God's Waiting Room

Today, I’m going to begin the message like a lawyer presenting his opening argument:

If I haven’t already offended you today, there is a strong possibility that I will offend you or say something you strenuously object to.

That is ok, if the result is that you crack open your bible, and prove me wrong. Because, I believe as a preacher, it is my objective is to inspire you to read God’s word!

This week, I googled “should be pray for patience” and after about 5 seconds without a search result I literally thought to myself “why is this taking so long?”

Is that crazy or what? True story!

You know what, that 5 second delay, just may have been the answer to my question!

I had a doctor’s appointment @ 9 am. I got there early, and at 9:15 they still hadn’t called me in to see the doctor, so I left!

Who does he think he is, gonna make me wait for 15 minutes? So I showed him!

Today’s message is titled “God’s Waiting Room”.

Just to clear the air: I live 40 miles from that doctor’s office. I stayed put till they called me, ok?

Here’s the thing: If we’re willing to wait on the doctor, until he sees us, regardless of how long it takes, shouldn’t we do the same for God?

Depending on the source, there are 33-70 verses in OT/NT that use some form of the word “patience”.

I’m going to be conservative today and only look @ 33, so here we go:

First passage is found in:

1 Samuel 13:8–12 “Then he waited seven days, according to the time set by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal; and the people were scattered from him. So Saul said, “Bring a burnt offering and peace offerings here to me.” And he offered the burnt offering. Now it happened, as soon as he had finished presenting the burnt offering, that Samuel came; and Saul went out to meet him, that he might greet him. And Samuel said, “What have you done?” Saul said, “When I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered together at (MICK-Mash)Michmash, then I said, ‘The Philistines will now come down on me at Gilgal, and I have not made supplication to the Lord.’ Therefore I felt compelled, and offered a burnt offering.””

1 Samuel 13:13–14 “And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which He commanded you. For now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be commander over His people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.””

Just to explain, Samuel did arrive on the 7th day, but Saul had impatiently decided to take matters into his own hands.

Re-read: And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which He commanded you. For now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever.

I can’t help but wonder, had I waited just a little longer, what the Lord would have established in my life.

For @ least a couple of years this message has been percolating. You’ve heard me say it before, God works on the messenger, while the messenger works on the message.

It started when someone exclaimed “I never pray for patience”, and that struck me as so counterintuitive.

So, I’ve been picking up bits and pieces over the last couple of years, and I have prayed that this will make some resemblance of sense to you.

And it is so crazy, but the last couple of weeks, everything seems to point to patience!

Maybe you are one of those who is of the mindset/believe that we shouldn’t pray for patience.

Or maybe you feel you need more patience,

Or maybe you are one of the few who are exceedingly, abundantly blessed with so much patience, that after today’s message the rest of us can line up and allow you to pour some on us!

I’d like us to look at that word patience for a couple of minutes.

The world definition is: the capacity, habit, or fact of being patient.

Ok, thank you very much!

Let’s look @ the word patient, and maybe that will become a bit clearer: Able to accept or tolerate delays, problems or suffering without becoming annoyed or anxious.

Ok, now we are getting somewhere!

Patience is a noun, and patient is an adjective; which modifies a noun.

One word that describes patience is habit. Habit of being patient.