Good morning, everybody. Hopefully, you've had a great week and happy Father's Day. We'll say that again. We are so thankful for all the dads in the room and all of the fathers that uh make Church at the Grove as great as it is. It's because of your influence and uh your contributions to the kingdom, and we just want to say thank you for that. And uh this morning uh we're continuing our series uh on the story of David. This summer we're kind of spending all the Sundays this summer looking at the life of David, who he was, and what we can uh take from his life and apply to our lives. And it's been an incredible series so far. Uh missed getting to be here last Sunday, but David did a phenomenal job bringing the word and the message, but I'm glad to be back here this morning uh getting to share with you guys uh today. And so uh one of the things that I hate doing is I hate waiting. Uh and I think our culture has conditioned us uh to where we don't like to wait for anything. Uh I mean nothing would uh pain me more than having to go to the DMV and take a number from the thing and sit in a plastic chair and just sit there and wait until my number is called and then I can come forward. Uh recently I went to the dentist, new dental office, and you know, I made the appointment online. They sent me all the paperwork I had to fill out, so I filled out all the paperwork online, and then as soon as I get there, what do they do? They hand me the same paperwork to fill out yet again, and I fill out that paperwork, and then my appointment's at 11, and they ask me to show up at 1045. I show up at 1045, and they don't actually bring me back until 11.30, right? There's a there's a long waiting period. This past week when we were out on vacation, we don't typically eat out a whole lot, but this past week we were uh at the beach, and so we ate out a good bit, and so the the thought of waiting with a family of three kids, little kids, um, and waiting for a table and then waiting for food to get delivered to the table, um, I'd rather just honestly eat at home. It's a lot easier that way. Uh but our world has conditioned us oftentimes to not know how to wait. Waiting is not something that has ever been probably anything that anyone's enjoyed, but in our modern conveniences, that's only intensified our lack of desire for the need to wait. We don't like to cook and so we settle for drive-throughs and use the microwave. Uh we don't like to read and we say and we ask AI chatbots for advice instead. We we pay extra to skip the ads on our television so that everything can move quicker. But here's the reality of the situation is that our lives will incorporate waiting. That waiting is a normal part of life. This is a truth that we cannot avoid. We can try as our hardest to try to avoid waiting, but there are times and seasons in our lives where waiting is not just something that will happen, but it's oftentimes a tool in God's hands to prepare us and to develop us. And it's one thing to wait for a table at a restaurant, that seems minor, but when there's waiting for test results to come back, or there's waiting for a job decision to be made, or for a prodigal to come home, or waiting for a healing that you've prayed for and fasted for for so long and it hasn't come to fruition. It's asking and waiting for God to open a door, but you feel like the door has been closed and locked. When we're in waiting seasons, we're tempted to do anything we can to make the waiting stop. We like to think that we need to maybe help God out, that we can help control the situation, that we can look for shortcuts, because if we can just help God out, if we can grab control, then we can move past the waiting seasons, and instead we can walk into the fruit that the waiting oftentimes brings. Because for us, oftentimes waiting feels like weakness. And in the moments of weakness, what do we tend to do? We tend to take control. Because waiting feels like we're losing ground. Waiting feels like everybody else is getting ahead of us while we're kind of left in the dust. It feels like we're missing the moment that's in front of us. But how we respond in waiting, and this is what we're talking about this morning, how we respond in the waiting is what will impact the conditions of our hearts. It can move us towards God or it can move us away from God. And so that's why I want us to see this morning that in the waiting, I want you to know that God has not forgotten you, that God is preparing you, that God has not forgotten you, God is preparing for you, or preparing you for whatever he has next. And so, with that, I'd love for us to pray before we open up the scripture this morning. Lord Jesus, we thank you for this moment. Lord, we do not take for granted or we do not take lightly the promise that is found in your word. Lord, that where your people are gathered together, that you are here. That in this moment your presence through your spirit is among us. And so, Lord, I know that so many of us come into this room with so many different stories. Some of us are in the middle of a waiting season that's been lasting for, it seems like, far too long. Others of us are enjoying the fruits of our labor, and things are going great in life, and there's everything and anything in between. And Lord, the beautiful thing about how you work is that you can speak to