Enduring Faith: The Power of Patience and Obedience

I believe that many of you today, you have the ability, you have strong faith, but you do not have long faith. Did you hear what I just said? I believe that many of you in the house of God, the question is not the strength of your faith. The question is the stamina of your faith. [00:06:43]

I believe that many of you in the house of God, the issue is not that you don't have strong faith. The issue is that you don't have long faith. See, you may have strong faith to lift a heavy load, but do you have long faith to lift that same heavy load over a period of time? [00:07:26]

And the question today is not the strength of your faith it's the stamina of your faith here it is because family while we are more focused on the dream god is more focused in your development somebody talk back to me and say development development family is the discipline we discover in the discourse in the book of nehemiah chapter two [00:08:19]

Nehemiah chapter one starts off by letting us know that nehemiah was experiencing a broken heart because he received bad news that the city of his ancestors was in a deplorable and disgraceful state the bible says that the walls had been broken down and the gates had been burned with fire now i've been saying all this just to get this little point right here in the book of nehemiah nehemiah shows a discipline for prayer in the book of nehemiah nehemiah shows that he values prayer in the book of nehemiah nehemiah is displayed as a man of prayer in the book of nehemiah you can see that nehemiah has a certain belief that where there is much prayer there is much power nehemiah is displayed as a man [00:08:22]

It has been four months i've been talking to god and god has the audacity to not talk back anybody ever been in that situation before you've been talking to god the issue is that god has not been talking to you and i believe family that the biggest struggle that we have in our christian walk is not so much when god reveals his will it's more so when god conceals his will and i can imagine family nehemiah with this frustration wait a minute god i thought that if i made you a priority that you would have the decency to respond to me with urgency [00:12:32]

Family, while Nehemiah was waiting and while Nehemiah was praying, Nehemiah was still working. Okay, I got rewound in my mind. Let me try that again. While Nehemiah was waiting and while Nehemiah was praying, Nehemiah was still working. Watch this. Nehemiah continued to serve the king until he waited to hear from the king of kings. [00:18:22]

Nehemiah understood i'm going to do what i was last assigned to do until i'm told what next to do oh okay okay y 'all are acting real funny today pastor rogers you gonna make me work hard for that honorarium huh okay let me do this in my time nehemiah understood i will do what i was assigned to do until i am told what next thing i should be doing nehemiah understood watch this that when you are confused and you don't know which where to go you don't know which decision to make nehemiah lets us know here it is you have to execute previous instructions look at your neighbor and tell them execute previous instructions here it is family some of you are confused because you don't know what you should be doing next if you are in college you don't know well what should i do after this if you're in high school you don't know what should i be doing after this if you're an adult who should i marry where should i work where should i move god what do i do next and some of you are so concerned with what you should do next that you forgot what was the last thing god told you to do [00:18:50]

You don't get a new word until you are obedient to the old word and the problem that many of you have is that you want a new word but you were not obedient to the old word and the reason why you don't get a new word once you got the old word is because if you can't properly manage the old word why would god give you a new word if you cannot properly steward the old word why would god give you a new word if you were not obedient to the old word why would god give you a new word okay you're not following me pastor rogers you know what our biggest problem is all the saints want a new sermon every week no that's okay you don't got to say amen i brought amens in my back pocket i don't need none of yours the challenge that we are facing in western christianity is that you are yes i'm saying you because i'm not part of you today you all want a new sermon every single week you want a new sermon every wednesday night prayer meeting you want a new sermon every evening sabbath evening at ay you want a new sermon on the 6 a .m prayer line and the challenge is this you want a new sermon next week but you were not obedient to the last sermon last week [00:20:34]

If you were to plant a mango tree on average it takes around five years for the mango tree to produce mango fruit and if you are too impatient to wait for the development of the mango tree then you don't deserve to eat the mango fruit some of you I came all the way from South Carolina in America to tell you your biggest problem is one word, impatience. Some of you, you are simply too impatient. And you ask, but why do I have to wait for so long? Why do I have to wait for so long? Why do I have to wait for so long? Here it is, because God is doing a work in you. [00:27:32]

Before God does a work through you, God must first do a work in you. But why, why, why does God have to do, well, Pastor Gomez, what work is God doing in me? Here it is, God is doing soul work. The problem is, soul work. Soul work is slow work. I don't get paid enough to say this stuff. Soul work is slow work. Repeat after me, say slow work. Soul work. Soul work is slow work. Problem is that you don't like the delays. And God sent me here to tell you the delay is delay. The delay is the development. The delay is necessary for the deployment. [00:28:05]

A 52 -day project had a four -month foundation of prayer. And too many of you, you want the success of the 52 days, but you don't want to put in the work of the four months? You want the dream of the 52 days. But you don't want to put in the development of the four months? And God sent me here to tell you, if you cannot properly handle the four months, you won't be able to properly handle the 52 days. Because, family, in order for you to have what God wants, [00:30:57]

In order for you to have what God wants you to have you must first become the kind of person that can do the kind of thing that God wants you to do I got I don't I must be talking Spanish up in here because y 'all looking at me like y 'all are confused right now in order for you to have what God wants you to have you must first become the kind of person that can do the kind of thing that God wants you to do in other words family it is one thing to be the kind of person that can trust God it's a whole nother thing to be the kind of person that God can trust maybe I need to preach from up here it's one thing to be the kind of person that can trust God it's a whole nother thing to be the kind of person that God can trust and your prayer for the rest of this year needs to be Lord make me the kind of person that you can trust Lord make me the kind of person that you can trust when I'm depressed Lord make me the kind of person that you can trust when I'm anxious. Lord, make me the kind of person that you can trust when my money is acting funny. Lord, make me the kind of person that you can trust when my change is acting strange. Lord, make me the kind of person that you can trust when my dimes don't come on time. Lord, make me the kind of person that you can trust when my nickels are in a pickle. Lord, make me the kind of person that you can trust when my pennies are not plenty. Lord make me the kind of person that you can trust when my quarters are out of order. Lord make me the kind of person that you can trust and maybe this sermon ain't for none of y 'all but Pastor Roger the sermon is for me. Lord make me the kind of person that you can trust when I'm feeling battered. Lord make me the kind of person that you can trust when I'm feeling bruised. Lord make me the kind of person that you can trust when I feel broken. Lord make me the kind of person when I got more bills than I got money. Lord make me the kind of person where my wife gets sick. Lord make me the kind of person where my mother gets sick Lord make me the kind of person where my car breaks down. Lord make me the kind of person that you can trust [00:31:49]