Waiting on the Lord | Psalm 25

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

You better take your Bible and turn to the 25th Psalm. The 25th Psalm. I simply titled this message, Waiting for the Lord. Waiting for the Lord. David has this Psalm for us, and it's a prayer, my Bible says, for guidance and protection. But it's also about understanding the need to wait for the Lord. We'll begin reading verse 1, Psalm 25, verse 1 says, Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift my soul. O my God, I trust in thee. Let me not be ashamed. Let not my enemies triumph over me. Yea, let none of them, let none that wait on thee be ashamed. Let them be ashamed which transgress without cause. Show me thy ways, O Lord, teach me thy paths. And he says in verse 5, Lead me in thy truth and teach me, for thou art the God of my salvation. On thee do I wait all the day. Let's go, Lord, in word of prayer. Let me follow the way to somebody by before you. Again, Lord, just thank you so much for the beautiful day and for the opportunity to be here this morning to worship you in spirit and in truth. And we're just so very blessed, and again, with the privilege of being here to truly worship you. And I pray our hearts and minds are fixed upon you and your will for our life and every decision we make, Lord, we pray we wait for it to be clear that your Holy Spirit is guiding us. And I do ask you, Lord, again this morning for your preaching grace, that you just have me behind the cross and I remain there and that we all realize and understand as we read your word and hear your word that it's it's you, uh you speaking to each and every heart, uh uh seeking your will to be done. Uh first for salvation. We do pray for those that may be lost among us this morning, that today might be the day that they would realize their condition, that they're lost, separated from you, that there is hope found only in the blood of Christ and in the cross. And we pray, Lord, that they would uh make that uh confession of sin and repentance and call upon you and be saved today. And not just be satisfied with being saved. Lord, they'd want to be scripturally baptized and become a member of a New Testament church and serve you and uh again to be the people you've called us to be, and be the light you've called us to be. And any other decision that needs to be made, Lord, apart from salvation, we pray it be made today, all in accordance to your will. And I pray, Lord, that we take this message, apply it to our life, and we truly wait on you in all areas of our life. We love and we praise you, we ask forgiveness of sins, and we ask it's all in Jesus' name. Amen. So you think about waiting. Uh for me it's a very hard thing. I don't like to, I don't like to wait. You look at our world, all the conveniences, a different thing. Everything's so fast-paced, everything's instant, this, that, and the other. Uh people don't like to wait, but we are so very blessed when we do wait on the Lord. Uh, you know, we're young, I remember growing up, man, I couldn't wait to drive, I couldn't wait to, you know, start my life, just get out. Mom said, Man, why are you always rushing your life away? And uh, she was so true. She's so true. I just couldn't wait to go and do. And you look back, man, what was what was the big hurry? And uh sometimes we look in life and we're living for the Lord, and you're like, you want to do this, this, and this. And God says, Hold on, hold on, slow down a little bit. Wait on me. Wait on me. That's the greatest thing we'll ever do, is wait on him. And if we're going to grow in the Lord, we must we must learn to wait. Uh we have to wait on him. Uh, there's so many verses in the Bible about waiting on the Lord. Uh, and when we realize that waiting is an answer from the Lord, uh, it helps us grow because you can ask God something, and the answer isn't yes or no. It could be wait. Wait. And that is a that's a that's a it can be sometimes it can be very, very hard. Why? Because we're impatient. But when we're gonna read this Psalm this morning and we're gonna see that David understands he must wait on the Lord uh to be pleasing to the Lord and allow the Lord to be who he wants to be. And what does God want to be to all of us? The Lord of our lives. So for him to be the Lord of our lives, what do we gotta do? We gotta wait on him. We gotta wait on him and understand to have the clear path and to make the right decision. And uh when the Lord tells us to wait, it could be uh a way that God would test our faith. And we would be willing to wait. I've heard it said, you know, I'm sure you have too, a faith that can't be tested can't be trusted. And you really think about that. I mean, it's very, very uh, very deep thought that God wants to test our faith. So what? So he can trust us to have his will done where he receives the honor, the glory, and the praise. So we're gonna look at one illustration of the consequences of not waiting. Then we're gonna look at this psalm and what David is writing helps us understand what we should be doing. And while we're waiting is working and worshiping, but also having the patience and a dependence on the Lord. So let's look at keep your place here, but turn to 1 Samuel chapter 13. We're gonna look at the consequences of the first king of Israel and what happened to him and how serious it was because he didn't wait on God. And so, 1 Samuel chapter 13, Saul is the king, and they're going to go into battle. And Samuel has told him a few chapters back that he will meet him in Gilgal, but to wait seven days. It's going to be seven days. So we see in chapter 13 of 1 Samuel. Look at verse 3. And Jonathan smote the garrison of the Philistines that was in Giva, and the Philistines heard of it, and Saul blew the trumpet throughout all the land, saying, Let the Hebrews hear. And all of Israel heard that Saul had spit in the garrison the Philistines, and that Israel also had an abomination with the Philistines, and the people were called together of Saul and Gilgal. Okay, understand