Renewed In The Waiting - Ps Jono Kerridge

Hi there and welcome to the Garden Church Podcast.

We're excited that you've tuned in to hear a message from one of our team.

I know that you'll be encouraged in your faith and challenged to live for God.

We pray that you'll encounter Jesus in new and fresh ways as you listen to this podcast.

God has got something great for you.

This is a passage of scripture maybe well known to some of us, uh, and others maybe not.

Um, and uh uh through my devotions earlier in the year, God began to speak to me from this passage of scripture.

And um and it was like more than just for me, it was like I I want to always have a heart like God, is this just for me because you're always working in me?

Or is it for me and our church?

And God said the latter, and so this is um in response to him speaking, Isaiah 40 28 to 31.

Do you not know?

And we've got double anointing on the word of God today, so it's like, hey, let's we we can't have both both screens going today because there's just too much anointing.

So so this one's doubly anointed over here, everybody.

It wasn't our decision, you know that.

Do you not know?

Do you not know?

Have you not heard the Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth?

He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.

He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.

Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall.

But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength, and they will soar on wings like eagles, and they will run and not grow weary, and they will walk and not be faint.

Amen.

Amen.

God bless the reading of his word and the preaching of the word and the application of the word and the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

I want you to turn to your person beside you, and I want you to tell them the title of these few thoughts this morning.

I want you say, Well, I don't know what.

Well, that's why we're going to put it up on the screen.

I want you to touch one in your neighbors and say three times this renewed in the waiting.

Go on, go on, renewed in the waiting.

You speak it, renewed.

If you want to be renewed in the waiting, you say it even louder to your other neighbor.

Say renewed in the waiting.

I love it.

I love it.

I love it.

Amen.

Amen.

You know, we are so blessed where where we live.

We are we're so blessed.

I I I used to tell my children growing up when we drop them to school, it's not normal to see a whale breach on your way to school.

It's not normal.

It's not normal.

And uh we we all connect to God in different ways.

There's some things that are common through the word of God, through prayer, through worship, but then otherwise, you know, we we play an instrument, connect with God.

Um for me, one of the ways connecting with God is is being in nature and I connect with God.

Jonathan Edwards says that nature's God's greatest evangelist.

I love that.

And it is.

He just shows off, he just points to Jesus.

And in fact, if you've ever asked a question, you know, um, you know, people that haven't heard the gospel around the world, you know, like what about them?

What about them?

Well, the Bible says in Romans 1 that even there they are without excuse because of creation, that creation points to a wonderful father in heaven.

Amen.

I mean, I I I just love, you know, looking at whales, I love you know, dolphins.

Uh, you know, I love it.

I love uh around here, particularly you have the the eagles, you have the um, you know, the different types of eagles.

You have the osprey eagle, you know, they make nests down the creeks here uh for them.

The council does that, or they make their own nests, and they're just so amazing, aren't they?

They're so incredible.

They they saw one one day uh after a swim down the creek the other day, I just watched for a moment um and just watch this osprey, how effortless it just rose.

Just like just finding the thermals in it, and it just rose higher and higher.

And then looking down over the creek, and then saw what it was looking for, you know, it was looking for smoke, oh, it was looking for little lunch, and then just uh that that's the the that noise, if you're wondering, that that is the osprey going into the water and coming up with a big fish, and um you know it's just amazing to watch.

On the other extreme, too, an osprey eagle or a wedge tail eagle.

If you go a little bit west, you know, a lot more wedge tailed eagles.

On the other extreme is uh a bird that we get in our backyard, and you'll see them around the place is bush turkey or a brush turkey, and they are just not elegant at all.

You know what I'm talking about, Maddie.

I mean, they are just annoying.

They, you know, they get in and and although they can fly, they can only fly to escape, you know, Billy the black, the brown labrador in the backyard, which is at our house who goes and growls and pretends he's a big meanie at the bush turkey in the backyard.

But you've seen them, you've heard them, you know, they make their nest, the male makes their nest, and they're scratching around, and they're low on the on you know, on the pecking order, the only thing below them really is the ibis, you know, which is the which is the rat with wings, you know.

Rat with wings, um, cubby bake houses where uh all ibis go to rule the universe.

Um and you know, in contrast, there's the eagle, and then there's the bush turkey, or the official name brush turkey, but who's ever called it brush turkey?

It's bush turkey.

