Trust God In Times Of Uncertainties Life Lessons

 ​ TRANSCRIPT

Today, I am talking about Outlasting Uncertainties. Outlasting Uncertainties. I feel like I've got a little bit to share on that. I feel like there's a little bit of something that I could share and I will be sharing. Outlasting Uncertainties. And we, we've just Pastor Kev's just alluded to the uncertainties that we know are occurring in the world right now.

And they are serious. There's also uncertainties in our nation, and even the vote yesterday, I think, created somewhat of an uncertainty. And I think there are uncertainties in our world. And for all of us here, there are uncertainties. And and so what I want to do today is I want to view... I want us to view outlasting uncertainties by which, by a principle that we find in Genesis because this principle is, I think, we've largely discarded it, we've largely ignored it, and I, I think we are living in now an instant world where we want to have everything instantly.

We want our information instantly. We want our food instantly. things instantly, and that's not the way the kingdom of God works. Even those Romans, they, sorry, even the early church, they wanted to get back to that military power, they wanted it instantly, but that's not the way the kingdom of God works.

And the principle I'm referring to is seed time and harvest. Seed time and harvest. Sowing and reaping. Seed time and harvest. And the reason I want to go there is you know that, that even in the natural world when the farmer plants a crop, there is a time elapsed and then there is a harvest. And so, Seatime and harvest.

And what happens in between though, there could be all sorts of different elements. Sun, rains floods, fire, the whole deal. And who knows how the harvest is going to go. But there is going to be a harvest. And I feel like it's the same in our spiritual lives. There's going to be seeds planted in our hearts from the Word of God, and they are going to produce a harvest.

Now, whether we actually take on the seeds, whether we actually fertilize those seeds, whether we read our word or whatever, there is going to be a harvest for us if we use the Word of God, and if And sometimes even our parents have planted seeds in us. Sometimes our grand, grandparents, whatever, there are seeds that are planted in our hearts, and these are going to bear some fruit later on.

So that's where we're going today. And I just wanted to, and also, yeah, I remember last week, our primary thing that we were really looking for was healing. Now we see in the Bible that there's, you know, in, in the gospels and different places, there is a lot of instant healing going on from Jesus.

And we think, oh wow, why can't we get that? Why don't we, you know, why don't we get that instant healing? You know, I'd like a healing and I'm sure a lot of you would also like a healing, but there is no instant see in the Bible. And if you look at the backstories of a lot of those stories in the Bible, like the guy that was hanging around the pool and waiting to get in, He was there 38 years.

You know what I'm saying? Like the lady had the issue of blood. Instant healing. Great! But you know what? Seven years. Seven years she was waiting for Jesus to turn up. And he did. And he turned up in her life. And he's going to turn up in our lives. But there is, there's sometimes a waiting period. That that is the kingdom of God at work.

I'm going to have some water now. Somehow, I have a dry mouth. Don't know why, but we will. So, seed time and harvest is where we're going, and I just want you to think about that this morning as we talk about, we talk about outlasting uncertainty. So, just a couple of things from my life that I want to share this morning where I...

have overcome uncertainty and we're going right back to the days when Jen and I were in love and we just got married and things were going pretty well and, you know, she was so in love with me and why wouldn't she be, you know, and I've always said that, you know, yeah, yeah, and and so, but the thing was I didn't have a really, I didn't have a regular job and we were sort of nearly married.

doing a lot of laboring and stuff and, you know, I'd wasted a lot of my youth time. And and so there was a man in this church who had a company that did curb and channel. Curb and channel. Now, seriously, no one cares about curb and channel. It's, it's just a non event for most people. But curb and channel is the gutter, the concrete gutter outside your house that takes your roof water down to the pipes and away it goes and rah, rah, rah.

The only reason that you would be upset about Kerbin Channel is if you had a big pond outside your place when it rained, you know, in the Kerbin Channel, but otherwise, you don't give a rip about Kerbin Channel, really. But, you know, but for me it was a big deal, you know, because I didn't have a job. And so I I asked this man for a job, and the first thing he said to me and this man became a mentor and a friend and a father figure, and the first thing he said to me, he said, Phil, are you fit, you know, are you pretty fit?

