Title: Waiting on God
Text: 2 Samuel/Psalm 27:14
Intro
I’m so excited to be here with you this morning! We are starting a new series called In the Meantime. If you need a Bible raise your hand and one of our ushers will get you one.
In this series we are going to be looking at several different characters in the OT and the NT that had to wait on God. We want to know what they had to do in the meantime. We are going to look at what they did well, what they didn’t do well and what we can learn.
Let me start this series off with a question… How’s your patience doing?
Throughout this series over the next 4 weeks we are going to be looking at what it means to wait on God. The story we are going to look at today is the story of David, In Psalm 27:14 he says this about patience: Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. Psalm 27:14 Let me ask you again, how’s your patience doing? Does it line up with this passage?
I suspect if we were to all answer this honestly most of us would admit we have room to improve. Nothing shows me that I have a need for more patience like when I am driving between 4:30-6:30pm… Nobody here knows how to merge or use their turning signals…
But there’s more serious ways that our lack of patience shows up. How about with your kids are you patient? Are you always patient with your spouse? How about with your boss? How about with that neighbor that won’t cut his grass? Eventually if we keep going down the list we will find something we all struggle to be patient with.
While those situations can all test our patience throughout this series we are going to look at what it means to wait on God. The stories in the Bible that we will look at throughout this series show people waiting on God. We will see what it means to wait on got for healing, deliverance, and God’s timing.
We will see people waiting on God for what he has promised them. We will see people get frustrated having to wait on God. We are going to see real people, in real situations, that have to have real patience. And what we what to do is look at them and see what we can learn. We want to know what we are supposed to do in the mean time…
Tension
Let’s set the stage before we look at how David waited on God… Saul is King of Israel. And he’s not a good one. In fact God rejects him. God decides to choose a new king to lead so he sends Samuel, a prophet, to anoint a new king. God tells Samuel to go find Jesse. One of Jesse’s son’s will be the next king of Israel.
When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed stands here before the Lord.” But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” Then Jesse called Abinadab and had him pass in front of Samuel. But Samuel said, “The Lord has not chosen this one either.” Jesse then had Shammah pass by, but Samuel said, “Nor has the Lord chosen this one.” Jesse had seven of his sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel said to him, “The Lord has not chosen these.” So he asked Jesse, “Are these all the sons you have?” “There is still the youngest,” Jesse answered. “He is tending the sheep.” Samuel said, “Send for him; we will not sit down until he arrives.” So he sent for him and had him brought in. He was glowing with health and had a fine appearance and handsome features. Then the Lord said, “Rise and anoint him; this is the one.”
So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon David. Samuel then went to Ramah. 1 Samuel 16:6-13
I remember Christmas of 96 very well… We gathered around the tree in the morning and started opening gifts. I could tell that there was this one envelope that everyone seemed excited for me to open it. I started thinking, what could it be? It was a little larger and more stuffed then just a normal card. I thought maybe there’s a lot of money in here… So I open it, not sure of what to find. And there’s pamphlets in there. I’m confused. I start noticing they are all disney pamphlets… All of a sudden I realized we where going to disney! My excitement shot through the roof. But then I asked when, assuming it would be tomorrow… Several months from now… You mean I have to wait?! I got a great gift but I couldn’t do anything with it for many more months.
I think this is a similar experience that David just had. He’s been ignored most of his life and all of a sudden he is anointed King. If I’m him and I just had an experience like that i’m going to be pretty stoked. He went from being the least valued in his family to anointed king over a whole nation. He went to bed happy that night… Now this isn’t in the text but I imagine David thought this would happen the next day or maybe the next week, or at least within the next year. But he woke up the next day and his life didn’t seem a whole lot different. I have to imagine that David’s first thought was that his life was going to change for the better soon. But it didn’t, it was actually about to get much worse.
