Tony Evans - Waiting on God (05/20/2017)
Using Joseph's story and Psalm 105, this sermon explains that waiting on the Lord means trusting Him without going outside His will, even through delays, because God uses waiting to accomplish bigger purposes and to test and deepen us, while renewing our strength in miraculous ways.
The Frustration of Waiting—Especially on God
If the truth be told, and we were being totally honest, most of us do not like waiting. Particularly if we are waiting for something to change or something to get better. Waiting can be a very frustrating experience.
But the worst kind of waiting of all is waiting on God. When God forces you to wait for things to get better in your life, for things to improve, to change, to reverse, and nothing is happening.
And yet, over and over again in the Bible, we are told to wait on the Lord. For example, the psalmist says in Psalm 130, verses 5 and 6. I wait for the Lord. My soul does wait. In His word do I hope.
My soul waits for the Lord. He says in Psalm 27, verses 13 and 14. I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord. Be strong and let your heart take courage. Yes, wait for the Lord.
What Does It Mean to Wait on the Lord?
What does it mean to wait for the Lord? Waiting on the Lord biblically means to not go outside of God to resolve your issue.
James chapter 5 talks about this a little bit. When James says in verse 7, therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming, that is the divine intervention of the Lord.
The farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it until it gets the early and late rains. You too be patient. Strengthen your heart for the coming, that is the intervention of the Lord is near.
Do not complain, brethren, against one another, so that you yourselves may not be judged. Behold, the judge is standing right at the door.
As an example, brethren, of suffering and patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. We count those blessed who endured.
You have heard of the endurance of Job, having seen the outcome of the Lord's dealing, that the Lord is full of compassion and mercy.
But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or on earth or with an oath. But let your yes be yes, your no be no, so that you do not fall under judgment.
He says, wait on the Lord. Do not go outside of God. Because if you go outside of God to make it happen apart from God, you delay God in his intervention.
One of the ways you know you are delaying God is you are spending a lot of your time complaining instead of worshiping.
Negatively, waiting on God means not going outside of God to resolve the issue. What it does mean is obeying God as you wait, based on his revealed will from the word.
Because you will never see what he plans to do in secret unless he sees you are obeying what he has revealed.
God does not tell you everything he is going to do, but what he has told you, he expects you to do until he shows you what you do not know that he will do.
So when you are tempted to complain about the waiting, that is an invitation to worship.
What Is God Doing While We Wait?
So that raises the question. What in the world is God doing while I wait? What exactly is he doing? While I am waiting.
Two things are happening. If you are a serious Christian, two things are happening while you are waiting.
And nothing and no one illustrates these two things like the story of Joseph. I want to take you to a passage in Psalm chapter 105.
Where the psalmist rehearses God's plan and work through Israel. And he comes to the Joseph story of the plan that took place in Genesis.
But the psalmist is rehearsing it for us in Psalm 105. And he, God, called for a famine upon the land. He broke the whole staff of bread.
He sent a man before them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave. They afflicted his feet with fetters. He himself was laid in iron.
Until the time that his word came to pass. The word of the Lord tested him. Three words. Until the time. Until the time. Until the time.
There was a timing aspect to Joseph's life.
Reason One: God Is Doing Something Bigger
We are told he sent a man, Joseph. Do not miss that. He sent Joseph. But wait a minute. How did he send him?
One reason that God has you waiting, me waiting, us waiting for various things is he is doing something bigger than you.
I know you are going through it. But what he is doing is bigger than you. Why did he send Joseph? He said he sent Joseph before them.
In other words, he sent Joseph ahead of his other brothers and Jacob, his father. He sent Joseph ahead to prepare the way for the rest of the family to come in order to build the nation in the land of Egypt.
So while Joseph was the one being sent, he was being sent for a bigger purpose. That is why when Joseph finally realized what God was doing, he says, God sent me here to save y'all.
One of the reasons you are waiting is because God is up to something bigger than just you.
But how did he send him? Well, guess what? His brothers got jealous of the coat of many colors his father made for him.
That got him thrown into a pit. He was thrown into a pit. His brothers sold him to the Ishmaelites as a slave.
He wound up being taken in slavery and sold in Egypt to Potiphar's house. Once in Potiphar's house, it looked like things were getting better until one day he is accused of rape.
Even though he did not commit rape, he is thrown in jail. Guess how God sent him? He sent him through things that went wrong in his life.
He sent him through things that were going backwards in his life. He sent him through one negative situation after another negative situation.
And he is miserable while God is sending. He is miserable, not knowing whether he is going to live or die.
