GENESIS 8 WAIT ON THE LORD2015 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Genesis 8 Wait On The Lord

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2015.

Have you ever had the experience of being stuck at a traffic light that refuses to turn green? I'm sure you have. Most of us have. It was something that used to happen to me quite a bit when I had my little scooter. You guys remember that 150cc scooter I had, right? And that little scooter, it was fun for driving around town and stuff. But I had some problems with it, especially at night when there weren't many cars on the road, because I would come to a light and

And it wasn't substantial enough to trigger the signal. So it didn't know that anybody was there. And this was back when I was living at an apartment over off of McKinley. And there was a left turn that I had to make to go down the road to our apartment. And I would get there, let's say, late on a Wednesday night after service. I would head home. And so there weren't many cars on the road. I'd get in the left turn lane.

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Do I make an illegal turn because it's a red light and just look around and then go for it? Or what do I do? Now, a lot of times, people who ride scooters are very familiar with this. A lot of times, you can actually just put the kickstand down on your scooter, run to the curb where the sidewalk is, push the button so that it knows and it thinks someone's walking across, and then the light will turn green. But that doesn't work if you have to turn left.

And so I would be stuck there for several light cycles, wrestling with whether or not I should go. And finally, I would usually just wait until someone else needed to turn too. And so I could be there sometimes for 10 minutes, waiting for another car to come up behind me so that it would know that there was somebody there that needed to turn. I'm sure you've had similar experiences where the lights busted and it's stuck. And you're just waiting and waiting and waiting, wondering, when is this going to turn green?

Well, that's what I want to share with you about this morning. As we look at the example of Noah, I see a great example in Noah in waiting on the Lord.

And I think Noah would encourage us this morning to wait and to learn from his example that, well, sometimes it feels as you're waiting on the Lord, like you're just stuck at a red light and you're just sitting there and sitting there and sitting there and nothing's happening. And you're wondering, where is the Lord? And why is this not turning green? Why hasn't God said, go? What does he want me to do? Why am I just sitting here?

And as believers, we talk about waiting on the Lord. It's something that, it's a phrase we often use. But

Even though we talk about it and we're familiar with the phrase, I think it's something that we also struggle with as far as living it out. And we don't always do it very well, even though we might encourage each other to wait on the Lord. And so sometimes we wait when we should go, and we go when we should wait. And Noah provides us a good example of how to discern and what to do about this idea of waiting on the Lord.

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And the thoughts and intents of humanity was wicked continually. And God determined that judgment was necessary, that it must be a complete judgment on the whole earth, except that Noah was a righteous man.

And so God determined to destroy the wicked, but preserve the righteous. Noah, his wife, and his sons and their wives. And so there was a total of eight people that God preserved as he gave Noah the instruction to build the ark.

He gave him all the dimensions. He told him how to do it. And Noah is obedient and puts this together. And as he does, as he completes it, now God says, okay, get in because, well, there is going to be rain and the earth is going to be flooded. And now the water bursts forth from the deep and the rain comes forth from the heavens. And at this point in chapter eight, now the whole earth is covered in water.

And it tells us in the previous chapters that even the mountaintops are covered in water. And so it's a complete destruction with this flood. And so here's Noah out in the open seas, out on top of all of this water with the rest of the earth destroyed. And I can imagine the question beginning to form in his mind, how is this ever going to end? And when are we going to get out of this ark?

And that's what we find develop in here in Genesis chapter eight. And so there's three points I'd like to share with you to encourage you to wait on the Lord. The first point is found in verses one through five, which we just read. And that is that we, well, while we wait, God is at work.

That while we wait, sometimes it seems like nothing is happening, but behind the scenes, God is doing a work. Check out verse one again with me. It says, then God remembered Noah and every living thing and all the animals that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind to pass over the earth and the waters subsided. Here it tells us that God now remembers Noah.

And sometimes that can be a little bit concerning for us, that God remembered Noah, because we think, well, does that mean that God forgot Noah? And you know what it's like. In those times where you are waiting on the Lord, it's very easy to feel forgotten. And it's not unreasonable to think that Noah would have felt forgotten as well. When we are waiting on the Lord, many times it involves us.

high pressure situations. We wait on the Lord for things like jobs. When you're out of a job and you need a job, you're praying, you're seeking the Lord, you're calling out to the Lord, and you're waiting on the Lord to provide you for a job. Sometimes you're waiting on the Lord to be able to get out of a job, right? And so you want out, but you can't, but you need to be out, but you