Um so the eagle's built for soaring.

The bush turkey spends most of its time on the ground.

The eagle has broad wings and huge wingspan span.

The bush turkey can fly, but usually in short bursts.

The eagle uses rising air to gain height, like those thermals, the turkey scratches around the forest floor.

The eagle surveys a huge area from above.

The turkey focuses on what is immediately around it.

The eagle is powerful and efficient in flight, but the turkey's awkward, awkward looking and even frantic in flight.

Uh the eagle is associated with open skies.

The turkey is famous for enormous piles of leaves and mulch.

The eagle looks majestic in flight, and the turkey looks like it's permanently up to something in your backyard.

They look mischievous.

It's no accident that the Holy Spirit, through the prophet Isaiah, is communicating this picture, uh, ends up communicating through this passage of scripture this picture of an eagle that has taken flight and is soaring, and is soaring in response to being renewed.

It's actually a picture of you in the process of God's renewal in your life.

Most of our days, uh, we are fighting against all of gravity to make us just like the turkeys, right?

The bush turkeys.

Now I'm not calling you a turkey.

The point is this, and you can tell your other neighbor your second choice that you were created to soar.

Go on, tell them that.

You were created to soar.

And I believe by the Spirit of God today and over these next couple of weeks, um, that God just wants to focus our attention on the way that He renews us and how He renews our strength in a phenomenal way.

Isaiah is speaking to people who are exhausted, discouraged, and tempted to think that God has forgotten them.

Bush turkey, right?

His first response in in this passage isn't try harder, isn't scratch around, isn't just try to escape, you know, Billy the chocolate labrador in the backyard to get through another day.

No, it's a whole progression that we're going to walk through succinctly this morning.

And um here's the first thought is um from the scripture says this do you not do you not need sorry, excuse me, do you not know is the question.

Have you not heard the Lord is the everlasting God?

Have you got that up there?

Yeah, do you not know?

Have you not heard that the Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the heavens of the earth?

He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.

Here's the first thought when it comes to God wanting to renew our lives, and he does, he does.

He is part of his salvation plan, is that we are coming to renewal, not just back in 1975 when you got born again or whenever it was, but a constant place of renewing in your life.

Here's the first thought is remembering who God is.

Remembering who God is.

He today, at this present moment, on this Sunday morning and every Sunday after this, every day, every moment after this, God is not half full.

He's not half full or half empty.

He doesn't pour himself out and is going, oh man, I need I need a break.

Gabriel, can you just take the reins for a little while?

I'm gonna go have a seat.

He is he is still full.

He is still full of his goodness and his mercy.

And this is the uh something to remember, the first step in remembering when God is renewing our lives and re-strengthening our lives to remember who God, who God is, that he is the everlasting God.

When your strength is failing, don't begin by looking deeper into yourself, begin by looking higher to God.

We draw strength from God whose strength is inexhaustible, it hasn't run out, it hasn't phased out, he is strong today as he ever was, he is anointed today as he ever was, he is filled with joy today as he ever was.

So here's the second thing the first thing is remembering who God is.

The the second thing is found in this script part of the text here that even yews grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall.

This is this is the second part of really God uh uh allowing his renewal to touch our life is remembering who we are.

Recognize, rather, recognize, excuse me, another R word.

Recognize who we are.

If you know the person beside you, can you just pinch them in the arm uh just to check that they're human?

Um, if you know who they are, if not, that's weird.

And and did they respond to you?

They are human, right?

You you you sense them there, they are human.

This is so important, friends, and this is what the scripture is saying is that even youths, even people with the most energy, even with people with the most um hope in their life, with the most uh ability to see brightness in the future, that even youths grow tired and weary, and young men, even young men stumble and fall.

What it's saying is this is that we are human.

Oh, please be freed by knowing this, but that remind yourself that he is God and we are human because there's something beautiful with this.

And and and I love as you read through the gospels, this blows my mind when you look into Jesus.

He was the He was in the beginning, he was there at creation, the word was God, the Word was God.

Right back at when the earth was formless and bore and void, there was Jesus.

He was a part of the Godhead that was inexhaustible, and yet he put on an earth suit and he incarnated himself, which he became flesh, took on our humanity, and became like us.

Just continues to blow my mind.

And I love reading through the gospels, which I encourage you to do regularly, to have one foot in the in the gospels, just regularly, just to connect with Jesus in in that way.

