WEBVTT 00:00:02.770 --> 00:00:17.280 I was trying to look for the Bible. Sorry, I was on the backbent ready to go, but not for me. All right, Pastor Jeremy asked me to preach a few weeks ago, and I was like, poor soul, he's pretty desperate. And I was thinking about it, I thought, 00:00:17.405 --> 00:00:32.100 oh, it's been a while since I've preached, probably eight years in a Sunday service. We're well equipped, well, they are still well equipped over there at Northside, so they've got all the eloquent ones, but tonight you've got someone who will... 00:00:32.100 --> 00:00:44.865 Trust the Lord as we get through and have a look at what the Lord would have for us. But when he said you can use a message you've used before, so I went to my computer and I thought 00:00:44.990 --> 00:00:57.740 it might be a good idea and then it turned out to be a really good idea because then probably a few days later my wife found out she was expecting and then got very busy thereafter. 00:00:57.740 --> 00:01:12.459 That's where we are tonight. So let's just go to the Lord in prayer and ask for his enabling. Father, we just thank you, Lord, that you can help and enable. Father, we thank you for your word that is a blessing to us, Lord, as it's read and preached. And we 00:01:12.584 --> 00:01:27.600 just pray that you would help each one of us here this evening. Encourage us, Lord, where we need encouraging. Rebuke us, Lord, where we might need rebuking as well, we pray. In Jesus' name. Amen. A little boy went down to the riverbank, something I hate to do. 00:01:27.600 --> 00:01:40.548 And that's called fishing. But after hours of sitting there, he had caught not a single thing. That's why I don't like fishing, because I never catch anything. But a man walked past and saw his empty bucket and asked, Are 00:01:40.673 --> 00:01:53.570 you fishing, little boy? The boy looked up wearily and replied, No, mister, I am not fishing. I am just drowning worms. Now, I guess for us, how many times I guess tonight we can think, are we just like this little boy? 00:01:53.570 --> 00:02:08.543 When we look at our lives, you know, our family, ministry, things like that, and we feel like we're just sometimes drowning worms. Have you had grand plans in your life that simply haven't come to fruition? Have you been in seasons where you've 00:02:08.668 --> 00:02:23.520 mapped things out perfectly and those things have not gone to plan? Or has the Lord put a burden on your heart but you're still waiting for that to be fulfilled? I would say waiting, and that's what I'm going to talk about tonight, is a very 00:02:23.520 --> 00:02:35.503 It's a thing we all go through, okay, some more patient than others. The truth we must anchor, I guess, in our souls tonight is this, that the purpose of God 00:02:35.628 --> 00:02:47.890 can often develop slowly, okay, into our minds because His grand designs are never rushed, okay, and His timing is always perfect. We often think, come on Lord, 00:02:47.890 --> 00:03:01.903 The horse, you know, the boat's left, what's going on? But the Lord goes, no, no, I've got it all mapped out in his perfect timing. And the great New England preacher Philip Brooks, some of you might not know 00:03:02.028 --> 00:03:16.030 him personally but have read or come across things of his, but it was noted for his deep poise and quiet manner. Yet behind closed doors even he suffered moments of intense frustration. It was once said that 00:03:16.030 --> 00:03:30.532 A close friend walked in him one day and he's just feverishly pacing up and down his study and he's, you know, he looked like a caged lion. And he said, what's the trouble, Mr Brooks, his friend said. And Mr Brooks stopped, looked at 00:03:30.657 --> 00:03:45.410 him and said, the trouble is that I'm in a hurry, but God isn't. Haven't we felt like that? I probably feel like that every day, you know, waiting for the kettle to boil or whatever it is. We're always just always in a hurry, aren't we? 00:03:45.410 --> 00:03:59.235 We look at, I guess, the chaos in our culture, maybe trials that come in our homes, maybe the silence of heaven, okay, or maybe a cry, sorry, we often cry out that we're in a hurry, but that 00:03:59.360 --> 00:04:13.090 God is not. And we see, I can't tell, when you look through history, even some of those, you know, missionaries you read about, they had to wait long times too. And I've got some little... 00:04:13.090 --> 00:04:27.692 Fun facts here for us. Some greatest missionaries of church history, they devotedly spread the seed of God's word, yet they had to wait a very long time before a single ounce of that fruit actually come to 00:04:27.817 --> 00:04:42.830 fruition. So one person came to my mind was William Carey. He was what is called the father of modern day missions. He labored for seven long years before the first Hindu convert was brought to Christ in India. 00:04:42.830 --> 00:04:55.444 Seven years. We probably after, you know, seven months start getting a bit impatient. Adonai Judson toiled for six to seven years, faithfully preaching before his 00:04:55.569 --> 00:05:08.620 message was rewarded with a soul in Burma. In Western Africa, the early Christians over there, it took 14 years before one single convert was received into the church. 