Let's Wait On The Lord

Let’s Be Willing To Wait On The Lord

7/15/2001 Genesis 15:1-16 Text Genesis 12-17

Waiting is something all of us have to do. We wait in line at the bank, we wait at the red light, we wait for our dinner to come in the restaurant, we wait for church to be over with so we can go out, and we wait for our birthday or for Christmas to come so that we can get what it is we want. Sometimes we see waiting as an absolute pain in the neck. We grumble the whole time. We say things, like “I’m sick and tired of you’ll wasting my time or I’ve got other things to do.” How many of us have gone into a store or place to eat, got upset because they took so long to serve us, and left and went somewhere else and then spent more time going somewhere else than we would have if we had just stayed where we were?

There are some things that our refusal to wait on have caused tragic circumstances. There are people in cemeteries today, who could be alive in church this morning if they would have waited at a red light or a stop sign. That decision not to wait for less than a minute cost them or someone else their lives. Some waiting if for our own good.

One of the more difficult things about being a Christian is waiting on God after God has made a promise to us. In Life-Sharing, we are looking at the book of Romans, and quite often it uses Abraham and Sarah to talk about faith and righteousness. They were justified by their faith I want us to see that these great leaders in the faith, had some of the same problems we have when it comes to faith and waiting on the Lord.

God had decided to create a special people for himself out of all the people in the world. He chose Abraham and Sarah to do this. God told Abraham, to leave his people and move to a land far away that He would show him. God would make him into a great nation. Now on the one hand this was a pretty good deal. Abraham and Sarah did not have any children, and he was seventy five and his wife about 65. In order for God to make him into a great nation, that would mean they would have to have children. They’ve been wanting a child for years. The flip side though was, he had to leave the security and protection of his family never to see them again, and he did not know what kind of robbers, thieves and murderers he might encounter. He had no idea where God would lead them, and everybody must have told him he was fool to just give up everything and leave.

Abraham chose to believe God, so he and his family took off to the land of the Negev where God had led them. Now they left this abundant land to come to this place, only to have a famine immediately hit the land. Now why would God lead them to a place where there was a famine and they might lose all their sheep and cattle. Well it was Abraham and Sara’s first real opportunity to wait upon the Lord Being willing to wait on the Lord is evidence you are walking by faith. But every time we have the opportunity to wait on the Lord, it seems as though, there is a temptation to take matters in our own hands.

We can tell when we are no longer waiting on the Lord, because our plans for the future will contain an element that forces us to no longer by completely honest either with ourselves or others. Abraham tells Sara, “Sweetheart what we need to do is go to Egypt where there is plenty of food.” Sara tells him, “well the Lord has been leading you, and if you think this is what we should do, then I’m all for it.”

Now just as they get to Egypt, Abraham mentions to his wife, “Now baby doll, you know how beautiful you are, and there is no woman around as fine as you. Even at 65 you put all these other women to shame. Now when the Egyptians see you, they are going to want you for themselves. They will probably kill me, just to get you. So instead of telling them, I’m your husband, let’s tell them I’m your brother.” Now does this sound like a man of faith, or does it sound like us, when we want to take matters in our own hands when, we’re not quite sure we can wait on the Lord.

Sara does not have a lot of options at this point. It might have been different if Abraham had mentioned this before they left the Negev where God had sent them. Well sure enough, when the Egyptians see how good Sara looks, they tell Pharaoh and he wants her for his wife. Pharaoh treats Abraham likes he’s the man. Meanwhile he couldn’t wait to have sex with Sara. The only thing that keeps it from happening is that God sends a serious disease on Pharaoh and his whole household.