each and every heart directly where they're at this morning. And so, Lord, I ask you to do just that. And so, Lord, help our hearts and our minds come expectant for you to speak to us today. Lord, give us ears to hear your voice, and then give us hearts to be willing to obey whatever it is that you're calling us to do. And so come, Holy Spirit, meet with us now. Speak like only you can. And it's in your name we pray. Amen. If you have a Bible, you can turn to uh the book of 1 Samuel, 1 Samuel chapter 24. If you don't have a Bible, it'll be on the screen behind me. We'll be there most of the morning. But if you're just joining us in the middle of the series, just to kind of catch you up so everybody's on the same page together. In 1 Samuel, the scene starts with Israel demanding a king. They want to be like all the other nations. They want to be the people that uh look like the other nations, that they've got an earthly ruler that will rule over them, and so they pretty much reject the Lord and him ruling over them, and they settle for an earthly king. And God, in his graciousness and in his mercy, gives them what they ask for as they reject him, and they give him the person of Saul. Now, Saul's the first king of Israel, and his reign is marked by insecurity and disobedience. If anyone didn't know how to wait on God, it was Saul. On several different occasions, Saul is put into situations where God is telling him and trying to get him to wait on him, but yet Saul resists and takes matters into his own hands. And as a result, God removes the kingdom from Saul and he anoints a little shepherd boy named David. David was the least likely person to be named king. But yet God is going to use this man, he's going to use this teenage boy to accomplish incredible plans that he has for Israel because David was a man after God's own heart. Even at an early age, David was someone that had his heart turned towards the Lord. And we've seen this throughout this series that we saw that David goes out to battle against Goliath in the famous story that most of us have probably grown up hearing. That David defeats Goliath because he's uh defaming the name of Jesus or defaming the name of their God. David was brought into the royal court to serve Saul. But Saul's jealousy over time continued to grow, and everything shifted in the relationship between Saul and David. Saul began to attack David. David became a fugitive, running for his life. David ends up in the wilderness, hiding in the caves and living off what God has provided. And in the midst of that, God sends David what is known as, what will become known as David's mighty men, which were 600 men that would be by his side. And these were the least likely individuals. They were tea people that were distressed and debted and discontent. And yet God is going to use them and David, and he's going to be with him in the midst of the wilderness. And so that's where we pick up this morning that Saul is relentlessly hunting David. He's trying to find David and have him killed. And David is faithfully trying to follow and trust the Lord in the midst of the waiting in the wilderness. And so this is what it says in 1 Samuel chapter 24, starting in verse 1. It says, When Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, he told, he was told, David is in the wilderness of Engedi. So Saul took 3,000 of Israel's fit young men and went to look for David and his men in front of the w rocks of the wild goats. And so Saul hears that David is in this new area, and he's going to send out 3,000 troops to go and find this one individual. Now David finds himself in this place called Engedi. I think we've got some pictures of Engedi on the screen. So this is what kind of modern-day Israel looks like. I've been here a few years back, and it's incredible. Driving down that road by the coast, and it's just nothing but kind of wasteland and desert, and then you come up to this like beautiful oasis where there's palm trees and there's streams of water flowing. And this is where David would have been. David would have been hiding out here in this country, in this land, trying to protect himself and the people that were following him from Saul and his troops. So this is a real place, real story, real actions that took place here. But this is a beautiful example and symbolism of the picture of David's life. David's in the midst of a wilderness season. He's waiting on God's promises to come to fulfillment. He's been promised that he's going to be the next king of Israel, but a lot of time has passed by. Decade has passed by, and then some, and yet he's still not sitting on the throne. And the man that is on the throne is chasing after him, trying to have him killed. And David, in this beautiful refuge, finds a place of oasis. And when Saul gets word that David is here, he chooses 3,000 men to chase after David. This is five to one. So for every five men that Saul has, David has one. And Saul has become so obsessed at chasing after David that he's willing to burn through the whole nation's energy chasing after one man that hasn't done anything wrong. He's been faithful to Saul throughout the course of his life. But this is what shows you how dangerous unchecked power can be. When people are put in powerful positions and they aren't held accountable and they don't have people around them that