But you're waiting on the Lord. But there's a lot of pressure. There's a lot of difficulty. And so you have this pressure behind you trying to get you to make a decision. And there's this difficulty of waiting on the Lord and not rushing the decision. There's pressure many times in

looking at, well, where am I going to live? Where am I going to stay? Should I buy this house? Should I sell this house? Should I rent that apartment? What am I going to do as I'm kicked out of this apartment or as this door closes? And now there's this high pressure situation of where am I going to live? And in those times, we have to wait on the Lord. There are times that we are looking to God for direction,

or for provision, or any other thing that might be happening. And so there's these opportunities that we have to wait upon the Lord, but they often involve pressure and intensity. And in the midst of that, it's so easy to begin to feel like, you know, God's forgotten about me. I mean, look at my financial condition, and I don't know how I'm going to make ends meet. And

Why isn't God providing? And why isn't God coming through? Or look at my job situation or my home or my marriage or whatever may be happening in your life. And it's easy for us to look at those things and to feel the pressure from them and begin to think, where is God? Has he forgotten about me? Am I just completely off his radar? He's got more important things to do. But notice here it says, God remembered Noah. And when it talks about God remembering Noah,

it doesn't mean that Noah had been forgotten. Don't get the idea that God suddenly like woke up in the middle of the night like, I forgot about Noah, you know, and he's stranded out in the water. That's not the picture at all. This word, remember, it's a way to express that God is paying special attention to work in someone's life.

He's now paying special attention to Noah. That's what God is seeking to communicate here. You could also think about this from the example of Rachel in Genesis chapter 30 verse 22. It talks about Rachel who was barren. She was unable to have children. It was a big deal. It was a serious issue. And it tells us in Genesis chapter 30 verse 22 that God remembered Rachel and listened to her and opened her womb.

And so the idea there is not that God had forgotten about Rachel, but at this time, God brought together and he remembered all the prayers that she had prayed and all the requests that had been given. And now he's going to answer those prayers and he's going to fulfill that and do a great work. Well, in a similar way, now he's focused on Noah.

The judgment is complete and now the work of restoration is going to begin. And so he's focusing on Noah and he's working out his plan so that Noah can reestablish or be reestablished on the earth and the earth can be repopulated. And so God is now paying special attention to Noah. And that's what we need to remember.

that God is not forgotten about us. No matter what our conditions are, no matter how we may feel, God has not forgotten you, but he's paying attention to you, and he's going to be doing a work in your life. We see this develop here in verse 1 as it tells us that God created a wind to now blow on the waters. Now, I can imagine if I was Noah, I might be like, you know what? I'm

That's what your big plan is, God? Like a wind? That's how you're gonna get rid of the water? Can't you invent like a little flusher, you know, like you just pull the lever and then just, you know, all the water is gone? A wind, this is gonna take forever. And God had a process that he wanted to fulfill through this wind that he created. And that's something very important to learn about how God works. God works through process, right?

He works not instantly many times, but he works through a process to accomplish his purposes. Of course, God can remove the water instantly. That's no problem for him. He could just, boom, snap his fingers, it's gone, and Noah's there on dry land. He could do that. But many times, God chooses to work instantly.

through a process of events, of activities, of things that are happening. And so he creates this wind that begins to dry up the water, to move the waters. As the wind blew and the waters begin to move, the process has begun. And that's a big part of waiting on the Lord. It's about giving God opportunity and time to work.

Giving God opportunity and time to work out these things that he is seeking to accomplish.

And sometimes we see in our lives a little bit of wind, you know, a little bit of movement happening. And that could be either encouraging or discouraging depending on our attitude at the time. We could be discouraged by thinking, well, that's it, you know, just that little bit. This is going to be a long process then. This is going to take forever. Or we could see it and be encouraged and think, you know, God is at work. He's on the move.

But it's hard because many times we're under pressure. And so as you see the winds begin to move, as you see little bits of things begin to happen, I would encourage you to take heart and be encouraged and continue to wait on the Lord because, well, this is just the beginning of the work that God is going to do.

Check out verse 2. It says, Here, we see there's two parts to the flood that took place.

there was not just the rain that came down, but there was also the fountains of the deep. And so for the flood, water came from both directions. It came from the heavens, but it also came from within the earth. The fountains were burst open and that's where the water came from for the flood upon the earth. And so both of those now, God has put a stop to.

The 40 days of judgment that God proclaimed are complete. And so now God stops the water from increasing. He stops the water from increasing while the wind is blowing. And so this is part of his plan to remove the water from the earth. And so the wind's blowing, the water is restrained, and this process continues. It will take time, but the water is going down.

to recede. It's going to be moved back into its proper place. You see, God is at work here behind the scenes. It's possible that Noah understood and recognized that there was a wind and that God was working through the wind. Maybe he saw that there was a wind. Maybe he noticed that there was a wind, but he couldn't notice that God had restrained or stopped up the fountains of the deep.

