Blessed Are Those Who Wait - Isaiah 30:15-18 (Degraded Audio)

1:01Raise your hand if you're just waiting. Is anybody waiting on something? You're just waiting. Waiting on a job, find out about a job. You're waiting to sell a house. You're waiting to find out about when you're going to get married, if you're going to get married. We're just waiting. And so God's Word has something to say about that. So before we do. That I do want to commit our time to the Lord. So, do pray with me. Heavenly Father, I pray this morning that you would be exalted and that we would learn to distrust ourselves, but that we would learn to rely on you. When we're faced with a crisis, that our first instinct would be to trust you and to lean not on our understanding, but to go to you, to cry out to you. And so, this morning, I pray that you would teach us from your word and instruct us in the best way to wait.

2:13And it's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen. I was really fascinated with the life of Charles Simeon. Just curious, raise your hand if you know who Charles Simeon is. You ever heard that name before? Okay. Charles Simeon lived 1759 to 1836. And back in those days, people were often appointed to a pastor. So he was appointed to be the pastor at Trinity Church in Cambridge by a bishop. The problem was the church didn't want him to be the pastor. And so they resisted his leadership. And so, evidently, they had pews back then. That could be locked. And so at this time, they basically locked their pews and refused. They boycotted the service. They didn't go. So he preached to people standing in the aisles. The visitors would come and stand in the aisles or sit in the aisles because they couldn't get to the seats. He did that for 12 years.

3:22And I just stopped right there, and I'm thinking, 12 years. And they also refused to give him the afternoon lecture. So it would be the equivalent of our evening service. They wouldn't let him preach in the afternoon service because they had control over that. So here's this resistance. Here's this crisis that he's facing. And he perseveres through that for 12 years. And the biographer who wrote about him said this: He says, One of the pervasive marks of our times is emotional fragility. We are easily hurt. We pout and mope easily. We break easily. Our marriages break easily. Our faith breaks easily. Our happiness breaks easily. Our commitment to the church breaks easily. We are easily disheartened, and it seems we have little capacity for surviving and thriving in the face of criticism and opposition. And I just thought, what do I do when I'm faced with a crisis like that? And Charles Simeon, he had a statement about. Because he was asked, you know, how do you pass? He's pastored that church for 54 years.

4:38That's unheard of today. And they, they just, he was asked, you know, how do you do this? How do you deal with this? And he says, in this state of things, I saw no remedy but faith and patience. The passage of scripture which subdued and controlled my mind was, the servant of the Lord must not be quarrelsome. It was painful, indeed, to see the congregation, with the exception of the aisles, almost forsaken. But I thought that if God would only give a double blessing to the people that did attend, there would be, on the whole, as much good done as if the congregation were doubled and the blessing limited to half of that. This comforted me many times when, without such a reflection, I should have sunk under my burden. He understood Psalm 130: I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word do I hope. And so I'm hoping this morning that we'll come to that place where we know how to wait. Because when people reject my ideas, and I don't know if you're like this, but I'm thinking, I'm out of here, right? I quit. You know, you can take this job and restaff it. You know, I'm not going to put up with it. That. You don't pay me enough to deal with this, right? And you do feel, if you're a middle school teacher, you feel that way some days. You know, you're like, get out of my classroom. I don't have time for you. And you want to quit, you know, a lot.

6:17Or you do stupid things and you get reckless and do some impulsive things. You know, I get frustrated when Highway 6 backs up on the long line. Anyone else with me on that one? And you just want to get on that shoulder and just zip down there to the next exit, and it's illegal. But that's for the court to decide, right? So, anyway. But we get impatient. How do we develop this sense of waiting on the Lord? And here, the problem in Isaiah 30 is that, as Matt read earlier, that they've gone down to Egypt because this nation of Assyria is oppressing them. And back earlier, they had enlisted the help of Assyria. Now, Assyria has grown hostile to them. And now they're reaching out to Egypt. And in this early part of chapter 30, he says, Woe to those who basically stubborn children, that's 31, it says, Woe to those. 30 says, Stubborn children who carry out a plan but not mine, who make an alliance, but not of my spirit. Verse 2, they set out to go down to Egypt without asking for my direction to take shelter in the shadow of Egypt. And so, this is the problem. So, this message has two basic parts: a problem and a solution. Now, there's two problems within that, but there's essentially a problem, and there's essentially a solution. So, let's look at the problem.