This is the beginning of David’s waiting… And it’s going to be a lot of it. Most scholars think it was 15 years from the time David was anointed to the time he was crowned king over Judah and another 5-7 years after that until he was over all of Israel. That’s a long time to wait… Not only was he waiting but for a majority of that time Saul was hunting David and trying to kill him.
Now I don’t know about you. But if God promised to make me king and then I am getting hunted and fearing for my life, living in caves, I’m going to get a little upset. I’m not that patience. If I’m David I’m upset. Why would God promise me and anoint me only to force me to wait? Why am I being hunted when God has appointed me to be King? This doesn’t make sense…
Have you been there? Maybe not appointed King… But in your own life have you had to wait on God? Are you waiting on God? Maybe you are waiting for the promotion you’ve been promised. Or healing for you or a family member. Maybe you are waiting for God to restore your marriage. Or to give you some direction in your life.
There’s this tension in the waiting seasons of our lives. Whatever you are waiting on David’s life is a good place to look at what we should do in the meantime.
Teaching
David spent years waiting on God. And today we are going to look at his season of waiting to see what we can learn.
So we have already looked at David’s anointing. So we know that David was promised to be King of Israel and then called to wait. So let’s look at what happened next.
David’s First Job After Being Anointed
Check out what happened after David was anointed.
Now the Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him. Saul’s attendants said to him, “See, an evil spirit from God is tormenting you. Let our lord command his servants here to search for someone who can play the lyre. He will play when the evil spirit from God comes on you, and you will feel better.” So Saul said to his attendants, “Find someone who plays well and bring him to me.” 1 Samuel 16:14-17
Guess who that man was? Yep it was David. The guy who was anointed king got a new job, but it wasn’t king… Put yourself in David’s shoes for a minute. David was anointed king and then tasked with playing the harp for the guy that had his job and wouldn’t give it up.
Wouldn’t you have at least a little bit of resentment? Wouldn’t you be at least a little upset with God?
We don’t like this, we want things instantly. That’s our culture. We like instant gratification. One of the shows my wife and I enjoy watching in the summer is America’s Got Talent. Basically it’s a giant country wide talent show. And it’s CRAZY what these people can do. One of the things I like to do is watch the people’s fame rise after they nail a performance. You can literally watch their fame rise on social media. Over night they can go from 100 fans to 50,000 fans. They videos go from a couple views to 1 million. It’s crazy. And it happens in the blink of an eye.
We like that. We like that when someone finally makes it and their life changes over night. But that wasn’t the case for David. We are going to see it over and over that even though David was anointed King he still had to go through tough stuff.
We run into a little tension here, right? We get a little uneasy when we see this. David was promised something from God but that didn’t exempt him from having to go through tough seasons. He was promised something but he still had to wait. He was promised one of the most powerful positions but still had to be a servant to the guy who had his job.
But David waited patiently, he didn’t take what was his. He didn’t complain. He just did his job well… Saul even said this to David’s father about him: Then Saul sent word to Jesse, saying, “Allow David to remain in my service, for I am pleased with him.” 1 Samuel 16:22
Don’t miss this, David was anointed by God. God left Saul and came upon David. David had every right to the throne. Yet he didn’t take it. He waited on God. More so he took a servant position below the guy who had his job. As we are going to see David did this over and over again in each circumstance he encountered. He had many opportunities to take what was his, but each time he choose to wait on God.
It can be very tempting to go take matters into our own hands. If God’s not going to do what we want then we go out to make it happen on our own. But that’s not what David did. And it allowed God’s story to continue.
We are going to pick up with David’s life a little while later. Israel is at war with the Philistines. Saul is still king. And David is now Saul’s Armor-Bearer and still watches his dad’s sheep on the side.