00:05:08.620 --> 00:05:22.472 A little closer to home in New Zealand, okay, which was established by Samuel Marsden. If you don't know who he is, read your history books. But it took nine to eleven years in New Zealand with 00:05:22.597 --> 00:05:36.430 the Maoris there. And Tahiti, it was 16 years of continuous unseen labor before that first harvest of souls came to Christ. So we can see it doesn't matter who we are, you could be a preacher. 00:05:36.430 --> 00:05:49.933 Be a great preacher, but sometimes you still have to wait, because sometimes we just have to wait for the Lord to do what He wants to do in situations. But they waited, and as they waited, God worked. But imagine trying to explain that to mission boards 00:05:50.058 --> 00:06:03.740 today. Yeah, sorry, I know we've been here six years, but we're still preaching, still translating the Bible, doing this, doing that. Yeah, but we haven't got anyone saved yet. Probably they would get dropped by some sending churches today, wouldn't they? 00:06:03.740 --> 00:06:18.572 Waiting can be also one of the hardest things for anybody, whether you're a Christian or not. Anyone who has to wait in life, it's hard. But as a Christian, it's also hard as well because we have the Lord within us and we want 00:06:18.697 --> 00:06:33.390 to be sensitive to His Spirit and not rush ahead with things. But we must see that waiting is a big part of life. It's just one of those things that we have to come to terms with and I had to and still have to in many ways. 00:06:33.390 --> 00:06:48.480 Even preparing this message, the Lord tests you on the very thing you want to preach, okay? And, you know, waiting for a trial to lift, you know, those things happen. And I can guarantee, if I was asked to show of hands, and I won't, you know, 00:06:48.605 --> 00:07:03.570 in this room right now, I'm sure there are one or two people that are waiting for something, okay? And could be waiting for a long time, might have been waiting, you know, since yesterday for the answer, or might be waiting since last year. 00:07:03.570 --> 00:07:16.886 Period in most of our lives, and I'm sure most is happening. That new job that you want, Mr. or Mrs. Wright, or Ms. Wright, she won't be Mrs. yet, waiting for the Lord to fill up a burden on your heart. 00:07:17.011 --> 00:07:30.850 Pastor's been praying, hasn't he, that the Lord will send a revival? Okay, that's something that he has to wait for the Lord to enact that on his church here. And again, he's waiting. I think he said even when 00:07:30.850 --> 00:07:44.456 Faith was born. Poor Esther had to wait for that too. Everyone has to wait, okay? I just want to paint the picture. Waiting is a common thing, but often overlooked and we can get a bit hasty in what we do. Let's turn our Bibles now 00:07:44.581 --> 00:07:58.430 to the book of Isaiah chapter 40. Brother Jeremy knew what I was preaching on and when I heard the Bible reading was in Isaiah, I'm like, he didn't, did he? And when I went 30, I'm like, that's my passage, but then I realized it's 40. 00:07:58.430 --> 00:08:13.636 He was kind. He was very kind. All right, let's turn to Isaiah 40, verse 31. And the Word of God here gives us an absolute guarantee for our waiting season and a 00:08:13.761 --> 00:08:29.660 principle we can apply again and again, which is encouraging. All right, 40, verse 31. It's a very popular verse out there in Christendom, but let's just read that now. 00:08:29.660 --> 00:08:43.367 They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint. So from this single verse of scripture, God reveals four-fold spiritual 00:08:43.492 --> 00:08:58.160 transformations that can take place in us because he promised to grant it to us as we can read here. We'll go through that. But first I need to kind of talk about the word but because obviously 00:08:58.160 --> 00:09:10.684 But he's referring to something that just happened previously. And in the verses right before our text here, God lays out quite a harsh reality. He says in verse 00:09:10.809 --> 00:09:23.380 30, Even the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young man shall utterly fall. We're talking about the Bible saying that the most natural, capable, energetic 00:09:23.380 --> 00:09:37.985 Peak condition, people on earth, not me anymore, actually I never was there, will eventually run completely out of steam, okay? Human strength has a limit, okay? 00:09:38.110 --> 00:09:52.750 And when you wait sometimes, it can be very vexing, very tiresome, but left to ourself, bankruptcy of our spirit is going to come, okay? We will end up crashing. 00:09:52.750 --> 00:10:05.300 And the Bible's painting a picture. Like Mark is a perfect example of this rigor and prime youth, aren't you Mark? But we see here that even the strongest of us will fall and fail. But what 00:10:05.425 --> 00:10:18.300 we're going to do now, we're going to go look at verse 31 and we're going to look at four things and I'll give them to you now. I'm going to talk about our inward strength, our upward strength. 