Hurry Up And Wait

Hurry Up and Wait

Pastor Geoff Hamrick

Psalms 27

Have you ever heard the expression, “Hurry up and wait?” This thought goes against everything we know as a way of life today. Because of technological advancements, we have become a society of impatient people. We want it…and we want it now.

If you think this description does not fit you, try and sit down to an evening of TV without the remote control. God forbid that we would actually have to get up to change the channel. Try and make popcorn without the aid of a microwave. (Can you remember a time when popcorn was fixed in a frying pan?) Try corresponding with someone by mailing a letter and waiting on a response. (telephone, email, etc...)

I receive email all of the times for schemes telling me my financial worries are over, just follow this program and the money will be walking in the door by the weekend. In other words get rich quick.

You can lose weight quick; find love quick; get your oil changed quickly; on and on.

I learned when I had my back surgery that you can even get fixed up quick. I never dreamed that in the same day, you can enter the hospital, have major work done on your skeletal system and walk out. I still question the wisdom in that, but I am alive and well today with no ill effects from it.

My brother Allen had surgery on his hand last week and he was sent home the same day also. It was so bad, because of the anesthesia I suppose, that we had to tell him to put one foot in front of the other in order to get him walking toward the house. I was even singing the song from an old Christmas cartoon, “Put one foot in front of the other…”

I think you are beginning to see my point though, we are living in a fast paced society and waiting is not something we like to do.

This way of thinking, however, is contrary or differs from biblical teachings.

Let’s examine this morning the teachings found in the book of Psalms, chapter 27, vs. 7-14.

In verse 14, we see that once again in scripture we are told to wait. I wonder if this is why religion is not as popular as it should be. I say, “as it should be,” because I cannot understand how people can continue to reject the gift of God’s love. Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. (2 Cor. 9:15)

Often when we are faced with difficult circumstances in life, the hardest thing that we can do, is listen to God speaking to us through His word saying, “wait.” God, I need help now…God my child is sick now…God the bank is going to repossess my car tomorrow…God I am out of money now and I am out of food…I want this house now…I want healing now…I want wisdom now…I want knowledge now…God please don’t make me wait.

It seems as if recently I have been asked several times, “should I keep praying for the same thing” “I feel as if God is not hearing my prayers because He is not answering them.” If we were to complete what we are saying with the truth, we would add, “as quickly as I want him to or in the way that I want him to.”

What I am saying goes against human beings logical way of thinking. Isaiah 55:8-9. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. 9) For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

The world and its governments can say to you, “I can offer you help right now.” Friends and family can say to you, “I can give you help right now.” “You do not have to call upon an invisible God who answers in his own good time.” We truly are a peculiar people.

Church, know this, there is a lot of truth to the saying, and “good things come unto those who wait.”

Heb 9:11 But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come…This thing we call Christianity certainly has its good things now that we can enjoy and take comfort in, but they are nothing compared with what we will know as reality when we see Jesus face to face.

• The Old Covenant sacrifice(s) were temporary and powerless to cleanse from sin.

• The New Covenant sacrifice brought about eternal redemption, (salvation or deliverance from sin) (Heb 7:24), eternal inheritance (9:15), and it is eternally effective. Worth waiting for.

Sadly though for some what they will know about Jesus will be His final words that will forever echo in their minds, “Depart from me ye workers of iniquity, I never knew you.” Contrast that with, “Enter in to the joys of the Lord.” Rev 22:14 Blessed are they that do His commandments that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. The only way to enter the city is by accepting Jesus Christ, the way, the truth and the life. (John 14:6)