Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: You're listening to a podcast by Lance Lambert Ministries. For more information on this ministry, visit lancelambert.org dot how can we be sensitive to what the Lord is doing and the opportunities he is giving us? In this episode, Lance gives examples of several people in the Bible who were sensitive to the Lord's calling and were not asleep when the hour of opportunity came. Let's listen.
[00:00:30] Speaker B: Now. I have a very unusual proverb upon which I wish to speak this morning, and it is found in proverbs chapter ten and verse five.
But I found it in the living Bible.
This is how it is rendered in the living Bible.
A wise youth makes hay while the sun shines, but what a shame to see a lad who sleeps away his hour of opportunity.
A wise youth makes hay while the sun shines, but what a shame to see a lad who sleeps away his hour of opportunity.
To all of us there come divine opportunities.
There is not a single Christian to whom, at some point in their life, there does not come a God given opportunity.
Much of the emphasis on the fear of the Lord being the beginning of wisdom in the scriptures is because it is very easy to sleep away during our time or our day of opportunity.
The fear of the Lord is the only, only quality, if you like, that makes a person sensitive to the Lord. Now, most of us are not sensitive to the Lord. What is the fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom? As you know this book of proverbs, you will find it not once, but again and again and again through these collections of proverbs, different matters related to the fear of the Lord. But this particular statement. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. That comes many, many times.
Now. What is the fear of the Lord? It is not a cringing, heavy, inhibited kind of fear or inhibiting kind of fear, the kind of fear that terrifies us, that puts us into a straitjacket, that puts us into a form of bondage, that somehow or other makes us afraid to take any step at all for the Lord. That's not the fear of the Lord. Indeed, the fear of the Lord will make us take steps. That's exactly what it does. The very fear of the Lord will mean that when an opportunity comes, we're not only sensitive to it, but we take it by faith. The fear of the law makes us alive. To the Lord. It's a fountain of life to those who find it.
In other words, it brings all the life giving qualities of our Lord to us continually. The fear of the Lord is really, I suppose, best described as a loving reverence for him. It's more than a reverence, because I suppose you could have a reverence for somebody and not love them. But it is a reverence and a respect and a sensitivity born out of devotion.
Because you love that person, you are careful the way you behave. You are careful in what you do, you love them. And because of the respect that has come out of your love and devotion to them, you are careful.
You're sensitive to their feelings, sensitive to their outlook, sensitive to the things that make them happy or make them sad. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. There could be no greater quality for anyone to have than that kind of fear which makes us sensitive to our Lord.
It's born out of a love and a devotion.
And means that somehow or other, we're very sensitive to the things that upset him and grieve him. And very, very sensitive to the things that make him joyful and glad.
It's so easy, I find, for us believers to be like tanks.
All religion is tank like.
When it is just a matter of formalism, when it is just a matter of an outward creed, when it is a matter of just ritual and ceremonies and regulations and a certain set of truths. It can just become. We can just become like tanks. And most of us, if the spirit of God is not at work in our lives. Will automatically fall back upon a kind of something that is just outward, that is formal. That is a kind of almost institutional, institutional format. Now, it is amazing that sometimes some of these folks. Who speak most about freedom. Have now themselves got into an institution.
You must do certain things. You must stand up at the prescribed time. Or sit down at the prescribed time. Or, you know, the kind thing. Or some of these gatherings, which are completely under the government of the law. Always open at the same time and end at the same time, if you know what I mean. And the same person is always led to close the meeting. Some of you will know exactly what I'm talking about.
We wait for brother so and so to close the meeting dead on. 12:00.
Well, that kind of. It's just as much an institution, just as much a ritual as anything else. Only the spirit of God can keep us flexible, keep us moving, keep us alive. And that's really why this matter of the fear of the Lord is so important.
It is important because it seems to me that it is much easier for us to get preconceptions.
As to what we believe the Lord will do or will not do. And when any particular set of circumstances arise or any situation comes well, we've got it off path.
We know this is what will happen. This is how it should happen. And we're often very, very surprised, because if we're really open to the law, we find that he does things which continually confuse us. We've got our little set patterns, our little conceptions, and therefore, we've either got to say the things of the devil, which many do, or we've got to be left in a state of confusion, because our little conceptions and patterns somehow just the law doesn't seem to have adhered to it too well, you see. In other words, it's much easier to be like a tank, just to rumble forward on a definite line, neither moving this way or that. If you do, you trample everything underfoot or under the tracks wherever you go. Now, that's, I think, what this little proverb is all about.
It is, of course, the matter of.
It speaks, you will see, about harvest. In the old version, it reads like, he that gathereth in summer is a wise son, but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that acts shamefully or causeth shame.
