Waiting On God

Well, the title of today's study is Waiting on God. Waiting on God. And I'd like to invite you to open your Bibles to Genesis 16, where we have the story of Abraham and Sarah, Hagar and Ishmael. Genesis 16. And we're going to read verses 1 through 16 to establish our study today.

Genesis 16 and verse 1. Now, Sarai, Abraham's wife, had borne him no children. She had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram, See now that the Lord has restrained me from bearing children. Please go into my maid, and perhaps I shall obtain children by her. And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai. And then Abram's wife took Hagar, her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband to be his wife. After Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan. So he went to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes. Verse 5. Then Sarai said to Abram, My wrong be upon you. I gave you my maid into your embrace. And when she saw that she had conceived, I became despised in her eyes. The Lord judged between you and me. So Abram said to Sarai, Indeed, your maid is in your hand. Do to her as you please. And when Sarai dealt harshly with her, she fled from her presence. Now the angel of the Lord found her by the spring of water in the wilderness.

By the spring on the way to Shur. And he said, Hagar, Sarai's maid, where have you come from and where are you going? She said, I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress. The angel of the Lord said to her, Return to your mistress and submit yourself under her hand. And the angel of the Lord said to her, I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be counted for multitude. And the angel of the Lord said to her, Behold, you are with child, and you shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has heard your affliction. He shall be a wild man, and his hand shall be against every man, and every man's hand against him. And he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren. Verse 13. Then she called his name of the Lord and spoke to her, You are the God who sees. For she said, Have I also seen him who sees me? Verse 14. Therefore the well was called Bear Lahai, Roy, observe, and it shall be between Kedish and Beard. So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram's name named his son, whom Hagar bore Ishmael. Abram was 86 years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram. So let's stop there.

Quite a passage. Now, when you begin to read the Bible, what you will find once you begin to look at the portrait of individuals that are painted for us, you will discover that the heroes of faith are often in Scripture, blemishes, and all. It's indeed one of the evidences of the authenticity of the Word of God. It lies in the fact that its heroes are here not only in their great successes, but also in their great failures as well. There's no attempt to conceal the ugly parts of an individual's life, and there's no attempt to enhance the beautiful parts, but rather the ugly and the beautiful are set side by side. It really shows us that God is a God of ordinary human beings. When you look at the life of this man, Abram, we quickly see that we're dealing with a man who is much like us. We see his triumphs recorded. We see his failures as well. Here in chapter 16, it's certainly one of his greatest failures recorded to us and revealed to us.

When you look at this portion of text, the first thing you notice is a problem that he and his wife faced. If we looked to summarize this problem into one word, it would be the problem of waiting. Waiting. And more specifically, waiting on God.

Before we're quick to respond with, what problem is there in waiting? Truth be told, if we're honest with ourselves, none of us like to wait. We all have trouble waiting as well. Have you ever noticed that at the slightest slowdown in traffic, at the slightest recognition of a stoppage ahead, what happens? Immediately, we're putting the blinker on. We're beginning to look backwards, forwards, beginning to work out and devise a plan by which we can move from this lane available to that lane, moving in and out, weaving in and out to try to get past whatever stoppage has occurred.

Or have you noticed in a grocery store, at the slightest indication that the person in front of you is going to be writing a personal check, or is going to require a price check, if you will, at the slightest recognition, at the immediate recognition, you're beginning to scan the other lines, calculating the over-under, the risk versus benefit calculation, and moving to another line. Debating that. Or better yet, am I alone in this? You find yourself in the grocery store trying to send vibes to the person in front of you just to please step forward one foot so I can put my items on the conveyor belt and so we can get this thing moving along much quicker.

The problem's all the same. We can't wait. We can't wait. And those of us who are prepared to admit that we have a problem with waiting, we also must recognize that we may have a major problem on the pathway to faith. Because waiting reveals things about our life that nothing else will, especially in our spiritual journey. We know this because as you read your Bible, you discover that faith is continually asked to wait.