I think it's interesting as it says, the rain from heaven was restrained. You see this picture of God holding back. God's at work. Noah can't see it. And this is really the beginning of this process. It's early in the process. And so he can't really see what's happening, but behind the scenes, and he doesn't know it, but God is at work. And God is beginning this transformation that will take place. Verse three.

And the waters receded continually from the earth. At the end of the 150 days, the water decreased. And so Noah is there in the ark. He can't do much about what's going on. He can't get rid of the water. He can't make things happen faster. He is there waiting on the Lord. And you can imagine from Noah's perspective, not much is happening for a really long time. Think about it. If the earth is flooded,

And so water covers the earth. And here's Noah in the ark sitting on top of the water. If the level decreases, he can't really tell. There's nothing to measure it by. He doesn't know how much has dropped. He doesn't know how far they've come. He doesn't know because there's no measurements. He can't, he looks around, all he sees is water all around. And the change is slow. So he's not feeling the drop. And so he's there waiting on the Lord to

without much evidence to know, to see that God is at work. And so from Noah's perspective, not much is happening until finally, after 150 days have passed, verse four, it says, then the ark rested in the seventh month, the 17th day of the month on the mountains of Ararat. And so finally, there's some evidence. Finally, there's some change that Noah can recognize that

the water is decreasing. They've been bouncing around in the open seas for the past 150 days, and then suddenly it stops bobbing around. Suddenly they're planted firmly on the ground, on the mountains of Ararat. The water has decreased enough for the ark to rest on the mountain. Now at this point, Noah could feel the change, but he really still can't see anything's different.

And a lot of times, this is how God works. While we're waiting on the Lord, we might see little hints of change. We see the winds begin to move. And then a little bit after that, we don't know all the work that God's doing, but it's going. And then suddenly, there's a foundation beneath us. Suddenly, there's a firmness that's applied, that we have this confidence that, well, God is doing something. We can tell there's something substantial happening here.

But a lot of times we can't put our finger on it. We can't articulate it. It's just something that, well, we understand. We feel something we sense. And it's not for another two and a half months that Noah is able to verify that this is happening with his eyes. Check out verse five. And the waters decreased continually until the 10th month. In the 10th month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.

So now we're in month 10, the first day of the month. Now, finally, he can see a difference. Finally, he can see there's the peaks of the mountains piercing through the waters. And so finally, he can see that the waters are receding. He can verify. It's not just the wind. It's not just the change. They're not bobbing around so much, but finally,

But now he can see with his eyes, the mountains are being uncovered. And as he waits on the Lord, God, well, he's doing this work behind the scenes. He's accomplishing. This is a big job. You think about the earth being flooded and the water being removed. God's taking care of it. It's happening through a process. And that's the way that God works. And so for you and I, as we are encouraged this morning to wait on the Lord, we can recognize that

similarly, we're not going to see a whole lot of evidence, but we can rest and trust and know that God is at work as we wait upon him. Whatever difficulty you're facing, whatever decision that you're up against, whatever it is that you are waiting on the Lord for, you might feel forgotten, but you're not. God's at work in your life and you might not see the evidence, but you got to trust him.

You got to rest in him and let him do the work that he wants to do. You might notice the wind. You might not. You might feel the change. You might see little glimmers of mountains piercing through the waters. Or you might not. But you can rest and trust and know that God is at work behind the scenes. You have no idea all that God is doing in your life and for your good and for your good for all of eternity.

And so, first of all, as we wait on the Lord, we need to be encouraged and know that God works while we wait. Secondly, as we go on, we'll look at verses 6 through 14, and here I would encourage you to investigate while you wait. As you see the evidence of God beginning to work and the evidence of what God has been doing in the process of time, I'd like to encourage you to not be disengaged. Sometimes

We disengage from waiting on the Lord. We kind of distract ourselves, try to change the subject in our heads because, well, waiting is hard work. And waiting is sometimes a painful process. We don't like to be in that limbo state sometimes.

where we have to trust in the Lord. And so we distract ourselves and we change the subject and we try to do something different and we disengage. But here I think it's interesting that Noah is engaged in the waiting process and he is investigating. Let's see what God is doing. Let's see how far this extends. Let's see what's really going on. Verse six says, so it came to pass at the end of 40 days,

And so here Noah waits 40 days after he sees the mountaintops. And now he begins to engage in this investigation. Waiting on the Lord, it is waiting, but it doesn't necessarily have to be entirely passive. And I think Noah,

