(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] Good evening. So now we're in Psalm 27 and the Bible reads, The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though a host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. The war should rise against me, and this will I be confident. One thing I have desired of the Lord, that I will seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple. From the time of trouble, he shall hide me in his pavilion, and the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me. He shall set me up upon a rock, and now shall mine head be lifted up above my enemies round about me. Therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy. I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord. Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice, have mercy also upon me and answer me. When thou saidst, Seek me, my face, my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek. Hide not thy face far from me, but not thy servant away in anger. Thou has been my help. Leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation. When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up. Teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path because of mine enemies. Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies, for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty. I had fainted unless I believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. Let's pray. O God, just thank you for this church, Lord, and that, uh, all the people here, Lord, and we just pray for pastor right now, that you fill him with the Holy Spirit, Lord, as he preaches unto us your word, Lord, and just bless the service and all the aspects of it, Lord, and we pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Okay, we're in Psalm 27 this evening. Look at verse 13. It says here, I had fainted. In other words, I had quit. I would have quit. I would have thrown into the towel. I would have fainted unless I believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. And what I want to preach on this evening is the subject of waiting upon the Lord, the importance of waiting upon the Lord. Now, obviously, when we think of the Christian life, we know that when it comes to endurance, when it comes to waiting upon the Lord, it requires this virtue of patience. And what is patience? It's essentially a good biblical definition of patience would be not giving God a deadline to answer a specific prayer that we need, right? You know, sometimes when we ask God for things, when we pray for a specific outcome, maybe we're praying for a specific need that we have. We always say, Lord, it's in your hands, but if you could just answer it by this time, I'd really appreciate it. And you have until, you know, the end of this month to go ahead and answer that for me. But, you know, I trust in you kind of thing, right? But really what patience is, is being able to leave it in God's hands, giving him no deadline, right? Giving him no deadline to remove the trial, not giving him a deadline to remove the tribulation, the difficulty, the heartache. You fill in the blank with what that is. It's essentially saying, Lord, I'm going to put this in your hands. I'm going to wait patiently on you. And this is an important virtue to learn as a Christian how to wait upon the Lord because of the fact that it teaches us how to endure, okay? And what does it mean to endure? It means that you don't throw in the towel when the going gets tough, okay? It's the ability to persevere in the Christian life in spite of the conditions, in spite of your situation and your circumstances. You're able to push through no matter how hard it gets. You can endure, right? And if you think about it from a practical perspective, let me just speak to the prophecy heads in our church here. You think about the Bible telling us that those who endure into the end, the same shall be saved, right? And what is that literally referring to? It's referring to if people can just make it through the tribulation, if they can just make it through the severe persecution, they can make it through the Antichrist trying to kill them, you know, essentially their flesh will be delivered by the Lord Jesus Christ. But they have to endure that in order to push through. We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. Now luckily, no one's trying to kill you tonight, at least I don't think so. No one is putting you through such persecution that your life is in danger. But you know, there could be instances in your life where you feel like, man, I don't even know how much more of this I can take, right? I don't know how much more of this I can handle. Well, I want to encourage you this evening to just wait upon the Lord, okay? And we'll come back to Psalm 23 in just a bit, but go with me if you would to Psalm 33. Psalm 33 will mainly be in the book of Psalms this evening. Look at Psalm 33. Hold your place there in Psalm 27. And go to Psalm 33. We'll look at a couple verses in verse 20. It says here, our soul waited for the Lord. Why? He is our help and our shield, for our heart shall rejoice in him because we have trusted in his holy name. So waiting upon the Lord obviously is in conjunction with our hearts rejoicing in him and also trusting in his holy name. Look at Psalm 62, if you would. Psalm 62 in verse number one. Psalm 62 in verse number one says, truly my soul waiteth upon God from him cometh my salvation. Now, I don't think this is referring to like, you know, I don't think David is saying I'm waiting for the Lord because I don't even know if I'm going to go to heaven or hell or something like that. You know, he's not saying my soul waited for salvation as in I guess I'll find out where I go once I die or something like that. Sometimes people can get mixed up, especially when it comes to the Psalms due to the fact that the term salvation is used very generously in the book of Psalms and it's not always in reference to the justification of the soul. Some people tend to forget that sometimes we just need the deliverance of our body, right? And you know if he is, if David is going through a time of persecution where Absalom is coming after him, he has all types of enemies trying to kill him. He has foreigners trying to destroy him. What is he doing? He's waiting upon the Lord because from him cometh salvation, not just the justification of his soul, but even the deliverance of his body. And the way you could apply this today would be, you know, if you're going through a difficult time physically, you have some physical ailment that you're struggling with, you wait upon the Lord knowing full well that God is your salvation. Yes, even of your own body. And we know that ultimately God will deliver us from this corruptible flesh, right? At the resurrection, you know, who shall deliver me from this body of death? Well, the Lord Jesus Christ will at the resurrection. But thankfully