Wait For The Lord

Psalm 130. A very personal psalm. Psalm 130. Out of the depths, I cry to you, O Lord.

! O Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand?

But with you there is forgiveness. Therefore, you are feared. I wait for the Lord. My soul waits. And in his word I put my hope.

My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning. O Israel, put your hope in the Lord.

For with the Lord is unfailing love, and with him is full redemption. He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.

So, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, what are you waiting for? I'm not asking you if you are waiting for something.

We all are being made to wait for something. It could be any number of things. Maybe the fulfillment of some promise of God.

And what we learn in the scriptures is that often between the promise and the fulfillment, there's this long period of delay between. God has promised to lead you.

He's promised to provide for you, as we've just heard. But God has his own calendar for all that he does, and you may be asked to wait for him.

You're waiting for the return of Christ, dear brothers and sisters. That promise our Lord left us 2,000 years ago, we're still waiting, aren't we?

Some people are waiting to die. We see it in scripture. We see it in real life. Elderly people. Ready to go home to be with the Lord.

Maybe suffering in the body. But they're being made to wait the Lord's time. Being made to wait for a long trial to end.

Even when there's no end in sight. Maybe a nagging health issue. And you're waiting. You're waiting for healing. You're waiting to feel better again.

A lingering financial struggle. Maybe you're waiting in an unhappy marriage. Waiting with family problems.

Waiting for a job or a better job that's more suitable to you and your talents. In many ways, you may feel stuck in a dead-end situation.

You don't see your way through it. Seeming to go nowhere. Maybe you're waiting in singleness and loneliness for the Lord to provide a spouse.

And there is no one on the horizon. Maybe you're married and you're waiting for a child. Maybe you're waiting for the conversion of a child.

There's no promise from God here. But it's still something that we wait upon the Lord for, isn't it? Maybe you're waiting for the end of injustice and mistreatment at the hand of an enemy.

You're waiting for all the wrongs to be put right. You've been falsely accused and lied about and slandered and you're waiting to be vindicated.

You're waiting to have your innocence brought into the light. Maybe you're waiting for the end of the battle with some stubborn sin. Some evil desire.

Some strong temptation. You don't have to be a Christian for long to discover that God doesn't perfect us the day that he saves us.

Just as when he brought his people into the promised land. There were enemies that they needed to fight and drive out. So God has left evil desires within us that need to be driven out one by one.

We're waiting for that final victory day. Maybe you're being made to wait while you're walking in the dark.

The Bible talks about that too, doesn't it? Children of light walking in the dark. No sense of God in their life. Where is he? What's he doing? Why am I here? Like Job.

And you must wait upon the Lord in the darkness. You're waiting in some discouraging circumstance. Even difficult circumstances are the results of your own sinning perhaps.

These are the consequences of my choices. And I now must wait. How long will I be under God's correcting rod?

Maybe waiting under the sad circumstances of other people's sins around you. And they've affected you in certain ways. And now you're made to wait because of something they did.

You're waiting. All of us are waiting. You're not alone in the fact that you're waiting. The fact is we all are being made to wait for something. And we're in good company if we're waiting.

Because the Bible tells us of many dear saints who were made to wait long periods of time. So there's Noah and he's building an ark and everybody's laughing at him.

He waits 120 years until he's vindicated for building a big boat where there's no water around to float it in. Abraham and Sarah waited 25 years for a promised son.

Abraham waited for the promised land. He comes to the land that God promised and lo and behold it's occupied. And he must wait all of his life without ever inheriting it.

In fact, he's told that he and his descendants, his descendants will be taken away. And for 400 years, it'll be 400 years before they actually come and inherit the land.

Jacob is made to wait seven years for his wife, Rachel. Joseph is sold into slavery as a teenager and made to wait many, many years before seeing his father again.

And before being raised up and exalted by God. Moses is made to wait 40 years on the backside of the desert looking after some sheep.