Continually asked to wait. Wait on the promises of God. And you'll notice that. The great and precious promises of God are seldom given with any kind of time constraint. You agree with me on that? That the promises of God are seldom given with any kind of timetable. And rather, what you find in Scripture is that God's elect are exhorted to wait. Wait not until any specific time is revealed, but wait until a specific event occurs. And there's all the difference in the world because we find it often okay to wait as long as I have to wait until 3 p.m.

or as long as I have to wait until Thursday. Okay, I can wait till Thursday. But take away the time-specificness of it and just ask to wait for promises to be fulfilled. It's a whole different challenge. But that's so often what the Bible exhorts us to do. We're told to watch, be ready, and we're told to wait for the promises of God to be fulfilled. All given without any time context.

We're exhorted to wait only in the context of the faithfulness of God. And so faith demands our waiting. And the interesting thing, if you look at the life of Abraham here, you will discover that his life, like no one else's, is founded upon this very thing. Grounded upon waiting on the promises of God. God revolutionized his life.

God sent him out in a new direction. And then God told him to wait. God told him to wait. And here at the beginning of verse 16, we get at the very heart of the matter in one sentence. Look at this. Chapter 16 verse 1, now Sarai, Abraham's wife, had borne him no children.

But if you go back just one chapter, look at chapter 15 and verse 5. Look at what it says. Chapter 15 of Genesis verse 5, what was the promise? She had borne him no children, but what was the promise here? Verse 5, then he, God, took him, Abram, outside and said, Look now toward heaven and count the stars if you are able to number them. And he said to him, So shall your descendants be. And he, Abram, believed in the Lord, and he, God, accounted it to him for righteousness. But you begin chapter 16 in verse 1, Sarai had borne him no children.

So despite the fact that on the day the promises were given, that he believed him, Abram believed they would happen, he still confronted with the waiting process. And his character is being tried. When the call of God came upon this couple, it was inherent within it that they would come from them, this promise of an inheritance, an offspring would come from them. But now 10 years later, 10 years later, presumably on a kind of monthly basis, their hopes would have risen and collapsed. They would have said to one another, Perhaps this is the month. Perhaps this is the year that God will fulfill his promise to us and give us a child. But as the passing months came, as the passing years changed in circumstances, even their geography changed, Sarah grows older, Sarah grows sadder, and Sarah grows more impatient.

And here today, this afternoon, we might not be dealing with this same specific issue, but some of us know what it is to grow older, grow sadder, and grow more impatient. What is it that you're waiting on from God? Think about that. Bring it to mind.

Some of us are praying for a loved one who has never come to faith in God the Father and Jesus Christ. Some of us are facing family situations, relationships that we long to be resolved. Some of us are waiting for a healing. And so we find ourselves in this waiting room of faith, and our character is being tried. And look at the last verse here of chapter 16. The last verse of chapter 16. Chapter 16, verse 16. What does it say? What does it say? Abram was 86 years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram. So that means that Sarai was in her 70s.

So let's not diminish that in any way. Here we've got this elderly woman, well beyond her childbearing years here. She's looking into her husband's eyes every morning, and she's saying this can't happen. It's not going to happen.

And what occurs at that moment? What is occurring at that moment?

Well, human reasoning has now come center stage. Human reasoning. And just know that human reasoning can be very hostile in relationship to our faith, in relationship to God's promises. Very often, human reasoning is unable to bow and submit before the promises of the Almighty God. Once human reasoning appears, it begins to decide what God is able and not able to do. And Abram and Sarai begin to have this crisis in their faith. Is God still here with us? Did He mean what He said? Will He fulfill His promise still? Has He removed Himself from us for some reason?

They believed God was real. They believed He was all-powerful. They believed He had promised them a son, but they don't have a son. So the issue that confronted them was this. It was this. Would they allow the questions of their heart to overturn their faith, or would they allow their faith to overturn the questions of their heart?

I'll repeat that. Would they allow the questions of their heart to overturn their faith, or would they allow their faith to overturn the questions of their heart? I suggest to you that that is the question. That's the question for us today. As we face illness, unemployment, heartache, broken relationships, the issue is there.

Will I walk the path of faith, or will I allow my time sitting in the waiting room to cause me to move out on my own? Well, what did they do? They moved out on their own. They decided to formulate a plan to bring about the promises of God.

That's a fascinating thought, if you think about it. They would bring about the promise of God.

And I want you to notice just a few key truths here. Just two truths that made this decision wrong. First of all, the decision was wrong because it was based upon expediency.

Their decision to go to the maidservant was based upon expediency.

