LIVING IN EXPECTANCY – PART 1: PASTOR (DR) MENSA OTABIL – SPECIAL SUNDAY SERVICE, 21ST MAY, 2023.

SPECIAL SUNDAY SERVICE WITH PASTOR (DR) MENSA OTABIL (GENERAL OVERSEER, INTERNATIONAL CENTRAL GOSPEL CHURCH (ICGC) CHRIST TEMPLE, ACCRA GHANA)

TOPIC: LIVING IN EXPECTANCY – PART 1 (BETWEEN TIMES)

DATE: 21ST MAY 2023

BIBLE TEXT: GENESIS 18:13-14

Let us rise up together as we make our “DECLARATION OF GATHERING” in this “YEAR OF GATHERING”.

Are you ready? Say with me:

I Proclaim Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour. The Lord is the Shepherd of my Soul, my Shelter by Day, my Light by Night.

In His Name, we Plough our fields, by His Spirit we gather the Harvest, in His Light we seek and find.

In this Year of Gathering, the Lord of the Harvest has commanded: Launch Out into the Deep. At His Words, we cast our Nets, we gather in Souls and Substance for God’s Kingdom.

The Lord is our Reward; in this Season I received God’s Portion set aside for me: Full Measure, Pressed down, Shaking together and running over.

Nothing is Lost and Nothing is wasted in Jesus Name – Amen!

I am starting a New Series which I believe is going to be a Great Blessing to you. And I am talking about: Living In Expectancy – Part 1. And my Sub-Title is: Between Times – “LIVING IN EXPECTANCY – PART 1 (BETWEEN TIMES)”.

Having an Expectation is important for our Quality of Life.

When People stop having Expectation, People lose Hope and Life loses Meaning.

So, it’s always important to have an Expectation. And the Christian Life is a Life of Expectation – We live our lives in Expectancy.

Have you ever been in a situation where somebody says, “there is no Hope?”

And once People tell you ‘there is no Hope, Life becomes Meaningless.

That’s why sometime People feel that they have to end their lives, unfortunately.

But God has called us to a Life of Expectancy – Everything we do in Life has an Expectancy:

• You go to sleep in the night and you are expecting to wake up in the morning and the sun would shine.
• And when you live throughout the day, you expect that the sun would set and there will be night.

Can you imagine when you wake up and the sun never rises?

You are going to wonder, “is the world coming to an end?”

Because your Expectation is that the sun would rise!

The same thing, if the sun never sets, you are going to wonder what is wrong with your world.

So, all of us live Life on Expectancy.

Expectancy is what you do, it is your Hope and it creates excitement for our lives.

And I want to tell us that God doesn’t just want us to live in Expectancy; He also wants to fulfil our Expectations.

So we don’t just expect and get disappointed – He makes our Expectations real to us.

And That’s what we are going to be looking at in this Series – How our Expectations become a Reality.

Genesis 18:13-14 (NKJV);

13 And the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I surely bear a child, since I am old?’

14 Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.”

God gave a Promise to Abraham and that is why Abraham left his father’s house.

God said, I am going to give you a Land, and your wife Sarah is going to have a child.

… Consequential Child – A child who makes the difference in this world.

Abraham and Sarah lived their lives on that Expectancy that they would find the Land, and that they would have a child.

So they started a journey of Faith with God – With this Expectation that they would have a Land, and they would have a child.

They journeyed and lived for a very long time – They were not finding Land and they were not having children.

And now Abraham is close to Ninety-nine (99) years old – Abraham is a very old man; and Sarah is very old. God comes to Abraham and speaks to him that now is the time to make the Promise of God real to us.

One of the things we have to be very firm on is that, God is a God of Promise. And every Christian lives his or her Life on the Promise of God.

The Promise of God has got Qualities we would look at:

• God’s Promise comes to us as a Word.

It tells us what God has in Mind for us.

Primarily, it comes through Scriptures. But many times God also speaks to us in our Hearts; and gives us something to Hope for.

