#3danger: Waiting And Rusting Series

THE DANGER OF WAITING: --- SPIRITUAL RUST!

By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com This is part #3 on Waiting on the Lord.

1. Waiting and Patience -- the dirty words? ; 2. Habakkuk’s Waiting Room; 3. Danger of waiting and spiritual rust;

4. The five levels of waiting; 5. Waiting with Joy and gladness 6. Long waits and sudden answers; 7. TEPID WAITING; 8. Waiting with a fire in my bones!

TEXT:

Matthew 6:19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures

upon earth, where the MOTH and RUST doth corrupt,

and where thieves break through and steal.

20. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven,

where neither MOTH nor RUST doth corrupt, and where

thieves do not break through nor steal.

21. The light of the body is the eye: if therefore

thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of

light.

THREE GREAT DANGERS OF IDLENESS, WAITING, DELAY, BEING HINDERED AND SLACKING UP:

1. THIEVES: Sudden, infrequent moving stealthily or

secretly toward losing valuable resources.

2. MOTHS --- very frequent and common, usually

working under the cover of darkness, nocturnal, that

brings destruction.

3. RUST --- DESTRUCTION THAT TAKES VERY SLOW,

GRADUAL, IMPERCEPTIBLE STEPS; this is a very slow

process that moves, changes, and develops by fine,

imperceptible degrees. This slow destructive force

is SUBTLE, AND OFTEN NOT PERCEPTIBLE by the senses

or by the mind.

MANY OF OUR GREAT SPIRITUAL BATTLES ARE VERY

COMPARABLE TO RUST!

Spiritual coldness, family problems, credit card

and financial problems, getting out of church, and

backsliding can be like rust. Great damage can occur

and a person not even notice how far off course they

have really become.

SAMSON HAD SPIRITUAL RUST --- he shook himself, but

the power was gone. Samson was asleep when he got

his hair cut!

SAUL HAD SPIRITUAL RUST --- Saul slowly over a

period of time developed wrong attitudes and then

his bad behavior followed.

DAVID DID NOT GO TO BATTLE, 2 Samuel 11:1, David

should have been in active duty, but while he was

A.W.O.L., absent without leave, he watched lustfully

as a neighbor woman took a bath. This adulterous

affair would never had happened, but David was a

RUSTY Warrior.

IS SPIRITUAL RUST GROWING IN YOUR HEART?

ONE OF THE GREAT DANGERS OF WAITING IS THE PROBLEM OF RUST!

THE LESSON OF THE TIN MAN!

Remember from the story of the Wizard of Oz?

Dorothy had three friends, they were all on a journey.

Their journey was a process and progressed as they

walked together.

Dorothy was trying to find her way home.

There was a Scarecrow --- he needed a brain.

There was the Tin Man --- he wanted a heart.

There was the Lion --- appears he needed courage.

Dorothy, Scarecrow, Lion, and the Tin Man all had

their own needs, but they seemed to work well as a

team as they traveled.

The Tin Man had a terrible problem, when he would

be inactive, WAITING, --- RUST would begin to work

on him.

The Tin Man’s joints would lock and he was frozen,

until someone got the oil can and applied a generous

supply of oil and the decay of the RUST REVERSED.

ONE OF THE GREAT DANGERS OF WAITING IS THE PROBLEM OF RUST!

RUST:

Rust is usually a reddish, brown brittle coating

formed when chemically attacked by moist air,

oxidized.

Corrosive or injurious influence or effect.

TO DEGENERATE FROM INACTION, LACK OF USE, OR PASSAGE

OF TIME.

To impair or corrode by or as if by time,

inactivity, or deleterious use.

It is better to wear out than to rust out.

Eaten to death by rust... ???

The lack of use will rust the best of iron... Time

will rust the sharpest sword. UNLESS???

Too much rest and idleness makes any ministry rust.

TERMITE SWARM?

I am told if you see a termite swarm around your

house, it is too late. Damage and destruction has

already occurred.

You must prepare for termites before you see the

swarm.

OUR ENEMY IS AS SUBTLE AS RUST!

Gen. 3:1 Now the serpent was more subtle than any

beast of the field which the Lord God had made.

And he said unto the woman, He hath said, ye shall

not eat of every tree of the garden?

Our enemy is very subtle. He is sly, foxy, hardly

noticeable, clever, a skilled trap designer. He is a

Slick Willie.

He seeks our ends by devious means. He is out to

steal, kill, and destroy. He lurks in the shadows.

The enemy used the BANANA THEORY, he got Eve off by

herself. She might have been stronger and wiser

if she had been with Adam. Just as a banana is safe

as long as it is with the bunch. When the banana is

pulled off by itself, it is getting ready to be