Patience For When The Goalposts Move | May 4, 2025 PM

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The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist

Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us

or contact us at my libertybaptist.org or just look

us up on Facebook. And now we hope that this

message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.

Second Samuel and chapter #2 is where we will be in the Word of

God this evening. And I'm thankful that we have a

word we can trust. We talked about that this

morning. I'm thankful that in a world

where nothing seems to make sense, it's the Word of God that

is truth and that is our anchor. And we're going to look to that

very word this evening to help us to deal with the issue of

patience. And the title of the message is

patience for when the goal posts move.

Patience for when. The goal posts move.

You know, to me one of the more interesting proverbs that you

will find in, well, the book of Proverbs would be Proverbs

Proverbs 13:12

chapter 13, verse 12, which says this hope deferred maketh the

heart sick, but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.

Now that verse basically means this.

When you are waiting for something and it's delayed, it

hurts. It causes some emotional

distress that causes some emotional pain and we can

understand that because there are many times in life where we

think something is going to be a certain way or something is

going to happen at a certain time period, but yet it is

delayed out of no fault of our own and sometimes maybe doesn't

even take place at all. A man waiting for a long promise

promotion ends up feeling defeated when the position is

given to someone else. A child waiting for their

birthday finds out that they're not going to be able to have the

party that they wanted to have on the day of their birthday.

And I think that's pretty much been all of our children every

year for the last several years. But the idea is 8.

Your birthday's, we're going to give you a little bit of cake

today. But you know, that stuff that

we're going to do, we're going to have to do it at a later

date. Hope deferred.

Make it the heart sick, a patient praying for healing, or

a patient waiting for a procedure to take place that's

told it's not coming. At the time play, at the time

frame that you thought it would be coming, that can cause a

great amount of distress. A family saving for a home

thinks they have enough, but then the market changes and all

of a sudden what they thought they had wasn't enough.

A missionary, we've seen this before, haven't we?

Where missionaries thought they were going out to the mission

field and then something like a, you know, a COVID happened and

all of a sudden a country that was open to the gospel is now

closed. They're not giving visas any

more to missionaries. And we've had our own

missionaries like the Mallards that we support here who thought

they were going to Australia and now are in Poplar Bluff, MO.

And I don't know about you, but I can't think of two places that

are much different than Australia and Poplar Bluff, MO

Amen. But things change in life, don't

they? We think it's going to be one

thing and it ends up being something else.

And one of the ways that we commonly put that is someone is

moving the goal posts or life as move the goal posts.

And the thought process of that is this.

If you're playing football, you know where the end zone is, you

know where the goal posts are if you have an idea of how far you

need to go because that distance is fixed, isn't it?

It's 100 yard field, It's a 10 yard end zone.

And then there is a goal post to follow unless you're playing

Canadian rules football and for some reason they thought about

putting the goal posts right in the middle of the end zone.

That doesn't seem very smart to me all things considered.

But could you imagine thinking I've got 100 yards to go, I've

got to go from end zone to end zone to score.

And then you get about 90 yards and they said, oh, by the way,

we've extended the field, it's another 20.

And then you go that 20 and say, oh, by the way, can't score yet.

You got to go another 30. That's called moving the goal

posts. You think you're going to get

where you're supposed to go and all of a sudden it's a little

bit further. It's a little.

Bit more out. Of reach so let me ask you this

question and I think I know the answer but let me ask it anyway

because I you know this is kind of what preaching is I'm going

to ask the question make you think about it for a second how

do you respond when the goal posts move in life now if you

raise your hand that's what I thought OK that's nobody all

right we don't do well with it do we when we think something is

going to happen at a time in which it's supposed to happen we

are OK with that but then when the time frame is switched.

It kind of causes some problems. Doesn't I remember mentioning

that surgery this morning that I had four years ago?

I remember when I was given a surgical date in early April and

I was told that the surgeries have was about 3 weeks away.

And I'll be honest with you, I was happy about that because I

just wanted to get the procedure done.

So I started calling the preachers that were going to

fill in for me. I said I got the date now will

you do this week and will you do this week and you take care of

this week. Had to fill up two months, as

you remember, of pulpit supply because I was going to be out.

And then about a day later that same office called me and said,

hey, by the way, remember that date we gave you?

We're going to have to move it by about a month and a half.

And I just wanted to reach through that phone.

And anyway, we'll stop right there.

But anyway, it, it wasn't kind because I thought I, I, I just

took care of all the stuff and now I've got to do it.

Now I've got to think about this for an extra month and 1/2 on

top of everything else that's going.

Listen, most of us don't react well when life doesn't go the

way we want it to go. Now here's David.

Do you think? David's life has gone the way

that he expected it to go when he was sitting in the pasture.

