0:07 I'm not sure if you've ever been to a store and usually when you go there they ask you uh you're looking to buy something and they say this is the last one. If you don't get it, you're going to lose it. And you see that very often in many 0:22 things that we see in life. There's a constant pressure for us to do something in haste. Haste means in a hurry. We didn't think it through. We just do it because the first thought came to us we should do it, we should do it. 0:37 Uh it was like that in the Garden of Eden as well. They said, "Okay, eat this fruit." Did they think about the consequences, what God said? No. All of that went out the door. They just said, "Okay, I see it, I want to get it." 0:50 And the world is like that. The devil is like that. He wants to seek to steal, kill, and destroy. He wants everybody to do things in haste, not think about the consequences, that what's going to happen. And as I was thinking about that uh 1:06 I was always I was reminded of this, you know, this alarm clock, you know, every time it goes out you're like startled and you're like, "Okay, And for a lot of people that they do everything in haste. It's all like this 1:18 alarm clock that comes and rings and then they're like, "Okay, I need to do this." But it says of Jesus and you can turn with me to Isaiah 28 verse 16. Isaiah 28 verse 16 and if you have a Bible, please open it up. Therefore, thus says the Lord God, 1:40 "Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone, a costly cornerstone for the foundation firmly placed. He who believes in it will not be disturbed or not be in a hurry 1:57 or not do something in a haste. So, Jesus never did anything in haste or hurry or because of the pressure to do something. But, as we look through scripture, we see of others that did do things in haste. Uh if you turn with me to 1 Samuel 2:24 chapter 10. 1 Samuel chapter 10, God has anointed Saul as king. And as soon as he Samuel anoints Saul as king, there's one instruction he gives them. And so, read me read with me uh 2:42 1 Samuel chapter 10 verse 1. Then Samuel took the flask of oil, poured it on his head, that is Saul's head, kissed him, and said, "Has not the Lord anointed you a ruler over his inheritance?" And then it goes on, he tells him what's 2:58 going to happen next. And then it says in verse 6, "Then the spirit of the Lord will come upon you mightily, and you shall prophesy with them and be changed into another man." What a wonderful promise. God is sending him out and says, "The 3:14 Holy Spirit will come upon you, you'll prophesy, and you will be transformed into another man." In verse 7, "It shall come when these signs come to you, do for yourself what the occasion requires, for God is with you." Verse 8, 3:30 "And you shall go down before me to Gilgal, and behold, I will come down to offer burnt offerings and sacrifice peace offerings." And now, this is the command. What was the one instruction Samuel gave to Saul? 3:47 "You shall wait 7 days until I come and show you what you should do. Don't be in a rush, Saul. I have some instructions I have for you. Don't go and do something before I come and give you those instructions. And you see 4:09 um if you turn with me to chapter 13 1 Samuel chapter 13 verse 8. Now he waited 7 days. So Saul is waiting 7 days according to what Samuel has said, according to the appointed time set by 4:27 Samuel, but Samuel did not come to Gilgal and the people were scattering from him. Now he's in a panic. The alarm clock is running and he's like, "I don't know what to do. All the people are running away from me. Samuel said he was coming 4:42 in 7 days. He hasn't come. Now what do I do?" And many of us are in similar situations. Some circumstance situation comes and immediate there's a panic. What should I do? So Saul said, "Bring verse 9. Bring this 5:01 burnt offering and peace offering." And he offered the burnt offering. And verse 10 what happens? As soon as he finished offering the burnt offering, behold Samuel came and Saul went out to meet him and greet him. 5:21 If he'd only waited for a few more minutes Samuel would have come. But Saul was in a rush. He saw the people leaving him and he was in a panic. As soon as he was in a panic, he said, "Okay, I'm going to be in haste. I'm going to do it." 5:37 And right after he does it Samuel comes. Verse 11, but Samuel said, "What have you done?" And Saul said, "Because I saw that the people were scattering from me, and you did not come 5:56 within the appointed days. You told me you were coming in 7 days, you didn't come on time. And the Philistines were