The topic today is a continuation of Genesis 16, and it's a topical study as opposed to what we've generally done in the past, but it's based upon what we encountered in Genesis 16. And you may remember, it's been a couple of weeks, but this very difficult situation with Abram and Sarai and Hagar, and giving rise to Ishmael, and the entire issue was a very uncomfortable, very unseemly state of affairs, because there was a taking of things into one's own hands, which never ends up well. And my sense is that that's a struggle that all of us face at various points. So I thought it'd be helpful, and I've been counseling my own soul on this for the last two weeks, so it's hopefully that will benefit the rest of you as well. You're entitled to listen in as I counsel my own heart on waiting on the Lord. By way of review, Joel Beeky, when he gave a message on Genesis 16 many years ago, had an outline that I thought was quite helpful. And it was entitled The Tragic Effects of what he called do-it-yourself religion, do-it-yourself religion. And the essence of do-it-yourself religion is something that I think all of us at various points in time battle with, and that is do we wait upon the Lord? Are we patient and trusting and sitting before the Lord, not passively, but obediently? And those aren't contradictory to each other necessarily. But are we waiting upon the Lord? And so there were a number of plans that we saw. There were Sarai's plan, and I put that in quotation marks, at least in my notes, because the Proverbs has much to say about the plans that we engage in. Abram's plan, Hagar's plan, and most importantly, was God's sovereign plan. And I mentioned the fact that I put the word plan, at least in my own notes, in quotation marks, Proverbs has some very specific things to say about plans. I'll just give you three, and there's much more that could be said. Proverbs 16, nine. The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps. There's a saying that the man proposes and God disposes, and that's really the essence of what Proverbs 16, nine is saying. The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps. A little later in Proverbs, Proverbs 19, 21, many plans are in a man's heart, but the counsel of the Lord will stand. So we have many plans. But at the end of all things, it's really not our plans that will stand. The Scripture says the counsel of the Lord will stand, Proverbs 19, verse 21. And then lastly, and again, this is just a sampling. There is much more that could be said, but you get the sense, I believe. Proverbs 21, 30, there is no wisdom and no understanding and no counsel against the Lord. No wisdom, No understanding, no counsel against the Lord. And the essence of what is being said, of course, is that we can engage in our own plans, our own deliberations, our own way of taking things into our own hands. But none of this will ultimately circumvent what God is going to do. And he would have us to be obedient before him, to wait upon him. So there were a number of lessons, and this is just a brief review, but this comes from the notes that you received a couple of weeks ago, some overall lessons. Number one, God is sovereign, and we have a hard time accepting that. We struggle with the fact that God is God and we aren't. A corollary of that, and there's a number of corollaries, that God is sovereign, that's not the problem. The problem is not God's sovereignty. The problem is when God's sovereignty conflicts with our desires and our expectations, our sense of timing, our sense of how things ought to progress. Yes, Lord, you said that you were going to do such and such, but I've been waiting quite a while. I'm beginning to become impatient. And the Lord would say, continue to wait, continue to wait. I will accomplish my will and my time. But the problem that we have is our sinful propensity to take things into our own hands rather than waiting on God and resting in His promises. We do. A lot of times we just feel like we become very impatient. We have to make things happen because God needs our help. You know that, right? We have a sense that God needs our help. God does not need our help. But sometimes our disposition betrays that mindset. In the case of Abram and Sarai, they had a godly desire, and this is often the case, it's very often the case that it begins with good intentions, a godly desire. Lord, shouldn't I, you can fill in the blank, whatever it is. I've been waiting for a mate, I've been waiting for a job, I've been waiting for my son or daughter to come to the Lord, whatever the case may be. But all of those things are important, all of those are godly desires. But we can't take things in, we can't make those things happen, not legitimately. And the problem, when we saw Genesis 16, was not the issue with their desires, which were rooted in God's promises. That's not the issue, it was the scheming, the machinations that they engaged in to accomplish God's will. I remember what happened was Sarah came to Abram and said, how about if we use Hagar as a surrogate mother to bring forth this child of the covenant? And in that culture, in that time, that was not considered immoral. It is immoral from a biblical point of view that God's plan for marriage is one man, one woman, not a multiplicity of marriage partners, of course. But in that culture, they had defined a surrogate mom as a way of perpetuating one's name as a very legitimate thing. And often we struggle with what