And I said, well, look at me, you know. I mean, what's not, you know, how did you not know that? No, no, I said, but he said, are you really fit? And I said well, you know. Look at me. Yeah, but so So, Kurban Channel is it takes a lot of labor, a lot of intense labor to actually get it there, you know? It goes through a machine, and it, it pumps out, and then there is it pumps out dry concrete Because it's got to go through a mould and it's got to stand up and therefore you can't finish it so therefore you need slurry to go in the back pocket of the machine.

And guess what my job was, is to make that slurry. And that slurry took a lot of work. So the machine's going 40 metres, you're pumping in three barrows of slurry, you've got to run it down, run it back, run it down, run it back. And the boys had, on my first trip out, The boys were gleefully telling me that most guys can't make it after 10 o'clock.

They're having a little spew behind the truck. And I said, Oh, really? Really? That sounds like a challenge. Well, by 10 o'clock, I was nearly done. I'd had enough. And and I, I was just about ready and I, I had, I had to pray. And I said, Lord, I need a job. I need a job. I need some money to feed my future family.

It wasn't a family at that stage. You know, I need this. And would you believe, at that point, as soon as I prayed, a little wind just came up. It was exactly the moment I prayed. A little wind just came up and fanned my face. And I thought, wow. And I gained strength out of that. And I said, right, I'm going to carry on.

And I got through that day. And the next day. And I got through fifth. Can you believe it?

I got through 15 years of Kerbin Channel, which was too long. And I, I have to tell you, here's where the uncertainty comes in. Because I was out there by the side of dusty roads every day. day, and I was thinking to myself, I should be doing something better than this, you know? I mean, really? It's Kermit Channel.

Who cares about Kermit Channel? And I was whinging and complaining to the Lord, and then I went home and I used to say to Jen, Jen, pack it up. We're going to China. I'm going to be a missionary. Jen was never threatened by that at all. You know, she knew that I was just... Just blowing off some frustration.

But anyway, one day I was complaining to the Lord and I I heard the Lord say something. And I thought, oh, beauty. And then he really had to dumb it down a fair bit, you know? Because I'm just a concreter. And so he dumbed it right down and he said to me, Phil, just stay faithful. Just stay faithful.

Could we put a frustration emoji up on the screen? No, we can't, I don't think. But... But it didn't feel like the Lord was answering the questions that I had, but he was giving me something that I needed. And he said, just stay faithful. And so, that 15 year period, we had some parallel things going on.

Obviously, I had my home life, our children were born. And we're raising our children and that was sensational. And we were part of this church and I was sowing in and Jenny was sowing in. And we were doing, you know, great things, you know, not great things, but we were doing things. I'm lifting it up a bit here.

But, you know, we were doing stuff, you know, in the church, you know, as all of you guys are. And we loved it. But then there came a period of uncertainty within the church. And we had different leaders coming and going. And it was kind of unstable. And, sadly, some of my best friends left. Sometime, you know, at times during this 15 year period and I thought, gee, you know this is a, this is kind of uncertain I, I, you know, like, I had to deal with this and Jenny and I, you know, we talked about it and we said, Oh, well, do we leave?

You know, like our best friends are leaving. Do we leave? And I heard from the Lord again, and He said, No, you're not leaving. He said, I've planted you here. And He said, I want you to be part of the solution, not part of the problem. And we stayed, and we kept sowing seeds into this church, financial seeds, you know, and, and you know what, as an elder of this church now, and I look around, and I see people that love God, pick up a towel, want to serve, want to be part of the action, part of the solution, and are actually making disciples that make disciples, this is cool!

And, and it's so cool for us elders who've been through the whole gamut of the whole history, to look at the church now and say, wow! This is so cool. So good. So that's that. Now the next 25 years so after, after 15 years, I kind of had enough. Don't put that picture up just yet. Oh no, that's okay. It's all good.