Many times God wants us to be engaged in the waiting, that we're involved in the waiting and investigating. We would like to, it'd be nice, you know, if we could just say, okay, God, I'm going to go to sleep and just wake me up when it's all fixed. Wake me up when it's all done. But a lot of times, well, that financial situation that we're wrestling with, we have to face it every day and we have to decide every day to trust in the Lord. And through that process, we

God's working not just in the world around us and removing the floodwaters, but he's working in us. And God wants to do a work in us in the midst of this as well. And so here's Noah engaged. He's paying attention and he's investigating. He's using strategy. He's using intelligence to try to discover all that God is doing. As he looks out, he can see the mountaintops. He begins to wonder to himself, I wonder how far away those are.

you know it's hard to tell how far away those mountaintops are across all this water i wonder if those are a great distance or if those are nearby and so to help him understand this better he sends out a raven now this is a smart move and i didn't know this about ravens but i learned it as i was preparing for this morning that ravens are actually really good for this type of situation

The Vikings, when they were exploring and on the open seas, they would use ravens to help them find land. And the way that would work is they would be out, you know, on the open seas. They'd be looking for new lands. And so what they would do is they would release a raven and they'd pay close attention to it. And the raven would fly upwards. They would climb to an altitude maybe about 5,000 feet or so.

And as the raven from that height is able to look around, the raven would be able to spot land. If there was land within 100 miles, then the raven would be able to see it. And what it would do then if it saw land is it would begin to fly towards the land. And so the Vikings watching this bird would be able to follow the bird. And that's how they were able to find new places, new lands. They would follow the bird to the land that it had spotted.

If there was no land, then the raven would just come straight back down and stay at the boat because it couldn't find anywhere to go. And so Noah's pretty smart in this. He sends out the raven. He's able to look and say, all right, it takes off. It doesn't come back to the ark. So there's land that it can find in the nearby vicinity, you know, within 100 miles or so.

And so he's discovering a little bit about how much God has done and what the extent of the work is accomplished. Then verse 8,

And so he sends out a raven, but he also sends out a dove. Again, this is really smart. He's doing some investigation here. He's trying to figure out, all right, what's the extent of the work that has been done? The raven will see land from a great distance and fly to it. And that's what it did. The dove won't see that great of a distance. It won't fly to that far of a place. And so the dove looks around and immediately comes back to the ark.

And so from that, Noah now knows, okay, there is land. It's kind of far away. The land around us immediately is still covered in water. And so he gains some perspective. He gains some information about, well, where they're at in the process and the extent that the water has been reduced from the earth. Then verse 10, and he waited yet another seven days. And again, he sent out the dove from the ark.

Then the dove came to him in the evening and behold, a freshly plucked olive leaf was in her mouth. And Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth. And so Noah begins to be systematic about this. And he's able then to see the progress as the waters continue to be lowered.

He measured by the raven and the dove, but now he sends out the dove again, and the dove goes out and comes back in the evening with an olive leaf. And so now he knows there's trees that are above the water. This olive tree is producing new life. It's an olive leaf that has been produced. And it tells us in verse 11 that Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth. And so he's

He's increasing in his information. He's gathering intelligence, gaining some perspective. Verse 12. So he waited yet another seven days and sent out the dove, which did not return again to him anymore.

And so now Noah knows that the waters have decreased significantly so that the dove is able to sustain itself and it doesn't have to return to the ark for rest, but it's able to provide or find shelter and able to find a place to stay. And so the information now Noah has is that the water has decreased a lot more and

And in all this time, we don't know exactly, you know, what's happening in Noah's head, but I can imagine Noah's getting pretty anxious to get out of the boat. Look at the time references. We've seen a bunch of time references already, but then in verse 13 and 14, we see two more. It says, and it came to pass in the 601st year in the first month, in the first day of the month, that the waters were dried up from the earth.

And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and indeed the surface of the ground was dry. And in the second month, on the 27th day of the month, the earth was dried."

So it gives us some very specific time references here in verse 13 and 14. Now, putting all this together, I wanted to kind of think through the timeline with you because it helped me get some perspective on what was happening through this process. So going back to chapter 7, verse 4 says,

Day one, after the ark has been built, God says, all right, start loading up the ark because the flood's going to happen in seven days. And so for seven days, Noah is in and out of the ark. He's bringing in all the animals. He's getting everything set up for the flood that is about to take place. And so he's in the ark day one as he begins to load it. Then the flood begins in Genesis chapter 7, verse 11.

And so that's the eighth day, and now the flood begins, and it rains for 40 days and 40 nights. And so it stops raining in Genesis chapter 7, verse 12, around day 48.

Now a good portion of time passes, 110 days pass until Genesis chapter 8 verse 4 when the ark lands on the mountains of Ararat. And so that, you know, took some time for it to land and to be grounded there on the mountain. But then it took even more time until the mountaintops are seen in Genesis chapter 8 verse 5. Now we're at day 232.

