Patience and Waiting on the Lord

Probably great good morning if you would open your Bibles to

the book of Exodus chapter 24. It's interesting Ryan prayed

Exodus 24 · chapter mention

that we would dive into the Bible and we're going to cover a

lot of verses this morning. But I, I believe this is what

the Lord would have me to to speak on.

And I believe this is what he would have have us to see.

Exodus chapter 24, the Bible says beginning in verse one.

Exodus 24 · chapter mention

And he said unto Moses, this is the Lord talking to Moses, come

up unto the Lord, thou and Aaron and Nateb, and by who?

And 70 of the elders of Israel and worship ye afar off.

And Moses alone shall come near the Lord, but they shall not

come nigh, neither shall the people go up with him.

And Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord

and all the judgments, and all the people answered with one

voice, and said, all the words which the Lord has said will we

do. And Moses wrote all the words of

the Lord, and rose up early in the morning, and building an

altar under the hill and 12 pillars, according to the 12

tribes of Israel. And he sent young men to the

children of Israel, of the children of Israel, which

offered burnt offerings and sacrifice, peace, offerings of

oxen unto the Lord. And Moses took half of the blood

and put it in basins, and half of the blood he sprinkled on the

altar, and he took the book of the covenant, and read in the

audience of the people. And they said, All that the Lord

has said will we do, and be obedient.

And Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and

said, Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord hath

made with you concerning all these words.

Then went up Moses and Aaron, Natab, and by who?

And 70 of the elders of Israel. And they saw the God of Israel,

and there was under his feet, as it were, a pave work of a

sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his

clearness. And upon the nobles of the

children of Israel he laid not his hand.

Also they saw God, and did eat and drink.

And the Lord said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount,

and be there, and I will give the tables of stone, and the law

and commandments which I have written, that thou mayest teach

them. And Moses rose up in his

minister Joshua. And Moses went up into the mount

of God. And he said unto the elders,

Tarry ye here for us, until we come again unto you.

And behold, Aaron and her are with you.

If any man have any matters to do, let him come unto them.

And Moses went up into the mount, and a cloud covered the

mount, And the glory of the Lord abode upon Mount Sinai, And the

cloud covered it 6 days. And the 7th day he called unto

Moses out of the midst of the cloud.

And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire

on top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel.

And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and GAT him up into

the mount. And Moses was in the mount 40

days and 40 nights. And then turn over to Exodus

Exodus 32 · chapter mention

chapter 32. We saw in chapter 24 the people

of Israel not not once but twice said all that the Lord has said

we will do, we will obey. And we saw at the end of of

chapter 24 that the presence of God was manifested like fire on

the top of the mountain. So the people had seen the power

of God. They had seen Moses man be

called up to the mount and and depart with Joshua's minister

and the presence of God was so manifest that the 70 elders of

the people of Israel. God said don't even you

shouldn't you can't come up only Moses and Joshua can come up and

so Moses is there as the end of the chapter said 40 days and 40

nights. Then chapter 32 And when the

people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the

people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said

unto him, Up Make us gods which shall go before us.

For As for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the

land of Egypt, we want not what has become of him.

And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which

are in the ears of your wives, and of your sons, and of your

daughters, and bring them unto me.

And all the people break off the golden earrings which were in

their ears, and brought them unto Aaron.

And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a

graving tool. After he had made it, made it a

molten calf. And they said, These be thy

gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of

Egypt. And when Aaron saw it, he built

an altar before it. And Aaron made proclamation, and

said, Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord.

And they rose up early on the Morrow, and offered burnt

offerings, and brought peace offerings.

And the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to

play. And the Lord said unto Moses, Go

get thee down. For thy people which thou

brought us out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted

themselves. They have turned aside quickly

out of the way which I commanded them.

They have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it,

and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O

Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

And the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and

behold, it is a stiff necked people.

Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against

them, and that I may consume them, and I will make of thee a

great nation. Then one more passage turn to

the book of First Samuel, chapter 13.

1 Samuel 13 · chapter mention

First Samuel chapter 13. We'll start reading in verse 8.

