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today. Dr. Charles Stanley: When
I think about all the lessons I've learned throughout
all the years, the most important principle
I've ever learned is this one. Obey God, leave all
the consequences to Him. But there's a second principle
that I think is so very important and that is,
wait upon God for His timing. Wait upon God for His timing. His timing is very,
very important. And so often we think, well if
I know what God wants me to do, that's all that matters. No. I also need to know when
He wants me to do it or how He wants me to do it. So, when I think about these
passages and I think about all the opportunities we have in
whatever God calls us to do, you can never go wrong
waiting for God's timing. But it requires something. It requires that we be patient
because God doesn't always tell us, immediately, when He
wants us to do a certain thing. Sometimes it's there's time
that goes by. And when we step ahead of Him,
we get ourselves in trouble. So, timing is very important
with God because what He wants to accomplish is usually
more than what we have in mind. So, when I think about this,
I came to this verse in the twenty-seventh Psalm
which reads, "Wait for the Lord, be strong and let your heart
take courage, yes, wait for the Lord." That is, don't hurry
but wait for Him. Waiting for Him is
a difficult thing, especially when I want
something now. Or, when I think it's necessary
to have it now and God doesn't think
the same way, "Wait for the Lord, be strong,
let your heart take courage. Yes, wait for the Lord." So, I think about two times in
my life where this principle was very important. And when I think about them,
I think about how absolutely easy, simple and true it is,
and yet oftentimes it's not so simple and so easy. And the first one, I remember
when I had wrecked my automobile—
lady hit me from behind and knocked me about
thirty feet down the street. And I remember being in the
car and God spoke to my heart, "Don't buy a car." I thought, "Well,
that's strange. I'm not even thinking
about buying a car." But God knew I would be
thinking about it. And so, I waited, and waited,
and waited and I thought, "Okay, God. I'm going to do
what You're saying and I'm just going to trust." And so, I finally thought, "Well, I've got
to do something." So, I went to this dealer,
and I sat in this particular car I chose, and I waited,
and I prayed, and talked to God about it,
and then I got up and left. Then I went back,
and I sat in it, and I fumbled around
like you do and checking everything
out to see how it all works. And it's like God said to me,
"Do you want this, or do you want My best?" I said, "Well God,
I want Your best." He said, "Well,
don't buy this car." So, when the salesman walked up
and said, "What do you think?" I said, "You probably
won't quite understand what I'm thinking, but I'm not
going to buy this car." And so, it was probably
a few months later, I'm going with a friend of mine
to a meeting and he says, "When are you going
to buy yourself a car?" I said, "Well, I've just been
waiting for God to show me." He said, "Well, what kind
would you buy if you were going to buy one?" I didn't even think, I said,
"Well, if I just had my choice, I'd buy one like this." And three days later,
I got a check in the mail to buy that car. Now it was a whole lot better
than the one I was looking at had I--
a whole lot more expensive. And then, of course,
I don't always do the right thing sometime. And when I first came
to Atlanta, we lived with a friend of mine
for three months because we couldn't find
a house. And so finally after looking
and looking and looking, said, "Okay, we'll take this one." But I said, "Now one thing
I want to be sure I put in the contract, there's
no water in the basement. If there's any water in
the basement, no deal." Well, when I went home,
I thought, "Well Lord, I didn't do
what You said do. I stepped ahead of You." That night it came this horrible
torrential rainstorm, put a foot of water
in the basement and saved me. The very same day
that it rained, I found the house that we moved
into, brand new house. God's timing isn't good,
it's perfect, because He knows
all the details. He knows past,
present, and future. He knows what we need,
what we want, what's the wisest thing to do. You can never go wrong
waiting upon God's timing. So, when you think about
decisions that you make and decisions that you're faced
with, ask yourself the question, "Am I in a hurry? Am I waiting on God's timing?" And I talk to people oftentimes
