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Heaven's Light Breaking | Trusting God's Perfect Timing

A New Beginning / Greg Laurie
The Truth Network Radio
December 20, 2024 3:00 am

Heaven's Light Breaking | Trusting God's Perfect Timing

A New Beginning / Greg Laurie

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December 20, 2024 3:00 am

“Just in the nick of time.” Few of us know what a nick of time is but we know the gist. The damsel is rescued from the train tracks “just in the nick of time.” Does God always work just in the nick of time? It may seem so. Today on A NEW BEGINNING, Pastor Greg Laurie gives us some insight on the timing of God. When we know that God works outside the bounds of time, maybe it’ll be a little easier to trust that His timing is perfect.

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A New Beginning is the daily half-hour program hosted by Greg Laurie, pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Southern California. For over 30 years, Pastor Greg and Harvest Ministries have endeavored to know God and make Him known through media and large-scale evangelism. This podcast is supported by the generosity of our Harvest Partners.

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Pastor Greg Laurie recommends a great film about the 40th President of the United States. We have a movie that's going to tell you the story of this man who changed the world. Ronald Reagan was a man who believed in Jesus Christ. You're going to be inspired by it in this brand-new film starring Dennis Quaid. It's called Reagan, and it's our gift to you for your gift of any size.

Available on DVD and digital download at harvest.org. Maybe you've wondered, Lord, why are you taking so long to answer my prayer? With God, even when it seems like nothing's happening, something's happening. Pastor Greg Laurie points out how our Father knows best. We see the small picture. God sees the big picture. We see the here and now. God sees the by and by. We see the temporal.

God sees the eternal, and He promises He will make everything beautiful in His time. Just in the nick of time. A few of us know what a nick of time is, but we know the gist.

The damsel is rescued from the train tracks just in the nick of time. Does God always work just in the nick of time? It may seem so. Well, today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie gives us some insight on the timing of God.

When we know that God works outside the bounds of time, maybe it'll make it a little easier to trust that His timing is perfect. So it's Christmas time, isn't it? I don't know if you've been around a mall. I made the mistake of going to the mall yesterday.

Crazy. No parking. And what Christmas means, among other things, is waiting.

You're going to wait for everything. You're going to wait for a parking space. You know when you pull into the parking lot, and all the spaces are filled, and you see someone with bags and packages headed to their car, so you start the slow stop.

You know what I'm talking about? Very slowly behind them, and then they stop, and you turn your signal on, like, this is my space. You're waiting. And they're slowly opening up their trunks, slowly unloading their packages. Five minutes later, they're still doing things, and then they walk back and shop somewhere.

That is not right, okay? You can go back and shop if you want, but let us know ahead of time, like, sorry, I'm not leaving, right? And then when you get in your car, the law says you must leave immediately. You cannot sit in your car and check your texts or look at Instagram. Get out! No, I'm saying that lovingly. Please move.

All right? And then you wait in line. You wait in line to buy something. I don't know if you've ever noticed on the freeway if there's a person that's always darting around, changing lanes, trying to get ahead.

That could be me. I don't like to wait in lines. I read recently an article about how much time we spend waiting. It said we spend five months of our lives waiting in lines at the grocery store.

Five months of your life. That's why I always go to the 12 items or less cash register. Even if I have more items, I'll get rid of items just to not wait in a line. We spend also 58 days of our life waiting to send a package.

That didn't seem possible to me, but that's what they say. And also a recent survey revealed we spend 20 months of our life waiting for our spouses and children. Is everybody ready? We're going to church.

No one's ready. Waiting is not a pleasant thing to do generally because then it comes to waiting on God. Waiting on God to answer a prayer. And maybe you've wondered, Lord why are you taking so long to answer my prayer? Maybe he has answered your prayer and you just didn't like the answer.

God answers prayer three ways. Yes, no, and wait. We say, well no, you know that's not an answer. It actually is an answer.

No. Or wait. And waiting is one of the hardest things to do. To wait on the Lord. Maybe some of you feel as though God has forgotten about you.

He isn't hearing you. Maybe some would even think God has abandoned you. If that's the case then you have a sense of how Israel felt 2,000 years ago. These were difficult and dark days in our history when the Messiah came and was born in that manger at Bethlehem. They were under the control of Rome. And Rome had established a king known as Herod. And he was a wicked, evil man. So Luke starts with these simple words. In the days of Herod. In verse 5 of Luke 1. In the days of Herod.