That's how it reads in the older it's a matter of harvest, a matter of opportunity. Now, it is not just a matter of actual harvest. The proverb is getting at the root of something in all our lives, which is this, that there comes to every one of us sometime or another. There comes a point where we can gather hay, or if you like, there comes the point of harvest. We may wait long for it. But surely, as I stand here, there comes God's day of. Of opportunity for you.
And in that day of opportunity, oh, what a shame if we're asleep.
Totally insensitive to what the Lord is seeking to do. I began to think of so many people in the scripture who illustrated positively this little proverb.
I was very surprised to find that we would be here all day if we were to really go through all the cases of those to whom there came a God given opportunity. And at that point they were not asleep.
I just thought of one or two anyway, which you can turn to. I thought, for instance, in judges and chapter six and verse eleven, and the angel of the Lord came and sat under the oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash the Abi Ezra, and his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him and said unto him, the lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour. And Gideon said unto him, o my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then is all this befallen us? And where are all his wondrous works, which our fathers told us of, saying, did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? But now the Lord hath cast us off and delivered us into the hand of Midian. And the Lord looked upon him and said, go in this thy might and save Israel from the hand of Midian. Have not I sent thee?
And he said unto him, o Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house. And the Lord said unto him, surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man. And he said unto him, if now I have found favour in thy sight, then show me a sign that it is thou that talkest with me. Depart not hence, I pray thee, until I come unto thee, and bring forth my present and lay it before thee. And he said, I will tarry until thou come again.
Now, isn't this an interesting illustration of this proverb?
First of all, Gideon was not asleep. I can well believe that many of us would be fast asleep in such conditions. Oh, how depressing they are. There's nothing like depression to give you a good sleep.
Have you noticed that when you're deeply depressed, you just feel that you want to close your eyes and forget about everything? And, you know, many of us become so downcast in times of depression, it's only natural. Everything's against us. The Lord appears to have forsaken his people. The Midianites are in control everywhere. On every side we see the inroads of Satan and we feel everything. All we see is in dark colors. It seems all to be deterioration, decline, backsliding, so on and so on. Then we get very, very down. Then we hear more news. And we hear more news and we hear more news. We hear about the oppression of the people of God and the power of the enemy, and how the enemy is just simply making the people of God slaves on every side. Oh, it's a time to sleep.
What can this young man do?
Can he do anything?
No, he can do nothing without God.
But Gideon was not asleep.
A wise youth makes hay while the sun shines. The sun wasn't exactly shining at that point, but it evidently had at one point, because it says he was beating out wheat in the wine press, not the normal place to beat out wheat.
But he was not only alive, he was shrewd.
So he got the wheat into a place where someone, the even so called friends, couldn't see what he was up to. And he was beating out the wheat in the wine press. He was not asleep. That's the first thing. Secondly, he was doing something for the salvation of his family. That's the second thing. He wasn't just thinking about himself. I suppose Gideon must have had other brothers. There are other men folk in the family. But it was Gideon, evidently, who was up and about things, doing something for others.
Then came his moment of opportunity.
The Lord, the angel of the Lord, appeared to him and said unto him, the Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour. And Gideon said unto him, o my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then is all this befallen us?
And where are all his wondrous works, which our fathers told us of saying, did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? But now the Lord hath cast us off and delivered us into the hand of Midian. And the Lord looked upon him and said, go in this thy might. Now, what is this thy might? I think it is two things. First of all, Gideon had no big ideas about himself when his moment of opportunity came. He was quite clear about himself.
Furthermore, he was quite clear about the situation. He hadn't got those wonderful, glamorous spectacles. That some believers think you ought to wear. And you ought to say that the situation is marvelous and wonderful when it isn't.
He had seen the reality of the situation. He knew the reality concerning himself. He was the smallest. He was nothing. Now, it is very beautifully put. And the Lord looked upon him. Why does the Lord need to look upon him?
I mean, the Lord must surely have looked upon him before when he said to him, the Lord is with thee, thou mighty man. But it says expressly, the Lord looked upon him and said, go in this thy might. Now, the first thing is, he knew the situation. He knew that he was nothing. The second thing is that in this thy might was the Lord being with him, the law being upon him, the law being in him, the Lord being with him. That was his might. Here was his day of opportunity, and he took it. And I love the way he took it. There's nothing brash or arrogant or sort of commercial about Gideon's way of taking it. He says, lord, I want to be 100% sure that this is right. Now, if you'll just wait while I go and fetch a few things.
And the Lord, with great humor, says, all right, all right. Go on. Go. I'll be here when you come back. And when he comes back, he came back with a little gift. And then an offering, a meal offering.
Which again, shows his fear of the Lord. And then he says to the Lord about the two signs. In other words, here's a man who wants to be absolutely certain. That he's not dreaming out something. That he's not kidding himself, that he's not deceiving himself. But he is 100% sure.
We have not got here a lad who has slept away his hour of opportunity.