assembling. Verse 12, therefore I said, "The Philistines will come down against me, and I would have not asked the favor of 6:10 the Lord. So, I forced myself and offered the burnt burnt offering." See, I didn't want to do it, but you forced me to do it. And that's why I had to do it. Verse 13, and Samuel said to Saul, "You acted foolishly. So, instead of taking the blame and 6:28 saying, you know what, I made a mistake, I did it in haste, I should have waited longer, and I'm sorry for what I did. What does he do? He puts the blame on Samuel. It was your fault. If you had come on time, I would have 6:42 not had to do this. You've acted foolishly. You've not commit acted foolishly. You've not kept the command of the Lord your God, which he had commanded you. For now, the Lord will For now, the Lord would have established 6:58 your kingdom over Israel forever. Verse 14, but now the king your kingdom shall not endure. The Lord has sought out for himself a man after his own heart, and the Lord has appointed him as ruler over his people, because you've not kept with 7:13 the the Lord has commanded you. This was the very very first instruction that Saul was given. Did he obey it? No. And this this became a this this led to the other acts of disobedience. 7:32 When God told him to destroy the Amalekites, he didn't do it. All of the things, but it started off What Where did it all start? Where did it all begin? When God told him something through Samuel, instead of waiting patiently, 7:47 he acted in haste. And for us, too, we have the same temptation in the days in our lives as well. Temptation to act in haste. We hear something, and then we have to do it right away. We don't wait to see what the Lord will 8:01 have to say or for a peace in our heart or seeking his will in the matter. We do it in haste. Many young people as well. The area of marriage and things like that, they're like in haste. I think it says of Samson, he says, "I want that woman. I want to 8:17 marry her." Did you seek the Lord? No, no. I just want to get married to her. But you see Isaac, he waited. He waited for God's will. He sought, "What is God's will in marriage?" And God led him to Rebecca. It's always this danger of doing 8:34 something in haste. If you turn with me to 1 Samuel 14 again, you see this. Verse 37. 1 Samuel 14:37. Samuel inquired of the Lord, "Shall I go down after the Philistines? Will you give them into the hand of Israel?" 8:52 But he did not answer him on that day. God did not answer Saul. And so what would you do? Or what should we do? Okay, Lord, you haven't answered me. Let me wait. Let me not go and do something in haste. But 9:12 But Saul did not do that. He didn't hear from God. Okay, let's move on. Let's carry out what we want to do. That's the great danger we all have. But it's not only in the Old Testament we see. We see that in another example 9:31 as well. If you turn with me to Luke chapter 22. This is when they are coming to capture Jesus. And you might remember who's leading them. Judas Iscariot is leading them in in Luke 22. Verse 47. While he was still speaking, 9:51 behold a crowd Luke 22:47. One called Judas, one of the 12, was proceeding them and he approached Jesus to kiss him. Verse 48. But Jesus said to him, "Judas, are you betraying the son of man with a kiss?" Verse 49. 10:10 When those who were around him saw he was going what was going to happen, they said, "Lord, shall we strike with the sword?" So what did they do? They asked a question. Lord, shall we strike with the sword? That was their question. 10:26 Before Jesus could give them a reply, guess what happens? 50 Verse 50. And one of them struck the slave with the high priest and cut off his ear. They were asking, "Lord, what should we do? Should we We have some swords here. 10:42 What should we do?" And before God could give him an answer, before Jesus could give them an answer, already someone's sword flung over there, cut the person's ear off. In haste. In haste. Very often for us it might not be a 10:59 physical sword. What kind of sword do we use? We say something. How do you know, something happens and then we say something, cut off the ear. And then we don't wait. Lord, what would you have me say? Let me yield my tongue to the 11:17 Holy Spirit. Let me not say something in haste and then regret for it. And do you know who who is the one who cut the ear off? It was Peter. It doesn't say it in the first three Gospels, but in Gospel of John, which was written in 85 around 85 11:34 AD they say after Paul was martyred the Holy Spirit said, "Okay. While Peter was alive, I don't want