Now, this is, you know, not meant to be exactly precise. Maybe it's off by a couple of days or something. But just from the time references, getting some perspective about how much time is passing. Then about 40 days later, Noah sends out a raven and a dove. That's day 272. Then he sends out another dove or the dove seven days later and then sends out the dove again seven days later. That brings us to 286 days that they've been in the ark.

Then Genesis chapter 8 verse 13 gives us a specific time reference. And so we know it's 320 days now. And after that, Noah removes the covering of the ark and he's able to look around and see that the ground is dry. And then finally in Genesis chapter 8 verse 15, which we'll get to in a moment, God tells Noah to leave the ark. But that brings it to a total of 378 days. So

The flood, it rained, the fountains of the deep were open for 40 days, but the total time that Noah was in the ark was 378 days, a little bit over a full year for us. Now that is important for us to consider because, well again, throughout this process, throughout this time, Noah is waiting on the Lord.

He's waiting on the Lord, and you can imagine how much he wants to get out of there. You can imagine, have you ever had cabin fever? You know, I don't know about you, but I've had those times where, you know, like you're sick for like three weeks, right? And you're just in bed, you're on the couch, and you're like just desperate to get out and do anything. You need to get out of the house. That's where Noah was at. Can you imagine? He's stuck in the ark for a year. He's stuck in the ark for a year.

He tries to go for a walk and he could just walk in circles. You know, it's not much for him to do, not far for him to go. Plus he's there with his wife and his sons and the son's wives. And I'm sure the animals kept them pretty busy, but they were really ready to be off that ark, I'm sure. They were looking for that opportunity. And that's part of why I think

Noah is investigating. He's like, okay, how much longer? You know, and sometimes it helps when you're in that kind of situation. When you're waiting on the Lord, it helps to like, okay, how much longer is this going to go on? How much longer do I have to put up with this? How much longer do I have to hold on? And so he's waiting on the Lord over this process of time. It's a great encouragement to us to wait on the Lord. And sometimes it's going to be through a process of a lot of time.

And that may not be our favorite thing, but God is at work in the midst of it. And what I see here for us is that, you know, again, we're to be engaged in the waiting process. That God's doing a work in us at the same time as he's doing a work outside of the boat.

And it's important for us to be engaged in that, to be open to that, to be preparing ourselves and seeking and finding out what is God doing and what is God saying and how far does this go and what is happening? Wait on the Lord. Find out what's going on around you. Find out what he's doing around you. Sometimes we could take the attitude, well, God wants for me to get a job. So, well, I'm gonna sit here on the couch and watch TV and Lord, when you're ready, just give me the job.

That's a lot more passive than God wants us to be as we wait on the Lord. No, investigate and find out and seek out and look for opportunities while you wait on the Lord. And you could apply that to whatever situation you might be facing. We wait on the Lord, but it's not in a disengaged, like we don't care, like just wake me up when it's done. You know, once you've set me up in a nice palace with everything that I need, God, you know, then I'll get serious. Then I'll start paying attention. No, no, no.

We need to be paying attention. It's hard, you know. Well, I don't like sending out resumes. I don't like working on that. I don't like doing those things. That's painful. It's a painful process. But God's using that process to work in us, to shape us, and to make us more like him. I like Proverbs chapter 16, verse 9. It says, a man's heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps. I think this is what's happening with Noah. His heart's planning the way.

And so he's sending out ravens. He's sending out doves. He's looking around. He's figuring out. He's trying to figure out how far it's going, what's happening, and what to do next. But he's also letting God direct his steps. And that brings us to the final point this morning in verses 15 through 19. And that is, wait until God says, go.

Noah planned his steps. He was engaged. He was figuring out. He was doing the best that he could to understand what was happening and thinking through what needed to happen next. But he also waited on the Lord until God spoke. Look at verse 15 through 19. It says, then God spoke to Noah saying, go out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your son's wives with you.

After 378 days...

Finally, I can imagine Noah thinking, this was probably a really good day for him, right? God said, go. The Hebrew word for go here in verse 16, it literally means green light. No, I'm just kidding. I made that up.

But that's the idea, right? Like you're waiting for the light. You're waiting for it to change. You're waiting for it to change. It's not changing. It's not changing. Why isn't it changing? When's it going to change? And then finally, green light. All right, now I get to go. Finally, Noah is able to exit the ark. God speaks to him. And then in verse 18, it says, so Noah went out. God said, go. And so Noah went. But he waited until God spoke to go. I wonder how tempting it was for

to exit the ark before that. Just kind of being silly in my head. I wonder if his kids tried to sneak out at night, right? Like, we got to get out of here. Think about Noah. He sends out the birds. He sees the olive leaf. He knows, okay, the water's almost gone. He removes the cover of the ark. He looks around. He sees the earth is dry all around him. Why didn't he just walk out of the ark then? Because God hadn't spoken yet.

