Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Friday, September twentieth. When our requests to God seem urgent and packed with great emotion, it's easy to want to act fast. Today, we are reminded to slow down as we keep up with God's schedule. Do you feel sometimes that God's late? That He's either ignored you, He's not shown up somewhere, something's going on.
You feel guilty, you've sinned against Him. In other words, why does He show up so late? You know, I've never heard anybody saying, God was, He was just in a big hurry.
I mean, God was ahead of me. Most of the time we're complaining about Him being too late. And the reason is because He has His schedule, we have ours. And oftentimes we forget the fact that He knows a whole lot more about the right schedule than we do. And think about this, He's the one who owns the clock. He knows all about time and He's above time, but He's also in the midst of it. And so, one of the reasons we step out of His will, one of the reasons we miss His blessing, is because we never stop to think, what's God's schedule? What is His timing?
What is He up to in my life? And simply because we can't see it, it's not a good reason to just do it our own way and manipulate circumstances so that we think, well, you know, we'll get what we want one way or the other. That's not God's way. And what I want to talk about in this message is simply this. That is, God's schedule on His schedule or on our schedule.
What's it all about? I want you to turn to one single verse of Scripture primarily in Isaiah chapter sixty-four. I want to read those first few verses coming up to it. But Isaiah chapter sixty-four, and I want us to look at these first four verses. Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence. As fire kindles the brushwood, as fire causes water to boil, to make your name known to your adversaries, that the nation may tremble at your presence.
When you did awesome things which we did not expect, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence. And then verse four, listen to this, For from days of old they have not heard or perceived by ear, nor has the eye seen a God beside you, who acts in behalf of the one who waits for Him. If you want anybody acting in your behalf, you certainly want God acting in your behalf. So, I want us to think about this whole issue of God's schedule or ours. Which one are we going to live by? We've been talking about the ways of God.
This is the sixth message in the series. And we've said, for example, that God's ways are not only how God acts, how does He think? What motivates Him? Why does He do what He does?
Why does He say what He said in the Scripture? Who is this God you and I are worshiping? And the truth is, until you begin to understand His ways, you'll never understand who He is. And so, you'll go through life missing out on life's best until you begin to understand His ways. So, I want us to think in terms of His schedule, His timing, how He works in your life and mine. And if you'll think about it, the truth is that God's schedule is based on, listen, on His priorities and His timing. God's schedule for your life and mine is based on His priorities and His timing. Somebody says, Well, what's God's priorities? Well, I don't know all of them for your life, but I do know this one. God's priority in your life is simply this, to grow us into an intimate relationship with Him.
That's number one. It doesn't make any difference how much you serve Him, how much you give to Him, how much you talk about Him. The most important thing to Him is our personal intimate relationship with Him. Therefore, He's going to govern and guide your schedule and mine, our timing in different aspects of our life so that you and I will grow in that relationship. So sometimes that means He'll do things we don't like, many things we don't understand.
Sometimes there'll be pain and suffering and heartache and disappointment and discouragement and rejection. Other times there'll be this awesome pleasure, indescribable pleasure and goodness and mercy and kindness of God that is so evident. God is at work in your life and my life all the time. And the truth is, you can't think of a single moment in your life and no activity in which God's not involved. He may not be in approval, but God has a schedule for your life and mine. And listen to this carefully. You may not be on His schedule all of your life. You may live in rebellion and disobedience to God all of your life. And you may say, I'm not interested in God's schedule or His timing.
Listen carefully. There will be a moment in your life in which you will be on His schedule. It'll be His perfect timing because here's what God says. It is appointed unto man once to die and after this the judgment.
You and I have an appointment with God. No doctor's going to delay it. No wealth can keep you from being on schedule.
Nobody. They put all kind of blood in you, give you all kind of antibiotics, pump you up, mash you on you, squeeze you, operate on you, put you back together. You cannot extend your life one second. You're on God's schedule for death. So why not get on His schedule now and enjoy it? Amen? Well, I'll live your whole life and get on His schedule at the last second of your life.
You could have been on it the whole time, enjoying God's best for your life. But you see, the problem is this. And that is sometimes we think God is slow. He's not slow. We, what we do is we translate it this way.
God, you're slow. He says, no, I'm just being patient because He knows what's going on. So, His schedule and our schedule are not the same. Sometimes we don't look at things the way He looks at them. We don't see things the way He sees them. And so, when I think about that, I think about why you and I should follow His schedule.
And think about this for a moment. And that is God is all-knowing. And having created you, having created you, He created you, listen, with a plan and a purpose for your life. If He created you with a plan and purpose for your life, He has a schedule for your life. That means He's intricately involved in every aspect of your life. You can turn a deaf ear to what He says.