And so God’s voice comes as a Word.

His Promise comes as a Vision – In the Vision, God tells us what He has already done in our lives.

A Vision doesn’t necessarily mean you are going to see something very grand. Sometimes the Voice of God to us is a very soft voice.

I remembered I was about fourteen (14) years old when I believed that God called me to be a Pastor – To Preach His Word and to take care of His flocks.

I was Young! – I wasn’t in a Church, I wasn’t in a Prayer Meeting, I didn’t see a Vision, Nobody spoke to me.

I was fourteen (14) years old, and I remembered the moment – It was in the Night we were in my mother’s bedroom. There are about five (5) of us (Siblings) and our Mum, and we all stayed in the same room. I was sleeping on the floor on a mat and just somehow, I can’t even explain it.

I just knew that God’s Hand was upon me, that God has Called, that He was going to use me as a Pastor. And from that Night, I have never doubted that God has called me and that God wanted to use me.

But that Calling was not because somebody spoke to me; I heard it in my Heart.

And for many of you, that is how you are going to know God’s Promise to you! – It’s not going to come because a Man of God spoke to you; or you saw a big Vision. But you are going to have something deep, Insight so Strong.

That tells you – This is what you are going to be; that is what your Life is all about.

And that creates an Expectancy – And it gives you something to look forward to, something to live your Life for.

And for each one of us, I believe there is a Point in our lives when we believe that God was going to use our lives for something.

It may have been similar to mine, or Probably maybe somebody spoke to you about it, or you read the Bible and you felt that a Word was for you and you believe that God is going to use you greatly.

If you have such a Promise of God, I want you to hold on to it and I want you to live in Expectancy.

Now I want us to go to the Text (Genesis 18:13-14); we are going to examine a few of God’s Promises. And I want us to look at how it becomes a Reality in our lives.

Genesis 18:14 (once more); “Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the Appointed Time, I will return to you, according to the Time of Life, and Sarah shall have a son.”

… Very Short Verse but heavily loaded.

This Passage talks about Time frame within which God works His Purposes for us. And the first Time frame that the Passage talks about is:

1. THE APPOINTED TIME

This Appointed Time is very important.

You know, when God was leading the People of Israel, they had this big Tent they called “The Tabernacle”. And it was called “The Tabernacle of Gathering” – That is where they gathered and God met them.

So when God talks about Appointed Time, it’s not just Sequence of Time:

• It is a moment when Sequence come together for things to happen in your Life.
• The Appointed Time is a Gathering Point for God – A Place of Meeting or a Time of Meeting.

You know, many times we go through our lives and it looks like things are not meeting in our lives – Things are scattered, things are not happening and you wonder, “why am I going through all these? And your Life doesn’t seem to make sense.

But there is a Time in your future, when God is going to put the Pieces together – It’s called the Appointed Time!

Everything comes together! And when everything comes together, everything makes sense!

Now you don’t get it, because it’s starting. But one day there would be an Appointed Time: a Meeting Point. Then you will understand why your Parents were your Parents; why you were born in such a time. Why your Siblings are those.

And why you even went to school and Studied a Particular Course; which you are not using (Laughter)! And you wonder, “so I wasted my Life to Study this, and I am not even using it.”

But when God brings you to the Appointed Time, it’s a Gathering Point – He opens your eyes and you begin to understand. “Everything makes sense in God’s Economy!”

And that’s what God is saying to Abraham. He says, there is a Gathering Point in your future.

You’ve been walking for many years in the wilderness, you’ve had a lot of Experiences; they don’t seems to make sense.

Even your name doesn’t make sense! – You used to be Abram, I Changed it to Abraham, yet you have no child!

In the Appointed Time, everything would come together, and it would make sense!

That is what the Appointed Time is – It’s a Place of Meeting: God’s Meeting Time for you in your Destiny.

Appointed Time also means, a Fixed Season in God’s Plan for you.

There is a Fixed Season, a Divine Season for you by God.