Now, some of us would know that of the cultural context of this particular era, it was actually the custom of the day. The custom of the day actually sanctioned this way of obtaining children. Hagar was a bond slave. She was regarded as the mistress's personal property. So any child born to Hagar would belong to Sarai. And you'll see that in verse 2 of chapter 16 here. Look at the way she speaks. Verse 2 of chapter 16, she says, Go sleep with my maidservant. And then she doesn't say, and perhaps you'll get a family through her. No, what does she say? Perhaps I shall obtain children by her. So this was common practice. But the fact that it was common practice and the fact that it's referenced here in Scripture is no indication that Scripture commends it. Why was this a wrong decision for them to make, even though society said it was okay? Again, it was wrong right from the beginning because it was based upon expediency. They didn't ask what is the right thing to do. They asked what can we do right now? What can we do right now? And we make so many decisions based upon that. But when you come to the understanding that a decision is wrong if it's based upon expediency, it's a real eye opener. The end never justifies the means. When we set faith aside, take it into our own hands for expediency purposes, essentially what we're saying is, God, you're taking too long. You're taking too long. I've got this. And if you're really saying at that point, somehow God's not working it out. I don't know where he is, what he's doing, but he's no longer with us, Sarah. He's no longer with us, Abraham. We must have faith in God's timing. Secondly, a brahman, Sarai, believed that they could bring about God's promise in their own hands. This decision was wrong because they were taking it into their own hands, their own devices. Were they truly taking it to God and asking God, we want to do it your way and we'll wait. We'll wait, Father, for you. Help us to understand.

Or were they doing it their way? You remember David when he went before Goliath. What did everybody tell David? You got to put this armor on. Put this armor on. If you don't put this armor on, if you don't do it this way, Goliath is just going to kill you. There's no way you have a chance against him. He puts it all on. He stumbles underneath it. He comes to his senses.

He says, I can't do this. No, you need to put the armor on. If you're going to fight this giant, you have to put this on. He said, forget the armor. I'm going out there with a sling and I'm going out there with God. I'm going to do it the right way. I'm going to have faith in him. I don't need all that stuff. Besides, it's not going to be by my own devices that I defeat this giant.

And you and I must face these giants, but do it God's way. That will bring the blessing. His timing, his way. His timing, his way. And that's what Abraham and Sarah needed to learn. And it is a it is a challenge. Those two things are challenged when we are sitting in that waiting room. They are absolutely challenged. But when the need for expediency or taking matters into our own hands, when that takes the place of faith, the consequences will always be disastrous.

And we know that. What happens? What happens the minute you pull out of that traffic lane into the other? You know what happens. That lane you're in, the skies open up. And it's as if you don't know what happened, but it just begins to go. And inevitably you move back in that lane. What happens?

The minute you pick up your lunch meat and your juice and you move over to that other line, every time, all of a sudden you'll be you want it you fight yourself. No, I'm not going to look. I'm not going to look to see what that lane is doing that I just left. I'm not going to do it. But then you look and it's moving along just fine. And you're stuck with a price check or something.

The minute you don't wait for the bus, I think I can get to this other bus stop. I think I can get there before the bus comes. What happens? The bus passes you on the way to the other bus stop.

And everything in you just screams and wishes you would have waited. But you failed to wait. Now there's another 20 minutes before the next bus comes. And Abram and Sarai, they said, let's walk between the stops. But really, if you think about it, human reasoning would tell us that it was a reasonable decision for them to make. Did God want them to wait another 10 years at the bus stop?

He's 86 years old. I don't think so. Let's go. Let's move.

He should have said, yes, the Lord does expect me to wait.

And every time we don't, chaos ensues. Whenever we try to bring forth our timing, our way, try to speed up God in that way. And if we look around at each other, and we look at the prayer announcements, and we see that God, I believe, is calling us as a people in a realm of faith like no other. I believe God is calling his group of his people in the realms of faith that have never been seen before, to walk the path of faith, to receive challenges, to receive delays, and to know, though, that those challenges and delays are for the purpose to move us forward in our faith. The call of God is never to leave a man or a woman's faith where it finds them. We have to realize that. So our faith is either going forward and deeper or backward and shallower. I don't know if you remember when you learned to swim.