Now that may not mean a lot to us but let me put it another way. That would like be reading in a book in the days of Hitler in Germany. Or in the days of China when Mao Zedong was ruling. Or in the days of Iraq when Saddam Hussein was ruling.

So immediately that shifts things and you understand these were difficult times. So in the days of the wicked King Herod. Fact of the matter is 6 BC was a lousy time to live in Judea. Rome ruled the world with an iron fist. It was something they established called Pax Romana. Which was the forced peace of Rome.

You either submit to the power of Rome or you die. And I mentioned how they established Herod as the king. He was ruthless, vicious, and merciless. And a very jealous and paranoid man.

So when these mysterious kings of the east as they are called came saying we are looking for the one who is born the king of the Jews that was not a good thing. The Bible says that Herod was shook. Or he was all shook.

Or all shook up. Thank you very much. So Elvis reference. You missed it.

Never mind. And when Herod was shook everyone was shook. Because when Herod was paranoid people were going to die. History tells us King Herod murdered his wife, her brother, her mother, and several of his own sons. And don't forget he gave the command to kill all the baby boys born in Bethlehem because he felt one of those would be a threat to his throne.

There was actually a saying of the day that went along these lines quote better to be one of Herod's pigs than a member of his family end quote. And so add to this the fact that the Jewish people had not heard from God for 400 years. 400 years of a seemingly icy silence from heaven. 400 years since they heard from a prophet saying thus saith the Lord. 400 years since an angel appeared. 400 years since a miracle was performed. 400 years of silence. And they are crying out God have you forgotten about us?

Lord when are you going to send the Messiah? But God was on schedule. This long darkness they were experiencing was going to now experience a dramatic sunrise. R. Kent Hughes a great Bible commentator made this statement and I quote, great plans laid in eternal ages past now began to activate angels scurried around busily preparing for the dawn end quote.

I love that. So behind the scenes God was at work. They were living in dark times and we too are living in dark times. They were waiting for Jesus to come the first time. We're waiting for Jesus to come the second time.

And we could just as easily look at the things happening in our world today and say Lord are you paying attention. This crazy world. The war. The violence. The crime. The things happening in our own nation.

We wonder Lord it seems to me these are signs of the times. When are you going to come back? Answer. He'll come back at the appointed moment. No one knows the day of the hour but God knows that day and hour and He will be right on time.

Here's the thing. We live by time. We check our watches. We check our phones.

We have schedules to follow. God lives outside of time. That does not mean that God does not recognize human time.

It means He is not bound to it. The fact of the matter is He is aware of every hour every minute of your life. The Bible even tells us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom. And in Romans we're told to redeem the time because the days are evil. The one who was before time and created time will be with you all the times of your life.

Let me say that again. The one who was before time and created time will be with you all the times of your life. See we see the small picture. God sees the big picture. We see the here and now. God sees the by and by. We see the temporal. God sees the eternal. So He's very aware of time and He has His timing. And in fact He promises He will make everything beautiful in His time. Ecclesiastes 3 11 says God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He's planted eternity in the human heart.

Even so people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end. I only see where I am in the moment. Sometimes when I sit down in front of a piece of paper with a pen I'll start to draw. And I might smile because in my mind I know what I'm going to draw.

And I think it will be funny. Someone else is looking at me. Are you mentally ill? Why are you smiling? Well I see something you don't see. And maybe I just do a stroke. And I don't see what this is going to be.

And that's how it can be with us. God looks at you. He has a plan for you. He has a purpose for you. He does the first brush stroke.

He does the first note on the paper. And where is this going? You'll see. But His plan for you is good. And He has a plan. And it will be accomplished in His time.

We get frustrated. Lord I have loved ones that have not come to faith yet. Why has my mother and father not come to faith? Or my son or my daughter? Or my brother or my sister?

Or my friend or my neighbor? Why haven't they come to believe yet? God is His time. And the Bible says there's a time to sow and there's a time to reap. And we get impatient. We sow that seed. We water that seed with prayer. And still the seed does not break ground. And it's as though God is not hearing us.

He has His time. My own mother did not come to the Lord until the age of 70. And that was only a month before she died and went to heaven.

The same for her husband that she was married to Bill. He literally came to Christ on his deathbed. I had the privilege of praying with him only hours before he entered eternity.

Some people just run off the clock that way. And other people just come around at an early age and they walk with the Lord for their whole life. But we must not give up and understand God has His time. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. Hey everybody, I want to encourage you to join us for something we call Harvest at Home. It happens every Sunday at harvest.org and on our brand new app Harvest Plus, which is available on your mobile TV devices. Download it now and you can watch Harvest at Home with Christians from around the world as we worship together and study God's Word.

