How many have ever been put on hold? How many have ever gotten mad when you were on hold? How many have hung up? This sermon is about what to do when God puts you on hold. 2 Chronicles 7:14 is part of a conversation that God is having with Solomon. And we know Solomon is the one who asked for and was given wisdom from God. God is outlining His requirements to Solomon for our blessings, humility, prayer, devotion and repentance. We know that we need to humble ourselves before we go before God Almighty with any and everything. We ought to show some humility, realizing that God made us everything that we are. The Bible records in the Gospel according to John that all things were made by Him and without Him, was not anything made that was made. And that even means that there would be no us if He hadn’t made us. There would be no blood running warm in our veins if He didn’t put it there. But some of us have a tendency, an audacity even to get up on our high horses every now and then, get to big for our britches, talking about we have this and we have that. We have essentially gotten too high for God to hear our cry. And He won’t hear us because we’re not humbling ourselves before the Master. So, being the intelligent people that we are, we’ve discovered and come to the conclusion that we need to pray. A prayer life is an important element in our relationship with God. When we pray we can talk to God, we can fellowship with God, we can turn our problems over to God, we can ask God for help in our times of need, and we can praise God for all that He’s doing in our lives. And you know what, if we stay down on our knees long enough, God can and will talk back to us. But some of us approach prayer like it’s a race. We pray as fast as we can pray and then we’re off to do other things as we give most of our time and effort to those things that do not pertain to God. We don’t spend any quality time with God. There was a time when all people could do was sit around reading from the Bible, praying, singing, and praising God. They would do it in their homes as well as in the church. But nowadays, even when we’re home, our head is stuck so far into the television or our ear pushed up against the telephone so hard that we don’t have time to read anymore. We don’t spend the same kind of quality time that we used to spend with our kids, teaching them that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. A lot of our older church members grew up knowing how to pray, because they had prayer in the home. Things have come a long way, but I’m here to tell you today that if you don’t have a quality prayer life, God will not hear your cry. He will not come through when you want Him to. Then you wonder and have doubts When God Places You On Hold.
Some people are put on hold. Moses was on hold for forty years on the backside of the desert, before God spoke at the burning bush. David was chased by Saul for 16 years in the wilderness, before he was crowned King of Judah. Jesus let Lazarus die, and then waited before showing up at the cemetery. He kept Mary and Martha waiting for 4 days. Some people’s calls get through immediately. Jairus came to beg for the life of his daughter, Jesus went with him immediately. The nobleman came to beg for the life of his sick son, Jesus healed him immediately. The man who was lame 37 years at the Pool of Bethesda, immediately walked. So why does God put us on hold? You are on hold because God is testing your character. “My brethren count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience” (James 1:2, 3). We are to hold on by faith, which means we bring honor to God; but it also means we develop stronger faith in Him. WHY? We are on hold to make us more like Jesus. You are on hold because God is purifying your motives. Sometimes we are put on hold because God wants to check the motives of why we ask, or why we work. In the NIV James says, “When you ask you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures” (James 4:3 NIV). You are on hold because God is focusing your faith. There are many times when we lose our focus. It may be because of fear, impatience or doubts. Mary and Martha sent a message to tell Jesus that their brother Lazarus was sick. The sisters expected Jesus to heal from a distance, but He did nothing for 2 days. Then Jesus took approximately 2 days to get to Bethany. Lazarus had been dead for 4 days. In the meanwhile, Mary and Martha both kept saying to one another, “Lord, if thou hast been here, my brother had not died” (said by Martha, John 11:21 & Mary, John 11:32). Mary and Martha doubted the Lord could raise him from the dead. They were weeping because Lazarus died, and they lost their faith in Jesus as the miracle worker. They had more faith in death, than they had in Jesus who said, “I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me though he were dead, yet shall he live” (John 11:25). NIV puts it like this: “But when you ask, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like the waves of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think that he will receive anything from the LORD” (James 1:6, 7 NIV). You may be on hold because God may be dealing with unconfessed sin. Sometimes when we do not hear from God, it’s because of sin in our life. Isaiah says, “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear” (Isaiah 59:1, 2). The psalmist also said, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the LORD will not hear me” (Psalm 66:18). The blind man said, “The LORD heareth not sinners” (John 9:31). Remember, God forgives both known and unknown sin(s). You may be on hold because God may be dealing with a broken relationship. Sometimes God does not hear us, nor does He communicate with us because we have sin in our life that has caused broken relationships, or we have allowed broken relationships. “Whosoever is angry with his brother without cause shall be in danger of the judgment: whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, thy fool shall be in danger of hell fire. Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest thy brother have aught against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then, offer thy gift” (Matthew 5:22-24). Sometimes God has you on hold because you have problems brother to brother, spouse to spouse, parent to child, or child to parent. If you are on hold because of broken relationships: Pray for forgiveness. “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors” (Matthew 6:12). If you have wronged a fellow Christian, go and make it right. If a fellow Christian has wronged you, you have “aught” in your heart toward a brother.” You must go and make it right. “Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother (Matthew 18:15). If they will not hear you, take someone with you. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established” (Matthew 18:16). Make it a church matter. “If he shall neglect to hear him, tell it to the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican” (Matthew 18:17). You may be on hold because of spiritual warfare. The Bible tells us that sometimes when God does not answer our requests; it is because there is satanic opposition. Daniel prayed for an answer from God but didn’t get it for 21 days, even though he fasted. “I set my face unto the LORD God to seek thy prayer and supplication with fasting, and sackcloth and ashes” (Daniel 9:3). “I Daniel was mourning three full weeks. I ate no pleasant bread, neither came meat nor wine in my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all, until three whole weeks were fulfilled” (Daniel 10:2, 3). Daniel did not get an answer for 3 weeks until Michael came to him. “Fear not, Daniel; for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words, but the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days; . . . now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days” (Daniel 10:12-14).
