Well Ladies if you weren't at Beth el Baptist Church inHouston today, youmissed a couple of pretty good messages, and some awesome singing. Sherry Bohannnon sang a beautiful song. I will get back with you on the name. But it was so beautiful.
The
theme of our message today was “Submitting to God’s Perfect Timing!”
The very
title of this message suggest that:
You
know Christ as your personal Savior. You
have a personal and intimate relationship with Him. You spend time in God's Word, daily. You spend time in prayer, daily. You recog nize His voice when He speaks, and you obey Him. (Check out John chapter 10)
That
being said, I suppose we have all spoken those infamous words; “When Lord?
When?”
Waiting
on the Lord isn’t a new subject.
I’m just
not sure that we appreciate the importance of waiting.
Maybe
the reason is we just don’t like to wait. Waiting makes us anxious.
Why is
that?
Doesn’t
God’s Word say, be anxious for nothing, but in all things…
Many
years ago, when I was a child, time was such a huge thing for me. From one
weekend to the next, seemed like forever. Preparing to leave and to journey
anywhere, the store, the doctor’s office or going on vacation, was always
preceded with, “When are we leaving?” and then as we started down the road,
“Are we there yet?”
I was
impatient and my parents timing didn’t always move fast enough for me.
How
different would our journey’s together have been if I had instead been trusting
and thankful.
As I
started this devotional I had to ask myself, how much this attitude has changed
as I became a mature christian.
While
considering this I reread two stories in the bible, so I would like you to
join me for a little exercise that I did with myself.
There
you are, sitting in the cool shade of the elm tree, can you feel it, the wind
gently blowing on your tear stained face. You are remembering the early days of
your marriage, when you and your husband spoke with excitement and eagerness of
the family you would one day have.
He
was so sure that he had heard the voice of God saying
“…I will make your offspring like the dust of
the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust then your offspring could be
counted.”
Knowing
that he was a godly man, you trusted his leading. More important you trusted
God.
But
that had been so long ago. You have since floated in and out of depression.
If
you could just have a baby!
“When
Lord?” You cry out in your heart. “When? I am getting too old to carry a baby,
and my husband hardly looks at me any longer!”
As the endless tears begin to flow again, It
is then you open your tired, aging eyes, and see her, young and beautiful, made
to bear children, and you have an idea…..
Now lets move from the elm tree, to the office:
There
you are sitting again. This time you are at your desk. With so many fears and
worries laying heavily on your mind, you began to pray, “Why, God, why is this
happening to me? I have loved You so much. Even when my mother died so young, Even
when my brothers disowned me, tried to destroy me, I trusted You. Not only have
I loved you and trusted you. I have always obeyed you.
You
blessed me, by giving me this job. But now it looks like I am going to lose it!
The boss is coming on to me. He’s married and he isn’t a believer. I know he’s
going to get rid of me if I keep saying no.
Lord,
I can’t afford to lose this job. It seems like I take one step forward and two
steps back in life. When is it going to get better? When?” you ask as you open
your eyes, and see he is standing there in front of you. He’s not a bad looking
man, and he is very nice to you. And you begin to think maybe this is God’s
will, surely he doesn’t expect me to lose what he has given….
You may
recognize those two scenarios, as being borrowed from the bible. In each of
these circumstances, which I modernized a little bit, in each of these
circumstances, I can see what I perceive as valid reasons for becoming
impatient, and not wanting to wait on God to do something.
Psychology
tells us impatience is a decision making
problem.
And I
agree with that. Whether you have waited
hours, weeks or years, many a bad decision has been made because, for whatever
the reason, someone couldn’t wait any longer.
For the
Christian our decisions and the outcome of our decisions is the result of our
ability or inability to not just to wait, but to wait on God.
What’s
more, our ability to wait on God is directly related to our belief system, our
faith.
But, It
is also directly related to the world. We are often distracted and our faith is
weakened by what we allow into our ears and our eyes, and ultimately our hearts
and our lives. Once this occurs we begin to grow anxious. (Anxious that we
didn’t hear right, anxious that we misunderstood, anxious that we will lose
something, miss out on something, anxious that God’s goal isn’t our goal)
We know
the outcome of both Sarai and Joseph’s response to waiting for God’s timing,
but I want to do some dissecting just the same.
