so I I want to I want to I want to talk to you tonight about it's a new message I just wrote I don't know um 3 or four weeks ago and um I want to I want to talk to you about God's timing I want to uh I want to open up this scripture and this is going to be a different genre of speaking for me um but that's okay if if if at the end of this if you're like oh that wasn't that wasn't Shane's best if you could just consider 20 years worth of um material over this one thing that'd be great um so so so when you when you want to try something new this is the crowd to do it in right because you know we love each other and um so so there's this there's this story in second Samuel let me set up the context so there's this King named David and David um David's son absolum has started a Civil War and it's got quite ugly as civil wars do um because when you're the look all of us have family Strife at times right like all of us have you know all of us have that one person in our family that if there's eight conflicts and you trace it all back to the centerhub we all know who the so everybody has that but if you if you Mo yeah I know they're like oh yeah that's old cousin Jim you know so if if but if you take that and multiply it by 10 if you're the king and the one problem now starts a political upheaval and so there's this Civil War and David is quite sad about it but he has to activate the military to squash the Civil War started by his son and unfortunately in that process his son dies and again you you got you have these emotional things in it like like in One S you read the story and absum dies and he's kind of been a jerk and you're like you know what he deserved it but at the same time if you're a parent and you let your sense of right and wrong Trump your love for your children right like just because your child deserves it doesn't mean you would be happy about it right and so there's this tension in the story like yeah he kind of made his own bed and yeah it's kind of like that but then the other side of the story is David is quite grief strucken because his son died and whether his son deserved it or not if you're the dad you're still quite devastated by this and so the the scene we're going to read here is um there's an argument that ensues about who gets to tell David that the Revolt is over but his son has died that's where we are in the story um it says if you could bring that first slide up for me it says then then AZ the son of zadok so zadok was the key high priest that's where we get the word sadu see from the the the son of zadok said let me run and carry the news to the king that the Lord has delivered him from the hands of his enemies and joab joab was the General joab said to him you're not to carry the news today you may carry the news another day in other words what you're saying is not wrong but your timing's out but today you shall carry no news because the King's son is dead in other words joab's like read the room bro there's there's a there's a right place and a right time and if you say the right thing at the wrong time it's just it's it's it's just wrong then then joab said to the kushite go tell the king what you've seen so there's this guy with all this prestige a himz the son of zadok and then there's a nameless kushite and joab said to the kushite go go tell the king what you've seen and the kushite bowed before joab and ran then aimz the son of zadok said again to joab come what may let me also run after the kushite and joab said why will you run my son seeing that you'll have no reward for the news in other words you think this is going to promote you in David's eyes trust me I know David it's not this is going to be out of place it's not going to what whatever you think is going to happen it's going to overpromise and underd deliver right you can't do that he says come what may he said I will run this is a story about a guy that in every instance was given wisdom and he's still pushing past it he's like nope nope nope I'm going to do it I don't care what you say so joab finally said to him run then and then AZ ran by the way of the plane and he outran the kushite which you got to give him props for commitment there the guy had a head start and he's like I don't care I'm going to get out in front of this and he outruns the the kushite and what what ends up happening in the story is that he shows up and just like joab thought he gives David news that he thought David would be happy about but in David's heart he grieved his son more than he celebrated the Victory and and if you're a parent you kind of understand that like you wouldn't you wouldn't celebrate the victory of your side if it cost you your child right and so there's all of this going on and ah himz um ahz is the if you got lost any of that here's the point ahz is that part in all of us that wants to rush out in front of God's timing he's that he's that part in every single we tend to read the Bible and read oursel in as the good guys like we're the guys that always get it but for tonight I want us to consider the ahas character in every single one of us that we feel like we have something but the Temptation is to rush in front of God's timing and and we sabotage it and I think this is a function of three things if you can bring that next slide up for me the first thing is calling the second thing is character and the third thing is competency so if you say how do I know if I'm inside God's time well I think being inside God's timing is a convergence of those three things simultaneously calling is basic to life it's basically God's purpose for us a job is something you have to do to live a calling is something you have to do to feel alive that's two different things right character is what has to happen in our heart in order to accomplish the calling and then competency is developing the natural spiritual abilities to enhance character and calling like do we have the natural abilities like if you're if your passion is real estate well