In today’s episode, we delve deep into the pervasive problem of stress that affects a staggering proportion of the population. Drawing insights from the book of Isaiah, we explore the promises that God has laid down for those who feel burdened by life’s demands. Our discussion guides you through understanding the source of stress and offers hope by revealing the powerful message that those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength, much like eagles soaring on thermal drafts.
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SPEAKER 01 :
Take your Bibles and turn to Isaiah chapter 40, Isaiah chapter 40, and then when you’ve found it, look up here and let me tell you a statistic that I read. And I’m shocked at this statistic because it says that 89% of all Americans suffer from time to time with chronic stress syndrome. Now, I said 89%. Now, whether that is exactly right or not, that anybody would say such a thing, I mean any reputable person would say such a thing, causes us to know that most Americans are emotionally fatigued physically drained, and spiritually defeated. And the reason is stress. The days are too long. The nights are too short. And we feel like we are the chief rat in the rat race. Many of us feel exactly that way. There’s too much to do. AND NOT ENOUGH TIME TO DO IT. WELL, THANK GOD. HALLELUJAH. PRAISE THE LORD. THERE IS HOPE. AND HOPE IS ON THE WAY. AND IT IS RIGHT FROM THE PAGES OF GOD’S WORD. ISAIAH THE PRINCE OF THE PROPHETS DIPPED HIS PEN IN GOLD AND GLORY AND WROTE THESE WORDS. LOOK IN VERSE 28. HE BEGINS WITH A QUESTION. HAST THOU NOT KNOWN? Hast thou not heard that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth fainteth not, neither is weary? There’s no searching of his understanding. What’s he saying there? He’s saying God never gives out. God never tires. God is never perplexed. And then look at the promise in verse 29. He, this great God, he giveth power to the faint and to them that have no might. You just say, that’s me. He increaseth strength. Even the ewes shall faint and be weary. And the young men shall utterly fall. Just because you’re young, that doesn’t mean that you’re immune to stress. But, thank God for verse 31, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings. Well, let’s think first of all about the problem of stress, all right? The problem of stress. And we find that in verses 28 and 29. Now, in these two verses, there are two categories of people or persons that are mentioned. One, of course, is Almighty God. He is the Omnipotent, all-knowing, sovereign God. He’s mentioned there in verse 28. Look at it again. He is called there the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth. He is immortal. Invisible, God only wise, in light inaccessible, hid from our eyes, most blessed, most glorious, the ancient of days, almighty, victorious. Thy great name we praise. That’s what the hymnist said, and that’s who that God is. There is not another like him. Thank God for his great strength. Now, that’s one thing. person mentioned, but now let’s get all those on the other side. And that is the rest of us. Beginning in verse 29, he giveth power to the faint and to them that have no might, he increaseth strength. Now we’re talking about stress. What is stress? Stress is that gap that is between the demands and that are placed upon us and our ability to meet those demands. The difference between those demands and our ability is what we call the stress factor. Over here on one side are the responsibilities of life. the necessities of life, the demands of life, the opportunities of life, they’re all over here. And over here on all the things we want to do, desire to do, should do, ought to do, all of those things over here, that’s one thing. But now on the other side are all of those things that we’re so much aware of today, our inability to our weaknesses, our sinfulness, our lack of knowledge, our faults. And we say, I want to, I ought to, but I can’t. Now, here are the opportunities, the necessities. Here are the weaknesses and the failures, and in between is a cap. That gap is the stress factor. It is the chasm between the ought-tos and the cants that seem to overwhelm us. And all of us are vulnerable. Are you an executive? I was reading where a company… brought some people in, a management consultant, because there seemed to be poor morale among the executives in this company. You know what they found out? They found out that 21 of the 22 executives in this company, 21, One of the 22 were suffering from distress that was so great that it was causing even illness like ulcers, high