Seemed like a dead-end job going nowhere. Forty years before he would be called to his life's work of leading Israel out of Egypt.

And then after he'd led Israel out of Egypt, he would have to wait another 40 years wandering in the wilderness. Not because of his own sins, but because of the sins of the people.

In their unbelief and disobedience. Waiting, waiting. About those two widows, Ruth and Naomi.

Waiting in dire, bitter circumstances before God smiles upon them in providence. Paul. Or excuse me, Isaiah and Jeremiah.

They waited through lifetime, a whole lifetime of ministry. Waiting for people to respond. In fact, Isaiah was told ahead of time they're not going to respond. Your message will harden them further.

And he preaches. And he preaches. And he waits. And he waits. David. Anointed king. He had the oozing oil of the high priest coming down upon him.

Of Samuel, I should say. And yet he must wait 12 years before he makes it to the throne. 12 years running from King Saul.

Being persecuted. Hunted like a partridge in the mountains. Dodging spears thrown at him. Hiding out against the pursuing army. Those were his best years.

And he's seen them slip through his fingers while he's doing what? He's just waiting. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. And then when he does come to the throne, he only rules over two tribes.

And must wait another seven and a half years. Till he reigns over the whole 12 tribes of Israel. The Israelites themselves must wait 70 years as captives in Babylon.

Because of their sin. That's the better part of a lifetime, isn't it? Waiting. And then Israel, indeed the whole world, must wait hundreds of years before the long promised Messiah.

Would come. And while they were waiting. While Israel was waiting. It was often under bondage. And circumstances that no one would want to be in.

And then just in the fullness of time at the right time, he came. Waiting. For the redeemer. Mary and Martha sent word to Jesus. The one you love is sick.

Jesus intentionally waits two more days before coming. So that by the time he gets to Bethany, Lazarus has been dead four days.

That wait must have felt like forever. As they saw their brother die. And when Jesus comes, it's if only you had been here. Our brother would not have died.

What was the wait in Mary and Martha's heart? Paul left in prison two more years by Felix, the governor.

Because he's hoping for a bribe. Two years, you say, that's not much. It's over 700 days of waiting in prison. Waiting. Waiting. And even the Lord Jesus must now wait.

Until his father says, it's time, son. Go get your bride. And he's waiting. Yes. Waiting.

Waiting. Each one of these and more had to wait a long time. Upon God. Before receiving the promise.

And some even died without receiving the things promised. You are going to die without receiving some of the things that have been promised to you. And so what do we learn from all of this?

Just this quick look at the Bible and this theme of waiting. Well, we learn that waiting is a part of the core curriculum for every one of God's people. Waiting.

It's in the core curriculum. You must take this course. You have other electives. This isn't one of them. He makes his children wait. So, brothers and sisters, how good are you at waiting?

How is it going? How good are you at waiting in line? Waiting at the doctor's office. Waiting in traffic. Waiting at the restaurant. Waiting to be put on hold at a phone.

Waiting to talk to a real person instead of a talking computer. Or waiting for some of those more important things that we talked about in our introduction.

I've told you before, but Philip Brooks was a gospel minister in the 19th century. He was known for his gentle demeanor, his great endurance, and for his Christmas hymn, O Little Town of Bethlehem.

And one day, a good friend of his walked into his study and found him pacing back and forth, clearly agitated and said, brother, what is wrong with you? And he says, I'm in a hurry, but God isn't.

That pastor was confessing he finds a waiting to be hard work.

A hard lesson. It's not something we're good at, any of us, by nature. It's not just the case of a few Christians here and there that have trouble with waiting.

Rather, this is one of those troubles such as is common to all men. In fact, there's a dozen psalms in our Bible out of the 150 that ask the puzzled question, how long?

How long? Psalms of David, of Asaph, of Moses, dear believers struggling with the weight.

How long, O Lord, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart?