that. And the Philistines gathered themselves together to fight with Israel, thirty thousand chariots and three thousand horsemen, and the people as a sand of which was upon the seashore a multitude. And they came up and pitched a Mi'kmash eastward from Bethaven. And look at verse 6. And when the men of Israel saw that they were in a strait, they were in a pickle, they were in a rock and a horse by. And he tarried seven days according to the set time that Samuel had appointed him. But Samuel came not to Gilgal, and the people were scattered from him. What happened? Big army of people with the enemy. Saul had a good army. But as time went on, as they began to wait, waiting for Samuel to show up, what happened? Doubt and fear came in, like, he ain't gonna show up. God has forsaken us. We're gonna lose this battle. So people began to run. His army began to get smaller and smaller. So what did Saul do? Look in verse 9. And Saul said, Bring hither a burnt offering to me and peace offerings. And he offered the burnt offering. All right. Look in verse 10. And it came to pass that as soon as he had made an end of the offering, the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came. What happened? He didn't wait long enough. God always keeps his promise. Always. And they're thinking, man, it's the seventh day. We don't know. It might have been getting late in the evening. Or early in the morning for them. So they start their day is an evening. They're thinking, he's not going to show up. Everybody's fleeing me. Everybody's running. I'm the king. I'm the king. I'll just make the offering. And look what happens. And it came to pass who is made an offering, the burnt offering. Behold, Samuel came and Saul went to meet him that he might salute him. Look what Samuel says in verse 10, verse 11. And Samuel said, What hast thou done? And Saul said, Because I saw that the people were scattered from me and that thou cameest not within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered themselves together in Mingmash. Therefore said I, the Philistines will come down upon me at Gilgal, and I have not made supplication to the Lord. I forced myself therefore and offered a burnt offering. Saying, while I waited this amount of time, you didn't show up. The people were scared. I'm afraid we're going to lose this battle if I keep the people, keep my soldiers, keep leaving. So I did what I had to do. I forced myself to do it. Look at the consequences. Because here's the thing with God He's not going to listen to excuses. He gave him a direct command. Stay seven days. You wait seven days. And Samuel said in verse 13, Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly. Thou hast not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God, which he commanded thee. For now with the Lord have established thy kingdom upon Israel forever. Basically, what Samuel is saying, You have failed the test. God is testing you as king. Can you be trusted with a command from God to lead my people? And Samuel says, You have failed miserably because you are foolish. You were foolish. And look what it costs Saul. Because Samuel says, God was going to use you to reign over his kingdom forever. But in verse 14, he says, But now, here's the consequences for him not waiting on the Lord, not waiting for Samuel to show up, not waiting on the word to be fulfilled. But now the kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought him a man after his own heart, and the Lord hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because it because he has not kept that which the Lord commanded thee. So what did he do? God will take his anointment from Saul. We learn later that God would choose his own, which was King David, which was a man after God's own heart. And so we see that, and you think, man, why is it why was it so why was God so angry? Why was Samuel so mad? Because he had sinned against God. He had broken his commandment. And so when you hear a preacher preaching about sin and things like that, man, why is Bronny, Brother Ronnie so mad? I had a family come here once and they told me afterwards, my little son says, boy, boy. Ron was mad. He was mad. That's how most people take it. I'm not mad at your sin or my sin. Guess what? God is. God is the one who gets angry at sin. And if I don't you do what and say what God would have me to say in a way that he wants me to say it, guess what? I'm not doing what God would have me to do. Should I be up here laughing at all of our sins? And oh, it's not it's not a serious thing. No. So yeah, does it bother me? Me saying, well, that people think that I'm angry. I don't want to ever come off as angry or mad. At individu as individuals. It's not. It's like I used to tell my ball players when I coached ball. And I'd be on them and I'd let them have it, man. One of my best players one time I made him cry. He was older, too. He's a high school kid. I said, Man, don't, don't. I said, here's the thing. I love you as a person, but right now I'm so mad at you as a ball player because I know you can do better. I know you can be better. And your attitude is terrible. And I want you to be better. And so I would never back down from that. And of course, when they were young, I had some parents say, Man, why is my kid getting a play? Or why are you this? Hey, because I want them to be the best. Guess what? God wants us to be the best for him. And the only way we can be the best for him is to wait on him. To wait on him. Because he has a plan for us, and he will give us the victory if we will just wait. If we will just wait, because there's so many terrible consequences when we don't wait for the Lord. You can look, we'll just turn to 1 Samuel 10. Turn back a few pages. In verse 8, we'll see the command that Samuel gave him. That he didn't, and it wasn't just something he thawed up. Look in verse in verse 8, 1 Samuel 10, 8 says, And thou shalt go down, he's talking to Saul, before me to Gilgal. He showed up there, and behold, I will come down unto thee to