Wait on the Lord - 240113

SPEAKER A Hello. I'm Clive Nash. Welcome to let God speak. A lot of our time is spent in waiting. Doctors have waiting rooms. We wait to board an aircraft, and children wait for their next birthday. Today we'll be discussing, waiting on the Lord Jesus has promised to return to this earth, but what do we do as we wait for that climactic event? Hopefully, we'll discover that wait rating is not as passive as it sounds. I'll be back in a moment to introduce our panel for today's. On our panel today we have Hana Nakagawa and Kaysie Vokurka. Good to have you with us today, ladies. Before we begin our discussion, let's take time to pray. Our wonderful God in heaven, we thank you that you have given us the Bible, in particular the song book of the Bible, the Psalms, and we have been enriched by our study of these psalms during this last 13 weeks. And we pray now that you will bless. In our study today and our discussion, may we bring out some thoughts which will be helpful not only for us here on the panel, but also for those who are watching and those who are listening. And we ask this in Jesus'name. Amen. SPEAKER B Amen. SPEAKER A Well, in this episode of let God speak, we come to the end of our series on the psalms, and it's been quite a journey. I hope you, our viewers and listeners have been blessed and enriched by what we have discussed. Our topic today is wait on the Lord. Waiting on the Lord. Hana, what is the advice from the psalms about waiting on the Lord? SPEAKER B Sure. Let me read Psalm 27, verse 14. The Bible said, wait on the Lord. Be of good courage and he shall strengthen your heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. We can see here, wait on the Lord. And many times we may talk about wait on second coming of Jesus. Right. But I guess that we can wait on God in many various aspects of our life, in daily lives, in many aspects of our life. And wait here means wait in eager expectation and hope. So we can wait on the Lord, including growing our faith. And, yeah, while we were waiting, we can have the Bible study, we can grow our relationship with God. We can have this active sharing with the gospel as well. So it's not just like waiting, doing nothing, but wait in an eager expectation and active sharing. SPEAKER A So, Kaysie, as Hana said, it's not a time of doing nothing. It's not a passive time, is it? Waiting for the Lord. SPEAKER C That's correct. And I really like that because I know for myself when I'm waiting for something, whether know an appointment or other people or something like that, I usually am thinking of ways I can better use the time. And it's like God is the same. He's like, you know, while you wait, you can make the most of this time to gain a blessing. And it's very interesting. Hana mentioned about we can use the time for Bible study and prayer and these devotional activities. But of course, we are not to be creeped up like a hermit in our waiting time. So we can also share with others. But there's also another couple of lessons we can learn. And I just want to draw those attention to those from a couple of scriptures in the Psalms. Psalms 30, verse five. And the latter part of that verse says, weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. And this is a very interesting picture because it's like, I don't know if any people have had an experience where you haven't slept during the night, and it's like you're just waiting for the morning to come. And so during that time of longing, your mind can focus on the event to come. And so that expectation that you develop means that when morning does come, it means more. And then the other part that we can learn is from Psalms 143 and verse eight. And this one says, actually, seven and eight. Seven says, answer me speedily, o Lord. My spirit fails. Do not hide your voice, your face from me, lest I be like those who go down into the pit. Cause me to hear your lovingkindness in the morning. For in you do I trust. Cause me to know the way in which I should walk, for I lift up my soul to you. And so in those verses, you kind of can see the picture of if we are wanting God to answer our prayer or something like that, and we feeling like it's not coming fast enough, we can learn to trust him more and have faith more and let that part of our spirituality grow as we wait for God to guide us and lead us in our lives. SPEAKER A Yeah, it's a lovely picture, isn't it? Knowing the lovingkindness of God in the morning and the freshness of a new day. I like what it says in Psalm 126 and verse six. Just a short psalm. This is, in fact, the last verse of that psalm. He who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. Now, this psalm is about the children of Israel returning from babylonian captivity and once again sowing seeds, preparing for the harvest and bringing in the harvest. And, Hana, this idea of spiritual harvest, there's a lesson for that, isn't there. There's a spiritual lesson there, definitely. SPEAKER B Yes. Actually in Matthew, chapter nine, verse 36 to 38, Jesus talks about this. So let me read. It says, but when he saw the multitude, he was moved with compassion for them because they were weary and scattered like sheep having no shepherd. Then he said to his disciple, the harvest truly is plentiful, but the laves are a few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out labours into his harvest. I really like that picture of Jesus moved. He has this compassion to our people and he said that the harvest is plentiful. And he said that there's much opportunity for the work to do