God Is In Control Of My Patience

Let's stand to our feet this morning. We're gonna choose to praise the name of Jesus, the name above every name. We're so glad you're here. Come on, let's join together this morning. I count. ♪ I count on one thing ♪ ♪ The same God that never fails ♪ ♪ Will not fail me now ♪ ♪ You won't fail me now ♪ ♪ In the waiting ♪ ♪ The same God who's never late ♪ ♪ Is working all things out ♪ ♪ You're working all things out ♪ Come on, we sing. ♪ And yes, I will lift you high in the lowest valley ♪ ♪ And yes, I will bless your name ♪ ♪ Oh yes, I will seek for a joy when my heart is heavy ♪ ♪ And all my days, oh yes, I will ♪ Come on, we sing that verse again. We trust Him this morning. ♪ I count on one thing ♪ ♪ The same God that never fails ♪ ♪ Will not fail me now ♪ ♪ And you won't fail me now ♪ ♪ In the waiting ♪ ♪ The same God who's never late ♪ ♪ Is working all things out ♪ ♪ You're working all things out ♪ ♪ Oh yes, I will lift you high in the lowest valley ♪

♪ And yes, I will bless your name ♪ ♪ Oh yes, I will seek for a joy when my heart is heavy ♪ ♪ And all my days, oh yes, I will ♪ ♪ For all my days, oh yes, I will ♪ ♪ And I choose to praise, to glorify, glorify ♪ ♪ The name of all names, and nothing can stand against ♪ ♪ And I choose to praise, to glorify, glorify ♪ ♪ The name of all names, and nothing can stand against ♪ ♪ And I choose to praise, come on we sing ♪ ♪ To glorify, glorify the name of all names ♪ ♪ And nothing can stand against, and I choose to praise ♪ ♪ To glorify, glorify the name of all names ♪ ♪ And nothing can stand against, oh yes, I will ♪ ♪ Lift you high, and know it's value, yes, I will ♪ ♪ I'll bless your name, yes, I will ♪ ♪ For a joy when my heart is heavy, all my days, oh yes, I will ♪ ♪ For a joy when my heart is heavy, all my days, oh yes, I will ♪ ♪ For all my days, oh yes, I will ♪ ♪ For all my days, oh yes, I will ♪ Come on, we can give them praise this morning. All right, well, if you've got a Bible with you today, I want you to grab it. Genesis chapter 40 is where we're gonna be today. If you're brand new, no matter where you're at, welcome, really glad to have you. We've been journeying through the book of Genesis really since September, and we are now in a series from the Old Testament in Genesis on the life of a guy named Joseph. And so if you don't have a Bible, don't worry,

we're gonna throw all these verses up here on the screen for you. And this whole series is about how God is in control of your life. Gonna pause here and ask you, when I say the words, God is in control of your life, what do you think? Some of you, if you're honest, you're thinking to yourself, Nick, it sure doesn't feel like it, man. I don't know what he's doing, I don't know where he is, I don't know why he's not stepping into my situation, I don't know why he's not moving, and you feel like maybe God is not there, or he's not aware, or he is somewhat absent. Throughout this series so far, we've talked about how God is in control of our plans, he's in control of our pain, and today, we're gonna continue in that vein. The overall series is called God Meant It For Good. When we say that, what we're saying is this, God is working. in all things in your life for your good. Do you believe that? The hardest things in your life right now, God is working for good. The good things in your life right now, God is working for your good. Now I'm gonna say a statement, and whether you realize it or not, this is true about your life.

Okay, here's what it is. All of us, every single one of us who is in the sound of my voice today at every campus, every one of us has an ideal scenario of how every situation in our life should actually go. In other words, we believe that God should operate in this way, and he should move within the timing that I desire him to move. And so when God stops moving like I want him to move, or he doesn't do it within the timing that we desire, then we do not like it, and we get frustrated, maybe even angry at the Lord. We get really impatient anytime the timing extends any longer than we think it should. Now, by a show of hands, at every campus, any of you besides the preacher, struggle with impatience in your life. Anybody? Okay, many of you struggle with impatience. There's some of you who struggle with lying, okay? It's a different sermon, a different series altogether. All of us struggle with impatience, right? None of us likes to wait for anything. Case in point, what emotions are stirred up when I say these phrases? The DMV. Somebody in our church works at the DMV, and your response just offended them, okay? How about airport security lines? It's a tough one.

