Wait With Purpose

Is waiting for something.

Everybody.

But not everybody's waiting well.

Have you noticed that?

Police say a 25-year-old woman, impatient for payback, turned a breakup into a logistical nightmare.

She allegedly scheduled dozens of food deliveries to her ex-boyfriend's apartment.

Imagine that.

According to investigators, the revenge campaign began when she spotted another woman at her boyfriend's apartment.

She saw all this on social media.

And so over a single weekend, her ex-boyfriend's apartment became something of a revolving door of confused drivers, delivering twelve large pizzas, nine family-sized sushi platters, six seafood boils, fourteen orders of wings, three sheet cakes, all with the uh beautiful title, Congratulations on the downgrade.

Drivers kept arriving, kept delivering.

He kept saying he didn't order anything.

They kept asking for payment.

Neighbors say that the hallway smelled like garlic knots for 48 hours.

The situation escalated, though, when one driver demanded payment for 40 pounds of crawfish.

Police were called.

An argument spilled into the parking lot.

Officers traced the orders back to a fake account allegedly created by the woman with an expired credit card.

When questioned, the girlfriend said, You know what?

My boyfriend said I was too much.

So I sent him too much.

She was arrested for harassment and theft of services.

Nobody was injured, though building management described the weekend as a culinary chaos.

The ex has since moved.

Reportedly, double checks.

Every time he hears.

One officer summed it up.

I've never seen anybody try to drown somebody else in takeout.

You might say that lady was impatient for payback to be served, so she served it herself via Uber Eats.

Speaking of impatience, have you heard of the great American prayer?

Goes like this Lord, send me patience.

And I want it right now.

There's a follow-up.

Lord, send me patience.

But if you just give me strength, I'm gonna need bail money to go with it.

Even those of us who think we're patient aren't.

Fifth Third Bank has the proof.

They conducted a survey, and get this, they found that of those they surveyed, nearly 80% said, you know what, I'm a patient person.

Okay, but in reality, 96% of those same people will knowingly consume scorching food or drink that burns their mouth.

63% do it regularly.

More than half hang up the phone after being on hold for one minute or less.

76% regularly drive faster than the speed limit because they're running behind.

I think it's closer to 99%.

And the remaining 1%, they're just too short to get the pedal all the way down.

When waiting for a table at a restaurant, nearly a quarter of respondents, ages 18 to 24, will wait less than one minute before approaching the host again.

You say that's interesting, but why does it matter?

How does that impact my spiritual life?

What's going on?

What's the big deal?

The big deal is if we don't learn to wait, we don't experience God's best.

We miss it.

We miss out on a front row seat of God at work.

We miss out on the lessons he has for us in the waiting.

We miss out on the character shaping he longs to do in us.

If we don't learn to wait, we end up serving our appetites rather than our appetites serving us.

And one of the biggest factors in whether we're gonna wait well or not is our self-talk.

You say, wait a minute, what's that?

Are we going psychobabble here?

No, no, no, we're not.

Self-talk is that uninvited channel of thoughts that plays in your mind 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

No subscription service required.

I have to tell you something.

You know, everything is subscription-based.

We've got one of these Amazon Echoes, and two of our little grandkids spent the night with us, and they love fiddling with that Amazon echo, and they're asking it to play songs.

And Alexa very helpfully says, you know, if you'd like to ask for specific songs with a subscription monthly based of 995 a month, you can do that.

Would you like a free trial subscription?

Ava says, Yeah.

She signs us up.

But when it comes to waiting, here's what we often say to ourselves with our self-talk.

You know, I know I'm supposed to wait for God, but he doesn't seem to be doing anything.

Or, I've already prayed about this a lot, I really have.

Nothing's happening.

Right?

Or, you know what?

My life will be a wreck if I just sit back and wait for God to show up and do something.

It's kind of up to me.

Anyone here relate to that?

I won't ask for a show of hands, because I'd have to raise mine.

King David knew that feeling.

David had that same soundtrack playing in his head.

But he learned a better self-talk.

In Psalm 27, he wrote that down for himself, for those who would follow, for you and me.

If you would turn in your Bible to Psalm 27.

And would you join me in reading Psalm 27?

We'll have the words on the screen.

And if you're comfortable, only if you're comfortable, would you stand out of honor for the reading of the word?

We'll start at verse 1 of Psalm chapter 27.

Psalms 27 · chapter mention

It's 14 verses long.

A great psalm.

Here we go.

The Lord is my light and my salvation.

Whom should I fear?

The Lord is the defense of my life.

Whom should I dread?

When evil doers came upon me to devour my flesh, my adversaries and my enemies, they stumbled and fell.

If an army encamps against me, my heart will not fear.

If war arises against me, in spite of this, I am confident.