1 Samuel 13 · chapter mention

This is when King Saul is preparing to fight the

Philistines. The Philistines have come

against Israel, verse 8. And he carried, Speaking of King

Saul seven days according to the set time that Samuel had

appointed. But Samuel came not to Gilgal,

and the people were scattered from him.

And Saul said, Bring hit her a burnt offering to me in peace

offerings. And he offered the burnt

offering. And it came to pass that as soon

as he had made an end of offering the burnt offering,

behold Samuel came. And Saul went out to meet him,

that he might salute him. And Samuel said, What has thou

done? And Saul said, Because I saw

that the people were scattered from me, and doubt that thou

came us not within the days appointed, and that the

Philistines gathered themselves together at Nick Mash.

Therefore, said I, the Philistines will come down now

upon me to Gilgal, and I have not made supplication under the

Lord. I forced myself therefore, and

offered a burnt offering. And Samuel said to Saul, Thou

hast done foolishly. Thou has not kept the

commandment of the Lord thy God, which he commanded thee, for now

with the Lord have established thy Kingdom upon Israel forever.

But now thy Kingdom shall not continue.

The Lord has sought him a man after his own heart, and the

Lord hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because

thou has not kept that which the Lord commanded thee.

You may look at these passages of Scripture and say, well, OK,

what do those have in common? The idea that I have it that

they have in common is impatience and failing to wait

with the children of Israel at Mount Sinai.

It was failing to wait for the Lord to do what he was doing

with Moses. And you can read the chapters

between chapter 34 and chapter 32 and you see all the commands

and instructions that God gave Moses about the Tabernacle and

the worship and everything. And the people of Israel got

impatient and and decided not to wait on him.

We know from studying Genesis and Exodus that especially in

Exodus, the people of Israel as a mass were very stubborn,

impatient, needy people. Remember how they complained

about the water? They complained about the manna,

they complained about the quails.

They didn't follow what God told them to do in instructions as

far as gathering the man and gathering the quails.

And when God is giving Moses the law, they got impatient and

wouldn't wait. Similarly with King Saul, Samuel

told him, I'm coming in a certain time, Saul, that time

passed. Saul was impatient, decided not

to wait and intruded into the priest's office and as a result

he lost his Kingdom. And you notice the scripture

said Samuel told Saul, God hath chosen a man after his own

heart. We know who that is because that

describes David. God said David is a man after my

own heart. So today I want to, I think the

Lord would have us to study patience and waiting on the Lord

and what the Bible says about it and then how we can do it.

And I hope it'll be a blessing. Let's have a word of prayer and

then we'll get into our study. Father, thank you again for the

opportunity to be in your house this morning.

Lord, I do pray you, you be with the pastor and his family and,

and Josh and Sarah and and Brian and Sarah.

Just take care of them today, Lord and his whole family.

Comfort them as only you can. Lord.

Lord, just bless us here as we we miss them.

But Lord, this is your house and this is the time for us to to

come and worship you and, and we want to do that in spirit and in

truth. And we pray that you would be

glorified in everything that's done.

Father, I pray you would speak through me exactly what you have

to be said here this morning and Sunday school.

May you be glorified in Jesus name, Amen.

So the Bible has a lot to say about waiting.

If you look at your concordance, the word wait is included in the

Bible multiple times and it has different meanings depending on

on the context it's in. But a few verses that that the

Bible talks about waiting. And it's interesting that that

David is the man after God's own heart because a lot of the

initial verses on waiting and waiting on the Lord particularly

are in the book of Psalms. I'm just going to go through

verses. If you want to write down the

references, you can. If you want to turn to them, you

can. But as you probably have already

noticed, I read kind of fast. So you know, if you want to just

write down the verses or if you want to come up after this,

after the service this morning. If you're curious about the

references, I'll be glad to give them to you.

But starting in Psalm chapter 25, verse one, David says unto

Psalms 25 · chapter mention

thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul?

Oh my God, I trust in thee. Let me not be ashamed.

Lot not my enemies triumph over me.

Yeah, let none that wait on thee be ashamed.

Let them be ashamed. What transgress without cause.

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.

And then in verse 21, let integrity and uprightness

preserve me, for I wait on thee. Then in Psalm chapter 27 verse

Psalms 27:14

14, David says, wait on the Lord, be of good courage and he

shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say on the Lord.