How about Disney World? I'm out. Five o'clock traffic even right here in Northwest Arkansas. Is it becoming a deal, right? How about this one? ER waiting room in the middle of a Saturday night. No good. I hate this one. Only 47 minutes remain on the iPhone update, right? We all have that one. School pickup line. I'm terrified, I'm terrified. You know what my least favorite is? It's the long prayer guy at the dinner table while the food is hot, and you're pretty sure he's having his quiet time in front of everybody at the table. Don't be doing that to us, okay? We just wanna eat while it's hot, all right? Every one of those, what do they do? They stir up a little bit of, man, I don't know about that, a little bit of anger, a little bit of impatience. Why is that? Because none of us likes to wait for anything. We all struggle with patience. So today, here's what I'm gonna talk about. God is in control of my patience. When I say the word patience, really what we're speaking about today

is we are speaking about God's delays in your life. Those seasons where you are forced to wait. Now listen to me when we get started. Somebody needs to send this room today or one of the rooms I'm preaching to. When God doesn't move within the timeline you think that he should move, God is still in control. Anybody waiting on God today? God is in charge. He has not forgotten you, and if you don't get anything else today, I want you to get this. God's job is to be God, and our job is to be patient and wait on God. God's job is to be God. He's doing a pretty good job of it, don't you think, already? And our job is to simply be patient and wait on the Lord. If you're brand new today, or maybe you've never heard the story of Joseph, let me catch you up a little bit to speed here. Joseph was the favorite son of his father, and because he was the favorite, all of his brothers hated him. They hated him like not just a little bit, like a lot. And they had this thought, let's kill him. Then they thought, well, maybe we shouldn't kill him, let's throw him in a pit. Then they see some slave traders walking by,

and they sell their brother into slavery. He goes to Egypt, he is bought as a slave by a guy named Potiphar, who's high-ranking within the Egyptian government, works for Pharaoh, and the hand of God is with Joseph to such an extent, Potiphar puts all that's in the house in his command and under his charge. Only problem was, Potiphar's wife had a little thing for Joseph, as you remember last week, and tried to come on to Joseph, and Joseph, in his integrity, was like, listen, we're not doing that, and he refuses her. She cries foul, she cries wolf, and basically says, no, he's tried to come on to me. Potiphar finds out, and we ended the story last week with Potiphar throwing this guy named Joseph falsely accused into prison. Now, let me give you our main thought for today. I would encourage you to write this down in your journal. I'm gonna come back to this several times throughout the message. God works in our waiting beyond what we can see. Did you get that? God works in our waiting beyond what we can see. This is true in your life today. This is ultimately true in the life of Joseph. Joseph, he's gonna be called out of prison by Pharaoh himself. Like, I'm gonna ruin the story for you.

He's about to be called out of prison by Pharaoh. He's going to interpret his dreams, be given a new platform. He's gonna save Egypt. He's gonna save the surrounding nations. He's ultimately going to save his family. Everybody listen to me. But all of that amazing part of the story begins with a delay. It begins with a pause. It begins with God just telling Joseph, hey, just wait. Joseph didn't get out of prison quickly. In fact, you're about to find out he'll spend years in prison. And I'm sure he's sitting in that prison cell wondering, when am I going to get done with this? Like, God, when are you going to get me out? Maybe you feel that way today. Lord, when is this trial going to be over? How much longer will our family have to deal with X, Y, Z, you fill in the blank. I want you to look at Genesis chapter 40, and I want you to look at it with me right here in verse one. Says this, sometime after this, the cupbearer, underline that word, of the king of Egypt and his baker, underline that, committed an offense against their Lord, the king of Egypt. And Pharaoh was angry with his two officers, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker,

and he put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard in the prison where who? Where Joseph was confined. So we're just introduced to the two key players in this story, all right? You've got a cupbearer of the king. So what is a cupbearer? In ancient days like this, a cupbearer would take the glass of whatever the king was about to drink, say it was a glass of wine, before the king would eat it, before Pharaoh would drink it, the cupbearer would drink it to make sure no one had poisoned the wine or poisoned the drink. And so if the guy didn't croak, it was okay for Pharaoh to drink it. Now I'm a germaphobe, I think I just take my chances. I don't need a cupbearer, that's nasty to me, all right? Second key player in this story is the baker, the chief baker who would basically make the meals for the king of Egypt, Pharaoh himself. They are placed into the same prison where Joseph is. Now these guys have two different dreams, all right? Stay with me in the story right here. They have two different dreams. They're both troubled as to what it means, and Joseph recognizes they're troubled, and he essentially asks them this, hey, what's wrong?