offer burnt offerings and to sacrifice sacrifices of peace offerings. Seven days shalt thou tarry till I come to thee and show thee what thou shalt do. They're going to make an offering, what? To do what? That God's presence would be with them, that his protection would be with them, and that God would give them the victory. But here's the thing: there's two reasons that Saul was wrong. Number one, and most importantly, he broke the commandment of God. He didn't do what God through Samuel had told him to do. And number two, he had no authority in this situation to offer a sacrifice. Who was in charge of the sacrifices? The Levitical tribe. Saul was of the tribe of Benjamin. Even as king, he had no authority to make a sacrifice. So he broke the authority in the chain of command with God. And he's like, Well, I'm king, I'll do what I need to do. Well, guess what? Even the king made a huge mistake because he had no authority. But above all that is he broke the commandment of God. Because we'll see, you can see in different situations, David did make sacrifice. But it was like a form of worship, seeking God's will, where this was a command from God that you can't do it. Wait on Samuel to get there. And so he didn't. It's kind of like I had a pastor friend of mine said, he had an uncle he'd been praying for for years and years and years to be saved. And he came to his house one day and said, I got saved. He said, Now I need to be baptized. Take me down to the Black River and baptize me. And my friend said, I can't. He said, What do you mean? There's a perfect place down a little sandbar, meaning you can baptize me. He said, I have you have to present yourself before the church. The church gives me the authority to baptize you. Then when I'll say you've come as a being a saved person and you want to follow the Lord to scriptural baptism, and they will be excited and they will say, yes, that would be awesome. We will give you the, we'll give the authority, the church gives you the authority to baptize you, and then we'll set a date to baptize you. He said, Well, how's the authority come? I said, Well, Christ gave the authority to the church. So if somebody was to come to my house and say, I need to baptize me this afternoon, I'm going to say, Well, I can't. I can't baptize you. I can. All you're going to do is get wet. Because you have to be presented to the church body to be given authority for things like that to happen. And that is so lost in our society today. It's so lost in our society today. Why? Because it's out of God's order. Because He is the ultimate authority that has been given to the church. So when you see things about all these basketball teams and all these different things, getting these people going to these hotels and having these, it looks like a great revival and they're being baptized and baptized and baptized. You think. Yes, it's awesome in a way. But you have to understand who has given that person there the authority to carry out these baptisms and things. It's not from the church. And that's why we have to be very careful and understand God's ranking file and order about where his authority is and who he has given it to. But when we understand that, what do we do? We wait on the Lord because his word is the authority. We follow him. But I want you to see the serious consequences of not following and not waiting on the Lord and what it calls Saul. But turn back to Psalm 25. We're going to see what David says in this. It's amazing. It's such an awesome Psalm. He says in verse 6, he says, Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy loving kindness, for they have been ever of old. He says, remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions. According to thy mercy, to thy mercy, remember thou me from thy goodness' sakes, O Lord. He says, Good and upright is the Lord, therefore will he teach sinners in the way. And he says in verse 9, The meek will he guide in judgment, and the meek will he teach his way. You know, you think about your life, and when he says in the very beginning, remember the sins of my youth. What caused us sins when we're young? We won't wait. We're impatient. But as we get older, what? We ought to be wiser and have more patience. But he says that in verse 9, the meek will he guide in judgment, and the meek will he teach his way. What did Jesus say about the meek? The meek shall inherit the earth. The meek are not weak, they're strong in faith, but also very humble. Turn to Psalm 37, just a few pages over. Psalm 37, when it talks about the meek. It says, For evil doers evildoers shall be cut off, but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. For yet a little while the wicked shall be not be. Yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. But the meek shall inherit the earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. And that's what Jesus says. Blessed are those that are meek. Meek. That we what have a spirit of peace about us, even in everything that's going on this past week. Yeah, it's troubling to see everything going on, but I haven't lost a wink of sleep. Because I know who's in control and I know whose side we're on. But I do pray for our country and those that I pray for the people of the world, that they would understand the truth. We ought to really be lifting up our military men and women. But here's the thing: it's the having a meekness about you. Again, it's not weakness, it's humility and understanding that what waiting does for us, it brings us peace and not fear and worry. And we look back at Psalm 25, look what he says in verses 10 through 14. It says, All the past of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies. What's this covenant and testimonies? His word, his commandment. And we see what happened to Saul. He broke those. He wouldn't listen to them. He says, For the Lord's, for thy name's sake, O Lord, pardon my iniquity, for it is great. And again, we see the humility of David. He's pouring out, asking forgiveness and mercy for his sinfulness, things