The answer is no. Do you think he was ever sitting

in the pasture with visions of grandeur of someday becoming the

king of Israel? No, but yet God met him there

and he was anointed king. But yet from that point on, did

anything that followed after that go according to plan?

Well, the answer is still no, because it wasn't an easy road

to the throne, was it? No, it was.

Saul all of a sudden has this jealousy issue with him, and

then Saul wants to kill him. And then he's on the run for

about 15 years and he's not sure when he's ever going to be able

to ascend to the throne. And now he's found out that Saul

and his best friend are dead. And so because of that, listen,

we know that he had sorrow. Remember, why waste your tears

on soul? We saw that a few weeks ago and

we talked about David truly lamenting the loss of Saul, even

though Saul had done great harm to him.

Because there was something that was was was taken care of inside

of David's heart and life that was able to help him to look at

this with the proper perspective.

Again, not with rose colored glasses, but looking at the full

perspective as God had led him through his life.

And so all this has happened, but through it all, guess what?

David's going to finally ascend the throne.

It's been about 15 years, give or take, but he's finally going

to make it to the throne. What could go wrong?

Well, it just so happens that David's ascent to the throne

isn't what anyone thought it would be.

And in fact, it's like something that came out of a movie script

or a made for TV script where a character that no one's ever

heard of just all of a sudden appears a distant relation to

Saul. Well, not distant by blood, but

distant in the sense that we've never heard of him, we've never

seen him before, and all of a sudden he's elevated to the

throne that David's supposed to be on.

So what do you do when hope deferred makes the heart sick?

What do you do when you expect one thing and life hand you

something else? David responded with patience.

Now, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to be honest with you

from our perspective, but I think David can teach us some

lessons this evening to help us to learn and when life doesn't

go the way we want it to go. And let's be honest, I'm 42

years old. If you'd asked me years ago

would I be where I am at 42, I had no idea.

I would not have said 20. Yeah, I'll have a major surgery.

We'll have these children. We'll do all this.

I'm not even saying good or bad. I'm just saying just nobody

knows, right? Because the future is the

future. But how do we?

When life doesn't go the way we expect it or wanted it to go,

David gives us the key. Will you stand please for the

reading of God's Word? Second Samuel chapter #2 The

universe #1 where it says. And it came to pass after this,

that David inquired of the Lord, saying, Shall I go up into any

of the cities of Judah? And the Lord said on him, Go up.

And David said, Whither shall I go up?

And he said unto Hebron. So David went up thinner, and

his two wives also a hit of him, the Jezreelitis, and Abigail

Nabel's wife, the Carmelite, and his men that were with him, did

David bring up every man with his household.

And they dwelt in the cities of Hebron.

So they moved from Ziklag to Hebron, and the men of Judah

came, and there they anointed David king over the House of

Judah. That's good, isn't it?

He's become king. But the House of Judah isn't all

of Israel, is it? It's just one tribe of the

greater 12 tribes which comprise the nation of Israel.

And they told David, saying that the men of Jabish Gilead were

they that buried Saul. And David sent messengers unto

the men of Jabish Gilead, and said unto them, Blessed be ye of

the Lord, that ye have showed this kindness unto your Lord,

even unto Saul, and have buried him.

And now the Lord show kindness and truth unto you, and I will

require you, or rather requite you this kindness, because you

have done this thing. Therefore now let your hands be

strengthened and be valiant, for your master Saul is dead.

And also the House of Judah have anointed me king over them.

Now we'll not cover that here this evening, because you

remember we saw at the end of First Samuel chapter 31 those

1 Samuel 31 · chapter mention

wimping men of Jabish Gilead who turned into valiant men, and how

David gives them a commendation here for retrieving the body of

Saul and the bodies of his sons after they were abused after

death by the Philistines. But go to verse #8 everything's

good here. But what's the next word?

But so everything's not quite what we expect it to be, is it?

But Abner, the son of Nur, captain of Saul's host, took

Ishma Shaf, the son of Saul, and brought him over to Mahanam and

made him king over Gilead and over the asteroids, over

Jezreel, over Ephraim, over Benjamin, and over all Israel.

Judah's soul son was 40 years old when he began to reign over

Israel. It reigned 2 years.

But the House of Judah followed David.

And the time that Dave was King Hebrew over the House of Judah

was six or seven years and six months.

Why don't you be seated? Hey, David, you're going to be

the king of Israel. Surprise.

Here's this for Seth. He'll take 11 tribes and you can

have one. How this happened?

Why did this happen and how did David respond?

That's what we'll look at here in just a moment.

Heavenly Father, we do thank you for this evening.

And again, we just ask that you be with the word as it's given.

