Teachers of Good Things - Part 3

TEACHERS OF GOOD THINGS P3-enhanced.mp3

Transcript

00:00:01 Rev Owes

Welcome back. Welcome back. We are here, teachers of good things and we are in podcast #3. In our last podcast we shared a scripture and I wanted to give you the reference for it and share it exactly as it is. And then Mrs. Cherry and I will expound on it a little bit.

00:00:20 Rev Owes

It comes from Isaiah, the 30th chapter verse #18. And it says, “And therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you. And therefore, will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you, for the Lord is a God of judgment. Blessed are they that wait for him.

00:00:48 Rev. Owes

When we look at the scripture, we see two things happening. One is that the Lord waits for us, and then it's our job to wait for him. And so, we want to talk about what it means to wait on the Lord. What did it mean that God was waiting for us? Was it because he was waiting for us to be sure about the purpose and plans for our lives? Did it mean that God was waiting for the perfect time, bringing together our level of maturity along with his desire and his will? Sure. Share with us, Mrs. Cherry. What does it mean?

00:01:26 Rev. Cherry

You know, when I think about waiting, I think about us before we were saved. And sometimes we say that mercy kept us until grace could save us. And I think of waiting of God waiting for us, that no matter what we did, God still loved us. But He was still patient with us. I think of the relatives in my family who still have not come to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. They think that they have, but they're not really walking in His ways. I can't judge. They are saved as they say they are. I think of some of the people that I love and some of the people that I know are not in the right standing with God. I have confidence that God is still waiting for them. And I know that one day they will accept the fact that they are children of the most-high God.

00:02:29 Rev. Cherry

They will cause their behavior, their choices, and everything to come in line with the will of God so that they too might further the will of God in the Earth realm. And so, I'm thankful that God is a patient God and I'm thankful that we can learn patience through Him.

00:02:49 Rev. Owes

What are some examples of His patience?

00:02:52 Rev. Cherry

I know that God's waiting for all creation to come to him. It is just a manifestation of his love for us and his patience for us. I'm so glad he waited for me and that his mercy kept me until his grace found me. And now I have the power of God operating on the inside of me, and I can live for him and do his will. I'm thankful that God is a patient God.

00:03:26 Rev. Owes

And the thought that a holy God is waiting for us is so endearing. And for those of us who may feel like our window of opportunity, our WOO time is gone, or feel like we have ignored the Lord for so long, how could he want me now? Or how could he receive me now? The scriptures just shared with us that He'll wait. He'll wait and wait. And we must wait on the Lord.

00:03:55 Rev. Owes

Yes, yes, yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then why is He waiting for us? It is so that he can be gracious to us, meaning that He's going be kind and He will have a beneficial effect on our lives. The fact that he's waiting to be good to us, to bless us is mind-boggling.

00:04:16 Rev. Cherry

And we're so crazy. We are doing everything, acting like complete fools. And a holy God is waiting on us to bless us, not to punish us, but to bless us, to give us all good things. That doesn't translate into money and houses and temporal things, but salvation. Yeah, I mean, what else is more priceless than salvation? And God is sitting on this holy throne, looking at all of those of us who are still misbehaving. I'm still waiting, son. Still waiting, daughter. I just want to bless you. Yeah, I just want to bless you. I just want you to have the fullness of joy. Yes.

00:05:00 Rev. Cherry

It is an awesome thought that an awesome God is waiting on me. But you know, the scripture says in Romans, I believe it is that all of creation is waiting on the manifestation of the sons of God. Everything on the earth is waiting for us to act, to do right, and to be the people that God desires for us to be.

00:05:28 Rev. Owes

That scripture always blesses me. The thought that what I do impacts the entire creation, isn't that amazing. It is. That's a good little message to give yourself in the morning.

00:05:49 Rev. Owes

Yes, a little pep talk. Right, let's act. Right. Let's be right. Let's do right because all of creation is waiting for me to get myself together. We can do better today than we did yesterday, right?

00:05:52 Rev. Cherry

That's a good thought. Oh my.

00:05:54 Rev. Owes

Goodness. But just to know that God is waiting. Umm.

00:05:58 Speaker 1

And that.

00:06:00 Rev. Cherry

The Earth is waiting.

00:06:03 Rev. Owes

Yes, for mankind to get right with God. So, it's never too late. Never because his arms are always outstretched to receive us. Yeah, He is not going to give us an account of everything we did wrong. He's ready to receive us so that He can bless us with the plans that He has for us. Yes.

00:06:23 Rev. Cherry

Yes. And so, it's incumbent upon us as he's waiting for us for us to think about our relationship with God. I like to say, think about what you're thinking about. If we could think about God waiting for us instead of thinking so many of the negative thoughts that we might have, it would help us to endure the weight, you know? Yes. And to accept the Lord as our personal Lord and savior.

00:06:54 Rev. Cherry

I talk about that all the time because obviously, that's my heart's desire for all men to be saved, like Paul. It's for everybody to come to a saving knowledge of the Lord. I'm on travel now and I'm on my way to a place and I just got a message that my friend is probably not going to be with me for a long time. I can't wait to get there. You can have prayer and say, do you know Him? It is so important so yeah.

