S1: We focus on duration. God focuses on donation. We focus
S1: on longevity. God focuses on legacy. Somebody say, I've been
S1: saved 20 years? Yeah, but you've been out of God's
S1: will for 18 of them. So at the judgment seat
S1: of Christ, you only get credit for two.
S2: Welcome to Treasure Truth with Pastor James Ford Jr. He's
S2: a senior pastor at the Christ Bible Church in Chicago.
S2: I'm Steve Hiller. Glad that you're with us today. As
S2: we dive back into the book of Esther and continue
S2: a message called It's Your Time. And pastor, we began
S2: last time to talk about the significance of what we
S2: do between the time of our birth and the time
S2: of our death. Basically, how do we live out that
S2: dash that might appear on our tombstone? And I think
S2: it was several days ago you were talking about the
S2: fact that, well, we can end up wasting a lot
S2: of time. That's obviously one thing we can do. How
S2: are we actually to live out that time?
S1: Well, we need to get our direction from our Heavenly Father. Now,
S1: I know somebody's saying, oh, I knew we were going
S1: to have that answer. Yeah. You know, but that's the
S1: only answer why? We were created for a purpose. Okay.
S1: Ephesians two eight and nine for by grace you have
S1: been saved through faith. And that is the gift of God,
S1: not a result of works, lest any man should boast.
S1: Why do we stop at verse nine? Because the connective
S1: tissue for is a preposition that ties them together. It's
S1: a conjunction. And so conjunction junction. What's your function? The
S1: function of a conjunction is to tie two phrases together.
S1: Schoolhouse Rock, some of you know. Oh yeah. Yeah. And
S1: so what does Ford do in Greek is called an
S1: explanatory GA every time I see it, when I'm studying
S1: or when I'm getting ready to preach or teach, I
S1: write the word reason because that's what I was taught
S1: when I matriculated at the Moody Bible Institute back in
S1: the early 80s. My professor told me, when you see
S1: explanatory gap, the first thing that should come to your
S1: mind is the word reason. Because now explanatory GA is
S1: just that. It's going to explain why the previous verses
S1: were said. So then we were saved by grace. What's
S1: the reason? We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus
S1: unto good works. Don't stop there which God hath for ordained,
S1: that we should walk in them. So everything I'm supposed
S1: to do has been set out from eternity. So then
S1: I pray, uh, the words of Proverbs three five and six,
S1: trust in the Lord with all thy heart. Lean not
S1: to thy own understanding in all, not some in all,
S1: not most in all your ways Acknowledge him and he
S1: will direct your path. What's he directing my path to?
S1: To where he already put a road. Yeah. This is
S1: your road. I want you to walk in it and
S1: that's it. And so I want to know. And I
S1: pray about these things. I've been given opportunities to do
S1: a whole lot of things. Some of them I say
S1: no because after I talked to him, he says, I
S1: don't want you doing that. That doesn't fit within your purpose.
S1: And here's what I love. The word workmanship is the
S1: Greek word poiema, from which we get poem. And the
S1: sad tragedy is the way we live our lives, some
S1: of us as believers. We don't read like a poem.
S1: We read like graffiti on a bathroom wall.
S2: Huh? Well, that is just the beginning of the program.
S2: That that is a message in and of itself right there.
S2: But we're going to get into Esther chapter four today.
S2: So join us as we continue. It's your time. Here
S2: is Pastor Ford.
S1: And so what what am I trying to tell you?
S1: Now is the time to do what you later wish
S1: you would have done. Let me say that again. Now
S1: is the time to do what you wish you would
S1: have done later. It's your time, see? Today is the
S1: tomorrow that you talked about yesterday. And so it's time now.
S1: I mean, you know, it's like I'm. I'm praising God.