our culture declares to be legal, declares to be moral, declares to be acceptable, versus what has God said in his word. And really the issue is not what culture says, the issue is what has God said. And so they trusted in God's promise. They knew that God would accomplish his will. The issue was they didn't trust his timing. They didn't trust the way that he was going to pursue it. They became impatient. And bear in mind, this has been a number of years. This is not a matter of months. This has been a matter of years. And so I think from a human perspective, we have to say, okay, I can step into their shoes and understand the impatience That doesn't make what took place in Genesis 16 correct. It absolutely by no means does it make it correct. But we can identify with the passage of time. The passage of time brings pressure. Pressure to make things happen. Make things happen. Sin has consequences. What wasn't done was sinful. And there are consequences. And the birth of Ishmael was a game changer in biblical history. and it did not accomplish in one tiny dimension at all what God would do. At the end of all of what they were doing, they weren't any further along in accomplishing God's will. God would bring forth the child of the covenant, and it would be Isaac, it would not be Ishmael. It was always going to be Isaac. They didn't know the name Isaac necessarily at the beginning, but they knew that there would be a child of the covenant and bringing forth Ishmael didn't move the needle one iota in terms of accomplishing the child of the covenant. Ishmael is not the child of the covenant. So they didn't make any progress at all in helping God out. But it's also important to remember that God's grace is often magnified in the midst of our weakness, in the midst of our sin. His grace is always abundant. God is a pursuing God. He pursued Hagar. He found her on the way to Egypt. Hagar had bolted from the household and was en route to Egypt. And she had been severely mistreated by Sarai. And there was all sorts of antipathy between the two of them, between these two women. And Hagar was on the way back home, so to speak. And the angel of the Lord, the Lord Jesus, a Christophany, a pre-incarnate manifestation of Christ, appeared to her. and counseled her to go back and submit, respond to your mistress, Sarai. And she did that. She repented. She's a model of biblical repentance. She did exactly what was needed to be done. But we have a model here of grace here as well. And even when Abram sinned against Hagar, and he did, and he sinned against Sarai, and There was sin all around, as we look at this triangle of personalities and bodies that were involved. There was much sin, but God did extend grace. But at the end of all time, top of page two, where do we end? The answer is, wait. Wait. Wait more. How long? Well, just wait. Time is gonna pass. And so Abram, they're really back to where they began. Well, what I'd like to do is to explore with you a couple of cases of what it means to wait upon the Lord, what it does not mean and what it does mean, and biblical history is full of examples. I'm reminded of 1 Corinthians 10. There are two verses in particular that come to mind. 1 Corinthians 10 verse six says that all of these instances that are recorded for us of biblical history are there for our instruction so that we might not engage in longing after the things that our forefathers longed after that were sinful inclinations. So when we see these narratives, They're not just narratives, they're instructive. There are lessons to be learned, sometimes a positive lesson, and in many cases, a negative lesson, something to avoid. And I'm also reminded, another verse in 1 Corinthians 10, 1 Corinthians 10, 13, virtually all of us have memorized, no temptation has overtaken you, but such as is common to man, and God is faithful. He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you're able, et cetera. Everybody knows that one. But the preceding verse is very powerful. Therefore, let him who thinks he stand take heed lest he fall." I'm going to repeat that. Be careful when you think you're standing and take heed or be careful because you may be about to fall. There is a sense of invulnerability and self-reliance that creeps into our hearts and it's something constantly to be battled. Matter of fact, the issue that we'll look at this afternoon two words that I wrote over and over in my own notes, self-reliance. Self-reliance, over and over. That's what you're saying. Self-reliance is really where the issue is won or lost in terms of walking with the Lord. When we usurp the Lord's role in our life and we begin to dictate things in our lives as if we are in charge of our own future, that's self-reliance. That doesn't mean we aren't to be industrious. We are to be industrious. We're to be diligent. But in all things, we need to recognize that God is sovereign over all these things, and he has the final vote. He dictates the timing. He dictates the ways. He dictates the outcomes. And everything he does is perfect. Everything he does is perfect. And he causes all things to work together for good to those who love him, to those who are called according to a purpose. But self-reliance is deadly. And we'll see some verses that actually speak to that. But two cases. Number one, a negative example, 1 Samuel 13, of not waiting on the Lord. It's kind of a long passage, so let me just hit the highlights here for you. This involves Saul. And Saul was a fairly young man when he began to reign. And he had 3,000 men that he commissioned for military purposes. 