blood pressure, depression, all of it, stress. But it’s not merely executives that have stress. You can have stress if you’re a laboring person, a waitress, a machine operator, maybe a miner, an inspector, a printer, woodcutter. A pastor, you can have stress. And you don’t have to be an adult to have stress. As a matter of fact, many of our kids today are very stressed. I’m talking about junior high schoolers. And we’re seeing so many of our youngsters now who are being given regular prescriptions of drugs so that they can cope in school. Use drugs. You know, there’s an interesting thing that is happening now. We used to call what is the empty nest. It’s now the re-feathered nest. A lot of these folks, some in the middle age, have gone out into life and have not been able to bear up to stand up and are coming back home. They cannot deal with what is out there. And we’re supposed to have so much, so many machines that are doing all this stuff for us. You know, it used to be I’d walk out of my study and it’d be dark. I’d walk out of my study now and turn out the lights and a lot of little lights are blinking. Bink, bink, bink, bink, bink, bink. You know, there’s a computer and all these little lights are flashing in there. Kind of weird, isn’t it? And you know what all these things are supposed to do for me? Save me time. I have less spare time today than I’ve ever had in my life. Who got it? Where did it go with all these time-saving things? I don’t know. But, folks, I’m telling you, it’s everywhere. There are broken homes, unpaid bills, scarred lives. And the walking wounded people are stressed up. And it shows. Indigestion. Upset stomachs, ulcers, shortness of breath, chest pains, headaches, muscle pain, fatigue, boredom, temper tantrums, irritability, mood swings, forgetfulness, inability to concentrate, insomnia. These are all just another way of saying stress. Let me tell you another statistic that I read startling. I don’t know whether it’s absolutely accurate or not, but if it’s anywhere near accurate, It’s startling. 75% to 90% of all visits made to primary care physicians last year were stress-related disorders and illnesses. Stress. You know, people used to go to health spas. Primarily, not to build up, but to lose weight. That’s what they used to go to health spas for. But you know what they go to health spas today for, according to those who are in that business? They go for stress reduction to see if they can work off some of the stress. And that’s the reason, very frankly, that people get into yoga and New Age music and all sorts of damaging things to be able, they think, to get rid of stress. And when you are stressed, it’s not just that you’re not enjoying life. When you are stressed, you are especially vulnerable to the attacks of the devil. We read over there in Deuteronomy chapter 25 where there was a king named Amalek. And he just waited for Israel when Israel was going through the wilderness. And he found the weak and the worn out, those who were on the outer fringes. And those were the ones that he attacked. And when you’re stressed… you’re going to have some horrendous arguments in your home over nothing. Little things. You’re going to be more prone to argue. Irritations will become mountainous because you are stressed. Now, that is what I want to call the very fact. Of stress. The awful, terrible fact of it. Now, here’s the second thing I want you to see. I want you to see not only the problem of stress, but I want you to see the provision of sufficiency. That God has not left you there without sufficiency. Look, if you will, now in verse 31. Verse 31. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. And they shall walk and not faint. Now this is a wonderful, wonderful promise. Friend, it’s not a sin to be stressed. I’m going to tell you something. It is a sin for help to be available to you, and you do not avail yourself of that help. This is one of the most wonderful promises in all of the Word of God. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint. Now, there are three distinct promises here. And first of all, he says there is the ability to fly. in the rugged times of life. To fly in the rugged times of life. And he uses the eagle for an example. The eagle loves the storm. When the storm comes, when the rigors of life come, when the difficulties of life come, when the adversities of life come, We need to be like the eagle. The eagle waits for the storm and he sits there on his ledge. And when he sees that hot air being heated by the desert floor and those thermal drafts are coming up early in the morning, he steps off of his perch and he lifts those mighty wings of his and begins to soar. The faster the winds blow and the more convection there is in the air, he just rises higher and higher upon these. And he just soars on the wind. Now, all of us have known storms. All of us know adversity. We need to learn what the eagle has taught. The eagle has taught us a tremendous lesson. When the eagle begins to rise up and to fly, what he has learned is that what caused others dismay is somehow a blessing to him. Because when those thermal drafts come, first of all, he can fly higher. He could not fly that high if it were not for the storm. Secondly, he can see further. And thirdly, he can fly faster. And in the reading that I did, I found out that an eagle, he’s very fast. He can fly at 50 miles an hour. But if an eagle gets in a storm, he can reach speeds of 80 to 100 miles an hour. He gets up, he has an incredible eye. He can see right into the sun because of the special lens that he has. But that old eagle sitting there on the perch, and here he sees the storm clouds roiling, or he sees those thermal drafts coming up from the desert floor. He just steps out with grace. He just rides upon the wind. Can you imagine an eagle doing 100 miles an hour? Can you imagine him just looking at all the horizon, all the way around him, and he is just having the time of his life. Folks, when troubles come… If you do what I’m going to show you in a moment, you’re going to be able to be like an eagle. Now, by the way, you know the eagle has to be taught this. AND YOU MAY NOT LIKE THE FLYING LESSONS. PUT IN YOUR MARGIN DEUTERONOMY CHAPTER 32 AND VERSE 11. IT’S A WONDERFUL LESSON. IT SAYS, AS AN EAGLE STIRRETH UP HER NEST, FLUTTERING OVER HER YOUNG, SPREADETH ABROAD HER WINGS, TAKETH THEM, AND BEARETH THEM ON HER WINGS. NOW, WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? PUT IT IN YOUR MARGIN. DEUTERONOMY 32 VERSE 11. WELL, AN EAGLE. Builds its nest. Now, I’ve seen eagles’ nests. They’re monstrous things. And the eagle builds the nest very strong out of branches and twigs and anything she can find. But then she takes her own feathers and lines the nest until it’s fluffy soft. Those little eaglets are there in that nest and she flies off all over to find bugs and worms and snakes and mice and she’s just bringing them fish. She’s bringing those little eaglets there and she’s feeding them. She knows which is which and she knows the last one she fed and you can mix them up, they say, in the nest, but she knows who they are. and she’s feeding them and feeding them. And it’s wonderful. Her mama is just bringing that stuff in there on a regular basis. But one day, the mother eagle decides it’s time for these little guys to learn how to fly. So she gets in the nest and begins to flap her wings. It’s what that Deuteronomy verse calls fluttering over them. She flutters over them. She makes that nest a little uncomfortable. As one preacher said, Lord, if I’m building a nest, put a thorn in it. So she’s just a… She’s just beginning to get all of that fluff out of the nest, and it’s getting now harder, and there are more sticks in it. And she’s beating them toward the edge, and they look down from that sheer cliff way down there, and she’s shoving them out. And the little eaglet, if it could talk, said, Mama, do you really want to do this? And finally, she just gives him a nudge. Now, he’s never flown. And he goes head over heel, just screaming down the side of the mountain. And she swoops down. And before he hits the rocky ledge, she puts out her wings. And his little talons come and cling to his feathers. And she flies back up and puts him on the nest again. She does this over and over again. Till one day he sticks out his own wings by instinct. And there’s a draft there. There’s a buoyancy there. And he begins to flap a little bit. And to find out after a while that he can fly. And I think most of us think that sometimes God is cruel when God is kind. I heard a story. One of the most remarkable stories. Jennifer Johnson. was driving home one evening. It was misty. It was rainy. It was twilight. It was getting dark. She was in a section of town she really didn’t like to drive through. and her car stopped. She began to beat her steering wheel. She was so angry at herself. She knew she was low on gas. She had determined to get gas. She had forgotten to get gas, and there she was. She looked around their warehouses and chain-link fences, and it was a place she didn’t want to be. She said, oh, no. It’s dark. Is there a… maybe a fast food place, maybe a drugstore. Nothing. Hardly any light. She