who are making big decisions who tell me why they've got
to do something right now. And I'm always willing to say,
"Do you--has God told you this is the right time?" Well, now I don't always
hear from God. I say, "Well, if you haven't
heard from Him, you'd better listen because God has
a right time and a wrong time." The Scripture says in this
twenty seventh Psalm, "Wait for the Lord,"
listen to this, "be strong and let your heart
take courage. Yes, wait for the Lord." That fourteenth verse. He repeats it,
"Wait for the Lord, be strong and let your heart
take courage." Why did he say that? Because oftentimes
it takes courage to wait. Listen. When the Spirit of God
saved you, the Spirit of God
inhabited your life, He was there for a number
of reasons, one of which was to give
instruction, to give direction for your life
because God knows none of us are sufficient
within ourselves to always make wise decisions. And so, we have the Holy Spirit
to caution us, to quicken our spirit to do
the right thing, always willing and ready to
show us the right thing to do. So, when he says, "Be strong,
let your heart take courage. Wait for the Lord." Sometimes it takes courage, and
sometimes we have to be strong to say, "No, not right now." So what I want to talk about
is this simple subject, "When God Says Wait." When God says wait
in your life, what do you do? Do you pray and say, "Well Lord,
thank You for that, but I think I've got this all
figured out now, Lord." No. When God says wait,
that's exactly what He means. Whatever the issue is, you wait
till God gives you direction. Somebody says, "Well now,
I don't know that I always hear God." Watch this carefully. Are you listening?
Say amen. That's why you need to learn
to listen to God when you don't have anything
that's pressing. You don't start like this. You learn to listen to Him when
you don't have a big issue in life, when there's
no pressure. You make it a habit to listen to
Him, with little things in life, things that are not so crucial
at that particular point. Learning to listen to God
and waiting on His timing, I believe is the second most
important principle in the Word. We're not talking about whether
we believe in God or not. We're talking about Christians. We're talking about waiting upon
God till we have clear direction as to what to do. Because we have the promise
of God's Word, He will give us direction. It's not a matter of trying
to find, is there any place in the Word of God
where we have direction? Sure, there are many places. He promises to
give us direction. He promises to answer
our prayer. And so, when I look at this
verse, "Wait for the Lord, be strong and let your heart
take courage, yes, wait for the Lord." In that verse is a warning. Listen, "Be strong and let
your heart take courage. Wait." Why does he say be strong? Because he knows that at some
points, sometimes in our life it's very difficult to have to
wait, especially when everybody around you is telling you,
"Well why not now? This is a good time. It's a good time of the year. This is a great time." Not whether you have
the money or not. Not whether you have found
the will of God or not. Listen. If we're going to practice
the best principles, one of those principles
is simply this. That is, wait upon the Lord. "Be strong," he says,
"wait upon the Lord." So ask yourself the question,
are you one of those persons who's got to have
everything now? If you are, you're going
to get in trouble. When God says we're to wait
upon Him, watch this, here's what He's doing. He's saying,
"I, because I love you, with all My omniscience,
knowing all about past, present and future,
what's best for you now, whether it'll be best
for tomorrow, you wait until I give you
direction, then you'll have absolute
clear perfect direction as what to do." It'll prove better for you now. It'll prove better
for you for the future. But wait till I give you
clear direction. Somebody says, "Well but
how am I going to be sure I'm listening to God?" Watch this carefully. You learn to listen to Him when
you don't have any pressure. I've said it before. Learn to listen to Him when
you don't have any pressure. Learn to listen to Him
when it's something simple. Lord, would You have
me to do thus and so? So, let's think about
it for just a moment. What are the requirements
for waiting upon God? Because there are requirements. Well, the first one is this. And that is I have to trust Him. If I'm going to wait upon God,
I've got to trust Him because my waiting is saying,
"I'm trusting You God that Your timing is better
than mine. You know what I do not know. Your time is always right,