to write this down. But after he's died died now the Holy Spirit says, "Okay, for generations to come they will need to 11:51 know what Peter did in haste to see what God can do with the man who's living in haste and how he can change this very man." Another thing that comes with 12:14 haste is two things I see suspicion and speculation. Suspicion and speculation are things that we don't know what it is, but before we know all the facts and what actually happened we're suspicious. They must have done that because of 12:32 this. This must have happened because of that. Did it happen because we don't know. We just make a suspicion or we speculate on things like that. And if you turn with me to First Samuel again Saul was doing fairly well when God 12:53 called him initially. But after that it spiral spiraled deeper and deeper into sin. And one of the other things when which comes with haste is suspicion. And so if you turn with me to First Samuel 18 verse eight 13:15 Then Saul became very angry and said this that for this thing displeased him. And he said, "They have ascribed David 10,000s, but to me they have ascribed What more can he have but the kingdom? Verse nine. 13:33 But then Saul looked at David with suspicion from that day on. He heard that the women were shouting and screaming, "David has killed the 10,000s. Saul, you only thousands." 13:51 And that small thought that came in his heart, and for me, I I picture thoughts that come to our mind like birds. They come, they fly over, and they It's up to us what we do, whether we let them stay there, build a nest, 14:08 or do we shoo them away? And I say, "Lord, whenever there's a thought that comes, a suspicious thought, or uh or uh a speculation that comes like a bird and says, 'Oh, you know what? This is probably the reason why this happened. And that 14:25 person did this, and this person did that. David killed 10,000, you only killed thousands.'" And that bird starts talking in your mind, what should you do? Let it go and build a nest, lay eggs there? 14:43 No. I say no. You shoo, get away. But Samuel did uh Saul did not do that. He entertained that bird of suspicion and said, "Okay, you know what? David must be having something against me." 15:00 Did David have anything against Saul? When others asked him to go and kill him, he said, "No, I won't touch the Lord's anointed." That was the reality of the matter. The reality of the matter was David had a zero desire 15:17 to attack Saul. But what's with Saul's perspective because of was entertaining these suspicions. He said, "David's against me. He's trying to take the throne." Turn with me to verse chapter 22, 1 Samuel 22. See, when these small acts of 15:35 suspicion, we entertain it, it just gets bigger and bigger. And he says in verse 8, 1 Samuel 22 verse 8, "For all of you have conspired against me, so that no one who discloses to me when my son makes a covenant, that's Jonathan 15:52 makes a covenant with David. And there is none of you who is sorry for me." None of you guys are sorry for me. David's doing all these things and none of you are telling me what's going on. "That stirred up my servant against me 16:08 to lie in ambush as it is in this day." Then Doeg Edomite said, "I saw David going to Ahimelech. And he inquired of the Lord for him, gave him the provisions, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine." 16:26 So he paints a little bit of a picture. I This is what I saw. I saw him go. He went to the priest. The priest gave him the sword and inquired of the Lord for him. He must He kind of leaves it open-ended. Okay, Saul, you can make out from that 16:41 what you think the story happened after that. David must have gone and it's conspiring with me with the high priest with the priest. Was that true? No, it was completely false. But that's what he thinks. And so it says, 17:01 he goes and then he meets Ahimelech. And then he says, "You're you're doing this against me." And then this is what Ahimelech says. Verse 14, then Ahimelech says, "And who is faithful among your servants as David who's your son-in-law? 17:18 He's your son in law. Why would I think that he's conspiring conspiracy against you? He's the one who goes and does your battles on your behalf. How would I know that he's doing all these things that you say he is? Did I just begin to inquire for God for 17:32 him today? Far be it from me. Do not let the king impute or or accuse me of anything to this servant or anything of the household of my father. For your servant knows nothing at all of this whole matter. Verse 16, but the 17:48 king said, you shall surely die, Ahimelech, you and your father's household. And he goes ahead and kills everyone except one of his sons. Why? Was it based on facts? Was it based on the truth? 