And they say, well, we have these dreams. We don't know what they mean. And so Joseph then gives them both an interpretation. Here's what the interpretation was. He says, cupbearer, within three days, your dream means that you're gonna be restored to your position as the chief cupbearer. Well, the baker hears that and he's like, man, that's good news. What about my dream? And he's like, it's a different story for you. In three days, your head will be pulled up, you will be hanged, and the birds will eat your flesh. Bad dream, right? And a weird dream. You say, well, what happened? Exactly as Joseph predicted their dreams would become. The baker is killed, the cupbearer is restored to his position. Now, I want you to skip all the way down to verse 23. This is key about the cupbearer in this story. It says, yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but what? Underline this or circle it, but forgot him. What's the point that gets to the heart of the message of verse 23? The cupbearer forgot about him. Anybody relate with that today? Anybody feel forgotten today? A couple weeks ago, I alluded to really

an extremely difficult season of my own life where I felt forgotten by God. You ever been there? I felt like God was silent. I did not understand his activity. I don't know. I want to say something, but I'm a pastor. No, I don't know if I'm allowed to say it. Can I say what I think I want to say? Is that okay? It messed with my theology for a season. It messed with what I had always believed about God, that God should work in this way, within my timing. And in all reality, it really put my faith in a difficult place. Have you ever been there? Where you just think to yourself, Lord, I don't understand what's going on, and I just have to wait. It's easy to feel forgotten by the Lord. Easy to feel abandoned by the Lord. And I'll just tell you, like, FYI, I'm several years on the back end of that season of my life, and here's what I found. I found the main principle of our passage today, that God is working in ways that we always cannot see. I found in my own life, God was working behind the scenes in ways that I could not see, and really, I could not. not have imagined.

Man, you know what it feels like to feel forgotten, right? Like some of you feel forgotten in your family, maybe within your friend group, maybe you feel forgotten in your career, like man, everybody else is rising above me. I should be the one getting moved up and yet everybody else is moving past me. And you just, some of you, if you're honest, you say, Nick, I honestly feel forgotten by God. There's something about waiting that is such a pressing season that we look to the heavens and think, God, where are you? And yet the delays of God can mess with our head and mess with our theology where God's not working in the way we want him to within the timeline that we have in our minds. Here's a great truth from this passage write it down in your journal today. God sees what man doesn't see and God remembers what man doesn't remember. God sees what man doesn't see and God remembers what man doesn't remember. This story here is ultimately an example of God's eyes being on a man whom everybody else seemingly forgot. But man, right here in this story, I imagine that Joseph feels a certain way. Probably feels forgotten, probably feels forsaken by the Lord and the dude who has just,

like he's just interpreted his dream, probably feels forgotten first and foremost by that guy. Do you not remember what I did for you? I want you to skip all the way down to the beginning of chapter 41, okay? Look at what it says after how many years? After two whole years, Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing by the Nile. Now just pause there for a moment. This verse is connected to the end of chapter 40, it connects to the rest of the story here in chapter 41 and beyond. The chief cupbearer forgot him and he left him in prison for two whole years. And then Pharaoh has some dreams, he has two dreams. Here's what the two dreams were. The first dream, she got seven fat cows and seven thin cows. You ever had that weird of a dream? Seven fat cows, seven thin cows, and then the seven fat cows ate the thin cows, okay? So there might've been some other cows that they ate along the way. The second dream was this, there were seven good ears of grain and then there were seven thin ears of grain. And once again, the good ears of grain ate the thin ears of grain. Now, much like the two men, Pharaoh wakes up and he's like,

man, that's just disturbing. I don't know what that means. I have no idea what this is all about. And he called his magicians in, he called his wise men of Egypt to come in, and he essentially told them this, hey, you need to tell me what this means. And none of them can interpret the dream. And it's just at that moment that a light bulb goes on over the head of the cupbearer. It's like, ding. I remember there was this guy in prison who interpreted a dream. And here's what he says. Look all the way down to verse 12. He says, a young Hebrew was there with us. Who's the young Hebrew? Joseph, right? A servant of the captain of the guard. And when we told him, he interpreted our dreams to us, giving an interpretation to each man according to his dream. And as he interpreted it to us, so it came about. I was restored to my office and the baker was hanged. So finally this cupbearer's like, oh, Pharaoh, I remember. There's this guy in prison who he interpreted my dream. Now, remember the main point of today because it comes into play here. God works in our waiting beyond what we can see.