00:10:18.300 --> 00:10:31.874 Our outward strength and then our onward strength. So it's the four things we're going to look at today as we go through. But first we're going to look at our inward strength. It says they shall renew their strength. It's very 00:10:31.999 --> 00:10:45.940 important we see here that Isaiah begins on the inside, okay? Because oftentimes we want to look like we've got it together on the outside or we can patiently wait and you might come to church and you might look very patient, okay? 00:10:45.940 --> 00:11:00.407 Going through a trial, waiting for a big answer in life. But Isaiah, and we've got some, obviously, is pinpointing to the very root cause that he wants to fix first. Because if you can't fix the root cause without 00:11:00.532 --> 00:11:15.260 inward, how can we get upward, okay? So that's very important. The process, I guess, in this passage, as I said, it's important. A lot of things start in the heart, okay? A lot of people just walk away from the Lord. 00:11:15.260 --> 00:11:29.954 Where did that come? It came out of here. The abundance of the heart of the mouth speaketh. The Bible talks a lot about the heart. It starts with the heart, the Lord working in us so that he can do what is supernatural. The Lord 00:11:30.079 --> 00:11:44.640 here is saying, before I can help you with this period of waiting, this period of trial that you're going through, first look on the inside. We often, and then going now, looking at the verse more specifically, where it says, 00:11:44.640 --> 00:11:59.431 They shall renew their strength. Even when I went back over my sermon notes, I'm like, yeah, renew. We want to renew our strength, don't we? But actually quite interesting in the Hebrew language, it's 00:11:59.556 --> 00:12:14.620 using the word, and I'm not going to, I probably should try and pronounce it, but kalaf, not Hebrew, sorry, I'm a Jew, so I can't really speak Hebrew, but kalaf, or to exchange. So what we get from here, 00:12:14.620 --> 00:12:28.639 It literally means to have a substitute or an exchange for your strength. Because we see here that we can't do it. Sometimes in life it's impossible to walk the Christian 00:12:28.764 --> 00:12:42.990 walk. And the Lord's going, good, that's great. I will renew your strength. And how I'm going to do that is you're going to exchange something. And you're going to exchange 00:12:42.990 --> 00:12:56.787 Your physical exhaustion for some fresh gear, okay? And that fresh gear we're going to see is the Lord, okay? The Lord will exchange, will give you, if you give him 00:12:56.912 --> 00:13:10.580 your exhaustion, he will exchange it for his strength. And I thought it was very important. I thought as we start out looking at this passage that the Lord renews 00:13:10.610 --> 00:13:25.054 Sorry, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. There's a sense of waiting on the Lord. That's probably a nice key factor there. Not waiting on having your reliance on someone else or a circumstance, but waiting on the Lord. 00:13:25.179 --> 00:13:39.570 There's a renew or an exchanging of strength because the reality is there are probably some things humanly you could probably get through, but sometimes you come through life, you hit brick walls, you can't do it without the Lord helping you. 00:13:39.570 --> 00:13:53.809 And we all go through different battles, some small, some big. But the Lord's saying, OK, this time of waiting now, I want you to learn to exchange what you're trying to do in the flesh for my spirit and the 00:13:53.934 --> 00:14:08.850 strength that he will have. And look, tonight I'm not preaching, I'm preaching to myself, OK? I'm sure Pastor Jeremy can chuckle to himself because he knows how much of a patient person I am, which is completely not. 00:14:08.850 --> 00:14:21.885 Like my name, Daniel, in the original language means impatient. It doesn't. I'm just being silly. So I guess it was just very timely how the Lord gave me this and 00:14:22.010 --> 00:14:35.250 then having to restudy it but still learning. Just ask my wife. She will bring out her scroll. All right. I guess this inward waiting period, what does it teach us? 00:14:35.280 --> 00:14:49.340 As we wait in the divine classroom, it teaches us prayer. There's some things you have to go through with the Lord by yourself. It builds patience. Again, something I don't have, but something the Lord can supernaturally 00:14:49.465 --> 00:15:03.650 give. It breeds an absolute dependence upon the Lord. And I think it's probably the hardest one here. It breaks our pride and keeps us humble. Sometimes you can't physically do anything. It's very humiliating to go, okay. 00:15:03.650 --> 00:15:17.740 Here's the circumstance at hand. I have to simply just now wait on the Lord to fulfill that time of period. It forces us to stop seeking our own agendas and plans. Sometimes we might be going, oh, I'm waiting for something. But the Lord 00:15:17.865 --> 00:15:31.780 goes, yeah, but that thing you're waiting for is not a part of my will. So you might be just waiting a very long time for it. But I think sometimes as you come before the Lord and you're honest, He can then, as you do that exchange, 00:15:31.780 --> 00:15:46.222 Any strength comes on, you can probably see things a bit more clarity. Also, signals to heaven