How long will my enemy triumph over me? Psalm 13 asks those questions. David asks those questions. And then in Psalm 119, 84, how long must your servant wait?

How long? Some of you hear that question from your four-year-old child as you've gone on an eight-hour trip in the car and after one hour down the road, you hear the voice, how long till we're there?

And these are godly men crying, how long, O Lord? These dear servants of God did not always find waiting to be easy.

And so they voiced their question to God. But God, the Holy Spirit, knows just how common this thought is in God's people.

And so he incorporates these how long psalms into his Old Testament songbook. You know what the reality of that is? Is that the people of God, as they worship week by week, were learning to wait on God.

How do you wait on God when the wait is so long? How do you do that? And as they sang through the Psalter, they were having their problems of waiting addressed.

Waiting is something we must learn to do in the school of Christ. It's difficult. And like many other things, there's no shortcut to the lesson. We wait.

We learn to wait by waiting. You learn to pray by praying. You learn to ride a bike by riding a bike. You learn to wait by waiting.

There is no shortcut. There's no three-hour seminar that will cure our impatience and problems with waiting. There's no silver bullet sermon that I can give to you that after which it'll be a walk in the park to wait.

But God has said some things in the scriptures to help us to become better waiters. And under the blessing of God's Spirit, if he will put these truths in our inner parts, we can have a different attitude towards waiting.

And we can even learn how to wait to the glory of God and to the good of our souls. So please turn to Psalm 27. Psalm 27.

The last verse. And here David is speaking. He's being persecuted.

He's being chased. And he's in trouble. But he has a great God as a shepherd, as we've heard. And he comes to the end. And it seems like he's talking to himself, addressing himself.

And in looking over his shoulder, we're getting to hear this. As David concludes this psalm, he says in verse 14 of Psalm 27, Wait for the Lord.

Be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. Now here is the first and most important lesson about waiting.

And it is this, that in all our waiting, we are waiting for the Lord. The Lord. That's the language twice in this verse.

It's also the language of the Bible and other places. Turn over to Psalm 37. In verse 7, we have David's words. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him.

It's not just that we're waiting. And it's not just that we're waiting patiently. No, we are waiting patiently for Him. Psalm 130, the text that was read for us earlier.

David says in verse 5, I wait for the Lord. I'm not just waiting.

I'm waiting for a person. The Lord. My soul waits. It's not just that I'm sitting here in my body going nowhere. That's not what He... This is soul activity.

This is an exercise of the heart. My soul waits. And in His word I put my hope. My soul waits for the Lord. More than watchmen wait for the morning.

More than watchmen wait for the morning. So this is huge. It's what makes waiting a distinctly spiritual exercise. You know, there is a waiting that is godless.

And I've heard it before. And the godless must wait too, you know. It's not just Christians that are made to wait on things.

They too must wait on things in life. But in all their waiting, God is missing. And so they meet trials and troubles with their worldly wisdom.

And perhaps you've heard it. This too will pass. We're waiting. And this too will pass. Just wait it out.

Better days are coming. But all of that can be possible without one thought of God. One exercise of faith in the Lord.

No thought. God word. That's not the waiting of the believer. That's not the waiting that we're told about here in Scripture. That's waiting for the Lord.

Lord. And oh, how good for us that this is the case. We're not waiting for the ticking of a clock of fate. I'm not waiting for my luck to change.

As if there's no one at the helm of the universe. I'm not just waiting for my circumstances to change. Hoping that this too will soon pass.

I'm not waiting for troublesome people in my life to change. There's no hope in men. No, I'm waiting for the Lord. I'm waiting on a person.

I'm waiting on the living God. And so waiting has a direct reference. God word. I'm looking to Him. I'm relating this situation to Him.

I'm waiting for Him. And that is a God word activity. That's what makes it a spiritual exercise in the school of Christ.