He is building patience and trust within us beyond what we know. Now, everybody look at me for a second, okay? We often read our Bibles like this, which you need to. You need to read it within the context of the chapter, of the section of chapters, of the book that it's in. But sometimes we read it so closely that we miss the overarching story about what's going on here. Joseph's story spans 13 chapters. And so yes, read it like this, but don't forget to do this and just big picture what's going on here. Big picture look, had Joseph gotten out of prison sooner, he would not have been in a position to help Pharaoh. And yet just at the right time, you had this cupbearer who remembers about this guy, this Jewish guy in prison who he interprets dreams and he tells Pharaoh about this guy. Somebody in these rooms needs to hear this word today. God's timing is always the right timing. God's timing is always the right timing. Is God speaking to you today? In many ways, this story of Joseph is a story about timing, and specifically about waiting on God in His timing. In many ways, the Christian story, if you were to do kind of a 10,000 foot view of the Bible, the Christian story is all about timing. The Bible is all about timing. Since creation, God has been working out

His story of redemption. Throughout history, He has been talking about the price and the penalty of sin, and then in His timing, what did He do? Send His only son, Jesus, to die on the cross for us. And in His timing, He will return. How incredible is that? God's timing is always the right timing. If you think about waiting on God today, again, that's where some of you are at, there's a woman by the name of Jays Mazarin, she's a Christian counselor and author. I love what she writes about waiting on the Lord. She says this, something actually happens while nothing is happening. God uses waiting to change us. Gosh, what a powerful word. Can I say it to you? I'm gonna read it real slowly. Something actually happens while nothing is happening. God uses that waiting to change us. Sounds eerily familiar to our main point for the day, does it not? That God is working in ways beyond what we can see in the moment. Waiting is one of the most critical disciplines of the Christian life, and yet I would say it's one of the hardest disciplines of the Christian life, and at the same side, other side of my mouth,

I'd say it's also one of the most beneficial things in your life to wait on the Lord. Anybody ever tried to force a situation in your life? Anybody ever tried to push something through that really wasn't right at the time? Anybody thankful in hindsight, like spiritual hindsight, that God did not answer some of your prayers, but you had to wait on Him? Anybody thankful in praying prayers like this today? Lord, thank you that I did not marry that woman. Lord, thank you that I did not marry that guy. Lord, thank you that I did not take that job, and I just, I waited on the Lord. And what God had in store was something much more good, much more beneficial. God meant it for good. When I was growing up, I lived probably 10 minutes from the Springdale campus in Springdale, and we lived in a normal neighborhood, and then kind of the backyard side yard of the house just sloped down like a big old hill. It was much bigger in my childhood mind than it actually is when I drive by it now, but when I was a kid, it was just this huge hill, and at the bottom of the hill, it flattened out, and then it just dropped into about a six-foot ditch. The ditch was a ditch, okay? It was kind of like an empty creek bed that was rocky most of the year, unless you had a night like last night

where it just pours, and then you drive by, and there was water flowing through the ditch, but most of the time, it was just a dry, empty creek bed. So growing up, my brother and I would always play with our neighbor friends across the street. They had two boys as well. So man, we'd play in that ditch. Like, give four boys a ditch. That's all we needed. We'd like be inside playing Nintendo. I'm like, man, I'm bored. I'm gonna go play in the ditch. Yeah, I wanna go play in the ditch. Let's go to the ditch. So we'd go play in the ditch, and you know, there's just rocks that you can throw because you're a boy. You can throw rocks at each other. We played pretend war in the ditch. We played Star Wars in the ditch. Anything you can imagine, we played in the ditch, and yet, we often think about the ditch as a negative thing, right, a negative connotation. Somebody will be down in the dumps and say, man, you gotta get out of the ditch, or they're just in some stuff they don't need to be in. It's like, golly, man, you really are in a ditch spiritually. I read an article in studying for this message written by a guy named Mark Vrogop, and he titled the article How God Uses Our Waiting,

