Ever feel like you’re doing all the right things—praying, showing up, staying faithful—but nothing seems to be changing? Pastor Jeremy reminds us that “nothing yet” doesn’t mean God isn’t working, and some of life’s greatest breakthroughs come right after the moment we feel like giving up.
Notes 📓✏️:
Sometimes winning is just not quitting.
Sometimes winning is staying.
Sometimes winning is NOT overcoming the hardship you’re facing, but NOT quitting before God moves.
Most people quit because they don’t see results. However, God calls us to remain faithful before the fruit is visible.
The challenge is staying faithful when nothing seems to be happening.
“There will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.”
“There is a sound of the rushing of rain”
Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees. “Go and look toward the sea,” he told his servant. And he went up and looked “There is nothing there,” he said.
1 Kings 18:42-43 (NIV)
Yet Elijah keeps praying and looking.
Don’t confuse “nothing yet” with “nothing’s happening.”
Faith doesn’t live by what it sees.
Faith lives by what God said.
Faithfulness comes before fruitfulness.
Seven times Elijah said, “Go back.” The seventh time the servant reported, “A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea.”
1 Kings 18:44 (NIV)
Culture Thinks: Small effort = Big results
God: Big faithfulness = Small signs at first = Significant harvest later
This life is more about faithfulness than fruitfulness.
Small doesn’t mean insignificant.
Don’t compare your beginning to our middle.”
If you don’t embrace the process, you won’t sustain the promise.
God often begins small.
Don’t call it insignificant if God calls it a beginning.
The cloud was small. The rain was not.
The breakthrough often comes after the season when quitting feels most reasonable.
You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.
Hebrews 10:36
Discussion Questions 📝❓:
- Pastor Jeremy described two very different kinds of fruit – strawberry plants that produce quickly but don’t last, and apple trees that take years but bear fruit for decades. How does this picture of ‘fast fruit’ versus ‘significant fruit’ challenge the way our culture thinks about success?
- Elijah’s servant made six trips to look for rain clouds and saw nothing each time – yet Elijah never changed his expectation and kept praying. Pastor Jeremy said, ‘Don’t confuse nothing yet nothing’s happening.’ What does it take to keep believing in a promise when there is zero visible evidence that it’s coming?
- Hebrews 10:36 says. ‘You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.’ Pastor Jeremy emphasized that perseverance comes before the promise. Why do you think God’s design so often requires us to endure before we receive what He has promised?
- Pastor Jeremy made a sharp distinction between two responsibilities: ‘Faithfulness is your responsibility. Fruitfulness is God’s responsibility.’ How does understanding that difference change the way you approach areas of your life where you feel like you’re not producing enough results?