S1: And you know how some of us say we made
S1: New Year's resolutions in, in January, you know, I'm going
S1: to lose some weight. And then we wonder when we
S1: get on the scale, why aren't we losing? Uh, I
S1: was wondering it, too. And I told my wife, let
S1: me get on this scale. Hold my Twinkies. Yesterday is
S1: a cancelled check. Tomorrow is a promissory note. Today is cash.
S1: Spend it wisely. Now is the time to do what
S1: you later wish you would have done. God gives opportunity
S1: And we need to make sure that we jump on
S1: his kairos with our chronos. Remember what happened to the
S1: children of Israel. God said, alright, I want you to go. I'm.
S1: Open the door. They walked around with placards. Hades! No,
S1: I won't go! Hades! No, God said, the door is open.
S1: They said, but we ain't going. God said, okay, you
S1: ain't going. Alright, I'm closing the door. So then Moses
S1: told him, God closed the door because y'all wouldn't go.
S1: When he told you to go. And, uh, they said, okay,
S1: we'll go. And God said, don't go. I'm not with
S1: you now. I had the door open. You wouldn't walk
S1: through the door. Now the door is shut. What happened?
S1: Somebody holler it out. What happened? They went up anyway.
S1: When God said go, they said no. And when God
S1: said no, they said, go. Dead monkey on the line somewhere.
S1: And so what happened? They went up there and got jacked.
S1: They got jacked because God is a God of time.
S1: Remember what it says in Galatians four four in the fullness.
S1: Plethora the fullness of time. God sent forth His Son,
S1: made of a woman made under the law to die.
S1: Jesus came at the right time. Oh, there is a
S1: right time, y'all. Oh, there is a right time. There's
S1: a set time. A fullness time. Noah was told to
S1: come into the ark and it was time. I don't
S1: have time to go through the whole thing, but you
S1: know the chronology. What is set? Okay, so what I
S1: did was I went to a theological dictionary. Just. Just
S1: be patient with me, okay? Say we will, pastor. Okay.
S1: Thank you so much. Psalm 102 13. The set time
S1: to favor Zion is gone. I looked up the theological dictionary.
S1: You apply it. Now listen to this. I'm going to
S1: give you all ten of them. I'm going to drop
S1: them and I'm going to push them. What does set mean,
S1: number one to be established as a model to be
S1: set up. Number two, to be ready to catch prey,
S1: set a trap. Number three, to regulate for proper functioning.
S1: Like set a thermostat. And you're getting these now. I
S1: hope you're applying them as I'm saying them, because I don't,
S1: you know, there's ten of them. I can't apply all
S1: of them. It'll take me all day to do that.
S1: And so number four, to be positioned for action. Ready
S1: set go. Number five to harden or to congeal. He
S1: set his face like a flint to fix by decree.
S1: God has set everything in order. Number seven to furnish
S1: by example. Number eight to mark. Ready for use. Set
S1: the plate on the table to move. Number nine in
S1: a direction. He set off toward the north side. And
S1: then ten to arouse to action. He got set for battle.
S1: Do you listen to all those? And it tells us
S1: what what this time is all about. Uh, that it's
S1: time for us to realize. It's time to do something
S1: with the dash. We must car pay. DM. Come on,
S1: say it. Car pay. DM. What does it mean? Seize
S1: the day. Seize the moment. The time is right. Right
S1: now is the time to take the community. Right now
S1: is the time to go back to school. Right now
S1: is the time to start the business. Right now is
S1: the time to write your book. Right now is the
S1: time to do it now, now, now, now, now is
S1: the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation. Today,
S1: if you hear his voice, harden not your heart. Today
S1: is the day to get saved.
S3: Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
S1: Yeah. Yeah. Temporary victory turned into a perpetual move of God. Mm.