that we have stopped trusting in our human power and strength. And I think that probably comes out of this very clearly. We 00:15:46.347 --> 00:16:01.180 can't wait in our own strength. And I want to talk about waiting for a bus. I'm talking about things in life where it's T-junction. Do I take a left hand? Do I take a right hand turn? And I'm simply now waiting on the Lord. 00:16:01.180 --> 00:16:16.036 To guide me in that. I guess there's a bit of a warning here. We see with the lack of inward strength, we see this in Abraham and Sarah, don't we? Where God had promised something to them, but years had rolled on and 00:16:16.161 --> 00:16:31.280 that promise was a child, Isaac, wasn't it? Okay. But the years are rolled on. They started getting quite wrinkled and old and Sarah's like, I'm a bit beyond it, Lord. How can I have a child anymore? And I guess because 00:16:31.280 --> 00:16:44.193 As we get our eyes off the Lord and Him being our strength, we tend to gravitate to the flesh. How can I make this happen now? But that very thing that they refused to wait 00:16:44.318 --> 00:16:57.280 on the Lord's timing for, today in history we're still paying for that. So it's very important that we don't manufacture our own solution. That was Hagar in that situation. 00:16:57.280 --> 00:17:12.082 Birthed Ishmael, they created a monumental generational crisis that the world is still suffering today. When we refuse to wait for an inward strength from the Lord, we will birth an Ishmael, potentially. 00:17:12.207 --> 00:17:27.280 Okay, that's the scary thing. We could potentially birth something, the Lord goes, actually I did not originally allow for this. I did have something in plan, but not this. And I guess what we need to do is 00:17:27.280 --> 00:17:40.960 Wait on the Lord. Very practical, very basic, but the most hardest thing to do because you've got to realize you can't do it and you have to exchange, renew God's strength for yours. 00:17:41.085 --> 00:17:54.740 George Mueller once wrote from a lifetime of deep experience, he said, more prayer, more exercise of faith, more patient waiting, and the result will be blessing, abundant blessing. 00:17:54.740 --> 00:18:09.428 Thus I have found it many hundreds of times, and therefore I continually say to myself, hope thou in God." Does everyone know Oswald Chambers? We don't know him personally, I've read of him, okay? Beautiful devotionals, 00:18:09.553 --> 00:18:24.500 okay? Reminds me of Pastor Jeremy in many ways. Or Jeremy reminds me of him, one of the two, okay. But just put things to pen, just amazing. But he said one of the greatest strains in life is the strain of waiting for God. 00:18:24.780 --> 00:18:38.780 And when I read him, I read about the most patient man probably I've ever read, apart from the Lord Jesus. But he's saying that the greatest strain in life is the strain for waiting for God. You know, 00:18:38.905 --> 00:18:53.100 even me getting here to Bathurst, okay, there was a strain of waiting. But again, it was important not to go ahead of what God's will and purpose was. And we got here just in time, okay, before my wife. 00:18:53.100 --> 00:19:08.001 I was expecting maybe number four. All right, so summary, waiting on God, sorry, waiting on the Lord isn't sitting around trying to pump yourself up to think, you know, of anything of that sort. 00:19:08.126 --> 00:19:23.230 It's just really a divine trade, okay? It's you giving God your weakness and in His hands He'll give you His strength, okay? That's the whole point of that first phrase there. In verse 31 it says, 00:19:23.230 --> 00:19:37.300 Their strength. It's not you renewing what you've got in, because it won't work. You'll conk out after another lap around the oval, okay? Alright, number two, we're going to look at now at the upward strength. The 00:19:37.425 --> 00:19:51.820 upward strength, it says, waiting, sorry, it says, thou shalt mount up with wings as eagles. So waiting doesn't just anchor us internally, it also elevates us vertically, okay? Gets us up. Now, many years ago, as a... 00:19:51.820 --> 00:20:04.365 I wasn't probably a little boy, I was probably in my twenties. I think I was in, I can't remember what, but I'm sure I was waiting for something. And again, the Lord was really exercising me about this passage. 00:20:04.490 --> 00:20:16.980 I was in, I don't know how old I was, but I was in my twenties. And the Lord taught me a very deep personal lesson from this specific verse, sorry, that waiting for God isn't passive, okay? It taught me in... 00:20:16.980 --> 00:20:30.801 It pulls you right out of the circumstance. So if you can imagine for a moment an eagle, as it now is elevating, and this is the picture the Lord gives us using an eagle, it elevates then up. It's no longer passive, it's not just sitting 00:20:30.926 --> 00:20:44.990 there as a bird. It's got its wings out, and fascinating about an eagle, it locks its wings. And what that does, it helps it get up, and it uses draughts and all different things. So they don't always have to use a lot of strength, they use 00:20:44.990 --> 00:20:59.953 Strength from another source, okay, which in that case is the wind. Our strength is the Lord, isn't