One thing I have asked from the Lord that I shall see, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.

To be all the beauty of the Lord, to meditate in his temple.

For on the day of trouble, he will conceal me in his temple.

He will hide me in the secret place of his tent.

On a rock.

And now my head will be lifted up above.

Surround me.

And I will offer sacrifices in his tent with shouts of joy.

I will sing, I will sing praises to the Lord.

Hear, Lord, when I cry with my voice, and be gracious to me and answer me.

When you said, See my face, my heart said to you, I shall see your face, Lord.

Do not turn your face from me.

Do not turn your servant away in anger.

You have been my help.

Do not abandon me nor forsake me.

God of my salvation.

For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me up.

Teach me your way, Lord, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies.

Turn me over my enemies.

False witnesses have risen against me, and the violent witness.

I certainly believe that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

Wait for the Lord, be strong, let your heart take courage.

Yes, wait.

Thank you so much, and please take a seat.

So there it is in verse 14.

The self-talk David wants us to adopt.

Wait for the Lord, be strong, and let your heart take courage.

Yes, wait for the Lord.

Some of you are saying, you know, that sounds nice, but just not realistic.

Maybe you're like my friend.

He jokingly claims, you know, I had my patience tested once.

I'm negative.

Another friend of mine claims, you know, I took a course in speed waiting.

Now I can wait for an entire hour in just 10 minutes.

Let me read Psalm 27, 14 again.

Wait for the Lord.

Be strong and let your heart take courage.

Yes, wait for the Lord.

But that just feels counterintuitive, doesn't it?

Just be patient and wait.

I mean, really?

Isn't that what you were told as a kid?

Your mom and dad were right.

After all, you get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it open.

You say, but must I wait, David?

How will that help?

Is there nothing I can do?

We like to do, don't we?

I have good news.

There's not just one thing, but two.

Two steps.

I call these two steps waiting with purpose.

See, you should wait with purpose because God has one for you.

He has something better ahead if we'll just wait.

You're in the choir here at West Sub, you're very familiar with a phrase that Dennis uses almost every time we're practicing for the Christmas concerts, and even during these uh Easter and Spring songs, I've heard him say it.

What does he say, choir, as you're going up and down the stage?

Walk with purpose, right?

Walk with purpose.

What does he mean?

Don't step on somebody else's ankle?

Yeah.

It's more than that.

Don't plod along.

Look around.

Be aware.

He's saying, be intentional.

There's a purpose to your walk.

And the same is true with us in our waiting.

We wait with purpose.

You might have noticed it's baseball season.

I like baseball.

But but anybody knows.

In baseball, you don't just swing at the first pitch that comes along necessarily.

You have to wait with purpose, right?

Because when you do, good things can happen.

Do you know there are baseball fans who sit out in the outfield for nine innings?

Maybe three hours in the sun.

They're waiting there with a glove on for one purpose.

Maybe to catch a home run or even a foul ball.

That's waiting with purpose.

Three hours with a glove on.

They're waiting with purpose.

And just like baseball, you and I need to wait with purpose.

Because God has a purpose for you.

There's something better out there.

Let me illustrate that by tossing a ball real quick.

Let's see, I'm going to left field over here.

This won't hurt you.

But try to catch it if you can.

Marco, here's here we're going to you.

Oh, look at Marco, our trombone player.

Wait with purpose.

There's something better.

All right, what are those two steps I talked about?

These two steps to waiting with purpose.

Step one is commit to the Lord.

Commit to the Lord.

Tell him you're willing to wait.

Starts there.

Are you willing?

King Solomon urged his people in 1 Kings 8:61, and may your hearts be fully committed to the Lord our God, to live by his decrees and obey his commands as at this time.

1 Kings 8:61

Elsewhere he wrote in Proverbs 16, verse 3, Commit your work to the Lord and your plans will be established.

Proverbs 16:3

Paul writes in 2 Timothy 1.12, For I know who whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep what I have committed to him until that day.

You think of Jesus himself on the cross in Luke 23, 46, he said, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.

You say that's nice, but what does all that look like practically?

I'm not getting this.

Well, we wait to see what God says to us in his word.

You gotta be into the word to hear it, though.

We wait to hear what God says as we speak to him in focus prayer.

We are praying, right?

We wait to hear the wisdom of strong believers.

God speaks to us through them.

We wait for circumstances to change.

Sometimes God works through those.

In short, we wait for God to lead.

But it all begins with a commitment.

You say, why do we need to do that?

Short answer: if it's important to us, we make a commitment, right?

Whether it's a contract we sign or a promise we make, we make a commitment.

Steve loved to play golf.

He was out on the course, get this seven days a week, 365 days a year.

One day he's out golfing with his buddies.