and the harvest is plentiful. That's why he's saying to pray for the labourers as well. SPEAKER A And you yourself personally responded to that call, haven't you? SPEAKER B Yes. And God is calling anyone to be in this mission as well. And the amazing promise that we can find in Psalm 71, verse one, it says, in you, o Lord, I put my trust. Let me never be put to shame. So yeah, I put my trust in Lord. And it says that let me never be put to shame. Those people who put their trust in God will not be put to shame. SPEAKER A So Kaysie, what does this concept of waiting on God say to you? SPEAKER C Well, I think it's all about learning to be patient. It's very much about that. It's also about learning to hold on to his promises, promises of God's word, even though there may be a delay that we can still not let go. And it's very much opposite to the instant gratification that we have so much of in society today. So God is really building character as we learn to wait on him and learn to hold on to him. And it's very interesting. We can also read about something in Psalm 37. Psalm 37, verse seven and also verse nine. And it says, rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him. There's that word, do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass. And then verse nine, for evildoers shall be cut off. But those who wait on the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. And so this is also putting the picture of while we can see and experience evil around us, let's not be discouraged. Trust in the Lord that he has his hand over all of this and in due time he will bring the appropriate justice and he will also provide for us. SPEAKER B Amen. SPEAKER A Yeah, there's another text about waiting in Psalm 39 and verse seven. And now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in you. This is a great question and answer. Yes, Hana. Can we trust God to hear us even when times may not be going so well? SPEAKER B Yes, I think so. Well, psalm 40, verse one and two. David says this, I waited patiently for the Lord and he inclined to me and heard my cry. He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the merry clay and set my feet up on the rock and established my steps. Well, obviously David was going through his experience and expressed like horrible pit. And we as human, we go through this time of like a horrible pit, like a darkness that we can't really see way out. But when we see verse three, there's very encouraging. He said he has put a new song in my mouth. Praise to our Lord. Praise to our God. Many will see it and fear and will trust in the Lord. So we can see here that, yeah, David has this very dark experience. But then waiting patiently on the Lord would lead to rejoicing, would be praising. There would be a song in our mouth as well. But in his psalm, in the same psalm, it's interesting how David prayed in verse 13 and I think 17 as well. He actually said that, o Lord, make haste to help me. Over 17 it says that do not delay, oh, my God. So we may also pray this prayer as well, like, oh, please, Lord, come back soon or. Yeah, whenever we are waiting for the answer of prayer or something, we can pray this prayer as well. SPEAKER A Yeah. The psalms have inspired composers, poets over the years. One of them was Anton Devorjak, the Czech composer. He composed a series of what he called biblical songs, and one of them is quoting from Psalm 63. I'm going to read verses one and two here. O God, you are my God. Early will I seek you. My soul thirsts for you, my flesh longs for you in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. And if you've been to some parts of Israel, you know what a dry and thirsty land looks like. Verse two. So I have looked for you in the sanctuary to see your power and your glory. So what's the background to this text, Kaysie? SPEAKER C So at the time when David composed this psalm, he was in the wilderness of Judah. And being the wilderness dry parched area, you can imagine that he would have felt thirsty at some point. And so it seems like he has been inspired with this lesson from his physical experience of being thirsty for real water to drink. And also at the same time recognising the fact that we can have a spiritual thirst after God. And God is the only one who has the living water, if you will, that can quench that thirst inside of us. And so it's just that deep longing for eternal things and spiritual things that we have in our hearts that only God can fill. SPEAKER A You remind me of the story about the woman at the well. SPEAKER B Yeah. SPEAKER A There's Jesus meeting her and offering her the living water. We noted earlier that the meek would inherit to the earth the poor in spirit, the kingdom of heaven. Regardless of our status, our poverty or our wealth, the promises of God can apply to us. But, Hana, what do we do when we're waiting patiently for Jesus to come? SPEAKER B Yes. Well, we have an example. In acts, chapter one, verse four to eight, it says, and being assembled together with them, he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, you have heard from me. For John, truly baptised with water, but you shall be baptised with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. Therefore, when they had come together, they asked him, saying, lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And he said to them, it is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in his own authority, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. This is really, really amazing. This is before Jesus ascended to heaven and how