it, that pulls us up. But it showed me that when we wait on him, he lifts us up to see right down on the situation. It was just, I think it was 00:21:00.078 --> 00:21:14.980 also listening to Ron Hamilton's Wings as Eagles. And I thought, what is it about the eagle? And what is it about lifting us up out of the situation? And I thought, there you go, that's it. The Lord lifts us out of the circumstance we're in. 00:21:14.980 --> 00:21:29.838 And when we do that, when an eagle's up, what can it do? It can see right down on the situation. It can give you hindsight, perspective is the word I'm trying to think of, that you can't see when you're down here with 00:21:29.963 --> 00:21:44.740 all the chickens. But when you're up there with the eagles, you can look right down. The other thing the eagle can do as well is can see forward. You can see things a little bit clearer as we'll look on in a moment. 00:21:44.740 --> 00:21:59.236 It has a vantage point that you're not going to get if you're going to be down here being fleshly, being worked up in your flesh, but when you can go, okay, Lord, I can't do it, the Lord goes, okay, that's great, lifts you out of that. 00:21:59.361 --> 00:22:13.920 And it can actually, I've experienced it before, you can be just so lifted up by the Lord and Him sustaining you that you don't hear the noise that's happening down here. The Lord can just give you that perspective, that vantage point. 00:22:13.920 --> 00:22:29.504 That you can just look down and just rest in Him, okay? And again, I'm not saying this as any perfect soul. Ask my wife, okay? I still struggle, but it's good to be reminded and come back 00:22:29.629 --> 00:22:45.170 to. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They're very, very big birds they are. So God raises up above the period of waiting so we can see our situation from His or God's viewpoint. 00:22:45.420 --> 00:23:00.390 When you wait on the Lord, He gives you upward strength. He lifts your perspective, like I said, above that exhausting fog that's down here. Sometimes when you're waiting, it can get very tiresome. It 00:23:00.515 --> 00:23:15.460 can get very annoying at times. We don't like it. But the Lord can just lift you up, get you out of the fog. If you're relying on third parties for your answers sometimes, it can be just frustrating. 00:23:15.460 --> 00:23:29.574 But the Lord can and will help in that regard. He pulls your heart out of the heavy, suffocating toils of this world and gives you a divine rest from all your surroundings. That's what the Lord wants. And I remember Pastor 00:23:29.699 --> 00:23:44.130 Jeremy even preaching about this a few weeks ago. Rest. Okay, not a rest of idleness, but a rest of heart. And they're very two different things. You can be very busy doing the Lord's work, serving your family, whatever it is. 00:23:44.130 --> 00:23:58.050 But there's a rest, and that's what the Lord wants us, I think, really capsulates this in Isaiah, in this verse, where the Lord wants you to be at rest as you wait, okay, and not lose it either. It's very easy 00:23:58.175 --> 00:24:12.020 to. So how do we practically cultivate this upward strength while we're stuck in the waiting room, okay? We actively can tune our ears to Him, okay? So the command to wait on the Lord means to stay near Him. 00:24:12.020 --> 00:24:26.269 And remain intensely attentive to His voice, okay? So when you're waiting for something, okay, I had to pick up a click and collect from Woolies today. I'm in the car waiting, but as I'm waiting, I'm waiting for 00:24:26.394 --> 00:24:40.700 a sound, and it's Elaine, because my wife did the click and collect, okay? So I'm thinking to myself, I'm waiting for a voice, okay? I'm waiting for God. I'm just painting a human picture for you. As you wait... 00:24:40.700 --> 00:24:53.967 You're waiting for the answer, aren't you? All right, so it gives you that command. Helps us to realign our priorities. As we're not fleshly, as we wait on the Lord, we can look at Matthew 6.33, but seek ye first the 00:24:54.092 --> 00:25:07.360 kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. So we can say, okay, Lord, is this for your kingdom? Okay, you know, this thing I'm waiting for, whatever it might be. We anchor... 00:25:07.360 --> 00:25:21.429 To the word. In Psalm 130 verse 5, it says, I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and his word do I hope. When you wait, there's a hope of an answer, isn't there? Our 00:25:21.554 --> 00:25:35.580 Heavenly Father wants us to give us our answers to our prayers or a particular situation we might be in. He wants us to give us an answer. He doesn't want to leave us. 00:25:35.580 --> 00:25:48.660 In the lurch, but we often want answers today or maybe tomorrow, but to wait a week? Impossible. But, you know, some people probably have to wait years for answers, okay? But we have to wait nonetheless. Now, let's look in 00:25:48.785 --> 00:26:02.050 the Bible of some people who waited, okay? I'm going to name some. I'm going to get you to think of some. But Noah had to wait, didn't he? Okay? He waited a very long period building the ark. He waited for the flood to come. 00:26:02.050 --> 00:26:16.959 And he waited patiently for the waters to subside. There was a lot of waiting involved for Noah, wasn't there? We see Joseph had to wait through betrayal, false accusation, and a dark Egyptian dungeon before his promised 00:26:17.084 --> 00:26:32.050 time in power arrived. Okay, he was a 17-year-old chap, most likely, when he went to Egypt. And it was probably, I think it was in his thirties by the time he was out of the dungeon and on the throne under Pharaoh there. 