 Pastor Jerry Locke |
TWENTY-FIRST OF 24 SERMONS - SINGLE, STAND ALONE SCRIPTURE SERIES LAKE WORTH BAPTIST CHURCH 4445 Hodgkins Rd. Fort Worth, TX 76135 Sermons by one of our outstanding Independent Baptist Preachers, Brother Jerry Locke, of Fort Worth, Texas. Enjoy! |
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Isaiah 40:31 - Stand-Alone Sermon On "Waiting"
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Most all Scripture needs a context for correct interpretation. Isolated verses are often the source of misinterpretation and ultimately heresy. The fact is, most Bible verses are not intended to stand alone.
But there are some single scriptures that are so powerful, so clear, so complete that they are able to stand alone. There are three things we are intending to do with each of these “single, stand alone” scriptures.
Memorize...Psalm 119:11 “Thy word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against thee.” We will assign the scripture a week in advance to memorize.
Message...Organize and discuss these single scriptures.
Meditate… Psalm 1:2 ”But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.” Isaiah 40:31 - Stand-Alone Sermon on "Waiting"
There is not another single Scripture in God’s Word that is more current for this generation than this. It serves as both an analysis and an answer for our times.
1. A WEARINESS THAT IS REVEALED.
v. 28 — The One Person who is never weary. God neither faints nor is weary.
v. 29 — The many people who are often weary. We faint and have no might.
We faint and are weary, we utterly fall.
v. 31 — The sweet promise to the weary.
The word “weary” means to “feel fatigue.” It is the natural result of labor and toil that reduces strength.
I believe I speak on a regular basis to people in this congregation who are members of the “fraternity of the fatigued.” So many believers have allowed the Christian pilgrimage to degenerate into a rat race — and the rats are winning!
The Signs of Fatigue. Remember the old Datsun commercial, “We are
driven!” That’s us. Someone has well said, “We worship out work. We work at our play. And we play at our worship.” We have sold ourselves on the American way of living — at a breakneck pace, in the fast lane, involved in everything that comes our way. And some proudly say, “But I would rather burn out than rust out.” Well, my friend, either way you are out! The signs of fatigue and weariness are easily seen in married relationships that have gone stale, in churches services that are routine, and in jobs that are boooooring!
The Sources of Fatigue. What are the culprits that weary us?
* Our life style. The way we choose to live - plan, schedule,work, hurry here and there. There is something about this age that wears on you until you wear down or eventually wear out! Our sinful society can sandblast our souls. I read a cute story of a first-grader who wondered why her father brought home a briefcase full of work every evening. Her mother explained, “Daddy has so much to do that he can’t finish it all at the office.” “Well, then,” asked the child innocently, “why don’t they put him in a slower group?” It’s hard to find a slower group, isn’t it?
* People, Luke 18:5. There are some kinds of people that wear us down.
* Trials, Hebrews 12:3. There are some burdens that seem like they are more than we can bear.
Thanks God, that is never so, 1 Corinthians 10:13.
* Task, Galatians 6:9, 2 Thessalonians 3:13. We may not get tired “of” God’s work, but all of can and do get tired “in” God’s work!
All right. There is the problem. There are those who have allowed themselves to get under a burden and have lost courage and hope. They flag, faint and become despondent in the task. And for every one who “burns out” in God’s work, there are hundreds added to them who just “back out.” “They turned back in the day of battle,” Psalm 78:9.
2. A WAITING THAT RENEWS, v. 31a.
A Contrast that is Declared. “But . . .” God has pointed out the problem and now declares there is another way to live.
A Condition that is Difficult. “But they that wait upon the Lord.” Most Christian I know have a serious “wait problem” that no diet or exercise program in this world can remedy! You have heard the American prayer, “Lord, give me patience. And I want it right now!” It is almost impossible for a generation who exists on microwave dinners, instant potatoes, stove-top stuffing, concentrated orange juice, instant-view video, and freeway express lanes to learn how to wait. Who wants to wait? I have not enjoyed waiting for . . . the toast to brown . . . the light to turn green . . . the next parking space . . . children to get out of school . . . checker at the grocery store . . . game to start . . . the jello to jell — and that’s just the big stuff!
Most of us are not like the little girl at her piano practice, who when asked why she was so quiet, answered, “Mother, I am practicing the rests.”