I know we always say that He may not come when you want Him, but He’ll be there right on time; and YES He is an on time God; but I’m here to tell you that if you get right with God and get your prayer life on the right track, God will not only come on time, but He’ll come when you want Him to come. And wouldn’t it be nice for once, if God would just come at the sound of your voice and you didn’t have to sit back and wait on Him? Wouldn’t it be nice if you could just speak and your healing just showed up? Wouldn’t it be a powerful thing if you could just call out His name and money just showed up at your doorstep? Well it can start happening for you just like that if you get right with God. If you don’t believe me ask Daniel when he was in the Lion’s den. Daniel was thrown into the Lion’s den at feeding time, and I’m here to tell you that he needed God to show up right then and right there. He didn’t have time to wait. But if his prayer life had not been right, he would not have known how to call on the Lord, and there could have been a whole different ending to his story. You can also ask Daniel’s friends Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. The king made the fiery furnace seven times hotter than normal, even so hot that it was killing servants of the king who were getting too close to it from the outside. I don’t think those 3 Hebrew boys had time to wait on the Lord. But they prayed and God showed up in an instant. And the fact is, not only did He show up and keep them safe from hurt, harm, and danger, but He showed up and spent some time with them; walking around in the fiery furnace. Can’t you hear the king saying,” I know we only threw 3 men, tied up, into this fiery furnace, but now there are 4 men, walking around loose, and the fourth one looks like the Son of God.” Oh can’t you hear him proclaiming how God showed up right then and right there and heard their cry? He didn’t show up because they were living raggedy and calling themselves children of God. But God showed up because they were faithful to Him. They had a relationship with Him by having a good prayer life. And how many of you know today that when God shows up, He’ll always show out? For the Bible says that not 1 hair was singed upon their head. Have I got a witness?
We have to learn that we need to turn our lives around. It seems like so many Christians turn their lives over to Jesus, but then end up backsliding and falling right back into sin. And the sad part is that they backslide right in the church, they reach a point where they almost feel that it’s okay to do those sinful things in the church. They act like nobody should question their sinful ways. But let me tell you something, if you think you can keep on playing church and go to heaven, you’re going to be in for a rude awakening. Because God knows your heart. It doesn’t matter what man sees or doesn’t see you doing, God sees it all. And it’s by your works that you’ll be judged. James wrote that faith without works is dead. Brice says; Works without faith is a show, and faith without works is a shame. And there are 2 ways to look at that. 1 way is that if you have faith in God, but are not doing anything to build and lift up His kingdom, then your faith has no meaning because you are not doing any works to justify and prove your faith. The second way to look at this passage is from the perspective that even if you believe in God and believe in Jesus Christ, that He died and rose from the dead but you keep on living a life full of sin, you keep working in iniquity, then your faith my brother, my sister has no merit. It is dead, because you’re living outside of the will of God. You have no good works by which God can judge you. Have I got a witness? So it’s up to us to get right with God and to turn our lives around. And once we’ve done all that God requires of us, the Bible says that then He will hear from heaven. When God Places You On Hold!
So when we pray, our prayers are sent up to heaven. We should want for our prayers to be answered by and listened to by God. But our prayers are not sent directly to God. They don’t leave our mouth and go directly to His ear. You’re sitting there looking at me sideways so allow me to explain. If they did that, went directly from our mouths to God’s ear, then there would be no need for a mediator between God and us. There would have been no need for Jesus to come down here and hang on the cross for our sins. Jesus said in John 14 “that I am the way the truth and the light. No man cometh unto the Father but by me?” He let us know that He is the key that we must use to get our prayers heard by God. That’s why we end our prayers in Jesus’ name. Because we want there to be something attached to our prayer that gets them noticed in heaven. Jesus said that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give it to you. So Jesus is the key. That’s why there was over 400 years of silence from God between the Book of Malachi and the arrival of the voice of the One crying out in the wilderness. There was no key. God had stopped listening to man because man had stopped living right. Man had stopped talking and communicating with God. Man, even the children of God, had shut off the prayer line and taken up the ways of the wicked. When God Places You On Hold!