Help me to be able to be clear and my thoughts.

Help me to be able to portray the word of God accurately down

to the finest detail. Lord, it's your word.

It deserves to be given in a way that is appropriate and it's

helpful. I pray that we do just that this

evening and help us all to have our hearts open when it comes

this issue that have been patience when life doesn't go

the way we expect it to go and we do humbly ask it in Jesus

name Amen. Well, finally the opportunity

has come for David to ascend to the throne and what I love about

the beginning of this chapter. It says in chapter 2 verse one

came to pass after this that David inquired of the Lord.

This is a good thing isn't it? You'll remember that David had

been away from the Lord for some period of time, but then after

the issue of Ziklag and after his own men talked about killing

him. Remember, David encouraged

himself in the Lord. That doesn't again mean that he

just needed and some encouragement, but that he

literally gathered courage from his relationship with God.

And then what did he do? He inquired of the Lord.

That's in first Samuel chapter 30 verse #8 but we see that same

1 Samuel 30 · chapter mention

language here where David is inquiring of the Lord.

Lord, what would you have me to do?

By the way, what are we to do with our lives?

Lord, what would you have me to do?

My life is not my own. My direction is not my own.

I have been bought with price. And so I'm going to glorify God

in my body and in my spirit, which are gods.

This is what we're told in the New Testament.

And so here we see that David says, Lord, what would you have

me to do? And so the Lord says, he goes to

the city of Judah, and he says, where shall I go up?

And he says unto Hebron. And then David went with his

family, all of the other people that he had collected, those

mighty men, his own mercenary band that he had assembled over

these last several years. Now, Hebron is a very historical

place in the Life and Times of the people of Israel.

You've heard the nerd name Hebron before.

You're not exactly sure where you've heard it.

It's all over the Old Testament, particularly from texts before

where we are in Second Samuel chapter #2 it was the place

where Abraham built one of his altars as he was journeying to

the Promised land, to the land of Canaan.

Later on, it was the area where both Sarah and Abraham would be

buried, as well as Isaac and Rebecca and Jacob and Leah all

all of them will be buried in The Cave of Machpelah that was

there in the city of Hebron. It was later on the book of

Joshua. You remember Caleb, remember

Caleb was one of the two good spies, the two that trusted the

Lord when there were ten others who did not trust God.

Well, Caleb said in his old age, he said, give me that mountain.

He knew that there was a mountain that could be overcome

and could be one for the Lord as long as there was someone who's

willing to trust God. And Caleb says, listen, I've

trusted God all my my life. I'm not going to stop now just

because I'm 85 years old. Give me that mountain.

And you know what? That mountain was Hebron.

And then we get to his finding that Hebron is also a city of

refuge. It was a place where fugitives

could go to ensure that they had a fair trial.

Hebron was a very historical place.

But here's one of the most important parts of this issue.

It lay within the boundaries of the tribe of Judah.

Now which tribe is David from? He is from the tribe of Judah.

So David is basically going back to, can we put it this way, his

ancestral homeland. And he is going to go to this

very historical place. And we find that when he comes

there, his brethren are there. The people of Judah are all

there. And in verse #4 it says.

And there they anointed David. King.

Over the House of Judah. So David technically is not

anointed the king over all of Israel.

He's just been anointed king over for his own tribe.

Now that's an important distinction to make you you

think that he would just become the king over all of Israel.

But remember, there's still some disjointedness and there's still

some old tribal bad feelings that go all the way back to the

book of Judges. And you'll find that Judah is

often at odds with the other tribes.

And certainly that will be the case as I mentioned this morning

with in Sunday school with Rehoboam and Jeroboam when the

Kingdom split again and Judah was on its own.

And then the other tribes, the other 10 tribes at least were to

the north. And you kind of see some of that

here in our text that David is the king of Judah, but he has

not become the king of all of Israel yet.

Now one of the reasons for that is this in verse #8 there was a

man named Abner, the son of Nur, captain of souls host.

Now who is this guy? Well, we could find out by going

to going to a companion passage that he is the uncle of Saul.

So this is a relative. He's not just a captain of his

guard, but we find back in First Samuel he's also an uncle of

Saul as well. And Abner just can't give up the

fact that his. Family is no longer going to be

royalty. He believes that his family

should have some sort of royal influence.

And so he decides, well, look, David may be the king of Judah,

but he has to be the king of all of Israel.

Listen, you other tribes, are we going to follow whatever Judah

does? Are we going to allow Judah to

dictate our future? And kind of stirs up some of the

old animosities that were between some of the tribes.

And before you know it, Abner digs up this guy named

Ishbosheth and decides to make him the king of all the other

tribes. They just kind of follow along

with it, to be honest with you. Now, if you would say Pastor

Ishbashaf, I don't think I remember him.