In Genesis, the Bible says when God created the Moon, Sun and Stars, it’s for Seasons.

The Appointed Time is an Appointed Season for you!

A Season is the Period when things happen – Things happen in their Seasons and a Suitable Time.

So, what is God saying to Abraham?

God is saying to Abraham, I have an Appointment with you – Not just a Calendar Appointment; “I have an Appointment with you sometime in your Future where everything is going to come together. And there is a Fixed Season when what I said would come to Pass.”

I don’t know about you, but the God of then is the God of now – The God of Abraham is our God. If He had an Appointment with Abraham, I can guarantee you He has an Appointment with you!

There an Appointed Time for you, and there is a Season for you – Amen!

So, that’s the first thing that He said to Abraham, “there is an Appointed Time for you.” But there is another Phrase in the Passage (Genesis 18:14).

2. THE TIME OF LIFE:

That’s the Second time frame – “The Time of Life.” It’s a Natural Sequence of Activity.

The Time of Life is also a Point in time.

God is saying to Abraham, “I have a Season for you. I have an Appointed Time for you, I have a Big Plan for you. Things are going to come together.”

And He then says, these things are going to come together at a Point in Time.

What does that mean?

You know, when Adam and Eve sinned God said, “the Seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the Serpent” – Genesis 3:15

That’s an Appointment – “The Seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the Serpent.” When? next Week, next Month, next Year, next hundred years? It’s general – There’s an Appointment!

When you read the Book of Galatians 4:4; it says, But when the Fullness of the Time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law,

In other words, God has an Appointment with Time, but the Appointment has a Point in Time when it’s going to happen.

So there’s a Point in Time when God makes all things work for you – It’s a Point in Time!

God has a Time of Appointment for you, and then He has a Point in Time for it. And when that Point in Time comes, things will work out for you.

The Time of Life is a Point in Time.

The Time of Life is also the Season when things happen – It describes the Natural Processes which are Completed; and when the Natural Processes are Completed, things happen.

In other translations of the Bible, Time is translated as Spring; because Spring is when things are born.

After Winter, Spring.

What it is saying is that, when God wants to give you what He has Promised to give you; it’s going to happen at the time it should happen.

Sometimes when it happens, you Naturally think it’s a Natural Thing that has happened – It was supposed to happen and it happened!

But it is happening not because it was supposed to happen; it is because God made it happen;

And the one reason why when God does things for us and we don’t even know it is God is because it happened in the Time of Life! It happened at the time it is supposed to happen.

You know, if you Plant Mangoes in Ghana – And I said Mangoes, because Mangoes are nice (and all of us used to run after Mangoes when we were kids) they will be ripe and sweet.

They are ripe normally around April and May – March, April, May is Mango Season. And then later on around December, January is another Mango Season.

So, that would be the Time of Life of the Mango.

When is the Mango supposed to bear fruit? It should be somewhere around April, somewhere around December.

But the One Who is controlling the Time of Life; to make it happen is God!

But what is happening seems to be a Natural Thing that is happening; God is behind the Natural Event that is happening.

I hope you understand that?

… If your Mango doesn’t bear fruit around April or May, then you wonder, what is this Mango tree doing?

I have a Mango tree in my house like that: I have been watching it, I say, I have invested in you (you are on my land) do something! March nothing, April no fruit. We are ending May, no sign that this tree has heard that the Season has Changed!

I said okay, I will forgive you this time – I’ll wait for December. Then if it doesn’t happen, then I will have to see whether I would do what Jesus did to the Fig tree.

When the Season comes and you don’t bear fruit, Jesus says, “no one will eat from you again!

… But the “no one” would be me – So I can’t Curse my tree. I have Hope!

The Point I am making is, God has Appointment with you and that Appointment happens in the Time of Life.

So, God wants to give you a child, the child is not going to be born when you eat garri (cassava flour). He or she has to be born through the Natural Processes.

But the fact that they come through the Natural Processes, does not take God out of the Equation – Because He gave you the Appointment, and He used the Time of Life to bring it to Pass.