It doesn't keep Him out. You can rebel against Him. He still has that schedule. Listen, He still has His plan for your life. So therefore, if He has a schedule and a plan for your life, then the very best for you can be living in His schedule and His plan.
Now, there are three reasons, if you'll think about them just soberly for a moment, why you ought to consider getting on God's plan in His timing to live out your life. Number one is this, He's all-knowing. He knows everything perfectly. He has no partial knowledge about anything. He knows every single aspect of your life, past, present, future. He doesn't have to refer back to anything. He doesn't have to look up anything.
He doesn't have to get on the computer and check you out. He knows every single thing there is to know about us so that every single situation, circumstance of your life, He's got all the facts. We make decisions based on other people's opinions, based on partial knowledge and information. He bases His on absolute perfect, infinite, accurate knowledge in every aspect of your life.
Well, it would be foolish for me to ignore that. The second basis of it is this, and that is He's not only all-knowing, He's all-wise, which simply says this, He not only knows all the facts, knows the absolute truth about us, knows our weaknesses, knows our frailties, knows what we're gifted to do, knows what His plan and purpose and knows what we're capable of doing, He's all-wise. That is, He knows what to do in every single circumstance of our life. So, being all-knowing and having all the facts and being all-wise, He knows when your schedule should be like this, when His timing and your timing should be the same. He knows exactly what'll save your life facing an accident. He knows exactly what you're to say to someone to whom your witnesses are sharing your faith. He knows how to encourage you to raise your children to be godly.
He's got it all down. And He's wise enough and desires to teach us in every circumstance of life exactly how we ought to live. But the third aspect is this, He's all-loving. And that is, every single aspect of our life, He is involved in a very loving way. And He loves us unconditionally.
You can't make Him stop loving you. He never loves us on the basis of condition. So think about this. This awesome God has created a plan and a purpose for your life. And the fact that He's all-knowing has every single thing perfectly down. That He is all-wise and knows exactly how to give direction. And He's all-loving and He always has the best for us. Does He not say that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him, to those who are called according to His purpose? He has something good in store for us at every single turn of our life. Some things that you and I experience in life we don't think are very good. God allows some things to happen we think like Mary and Martha. Well, if you'd have been here, God, I wouldn't have had to put up with this and you could have changed this. We may have those feelings.
He's always on time, perfectly knowledgeable about all things and loving us through every single one of them. Now, that being the case, why wouldn't you and I be willing to surrender to His timetable to His timetable? You see, here's the problem. We sort of like being in control. And probably not sort of, we just like being in control.
And if I'm going to be in control, He's not going to be in control. So, we have to decide, the first thing we have to do is to surrender control to God and His schedule and His timing. Now, God knows that it takes time to grow us up. He knows that to make us disciples of His, followers of His. And He knows that to bring us into this intimate relationship with Him is not something that happens the moment we're saved. And it's because of our impatience. And when I think about the reasons, for example, that we have a problem with that, we might ask the question is why is it that we oftentimes fail to follow His schedule? Why don't, why do we think that He's a little late?
Well, we're just impatient. Now, I remember one time when I was just a real young lad and my mother was going to teach me something about planting things and watching them grow. So, I remember we went out in the backyard and she dug up this little area, probably about three feet by three, I don't remember a whole lot about it. And we planted some seed. I don't even remember what the seed was, but I knew that I was excited. So, she explained to me that we're going to dig this little hole and put the seed in there and cover it up. And then before long, she said, she said, you'll see this little green sprout come up. And you'll know that something is growing. And then before long, we're going to have fruit. Now, I forgot what the fruit was.
But, and the reason I did is here's what happened. So, about every day or so, I'd walk out there and look at it. Gosh, you know, we're going to have some fruit.
Not so excited. Well, the three or four days went by and a week went by and my mother was at work that day and so I went out there and I thought, I'm going to find out what's happening. I dug it up. Well, she probably forgot to tell me it was going to take a while. So, being impatient of what I thought was coming and I certainly deserved to see it because my mother planted it. And so, what happens, I dug it up. Well, how much fruit did I get? Nothing. It at least began to teach me a little lesson about being patient.
And how many times have I had to learn that again and again and again? And that is, God has a schedule. He has time. Every farmer knows he plants. And what does He do after He plants? What does He do after He plants? He waits and trusts for the right weather, the right water, the right temperature and all the things that go on. So, what's happening? What's happening is while we plant the seed, looks like nothing's going on.
Watch this. In your life and my life, every single day, God's up to something in your life and my life. He's arranging circumstances.
We call them good, bad and indifferent. While we think nothing's going on, God is at work in your life and my life. This is His schedule. He's at work in your life and my life doing what? Bringing us into an intimate relationship with Him. Sometimes we rebel. Sometimes we allow other people to dig it up and to cheat us out of this wonderful opportunity God has gifted us for, equipped us for and provided for us. And so, it's our impatience. Sometimes the reason we think God is a little slow is the fact that we have our own set of plans. And we're taught to plan and to program our life. And yet, many people have no plans really.