God didn't tell him to go. God put him in that situation. God told him, get in the ark, and then God shut him in. And so he did the right thing. He waited until God spoke. When God puts you in a situation, there's going to be lots of opportunity for us to look around and think, well, I can just step right out of this. But we need to be careful not to go ahead of what God has called us to. We need to wait on the Lord, and that means to wait until

until God speaks. Wait until God says for us to go. No matter how much pressure is on us, there was probably a lot of pressure for Noah just internally, just in wanting to be off the boat. But I wonder how much pressure his wife applied. Come on, Noah, can't we go? We just need to stretch our legs a little bit. Why can't we get off the ark? And then there's Noah's sons, and then Noah's son's wives. There was a lot of pressure on Noah, but he waited. He waited.

He waited until God spoke. Listen, this is the hard part about waiting on the Lord, waiting for God to speak. When you figure you know what to do, when you've decided, I can see the land is dry. Why do I need to wait for God to speak? I can see everything's ready. Look at the olive leaf. It's time to go. But then even though you're convinced it's time to go,

waiting for God to speak. That's the hard part, but it's what we need to come to as we just talk about waiting on the Lord. We need to not just do things because we figured out, because it seems best to us, but do things because God has told us to. Think about the example of Abraham and Sarah. Remember them, they were waiting for a son and God told them they would have a son in Genesis chapter 15.

Abraham was talking with God and says, God, you know, I don't have any children. And so this inheritance that you've promised to me, well, it's going to pass on to my servants because I don't have any children. And God says, no, you're going to have a son. And so they got this promise that they were going to have a son. But Abraham and Sarah were old and some time passes. And Sarah says, you know, we're not getting any younger. This promise doesn't look like it's going to happen. So here's my idea.

Take my maidservant Hagar and you can have a child with her and we'll raise him up as our child. And then the inheritance will be passed to him. And this happens in Genesis chapter 16. And so they knew what God wanted. They knew what God said. They knew what God promised. They didn't see it happening. And so they figured out a way to try to make it happen. And it didn't work. God says, well, you had a son, but that's not the son of promise. That's not the son that I'm going to pass the inheritance on to. Later on, they received Isaac, born of Sarah.

the fulfillment of God's promise. They didn't wait quite long enough, but they looked around, they saw the olive leaf, they looked around, they saw the dry land and said, here's where we can go, here's what we can do. And they figured out their own way and they went before they were supposed to because they knew what God promised. They knew what God desires, but they couldn't see it happening. We need to wait on the Lord. And there's gonna be lots of times where you're in a situation because, well,

God has allowed you to be there. And so you can wrestle with that, but you're in this situation. There's lots of pressure and you can figure out things to do and ways to try to resolve it. But we need to be careful because, well, we might be going before God has spoken. We need to make sure we hear from the Lord and not just take matters into our own hands or

use the investigation, the information that we've gathered to then cause us to rush ahead of what God has called us to. Another good example to consider is David. Now David as a young man was anointed to be king. And so he knew from a very young age that God had called him to be the king of Israel. But it took a long time for that to happen. He wasn't the king yet and he wasn't the king immediately upon his anointing.

Saul was the king of Israel and Saul and David didn't get along. Not because of David, but because Saul knew that David was called to be the next king. And so Saul determined to take David out and he tries to put David to death many times. And there was a season where Saul was pursuing David all over the wilderness, chasing after him, trying to kill him. Well, it happened in the midst of that.

that David and his men were hiding in a cave and Saul all by himself walked into this cave to take care of his needs, to lay down and rest. And so there he is resting, he's sleeping. And then there's David and his men hiding in the cave. Now David's men say to David, listen, this is the fulfillment of what God has said. In 1 Samuel 24, verse four, they said, "'Behold, I will deliver your enemy into your hand.'"

This is the fulfillment of that, David. Here's your enemy. God's delivered him into your hands. Let's kill him right now. We can end this and you can be king as you know that you're called to be king. And David said, no. He said, this is the Lord's anointed. I'm not going to take matters into my own hands. And so he cut off a corner of Saul's robe so that afterwards he could show Saul, look, I had the opportunity, but I'm not trying to kill you. I'm not trying to take your throne.