are speaking truth to them, this is the type of thing that happens. They become insecure, they become so uh anxiety laden, and they begin to do things that are crazy and unpredictable. And Saul is chasing after David. But here's the crazy thing David, in the midst of his waiting, in the midst of the wilderness, in the midst of just trying to survive, God is going to put him into a situation where he can easily take a shortcut to make it all come to the end. Listen to what it says if you look in verse 3. It says, When Saul came to the sheep pen along the road, a cave was there, and he went in to relieve himself. So he's going to use the bathroom. I love the Bible puts this information in there for us. David and his men were staying in the recesses of the cave. So they said to him, Look, this is the day that the Lord told you about. I will hand your enemy over to you so that you can do to him whatever you desire. Then David got up and secretly cut off the corner of Saul's robe. So this scene is unfolding. David and his men, they're hiding out in the cave. They see Saul and his troops coming. Saul has to step into the cave to relieve himself, to get some privacy. And this is the moment. This is the opportunity. This is the moment where David can step in and he can take Saul's life. He can end Saul's life, and as a result, he would become the next king of Israel. He would no longer have to be out in the wilderness just trying to survive. He could go and he could see his family and his homeland, and he could go back to the presence of God in the tabernacle. I mean, this is a beautiful opportunity, and it seems like God is handing this to him on a silver platter. David has been waiting for 10 to 15 years at this point, and nothing has changed. There's no throne, there's no crown, there's no quick transition. David's been carrying this promise of God around with him, and it still hasn't come to fruition. And this seems like the perfect moment. And so David, in this moment, he steps forward and he doesn't take Saul's life, but he cuts off the edge of Saul's tunic or coat. And as a result, David is going to show us that he's not taking a shortcut, but even in that moment, he feels bad about what he has done. And he could have interpreted this as a sign from the Lord. In fact, the 600 mighty men that were around him, they saw that as a God's opportunity, that God was giving them this opportunity. But here's what I want us to see: that providence is not necessarily permission. Just because an opportunity opens up does not mean that God is approving of it. Open doors do not automatically equal God's will. And oftentimes, opportunities in our world, in our culture today, opportunities are valued more than anything else. And it's almost too good to pass up. And here's the dangerous thing is that sometimes temptation will look like provision. That temptation can feel like God's help when it's actually a test to see what we're truly trusting in. And one of the shortcuts that the enemy oftentimes uses is this idea of shortcuts. It's bypassing the long waiting to get you to the desired, comp to the desired results. We see this in the life of Jesus. Jesus in Matthew chapter 4, he's tempted by the enemy, by Satan. Satan shows up and begins to tempt Jesus. And what is he doing? He's providing shortcuts for Jesus to take. Just bow down. Take this shortcut. Listen, you can get the crown, but you don't have to go to the cross. And this is something that the enemy oftentimes does. He doesn't want us to be in the waiting seasons of life because waiting and in the wilderness is oftentimes where God does his best work. And so sometimes when God or when the enemy comes and he begins to give us opportunities, sometimes, not all the time, but sometimes, those are tests of our faith. Are we going to take the shortcut or are we going to go in a different direction? And we see this all the time. Like, think about, you know, the man that's at his workplace, and him and his wife are struggling, but there's an attractive young girl that's showing him attention and she's giving him in a listening ear. And it's really easy in that moment to take a shortcut to fulfill some need in his life, but it's not going to follow God's plan for his life. It can be in the dating world, in the dating world where somebody can try to be faithful over and over and over again, but yet they get so just kind of fed up with the waiting that they just want to lower their standards so that they can get to the place that they want to be. We can be coaxed into taking shortcuts. And when we do, we can oftentimes miss what God wants to do in the middle of the waiting. We can miss the preparation, we can miss the forming that God ultimately has for us. David is destined to sit on the throne, but he's going to refuse to take matters into his own hands. Listen to what it says again in verse 4. So they said to him, again, these are the men that are around him, look, this is the day the Lord told you about. I will hand your enemy over to you, and you can do to him whatever you desire. Then David got up and secretly cut off the corner of Saul's robe. Listen to the verse 5. Afterward, David's conscience bothered him, because he had cut off the corner of Saul's robe. He said to his men, As the Lord is my witness, I would never do such a thing to my Lord, the Lord's