There's a wonderful verse in Isaiah 64.4 that says about our God. That He acts on behalf of those who wait for Him. This is something that sets Him apart. Since ancient times, no one has heard.

No ear is perceived. No eye has seen any God besides you. Who acts on behalf of those who wait for you. Amazing promise.

So when I'm waiting for the Lord, I'm waiting for the Lord to act on my behalf. I'm waiting on Him to do something. I'm waiting on Him to intervene.

I'm waiting on Him to move mountains. I'm waiting on Him to deliver, to save, to help, to rescue. I'm waiting on the Lord for His involvement in my waiting situation and in my heart.

I'm waiting for Him to show mercy to undeserving me. So waiting for the Lord means you recognize that God is in control of all my circumstances in which I am made to wait.

He's the one I have to do with while I'm waiting. So you're waiting for a job. You're waiting for a husband. You're waiting for a child. You're waiting for a conversion.

You're waiting for restoration to health. It's really waiting for the Lord. Since all these things come from Him. You're waiting for better finances.

You're waiting for better weather. You're waiting for vindication. It's all waiting for Him. Since everything that affects us, all creatures in all their actions are under His governance and His control.

We are waiting for the Lord. So in all our waiting, we wait for the Lord. That's the bottom line. That's the first all-important lesson of waiting.

I don't have anything more to say to you than to pound that truth home. But as you wait, you're waiting for Him.

And the reason we can do so with confidence and patient, sweet surrender is because He's worth waiting for.

It's because of who He is that we can well afford to wait for Him. And the better we know Him, the easier the waiting will be for us.

More than answers to our why questions, it's Him we need to know. So let your long trials and let your time periods of waiting be calls, be siren calls to get to know God better.

So why should we be glad to wait for Him? I want to give you several reasons. And they all have to do with the God you're waiting for. First of all, His sovereignty. Wait on Him. Wait for Him.

Why? Because He's sovereign. Be still and know that I am God. And if I'm God, you're not. I'm the potter, you're the clay.

I am the sovereign king. And that simply means we have no rights before this God. No rights. He can do with us whatever He pleases.

I have no right to happiness, whatever our nation may say contrary. I have no right before God to have a life that's happy, to have life go my way when I want it my way.

No. He's God. I'm not. And so He's not mistreating us when He makes us wait. And so we humbly bow.

We humbly bow before Him as God. And that keeps us from chafing during the wait. By chafing, I mean, kids, what a dog does on the end of a chain.

And instead of sitting there restfully, He's pulling, pulling, yanking, jumping. And so what happens to His neck?

He gets chapped. He's chafing at His yoke. He's not content with His Master's will.

And it's only hurting Him. And so to realize He's God, I'm not. He's calling the shots, I'm not. He's sovereign. I will wait on Him. I will wait on Him.

And that will help us wait. Humble yourselves under God's mighty hand so that He may exalt you in due time, in His time. Humble before the sovereign one.

And then there's His wisdom. What else will help us wait? There's His wisdom. Isaiah 28, 29, He's wonderful in counsel. He's magnificent in wisdom. His understanding no one can fathom.

And here's the thing. He uses that magnificent wisdom to order my steps. To point out my way and set out the way that I should go.

To direct my life in the way that's best for me. He uses His wisdom. So if He knows how to make a human body with all of its billions of body parts all working together.

If He knows how to design and to create and sustain and order a universe and everything in it. Can I not safely trust myself to Him for the weight?

It's His wisdom that has designed this way for me. Someone said if I had God's power I would change a lot of things.

But if I had God's wisdom I wouldn't change anything. Because God has established His plan with perfect wisdom.

And so to appreciate His wisdom is to be willing to wait on God. If He's taking me around the long way. If He's making me stall and stop. It's wisdom's way.

That helps me wait. If perfect wisdom says wait I can afford to wait. Can't you?

Can't you wait on perfect wisdom? My all wise God knows best what I need most. And He knows that sometimes what's best for John Heaney is just to make me wait.