Here is of a young man who is alive to God. Now we have another case jumping over quite a few others. But we go over to one Samuel. And chapter 16 and verse six. And it came to pass when they were come, that is, the sons of Jesse. That Samuel looked on Eliab and said, surely the Lord's anointed is before him. But the Lord said unto Samuel. Look not on his countenance or on his height or of his stature. Because I've rejected him.
For the Lord seeth not as man seeth. For man looketh on the outward appearance. But the Lord looketh on the heart. Then Jesse called Abinada and said. And made him pass before Samuel. He said, neither hath the Lord chosen this.
Then Jesse made Shama to pass by. And he said, neither hath the Lord chosen this.
And Jesse made seven of his sons to pass before Samuel. And Samuel said unto Jesse, the Lord hath not chosen these. And Samuel said unto Jesse, are here all thy children? And he said, there remains yet the youngest.
Hold. He's keeping the sheep. Samuel said unto Jesse, send and fetch him. For we will not sit down till he come hither. And he went and brought him in. Now he was ruddy and withal of a beautiful countenance goodly to look upon. And the Lord said, arise. Anoint him, for this is he. Then Samuel took the horn of oil. And anointed him in the midst of his brethren. And the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward.
So Samuel rose up and went to Ramah. Now here we have another marvelous illustration of this proverb. What a shame to see a lad who sleeps away his hour of opportunity.
David did not sleep away his hour of opportunity.
This boy was obviously not only the youngest of the family. It appears that he was the cheekiest of the family. And had got a name with the rest of his brothers and his parents for being a bit of a lad.
And we get that in the next chapter 17. You remember when one of his brothers says, I know what you hear.
You know in them the living Bible puts it, you cocky brat, which has upset any number of people. But I think that it is probably nearer than Hebrew than anything else.
You see, the fact is that David was evidently a handful in one way. But he was the youngest of the family. Maybe he was spoilt by his old mother and father, we don't know. But the rest of the brothers, they loved him, but they never took any notice of what David had to say. Oh, that's David.
David said so and said, oh, has he?
David's done this? Oh, there's always David. But David was quite a normal lad.
But there was one thing about David that stands out beyond everything else, and that is he did not sleep away his hour of opportunity. If the old rabbinical tradition that psalm 23 was written when he was a boy, he had some experience.
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in pastures, green pastures and leadeth me beside the still waters and so on and so forth. This lad had got some real experience of the Lord and he got it in the quiet routine of shepherding sheep.
He was looked upon as the youngest, the most insignificant, the most sort of, in one sense the least valuable of the seven brothers in the Jesse family.
But he got his experience of the Lord. And when it came in the next chapter to Goliath, all that experience comes out into the open and he says to the king, verse 30 417, thy servant was keeping his father's sheep. And when they came out a lion or a bear and took a lamb out of the flock. And I went out after him and smote him and delivered it out of his mouth. And when he rose against me, I caught him by his beard and smote him and slew him. Thy servant smote both the lion and the bear and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them. Seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God.
David had got some experience. He was not asleep.
And when his hour of opportunity came, he took it. I wonder what happened when whoever was sent out to fetch David and bring him what David's reaction was, if he was, or tended to be rather cheeky, I could well believe that he might have said, well, I can't leave the sheep just to come back.
What's so important this time that we should come back to the home?
But he did not sleep away his hour of opportunity. He came. Now, there are many others in scripture like this. We jump over many, many pages of the word. Two chronicles and 29.
I dont suppose we can call Hezekiah a lad. But Hezekiah began to reign when he was five and 20 years old, and he reigned nine and 20 years in Jerusalem. And it says he did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that David, his father, had done. Now, this man had a most evil father, Ahab, a most evil father.
And yet, when his hour of opportunity came, he was not asleep. How much easier it would have been to have just gone along with his father's policies, with his father's cabinet, with his father's outlook on things foreign upon his father's religious policy and all the rest of it. It was utterly evil. But when his hour of opportunity came, Hezekiah was not asleep. He made hay whilst the sun shone.
And we find that in this story of chronicles.
This is one of the great high peaks of the whole story, story of Hezekiah. If you turn over a few pages to chapter 34, we read even more remarkably. Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign. And he reigned 31 years and did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord. In the 8th year of his reign, that is, when he was 16, he began to seek after the God of David, his father. And in the 12th year, year, that is, when he was 20, he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places. Here is a young lad, eight years of age when he comes to the throne, 16 years of age when he starts to really seek the Lord, that is, to really study the word of God and to find out what God had really said. And he was 20 when the great reformation began. Here's another young man that did not sleep when his hour of opportunity came.