then that that's fine but there's competency around what it takes to be a real estate agent a real estate broker the the legalities of it the people skills of it there's all that but then there's the spiritual side of it where have we built the Space in our spirit person to even hold what we think God wants for us because without that even if we get it it'll hurt us and if we don't have that space it'll just sort of break our mind right and so if you if you have any if you have all three of those you have a perfect convergence of God's timing but but if you have calling and character without competency you're going to live disappointed like I have this thing that I know makes me come alive and I have what it takes to hold it but I just have no skills that that's going to be disappoint that's going to be disappointment if if you have if you have calling and competency without the character you're just going to you're you're going to build something a and then lose it because if if you have character and competency without the calling you'll you have this this sense of there's always more we're never satisfied so what's happening in all of us is this development of of calling that thing that we have to do to feel alive the character to hold that and then the competency to do that with good skill so there's when those three things come together there is a convergence of God's timing now let me just the basic flow of the story is this next slide that ahas wants to tell David of the victory because he thinks he'll get a reward but joab knows differently it's not his time to shine the problem is ahz has Priestly rights because he's the son of zadok and kingly Royal rights as the husband of David's daughter so if anybody had the uh Prestige to go do this it's a himz but he was rushing outside of God's time now that's my best effort in 8 minutes explaining what happened what I want to do in the in the last 22 minutes is explain and explore what's happening in us right now because of what happened how does the story inform with wisdom how we develop the skill to stay inside God's time so um let's a couple of thoughts on this number one next slide when we think we're ready normally we're not like when we think we're ready normally nor normally normally with we're not and that that's true all of our Lives it was true in lots of biblical characters Moses grew up in Pharaoh's household had all the prestige to do what he was called to do but it wasn't till he went to the Wilderness and developed a stutter that God said okay now you can give it a go right it's it's sometimes when we think we're ready we're not ready and a as's name means eyes tied shut it's it's the inability to see the wisdom in the development we only want what we want right now when we want it you could think of behem as his name is literally meaning blind spots it's when it's when we can't hear or see anything else I know I want that and I'm convinced that my voice is the voice of God and so if I want it God wants me to have it and I'm going for it right now and we can't see anything else um it's often the blind spots that get us the most angry and frustrated and we end up rushing ahead of God's timing it in the story of David next slide David never took opportunity at the demise of someone else to take hold of God's calling for his life now now David certainly made mistakes and hurt people to fulfill things like lust but in terms of his own faith formation David's story is a story of never intentionally hurting someone to grab what you know God has for you um it's it's interesting you read David's story it takes about 8 minutes to read David 's whole story of how he went from a Shepherd boy to the king about 8 minutes but it took him eight years to live it and and the way you know that is it says and he went here for 10 months and he went here for eight months and he went here for six months and he went here like eight years of his life and there were so many opportunities that he had that he knew this was God's thing for his life and he could have rushed out in front of it and hurt Saul in order to take it but he never would he would never hurt someone in order to accomplish something or grab something that God had for him in other words number five what we make happen for others God makes happen for us what we make happen for others God may happen this is where wisdom comes in because God is Not Duty bound to complete something he did not initiate like I hear Christians quote it all the time hey man and and they mean it as an encouragement like somebody's not hey if God started it he'll complete it man he who began a good work in you be faithful to complete it yeah he who began a good like if God started it he's faithful to complete it but if we just step outside and just do some dumb thing that's poorly thought out and then presume upon God's power to finish something he didn't start that's just frankly irresponsible it's irresponsible to presume on God's power to fix something where we rush the timing this is the second temptation of Christ second temptation of Christ was throw yourself off a cliff and because God's plan for your life is so big God God will just rescue you from it and remember Jesus was like maybe but why would I do that when I could just not Jump Right In other words in other words look um I know the highway people and um and I can tell you if if you get lung cancer we will pray hard and fervently that God will touch your your body and heal you of lung cancer but we would also like to know you we would rather you quit smoking today right if if you need a financial breakthrough we'll pray with all our heart that God will give you a financial breakthrough but we'd also like to know you're getting up before 10:00 a.m. and that you're bathing regularly a a and that you're developing skills in other words if it's within your power to change your life it is irresponsible to presume upon God to do something we could just do for oursel right it's