When did we talk about Ishbashaf before?

I would be able to tell you we've not talked about him

before because up to this point, we've never seen this guy.

Now, the last time we saw Saul's family, we saw him at the end of

First Samuel chapter #31 and we saw Saul and Jonathan and two

other sons died. There was no mention of

Ishbashaf. So the question is, where'd this

guy come from? Why do we just find him here

right now? Again, he had three sons who

died with him in battle. We saw that in First Samuel 31

1 Samuel 31:6

verse 6. There's no previous mention of

Ishbosheth among the sons of Saul.

So just from some reading that I have done, there are many who

believe that he was either an illegitimate son of Saul or the

son of a concubine. But he was not one of the, could

we put it this way, one of his chosen sons that would have

necessarily been next to the throne.

But there's some issues with this guy, Ish Bashat.

He's got some character flaws. The first would be this.

Why isn't he dead? Hey, pastor, that's a very

strange. Question to ask like.

Why isn't he dead? No, no.

Saul and his boys were out there in the field together.

Saul and his sons were out there in battle, shoulder to shoulder.

Listen, they were going to live together and they were going to

die together. So I've got a question for you.

Where's this guy? Why isn't he dead?

Why wasn't he with the family? I think perhaps the answer would

be that he wasn't on the field of battle that day, and maybe

there's some issues with whether he was actually a valiant man or

not. Now, I'm not just pulling this

out of thin air. We'll find out when we go to the

next chapter that he was not a very good man and he was not a

very strong man. In fact, I believe Abner chose

him for one reason and one reason only.

He needed a puppet. He.

Had somebody that he could pull the strings on a little bit.

Abner was an older man again, the uncle of Saul, and he was

looking for a young buck who just was looking for an

opportunity. Hey, you got a little bit of

royal blood in your son. Hey, Saul never really gave you

a whole lot of heat, did you? He never gave you a whole lot of

attention, did he? Well, he's dead, but you still

do have some royal blood in you. I'll tell you what.

You stick with me, you follow me, and I'll make sure you're

the king of all the other tribes.

And after time goes on, we'll get Judah on board, too.

And Ishbasheth. Being a man of.

No character I believe just went along with that fact.

And here's the problem. David finally had his moment.

Saul is dead. Wouldn't David naturally think,

now I will become the king of Israel?

Why wouldn't he think that? That was what he was promised

all those years ago when he was out there in the sheep pasture

and was called in to meet with his father and his brothers and

with Samuel, and when nobody. Thought he was worth much of

anything. God didn't look on the outward

appearance. He looked on the heart, didn't

he? And ever from that moment,

listen, David wasn't looking for this, but it was thrust upon him

by the very will of God. And so he devoted his life to

following that which God. Had placed upon his heart and

here's his time here's his chance this is it and he's

denied again. He's king of a tribe, and now

he's got not just this other king, but almost a splinter

Kingdom and the inevitability of civil war hanging right over the

top of them. So how did David respond when

the goal posts move? How did David respond when, once

again, he was denied that which he was expecting to receive

within his own life? And my answer would be this.

He seemingly responds with patience.

Now, I'll be honest. With you for you to read second

Samuel chapter #2 and even second Samuel chapter #3 You'll

never find the word patience in those chapters, but I don't

believe I'm reading this into. What we see here in the

scriptures, it's the only. Way that you could possibly

explain the posture in which he takes.

Listen, Abner is going to continue to poke the bear

through the rest of the chapter. Abner is going to continue to

stir the pot through the rest of the chapter.

And we know this about David. He is a valiant man.

We know this about his men. They are strong men.

And we know this about the men of Judah, that they are more

numerable than any of the other tribes as far as being able to

amass together an army. David very quickly and very

easily could have dispatched Ishbosheth and then assumed the

Kingdom by. Force, and maybe even feel

righteous in doing so. After all, hey, this is what God

told me. Who are you?

To be able to take this, I will take it from you by force,

because after all, it belonged to me.

And I'm not saying. David was passive here.

I'm not saying that that the issue of Christianity is just,

hey, be passive, don't ever do anything and you know, the

Christian life will just flow to you.

That that's not my message this evening.

I don't believe we see that anywhere in Scripture.

But I will say this, that David was very restrained from what he

could have done under the circumstances.

Throughout Chapter 2, there's these events that take place and

Abner continues to try to provoke David, and it's not

David trying to provoke Abner. Now David will respond in force,

and David will always get the upper hand, but yet David does

not annihilate them, remember? These are his brethren.

These are his brothers of the people of Israel.

He wants to be careful if he's ever going to be their.

