 We just want to be able to this morning to share a word of God with you about this topic that I've been going through something that's been on my heart. It's time and season. Time and season. Many of us we go through a place through a certain times in our lives where things are just good, you know. You experience life and you're like, man, life is good. And there's times where you are in season where things are just dry. Things are not working out. Things are just tough. And how we respond in those situations, it affects our destiny and our future. Amen. And that's this one. I just want to read a scripture to you from Genesis 16 verses one through four. And if you have your Bible, follow me there. If you don't, it's going to be on the screen says, now Sarah Abraham, Abraham's wife had born him no children, but she had an Egyptian matermant named Hagar. So she said to Abraham, the Lord has kept me from having children, go sleep with my mid servant. Perhaps I can build a family through her. Abraham agreed to what Sarah said. So after Abraham had been living in Canaan 10 years, Sarah, his wife took her Egyptian maid servant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. He slept with Hagar and she conceived. When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. First thing I want to lay down today, just let you know that God is more concerned about your hearts than our outward life. He's more concerned to be able to work on your heart than to be able to fix the outward circumstances that we're going through. Many times when we are going through the tough time, we cry out, God, please remove this obstacle in our life or we're too blind to see the God says, there's an issue in your heart that I want to fix through the circumstance. I remember Pastor Vile was preaching this sermon called Tea Bag and he said, it's only the hot water that begins to bring out the taste of what's inside the tea bag. God can only reveal the issue of your heart by the circumstances that you are around. Many times it's the family trauma that you begin to go through and all of a sudden you begin to see hatred, you begin to see loneliness, anger, and all these things begin to pop up and yes, we do not understand why certain things take place, but God is more concentrating on working on your heart than fixing your outward life. Because my Bible made me to understand that when our heart begins to be in the right place, sooner or later our outward life will begin to catch up. If our heart begins to be prosperous, we might even go walk through the valley of having not enough, but sooner or later our life will catch up to what's happening in our hearts. We might go through a time of sickness, a time of pain, but if in our hearts we begin to stand upon God's word and says, by his stripes I am healed, sooner or later your body will begin to catch up to what you believe in your hearts. God is more concerned about the state of our heart, the state of our mind than the outward circumstances that we are going through, amen. We have to understand one thing. We have to believe and we have to understand our God is good and everything he does is for good. Any circumstance that we are in, we have to understand, it might be good, it might be bad, it might be just as worse as it could be. My God is a good God. He never changes whatever situation that I am in. God will make it work together for my good. Whatever situation that you are facing because devil's, devil's aim is if he cannot, you know, make you sin, he'll twist your view of who God is. He'll begin to say, oh, if God would have loved you, he will never put you in a family that was broken. If God would have loved you, he'll never give you, you know, cancer. He'll never give you bankruptcy. He'll never put you in that car accident. If God would have loved you, he would have protected you from that. But we have to understand, doesn't matter who as a Christian, whatever that we go through, God says, I am good and I do not change. I'll take the worst situation and I'll take out of that a testimony for the whole world to see. I'll make the broken life that you are having and I'll make it into a testimony that other people whose life has shattered will be a testimony that will begin to change their lives for his glory. Amen, church. God wants to deal with the root of our problem, not the branches. He wants to deal with something deep, deep inside and that is our heart. So, the Bible says that out of our heart springs the issues of life. We have to understand anytime we're going through a situation and certain things begin to not to line up, not to begin to look outside. Why is this thing how begin to look inside? What does God want to say to me? What is God trying to point out? What is God want to begin to prove to me something within my heart? Because God always uses circumstances to speak to us. God always uses things, heart things. And many times when things are going good and God speaks to us, we do not hear. Why? Because it's everything's good. We always learn more in mistakes than we do in success. Isn't that true? Anytime you begin to succeed, that just builds your ego. Oh, life is good. Things are well. I don't need to pray. Why? There's no need to. The moment you lose a job, you see my morning prayer at 5 a.m. What happened? I just need God. You lost your job probably, right? Yes, I did. Sometimes it's this hard times that begin to look within deep and begin to see what is it thing that God is trying to say to us? What is it God that's trying to speak to us? And sometimes we pray to God, don't give me a bad thing. I'll learn. I'll try to