The whole scriptures is God breathed, by the way, not just the red letters, but uh like some people are saying now, the whole lot is God breathed.

But to seeing the person of Jesus and you see things in his humanity, that's so encouraging.

That he goes on a long journey and he gets exhausted, he gets hungry, he gets thirsty, and then a scripture that every young person should know by heart, John 11 36.

It's in response to him seeing a mate of his, you know, die.

Sam, what is the the scripture?

Jesus wept.

Come on, everybody.

You if you don't know a scripture by heart, thank you very much.

I've given you a scripture.

Jesus wept.

God wept.

You've never seen Jesus become any more human, both in the Garden of Eden, sorry, the Garden of Gethsemane, when he's crying drops of blood, and he's saying, Father, take this cup away from me.

And the other is John 11, 36, where he's like, just weeping because his mate died.

And he's a human.

That's why Jesus himself is not going to point a finger at you and say, Oh, come on, get it together.

He's created you, he knows you, and he's walked where you've walked, in every way being tempted, like you and I, yet without sin.

And so we recognize who we are is very important.

But let's keep on moving, verse 31.

It says this, so we remember who God is, we recognize who we are, and watch this, verse 31.

But those who hope in the Lord.

This is about renewing our dependence on the Lord.

So we're human, and instead of like just thinking, you know, my my my source is going to be XYZ, whatever you fill that with, it's like, no, my hope is in the Lord.

My I'm renewing my dependence on the Lord.

This is more than positive thinking.

Biblical hope isn't, I hope everything works out.

It's an expectant confidence rooted in God's character.

And so this is where I really want us to connect the dots.

This here is from the New King James Version, which actually said that instead of hope, it's it actually uses the word, picks up on this, that those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength.

Now, this is so important because the word wait in in Hebrew uh it means this that it's waiting, it's looking for, it's hoping, it's expecting or eagerly anticipating.

And so the Bible says that those that wait, those that look for, those that hope expectantly or eagerly anticipating, not in themselves or their own inner muscle, no, those that wait on, come on, the Lord shall renew their strength, their strength will be renewed.

And this is where the renewing is in the waiting.

So wait on the Lord does not mean passive inactivity, sitting around doing nothing uh until God eventually acts.

No, it's an active, expectant dependence on God.

The same word is translated in in these scriptures here, just to explain a bit further.

Psalm 25, 5, on you I wait all the day.

Psalm 27, 14, wait on the Lord and be of good courage.

Psalm 37, wait on the Lord and keep his way.

Psalm 135, I wait for the Lord.

My soul waits, in his word, do I hope?

So there is expectation in the waiting.

And so the NIV, which I first read to you, is those that hope in the Lord.

It's not a different idea, waiting and hoping, but it is the same.

It's really saying this that I haven't seen it yet, but I haven't stopped trusting him.

It's the same, hoping and waiting, that I haven't seen it.

Oh, come on, I'm speaking to anybody that's hoping and trusting in God and you have not yet seen it again.

That is the essence of hope.

Uh, you know, that's what speaks of Abraham, who out of hope, without hope, in hope, believed the promises of God.

So you're not merely waiting for something to happen, happening, you're placing your expectation in someone, in a person.

The object of the waiting matters, friends, it really does.

That is hoping in the Lord.

Not what the Lord can do for you.

The Lord.

He can do that stuff, come on.

But in him.

If you think about it like this, we're not um you know, you you know me, I I love food and I love food with the people, with the family, and you think of a marinated steak for a second.

Just to distract you.

That was Father's Day last week, right?

But but you think of that steak, and this is a picture of waiting, a marinated steak.

You make up your marinade, you put this you know, the steak in a little plastic container, whatever it is, you put your marinade on top that you you've you've made, you know, your special concoction of marinade, and you tip it all over the steak, and you put it, seal it up, put it in the fridge, and you let it just marinate.

The steak in the marinade, the steak is waiting in the marinade.

And that's the essence of waiting on the Lord.

In terms of the illustration, the the steak is sitting, the the steak is sitting there in the marinade, receiving the juices, receiving the flavors to go right through every part of the stake.

That that's the essence of waiting.

You know, I'm waiting, I'm waiting in his presence, but it's not just I'm not doing anything, I'm actively leaning in to him as a uh and him as a person because he has what I need, and I'm waiting on him.