18:06 No, it was because of a suspicion that he had that David was against him, that he was conspiring against him with Ahimelech. And you can see how the enemy loves to paint pictures that are not true. And if we give it a place, 18:26 it will build a nest in our in our in our in our minds and our hearts as well. Must be very careful and vigilant to not let those birds of the air, those thoughts come and settle in. You might remember when Paul was preaching, one of the things that they 18:43 accused Paul of was when he went to the temple that he brought in Greeks. You're not supposed to bring Greeks inside the temple, the Jerusalem uh temple of uh in in Jerusalem. But that was the accuse that that's what they accused him of. And they said that 19:00 so that they could get all the people against Paul. But if you turn with me to Acts 21, turn with me to Acts 21. How did they come to know or why did they make that accusation? It says here verse 19:18 Acts 21:27, when the 7 days were over, the Jews from Asia upon seeing him in the temple began to stir up all the crowd and laid hands on him crying out, "Men of Israel, come to our aid. This is the man who preaches to all the men everywhere 19:35 against our people and the law and this place. Besides, he has even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place." Okay, how did you guys all come to this conclusion? Verse 29, 19:54 for they had previously seen Trophimus, the Ephesian, in the city with him and what? And they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple. They didn't know that as a fact. They just made an assumption, a speculation, 20:13 a suspicion. It's a very great danger. But it's good that the Lord does not want us to let these suspicions stay in our minds and build in us. It says in 2 Corinthians 20:31 chapter 10. 2 Corinthians chapter 10, verse two, verse verse three, "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war against the flesh." Verse four, 20:50 "For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses." What are these divine weapons that God has given us when these thoughts of suspicion and speculation come? It says 21:08 verse five, we are destroying what? Speculations, suspicions, all of these things we're destroying it, and every lofty thing that raises up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. So, 21:27 when I get these thought, and it's giving me a thought of suspicion, anger, bitterness, unforgiveness, I say, you know what? I'm not going to give in to it. I'm just going to put all that thought captive. I'm not going to entertain it. 21:43 Because if I entertain it, it's going to plant a seed and form a root, and it's going to defile me, and it's going to defile many. And it all started off with that seed of suspicion and speculation. Every thought captive to the obedience 22:05 of Christ. But when we look at the life of Jesus, Jesus was never doing anything out of haste. Nothing out of the pressure of circumstances or anybody's people's 22:23 influences. And you see that John in John chapter five, verse 30. John chapter five, verse 30. It says, I do nothing out of my own initiative. I don't do anything just because I want to do it. I wait to see what the Father tells me 22:41 to do, and then I do exactly as the Father tells me to do. I do it. Verse 30, I can do nothing. Anything that I do is not because I did it because of my own initiative. I waited for the Father. So, Jesus does nothing out of his own 23:00 initiative. It says in John chapter 8, he doesn't say anything. Anything that Jesus says also was not something that he'll do out of his own initiative. It says here verse 28. John 8:28. So, Jesus said, "When you lift the Son of Man, you will know that 23:17 I am he and I do nothing on my own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father has taught me." So, whatever I do, whatever I speak, I don't do whatever my my I don't say whatever I want to say. I don't do whatever I want to do. 23:37 I'm a man under authority. Whatever the Father tells me to do, I'll do. Whatever the Father tells me to say, I'll say. I'm not going to do anything in haste. At the wedding at Cana, when his mother tells him to go 23:54 and he tells the his mother tells him they've run out of wine. This is what he replies. When his mother comes to give him you know, "Jesus, we ran out of wine." There's They're in a panic. Jesus is not going to be in a panic 24:14 