learn in the good times. But many times that situation comes and devil tries to destroy that through the situation. But God says, I'll make any situation work together for you good. Amen. Getting blessing was never a problem with God. Given a blessing to our lives was never a problem. But us maintaining it, that was always the issue. God always wants us to be blessed. God always wants to be able to have a healthy body. God wants us to have a good family, have good career, good destiny. But many times if God sees a problem in our hearts, envy, jealousy, pride, God says, you know what? While it is at its root, I want to be able to work on it. The when you do receive the blessing, the blessing does not cripple your life. And many times I will begin to meet with certain guys throughout the week and I begin to tell them, God is ready to bless you. But are you ready to receive it? Certain blessing in our life will only destroy us. Oh, how can a blessing destroy you? I mean, seen this so many times, people come, oh, I need a job. I'm just broke. I'm not. I need this. They receive a job. You don't see them at church. You don't see them reading the Bible. You don't see them praying. So it seemed like if God would have gave you, God gave you the blessing and that blessing just drew you away from him. That's not what God wants to do. God wants every blessing to make you to raise your hands and say, thank you, Jesus. I will love you even more. Not that, oh, I'm so busy. I got this things going on. And I don't even have time to come to church. Every blessing of God needs to bring us closer and not further away. Am I in church? Jesus comes on the scene and he begins to say, look, Pharisees concentrate on the outward appearance on the acts and all these things. Jesus says, I want to deal with the hearts. I want to deal with your heart. What are certain things that begin to take a place in your heart? You know, God, Jesus says, you know, even if you look a woman lustfully, it's like you're already committed adultery. It's not about the acts. And many times, Holy Spirit begins to deal with the hearts through our situation. It begins to speak to us because many times we hear God in our pains, the loudest. But when everything's going good, it's like God is thousands of miles away when he begins to speak to us. And that through this, this verse, it made me to understand that there's a time and a season for all things to happen. God is good. God wants to deal with us when he comes to Sarah and Abraham and begins to speak, you know, I'll bless you. I'll make your father, many nations. I will be your provider. But he understood that Abraham and Sarah had trust issues. God has given them the promise, but yet they didn't believe that God's going to do it. They didn't believe that God's going to provide for them. Hey, how can this happen? Look, I am barren. I am of old age. I don't have any children. I'm going to be the father of many nations. It's not possible. Hey, Abraham, let's help out God. Here's my maid servant. Of course, Abraham's not going to refuse. Come on, you know, and then God begins to come and they begin to help God out. And at the end of the day, they begin to despise and hate the blessing they provided for God. Anytime you begin to rush, anytime you begin to take that thing, you begin to help God out. God says, you know, I'll make your prosperous person. But things are just not working out with your finances. So many people begin to get tempted to cheat, to steal, to begin to cut corners. And when we receive the blessing and later on, we begin to despise and hate the blessing that we ourselves have inquired. God is faithful and he has never failed out his promise. God has said it and he will do. He said, I'm not a man that I will should lie. I'm not a son of man that I should repent. I said it and I will do it. When we begin to see our answers being delayed and we begin, God, wise things are not happening. Maybe we need to look inside. Do we have, do we really believe what God has said in his word? Because to live a Christian life is to live a lifestyle of faith and believing and trusting in God and what he said. But if you begin to doubt God, God said by his stripes that we healed and yet we see pain in our body and we're like, God, what is going on? You know, we, these are not happening. Let me help you out. Let me, let me help you out. And that is the problem with our hearts. We don't trust God and what he said in his word. It's easy to trust when you pray and it takes place. But it's another thing to trust when you pray and you pray and you pray and the situation gets even worse. That is when trust gets really tested. God is more concerned about our hearts than our outward lifestyle, the circumstances that is around us. Amen. Many times we begin to see it, certain things begin to take place. We get hurt. We get betrayed. We get backstabbed. We get blackmailed. And, and we feel like if we just move places, if we just, you know, go to a different church or if we just go to a different place, we will solve the problem. Changing circumstances never changed a person's heart. Changing places has never dealt. God wants to use your circumstances to be able to work on your heart. Not that the moment things get tough, let me escape this thing and let me go somewhere else to be able to fix my problem. Changing circumstances never changed your heart. Decisions to change your heart. That's what changes it. Many people say time heals on wounds. Time does not heal on wounds. Decisions do. Decisions heal on wounds. Your decision to forgive and to forget, that's what changes your