2,000 were with Saul. 1,000 were with Jonathan, his son. And Jonathan poked his finger in the eye of the Philistines. This was a big deal. Jonathan smoked the garrison of the Philistines. And what happened was that catalyzed a great hostility with superior military forces. Jonathan, in taking on the Philistines, really catalyzed a major conflict. What do I mean by that? Well, the scripture says Israel had become odious for the Philistines. You know what odious means? It means they stunk up the place. The Philistines had a real issue to deal with the Israelites. The Philistines were after them. Now, top of the next page, Remember I said there were 3,000. We had 2,000 that were commissioned in one place, 1,000 in another place. Look at the top of page three. The Philistines assembled to fight 30,000 chariots, 6,000 horsemen, people like the sand which is on the seashore in abundance. You think there's a problem here? There's a major problem. So you've got 3,000 versus this group, the Philistines. So what's happening? People are beginning to run. The Scripture says that when the men of Israel saw that they were in a difficult time or hard press, they began to hide. They began to run. They began to disappear. They hid themselves in virtually any place they could find. Everybody was trembling, and understandably so. 30,000 chariots, 6,000 horsemen, and an innumerable number of infantry against 3,000. Well, Saul had been waiting on Samuel. Samuel had told him, in 1 Samuel 10, verse 8, that in seven days he, Samuel, would be with him, and Samuel would be offering a burnt offering. It's important that we realize that the king and the priest and the prophet were separate functions. They were not to be mixed. The king was not to offer offerings. The king was to reign and rule And the prophet was to send forth the word of God and the priest was to offer offerings. And so these were different roles and the king was not to usurp that. But so what's happening is time is elapsing and Saul keeps looking at his watch and time is passing and seven days have come. People are scattering and he's facing a very difficult situation. So what does he do? Verse nine, Saul says, Bring to me the burnt offering and the peace offerings. And what did he do? He does something that is absolutely not to be done. The king offers the burnt offering. Verse 10, as soon as he finished offering the burnt offering, how often does this happen? I mean, he's caught absolutely red handed. Behold, Samuel came and Saul runs out to greet him. No problem here. But Samuel says, what have you done? Saul says, because I saw that the people were scattering from me, and he displaces the responsibility, and you didn't come within the appointed days. Actually, he did. And the Philistines were assembling at Michmash, and therefore I said, well, what am I going to do? So I forced myself, he goes on to say, and I offered them an offering. I forced myself. Well, Scripture says, Samuel said to Saul, you have acted 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 endure. A relatively young king in the dynasty is gone. His reign is ended and his kingdom will not endure. The Lord has sought out for himself a man after his own heart. Not waiting, not being obedient. Pressure is mounting. troops are outnumbering him, and time is passing. The pressure is immense. And what does he do? He sins against the Lord. Do the circumstances justify his behavior? They do not. They never do. There's nothing that ever justifies sin. He waited. Can we understand his impatience? We can understand his impatience. Can we excuse it? Absolutely not. Disobedience is always disobedience. And it was a very serious thing. Joel Beek, he makes some interesting comments. He says, waiting is often one of the most difficult tests of faith. Impatience can, and I would say, and typically does result in rash acts that dishonor the Lord. Here it was Saul's impatience and waiting for Samuel that led to his infringing on the priestly office, a most serious offense for kings. Saul's impatience warranted severe consequences. Only two years into his reign and the prospect of a dynasty was gone. Understand this, I underline this in my own notes, waiting time is never wasted time. Waiting time is never wasted time. As it increases our sense of dependence on the Lord, those who wait on the Lord will never be disappointed with the Lord and his timing. You know Isaiah 40, 30, 31. He who waits on the Lord will renew his strength. He will mount up with wings like eagles. The Lord will increase your strength as you wait upon him. So let us learn from Israel and Saul's impatience that God's timing is best and we can trust him completely. 1 Corinthians 10, 6. These things are written for our instruction. 1 Corinthians 10, 12. Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. A tragic example of not waiting. Top of page 4, here's the other side of the equation, a godly example, 2 Chronicles 20. Earlier we looked at Saul, here we're looking at Jehoshaphat. It came about after this that the sons of Moab and the sons of Ammon, together with some of the Munites, came to make war against Jehoshaphat. Then some came and reported to Jehoshaphat saying, a great multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea, et cetera. Verse three, a normal human response. Jehoshaphat was afraid. A biblical response, he turned his attention to seek the Lord and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. Totally different response here that we're seeing with Jehoshaphat. So Judah gathered together to seek help from the Lord and even came from all the cities of Judah to seek the Lord, seeking the Lord, seeking the Lord, seeking the Lord. This prayer is majestic. This prayer is absolutely majestic. Jehoshaphat is showing great leadership. He's standing in front of his people and he's imploring the God of the universe to help. And he begins by acclaiming the goodness and the power of God. Oh, Lord, the God of our fathers, are you not God in the heavens? Are you not ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations? Power and might are in your hand so that no one can stand against you. Did you not, O our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and give it to the descendants of Abraham, your friend forever? And he goes on to say, should evil come upon us, the sword or judgment or pestilence or famine, we will stand before this house and before you, for your name is in this house, and we will cry to you in our distress, and you will hear and deliver us. And he goes on to verse 12, O our God, will you not judge them? We are powerless before this great multitude. I love this next part. Nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are on you. Brothers and sisters, you need to underline that last part. We don't know what to do, but our eyes are on you. I don't know how many times in your life you have found yourself in the past. I guarantee you, you will find yourself in those circumstances where you say, I don't know what to do. I'm facing a great issue. I'm facing a great conflict. I'm overpowered. I'm out of ideas. What do I do? I don't know what to do. Follow the example of Jehoshaphat, my eyes are upon you. Tell me what to do. I'm going to wait until you guide me. I'm going to obey you. I'm going to begin by praising you for who you are. and I'm recognizing the power and the majesty and the sovereignty, the dominion of God. That's where it begins to remember who God is and who we are. Over and over, this is absolutely a majestic prayer. What an example of godly leadership that a man would stand in front of his people and acknowledge his own impotence and God's power and express confidence that God would deliver in a wonderful way And he's standing, and all these people are there, their infants, their wives, their children, they're all gathered. And in the midst of all of this, God speaks a word through the prophet Jehoshaphat, and it goes on top of the next page. This is just absolutely golden stuff. Listen, all Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat, thus says the Lord, and this expression occurs a number of times, don't fear or be dismayed. Don't fear or be dismayed. Why? The battle is not yours, but God's. And he goes on, 17, you need not fight in this battle. Station yourself, stand and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf. Do not fear. Why? For the Lord is with you. The first thing, do not fear because the battle is not yours, but it's God's. Secondly, do not fear. Why? Because God is with you. I don't know what your circumstances are, but those two statements are applicable to you right now. The battle is the Lord's, whatever battle you're in, ultimately the battle is the Lord's. And secondly, God is with you. You need to remember those two things. The battle is the Lord's and God is with you. God has never forsaken his people. He never does. And so we have two instances here, wonderful instances. The circumstances are actually quite similar. grossly overpowered in a military sense, the responses could not be more different. And there was a statement that I recall, the last time we spoke, frantic action and fearful frustration come easier to us, should be to us, than faith. Frantic action and fearful frustration come easier to us than faith. James 1.5, what happens when we wait upon the Lord, when we trust him? He builds in us patience, James 1.5, pardon me, James 1.3. He builds in us patience. The word that's used for patience literally means to bear up under. And I remember years ago, I was listening to a pastor and he was talking about a game that probably all of us have played where you take a watermelon seed and you hold it under your finger and you see who can shoot it out the farthest. And you squeeze this thing in the watermelon seed. That's how we deal with pressure. The pressure comes, and we just want to be the watermelon seed flying 20 feet out in the air. We just want to escape. We don't want to be anywhere close. But the essence of hupomone, as the Greek word is, to bear up under. It doesn't mean to escape. It doesn't mean to fly away. It means to bear up under. And that's what happens when we obey God and we say, God, I need your help. I need your help. I'm overpowered. I don't know what to do. But my eyes are on you. My eyes are on you. Self-reliance, it's deadly. It's absolutely deadly. So what does it mean? To trust in the Lord is the opposite of reliance upon ourselves. Proverbs 18, verse 10 and 11, the name of the Lord is a strong tower. The name of the Lord, and when we read that, often we need to understand, it's not talking about is it Jehovah or is it Adonai or is it what the name of the Lord is everything that he's revealed himself to be It's his character. It's his ways. It's his