and so I'm going to trust You and I'm going to wait till You
give me permission to go there, or do this, or have that,
or buy the other." It isn't that God's trying
to deprive us of anything. He only wants what is best
for us, so it takes faith. And what I mean by that
is simply this. Am I willing to trust God
for His timing before I make a decision? You say, "Well how will
you know God's timing?" He will show you. What does He say? "Ask, and it shall be given
to you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be
opened to you." That is, God is willing
to show you the truth if you're willing to ask Him. Now if you're living in sin,
disobedience to God, you're probably not going
to hear Him because you can't hear Him
because you don't particularly want to hear Him. But I'm talking about people
who really and truly want to do the right thing. You want what's best for you,
for your family, decisions that you have to make. It takes faith to wait upon
God because trusting Him doesn't mean I'm going to get
what I want when I want it. Trusting Him says I believe
that when the timing is right God will provide
what I'm asking Him for. So, would you say that you have
the faith to wait upon God when you come
to a decision in your life, a major decision? It takes faith to wait. Because we think,
"Well, if I don't get it now--" What? "I won't get it. If I don't do it now,
it won't be done." Let me ask you a question. Is there anything
too hard for God? No. Can't God control any
and every circumstance? Yes. If God tells you to wait
do you think that something's going to slip up
from under God's care? No. If we'll stop and think the
power of God, the wisdom of God, the love of God, the knowledge
of God, we're not going to miss anything we ought to have
by waiting upon God. If God doesn't provide something
that you've asked for and you are trusting Him,
it's because you either don't need it, because it's not good for you,
or it's not the right timing. It all boils down to this. Do I trust Him or do I not? It takes faith to wait
for God's timing and I just gave you an example. The first time I didn't wait,
bought the wrong house. But thank God I got--
He delivered me from that, and I assure you I've never
repeated that mistake again. Secondly, He gave me
enough wisdom to wait, and I got an automobile
I never would have purchased. His timing's always perfect. So, ask yourself the question,
"Do I have the faith to wait?" A second thing that is required
of us and that is simply patience. In the thirty-seventh Psalm
listen to this. Three times in the
thirty-seventh Psalm he says beginning in verse one,
"Do not fret." Second time he says,
"Rest in the Lord, wait, patient, for Him; Do not fret." Third time, "Do not fret." Three times in that Psalm
he says don't fret. That is, don't allow yourself
to be, to get anxious about something when you
can ask God about it. Now if I should ask you, "Do you
believe God loves you? You would say yes. What would you include in love? Wouldn't you include
good advice, good guidance, provision, help, strength,
energy, or whatever? Wouldn't you include those
things in God's guidance and love for you? Yes, you would. If you believe that God is
who He says He is, you can believe that God
will show you the right time to do anything and everything. The right time to make
a purchase, the right time to go yonder,
the right time to do this, the right time to have
this particular job. God's timing is always perfect. Do I believe that He has
our best interest at heart? If I believe that I'm going
to wait but watch this, somebody says, "I don't have
any time to waste." You never waste time
waiting on God. Never. You'll always find out that His
timing is always the right time. So it takes faith. But secondly it takes patience. For example,
David was a teenager. King David was
a teenager probably when Samuel the prophet anointed
him to be King of Israel. He was somewhere
probably seventeen, eighteen, nineteen years of age. Well, when do you think
he became king? You would have thought
this is it. Over twelve years later
God fulfilled a promise God's timing is perfect. The question is, watch this,
am I willing to trust Him for His timing
or insist on my timing? Do I really and truly believe
that my patience is a gift from God? That when God says, mmm mmm mmm,
not yet, that God is looking out for me, not doing
something against me. It takes faith, it takes
patience, it takes courage. And I love one of my favorite
verses in the Bible is in this first chapter of Joshua. Listen to it.