Then Psalm 33 verse 20, Our soul waiteth for the Lord.

Psalms 33:20

He is our help and our shield. Then a well known Psalm, Psalm

Psalms 37:7–9

37, verses 7 through 9 Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for

him. Fret not thyself because of Him

who prospereth in the way, in his way, because of the man who

bringeth wicked devices to pass. Cease from anger and forsake

wrath. Fret not thyself in any wise to

do evil, for evildoer shall be cut off.

But those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the

earth. Then Psalm 130, verses 5 and 6.

Psalms 130:5

I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I

hope my soul waiteth for the Lord.

More than they that watch for the morning, I say, more than

they that watch for the morning. Then the book of Proverbs

Proverbs 20:22

chapter 20 verse 22, say not thou, I will recompense evil,

but wait on the Lord, and he shall save thee.

Then a well known verse that that's cited off in Isaiah

Isaiah 40:31

chapter 40, verse 31. 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, and they shall walk

and not faint. Also in the book of Isaiah

Isaiah 64:4

chapter 64, verse 4. For since the beginning of the

world, men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, neither

hath the eye seen, O God beside thee, what he hath prepared for

him that waiteth for him. Book of Lamentations chapter 3

Lamentations 3 · chapter mention

and verse 25. The Lord is good unto them that

wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.

And finally the book of Acts chapter 1, verses four and five,

Acts 1 · chapter mention

and being assembled together with them, commanded them.

This is Jesus commanded them, the disciples, that they should

not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the

Father, which saith he, You have heard of me.

For John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized

with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.

These are Jesus last words to his disciples before he ascended

into heaven. And he tells them to wait for

the filling of the Holy Spirit. And so the, the Bible has much

more to say. There's, there's other verses I

could, I could to read to you and, and, and mention and, and

talk about. But for the sake of time, we, we

won't go into those. But again, if you look in your

concordance and just trace out all the verses that are that use

the word wait, it's amazing. And then waiting and patience.

There's there's amazing number of references in the Bible that

describe that and encourage it. But ultimately, as Christians

who know the Lord is our Savior, we're waiting for his return.

I mean that that that should be not only our hope and our

expectation and in a time like the pastor's family is going

through our comfort, but it should be our motivation.

He's coming back and those who we know or or who we believe

have not trusted Christ as our Savior.

The fact that he's coming back should motivate us even more to

be a witness to them and to work to reach them with the gospel.

Because if they don't trust him before he comes back, there may

be some opportunities during the tribulation for people to be

saved. But why?

Why let them wait if we can reach them or at least give them

the gospel? And, and, and we can't, we can't

save anybody and force anybody to be saved.

But, and the Lord doesn't tell us to do that.

He tells us to plant the seed to give them the gospel.

And that's what we're supposed to do.

And we've seen from the children of Israel in Saul's example,

that impatience and not waiting on the Lord results in sin and

error. And I think in our own lives,

you can think about something that that you were asking the

Lord for and you were praying about whatever it might be.

And you know, we're, we're great at saying, Lord, your will be

done. What we don't say is, but could

you do it right now? Because that's, that's what we

think it means. Lord, you know, I really need

the Lord, You know, we, we really need a building.

We, we really need this resolved.

And, and Lord, could you do it tomorrow?

And it's hard sometimes to to make ourselves say, Lord, I want

not only your will, but I want it in your time because both of

those are what's best for me or for our church or for whatever

the situation may be. And so how can we be patient and

wait on the Lord? And I've got five points with a

few verses that that we'll we'll discuss here.

And then, then we'll be done. First of all, we can pray for

patience, for God's direction, and for God's peace in the

situation because a lot of times when we're impatient, it's

because we just don't have peace.

It's like, I want this resolved. A very immediate example this

morning that the printer stopped printing halfway through the

bulletin printing. There was a toner cartridge.

It was out of toner and I'm tech.

I texted the pastor and he had told me last night when he

called me to talk about printing the bulletins, he said, yeah,

you can just call me or text me. So I'm sending him texts and

he's not responding. He's not responding, he's not

responding. And so finally I said, OK, I'm

going to give him till 9:00 and then I'll call him.

