Listen to this Sermon: 06102012WhatAreWeWaitingForNathanHouse

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What are we waiting for?

  1. Do you ever find yourself watching a situation to make up your mind? Have you ever found that as you watched, the opportunity passed you by?
    1. We wait because we think a better opportunity will come. A better home. A better job. A better woman. The danger of this is we may just miss the opportunity.
  2. Are we waiting for the perfect moment?
    1. To do something material:
      1. Go to school?
      2. Change career’s?
      3. We put off everything for a variety of different reasons.
        1. We are hoping for something better
        2. We think it is not the right time
        3. We think we will have another chance another time
        4. We are afraid. Afraid to risk ourselves.
        5. How many wonderful opportunities, how many wonderful blessings have been lost in our tendency to stall?
    2. To do something spiritual:
      1. Share the gospel. Why?
        1. B/c we are afraid?
        2. B/c we reason “they are not ready for it.”?
        3. B/c we are ashamed and embarrassed to share what God has done for us.
      2. Start attending Bible class
        1. We say “when school is over I won’t be so tired.”
        2. We reason “I study on my own.”
        3. We make the excuse of time. But find time for a lot less significant things.
      3. Obey the gospel
        1. B/c we like sin
        2. B/c we are afraid of those “Christians”
        3. B/c we think we have tomorrow!
        4. Man who waited to be saved. He turned down opportunity after opportunity because they did not fit him.
    3. We need to “wait on the Lord”, but don’t mistake this test of our faith to the excuse making we do. Waiting on the Lord is not the same as waiting to make up our mind. It is not the same as waiting to obey the gospel.
  3. What would have happened had Esther waited for the “perfect moment”?  
    1. Esther 4:1-16 (vs 5ff)
      1. Verse 11-
      2. Esther did not wait for the “perfect time” to come to the king. She had not been called.
      3. What would have happened had Mordecai said “oh, I understand. Don’t worry about it.”
      4. Mordecai told her “deliverance will come”, the question was would it come through her?
      5. She could have waited for an invitation. She could have waited for what she thought was the perfect time, but she did not. She stepped out in faith. At a time where it may have seemed difficult, but at a time when it was needed!
  4. Some in scripture waited for the perfect time/situation
    1. Deut 1:18ff
      1. “yet you would not.” Vs 26
        1. They did not like the situation.
        2. They murmured in their tents (vs 27)
      2. Moses tried to remind them of God’s deliverance and promise (vs 29-31)
      3. “yet in spite of this word you did not believe the LORD your God.” (vs 32-33)
      4. They were afraid.
        1. Fear abounds where faith is weak!
      5. Men play with opportunity as a toy, and when their eyes open to see its value, lo! it has vanished. Possibly, there is a supreme moment in every man’s history; yet often he is too indolent to improve it. Every morning is not a May-day. Many reach the margin of a glorious destiny, and then turn back to the desert. 
      7. What happened as a result of their “waiting”?
        1. The opportunity vanished.
    2. Judges 4:1-9
      1. Barak did not like the situation. 
      2. “I will give him into your hand” vs 7
      3. “if you will not go with me, I will not go” vs 8
        1. Why not?
        2. Fear?
        3. Doubting in God’s promise?
        4. Why do we hesitate to do the spiritually good thing we need to do?
        5. He would go, but only according to his situation. As a result, the credit of the defeat would go to someone else.
      4. To begin with, Barak’s experiences make it clear that negative reactions to a divine call do not stifle or obstruct God’s plans. In such situations, the Lord may, as with Moses (Exod. 3–4), Gideon (Judg. 6–7), and Jeremiah (Jer. 1:4–10), patiently groom his questioners until they stand prepared for their tasks. On other occasions, however, he may disregard the disinclined and seek suitable replacements, as when he tired of Israel’s constant moaning in the wilderness
        1. We do not want our lives to be characterized as disinclined to doing God’s will!
      6. With Barak, for instance, the risk results not so much in physical harm as in unfulfilled potential: he lives forever under the shadow of a partial replacement… Here, as with the intended guests in Jesus’ parable of the wedding banquet (Matt. 22:1–14), reluctant responses may well lead to wasted opportunities and a significant loss of blessing.
        1. We don’t want our lives to full of unfulfilled potential. Especially spiritually.
    3. Acts 24:24-25

After some days Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish, and he sent for Paul and heard him speak about faith in Christ Jesus. 25 And as he reasoned about righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment, Felix was alarmed and said, “Go away for the present. When I get an opportunity I will summon you.”

      1. Did Felix lose his soul, waiting for the “opportunity”?
    1. Our perfect time, is not God’s perfect time
      1. Rom 5:6
        For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
      2. Christ died for us, while we were weak. It was the “right time” according to God’s timing. There certainly is a right time. When is the right time to do the spiritual thing? Spiritually speaking, the right time is always now to do the right thing.
    2. Women at the well– John 4:4 ff
      1. Jesus was tired. Was it the right time for him to try and be spiritual? Was it the right time to bring someone to him? If we were Jesus would we have just given her a head nod?
  1. What are you waiting for?
    1. You watch the stock market to see if it is the right time to invest. You watch the housing market to see if it is the right time to buy.
    2. We wait for the right time. We wait for the right situation. The right circumstance. While we wait, life moves on. Opportunities fade.
    3. We wait for the right to share the gospel with our friend. We wait for the right time to repent. The right time to obey the gospel. The right time is now.
    4. “On the plains of hesitation, lay the bleached bones of millions of people, who on the verge of victory, sat down.”
    5. Eccl 11:4
      1. “Farmers who wait for perfect weather never plant.
        If they         watch every cloud, they never harvest.”  NLT
      2. “Verse 4 … says that one cannot use the possibility of misfortune as an excuse for inactivity. Someone who is forever afraid of storms will never get around to working his field. 
      3. ”
      4. What is your excuse? Are you waiting for the perfect weather? Watching every cloud in your life?
    6. What are you waiting for? Why not today? Why not now?
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