works It's the name all that God is is a synonym for the for the for the the name of the Lord is a strong tower the righteous Runs into it and safe. Can you imagine a better place to be then? You're in danger And guess what? There's a strong tower and it's invulnerable and you can run right into that tower and be safe. That's what God says in his word, run to me and you will be safe. Look at the converse. A rich man's wealth is a strong city. Boy, don't we see that attitude? It's like my wealth is going to bail me out. And like a high wall, look at this last expression, in his own imagination. You know, good luck with that. It's dream on, is really what it's saying. In your own imagination, that's your security. It is not secure. Proverbs 30, verse six. David struggled. David had experienced much blessing from the Lord. And he became self-reliant. He became a bit full of himself. I've been there. You probably have been there yourselves, if you're honest, where you've experienced the blessing of the Lord. The wind has been at your back instead of at your face. And you begin very comfortable, very self-assured. That was David's life. And David says in Psalm 30, as for me, I said in my prosperity, I will never be moved. I've been there. I've had to acknowledge that before the Lord. And you know what? He moved me. He moved me. And he showed me that that he's sovereign and I'm not. David had become very self-confident in his power. Top of page six had gone into his head. He looked to the power of man instead of the power of the Lord and God sent judgment to wake him up. David's experience warns us not to rest in the blessings of God rather than the God who blesses. First Corinthians 10.6, these things are written for our instruction. They're written for our instruction. Over and over we see these lives being traced out in scripture and the decisions that are made and they're written for our instruction. What does it mean to have faith in God? Puritan William Ames said, faith is the resting of the heart on God, the author of life and eternal salvation so that we may be saved from all evil through him. and may follow all good unto him." When he's talking about saving faith, he's not simply referring to the faith that we are given that leads us to conversion and moving from death to life. He's talking about not only that, but salvation in a broader sense of deliverance in our trials. So he's using this saving faith in a broad sense. It's not just praying to the Lord to save you. and deliver you from hell and bring you into a state of forgiveness and blessing before him. But it's like saving me through trials and difficulties, so it's a broad sense. But there's two elements, and it's not either or, it's both and. You can't have one and only, you gotta have both, gotta have both. And generally speaking, we're pretty good at one, but we're not good at two. One is an act of understanding. And then secondly, there is an act of the will. In Bible church land, we're pretty good with the first part. We're good on doctrine. You know, we're well taught. We understand these things. If someone were to say, do you believe that God has sovereignty? You'd say, absolutely, I believe God is sovereign. Do you believe that God is good? Absolutely, I believe God is good. Do we live that way? That's another question. That's another question. We're good with our theoretical constructs, our doctrinal constructs. We've got them down. And we could probably pass a test that many other peers in evangelicalism couldn't pass in terms of our doctrinal rigor. So we've got the facts down, and that's important. We have to have the facts down. But that's not enough. We have to have the doctrine and the act of the will. First, faith involves an act of understanding, so the mind gives assent to the evidence. That's why we sit under the teaching of the Word of God, so that we will understand the truth and subscribe to the truth. and understand what God has said, and we know what God is declaring in the Scripture. However, next paragraph, bare belief in God through Christ, divorced from an act of the will, is not saving faith. So just having the facts down, just a bare affirmation that I believe, Apostle's Creed, whatever your doctrinal statement is, I believe those statements, that's not enough. You have to act upon it. You have to go forward with it. The act of the will is the second necessary aspect, not a mere act of the intellect. The exercising of faith involves an act of choice by the whole man." Peter says, cast your cares upon the Lord. Why? Because He cares for you. That's kind of the flip side. The act of the will is to cast our cares upon the Lord. Why? Because the doctrinal statement, the ascent of the will, is He cares for us. Do we believe that He cares for us? I'm sure all of us would say, yes, I believe God cares for us. How good are we at casting our cares upon the Lord and not taking them back? Mixed results. That's where it gets to be difficult. So we come to a passage like 1 Peter 5, 7, cast your cares on the Lord. Why? Because He cares for you. Those two elements are embraced there. It's an act of the will and an affirmation of what God says about Himself. It takes both. It takes both, not just an intellectual assent, but a conscious decision. I'm going to follow the Lord. I'm going to cast my cares upon the Lord. I heard someone preach many years ago about casting one's cares upon the Lord, and literally it denotes like