And I call him. It rang, rang, rang, went to

voicemail. I'm like, OK, he must not have

his phone on, but that's OK. And unfortunately, Doc came in

and said let me check with Josh. And so he got Josh and Josh

said, Oh, yeah, there's this box there.

Well, I had seen that box and it said toner black.

We needed a color cartridge. So I'm like, OK, that's black

toner. I'm not even open the box until

Josh said, yeah, open that box. And and that's where the toner

cartridge was. But I was getting all, you know,

like we need to get these bulletins printed, OK, We can

make do with 48 instead of 100. And I was getting really

impatient. Like, Lord, I need you to help

me with this. And, you know, anytime now would

be great. But it all worked out.

We got them all printed and it all worked out.

But you know, it's, it's we let ourselves get stressed sometimes

instead of just trusting in the Lord and asking him, you know,

Lord, you got this under control.

I know you want these bulletins printed so everybody can get a

bulletin. You're going to make it work one

way or another, or we're going to work it out.

You know, you're going to work it out without all the bulletins

being printed. So but First Thessalonians 517

again and a well known verse says pray without ceasing in

everything, give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ

Jesus concerning you. It didn't say in things that go

well, give thanks. It said in everything, give

thanks. So even when you're stressed and

you're feeling impatient and you're like, I really need this

to get done now. I, I, I just, I can't wait.

I can't wait. The service is getting ready to

start and we don't have the bulletins done.

And you know, it's like, Lord, thanks for the opportunity to be

here. Thanks that we printed 48

bulletins before the printer stopped, you know, or, or

whatever the case may be, but pray for patience, for God's

direction and for God's peace in the situation.

Secondly, this might be one of the hardest ones because it goes

with the second, with the Third Point as well.

But secondly, get our focus off of ourselves and where it needs

to be, which is on Christ. That's why we're here to serve

him and and and to carry out the ministry that he left us with

Hebrews 12/1 and two again, well known passage.

Wherefore seeing we are compassed about with so great a

cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin

which does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the

race that is set before us. Verse 2 looking unto Jesus, the

author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was

set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and

is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

You know, we try to do things in our flesh and you know, like it,

like the printer, the bulletin example, you know, I'm trying to

serve the Lord by getting things ready for the service.

That's a good thing. But when I forget to say, Lord,

I know you got this and I'm going to trust you to take care

of this and you're going to bring Doc in here and he's going

to get a hold of Josh and it's all going to be fixed.

But you know, when we try to to focus on ourselves, not only do

we contribute to our impatience, but we bring out that that part

of us that none of us really like to think about much, that

self-centered, selfish part of us that that says, I got this, I

can take care of this. And, and although we don't say,

Lord, I got this, I don't need you right now, we say it with

our actions. And, and so we need to, to get

the focus off of our off of ourselves and, and focus on

Christ and, and what he's wanting to do in US and through

US. Thirdly, again, sort of along

the lines of the second point, get rid of our pride.

Realize we're not in control. The Lord is.

Ecclesiastes Chapter 7 verse 8. Better is the end of a thing

Ecclesiastes 7:8

than the beginning thereof, and the patient in spirit is better

than the proud in spirit. Pretty direct point.

Isaiah 55 verses 8 and 9 talking about the Lord being in control.

Isaiah 55:8

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways

my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher

than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my

thoughts than your thoughts. You know, so many times we get

so stressed and impatient and worried about things that the

next day don't matter at all. And maybe not even the next day,

maybe the next minute or the next hour, you know, and, and we

look back and say, I was so stressed over that.

Why was I so stressed over that? It it all, you know, it, it

first of all, it wasn't that big a deal.

It didn't really matter. And, and second of all, it all

worked out. The Lord worked it out.

But I think part of that is, you know, we, we want the Lord to

work. And again, you know, Lord, I

want your will to be done in everything.

But could you do it on my timeline?

And I say it tells us, you know, the Lord said, my thoughts are

not your thoughts. You know, for the heavens are

higher than the earth. So are my ways higher than your

ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

The Lord's going to resolve this building situation in the way

and at the time that is best for Mount Victory Baptist Church.