00:26:32.180 --> 00:26:46.757 Mary and Martha had to wait through agonizing grief of their brother's illness, watching Lazarus die while Jesus intentionally delayed his arrival, all so they could see an upward display of resurrection glory. Okay. There's some 00:26:46.882 --> 00:27:01.520 waiting. Can anyone think of any other waiting that people had to wait in the Bible for? Yes. Jonah. We were actually just reading that to the boys this afternoon. Malachi said, naughty, naughty Jonah. Got swallowed by the whale. 00:27:01.520 --> 00:27:15.945 Yes, very good. Any other waitings anyone can think of? Forty years, that's a long time to wait. I mean, forty minutes is long enough, but forty years? He had a lot of preparation. 00:27:16.070 --> 00:27:30.540 Forty years in Egypt, forty years in wilderness as well, and the back side of the desert. Yes, eight. I won't even calculate that. Be pardon? Just an answer of prayer. Three weeks. 00:27:31.090 --> 00:27:44.588 There you go, Simeon waiting for the Messiah. We read that today too. That was good. Anyone else got another thought of waiting? Someone from the Bible? Abraham and Sarah. Yep, they did wait. They did fail a little bit though, but they 00:27:44.713 --> 00:27:58.510 did wait. Eventually it did come to fruition, didn't it? All right, so there I guess is that upward strength. Okay, so you got your inward, your upward. We're now going to look at the onward strength. Okay, they shall run and not be weary. 00:27:58.510 --> 00:28:12.715 So once God has changed our heart internally, our inward, and corrected your perspective vertically or upward, He now equips us for our horizontal world that we have to face. And 00:28:12.840 --> 00:28:27.090 we see that by the text that they shall run and not be weary. Now, I'm not a runner, but Matt seems like a bit of a runner. It represents high energy, doesn't it? It's demanding. 00:28:27.090 --> 00:28:41.160 Public season of our Christian life, running. We all have to run the Christian race. And it's the heavy seasons of ministry, maybe raising a family, working a demanding job, facing intense 00:28:41.285 --> 00:28:55.180 spiritual battle. If you try to run this Christian race, and I mean run this Christian race in your own human energy, you'll puff out very, very quickly. But there's some promises here. 00:28:55.180 --> 00:29:09.385 That we can see as we're waiting, as the Lord fixes us inwardly, gets us upward, and then he says run, he will help us because it says they shall run and not be weary. Okay, imagine doing that. I'm sure I could 00:29:09.510 --> 00:29:24.180 probably run maybe to the bridge. I'm sure I can, but I'm just exaggerating. And back, but I will be a bit weary, okay, because I don't naturally run, unless it's after kiddos, okay. So we'll puff out pretty quickly. 00:29:24.180 --> 00:29:38.030 But the Lord's saying here, you won't be weary with this running because I will help you. You've exchanged, you've renewed your energy, the inner man, I will now help you and take over. Even the greatest of 00:29:38.155 --> 00:29:52.130 saints cried out under the sheer weight of physical and emotional exhaustion. We think of David when he wrote Psalm 69, I am weary of my crying, my eyes fail while I wait for my God. Okay, so it can be hard. 00:29:52.130 --> 00:30:05.854 Okay? It can be very, very hard. How are we going tonight though? Are we running on empty? Are we... I'm running this... You know, we've got lots to do at the church. I'm a bit weary, okay? The promise of 00:30:05.979 --> 00:30:20.030 God is that those who wait on Him will receive that supernatural onward stamina that only that the Lord can give. He'll empower you to fulfill your duties, whether that's putting our lovely dinner on tonight. 00:30:20.030 --> 00:30:34.719 Whether it's cleaning the church, whether our pastor having to preach messages. Like he said, works like this, preaching is like this. It's a lot of work for him to do that, but he needs, and I'm sure he knows, that supernatural 00:30:34.844 --> 00:30:50.240 empowering and stamina from God. What about family life? We often overlook that, but again, the Lord says that your family life is ministry to the Lord, because you're raising your next generation. But if you do that in your own strength, 00:30:50.240 --> 00:31:05.578 Okay, probably dads more than mums. Dads tend to puff out pretty quick. But, you know, we need to have that supernatural strength, don't we, to serve your family and run your race with a reservoir of divine energy 00:31:05.703 --> 00:31:20.660 that does not deplete. Okay, you will run and you will not burn out by God's grace. Next we're going to look at our onward strength and they shall walk and not faint. I find it very fascinating how it works. 