Sermon Tone Analysis

The Waiting Game

Psalm 27:14

Amen and Amen

Opening Prayer

Open your Bibles with me to the book of Psalm.

The Book of Psalm, we will be in psalm 27.

And when you get there let me know by saying Amen.

Psalm 27.

Psalm 27: begins with David crying out to God in his situation he acknowledges who God is.

The Lord is my light and my salvation;

whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the stronghold of my life;

of whom shall I be afraid?

2 When evildoers assail me

to eat up my flesh,

my adversaries and foes,

it is they who stumble and fall.

3 Though an army encamp against me,

my heart shall not fear;

though war arise against me,

yet I will be confident.

4 One thing have I asked of the Lord,

that will I seek after:

that I may dwell in the house of the Lord

all the days of my life,

to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord

and to inquire in his temple.

5 For he will hide me in his shelter

in the day of trouble;

he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;

he will lift me high upon a rock.

6 And now my head shall be lifted up

above my enemies all around me,

and I will offer in his tent

sacrifices with shouts of joy;

I will sing and make melody to the Lord.

7 Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud;

be gracious to me and answer me!

8 You have said, “Seek my face.”

My heart says to you,

“Your face, Lord, do I seek.”

9 Hide not your face from me.

Turn not your servant away in anger,

O you who have been my help.

Cast me not off; forsake me not,

O God of my salvation!

10 For my father and my mother have forsaken me,

but the Lord will take me in.

11 Teach me your way, O Lord,

and lead me on a level path

because of my enemies.

12 Give me not up to the will of my adversaries;

for false witnesses have risen against me,

and they breathe out violence.

13 I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord

in the land of the living!

And here is the key verse for us today the verse I want you to see, verse 14

14 Wait for the Lord;

be strong, and let your heart take courage;

wait for the Lord!

I titled today’s sermon “The waiting game” Because .. it seems like we play this game a lot don’t we?

We play it with each other, we play it with family members, and sometimes we think that well…God is playing it with us as well.

The first time I was introduced to it and by the way it is not Einstein’s Theory of Relativity….

you know … which is the basic idea that time travel is possible, but just the opposite waiting seems to make time go slower or time stand still.

While in basic training I was introduced to the drill sergeants theory.

The Army has mastered the theory which encompassed Soldiers hurrying up to do things and then waiting.

Through my 20 year career I look back sometimes and think that I spent ten of those years just waiting.

Have you ever heard that expression “Hurry up and wait”?

I know the first time I experienced it in the Army I was in basic training and it was the first time we ate at the chow hall and everyone had finished eating and had went outside to get into the formation to march back to the barracks and I was the one left in there eating taking my sweat old time.

Needless to say I hurried up and finished, only to get outside….

to wait.

I found over the years that waiting is just a part of life.

We wait everywhere, in lines at the grocery stores, at the gas pumps at red lights, ladies wait in anticipating the birth of a child.

And I don’t know about you, but .,,,The

worst for me I think is when I have to wait for the person in front of me who is buying all the lotto tickets… you know the person I am talking about, they get up to the counter and pay for their stuff first and you think they are done, then get they say put $1.00 in gas and the other $199.00 on lotto tickets and, then wonder why they don’t ever have any gas and they are broke..

We wait on a lot of things in this world, and often we become impatient, we become irritable and downright ugly about things when we don’t have the answer right there, when we want it.

Amen?

But I want you to know that in this transition that we find ourselves now.

We are in a time of waiting, this time of waiting is waiting on the Lord.

And that is our Big Idea today:

We are all in a time of waiting on the Lord.

What is the next step?

Who will be the next pastor?

How will it work?

Will there be any changes?

Is it God’s will that Sammuel is healed?

What about the government?

What about our move?

But what we do at this time as we are waiting on the answers from God, is crucial.

I have always said this and I will tell you that I try to live my life to the best of this example, what we do now in the situation that we are in will tell the world what we believe about our God.

In the situation you find yourself in right now will tell everyone around you what you believe about God.

There are people who immediately, when they heard that we were leaving and moving to Detroit to be with our sick grandson , they left the church, and you know that tells me what they believe about God.

When we pray, when we seek God for answers, when we seek Jesus to heal us or someone else in our family, we want immediate results don’t we?

But often God doesn’t give us immediate results.

So When it comes to waiting for the answer we first have to know that sometimes Gods answers come later.

The Story of Israel does not escape me, as God told Abrham in Genesis 15, that his people would be slaves for 400 years, yet it wasn’t until the 430th year that God actually sent Moses to free them from the slavery of Egypt.

Sometimes the answer from God comes later than what we want.

When the church was searching for a pastor and I came to preach for the very first time some 4 ½ years ago, I was asked to stay on for 4 weeks and after that I was asked to stay on for 8 weeks.

During that time there was turmoil over the leadership team, one of the leaders was absolutely against me.

The leadership wanted a 100% approval for the pastoral role, I don’t care where you go I have never heard of a 100% approval anywhere.