Now Jesse said to his son David, “Take this ephah[a] of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread for your brothers and hurry to their camp. Take along these ten cheeses to the commander of their unit. See how your brothers are and bring back some assurance[b] from them. They are with Saul and all the men of Israel in the Valley of Elah, fighting against the Philistines.” Early in the morning David left the flock in the care of a shepherd, loaded up and set out, as Jesse had directed. He reached the camp as the army was going out to its battle positions, shouting the war cry. Israel and the Philistines were drawing up their lines facing each other. David left his things with the keeper of supplies, ran to the battle lines and asked his brothers how they were. As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it.1 Samuel 17:17-23
We all know this story but let’s look at it in a different light… David was anointed king several YEARS have passed and he is still being looked over. There’s a battle and he doesn’t get to go fight. He’s just a messenger boy. The question is still there. Why is God’s anointed not king? And why isn’t David doing anything about it?
We know what happens next in the story… David is enraged with Goliath. Says he will fight him. Everyone laughs, but he’s serious. They try to give him all the needed stuff. David declines and walks out with a sling and a few stones. And defeats Goliath.
But stop and think for a minute. None of this would have happened if David had not waited on God. None of this would have happened if David had taken matters into his own hands. Sometimes we have to wait because God is doing something that we cannot yet see or understand. In David’s case God was preparing him for the throne and preparing Israel for him to be king.
If David had taken things into his own hands none of this would have happened. While David was waiting he was being prepared for battle. His sling became an extension of his arm as he practiced protecting his sheep. David learned in his waiting that it was God that was in control. He was humbled over and over again. He was trained to be a godly king. All this lead him to being called a man after God’s own heart. This would not have happened if David took his own path.
On the flip-side after David killed Goliath he became a hero. Everyone liked him, with the exception of Saul. He now had buy in to lead the nation where God was calling it. He gained influence. Had he not gone that direction it would have been much harder for him to take the throne and lead effectively.
It would be nice if we could put a bow on it and say David waited, God prepared him, He killed goliath and then took the throne. But that’s not how the story goes. Over the next few chapters of 1 Samuel, which took place over close to a decade, things get much worse.
When David gets noticed by the nation people start to see David as a leader and not Saul. Saul gets jealous and throws spears at David, no joke he legit threw spears at David. Eventually David flees with a small army of his supporters. He hides in caves while Saul hunts him.
One day while out hunting David, Saul needed to, umm, take care of some business… He went into a cave to relive himself… Listen I’m not making this up it’s in the Bible, 1 Samuel 24… There wasn’t a rest stop close by, no port-a-potties in sight. So Saul found a cave. And it just so happened to be the cave David was hiding in… While Saul was doing his thing David snuck up and cut a piece of his clothing off…
Wait what?! I mean first off gross! Second off why wouldn’t David FINALLY take what is his? He has the support of an army and Saul practically gives himself to David. Yet David is still determined to wait on God.
While David was being hunted by Saul he wrote several Psalms. We are going to look at one that will help us understand why David kept waiting on God and didn’t take matters into his own hands.
Psalm 27 says…
Hear my voice when I call, Lord; be merciful to me and answer me. My heart says of you, “Seek his face!” Your face, Lord, I will seek. Do not hide your face from me, do not turn your servant away in anger; you have been my helper. Do not reject me or forsake me, God my Savior. Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me. Teach me your way, Lord; lead me in a straight path because of my oppressors. Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes, for false witnesses rise up against me, spouting malicious accusations. I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. Psalm 27:7-14
David understood something. Even though he was being hunted, living in caves, and had been waiting for over a decade he still trusted God. He knew that God was moving and working in ways he could not yet see.
Listen again to the last verse. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. David lived this out. He had every opportunity and every right to take what was his. But he waited. He was patient. He waited for God to tell his story and didn’t take it into his own hands.
Application
This is important for us. We will all have waiting seasons in our lives. Some of us are there right now. In the midst of everything David trusted God, do you? When you are faced with waiting seasons do we trust God to bring us through or do you try to pull yourself through it by yourself?
David waited patiently. He was able to wait on God because he knew that God was with him… God never asks us to wait without him. God was always with David and he knew it.
Here’s the truth… God is with you in your waiting. God hasn’t forgotten about you. He hasn’t left you. He’s promises are still true. Here’s what we need to be reminded of today.