After 20 so the next 25 years, I thought, oh, let's start my own business. That'll be easy. You know nothing to that, you know, and then so I tell you what, there's nothing easy about being a sole trader. You have to find a job, get the job, win the job, do the job, get paid for the job, and service the job.

And you're doing it all by yourself! I mean, please! And so I thought, well, it took me three years to catch up to the money I was making when I was doing Curban Channel! But we, we, we started, and we kept going, and we kept going, and we kept going. And me being a rescuer I actually employed people that needed rescuing.

Which wasn't a great business strategy. Because rescuees don't make the best employees. If you know what I mean. And so that was probably not one of my best moves. Fast forward 25 years now. We muddled along at Phil's Concrete Service. We muddled along for 25 years. You know, we were making some money.

It was okay. But the Lord found fit to put some smarter people in my employ. You know, I don't... know why he feels like I need smart people around me. I mean, really, but he's put some smarter people around me now, and we're doing really well. I just want to, you know, I'm just getting bigger, better, bolder, smarter people.

I just want to give you an example. Of a smarter person that is in my employee right now. Here we go.

There he is. There he is. That's a great shot of my, my good friend. Regular. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is Douglas Hemsworth. And he is quite amazing. So in all seriousness, God has sent some really good people. And Dougie has become... One of my great friends. And I feel like I'm a father figure to him and he's like a son to me.

And he's come alongside in the leadership of the business. And, man, we have never been going better. We have a buzzword now. It's called efficiency. And I don't know why I'm annoyed. On the inside, I shouldn't be annoyed because it's actually a good thing. Do you know what I mean? But if I hear it once, I hear it so many times.

So that. That is outlasting the uncertainty of the business world. So that's, that's been amazing. So, I feel like we need to get into some Scripture now. And we've had enough of all that. We need to talk about one of the heroes, I think, of the Bible. His name is Abraham. We're going to talk about Abraham this morning.

Now I, I'm pretty sure you can't say God has favorites. But! If you would be forgiven for thinking that Abraham may be a favorite of God because of his obedience, because of his love for God, because that he did stuff that not many other people would do. So we're gonna have a look, some scripture, but in, just before in Genesis 12.

Basically, God tells Abraham to leave the country he's in and go to another place. The only problem was, God didn't tell him where he was going. And so, Abraham was obedient to a fault. And he packed up all his goods and chattels and donkeys and camels and, and the whole business that he had, because Abraham was one rich guy.

He was going pretty well in life, and then he started to move in the direction that God told him to move in. And he was obedient to that. And when he did that, God made some extraordinary promises to Abraham. He said, I'll make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great.

I mean, wow, that is some seriously good promises. Now, we're going to have a look at Genesis, chapter 15, and we're going to have a look at verse 1 to 6. Genesis, chapter 15, verse 1 to 6. After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield. Your very great reward.

Another amazing promise. By the way, Abraham, Abram means exalted father, and Abraham means father of many nations. So he had the word father in his name, and yet he was only missing one thing. There. We'll come back to that. So, Genesis 15, 1 6 Okay, let's move on. But Abram said, Sovereign Lord, What can you give me, since I remain childless, and the one who will inherit by my estate is Elysia of Damascus?

Now, Elysia was his servant, so if you didn't have any heirs, your top servant got the goodies. And I'd say this guy was licking his chops, you know, because Abraham was a pretty rich man. Let's move on. And Abram said, You have given me no children, so a servant in my household will be my heir. Then the word of the Lord came to him, and he said, This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.

So at this stage, Abraham's about 90. So he's going pretty good. Well done Abraham. So he took him outside and said look, look up the sky and count the stars. If indeed you can count them. Then he said to him, so shall your offspring be. So if you've been around 20 or 30 years or so, you would know this top worship hit from the 1980s.

It was Father Abraham had many sons and many sons had Father Abraham. I am one of them and so are you, so let's just praise the Lord. Yeah, so that was it. That, that was the standard back there. And yeah, you had to do the actions. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, you know, Father Abraham, you know, he was a man who was obedient and then God was going to bless him and he was a...

About 90, it was about 100 actually, when he had his son Isaac. So, let's have a look at the next scripture.