Jesus promised them of the power of the Holy Spirit. And they were obviously waiting to receive this power as. Yeah, and it's the same for us as an Adventist Christian. While we were waiting on Lord to come back. We have much to do, much work to do. We need to be praying for the Holy Spirit. We need to be filled with the Holy Spirit so that we can finish the work before Jesus comes. SPEAKER A From what you're saying there, it makes me think that life is kind of like a balance, isn't it, between pausing and playing pause button and the play button, the waiting and the action. I'd like to read from Psalm 131. Now, going back to the psalms, Psalm 131 and the first verse. Lord, my heart is not haughty nor my eyes lofty. Neither do I concern myself with great matters, nor with things too profound for me. Kaysie, there are a couple of important principles here in this verse, isn't there? SPEAKER C There certainly are, and it's very interesting to consider it. Firstly, this is a song of ascents, which means that it's a song that the Israelites would have liked to sing on their way up to Jerusalem to encourage them on their journey, if you will, when they went up for the feasts and, yeah, when they went up to worship God, to be reminded of the fact that we need to have humility of heart in worshipping God because he is so great compared to us. And also the fact that there are profound issues that are in the reality of our existence and in the reality of the universe that can be far beyond our comprehension. But they're not beyond God's comprehension. God has his hand over it all. And so this is a real call for trusting in God. And in the context of talking about waiting, which we are today, it's very interesting because it takes humility to wait because you're letting someone else take charge. And it also takes humility and trust to just allow God to work out things that we don't understand. And so this is how I see a relation with waiting from these verses. SPEAKER A Yeah, there's no doubt that the world is. We're bombarded with the idea of problems and difficulties in the world. And then on the personal level, too, people, how do I find peace on a personal level? SPEAKER B Yeah, that's a really good question because we are living in a place where very much, a lot of noise, a lot of stress around. Well, Psalms 131 has an interesting take on peace. Well, let me read 131, verse two. It says, surely I have come and quieted my soul like a wind child with his mother. Like a wind child is my soul within me. So this picture of child, just very peaceful in his mother's arm. Yeah, very, very peaceful, isn't it? And let me read one more verse. In Psalm 123, verse one, it says unto you, I lift up my eyes, or you who dwell in the heavens. So here saying that I lift up my eyes on you. So not really thinking about ourself or thinking about the world, but looking at Jesus, looking at God. Yeah. And when we see who God is and the character of God, we become, like, how beautiful he is, and we become more humbled as well. And we can experience that peace when we see Jesus as well. So coming back to. Sorry, the same chapter 123, verse two. And it says, behold, as the eyes of the servant look to the hand of their masters, as the eyes of the maid, to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, until he has mercy on us. So here, the letter of the Hebrew reminds us to look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. SPEAKER A Yeah. This interesting comment that Jesus made, and it's recorded in John, chapter four, and verse 34, Jesus said to them, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. So he's not talking about this bread and water sort of thing as the sustenance for the body, but he's talking about something deeper here, isn't he, Kaysie? SPEAKER C Yeah, this is very true. And it's all about growth and growing into maturity and your spiritual experience. And Jesus was very much living in a mature spiritual state. So it was like food for him to do God's will. But it's interesting because we can read a little bit more about this analogy in Hebrews five, verse twelve to 14. And it says, for though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God. And you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age. That is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. And so obviously, when you start off with something new, you have to start with basics. But then the more you get into it, the more depth you can go and the more understanding you can gain. So this is where I was saying that learning to do God's will in all aspects of your lives is part of the journey of having solid food that helps you grow. SPEAKER A Another of the song of ascents is Psalm 126. And I'm going to read verse one where it says, when the Lord brought back the captivity of Zion, we were like those who dream. It seems as though, Hana, sometimes the providence of God can be like a dream, too good to be true. Does the remembrance of past mercies bring you joy? SPEAKER B Definitely. And here very certain that this psalm is rejoicing over the deliverance from babylonian captivity, because. 