Wait for It, Part 2

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. What if in every situation that you were ever in, you believe that a sovereign God with a good purpose was really the one who was in charge? Your boss may not deserve your integrity. Your boss may not deserve your kindness or even your faithfulness, but Jesus always does. Thanks for joining us for another day of solid biblical teaching with pastor, author, and apologist J.D.

Greer. I'm your host, Molly Bidevich. You know, David did not spend time in the wilderness running from Saul, just so we could believe that if we simply trust God more, he will accept and provide for us in the way that we want. That's the wrong order.

And believe me, the order is critical. Today, pastor J.D. explains how David's confidence and steadfast faith developed first because he believed God had already accepted him. And I'm here to tell you that you can have that same faith. So let's rejoin pastor J.D.

for the second half of our teaching titled, Wait For It. 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 and your behavior becomes obsessive and manipulative and unhealthy. See, these things are the opposite of what David did. 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. 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. And y'all, let me be clear.

By waiting, I do not mean sitting around doing nothing. Do you notice David is very active in these chapters. He's a busy little bee.

He protects himself by running. He prays about the situation, even writes a couple of Psalms that we still have access to today. He asks 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 and to sin.

Waiting on the Lord is a very active thing. In fact, think of it like this. Have you ever eaten at a true five-star restaurant? I don't mean the kind of restaurants that label themselves five stars and say, we're a five-star restaurant and we'll charge you $300 to eat.

I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about like a legit five-star. I only have once, maybe twice, and I assure you it was a gift card. Very special occasion. And I remember this one that Veronica and I were at. I think our table had one waiter who was devoted just to Veronica and me. And he stood off to the side and he just watched us. And I promise you, I would just think, I think I need some pepper. And it was like he would suddenly just apparate beside my table.

Sir, would you like some fresh ground pepper or a malted Mediterranean blend? Now he's my waiter, but he's very actively attentive to everything that I'm communicating. The opposite of that would be places like the Waffle House, where I could literally burst into flames and nobody would notice. I mean, you got a waiter there too, but because they're often understaffed, they're usually preoccupied with a bunch of other things.

In fact, I was sitting there the other day and I promise you, the same lady sat me, took my order, cooked my food, and mopped the bathroom, all in the space of about 10 minutes. 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?

Disciples 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.

Hey, write this down. The biggest enemy of my life is not Saul. It's my inability to wait. 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. 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. Each of the children were led into an empty room that was empty of distractions, just four bare walls, a floor, table, and a chair, where a treat of their choice, either two animal cookies or five pretzel sticks, they got to choose, were placed on a table. The researchers then told each child that they could eat the treat right then, no punishment. But if they would wait an undesignated amount of time without eating the treat in front of them, they would be rewarded with a second treat.

The researchers then left the room and watched through a camera. Some kids, which they later came to be known as the marshmallow grabbers, which ironically there's no marshmallows involved, but go with it. Marshmallow grabbers just immediately grabbed the treats and gobbled them down. Cannot trust adults?

Bird in the hands worth doing the bush. They said the second group of kids who chose much smaller group, who chose to wait, which they called the marshmallow waiters, they said it was fascinating watching all the coping strategies they developed to wait, said some covered their eyes with their hands so they couldn't see the treats. Some got up and walked around the room. Some avoided making eye contact with the treat altogether.

They said this one kid even got down and licked the table beside the treat as if somehow the treat had the taste of transmogrified into the wood. Researchers then tracked these children for the next three decades until the early 2000s and found that children, the 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. One New Zealand study that I read about, done on more than over a thousand kids over four decades, okay, so much bigger sample size, concluded that the one factor that mattered more than any other factor on a child's future health, material wealth, relational harmony, the one factor that mattered more than any other was impulse control.

It was more significant than social class, wealth of their family, or even their IQ. You say, well, that depresses me about my kids. Yeah, it's something we got to help them with, but forget your kids for a minute. How many of you are like, yeah, right here, I'm the marshmallow grabber. I'm the marshmallow.

I'm gonna go home this afternoon and there's gonna be a proverbial marshmallow and I'm not gonna be able to resist. You got to pray for the ability to wait. Good things come to them that wait, but not to those who hesitate, so hurry up and wait upon the Lord. You say, well, J.D., this all sounds a lot easier said than done.

Where do you find the resources to become a five-star waiter? Oh, I'm so glad you asked. Do you know David actually wrote a psalm to tell us that? This is one of the psalms that we know exactly when he wrote it and where he wrote it because he tells us. So I want you to leave 1 Samuel 24, leave it, and I want you to turn to Psalm 57. Y'all, I'm telling you, this is so important. I want everybody to turn there, okay?