7:48The problem is that the people of God chose to reject the protection of God. The people of God chose to reject the protection of God. Why was going down to Egypt displeasing to the Lord? So, I just thought about that. What is it? There's really a strong statement from the Lord that he's displeased with them going down to Egypt. Why is that such a problem? Why is that such a big deal? Because at times, they went to Egypt, but this time the problem was they didn't ask, right? They didn't consult with him. So, there's four, in a sense, reasons why going to Egypt was displeasing to the Lord. The first one is turning to Egypt reveals that we have not prayed. Turning to Egypt reveals that we have not prayed. We haven't sought the Lord. If you go back and read 2 Kings 16, Ahaz sent messengers to Assyria, and he basically saw how they worship, and he copied how they worship. And he sent, He said, Hey, I want to do it this way. And he mixed the religion, he mixed the worship of Yahweh with the. Worship of these gods from Assyria. And he copied everything. I thought this was really strange because he made some changes to the furniture in a sense in the temple. And there was a note in the ESB Bible, there was a comment that said that this involved exta spicy. And I'm like, I've never heard of that word.

9:26And I thought, you know, have you ever heard of that word? It's basically where they would take animals and they would sacrifice them and they would actually put their hands into the guts of the animal, trying to feel the liver to determine the will of the gods. I'm thinking, that's messed up. I told Karen about that, and she said, isn't that when you go to Taco Bell and they ask you how you want your tacos? You know, it's extra spicy. It's extra spicy. And I thought, bizarre. But that's just how, that's how people, that's what people do when they don't want to seek the Lord, when they don't want to pray or they don't want to go do the hard work of seeking the Lord and waiting for his will. It's like, let's go fill the liver of some animal. That's just weird, you know, and we look at that and we go, how bizarre. But we do things that are bizarre ourselves, right? We do things that are just as displeasing to the Lord.

10:24In 2001, we lived in El Paso, Texas, and we had two children. Children under the age of three at the time, and there were times where, does anybody have two children under the age of three right now? It's we pray for you. Do you remember that stage of life? I would just lay on the ground. I would count how many seconds before someone would call my name and need something from me. I just, I mean, really, I'm not making that up. And I would, I was tired. And without seeking the Lord, I went to a doctor and I basically told a surgeon, hey, I think two is enough.

11:14And that was sin, I think, for me. That was going to Egypt. That was turning to fix something that I didn't seek the Lord on. And seven years later, the Lord changed my heart. And He turned me around and He blessed us with two more children. And we're so thrilled to have Joseph with us. Thank you for those who pray for us. Why don't we pray? Well, we pray, we don't pray because we have an exalted view of ourselves and we think we can run our own life, right? Pretty much.

11:54You can read a whole book on that, but that's basically what it means, right? Turning to Egypt. Egypt reveals that we have not prayed. It reveals that we have a lack of trust in God. So imagine that we're in China. So just picture that we're in China. We're packing up. We're headed to the airport. My wife, Daniel, and Joseph. We just adopted Joseph. He's less than two years old. And Joseph, in this hypothetical scenario, looks at us and says, You know what? I'm just going to meet you back in Texas. I'm going to find my own way there.

12:35And we say, well, we have your passport, your visa, your plane ticket, and a juice box. Now, we're going to have to surrender that juice box at security, but we do have goldfish. Well, actually, we don't have goldfish, but we have the Chinese version of Cheyo. So we have something that gets you through that plane flight. We've got your documents. We've got everything you need to get back to Houston. And he says, now I'll find my own way. That's ridiculous. You couldn't imagine that. He doesn't even speak the language. He doesn't speak Chinese or English. And how he's going to get back to the airports and navigate through all that. He can't do it. And so that sounds silly to us, but that's what we say to God, right, when we try to run our own lot without consulting him. It's that ridiculous.

13:29Back in If you go back to Exodus and Deuteronomy, you see that God had told them not to go back to Egypt. He said about your leadership shall not cause the people to return to Egypt, to multiply horses. Since the Lord has said to you, you shall never again return that way. Why should we not go back to Egypt? Because God said not to do it. And if we turn to Psalm 22, 5, it says, They cried and were delivered in you, they trusted and were not disappointed. Y'all know this one, right? Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. What are some of the unusual ways that God has delivered people? The Red Sea, the parting of the Red Sea. And if you read Joshua in chapter 10, it says the Lord threw large hailstones at the enemy.