And Abraham believed the Lord and it was credited to him as righteousness. See, Abraham believed God, he, he did what God said, he believed God and he was quick to do it. Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. So. Let's go to Genesis 22. Sometime later, God tested Abraham and he said to him, Abraham, here I am.

He, he said. Then God said, take your son, your only son, Isaac, and go to the region of Mariah. Sacrifice him there and as a burnt offering on the mountain, I will show you. So we need to know. Something about this that this was a test for Abraham. This was a test for his faith. Isaac had been born. The name Isaac means he laughs.

I mean, if you were having a child at 90 and 100, you'd laugh too, wouldn't you? You know, he laughs and not only that, I mean, when, when the angel actually spoke to Abraham and said, you're going to have a child, Sarah was inside the tent listening and she laughed and the angel said, why did you laugh?

She said, Oh, I didn't laugh. She lied about it. But when she had the child, she was laughing. She, well, after that, you know, she was laughing. There's probably, yeah, yeah. Sometime in that period, she was laughing. So early. So. Here we are at this point. Early the next morning, Abraham got up and loaded his donkey and he took off with two of his servants and his son Isaac.

Let's hold it there for a minute. I don't know about you, but when God tells me to do something that... That is a little bit harsh, or a little bit hard, or, you know, like, let's say you've got to go and forgive someone, or someone, you know, you want to ask for forgiveness for something. You know, sometimes a little procrastination keeps, kicks in there, Lord I'm a little bit busy today, but you know, maybe tomorrow I'll, I might be able to go and do that, you know?

And this guy had been told to go and sacrifice his son. What happens? Early next morning. He saddles his donkey, and gets set up, and off he goes. Now this is extraordinary faith. This is extraordinary obedience. Because your one and only son, whom you love, you've just been told, off you go, take some wood, we're gonna do some damage here.

So, let's keep moving. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, He set out for the place God had told him about. On the third day, Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. He said to his servants, Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.

I wanted to show you something here. Abraham was on a mission. He knew what he had to do. He was going to be obedient to God, but here he says we will worship and come back to you. So somehow Abraham knew that he could trust God in this situation, that God would either do something like raise Isaac from the dead, or he would provide something.

Abraham He didn't know that exactly, but there was something about his relationship with God that said, when I go over and worship, God, you're going to sort this out. I'll do what you said to do, but I believe there will be a solution to this. Let's move on. Eventually, God says, he gets to the point where he's got the knife up and he, and God says, do not lay a hand on the boy.

God said, do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God because you have not withheld from me Your son, your only son. When we look at Abraham's faith there... He believed God was going to do something, but what about Isaac? What about Isaac? See, Isaac was probably not a boy. He was probably a teenager at least and some scholars say even in his 20s at this stage.

Now Isaac is going along with all this and eventually he says Dad, we've got a little sacrifice going, but we're missing something, you know? Where's the sheep, Dad, you know? Where is it? What's going on here, you know? And he's, you know, obviously, he's starting to tweak to this and put two and two together.

I, I feel like he could have kicked Abraham in the shins and run for the hills. He was big enough. He was big enough to carry the wood for a couple of days, but he didn't do that. Because I believe he knew his God, like the way Abraham knew his God, and he trusted that Dad and God were gonna do the right thing.

It was gonna happen. There was, there was faith in Isaac's heart. And we don't often think about that, but he was the one that was gonna get the chop. And then, boom, he had the faith to know that God was going to do something. Overcoming uncertainties, outlasting uncertainties. requires a faith and a good man said this once that faith is living in advance what we only understand in reverse.

Faith is living in advance what we only understand in reverse. And if you think I was smart enough to come up with that, I appreciate that. But that was actually Wayne, Pastor Wayne Kediro said that. And as we look back on the events of our life and we see that we've overcome an uncertainty here and an uncertainty there and an uncertainty there.

When we come to the big uncertainties of life, we know that God has brought us through. As we look in the rearview mirror, we see that God has brought us through this and this and this and this. And now God, we trust you and we have faith that you will bring us through the next uncertainty.