I want the band to come on, and we they're gonna leave you in a song, and we're just gonna respond to this.

Our strength isn't renewed simply because enough time passes.

Time isn't the source of renewal, God is.

You can wait for circumstances to improve, wait for people to change, wait for an opportunity to arrive, wait for a difficult season to finish.

But as I specifically says, Come on, somebody help me.

Wait on the Lord.

Now, I I just want you to put up, uh actually, don't put it up yet.

You know, God just prompted my heart even in prayer for you uh this week and and these last couple of weeks.

And I'm calling everybody that calls Garden Church home.

I know it's out of your routine to do this, what I'm about to tell you, because we normally have a month of prayer and fasting in February.

But as I was leaning into the scripture and just the prompting of the Holy Spirit, I felt to call us as a church for for uh 10 days of prayer and fasting starting.

Next Friday.

Next Friday.

10 days of prayer and fasting.

Can you can you put this up here?

And so here's the sort, they that wait on the Lord.

And so it's September 18th to 27th.

And maybe take a photo, get out your camera, and do this so that we're all together praying and fasting.

And this is the challenge that I had in my heart.

This is the challenge that I had in my heart for us.

That we would adjust our day.

We would adjust our moments to go after 20 or 30 minutes a day to worship or to wait and to pray.

Just to be in God's presence.

Undistracted and just go after Him.

Say, what are we praying for?

Well, we're going after Him.

I mean, come February, we'll be praying for missionaries as we always do.

We'll be praying for lost people.

We'll be praying for all sorts of things.

So important.

But it's for the Holy Spirit to say, why don't you just go after me?

Say, man, I've never prayed more than five minutes or on the way to work.

What a way to start.

What a way just to give it a go.

What if it's only 29 minutes?

That's not the point.

That's not the point.

It's just to say, you know what?

I'm going after God.

If you say, you know what, half an hour is not enough, you go for it.

Whatever time.

You say, you don't know how tired I am.

You don't know, I get home at the end of the day, all I can do is just have a cup of tea and slop into bed.

This is the whole point.

This is the whole point, is that when we wait on the Lord, come on, He renews our strength.

Because the and we're going to respond in a moment.

And I pray everybody here loves the Lord, and your heart is just saying, you know, I'm just drawing closer to God.

Even as you're speaking, Pastor John, I just want to come back to God.

I've moved through this season.

I just want more of Him.

As the deer pants for water, like we sung this morning.

So my soul longs after you.

And we're we're going to open the altar, and but we're just going to make this whole room an altar of coming to the Lord Jesus Christ.

But I've got to finish with this because it's verse 31.

Because this is the promise over here today.

But those who hope wait in the Lord, this is what's coming if your heart's leaning into this.

You will renew, they will renew their strength.

And they will soar on wings like eagles.

And they will run and not grow weary.

And they will walk and not faint.

This is where we receive the exchange.

We receive the exchange.

Renew.

Renew comes with the idea of exchange strength.

Renew means to make something new, fresh or strong again.

And that's what God's wanting to do.

He's just wanting to renew.

To fresh refresh and renew and revive in people's hearts.

I love this progression.

I love this progression in the promise there.

Just put it back up again.

31, verse 31.

It says that lay the wait on the Lord.

They will soar on wings of eagles.

They will soar.

It's like soaring over what you're walking through, soaring over that circumstance.

That's what happens when the Lord renews your strength.

You soar above it, you soar above it.

But also there's another promise.

Some of you may not soar above it, but He's gonna give you, He's gonna give you legs to run.

He's gonna give you legs to run and you'll run through it.

Because God, that's what God does.

He doesn't do it the same all the time, but sometimes He gives you wings to soar over, and other times He's just giving you strength.

He's taking away your weary legs to run through it.

But even then, the third progression is that He gives you strength to take the next step, to walk, and you'll not be faint.

Some of you like, man, I just need the next step.

Beautiful.

He's gonna renew your strength so you won't faint.

Amen.

I just want to let the Holy Spirit just do his thing in this moment.

How good was that message?

I know that you would have been blessed.

Garden Church is a flourishing, life-giving church based on the northern rivers of New South Wales.

We have a passionate commitment to see you make a difference in your world, thrive in community, and most importantly, connect you to Jesus.

Visit our website gardenchurch.com for more details of ministries, our heart, and even some great resources to empower your life.

Be blessed, go and be life giving.