When you are waiting on that phone call from the doctor, he’s with you.
When you are waiting for him to restore your marriage, he’s with you.
When you are waiting for God’s provision, he’s with you.
When you feel like everything and everyone one is against you in life and you are waiting for God to come through, he is with you.
In the midst of whatever you are going through remember God is with you… And with this in mind let me read Psalm 27:14 again: Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.
Just because we are Christians, just because we are adopted sons/daughters for the king, that doesn’t mean our lives will be easy. We still have to go through tough stuff. It was true for David. It was true for Jesus. And it is true for us. But we don’t have to go through it alone. That’s why Jesus’ last words before leaving earth were: and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. Matthew 28:20
Are we going to have wait on God? yes. Will it get difficult sometimes? yes. But we can be strong, we can take heart, we can wait on God because he is with us. Jesus never promised us life would be easy, he promised that He would always be with us.
David knew this truth. David knew that in his waiting God was with him. There’s 3 things that we can learn from what David did in the meantime.
Waiting is often part of God’s plan
Moses, Joseph, Abraham, Noah, David, and many more all had to wait on God to come through and do what he said. Sometimes the waiting seasons of our life are part of God’s plan. They develop our character, deepen our faith, and bring us closer to God.
We will all have waiting seasons in our life. I can’t say if God brought the season on you. But I do know that if you let him he will use that season to strengthen you.
Don’t Let Go of God’s Promises
When David ends the 27 Psalms He’s reminding himself. He’s reminding himself of God’s promises. He’s reminding himself to not give up to keep going. John Piper says it this way: “Therefore, do not lose heart. But take these truths and day by day focus on them. Preach them to yourself every morning. Get alone with God and preach his word into your mind until your heart sings with confidence that you are new and cared for.”
Over and over again in the Psalms David cries out his frustrations but then turns and praises God for what he knows to be true. David does this to remind himself the truth of God’s promises. We’ve got to do the same. We’ve got to get alone with God every day and remind ourselves of the truth of the Gospel. We’ve got to remind ourselves daily of God’s promises.
That’s why we stress Life Groups so much here. It’s easy to forget what God has promised. Being here on Sundays and in a LG throughout the week remind us of that. Being in community helps us to remember and live out what the Bible says. ?
David regularly reminded himself of what God promised and we need to as well.
Know That God Hears You
Although David waited patiently and never took matters into his own hands he still told God what he was feeling and asked him for deliverance. If you read the Psalms that David wrote while on the run from Saul you will see some of the most honest, gut wrenching prayers ever prayed. Over and over again David describes his difficult situations and begs God to come through.
Waiting on God and being patient doesn’t mean that we silently suffer. Whatever your situation is you need to take that to God. He wants wants on your heart. Tell him what you are feeling.
Conclusion
If you are waiting on God to move in your life today you are in good company. We will all have seasons of waiting at some point in each of our lives. We will be tempted at each turn to take matters into our own hands. To fight our way to what we want or think we need. But God is in control and he is with us. He hasn’t forgotten and his promises are still true.
Lean in on God’s plan, remind yourself of his promises, and never stop crying out to God.
Thousands of years later we are still talking about David’s life and the story God told through his life. God told a powerful story through his life and he wants to do the same in yours. But you are going to have to have patience. You are going to have to wait on God. You are going to have to let God’s story unfold.
We are going to do things a little different today. We are going to end with communion. I believe we are all waiting on something… Some maybe big some small. But God cares deeply about us and big or small we can go to him. So while you take communion pray about what you are waiting on. Ask God to come through. Ask him for strength and patience. Pour out a honest and real pray.
At some point during this song we are going to ask you to fill this card out. Be as vague or as specific as you want. This will stay between you and God. Fill it out, pray over it, and then put it somewhere safe.
Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord.
What are you waiting on God for?
Pray...
After Song…
Keep card and we are here if you need prayer or help…