14:27Walls came down with shouts. The young man with a slingshot. The plagues of Egypt, water from a rock. He shut the mouths of lions. Peter is lying between two soldiers chained up with four squads of soldiers guarding him. An angel comes in, gets him out of prison. He goes to the house. They're praying for his release. Rhoda, the little girl, she goes, hey, Peter's out there. And they're like, you're out of your mind. God, what is it going to take to convince you that there's no way? Limitations on what God can do.

15:06Jeff gave me a book called Wait by Smedley Yates. And I like this. He says, Being forced to wait also reveals my heart's idols. Whenever I find that my circumstances won't change according to my desires, my impatience, worrying, or complaining, demonstrate that my affections are misplaced and that I love something more than God. When I get so much as a cold, I grow impatient, longing to feel normal again. I put my hopes in feeling well, an energetic return to my usual activities. My infrequent discomforts reveal my idolatry. I worship at the altar of a pain-free, comfortable existence. And you know, that also applies to if you've ever had a sick child, and that child wakes you up at three o'clock in the morning, and your thought is, if this is interrupting my sleep, it cannot be the will of God, right? You ever felt that way?

16:15Sad. There is not a single event, not a single person, not a single object in the universe that is out of step with the perfect plan and perfect timing of our sovereign God. That means when I am complaining about my circumstances, I am complaining about God's operation. The universe. I'm telling God that he is not running things right and effectively saying, Maybe I should be on that throne. So, this is what the people of God are doing in Isaiah 30. When they're turning to Egypt, they're saying this to God. They're saying, We really don't trust you, we doubt your goodness, we're not willing to wait in your place, we're not willing to go at your pace.

16:56We want Egypt to protect us, and we're not sure that you can. Turning to God reveals our impatience. Turning to God, sorry, I didn't say that right. Turning to Egypt reveals our impatience. I remember a sermon years ago, it was in 1995. The pastor said, God is at work in your delays and your detours. God is at work in your delays and your detours. I don't know if you feel this way, but sometimes I'm so impatient when I go into HEB to check out. I'm actually doing logarithms in my head. I'm like the age of the cashier, how many items left? Someone's paying with a check. Okay, and I'm figuring out which line to go into, you know, because I don't like waiting. And God rebuked me for this because in 2006, we had visited Brian. We lived in Abilene at the time, and we came to Brian to visit. Karen's parents, and we went to McAllister's deli, and we arrived behind a large bus.

18:08And there were about 45 athletes in there ordering. And I'm just tearing to Karen, and I'm just like, God is punishing me. And I'm just like, going on and on. Woe is me. Has anybody ever been there? Like, you're looking at me like I'm strange. You've done that before, right? Someone admitted it back there. And then we finished up, we're delayed. We drive over to Half Price Books, which used to be at that old Kroger on Southwest Parkway. You remember where that used to be? And I drive up to the intersection of Southwest Parkway and I see Colonel Sanders on the ground. And I'm like, there's Colonel Sanders on the ground because the KFC sign had been blown across the road. It was on the ground. The Firestone sign was gone, McDonald's sign, gone.

18:58A tornado had just hit that parking lot about five minutes earlier or whatever, minutes earlier. The parking lot was wrecked. Cars were busted up. Trees were uprooted. And I looked at Karen and I said, God is at work and our delays and our detours. Thank you, Lord, that we were delayed. Well, we don't see that in the moment, right? We don't see that, hey, there's a reason that we're delayed. There's a reason this isn't happening. The way that we think it should right now.

19:35Do you remember Numbers 23? Balaam. Remember the donkey? You think sometimes you think you know stories until you read them again and you read the details of it. And the donkey didn't just stop once. It did three times. Remember that? So the donkey turns aside in the field and he go and then he presses his leg against the wall. And then finally, the third time, the donkey just sits down and he starts beating that donkey. Go! And the donkey finally looks at him. It's like, have you ever known me to do this?

20:16And he starts talking to the donkey. And then finally, Balaam looks up and he's like, oh, there's an angel with a sword. And the angel says, I would have killed you if your donkey hadn't stopped. And that's how we are sometimes. We're like, go, go. Why isn't this working? I'm tired of waiting. Could be there's an angel with a sword walking your path. I got this from John Newton. I like this. He says, Too often we first secretly determine for ourselves and then come to ask counsel of God in such a disposition.