But first
let’s take a look and dissect someone elses story. I am sure you remember King
Saul.
Go with
me to I Samuel 13:8 - 13
8. And
he tarried seven days according to the set time that Samuel had appointed; but
Samuel came not to Gilgal; and the people were scattered from him.
9. And
Saul said, bring hither a burnt offering to me, and peace offerings. And he
offered the burnt offering.
10. And
it came to pass, that as soon as he had made and end of offering the burnt offering,
behold, Samuel came; and Saul went out to meet him, that he might salute him.
11. And
Samuel said, “What hast thou done?” And Saul said, Because I saw that the
people were scattered from me and that thou camest not within the days
appointed, and that the Philistines gathered themselves together at Michmash;
12
Therefore said I, The Philistines will come down now upon me to Gilgal, and I
have not made supplication unto the Lord: I forced myself therefore, and
offered a burnt offering.
13. And
Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly; thou hast not kept the
commandment of the Lord, thy God, which he commanded thee…
Prior to
our text, we learned that a battle was brewing between Israel and the
Philistines. Samuel, the man of God, was
well aware of the war and ensuing battle. He had said to King Saul that he
would return on a specific day and offer the required sacrifice to God.
Saul an
Israelite knew the law. He knew the requirements and He knew the prohibitions
about who could and could not make sacrifices before the Lord. Yet as he saw
his troops disappearing, as he heard of the thousands of Philistine troops
gathering, as there was no sign of the man of God, his faith began to falter,
and he became anxious.
He needed to do something! This
is war! Waiting could cost us everything!
This
moment was not a total surprise to Saul. God had been preparing him all of his
life for this job. Philippians 4:6 tells us to trust that whatever God brings
us to, He will bring it to completion.
I am not
saying that Saul knew of this specific event.
But God,
who had shown Himself to be trust worthy over and over, was working in Saul’s
life. God was teaching him principals of obedience and trust. Saul should have
known another trial was coming his way.
Saul
needed to be at the place in his life where he understood God had called him to
this crisis.
He also
needed to be prepared for God’s outcome, whatever it would be.
Now we
are getting somewhere. Isn’t that why we grow anxious and panic? We aren’t sure
of God’s agenda. We are not sure where He is taking us.
When we
enter such circumstances and times, when the pressure is on, the clock is
ticking, the world and your emotions are saying you have to act, you have to do
something….let me caution you to wait for God.
Although
every specific situation that comes into our lives is not specifically written
into the bible, the principals to live by are in there. Our circumstances do not
surprise God. He has given us all we need, to know what to do.
His character, His principals do not change
because we have entered panic mode. Stop and wait submit, surrender to God’s
timing, regardless of the cost!
Now let us look at Sarai and see
how this applies to her life.
What did
she know?
1.
She
knew her husband as her lord and master. Like it or not ladies your husbands
are your head. He is the leader of your home.
2.
She
knew God’s Word through her lord; it had been made clear to her.
3.
She
also knew she was getting old, her body told her so. Like Saul her
feelings/emotions were screaming in panic, something had to happen.
I know
that she had waited a lifetime. God knew that she had waited a lifetime.
By all
that we know in the worldly realm of things, Sarai was not going to be a
mother.
And had
God not spoken into the life of her husband, maybe seeking out a surrogate
would have been the right thing for her, or adoption.
But God
Himself had nixed the idea of adoption, when He told Abraham his servant
Elieazer would not be his heir and when he said his son would come from his
loins. (Gen. 15)
If Sarah
had been patient and waited a little longer she would have personally had God’s
Word on it that she would be the one to bare Abraham a son. Gen 17:16.
But she
began to doubt, lose faith, and become anxious, because by the world’s
standards she was out of time. She was beginning to think that God might not
give her the desires of her heart. Hadn’t the promise been made to Abraham?
Since
she was now using the world’s standards of timing, and she had begun to doubt
God’s Word as revealed to her husband, it was easy for her to look around and
see that the world had its own solutions for this type of situation.