there's like some salvations even prior to that that you can experience where God saves you from your enemies, saves you from some disease, saves your body from some, you know, a tumultuous thing that can actually affect you physically. Wait upon the Lord so that can happen. Look at verse two. He says, He only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not be greatly moved. Now, I like, I like that last phrase there. Because other portions, David says, I shall not be moved. And then this verse says, I shall not be greatly moved. What does that mean? You know, he might move just a little bit, but you know what? I'm not going to be greatly moved, right? And this is kind of showing us that in times of strength, we can say I shall not be moved. But there's other instances where the times are so hard, you might move a couple inches. You might even move a couple feet, but you know what? I shall not be greatly moved, okay? And it's kind of showing the humanity of King David, the writer, the sweet psalmist of Israel, explaining that at the end of the day, you know, we need to keep our eyes on the Lord and wait upon Him. Go with me, if you would, to Psalm 69. Let's look at Psalm 69 here. Psalm 69. And look at verse number five of Psalm 69. It says, O God, Thou knowest my foolishness. My sins are not hid from Thee. And by the way, aren't you glad that God knows how foolish you can be? You know, some of you are like, no. I'm glad, though, because I like the fact that God knows me better than I know myself, and He doesn't judge me according to my foolishness most of the time, you know. He knows us. He knows all, you know, how many hairs we have on our head, which for some of us, obviously, it's not a lot, but you know, He can number the hairs on our head. He knows every single thought of our mind. He knows everything that we're going through. You know, our sins are not hid from Him, which is good because of the fact that sometimes people think that they can hide their sins from God or something like that and cover their sins. But whosoever does that shall not prosper, the Bible tells us. This is essentially telling us that He's omniscient. He knows everything, okay. Verse six says, Let not them that wait on Thee, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed for my sake. Let not those that seek Thee be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel. Now, what does it mean when He says don't let them be ashamed? Well, you know, He's basically saying, you know, people who trust in the Lord who are waiting upon them, hopefully, God just doesn't let us down. I don't want to be let down is what He's saying, because ashamed is just another way of saying being let down. And obviously, you can see why ashamed would mean that because when you're ashamed, it's just like you are disappointed. You are embarrassed that someone let you down, right? Well, the Bible's telling us here that those who wait upon the Lord will not be let down. So in other words, God will come through. God's going to come through for you. He's going to come through for your situation. But the requirement is this, is that you have to wait upon them, okay? And I'll get into more of that in just a bit. Psalm 130, verse five, you don't have to turn there. It says, I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in His word do I hope. My soul waited for the Lord more than they which watch for the morning. I say more than they which watch for the morning. Proverbs 20 and verse 22 says this, say not thou I will recompense evil, but wait on the Lord, and He shall save thee. Go to Isaiah chapter 40, if you would. Hold your place there in the book of Psalms, specifically Psalm 27, and go to Isaiah chapter 40. Isaiah chapter 40. What does waiting upon the Lord do for you? Well, based upon Isaiah chapter 40, it actually strengthens us. And if I can just assess the life of a Christian over, you know, my experience, 17 years of being a Christian and being saved, you know, I could attest to the fact that a lot of people just quit because they just, their strength is reduced. They get tired, you know, they want to quit. They throw in the towel. They just want to give in. And a lot of times all of us get like that at one time or another. Sometimes you just had it. You know what I mean? It's just hard to be a Christian sometimes. And it's hard to be a good Christian when you just are going through really difficult times. It's hard to just maintain your ways before the Lord sometimes, you know. And so what we often need is our gas tanks to be filled up, so to speak. And, you know, to be able to renew our strength to continue to go. Because at the end of the day, I don't think anybody in here can say, you know what, I just can't wait to quit the Christian life, you know. I can't wait to just throw in the towel and just be done with it. I think everyone here and every Christian loves the Lord, and they would like to be in the things of God till the very end. But let's just be honest here, you know, at the end of the day, all of us have faced some situation in our life where we're just like, you know, I'm done. You know, I just, I don't have the strength to continue to go forward. And the reality is this is that God knows that. He knows that you feel that way. He knows that you're on empty. He knows that you want to quit. And so here's the solution though. You have to renew your strength. It says in Isaiah 40 verse 28, Has thou not known, has thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no searching of his understanding. So right off the bat, you just got to keep in mind that our God never, is never reduced in strength. He never faints. He never feels tired. He's never fainting in his mind or grows weary physically of just being God. He just has this eternal source because he is a source. He has this eternal source of strength to just persevere and go forward. He just never, it's not even in his vocabulary. It's not a part of who he is. And in fact, he has so much strength and so much power. Look what it says in verse 29. He gives power to the faint and to them to have no might, he increases strength. So right off the bat, what the Bible's telling us here is that if we serve a God who never runs out of strength, then we should go to him to participate in his strength, right? To receive of his power in his strength to increase ourselves. Verse 30 says, Even the youth shall faint and be weary. Now, why is he even bringing that up? Because typically youths don't. If you have little kids, you know that. They just go and they go and they go and they go and they go. I'm kind of curious what tonight's going to be like sometimes. I'm just like, go to bed and they just have all this energy. It's like, man, these kids didn't nap. They just played all day and they still have more energy. How? How do you guys keep going? You hear about these young guys who get like two, three hours of sleep and they get