rolling your concern from yourself onto someone else. And so the issue is, who's got this? Am I owning this issue, or am I giving it to the Lord and saying, God, you own it? I got to live in these circumstances. I understand that. But who am I ultimately assuming is going to be responsible for getting me through this? Self-reliance or God-reliance? Which one's it going to be? And that's really the issue. That's where the so-called rubber meets the road, is self-reliance versus God-reliance. We're good at doctrinal affirmations. The hard part is saying, Lord, I don't know what to do, but my eyes are on you, and you wait upon the Lord. So there's a number of passages here, and I've listed them for you. It's important that this first one, we don't have time to go through all of them, but I want you to read these passages, and it's going to become evident why in just a moment. But Psalm 37, 5, commit your way to the Lord, trust in Him, and what? He will do it. Do you believe that? The Bible says He will. Do you believe that's true? Do you believe that if you trust Him that He will do it? Either we believe it or we don't. If we believe it, then we'll say, okay, God, you said this. I want to live by, I need your help. Help me in my unbelief, but I'm going to trust you to guide me, to guard me, to keep me going. So a number of passages. I want you to go to page seven. In the middle, Psalm 37, 3 through 5, these are, for me personally, absolutely golden verses. Four things that we're told to do. Trust in the Lord and do good. Number two, delight yourself in the Lord. And what will He do? He will give you the desires of your heart. Where does it begin? By delighting yourself in the Lord, by soaking yourself in the things of God. And guess what? As we delight ourselves in the Lord, the desires of our heart become changed. Because as we delight ourselves in Him, our heart is changed because we're not delighting in ourselves. We're not delighting in worldly wisdom. We're delighting in the Lord and our whole mind shift occurs. And He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord. Trust in Him and He will do it. And so these are very important verses to me. I'm going to live by these verses. So what does it mean, page 8, to wait on the Lord? Three things. Three things, page 8. First of all, the first paragraph under this is, Many times when we read this, the idea of waiting on the Lord seems like it's let go and let God. It's simply kind of a passive exercise. But that's not what the Scripture says. It's not we're just completely standing aside and not doing anything at all. It requires intellectual assent and an act of the will. It means delighting ourselves in the Lord. It means trusting in Him. It means doing what He tells us to do. But first, what should we be doing? Well, we wait on the Lord, first of all, by trusting in him. And in my own notes, I wrote, versus self-reliance. Over and over, I just kept writing in my notes, no self-reliance. That's really what we're battling here, is self-reliance versus God-dependence. And so David expresses great confidence in the Lord. He was his light, his salvation, and his stronghold. And so trusting in Him, just filling our heart with His Word and looking to Him. Secondly, by seeking Him, by in communion with Him, spending time with the Lord in prayer, communing in His presence. One thing that David says, I ask the Lord, one thing, one thing that I seek, what is it? One thing that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life and gaze on the beauty of the Lord. I just want to be thinking God's thoughts after Him. I want to be gazing on the beauty of the Lord and seeking him in his temple. So to wait on the Lord, it's not a passive exercise, it's trusting in him, it's communing in his presence, it's spending time with him. And then thirdly, top of page nine, waiting on the Lord through prayer. It's what Jehoshaphat did, remember? He went before the Lord and he sought the Lord. And he did it publicly, as a matter of fact, as a leader. Waiting on the Lord involves a confident expectation of a positive result in which we place a great hope. Do we believe that if we wait on the Lord that something good is going to happen? Or do we believe that if I wait on the Lord and I don't do something that nothing good's going to happen because I'm not making it happen? That's essentially what we saw in Genesis 16, was the conduct of Abraham and Sarah was, if I don't do something, nothing good is going to happen. God has said, you've got a child, but guess what? We've been waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting and no child. So I need to do something to make this happen. But that's not what, but they violated the biblical standard of a marriage and they succumb to the, to the cultural mandates. And that's not what God has given us to do. We don't live our lives by succumbing to the cultural more race of our times, but it's based on, on trusting in the Lord and Isaiah 40, 31. waiting on the Lord, but I want to go to the conclusion. So go over to page 10. I've mentioned to you Psalm 37, but there are some of these verses that are just so fundamental, and you've memorized them, you've meditated upon them. Trust in the Lord with what? all my heart, all my heart, all my heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him, promise, and He will make your path straight. What's our responsibility? No holds barred. Trust in the Lord. Look to Him. Follow