00:31:20.660 --> 00:31:35.083 You've got your inward. Deal with this first, okay? I'm then going to get you up, but now I'm going to get you running. Then after you've run, you get to walk. And I would say your walking is probably 00:31:35.208 --> 00:31:49.900 the most difficult part of the Christian life. It's the everyday. It's waking up Monday morning, going to work, looking after the kiddos. I would say the mundane things sometimes of life that the Lord... 00:31:49.900 --> 00:32:04.573 Cause us two which aren't sinful. It's easy to soar sometimes with the wings and the mountaintop experiences. Sometimes you can see the Lord work and things like that, 00:32:04.698 --> 00:32:19.760 but it actually makes more sustained grace to walk through a season of waiting by walking. The real test of your mature character is your onward walk. I have many a friend 00:32:19.760 --> 00:32:34.306 There have been many a people in this church who are no longer because they puffed out on the walk, okay? They got through with, you know, they might have had some inward change, got up there and went, oh, look what I just did. Uh-oh. Okay, you just didn't do it. 00:32:34.431 --> 00:32:48.990 Or maybe they started running and go, wow, actually, I'm quite athletic. I didn't realize I was actually really good at this. And then they get to the walk and go, oh, I can't keep going. This is too hard. But we can see here the sequence of events as happening. 00:32:48.990 --> 00:33:02.868 Not a mistake, but the walking is the hardest. It's the walking through the months of silent trial without quitting. It's consistency when the emotions, okay, I'm an emotional being, 00:33:02.993 --> 00:33:17.150 okay, has completely faded. So you kind of get through all the excitement of an announcement and it's like, okay, okay, and then the emotions go, God hasn't changed, we just have, okay. 00:33:17.150 --> 00:33:32.784 But it's us now walking through that. And it is the power given by God for the everyday grind, is how I put it. The walking is the important part. What happened before is very important, but the walking, because 00:33:32.909 --> 00:33:48.370 that's what you get to finish with. Walking here does imply progress though. Sometimes you think, oh, we need to keep running. But no, walking does imply progress. And waiting can mean things are progressing. 00:33:48.370 --> 00:34:02.805 Just an interesting thought. Sometimes you might be waiting. I'll tell you a personal story. I was waiting for a wife for a very long time, okay? I was very old when I got married, not really. I was 30, 30 or 31, okay? But 00:34:02.930 --> 00:34:17.360 I remember Pastor Ian, very wise, you know, just how, anyway, how some people could just be very wise. He said, Dan, sometimes the longer you wait when you're single could be, make the courtship and engagement very short. 00:34:17.360 --> 00:34:31.087 And I never thought of it. But, I mean, I think our engagement and courtship was all under 12 months, OK? But he did say that to me, and it was just, I guess, wisdom from an older man who's lived a lot longer than if I was, say, in my 20s 00:34:31.212 --> 00:34:45.179 or early 20s, and I was interested in it. Maybe there's a bit more of a waiting game, OK, of a courtship or waiting to get married, whatever it is. But, you know, because I got married later in life, it went shoom very quickly. I was like... 00:34:45.179 --> 00:34:59.550 Married, and now I look back, I've got three kids, I've got one on the way. It's like, wow, that all in five years. So that's pretty impressive. But anyway, it was just... Sorry, I wasn't... Anyway. But it's just insights 00:34:59.675 --> 00:35:13.780 of an older man who had wisdom behind him to say, waiting is progress, Stan. You know, you're waiting on God. He's doing something in me to get me ready for when that person comes, okay? And then when it does come... 00:35:13.780 --> 00:35:27.892 And I was a lot older than Pastor Jeremy or Pastor Dan, and they had to get out of the way because, you know, I'd walk by, everyone would go, who's that guy? Oh, hi, Jeremy. Hi, Dan. You know, like this. And I'd be like, hi. And 00:35:28.017 --> 00:35:42.130 yeah, they'd be a mild head and I'd be silly. But yeah, what I'm trying to get at is that waiting period, even though it was hard, it was still rewarded in the sense things went quickly. I didn't have to wait a year, two years. 00:35:42.130 --> 00:35:56.289 Courtship, engagement, this and that. And again, the Lord's will is different for everyone, but putting out there that sometimes waiting can mean that there is a progression happening even though you can't see it. Not always, but can be at times. We see this with 00:35:56.414 --> 00:36:10.860 not just waiting, having the strength to walk, but we can apply this to our everyday life. There are a lot of Christians out there who are no longer here because they've walked in their own strength. We can also see some examples of the onward endurance in Scripture. 