So again, join us for Harvest at Home at harvest.org or on Harvest Plus. Well, we're talking about the timing of the Lord today as Pastor Greg brings his message called Heaven's Light Breaking. So Israel's wondering, Lord, when will the Messiah come?

I love that Christmas song we sing this time of year. Oh come, oh come, Emmanuel and ransom captive Israel that mourns in lonely exile here until the Son of God appears. Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel shall come to thee oh Israel. Then it goes on to say come thou day spring come and cheer our spirits by thy advent here disperse the gloomy clouds of night and death's dark shadows put to flight. Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel shall come to thee oh Israel. I'm going to now sing it.

Oh come, no I'm not going to. But that was the heart cry of Israel. Jesus is going to come on his exact moment that he chose. And Jesus will come again when the time is right.

We have this insight from 2 Peter 3.9. God is not late as some men count lateness. He has long suffering toward us not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. That's why he poured his own wrath on his own dear son as he hung there on the cross because God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son and whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. God is waiting for more to believe. So it'll all happen in his timing. So God gave a promise, one of many promises in the Old Testament about what was going to happen. In the last book of the Old Testament the book of Malachi we have this statement from the prophet. I will send my messenger who will prepare the way before me and suddenly the Lord that you are seeking will come to his temple the messenger of the covenant whom you desire will come says the Lord God almighty. And that one to come before the Messiah would be John the Baptist. The forerunner.

The voice of one crying in the wilderness. And that's the story we're reading about now. This is the story before the story.

But it's all part of the big story. The story of John that came before Jesus. So he had a dad named Zechariah and a mother named Elizabeth. He hadn't been born yet. They were very old. Zechariah and Elizabeth. And they always wanted a child.

Specifically a boy. And God had not answered their prayer. He had effectively said to them wait. So Zechariah was a country priest. There were around 8,000 priests in circulation at that time.

And they would cast lots or we might say you know throw the dice or whatever to choose who got to go next. And it came to Zechariah. He was very excited about this.

He'd never done this before. To be able to go and represent God to the people and the people of God as a priest. He goes into the temple with the incense.

Little realizing that this day is going to change his life. Luke 1 8 says his order was on duty that week as was the custom of the priest. He was chosen by God to enter the sanctuary and to burn incense.

And there was a crowd outside praying. So here he is now inside of the temple and an angel appears. Not just any angel. A mega angel.

Gabriel. There are three angels named for us in the Bible. There is Michael the archangel. We assume he is the greatest of all the angels because he is the only angel called the archangel. Then there is Gabriel. Another high ranking angel.

And this one may surprise you. Lucifer. Lucifer was once a high ranking angel as well. But he rebelled against God. Led an angelic rebellion taking one third of the angels with him.

Now known as demons. Lucifer became Satan. So this is Gabriel. It is a big deal when Gabriel shows up for anything.

Let's read about it. Luke chapter 1 verse 11. Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him. To Zechariah. Standing at the right side of the altar when Zechariah saw him he was startled and gripped with fear. That is the way people usually reacted when angels showed up. The angel said to him don't be afraid Zechariah your prayer has been heard. Underline that statement. Don't be afraid your prayer has been heard.

I will come back to it. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son and you are to call him John. He will be a joy and delight to you and many will rejoice because of his birth for he will be great in the sight of the Lord but he is never to take wine and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. That is an important statement. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit before he is born. Wait. I thought we were just to feed us until we were born.

Oh I guess not. According to scripture you become a living soul when you are conceived in your mother's womb. And so you can be filled with the Holy Spirit while you are still a baby in your mother's womb. And John was filled with the Holy Spirit in his mother's womb as well. And then it goes on to say he will bring many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. He will go on before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

We will stop there. I love this story. So Zechariah is praying. It is implied in the text that he might have even been praying about a son. Like Lord here I am in the temple.

This is an awesome responsibility since I have your attention. About that boy. I know I am an old man now but I am pretty disappointed that we never had that son.

It seems that he may have been praying about this very thing when God answered this prayer with these specific words from Gabriel that he is going to have a son. Look I don't know what you are facing this Christmas. This may be a very hard time for you. A very difficult time.

I don't know what burdens you are carrying on your shoulders or what kind of trials you may be enduring. But Christmas tends to magnify things. If times are good they even seem better. If your family is great it even seems greater. But on the other hand it can magnify the bad as well. If you are struggling the struggling seems more intense.