21:00We are ready to catch at everything that may seem to favor our darling scheme. And the Lord, for the detection and chastisement of our hypocrisy, may answer us according to our idols. Turning to Egypt reveals that we have forgotten God. They forgot. That's what they are doing in this chapter. They're going down to Egypt without consulting him. They're carrying out a plan, but it's not the Lord's. Is it possible that you're making decisions? Maybe you pray in the morning, maybe you pray before breakfast, but all throughout the day, all throughout the day, are you in tune with the Lord? Are you seeking his will? Are you calling out to him, crying out to him, Lord, what should I do here?

21:49And so I emailed some of you and I asked for your input. I thought, you know, what are some modern ways that we turn to Egypt? And some of you wrote me back. There were emails that someone says, I think that in some ways the atmosphere of that pushes, the atmosphere of fear that pushes industries such as investing in insurance can give a false sense of security. That investments and insurance are our ultimate protection. And it's wise to get insurance and invest. But is that what you're trusting in ultimately? Another person wrote back: many evangelicals would better find a how-to book. Or the latest fad for guidance, some sort of pseudo-Christian psycho-babble, the prayer of Jabez or wild at heart come to mind. We want a formula.

22:41We don't want to do the hard work of just waiting on the Lord and seeking Him through the Word and prayer. Maybe it's the advice of a friend exclusively without seeking the Lord yourself. There's other ways, turning to education or science, our college degree, stockpiling money or weapons. And I know some of you are stockpiling weapons right now. Moving to the right school district and trusting that instead of being a godly parent, trusting in the next presidential election.

23:14There's a lot of things we trust in. They had rejected the protection of God. And so, number two, the problem is the people had rejected the word of God. So if you go in Isaiah 30 and you look at 8 through 15, you see several things here. Let's look at verse 9, Isaiah 30, verse 9. They are a rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to hear the instruction of the Lord, who say to the seers, do not see, and to the prophets, do not prophesy to us what is right. Speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions, leave the way, turn aside from the path. Let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel. And because you despise this word and trusted. Oppression and perverseness, and rely on them, this iniquity will be to you like a breach in a high wall, bulging out and about to collapse. There's the people of God have rejected the word of God, and so now he's turning to the kind of attitudes that show up in those who reject God's instructions, and there's three of them.

24:20The first one is an attitude of rebellion, an attitude of rebellion. John Oswald was very helpful in this process. He wrote a commentary on Isaiah, and I highly recommend it. It was devotional as well as technical and academic. And he said, Israel, where did I go? Israel did not need a new word from God. They only needed to obey the one they had. But the mind which is set on the world's ways cannot see the wisdom of God's ways to it.

25:01And I was really struck by this sentence: rebellion is not rebellion, but common sense. Sometimes people are so accustomed to sin, they're so comfortable in sin that it just starts to make sense to them. And it doesn't even lodge any protest in their soul. It doesn't wait on their conscience at all. It just makes sense to do that. And you go back and you read the penalties of disobedience, and he says in this chapter that if you trust. In Egypt, and you reject me, the result is going to be shame, disgrace, and collapse.

25:40Shame, disgrace, and collapse. And nobody wants to sign up for that, right? We had a sign-up sheet in the four-year and said, hey, we're going to have shame, disgrace, and collapse, and we have a sign-up sheet. I'm just going to sign up for that. We don't want that. That's the end result, though, of what this attitude of rejecting God's Word. A desire for relief instead of truth. A desire for relief instead of truth. I think about Pharaoh.

26:15Over time, he just wanted to be, he just wanted relief. I think about Pilate, the pressure of the crowd, you know, give us, you know, we want to crucify Jesus. And he just gave in because of the crowd. Someone mentioned Joel Osteen that he interviewed on Larry King Live, and they asked him, why don't you mention sin in your sermons? And he said, people are overwhelmed these days. They don't need to hear me talking about sin.

26:43And so here's another comment. Instead of hearing what is right, they want things that will leave the surface of life unruffled. A ministry of trifles. They did not want their direction or strength. Style of life altered, in particular, did not want to hear about a holy God exerting pressure on them. They did not ask that the preaching cease, only that it be innocuous. And you and I both know that if we got into certain subjects and we started preaching on those, it would be painful. And you would disagree and write emails and it would get nasty, right? Because there's certain things you don't want to touch, right?