anointed. I will never lift my hand against him, since he is the Lord's anointed. With these words, David persuaded his men, and he did not let them rise up against Saul. And so David practices restraint here. And he not only doesn't take Saul's life, but his heart is grieved just because he cut the edge of the robe or the fringe of the garment of Saul's robe off. He has a heart that is tender towards God. It's sensitive that even in the small things, even in the small kind of things that seem insignificant, his heart is convicted over the things that are going on around him. This is the heart that we should all desire to have. A heart that is so sensitive to the Holy Spirit working and speaking in us that at the thought of just something that seems so simple and innocent, that we have this conviction that comes over us. This is the heart of a man that is chasing after God. Now there's incredible symbolism here. Oftentimes the robe being cut points to God tearing away the kingdom from Saul's authority. But in this moment, man, David, it seems like has every right to take matters into his own hands. I mean, Saul deserves this. Saul has made his life miserable. David has only been faithful, but he has served Saul again and again. He's fought in Saul's battles, and yet Saul has repaid him with contempt and tried to destroy him over and over again. If anyone seems to be justified in his revenge, it would be David in this moment. But David shows restraint, which shows us that integrity matters more than opportunity. Integrity matters more than opportunity. Character or integrity is who you are when no one is watching. It's what you choose when you could take a shortcut and you could get away with it and no one would ever know, but you still choose not to do it. And integrity and character matter to God. But here's the thing: our culture in the world that we live in today, our culture rewards opportunity. And oftentimes integrity takes a back seat. If you can get a win in the moment, then that's what you chase after. You can lose your soul, but you chase after the opportunities that are presented in front of you. You've got a resume that you inflate the title, you take credit for things you maybe didn't earn, you shade the truth so that you can get the job. Your taxes are having to be done, and you fudge the numbers to save some money because everyone does it. At work, you cut corners, you do deals under the table, maybe you lie about the number of hours that you worked or didn't work, and you get rewarded because of it. But will you take the opportunity if it cost you your integrity? Because here is what I'm genuinely worried about in our culture and our world today is that so often, because of our culture rewarding the opportunity and diminishing the value of integrity and character, we push forward and we skip over the waiting period. And when we skip over the waiting, we miss the formation that needs to take place. In the world of social media and technology nowadays, there's people that can become YouTube famous, there's celebrity pastors out there where their visibility just skyrockets. And they can go from one day being unknown to the next day having millions of followers that are following. Them. And oftentimes in those situations, they don't have the character and the integrity to back up the platforms that they hold. And that's a scary place to be. I mean, when was the last time you maybe heard someone say, hey, here's a huge opportunity that's presented to you? Here's an opportunity for you to have more influence and more money and more opportunity. And somebody say, nah. I just don't think my life can handle that right now. I don't think my character is formed to a place where I can be in that position and still walk faithfully with the Lord. People call it the Lord's promotion because it's an opportunity that's presented to them that seems too good to be true. And listen, I'm not against promotions. I'm not against opportunities. I think that there are times and seasons where the Lord opens up doors and we should absolutely walk through them. There are opportunities for us to practice a holy ambition in our lives. We should be about that. But sometimes we need to slow down long enough to go, hey, is this just a shortcut to get me where I want to be? Or is this a test of my faith and where I'm going to place my faith? I can remember here in an illustration many, many years ago about how we take pictures. And so, you know, now we don't think twice about pictures, right? We've got iPhones, we've got Androids if you're not as cool as the iPhone users, but you you got a cell phone, right? I know Android people, you get really upset about that, but um, get on board. I like the blue boxes instead of the green. Um but but we we we have our phones on our on our smartphone, or we have our cameras on our smartphones now, and so in in a click of a button, we can take as many pictures as we really want to take, and we instantly see the pictures. It's an incredible piece of technology, and it's an incredible opportunity that we have in our hands. But before that, if you're older than you know, 25, 30 years old in the room, there was a time when you had film, and you you could get this film and you put it in your camera, you'd close the back, it would feed the film into the camera, and then you