I remember it quite well. It's really a great thing to learn to be able to go from one point to another point without putting your feet on the bottom of the pool. It's just such a great feeling. But prior to that achievement, tell me if I'm alone in this. Some of you have experienced this before. I would be in the somewhat deep part, just deep enough where my feet could touch, but I would end up moving my arms in a certain way. From a certain vantage point, it would look as if I was swimming, but my feet were firmly on the ground. But from a certain vantage point, there would have been those that would have said, wow, my, he's coming along quite well. Look at him. From their perspective, I was swimming. But if they could have looked just below the water, what would they have seen? The reality, I was pretending to swim. I was pretending to swim.

And I mentioned that this afternoon because some of us, from a certain vantage point, may appear to be exercising faith, a certain vantage point resting on the promises of God, but underneath may tell a different story.

If they were to see below the surface, they would encounter not faith, not trusting God, not resting on his promises, but resting on our own two feet. And thank God, thank God, because sometimes he knows the way to discover if a person is swimming or pretending to swim is to move them out. Move them out of the shallow into the deep. Move them out from the three-foot section to the nine-foot section.

It's a total different complexion at that point.

But again, the call of God is to never leave a man or a woman's faith where it finds them.

We're either going deeper, forward, deeper, backwards, or shallower. And God is calling his people to a great venture of faith, and it's very often the depths of water. And I believe he's moved us, several of us, out into the deep waters. I believe that.

You remember what Jesus said one time to his disciples when he met them one morning on the shore? They had been fishing all night, and after a brief discussion, he turns to them and says, well, I want you to put out into the deep water. If you remember Simon Peter's response, Lord, we've been out there all night. We haven't caught a single thing, but because you say it, we'll do it, he says. And what do they do? They put their nets out into the deep, and they were overwhelmed by the response. They discovered God at his word. They discovered God at his word, and they were overwhelmed by the response. And I believe God is speaking to us in these days about that kind of faith. Take him at his word. Even if you're growing a little older, a little sadder, a little more impatient, take him at his word. As we begin chapter 17 here, what we find is a brahm is 99 years old. So let that sink in a little bit.

I want to ask you your age here today. It is such a reminder, though, to us that just in passing, when we're walking down the pathway of faith, there is no retirement age. There's no retirement. The purposes of God to deepen your faith have no time limit. And what's amazing is throughout all the delays, all the waiting, all the testing, what Abram is about to discover here in chapter 17 is that when God makes a promise, God makes a promise, and he keeps it. He keeps it. Great comfort to us. He is not the author of any unfinished business. What God begins, he completes. It's his pledge to Abram, and it's his pledge to all those descendants of him, to you and I here today. Look at this promise. This is Abraham's promise. It's our promise, too. Look at the confirmation here. Look at chapter 17, verse 1 and 2. Chapter 17, verse 1 and 2. When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, I am Almighty God. Walk before me and be blameless, and I will make my covenant between me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly. So what do we see here? We know God made the covenant with Abraham in chapter 15. Then, now, after the complete disaster of chapter 16, what does God do? He comes and he renews his promise on rock-solid terms. Despite the mess of chapter 16, chapter 17 is clear. My yes is my yes. My promise is my promise. Verse 3 and 4. Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. I love that. As for me, God says. As for me, I don't know about you, Abram, but as for me, you shall be. Not you might be. You shall be a father of many nations. When God says something's going to happen in the future, it's going to happen in the future. How can he talk and speak of this in this future way?

He's the one that makes the promise, and he's the one that fulfills it. That's how.

But at this point here with Abram and Sarai, from the human perspective, after chapter 16, what would they write across the promise of God to them? They would write impossible. Impossible.

And that's so often the word that we use from our perspective. It's impossible. But I want you to know that impossible is not in the vocabulary of God.

Neither is impossible in the vocabulary of true faith. And yet we've decided that so many things are impossible, haven't we? Some of us have given up. We've written impossible right across it. But what is God right across it?

Got any rivers you think are uncrossable? Mountains too high, too wide to touch? Got any rivers you think are uncrossable? Mountains too high, too wide to tunnel through?

God knows what we need are some impossibilities to stretch our faith.

What we need are some bridges broken right in the middle, some walls too high to scale, some problems too hard to answer, water too deep to swim.

Because at that point, at that point, there's one way.

There's only resting on His promise.

And something important to know, and that is, the promises of God must always be seen in the light of the character of God. Must always be seen in the light of the character of the one who makes them, the character of the one who promises. To know that character, it's vital in our expectation and the fulfillment of His promises.