Now we pray that the Lord would do it sooner because it's nice

to have a nice full church, which I hope we'll have this

morning in the preaching service.

But you know, it's restricting to some extent because a visitor

comes in and has a hard time finding a place to sit.

They may not come back because they had a hard time finding a

place to sit. So we want, we want that, but

but the Lord's going to work it out because he's got a plan that

goes all the way to the end of this world and every detail has

already been worked out and decided.

We don't know it. And that's a good thing because

we would probably do something stupid if we knew it.

But his ways are higher than I weighs.

He's in control. Then first Peter, chapter 5,

1 Peter 5:5–7

verses 5 through 7. Likewise, ye younger, submit

yourselves unto the elder. Yeah, all of you be subject 1 to

another and be clothed with humility, for God resisteth the

proud and giveth grace to the humble.

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God,

that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon

Him, for he careth for you again.

The Lord's got this, but it's so hard for our flesh to let go

sometimes. And it's so hard for us to, to

say, you know, I, I've tried to, to take care of this and either

I've gotten nowhere or I've gone backwards and, and Lord, I just,

I need to stop and I need to just trust you and need to let

you have it. And that's something we not only

need to do every day, but we probably need to do it many

times a day because there's so many things that come up during

the day. And life is so busy.

And, and it's easy to, to get so focused on what you got to do at

work or what you got to do around the house or what you're

doing serving the Lord at church or, you know, there's just so

much going on. And it's easy to get in the

flesh and, and, and to just say, well, I can do this.

You know, I've got, I've got to keep busy.

I got to, I got to keep doing this and, and I can take care of

it when we really need to just let the Lord have it.

You know, Paul said I die daily and that didn't mean physically

dying, but he died to self daily.

He, he sacrificed his flesh daily so that he could be

totally under the control and influence of the Lord.

We should realize, as the scripture tells us, one way to

get rid of pride is realize we have no reason to be prideful.

Isaiah 64 verse 6, again a well known verse.

Isaiah 64:6

We are all as an unclean thing and all our righteousness are as

filthy rags and we do, we all do fade as a leaf and our

iniquities like the wind have taken us away.

We have no reason to be prideful.

You know, God gave us all the breath that we breathe this

morning and gave us the ability to even get out of bed this

morning an hour earlier than we were used to.

But you know, without Him, we're nothing.

We're not even here. And so we have no reason to be

prideful and then finally realize that God is working in

our life. James chapter 1 verses one

James 1 · chapter mention

through 4. James, a servant of God and the

Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes which are scattered

abroad. Greeting my brethren, count it

all joy when you fall in the divers temptations, knowing

this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.

But let patience have her perfect work, that you may be

perfect and entire wanting nothing.

Patience is is not. You know, there's a saying

patience is a virtue, but it's a very difficult to obtain virtue

of you know, I know some people who are are are I, I consider

them to be very patient. Most of them are older than I am

and they've had the benefit of the wisdom of years and and

possibly the wisdom of their own experience back when they were

younger and weren't as patient as they are at the at the age

they are now. But you know, the Lord is

working in our life and he puts things into our life to

strengthen our faith and that the verse says the trying of

your faith worketh patience. And he's working on us all the

time as long as we're here and he leaves this year, he's still

making us. He's still working in our life

and and helping us to grow. Hopefully, if we have the right

heart to it and are willing to submit ourselves to him to allow

him to work on us and, and to to grow us as Christians into

better servants for him. I mean, the verse says that you

may be perfect and entire perfect there doesn't mean

literally perfect. I know that's been covered

before. It means complete wanting

nothing. And so get rid of our pride and,

and realize the Lord is in control and, and let him have

control and surrender ourselves to him #4 get busy serving the

Lord. And I realized that there's

almost an inherent contradiction because you can get, I think it

is possible to get too busy serving the Lord.

And sometimes when you get busy serving the Lord and get too

busy serving the Lord and you neglect the other parts of your

life, particularly your family and your own personal walk with

the Lord, that can cause the stress that leads to impatience

and, and leads you to, well, you know, I mean, I can't, I can't

tell the pastor I'm not going to do this, that I don't have time,

you know, or I can't not show up for visitation today when I

really need to spend time at home or, you know, whatever the

case may be. And, and you really get

impatient with how things are going and you get impatient with

yourself, which doesn't help you.

