you thought you were all of that. Now that you are down to nothing, now that you are down to nothing happening, now you are down in your luck, now you are down to the point where you're lonely, where you're crying and you're hurt. I will show up and speak, I will speak a blessing and a promise over your life. He speaks a promise that her seed will be greatly multiplied, and her descendants will be multiplied. Why will he speak a blessing over her? He speaks the blessing over her because he spoke a blessing over Abraham and said, Abraham's seed will be blessed, and she is now carrying Abraham's seed, so she has no, she has to be a recipient of the covenant blessing that he made with Abraham. That is why she understood at that moment that her seed will be blessed. He said, Give his name shall be called Ishmael. That name will forever remain in that God here. Why would God send Hagar back to the very place she was running from? Especially while she was carrying a child. When you are carrying something precious that has to be covered, and it can't be left unattended. See, in Abram's house, she would not be left alone, she would not be left to tend for herself, she would be under a covering. Ladies and gentlemen, God would never leave his children uncovered and exposed to the enemy. The reason, one of the reasons why the church is so messed up today is because so many people are uncovered, and it has allowed the enemy to slip in and deceive them. We have preachers, pastors, teachers, bishops that do don't cover who they're assigned to cover. And when you leave your post or you are not covering your sheep, the enemy will slip in. The enemy will show up and deceive the people right in front of your eyes. Why? Because you're not covering them. See, when when God places people under you, you are to cover them. What does that mean? That means you pray for them. What does also that mean? That means you protect them, you guide them, you show them where God is trying to take them, but you cover them with love, you cover them in prayer, you cover them daily, you pray for them daily. See, we have bishops and pastors and teachers that are just out for the money, and all they want to do is receive, receive, receive, and never put covering over who God placed in front of them. So now the enemy slips in and you have left them unexpected, you have left them exposed. You and the leader of the house need to be the watchman of the war and protect all those that are under your care. Ah, but because you have left your post, because you have abandoned your position, now the enemy slips in and puts unbelief in them. So now when you're speaking to them, they don't hear you. Now you can't pray nothing out of them. Why? Because you left them uncovered. God is saying, get back on your post. Start covering your people once again. And I will root out the enemy. But it starts at the head, and that begins with us. Stand up and cover your church, stand up and cover those people that God has placed in your life. Stand up and be bold, stand up and be the watchman on the wall. And protect those that God has placed in your life. While Hagar was getting herself together, no doubt that God was also dealing with Abram and Sarai about their unbelief and their sin. See, God's refusal to step in immediately was part of his teaching them a lesson. He did not stop them, even though he knew the severe consequences of their decision. Instead of preventing the crisis, he allowed Abram and Sarah to walk through the painful results of their unfaithfulness. Don't ever get to the point where your unbelief causes you to miss out. Don't ever get to the point where God says, I gotta teach you a lesson, so I'm gonna let you go through what you gotta throw through. No, no, no, no, no, no. God show me and protect me. God show me and show me where I'm wrong. I don't need to go through a lesson like that. I don't need that type of lesson, but it's necessary for us to go through lessons in life. Yes, but God, if I could if you can prevent that lessoning from happening to me, I'll do what you say do, I'll go where you say go. Deal with the sin without the lesson, God. But the lesson was necessary. Why? Because the lesson will show them that they can't do it on their own. The lesson will show you that you need God in your life, the lesson will show you that when God makes you a promise, you don't need nobody's help. When the lesson will show them that when God makes you a promise, don't put your hand in a cookie jar. The lesson will show you that when God makes you a promise, stand on it. Don't allow nobody to take it away from you and trust and believe God. Don't let them talk to you about unbelief. Don't let them get in your ear and tell you how to react. No, no, no, no, no. You have to be quiet at this moment. Why? Because I'm waiting on my promise from the Lord, and I refuse to allow anything in my spirit that's contrary to what God has spoken in my life. Ladies and gentlemen, this is dropped in my spirit. When God makes you a promise, uh, you have to guard your ear gate. When God makes you a promise, watch who you talk to. When God makes you a promise, watch who you speak to. When God makes you a promise, hold on to it. Don't allow nobody to talk you out of what God has promised you. Ah, ladies and gentlemen, God has spoken promises to you, and because you have spoken it to the wrong person, ah, God has made a promise over you, and because you have spoken it to somebody with unbelief, and they look at your situation and they say, How can God do that? And you received that message and it cultivated in you and it produced unbelief in you, and now you're doubting what God said. No, no, no, no, no. God said, when stuff like that happens, shut it down. I can't work with unbelief, I can't deal with unbelief. Because unbelief is my is a barrier that blocks God from moving. I don't know who I'm preaching to, but God said, come from un come from out of your unbelief. I have something promised for you. Come from out of that unbelief state, that posture of unbelief. Why? Because I have something better for you. He has allowed Abram and Sam to walk through that painful result of the unbelief situation. Sarai now discovers that her self reliance instead of trusting God only causes pain and complications. God uses their foolish choices to teach his couple another valuable lesson about walking by