And God is saying, oh yeah, I got to get you out of here. And I am going to create negative situations to get you out of here.
God is doing something bigger than just you. There are rarely serious Christians who do not run into divine detours to their destiny, their deliverance, or their purpose.
Reason Two: God Is Testing and Deepening Us
There is a second reason that he has us waiting. He says it in verse 19. Until the time that the word came to pass, that God fulfilled what he was going to promise to do.
The word of the Lord tested him. What is a test? A test is an adverse circumstance that God allows to come into your life for your spiritual development.
He says it was done to test him. Because God is after something deeper. And because he knew what he planned to do with Joseph to make him the second ruler in the kingdom of Egypt, he had to take him deeper.
So he had to take him through some stuff because where he was taking him, God tests to take us deeper and further.
To do what he did with Job. Does he only worship you for stuff? Does he only worship you because you made him rich? You blessed him.
You gave him all his stuff. You take that stuff away. And let us see whether he still worships you.
You know, I worship him for who he is. Well, God says, we will see. We will see. We will see.
Because it is easy to worship him when nothing is wrong. It is easy to worship him when the tree is full.
It is easy to worship him when the account is thick. It is easy to worship him when the health is tight.
It is easy to worship him when the pain is gone. But do you worship me because I am who I am and not only for what I can do for you?
The Sovereignty of God in the Waiting
The second most important spiritual truth in your life—the first one is the gospel where you hear the good news of Christ and you accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior.
That is the most important thing you can do. But then the second truth is the key to living your life. Theologically, it is called the sovereignty of God.
It means God is in control of all the circumstances, good and bad. See, if you do not believe and understand that God is sovereign, then you will be talking about luck and chance and maybe and perhaps and them people and that circumstance.
See, you will be looking at all the stuff and missing the God who allowed it.
That is why you can give thanks to God with the negative because the negative only got to you when it passed through His fingers by permission.
And we are not talking about when you are rebelling and sinning against God, then you brought on the negative.
We are talking about when you are trying to follow God, you are trying to obey God, you are trying to serve God, and bad things are happening, negative things are happening.
Do not lose sight of the sovereignty of God. And neither did Joseph.
Genesis chapter 45. He finally hooks up with his brothers. Now, he had been going through this from the time he left home to the time he leaves prison. That is 13 years.
It is almost 22 years by the time he reconnects with his brothers who sold him into slavery.
Look at what he says to his brothers who are now scared to death because he is now the second in charge.
And he does not know whether he is going to kill them or what he is going to do to them. They are terrified.
And he comes and he says in Genesis chapter 45, verse 5. Do not be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here.
For God sent me before you to preserve life. Look at verse 7. God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth and to keep you alive by a great deliverance.
Verse 8. But God, he made me a father to Pharaoh. Verse 9. God has made me Lord over all of Egypt.
Wait a minute. He is talking to the folk who sold him. You sold me, but God sent me.
There may be a boss in your life, a co-worker in your life, a mate in your life, and they are creating misery for you.
But if you view the sovereignty of God, they may be doing their thing, but God is doing his thing.
And once you keep in mind that God oversees even the negative while you wait, it changes your perspective as you wait.
How Do We Know God Is With Us in the Waiting?
So how do you know when you are waiting on God that God is still with you? Isaiah 40.
If you take this one with you, you will make it while you wait. Isaiah chapter 40, verse 27.
Why do you say, O Jacob, and assert, O Israel, my way is hidden from the Lord? And the justice due me escapes the notice of my God.
In other words, where are you, God? Where are you, God? I cannot find you, God. It is not fair, and you do not even see it is not fair.
God answers, do you not know? Have you not heard the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, does not become weary or tired?
His understanding is inscrutable. You cannot figure him out. So, his understanding is inscrutable.
You cannot figure God out. Only by what he reveals, but you cannot figure God out.
So, trying to guess and asking a million people who are lost and waiting like you are? He says, my ways are inscrutable.
But he says, I am not sleeping. I do not get weary. Neither do I get tired.
Well, God, how do I make it in the meantime? He answers. He gives strength to the weary.
And to those who lack might, he increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly,
yet they who wait for the Lord. So, now we are back to waiting. Here is how you know God is with you while you wait.
He gives you new strength. That is what he says. He gives new strength.
God says, the way you know that I am with you is I recharge you when you are running out of juice.
Three Ways God Renews Our Strength
And he says, I recharge you in one of three ways. The first way, those who wait upon the Lord, verse 31, will gain new strength, a strength you did not have before.
One, they will mount up with wings like eagles. An eagle who gives birth to eaglets puts sharp objects in the nest, thorns and broken tree limbs and things that are sticking.