You know what? I think as we obey God, we do get rewards. Abraham said God said to Abraham, I am your shield, and I am your exceedingly great reward. You know what? As Christians, we already have an exceedingly great reward. His name is Jesus. His name is Jesus, and he is our shield and our exceedingly great reward.

And so, I believe that we also... We get some rewards in this life. And I just want to show you a reward that I feel that I have. And let's bring up that photo if we could. This is my family. This is my exceed this is my exceedingly great reward. That's my daughter Kirsty, on the right. She's 37 now.

She extracts everything out of life that you can actually get. And she just, she loves the Lord, and she's going through her own uncertainties, but she's not gonna be, she's not gonna be held back. And I call her my favorite daughter. This is my favorite son, Ryan, and if you have the uncertainties of teenagers, I sympathize with you, because we had some traumatic toadish teenage years.

That was 20 years ago. Toadish, that was our word. And I despaired at times whether, gee, can I even teach this boy anything? But you know what, I didn't need to, because maybe I modelled it because I know that he loves his wife Bonnie, and he loves his children the same way that I love my wife and my children.

And that is something that is a real reward for me. And then there is Albie and Louie, and they are amazing young boys. And I'm saving the best for last. That is my Jen, my wife, and she's also my hero, because I think she outlasts uncertainties better than anyone I've ever seen. I think she's up there with Abraham.

She is amazing, and she... I know that she lets out some frustration when she's here and I appreciate that you, you, you don't mind and you love that. But you know what, when she's home, she's a treasure. She, she just is, she just handles things so well. And she's an inspiration to about 50 carers that have come through our house and every one of them have been affected and loved by Jen.

And they sense her peace, and they sense her calmness, and they sense her ability just to, to live with what she has. And you know what? We have a family sitting here that Jen has affected, that loves her, and that they have... They've come to the Lord because of Jen's faithfulness. And that is our reward.

That's our reward. And it's something that we are so love, we so love. And, and so Jen is, well Jen's amazing. Put that back. So overcoming adversities requires a faith. But as I said, as we look back on the things that we, I could lame you five things right now, five heavy duty things in my life that God has helped me through.

And he's just said, Phil, just stay faithful. And we need as, as Christians to just stay faithful through the uncertainties of life, and there will be reward for us. And do you know what? Over 2, 000 years ago now, God planted a seed. We've been talking about seed time and harvest. God planted a seed, an imperishable seed on this earth, and his name was Jesus, and that seed, he bled, he died.

And in that, he allowed us to come to know the Father. And God is in the business of sowing and reaping, and he sowed in a seed named Jesus, and then we have the opportunity now of knowing the Father. And I would say to you today, if you don't know Him, All it takes is a desire for you to know Him. And you could say a prayer like this.

Jesus, I want to know you. Reveal yourself to me. Come into my heart. Let me know you. I want to get rid of my old life and I want to just live for you. And that's a prayer that you could quite easily say. And if you wanted to know Jesus today, that is how you do it. You just ask him to reveal himself to you.

There'll be someone over there at the, at the, what next table? The Jesus table. And they can they can take you through that. But just before we go, I want to read you a couple of scriptures from Hebrews 11, the heroes of faith. Let's read Hebrews 11, 8. By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place, he would later receive as inheritance, obeyed and went, and even though he did not know where he was going.

By faith, he made his home in the promised land, like a stranger in a foreign country. He lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder... And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was unable to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise.

And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as stars in the sky, and as countless as sand on the sea.

So we see that Abraham had that faith, and it was like a type of Christ, God the Father, sacrificing his one and only son. And that's where we're at today. That's what God has done for us. So I'm going to get Nara to sing a song now. And it's about faithfulness. And as she does, I just want you to consider the uncertainties that you have in life.

And I want you to know that God is faithful. And in my circumstance, in the uncertainties of my life, I am totally confident that God is going to bring us through. He will, He knows the end of the story. We don't know it yet, but I know that I've been through a lot of other unfaith, other circumstances where God has brought me through and we trust God in our uncertainties.

God bless.