27:36Do you want relief or do you want truth? A tendency toward self-reliance. And this actually comes from verse 16. Because after he says in verse 15 that repentance and rest is your salvation and quietness and trust is your strength, and he says, but you were unwilling. And they said, no, we'll flee on horses. And so do you understand what's happening? God is saying, I'm giving you myself. And they say, we'll take horses. Thank you very much.

28:07It's very insulting. A tendency toward self-reliance. When we rely on our own strength and speed to see us through, we may be sure that one day we will meet someone swifter and stronger than we are. What are you going through? Trying to sell a house, wondering if you'll get married, waiting for one of your family members to genuinely follow. Lord, waiting for a job opportunity. You're restless. What does God want me to do in the next five years? Well, we know what the answer is not. The answer is not to trust in yourself or your own ability.

28:44The answer is in verse 15. Let's look at it. Isaiah 30, verse 15. Therefore, the Lord waits. Sorry. For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, in returning and rest, you shall be saved. In quietness and in trust shall be your strength. You want to be saved. You want strength. You want to be blessed. That's what this whole section is about. So, what do we have? We had the contrast, right? We had over here, we had shame, disgrace, and collapse. And God is saying, over here, there's deliverance and the save you and the strengthen you, and you'll be blessed. Now, let's put the sign-up sheet out for that, right? I want that. I want to sign up for that. I'll sign up for salvation, for strengthening, and for blessing. I want that.

29:56This is to admit your helplessness. This is to experience. Rest. Give up on your own efforts. What does that look like? Go with me to Hosea 14. It's a few books over. Hosea 14. Let's read this together. The book of Hosea 14. Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity. Take with you words and return to the Lord. It says to him, Take away all iniquity, except what is good, and we will pay with bulls the vows of our lips. Verse 3, chapter 14. Assyria shall not save us. We will not ride on horses, and we will say no more, our God, to the work of our hands. In you, the orphan, finds mercy. I will heal their apostasy. I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them. I will be like the dew to Israel. He shall blossom like the lily. He shall take root like the trees of Lebanon. His root shall spread out. His beauty shall be like the olive, and his fragrance like Lebanon. They shall return and dwell beneath my shadow. They shall flourish like the grain. They shall blossom like the vine. Their fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon. O Ephraim, what have I to do with idols? It is I who answer and look after you. I am like an evergreen cypress. From me comes your fruit. Whoever is wise, let him understand these things, and whoever is discerning, let him know them. For the ways of the Lord are right, and the upright will walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them.

31:48I hope that you're reading your Bible and studying it and internalizing it. Because when you read those words, it just is like water flowing through a tree, it strengthens it. Cease striving and know that I am God. Be still. Come to me, all who are weary and weighed down, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon me and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. My yoke is easy, and my burden is light. The solution is repentance, rest, quietness, and trust, and waiting for the Lord. Waiting for the Lord. You've got, what should you do while you're waiting? What do you do? Because waiting sometimes, we talked about those illustrations in the beginning. Waiting feels like a waste of time, right? And so, what's our solution to waiting? What's the typical world solution to waiting? What is it? You know it, right? Pull that phone out, right? Right? When I'm waiting, I can fill the time with my phone, right? Whatever.

33:02I'm memorizing the word. I'm texting my mom. And that's everybody's answer. I'm texting my mom, you know? Yeah. That's how we feel the time is we do that. So, what do we do while we're waiting? Well, you preach to yourself, right? You remind yourself: number one, you're not the first person who's ever waited. Abraham, heard of him, waited for the child of promise. Joseph waited in a jail sale for a crime he didn't commit. Anyone ever been falsely accused?

33:36How'd you feel? Been in jail for it? Waiting? Moses waited for Pharaoh while he stalled during the plagues of Egypt. You got to preach to yourself and tell yourself all those things. Psalm 138:8, the Lord will accomplish all that concerns me. Psalm 145, the eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. You satisfy the desire of every living thing. What's happening while you're waiting? Your faith is being strengthened, your character is being developed, your joy is being heightened. When do you see grown men hugging? At the end of the World Series, game seven, right? On the pitcher's mound, grown men are hugging aggressively every year. Why are they doing that?