And it's the very irritation of waiting that He's going to use in my life to make me what I'm not. And what's the first thing we do when we get into an irritating situation? We want out.

And we want out now or yesterday. But we're forced to wait. Okay. Now what? Well now God gets to work you see.

What happens in an oyster when a little particle or a grain of sand gets into the shell and is lodged? It senses it and it's irritant. And it sends out this substance to coat the little grain of sand.

And it keeps sending out this substance and it hardens and another layer after another layer is put out. And finally that little grain of sand irritant in the oyster becomes a beautiful pearl.

You know God in His wisdom, He is so wise. He knows how to make something beautiful out of my waiting, my irritating weights in life.

He knows what He's up to. He's all wise. So does He have you waiting? That's where perfect wisdom wants you.

Thy sovereign wisdom I adore and calmly, sweetly trust Thee still. Psalm 18 and verse 30 says, As for God, His way is perfect.

Jim Elliot, one of the missionary martyrs in Ecuador in 1956, commented on this text. I am particularly conscious of the Christian's right to expect events to be exactly timed for good.

Why? Why? Because as for God, His way is perfect. His way is perfect, brother and sister. His timing, you can expect to be perfect.

He waits for the coming of His Son until what? Until the fullness of time, until the time was just ripe. And then He comes. And that's the way He works in your life and mine. I found that quote from Jim Elliot handwritten in the back of my father's Bible, which suggests to me that during the long ten years of waiting and caring for my mother, that he found some help in waiting, in knowing that God's wisdom orders all things in perfect timing.

Because as for God, His ways are perfect. His timing is perfect. I can afford to wait on perfect timing. Yes, His sovereignty, His wisdom.

How about His power? The one we're waiting for is literally almighty. His power and might is over all. There is nothing too hard for Him.

And so He's able to implement all His wise plans for me. That's comforting. He's not a frustrated king who's got a lot of plans but can't implement them.

No, this king not only has the all wise plans but has the power to see them come to pass in our lives. He's able to bring to pass the purposes for which He has me waiting.

So I don't need to fear, oh, I'm missing out on something good here. No, you are getting what's good. You're in fact getting what's best even as you wait.

So think with me, brothers and sisters. Is God able to deliver you and to bring your waiting to an end? Is He able to do that? Then if He hasn't, He has good reasons for keeping you where He is.

Rather, He has the best of reasons, the perfect wisdom for keeping the situation as it is. So when He works quickly, He's working for my good.

And when He works slowly, it is for my good. He's working all things together for my good. Such is His might and power over all things that concern me.

His sovereignty, His wisdom, His power. And then His love. It's easier to wait knowing that the one you're waiting on loves you.

In that waiting Psalm 130 that we had read for us, the writer says, I wait for the Lord. I wait for the Lord.

And then he tells Israel, you need to wait on the Lord. And you need to put your hope in the Lord, just like I did. And let me tell you why you should wait and hope in the Lord.

Because with the Lord is unfailing love. David, I want to know what keeps a man waiting like you'd wait. Well, listen to what He's counseling us all to do.

Wait. Hope in the Lord. Why? Because with Him is unfailing love. His love. And that's where David's mind runs to in his how long Psalm of Psalm 13.

Five how longs are followed up with this line. But I trust in your unfailing love. How long, O Lord? How long? How long will this be like this and that be like that?

But I trust in your unfailing love. I can afford to wait for the Lord. Because of His unfailing love for me. So notice the progression.

Notice the relationship of this God that we're waiting for. God's wisdom knows what is best for me. Knows and plans what is best for me.

His power means that He's able to accomplish what is best for me. Oh, but His love. His love means that He wants what is best for me.

There's something warm here. It's not just braininess, smarts, intelligence. It's not just raw power. What is moving that wisdom?

What is moving His mighty right arm? It's His heart of love. He wants what is best for us. He loves us.

