Waiting On the Lord
Genesis 16
Preached by L. Going at WACC May 14, 2000
The question we are asking as we look at the life of Abram is “What can we learn from his life that will help us live by faith?” First faith is a gift from God. Abram was called of God and in that call Abram was given the grace to believe. No one naturally possesses saving faith.
Once Abram responds in faith to God’s call, he then must continue to live his life by faith in God’s Word. Abram does not always exercise his faith. His faith is tested. Faith therefore involves looking to God’s Word and drawing the proper inferences from his Word and obeying those inferences.
As you do that you are in truth exercising faith- trust in the Lord. When you don’t you are looking to something else. It could be your rational, your feelings or the counsel of other people.
In today’s text the lesson given is that living by faith involves waiting on the Lord. This means that you are to trust him as the red lights of life. Do you realize that a lot of what you do entails waiting? One preacher said, “we don’t get too many green lights in life.” Nothing tests my patience like traffic lights and traffic jams. But what about those periods in your life when you are put on hold? You have no choice but to wait. How are you at waiting when you find that your life is not moving ahead? Maybe it is something as small as a cold that puts you out of commission for a few days. Or maybe it is something much bigger like a lay off that puts you out of work, or an illness that puts you on your back.
At these moments Scripture tells you to wait on the Lord. Such waiting means that you are trusting him. You are going to make the most of the situation and learn from it.
“God of my salvation on you do I wait. Psalm 25:5
“Wait patiently for him.” Psalm 37:7
“Because of his strength will I wait.” Psalm 59:9
“Wait only on God.” Psalm 62:5
“They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.” Isaiah 40:31
“The Lord is good to them that wait for him.” Lamentations 3:25
Such waiting is not easy. It must be cultivated but it will not happen without faith. It entails trusting Him. Living by faith means at least this: that at life’s intermissions we wait on the Lord. Such waiting involves the entire person. You must really wait and not merely give the appearance of waiting or patience. Chuck Swindol tells the story of this young Chinese boy who worked as a servant in the home of a wealthy Chinese merchant. The master’s two children mercilessly teased him. Finally out of guilt the two stopped and told him that he would not longer be the brunt of their practical jokes.
“You mean no more nail shoes to the floor?”
“No more.”
You mean no more sticky on stove knobs?”
“No more.”
“You mean no more water buckets on top of door?
“No more.”
“Okay then no more spit in soup.”
No waiting on the Lord entails a waiting heart, a calm inside and a trusting composure.
This morning we see what can happen when you don’t learn to wait on the Lord. If you are to faithfully wait upon the Lord when your life, hopes, dreams seem to be at a standstill you must understand three principles that are in today's text.
- You must understand and welcome the fact that God’s purposes and promises will be fulfilled in God’s time. He is never late.
A. Impatience results when your focus is on time and circumstances and not on the Lord.
You become impatient when you are concerned with time. It is proper to have a managed concern for time. You need to keep your eye on the clock to schedule your day, do your work and keep your appointments. But there are those occasions when we are too concerned. We fret easily when we see our agenda’s thwarted or our schedules stalled. We see the sand slipping through the hourglass. Why isn’t God doing something? Why isn’t He meeting this need?
Time is running out for Sarai and Abram. No doubt Sarai knew of the promise of God. But what they both forgot was that the promise was God’s promise to them not a promise that a mere mortal made.
Impatience results when you become overly concerned with your circumstances.
Time had altered Sarai’s and Abram’s circumstances. They were getting older. Of course there are circumstances that time has had no bearing upon. Sarai was unable to have children. Time had only made the prospect more bleak and desperate.
- When you become overwhelmed by time and circumstances, you will become impatient. What you need to learn is that God is not bound by either time or circumstances.
Remember the promises of God are the promises of God! This means that God is not hindered in fulfilling his promises by time. Do you know why? He created time. The march of time and whatever changes time brings do not stand in His way. So as time goes on you are to wait, not on time but on the Lord.
Nor is God bound by your circumstances. He is sovereign over your circumstances. So you must wait on the Lord, not on your circumstances to change. Faith enables you to get your eyes off your circumstances in that you refuse to allow them to control your responses. I am sure you have heard the following account. Often when a person is asked how they are doing, they respond, “Under the circumstances I doing fair.” Someone has once said, that is where many people live, under the circumstances. In that we are captive to our circumstances. Sarai and Abram saw themselves as powerless in face of the passing of time over their circumstances.
- If you are going to learn to wait on the Lord in faith, you must understand and accept the truth that God’s purposes and promises are fulfilled in his way.
If you don’t then impatience will often lead you to take matters into your own hands. This is exactly what Sarai and Abram do. Sarai made the suggestion but Abram went along with it. It was often customary to do this is the wife were unable to have children. Surrogate mothering is not new. But not all customs are sanctioned by God.
God’s purposes are not accomplished by human cleverness or strength but by God himself. The child of promise was going to come as a supernatural gift after all human resources were exhausted. When due to impatience we take matters into our own hands we miss out on this very thing. When we become overwhelmed by the circumstances we are not overwhelmed by God.
Taking matters into your own hands due to impatience often leads to difficulty and frustration. Note what happen in the text.
- Sarai’s plan backfires.
- Hagar despises Sarai. This was certainly wrong on her part.
Such frustration only leads to further problems. Sarai and Abram sin in their response Hagar. Neither wants to accept responsibility. Sarai blames her husband. Abram like many husbands remains neutral. Sarai’s cry for justice only cloaks her desire for vengeance. Hagar runs away.
- Not waiting on the Lord really does not hinder Him. Yet you may have to live with the consequences of your impatience.
Hagar encounters the Lord. She does return and submits to Sarai. God sees and hears and deals with justly with people. Abram accepts responsibility for Ishmael. Nevertheless tensions still remain between Hagar and Sarai. There is heartbreak and sorrow later for Abram when he must let Ishmael go. God’s plans and purposes are never frustrated by our unwillingness to wait and we take matters into our own hands. Yet we may certainly have to live with the consequences.
Summary
You will faithfully wait upon the Lord when you understand and accept three facts.
- God’s promises are fulfilled in God’s time.
- God’s promises are fulfilled in God’s way.
- Impatience often yields hard consequences.
It is best to learn to wait in faith.
“Patience is the fair handmaid of faith. We cheerfully wait when we are certain that we shall not wait in vain. It is our duty and our privilege to wait upon the Lord in service, in worship, in expectancy, in trust all the days of our life. Our faith will be tried faith and if it will be of the true kind, it will bear continued trial without yielding. We shall not grow weary of waiting upon God if we remember how long and how graciously He once waited upon us.” Charles Spurgeon.
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Sermon Series
Living in the Power of the Promise
(A study of the Life of Abraham)