could take like 25 or 30 pictures on the film, and then once the film was done, it would rewind itself or put itself in its little canister, you'd have to take it to a drugstore, and they would have to drop it off, and then you didn't get your photos instantly. You had to wait like three or four or five days, and they would send off your film, get it developed, then send the pictures back, and you didn't even know if the pictures were going to turn out. And we live in a world now where everything is instant. But there's something beautiful about the dark room that is needed to bring about the photos that we have taken. And listen, I'm not wanting to go back to film, don't hear me say that. But there is something that's very valuable about the secret hidden places of our lives. There's something that God does in the middle of the waiting, and when we're walking through the wilderness, that is so important and valuable for our formation to who He wants us to be. And my fear is in a culture where everything is instant, that we're not going to be formed into the men and the women that God has called us to be, because we're just jumping from opportunity to opportunity to opportunity. And I think that God wants us to embrace the waiting seasons of life because it's there that he forms our integrity and our character. And that's exactly what happens in David's life. Integrity matters more than opportunity. And so David trusts the Lord. Look what it says in verse 7. So Saul left the cave and went on his way. After that, David got up, went out of the cave, and called to Saul, My Lord the King. When Saul looked behind him, David knelt low with his face to the ground and paid homage. David said to Saul, Why do you listen to the words of people who say, Look, David intends to harm you. You can see with your own eyes that the Lord handed you over to me today in the cave. Someone advised me to kill you, but I took pity on you and said, I won't lift my hand against the Lord, since he is the Lord's anointed. Look, my father, look at the corner of your robe in my hand, for I cut it off, but I didn't kill you. Recognize that I've committed no crime of rebellion. I have I haven't sinned against you, even though you are hurting hunting me down and to take my life. May the Lord judge between me and you, and may the Lord take vengeance on you for me, but my hand will never be against you. As the old proverb says, wickedness comes from wicked people, and my hand will never be against you. Who has the king of Israel come after? What are you chasing after? A dead dog, a single flea? May the Lord be judge and decide between me and you. May he take notice and plead my case and deliver me from you. David refuses to be the judge. David refuses to take the shortcut. David knew that God's hand was on him. He knew what the future held. He had faith in God's promises and plans, but he refused to elevate himself and he trusted in the Lord. And this is a posture that didn't happen overnight. This was something that was developed day after day and year after year. It was years in the making to get David to a place where he could not take matters into his own hands and embrace the shortcuts. Waiting is the place where spiritual formation takes place. And the beautiful thing is that you're never forgotten in the waiting. Waiting is never wasted. It's God's tool to form you. In Psalm 57, it's written and pinned by David. It's a prayer, it's a psalm, it's a sing, it's a it's a song of lament and worship to the Lord. And in Psalm 57, David's out in the wilderness. Saul is hunting him down, and listen to what he says. He says, Be gracious to me. God, be gracious to me, for I take refuge in you. I will seek refuge in the shadow of your wings until danger passes. I call to God most high, to God who fulfills his purposes for me. He reaches down from heaven and saves me, challenging the one who tramples me. God sends his faithful love and truth. I am surrounded by lions. I lie down among devouring lions, peoples whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords. God be exalted above the heavens. Let your glory be over the whole earth. They prepared a net for my steps. I was despondent. They dug a pit ahead of me, but they fall into or fell into it. But listen to what he says in verse 7 My heart is confident. God, my heart is confident. I will sing. I will sing praises. Wake up my soul. Wake up, harp and lyre. I will wake up the dawn. I will praise you, Lord, among the peoples. I will sing praises to you among the nations. For you, your faithful love is as high as the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches the clouds. God, be exalted above the heavens. Let your glory be over the whole earth. How does a man in the midst of waiting being chased by the king of Israel? Pin words like that. Because here's what happens: God forms worship in the waiting. You want a song in your heart? You want a song that moves your spirit? It's found in the waiting. It's found in the wilderness moments of life. It's not just when everything goes your way, but it's it's in the dark, in the hard places of life that God shows up and meets his people. Blessed are those that mourn, for they shall be comforted. It's a place where God meets us in the midst of waiting and in the wilderness. This wasn't in my notes, and so hopefully it's okay. And