It’s Your Time, Part 3

worth it? May decide for a season of time that they don't want to follow after Jesus. It's just not worth the cost to them at that point in time, and they may go on to have other successes. They may go on to experience other good things. And you're saying, if that's the case, watch out.

back out of his backslidden way? He brought back wealth. Yeah, he brought back Hagar.

a blessing to you. Yeah. You know, and the Bible tells us that the Lord adds to us and he adds no sorrow to it.

We focus on longevity. God focuses on legacy. Somebody say, I've been saved 20 years? Yeah, but you've been out of God's will for 18 of them. So at the judgment seat of Christ, you only get credit for two. I've been a Christian 15 years, but you ain't done nothing sitting on your rusty, dusty and haven't done anything. Yeah. That's it. Jonah, go to Nineveh. And so what does it say? And Jonah paid his fare. Because whenever you disobey God, you picking up the tab? God ain't picking

up your tab. I say it all the time. I know, I know, they tired of hearing it on the radio. You're shacking with the devil and want Jesus to pay the rent. Alright. The word of the Lord came to Jonah. Go to Nineveh to preach against that great city. Jonah said, hey, he's no, I ain't going. And he doesn't go. What does he do? He paid his fare and he went down, and he went down from Jerusalem, down to a ship, down in the belly of the ship, down into the sea,

down into. See what happened to him. Anytime you disobey God, the only direction you can go is down. Amen. So now he goes down. He tries to get away from God. That's a funny. You didn't laugh. How can you escape from the omnipresent God? He is everywhere. At all time. In all time. So how are you going? And he running from the presence of the Lord. Now, let me tell you what the phrase presence of the Lord means.

He's running from the things that remind him of the Lord's presence, like Jerusalem and the people of Jerusalem and the Tabernacle and all those kind of things like, oh, don't act like we don't do it. We backslide. We don't come to church. We don't read our Bible. We don't pray. Why? We want to get away from the presence of the Lord. That's it. Yeah. We want to get away from it. And here's here's what I like. If you read chapter three, the word of the Lord

came to Jonah a second time. Now here's what you'll find. The exact words that God gave him in chapter one are the exact words that he gave him in chapter three. God didn't change his mind about what he wants you to do. Some of you been called and you're running from God. The call's not going to change. It's not going to change. What is it that he told you? Five years ago he wanted you to do? He ain't changed his mind about it. You say? Well, then what's

going on? He doesn't violate your free will. He letting you do what you want to do. See, God doesn't make us change our minds. He only sends circumstances that will make us change our mind. Wow. How many of us ever said, God, if you get me out of this, I'm going back to church. And that's why you're here right now. Let me. Let me see some hands. Some honest folk, some honest folk. There you go. There you go. That's it. In other words, listen. When you're marking time,

you're maintaining, but you're not attaining. Yeah. And so what happens? You're going through the motions. Wow. Yeah. You can you can mark time. Here's the third thing you can do. You can transcend time. You can transcend time. Uh, because the past should be a springboard, not a hammock. Alright. Some people live so far in the past that their future is gone by the time they get there. Don't let your history wreck your destiny. What did Paul say?

I'm pressing this. Come on. Everybody knows it. One thing I do forgetting. I press. Well, Paul, wait a minute, wait a minute. That's two things. No, it's one thing. If I'm going to press, I have to forget. Yeah. You know what the word forget means? It's a Greek word. Aphiemi. Here's what it means. Let it go. Let it go. When are you going to let it go? I know some things were very difficult. I know that there were some dastardly things that have happened. But when are you

going to let it go? Way, way back in the past. Why are you going to let your past override your present and your prophetic? God is able. You can go through it. I read the story of one of the Miss America. She was Italian and, uh, very beautiful woman. And she went into a restaurant. She was the only one there. The owner grabbed her, took her in the back and raped her. That's devastating. She was devastated and she was a believer. God, how could you allow something

like that to happen to me? And I serve you. Fast forward the video. You know what she's doing now. She heads a ministry that ministers to rape victims. Right. God does that. Anybody ever heard of Johnny Erickson? Tada! Anybody? And she was a beauty queen, too. Dived into a pool that had shallow water and, uh, became a paraplegic. Now she has the number one ministry in the world that ministers to people who are paraplegic. And she ministered to all of them. I did her camp up in Minnesota.

I mean, there were there were down syndrome children. There were I mean, it was it was like, uh, I mean, just fantastic ministry going on. There was a banker there. I gotta tell you his testimony. You would know who these people were. Uh, some of them were very poor. Some of them were very rich. All of them came free. I was there as the camp pastor for the week. And so I preached a message in the morning. A message in the evening. Message in the morning. Message in

the evening. And so I preached ten times, uh, that week. So I'm sitting in there and this one brother, a Hispanic brother, start crying. I can't take it. I can't take it. I can't take this kid. I can't take this kid. And all these men got up and start smothering him with love. And they were all crying. And you know me. I'm a crybaby. I ain't had nothing to cry about. But since they was all crying, I didn't want to be left out. I started crying too.