126. The same chapter, verse four in Niv, it says, restore our fortunes, Lord, like streams in the naked. So often the psalms, psalmists gain inspiration from the past deliverance and particularly from the Exodus story. So this chapter is another song that the Hebrew sung as the journey to the Jerusalem for annual feast. But they are basically counting this past experience as like a hope and assurance of the present generation. And that's what we should do as well. That even though we may not see the way out right now, but God has been faithful in the past. God has delivered us in the past so that he will do it to us. So I think remembering what he has done in the past and claiming the promise and that would bring to us to joy and the strengthening of our faith as. SPEAKER A Yeah. The verse four of this says, bring back our captivity, lord, or restore our fortunes, Lord. Like streams in the south or streams in the Negev. I've been to Beersheba and I've been to the ruins of the old city of Beersheba. And the people there went to great lengths to store water because it was such a scarce commodity. With rain only falling at certain times of the year. Can you imagine the joy of the harvest, Kaysie? SPEAKER C Oh, absolutely. It would be incredible how much of festivity there would be over the harvest time. And it's interesting, when we read the last couple of verses in Psalm 126, it says, those who sow in tears shall reap in joy. He who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaths with him. And so this obviously is capturing a picture of harvest. But there's so many spiritual metaphors linked with this. There's the joy that we find when we've been working to save ourself for Christ that can be compared to this. There's also the joy that Christ has in working for our salvation. And one day he will take us all home like a harvest to heaven to be with him. And so these ideas of restoration and salvation can be linked in with this metaphor. SPEAKER A Yeah. So, Hana, did Jesus foresee difficulties in the mission to the world? SPEAKER B Well, yeah, as we read in Matthew nine, verse 37, Jesus did say, he said to them that the harvest truly is plentiful, but the labours are few. I believe the harvest does not happen instantly. Well, you have to pour water and it will take, like sowing and nurturing and harvesting. It's not just like instantly we can harvest, but there is a joy, great joy, when the harvest happens. When someone made a decision for God, we rejoice as well. And psalmist actually said rejoicing, bringing his chefs with him. So there is a big joy, like, yeah, joy in bringing in a successful harvest. But at the same time, we may have to. It takes time, spiritually saying, to bring the harvest of soul as we were talking about. So, yeah, I think it would take a lot of praying, a lot of waiting, but surely God would grow them and we would be able to see the harvest. SPEAKER A I'm looking at Psalm 92 here and it says it's a song for the Sabbath day. Sabbath is kind of like a waiting time too, isn't it? SPEAKER C Yes, it is. SPEAKER A What do you think about that, Hana? Kaysie. Sorry. SPEAKER C Yeah, that's okay. So, psalm 92, it's very interesting. There's three different ways in which Sabbath can be a time of waiting, which we can pick up from this. In verses four and five, it talks about how a celebration of God's works. In verse five, o Lord, how great are your works. And of course, we're thinking about creation there. And so creation in the past, we can be reminded of how we are waiting for God to restore a new creation. Then in some other verses further on verses eight and nine, it talks about how God is going to have victory over the enemies. Behold your enemies, o Lord. Behold your enemies shall perish. All the workers of iniquity shall be scattered. And of course, we know that God is working to achieve that, so we are waiting for that to be finalised. And then the idea of how he transforms us individually. So it talks in verse ten about being anointed with oil. And in verse twelve through to 14, talks about this imagery which reminds us of how God works to restore us and to make us flourish with the fruits of righteousness. And so as we wait for God to work in us, that is another aspect of his salvation, which we can experience in our lives as we wait for him. SPEAKER A Yeah, I'm going to have a look now at Psalm 30 and verse five, the second half of the verse. I think we might have read this earlier. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. Hana, do you find something hopeful about this morning imagery here? SPEAKER B Sure. Yes. In psalms five, verse three to twelve, it says that, but you, Lord, are shield for me, my glory of the one who lift up my head. And verse. Sorry. This says, my voice, you shall hear in the morning, o Lord. In the morning I will direct to you and I will look up. There are many places in psalms that in the morning there is this joy, there is this hope that it is. And we can see that in two. Peter 119 as well, that we can see Jesus. SPEAKER A Well, that's all we have time for today. I'm sorry to cut you off there, Hana, but thank you. Hana and Kaysie. Friends, do you find it hard to wait? Abraham waited for a long time for the birth of the promised son, Isaac. Israel waited 430 years to leave Egypt for the promised land. As Paul wrote to the philippian church, our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Have faith. Keep waiting on the Lord. We're glad you joined us today on let God speak. If you were blessed by this programme, why not tell your friends? Remember, all past programmes plus teachers notes are available on our website, 3abnaustralia.org.au. Email us if you wish at lgs at 3abn australia.org.au join us again next time. Until then, God bless. SPEAKER B You have been listening to let God speak, a production of 3ABN Australia television. To catch up on past programmes, please visit 3abnaustralia.org.au. Call us in Australia on 02 4973 3456. Or email [email protected]. we'd love to hear from.