A hearse drives by on the road bordering the course.

Steve pauses, takes off his hat, puts it over his heart.

And his buddies are like really impressed.

I mean, he is really obsessed with golf, but he took off his hat and he honored this hearse.

And they said, Man, that's that's really impressive.

That's pretty respectful, Steve.

He said, Well, you know, I suppose I should be respectful.

After all, we've been married for 34 years.

Steve was apparently too committed to playing golf.

But back to this biblical idea of committing to the Lord that we will wait.

You know, if you're committed to buying a house, unless you're somehow independently wealthy, you commit to saving for a down payment.

If you're committed to losing weight, you commit to diet and exercise.

If you're committed to having friends, you commit time and effort to them.

If you're committed to learning scripture, you commit to a Bible study.

We've got our men study, our women study.

If you want to learn to wait with purpose, step one is commit to the Lord.

Wait with purpose.

Because God has one for you.

There's something better ahead.

It's time for right field.

Here we go, boys.

It's coming at you.

Heads up.

Oh, good catch.

There's something better ahead.

Wait with purpose.

What's step two?

Make repairs.

Make repairs.

After committing yourself to waiting on God, David says we should first be strong.

He says, wait for the long Lord, be strong.

What's that all about?

Bulking up with the powder?

Curling?

Wait, no.

Did you know that the Hebrew words for be strong mean to carry out repairs?

Carry out repairs.

Become mighty.

Collect strength.

If you believe the Bible is true, you know that you and I are engaged in constant spiritual warfare.

Battles.

And wars always create damage every time.

Any chance some of your relationships are a bit frayed?

A bit damaged.

In need of repair?

There's some repair work that needs to be done.

What about your daily quiet time with God?

He's like, you know, I've kind of been too busy lately.

I just don't get much out of it.

Time to make some repairs.

Maybe the repair you need most is in your trust in God.

Something has happened that has shaken you to the core.

Everything feels broken right now.

I love this quote from Eric Little.

Circumstances may appear to wreck our lives and God's plans, but God is not helpless among the ruins.

Our broken lives are not lost or useless.

God's love is still working.

He comes in and takes the calamity and uses it victoriously, working out his wonderful plan of love.

Why not choose to collect strength by memorizing this very verse, Psalm 27, 14?

If you learn it now, you'll have it for later.

When your self-talk shouts at you, do something, you can speak those calming words to the screaming doubts that are absolutely going to scream at you.

In other words, wait with purpose.

Because God has one for you.

There's something better out there.

We're gonna go somewhere here in center field with it.

Alright, heads up.

We're going deep.

Here it is.

Oh guys, guys, I don't know what's going on.

Everybody's waiting for something.

Everybody.

A house, a spouse, a job, a child, a dream, a healing, a prodigal.

Everybody's waiting for something.

And you know what?

You are either going to wait with purpose or you're gonna rush with regret.

You're gonna wait with purpose or rush with regret.

David's advice, wait with purpose because God has one for you.

Remember when God told Abraham and Sarah that they were going to give birth to a child?

Abraham is 75 at that moment.

And he believed God, it was counted him for righteousness, and a year went by, and three years, and six years, and eight years, and after ten years, Sarah figured maybe it was time to take some action.

She was a go-go-do-do person, apparently.

So what did she do?

You know the story she gave her servant Hagar to Abraham, they slept together, she had a baby, Ishmael.

But when Isaac was finally born, Abraham was a hundred, twenty five years of waiting with purpose.

Sarah saw the conflict she'd created.

She could have waited with purpose.

Instead, she rushed with regret.

Do you see how practical this psalm really is?

Think about King Saul.

I mean, here's a guy who had the world by the tail.

He's the king, the kingdom his to command.

But he failed to wait for Samuel to make a sacrifice.

Kings were forbidden to make any sacrifice.

He was impatient, performed the sacrifice himself, tired of waiting.

It cost him his kingdom.

For Samuel 13, you have done a foolish thing, Samuel said.

You have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you.

If you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time.

But now your kingdom will not endure.

The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him ruler of his people, because you have not kept the Lord's command.

Wow.

We have the same choice that Sarah faced, that Saul faced.

We can wait with purpose or rush with regret.

Diane and I were down in Florida a couple weeks ago, suffering.

I enjoyed a half-day fishing charter with our son-in-law.

And a lot of boats in Florida, of course, you've been there.

And I couldn't help but notice speedboats, too.

You know, a number of years ago, a speedboat driver was really putting the pedal to the metal.

And that thing was just zipping along.

And in a ill-advised moment, he whipped the steering wheel at a moment when a rogue wave kind of came along.

The boat hit the wave at a really odd angle, shooting the boat up in the air, spinning, and it drove the man deep down into the water at the same time.