00:07:25 Rev Owes

It is. We do have to take advantage of the moments that we have to make sure that opportunity is given. Just think that God may be waiting for us to have the courage to introduce Him to someone so that they can receive Him. They could leave this earth with the wrong result because we didn't do our job right.

00:07:53 Rev. Cherry

And you know, I've come to the point where if I talked to somebody on the phone, when ordering something I'll inevitably say, do you know the Lord? You know, I've just become so bold. I mean, so bold. My total focus is, do you know the Lord? Have you given your life to Him, or you say, are you born again? But you know, he waited for me. He blessed me. He’s given me the grace to be able to talk to people. I think God strategically puts people in your path for you to be able to bless them with the knowledge of Him. And to let your light shine wherever you are, that's so important. I live my life now not trying to be so fixated on where I am, or what I am, or what I've got and all that kind of stuff. I just want to know, are you saved? Do you know Jesus?

00:08:45 Rev Owes

Be that witness that He created us to be, right? And you know, you mentioned that God's waiting on us so that He could be kind to us because He wanted to bless us. Doesn't necessarily mean stuffing and things. It does not necessarily mean that God does not want us to have those, but they should never be our focus. They should never be what we hope to attain in this life. You know, with your husband going home to be with the Lord, and I know with mine going home to be with the Lord, they can't take a bit of it with them.

00:09:06 Rev. Cherry

Not a bit, not a bit. And they leave us to deal with. Right? Nobody wants it, right?

That's the thing nobody wants it. Even now, and before my husband went to Heaven, I would say to the grandchildren. Would you like to have this, or do you want that? I know that when I'm gone, it's going to be given away, thrown away, trashed. And so, I'm going to enjoy it now. Everything that I can enjoy right now, I will because to them it doesn't have any value.

00:09:46 Rev. Owes

But the thing that has value is love, right? And it's joy. Yeah. It's peace. Those are the things that keep us in those moments when we have no idea what's happening, we just don't feel like it's going in our favor. But you know that a holy God loves us. Yes. And that we're loved by the people that he created, to know that we do have a purpose and a plan. I should say we have purposes. Let me put that “s” on it. And there are plans for us. It's not necessarily just one thing. I am certain that I never thought, when I first met you in my early 20s, that this was a purpose or a plan for either of us.

00:10:37 Rev. Cherry

Right. How could we see that far off?

00:10:40 Rev. Owes

God is waiting for us even now, to see how we are going to live during this new trial of our lives. That is important for us to realize. They're gone. But we are still here. God does have plans and purposes for our lives. And he's waiting for us. Yes, and we're listening.

00:11:07 Rev. Cherry

Yes, we are. But we must be teachable, right? That is so true. Do you know, he's probably spoken to a lot of people and they're like, uh no, can't be. Realize that God's trying to get your attention. Whoever you are, wherever you've been, whatever you've done, God is still trying to get your attention.

00:11:32 Rev. Owes

Yes. Now we've joked with one another that our husbands are in heaven, in cahoots against us. Just, you know, making us do this thing. But we do know that it's truly the spirit of God that is on the inside of us, causing us to do His will at this season of our lives. The call is to do His will for us at this time. Our husbands died, but our calls as preachers of the gospel did not die with them.

00:12:09 Rev. Cherry

The callings God gives us are not unto repentance. And so, we're still preachers. And I think sometimes when I'm sharing with others, and I think, don't be preaching now, I cannot help it. I just give them the word.

00:12:25 Rev. Owes

But we're preachers, right? Right. And how we love people, at least for me, how we love is, is sharing the love that God shared with us. And it's in his Word.

00:12:27 Rev. Cherry

Yes, and some of the young people say Grandma's always wanting to preach, all grandma does is preach, but that's who we are.

00:12:34 Rev. Owes

My son said to me one day, “I want to hear from my mother. I don't want to hear from the preacher.” I said, Son, you missed that the preacher is your mother. We're the same, right? And the way that I love you is to give you what I know God has that is right. And that's His word. It's what healed me and helped me. It's what healed and helped your dad. And I know it will work for you. Yeah, so don't try. To separate me from me. Right, am sharing the Word of God.

00:13:02 Speaker 1

When my husband passed, I shared with my children this one thing. “Dad left us in a place where we can know God, love God, and live according to His will. That won't change. That won't change. We may change states, as in states in the United States. But we will not change our state in Christ Jesus. I will live the same way. We will live the same. And we have and it has been a blessing to every one of us.

00:13:33 Rev. Owes

God, being gracious to us that he waited on us even through the loss of our husbands, now lost but not lost. Right? We know they're saved. We know they're in heaven, but we've had to rearrange our lives, if you will, to live a life without them. What an adjustment. But our heavenly father was still waiting. Yes, so that he could be kind to us.

00:13:54 Rev. Cherry

Still waiting? And we're provided for.

00:14:02 Rev. Owes

Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think that this is an example of how God waited for us, that we're sitting here today. One with another discussing the gospel that we learned from our husbands to share with the body of Christ. What an absolute blessing that God will wait. And now let's begin to talk about what it means for us to wait on the Lord. But we're going to do that in our next podcast.

00:14:33 Rev. Owes

Thank you all so much for listening. We love.

00:14:36 Rev. Cherry

You and we appreciate you. God bless you.