faith. Even though these choices would bring an ongoing struggle and correction. The crisis with Hagar was not a detour from God's plan. It became part of his curriculum. Through failure, the loss of peace in their home, and the consequences of their impatience, Abraham and Sarah was being forced into people who would receive a steward's and steward God's promise with a deeper and more genuine faith. It is at this point that God is dealing with them, that they understand and realize I messed up. It is at this point that Abram and Sarai understood that no matter what God says, it has to come to pass. It is at this point that Abram and Sarai accept responsibility and accountability for what they have done. See, see, see, when you realize when you messed up, don't shift blame on somebody else. Don't shift blame on what somebody else caused you to do. Accept the responsibility, hold yourself accountable. Because at the end of the day, God spoke to you the blessings over your life. Hold yourself accountable. And if you believe God, and if you trust God, say I believe God no matter what I see, I believe God no matter what I feel, I believe God no matter what is going on around me. I trust God. Will there be times that you fall? Yes. Will there be times when you mess up? Yes. But those are the times when you run back to the altar and you ask God, help my unbelief. Help me where I've fallen short, God. Help me where I I don't measure up to what you have called in my life. Hold me up, God. Help my unbelief. See, when you hold yourself accountable to What God said, even if you fall, if you have a sincere heart of repentance, a godly repentance, God will show up. God will show up. If you repent wholeheartedly because you messed up. As I bring this message to a close, let us remember the situation between Abram, Sarai, and Hagar. This was all generated because of unbelief. Unbelief will put you and those in your circle in situations that could have been bevoided if you had just trusted God and taken them at his word. Unbelief will bring discord in the family. It will cause things to be said that didn't need to be said, actions that didn't need to happen. And here you are trying to figure out how did we get here? It is all because of unbelief. Ladies and gentlemen, don't allow unbelief to put you in a place that you were never meant to be for you. God will allow you to suffer because of your unbelief. But before things get out of control completely, he will step in and remind you that you still belong to Him. He will step in and remind you that you have a promise. He will step in the gap and whisper in your ear, saying, Come back to me. Every step through the posture of obedience is deepening our relationship with Him. It is allowing us to see God on a different level. And on that level, God is requiring us to be obedient at all costs. I want to leave you with this final scripture from Samuel, from 1 Samuel 15 and 22. So Samuel said, Has the Lord a great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, it is better, it is better to obey than sacrifice, and he and heed them than the fat of rams. You could do all the sacrifices you want. But it is better to obey the voice of God. When you mess up and make a mistake, don't run from God's presence. Run to God, not away from Him. When unbelief shows up in your life, don't allow unbelief to settle in your spirit. Go to God and say, God help my unbelief. And watch God show up. And watch God show out. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, you want to say thank you. Thank you for the service on today. Thank you for what you are doing in our lives. Thank you, God, for reminding us that the words that you promised doesn't need our help. You are God all by yourself. So God, I am asking that you step in and help our unbelief. Because the promise didn't happen when we thought it should happen. God help our unbelief. When the promise didn't turn out as we thought it should. Help our unbelief. When we decide to listen to other people, then listen to you. Guard our ear gates, God, that we only hear you and we block out the noise. And God, we be mindful to be obedient to everything that you've spoken into our lives. I thank you for showing up in the midst of our weakness, for showing up in our lonely place, for showing up in a place where we're hurting. Because we can see that you care and you never took your eyes off of us. Thank you. We ask that you bless this word and let it sink deep in our hearts. That anytime the enemy tries to speak to us, God, we will cast it down and say, I cannot believe that. God promised me this. I cannot entertain that. God promised me this. I cannot live here. God promised me this. Help us. Help our unbelief. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen and amen. I want to thank you for being here with us, and before we go, I want to share our offering and tithes as we want to make sure that we leave space for those who want to be a blessing to the house of the Lord. For those that want to be a blessing to the house of the Lord, I'm going to put that information up on the screen. So those that need to prepare your offerings, you have an opportunity to do so. One second, I'm going to share my screen right now. There we go. We want to encourage you to be a blessing into the house of the Lord. The information is on your screen. To be a blessing to the house of the Lord, we ask that you scan the QR code, which will take you right to our tidally page, where you can be a blessing to the house of the Lord. If you're tech savvy and you want to give via your phone, you can text the word 855 or text the word give. Forgive me. Text the word give to 855-574-8462. That way you can be a blessing to the house of the Lord. To be a blessing to Impact Outreach, we ask that you text the same word give to 844-499-0078. Heavenly Father, I want to say thank you for those that are being a blessing to the house of the Lord. We ask that you continue to be their source and give them ample resources to continue to have income in their home. God, I ask that you watch over and let them be a good steward over their money. But God, I thank you for those that are giving and those that did not have to give, but on the next time we'll be able to. We ask God that you allow them to be a blessing to their local ministry. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. And amen.