Tell me if this is right in your youth. I think this maybe happened more in the old days, my days. Have you ever had a dare given you? If you eat this worm, I will give you $10. Okay. If I eat this worm, you will give me... Yes, I will give you $10. Okay, I'm gonna eat this worm. I have $10. I'm gonna eat it. You eat the worm, and what happens? There was no $10. The kid ends up running out and slams into his house and slams the door.

What good was the promise? What good is a promise without the character to back it up?

So when we come to the promises of God's Word, we need to see them in light of the character of God. Because the reason that some of us are fearful to walk out on God's promises is because we don't know God.

If we don't know God, we don't know how much we can ask of Him. If we don't know the magnificence of God's power, we will be meager in our expectations.

The measure of our faith and belief in the promises of God is almost directly tied to the extent that we believe in His character.

So what do we know about God?

What do we know about Him? Chapter 17, verse 1 again. What does He reveal about Himself? What does He say? Chapter 17, verse 1. I AM Almighty God. When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abram after all that mess. And what did He say to him?

I AM Almighty God.

The Hebrew there is, El Shaddai.

I AM God, all-powerful. Abraham was frail.

God was El Shaddai.

Canaan was full of people that were going to fight them every step of the way.

God was El Shaddai. Sarah was 90 years old, had never born a child. Is there any barrenness in El Shaddai?

You see, what promises are we having difficulty having faith in? Do you believe Him when He says, I have the plans I have for you. They are plans for good and not for disaster. They are plans to give you a future and a hope.

Do you believe that promise? Do you have faith in that promise?

God is speaking this to you today. For I know the plans I have for you. They are plans for good and not for disaster. They are plans to give you a future and a hope. That's Jeremiah 29, if you want to look that up later.

Do you believe it? With what you're facing, do you believe that He will never leave you? Or forsake you?

Do you have faith in that?

That's Hebrews 13. Just a few.

Now, what possible reason could we have for believing in these promises?

The answer is none, except they're grounded in the character of a God, whose yes means yes, and whose promise is He will never break it. He will never break a promise to you.

Well, let's work towards a conclusion here. What about the name of Abram here? He changed his name to Abraham in verse 5 of chapter 17. Verse 5, No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham. For I have made you a father of many nations. So just one syllable. It means multitude.

So his new name was a reminder not of what had happened, but what was going about to happen.

From Abram to Abraham. Then Sarah's name, verse 15 and 16. God said to Abraham, As for Sarai, your wife, you shall not call her her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. And I will bless her and also give you a son by her. Then I will bless her and she shall be the mother of many nations. Kings of peoples shall be from her.

Just one letter there. It's enough to remind them. The meaning is princess. That's what that word means. Princess. So upon a royal line will depend.

You might imagine, soon after, she calls out to him Abram.

And he'd say, oh no, Sarah, that's not my name.

That was yesterday.

God has given us a promise, a whole new name, a pledge.

Right through the name of our child, verse 19, and you will call him Isaac. Isaac is translated in different ways. Isaac's translated laughter, or he laughs, or may the Lord smile upon him. I think we know what God meant. Some might understand it to be the Lord smiled upon him. I think it's because the Father laughed. So that every time Abraham called out to his son, he would remember. He remembered how he laughed.

Every time he called out to Sarah, he remembered how God made her a princess. Every time she calls out to her husband, Abraham, a reminder of the covenant.

Hasn't God done the same for us? Hasn't he confirmed his promises to us, given us a new name? Once we were strangers, once we were enemies, now who are we? We. Sons and daughters. Heirs. Join heirs. Friends of God. And so when God says, I will do this, I will perform that. I will take you here. I will lead you from there, from this point to that point. Faith knows it to be true. God will keep his promise to you. Do not step out on your own timing. Do not step out on your own to produce your way.

God wants it. Wants for all of us. His promise is for abundance and it's an inheritance.

So when you read those promises, he will keep them.

He will keep them. So wait.

Wait.

When a crisis hits, and it's a crisis of reason against faith, go with faith every time. If you found yourself in the rating room of faith, and God has moved you from the deep end, from the shallows to the deep end, just know he has plans for you. And they are plans for a future and a hope beyond our wildest imagination. Have faith. Have faith. Why? Because he's El Shaddai. God Almighty.