He was so far down he could not tell which direction to swim up.

Fortunately, he was wearing a life vest.

That life vest slowly began pulling him up, and he knew which direction to swim.

Maybe right now, that's a picture of you.

Surrounded by strong waves, confusing options.

So deeply immersed in your troubles, you don't know which way is up.

Psalm 27 14 is your Life fest.

It can literally pull you back to safety.

Wait for the Lord.

Be strong and let your heart take courage.

Yes, wait for the Lord.

Can we do something just a bit different right now?

I want us to speak this verse out loud together.

With no prompting from the screen, it isn't there.

I'm learning that I must speak the word of God, in many cases out loud, to the lies that cross my brain.

Let's see what this means.

Psalm 27, 14.

I'll feed you the phrase and you can repeat after me.

Would you do it?

Sure we can.

Let's start with the location of that verse.

Psalm 27, 14.

Psalm 27.

Boy, you're good.

Wait for the Lord.

Be strong and let your heart take courage.

Yes, wait for the Lord.

Let's do it again.

Psalm 27:14.

Psalms 27:14

Wait for the Lord.

Be strong and let your heart take courage.

That was easy.

It's an awesome verse.

Memorize it.

I was 21 years old and in love.

It was exciting.

Felt great.

Exhilarating.

This girl talked nothing about anything else other than getting married.

And so I proposed to her finally, and she teared up and said she didn't want to go out, didn't want to get married.

I was confused.

I was crushed.

What in the world?

Eventually I called a former professor of mine, Dr.

Chuck Christensen, and I told him the whole story, and I was crying.

You know what he said in response?

He opened his Bible to Psalm 27 and read the entire chapter to me.

And uh he came to that last verse: wait for the Lord.

Be strong and let your heart take courage.

Yes, wait for the Lord.

I'm thinking, how?

It sure hit home, though, it hit hard.

I I hung on to that verse.

We hung up, and I felt incredibly lonely, and we'll never forget that.

In the months that followed, though, you know what became clear?

I had some work to do.

It seemed like maybe I was I was uh more fascinated with the idea of being married than than being ready.

Uh I had work to do.

I needed to commit to the Lord and make some repairs.

One day I was minding my own business at Mooney Radio.

I met this girl who was working part-time, and we got talking and talking and and talking.

And I thought, wow, that's really, really very interesting person here.

I noticed, however, when I was not talking with her, a whole lot of other boys were.

I was nervous.

So I asked my best buddy there to figure out whether she was going out with one of them.

He said, no, no, you're okay.

So I asked her out.

Wow.

We went on a second date.

And you know that second date, I thought to myself, I couldn't marry this girl.

I don't know if it's gonna work out that way, but I sure could.

Do you know that one year to the date of our very first date, we walk down the aisle?

That's Diana.

And I have to say something to you.

I uh the way I think about God allowing me to marry Diana rather than this other person, I'm I'm blown away.

I'm blown away.

The way that God was preparing her for international ministry, we've done a lot of that together, but she had already been doing it.

Guatemala, spent a whole year of her life in Mexico.

The way God knew I needed Diana's wisdom and people skills, you know, I tell her she's my social expert, you know.

My relational guru.

I need that.

The way God knew I needed an editor in my life for everything.

The way that God knew she needed somebody to bring a little adventure into her life now and then.

The thought that I might have settled for someone else is shocking.

But God had something better.

Way better, someone better.

And so I encourage you, wait with purpose because God has a purpose for you.

Wait with purpose because God has something better for you.

Wait for the Lord, be strong, and let your heart take courage.

Yes, wait for the Lord.

Dr.

Christensen gave me that psalm 40 years ago.

And now I'm giving it to you.

Two quick mentions before I pray.

First, to help you uh really connect with this verse, we've created a scripture card.

There it is up on the screen.

I got one here, and and we've we've made a bunch of them.

They're right here after the service.

You want to come down by the stage and grab one, stick one in your pocket, your purse, put it on your fridge.

It's a neat little reminder.

You could use it to memorize.

Second, if you are right now in a season of waiting, you feel frustrated, we'd like to encourage you.

So we got some folks, including our elder team and uh some others who are gonna stand up right here in the front.

They're gonna dodge the music stands, find a place, and pray with you.

Pray with you right now, pray with you briefly to encourage you.

So take advantage of this moment of encouragement.

Let's pray.

Lord, thank you for this word, your word.

Timeless, effective, powerful.

Help us speak this to the lies that cross our mind, to wait for the Lord, to be strong, and to let our hearts take courage.

We thank you for the good things you have for us in store in the future.

Help us be patient in the waiting and to wait with purpose, knowing that you have one for us.

In Jesus' name, amen.