said, well, sooner or later, a police car will come along, hopefully. And she began to pray that God would help her. And she sat there. And then her worst fears were realized. She saw coming down the middle of the street a burly man headed right toward the car. She thought, oh, no, dear God, take care of me, dear God. She said, maybe if I’ll slump down in my seat, he won’t see me. So she just sat there. But he came to the window, looked in and began to tap on the window, told her to roll the window down. She said, go away, go away. He was saying something, but she couldn’t hear what He was saying because she was screaming so loudly. She figured, well, if I blow my horn, maybe he’ll go away. So she began to blow the horn as loud as she could. She blew it and blew it and blew it and screamed. After a while, he turned and walked away. She was frightened, trembling. She said, thank you, Lord. But then after a while, her worst fears were confirmed. She saw him coming back with a steel bar. He walked up to the car and shouted something again. She screamed and blew the horn. He took that bar and broke the window, reached in and unlocked the door. She crouched back to the other side, but he reached in and took her by the arm and began to pull her out of the car. She took her foot and kicked him right in the face and bloodied his nose, but he kept pulling and he pulled her out of the car and released her. SHE DREW BACK, NOT KNOWING WHAT TO DO, GETTING READY TO FIGHT, WHEN SHE HEARD THE NOISE. SHE SAW THE LIGHT. THE GROUND BENEATH HER BEGAN TO TREMBLE. AND SHE LOOKED UP AND SAW THAT TRAIN COMING FURIOUSLY, HEADED RIGHT TOWARD HER CAR. AND IT HIT HER CAR AND PULLED IT RIGHT ON DOWN THE TRACKS. A TOTAL WRECK. The man that she was so afraid of was the one who had saved her life. She had run out of gasoline on the tracks. You know, so many times we look at things and we think these things are the most terrible thing that has ever happened to us. I hope you never have to go through an experience like Jennifer Johnson went through. But sometimes you cannot tell what is happening by outward appearance. And so the storms of life that come to you may be the things that God is bringing to you to deliver you and to help you and to cause you to rise higher. And so, listen, when we wait upon the Lord, when we wait upon the Lord, we’re going to be able to fly higher. We’re going to be able to fly in the rigors of life. But not only are we able to fly in the rigors of life, we’re going to be able to run in the rush of life. You ever feel like you don’t have enough time? You say, I’ve got troubles. Yeah, I’ve got the rigors. I’ve got the storms. But you also have the rush. These are not storms. These are just deadlines that we have to meet. Things that we need to do. We need to get things done and we don’t seem to have enough time to get it done. May I tell you there’s enough time in every day to do everything God wants you to do? Don’t insult God by saying you don’t have enough time, but sometimes we have to run to get it done. Someone’s written these words, be swift, my soul, to answer him, be jubilant, my feet. Our God is marching on. I remember reading there in the eighth chapter of Acts about Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch. And that Ethiopian eunuch needed the Lord. God brought Philip out there and said, go join yourself to that chariot. And the Bible says Philip ran to get that chariot. I mean, he had to catch a chariot. He’s running to do it. Here’s an opportunity on wheels. There are the rigors of life. There’s also the rush of life. And we need to be like the eagle in the rigors of life. And we need to be like an athlete in the very rush of life to get it all done. I read what a sports writer out in Los Angeles wrote one time. He said somewhere in Africa… There is a gazelle who wakes up in the morning, and that gazelle says, “‘If I cannot run today faster than the fastest lion,’ I’ll be eaten. In that same area of Africa, a lion wakes up. And he says, if I cannot run faster than the slowest gazelle, I’ll starve to death. So both the gazelle and the lion wake up running. And I think we feel that way sometime. We wake up running because Satan, like a roaring lion, is on our trail. And then also there are opportunities. Well, where are you going to get the strength to fly like an eagle? Where are you going to get the strength to run? In the rigors of life, in the rush of life. But now wait a minute. Continue to read and look. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles and they shall run and not be weary. But now read the last one. And they shall walk and not faint. God will give you strength to walk in the routine times of life. There are the rigors of life and the rush of life, but you know where most of us have most trouble? In the routine of life. I mean, when the storms come, we get through it. When the opportunities are there, we sometimes meet the deadlines, but… It’s just in the routine of life that most of us fail. This is not, by the way, it is not anticlimactic. This is right at the very most important part because this is where most of us live most of the time. It’s one thing to soar like an eagle. It’s one thing to surge like an athlete. but it’s another thing just to stick and to stay day by day. And we serve God by flying in the hard times, by running in the happy times, but we need to walk day by day in the regular humdrum time of life. Now, you know, most of us fail here more than any place else. We fail in the everyday areas of life. The great need, the great need of Adrian Rogers, and I dare say of you, is day by day faithfulness in the little things. To walk and not to faint. Now, this was given to the Israelites. You see, the Israelites were on a pilgrimage. And God says, as your days are, so should your strength be. That’s what was given to the Israelites. The Israelites… were going from Egypt, they were going into Canaan. There was no trains, no planes, no buses, no bikes, no motorcycles. They had some camels, but those were few. They had some donkeys, but those were few. Do you know how the children of Israel got from Egypt to Canaan? They walked. One step forward. at a time. There were rivers, there were valleys, there were mountains, there were difficulties, wild beasts, all kinds of things, but they had to walk. Day by day, you’ve got to walk. Read the book of Ephesians. The book of Ephesians talks about us being in the heavenlies. Yes, it does, but it also mentions seven times that the Christian life is a walk. We’re to walk day by day. Do you know what victory is? You say, victory, Adrian, is for you to preach a sermon daily. And a lot of people get saved. Victory is for us to have a great campaign somewhere to do this or that. No, let me tell you what victory is. Victory is getting breakfast for the kids in the morning. dressing the children, getting them off to school. Victory is going to work. It’s cleaning the house. It’s carrying out the garbage, which I’ve got to do. It’s daily Bible study. It’s your quiet time. It’s prayer. It’s visiting the sick. It’s being sweet to your wife. It is all day, every day, hot day, cold days, dull days, bright days, good days, bad days, walking the Christian life. That, listen, If you can be a Christian at home, you can be a Christian anywhere. Did you know that? If you can’t be a Christian at home, you’re going to fail every place else anywhere, anytime. So, what does God do for us? Well, in times of adversity, we soar like an eagle. In times of opportunity, we run like an athlete. But in times of necessity, we just keep walking day by day. Yes, thank God for the rigors of life. And thank God for the rush of life. But friend, there is the routine of life. The routine of life. The day by day things of life that we need to learn how to have victory and get rid of this stress factor. We need to learn endurance. I heard of a snail that started up an apple tree. And you know how snails move very slow. A worm came out from a crevice in that apple tree and said, no need to go up there. There are no apples up there. He said, there will be when I get there. So you just have to day by day by day just keep on keeping on. Now, THAT’S THE PROVISION. WE’VE TALKED ABOUT THE PROBLEM AND THE PROVISION. NOW LET ME GIVE YOU THE PROMISE. HERE’S THE PROMISE. AND THIS IS THE KEY TO ALL OF IT. BECAUSE YOU SAY, WELL, ADRIAN, IT WON’T WORK FOR ME. WELL, WAIT A MINUTE BEFORE YOU SAY THAT. LOOK IN VERSE 31 AGAIN. HERE’S THE PROMISE. BUT THEY THAT WAIT UPON THE LORD SHALL RENEW THEIR STRENGTH. NOW THE PROMISE HAS A PROVISION. And the provision is that you must wait upon the Lord. Now, God says if you wait upon the Lord, you will renew your strength. Look at the word renew. The Hebrew word chalath. And it actually means to change or exchange. The Christian life is not only a changed life, it is an exchanged life. What I mean by that is we give Him our weakness and He gives us His strength. That’s the reason the Bible says in Ephesians chapter 6, Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. And that’s the reason the Apostle Paul said in Galatians 2.20, I’m crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in me. It is an exchanged