just like that's that's just irresponsible it's like hey hey that that's a really dumb thing to do I know but you know what when I face the consequences of it I'll just ask God to fix it for me well that's irresponsible it's just it's just irresponsible it's dumb at at at worst it's like oh look God's judging that person or or Worse we go hey Satan's attacking me Satan's not attacking you you bought something you you got you bought something you can't afford with money you don't have to impress people you don't like it's not Satan it's you you know if if you buy an $80,000 car on a $90,000 income you're going to be broke and it's not because of Satan it's because of you it's you it's just well just it's just you you know um let's say it this way number whatever we're prepared to let go of is largely the litmus test for what God can trust us with it's it's when we approach what we believe our calling is and it becomes the thing that we need to make our ego okay um normally the test for that is is if I can let it go then God can trust me with it um now this is in my totally my opinion this this is not in the Bible um at all um it the scripture is in the Bible but this is what I'm going to say about it is my opinion about it it's in the book of First opinions um in in my in my opinion Ezekiel 14 is the scariest scripture in the whole Bible and here's what happens in Ezekiel 14 there's a group of people leaders of the Israelite community and they decide beforehand what they're going to do so they make a decision and then they realize after making the decision that they haven't inquired of a prophet they haven't prayed about it and they need to tell people we prayed about it and so after they decided what they were going to do they bring Ezekiel in just so they could say we ask a prophet and he agrees with us and so Ezekiel comes in and he figures out what's going on and he says this and I'm and man however whatever degree of Truth this is it is terrifying here's what he says if you approach Ro god with an idol in your heart he'll answer you according to the idol so that you will experience what that Idol brings and ultimately be brought back to God that is terrifying that has massive implications for how we pray massive implications for how we worship and massive implications for how we read the Bible essentially Ezekiel is claiming that if you approach god with your conclusion in mind he'll just tell you what you want to hear in other words if you want to be God God will let you be God and you'll hate it and when you've had enough of yourself being God you'll ultimately be brought back and let him be God as the great Theologian Tom Shad jaac wrote in his movie Bruce Almighty there's a guy named Bruce and he wanted to be God so God let him be God over seven square blocks of Buffalo and he destroyed everything he destroyed seven square blocks of buffalo in seven days by simply giving everything everybody everything they thought they wanted other words we really don't have any idea what's best for us this is this has massive implications like if you ever if you ever had somebody if you ever if you ever had somebody tell you something that just obviously was off but then they don't want to discuss it so they said God told me right so they uh so so yeah yeah so so I I don't listen I don't think it would hurt us to lose the phrase God told me for about 30 years okay and so so anyway so this is how it goes it's like I have this really bad idea and you're going to challenge me with wisdom but I don't want to have the conversation so I'm going to say God told me right and then they come out with stuff that you're like no way God said that right let me let let me use like a hyperbolic I'll just I'll just use something really really out there right right God told me to leave my spouse for another person right well everything in you inside goes God wouldn't tell you to do that except except for the fact that if ezekiel's right maybe he would what ezekiel's point is is that if you approach God already knowing what you want to hear he'll just tell he'll let in other words if you want to be God God will let hey you want hey you want to live your thing you live your thing that frankly is terrifying what what that means is is that when I approach scripture um if I if I know what I want it to say I'll find it as the great Archbishop Lazar puuhalo he's the head of the Orthodox Church he says the Bible's like a roar shock test it tells me more about you than God in other words in other words I can tell I can tell more about you by how you read the Bible then I can tell about God himself because if you need a mean God you'll find it if you need a nice God you'll find it if you need a judgmental God you'll find it if you need a new creation sort of God you could you could find it that that actually when unless this has massive implications unless we approach God totally idolf free with a clean slate and a humble heart we bring oursel into Danger of rushing God's timing in other words next slide it's possible to hear from God what we want to hear it's possible to hear from God what we want to hear which leads to this question can we die to self before we inquire of God's timing like let's talk about some real practical how do we live tomorrow stuff number one when we approach the Lord and nobody's going to do this perfect and if you think you do it perfect per you're the problem right but when we approach the Lord we need to do our best to make sure we're approaching the Lord with truly a clean slate like do I want to be promoted or am I happy to celebrate them being promoted and and and I truly want a clean slate because because what what what ezekiel's point is is that we can approach the Lord knowing what we want to hear and then we'll tie our own feelings and we'll call it God we say God Jesus Bible scripture truth but what we mean is my preference with a giant megaphone right and so it so can we approach god with clean slate I think we