And then this one guy said. I know how you feel. My son has the exact same malady that your son has and this is what we've been able to do, he said, I'm going to give you my number. He said, I'm going to be with you, brother. I'm going to stick with you. So so, you know, I, I afterward, I was talking to this guy. It was a bank president. I said, oh, really? He said he said, let me tell you something. He said, I used to be so proud. I used to be so arrogant. He said, because, you know,

I make about $6 million a year. Wow. So let me have your car. Who's your car, bro? So what happened? God gave us a down syndrome child. Changed my life. He said I made a commitment to Jesus Christ. And I haven't turned around. I haven't turned back. And he said, God gave me that child because I needed to be humbled to where my $6 million was his $6 million. And that man told me, he said, uh, we live on about a half $1 million a year, and the

rest of it I give away. He said. And I served with Johnny and this board and these people, and I just help people with their children. I said, wow, that's powerful, man. That's transcending time. Yeah. If you go back in the Old Testament, you'll see, uh, Methuselah, his name means after he dies, it will come. So God gave him the the name of Methuselah. Now, uh, about 369 years Enoch was born. So you have 600 years before Methuselah dies. So what happened? His father's name meant

after he dies, it will come. And what did Enoch do? Enoch walked with God, and he was not because God took him.

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Let's get back to the message from Esther four again. Here is Pastor Ford.

they stopped talking. And God said, well, you know, Enoch, you're closer to my house than you are to your house. Why don't you just come on to my house? So, yeah, that's it, that's it, that's it, that's it, that's it. And so we thank God. Here's the last one we need to redeem time. The Bible says redeeming the time for the days are evil. Let me let me just tell you, you can make up for lost time. Uh, we know it. In acts 13, we have the failure

of John Mark. Uh, he goes to the mission field with the Apostle Paul and Barnabas, and he leads the mission field, and Paul is upset. Uh, but but Paul says, you know, a person who puts their hand to the plow and turns back is not fit for the kingdom. So he doesn't want anything to do with John Mark. But why does he change? Why does he say at the end of his life in Second Timothy he says, Bring John Mark with you, for he's profitable for the ministry.

Well what happened? I mean, you know what happened. You know what happened. Uh, Mark leaves the mission field. Who does he hook up with? Barnabas. Barnabas, his uncle, becomes the son of encouragement and says, okay, just because you make a mistake. Paul is the great apostle, but he ain't always right. And so you can be forgiven. God is the God of not a second chance, but another chance. So come on, man, let me encourage you. Come with me. And so he goes with Barnabas. And then later on,

Barnabas passes him off to Peter. Yes, sir. And Peter says, man, look, I denied him three times, so don't worry about it. And and Paul then began to recognize, hey, you know what? I kicked him to the curb when I should have done what Barnabas and Peter did. I should have developed him, is what I should have done. Alright. And thank God. How many know what the first gospel written. Written in A.D. 45. What's the first gospel? The gospel of John. Mark. Mark.

Is John Mark had not. Somebody said we can redeem time. Had somebody not said that God can restore the years that the locust and the canker worm have eaten. Had somebody not said that God is a God of a second chance, a third chance, a fourth chance, I don't know what you're, uh, trying to overcome right now, but you can't overcome it because greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world. Because you're more

than a conqueror through him that loved you. And you need to recognize and acknowledge the fact God wants to use you with all your flaws, with all your failures, with all your foibles, with all the things that are wrong with you. God says, step out with what is right and let me deal with what is wrong. Mm. You can start all over again. I can imagine Peter telling him the story. Say, you know, I denied him three times. And then I went back to fishing and

eight guys follow me. And what was Matthew doing following me? He was a money man, not a fish man. But he followed me. He shows you the power of my leadership. I had the keys to the kingdom, he said. And then we were there on my fishing boat. And then somebody hollered from the shore, children! And we looked at was Jesus, and we're grown men. And he called us children. What a comforting, comforting word, because it meant no matter what you do, you're still my children. Amen. Then he said,

have you caught anything? We said we fished all night and we've caught nothing. He was looking at us, John Mark. And he was saying, is what you're doing working for you, right? You left ministry to go back to fishing. Now you're fishing. Have you caught anything? You backslid. Did it? Did it benefit you? Did you gain anything by it? Now, if you said yes, let me tell you. Look out. Because whatever you gain when you backslide is going to become a curse to you when you get back in the fellowship.

You don't believe me? Ask lot. Ask Abraham. They backslid, and he came out of Egypt with Hagar and a whole lot of cattle and wealth, and it became a division, a diversion. And so he said, yeah. And then he said, cast your net to the other side. And we pulled up 153 fish. And I remember why I left Jesus for fish, and he gave me fish. So now I pulled off my outer coat and jumped in the water because I left him for fish. Now I'm leaving the fish for him Because I realize he is the one

who is my supply. He is my peace. He's my reconciler. He's the one that I. In him I live and move and have my being. And without him I can do nothing. And I swam to him. Amen. And when I got there, it was like he was saying, now, Peter, that you only want me. Come on, let's eat some fish. And he had fish. Catfish already fried Louisiana hot sauce bottle right beside him. Spaghetti in the pot, the coleslaw in the bucket and the Kool-Aid in the mason jar.

He had everything there. And then he said to me, Peter, do you love me? Then get busy, son. Peter, do you love me? Get busy, son. Peter, do you love me? Get busy, son. Because I'm going to turn your cowardice into courage. And I need you to preach the gospel on the day of Pentecost. To reverse what happened at the law. Because at the law, 3000 people died when the law was given. Uh, but when you preach on Pentecost, 3000 people will be saved. I'm going to reverse what

happened over 2000 years. And, Peter, I'm going to use you. I hope some of you peters out there will realize it's your time. Yeah. Bless the truth to our hearts. Our father, we pray for Christ's sake.

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