Now get this straight. Waiting is not simple idleness or goofing off that we blame on God. God does not favor loafing, but neither does He frown on the right kind of waiting.
Look over at Mark 6:30-32.
v. 30 — The Apostle reported of their routine and results.
v. 31 — Jesus picked up on their fatigue and prescribed, “Come ye yourselves apart . . . and rest a while.”
Vance Havner used to say, “If Christians do not come apart and rest awhile, they may just plain come apart.”
Look at the Psalms.
Psalm 27:14 “Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.”
Psalm 46:10 “Be still, and know that I am God...”
In Isaiah 40:31 the word “wait” is a Hebrew word kawvaw that means “to bind together” (perhaps by twisting). The noun means a “rope” or a “line.” This seems to be the idea. When we present our fatigued life to God in obedient surrender it is like a small thread (us) that is wrapped around a steel cable (God) and because it is twisted around the cable, the thread is as strong as the cable.
This is the “exchanged life.”
Colossians 3:3 says, “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.”
Certainly the act and attitude of waiting upon the Lord involves...
A Consequence that is Delightful. “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.” A new energy to engage! A new power to perform! A new unction to function! This is the very thing we need — renewed strength.
Isaiah 30:1-2 — Israel went to Pharaoh in Egypt to find strength. It was not there.
Isaiah 30:15 — "In returning and rest . . . in quietness and confidence shall be your strength.”
Renewed strength for . . .
<> Choices. Waiting is not a waste. Most of the exploits of the Christian life that are not sanctified by a season of waiting usually end up bringing reproach upon God’s sacred cause.
<> Challenges. The greater the challenge the longer we need to wait upon the Lord.
<> Crises. When we are faced with spiritual, mental, emotional, domestic, even financial emergencies, mere physical and natural powers
will not avail. “As thy days, so shall thy strength be,” Deut. 33:25.
3. THERE IS A WELL-BEING THAT RESULTS, v. 31b.
This is a strange sequence, an odd order. The normal way would be to have it — walk, run, mount up. H. A. Ironsides and W. A. Criswell suggest that possibly the prophet had three stages in mind — youth soaring, middle age running and old age walking. God has strength equal to your age and your task.
Spiritual Rising. “Mount up with wings as eagles.” That’s soaring. God wants to give you strength to soar like an eagle, not simply to be a barnyard turkey. God’s people need the strength to rise above this world and take their place in the heavenlies! This is strength to do the impossible.
Strenuous Running. “They shall run and not be weary.” That’s surging. Life is not all spiritually exhilarating. We are a part of a great race. It is a rigorous race. It is a distance race, not a dash. And it is a relay race. We are handing the baton to those behind us. This is strength to do the difficult.
Steady Routine. “They shall walk and not be faint.” That’s slogging. When the British soldiers of World War I were going through the incredible mud of the Flangers, there was nothing to do but “slog on.” God wants us to be good pedestrians. “Walk in love . . . walk as children of light . . . walk worthy of your vocation.” This is the strength to do the common.
A bone-weary father dragged into his home dog tired late one evening. It had been one of those unbelievable days of pressure, deadlines, and demands. He looked forward to a time of relaxation and quietness. Exhausted, he picked up the evening paper and headed for his favorite easy chair by the fireplace. About the time he got his shoes untied, PLOP! into his lap dropped his five-year-old son with an excited grim on his face. “Hi, Dad, . . . let’s play!”
He loves the boy dearly, but his need for a little time all alone to repair and think was, for the moment, a greater need than with Junior. What could he do?
There had been a recent moon probe and the newspaper carried a huge picture of the earth. With a flash of much-need insight, the day asked his boy to bring a pair of scissors and some transparent tape. Quickly, the dad cut the picture of the earth into various shapes and sizes, then handled the pile of homemade jigsaw puzzle pieces to him.
“You tape it all back together, Danny, then come one back and we’ll play, okay?”
Off scampered the child to his room as dad breathed a sigh of relief. But in less than ten minutes the boy bounded back with everything taped perfectly in place. Stunned, the father asked: “How did you do it so fast, Son?”
“Aw, it was easy, Daddy. You see, there is this picture of a man on the back of the sheet . . . and when you put the man together, the world comes together.”
And so it is in life. When we put the Man in His rightful place, it’s amazing what happens to our world. And, more importantly, what happens to US (Charles Swindoll, Strengthening Your Grip, pp. 175-176). |