S1: Andrew Carnegie, some of you know who he is, but
S1: we know him because we're from Pittsburgh. And most of
S1: his meals were in Pittsburgh, and he was a steel magnate. Uh,
S1: multi multi-billionaire back when, you know, that was he'd probably
S1: be richer than Warren Buffett today. Uh, but here's what
S1: he said. He said, uh, how'd you make it? You
S1: came here as an immigrant. How'd you make it? Well,
S1: he should have said I didn't come on a slave
S1: ship and that that'd be first. But here's what he said. Quote,
S1: we were all told America was the land of opportunity.
S1: I acted on it. I acted on it. What are
S1: you acting on today? Wow. So what can you do
S1: with time? Let me. Let me run through this real quick.
S1: What can you do with time? Well, the first thing
S1: you can do with time is you can waste time.
S1: And we do it all the time. We waste time,
S1: we kill time. We bury our opportunities. Deuteronomy chapter one.
S1: Let's turn there real quick. Deuteronomy chapter one says this.
S1: Listen to this. These be the words which Moses spake
S1: unto all Israel on this side of Jordan, in the wilderness,
S1: in the plain over against the Red sea, between Paran
S1: TEFL Laban, Hazeroth and Di Zahab, there are 11 days
S1: journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir unto
S1: Kadesh Barnea. How many days to the Promised Land? 11.
S1: How long did it take them? 40 years. Wait a minute,
S1: wait a minute, wait a minute, 40 years. I just
S1: did a little math. Times 365 is 14,600 days. So
S1: then it took them 14,589 days longer than what it
S1: should have taken. You know why? Because God could get
S1: them out of Egypt. But he couldn't get the Egypt
S1: out of them, right? You know it because you you're
S1: sitting here. I remember when Babbie Mason was here. We
S1: ought to bring her back. Babbie Mason was here, and
S1: she said something I'll never forget. She said I. I
S1: was like some of you. I had too much church
S1: for the world and too much world for the church.
S1: You know how I like to say it. You got
S1: one foot in the world and one foot in the church.
S1: And when the rapture happened, you're going to split your
S1: pants on the way up. And here God has given
S1: opportunity after opportunity after opportunity. When you kill time, it
S1: can't be resurrected. Here it is. You've got to move.
S1: When God says move, you've got to strike while the
S1: iron is hot. Go while the door is open. They
S1: refuse to go and the door was closed. Haggai chapter one.
S1: Read it. God said, the problem with your not building
S1: what I told you to build the wall and my
S1: temple is because your priorities are not my priorities. What
S1: are we going to do? Christ's Bible. It's time to mobilize.
S1: We need some real men to read. We're getting ready
S1: to go back out on the corners, man. We gotta mobilize.
S2: I don't know about you. I'm encouraged to hear that.
S2: I mean, the body of Christ being, the body of Christ,
S2: the church getting out there and being the church in
S2: Jesus name. You're listening to Treasure Truth with Pastor Ford.
S2: A message called It's Your Time, and we'll get back
S2: to this message in just a moment. I want to
S2: let you know we're able to bring you Pastor Ford's
S2: teaching each day because of your generosity. Those of you
S2: who have given a gift to treasure truth before a
S2: huge thank you. If you've never given, would you consider
S2: doing so today? Come to our website, Treasure Truth radio.org
S2: and click on the donate button. You can give a
S2: one time gift or an ongoing monthly gift at Treasure
S2: Truth radio.org and click on donate again. Here's Pastor Ford.
S1: I told the story before, but you could tell it
S1: grates me to no end. Uh, we were given an
S1: opportunity to get $2 million worth of buildings newly rehabbed, and, uh,
S1: the board voted not to do it. I was like,
S1: are you serious? Somebody's going to donate to us. $2.5
S1: million worth of buildings in, uh. What's this over here? Uh,
S1: they're building it up now. What? What is it called? Brownsville.
S1: It was in Brownsville. Waste time. Man. What's the other
S1: thing we can do? We can mark time. We can
S1: mark time. You know what, Mark? Time. Who was in
S1: the military? Who was in the military? Who remembers this?
S1: We are marching. Left. Right. Left. Right. Left. Mark! Time! Whoo! Chop, chop.