Him. Obey Him. and he will make your path straight. And he will make the path straight. Okay, here's where the rubber meets the road. On top of page 11, I want to emphasize this. This is really important. How do we put this into practice? There's a pastor named J.R. Miller, and he wrote something, he wrote a lot of things, but the second and third paragraph, I want you to follow this. The habit of treasuring up a text of scripture in the morning To be meditated upon while engaged in the business of the world throughout the day is both profitable and delight. It is a refreshing spring to a weary traveler. Nothing is more helpful and practical in Christian living than the habit of getting a verse of scripture into the mind and heart in the morning. Its influence stays throughout the day, weaving itself into all the day's thoughts and words and experiences. John Piper, in Desiring God, had an expression fighter versus. I love that, that fighter versus. What are fighter versus? We're engaged in a battle. We're always engaged in a spiritual battle. We're engaged in a battle with the world. We're engaged in a battle with our own flesh. And we're engaged in a battle with the devil all the time. We're in spiritual warfare. And the point that is being made is take some scripture and literally memorize it and spend the day meditating upon it. How blessed is the man, Solomon, who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the way of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night, and he will be like a tree firmly planted by rivers of water, which yields its fruit in its season. The wicked are not so, they are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Which one would you rather be? A fruitful tree planted by a river of water that's sustained by the grace of God, or chaff that the wind blows away. Total instability. The difference is you delight yourself in the law of the Lord, and in His law you meditate day and night. And I'll just tell you, I'll give you just personal examples. Here's a couple of verses that I've been working on. Psalm 18. I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies." Do you notice how many times the psalmist uses the word, my? He's not saying that because he's egotistical. He's saying that because of ownership. He's saying that he identifies that God is not just a rock, not just a fortress. He's my rock. He's my fortress. He's my deliverer. He's my shield. He's the horn of my salvation. He's my high tower. And you're thinking Proverbs 18, the name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous run into it and they are safe there. I call upon the Lord who is worthy to be saved, and I'm saved by the name of Jesus. Psalm 910, those who know your name, not saying Adonai or Elohim, the name, those who know who God is, his ways and his works, those who know the name of the Lord will put their trust in you. Why? For you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you. Those are my verses over the last week or so. I just wanted to share those with you. Those are the ones that I, but take a verse in the morning. There's all sorts of promises. This goes into the category of living by the promises of God and not thinking the world's thoughts after the world, not thinking our fleshly thoughts after ourselves, but programming ourselves. Romans 12, be transformed. by the renewing of your mind so that you might prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. How are you gonna be transformed in your mind? By the scripture, right? Every word of God is pure like silver refined in a furnace of gold seven times. I mean, how many scripture passages can we possibly memorize that feed our souls over and over? You'll never exhaust it. You'll never run out of material to fill your mind. To wait upon the Lord is to seek Him, and waiting time is never wasted time. It increases our sense of dependence on the Lord. That's really what it's all about. It's this ongoing battle between self-reliance and dependence on God. Our dependence on God is always fueled by two things, what we believe in an act of the will. That's the point that was being brought out earlier. It's what we believe in an act of the will. It's not either or. It takes both. It takes both, absolutely. For an act of the will has to be predicated upon what do I believe? And what you believe, you have to act on that. So what are you going to do? You live this out. Not in your own strength. not in your own strength, but by waiting, by asking the Lord to give you the grace to do what he's called you to do. Jehoshaphat, by the way, an earlier example, 2 Chronicles 20, a couple of chapters earlier, not a good outcome. He allied himself with an ungodly king and the outcome was bad. I mean, so the scripture is full of examples, but 2 Chronicles 20 is absolutely solid gold as an example of what it means to wait on the Lord. Two chapters earlier, guess what? Not a good example. These things are written for our instruction that we might know what to do and to avoid falling into the same paths. Human nature hasn't changed. The battles are always the same. What can we learn by looking at the scripture and by looking at Saul, by looking at Jehoshaphat, by looking at David, by looking at what they did well and what they didn't do well? These things are written for our instruction. Take heed when you think you stand lest you fall. So that's what it means to wait upon the Lord and to walk before Him.