a great title, How God Uses Our Waiting, and he speaks about some ditches that you need to avoid while you're waiting on God. So here's the hard thing about waiting on God. Some of you are well aware today you're waiting on God, okay, like you've been in a season, Nick, I've been waiting on my prodigal son or daughter to come home. I've been waiting on something to happen in my career. I've been waiting on us to get pregnant. We're in an infertility issue. I've been waiting on this. I've been waiting on that. Like, whatever it is in your life, others of you, you have just begun the waiting process, and it's so early in the process that you don't even know it's a waiting process. And my heart breaks for you a little bit because I've been there, and this is about to be a long journey for some of you. An extended season of prayer, an extended season of waiting. And Virogop says this, that while you're in that season, you need to avoid these ditches. He mentions three, look at these. Number one, the ditch of anger. Love what he writes about this. Anybody angry because you're having to wait? Like take off the church mask today and just be real. Anybody angry at God today because of how he's moving

or not moving in your situation? Anybody frustrated with the Lord because like, God, you were supposed to move without me having to go through anything. You were supposed to move within two to three weeks max. He writes this, he says, waiting and anger go together. Sometimes it looks like an obvious blow up, but other times it can settle into a low grade frustration. Sinful anger is our attempt to regain control through rash action. Waiting makes us vulnerable, and in anger, we can try to fill the vulnerability gap by forcing change regardless of the consequences. Anybody in that situation today? Anybody taking rash action that's driven by anger? Anybody trying to force change when it's just not right? You could be in the ditch of anger. He gives a second, he calls this one the ditch of anxiety. The ditch of anxiety. He speaks about how waiting often causes anxiety because it's ultimately a control issue. And so if you're here today at one of the campuses, and you would say, Nick, my issue is anxiety. My issue is worry. I would encourage you to take a deeper look underneath that, and it could be, not always, but it could be for you that your root issue is not really anxiety or worry, your root issue is control. And when you lose control, better said, when you lose the sense of control that you have,

anxiety fills your heart. We have no idea when the problem will end, and we, have you heard this term? We ruminate in our thoughts again and again and again. Can I give you something gross here, but it's gonna make a point spiritually? We're Arkansans, so we handle this type of stuff. It's about cows. Anybody see a cow on the way to work? I was about to go on a rabbit trail, but I'm gonna stick with the message, okay? You ever heard how a cow ruminates? A cow will bend down, and it will chew grass, and it will chew it, chew it, chew it, and it will swallow it into what's called its first stomach. You know what it does? It throws it up back into its mouth, and it continues to chew it to get all the nutrients out of the grass. Some of you are like, yes, pastor, I know what you're speaking, thank you for that. Anybody grossed out by that? It's called ruminating, or rumination that they eat, and they regurgitate it in their mouth, and they continue to chew it. So it is for the believer who ruminates on ungodly thoughts, who allows anxiety and worry to take over your life because you constantly ruminate in your mind. You say, well, did I handle that right? I wonder if that person's mad at me.

I wonder what's gonna happen in the future. What about my kids? What about my job? I didn't get that promotion. What about this? You see that? Like, you think I'm silly right now, saying it like that? That's what's going on. It's just pinging around in your mind, just ruminating. It's the ditch of anxiety. How about a third one, the ditch of apathy? I think this one might be the most dangerous. He connects all three of these together, and he speaks about apathy in this way. He says, anger demands change. Anxiety wants to think. Apathy stops caring. It's responding to disappointments, delays, and unfulfilled dreams with the self-protective posture of I just don't care anymore. Not a great place to be. No doubt that's where some of you are at today, and you would say, Nick, I'm at a place where I just don't care anymore. I think you're very susceptible to sin in that ditch specifically. Here's real talk for you. All of us end up. in one of these ditches from time to time. What I tell you is it's just not okay to stay in the ditch.