up and they just do their job and they're just constantly going. And me as a 38 going on 39 year old, I'm like, I can't keep up that kind of schedule. I would just drive my wife crazy or something. I would just fall over. I'd have a heart attack. But you know the youth, they don't, they could just keep up that. I mean, obviously when I was a teenager, I was able to keep up that schedule. And as a young adult, I was able to keep up that schedule. Because as a youth, you have that. You have that youthful strength. I mean, I remember one time as a 17 year old working at a restaurant. I remember working a shift from like three to like ten o'clock at night. And then, you know, the, what was it? I think like the bar asked me to help them close. And I wasn't saved at this time. So don't, you know, judge me off of that. Oh, I'm sorry. No, no. I worked in the morning, the morning shift. I worked from seven to three. And then someone called in and said, hey, you know, can you cover my shift? I'm working from like four to ten or something. I was like, I'll take it. So I worked from seven to three and then I took his shift. I worked from four to ten and then the bar asked me to close and we didn't leave until like three o'clock in the morning. Because the bar closed like a lot later. And I'm just thinking over time, over time, tips and all that. But then I had to be back there to open up at six o'clock. So I got like maybe an hour, two hours of sleep if that. Went home, took a quick shower. You know, rested my eyes and then went back to work. And then when I went to work, I worked from six to two. And then I got off and you know what? I was fine. I was just all right, time to go hang out. But you could do stuff like that when you're 17 though, right? You don't really have like, but here's the thing. If I were to keep doing that, obviously at one point or another, I would just like end up falling over and dying. The point that I'm making here is that youth have strength, but God is saying, but there comes a point where even the youth shall faint. Right? They shall be weary and the young men shall utterly fall, meaning their strength can only take them so far. In other words, they can't outdo God, the strength of God. Verse 31 says, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. So it's telling us here, if you want to be in this thing for the long haul, if you want to be a Christian for the long haul, if you want to receive the blessings of the Lord that come about, I don't know, 30 years down the road, if you want to see what that is, you got to wait upon the, there's going to be instances in your life where you have to wait upon the Lord. Okay. You have to just trudge along, renew your strength because you don't want to be like this Roman candle just fizzles out. You don't want to be a mushroom Christian where you just grow overnight, but you're just easily kicked over. You want to be like a redwood. It takes years and years of growth and nothing's going to kick that thing down. Okay. But it requires waiting upon the Lord. Now, let me read to you one more verse here. Actually go, go to Psalm 37, go to Psalm 37. Psalm 37, if you would. So how do you wait upon the Lord? Well, look at Psalm 37 and verse number, sorry, Psalm 37, look at verse 32. It says the wicked watch at the righteous and seeketh to slay him. The Lord will not leave him in his hand nor condemn him when he is judged. Wait on the Lord and keep his way. And he shall exalt thee to inherit the land. When the wicked are cut off, thou shall see it. So the latter end of this chapter is telling us, this is what you do. You wait upon the Lord, but the previous verses passages in this chapter tell us how to do that. Look at verse number three. What does waiting upon the Lord mean? Well, let me tell you what it doesn't mean first and foremost. It doesn't mean just sitting on your rear end doing nothing. Okay. And it doesn't mean, well, I'm just going to go ahead and get involved in sin, not be in church, not read my Bible, not do anything spiritually productive. And we'll just see what the Lord does or something like that. That's not waiting upon the Lord. Waiting upon the Lord actually requires you doing something as you wait. Okay. Now, how do you know that? Well, look at verse number three. It says, trust in the Lord and do good. So shalt thou dwell on the land and verily thou shalt be fed. So first and foremost, God says, beyond anything else, you have to trust in God. Now, what does it mean to trust in the Lord? It means that you can't necessarily see the answer or the solution, but you know, it's there. You believe that it's there. And here's the thing. If you don't believe it, then you're not going to be here. If you don't believe that God can answer that prayer, if you don't believe that God can come through, if you don't have faith that all things work together for good, then you're not going to be here very long. You're not going to stay in the Christian fight very long because you know, you're not trusting in God to actually come through. And this is what we first read in Psalm 27 when he said, I have fainted unless I have believed to see the goodness of the Lord. So it's like in order for him to just maintain his ways before the Lord, in order to stay in the fight, he had to see the goodness of the Lord. No, he actually had to believe that it was there. He says, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living, meaning he had to believe that God will bless him here. Now I talk about a lot about the millennial reign, new heaven and new earth, and how God's going to bless us. And at the end of the day, at least we have that to look forward to, but let's just be honest here. The Bible says that we can see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living as well, though. Yes, we're going to see it in the millennial reign. Yes, we're going to see the new heaven and new earth. Yes, we're going to see it in heaven, but you know what? I believe that we will see the goodness of the Lord here as well. Cause God is just not like, Hey, I just got heaven for you. You know, that's all I got for you. You know, no, we can see the goodness of the Lord here in your lifetime. I can see God's goodness in my lifetime. And you know what? It may require you waiting a little bit, but it will come through. And you know, sometimes people just lose faith. They just faint in the way they just quit on God because they want this microwave type of Christianity that they type in two minutes, press start. And they just want that to be done with, you know, it's like, Oh my, my situation is cold. Let me just throw it in the microwave real quick. And let's see if God can just do something. Let me just go to church for like a month and see what happens. It's not going to work a month. That's not enough. Well, let me just obey my husband for like a couple of weeks and let's see if that works. That's not going to