King. He knows he has to have the

right posture, and he knows he has to have the right heart.

It's hard to rule people in a Kingdom when they're all dead

and he can't just kill them off. So what does he do?

Patience. If I go to chapter 3 verse 9 as

you do so, I'm going to switch this over here.

It'll be like one of those modern churches this evening.

I had my ripped jeans before I got here, but I decided not to

wear those this evening. But it's it's mighty warm up

here, so I hope you'll understand.

Look at chapter 3 verse one. It says this.

Now there was long war between the House of Saul and the House

of David. Now how long was that war we

just saw in the previous chapter?

2 years. It's a long war between the

House of Saul and the House of David.

But David waxed stronger and stronger, and the House of Saul

waxed weaker and weaker. So what is David doing?

He's playing the long game. What is David doing?

He is waiting patiently. Even though life did not deliver

him what he expected it to deliver him, he decides it's

still appropriate and it's good for me to wait so we can

establish that. David, when he could have been

upset, when he could have set Judah against the other tribes

or started an all out civil war, he restrained himself with

patience. You.

Know what I think it's interesting that we come back to

this issue of patients this evening.

You may remember that I preached a message on patients back

before Thanksgiving on a Sunday morning.

The reason why, what is one of the things we were to add to our

faith patients. And I remember at the time doing

a little bit of research and I have all of my messages, all the

files online, I have them stored there.

And the best I could tell, out of about 13150 messages that I

preached here at Liberty Baptist Church and I just get tired just

thinking about that 13150 messages that I put together.

I'd only preach one whole message on patients.

So you have to forgive me that now I'm up to around 1400 plus

and now this is 2 messages on patients.

I would say one out of every 700 messages is probably not

overdoing it on the issue of patients.

Is it because it's something that we all struggle with?

It's something that we all have difficulty with.

So how did he show this kind of patience?

Maybe we could put it this way. How did he manifest patience in

what we see here in this text? I think there's several reasons

or several things that he did. First of all, how did he do

this? I believe it was because he knew

what he was promised. He knew what he was promised.

Did God promised him the throne of Judah?

He did. But he promised him the throne

of the other 11 tribes as well. He did.

David was firm in that which God had promised him.

David knew the Kingdom belonged to him and not to Ishbashaf.

In fact, what's interesting is about it.

You know who else knew that? Jonathan.

Remember Jonathan said who would have been the next heir to the

throne? He said this, Hey David, someday

you're going to be king and I'll be at your side helping you.

Jonathan was able to accept God's will.

Do you know who else knew the next king of Israel will be

David Saul? There were several times when

Saul said David, I got to admit, even within the quietness of my

own heart, if I'm really thinking about this right, I

know God's made you the next king and not me.

Yep, David knew what he was promised.

So why would he fret? He knew that the promises of God

were real. He was willing to be patient

because he knew what God has promised.

And let me ask. You.

Does God follow through with His promises?

Listen, I would almost be able to tell you this evening, you're

allowed to be impatient if God's broken His promises to you.

But if He hasn't, then we've got to be patient.

Why? Because if God says it, He'll do

it. You know who believed this?

David's son Solomon. About 40-50 years later, Solomon

would say this in First Kings chapter 8, verse 56.

1 Kings 8:56

Blessed be the Lord that hath given rest unto His people

Israel, according to all that he promised.

Listen to this there hath not failed one word of all his good

promise, which he promised by the hand of Moses.

His servant Solomon, at the dedication of the Temple,

surveys the history of Israel and he says this.

We haven't been faithful to God, but God has kept every single

one of His promises to us. And it wasn't just that He kept

His promises to you in generality, He has kept every

word of His promise. Listen, do you ever worry if God

will keep your salvation? I don't know about you, but I

don't worry on a daily basis or I don't even worry in general

about the fact that boy, I know God wants to save it, but I hope

He has enough power to save, to keep us all saved.

I hope He has enough power to resurrect us all when the day

comes. Boy, I hope.

I hope he hasn't overextended himself.

I've never thought about that, never concerned me one bit.

Why keeps promises? But if he keeps his promises

about our eternity, then they keep his promises that he's made

to us in this life as well. David's willing to be patient.

You know why He says I trust the promises of God.

He promised I'd be the king. I'll be the king.

So it wasn't just that he knew it was promised, but I also see

this. He knew God was in control.

He knew God was in control. You know, you can be patient

when you know someone's in control.

You can be patient when you know someone's control.

That's general. That's true just in general, but

it's even more so true with God. Listen, trusting in man is a

fool's errand, but trusting in God is wise.

Why? Because He is the one who has

the levers of power. Listen, he's not the man behind

the curtain. He's the eternal being that

invented the curtain and everything else that we see and

everything that we don't see. No, no, he's not just the one

trying to manipulate the levers of power.