God said to him, "No man'll be able to stand
before you all the days of your life. Just as I've been with Moses,
I'll be with you, I will not fail you
or forsake you." Wonderful promise. Then He says in verse nine,
one of my favorite verses. He says, "Have I not
commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed,
for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." And so, if I'm going to trust
Him, I've got to trust His time. It takes courage to say no
to offers. For example, I remember on
one occasion somebody wanted to give me a very,
very valuable piece of property and build me a house at no cost,
in a wonderful place. I thought it was a great idea. Ha-ha, I did. And so, we set about--
he just said, "Here's the architect
and y'all just design it, just design it the way
you want it, and here's where
we're going to put it, which was on
a beautiful island." And so, naturally I thought, "Well, Lord,
You're just blessing me." And then when I got to praying,
that's not what I got. Now I got real encouragement
from the person who wanted to do it,
and encouragement by the architect, naturally. And so, the Lord and
I had to talk about it, and I wanted to know,
well why not? Why not? And the Lord reminded me
that's not the right question. The right question is,
"If it's My will, and this is not of Me. It's not My will. It looks right. It's free. But it's not My will. And so, you must say no." Well then, I had
to deal with that. How do I tell my friend
that I cannot accept something so valuable
and beautiful and desirous? And when I finally did,
naturally he did not understand. I said, "Well, the only thing
I can tell you is this. When God tells me not to do
something, I've made enough mistakes in life to know
He means exactly what He says, and I cannot require of God
to tell me why." Sometimes He'll tell you
why, sometimes He won't. It was probably about six months
later that I realized why. Now did I covet it
all during that time? No, I didn't. I knew very clearly that
God was saying to me, "No, this is not My will. It looks like My will,
but it's not." This is why listening to God
is so very important. And it's why it takes faith,
patience and courage to wait upon Him
till we know His will. Many things look like
the will of God, because oftentimes it looks like
God just being good to you. In other words,
I couldn't think of any reason not to accept something,
that was so desirous. But finally, the Lord showed me
I didn't have to understand why. All I had to understand
is whether I was going to be obedient
or not. And I think about so many people
get in trouble because they try to reason with God. Nowhere do I find
in the Bible it says I am to obey God on the basis
of the following reasons. No, I'm to obey Him
because He's God. That's the only reason I need. When God says no, and you have
to be careful when God says no, that you don't say,
"Okay, now why not God?" We all think that. But before you try, watch this,
before you try to talk God into something,
ask yourself the question, suppose I do this anyway. You can't fathom all the
difficulties and the hardships and the trials and the problems
and the cost and everything else that will come as a result
of a deliberate disobedience to Almighty God. And I think about all the people
who get excited about each other and jump up and get married. If you ask them, "Did you pray
about it?" "Well, I talked
to God about it." That's not the issue. The issue is did you ask
God was this His will? "Well, I mean everything
looks so good." You can't go by looks. You can't go by anything
but the voice of God. This is why you have to learn to
listen to Him and make a choice, watch this, make a choice
in life before the pressure. In other words, is it
the pattern of your life to listen to God before
you make decisions? There are some decisions
that are irrevocable. Once you make it,
you've made it. Some decisions you can't change,
you have to live with them. I think about all the people who
get married and never ask God, and know within thirty days
they made a mistake. I think some of the most
desperate weeping I've ever witnessed are people
who made that mistake and have come back to me
and say, "I didn't listen to you. I should have, but I didn't. I sort of knew you were telling
me the truth, but I just figured somehow
it would all work out." Watch this. You can't work out
disobedience to God. It doesn't work. Watch this, God's timing
is perfect. It's perfect. It may appear to be late,
but it's perfect timing, because God knows all of
the avenues that affect us. It takes faith, it takes
patience, it takes courage. It takes determination. To obey God, takes determination
sometimes because of all of the things that other people
think and what they say and maybe their influence in
your life and all the rest. It takes determination to wait. Why are you going to wait? This is a chance of a lifetime. Why are you going to wait?
Watch this carefully. You say, "Why do you keep
saying watch this carefully?" Because I want you
to watch it carefully. Because it's so very important. Things may look exactly right,
but something deep down inside of you, who is the
Holy Spirit, is cautioning you. Mm-mm-mmmm.
Mm-mm-mm. And, watch this carefully. If you don't obey the heeding
of the Holy Spirit. He doesn't get louder
and louder and louder. He comes on loud to begin with,
but because of your disobedience you hear Him less and less
and less, finally you don't hear a thing. You have to determine. You have to determine
to wait for God, especially when you've got lots
of pressure on you. You have to determine
to wait upon God. Everybody has an opinion
about something. So, think about it. It takes faith, patience,
courage, determination, and then it takes strength. No. Not moving until God says move. Not making a choice until
God says make a choice. It takes strength. And so, we go to the Scripture
and who is the source of our strength? Almighty God. Lord, if this is not Your will,
give me the strength to say no. And Lord, give me the desire
of my heart for you and for obedience so strong
I don't want to do anything that brings about disobedience
in my life. It takes strength to say no, and
especially if somebody's saying, "Aw come on.
