Trusting God's Timing: The Power of Active Waiting

I wanna use these stories of David today to warn you against the temptation that we tend to fall into in moments like that. And that is to take matters into your own hands or to put it in theological terms, to attempt to perfect by the flesh what was promised in the spirit. Y 'all, this is a major theme in the Bible. If you pay attention, you will see almost every Bible character go through a season like this one. And I'll show you a few of those today, but it's just gonna happen in a major way to David. [00:04:27]

Fortuitous circumstances are not always the sign that God is behind something. I say that because it is amazing how many people justify immoral or foolish behavior through some coincidence. My current marriage was not working. And I met this new guy at work who is just perfect. I mean, we even love the set. We have the favorite song right now on K -Love. It was just too coincidental. It just felt like fate. I really wanted that. I really wanted that car. [00:07:23]

And unexpectedly, the price dropped. Then unexpectedly, I got approved for a loan. And then I got a credit card thing in the mail telling me I was good for this amount of credit. And I feel like God is giving me a sign that he wants me to have that car. Of course, taking out this loan is gonna put me in significant debt and will likely make me car poor and eliminate any possibility of ever being generous. But why else would all these circumstances just happen? Friends, I am not saying that God never uses coincidences to direct us. [00:08:08]

But sometimes coincidences are just coincidences. And they're nothing more. Pastor John Muller here at our Capitol Hills campus said when he was about 12, his dad was trying to make a big decision. And one afternoon, he and his dad were driving home. And as they pulled into their driveway, seven doves, or what looked like doves, flew up out of the yard. And John said, my dad counted out loud, one, two, three, four, seven. Seven doves. Son, a dove is what descended on Jesus at his baptism. And seven is God's number of completion. There's our answer. [00:08:25]

Now, again, I'm not saying God never uses circumstances to guide us, but sometimes doves are just doves. And sometimes they're pigeons that look like doves. But the thing you can always count on to guide you is God's word. So the foremost consideration in David's mind is not, what are these circumstances guiding me to do? But what does God's word say? Furthermore, you all realize that God is not the only one who arranges lucky coincidences in your life, right? [00:09:06]

You see, the temptation that David is going through follows a pretty clear pattern. Satan is tempting David to take matters into his own hands, and he even uses scripture to do it. Do you see how David's men quoted scripture to urge David to kill Saul? Do you see that in verse four? This is what he said to you. Remember, Samuel prophesied this. This isn't the Bible. God's gonna give your enemy into your hand. David, this is the moment. They use scripture to try to motivate him. That was how Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness too, wasn't it? [00:09:37]

If you just take this little shortcut, you don't have to go through the cross. You don't have to go through any suffering. You can have it all right now. Don't wait on God to give you this. Go get it now for yourself. Y 'all, that's what Satan does. He starts with the truth. He holds up something God wants you to have, and then he urges you to step outside of God's will to go get it, to take a shortcut. [00:10:18]

The temptation is to pursue the promise of the spirit by the power of the flesh, by stepping outside of God's will. You will never find God's will by doing things your way instead of his. Watch what David does. David crawls right up behind Saul, and Saul leans over to grab some toilet paper or whatnot. David very stealthily cut off a corner of Saul's robe. But afterwards, David's heart struck him because he had cut off a corner of Saul's robe. David felt guilty for even doing that. [00:11:12]

Verse six, but David said to his men, the Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my Lord, the king, the Lord's anointed to put out my hand against him, seeing that he is indeed the Lord's anointed. Even if Saul is in the wrong, David says, this is God's appointed king, and these are God's appointed circumstances, and it is not for me to take matters into my own hands. I cannot achieve the purpose of God by breaking the commands of God. [00:11:54]

He could have played the victim card. Well, Saul's been using his position of power to abuse me and manipulate me. And by the way, wasn't Saul guilty of death for what he'd done? And hadn't God promised David the throne anyway? Yeah, all of those things I just said are true, and David could have used any of them as justification. But David knew that you never achieve the purposes of God by breaking the commands of God, never. [00:12:28]