No, no, he is in control even when it looks like everything is

not in control. Hebrews chapter one verse 3

basically says this. If he's not in control for one

moment, everything just in this universe falls apart.

He just create it and leave it to its own devices.

He's created it and he is intimately acquainted and

involved with the very basic and the very large dealings of this

universe. Listen, there's not an atom that

moves without his understanding, and they're not Is the largest

star which radiates heat and light of which he is not

involved. And he takes care of everything

in between. He's in control.

Knowing that God's in control ought to bring patience to the

life of the believer. Isaiah 46 verses 9 and 10.

Isaiah 46:9

Remember the former things of old.

For I am God, there is none else I am God, there is none.

Like me declaring the end from the beginning and from the

ancient times the things that are not yet done.

Saying My counsel shall stand, I will do all my pleasure.

Listen from time eternal to time eternal, from one end of the

timeline to the other end of the timeline, and beyond each end of

the timeline, because there is no end of the timeline when it

comes to God. His counsel has always stood.

He is in control. Nebuchadnezzar thought he was in

control. Remember the king?

And the more he tried to squeeze on to his Kingdom, the more

things just kind of kept slipping through his fingers,

didn't it? He thought he had Shadrach,

Meshach and Abednego, but there was a fourth man in the fire.

And he doesn't know how he got there.

And they came out of the fire, and they didn't even smell like

smoke. But then you get to chapter #4

and Nebuchadnezzar gets a little bit proud of himself again,

doesn't he? And God in his mercy tries to

warn him. Brings a vision.

Brings an interpreter of that vision, Daniel.

He says this. If you don't get this taken care

of, he says, you're going to have seven years of your life

that are going to be gone. And that's exactly what

happened. For seven years, he acted like

an animal. You know what's interesting?

Nebuchadnezzar was the king of Babylon.

The. World power, anyone could have

just walked into the palace and taken over, but somehow, some

way, God had it as such that He retained control during all that

time. And at the end of this

experience, what does Nebuchadnezzar say in Daniel

Daniel 4:35

chapter 4 verse 35? And all the inhabitants of the

earth are reputed as nothing. And he doeth according to his

will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants.

Of the earth none can say his stay, stay his hand, or say unto

him, What doest thou? Nebuchadnezzar says.

I thought I was big time, and I realize there's only one that's

big, there's one that's truly great, and that's him.

And in a moment he turned him into the mind and into the

manner of an animal, but yet he still retained his throne.

Listen, God could do that. What can't God do?

God is in control. Should we be patient with a God

who's in control? Should we be patient with one?

Who? Knows what is going on and knows

the end. From the beginning, David

understood this. He knew God was in control.

But I also believe. This he knew the time was on his

side. We knew that time was on his

side. Did we just see that in chapter

3 verse one? What happened as time went on?

He grew stronger and Ishbosheth grew.

Weaker, you know, time is on the side of the believer.

You realize that I know we struggle with time.

I struggle with time in the sense that I feel like in my

mind there's a ticking clock almost every second of the day.

I feel the weight and pressure of time.

I do. I don't know other people.

Some people think time is more of a, you know, a construct than

necessarily is a very real thing.

It's kind of just an imaginary thing.

But I feel time in a very acute way and it's good sometimes.

And. It's also very bad at other

times because as time goes on, you start to feel like things

are slipping out of your grasp. And as days turn to weeks and

weeks turn to months, and sometimes months even turn to

years, you start to feel like what's going on here?

What's going on in my situation? But here, what do we see?

David knew time was on his side. You know what God said, He just

needed to wait. Listen to God, a day is like

1000 years and 1000 years is like a day meaning this.

What does it mean to God? His purposes will take care of

themselves. If he says it, he'll do it.

And David says, listen, maybe we could put it this way.

David said this. God told me what he was going to

do. He didn't tell me when he was

going to do it, so I'm just going to trust him.

There's a lot of things God has told us in our life, and he

hasn't told us when he's going to do it, but he's told us that

he'll do it. Listen, he's not working on your

calendar. He's not working on my calendar.

He works off of his calendar and he doesn't always make us Privy

to what's on his calendar. In fact, I've found more often

than not, I don't know. I just had to trust that he

doesn't lose track of time. God's never been up in heaven,

said Whoa. And it went by so fast.

Now he's acutely aware of every second of every minute of every

day. You remember Elijah was kind of

making fun of the prophets of Bay a little bit.

He says, hey, where's your guy? Is he sleeping?

Is he on vacation? Is he on a trip?

He's missing your prayers. Listen.

God's never missed one of our prayers.

He's never missed any event that took place on this earth.