And that is why you have to be careful who you give Glory to.

Sometime you may think:

• Oh my friend helped me! But who told your friend to help you?
• My Office gave me Promotion. But who inspired the Promotion?

Because you should understand that He has an Appointment with you, but He used the Time of Life. Alright!

So, these are the two (2) Sequences in the Bible Text.

But there is a third time frame; it is not directly in the Text but it is real.

When God spoke to Abraham and Sarah He spoke to them in the Time they were living in! not in the Appointed Time, not in the Time of Life, but in the time they are living in.

So there is a third time frame – That is what I call:

3. OUR TIME.

… The moment we are living in now!

The Challenge with every Expectation is that, God fixes it at the Appointed Time.

There is a a Time of Life when it is going to happen, but you live in your Time. And every human being lives in a time.

There’s only one Time Zone that Human Being lives in – It is called now!

No human being lives in yesterday.

Have you met somebody who lives in yesterday?

Going through Town, you meet somebody and he says, “oh, I’m in yesterday” – Everybody you meet lives in the same time you live in now. No Human Being lives in the Past (yesterday); no Human Being lives in the Future; we anticipate the Future. But we only live in now!

God does not only live in now, He also lives in yesterday and He lives in tomorrow.

So, there’s always a conflict of Opinion between us and God:

• Yesterday, Today and Forever is the same for Him.
• For us, now is all that we know.

When He speaks to us we don’t know whether He is talking about tomorrow or now; or even yesterday.

We have to figure out – Is this going to happen or it has happened?

It is happening? Because the only world we know is now.

That is where the conflict becomes a big one. Why?

Because ‘Now’ is dominated by our Experiences – What we see, what we hear, what we remember. That’s all.

So, God says to Abraham, I have an Appointment with you, you will be the father of many Nations. It’s fixed, you would be that! But “NOW”, Abraham has no child.

And the conflict is – How do I reconcile with my Appointed Time and Now?

And the Struggle with every Child of God is the Struggle between Times.

Because God has an Appointment with you and He has a Time of Life when it’s going to happen. But you don’t live in the Appointed Time, you live in the Now Time. And in the Now Time, you have Nothing.

So God makes you rich at the Appointed Time; meanwhile in the Now, you are broke!

How do you conduct your Life? How do you manage your Life? Because Now is dominated by our Experiences. And so our Time is usually in conflict with God’s Appointed Time.

Our Current Reality and God’s Reality are happening simultaneously: “I am sick.” God says, “I have healed you.” “I am broke.” He says, “you are wealthy!” “I have no child”. He says “you are father of many Nations.”

Who is telling the Truth?

Of course, we are telling the Truth based on one time frame – Now! God is telling the Truth because of a Complete Understanding of Time. He knows the Future and He has fixed an Appointment with Time.

After God had spoken to Abraham about Appointed Time and the Time of Life He said: “I will return to you.”

Why did He say that?

“Abraham you are in the Now, my Word is in the Future; but this Word in the Future would come back and become Part of your Now.”

So there is coming a Point in your Life that the Appointed Time would be in your Time Zone – It will be Now!

That is when everything God has spoken to you becomes a Reality in your Life!

One of these days, in your Life: the things you’ve expected, you’ve Dreamt about, you’ve Prayed about – It felt like it would never ever happen. All of a sudden, it would be NOW – Amen!

… And what seemed far away has now become your Reality.

But in-between time, you need to survive. And that is where Faith comes in.

And that is why as Believers, the most important thing to survive as a child of God is Faith.

Faith says, “I don’t have it now, but I believe I have it, according to the Word of God”.

Faith says, “I am not at the Appointed Time now, but I take hold of my Appointment”.

So that no matter the Evidence that I see, and what I feel and what I hear; I am Persuaded that there is an Appointment with God and that He has my name on His Schedule.