also need to test whether it's calling or need a job is something we have to do to live a calling is something we must do to feel alive let me put some litmus test around that a calling we can just let a calling happen but we have to make a need happen so litmus test number one is a do I am I approaching it with a clean slate number two is is this something that I can remove my control off of and just let it happen or is it something I have to make happen I have to push to make it happen a calling we can just let happen a need we have to make it happen let's say it this way test number three your calling is not meant to meet the emotional needs of our ego so our calling the thing we have to do to feel alive and we can we can run the risk of rushing outside of God's timing ahim has had to get outside of God's timing because he felt felt like he'd be promoted if he was the one that shared the news and turned out it wasn't why because if I engage if I engage in what I'm called to do needing my ego stroke then what happens is is we become manipulators of God instead of Cooperators with him that becomes really problematic so so if you're called to business let's say you're called to real estate or let's say you're called to the medical field or let's say you're called to Ministry whatever that thing is that you have to do to feel alive on the inside I'm not NE talking about a job a job you have to do to live I'm talking about the part of your job or the part of your life where that thing happens inside of you and you have you you're you you start to come alive on the inside that if we ever cross the line into I'm engaging in that in order to get the ego my ego needs met then before we know it we'll rush outside of God's timing no number four it's possible to be too strong for God how do we know when we're too strong eyes tied shut well one way is when we're too strong for the people we love like if our internal sense of right and wrong and calling and purpose if it's actually starting to make the people around us Suffer Well what happens in this story is joab just acquiesces hey three times he told him don't do this don't do this don't come what may I'm going to do it I'm going to do it I don't care what you say I'm going to do it fine joab finally just goes that's fine and I think joab in this story is kind of like the god character it's how God treats us it's like wisdom says don't do it wisdom says don't do it it's not your time wisdom says don't do it and we tell God I really don't care what you say I'm going to do what I want to do and I'm going to convince myself you're in it and I think God if I understand the god revealed in Christ it's like not someone that controls everything it's someone that engages the broken story and he will go okay well I'll let you have your own way I love the first century definition of the wrath of God I can't say it any better than the early church did they said quot qu the wrath of God is being handed over to the self-inflicted consequences of non-consent to consent in other words if God's love is consensual then his wrath is his consent to your ability to say no if you in other words if you want to be God you can have at it and it's going to the consequences are going to look like God's mad at us but actually it's just we got handed over to the self-inflicted consequences of what we brought on oursel see character is walking away from short-term gain for long-term wins Jesus said it this way he makes this really confronting statement he says you're the salt of the earth but if the salt loses its saltiness what good is it except for to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men now I've heard good-hearted people try to preach that like Jesus was Jesus was warning people about eternal torture or something that was not Jesus's point at all there he says you're the salt of the earth but that the salt loses its flavor it's good for nothing except to be thrown outside and trampled underfoot by men we got understand the Book of Numbers a little bit a little bit about Jewish culture on this so in the Book of Numbers it says every sacrifice in the temple had to be seasoned with salt well if all you're doing 12 hours a day is offering sacrifices and every sacrifice has to be seasoned with salt what did they have a big stockpile of in the Temple Salt big bags of salt and so your job was you throw the salt on the sacrifice but if the salt lost its saltiness or got past its expiration date you had two choices you could walk the whole bag to gehenna the the town rubbish dump what we would call hell and you could dump it out there now it's a long walk now it's downhill the whole way but then it's uphill back or you could do something better you could cut the bag open and just throw it outside on the temple steps and salt is very absorbent it's great for traction um it doesn't happen in Brisbane but you know I I've got a buddy here today from Missoula Montana and trust me when it snows like it does in Missoula Montana you got to Salt the roads right because it's it's traction and so Jesus says this look if the salt loses it saltiness it's thrown out and just trampled underfoot by men if you got lost in any of that here's what Jesus is saying you have an opportunity to flavor your whole world and you can do that your life can be an example of what's possible or your life can be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men in other words your life can be an example to everybody about how to flavor your world or your life can be a cautionary tale to keep other people from slipping your choice choose option A in in other words next slide do not let your life's purpose be to serve as a warning to others do not let your life's purpose be a warning warning to serve be be to serve as a warning to others aimz outran the kushite and gave David half the story he he gets told to stand aside so David could hear the nameless kushite so so what do we what do we do with this well I think you