Then she covers the nest with leaves and soft things over top the thorny things.
So that as the eaglets in the nest grow, she wants to kick them out of the nest. So when they get bigger, she takes the soft things away, leaving behind the sharp things to create an irritation.
So now the eaglets are irritated and want to get out of the nest. Because the eagle says, it is time for you to fly on your own.
So things have become so uncomfortable in the nest that she pushes them out because they are too irritated in the nest.
But when the eagle sees that the eaglet cannot make it, she swoops down with eagle wings.
And her talons reach down and catches the falling eaglet on her wings and delivers it back to the nest until it is time to try it again.
When God sees that you are falling and you are not going to make it, he swoops down out of nowhere and catches you by his grace and lifts you out of that situation.
It is called divine intervention. When God comes out of nowhere, brings something into your life that catches you when you thought you were going to lose your mind.
That catches you when you were ready to quit. What he is letting you know is, I am not ready to change it, but I do want you to know I am here.
And so he swoops down. That is one way.
Way number two. He says, they will run and not get tired. This is when God gives you a second wind.
This is when you are running and you know you get to that place when you are running when you do not think you can make it.
But if you keep going, you pick up this second wind. This ability to go further than you thought you could go.
So what he does is he kind of runs alongside you. He sees you huffing and puffing and he will pat you on the backside.
Come on, come on, come on. You can make it. And all of a sudden you want to know where this second wind came from.
And how can I keep going? That is called new strength. He does not swoop down and lift you out of it.
What he does is come alongside and keeps you going in it. He gives you the ability to pick it up.
Sometimes it is through a sermon. Sometimes it is through an encouraging word.
Sometimes it is through a momentary change in your circumstance that says, all you can do is say, oh, thank you for that, Lord.
There is a third way. He closes with the third way. He says, and you shall walk and not become weary.
This is when God does not swoop down and deliver you out of it. Eagle's wings. He does not give you a second wind.
You got to walk. You know when you have to walk? When you are hurting too bad to run.
But if you were to watch that, the folks who were walking were folks who were walking with somebody.
They were talking along the way. See, sometimes when you cannot run, and all you can do is walk because it hurts too bad to run.
God provides some encouragement along the way. Something just to talk to you.
And you know the beauty of encouragement? It makes you forget you are walking.
Because you are talking and you are fellowshipping and you are going along.
That is why God created the church. So that you do not have to walk alone.
So that you do not have to be by yourself. Church is not just for sermons and for songs.
It is so that you do not have to walk alone. You do not have to stand alone.
You do not have to be by yourself. You know they have got these moving sidewalks.
So when folks have a lot of luggage, they get on the moving sidewalks.
The moving sidewalk is underneath them. So you can walk, but while you walk, you are being carried.
Because you cannot leave the heavy stuff behind. You need something to lighten the load.
And some of you here today, you are carrying too much luggage. You are carrying too much weight.
It is too heavy to walk on your own. So God provides a moving sidewalk.
Something to undergird you as you walk until the load gets lifted.
But whether it is swooping down, running, or encouragement by walking, in either way you get new strength as you wait on the Lord.
A Closing Story: Don't Check Out—Check Up
Let me remind you of the story of the little girl who went shopping with her mother.
Her mother passes the cookie aisle. She says, Mom, please for some chocolate chip cookies.
Mother said, No, you have had too many sweets today, no cookies.
Mother goes down another aisle. The daughter in the shopping cart said, But Mom, I really want some chocolate chip cookies.
She said, I told you, you had too many sweets today. I am not getting you any chocolate chip cookies.
Mother goes down another aisle, she says, but mama, you do not understand, I need some chocolate chip cookies.
She said, no, what you need is a spanking, because I told you, stop worrying me about chocolate chip cookies, you have had enough sweets today.
Her mother is in the checkout line. While in the checkout line, a little girl stands up, clasps her fingers and looks up to heaven.
She says, Jesus, last week in Sunday school, they taught us if we called on you, you would meet all of our needs.
Jesus, I need some chocolate chip cookies. But my mama will not get me, Jesus, any chocolate chip cookies.
The lady then back of the mother said, why will not that woman get that girl some chocolate chip cookies?
The mother got so embarrassed, she went and got a whole bunch of chocolate chip cookies.
The girl stood up and said, thank you, Jesus, for answering my prayer when I called on your name.
Some of you here today, you may be in the checkout line. You may be wanting to throw in the towel on God.
You may be wanting to give up because you waited too long. Just do me a favor.
Before you check out, check up. Because God may turn things around when He sees you are fully committed to Him.