Listen. God is acquainted with

everything that takes place, and none of it catches him by

surprise. David, new time was on his side.

Listen. The time of our trials.

Listen. You're going through a trial.

Listen, time's on your side. God will bring deliverance.

Hey, Pastor, I don't see how I'm going to get Deliverance out of

this trial. Well, he may not have told you

how, but He'll bring it to you. Hey, Pastor, this one's too big,

this one's too deep. You know, to be absent with the

body is present with the Lord, that for some believers, the

deliverance is to be able to be with the Lord.

You say, well, that's kind of, I don't like the sound of that,

Paul. Like the sound of that.

Paul knew he wasn't going to get deliverance from the thorn in

the flesh, but even then God's grace was going to be sufficient

for him. But he knew that one day he'd

returned back to that 3rd heaven, and he knew that time

was on his side. And in the meantime, what was he

going to do? He was going to do as much As

for the Lord as he possibly could because he knew that his

time was short, but that someday his deliverance would be full.

Time was on his side. This is the time of our life.

Eternity is coming. What is our life?

It's not a vapor. It's here one minute and it's

gone the next time in world history.

Well, may I remind you the time in world history, as time ends,

God wins. When the countdown is made and

the buzzer sounds at the end of this world as we see it, God

wins. He didn't just win, He wins big.

So time's on our side. It's easy to be patient when

time is on your side, but we have to look at it through the

perspective of what God's eyes and not our own.

So that's how David showed. Patients, I believe through this

time, but I want to ask you not just how David showed patients,

but why could he do it? And this is where I want us to

focus as we conclude tonight. Why could he show that type of

patients? OK, That's how his patients

manifested itself, right? We see that he knew what he was

promised. He knew God was in control.

He knew time was on his side, but how could he look at it like

that? How could he get to a place

where he could look at his life and he could look at his

situation and he could look at another set back, not as a set

back, but just as another event in the life that God had put him

in and that God was in control. How could he get there?

And believe it or not, I believe the answer is found in a

different passage of Scripture. Would you turn, please to Psalm

Psalms 62 · chapter mention

chapter 62? You'll never guess who wrote

this Psalm. Now, I cannot tell you that

David wrote this Psalm right now.

I can't say that. But I have to wonder if this

song was written during this time or if David wrote this

Psalm looking back upon this time in his life.

I don't know. Psalm chapter 62.

Psalms 62 · chapter mention

You're going to see more of this type of posture from David right

out of the chute, right in verse #1 truly, my soul waiteth upon

God. From Him cometh my salvation.

He only is my rock and my salvation.

By the way, God wasn't just one of His rocks and His salvation

ONLY. You find the word only in verse

2, verse 5, verse 6, the word all in verse 8.

Listen, he knew it was God alone.

He only is my rock and my salvation.

He is my defense. I shall not be greatly moved.

How long will you imagine mischief against a man?

He shall be slain, all of you. As a bowing wall shall you be,

and as a tottering fence. They only consult to cast him

down from His Excellency. They delight in lies.

They blessed with their mouth, but they curse inwardly.

Selah. My soul wait thou upon only upon

God, for my expectation is from Him.

Come back to that in a moment. He only is my rock of my

salvation. He is my defense.

I shall not be moved, and God is my salvation of my glory, the

rock of my strength. My refuge is in God.

Trust in Him at all times. He people, pour out your heart

before Him. God is a refuge.

For us, Selah, God is a rock. God is a refuge, God is

salvation. He will not be moved.

We see this over and over and over again.

But then he says this, my expectation is from God.

And listen, if you don't get anything else, get this tonight.

Patience can only be achieved in our life when our expectation

comes from God and God alone. Patience can only be achieved in

our life when our expectation comes from God.

And God alone, he says, my expectation is from God.

Listen, when life doesn't go the way you expect it to go, it's

OK, because my expectation comes from God.

It doesn't come from my circumstances.

It doesn't come from mankind. It doesn't come from the

promises that were made to me. It doesn't come from any of

these other entities. It only comes from one place and

one place alone. My expectation comes from God.

When your expectation comes from God, you could have patience.

You can you can remember what God has promised.

When your expectation is from God, you can remember that God

is in control. When your expectation is from

God, you can remind yourself that time is on your side when

your expectation comes from God. And I want to end with this,

this evening. I want to, I want to consider

this for just a moment. And this is where the Bible,

every word matters and the Bible, every letter matters.

It's not just the words, it's the letters because I don't know

about you, but I was even going through this as I was studying

this week. I, I got to this chapter and I'm

trying to put things together. And that's, you know, when

you're preparing messages, you're, you're putting different

passages together, different thoughts together and you're

trying. And in my mind, I was

remembering this verse and it, I knew it had something to do with

our expectations coming from God.

