Just Wait.. And Believe

This is Rodney from the Masculine Journey Podcast, where we explored manhood within Jesus Christ. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Sit back, enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and choosing the Truth Podcast Network. This is the Truth Network. Welcome to the weekend edition of Truth Matters with Dr. Cheryl Davis.

Heard daily on this station at 8 20 a.m. and 5 20 p.m. Truth Matters is a ministry of the Truth Project, whose mission is to empower men and women in the Christian faith to teach biblical truth in the culture and marketplace of ideas, using the Bible as a sacred trust of truth and sharing the message of Jesus. Learn more about the ministry of the Truth Project at www.projecttruthmatters.com. Let's join this week's extended edition as Dr. Davis teaches on four days to a miracle and much more.

Hello, I'm Dr. Cheryl Davis and you're listening to Truth Matters. Mary and Martha saw their brother as dead. Jesus saw him as sleeping. What is the difference between dead and sleeping?

The difference is expectancy. If I am sleeping, I expect to wake up. If I am dead, I am dead. Mary and Martha believed their brother was dead and that his deliverance was in eternity. But Lazarus' deliverance was for now. Those of you listening today, your deliverance is for now.

You may not believe it. Having lived through this, I can stand here and say today that God is not just the God of the past or the future. He is the God of the present. He is still in the business of raising Lazarus. Your Lazarus is just sleeping. At the appointed time, your Lazarus will be resurrected. If you go in covenant with God to see the manifest glory of Jesus Christ in your life, you will see his goodness in the land of the living. You may have to hold on until you get there, shed a few tears, and even a few friends.

But it will be the greatest miracle that you will ever see. Day four. Concept number four. Expect God's glory in the land of the living. Many of you listening here today are suffering by appointment, not by accident. You think it's through something that you did.

You think it's something someone else did. Do you know God has appointed you to this period of suffering, just like he appointed his son Jesus to be tempted in the garden to prepare him to be the Messiah? You have asked God for things and have not received. Some of you are in day one. To reign with God, you must suffer with him, meaning you did not understand that serving God meant all this.

Frankly, you didn't even know if you signed up for all this. But some of you are in day two, where you're in the middle and you're in misery. You are doubting the promise of God, which is specifically ordained for the middle. Some of you may be in day three, waiting on the Lord with the mourners in your life, leeching off the death of your promise. Some of you may be in day four, where you believe your misery will last until you die and you have to live in that misery to be faithful to the Lord. It's okay to be there, but it's not okay to stay there. Some of you listening today, having stayed too long that you have become paralyzed in your particular suffering. God's grace is sufficient, but you have to get up. All you need is a little bit of faith and time and obedience.

Go back, listen to this over and over so that you can really identify which day of the cycle that you're in. Over time, we have been breaking away from doing traditional commentaries. Today we're getting into another topic about breaking up with the world. We're going to talk about Moses and the decisions that he had to make in leaving the treasures of Egypt to walk out his faith and to serve God to be the Deliverer.

For two years, we have been dealing with a brand new infectious disease not previously known to man. The loss and the suffering experienced by this nation is something that we thought would happen to a foreign country, not the United States. It is times like this that biblical prophecy can help us make sense of all these events and help keep us in perfect peace when our mind is stayed on the Billy Graham once said, world events are moving very rapidly now. I pick up the Bible in one hand and I pick up the newspaper in the other and I read almost the same words in the newspaper as I read in the Bible. It's being fulfilled every day all around us. In case you are not aware, we are living in the beginning of sorrows. Turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 24, a passage known as the Olivet Discourse. I know that you are saying, what does Moses have to do with the Olivet Discourse?

But trust me, we will get there. The disciples are sitting on the Mount of Olives with Jesus and they are asking him, what will be the sign of your coming or of the end of the age? Matthew 24 4 through 8 Like Billy Graham said, the Bible speaks about pestilence and our newspapers say it's a pandemic. The Bible speaks about war and our newspapers say Russia has invaded Ukraine.