And indirectly, you're impatient with the Lord because so many

things are going on in your life and you can't seem to find a way

to, to get it all to fit together and just straighten

out. But but fundamentally, one of

the ways to, to, to be patient and to, to wait on the Lord is

to be serving the Lord. There's the old saying, and I

don't mind is the devil's workshop.

You know, a mind that isn't saturated in God's Word is also

the devil's workshop. You know, get busy serving the

Lord. But, but, but make sure you have

a good, solid, consistent walk with him that requires, in my

opinion, and and I think the scriptures back this up.

You need to be in the word of God every day.

I'm not going to say how much because that's something I think

the Lord can show you, but you need to be in the word of God

every day and you need to have a time of prayer every day.

That's how you maintain that walk with the Lord.

And and that's also, I think how he gives you the peace to be

patient. The Bible, so incredible.

This has been said many times before.

I know you've all heard it several times, but you know you

can read the same passage 10 different times and get 10

different things out of it. And it's the exact same words,

but the Lord uses it in different ways as you read it

and you open your heart and your mind to it that you know it can

change you if you will open your heart and allow it to change

you. And you can see things.

It's like I never saw it that way before.

And and so getting busy serving the Lord is another way to to to

develop patience. And then the last point, and I

think all these points are important, but the last point

claim God's promises Isaiah 26 three that will keep him in

perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee because he

trusteth in thee. Think about that.

That will keep Him in perfect peace.

I have a hard time imagining exactly what that's like.

I hope I've experienced it some. Because I've trusted the Lord

and I've kept my mind on Him. But I mean, think about what the

Lord is promising there. But it requires whose mind is

stayed on thee, because He trusteth in thee.

You know you can't keep your mind on the Lord if you're not

trusting Him, and I think the opposite is true too you You

can't necessarily trust him without keeping your mind stayed

on him and and staying in his word and realizing all of the

promises that he's given us. Hebrews 13 five Let your

conversation be without covetousness and be content with

such things as you have. For he has said, I will never

leave thee nor forsake the. You know, the pastor preached a

message not long ago about how to how to be content, how to

live a life of contentment. And that was one of the verses

he he used. And and that's a very well known

verse to talk about. Be content with such things as

you have. But but look at the back half of

the verse, the second-half of the verse where he has said I

will never leave thee nor forsake thee.

That's a promise. No matter where we go, no matter

how far we stray, he's always there and he's always ready for

us to renew our relationship with him and and to renew our

fellowship with him. No matter how far we strayed.

You know, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to

forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all

unrighteousness. If we straight away, he's always

ready to take us back. How many people do you know like

that? You know, there's a lot of

people that, you know, if you have done something that

offended them or or hurt them in some way, they're A1 strike

person. You get one strike with them and

then they want nothing to do with you.

You know, I guess to use a modern technology term, they

will ghost you. Not that I even really know what

that means, but you know, but think about all that the Lord

did for us to save us. And then when we disobey him or

we walk away from him, he's still standing right there

saying, I'm ready to take you back.

There are conditions, but I'm ready to take you back and I'm

ready to have the same relationship and and fellowship

with you that we had before you decided to walk away.

And so clean that promise. Finally, James chapter 5, verses

James 5:7

7 and 8. Be patient therefore, brethren,

unto the coming of the Lord. Behold the husbandmen,

husbandmen waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and

hath long patience for it, until he received the early and latter

rain. Be also patient.

Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.

We were talking yesterday, George and I were talking about

the service and, and the order of service and everything.

And he said, well, you know, normally the pastor when he gets

up and Sunday mornings we do him and then he, he reads an article

or, or a missionary letter or something about, you know,

something that's going on. And, and I said, yes, we're like

current events type of thing. And I said, well, I don't know

that I have anything like that. And he said, well, you know,

prophecy and, and the Middle East war, but not jokingly.

I mean, look at what's going on in in the Middle East right now.

And in the Book of Revelation, Jerusalem is the center.