life. You can, it’d be almost like Joe and myself, we exchange coats. He takes mine, I take his. I’m going to keep mine, Joe. All right, now, that’s what it would be like. Now, how does this take place? Well, look at it now. We’re told in order for this exchange to take place, WE ARE TO WAIT UPON THE LORD. WE ARE TO WAIT UPON THE LORD. NOW WHAT, WHAT DO WE MEAN BY WAIT UPON THE LORD? LET ME ERASE THIS FROM YOUR MIND ONCE AND FOR ALL. WAITING DOES NOT MEAN SIMPLY SITTING AND DOING NOTHING. IN THE OLD DAYS, WHEN A BOY WOULD BE CALLING ON A GIRL, HOPING TO MAKE HER HIS BRIDE, YOU KNOW WHAT THE OLD TIMERS WOULD SAY? HE SAID, THAT YOUNG MAN’S WAITING ON THAT YOUNG LADY. YOU EVER HEARD THAT? I said, oh, they said he’s waiting on her. Well, that certainly didn’t mean he was doing nothing. He was doing everything he could do to make her his. And when we wait upon the Lord, that does not mean inactivity. What does it mean to wait? Well, let me give you about four things that it means, and then we’ll be finished. What it means to wait, because this is the key to the whole thing. You’ve got the problem of stress. You’ve got the provision of sufficiency. But there must be a promise of strength. Where do you get this strength? I mean, how can you fly like an eagle? How can you run like an athlete? How can you day by day just keep on doing it? By waiting upon the Lord. Now, if that is true, and it is true, then you need to understand what it means to wait. That’s the key to the whole thing. If you miss this, the rest of it doesn’t matter at all. First of all, to wait upon the Lord means… that you must desire Him, that you long for Him. Let me give you this verse. Psalm 62, verse 1. Truly, my soul waiteth upon God. From Him cometh my salvation. Now, David wrote this. And when he wrote it, he was in a time of stress and distress. And he knew that only God could satisfy his deepest need. DO YOU FEEL THAT WAY TODAY? I MEAN, ARE YOU WAITING FOR GOD? ARE YOU SAYING, LORD, I, I LONG FOR YOU. I WANT YOU, GOD. NOW IF YOU WANT RELIEF WITHOUT WANTING GOD, JUST FORGET IT. YOU HAVE TO, TO WAIT UPON THE LORD. NUMBER TWO, NOT ONLY DOES IT MEAN TO LONG FOR HIM, BUT IT MEANS TO LISTEN TO HIM. LET ME GIVE YOU THE VERSE THAT PROVES THAT. Proverbs chapter 8 and verse 34. Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting, waiting at the post of my doors. Let me read that again. Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the post of my doors. What does that mean? Well, here’s a person who says to the Lord, Lord, I’m hoping you’re going to come out that gate soon. And I hope you come out and you’ll have some instruction for me. I am waiting, Lord, for you to speak to me. You know what that is? Do you know what the book of Proverbs is talking about here right now? It is a quiet time. It is a quiet time. That’s all that is. There must be a quiet time along with God, watching daily at His gates. Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily. Do you do it daily? At my gates, waiting, waiting, waiting at the post of my doors. Do you do that? Hey, listen, listen. If you don’t do that, don’t tell me this verse won’t work. You are to wait upon the Lord. That means to long for Him. It means to listen to Him. Can God get your attention? Have you ever been in a restaurant and needed a second cup of coffee or something to try to get the waitress’ attention? That’s the most amazing thing. They’ll walk right past you. They put on the tombstone of one waitress. God finally caught her eye. Ha! Can God catch your eye? Can God get your attention? I read an interesting story. In the Great Depression, many of you don’t remember the Great Depression. I was born in the middle of the Great Depression where jobs were hard to get. One man who was a telegraph operator saw an ad and this was his skill. He was so thrilled, he went down to apply for the job. When he got there, the waiting room was already filled with people queued up to be interviewed for that job. He thought, boy, there’s no hope at all. They’re all here ahead of me. But he sat there, and after a while, he heard a little sound coming from the inner office. You know, the things that they, the dot, dot, dot, dash, dash, dash, dot, dash, dot, dot, dot, dot. And he began to listen to that. And after a while, he got up and he walked into the inner office, said a few words, came out with a big smile on his face and said, I’ve got the job. They said, you’ve got the job? How did you get the job? Why you? We were here first. He said, I was listening. And those dots and those dashes said, if you can understand this, come in the office. You