Even more remarkable here. His father and grandfather were the most evil of all the kings of Judah, Manasseh and ammon. There are no two kings in the whole history of the kings of Judah that were more diabolically evil than these two men. And yet, at eight years of age, this boy came to the throne with that kind of background, a whole family tradition, a kind of entrenchment in depravity and evil. And in spite of it all he goes through, he did not sleep through his hour of opportunity. Oh, we could go on. And we could go on. Of course, not all are young. We don't know how old Isaiah was when he was in the temple in the year that king Isaiah died. Was he a young man? Rabbinical tradition says he was in his early twenties when he was in the temple in the year that King Isaiah died. He could have been anywhere else. But he was in the temple when his hour of opportunity came. And he saw the Lord high and lifted up his twain, filling the temple. Moses, of course, was 80 when he saw the Lord in the thorn bush. But I suppose that in those days was middle aged, for he lived to be at least 120.
It was again some hour of opportunity. But if you turn over to Matthew and I'm sorry. Mark, chapter one, verse 16.
And passing along by the sea of Galilee, Jesus saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net in the sea. For they were fishers. And Jesus said unto them, come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.
Here were these two. And later on, another two. John and James, his brother. And they were fishing.
And there came their hour of opportunity. I wonder if those men were to think of it in our surely it must have come back to them. Most of us think of the day the Lord met us or the day the Lord spoke to us in a more than usually clear way. Oh, just think, when they looked back and they thought, you know, we could have so easily missed our hour of opportunity. Jesus went by along the beach, and we were so busy. Some of them were fishing, and the others were mending their nets. We were so busy. And do you know what he said to us? He just said, follow me. Two words. That's all he said, follow me. And, you know, it was our hour of opportunity. We left everything. The scripture actually says quite clearly that they left everything and got up and followed him. It was their hour of opportunity. And in that moment, they were not asleep. Now, you don't have to be asleep to have your eyes shut. Many have developed a marvelous capacity. For keeping their eyes open when they're asleep. Especially in meetings.
You do not have to be asleep lying, as it were, flat on your bed with your eyes shut. You can be asleep and walking around asleep and doing your job, asleep to the Lord. And there comes an hour of opportunity when the Lord says, follow me. Sometimes we expect a sermon on the mount. We delivered in tremendous power with a final peroration. That sort of brings everything to a climax and a challenge. And then we think, then I shall say, yes, Lord.
Sometimes the Lord comes to us when we're beating out wheat in a wine press. Sometimes the Lord comes to us when we're keeping sheep in some obscure little valley in the hill. Sometimes the Lord comes to us when we're fishing or mending the nets. Generally always at a time when we least expect it. Or when we're most involved. And when it's most hard to listen. And sometimes the Lord only uses a few words, a minimum of words. Follow me.
It is so easy not to hear, to have slept through our hour of opportunity.
When that happens, its a tragedy.
Well, I think I've said enough this morning to illustrate at least this proverb.
I think of the little lad with the five loaves and two fishes as a final example. An illustration of this proverbial just a little lad, probably five, six, seven years of age, with his packed lunch with him.
What an hour of opportunity, that little lad. The story is forever in the gospel.
You know, all he had to do when Andrew came to him or one of the disciples came to him and said, can we have your lunch? Was to say no.
That's all he had to do.
I know many christians that the Lord has come to and said, can I have this? And have said no.
And as far as the gospel is concerned, they are out of it.
Saved, but out of the work of the law.
You only have to say no, you've slept through your hour of opportunity. That little boy surrendered his five loaves and two fish and they were taken and placed into the hands of our Lord and they became the means of a whole multitude being fed. He did not sleep through his hour of opportunity.
May the Lord help us.
It is still day.
The night comes when no man can work.
We are in days of the moving of the spirit of God.
Some people speak so much about the excesses and the dark side of things in all the rest. I don't believe there's ever been an ending time in history, any movement of the spirit of God without attendant excesses and counterfeit. But we are living in the days of latter reign.
We shall see more of it. It is amazing to me that people can pray and pray and pray for the Lord to work, and then when he works they spend the rest of the time disproving that it was the Lord.
It has been the same in every single time in the history of the church. May we not sleep through our hour of opportunity. If the Lord is passing by you today, take the opportunity.
If the Lord is speaking to you today, listen to his voice.
If the Lord is, as it were, pouring out his spirit, see that you know something of that yourself.
Don't sleep through the hour of your opportunity, or there will come the night when no man can work and you will wake up too late.
You will seek to cram within hours experience of the Lord and preparation for those days which can only come through years of following him.
And it cannot be done.
May the Lord help us now, dear Lord, we pray that thou wilt write thy word upon our hearts. Thou knowest every one of us, Lord. And thou knowest that to every single life. Here there come such opportunities given by thee. Lord, wilt thou work? We pray and work powerfully in all our lives so that when that hour of opportunity comes to us we are not asleep, nor dull, nor as it were, heavy, but alive and sensitive to thee. And we ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
[00:35:29] Speaker A: May you be awake when the hour of opportunity comes. May you know the deep, deep love of Jesus.