Come on. Come on.
Come on. It's going to be okay. Let me tell you why
it's going to be okay." Nobody can change the mind
of God by telling you it's going to be okay. And this is why
you have to be careful. It's easy to listen to loud
voices rather than the quiet whisper
of the Holy Spirit. He's not going to shout unless
it's so very important that God is not going to put up with it. And He overrules
with His sovereign care and comes down so strong. No! And God knows how to do that. So, let's go over them again. It takes faith, patience,
courage, determination and strength. And then the last one
it takes is endurance. You just have to hang in there
and listen to people tell you why you should, listen to people
who tell you why you should not, endure. That is, you endure
their suggestions, their influence,
their testimony, whatever it might be,
but you have to decide if you're going to be obedient
to God or not. Waiting upon the Lord is
a lesson we learn and having heard this sermon,
I pray to Almighty God you do not walk out of here
and forget what you've heard. If you do, you're going
to get in trouble. The world's full of trouble. The world's full of offers. People are full of suggestions
of how you ought to live your life and what you ought to
do and what you should not do. There's only one ultimate
supreme voice that you listen to
and that's God. If I'm going to wait upon Him
and listen to Him, it takes faith, patience,
courage, determination, strength and endurance. That means I'm willing
to hang in there, God, with You no matter what
until You show me what to do. Obey God, leave all
the consequences to Him. But wait upon the Lord until
you know that you have heard what He requires of you. God's not going to tell you
to do anything sinful, disobedient
out of the will of God. This is why we talk about
walking in the will of God, because it's the safe place,
the best place, the wisest place,
the happiest place. It's the most successful place
you can be is walking in the will of God. Will you miss some things
in life? Only those things that
are not good for you. Obey God, you'll have what
God knows is good for you. So, you have to decide,
are you going to listen to Him, or listen to somebody else? Listening to God and walking
on His schedule, making decisions based
on His guidance and direction in your life,
is the only way to live. So just think about
your life for a moment. Is it your habit before you
made decisions to ask God? Or have you come to
the conclusion saying, "Well listen, after fifty
or sixty years, I'll always make
the right decision." I wouldn't say that. I wouldn't say, "Oh, forget
the praying, after all I—" Mm-mm-mm. Let me tell you something. We're living in a world
of sin, disobedience, and rebellion toward God. It's a way of life
for the world. The way of life for believers
is to obey God, to listen to Him and to walk
in His way and watch Him work. Amen? [applause] Now, if you've never trusted
Jesus Christ as your Savior, all of this is foreign to you. I understand that. So, the most important decision
you need to make in your life is to surrender your life to
the Lord Jesus Christ, confessing and repenting
of your sin, surrendering your life to Him,
then, you can hear Him. And you're going to realize
that God has something for you
you never dreamed of. He has the best for you,
if you will surrender your life to Him and begin to trust Him,
follow Him, obey Him, your life's going to change. And it's going to change
for the better. And I trust that
whatever you're doing, wherever you are
right at this moment, you will stop when
this service is over, and you will ask God to cleanse
your heart, forgive your sins, surrender your life to Him,
and begin the most awesome journey
you could possibly imagine. Walking with the living God
who has promised to provide your needs, give you direction,
and give you an excitement about life you will never,
never experience until you've surrendered
your life to Him. And that's my prayer for you. Father, we love You and praise
You that You love us enough to stop us dead in our tracks
when You know we want to do what's right. You know who's listening
to this message right now. Who's in the process of making
a decision, maybe it's a decision that has
long range consequences. Father, I pray that You'll speak
to them clearly, impress their heart,
move their mind, will, and emotion to do
the right thing. And to realize they can
trust You, God, that You are trustworthy. I pray Your Holy Spirit
will speak to every single person
who listens to this message. Lord, impress their heart
to trust You, and watch You work in
the most awesome fashion, always for their good, and I pray this
in Jesus' name, amen.