So what do we do when God places us on hold? Hang in there…don’t hang up. Too often we are impatient when a business puts us on hold, we just hang up. Remember the words of Scripture, “Faithful is He that calleth you who also will do it” (I Thess. 5:24). Find out why you are on hold. God may have you on hold for 1 of the above reasons. If God has you on hold, wait patiently for what He has for you. Know what happens when you take your eyes off God. There is usually a 4-step down from fellowship with God.
(1) Doubt causes us to look away from God.
(2) We get discouraged with God?
(3) We deny what God has done in the past.
(4) We turn away from God.
When you are on hold, trust the sovereign plan of God in your life. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. Whereas the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8, 9).
But I thank God for Jesus Christ because He came down through 42 generations to serve as the key. Isaiah prophesied in the 22nd Chapter, that the key of the house of David would fall upon the shoulders of the Lord, and if He should open the door, no man would be able to make the door shut. Likewise, if He should find it necessary to shut the door, no man would be able to open it back up. Have I got a witness? I don’t know about you today, but I want the right to use that heavenly key. Because if you have the right to use that key, you can open up the windows and doors in the Kingdom of Heaven. Ain’t God alright? I can hear God telling Malachi, “that I will open up the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that you will not have room enough to receive.” And even though He was talking about paying your tithes and offering, you ought to know that if you grab a hold of a key named Jesus, your blessing is always going to come on through. Can I get a witness? For I heard one gospel writer tell the story about a woman who had an issue of blood. And she had gone from doctor to doctor looking for the key that would get her healed of her affliction. Am I right about it? But all of a sudden after the 12 long years that she had been looking for the key, she heard about a key called Jesus that was nearby teaching the Word of God. And how many of you know today that sometimes the key will show up when you least expect Him to show up. The Bible tells me that this woman left her home looking for the key. And I must stop and tell you, that this woman must have had great faith in the Lord. Because when she got there to where the key was, there was a whole multitude of folk. And there was not a way for her to get through the crowd. But the Bible goes on to tell me that despite the obstacles in her way, despite the press that wouldn’t let her get through, despite all of the doctors who told her that there was no cure, despite all of the trouble she had been through, she knew for herself, down in her own heart that if she could get through to the key she would be made whole again. So the Bible tells me that this woman fought her way through the press, she fought her way through the obstacles, she fought her way through her sins, and found Jesus on the other side. Ain’t God alright? She didn’t need to have a little talk with Jesus. She didn’t need to tell Him all about her troubles. She didn’t need to ask Him to remove her affliction. All she had to do, ALL SHE HAD TO DO is grab hold of the key. Yes she did. And when she grabbed hold of Him, grabbed hold of the key, God heard her cry. God saw her affliction. God had mercy on her soul. Ain’t God alright. And don’t you know today that just like He heard the cry of this woman with the issue of blood, just like He heard the cry of Daniel in the Lion’s den, just like He heard Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego, if you live right, and get hold of the key, God will hear your cry and say servant, servant, servant, well done servant. God will take you off of hold and answer your call. When God places us on hold, the thing we have to realize is that ALL things are done in His time and not ours. We live in a microwave society where we want what we want and we want it right now. It doesn't work like that. God is the creator of time and is not bound by time. God walks around time, from beginning to end and from end to beginning and knows our ending even before our beginning. God picks up, manipulates and places time where He sees fit and not to fit us. When it seems like we've been placed on hold for years is but a day to Him. All things work for the good of those who love Christ, so look at time as a season of preparation, a time to get your house in order for what God is about to ordain in our lives. Be not constricted by time but move freely within it knowing that the harvest is full but the laborers are few and once God finishes qualifying you, then you will be put to work in the vineyard to reap the sweet rewards that He and He alone has for you. No matter how long God places you on hold, what He has for you is for you and there's nothing anyone or thing can do about it. What do you do when God places you on hold? Why does God place us on hold? Could it be to test our faith, could it be to build our character, could it be that He's dealing with some un-confessed sin in our lives? Whatever the reason, who are we to question God. Moses waited 40 years until God spoke from the burning bush. David was chased by Saul for 16 years before he became king. Job was placed on hold purposely to let Satan have his way. Whatever the reason, it's good enough because it’s God. He said in His Word that His grace is sufficient, so hold on and wait. A dream deferred, a dream delayed but still a dream to come to fruition because of our faith in Him. What do you do when you've done all you can....you STAND! Stand and be of good courage. God did not bring you this far to leave you alone. He will never leave nor forsake you. He said in His Word, "lo, I am with you always, even until the end of time." So if we believe this, we believe that God will answer our call, our prayers and not leave us on hold for too long. Those things we want and we think we need, will be supplied in God's time, not ours. Some things we are not ready for or not able to handle so God places us on hold until He is finished preparing us for the blessings that we are about to step into. God is not slack concerning His promises to us and is not a man that He could lie.
Being on hold is better than being without. Prepare yourself by studying, being humble and in devotion, repenting and praying for what God is about to do in your life so you can step boldly into it so when God does answer, you'll be ready.
That’s why Jesus, died, one Friday morning on Calvary’s Cross. But early on Sunday morning don’t you know He got up with all power in His hands to answer our call.