Everybody turn there. A mictum of David when he fled from Saul hiding in the cave. Mictum is Hebrew for R&B ballad. Do you notice when he wrote it? When he was hiding in the caves.

So you get to see what was actually going on in his heart in the very moment. Verse one, be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me. For in you my soul takes refuge, in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, until the storms of destruction pass by. I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me. He will send from heaven and save me. He will put to shame him who tramples on me, Selah.

God will send from heaven and he will help me. It might be on his time, but verse three, God will, he will send out his steadfast love and his faithfulness. I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. What do we see in those verses?

All right, take a notes right down. Number one, what I see is sovereign purpose. Verse two, do you look at it? David said, I know God that even in this cave, you have a purpose. Underline that word purpose, if you underline stuff in your Bible.

God has a purpose for me, even in this cave. Saul's not really the one in charge here, God. Saul thinks he's in charge, but you're the one in charge, which means I don't have to try to control Saul. I don't have to respond to Saul. I just have to honor you and respond to you. And when I do, I can trust you with the results because ultimately you're the one in charge of the situation and you've got a purpose for it.

What if, what if in every situation that you were ever in, you believe that a sovereign God with a good purpose was really the one who was in charge? My boss might be a jerk to me, but I don't have to respond to him. I don't have to pay him back or control him because God is the one in charge of this situation. My spouse might be insensitive and rude, but I'm going to respond not to her or to him. I'm going to respond to him because he's the one ultimately in charge.

And he's got a purpose, even in this. Saul may not deserve your mercy. Your boss may not deserve your integrity. Your boss may not deserve your kindness or even your faithfulness, but Jesus always does.

And so you can always first and foremost respond to him and not your spouse, not your boss. Number two, steadfast love. That's what we say. That's what we see in these verses. Not only does God have a purpose in my trial, that purpose is woven with the cords of steadfast, unchanging love. Again, how would your perspective change? How would your perspective change if you really believe that in all things, even when Saul has you unjustly trapped in a cave, you believe that a sovereign God had a good purpose in it. And that purpose was woven with the threads of steadfast love and that there was not one stray thread in all of your life outside the control of that love.

You may not always be able to see what he's doing, but he's working. One of my watches is one of those kinetic winding watches. You know where you wear it, it kind of winds itself while you wear it. The back thing of it is half glass so you can see in and it's fascinating, but it looks like chaos. It's got all these circle wheels and stuff. They're going all different directions at all points.

One thing's spinning one way and one's spinning another way and it looks like chaos, but it keeps perfect time. A lot of things in your life may feel like backward motion. Why did God allow me to be divorced? Why did I get overlooked for promotion? Why did my parents let me down so badly?

I can't answer every question for why every bad thing happens in your life, but I can tell you that if you have entrusted your life to God, he has a loving purpose that he pursues in every moment through every movement, whether forwards or backwards. You're listening to Summit Life with J.D. Greer. For more information about this ministry, visit us online at jdgreer.com. As you may know, each month we curate a premium resource for all of our gospel partners and financial supporters. And this month we've created an all new eight-week Bible study to expand on your study of the life of David. This new study takes eight key passages from King David's life and helps you work through them with analysis of the text, application questions and prayer prompts. When you have a daily devotional time with the Lord each day, or you've been thinking about starting, this is a fantastic guide to help you spend personal time with the Lord and learn more about one of the most important figures in the Bible. Listening to this teaching here on the program is a great first step. And let me encourage you to just take that next step and personalize what you're learning. We'll send this study to you with your gift of $35 or more to this ministry.

To give, call us now at 866-335-5220 or give online at jdgreer.com. Now let's get back to our teaching on the life of David. Once again, here's Pastor J.D.

You say, well, J.D., that's easy for you to stand up there and say. You don't know what I'm going through. You had a bankruptcy or an unexpected pregnancy or a miscarriage. You've been betrayed by a friend or a spouse. You've been laid off from the company that you've been with for 26 years with no prospects. And you feel like I'm too old now to go and start another career. And honestly, maybe I don't understand.

I mean, I got my own problems too, but maybe yours feel worse to you. But y'all listen to David for a moment, will you? Verse four, look at it, verse four. My soul is in the midst of lions. I lied down amid fiery beasts, the children of men whose teeth are like spears and arrows, whose tongues are like sharp swords.

That sounds pretty bad to me. David is being chased by a rabid king who used to be a friend who is now trying to kill him. Yeah, I'd say David knows a little bit of the anguish that you're going through. The point is not to compare your suffering and mine or your suffering and David's.