Behold, this day, your eyes have seen how the Lord gave you into my hand in this cave. And some of my men told me to kill you, but I spared you. I said, I will not put out my hand against the Lord, for he is the Lord's anointed. Then he waved a little corner of the robe that he cut off. He said, by the fact that I cut off the corner of your robe and I did not kill you, you can know from this proof, this evidence, this piece of your garment in my hand, that there is no wrong or treason in my hands. I have not sinned against you, though you hunt my life to take it. May the Lord judge between me and you. May the Lord avenge me against you, but my hand shall never be against you. Because the Proverbs of the ancient says it correctly, out of the wicked comes wickedness. In other words, your sin does not justify mine. For me to do wickedness would make me wicked, regardless of what you did to provoke it. Only from the wicked comes wickedness. And when you do wickedness, it makes you wicked, regardless of what somebody did that you think justifies it. The opposite of this proverb, by the way, would be the ends justifies the means. [00:13:31]

Just because somebody says they're sorry and just because you forgive them doesn't mean you can always go right back to normal. So when you've been abused, somebody simply saying to you, I'm sorry and crying about it doesn't mean that you're obligated to move back in immediately. He says he's sorry and he might be. She says she forgives him and she does. But that does not necessarily mean that she needs to move back in. There can and often should be a good gap of time to show if the repentance is real and if it will endure. So David very wisely says, I forgive you. I'm staying here for a while. [00:16:06]

You see, as I read this story, you basically have two choices. Two choices. Number one, you can take matters into your own hands. Or number two, you can do the hardest thing in the Bible, in the Christian life, and that is you can trust God and wait on his timing. Taking matters into your own hands usually takes one of four forms. Think of these as Satan's sinful shortcuts. [00:16:53]

David's men urged him to settle the score and they felt right about doing that. Revenge almost always feels right, doesn't it? I mean, when you're paying somebody back, whether it's verbally or through some action because of what they've done to you, you feel right about it. There's like a tuning fork in you that is tuned to the rhythms of the universe. And when you are paying somebody back for what they did wrong to you, you feel nigh unto deity in what you're doing. [00:17:23]

Remember we studied him a few weeks ago? After all the unfair treatment that Joseph had gone through being sold into slavery and lied about in prison unjustly when Potiphar's wife propositioned him, I have to think how tempting it would have been for Joseph to think as badly as my life has gone, I deserve this. Maybe that's what it is for you. An affair becomes an escape of pleasure in an unfair world. Or maybe you find that escape in a bottle, or through looking at porn, or through retail therapy, you just buy stuff. [00:18:56]

God is not moving fast enough on your timetable. So you take matters into your own hands, which leads to the fourth thing, letter D, rationalized revenge, pilfered pleasure, cowardly compromise, panic presumption. Y 'all, my alliteration game is on point today. Okay. Because God is not delivering on your timetable, you start manipulating circumstances, forcing things. Now, let me say this. I know that type A people who get stuff done, they're the ones hustling behind the scenes and you don't take no for an answer. That's how you've gotten to where you are. And there's nothing wrong with that. It's not necessarily a bad thing. But sometimes you're doing that because you're not willing to wait. [00:20:29]

David said, I will not stretch out my hand in wickedness against God's anointed, no matter how justified I feel in doing so. I will wait upon the Lord. I will do things his way because he's the one that made these promises. He's the shepherd to whom I have committed my soul. I will wait upon the Lord. In fact, everybody, let's say that. Say it together. Will you say it with me? Say it. I will wait upon the Lord. Y 'all, that one phrase would change so much in your life. [00:21:52]

If you're in a stymied career, everybody say it. I will wait upon the Lord. If you're financially not where you want to be, say it with me. I will wait upon the Lord. If you're still out in the pasture wondering when God is ever going to put you in the game, everybody say it. I will wait upon the Lord. If your marriage is not where it should be, if it is not where you want it to be, if it is not fulfilling you, say it with me. I will wait upon the Lord. If your kids are not where they ought to be, not doing what they ought to do, say it. I will wait upon the Lord. [00:22:42]

He protects himself by running. He prays about the situation, even writes a couple of Psalms that we still have access to today. He asked God to change the situation, pleads with God to change the situation. Given the opportunity, David confronts Saul publicly and passionately pleads his case before Saul. He's very busy. He just does so from a posture of trust and with a refusal to compromise into sin. Waiting on the Lord is a very active thing. [00:23:26]