heart. Not the moment things get tough, they begin to escape. I know certain people that are like, oh, my boss hates me. There's certain things, you know, so they, they get a job and they quit. They go to a different job, things just, you know, they're not favorable situation and they quit their job and they go somewhere else. They go from one place to another to another where God says, it's not the job that you're running. One, two, three, four. I want to work on your heart. You changing your circumstances will never change you. You making the decision to say, God, what is it that you're speaking to me right now? I want to work on my heart. I want to change my heart that then later on, when you bless me with the bigger blessing, I can maintain it. Amen, church. Number two, no test, no promotion. Man, in school, I just wasn't not my favorite place to be in. Every time they give me a tester and I'm like, I don't know none of these. And the teacher told me, just do your best. Well, I don't know what to do. Do your best. ABCD. Like there's probably a secret message spelled out in those multiple answers question, you know, so did not like those tests. But that's one of the reasons, you know, failed so many classes, nothing to be proud of. But that's one of those things. Every time there's a test, I'm like, I'm going to skip it. But if you skip your test or you avoid that test, you'll never get a promotion. The way it made me right now to understand, every time there is a hardship, every time there's a test, every time there's a there's a adaptation, I know promotion is right around the corner. Every time there's a shortage, there's a lack, there's certain things that begin to take, I begin to look deep within and say, God, what is this that you're speaking to me? What is it that you want to work on me? If I pass this test, there comes a promotion. There comes another level. There comes another glory from glory to glory. Amen, church. When you pray for a blessing, God will not throw you a blessing. He'll throw you a test. When you begin to say, God bless me, God, take me deeper. God, I want to be able to go to a different level. God says, here you go. Here's a hardship. Here's a circus. I'm not saying that God hates you, but God wants you to pass a test so you can graduate that level and go to a different level in Christ Jesus. Amen, church. Tests are no fun. And tribulations, hardships, they are just something that is so hard to deal with. Many times we do not know. Many times we feel like God is a thousand miles away from us. We do not hear. Everybody is backstabbing us, but if you ask Joseph, and he will tell you that his test where his brother betrayed him, only qualified him to be the prime minister of the whole nation. If you ask Sidra, Meshach, and Bendigo, he will tell you that their fire, their furnace only qualified them to be, set their God on the highest level in their country that everybody bow their knee to Jesus Christ. Every test in your life is there to promote you and not to destroy you. Every temptation is to make you stronger, to make you faster, to make you wiser in Christ Jesus. Every hard time in your life you begin to say, thank you Jesus. You love me enough to take me to a different level. Not, God, why did you do this to me? We begin to see many characters in the Bible through their toughest times. They stayed true to Jesus Christ and through their tests they were qualified for a promotion. Amen. What is it that you're facing right now? Are you praying against your hard times? Are you praying against God? Take away these circumstances because I can't handle it. Are you praying that God take this because it's too hard, whereas you prayed for a blessing? God says, I'm here. I'm with you. I'm faithful. I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. I'm faithful. I'll get you through this. Don't pray for the circumstances to go away. Pray, God, give me grace enough to pass this test that I am going through. Amen, church. Come on. Let us put our hands together for Jesus. You know, we inquired to go to Teyona Center with Apostle John Chi, with a conference and sitting with Pastor Vlad, Pastor Ilya, and sometimes they're like, how many people registered? Like, uh, 500. It's like we got 8,000 seats there. And it's like, and it's, it's, it's pressure. It's not easy to be able to think, man, we're going to fail. We're going to, nobody's going to show up. This is just going to be a disaster. But in order for there to be a promotion, there has to be a test. And our pastor, remember when we met, we're like, man, I don't know how this is going to happen. And our pastor said, God is faithful. God will lead us through it. In order for us to take, to go to a different level, we have to pass this test. In order for us to be able, you know, to, to have what we have today, there was times where we had to go through the hardest time where family was against us, where people didn't want to be us, where families left us, but that qualified to have, to make us have what we have today. That made us strong. That made us to be able to concentrate. To say, you know, God is the only person I would trust in all walks. We're not going to rely on men. We're not going to rely on skills. We're not going to rely on different things. God is my rewarder, and I've made our trust in God to be stronger. That drew us closer to Jesus Christ. As I look back through our, with our church, as I look back in my own life, I only thank God for every hardship that He sent my way, because that only made me stronger. That only made me to believe and to trust God the more, because without