because his mom said something. It says here verse 4, "And Jesus said to her, 'Woman, what does this have to do with us? My hour has not come.'" But Jesus, your mom might get offended. That's okay. If my relatives get offended, it's okay. 24:33 If the people at the wedding hall get offended, that's okay. But I'm not going to do anything out of impulse. I'm not going to do anything in haste. I'm going to wait for the time that the Father has set for me. Again, in John chapter 7, his brothers 24:48 say yeah, I say, "Why don't you go to Judea?" Verse 5. Verse 6. John 17:6. So, Jesus said to his brothers, "My time is not yet here. I can't go to Judea yet. The Father 25:07 hasn't told me yet to go there. So, I'm going to wait. You go on ahead. You can go whenever you want. You don't have to wait for the Father to tell you to go. Your time is always opportune. That means you can do whatever you want, 25:22 whatever you want. But for me, it's not like that. I have to yield to my holy I have to yield to my Father. Whenever the Father tells me to go, I'll go. In John 11, it speaks about the time when Lazarus was sick 25:40 and about to die. And I often think about this. Jesus could have gone and healed him like he did many others. Why did he not go when he heard that Lazarus was sick? Jesus says, "I don't do anything 26:03 on my own initiative." So, that means the Father told him, "Jesus, you cannot go now." It says here, uh if you read with me verse three, John 11:3. So, the sisters sent word to him saying, "Lord, behold, the one you love is 26:22 sick." But when Jesus heard this, he said, "His sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified in it." Verse five. Now, Jesus loved Martha, her sister, and Lazarus. 26:40 Is I think it's one of the few places in scripture where he actually says that Jesus loved so and so by name. Now, Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, he heard So, when he heard that he was sick, what should the next sentence be? 26:59 He loves them. He heard that they were sick. What should the next sentence be? So, he went to go and heal Lazarus. That's what it should say in our minds. So, when he heard it that he was sick, he stayed there 2 days longer in the 27:13 place he was. And I could think about Mary and Martha seeing their brother sick to the point of death, telling their brother, "Brother, we told Jesus. And he's he should be coming." 27:35 And they look at him and they he's getting sicker and sicker and they're looking out the window and they're seeing, "Where's Jesus?" I kind of imagine what would have happened those days as they're waiting for Jesus. They know that Jesus loves them 27:48 tremendously. Why is he not showing up? And then Lazarus dies. And they're like, "We We told him that Jesus is coming." The Jews also And then Jesus finally shows up. 28:14 And what's going on in their minds? Jesus, if you had come here earlier, my brother would not have died. Verse 21, John 11:21, "Martha then said to Jesus, 'Lord, if you had been here, my brother would have not died.'" But what was What were they saying 28:33 thinking in the What was the thoughts probably going through their mind? Jesus, why? You had the opportunity. We told you that he was sick. Why didn't you come? I can't understand. It does not make sense why you did not come. You loved 28:49 us. And then Mary comes again and she says the same thing in verse 32. Lord, if you had been here, my brother would have not died. Why? And verse 20 36 35, Jesus wept. 29:12 36, so the Jews were saying, "See how much he loved him." If you loved him so much, why didn't he come? Verse 37, but some of them said, "Could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind have kept this man from dying?" 29:33 All of this would have been solved if Jesus came on time and healed healed him. But because he yielded to the Father and said, "Father, you told me to stay and wait here. I'm going to wait." Even though people are going to 29:55 misunderstand him for why he was late, Mary, Martha, the ones who loved him the most or he loved, those he loved would misunderstand him. The Jews would misunderstand him. But he was willing to go through all 30:12 that misunderstanding to yield to his Father's will. Very often we act in haste because we don't want to we don't want to hurt somebody's feelings or we want to please somebody, so we do it in haste. Oh, what will they say? Okay, 30:30 let me do it in haste. We act out of impulse. But Jesus was not like that. He was okay to offend anybody, willing to disappoint anybody in order to please the Father and not act in haste. Always waiting for the Father's perfect 30:46 hour. But for us who have possibly failed in this area, who've acted, we've said something in 31:06 haste, we acted in haste. Is there any hope for us? I thank the Lord that he gives us hope. Even if we've been those who have been hasty in doing things, making decisions in haste. Up to today, we can set matters quickly. 