Eight Questions

There’s an ongoing joke among pastors (and a lot of church members for that matter) that regardless of the text, the subject, or even the one delivering the message, every sermon has three points and a poem. You could preach John 3:16 or the entire book of Revelation, and you will get the same format. And while I’ve delivered my fair share of three-point messages, I’m not huge on poetry. I fear that I have left our church poetically deficient. However, for the sake of adding a little culture to this book, I’d like to share a small poem. It’s a poem about patience. It has no title or known author, but it makes a lot of sense. It goes like this. Patience is a virtue, Possess it if you can. Found seldom in a woman, Never in a man. And there you go! I hope your life has been enriched and filled with warm fuzzies. Patience is a virtue! If I had a nickel for every time my parents quoted that phrase, I’d at least have a couple bucks to go with the grief of that statement. When you’re forced to exercise patience, all you want is a little understanding, not a tagline to remind you that you’re waiting. Let me share two examples. You’re a kid, and it’s three weeks before Christmas. For at least the past two months, every store has pushed a Christmas theme. Every commercial on TV is about Christmas sales. Every book you’re reading in school is about Christmas. It seems like the whole world is saying, “Focus on Christmas.” But the days are dragging by. You know that life would be a little more bearable if you could just open one present. You ask your parents if you can open one gift, and they say, “It’s good to wait for things. Besides, patience is a virtue.” Can I tell you something that would be more virtuous? Opening a present! Or you’re on a twelve-hour road trip. You and your siblings are packed into the back of a station wagon. You’ve got an elbow in your side, a book bag on your feet, and a Big Gulp in your stomach. You say, “It’s crowded back here. Are we there yet?” And your dad says, “When I was a kid, it was never crowded in the car because we walked everywhere. Be thankful you’re not walking. And remember, patience is a virtue.” Patience is a virtue. Could no one think of anything else good to say about patience? You’d think that with all the waiting, someone would think up another one-liner. Well, I’ve got a statement for you. It’s not quite as catchy, but it’s at least accurate. Learning patience stinks! But it can be beneficial. We’ve been addressing the teaching techniques of God, and specifically the way he questions his people. So far, we’ve dealt with a relational question, a faith question, a grace question, a contentment question, and a control question. Now, I want us to spend some time with a patience question. Before we jump into a text, I want to give you my goal for this chapter. You need to know where we’re going before we reach our destination. Let me start with what we’re not doing. I’m not trying to persuade you to “hang in there just a little longer.” You’ve heard those pep talks. They give you a solid ten minutes of hope before reality hits. I’m also not sharing the story of a Bible hero who was so patient that it amplifies our impatience. Therefore, we will not discuss Job. Finally, I’m not giving three points that no one is going to remember after they finish this chapter. Here’s my goal. I want to make the waiting just a little bit easier. You’re still going to have to wait. You’re still going to hear people say, “Patience is a virtue.” You’re still going to feel out of control. But as a Christian, we need to look at things from a slightly different perspective. We understand that everything that touches our lives is filtered through the loving hands of God. He is in absolute control. When God requires us to exercise patience, we are not waiting for the stars to align or circumstances to change or people to do what they need to do. We are waiting for God to say now. I’ve learned a valuable lesson from personal experience. Waiting on God is a little easier when you see the benefits that come to those who are patient. The primary text for this chapter is Psalm 40:1–3. The writer is King David. Altogether, there were at least forty different people that God used to write the sixty-six books of our Bible. Without question, David wrote more on the subject of waiting on God than any other biblical writer. He speaks of it at least twenty-six times in the Psalms alone. • He waits on the Lord and encourages others to do the same. • His soul waits for the Lord. • He encourages us to rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him. • His soul waits in silence for God. Yet when you read about David’s life in First and Second Samuel, First Kings, and First Chronicles, you are immediately aware that waiting for anything is not a part of David’s nature. When David was sent by his dad to check on his brothers in battle, he heard Goliath taunting the armies of God. “I defy the ranks of Israel this day; give me a man that we may fight together.” Instead of waiting for more information or seeing what others would do, the Bible says, “Then David left his baggage in the care of the baggage keeper, and ran to the battle line.” He ran to be a part of the action. You may remember the rest of the story. David accepted the challenge of Goliath. When he showed up to fight, Goliath taunted David in front of everyone. Then David gave one of those memorable speeches that essentially says, “You’re a punk, your time is up, and you’re going down.” The next phrase in First Samuel 17:48 says, “David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine.” I like a guy who not only takes on a giant, but who also just can’t wait to get started. David was a doer. And not just in this situation. • When a bear attacked his sheep, David killed it. • When Goliath challenged Israel, David accepted. • When Israel went to battle, David led them. • When Bathsheba was bathing, David took her. • When Bathsheba got pregnant, David eliminated her husband. • When someone wronged him, David prayed that calamity would befall them. He prayed that God would kill, silence, break, and despoil them, and then wipe their names from the history books. • When the temple was to be built, David had the plans drawn up, the money raised, the uniforms designed, and every detail in place. David was not a sit-on-the-sideline-pet-your-puppy-and-hope-things-are-going-to-work-out type of guy. He was a runner. He was a doer. He was a leader. He was a problem solver. And did I mention he was king? How many kings are known for waiting on anything? And yet David wrote more about waiting on God than any other biblical writer. God constantly placed him in situations that required him to wait, and I’m convinced God taught him a lot on the subject along the way. We don’t know if God taught David to wait while he was a shepherd, a fugitive, a king, or a little of all three. But we know one thing for sure. David was convinced of the benefits of waiting on the Lord.