those circumstances, I would have depended on myself. I would have depended and said, I can do it. I don't need God. I don't need, you know, why do I need God, but through the hard times made me to realize Jesus is the answer. He's the only way. In Him I trust, and in Him I have my well-being. Let's put our hands together for Jesus. I remember just last year, you know, I have, I have my own dealership lot, and I was praying, I was God, where do you want me to go in this place? You know, what are some dreams, goals you want me to have? And God put on my heart in November, said, you know, increase, you know, raise your mind higher, dream more, you know, plan more. You know, we, I accomplished somewhat of goals, and I reached them. I reached about 75% of my goals that I wanted to in just three months. I was like, wow, so happy. And God's like, I want you to, to go from, from, from this place. And I want to do like five times more. You go raise your goal for what you, what you dreamed from the beginning, from that five times the amount. And I'm like, God's insane. I don't know if I can do it. You know, like, I'm going to do it. All right. I wrote the amount down. I'm like, I'm going to do this month of December comes the worst month of my life. I'm not, not any joking you. I had to borrow money to pay bills. That's how bad it was. And I was like, God, just, just a week ago, he told me to raise my mind higher. And, and, and things are just not going. I'm like, no, sir, borrow me some money. Illia, borrow me some money. I can't pay bills. You know, I don't have enough to pay bills in the month of December comes. I'm like, I'm literally, I'm, I'm, I'm sleeping. I'll turn to my wife. I'm like, I can't sleep. There's just so much pressure. I'm like, God, God has asked me to, to raise my mind higher, to dream bigger. Yet at the end of this month, I can't even pay my bills embarrassed, embarrassed to have to borrow money from in-laws is just embarrassed as it gets. I said, God, you said it and it's going to happen. I stand faithful. I stand faithful. January comes. We begin to make way more than we ever made. We begin to break sales record in January. February comes. We beat sales record from January. March comes. We beat every sale record that we ever had for the past of years of existence in our dealership. Come on, let's put our hands together for Jesus. Every hardship qualifies you for a reward. When you trust in God, when you believe in God, God wants to, if you pray, God bless me in this area. God, I want to be influenced in my career. There will not be a promotion without a test. And whenever a test come, begin to say, thank you, Jesus, because I know glory is around the corner. I know it might not be easy. I know for, for a Meshach Shedrick and a Bandicoot, the flames are hot. They didn't know if they're going to make it out, but Jesus was right beside them. And the King said, who's the fourth man with them? And the moment they came out of the fire, the whole nation bowed their knees to Jesus Christ. Your test will qualify you for every word. God wants, he's concerned. What is happening with your heart? God wants to see us. And many times we pray, God changed my circumstances instead of changing my circumstances. Pray, God, change my heart that when circumstances will be good or bad, my heart will be set on you. My eyes will be set on you. I will not waver. When things are good, I'm happy. When things are bad, I'm just depressed. But when good times or bad times, God, let your name be praised forevermore. Amen, church. Come on, put our hands together for Jesus. Last point is this, slow and steady always wins the race. This is the most common thing you guys heard so many times, but it is so true. Slow and steady always and always wins the race. And Ecclesiastes 3, 1, 4 on the reed scripture in verse 11, it says this, to everything there is a season, a time for everything purpose under heaven, a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to pluck what is planted, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to break down and a time to build up, a time to weep and a time to laugh and time to mourn and a time to dance. And verse 11 says he has made everything beautiful in its time. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Many times we're in a season where God is planting us, but we begin to compare to somebody who's in season of harvest. We begin to, God, it wants to plan our lives. God says, I'm planning you and during the season of planning, it's dark, it's cold, you don't know if God is with you, you know, things are not working out, but don't compare your season of planning to somebody's season of harvest. Your promotion, your glory days will come, but don't be too eager, too desperate to say, God, I want what he has, why I'm not having, I prayed for a day, I prayed for a week of facet, year coming, went by, where is my season of harvest? God says, you are in a time and a season where I planted you. Be faithful. Look unto God, trust in God. God, I know I'll make it out of this. If you said that you'll never leave me and you'll never forsake me, I know there will come a time where I'll spring forth out of this ground and I will have a fruit, I'll have a harvest that's going to bless my family, it's going to bless my generation. I'm going to make it out of this, but don't be too desperate to take the season that you're in and try to copy what somebody else is going through. In Proverbs 20, 21, it says inheritance quickly gained in the beginning will not be blessed at the end. Everybody's destiny is different. You might be in a season of