It's like I've told you, suffering is not a competitive sport. The point is that the resources David availed himself of are available to you also. God watches over your life with sovereign purpose and steadfast love.

Now look at verse seven. David says, my heart is steadfast, oh God, my heart is steadfast. With soul just a few feet away, I can make a melody in my heart to you. Here's a question. What is the song playing in your heart during a time of suffering?

Is the song a melody of contented joy or is it a dirge of anxious complaining? Write this down. Number three, steadfast confidence. 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 you 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? That's really important. David can be steadfast toward God because he knows God is steadfast toward him. You see the secret to steadfast obedience is steadfast confidence and God's steadfast love.

And the opposite is also true. When you are not confident in the goodness of God, that's when you're gonna get anxious and that's when you're gonna wanna take matters back into your own hands. Miroslav Volf is a Croatian who lived through one of the worst chapters of ethnic cleansing in history and one that took place in Serbia. He said this in one of his writings and I thought it was absolutely fascinating. He said, you know, people often say that if you believe in a God of judgment that you will become violent and judgmental yourself. He said, the only people who actually say that are those who have never actually lived the persecution.

It's actually the opposite. 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. But see, on the other hand, if you don't believe in God's justice, you will feel driven to pursue it to the point of rage.

You'll become somebody like Chris Pratt in the Terminal List or whatever revenge show is popular when you're watching it, who just goes through life with a list of scores to settle. 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.

It's like I've told you throughout this series. Ultimately, what David goes through in that cave in the wilderness of En Gedi gives you a picture of Jesus. All these stories in the Old Testament, especially the one of David, it's like they just paint a silhouette for you, and then they back out of it. And then one day, a baby is going to be born in Bethlehem, and he's going to step right into the silhouette, and you're going to be like, oh, oh, that was all about you.

You see, think about it. Like David, Jesus was anointed king. But also like David, Jesus did not receive that kingdom immediately. He had to wait while he was disrespected and snubbed and persecuted and falsely accused. But like David, Jesus never took matters into his own hands.

Jesus waited for 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 the 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 soul. We, the human race, every single one of us had usurped Jesus' throne. All we like sheep had gone astray. We turned every one to his own way. And we said, I don't want you to be in charge.

I want to be in charge. And we were the ones trying to kill him. We were all represented in that throng in Jerusalem that Friday afternoon as they cried out, crucify him, crucify him.

That's not my king. 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. I mean, if Jesus came to you when you were in the midst of treason, and if Jesus declared his love and acceptance of you when you were in full-on rebellion mode against him, doesn't that give you the power to trust him completely in everything now? See, many of you are hearing this message today, and in your heart, what you've said is, I need to trust God more.

And you think, you may not verbalize it, but you think, oh, maybe if I do that, if I trust God more, maybe then God will accept me, and then I can be sure that he will always protect me and provide for me. See, friend, you got the order wrong, and the order is critical. It's kind of like when you jump a dead car battery. You got to get the order right.

Dead red, the living red, black to black. Then you turn the key. Get things out of order, and it either won't work, or you might blow yourself up, or at least create some sparks.

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. 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 you to trust God more. 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. Then you avoid these devastating shortcuts.

This might be one of the most difficult things to do. Let go of the reigns of life and trust God to take full control. What an important reminder from Pastor JD today here on Summit Life. If you missed any part of today's teaching or would like to catch up on this series through The Life of David, you can always do that at jdgrier.com. While you're on our website, you can check out the many resources we have available designed to help you grow in your love and understanding of the gospel. And right now, you can also get a hold of our brand new free resource, which is a guide walking you through a method of studying the Bible called The Here Method.

Highlight, explain, apply, and respond. It's right on the front page of our website, so get it now. Along with many great free resources, we also have an exciting featured resource we launched this month for all of our gospel partners and anyone who gives generously to support this ministry.

It's a study through The Life of David in Second Samuel, and it makes a great addition to the teaching you're hearing here on the program. To get your copy, you can give now by calling us at 866-335-5220. That's 866-335-5220. Or you can always give online at jdgrier.com. That's jdgrier.com. While you're on the website, be sure to sign up for our email list to get ministry updates and blog posts from Pastor JD delivered straight to your inbox. It's a great way to stay connected with summit life throughout your week.

Sign up when you go to jdgrier.com. You also don't want to forget to follow Pastor JD on Facebook and Instagram for more updates and encouraging content. I'm Molly Vidovitch reminding you to join us next time as we are introduced to a new character in The Life of David. It's Abigail. We'll see you Friday on Summit Life with JD Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by JD Greer Ministries.