And their plans are to make it through the week and get paid again so they can go to the malls and spend it all so they go back to work on Monday and do that week after week after week after week or spend it somewhere. And so, what happens is they have plans which have totally disregarded God's plan, God's will, God's schedule for their life. And so, we could think of lots of reasons, for example, that people begin to think, well, you know, I prayed and it didn't happen when I expected it to.
One of the problems we have is this. We don't have the right attitude about God's promises. And if you'll think about this, how many times does the Bible say that God is slow? How many of you think God never say, He isn't talking about being slow. Does the Bible say anything about God being slow?
Well, think about it. What is God, what is the one area in which God is slow? He says He's slow to anger, which says something about His awesome patience for us.
And then, of course, look at this. In second Peter three, nine, the Lord is not slow about His promise. God is never slow in keeping His promise.
Now, we think He is. And so, we have a misconception, for example, about God's promises to us. And for example, here's a need that comes in your life and you say, well, here's what the Word of God says.
I'm going to claim it. My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Amen. And so, we say, God, here's my need. Okay, God, here's my need. And because He doesn't answer it on our schedule and our timing, we think He doesn't answer my prayer. I must be guilty. I must be out of His will.
So, we try to excuse that. Because He makes a promise to answer our prayer doesn't mean that that's going to happen immediately. And so, well, what's He doing? Well, you say, well, listen, if I have a need, you said God's all knowing He knows my need.
Correct. If He's all knowing of my need, then why doesn't He answer it? Well, we also said He's always, He's also wise. And if He's wise, He knows when to answer it, how to answer it, and through whom to answer it.
And He does it in such a way, listen, that He is expressing love toward us. For example, as a parent, your son, as my son and every little boy, wants a pocket knife very early in life before they're capable of handling one. Because they see that you have one, they want one just like you. Would you give your three-year-old this pocket knife? Not if you're a smart dad, you wouldn't. And he says, well, you said you were going to give me one. Well, I am going to give you one. Well, why don't you give it to me now? Well, because you're not capable, I know how to open it and I know how to close it.
And so, they can give us all kind of arguments why they ought to have a pocket knife at three years of age. We do, we treat God the same way. Well, God, here's what you said.
And in fact, Lord, you gave me a special promise about answering this prayer. Well, I'm listening. And God doesn't say anything. You know why He doesn't say anything? He's too busy doing something good for you to be answering that question. Listen, tell me what goes on in your life that he's not involved in. He's interested.
He's at work. It's just like that seed you plant under the earth. There's something going on from the second that seed hits the earth and it's covered up.
Second by second, something's going on. Because you and I don't see what God is doing, what I want you to see is this. Just because you and I don't see God at work and because He has not written down your schedule by your name and said the following things are going to happen to you in the following days and years of your life. And the truth is, I don't want to know what the future is. Do you?
Well, some of you don't know whether you do or not. Let me ask you a question. Go back in your life if you've lived a few years and look at all the hardships, trials, terrible things you've been through in life. Would you have wanted God to tell you at the age of sixteen, now here's what you have to look forward to. Difficulty, hardship, pain, rejection, persecution, I mean needs.
And I mean, you don't want to know that. What we have to do is to trust Him. His schedule is perfect. Listen, He's all wise. He knows when to give you what you need to have. And He's all loving. He knows all about all that.
But we, because His schedule doesn't fit ours, we misinterpret His promises and things don't work out when we think they ought to work out and we think God is not doing anything. And the truth is, He's doing a great deal because here's what He says. He says, He acts in behalf of those who wait for Him. Now watch this. Listen carefully.
He's acting all the time. But He's acting in my behalf when I'm willing to be on His schedule, listening to Him and following Him. So I have a choice. I have a choice whether to follow Him or not. To get on His schedule or not to get on His schedule. You say, well, but let me tell you about my circumstances. Let me tell you the truth.
It doesn't make any sense what your circumstances are. God is still good to every single one of us. The reason He may not appear to be good to you is because you're off His timing and His schedule. You're doing your own thing. You have chosen to have it your way instead of God's way. And so therefore, you want to accuse God and blame God for something when He had the best plan possible. Remember, He's all-knowing. He knows the best plan. He knows the right time. He knows the right schedule. And if you choose to get out of His will, do it your way, your timing on your schedule, then listen, one of the very inevitable things that happens when you and I get on our schedule, our timing, we begin to manipulate circumstances, then all of a sudden instead of confusion, it's not working out right, this isn't working out and why not feel this, He feels that.
And what happens? You're out of His schedule. When you are not on God's schedule, you miss His best. Thank you for listening to God's Schedule. For more inspirational messages like this one, visit our online 24-7 station. And if you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