The rumor of war was when Russia invaded Crimea in 2014. When we read the newspaper, the newspaper tells us what is going on. The Bible tells us what it means.

If you do not hear anything else of what I have to say today, hear this. We are living in the beginning of sorrows. What that means is that this is the beginning of the end. Romans chapter 8 verse 22 tells us that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. It began laboring when it was cursed as a result of Adam's sin in the garden. What is it laboring for you may ask?

The world is laboring for its redemption from the curse of sin. But if you know anything about labor, the progress of labor can be judged by the closeness of the birth pangs or the contractions. As the contractions get closer, the labor is progressing and the delivery is near.

That is why women are told to time their contractions and to go to the hospital when they are five minutes apart. What I am trying to say is that the rapid succession of the current events and the most recent events tells me that our labor has hit another stage. The speed of what we see and the threat of what could possibly happen as a result tells me that our redemption draweth nigh. It is closer now than it ever has been. Our redemption draweth nigh.

The women listening to me know all too well that as the contractions get closer and more frequent, the pain intensifies. As time goes by, these birth pangs on the earth and creation that I mentioned will get closer and closer and the suffering associated with these birth pangs will get more intense. As we progress along the timeline of humanity, our faith in Jesus Christ is going to be tested more than ever before. Serving God in this country has never really been associated with taking risk, but a time is coming in this country that serving God will mean taking real risk. A time is coming in this nation that serving God will mean taking real risk. For example, did you ever think that you would feel that to gather for corporate worship within the church would be more dangerous to your health?

Did you ever think that faithful church goers would think that it is safer to go to work and shop at Walmart than to go to church? What I have learned during this pandemic is that our actions are a reflection of what we believe. Our works are evidence of our faith. The pandemic has revealed the weak faith of the church and of modern day Christians. This is strong, but some Christians have more faith in the world than in Jesus Christ. Some Christians have more faith today in their world or the paycheck than in Jesus Christ. How do we know that? Why else would you rather take the risk to go to your job faithfully during the height of the pandemic than to take the risk to go to the house of God?

Why? I heard a preacher say during the pandemic that during the week he can see his church members on Facebook, at the beach, the mountains, Walmart, but on Sunday mornings they are in the witness protection program. What that says to me is that I'm willing to take the risk to go to my job to get my paycheck because I trust in my paycheck for survival. But when it comes to going to church, it is too risky and I can worship at home individually or over time, not at all. The need is not there or the reward is not there.

The need is not there or the reward is not there. The Bible clearly states in Hebrews, fail not to assemble yourselves together. So much more as you see the day approaching. I am here to say today that as I look out over the horizon, the day of the Lord is fast approaching. We are about to be changed in the moment in the twinkling of an eye.

The dead in Christ is going to rise first and we who are alive and remain are going to be caught up. So if you are one of those in here today who beyond a shadow of a doubt that when the Lord comes into the clouds that you are going to be gone, it is time to start laying aside every weight and the sin that so easily besets us and run this race so that we can be ready when the trumpet sounds to take flight. What the Lord has to say to us today is this, some of us listening have the weight of the world on our shoulders. Usually that means that you're worried, burdened or downcast. But today in this moment in time it means that you literally have the weight of the world on your shoulders.

The world is weighing you down so that when the trumpet sounds you're going to struggle to take flight. But in your case and in my case today, it is our love affair with the world. It is our own relationship and intimacy with the world. It is by our own choice. We have chosen to wrap ourselves in earthly garments rather than the eternal and incorruptible garments of righteousness.

We have chosen to place our security and what the world has to offer than what God has promised for us. But the Lord says today that that relationship must come to an end. No matter how hard it may be, the Lord said it is time to break up with the world.

Some of you it's obvious, but for some of you it may not be open and it may not be obvious. But when we examine our actions, it is clear. God has greatness in store for you, but your faith in the world is a hindrance to your calling. God may have ordained you to a certain process for a certain time, but you have remained there too long because you have fallen in love with where you are.

