*below are pre-sermon manuscript notes, not sermon transcript

 

Be Cool and Wait | Psalm 37:34

 

Are you impatient?

It might be because you have too many choices. 

I was in the grocery store the other day and there were 9 different choices for mayonnaise, which, bless their hearts is so unnecessary – just put Duke’s on the shelf, right?

The choices on the cereal aisle can be dangerous too.

You go in with plans to get a box of honey bunches of wild berry granola oat bran toasted puffed nut squares and you come out with a box of honey bunches of white chocolate peanut butter swirled cinnamon French toast squares.

And it’s not just food. 

We are surrounded with tons of choices for:

• Houses
• Hammocks
• Cars
• Crock-pots
• Tools
• TV’s
• Shoes
• Shampoos
• Mascaras
• Mailboxes
• Prescriptions
• Pet sweaters

Clearly having choices is not always a bad thing.

But too many choices can cause us to be indecisive.

With so many options we become paralyzed and won’t make a choice at all. 

Or as we’ve already said, too many options can cause us to be impatient. 

And impatience is not just with food and stuff – it’s also with people.

7 years ago, Mark Brooks writing as a consultant to online dating companies, published the results of a survey with the following title:

“How Has Internet Dating Changed Society?”

I’m going to share a few conclusions from that survey but let me first make the disclaimer that all online dating is not evil. 

I personally know some believers who met online and are married and serving and honoring the Lord in their marriages. 

But some of the conclusions of the survey are at the very least intriguing. 

Conclusion

Above all, Internet dating has helped people of all ages realize that there's no need to settle for a mediocre relationship.

Every moment in life will not be Christmas morning. 

Mediocre and difficult are both realities of every human life.

It is not human and can be very dangerous to think you click or swipe mediocre and difficult moments away.

Conclusion

The market is hugely more efficient…People expect to – and this will be increasingly the case over time – access people anywhere, anytime, based on complex search requests…

Conclusion continued

Such a feeling of access affects our pursuit of love…The whole world (versus, say, the city we live in) will, increasingly, feel like the market for our partner(s). Our pickiness will probably increase.

And how about this one:

Conclusion

Internet dating has made people more disposable.

The idea seems to be that until you find Cinderelly or Prince Charming, you can just mentally dispose of other human beings with a click or a swipe.

A person can become impatient with people that don’t meet their standard for a perfect match.

The massive number of choices we have in life doesn’t just lead to impatience with people and things and making people and things more disposable. 

If we peel back the layers, our impatience is because we have made something else more disposable.

What is that something else?

Let’s find out. 

Listen to Psalm 37, verse 34.

34 Wait for the LORD…

Far too often, our choices make God more disposable.

We become impatient with his timing and his ways and we might keep attending church, but we kind of dispose of God. 

We don’t pray or read our Bible or think about God much.

We start getting our theology from talk radio and TV pundits instead of from the One who fearfully and wonderfully made us.

We start arguing and haggling with business owners a little more over prices and brands.

We start talking like there are no politicians and no pastors and no teachers and no one in any position of authority that should ever be trusted for any reason unless they say or do exactly what we want them to say or do. 

We demand more democracy and more choice in our country and at the country store and at the country buffet but our shouts for more democracy are drowned out by the fact that we sound like arm-chair dictators demanding our way. 

Our impatience grows, and our aggravation grows and all the while we are disposing of sound doctrine and disposing of biblical truth and disposing of the words and example of Jesus.

We don’t wait for the Lord because in many ways we aren’t even with the Lord.

King David had lived about 60 years when he wrote this.

He didn’t always perfectly wait on the Lord, but he knew it was an extremely necessary tool for surviving and thriving in all of the highs and lows of life. 

He knew his life with God was the most important part of his life.

If your family or your job or your education or your house or your car or your boat or your motorcycle or your golf game or your Netflix account or your favorite football team or your desire to stay up all night or your desire to get 22 ¾ hours of sleep every night then you are functioning outside of the realm of what your heart and mind and body and soul were actually created and designed to know and feel and embrace and enjoy as the first and greatest and most important part of your life. 

Waiting for the Lord does not necessarily mean that you are waiting on God to do something – though, that is part of it.   

Waiting for the Lord means you are waiting for him.

• Waiting for the Lord
• Waiting in the Lord
• Waiting with the Lord

What does that mean and what does that look like and how can we get there?

Well, by definition, impatience means that in a moment or as an attitude of life we find ourselves:

• Irritable
• Restless
• Frustrated
• Agitated
• Nervous
• Edgy
• Jittery

How many of us have circled those wagons this week?

The opposite of impatience would be patience. 

So, that would mean that in a moment or as an attitude of life we find ourselves:

• Calm
• Composed
• Even-tempered
• Self-restrained
• Kind
• Considerate
• Understanding

How many of us have even seen those wagons week?

Maybe one way of thinking of what it means to wait for the Lord is to install a CPI system in our lives. 

CPI meaning “Calibrating Patience or Impatience” system.