He's committed to us in that commitment of love. Unfailing love. At the very core of His being, we might say, He's committed to me with unfailing love and to my best.

And He's already proved it by becoming a man and being damned in my place that I might be blessed forever. Unfailing love with the Lord.

Wait for Him. You can afford to wait for Him because of His unfailing love for you. He's worth waiting for. So make God's attributes your study as you wait.

What of His grace? His grace that's sufficient for all the waiting that you do. There in 2 Corinthians 12, Paul had a thorn in the flesh and he saw it three times.

Three seasons of prayer that he sought the Lord. Lord, take this away. So he came and he prayed once. And he sought the Lord and then he waited. And the Lord says no.

And so he prayed again. And he waits some more. And the Lord again says no. And he waits and prays again. And again the Lord says no.

And finally the Lord just says, Listen, Paul. I'm never in this life going to take that thorn from you. Instead I'm going to do something better.

I'm going to give you grace that is sufficient to bear up under that thorn in the flesh. And so Paul has to wait a lifetime, doesn't he?

The thorn never leaves him in this life. But in the waiting, he has gained something. He's gained Christ's power resting upon him.

Demonstrating that in our weakness, he is strong. Bringing glory to him. How is she waiting through that trial? It's been years.

Years. Years. Isn't her God wonderful? In his grace. How he's holding her up. How he's enough to sustain her.

We can afford to wait for a God who gives sufficient grace. What if God wants to magnify his powerful grace in your life through long trials that he never takes away in this life?

Are you game? Are you up for it? Bow your neck to his sovereign will. His grace is sufficient. And the better we know him, the easier it is to trust him while we wait for him.

How about his faithfulness? Does that not count for some waiting help? His faithfulness. His compassions never fail.

They're new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. Perfect faithfulness to every promise. Now that's a record I can wait on. Can't you? He's never made a promise that he didn't keep.

Not one of all the promises failed to be fulfilled. We read in Joshua. That's the kind of God I want to wait on.

What a privilege. That he is faithful. The promiser. He who promised is faithful. That means he's trustworthy. Kids, what does it mean to be trustworthy? It means to be worthy of your trust.

And that's why this God is worth waiting on. Because he's worthy. Of your trust. Worthy of your waiting. No one waits for him in vain.

Henrietta Mears did much for the Evangelical Sunday School in our country. Pouring her life into that ministry. And when at the end of her life she was asked, Henrietta, if you had your life to live all over again, would you do anything different?

She said, yes, I would trust him more. I would trust him more. I mean, I've trusted him in my life.

But what I found is he's been 100% faithful. And I'm the fool for not having trusted him more. I wish I had trusted him more.

You see, he's too faithful to ever prove untrue. He's too wise to be mistaken. He's too just to be unfair. He's too loving to be unkind. He's too strong to ever fail.

And this is the God we're waiting for in all of our waiting. A God worth waiting for. Because he does not let us wait in vain.

And so while you're waiting, what are you going to marinate your mind in? The whys, the questions, the doubts, the fears, the worries are God's rock-solid character.

His attributes. The God who acts on behalf of those who wait for him. Do you see how knowing God helps you wait?

I want to mention one last attribute and we're done. And at first you might wonder why this attribute. But indeed all the attributes of God help us to wait.

And let's consider his patience. His patience. We've been thinking today about waiting for the Lord. It really is a matter of patience, isn't it?

How patient are you with others? How long can you wait without complaining for that last one to get in the car when everybody else is in the car on Sunday morning? To wait for that last one dawdling when everybody else is at the table for supper.

You are waiting for them. You are having patience for them, aren't you? So the question of how good are you at waiting for the Lord could really be worded in this way.

How patient are you with God? How patient are you with God? Because it's him we're waiting for in our waiting.

And if we're honest, we'll have to confess that there are times that we're not very patient with God, are we? And so we take up the attribute of God's patience. How unfitting that we, of all people, should lose patience with God.