Your time is up and it is time to move. We must break up with the world. We must have a deeper faith in God than in the world so that we can discern spiritual things and act accordingly. The Bible says without faith it is impossible to please God.

We are not pleasing God with our actions because our faith and our hope is in the natural and in this world. Before I go any further, I want to tell you that I am not trafficking undigested truth. I am telling you something that I have lived myself. This past year the Lord has opened my eyes to this very fact and my own walk with him.

In other words, I have lived this and I got the t-shirt. Anyone here who wants to talk specifics, you can send me an email. Cheryl Davis at ProjectTruthMatters.com.

So let's finally get to our text. If I'm reading your mind, you're probably thinking, so how do I break up with the world? By looking at the life of Moses, we can learn how to break up with the world. No one had greater faith to overcome the world than Moses. He was born to Hebrew slaves and his mother set him down the river to protect his life and Pharaoh's daughter drew him from the water and raised him in the palace. In Hebrews chapter 11 verse 24 it says, By faith Moses when he became of age refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Moses knew that he was a Hebrew. Moses was aware of the God of Abraham and the promise made to the Hebrews to send a deliverer.

The Hebrews were known as the children of the promise. Moses was raised in the palace of Pharaoh, a home filled with idolatry. But God had a plan for Moses. When he became of age, Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Moses made a conscious decision to break from the world. Notice he broke from the world long before he became the deliverer. He discerned through faith that it was better to be called the son of Abraham, the father of the faithful, rather than the son of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. How else would you choose to identify with the God of Abraham and the slaves in bondage than with the world power the king of Egypt, but by faith? It is not fleshly possible to make that decision.

Only faith can do it. Look at the timing of when Moses broke from the world. The Bible says it is when he became of age. Moses was at the prime of his life to enjoy the world.

He was raised in royalty. If anyone could have progressed in the world he could have. It is one thing to break from the world when you are old and you have already lived it up in the world and now you're on the downhill and you say well I'm going to serve the Lord now but you've wasted 40 years of your life in the world most of those your best years but it's another thing to break from the world in the prime of your life. Moses broke early from the world. It takes greater faith to break from the world at its most promising point and offer God your best than to break from the world when you are old and offer God your leftovers. It's a much greater sacrifice to say no when the potential for success is at its greatest than to say no when the world's potential has already passed you by.

Point number one. It takes faith in God and God alone to break up with the world. Break up with the world now while you can still offer God your best not your leftovers. Let's move on to the next verse Hebrews chapter 11 verse 25. Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. Moses at the time knew that by identifying with the God of Abraham he would have to suffer. He would rather suffer with the people of God than to prosper with the wicked. Moses would rather suffer with the people of God than to prosper with the wicked. Even when the wicked was his own family at one time. But really when you examine the situation and you get down to it, Moses choice from a spiritual perspective was between suffering and sin.

For Moses, God's will for his life was to be the deliverer and to leave Egypt to get to the burning bush. For him to relish in the pleasures of Egypt would be sin. The evidence of a true believer is this. A true believer will despise the pleasures of sin. Suffering is to be chosen rather than sin. There is more evil in the least sin than in the greatest suffering.

In the last days this is going to be the case. You've been listening to the weekend edition of Truth Matters with Dr. Cheryl Davis. Truth Matters is a ministry of The Truth Project, a North Carolina based ministry dedicated to teaching biblical truth and sound theology to those inside and outside of the church. If you'd like to listen to these messages on demand, go to ProjectTruthMatters.com and click on the podcast link. Dr. Davis is also available to speak to your ministry group or church function. She can be reached by email at CherylDavis at ProjectTruthMatters.com. Or if you'd like to send a letter, the address is Project Truth Matters, Post Office Box 159, St. Paul's, North Carolina 28384. You can hear Truth Matters devotionals on weekdays at 8.20 AM and 5.20 PM. Until next time, let's all work together to teach a biblical truth to assist, equip, edify, and encourage one another and bring the Gospel to the world, because truth matters. This is the Truth Network.