In a moment or as the attitude of your life are you:

• Irritable?
• Restless?
• Frustrated?
• Agitated?
• Nervous?
• Edgy?
• Jittery?

Then your CPI system can set off an alarm to let you know that you are not waiting on the Lord. 

Now, we will all have moments when we do one or all of those things – maybe even all at the same time. 

But it is important for us to grab a hold of King David’s advice and hear our CPI alarm and start praying and working toward shifting gears. 

And we will see and know and feel and be comforted and I dare say even excited when the CPI light goes from red to green because we’ve made that shift and in that moment or in our attitude we start feeling and looking more:

• Calm
• Composed
• Even-tempered
• Self-restrained
• Kind
• Considerate
• Understanding

From personal experience, I get pretty pumped in that shift.

I love the moment I can feel my heart and mind stop stressing out and freaking out because some truth about God has captured my mind again through remembering Scripture or through the kindness of another Christian or through the powerful colors of the sunset on a Friday night.

What’s happening in that moment is I’m being overwhelmed with the reality that in and through my salvation in Jesus, I am not alone and God is for me and not against me and I don’t have to be edgy or jittery or restless because of all the choices available to me in that moment I can chose to wait for and wait in and wait with the One who was and is and is to come and I can turn my eyes upon Jesus the author and perfecter of my faith who for the joy set before him endured the cross and all of its shame so that I could be brought near to God.

There at that cross my hope is found!

There at that cross is holy ground!

There at that cross I can choose to bow down over and over again and keep resting in and trusting in and relying on and clinging to the guarantee of heaven that my Redeemer is Faithful and True!

But some would say all of that is just noble, religious psychology – like a spoon full of spiritual sugar to help the medicine of life go down.

Others might just minimize the whole notion of waiting on the Lord down to semantics about patience and impatience.

Unknown

Having patience is just being good at hiding impatience.

Unknown

Patience is what you have when there are too many witnesses.

But waiting on the Lord is not just noble, religious psychology.

This is what the prophet Isaiah prayed to God about 2800 years ago:

Isaiah 64:1-2

Oh, that You would rend the heavens and come down, That the mountains might quake at Your presence – As fire kindles the brushwood, as fire causes water to boil

Isaiah 64:2

To make Your name known to Your adversaries, That the nations may tremble at Your presence!

Isaiah 64:3

When You did awesome things which we did not expect, You came down, the mountains quaked at Your presence.

Trembling, quaking in the presence of God. 

That doesn’t sound like noble psychology!

Isaiah 64:4

For from days of old they have not heard or perceived by ear, Nor has the eye seen a God besides You, Who acts in behalf of the one who waits for Him.

God acts in behalf of the one who waits for him. 

That is extremely cool. 

That means if you pray like Isaiah and wait on the Lord:

• Your health will get better
• Your finances will get better
• Your spouse will get better
• Your kids will get better

Maybe. 

Or maybe:

• A spot might show up on an x-ray
• The insurance company might deny your claim
• Your spouse might keep being apathetic or angry
• Your kids might rebel more against you and the Lord

No, waiting on the Lord doesn’t always mean you will get what you want.

But if you are believing in and trusting in and relying on and clinging to Jesus then waiting on the Lord means that your soul will keep whispering to your mind that no power of hell and no scheme of man and no disease of the body can ever eternally pluck you from God’s hand. 

So, how do we wait for the Lord while he is working on our behalf?

Let’s see if we can keep it super simple. 

We wait and pray.

The psalmist said this about the people of Israel:

Psalm 106:13

They quickly forgot His works; They did not wait for His counsel…

They wanted what they wanted when they wanted it and didn’t want to wait on the Lord.

God had proven himself over and over and over again, but then he didn’t come through in this one thing that they wanted and so they decided he couldn’t be trusted.

We are never like that, are we?

We never treat our spouse or our kids or our friends or our doctors or our politicians or our pastors or our friends or our cable and internet provider like one-hit wonders, do we?

If we are honest, far too often we bail on people after just one fumble. 

Aren’t you glad God doesn’t treat you like that?

Aren’t you glad most people don’t treat you like that?

Sometimes the way we wait for the Lord is by praying and waiting until we are clear about who he is and what he is calling us to do. 

And how do we know what he is calling us to do?

Phillip Jensen and Tony Payne

We need to explore God’s character and the way he achieves his plans before we can tackle the nitty-gritty issues we are all so interested in.

Phillip Jensen and Tony Payne

If we understand God – what he’s like what motivates him, and what his plans are – we will be well on the way to understanding his guidance. 

Knowing him is how we know what God is calling us to do. 

So, sometimes we wait and pray and keep soaking up as much as we can about the character of God.

Other times we wait and pray and keep our horse ready.

Proverbs 21:31

The horse is prepared for the day of battle, But victory belongs to the LORD.

The Lord is going to act, and he is going to bring his measure of victory but until all of that happens you are supposed to keep grooming and training and keeping your heart ready.

Courtney Doctor is a wife, mom and grandmom.