31:25 It says in in Luke chapter 12:58 and in uh Matthew 5:5 5:25, it says, "When when somebody has something against you, quickly go and reconcile with them before they go to the judge. You run and go and reconcile with them." 31:43 What does What does that mean? When you know you've hurt somebody, even today, maybe you said something in haste, maybe like Peter your sword went and cut off the year. What we can do today is go and set that matter right quickly. Just as quickly as 32:01 we used the sword, we can quickly go and run. Brother, sister, I'm sorry. I spoke in haste. I said that hurtful word. Please forgive me. I want to reconcile these things. I don't want it to go where I'm unforgiving you I'm not forgiving you. 32:20 I hold a bitterness, a grudge against you. I've got to set that matter quickly. I love how it says in Luke 22, after uh Peter cut off his year, Jesus did not wait. 32:42 He kept He came to help solve the problem. He cut the ear. And I say I like like he's Lord, help me to make things right again. Yeah, I cut off somebody's ear, Lord. Help me make it right again. And I love how Jesus 32:59 Peter cut off his ear, but verse 51, but Jesus answered and said, "Stop. No more of this." And he touched his ear and healed him. Who cut off the ear? Was it Jesus? No, it was Peter. Who did the healing? Jesus did. 33:18 And I love that. That even for the mistakes I've made, the Lord is ready to come and heal situations like that. Lord, I made a mess. I cut off the ear. It was all my fault, Lord. It wasn't your fault. But the Lord comes in situations that 33:34 are beyond our control, things that we can't and he comes and brings healing there. I say, "Lord, do that for us. Each one of us who've made mistakes in the past, Lord, you come and heal." And it's really wonderful that Peter 33:53 quotes this verse that we saw in the beginning. "He who believes in him will not be in haste." In 1 Peter, this this same Peter who cut off the ear in haste 34:10 quotes this verse in his letter. Turn with me to 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 4. "And coming to him as a living stone, which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God." Why was he so precious? 34:28 Because he was a cornerstone that would not shake. He would not do things in haste. He was a cornerstone that would stay there. And he's saying, "Not only is Jesus a cornerstone, you also." Who's he talking about? Each one in his church. 34:47 He's talking about as living stones. He's the chief cornerstone, but each one of us God has called us to be living stones. The cornerstone does nothing in haste. What will all the living stones also do? They also will not be in haste. 35:04 They will always be yielding to the Holy Spirit and are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Verse 6, "For this is contained in the scripture, 35:22 behold, I lay in Zion a cornerstone, a precious cornerstone. He who believes in him will not be disappointed or not be in haste, not in a hurry. This precious value then is for you who believe, but those who disbelieve, what 35:39 is it going to be the evidence of those who disbelieve? The stone which the builders rejected became the very cornerstone, a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. Who are the ones who will be offended? The ones who do not believe in this 35:55 cornerstone who was never in haste. And so this morning also, brother, sister, young person, let us follow Jesus, Jesus who was never in haste with his words like that sword that would cut people, never in haste to do something because of the pressure or 36:15 because of relatives or because of any circumstance. He always was yielding to the Holy Spirit and his father to do his will. God is seeking to build a church like that with living stones that are also like that, yielded 36:30 completely to the Holy Spirit. Their tongue yielded to the spirit. Their eyes, their ears, everything yielded to the Holy Spirit who take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. The Lord is building that church in 36:43 these days. The Lord wants each one of us to be faithful to be a living stone that's yielded and not in haste because we believe in him. May the Lord do it in us. Amen.