if it's not, Brandon, forgive me. Many of you guys know Brandon. Brandon leads worship for us most Sundays down here. He's over worship for both of our campuses and one of my best friends. And Brandon, for the past six years, uh has really walked through tremendous health struggles. Um having to spend weeks in the hospital at a time, heart failure at one point, um, having a lot of food allergies. I mean, just the list goes on and on and on, and the doctors you know aren't quite clear about how everything is, you know, going to play out and all that stuff. And he's done as much as he possibly can in this moment. But last night, um, we I get a text from him, and uh he's he's had two songs that he's been working on for a while, and they're songs of lament. And songs of lament are not something that we oftentimes hear in the church. Songs of lament come from a deep place of grief. When you're walking through the challenges and you're walking through the valley of the shadow of death, and and you don't feel like the Lord is with you in those moments. That's what a lament song is. And so Brandon sends these two songs over that he's you know written and put together. And I'm listening to them this morning, and I'm just thinking to myself, man, here's someone that has lived this out. That in the midst of hardship, in the midst of pain, in the midst of so much unknown, he's turning his faithfulness or turning his trust to the Lord. And he hasn't done that perfectly, he would tell you that, not just me. But he has had a heart that was chasing after the Lord in the midst of it. And I just think that that's what the Lord wants for all of us. If you're walking through a hard time in your marriage right now, man, man, the Lord doesn't want you to take a shortcut just to get out of it, but he wants you to embrace the waiting in that moment and trust him that he's going to work and move like only he can. If financially you're struggling and it doesn't seem like you have enough money to make ends meet, man, the Lord's looking for you to not take shortcuts to just get ahead and to ease the pain and the burden that you feel, but he's looking for faithful people that will trust him in that moment. If you're looking for reconciliation to happen in some relationship, you can take a shortcut. But the shortcut isn't going to provide the fruit of transformation and formation that you need as you sit in the midst of waiting. If you're waiting to have children and you've struggled to have children for years and years and years, man, you can try to take shortcuts. You can try to take matters into your own hands, but I'm telling you, it's in the midst of the waiting that God develops the character. We can try to minimize the pain in our lives, but I'm telling you, it's in the midst of the pain. It's in the midst of the heartbreak. It's in the midst of a man chasing you down and trying to take your life that God forms you. And you can take the shortcuts, but the shortcuts will always threaten your integrity. And so, real quick, I'm out of time. But the call is not for us just to be more patient. The call is for us to be faithful in the midst of waiting. For you not to waste your waiting, but to embrace it as an opportunity that God is giving to you. This is why James, the half-brother of Jesus, in James chapter 1, he writes the words, consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you face trials of many kinds. Because you know that it's the testing of your faith, and the testing of your faith develops perseverance or endurance, and let endurance have its full effect so that you may be mature and complete and lack nothing. Consider it pure joy when you're walking through trials in the wilderness and the waiting seasons of life. And so here's three things. First, release the outcomes to God. A lot of times we have our own plans, and our plans don't line up with the Lord's plans. But here's what I've learned in 41 years and about 25 years of walking with Jesus now that God's ways are always better than my ways. And so I don't understand it at times. I don't get it. I don't know why He's making us walk through this at different seasons, but Lord, I give you the timeline. I release the grudges I've held. And I don't need to control, I trust you. Secondly, we refuse to take shortcuts. Shortcuts in life are often compromises to our integrity. And this message isn't meant to condemn you, it's meant to convict you if you've taken shortcuts. It's meant to lead you to a place of repentance and recommitment to the Lord. Because it's in the waiting that integrity and character are built. And then third, replace grasping with worship. Psalm 57 meets us right here in the midst of the waiting. That we can either grasp for control or we can submit in worship. God is often more present in the waiting. And just because you might be feeling like you're in the cave this morning, it doesn't mean that God has forgotten you. Just a couple of chapters later, we're gonna see that Saul's time is coming to an end and that David's coming to the throne. It's still gonna be another waiting season for David. It's not the next day. But the plan is going to come to fruition. And just because you feel like you're in the cave and you're isolated, I'm telling you that God has not forgotten you. Try to crawl out of the waiting by practicing