work. Let me just try to love my wife for a couple of weeks and we'll see if it works. That's not how it works. You have to commit to do it. You have to have faith that obeying the commandments of the Lord will work whether in the short term or in the long term, but it will work this side of eternity. Have faith. You know what faith come with by hearing, hearing by the word of God. And we always quote that verse, but you know what? That's something that we consistently need as Christians. You got to make sure you're in the Bible, increasing your faith in God, because of the fact that if you're listening to me talk right now and you're like, Oh, I don't believe it. It's probably because you're not reinforcing your faith with the Bible. We have to constantly read the Bible to reinforce our faith and believe that we're going to see that goodness in our lifetime. That's what he says. Wait on the Lord. Be of good courage. What does that mean to be of good courage? It's like, you know what? I believe we're going to see it. I'm going to be courageous in the Lord and I know God's going to come through. I'm going to have a pleasant disposition about it. I'm going to believe it. That's what it means to have good courage. He shall strengthen thy heart. Wait, I say on the Lord. So it requires faith, my friends. And you know what? You can ride off of my faith for a little bit, but ultimately you need to build up your own faith though. I can help you have faith that God's going to come through and I can preach to you. I can counsel you. I can give you a word of exhortation. I can remind you of the promises of God. I can just yell at you. I can say everything I possibly can. But at the end of the day, like ultimately, you need to build up yourself on your own faith though. You need to believe it on your own because I'm not going to be there seven days a week reminding you of God's promises. Like there comes a point where you have to walk with God on your own. You can walk with me as I walk with God, but I'm here to teach you how to walk with God and exercise faith in him. And you know what? We have meltdowns every once in a while, and that's perfectly fine. But I hope that when you have a meltdown, that drives you to the Bible. It drives you to the promises of God. It drives you to church and you stick it out because you have faith that you will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. And you know what? I don't care how messed up your situation is. I mean, I care, but I don't care as far as how severe it is because I know God can still come through. And I know, you know, sometimes people say, yeah, but you don't know my situation. I probably don't. You're right. You're probably right. I just don't know. No situation is too far gone where God can't fix it as long as you're waiting on him though. And you know what? Sometimes actually God provides a solution for your problem that you didn't come up in your little equation. You know, there's times we were like, oh man, nothing's going to work because here are all the variables and here are all the possible solutions and these are all off the table. Yeah, but you forgot one variable. It's called God. It's called the Bible. It's called the Lord. It's called the Red Sea miracle. It's called God providing a miracle for you. And you know what? His ways are higher than our ways, his thoughts than our thoughts. And you know what? Your finite little mind is not creative enough to come up with a solution. Sometimes it requires for you to just wait upon the Lord and have God provide that supernatural solution for you. Because I don't know about you, but like if I ever go through a problem in my life, I'm always trying to come up with a solution and a formula of how to fix it. But sometimes there is no formula and I'm just like, oh man, I don't know. I have no idea what I'm going to do. And at that point, I'm just like, I got to leave it in God's hands because he knows the beginning from the end. He knows all my thoughts. He knows the situation better than I know myself. And I kind of just have to leave it in his hands and wait upon him. Just exercise faith. Not only that though, look at verse number four. So waiting upon God requires for you to like trust in him. You know, you got to trust that God has your best interest in mind. A lot of times people don't think that. I know like at Faith's Valley, we say that, but sometimes people don't believe that. They think, oh yeah, that's true for so-and-so, but not necessarily for me though. No, he loves you too. Don't act all dramatic like that. Don't be a drama queen. The Lord loves you. He has your best interest in mind. He's going to come through for you. You're his child too. It's not like he just discards you as being some whatever, you know, he, he loves you. If you're, if you believed on his son, you're his child. You know, he cares for the outcome. You know, I think of Jeremiah, the book of Jeremiah, I think it's, uh, I forgot what chapter it is, but you know, he tells the children of Israel, I know the thoughts that I think of you thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end. And so he wants to give his children an expected end, but it only comes to those who wait on him. Not only that, but look at number two, look at verse four. It says, delight thyself also in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. So it also includes our desire. You know what that means? Like God wants you to, as you're, as you're waiting upon him, he actually wants you to like, I don't know, like enjoy his presence, enjoy the Lord, enjoy reading the Bible, enjoy serving him. He wants you to delight in him. I'm not all about that. I just need this answer right now. And if he can't do it, I'm just going to go somewhere else. Then you're not really ready for this. You got to delight yourself in the word of God. And here's the thing is that, you know, I'm not saying that you have to just do a back flip every time you read the Bible, but there should be some level of desire that you have to read the word of God. And it has to be like, every once in a while it has to be like, delightsome to read the Bible, to hear the word of God, to sing the hymns. Amen. To be in church, there has to be somewhat of a delight in that, that you find in that because you know what? You're only going to do something as long as you'd like to do it. You know, the reason why people keep coming back to our church, I'm going to tell you why, they like our church. And for those of you who are here tonight, you like the church. And for those of you who are going to be here till 10 o'clock at night tonight, you're weird. But I know that you really like the church. You know, and those of you who come three days, you know, you really liked the church. You know, how can we drag you here if you didn't like the church? You're obviously delighting in congregating with the brethren. That means, let me just say this, it means like you might like each other. You delight in the company of the believers here. You say, what about the people who are not here? I don't know. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just saying, you know, if you're willing to spend that much time with another, that means you're delighting in each other's company. And the only way you're really going to stick it out in the Christian life, the only way you're going to properly wait upon the Lord is if you actually enjoy doing it. I enjoy being a Christian. I enjoy reading my Bible. I enjoy winning people to Christ. I enjoy preaching the Bible. I enjoy the company of the brethren. I enjoy the battles of the Lord. I enjoy just living out the Christian life, which is why I've just stuck it out and just been here. And you know what? The only way you're going to stick it out is if you actually delight yourself in the Lord. Now, a way that this has been interpreted in times past, and I agree with this interpretation, because often people have said, well, the way we can get an answer to prayer is to delight ourselves in the Lord and He'll give you whatever you want. And obviously there's an application to that. But another application that I think is biblical is what it's saying here is that if you delight yourself in the Lord, He's going to give you like the proper desires. You understand? In other words, you know, as you read the word of God, your desires begin to change. Your app, your spiritual appetites begin to change. So as you read the word of God, as you delight yourself in His presence and in the word of God and in prayer, then He begins to give you His desires and you begin to love the things that God loves. And yes, even hate the things that He hates and even the people He hates. Amen. You begin to delight yourself in the word of God, your desires begin to change. And you know what? I'd rather much have that than have Him give me whatever desires of my heart that I already have. Because my heart is deceivable of all things, desperately wicked, who can know it? So I'd rather Him just give me a new heart with new desires, because, you know, whatever He wants for my life is better anyways. You know, you're like, yeah, but I want this model of a wife though. You know, some of you single is like, I want this Barbie wife. Yeah. Why don't you just ask God to give you the proper desire? Well, because it might not be a Barbie. Yeah. It might not be a Barbie. You're right. It's going to be something better. It's going to be someone who's not a Barbie, you know? Cause if you marry a Barbie, you might grow broke. You might run into all kinds of problems. You got to pay for plastic surgery. You got to pay for, you know, you got to pay for tummy tucks and you got to pay for Botox and you get see, that's your desire. And the Lord's like, brother, delight yourself in the Lord. And I'll give you the proper desires for the proper woman. You desire the whore and God doesn't want to give you the whore. He's like, let me give you a proper desire for a virtuous proper started one woman. Amen. And you're like, well, that's because you're not reading the Bible. You're not conforming your desires to the word of God. Okay. And so it's important for us to realize that, you know, in order for us to wait upon God for that desire that we, or that need that we have, you know, we all, we gotta be willing to just make ourselves vulnerable to the Lord and say, but Lord, if that's not the proper desire, then change my desires. Cause what if you have like this desire that you're praying to God for, and it's just not a proper desire. Shouldn't you be willing to just say, you know what, Lord, I delight in you and therefore change that desire. If that's not what you want, or are you afraid to ask that? Some people are afraid to ask that. Like, I don't want to, I don't want to ask that because he might answer it. You know, the better way to get a prayer answer from God is asking for things that he actually wants for you. Right. That's, that's the good, that's how you could get an Amazon prime style in two to three days overnight shipping of a prayer is if you actually get asked for that, what she actually wants you to have. And so, as you're waiting upon the Lord for that, you know, unicorn wife or whatever that you're looking for, you know, why don't you throw this in your prayer life, but Lord, if that's not what you want for me, then change my desires and work it out differently. I mean, do you trust God enough to do that? You should, right. It's not like God's like, I'm going to give them just the worst, ugliest, just God obviously has your best. Stop looking at the singles in here too. By the way, people folks, it's poor people. We're seeing everything. Just people are just staring right at it. You guys got to stop. Now that's not as bad as like a, my old church. I remember at my old church, like a sermon like this would be preached and the people were so comfortable with one another. They just call each other's name out. They'd be like, come on Christian. Oh, they just like, if they're sitting behind Christian, they just get up and grab a shoulder and people would just be like, oh man. But you know, don't, don't stare at them though. You know what I mean? They already know they're getting preached against right now. They don't need your eyes to just follow them. So then to confirm that the point that I'm making is that waiting upon the Lord actually requires for you to just ask God, change my desires. If it's not the right desire though, change my course of action, change the path. If this isn't the right way to go, Lord change it. Now that also requires a little faith, right? You know, mature my heart, change my course. If this is not what you want, but you know what? Do you really trust God? Then just pray that. And if you don't pray that it's because you're probably worried that he might change it. Now, not only that, but look at verse number five, as we're waiting upon the Lord requires our faith. It requires our desires, our delight, but it also requires this. Look at verse five, commit thy way into the Lord, trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass. And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light and thy judgment as the noon day. Now I think this is probably the primary thing that you can do when you wait upon the Lord. And in fact, I personally believe that waiting upon the Lord means this specifically, because what does it mean to wait upon someone? Well, think about this. What does a waiter do? You go to a restaurant and there's a waitress, a waiter, and what are they doing? They're serving you. So when you wait upon the Lord, it's not just like, you know what you're doing? You're going, Lord, can I do anything? Can I serve? And by the way, that makes the time go by faster anyways. So the best thing you can do when you're waiting upon the Lord for a specific answer to prayer is