Find yourself there today, that's a grace of God to realize and recognize that today, and then get out of the ditch. You say, I don't know how to get out of the ditch. That's why you need the Lord. That's why you need one another. When we'd be playing in the ditch as kids, I'd look and some places there was no way out of the ditch. It was five or six feet, and you know, I'm four foot tall, I'm not getting out of that. And then I'd walk a little bit further, and then I'd see a tree root and a little clearing, and I could pull it up and get out of the ditch. Today, some of you need to get out of the ditch. Like God is giving you a lifeline. He's giving you a tree root saying, it's my grace that you even recognize you're in the ditch today. Now get out of the ditch. Ditch of anger, the ditch of anxiety, the ditch of apathy today. Now here's what you need to understand. Last week I talked to you about pain. Wasn't that a nice, lighthearted message? And I told you that pain is often the pathway to a deeper trust of God. Did you know that this message ends up at the same place? Seasons of waiting on God are also meant to lead you to a deeper trust of God. It is to remind you in moments,

you're not God, and He is God. I wonder how many of you like a great response of today in your own life would be for you to tell the Lord something very odd. You know what the odd thing would be? Lord, today I know that I'm not you, and I confess that I'm not you. And so I'm gonna let you be you, and I'll just be me. I'm asking you to get involved with me for a better me. Does that make sense? Like Lord, I am not God, and I am trusting in you to do some things in me that only you can do. God's delays are meant to lead you to a deeper trust of the Lord. So here's a question for you. Will you allow the Lord to do that work in your life? Like will you allow Him that season that you're in that you don't wanna be in, will you allow that to lead you to a deeper trust of the Lord? Now here, let's go back to the story. Here's the interpretation of Pharaoh's dreams. Egypt was gonna have seven plentiful years of food followed by seven years of famine. If you go further in the passage, this is where we're gonna head next week. I won't ruin it, but we'll just kinda tease it for you. Joseph is essentially gonna tell Pharaoh, you gotta hold food back year by year so that you can make it through the seven years of famine. And what's about to unfold is Pharaoh's gonna be like,

all right, Joseph, you're in charge, you do it. Like you do it. All of this brings us back to our original idea. God works in our waiting beyond what we can see. Do you realize this, that God's delays are often God's directions? God's delays in your life are often God's directions. Think about this, Joseph would have never chosen this delay. He would have never been asked to stay in prison two years. Like can you imagine the absurdity of that prayer? Lord, man, I'd love to be, I'd love to be bought as a slave and Lord, I would really appreciate it if I could be falsely accused and thrown in prison and man, Lord, if you could just grant my wish, I would love to be in there for two whole years. You see the absurdity of that? Would have never prayed this, would have never asked for this and yet that delay in his life put him in a position where you ultimately see God's direction in his life. But again, the question for us today is, will you allow that delay to build a deeper trust of God in your life? Will you view God's delays as his ultimate directions? If God is working all things for good, which is Joseph's entire life and Romans 8, 28 all together. If God is really working all things for good, God's no's are for your good, not no's, N-O apostrophe no, S, okay? When he says no, it's for your good. When he says yes, it's for your good.

When God says wait, it's for your good. I'll close with this. Charles Spurgeon once said these powerful words about waiting on God. He says, if the Lord Jehovah makes us wait, let us do so with our whole hearts. Golly, that's good enough right there, right? How many of you are waiting with your whole heart? He says, for blessed are all that they wait for him. He is worth waiting for. The waiting itself is beneficial to us. It tries faith, exercises patience. trains submission and endears the blessing when it comes. The Lord's people, listen to this, have always been a waiting people. Always been a waiting people. I want you to look at this chair I have here today. We often view waiting like this, a bit of, it's a very passive, like, just waiting on God. Just waiting on God to move. Like in a frustrated, you know what I'm saying? Just, I'm just waiting on the Lord. I mean, I'm good to go, just waiting on God. It's a passive waiting. You realize when the Bible speaks about waiting, it's not passive, it's active. The Hebrew word for waiting in the Bible is the word kavah. Here's what it means.

To look eagerly. It is the idea of waiting with tension and hope. To look eagerly. The idea of waiting with tension and with hope. In other words, I'm waiting on God to move. I am expecting God to move. Let me like play it out for you. Instead of like passive frustration, I'm just waiting, just waiting on God. Like you wait in the car for your wife to get ready. I'm just waiting. Send me out to your family. I'm just, whenever God decides to move, yep. Biblical hope and biblical waiting is this, so like, man, I'm waiting on God. I can't wait to see what he's gonna do. I'm like getting on the chair to, I wanna see what God does. I'm looking eagerly, like I'm excited about the future. I believe that God is working all things for good. You see the difference there? So, I gotta just stop and just ask you which, which one are you? Frustrated waiting? Passively waiting? Or man, looking eagerly, can't wait to see what God's gonna do? Trusting in full hope and assurance in faith that God is working all things together for my good. If you're here today and you're in a waiting season,