There's a lot of stuff that happens in other places in the

Book of Revelation, but it all centers around Jerusalem.

And, you know, it is what's going on over there now a a late

stage to the to the end times. And in the latter days and the

coming of Jesus could be, you know, we keep thinking about the

man. It's, it's so bad, you know,

things are so bad. The Democrats are so bad, the

liberals are so bad. You know, they, they trying to

do this and trying to do that and abortion and, and all of

these things. And, and I agree wholeheartedly

that in my lifetime, the things I've seen in my lifetime, George

and I again were talking yesterday during the the Bible

time about back when we were younger and when I grew up in

North Carolina, on Sundays in Winston Salem, NC, there was I

think 1 restaurant that you could eat at.

I don't believe any gas stations were open, No grocery stores, no

department stores. You know, there were no shopping

malls way back then, which tells you how old I am.

But, you know, people respected the Lord's Day and we were, in

my opinion, a much more peaceful society and less stressful

society because of that because we took that day as a day of

rest. Whether even the people I knew,

some people in my neighborhood that they didn't go to church

for all indications, they were not saved, but they didn't mow

their yard on Sunday. There were no Little League

games on Sunday. There was no travel sport that

that kids do on Sundays. It was it was a much simpler

time and and so in my lifetime, things have in my opinion gone

down and and in a negative direction substantially.

But let us not forget that the apostle Paul thought he was

going to go up in the rapture. Then we should, you know, talk

about the rapture and, and then we shall we all be together with

the Lord in the air. And back then, they weren't

worried about losing their tax exemption or maybe being

arrested for preaching on the street.

They were worried about having their head cut off.

And at least in America, we haven't gotten to that point

yet. I acknowledge there are some

places in the world that Christians are being murdered

just because they're Christians. But but it hasn't happened in

America. And so is the Lord going to be

coming soon? I hope so.

I hope so. It's like the last verse in

Revelation. Even so, come Lord Jesus,

because it's only going to be great when he does come for us.

But Jesus was very careful, particularly in the Olivet

Discourse and in other places in the New Testament to tell his

disciples, not only does not any man know the day or the hour of

the coming of the Lord, he didn't even know, only his

Father knows. And so we, we can't get as as

one phrase I've heard, and I probably won't get it exactly

right. We can't get so heaven focused

that we're earthly worthless because we're not in heaven yet.

We know we're going to be there one day, but we're here to do a

work for the Lord. And I think one of the ways we

can do that work in a more effective way is if we strive to

be more patient and we strive to wait on the Lord.

And ultimately it comes down to do you really believe that his

way and his time is the absolute best solution to whatever the

issue is, whatever the issue is, because it is.

I mean, the Bible tells us that very clearly.

And do you also believe that his ways and his knowledge is so

much higher than ours that we almost insult him by trying to

do things in our flesh as opposed to saying, Lord, I

surrender this to you. You work through me to get it

done. Use me as a tool in your hand to

get it done, because in my flesh I can do nothing good.

And so when we serve the Lord, let's try to to be more patient

and, and, and try to focus on waiting on him and trusting him

because that's really what it comes down to.

Waiting on him is trusting him that he's going to do it in his

time. I hope this has been a blessing.

Let's have a word of prayer and then we'll be dismissed.

Father, again, thank you for the opportunity to be in your house

this morning and to open your word and, and to look at your

word and, and search for wisdom and guidance to live our lives

in a way that's pleasing to you. Father, I pray that you would

help us to be more patient and Lord, to wait on you and let you

work your work in your time in our lives and in our ministries

and in our church. Father, just blessed now.

I pray that you would bless in the next hour.

Blessed Brother Jim, as he preaches, give him exactly the

message we need. Lord, fill him with your Holy

Spirit. And Father, help us to open our

hearts to receive it. Lord, most of all, if there's

anybody with us this morning who's never trusted Jesus as our

Savior, I pray, Lord, that today would be the day of salvation.

Lord, again, bless the Boots family, take care of them,

comfort them, keep them safe if they're traveling today.

Lord, and just have your way and will and everything that's done.

Father, may you be glorified in everything we do here in Jesus

name, Amen. Thank you.