The point is, we're supposed to wait on God like a five -star waiter waits on us. Trained on who God is and what he wants us to do. I'm trusting him. Man, I'm locked in and I'm going to do whatever he says. I think of it like that old Christian rock star, Bob Hartman of Petra. Anybody grow up listening to Petra, right? Discipled on Petra. Remember what he said, good things come to them who wait, but not to those who hesitate. So hurry up and wait upon the Lord. [00:25:20]

The biggest enemy in your life is not your Saul. It's your inability to wait. I would say that learning to wait might be the most important skill that you can have as a believer. Never. I've told you before about the famous Stanford marshmallow test done in the 1970s. You know, ironically, it's become famous as the marshmallow test, but it actually wasn't marshmallows. The participants were 32 children between the ages of three and five. [00:25:51]

Researchers then tracked these children for the next three decades until the early 2000s and found that children, the children, that small set that had been able to wait had consistently better life outcomes as measured by things like SAT scores, educational attainment, physical health, marriage, satisfaction, and a whole host of other things. The researchers from Stanford concluded that more than any other single factor they'd ever studied, the ability to wait predicted a child's future successes. Since then, there's been other much larger studies that have been done that back that up. [00:27:43]

Sovereign purpose, steadfast love, steadfast confidence. I told you my alliteration game is on fire this weekend. David says, my heart is steadfastly locked on you. Now y 'all don't miss this. This is the second time that David uses the word steadfast. The first time was in verse three when David used steadfast to describe God's commitment to him. Now he's using the word steadfast to describe his commitment to God. You see which one came first? It's really important. [00:36:38]

Miroslav said, it's when you don't believe in a God of justice, then you become violent and judgmental because you wonder who is gonna pay these people back for what they have done to you. He said, when you have watched somebody murder your parents and your siblings, how can you not be filled with a rage that eats you alive? He talked about how he wrestled for years with hating the people who had been so cruel to his people. He said, it was eating me from the inside out. But then he said, as I contemplated the gospel, I realized that because the people who did these things would one day answer to God, I didn't have to make them answer to me. And that gave me the resources not to hate them because I believe in a God of justice and a God who has steadfast love toward me. I don't have to take matters into my own hands. [00:38:09]

But when you know that you have a sovereign God who has a purpose for you that is saturated with steadfast love, you can patiently wait with steadfast confidence in him. Does that make sense? David's steadfast obedience came from his steadfast confidence in God, steadfast love. Which brings me to the most important dimension of this story. [00:39:13]

But like David, Jesus never took matters into his own hands. Jesus waited on the Father, trusting that his Father would make things right in his own time. And like David, Jesus was tempted by Satan to take a shortcut. Oh, just take this shortcut, Satan said. Just take this shortcut and you can have it all right now. But like David, Jesus refused. And like David, Jesus didn't take out vengeance on his enemies when he had the opportunity to and quite frankly, had the right to. After all, in this story, you and I play the part of Saul. [00:40:22]

See, that's where Jesus' story and David's story began to diverge. You see, Jesus did a lot more than just spare us like David spared Saul. Jesus actually died in our place so that we could be forgiven and restored to the palace. David merely let Saul go. Jesus laid down his life for us. And see, when you see that, that's going to give you the confidence to trust him. [00:41:10]

Same thing here, you got to keep the order right. It's not that you develop steadfast faith and then God accepts you. You develop steadfast faith because of your assurance that God has accepted you. Assurance of his acceptance comes first. God connects his cables to you, so to speak, and only then do you have the power to start. Assurance of his acceptance precedes consistency in his commands. [00:42:29]

So see, when you see that this whole story is about how he came after you, how he never stopped loving you, how he's accepted you in mercy when he could have killed you for treason, then you start to trust him. Assurance of his acceptance enables obedience to his commands. Again, it is not that you become a person of strong, flawless faith and then Jesus accepts you. It's when you have the assurance of his acceptance that you develop the confidence to always obey him, no matter what. [00:42:57]