I know what God's told me. I know God's anointed me, but I'm not trying to make it happen on my own. I'm going to let God do whatever he wants to do. Well, then it was just a couple chapters later, 1 Samuel chapter 26, that it happens again, where David and his man Abishai are there before Saul, and Saul's asleep. They're in the midst of the camp of Saul's army, and Saul's there asleep.

And again, they have the opportunity to take matters in their own hands. And Abishai says, look, God has delivered your enemy into your hand this day. Therefore, please let me strike him at once with the spear right to the earth, and I will not have to strike him a second time. It won't even take two blows, David, just one shot, just bam, and we're done. We could fix all this right now, one thrust of the spear. And David again says, no.

He won't take matters into his own hands. He's going to wait on the Lord and wait for God to do the work. But notice what David's men observed. They encouraged David, look, here's the situation. This is the fulfillment of what God had said. And putting it in words that we would understand today, David says, that's just circumstantial evidence.

It's just circumstantial. That's not a word from the Lord. That's circumstances. And many times the circumstances will line up. And it's dangerous for us to make decisions based solely upon the circumstances. Again, Noah, looking around the ark, could see the land is dry. He had the evidence. Circumstances looked perfect. He could leave anytime he wants to. But he waited on the Lord.

And sometimes the way that we make decisions is based on not waiting on the Lord and hearing from the Lord, but based on, well, this is what I figured out. And I looked around and I saw dry land. There Saul was before me and I had the opportunity. And so, well, I knew what God wanted me to become. And so I did what I did. I took him out. I took that step. Many times if we

ask one another, well, how did you come to that conclusion? Why did you make that decision? Why'd you buy that house? Why'd you quit that job? Why'd you go over there? Why'd you do that? A lot of times you'll hear us explaining, well, here's all the circumstances. And I'm not saying the circumstances mean nothing, but they need to be in alignment with God's speaking. And we can't make decisions just because it looks good. It looks right. We figured out, we've calculated, it makes sense to us.

I think many times we go when we see the ground's dry. All right, now it's time to go. And we stop waiting on the Lord. We stop waiting for God to speak and give direction and give instruction. I want to encourage you to wait on the Lord. Follow the example of Noah. Yeah, you can figure things out and you need to investigate and be engaged and you want to be out of that problem as soon as you can. I understand that. We all understand that. But don't rush out. Take matters into your own hands because, well,

If it's not God telling you to go, you're going to regret it. It's going to bring harm and difficulty. That's what happened to Abraham and Sarah. As they worked out their own way to provide an heir, well, then they had trouble. Then the family was torn from there on out. There was going to be difficulty for the rest of their lives as a result.

And so we need to wait on the Lord and wait for God to speak. Now, I would encourage you to look for clarity in God speaking that's appropriate to the level of the decision that you're making. Look for clarity that's appropriate to the level of the decision that you're making. For example, today you have to make a decision about what you're going to do for lunch. Wait on the Lord and wait for God to speak and say, go to Jack in the Box. Okay?

I'm not saying we should take it to that extent, right? There's levels of, well, the decisions that we make. Now, I would say even the smallest of decisions, it's appropriate and good to give God opportunity to give you direction. We talk about walking in the spirit, and I like to look at that as like taking a step and saying, okay, Lord, is there some direction you want to give?

What am I going to wear today? What's my schedule going to be like today? Where am I going to eat? Lord, do you want to give me specific instructions? And it's appropriate to give God opportunity to instruct you. But there's other decisions that you make that, well, you need to make sure that they're not just based on the circumstances. And even if you know it's something that God wants, but that you're waiting for him to speak and to tell you to go. And so some of you one day would like to be married.

Listen, there needs to be a level of clarity about the Lord speaking to you about that, not just circumstances. Well, I like her and she likes me and we both like Jack in the Box. And so I think it's meant to be. Sometimes circumstances line up where it's like, well, that could only be God. But I would encourage you, listen, you need more than circumstances when it comes to deciding who you're going to marry. If you're going to get a job or quit a job,

you need, this is going to impact your life. And it's not just going to impact your life, but it's going to impact your family. It's going to impact the people around you. You need a level of clarity. You need to hear from the Lord in a way that's clear enough that you say, okay, I'm going to do what God's called me to do. And it's going to require faith. It's always going to be a step of faith, but that there's this clarity. I know God has spoken. There's some things you don't have to wait on the Lord for. There's some things you don't have to pray about.

You don't have to pray about, well, Lord, should I forgive this person or not? Because you know God's given that command. You don't have to pray about, you know, well, should I love my neighbor as myself? Well, God's given you the command. When God's given the commands, he's already spoken. And so immediately we can apply those things. But there's a lot of things that we don't have a specific verse about as we encounter these things in our lives.