S1: And you just. You just in place. You ain't going nowhere.
S1: But you're moving. Oh, if that ain't the church of
S1: Jesus Christ today we moving. But we ain't going nowhere.
S1: We just marking time. We just. We just. Meat. Meat, meat.
S1: Meat meat meat meat meat. Oh, okay. Listen, I shared
S1: this with you before, so I hope you'll just. Just
S1: remember it. Acts chapter 13 tells us that there were
S1: 593 years of history. But first Kings chapter one, verse
S1: one says there were 480 years. Now most people look
S1: at it and say, see, there's a discrepancy in the Bible.
S1: There's no discrepancy. What's going on? Where where are the
S1: missing years? Go to Book of Judges. That's where they are.
S1: Those missing years. If you add up how many years?
S1: The children of Israel disobeyed God and he brought them
S1: under captivity, there you'll find your years. In other words,
S1: they didn't count. It didn't count. Why? Because the Captivities
S1: were given to you. Because you weren't obeying God. Somebody
S1: said this, I quote, life is like a taxi cab.
S1: The meter is running, whether you're moving or standing still. Yeah.
S1: That's right. See, we focus on duration. God focuses on donation.
S1: We focus on longevity. God focuses on legacy. Somebody say,
S1: I've been saved 20 years. Yeah, but you've been out
S1: of God's will for 18 of them. So at the
S1: judgment seat of Christ, you only get credit for two.
S1: I've been a Christian 15 years, but you ain't done
S1: nothing sitting on your rusty, dusty and haven't done anything. Yeah.
S1: That's it. Jonah, go to Nineveh. And so what does
S1: it say? And Jonah paid his fare. Because whenever you
S1: disobey God, you picking up the tab? God ain't picking
S1: up your tab. I say it all the time. I know,
S1: I know, they're tired of hearing it on the radio.
S1: You're shacking with the devil and want Jesus to pay
S1: the rent.
S3: Alright.
S1: The word of the Lord came to Jonah. Go to
S1: Nineveh and preach against that great city. Jonah said, Hades, no,
S1: I ain't going. And he doesn't go. What does he do?
S1: He paid his fare, and he went down. And he
S1: went down from Jerusalem, down to a ship, down in
S1: the belly of the ship, down into the sea, down into.
S1: See what happened to him. Anytime you disobey God, the
S1: only direction you can go is down.
S3: Amen.
S1: So now he goes down. He tries to get away
S1: from God. That's a funny. You didn't laugh. How can
S1: you escape from the omnipresent God? He is everywhere. At
S1: all time. In all time. So how are you going to.
S1: And he running from the presence of the Lord. Now,
S1: let me tell you what the phrase presence of the
S1: Lord means. He's running from the things that remind him
S1: of the Lord's presence, like Jerusalem and the people of
S1: Jerusalem and the Tabernacle and all those kind of things like, oh,
S1: don't act like we don't do it. We backslide. We
S1: don't come to church, we don't read our Bible. We
S1: don't pray. Why? We want to get away from the
S1: presence of the Lord. Well that's it. Yeah. We want
S1: to get away from it. And here's here's what I like.
S1: If you read chapter three, the word of the Lord
S1: came to Jonah a second time. Now, here's what you'll find.
S1: The exact words that God gave him in chapter one
S1: are the exact words that he gave him in chapter three.
S1: God didn't change his mind about what he wants you
S1: to do. Some of you have been called and you're
S1: running from God. The call's not going to change. It's
S1: not going to change. What is it that he told you?
S1: Five years ago he wanted you to do? He ain't
S1: changed his mind about it. You say? Well, then, what's
S1: going on? He doesn't violate your free will. He's letting
S1: you do what you want to do. See, God doesn't
S1: make us change our minds. He only sends circumstances that
S1: will make us change our mind.
S3: Yes, sir. Amen.