worship. Thank the Lord in the seasons of waiting because you believe the waiting is producing something in you that is far greater. And so this morning, as we kind of close and we'll respond to the Lord in song, I do want to just specifically pray for people that are in the midst of waiting. And I don't know what everybody's stories are, and I know some of the stories in the room, a lot of things that probably nobody knows. And you might feel like you're in the moment of waiting and that maybe even God has forgotten you. And I just want to pray for you in particular. I want to pray for people that have maybe taken shortcuts in life. Maybe they've seen opportunity as just a sign that God has to be in it, and they've taken those opportunities, and it's just wreaked havoc in their lives as a result. I want to pray for you this morning. But for all of us, I want us to have hearts like David. People that are willing to embrace the periods of waiting, believing that our waiting is never wasted. And so, Lord Jesus, we thank you this morning for who you are. Lord, we thank you that you're a God that is sovereign, that you are in control, Lord, that there is nothing that takes you by surprise. And so often, Lord, in the midst of the waiting, in the midst of the wilderness seasons of life, Lord, we can feel as if you're absent. We can feel that you're not with us, that you're not here with us in that moment. But Lord, if this story is evidence of one thing, it's that you are still working in the midst of the waiting. It's where you oftentimes do your best work. And so right now, Lord, I just pray for individuals and families that are in the midst of waiting right now. Pray for people that are struggling in their relationships, finances, workplaces, whatever it might be, a health issue. And Lord, I just pray that right now, as they walk through the middle of the wilderness waiting seasons of life, Lord, that your presence would be felt. Lord, that you would hold true to your word. Lord, you're a God that holds faithful to his promises time and time again. There is nothing in your word that you say that you do, we will do, and that you do not come and do actually do it. And so, Lord, we stand on the promises of God this morning, knowing that you are a God that is near the brokenhearted, that you comfort those that are mourning. And so, Lord, right now, Lord, just in your sovereign grace and presence, Lord, would you just uh just show that to be true in the lives of people that are waiting? Lord, that you would just show your face to them as they open themselves up to you, and that you would give them the strength and the courage and the ability to be able to embrace the waiting because it's in the waiting that you do your greatest work. And so, Lord, would you be with those people that are walking through the hardships of life right now? Lord, I pray for people in the room this morning that have maybe taken shortcuts and embraced compromise. They've seen opportunities as just a gift from you that maybe wasn't a gift from you. Maybe they took the job they weren't supposed to take. Maybe they have compromised their values of their integrity and they've taken some type of shortcut. Lord, right now, Lord, you're not a God of condemnation, but you are a God of conviction. And if that's where somebody is at in the room this morning, Lord, let their response to you just be repentance. Let them come to a place where they just say, God, I've missed it. I've gone down a pathway that I shouldn't have gone down. I've embraced this relationship I shouldn't have embraced. And as a result, Lord, I'm sorry. Lord, I'm repenting, I'm turning from that sin. Show me the next right step for my life. And so I pray that over people in this room who would just feel that conviction this morning that maybe they haven't embraced the waiting seasons and they've tried to take control of the things in their life. And Lord, I pray for all of us in the room this morning, whether we're standing at the top of the mountain or in the bottom of the valley, Lord, that you would give us hearts like David. Lord, that are formed in the wilderness and in the waiting, that are transformed in such a way that we can walk faithfully with you. And so, Holy Spirit, would you soften heartened hearts this morning? Would you give us your grace and your presence to take out the hearts of stone that have maybe developed and become callous, and give us hearts of flesh that are receptive to your word and your voice. Give us a conscience, give us the Spirit of God working in and through us in such a way that even the little minor things that seem minor to everyone else are still big deals for us because we're walking faithfully, intimately, closely with you. And so, Lord Jesus, we thank you that you're a God that works and moves in the midst of the waiting in the wilderness. And we thank you that you're a God that still does that same thing today, just like you did in David's life. And we pray all of this in the name of Jesus. Amen. Ben's gonna lead us just trusting in the Lord this morning, just declaring that truth. Um, but there's also people up front this morning. If you want somebody just to pray for you, if you're walking through hardship or just difficulty, we'd love to have that opportunity. But let's just respond to the Lord as he leads us this morning.