I came to announce to somebody today or reading now on the Label of DMC – There’s something you’ve nursed in your Heart, even when you were a kid (6 years old); you believed, “I am going to do so and so.” And People laughed at you and said, “Oh you are a small boy, you don’t know what you are talking about.” But you’ve never left that, and it has never left you. You’ve always believed it: this is what I am going to be, this is what I am going to do.

Maybe when you were twelve (12) years old or fourteen (14) years old like myself.

Sometimes ago something just came to you and you knew “this is God’s Purpose for my Life.” Not ‘this is what I want to be.’

But you just felt a Divine Presence telling you, “this is what your Life is going to be.” And it’s beign several years since then. You are wondering, “what is the Problem? Is it going to happen?”

I came to announce to somebody, God says the Appointment has never Changed, He has never erased the Appointment – Amen

And one of these days, your “Now” would be the Appointed Time – Amen!

The Time you live in is going to be the Time of the Manifestation of the Purposes of God – Amen!

Has it ever occured to you, where things happen to you and you are seeing it again?

It looks like it has happened before – You are sitting at a Meeting and you feel like, “I have been here before” but you haven’t been there!

Or the first time you go to a Country, it looks like you’ve been there before.

Some People say, “it’s because in a Previous Life to went there.” No! There is no Previous Life.

It is because, by Faith you have lived in that Place! It is God’s Appointment with you; you’ve always imagined it yourself. You’ve always believed you will be there. It has always lived with you.

And then one day, the Appointed Time, in the Time of Life, becomes your Now!

That is why God says, “I will return and Sarah shall have a son.”

God will return! What He Planted in the Future, He would return and bring it into your Life – Amen.

It’s going to happen – Amen!

And in the meantime, as you Struggle with, “what should I do?” Stand firm! Stand on the Word of God, trust in the Word of God – It may delay, but you would not be denied – Amen!

God is not a man that He should lie; it may delay, but you would not be denied!

You know many times, even when we have forgotten God’s Appointment, He doesn’t forget. And He makes it happen. Hence we say, “the things I didn’t expect happened.” You gave up, but He never gave up on you. You thought it was over, but He said, it’s not over!

So do you have an Expectancy in your Heart? Does it have a Divine Origin? If you don’t have a Divine Origin to your Expectation, then you have to Pray that you will get a Divine one; because God only watches over His Word to Perform.

But if you have (and most of you have) things you’ve nurtured in your Heart, things you Struggle with are in there. But your Now is conflicting it.

Today God says, I will return! And when I return, I will settle the Conflict – Amen.

So, what is your Appointment Time would become your Time frame! You are going to live in that Time.

You are going to live in the fulfilment of Prophecy; you are going to live in your Assignment.

You are going to live in the Place that God told you, you would be!

For everyone who has an Expectancy, this Morning or as you read now on the Label of DMC; I just want to Pray with you: because the true realistic is, “let me just be in the “Now”, but still trust God for His Appointed Time. Because God’s Word is surer than any Experience you have had!

If you have an Expectation – Just Stand on your feet wherever you are listening to us all over the Globe or reading now on the label of DMC – I don’t know what the Expectation is, but God is a Faithful God and He will bring it to Pass!

CLOSING PRAYER:

Father I Pray for everyone under the Sound of my Voice or reading now on the Label of DMC:

And every Heart living in Faith, Standing in Faith, believing You, Trusting You that their Faith will not grow weary;

That they will not be destroyed by what they see and by what they feel;

I Pray Father, in the Name of Jesus; for Supernatural Strength to enter Your People.

That they will Stand Strong – Nothing Wavering, Nothing Broken, in the Back of Jesus!

And I Pray for you, that you will live in the Time frame of God’s Appointed Time!

What you have believed in your Heart, you will live in it! Your children will live in it, your grandchildren will live in it, in the Name of Jesus!

Your Business would live in it, your Family would live in it!

And as you Stand firm, may the Lord Strengthen you; like Abraham, until you see the Manifestation of His Will for your Life.

In Jesus’ Name – Amen and Amen!

Let Somebody Praise the Lord – Hallelujah!

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