planning. I might be in a season of harvest. You might be in a season where, you know, God is teaching you how to trust. And the other person could be in a season of joy, where God is just blessing them. But don't, everybody's destiny is different. You can't say, oh, he prayed one time and everything worked for him and now I'm here praying a hundred times and things are not working out. What's happening, God? Am I worse than this guy? Is my life worse where we don't understand where it says God is preparing you for a bigger blessing than somebody else? But many times when we are planted, we begin to climb out of that seed, begin to say, God, you know, if these things are not going to happen, I'm going to take actions into my hand. And whenever we get the blessing, we begin to despise it, just like Sarah. Sarah thought, you know what, God, you forgot that I'm barren. You forgot that I'm old. Let me help you. I'll give my husband a mid-servant. And when she conceived, Sarah began to despise and hate and later I kicked him out. Anything that we begin to acquire by desperation, by haste and not trusting in God, sooner or later that blessing will begin to turn into curse to us. That blessing that we begin to cut corners, we begin to lie, begin to cheat, we begin to go different directions, different venues to get the satisfaction that to begin to get reconciliation, all that. And sooner or later we begin to hate it because it was not provided by Jesus Christ. Jesus was hungry but he wasn't desperate. Jesus was hungry but he wasn't desperate. When he was tempted, when he was at the weakest point of his life and he could take the stone and turn it to bread, he understood all these things. He was going through a toughest time in his life at that point but he understood and he trusted and he had the Word of God to guide him through. He was hungry but he was not desperate. When you are desperate, you will take anything for an answer. And when you have take anything for an answer, that will provide you many other different venues besides Jesus Christ. We know that Jesus Christ is our only answer. He's the way, he's the truth, our life. As a Christians, we stand to believe and to trust in God that he is our provider. He is our healer. He is our deliverer. Nothing else. Not medicine even though God uses medicine. Not our boss even though God uses our boss. Not our own, maybe our parents or whatever it is. God uses them but he is the answer for our lives. Trust in him. What season and what time are you in today? Begin to trust God. Begin to believe God. I know that you're gonna get me through this. Maybe things are not working out. Maybe things are just tough. Things are broken apart but I trust and I believe with you. Because I have a test, I have a promotion. Because I have a circumstances that might contradict my beliefs and whatever I'm going through. I know that you're a good God and you're gonna get me out of this because you make all things work together for those who love and who trust in you, man church. There's nothing worse than having a good thing in the wrong time. You guys agree with me? Nothing worse than having a good thing in the wrong time. It's like giving a very, very expensive car to a 16-year-old. They're gonna crash it, you know? Thank God God has given me like a 94 Nissan Sentra that one day I was driving to church and I got my homies in the back and everything and it snowed. And then I took the turn and the car was still going straight. Like, prepare boys! Ba-boo! Bent all the wheels and stuff like that. There's a reason why God many times withholds blessings from my life. There's a reason many times God begins to, we see like, oh God, she's the one! God says, hold off homie. First get a job, a car, then get some finances. Now there's a reason God many times withholds because he knows a certain blessing in our lives will only destroy us. God loves us too much, too much to see us to walk away from him. Many times, you know, I see people come to church and they're desperate and they're just saying, I need God. I'm going through a hard time. I just, I need God. You know, things are not working out. And I say, you know what? Good times are bad. Trust God. If God will bless you tomorrow, don't just abandon God. Stay true to God until your last moment. If, if these are the worst, have the same attitude as things were the best. Say, God, I love you. I trust you and nothing will change my love for you. Not that when things are bad, you're, you're here weeping and wailing. When things are, when things are good, oh, I got, I got picnic to go to. I don't have time to go to church anymore. Don't begin to, to trade God for cheap things. Begin to stay faithful and still true to God until your last moment in man church. And the last thing is that desperation will not allow you to say, thank you, Jesus. When you are desperate, that desperate time will not allow you to say, thank you, Jesus, because you're just, you're not satisfied with what you have. Every season that you're going through, God wants you to worship him. When you have nothing, God wants you to worship him when you have everything. Job can together stand today and tell us that when I had everything, I worship God. And when I lost nothing and I lost everything, I also got on my knees and said, my Redeemer lives to bless it be his name. Am I in church? Thank you for watching this content. I hope this was a blessing to you. If you're like me and you like to click on things, click on this, subscribe to our channel and the content will come to you every time we post it. And remember, the best is yet to come.