know number one we we have to make sure we have a clean slate we have to determine if it's calling or need we have to determine where our ego sets into this what are we rushing out we have to determine if is is my calling my competency and my character is it jelling together here's a couple of just kind of final applications on this number one be comfortable in the preparation period until God says we're ready be comfortable there it's not less spiritual we only you know it's where we get to grow number two sometimes we are deliberately overlooked to test the state of our ego I'm going to um I'll be a little vulnerable here with you um so it's probably 10 years ago um I went through a period of time where I was I was struggling inside no one knew this I was struggling inside with envy and what was happening was is good friends of mine who led me were trying to encourage me but the way they were encouraging me was actually making whatever that somewhere a seed of jealousy got in me and then I didn't really realize it and before I knew it was sort of running rampant and taking over the way I was filter Ing and and interpreting my world and and friends of mine were saying things like I just came from from the hill song conference and and or the the this conference or that big stage and and you know the guy the guy they had you're just as good as that you're just as good as them what like why like what like why wouldn't they have you they're just and let me translate that we love you and we think you're we think you're the gift on your life they were trying to be encouraging but what it did to me was it took my eyes off of being faithful with what God gave me and put my eyes on to people who I was being told were being promoted and I wasn't I was being overlooked and and I'm just telling you it got in me right and it was and it's not good when that gets in you you can rush outside of God's timing because now the thing on your life that's actually your calling you need it to stroke your e it was just ugly and and and I knew I'd cross the line that I didn't want to cross when I started secretly I like I I I found myself secretly celebrating when one of them them fell over and I thought this isn't me this is ugly I think I had a pretty good chat with Dale Wright about it she's she's just fantas is like they've been my friends forever and I could tell them anything and so I I I and I I did not want this to be in my life and and I could take you to the place where I got saved from that sitting in a car at a red light I've been called an hour earlier to buy a buy a someone who said look I've got us access into the green room inside the green room inside the Green Room this massive conference and man if we if you can get there I'll get you in front of the right people and we'll get you invited to these things and I thought ah so I got I got in the car and I I drove and and I was at the red light where I either turned right to get on the freeway to go towards where this conference was or I didn't and and I try not to use words like God told me or I I just try not to do that because I don't think God needs me to add his name to my idea right but I I was truly sort of but I'll say this way it was an deep inner knowing that I just knew if I turned right it was going to set me back years and um and I turned around and I went back to the hotel and I called the person said look I'm just going to excuse myself I I got a big weekend and they said Shane you're going to get invited I said I know but I knew if it happened that way that all it would do is exacerbate and so what I started doing is I did the the reverse I I I I seed I I seed money into these people's Ministry and then I started talking about them really good in public because if you celebrate publicly the people who threaten you privately it starts to break the power of Envy on your life and um and you it's weird is that day I got saved or healed or delivered from whatever that was and um it wouldn't have been 6 weeks later um guy from New Zealand called and said can you do a conference at spark arena for us and then the next thing I know it was stuff in Perth and but but it wasn't until I didn't need it that it was like I I'm willing to let that go and um I'm I'm so glad I had that day I I I don't I didn't realize it at the time but just how important it was see a him is is the person in all of us that wants to rush God's timing the question I would like to ask us to wrestle with is is there any place in my life right now that I'm eyes tied shut I I can't I can't see it any other way than my way and I don't care what anybody I don't care who it hurts I don't care the conflict I'm a part of I I don't care I I I don't care if I get outside of God's timing I can only see it this way is there any place that himz is alive inside of us I'd like to um invite us all to pray a couple prayers and only if the holy spirit moves you um if the Holy Spirit doesn't move you don't worry about it it wouldn't work anyway right but um but but if you're willing to pray a couple of these prayers of reflection Lord Jesus let no one ever reject you because of the way I'm presenting you uh second prayer um Lord Jesus I want to serve you is there any place I'm approaching you without a clean slate is there any place that I'm hearing what I want to hear are you answering me according to my all if you're willing to pray something like that third prayer Holy Spirit would you save me from me would you save me from me don't let me destroy myself before I have the character the competency and the calling to do it amen would you look this way thank you so much for be a part of your night your day I hope Jesus got bigger the cross worked better the resurrection is Central scriptures got bigger not smaller let us all live in a way that is not eyes tied shut but rather an open book of humility so that God can form greatness in what he wants to do with our lives until I see you next time Grace and peace everybody