no bones about it, you know it. This is a pathway to a deeper trust of God. And I'm gonna ask you if you're in a season of waiting and you know that this is the step that you need to take. I'm like, man, I know that God is drilling roots down in my heart towards my relationship with him. And in just a moment, regardless of what campus you're at today, I'm just gonna ask you to respond to the Lord. I'm just gonna ask you to come to the altar. Say, Lord, I know that I'm in a season of waiting and I'm just trusting you right now. I'm just letting the roots go deep and I need you to do that in me. For some of you, you are waiting on God's activity in another person. Many ways that's harder. You're waiting for that prodigal son or daughter to return home. You're waiting for that person at your office to trust Christ. You're waiting in some other vein of your life, but you're waiting on someone else. I'm just gonna ask you to come and just pray for that person. Maybe you're here today and you've really struggled to see how God is moving. And you've really had a lack of faith towards that, but man, you're ready to just say, Lord, I am believing today.

I am coming with faith with a deeper trust that you are moving. I'm just gonna ask you to come. This one will take honesty. Maybe you're here and you're in a ditch spiritually. Maybe you're angry at God. Maybe your life is filled with anxiety Maybe your life is filled with anxiety because you ruminate over your thoughts repeatedly. Maybe you're honest enough to say, Nick, I'm just kind of apathetic. I've been waiting so long. I've just kind of given up. But I know I need to get out of the ditch. And like I told you a moment, there's that tree root of God's hand, like reaching down, saying, get out. Some of you are like, Nick, I know I'm in the ditch. I don't know how to get out. Just gonna ask you to come and just ask the Lord, Lord, I need help getting out of this thing. That's the first step for you. Maybe you're here today and you are someone who is fighting God's timing. Gosh, you've been just so frustrated. You're hurting so bad. I'm gonna ask you to come today and to surrender that timing to the Lord. Say, God, I trust you more than I trust me. I will wait.

Maybe you're here and you've never trusted Christ. There's something about seasons like this that are pressing or even squeezing upon a person's life. And moments of pressing are often what God uses to make somebody's heart tender to the gospel of Jesus. Maybe that's you and you've been running from God. Like, I really sensed in the first service today at Fayetteville, just to go deeper on this than I had intended in my notes, some of you have been running from God. You know you need to be saved. And you have run into situation after situation of God's pressing and his calling and his convicting of you. And you have pushed away and you've pushed away and you've run and you've run and you run. Today, here's what I would just tell you. There is great hope and great freedom when you just say yes to God. There's great hope when you surrender to a relationship with Jesus Christ. And so in just a moment at all of our campuses, I'm gonna ask you to come as soon as we begin to sing, and I'm gonna ask you to give your life to Jesus even here today. All of our campuses, can we just bow our head and close our eyes as we wrap up? Please, no one moving or leaving. This is the most important time in our service at every campus. Our staff is gonna make their way to the front of each aisle

and if you're that person that I just spoke about, that you know you need to be in a relationship with Jesus, and yet you've been running from God, you've been just saying no again and again and again, but you know today is the day that you need to be saved. I'm just gonna ask you to come. I'm just gonna ask you to grab one of these men or women who are closest to you, grab their hand, and just say, I need to give my life to Jesus. They're here for that very purpose. If you're here, you're a follower of Jesus, maybe you fit into one of those other categories of needing to just surrender to the Lord in your life, surrender to his timing and to his plan, you want a deeper trust of God in your life, then these are moments to just respond to the Lord. Lord, I'm just saying yes. I'm just saying amen. Lord, I wanna get out of the ditch, and I don't know how, but I need you to help me. Lord, I just wanna lay my plans on the altar. Our staff's here to pray with you, and at the front of every stage, at every campus, just make this time, this place, just a place of commitment, an altar where you get right with the Lord and cry your heart out to him. Lord, it's our desire that you would save people in these next few moments, Lord, that you would draw Christians back to you,

that you would move us closer to where we need to be with you than we are in this present moment. So Father, help us, bring us out of the ditch, and we trust by faith for you to do that now. It's in Jesus' name that we pray, amen.