get to work, serve the Lord, win people to Christ, be a blessing in your church, commit thy ways unto the Lord, Lord, use my time, talents, resources for the kingdom of God, help me to get people saved. Because here's the thing, God will more readily answer the prayer to someone who's actually doing the work. Not for some lazy person who just doesn't want to do anything. God wants to help people who he knows are serving him and who, you know, if he answers that prayer will make them more effective in their service of the king. Commit your ways unto the Lord. You know, as you're praying work, if it seems to go south, keep working. If it's not going your way, keep working, keep committing your way unto the Lord. The Bible tells us in Proverbs 27 verse 18, you don't have to turn there. It says, whoso keepeth the fig tree shall eat the fruit thereof. So he that waiteth on his master shall be honored. The Bible says, what does it mean to keep the fig tree? It means you're taking care of it. So that was saying, if you are, you know, busy about keeping the fig tree, watering it, making sure that it gets proper soil, you're taking care of it, you're laboring, then you know what God's going to do? He's going to allow you to eat the fruit of that fig tree because the labor is worthy of his higher. One like manner, he says, so he that waited on his master, he's going to be honored. So if you want God to honor you, if you want God to honor your prayers, you know what you need to do is keep the fig tree. Go preach the gospel, find a job to do here at church, be a blessing to someone, commit your ways unto the Lord. Don't just pray for that specific answer to prayer and just do nothing at all. Why would he want to help you? Obviously, God wants to help us and he wants to bless us, but you know what? It's more likely he's going to bless the person who's actually doing something for him in spite of the fact that they're not getting their answer to prayer at this moment. They're exercising the faith needed and they're saying, you know what? I'm praying for this, but I'm a labor, I'm a work, I'm going to commit my ways unto you, et cetera. Look at Psalm 111, if you would, 111, Psalm 111. And let me just say this, like when Christians serve God at whatever capacity, they actually have a tendency to know more and have better discernment than those who don't serve God. It almost as if God actually endows more wisdom for decisions, more prudence for decisions to the person who's actually doing the commandments of the Lord. I mean, think about this, who do you think knows more about getting people saved? The scholar who's been studying all about the gospels and life of Christ, but just sits on his rear end and does nothing else, or the actual church member who's doing it on a weekly basis. The person who's doing it on a weekly basis knows more about soul winning than that freaking scholar. Oh, he has all these degrees and knows every single story, and he probably even has memorized the verses, but I guarantee you, you put that man in front of a lost person, he will not be able to get that person saved. Why? Because the person who's actually doing the work is actually the one who is going to be knowledgeable about these things, et cetera. God's going to endow that person with the wisdom, with the knowledge, because he's doing it. Look at Psalm 111 and verse 10. It says here, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Listen to this, a good understanding have all they that do his commandments. His praise endureth forever, the Bible says. So if you're doing his commandments, you're serving God, the Bible says you're going to have good understanding of things. You're just going to have good understanding of God's will. You'll have a better filter by which you can understand what's happening in your life, because he gives wisdom to those who are actually laboring, doing things for him, serving him. You don't have to turn there, but John 7, 17 says, if any man do his will, he shall know the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself. That's why I don't really give credit to any scholar online or something as being just these knowledgeable men of God who know the Bible and they got their master's degree, their whatever degree in theology, blah, blah, blah, because they're not doing the work. The person who's actually preaching the word of God, but they're laboring in serving God, that person is going to know what to do. That person is going to understand doctrine, fact. The point that I'm making here is that if you want an answer to prayer, you got to wait upon the Lord. But let me just say this, waiting upon the Lord means you're serving him simultaneously as you're waiting. Don't just be idle in your Christian life. And by the way, I'm not saying Christians do that here, but Christians have done this in times past where it's just like Christians place stipulations upon God or conditions upon him. It's just like, oh man, I'll serve you as long as I get a wife or I get a husband or I get this or whatever, none of that. Just serving because he's worthy to be served, because he deserves it, because he's worthy of it. And you know what? If we never got anything else other than salvation, it will still be worth serving God. Plain and simple. But thankfully we get a lot of things when we serve God. We get things that money cannot buy. Wait upon the Lord. The Bible tells us in Psalm 123 verse one, unto thee lift I up mine eyes, O thou that dwells in the heavens, behold as the eyes of a servant, look unto the hand of their masters. And as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress, so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God until that he have mercy upon us. So I want you to notice that. He's saying here, the way a servant looks unto the hand of their masters, meaning like trying to anticipate what is their master want. And the way a maiden, the eyes of the maiden unto the hand of her mistress, basically just waiting to see what does God want? In like manner, our eyes wait upon the Lord. In other words, trying to anticipate, what is it you want, Lord? You want me to be a blessing to someone? In other words, this person is looking for an opportunity to serve God. You see the servant looks for an opportunity to serve their master. The maiden looks for an opportunity to serve her mistress in the like manner of the believer should look for an opportunity to do good into all men, but especially those of the household of faith. That's what it is to wait upon the Lord. Look at Psalm 25, if you would, Psalm 25. In that same concept of waiting, it tells us in Psalm 25 verse one unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. Oh my God, I trust in thee. Let me not be ashamed. Let not my enemies triumph over me. Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed. Let them be ashamed, which transgress without cost. Show me thy ways, O Lord. Teach me thy paths. Lead me in thy truth and teach me for thou art the God of my salvation on thee. Do I wait all the day? You'd be surprised how many Christians out there can't discern the will of God. I mean, I've run into a lot of Christians online who can't understand just the basics of God's will. They're just confused even about the basics. But here it's telling us that when we wait upon the Lord, he'll lead us into thy truth. He will show us his ways. He will teach us his paths. And you know what? What I want from me and my family and my church, I want the path to be made completely straight. I want it to be clear exactly where we're going. But the only way we can do that is if we wait upon God and we serve him. And obviously, I'm not a fortune teller. I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow or next week or whatever. But based upon the Word of God, I know what we can expect. Based upon the Bible and the promises of God, I know that he's going to come through even if we can't see it in the short term. He can show us the way. He can direct our path. And so that's important. And lastly, go back to Psalm 37. Go back to Psalm 37. Look at verse number seven. It's all about waiting upon the Lord. Look at verse number seven. It says, rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him. Fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. Cease from anger and forsake wrath. Fret not thyself and any wise to do evil, for evildoers shall be cut off. But those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. So what is this talking about? Well, I believe that waiting upon the Lord also requires hope. And he says there specifically, rest in the Lord. In other words, you're just kind of patiently waiting without fretting. The New Testament would say, be careful for nothing. Right. And, you know, I think all of us, especially this last week, you know, everyone's been a little worried, a little stressed, a little anxious, a little angry, a little wrathful. Right. But what does the Bible tell us? Just rest in the Lord. Put it in God's hands, you know, and don't fret yourself because of him that prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. You understand? We as God's people just got to put it in God's hands sometimes. And, you know, sometimes people, you know, as Christians, we want to be the solution to the problem. We want to fix the problem. But sometimes it's just not that simple. Sometimes we just need to wait, rest, read the word of God, pray, win souls, go to church, take it day by day, week by week, just rest. Don't allow yourself to be anxious or full of care and worry, full of fears, doubts and anxiety. Sometimes you just got to just rest in the Lord. And you know what? You know, anxiety is like a big thing in our society now. Anxiety attacks and panic attacks and people just, you know, and obviously it has to do with like diets and too many energy drinks, you know, and too much coffee. And people are like, I don't know why I got so much anxiety. It's like, you know, you know, it has to do with a lot of that stuff. But then you, you add that to the accumulation of information being given on the internet. You know, you know about every single evil thing that's coming to pass around the world. You add on top of that elections, you add on top of that, just all these crimes are taking place. I mean, that induces a lot of fears and anxieties. It does. Right. And obviously, you know, we can't just hit a button and make everything go away. Now, obviously you can do things on a practical level, like just don't be on social media, you know, turn off that podcast, you know, that's constantly talking about elections and, you know, just get off of Facebook, get off of Instagram, get off of Twitter, X or whatever it is, and just get off. And you'd be surprised how much that actually reduces anxiety. You would be shocked how much that actually does for your Christian life. But you know, sometimes I feel like Christians are just addicted to anxiety. They're like, I'm trying to get rid of this. And they're just like, let me just check one last time. Let me just refresh one last time. And it's just like, are you going to see just more bad stuff, more deaths, more faggotry and filth and pollution and just nonsense. And then you get, you're like, you log out, you're like, I'm done, I'm done. And you're like, all right, just one, I want to see if someone responds or something, you know, you just refresh, refresh, you're addicted to anxiety. And then you're like, I don't know why I'm just stressed out all the time. I'm just trying to wait upon the Lord. No, you're not, you're waiting upon your social media. You're like serving your devices is what you're doing. You're serving Instagram, you're serving all these platforms. And then you wonder why you're freaked out all the time. Some people just, no, I'm not saying in our church, although there might be someone freaking out in our church, I don't know. But you know, if you don't do those things and you're not involved in it and you're still stressed out, then rest in the Lord. I'm just saying it's hard to rest in the Lord and do those other things at the same time. It's just like, you get your daily dose of like, you know, fear and Kamala and all this nonsense. And then you're just like, your heart is just beaten as you're laying down. It's just going, it's just racing. It's palpitating. And you're just like, I need to rest in the Lord. Yeah. But you know, one thing that will help is just not doing that before you go to bed. Now, if you like the forensic file type that you just, you'd like to watch a little forensic files before you go to bed, you know, you're just, you're just that type of person or whatever. If that, if that helps you, that helps calm you down. Just watching some serial killer documentary or something. It's just a little something some before I go to sleep tonight, you know, a little something that just chill me out a little bit, you know what I mean? Like, let me just watch this documentary about this serial killer in the 1700s. I like to just, you know, I'm a man of culture. I just like to, you know, whatever. I'm just saying, don't say that it's hard to rest in the Lord when you're doing all those things before you go to bed. Okay. Probably the worst thing you can do is go on your email before you go to bed. Worst thing you can do is just go to things that, you know, will induce your fears, anxieties, and doubts. You know, resting in the Lord is just, you know what? The world will continue to go out of hell in the hand basket. Just let them go. And just focus on your life. Focus on your family. Focus on your marriage. Focus on your church. Focus on souls. Folks, the world is going to hell. And you know what? It's going to go to hell whether you click on a post or not. And you know what? If you take a break from social media, you don't have to announce it. Who did he say? Who did he call out? Oh, say it again. If you, I'm just kidding. You know, you don't necessarily have to announce it. Guess what? Let me just break you off with a little piece of information. Nobody cares. Let me tell you another thing. Let me tell you something else. No one's going to miss you. Let me tell you, let me tell you something else. If you come back, didn't even know you were gone. Let me tell you something else. You're not that important. Let me tell you something. You suck. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just saying like, you don't have to announce like taking a break. People think that everyone's just having a meltdown or something. No. Why? Nobody cares, dude. I've taken so many breaks from social media and I don't tell anybody. And in fact, people ask me and I'm just like, why do I need to even, I don't even answer them. They're like, hey, everything all right? I'm just like, yeah. I mean, why do I need to check in on the internet or something? And you know what? I got 10,000 followers. I guarantee you the 99% of those people do not care if I'm gone. They don't. And I hate to break it to you. Your 50 followers don't care either. Your 200 followers don't care. They do care. They watch my stories because it just shows up on their thing. They're watching someone's stories that they do care about and accidentally went on yours. And because they don't want to seem rude, they hearted your post. But let me say this. If you never post anything again on your stories, no one's life is going to be destroyed. No one's going to be like, how am I going to live my life now? They didn't post anything on stories. What am I going to do? No one's going to be that way. So stop inducing your anxiety thinking that you're that important. No, I just have to post. I have to post. Now, if that's your livelihood, that's something else. But for most of us, 99% of us in this building, that's not our livelihood. But how do I know if people love me though? Let me just let you know another secret. Most of those people on social media don't love you. They don't even think about you. You just accidentally came up on their feed. They accidentally clicked on your stories. Most of them. And look, most of your stories, you're going to go home, click on a story of someone that you just saw 30 minutes ago. For me, it's just like, I just saw these people. It's just like, why don't you just look at each other in the face right here? It's like you don't say anything to each other while you're here, but you interact with each other when you're online or something like that. The point that I'm making is sometimes you do have to take a break from social media because it just creates too much anxiety. And you know what? Let me just say one more thing about that. You can actually delete your social media and don't worry, you won't explode. I know that's anxiety inducing there. And the only reason I don't delete my Instagram or log out is because I don't remember the password. I don't know. That's the only thing that produces a lot of anxiety for me. Because then I'm trying to log in and then it's just like wrong password. And then it's just like entering a new password. I entered a new one and they're like, the new one can't be like the old one. I'm like, bro, I thought you said that wasn't the password. But I actually have no issue with just letting it go. Because why? You said why? Because I got a wife. I got children. I got a church. And the world will continue to function and go straight to hell and just do whatever the heck they want without me with or without me. Instagram does not need me to post videos three times a week to keep them going doctrinally. And if that's what they need, they're weak. It's only a 60 second video, sometimes less. You know, and I'm not even like, you know, just rest in the Lord. You want to get rid of anxiety and stuff? Wait upon the Lord. Rest in Him. Have patience. What's the point that I'm making this evening? I'm going to skip some of these verses. I'm actually, I'm done. The point that I'm making today is that as Christians, we need to learn the virtue of how to wait on the Lord. Because all of us are going to have some specific need in our life, some problem to some, some solution to some problem that we have. And it's just like, what am I going to do? Well, this is what you do. You need to learn how to wait upon God. You need to learn how to rest in Him, how to trust Him and how to serve Him while you wait. Serve Him, work while you wait. How long? I don't know. Just until it comes. Thankfully, you know, it doesn't take, you still have, you have a lifetime. And sometimes, let me just say this, you know, you're waiting and then you're like, let's say a year down the road or even less. And then you realize like, I don't even want that thing that I was asking for anymore. I'm kind of glad God didn't give it to me. Why? Because your desires change. And so wait upon God, learn how to be a mature Christian to say, Lord, I leave this in your hands. I'm going to rest in you. I'm going to read the word of God. I'm going to serve in my local New Testament church, and I'm going to commit my ways into you. And Lord, change my delights, please. If I don't delight in the right things, help me to desire the right things. Give me the proper desires so that I can get these prayers answered that much faster. You know, give me the right desires. What is it that you want me to do? Put that in His hands. Let's see how that goes for you. Always going to work out. And so that's it. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your word. And God, I pray that you'd help us as your people to wait upon you as a servant does to his master, as a maiden to her mistress. Help our eyes to look upon you, Lord. And what is it that you want for our lives, for our families, for our marriages, for our children? I pray that you'd help us to commit our ways into you, Lord, that we may trust in you and know full well that we can see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. And that's often something that we need because we feel like we're going to faint sometimes and quit and throw in the towel. And we just need to have that hope that we will see the blessing of the Lord this side of eternity. And you promised that. And I pray that you'd answer those prayers in a special way. And Lord, I just pray also that you'd help us to conform our desires to yours. Help us to desire the things that you want for our lives, Lord. And sometimes we don't ask for the right things. We don't pray according to your will. And I pray that you'd help us to conform our hearts to the word of God, to love the things that you love, Lord, to desire the things that you would want for us. And that way it'll be that much more special when we do get them. And I pray you bless us as we go on our way. We love you. We thank you. Pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.