S1: How many of us ever said, God, if you get
S1: me out of this, I'm going back to church. And
S1: that's why you're here right now. Let me. Let me
S1: see some hands. Some honest folk. Some honest folk. There
S1: you go. There you go. That's it. In other words, listen,
S1: when you're marking time, you're maintaining, but you're not attaining.
S3: Yeah.
S1: And so what happens? You're going through the motions. Wow. Yeah.
S1: You can you can mark time. Here's the third thing
S1: you can do. You can transcend time. You can transcend time. Uh,
S1: because the past should be a springboard, not a hammock.
S3: Alright.
S1: Some people live so far in the past that their
S1: future is gone by the time they get there. Don't
S1: let your history wreck your destiny.
S3: Amen. Amen.
S1: What did Paul say? I'm pressing this. Come on. Everybody
S1: knows it. One thing I do forgetting. I press. Well, Paul,
S1: wait a minute, wait a minute. That's two things. No,
S1: it's one thing. If I'm going to press, I have
S1: to forget.
S3: Yeah.
S1: You know what the word forget means? It's a Greek word. FEMA.
S1: Here's what it means. Let it go. Let it go.
S1: When are you going to let it go? I know
S1: some things were very difficult. I know that there were
S1: some dastardly things that have happened. But when are you
S1: going to let it go? Way, way back in the past.
S1: Why are you going to let your past override your
S1: present and your prophetic? God is able. You can go
S1: through it. I read the story of one of the
S1: Miss America. She was Italian and, uh, very beautiful woman.
S1: And she went into a restaurant. She was the only
S1: one there. The owner grabbed her, took her in the
S1: back and raped her. That's devastating. She was devastated. And
S1: she was a believer. God, how could you allow something
S1: like that to happen to me? And I serve you.
S1: Fast forward to video. You know what she's doing now.
S1: She heads a ministry that ministers to rape victims. God
S1: does that. Anybody ever heard of Johnny Erickson? Tada! Anybody?
S1: She was a beauty queen to dived into a pool
S1: that had shallow water and, uh, became a paraplegic. Now
S1: she has the number one ministry in the world that
S1: ministers to people who are paraplegic.
S2: You're listening to Treasure Truth with Pastor Ford. A message
S2: called It's Your Time, and we would love to know
S2: how this current series maybe is making a difference in
S2: your walk with Christ. How maybe he's reminding you it's
S2: your time to step out and to do something in
S2: his name. Recently heard from a listener in Florida who says, hey,
S2: I'm loving your recent messages. You're all up in my
S2: kool aid, Pastor Ford. I'm going to pass this test
S2: my other storm. So keep it up, sir. Well, Gail,
S2: thanks for letting us know that you're out there, that
S2: you're listening, and that this Bible teaching from Pastor Ford
S2: is making a difference in your walk with Christ. If
S2: we've never heard from you before, there's a few different
S2: ways that we can connect. First of all, you can
S2: just come to the website Treasure Truth radio.org and click
S2: on the contact link. Give us your feedback there, or
S2: even ask a question to Pastor Ford. You can also
S2: give us your feedback through social media. If you've not
S2: done so before, go ahead and follow us on Twitter.
S2: Like us on Facebook. You can leave us your comments
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S2: Truth radio.org. One place to look for them is the
S2: Stay Connected bar. That's a helpful spot. Not only will
S2: you find links there to the social media things, but
S2: also to the Moody Radio app. You can use that
S2: to listen to a treasured truth on the go, as
S2: well as links to connect with Pastor Forde and his church,
S2: Christ Bible Church of Chicago. Again, you'll find all of
S2: that when you come to treasure Truth radio.org and look
S2: for the Stay Connected bar. Well, thanks to our producers,
S2: Amy Rios and Ryan McConaughey. For Pastor Ford, I'm Steve Miller.
S2: Treasure truth is a production of Moody Radio, a ministry
S2: of Moody Bible Institute.