If you are lonely you feel even lonelier. And I think that is really true. Christmas is a magnifier. So maybe some of you are having difficult times and your difficulties are magnified.

That happens. So we need to get perspective. So the Bible tells us to magnify the Lord and exalt His name forever.

Here is the problem. We tend to magnify problems. You take a magnifying glass and you hold it up to something it appears larger than it really is. So we have got our magnifying glass up to our problems. And when we should take that magnifying glass and look at the Lord. Because if you have a great God you have relatively small problems. But if you have great problems maybe you are not magnifying the Lord as you ought to. We need to bring our burdens before the Lord.

Sometimes over and over again. Because we can give something to God and take it right back. You know what I am talking about. Lord I just give this over to you.

I trust you. Pull it right back. Give it to Him again.

Take it back again. But the Bible says, Cast all of your care upon Him for He cares for you. And the Philippians says, Don't worry about anything but pray about everything and tell God what you need and thank Him for what He has done. So anyway here is Zechariah in the temple and he is talking to Gabriel.

This is a big deal. God is keeping His promise. And I love how Gabriel begins. He says, Don't be afraid.

Your prayer has been heard. Angels often started with the words don't be afraid for obvious reasons. When people saw an angel they freaked out. What was the message of the angels to the shepherds keeping watch over their fox by night? Fear not for there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord.

It was always opening with fear not. You are not going to die. You are ok.

I have good news. Don't be afraid. And I would say the same thing to you. God would say the same thing to you.

Don't be afraid. Your prayers have been heard by God. Psalm 34 15 says, The eyes of the Lord watch over those who do right. His ears are open to their Christ. Good encouragement from our study today here on A New Beginning. Pastor Greg Laurie presenting his message called Heaven's Light Breaking.

And there is more to come in this study. You know Pastor Greg, you just mentioned that the Lord's message to us when we are stressed and anxious and fearful is fear not. Somebody may be listening right now who is facing some difficult challenges right now.

They don't particularly count themselves as religious, but boy they could sure use some help about now. Yes, sometimes God will let us go through hardship so he will get our attention. The psalmist said, Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I have kept your word. So maybe something is happening in your life that has caused you to look up, as in looking up to God, and you are saying help. Listen, that is not a bad place to be. In fact, that is a really good place to be. It has been said when you get to the end of yourself, you get to the beginning of God.

Do you feel like you are at the end of yourself right now? Then why don't you pray? In fact, I would like to lead you in a prayer. Maybe you have never prayed before. You don't even know how to start praying.

That is okay. Prayer is just talking to God. Let me lead you in a simple prayer. You can pray it after me in fact. And this is a prayer where you are asking God to enter into your situation, but more significantly you are asking Christ to enter into your life. See that is what being a Christian is. It is having Christ living inside of you.

It is a relationship, not some religious thing. So if you would like a relationship with God, if you would like God to walk with you through your times of difficulty, you could pray this prayer after me right now. Just pray these words if you would.

Lord Jesus, I am scared and I need your help. And I am asking you to enter my life. I am asking you to forgive me of my sin. I know that you died on the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead. But I want to receive you now as my Savior and my Lord.

So I invite you into my life and I choose to follow you from this moment forward. Thank you for hearing this prayer and thank you for answering this prayer. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Amen. And listen, if you have just prayed that prayer along with Pastor Greg and you've meant those words sincerely, the Lord has heard you and has forgiven you of your sin. And we want to welcome you into the family of God. Let us help you begin living for the Lord each day. Pastor Greg would like to send you his New Believers Bible.

It's in an easy to understand translation and it's in a simple way. It has scores of helps to get a New Believer started. So get in touch and we'll send you the New Believers Bible free of any charge. Call us at 1-800-821-3300. That's 1-800-821-3300. Or write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514.

Or go online to harvest.org and click God. And then let us say a word of thanks to those who support us financially, those who make it possible for us to bring you these studies each day. We're definitely a listener supported ministry.

It's the generosity of listeners that help us be here with these programs. So if you've partnered with us, thank you. And if you have yet to partner with us, I hope you'll get in touch today and let us know that you're standing with us. Even a small investment would help. It's actually an investment in changing lives. Thank you for partnering with us. You can donate securely online at harvest.org or write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514. Or call us at 1-800-821-3300. Again, that's 1-800-821-3300. Well next time, Pastor Greg brings us more insight from this encouraging message called Heaven's Light Breaking. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher, Greg Laurie.
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-12-20 05:46:54 / 2024-12-20 05:56:53 / 10

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