Do you see? Do you see how this is going to help us? He's been so patient with us. Think how long he waited for you. How many of you repented and trusted in Christ the very first time you heard the gospel?

Can I see your hands? What? You mean God was patient with you and gave you a second chance? You must have done it on the second time.

No? He was patient with you. Over and over he came calling. He says, come to me. Come on. Weary, heavy laden. I'm going to give you rest.

And you said, wait. I still want to do this with my life. Come and surrender to me. Not now. You must wait. I want to do this. And Almighty God was told to wait.

And he didn't blow you off the earth with a bolt of lightning. He waited. He was patient for you. He didn't give up on you.

He was like the hound of heaven in that classic poem. He stayed on your trail. Stayed on your scent. And followed you down every turn and woods.

And finally you stopped running and turned around and fell into his arms. And trusted in him. And received salvation and eternal life. And found that he was waiting for you all along.

That's why he was chasing you. Not to damn you. But to have you experience knowing him.

Which is life eternal. You know in Jesus' parable of the prodigal son. The waiting father is the picture of the Lord Jesus. Patiently waiting for us prodigals to come home.

The waiting father. He waited. He waited. He was so patient. His eyes were daily looking down the road.

And when he saw his son at last. When he was still afar off. He ran to him. And kissed him. And embraced him. And celebrated.

God was so patient with us. And is he not still patient with us? He's given us now as his redeemed people. Commands that he's laid down to be fully obeyed.

And oh how slow we are to change. And even where we do change. We slip back into old patterns of living. And he doesn't just write us off.

Doesn't just zzzz. And we're gone. He's patient. He waits. Oh we're so thankful for his patience aren't we?

Where would we be without his patience? As Peter says. He was patient because he was not wanting us to perish. But to come to repentance.

What do I owe my salvation to? Well to many things. But among them is the patience of God. Now. Can you.

Be patient. With him. After all. He's waited on. For you. Let his great patience. Lead us to repentance.

And lead us to being patient. For him. So as you go home this week. And you think about the things that God is making you wait for.

Here's the first lesson. In all your waiting. Wait for him. Wait for him. You're having dealings with him. When you're impatient. So.

Remember him. He's worth waiting for. No one waits. In vain for him. And when you wait on him. It glorifies him. It says to your neighbors. Your family. Your friends.

Your enemies. To anybody who sees you and knows you. It says God is worth waiting for. And that glorifies and honors him. And that will bring peace and rest to your soul as well.

Well let's take our hymnal and sing number 94. As our response to God's word. It's because of who this God is.

That we can patiently wait for him. And he's a God whose ways are always right. And we sing of that in number 94. Let's stand and worship him as we sing.

94. If you're still saying wait to God. He says again this morning. Come. You don't know that he'll say that again to you.

So come to him today. Let's pray. Amen. Lord Jesus forgive. Forgive us for our waywardness.

When you came after us and chased us down with grace. Not to crush us but to forgive us. That we didn't want the salvation that you were bringing. We did not know that it was for our sins he died.

We did not know what we were doing when we pushed away. The only one that could save us from ourselves. From sin.

From hell. You were so kind and patient. And we worship you now. Forgive us as well. That we have been so impatient with you in our lives.

When you have said wait. And we have said we want it now. Thank you for the way that your people could come. And bring their requests to you.

Even in the waits. And when it seemed too long. And how you met them in their waiting period. We thank you that we never wait alone. That even as we wait for you.

You are with us. So come to us. Come to those who are in special periods of waiting. And darkness. And assure them of who it is they're waiting for.

And help us all to honor you. Then by leaving it to you. Not taking to ourselves. The care of our own selves. When you have undertaken to care for us.

Thank you for your great love. Thank you for your faithfulness. Your wisdom and power and sovereignty and grace. And patience. We worship you. And we would wait on you.

As we pray in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.