And so I found the verse and I looked it up and I was going

through a little bit and I realized that it doesn't say

that my expectations come from God.

No, that there's no letter S there is there?

Look at it again. OK, I may be crazy, but I'm not

crazy about this. OK, it says this.

It says verse 5 my soul wait thou only upon God, for my

expectation is from him. If we were to say our

expectations come. From God, it would almost be

like this. Listen, you know, whatever

happens in my life, you know, if I go to this church or if these

things happen to me with my family or whatever happens in

the workplace, listen, as long as I keep my expectations

focused upon God and all these things, and that's good enough.

And I'm not saying that's a bad thing.

That's just not what it's saying.

It's saying my expectation comes from God.

And I looked up the. Hebrew word for expectations,

the word tickva. Tickva and it literally means

this. My hope and my anticipation

comes from God. And this is where word studies

are amazing. I'll be honest with you.

That word tickvaw is not used many times in the Old Testament,

but it also sometimes is used with this as a cord or a

binding. You know, one of the places

where this word tickvaw is used in the Old Testament is in Judge

Joshua chapter #2 when Rahab placed a tickvaw, A scarlet

tickvaw, outside of her, a little home on the wall in

Jericho. And what was that?

Well, it was a sign that she and her family were to be saved.

But, but can I put it this way? It was her saying my expectation

and my hope is in God and God alone.

That rope is a is a binding. That it's taut.

That it's tight. That that, that, that it's firm.

It won't tatter. It won't break, it won't tear.

That it's something that you can hold on to.

He says this, my expectation, my tick ball comes from God alone.

That's a lot better than just saying, well, you know, whatever

happens in my life, I expect whatever God puts in my life and

I'm OK with that. And again, not that that's bad,

that's just not what it's saying.

It's given us something a whole lot more powerful than that.

Now, I've never been bobbing up and down in the sea before,

thank the Lord. I've never been thrown overboard

and I've never been overboard of a vessel before in the water.

But I do know this without having had that situation happen

to me before. I do know this, that if I was

overboard and someone threw a life raft to me through a life

preserver to me, and it was attached to a rope, listen, if I

didn't grab that rope, probably die.

You know, the water's choppy. You're going up and down and up

and down. Listen, there's a reason they

called a life preserver. You grab it so you can live.

So if I was to decline it, if I was to say I don't need it, I

probably perish there in the water.

But if I was to grab it and I was to hold on to it, you know,

we could argue the fact that perhaps I could stay in that

water for quite a long time. In fact, maybe they wouldn't be

able to pull me up right away because the water would be so

boisterous and and the waves would be so high that it would

be difficult to draw me up. But as long as I was holding on

that rope, even if I had to wait for a couple hours, I still

live. Why?

Because you hold on to the tick ball in your life tonight.

There's some things going on. You don't know why they're going

the way they're going. You know why it's taking so long

for God to do what you thought he was going to do a long time

before. You don't understand why the

family is the way it is. You don't understand why the

finances are the way they are. You don't understand where the

situation that should have just remedied itself a long time ago

still is going and going and going, and it's like a gaping

wound that that won't ever heal itself.

You don't understand why it's going on.

Where is God? Why isn't he doing what he's

supposed to be doing? I just encourage you, hold on to

the Tigva. Hold on to hope that God is who

he said he is. Hold on to hope that God plays

the long game and not the short game.

Now I'll tell you this if. You hold on to that.

You can last a lot longer than you think.

As soon as you let go, drift. As soon as you let go, as the

waves overcome you, as soon as you let go, you lose hope.

But if you hold on to that hope, and by the way, that rope which

is on the other side, He is, you can hold on a lot longer than

you ever thought was possible. And maybe you don't have answers

medically, but you can hold on. Why?

Because God will see you through and maybe the family, it doesn't

seem like it's ever going to remedy itself.

It doesn't seem like they're ever going to come back to

Christ. But listen, God will see you

through. And you don't understand how on

earth your finances are supposed to remedy themselves.

And then you're supposed to tie it on top of that.

And that's supposed to make things better when it seems like

it's going to make things worthless, Hold on to the

promises of God. He's not just your expectations.

He's better than that. He's your expectation.

Hold on to Him and you will find patience.

That seems to. Pass all understanding why?

Because when he's holding on to the other side of the rope and

you trust in him, just like Rahab was saved.

And by the way, it seems to me that maybe David was able to

write that with Rahab being in his lineage.

Maybe a good place for us to stop this evening.

I'd say he's a good God to trust, isn't he?

Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of

Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing

to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us

know by contacting us at [email protected].

Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,

MA. May the Lord bless you as you

grow in His Word.