She’s also a women’s ministry leader. 

She had a horse named Carson when she was young and this is what she said about her horse:

Courtney Doctor

As long as she was moving, she was calm, obedient, and a joy. But when she had to wait, she was a night“mare.”

That sounds like some of us, right?

We don’t like to wait.

But when we are waiting and especially when we are waiting for the Lord we pray and we act. 

• We keep our bodies ready to move
• We keep our minds ready to think
• We keep our hearts ready to love
• We keep our hands ready to serve

We are waiting, but we are actively waiting. 

And why are we waiting and acting?

On another day, King David wrote this down:

Psalm 56:9

This I know, that God is for me.

We wait and we pray and we act because we know that being a Christian is not defined first and most by us, but being a Christian is defined first and most by the character and the conduct and the actions of God and the actions of God are defined by the fact that he so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son to save those who will believe in him and his atoning work on the cross and from the grave

And those actions mean that God is for us – all the time!

We are waiting for the One who is for us.

Courtney Doctor

If you’re waiting on something, remember that, ultimately, it’s the Lord you’re waiting on.

Courtney Doctor

If your hope is set on getting what you want, then you stand the chance of being deeply disappointed, even disillusioned.

Courtney Doctor

But if we hope in the One who is utterly good, completely for us, whose Word is sure, and whose ways are perfect, then that hope will never disappoint.

Courtney Doctor

So when the trials come and you are called to wait and be patient, wait well by anchoring your hope in the One whose promises are sure and whose character never fails.

Wait well – wait for and in and with the Lord. 

Wrap your mind and your heart in the character of who God is and why he can be trusted.

And why can he be trusted?

Because he so loved you he sent Jesus for you.

• Wait and pray
• Wait and act

And one more picture of how we wait – wait and be still. 

Isn’t waiting and being still the same thing?

No.

Waiting and being still is an active thing we do.

Psalm 46:10 (KJV)

Be still, and know that I am God…

That is action – you are being still and you are knowing.

John Piper

…if he says to be still, then leave it all in his hands, trusting his supernatural involvement in the situation. I don’t mean laziness or shirking of duty.

John Piper

I mean that when you are most prepared, most capable, most primed for battle, and think that most hangs on you, he may say, “Stay home, be quiet, pray, and watch me act.”

Some of you are thinking:

“Cool, ‘cuz I was wanting to stay home and binge watch some episodes of my favorite soap operas on HGTV and play Fortnite anyway.”

Others of you are thinking:

“Not cool, ‘cuz I’m ready to do something and staying at home and waiting on the Lord sounds like stupid, lazy sin to me.”

Jani Ortlund is another wife, mom, grandmom and women’s ministry leader.

Jani Ortlund

Looking back now, I wish an older lady had sat me down and told me, “Most of life is waiting, Jani. Learn to wait in hope, not fear.” You see, I grew up believing a lie – a lie I carried with me into adulthood.

Jani Ortlund

I believed that happiness would be mine when my dreams finally came true. And so I worked hard – really, really hard – to gather around me all that my heart longed for.

Jani Ortlund

But then, as I found myself beginning to attain some of my desires, I started fearing I might lose them.

 

Jani Ortlund

I feared the vulnerability of marriage, and I feared the lonesome ache of singleness. I feared the pressure of success, and I feared the shame of failure. I feared infertility, and I feared pregnancy.

Jani Ortlund

I feared the responsibility of raising children, and I feared the emptiness of a childless home. I feared the stress of working outside my home, and I feared the isolation of staying at home full-time.

Jani Ortlund

I feared appearing immature, and I feared growing old. What didn’t I fear? Very little.

That may sound like a female-only version, but I meet men every week who are actively and passively afraid of success and failure and growing old and a thousand other things.

So, what do we do?

Psalm 43:5

Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God…

Jani Ortlund

Hope is a choice.

If you choose to wait for the Lord, you are making the choice of hope. 

On the flip side, if you choose to worship too many choices in life and make God disposable, then you are also throwing true and lasting hope away.

There’s a story told about a woman who was having car trouble and was stalled in traffic. 

She lifted the hood but could not see any obvious sign of what the problem might be.

The man behind her was laying on his horn over and over again. 

She finally walked back to him and kindly said:

“I don't know what is wrong with my car. But if you want to go look under the hood, I'll be glad to stay back here and blow the horn for you.”

Don’t lay on your horn at God.

He is not stalled in traffic.

His timing is perfect because he is perfect. 

If you have truly given your heart to Jesus, then wait for the Lord because he is for you.

God is for you.

Dow Welsh

October 14, 2018 © Holland Avenue Baptist Church

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Above are pre-sermon manuscript notes, not sermon transcript

Sermon scriptures NASB unless otherwise noted

Lots of help from many pastors and theologians

Weekly help from Bruce Hurt at http://www.preceptaustin.org/

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/more-choices-less-commitment/

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/hope-for-waiting-hearts/

https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/most-of-life-is-waiting

https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/god-works-for-those-who-wait-for-him