have the job. He was listening. He’s tuned in. You know, there’s some people just tuned in to God and other people not tuned in to God. Listen, what does it mean to wait upon him? It means to long for him. It means to listen to him. And I’ll tell you something else. It means to look to him. Put this verse down. Psalm 104, verse 27. These all wait upon thee, that thou mayest give them their food in due season. Talking about the animals. These all, all of these animals wait upon you, Lord, that you’ll feed them. Do you believe that God is going to take care of you? I mean, are you looking to Him? Do you long for Him? Do you listen to Him? Do you look to Him just like the animals, the birds, and the beasts of the forest look to God as God gives them their food in due season? That’s what it means to wait upon Him. Do you really believe that God can meet your need? Hey, That’s more than a rhetorical question. It’s meant to hit you right between the eyeballs. Do you believe that God can meet your needs? Do you look to Him? Are you looking somewhere else? Now, here’s the next thing, and here’s the fourth thing. Not only does it mean to long for Him, to listen to Him, to look to Him, but friend, very frankly, it means to live for Him. It means to live for him. Proverbs 27 and verse 18. Whoso keepeth the fig tree shall eat the fruit thereof. So he that waiteth on his master shall be honored. He that waiteth on his master. Let’s go back to the waitress or the waiter. What do they do? They’re there to serve us. They say, I am your waiter. Does that mean they just sit there? No, it means they’re there to say, can I help you? What would you like? You need a menu? You need another this or that? More bread? More iced tea? I’m here to serve you. Now, when you wait upon the Lord, you’re here to serve the Lord. You are His waiter, right? You are waiting upon him. That’s what this verse means. Listen to it again. Whoso keepeth the fig tree shall eat the fruit thereof. So he that waiteth on his master shall be honored. You want God to give you strength so you can fly like an eagle? You want God to exchange your weakness for his strength so you can run like an athlete? No. You want God to infuse you with His mighty power so day by day by day by day you can walk and not faint. Question. Why should God give you more strength to serve the devil? To wait upon God means to long for Him, to listen to Him, to look to Him, and to live for Him. And I promise you on the authority of this book that if you will wait upon Him, God will renew your strength. And that gap that you feel over here, all the things that you need to do, you ought to do, that you must do, and over here your weakness, your inability, your frustration, that gap in between will be removed as He takes your nothingness and infuses it with His almightiness when you learn to wait upon Him. Now, look at me. Don’t you say that won’t work if you don’t try it. Don’t you say that won’t work. Because if you say that won’t work, you know what you’re doing? You’re calling God a liar. God says, they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. You know why I preached this message this morning? Because I need it so much. I am preaching to Adrian this morning. And every time that finger points out at you, they’re three-pointing right back at me. So I’ll get this tape and listen to it. We all need it. And folks, it all begins with trusting Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior. Bow your heads in prayer. Heads are bowed and eyes are closed. Father God, we just pray for any today who may not know Jesus as their personal Savior, that today they will say an everlasting yes to Him. and be saved. Friend, if you want to be saved, would you pray this prayer? Dear God, I know that you love me and you want to save me. Jesus, you died to save me and promised to save me. If I would trust you. Thank you, Savior, for dying on the cross for my sin. Thank you for bloody Calvary. Thank you for taking my suffering, my sin, my shame, and carrying it to the cross. I don’t deserve it. but I receive it by faith like a child. Forgive my sin. Come into my life. Begin now to make me the person you want me to be and help me never to be ashamed of you. In your name I pray.
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Amen. We pray that God has blessed you as you’ve listened to this message. You can also visit our online bookstore at lwf.org. In the U.S., you can place Visa or MasterCard orders by calling 1-800-274-5683, Monday through Friday, 830 a.m. to 430 p.m. Central Time. Thank you, and may God richly bless you.