Should I go here? Should I do there? What should I do? Where should I go to school? How should I handle this situation? There's a lot of things that we don't have specific verses about. And in those cases, we have to wait on the Lord and wait for God to speak. Wait for God to give that direction. Yeah, we investigate. Yeah, we find out. Yeah, we look around and see what options there are. But ultimately we wait and we allow God to give us direction. There was a season in, uh,

in my life with me and Kim, where she was working and she was working at a bank. And it was a really difficult time. And we knew that really God wanted to bring her out of that job. But we kind of alternated as far as when we thought the timing was appropriate. And so for a while, I was saying, why don't you just quit? Why don't you just quit?

Just get out of there. Just quit. We'll just have to work something out. We'll just have to figure something out, change up our lifestyle, and it's just not worth it. Why don't you just quit? But she would be saying, no, I really believe God has me here. This is what he's doing, and so it's not quite time yet. And then we'd flip-flop, and she would be like, I just need to quit. And I'd be like, you know, I think God still has you there. And so we kind of did that a few times over a year or so, and

It was a tough season. And we did investigate. We kind of researched all kinds of things. Okay, how could we live with this income? And how could we do this? But ultimately, we were committed to, we need to wait on the Lord. Now, I'm not sharing this because we're always a perfect example of this, but this is just a familiar situation to me to kind of help paint the picture for you. And so we waited.

And sometimes it was really difficult. And sometimes there was lots of pressure. And man, there was, looks like we could escape. You know, we could fix this. We could resolve this. We could do this. But it wasn't clear from the Lord. And so we waited. Well, it happened actually at an interesting time where we were both kind of content. It wasn't like we were rushing to try to get her out of that position any longer. But then we were at a conference. And

And we were sitting in a teaching and she stepped out of the room for a bit and then they wouldn't let her back in the room. And so I'm sitting there now by myself in the teaching and she went over to the overflow room and she's hearing the teaching. And then God spoke to us individually. And as we came and talked after the teaching, I shared, you know, God was really speaking to me in that teaching. I think God wants you to quit your job. She said, that's amazing because I was going to tell you, God was speaking to me. I think I need to quit my job. And then it was, there was this clarity that God

Okay, God wants to really do this. It's going to be a step of faith. It's going to be a stretch. We don't know how we're going to provide for ourselves, but God's got it all worked out, and He's been working behind the scenes, and the waters have receded, and now He's told us to get out of the ark, and so, well, now we need to go. That's what it looks like to wait on the Lord. Yeah, there's going to be opportunity. Yeah, there's going to be desire, but you need to wait and let God speak, and yeah, there's going to be pressure. There's going to be things that you can figure out, but you need to wait and let God speak, and yeah, there's going to be pressure.

But understand that while you're waiting, God is working. It's not that nothing is happening. You might not see it, but you can trust and know that God is at work in your life. And so wait on the Lord and be engaged in that waiting. It's okay to investigate. It's okay for the man to plan his steps, but then let the Lord override. Yeah, figure out the options.

So that God can then say yay or nay. So that God can then show you the things that he wants you to do. That's important. You need to be engaged. Don't disengage and distract yourself from the waiting. Like, how is this going to be resolved? It's too hard. It's too painful to endure day by day. No, no, no. It's part of the process. God's working in you as well as around you. So wait on the Lord and wait until he gives you that green light. And it might feel like it's way too long, but wait.

Because you know that God wants what's best for you. And he's going to give you the right instruction at the right time so that your life is blessed for eternity. Because God doesn't just look at this life. When we're like Noah looking around at the dirt around us saying it's dry, we're just looking at the temporary things. But God's looking at the eternal things. And he might be saying, yeah, the ground's dry, but the ground in your heart's still wet. I'm not done there yet.

So wait on the Lord and wait until God says go. Amen? Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word and the great encouragement to us. Lord, knowing that you remember us, not that you forget us, but that you pay attention to us to work in our lives, to do amazing things that we don't even know about behind the scenes, to bring us, Lord, to the point where you'll

You'll call us forward. You'll call us out and you'll do a new season in our lives. And so God, I pray that you would help us to wait upon you, to let you work and not rush ahead, Lord, to not wait when we should go, but also not to go when we should wait. I pray that you would help us, Lord, to have discernment into your instruction. I pray that you would open our ears, Lord, spiritually speaking, that we might hear from you.

that we might know when you want us to go and when you want us to stay. And I pray, Lord, that you would increase our faith, that we would trust in you. Because as the great pressure comes, as the bills are due, as the decision has to be made, Lord, that we would wait upon you and let you have the final authority on what we do and where we go. And so, Lord, lead us and guide us, provide for us. I pray that you would work miracles in us as we wait upon you. In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.