that he's done. And he says, For his iniquity is great. And he says, What man is he that feareth the Lord? Him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose. His soul shall be uh dwell in ease, and his seed shall inherit the earth. Then verse 14. So the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and will show them his covenant. And you think about what happened to King Saul, what happened? He feared the people, and he feared defeat more than he feared obeying God. And we know what the Bible says about fearing the Lord. It is the beginning of wisdom. It's the beginning of wisdom. So we should fear, not have doubt, but understand it's a reverent fear, but also a real fear of wanting, not wanting to displease or drop the ball where God can be ashamed of us and his name can be blasphemed. That's when you know Nathan came to David and says, What you have done with Bathsheba, and your sinfulness has given all the enemies around you reason basically to mock and laugh at God. So, us as members of Union Growth Mission Act Baptist Church, guess what? When we get out and mess up, what's the world do? Not only do they laugh at us, they laugh at the God we serve. So think about the responsibility we have to do what? To wait on the Lord. To wait on the Lord and be sure that what he'd have us to do, to obey his word. I love the psalm. It says, Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus and to trust and obey. As we trust and obey, sometimes we have to wait. And look how he concludes this psalm in verse 15. He says, My eyes are ever toward the Lord, for he shall pluck my feet out of the net. Who sets the net? Satan. But we keep our eyes on the Lord. Guess what? He's able to see us. He shows us where the net is. Sometimes we step in it, he pulls the net. Guess what? God freezes. If we wait on him, it is so very important. He says, Turn thee unto me and have mercy upon me, for I am desolate and afflicted. And he says, The troubles of my heart are enlarged. O bring thou me out of my distresses. Look upon my affliction and my pain and forgive all my sins. Again, there's David asking for forgiveness. And he says, Consider my enemies, for they are many, and they hate me with cruel hatred. And he says, Oh, keep my soul and deliver me. Let me not be ashamed. He says, For I put my trust in thee. Everything he was going through, the difficulties, he's looking back at his life and everything he's done, how he dropped the ball and sinned against God, and he says, What? I have put my trust in thee. It's an amazing psalm for us. Then he says in verse 21, Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait on thee. Basically, he starts and ends this psalm saying what? He's going to wait on the Lord regardless. To wait on the Lord regardless. And again, we think about what David was remembering during this prayer. It was the faithfulness of God's word. It was the faithfulness of God's word. Of the blessings of belonging to the Lord. Like, I belong to you, Lord. And he says, and the peace that God gives those that worship and work while we wait. We don't wait just like sitting on the sidelines. What do we do? We work and we come to worship. And guess what? God will reveal that time. Okay, no more time to wait. Go. Go. But there is a time that we must wait. There's times we must go. But we see in this Psalm, he's saying that we are to wait and understand the things that God have us to. Do. You think about waiting on the Lord. Who was a perfect example on waiting for God's will to be done? Of course, it's Christ. It was Jesus. You know, you think about Jesus' life. He didn't begin his ministry until he was actually what? 30 years old, around 30 years old. Around 30 years old. What did you know? Mary went to him when he said, You need to turn to water to wine. And what did he tell us? He says, What's this to do with you? It ain't my time yet. Mary had to kind of prod him along and say, Yeah, it is your time. And he performed the miracle. And all the things that he did, but after he was baptized, what did he do? He preached repentance. For the kingdom of heaven is at hand. It's like he had showed the world, okay, I am the Messiah. And that's what our baptism is. It's a picture of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, of course, but also us with dying with him, but being what? Romans 6 says to walk in newness of life. And as we walk in newness of life, sometimes we have to wait. But Jesus was, again, the perfect example in all those things. You think about the time of his sacrifice, it was at the very end of the Passover. We had the Lord's Supper last week. They were celebrating the Passover. And they said it was time for the Lamb to be killed. And Jesus was slayed at the perfect time, the time of the evening Passover. Again, it's so amazing that God's not bound by time, but it's about timing and understanding that as we wait for the Lord, when does it begin? After we're saved. So many people say, Well, I wait to be saved. No, that's backwards. You ought to run to be saved. And as we live for him, we have to wait as he guides us as we grow and understand. So I encourage you, if you've never been saved, don't wait to be saved. Be saved today. The Bible says today is the day of salvation. And if you are saved and scripturally baptized and growing in the Lord, guess what? Sometimes God does have us to wait for the Lord. So if you would, please stand. Brother Matt Ms. Michelle would come forward. Maybe you're in a spot where God's telling you to wait and you're struggling with it. Just turn it over to Him. Say, Lord, just reveal your will for me. I will wait regardless, however, how long you'd have me to wait. But if you've never been saved, again, don't wait to be saved. If you're not saved, the Holy Spirit, I promise you, is convicting you this morning to repent of your sins and to call upon the name of the Lord and be saved. Whatever decision you need to make, need to make, I pray be made this morning, all in accordance to God's will. As we sing.