34:33They're like, it's over. It's over. And they're so excited. Can you imagine being in heaven and all just the presence of God, and all that pain is gone? Your back pain is gone. Your knee pain is gone. And you're just experiencing this joy. And you're just, oh, it's just inexpressible. And the difference between the Houston Astros and believers is that the Houston Astros are saying, look what we did. But believers are like, look what God did, right? Because if you think about, if you were here during the music and all the songs we sang, what were they about?

35:20They weren't about us, right? I mean, we don't sing, I need me every hour. No one sings that. No one requests that on hymn night. I need other people every hour. Shout to myself, all the earth. Let us sing power and majesty, praise to myself. Mountains bow down, seas will roar at the sound of my name. No one sings that because we're not the ones being exalted. And when we are, there's a problem. Right, blessed are those who wait for him. The summary of this whole passage, I like this, appreciate the work he put in on this. Those who exalt themselves in an effort to meet their own needs are doomed to failure because only God is exalted in this universe and because only he can meet their needs. The key to life is found in letting him be God and in training ourselves to complete dependence on him until we discover that he can supply our needs a hundred times better than we can. And here's another thought: just if you didn't get all this, I thought this was very helpful.

36:47Isaiah 30 is about this: Egypt will not help you, Assyria will not hurt you, and God will not disappoint you. And what if your life, what if your life could only be explained with the idea that God answered your prayers? What if your life could only be explained? If God answered your prayers, you know, hey, I pray that it rains today. Oh, it rains. Oh, it's a forecast, you know, that can be explained away. But if you keep reading in Isaiah, you get to Isaiah 37. You remember Hezekiah?

37:30And again, facing this threat from Assyria, Sennacherib or Sennacherib, however you want to say it, sends the Rabshaka. He insults the armies of God. And Hezekiah turns to prayer and he says, O Lord, you've heard all these insults. You are the God of all the earth. Please deliver us, save us, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are God. And what happened that night? The angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 Assyrian soldiers. When they woke up the next morning, their enemy was dead.

38:15How do you explain that? The only way you can explain that is God intervening in that. In 2009, we came to this church, which was called Steep Paulo Baptist. There were wooden pews at the time. And I was in between jobs. Anyone ever been in between jobs? Well, it's a very humbling place to be. And I felt like the Lord was leading me to send some money to a church we worked at in Abilene. And I felt like I was supposed to send $300.

38:55And I didn't tell anybody. I just wrestled with it for a while. But I eventually did it, and I sent $300 to Southside Baptist in Abilene. I was like, Lord, I just feel like this is what you want me to do. And three days later, over there on the pew, my backpack, Sunday, there was an envelope with my name on it. And I opened it up, and there were $300 in it. And I went, Lord, I have no explanation for that, other than the fact that my God shall supply all my needs in Christ Jesus, right? That doesn't happen to me all the time. It would be nice if it did, but it didn't happen to me all the time. But in that moment, there was an issue of obedience. And I've been reading through the book of Acts. You remember the book of Acts? And Peter addresses the crowd and he says, We are witnesses of these things, as is the Holy Spirit.

40:00And then he says something really amazing at the end of that: whom God gives to those who obey him. Did you catch that? God gives the Holy Spirit to those who obey Him. And I just sat and stunned by that thought. God, you're calling me to obey you. What am I supposed to do while I'm waiting here? While I'm waiting for. What I think should happen in my life. Well, you're supposed to obey the Lord. And in that, you experience the Holy Spirit. And in that, your life becomes unexplainable. And that's why we don't have to turn to Egypt because we have a God who can accomplish anything, right?

40:56I think the best way to close this would be to think about that verse in Proverbs that we read, right? You don't want to think about it with me together. Just think about what it says: Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will make your path straight. Blessed are those who wait for Him. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, there's a lot to think about.

41:37There are people in this room that are waiting, and they've been waiting a long time. They've been waiting longer than I have, and doubts can come in. We can doubt your goodness, we can doubt the wisdom of your timing. But one thing we can never doubt is. Is your faithfulness, that you've been faithful to your people for centuries, and there is a written testimony of how you've poured out your steadfast love on your people, and it doesn't exhaust your resources, you still have more.

42:27And I pray that we would stand under the waterfall of your grace and your mercy, and we would be content to go at your pace, to wait in your place. Blessed be the name of the Lord. It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen. Have a blessed new year. You're dismissed.