There is
nothing that comes into our lives that surprises God. Not our barrenness, or
our captivity, nor the world.
And when
these things do touch us, He is trustworthy! Still,
Like
Saul we are often distracted by what is going on around us. Let’s go back and
look at it through his eyes again.
He is in
the midst of a war. The war isn’t going well. The appointed time arrives and
God hasn’t shown up, and neither has God’s man.
Ladies,
that phrase should resonate with some of us.
“…God has arrived and neither has God’s man!”
So what
do we do? Usually, we do the same as Saul. We start to look around and figure
out how to handle things ourselves. How do you think women’s’ lib was born?
But as
we turn our eyes upon the problem, on the seeming lack of solution, we are
turning our eyes to a worldly view of the problem and worldly solutions.
As Saul
looked around, he saw his troops panicking and deserting him. He saw they
needed to see something that would bring them back, to where he needed them. He
needed to do something that would inspire them to victory.
Wait a
minute! Did You hear that “..he needed to do something that would inspire them
to victory!”
Is that
what he thought?
When
waiting on God, and it seems that God hasn’t shown up, Saul felt, Saul believed
he had to do something to inspire his men to victory?
Is that
what he thought he was waiting for Samuel to come and do, to motivate and to
inspire?
Are you
beginning to see the problem?
The
offering that Samuel would make is not related to how it would make the people,
the soldiers feel.
It was to
honor and acknowledge God. It was about obedience, It was about trusting God!
Ladies, He
is our Victory! Even when it looks like defeat!
Do you remember Calvary?
Do you
remember the tears and the fear?
Do you
remember the victory?
And what
of Sarai?
Every
day, she saw the bony old fingers of the women in her camp, pointing at her.
Every
day, she saw, or imagined she saw her husband’s disappointment as he looked at
her aging barren body.
She
could only see what at this time appeared to be empty promises from a distant
God.
Saul seems
to have placed his faith in a man, Sarai seems to have placed her faith in
tradition and her own understanding.
Ultimately they both placed their faith in
themselves and their ability to devise a way.
But let’s
finish up by looking at Joseph. Joseph who doesn’t try to make things happen.
Joseph who is willing to suffer all things according to the will of God. Joseph who chooses to walk up
right before the Lord even if it means prison or death. Joseph who chose to
surrender to God’s Timing.
You see
we talk about submitting and committing, that keeps everything in our control.
When
Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce him, he could have justified in his mind, much
like Sarai and Saul. He could have justified by saying my master is a eunuch.
He has made all of the servants in his house eunuchs, except me. Perhaps this
is Potiphar’s wish, surely he knows I am young and healthy and his wife is beautiful.
Maybe this is why God placed me here!
But no,
Joseph who had long ago surrendered himself to God’s will for his life looks
passed the things, the lies of this world.
He looks
past his own aching loins and loneliness.
He sets
aside his anxious feelings, knowing that God has spoken into his life, and will
complete the work He has started.
He
doesn’t look at what the world sees. He looks only on the character, the face
of his God.
God
would be offended if I slept with another man’s wife.
Joseph a
son of Jacob had less of the law than Saul did. Yet he knew the requirements
and expectations of God from his father.
He knew the prohibitions about premarital sex and adultery, again from
his father. Oh wait a minute, his dad had two wives and two concubines. But
still he knew.
Joseph
was not looking for an excuse to go his
own way.
He had
surrendered his life to God, and if doing it God’s way meant prison or death,
then so be it.
What
does Joseph know?
A Slave
has no life of his own, if his Master doesn’t speak or answer, the slave does
only what he has already been told, otherwise he stands and waits!
So what
about you, my sisters? Are you waiting on something? Are you being tempted by
the promises of the world as you wait?
Is the
clock ticking? Are you feeling panicked? A decision has to be made!
I will
leave you with
Sarai,
who in her old aged bore a son to her husband Abraham. I leave you with Joseph
who was second only to Pharaoh and who saw his brothers and his parents bow
down to him.
I
leave you with the words of David who surrendered to God and His timing and
ultimately replaced Saul who failed to trust in God’s perfect time;
The
Words in Psalms 27:14 simply say:
Wait
for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.