00:36:10.860 --> 00:36:25.095 We're going to look at the Lord Jesus Christ. How long did he wait before he was used in a public ministry? A very long time, 30 years. He waited for the Father's time to start his earthly 00:36:25.220 --> 00:36:39.200 ministry. Now, was it all lost? No. That 30 years was preparation for people out there to receive his word, different things like that. So we see here that our Lord Jesus Christ waited 00:36:39.200 --> 00:36:51.952 For that perfect time to be fulfilled before He ever stepped into public ministry. The disciples waited patiently in the city of Jerusalem for the promised Holy Spirit in the Book of Acts, 00:36:52.077 --> 00:37:04.750 didn't they? They had to wait and pray and wait. I mean, Jericho, you had them walking around seven times around the city. I always thought this city is like a little matchbox type city. 00:37:04.750 --> 00:37:19.452 But in no means was it. I'm sure it was quite large and walking around it for seven days. I don't know, I'd be at the back going, do you think this pastor knows what he's doing? I was walking around seven times. Sometimes they go a bit crackers, don't 00:37:19.577 --> 00:37:34.110 they, after they've had nine nuts or something, I've heard. That would be me at the back, okay? So anyway, pessimist stand. But we see here that they had, the disciples had to wait. You know, Jericho, we see all believers, you know, we're waiting. 00:37:34.110 --> 00:37:47.859 For something to happen? And that is the faithfully waiting His glorious return. All right? We're waiting now for that. All right? So we're in a constant hold of waiting 00:37:47.984 --> 00:38:01.940 as Christians, okay? Waiting the Lord's return, you know, and then obviously we all have our little sub points of our waitings, okay? And everyone's different. So let's... 00:38:01.940 --> 00:38:16.173 Yeah, so we can see here that the four things that we looked at was the inward, outward, sorry, inward, upward, your outward, and your onward, okay? So if we, I don't know, I like remembering things to 00:38:16.298 --> 00:38:30.940 help me understand as we go through. But I guess tonight, you know, are you struggling? Are you in a, are you a fainting Christian tonight? Have you been doing it in your own strength to where you go, okay, 00:38:30.940 --> 00:38:46.445 The Lord needs you to now exchange or renew that strength that you've got for something else. Are your knees weak? Is your throat dry? Do you feel like you're drowning worms in the dark? It can feel very discouraging at times 00:38:46.570 --> 00:39:02.130 waiting, very discouraging. Often I talk to people and they go, oh, still waiting, you know, still waiting for an answer, still waiting. But life's just full of waiting, isn't it? So hear the word of the Lord. Stop sprinting. 00:39:02.130 --> 00:39:17.088 Ahead of him, like Abraham and Sarah did. Stop forcing doors to open. Stop going out in your own flesh to do things, lest you birth an Ishmael, as we saw, which brings long-term sorrow. You know, if we 00:39:17.213 --> 00:39:32.370 do things at our own strength, the Lord goes, sure, you can have it now, but it might not be what his perfect will was. Step back into his presence, and at the beginning of the verse, but they that wait, 00:39:32.370 --> 00:39:46.577 It says there, but they that wait upon the Lord. Let's get back to that waiting on the Lord and then looking at those four things of that inward renewing, exchanging, then he'll get us up out of the situation vertically and he'll get 00:39:46.702 --> 00:40:00.850 us running and he'll get us walking, okay? And if we wait on him tonight, he's complete fourfold restoration of your life. He will give you, he will renew you, he will lift you above your circumstances. I can guarantee you he will. 00:40:01.200 --> 00:40:16.579 And He will help you run your race this week. When you go to work, that's God's will for you. He'll help you run that. And He'll help you not to be weary. And He'll help you keep walking step by step, day by day, 00:40:16.704 --> 00:40:32.500 without fainting. We have an early minute. Pastor Jeremy said that was fine. But let's pray and may the Lord just encourage us that if you are waiting, wait on the Lord and go through those principles found in Isaiah. 00:40:32.500 --> 00:40:47.004 To help you on your journey, okay? Because if you're not waiting now, tomorrow morning the boss might make you to start waiting, okay? All right, let's pray. Father, we just thank you for this time. We thank you, Father, that you 00:40:47.129 --> 00:41:01.630 have all the answers for us in Scripture. And we thank you for the instruction book that you've given us, that, Father, as we wait on you, Lord, you can renew us, Lord, not our own strength, but, Lord, replacing that with yours. 00:41:01.630 --> 00:41:13.690 And that, Father, you can whip us up right out of the situation to give us a vantage point that no one else has, that we can see what you're doing in our time of waiting, our time of trial, whatever that 00:41:13.815 --> 00:41:25.940 waiting period might be. And Father, we just pray for any here that might be going through that, that you would help them, help them not to be discouraged. Help them to see that waiting is one of your... 00:41:25.940 --> 00:41:29.688 Toolbox of tools that you use in our lives, Lord, to shape 00:41:29.813 --> 00:41:33.620 us into the image of Christ, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.